Fading Yellow praisal…
Shindig mag. review of FY vol 10
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Fading Yellow Volume 10: The Better Side
Flower Machine CD
After a lengthy absence FY is back. Not with a bang of course, because that just wouldn’t be right, but certainly with a lush chorus of “Huzzah’s” and a blizzard of scented rose petals (faded, naturally).
“No Elvis, no Beatles, no Rolling Stones.” OK, that’s from a Clash song, but the principle applies here too – albeit from the opposite direction – because here we have a parallel pop dimension in which it appears that every musician aspired to be… Justin Hayward! Just listen to Candle’s ‘Matthew, Little Man’ or Gerry Morris’ ‘When It Comes To Love’ for proof. That catch-in-the-throat, yearning yet soothing vocal style; always calm and assured even when apparently in the depths of despair.
Standards are tip-top from the second that the electric sitar/sweet ’n’ sour strings combo of Ted Mulry’s ‘Remember Me’ oozes from the speakers, but extra Michelin stars should be awarded to Ronnie Bird’s Mick Jones/Tommy Brown-produced ballad ‘De L’Autre Cote Du Miroir’, Gallic folk giant Antoine’s post-Apocalyptic ‘Where Did Everyone Go To?’ and Aussie group The Strangers (featuring John Farrar of Marvin, Welch &…), who turn in a gorgeous ‘Take The Time’. Oh, and Paul King of Mungo Jerry infamy (now re-named P Rufus King) finally atones for blowing that damned jug on ‘In The Summertime’ with the slightly skewed but completely wonderful ‘Nobody Knows’. Mustn’t forget the splendid Robin Gibb-isms of ‘Welcome To My House’ by Volendam’s very own Leftside either.
So, if turning it up to 11 strikes you as being tantamount to treason then here are 24 more slices of heaven just for you. Anyone suspecting that FY could be running out of steam can rest assured, there’s no drop in standards here. Better grab it fast.
Mick Capewell
Just been playing the latest FY volume and I must say even though they are all good, I think it is the best volume since Vol.1. The first four tracks make a really strong start; Ted Mulry’s ‘Remember Me’ a geat electric sitar number, Explicit Souls ‘Rebecca’s Shop’ (from a Swedish sampler album) is all harmony, Wilfred’s ‘Candle In The Wind’ (no, not that one), is a really good UK surprise. and Dutch band OPMC’s ‘Love Song For Diana’ are really strong attention grabbers. Gerry Morris’s ‘When It Comes To Love’ is from his scarce LP and I would really love to hear that now after this - anyone got it??.
Two Swedish songs that are really catchy, just because they are so repetitive and melodic are Darling’s ‘Smiling’ and Bengt & Pontus’s ‘Don’t You Hear Me’ and There’s plenty of other great stuff here and only a one or two I’ve heard before. Already on my MP3 player I’m grooving in my head like a Summer’s day despite the Arctic conditions in Britain at the moment. This is great!
-Paul Martin(UK) and compiler of the great Pop Cycles cds etc.
When lauded music writer/compiler/musician Bob Stanley claims he has two boxes of singles marked as “Fading Yellow” in between his “Chocolate Soup” and “RGM” collections you get the idea that one man Swedish cottage industry JJ has (unintentionally perhaps) formulated a new collector’s genre. And word has spread far and wide! Fading Yellow Vol. 10 (Flower Machine *****) continues in much the same way that the nine-year-old debut of the series paved. For the uninitiated, what is “Fading Yellow”? A classic example would be the beautiful Mike Batt single of the same name that featured on volume one. This quaint, delicate, not-quite-psych song utilised Macca like melody, piano and strings – and this emblem is key to genre. Over the ensuing volumes the chosen songs, bands and artists could be from 1965 (in a Zombies minor-key style) or from 1973 (in a pastoral, light Clifford T Ward vein). Where they came from did not matter. Volume 10 keeps to these loose-yet-firm rules and is once again unwittingly aural perfect, pulling various strands and tones together to create a uniform body of work. The 1971 single that opens the proceeding by Ted Mulry (‘Remember Me’) is enough to warrant the five stars on its own, but there’s more. Lots more.
-Jon “Mojo” Mills(Shindig magazine)
In the summer of 2002 I was in Stockholm’s Gamla Stan, taking in the cobbles, the brightly coloured facades and, as is my wont, any second hand record shop I spied. After flicking through many racks of nothing but Brewer & Shipley albums (what do they sound like, anyway?), I was about to leave when the proprietor put a record on. The effect was like Gregorian teen garage: a most melancholy minor key pop which surged like the Searchers in their pomp. What Will The New Day Bring by Disraeli is what it turned out to be, a modern murder ballad. It was remarkable, and turned out to only be the the opening track on a cd called Fading Yellow Vol.2, all of which was knee-deep in harmonic atmospherics, American pop with the vapours. “Oh, there’s more” said the round-faced Dr Sardonicus behind the counter, and produced Vol.1 - all Anglo variations on the same. Bored with antiseptic placebo trips of compilations, this really pulled the rug out: Dean Ford & The Gaylords sent me running for a tartan hankie; Phil Cordell’s startling Red Lady found him both inspired and possibly pissed in charge of a sitar; Mike Batt’s title track was hushed and dusted with magic. So I was hooked, needed more of the same, and scoured racks over the following months for 1971 Parlophone 45s that sounded like blackbirds wheeling and chuckling over string quartet and/or twelve-string (best show-off find - the What’s New EP in a tichy shop in Bordeaux). And every so often JJ would stick out another volume to save me the effort. We ended up as penpals, swapping notes on late period Brian Hyland and lost Deram laments. Now I have two boxes of 45s - between one marked ‘Chocolate Soup’ and one marked ‘RGM’ - which bear the legend ‘Fading Yellow’. I could pay JJ no higher compliment. Fading Yellow is a genre all of its own, mysterioso pop bathed in Pears soap and baby shampoo by candlelight, at once new and old, at once heartbreaking and beautiful. Like the Batt man said “The world’s been spinning round for a year or two” - how magical is it that such astonishing music is still out there waiting to be discovered.
Bob Stanley Aug 2010
My first encounter with Fading yellow was in 2006 when I chanced upon Vol. 4 in a local market dealing with antiques, curios and collectables.
Sure enough, this FY soundtrack grew in my affections, its gentle psych-washed melodies carving a niche in my memory as it accompanied me through a long and beautiful summer. “Once On A Windy Day” played like perfection as gulls lazily soared a blue-sky backdrop above the Dorset cliffs………… and in the calm perfumed heat of a Cote d’Azur night, I listened to the yearning, sublime “High Flyin’ Electric Bird” as the coloured harbour lights danced across the ocean’s mirrored surface, the piano notes punctuating their movement.
My love affair with this music looks assured, each successive volume revealing new personal treasures; some uplifting and warming, like sunshine to the soul - others steeped in beautiful melancholy and brittle nostalgia.
JJ is to be congratulated not only for his musical taste, but also for his enthusiasm in unearthing this rich seam of forgotten classics, bringing them to the surface and giving the artists a long-deserved recognition, second-time around.
Long Live Fading Yellow.
Steve (UK) December 2010
Fading Yellow is a critical piece of the saturated 60s compilation landscape. Unlike 90% of compilations that focus exclusively on snot nosed 15yr old American teenagers trying to imitate the attitude of the Rolling Stones (most “garage” rock comps), or the overly “toy town” twee pop where the artists did not take themselves or the music seriously (a lot of the stuff on “soft sounds for gentle people” comes to mind), Fading Yellow tends to avoid both of these areas, presenting the oft neglected orchestral and baroque side of 1960s British pop, and tracks caught in the grey area of the early 1970s, when artists were searching for the next popular combination now that the Beatles weren’t around as an influence. I want to seriously thank the compiler behind the Fading Yellow compilations for introducing me to this side of 1960s/1970s music. Who would have known that such an obscure groups as Tuesday’s Sewing Machine (who released but one 45rpm), Lynn Castle (a former girlfriend of Phil Spector, and a barber in LA for music celebrities like the Byrds!), or Andy Forray (an American transplant to the UK - who had virtually forgotten about the song “Sarah Jane” until I contacted him) -groups that were completely lost to history, would have created something so professional and beautiful. Unlike the other compilations, the artists presented on Fading Yellow were serious about their music, light on gimmicks, often professionally produced, and the original releases are all frighteningly rare.
-J Traveller
