| |
$14.99 CD
$9.99 MP3
$14.99 CD
$9.99 MP3
|
|
CAROLINE PEYTON
Mock Up
(Asterisk)
CAROLINE PEYTON
Intuition
(Asterisk)
These are thoroughly fascinating and stellar leftfield folk-rock and jazz-pop reissues from a very talented singer from the '70s. Could Caroline Peyton have been a huge star? I'd have to say yes. But as weird and wacky as that decade could be, most of the material on this pair of albums would've been a hard sell to the mainstream Linda Ronstadt buying public. While Peyton spent almost all of her young life singing, acting and dancing in West Virginia, her story doesn't really begin until the early '70s, when she encountered the influential Indian collective/band, the Screaming Gypsy Bandits, and the surrounding music and arts community of Bloomington, Indiana. Enthralled, she moved there and became a full-time member of the Bandits, as well as a member of the Needmore commune that most of these musicians called home. It was here that she would meet her sometime lover and full-time musical collaborator, Mark Bingham, a talented, idiosyncratic songwriter who had worked as in house producer/writer for Elektra Records.
Recorded in 1971, Mock Up is a hippie jazz/folk record that draws a lot of influence from Joni Mitchell's landmark Ladies of the Canyon and Blue albums, both in its stripped-down acoustic sound, and Peyton's earth mama soprano-styled singing. But that's where the similarities end. Freed from any sort of major label constraints, Bingham's compositions toyed with the standard confessional singer/songwriter forms. The songs end before they start, the lyrics are impressionistic and non-linear, and there are healthy doses of self-indulgent "primal scream" interludes sprinkled throughout. That said, more often than not, these lofty ideas work and the musicianship is extraordinary throughout. Moreover, Peyton's voice is phenomenal. Her clear, classically trained, jazz-inflected soprano singing is pushed to the limits by Bingham's ambitious vocal arrangements, as evident by tracks such as "Pull," "Bill Monroe" and "The Sky in Japan Is Always Close to You." But what really makes these tunes sparkle is the fantastic playing of jazz pianist Mark Gray. As the liner notes point out, Gray was the "instrumental soul" of this record. Traces of Bill Evan's textures, Monk's polyrhythm, as well as a healthy dose of southern rock-n-roll barrel are heard throughout, and it's his accented accompaniment that propels this album along. This release also contains some lovely highlights from the Screaming Gypsy Bandits' sole '72 release In the Eye.
1977's Intuition marked a change in musical direction for Peyton, but the fearless, subversive attitude of Mock Up remained. With Bingham at the production helm, here Peyton tries out a slicker, MOR-style of singing. The first half of the record finds her toying with '70s country pop ("Still with You"), gospel-styled blues rock ("Together") and a bizarre stab at disco ("Party Line"). But besides Peyton sounding in fine voice and "Party Line" boasting clever, subversive lyrics about government phone tapping, the first half of the album has the feel of an unfocused demo tape. Intuition finally finds its footing with "Call of the Wild," an acoustic folk ballad coated with Arp synth and Moog, Peyton's voice floating elegantly on top. This track is truly a wonder to listen to and is one of the finer pop productions of the late '70s that I've heard in a while. From this point on, the record gets more interesting; "Just As We," "Brister" and "Light Years" are fine folky, soul-jazz tunes in the realm of Linda Lewis, Julie Tippetts and Laura Nyro. Peyton sounds in fine form here and these songs have found a receptive audience amongst rare groove DJs over the years, including GiIles Peterson.
This would be the last solo record that Peyton would record for over 20 years, but fortunately, she was able to build a successful career as a backup and background singer. These two albums, however, are unique testaments to an uber-talented vocalist and her truly original and inspired output. [DH]
Preview songs off of Mock Up and Intuition on Other Music Digital. |
|
