THE RECORDS (Page 1)
45s & High Times CD
Ok, I'm totally biased but like I say (in an often poorly punctuated and round about way) in the liners, the Embrooks rule! Or at least ruled. Hence that is why this is a career retrospective and rarities collection. Sadly they have chosen to take an extended retreat from the often demanding world of touring and making records. Hopefully they will be back soon ? actually Mole hasn't stopped and has a fab new combo with a record already! Check them out here www.thehigherstate.com . But again, if you've been out of the loop and missed the Embrooks' records or tours then do yourself a favour and check out their ravin' mod-psych sounds here on this double-disc full of 45 cuts, live in studio sessions and limited edition releases. (CD1: 20 tracks, 63:18 playing time/CD2: 12 tracks, 44:19 playing time) Colin Bryce, Mohair Sweets
If you have never experienced the high times according to The Embrooks, this a perfect place to start. Unfortunately enough, as confirmed by Mole, the main Embrook himself, this happens to be the band’s swan song too, as they are no more. However, considering that they’ve been around for almost a decade, reminding of some of the coolest moments from the times gone by, and that their recorded legacy will continue to do so, there’s not really much to be "so sad about". As for the content of the package itself, because of the lack of some superb album-only tracks, it can’t really be considered an actual career overview, though almost every single one of the "missing ones" (except maybe The Twisted Musings Of Sir Dempster P.Orbitron (Deceased) from Yellow Glass and Springtime from Our New Day) is included on the additional Radio Sessions CD (Standing Upside Down, Helen, Not A Priority, Happy Fickle Girl, Emilia Burrows), proving that they’re capable of delivering the goods live too, making it almost perfect. The chronology shows the band developing from (mostly Americanized) reverb-laden teen punk jangle of the early singles and debut album (But I Didn’t Know Him, Where Were You?, Things Come Back To You, Please Don’t Worry) with an occasional nod towards the "shape of things to come", as heard in the "Syndicated games" of Don’t Ask Me Anymore, announcing a sort of a "homecoming" through the classic (yard) bird-flights through freakbeat "creations" such as If You Let Me Go, Keep It Quiet or More Than Ever, all leading towards their final shape of an ultimate modern daze embodiment of a post-mod heavy Britsike "attack", providing such genre defining classics as Jack, Back In My Mind, A Note In My Drawer, etc. As an additional recommendation, I might as well add that the CD comes in the usually cool pop-artish cover that is worth the price of admission alone, even if you already have all the singles and don’t feel like hearing the radio sessions (which doesn’t really sound logical)! Goran Obradovic, POPism
This is a double CD of songs the British trio has recorded through the years for singles and comps as well as some material from radio sessions. The band is very retro-mod in sound and appearance. I saw them in Las Vegas a few years back and have heard several full-length CDs. This is one of those packages that completist fans will salivate over. Instead of going to the ends of the Earth and spending a king's ransom to gather up all the loose ends, an Embrooks-maniac can have everything in one handy package at an affordable price. Heck, I should get a job doing the label's marketing. There are a staggering 32 tracks, 20 studio recordings and 12 taken from various radio soundboards. There are a handful of covers by bands like the Yardbirds, Small Faces, and Sorrows, but the vast majority are originals that capture the group's spin on the '60s! Garage & Beat fanzine
Ik heb een déjà vu. Ik ben namelijk in een droom verzeild geraakt waarbij het Londense The Embrooks wederom de hoofdrol speelt. De recensie van hun laatste cd die hier begin vorig jaar te lezen was had ik hier zo neer kunnen zetten, want er is weinig nieuws onder de zon. All The Singles & More 1996-2004 is de subtitel van de dubbel-cd 45 & High Times die inderdaad hun singles tussen 1996 en 2004 bevat aangevuld met een cd met een radiosessie en een stuk van een live concert in Madrid. Ze maken ietwat softe garagerock die gebaseerd is op de jaren'60. Het probleem is echter dat het allemaal al eens eerder en naar mijn bescheiden mening ook wel beter is gedaan. Ook blijkt er geen ontwikkeling uit van de band in de negen jaren die hier samengevat zouden moeten zijn. Live is het een bandje die zo te horen vast leuk is om eens te gaan bekijken, maar wereldshockerend is het allemaal niet. Deze release is in mijn ogen dan ook iets voor de echte fan. Ik vrees echter dat er hiervan in ons kikkerlandje (te) weinig van zijn en er ook met deze release niet bij zullen komen. www.fileunder.nl
Yellow Glass Perspections LP
I wake up with a start. An envelope lands on the doormat. Even though it doesn't happen often I have managed to fall asleep on the sofa. I had a funny dream. I was on a stage somewhere in London. My band, The Embrooks, were the kick-off of the evening. After us there would be three more performances by The Small Faces, The Kinks and The Who. "Quite a line up!", I thought by myself. And we were the ones to open up the evening with our beat music. I sang and ploughed away on my guitar. We had to pull really hard but managed to knock the crowd of Mods down. The audience didn't have enough room to dance and so they climbed the stage and danced. We were the stars of the evening. After the show all the pretty girls came up to us. That is why we're in music business after all. They asked for autographs on the sleeve cover of our CD. Doh!? A CD in the sixties? This is the point where I wake up; still somewhat groggy, I make my way towards the envelope. I pick it up and open it, out pops a CD with a sixties cover. Yellow Glass Perspections it reads and the band name is "The Embrooks". Who was it again that said that dreams aren't real?
From the White Stripes to the Planet Rockers, Liam Watson lays down the same basic rule to all the artists he produces in his Toe Rag Studios in London: no digital equipment, period. The Embrooks certainly aren't going to complain; why would an outrageously retro psych-mod trio burden itself with samplers or Pro Tools? It is therefore in a most suitable environment (vintage mixing desk, Hammond, analogue tape loops) that Yellow Glass Perspections was conceived. While nothing on the album sounds really revolutionary, Lois Tozer's frantic drumming and Alessandro Cozzi Lepri's effortless melodies deserve the thumbs up from sixties groups such as Blue Cheer or The Koobas, as well as from the pickiest of well-intentioned forgers.
Spanish only import, a shame but don`t let it scare you away.....Fans of The Gripweeds, The Creation and `67 era Who along with some Blue Cheer. You want awesome freak beat, mod/garage-pop that was burning up the UK in 1965/66 but recorded in modern times and fully veined sound? Well, look no further than the excellent display of masterful pomp and energy of the Embrooks! Filled with splashing drums, Who-type power chords and distorted guitar leads, tight pop tunes with harmonies, and a generally close-to-manic forward thrust. The Embrooks have a nice discography previous to this album: two LPs and a bunch of singles and EPs on great labels such as Sympathy For The Record Industry, Bomp/Voxx and Dionysus. One of the very best mod-psych releases we`ve heard. This is how pop can be truly progressive, kind of the way The Polyphonic Spree, Infinite Monopoly has done the last few years. A true stunner and Extremely Highly Recommended big time!
Jeesus..these UK Freak Beatsters become better like all the time! Heading more & more into 67 UK Freakbeat 'n' Psychedelia the two boys & the female Keith Moon (Miss Lois Tozer on drums) punch out 12 absolutely amazing Freak Beat Monsters. These guys have like all Rubble Comps in their collection. Happy Fickle Girl starts exactly like THE MISUNDERSTOOD's Children Of The Sun, their version of MIKE STUART SPAN's Children Of Tomorrow is even better than the original! Man..if we don't know it better, you should believe this is an original 60's record. Of course man behind the knobs was Mr.Toe Rag, Liam Watson. If you're bored of second class 60's reissues & wanna hear more of this exciting Now-Sound..go ahead..buy it!!
While waiting for Jerome Reijasse and his new recruits to come and save rock and roll, what do those who are frustrated with the genre, that silent majority, have to hold onto until the next revolution? Say it loud: Yellow Glass Perspections, at a different period (1966?, 1976?), would have broken down the sinister door of history. Today, this intense record arrives just in time to help survive the winter, and it's already bad enough in this gloomy season when one doubts that the next Oasis offering will help to stave off the hunger. The time has come to leave the beaten track of the official albums offered by the majors and to look a bit further afield at what's happening in the bushes where arm to arm combat still reigns.
As from their second long playing release (Our New Day on Voxx), as well as through a bunch of single/EP releases since then, The Embrooks are sticking to their newfound path of post-mod-freakbeat-psych buzz, as heard right from the very start in Happy Fickle Girl, with an opening that suggests that back in their minds, it's all happening not only 10 years time ago, but at least 40! Emilia Burrows follows a similar formula, The Twisted Musings Of Sir Dempster P.Orbitron (Deceased) (how can you not love this before even hearing it?!) is like the Marriott fronted '68-Small Faces rawk-out, and equally heavy is the Shazam-era Move-ment of Nothing's Gonna Work, while Show Me A Little Smile is exactly what you will do after hearing the song's jazzy baroque popsike arrangement. Included in it's entirety is the self-released Back In My Mind EP with (Roy) Wood-en melody of the title tune, and yet another Wood-en connection through The Time Was Wrong, which is kinda like a harder creation of For All That I Am, apropriately followed with A Note In My Drawer with the new version taking the power-chord pop-artistry a few years further, towards the heavier '69/'70-vibe.
The English mod scene hasn't ceased to exist since the beginning of the 60s. Several generations have undertaken the hope of a mod life, of an electric soul and the flame has got even bigger over the past few years. At the heart of the prestigious London scene, one group stands out: The Embrooks, an explosive power trio.
Signed to the Spanish label Munster Records (Atom Rhumba), The Embrooks revisit the pop-art of The Creation, The Move and John's Children. The sort created between 1966 and 1968 by young baroquian people who discovered drugs (and) painted chicks in bikinis on stage with adolescent fury. The female drummer, Miss Lois Tozer, hammers the barrels like an amphetamined Keith Moon from Live at Leeds. With his vintage Small Faces British look, Mole plays the bass as if he's got a guitar in his hands (Bruce Foxton of the Jam is also guilty of this muscular game). As for Dr Alessandro Cozzi Lepri, he plays his arrogant green horn role very well, ready for anything to get the girls dreaming with his grating solos full of testosterone and his "northern soul" voice of the eternal playful child. Psyched right up to the flanging of the drums, The Embrooks and their acid Yellow Glass Perspections bleed melodies that you whistle immediately, as if ceased by a harmonic excitement. A record that makes you want to refuse adulthood, as we are inspired to do in Children of Tomorrow, and to wander eternally
with your girlfriend (or boyfriend!) through the fields of life. Yellow Glass Perspections and its 12 magic pills do you good at this end of the year time with the daily drudgery and the reality of winter. The Fake www.thefake.ch
Yeah! Great surprise! Embrooks' third album is their best one and the best of the year 2005 for me. Fantastic album - mod-psych-freakbeat : very influenced by Mike Stuart Span (listen to their Children Of Tomorrow cover), Who, Creation - no song to avoid, every tune is beautiful and the original songs are amazing (Happy Fickle Girl with their Misunderstood intro - Nothing's Gonna Work...) . The songs have good vocals and are dominated by excellent guitar and bass work. Please note great cover of Francis - original by Gary Walker & The Rain.
While in connection with the garage sound from the UK you always hear the same names (Billy C and Holly G dictate the proceedings), the first-class credentials of The Embrooks' bassist, Mole, remain largely ignored. And that is a real crime, because his unmistakable signature, which he stamped for years on The Mystreated and now the Embrooks, plays a key role in the high regard which English garage bands are held by lovers of the genre. Unfortunately, the journalistic world has yet to discover, not to mention suitably evaluate these qualities. Hopefully all that will change with the release of Yellow Glass Perspections, because the power and strength of expression that the band possess should now be clear to even the biggest doubter. The Embrooks are purists. They make a huge effort to get as near as possible to - to perfect - the sound that made England in the late sixties so unique, and the results are worthy of praise. Yellow Glass Perspections is the true mother of freak-beat, even though forty years
ago various other mothers tried with great success to win this title. Razor-sharp psychedelic guitar freak-outs, pumping bass lines and a driving, reverbed drum attack accompany these 12 excellent songs which (how could it be any other way) were of course cut in the legendary Toe Rag studios with the help of the colourful and violent sounding world of the Embrooks, a world in which bands like The Creation and Wimple Winch have already made a home. Yellow Glass Perspections will put Mods, Psychedelics, Beatniks, Rock'n'Rollers and Fuzz-Punks in equal measure under its spell and as a result will extend the list of truly essential European garage combos by one name, and not just in insider circles.
The Embrooks, the leading group in the current London mod scene (if one can say that anything there is new) produce for us a sixties English pop coupled with partly digested pop-art (as you can see from the cover) and harder psychedelia. It's all packaged with a remarkable savoir faire, an atomic power and drums that are as heavy as a coming storm. All in all, we find ourselves on the fringes, far from the battered path of the official albums offered by the majors, and it's a very nice place to be. critiques-ordinaires.ouvaton.org
Young people need goals. Since The Embrooks got together in Folkestone 8 years ago, they have been working hard on a time machine, which will take them back exclusively to Great Britain in 1967. A time then, when mods no longer pleased themselves with straight forward beat and dry R & B and were more willing to experiment. You can still hear that today on the mid-career Kinks records and the releases from heroes such as Wimple Winch, The Attack, or The Eyes. However, today there is nobody left who plays this mix of mod and psychedelia without having to sit down on a chair from time to time because of arthritis pains! Nobody but The Embrooks, whose time machine is finally working fine with the release of Yellow Glass Perspections. A freak-beat record of the type which we haven't had for a long time, recorded, of course, in the analogue Toe Rag Studios (by which The White Stripes swear) and which is able to hold its own against the most mighty of it's influences. Szene Magazine, Germany
The Embrooks have come a long way from their humble garage beginnings, but this London three-piece is definitely clicking on all cylinders with their third album, Yellow Glass Perspections, a slab o' frighteningly good, authentic freakbeat and mod-psych which calls to mind all the pillars of that great community, like The Creation, Wimple Winch, The Attack, etc., etc., etc... There are many purveyors of the neo-psychedelic community around today, and while several of them are quite good, none of them 'get it' as well as The Embrooks. The band features the singing/ songwriting talents of Dr. Alessandro Cozzi Lepri (who really is a doctor, by the way), the strong backbeat of drummer Miss Lois Tozer (think The Honeycombs or Outrageous Cherry, if you catch that drift) and the thumping bass lines of the man who is known simply as Mole. Yellow Glass Perspections is a nice mixture of original tunes and covers (the original versions of three of the four covers can be found ensconced in the Rubble series, which is yet another reason for people to purchase that compendium), all of which will hit you over the head like two tons of bricks. Of the originals, Back In My Mind and The Twisted Musings Of Sir Dempster P. Orbitron (Deceased) (try to say that three times, fast!) are exemplars of freakbeat, The Time Was Wrong might remind one a bit of Grapefruit with its piano fills and high, cheery background vocals, and Show Me A Little Smile is (dare it be said) almost pretty! Among the covers, their take on Gary Walker & The Rain's Francis and The Turnstyle's Riding A Wave are the best, and most adopted into The Embrooks' style. Yellow Glass Perspections is surely one of the best albums of 2004, if not the entire decade.
They're back! Finally another full-lengther from the greatest modern exponents of the wylde syde of all that is beat and beyond. The opening drum smashings and tone-bending guitar instantly dictate and direct us towards the shapes of things to come. Y'know, really as much as this has been recorded in the olde fashioned way (and god bless Liam Watson - again!) and all that jazz, the Embrooks truly exist in the NOW. They instinctively know what a great raving psychedelic monster or beat tune is all about. They don't need to pretend it's 1966 or '67 again. This is their life, their sound and their perspection. And what a wonderful one it is! I wonder if Weller has picked up his copy yet? He should. Colin Bryce, Mohair Sweets www.mohairsweets.mb.ca
Under the approving eye of the producer Liam Watson (also White Stripes producer) we are catapulted with this freakbeat-trio straight to the 8mm-family movies of The Wonder Years. Mini-skirts and eyeliner in our house are grabbed from the closet to dance together with the gogo-dancers from the CD-cover to the catchy tunes of The Creation and The Small Faces. Rifraf Magazine, NL
Slide projections. On a battered wall, lines and colours melting together. On the worn out music of The Embrooks. This third release from this English trio is pure 1967. Twelve numbers that are not a day away from the summer of that year, psychedelic guitar-rock with lyrics that were written by all the young people in their diary. "I need your love, well I will always need it baby". More complicated lyrics the Embrooks won't write. You can hear Q65 and The Creation, they are quoted and recycled. And hey, Mariska Veres (Shocking Blue) is sitting on the bench. Up Magazine, NL
The Embrooks are a British beatband who are totally back in 1967. The right sound, the good songs, the perfect dose of psychedelica... You can imagine them in an "Austin Powers" movie. Oh well, a little bit because you cannot call them totally caricatural (sic). The cliches are not bashful, but fortunately it is not like you feel the next note coming. The LINK with a band as The Hives is never far away in conversations like this, but except the beat there are a lot of differences. This is less primitive and more sophisticated. Think Q65 or The Pretty Things, both bands who launched out in the sixties with this kind of music. Here and there they really freak well and the general quality is very good. You have to be there. I can imagine that this is for some people a little bit too retro, but if you hear some bands explicitly grab back to, say, the first Black Sabbath record, we are not as far away as numbers of years. Rock Tribune, NL
If I didn't know better, I should think that this album was recorded in the sixties. Crystal clear pop songs like The Small Faces and The Creation. Where many other bands in this line of music only float on the retro sounds, not this trio, as they also equal the songwriting qualities from the sixties. At last competition for The Solar Flares. For the completists among us; this album was recorded at the Toe Rag Studios in London under the auspices of Liam Watson, the studio and producer of The White Stripes, thus. www.musicmac.nl
Finally the new Embrooks full length sees the light! And as you could've guessed by looking at the cover and reading the title, this one takes the heavy mod/freakbeat sound of the Embrooks one step further into British psychedelia. Very Rubble/Chocolate Soup type stuff here, the covers Children Of Tomorrow, by Mike Stuart Span, Turnstyle's Riding A Wave, as well as the excellent Francis by Gary Walker & The Rain, are good examples of how this LP sounds. But it's their own songs that really matter, from the great opening track Happy Fickle Girl, to the heavy groove of the brilliantly titled The Twisted Musings Of Sir Dempster P. Orbitron (Deceased) and the uptempo garage version of A Note In My Drawer. Or the almost Motopsycho sounding Show Me A Little Smile, which introduces new instruments such as cello and violin. They're all great. They even dare to touch Feel Like Flying from one of my favourite UK 60s groups, The Attack! A difficult task, but they do it amazingly well and that's why I say The Embrooks are such a unique band. I wish I could see them live again soon. Peter Kroes, City Trash magazine (NL), and No Good
We'll stay in the UK, in the 60s (mind you, the "60s" of 2004); very recently it finally arrived - the new Embrooks LP! On Munster Records. Judging from the latest singles by these mod and freakbeat heroes, it is clear that the proverbial drugs have entered the Embrooks' lives. What I want to say is that the tracks sound more floating, distinctive, moving a bit more to the rock side rather than the beat side. Several of these single tracks can be found on the new LP, with yet another one of these titles - Yellow Glass Perspections. Well, it was well worth the wait, with yet another pack of great original songs, and a couple of well done covers (for example, Feel Like Flying by The Attack is very well copied). It all SOUNDS really good too, but hey - when the Embrooks start recording at Toe Rag (London) whaddya expect??! Not a lot that can go wrong, then! On Munster Records and in STEREO! Well friends, this is all from Mark The Beatle. Goodbye and till somewhere in tyme.... Mark the Beatle, City Trash magazine (NL), and No Good
Rarities compilation from the best Mod/Freakbeat/Psych British band of the decade!! '45s And High Times' compiles singles trax (starting back in '96, and running up the present day - 2004), along with various sampler appearances, and (for you hungry dogs out there!) a whole CD of unreleased radio sessions, combining material from the WFMU session (Sept '03), and cuts from Nov '04 recorded for Spanish national radio [Radio 3]!! All tapes properly compiled and mastered, plus dynamite liner notes from Mr. Colin Bryce (of Mohair Sweets legend!). The key consideration has been to gather together several cuts that are very hard to find (either thru lack of proper distribution, or the fact that only 300 copies were pressed 6 or 7 years ago, something like that)!! A nice way to tidy up some odds and ends onto one disc, and the majority of these trax haven't been out on CD before! Thrill once again to the melancholia of 'Where Were You?', the first dip into freakbeat of 'If You Let Me Go', the driving psych of 'Jack' etc., etc! Soundflat www.soundflat.de
The Embrooks are an awesome English three-piece who, thanks to the superb strength of their music, managed to do the miracle of making me travel back in time for the entire length of their LP, indeed I've been thrown back to the late '60s. Fluctuating on their notes I felt submerged in the atmospheres of those cult TV shows that I love so much!
You can be certain of one thing: this band will make you live one of the most intense 45 minutes of your life like no other LP could ever make - let yourself go with trust to their wild garage-punk in between splendid psychedelic inserts, you couldn't help being hit by a sea of 'vibrations'. Pay attention: in their case the psychedelia is never boring or obsessively referenced but rather an exercise of style never egotistic and of superior class. This LP contains 12 songs all of a quality that is superior to the average. In the grooves you can easily recognise the influence of Yardbirds, Small Faces, Love as well as the mod-sound. Among their songs The Twisted Musings and A Note In My Drawer shine for simplicity like listening to the best Kinks or the Yardbirds in their psychedelic period. What else can I add to support the purchase of a must like this? Nothing but shouting: buy this record at any cost!!
www.iyezine.com
www.fileunder.nl
Pierre, Voxer www.voxer.org
Not Lame www.notlame.com
Soundflat www.soundflat.de
The leading group of the current London mod scene, The Embrooks are imposing themselves. Whereas their revivalist peers persist in copying The Small Faces or the Prisoners, this supersonic trio attack the freak beat mountain, that English 60s pop which mixes mod pop-art and hard psychedelic tendencies, much more melodic and ambitious than simple American garage. John's Children, Creation, Sorrows, Birds, Golden Earrings, Attack, Fire, Jeff Beck's Yardbirds, indeed parts of The Move, are a few of the spirits brought to mind on this intoxicating album.
These guys know their Rubbles collections off by heart (3 ultra-obscure relics of these mythical English freakbeat-psych compilations are included here: Riding A Wave, Francis and Children of Tomorrow) and seem to have literally digested the massive heritage of a thousand unknown English and Dutch groups who recorded loads of gems between 1966 and 1969. Normally, mod scene groups have a recurrent problem which can be summarized in a few words: musical incompetence, weak writing and puny production. Three stumbling blocks which have been overcome with joy and ease by this stunning trio who play and compose with a majestic talent. The female drummer hits like Keith Moon and the other two release an ultimate fury which brings to mind the best of You Am I, while the Italian singer Alessandro Cozzi Lepri (a doctor who specializes in AIDS and who holds conferences throughout the world) gives an absolutely perfect display of psych guitar. Throughout his mammoth solos burn, throughout his dirty and warm discharges shake and tear the tracks with an inconceivable vitality. With a production which is both raw and ultra-powerful, quite the opposite of the usual sad neo-60s routine, The Embrooks find the perfect packaging to release 12 insane tracks which are above not only the revivalist scene, but also, and importantly, above all that is going on in the English scene at the moment. Those who find the over-estimated efforts of The Libertines upsetting, those who find it difficult to swallow the pathetic Duran Duranism of Franz Ferdinand, all those, and there are a lot of them, would do well to emerge themselves in the unprecedented torrent of The Embrooks, a well-read trio with an unashamed knowledge and an atomic power.
Rock N Folk (Record of The Month Nov '04) www.rocknfolk.com
The choice of covers on The Embrooks' releases never stops to amaze me, so along with Mike Stuart Span's Children Of Tomorrow from the aforementioned EP, we get Gary Walker & The Rain's Francis, Turnstyle's Riding A Wave and The Attack's Feel Like Flying, all put through the "yellow glass" Embrook-style!
Goran Obradovic / POPISM radio show; Serbia & Montenegro www.torpedo.com
(Record of the Month, November 2004 in Stoned Circus Radio Show)
Stephane, Stoned Circus Radio www.stonedcircus.com
Ritchie Apple, Ox fanzine, Germany
David Bash, IPO