The Electric Prunes (1965-1967) – ? Fan Albums

My favorite picture of the band.

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

Despite my mixed views on psychedelic bands, The Electric Prunes stand as a very quality example of the genre. While they had five albums before their 1990s reunion, that’s not nearly as appealing as it seems. After the third album, the entire band quit and was replaced! Thus, the last two don’t feature the real Prunes at all. Even the third features the band more minimally, with guitarist Ken WIlliams not on every track. The group’s singer only counts the first two of those albums as being kosher. I wanted to see if I could get a fourth (or third) “true” Prunes album from the 60s. In terms of stray tracks, there seemingly was a gold mine of high fidelity demos from 1965. However, the first session, which yielded a perfect twelve recordings, don’t have perfect sound quality and more importantly, aren’t that good of performances, nor do they have the band’s classic psych sound. After a little bit of fire in the beginning, the momentum of the thing kind of dies out. It’s not the worst thing ever, but not that interesting. I don’t even like to think of it as a real Prunes album. I do have a soft spot for teenage garage bands for all their faults. They can’t all be first lineup Kingsmen.

The Sanctions (1965) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Boys”
2. “Long Tall Sally”
3. “Moon Dog”
4. “Somethin’ Got A Hold On Me”
5. “Money”
6. “Love Potion Number Nine”

SIDE B

1. “Jack The Ripper”
2. “New Orleans”
3. “What’d I Say”
4. “Chicago”
5. “You Can Help Yourself”
6. “Louie Louie”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums

After this, there was another demo session that I liked more, feeling like the halfway point between the first twelve recordings and the classic sound. The main issue is the low audio quality being worse than the studio songs. There’s also a few studio strays before the first album and then later on a few after the second album, which I really like. I originally was going to make an album of either every stray track after The Sanctions or at least those in between that and the first album, but problem is they don’t gel together at all. Even if I was to collect them, they’d be a very short twenty-four minutes. Thus, I like to think of them as being released as a series of EPs. Down the line, what if they were released as a compilation called 3Ps?

The Electric Prunes – I’m Free (1965) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “I’m Free”
2. “I’m Down”

SIDE B

1. “Too Many People”

BONUS TRACK

1. “Little (Li’l) Olive”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums
• Dick Hargrave – keyboard

The Electric Prunes – Ain’t It Hard And Three More (1966) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Ain’t It Hard”
2. “Little Olive”

SIDE B

1. “World of Darkness”
2. “I’ve Got a Way of My Own”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums (tracks 1-2)
• James “Weasel” Spagnola – rhythm guitar (tracks 3-4)
• Preston Ritter – drums (tracks 3-4)

The Electric Prunes (1967) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Underground (1967) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Shadows (1967) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING
SIDE A

1. “Everybody Knows (You’re Not In Love)”

SIDE B

1. “You Never Had It Better”
2. “Shadows”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums
• Mike Gannon – rhythm guitar

The Electric Prunes – Stockholm 67 (Recorded 1967) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Mass in F Minor (1968) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Artifact (2001) – YouTube

The Electric Prunes – Rewired (2002) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – California (2004) – can’t find

The Electric Prunes – Feedback (2006) – YouTube, Spotify

Without Ken Williams:

The Electric Prunes – Return To Stockholm (2012) – can’t find

The Electric Prunes – WaS (2014) – can’t find

Thus, I frankly can’t make a real “fourth Prunes album”. At best we have a few strays which admittedly are sometimes great. As a consolation prize, there is the live album and also a reunion career which originally featured the three main members of the band. Two of them have since left. I haven’t really taken any look at the reunion era. I will say I know there are at least some strays from then, but I don’t know much about them.

“Oh by gee, by gosh, by golly. Life to him was oh so jolly. Dad, what happened to the Toonerville Trolley?”

This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!

MOUTHO (Ken Fleischman) – From The Mouth Of The Crimson King (2021) Review: Ken Crimson

The album’s cover

Ken Fleischman’s second full-length scours the music of “King Crimson” to put together a novel little record. Fans of the eccentricities of Fleischman’s music will not feel left in the cold, despite the lack of original material. For reference, the first album, New Old Things, features a quality New Order cover. For From The Mouth Of The Crimson King, the keys are the best part, creating a nice rhythm. The loose trance they hold is quite delightful. The degree of proficiency present is enough for them to leave a positive and memorable mark that is both weird and structured. The vocal pops, similar to scat singing, are a mixed bag. They sometimes are overpowering, with them working a lot better as a backing to the other lines.

“21st Century Schizoid Man” has a really fun part in the middle that inserts a smidge of funk. There’s give-and-take with the vocals and instruments. It’s a little too long, but easy to relax to. That can be levied against all the longer tracks except the last one. Brevity really helps these tracks. They often become too repetitive in length. It’s easy to doze off and not pay much attention to them. “Lady of the Dancing Water” feels under-rehearsed due to its start-and-stop nature. That element, and the composition of the piece, makes it nonetheless charming. “Cirkus”’s synth has great flow. It’s satisfying when it gets more grand and then spacious. The angst of a track like “Moto Perpetuo” makes it stand out. That aggression is unnerving and all for the better. It can be seen as unwelcome for those who were here for the more relaxing parts. The parts with only keyboard you could imagine being a transition to something more experimental.

The next few tracks are among the weaker ones. “Frame By Frame” is reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “On the Run”. It and the follow-up, “Neal and Jack and Me”, have a droning quality which loses the plot and is lacking in energy. There’s less diversity in sounds. “Three of a Perfect Pair”’s instrumentation and vocals seem to be trying to mesh well, but are unable to; as if they were recorded without consideration for the other. It improves when it gets a little intense near the end. The keys solo with a droning line in the background is extremely captivating and one of the highlights of the album.

“FraKctured” would benefit from a change in volume. The track sometimes seems to want to fly out and be grander, but it being about the same volume makes it dull. Some other songs here are like that. The track is overall solid, going for the recurring element of not being very comfortable. The sounds play like torment that is best continued. “Dinosaur” is a great groover, having a good give-and-take between the different sounds. The percussion is especially strong. “Lizard” benefits from its relaxed and almost jazzy-instrumentation. It’s playful, though not at the cost of its own worth as a piece. The ‘clicking’ part is one favorite segment. Personally, electronic percussion doesn’t sound quite right, but it’s not too bad here. It’s a solid and eclectic track that doesn’t go for more than it is. And while yes, it does overstay its welcome at a gargantuan twenty-eight minutes, it’s not by as long as one might think. It feels like an amalgamation of the best of the other tracks.

OVERVIEW

From The Mouth Of The Crimson King is at its best when it’s groovy, playful, and most importantly confident. Tracks like “FraKctured” demonstrate how something good can be made weaker by being too subdued. There is quite a bit of drag on this album that could’ve been cut, not wanting to belabor any point. Arguably it hurts from being less experimental than the first release, though to each their own. It’s a solid enough record, but perhaps not one for complete relistens. Some cuts would’ve helped, but what is here is respectable. Despite criticisms of length, “Lizard” is my personal favorite of the bunch.

Also, after writing this I learned that everything here was recorded with Ken’s mouth. Oh my Heavens, that’s impressive (computer effects were used, though). The effect sounds exactly like the mentioned instruments.

Ken Fleischman – New Old Things (2021) Review

The album’s cover

New Old Things is a worthwhile play for fans of electronic or noise music. Some of these tracks seem intended to emphasize ambiance, which makes the music more about being a collective experience, though they work on their own. Other tracks are more conventional in nature. The shift is a little jarring and one type is done better than the other, but that also results in a fun grab-bag of not knowing what you’re going to get next. A lot of the tracks are dominated by keyboard. Songs can live or die on how well they work due to how prominent they can be.

An example of the great keys is on “Popsong”. The track can seem unassuming in its relaxing rhythm, as if it wants to be something you can study to. It’s a solid warm opener, though the drums would sound better if not synthesized. “Winter Theme” both continues that tone, being very ambient. However, it adds in a synth that is slightly unsettling. “View From A Frosted Window” is comparatively straightforward. It appears to have a synthesized keyboard, but a real player that could add umph when needed would really bring it to life. That or an acoustic guitarist. What most of the songs here have that this one lacks is being able to hear the silence. A lack of noise in response to a sound adds to the methodical nature at play. A quiet room with just a pianist or guitarist would provide an absent simplicity and realism to the track that could make it fit better with the generally synthetic other tracks, while also providing obvious contrast.

The eccentricities are amplified with a cover. “Blue Monday (New Order cover)” is longer than the earlier songs. It feels as though it’s transitioning you from what you’ve heard before to the stranger stuff due to the long and droning notes. The digital drums work better as the beat sounds very robotic, as if you asked a computer to make music. “Mouthy/Talkative” has a very catchy vocal line, despite the earlier material being instrumental. That line makes the song and thus the album feel more diverse and flavorful. It is comparatively like the other songs when you put it up against “Thatcher Song (A Bruno Powroznik Classic Remix)”. Those that don’t like hardcore noise music should turn away. This track is probably intended to be annoying, but it embraces it so well, while still managing a surprisingly good melody, that it’s a very likable addition. The vocal could’ve used either more processing or less. Maybe a vocal with a more commanding sound would help? Imagine a Frank Farian-type one talking about how glad they are that Margaret Thatcher died.

The song goes from its initial segment to its devolved portion quickly. What if the drumline on “Blue Monday” returned and segued into it? The eclectic hardware-esque sounds are particularly rewarding in the context of the record, due to a buildup throughout the whole thing. The extensive sounds of “Thatcher Song” make sense with the numerous tracks that in a sense feel computerized. It’s as if this is the swan song of an old computer that’s falling apart. Maybe it’s telling its life story? Thus, it going through this sonic landscape and ending up abandoning melody is a fitting way to approach the end. That “lack of life” and the motif of moments of silence are punctuated by ten minutes of silence. While more than about forty seconds is too much, at least it’s in keeping with what the album is going for. As expected, there is sound in the last seconds of the track. “An End” concludes the “ambient computer vibes” by being quiet and more minimalist in sound than the other tracks. It captures surprising somberness in its lowkey and simple notes. It might be the best cut on this album and what you should play if you only wanted to listen to one song.

OVERVIEW

Excluding any kind of interpreted narrative, New Old Things is still a sharp electronic noise album for those that are into that sort of thing. It manages to create a solid tone and experience, while being able to change things up, especially with the epic “Thatcher Song”, which is either thirteen or twenty-three minutes depending on how you look at it. It’s understandable that a fan of the shorter tracks might not like that one, but it’s not as much of a curveball as you might think. For better or for worse, this might not convert anyone that doesn’t like this sort of music.

Listen to the album here: https://kfleischmantunes.bandcamp.com/album/new-old-things