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Reviews (10)
01 Nov, 2018
Okay For Those Interested In KGB Activity in: Latin America, Middle East; Asia & Africa
It's much tamer than the first Mitrokhin Archive volume: "The KGB in Europe and the West". In that book, Christopher Andrew said that this volume would include similar exposes of KGB activity in Australia, but there were hardly any. (I'm starting to think that Western Intelligence investigation into KGB [and SVR?] activity in Australia is still on-going, and so 'Not For Publication'.)
17 Jun, 2016
Ellen McIlwaine's First Band
The actual physical product is pretty good - good photos of band members (not just the cover visible here).
Not much info on the liner notes - just a folded-4 page 'booklet'. (Songwriters not mentioned, but thanks to Wikipedia, found most songs were written by Ellen.)
No silence between tracks, yet obviously not intended as segues, but otherwise quality is very good (a bit 'tinny' [too much treble] in the tone is all, not much).
The Actual Music:
Not bad, Ellen's amazing vocals lift a pretty-good 1969 heavy rock band up into the very good range (in my opinion). Sometimes the bass is too busy resulting in lack of definition of the rhythm.
Nonetheless, I just checked the ratings I gave each track (in my iTunes library), and Crawlin' Kingsnake;
Born Under A Bad Sign; Billy Gene; and Underground River all got 5 stars (for 1969 - although all songs in my top 12 out of 30 2hr Playlists for 1969 all got 5 stars).
Incidentally, I think Ellen did improve Billy Gene (renamed Jimmy Jean) and Underground River when she re-recorded those two on one of her later solo albums. (Have yet to research & possibly buy those - only have old cassettes.)
All the rest I gave 4 stars, except for Bow'd Up which I gave 2 stars, and Mossy Dream which I didn't like.
In Summary:
High level B-grade songs and a couple of A-grade songs for 1969. (After all, the competition back then was Led Zeppelin II; Stand Up by Jethro Tull; Yes' eponymous debut album; Stones' Get Yer Ya-Yas Out; Black Sabbath's eponymous debut; Free's eponymous 2nd album; Crosby, Stills & Nash's eponymous debut album; Blind Faith; to name my favourites from that year.)
Very interesting as an historical record of Ellen McIlwaine's first album with her excellent & unusual singing and very good song-writing. A very good lead guitarist, a good drummer, and a pretty good bass guitarist. Glad I bought it (a bit better than my listening to the tracks on YouTube led me to expect).
01 Nov, 2018
It Really Is The Very Best Of Ringo Starr
Even though I personally only like half the tracks, it was worth it to get all the solo Ringo songs I do like, especially "It Don't Come Easy" and its flip-side "Early 1970". Great booklet with great photos and good sound quality.