Jeff Beck - Rough and Ready Reel Masters
I’ve always considered Rough and Ready a great album, but not really anywhere near a classic, in fact it reminds me of the first Billy Cobham in the way that, in a search for commercial success, a number of disparate elements came together that, end up working out OK, if not with complete success. In retrospect Rough and Ready’s considered part of Beck’s fusion era and while there are some jazz elements, it’s hard not to consider it a rock album from my end. The masters appear to be about double the length and I may not have listened close enough to make direct connections to the album itself, but I was pretty blown away by what I heard, the quality is good and there’s really a lot of fire going here.
Micah - I’m Only One Man
This short album by the American psychedelic band Micah is awfully good to be this obscure, it’s truly amazing what still can be uncovered theses days. While the band has heaps of aspiration and well above average talent in the chops department, they have that rare youthful, abundant energy that elevates the material and it’s a quality that starts at the beginning and never lets up. It’s perhaps unusual that for a guitar and organ band that the organ tends to dominate, but both instruments do get in some excellent solo outbreaks. There’s definitely some hints of Rolie-era Santana at work (and thus tying this thematically to Europeans like Kvartteten von Sprangde and Satin Whale) in parts, but overall the compositional approach is riffs to jam over. Micah don’t play the riffing entirely straight, changing up the rhythms to further the intensity of the music and they do something often forgotten in the modern world, leaving the listener wanting more. Maybe it’s the album’s scarcity that keeps it from reissue as this would likely go over really well with collectors.