Ace Vinyl & CDs

Review: While Claremont songwriter, guitarist, percussionist and experimental musician Norma Tanega scored her most memorable hit with 'Walkin' My Cat Named Dog', her later career heard her talents and curiosities get the best of her, working mostly as a percussionist and soundtracker in relative yet still intriguing obscurity. Her second LP followed duly from an early Dusty Springfield co-sign (and subsequent romantic relationship); while it charts the beginning of her transition into musical auteurism, most of Tanega's pop sensibility is so far retained here. Smack-dab in the middle of Tangea's extended stay in the UK after liaising with Springfield, the likes of 'Hampton Court' and 'Clapham Junction' allude to London's most major hubs of creative frenzy at the time, whilst the more abstract 'Elephants Angels And Roses' and 'Stranger' are relatively choral and lilting psych, folk and pop burrs, documenting the course of an relationship through confectionary vocals and romantic swells.

Review: Way back in 2004, Sanctuary Records commissioned pre-Britpop pop hipsters St Etienne member and serial compilation curator Bob Stanley to put together a collection celebrating the British 'acid folk' movement of the late 1980s and early 1970s. Long deleted, the previously CD only compilation is finally returning on vinyl - this time in expanded form, with the inclusion of additional tracks and a few picks from its (also unavailable) sequel. It's a superb set all told and one that showcases a take on folk heavy on effects, unusual rhythms, sweet vocals, horror-adjacent sounds and pastoral but otherworldly instrumentation. A few well-known names aside, it's a genuinely deep dive too - as you'd expect from someone of Stanley's knowledge and experience.

Review: American baroque pop, or chamber pop as it is also known, flourished from 1966 to the early seventies. It's a sound that blends string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to evoke a unique summer-into-autumn kind of melancholy. Far from the raw energy of early rock 'n' roll, this style often attracted musicians from folk backgrounds who were drawn to its acoustic richness. Linda Ronstadt's first band, the Stone Poneys, introduced the autoharp in 1965 while artists like Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with string arrangements as they sought new, post-electric directions. This era marked a shift toward intricate, orchestral textures that redefined the boundaries of pop and folk music and are explored in this superb and comprehensive collection.

Review: Paul Weller of The Jam pens an unlikely soul missive in 4xLP compilation form, released through Ace. The British new wave and mod revivalist naturally grew up listening to soul music, though the likes of 'That's Entertainment' and 'Going Underground' hardly bear their imprinting marks. Having hassled Weller for years to compile such a thing, Ace now finally, happily deliver this biographic brain-pick. From James Carr's 1966 'Pouring Water On A Drowning Man' to 'Life Walked Out' by The Mist, we've a somewhat obscure selection here; but it's only natural for a man so immersed in 60s soul as a teenager that he'd go so far as to buy a Lambretta and vow never to take off his mohair!