Deep Purple: "Machine Head" (Purple) No, you're not having an acid flashback, man, it's just an attack of marketing deja vu. Now that nearly everything has been repackaged and remastered, the record companies need to find new ways to sell old albums, and so they've come up with the so-called "anniversary edition", an attempt to revive interest in a past product by giving it a celebratory spin. This 25th anniversary edition of Machine Head, one of Purple's loudest and proudest moments, is bound to have a few ageing rockers reaching for the bubbly, especially since the album features the rock'n'roll standard, Smoke On The Water, not to mention other Purple classics like Highway Star, Space Truckin' and Lazy. The story of Deep Purple is one of many riffs and even more rifts, but this remix job by original bassist Roger Glover captures the hoary old rock beast in fine fettle. Now pass me my air guitar . . .
By Kevin Courtney
Idha: "Troublemaker" (Creation) Idha is the Swedish girlfriend (and labelmate) of ex-Ride guitarist Andy Bell, and while he's busy getting his new band Hurricane #1 off the ground, she has released this delicious mix of Bobbie Gentry country and Dusty Springfield soul, with a bit of Jane Birkin sexuality thrown in for good measure. Sorry Sorry sets the orchestrated, easy-listening tone. Going Down South and Mercy Me are sugary, West Coast-style tunes, but Still Alive and Troublemaker are more hard-nosed highway songs. Sweet September Rain is a drippy, Bacharach-style ballad, and the airy Fields Of Avalon floats off in its own wide-open spaces; but though this album doesn't do much in the way of trouble-making, it does display Idha's mischievous mix of styles.
By Kevin Courtney
Pink Floyd: "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" (EMI) Now this anniversary album is a real psychedelic trip, taking us back 30 years to when Pink Floyd were a wide-eyed bunch of acid-fried art-school types with a penchant for twisted blues and topsy-turvy tunes. The yuppies might worship Dark Side Of The Moon as their totem, but the underachievers among us can relate better to Syd Barrett's half-realised visions of grandeur and his wilful, totally-zonked approach to songwriting. This is a seminal album of UK psychedelia, a fired-up first cousin to flaky American band Love's Forever Changes; the original mono mix retains the albums skewed, spiralling sense of adventure, and tracks like Astronomy Domine, Inter- stellar Overdrive and Pow R. Toc H. are masterful blueprints for Floyd's later epic soundscapes. And songs like Lucifer Sam, The Gnome and Bike are for Britpop bands to die for.
By Kevin Courtney
