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Camac G-100 aka Eko Master Series M-7 (1980)

By Vintage Italian GuitarsNo Comments

As many will know, EKO also made instruments for foreign brands such as Vox but little is known about its collaboration with Camac, a brand that operated in the French and German markets. One of the results of this agreement was the creation of the G-100, a professional solid body which was among the last creations of the original EKO.

Lorenzo

The Camac (now Algam France, new “owner” of EKO) guitars line was produced by Eko between the late 70s and early 80s.

The collaboration between Eko and Camac was born following a meeting that the EKO director, Remo Serrangeli, had with the owner of Camac, Gerard Garnier, at the Frankfurt motor show in 1978.

After an initial production of 200 classical guitars for the French market, in 1979 an agreement was reached with the German section of Camac, led by young professional musicians, for the production of high quality solid body electric guitars with modern finishes, equipment and features and with an eye to both the usual trendy American brands and new Japanese productions.

The agreement was reached for models based on the EKO CX/BX monobloc series and for a model with a screwed neck inspired by the stratocaster but with superior woods and finishes, the Camac G-100.

Here we present an example of the rare G-100 belonging to the German collector Frank Ebeling.

The Camac G-100 features DiMarzio pickups in the uncommon SSH configuration, i.e. the mirror version of the classic superstrats that became popular in the 80s and which instead had an HSS configuration.

Three switches allow you to select each pickup in every possible combination, thus obtaining a virtually complete sound spectrum.

The electrical part is completed by a volume and two tone potentiometers, one for the central single coil and the other for the neck humbucker. Brass hardware milled from solid in EKO’s internal workshops and Schaller tuners.

For the Camac G-100 the best high quality woods were chosen from the company’s vast warehouse: body and neck are in mahogany with a central strip in maple and the top is in sapele mahogany.

The fingerboard is ebony.

EKO M-7

The G-100 model was marketed in Italy under the EKO brand as the M-7 model of the Master Series line and equipped with Magnetics active pickups: 2 x SDC (Strato Dual Ceramic) and an HSC (Humbucker Single Ceramic).

These pickups have a dedicated preamp inside each unit which is used not to preamplify the signal but to manage the humbucker effect of the primary stage ensuring low impedance output. The result is that the instrument sounds as if it were equipped with a set of active stratocaster pickups.

EKO M-7

...BUT HOW DOES IT SOUND?

What Frank’s Camac G-100 sounds like

How the EKO Master M-7 sounds

carabo

Alfa Romeo Carabo: Spaceship Superstar!

By Automotive, Historical Figures, Marcello Gandini, UncategorizedNo Comments

The years leading up to 1968 are full of intellectual ferment. In Italy, the previous economic boom decade has left a reinvigorated, young society that wants to make its dreams come true, motorized en masse thanks to the FIAT 600 and 500. People are full of energy and desire for renewal.

Alessandro Ciaramella

Before the Carabo – The evolution of times

The sporting battle waged by the giant Ford against Ferrari in 1963, reached its climax in 1966, when three Ford GT-40 MK-IIs crossed the finish line of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a parade, prevailing over the legendary Ferrari 330P/3, all of which withdrew (with a dramatic sports ending for the moral winner of the race and developer of the Shelby-Ford GT-40 mk2, Ken Miles, but that’s another story!).

At the time, this type of race was more popular and important than Formula 1 and the event was of exceptional importance.

In 1966 a certain Marcello Gandini, a 28-year-old designer recently hired at Carrozzeria Bertone in Turin, the protagonist of this story (and many others), created the Lamborghini Miura in the space of three months, starting from the design on paper to the working car prototype.

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1966 – Lamborghini Miura

This car (whose story is in a certain sense intertwined with that of the Ford GT-40s mentioned above) generated a huge sensation at the time and is still today considered one of the most beautiful and elegant cars ever made. Marcello Gandini, with the typical dissatisfaction of the creative artist, in an interview released a few years ago, however, did not fail to find (incredibly) several defects and things that he would have liked to make differently. The insufficient width of the car body and the first tires mounted, too narrow (which at the time were, in fact, the only ones available) had never gone down well.

1967 brings to Italy the divorce law, the university reform and the beginning of youth protests. Miniskirts are getting shorter and shorter. Science fiction is reborn, design is revolutionized. In cinematography, movies such as “Planet of the Apes” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” are on the launch pad. They will change the way to think about the future. Visually, science fiction will influence design, and fashion and will be influenced by them in turn.

It was in this year that Alfa Romeo began the production of a racing car to return itself to the glorious days of Formula 1, left as a winner in the early 1950s. Indeed, a formidable car was built which would win many races thereafter: the Alfa Romeo Tipo 105.33, known as the Alfa 33. A road version was also launched (only 18 units, one of the rarest cars in the world), designed by Franco Scaglione.

On this basis, many prototypes were created by the greatest designers in the immediately following years, all fundamental steps on the road to today’s sports cars. This is the DNA that will give birth to the incoming Carabo.

carabo

1967 – Alfa 33 Stradale

For the 1967 Expo in Canada, to celebrate the centenary of the nation, Alfa Romeo commissioned Bertone to create a prototype car, especially for that event. Thus the Alfa Montreal prototype was born, also based on a design by Gandini. The lines seen on the Miura evolve, becoming cleaner and less sinuous.

carabo

1967 – Alfa Romeo Montreal prototype

Gandini himself clarifies that whoever creates a car is not unlike a painter. He certainly has his own style, but every time he wants to create something new and different from his previous work. And the subsequent creations will strongly demonstrate this belief.

Also in 1967, Gandini designed the Marzal prototype for Lamborghini, a four-seater sports car study in which he definitively left the lines of the famous Miura to marry a far more visionary look. And already it seems to be in another world.

The glass surfaces become less usual, the planes sharp and straight, and polygonal lines and hexagonal textures appear. The cockpit looks like that of a sci-fi starfighter. Blue leather for the dashboard and silver leather for hexagonal seats, red buttons and enlighted controls characterize the revolutionary interior design.

This car will then generate the famous Lamborghini Espada, the first real four-seat sports car. It is a small but decisive step towards a new era of automotive design, a big step towards the Carabo.

carabo

1967 – Lamborghini Marzal prototype

The social and cultural changes of 1968 are a well known and widely discussed topic.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in 1968 the American Mustang of that year was produced to compete, both on the markets and in the cinema, with another equally legendary car, the Dodge Charger.

In the famous movie “Bullit” starring Steve McQueen, these two cars are the protagonists of a daring chase. In that year, however, another movie was also released, destined to become a milestone in cinematography: “2001 A Space Odyssey”.

The visionary nature of the work definitively breaks with the visual culture of the past and is the manifesto of new futuristic design ideas. Science fiction, in its graphic and imaginative part, veers decidedly towards clean shapes, inclined planes with strong and contrasting colors.

Hexagonal textures, structural gratings made of new materials and lighting brought in the form of blades of light or very small spots present everywhere become the symbol of the modernity that is about to break into the world.

carabo

From “2001: A Space Odissey”

In Italy, perhaps, few people know that NSU wins the Car of the Year award with the Ro 80, a Wankel rotary engine car (what times, what experimentation!), at Le Mans the Ford GT-40 wins again (before leaving the scepter to the incoming Porsche long time domination), but the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/2 finished in the absolute 4th, 5th and 6th positions, winning their category and continuing their triumphal march in different types of competition.

Here comes the Carabo

The 1968 Paris Motor Show is approaching. Alfa Romeo intends to present a prototype to be exhibited and calls Bertone again to create it. Only 10 weeks left until the event and you can’t miss it.

In those days, the international motor shows were the only occasions to exhibit new concepts, new mass-produced models to be promoted and talked about with futuristic prototypes. All the specialist press are present, all the most important personalities in the sector could be met almost only on those occasions and it was necessary to be present with innovations and prototypes that would open the way for future creations.

Bertone again commissioned the brilliant Gandini, just 30 years old, evidently knowing he could count on a man capable of sprinting, like the cars he dreamed of, to top speed in a very short time.

In this context of revolutionary intellectual ferment, Gandini received the chassis for his new car: one of the very few existing road-Alfa Tipo 33, chassis number 75033.109. Of the few Alfa 33 chassis available in that years two went to Pininfarina (who created the Cuneo and 33.2 concepts), one to Italdesign by Giorgetto Giugiaro (who will make the Alfa Romeo Iguana) and two to Bertone, on one of which Gandini will design the Carabo.

The asymmetrical H-frame of the Alfa 33 was designed, with aeronautical-derived technologies, by a man whose name Alfa enthusiasts carry in their hearts: Giuseppe Busso. Composed of three large aluminum tubes that housed the fuel tanks inside, the main frame supported two magnesium castings designed to support the engine and the transmission group, and the suspensions.

With a very short wheelbase of 2,350 mm, the chassis weighing only 48 kg, the whole complete car weighed just 700 kg, a true track beast. To be clear, the small placid FIAT 500 utility vehicle of the time, a car that we all consider very light, weighed 550 kg, only 150 less than the Alfa, and had 13.5 HP against the no less than 230 of the road version of the Alfa 33.

carabo

1967 – The asymmetrical H-frame of the Alfa 33

The engine was a real jewel, the 1995 cc 90-degree V8, double overhead camshaft, entirely made of aluminum, also designed by the brilliant Busso, and later placed in the care of the engineer Carlo Chiti of Autodelta, which was the racing department of Alfa Romeo. Capable of 270 HP at 8,800 rpm (230 in road configuration), combined with a six-speed transaxle gearbox, it was capable of pushing the Alfa 33 up to 270 km/h and sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in about 5 seconds.

In essence, it was a sort of Formula One engine equipped with an exciting bodywork (after all, it was a homologated car starting from the racing version), and in fact, the price was equally stratospheric: around ten million Italian Lira at the time, about 20.000 USD. In 1968 a car cost in the USA about 2-4.000 USD, and a Plymouth Fury cost about 2.800 USD. In 1968 a Ferrari Dino 206 GT cost less than five IT-Lira million, the famous Miura around seven million, a Rolls Royce almost 15, and the FIAT 500, which we mentioned earlier, around 500.000 Lire (about 800 USD at that time).

This is the beating heart and the powerful backbone that Gandini receives in his own hands, on which an equally visionary aesthetic will descend. Carabo is born.

At the Paris Motor Show, it is already famous before the event even begins.

The day arrives, the doors open, it is October 10, 1968. A few minutes after the opening of the Salone, the Carabo is already surrounded by journalists and visitors looking astounded. Everyone crowds around the spaceship that has just landed.

The color is a sparkling green, and the luminous and iridescent paintwork is taken from the colors of the Carabus Auratus beetle, green with golden and orange shades, which also gives its name to the car itself. The Carabo, indeed.

carabo

Carabus Auratus

What amazes, even more than the declared performances (250 km/h and 6.5” to go from 0 to 100 km/h), are the dimensions, the shapes that take your breath away. 164.4 in. long and 70.3 in. wide, the Carabo is only 39 in. height, 2.4 less than the Miura which already seemed very low.

Gandini finally managed to have the car wider and lower than what production limitations and costs had allowed him to do with the Miura.

He will be able to dare even more in the next Lancia Stratos Zero, two years after, by following these ideas.

carabo

1968 – Alfa Romeo Carabo, side view (Alfa Romeo Museum)

The profile is a revolutionary wedge-shaped single volume, the aerodynamics becoming increasingly sophisticated in the wake of the first Technologic Aerodynamic Berlinettas, the Alfa Romeo BATs of twenty years earlier.

The front end is low and sharp, aimed at mitigating the lift problems that afflicted the front end of the Miuras above certain speeds, by raising the nose. Now the line runs fast and continuous, uninterrupted and penetrating, from the pointed nose to the wide windscreen and the powerful rear.

The tires are finally as Gandini would have wanted them from the start also on the Miura, wide and powerful, which give the car a very aggressive look, identifying it even more with the racing cars, of which it unequivocally possesses the DNA.

The doors are hexagonal, with an unusual scissor opening. Hinged on the front, they are lifted thanks to a sophisticated system of gas pistons. Perhaps they recall, in some way, the beetle in the act of spreading its wings, ready for the formidable flight.

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Alfa Romeo Carabo, doors opening

Gandini will declare that he would never have thought that this solution would have been successful, and instead, it was so much appreciated that it was reproposed on several other following models, even of his own conception. The engine air intakes, elegantly hinted at in a sort of gill behind the windows, feed the powerful V8 placed in a longitudinal central rear position (like in the next Lamborghini Countach…).

The wedge-shaped line proceeds almost without lowering, decisive, towards the rear, cut cleanly. After the large bonnet covered by a black grille, opens to evacuate the hot air from the engine, the volume closes with the hexagonal rear mirror with a very accurate design.

Here a dark grille, enhanced by the contrast with bright green, hides and camouflages the rear lights, which are only visible when they are turned on. They recall the luminous grids of science fiction computers, giving the car an unmistakable iconic look even in the details.

The duck-tail spoiler integrated into the design of the rear of the car dominates the rear and concludes it at the top, while the four pipes emerge below, chromed externally and red internally, to indicate the presence of the two banks of the V8 engine.

carabo

The rear mirror of the Carabo and the interior of the famous HAL 9000

As in the most recent sports design trends, the passenger compartment is moved forward, and the line of the windshield is integrated with that of the nose, which is getting shorter and lower more and more, unlike the models of the past, thus aerodynamically increasing the downforce, the weight on the front and therefore steering precision.

carabo

The front of the Carabo and the Icarus spacecraft from the “Planet of the Apes”

The central and rear part of the car sees the predominance of the engine cover, at the center of the car both physically and metaphorically.

The front projectors are concealed, as in the Montreal, by adjustable blades, but this time they are completely hidden from view. Other movable appendages complete its charming modern appearance.

carabo

Carabo, the headlights on

The radiator, located under the front hood, emits exhaust air through other wing appendages integrated into the design of the front of the car. The dark-colored lower lamellae perhaps recall the segments of the body of the beetle which gives it its name.

Everything is visionary, everything is without limits of imagination.

The bold color paves the way for more exotic and new colors, which will be seen in the years to come, on sports cars and then also on production ones. The crystals are mirror-gold like the visors of astronauts’ helmets or the windows of spaceships that dominate the imagination of the youngest.

carabo

This volumetric arrangement will give rise to and will be found in all the sports cars that came then in the 20th century, up to today in the 21st.

The rigorous interiors recall the geometric cockpits of the starships of the time, the steering wheel is conical and essential, the shapes abstract and squared.

The same logo recalls, almost jokingly, the shape of the car with the hexagonal letter “A”, which simulates its unique door in the open position.

carabo

The Carabo logo

The success of the Carabo is worldwide, and its silhouette not only is published in all the automotive magazines but also breaks into the non-specialized press. There is unanimous approval not only for the futuristic study of its design but also for its new materials and for the avant-garde technical solutions introduced.

After the Carabo, and the glorious heirs of the Carabo

Celebrated over time, and recently restored, it has been exhibited around the world in elegance exhibitions and has recently illuminated, with its unmistakable colors, the Milan evenings on the occasion of the Design Week, in April 2023. It is currently preserved in the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese.

carabo

2023 – the Carabo exposed in Milan

The Carabo has positioned itself as a cornerstone of automotive design. A watershed, after which nothing was the same.

In addition to influencing almost every subsequent sports car to date in terms of overall design, arrangement of parts and volumes, the Carabo had a direct lineage that was simply excellent.

Two years later, the Lancia Stratos Zero was born from the same ingenious pencil, a moving sculpture (as Gandini himself defined it) that would generate the Lancia Stratos, queen of rallies in the 1970s. And, shortly after, a certain Lamborghini Countach will make its appearance… but that’s another story!

CLICK PLAY TO WATCH THE CLIP OF THE ORIGINAL BERTONE FILM BROCHURE WITH AN OVERVIEW OF THE CARABO

Credits

A warm welcome goes to our new collaborator Alessandro Ciaramella and a heartfelt thank you for the passion and meticulousness put into drafting the article and related research.

A huge and eternal thanks goes to the great genius of Marcello Gandini, a gentleman who with rare objectivity and humility taught the world how to design and make dreams come true.

carabo
epiphone de luxe

Epiphone De Luxe

By Vintage USA GuitarsNo Comments

It is a pleasure to have as guests Gianmaria Assandri and this historic Epiphone De Luxe which is for sale in his lutherie.

Lorenzo

Epiphone had its beginnings in 1873, in Smirne in the then Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), where Greek founder Anastasios Stathopoulos built his violins and lutes.

In the beginning of the twentieth century Stathopoulos moved to Queens in New York and from 1908 he continued to produce his instruments and added mandolins.

Anastasios died in 1915 and was succeeded by his son Epaminondas known as “Epi“.

In 1917 the firm became known as “The House of Stathopoulo” and immediately following World War I, the company started manufacturing banjos.

Four years later the company changed its name in “Epiphone Banjo Company” (a combination of its nickname “Epi” and the suffix “-phone” from the Greek phon-, “voice”), starting the production of guitars like the Epiphone De Luxe.

Epi died in 1943 and the company went to his brothers, Orphie and Frixo, who guided it until 1957, when they sold it to Gibson which moved Epiphone headquarters to its factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Since then, the brand has been used for various series of guitars, some produced by Gibson itself in its own factories and others contracted out to other companies, first in America and then abroad such as Matsumoku and Terada in Japan and then Samick and Peerless in Korea to then continue in China to date.

However, here we face a splendid and rare sample of the original house, one of those produced under the guidance of Epi himself and Gianmaria describes it to us:

“Epiphone Deluxe, built in New York between 1938 and 1940, as the internal tag says. the instrument was purchased around the middle of the last century by the father of the actual owner, who played it professionally his whole life.

Abandoned and forgotten until the owner entrusted it to me for the restoration.

Now the guitar is in excellent condition, all parts are original and has been provided with a magnetic pickup identical to the one it probably had originally.

The owner wants it to be sold to the highest bidder. Whoever is interested can contact Liuteria Assandri, who is the intermediary of the selling.

For more info, you can contact me via email.

galanti solid body

Galanti Solid Body

By Uncategorized, Vintage Italian Guitars2 Comments

Guest of this Classic2vintage article is a splendid and rather rare Galanti from the Solid Body series, a little surprising guitar.

Lorenzo

Galanti was located in Romagna in Mondaino, a few kilometers from Recanati and the Adriatic.

The Galanti brand is linked to high-quality accordions and saw its birth in 1924 when three of the sons of the progenitor Antonio, a former carousel man, a skilled craftsman in love with music as well as the true initiator of the company and builder of the first accordions, founded the Fratelli Galanti and, moving to the USA, the export and sale of the company’s products began.

After the war, due to disagreements within the family, the company split into two branches which went their separate ways, one converting to electronics and keyboards (see the first Eko amplifiers and the Ekosonic organ) and the other, led by Antonio’s younger son Angelo, continued with the production of accordions to which vibraphones and guitars were added.

The design of the guitars began around the second half of 1962, making use of the talented craftsman Francesco Maioli who had previously amazed the management thanks to his expertise in the construction of the accordion cabinets and became the head of the guitar department.

In 5 years about 16,000 guitars were manufactured (1962/67) including very few sold under other brands such as Jetstar, Continental and Tonemaster. In 1967 a more consistent production was instead made for the Goya brand with the name Panther after which in 1968, following the premature death of Angelo, the company closed.

Excluding the pickups (purchased in nearby Castelfidardo from Nando Marchetti) and the tuning keys made by Van Gent, every other part of the guitars was internally produced in the Galanti factories, including the bridge and vibrato.

A particularity of Galanti guitars is the truss rod which can be adjusted both from the headstock and from the neck heel, a feature they have in common with Bartolini’s instruments.

In addition to the beautiful semi-acoustic guitars, the Galanti mostly produced and best-known guitar is undoubtedly the model universally known as the Grand Prix, a beautiful offset with 6 or 12 strings whose name perhaps derives from the award won at some international fair or from organizations of sector.

The bodies were covered with two shells of some sort of veneer or plastic material in imitation of wood and the two parts were joined by a white band decoration running along the edge of the body.

Then come to the rarest models defined as Solid Bodies, of which the strat-like presented here belongs to our friend and affiliate Renato Cavallaro, owner of a big family collection including the Wandre Blue Jeans seen in a previous article:

“Then I found myself with 136 guitars plus various amplifiers, all from the 50s/60s/70s and almost all inherited from a paternal uncle who, not having married, had a passion for musical instruments.

Having a musician son who loves vintage amps but not guitars, I made the decision to sell them keeping just a few, including this one.

Of the Galantis I preferred to sell the Grand Prix and keep this Solid Body because I’ve always liked its different and scratchy sound, also different from its sister Grand Prix.

When friends come to visit me they always ask to play it because they are in love with its so particular sound that they say takes them back in time, which I fully agree with.

When you pick up a vintage guitar, you smell its scent, carefully observe its workmanship, compare it with today’s guitars and perhaps discover the differences, but the charm and the elegance of that period, none of the modern ones will ever give you that…”

...BUT HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Listen to this Galanti Solid Body

Listen to the Galanti Gran Prix from the Drowning in Guitars collection

header_keith_mansfield_classic_2_vintage

Keith Mansfield – Our Coming Attraction

By Cinema, Historical Figures, Music, UncategorizedNo Comments

 

Keith Mansfield, renowned for his Funky Fanfare made famous by Quentin Tarantino with the films Kill Bill and Grindhouse, is an Anglo-Saxon composer author of a surprising amount of musical themes from really excellent music libraries, capable of evoking positivity and well-being in the listener. In the so-called Muzak sector he is easily considered a genius, rising to a higher level than other composers in that vein and, with an impressive curriculum of over 60 albums released in about 30 years of career, also one of the most prolific ever.

Lorenzo

Mansfield, born in London in 1941, in the 60s and 70s was a fundamental figure in the music scene of Anglo-Saxon music libraries and recorded a large number of songs for the specialist label KPM (initials of Keith-Prowse-Maurice, then division of EMI).

In the so-called Muzak sector he is easily considered a genius, rising to a higher level than other composers in that vein and, with an impressive curriculum of over 60 albums released in about 30 years of career, also one of the most prolific ever.

His writing skills range easily from the funk and soul of “Morning Broadway“, “Bogaloo“, “Exclusive Blend“, “Big Shot“, “Soul Thing” (which will then be transformed into the famous Funky Fanfare) to the disco music of “Night Bird”, to the cheerful and energetic television themes such as “Grandstand” for the BBC. “Teenage Carnival” (which was used as the theme of the 1960s children’s television series Freewheelers), “The Young Scene” (1968 theme song for The Big Match football program), “Light and Tuneful” and “World Champion” ( used by BBC and NBC as the opening and closing of the Wimbledon tennis championships), “World Series” (used for BBC athletics broadcasts), classy easy jazz atmospheric lenses such as “Je Reviens“, “Life of Leisure”, “Love De Luxe”, to world music/jazz contaminations like the beautiful “Husky Birdsong”, to synthpop acts like the sci-fi “Superstar Fanfare” and “High Profile”.

Keith Mansfield is probably best known to the American public for the aforementioned “Funky Fanfare” which was used to soundtrack the infamous of psychedelic theatre snipes Astro Daters (“Our Feature Presentation” and “Our Next Attraction” which introduced the films – “Prevues of Coming Attractions” which introduced the movie trailers -“ Intermission” which introduced the interval between the various times of the film), produced by the National Screen Service in the late 1960s.

The Astro Daters were then used by director Tarantino in the films Kill Bill and Grindhouse, making them famous and iconic worldwide along with Funky Fanfare.

But the stainless Funky Fanfare is currently still used as a theme song in various television shows and podcasts.

He also composed scores for the films Loot (1970) and Taste of Excitement (1970) and the western Three Bullets for a Long Gun (1971) but his library songs can also be found in The Great Skycopter Rescue (1980), Fist of Fear, Touch of Death (1980) Kung Fu Killers (1981), TV shows and series and who knows where else.

 

The Astro Daters scored with Funky Fanfare

Mansfield also wrote the aforementioned “Superstar Fanfare“, which was used among others (in different variations) by Channel Television in the Channel Islands, the news program of RTL plus 7 vor 7, Worldvision Enterprises and Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) as an identifying jingle for British Forces TV in West Germany, Berlin, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar in the 1980s and 1990s.

Over time his songs have been covered (among others Soul Thing, of which a vocal version was made by James Royal, “House of Jack“, and a reworked in the slow psychedelic “Queen St. Gang” by the Canterburians Uriel/Arzachel by Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart), reworked and remixed (Skeewiff, Simon Begg) but also sampled and reused by hip-hop producers (Danger Mouse, Madlib, Fatboy Slim, Kal Banx).

Molte sue composizioni vengono utilizzate anche dalla NFL per i suoi film monografici delle squadre e i documentari sul Super Bowl e altre vengono usate come sigle di trasmissioni di vario genere.

Mansfield was also a producer (Maynard Ferguson) and arranger and conductor for Dusty Sprigfield (several tracks from the album “Dusty … Definitely“) as well as orchestral arranger on some Love Affair hits (“Everlasting Love“), Marmalade (“Reflections of My Life“) and others.
In short, one of the most incredibly talented, prolific and versatile musicians on the music scene, the ones who remain behind the scenes while you always wonder who knows who wrote that little piece of music that makes you feel so good and once you listen it never leaves your mind.

Keith Mansfield in recent times

CLICK AND UNLOCK the playlist of Keith Mansfield songs created by Classic2vintage for you

 

etna

Flea – Topi o Uomini (1972)

By MusicNo Comments

1972 in Italy shows off with one of the most unconventional albums of the progressive musical movement: Topi o Uomini from that outsider band that was Flea (ex “on the Honey”).

Lorenzo

In a previous article, we introduced you to Etna, the splendid final chapter of the Flea on the Honey/Flea/Etna trilogy. Today we talk about their second album, Topi o Uomini.

It was 1972 and the three cousins from Catania, Antonio and Agostino Marangolo and Carlo Pennisi had relocated to Rome and met Elio Volpini who took up the vacant position of bassist, bringing a substantial rock vein to the quartet.

The four abandon the English language and the “honey” of the debut album and remain “Pulci” (Flea in fact) but they are fleas that bite hard: their style is increasingly hard and incisive, psychedelic hard rock constantly tinged with a fusion always in poised between harsh jazz and warm Mediterranean melody.

The Topi o Uomini album cover

The album starts with a very Latin-like introduction of Marangolo’s drums which introduces a beautiful and incisive guitar rhythm by Pennisi with open chords which will be the leitmotif of the 20 minutes of the fantastic suite Topi o Uomini.

Drums and guitar rise in an explosive crescendo to which Volpini adds his roaring bass with powerful chords and the voice of Antonio Marangolo narrates a story, both metropolitan and metaphysical at the same time, that tells of frustrated men compared to mice and a cat in the end that happily devours them, perhaps symbolizing the mafia and dark forces.

Impossible not to imagine autobiographical references in the nods to Sicily.

The suite unravels powerfully and breathlessly, psychedelic and hard until it slows down in the central part where the protagonist and narrator of the story accuse himself of being just a mouse, surrendering to an inevitable solitary death of the soul and leaving room for a long solo of Pennisi’s Stratocaster.

Solo that leads us to a bridge that encloses a drum solo by Marangolo that introduces an almost stoner passage that becomes an acid “soul” with harmonica and a new solo by Pennisi and finally the drum “train” leads us to the finale which is a reprise of the initial riff with carioca vocals to then explode again, psychedelic and very hard, in an orgy of drums and guitar phrases woven from the bass until the fade out.

The second side opens with Amazzone a piedi, a metropolitan song that speaks of citizen alienation even in love stories with a very hard and syncopated attack from the jazzy rhythm of the drums on which guitar and bass weave their riff in unison until Pennisi breaks away and follows Elio’s vocal line: a great song of psychedelic prog with Hendrix style reverse guitar plots and a second instrumental and distinctly jazz-fusion part.

This is followed by a suggestive ballad with a Mediterranean jazz flavor, Sono un Pesce, led by Pennis’s acoustic guitar and Antonio Marangolo’ piano, with the lead voice filtered by leslie.

The distinctly jazzy refrain also sees Agostino’s use of the vibraphone.

The central part is a semi-electric, psychedelic raga, with Volpini playing both bass and soprano sax and Antonio Marangolo on piano and harmonium.

A song that could easily have belonged to the Etna album as it effectively anticipates its style: this is being truly “progressive”.

The full “Topi o Uomini” album cover

L’angelo timido closes the album introduced by a choir that immediately explodes in a psychedelic electric tune which continues to preserve the vocal interventions only with choruses. Again great rhythms, phrasing and solos by Pennisi, this time also with harmony guitars, to underline the technical expertise of a great instrumentalist: it goes without saying that the album is driven by the guitar, and what a guitar…

Suddenly the song turns into a fast and very acid blues where the harmonica also comes out which, in unison with the guitar, brings to the conclusion a record that could easily be a perfect demo for the two aces of the band, Agostino Marangolo and Carlo Pennisi.

Members of Flea

Carlo Pennisi is at the same time a very melodic and aggressive guitarist.
He creates incisive and imaginative rhythms and phrasing, particularly new for the beginning of the Italian 70s: he is a forerunner gifted with that great technique and musical taste which he will later be able to show off on Etna as in each of his many future collaborations.

In short, a top-class musician and session man, with truly unique control of the instrument and sound.

Agostino Marangolo is a top drummer, his drumming is always effervescent and absolutely explosive: jazz and rock, heavy and articulated at the same time, he introduces that variegated and powerful style which will then give great prestige to the Goblins and to that wonderful final chapter of Flea called Etna. He too will become a much-loved session man.

Antonio Marangolo is a great multi-instrumentalist, a crucial musician with Paolo Conte, Ornella Vanoni, Guccini and Vinicio Capossela, we will often find him next to his brother Agostino in Goblin and in other projects such as jazz self-productions.

Elio Volpini after the Flea parenthesis will be in L’Uovo di Colombo (a project that will then lead to the reform of Flea under the name Etna), Claudio Lolli and others, always as bassist and guitarist. Today he offers Hendrix covers but also Flea/Etna songs in a project led by him.

The “L’Uovo di Colombo” album cover that will lead to Etna

Topi o Uomini is a clamorous album for the times as for today but it is irreparably affected by the bad Fonit production which is particularly perceptible in the voice which, when it does not even disappear behind the instruments, remains in any case always very harsh and suffocated, forced to scream to be heard and the lyrics, sometimes still almost unintelligible today, are the first to pay the price.

It is an absolute pity since we are in front of a peculiar album in the Italian prog-rock panorama, both for the great beauty and freshness of the instrumental parts and for the sensitivity and depth of the lyrics.

Due to the poor production, this little masterpiece is often unfortunately enjoyed by enthusiasts only, a phenomenon that was all too typical of Italian progressive and experimental projects of the period. While they were lucky enough to be able to make records for free with a State record label, it was mismanaged and many great records of the time suffer from this.

Topi o Uomini by Flea of this neglect behaving is perhaps the spearhead.

Listen to the full album “Topi o Uomini”

A-side
1. Topi o Uomini

Total lenght: 20:20

Side B
1. Amazzone a piedi – 4:10
2. Sono un Pesce – 6:31
3. L’Angelo timido – 5:51

Total lenght: 4.35pm

Elio Volpini talks about Flea/Etna

New Trolls

New Trolls – FS: Life ended in 1980 but none of us realized it

By Historical Figures, MusicNo Comments

To be clear, the New Trolls were , and remain, one of the ten most talented groups musically, technically and artistically. However, the Italians are well known for their ridiculous capacity of snubbing their co-patriots in favour of dubious foreign offerings.

Daniele Pieraccini - Lorenzo

Dealing with the glory of the past is not always a pleasant task and when it regards Italy there is often more pain than joy because when we talk about masterpieces we understand that for various reasons (almost always mere grabbing by political scoundrels and ruthless speculations) have never been recreated.

We often find we can rediscover excellence that leaves a sense of wonderous stupor, deep affection and dispiriting sadness all together.

This is the case of “FS” by New Trolls, an album that is so great that in any other country but Italy it would be considered a national treasure, be glorified by honest criticism and buried in Golden Records.

It would surely still be heard on the radio today at least as often as the same old Pink Floyd.

A track like “Il Treno” with its magnificent composition, inventive imagination, technical expertise and evocative sincerity has no parallels in modern music.

And this is not the first time this can be found in the New Trolls’ music. They can really be considered to be an exception in the 1980’s.

To be clear, the New Trolls were , and remain, one of the world’s most talented groups musically, technically and artistically.

De Scalzi and Di Palo, in addition to being great singers with uncommon vocal talents who made the choral and solo parts of the group an unmistakable trademark, were and are superfine composers and multi-instrumentalists (as it is well known Melody Maker was so impressed by Nico that they included him in the list of the 10 best European guitarists of the 70s, when he was still very young).

However, the Italians are well known for their ridiculous capacity of snubbing their co-patriots in favour of dubious foreign offerings.

Xenophilia is a mental affliction that has too long afflicted the population which has taught almost every art form to the rest of the world. (Take ice cream for just a basic example).

Click play and listen to

Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls

It’s no accident that these pioneers of progressive Italian rock came from Genoa.

Apart from the well-known cultural movement the “scuola Genovese” which forged incredible talent, the Ligurian capital was notable for L’Alcione, a historical theatre and cinema dating back to 1948.
It was originally named “Colosseo” and closed at the end of the century having been reduced to showing x-rated films to survive.

In the 60s’ and 70s’ L’Alcione became a hub of theatre, the avantgarde and, most of all, progressive rock. Amongst others Van Der Graaf Generator, Genesis, Gentle Giant and Peter Hammill played there.

In 1973 “Tempi Dispari” was recorded by NT Atomic System, a side project of the original band, following disagreements between members. (Take note of the excellent “Ibis” by Nico di Palo.)

Two years earlier the band had embraced prog by recording “Concerto Grosso per I New Trolls”, a milestone on the rock scene, which was truly unique and the likes of which had never been heard in Italy. This was followed in 1976 by the less successful “Concerto Grosso No 2”, which is certainly worth revisiting.

Beginning with psychedelic beat, De Scalzi and co also experimented credibly with hard rock. (Check out the stoner “C’è troppa Guerra” from 1973 which was really ahead of its time). The group moved through several genres and eventually stuck with pop rock, continuously maintaining a high level.

It is also worth mentioning their maniacal dedication to finding the “right” sound for each genre, especially concerning guitars.

Click play and listen to

C’è troppa guerra

After various albums, hit singles and working with other artists, The New Trolls made it to 1980 having lost Giorgio Usai (keyboards) and Giorgio D’Adamo (bass) along the way.

With this line-up ,consisting of Vittorio De Scalzi (vocals and keyboards), Nico di Palo (guitar, bass and vocals), Gianni Belleno (drums and vocals) and Ricky Belloni, they hit the “Double” recording studios of Idea di Milano, with the technician Andrè Harwwd and the producer Gianfranco Lombardi, to get the 80s’ started in their own way.

The result was “FS” a concept album based around a train journey and the passengers encountered on the way. A concept record (an idea held dear by progressive musicians) which offered an extraordinary amalgamation of sounds and genres including rock, pop, classical, reggae and new rock/wave.

The New Trolls maintained their distinctive progressive style despite working in the pop genre, producing incredibly virtuoso instrumentals and polyphonic vocals that have few rivals internationally.

Andiamo adesso a parlare in specifico dell’album FS dei New Trolls, che troverete analizzato di seguito con ciascun brano accompagnato da un video da noi appositamente creato per questo articolo con affetto: un omaggio al gruppo più rappresentativo della musica italiana moderna nel mondo.

New Trolls – FS

The album begins with Nico di Palo’s guitar which, using an echo, effectively recreates a train whistle and wheels: “Il Treno (Tigre-E66-1979)” a musically rousing image of poetic realism with pauses for effect and guitars explosions, is narrated by the great voice of De Scalzi.

When playing live, the group performed even greater versions of this song and it is a real shame that there are no existing remastered live recordings that do justice to their performance.

Il Treno” is a far-reaching track, a strong introduction to the concept, a poetic ode to travel transmitting a sense of both detachment and adventure.
The track introduces the various characters we meet during the journey.

Click play and listen to

Il treno (Tigre – E 633 – 1979)

The next track “La signora senza anelli” is sung in unison and introduces a rock riff which has traces of the past and anticipates “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits.

Belloni plays the solo while Di Palo backs him up with his great poppy bass, which not only provided the rhythm but lightens the sad story of a lady who was once wealthy but has been reduced to poverty to support her son’s frivolous ways and his departure for “L’America”.

She has sold her last ring in order to be able to afford to take the uncertain journey to see her son again.
In the lyrics there are references to drugs and towards the end it is therefore understood that the lady’s son may even have died of it and the woman’s journey may therefore be aimed at recovering his remains.

Click play and listen to

La signora senza anelli

The internalized war of “L’uomo in blu” confirms the guitar’s central role on this album.
The instrumental arrangements perfectly accompany the dramatic story of a man torn apart by internal and external conflict.
A super condensed book of rock, a great intimate song about war.

The connection between musical phrases, descending arpeggios, sharp licks and screaming, but profound, solos, all backed up De Scalzi’s synthetic strings emphasize the interior drama of this man who is narrated by Di Palo’s voice.
This track is a fine work based around the 6 strings of Belloni’s Yahama SG and Di Palo’s Yahama SX.

Click play and listen to

L’uomo in blu

Guitars are once again the main feature in “Stelle nelle tue mani”, a seemingly more upbeat number, arpeggios and vocals by Di Palo plus the New Trolls fantastic choral harmonization while Belloni scores highly with his saturated guitar solos and quick harmonic phrasing.

The hands in the title belong to a beautiful girl who “collects” lovers, clothes and lies with pure nonchalance while her life and her youth speed away.

Obviously, her thoughts pursue her but the temptation to drown her sorrows, and the uncertainty of the future, in nights of madness win over and she continues to escape from herself and find new beds, and new clothes and hide behind her dark glasses until the lies, beauty and lovers (the “stars” of the title) are just a distant memory and reality is all that remains.

Click play and listen to

Stelle nelle tue mani

“Gilda 1929” is a 4-part harmonic choral acapella piece giving voice to the nostalgia of Liberty and the lost age, using a classical-baroque structure. Nico and Ricky Belloni sing metaphysical lyrics that reflect on the meaning of life and how it is necessary to take the motion of creativity risks because remaining static is a denial of existence.

(“Se la tua immortalità
È stare fermo qua
Ferro non lo sai
Che è meglio fondersi nel fuoco
Che non partire mai”)

(“If your immortality
It’s just standing still
Iron don’t you know
It’s better to melt in fire
Than never leave”)

In this part they get the chance to reflect on the Chemical Wedding and the desire to achieve this conjunction as the apex of a life of inner growth.

The evocative atmosphere of the piece ends with nuances of Bach. This time it is De Scalzi’s melancholic and vibrant synthetic violins that are supported by the duo’s harmonic guitars and carry the listener towards the wharf where the protagonist will set off on his journey once again.

Click play and listen to

Gilda 1929

The sound of railroad tracks leads to a fine guitar arpeggio which anticipates the Italian style of the 80’s. “Quella luna dolce” is a tender and intimate ballad with a great fretless bass played by Di Palo.

De Scalzi sings with infinite sweetness while the famous voices of the New Trolls harmonize on the chorus and Belloni takes care of the bridge.

The piece reflects on the journey from child to man and the moon is the mother (or maybe grandmother) who accompanies the first steps, passing through adolescence into maturity, at which point the moon itself becomes the closest companion and will hopefully accompany you for the rest of your life.

Once again metaphysical themes and reflections on existence are transmitted through the metaphor of the train journey.

The closing verses are beautifully played in their simplicity:

(“Quella luna dolce coi suoi occhi stanchi
Mi vedeva già grande
Gliel’avevan detto i suoi capelli bianchi
Che finiva così”).

(“That sweet moon with her tired eyes
She saw me already grown up
Her white hair told her
it would end like this”).

Click play and listen to

Quella luna dolce

Il serpente” is a catchy, intelligent reggae track. The Caribbean genre was also popular with other Italian artists at the time, for example Berté and Fossati.

The protagonist of the song is not afraid to look people in the eye, despite being disillusioned and conscious of taking risks, especially when it comes to love.
He feels the relationship with his partner fading due to apathy and searches for contact with her to try to prevent them breaking up.

The metaphysical metaphor is lighter this time, at least musically.

This track, which was chosen to launch the album, makes much use of the Vocoder and harmony vocals.

Click play and listen to

Il serpente

Once again it is De Scalzi’s voice, this time filtered through the Vocoder, which kicks off “La mia canzone”, a classical nuanced song in the disco-music style which was popular at the time. This is a well-performed sweet love song dedicated to music and the tender fragility of human and artistic inspiration.

The lyrics have reminders of Lucio Battitisti’s wonderful and sad “Io vorrei…..non vorrei…ma se vuoi” and underline how the love of music can be as beautiful and sorrowful as the love for a woman.

Click play and listen to

La mia canzone

The journey ends at the station with “Strano Vagabondo”, sung in falsetto by Belleno and backed up by De Scalzi’s bass vocals with beautiful vocal harmonization provided by the whole band.

The protagonist visualizes the light-headed dreamy side of himself, like a vagabond who lives life with adventurous light-heartedness, a characteristic which he feels the need for and which makes him imagine a trip around the world with the friend he always wished he’d had.

Click play and listen to

Strano vagabondo

FS is an anthem to freedom from a group who was always been sincere, original and concrete in transmitting his message to its audience.

Of course, the New Trolls have adapted to the times, have achieved great sales successes, collected participations at the Sanremo Festival but maybe because they were more interested in reacting to their audience while being averse to political machinations, they failed to get the recognition awarded to other bands.

Each piece of FS condenses and presents numerous quotations from the history of popular or cultured music in a coherent and harmonious way. Nowadays, this thematic work appears to be a kind of witness statement, a recording of the end of an era.

FS represents the last cry of hope, of art, of music. Of humanity.

Life ended in 1980 but none of us realized it

It is not by chance that “America ok” was the New Trolls’ follow-up album.
The desperately ironic title represents the artistic end of The New Trolls.

It is difficult to believe this is the work of the same 4 musicians who gave life to FS. The instruments are purely electronic and the mood is nihilistic, as if the end of the world is being observed with a drink in hand, as though nothing is happening.

It’s a sneaky, but direct attack – if you have the courage to see it – on the xenophilia which became increasingly more obvious with the baby boomer generation, a real viral disease that is bringing about the downfall of the whole Italian musical scene in favour of the, often awful, horrors which come from over the ocean, or over the channel (or from beyond the grave?)

“America Ok” ends with a clamorous rip-off of “Open Arms” by Journey, a sort of direct provocation to America, the nation which commands and devours everything without recognizing the merit to true inspirators.

Instrumental and vocal skills remain intact and there are valuable tracks but the fact is that “America Ok” is so conceptually far from FS that it is difficult to believe that only 2 years separate them. Musically and lyrically they seem to come from two different worlds.

The darkest aspect can be found in the lyrics where we can find phrases such as “On this bitter beach I have become a thing”, “My generation has turned off” and “There is no more time”.

Now that we’ve reached the end of the pro-American line, without the possibility of escaping from the total ruin caused by the great deception, we understand that life really finished in 1980 but none of us realized it.

Click play and listen to the full album

America ok

Tokio City Pop

City Pop – the future that came from Japan

By Historical Figures, Music, UncategorizedNo Comments

The so-called City Pop is not a well-defined genre. Having taken inspiration from various other styles, especially American, it is more considered a contamination than a real musical genre, indeed even the name City Pop has no very specific origin and simply refers to music that projects an "urban" atmosphere and whose target is city dwellers.

Lorenzo

City Pop emerged in the late 70s, reached its peak in the 80s and then declined in the “grunge” era of the 90s, even ending up being mocked by the new Japanese generations, thus falling forgotten until the early 2000s when it underwent a relaunch through music sharing blogs and Japanese reissues of reference albums.

As a result, it has spread internationally and has become the founding basis of musical phenomena based on the copy-paste of samples such as vaporwave and future funk.

The so-called City Pop is not a well-defined genre, having taken inspiration from various other styles, especially American, it is more considered a contamination than a real musical genre.

In reality, even the name City Pop does not have a precise origin and simply refers to music that projects an “urban” atmosphere and whose demographic target is city dwellers.

Tatsuro Yamashita and Eiichi Ohtaki

Its origins are identified both in the Tin Pan Halley band of Haruomi Hosono, which fused R&B, soul and jazz fusion with tropical Hawaiian and typical Okinawan music, and in the album Songs by Sugar Babe, the project with which they debuted in 1975 Tatsuro Yamashita and Taeko Onuki, considered the founders of City Pop, of which Yamashita is considered “the King” and Onuki one of the most important composers.

The producer of the album, Eiichi Ohtaki, was also part of the match, the third founding pillar of the genre and from this we can understand the importance of Songs.

The Sugar Babe album, to which the birth of City Pop is attributed, is a great Westcoast album with enormous reminiscences of Beatles, of Todd Rundgren of Runt and Something/Anything and of Carol King who in fact at the time copied the style from Rundgren.

The album slipped incredibly quietly upon release only to rocket straight to number 3 when it was reissued in ’94.

Click Play and listen to

Sugar

So the origins of City Pop can be identified as an offshoot of Japanese “new music” influenced by American folk but came to include a wide range of styles – including AORsoft rockR&Bfunk, boogie, jazz fusion, tropical, Latin , new wave – which were associated with Japan’s nascent economic boom.

Consequently, the movement was also identified with the new Japanese technologies of the time such as the Walkman, portable stereos with cassette recorders, FM stereo radios with cassette players and various musical instruments such as the Casio CZ-101 and Yamaha CS-80 and the Roland TR-808 drum machine.

Casio CZ-101

In short, City Pop was music made by city people for city people with the aim of acting as a joyful soundtrack for free time and promoting the commercialization of the city’s technological lifestyle and was, to all intents and purposes, the Japanese answer to synth-pop and disco.

However, the trademark of this “good mood factory” are impact melodies (relaxing or energetic), sparkling and smooth sounds, extreme care of the arrangements and production and highly competent musicians, mostly coming from the Japanese jazz and fusion scene with collaborations of mostly American western musicians, as was the case for jazz fusion of the time.

Musically, relatively advanced writing and arranging techniques were applied – such as major and diminished seventh chords – which are drawn directly from the easy jazz and American soft rock of the time such as that of Chicago, Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

Haruomi Hosono

Click Play and listen to

L’album Tropical Dandy di Haruomi Hosono

The popularity of this music reached such levels that it was everywhere, even included in the soundtracks of anime, films, TV shows and later video games, thanks to the influence it had on instrumental jazz fusion bands such as Casiopea and T-Square, which subsequently influenced Japanese video game music themselves, in fact.

City Pop was therefore booming and worked like a perfectly oiled engine until the crisis of 1991 and the arrival of the “grunge” era brought down the market.

Then many young Japanese, who had grown up with this type of music, began to consider City Pop as cheap, mainstream and disposable music, going so far as to call it ‘shit pop’ in preference to the typical Grungian depression of the period.

City Pop ended in a twenty-year hiatus interrupted by the 2010 revival with the reprinting era and later new records by patrons of the movement.

City Pop artists – some examples

We have already talked about the “King” of City Pop, Tatsuro Yamashita, who often worked in pairs both with his wife Mariya Takeuchi, another ace of this music, and with former Sugar Babe colleague Taeko Onuki.

Yamashita, a perfectionist who has never stopped producing his own music and producing other artists, among the many songs sees his workhorse in the famous Ride on Time, a reference point for City Pop compilations, which in 1980 brought him to the number 3 in the charts definitively launching him as the main star of the movement.

Mariya Takeuchi and Tatsuro Yamashita

Click Play and listen to

Ride On Time

Mariya Takeuchi has written songs for practically everyone, as an interpreter she has always been produced by her husband Yamashita and in 1984 she launched the famous Plastic Love.

Considered the principal song of the genre, it is an authentic display of writing and arranging class that saw a second life with the 2017 remix and the related mini-film that was quickly spread by the YouTube algorithm, immediately returning to the fore on international circuits.

Takeuchi says of her song: «I wanted to make a song that was at the same time rock, folk, country, but also danceable, something with a typical City Pop sound.

The lyrics tell the sentimental situation of a woman who has lost the love of the only man who is truly important to her. It doesn’t matter how many other men are trying to seduce her; she is unable to stop the feeling of bitterness and loneliness that this loss has left her and she feels every flirtation as a sad fiction».

The incredible power of sadness mixed with an apparently happy musical base… but nothing is really happy here, It’s the japanese way and it’s mesmerizingly perfect 💙

Actress Sawa Nimura in the Plastic Love 2017 video

Click Play and listen to

Plastic Love 2017

Minako Yoshida is not well known but she sees her strength in being the main co-author of Yamashita, who put his typical touch of a precise and ingenious producer in the arrangement of Town, a pulsating and rich funk wall both in the instrumental part and in the in vocal power and choruses, all supported by screaming saxes, piercing guitar interventions and sirens in a sort of powerful Japanese answer to Chaka Khan.

Click Play and listen to

Town

Noriko Miyamoto, owner of a splendid jazz voice with a soft and powerful timbre, made her debut in 1978 with the album Push, written and played by the great double bass player Isao Suzuki from whom we point out the gem My Life with lyrics by Kazumi Yasui, a fascinating lyricist and poet, already author in 1971 of the album of poetry set to music Zuzu.

My Life, which we find at the end of the album, is a soft and nocturnal jazz funk track full of wonderful blackish vocalisms and double bass, guitar and electric piano improvisations. An instant classic, effervescent companion to romantic moonlight toasts.

Click Play and listen to

My Life

Masayoshi Takanaka after founding the crazy Sadistic Mika Band chose a fruitful solo career becoming famous as a band leader guitarist, almost a sort of Japanese answer to Santana with whom he also shares the use of the Yamaha SG 2000 and very similar sounds despite being his music much more oriented towards pop, Brazilian flavors and crazy experimentation with extensive use of synthesizers and choirs.

He is perhaps better known and appreciated for his intense live performances than for the great fusion records he produced in the late 70s and mid 80s.

But remaining in the City Pop area, let’s take this splendid live version of Nagisa Moderato as an example.

Click Play and listen to

Nagisa Moderato

Char is another top Japanese guitarist.
Beloved like a national hero by his own people and peers, he is indeed a guitarist of immense impact and charisma who, despite having his only major commercial success on his 1976 debut album, is still sold out in arenas.

Smoky is a great song of fast-paced funk with nice saturated guitar shots.

Click Play and listen to

Smoky

Smoky live (1978)

CASIOPEA, the legendary jazz fusion band led by guitarist Issei Noro and which has always had a strong connection with both the City Pop movement and Yamaha instruments, in 1980 published the classic Make Up City from which the energetic Twinkle Wing is taken, one of the most beautiful examples of an instrumental leaning on City Pop and from which music for anime and videogames will derive.

Click Play and listen to

Twinkle Wing

Midnight Rendezvous

Miki Matsubara in 1980 gave a great example of the transition period between soft funk disco and futuristic 80s City Pop with another great classic, Stay With Me, her biggest success of an unfortunately short career having passed away while still young.

Click Play and listen to

Stay With Me

Makoto Matsushita, incredibly semi-unknown, is a great skilled guitarist and a very good composer of music and songs with a personal intimate style.

While he has worked a lot as a session musician and collaborator in various projects, his unfortunately few solo albums are of notable class and beauty but very little known to the Japanese themselves, two of which contain songs perfectly attributable to City Pop, resulting perhaps the only concept albums in this musical movement.

The two albums, however very different from the typical City Pop songs despite being so in all aspects, are First Light and The Pressures and The Pleasures (a sort of intimate concept about the city and the stressful and solitary life of the managers) from which we point out This Is All I Have for You and Carnival: The Dawn.

Click Play and listen to

This Is All I Have for You

Carnaval: The Dawn

Mai Yamane, gifted with a splendid soul voice, made her debut in 1980 with Tasogare, a great album produced, arranged and played by Makoto Matsushita

Having become an established singer over time, Yamane transformed into into a cult musician at the end of the 90s thanks to her participation in the soundtrack of the famous anime Cowboy Bebop, of which she also performed the splendid closing song The Real Folk Blues.


	

Click Play and listen to

Tasogare

The Real Folk Blues

Akira Inoue, mentor of other well-known artists in the City Pop scene, in 1983 gives us a perfect example of how the New Wave can enter the City Pop with the great class and emotional movement of his Samayoeru Holland-jin no you ni.

Click Play and listen to

Samayoeru Holland-jin no you ni

Eiko Miyagawa aka Epo. A multifaceted and fascinating personality, Epo is a sort of muse who is herself a creator.

Protected by the couple Yamashita/Takeuchi and became a cult name in the pop scene of her country, she is a musician, composer and therapist.
Musically she has ranged between city pop, new wave, authorial and the weirdest J-pop.

Her song Escape is sparkling like a piece by Hall & Oates sung in the style of Corinne Drewery of Swing Out Sister which here, however, she seems to have anticipated by a few years.

Click Play and listen to

Escape

Motoharu Sano is one of the reference figures of Japanese rock music and an eclectic musician for whom City Pop represented only a passing moment and his 1984 song Tonight, which fully reflects him, seems like an amusing mix between the music for an anime and a Billy Joel song.

Click Play and listen to

Tonight

Yasuhiro Abe made his debut in 1983 with this entertaining We Got It, which sounds like a beatlesian AOR-style song from Utopia‘s 80-82 period, as if it were a song from Deface the music or Swing to the right or Utopia sung in Japanese.

Click Play and listen to

We Got It

Click and access City Pop Gems, the new Classic2Vintage YouTube channel dedicated to iconic City Pop songs both rare and famous.

Ibanez 2617 Inlay

Ibanez Artist 2617 (1975)

By Japan Vintage Guitars, UncategorizedNo Comments

A splendid example of Japanese art and an instrument to be proud of, the Ibanez Artist 2617 seduces with sinuous lines, rich inlays and the honey color of its ash.

Lorenzo

The Japanese were now tearing apart Norlin and CBS thanks to the excellent quality of their copies at competitive prices and in the mid-70s Hoshino Gakki, owner of the Ibanez brand, decided that the time had come to stop producing only clones of famous instruments.

The new lines of instruments, on the other hand, were clearly distinguishable and oriented towards a clientele that appreciated high-end instruments of handcrafted production, built with luxurious mother-of-pearl inlays and selected woods of the highest quality.

In the second half of the decade, therefore, the production of original lines such as Artist, Iceman, Musician and the most coveted Artwood Professional began at the FujiGen factory in Matsumoto.

Initially all these models were identified by a serial number and the splendid Artwood Artist was called 2617.

The guitar showed here today is one of the very first, it dates back to 1975 and is owned by our friend Rich Fiori.

The Japanese had well understood the importance of having important testimonials and in fact the first truly famous original Japanese guitar was the very powerful Yamaha SG2000 (it was even called the “Les Paul Killer”) and achieved enormous success thanks to rock fusion guitarists such as Masayoshi Takanaka and Issei Noro of Casiopea in Japan and none other than Carlos Santana for the rest of the world.

Later it also became a reference guitar for a whole generation of English new wave musicians such as the brilliant and much-loved John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Public Image Ltd.) and Andy Taylor (Duran Duran).

And if the forerunner was the legendary Yamaha guitar, probably the second in importance was the Ibanez Artist 2617.

Yamaha SG 2000

Apparently, the SG2000 and the 2617 are very similar, both logical descendants of the Gibson Les Paul Special double cut, that double-cutaway solid-body version of the Les Paul that was “modernized” in 1960 in the SG series.

Further evolutions of the shapes will then lead to the creation of the Ibanez Artist Professional 2680 Bob Weir, even more similar to the SG2000, and to the model created exclusively for Weir in 1976 and reproduced in 2016 by Sugi for Ibanez with the name BWM1 “Cowboy Fancy”, a meeting point between the Gibson ES345 and the Artist 2617 in fact.

Ibanez 2680 Bob Weir

Ibanez BWM1

The two cutaways of the Ibanez 2617 are deep and wide and with slimmer horns than the Yamaha, offering easier access to the very last frets.

The body is solid ash in a clear finish, which adds a gorgeous honey tone to the natural color of the wood.

The carved top is particularly embossed along the edges thanks to the typical German carving style and is further embellished thanks to a sumptuous 7-ply binding with an abalone center stripe.

The 2617’s 22-fret neck is three-piece Canadian maple (plus two for the headstock edges) and glued to the body with an extremely well-carved joint.

The neck adjustment takes place via a standard-type truss rod whose nut is located under the usual plastic plate above the nut and which can be adjusted with a small hex key.

The fingerboard, made in rosewood (future productions will have it in ebony) with binding, has blocks in mother-of-pearl and abalone and a bone nut which in the following models will become half bone and half brass to increase the sustain.

The base of the headstock is reinforced by the volute, the importance of which, after the very high number of broken headstocks, was also beginning to be understood by Gibson.

The tuning keys are the typical adjustable Ibanez branded Smooth Tuner (later the VelveTune were adopted), gold plated like all the hardware.

The instruments that mounted this type of tuners were equipped with a tiny special key to be able to act on the ring nut at the base and adjust the tension.

In addition to the Ibanez logo, the front of the headstock has a decorative inlay made in mother-of-pearl and the Artist name shown on the trussrod cover.

The bridge and tailpiece are the typical Gibson-inspired tune-o-matic style and will later be replaced with the classic Gibraltar installed on high-end Ibanez with the cloud-shaped fast stoptail.

The original pickups mounted in the Ibanez 2617 were the classic Maxon Super 70 (later versions used Super 80 with Flying Finger printed covers) with passive volume and tone controls for each pickup and a switch located on the upper horn but the previous owner of this one replaced them with a pair of coil tapping humbuckers and installed two mini switches on the top.

Rich decided to replace them with a pair of Lindy Fralin PAFs instead and removed the two mini switches.

Further evolutions of the Ibanez 2617 Artist were the 2619 Artist (mahogany body and maple top) and the 2670 Artwood Twin (a 6 and 12 strings double neck guitar).

The 2617 went out of production in 1980, replaced by the AR250.

Ibanez 2670 Artwood Twin, limited reissue from the early 2000s.

...BUT HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Click the button and watch the exclusive videos of this Ibanez 2617 Artist!

Specifications

Brand Ibanez
Instrument type Solid body electric guitar
Series Artist
Model 2617
Year of manufacture 1975
Neck type Set neck
Neck material Rock Maple – 3 pieces
Tuners Ibanez Smooth Tuners
Nut Bone
Fretboard material Rosewood
Number of frets 22
Body material Solid carved Ash with Ash top
Finish Blonde
Pickups Maxon Super 70
Bridge type Tune’O’Matic
Hardware color Gold
Customizations Pickup replaced with Lindy Fralin PAFs
Micro Synthesizer

Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer: Mr. Growly!

By Historical Figures, Uncategorized, Vintage PedalsNo Comments

 

Imagine having, in a single pedal, a versatile fuzz, an autowah, a filter, and a reverse effect, all analog and housed in a sheet metal case, 20 x 15 x 5 cm.
This is Electro-Harmonix's legendary Microsynthesizer, which allows you to mimic the fat tones of vintage synthesizers like Moog, Oberheim and ARP by connecting a guitar, bass or any other instrument.

Daniele Pieraccini

Imagine having, in a single pedal, a versatile fuzz, an autowah, a filter, and a reverse effect, all analog and housed in a sheet metal case, 20 x 15 x 5 cm.
This is Electro-Harmonix’s legendary Microsynthesizer, which allows you to mimic the fat tones of vintage synthesizers like Moog, Oberheim and ARP by connecting a guitar, bass or any other instrument.

Like many other Electro Harmonix pedals (see Small Stone and Electric Mistress), the Micro Synthesizer was developed by David Cockerell, an electronic engineer and designer previously involved in the world of synthesizers (his is the Synthi VCS3, among others) and a few years after a sampler designer at Akai, before returning to Mike Matthews‘ New York company.

The Versions

V1

The first version of the Micro Synthesizer comes out in 1979.
This model does not have an on / off switch on the back and the foot pedal activation switch is located on the left side. Unlike later versions, there is no LED and the square wave is labeled as distortion.
Electro Harmonix presents it with two printed circuits one on top of the other (like the V2 and the V3). One for the core circuit and another which contains the sliders and connects the controls to the motherboard.

V2

The second version came out in the 80s, first with an on / off switch on the back and an LED. The footswitch has moved to the right but, like the original Micro Synthesizer, the V2 has a power supply built into the chassis.

V3

In the following decade, EHX introduces the third version of the pedal, using the same components as the previous ones. In the meantime, however, Panasonic stops the production of the analog chips used, which forces Mike Matthews to buy all the remaining stock of the aforementioned components for this reissue and then suspend production once the stock is exhausted.
Version 3 is the first with a separate 24v power supply.
This is the version of the pedal I used.
In the same period, the first version of the pedal for bass was also launched. I must add that, despite being mainly a bass player, I have never tried it and never felt the need, satisfied with the normal version in my possession.

V4 XO Micro Synth

Another decade and here we are at the version still on the market.
This is a drastic overhaul project, presented in a smaller metal box than the originals and with a 9v connection, features that make this edition more suitable for pedalboards.
However, the build quality of EHX products has dropped considerably in the last twenty years, with a tendency to economize and with questionable design characteristics.
The circuit is assembled with surface mount technology (SMD).

La V3 reviewed

I Suoni

 

Some differences emerge from the comparison between the various versions. Based on personal experience and the testimonies collected online we can say that:

The first two versions have a fantastic, very warm and powerful square wave sound.

The sub-octave is instead weak, tracking and bypass by today’s standards are partially satisfactory.

Version 3 has a less heavy distortion but offers a more present and enveloping sub-octave. Tracking and bypassing have definitely improved.

The most recent version, Micro Synth XO, has the most powerful sub of the others and the advantages mentioned above related to the housing in the pedal board and the practicality of the 9v power supply, but has a decidedly weak distortion (square wave) and perhaps no longer definable as fuzz. Furthermore, some people complain of a lack of sustain unknown to vintage models. The lower voltage certainly affects the fullness of the sound.

Controls

A trimmer on the back of the pedal allows you to set the sensitivity of the unit for single coil or humbucker pickups, while all the important controls are located on the front, in the form of sliders.
These are divided into two groups, voice mix and filter sweep, as well as a couple of sliders to adjust the attack of the note and the level of the signal that activates the effect (trigger).
In short, the voice section is made up of a sub-octave; a “clean” signal, actually very dry and colored by the pedal preamp; an Octavia-style octave by Roger Mayer and a very vintage fuzz square wave. These four controls can be mixed in parallel at will, even if only the clean signal tolerates the playing of chords without degenerating into somewhat irregular distortions.
The attack decay control allows you to intervene by automatically increasing the volume and generating effects of strings and sounds reproduced in reverse from some tape in a sixties studio.
The filter section has four other controls: resonance, starting frequency, stop frequency and rate, which adjusts the speed of passage between the previous two.

With this pedal it’s possible to obtain a very wide range of sounds, from moog to fretless bass, from upside-down solos to more intense fuzzes, from “vocal” filters to other oddities that are difficult to reproduce by other means. The timbres obtained can find a place in vintage musical genres such as in rock, electronic, techno or hip-hop contexts.

The Flaws

  • The analog circuit excludes the possibility of having presets (I found a remedy for this by preparing templates to store favorite sounds, as was done with vintage synths, in fact).
  • Single notes are definitely to be preferred if you want to avoid sudden “squeals” or disappearances of the sound.
  • Depending on the settings used, the tracking may not always be reliable: for this and for other reasons the technique and the touch are fundamental and must be adjusted according to the sound used.
  • The background noise and the quality of the bypass are two other negative points cited by many. With the model in my possession, I never felt much the first one, regarding the bypass the quality is not optimal and I preferred to insert the pedal in an effects loop. This solution also offers other advantages, for example that of mixing the clean signal with that processed by the Micro Synth.

Il Micro Synthesizer

 

A weird wild thing but with warm, credible and convincing sounds that, combined with its enormous versatility, make the game really worth the candle.
Ask for info at Beck, Korn, Strokes, Van Halen, Muse, Sonic Youth, Parliament / Funkadelic, Red Hot Chili Peppers, just to name a few of the admirers of this jewel.

The audio tracks of the demonstration video were performed with:

Guitar – Eko 100
Bass – Westone Spectrum
Electro Harmonix Micro Synthesizer V3
Mixcraft amp, reverb and delay simulation

Demo of the Micro Synthesizer sound

WATCH and LISTEN to the video of the demo song created by Classic2vintage with the sounds of the Micro Synthesizer V3