Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Brooklyn-born Dennis Harte might only have been eleven when he picked up a Sears Silvertone, but the music on this anthologyirecorded between 1973 and 1974iis anything but juvenile. Collected here for the first time on a single release, these four singles originally appeared under shifting monikers (Dennis Harte, Harte Attack, Harte Brothers and Pure Madness), a strategy cooked up by mentor Carl Edelson to maximise industry exposure. The sound veers between garage soul, basement psych, and scrappy blue-eyed r&bian adolescent echo of The Rascals, The Youngbloods or early Spoonful. 'Summer's Over', written by Edelson, is the emotional peak: a world-weary soul lament, rendered uncanny by Harte's teenaged delivery. 'Running Thru My Mind' plays it cooler but still flickers with melodic instinct and wiry guitar interplay. 'Freedom Rides' charges out with organ-stabbed garage grit, a protest anthem wrapped in biker-jacket energy. 'Treat Me Like a Man' flips a Beatles-influenced B-side by Long Island group The Shandels into something looser and more ragged. Harte would go on to tour with Wilson Pickett, but these early 7"sinever before compiledishowcase a raw, regional talent teetering on the edge of real experience. Efficient Space lands another killer excavation from North America's fringe.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


The 1998 debut record from Michael Head & The Strands was six years in the making. Having taken up refuge in a Liverpool recording studio in 1992, Head had set his Pale Fountains and Shack days aside, and was now dead-set on a new project, The Strands. Iain Templeton, Michelle Brown and Les Roberts joined in, resulting in a two-year set of recording sessions in which Head would be offered a new major label deal, muddying the proceedings at the midpoint. The record therefore only made it to the mixing studio in 1995, but perhaps the long break was needed, as the result is redolent: its pearly guitar arpeggiations and patchwork verse make for a glistening listen, one that all too readily translates to this reissue via Megaphone.