Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 150

Record label: Capitol

Produced: Steve Duboff

Recorded: 1968

Released: 1968

Chart Peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Bill Barth (g, Swiss warbler, pc); Bob Palmer (as, alto & soprano recorders, clarinet, pc); Trevor Koehler (bs, piccolo, sewer drum, thumb piano, upright bass, ar); Nancy Jeffries (v, pc); Luke Faust (banjo, banjo guitar, v, pc); Buddy Saltzman (d); Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie (d); Hugh McCracken (g); Joe Mack (b); Chuck Rainey (b); Steve Duboff (conga drums, pc)

Track listing: The Skin Game; Miss Fun City; World War I Song; Special Rider Blues; Foggy River Bridge Fly; Been Here And Gone So Soon; Declaration Of Independence; Walking On Nails; Brighter Than Day; Mountain Song; Going Home

Current CD: Currently unavailable

Further listening: Hoboken Saturday Night (1970)

Further reading: www.furious.com/perfect/insecttrust.html

Download: Not currently legally available

Even by the standards of an era that constantly broke down musical boundaries, The Insect Trust were quite extraordinarily unusual, being described in Rolling Stone at the time as ‘absolutely original and unique’. Combining elements of rock, jazz, bluegrass, soul, Dixieland, folk, raga, blues and – well, practically every genre of music there is – they made two visionary, under-appreciated albums that still sound truly unlike anything else.

Every member of the band had a varied and scholarly musical background. Forming in New York in the mid 1960s, after spending time soaking up influences in Memphis they decamped to Hoboken, New Jersey and moved into a large tenement together. After landing an unexpected $25,000 advance from Capitol Records through contacts, they set about synthesising their extraordinary range of experience into an album. This classic debut, recorded in 1968, shows up one major difference between them and almost all other major US bands of the time. While the majority were in thrall to Eastern sounds, The Insect Trust sound resolutely homegrown. Banjos, clarinets and saxophones were of far greater interest to them than sitars or tablas. Their obviously deep love of traditional American music shines through in the beautiful bottleneck guitar on Going Home and the fiddle and banjo exchanges on Foggy River Bridge Fly. But that is not to say for a moment that they sound old-fashioned: whilst rooted in their country’s musical heritage, The Insect Trust sounded contemporary.

Take the opening track, The Skin Game, for example. Starting with a mellow acoustic guitar and Nancy Jeffries’s delightful voice, it unexpectedly veers off into squalling guitar and avant-garde saxophone, anchored only by echoing cowbell – and then, as abruptly as this interlude has begun, it ends. The acoustic guitar fades back up, Jeffries resumes her glorious singing, and the listeners are left to ponder whether or not they actually heard what they just heard.

Tuneful, intelligent and highly musical, The Insect Trust truly forged something new out of the past – and what makes the success of their experiment particularly extraordinary is that they had no permanent rhythm guitarist, bassist or drummer, employing instead a variety of session players. In fact, that was one of the major factors in their split. Despite universal critical acclaim, when few bought their records it became increasingly hard to support the cost of a hired rhythm section capable of keeping up with them, especially for their sporadic concerts. Coupled with certain members’ overly enthusiastic drug use, they finally called it a day in 1971, leaving behind them two of the most beguilingly strange and original rock albums ever recorded – a claim that few of their far more successful contemporaries can make.