The Attack – About Time!

– The Definitive Mod-Pop Collection 1967-1968 –

About time indeed! Even though many of you probably have at least some of the already available more-or-less official “attacks” at the matter, as appropriately described in the subtitle, this is the definite and the best sounding one! … at least until the cardboard box with the remainder of unreleased 1967 sessions tapes pops up somewhere.

Like any decent bunch of dandies, they started out with soulful r’n’b sets, adding some of the pop-artish mod swagger and quirky little popsike creations by the time of their first releases, as well as some rather inappropriate “commercial” stuff, in an attempt to enter the charts.

The actual “entrance” had never happened, but most of their singles and at-the-time-unreleased 1968 recordings lead to the band today being regarded as one of those who “summed up the instant flash of mod-pop appeal”, and it was “about time” to gather all of the evidence into a package that lives up to the band’s legacy.

As for the songs themselves, for those shamefully NOT in the know, here’s what’s on offer here: The debut single’s made of a genuinely Brit-sounding freakbeat-ish take on The Standells’ Try It, backed by the blue-eyed soul on speed (probably literally)-sounding We Don’t Know, followed by the pair of “commercial” flops, with Hi Ho Silver Lining being an audio epitome of the Swinging London captured in less than 3 minutes.

While it’s the b-sides, Any More Than I Do, a stomping garage nugget, worthy of any of the genre-defining classics, and Colour Of My Mind, both finding the band getting kinda more “colourful”, in accordance with the kaleidoscopic surrounding at the time.

By the time of the last single, on order were the quirky little tales about characters such as Neville Tumbcatch and Lady Orange Peel in the best of British tradition, while their 1968 recording sessions find them MOVE-ing towards a bit heavier delivery, courtesy of the fuzzed-out guitar “attack” and songs by John Du Cann, launching pure freakbeat “magic into the air” (Feel Like Flying, Go Your Way, Too Old, Strange House, Mr. Pindommy’s Dilemma, Freedom For You, Magic In The Air).

As a special bonus, there’s also a pair of BBC recordings, as well as a pair of frontman Richard Shirman’s solo (though Attack-backed) 1969 demos.

[Released by RPM 2006]