Watch Your Step / New Rubble Vol. 3
Utopia Daydream / New Rubble Vol. 4
However we might’ve missed the old Rubble series, the new ones keep comin’ so fast that they almost leave you no time to wish for another volume.
Also, in spite of some tracks that you already might’ve known for a long time, just the idea of diggin’ through a new volume every now and then, makes it worth enough, and of course, there’s always at least a tune or two that will make the experience a special one. Anyway, after the first two “new” ones, exploring the mid’60s British “cleanbeat”, and the 7 inch-sized progressive psychedelia, here we go with the third one, dedicated to “primal British beat”.
Even though it’s not really “primal” most of the time, and there may be a bit too much in the “usual covers” section, there’s still quite a few of those that will make it worth getting back to more than occasionally, like THE BLUE CHIPS’ fuzzy blue-eyed soul Spencer Davis Group impersonation Some Kind Of Lovin’, Abrahams and Bunker’s pre-Jethro Tull combo, THE TOGGERY FIVE’s Mersey ballad, recalling the ‘Blue Jean’s You’re No Good.
Then there’s the Meeky r’n’beat number Please Mr. Postman by BOBBY JAMESON, as well as the cool r’n’b pair of THE BOSTON CRABS’ Zombiefied As Long As I Have You and PETER LONDON’s Lindsay Muir-like jazzy vibe of Baby, I Like The Look Of You.
A couple of tracks that come the closest to the “primal British beat” definition, are Pete Dello’s surprisingly crude mod-stompin’ pre-Honeybus ride Make Up, Or Break Up, as delivered by MICHAEL LESLIE, the equally upbeat Tossin’ And Turnin’ by DANNY KING, backed by the formerly MOVE-ing line up of his Mayfair Set, as well as TONY COLTON’s fuzzy Loce My Mind, from his pre-Heads Hands & Feet daze.
As for Volume 4’s “collection of (mostly British with the exception of one Belgian) lost Pop gems from the ‘60s”, it might as well be the grooviest bunch of the new series. Of course, its “pop” is approached from the most varied of standpoints, except for the “pop-ular” one, even though almost every single one of the entries deserves to be one.
The ones that could’ve easily fit the That Driving Beat series, are the fuzzy opener She’s My Girl by THE ENDEVERS, the blueyed stomp of How Does It Feel by THE PERISHERS, and THE REBELS’ Day-Trippin’-riff-laden piece of troglodyte pop of Call Me, coming (unsurprisingly) from the Page One label.
Of course, there’s loads of “brainy” eclectic popsike sounds, such as the Left Banke-ish baroque-pop of THE DODOS’ I Made Up My Mind, JON’s jazzy “odessey” Polly Sunday and the equally Zombiefied mood of DEUCE COUP’s ballad Angela.
Some other stuff worth mentioning must be THE GUARDS’ bubbly harmonizer Let Me Go Home, the kind of an easy-listening, almost toon-town-ish Britsike of TOBY TWIRL’s title tune, the laungey Bacharachian arrangement of ROGER BLOOM’S HAMMER’s 15, Temperature Rise, the upbeat pop of THE FRESH WINDOWS’ only single’s sunny side Summer Sun Shines (backed by the longtime fave Fashion Conscious), and there’s also DAVEY SANDS & THE ESSEX’s Advertizing Girl, sounding not unlike She’s About A Mover from the British standpoint.
With this fourth volume, the New Rubble series seems to be on its way towards the initial Rubble conception.
[Released by Past & Present 2005]
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