Wednesday 25 September 2019

Back to Nothin' Sirius with the 'tax scam album' Atomic Cafe




Well, pretty cool cover and verso art  Downing a beer in the middle of the deep space intergalactic for a round of poker couldn't be bad.

These fusioneer pranksters were featured earlier here, a follow-up with more improvisation and much looser is described as a Baby Grand label tax scam album.  I went over that business here, and here & still find it odd.  Perhaps instead we should ask POTUS about it.  He can probably clarify the whole mystery for us? In a few lawsuits from now that is.  Anyways, the discogs page for the label provides a wonderfully concise summary of the scam, which apparently was very short-lived, not surprisingly:

Baby Grand Records was in full swing releasing scores of eclectic recordings, all designed primarily for one purpose…not to turn a profit! The premise behind the label headed by Ron Fair, an ambitious 20 something pianist, composer/arranger and most of all aspiring record executive who would later go on to become the President of A&M Records and Geffen Records Records...had at its foundation a curious loophole in the U.S. tax laws that allowed wealthy investors to realise a tax credit far in excess of their investment. It was really quite simple; an investor would put up a few thousand dollars to cover the production and manufacturing costs. The album would have a minimal number of pressings issued and an accountant would value the recording at 10’s of thousands of dollars above the costs based on what the investor would have realised, had the record been a commercial success. In this manner, someone could invest say $5,000 and receive a tax credit of anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 as a loss on what he “expected” to generate from his initial investment. In the 1970’s the economy in the States was slamming and there was no shortage of investors in search of tax credits. It is considered that some of the investors actually fancied the notion that this was their entrée into the music business, and others perhaps just liked the idea of supporting the arts.

What is most surprising is that some of these tax scam records were so good (e.g. Ilian).  This one, though, is mostly average.  The fusion is competent but a little led astray by the excess extempore and meandering ideas, with a general lack of good concepts underpinning the music.  In overall texture and sound I think it's most like the Natural Life LPs, but as I said, the actual compositions are missing in action here and there and Rambo hasn't shot his way through to release 'em yet.

The title track gets the ball rolling to break the ice and mix the metaphors:





The punning Nothin' Atoll, presumably referencing the Bikini Atoll (given the overall atomic theme):





A nice addition to our collection I think.  The back credits claim the album was produced by keyboardist Marcus Duke and guitarist Lindsay Gillis along with Bill Dashiell.  Seems awfully sad that all their hard work just went to give a few grand to an idiot investor led by a guy who went on to such (sexual) success later.

A blurb by Lindsay states the following:

"It's like, in the midst of the many vessels exploring the coastline of the mother country, a few set out to link the old world with the new, discover Americas, walk on moons... big deal.  It may not be valid to the mass daytime serial, but at certain times, when no one is listening, who else is there to play to but the moon and the stars." 

Well maybe it's fitting if the moon and the stars are the crooked investors.



2 comments:


  1. https://www82.zippyshare.com/v/3wz1R0tj/file.html

    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/kvjpk6



    upload of vincent le masne et bertrand porquet - guitares derive by request
    https://www110.zippyshare.com/v/V1JACqSp/file.html

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  2. Nice find, one I'd be interested in hearing from that label is Cigar Band which apparently has some interesting reworkings of Gershwin tunes on side one.

    The other two highlights on that label are Summit and Departures which in classic tax scam fashion took unused material from a band called Bobbidazzler (Formerly Ivory) and repackaged it as the work of a new band.

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