Sunday 18 April 2021

Back to the old Franklin Street Arterial in LP with a limited time only for the lossless lovers





Remember this one? Still magnificent, still stunning, now a few hundred dollars more to own...

Nevertheless I broke down and bought the record when it came up for sale at a not-astronomical price.
It never ceases to amaze me that people made this kind of beautiful, well-composed, professionally-played music but couldn't get it released by a record company and had to privately press it, never getting the recognition they were due.  And it never ceases to amaze there's so much such musical material from this very prolific and fecundly artistic time still remaining to be discovered.

The earlier post is back here, recall the artists posted the mp3s for download online.  It really, after all this time, for me serves as a point of reference for how perfectly enjoyable progressive fusion can be when it hits all the right notes.  In that respect it's a bit like my other points of comparison, Don Mock's first album, or James Vincent's stuff.  I love the smoothness and the variety of their musical compositions and the way they're not afraid to change directions, mid-track.  To put it another way, there is not a hint of any kind of musical cliche in here, the fuzak style for ex., or the silly conventional samba or latin rhythms, the hispanic chord progressions, none of those cliches appear.  I guess the other thing about this I love is that it's so consistently good from beginning to end.


From the database you can see that most of the songwriting is from keys player Michael McInnis and guitarist Carlos Cuellar with contributions from bassist Glendon and drummer David Bowler. Sax player Ed Agopian is the only one with no such credits.

The last track, Headlight Child (solely by McInnis) always takes me to paradise starting with that bell-ringing opening on:



I really love the guitar solo (two guitars actually), complete with perfectly played harmonics like my old favourite, virtuoso Canadian Lenny Breau, that Cuellar came up with called Stolen Moments (stealing the title from that well known jazz standard?):



I enjoy so much listening to his ideas carefully and clearly, moving from one chord to another, as if he had improvised this out from the first diatonic A major seven chord and then played it over and over, developing the gentleness and themes fully over time, savouring every idea.

Btw the full album was indeed posted online before, the 'missing track' called In Search of was attached to Seeker without breaking the two apart, as I suspected before.  On the other hand I didn't mind breaking them apart, as I usually do, or rather don't mind to do.

For those curious, recall the great band name refers to a street in Portland, Maine.

I think you'll all agree my (brand) new fresh rip really, really brings the sounds out in the most wonderful way.  For these great records, you truly need to hear with that crystal-clear sound. Surprising that this hasn't been released on CD yet too.


8 comments:

  1. lossless lovers limited time only:

    https://we.tl/t-tUfka9pEMA

    mp3, no limit hopefully:

    https://www53.zippyshare.com/v/4RbOVgCR/file.html

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/g64vep

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  2. Hi Julian!
    Many thanx for that, I really love that album. I assume that one reason contributing to the lack of any success for that band is that they should have invested a little bit into the cover design - it is really very unimpressive. Obviously Roger Dean was not available :-)
    In cases when I really like the music - like this one - I try to edit out all the pops and crackling noises (using audacity). If you are interested, I can send you the "refurbished" version.

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  3. Hey, I am glad you are enjoying the album we made. One correction, the band name comes from a street in Portland, Maine. I would love to get a digital copy of this, but the links have expired. Best, Michael McInnis member of the band.

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  4. Wow! Thanks for reading, and thanks a million times over for the wonderful music!
    Here's a new link, hopefully you can catch it in time:
    https://we.tl/t-7jIn4w3fHH

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    Replies
    1. sweet thanks really realy enjoying this bass driven with sax,clarinet,keys on top, heh its good stuff.

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  5. Got it thanks! The reason a CD never was released is because the master tapes were lost/destroyed by the vinyl manufacturer. The multitrack tapes have survived, but the sound recordings are not owned by the band.

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    Replies
    1. oh, wow that's interesting, and also somewhat tragic

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