David Axelrod was a prolific producer/arranger in the 60’s and 70’s. Any of you breakbeat diggers out there definitely know who he is. And you’ve all heard his trademark heavily mic’ed drums before; he’s been sampled to death. Working for Capitol records with Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderly, he consistently produced hit after hit for both of them.
Release of An Oath (1968) was Axelrod’s second album with the Electric Prunes (although none of the original members of the Electric Prunes were actually on this record). And its a strange one: a mostly instrumental “spiritual” concept album that is dark, sparse, moody and complex. But man does it fucking rock. Dramatic strings and haunting woodwinds, organs and hard-hitting drums with tripped-out guitar solos. Classical, rock, jazz, soul, R&B all wrapped up in one meticulously arranged group of songs. It defies categorization, and that’s always sign of artistic genius. Holy Are You . . .
Posted on April 11, 2008 at 10:18 AM | Comment (1 comments)
