Day 27: Freakbeat

The Action
Rolled Gold

Fancy Nuggets and Pebbles? Think the 13th Floor Elevators are "bloody" brilliant? If so, you might be more than just British. You might be a freakbeat fan in the making.

Freakbeat refers to the sound of obscure, collectible, British Invasion records in the blues rock and garage rock idioms. Depending upon the collector you're talking to, a particular artist might or might not be far enough below the radar to qualify for the designation, but perhaps the best-known act whose freakbeat credentials are virtually beyond reproach is the Creation. Known for the scorching "Making Time" which kicked off the second Nuggets box set, appeared in the movie Rushmore, and most recently, provided the soundtrack for a football scrimmage in a Nike commercial, the band never achieved the mainstream success in its day that British Invasion historians today believe it deserved. Other freakbeat cause celebs include the London-based Smoke (not to be confused with the American group of the same name whose self-titled record from 1968 is a west-coast psych-pop rarity), and the Birds, whose spelling ability should prevent any confusion with the American folk-rock group.

For my money, the best band worthy of the freakbeat designation is the Action, a group signed to the Beatles' EMI label in 1965 by the same man who signed the fab four: George Martin. Originating as a mod group covering such soul sides as "Land of 1000 Dances," the Action evolved into a sophisticated British rock band on the cusp of psychedelia. By late 1966, the Action sounded a lot like the Small Faces: literate, stately, melodic, and rocking--with psych flourishes thrown in for good measure. Indeed, Rolled Gold--a collection of fully-formed demos from the band's peak that reconstructs what it's debut album might have sounded like had the original tapes not been scrapped by EMI for being too arty--is as close a rival to Ogden's Nut Gone Flake as one is likely find. For starters, "Something to Say" is flat out incredible, with its emphatic refrain and its simple yet triumphant echoed guitar line. Elsewhere, the psych-tinged "Brain" is as soulful as most of the American R&B repertory covered by the Action's mod contemporaries. The list goes on: the Kinksian opener "Come Around" is built on a chord progression--eerily similar to the line that begins "Waterloo Sunset"--with the grandeur of inevitably and "Love is All" somehow makes a flute sound perfectly natural on top of bass-heavy, garage rock. In short, Rolled Gold is an absurdly good album. You can call it a lost classic, but I think it's too good for such a rock-crit fallback.

Get the album while you can--I have no idea how long a generous fellow blogger will keep it posted here.