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Paradise of Bachelors is proud to present the first artist-sanctioned reissues—and first-ever vinyl reissues—of iconoclastic English-born, Rome-based folk and experimental music legend Mike Cooper’s classic trio of early 1970s avant-folk/rock records: Trout Steel (1970), Places I Know (1971), and The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper (1972). The latter two titles are presented for the very first time as the definitive double album, as Cooper originally intended them to be released.

Listening to Cooper’s recordings retrospectively in sequence reveals a rangy narrative of perennial reinvention from document to document through a playful approach to the deconstruction of “folk” musics and all that gross genre signifier implies and denies. By the time the Rolling Stones invited him to join the band in the early ’60s, and he politely declined (true story; Brian Jones took the gig), he had already progressed far beyond the circumscribed bounds of their early, hip-histrionic Albionic blues. By the time he was rumored to have retired from music in the mid ’70s, disappearing from his home in Southern England into Southern Spain to become a fisherman (an amusing fiction; he suffers from seasickness), he had already moved beyond his heady homebrew of progressive, free jazz-framed songcraft into increasingly less conventionally structured frontiers of open improvisation and later, electronic composition.

The Machine Gun Co. band (named for the 1968 Peter Brötzmann album) coalesced around Cooper’s desire to continue the improvisatory path forged on Trout Steel in a more sustainable manner, with a steady core group of likeminded musicians able to buttress its daring, long-form improvisatory vaults with a bedrock foundation. Peter Eden (Donovan, Bill Fay, Clive Palmer) produced the historic sessions, which veered from the impeccable conceptual folk-rock artistry of Places I Know (as Cooper explains, “the secret of the title of this record is that it was meant as a kind of covers record, or an homage to some musicians and songwriters that I liked at the time, the ‘places’ in the title—I was interested in seeing if I could emulate some other people without actually sounding like them”) to the utterly singular “songmaking” deconstructions of the more radical The Machine Gun Co., wherein the band erects lapidary arrangements reminiscent of Tim Buckley, only to dismantle them into virtuosic passages of Beefheartian free-jazz scree and skronk. According to Cooper:

What was initially planned was a double album, with one record played by the Machine Gun Co. and the other with arrangements by Mike Gibbs and his orchestra. Those two records were conceived as a double album aimed at covering the wide range of music I was interested in and gently leading the listener from the more accessible Places I Know, with its Mike Gibbs arrangements, into the more (for the times) extreme areas of The Machine Gun Co. That never happened, and they were released as two separate records a year apart.

Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper is Paradise of Bachelors’ attempt, two years in the making, to correct this historical oversight and offer this masterpiece as it was designed to be experienced, as an extraordinarily ambitious document spanning Cooper’s song-based and improvisation-based styles of the early 1970s.

+ First-ever artist-sanctioned and vinyl reissue
+ Includes 16 pp. chapbook with an essay by Mike Cooper, lyrics, and never published color photos
+ Available on 150g virgin vinyl as a gatefold 2xLP, in a deluxe limited edition, as well as on gatefold CD and digital formats
+ Vinyl edition includes digital download coupon

www.paradiseofbachelors.com/pob-14

ces I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper

Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper

Mike Cooper - Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. : "Paper and Smoke" (1971-72/2014, PoB-14)

Stereofunk - Cool Cat (Queen - Cover Remastered 2023)

FINALLY! Did a cover of my number one inspiration's song! One of my favorites of the King of Pop! RIP M.J. Long live the king!

The Girl Is Mine (Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney Cover)

With summer & festival season getting into full swing, WUMP wanted to give you all a little treat to enhance that warm, summer night bliss in the form of a saxy, sensual tune by Metasine.  With this release, we would also like to announce that Metasine has put the finishing touches on his upcoming "Collateral Consciousness" extended play collection, and we will be releasing that 6-track masterpiece this summer. 

Metasine revived this classic Michael Franks song with a groovy, simple beat that progresses with the addition of his own saxophone, groovy synths, and even some wub-wubs.  This will be your go-to summer, feel-good song, with its catchy vocals and creative layering that will inevitably have you singing along with a smile on your face.  

As a reward to you all for showing so much love and support on our very young journey thus far, we are giving this one up as a free download!  Grab your free copy, share it with your friends, and enjoy the summertime vibes.

Support Metasine:
@Metasine
Facebook.com/Metasine
Twitter.com/Meta5ine

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Free Download

Michael Franks - Lotus Blossom (Metasine Remix)

///you give me something (frustra variant)///

Original Song Performed by @jamiroquai
Remix Produced by @frustra

You Give Me Something (Frustra Variant)

A Funk Odyssey

Jamiroquai - You Give Me Something (Frustra Variant)

Windows

Red Clay

Solo piano interpretations of iconic pop classics by America's band.

Wouldn't It Be Nice

Produced and mixed by TsaRes
@HOMESTUDIOSESSION
FOLLOW { TsaRes }
https://soundcloud.com/tsares
https://www.facebook.com/tsaresofficial
https://skiomusic.com/tsares

Joe Sample - In all my wildest dreams(TsaRes edit)

Never as good as the first time (FRW edit)

From the 2010 album Plastic Beach, this is my cover of Empire Ants.

Empire Ants (Gorillaz ft. Little Dragon cover)

Cortex - I Heard A Sigh (Funky Franka Edit)

Marvin Gaye Live

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

Go for Your Guns

Footsteps in the Dark, Pts. 1 & 2 - Isley Brothers

A Day in the Life is an album by the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, released in 1967. It reached number one on the Billboard Jazz album chart and number 2 on the R&B chart.

WES MONTGOMERY "A DAY IN THE LIFE"

Can't keep running away..

Mixed & Mastered by @francesco-mami

Stan Getz - Saudade Vem Correndo [David Hasert Rework]

Talkbox remix of Thundercat's "Funny Thing" remix production done by Ricky Belfort. You can find me in all the links and phone number below
https://solo.to/RickyBelfort​​
www.rickybelfort.com
(323)827-8911

Footsteps in the Dark, Pts. 1 & 2 - Isley Brothers

MusicLoops

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