Tractor - "John Peel Bought Us Studio Gear And A PA"
(Ozit Records, ozit215)
Tractor - "John Peel Bought Us Studio Gear And A PA"
(Ozit Records, ozit215)
From Aural Innovations #40 (September 2008)
For those of you reading this review who might be unfamiliar with Tractor, they're a British psychedelic duo whose members include Jim Milne - acoustic, electric, bass guitars & vocals and Steve Clayton - percussion & drums. The band got their start in the late ' 60's to early ' 70's and have recently returned to the scene. This eighteen track 'John Peel Bought' collection is every bit as good as their other two compilation releases on the Ozit label - ' Before, During And After The Dandelion Years' and ' Worst Enemies'. I noticed this import CD is a limited edition pressing of 900 copies. Tunes I look forward to whenever I put this disc into my player are "King Dick II" (has an almost Sabbath-like guitar riff ), the hip sounding "Squares", the couple of instrumentals - "Siderial" and "Madrigal". And I really was impressed with the remix job they did on "John Peel's 13 Bar Boogie". Have to also mention the memorable fuzz guitar on "Willow" as these were the cuts that John Peel had decided to officially sign Tractor on. Next nine songs are hard-to-find singles that I for one are hearing these for the very first time. I believe most acoustic guitar fans would get a lot out of the stunningly beautiful "Stoney Glory", as well as the tripping "Marie", "Vicious Circle", the rocking "Average Man's Hero", and the toe-tapping "Big Big Boy", which sort of reminded me of Q 65 or maybe the Outsiders. It comes with eight trading cards and two full color informative fold-out inserts. I haven't really checked out the Ozit site in awhile now but I know for a fact they have many worthy releases available. Enjoy.
For more information you can visit the Tractor web site at: http://www.tractor-ozit.com.
Reviewed by Mike Reed