The Complete De Wolfe Sessions: Clamshell Boxset

The Complete De Wolfe Sessions is the first official reissue of the legendary sessions done in the 60s and 70s by the not-so-mysterious Electric Banana. The bands story began in 1967, when a down-on-their-luck Pretty Things took a job working for the music library firm De Wolfe tracking songs for potential use as incidental music in swinging 60s films. Working with the Reg Tilsley orchestra, the group cut five tracks under the name the Electric Banana. Two of the tracks were supplied by outside songwriters -- the neo-beat group trifle Free Love and goofy country-rocker Cause Im a Man -- and sound like the band were going through the motions. The other three were much more impressive. The swaggering Walking Down the Street would have been a highlight of their concurrent album Emotions, the biting horn-driven soul ballad If I Needed Someone sports a truly needy Phil May vocal, and Danger Signs is a jaunty, loose-limbed take on Motown-style soul, which is a direction the Pretties never really explored. The flip side of the record (and all the records they did in the future under the Electric Banana name) was made up of instrumental takes. More Electric Banana was recorded at the end of 1967 and ditched the snappy pop arrangements in favor of dark and swirling psychedelia. Tracks like the evil-sounding I Love You and the searching Grey Skies come across like the beginning stages of S.F. Sorrow, and a different take of I See You actually did end up on that classic album. Even More Electric Banana was recorded in early 1968, and unlike the first two albums, Electric Banana werent working on a Pretties album at the same time. These were stand-alone songs that found the band forging a direction that touched on ferocious post-psych meets hard rock (Alexander, Eagles Son) as well as blues-wailing biker rock (Blow Your Mind) and a rambling take on West Coast country-rock (Itll Never Be Me). These tracks are some of the best music the Pretty Things made and this collection is the best place to find them. By the time of the next Electric Banana record, 1973s Hot Licks, the band were firmly in mainstream album rock territory, and Sweet Orphan Lady sounded like a strong Faces album cut; I Could Not Believe My Eyes is rambling boogie rock; Walk Away is a haunting CSN&Y-styled ballad; and the rest is amiable rock & roll thats not spectacular, but still lots of fun. Amazingly, they made one more album, 1978s The Return of the Electric Banana. Also amazingly, its not half bad. Do My Stuff, opens the record sounding like a lost Flamin Groovies classic, James Marshall is a tough rocker that pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and the rest is serviceable late-70s AOR. The album closed the book on the Electric Banana, but not before some truly interesting and sometimes not far from brilliant music was made. As usual, the Grapefruit label has done an amazing job with the sound and packaging, helping to make the collection something of an answered prayer for Pretties fans. ~ Tim Sendra