Carmen - The Albums 1973-1975

Carmen originally formed in LA in 1970 as a seven piece and was the brainchild of David Clark Allen, the child of flamenco performers who had himself been trained as a flamenco guitarist.  Over the next few years, twelve different musicians made their way through the band before they became a quintet in 1972.  While all the labels in LA loved their live performances, they felt it was impossible to get their sound recorded, so they ended up moving to London thinking they would have a different opinion.  It should be noted that in their live show they used vocalists Roberto Amaral and Angela Allen as flamenco dancers, and they also used an amplified floor to utilize their dancing as percussion.  Initially rounding out the band were brothers Brian and John Glascock on drums and bass respectively (both had previously played in pre-Uriah Heep band The Gods and Toe Fat, and John later played for a short while in Jethro Tull before passing away at 28).  Upon moving to London, they made a very influential friends with David Bowie and Tony Visconti, but unfortunately Brian had decided not to make the move and was replaced by Paul Fenton.  While Visconti ended up producing their first two albums, the friendship with Bowie resulted in them being his guests in a show at the Marquee in London from October 18-20, 1980, called The 1980 Floor Show.  It featured his final appearances as Ziggy Stardust and ended up being broadcast in the US on the Midnight Special TV show.  From 1973 to 1975 they released three albums that to this day contain some of the most unique music out there, meshing rock and prog with flamenco, dance and more.  Their new three CD box set, The Albums 1973-1975, collects these three albums, as well as four bonus tracks.  

Their debut album, Fandangos In Space, was produced by Visconti and opens with "Bulerias", a track that is the epitome of what they are about.  It's a three-part song that is the perfect merging of flamenco rhythms, prog guitar sections with castanets weaving in and out and foot stomping percussion.  The extremely catchy "Bullfight" continues in that vein, but also adds synths to the mix and has great stop and start, fast and slow tempo shifts.  They slow things down a little on “Stepping Stone”, which has a spacy, psychedelic sound and a bit of a laid-back funk beat, while “Sailor Song” is more of a folk-rock track with some elements of prog.  “Lonely House” is a fairly straightforward acoustic ballad with some really nice Spanish flavored acoustic guitar.  David showcases his guitar work on the acoustic instrumental “Por Tarantos” which isn’t quite straight up flamenco, but definitely has flourishes of it.  “Looking Outside (My Window)” ups the ante in the rock department starting off quite heavy and then shifting back and forth between slower, acoustic guitar driven sections and heavier sections with even more emphasis on flamenco, including some handclaps.  At just under nine minutes, “Tales of Spain” is somewhat of a prog suite that’s constantly shifting, twisting and turning in multitude of different musical styles, starting out slow and very reminiscent of the west coast sound with some great vocal harmonies, then moving into spacey spoken word storytelling, upbeat rock, psychedelia and much more.  It’s followed by “Retirando”, a gorgeous Spanish flavored track that at only forty-eight second still really impresses with its harmonies (interestingly some places on the internet show the end of “Tales of Spain” as actually being the beginning of this song making it almost a minute and a half longer).  The title track is up next and is another complex tour de force with a melodic prog intro leading into more of a flamenco section and then an almost frantic, jazzy instrumental middle section and then back into prog.  It also has some great guitar work and incredible vocal harmonies, including some falsetto and choral sections, that have a Queen vibe if they had had a Spanish flamenco influence.  Closing out the album on a mellow note is “Reprise/Finale”, a short acoustic Spanish guitar driven instrumental.

Album number two, Dancing on a Cold Wind, was once again produced by Visconti, and opens with “Viva Mi Sevilla”, probably the heaviest, and arguably the best, track they ever released.  After starting with an acoustic Spanish guitar, a fuzzy, thumping bass comes in along with foot stomping percussion.  As it evolves, killer electric guitar kicks in and then it shifts to heavy Spanish flavored prog rock before closing with a powerful instrumental section that includes keys and some pummeling cowbell.  Angela steps up to the mic to handle lead vocals on “I’ve Been Crying”, which is overall more of a catchy pop tune with some prog elements, but still has plenty of quirkiness with the thick fuzzy bass again very prominent, along with mellotron and a slower section that sounds like a funhouse waltz.  Opening with haunting piano, “Drifting Along” is an interesting ballad that is not run of the mill, with elements of prog along with some really strong guitar solos, dark synths and strong vocal harmonies.  Following the short instrumental “She Flew Across the Room” to close out side one is “Purple Flowers”, another twisting turning prog track with occasional flourishes of flamenco, that is at times a little reminiscent of Jethro Tull and Queen.  Side two consists of a side-long suite in nine parts called ‘Remembrances (Recuerdos de Espana)’.  Unlike a lot of their other songs, the majority of the nine tracks are shorter pieces, but they work brilliantly together to create a twenty-four-minute piece of music.  Musically there is more emphasis on British folk and string arrangements than before, along with plenty of the prog, rock, Spanish and flamenco elements they were known for.  "She's Changed", "Gypsy Girl (Caravan)", "People Dressed In Black", along with the title track, are some of the highlights here.  Disc two also contains two of the bonus tracks, starting with “Quiriquitu”, which has a slower, dreamy sound and a bit of a funk beat.  It’s kind of different for them but gets a little repetitive.  “Out On The Street” is also slower but works better with its heavy groove and synth heavy ending.  

For their third album, Gypsies, the band split with Visconti and brought in Steve Elson as producer.  It opens extremely strong with “Daybreak”, which starts with a gorgeous flamenco instrumental with incredible guitar work then kicks into a hard flamenco rocker that has a hint of glam.  “Shady Lady” and “High Time” are both more easygoing midtempo tunes that have more emphasis on synths, and on the former, some great Spanish guitar.  The melancholy folk of “Dedicated To Lydia” is absolutely gorgeous with delicate acoustic guitar work and stellar harmonies.  “Joy” finds them moving back into a more straightforward prog direction, but also with a bit of a quirky pop side to it.  On the title track they come back around to where they started.  It’s an absolute powerhouse prog tune (again quite reminiscent of Jethro Tull) with their classic flamenco flair like snapping castanets and foot stomping percussion, and Allen is on fire here with his guitar work.  “Siren of the Sea” is another straight-ahead rocker, but has an almost sing songy feel to it that comes across a little cheesy.  With its Queen-like backing harmonies “Come Back” is a bouncy soft rock tune with another strong guitar solo.  The album closes with “Margarita”, a delicate acoustic instrumental with some really nice Spanish guitar.  Rounding out disc three are a couple more bonus tracks.  “Flamenco Fever” is actually one of my favorite songs here, and was a single only track released in 1974.  It’s classic Carmen, at times a hard driving rocker with a definite Jethro Tull influence along Flamenco rhythms, castanets, foot stomping and more great guitar work.   With its stark acoustic guitar, synths, a drum machine and Angela’s captivating vocals it’s obvious that the hauntingly beautiful “Only Talking To Myself” is not like anything else here.  Unfortunately, there are no details about this track, so after a little digging around online I discovered that it’s actually not a Carmen song, but a tribute to John Glascock that she recorded in 2006 with Laurence Lush contributing the music.  Even though it's not one of their tracks, it's a nice track to close out the box set, but I wish they had given some details about its history.  Overall, this is a fascinating and refreshingly unique look back at a band that was sadly underappreciated.  

(Esoteric Recordings)