David Axelrod, where to go next??????

Can you tell us what albums you have? There is a good reissue album of his productions out there ('1968-1970 An Anthology'). If you have his two albums, 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience', then you have GOLD. You should also check out a group he produced, basically turning them into his own musicians, The Electric Prunes. Their songs 'Holy are You' and 'Holy Thursday' are amazing - and if you like hip-hop, Madlib and DJ Shadow have sampled him liberally. You can also get his 'lost' album on Mo'Wax records - it features a tribute to Cannonball Adderley and Lou Rawls' son, and namechecks both DJ Shadow and Dr Dre (also features an amazing verse from Ras Kass, recorded, I think, while he was on the run from the police, the song called 'The Little Children'). Hope this helps - yes, I really like the Axe! Despite being something of a recluse, I know he attributes some of his recent success/interest to the attention of DJ Shadow and was at his wedding (I am a Shadow enthusiast).

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The Electric Prunes

I felt the The Electric Prunes were even better without Axelrod and much prefer Had too much to dream last night than Mass in F - which is Axelrod rather the Prunes (not even sure they played on it despite being credited with the elpee).

However, Axelrod's own records are great and I agree 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience' are essential listens.

If you like Axelrod then you may enjoy Mark Writh's Teenage Opera - the unfinished suite that contained Keith West's Grocer Jack.

I have the first Anthology, songs of innocence, the auction and live at royal festival hall. Will need to get songs of experience.

I will try and check out Teenage Opera.

Anthology II is well worth getting also. It contains some fascinating solo work, as well as collaborations with like likes of Cannonball Adderley (the awesome "Tensity"), Lou Rawls, the Prunes and David "Man From UNCLE" McCallum.

Earth Rot is his great "Musical Comment On The State Of The Environment"from 1970, years ahead of its time in many ways, but often quite heavy going. His Messiah from 1971 is really only for hardcore fans but does have its moments. Otherwise, like ROTF and Reubs I can also heartily recommend Songs Of Experience

I went to the Festival Hall gig in 2004 - it was a fantastic night. You can also get it on CD and DVD, with extra tracks above the LP version.

There is a DVD that came with the LP that i still have to find the time to watch.

I went looking for Songs of Experience on vinyl and found this place http://www.vinyl.com/help/faq.php

However in the F.A.Q section i read about how they themselves seem to reissue the albums, can anyone tell me what this is all about? The copy of the 'Auction' i got came from the states i think too and the sound is terrible. I tried listening to it on my headphones (Grado GS1000) and thought at first they were damaged. The best way i can describe the sound is that it was akin to going to parties as a teen and people would have there mini systems turned up full and the sound would start to distort and break up. I then played the album through my speakers where it was less noticeable but if i went fairly close to the speakers i could hear it, not enough from my listening position to spoil the music but through the cans it was terrible. Is this something to watch with reissues? Am i correct in saying that this company gets the masters and has the machinery to produce the vinyl themselves? Would i be better off with the CD? I know my headphones are going to show weaknesses on a recording more so than my speakers (Kudos C1) but it really is unlistenable through the Grados.

What do you lot think?

For me there's the top four - Mass In F Minor, Release Of An Oath and Songs of Innocence and Experience. Earth Rot, as Kevin says, is good but a bit of an acquired taste, Heavy Axe has two or three good tracks but he's veering off into James Last territory and the other 70's stuff just doesn't cut it. And yes the Mo Wax album is good.

Otherwise the real problem with Axelrod is where do you go outside of his own music. It requires a bit of a jump.

I offer the following purely as my own leaps out from Axelrod in the vague general area of orchestrated rock (with a twist) but which in no way implies "if you like Axelrod you'll like this" :-)

Serge Gainsbourg - L'Histoire de Melody Nelson If you can get over that it's in French and mostly spoken it has many of the Axelrod ingredients.

Jean-Claude Vannier - L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches Vannier was Gainsbourg's collaborator and arranger on Melody Nelson (he is known as the French Axelrod and while working on Melody Vannier and Gainsbourg dreamed up this surreal piece (Child Killer Of Flies), which is mostly orchestral rock with a dash of musique concrete.

William Sheller - Lux Aeterna From the same early 70s period as the two above (something in the French water?). Sheller is a big star in France for (what sounds to me like) Elton John-style pop with a bit of classical. Except for this amazing record. Very similar to the Vannier, it's only available on vinyl - otherwise you're down to searching the blogspots, but it's well worth it. Try the Introit here on YouTube

Ennio Morricone - Il Sorriso Del Grande Tentatore A bit of a further leap here. This is a soundtrack to an Italian psycho-drama about a boarding house run by Sisters. The music is suitably gothic, mixing latin chants with typical Morricone orchestrations with a dash of rock too.

That's probably all I can think of to recommend within a reasonable compass (I did try Lalo Shifrin's Rock Requiem, but it was a bit naff to be honest).

Hope that helps

Will have a look at these too.

Here's a YouTube link to a track from the Morricone album

One of the more avant garde bits of the Vannier (performed live), one from the album itself and another from the album

I love this forum; where else are you going to find out about this esoteric stuff? Actually, if you're into soul/r&b you'd do yourself a favour to head on over to www.soul-sides.com

I don't think I've even heard of David Axelrod, but I might have to look out for some of his stuff now. Thanks all.

Jean-Claude Vannier's L'Enfant assassin des mouches is a trip. I tracked it down after getting histoire de melody nelson last summer, and it's pretty out there - indescribable really. I posted a great review of it by Jarvis Cocker on here somewhere at the time.

The Axelrod sound is so infectious which, considering those four classic albums use quite a limited musical vocabulary (see-sawing strings with tunes that flirt around with the Dies Irae in various combinations) is down to the way that he spices it up with delightful instrumental spotlights.

The two Axelrod/Prunes albums were entirely scripted by him (which is one of the reasons the Prunes broke up/were expelled - they couldn't follow Axelrod's charts too well) and eventually they were replaced by (and the solo albums used) top session musicians. So you'd get keyboards played by combinations of Dr. John, Leon Russell, Joe Sample or Don Randi with a wonderful rhythm section of Carol Kaye and the absolute star of the show, drummer Earl Palmer - no wonder so much of his stuff has been sampled since.

The downside? They're all very short - round about 30 minutes and that's your lot. But it does always leave you wanting more...