BURIED TREASURE
Monster Fun
Rescued from music’s cut-out bin, shifting-tempo horns-rock, with fangs.
Top notch: David Cortopassi takes it to the MAX.
MAX Rodan
PANDORA, 1974
“IT’S BEEN a battle my whole life,” says David Cortopassi. “But I’ve had some great bands.”
Making successive records that remained unreleased was Cortopassi’s problem. Two albums recorded on the late-’60s West Coast by his combo The Elastik Band, and another by the same line-up under the name Dangerfield, were left dangling in limbo by their record label. Then, to add insult to injury, his band MAX did release an album in 1974 – but without his permission.
The album was named Rodan, after the fictional monster of Ishiro Honda’s 1956 film of the same name. Fifty-one years later, Cortopassi has reissued the album on double vinyl with eight extra tracks, titled Beyond Rodan (and the correct credits).
The cover image which depicted Honda’s giant, irradiated pterosaur was, says Cortopassi, “totally irrelevant to the music”. Yet it was right about one thing: Rodan the album was a beast, a sweltering, revved-up, horns-laden brew of funk, soul, jazz and rock, mirroring America’s white, black and Latino roots and its voyage into musical fusion. By rights, MAX should have blasted away the brass-powered opposition – think Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago and Tower Of Power.