Ween

© Steve Gullick

★★★★

Chocolate And Cheese (Deluxe Edition)

RHINO. DL/LP

Back in Brown, a flavoursome 30th anniversary expansion.

When Pennsylvania abnormals Ween dissolved in 2011, they fell hard and messy – frontman Gene dissected the sorry affair in his 2014 solo avowal Covert Discretion. Three decades on, Ween’s fourth LP Chocolate And Cheese remains a piquant illustration of their knotty creative process. Its 16 varied songs take in FM rock, Prince-funk, toytown novelty and more, and offer knowing pastiche, gross-outs, contemplation, idiocy and smarts to a mind-unhinging degree (add their appetite for impressively horrible sounds and get ready to hurl). Yet instrumental Eddie Hazel tribute A Tear For Eddie is beauteous, fuzzy groove. I Can’t Put My Finger On It sort of answers the Ween dilemma, and What Deaner Was Talkin’ About articulates the post-psychedelics blues with bruised tenderness. Fifteen serviceable bonus tracks include the Fat White Family-adjacent Junkie Boy and new dimensions of Voodoo Lady, and keep the pot bubbling in suitably perverse fashion. Chow down.

Ian Harrison

Lightnin’ Hopkins with Sonny Terry

★★★★

Last Night Blues

CRAFT RECORDINGS. LP

LP reissue of the second of three collaborations by the legendary guitarist and harmonica player.

At the turn of the ’60s Lightnin’ Hopkins became the poster boy for blues authenticity on the folk revival circuit, providing numerous set texts including 1961’s excellent Last Night Blues, his debut for Prestige’s Bluesville imprint. Recorded the previous October at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood, New Jersey with a stripped back band – bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, both schooled in jazz – plus harmonica player Sonny Terry, it’s a fantastic set, Hopkins’ agile finger-picking of simple melodies on acoustic guitar becoming emotional roller-coaster rides, plunging to mournful depths on Hard To Love A Woman, with Terry blowing blues harp forlornly and peaking with the intense rhythmic highs of Got To Move Your Baby and Lightnin’s Stroke, both hypnotic boogie joy-bringers.

Lois Wilson

Dorothy Carter

★★★

Troubadour

DRAG CITY. DL/LP

The 1976 debut by the late New-York-born composer gets a welcome release following the reissue of 1978 masterpiece Waillee Waillee.

You wait over 40 years for Dorothy Carter to be re-evaluated then two reissues come along (almost) at once. Reissued by the small label Palto Flats at the end of last year, Carter’s second LP, Waillee Waillee, blended Appalachian dulcimer with New York avant-garde drones to create an immersive inner-space exploration of past and present. Her 1978 debut Troubadour is the more traditional-sounding record, blending gorgeous Appalachian folk tunes with Ukrainian hymns, Celtic ballads and North African melodies. It also makes space for Carter’s own enthusiastically untutored singing. While the vocals on Waillee Waillee were utilised as an instrument, mixed sympathetically alongside flute, psaltery and hammered dulcimer, and possessed of a conversational intimacy, here they are devoutly up-front. They don’t feature on every track but the ones they do appear on will divide listeners into two very distinct camps.

Andrew Male

Lloyd Charmers & Friends

★★★

Salvation Train: The Splash Singles Collection 1971-1973

DOCTOR BIRD. CD

Hits, misses and left-field early-reggae cover tunes, all produced by multi-skilled Jamaican player.

Singer-turnedproducer Lloyd Tyrrel began his career in ska duo The Charmers and cut solo sides for Studio One in rocksteady before passing through The Flames, The Uniques and The Hippy Boys, where his keyboard skills were put to good use. This 2-CD compilation, culled from the heyday of his Splash label, has covers galore: high points include Alton Ellis’s understated take of The Spinners’ It’s A Shame and BB Seaton’s emotive adaptation of The Persuaders’ Thin Line Between Love And Hate. Mikey Chung’s rendition of Santana’s Samba Pa Ti is well executed, but Charmers’ corny remakes of Les Crane’s Desiderata and Irving Berlin’s No Business Like Show Business are totally over the top. Elsewhere, deejays I Roy and Scotty provide fiery originals and Bongo Herman some fun percussive dubs, giving a sense of Charmers’ playful approach to reggae production.