JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #821.560.194!

Rock Scully – 40th Anniversary Summer Of Love Oral Archive (MVD Audio/Beanbag) :: A one-hour excursion into all things aurally acidic. If you weren’t around to experience the substance-soaked ’60s like I was, then this is one heck of a primo primer—and if you were, it’ll fill in all the blanks that the blotter sheets easily erased.

E.S.I. – Eye Contact (Jericho Beach) :: With piano a-pounding and strings a-slummin’ this offering offers supremo smoky Euro cabaret rock. Bonus points for covering Neil Young and Lou Reed and making them sound like art rock drone originals.

City Sleeps – Not An Angel (Trustkill) :: Pseudo-proto-prog in punk’s clothing.

Ron Blake – Shayari (Mack Avenue) :: I’m not saying that tenor saxman Blake has it in him to record the modern-day equivalent of A Love Supreme, but this spiritual record proves that if he ever does decide to give it a shot, that he’s on the right path. And speaking of paths...

Andrew Sterman – The Path To Peace: Music Inspired By The Inner Journey Of Mahatma Gandhi (Orange Mountain) :: If you meditate to only one jazz album this year, this be the one!

Arthur Lyman – Bwana Á (Collectors’ Choice) :: Not since the likes of Les Baxter and Yma Sumac has there been such a Polynesian proponent. If you like to pump to a Tiki pulse, then this is place to empty your milk-filled coconuts.

Johnny Hallyday – Live At Montreux 1988 (Eagle Rock) :: France’s answer to rockabilly never made it big stateside ’cause here in America we like our greasers to sing in English. Then again, after hearing him butcher the lyrics to “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” en anglais, I can see why he’s stuck to French for the past 50 years.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Caroleen Beatty – You’re Only As Pretty As You Feel (Black Beauty) :: The vexatious voice behind the recent remake of Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) goes solo on this trippy EP that covers the likes of Jefferson Airplane and Ginger Baker’s Air Force. Dig it!

Be seeing you!