Plus - The Seven Deadly Sins (1969, UK, concept psychprog, Free Rec. CDrip, single flac + cue, log, vinyl + cd artworks)


One look at the cover and it should be clear that producers Simon Napier Bell and Ray Singer (who also penned about six of the tracks here) were trying to capitalize on the look and feel of Jesus Christ Superstar with this concept album that is laid out like a Catholic mass. The only musicians credited are Tony Newman (g), Max Simms (bass), and Mike Newman (d); there’s also vocalists (an entire choir on a couple tracks), piano, organ, violins, cellos and much more – which naturally leads one to believe this is more an album by the two producers, than that of the “band”, although the Newman brothers are credited with writing the remaining five songs. So what’s it all about? Imagine an eclectic mix of sixties styled rock and pop songs (early Who or pre-psychedelic Beatles might be a fair comparison) separated by short dissonant string quartet interludes, short spoken introductions, with some classical rips (the “Toccata” with the choir singing the names of the sins over and over is quite ridiculous, as is the silly doo-wop meets Elvis “Dismissal”, but the bombastic “Devil’s Hymn” for choir and band is quite cool, with its jazzy center section). The meat of the album is in the songs though, all of which sound a little dated (even by 1969 standards) but are still quite good. From the poppy “Envy: I’m Talking as a Friend” and “Pride”, to the out-and-out rockers “Sloth: Open Up Your Eyes” and “Gluttony: Something is Threatening Your Family”, the song-craftsmanship and arrangements throughout are at a very high level. Probably not for everyone, but those into sixties styled eclecticism might do well to check it out.
- Peter Thelen

As Plus, brothers Mike (drums) and Tony (guitar) Newman and bassist Max Simms found an impressive mentor in the form of ex-Yardbirds bassist/producer Simon Napier-Bell. Napier-Bell was apparently instrumental in getting the trio a recording deal with ABC's short-lived Probe subsidiary.

In addition to co-producing 1969's "The Seven Deadly Sings", Napier-Bell and Ray Singer were credited with co-writing roughly half the album. A goofy concept piece (any guesses on the plotline), the set seemed to be a clumsy effort to cash in on the public's renewed interest in religion (aka "Jesus Christ Superstar", or "Mass In F Minor" Electric Prunes). Thematically and lyrically the album was clearly linked via brief spoken intros and instrumental interludes, which makes it even funnier to discover that musically the set's all over the spectrum. Material such as the instrumental "Gloria In Excelsis: Toccata" and "The Secrets: Devil's Hymn" mixed classical moves with chuch choirs and progressive moves. Elsewhere "Pride: Pride" and "Envy: I'm Talking As a Friend" offered up a startling pair of Badfinger-styled pop jewels, while "Avarice: Daddy's Thing" was surprisingly funky and "Wrath: Gemegemera" was standard hard rock. Needless to say, sales were far and few. (The album was originally released with an embossed, gatefold cover.)
(~akashaman.blogspot)



Plus - Sloth (Open Up Your Eyes)


Tracks:
side one:
A1. INTROIT_Twenty Thousand People
A2. GLORIA IN EXELSIS_Toccata
A3. AVARICE_Daddy`s Thing
A4. PRIDE_Pride
A5. SLOTH_Open Up Your Eyes
A6. WRATH_Gemegemera
side two:
B1. THE SECRETS_Devil`s Hymn
B2. LUST_Maybe You`re The Same
B3. ENVY_I`m Talking As A Friend
B4. GLUTTONY_Something Is Treatening Your Family
B5. THE DISMISSAL_Twenty Thousand People

Plus:
Tony Newman - guitar
Max Simms - bass
Mike Newman - drums

[Rip and Scans by gigic2255]

Link: 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/wyxut0n4y4yddom/1969_The%20Seven%20Deadly%20Sins.rar

Comentários

  1. Ei galera!
    fiquei muito empolgado com a música postada!
    mas o link de acesso ta osso,aqui.
    como faço pra baixar essa relíquia?
    abraço!

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  2. Excellent!, a British band their only one album from 1969 rather oddly combining elements of hard-rock, classical music and psychedelia of climates … the devil. Choirs, short sentences in Latin, church organ – sometimes it sounds almost like Arzachel! Somewhat similar (though without the pseudo-diabolic case) was, a group of Methuselah.

    This is one of my favorite, forgotten albums!
    Hum …
    As Plus, brothers Mike (drums) and Tony (guitar) Newman and bassist Max Simms found an impressive mentor in the form of ex-Yardbirds bassist/producer Simon Napier-Bell. Guitarist Tony Newman had been a member of The Jeff Beck Group which seeming brought him to the attention of Napier-Bell who was instrumental in getting the trio a recording deal with ABC’s short-lived Probe subsidiary, debuting with a 1968 single:
    - ‘Twenty Thousand People’ b/w ‘I’m Talking As a Friend’ (Probe catalog number 478)n addition to co-producing 1969′s “The Seven Deadly Sings”, Napier-Bell and Ray Singer were credited with co-writing roughly half the album.
    A goofy concept piece that essentially surrounded the seven deadly sins with an ever changing series of musical genres, the set seemed to be a clumsy effort to cash in on the public’s interest in religion-meets rock and roll (aka The Electric Prunes’ 1968 “Mass In F Minor”). Thematically and lyrically the album was clearly linked via brief spoken intros and instrumental interludes, which made it even funnier to discover that musically the set was all over the spectrum. Material such as their rendition of ‘Gloria In Excelsis: Toccata’ and ‘The Secrets: Devil’s Hymn’ mixed classical influences with church choirs and progressive moves. Elsewhere ‘Pride: Pride’ and ‘Envy: I’m Talking As a Friend’ offered up a startling pair of Badfinger-styled pop jewels, while ‘Avarice: Daddy’s Thing’ was surprisingly funky and ‘Wrath: Gemegemera’ was standard hard rock. The musicianship was actually quite impressive with the Mike Newman and Max Simms rhythm section generating quite a bit of energy on tracks like ‘Twenty Thousand People’. The liner notes didn’t provide any information with respect to vocals, but whoever the lead singer was had a pretty interesting voice that was capable of handling everything from quasi-punk aggression (‘Wrath: Gemegemera’), to Badfinger-styled pop.

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  3. - ‘Introit’ started out sounding like a bunch of warlocks chanting some sort of incantation … and the someone yelling out “the internal circle” over and over … very strange.
    - In spite of the dark and depressing lyric, musically ‘Twenty Thousand People’ has always reminded me of one of those ’60s-era soda commercials, but instead of selling Coke, or Pepsi this one sounded like it was marketing arsenic, or rat poison. The title refrain was quite commercial, as was one the song itself – easy to see why Probe tapped it as the single. Darn, I’m humming it right now.
    - It was nice to see Napier Bell and Singer giving themselves credit for penning ‘Gloria In Excelsis: Toccata’ since the melody was a straight lift from what you hear in at your local church’s midnight mass. Yeah, the lyrics were updated a bit to fit the overarching theme. Regardless, it stood as one of the album’s most impressive performances. How could you go wrong with one of mankind’s classic melodies ?
    - Written by the Newman brothers, ‘Avarice: Daddy’s Thing’ opened up with some interesting classical moves before morphing into a rollicking guitar and keyboard-propelled rocker. Very English sounding.
    - I remember the first time I heard ‘Pride: Pride’ I was certain it was a Badfinger tune. As mentioned, I’m not sure who handled vocals on these tracks, but this one was a dead ringer for Pete Ham and company with one of those Beatles-styled melodies that was simply perfect for top-40 radio.
    - ‘Sloth: Open Up Your Eyes’ was another first-rate rocker with some pounding Max Simms bass and one of the album’s best Tony Newman guitar solos.
    - Opening up with another brief Badfinger-styled melodic snippet, ‘Wrath: Gemegemera’ then went off into a Black Sabbath-meets-Motorhead direction. Simms’ crashing bass and the soccer hooligan chants were the icing on the cake.
    - The maniacal “turn your eyes ..” opening was worth a chuckle; the Gregorian chanting was momentarily interesting and then ‘The Secrets: Devil’s Hymn’ turned into a forgettable atmospheric piece with a totally out-of-place jazzy interlude dumped in the middle of the track. r
    - Kicked along by some jangle-rock guitar and Mike Newman Keith Moon-styled drumming, ‘Lust: Maybe You’re The Same’ really did sound a bit like a lost Who piece. Certainly one of the more interesting tracks on the LP.
    - ‘Envy: I’m Talking As a Friend’ was another track bathed in a gleaming pop melody and some wonderful harmony vocals. The lyrics on this one were actually hysterical – hard to imagine some nailing the envy concept any better.
    - ‘Gluttony: Something To Threaten Your Family’ was given a suitable molten rock treatment. The inclusion of some nice Newman lead guitar and glistening harmony vocals saved it from also-ran status.
    - Ah back to a moment of hell and brimstone before the album ended with a totally strange mix of pop, doo-wop and sound collage reprise of the opener ‘The Dismissal: Twenty Thousand People’. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense, but was kind of an interesting way to end this freaky set.

    Needless to say, sales were far and few. (The album was originally released with an embossed, gatefold cover.) Anyhow, in spite of the bad rap the album gets in collector circles, I’ll tell you it’s a set I enjoy more each time I play it. Worth looking for.

    A studio entity, the trio never toured and without any significant sales to their credit, neither Napier-Bell nor Probe had any further interest in Plus.
    Thanks Gigic2255,for the nice memories! :)

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  4. Bom dia

    Não sei se você tem conhecimento, mas o link está quebrado.

    É possível a gentileza de repostar? Grato.

    Abraços e parabéns pelo ótimo blog.

    Continue assim e NÃO desistam!

    PAZ!
    AMOR!
    ALEGRIA!

    Purple Man from Brasil
    www.racksandtags.com/PurpleManfromBrasil

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  5. Purple
    Desde que cassaram a maioria dos provedores de arquivos nós recebemos em média 4 a 5 pedidos de repostagem diariamente
    Para nós fica impossível poir teriamos que refazer todo o blog
    Me desculpe

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  6. Any chance to re-up this? It's impossible to find...

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  7. Buenas Mr. Bordel: Postagens sensacionais, principalmente as antigas como esta. Os AD FLY não funcionam nenhum mesmo, além de poluírem os computadores com vírus e sacanagens as mais diversas... Gostaria de poder compartilhar o PRAZER DESTAS MUSICAS MUITO BEM SELECIONADAS!. Se possível, re-postar com mediafire de preferencia (ou outro qualquer) DICA: se possível, coloque os RE-UPS na página principal, com o neme do álbum., este link original para a pesquisa e o link MEDIAFIRE. MUITO, MAS MUITO OBRIGADO MESMO!

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