The 1975 album ‘Rock’n’Roll Scars’ by Ariel has just been reissued in typically deluxe, expanded form nby Aztec Records.
‘Who are Ariel?’ you ask.
Featuring singer/writer/guitarist Mike Rudd, who is an Australian rock legend to this day, they were his second significant band. The previous one, Spectrum – an exquisitely brilliant, distinctive, langourous progressive band – I’ve posted about before at the old place. Bill Putt, he of the outrageous moustache, followed Mike from Spectrum into Ariel, who would be more ‘immediate’, though still inevitably quirky.
Ariel’s 1975 LP ‘Rock’n’Roll scars was, most unusually for an Aussie record of the period, recorded at Abbey Road, with Geoff Emerick engineering, and sounds magnificent – especially in this new remastering by Gil Matthews. It was also released in Britain, on Harvest.
Mike had a concept album idea which was rejected at late notice (it’s on disc 2 in demo and live forms on the reissue) so much of the content of ‘Rock’n’Roll Scars’ would be songs he had previously recorded on Australia-only releases by Spectrum and by Spectrum spin-off band Indelible Murtceps. Yet here, with Ariel’s tighter, funkier style and the fabulous Abbey Road production (and yes, some of it sounds » Continue Reading.