Ed Kuepper "Reflections of Ol' Golden Eye" 1990-1998(rec) 1999(comp)***

Ed Kuepper will probably remembered as co-founder of Australian band The Saints, the first punks (together with The Ramones) to put out a record, in 1976. You thought punk was a British invention? Think again! The Clash, Damned, Sex Pistols etc. came to the party later. Kuepper would soon leave The Saints to try and play more sophisticated stuff. Contrary to other punk survivors who quickly ran out of steam, he kept getting better and hit an artistic and commercial peak in the 90's, recording almost a dozen albums in that decade. "Reflections..." gathers 16  previously released songs from that period, all covers. The fact that it sounds consistent as an album is amazing, not only because the songs were recorded in a period of 9 years with different musicians, but mainly because they belong to different genres with very few common threads. One of them is geographical: what could possibly country singer Slim Dusty's "Camooweal" and AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" have common other than their Australian origin? Perversely the former is electrified (like Nancy & Lee backed by Dream Syndicate) and latter is slowed down, countrified and laden with ghostly effects. Another Australian covered here is Nick Cave (Kuepper would temporarily join his Bad Seeds for a while in the late 00's early 10's). His version of "Do You Love Me" is good. with interesting orchestration and tempo close to the original's - but far less intense than Cave's. Two 60's garage tunes by Aussie bands are revived for the 90's: "Sad Dark Eyes" (Loved Ones) and "If I Had A Ticket" (Phil Jones). Both sound great, augmented with twanging guitars and dramatic violins. Other 60's rockers (The Kinks' "Steam Train" and Raiders' "Indian Reservation") get a more stripped-down folky treatment. The same goes for traditional material by Johnny Cash ("Ring Of Fire") and Skip James ("Cypress Grove Blues"), while Howling Wolf's "Built For Comfort" is more upbeat and rockabilly-ish. Then we have a couple of ballads by singer-songwriters Tim Hardin ("If I Were a Carpenter") and Gordon Lightfoot ("Sundown") and a couple of fairly straight renditions of rock classics ("The Man Who Sold The World" David Bowie, "When I Was Young" Animals). A simple acoustic version of Ricky Nelson's "Teenage Idol" is followed by an epic 10-minute "Runaway" (the Del Shannon oldie) performed by Kuepper's band the Aints (get the pun?) and drenched in guitar feedback. A hit and miss collection, for sure, but the most part interesting and occasionally inspired. Could work as a left-field sort of introduction to this great, underrated artist.

*****for If I Had A Ticket (Phil Jones and the Unknown Blues)

****for Camooweal (Slim Dusty), Sad Dark Eyes (Loved Ones), Do You Love Me (Nick Cave)

***for Ring Of Fire" (Johnny Cash), Cypress Grove Blues (Skip James), Highway to Hell (AC/DC), The Man Who Sold The World  (David Bowie), If I Were a Carpenter (Tim Hardin), Built For Comfort"(Howling Wolf), Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot), When I Was Young (Eric Burdon & The Animals), Runaway (Del Shannon)

** for Steam Train (Kinks), Indian Reservation (Raiders), Teenage Idol (Ricky Nelson)