Released only ten months after their debut album, Stay With the Hollies, their second album was a huge leap forward in every respect. Their famous airtight harmonies were now in place, and the sloppiness of the instrumental attack gone. Most important, the group developed enormously as songwriters. Eight of the 12 tracks were Hollies originals and quite skillful in their mastery of the British Invasion essentials of driving, catchy melodies and shining harmonies. A couple of the covers are duds, but the "Nitty Gritty/Something's Got a Hold of Me" medley is first-rate, and the version of "It's in His Kiss" (retitled "It's in Her Kiss") respectable.

This is one of nearly a dozen anthologies of Manfred Mann's music that cover their EMI period, and the 25 songs here make it the biggest of them. Additionally, there is an 11-minute interview with the band here, dating from December of 1964, that has never before appeared on record in the United States. The hits are all here, sometimes in more than one version, along with a cross-section of album tracks and B-sides, and it all sounds very good, though EMI's recent 24-bit remasterings of the band's original British LPs are much more impressive. But this CD misses being "definitive" because it leaves out some key B-sides to their early singles and overlooks the contents of several top-selling British EPs.

Amidst their pop/rock, blues, and folk-rock, Manfred Mann peppered their early recordings with jazzy instrumentals that faintly suggested a jazz-rock direction. Soul of Mann, never issued in the U.S., is a compilation of most of these early instrumental efforts, which originally appeared on various singles, EPs, and LPs between 1963 and 1966 (though one song, "L.S.D.," and is actually a blues-rocker with a Paul Jones vocal). Instrumentals were not the band's forte, but this collection is more interesting than you might think. No one would put Manfred Mann on the level of a jazz artist like Oscar Peterson, but these cuts are executed with a surprising amount of style and wit.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a 50th Anniversary Remastered Edition of the debut album by The Moody Blues, "The Magnificent Moodies”.
Now associated as being pioneers of pro-gressive orchestral rock, the Moody Blues had another life between 1964-1966, as one of Britain’s finest Rhythm and Blues influenced acts. With a line-up of Denny Laine (Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica), Ray Thomas (Vocals, Harmonica, Flute), Mike Pinder (Keyboards, Vocals), Clint Warwick (Bass, Vocals) and Graeme Edge (Drums), the band signed to a London based management company who leased recordings to Decca Records. Their second single, a cover version of Bessie Banks’ ‘Go Now!’ was a huge chart success across the world. Their debut album, "The Magnificent Moodies” was released in1965 to great acclaim and tours with The Beatles eventually led them to become part of Brian Epstein’s management stable…

Not the American Avengers punk group from the San Francisco scene of the late 70s - nor the UK television duo of Emma Peel and John Steed – but a totally great late 60s group from New Zealand, and one who've got a beautifully baroque sense of psych to their sound! The group have maybe the same lofty approach that the Bee Gees were using on their own sublime late 60s records, but the sound here is a bit more stripped down, gritty, and garagey - with the higher elements coming both from the way the group harmonizes, and creatively uses conventional small group instrumentation - with these deft turns of instrumental phrase that illuminate the darker corners of the songs in a really great way. The package brings together a host of rare singles, mostly recorded in New Zealand by the Parlophone label - and also even includes some very cool radio spots too!