Category 1970s

Sparks Album Reviews

Ron and Russell Mael grew up in Pacific Palisades, where their father was a graphic designer and caricaturist for Hollywood Citizen-News. The pair surfed and modelled for mail-order catalogues. They gravitated towards English bands like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, The…

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Karla Bonoff Album Reviews

Karla Bonoff was born in Santa Monica, California. She played at The Troubadour, alongside future stars like Jackson Browne and the Eagles. Her career, however, is most closely entwined with Linda Ronstadt’s. She formed Bryndle with other singer-songwriters on the…

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Kraftwerk Album Reviews

Düsseldorf’s Kraftwerk helped to popularise electronic music in the 1970s. While the use of electronic instruments was pioneered by composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in the early 1950s, Kraftwerk’s minimalist arrangements and catchy tunes helped to take them to the pop charts.…

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James Taylor Album Reviews

With his warm voice, pretty guitar-picking, and introspective songwriting, James Vernon Taylor was the figurehead of the singer-songwriter movement in the early 1970s. The son of a physician, his four siblings all became professional musicians. Introduction Taylor’s 1968 debut album on The…

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Sandy Denny Album Reviews

After recording 1969’s landmark folk-rock album Liege & Lief, Fairport Convention splintered. While the band continued with Richard Thompson, bassist Ashley Hutchings departed to form the more traditional Steeleye Span while vocalist Sandy Denny left to spread her wings as…

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