Bucketfull of Brains (U.K.), Spring 2000
Where Has The Music Gone? The Lost
Recordings of Clem Comstock
The reputation of the
concept album has fallen into serious disrepair over the past couple of decades.
What began as the noble idea of an album of themed yet disparate songs eventually devolved
into a tawdry marketing gimmick. The high side was originally exemplified by the Pretty
Things' S.F. Sorrow and the Who's Tommy, while the low side was
diminished by Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds and Rock Justice.
Except for some shining moments from XTC and Todd Rundgren, the tarnish has been
building up ever since. Strange then that a pop afficianado from the heartland of
the United States would so exuberantly attempt to revive the form. Cincinnati,
Ohio's Roger Klug, whose two previous releases have been minor masterpieces of pop angst,
goes officially uncredited until the very end of Where Has The Music Gone?,
an album that seems to tell the story, in artist compilation format, of
"legendary" producer Clem Comstock. The liner notes tell a gleefully concocted
tale of Comstock's glories in the '60s as an unheralded boardsman whose talent sniffed in
the direction of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, and whose recorded archive came into
Klug's possession through a chance equipment purchase.
It's all done with tongue 3-tracked firmly in cheek, but the kick is
that Klug, as the creator of the whole project, has found the essence of the period in
question with nearly every one of the 18 tracks on Where Has The Music Gone?
Although not every song is a success, due primarily to Klug's vocal acrobatics in changing
register to change personalities, there is an unmistakable spark of the early '60s pop
singles scene in this faux sonic scrapbook. Everything from the girl groups to the Beatles
to Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon to the Kinks to lounge crooners to classical
composers are soundchecked and reprocessed by Klug into songs from now that sound like
songs from then. With offerings from Klug dopplegangers like Gary Cilantro, Gnorman and
the Gnats, Little O'Ryan and the Big Dippers,and Brave Sir Knight and the Squires, among
many others, it's clear that he fells an intense affinity for the period, its sonic
quirks, and its innocent atmosphere. Although Where Has The Music Gone? is not
the sort of album one gets hooked on for days at a time, Roger Klug has attempted
something considerably greater than the standard set of songs, and, on a number of twisted
and reverent levels, he has succeeded.
---Brian Baker