Collectors Anonymous vol.1: Annette Peacock "Im The One"
Welcome to the first edition in a weekly blog series I am starting here titled "CollectorsAnonymous" Dedicated to sharing my musical discoveries and attempting to give them more context. As many of you know I am a passionate collector especially when it comes to wild psychadelia. So we will start there with an adventurous, rare gem from 1970
I bought this record nearly 10 years ago (😬) at hymies records in South Minneapolis. Back when they were still digging up records from the basement. Of all the digging I've done across the US I've maybe come across this record one or two other times. Its not exactly saught after in collector circles but it should be. The album opens with the title track "Im the one" which starts out with a subtle free jazz kind of thing that fades out then explodes into a funky mixture of synth, piano, drums and Annette singing through a vocoder of some kind. After some research I discovered that she was givin an early prototype synth directly from Bob Moog which she used to process her voice. I could have sampled this track alone in 10 different ways. But Its one of those records thats so good and so surprising that you almost feel like sampling it would be in poor taste! By the 3rd track "Pony" she really starts to hit her stride with another super funky track with swirling synth and an amazing groove. Yet again I could sample this damn track to no end. Side 1 concludes with a beautiful piano based track that builds with some dark yet subtle synth parts allowing the lp to breathe a bit. Side 2 opens with Annette singing her heart out over a super funky bassline with no drums that evetually leads to parlor-esque piano part. Its kind of random but just another example of how wild this lp is. She clearly gave no fucks. From track to track you never know where its gonna go next. The next track "One Way" is a waltzy post bar highlight with a great groove and so many elements I can't elaborate on them all. From there the lp winds down and finishes off with a sweet rendition of the Elvis track "love me tender" and a couple other stripped down piano tracks. Oddly enough when I first got this I was drawn to the funkier/wilder tracks but now find myself appreciating the softer/stripped down ones. Maybe I'll finally find the courage to sample this album some day.....