The plain white covers state ADVANCE REVIEWER COPY CONFIDENTIAL in bold capital letters, split over two lines, under a die cut showing a record label you've (probably) never heard of before. There's no other jacket copy, or any insert giving information on the performers. Anyone who spends time searching out promotional versions of records (a sideline for a probably small subset of record collectors) has likely encountered an album such as this at one time or another. Over the last few years I have turned up six of these albums, with label names including Audifex, Grammi Fonics, Water Street and Pro-Gress. Viewed in a group, it's become obvious that these mysterious LPs are Wisconsin born and bred.
Right off the bat, collectors of Wisconsin 45s might recognize Water Street Records and Pro-Gress Records. Those were both Milwaukee-area labels, run by Tom Gress, that released a number of records during the first half of the 1970s. Gress also ran a recording studio and was a regional promotion man for labels distributed by Capitol Records. Most of these "Advance Reviewer Copy" LPs include some sort of production credit for Gress, as T.J. Gress or TJG Productions. Another hint that this odd series stems from Wisconsin: I eventually turned up one of these albums by longtime Madison artist Tony Brown.
From the little I found through a Google search, it seems these were probably not promotional copies in the typical sense (radio use or giveaways). On some sites like popsike.com that archive past internet sales, there are references to these albums being sold by mail order in Rolling Stone. By the time I’d clicked through a few pages deep in Google, I also found that Gress left the music business and has been a visual artist in Arizona for many years.
What else have I found so far? Read on.
The first of these albums I discovered, some years back, is by Matrix. I didn't have much luck locating information about it at the time, but it's music from a jazz-rock fusion band, with a 1975 date on the label. So, I initially assumed this was an early, brass-less incarnation of the Appleton band Matrix, later signed to RCA and Warner Brothers, featuring John Harmon and Kurt Dietrich. However, casting about for information now reveals that is not the case! This Matrix includes legendary Milwaukee-area guitarist, songwriter and educator Jack Grassel. Pictures on Discogs show a version of the album did come out commercially on Pro-Gress with cover art and a title: (stimulus for the auditory nerve). And it's even on CD.
This is a case where the absence of individual songwriters on the label led me down the wrong path for a long time (it just credits the songs to the band overall). While the two Wisconsin Matrixes worked in similar fusion territory and at nearly the same time, the bands don't sound all that similar compositionally.
The Grassel Matrix is going to appeal more to rock listeners, as the music references influences as disparate as Frank Zappa and Jethro Tull. The album is a very fun listen, and the music goes unexpected places throughout. It's sort of surprising there would be two bands with the same name working not that far from each other at about the same time, but perhaps they never crossed paths. And I've read that the Appleton Matrix started as Matrix IX. (Pro-Gress PGLP 5001, 1975)
Home and Free by The Great American Dream offers more clues on the label than many of these albums, because a pair of songwriters are listed: Nick Bratkovich and Duke Stojanavich. First off, I suspect the name is really spelled Stojanovich, as searching that way leads to Dharma Rhythm, a website for the music of Duke Stojanovich. His bio mentions growing up in East Chicago, Indiana, in the '60s — not too far from the Milwaukee area. Really going down the rabbit hole also leads to a webpage for Cudahy [Wisconsin] High School Class of 1969, which includes the names of both songwriters. If I had to guess, despite the 1975 date on the label, these recordings are from earlier; they sound a lot more like 1969-70 vintage to me. A lot of this is hard-driving blues rock, but there are poppier moments as well, and overall it's another very solid mystery album. I particularly like "Can You Feel the Music," which borrows a Sir Douglas Quintet guitar riff to fine effect. Discogs also discloses that the lead-off track on the album, "New Orleans on the River," is also on a single on Water Street by Terry Gale. (Audifex AX 7082, 1975)
Continue reading the second half of this overview in part 2 here.
