Artist: The Gentle Rain Album: Moody Label: Sunbeam Records Country: UK Released: 1973/2006 Genre: Lounge, Jazz-Rock, Soul, Easy Listening Audio codec: FLAC (*.flac) Rip type: tracks

Before tricking out albums by Radiohead, Bjork, and David Bowie, British producer and arranger Nick Ingman cut his teeth orchestrating records for genteel pop personas like Olivia Newton John and Sacha Distel. Young Ingman had a much stronger affinity for jazz and psychedelic pop, however, so these MOR gigs left his creativity unfulfilled. It's no surprise, then, that this playfully subversive, commercially unviable affair resulted when, in 1973, he was first given complete creative control over a project. A team of crack sessions musicians tackling Ingman's arrangements of hits by Stevie Wonder, Laura Nyro, the Beatles, and others, the Gentle Rain turned their material inside out, dousing these tunes in wonky Moog, smoky Latin percussion, and melancholic flugelhorn (courtesy of revered jazzman Kenny Wheeler). Truly chilling atmospherics and deft solos elevate this reissue above the status of kitschy mood music or beatdigger fodder.

Tracklist: 01. While My Guitar Gentle Weeps - 04:58 02. Use Me - 03:22 03. Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse - 03:26 04. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - 04:36 05. Fool On The Hill - 04:41 06. Stoney End - 03:01 07. I Feel The Earth Move - 04:06 08. Across The Universe - 03:51 09. Plastic Man - 03:58 10. Lonely Jelly - 04:37 11. Family Affair - 04:17 12. The Gentle Rain - 04:01

Personnel: Bass – Dave Richmond, Toni Campo Drums – Brian Bennett Flugelhorn – Kenny Wheeler Guitar – Clive Hicks Percussion [Latin American Percussion] – Dennis Lopez Percussion [Tuned] – Alan Hakin Piano – Alan Hawkshaw Producer – Norrie Paramor Moog, Arranged By, Conductor – Nick Ingman