Spontaneous Combustion – Space Shout
Spontaneous Combustion – Time Stitch
Spontaneous Combustion – Stone Shake
Picked this up at a PCC record swap a couple months back. As I’m doing some spring cleaning of my collection (mostly connected to a quick trip up the Bay Area and to the Mecca of West Coast record stores Groove Merchant) I’ve been on the fence about this one. Spontaneous Combustion appears to be a studio concoction of Bob Thiele, legendary for his work with Impulse and Flying Dutchman, featuring nine dudes (all pictured and listed on the front cover) who played on a fair amount of jazz-rock-funk albums around this period of time. As far as I can tell, this is the only release from the band, and while most of the songs are nothing to write home about, when they get into some good business, it’s mighty good. In addition to getting right funky, there’s all kinds of little weird avant-funk flourishes throughout the songs presented here. Solid work if you can find it.
Cheers,
Michael