Artists that have decades long discographies can be daunting. Whilst it’s often easy to quickly read up on the career highlights, at OBLADADA, we’ve always been particularly fascinated to visit the earliest phases. Perhaps it’s that sense of seeing an artist at their purest? Sometimes these releases aren’t mentioned in ‘official’ overviews (Kraftwerk anyone?), lack the sound or direction of more pivotal stuff, or reveal aspects of the artist’s craft that subsequently sunk without trace.
In guitarist Mike Cooper’s case, Life and Death in Paradise is his 4th solo album, and was originally released in 1974. This album neatly draws to a close of what might be called Cooper’s initial singer songwriter phase. Coming from a late 60’s folk blues angle, the English guitarist made some amazing, if somewhat overlooked music in the early 70’s.
Tracks like the epic I’ve Got Mine from Trout Steel dazzle in a complex suite of fragments and grooves that carve out a similarly luscious place to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. The droning folk of Journey To The East and bird song and slide guitar of Theme In C from Do I Know You? are all staggeringly good hidden gems. In a sea of albums around this time, Cooper had the desire to squeeze a lot of different moods from seemingly limited means.
After gathering little attention from these previous recordings, Life and Death in Paradise, feels a bit like the last throw of that particular dice. Cooper had a chance encounter with producer Tony Hall, and his new label Fresh Air was offered up as the place for ‘one last album’.
With the label’s blessing, Cooper gathered together a group of players, and found his way back from his sunny new home in Granada, Spain, to the studio in London. Alongside Cooper (Vocals/Guitar/Slide Guitar), the group was based around Mike Osborne (Alto Saxophone), Harry Miller (Acoustic Bass) and Louis Moholo (Drums/Bells/Percussion).
The album that these players, and various others contributed to, is however, nothing short of breath-taking.
The album opens with the spectacular Rocket Summer, a curious strummed song, pecked at with huge amplified sonic washes and echoed vocals. In its brief 3 minutes, it never somehow solidifies into anything other than its own uniquely weird brilliance.
Black Night Crash (Including “Horry Rocker Show”) follows a crazy path that’s a cocktail of Ziggy Stardust gone jazz, or Kevin Ayers And The Whole World in a clanking, driving 12 minute beauty. It’s easy to imagine listening to the playback half a century ago, and thinking the kids might well love it!
The earlier space in his work is then revisited in the low key beginning of O.M.M. Coda before it gathers into a tumbling jazzy peak full of funky details.
Suicide De Luxe (Including “Rock And Roll Hi Way”) and the title track Life And Death In Paradise (Including “Through A Veil”, “Beads On A String”, “Reprise”) spend a combined 17 further minutes mapping out this joyous forward momentum. The whole thing blurring into an episodic twisting, accessible but seemingly uncategorisable form of music. The actual copy we received in promo form labels the whole album as glam jazz. Whilst that initially made us laugh, it’s actually completely fitting.
The closing track Critical Incidents is another curve ball, a piano driven song that feels like a balmy sunset. And true enough, this was to be the last time Cooper committed his voice to tape for a long time…
Life and Death in Paradise is an album that we’ve played countless times and in particular Rocket Summer has become a lower-case anthem to our somewhat lopsided Scottish summer. In a sea of early 70’s apparent hidden masterpieces, and countless near misses, this album does truly feel like something that should have featured more heavily before now. We, however, it transpires are the lucky ones.
Mike Cooper is still active today as a spritely 80-year-old, having ceaselessly explored the guitar in numerous forms and shades ever since. It’s easy to perhaps view these early albums as little more that curios, or for completists only, but the truth is clearly the opposite.
Almost 50 years after it was recorded, Life and Death in Paradise offers up a superb sun dappled portal to Mike Cooper’s earliest phase. Welcome to paradise!
Life and Death in Paradise is released by Paradise of Bachelors on July 14, and is issued alongside Milan Live Acoustic 2018, a previously unissued solo set. Available as a LP+CD set, 2xCD and digitally here and here
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