Cast In A Purple Image

Purple Image: Living In The Ghetto and We Got To Pull Together
From: Purple Image [Map City, 1970]

Off to France with work tomorrow for a couple of days so thought I'd slip in a quick post before I trip the light fantastic in Paris.

I'm on a constant look out for that funked out, guitar fuzz heavy, late sixties/early seventies rock music sound. Think Jimi, think Funkadelic. It's actually been a fairly fruitless search a lot of the time though it did help me uncover the work of Black Merda a while back.

Purple Image are in a similar sort of vein to Merda's work with their blend of psych rock and funk capturing a vibrant time in rock music. Strangely limited to this single release before disbanding and disappearing the group featured ex Tradewinds members Pete Anders and Vincent Poncia and delivered an uneven but at times exhilarating selection of music.

Living In The Ghetto kicks off the album at full throttle with a hard as they come riff over thumping drums and a fuzzed out sound as the band hit the listener with everything in their arsenal.

We Got to Pull Together shows the softer sound of the band with melodic harmonies and delicate playing. It's a shame that the group never did get to record a sophomore album as tracks like this suggest that they could have carved out a field in a similar vein to the Chambers Brothers with the mixture of heavy guitar and soul tunes.

Extra special mention has to go to that front cover as well. Superb artwork.