Mysterious ‘60s mélange of blues-rock, spy jazz and garage-folk

Originally issued in 1969 on the obscure Condor label out of Burnaby, B.C., this album is quite an enigma. Is there really a Johnny Cole (as he was listed on the original record’s label) or maybe a Jimmy Cole (as he was listed on the original album cover), and what’s with the mélange of spy jazz, pop, blues-rock and Sonny & Cher-styled garage-folk? The dribs-and-drabs of information that can be found suggest this was the product of the Los Angeles-based Johnny Kitchen (nee Jack Millman), and includes vocals from the Millman’s Russian-born then-wife Ludmilla. Most likely this album was assembled from a variety of sessions that Millman leased to Condor, which would account for the lack of musical continuity. The audio quality of this reproduction is all over the place, including a few tracks that sound like they passed through a few generations of cassette copies and others that are surprisingly full fidelity. This has long been a hard-to-find and expensive vinyl-only collectible, but it’s now available to all for digital download. [©2013 Hyperbolium]