Aura ("St. Louis Group") - audition album
Original 1976 single-sided demo LP (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans~
**UPDATE Dec. 2023 -- the band has been confirmed to be Aura. Stay tuned for more info soon!
This record is an ultra-cool discovery by our friend CF and should be of interest to the prog enthusiasts among us. There is pretty much nothing known about these guys, except that apparently their music is quite obscure: there seems to be only one known copy of this in existence, a single-sided LP with solely the vague text "St. Louis Group / Audition Side" giving any hint to what the disc contains. A band from St. Louis, Missouri, perhaps? Or was their name literally "St. Louis Group"? I mean, what kind of producer doesn't even name the band when sending out demo recordings? Truly a mystery here.
From listening to the recording, obvious parallels are drawn to Jethro Tull, and the instrumentation / feel leads one to believe that this recording might've been produced in the mid-to-late 1970s. White-label test pressings like this were rarely produced more than a handful at a time, and these were probably produced locally and sent out to various record labels in the hopes of securing a contract -- a contract which seemingly never came.
CF kindly agreed to share this rarity for a blog post here. If anyone out there knows
anything about this band, please get in touch! :)
Research done by CF some years ago revealed some promising evidence that the correct name of this band might've actually been "Aura," with a source additionally tacking on the track titles I have listed below. Unfortunately the original source for this information seems to have vaporized over the years, so this cannot be confirmed; but these track titles make quite some sense with the lyrics, and I guess it is anyways better to refer to the tracks by something than nothing sensible at all...
**UPDATE NOV. 2023**:
research done by blog follower Doug K. has led to two possible names
for the musicians playing here, and the tentative recording year of 1976. By digging in the archives for the US Catalog of Copyright Entries, Doug found several of these track names attributed to the songwriters Frank R. Strinni and James C. Wheeler. These names may in fact correspond to the apparent St. Louis natives Frank R. Strinni, Jr. (1951-1999) and James C. Wheeler, Jr. (1949–2009), both unfortunately deceased. Relatives and friends may still be out there with some knowledge of this group -- further
sleuthing still required!
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| Catalog of Copyright Entries for Music, July-Dec. 1976 (link) |
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later entry, same catalog (link)
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Track listing:
1) "Façade" - 3:54
2) "Four Hour Chorus" - 3:42
3) "Annual Sex Drive" - 3:40
4) "The Secret Success" - 4:56
5) "Heads Up" - 1:50
Vinyl Condition: M-
Dynamic Range: DR12
Equipment Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– TCC TC-754 RIAA phono preamp (new regulated power supply, added LM7812 regulator)
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)
– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)
The Annual Sex Drive (Strinni)
Waters hardened by the freeze
With winter here, as any fool could see
You feel the icy biting breeze
It's cold outside, nobody inside wanted me
Lady springtime come and laid her breath on me
My blood began to flow
And still to find her deep inside of me[?]
Melting away the snow
I jump from bed to bed like a rabbit in the night
And nothing seems to satisfy my appetite
All grateful ladies of the evening leaving horses[?] at the door
To walk 'em out and to the park
I love making love in the trees
And travel my springtime is years[?]
And spread to the graveness appears[?]
The people of springtime is years[?]
At last the summer comes and slowly turns to fall
[?] reach inside his growing helpless mall [?]
Until it's gone away as if it wasn't ever even here
There'll always be another year
I love making love in the trees
And travel my springtime is years[?]
And spread to the graveness appears[?]
The people of springtime is years[?]
Wow, interesting indeed! Thanks to CF and yourself for the efforts and the sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis was really good! Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteI wonder where you picked that one. I never heard of them. Great band and thank you very much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis is too wild
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this rarity!
ReplyDelete