The Peppers - Pepper Box [Repressed - 2008]The title track of this reissue was a huge hit for The Peppers in 1974 and it’s prime, camp, cheesy, yet memorable moog pop hit. This reissue brings together The Peppers one and only album A taste of Honey, A taste of Peppers along with a few bonus tracks for it’s first ever cd release. The Pepper box single went on to sell 3.5 million copies worldwide- Sadly the album or the follow up singles Doctor Music and Do it do it(both included here) had none of the chat topping success of Pepper Box, which is a great pity really as all of the tracks on the album are great memorable & camp tunes. Mixing together up-beat 70’s easy listening, funk and early 70’s dancefloor vibe with the Moog’s spacey swirls taking prominent focus, but with some great laid back, cheesy backing by session players too with use of funky bass, electric keyboard, drums, chilled guitar and male chorus chants/shouts. The peppers was the brain child of Frenchman Roger Tokarz who decided to boil-up a hit similar to Popcorn which had used the moog a few years early to great chart toping effect. Pepper Box though cheesy moog pop like Popcorn is certainly not as trying or as annoying as popcorn- it’s built around a bright funky bass line, hand claps, male chorus/singing and of course the mighty moog which whizzes in wonder all over the track. And the other 13 tracks on the disk are none too shabby either mixing: pop, funk and 70’s electronics and lined with hummable, nylon flare swinging vibe and a real cheesy charm. This is the second release I’ve heard from the excellent new repressed label who are focusing in on releasing out of print 60’s & 70’s electronic music and cheesy.And I can’t wait to see what they uncover next as any fan of cheesy, camp and weird electronic music knows there so much of it out of printing waiting to rediscovered Roger Batty
|