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| MDB (1966) | |
|---|---|
| Name | MDB (1966) |
| Origin | 1966 |
| Years active | 1966 |
MDB (1966).
MDB (1966) was a short-lived ensemble and singular studio project formed in 1966 that produced one eponymous album noted for its constellation of prominent contributors and its encapsulation of mid-1960s popular and avant-garde currents. The project assembled musicians, producers, and arrangers drawn from scenes around London, New York City, Los Angeles, Paris, and Rome, resulting in a record that entwined elements familiar to followers of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and The Velvet Underground. Though commercially obscure, the album became a point of reference among collectors, critics, and later artists associated with Psychedelia, Baroque pop, Art rock, Folk rock, and Experimental music.
The conception of the group grew from meetings among session musicians, songwriters, and studio executives who had worked with figures such as Brian Wilson, George Martin, Phil Spector, John Lennon, and Mick Jagger. Key participants had past credits with acts including The Kinks, The Byrds, Nico, and The Who, and were active within scenes centered on studios like Abbey Road Studios, Sunset Sound, Gold Star Studios, and Trident Studios. The project was organized by a producer with prior associations to Dick James, Allen Klein, and Ahmet Ertegun, who sought to synthesize the arranging sensibilities of George Martin and Jimmy Page with the compositional risk-taking of Captain Beefheart and Tim Buckley. Financing and distribution discussions involved independent labels and distributors that had worked with Island Records, Reprise Records, and Atco Records.
The 1966 sessions for the album occurred in several city blocks of studios and took place during the same months that produced landmark works by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Byrds. The concept emphasized studio experimentation: tapes were spliced in the manner of Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrète and layered like productions by Phil Spector and George Martin. Musicians associated with Session players, arrangers influenced by Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini, and engineers who worked on projects for The Beatles and The Beach Boys contributed to tracking, overdubs, and mixing. Compositional credits appear alongside names linked to song catalogs represented in publishing houses such as those of Lew Grade and Dick James Music.
Musically the album synthesized melodic conventions familiar from Baroque pop and Chamber pop with the tonal experimentation of Avant-garde composers and the rhythmic drive typical of Rhythm and blues-inflected British groups. Instrumentation included strings and woodwinds arranged in the mold of George Martin and Paul Buckmaster, fuzz and slide guitars reminiscent of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, brass passages echoing Brian Wilson-era counterpoint, and electronic effects that recalled early work by Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Song structures ranged from three-minute pop forms akin to Brian Wilson and Ray Davies to extended suites influenced by Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky as mediated through contemporaries like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Upon its release the album received limited promotional support but generated attention in magazines and journals that covered contemporary scenes, including writers who had covered Rolling Stone-era artists, Melody Maker, NME, and periodicals circulating in San Francisco and Swinging London. Critical response was polarized: some reviewers compared its arrangements to productions by George Martin and lauded its adventurousness in the manner of The Velvet Underground and Love; others dismissed it as derivative of studio excesses associated with Phil Spector and ill-timed alongside commercial hits from The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Despite modest sales, the record circulated among musicians, DJs on stations in San Francisco and New York City, and collectors in scenes tied to Acid rock and Folk revival, influencing peers who later worked with Nick Drake, Roxy Music, Syd Barrett, and David Bowie.
Credits list a constellation of session musicians, arrangers, and engineers who also worked with major acts. Personnel included players with histories alongside The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Byrds, and The Who; arrangers with ties to Ennio Morricone and Henry Mancini; and engineers from studios such as Abbey Road Studios and Trident Studios. The producer had prior affiliations with companies and figures like Dick James and Ahmet Ertegun, while mixing and mastering involved technicians familiar from projects by The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Contributing musicians and songwriters later appeared in projects involving John Cale, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, and Kate Bush.
Though obscure in mainstream charts, the album attained cult status among collectors, crate diggers, and musicians who traced its textures in later works by Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Beck, Wilco, and Sufjan Stevens. Reissues, bootlegs, and archival discussions linked the record to revivalist interest in 1960s studio practice exemplified by reappraisals of Phil Spector, George Martin, and Brian Wilson. The project's emphasis on studio as instrument anticipated production-minded albums by The Beatles on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by The Beach Boys on Pet Sounds, and by later art-pop figures associated with Roxy Music and Bowie. Collectors and scholars continue to reference the album in examinations of 1960s transatlantic exchanges among scenes in London, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Category:1966 albums