DENIZ TEK & THE MORTMEN San Francisco Girls b/w Hot Smoke & Sassafras 7'', the A-side fairly faithful to the original but stripped down and maybe a bit more of a pre-1968 garage sound and a bit more of a Hendrix influence showing, original intent respectfully pulled in tight and then let loose; the material for the B-side originally coming from 1969 and not surprisingly already showing plenty of Hendrix influence on the original (as well as the Byrds and Neil Young and all his bands...), Tek & the Mortmen's again cover holding tight to all the original intent while letting the band show everything they got, the sounds on this new 7" really helping to show something I really had not thought about before, a bridge from Hendrix and these other 1960s west coast sounds to what would surface in the music of Radio Birdman in the 1970s.  Quite the amazing little slab of wax here, some of the best cover work I've witnessed in quite some time.  And speaking of covers, great-looking sleeve design, with killer art by Sabrina Gabrielli.  -- winch

   

TEXAS PSYCHEDELIC ROCK RETURNS! Radio Birdman's Deniz Tek and Engineer/Producer Andy "Mort" Bradley have had a long and productive history working together in Houston's legendary SugarHill Studios.  Home to the 13th Floor Elevators, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Roy Head and countless others, SugarHill was central to the psychedelic scene that erupted in the sixties. Andy got an all star lineup together to record ripping new versions of these classic hits by Fever Tree and The Bubble Puppy. Tek's band features Houston singer Tomas Escalante, the late fretboard master Kenny Cordray (1954 – 2017) and Tek on guitars, Rob Landes from the original Fever Tree on B3, and Mark Andes from Spirit on bass. Houston session luminaries keyboardist Paul English and drummers Tyson Sheth and Todd Harrison round out the lineup. Stunning picture sleeve art by Sabrina Gabrielli. The single carries a dedication to Kenny Cordray. His sudden and tragic demise occurred right after his amazing work on these sessions from 2017, which were to be his last.