Angel Air Rec. 
Carmen : Fandangos in Space /
Dancing on a cold Wind (US/UK,rec.1973-1974)****°
* Biographical backgrounds :
David & Angela Allan were children of an Aztec Mexican mother, Margarita Cordova (a respected flamenco dancer/actress) and a Welsh/Oglala Sioux father, Clark Allen (also a renowned flamenco guitarist/painter). Together had started a still famous LA night club El Cid in 1961, where also Sabicas° played, saying how David played like a gypsy.
At 15 David backed Mae West and wrote for this a few songs on some of her albums. From the bands he had formed, with Somebody's Chyldren he recorded three singles, with The Marianne, eight singles, and with Brave Butter two more singles, before forming Carmen in 1970, at that time still in L.A. with 7 members.
With some support in the high society they met almost anybody in the music business but no one was interested in the band. So in 1973, with 5 interested members who wanted to give this a chance, they went to the UK. They found a new drummer, and after having met Tony Visconti they immediately received a contract to record an LP. David Bowie helped the band after having finished their recording on his TV show, Midnight Special, where they played a track from that album with an incredible energy and skills, showing also a rhythmic foot dance (video can be seen here).
After their second album they toured in the US amongst the greats, and with Jethro Tull for three months. At the height of their success, after a promised tour with Rolling Stones, their manager Brian Longley, -who had exploited the band since then without their notice-, lied and said they were bankrupt and that Visconti didn’t want them any more, and that their last chance was found a new producer and label, which they did, for even less money for them than before. Soon they found out how their manager had manipulated the whole thing because he had asked incredibly too much from Rolling Stones, and had grown greedier. The band had been too busy enjoying making music, to expect this to happen, but the damage was done.
Soon after Paul Fenton was hurt badly and the band lost the heart to continue. John Glascock then accepted an invitation to join Jethro Tull, taking his wife, Angela Allan, with him (she sung on the 1976 album “Too Old To Rock'N'Roll: Too Young To Die”, as the only other female singing contributors for Tull besides Maddy Prior). This was going to last for the next 4 years°°, until he died tragically from a heart defect.
David tried a funk / flamenco crossover group with two brothers and Herb Cohen, but they couldn’t find a supporting label. He wrote songs for Agnetha's solo album after having split with Abba. After being diagnosed with throat cancer he had to stop singing for a while and became a photographer with his own vision, and then became a psychoterapist. Since 1984 he is again working on flamenco guitar ideas.
(° Sabicas = one of the most known flamenco-guitarists.)
(°° In that time he played on “Too Old To Rock'N'Roll : Too Young To Die”, "Songs from the Wood", "Heavy Horses" and some tracks on "Stormwater")
* "Fandangos in Space" :
Musically the band was a mixture of influences. They were influenced by the more conceptual, romantic and slightly symphonic type of rock bands, in that way they had some comparable musical relationship with approaches from early Queen, Jethro Tull, Curved Air, and so on, but then also with an unmistakable flamenco roots which was developed completely spontaneously.
Roberto Amaral was a great flamenco dancer who had also performed and studied in Spain, and also Angela danced well (besides she played wonderful mellotron,..). David Allen was a gifted flamenco guitar player, and they used to combine all kinds of combinations of 12 counts based on 3,6 & 8 rhythms mostly, composed incredible, almost classical compositions with repeated themes and lots of tempo changes.
Although the heartfelt tempo tension switches were difficult for those not firmly rooted in the gypsy fire, bass player John Glascock had no problem in giving extra directions, and also the drummer Paul Fenton felt well where to strike like lightning.
The album had some 1 ½ years in preparation and had shown its unique results which in that time were completely new, also for flamenco who was performed in a pretty traditionalist way until then, but also for the Spanish restricted scope of what was acceptable. When they visited Spain in 1973 they noticed how restricted Spain was in those days, because when they went for a drink, a few strokes of blue hair was enough to put them in prison for a day.
The first album must have had its influence, when I hear Triana trying similar things on their first album. Unless flamenco in Spain especially since Triana tried the rock crossover, I have never heard such powerful successful ideas as with Carmen.
When I first heard the first LP years ago I was immediately hit by the overwhelming energy highlights of it, so it took a while before I was calmed down over the years to get the whole picture of this wonderful rockopera concept.
* "Dancing on a Cold Wind" :
This second album should also not be underestimated. After those years that I have appreciated the first Carmen album, and I had began to get a better perception on the symphonic concept of the first album, I notice that the same serious approach is also here, perhaps more deliberately consistent and with a slightly more melodious flow and musical story. There are perhaps less rhythmic surprises and challenges as on the first album, but that does not make it less rewarding as a musical concept. It too unfolds, with lots of details, into a rock-opera with whatever elements it brings to tell that story. I have no idea where the two bonus tracks came from, but they sound as if they were meant to be included.
This album was presented in publicity photo’s as a cigarette case where the 14 cigarettes were the 14 sections adding “every album carries a government health warning”.
Recommended.
Other reviews of this double album : (English/Dutch)
