Spencer Cullum on McDonald & Giles – S/T

A longtime favorite around here, Spencer Cullum has cropped up more and more over the past couple of years, solo this year and with the incomparable trio Shrunken Elis last year. In the wake of his third Coin Collection LP, I asked Spencer to dive into a personal favorite for the Hidden Gems series. He’s clipped a Canterbury treasure, the King Crimson-adjacent outing from members Ian McDonald and Michael Giles. Slip into some pastoral prog along with Cullum as he explores the album below.

“I think this was the first album to kick off me singing and being comfortable with my voice and playing music I grew up on, this and Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom done that,” Cullum reminisces. “But this McDonald and Giles record has some beautiful pop songs and some really out there arrangements. The production is perfect, dry, kinda thrown together and naive (in the best way). There’s also those KPM style horns across the board on this that are instant cheeky ‘60s Laaaaandon town vibes (exactly what I need when I’m home sick).”

“These two musicians put this album out before they joined King Crimson, so before Robert Fripp punished them into non stop rehearsals and a intense work place (see the new doc for the scoop on that). I heard this when a dear drummer friend of mine (Jon Radford) played the song ’Is She Waiting’ for his DJ set and dedicated it to me and I was like, “what the heck is this gem?” He definitely dispersed the crowd. The crowd went mild (except me).” It’s seeped into my music, the idea of having a very solid pop song then followed by intricate jazz flute prog outbursts. It’s so Canterbury, whimsical and over the top! It’s one of my favs.”

The album’s also notable for some contributions from Steve Winwood, who was working with Traffic in the same studio right around the time the album was recorded. It’s also entered the hip-hop lexicon for a notable sample from the song “Tomorrow’s People – The Children of Today,” which snips a drum solo for the song “Body Movin’” by The Beastie Boys. The album’s been reissued several times and is available to stream where you need from a 2002 remaster. LP’s are slightly harder to come by, but digging can pick up some at a reasonable price from the last rung of reissues. Pair it with the Nashville prog of the Coin Collection, who’s third album, Coin Collection 3, is out now from Full Time Hobby.

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