Short Reviews [Mormos - 1972 - "Listen To The Flavor / Paranoid Night Dream"]

I generally don’t review singles as I never have the time, but given this was released 45 years ago and contains two songs not available on album I thought I would make an exception. After the debut had been released, record label CBS France requested something more commercial, so Jim Cuomo (saxophone, clarinet, domra, keyboards, vocals) came up with the ‘A’ side which is much more piano based, bright and up-tempo. Annie the Hat (vocals) delivers a performance which surely should have got the band in the charts back when it was recorded (1971), but sadly that was not to be the case. Ernie Mansfield’s flute provides a wonderfully otherworldly feel, while both Elliott Delman (guitar) and Sandy Spencer (vocals) take much more of a back seat here, only really coming to life when Jim drives along with sax. There is a lot to take in on just 2:30. The ‘B’ side is even shorter at 2:25 but seems much longer as the band settle down into material which would have not seemed out of place on either album, with Annie again providing sterling vocals, while both Elliott and Sandy are much more to the fore and Ernie delivers wailing harmonica. For anyone who has enjoyed the reissued albums then this is also worth discovering, available through Bandcamp, again remastered by Ernie.