Deep Purple - Deep Purple in Rock (1970)

Warner Bros. Records ■ WS 1877

Released June, 1970

Produced by Deep Purple

Engineered by Andy Knight, Martin Birch, Philip McDonald

Side One:	Side Two:
Speed King Bloodsucker Child in Time	Flight of the Rat Into the Fire Living Wreck Hard Lovin' Man

Ah, Deep Purple "Mk. II".

Why, out of all the bands that have gone through such monumental lineup changes (Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, etc) they are the only ones that seem to have become firmly labeled with "version" numbers is beyond me. Perhaps it's because the lineup change has such a drastic overall effect on songwriters--we can say "Barrett-era Floyd"¹ and "Peter Green" and "Bob Welch" and so on, to notate the controlling voice's change. I don't know--anything would be just a guess, and it's likely just an indicator of the varying mentalities of fans that Deep Purple's chose that approach.

Still, "Mark II" has its place highest in the echelons of music, particularly for being so thoroughly entrenched in hard rock when it was rapidly morphing into heavy metal (though most of the albums at the time given that have largely sloughed off that title as it has gained higher and higher minimums of power/volume/aggression/speed/etc over the years). Indeed, if the average person can assign anything to the name "Deep Purple", it is probably "Smoke on the Water", their monstrous hit from two albums (and years) farther on, Machine Head. Now, of course, "Highway Star" has gained a measure of fame from its inclusion in Rock Band, so there might be that further connection, but it, too, comes from '72's Machine Head anyway.

Davenport Cabinet - Our Machine (2013)

Evil Ink Records ■ 

Released January 15, 2013

Produced by Travis Stever and Mike Major

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Major

Side One:	Side Two:
Night Climb (Intro) Deterioration Road Simple Worlds Sister Servant These Bodies Our Machine	Black Dirt Burden Drown It All New Savior Dancing on Remains At Sea Father

NOTE: There are two obvious points here I could gloss over, or choose to address, and I've decided on the latter. First: It has been quite a while. I'm working two jobs now, so in the interest of not just rushing through listening, writing, or both, I've been simply letting things slide, and instead working out a schedule that works for the jobs and for my own sanity. I apologize all the same--I'm obviously not even close to succeeding at my original goal of "a record a day," which has effectively become impossible without becoming Robert Christgau in writing style. And Christgau is often too acerbic for my tastes anyway.

Second: This is also why I've chosen to omit the "day numbering" in the title of the entry. I should hope it was not exactly something people looked forward to (at least, as compared to actual content), so I also hope it will not be missed too severely.

I'll admit that part of the reason I ended up delaying at first was that I'd originally hoped to work this album in to its "logical" place, though that has long since passed. I knew it was coming, but could not nail it down in all senses, and I knew quickly it could not arrive in an alphabetically correct place (indeed, we've already seen three records that come after it in the alphabet). It's such a good record though, and I wanted to give it a spot here. Of course, I say that and did not, at the time, have it on vinyl--heck, it wasn't available on vinyl--as it was only announced then to be coming.