Yma Sumac
Miracles (London XPS 608)

This Yma Sumac rarity is: The world's hippest (or most horrible) Halloween music. Or: The soundtrack to an imagined adults-only version of the original "Star Trek." Or: Classical baroque from the planet Zoron. Or: An ugly precursor to the current spate of symphonic-rock releases.

There will never be anyone like Yma, the Peruvian princess who captured the world's heart with her tales of the Jivaro … and that voice! On this album she sounds frighteningly like a theremin in parts as she hits every one of this album's hideously imagined notes to perfection.

The music can only be described as: if Chicago were a psychedelic groove band with a singing parrot as lead vocalist. The marketing department must have had a rough go of it figuring out how to target this one. Even the record's inner sleeve is confused, advertising Mantovani, Procol Harum, Tom Jones, and an LP of circus music!

That said, I enjoy this album immensely. I sense vaguely that I should find it to be the least listenable of all music, yet I could listen to it hundreds of times with pleasure. Yma Sumac is truly spellbinding. The very first time I heard her, I was shocked and horrified. Yet I could not in the end resist her delicate bombast.

"Strange music" favorite Les Baxter is credited as producer, but that's giving Les too much credit – even Les himself couldn't get THIS out there. Due credit goes to Robert Covais, Jim Branciforti (aka James O'Maoilearca), and Bob Kreppel, with Yma and the band covering songwriting duties. Apparently there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the making of this album, even a lawsuit related to Baxter being given so much credit for a decided non-participation in the creation of these Miracles.

Oh to be on "Magenta Mountain," as I "Look Around" at the "Azure Sands" between the "Tree of Life" and the "Flame Tree." And it also includes a stab at Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa" … fake Peruvian music at its very finest. Yma herself has said that of all her recordings, this is the one she regrets. Not me!

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Review by Serena Pustule