A heavy, oft-sampled slab of Bay Area history, and a psych funk masterpiece that cannot be denied. Aura formed in 1974 and played extensively throughout Northern California. By 1976, the band recorded their first and only album at Pacific Recording Studio in San Mateo. The original title of the album was meant to be "Sativa", but out of fear that promoting the joys of marijuana would be too controversial, the band omitted the title and just left it as "Aura". Over the ensuing decades, the Aura album has grown in stature to become a major soul/funk collector's item. It features a number of major funk tracks plus funky ballads with female vocals. Standouts include 'Sativa' (heavy 70's funk with waterpipe sound effects and blistering guitar), and the manic fuzz-guitar jam 'Skyrocket.' The lead singer of Aura was Paulette Collins, who still performs around the Bay Area today with an all-girl group called The Taylor P. Collins Band. Replete with rare band memorabilia and three previously unreleased bonus tracks, the lone album of Aura is now available for the first time on CD, (thankfully) from the original master tapes.
