Heaven – s/t (1969 USA). Underground horn rock / psych album with delicious fuzz leads and cool roller rink organ sounds. Nice trumpet and trombone horn charts. Also some standard blues psych tunes as well. Interesting cacophonous freak out ending. This Nebraska band is not to be confused with the brass rock group from England. No CD exists.

Round House – ‘Scuse Me (1972 Germany).
Round House – Down to Earth (1973 Germany). German group who spent a lot of time with their Chicago Transit Authority album collection obviously. And they do a pretty convincing job of their variation of the horn rock sound. Some good grooves and they veer towards the jazzy side, always a plus in this genre. Much better than the more known Brain label horn groups like Emergency and Creative Rock. I wrote those words having heard only the debut “‘Scuse Me”. Followup album “Down to Earth” is more adventurous and includes a near side long suite similar to Chicago’s ‘A Girl from Buchanon’, but less pop oriented. Both albums lack consistency, but plenty of great stuff here, especially the Terry Kath inspired wah wah guitar. The Freeman’s say the album is ‘lightweight’ and of ‘marginal interest’, but I disagree with them here (for the record, I normally agree with them). No CD for either.

First Born – s/t (1973 Italy). I can find nothing about this band. Definitely one of the many instrumental Italian film library albums out there, and some of them contain different pseudonyms, as this might. Cool 60′s jet-set jazz funk tracks for the martini drinking James Bond crowd. Presuming this is rare as hens teeth, or it may just exist as another, more common, title. I only have a CD-R, so we’ll go with what I know. No surprise here, but no CD that I know of.

Crypto – s/t (1974 Netherlands) Known as the Dutch Placebo, though I found this more funky and less “cool” than Marc Moulin’s outfit. Fairly typical of the era, especially the synth work. The guitar and Rhodes playing is a bit more exceptional, however. Overall a good example of the European instrumental funky fusion sound. File next to Saluki. Never issued on CD.

Spektar – s/t (1974 Croatia). Heard this at a friend’s house about 3 years ago, and nice to finally have a copy for myself. A keyboard trio, Spektar’s sound vacillates between funk (lots of clavinet), progressive (with organ featured) and straight ahead rock with some marginal vocals. There’s definitely some weeds to clear here, but underneath is some prime turf. All the 8 tracks are short. Probably the most obscure album coming from the former Yugoslavia, even more so than Izvir. Adding to the obscurity factor, Suzy was generally known for releasing straight pop music, and Spektar was sort of the odd album out. Not on CD.

Cry Freedom – Volcano (1976 Germany). One of the earlier entries in Germany’s huge fascination with everything jazz fusion. By the 1980s it seems there were dozens of such releases. Primarily instrumental sax/guitar/organ/synthesizer driven numbers, with a stronger than usual emphasis on melody. Not quite at the level of Embryo or Missus Beastly, but more thought out than Kraan, Headband, Morpheus, etc… File next to Katamaran. They have two later albums, but I’ve been told they aren’t quite up to standard. Another one that lacks a CD issue.

I return while MM & TM take a summer sojourn…

DEL JONES’ POSITIVE VIBES – Court Is Closed – USA 1972

Wholly wooly jaywhozhefatfunkprowess! This monster slab should be playing in any and every house-n-haus across the world’s whorls for a few weeks straight. Nothing seems to be able to touch the infinite layers of sheer power and insouciance that this recording provides. In many senses, this is the truly hopping end of the spectrum that has to be called simply, and unequivocally, incomparable. Even I, who slather usually with a poised dagger for a tongue when it comes to these things of writ and gush.. well, I am at a loss to say more than the most banal remarks along the lines of: this album, in toto, jams hard and fast throughout, maintaining a cheerful outlook and forward-thinking slant alongside tracks that barrel along and pummel every head-bopping, toe-tapping, body-movin’, and the cerebral “I can’t believe this is happening..” senses you got. Must needs hear the revered psych mix of this! The soul version is something to sop up nice and tight up on your hot biscuits like gravy. Also, not only does this thing cook like Emeril on steroids, live on Iron Chef with 5 arms, there is a rocking element that cannot be overlooked, structure, indescribable heft, intelligence and infectiousness are the main salient traits of this magnificently beating and heaving with hot-breathing beast.

Outcome:

A fookin’ M-U-S-T for everyone!
- ~ -

::13/15 – Stone-Cold Classic::

Zyma – Brave New World (1979 Germany). I first heard Zyma on the “Proton 1″ compilation that was released by Kerston in 1974, which featured five up and coming new German bands. Of those, Zyma and Sun were the only groups to eventually get a full length LP. And with Zyma, they managed two releases, “Thoughts” and “Brave New World”. “Thoughts” was reissued by Garden of Delights a few years back, which allowed me a revisit of that fine album. And now I’m finally returning to hear their followup. Zyma were similar to many of their late 1970s contemporaries, with a strong melodic sense, female vocals, and a slight fusion edge. Groups like Eden, Credemus, Rebekka and Werwolf all come to mind. One significant difference, however, is the use of scat vocals. And she can get quite hysterical at times, which reminded me of early Zao strangely enough. Lots of violin and flute as well. I would expect GoD will eventually reissue this one as well. And it would be worth the effort.

Cos – Babel (1978 Belgium). While Musea has tackled Cos’ first two classic Canterbury inspired albums, as well as their final 1982 “Pasiones” release, they have so far neglected Cos’ “disco era”. For some folks, “Babel” is the pinnacle of their musical achievement. It is a one of a kind album, a mixture of complex Canterbury and Zeuhlish compositions, filtered through the disco mirror ball – fat danceable beats, sweeping strings and Studio 54 debauchery. Closest comparison might be the French group Cortex, though Cos on “Babel” are far more disturbing (in the Univers Zero sense of the term), as well as more disco-ish. And while that doesn’t make any sense, I think that’s its intrinsic value. Not sure if Musea plans on reissuing this one. IIRC, you can pay for a download from the band direct.

ES – Wham Bang (1979 Germany). Now here’s a strange bird. ES is made up of former members of Tomorrow’s Gift and the Release Music Orchestra. On the surface, “Wham Bang” is a straight ahead pop rock / disco album. And after each track’s cringe worthy vocal section finishes, one might expect a short instrumental followed by some more tawdry vocals. Except the instrumentals don’t stop and ES begins to introduce a complex fusion sound, as one might find on an earlier RMO release. Everytime I was about to write “Wham Bang” off as a cheap European knockoff, then wham! bang! I’d hear an impressive instrumental bit. Yes, I think the album may have been a conscious satire on the then current music trends.

Subversion – s/t (1976 France). Certainly the most obscure album on Phillippe Besombes’ Pole label. I hadn’t even heard of it until recently (2008), and I think I’d heard every other Pole/Tapioca album by 1992! Featuring a crude black and white cover, it’s exactly the sort of album you would expect to find on the FLVM label a few years later. This pre-Falstaff outfit mixed complex prog in the Memoriance / Pulsar vein, along with jazz rock sections and some introspective folky moments. Not much cohesion, but they did well with each style they attempted. Very different from anything else on the label, except maybe Emergency Exit. And, like EE, Subversion was also not repressed by Tapioca later in the decade, adding to its obscurity.

Jean-Pierre Massiera & Bernard Torelli – Turn Radio On (1976 France). Well here he is again. Mr. Massiera, the king of arcane underground music. You never know what you’ll get with a JP Massiera album, but rest assured it will contain music no one else was doing at the time. He seemed to be the original artist with a keen eye for the ironic. In fact, I think the entire post 1990 Japanese pop scene could be described as similar, whether one was actually clued in on the joke or not. Jean-Pierre Massiera is the original post modernist hipster! Here he joins Mr. Torelli (not sure what his role is, since I’ve never actually seen an original LP, and it may not tell anyway) in a completely nutty, primarily instrumental (with odd voices and narration) album, that is as much indebted to the late 60s grooving horns jetset scene as it is to Studio 54 era disco.

Les Chats Renaissance – Hermaphrodites (1973 France). Yet another JP Massiera project, this one not quite so “wink wink” as some of his other works. Pretty much a straight ahead rock album, with some flute and heavy guitar, and a lot of vocals. Quite a bit of old fashioned 50s rock-n-roll to wade through. Would seem to be a companion piece to the much more progressive oriented Visitors album from the same year. In Parisian English they may say “Uhhhhh, may beee it’s sooo, how you say? Obscure, becaaauuussee uhhh may beee it’s not soo good, no?” Uhh, oui!

Rodan – s/t (1974 USA). Super horn rock album, that absolutely kills on most of the 12 short tracks. There are a couple of bluesy moves and at least one James Brown styled funker, but mostly this just rips from start to finish. The kind of album you wish all horn rockers were. Smoking guitar and great brass charts. The rhythm section never stops. California based group was actually known as MAX, and toured extensively with groups like Malo and Tower of Power. One of the band members has started his own label called Digital Cellars, and there’s a real chance this obscurity will be reissued in 2008. Album sports a fantastic drawing on the cover.

Yellow Sunshine – s/t (1973 USA). Philadelphia based group recorded one of the best of the Afro psych albums. Recorded for the Gamble label, this possesses a strong hard rock edge, that is usually missing in most of these soul-oriented works. In the big leagues with Funkadelic and Mandrill. Band evolved into MFSB, a very fine mid 1970s funk/disco group, that recorded the fantastic ‘K-Jee’ track, by far the best song on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack. Gamble is one Kenny Gamble and his label was a part of Epic Records. There is a legit LP reissue, but no CD as of yet.

Scorpion – s/t (1969 USA). Hard rock / soul album on Tower by obscure group from Detroit, that has a grand reputation amongst the psych collector set, which I find surprising. Vocal heavy, in the soul tradition, and quite frankly an exceedingly boring album overall. Little to grab onto besides some nice fuzz bass here and there. This one is for specialty collectors only. No CD exists.

A.R. & Machines (Achim Reichel) – Die Grune Reise (1971 Germany). I don’t think there’s any question that Achim Reichel has the largest body of important work still not on CD. He began to use sound on sound guitar techniques with “Die Grune Reise” and continued that strain, with different formats, through to the “Erholung” album. From there he went back to a pop singer songwriter style. And with that prologue, I’m happy to say that Reichel himself, through his Tangram imprint, is beginning to reissue his classic albums from the 1970s. Or so we hope. “Die Grune Reise” is the first, and comes complete with a second DVD of university students putting together a recent film, based on the music found here, which was supposedly a soundtrack, but no film ever emerged originally. “Die Grune Reise” is also the only album from this period to have been previously reissued, on Polydor at the dawn of the CD age in the mid 1980s. It was one of the most highly sought after reissues prior to this print. Reichel was a big star in Germany, having been the leader of the “German Beatles”, a band called The Rattles. He even did some movie roles back then. His switch to singer-songwriter in the mid 1970s has also paid off, as he’s managed to continue in the pop spotlight for another 30 years. Considering his popularity, and his rather safe choices for popdom, it’s really extraordinary how experimental and crazy Reichel became from 1971 through to 1975. These aren’t timid explorations with the psychedelic, but full blown excursions into the deep underground. Even before Manuel Gottsching (Ash Ra Tempel) or Gunther Schickert, it was Reichel who more or less invented the echoed tape delay guitar on guitar sound as a means to an entire album. As trippy as any Krautrock album ever made, including the Ohr classics. It would be hard to imagine, for example, a Davy Jones from The Monkees doing something like this. And, in a way, that’s what we have here. Essential for any serious Krautrock fan.

Frankie Dymon Jr.- Let It Out (1971 Germany). Perfect timing to speak of this obscurity. Dymon’s sole album, originally on BASF, was sort of a side project to Achim Reichel’s “Die Grune Reise” debut. Reichel wrote most of the music and it features the A.R. & Machines’ group for backup. Dymon provides the “poems in words and music”. Basically a proto-rap album, and heavily influenced by early 1970′s anti-everything street politics. One has to wonder if Gil Scott-Heron didn’t get ahold of a copy prior to launching his “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” epic. Naturally, with Reichel at the controls, “Let It Out” is far more freaky. Cool. No CD exists.

— here’s a review that I posted through a link, rather than here. Not ideal for search engines. So here it is:

Omnia Opera – Red Shift (1995/1997 England). Omnia Opera were one of the original members of the large scale movement known as the UK Festival Rock Scene (Andy Jones, a member of Omnia Opera, has commented below that they really weren’t a part of the scene), which was the 1980s equivalent of the 1960s hippy movement in the US. Participating bands played primarily for free and subsisted on tape sales and communal living. By far the most known band from this genre is the Ozric Tentacles, but there were many others that were just as worthy and most were sadly forgotten by the mid 1990s. Raise your hand if you remember Soma, Strobe, Mandragora, The Great Imperial YoYo, Paperhouse and … Omnia Opera (amongst many, many others). What separated Omnia Opera from the pack is they were one of the very few, if not the only one, to actually be heavier than the Ozrics. Omnia Opera were an aggressive bunch with thrashing guitars in the Hawkwind style, mixed with the ripping solos that Ed Wynne and crew are also noted for. While their debut received generally positive reviews, “Red Shift” was generally panned. In retrospect, their sophomore followup is no less worthy of recognition. Where some of the dissatisfaction came from, I’m sure, is the inclusion of techno elements, which many felt was the direction that killed the festival movement itself. Delerium Records seemed to almost insist every band on their roster at least incorporate some bits of electronica into their albums (Omnia Opera has exonerated the label, stating they had nothing to do with Omnia Opera’s choice of utilizing techno). Now I see the rejection of “Red Shift” as more of an audience’s turning-the-back on the new electronica styles being force fed to them, verse an actual objective viewpoint of the album itself. I suggest everyone who has a fondness for this style to give it one more listen.

— And with that, I close the books on my listening notes for 2007. For documentation purposes, I did pretty well. I would guess that about 50% of what I listened to ended up in these pages. There are many things I listen to that are just too mundane to inspire a writeup. Or in other cases, albums that are very common, in which someone has already jotted down my thoughts, but in far better prose than I could attempt. There are a couple of cases of albums that I’ve marked down for a future, full blown review. Albums like Catherine Ribeiro’s “No. 2″ or Mushroom with Eddie Gale’s “Joint Happening” deserve a feature review, rather than a stream of consciousness blurb. It is my hope I’ll be able to document albums like that in 2008.
— Tomorrow I will place my first set of reviews from 2008′s listening sessions.

Blue Magic s/t

This could be the posterchild for almost everything that went wrong with pop/funk in the mid 70s. Start with Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, mix them up into one very treacly mess and then add a generous dollop of early 70s style symphonic strings, so sweet the sugar is crystallizing on the side of the bowl. Yank the falsetto croon more in the direction of Gaye than Mayfield and proceed to whip out one saccharine ballad after another. In fact the only thing they’re missing, probably because this album was a year or two early, is a disco thump. Truly this is an offense to anyone who thinks art oughta earn an emotional response rather than beg for one.

The Cars s/t (deluxe edition)

It’s true, the debut Cars album is one of those late 70s records that would dominate rock radio for many years, as it’s virtually almost entirely singles you’d recognize and of course some of these are probably not worth writing home about while on the other hand there’s quite a few that stand up as well. The ones I like tend to have slight dark bents such as “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight,” the chorus of “Good Times Roll” and the (even now) commercial friendly “Moving in Stereo.” All of these wrap up almost classic hooks with a sense of the impending new decade that is almost definitively post-70s AOR. There’s the other side of the equation, of course, which will likely vary depending on one’s personal connection to this music (believe me you’ve been hiding in a hole the last 30 years if you don’t recognize most of these), but I can do without “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Just What I Needed,” but like I may have mentioned or implied with earlier posts on the Eagles, sometimes it’s easy to phase out the tracks you’re tired of to notice how strong the rest of the album is. The deluxe edition adds to the second disc a demo of the first album that varies quite a bit in material, although the singles you’d recognize aren’t quite as good the first time around and you can see they significantly improved just about everything for the actual debut. I probably don’t need to hear it again, however I’m surprisingly happy with the album per se. In terms of songwriting craft it’s nearly a how-to guide.

Amon Duul II – Blow Up Club, Munich 1969

I actually didn’t think I’d listen to this again given the poor quality document, but then got to hear one that was cleaned up a bit, improving the sound quality by a plus mark. At least now you can tell how great the show actually was instead of guessing, with the band mostly jamming on themes from Phallus Dei and sounding actually pretty good given the fact ADII could be abysmal on stage at times. The problem is that the quality is still poor enough that one has to strain to hear what was going on rather than letting it come naturally, meaning the listen tends to dissolve into fuzz when one isn’t totally paying attention. Shame this doesn’t exist in better quality.

Time – s/t (1975 England) On Buk (BULP 2005). I have the catalog number here so you, the reader, have a slight chance of finding this album (good luck in searching for Time and Buk). What a great album. Very complex for the time and place. Somewhat like Yes’ “Relayer” crossed with “Power and the Glory” Gentle Giant (you won’t see me use these type of mainstream comparisons much, because they rarely apply – but they do in this case!). And the vocalist reminds me a bit of Yezda Urfa (and the complexity of the music too). I also hear a little Fruupp and Jonesy here too. Time are one of the last great major label British albums not on CD (OK, maybe Buk wasn’t major, but they were definitely a AAA minor league label). Would be a perfect candidate for Esoteric to reissue.

Soffgruppen – Greatest Sits (aka Soffgruppen) (1975 Sweden). Splendid emotional heavy jazz rock album with trumpet, electric piano, organ and fuzz guitar highlighting the accent instruments. Somewhere between Ibis (Sweden), Berits Halsband and the French school of 1970s underground rock. Unfortunately there isn’t a CD.

Cane and Able – s/t (1972 USA). I’m always on the lookout for some good Afro-psych, and this is one of the better ones I’ve heard. Compares favorably to early Mandrill and Funkadelic, and the horns recall James Brown’s band at their funkiest. Some great fuzz and wah-wah to be heard here. Boogie-licious. There’s an LP reissue, but no legit CD from what I can tell.

Abraxis – s/t (1976 Belgium). Formed by members from the band Cos, this album is a cross between flute jazz, Canterbury inspired fusion and 70s funk. Somewhere between Chris Hinze, Cos, Cortex and Herbie Hancock is where you’ll find the sound of Abraxis. Flute drives the melody and solo lines, but there’s plenty of introspective piano sections as well. Which play nicely against some of the ferocious electric guitar. A nice discovery on the always surprising IBC label (Nuit Calline a la Villa Mon Reve, Solis Lacus). No CD exists.

Placebo – Ball of Eyes (1971 Belgium).
Placebo – s/t (1973 Belgium)
Placebo – 1974 (1974 Belgium). Marc Moulin’s three Placebo albums are the “Holy Grail” for the rare groove crowd, a sector of music fans who love that unique 70s style of cool. The beat and the mood of the sound are key. For an album from the 1971 jazz scene, “Ball of Eyes” is remarkably focused, without any experimentation or free jazz moments which were still in vogue during that time. Not edgy like same era Miles Davis, Wolfgang Dauner or even other rare Euro groovers like the Sunbirds. In fact when I first heard it, I was certain it was from 1975 or later. The horn charts are all very well done and they do catch that certain 70s spy groove. It’s all a bit too laid back for me to get hugely excited over, but it’s wide appeal is undeniable. The 1973 self-titled album continues in the same vein as “Ball of Eyes”, though it’s definitely more funky and head boppin’ than the debut. And the real ear grabber is the superb Moog soloing by Moulin. Strangely, the album finishes in a completely different direction. The next to last track is more towards straight jazz and the closer has more in common with Electronik Musik, than anything one would associate with Placebo. I thought the sophomore effort surpassed the debut, and from what I could tell, many considered it their best. But my vote goes to the 3rd and last album titled “1974″. Here the grooves go deeper, the solos more intense, and the ideas are, to a greater degree, unique. I had almost listed Placebo as a Tier 1 group on the strength of the self-titled album. With “1974″, I must. In all, a two CD, three album comprehensive reissue would be ideal. Currently all that is available is a one CD compilation, which isn’t enough.