Pocket Orchestra – Knebnagauje (1984 USA). These go hand in hand with two other groups I’ve been checking out lately: Uz Jsme Doma and Begnagrad. This is “neener-neener” music to the neener-nth degree. A bit of a geek-fest, but insanely complex and the musicianship is way above standard. A walking definition of the term “avant progressive” as I know it. The 1983-4 material is much more in the avant prog zone, and you have to think they were well versed with the French AYAA label. Whatever the case, they were completely out of place in Phoenix, Arizona. The namesake title era of 1978-1979 shows their affiliation with the other famous Phoenix band, Cartoon. Both had a penchant to break out into a tuneless improve after cooking on some great grooves. Too bad they insisted on that, since some of this is outstanding material. Still I found this era to be better for the band, with a stronger rock element and more grit to the playing. Overall, not necessarily a favored style, but I can get into this with little effort.

Rebekka – Phoenix (1982 Germany). Been awhile since I heard this Musea CD, but my impressions haven’t changed a bit over the years. Part of a small cadre of German bands from the late 70s and early 80s that combined female vocal led soft rock, some folk, Eastern sounds and an occasional prog rock outburst. Werwolf, Yavanna, Credemus and Eden are a few bands that come to mind. One could throw Emma Myldenburger in here as well, but they were a bit more special. Anyway, good stuff overall, recommended to fans of Renaissance and other similar acts. Unusual as it is, but the CD bonus is the best track – a 12 minute Eastern journey “Lotus” which had to be left off the LP for time length reasons.

Melodic Energy Commission – Time… Is a Slippery Concept (2005 Canada). With these guys, time is a slippery concept. In 1979, MEC sounded like 1971. In 1980 they sounded like 1971. And 25 years later they sound like…no door prizes… 1971! When I say 1971, I don’t mean production styles and era instrumentation, but rather a certain adventurous composition style, completely non-linear and skewed, beyond the scope of rational imagination. Add to that about a baker’s dozen different instruments and a distinctive psychedelic sound, and you have one of the great modern space rock albums. Instant classic with plenty of room to grow from there. File Don Xaliman next to John L. as true modern geniuses who will be discovered long after they’re gone.

(originally posted Sep. 2005)

Thinking Plague – Upon Both of Your Houses

This CD was recorded at the only NEARFest I attended before travel mishaps, monetary influences and progscene politics made me lose my enthusiasm for trekking cross country for events of this sort. And it was the second time I’d seen the band after Progday less than a year before this and maybe because it was the first time I’d seen them that I preferred the Progday gig over this one. Thinking Plague, as is well known, clear proghouses of most of the fans I have little in common with much to the amusement of the remaining fans who find this band to be one of the best and most on-the-box progressive rock groups of the modern crop. Their Art Bears and other avant-rock inspired sounds both challenge and impress and I find them one of the closest to my heart from this area of music in that they have the same penchant as This Heat for creating excellent atmospheres and drones with their style, while still being forward thinking and compositionally complex as well. In retrospect this disc shows that the concert was probably even better than my experience of it, possibly due to post-show treatment sound upgrades (and lack of hangover), even if seeing Kerman’s barbie doll act adds immeasurably to the experience.

Lamp of the Universe – Echo in Light

New Zealanders Lamp of the Universe still seem to be effortless putting out far out and krautrock inspired psychedelic albums with all the attendant sitars and exotica, and it’s a shame we can’t augment their reputation by zipping them back to 1973 and signing them up on the Kosmische label. In an era where rather common if energetic space rock seems to be the overt face of psychedelia, it’s acts like Lamp, Titan and others that really get my blood moving, reminding one that there’s still a lot of territory to be mined here. Certainly there’s a shtickyness to it that will remind one of flower power and pictures of beatnicks with sitars on nice Persian rugs, but it’s a shtick I happen to be rather enamored with, that sort of naivete and ambition that makes guys without any training pick up instruments with a skill level rather less than Ravi Shankar’s and still make me feel I’ve been transported to another world.

Mu – End of an Era (aka The Last Album)

I missed this album upon its original Reckless release when that label was one of the few companies putting out a number of unusual releases alongside their slew of Bevis Frond albums, stuff like the second Crazy World of Arthur Band album, Rustic Hinge and this strange singer/songwriter outfit led by Merrell Fankhauser and joined by Beefheart guitarist Jeff Cotton. The music is definitely song oriented and unlike the other two examples, closer to some of Frond’s music. It’s a bit early for me to compare the songwriting between the two, but the music Mu recorded (and didn’t release until the late 80s) has some unusual quirks and tangents to it that made it quite an interesting listen. Overall, though, it wouldn’t be easy to say more about this without further absorption.

Shub Niggurath – s/t (1985 France). When Shub Niggurath released “Les Morts Vont Vite” in 1986 (on Musea), hardcore Zeuhl fans everywhere were frothing at the mouth, dirtying their dogeared copies of Lovecraft, while frantically chanting “Kobaia” and envisioning a world of Magma and Univers Zero dominance. Personally, while I found the album quite good (and still do), I did feel it lacked a bit in the melody, groove and soul departments. It was all manic depressive, all the time. And they were quite the noisy bunch if truth be told. Well before that, unbeknownst to but a few of the Secret Order of the Golden Fleece, there was a privately released cassette. And if you loved “Les Morts Vont Vite”, then a CD reissue of this puppy will put you in Hog Hell. Not much variation of their classic sound, doom/gloom and still a bit noisy… but, yea, that would still make you happy wouldn’t it?

Mama Bea Tekielski – La Folle (1976 France). Mama Bea’s debut album is clearly indebted to Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes’ early 1970s works, but honestly this is much more dense, and truth be told, completely unhinged. Perhaps it’s Ribeiro’s Portugese heritage verse Tekielski’s Polish background, but there’s something far more disturbing going on with “La Folle” than anything Ribeiro coughed up (literally). While Ribeiro is far from an easy listen, she still comes across as the mysterious troubled damsel in distress. Perhaps it’s her runway-fashion-model looks, but Catherine seems to be reaching out for help while still dominating all that is around her. With Mama Bea, you get the ragged 100 straight nights of booze, pills and rock and roll look and attitude. The cover of her smoking a cigarette, with a face that says that she’s had just about enough of the crap she’s been dealing with, is priceless. And so she takes it out on this recording. There are times that it would seem appropriate for the medics to come in and hustle her off to safer pastures. Meanwhile all the earmarks of a classic underground album are going on in the background, with plenty of psychedelic guitar, rumbling bass (a trademark of the French scene) and pounding percussion. It’s all a bit unsettling, but it’s also too real to ignore. A real grower if I ever heard one. Perfect justification for a much needed CD reissue.

Inserts – Out of the Box (1983 USA). A very interesting instrumental album from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Inserts are an improvisational guitar based trio, with a clear understanding of the value of a good production. The guitar is distinctly from the Fripp school, including the angry atonal fuzz tone. The bass work has an almost Zeuhl quality about it, though it doesn’t rumble along the rhythm like Paganotti or Top would do. These kind of albums didn’t exist in 1983, but other than the occassional “Starless and Bible Black” reference, I would say that the Inserts were AHEAD of their time. You could easily convince me a group such as Djam Karet may have stumbled onto this in a used bin somewhere. Album was pressed in Japan and released on the band’s own label here in America. It’s a first class job all the way. Apparently Inserts are still around, and they plan on reissuing this album soon!

Steel Pulse – Paradiso Club, Amsterdam 11/26/83 + The Ritz, New York City 7/12/84

One of my finest nostalgic experiences was seeing Steel Pulse open for INXS in about 88-89 and being crammed to the front of the stage with a whole lot of dancing in a crowd that was decidedly tilted to the female gender. I’d heard an album or two by this point, but this always cemented the reggae band as being a favorite of sorts even if I’d not necessarily laud their canon itself. This collection of two short shows is kind of split for me. True Democracy was basically “my” Steel Pulse album and even though it was released before both of these shows, it seems songs like “Chant a Psalm” show up more in the second show than the first. Anyway as a pop/reggae band there’s not really a lot to be surprised about, and as usual one’s enjoyment factor will dramatically increase with physical contact. Sound quality on both of them: not great but quite listenable.

Boris – Amplifier Waves

Boris is one of those groups (or projects maybe) where even before you hear them, their reputation makes you know almost exactly what you’re going to get, a lot of bass-derived and, ahem, amplified sounds. In many ways this seems to be tilted to the audience who likes the more avant garde aspects of the stoner rock sound (although I just laughed writing that) and seems more in the league of something like Earth or maybe Khanate to some extent (although definitely no vocals here). Slow, big loud noises apparently seem to have found their audience, maybe in a sort of post-early Melvins sort of mode, but I found this to be really predictable and tedious overall. I’m not sure if this is one of their central releases per se, so I’m definitely not done with Boris yet, but this album did meet just about every expectation I had for it.

Grateful Dead / Janis Joplin - Euphoria Ballroom, San Rafael, CA 7/16/70

Kind of a short little gig during one of my least favorite (early) periods for the band and you know when Janis joined the Dead that it was basically all about her and Pigpen, usually doing versions of Lovelight that go on forever. But even with that said, I found this kind of charming in its own way, but I’m generally fond of Joplin’s vocals and she tends to shine doing crowd raising numbers. You can just imagine her and Pigpen duelling it up on stage like it was another lifetime ago.

Art Zoyd – Marathonnerre I & II

I’m probably not alone in not having previously explored Art Zoyd music after the Mariage album, after hearing reports that the band moved from a very acoustic-based sound to one that incorporates electronics and such. This set of two related and simultaneously released CDs more or less confirms almost everything I would have expected from these descriptions. The band still creates some of the most wonderfully, creepy and dark atmospheres ever (and in some ways look way back to their Atem labelmate Pandemonium) except that now, periodically, some sort of electronic beat comes jumping out and occasionally some of these are so banal and techno-derived that I found myself checking the disc. So this is definitely not the same band as the original, even with a couple of the original members still hanging around, and it’s a much more drastic stylistic change than, say, Univers Zero, even if you could see the roots of this style as far back as Phase IV. My opinion might have also been modified by the decision to play both CDs through, which possibly wasn’t the best idea, over time it felt like some moves and ideas were being repeated. I might not be the audience for this overall, as I was wishing that the electronic beats were totally absent.

Marc Ribot – Shoe-String Symphonettes

Ribot’s sense of eclecticism is something I’m appreciating more and more, from John Zorn to Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, and given that he’s got a somewhat rough guitar style, it always seems he brings a sense of adventure to everything he’s involved with. Shoe String Symphonettes was released on Zorn’s Tzadik label as part of a “series” of film-inspired soundtrack-ish music and it’s something of a departure for him. The music is generally steely and industrial while still managing to have quite a sense of warmth to it. There’s quite a bit of Ribot’s eclecticism even working within this field and the pieces, while generally shorter, kind of move all over the map and occasionally move away from pieces obviously guitar dominated. Definitely one I’ll be absorbing and enjoying over time.

Exmagma – 3

This third Exmagma record was unreleased during their existence in the 70s, yet unlike many unfinished records, I actually think this could be the band’s best work. Exmagma might have been better named Exsoftmachine with their organ heavy, somewhat Canterbury inspired rock music. Perhaps the most notable element of the band is the presence of Fred Braceful on drums, a player more notable for his jazz participation. While I haven’t listened to this enough to really work out the directions on display, my listening frequently drew me back into the music even while multitasking. There’s something kind of twisty and turny about their compositions and while I often wish there were some soloists at work more frequently, there’s a uniqueness on display here that shows the band finally starting to reach past their influences only for the musicians to go their separate ways.

Litmus – You Are Here (2004 England). Blazing out of the gates with a monolithic guitar riff, twee-twee-twee Moog knob twiddles, and a neanderthal 4/4 rhythm, I was immediately reminded of those 90s aggressive festival rockers Omnia Opera, minus any of their Floydian cosmic buildups. Or, of course, I could’ve mentioned the real inspiration at work here – which would be primo early 70s era Hawkwind, if Lemmy ran the band that is. They put the “B” in subtle, and pulverize most of the songs right through the wall. The keyboardist is the same gentleman who runs the excellent Planet Mellotron site, and so no surprise the mellotron gets more than its share of studio time. Though good luck in hearing it over the racket. I like my space rock a bit more cosmic and trippy me-self, but OK, that’s not their bag. Interesting to note that even Mr. Planet Mellotron didn’t care too much for their second album “Planetfall”, and it would seem this dissatisfaction lead to his departure from the band just as they are now on the somewhat big time label Rise Above Records.

Leitkegel – s/t (1998 England). Certainly the noisiest and least focused of the 99-count release Drug Series albums. Neu! seems to be one of the primary influences, as would be the 1980s industrial scene. An interesting record, and quite good, but probably my least favorite of the series (a series that includes Quad, Mother Yod, Ohr Musik and others).

Artillery – Fear of Tomorrow (1985 Denmark). It’s been at least two years since I sat down and listened to a good old fashioned headbanging thrash metal album. There was a time in the 1980s when not a day would go by without a fix of thrash. Surprisingly I never did get around to picking up the Artillery albums in their heyday. They had received glorious reviews in Kerrangg, and even more importantly for those of us who lived in the underground, Metal Forces! They were one of the few bands that could go the distance with Metallica in those days, critically speaking. The reason I didn’t buy them then was for the usual college budget reasons, and their albums were only available as UK imports (Neat Records if I remember right). Listening with 2008 ears, Artillery’s debut is certainly not anything that hasn’t been done hundreds of times before. But Artillery were one of the first, and for that they get credit. All these years and thousands of crazy albums later, and I still like a good, solid thrash metal album…

The Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (disc 3, tin set, documentary)

This extra disc to this extended edition of Ogden’s Nut Flake (the first two discs are two different versions of the albums) is a radio show dedicated to the band and featuring a number of alternate tracks and other recordings of music before and around the classic Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake album. I’ve heard the album about a bazillion times at this point, heard it live, seen videos and so I think I’m towards the point where my returns are diminishing on something like this, after all it’s the album’s tracks that are important and the rest of this is just a bit of fun. There’s a really bizarre quality level change in the middle of one song and a couple of other tape artifacts that occasionally detract, but for the most part a listen or two to this is enough. The DJing either wasn’t that much of interest or I filtered him out. Or both.

Boredoms – Sea Drum/House of Sun

This is the Boredoms’ Join Inn so to speak, you get your “Sea Drum” “Freak n Roll” for an “A side” and a very psychedelic and meditative droner for the B side. One wonders if such a paring was intentional given the krautrock influences the Boredoms have had. Needless to say the results are quite impressive. The drum of “Sea Drum” pounds mercilessly throughout as if you had been conscripted to row for a Roman galleon, propelling the music, mostly guitar effects and droney stuff, throughout its ever intensifying psychedelic march. And unlike the Ash Ra Tempel album this is similar to, there isn’t much in the way of solo spots and in that way this is probably more like Acid Mothers (albeit with a better sense of dynamics). While “Sea Drum,” like “Freak n Roll,” is likely to get more attention here, it’s actually the B side (same with Join Inn) that really does it for me, an Eastern, mantric, cosmic drone where the whole band just sort of moves it along with slight phrasings, with no particular musician in front. I was so impressed with this (that is both pieces) I had to give it another listen. Definitely an impressive work by a great Japanese outfit.

Charming Hostess – Punch

Don’t really have any clue why it took me so long to hear any Charming Hostess album since Eat, which was one of my favorites of its year and a classic in its own right. In fact Punch is something of a follow up to Eat, with some of the same musicians and it continues the band’s penchant for combining traditional music with modern and envelope pushing arrangements. Of course the draw here are the vocals, which are not only spot on from a technical perspective, but full of life, joy and fun. You get a little blues, a substantial rock backbone, some traditional Jewish songs, a bit of Art Bears sharpness and a bunch of other things I could barely list before the album was over. Quite frankly I’m surprised this didn’t get the buzz Eat got as it seems to be on an initial listen to be every bit as strong and maybe a little more mature. Fantastic work as you’d expect from Eisenberg and co.

Emmanuel Booz – Au Restaurant d’Alice

I did an overview of this French musician’s work at Gnosis a while back and don’t have all that much to add to my appraisal of this first work. I did have a bit of an Arlo Guthrie interest in my youth and had fun spinning the original Alice’s Restaurant a few times, but of course so much of that record is the lyrics and my high school level French isn’t up to the task here. With that said there does seem to be that same sort of casual and upbeat humor here, and my opinion of this has come up a couple of notches, although at this point I don’t think I’ll be hanging onto it.

Jean-Luc Hamonet/Algue – Melodie, Melodie Rock

Musea’s progressive rock book (although I’m definitely going from memory here) has this rare-ish one off project pegged as something of a Camel clone (my words) and while that may be true in part, I’d say the dominant influence on the music is the Allman Brothers. I don’t remember which song it was but there’s definitely an homage to “Blue Sky” that reminds me a little of an analagous Allmans tribute on Motorpsycho’s Let Them Eat Cake. Unfortunately for Hamonet he’s severely handicapped by his equipment and production, with what is one of the thinnest guitar tones I’ve ever heard and his backup group seems a little too tight and amateur to help let the inspirational floodgates loose. I like its breezy upbeat mood but this isn’t an album that’s likely to even convince fans of the influences.

Amir s/t

The early 80s French new music/jazz outfit works sort of in the same circles as Confluence or Clivage, musical ensembles working in both classical and the occasional world or exotic styles to give the entirety a somewhat chamberish feel. It builds slowly with pianos and winds only for the gentleness to start being disturbed by discordant strings as the music develops with a tendency to improvise freely. Throughout the album we’re treated to lots of “found object” sort of sounds, whistles and more unidentifable sounds all of which reminds me of outfits like Limbus 3/4, Ossian and others. Overall it’s a pretty fascinating piece although its inclusion in any rock book is something of a stretch.

Dragonmilk – Wolfman Macabre

Definitely one Audio Archives should have filed under shouldn’t have bothered, this live collection of various covers is likely to bore the socks off of all but the most completist early 70s rock collector. It forces one to sit through tepid and badly rendered hard rcok versions of Gimme Some Lovin’, Jesus Christ Superstar, Norwegian Wood and others. I’ll admit that I don’t particularly like this sort of idea from the getgo, so maybe this had no chance in my player.

Scorpions – In Trance

Hadn’t heard this Scorpions release in maybe 20 years, but it was one I listened to a lot back in the day when I first tracked the Blackout band backwards in times to pastures that I’d admire much more than their commercial outfit now. They had a pretty solid sound, maybe with some harsh edges with Klaus Meine’s voice at the time, but at least it’s Uli Roth sticking to lead guitar most of the time. Dark Lady, Top of the Bill and Robot Man all played like they were welling up from another time. Not really their best or worst but a solid 70s rock record all the same.

Timothy Leary – You Can Be Anyone This Time Around

Daevid Allen-esque collage work by the 60s counterculture paragon, unsurprisingly this is almost wall to wall psychedelia, mixing in bits of familiar songs from the era, perhaps making this a clearance nightmare. It’s the sort of onslaught you’re fed by bands like Acid Mothers Temple today, with loads of trippy effects and heavy acid rock onslaughts mixed in throughout, although with this Leary the quieter bits flow pretty nicely. I can’t imagine anyone not getting what they’d expect from an album such as this, although be careful with the pharmaceuticals if you have this in the player.

Jox – Joxifications (1982 France). A super find from the always surprising FLVM label. Starts off heavily in the French folky bag recalling Troisieme Rive’s “Banlieues” or Manu Lannhuel, but after about 5 minutes, the mood changes and the music moves into a primarily instrumental direction. In the end, you come away feeling like you’ve just heard a French Gryphon circa “Red Queen to Gryphon Three”. Just replace the bassoon with an oboe. Other than the last, and short, 3 minute instrumental, the album does not use drums (a primitive drum machine was applied on the last track, for no purpose it seems). The music is driven by piano, acoustic guitar, Moog and best of all, a very rocking bass, that keep the music driving forward. In this way, I’m reminded of Circus’ amazing “Movin On’” album. Great, and memorable melodies, also define this album. Musea should dip back into the reissue market with this gem.

Roland Hollinger – Bardo Thodol (1978 France). Primarily haunting and dark electronic music in the 70′s tradition. Some accent instruments pop up here and there like guitar, piano, saxophone and percussion, but primarily “Bardo Thodol” is a pretty bleak work. A logical companion to the two Jean Baptiste Barriere albums. Would make for an interesting CD reissue.

Odin – SWF Session 1973 (1973 Germany-England). I really don’t have much to say here (search for my review of the self-titled album elsewhere on these pages), but I wanted to call out this superb archival find by Long Hair. The SWF Sessions have proven to be a treasure chest, and both Garden of Delights and Long Hair have done a good job of mining the lode. Odin themselves are a band that managed only one release in their lifetime (on Vertigo, released in Germany only). Even though they featured English members amongst their staff, the band seemed to have immersed deep into the German scene of the time. This means long sections devoted to organ and guitar soloing over shifting meters. There’s also a strong love for Zappa, as represented by two lengthy cover tunes, including “King Kong”. Great liner notes and sound add to the designation of “must pick up”.