Music review by Hildemollerknag

Originally a trio of friends from school, John Simms (guitar), Mark Sheather (bass), and Ken White (drums) grew up in the Acton area of London and started as a college circuit blues-rock band called JUG BLUES (later MATUSE and then X). Impressing manager Ashley Kozak, the band were given a deal with Vertigo, changed their name to CLEAR BLUE SKY and recorded a self-titled record under the production of Patrick Campbell-Lyons. Still only eighteen, the three musicians mixed hard blues with progressive and psychedelic rock in an unusually mature way, and the LP was released in January 1971 sporting one of Roger Dean's earliest album covers. The group was occasionally compared to CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN and early JETHRO TULL, though the music had a firm prog sensibility unlike CREAM or ZEPPELIN and sometimes may even remind of RUSH.

CLEAR BLUE SKY's 1971 debut (reissued on Repertoire,1991) is considered their most important and the LP is a collector's item. The second record, "Destiny" [Saturn, 1990], released twenty years after the first (and then again in 1999 on Aftermath in CD format), is old material but shows an improvement in form and approach from the first session. 1996 saw the part-concept album "Cosmic Crusader" and later another theme record "Mirror of the Stars". "Out of the Blue", a collection of live and unreleased material, came out in 2001.
Tracks
Tracklisting
01. Man of stone
02. New Dream
03. Spooky
04. Will you lie
05. Veil of the vixen
06. Taxman
07. Joanna
08. Journey
09. Mistery
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A hard rock trio from Newcastle whose album is now rare. They had a good reputation as a live act and wrote some strong material on their album, with the continuous track "The House"/"Sun In A Bottle" the highlight, alongside a cover version of The Beatles' "And I Love Her". Geoff Sharkey had earlier played in Sammy.
Tracks
1 Tyne God (Sharkey) 5:27
2 I Cannot Understand (Sharkey) 4:16
3 The Journey (Sharkey) 5:55
4 Portrait Picture (Sharkey) 5:42
5 Fair Stood The Wind (Sharkey) 2:48
6 And I Love Her (Lennon/McCartney) 3:09
7 Life (Sharkey) 4:27
8 The Morning After (Sharkey) 5:11
9 The House (Sharkey) 3:30
10 Sun In The Bottle (Sharkey) 5:03
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Kazuhiko Katō (加藤 和彦, Katō Kazuhiko?, March 21, 1947 – October 17, 2009), nicknamed "Tonovan" (トノヴァン?), was a Japanese record producer, songwriter, and singer. He sometimes used the spelling of "Kazuhiko Katoh".

As a member of the Folk Crusaders, Kato launched his recording career in the mid 1960s. "Kaettekita Yopparai (I Only Live Twice)", their psychedelic debut song composed by Kato and released in 1967, sold more than 1.3 million copies in Japan, and became one of the best-selling singles of the early Japanese popular music industry. The group also starred in director Nagisa Oshima's 1968 film "Kaette kita yopparai" (alternately known as "Sinner in Paradise" or "Three Resurrected Drunkards").

After the breakup of Folk Crusaders in 1970, Kato gained success for his production works for other musicians, including Shigeru Izumiya, Mariya Takeuchi, and Takuro Yoshida. In particular, Sadistic Mika Band, the acclaimed project he started with his first wife Mika Fukui, received international success. Their 1974 album entitled Kurofune (The Black Ship) is regarded as one of the most significant Japanese rock albums of the mid 1970s. The group was disbanded and reassembled again several times, with new vocalists such as Yumi Matsutoya, Karen Kirishima, and Kaela Kimura.

As a composer, Kato created the theme song "Ai Oboetei Imasu ka" for The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? anime film released during the summer of 1984 in Japan. He later formed a songwriting team with his second wife, the late Kazumi Yasui. Most of the songs they wrote were recorded and produced by Kenji Sawada. In 1990, Kato teamed up with graphic artists, Haruhiko Shono and Kuniyoshi Kaneko, to provide the music for the award-winning Japanese computer game, Alice.

Kato committed suicide by hanging on October 17, 2009 at a hotel in Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Police discovered a suicide note in his hotel room.
Tracks
1.Iewo Tsukurunara (02:24)
2.Arther Hakaseno Jinriki Hikouki (05:46)
3.Mahouni Kakatta Asa (02:23)
4.Sekkachito (03:15)
5.Moshimo, Moshimo, Moshimo (03:39)
6.Fushigina Hi (02:44)
7.Matankino Kokage (02:43)
8.Alcansheru (07:03)
9.Jiraiya (07:27)
10.Super Gas (01:44)
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A popular album among european psych and prog collectors, Distortions was in fact released in Italy in 1971, along with a single, by a group of unknown studio musicians and later released in other european countries, among which England.
Both album and single appeared in Italy on Vedette subsidiary Spider label, and were composed (under his nickname Tical) and played by Armando Sciascia.

An entirely instrumental album that shows some influences from late 60's psych sounds.
Tracks
1. Diodo
2. Metamorphosis
3. Microchaos
4. Compression
5. Equilibrium
6. Dipnoi
7. Distillation
8. Equivalence
9. Psycho Nebulous
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It was just two years ago when we met each other — that’s when it all started. Jim CURRAN started giving us guitar lessons. After a while we always played together at the shows at school. Then we had a photography class with Frank. He taught us how to develop pictures and what a photographer should know. One day it was very nice out so we went over to the college to ake pictures and there was a great big dandelion field and so we thought why don’t we take pictures here. So we all picked some dandelions and posed in them. Frank took our picture and we developed it. In a few weeks we were together at Kitsy’s home for the weekend and Uncle Scott and Aunt Judy were there when we started to make up some songs. Uncle Scott said, “Why don’t you two make an album since you’re so good?” We said, “O.K.!” So we started making up songs and Kitsy came up with the idea of using the picture of us as the album cover. We figured out how it was going to look and everything so we made up a whole bunch of songs. Some of them we forgot and they weren’t any good and so we had to make up new ones. Our new ones turned out pretty good. Then we had singing lessons with some of the teachers at our school. Before we could record we had to practice doing our songs, so Jim said we should have a show of our own for the school just to get used to crowds. We did and we sang all our songs. Finally we had a whole bunch of rehearsals for the album and we had background people like Wendy and Mike — Mike played the drums and Wendy the bass. It really started to sound good so we had our first recording sessions. On our first recording session we recorded 4 songs but we only used two: “Dandelions” and “Tuffy”. In our second recording session we were tired of rehearsing and recording so we decided we were going to do them all that day. They all turned out good. The following Monday night at 8 o’clock we chose which songs we wanted to do which finished the album. We had everybody who wanted an album at the College School send in $5.00 to us. When we got pretty much money we finished the album and that made us very proud. Thanks to http://www.swanfungus.com
Musicians:
Jim Curran – Director
Wendy Katz – Bass
Mike Kieffer – Drums
John MacEnulty – Professional Assistance
Tres Williams – Guitar
Kitsy Christner – Guitar
Tracklist:
01. Dandelions
02. The College School
03. Tuffy
04. War
05. They Call It Love
06. The Children Of Sunshine
07. Uncle Harry
08. If You Are Lonely
09. Talking
10. It’s A Long Way To Heaven
11. Harmony
12. Talking
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The song and album title is a reference to the experience of being towed along in a small boat by a harpooned whale (see Nantucket Sleighride.) The person to whom the song is dedicated, Owen Coffin, was a young seaman on the Nantucket whaleship Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. In the aftermath of the wreck, Coffin was shot and eaten by his shipmates. The Essex's story was recorded by its First Mate, Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.

"Nantucket Sleighride" was used as the theme to the long-running British political television show Weekend World.
Mountain is an American rock band whose main fame was in the 1970s. The band was inspired by Cream and enjoyed the involvement of unofficial Cream bassist and producer Felix Pappalardi.

Mountain played at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and their first album, Climbing!, was released the following year. The album included the track "Mississippi Queen" which reached No.21 on the Billboard charts. The band split after the live album, Mountain Live (The Road Goes Ever On) (1972), and two of the members went on to form West, Bruce (from Cream) and Laing which achieved success in their own right. After reforming in 1974, the band released a live album and Avalanche, but that was to be the last of their studio output until 1996's Man's World. Leslie West, and Corky Laing continue to "rock on" as Mountain to this day.
Tracks
o1. Don't Look Around - 3:47
02. Taunta (Sammy's Tune) - 1:00
03. Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) - 5:55
04. You Can't Get Away! - 3:28
05. Tired Angels (To J.M.H.) - 4:42
06. The Animal Trainer And The Toad - 3:29
07. My Lady - 4:35
08. Travelin' In The Dark (To E.M.P.) - 4:26
09. The Great Train Robbery - 5:50
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The LP, originally released in 1971, is the sultry French songstress' only English language album.
Sung (except for one track) in English, this 1972 album (originally titled just Françoise Hardy) was reissued on CD by Virgin France in 2000 under the title If You Listen, and issued in some foreign territories under yet different titles in the 1970s. However it was titled, it was a good, tasteful, and subdued set of folk-rock- and singer/songwriter-influenced covers (though the one French song, "Brulure," was the sole original Hardy composition). It's no surprise that the mood here is dignified rainy-day sorrow. But that was Hardy's forte, and the arrangements, emphasizing acoustic guitar and light strings, seem to indicate she was doing some listening to British folk-rock and American singer/songwriters. So does the choice of covers, including songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie, Neil Young ("Till the Morning Comes"), Beverley Martyn, and Randy Newman ("I Think It's Gonna Rain Today"). There's also the quite obscure "The Garden of Jane Delawnay," a misspelled interpretation of "The Garden of Jane Delawney" by the British folk-rock band the Trees; "Let My Name Be Sorrow," originally done by Mary Hopkin; and a couple of tunes co-written by Mick Jones, later of Foreigner. None of songs rate among her best work, but it's still a good album, often overlooked even by Hardy fans and notable in that just one of the English songs ("Bown Bown Bown") was also recorded by Hardy in a French version. It's also much superior to her album of English cover versions of just three years before, Françoise Hardy en Anglais, which was over-produced and far heavier on the syrup.
She grew up in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, the daughter of an unmarried mother. She received a guitar on her sixteenth birthday as a reward for passing her baccalaureat. After a year at the Sorbonne she answered a newspaper advertisement looking for young singers. Hardy signed her first contract with the record label Vogue in November 1961. In April 1962, shortly after finishing school, her first record "Oh Oh Chéri" appeared, written by Johnny Hallyday's writing duo. Her own flip side of the record, "Tous les garçons et les filles" became a success, riding the wave of Yé-yé music in France, with two million sales. She first appeared on television in 1962 during an interlude in a programme reporting the results of a presidential referendum.

Hardy sings in French, English, Italian, Spanish, and German. In 1963 she came fifth for Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest with "L'amour s'en va". In 1963, she was awarded the Grand Prix Du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy.

In 1981, she married her long-time companion Jacques Dutronc, with whom she had had a son, Thomas Dutronc, in 1973. In 1994, she collaborated with the British pop group Blur for their "La Comedie" version of "To The End". In May 2000, she made a comeback with the album Clair Obscur. Her son played guitar and her husband sang the duet "Puisque Vous Partez En Voyage." Iggy Pop and Étienne Daho also took part. She has also recorded a duet with Perry Blake who wrote two songs for her award winning Tant de belles choses album. Hardy lives near Paris and Dutronc lives in Monticello, Corsica, although they remain a couple
Tracks
1. If You Listen
2. Ocean
3. Until It's Time For You to Go
4. Garden of Jane Delawnay, The
5. Sometimes
6. Let My Name Be Sorrow
7. Brulure
8. Can't Get the One I Want
9. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today
10. Take My Hand For a While
11. Bown Bown Bown
12. Till Morning Comes
listen

Players: Jelle Jeltema, Gerard, Jan-Piet den Tex, Jaap van Beusekom, Emile den Tex and Jaap van der Sluys. The band were founded in 1670 in the place Bergen.
Quite mellow sounding folk rock from the Netherlands. Inspired by the sounds of Neil Young, The Byrds and The Band.
Tracks
01. Patient woman
02. Dreams take me away
03. Man woman dog
04. Old friends
05. May be maybe
06. Wild pony
07. Back to the roots
08. Sometimes
09. In this room
10. Every angel
Listen

Since 1965 the Peruvian band named The New Jugglers Sound had made a name in our country and wrote almost 100 songs, but it's not until 1968 when their sound takes a definitive form, first they change the name to "Laghonia", they recruit a North American guitar player and vocalist named David Levane and start to take seriously their career.
They release their first single called Glue (Due to a drug that Saul Cornejo had read about in Time Magazine) with a "B" side a single called Billy Morsa (Billy Walrus).

With this singles an some new material that included their first N° 1 hit "Bahia", most of it oriented towards Psychedelia they are ready to release their fist album in 1971 which takes the name of their first single "GLUE".

Don't let the date of release (1971) fool you, because all the material is from the 60's, but when you live in a third world country ruled by a dictator who hates Rock, it is hard to find any label ready to take the risk of promoting Peruvian Rock band who sings in English (Language hated by the same dictator).

The album starts with "Baby, Baby"; beautiful song especially because it's really naïve, this track is clearly influenced by early Beatles, for moments seems that you're listening a weird version of Love Me Do including the "oohs". But that simplicity is the key of its beauty, almost as a baby walking for the first time but holding the hand of an adult.

"I Must Go" starts as a Psychedelic version of Simon and Garfunkel, even the voices are similar, but the song is darker and less friendly, somehow derivative but very good.

It's time for Neighbor and time to get really Psychedelic with a clear Latin sound (Like a mixture of WAR and Grand Funk Railroad but written before any of this bands released their debut albums), the vocal work is very complex, all the members sing different lyrics like a conversation where everybody wants to say his part never caring for the rest. Rhythmic but chaotic, a very interesting experiment and the Hammond B2 sounds better than ever.

"The Sand Man" starts as a ballad with nothing special dreamy but very simple and apparently predictable, but suddenly the voices of the rest of the members join announcing an instrumental section where the repetitive piano creates a very nostalgic effect leaving a very aggressive guitar a la Hendrix to do the work and turns to a very complex and well elaborated track. The highest point of the album up to this point, it's clear that these guys can create 100% original and imaginative stuff.

"Billy Morsa" (Billy Walrus) had already been released in late 1968 as B side for the title song of this album and was well received by the public, rock oriented a bit mysterious and satirical, it's a sound about an ex-convict (Alias Billy Morsa) who appears dead in a garden.

I love the effect created by the vocalist (Who seems to be Dave Levane making it funnier being born in USA) who fakes a very strong Latin accent, that's part of the joke (Sounds like Mexican border English), because if you notice this is the only track with a name partially in Spanish and this guys have proved that their English was very good.

The song ends much more complex than it started, because all the instruments join to create a very pleasant sound, outstanding bass work.

When I believed this was already a very good debut album, comes "Trouble Child" to prove that this guys really had the chance to make excellent stuff. This song has everything, strong vocal work (Chorus), dramatic changes, a killer first guitar and very solid drums, a new peak of the album has been reached, very Progressive and extremely solid. Can they get better? We'll see in the next lines.

"My Love" starts like a Beatlesque ballad in the vein of the early works of the fabulous four, but there's something special, more advanced towards proto Prog with the excellent guitar and the wonderful organ.

It seems clear from the structure of the song that goes in crescendo and keeps adding new instruments that we should expect an explosion of sounds, but it never happens, only keeps getting more dreamy and psychedelic, but who cares, the song is still great.

"And I Saw her Walking" is a song oriented towards Motown, Dave Levane again in the vocals is great playing with a Harlem like accent, solid drumming and at the end an excellent guitar semi solo, interesting track that starts funky and ends clearly Psychedelic, another good one.

"Glue" as I said before was written by Saul Cornejo who was inspired by a drug he read about in Time Magazine and released as a single in 1968 - 1969 before taking the name for their first album

Wonderful song, 100% druggy Psychedelia, distorted guitar, dreamy organ and hallucinating lyrics, describes the genre was as a book, excellent that sounds like if Hendrix meets early Pink Floyd.

The album ends with "Bahia" a song that was inspired by a Brazilian calendar that the guys found and where impressed with the girl that represented the city of the same name. The song is another Psychedelic track but in this case with a touch of Tropical sound that clearly sends us to an imaginary voyage to Brazil. Ivan Melgar.
Tracks
1. Baby, Baby (1:50)
2. I Must Go (2:58)
3. Neighbor (3:23)
4. The Sand Man (3:27)
5. Billy Morsa (4:19)
6. Trouble Child (2:51)
7. My Love (4:52)
8. And I Saw Her Walking (3:22)
9. Glue (3:17)
10. Bahia (4:24)
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Relatively obscure uk psychedelia/acid folk from 1971. Astral Navigations is really a recording of two different bands, Lightyears Away and Thundermother. Lightyears Away is folk/psych (more toward the folk end) and features Bill Nelson who was later to join with Be-Bop Deluxe. It is mostly pleasant singing (male, some female) over piano with some short, very fuzzed guitar breaks. The song had some nice diversity in style. For example, at one time the piano is replaced with acoustic guitar and flute. Not bad and worth a listen if you're into the folk end of psych/prog. Thundermother are more straight-ahead rock with heavy guitars.
Tracks
1. Lightyears Away: Fourth Coming
2. Lightyears Away: Path of Stone
3. Lightyears Away: Windows of Limited Time - The Astral Navigator
4. Lightyears Away: Yesterday -
5. Lightyears Away: Today (North Country Cinderella)
6. Lightyears Away: Tomorrow (Buffalo)
7. Thundermother: Someday
8. Thundermother: Country Lines
9. Thundermother: Boogie Music/Rock Me [UFO Mix]
10. Rock Me Babe Jam
11. Come On Home (space version)
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Ray Owen was the original vocalist in British outfit Juicy Lucy, and he appeared on their first self titled album in 1969. He left the band, his replacement being Paul Williams, and formed his own band, with Dick Stubbs and Les Nicol on guitars, Ian McLean on drums and Sid Gardner on bass. Their first and only album, which is quite rare and collectible, was released on Polydor Records, and it featured a number of really good riff laden tracks, in addition to a stunning version of Hendrix's "Voodoo Child", which Owen would redo in the mid 90's when he reformed his own version of Juicy Lucy. His career after Ray Owen's Moon is much of a mystery, as no record can be found of any other bands he may have featured with afterwards. As was mentioned, he reformed Juicy Lucy in the mid nineties and released an album called "Here she comes again" on HTD Records, with three unknown, but very good, musicians. For the record, Paul Williams also reformed another version of Juicy Lucy in the mid to late nineties, under the name "Blue Thunder".
Tracks
01. Talk to me
02. Try my love
03. Hey sweety
04. Free man
05. Don't matter
06. Voodoo chile
07. Ouiji
08. Mississippi woman
09. 50 years years later
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Under the name “Rainman” was the solodebut of ex- Q 65 guitarist Frank Nuyens presented in 1971. It was a remarkable good record and was far removed from the music of the notorious Q 65. It was typically early seventies laid-back music. Frank wrote most of the music himself. The LP was recorded in the famous GTB-studio in The Hague and partly in the Bovema Studios in Haarlem. On the record he was assisted by well-known musicians as ex-Cuby drummer Dick Beekman and former Q 65 colleague - drummer Jay Baar
Tracks
01.rainman
02.natural man
03.don't
04.vicious circle
05.don't make promisses
06.you will be free by me
07.money means nothing at all
08.get you to come through
09.she told me so
10.they didn't feel
11.the joy that is inside
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Phafner's 1971 album, Overdrive, is the stuff of record collecting legend. Rumor has it that only fifty copies were pressed. This seems a little suspect, but either way, it has fetched as much as three grand on eBay. Overdrive is a pretty fucked up druggy listen, it's raw, it's sloppy, it's full of vigor and spirit. The opening song "Plea From The Soul" is pure doomy bliss, but then the record trails off into some neanderthal blues rock.
Tracks
1. Plea From The Soul
2. Uncle Jerry
3. Whiskey Took My Woman
4. Rock And Roll Man
5. Red Thumb
6. Overdrive
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The concept of this album showed the Moog delivering sounds sinister and exciting to a degree the lurid horror films of the day never matched. All the titles related to occult phenomenons and themes, and seemed to focus mainly on the darker side of occultism. With it's breakbeats galore, intense synthesizer, hip original themes, this was really a unifying concept. An occult Moog-album! The man behind this recording was a somewhat obscure solo artist; Mort Garson.

Mort Grason was born in Canada in 1924, as a graduate from the Juilliard School, he began writing musical scores in the 1940s, and worked as an arranger / composer / engineer in the late 1940s / early 1950s. He got highly acclaimed as the orchestral arranger for Glen Campbell's 1968 "By The Time I Get To Phoenix". Garson also had production credits on records by vocalists and other artists, including Mel Torme, Doris Day, Ed Ames, and Leslie Uggams. He wrote, arranged, and directed for many years on many labels in many styles. He also made music for TV and movies. But he recorded some albums too, each more strange than the other.
This bizarre collection of Moog compositions is credited to a band/artist named Lucifer (or is it "Black Mass?"), but the man behind the machine is better known by his more ordinary given name of Mort Garson. Along with scoring films, producing easy listening records, and co-writing the hit tune "Our Day Will Come," Garson released several electronic music LPs with themes like the Zodiac, the Wizard of Oz, and plant growth stimulation. Black Mass/Lucifer (the cover art is ambiguous as to title) is Garson's exploration of the dark arts, an all-instrumental soundtrack for a horror film that never existed. Garson conjures up a sinister, minor-key atmosphere on tracks with titles like "Incubus," "Witch Trial," and "The Evil Eye" often achieving a tone similar to the scores that Italian horror-rock band Goblin would record for Dario Argento films later in the decade. The technology available to Garson in 1971 was still being developed, and the record occasionally sounds dated, particularly when some very corny synthetic drums ruin the mood. There's some evocative music on Black Mass/Lucifer, to be sure, but ultimately it's just not as wild of a recording as legend has painted, perfectly rendered for a psychedelic Halloween party but hardly strong enough to raise evil spirits on its own. Garson's Wozard of Iz album is a freakier Moog ride, a kaleidoscopic retelling of the L. Frank Baum tale
Tracks
1. Solomon's Ring (3.20)
2. The Ride of Aida (Voodoo) (3.07)
3. Incubus (3.29)
4. Black Mass (3.39)
5. The Evil Eye (2.10)
6. Exorcism (3.45)
7. The Philosopher's Stone (3.27)
8. Voices of the Dead (The Medium) (2.05)
9. Witch Trial (3.00)
10. ESP (1.01)
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Fungo Bat was scrapped for a variety of reasons, among them Todd Rundgren's insistence on singing lead vocals on his newer songs. Nazz Nazz was released instead, leaving the second half of the proposed LP temporarily in the vaults. Rundgren left the group before it was released. Taking hold of uncontested leadership of the group, lead vocalist Robert "Stewkey" Antoni erased Rundgren's lead vocals, replacing them with his own and releasing the entire project as Nazz III. This is, at the very least, sour grapes, but the situation is made all the more peculiar since much of the material finds Rundgren's songwriting moving toward the signature pop style that dominated his first solo records. Stewkey has publicly stated his distaste for Rundgren's Laura Nyro infatuation, so it's a little odd to hear him sing such finely crafted songs as "Only One Winner" and "Some People." That aside, Nazz III is an impressive effort that, if taken in conjunction, would have resulted in a very good double record. Sure, there's some clutter, but such detours as "Loosen Up," a po-faced parody of Archie Bell & the Drells' "Tighten Up," reveal the snotty side of Rundgren's humor. More importantly, the bulk of the record indicates how rapidly he was developing as a songwriter and a producer. Where he proved himself as a gifted mimic on Nazz, the group's second two albums found him assimilating those influences and developing a signature style. If anything, Nazz III demonstrates that better than its predecessor, which often seemed a little disjointed. There still isn't anything as immediate and indelible as "Open My Eyes," yet the best moments easily provide the road map for Rundgren's solo career. Even if he doesn't sing on it.
Tracks
1. Some People
2. Only One Winner
3. Kicks
4. Resolution
5. It's Not That Easy
6. Old Time Lovemaking
7. Magic Me
8. Loosen Up
9. Take the Hand
10. How Can You Call That Beautiful
11. Plenty of Lovin'
12. Christopher Columbus
13. You Are My Window
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Line-up/Musicians
- Ron Bryer / guitar
- Werner Fröhlich / bass
- Helmuth Kolbe / keyboards
- Cosimo Lampis / drums
- Dawn Muir / vocals
- Wolfgang Paap / percussion
- Werni Prahlach / bass
- Joel Vandroogenbroeck / keyboards, flute, vocals
BRAINTICKET's debut album as a great psychedelic kraut record full of mind bending experimentation (if not structually), it's particularly great if you're in the mood for it but it has to be acknowledged that it's certainly not for everyone and is very much a love it or hate it affair. The primary reason for this is that the songwriting is fairly primitive in that all the songs are generally one riff or progression with various instrumentation and vocal wailings over the top which isn't a bad thing at all because it perfectly suits the music.

The album starts with 'Black Sand' with a pounding rhyhthmic drum and bass section with great organ and guitar wailing over the top and heavily effected vocals over the top. 'Places of Light' is more of the same this time with more of funky foundation and some female vocals. The three part 'Brainticket' will either make or break the album for you, it's pretty much the same riff over all 3 parts (and what a riff) with paranoid frantic female spoken word craziness (she sounds like she's about to climax) and all kinds of effects and samples over the top, a great soundtrack of an acid trip.

Cottonwoodhill is not for the faint of heart you'll either love it or hate it, in my case I love it, I think it's a great psychedelic album for chilling out, fans of kraut and psychedelia should definitely check this out. By Frump
Tracks
01. Black Sand
02. Places of Light
03. Brainticket, Pt. 1
04. Brainticket, Pt. 1: Conclusion
05. Brainticket, Pt. 2
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Drum Circus is a shortlived Swiss band founded by the great drummer Peter Giger. The band he formed had three drummers (!) and many other musicians, including Joel Vandroogenbroeck, from Brainticket, playing Organ, Piano, Flute and Sitar. Carole Muriel from Brainticket appears also in the band doing vocals. Other curious thing about their only album is that the lyrics of two songs were written by the LSD guru Timothy Leary. After all this definition one can only think that the music contained in this album is rather crazy and in fact it is. If you like drumming/percussion, you will love this album.
The sidelong eponymous track, Magic Theatre, has many things and ideas included. The lyrics are inspired in the Tibetan Book of The Dead, written by Leary. The sound is varied, with a percussion intro, nice organ, good flute and drum passage, some drums with a collective chanting and then fantastic sitar sounds that are very skillfully played, along with some crazy saxophone, mridanga (indian percussion) and indian-inspired chanting. Then are some avant-garde parts with percussion, sax improvisation and great organ sounds. After some jamming, there is some spoken phrases interpreted by the singers like in a play. After that a calm part with sitar, flute and percussion. Then some jazzy parts, with jazzy piano and saxophone, plus very good drumming. In the end there is the return of the theme under the spoken part.

The other songs are good also. Now It Hurts You is short, but has excellent sitar, organ and drumming. The vocals are strange in this song. Papera is a rather jazzy song with some soft saxophone arrangement and good piano. Percussion is always present and very interesting. The song has some changes during it.

La-Si-Do is the strangest song with strange vocals and dominated by percussion, with many different sounds generating a good combination.

Groove Rock is really groovy, with superb saxophone soloing and great organ and percussion backing the solo. The song is jazzy and the highlights are the superb drumming and the great saxophone.

All Things Pass has interesting piano and percussive sounds. The singing is inspired. The piano arrangement is somewhat jazzy and the drumming parts are very improvisational, with the usage of the less used parts of the drums, like cymbals.

Overall is a nice album with a great mix of psychedelic indian influences and jazz and impressive drumming. The sound is not so much varied and some shorter songs resemble the long suite, but this is a little common for their genre (Krautrock).
Tracks
1. Magic Theatre (21:32)
2. Now It Hurts You (2:48)
3. Papera (3:32)
4. La-Si-Do (2:22)
5. Groove Rock (8:44)
6. All Things Pass (3:25)
Listen.

Fly is the second album by Yoko Ono. It was produced by Joe Jones and released in 1971. It was a complete avant-garde/Fluxus package in a gatefold sleeve that came with a full-size poster and a postcard to order Ono's book Grapefruit. Notable songs include the singles "Midsummer New York" and "Mrs. Lennon", "Hirake" aka "Open Your Box" and "Don't Worry, Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow)", dedicated to Ono's daughter Kyoko Cox.

"Airmale" is the soundtrack to John Lennon's film Erection, showing a building being erected in time lapsed photography, while "Fly" is the soundtrack to "Fly" the film by Ono.
Tracks
01. Midsummer New York (3:50)
02. Mindtrain (16:52)
03. Mind Holes (2:45)
04. Don't Worry Kyoko (4:55)
05. Mrs. Lennon (4:10)
06. Hirake (Open Your Box) (3:32)
07. Toilet Piece / Unknown (0:30)
08. O'Wind (Body Is the Scar of Your Mind) (5:22)
09. Airmale (Tone Deaf Jam) (10:40)
10. Don't Count the Waves (5:25)
11. You (9:00)
12. Fly (22:53)
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The year is 1971 but the song is '1999'. The group is Freedom's and the vibes are galactic. And now just over 30 years later we can look back at '1999'. This time we can do it without having to get up to turn the record over as the Freedom's Children classic album 'Galactic Vibes' has been given a new lease on life by Retro Fresh.

This is a many layered album, almost to the point of being cluttered, but this is what makes it interesting. Each time you listen you can hear something new, be it a tone in Brian Davidson's wailing vocals, a riff from Julian Laxton's screaming guitar, a sequence of notes from Barry Irwin's booming bass, the change from sticks to hands on Colin Pratley's awesome drumming, or merely putting your ear right up against the speaker to feel the presence of Ramsay MacKay on the live version of 'The Homecoming'.

The centrepiece of Galactic Vibes does not come at the centre of the album, but is the second track. Clocking in at over 16 minutes (that a third of the CD's playing time) is 'The Homecoming'. The shorter version appeared on 'Astra', but this live version has to be one of South Africa's epic tracks. Recorded live at the Out of Town Club (which according to a copy of their flyer in the sleeve notes, advertised a Steak Parlour), the track features a quite stunning and by all accounts legendary drum solo that lasts for the best part of 8 minutes before those dramatic guitar chords herald the return of the rest of the band.

Aside from this monstrous drumfest, the album features some blistering fuzzy edged guitars on the thundering 'That Did It' as well as the quieter and beautiful 'Fields and Me'. There is also the experimental keyboard piece 'The Crazy world of Pod: Electronic Concerto' which is just short enough not to become irritating. '1999', the single, is less busy than most of the other tracks, and is probably the most radio friendly of the lot, although the orchestration on 'About the Dove and his King' adds a beauty and quality sheen to what is quite a rough rock sound.

The roughness of the album is due mainly to the inventive recording methods used. With layers of overdubs and no noise reduction, this method created what the sleeve notes describe as a 'musical mystical mist of sound'. This is a wonderful way to describe the slightly distorting guitars and vague hissing sounds. These are well preserved on the re-mastered CD as they are as essential to the album as the music.

The label progressive rock is usually given to this kind of music, but here you can hear why the music is called thus. These guys were breaking barriers not only in South Africa's rather narrow 1970's rock world but would have broken through numerous perceived limitations on the world stage, had the world bothered to listen. 'Galactic Vibes' is an album that South Africans can be proud of, even now 30 years on. It is a great musical achievement that can be hauled out again and again and simply marvelled at. As for me, I'm off to find out what the hell a steak parlour is.
Tracks
01. Sea Horse
02. The Homecoming
03. That Did It
04. Fields And Me
05. The Crazy World Of Pod: electronic concerto
06. 1999
07. About The Dove And His King
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Histoire de Melody Nelson was released in 1971. This concept album, produced and arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier, tells the story of a Lolita-esque affair, with Gainsbourg as the narrator and Jane Birkin as the eponymous English heroine. It features prominent string arrangements and even a massed choir at its tragic climax. The album has proven influential with artists such as Air, David Holmes, Jarvis Cocker, Beck and Dan the Automator.
Histoire de Melody Nelson is a 1971 concept album by controversial French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. The Lolita-esque pseudo-autobiographical plot involves the middle-aged Gainsbourg unintentionally colliding his Rolls Royce Silver Ghost into teenage nymphet Melody Nelson's bicycle, and the subsequent seduction and romance that ensues. Histoire de Melody Nelson is considered by many critics and fans to be Gainsbourg's most influential and accomplished album.

At just under twenty-eight minutes, the short running time and the stylistic consistency and similarity throughout the album gives it qualities more in line with an EP or an extended musical piece with a number of movements. Histoire de Melody Nelson‘s mix of freewheeling guitar, funk style bass guitar, near spoken word vocal delivery, and lush, deep orchestrated string and choral arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier[1] have proven to be highly influential amongst later francophone and anglophone musical performers including the French band Air, David Holmes, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Portishead, and Beck, whose 2002 track "Paper Tiger" from Sea Change is extremely close to the distinctive Histoire de Melody Nelson sound.

After the release of the album, a music video was made for each song, and released all together as "Melody" a short musical.

Jean-Claude Vannier performed the album live at London's Barbican on October 21st 2006 with guest vocalists Jarvis Cocker, Badly Drawn Boy, Brigitte Fontaine, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey and lead singer from Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys. Vannier performed the album in its entirety alongside his own solo album L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches.

Publicity for the Barbican concert revealed that the musicians used for the album were Dougie Wright, Big Jim Sullivan, Herbie Flowers and Vic Flick who all joined Vannier for the concert.

The second track, "Ballade de Melody Nelson", was covered by Placebo as "The Ballad of Melody Nelson" and released on a bonus disc for their 2003 album "Sleeping With Ghosts". The lyrics were translated into English and in some parts changed altogether.
Tracks
01. Melody – 7:32
02. Ballade de Melody Nelson – 2:00
03. Valse de Melody – 1:31
04. Ah! Melody – 1:47
05. L'hôtel particulier – 4:05
06. En Melody – 3:25
07. Cargo Culte – 7:37
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