quarta-feira, 27 de março de 2024

Judas Jump - Scorch 1970

Judas Jump was a heavy progressive rock band, with lots of Mellotron, flutes, and sax in their sound and who had the distinction of inaugurating Parlophone Records' new numbering sequence with their first (and only) album, Scorch, as PAS 10001. Their members made them a kind of U.K.-level super-group with guitarist/keyboardman Andy Bown and drummer Henry Spinetti having come from the Herd and woodwind player Alan Jones an alumnus from the Amen Corner. A trio of singles in 1969 and 1970 was followed by a rather ornately designed album that didn't get a U.S. release until 1972 when the group was already on its way into history. Their music was on the bombastic side of progressive rock, which may be one reason why it didn't succeed, as well as explain why they didn't get signed to EMI's progressive rock imprint Harvest Records. After attracting a decent amount of press, the records proved lacking and the group faded away, with Bown passing through the band Storyteller before joining Status Quo for a time. AMG.

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Apothecary - Apothecary 1973

The only album from a Michigan band named after medieval pharmacists. The album was recorded and released in 1973 by Paramount Records.

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Daddy Longlegs - Daddy Longlegs 1970

This US act initially comprised Steve Hayton (guitar/vocals), Cliff Carrison (drums) and Kurt Palomaki (bass/clarinet/vocals). The trio spent its early months on a farm in New York state, before moving location to New Mexico. The promise of work in films brought the group to Europe in 1969, and although such plans were later aborted, they decided to settle in England. Daddy Longlegs showcased their appealing brand of good-time, country-influenced rock before the line-up was expanded to accommodate vocalist Mo Armstrong. Both he and Hayton then left the group, following which the drummer and bass player were joined by Peter Arneson (piano) and Gary ‘Norton’ Holderman (guitar), the latter of whom had worked with Carrison in Slim’s Blues Band. Oakdown Farm was released on the renowned Vertigo label, but progress was hampered by further changes in personnel. Daddy Longlegs disbanded in 1972, following which Arneson teamed with former members of Gracious and the Greatest Show On Earth in the pop group, Taggett. AMG.

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Kathy McCord - Kathy McCord 1970

Kathy McCord released a lone self-titled LP in 1970, the first release from Creed Taylor’s CTI Records, and it was a truly odd and unique album featuring a kind of folk-rock acid jazz groove that later made it a highly sought-after rarity for collectors. The album was recorded and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his Englewood Cliffs, NJ, studio on November 18, 19, 20, and 24, and December 2, 1969, and featured flute by Hubert Laws, organ by Paul Harris, and arrangements by Don Sebesky. McCord’s dreamy singing approach made the whole project feel like it was recorded in San Francisco with everyone wearing flowers in their hair, but the end result was oddly compelling and absolutely unforgettable. The LP sold poorly and copies were traded for years on the rarities market. A limited-edition CD version was issued in Japan in the 1990s. Then in 2010 Big Beat UK finally packaged the LP with some scattered tracks McCord recorded for the Rainy Day label in 1968, plus a whole second disc of sides she cut in the 1970s but never released, as the double-disc set New Jersey to Woodstock. AMG.

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Missus Beastly - Missus Beastly 1969

Missus Beastly was a very early Krautrock group with a rather confusing history due to another group assuming their name, and their own constant lineup changes. The group formed in 1968 in Herford, northern Germany under the name "Psychotic Reaction," taken from the Count Five song, before changing their name to Missus Beastly (named after a doll on a children's television show). The original group consisted of Lutz Oldemeier on drums, Reinhard "Atzen" Wehmeyer on guitar and vocals, Wolfgang Nickel on keys, and Petja Hofman on vocals and bass. Though from the northern part of the country, they got most of their gigs much further south through a friend, Gunter Scheding, who had moved from Herford to Mainz, near Munich. They gained some renown from their live outings at this time, which resembled ritualistic psychedelic jams, as the group would improvise for two or three hours without set list or compositions.

Missus Beastly recorded their first LP in very early 1970 at the CPM Studio, with some help from Xhol Caravan flautist Hansi Fischer, as well as members of Amon Duul II, who were hanging out in the studio at the time. The self-titled record was also released by CPM with a limited run of 1000 copies. Soon after that, Henry Fromm, posing as the group's manager, flautist, and drummer, though no one in the band had ever met him, had a bootleg of the record re-pressed from one of the original LPs and released with a different cover and title: Nara Asst Incense, as well as a disordered track listing. Fromm would continue to ride Missus Beastly's modest fame with two more LPs under their name, Volksmusik in 1972 and Im Garten Des Schweigens in 1973, as well as the singles, "Fuck You Free" and "Jawa Masa." These later records consisted of Fromm and several other musicians who had nothing to do with the original Missus Beastly.

Meanwhile, the original band was having other problems with constant lineup changes. Soon after the first album came out, Paul Vincent on guitar and Michael Scholz on keyboards joined and the group became a sextet. By the summer of 1970, though, Vincent was replaced by Roman Bunka; sax and flute player Jergen Benz also joined the group. By the end of the year, both Wehmeyer and Nickel departed. Having trouble finding gigs, and even having to sell their van and PA, the group finally disbanded by the end of 1971. Hofman took off for India, while the most of the others joined more successful bands like BunkaEmbryo, Benz, Erna Schmidt, Oldemeier, and Checkpoint Charlie.

In the summer of 1973, after Fromm's ersatz Missus Beastly had disbanded, Oldemeier and Benz, along with three more musicians, re-formed the group as a world-jazz-oriented instrumental group. By early 1974, this group had released another self-titled record on the Nova label. With more lineup changes, two more LPs followed, Dr Aftershave and the Mixed-Pickles in 1976 and Space Guerilla in 1978. This group also played several live gigs during this time, though by end of the '70s, with no original members left, they, too, called it quits. AMG.

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Alastair Riddell - Space Waltz 1975

Riddell is a New Zealand musician and filmmaker. His singing style was likened to a combination of Bryan Ferry and David Bowie. Before 1974, he was in a band called Orb with Eddie Rayner. Then later, the two of them were in Space Waltz. 

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Redeye - Redeye 1970

Redeye was formed in 1970 by guitarist Douglas ‘Red’ Mark, a former member of the Los Angeles, USA, pop psychedelic group Sunshine Company. Mark teamed with David Hodgkins (guitar/vocals), Bill Kirkham (bass), and Bobby Bereman (drums). The rock group signed to the small Pentagram label and released the single ‘Games’ in late 1970; it eventually landed in the Top 30 nationally. A second single, ‘Redeye Blues’, was issued in the spring of 1971, although it was banned in many radio markets owing to its lyrical content - some programmers objected to the song’s story-line about a person getting stoned and then unable to find his drug stash. Nevertheless, the single charted. The group was unable to follow it with another hit and split up in 1972. AMG.

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Privilege - Privelege 1969

US late 60s hard rock band from Philadelphia, PA.
Edward Leonetti (guitar) and Paul Venturini (organ) were members of Soul Survivors, a Philadelphia R&B group known for its 1967 hit single “Expressway to Your Heart”. By 1969, after a Jimi Hendrix/Isley Brothers/Soul Survivors concert at Syracuse University, they decided to leave Soul Survivors and formed a new band called Privilege. Their music is a powerful heavy rock with hints of soul music, reminiscent of early Steppenwolf. Their sole album was issued on the Isley Brothers' T-Neck label and produced by the Isley Brothers themselves, a real oddity for the well-known soul band. Jack Douglas (bass), later became a prominent engineer/producer for Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, John Lennon, and Cheap Trick.

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Charity - Now 1969

The Love Exchange changed their name to Charity in the late '60s for this album released on UNI Records, although as it ended up organist Walter Flannery was the only member who performed on this LP. They were still performing as the Love Exchange live at that point but broke up after appearing at the Newport '69 Pop Festival in Southern California. The band at this point also included Fred Barnett and Kent Henry. Henry had also been with the American group Genesis, who released an album for Mercury in 1968 and was also a member of a later incarnation of Steppenwolf. The Charity album is a mixture of rock, blues, soul, and psychedelic offerings featuring the background vocals of the Blossoms.

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Feather Da Gamba - Like It Or Get Bent 1972

"Lo-fi basement swamp rock obscurity covering an eclectic field of Ant Trip Ceremony late-night jazz-rock, quirky jug band moves, murky Stone Harbour rock with funny lyrics - doesn't appear to be entirely serious, but hard to tell the jokes from the seriousness. Organ and what sounds like a clarinet upfront, lack of strong guitar leads may disappoint some. Plenty of atmosphere, the closing track in particular is good. Not a great LP, but a cool trip for an open mind". ezhevika

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Patch - The Star Suite 1973

The idea of this Aussie project, based in Melbourne, was conceived by producer Peter Dawkins, who gathered a line-up of rock veterans and session musicians to play music inspired by the four elements of the Zodiac: Spectrum and Ariel's Mike Rudd on guitars, keyboardist Tony Esterman, New Zealander Rod Coe on bass, Folk singer Mike McClellan on acoustic guitar and drummer Doug Gallacher, later of Madden & Harris. They were supported by several guests, like percussionist Ian Bloxsom from Crossfire, Tony Ansell on organ, bassist Bill Putt, also of Spectrum and Ariel, cellist Nathan Waks, Ariel's and Taman Shud's guitarist Tim Gaze, and saxophonist Doug Foskett.''The Star Suite'' came out in 1973 on Harvest.

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segunda-feira, 11 de março de 2024

John Cale & Terry Riley - Church of Anthrax 1971

A one-time-only collaboration between former Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale and minimalist composer Terry Riley, 1971's Church of Anthrax doesn't sound too much like the solo work of either. Around this time, Riley's works were along the lines of "A Rainbow in Curved Air" or "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band": pattern music with obsessive attention to repetition and tricks with an analog delay machine that gave his music a refractory, almost hallucinogenic quality. Though Cale was trained in a similar aesthetic (he played with La Monte Young, surely the most minimal of all minimalist composers), he had largely left it behind by 1971, and so Church of Anthrax mixes Riley's drones and patterns with a more muscular and melodic bent versed in both free jazz and experimental rock. Not quite modern classical music, but not at all rock & roll either, Church of Anthrax sounds in retrospect like it was a huge influence on later post-minimalist composers like Andrew PoppyWim Mertens, and Michael Nyman, who mix similar doses of minimalism, rock, and jazz. On its own merits, the album is always interesting, and the centerpiece "The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace at Versailles" is probably the point where Riley and Cale approach each other on the most equal footing. The low point is Cale's solo writing credit, "The Soul of Patrick Lee," a slight vocal interlude by Adam Miller that feels out of place in these surroundings. AMG.

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Lee Hazlewood - Cowboy in Sweden 1970

At the turn of the '60s, Lee Hazlewood decided to leave America for Sweden. He had already spent time in the country, appearing as an actor in two television productions. Hence, his decision wasn't completely out of the blue -- especially since he had become close with the Swedish artist/filmmaker Torbjörn Axelman. The year he arrived in Sweden, he starred in Axelman's television production Cowboy in Sweden and cut an album of the same name. Judging by the album alone, the film must have been exceedingly surreal, since the record exists in its own space and time. At its core, it's a collection of country and cowboy tunes, much like the work he did with Nancy Sinatra, the production is cinematic and psychedelic, creating a druggy, discombobulated sound like no other. This is mind-altering music -- the combination of country song structures, Hazlewood's deep baritone, the sweet voices of Nina Lizell and Suzi Jane Hokom, rolling acoustic guitars, ominous strings, harpsichords and flutes, eerie pianos, and endless echo is stranger than outright avant-garde music, since the familiar is undone by unexpected arrangements. Though the songs are all well-written, Cowboy in Sweden is ultimately about the sound and mood it evokes -- and it's quite singular. AMG.

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Omega - Omega 1969

Extremely rare Illinois private pressing legendary psych LP. Not much info about this album but it worth listen.

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Rainbird - Maiden Flight 1971

Monstrously obscure UK prog band from 1970, 200 lps were privately made but most were destroyed, and no copies have ever been openly sold. Complex and mysterious music with flutes and mystical lyrics, meandering melodies, like the most introverted moments from the Moody Blues classic Threshold of a Dream era, Rainbird is an LP some rate as a masterpiece. 

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