Ptolomy Psycon - "Loose Capacitor" {UK} [1971]

"Ptolomy Psycon - Loose Capacitor (EP). 1971 private. (catalog number HAT 1306 A).
This one has been on my curiosity list for a very long time. At least since Amber Soundroom had announced their intention to reissue it on vinyl (guessing this was around 2003/2004?). Leave it to The Alaskan Connection to have it on hand. And this one lived up to its reputation.
Ptolomy Psycon practically defines the raw UK underground of the early 1970s. I suppose the 99 count Holyground albums, or the hyper rare Dark album* can give you an indication of the recording quality. But the music is definitely influenced by the upcoming progressive rock movement, especially Hawkwind, Steel Mill, Jethro Tull and King Crimson. The AC also offers "Ptolomy Psycon has lots of that UK psychy proto-prog flavor. This was released as a 10" EP, in an edition of only 50 copies with homemade covers. The band were from the Birmingham area, and were supposedly all students in the same school (around 16-17 years old, I think). In fact, all the "orchestral" stuff you'll hear on this was apparently done by their school band, who they hired to play on the recording!"
Hopefully they recorded more than the 22 minutes found here, as this is a really good example of the early 70s UK deep underground scene." by Tom

01 Azrael...
02 Shadow Bright...
03 No One To Blame...


Thanks to Fusionaut and Tom! :o)

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Tempo e Modo - "Um Mundo a Construir" {Portugal} [1980]

Um dos discos mais raros do rock progressivo português, prensagem privada de 300 cópias.

Banda oriunda de Riachos (Concelho de Torres Novas, distrito de Santarém)
- Pedro Ferreira (bateria e coros)
- Pedro Clara (guitarra eléctrica, guitarra acústica de 12 cordas e voz)
- João Lopes (guitarra baixo)
- Júlio Silva (sintetizadores, piano eléctrico, piano acústico e strings)
Convidado:
- Pedro Rocha (piano acústico, strings e sintetizadores).

Gravado nos estúdios JORSOM - RCS, Lda - Lisboa - Portugal Produção: Tempo e Modo e D. C. Rios
Capa - "OMEGA" Óleo de Antero Guerra Inácio

A1 Um Mundo a Construir
A2 Águas Sem Margens
A3 Instrumental I
A4 À Procura
B1 Castelos no Ar
B2 Putos Vadios
B3 Voando no Tempo
B4 Imaginação (Instrumental II)

more info

A1 Um Mundo a Construir...
A3 Instrumental I...
B3 Voando no Tempo...
B4 Imaginação (Instrumental II)...

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Birdland - History of Love and Belief 1980

This album features Yugoslav musicians who created a band in Switzerland where they recorded three albums. Their first magnificent mahavishnu-hard rip-roaring fusion is an unforgettable supersonic smash through the ears, full of majestic and satanic guitar riffs and thundering basslines all momentumed to phenomenal crashlandings, not a single boring slow throwaway in sight. Their second from a year later which is featured here is not quite as good and energetic though it without doubt stands comparison, using the same high-energy and modal style chords (cf. McCoy Tyner in late sixties, with Miles Davis). Unfortunately both master Shige and myself obtained copies by an odd cosmic coincidence or alignment of the z-list stars and as a result we are spoiled here with two versions of rippery hereby enclosed beneath the fold, again I defer to master Shige for the musical quality of his equipment and care of his time.

Back of album includes credits as follows:
Borivoje Vukadinovic - bass
Predrag Bankovic - guitar (responsible for most of the composition, not surprisingly)
Peter Humi - drums
Boris Relja - piano (no slavic band complete without a boris)
Beat Rauch - percussion

Recorded live at sinus studio berne, Helvetia, Feb 28-29 1980...

First track, Birdland 1 starts off in either A minor or B minor (I can't tell) with a very chromatic and angular riff on guitar then abruptly descends to the minor second tone below, for some arpeggiated chords. Great modulation there. Unfortunately we are then 'treated' to about 8 minutes of virtuoso soloistic noodling.
Second Track, "Pureheart" is obviously keyboardist-written starting with an obbligato piano which passes into some really nice structured jazz sampling but after three minutes we can fast forward all the way through unless interest is to be left lost and bereft at the bottom of an oceanic ridge of meaningless notes.

Side 2 starts with Firebird (dedicated to Christy Doran, probably a pretty interesting lady by the sounds of it) some very McCoy-esque modalities intro into a high-nitro dzyan-like riff. It amazes me that 5 talented and super-fast musicians can create such orchestral music with just their instruments and psycho-energy alone in probably a few takes with no overdubs.
The continuation of Birdland ensues, at this point mentally following the relentless guitar becomes a bit wearying. The minor descending chord pattern is hard to enjoy when so overused in rock music (A minor - G - F - E as in Led Zep Babe I'm gonna leave you). In this case I think in B minor though I might be mistaken.
The last song again from pianist Relja starts with Kentonesque piano dissonances and moves into some acoustic guitar soloing... A little disappointing an ending, but there is another, a third album, which they did a year later (In a temple of silence).

Mention as usual must be made of the amazing cover photograph showing a picture of a white beach with a cliff or mountain almost evoking a post-nuclear holocaust scene, complementing well the title of 'history of love and belief' i.e., post-communist nothingness - ? evolutionary depredations of a windswept radioactive desert in five fusion riffs - ? I won't get into how soviet ecocide destroyed the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world, by diverting all rivers for irrigation projects (mostly to make cheap cotton for domestic clothes) until today it is a tiny salt-swept cesspool of pesticide contaminations-- and sure you'll be grateful for that.

Birdland 1


Firebird

Paul Nash - A Jazz Composer's Ensemble 1979

An absolutely brilliant long-lost classic private pressing from the US, composer Paul Nash's first record, and inevitably his best work. Mostly Mingus-style cool west-coast jazz with outstanding ensemble playing and serious classical overtones and harmonies. In a few self-written paragraphs on the back cover Paul Nash dedicates the album to Charlie Mingus himself (who sadly was to die a month later of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). He mentions he usually begins his composition with solo guitar and singing, oddly enough.

Subtitle to the album "Featuring Mark Isham, with Eddie Marshall and Art Lande. "

A1 Marigail-Marigold 11:19
A2 Passing Glance 3:25
A3 Our Time Is Numbered 7:59
B1 Tamalpais Night 8:56
B2 The Joy 6:41
B3 Full Spiral 8:43

Many of the compositions were written by Paul in the early seventies, probably as compositional exercises. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston although he wound up in San Fransisco after his education. Prior to starting his own band in 1977, he wrote music for these two formations: Jerry Granelli's septet, Canyon, and Noel Jewkes Jazz Octet, then called Jewkes and the Dr Legato Express. Perhaps in a later post these artists will show up-- certainly they sound well worth seeking out.

First track starts with what to me is a bit hackneyed chords of Dflat on top of C bass moving up a minor third. This progresses a bit but flounders in my opinion in incessant soloing for ten plus minutes.
Passing Glance features the inevitable rhumba-style beat we find on these old jazz records.
Our time is numbered finishes out side 1 with some wonderful almost big band ensemble playing, very majestically sublime, a nice carla bley-style descending melody evokes some kind of sunset feeling.

Side 2 opens with Paul's guitar intro into Tamalpais Night which jumps into chromatic and angular structures. Abruptly the song slows down to a crawl before hopping to the prokofieff sounds again.

Track "The Joy" is very much Mingus happy-bus style slinky riffs with a modulation every 2-3 chords winding its bubbly way downstream.

Highlight for me is the last track with its remarkably angular opening as if out of a movie soundtrack from film noir of the fifties. A gorgeous G minor melody then opens the zoo gates to the usual interminable soloing...

This is my christmas present for myself (owing to high cost), please enjoy in the so-called blogosphere.

Our Time is Numbered:


Full Spiral:

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Harry Sabar Friends "Lentera" (1979,Indonesian sympho )

I believe "Lentera " is one of the best prog singers' albums that ever released all over the world.

Harry Sabar is a singer in Indonesia,and released three albums.I listened to all of them.As the result,his first album "Lentera " is the  best of the three.
Most of the tracks are full of mellotron and fantasy,so many of the prog fans will surely be impressed  with this album.

As you know ,once, most Indonesian people listened to music with the cassette,not  the record.

Most artists released their albums as cassettes.

Of course,some records existed because only some sample record copies were made for the radio station in Indonesia.But usually there were no sleeve covers....

This rip was made from a cassette .(I also have DJ copy record,however,it doesn't include all of the tracks,so to speak,is a real "sample record" for  DJs in  radio stations.

(musicians)

Harry Sabar...vocals,roger drum,paiste,ziljan symbals,Ludwig snarr,tamborine

Marusya Nainggolan...fluegel piano,mellotron,harpsichord

Debby Nasution....mellotron,arp,bass synthe,harpsichord,hammond organ,solina string,bass guitar,acoustic piano,Roland SH 2000,

Keenan Nasution...rogers drum,paiste ziljan symbals,Ludwig drum,Fluegel piano,electric piano,mellotron,Roland SH 2000,
Adhie...Fluegel piano,mellotron,Roland SH 2000,Korg synthe bass,electric piano,solina string,vibraphone,
Odink Nasution...Gibson guitar,black box,Gibson ripper bass,
Gauri Nasution....Gibson guitar,black box
Jerry...ovation string
Eddy Danferry...drum
Usya....harpsichord
Jati...acoustic guitar
Chandra Darusman....fluegel piano,electric piano,solina string,clavinet,Roland SH 2000
Matise...Fender jazz bass,Gibson guitar
Nana Noor,Vanthy Noor,Rini Noor.....swara latar

Sisi A
1.Lentera (5:32) Harry Sabar
2.Kala Daun Berguguran (3:56) HS
3.Kitaran Warsa (4:48) HS
4.Lazuardy (6:10) HS
5.Kemarin Dan Hari Ini (6:26) HS

Sisi B
1.Terbenci Tapi... (6:55)  HS
2.Khalwat Jiwa (4:02)Keenan Nasution,HS
3.Sekiranya'... (4:36) HS
4.Disejuk Malam (5:24) HS
5.Resah (4:36) HS,Adhie,Odink Nasution

A-5 Kemarin Dan Hari Ini (remastered version,extract)


ripped from the original cassette .

Equipments I used are....
cassette player.....Nakamichi DRAGON
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

BTW,
I have uploaded music with WAVE and mp3.
You can burn WAVE file to CD-R (for data CD-R,not music CD-R) using pc software "JetAudio"(free software) easily.
First ,install JetAudio,and try to make WAVE CD-R.
It is really easy  for you to use JetAudio to burn WAVE into CD-R.

Ronaldo Garcia - "Pra um Moleque" {Brasil} [1982]

very nice and obscure psychedelic folk record featuring Ronaldo Garcia issued on a private label at 1982. Musically similar to the early works of artists like Lula Cortes, Ze Ramalho, Alceu Valenca.. while most of the songs on the album stands for its good portuguesse sung lyrics, there are some musically rich ones as Janaína, Pra um Moleque.. as far as we know Ronaldo is preparing a new album years after

some more info can be found here
"um belo trabalho de Ronaldo Garcia
O cantor, compositor e violonista Ronaldo Garcia lançou, em 82, Pra um moleque, álbum que traz canções suas, como Pra um moleque, Moinho, Na trilha do som, Menina de Minas, Janaína, Salve os quarenta, O lado bom e Largo ao sol. Há também as parcerias com Fabio Pentagna (Morte e tempo) e Juca Filho (Barranco).
Esse trabalho conta com as presenças do grupo Viva voz (coro em várias canções), de Zé Renato e Claudio Nucci (vocais em Morte e tempo) e Belinha Santiago (Largo ao sol, com vocais de Cláudio Nucci).
Os arranjos do álbum foram feitos pelo maestro Roberto Gnattali, que com Ronaldo Garcia fez todos os arranjos de base, com exceção da faixa Salve os quarenta, que contou também com a participação de Paulo Gomes e Osvaldo Garcia.
Ricardo Silveira, Jaques Morelembaum, Lúcia Morelembaum, Ricardo Medeiros, Luiz Otávio, Marcelo Salazar e Roberto Gnattali são alguns dos músicos que participaram desse disco".

a1. Pra um moleque (Ronaldo Garcia)
a2. Moinho (Ronaldo Garcia)
a3. Na trilha do som (Ronaldo Garcia)
a4. Morte e tempo (Ronaldo Garcia e Fabio Pentagna)
a5. Menina de Minas (Ronaldo Garcia)
b1. Janaína (Ronaldo Garcia)
b2. Salve os 40 (Ronaldo Garcia)
b3. Barranco (Ronaldo Garcia e Juca Filho)
b4. Lado bom (Ronaldo Garcia)
b5. Largo ao Sol (Ronaldo Garcia)

a1. Pra um moleque...
b1. Janaína...
b4. Lado bom...
b5. Largo ao Sol...

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