My loveletter to prog...

From aforewritten comments it's easy to see that we have received complaints from a quarter. It really surprises me that some could see reason to be unhappy when those who buy these rarities at high cost and higher rarity share freely. Is this really the natural way of humanity, to take everything for granted if it is free and easy? For a small number to have the ability to ruin things for the greater good? In my work I know that a small, vocal, aggressive minority, can easily ruin things for the majority simply by creating onerous restrictions on the rest-- this is a kind of tragedy of the commons too... We see this everywhere in the bureaucracy of democratic countries where increasing regulations (which protect the tiniest minorities to the detriment generally of the rest) create hardships (e.g. financial) for the honest ordinary person-- who wants nothing to do with these issues. Well, my wife has the simplest answer to this: "we're doomed, and we deserve it. People are all selfish." (To which I usually say, what about me, am I selfish?)

In these posts I have attempted to communicate my deep and undying love for progressive music: as I sometimes say as a joke to my wife, I am so lucky every day to have so many beautiful albums to listen to, and also, to have a wonderful wife and beautiful children.
I feel I have searched all my life for this music. As we all know it's addictive. For sure it's a drug, one I couldn't bear to leave behind on my holiday... Once you 'get it' you can't go back, in my opinion, it becomes a passion. I cannot bear to listen to someone playing the muzak or soft-rock radio stations at work. I start to rant, and they of course all laugh. We want to hear something new and different every day, a new chord change or interval we never heard before, something completely unexpected again. Of course it will never be the same as the first time we heard Soft Machine (only about 11 years ago, in my case) or name any other of your favourite: for me, Carpe Diem, Pulsar, Transit Express, Jox, these are some of the albums that transport me directly on an interstellar drive to heaven at 99 percent of light speeds. Sometimes we find something that comes close to that beautiful feeling we first had when, jaw dropping and in ecstatic shock, we hear some kind of music that we never could have thought possible.

All my life I've listened to music, to pop and rock, to modern classical, getting bored of those, to jazz, getting tired of that, back to rock and then to metal and alternative until they lost interest... then when I discovered progressive rock I realized, here is the type that included within it all types, all styles, all genres, and not just in a kind of awkward mishmash (as is done nowadays by the novices) but actually in the most beautiful and harmonious way imaginable-- think of how Conventum melds together folk music and classical music, how Maxophone blends classical with rock, how the recent Genre band combined rock with jazz, creating a completely coherent whole. And the best of them all created music that was not only original, but beautiful and harmonious.

Why is it so beautiful? We don't know exactly why music is harmonious to the human brain. But I believe that it has to do with the concepts of chaos and complexity, which are general features of many things in life and physics. Basically, we can say that life as a chemical phenomenon is on the border between random chaos and complex order, it has a very distinct uniqueness which appears to be chaotic but which is rather at the maximum possible complexity. It is difficult to differentiate between the two but I think the human brain has the ability to tell-- for sure to a chimpanzee the music we listen to is random noise, but to us who can interpret the acoustic signals in the maximum possible information-processing manner, it is not, on the contrary, it operates at the maximum possible complexity which is comprehensible to the brain. This, to me, is what progressive music is: the maximum information we can process as beautiful all in one package, on the border of chaos, almost at the point of collapse, always at the edge of the abyss of the fall... This is why these sudden chord changes and dissonances appeal so much-- they can't be random, they have to be based on the collective musical consciousness of humanity, the unconscious heritage locked into the acoustic cortical connexions and synapses that have been passed on to us through generations. Surely this is the summit of music, of musical ability. All the collective aspirations and achievements -- and rock with its energy and strength, jazz with its emotions, and classical music with its scientific accuracy, are all important bases, together they create a three-dimensional vector space that we become lost in as a world that is more spacious and potential that any world we can come across in reality... a kind of infinite-dimensional Hilbert space in which the vector state of absolute beauty resides in permanent platonic perfection...

For sure we know that Joachim Kuhn needs no introduction, anyone who doesn't know who he is should not be reading this, so as a treat I would like to present this lost album from another master shige rip, called "Information", from 1981, with included cover. It has moments of the wonderful Kuhn that we love so profoundly-- the master who created Cinemascope, Hip Elegy, Sunshower, Springfever, etc., all of which when I first heard about 6 years ago I thought I was going to die of joy, thanks to the wonderful one who first shared them to me, the great "master of prog" mentioned before, to whom I beg forgiveness every day... I think it's an important (lost) document for all those who love Kuhn. Track 2 (Miles) has a bit of that Manhattan Transfer unison jazz sound but moves into some advanced-level songwriting, track 3 (Dreamworld) has a cool atmosphere of mysterious progressive, and 7 (Line of fire) features the typical waterfall-like solo piano style and constant key-changes of the inimitable master.

In closing, I want to mention that despite the deep love of progressive we have, we have to keep this in perspective, there are very very few people in the world who share this 'bizarre hobby' as my wife calls it, maybe one in a million. We really should be working together and not trying to hoard rarities from each other like little trolls. We shouldn't be hiding stuff in basements everywhere but instead like a kind of monastic collective effort, everyone should be trying to preserve as much as possible by ripping everything they can for the coming dark ages and making as much available as freely as possible. We shouldn't be bitching to another about quality of this or that rip or so on, but appreciate we are brothers and we are in this together, working together for the preservation of a cultural treasure greater even than the gold and cemetaries of the Nile. I believe this a hundred percent & this is why I do this. Those who complain should understand we all work full-time and have very little free time-- this is all done as a labour of love in our spare time and it's not like I have a chance in hell of ever getting any financial reward or any other success with this. What a joke!! I could (and probably should) be blogging about my crazy children and the cute things they do and the many toys we buy for them every day, and thereby I could get a million-dollar book deal and endorsement from Toys-r-us, but I don't, because this music is my true passion.

Please-- keep your complaints to yourself... We are not a medical licencing authority here. Again, when I tell my wife about these matters, she laughs, she says, some of these people never leave their parents' basements, do you not realize this?... but her main point is this, ít's so unimportant in the long run, do you not realize...

Apprentice - Rough Draft 1982 (flac and mp3)

On fire with a US fusion tear here, from the fantastic shige we have this amazing high-quality rip... This time from the early eighties, you can't mistake those digital keys and splashy drumming style. Musically this album is phenomenal, high energy and great composition. I step back for magister dixit:

"Rough Draft "Apprentice"(1982)...superb USA obscure jazz rock & fusion. Ripped from LP.
Track 7 is the masterpiece !!!!!
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155

James Pastman....Acoustic and Electric Piano,Mini,Micro Moog,Obertheim Polyphonic,Clavinet and Percussion
Mitch Hayes....Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Kenny Nugent....Bass
Jerry Leake....Vibes,Marimba,Hand Drums and Percussion
Frank Stauffer....Drums

Side One
1.Rough Draft (6:02)...James Pastman
2.Barnstorming (6:46)....JP
3.Prank (5:06)...JP
4.Charlie Brown (2:32)...Vince Guaraldi

Side Two
1.P.M.(Privately Maintained) (4:58)....JP
2.Freeze Frame (4:35)....Mitch Hayes
3.Time Change (6:54)....JP
4.It's in the Cards (3:24)....MH

Recorded at Sunset Sound Studios,LA,California,in 1981(?) or 1982(?)"

Very professionally played fusion by this experienced (albeit unknown) team, one throwaway song in the form of the christmas charlie brown song, I think the compositions are really outstanding, you can listen many times to this and always find new ideas to enjoy yourself with...
Track 5 ("privately maintained") reminds me a lot of Finnforest with the circular electric piano pattern and strong electric guitar statements starting with a windy-atmospheric beginning. Definitely my favourite for the aforementioned european sound. Digital strings make an appearance but thankfully are kept subdued in the background. A more unfortunate 80s-sound casio keyboard starts off the next track though-- is it possible we really loved that casio sound back then, 25 years ago? Hard to know. Track 7 is a more progressive shadowfax-like composition with a lot of energy and velocity to drive us through to the end.

Hopefully there can be no complaints about the high-quality, highly-competent rip here, tracklists are included for once in my posts. For those who hated my last two submissions and the fact they were put out publically rather than fantasized about in the privacy of a basement alone, I would appreciate more positive comments if there are any people who are thankful, which, of course, there may not be. Thanks to the two people who posted kind remarks to the last two albums. No thanks to those who complained about the Coalition post, I suggest maybe just deleting the file from your computer if you don't like it, you can right-click on the file if you want and press the 'delete' button.

It seems the old adage "say nothing if you have nothing good to say" has transmuted in blogs to: "only speak if you have a complaint." I don't want to sound too old, but honestly, I couldn't be the only one who finds it depressing that we encounter rudeness everywhere we go in this world today, and I know from travels, that this is a phenomenon that is pretty much worldwide except possibly certain small pockets of Hawai'i.

Finally, we all hope and wish for the best for the people of Japan in this unbelievable tragedy, whose repercussions will continue for a long long time.... A quote again from master Shige:

"Sometimes a little good.
Almost all bad.
They are our lives."

P.M.(Privately Maintained)...
Time Change...

Coalition - Mindsweepers 1975

Continuing shortly on from the last fusion post of Genre here's another ultra-gem dug up out of the heaps of oblivion by osurec. This is from mid-seventies and without doubt has a bit more of the earlier Soft-Machine style of prog-fusion. Here are some of the peculiarities of this particular record that make it highly worth your while:
Starting with a strong opener in C minor with an unusual chord change to F sharp (?) we move into a sax solo interlude followed by a C major composed baroque-style canon. This to me harks back to Charlie Mingus' song of the same name (I think, because that track was also in C but I might be mistaken since I haven't heard it in years).

Side two starts with a march (believe it or not) in 7/4 alternating with 9/4 which gives it that jerky sound, starting with drums and flute, and then using some really tasty strange piano chords full of jazz-dissonances to accentuate the simple melody. We then get a G7 song that recalls spring especially with the constant flute solos hovering abovehead like a pesky songbird looking for peanut butter. This then crashes abruptly into a modal E song, that is, scale of diatonic C is used for solos, no sharps. Some incredibly tough gruff electric key chords, typical modal sounds stage rhodes soloing, before returning to the G7 theme.
Quite a good record and outstanding to hear something so unknown, turn out so good. They did a second album subsequently called "Birth"...

I can only repeat how rich the mine of fusion is from this period with seemingly no bedrock in sight still. This is especially true of german late-seventies fusion, to which I would like to turn attention to shortly. In this regard there is a huge amount of impossible to hear material out there, which some feel should be hidden from the masses of humanity. It confuses me why one would want to hide from fans music that they would love, when in the first place, there are so few fans of this style still around and about, and why someone feels they need to hide it from those very few fans who are probably diminishing year by year in number. Maybe someone can explain to me the rationale in the comments section without getting too rude in the process. What is without a doubt true is that the germans adopted the progressive fusion style (just as they mastered electronics and krautrock and developed them into artforms) and really ran with it, creating some of the most amazing high-energy jazz-rock in human history since the middle ages. This should be part of the german heritage but puzzlingly it is not. Of all countries it seems as if germans are the least cognizant of their progressive past.

Mindsweepers..

Genre - Commercial Success (US) 1978

From the mighty osurec, "Unknown and Underrated US Jazz prog rock, they came from Albuquerque, private press issued in 1978"...
Of course, the title of the album alone makes one want to feature this. Is there a chance of commercial success for these highly professional and inventive artists in the year 2011, 33 years later? Well, when I hear what music other people are listening to, I am slightly doubtful but I am by nature a pessimist. I would love to hear an optimist's opinion.

For we who love progressive music we often find, especially now so late in the game, we have to mine fusion to find some of the crazy songwriting and willingness to experiment that are its hallmark. And of course it's amazing how much creativity went on in jazz in the period from early 60s to late seventies, even early eighties, when fusion became a reviled term (which I take it, it stills is today, in the 'music biz' and the general public). Personally, I prefer the real classical progressive music such as Genesis, but I feel we've run out of this classical style almost.
Let's start with the opening of this record where a drum crash leads to some insane triplets played unison style with electric guitar and keys, hyperfast, smashing into a sequence of chords that sound lifted from the best RtF chord changes. Subsequently a similar triplet series leads up to higher chords, then abruptly, before the minute mark, we switch tempos to a slow sequence with digital strings and some sustained chords. After some soloing this passes into some slower triplets that sound quite classically composed and then reiterates the triplets with synthesizer only to move on to a standard funk tune. All this in the same track. Virtually the whole thing could be studied as an exemplar of fusion in the late seventies, all styles are featured. The first side continues on into some light fusion sounds, which I understand, may not appeal to all. (I take it this 'soft fusion' is the reason fusion became anathema later on.) Pay attention to the end though, oddly enough an acoustic guitar solo closes it out. I wouldn't say it's the best composition but definitely it makes for a very varied record.

Side two features some more really eye-opening music. Electric guitar is front and centre throughout the record but in the first track we get some crazy Jimi Hendrix solo riffage after a bunch of minor second chord changes recalling alternative or early metal, like black sabbath. Subsequently a chromatic scale descends into the standard funky fusion style again that even we fans are getting a little tired of at this point. At least the energy never falters on side two, and the musicianship is superb. More ingenious riffs pop up out of nowhere, collapsing into almost metal-hard guitar patterns or thick chunky chords. Obviously this guitarist was not just a prodigy but had some brilliant ideas in his acoustic cortex. Side 2 closes out with an aggressive F sharp note on the guitar into an outro with a descending pattern of chords (what could be more fitting), like a fusionist's fadeout-- was it a fadeout to the whole concept of progressive and creative rock music for all mankind?

This is an outstanding example of how much thought can be put into one instrumental record. How unfortunate that this record and the players are unknown and relegated to that great big deleted bin in the sky.

Tracks:

SIDE A

1 Knock Out
2 Love Light
3 Auntie em
4 Just Messin' Around

SIDE B

1 All Mixed Up
2 On the Spot
3 Commercial Success
4 Love Light Reprise

Side A...

Jukka Linkola - Banana (1976)

From wiki:
Jukka Tapio Linkola (born July 21, 1955 Espoo, Finland ) is a Helsinki-based jazz pianist , bandleader and composer. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki 1972-1980, and in addition has made a study trip to the United States. He served on the Helsinki City Theatre's conductor from 1979 to 1992.
[Note that this record thus comes from a 21 year old man!]

Infos from http://renewmusic.org/composers/linkola-jukka:
Composer, conductor and pianist Jukka Linkola began his career in jazz, but since the 1980s he has become better known as a composer of serious music. His repertoire as a composer is exceptionally large. It contains not only orchestral works, concertos and chamber music but also operas, songs, musicals and jazz. In all, 40 recordings of Linkola’s works have so far been released. Linkola has composed a wealth of music for the stage. In 1976 he composed the music for a production by the Dance Theatre Raatikko called “Banana”.

He composed the musicals “Peter Pan”, “Kallion kimallus”, “Peer Gynt” and “Boris Godunov” and the ballet “Näkki” for the Helsinki City Theatre, the musical “Max and Moritz” for the Theatre 2000 in Tampere, “Antti Puuhaara” for the Tampere Theatre and the musical “King Lear” for the TTT-Theatre of Tampere. In 1989 the Finnish National Opera commissioned a ballet for the story by Astrid Lindgren “Ronia the Robber’s Daughter... [long biography follows]

So we see again how brilliant music can be when a classical education is combined with willingness to delve in the realms of jazz and rock. I'm not surprised to read that this is music for dance since it has that extreme variety and change that is typical of ballet. We start with a very atmospheric opening, a sustained piano note (Linkola plays all keys) leading into a very pohjola or wigwam-like sequence of piano chords. Side one progresses into some fairly soft conventional light fusion sounds. By track 5 it seems the experimentation session has gotten started with those typical smooth sounding dark grooves that we often hear in northern european jazz combining electric piano and a lot of minor seconds.
Side two then proceeds into the stratosphere of musical ingenuity. I believe the sixth song is a copy or direct quote of Debussy's Cathedrale Engloutie with the right and left hands playing same chords but I may be wrong. The sense of drama starts to really build up. Track 7 returns us to euphony with a sax and acoustic guitar melody accentuated with electric piano arpeggios sounding like ibises flying off. A long track ensues with all kinds of styles cycling throughout, a more classical composed opening moves into finnforest style electric jazz ending in a gorgeous electric guitar solo and drum break. The prologue is quoted from again with the sustained piano notes, with a really out of this world spacey piano composition in the middle that to me all on its own makes the whole work priceless. The album curiously closes out with some very conventional chord changes on a light fusion sound-- I would almost call it a throwaway song.

What a work! As usual I can only pray someday this kind of music can be regarded rightfully as on a par with the more famous composers in the canon of western music.
Again mention should be made of the brilliant album cover showing barbed wire in closeup. How this refers to banana [republic?] I don't know.
Thanks to the crazy Maitre D for this album.


Bass - Ilkka Hanski
Guitar - Juhani Rantanen
Percussion - Jukka Linkola , Upi Sorvali
Piano, Synthesizer, Composed By, Arranged By - Jukka Linkola
Producer - Tommi Liuhala
Recorded By - Dan Tigerstedt
Saxophone, Flute - Pentti Lahti

[coming next up, back to smashing fusion with Genre - Commercial Success]

Valkoinen on kaunista...
Keskustelu...
Lakko...

Didier Bonin - L'air Lumiere 1982 (Private Pressing) {Bonus, Arbre-Verre 1979}

From French rock discography:
"This is the versatile musician, guitarist and keyboardist Didier BONIN's first [act. second] production on which he offers a refined, suggestive, very beautiful and melodious music inviting the listener to dream and travel. The delicate chords of the acoustic guitar combine and mix with the gentle, flowing, spatial sounds of the keyboards to create a poetic, romantic and impressionist universe. "

I find very little information about this artist online, which is odd because the sheer professionalism of the playing and songwriting is astounding. Bonin's work sounds very much like french masterpiece Michel Moulinie's Chrysalide (for those familiar with it) or less so perhaps Claude Perraudin's Mutation 24. We have the very atmospheric 12-string acoustics with sustained and reverbed electric guitar melodies, all instrumentals, occasional use of synthesizers but mostly with delicate arpeggiated guitarwork front and centre. Because of the guitars I wouldn't describe this as electronic, though it has the 'mood' of electronic music i.e. introspective and thoughtful. There is that typically french melancholia and exquisite delicatesse in the music, such as you hear in for ex. Yves and Alain Lorentz Espaces and a lot of French library music e.g. Serge Bulot. Some of the songs feature dropped-D tuning to give that particularly droning sound to the chords. A lot of tritones as usual in progressive. Check out the insane chord progression in the song "Ecumes" (sea-foam) where D minor passes to G minor, but then suddenly ends in G7 (major) in the second part of the intro melody. Wow! That's what makes this kind of music so incredibly interesting to listen to. Bizarrely I'm reminded of the Smashing Pumpkin's Pisces Iscariot which had a couple of songs that had the same acoustic strumming with soft echoed electric guitar melody on top.

An amazing song called "Silences" features speaking at the start-- I could swear David Lynch copied this "Silenzio" for his brilliant movie Mulholland Drive where two-thirds through we have the abrupt switch from dreamland to horrible world of reality. However, the chance of him having heard Didier Bonin is surely zero. The sound of the synths in this track and the last one has that typical seventies intergalactic sound.

He made two albums, one in 1979 (Arbre-verre, glass tree) and one in the early eighties (Air-lumiere, or light-air), confusingly, two tracks from the latter appear on side one of the former, the aforementioned Ecume and Air-lumiere. Is it a case of self-plagiarism or self-homage? I don't know, I don't have the original vinyls to check, hopefully someone can enlighten us here without getting angry and confrontational in the process. The second side is distinctly inferior to the first, although it ends surprisingly in a classically dramatic D major suggesting to me the artist was classically trained in composition. I do feel this music is far too beautiful to be abandoned by the wayside in the cultural heritage of humanity. I hope I'm not the only one to believe this.

Ecumes...
Silences...

Crossfire Colourful Music

One of the rarest of the rarest private pressed german albums from out of those magic seventies, we can thank the very generous contributor filfer for this share, an album which is quite impossible to find online if you for some crazy reason wished to buy it. Is it worth the rarity and price? Well I would leave that to the listener to decide since tastes are so varied especially in this progressive racket. Oddly for such a late seventies output the vibe is of fifties-sixties surf music with rickenbacker picking and quick and bouncy rhythyms. The singer seems to think he's doing late-fifties hollywood. Except for two instrumentals it is debatable whether this should be called progressive rock since most of the album consists of simple guitar songs. A couple riffs remind me of the early seventies aussie band Pirana, but the songwriting is nowhere nearly as good. If you didn't know it you would expect the date on this to be 1972 or thereabouts.
The first track starts strongly with some nice C sharp minor (?) riffage even leading into a nice rapid modulation. It builds up nicely to some guitar soloing which is quite good. Then we have this odd sounding organ chorus of take a trip to music, sounding like a cheap supermarket organ from the sixties -- anyone alive in that time might recall and shudder at the sound of the cheap electric organs of the day.
The second instrumental, a play on how high the moon, "How high Von Mohn" (reference--?) has another insteresting descending minor chord riff in C minor this time, and a break in the middle between passages features a very cool minor seconds scale on the choppy guitar. The following descending minor 7th set of chords is quite trite though.
I really wonder about the musicians' thoughts about this oddly anachronistic style. On "1000 stars" we hear an almost don ho-hawaiian guitar picked melody.
Mention must be made about the hilarious and playful cover of an ?elephant being chased, presumably a drawing made by one of the artists.
Artists:
Egbert Theissen (guitar, vocals, bass), Rainer Mussmann (guitar), Burghard Netthöfel (bass, vocals, guitar), Klaus-Dieter Junke (organ, piano, string ensemble), Udo Winkler (drums, percussion), Helmut Philipps (congas, timbales, percussion, drums), Jochen Vetter (drums, 1981)

Colourful Music...
Take A Trip To Music...

Avgrunden - "Nu Narmar Vi Oss..." {Sweden} [1975]

Annorlunda skånsk rockplatta med en del progressiva drag. http://www.progg.se/band.asp?ID=54
Some info about band/album welcome...

A1. Signaturen (0:58)
A2. En annorlunda sommarvisa (3:37)
A3. Datamaskin (3:16)
A4. Skräckäventyr (6:04)
A5. Skånehöst (4:22)
A6. Gamsången (4:52)

B1. Mexico (6:24)
B2. Aldrig i livet (3:23)
B3. Avgrundlagen (2:51)
B4. Självkritik (3:37)
B5. Svenska gårdar (6:36)
B6. Signaturen (en gång till) (1:01)

- Janos Szakacs - Elgitarr
- Lars-Olof Nyström - Elbas, basfiol
- Raimo Juntunen - Fiol, maraccas, mandolin, munspel, sång
- Sven Olof Lorentzen - Klarinett
- Thomas Åkermark - Trummor
- Torbjörn Engström - Elpiano, sång, flygel

En annorlunda sommarvisa...
Skräckäventyr...
Gamsången...

Link in comments...

Resa - Lycklig Mardröm 1980

I apologize for posting so much here but I wanted to unload a few albums that I've really loved a lot over time. Soon I will be going on winter holiday and then working more so will not be able to do much in the coming time. I apologize if I offend anyone by posting (or reposting) albums here but music is bigger than any of us, as I've said before. Music has been the centre of my life for all my many years, though it's not my career, it's everything else in my life excluding family. If these rare albums were available to buy on cd at local record stores, trust me I would be bringing boxes home every day. But they aren't, for whatever ridiculous reason. Though my basement is already full of CDs, cassettes, and records, there's still (always) room for more.

This record is a typical euro-jazz from the seventies, very smooth and accessible. Not so much fusion as acoustic-based stuff, like canadians contrevent; sax and guitars play most of the melodies sans paroles. Check out the cover painting, it really melts my heart-- probably because it reminds me of the art that was current in the seventies so it takes me back to childhood again.

Compositions are relatively straightforward, not like the smooth (jazz) stuff that was all over radio in the early 80s, a little bit more clever and composed. This is the difference with European jazz and fusion, I which I'd known about it back when I loved jazz, it's more composed and more ingenious and dare I say it, less boring without the long and tedious sax and bass solos typical of the American style. To me the highlight is track 5, which uses some really nice Wayne Shorter type phrases on top of quite ingenious chords and repeated modulations. By the last track you may find yourself lullabyed to sleep, but the finish is quite gentle and relaxing with acoustic guitar on piano arpeggios, so try to wake up for it if you can.
These guys did another album in 1974 called Crazy Squares that in my opinion is not as good, I think it's easy to find.


5 - Restrött...
8 - Födselande...

Dune - Le chien des dunes (1973)

Dune is said to be the best selling science fiction novel of all time.  It was written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965.  Those of my age group will remember from childhood many kids carrying the heavy book under their arms in grade school or high school and referencing Paul Atreides or Duncan Idaho knowingly to the annoyance of the rest of us.  It had an enormous influence on progressive music in particular, the most obvious being french zeuhl band Dun.  A younger cohort will recall the disastrous David Lynch movie version with Kyle MacLachlan released in 1984, often seen in lists of worst movies ever.  I never saw it so I can't speak for it.  The book (I didn't bother to read that either) is about human struggles set far in the future of the order year 20,000 or thereabouts over control of a desert planet and a spice melange which extends life.

I can't resist saying it again, how high our hopes were back then in the sixties and seventies.  It seemed so natural to go from landing on the moon to exploring our milky way galaxy.  In fact landing on the moon was made possible by the fact that peak oil was only a couple of years away for the United States, it had to do with the cheapness of energy.  No human being will ever land on the moon again.  We are stuck on this planet now which we are steadily destroying.  Many studies have suggested that extended periods of weightlessness adversely affect bones (5% loss of bone per year) and the circulatory system, leading to constant fainting on returning to gravitational conditions.  Now an elegant recent study showed that zebrafish embryos raised in microgravity developed cranial defects-- obviously normal embryonic development requires the presence of gravity.  Earlier studies had indicated in other species the possibility space travel affects reproduction.  How likely is it the same would happen to pregnant women on an interstellar space flight lasting decades?  Very likely unfortunately, any cursory study of embryology shows that the complicated timing of development relies on many external signals of which gravity has to be an important though little-understood factor.  So appropriately enough, if we sent out a colonizing group of people out for a long space trip to a habitable planet (and how would those be chosen in the first place?  through Oprah?) it is likely only deformed mutants would arrive safely at the end of their voyage.  And I'm sure that has been written about in a science fiction short story somewhere before.

The group's name is probably from the famous book given its popularity back then (not sure), however the songs have nothing to do with it, they are ordinary-lyricked acoustic pop songs in the very smooth french style, like Chemin Blanc.  The quality of the songwriting is very high.  The second song, "La fille…" (girl I never held hands with) e.g. starts with a gorgeous 12-string B minor arpeggio progression then moves to a G major stanza, then G minor sust., F major, and quite beautifully the singer sings us down back to B minor, this modulation is worth paying attention to since it's an unusual sequence, F to B minor.  The lyrics are about a childhood crush, very poppy puppy-love ultra-saccharine melancholy typical seventies but it really takes me back to my own innocent childhood and the deep deep yearnings of the time -- example lyrics : "she was hiding her face I wonder if she was hiding a smile or tears".  Note also the beautiful mellotron strings that accompany the B minor descending progression.

The other standout songs are track 4, "Le fugitif" -- beautiful acoustic guitar intro leads to a chorus smothered in gorgeous mellotron sounds, for 'la chevauchee'  (action of a horse running) -- here the effect of the sustained mellotron chords as well as high-pitched electric piano chords is to enhance the feeling of a horse racing, quite amazingly well done.  I once again repeat myself about how these songs deserve to be played on the radio for people driving to work instead of the usual Simon and Garfunkel you hear every morning.  And track 9, "Le Tableau" which actually has quite poetic lyrics as well, simply the singer with a guitar and a handful of brilliant chord changes.  This is as great as songwriting gets, in my opinion.  Is it coincidence that it occurred in the early 70s?  No way.

In style I would say this album is in the french tradition with acoustic instruments mostly-- like Tangerine, but with highly competent compositions, quite a bit of mellotron and unusual modulations everywhere to keep our interest.  Lyrics of course are typical pop stuff.  A good example of the surprising modulations is seen in the bridge of the song "Chien des dunes"  where it sounds as if they go through twelve different keys.  This kind of thing is not often heard on current radio where the average song for sure has of the order 3.6 chords in the whole thing all in same key.  I don't know who ripped this originally but I thank them and would like more than anything that as many people as possible now hear this little, impossibly rare french gem that up until now has been lost to time and space, undeservedly.


La Fille dont je n'ai jamais pris la main...
Le fugitif...

Kazimierz Lux C.S. 1972 (Net)

One of my greatest favourite seventies rock-prog albums, by famous brainbox singer Kaz Lux, who also did the amazing Eli album with Akkerman (their second collaboration Transparental was more disappointing)
Since my posts are quite repetitive in content and I assume almost no one reads them through I will simply summarize as 'bullet' point form in powerpoint style the usual commentary and then segue into the usual doom and gloom discourse unrelated to musical content in the classic teutonic style of writing (e.g. Nietzsche, Kant, Schopenhauer, etc.)
-this kind of 70s songwriting is a 'lost art' (cf. Memo Kurt album from earlier)
-skill comes from extensive musical education which is rare today (i.e. classical music education)
-this record is better than 90 % of what you can hear on so-called 'top 40' radio today
-I cannot fathom why albums like this are so unknown, so rare, they certainly don't deserve to be, therefore,
-the 'artistic test of time' whereby great works endure and lesser ones die, is complete and utter rubbish when it comes to music today
-the combination of rock, classical, jazz created a style in the seventies that has never been emulated, in terms of quality, imagination, inventiveness (not applicable to this album)
-covers of prog albums in this period were incredibly beautiful works: paintings, photos, drawings as in this case, deserving almost of being shown in museums of art, definitely this album applies, check out that outrageous Max Ernst-like Boschian graphite (?) surreal image, artist -- ?
-all my apologies for poor bitrate on this album, not my fault, I've stolen all these rips and have gotten plenty of flak for this, not that I lose sleep over it
-if this has been posted before, shoot me-- or to quote from the great Robert Plant, 'suck my lemon till the juice runs down my leg' [The Lemon Song]
-this blogging about prog is a thankless and time-consuming job so please no negative comments, this is truly a labour of love and I would just as soon not do it, instead go cook some spicy spaghetti sauce
-my children are crazy, and my wife and I are exhausted and close to death, and finally,
-humanity is probably doomed, due to peak oil, and accelerating climate change.

-when I first read about Brendan Carter's doomsday argument [1986] many years ago I felt like I was hit on the head by a hammer, I couldn't sleep for several nights. How was this possible? Coming from a science-math background it seemed to be relatively unassailable. I had been brought up in the 70s when it was pretty much taken for granted that humanity would travel to the most distant galaxies, we were invincible now... But it wasn't until years later when I learned more about these issues such as resource depletion and climate change that I realized it was telling us something profound, that there was a good chance we were fated for extinction too, like so many other animals we have doomed by our hands, appropriately enough.
In short the argument boils down to this-- why were we born in this time? Why now, why not in the 1800s say, or more cogently, why not in the 3000s or 4000s when humanity supposedly will colonize the stars and galaxies, and develop into a species of many trillions or more individuals? Wouldn't it be more likely to be born then?? Why are we here now in the pathetic 20th-21st centuries?
Could it be we are born in this time-- because it's the likeliest time for a given human to be born? In other words, we are in the middle of the bell curve-- the population will crash quite soon--? (bear in mind that since we evolved 70-100,000 years ago 'soon' means in the next few thousand years! not tomorrow) Well, calculations show that 6-10 percent or so of all homo sapiens who EVER LIVED are alive now. Well when you look at the problems we face this doesn't seem to be too unlikely after all. This is Brendan Carter's doomsday argument, which can be made statistically rigorous with Bayes' Theorem, which used to be controversial in statistics but is no longer so. Of course the theorem depends on the idea of expert interpretation and prior probability. Is the prob. of humanity going extinct very small or very high?? Anyone can give reasons for either one this is a matter of judgement. All the argument can do is amplify the risk-- if you think it's likely then you should be very worried, because it sure looks like we are in the middle of a bell curve of population. Statistically the argument is quite unassailable, be aware that a lot of physicists and mathematicians have taken a close look at it and there is no really good refutation other than to say, it is impossible for humanity to go extinct. But then, this is a bio-sociological opinion, no longer mathematical. And in biology, unfortunately, all species go extinct sooner or later!!
Why couldn't a group of lemmings, say, at the start of their population explosion, say the same thing, not knowing the explosion will last a long long time? Well this is where it matters that we can say to ourselves self-reflectively, why are we here now. Because the lemmings cannot do this. Nor could our 5000 year old ancestors, they didn't have the insight into math and population dynamics to ask themselves this question. They didn't know their population was rising, very slowly. They would never even have thought this, they assumed they lived in a steady-state equilibrium. Everything is different for us, now. This is the curse of self-awareness again.
They aren't here now -- but we are, and we are asking ourselves this, why are we born today in this time? The reason is : Because it's the likeliest time for a self-reflecting, intelligent (math-educated) human to be born. Not in the year 1000, nor in the year 4000, but now.

[From rateyourmusic vinyl review, thank you to the user who wrote this great note:]
What I have here is: the CD version of CS (with the whole 'Distance' as bonus or vice -versa.)
I play Kazimierz already over 35 years...I still love it.
Don't expect an amatourish [sic] album...oh no...this is a warm quiet melancholic album, with excellent jammin' rock, some 'country and folk rock' and brought with Kaz unique high soulish voice.
.....momento.. go upstairs to find the original vinyl cover ...coz' no info here.....and I need something to have in my hands...
...I'm back...didn't knew I have all his vinyl albums twice..
Just what I thought: Kaz is only singing on this and the cast is the old 'Brainbox' without Jan Akkerman.
Favourite tracks:
'Graveyard'..this one reminds me very much to the better Janis Joplin tracks (also the vocal part)...Summertime....
'Delayed Panic' a simple warm 'country rock' track.
'Brown Chrystal': A good progressive track...but as 'single' an unevitable flop....this is not commercial.
'The Change'the track I like the most...it's simple and gives Kaz voice the chance to develop in it's own way:this has to be the single !
But also the tracks I didn't mention are above average.

This one is for real album lovers from 'Blind Faith' over 'Janis Joplin' to 'Neil Young, Byrds, Gram Parsons'
Spooner Oldham-Dann Penn compositions would sound great with this voice.
[end quote]


Personally this reminds me of the otger dice I posted a long time ago here, classic rock with melancholy tinges, basic rock with a lot of soul singing in the old seventies style, as you all know Kaz Lux had a fantastic voice, really beautiful deep stoned stones-ish baritone, with a lot of feeling. I really love also his singing on Eli, with Akkerman. I'm just repeating myself here, why in hell are this album's songs not on the radio, on satellite radio every morning I drive to work??????? Will I ever live to hear this happen? I doubt it.


Graveyard...
Delayed Panic...

Moonlight - "The Edge" {Finland} [1978]

I couldn't found any info on net, line-up is from back cover, more info are welcome

A1 Nomore
A2 Free
A3 Almost
B1 I'm Not in the Mood
B2 Little Miss Pretty
B3 Dream About You
B4 O.M.C.
B5 Nomore Reprise

- Paul Kanerva (bass)
- Kim Trapp (keyboards)
- Bob Wasenius (drums, vocals)
- Andy Winter (guitar,vocals)

Almost...
Dream About You...

Link in comments....

Toshiaki Yokota & Primitive Community - "Primitive Community" {Japan} [1971]

Merhaba dostlar! What we got here is probably Japan's best kept secret. For somedays i was amazing myself listening this album over and over again. Toshiaki Yokota's "Flute Adventure" album is one of my favorite, and i was wondering "Primitive Community" like many others. Since album is private press, 300 copies were made, and since it costs some thousands; we wanted everybody to taste this delicious album. My regards and thanks goes to Toshiaki Yokota himself, to give me a chance to introduce this album to you. A real treasure for the lovers of 70s prog/fusion..

"Born in 1944 in Tokyo. Started his musical carrier at 17 years old. Led his own group 'The Beat Generation' and 'Primitive Community' for 10 years, as well as playing lead flute in Takeshi Inomata's Sound Limited. A pioneer of jazz flute in Japan. Now, He lives in Izu-Inatori and maintains his own studio with beautiful and magnificient sea view. There Yokota creates his original instruments taking nature for a friend. The instruments created by Yokota are mainly fue(Japanese flute or pipe),that is shakuhachi, ceramic flute,YAYOI-BUE and other original instruments of his own ideas. He has been doing several live performances using those instruments."

"Toshiaki Yokota and Genshi Kyodotai is at the meeting place of jazz and rock. That exciting time at the turn of the 1970 decade, long before what is commonly referred to as fusion, when the ambition of free jazz met with rock's exciting psychedelic nature. It wasn't important to display Berklee-trained chops, but rather it was about texture, atmosphere and creativity at its most radical. But fortunately it stops short of free jazz's reckless abandon - that point where it's just noise for the sake of noise. There is meaning to every note, instrument and pattern. As well, we get a peek-through-the-bushes look at a Japanese sacrificial ritual as described by the tribal drumming, Hammond organ shards, wordless monk chanting, Yokota's flute and Mizutani's acid fuzz guitar blazing a wah wah trail all to be one with Kami. And that's before we get to the Hare Krishna chorus. An album like this becomes mythical because it is mystical. It's in the same league of sixth dimensioners like Älgarnas Trädgård's "Framtiden Är Ett Svävande Skepp, Förankrat I Forntiden", Lula Côrtes e Zé Ramalho's "Paêbirú" or Pierrot Lunaire's "Gudrun". If Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser had heard this band, they would have been signed to the Ohr label on the spot...read more here"

Toshiaki Yokota and Primitive Community
Toshiaki Yokota  (Flute / Indian / Alto&Bass Flute), Shunzou Ohno (Trumpet), Kimio Mizutani  (Elec. Guitar), Kimio Koizumi (Elec. Bass / Acorstic Base), Yuhsuke Hoguchi (Hamond Organ), Larry Sunaga (Percussion), Pedro Umemura (Percussion), Tadaomi Anai (Percussion), Yoshinori Nohmi (Percussion), Fujio Saitoh (Percussion), Minoru Ishiyama (Percussion), Chito Kawachi (Drums)

related links;
http://tutibuefuki.inatori.info/e/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/user/fuefukijp
http://unencumberedmusicreviews.blogspot.com/2010/12/toshiaki-yokota-beat-generation-flute.html
http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.com/2010/12/toshiaki-yokota-and-genshi-kyodotai.html
http://www.amazon.com/Flute-Adventure-Toshiaki-Yokota/dp/B000M5BADO/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1214246350&sr=8-10

hAre kRishNA...

our thanks goes to Shige :)

Dew - "Live" Nunoya Fumio 布谷文夫 {Japan} [1971]

Dew was formed in January 1970. Dominated by vocalist Fumio Nunoya, ex-singer with New Rock act Blues Creation and Group Sounds act The Bickies, both of which he had formed with Kazuo Takeda, in 1969. Nunoya was also with band Taboo whom he formed with future Happy End star Eiichi Otaki. Evidence of only two Dew songs survive, both recorded at the Genya Protest Festival, and both featuring on the soundtrack LP on Elec Records. However, the band split up soon afterwards. http://www.japrocksampler.com/artists/japrock/dew/

1 Empty Bed Blues
2 Hurt
3 The Summer Is Over
4 Hoochie Coochie Man
5 Pair-Blues
6 My Angel
7 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

- Fumio Nunoya (vocals)
- Hisao Ono (guitar)
- Tsuneo Matsumoto (bass)
- Masami Naito (drums)

1 Empty Bed Blues...
3 The Summer Is Over...
6 My Angel...

Link in comments...

Everfriend - "Sphere of Influence" {USA} [1981]

Here's an interesting discovery, if I do say so myself! Totally unknown private press LP by this band, who seems to have been mainly the project of keyboardist Bill Rhodes. It's hard to tell where he was actually from, because the album was recorded with a few different lineups at a number of separate times (1978-1981) and places (New Jersey, Florida, Georgia) and there's no label address on the sleeve. Anyway, it displays an interesting mixture of styles, from spacey and classically influenced keyboard pieces featuring tons of vintage gear (including Mellotron!) to full-blown complex symphonic prog and even some weird synth-fronted jazz-rock. This one could only have come from the US prog underground. It just totally has that "feel", if you know what I mean. I do know that he/they released an equally obscure album in 1980 called "Tropicsphere", and there might be one more from later on as well (I seem to remember seeing it once, but can't remember clearly). I'll definitely be trying to track those down now, as I find this album strangely endearing and have listened to it many times since I picked it up.

Given the Time...

thanks to fusionaut :)

J.F. Murphy & Salt - "Last Illusion" {USA} [1973]

J.F. Murphy & Salt made a huge impact in late 60s and early 70s rock, forming a New York band that achieved cult-like status. Part of the hippie/psychedelic movement, J.F. Murphy & Salt played at the legendary debacle, Powder Ridge Rock Festival.
Aside from the rampant use of recreational drugs, this period in rock developed a political dimension that couldn't be ignored. J.F. Murphy & Salt remains a legend in this era, giving listeners of that era fond rock memories. http://www.fabu.com/brand/jfmurphysalt

01 Sweet Byrd
02 Which One
03 Teenage Fantasy
04 Touched by Love
05 Bell Toll
06 New York City-Home
07 Man Who is Alone
08 Last Illusion

- J.F. Murphy (lead vocals, piano, guitar)
- Ron Allard (background vocals, bagpipes, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, tambourine)
- George Christ (background vocals, harmonica, vibraphone, congas, maracas, chimes)
- Bob Paiva (drums)
- Joe Parrino (background vocals, lead guitar, trombone, flute)
- Russell Warmolts (background vocals, bass)

Last Illusion...

Link in comments...

A.Vuolo & E.Grande - "Desert" {Italy} [1979]

Very rare italian library record from 1979 containing the great electronic tune "Transvesuvian" a cosmic sound track a la Tangerine Dream and other great funk, fusion, progressive and ambient tracks.
But there's also a bit more warmth too, a sensitivity that makes the longer tunes really shimmer and sparkle nicely, and although a sound library set, the tracks have a much deeper sense of composition.
Some tracks sounds like they were taken from a horror film(Goblin), and especially "Leaving", "Blow bubbles" and "Creation". http://www.italianprogrock.com/album.php?id=687

Side 1
1 Take Flight 5:00
2 Drops In The Wind 4:22
3 Leaving 4:23
4 Soft Melody 2:09

Side 2
1 Desert 4:50
2 Blow Bubbles 3:31
3 Transvesuvian 3:42
4 Creation 2:26
5 The End 1:28

- Antonio Vuolo: Keys
- Rino Diaferio: Guitar, Bass
- Elio Grande: Bass

Thanks to Elitario :)

Leaving...
Transvesuvian...
Creation...

Link in comments...

Thomas & Henry Kiefer "Improvisationen Über Edoardo-Antonius Eumel" {Switzerland} [1980]

Instrumental progressive duo, the Kiefer brothers on guitars. ...more info about this band/album is welcome

Thanks to KC :)

link in comments...

Profondità - "Profondità" {Italy} [197X] Prog/Psych

oi meu amigos! hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you are doing. for me this album is italians' best kept secret for 70s psychedelic rock. i was searching this album for such a long time, and i feel glad to find it. unfortunately i couldnt find enough information for this album, the only review i found is, at ItalianProg site, says;
"Doppio album del astierista / compositore Paolo Ferrara uscito per una piccola etichetta, Profondità è quasi completamente strumentale e contiene musica originale in stile colonna sonora, con qualche somiglianza con i Pink Floyd. I 19 brani dell'album sono quasi totalmente basati sulle tastiere con l'ausilio sporadico di altri strumenti e parti cantate corali. Paolo Ferrara compare come autore ed esecutore di diversi altri dischi." while copy/paste was my friend, google translate might be yours. A hidden treasure for the lovers of early pink floyd..


AlChiMiA...
EmbRioNe...

thanks to tristan stefan :)

Enjoy!

April Orchestra Volume 28

[from wikipedia] Jirí Stivín (born 23 November 1942 in Prague) is a Czech flute player and composer. He graduated from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). He also studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music as well as at the Prague Academy of Music (AMU). Some of his compositions are featured in this album by April Orchestra. This seems to have been an easy-listening type orch. that published all kinds of dross over the years. Surprisingly there is no wikipedia entry for it, and only a brief one for Mr. Stivin. Note that the April O. Volume featured on Stivin's website, oddly enough, is not the same as this one. However, as pure music, this record has provided me personally with no end of enjoyment, listening to it again today I can go without hitting the fast forward button excessively, which is saying a lot after spending the last 10 years (with 4 year break) listening to an average of 5 albums per day, cumulatively, about 10,000. (Could it really be that few??) The fact that this otherwise ordinary orchestra could produce something so advanced in 1978 is a testament again to the progressive nature of the times.

We start with the Stivin Sanguine humour composition (which is taken from his zodiac album, a progressive masterpiece). It has a string quartet opening that shows his academic training, leading to an odd piano-comped flute ditty. The second track starts with a blues intro but swiftly leads into some insane horn chords and then an ingenious chromatic riff, basically big band meets king crimson perhaps. Next track uses wah wah trumpet on top of C minor, relatively throwaway, as is the next song. Many would love these 'funk breaks' I think but for non-prog reasons. On track 5 we get some twilight zone dissonances and then some early seventies style riffs. Track 7, Festival, has some Charlie Mingus touches. The next one "More Klidu" again feels like it belongs to an earlier epoch, with the breathless Nouvelle Vague female vocals singing on top of a very soft electric piano obbligato, the melody seconded by a bassoon (?) of all things. Very interesting arrangement. What a shame this track was not developed further into a pop song. Cholerici is again a Stivin composition from Zodiac, some really interesting violin sweeps in the string quartet appear with some clarinet (?) melodies and dissonant chords off the harpsichord. This is the kind of track that kills me because it's not performed in lieu of Brahms (or more appropriately Bartok) at the local symphony or chamber orchestra. Mr. Stivin obviously spent quite some time writing this piece and what credit does he get for it in the annals of music? Just some silly paragraphs on a blog in the virtual blogosphere.
More funky tracks ensue, another wordless female track in "sen o zemi" this time with some really interesting orchestral strings accompaniment-- reminds me a lot of Joachim Kuhn in the cinemascope period, or Abraxis (Belgian) with the really colourful mixture of orchestra, piano, and vocals in an accessible (easy-listening-style) format. The last track sounds like a jazz q song, probably someone annoying can correct me here. They again use the minor second for that devilish sound that prog (and fusion, Urbaniak and Mahavishnu) loves so much, how many songs do you hear start with an electric guitar doing the minor second arpeggio on a minor chord? Always we sit back and pray that it doesn't turn into a song with E minor then F major over and over again, that gets so boring when there's only 2 chords in the entire song. At least 2 chords is better than german trance stuff where typically we never get past the E. At least try a different key, guys, maybe B minor, for a change.

I wish there was more information to be found on this whole album other than my own solipsistic interpretation of it through little earbuds but of course to me that doesn't matter at all, the only thing that matters to me is that this music be heard by more people, the maximum in fact.

I hope earlier comments about my children were not misunderstood, I truly love them of course and was only joking about them being terrifyingly abnormal. Since then I must say I have had quite a reaction on my 'mommy blog' (which is my dayjob now, I quit my other dayjob setting licencing standards for dogs, I get a lot of money now from the mommy blog, not as much as Julie and Julia mind you, but that's because my name isn't as catchy, and maybe because I'm not actually a mother) from my prime advertisers (pampers, wetwipes and First Response pregtest kit) threatening to hold off all ads until I recant and swear in a lie detector coupled with a chocolate MRI that I truly do love them. Looks like my long-sought after hollywood movie deal which was supposed to star Julia Roberts as the mom, Jamie Lee Curtis as the dad, and the Jon and Kate sextuplets as my 2 kids (they were to alternate in different scenes) is going to fall through as a result, leading to millions of dollars in losses for myself and my wonderful money manager, Bernie Madoff. Nora Ephron was supposed to pen the screenplay, on a paper napkin. And for director we had of course Ron Howard from Happy Days, along with Emmanuel Lewis as the older boy with a cameo from Pierce Brosnan as the king of England. I want to add that I am getting tired of all these other mommy blogs, do people really have nothing better to do than talk about their crazy kids all day long while seeing them all day, do they have to bore other people about them too? I swear when my wife returns to earth I will withdraw from all my advertising contracts, even the one I just inked with wonderbra. I just wish she would get back from her spacewalk so I could phone her on her cellphone I'm sick and tired of the older guy knocking over the baby. Finally, I would like to sincerely apologize to Pampers and Wetwipes for any malicious emails they received from angry readers, to Firstresponse for any women unwilling to get pregnant as a result of my comments leading to loss of sales, and to my kids' mother (for my help in producing these guys).

Domáci votna mezi telem a dusi...
Den Svatebni...

Skyeros - "Skyeros" {USA} [1975] Prog/Psych

Here's an album that's somewhat coveted by collector's of the underground American scene. These guys were from Missouri and released this one rare private press LP before disappearing into total obscurity. It's become quite expensive over the years, probably due to being mentioned in collector books like Acid Archives, the Pokora guides, etc (also, it has a great trippy cover). I'm not so sure the hype is really warranted, but it's definitely not a bad listen. Quite melodic, guitar-fronted prog/psych with a very "rural rock" feel, which was very common for underground US groups at the time. by Fusionaut

01 Daily Dreams
02 Don't Give Me No Alibis
03 Searchin'
04 With Or Without You
05 Homecoming
06 August - Suite In Time

- Steve Wright - bass, vocals
- Bill Sikes - lead guitar
- John Danieley - twin lead
- Rodney McCarron - keyboard, vocals
- Karl Lawson - percussion, vocals

Thanks to Fusionaut :)

Searchin'...
August - Suite In Time...


link in comments...

Orpheus - "Orpheus" {Japan} [1983]

Mega rare Japanese Sympho item. Only LP released. Novela vein
more info welcome

A1. 剣の舞 tsurugi no mai 4:07
A2. マーメイド mermaid　9:49
A3. 組曲「レ・シルフィード」Les Sylphides Suite 13:49
B1. 愛の妖精　ai no yousei 5:09
B2. 組曲「死と少女」shi to shoujo Suite 14:26 (is Scheherazade's original tune)

Mermaid...
Les Sylphides Suite...

link in comments...

Varis - "Varis" {Germany} [1979] (jazz rock)

Here's one of the most obscure of the "kraut fusion" LPs from the late 70s, the sole private press album from Varis.
I couldn't found any info on net, line-up is from back cover, more info are welcome

01 - Flink
02 - Ophelia
03 - Ostinato
04 - Moonlight Voice
05 - Superpono
06 - Anno 77
07 - Locus Solus
08 - Ralfi Rock Einmal

- Ralf Pallmann, b, e-b
- Bjorn Gogolf dr
- Karl-Heinz Engelhardt, ta as, fl voc
- Andrey Hiebarolf, g
- Marlin Shaclow e-p

Thanks to Fusionaut :)

Flink...
Ostinato...

link in comments...

August - "August" {Japan} [1989] (cassette only release)

This is thier first recording.

Mega rare item!
To the fans of Renaissance, Illusion, Vermilion Sands

A1 -「秋」aki (means...autumn) 5:56
A2 -「蛍」hotaru(means ....firefly) 2:27
B1 -「マグリット風の空」Magritte fuu no sora (means...the sky like Magritte painted) 5:06
B2 -「ある手品師の話」aru tejinashi no hanashi (means...the story a magician told) 7:28

工藤美鈴（Vo） Misuzu Kudoh
河合良典（G） Yoshinori Kawai
高田礼人（Kb）Ayato Takada
菅野荘（B）Sou Kanno
小野寺寿勝（Dr） Kotokatsu Onodera ( during 88-89)

A1
B2

link in comments...

Maffy Falay Sevda "Jazz I Sverige" {Sweden} [1972] (turkish folk fusion)

It was in 1972 that the first album awarded with the title "Jazz in Sweden" came out on Caprice Records. This was the result of a poll running in the two music magazines OJ (Orkesterjournalen) and Tonfallet in late 1971. The readers where asked to vote for a group or an artist that they would most like to be recorded and released on an album. The first album was the group of trumpeter Maffy Falay - SEVDA. Over the years the award has helped to bring forward many of Sweden's active jazz musicians. The award, which nowadays also includes a national and international tour, can be seen as a stepping stone for upcoming jazz musicians. The goal is to help them build a solid foundation for their future careers as active artists. http://www.myspace.com/jazzinsweden

Maffy Falay / Sevda - “Jazz I Sverige ‘72” (Caprice)
Sevda is a unique fusion of Turkish music and Swedish jazz, which grooves naturally in exotic time signatures (like 7/8 and 9/4), blending textures, rhythms and swinging improvisations into an exciting whole. It was recorded live at a TV studio, and at the time nobody had any idea it would be issued as a record. On drums is the great Okay Temiz, who also played with Don Cherry for some time. http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/754

Double Bass - Ove Gustavsson
Drums - Okay Temiz
Goblet Drum - Akay Temiz , Okay Temiz
Saxophone [Baritone], Flute [Chinese] - Gunnar Bergsten
Saxophone [Tenor], Flute [Silver] - Bernt Rosengren
Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Piano, Flute [Indian], Arranged By - Maffy Falay*
Violin - Salih Baysal


Tamzara...
BatuM...

thanks

Friends, as you know prognotfrog was invite-only during 2 days.. During that days, we got massive response from many folks.. unfortunately there is no option to make aware others for what was going on.. and as you also see, things on the site is not finished yet, but anyway, we decided to open it. it was just about that the frog was preparing itself for the next 1000 years :)

Most of the sections are not working currently, but there is plenty of fun to enjoy the new site, so you may comeback to look again to those sections with in a few weeks..

Stay Progressive :)

Confluence 4 Voyages1976

Here we have the final unavailable French Confluence album (chronologically the first). The second and third albums, Arkham and Chroniques Terrestres, were made available at mutant sounds some time ago. As far as I know this one was not before online, but it's nice to complete the work of this undeservedly unknown band.

"Quietly gorgeous French jazzy prog of a very airy, languid and spacious sort, often focused around the wistful cello work of Jean-Francois Capon, whose devastating outfit Baroque Jazz Trio recently had their one eponymous album reissued. One of France's great undiscovered treasures" is the surprisingly subdued description from mutant sounds of Arkham. I would say that it is actually chamber jazz, with a very well worked melding of chamber orchestra (a lot of violin, flute, cello, double bass) and jazz. Less rock is in this recipe. Unfortunately one of the jazz elements employed is the long tedious and boring jazz solo. I defy anyone to listen thru the last track without fastforward. This long "4 voyages" (through the sahara desert no doubt?) drags on quite too long before finishing in a gorgeous flute and violin passage using second notes on top of minor chords for that oh so plaintive effect. It is debatable whether the trip to that last 2 minutes was worth the wait.
I'll never understand why jazz musicians felt it was ok to throw in ten minutes of pointless, aimless soloing instead of taking the time to compose some actual music with structure and purpose. I mean live, it's OK since you're sitting there essentially with no choice to leave, but on an album it's unforgivably boring.

Anyways, having said that, it seems to be a live album on the basis of applause at the end of tracks. I think the composer is a genius, and obviously studied composition somewhere because his ideas are so interesting, the standout in 'songwriting' being the third track "convergences". So he could have, as in the chronique terrestres album, written more actual music versus improv.

These progressive musicians wrote a kind of music that has no rules, they use rock, jazz, and european classical in equal measure to create a whole that is perfectly harmonious and has no borders or styles. In my life I listened to modern classical, even Berg and Schoenberg, to jazz, to rock, and I feel like with this music I have come home, it has everything I have looked for in a lifetime of listening to music, all in one package. I hope you who enjoy this agree.
But when I come to work and on the radio I hear for the ten thousandth time "Signs signs everywhere there's signs" playing it fills me with despair at the human condition.
To return to Confluence, I think the next two albums are better than this one, esp. the final album appears to be the most accessible. A lot of the music in this one even I find a little hard going (almost atonal). At least it's not weirdly strange like the unobstructed universe I posted earlier.

On a personal note, I wish I could post more albums but time constraints are again a problem with wife returning to work as a spaceperson (astronaut) and two small children which I have a lot of trouble to get rid of. Surely when they finally go to school (1-2 years from now) I will devote more time to this "weird, weird strange hobby" (my wife's words) of sharing progressive albums from the seventies ("Long before I was born???" as my receptionist always says). A lot of people suggest to get a nanny but I wouldn't inflict these terrible, abnormal children, on any human being no matter how patient.


4 Voyages...

3L (Love, Live, Life) - "10 Chapters Of Murder - from Colin Wilson's 'Encyclopaedia of Murder'" {Japan} [1971]

750. LOVE LIVE LIFE + ONE: “Satsujin Juushou – 10 Chapters of Murder” (CBS Sony – SOLL-74002) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint). Their follow-up to the highly acclaimed “Love Will Make A Better You”. Unlike its predecessor, “10 Chapters of Murder” is more progressive heavy rock tinted. Released in 1972,“Satsujin Juushou” is a fucking killer LP, taking off where “Love Will Make a Better You” left off and taking towards the next level of delirious madness, mixing outward bound jazzy moves with heavy progressive rock freak-outs and psychedelic incantations and private ecstatcies. Kimio Mizutani’s wrist-slashing fuzzy guitar licks wah’s through it all like a surgeon operating on some defractored brain, Hammond organ lines slice through it all and heavy horn sections give it a LSD soaked mid seventies Miles Davis kind of vibe you wont be able to recover from without leaving behind a piece of your sanity. Demented howling female laughing vocals pop on through at unexpected times, rendering the whole into an even more disjointed teeth-grinding frenzy, all fused in a cloud of smoke, making it a stranger fusion of fucked up eclectic jazz moves, with unhinged psychedelic rock jamming and transporting it into driven jams of explosive jazzed out cosmic rock. The whole disc is booming over with the proper ingredients for a musical outrage, fucking up with and fusing musical traditions and stranding in a hazy but potent universal horizon obscured by mind bending lysergic mutations and sweating out heavy psychedelics. In short this is a fucking MONSTER. One of the best and still undetected Japanese heavy psychedelic & transcendental jaw-dropping jazzy explorations, all embalmed into one cinematic epiphany meshed together into intoxicating boosted crescendos of crystalline hallucinogenic quivering sonic attacks. Head-spinning, mind-altering freeform psyched out jazz rock, a vicious musical beast from the east, still undetected, bloody rare and unreissued. Highest possible recommendation. Price: 875 Euro

http://www.tiliqua-records.com/rare/reco_L-P.htm

*japanese title [meaning]
A-1 イントロダクション [Introduction]
A-2 ママを殺してなぜ悪い [Why bad do i kill a mom]
A-3 聖バレンタイン・デイの虐殺 [St. Valentine's Day Massacre]
A-4 霧の夜の戦慄 [chill at foggy night]
A-5 少女を煮て食う変態男 [hentai man eats girl boiled]
B-1 満月の夜はアベックを殺れ [kill the avec in the full moon night]
B-2 美しき毒殺魔 [Beautiful Demon poisoning]
B-3 西部大強盗団の女領主 [lord woman of Great gang in Western]
B-4 アウシュビッツの大殺戮 [slaughter at Auschwitz]
B-5 エピローグ（レクイエム） [Epilog (requiem)]

*pronounce title
01 introduction
02 mama wo koroshite naze warui
03 St. Valentine's Day no gyakusatu
04 kiri no yoru no senritsu
05 shojo wo nite kuu hentai otoko
06 mangetsu no yoru wa avec wo yare
07 utsukushiki dokusatsuma
08 seibu daigoutoudan no onna ryoushu
09 Auschwitz no daigyakusatsu
10 epilog (requiem)

市原宏祐 : Kohsuke Ichihara (sax fl, arr)
横田年昭 : Toshiaki Yokota (sax, fl)
柳田ヒロ : Hiro Yanagida (key)
水谷公生 : Kinio Mizutani (g)
直居隆雄 : Takao Naoi (g)
寺川正興 : Masayoshi Terakawa (b)
チト河内 : Chito Kawachi(ds)
神谷重徳 : Shigenori Kamiya (arr)

Introduction...
Hentai man eats girl boiled...
Beautiful demon poisoning...

Our thanks goes to Kohsaku ;)

Link in comments...