Vasant Rai / Collin Walcott / Paul McCandless / Glen Moore / Dilip Naik ‎– Spring Flowers (USA, 1976)

Here's another record that should, like the previous entry, prove highly popular.  This time we are dealing with eastern music played by Vasant Rai, who is the composer for all tracks, backed up with such jazz luminaries as Colin Walcott and the amazing Oregonian Paul McCandless, the prime reason I bought this record.  Also I really loved the cover, which is odd but quite surreally gorgeous in that typical mid-seventies lsd-drippy way.  It's funny how that coleopteran, new-agey taste for sitar and indian music has dissipated in today's world -- is that good or bad?   I believe those spring flowers of which these meditation-mad maniacs spoke are now merely dried up flowers crumbling into dust in the hands of those of us who are attempting to perpetuate this musical legacy somehow into the future.  Will a delicate and beautiful, hard to appreciate album like German Iviron survive somehow into the coming upheavals of the future?  With uncharacteristic pessimism I don't see it as possible, though I would love to have a heart-to-heart with one of those dandelion-common optimists who believe in our future techno-success extending into colonizing other planets and even galaxies.  For my part every time I take my kids to the park with clearly marked "dogs must be leashed" signs and every five minutes someone laughs as their off-leash dog charges at my little ones and terrifies them, or every time I get in my car to drive to work and am cut off after each mile by some idiot with no regard for anyone else, I find less and less reason to believe in humanity's future.  As I've said so many times before, there are signs all around us that our society is on a breaking-down course at the moment, if one really cares to look instead of ostriching about: in the obvious financial senses, or socially, not just ecologically.  Is it really possible to reform our old democracies so they are not all riddled with parasitic bureaucracies, bankers and lawyers who serve no purpose other than to drain money from ordinary people?  On a global scale, can we really make enough food for the expected maximum population of 9-10 billion, when there is barely enough room to grow food for 7?  Can we really hope to solve the climate change problem when there is such incredible pressure in India and China to modernize to middle class for all?  I really really doubt it-- and that's only on the larger telescopic scale of things.  Going down to the small scale microscopic it's even more bleak. Everywhere we look there is a reason to be worried.

A couple of years ago I mentioned one of the most shocking scientific arguments to take seriously for the more pessimistic outlook.  For those who understand Bayes' Theorem, the application of probability to the question of why we are alive now, as opposed to a hundred, a thousand years ago, or the reverse:  a hundred or a thousand years hence, is most likely due to the fact we are in the middle of a population bell curve.  The conclusion is thus obvious.  Of course this is a probability argument and thus impossible to properly quantify, depending on so many guessed-at variables.  If one is certain humanity cannot go extinct, automatically you can't apply Bayes' Theorem to the question since it amounts to dividing by zero (though no biologist would make such a statement, since every single species must go extinct eventually or has gone extinct).  And unfortunately-- Bayes' Theorem is so useful and practical you can't just ignore the actual argument... ( the doomsday argument of astrophysicist Brendon Carter)

Back to the music.  From rateyourmusic's brief review: "Oregon meets India (again).  Tastefully done. McCandless, as usual, can fit hit oboe playing seamlessly into any composition. "
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/vasant_rai/spring_flowers/

Sample track, Spring Wind, featuring Paul's amazing playing on oboe:

Philip Catherine + Christian Escoude + Didier Lockwood - Trio (FRA 1984)

None of these musicians really need any introduction though of course the cover would need an entire novel to justify its existence.  Well, some of us here remember those idiotically happy days back then when bright neon colours and silly behavior were everywhere.

The music is that light fusion typical of the eighties that some really detest, others not so much.  However, due to the fame of its performers, I thought it would be interesting to some.  Note that some of the tracks are really interesting and well-written, esp. to me the Escoude track on side b, "Eyes Don't Smile" is quite progressive.  I'll sample it below.  In fact he really turns out to be the star here, to me.  Catherine, on the other hand, despite his purebred pedigree, is quite the dog in this show, with relatively ordinary compositions.  But we could recognize his unique playing easily, all of us, with that sharp attack and those minor second passages that are so typical of his great masterpiece records.  Oddly enough he does the arranging on this record, when you wouldn't really expect these guys need such a function.

The other impressive track is Lockwood's Like an Angel punctuated with those classic minor second arpeggios that are such a hallmark of both P. Catherine and seventies guitar fusion:


Here is Escoude's  Eyes Don't Smile:

Karlos P. Steinblast - Hard Rock Vol. 1 (USA, 1980)

This is by far his best work (and indeed one of my favourite guitar-rock albums from the US) featuring some really raw, psychiatric and hard-assed guitarwork-- moreover, most songs are quite progressive and each its own uniquely bizarre way.  The one thing about this album is the late year-- you'd think most of this material was written 5-8 years before, especially given the Led Zep-influence that seems to be omnipresent.  )

Let's just have a listen to the first magnificent masterpiece track, "Me and my babe--"  wherein Karlos  stays at home with his babe gettin' it on, "we can't drive - with the price of gas, fuel oil running out fast - we keep warm under cover -- please don't tell my mother" (--showing he was a peak oil believer 25 years ahead of his time--)   but then the song goes: "Costs too much to go nowhere-- I don't wear no underwear" showing he's truly an insane genius deserving of immortality.

 As I said, each track has its own interesting twist: the spacey funk that starts side b, the fast instrumental riff that follows (called Stabb, sampled below), recalling perhaps the Frankenstein song by the Edgar Winter Group, the lament for being stranded in New York City, the "I hate disco" song that sounds so beautifully quaint today, esp. with the utter dominance of 'dance music' in today's world... again note his wonderfully original guitar-playing style, often using chunky chords punctuated by fast riffs to interconnect phrases.

And of course I ask you all again, Where is Debbie Miller?  she was last seen in the South Illinois area sometime in the early seventies, anyone, please have any info on her whereabouts?  maybe we should start a facebook page about it, that seems to be successful in a lot of these cases…….
Or perhaps we should be asking, Where is Karlos P. Steinblast? 
It can't be too late to make him famous, as famous as he deserves on the basis of this wonderful music.  And I can tell you this is one record I will never give up until the day I die.

Me and my babe:


Stabb:

VA - The Many Names of Eva (Net, 1982) [Library]

This is, as far or more distant still than I can tell, a library record with a softcore theme, perhaps it was actually a bona fide soundtrack for a movie-- yet the generic style descriptors on the back suggest these tracks did not make it to an actual trenchcoated cinema.  I was forced to cut off the bottom half of the front image due to its highly suggestive nature and the provincially small-minded censorious government in my area.  Yet when I was young in the eighties our very liberal local TV cable (and even more liberal parents) carried many European channels which ineluctably after the 11 PM hour chimed played endless succulent softcore porn productions ex Euroland.  And like others perhaps my approximate age I might be forgiven for remembering with fondness those lavish productions full of beautiful castles and costumes, the endless Emanuelles, the classic Story of O, the repetitive undressers Nastassia Kinski, Edwige Fenech, Laura Antonelli, and the pedophiliac tendencies of David Hamilton including Bilitis my favourite ridiculis title (cum beautiful music though) -- any one of whose movies today would be castigated as pedophiliac dross due to the teenage actresses featured therein.  But I remember going to the local bookstore or University library and being able to go through David Hamilton's many books of 'art photography' which were as beautiful esthetically as they were unarousing libidinally due to the interference between the intellectual brain and the hormonal brain.  How I am led to wonder that in my lifespan women went from being fully naturally hairy to, currently, completely shaved.  It was surprising to me already some 20 years ago when the fashion arose to shave the area albeit it was a logical development both for esthetic reasons, practical reasons (underwear or swimwear), and for evolutionary reasons (the imperative for women's desirability in our patriarchal society is always to spend time and effort to beautify themselves... many times I have reflected on how women risk their lives applying makeup in the morning commute's rear-view mirror, driving while applying sundry adherent chemicals to their faces-- it's that important to them, a matter of life and death).  Yet I was surprised some years back to find grown adult women now shave completely (in my line of work a side effect of learning).  Then again this also seems logical to me, as a reductio ad absurdum, but also given the prevalence of oral sex.  I wonder what will happen 20 years from now, since as I said, this evolution occurred entirely within my lifespan-- what new technologies will be brought to bear on female dermatological corrections, or what even could be invented given that depilation has achieved totality?  (Yet perhaps a rising incidence of oral cancers will curtail the habit of oral contact... or could vaccines bring about a breakthrough in commonality?)  Surely it comes as a shock now when we see a 1978 classic like "La Fille" (Cosi Come Sei) in which a teenaged N. Kinski plush with her mammalian hair, runs around naked in front of a married man (Marcello Mastroianni) old enough to be her great-great-grandfather and of course inevitably falls in love with him and has repeated sex with him by the end (though at least her axillae were shaved).   Amazingly, the music was by Ennio Morricone, and in my opinion one of his best-ever scores.   And without a doubt the high production values (compared to current porn), plus the work that went into these Euro-movies, the music, all these elements created a kind of genre that is classic in its own way, now sadly gone and forgotten.  So this album that I present to you today is kind of a soundtrack to exactly this style of movie, in which beautiful young women in Capri or Nice shed their clothes moderately while discussing who is sleeping with whom and engaging in the same.  Some time back I saw that one 1982 Spanish movie that I always remembered fondly from childhood called Faustine ou le bel ete, featuring a teenaged Isabelle Adjani in a supporting role, had been rereleased to DVD so I bought it and watched it with my wife.  It was boring, for both of us, and believe me this is not a sad reflection on the state of our marriage, but the actresses were stunningly beautiful and it was a joy to see such a beautiful young Adjani long before she became a true mega-star in France.  As a bonus I have included a long lost disco classic also previously available (along with the current offering) on the great discobasso's record store, growingbinrecords.

Mandy:


Kathy:

Matthias Frey - Onyx (GERM, 1982)

I'm back from holidays with a little warm-up album.  It's hard to get back to work after being so relaxed for a couple of weeks although a scan of the internet banking balances and credit card balances sure performs well as a cold shower wake-up to reality.

This album was available in the past, I realize, but because this artist is one of my all-time favourite German musicians, I wanted to make a clean new rip off an NM vinyl.  Everything he touched turned to gold-- recalling Toto Blanke, Wolfgang Dauner, etc.  At times he reminds me a lot of German Chick Corea with the very staccato style of piano playing, but his imagination can really run riot in some of these compositions, and he brings that typical European classical music sensitivity to everything he plays.

His mixing of progressive songwriting and chord changes with jazz is just about perfect in my opinion, plus, we get Trilok Gurtu on percussion here.  The earlier albums he did with cellist Wolfgang Tiepold were particularly expressive too (Ziyada, Colibry, Inversion).  Although I may be wrong, he also turned to new age style music later on, just like Chris Hinze (I never bothered to listen to any of the later stuff, the titles alone scared me off).

Others will know more about this than me, but have none of his early albums ever been released to CD?  If so, it's a horrible injustice.

Christy Doran - Harsh Romantics (GERM, 1984)

It was perhaps a bit embarrassing when a song on the second Yugo Birdland album dedicated to Christy Doran I mistakenly thought was dedicated to a sexy woman -- but Christy is neither sexy (to me) nor a woman.  After the seventies passed it seems he too turned back to acoustic music, similar to Toto Blanke's recidivism from the virtuous sainthood of fusion, with this album and the next one poetically called "The Returning Dream of the Leaving Ship."  For me his work with nirvanal supermen OM is in fact eclipsed by sister Bridget Doran's magnificent hard-funk-fusion band Kjol, and she was both sexy and a woman-- two big plusses.  His style here is reminiscent of both Toto and Ralph Towner and the ECM feathery strumming / dissonant and atonal business of poking, amusing, tickling and enlightening the inner ear with its attached acoustic nerve and the brain located deeply medial to both right and left cranial nerves number VIII.  The music is complex & difficult to follow, but at the same time familiar and pleasurable with the colloquialism of those folksy guitar strings.

Why did all these masters abandon fusion, hallmark of the seventies?  And why did that musical style become so popular in that particular decade?  Was it the cheap energy, the optimistic future, the youthfulness of the listeners (those notorious oh-so-tedious self-absorbed baby boomers)?  Fusion was such a sui generis style it was like big band jazz, something hugely popular in one time, one moment, but despised and forsaken in all futures to come, except among those like me, who believe that it constituted one of the greatest art-forms humans ever created.

The progressiveness they crafted with their alloying of modern classical music, the best from rock, and the emotions of jazz, to me are the greatest musical artistic creations possible, like a configuration space or hamiltonian phase space in which the universe has selected an ideal position in the locus of perfection, an equilibrium of beauty that balances the three temporals: eternity to come, the present moment, and everything and all from the past in one inflectionary point, one stationary action.  As if one could see all  universal history and existence from the past to the future's end as a single block of completion.  This is what progressive music is to me, as I said before: the only taste of heaven we will ever have here in this impermanent world.

From wikipedia:
"Christy Doran (born 1949) is a jazz guitarist born in Dublin, Ireland and raised in Lucerne,Switzerland.

Doran founded OM with Fredy Studer, Urs Leimgrumber, and Bobby Burri in the 1970s; this ensemble recorded for ECM Records. He and Studer also worked together on a Jimi Hendrix tribute project in the 1990s. Doran has worked with a number of well-known free jazz and avant-gardemusicians such as Marty Ehrlich, Robert Dick, Ray Anderson, Han Bennink, Albert Mangelsdorff,Louis Sclavis, Marilyn Mazur, Herb Robertson, John Wolf Brennan, Patrice Héral, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Carla Bley. Doran founded New Bag in 1997, and toured the world from 1998 to 2000 with the ensemble. Doran now teaches at the Musikhochschule at Lucerne."

Discography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Doran

Here are two of the best tracks from this record, 

Enchore:

fts:

I will be on holiday next week for our usual summer beach trip, so check back again in a couple of weeks… and have a great early July everyone.

Karlos P. Steinblast

 
We have to admire these dedicated or perhaps stone-crazy American artists like Karlos P. Steinblast who continued making progressive music into the eighties when it was completely unfashionable and unsustainable.  He even proudly proclaimed it on the cover: "progressive rock" -- pretty uncompromising, or perhaps stoned lacking in sobriety, to fly his freak prog flag so high.   It was a style already uncool by the late seventies as far as I've read.  Yet this record is full of references to how he'll gain fame and groupies, though it hasn't happened yet: dear cadillac-driving Karlos, why not copy Duran Duran? 

When you look at this guy if you're old enough you're taken straight back to childhood and those crazy over-hairy days, those lazy over smokey-and-the-bandit days of stinky herbal park benches endlessly discussing Jimmy Page versus Jeff Beck, while 'Eric Clapton is god'.  His best record is actually the one that came before, the first, called "Hard Rock Vol. 1".  I will post also the third one, "Steinblast and Friends" which demonstrated a bit of deterioration in quality, not the best friends to have around maybe.  Notice that the "I need a woman"  Suite from the second transforms into "I don't need no leash" in the next record, a year later - how many of us men have felt the same way one or two years into marriage?  check out some of the lyrics for that one:
"Woman let me be, and shut your screaming face,
I don't need no leash
I don't need no collar
I don't need the way that you scream and holler"

ouch!  is it even possible to seek counselling at this stage? or advisable?

To focus on the track "Where is Debbie Miller?" is to be taken back to those hazy redolent five-leaved days of 1981 when all was denim and possible, droppable, inhaleable, when big fat psilocybin-fueled dinosaur America still ruled the world of cars with its carboniferous chevys, massive mustangs, trashy trans-ams; it's the story of Debbie Miller, a teenaged girl who witnessed Karlos get run over by a Cadillac: "he's squashed, baby, between two cars!!!" -- when the PO-lice came, of course, she had to run away because she was 'jailbait'.   But here's the best part; halfway through the song, he suddenly starts asking "Where's my kazoo???  Where's my kazoo????"  --and then he plays the kazoo!
I mean you gotta laugh, it's like, what the F---?
On the back of the record, this plaintive little note from Karlos: " Could the DJ's in the Illinois area please play 'where is Debbie Miller' to help me locate her? It's very important! Thank You!"

But yeah, that's what it was like back then in the late seventies early eighties.  People tell me.  The American dream-- Morning again in America.  America the beautiful, America the great, home of the bald eagle and the toupee'd presidents, Stars and Strippers forever.  Come back to the 5 and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams has led you to the Last House on Dead End Street, but now night has fallen and as Mao once said, for us to soon see, " it's never darkest till it's completely black " ...

One must persevere through his singing, it's probably a fifth to an octave below where he should be singing, but his guitar-playing style is very interesting and original, particularly with regards to the use of inverted chords, and sudden fast riffs between the chunky chords, and for this I really love him.  Check out for the perfect example of this, the first part of "I Need a Woman" with its really odd riffs. I think you'll all agree he was highly talented at the GUI-tar.

Yes, I LOVE YOU KARLOS, and I would love it if you would drop a comment here below and tell us what happened to you (and Debbie Miller!)  It's never too late to become famous, and I think you deserve it, even if only in our rarefied, unfemale-populated, progressive circles where you are all too unknown still.  Finally, note the cool message written on studio letterhead I found inside the record, presumably written by the Karlmeister himself, I scanned it and included it.  Apparently he thought this one was better than his first record.
Where is Debbie Miller?:


I Need a Woman Part I:



I don't need no leash:

Larynx - Es War Schon Fast Herbst (GER 1979)

This album was another shocking discovery (which I should credit to my friend Paulo) because when I obtained the vinyl I really had no idea what it was about, although the cover as you can see was highly promising-- the kind of gorgeous artwork one only sees from this time period, a black and grey city resembling a Grand Boulevard, with an orange flock crossing in front.  The music turned out to be stunningly beautiful folk "done to perfection" as the culinary cliche goes with touches of chamber instruments, e.g. flute and oboe.... and shockingly for this type of record, they pull out electric instruments on the second side, including a wonderful roland electric piano to back up some songs.  Overall this might be kind of like a German version of Canadian band L'Engoulevent, although without the advanced chamber music compositional quality.
Another record that was virtually unknown even in the circles of grand collector bigshot fat cats, until I ripped it and thereafter it did the rounds.  Yet always in the back of my mind I wanted it to be heard by the great unwashed masses --  hoi polloi as our friend apps would say.  Because I know a lot of you folk music fans out there would just love this perfect little gem of an album.

Luna Set - Art (GERM 1983)

Last album from this new wave/minimal synth band not yet available, this is from 1983.  I didn't much like the first record (posted long ago on possibly mutant sounds (?)) -- to me it was a bit too simplistic in that minimal synth style, but this is all-out in progressiveness with the songwriting: there are odd touches everywhere, sudden modulations for example in most songs.  I really love the gentle, feminine aspects of the compositions and the absence of jumpiness that to me is such a defect of the genre.  It's very enjoyable and can be listened to over and over again in my opinion without any boredom.  As well, I thought the next record, "Monkey's Midnight Mood'  became a bit too poppy again albeit with the exception of one or two progressive tracks.

Credits for this band can be seen here:
http://www.discogs.com/Luna-Set-Art/release/1388133
Notice that 'growing bin' discobasso agreed it's their best record.
Please enjoy

Indiscreet - Difficult to Contribute Silence (GER 1985)

What do you get when you combine late King Crimson repetitive riffs (e.g. Lark's Tongue period) with German jazz-rock and wondrous experimental-progressive songwriting?  This remarkable little gem, something discovered by discobasso again as far as I know, from his record store.  There is still one copy for sale there (for now!):

http://www.growingbinrecords.com/sale-sale-sale-sale/

This was a major pleasant surprise for me since there was at the time that I bought it so little information on this record.  Of course now my rip has 'done the rounds' among collectors but I wanted to share it with everyone.

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/indiscreet/difficult_to_contribute_silence/

From levgan (rateyourmusic):
"Starts out awesome, with an experimental spoken word piece (basically cut-up voices trying to articulate the album title), it stands true to the high standard throughout although a few instrumental parts may seem a bit aimless/overlong. Still, as far as Teutonic jazz-rock goes, this is definitely above average, with edgy dissonant horns and guitars sometimes propelling it to the Didier (of "Cptn. Coffee" fame) levels. Recommended!"

Jean-Luc Vignaud - Triptyque Orchestra (FRA 1984)

As you may see at the bottom, compositions are by Louis Vigneron although the album is credited to the sax player Jean-Luc Vignaud.  This is an absolutely awesome big-band-style progressive jazz release that to me recalls the best of Teo Macero in ingenious compositional originality.  The gentleman Vignaud (not Vigneron) was a member of the amazing french ST band Synthesis which I highly recommend to everyone:
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/synthesis__2_
http://www.discogs.com/Synthesis-Synthesis/release/2783187
(please note there were two such bands in 1970s France with ST Synthesis, the other is a fusion super-group featuring Didier Lockwood, François Jeanneau, André Ceccarelli, Marc Chantereau, Ivan Jullien that is totally different:
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/synthesis

It appears on discogs the Vignaud discography is incomplete:
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Jean-Luc+Vignaud?anv=J.L.+Vignaud
As for composer Vigneron, there is little to no information about him.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Louis+Vigneron

I really wish I had heard something like this back when I was a big band jazz fan and was desperate for some compositional complexity beyond Stan Getz, Stan Kenton, and the arrangements of Gil Evans and Claus Ogerman.  I wonder if perhaps Vigneron distilled all his musical ideas into this one record; an entire education in composition and classical harmony seems to pass through one's ears as one goes through the various simply-titled, one-word tracks (Parenthese, Pavane, Pulsar), ending in the magnificent "Stance" -- it's as if we are travelling through worlds of wonder and worlds of fire, reading a novel full of turbulence and chaos before coming out in the end wiser but sad with the knowledge of the profound impermanence immanent in everything in the universe, with music as the ne plus ultra example of the evanescence of everything temporal and existing only in time... and how often have I wondered how the physicist can maintain the mathematical fiction of  'block time' (e.g. a classical relativist) given there cannot be musical enjoyment without some entity physically describable as time as adjunct to some corresponding correlate entity in our consciousness.
Another discovery from the mighty osurec, btw.

On the back cover the following blurb in French:
"A new big band? No, an orchestra with already 4 years' experience and which finally has put out its first record thanks to the hard work of J-L Vignaud.  The music is rich, beautiful, original.  Louis Vigneron  is a very talented arranger with a great future.  He manages to make the orchestra sound very personal, which makes the enterprise passionate.
I had great pleasure in hearing this record full of great surprises.  No doubt this band is among the best."
--Martial Solal

No Nett - ...Und Köln Pennt ? (GERM, 1981)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those not familiar, this is another one of those late german fusion bands with highly progressive elements.  Their two LPs are quite easily available already, but their EP is less well known.  Of course as is so often the case in these matters it turns out this is their masterpiece, which is why I wanted to share it with all here.  The first track is a little weaker, but the second and third are beyond magnificent.  "Once I had a Dream [... it was a nightmare]" sounds like one of the best compositions by Michael Mantler, full of angular melodies and gory dissonances but it just works perfectly.  Abruptly, half-way through, the song transforms into a march as if by Kurt Weill with background screaming!  Unbelievable compositional skills here. 

Then, the last opus (from country to city and back), which is by guitarist Raimond Kroboth, is particularly stunning, recalling Pekka Pohjola with his head full of modern classical Bartok-like sounds.  The first two compositions are by sax player Norbert Stein, well-known in german jazz.  Mr. Kroboth had another record out under band name Heinz called Der Spion which is well worth hearing as well.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Raimund+Kroboth
No Nett:
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/no_nett

Leriche - Simard - Beaudet - Leger : Danses (CAN 1979)

Claude Simard was the bassist in famed Canadian progressive/chamber jazz outfit Nebu which I hope everyone knows and loves.  This outing from 1980 is more in the free jazz / improvised or atonal direction or rather complete lack of direction.  Leriche is the sax player, Beaudet is pianist and of course Leger is on drums.  For fans of Simard (like me), note that he is co-composer on the two tracks from side B.  (Considering it all sounds extemporaneous the assignment of composers seems odd to say the least.)

Let's recap a little today.  I've been a contributor on this blog for roughly three years plus one or two months.  I think we can agree that in that time period we've heard a huge amount of great progressive music, and it always shocks me to learn there is more to be discovered in this rough time period of mid-sixties to mid-eighties, of course, since we are gathering our rosebuds as we may from all over the world, it makes sense there would be so much to explore.  Nonetheless it's quite surprising how much was put out in the progressive rock / fusion area.  And it goes without saying that for each album posted here there were dozens which were not worth posting due to mediocrity-- although I've always found that albums I hate (usually the simple ones) it seems a lot of other people seem to love.  What about the notorious 'scraping the bottom of the barrel' syndrome, are we there yet, close to a terminal diagnosis?  I don't think so, I've heard some albums so magnificent recently, such as for example the Gold and Mr. Euphoria I put up, that I don't think we're quite there yet.  I will try to bring up a few other such masterpieces in the next little while for some summer cheer, including more that were discovered long ago by the mighty osurec.  How I miss getting those stunning unknown tastes from the master!  There are certainly a lot of German records from this period that few know about that are worth for all to hear, and I hope I'll have time to post a few of those discoveries, including some highly advanced fusion, and king crimson-inspired instrumental work.  Many of these originated from discobasso's prodigious record-hunting skills and I really can't take credit for those.  At this late point, it seems mostly the Americans and Germans are still battling it out for progressive domination.  And think of all the contributors who have fallen by the wayside in those three years!  Eventually I will too-- but it might be some time still I can hang on.

Gold - No Class What So Ever (USA 1980)

A chromatic downgoing arpeggiated riff tears the still air into shreds on "Light Speed" leading into the stellar clusters of the "milkyway" on the second track of side a ... absolutely a one-two punch worth the price of admission to this incredible ultra-unknown secret and long-lost set of music from Miami, Fla.

There are considerable similarities to the "Mr. Euphoria" record I posted some time ago, and if you follow this blog you'll recall Isabelbc posted their first record here ("Night Ride") about a year ago.  So I'll dedicate this newly-ripped version of the second record to Isabel, wherever she may be.  Oddly enough the guys reverted to an all-instrumental album here but they brought all the power in the book to play here.  On the back, the following note:  "This album was a first take live recording with no over-dubbing."  Pretty cool!

The album was written by the lead guitarist whose name is Bob Wamnes  ("the Wam" as he is called on the back cover) perfect in his mustachio and tuxedo.  His band is rounded out with Ed Mallett on drums and wind chimes, Tom McCance on bass and Jeff Powers on lead guitar as well.  I'm guessing these guys were high school pals who started a band, I wonder where they are now?  I sure would love to hear from the brilliant Bob Wamnes, truly a lost artistic genius in the US prog sphere as I think Tom would agree.  Just listen again to those big fat huge guitar chords on Light Speed and the way drummer Ed machetes his way through the jungle of power cables to the end to clear the way for the next track.

Truly a lost treasure of the late American guitar-based progressive style.  That late, great, style.




As samples I will post the aforementioned starter track:


And the classic jazzy guitar sound of "New York New York" which really should have been a radio hit but I'm pretty sure wasn't.  What I find fascinating in this track is that Bob Wamnes keeps changing it up instead of a long solo or ad hoc gratuitous middle portion, we get passage after passage of well-crafted music with odd chord changes and melodies and ideas.  Truly this one track is a mine of musical ideas, always changing and creative, until that beautiful f major/f minor riff closes out the song again.  Genius!

Frederic Rabold Crew + Jazz Inspiration Orchestra - Kinetic Noise (GER 1975)

Here as requested:  despite the title of the record this is definitely straightforward modal jazz by Fred and the jazz inspiration orchestra.  Good record, you will notice it starts with the track "Berlin" which also started off the previous, eponymous album-- perhaps that one piece warranted a whole album named after it.  His style on the flugelhorn as usual is really warm and gorgeous and highly enjoyable.  The last track on the first side-- Kinetic Noise-- really shows off his supernal abilities.  Incidentally, this is much better than the average Fred Rabold album.

Note that the song called "Waltz for Christin" is not a typo perhaps deserving a 'sic' after that name as spelled-- perhaps if I was in a more bitter mood.  But since it's a gorgeous song, and the arrival hereabouts of a warm spring has provided a timely boost to my spirits and libido, I will pass it by with a smile on my face and lap.  And who wouldn't have a spring in their step and neighbourhood?

Sample track the wonderfully dissonant Child Song, B2, unfortunately all too short (like my 2 smiles):

Frederic Rabold Crew - Berlin (GERM 1980)

This is obviously the last from this group we needed to hear and I dedicate it to all  'children of the seventies'. 

I remember well when I purchased it some years back in West Berlin at the Musiksammlerschallplattenrekordsboutique because when I attempted to send it to my friend Franz in East Berlin at the notorious Brandenburg gate I was held up an unusually long time at german customs by a very rule-bound military/customs officer:
"You say this is not jazz, not fusion, not rock?  it is somewhere in between?  then please sir how do you expect me to fill out this customs form? Do you not see this form, with--" (here he counted the number of spaces available to him) "-- ten possible letter entries, in accordance with the number of human fingers anatomically correct?  you must provide me with a specific style, in order to list it as such.  Please, you do understand these formalities, sir, is it -- Herr Stefan?"
I laughed perhaps awkwardly with my hands deep in my pockets mining for debris for the mutual satisfaction of my thumbs but persisted,
"I do indeed maintain, good sir customs officer, that the style is somewhere in between those which you have mentioned, just as your rifle is somewhere between your right and left testicles."
"I shall ask you to inform me of your language of preference as this seems to be a not inconsiderable part of the problem.  Would you prefer we converse in English or German as I am fluent in both of these kingly languages having had an american vater (whose name I regret to inform you was Joe) und eine deutsches mutterlein, Heidi."
"Please customs sir, I prefer German-- the language of Hermann Hesse und David Hasselhof.  Bitte sehr."
"Then you shall explain to me the manner of this record, for I do not understand it-- is this perhaps a pornographic item you are attempting to export? " And he set aside his severe circular glasses on the shiny table and put his hands into a triangular shape that to me was quite isosceles both in shape and in emotional content.
"Pornography? bitte, can you please examine the front photograph.  These individuals are quite ugly all.  In fact they are jazz musicians.  Is this even a possible actuality in your opinion good sir? I mean, yes there is one attractive female upon the cover who probably recorded the album naked in the studio, and thereafter, of course, all the males had intercourse with her one at a time, probably some simultaneously in various positions enabling multiple openings entered, but surely you agree with me, this was normal for recording artists at this time this being neither pornographic nor unusual?"
For many long minutes he studied the photo on the cover during which period, ticked away slowly by the cuckoo clock with fake nestlings and tiny chastity belt for birds hung on the wall, I subtly mopped the sweat from my brow with the Hustler magazine I had carried in my back pocket.   Finally I spoke up, attempting to resolve the issue once and for all:
"SIR!! this is progressive jazz-rock fusion!  it is a style all of its own, one of its kind, like the alsatian sauerkraut with knackwurst you know so well made from your own mother's eczematous hands and the sweat of her armpits!  You shall let me depart at once and cease this insidious and unnecessary interrogation!!!!"  --however I believe I spoke too loudly for not only did this annoying individual stand up, but many of the neighbouring officers stood suddenly and reached for their rifles.
"You shall lower your voice before your hominid superiors!"
At this point my friend Franz, who in point of fact lived but two blocks away in E. Berlin (but across the wall) overheard us yelling as he was strolling the Spitzbergenstrasse, and exclaimed,
"Ah but dear Herr Stefan!!  I urge you, to simply throw in the manner of a projectile, the vinyl record, as I shall catch it with utter facility right here where I stand! !"
"Dearest Franz, it is you!  but do you not think the guards shall destroy it in chronic machine gun fire, which shall not add a pleasant dimension to the music of Herr Frederic Rabold? (albeit there will be some who will enjoy it highly thus disfigured or perhaps not even notice a difference)"
"we merely have to indicate to the guards it is a US government-made UFO, and they shall leave it in peace to cross the wall!"
"Excellent idea!  or I shall simply state it is part of Yuri Gargarin's superego-protection device falling back to earth!"
At this my dear customs officer became impatient and stamped his boot upon the ground, striking a small bug in the process, CIA-planted of course:
"Enough of your womanly chatter!  it will take two weeks to transmit this record over to the other side--  it is worth how much you said, 40 marks?"
"Yes, 40 marks."
"Then you must pay german duties of 518 marks for the export."
"Ha ha! dear sir, you may easily observe my friend is but 20 yards away from us, please, turn around and see!"
"I shall not turn and play your childish games! At this time I do not desire anal penetration sir, for it is too soon!! "

... needless to say I am still standing there at the Brandenburg Gate to this day holding my record and arguing with the german customs officer, even though now the gate is gone, the wall is dismantled, and my record has melted in the acid rain ... .... ach, deutsches burokratie!

Red Summer - Release (UK, 1982)

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/red_summer

A remarkable album coming from the totally unprogressive UK of 1982, hardly a year to expect huge imaginative sounds!  (Although note the last song "I wanna be a punk"-- clearly ironic coming from these progsters way behind the times ... but what about us, are we way behind or way ahead?)  I won't get into nostalgic reminiscences of M. Thatcher, the iron lady-- may she rust in peace, as the newspaper said. 

The music here is perhaps closest to Mike Oldfield's classic material but in this record tracks have been cut into shorter snippets for easier digestion.  Unlike Oldfield there is some pretty progressive playing with unusual chord changes, instrumentation, etc., where Mike perhaps never went past the baroque level of chordal understanding, this album progresses past the nineteenth century in advancement, comparable to Maxwell's equations perhaps to oldfieldian newtonian dynamics, whereas a true progster like Gentle Giant has absorbed 20th century complexity like the schrodinger equation.

Anyways, moving on, all the tracks (all instrumental) are like the soundtrack to a nice little promenade through the famed british countryside of heathrows and moors and heathered downs and heathen townships albeit one not yet marred by acid rain (though this was about to become a big issue there) with ultraviolet light raining down from ozone depletion, etc., etc., etc.

A surprisingly rare record that hopefully we can keep secret amongst ourselves.  I must as usual mention the striking beauty of the surreal cover.

The first track is quite exemplary, as perhaps is (infinite-dimensional) hilbert space for quantum field theory:

Coalition - Birth (USA, 1978)

Almost three years ago I presented to you osurec's wonderful find, Coalition - Mindsweepers from 1976.  Their second and last album was very hard to find until someone unearthed it in a flea market for a couple of dollars of all places… (such is the survival of these masterpieces, analogous to Petronius' Satyricon surviving as a toilet paper roll's worth of pages through the middle ages…)  It did cost me an arm and a leg to get my hands on the vinyl though, and now I'll present it to you publicly from my wheelchair after having finally resold the record at a huge loss. 

Evidently the band went in a more commercial direction like so many others at this time, abandoning the classical music influences that made the former record such a progressive wonder.  Now we have only straight ahead soul jazz with one attempt (to my mind quite successful) at forging a radio friendly hit (Thinking of You, sampled below). 

Those who prefer fusion, progressive, or hard rock, should stay away, really this is just another astral jazz album.  But on those terms alone, it's quite good.  Note that, oddly enough, the back is the same as the front.  Here more infos:
http://www.discogs.com/Coalition-Birth/release/829852


And stay tuned to our show, because coming in the next few weeks we'll hear more free jazz with vocal stylings (for ushaped and myself) as well as return to progressive treasures lost from the past and some more of that kraut hard rock I love so much, sprinkling in some records from the least favourite subgenre of prog, RIO… Also I want to revisit Alan Hawkshaw, the brilliant composer of library music, his "Contemporary Contrasts" was quite a popular post in this space…

Children of all Ages (USA 1975)

Oh to be a child again…

The older I get the less I dream, but nowadays I often have this recurring dream (in fact almost every week) which I remember I used to have as a child too.
In this dream I come upon a beautiful deep lake or flowing river with crystal-clear fresh waters in the middle of a forest, I look down, and I see it's full of big fat shiny fish, excitedly I run back to grab my fishing rod and hook up a worm, and within minutes I get a bite and start reeling in, overjoyed... Often in the dream my father is with me at my side with his fishing rod in his hand looking down and smiling at me...

Of course before I can hold the fish I wake up.  Then I invariably think to myself in the sad blackness that I must take my children to a wild river or lake so they can experience this same thrill that I once felt, to step out into a world still rich with life.

But when I get up in the morning I look at them and realize they would never feel things the same way I did, because already they haven't grown up in the same world; where we collected toads in our backyard, butterflies at our school, caught catfish and bucketfulls of water beetles at the local pond...  That world sadly is already gone, except in my dreams.  Many years ago I went back to revisit that pond full of frogs near my childhood home that I've mentioned so often and to my eternal sadness saw it had been covered over with new suburban houses.  Only one small part of it was still there, enclosed in a heavy duty high fence, it was padlocked with the red sign: "Biosphere preserve-- KEEP OUT!"

Rantz: (USA, 1982)

First off, note the beautiful cover art.  Although it can be rotated by pi, I don't actually see an image coming out the other way, though this is perhaps my visual fallibility.

This was another discovery from the mighty osurec and it hails from 1982, 31 years ago.  Why do I always harken back to those wonderful days of the eighties?  Why do I always remember the great late Ronnie Reagan with his doll-like rosy crabapple cheeks and glistening black courtierly pompadour shaking his head rhythmically while intoning the words "the evil empire" and "the mad dog of the middle east" from his teleprompter-- which used to fool my scientist father who thought he as an actor had actually memorized his lines--  imagine his chagrin when I told him POTUS was simply reading not looking the viewer in the eye... For little did my dad know that at that time Ronnie couldn't even remember his own name or the B-movie actresses he had slept with, let alone a long-winded speech by Peggy Noonan-Safire or William Safire-Noonan, full of idiotic and ahistorical platitudes.  But he was full of conviction, that same one that motored the McCarthy boat against communism to nowhere, that same certainty which in truth only true robots can achieve-- that the USSR must be destroyed at all costs, even with the creation of a star wars system of lasers in space that scientists told him from day 1 would never work.  It didn't matter to him that it wouldn't work, what mattered were the words alone, and the words worked.  To this day his words still work.  If millions of humans died in the process, the game theory mathematicians in service of politics said, it was worth it for the survival of the rest of us.  Too bad that game theory at that early point had not progressed to fully include cooperation as the optimal rational strategy-- too bad for us who don't understand game theory and were destined to die in those war games, right?
So I mean yeah, how can I not remember those crazy nuclear-holocaust-eighties with fondness?

After all, his magic religion of capitalism is still the spiritual altar to which we all pray.  We pray for the god of capitalism to make us rich, to give us luxury cars, to let us win the lottery (every day I go to work I hear someone mention this)...  We can grow our money like magic, if we just think the right thoughts.  And the priests, the economists, still stick to the script, they don't believe there is any other way for us, they assure us of a future cornucopia of abundance for all, with perpetual exponential "expansion" of the economy, in a limitless infinite earth that will accomodate 10 billion, even 100 billion humans (cf. Julian Simon RIP).  Now all bachelors can go on reality TV, become rich and famous, then have countless females to sleep with just like the heaven of Islam.  All women can have plastic surgery to make themselves as desirable as their evolutionary imperative instructs them to be, with large breasts, white skin, large red lips.  For a person to question our religion is heresy of course, they are laughed at in serious company, they are ostracized as childish or naive, they are talked down to as if stupid, they are universally ignored in any public forum.  In this way are religions perpetuated through falsehood and irrationality until the day their foretold or unforetold apocalypse passes-- like when the Comet Hale-Bopp passed by without a doomsday and the believers were forced to commit suicide.  Unfortunately our high priests the economists will not be immolating themselves when they are eventually shown to be wrong, they will simply stand in line for unemployment insurance and food stamps like everyone else, probably not even showing shame at their prior false promises or a full belly despite their financial wisdom.

And while I'm on the subject of doomsday (as usual!)  let me mention that all those cruise missiles, the creepy nuclear-powered subs patrolling the oceans that never surface, the thousands of warheads that would kill us all 'thousands of times over' in a nuclear winter as they used to say, they are all still with us-- Reagan and his warring legacy of words that work can still destroy us totally if there does arise a world war three.  Today it seems impossible, but what if there were worldwide famines and mass migrations for many years?   What if the recent economic downturn extends and gets worse and never ends, for anyone anywhere?  And how likely is it that these weapons will never be used, ever?  This seems very low probability to me.


Sorry about the uploads not being tended to, but since Isabel disappeared so suddenly it has been difficult for the rest of us, her work was absolutely irreplaceable.  I personally don't know what is the situation but I wish her all the best and miss her greatly, indeed, I hope dearly that she returns to help us out and cheer us up.
In fact if you're reading this, please send us a message!!

I include two fantastic tracks, the Indigo Sunset softer instrumental, and a hard-rocking guitar song that is virtually proto-alternative with punkish singing and incredible tritonal chord changes, nothing bluesy about it at all.

Track 6 (Tesnus Ogidni):


Track 8 (Gnostic Blues):


I wish Tom Hayes and cd reissue wishlist would feature this since I feel it should be priority 3 at least.  There is a wonderful mix of hard, soft, instrumental, no fusion, but a lot of ingenious composition and some killer tracks.  Reminds me a bit of Syn Cast the first Stone, but with a harder edge.

Why are these magnificent records so completely lost??? 
But this is our purpose here, to ressuscitate them and preserve them for posterity as the patrimony of our culture, when music reached its absolute apex of creation.  Assuming those nuclear warheads don't rain down on us instead in some distant future.

Children of All Ages Just Might Turn out to be Sages (USA, 1976)

Another 'discovery' of the mighty osurec from some time back-- behind whose shadows my shape of possessions continues to be dimly lit.

I've always been guilty of the sentimentalization of childhood and thus when I first heard the tracks from his rip I always meant to find the record to keep in collection for perpetuity.  It was not easy to locate at a reasonable price oddly enough but finally I have it here to share.  This is the second work from this group featuring singer Bobby Dorough whose laryngeal style I could see some people abhorring.  The first ST album had much more free jazz to it as opposed to the composed, radio-friendly songs in the second.  But here there's a good mix of fusion, blues, and jazzy meandering.

When I spend days with my two (three and five year old) children I see that in reality the overhyping of happy childhoods is a case of selective memory, because the negative emotions of frustration, anger, boredom, or impatience, are pretty intense, at least as much as the positive ones of excitement and joy.  In fact in any given hour my preschoolers go through such a range of emotions it's like a year-long brazilian soap opera fast-forwarded at light speed: 300,000 miles of tragedy, comedy, restless wonders and pains in the space of one primetime slot complete with the requisite commercials for toys and taco bell burritos.

What I find though most endearing in them is the absolute, timeless social naivete.  When we visit the local playground, unlike the adults who adhere to cliques and ignore all newcomers, the children make fast friends instantly and perfectly, one hi (or even dispensing with the greeting) and they are lifelong friends for the whole duration of the temporary … whilst the mothers keep to their high-school rut maintaining a fully anachronistic cool group now made up of overweight and exhausted stay at home 'soccer moms' apparently overjoyed at being able to ignore misfits like my wife and myself who unlike them are slim, educated, and artsy...

We can romanticize childhood to the ends of time but ultimately their way of living in the moment and not being aware of death, taxes, and the agony of sticking to those stratified social roles is something I could never approach without losing half my mind.

The only thing they have and I still would give anything for is not having to worry about growing old and dying.


"When children find someone soft and kind
they smile and glow and say 'hello'

When children play in their magic way
with time and space they travel anyplace

When children frown their world is upside down
don't matter right or wrong something don't belong

When children create they don't hesitate
when children create, they don't hesitate,
they don't see an end where their minds can bend
they don't see an end where their minds can be

Children of all ages, just might turn out to be sages…"

Joachim Kuhn - Time Exposure (GER 1987)

We've posted a number of genius German pianist J. Kuhn's works before and in fact completing his discography is not only desirable but quite tedious and expensive too.  This one attracted me because the music was created for a NYC ballet, and I really love ballet music with its extremely emotional, airy, and flickering variety.  In one track (To Be Continued) it appears someone is actually touching the strings (e.g. with a ruler) inside the grand piano that Kuhn is playing.

Here's a typical track, Modern Nature, the softest one:

And here one of the more experimental ones, Graphic: