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Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

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Available online from Issue 31

Agitation Free - Fragments

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Whatever else they may have done in their recording career, Germany’s Agitation Free loved a good long jam. For their farewell bow, they played a concert in November of 1974 with a...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Ars Nova - Ars Nova

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If you name your band “Ars Nova” you have to be: a) Serious Artists; b) Sarcastic reactionaries; c) Into psychedelic drugs; or d) Japanese. It’s Latin, for goodness sake, and...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Autumn's Grey Solace - Over the Ocean

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In this Florida duo, Erin Welton covers vocal and keyboard duties, Scott Ferrell covers everything else, and they both have a hand in composing the tunes. This is by far the prettiest music I have...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Barry Cleveland - Volcano

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For this outing, San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Barry Cleveland has enlisted a troop of comrades in his effort to bridge the gulf between western musical idioms and those beyond these shores....

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(Posted by Paul Hightower 2005-03-01)

Beep Beep - Business Casual

Cover art While the advent of punk rock in the mid and late 70s may have been a death blow of sorts to big arena rock, including much of what we call Progressive, that genre known as Art Rock found a natural...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Big Wedge - Minutiae

Cover art Based out of New York City, Big Wedge is a mainstream rock band with a few unexpected twists. Every song on Minutiae is in a different style. The album opens with “Land of the Free” – a...  » Read more
(Posted by Mike Grimes 2005-03-01)

Björk - Medúlla

Cover art For a supposed “pop” artist, Icelandic singer Björk has shown a stubborn disregard for the conventions of pop music. From the beginnings of her career as a techno diva, she has steadily pursued...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Blackbirds 2000 - Psychedelic Gems 6

Cover art Various artist compilations are always difficult to review, especially so when they contain as much good material as this one does. In the Garden of Delights quest to reissue material from psych and...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Debase - Unleashed

Cover art Debase is another of Noise Records' recently signed European acts to try their hand at high profile metal. Hailing from the small town of Malmö, Sweden, the quintet does its best to wade through a...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid - Celestial Mechanix: The Blue Series Mastermix

Cover art It’s not hard to figure out why DJ Spooky is in such demand in the New York downtown scene; it seems the man has no tangible musical boundaries by finding further riches in already excellent sound...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

Djam Karet - No Commercial Potential... and Still Getting the Ladies

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In some respects, Djam Karet can be viewed as a band with a split personality. Sometimes they are a tightly rehearsed unit performing composed music; sometimes they are purveyors of ambient...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Embryo - Bremen 1971

Cover art This live set from September 1971 finds the band just after recording their highly regarded Embryo’s Rache album, but before it had been released. This is still the early phase of the band,...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Emily Bezar - Angels' Abacus

Cover art Back in Exposé #20 I gushed about Emily Bezar’s first three albums, and honestly the only negative I can come up with for her new release is the fact that it took so long to arrive. The changes...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Gentle Giant - Giant on the Box

Cover art The first Gentle Giant DVD is a revelation to fans of the seminal 70s progressive rock act. The DVD has been assembled from the best sources available to create key time-slices into the band’s...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

Gentle Giant - Scraping the Barrel

Cover art The title of this second volume of Gentle Giant audio and audiovisual archives is simply a long time fan’s obsessive labor of love. Dan Bornemark has been a charter member of the band’s on-line...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

Gnomus - II

Cover art This is the second release of spontaneous compositions from this Finnish trio. Drums, keyboards and guitar wander into the outer reaches of deep space for improvisations that never really approach...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Haco + Sakamoto Hiromichi - Ash in the Rainbow

Cover art Haco was the singer for After Dinner, while Sakamoto Hiromichi has played in a Pascal Comelade cover group and Lars Hollmer’s SOLA. On Ash in the Rainbow, they combine her voice, sometimes...  » Read more
(Posted by Sean McFee 2005-03-01)

Hardscore - Monkey Trial

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This is one of the more bizarre and intriguing things I’ve heard in quite a while. It’s set up as a kind of audio movie with a story about a woman who can talk to animals who has taken...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Hidria Spacefolk - Balansia

Cover art Normally it would be problematic for a band to sound the same on their third album (not counting a remix project) as on their first, especially if the first is basically a self-released demo. But when...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Jan Hammer - The First Seven Days

Cover art Ah, for those simpler days, before New Age fossilized into colorless bits of seemingly nutritious but flavor-free soy-based meat substitutes, before anyone realized that there was no place for...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Jesús Figueroa - Jesús Figueroa

Cover art This CD reissues both albums of Jesús Figueroa, Con Todos (1972) and Magica Fuente (1974). Figueroa was the lead singer of Uruguay psych band Opus Alfa, which evolved into Dias de...  » Read more
(Posted by Sean McFee 2005-03-01)

Lithops - Scrypt

Cover art Far from the reaches of electronic music as mere impetus for dancing, or even the spacious universe of ambient soundscapes, lies the realm of Lithops. Picture a two-dimensional coordinate system for...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Martin Gordon - The Joy of More Hogwash

Cover art Bassist Martin Gordon has spent the better half of his career backing a wide array of established pop stars from the lesser known Mael brothers (in Sparks) to Robert Palmer and Kylie Minogue. The Joy...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

Matthew Shipp - Harmony and Abyss

Cover art Pianist Mathew Shipp is still gradually pushing himself into the use of electronic instruments in his jazz endeavors. By embracing dance and hip hop rhythms he has become one of the latest acoustic...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

Metamorfosi - Paradiso

Cover art It’s been quite some time since Metamorfosi tackled Hell in their classic 1973 album Inferno, and now they’re ready to take on Heaven. With the vocalist and keyboard player from that...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Motorpsycho + Jaga Jazzist Horns - It's a Love Cult, The Stix & In the Fishtank

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After hearing the name Motorpsycho for a few years, I was pretty curious to actually hear the band. I did not expect an album of such variety, that combines intensity and subtlety and a wide range...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Music Emporium - Music Emporium

Cover art Music Emporium’s self-titled 1969 album is one of the rarest gems of the late 60s LA psychedelic scene, with only 300 copies originally pressed and an elaborate die-cut sleeve. Unlike some...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Nektar - Remember the Future

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For me, Remember the Future has always been the Nektar album. It was the first one I heard, and the others have seemed like variations on its format (disregarding the later...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Orbit Service - Twilight

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Here we are adrift in a sea of melancholy. Or maybe a better metaphor would be floating in orbit. There are lots of nice textures and rich sounds on this recording, the Denver band’s second,...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Outrageous Cherry - The Book of Spectral Projections & Supernatural Equinox

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Since its founding in the early 90s, Outrageous Cherry has been working on their own method of updating 60s psychedelia for a later generation. Matthew Smith’s songwriting often captures the...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Qoph - Pyrola

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It’s been entirely too long since this Swedish band’s 1998 debut. Since that time, the band has formed their own label and started singing in English. Their basic sound is intact,...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Quikion - Ramadan

Cover art Latest evidence of what a strange and wonderful world we live in: a Japanese group called Quikion based on accordion, concertina, bouzouki, psaltery, toy instruments – oh, and a bit of acoustic...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Release Music Orchestra - Bremen 1978

Cover art Judging by the number of excellent recent releases, Radio Bremen must have been quite a treasure for European music lovers back in the 70s. This CD is a prime example. I’m not familiar with the band...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Remy Stroomer - Different Shades of Dust

Cover art Young composer Remy Stroomer from the Netherlands admires Klaus Schulze and that can be heard in “Following Differences,” the first track. He chooses the same repeat in tones as Schulze does. His...  » Read more
(Posted by Roel Steverink 2005-03-01)

Richard Leo Johnson Trio - Poetry of Appliance

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Although the American guitarist has a couple previous releases, this is his first in a trio configuration, in this case with violinist Ricardo Ochoa (who also contributes theremin to some of the...

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(Posted by Peter Thelen 2005-03-01)

Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura - Illusion Suite, Sketches, Exit & Ko Ko Ko Ke

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Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii is one busy lady – she appears on three of these four releases. Illusion Suite finds her in the standard piano trio setting, though the result is...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History

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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's entire character is represented well by the opening track "A Hymn to the Morning Star." The song opens ominously with a growling dog then transforms into...

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(Posted by Mike Grimes 2005-03-01)

Strawbs - Déjà Fou

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Ghosts was the first Strawbs record I ever heard, and I seem to remember liking it immensely from the first play; the band quickly became one of my favorites, a position they’ve held...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Tasavallan Presidentti - Tasavallan Presidentti, Lambertland & Milky Way Moses

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The first eponymous album Finnish band Tasavallan Presidentti recorded was a cross between folk, blues, and jazz-rock with pop influences. A really diverse album with an immaculate rendition of the...

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(Posted by Roel Steverink 2005-03-01)

The Holy Modal Rounders - Bird Song - Live 1971

Cover art Sometime in 1971, the Holy Modal Rounders, having recently expanded to a seven-piece, visited WLIR and recorded a set of songs, including their contribution to the Easy Rider soundtrack...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

The Hook - Hooked

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One of the best parts of picking up modern reissues of obscurities from the 60s is that so many of them have interesting liner notes detailing the near-misses and might-have-beens of that distant...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

The Muffin Men - Baker's Dozen & Live @ The Cavern

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The Muffin Men are a UK based act that is heavily versed in the fine art of being a Frank Zappa tribute band that features old Mothers vocalist Jimmy Carl Black. Baker's Dozen serves as a...

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(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

The Muffins - Double Negative

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I suppose any time a band that has been around as long as the Muffins puts out a new album, there’s going to be some disagreement among fans about its merits. Whether they changed too much or...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

The Shiver - Walpurgis

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It’s generally not a good sign when a band’s best material is written by other bands. The Shiver is a case in point. This Swiss band’s forte was covering British blues-rock, but...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

The Yellow Balloon - The Yellow Balloon

Cover art The Yellow Balloon is basically the story of one producer & songwriter Gary Zekley who, disappointed with the results after having Jan and Dean record one of his songs, decided to record it again...  » Read more
(Posted by Peter Thelen 2005-03-01)

Thee Majesty - A Hollow Cost & Thee Fractured Garden

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The incarnations of Genesis P-Orridge continue to manifest in many different and sometimes compelling ways. Two of the composer’s spoken word series are reissued here by Voiceprint in part to...

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(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

Tortoise - It's All around You

Cover art As much as the somewhat vague moniker “post-rock” gets tossed around, there is probably little disagreement that Tortoise is one of the genre’s most important practitioners. Certainly the...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Triakel - Sånger från 63°N (Songs from 63°N)

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This is a collection of songs that originate in the Jämtland province of Sweden, most of them traditional, some more recent but in a traditional style. The trio of singer Emma Härdelin,...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Various Artists - Psychedelic Underground 8 - 10

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One of the fundamental limitations of mining and other industries that rely upon non-renewable resources is that those resources will eventually run out. You would think the same rule would apply...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Väsen - Keyed Up

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After many years as a quartet, Väsen returned to their original trio configuration for last year’s Trio (

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Vinegar - Vinegar

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This band from Cologne selected their name to set themselves apart from bands that sounded “sweet” and forged a decidedly unconventional course with their music. After roughly a year of...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Virus - Remember

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The German band Virus is mainly known in progressive rock circles for their 1971 debut album Revelation. By the time they recorded this live radio concert in 1973, they had abandoned...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Xhol - Hau Ruk

Cover art When you think of German rock of the 70s, you’re likely to think of extended spacey jams with effects devices in evidence and a bit of jazzy flavor. Xhol’s first album (under that name at least)...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2005-03-01)

Yohimbe Brothers - The Tao of Yo

Cover art DJ Logic and Vernon Reid (ex Living Color) are collectively known as Yohimbe Brothers and this is their second release. On their first excursion together the duo established an enthusiastic level of...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2005-03-01)

 

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