Here’s an obscure Canadian band of the garage/psych variety. It’s on the heavier side, along the lines of Vanilla Fudge or Blue Cheer, with messy distorted guitar and unpolished vocals....
» Read moreA few issues back I reviewed the reissue of Ars Nova’s 1968 first album. Here we have their second and last...
» Read moreThis is where it all began for a band so unusual and outside the ‘rock box’ that many at the time may have dismissed them as being too far out. When I first heard Alchemy, I...
» Read moreKraftwerk, like many of the long running German outfits, was a completely different creature at its inception then after they rose to popularity. These albums, including the pre-Kraftwerk...
» Read moreIn the late 60s a group of young friends (Harry Wellott, Gordon Carlisle, Don Hathaway, and Chris Nelson) in Montclair, NJ formed the Hasting’s Street Opera, named after an old Detroit blues...
» Read moreThat it took so long to have this, the 1969 debut from Van der Graaf Generator, released to CD is a wonder. But that we have it is better than not, I suppose. Plus there's the rare first single...
» Read moreThis is the first of about seven albums by this Danish five-piece. Their sound at this early juncture is a mix of nimble heavy organ progressive rock and trippy spacy, sometimes plodding,...
» Read moreGiven the limitations of the synthesizers available in 1968, the choice of Bach as a focus for Wendy Carlos’s pioneering recordings makes perfect sense: the instruments could play only one...
» Read moreClaude Lombard is a Belgian songstress active in the 60s and 70s who placed seventh in the Eurovision 1968 song contest and sang songs on many TV cartoon shows. In 1969 she recorded an experimental...
» Read moreJohn Mayall often gets lost in the list of influential musicians but it wasn't just the blues alone that he had a powerful influence on. Just off the top of my head, he was largely responsible...
» Read moreEast of Eden's debut is one of the great late-60s albums, following on the way the Beatles started occasionally fusing their music with the sounds of other cultures. However, where the Beatles...
» Read moreMcLatchey's Second Tier
One thing's for sure, no one ever sung the alphabet with the kind of humor and musical brilliance as Robert Wyatt did on the band's second...
» Read moreProgressive rock is often considered a European phenomenon, at least in its symphonic sense, but if you look at it from its birthplace in the 60s, where nearly every genre experienced a psychedelic...
» Read moreIn the late 60s, two Paraguayan brothers of German descent, Joern and Dirk Wenger, began playing together in a beat / psychedelic band The Rabbits. The Rabbits released a very rare EP and then the...
» Read moreThis is probably, marginally, my favorite Beatles album, not only in that I listened to it more than any of the others as a youth, but also feel that it's possibly the quartet's most...
» Read moreIf I was to take a census of Amon Düül II fans, favorites are usually Yeti (mine), Dance of the Lemmings, or Wolf City, and then the others usually line up right after....
» Read moreThe Collectors hailed from Vancouver, Canada, not exactly a hotbed of the worldwide psychedelic scene, which maybe helps explain why they didn’t make a bigger impact. Their two albums, though...
» Read moreHere we have the long-awaited reissue of Marc Bolan’s earliest recordings, back when Tyrannosaurus was spelled out in full and electric guitars were unusual coloring rather than the...
» Read moreHere we have the long-awaited CD release of one of the most collectible LPs of British psychedelia. Those of us who can’t shell out hundreds of dollars (or pounds) to hear the original can...
» Read moreThis obscurity from 1969 is definitely a “close-but-not-quite” attempt at something special. The something in this case is psychedelic rock with heavy guitar and organ combined with a...
» Read moreThe 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...
» Read moreLong before the British domination of all things progressive, progress was being made in the post-San Francisco underground scene in many US cities, among them Boston. The fact that producer Alan...
» Read moreThe material on Spaced was originally recorded in 1969 (circa Third) for a special choreographed multi-media one-week event of the same name at the London Roundhouse. Although the...
» Read moreMcLatchey's Second Tier
There really was no other quartet like the Third Ear Band, they were even singular in 1969, showing up on the Harvest label next to Pink Floyd....
» Read moreMcLatchey's Second Tier
OK, here's one of the few items I'll be covering that I don't actually own a copy of. Some years back when the Grateful Dead vault keepers...
» Read moreMcLatchey's Second Tier
OK, here's one of the few items I'll be covering that I don't actually own a copy of. Some years back when the Grateful Dead vault keepers...
» Read moreA couple of weeks ago I realized I needed to reevaluate the early Fairport Convention albums — every so often I try to do this with major groups and artists that I don't seem to rate so...
» Read moreGermany is a virtual goldmine of experimental music, and it still awes me how cutting edge some of the music was from the late 60s / early 70s. Limbus 3 were a very unusual outfit, bridging...
» Read moreStormy Six are perhaps better known for their involvement with Rock In Opposition in the late 70s and early 80s. Their later output such as Al Volo were interesting pop rock albums with an...
» Read moreOne look at the cover and it should be clear that producers Simon Napier Bell and Ray Singer (who also penned about six of the tracks here) were trying to capitalize on the look and feel of...
» Read moreFor those of you still uninitiated, Canterbury was a place in the UK where a music scene originated in the 60s (complementary to that of San Francisco Haight-Ashbury). Several known European groups...
» Read moreFor those of you still uninitiated, Canterbury was a place in the UK where a music scene originated in the 60s (complementary to that of San Francisco Haight-Ashbury). Several known European groups...
» Read moreAn engaging and groundbreaking early British progressive band, East of Eden used electric violin, dual saxes, flute, recorder and bagpipe to add texture to their guitar based rock. The end product...
» Read moreIt’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...
» Read moreEx-Soft Machine bassist Kevin Ayers left that group after their full-on live U.S. assault with the Jim Hendrix Experience in 1969. After that time, Ayers spent the following years putting together...
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2020-12-09
Harold Budd RIP –
Harold Budd, one of pre-eminent American composers of avant-garde and minimalism, has died of complications from the coronavirus. Budd came to prominence in the 70s, championed by Brian Eno on his Obscure Records label, with music that blended academic minimalism with electric jazz and electronic music. Much of Budd's best known work was done in collaboration with other artists, including Eno, Daniel Lanois, Robin Guthrie, Andy Partridge, John Foxx, Jah Wobble, and many others. »
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2020-11-20
25 Views of Worthing Finally Gets Released –
A while ago, we wrote about the discovery of a "long lost" Canterbury-style gem by a band called 25 Views of Worthing. And now we're pleased to find out that Wind Waker Records has released their music on an LP. »
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2020-10-14
Audion Is Back in Business –
Our esteemed colleague Alan Freeman has restarted Audion Magazine after a seven year hiatus. The new incarnation is available online on their Bandcamp site. Audion's history goes back to 1984, and included 58 issues up to 2013. Issue #59 is available now, and #60 is in the works. »
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2020-10-06
Romantic Warriors IV – Krautrock (Part 2) Is in the Works –
Zeitgeist Media, the people who have brought us the great series of documentary films chronicling the history of progressive rock, are working on the second installment of their examination of German music. Krautrock 2 will focus on artists from Münich such as Guru Guru, Amon Düül II, Xhol Caravan, Kraan, Witthüser & Westrupp, and Popol Vuh. »
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2020-09-09
Simeon Coxe RIP –
Simeon Coxe, best known for his experimental electronics in the band Silver Apples, has died at the age of 82. The band's 1968 debut album set the stage for both German electronic music and experimental punk music a decade later. Coxe died on September 8 from pulmonary fibrosis. »
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Strawbs - Live at NEARfest & Hugh's Room – Strawbs line-ups have undergone quite a few changes in recent years. Having never seen Brian Willoughby, I was happy to view his guitar stylings since they are substantially different from Dave... (2006) » Read more
Die Engel des Herrn - Live! As Hippie Punks – Some people may be familiar with the name Klaus Dinger. For the uninitiated, he was an early member of Kraftwerk, the founder of Neu! and La Düsseldorf, and current godfather of Die (b)Engel des... (1995) » Read more
Mantra Sunrise - Mantra Sunrise – Another brainchild from John Miner of Art Rock Circus. The bulk of the sound ekes in time with the style of 80s album-oriented rock and a leaning towards tuneful new wave vocalization. Overall, this... (2006) » Read more
The Wrong Object - Platform One & Stories from the Shed – Platform One from last year is properly credited to The Wrong Object featuring Annie Whitehead and Harry Beckett, British jazz trombonist and trumpeter respectively, continuing this Belgian jazz-rock... (2008) » Read more
Il Segno del Comando - Il Segno del Comando – After a minute or so of chanting, wind-sounds, and church bells, the mighty Hammond organ casts its spell, followed by dual guitars, drums, and bass, marching onward into the title track (named after... (1997) » Read more