Sunday, September 17, 2006

Altin Mikrofon series


"There was such a blasting of bands that one of the biggest national newspapers called Hürriyet decided to organise a big contest that would help the young amateur bands have their names heard throughout the country. What the contest organisers wanted was interesting: the musicians who wanted to attend the contest had to either compose songs in Turkish or arrange a traditional tune. Also they had to perform this in a western style with electric western instruments! The ones who ware finalists ware to perform live In many cities that the newspapers arranged a tour for them. If Altin Mikrofon had not been assembled, we wouldn't likely to be talking about 60's & 70's Turkish rock scene." G.Aya

"Altin Mikrofon 'The Golden Microphone' song contest was first held in 1965 to help give a new direction to contemporary turkish music through the use of western techniques, forms and instruments. The finalists would get their contest song (and a song of their choice) recorded and printed as a single and sold on the music market for revenues which were left solely to the benefit of these groups." T.L. Taken from http://progressive.homestead.com/

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Part 2

Part 3


Saturday, September 16, 2006

Johannes "Alto" Pappert - Alto (1977)

The solo album by KRAAN Sax master with other members participating plus vocalist of Tomorrow's Gift.

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Le Claque Galoche - Same(197?)

French folk

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Malachi - Same (1972)

Combines the feel-good groovy instrumental organ rock of Eden Rose with the more measured introspective UK scene like Cressida or Still Life. Sounds a bit dated for 1971, more like 1969 – probably due to the "carnival" sound of the organ, which is the dominant instrument. From an old ebay auction: "4 UK guys recorded this album in Belgium and only released in Italy". ashratom


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After Life - Cauchemar (1975)

One of the major discoveries in the world of collectable underground rock records and is the only LP by demonic French fuzzers After Life. Released only in Spain by Discophon in 1975, it remained virtually unknown until some copies started to surface in the late 90s on the lists of some of the worlds most reputable record dealers. To make things more exciting, this was produced by Jean-Pierre Massiera (of Visitors, Horrific Child, Les Maledictus Sound fame) and includes nine tracks of heavy psych guitar action, screaming vocals and organ interludes. The reissue uses the effective original psych artwork and will include 2 bonus tracks which were previously only on a 7", "Rolling Down" and "Things Of The Life". A must for lovers of loud & screaming hard rock as well as anyone interested in the european hard progressive genre. Freak Emporium

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Coses - Via Fora! (1976)

Great Catalan psych folk

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Brotherhood of Blossom Potato - Collective Farm Defence Archive (2001)

Folk band from lost village of Donbass region (Ukrainian coal primer). The band is acoustic singer/songwriter with slight punk/acid touches. Playing strongly in Soviet undeground vein. Worth listening imo.

Bratstvo Tzvetushego Kartofelya - Arhiv Kolhoznoy Oborony (2001)

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A Euphonious Wail - A Euphonious Wail (1973)

Heavily influenced by San Francisco bands (Big Brother and the Trucking Company and The Jefferson Airplane quickly come to mind), the Santa Rosa, California-based A Euphonious Wail was roughly five years behind creative and popular tastes. Not that it seemed to matter given a financially struggling Kapp Records went ahead and signed the quintet to a recording contract. Built around the talents of drummer Doug Hoffman, keyboardist Bart Libby, singer Suzanne Rey, singer/guitarist Steve Tracy and bassist Gary Violetti, the band's self-titled 1973 debut teamed them with producer Brian Ingoldsby (Lowell Levinger of Youngbloods fame reportedly also helped out). While "A Euphonious Wail" had a couple of nice moments, for the most part the LP was surprisingly lame and uninspired. As lead vocalists Rey and Tracy had decent, if unexceptional voices (though Rey tended to screech in the higher registers). The same type of limitations were true of the band as songwriters (all but Hoffman contributing material). Taken individually guitar and keyboard propelled rockers such as 'Pony', 'We've Got the Chance', 'When I Start To Live' and 'F#' weren't bad, but stretched over an entire album, there simply wasn't much that really stood out. The band were even less successful when they tried slowing things down - check out the lame ballads 'Did You Ever' and 'I Want To Be a Star'. (The Michael Hawes cover drawing was interesting. Depending on how you looked at it you saw something completely abstract, or possibly obscene.) Needless to say, the album vanished without a trace, followed in short order by the band. [SB] http://www.lysergia.com/

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Thursday, September 07, 2006

Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur

Extremely rare progressive rock from Island. 2 albums
Their name on their first eponymous album was Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur (translation: The Icelandic Flock of Trolls / Hinn = The). This album was released 1978. When they released their second album Thursabit they had shortened their name to Thursaflokkurin (translation: The Flock of Trolls), and that is what everyone call them (even in the notes of the first album). Their third album was live and was probably released in 1980. It is said that they had made a fourth album 1994. This band hails from Iceland, and to get a hint at their sound you might think of a Scandinavian Gryphon mixed with a large dose of Gentle Giant. Thursabit was their second album, released in 1979. Hinn Islenski Thursaflokkur are by no means anything close to a Gentle Giant clone - they just do their own thing which happens to incorporate a lot of the kinds of things that make Gentle Giant such a good, original band; odd meters and constant time changes, lots of dynamics, quirky rhythmic and melodic motifs, excellent musicianship, a healthy variety in their sound, even within the same song, and well performed, if sometimes odd, vocals. The music is also reminiscent of bands such as Hatfield and the North and National Health. They have folk roots, but except for maybe two songs, this influence is heard more in the vocals than in the music. There is some excellent prog here, very energetic, that serves as a setting for old Icelandic verse. The extensive liner notes come with the lyrics in Icelandic as well as explanation and background on the poetry in English. Very interesting reading. The instrumentation is guitar, a variety of keyboards, bass, drums, and sometimes bassoon, all played with plenty of enthusiam and intensity. In my opinion, this is as good as anything Gentle Giant has done, and it is one of the best CDs I've gotten this year (along with Locanda della Fate, the double CD of Magma Live, Banco's Io Sono Nato Libero and Darwin!, Ozric Tentacle's Live Underslunky; pretty good company!). If you don't mind the idea of Icelandic vocals (I find them quite interesting), consider giving this a listen. And if you do try it, just ignore the first track. It's rather "poppy" in a 70's kind of way, but its only 3 minutes long and sounds nothing like the rest of the album. Great stuff. -- Rob Walker





















Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur - Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkir(1978)






















Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur - Thursabit(1979)

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Brân - Hedfan (1976) (pre Pererin)

Epic Welsh progressive rock rarity from 1976. Powerful electric progressive rock with hammond, electric guitars and synths. The vocals are all in Welsh but musically this is a great album with rippling wah-wah guitar and male/female vocals.It's a beauty... (Freak Emporium)

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Neon Rose - A Dream Of Glory And Pride (1974)

This Sweden group, with their melodic/heavy rock strongly influenced of "Deep Purple" and "Alex Harvey Band"


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Sunday, September 03, 2006

Baltik - Baltik (1973)

At last a re-issue of this 1973 album originally released on CBS.This Swedish progressive album had bass virtuoso from,John Gustafson (Roxy Music, Quatermass, Ian Gillan Band, Hard Stuff) is now one of the ultimate collectors items for most Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster fans. It starts off quite heavy, then the pace is slowed down with a female vocal/gospel-flavoured ballad , which sets the mood for a few tracks then the disc reverts to quirky, interesting prog rock, which takes a little bit of getting used to - especially if it doesn't grab you from the first listen; give it another chance.Freak Emporium

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Fanny Adams - Fanny Adams (1971)

Vince Maloney, Johnny Dick, Teddy Toi and Doug Parkinson were veterans of some of Australia and New Zealand's top bands of the 1960s:
Vince Maloney (sometimes spelled Melouney) had been in the original 1963-65 lineup of The Aztecs, but quit along with the restof the band after a pay dispute. He and fellow Aztec Tony Barber then formed a shortlived duo before Vince formed his own band The Vince Maloney Sect, which became the house band on the mid-'60s pop show Kommotion. Moving to England, he spent several years as lead guitarist in the late-60s UK lineup of The Bee Gees with drummer Colin Petersen
Johnny Dick had joined Max Merritt & The Meteors in 1963 in New Zealand and came to Australia with them in '65, alongside Teddy Toi. After the original Aztecs split from Thorpe, he and Teddy jumped ship and joined the "new" Aztecs, which lasted until 1966. He later teamed up with 'Parko' in the highly-regarded Doug Parkinson In Focus
Teddy Toi was a highly respected bassist, already a rock'n'roll veteran whose CV went back to New Zealand in the late '50s with Sonny Day & the Sundowners
Doug Parkinson was (and is) one of Australia's finest male singers. He started his career in a high-school band The A Sound, followed Newcastle pop outfit The Questions, before forming In Focus with Johnny, Duncan McGuire and Billy Green, scoring a Top 20 hit in '68 with their beautiful rendition of The Beatles' Dear Prudence and winning the Hoadley's Battle Of The Sounds in '69.
After three-odd years with The Bee Gees in the UK, Vince quit the band over the inevitable "musical differences" and had a short spell with Ashton, Gardner & Dyke (Resurrection Shuffle) before landing a solo deal with MCA. He decided to put together a hard rock supergroup in the Led Zeppelin mould, in order to record the album. The first offer went out to Teddy Toi, an old friend and colleague who was doing session work in London at the time. In June 1970, he invited Johnny and Doug to join him in the UK, a trip made possible by the In Focus win in the Hoadley's (the first prize was a trip to England).
They put together a set of strong original material, and cut the album in London, although it was not evenutally released until 1971, just after they had split. They returned to Australia in December 1970 amid a welter of hype. Boasting that they would become the biggest band in the world immediately, the band encountered resistance from a sceptical public, a situation not alleviated by Doug's boast to Go-Set that "In three weeks Fanny Adams will be the best band that ever trod this earth". Perhaps it was simply a case of being an idea before its time (although other groups like The Dave Miller Set were treading this path successfully). In the event, their brand of heavy, plodding blues-prog rock was (so we're told) upstaged by their support bands at the time, apaprently making a mockery of the group's claims.
According to Ian McFarlane, tensions within the band ran high, as one might expect of such an all-star outing. They made some notable appearances, including the Myponga Festival in January 1971, and early in the year MCA released one single from the album, Got To Get A Message To You (which was a group original, not the Bee Gees song of the name) backed by They're All Losers, Honey. But within months of arriving back, the band had self-destructed. The straw that broke the camel's back was a fire at Sydney's Caesar's Palace discotheque, which destroyed all their equipment. Parkinson left under a cloud, and MCA were sufficiently cheesed off with Doug that they effectively embargoed him from recording for the next two years.
Parkinson evenutally assembled a new version of In Focus, and later pursued a successful solo career on the rock and club circuit, on TV and in stage shows including Jesus Christ Superstar. Throughout the 1970s, Maloney worked with a succession of bands, including The Cleves, Flite, Levi Smith's Clefs, the Jeff St John Band, John Paul Young and the All Stars and Rockwell T. James and the Rhythm Aces. In 1999 he was reunited with The Bee Gees for their "One Night Only" concert in Australia -- the first time they had played together since Vince left the band thirty years before.
Toi and Dick played on Lobby Loyde's solo album Plays with George Guitar, and then joined Loyde in a new version of The Wild Cherries. Teddy moved on to a stint in Sydney supergroup Duck in 1972-73, followed by a couple of years in the final version of The Aztecs, and Johnny enjoyed a long and successful stint with Alberts, first backing Stevie Wright and then John Paul.Young in The All Stars.
The Fanny Adams LP, which is a very fine piece of work, is now a sought-after collector's item. Milesago


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Neon Rose - Reload (1975)

In 1969 Roger, Piero and Benno formed the band SPIDER. In 1973 drummer Kenta "Krull" was replaced by Stanley Larsson and Neon Rose was born. Their first gig was to open for Dr.Hook.
Neon Rose is concidered to be one of Sweden´s best hard rock bands of all time. The first single was only released in 500 copies and is very sought after item that gains a high price.
On their first album "A dream of glory and pride" released in 1974, Gunnar Hallin was not a member of the band, but a guitar roadie!
After the second album "Two" (1975) Stanley had quit to join the blues outfit Nature. His replacement was Thomas Wiklund who in 1971 recorded a single with the band Uppåt Väggarna. Now Roger left the band too, but was persuaded to return. Their third and last album was named "Reload" recorded and released in 1975.After that album Roger quit and joined Wasa Express. He later formed the band Truck in where Thomas also was found.
In 1977 Piero made another attempt to get the band rolling with himself as the only original member left. They recorded some demos, but never took off. They split....to reform in 1981, now with Piero, Benno, Joaquin Calafell (drums) Erik Svensson (keyboards) and Conny Bloom (guitar and vocals). They recorded a single for Rosa Honung Records, but it was never released.
Today Neon Rose is in the limelight again. 15 new songs is recorded featuring the Reload line-up and a compilation album is also planned.

taken from The Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, by Janne Stark


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