Hi! My Dear Friends!
Autumn is pretty busy but pretty soon I'll be back with regular music life. Send your requests in the mean time.
Love,
Lisa
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Air - Air (1971)
Not to be confused with the French techno band or the R&B band from the late '80s. Air was one of the groups featured on Herbie Mann's Embryo label, a jazz/rock imprint of Atlantic from the early 1970s. It featured Googie Coppola on vocals.Air's sound was extremely jazz based with a slight pop influence. The main selling point was Googie Coppolla's vocals. Whether telling off an ex-lover in "Mr. Man" or telling a Lolita tale in "Man Is Free", her voice is strong and lovely at the same time. Unfortunately, not all the songs are up to the same level, and the album starts to fall apart toward the end.
Still, if you can find it, it is definitely worth picking up, as it is one of the lost gems of the early 1970s and probably the Embryo label's best release. Also, for jazz completists, it is produced by Herbie Mann. Written by Ezreal
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Princess Flower & the Moon Rays - Dreaming the Magic of Your Maya (1969)
A group of American freaks hanging out in Paris who joined up with an exiled Daevid Allen post-Soft Machine to form what has been referred to as Proto-Gong (aka Banana Moon #1), existing from late 1967 through 1968. They recorded this one LP in Paris in Spring 1968 before D.A. and Gilli Smyth did their Gong thing. The LP contains 6 tracks dominated by Standlee’s meandering flute and occasional vocals spewing out what appears to be free associative poetry. Daevid Allen is credited as being on only one track on Side 2; another guitarist, with the rather suspicious name of Fej Mornin, is credited with the guitar playing on Side 1, most of which does sound somewhat suspiciously like Allen’s style. The album opens with a short spurt of flute and laughter (male & female - could that be Daevid & Gilli?). It leads into the first song, “Lovin Spaceship”, a sort of Proto-Gong bluesy guitar strummer with Dylanesque stream of consciousness lyrics and a Booby D harmonica finale. Following is “Women of Moon”, another free association Dylanesque blues strum. Side 1 winds up with a long track listed as two songs on the label. First is “Vanishing Rama”, a long krishna jam led by Standlee’s flute, echoed guitar sounding very much like Allen’s glissando guitar playing and crude “tin pot” drumming. Midway, a Spoonfull rhythm intrudes, leading into proto-Gong space avant wanking. This flows directly into “Guharam Rock”, more free association/guitar strumming, though this time with a more rocking rhythm set by “shoe box” drumming. Standlee’s flute at its most meandering joins in toward the end. Side 2 opens with the one track that officially credits Daevid Allen, “Between Spirits”. This track is pure Gong; atonal flute over glissando guitar with nonsense vocals flitting in and out. The LP ends on the lengthy “Ancient Faces”. This is a raga-fueled flute and percussion instrumental with a female “chanter” Ziska Baum, described as Gilli Smyth’s “soul-sister”and sounds very much like her. The music is trancey, yet floating and a jew’s harp briefly floats into the mix about midway. As the harp fades away, the percussion intensifies, a male chanter is added and the now double-tracked flute engages in atonal sputtering until the LP ends as it began with a few seconds of laughter. Princess Flower and the Moon Rays dissolved in the spring of 1968 when Paris was enveloped by student riots. Loren Standlee and Ziska Baum returned to the U.S. after she was busted for marijuana possession. Standlee, Ziska and percussionist Raja Samyana were members through the late 60s of The Universal Mutant Repertory Company, which also included original Velvet Underground drummer Angus MacLise and his wife Hetty. Samyana is listed as guitarist, though. This LP is believed to have been released in New York City, where Standlee was very active as the 3 or 4 known copies have all been found there. This Akashic label does not appear to be related to any other by that name (Maitreya Kali, etc). [MA] Taken from hereRate Your Music
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Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Los Sonidos De Mi Mente
Hi Friends!
I'm out of the city for a week or so - all your requests will be answered on my return. But I can't leave you without good music - while I'm traveling please listen to the:
I'm out of the city for a week or so - all your requests will be answered on my return. But I can't leave you without good music - while I'm traveling please listen to the:
See you soon!
Lisa
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bezalel & The Sabras - Jerusalem of Gold (1967)
Jewish garage band featuring melodic guitar folk instros and reverb rockers, some fuzz.Taken from here
3 Israeli, 1 American, rock'n'roll band. All the tunes have a Israeli, middle eastern feel to them, kind of like if the Ventures were from Tel-Aviv. The Sabras were formed in N.Y, some time in the late 60's, and performed in the Catskills, and various Israeli night clubs in and around New York city. Taken from here
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Mirror - Daybreak (1978)
Mirror was formed in 1972 by four high school kids, Johan Saanen (bass guitar), Paula Mennen (vocals and keyboards), Kees Walravens (guitar) and Peter Fransen (drums) in the south of the Netherlands. In 1973 they were joined by Philip de Goey (sax, woodwinds and oboe). In 1976 Mirror records it's first and only album, Daybreak. The music is influenced by Pink Floyd, Yes, Trace and Focus. After the release of the album they toured increasingly in Holland. But rather soon the were having disagreements about the business side of the band. This led to the departure of Johan. Then there was an argument about who had written the music and this finally meant the end of Mirror in late 1976.After the Mirror Philip de Goey, Kees Walravens and Johan Saanen start a new progressive rockband, Lethe in 1978. With Lethe they record one album, Lethe, in 1981.
In the nineties Saanen, Walravens and Fransen play together in a cover band called Looking For Clues. Taken from here
CD REISSUE WISHLIST
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
Lethe - Lethe (1981)
Lethe's album starts off rather inconspicuously with a classically oriented oboe, acoustic guitar and piano piece. But, just as Mirror before them, the band launches into a sophisticated, but highly melodic progressive rock form. And while Side 1 is good, side 2 is an absolute clinic on how to combine complexity and yet still maintain a strong melodic backbone. This is the album that Camel never made after "Moonmadness". Astounding album really. Taken from hereCD REISSUE WISHLIST
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Ping Pong - About Time (1971)
Little is known about this band from Emilia, which released no less than two albums and a couple of singles with this name, and others in later years as Bulldog. Both albums don't contain any information on the band and is likely that the record companies wanted to promote them as a foreign band as it was common practice then, to give the groups a wider audience. The only foreign member was in fact English bassist Taylor, who had come to Italy with the beat band The Casuals during the 60's, the others were from Bologna and Modena.First album contains 10 tracks, all sung in English and with good use of flute and guitar. The sound is not particularly original and owes much to English bands. There are some jazzy influences here and there, like in the last track, Funny wife, that's totally instrumental and contains a long drum solo. Sax player Alan King, who collaborated with many Italian artists including Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (in their ...di terra LP) makes a guest appearance in the album.
The second, Ping Pong, came two years later on Spark label, and contained a mix of commercial songs and more original tracks, this time entirely sung in Italian and with the strong presence of new vocalist Giorgio Bertolani.Tracks like Il miracolo, Caro Giuda (Italian version of Blue Mink's single Time for winning), both also released on singles, or Cresciuta in un paese with orchestral arrangement, fall in the typical mainstream pop Italian style of the era, while Il castello or the long jazzier Suite in 4 tempi are among the best moments, very well composed. Musically well played, the album contains nice keyboard and sax parts, demonstrating the very good quality of the musicians involved.
Like many other bands examined here (Exploit, Flashmen, Fili d'Erba) Ping Pong mixed together totally different styles, alternating between commercial songs and more original tunes, in this case jazz-oriented. The result is, unfortunately, rather disjointed and not particularly satisfying.
The band reappeared a few years later as Bulldog, with two albums and lots of singles all sung in English and mostly rock-oriented with the usual commercial songs put in.
Bass player Alan Taylor, released a solo pop single on Blue Jean (BJ 614), Song for Magdalena, in 1977. Taken from here
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Ping Pong - About Time (1971)
Ping Pong - Ping Pong (1973)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Motowns - Motowns (1971)
An English group, arrived from Liverpool to Italy in the mid 60's, the Motowns featured Lally Stott (vocals, replaced by Mick Brill), Doug Meakin (guitar), Mike Logan (keyboards), Robbie Scott (bass) and Tony Crowley (drums, later Dave Summer).Their first album came out in 1967, Sì, proprio i Motowns on RCA, followed by a long series of singles, until they were signed to Cinevox in 1971.
Their second and last album, Motowns, issued by this label, contains 10 tracks, most of which show strong differences from the typical beat sound of the past years, being halfway between psychedelia and progressive. The album is very nice and rare, and has never been reissued.
Some tracks from the LP were also included in the soundtrack of the film Mia moglie...un corpo per l'amore directed by Mario Imperoli, released in 1972. Taken from here
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
Sky Sulamyth - Full Moon Light (1979)
Obscure 1970s hippie folk with titles like "Medicine Fire" and "Angels In Embryo". Sulamyth also worked with Huckle. Acid ArchivesRate Your Music
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Air - Teilweise Kacke... ... aber Stereo (1973)
One of the most obscure albums from the vast Krautrock scene, Air’s sole album from 1973 has just recently surfaced to the collector’s market. It’s easy to see why. Translating more or less to “Partially Shit… …but in Stereo”, and featuring a plain white cover with “Air” in gothic lettering, one gets the impression this was made for fun and distributed to friends and club patrons. Musically it could be categorized as instrumental rock, not that distant from what one would find on a sound library album. That is, generic incidental music used for television and films. Maybe not 100% accurate, as these cuts do seem to be self-contained composed pieces, but similarities do exist, especially considering how simple the songs are. Organ is the featured instrument, and the tones are ancient, more akin to 1965 than 1973. It’s even older sounding than the organ used by Erlkoenig, if that’s possible. The organist doubles on flute, but the playing is more 18th century classical than Osanna. The electric guitar is primarily used only for rhythm and is lacking any kind of rock tone effects. And, of course, there is a drum solo to suffer through. The easy comparison would be the Roland Kovac New Set (another German sound library group), but misses their strong jazz background and creativity, and thus is far less interesting. In conclusion, Air is not a bad album at all, and does make for a nice curiosity. Tom Hayes Taken from hereCD REISSUE WISHLIST
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