Saturday, October 30, 2010

Uranus - Aamun hauta (1975)

Uranus cut their album Aamun hauta in 1975 for the BASF label, the same label that gave us Kummitus, and Lucjan Czaplicki flute, sax, harmonica who guested on Kummitus Kahdet kasvot LP was a member of Uranus.
The other musicians were Eero Lyttinen on trumpet, Eero Raivio on guitar and vocals, Jari Unha on drums, Pertti Hurmalainen on bass and Edward Stytz on vocals and piano.
The music surprised me by being pretty good for Finnish 1970 s standards funk rock. Cover material includes Stevie Wonder s Living in the City , Otis Redding s Sittin on the Dock of the Bay and a personal favourite of mine, Kokomo s I Can Understand It , which Uranus treat respectably well despite Polish ? -born Stytz s lead vocals, which sound very slightly sped up on all the songs he sings. His pronounciation of the Finnish language isn t great, as an accent is clearly audible, but it s serviceable.
The inner sleeve is half-filled with quite insane ramblings about not very much in particular,
except for frequent remarks like URANUS shines... URANUS was the harmony... and the One and Only was URANUS... and URANUS shone... because in the beginning there was URANUS. And the World lives the age of URANUS. At last, said the Admiral
Definitely a worthy record to add to your collection, and one that should be re-discovered by this
digital age.

1. Kun tulin stadiin When I Arrived to the City
- Living in the City -
2. T lt ikuisuuteen From Here to Eternity
3. Svengikone Swing Machine
4. Hellyys rajaton Boundless Tenderness
5. Fantastinen nainen Fantastic Woman
- I Can Understand It -
6. Aamun hauta Grave of the Morning
- Sittin on the Dock of the Bay -
7. Malta en lopettaa I Can t Make Myself to Quit
- I Can t Stop -
8. New Production
9. Pluto

Taken from http://finnishrock.blogspot.com (now defunct)

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Sunday, October 17, 2010

Free Action Inc. - Plays Eddy Korsche Rock & Blues (1970)

Italian exploito band playing the crazed music of an obscure Austrian producer. This album is filled with Hammond madness and bluesy psych vibes. A real delight from beginning to end! Rumoured to be SUB in disguise!

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West - West (1968)

Chicken Shed - Alice (1977)

Extremely varied 60-minute extravaganza ranging from rather tasteless faux-vaudeville cuts (including a hilarious track with several singers meowing like cats!) to badass long-winded proggy jazz-rock maelstroms. The combination is, frankly, frustrating, but when it works, you find yourself wishing there were even more than 60 minutes of this stuff. By Levgan

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Alshia - Alshia (1980)

Trefle - Reflet (1978)

Private press. In the Ange school of French progressive rock. More of an underproduced effort, recalling Grime or the first Synopsis album. One of the better examples of the style, with impassioned vocals and fine guitar work. The atmosphere here is rich. All the songs are short but segue nicely into each other. A good one that Musea would've typically reissued in the early 90s. Taken from here

CD REISSUE WISHLIST

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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Blac Dog - Backwoods Boogie (1978)

US heavy rock fuzz

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Yellow Autumn - Children of the Mist (1977)

Impressive late hippie folk album with male/female vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, violin - all the right ingredients.

Hopefully soon to be reissued by Vala Publishing.

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Albino Gorilla - Detroit 1984 (1970)

Weird funky rock album by this obscure band on Kama Sutra.

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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Twilight Nuages - Twilight Nuages (1977)

Monstrous real-people garage-pop dreamer... gorgeous lo-fi working-man songcraft, epic epic pop sensibility. Perfect heart-on-their sleeve vocals from Bill and a few high-school girls, a touch of saxophone here or there, a little organ, sunny day guitar strumming, a hauntingly sweet love song with steel guitar (!!!). Amazing transcendental larger than life quality to it all, like the band thought they were every bit the class act their song-writing conveys even though everything is a little sloppy and endearingly home-spun. It's one in a million, truly, this kind of alchemy - and plays through like a true album. Very very inspired stuff that has just completely bowled me over, with wild crude living-room production and amateur charm oozing everywhere! Don't let the late recording date fool you... this is as honest and tender-hearted as when you first swooned for the Beatles or realized that music might be the saving grace of your existence. Lifts me totally out of my chair and leads me through a starry night of pure imagination and youthful wonderment. Unreal! By Joakim Peso

Here is the almost unknown (no entries in Acid Archives and Pokora's books, popsike details for one auction only) and surprisingly great (yeah!) treasure from 70's private press americana fields... Pop? Yes. With some tricksy ssw and lounge moves. Just melodic well-crafted songs - some catchy and midtempo driving, some lazy floating - one by one, stronger and stronger! With charming male/female harmonies, warm and lighthearted aura, and perhaps the vibe... it's sounding more like late 60's than late 70's... Another one of Twilight Nuages' paradoxes - combination of lo-fi bedroom/garage feel with high professional, strong and delicate, arrangements - some flute, sax, keys, steel guitar - so tasty.
You can skip short intro but the next six songs - it's like.. I don't know.. Terrific pleasure! Six songs divided by little instrumental. And maybe the last song only, with overextended beginning and little repetitive and loud chorus, seems to me not so good. The rest is excellent!
Every new album - it's like terra incognita, like new enigma for music lovers and collectors, always. Even if you already read some reviews before or your friend said you something about... In late december of last year I saw Joaquim_Peso's review on this album, his recent discovery... And now, after my listening experience with this album, I think... What a wonderful find... Congratulations! Great great thanks, Jack.
And of course - my greetings to Bill Last and his scholars! =) By Fluteboy

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Fiedel Michel - Fiedel Michel (1973)

Mayfield's Mule - Mayfield's Mule (1970)

This is the missing link lp in Andy Scott's career. This album has not been released in the UK, Europe or Us. It was released only in Uraguay.

Andy Scott's career started with the release of 'Expansions on Life' with the Elastic Band. Co-members in this band were Sean Jenkins - drums, Ted Yeadon - vocals, organ and Mike Scott bass. This band split when Ted Yeadon left to join the Love Affair. Expansions on Life is now a very sought after prog lp. After the split, the remaining members joined Chris Mayfield to form 'Mayfields Mule'. They released a number of singles and recorded this album. However, as mentioned before, it was never properly released. Andy Scott then went on to join the Sweet. Popsike


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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Haarband - Haarband (1981)

Female band with great vocals! Recommended!

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Monday, February 22, 2010

Air - Air (1974)

Rare 1974 release from Australian group "AIR" Featuring Jenny McGregor, Pip Owen, Nicky Dunn, Patrick Conroy and Steve Nicholas, Gary Hyde, Tony Bolton, Bobby Gebbert.

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Aufbau - Spieglein (1982)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Lyonesse - Cantique (1975)

Ian Tamblyn - Ian Tamblyn (1976)

Born and raised in Fort William, Ontario, Ian Tamblyn studied at Trent University, graduating in 1971 and subsequently settling in Chelsea, Quebec. He released a demo cassette, Moose Tracks, the same year. In 1976 he released his full-length debut album, Ian Tamblyn, which won a Juno Award for Best Folk Music Recording that year. Since that time he has completed over 25 recording projects. He plays guitar, piano, hammered dulcimer, and synthesizer, as well as singing.

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Désirée - Tapes (1977)

The Hans Staymer Band - Hans Staymer Band (1975)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Domenic Troiano - Tricky (1973)

Member of Legendary Toronto Group Mandala. Replaced Joe Walsh in the James Gang.

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