After many requests, I have re-upped all eight of the DooM That Time Forgot comps. They were made by LibertyCaps a few years ago, a co-member of the defunct site Stonerrock.com. His efforts encouraged me in this blog when I started it, if you don't have them all yet then what are you waiting for? They feature plenty of the best and heaviest doom-mongers of the 60s and 70s. I also made a TDATS follow-up to these with 62: 'The DooM That Time Reprised'. Downloads here, unzip pass is:  tdats
Vol 1 | Vol 2 | Vol 3 | Vol 4 | Vol 5
Vol 6 | Vol 7 | Vol 8 | Vol 62 . Cheers, Rich.

Download from: [mf] of [mg]
unzip pass:  tdats
TDATS 85 is inspired by a book, written by Ra'anan Chelled who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. 'Demons Fairies & Wailin Guitars: The best 100 obscured rock acts 1968-1976' is a compendium of 100 of his favourite lesser-known acts from the 60s and 70s, that he has translated from his original Hebrew version. If you are interested further after reading this post, Ra'anan can be contacted directly via email: raanan78@gmail.com or facebook to order the paperback. He also has e-reader versions on Amazon and a website: www.demonsfairies.com.

The tracks I have used in this volume are from 15 bands that I have not used before and was not familiar with until reading about them in the book, so it's been a great digging session for me that has resulted in a nice fresh batch of killer tunes for you guys! There are a few publications available now that cover a lot of the artists that he does, but what sets this book apart is the amount of detail he has gone into for each act. Clearly a labour of love, he often lucidly describes a record song-by-song, and uncovers previously unknown facts, acquired by Ra'anan himself directly from the artists or people closely connected. A lot of the new information comes from exclusive interviews, which many of the articles end with, and they are all well-decorated with colour photos of LPs and artists.

Book Front Cover

The book covers the full range, from relatively well known entries like Budgie, Leaf Hound and Captain Beyond, to ultra-obscurities that were new to me like The Plastic Cloud, The Wizards From Kansas and J. Rider. One great example of the value of what he's achieved here is the story on 'Stonewall'. It's a great album (on a 'tax scam' label called Tiger Lily) that there has never been concrete information on, even what year it was made or what the album was actually called. Ra'anan clears it all up with an interview with Ray Dieneman, the recently-found bass player. An awesome discovery I have just made is that Ra'anan was inspired by one particular conversation thread on the now dead forum site Stonerrock.com; exactly the same thread that I found, and used, to begin my researches back in the mid 2000s. It was called 'Vote: greatest obscure heavy albums' and just after SR.com died I recovered most of the thread from web caches, posting it all on TheObelisk.net here.

I fired Ra'anan a few questions recently, so let's hear the rest from the man himself :-


Q1. Can you tell us some of the major events and influences in your life that lead you to write this book?

Ra'anan Chelled

"I was a teenager when Grunge broke out and that's where my real interest in Rock began. When Grunge coughed its last cough, naturally my interest had to migrate to somewhere else and without anything new and exciting (at least to my knowledge back then) my attention shifted backwards in time. I fell in love with the usual suspects - Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Sabbath, King Crimson, The Doors and the such, but at some point I felt like I've probably scraped the bottom of the barrel and there wasn't anything else really great left to discover of that era.

Then, in the early 2000's I've stumbled somewhere online (I think it was on the late, great StonerRock.com) upon a poll of "the best obscure Classic Rock albums". I decided to give a chance to one of the albums on that poll - Leaf Hound's Growers of Mushroom. It... blew my mind. I thought to myself: "If something THIS good escaped the ears of the masses, what else is out there?". And I was soon the discover that there is plenty.

In 2003 or 2004 I wrote a piece for my university weekly titled ‘The Best Bands You've Never Heard About’, which got some good feedback. So from then on I occasionally wrote about another obscure band for the paper, never coming short with a new one, till finally it hit me that it's a pretty rad idea for a book."

Q2. How did you choose this particular 100 artists? Did you suffer much indecisiveness while trying to reduce it down to that number?
"First I had to determine what is considered obscure enough to be in the book. Is Ten Years After considered obscure enough for instance? So I made a little poll among my Rock loving friends. You'd notice that there are several bands in the book which are not really obscure like Hawkwind, MC5, Wishbone Ash and several more. These bands, while obviously can't be lumped together in obscurity level with bands like Zerfas or Orang Utan, are still almost completely unknown for the average Rock fan, who rarely stray from the shallow waters. So these were the easy picks. After that I had to decide among the truly obscure acts. During "the research phase" for the book I listened to over 1000 bands and assessed their material. I had a strict criteria: Originality, quality of material and its execution and the ratio between good to mediocre/poor songs in an album. That's not to say that I haven't had countless changes of heart and mind, and I continually discovered new stuff too. I probably wrote entries to 150 bands and toyed with them till I found a 100 list that I felt comfortable with.

That was not the end though. 5 years separate between the old Hebrew version which was published in 2007 to the new English version (which is superior in every way), and I changed about dozen bands for the new one. So I guess the struggle never ends..."

Q3. What can you tell us about the reaction of friends, and the public, to the book so far?
"The book has gotten very favoring reviews thus far which pleases me to no end. Check out this review on the Paranoid Hitsophrenic blog Made me blush.

Friends and people who already swim the waters of obscure Rock, among them some great contemporary musicians, also gave their collective thumb up. This means a lot to me, as I really value their opinion. Not to say the book doesn't have its minor flaws. I translated and edited it myself, so there must be a few grammatical errors and clunky phrases here and there. I don't think it harms the book too much though, as quite a few people who bought a copy enjoyed it so much that they bought more copies to give as gifts."

Q4. Was it hard to reach the point of having the finished book in your hands? What useful advice could you offer other rock fanatics who may be considering writing a book of their own?
"Oh man, writing a book is hard. I now have all the more respect for people who do that. It's very time and resources consuming, especially when you opt for the do it yourself path like I have. But then again, when they put that first copy out from the pressers in your hands, still warm, it makes it all the more worth while.

the most useful piece of advice I could give is probably that writing a book isn't something you do an hour here and there. You need to set yourself a real frame of work each day to keep a good momentum going. When I wrote the Hebrew version I was able to put in about 6 hours a day and I finished writing it within a year. The English version however, despite having most of the material already written, took about 3 years to finish, due to regular day job time constraints and you know, life..."

Q5. Do you have any further plans regarding your love of lesser-known rock music; any more books or other types of project in mind?
"I have been toying with the idea of putting together a book about the best lesser known Prog Rock albums. Since Prog is such a huge sub genre, it easily could have taken a much too big chunk of my book, so I had to give it somewhat of a back seat and concentrated on mostly guitar oriented Prog. But there is so much more great lesser known Prog out there which deserves to be recognized. I mean, the Italian Prog alone can yield at least 25 amazing albums."

Q6. Can you tell us something about being a psychedelic rock fan in Israel? Is there much opportunity to see old bands or old-style bands? And are there any bars or record shops etc that would be good to check out for anyone who finds themselves in Tel Aviv?
"There's a small community of Psych fans in Israel, but Prog is a more popular genre here as far as a niche goes. However, old classic Rock is quite big in Israel and bands like Pink Floyd, The Doors and Led Zeppelin are still huge in here even in this day and age. 
There was great record store here dedicated to 60's-70's Rock called "A Little Different" which was the local haven for Psych heads, but unfortunately it closed down about a year ago. "The third Ear" is also a good place to score CD's and Vinyl of 60's-70's goodness.
We don't get many old bands coming our way but some of them do venture here occasionally. Jethro Tull, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep to name a few."

Following now is the track list and information on the 15 artists I used, the text is all taken directly from Ra'anan's book, in a very abridged form. I have tried to keep some salient points, and included a couple of small quotes from interviews where there was space.

Tracks

01. Ladies W.C. - Searching for a Meeting Place (1970)
       from album 'ladies w.c.'
02. Rodriguez - Only Good for Conversation (1970)
       from album 'cold fact'
03. D.R. Hooker - I'm Leaving You (1972)
       from album 'the truth'
04. The Plastic Cloud - Shadows of Your Mind (1968)
       from album 'the plastic cloud'
05. Cressida - Mental State (1969)
       from album 'trapped in time: the lost tapes'
06. Gandalf - Never Too Far (1969)
       from album 'gandalf'
07. J. Rider - Sunday's Hero (1979)
       from album 'no longer anonymous'
08. Fraser & DeBolt - Old Man on the Corner (1970)
       from album 'fraser & debolt'
09. Morgen - Welcome to the Void (1969)
       from album 'morgen'
10. La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata - Still Don't (Not Yet) (1971)
       from album 'la revolución de emiliano zapata'
11. The Wizards from Kansas - Freedom Speech (1970)
       from album 'the wizards of kansas'
12. Almendra - Aire De Amor (1970)
       from album 'almendra ii'
13. The United States Of America - Hard Coming Love (1968)
       from album 'the united states of america'
14. The C.A. Quintet - Underground Music (1968)
       from album 'trip thru hell'
15. Tomorrow - Revolution (1968)
       from album 'tomorrow'

Ladies W.C.

Stephen Scott was a young born-in-Venezuela American who lived in Caracas but studied in New England since his parents thought that the education in the US was better. In his breaks from school however, he returned to Caracas. During these breaks, Scott hooked up with several local musicians who were into the new and exciting western Rock of the late Sixties, and together they recorded one of the finest albums to see light in South America. "Ladies W.C." was completed in mere two and a half days and was originally pressed in 500 copies, 300 of them being translucent color vinyl and the rest usual black. All copies were immediately snatched by area fans. $1200 wouldn't be too steep to ask for one of those copies today.
The opening track "People" sets the tone for the rest of the album, being dominated by Casta's fierce Fuzz guitar, one which we will be able to hear even more fiercely in "And Everywhere I See the Shadow of that Life". Wah Wah is also aplenty and Hendrix fans will be getting their groove on with "Searching for a Meeting Place" which keeps a psychedelic atmosphere despite having a slightly heavier sound. "I can't See Straight" is a Garage Rock with great dual guitars Acid solo while "To Walk on Water" and "The Time of Hope is Gone" slow the pace down for some quieter moments with delicate vocal harmonies. The obligatory bluesy tracks, "Heaven's Comin' Up" and the instrumental "W.C. Blues", add harmonica and create psychedelic Blues-Rock not entirely different and definitely on par with what was played in the UK and the northern America. Between tracks the band threw in sound effects like toilet flushing (which obviously is justified here given the name of the band), sea waves, sirens, crying babies, screeching breaks, cars crashing and more. All the songs are sung in English.

Unfortunately for Ladies W.C., Scott had a mistress band located in South Carolina which he played with – Speed Limit 35. He had to choose wether to stay with his Venezuelan compadres in a country which was literally impossible to break out in playing such an underground music, despite having a fantastic album under their belt, or to try his luck with his American band, which at least on paper, had more chance of making it. Scott chose to head up north of the border, thus immediately eliminating Ladies W.C..

There follows an interview with Walter Stephen Scott in the book, here is a small part:
Why did you call the band Ladies W.C.? "We did not know what to call ourselves.  In a restaurant one day, we saw a sign on a door that said "Ladies WC".  As I did not understand what that meant, I was told it meant "Ladies Bathroom". So, it was simple enoungh to name our band "Ladies WC".  It was an odd name, did not represent anything to us; just an odd name; something that "stood out" if you will."

Who wrote the material for the album and how much time did you work on it as a band? "Adib and I got together one day at his home and he showed me some songs he had been working on - just the music - no words yet. Well, he asked me to write the words to the musical ideas he had and the task was done; I was the "poet" behind the lyrics.  There were two exceptions: one had been written by App Wiltsee from Homer and the Dont's days which was "I Can't See Straight" and one was written by me. We presented the music to Mario and Jaime and presto!!"

Did you have much time practicing it? "We really took no time practicing them - we were tight already as a group and the new music was easy for us to learn."

Did you perform a lot? "We performed quite a bit. Understand that the days we played in were very turbulent, what with the psychedelic movement, Vietnam War, Integration and other factors of general rebellion of our generation. I still don't know how we got away with it, but we did "get away with it". Listening to parts of the songs now, we were very fortunate not to be put to silence for the music and lyrics.
What did you think about the Venezuelan rock scene of those days? Was there any?
The times we played in produced quite a few rock bands in Venezuaela actually, be they blues oriented, psychedelic, etc."

Rodriguez

An incredibly interesting life story Rodriguez has, or in his full name – Jesus Sixto Diaz Rodriguez. Too bad almost none of it is true… Until today, 40 years after its release, "Cold Fact" is one of the most celebrated albums in South Africa and Rodriguez is one of the most lovable singers there, if not the most lovable singer. Somewhat of a national consensus. Fans and admirers of his work can be traced even in the magical continent of Australia, in its even more magical neighbor New Zealand and even in Zimbabwe, of all places.

In the early Seventies this Rodrigues character, who no one seemed to know where he is or where he came from, issued two magnificent albums and suddenly seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. This mysterious disappearance supplemented him with a mythical dimension and upgraded him from a talented singer/songwriter to a genius/mad-man status. This evanescence circulated different rumors, among them the obvious premature death by overdose or suicide (one version even claims he had set himself on fire on stage!), not such a groundless act if you take account of his sorrowful songs he wrote. The story I've heard, which was accepted by many, especially in South Africa, was that Rodriguez got fed up with the empty urban life he led till then and fled to the jungles, to lead there a simpler life in total solitude.

For years, each of these speculations were considered to be indisputable truth, depends on who you had asked, until in 1997 a devoted Rodriguez fan from South African Cape Town decided to take upon himself the national mission of finding out what did happen to the man. After pulling many strings and using private detectives Rodriguez was eventually located… (drum roll). The book continues the story…
Strolling on the dunes right outside of town, the guitar holding Jesus gazing at you from the cover of the album "The Truth" is Donald R. Hooker (D.R. Hooker), one of the most mysterious musicians rural America has ever sprung. Even the first name of the man was still an enigma until recently, but this talented young man's album is definitely one of the most decisive proofs that great albums don't have to come from the big record labels.

"The Truth" was recorded in Dynamic Recording studios in New Haven, Connecticut with the help of session men. Out of two hours of live recorded material, Hooker edited and cut it down to 40 minutes of brain melting Psychedelia. The album, which Hooker dedicated to his mother, was issued in a private pressing in 1972 in limited copies which were mainly designated to be handed to his friends and family.

It's difficult to label his album as Psychedelic in the classic sense of the word but it has unmistakable psychedelic quality to it, perhaps even a bit Progressive one, as Hooker approaches the material with a Lounge-like reverence. The album starts with sounds of waves crashing down and fog horns. Soon enough a furious synthesizer creeps up into the mix, finally bursts into the song "The Sea" – one of the most impressive openings to an album which leads to an amazing song talking about Hooker's longing to the sea and featuring some exceptionally trippy guitar.

While almost nothing was known about D.R. Hooker, it has become to my attention that he unexpectedly had died on January 2009 age 60. In the last 30 years he worked in the information technology industry, most recently at IBM.

While I was too late to interview Mr. Hooker, I was able to locate Carroll Yanni and Bob (Robert) Reardon from the line up who recorded "Armageddon" and interview them. Both shed some light on the band, the music and the man himself – D.R. Hooker. [There follows an extensive interview in Ra’anan’s book.]

The Plastic Cloud

The Plastic Cloud was formed in Ontario, Canada in 1967. The band tried to bridge between the poppier sounds playing on the radio and the psychedelic sounds, which were just started to be played south of the border. They succeeded doing that beyond all expectations and became one of the most groundbreaking groups in Canada, creating one of the finest and most enjoyable psychedelic albums out at the time.

Musically, "The Plastic Cloud" draws inspiration from almost every psychedelic outfit that existed back then, starting from The Beatles and ending with the San Francisco dwellers. Lyrically, it is a combination of Hippie texts and Tolkien's mythology, which is sung in splendid vocal harmonies. Polished production, a spacy Fuzz guitar that accompanies roughly 90% of the album and courageous use of psychedelic effects turns the listening to a real experience. All the tracks were written by Don Brewer and all are exquisite bar none. "Art's a Happy Man" is the most poppish, while the following 10 minutes long "You Don't Care" provides a relentless Fuzz guitar. "Face Behind the Sun", despite the other tracks being top quality, is still in a whole other level and combines terrific vocal harmonies with super catchy guitar – a huge potential hit retroactively. "Epistle to Paradise", Bridge under the Sky", Civilazation Machine" – all great, all worthy of high praise.

Unfortunately, Canada of 1968 was still not ready for this kind of music, and with the lack of support from the radio and their small record label, The Plastic Cloud had to settle for this one only album and vanished into total obscurity. Their sole album is the crowning glory of Canadian Psychedelia in rarity as well and is worth no less than $1000. American Dollars, not Canadian.

Cressida

Cressida represented everything that was great about UK Progressive Rock. Delivering melodic yet elaborated Prog without any risk of being called pompous, it's a wonder these guys didn't get much more recognition. Cullen and Heyworth met up in March 1968 when Heyworth moved to London and played in the same band. That band was short lived and Heyworth moved in with Cullen, where both started writing songs together. In late 1968 they managed to form a band with McCarthy, Clark and a keyboardist named Lol Coker. The band was initially called Charge but soon it was renamed Cressida.

They began recording their eponymous album for Vertigo at the state of the art Wessex Studios in Highbury and started performing at regarded places such as The Speakeasy and The Marquee Club, where at one of their performances they received an initiation to play in a festival in Czechoslovakia, then part of the Soviet Bloc which was mostly closed to the West. That invitation was met with some skepticism, but law and behold, a month later Cressida topped a music festival in Bratislava, with the rest of the bands being from Eastern Europe. They were paid in Czech currency, which was worth close to nothing and they had to spend it all in special stores designated only for foreign visitors!

The band then returned to England and completed recording their debut, which was released on Friday the 13th February 70, a bit overshadowed by two other debut albums Vertigo had issued that day: Rod Stewart's and Black Sabbath's. "Cressida" is a laid back album, somewhat bi-polar (melancholic yet still somehow happy), which borrows from almost every genre available and dominated by the inventive keyboards work of Jennings and the intricate technical drumming by Clark. The unassuming warm vocals by Cullen and the vocal harmonies fit the music perfectly and the guitar is tastefully used. Surprisingly enough, most songs don't obey Prog fashion and clock around only 3-4 concise minutes.

Gandalf

This psychedelic band 'Gandalf', from New Jersey, was called The Rahgoos at first and acquired a reputation while performing in local bars and in some regarded bars in New York like the Night Owl Café in Greenwich Village. During one of their shows in New York they got acquainted with song writers Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, who in turn introduced them to producers from Capitol Records. The producers were impressed with the band and an album contract was signed, in condition that the band would change its name. Initially they changed it to Gandalf and the Wizards based on the members strong affection to Tolkien's The Hobbit, but ultimately shortened it to just Gandalf. Under its new moniker, the band was shortly brought in to Century Sounds studios in New York and recorded the album "Gandalf", but the deal with Capitol fell through and the album was shelved. After a while the band members lost hope that the album will see the light of day and Gandalf folded. The album was finally released in early 1969, more than a year after it was recorded. The reviews were favoring, but with no band to promote it with shows and without proper support from the record company, the album soon sank into oblivion.

Peter Sando elaborates on the reasons behind the album's delay: "Our producers, Koppelman and Rubin, signed our band and planned to release our LP on their newly formed 'Hot Biscuit Disc Company' label which was distributed through Capitol. As we were finishing our recording, their deal with Capitol fell apart. Gandalf was put on hold, and in the interim, the band lost faith and also dissolved. Subsequently, K&R & Capitol agreed that two more LP's would be released on the Capitol label, and Gandalf was one of them. When I got the word that our LP would be released on Capitol, for a moment I had visions of an opportunity, but Gandalf got lost in the maze of new underground artists being released in 1969 and the timing just wasn't right". 'Gandalf' is a lethargic psychedelic album, dreamy yet somewhat dark, which combines Pop elements and Baroque tones, as you would expect from an album recorded at that time. Most of it consists of cover versions and it has only two original tracks which were written by Sando. Both of those tracks are the best of the album, and especially "Can You travel in the dark Alone", which its rare quality simply begs us to wonder why did the band settle for so many covers when they had such a great original material in their hands?

To this exact question Sando replies: "At that time we were mainly a New Jersey bar/cover band, but playing at the Night Owl Café in Greenwich Village really opened up my mind to songwriting. I was always tuned in to the 3 minute song experience, that is, being taken to another time and place in a song, no matter where you are or what you are doing. But working alongside such writers as James Taylor (The Flying Machine), Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon (The Magicians) and all the other great Night Owl bands that played mainly original songs, gave me the confidence to write my own songs. I had dabbled in songwriting before that, but now I wanted to write an album. Unfortunately, our chance at recording came before I had time to dream my dream and I only had two songs ready that I felt were good enough to include on the Gandalf album."

J. Rider - 'No Longer Anonymous'

J. Rider was the later-name of a band called Anonymous. Anonymous’s first release is quite simply just as good as any quintessential album by mid-70's bill toppers quality wise, despite still dwelling musically in the latter years of the previous decade. This might be the reason why, much like its name suggests, the band remained anonymous. And then again, maybe there's a bit more than that to the story…
The tale begins with Matelic and Medvescek who played together in a garage band called Sir Winston and the Commons when they were both in Indianapolis Northwest high school. The two continued playing together in several ensembles, one of which, Cock Robin, even recorded a number of songs but unfortunately those were lost. Jim Spencer, Matelic's childhood friend who used to write songs with him in the past, offered him to record an album on his tiny yet incredibly ironic and humorously named label "A Major Label". Matelic asked his friends to help him record the album and they were more than happy to oblige. The group rehearsed the songs for several weeks and then went for a one August 1975 weekend to Milwaukee.

Their first album "Inside the Shadow" sounds like a "Rumours" era Fleetwood Mac is singing on top of music co-written by Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds with an offhand touch of Beatles. Matelic and Rollings' harmonies sound so natural and complete each other wonderfully as if it was in fact one person with two voices, echoing from the deepest layers of the soul.

The group started rehearsing for the possibility of doing some live dates. A new guitarist named Justin Garriot joined the group, which was now going by the moniker J. Rider, named after the song from "Inside the Shadow". The band did perform a few times in their region but had trouble finding a spot where they could play original material, and thus, began to play more and more covers just so they could even get gigs. J. Rider were reduced to a three-piece, its members entered a recording studio to record demos financed by a friend named Norm Welch for the purpose of interesting major record companies. Nothing was done with those demos back then, but they were released in 1996 under the title "No Longer Anonymous", and let me tell you that these demos' quality don't fall much shorter than that of the songs in "Inside the Shadows". These are absolutely mandatory for the fans of Anonymous' album. The recording, despite being only a demo, is much better sounding and professional than that of "Inside the Shadow".

Daisy Debolt                              Allan Fraser

Allan Fraser and Daisy Debolt (Fraser & DeBolt) were two Canadian hippies who made Hippie Folk music seasoned with delicate Country. Despite having released their music on the big record company Columbia, their debut album is one of the brightest unknown gems of Rock history.

For their first staggering album they were joined by a violinist named Ian Guenther. All of the material was written by Debolt, but the collaboration of the three is no less than brilliant, whereas we're actually not talking here about a perfectly done collaboration but exactly the opposite. What makes this album so grand is in fact its very humane imperfections, imperfections which cannot be planned ahead or later recreated, but are a one-time display of ravishing humanity: starting from the slightly out of tune violin, through every miss in the going in for a vocal harmony and ending with every grating guitar chord – all of it creates a moving and unique musical performance. This is the perfection within the imperfection. With the exception of one, all the tracks in the album are backed by two acoustic guitars and violin only. The superb even if not perfect vocal harmonies are mainly thanks to the wonderful voice of Debolt, which reaches the highest of high tones and enriches this minimalism in an awe inspiring way.

This is Rock'n'Roll without bass and drums. A year had passed and Fraser and Debolt went to record their sophomore release, which was issued in 1973. As you might have expected, the new album was much more produced: not only that bass and drums were added, but a whole act named Pleasure now backed the duo, featuring keyboards and wind instruments. It was only logical that this would be the direction the couple go to, but the rich minimalism of the previous album was now lost, along with the enchanting songwriting and the accompanying vocal harmonies. This was the end of the duo. Allan Fraser remained in the music business and has worked as a solo artist, with several other people and even composed movie soundtracks. Daisy Debolt went on to a solo career as a Folk singer which stepped out of this book coverage boundaries and continuing even today.

Morgen

Once considered by error a solo album of guitarist Steve Morgen, this album, which combines a hard-rockish nihilism with crisp Psychedelia bordering Acid Rock, was indeed written entirely by Morgen but was released in 1969 by a full fledged outfit named Morgen from Long-Island, New-York. The album, which was in fact recorded in 1968 and released only a year later, is full of tremendous psychedelic Fuzz guitar and with strong drumming, and in spite of not being perfect, it constitutes as one of the better examples of the transitional period from the naive experimental Psychedelia to the harder edged Rock, whereas musically it tips slightly in favor of the former.

Lyrically, don't expect mind altering philosophy or flower power preaching, as Morgen prefers to sing about sexual frustration and it seems as if he plays with his guitar pedals to compensate for that frustration. The album's cover, a black and white reproduction of Edvard Munch's "The Shriek", really challenges the colorfulness of the era's album covers. It also came with a poster featuring the lyrics.

Opener "Welcome to the Void" is a fantastic strident psychedelic gem while "Of Dreams" is probably the best track on the album, when for a change Morgen's singing, which for the most part is pretty mediocre, matches his saccharine Fuzz guitar and creates something that resembles the quality of the poppier sides of the British Psychedelia, especially those of early Pink Floyd. The quite lengthy "Beggin' Your Pardon (Miss Joan)" contributes the obligatory bluesy moments every album released at the time had to provide (but still through a completely psychedelic prism) while the excellent "Eternity in Between" and "Love" make it clear that Morgen was a big The Who fan. Some The Doors influence is also detectable from time to time.

"Morgen" was the sole album by the band formed by Morgen and nobody knows what had happened to any of the members after that. All that is left as a testimony to their work is this single album which sells for about $350.
The young locals of the Mexican city of Guadalajara gladly embraced the Rock music that arrived from England and from northern neighbor USA, and the culture and looks that accompanied it: long hair, sideburns, drugs (hallucinations inducing Peyote cacti were abundantly available at the area) and so on. There were no discotheques or clubs in the city, but the Rock scene was flourishing and the crowd was enjoying bands such as Los Spiders, La Fachada de Piedra, Blue Jeans and more. The Acid Rock outfit in question here stemmed from that scene and named themselves La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata after one of the leading figures in the Mexican revolution which burst in 1910. The band's frontman Gutiérrez even grew a fancy moustache like the one Zapata had. Early on the band performed in small communes in the woods and on the mountains but soon their name spread like wildfire and they gained fame all across Guadalajara.

The band's big break came while participating in a bands talent competition which was broadcasted on TV. The band won by a landslide and representatives from Mexico City record companies came rushing in to sign them, but the members refused the offers claiming they did not want to be told what kind of music to record, as it was usually done under the custody of the regime which was not an Anglo-American culture sympathizer. Eventually, Polydor sent someone who was able to coax them to sign a contract.

Their debut album, which sounds like it was freezed in San Francisco/Los Angeles/London of the late Sixties and then defrosted in the Mexican desert in 1971, was released several months after they signed the contract and is one of the best psychedelic albums to have been recorded in Latin America. The lengthy opener "Nasty Sex" sounds like a dirty version of Creedence Clearwater Revival and also features a Fuzz drenched jam. The single version of the song became the first Mexican song to ever chart on the American Billboard. "Melynda" serves as an exciting salute to the chilly British psychedelic scene, but a stupendous Acid guitar warms it up in the solo. "Si Tu Lo Quieres" ends side 1 with more fantastic Acid guitars and super sleazy bass line.

Five months after their debut hit the shelves the band performed in Avandaro Festival – the Mexican Woodstock. Even though contractually they were unable to perform there, they simply couldn't miss this enormous opportunity. The radio DJ who broadcast the event live, Felix Ruano Mendez, supplied the biggest compliment of them all: "From the moment Zapata took the stage, and the Mescaline started to affect me, I sat there with my jaw dropped and saw some amazing hallucinations. I've never heard such guitars before".

The Wizards from Kansas

In opposition to the psychedelic music they played which had "California" written all over it, The Wizards from Kansas were indeed from southern Kansas. In 1968 four of this band's members formed a group named New West and started playing in clubs and in parties in the Kansas City area. Robert Manson Crain, a guitarist from California, soon joined the now five-piece that quickly changed their name to Pig Newton & the Wizards from Kansas. This was obviously an inside joke since there was no Pig Newton in the band, but that didn't deter them from coming up with all sorts of stories about him to confuse people. Pig Newton was actually a tounge in cheek reference to two things: the police, as pig was (and still is) a derogatory term for a cop, and Fig Newton was (and again, still is) a trademarked pastry filled with fig paste.

The band were invited to perform in the Fillmore East in the fall of 1969, a performance that entailed a flood of offers from record companies, but the band rejected all of them at first. However, when the year came to an end, Mercury managed to persuade them to sign a contract and also convinced them to lose the "Pig Newton" schtick in fear of getting sued by Nabisco – the maker of the Fig Newtons. And so, in July and August '70 the group ventured to San Francisco to record their only album.

Though from Kansas, but "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore". "The Wizards from Kansas" is a true psychedelic gem which is quite hard to believe that indeed arrived from a Southern and musically dormant state like Kansas. Delicate features of Hard Rock and Country creeps in almost without noticing to this fine album, which is without a doubt influenced by the San Franciscan scene. Two outstanding covers are here – the folky/psychedelic "High Flying Bird" that opens the album with Crain's divine guitar and "Codine" which makes a great use of vocal harmonies and evolves into a psychedelic jam. Among the originals, "912 ½ Mass" which again practices and excels the free psychedelic jam and the splendid solo in the somewhat Country-like "Freedom Speech" are definite highlights. Other praise worthy moments are "Misty Mountainside" – a dark melancholic Folk which resembles Black Sabbath's brief quieter moments; "Country Dawn", which is spiced with sophisticated guitar and a piano that create here a could-have-been-a-huge-hit and "She Rides with Witches", which despite a standard drum solo manages to rise up to a very high level of quality.

The sorcerers from Kansas had a brilliant album under their belt, much better than a lot of albums by groups who actually breathed San Francisco's Acid soaked air on a regular basis, but one week before "The Wizards from Kansas" was due to be released, Caplan and Menadier suddenly decided that they'd rather play Jazz over Rock and left the band in order to pursue their dream. This was The Wizards from Kansas' end. In the lack of a band that'll support the album, Mercury didn't bother to promote it at all and it sank into oblivion. In order to salvage a copy from there, you'd have to cough up about $200.

'Almendra II' LP

Almendra was among the most important and famous Rock bands in late Sixties / early Seventies Argentina along with Los Gatos and Manal. Its influence on the South American psychedelic scene was tremendous, maybe only second to that of the legendary Os Mutantes. But in opposition to their Brazilian counterparts, Almendra remained relatively unknown outside of the continent. The band formed in 1968 after the collapse of 3 bands. Almendra's band members had played prior to that in – Los Sbirros, Los Mods and Los Larkins. The key figure in the new group was Luis Alberto Spinetta.

Their big break came after they met Ricardo Kleiman, a producer and radio DJ who played popular music from around the world on his show "Modart en la Noche". It was Kleiman who financed the recording of the first They performed in a festival in Lima, and in the Pinap Festival which was organized by "Beat" magazine, a festival which is considered to be the first Rock festival ever in Argentina. In November 69 Almendra released their wonderful debut album. An interesting story accompanies the album's beautiful cover art painted by Spinetta: It seems that the record company didn't like the painting as an idea for the cover art and a few days after the painting was submitted to them, they claimed that it was lost and instead they would use a group photo for the upcoming album's cover. The band members didn't give up, looked for the painting everywhere and ultimately found it broken in a trash bin outside the record company offices. Spinetta pulled an all-nighter to restore the painting and on the next day took it to the record company. This time, they had no choice but to issue the album with the original cover art intended by the band.

After Almendra dissolved, Spinetta formed Pescado Rabioso and Invisible, two other great and highly regarded bands. Molinari formed Color Humano, it too is whole heartily recommended, while del Güercio and García formed Aquelarre, which is also, how unsurprising, excellent.
Joseph Byrd, the main man behind this experimental band from California called 'The United States Of America', was born and raised in Tuscon, Arizona. During his highschool years he played in Pop and Country bands, but when he enrolled to the University of Arizona he was already playing in a Jazz ensemble. After graduating he relocated to New York, where he associated with gifted and experimental composers. While there, he worked as a composer, as an assistant composer to Virgil Thompson and as a teacher. During this time his interest in experimental music grew.

Deeply influenced and excited over what was happening in the west coast, Byrd left New York and took up a teaching assistant position in UCLA, but still found the time to study the history and psychology of music, acoustics and Indian music. Eventually, he left the college and decided to focus on music entirely. In order to record the psychedelic sounds he composed following his experience of 1967's "Summer of Love", he formed The United States of America, which included the talented singer Dorothy Moskowitz (his former girlfriend from New York), the radical political activist Michael Angello and bassist Stu Brotman. However, when the band entered the studios in December 67, Angello and Brotman already left and been replaced with Marron, Forbes and Woodson.

Their only and revolutionary album from 1968 is a showpiece of avant-garde Psychedelia, mostly radical and absolutely brain melting. This was one of the first attempts and most definitely one of the best to combine experimental electronic music with a Rock attitude, whereas the guitar is a less favored instrument here. The beauty of the lyrics is only matched by the sheer beauty of Moskowitz's voice.

Early on, it was designed that the cover will illustrate the US flag dripping with blood, but understandably Columbia decisively vetoed it. Despite the widespread support from music critics, "The United States of America" spent only couple of months in the lower regions of the charts (at its peak it reached the 181st place) and became a collectors item with mint copies fetching as much as $250. The band had difficulties performing the album's intricate songs live and some other problems on the road. In addition, tension was a constant between the band members and Byrd, which was somewhat of a control freak who tried to dictate the other musicians what to do.

In the end, when all the band members except Byrd and Moskowitz got arrested for Marijuana possession during a gig in Orange County, California, the two decided to turn to different places. Each of them popped up a year later in his/her own outfit. Byrd assembled a band called Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies that included 12 members, among them three female singers. This group recorded one album in 1969 which got the thumb down of both critics and consumers. Byrd didn't record music since then until 1975, when he issued a synthesizer solo album. He issued another synthesizer album in 1980 and since then he composed music for movies, television and commercials. Today he runs a hostel in north California and occasionally teaches music in the nearby college. Moskowitz got married and today teaches music to children.

2004 saw the release of a reissue to "The United States of America" that included 10 bonus tracks in addition to the original 10. These extra tracks are preliminary versions to the album's tracks, several tracks that didn't end up in the album and some that Byrd originally wrote for The United States of America, but due to its break up were ultimately used for the Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies' album.

The C.A. Quintet

The C.A. Quintet started out as an ordinary Garage band with Pop/Soul elements, but changed its style according to the musical zeitgeist. Almost no one outside of Minneapolis, the band's home town, has heard of them when they were operating in the late Sixties. Only in the Eighties, when several bootlegs were made of their sole album "Trip Thru' Hell" (all of them had half of the Stereo mix missing), their name spread like wildfire among Psychedelia fans. Originally, only a little over 500 copies of the album were sold and today a copy fetches over $1500.

"Trip Thru' Hell" is a slice of gloomy Psychedelia, a truly rare bird, teeming with talent and unique like no other. A truly one of a kind album!

When I asked what prompted him to write such a unique album, Ken Erwin, who turned out to be one of the humblest persons I've met, musicians or not, replied: "I’m sure we didn’t set out to write a 'unique album'… we just set out to write a good album. We didn’t really care if the end product will fit in any kind of 'template' or even the music was going to be a 'hit'. We hoped it would sell enough copies to keep us going in the Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakota). I’m not sure where the inspiration came from to head in the direction we headed in the creation process. 

We certainly didn’t attempt to copy anything or emulate anything/anyone else that was popular at the time. Oh, for sure we were influenced by the music that was happening at the time and the musicians... like Jimi Hendrix and so forth, but I think we knew that this was probably our one and only chance to make an album. We probably knew in our hearts that the odds of us 'making it big' were slim, so we figured … 'what the hell, let’s just create the best damn thing we can and move on'. We didn't even consider whether it was unique or no. The only inspiration for me (and I can’t speak for the others) was, and still is, the search for what the heck is going on here".

The recent reissue by Sundazed is the only one authorised by the band and includes the Stereo channels missing from the bootlegs. It also includes 12 bonus tracks to the original seven – almost all them recorded before "Trip Thru' Hell" and although very good, they understandably do not match its quality.

Tomorrow (1968)

Tomorrow could have been the poster boys of British Psychedelia, the crème de la Acid soaked crème, to share their fame with The Beatles, Syd Barrett's era Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, but somehow they fell through the cracks. Unlike Pink Floyd and Soft Machine who loved to stretch their songs live mostly, the more Pop oriented Tomorrow preferred to keep a short and reserved song structure, closer to The Beatles in arrangement, yet still retained a discernible influence of the rockistic vision of Pink Floyd, which turned the band's sound to particularly trippy. In their live shows however, they did not spare on improvisations.

Howe, West and Wood played together in The in Crowd, and R&B outfit which issued two singles in the mid-Sixties. Twink, or in his real name – John Alder, previously played in The Fairies, another R&B outfit. In 1965 he joined the three others and in 1967, after adopting the Twink moniker, the group changed their name to Tomorrow.

The band began playing regularly on the legendary UFO club and often shared bills with Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, and despite the glittering names who performed there regularly, club owner Joe Boyd later argued that Tomorrow were the best band ever to perform there. In 1967 the band issued two singles, but neither of them managed to break into the market. The record company gave them a complete vote of confidence despite the singles failure and Tomorrow, still full of hope, entered Abbey Road studios to record their full length, exactly at the same time when The Beatles were recording at the very next room "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Their self titled album was released in early 1968 to rave reviews and for a good reason. While the vocals are definitely not its strongest point, the rhythm section is excellent and resembles in quality that of early The Who. The songs vary from very good to simply amazing. Despite the favoring reviews and the massive support they received from legendary DJ John Peel, the album did not fare well. Today, its Stereo version (the American with the colorful writing) is worth about $150 while the British press (the black & white which was Mono) can fetch as much as $800.

Parallell to their work in Tomorrow, each of the band members also had an outside musical affair. West worked with the German composer and producer Mark Wirtz on a "Teenage Opera" which was never completed, but two tracks out of it, "Excerpt from a Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" and "Sam", entered the charts (the first one peaked at the second place!). The legend says that Pete Townsend from The Who was so impressed with these tracks that he decided to make a Rock Opera of his own – "Tommy". Years later, West admitted that the whole project was just a publicity stunt though.

Twink later formed The Aquarian Age which was active for a very short time and then joined The Pretty Things for the recording of their stellar Rock Opera "S.F. Sorrow", which too has inspired Townsend. In 1969 he left them behind as well and went on to form the Pink Fairies, which too couldn't keep him interested as he left in 1971. In the in between he recorded a highly recommended psychedelic album titled "Think Pink" with the generous help of Steve "Peregrin" Took and several other musicians from the Deviants. In 1972 he formed a group called Stars with Syd Barrett, but during one show in the Corn Exchange, this after already having performed successfully several times in Cambridge, Barrett left the stage mid-show in a typical hallucinatory confusion. The reviews slew the new band and Syd refused to play again. This was Barrett's last performance ever and the band obviously dissolved. After this fiasco, drugs and alcohol problems plus a marriage in 1974 kept Twink away from the music world until 1977.

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On Saturday 9th of March 2012, Scott Sroka (aka DJ Cheesus) and co-host Star Gazer dedicated an 'Electric Lounge of Aural Ecstasy' show on Core of Destruction Radio to rock music involving the flute. During the show he interviewed flautist Ian Andeson from Jethro Tull, and played only cool 70s tracks with lots of rocking flute. Included among his picks were all the tracks I used on a previous TDATS comp: Vol78: I Was Only Dreaming. As usual, he and Star Gazer have shed some more light on them, like the fact the Fashion Pink's "I'm a Man" is a cover of a Stevie Winwood/Spencer Davis Group classic. In this download I have included the entire show, in three parts. The third part is the Ian Anderson interview spot, during which Scott also played some Anderson/Tull classics and newies. Ian gives a great interview about all things Tull, along with news of his current world tour.

Star Gazer, Scott & and one of their pesky groupies...

Scott, currently living in São Paulo, Brazil, has been presenting on Core of Destruction for over a year. He was a contributor to the excellent stoner rock community blog 'Sludge Swamp', that sadly closed its doors a while ago. Sludge Swamp helped me out in making a name for TDATS back when I started doing this, and also hosted demos for a few of the New Zealand bands that are joined up on the forum I started up when I was over there: www.stonerdoom.co.nz.

Scott broadcasts his show on a weekly basis, full details of which can be found here. He covers all eras of rock and metal with a different theme each week. He also maintains his own blog where he posts all his previous shows as podcasts, and has a Facebook group here.

The next TDATS comp is well under way, and will be another Dutch-flavoured set with a few surprises, including a couple of interviews with current bands that keep the torch burning for the sounds we love...

Thanks for listening, and thanks Scott!
Rich

Part 1
Osanna - Introduzione
Gravy Train - Can Anybody Hear Me?
Genesis - Get 'em Out By Friday
The California Earthquake - Friday: 3 P.M.
The Purple Soul Brothers - Zero O'Clock
Hubert Laws - Let Her Go
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Ain't No Sunshine
Traffic - Rainmaker
Shag - Gypsies In The Forest
Jade Warrior - A Prenormal Day at Brighton
The Moody Blues - Don't You Feel Small
Camel - Song Within A Song
The Hunt - I Was Only Dreaming
Heat Exchange - Reminiscence
Herbie Mann (w/Duane Allman) - Man's Hope
Fashion Pink - I'm a Man
Quintessence - Notting Hill Gate

Part 2
Goliath - Maajun (A Taste Of Tangier)
Rufus Zuphall - Prickel Pit
Gong - Flute Salad
Gong - Oily Way
Gryphon - Estampie
Tako - Minijatura
Progresiv TM - Rusinea Soarelui
Tomorrow's Gift - Tenakel Gnag
Dug Dug's - Smog [english version]
Janko Nilović - Drug Song
Plum Nelly - The Demon
De De Lind - Fuga e Morte
Steel Mill - A Forgotten Future/a Future Past
Railroad Gin - The End
Leo Wright - The Wiggler *Bonus Track

Part 3 - Local Spotlight with Ian Anderson
Thick As A Brick (Madison Square Garden 1978) - Jethro Tull
Old School Song - Ian Anderson
A Change Of Horses - Ian Anderson
Adrift And Dumbfounded - Ian Anderson
Last Train to San Fernando - Johnny Duncan & Bluegrass Boys *Local Spotlight Only Exclusive
What-Ifs, Maybes And Might-Have-Beens - Ian Anderson

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TDATS 86 is another collaboration with fellow vintage rock aficionado Walter, organiser of the annual Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. Being one of the best events in the world for seeing current bands that are keeping the memory of the good old sounds alive, plus a few of the actual good old bands themselves (The Pretty Things are playing this year), It's really cool for TDATS to be associated with the fest. Take it away Walter!

Walter (arm raised) partying with the crowds on the Roadburn dance floor

"We at Roadburn Festival are avid followers of The Day After The Sabbath! It's great to relive the heavy 70s through Rich's collections of obscure rock, and we're glad the festival inspires him as much as his comps inspire us in our work. Last year, Rich did the first TDATS Roadburn compilations with his volumes 63 and 64, and we're truly honored that he has come up with another compilation for this year's festival. What Rich has done here is collect a bunch of tracks by contemporary bands that have played at Roadburn, but only used their covers of 70s songs. On top of that he's added another selection of cool Dutch 60s/70s obscurities. We're currently swamped in the organisational affairs, and 'Master of My Fate' will help us to keep on track, otherwise we'd be losing it!"  -- Walter / Roadburn.

Jan Hollestelle

The comp opens with a single from Jan Hollestelle, who cut his teeth as a bass player in Hilversum's beat combo "The Torero's" with his guitarist brother Hans Hollestelle. The brothers both played on the Dutch production of the musical Hair. They were in a few other groups together, including The Tower, which appears on here later, and fusion band Spin. Jan recorded an instrumental single called 'Creepy' in 1973 and here it is. I have cut it into two parts to use as the intro and outro for the set. From 1971 he became a highly-demanded session musician and also works on classical compositions.

The Atomic Bitchwax (live 2001)

Next up is The Atomic Bitchwax. They are a well-known stoner rock band which originated as a side-project of Monster Magnet lead guitarist Ed Mundell, ex-Godspeed bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, and drummer Keith Ackerman. Ed Mundell's place has now been taken by Finn Ryan (ex-Core). They first played on one of the early editions of Roadburn in 2001 with the founding lineup. I found a mini-review here and only 3 bands were on the bill, a number that is slightly smaller than the 60+ that have been billed over the 3 day event in recent years! This track is from that performance, during which they played 'Play The Game', which first appeared on a 1970 Atomic Rooster single.

Track 3 is from Amsterdam's Temple, which was a small project by members of other bands. They only made two singles, the most interesting track by far was the b-side, 'Triple Guitar", from the second one. Aad van de Kreeft was in Blue Planet and the George Cash band, Ron Meyjes was in Livin' Blues and The Knack, Cees Meerman was previously in Bismarc and John "Johnny" Frederiksz was also in Livin' Blues. 'Triple Guitar' is awesome, it has a really metallic feel. A third single was released under the name 'Johnny Fredericks & Temple'.

Josiah

We move on to Josiah, who were an English stoner rock/hard rock band from Leicester that played at Roadburn in 2005 and 2007. They went their separate ways in 2010 and in their ten-year existence they made four albums and three EPs. Originally comprising Mathew Bethancourt (vocals, guitar) now with Cherry Choke, Sie Beasley (bass, vocals) and Keith Beacom (drums), Bill Darlington took to the drums for a single in 2003 which had a b-side cover of Grand Funk Railroad, which is the track I have included here. It was also available on a gig-handout CD called 'Rare Cuts'.  Bill is in two other bands that appear in this volume of TDATS, so he'll be mentioned again soon... Josiah also recorded another wicked cover, of Bufallo's Dead Forever. It was included on their last album, 'Procession'.

Next up is The Hague's Big Wheel, founded by producer Hans van Hemmert, and Peter Vink, who was the bass player in classic Dutch garage group Q65 (see Vol63). They released five singles between 69 and 71, and they had a great, catchy but heavy glam sound like this. I have used a b-side called 'Upside Down' which is pretty simple and short, it's a spontaneous jam with a basic verse, but it has the raw and joyful feeling of a great moment caught in time, never to repeated. They definitely had the skills to make a good album so it's a shame they did not. Hans produced and co-wrote songs for many bands, including others I have used before, like Q65, The Motions and Group 1850. The rest of Big Wheel was Cyril Havermans (vocals), Rob van der Zwan (guitar), Shell Schellekens (drums) and Peter Seilberger. Havermans and Schellekens were both in Brainbox (see Vol20) just after.

Gorilla 2010

Track 6 is from Gorilla, a UK band that made three albums last decade. They have been on recording-hiatus since other bands have been taking up the member's time, but they still play live now and again and they played Roadburn fest in 2006. They are due to get out the heavy equipment again this year for Maximum Festival 2013 in Italy. John 'Johnny Gorilla' Redfern (gtr,vox) and Sarah Jane Russel (bass,vox) have been the constant members since the 90s and at various times Richard Guppy, Malt Jones, Sammy Forway and Bill Darlington have been on drums. John has been rocking since the 80s, including Brighton heavy psych bands The Morticians and Cherokee Mist. I found some Morticians info online here:  "The Redfern Bros. began to play in the mid-80s as The Giant Sunhorse; at the beginning of 1986 they found bassist Ben Jackson and changed name to The Morticians, releasing this delicious sweet at the end of next year ["Freak Out With The Morticians"]. An explosive punk side (those who don't know one original at least, lift up their own hand) and a visionary psych-side made few lucky owners happy... the first pressing of 500 ran out very soon and so did the second one of little more than a thousand, but Ben's leaving caused dissolution. At the end of 1988 a compilation of early recordings (demos and live sets) titled "She's Like Heroin" came out on Distortion Records.

The Morticians LP (1987)

Part of the 80's wave of UK Neo Psych and Garage Punk, The Morticians made one of the best lost UK psych-punk albums of that era. It's a combination of '60s styled garage punk and West Coast/Pink Fairies like acid guitar rock. Heavy distorted fuzzed out guitar solos, swirling keyboards and a really stoned atmosphere pervade this little gem that's long gone on vinyl. Includes uniquely heavy versions of "Action Woman" & "Song Of A Baker", "Blackout Of Gretely" and a totally over the top lysergic version of the Country Joe & The Fish classic "Section 43". Dave Goodman's production is raw , drenched in reverb and somehow (only God knows) he managed to hold this monstrous creation together."

In 2006 Gorilla recorded a nice fuzzed-up cover of Motorhead's 'Limb from Limb' (from 'Overkill' LP, 1979) which is what I have used in this comp. Bill D. played briefly in Josiah (as mentioned earlier), currently he and Johnny are playing in the Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who appear on this volume later so there's some more Gorilla/Josiah/ASCS info coming up soon...

Hilversum's The Playboys seem to have mainly been a working showband, but they did record two singles. Their song 'Snoopy' was recently used in the movie 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' and back in it's time it was used as the theme music on radio VARA's 'Sport Show' and 'Hollands Glorie' . The band was Paul Natte (keys,trumpet), Peter van den Meulenn (sax, vox), Frans de Wit (gtr, vox), Reinout Weidema (bass) and Ted de Jong (drums). I have used the b-side of their second single here, "I'm The Looser" is a great little pop song that could have been a hit world-wide. Later, Paul Natte, along with Rein van Den Broek of symphonic prog band Ekseption, made the theme tune for the Dutch coverage of the Tour de France, which was used for years. Peter van der Meulen later became a owner of The Smugglers nightclub in the town of Bussum.

The Tower - 'In Your Life' (1968)

We reach the half-way point with The Tower, who recorded two studio-only singles and have many band members listed on RYM: but I am not sure exactly who or how many of them are playing on the track I am using here: 'Slow Motion Mind'. They included Boudewijn de Groot on guitars and vox, who appears to have had a successful solo career and became a producer of some bands that I have already used before, including Kraayeveld who are coming up. Other names were gutarist Eelco Gelling who was also in Cuby + Blizards (see Vol35) and later Golden Earing, Jan Hollestelle who I mentioned previously, Jay Baar (drums), Herman Deinum (keyboards), John Schuursma (guitar), Willem Schoone (bass), Hans Jansen (Hammond organ, piano) and Kees Kraanenburg (drums). They had a keys-heavy sound that is reminiscent of Procol Harum.

Danava on stage

Danava are from Portland, Oregon. I have used a Slowbone (see Vol40) cover that appears on their 2011 album 'Hemisphere Of Shadows'. They have been around since the early 2000's and they played at Roadburn in 2008 and 2012. There have been three Danava albums to date, reveling in a mix of stoner rock, space rock, glam and all things good about heavy 70s metal. I have seem them twice and can confirm they are the real deal live; a full-on guitar bombast attack band. Tempered with the occasional moog-out, they're as close as you're going to get to going back in time to the days of the best stuff. Their current line-up is Gregory Meleney (voxs, guitar, synth), Zachariah Dellorto Blackwell (bass), Matt Oliver (drums) and Andrew Forgash (guitar).

Here's a few questions I fired at Gregory, founder of the band, for this comp:

Q1. Hi Greg. Can you give us a brief account of the early formation of Danava, and which member(s) lead the way at the beginning?

Gregory

"The original core of the group relocated from various parts of Illinois to Portland in 2002 in hopes to begin playing together, which we did by way of a Goblin cover group for a Devil's Night party. Enter Rosy Cross the Portland addition. From there we did the usual thing and it became Danava. And as a concept, musically, I'm afraid I'm the one to blame."

Q2. Where does the name Danava come from? It's sounds familiar yet original at the same time.

"Danava for brevity's sake is a demon. A race of demons to be exact in ancient Hindu mythology. Rosy Cross named us and I'm really grateful he gave us this name because of it's absolutely fantastic nature within vs the all to quick, unfamiliar and easily overlooked quality it has. Donovan? no Danava! Haha! it immediately goes in one ear and out the other. Everyone looks to Christianity for names of an evil nature. I think it ran it's course long ago and I'm glad we got the chance to embrace something far more ancient and magical, in my opinion, than your typical archetypes of the dark side. Danavas were fascinating beings. We actually don't deserve the name but I'm proud of how it's led us about for these last ten years."

Q3. You merge a more diverse range of styles than most bands. Do you treat this as a priority when you write? Or is it just what happens to come from the band's chemistry when playing together?

"Honestly a little of both. I write the music with a sense of where I come from, under the influence of what I grew up listening to. All those great fucking bands man. The real turning point is whether or not it has our own imprint within. Our voice is firmly intact. That and the fact that we love so many different musics I suppose."

Q4. Regarding the last question, are there any band members who are particularly responsible for encouraging particular elements in your sound? If so who and how?

"Yeah, like I said before it's me. I'm the instigator and I put it all together with the help of my brothers."

Q5. I have visited Portland myself, it seems to have a strong scene with a lot of great like-minded bands. What unique influence do you think Portland has had on Danava, compared to say if you had got together in Seattle instead?

"That's a tough question. Honestly Portland absolutely didn't play any role in our sound beyond just living here. If anything, the small town nature of Portland allowed time and space to keep doing what we do. Seattle would have killed us. Not our kind of town. No offense of course."

Q6. Have any other Portland bands, old or current, had a strong influence on Danava? Could you recommend some to check out?

"Oh sure one name comes to mind and that's Fred Cole (of Zipper, see Vol44). That man deserves so much more, yet I love him right where he is. I don't have the space to tell you how I feel about that guy really. Absolutely inspiring fella that one. Beyond Fred there's Stepson, XINR....the underdogs. We carry this torch for the underdogs."

Q7 & 8. Clearly you guys appreciate the lesser-known bands, having performed two covers of great bands I have used in TDATS comps so far, namely Stray and Slowbone. Could you also tell us why you chose Stray and Slowbone and if it's just a coincidence that they are both British? Can you name 3 more similarly unknown bands that you dig and why, maybe ones you would also like to cover?

"Now that's an undertaking. We've covered lots of shit live over the years. We've done The Deviants, Broughton, T2, Aeroblus, Pink Fairies and classics like Sabbath, etc. There are, as you obviously know, way too many great songs from the underground over the years. I know, for me personally, I've always wanted to do No Witch At All or Mr Longevity by Hard Stuff, Irving by Three Man Army and Just A Game by Dirk Steffens but not sure if it'll ever happen. Ah there's just too many man.

Our shining moment was performing Bullets by Zipper with Fred singing and Greg Shadoan on bass. It's on youtube, THAT was fucking incredible for me. We chose Slowbone and Stray for the fact that it's great, underground and fits our style. Another lesser known reason would a man called Steve Harris."

Q9. What does the foreseeable future hold for Danava?

"New record and more touring as usual. Never stops but we definitely like to slow down and allow the space to get our head around the music rather than keep up with the business of it all."

Thanks Gregory!

Powerhouse LP (1972)

The next track is from an album which I have only just found out about, and was pleasantly surprised by, as it's a horn rock album with some quite rocking moments, a real rarity to come from Holland. It's by a mysterious band called Warehouse from Friesland, and there is very little information available. I am indebted to Marc Joseph, guitarist in band Vitamin X, for alerting me to this album and finding extra information for me. It was produced by Tim Griek who was previously the drummer in the symphonic prog band Ekseption.

The Crash

The players are listed as Harry Zijlstra (gtr, vox), Quido Hereman (vox, percussion, gtr), Jan De Jong (Bass), Jan De Lang (percussion), Klaas Bootsma (keys), Jaap Van Der Veer (sax) and Andries Zijlstra (trumpet, vox). The album sounds quite commercial but it has some good tracks like 'It's life', and 'Wild one' sounds like a baby Deep Purple with the addition of spritely brass. Most of Warehouse were in a 60s beat band called The Relays, who later formed The Crash. The Crash made a 7'' called ''Last Week / One Rainy Day'' in 1969 which sold more than a 1000 copies within 3 months of release.

Warehouse

Warehouse developed from The Crash in 1969, partly as a reaction to Dizzy Man's Band (from Volendam) which was a band to also feature a brassy soul-rock vibe. Warehouse made one album, from which I have used the track 'Wild One'. The record company (Imperial) wanted them to go commercial/professional but they refused and didn't get a contract. Around 1972 John Eskes joined who was previously in Art461/Canyon. In 1974 some members had to commit to their family lives and Warehouse split, but 3 of them (Jan de Lang, Quido Hereman, John Eskes) started Zig Zag Trio, later called Zig Zag Band. John Eskes is still active and the leader of Big Band Leeuwarden 73.

Louis             Johnny          Bill

The Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell played at Roadburn last year (2012). They are a favourite live act of mine to watch here in London and I wrote an intro for them already on another site so I will use that here as it describes them as well as I think I am able to; "All right, Tinkerbell. You're nicked!”. Welcome back to a time when Jack Regan had the scum on the run, and gaggles of disgruntled half-naked clothing assistants had Benny Hill on the run. Luckily for us running isn’t so easy in flares and platform shoes, and sideburns cause even more drag, so this debauched admiral of the fleet will not be escaping the crowds hungry for groovin’ power-trio rock perfection.

Don't Hear It...Fear It LP (2012)

Hastings’ own Admiral Sir Cloudlesley Shovell (try saying that after 9 pints of Double Diamond) have been belting out their honest, no-nonsense swagger-filled rock ‘n‘ roll for a few years now and the world is taking notice. They played a storming set at Roadburn last year, which this devout scribe was more than happy to suffer ‘Sleep’ deprivation to experience, and their debut album “Don't Hear it... Fear it!!” is just out on Rise Above Records. ASCS are Louis Comfort -Wiggett, Bill Darlington and Johnny Gorilla. Many of you will know Bill and Johnny’s other band Gorilla, who have been pumping out their Blue Cheerful vibes since the late nineties.

If 70’s proto-metal is your thing; Sir Lord Baltimore, Budgie and Buffalo get you all hot under your giant pointy collar, and you can handle a big psychedelic dose of garage punk into the bargain, then make sure you dig the Shovell!"

For the comp I have used a brilliant Buffalo cover which is the final track on Cloudesley Shovell's recent debut album "Don't Hear It...Fear It" (Rise Above Records). I have taken this opportunity to ask Bill Darlington a few exclusive questions, as he has drummed for all three of the UK bands I have used in this volume, it seemed a good idea:

Q1. Hi Bill. Could you tell us how, why and where you got into being a rock musician?

Bill

"I started playing the drums when I was 18 and from the off I was in a psych band called 'Vibraphone' with Louis (now in Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell) funnily enough! I like all styles of music but rock was where I wanted to be. I always wanted to be a drummer so I would get inspiration from the rock greats such as...Bonham, Moon, [Mitch] Mitchell."

Q2. Why did you choose drums? Have you played other instruments?

"Drums are my main instrument although, I do play a bit of guitar and bass. Like I said, I always wanted to be a drummer from an early age. I can remember at school I was pissed off that the music teacher chose a popular kid in my class to play the drums in a school play instead of me. I left home at 17 and lived with my then girlfriend in London. I've always been a tapper and she used to get so fucked off with it she threatened to get me a drum kit which she did for my 18th birthday. My neighbors hated me!"

Q3. What bands were you learning from back then?

"When I picked up the sicks for the first time I was trying to play along with The Who and Sabbath. I would have to say that Bill Ward's drumming was a massive help to me as it was easier to play along with than Moonie, as Bill is more direct and not all over the place. Two very different drummers but equally as cool!"

Q4. What UK bands were you watching live early on that influenced you?

"I have two older brothers that are musicians. My oldest brother Jay plays keyboards and my other brother Spud plays the bass. From about the age of 13 I used to go watch them rehearse or play live in London. They both played in a 60s garage band called Tilt-a-Whirl. That band was another influence on me to play the drums. When I started to play I was older and living in London and seeing a lot of bands that were actually very shit so it was hard to be influenced by anything live. 

One band that had a big impact on my drumming was The Morticians (both John and Louis from The Shovell). They were super heavy and loud!! John's brother Simon played a double kit and he produced a huge sound that reminded me an engine with the throttle jammed on!"

Q5. For each one, could you tell us a little about how you came to play with these three bands:

a) Josiah
"I played with Josiah first out of all three bands but only for a short while as they were based in Leicester and I am all the way down in Hastings and that's a long walk! I guess it came about as they needed a drummer at short-notice so they contacted me. I did a bunch of gigs with them and recorded a single."

b) Gorilla

"I ended up in Gorilla as they were having trouble with drummers at the time (exploding incidents, alien abduction, bizarre gardening accidents, pre opp, post opp etc...) and I had been friends with both John and Sarah for a while. It just seemed like the done thing as we all had the same musical interests and I loved Gorilla's sound. Heavy, loud and dirty!"

c) Admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovell

"ASCS came about by Louis, John and myself having a few beers one night and talking about putting a band together for something to do other than drinking beer and talking about putting a band together so that's what we did!! We started off playing a few covers like The James Gang - Walk Away and Mountain - Mississippi Queen. It sounded good and right so we decided to write our own and here we are."

Q6. What do you see as some of the notable musical differences between those three?

Bill & Tony McPhee  of Groundhogs

"Josiah and Gorilla were tarred with the term "Stoner Rock" but I think that's a shit way of explaining this type of music as it's a bit lose. The term should probably be "Sabbath Rock" as that's what people are really referring to me thinks?!!

Josiah and Gorilla were similar in their direction but were quite different in sound as Josiah reminded me of Sabbath but Gorilla reminded me of Sabbath with the higher octane feel of The Who or The MC5. Gorilla are more Sabbath Rock - on speed!! I used to think that playing in Gorilla was like running a marathon and having to carry your drum kit home after!! Fuckin' knackering.

ASCS to me are like no other band I've been in. We are more into the likes of Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Bang etc than just Sabbath or MC5. It has a mixture of everything I have done in the past with the other two bands, but tighter. It has the thick riffs of Sabbath and the messy rawk n roll of The Stooges, MC5 with a huge dollop of the craziness of Sir Lord Baltimore. I guess I learnt a lot with the other two bands, but with ASCS I can put it all (and then some!) into practice."

Q7. The Shovell have made one excellent album so far, and had a lot of great support slots with the likes  of The Groundhogs, Orange Goblin and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. What's the plan for ASCS from here?

"Yeah, it's been a great couple of years with The Shovell! We've had a single and LP out that has had a lot of thumbs up from people across the globe, made us proud! We've also had the pleasure of some ace shows supporting some top bands. We never set out to do all of this wonderful shit but I'm mighty glad we have!

We're currently rehearsing new material for our 2nd LP which we hope to have out in the Autumn. It's sounding meaty as hell and I can't wait to get it down while it's still fresh. We have a few shows in Spain coming up next month and some locally. Also, we're playing at The Desert Fest (I'm going as Spotted Dick and Custard!!) Checkout our Facebook for more gig info."

Thanks Bill!
Kraayeveld were a spin-off from a long-running band called The Bintangs who sounded a little like The Netherlands' answer to The Rolling Stones. After initial success with some singles, founding members Frank Kraaijeveld (bass, vocals) and Arti Kraaijeveld (guitar, vocals) left Bintangs to form their own band Kraayeveld, and the track I have used here is a live studio recording of them jamming a Bintangs track 'Hound is on the Run'. I think this version is far superior to the Bintangs one, it's rawer and heavier, which is also how the main difference between Bintags and Kraayeveld in general is usually described. Later, Kraayeveld changed it's name back to The Bintangs, to confuse matters, and now-days the only original member left in The Bintangs is Frank Kraaijeveld. Apologies for the not so great sound quality. I had to use the youtube audio, I have asked the contributer for the file but no luck as yet... but thanks to him anyway, and thanks to Walter himself for showing me this wicked track.

Smok Smoczkiewicz -  Bill Steer - Ludwig Witt Firebird (final album lineup)

Track 13 is another cover, this time from the UK's Firebird. The band was masterminded by Bill Steer in 1999, who's career started out whilst a teenager in the 80s, in the extremely influential metal bands Napalm Death and Carcass. He remained the only constant member of Firebird, which has had a rotating lineup of musicians from similarly-minded bands like Cathedral, The Quill, Spiritual Beggars and Blind Dog. Carcass still plays and is recording new material right now, but Bill's time in recent years has been equally taken up in classic/retro bands like Firebird, Gentleman's Pistols and a recently re-formed Angel Witch. Firebird split in 2011 but during their 10 years plus they played Roadburn thrice, in 2003, 2009 and 2010. For this comp I have chosen a storming cover of a Humble Pie classic, Four Day Creep, which was on Firebird's fifth album, 'Grand Union' (2009). The term 'Four day creep' derives from the phrase 'fore day creep, which was a line in the blues standard 'Outside Woman Blues' originally recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929. 'fore day meaning at night (before day), and the creep being an untrustworthy lover up to no good, creeping around at night. 'Outside Woman Blues' was covered by Cream on their second album Disraeli Gears.
01. Jan Hollestelle - Creepy [Intro] (1973)
       single
02. The Atomic Bitchwax - Play The Game [live Atomic Rooster cover] (2001)
       live at roadburn festival 2001
03. Temple - Triple Guitar (1971)
       single
04. Josiah - Got This Thing On The Move [Grand Funk Railroad cover] (2005)
       single, and fan album 'rare cuts'
05. Big Wheel - Upside Down (1970)
       single
06. Gorilla - Limb From Limb [Motörhead cover] (2006)
       compilation 'wild sound from the past dimension'
07. The Playboys - I'm The Looser (1970)
       single
08. The Tower - Slow Motion Mind (1968)
       single
09. Danava - The Last Goodbye [Slowbone cover] (2011)
       album 'hemisphere of shadows'
10. Warehouse - Wild one (1972)
       album 'powerhouse'
11. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - Bean Stew [Buffalo cover] (2012)
       album 'don't hear it...fear it'
12. Kraaijeveld - Hound is on the Run (1971)
       studio jam
13. Firebird - Four Day Creep [Humble Pie cover] (2009)
       album 'grand union'
14. Opus - Master of My Fate (1969)
       single
15. Jan Hollestelle - Creepy [outro] (1973)
       single

Re-post >>HERE<<

Canadian rock trooper Neil Merryweather has been kind enough to send me a few more rarities, and some material from his recent 'Hundred Watt Head' and 'La La Land Blues Band' projects. I have added two extra tracks and some new description to the 'Merryweather special' Vol68 post and downloads but if you don't want to download the whole thing again, here are the separate tracks, tagged-up and ready drop in same folder: 15. Hundred Watt Head - As If I didn't Know& 16. La La Land Blues Band - No Excuses.


The generous guy that he is, he also sent me his works with Lynn Carey and movie score producer Stu Phillips, for the 1971 Russ Meyer flick 'The Seven Minutes'. You will have to wait until I post the movie music comp to hear some of those, which is nearing perfection and has been one of my biggest efforts so far. Stay tuned...

Download from: [mf] or [mg]
What is ‘Space Rock’? Well, for a start it's a ubiquitous and incautiously-used genre tag. Some people say it's a meaningless term and I can see their point. It's been said that some of Pink Floyd's earliest explorations were space rock, though Floyd themselves don't agree, but there’s been experimentalists making eerie electronic outer space and science-influenced music since the 50's and even earlier. Is ‘space rock’ music with lyrics about space travel? Is it music with cheesy sci-fi outer-space sound effects? (‘Outer-space sound effects’ being something of an oxymoron considering there is no sound in space). Is it just 60s/70s rock that uses a lot of the early electronic synth effects, which nicely complement ‘altered’ mind states?

If ├┤awkVVind were the epitome of the sound then it's all about drug-fueled science fiction-themed proto punk. More interestingly, did it originate from imaginative minds of musicians in response to the optimism of the new space age in the 50s and 60s; the soundtrack to the moon landings? Conversely, maybe it’s the reaction to the same period’s development of weapons powerful enough to wipe out life on our home planet. Well, I guess the beauty of it is it can be all or any of these things. Roger Waters said that Syd Baret's vaguely spacey lyrics are really just a metaphor for our inner space, but I like to think it’s all about yearning notions that there’s something great, hopefully better, out there.

Volume 87 of TDATS is another departure from the norm. I had some help way back on the previous Spanish comp #39 from a fellow blogger called Mara Bunta, who lives in Spain and helped out with some very cool picks for that one. Other than her own blog, she specialises in collaborative mixes created with other bloggers/music fans, and makes them available on Mixcloud.

Mara suggested making a collaboration with TDATS, so I offered a few tracks I had been saving up for a Space Rock comp I was planning, and Mara completed it with a few of her own picks. TDATS 87 is the result, and what makes it really special is the amazing job she has done on mixing it together, with a few wise words from the Scientific Sage & Sentinal of Space himself, Carl Sagan. Carl of course being the famous cosmologist, author and science popularizer.

So we kick off with track 1....Before UFO became a huge stadium rock act of the mid 70s and 80s, they started out with a different sound. Our first track is an edit of the closer from their second album, 1971’s 'UFO 2: Flying (One Hour Space Rock)', which is 27 minutes long on record. Back then the band had guitarist Mick Bolton, who would soon be replaced by Michael Schenker, fresh out of The Scorpions. At this time they were aiming for the stars with their own interpretation of Space Rock, which took the form of (often long) bluesy hard rock songs with some spacey sounds effects and fantastical lyrics about princes from other planets.

A.R. & Machines was started in 1971 by Achim (A.R.) Reichel, who was a founding member/front man of popular German beat group The Rattles (see Vol49), and also an actor. Many of his records, including previous project 'Wonderland ', were in collaboration with drummer Frank Dostal who was also in The Rattles. Later on Frank became a lyric writer and had success with pop disco hits like 'Yes Sir, I Can Boogie'. After A.R.& Machines dissolved, Achim continued to produce solo records and still does now. The Machines albums are ones for fans of experimental krautrock like Neu!, Tangerine Dream and Can, and the track I used here 'Station 1: Globus' uses a lot trippy delay effects, reminiscent of Floyd's 'One Of These Days'.

Budapest, Hungary’s Omega have appeared on the blog before, back on Vols 2, 22 and 41. They have been around since the early 60s, had good success in Europe and made a wide range of sounds through the years from psych, to hard rock, to glammy theatrical prog. These styles met somewhere in the middle on the 1976 album ‘Time Robber’ which I liked enough to buy on vinyl a while back and here for track 3 is one of Mara’s picks; ‘Tízezer Lépés’ from their 1969 album “10000 lépés” (trans:”10000 Steps”). On this record they were in proto-prog mode and Tízezer Lépés is a cool track with a dreamy keyboard/brass backing and wicked lead guitar. Omega shared at least two members with one of the other well-regarded Hungarian bands, Locamotive GT; Tamás Somló (sax, vox) and József Laux (drums).

For track 4, we have a bit of incidental music from a TV show that has nostalgic memories for me, called 'Space 1999'. It was just about still getting re-runs on TV here in the UK when I was a kid, along with other questionable TV scfi 'classics' like the original Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers, for an impressionable youngster they were as close to a serialised Star Wars as could be hoped for. In Space 1999, the moon gets accidentally blasted out of earth's orbit, taking its inhabitants on un-told adventures across the galaxy. During recent searches for movie and TV theme music, I came across this Barry Gray composition, a guy who created this and music for many other Gerry Anderson productions through the years, like Stingray, Thunderbirds and 'Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons'. Barry was fascinated by the Ondes Martenot, which was an early form of electronic instrument with a similar sound to the Theremin. He used it to create his strange sci-fi noises, I wonder if that's the sound that appears at the end of 'Death's Other Dominion'?

Track 5 will be our mystery entrant here, but I’m sure it will not take you long to figure out who it is…

And on to track 6 with Philippe Besombes, a French electronic pioneer who worked on collaborations like Pôle,'Besombes - Rizet', Hydravion and his own albums. While he was a chemistry PHD student, he ‘borrowed’ electrical equipment from the physics lab to use in his experiments in making strange sounds. Later his efforts lead to involvements with orchestral/electronic pioneers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and Jean Michel Jarre. The first record released under his name was a collection of incidental music he and a group of talented session musicians made for an obscure sci-fi movie called Libra, from which I have included the track 'Boogimmick' here. The record is a mixture of space rock, free jazz, pop and avant-garde electronica and has recently been rediscovered and re-appraised as a minor classic of its (very unusual) kind. Julian Cope has written a devoted review with lots of great facts here. Julian reviewed another of Besombes’ albums here. Boogimmick is one of the more conventional tracks on the record, the first few seconds of riffing comes on like the best song that ├┤awkVVind never wrote, then it devolves into a blues jam with a load of widdly spacey noises. Going off on tangent here, while researching Philippe Besombes, I became newly-acquainted with the ‘Nurse With Wound list’ in which Besombes is included. It’s a list of obscure artists compiled by Steven Stapleton’s experimental noise band ‘Nurse With Wound’ and printed in the cover of their debut 1979 album ‘Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella’. The list has become renowned as something of a must-listen guide for record collectors and includes many acts that I have used over the time of TDATS; like Art Zoyd, Blue Effect, Comus, and Nine Days Wonder to name just a few.

Gong's story go back to 1968 when it was started by Daevid Allen, a founding member of influential UK proto-proggers The Soft Machine. Soft Machine were returning from a trip to France where they had ingratiated themselves with the Parisian underground scene, but Allen wasn't allowed to re-enter the UK after border control noticed that, as an Australian national, he had previously over-stayed on his visa. He returned to Paris and started a new band called Gong with his wife Gilli Smyth, the two of them remain the core of the band to this day, while Soft Machine continued without him. Gong have been an omnipresent entity ever since and has played at many international festivals including the second ever Glastonbury in 1971. Over 40 names have passed through it's ranks and the multiple Gong splinter bands, including Bill Bruford (King Krimson, Yes), Steve Hillage (Kahn, Mike Oldfield, System 7) and Tim Blake (├┤awkVVind). The track included here, one of Mara's picks, is 'Fohat Digs Holes in Space' from the 1972 album 'Camembert Electrique'. It's very easy to hear on this track why Gong are counted amongst the space rock originators; it begins like a scene from an alien invasion movie and quickly morphs into beautiful echoes of space sirens tempting us into the black hole. It's the kind of song where anything can happen, and when it does it makes perfect sense.

The Sun Lightning Incorporated started out as 'The Sangralads', who took their name from the Sangralea Valley Home For Boys in Indiana. In the band’s early years various kids who stayed in the home for wayward kids passed though it's ranks, and the only constant member, Phil Armstrong, has written an account of the band's life here. They got as far as recording a couple of singles, of which 'Mary's Kidd' was a minor hit in Southern Michigan, 1969. The final line-up was: Phil Armstrong (keyboards/vocals); Rocky Lillard (guitar/vocals); Bill Thompson (drums/vocals) and Mike Sisson (bass/vocals). This lineup recorded the track I have used here, 'Quasar 45' which was their second single. Of the four songs they recorded, it's the only one with space rock idealisms, which are nicely described by Whap Records on the back of the 45's jacket:- "Since The beginning of time man has looked into the heavens and dreamed about space. The size of space, the shape of space, the sounds of space. On July 20, 1969, Neil A. Armstrong stepped onto the moon and the United States Apollo program heralded the beginning of man's history in space. Great events in history have oft times inspired the composers of song and verse. A 21 year old musician also an Armstrong (Phillip R.) was so inspired on this occasion. QUASAR 45 is a song with the sounds of space both real and imagined. Listen carefully and you will hear the roar of a rocket launched, the monotonous din of radio signals from afar, the haunting and beautiful bass runs signifying the endless eternity of space itself. All is resolved in the finale by the faint sound of strange voices suggesting ones presence on some faraway planet. QUASAR 45, written in the Rock & Roll idiom is like two minutes and 37 seconds of modern opera. If you're with this generation you'll dig the way out and beautiful sounds of QUASAR 45."

Ronnie Montrose started out as a successful session guitarist. He was also member of the Edgar Winter Group. He played on their classic single Frankenstein, on the hit 1972 LP ‘They Only Come Out at Night’. Ronnie started up his own act ‘Ronnie Montrose and Friends’ after leaving Edgar Winter, recruiting fellow San Franciscans Sammy Hagar (then known as Sam, later of Van Halen) on lead vocals and Denny Carmassi (drums). Also invited was bassist Bill Church, who Ronnie knew since they had both sessioned with notable names like Van Morrison & Herbie Hancock. The debut s/t Montrose album kicks off with three super strong songs; Rock the Nation, Bad Motor Scooter and the hard-driving 'Space Station #5' (included here). I also previously used 'I Got The Fire' on Vol4.

Älgarnas Trädgård formed in Sweden's second largest city, Göteborg (Eng:'Gothenburg'), in 1969. The six-piece's classic 1972 album 'Framtiden ar ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden' is regarded to be as good as anything from krautrock at the time and melds ethnic/archaic folk instrumentation with trance-inducing psychedelic space rock. The track I have used here is from a pothumously released collection of 1973-4 material, called 'Delayed'. Älgarnas Trädgård are another band found on the Nurse With Wound list, and members such as Sebastian Öberg were in many other well-regarded Swedish bands like Fläsket Brinner. The other members of the band were, at various times, Andreas Brandt (violin), Mikael Johansson (bass), Dennis Lundh (drums), Dan Söderqvist (guitar),  Jan Ternald (keyboards), Ulf Mårtensson (drums, 1971), Christer Öhman (drums, guitar, 1973-74), Kjell Karlgren (saxophone, 1976) and Sverre Götberg (drums, 1976).

I must thank Ian Gledhill over at Prog Archives for the following bio on Dies Irae: "Playing locally in and around clubs in southern Germany, Switzerland and France since 1968 Dies Irae, consisting of Rainer Wahlman, lead vocals/harmonica, Harald Thoma, guitars/vocals, Joachim Shiff, bass and Andreas Cornelius on drums were finally discovered by the now long defunct Hamburg record label PILZ in early 1971. They were a progressive psychedelic/blues freak band with a darker side from Saarbrucken, Germany who released just one LP and one single as well as appearing on the PILZ sampler, Heavy Christmas, in 1971 before splitting up in 1972 as a result of musical differences to form two offshoot bands, Lucy Gang and Green Wave.

Not to be confused by several metal bands which have used the name Dies Irae which literally translates to Day Of Wrath which is the title of a Latin hymn which refers to the day of judgment before the throne of God where the saved are delivered from evil and the unsaved are cast into the eternal flames, the original Dies Irae has been often compared to Black Sabbath's early sound on their LP "First" for PILZ because of a guitar/harmonica heavy blues sound with lyrical references to the occult although the vocals were far more trippier and out there. Extended psychedelic electronic collages and free form jams were also included on the sole album. 

Despite recording just one single album the band created some waves in the summer of 1971 when most German radio stations refused to play anything off their album because of controversial LSD induced lyrics with sacrilegious connotations. A wacked out, off the deep end video of 'The Trip', filmed in 8mm was, however, aired on German TV and was enough to gain them limited underground status to this day. An attempt was made in the early 90s to reform the original band again and several live tracks appeared on a live CD, “Saarock Live", recorded at a local club in Saarbrucken called Le Garage which also featured several other bands. In 1993 the band was disbanded once again, this time slipping into Krautrock folklore forever, although their single album "First” remains in demand in CD form amongst fans of heavy prog".

Next up we have a double-whammy of fun 60s garage psych, the first is a 1969 a-side from Belgian band The Mec Op Singers. Coincidentally, the first song/EP they released was called Dies Irae (1966) like the previous band here, which is speculated to have been influenced by the Gregorian chant-like sounds of the 1965 Yard Birds track 'Still I'm Sad'. I found some history of the band here in Belgian, which does not translate that well but I can at least tell that their name is a contraction of 'Mechanical Optical Singers'. If anybody wants to know more, the rhythm guitarist Guy Bodart can be found on youtube and I have seen him commenting on a few of their tracks there. 'Stop The Machine' has suitably scifi lyrics and loads of cool scifi-effect sounds. The rest of the band was Francis Lacor, Jean-Pierre Allard and Alain Vigneron.

The next slice of 60s psych is a 1967 b-side 'Don't Lose Your Mind' from Trenton, New Jersey's 'The Galaxies IV'. I found an interview with the bands drummer Alan Fowler here in which he describes their popularity and how they were invited to play at New York's Worlds Fair in 1964 and 1965. It also describes the group's success in band battles and how New York leader and politician Robert Moses declared a 'Galaxies IV Day' in the summer of 1965. The track I used here 'Don't Lose Your Mind' is a belter, full of spacey echoes and widdles, along with a manic performance from singer/guitarist Chris Holmes. The rest of the band was T.J. Tindall on guitar, Charles Brodowicz on keyboards and Len Demski on bass. They changed their name to Alexander Rabbit and made one album in 1970 called 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame (The Bells Were My Friends)' before breaking up.

Formed in 1974 by four students, Lightshine originated from the town of Emmerich in the lower Rhein area. Slightly out of their time, negotiations with Sky and Vertigo came to nothing, they didn't fit in with the new smoother progressive sounds of the mid-70's, so eventually they decided to publish an album themselves. Unusually, Lightshine sounded very psychedelic for a band in 1976, their personalised brand of progressive rock was heavily inspired by British bands like Family and Genesis, along with touches of early Jane, Eloy, or Satin Whale, but with a touch of Teutonic eccentricity, their twist on Peter Gabriel type theatrics is highly original, and with complex arrangements and clever (sometimes very funny) songs, it all made for an enjoyable and inventive album. But, aside from getting enough interest to repress the album a year later, Lightshine never got above the ranks of support act to the likes of Hoelderlin or Scorpions. They disbanded in late 1977.

Thanks for listening, and happy travels! Rich

Tracks:

01. UFO - Flying (1973)
       from album 'UFO 2: Flying (One Hour Space Rock)'
02. A.R. & Machines - Station 1: Globus (1971)
       from album 'die grüne reise - the green journey'
03. Omega - Tízezer Lépés (1969)
       from album '10000 lépés'
04. Barry Gray - Death's Other Dominion (1975)
       from album 'space: 1999 [original television soundtrack]'
05. Eagle Fart - Ruler of the Cosmos (1971)
       from album 'looking for the void'
06. Philippe Besombes - Boogimmick (1975)
       from album 'libra (un film du groupe pattern)'
07. Gong - Fohat Digs Holes in Space (1971)
       from album 'Camembert Electrique'
08. The Sun Lightning Incorporated - Quasar 45 (1969)
       single
09. Montrose - Space Station #5 (1973)
       from album 'montrose'
10. Älgarnas Trädgård - Takeoff (1974)
       from album 'delayed'
11. Dies Irae - Trip (1971)
       from album 'first'
12. The Mec Op Singers - Stop the Machine (1969)
       single
13. The Galaxies IV - Don't Lose Your Mind (1967)
       single
14. Lightshine - Nightmare (1976)
       from album 'feeling'

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Another treat for fans of the doom-orientated episodes of 'The DooM That Time Forgot'; thankfully LibertyCaps is back on the scene with another of his cataclysmic compilations. I know a lot of you will be happy about this as I still get questions regarding his sombre series.

There are a few artists and tracks on here that have appeared previously on TDATS, but it's great to hear them again in the context of the DTTF's morbid vision, Keep your eyes peeled for Volume 10 later on, which is being forged in the fires below as we speak....

Tracks:
01. Bolder Damn - Dead Meat '71 (US) 16:04
02. Gravy Train - Think of Life '70 (UK) 5:08
03. Aunt Mary - G Flat Road '72 (NOR) 5:44
04. Sunbow - Stargazer '76 (UK) 8:32
05. Jodo - I'm Still Trying '71 (UK) 4:51
06. Rag i Ryggen - Sanningsserum '75 (SWE) 6:35
07. The Human Beast - Reality Presented as an Alternative '70 (UK) 5:00
08. Formula 3 - Dies Irae '70 (ITL) 7:36
09. Schwarz Sunday - You Will Not Alter Me '76 (UK) 6:39

Here are all the previous volumes, along with TDATS 62 which I made in the spirit of TDTTF:

Vol 1 | Vol 2 | Vol 3 | Vol 4 | Vol 5 | Vol 6 | Vol 7 | Vol 8 | The Day After the Sabbath 62

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Finland is the fifth in my Scandinavian series after Denmark (Vol72), Sweden (Vol75), Norway (Vol81) and the first one (Vol28) which was a mix. I finished most of the work for this a few months ago, but with the recent and gratefully appreciated help of a few of TDATS group members like Aki Stenius, Ville Pirinen and Jani Pitkänen I have been able to fine-tune it to the point of perfection. It's turned out to be another excellent selection of heavy prog with a sprinkling of hard rock, a jazz-funk monster, a sliver of metal and a couple of chill-outs; a fine and varied mix that really shows what breadth of quality music the often over-looked country of Finland offered in the 60s and 70s. I was happy that I was able to use album cuts for the majority of the comp, giving you guys out there plenty of options to dig further if you like any of these bands, on top there's a couple of great singles.

For those interested in the fantastic cover art; it's a famous Finnish painting inspired by the Kalevala, a collection of traditional Finnish poetry and folklore that was compiled by physician-philologist Elias Lönnrot and published in 1849. He travelled the regions in and around Finland over a course of years, gathering spoken-word poems and mythological stories dating back to the Bronze age. The resulting epic book was an important inspiration for Finland when it was establishing and instilling its national identity during its successful 1917 declaration of Independence from Russia, taking advantage of the unrest caused by Russia's revolution.  The painting itself is called 'The Defense of Sampo (Sammon puolustus)', painted by Akseli Gallen-Kallela in 1896. This is a quote describing the painting: "The scene portrayed is taken from the 43rd song of the epic, where the hero Väinämöinen, seen wielding a sword, has stolen the precious artifact Sampo from the evil witch Louhi, and she, having taken the form of a giant bird, is trying to reclaim it. The battle for the Sampo is also given a deeper connotation as a battle for the soul of Finland."

Love Records logo

One record label to mention is Love Records, which was by far the most important in Finnish prog. Almost half of the artists in this comp had at least one release on Love. Wigwam was on Love, the most prominent of the country's prog acts which was one of the first and only to become acclaimed elsewhere in the world (they were signed to Virgin in the UK). Love was also the home to 'Blues Section', who were a very important band in the development of many bands in this comp, including another Love signing 'Tasavallan Presidentti' (trans:'President of the Republic').

Jormas

So we jump in with Jormas, a pop band that included members from 'The Islanders' and 'The Finnish Beatmakers'. They were at one time Finland's most popular band, members included Pepe Willberg and Raul Wikström who worked together often, including in the post-Jormas act 'Pepe & Paradise'. Their second album, 1968's 'Sincerely!' included track 1 here, a cover of London band The Ferris Wheels' track 'I Can't Break The Habit'.

Charlies

Charlies were from Lahti, the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region in southern finland. The members were Wellu Lehtine (vocals, harmonica, Moroccan clay drums, cowbell), Eero Ravi (guitar), Pitkä Lehtine (bass, tambourine), Kusti Ahlgren (drums, Moroccan clay drums, kettles) and Igor Sidorow (flute, saxophone, piano). There are a couple of re-issues available, of two albums, and 'Living for Myself (I'm a King Dreamer)' is from their second and final album called 'Buttocks' (1970). It's a great one, with plenty of heavy guitar, nicely done flute and funky drumming.

Apollo LP (1970)

The next track introduces the band Apollo, and a drummer that was in three of the bands on this comp, Edward Vesala. He was a well respected avant-garde jazz composer and band-leader also playing in Blues Section and Tasavallan Presidentti coming up later. Singer Harri Saksala was also the singer on Kalevala's first album 'People No Names' which is coming up later. The remaining two members, Eero Lupari (guitar, vocals) and Heimo Holopainen (bass, vocals) were both in 60s beat-niks Topmost and here's a sample. There were also some contributions from "Paroni" Paakkunainen who appears later here. The song I used here for track 3 seems to be named after the Japanese general who was in charge of the attack on Pearl Harbour, though I am unable to explain this further, so if there's any one out there who can translate the lyrics and help me out, drop me a line. I have found a great review of their single album from 1970 on the excellent Mutant Sounds blog so here it is: "One of the very first Finnish prog bands, Apollo was in fact the launching pad for the world renowned fusion drummer Edward Vesala, whose gorgeous work I've previously posted both under his own name and as a member of Toto Blanke's Electric Circus. Dag Erik Asbjornsen described this extraordinary acid rock/proto prog crew in Scented Garden's Of The Mind as sounding "like they're fronted by a singing moose", a description too perfect to try to top, though it only applies to the half of the album where they're in post-Cream acid pummel mode, but oh...when they are, it's sublime. If any of you out there have been hepped to Kalevala, you'd almost swear this was the same band when they're functioning off this tip; Apollo's iteration sounding as though it's being filtered though the same heavy fogbank of dope smoke that also resulted in expressions of this form like May Blitz or Peru's Tarkus. Yes. That heavy. Stomping stoned caveman shit that is just too gobsmackingly ridiculous and wonderful for words. It's also contrasted about 50/50 here with swoon-worthy orchestrated proggy prog that's very McDonald and Giles/early Crimson in tone. The tension between these poles makes for a truly epic listen."

Kaamos were from Turku, a city on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. The members that recorded their sole album in 1977 called 'Deeds and Talks' were Jarkko "Jakke" Leivo (bass), Ilpo Murtojärvi (guitar, backing vocals), Kyösti Laihi (Keyboards) and Johnny Gustafsson (Lead Vocals, all percussion). It was released on a label called 'M&T', which was run by the famous Schlager/folk duo and brothers Matti and Teppo Ruohonen. 'Schlager music' is the term used to describe popular and often sentimental music styles in Scandinavia, Central and Northern Europe, and the Balkans.

Kaamos

Here is a great summation of the band and album from Prog Archives: "This Finnish quartet were formed in 1973 and released one album that mixes folk, Medieval and classical music with bits of blues and funk. Thanks to Kyösti Laihi, the original keyboard player who kindly provided some information about his band (see the review section of their album), we learn that Kaamos comprised some seasoned musicians who learned their skills playing the likes of Yes, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Zappa and Todd Rundgren among others. More importantly, they wrote their own material which resulted in a little gem called "Deeds and Talks" released in 1977, now a collectable item. Although the band doesn't exist any more, all members are still musically active in one way or another.

"Deeds and Talks" is a refined piece of prog with prominent guitar (in fact, great guitar work) and keyboards. Some tracks will remind the listener of Jethro Tull without the flute, whereas some have an almost funky, Stevie Wonder flavour but still manage to have a prog feel; others are rather bluesy while others, still, are purely symphonic. An unlikely mixture of styles quite successfully put together."

Alwari Tuohitorvi were from a town called Ähtäri in the Southern Ostrobothnia region. They started out as a progressive rock band, they morphed into a more commercial sound later on, and various spin-off bands like The Mathews and Kummitus appeared. At the time the song I have used here 'Kromikaunotar' (b-side, 1973) was recorded, the lineup was Jukka Rautiainen (vocals, guitar), Seppo Alajoki (guitar), Raimo Pikanen (drums) and Mika Sundqvist (bass). It's got a great jarring, proggy, almost post-punk riff. It's been hard to find much substantial information on the band so let me know if you can help out.

Eero Koivistoinen is a jazz saxophone player from Helsinki. After studying jazz in Boston, US, he was a member of seminal Finnish band Blues Section (coming up) between 67 and 68. Track 6 here is from his funk/jazz supergroup 'Eero Koivistoinen Music Society' which recorded a classic album called 'Wahoo!' in 1973. Also appearing on this record was many other members of Blues Section. It's a really highly-rated jazz funk album that is wicked fun from start to end and I think even non jazz-nuts like me will like it a lot!

Kalevala

Nearing the middle of the comp and we arrive at a Helsinki band that is named after the afore-mentioned epic book, a name which they ended up almost by accident, when a concert organiser objected to their then-topical original name Vietnam and they needed a quick replacement. Kalevala's first record 'People No Names' was an unusual album to come from the country at the time, deffinitely one of the more advanced, and most progressive Finnish albums of the early 70s. It's full of tight and heavy playing as you can hear on this comp's namesake 'Escape From the Storm', which at times builds up tension like cool 70s movie chase music. As previously mentioned, their singer Harri Saksala also sung on the Apollo album, but he does't use such a theatrical/exaggerated method here, which maybe something to do with the fact it's sung in English this time. The next album that came along 'Boodgie Jungle', is a little of a backward step into predictable rock but there's a couple of decent tracks there like 'Rockin' Fish'. Here's the bio from Prog Archives: "Kalevala was formed in 1969 by Juha Salonen (bass), Remu Aaltonen (drums/vocals) and Albert Järvinen (guitar). Their first name was Vienam, but they had to change it in order to get concerts. This first line-up played straightforward rock’n’roll, and they were a popular live act in Finland. There was no studio recordings from this line-up, but the Finnish broadcasting company recorded their performance from 1970 “Ruisrock” festival. After this the line-up changed. Remu founded Hurriganes (see Vol79), which Albert also joined later. 

Now Kalevala’s musical direction was changed to more progressive direction. The new musicians on their second line-up were Markku Luukkanen on drums, Matti Kurkinen on Guitar and Harri Saksala doing singing. They recorded one album, “People No Names” (1972) which was released by Finnlevy. They had some guest musicians helping on doing it: pianist Olli Ahvenlahti, Raimo Wallen playing flute and on acoustic guitar Ile Kallio, who was playing on Hurriganes during that time. The result was quite unique.

The band was very unstable, as they had again changes in their line-up. Now they had Zape “Limousine” Leppänen on vocals, who has worked with many respected Finnish artists. The band recorded an album “Boogie Jungle” (1975), which is again more basic rock music. They had Jim Pembroke doing their lyrics plus backing vocals, and Jukka Gustavson playing keyboards on one track. Shortly after this band faced a sudden catastrophy, as Matti Kurkinen got in to a fatal car accident. Their name was defined as Kalevala Orchestra for their next album ”Abraham’s Blue Refrain” (1977). After this they toured Europe with Ange, but they faced financial problems, and the musicians disbanded Kalevala went to different directions.

Some members of the band rejoined in studio 1995, but they couldn’t get a record deal. These new tracks are available on “Anthology” (2004), which has some live recordings and before unreleased material on it."

Tabula Rasa

Half-way now and we find a pleasant but powerful folky instrumental from Tabula Rasa. They were from Kangasala and made two albums between 75-6 after forming in 1971. The linup for the first album was Tapio Suominen (bass), Asko Pakkanen (drums), Jarmo Sormunen (flute), Heikki Silvennoinen (guitar) and Jukka Leppilampi (vocals). There's some really great stuff on the s/t 1975 LP that this track is taken from and I plan to use more of it on a heavy folk comp I'm doing. Jarmo Sormunen left the band and became a priest, while Heikki Silvennoinen continued a career in blues rock, as well as becoming a comedy actor who's notable work included a TV sketch series called Kummeli which was acted almost entirely by musicians. Heikki is the guy who has trouble staying seated in this clip.

Paroni Paakkunainen

Seppo Paakkunainen is a saxophonist/flautist who was involved in many Fininsh bands. I have used a track from an album which he lead, and was released under a nickname of his, Paroni Paakkunainen. It includes the talents of names I'v already mentioned; the singer Harri Saksala from Apollo/Kalevala and Edward Vesala from Apollo. 'Plastic Maailma' (Trans: 'Plastic World') is a swinging song with some cool flute.

Now we return to Eero Koivistoinen, this time his first record, which was a varied affair, that was influenced heavily by The Beatles. It includes the killer fuzz of 'Pientä Peliä Urbaanissa Limousinessa', which makes for a long garage rocker with manic guitar (courtesy of Blues Section's Hasse Walli) and tonnes of crazy attitude as the the song breaks down into chaos towards the end.

Blues Section

Speaking of Blues Section, here they are for track 11! 'Hey Hey Hey' arrives literally with a roar of heavy machinery that fades into the distortion of some more Hasse Walli guitar freak-out out. Like the track before, this one swings and grooves along with the aid of Eero Koivistoinen's sax, and ends in an equally heavy and destructive morass of fuzz which could be described as the sound of a spitfire with guns blazing flying head-on into an on-coming double decker bus.

After the tumult of Blues Section's implosion, we can enjoy the cleansing crystalline sounds and new beginnings of 'Mikä Yö', some beautiful instrumental progressive rock from Finnforest. They originated in Kuopio, a city and a municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia, and when they recorded their first (of three) albums in 1975, their lineup was the trio of Pekka Tegelman (guitar), Jussi Tegelman (drums) and Jukka Rissanen (keyboards).

Elonkorjuu - Harvest Time (1972)

Back for a pummelling now; Elonkorjuu were from the city of Pori on the west coast of Finland. I used them once before on Vol22, as they made one of Finland's earliest heavy proggers, 1972's 'Harvest Time'. Here's another track from that album; 'A Little Rocket Song'. The band recorded again in 1978 with a different lineup and a move into a more sedate style. It would seem that guitarist Jukka Syrenius had the most involved post-Elonkorjuu career, and the 'Jukka Syrenius Band' has recorded four albums since the 80s. Here's a clip of him playing at the Pori jazz festival last year, and here's a clip of Elonkorjuu playing (with Jukka) at the same festival in 2011.

Melvin McRae Band - Queen Of Hearts LP (1976)

From the beginning of researching this comp I was intending on using the opening track 'Palaa' from Yellow's album 'Keltakuume'. Recently I discovered that the next album they made, under the differing name of 'Melvin MacRae Band', was an all-round better effort, so here is 'Law Man' from the 'Queen of Hearts' album instead. It's seems to be a very rare album and there is little information available on the net. The album is a typically later-70s sounding hard rock record with a lot of boogie blues going on which is not that inspired. All is not lost....there are at least three good'n heavy songs which are quite fast and aggressive, of which 'Law Man' is my pick. Here are the credits from the album: Melvin McRae (guitar, vox), Rauni Osterman (drums) and Hannu Takala (bass) (which is the same as the final Yellow lineup, minus Helge Koskela). Engineer: Tom Vuori. Recorded at Finnlevy Studios, Helsinki, Finland 1975. According to the Finnish Wikipedia, Yellow emerged from a 60s band called 'Only Five', though by the looks of it none of those original members were still around in the McRae band.

Tasavallan Presidentti

Nearing the end now, and a track from veteran band Tasavallan Presidentti. One of Finland's most famous prog rock bands. Founded in spring 1969 by guitarist Jukka Tolonen and drummer Vesa Aaltonen. Other members of the band came from Blues Section that had recently split up: bassist Måns Groundstroem and singer Frank Robson. Tasavallan Presidentti released their debut s/t album in 1969 with the complete lineup being: Måns Groundstroem (Bass Guitar, Organ), Vesa Aaltonen (drums), Jukka Tolonen (Guitar, Piano), Junnu Aaltonen (flute, sax) and Frank Robson (vox, piano). They toured in Sweden and England in the early 1970s and released three more albums before splitting up in 1974. 'Obsolete Machine' shows it's Blues Section heritage nicely with the same irresistible swing.

So #88 comes to an end with a slice of NWOBHM-style heavy metal, heralding the new sounds of the next decade... Helsinki's Sarcofagus just about got a 70s release with their first single, the galloping 'Go to Hell / All Those Lies' (1979), with the lineup of Juha Kiminki (bass), Ari-Pekka Roitto (drums), Kimmo Kuusniemi (guitar) and Hannu Léiden (vocals). Two albums came in 1980 and then a third was made after the band changed name to the 'Kimmo Kuusniemi Band'. They have re-formed since and you can see more of them at their site here.

Thanks for listening and see you on the next one! Rich

Tracks:

01. Jormas - I Can't Break the Habit (1968)
       from album 'sincerely'
02. Charlies - Living for Myself (I'm a King Dreamer) (1970)
       from album 'buttocks'
03. Apollo - Hideki Tojo 1884-1948 (1970)
       from album 'apollo'
04. Kaamos - Strife (1977)
       from album 'deeds and talks'
05. Alwari Tuohitorvi - Kromikaunotar (1973)
       single
06. Eero Koivistoinen Music Society - Hot C (1973)
       from album 'wahoo!'
07. Kalevala - Escape From the Storm (1972)
       from album 'people no names'
08. Tabula Rasa - Nyt Maalaan Elämää (1975)
       from album 'tabula rasa'
09. Paroni Paakkunainen - Plastic Maailma (1971)
       from album 'plastic maailma'
10. Eero Koivistoinen - Pientä Peliä Urbaanissa Limousinessa (1968)
       from album 'valtakunta'
11. Blues Section - Hey Hey Hey (1967)
       from album 'blues section'
12. Finnforest - Mikä Yö (1975)
       from album 'finnforest'
13. Elonkorjuu - A Little Rocket Song (1972)
       from album 'harvest time'
14. Melvin McRae Band - Law Man (1976)
       from album 'queen of hearts'
15. Tasavallan Presidentti - Obsolete Machine (1969)
       from album 'tasavallan presidentti'
16. Sarcofagus - All Those Lies (1979)
       single

Download from [mf] or [mg]
Unzip password:  tdats
As you have probably gathered by now from this blog, Latin Americans love their horn sections. This volume has some fine examples of where the brass melds with the rock to create that unique and Infectiously funky Latin sound, without losing the psychedelic heaviness. However, there is plenty more than just brass-rock on offer, here's a quote from After Avándaro: the black hole of the Mexican rock : "An important point to understand is that the [Mexican] music's quality cannot be judged if it is not heard. The truth is that there were many excellent musicians, and several formations with extraordinary horn sections (closer to the afrocuban music of Lobo and Melón than to Chicago, Electric Flag or Blood Sweat and Tears) -- listen to Bandido, 39.4, Máquina del Sonido, La Tribu, Peace and Love, División del Norte, Tequila, Lucifer, Macho or The Klan. Other groups had more traditional lineups, but they also sounded stupendous, playing progressive, psychedelic, hard rock, pop, experimental rock, and the whole range of rock music."

Having only used the handful of more renowned acts for TDATS so far, like Los Dug Dug's, La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata and Three Souls in My Mind, I was very happy to discover a wealth of new names during my searches, be they prolific or short-lived bands. I ended up with enough songs to make a couple of volumes, so there's guaranteed to be another worthy Mexican comp in the future. Using the Brazilian volume (#84) as a comparison, which was loaded with the Tropicalia movement's traditional latin sounds, Mexico's proximity to the US may account for the numerous conventionally anglo-american rock influences appearing here. Most of them still have an exotic twist, even if it's just from the accents or the few endearing English language bloopers; El Amor's "This is the reason for...that I will leave her!" and The Survival's 'Useless Warefare' included.

Avándaro Festival

1971's "Festival de Avándaro" is regarded as "Mexico's Woodstock", and was an important event which established the names of many acts, while setting a national president for future festivals. As an indicator of how important it was, music of the era that was once generally referred to as "La Onda Chicana" soon became known as "Avándaro Rock".


Activities seen at the festival like drugs/nudity and free love made it appear out of control, especially due to it's unexpectedly huge and enthusiastic attendance, and concerned governmental authorities soon did what they could to curb the popularity of rock music that may encourage counter culture and a return to events such as the student protests of 1968. Five of the bands in this comp played the festival, along with some that I have used in previous comps and some that I will use in the future.

Having found it difficult to get English information on these bands, I have provided text directly lifted and Google-translated from the excellent blog Vuelve Primavera: El rock de los 60 en México which has been painstakingly created by Gus Zamora, he also includes soundbites of many songs and his blog has been invaluable for this comp, thanks Gus! Apologies for any bad translations, I will continue to clean it up.

El Amor - Gus's page here

The comp kicks off with a good'n heavy slab from El Amor :-

"Rock band formed in the late '60s, first with the name of the birds and were lidereados by Miguel Cardenas. This band from Monterrey, NL, participated in the "Youth Festival" held in Monterrey on 13/03/1970, receiving rave reviews and rave reviews from critics, so they decided to try their luck in the City where they recorded their first LP disc, and with the name of "Love" under seal "RAFF" which included versions of popular songs at the time.

The group resurfaced in August 1971 as "Love" also successfully presented in the TV program 'Always on Sunday' with Raul Velasco. After that appearance, were invited to participate in the legendary Avándaro Festival (incidentally was a presentation very unfortunate, but not bad) made on 11.09.1971, alternating with the "cream of the rock" Mexican time, with groups like the Dug Dug's, The Ritual, Peace & Love and the Three Souls in my Mind with jovensísimo Alex Lora, among others.
Love recorded several LPs sticking its first three recorded between 1970 and 72, although very record, were active during the entire decade of the 70s, and in the mid-90s with an album full of covers of Beatles music.

Finally, the group "Love" is named for the initials of the surnames of its members: Jorge  A lberto Vallejo,  M iguel Cardenas, O scar Vallejo and  R ogelio Gonzalez. Unfortunately, Oscar Vallejo died in 2003. For more information and pictures of the band, visit made ​​by my good friend Manuel Martínez: http://www.maph49.galeon.com/avandaro/elamor.html"


La Pipa de la Paz

I have been unable to find any constructive information on this psychedelic horn band's great records. If this kind of music is your bag you won't be disappointed with the album that is floating around on Soulseek/blogs etc. I think it is made up of two EPs and a single. If anybody can enlighten me please do, especially band members and the female backing singer, thanks!






Three Souls in My Mind - Gus's page here

Hard blues with punk attitude! "What can you say about this group? Formed in 1968 in Mexico City and very active in the 70s, attended and closed the Festival Avándaro (as last song, thundered amplifiers and goodbye to the group and to the concert), were very active in the circuits of the "hoyos funky" in Mexico City, and many states of the Republic, and launched the careers of Alejandro Lora, who in 1983 decided to end the band and starting in '84 as" El Tri "(and this is another story included Carlos Hauptvogel keeps the rights to the name of Three Souls).

They start playing rock'n'roll and blues and interpreted his songs, both in English and Spanish. They are inspired, it is said, in one of the most versatile rock bands of the mid-60s in Mexico: UFOs (his guitarrsita Ernesto de Leon performed at this group from 1968 to 1969).

After his experience in Avándaro decide to play rock city (as did the southern bluesmen U.S. migrating to Chicago) and its themes reflect the daily everyday life of the Mexican people criticizing the way, the government and politics (very risky in a time of harsh criticism of youth, after the events of '68 and '71).

They have had countless musicians who have passed through the group, but include Alejandro Lora, Ernesto de Leon, Carlos Hauptvogel, Sergio Mancera and Arturo Labastida, also coming to play with them, Lalo Toral (ex Locos del Ritmo and Los Yaki).

There is an official website of this group, but their blog is the best thing I have seen and widely recommend:  http://threesouls.blogspot.com/"


Los Ovnis (The UFOs) - Gus's page here

"The story of "UFOs" started around 1961, when brothers and Ishmael Hector Velazquez, Jorge del Razo, Jaime Perez Ruiz and Armando Vazquez (vocals and undisputed leader) form the set 'The Teddy Bears'. Their sound was very deeply influenced by American groups most especially the time stamp 'Roulette' which was broadcast in Mexico rather incisive. Proof of this was his first hit (the single Do not go ). As a result, his record company (Discs Chorus) puts them on tour around the country encouraging college parties,  beat clubs  and more. 

Even still recalls the vivid appearance of the group in Mexican television program Saturday morning 'Merry Saturday' in which the singer Armando "... was thrown to the ground like a man possessed that young people called Rock & Roll ". In the same show as The groups often acted Beatnicks, American Analog Set Boys, Los Loud Jets and many others.

Bored and frustrated to interpret 'standards' and pop songs of the time, close the stage with Teddy Bears album dissonant versions of (mostly) the Beatles with a sense of humor, as is noted in most Mexican groups the time, not to pay homage to Liverpool, but rather as himself says Armando Vazquez. In 1965, changes in the formation and change the name of the band for a much more appropriate for what you had in mind ... "UFOs", very cool with the explosion of the genre "sci-low-fi" of that time. 

They add to the ranks of the very "cool requintero" Jorge Gutierrez who came from The Blue Caps, Excellent group disintegrated after the death of their frantic singer René Ferrer. In mid-1966 he joined another group no less brilliant guitarist, Ernesto Jesus de Leon Rodriguez, who after the dissolution of UFOs, be part of such important groups as "The Sound Machine" and "Three souls in my mind ".

The Ernesto was impressed so much by the sound and aesthetics of UFOs, to which he had the opportunity to see live on coffee "Tiki-tiki" described by him as ".. a shop located in a basement and as descendías the stairs you were immersed in an atmosphere breathing rock'n'roll underground on all sides. " Later, even spearhead an important and iconic rock festival at the National Auditorium with Los Yaki, The Sparks, Los Dug Dug's and many others ...

A contract with the brand Eco allowed half dozen albums recorded between 1965 and 1968, and a handful of singles (with faces 'B' unpublished). All their albums (especially the top 5) are recommendations ... and this time the group, including current issues like Venice without you, and other atrocities, but also included great covers of Paul Revere & the Raiders ("Kicks' which is a cover of 'Kicks' from that group), The Animals (Here comes the night = 'Here comes the night') or Lee & Nancy (The shadow of your smile, say Lee took the ideas of production and arrangements for the theme of the movie star The Sandpippers). The 1968 album "Hippies", the last of them, is one of the most sought disks among avid rock collectors hairy Hispanic-American, quite measure up to other great albums of the continent as 'Virgin' Sound Traffic Peru or 'The conference ...' the Shakers of Uruguay, but that is another story."


Los Spiders - Gus's page here

"The oldest group of Guadalajara, after being learning to run their instruments in 1961 finally touched first in the fifteenth year of the sister of his buddy (friend) Single Jesus, there in the Mexican-American Cultural Institute of Jalisco .

Then Chon's house, searching name for the group settled on the name they bear to date: The Spiders. Thus began the legendary career that is not over. In 1963 Musart recorded for 'Play Girl', 'From you I fell', 'No way' and 'Hi ho silver'. In 64-65 presented at the cafes most important of the time in Mexico City.

In 1969 they recorded what many consider his greatest success: BACK. In 1970 he appeared in television Mexico City. In 1973 they recorded the album 'New Routes' and 74 recorded another lp ..... and for better information, visit the website of "the black hole of mexican rock and roll": http://www.maph49.galeon.com/avandaro/avandaro.html  (information provided by Alberto Cruz 'Avandarito'). Also read the page http://www.maph49.galeon.com/avandaro/spiders.html  which is more complete information about The Spiders, made ​​by my good friend Manuel Martínez.

The Rock and Roll Group  "The Spiders"  initially consisted of the following elements: The brothers Manuel and Guillermo Olivera who played the bass and drums, respectively, "Chon" Martinez on keyboards, Carlos del Regil Singer and "Tuky" in the clarinet (Reynaldo Diaz).
They recorded six songs in Spanish on an EP (45 rpm acetate with two songs per side) and a single 45 rpm. Subsequently left the group Chon and Carlos taking his place Servando and Tony to record their first LP which includes the well-known "Back". To date Tuky Manolo and continue in the group and occasionally make presentations at festivals that are held occasionally. (Information provided by Jorge Espinoza).

Members of the  Spiders  who achieved the first records were:  Manuel Olvera,  Low,  Reynaldo Diaz, guitar, harmonica;  Antonio Vierling , guitar, singer,  Servando Ayala , piano, organ and  Enrique Chaurand , battery. (Information provided by Joseph Edgar Moreno).

Finally, says Arturo Lara: "Another sad news, died in Guadalajara Reynaldo Díaz Vélez, 'The Tucky', native of Tepic, Nayarit but settled since childhood in Guadalajara. Rocanrolero pure strain, and the beginning the place to establish the group "The Spyders" in 1961, in time, become "The Spiders".

Musician creative and committed to the original rock. Remained in effect almost to death. Soon will present a biographical sketch. Descance in Peace. - Arturo Lara (http://wwww.enciclopediadelrockmexicano.com). Similarly, Arthur's death told me two other members of The Spiders: Andres Villa and Fernando Romero."


The Survival - Gus's page here

"Not much about this band. I leave this hope you like it: "This band Avándaro season was a Mexican band called specialized in blues rock and acid formed in the sixties, because so many lineup changes that took the group they named" The Survival "or" Survival " and already has a fixed alignment, the group consisted of:

Luscher Andrés Fontana - drums and vocals
Joaquin Ramos - lead guitar
Luis Ramirez - bass
Oscar Vazquez - rhythm guitar

With this line, near the Swiss Luscher Andres Fontana, the group released their first and only album entitled "La Onda de The Survival" in 1971, which had a very acid rock movement influenced West Coast of the United States (the Rock Bay area of San Francisco and San  Survival5Jose) and British blues, I would say it is a combination of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Fraternity of Man, Savage Resurrection, Mountain Bus, CCR, Grateful Dead and Ten Years After, despite being a masterpiece, at the time (and to date) for some "experts "is a bad album, but the group do a great job at the level of the bands mentioned, after this, the group split and the only plate that was launched into oblivion (like many others), but it really is a GREAT MASTERPIECE."


39.4 - Gus's page here

"Another large group of Guadalajara, classic rock of the late 60s and early 70s with good sound "brasshead". Most tapatíos groups such as The Revolution of Emiliano Zapata, The Spiders, The Stone Facade, Solemnity, The Fifth Vision, etc., had classical formations rock group, 39.4 was the exception and other bands matched sides of the Mexican Republic, to have its horn section.

Only an LP and a simple diametrically differing musical concept .... therefore that the original LP is one of the most sought after in the market.

 39.4 Group 239.4 had thundered and when it was formed as the band Bandit, with whom they were Luisillo Arciniega Luis Vicente Rivera (trombone), Jose Luis Guerrero (Sax and transverse flute), Ignacio Rodriguez (trumpet) Eugenio Keno Guerrero (bass) and Efren Bear González Olvera (guitar). Soon after, reassembled and produced the LP presented here. 39.4 changes followed to its end in 1976.

Musicians:
Brizio Guillermo Domínguez Willow (Lead guitar) et al. Guest musicians: Lissa, Nene, Tessy, Marilu, Memo, Azhul, Ernesto, Lolo, Chemo, Jorge, Siso, Jorge, Servando, Beverly (vocals); Guadalajara Symphony: Jose Padilla, Victor Padilla, Antonio Alvarez, Carlos Pichardo, Agustin Uribe, Antonio Chavira, Isabel Navarro, Ramon Becerra and Jose Bautista (violins, violas, cellos, double bass and harp)."


Nahuatl- Gus's page here

I have used Nahuatl once before back on Vol43 with their 'Mexabbath'-sounding track Evolucion.

"It was in the month of August 1972 to three excellent Mexican musicians from the band Peace and Love enliven Nahuatl (Ramon Torres and Ricardo Ochoa among them). From the beginning caraterizan by strong nationalist entity that is reflected in his name and in the lyrics of his grounders.

Equipped with a style that ranges from psychedelia of the 60's heavy rock of the early 70's are considered along with other Mexican rock groups as true masters of hard rock.

 Nahuatl Participated in the Festival of Valle de Bravo in 1971 as members of Peace and Love and you like Nahuatl festivals in Cuernavaca and Querétaro in 1973. They recorded two excellent albums with covers of rock and roll of the sixties, accompanying Enrique Guzman (such discs are quoted by the way, given its rarity) and Henry also participated in some television appearances.

Similarly, in 1975 played on a disc recorded by Manolo Fabregas .... do not think I sang rock, was a monologue by actor and theater producer, with a libretto by Mimì Bechelami and was the musical in which the group is involved Nahuatl ( another rarity album titled 'Talking to my children "edited by Swan discs / RAFF in 1975.

 GuzmanynahuatlcolorIn 1974 participating in the national OTI Festival in 1977 the group disintegrates, leaving Ramon Torres to Monterrey where it forms the Magic Company while Ricardo Ochoa along with Kenny  Kenny enliven Avilés and the Electrics in 1980. Some songs like  Coca Cola  and  have to climb  were never published because they have been banned censorship.

Musicians:
Guitar and voice: Ricardo Ochoa
Bass and vocals: Ramon Torres
Drums and vocals: Carlos "Bozzo" Vazquez
Vol II keyboard: Omar Jasso and
Choirs in Vol II: Kenny"


La Verdad Desnuda (The Naked Truth) - Gus's page here for a lot more info on this band.

Time for a charming mellow ballad from a very small band that apparently shared singer Luis Pérez with the band following this, Grupo Ciruela. "Data from this group, I handed them my good friend Manuel Martinez (RIP), and published on his website on Avándaro. Is the share: here. Greetings, GZ.

100% psychedelic group that only released an EP. Also on the compilation album Vibrations September 11, 1971 (Volume 1) are two of his songs on the EP. They came to play in several places, especially in schools of higher education, as recorded in Dimension Magazine March 1972, which mentions a festival in Zacatenco, National Institute campus Poltécnico.

"We came when he was playing the Naked Truth, which was very relaxing people, while stuck in your wave.  The big chatter was great, because there were about four thousand people three and play calm. The Naked Truth announced that finished and received a great applause. They said they were going because they had to llegrle the theater for playing in the play Black Jack, which certainly brings good chatter "(sic).

Musicians: From left to right in image, Michael Esparza, "El Gallo" [under] Cecilio "Chilo" [organ] Luis Perez, [composer, guitar and vocals] Tomas Red or Red [drums]. Note: Luis Perez was also voice and flute at the Plum group and missing the correct data Cecilio and Thomas.

Tracks recorded on "The Naked Truth" (Phillips, 1971, EP)

01. Hallelujah everywhere  (Luis Manuel Pérez Arellano)
02. Illusive world  (Luis Manuel Pérez Arellano)
03. A babe into the garbage dump  (Luis Manuel Pérez Arellano)"


Grupo Ciruela (Plum Group) - Gus's page here

I had a tough time choosing between my two favourite tracks on Ciruela's first album, so here's the other song I really dig, it's not as long or filled with the variety of the one I went for "Nada Nos Detendra" (Nothing will stop us) but it rocks like hell; Padre (Father).

"The city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas was the birthplace of some important groups like "Los Angeles Blues," which later would adopt the name "The Yaki", the band "The North Division" led by Roux Wayo popular singer, who also was owner of "Alaska" - exclusive nightclub prestigious rock of that entity-and by the way "The Division" was presented at the Festival of Avándaro replacing "The Tribe" of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, who could not go for commitments made previously.

The third largest group is "Ciruela" who belonged to the record company "Cisne Raff" label, which covered many of the groups that formed the musical Advanced 70.

 Ciruelacuarteto"PLUM" was composed after the prominent guitarists Cal and Billy Cesar Valle, and current bassist and TV producer, Sergio Saul Soto (later played in the band "La Raza") Guillermo Garibay drummer and vocalist Daniel Valens known as "brother", who currently resides in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. He also played the flute with them, Luis Perez, who played with The Naked Truth.

Their audience was limited to popular tardeadas took place in the ballroom as the "Chicago", the "Chuck" and "Always the Same" 8th Avenue. Only they cut an LP and two singles discs, which by their rarity, are sought after by collectors not only in Mexico, but also abroad (Germany and Japan, mainly).

MUSICIANS:
Voice: Daniel Valens "BROTHER"
Guitar: Cesar Cal
Guitar: Billy Valle
Bass: Sergio Saul Soto
Drums: Guillermo Garibay

Source:  http://robquero.tripod.com/RockMexicano/Ciruela.htm"


El Ritual - Gus's page here

"This group, although in the early 70s, started in the late sixties as 'The Graveyard' (search for them this blog). I leave this sketch waiting like it. Also have a blog on My Space site if they want to visit, the site is: http://www.myspace.com/elritual . Greetings: GZ

Considering quality in both creative and interpretive musical as well as the projection scenic and special charisma typical of a rock group, would have to qualify "RITUAL" of Tijuana, as "THE BEST ROCK BAND OF ALL MEXICAN THE TIMES ".

They came to Mexico in 1971, months before the celebration of the historical Festival Avándaro which involved without much success, as they had to face serious problems of audio and especially lighting.

Its members were: Frankie Barreño (guitar, flute and vocals), Gonzalo "CHALO" Hernadez on bass: Alberto Barceló "LALO" (drums) and Martin Mayo (keyboards), - the latter two had previously been in Mexico with Tijuana grouping "The Graveyard".

When disappearing prematurely left his work unfinished maxima, the rock opera "THE LAND OF YOU TALK" and his discography is an album of original music highly prized in the market, and an isolated issue (which is not the best of them) , which only appeared in single 45 RPM disc entitled 'TABU'.

Thanks to its quality, shortly after arriving in Mexico and headed all the posters that were presented in sets of that time. His facial makeup drew attention because it used a lot before they appeared on the scene groups like KISS and ALICE COOPER. (Source: http://robquero.tripod.com/RockMexicano/El_Ritual.htm  and equally, thank Ramses , Heavy Blood, for the last photo of the group)


I leave this anecdote shared by Victor Moreno: "The encounter between Julio Alemán and El Ritual are a couple of anecdotes fashion theme to the TV show was Avándaro Festival and for that reason had a skit where Julio Alemán arrives home and finds his wife very involved in the wave "Jipi" rock and lightened all that the master of the house will cause a big upset but the straw that breaks the camel is that in your bedroom is a rocker was none other than the same Frankie Bareño, guitarist and singer of The Ritual, whom Don Julio misses his home for having cheated on his wife, but not before shaking him so funny.


The Ritual was distinguished among other things by the makeup they used in their presentations (two years before there Kiss) and out of the dressing room to go to the TV set in the corridor intersect with Ms. Olga Guillot who had just sung and seeing them put a surprised face as if he had seen the Devil himself and only reached to comment "Oh boy!" It was the Mexico of my memories of 1971 ".

MUSICIANS:
Barreño Frankie  (voice, guitar and flute) 
Hernandez Gonzalo "Chalo" (Low) 
Abelardo "Lalo" Barceló  (drums and vocals) 
Martin May (Keyboards) 

About the group, I leave this interesting anecdote by Francisco Moreno group, then a member of Medusa : "With the long play virtually completed only those of the Ritual falataba they put the final touches, like a guitar or organ boblaje on some songs or correct a choir. was in that vein they came to add an introduction to Satan where Frankie recites an ode to Lucifer.

For atmosphere to the sounds of thunder decided to include wind, violin and piano dissonances, laughter gruesome and creepy organ. For recording engineers this was a problem as there were limited channels assigned (was 1971 and there were only 8 channels) and everything would be done in one shot for what they did know it or writing organ Martin or recorded piano, there was no time for overdubs.

It was so decided I did the organ while Martin was the piano. In the laughter Javier and I are also members of the Ritual of the same way in the voices that are heard during the drum solo. another who recorded with them was the percussionist of the Factory of who can not remember his name only his nickname, we all knew as Toby. He plays the congas in Groupie and Satirical Pilgrimage ".


The ritual martin, frankie, Gonzalo, lalo"Returning from Avándaro those of the Ritual were applied to conclude the recording of their LP. Already had playing on the radio in the Sun and the face of God and the song that became his calling card, Easy Woman. To Javier and I be present at their trials gave us the privilege to know this track from Frankie took to show to their peers and mount. Originally the song was called bitch because convenenciera talks about what society is. Pictured from left. to right . Martin May, keyboards, Frankie Bareño, guitar flute and vocals, Gonzalo Hernandez, bass and vocals and Lalo Barceló, drums and vocals.

Obviously at the label permitierion not use that name and so renamed it. Interestingly when it went on sale which ultimately would be his only full-length, able to accept the label present in gatefold format, privilege reserved only for foreign records. Based on the cover of King Crimson's first album made them work very questionable graphic art as they shot this cover and put the picture of them copied from one of Grand Funk, Closer to Home disk. Being a home with so much interior space to build in impportante information as their names and pictures and even the lyrics of the songs, the creative team by Armando Molina representative rather mediocre put some drawings that have nothing to do with the context disk and also referred to themselves as the authors of the drawings anywhere but the credits of the members of the Ritual. Failure historically unfortunate that continues to this day with the CD version of the record where Denver also will change the name to some songs. "


Antorcha(The Torches) - thanks to Gus's page and Point Blank Games

"Originally called Broken Souls, shortly after Las Antorchas, and finally Antorcha, they decided to struggle independently after the disappointment of not having fame and fortune with their record label company. Formed at the beginning of 1969 by Victor Manuel Motta Aviles (drums and vocals), Guillermo Motta Avites (keyboards and guitar] and Omar Cortes Gavino (bass & vocals) accompanied in certain recording sessions by guest musicians: Mario Salazar Hernandez (keyboards and vocals) Antonio Salcedo (drums), and Eduardo “El Tortas” Bastida (speaker).

Unlike their first phase, they decided to use a harder and protestant style. With an Acid Rock, sometimes with Latin accents, with lyrics in English and in Spanish like the rest of the Mexican groups used to do it at that their musical growth was evident. They produced five Extended Plays (EP) one LP titled "Anarquismo" in 1976 and one cassette fitted "Antofcha 1965-1976" remembering their complete career period, They took charge of the distribution and promotion of their records everywhere in parties, ballrooms, radio broadcast and TV network presentations etc."

"Group that began in 1965 and was active until 1976. Recorded a single disc (S-45 2123) with the songs "Last night was" and "A little bit more". After several personnel changes, name change after "Torch" and have an excellent working period, although their songs are canned after the events of Tlatelolco in 1968. Then leave the following review:  "Group started in late 1964 and early 1965 by two high school friends: Omar Cortes and Bernardo Minerva, joining after Jorge Gonzalez and Victor Motta.

After many attempts, they get to play at local parties, the neighborhood or the colony, fifteen years .... and blanks serves mainly playing cover songs of bands like Sam Cooke, The Animals and many more, both the United States and Ola nascent English. They begin as The Broken Souls, until they are hired that is where you decide to rename Torches in 1966.

After being hired by Choir, joins Fernando Morales and began to make presentations on the Live 1966 radio, touring, trials in the recording studio, plans to exclusives, and arrive at radio festivals promote them to bring youth and inns as a "reward" if marked the listeners, and being so young, it accepted as advantage to test material from other singers and start writing their own material, the same that was canned until they decide to publish some of that material, in EP's independent, in the early 70, until in a special edition of Choir, was published an excellent CD with most of these issues.

The year was 1968, the rock group Torches , encontrábase in a trance that ultimately end with an entire renovation and even a name change that would end up being Torch.  Indeed, the group  Torches  had changed. Minerva and Jorge González Bernardo chose to leave the group, Fernando Mercado was recovering from an illness that away from the group for several months. William Motta, meanwhile, had joined the group filling in for Jorge Gonzalez, and Victor Motta had passed from keyboards to percussion seeking to fill the gap left Bernardo Minerva, the former drummer for the band The Torches, being Omar Cortes the only one who remained immovable in his bass position.

So, the unique sound of the band suffered a notable shift, as the interest of its active members by paying attention to their own compositions forgetting a little of the sickening trend imposed by the  artistic directors of beating by shooting melodies of groups other countries to, putting a letter in Spanish, burn seeking  promotion  through them.  What was intended from the time, was to emphasize his own compositions, purpose that was neither understood nor shared by the  staff  of  art directors .


The song originally recorded pretended, was called Tell me, and consisted of a complicated  set  of voices and choirs that while the theory worked perfectly, this was not true in practice, since in matters of choirs and voices we were we say very skillful.  thus to reality and after several failed attempts to make a success of our  membership , we had to make severe changes, nearly a  major surgery , the song in question, and came to be  The place , finishing Omar Cortes interpreting the  first voice .

Also got to participate to play at the Palace of Fine Arts, invited to the event held there after the death of Manuel Acuña, touching a theme, simply titled "In Memoriam" which was a big hit at the event and not only played more three times in his career and is a gem of collection, while not having a studio recording of this issue (it was recorded on a portable tape recorder, forgiving the rebundancia).

After several changes, is in the 70's where you and your best stage as musicians, even when they became trio, highlighting issues such as Grass, In the Garden of Eden, Unfinished Sodomáquina, El Bracero, Earth, Amiga, among other topics , and continue to give presentations in places where you get to hear best album, which was in places like Cuernavaca, Tenancingo, Huajuapan de Leon, among others. In case you want to know more about them, I recommend the website:  http://www.antorcha.net/"


Enigma - Gus's page here

I have previously used a track from the Enigma record 'Under The Sign Of Aquarius' back on the doom Vol62, and here is another from that LP.

"It was the late 60 that the group "Las Ventanas" takes determination, after recording three albums of covers, recording their own music under the direction of Joseph G. Cruz is moving towards heavy rock in which they develop their style until their record company decided to launch the group to market but now with the name "ENIGMA".

In 1971 at the height of the movement called "Chicano Rock" announce their new album which stands the dime "Under the sign of Aquarius" is recorded in English and Spanish and obtained wide acceptance.

Its original members were:
Guitar:  Carlos Gonzalez
Bass:  Pablo González
Voice:  Sergio Gonzalez
Battery:  Hector Zenil

Among their albums, the highlights are Enigma I, Loophole, Purple, Enigma Live and Hard and heavy."


Frankie, Alfredo Y Paris - Gus's page here.

"In the neighborhood of El Retiro, there was a group called the Atoms, where he played bass Alfredo Pérez Ruiz , which was associated with Francisco Frankie Ocampo Murillo , just back from California, who brought a Fender complete with reverb and amplifier brand Silverstone .  Along with Jose Reyes on harmony and José Manuel Paris Reza Rios on drums formed the Alma Soul (Soul 4).

When departing Jose Reyes formed a guy named Frankie, Alfredo and Paris, as follows: Francisco Frankie Ocampo Murillo: Voice and guitar, Alfredo Pérez Ruiz: Bass, José Manuel Paris Reza Rivers: Drums.

Frankie, alfredo, Lucifer paris in GuadalajaraThey played in casinos such as The Forum, Agua Azul, Discoteque of the Fiestas de Octubre, Munich and others.  recorded an EP excellent Musart disk with the data listed below:
Frankie, Alfredo y París
Musart, 1971, EP 

01. No name
02. Bossa Nova en AM
03. Let´s be good
04. I don't care

Frankie alfredo and paris bynIt should be noted that all issues were written by Frankie, Alfredo and Paris.  After this EP, reaching a record Musart also simple, with items  not name and I do not care  who unfortunately, it was not by lack of promotion.


Continue performing in various parts of the state of Jalisco and parts of Mexico but not much luck contracts for more records. At exit Alfredo Pérez Ruiz, the remaining two elements came together with brothers Mario and El Chepe Pulido Chester group, to form the group 'Mariashi', which lasted eight months playing Rhythm & Blues.

Upon dissolution of the group, joined Jaime Bizarro to Frankie and Paris , to form another trio, Frankie, Bizarro and Paris, reaching the initial success of the other group. They recorded an album in the brand Gas, a single with the song In the sunshine and Chile , with lyrics in Spanish, but with a restricted distribution. Subsequently dedicated to another genre of rock away, and were in the history of Mexican rock. Text taken from Guadalajara and rock (50-70), Miguel Torres Zermeno, 2002. Currently, still active Frankie, Bizarro and Paris. If you like to know more about them visit their website:  http://fbp.com.mx/"


Los Blue Jeans - Gus's page here.

"Now I played the theme of The Blue Jeans Puebla, Pue., I commented that it was two issues but to do the research, these issues would be those recorded these Blue Jeans, Guadalajara, Jal., Which were more rockers (but not rock and rollers) for having been his best stage between 1967 and 72.

Blue jeans pose 2 These Blue Jeans, begin in the center of Guadalajara, when a group of friends are filled with rock'n'roll fervor that began to flood the Mexican radio.

These friends get together and start playing at parties and private meetings ... they were Salvador Solórzano, "The Pancholín" (Francisco Garcia), "El Tato" (Luis Octavio Chavez), Raul Ortiz and Enrique Chaurand ... although came to join them, Alejandro Colunga, Juan José Zabalgoitia, Jaime Solorzano (brother of Salvador) and "El Pichi" (Fernando Avila), using Gibson guitars they had.

After several trials and especially after a presentation at the Lions Club debuts with the group as lead vocalist John Joseph, as before touched many instrumentals.

 Blue jeans gas ZIP Choose to be well one more time, until it becomes to reform the group, and in 1966, when the group is most famous with his training: Juan José Zabalgoitia (Harmony and voice), Jaime Solorzano (bass), Enrique Chaurand (Battery ) and Sergio Munguia (Eb).


The name, it puts a group of "fans" when they were invited to perform at an event, they were all denim and to inform them that it would be nice to be "uniform", and the same with denim go, they decide to send print invitations as 'Blue Jeans'.

After this event and many more, are beginning to gain some local fame and are invited to participate in the "Move it all" Local Channel 4 (the same program that came The Fugitive or The Jets Nogales) and to be hired again moving new items. Henry leaves to join The Spiders and Sergio. In Pedro Calvillo on drums who is with them until 1967, recording a single with the songs "Say" and "San Francisco".

 Blue jeans folkloricThis is where many of hiring them out in the Lions Club, French Club, Lebanese Club, in hotels, in the Parque Agua Azul, as well as presentations on various radio stations and, therefore, have different members entering and out. Between 1971 and 72, recorded a single with the themes and Human Reality Strange thoughts, which are listed by their rarity. 

After recording are presented in various cities of United (Manzanillo, Mazatlan and Culiacan up) ... following so until 1973, when they decide to separate.  Source: Book Guadalajara and rock (50-70), Miguel Torres Zermeno, 2002"


Tinta Blanca (White Ink) - Gus's page here and more at Avandaro: Mexican Rock.

"I'll put a group entries that were most successful in the early seventies, but I think it is worth it for those who do not know, I met some of these groups after 2000, there were others who knew of his existence but did not hear because I was not interested but oh, what a mistake, what I was missing .... many speak of Chicago as reference brass rock groups, like Blood Sweat & Tears, but Mexico was not far behind and Bandit , Peace and Love and White Ink, were good examples of these groups. Enjoy it .... and I dedicate this to my friends Manuel Martínez (+), Alberto Cruz 'Avandarito' Angel Velazquez and Arturo Lara for sharing music of these groups and as many more as well as my cousin who also likes Sergio this music and attended the festival because .....

White Ink 1The band Federal District White Ink, White Ink and initially called the Mother Earth Co., (winner of a competition held in Chapultepec Park, called the "Naranjiza" where public disapproval expressed oranges swinging musicians ), was also one of the groups that had their brass section, often the case in Mexico and was not made ​​with the same intensity in the Spanish-speaking groups.  probably due the influence of American bands (Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears , Electric Flag and Buddy Miles), coupled with the tropical music tradition played in Mexico, where the great orchestras and groups mambo with Perez Prado at the top have always used brass sections. Also mention the participation of excellent jazz musicians as Cecilio  Chilo  Moran.

 White Ink 4White Ink recorded the longest piece of music of the time, Avándaro Psalm Psalm VII and VIII with 23:45 minutes.  's song became iconic Avándaro Festival, where White Ink was one of the featured participants, since all their songs had Spanish lyrics.

After Avándro Festival, White Ink faced resistance to the arbitrariness of government authorities and the fold of the broadcasters, record companies and entrepreneurs in the local music, coming to meet with the City Manager and the leader of the Union of musicians, Venus King, which gave them long to legitimate request to play his music. White ink 6 Closed all doors, used uncamión of redilas, where they loaded instruments and all, to play at any point in the city of Mexico, the famous Rock and Wheels, which was also pursued by the authorities.

Musicians:
Sergio  Keko  Figueroa (vocals and percussion),
Thomas Pacheco (bass and vocals),
Fernando Miramon (organ),
Miguel Morales (guitar),
Gonzalo Alejandro  Duck  Curiel (drums),
Cliserio Villagomez (tenor sax),
Francisco Acosta (trumpet) and
Jesus Segovia (Trumpet). 

Talk Thomas Pacheco, founder of White Ink: "All White Ink material is registered with the publisher Warner Chappell, which still receive royalties given that I am the author of it, not the White Ink.

While I share many memories with my former colleagues, whom I esteem and respect, I think it is unfair to try to avoid the fact that they were my creations that shaped the musical bases, on which the band worked. Systematically we have tried to minimize my involvement, arguing essentially sentimental reasons, and taking advantage of my absence. White ink complaint to the President However, I am now embarking on a musical project through which this will all be properly cleared, where legal authorities involved must be respected.

Among them, I wrote about the material including the title  Avándaro , in which of Do good faith? provisions have been made ​​that are not in the contract duly updated and current to date, signed by the responsible editor. (It has come to try the song is a creation of-Anonymous. - Enrique Krauze TV program. - Credits) ".

Source: http://www.maph49.galeon.com/avandaro/tintablanca.html  and  http://www.myspace.com/tintablanca."

Thanks for listening, adiós!

Tracks:

01. El Amor - On the Midnight Bus (1972)
       from album 'angélica'
02. La Pipa de la Paz - La Pipa de la Paz (1971)
       from ep 'pipa de la paz'
03. Three Souls in My Mind - Dejenos Gozar (1973)
       from album 'adicto al rock n´roll'
04. Los Ovnis - Infinito (1968)
       from album 'hippies'
05. Los Spiders - You Are the People Help Yourself (1973)
       from album 'nuevas rutas en sonido'
06. The Survival - Useless Warefare (1971)
       from album 'la onda de the survival'
07. 39.4 - Detras de la Mascara (1972)
       from album '39.4'
08. Nahuatl - Machismo (1974)
       from album 'nahuatl'
09. La Verdad Desnuda - Halleliujah Everywhere (1971)
       from ep 'la verdad desnuda'
10. Grupo Ciruela - Nada Nos Detendrá (1973)
       from album 'regreso al origen'
11. El Ritual - Easy Woman (1971)
       from album 'el ritual'
12. Antorcha - Grass (1971)
       from ep 'la tierra'
13. Enigma - Under The Sign Of Aquarius (1972)
       from album 'enigma!'
14. Frankie, Alfredo Y Paris - No Name (1971)
       from ep 'no name'
15. Los Blue Jeans - Human Reality (1972)
       single
16. Tinta Blanca - Salmo VII (partes I y II) (1971)
       from ep 'tinta blanca'

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During my searches I often find great bands that had releases on Deram, it was clearly a forward-thinking label that was not afraid to take risks on the new hard rock and progressive sounds of the late 60's and early 70's, along with cutting-edge pop of the time. Here is a compilation of some of the best, most of which make their TDATS debuts. There are many other bands that I could have included (Eyes Of Blue, Room, Walrus and Zakarrias are just a few) but I have used them previously and wanted to keep this comp mostly fresh.

A bit of history :- Deram Records was originally set up in 1966 as an outlet for a new recording technique called 'Deramic Sound', which used the latest recording technology of the time to make stereophonic sound more natural and convincing. It was a subsidiary of Decca records, the name "Decca" dates back to a portable gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. That company was eventually renamed The Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd.

And so we begin......Jerusalem made one album that was produced by Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, who wrote these words for the s/t album's liner notes: "This is the first album by Jerusalem, a band which excites me very much; they are rough, raw and doomy with their own strong identity. As they are young and a bit green, they don't follow many rules, so their material is almost crude - but still immensely powerful in content. I believe that, whenever possible, the work of writers and players in their formative stages should be recorded; before inhibition and self-consciousness set in, before fire and aggression die down, and while they are still absorbing influences and doing things which others might consider 'uncool'. Most important though, before they might develop that self-imposed rigidity which afflicts so many. I hope none of these things happen to Jerusalem, we'll have to wait and see......I hope you like it as much as I do." This album has since been remastered by Rockadrome.

Keef Hartely Band

Keith Hartley started his career as replacement drummer when Ringo Star left Liverpool outfit Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Keith later helmed a number of albums starting with 'Half Breed', from which this track 'Think It Over' is taken,  featuring Miller Anderson's awesome wah guitar. Miller will come back to us on track 7....

Rockets are bit of a fun entry here, they were a Paris band who's only Deram release was the Canadian issue of their 1976 debut LP. They mainly played a glammy synth/pop sound but I like the track here, and it's NWOBHM-ish guitar runs.

Bulldog Breed were a kind of early version of the wonderful band T2 (See Vol2& Vol40), they both shared Keith Cross (guitar), Peter Dunton (vocals, drums) and Bernard Jinks (bass). Their single album, 1969's 'Made in England' is well worth checking out as a good example of where hard rock riffs were mutated out of heavy psych.

Clark Hutchinson's total output was patchy at best, but the track here 'Free To Be Stoned' is their worthy passport to underground rock history. This paean to the weed is uniquely fun, groovy and something you must hear at least once in your life!

Stud featured Taste drummer John Wilson, Taste bassist Richard "Charlie" McCracken and Blossom Toes guitarist Jim Cregan. They made a couple of albums that were a curious, mainly unfocussed mixture of prog, jazz and hard rock, but they turned out a few good tracks and 'Sail On' is breezy, catchy prog-lite with a tough backbone that will sound good while cruising to your next destination.

Miller Anderson was a Scottish guitarist who was in two of the other bands here, Keef Hartley's as mentioned, and later in Chicken Shack who comes up soon. He is great singer and player, though most of his solo material is quite soft, 'Nothing In This World' is probably one of the most infectious and instantly likeable tracks I have ever come across. Miller has played with other names like Savoy Brown, and pertinently he played on John Lord's 'blues project' shows last year.

Chicken Shack

Chicken Shack are up next, a catch-all blues band that has included many musicians of status over the years, including Christine McVie (Then known as 'Christine Perfect'). Stan Webb's guitar is at times totally blistering when he really lets go, and 'Daughter Of The Hillside' is a great example, his tone and magical use of wah is pure rock fury.

We take a rare departure towards jazz on the next track, Johnny Almond was a multi-instrumentalist who went on to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Mark-Almond. On his 'music machine' albums Almond's talents include tenor, alto and baritone saxophones, flute, alto flute, organ, vibes, mellotron and bass clarinet. Get ready for big grooves with 'Solar Level'.

Very little is known of Megaton, other than they included English guitarist Les Humphries and keyboardist Jimmy Bilsbury (both were previously in the Les Humphries Singers) who recorded this sole album in Germany. It's an weird mix of hard rock and latin percussion. At times it clearly borrows from Led Zep, but it is also equally based on soul and funk. Though it's probably best described as a shameless exploitation album of the kind that there were lots at this time, it has some great moments and lots of it's own period character.

Soulful groove continues with Sunforest's track 'Magician in the Mountain'. They were three American girls (Terry Tucker, Freya Houge and Erika Eigen) who sought a fortune together in London, got noticed by a Decca talent scout straight away and quickly recorded one album which did not do well, but their spot in history was cemented by Stanly Kubrik's use of two songs for the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange; 'Overture to the sun' and 'Lighthouse Keeper'.

Frijid Pink

A blogger's favourite, Detroit band Frijid Pink's claim to fame in their time was a heavy cover of House Of The Rising Sun. Other than that their first two albums are some well-regarded frantic fuzzy blues with great vibrato vocals. The band was so popular in their native Detroit area that a fledgling Led Zeppelin (who were just then getting started from the remnants of The Yardbirds) opened for them at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Frijid Pink often shared billing with the likes of the MC5, The Stooges and The Amboy Dukes.

The compilation ends with the UK's East of Eden. They used a novel mix of instrumentation including electric violin, with studio effects, to become one of the earliest progressive rock bands. I was happy to find a rare example of a 60s promo video for the track "Northern Hemisphere" here.

TRACKS

01. Jerusalem - When The Wolf Sits (1972)
       from album 'jerusalem'
02. Keef Hartley Band - Think It Over [edit] (1969)
       from album 'half breed'
03. Rockets - Ballade Sur Mars (1976)
       from album 'rockets'
04. Bulldog Breed - I Flew (1969)
       from album 'bulldog breed'
05. Clark Hutchinson - Free To Be Stoned (1970)
       from album 'retribution'
06. Stud - Sail On (1971)
       from album 'stud'
07. Miller Anderson - Nothing In This World (1971)
       from album 'bright city'
08. Chicken Shack - Daughter Of The Hillside (1972)
       from album 'imagination lady'
09. Johnny Almond Music Machine - Solar Level (1969)
       from album 'patent pending'
10. Megaton - Wanna Be Your Hero (1971)
       from album 'megaton'
11. Sunforest - Magician In The Mountain (1969)
       from album 'sound of sunforest'
12. Frijid Pink - End Of The Line (1970)
       from album 'frijid pink'
13. East Of Eden - Northern Hemisphere (1969)
       from album 'mercator projected'

Thanks for listening! Rich.

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By extremely popular demand, I have revamped and re-upped volume 42, a proto-punk themed comp that I put a lot of time and thought into last year and one that I'm particularly happy with. As far as I can surmise it was deleted due to the mere mention of a certain band in the description, and not because of any of the tracks I used. A portent of the oncoming 'nazi' apocalypse maybe?

Here it is in it's entirety with a few factual additions/revisions and some pix. If you like your fuzz spiked with speed, Enjoy!

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For Vol 72, I concentrated on Denmark [edit: Here is Norway]. Here is the second in my Scandinavian quadrilogy, a Swedish special. The name is from Norse mythology, Midgarðsormr is the sea serpent that encircles the world, which it's feared will fall apart if he ever releases his bite on his tail. Lets hope that doesn't happen in the next hour at least.

What has become clear is that Sweden has by far the largest and most varied rock history of all the norse countries, so it's been a pretty mammoth task listening through it all to find the right-sounding bands for this one. I'm sure there is still a lot more to find so don't expect this to be the last Svenska volume... Sweden's 'Progg' movement was one of the reasons. It can be likened in many ways to Germany's Krautrock scene; musical collectives exploring ways to use avant-garde rock music in their left-wing, anti-commercial protests against the establishment. While the sound of the 'Progg' movement is not the driving force for this comp, it appears in a few tacks and if you want to know more I recommend a box set called "The Essence of Swedish Progressive Music 1967-1979: Pregnant Rainbows for Colourblind Dreamers".

We start with a band that has a link to Sweden's most successful musical export, and to a few bands that have appeared on the blog. 'Baltik' was a one-off studio project that included occasional Abba guitarist Janne Schaffer and Roxy Music/Quatermass/Hard Stuff/Ian Gillan Band bassist John Gustafson. Janne played guitar for many of Abba's hits and is a well known prog-jazz& guitarist in his own right, he also worked with John Gustafson in the Swedish band Ablution. Baltik's "Leslie Briggs" is a great heavy opener which can easily be described as the earliest in 'prog-metal', though not typical of their album which was a curious mixture of folkish prog with a few heavy moments.

Björn Famne e.p.

The most information I can find on Björn Famne's 'Vampire' is on oscarowski's Youtube clip : "..private release recorded in the religious Falk studios in Sweden... the rest of the tracks veer towards classic guitar (no other instruments) and it is believed that this song was recorded when the sound engineer was out to have a coffe or something... what would the "almost priests" working there have said if they found out... hahaha. Compiled on the great 'Who will buy these wonderful evils'...."

Stockholm's November have appeared here before, way back on Vol2 and here is another stunning timeless sounding track that sounds as though it could have been recorded last week by a contemporary stoner rock band, though it is actually from 1972. November really were a talented bunch and had a distinctive approach to their heavy blues-tinged riffs. Though they were only together for three years, thankfully they made three albums in that time. The awesome production job is the other aspect that belies this recording's age.


Asoka were from Malmö and their background was in older band 'Taste Of Blues'. The sound changed a lot and resulted in their manic and unusual s/t album which had a playful air while maintaining the heaviness. Wildmarken were from the Sollefteå area. It's been hard to find info on them even though they were together for 5 years and had two albums on EMI, there is a little here on progg.se. They were pretty average commercial hard-ish rock but I do like this track "Vad Vill Dom" (Eng: What do they want?) which has a cool phased riff and menacing, grinding pace. Tomas Jansson and Janne Åhman went on to 'Circus' who made one e.p.

Next up is a couple of linked tracks; from 'Epizootic' and 'E.F. Band'. They both included Bengt Fischer and Pär Ericsson. Little is noted regarding Epizootic, they had one apparently self-released album called 'Daybreak' with some multi-instrumental prog and their track here 'Sunset, Emotion' is a heavy hammond-assited slab. EF Band ('EF' was derived from the first letter of Ericcson and Fischer's names) were based in Gothenburg. They made some impact in the NWOBHM scene, English member Roger Marsden went on to Angel Witch and guitarist Andy La Rocque (aka Anders Allhage) joined King Diamond. They were included on the 1st instalment of the classic 1980 'Metal For Muthas' compilations and had three albums before breaking up in 1987. 1979's 'Self Made Suicide' was their first single which was recorded at Red Ball studio in Shropshire, UK.

Kebnekaise (the name taken from that of Sweden's hightest mountain) have quite a prominent place in Swedish rock history stretching back to the mid sixties. They evolved from Baby Grandmothers, who was one of the country's first heavy psych bands and supported Jimi Hendrix's Swedish appearances in 1968 along with Mecki Mark Men, another of Sweden's formative heavy psych acts. Kebnekaise resulted from a coming together of members of these bands and some more including 'Homo Sapiens' and Tages, an accomplished band that were Sweden's best answer to The Beatles.

The Baby Grandmothers' guitarist Kenny Håkansson was the driving force of Kebnekaise and as was popular in the progg scene, folk influences crept in too. It's hard to describe the first Kebnekaise album, but it's definitely unique. There's elements of everything that was happening in commercial and underground progressive rock of the time, and plenty of extremity, but it's all infused with quirky Swedish melody and personality. For instance, the track 'Resa Mot Okänt Mål' is fast and brutal by anyone's standards and it's over-laid with pinky'n perky style speeded up vocals.

Neon Rose

Scorpion

Gothenburg's Midsommar began life focusing on political subjects with their first album but the next one in 1972 was musically far stronger and rocked hard in places with hints of November vibe in the guitar riffs, and some pretty good brass backing it up. Scorpion's 'I Am The Scorpion' one-album curio was produced by american producer and cult music figure Kim Fowly, who later managed The Runaways, how it came about that he was involved in this obscutity is still for me to find out.... It also has drummer Pelle Holm who was in a late lineup of Kebnekaise. 'Hey Girl I'm Ugly' is a catchy piece of acid-bluesy rock.

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On Saturday 25th of August 2012, Scott Sroka (aka DJ Cheesus) dedicated his entire 'Electric Lounge of Aural Ecstasy' show on Core of Destruction Radio to a 3 hour Day After The Sabbath tribute.

Scott, currently living in São Paulo, Brazil, has been presenting on Core of Destruction for the past year. He was a contributor to the excellent stoner rock community blog 'Sludge Swamp', that sadly closed its doors a year or so ago. Sludge Swamp helped me out in making a name for TDATS back when I started doing this, and also hosted demos for a few of the New Zealand bands that are joined up on the forum I started up when I was over there: www.stonerdoom.co.nz.



For the show he chose at random one track from each of the first 39 volumes and played them all along with cool commentary, after having made a great job on some extra research with assistance from co-host Stargazer. He plans to do another part soon. Here is the show to download from [mf] or [mg].

Tracklist:

First Hour:
01. Sir Lord Baltimore - Helium Head
02. Moxy - Can't You See I'm A Star?
03. Blackwater Park - Rock Song
04. Speed, Glue & Shinki - Stoned Out Of My Mind
05. Orang-Utan - Chocolate Piano
06. Master's Apprentices - Death Of A King
07. Killing Floor - Out Of Uranus
08. May Blitz - For Mad Men Only
09. Southern Cross - Harris Street
10. Titanic - Something On My Mind

Second Hour:
11. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - St. Anthony
12. Nazareth - Hard Living
13. Crystal Haze - Flame
14. Bubble Puppy - Hot Smoke and Sassafras
15. The 31 Flavors - Distortions Of Darkness
16. Head Over Heels - Right Away
17. Fifty Foot Hose - Red The Sign Post
18. Death - Rock-N-Roll Victim
19. Orange Peel - Faces That I Used to Know
20. Días De Blues - No Podrán Conmigo
21. Bakery - No Dying In The Dark
22. Peacepipe - The Sun Won't Shine Forever
23. Pat Travers - Makes No Difference
24. Hillary Blaze - Opening
25. Forever More - Promisses of Spring
26. Oda - Gabriel

Third Hour:
27. Eden's Children - If She's Right
28. Rhapsody - Strange Vibrations
29. Clown On A Rope - Fresh Blueberry Pancake
30. The Osmonds - Gotta Get Love
31. The Viola Crayola - I Know You Don't Have A Car
32. Socrates Drank The Conium - Who Is To Blame?
33. Novak's Kapelle - Hypodermic Needle / Smile Please
34. Farmyard - All In Your Head
35. Shocking Blue - Long and Lonesome Road
36. Nokemono - From The Black World
37. Tritons - Drifter
38. Johnny Winter - Guess I'll Go Away
39. The Storm - Experiencia sin Organo

Scott's 'Electric Lounge of Aural Ecstasy' show is on Core of Destruction every Saturday 3 pm CST (us)/ 4 pm EST (us) / 9pm GMT / 10pm CET.

Many thanks to Scott and I look forward to the next part!
Rich.

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Volume 76 is a Native American special. I was inspired to make this one while I was researching for vol65, the southern rock set. I came across a band from Chicago called Winterhawk, and I was suffering some confusion about their albums, which different sources were showing  as having conflicting names and dates. Eventually I worked out that those sources were getting the facts mixed up with another equally obscure band of the same name, that had released albums around the same time as the Chicagaons. This other band's album cover showed a tough looking all-Native American group, and I just had to hear it! They played hard rock with really strong Red Indian flavour, the likes of which I had never come across, and I was immediately intrigued as to whether any other bands like this existed. I did not find any that were directly comparable to Winterhawk, but as is usually the case, I did find a whole bunch of great stuff that I could never could have predicted...

Redbone

So we start at the beginning with......Redbone was formed by Californian brothers Pat & Lolly Vegas, of mixed Native American and Mexican heritage. They recorded a lot during the 60s under various names before forming Redbone (a Cajun slang term referring to their mixed blood) in 1969. Pat claims that they were inspired to form an all-Native rock band by a suggestion from their friend Jimi Hendrix, and by his pride in his Native American heritage. They were one of the most successful bands on this comp and continued to record until 2005. I love the haunting intro of ‘Chant: 13th Hour’ from their second album, 1970’s ‘Potlatch’.

Lincoln Street Exit, later known as ‘XIT’, was started by four guys in Albuquerque, all of Native American descent. There is a track here from each incarnation. At first they did not overtly display this heritage (listen to the hard psych sound of “Straight Shootin’ Man” from their first album) but as they progressed, their name shortened to XIT as new producer/member Tom Bee encouraged a move to politically-themed lyrics and First Nation pride and imagery. They did enjoy some success and were quickly signed to Motown record’s ‘Rare Earth’ Label. Like Redbone, the political aspect affected their saleability in the US, but not in the rest of the world. The XIT track ‘I Was Raised’ appearing here, is from their 1972 Motown debut LP ‘Plight Of The Redman’.

Tom Bee is a name that will appear again here. A member of the Dakota tribe from New Mexico, Tom was inspired by Leonard and Marshall Chess who ran the Chess record label in the 1950s. Founding an R&B label, ‘Lance Records and Music’ in the 1960s, Bee sold 45 rpm singles from the trunk of his car. Later, as a producer, he worked with artists like The Jackson Five and Smokey Robinson and started labels expressly for promoting Native American music. It’s thanks to his efforts that the Grammys now include a Native American category, for which he has subsequently been a nominee, along with a lot of other awards that recognise his contributions to native music. He made a solo album in 1994 called ‘Color Me Red’.

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie was an artist of Cree Canadian descent who has had a long and eventful life in music. She has been recording since the early sixties, and active in protesting for ‘Indigenous peoples of the Americas’ rights, which includes those of South America. Her ‘folk-protest, long-haired girl with guitar’ image reminds me somewhat of Joan Baez, who was also born in 1941. The track appearing here “He’s a Keeper of the Fire” is from her (at the time) least well received album, 'Illuminations'. It divided fans as it was the first big departure from her original sound; her first ‘rock’ record. In retrospect it is regarded as a unique and interesting work, with it’s heavy use of electronica and the cutting-edge Buchla synthesizer, and arrangement contributions from Peter Schickele (aka PDQ Bach). This brought to my mind another pleasing connection to Joan Baez; Schickele arranged Joan’s  'Noël' and 'Baptism' LPs around the same time, and later the Silent Running soundtrack that Joan sung on.

If there's one band that could give Skynyrd a run for their money it's this one....Jacksonville, Florida's Blackfoot were originally called Hammer, they changed their name to Blackfoot to represent the American Indian heritage of bassist Greg T. Walker, drummer Jakson Spires and singer/guitarist Rickey Medlocke (Spires is part Cherokee, Medlocke part Sioux, and Walker part Eastern Creek, a Florida Indians tribe). Their name is from the ‘Blackfoot Nation’, that originated from a powerful buffalo-hunting society of the northern plains with most of their settlements in Montana, Idaho, and Alberta. I used the band back on Vol65 and for me they are one of the best Southern rock bands ever. Medlocke often plays in Lynyrd Skynyrd, and he heads a new lineup of Blackfoot this year.

Geronimo Black

Jimmy Carl Black was of Cheyenne heritage, he was the original drummer of Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention. Zappa disbanded the Mothers in 1969 and in 1970 Jimmy formed Geronimo Black (named after his youngest son) with sax player Bunk Gardner who was also from The Mothers, and others including Denny Walley from Captain Beefheart's Magic Band and sax player Tjay Contrelli  from Love. Geronimo only made one album in 1972, which is a mix of hard rock, R&B and jazz with well-integrated stings and horns and “Low Ridin’ Man” is my personal pick. There is also a polemic track called ‘An American National Anthem’ written by Black about Indian killings; "Indian Land is stolen, 52 million dead, each one's head is scalped by a trick taught by white man hunters coming over the land"

Todd Tamanend Clark

Todd Tamanend Clark (b. 1952 Greensboro, Pennsylvania, US) Is a DIY musician with Lenape and Onodowaga ancestry that has been self-recording his own obscure, unique music since the seventies. Todd Clark is his English name, from 1990 he began using his full name of Todd Tamanend Clark which was inherited from his grandfather. The name Tamanend originates from the Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley. His music is a Smörgåsbord of sci-fi influenced, proto-punk glam pysch experimentation, and he is an enthusiast of archaic electronica like Moogs and Theremins. I found the tracks I used here on the Anopheles Records retrospective ‘Nova Psychedelia’ which spans the first decade of his career from 1975-1985. His most recent album of original material was 2004's 'Monongahela Riverrun' and he is working on a new record right now..

Jesse Ed Davis

Oklahoman Jesse Ed Davis was born in 1944 to a Muscogee Creek/Seminole Father and a Kiowa mother.  He made a name for himself around Oklahoma, playing with the likes of John Ware (Emmylou Harris drummer), John Selk (Donovan's later bass player) and Jerry Fisher (Blood, Sweat & Tears vocalist). His longest band membership was with Taj Mahal, for whom he adeptly played guitar and piano in many styles including blues, rock, country and jazz. It is said that after watching a Taj Mahal show one night, Duane Allman was amazed by Jesse’s innovative slide guitar interpretation of the riff in Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” and he borrowed it for what became one of the Allman Brother’s signature tunes.

Jesse became an in-demand session guitarist and recorded with John Lennon and George Harrison, and was invited to record or play live with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen, Keith Moon, Jackson Browne and Steve Miller. He performed with The Faces as second guitarist throughout their final US tour in 1975 and played with American Indian activist and poet John Trudell in the collective called the Graffiti Band.

Sadly, Jesse battled drug addiction on and off throughout his career and in 1988 it eventually killed him at the young age of 43, in Venice, California. The track I have used is from his second solo album, 1972’s ‘Ululu’.

Link Wray was from the same pre-Elvis generation as the likes of Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry and he remained influential right up until his death, though he never achieved the same level of recognition. His story goes right back to the beginning of the electric guitar’s use in rock & roll. “Fred Lincoln Wray Jr” (b. 1929) had a hard childhood; he is quoted as saying “Elvis, he grew up white-man poor. I was growing up Shawnee poor” (the tribe of his ancestry) and he recalled his family being in fear of the North Carolina Klu Klux Klan. He signed up for the Korean War and contracted tuberculosis while serving. During recovery he had a lung removed. The affect this had on his vocal abilities encouraged him to compensate by focussing on the guitar and it's  heaviness, so he was one of the first artists to make the guitar a lead instrument.

After a career-lull in the sixties and it’s rebirth in the seventies, his legacy has been recognised as one of sonic attitude and innovation rather that technical ability. His seminal 1958 track ‘Rumble’, on which he has been credited with the invention of the power chord and popularisation of amplifier distortion, was radio-banned to stop it from inciting violence in the new gang culture-aware youth of the times. He received redemptive acceptance as a rockabilly icon in the eighties and a new life in Europe enabled him to continue performing right up until his 2005 death from heart failure at age 76. He was inducted into the Native American Music Hall Of Fame on June 8, 2006. Link rarely recorded two albums that sounded similar, and the track I have used, ‘Tecolote’ from his 1975 album ‘Stuck In Gear’, is a good example of where he was at that point in time.

Sun Country article

Sun Country was started by brothers Lee & Stephen Tiger, sons of Buffalo Tiger, a chief of the Floridian Miccosukee Tribe. As teens they gigged in Miami garage bands including the Renegades and a brief incarnation of NRBQ. The brothers formed ‘Sun Country’ in 1968 and played at the inaugural Miami Pop Festival of that year. In 1969 they played the ‘Big Rock Pow Wow’ at the Seminole Indian Reservation in Hollywood, Florida. Headlined by The Grateful Dead, it ran for three days in May, also featuring Chicago, Edgar & Johnnie Winter. They toured the West Coast in 1969, playing venues including the famed Whisky-a-Go-Go and opening for acts including Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.

Lee & Steve Tiger

Upon signing to Bernard Stollman's ESP label, Sun Country issued its self-titled record in 1969. It fared poorly, but by 1972 the Tiger brothers were back as ‘Tiger Tiger’, who have been playing since. While readying their 5th LP ‘Native to This Country’ in 2006, Stephen Tiger suffered a fatal fall at his Miami home, at the age of 57. Lee Tiger vowed to continue, recruiting Stephen's son Joey and former Blues Image/Alice Cooper guitarist Mike Pinera to round out the lineup. The track I have used is ‘Dog Legs’, it is the most Native American-flavoured track from their first record. They re-recorded the song in 2000, so what I have done here is mixed the old and new together, it starts with the 1969 version and at around the 2:10 mark it merges in to the 2000 version.

J.J. Light is actually Jim Stallings, who also played bass with the Sir Douglas Quintet. His solo music started in the early 60's with some doo-wop style singles. In 1969 he recorded his only LP, called ‘Heya’, under the pseudonym ‘J.J. Light’,  a name coined by the album’s producer, “the notorious” Bob Markley of ‘West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band’ fame. I have joined a couple of his tracks; ‘Follow Me Girl’ is a fuzzrockin’ pop gem, and ‘Indian Disneyland’ is a great Bob Dylan-esque social commentary which draws from his Navajo Indian roots. For curious reasons unknown, to myself at least, the album was never issued in the US but sold very well in Europe, Japan, South America, and New Zealand.

Tom Bee’s name appears again, as producer of Winterhawk’s 1979 ‘Electric Warriors’ LP. Nik Winterhawk Alexander, a Cree Indian who led the all-native hard rock band, was quoted: "Music is a very sacred part of Native American lifestyles. If a person of a tribe possesses a rattle or a drum or a stick to beat the drum, those articles are treated with great respect. Winterhawk carried that same reverence toward music, because the ability to play music is a gift".

According to RYM, the band comprised: Nik Alexander (vocals, guitar), Frank J. Diaz de Leon (bass, vocals), Alfonso Morris Kolb (drums), Frankie Joe (guitar), Jon Gibson (drums, vocals) and Doug Love (bass, vocals). They recorded two albums between 79-80 but apparently were better regarded as a live band, playing together from 1971 until 1984. The track I have used here; ‘Selfish Man’ is one of the best on the comp and it’s a great mix of hard rock with loads of Red Indian character.

'In Circle' LP

The compilation ends with a thought provoking track found on the b side of a single. Chief Dan George (b. 1899) was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation from Vancouver. He was a writer and an actor too, appearing in movies like ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ with Clint Eastwood.

In 1973 a Canadian band called Fireweed made an album called ‘In Circle’ and the Chief sung on it. ‘Indian Prayer’ is a spoken word recitation of a traditional Native American prayer, of which an English translation was made famous by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887. Two tracks from the album were released on this single with the a-side being a cover of Gene Austin’s My Blue Heaven.

Chief Dan George

Tracks:
01. Redbone - Chant  13th Hour (1970)
       from album 'potlatch'
02. Lincoln Street Exit - Straight Shootin' Man (1969)
       from album 'drive it!'
03. Buffy Sainte-Marie - He's A Keeper Of The Fire (1969)
       from album 'illuminations'
04. Blackfoot - Dancin' Man (1976)
       from album 'flyin' high'
05. Geronimo Black - Low Ridin' Man (1972)
       from album 'geronimo black'
06. Todd Tamanend Clark - Rumor Has It / Mathematics Don't Mean A Thing (1979)
       from retrospective 'nova psychedelia'
07. Jesse Ed Davis - Red Dirt Boogie, Brother (1972)
       from album 'ululu'
08. Link Wray - Tecolote (1975)
       from album 'stuck in gear'
09. Sun Country & Tiger Tiger - Dog Legs (1969)
       from albums 'sun country' & 'southern exposure'
10. Xit - I Was Raised (1972)
       from album 'plight of the redman'
11. J.J. Light - Follow Me Girl / Indian Disneyland (1969)
       from album 'heya!'
12. Winterhawk - Selfish Man (1979)
       from album 'electric warriors'
13. Chief Dan George and Fireweed - Indian Prayer (1973)
       from album 'in circle'

Thanks for listening! Rich

By more popular demand for a comp that has been unavailable for a while, I have revamped and re-upped Volume 31, a great mix of manic stoned fuzzers from around the world. It's delights include a nice'n heavy Stevie Wonder cover, an early pre-fame Ronnie James Dio and a great Argentinian stoner band's cover of a space-rock classic.

I have added a lot of extra information on each band, speeding-up deployment by lifting it all directly from various sources on the net. Enjoy!----Rich.

Download from: [mf] or [mg]
Volume 77 is a mix of the best in US fuzz, psych, heavy blues and hard rock from between the heavenly years of 1969 and 1973. They are all new to TDATS, I love'em all and it's another blast so let's go...

I found a little article regarding Jamulhere. "Jamul's album, though being issued on the small Lizard label, may be not so obscure, but the band surely is. Named after a small town somewhere out in the back country near San Diego, there is almost no information available on this outfit. They are: Steve Williams, Bob Desnoyers, Ron Armstrong and John Fergus. Their music is mostly heavy blues rock with extremely powerful vocals. Best songs are "Tobacco Road" with a strong guitar solo and thundering blues harp, "Ramblin Man" (not the Allman Brothers' song) and the apocalyptic "Valley Thunder". Their cover of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash' is a bit lame, although it has a good progressive Guitar solo. There are 2 or 3 other songs, that seem to be mere fillers. But still - this is better than some of the 100-dollar-records you see for sale. - Originally came with a set of stamps depicting the musicians. The band were involved with Steppenwolf's management and the sound is similar to the early years of that band."

Mariani, Reviewed by: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck: "A trio called Mariani originally recorded Perpetuum Mobile in 1970. In 2001 Akarma Records resurrected this sought after collectable. A young 16-year-old guitarist was making some noise then, his name was Eric Johnson. Many music lovers found out about Johnson through his breakthrough album Ah Via Musicom in 1990. After The Ventures had initiated me and opened my ears to instrumental rock, I heard Johnson's song "Trademark," which was enjoying a steady rotation on FM radio. Enamored by the new sound, I consequently started my search for all the instrumental guitar music that I could get my hands on.

This reissued classic rock-blues album comes packaged in gatefold sleeve with the original stunning artwork and lengthy and informative liner notes that fill up both sides of the inner sleeves. I really did not know what to expect when I put this platter on my turntable. I thought it might have been one of those castaway recordings that you hear 30 years after the fact. This however was not the case. Johnson, Vince Mariani (drums, vocals), and Jay Podolick (bass, vocals) were a powerful trio. Johnson was only a 16-year-old kid but he sounded years beyond capabilities as a lead guitar player."

Jump's album was from 1971: "This progressive pop-rock quartet was led by lead guitarist / vocalist Dennis Tracy, along with lead vocalist / organist Scott Thurston, bassist Mark Spiwak and drummer Don Gorman. They met on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles one night, and quickly found management in the shape of The Doors right-hand man Bill Siddons (who had time on his hands while The Doors were on hiatus following the recording of LA Woman.) 

After a week’s rehearsals, they signed the Janus (asubsidiary of Chess) at the Beach House in Santa Monica, California, and Flew to San Francisco to cut an album at the legendary Wally Heider’s Studios before they’d so much as played a gig. Overseen by Fred Catero – famed for his work with Bob Dylan, Santana and others – the Sessions took three weeks (and were filmed by UCLA film Student Reed Hutchinson, though it has yet to resurface). 

Their first gig was in front of 5000 people at the San Bernardino’s Civic Aufitorium. Following the album’s release on the Janis label in the summer of 1971, they undertook two nationwide tours, including a performance at the massive week-long Celebration of Life festival in Macrea Louisiana that June. Despite a strong commercial sound (and a German release for the LP on Bellaphon), the split later the year over musical direction (Thurston and Spiwak favored a more traditional rock/blues sound, while Tracy was more interested in classic songwriting). After the split, Tracy embarked on a solo career, including a 1974 album on which he was backed by Thurston and Spiwak, meanwhile, became a leading Session Musician and long-time member of Iggy Pop and Tom Petty’s bands."

An RYM review of Landslide by RDTEN1: "It's interesting to note that in the early and mid-1970s Capitol Records had some fantastic acts signed to recording contracts.  Unfortunately, the label's focus was on boogie bands such as Grand Funk Railroad, relegating even more deserving outfits like Food and Long Island's Landslide to instant oblivion. 

In terms of bibliographical information, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of stuff readily available on this New York quartet.  What little I've found comes from the liner notes on their LP. The line up consisted of drummer Tommy Caglioti, Joseph Caglioti, singer Ed Cass, bassist  Bobby Sallustio and lead guitarist Billy Savoca.  Prior to forming Landslide, Joseph and Tommy Caglioti  and Sallusito had played in the blues band Trax.  Following it's break up, Sallustio dropped out of music to attend college, but within a short period, decided to form a new band with his former partners.  The three promptly recruited vocalist Cass and guitarist Savoca (who had been playing in the band Gullotos).  The five piece began playing local clubs as Hot Waks before metamorphosing into Landslide. 

Released in 1972, their sole album "Two Sided Fantasy" was apparently a self-produced effort (credited to Proud Productions, Inc.).  With four of the five members contributing material the album offered up an enjoyable mix of blues-rock ('Everybody Knows (Slippin')'), Manassas-styled Latin-flavored rock ('Doin' What I Want') and conventional hard rock ('Happy').  Exemplified by tracks such as the leadoff rocker 'Doin' What I Want' ' the album offered up strong melodies, taunt vocals and Savoca's always tasty guitar.  While the entire album is good, highlights include 'Dream Traveler' (be sure to check out Savoca's lead guitar) and the closer 'Happy'."

Summerhill

Summerhill information taken from http://psychedelic-rocknroll.blogspot.co.uk: "Summerhill were formed in Los Angeles in 1968 by Doug Burger (keyboards), Larry Hickman (bass guitar), Alan Parker (vocals, lead guitar) and Del Ramos (drums, percussion). Produced by David Briggs and recoreded at Wally Heider Studio in San Francisco during 1969, their eponymous album Summerhill (Bill Cosby's record label Tetragrammaton T-114) features ten original compositions, all four members contributed material giving the album a diverse, but occasionally unfocused feel.

Summerhill's only and underrated album possibly failed to find an audience because it never settles on any particular style, plus I assume that Tetragrammaton Records were pretty underground, despite having Deep Purple's 'The Book Of Taliesyn' on their catalogue. The set certainly sported a late-1960s West Coast vibe, bouncing all over the musical spectrum, including Hendrix-Rock style (Bring Me Around), Sunshine Pop (Soft Voice), Curt Boettcher-influenced Psychedelic Folk-Rock (Follow Us), a touch of Jazz (What Can I Say), and brushes with more experimental moves (check out the aural meltdown on side two's The Bird). 

Elsewhere Summerhill's album was interesting for showing the band as an early exponent of Country-Rock. Alan Parker's pretty Country-flavored ballad The Last Day was every bit as good as anything being released by The Byrds, The Buffalo Springfield, or Poco (who's Rusty Young provided pedal steel guitar. Alan Parker's Fuzz guitar propelled My Way (Hard for You) would have sounded right at home on one of Byrds' Preflyte album. 'Friday Morning's Paper', which is a magically psychedelic concoction of staggering drums, veiled vocals, drugged strings and Raga guitars belonging on any compilation of this sort. 

Even better was the Fuzz guitar and feedback drenched in the killer guitar Pop song 'It's Gonna Rain'. A great slice of harmony rich, lysergic soaked Rock. Tetragrammaton also tapped the album for a single in the form of The Last Day" b/w Soft Voice."

More The Third Power information here. "The Third Power formed in 1967 near Detroit in Farmington Hills, MI by Drew Abbot (Guitar, Vocals), Jim Craig - (Drums, Vocals) and Jem Targal - (Bass guitar, Vocals) after playing around for several years in various bands. They Quickly emerged as a favourite on the local club circuit thanks to their bone-rattling sound. Third Power arrived with one of the most descriptive epithets a Power Rock Trio ever possessed. 

Their heavy attack fast made them favourites at the Grande Ballroom, Eastown Theater and just about every other concert venue in the area. In 1970 The 3rd Power recorded the album 'Believe' was recorded for the Vanguard Records. But 'The 3rd Power - Believe' was deemed too heavy for the label's direction and lacked the support that could have made it more of a hit. This decision by Vanguard Records to drop The Third Power from their roster almost immediately after Believe's release made it an instant collectable.

Despite production and support by the legendary Sam Charters, Vanguard's utter lack of comprehension of the work (they didn't really know what to do with the band and dropped them after hearing the recording), poor distribution and non-existent promotion erased any chance the record had to stand on its considerable merit. Vanguard Records executives thought the album was too heavy, never gave it any promotional support and dropped the band literally days after the album was released. Believe (Vanguard Records VSD-6554) is purely studio; way too produced and laden with overdubs impossible to duplicate live, at least with the technology available then and it was not strong enough to capture the all important top 40 FM market and most importantly, did not sell well outside of Detroit and related environs. 

Jem Targal had the vocal chords for serious Rock singing and Drew Abbot's supercharged guitar work ranked with the best in the city. In the early '70s Drew Abbot performed as an opener with various Motown Records session bands. Having been managed by Punch Andrews, Drew Abbot knew Bob Seger; in fact, Third Power had often opened for Bob Seger. In 1972 when Seger decided he wanted to give up guitar playing responsibilities, Drew Abbot was asked to join Bob Seger's band. 

When "Punch Andrews" and "Bob Seger" decided to create a new image for "Bob Seger" by starting the "Silver Bullet Band" in 1974, "Drew Abbot" was the only member asked to stay on."

Charisma info found at Red Telephone's great blog: "Charisma came about from diverging roots emanating from 3 directions. The core of Charisma was Rich Tortorigi (drummer) and George Tyrell (bass player). Both were members of a New Britain, Connecticut soul band called The Mantiques. The Mantiques had been one of the three main horn-based bands in New Britain in the mid to late 60’s, along with Detroit Soul and The Paramounts. Paramounts drummer, Tyrone Lampkin went on to play with Gutbucket and the Parliament Funkadelics.

In 1968, Rich Tortorigi recruited Tom Majesky to play guitar with The Mantiques, following their breakup. Tom enlisted Bernie Kornowicz, former bassist of The Last Five, to share guitar and organ duties. The final addition to the group was folk singer Mike DeLisa to sing lead. Tom and Bernie brought the rock and roll element to the Mantiques and Mike brought the band an element of folkiness."

Atlee were a hard-rock quartet from California. All the tracks on their sole album were penned by Atlee Yeager and demonstrate the band's skill and their sense of humour: Jesus People, Dirty Sheets, Dirty Old Man, Let's Make Love are just some highlights of a very consistent album. Damon also played in the group. Two members who would join the group Highway Robbery, Don Francisco and Mike Stevens, were involved with the band during the release of the album. Still working with Michael Stevens, Atlee Yeager would go on to issue another album on Chelsea in 1973 called Plant Me Now And Dig Me Later. 'Will If You Will' is taken from that album.

I have put the 'Lost Nation' track on as a half-time breather, it's not very heavy, it's just a great song! "Don't let the cover of this obscure Detroit album put you off - it depicts the band behind a balustrade on whose lower wall is graffiti on a predominantly ecological theme, but this is no hippie-rock, or back-to-nature concept album. This is serious progressive rock, soundwise somewhere between Uriah Heep and Rare Bird - busy keyboards, strong vocals, neoclassical movements, and some excellent heavy guitar. Not strictly within the main thrust of this book, this quintet merit an entry for including Ron Stults, formerly of revered heavy garage kings The Unrelated Segments. Craig Webb also had a spell in Frijid Pink."(info taken from Orexisofdeath)

4th Cekcion were an obscure and rare Texas based horn rock outfit. Very Good!! Released by the small Bellaire, Texas-based Solar Recording Corporation, 1970's "4th Cekcion" was produced by Fred Carroll. It's horn rock with a plenty of non-cheesy attitude and there's a few fine cuts to be found on it. Expect to hear some more on the forth-coming second brass / horn rock comp...




Five by Five were late a sixties band that had a little success with some singles and made one album in 1968. Though clearly tallented musicians, they never really found an identity, but their last single, included here, shows them heading in a harder-rocking direction and they pull it off very well so it would have been nice to see where they could have gone. 'Good Connection' gives this volume it's name.

The Cryan Shames made quite a name for themselves in Chicago as a sixties pop group and went in a slightly harder direction their final album in 1970 and the track I used here is an interesting mix of pop, prog and hard riffs. Here is Tymeshifter's review from RYM: "The Cryan shames career seems to have followed a similar ark to that of their contemporaries The Critters. But the latter's early pop albums were not their best, and they seemed more suited for the harder stuff they put out on their final LP. The Cryan Shames, on the other hand, produced some of the best pop oriented albums of their time, and those first two are excellent examples of the genre.

But here on this final release, they seem to want to break out of that mold, and find themselves in an area to which they were not as comfortably suited. Though still containing ample amounts of light pop, it is punctuated with harder, much more progressive flavored rock, as well as overtly evident psych effects. Oddly, though apparently their sole release geared towards the underground set, this is the one of their albums not to escape the typical horn and orchestrated production techniques their earlier, more commercially oriented albums did."


I found a nice write-up on Mason over at rockasteria.blogspot.co.uk: "The years 1968-1974 brought about the awakening and evolution of the Tidewater-Chesapeake Bay music scene The ocean front and tidal inlets with their military influences of Norfolk and the commercialism of Virginia Beach tourism brought the money to support a thriving hot bed of live music. British infusion brought Cream, Hendnx, Traffic, Mountain, and Blind Faith influences and began an evolution from the beach music of the R&B roots. Mason was formed to combine these roots and resulted in a trio of multi talented musicians playing the stages of Peabody's Warehouse and The Dome to Alex Cooley's in Atlanta's Electric Ballroom Especially memorable was the Fan district of Richmond where on any given weekend night.

Mason would be playing across the street from other clubs that were featuring bands headed up by Bruce Hornsby. Bruce Springsteen (Steel Mill), and Lynyrd Skynyrd. However. Mason was the only band at this time (1971) to actually have recorded and released an LP. Morgan Hampton played both piano and sang; but his impeccable beat and drive on drums set Mason apart from most of the R&B drummers of this time. Steve Arcese had the vocal uniqueness which drew from his deep roots in classic R&B His virtuosity on the B3 Hammond organ drove walls of sound up and down the East coast.

As Mason's music expanded. Steve branched out to guitar and bass, setting the group apart as a multi faceted presentation of music styles James Galyon's musically diverse skills accented Morgan's and Steve's virtuosities James played flute, saxophone, Lyricon, bass, keyboards, and acoustic and electric guitar. The combined sounds initially drew five to six hundred listeners each performance in 1969, but by 1973 Mason was performing in concerts to audiences of over 15,000."


RDTEN1 over at RYM come's up trumps again with a great history of super-obscure outfit Owen-B: "Owen-B (named after the band's black and orange 1954 Mercury), has an interesting, if rather convoluted background. Born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio singer/guitarist Terry Van Auker and multi-instrumentalist Tom Zinser got their starts playing in a number of local bands, including Tommy Z and The Sleepers.  By 1967 the two were playing in an outfit known as Wildlife.  Popular on the local club scene, an audition for Columbia went well, but the company's interest was contingent on the group agreeing to dump then lead singer Lou Basso.  Reluctantly the rest of the band agreed to the personnel change, subsequently recording a number of demos for the label.  The partnership was brief, resulting in the release of one instantly obscure single: 'Time Will Tell' b/w 'Hard Hard Year'. Back on the club circuit, 1969 saw another personnel change with former Crazy Elephant/Music Explosion drummer Bob Tousignant (aka Bob Avery) signing on.  Another name change followed, with Owen-B emerging. 

Unable to interest another major label in their material, the group elected to go the self-issued route.  Consequently 1970's cleverly-titled "Owen-B" was released on their own Ohio-based Mus-i-col label.  Self-produced, anyone expecting to hear another set of mid-1960s blue-eyed soul/garage was probably somewhat disappointed by the album.  Similarly anyone buying into dealer hype claiming this was a set of mind melting psych was gonna be disappointed.  Those comments aren't meant to be taken as criticisms since the collection's quite commercial and somewhat of a lost classic.  Featuring ten band-penned originals, musically the set bounced all over the spectrum, including stabs at stoner acoustic folk ('All We Are Asking'), pop ('My Friends'), country-rock ('Weekend'), and conventional hard rock ('Share'). Normally something as diverse wouldn't hold up particularly well, but when packaged with killer melodies, great harmony vocals, some first-rate guitar (courtesy of Terry Van Auker ) and a real sense of fun and enjoyment you ended up with one of the rare exceptions to the rule.  Personal favorites include 'Leavin' It All Up To You' and 'Out On My Own' (which add a bit of progressive complexity to the mix) and ''.  Easy to see why folks hype the album, even if it isn't for the right reasons.  Shame they didn't record a follow up set."

Track list:

01. Jamul - All You Have Left Is Me (1970)
       from album 'jamul'
02. Mariani - Re-Birth Day (1970)
       from album 'perpetuum mobile'
03. Jump - Love Wit Chu Mama (1971)
       from album "jump"
04. Landslide - Happy (1972)
       from album 'two sided fantasy'
05. Summerhill - Bring Me Around (1969)
       from album 'summerhill'
06. The Third Power - Gettin' Together (1970)
       from album 'believe'
07. Charisma - Bizwambi, Ritual Dance Of The Reptiles (1970)
       from album 'beast and friends'
08. Atlee Yeager - Will If You Will (1973)
       from album 'plant me now and dig me later'
09. Lost Nation - Tall Ivory Castle (1970)
       from album 'paradise lost'
10. 4th Cekcion - Find Yourself Another Way (1970)
       from album '4th cekcion'
11. Five By Five - Good Connection (1970)
       single
12. The Cryan' Shames - Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones (1968)
       from album 'synthesis'
13. Mason - Tell Me (1971)
       from album 'harbour'
14. Owen-B - Thank You For Listening (1970)
       from album 'owen-b'

Thank You For Listening! Rich.
     

Download from  [mf] or [ds] or [mg]
Unzip password:  tdats
Flutes. There, I said it. Before the more metal-minded of you out there run for cover, keep listening.......nothing exemplifies and defines that authentic progressive rock sound we all love more than a well-placed touch of virtuoso flute. Let me reassure you, all the tracks in this exhilarating volume also pass the TDATS seal of approval for heaviness, groove or fuzz. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the prog-rock instruments of old with bands such as Blood Ceremony and Circulus bringing flutes back to the front of the stage.

Flute is not usually a priority for me in my searches, which is why I really appreciate it on the occasions that I come across some I like. The welcome addition of flute adds an extra element to all of the inclusions here, for instance, the Dug Dug's 'Smog' has heavy riffing that is followed closely by the flute and it adds strikingly to the over-all feel of the song. I have tried in the main to choose tracks where the instrument is an important part of the music, if not the driving force, rather than just a casual embellishment. The one exception to this is probably Fashion Pink, where the flute could be seen as a bit of an after-thought, but it still adds nicely to the  ambience and trouser-flapping groove. Rufus Zuphal are notable for how they gave the flute a monstrous sound by feeding it through various effects. For this volume I must make special thanks to the helpful crowd at the TDATS fb group and flute rock afficianado Julia Miodyńska, creator of weekly prog rock radio show Epoka Żelaza in Poland. The artwork is taken from the wonderful works of Leah Jay (linkedin) and you can see more at leahjayart.com.

Our opener 'Friday: 3 P.M' is a short segue track taken from The California Earthquake's 'Reformation' which was a fairly ambitious Christian progressive concept album (don't let that put you off too much!). Good use of brass and wood-wind conjures up the feeling of a 70's action movie with a cool soundtrack and overall it has a wide scope of sounds with some rocking moments like 'Let There Be Light'.  A very interesting curio indeed. Apparently this was a studio-only project made by an ensemble that included established session musicians like Jim Gordon (drums - played with Duane Allman, Jack Bruce & John Lee Hooker),  John Guerin (drums - played with Frank Zappa & The Byrds) and soul singer Roy Smith (vocals).

Tomorrows Gift

Track 2's Tomorrow's Gift were from Hamburg, they were a proto-prog band with plenty of heavy moments and on the first album they had a charismatic female singer in Ellen Meyer. Interestingly, guitarist Carlo Karges later played with German pop star Nina on hits like '99 Red Balloons'. Many of the tracks on their 1970 debut have an occult feel; I find this enhanced by Ellen's english pronunciation which is far from perfect and gives the vocals an odd quality which makes them sound even more like the strange incantations of a witch!

Fashion Pink

Another German band follows, Baden-Baden's 'Fashion Pink' were the original incarnation of krautrock prog-jazzers Brainstorm. This track has such a cool vibe, a really strong groove with wicked guitar and the whole thing is improved by it's flute embellishment.

Tako was a Serbian band that made a couple of albums before disbanding in 1981. The track here is from their self-titled 1978 album. It's a short instrumental with a stately intro which soon toughens up to the Ian Anderson-style of vocalised flute aggression, nice.

Tako

Next up is Mexican band Dug Dug's, and the use of stabbing echoed flute on this track from their second album is fantastic. It lends the sharp flighty feel that only flute can one second, and then forceful insidious nastiness the next.

Janko Nilović

Montenegrin Janko Nilović (birth name) is one of the most prolific and well-known creators of library music and I have used this catchy funk track from his 1975 record 'Soul Impressions'. He has made over 200 records and singles under at least 10 pseudonyms. There is now a great interview with the man himself here.

We have yet another German group now, Aachen's Rufus Zuphall. They are often likened to Jethro Tull and their breakthrough came in 1970 in front of a 30.000 crowd at the Jazz Festival in Bilzen, Belgium. Actually planned as a sideshow, they then played as the only amateur band to share the main stage with such stars as Black Sabbath, Cat Stevens or May Blitz and were celebrated by the press as 'surprise of the festival'.

Plumb Nelly

New York's 'Creedmore State' formed in 1970 and after success as a regular at the rock club "Ungano's" they signed to Capitol Records under the new name 'Plum Nelly'. They recorded one album called 'Deceptive Lines' and while touring it they supported big names such as Jimi Hendrix & Fleetwood Mac. Album track 'Lonely Man's Cry' was backed by a local group called The Sweet Inspirations which was lead by by Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston's Mother. 'The Demon' is the longest cut on this comp, it has a slightly progressive structure and a great mix of contrasts, along with some nice flute of course!

Gravy Train were from Lancashire, UK They made four albums over their obscure career, which started out on the famed Vertigo label . Unfortunately their output was patchy and they never really capitalised on their strengths, but these were considerable when they got the sound right and on their best tracks they sounded like Tull with the extra heaviness of Sabbath. The track here "Can Anybody Hear Me?" shows this.

Goliath

'Maajun (A Taste of Tangier)' is a track that I liked immediately, it came over as a condensed, speeded-up version of one of my favourite ever TDATS inclusions, the epic Rajah Khan by Renaissance. They both share an eastern feel, built upon ethereal female vocal shapes, with a tough groove that shows itself now and again. Goliath are not so easy to find info about, the lineup was Linda Rothwell (vocals), Malcolm Grundy (guitar), Joseph Rosbotham (woodwinds), John Williamson (bass) and Eric Eastman (drums, percussion). Thier only album, 1970's 'Goliath', was issued on CD by the Spanish Estrella Rockera Label in 2004. Apparently Linda Rothwell had a couple of solo singles on the Chapter One label in the early 70s.

'Progresiv TM' were from Romania and there was 6 years between their two albums. They had a very original and quirky sound, somewhat in-line with the genre-mash up eccentricities of other great eastern europen bands of the time. After reading about them, they are often compared to out-there Italian prog of the times, in sound, but also because the Romanian accent and language is similar to that of Italian. The guitar tone is nice and thick, another aspect that seems to be compared to Sabbath, but the writing is very different, it is tight and unpredictable, and the flute sheen makes a great contrast to the heaviness.

Quintessence were a band heavily influenced by the Beatles-approved psychedelic interest in Indian mysticism and raga music. As you probably know this is not the style of music that TDATS would normally delve into but on this single version of Notting Hill Gate they turned up the fuzz guitar a little and it's a cool track.

Heat Exchange

The next track is from a Canadian group called Heat Exchange. This Toronto-based 5 piece were clearly very talented and showed great musical versatility. Unfortunately they did not make an album, though they earned a recording contract to do so, and the scant information available so far on the series of singles they made does not reveal what happened to them. 'Reminiscence' is some frenetic prog which is quite tight and technical but accessible too, they could have been huge. I found a guy on YouTube who is the son of Flute player Graig Carmody, so I asked him for information on the band and this was his reply: "If I recall my dad's story correctly, they struggled to find a strong commercial hit--they landed a recording contract and Scorpio Lady was their first attempt at a commercial hit. It did pretty well in Toronto, landing in the top 40 countdown for some time. But the rest of their stuff was really creative and unusual, and I think they didn't want to veer too far away from that. A year later their momentum faded, and things just fell apart from there. My dad still plays after many years of repairing instruments as his profession, just in a couple local bands. If you're curious, here's a video of him in recent days."

Milwaukee's Shag was first know as 'The Shags' and made some garage singles in the mid 60s. They recorded a demo in 1969 at Pacific High Recording, The Grateful Dead's studio, but parted ways soon after. The demo has since been remastered and released by Gear Fab records, revealing another band that was clearly very creative and could have been a big name. I found a great interview with guitarist Paul Gordon Elliott on Klemen Breznikar's brilliant blog here. The track I used here 'Gypsies In The Forest' has relentless pace, lead by aggressive flute riffing which easily gives Tull a run for their money.

Jade Warrior

The penultimate inclusion is from Jade Warrior, who rose from the ashes of a few 60s bands including 'Second Thoughts', Tomcat, and the more well-known 'Unit Four plus Two' and July. By the time of their 1971 debut they had developed a considered layered sound that was a unique addition to the rising proto-prog sounds of the time. The track I have used here is from that debut and it shows their often bass-lead sound, with scything fuzz guitar and hints of oriental mystery. "A Prenormal Day at Brighton" is a strange title and I am yet find out what it means, answers on a post-card please! Various members have continued to make music under the Jade Warrior name and there is news of forth-coming releases on their site.

The comp ends on a rousing Canadian track from Ontario's The Hunt, who have connection to the bands Offenbach (see Vol58) and  Toronto's Dillinger. They don't score many points on originality, following closely in the flight-path of a certain lead balloon, but they do it very well and expand upon Zep's repertoire with expressive flute.

Tracks:

01. The California Earthquake - Friday 3 P.M. (1971)
       from album 'reformation'
02. Tomorrow's Gift - Tenakel Gnag (1970)
       from album 'tomorrow's gift'
 03. Fashion Pink - I'm a Man (1971)
       from retrospective 'encore'
04. Tako - Minijatura (1978)
       from album 'tako'
05. Los Dug Dug's - Smog [english version] (1972)
       from album 'smog'
06. Janko Nilović - Drug Song (1975)
       from album 'soul impressions'
07. Rufus Zuphall - Prickel Pit (1971)
       from album 'phallobst'
08. Plum Nelly - The Demon (1971)
       from album 'deceptive lines'
09. Gravy Train - Can Anybody Hear Me (1971)
       from album '(a ballad of) a peaceful man'
10. Goliath - Maajun (A Taste Of Tangier) (1970)
       from album 'goliath'
11. Progresiv TM - Rusinea Soarelui (1973)
       from album 'dreptul de a visa'
12. Quintessence - Notting Hill Gate [single version] (1969)
       single
13. Heat Exchange - Reminiscence (1972)
       single
14. Shag - Gypsies In The Forest (1969)
       from retrospective 'shag 1969'
15. Jade Warrior - A Prenormal Day at Brighton (1971)
       from album 'jade warrior'
16. The Hunt - I Was Only Dreaming (1977)
       from album 'the hunt'

Thanks for listening! Rich.

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Dose o' blues number two....A few screaming, agonising blues crucifixions mixed in with the usual unstoppable fuzz, coming at you like the train that just keeps'a rolling.......

Arthur Lee

Arthur Lee was the guitarist with LA's psych band Love, he also made a few solo albums along the way before his unfortunate death from leukaemia in 2006. Our intro track is from the time of his first, 1972's 'Vindicator', and is included on the bonus-tracks version. It's such a great riff in this track and it's almost like doom rock, and we all know that blues and doom are pretty much the same thing....Fun Fact: "Lee’s [pre-Love] composition, 'My Diary' was his first to do well. It was written for R&B singer Rosa Brooks who performed and recorded it. The song included a man by the name of Jimi Hendrix (think you may have heard of him) on the electric guitar. Lee had seen him play with the Isley Brothers and asked for him. This is considered by many to be the first known studio recording of Jimi Hendrix playing guitar."

Track 2 is from a fave album of mine by the UK's Jodo. I have never been able to find a lot of info on them, though the members are Earl Jordan (vocals), Jon Taylor (guitar), Rod Alexander (bass) and William E. Kimber (drums). They made one very accomplished hard bluesy rock album in 1971 called 'Guts'. Earl Jordan is known to have sung in the 'Green Bullfrog' sessions with members of Deep Purple that I used back on Vol59. Guts is chock-full of awesome playing, swaggering riffs, and was engineered by Martin Birch who later worked with big names like Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

Mahogany back cover

Mahogany were a UK band who's guitarist John Mackay was also in a pub band called Brewers Droop with a young Mark Knopfler. I have not found much info on Mahogany but have found a scan of the album's  rear jacket with liner notes so here it is word-for-word, by american journalist/critic 'Marion Fredi Towbin' : "Produced by Tony Clarke, Engineered by Robin Thompson. There has been a lot of talk lately of a blues revival, nourished in Britain and overflowing to our shores. Names like John Mayall, Jo-Ann Kelly and Eric Clapton have become increasingly well-known and respected Stateside, and appearances by British blues artists have drawn S.R.O. crowds at the Fillimore East and West as well as the numerous smaller clubs and concert auditoriums throughout the United States. Now there's a new British blues group to reckon with, MAHOGANY. On This, their début Epic album, MAHOGANY proves that original blues material (they composed everything on the album), if played with skill and vitality, can elicit from an audience that pure gut level reaction - "I've-Been-There-Too" - which has always been the earmark of the blues. 
       MAHOGANY is comprised of four young performers, each of whom has had extensive musical experience prior to joining the group: Stephen Darrington (organ), Joseph Southall (bass), John Mackay (lead guitar, lead vocalist) and Paul Hobbs (drums). Although there are only four members of MAHOGANY, their musical skill is considerable; between three of them they play no less than ten instruments including trumpet, violin and classical guitar. (Drummer Paul Hobbs says somewhat apologetically that he only plays drums as they are, for him, "a lifetime.")
       (As I write this, I'm listening to MAHOGANY, drinking a fine English Tea, and thinking about the American Revolution--the 18th-century one. What, I wonder, would our great-great grandaddies--who severed their lives so totally from that of British subjects--think of our 20th-century coming together?)
       Back to the blues . . . like the great blues artists (and I'm thinking Muddy Waters in particular), MAHOGANY'S music doesn't bring you down. Organist Stephen Darrington describes his compositions as "innumerable drunken 12 bar blues" filled as they are with wronged lovers, drinking bouts, packing up and parting times--but like the best of blues they're exhilarating, cathartic, and sometimes even happy."

Hurriganes

I found the Hurriganes while researching for the Finnish TDATS (w.i.p), they are not really heavy enough to fit usually but this track goes nicely in this comp, they were apparently a very important band in Finland and highly regarded. 'It Aint What You Do' is taken from their most popular album, 1974's 'Roadrunner'.


The 5th track is from a Dutch (Nijmegen) band called Cobra. They shared drummer Cor van der Beek with another band that appears here later, Livin' Blues, and made a string of singles between 70-73. 'Midnight Walker' is the b-side to the more commercial 'The War Will Be Over Soon'.

Track 6 comes from another UK band, Ipsissimus. It seems they took their name from the tenth level of Aleister Crowley's magical order, the A∴A∴ 'Lazy Woman' is an absolute stormer and this band had talent. The single a-side was an equally-cool cover of the Rupert's People/The Fleur de Lys track Hold On. It was produced by Norman Smith of Beatles/Pink Floyd fame and I thank this page for the information.

Track 7 and we are half-way through. I must thank my online friends over at Sonidos Primitivos, they post albums and make the odd compilation of their own too, and it was this one on which I heard 'The Underground Electrics'. They are apparently yet another name used by the heavy fuzz psych-exploitation session band I used back on Vol16, 'The 31 Flavors', aka 'Firebird'. They made one Crown label album 'Hey Jude' as the electrics and you can find more info at HeavyPsychManBlog or RedTelephone66. 'The Syndicator' is a simplistic song but the sound is as crunchy as a peanut butter sandwich made with extra bolts.

Track 8 gives this volume it's name. Freedom were a UK band that had connection to a few other notable bands, by Clark Hutchinson bassist Walt Monagan (see Vol74), and Procul Harum (singer Bobby Harrison). Bobby Harrison and early Freedom member Ray Royer had both been in the original incarnation of Procol Harum for their début 'Whiter Shade Of Pale', but were ejected soon after for Robin Trower and Barry Wilson.

So, by the time of the 2nd album, 'Freedom', which I have used here, the lineup stabilised to a heavy blues power trio with a really strong three-part harmony thing going on as Walt Monaghan (bass), Roger Saunders (guitar) and Bobby Harrison (drums, vocals) were all great singers. 'Dusty Track' is a long song with a relaxed pace, but that riff never tires...

No prizes for guessing where the The Illinois Speed Press were from. They started life as The Rovin' Kind and moved to California. By the time the band had recorded their first album the core of the band was Paul Cotton (guitar, vocals) and Kal David (guitar, vocals) and they played together to give the band a very cool dual guitar sound, credited as inspiring Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington to form Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were a regular at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood, and played at the first Newport Pop Festival, held in Costa Mesa, California, which was the first festival to record an attendance of over 100,000 paying rock fans. Kal David also played on the 'Merryweather & Carey' album that is featured in the TDATS Neil Merryweather special; Vol68. Paul and Kal have played some reunion shows under the speed press name in recent years.

Livin' Blues

Livin' Blues (from Den Haag, Holland) were a long-lasting blues troupe (recording into the 90's) who's lineup over the years was like a who's who of Dutch rock history, touching on Brainbox, Cobra (as mentioned previously), Shocking Blue, Q65, Sandy Coast and Gold Earring to name just a few. The track I have used here is two consecutive tracks that appeared on their third album, 1971's 'Bamboozle'. I particularly like the way 'Overture' morphs into a progressive jam around the halfway mark, but keeps the bluesy harmonica the whole time.


Next up is Boston's Dirty John's Hot Dog Stand. The album 'Return From the Dead' is a rollicking good-time blast of horns, blues and psych. It has recently been re-issued on the UK Kismet label. I have found a few brief accounts of this very short-lived curiosity: "Ace guitarist Kenny Paulson played on early rock classics such as Suzy Q by Dale Hawkins, and Tallahassee Lassie by Freddie Cannon before his career was derailed by heroin addiction. Following debilitating stints in jail and hospital in the late 1960s, he cleaned up and formed this quartet with former Ill Wind guitarist Carey Mann. Their sole album of guitar-led rock was released in June 1970, though sadly Paulson succumbed to his addiction in 1981."

"Good ole boy blues bar rock with gruff vocals- still the kinda thing you can hear coming out of an unlit local dive on some endless afternoon whenever the door swings open. Fuzz is definitely in evidence & one song is particularly Blue Cheer-ish & has sharp breakbeats as well (a version of 'Blue Skies'). Kenny Paulson played in Dale Hawkins' band & on Freddy Cannon records, & this band pairs him up with a guy from Ill Wind."

"A strange and crude psychedelic blues-rock album from a short-lived band based in Boston circa 1969-1970. One member (PJ Colt) later released a solo album in 1976 (associated with "Skunk" Baxter of Ultimate Spinach, Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers fame). Several vocalists ranging from a growly split-octave style to white-bread blues style to rock-n-roll howl style. An intriguing record on an unlikely label (Flying Dutchman). Mostly original compositions with a couple of covers (Blue Skies, Next Time You See Me). The originals range from hard-rock Led Zeppelin riff-based arrangements (I Won't Quit), to Johnny Winter style white-bread blues (Hard Drivin' Man). Some are beyond comparison (Waiting For Yesterday, River) and have melodic but unusual chord structures and are steeped in psychedelic washes of wah-wah or slap-back guitars and elaborate horn arrangements. The album is extremely rare, and even more so because a manufacturing error resulted in many copies with only one playable side." [The Dragonfly @ RYM]

Ernie Joseph

Big Brother Ernie Joseph was a Californian commune/family type group who recorded their first album in Hollywood. Before Big Brother, singer-guitarist Ernie Joseph was known as Ernie Orosco and was in many Santa Barbara outfits including Ernie and The Emperors, Ernie's Funnys and Giant Crab (for Giant Crab see Vol27). I have used their rip-roaring cover of a blues standard "St. James Infirmary Blues" which was popularised by Lois Armstrong but actually has roots in an English folk song about a soldier who uses his money on prostitutes, and then dies of a venereal disease! Ernie Joseph put's in an impassioned performance on this track which sounds like it must have been one of his career-best.

Burning Plague

Nearing the end now, we have a Belgian (Brussels) band called Burning Plague. They emerged from the split of Brussels band 'Four Of A Kind', the other splintering group that resulted was Kleptomania (see Belgian special Vol61). They made one album which  is now regarded as one of the very best of it's kind from Belgium and during their brief spot in the lime-light they played festivals like Belgium's premier Bilzen Rock & Jazz festival in 1970. Even so, English-born guitarist / singer / main composer Michael Heslop was disappointed with the CBS label support so dismantled the band and joined Doctor Downtrip (see Vol46 and Vol61), who made a few great tracks but didn't really go anywhere with their 3 albums which grew less and less interesting.

So another volume ends, I hope you enjoyed this dose of blues catharsis, and it plays out with 'Bad Luck Feeling' from The Meating, a really excellent progressive blues single. I thank the brilliant Aussie blog Rock On Vinyl for this info: "The Australian blues veteran, Matt Taylor has been playing his brand of Australian-twinged blues music since the mid-'60s. His first band, the Bay City Union, was formed in March 1966 and was one of Australia's first traditional Chicago blues bands. They issued one single, "Mo'reen"/"Mary Mary," in April 1968 before breaking up in July 1968 due to a general lack of interest in blues bands. Taylor briefly sang with the Wild Cherries before forming the Horse, and then briefly stepped in as lead singer with Cam-Pact for a two-week tour of Sydney during early 1970. He then joined blues band Genesis in February, who released a collaborative single with Carson County Band, titled "Bad Luck Feeling"/"Back Home" under the banner the Meating. They toured until August 1970 when Taylor left to join Chain."

Track list:

01. Arthur Lee - You Want Change for Your Re-Run (1972)
       from album 'vidicator'
02. Jodo - Nightmare (1971)
       from album 'guts'
03. Mahogany - Best Woman, Best Friend (1969)
       from album 'mahogany'
04. Hurriganes - It Ain't What You Do (1974)
       from album 'roadrunner'
05. Cobra - Midnight Walker (1971)
       single
06. Ipsissimus - Lazy Woman (1969)
       single
07. The Underground Electrics - The Syndicator (1968)
       from album 'hey jude'
08. Freedom - Dusty Track  (1971)
       from album 'freedom'
09. The Illinois Speed Press - Get In The Wind, Pt. II (1969)
       from album 'the illinois speed press'
10. Livin' Blues - Bamboozle / Overture (1972)
       from album 'bamboozle'
11. Dirty John's Hot Dog Stand - And Now I'm Comin' Home (1970)
       from album 'return from the dead'
12. Big Brother Ernie Joseph - Saint James Infirmary (1971)
       from album 'confusion'
13. Burning Plague - Life Is Nonsense (1970)
       from album 'burning plague'
14. The Meating - Bad Luck Feeling (1970)
       single

Thanks for listening! Rich

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I have been on the look-out for more Australian heavy-hitters ever since Vol21. It has been a long and enjoyable voyage of discovery and I have found an absolute ton of stuff. What has become very apparent is that after the new rock genre explosions of the 60s to early 70s, they moved with total gusto into the mid-late 70's with a prevailing hard rock / pub rock sound. Compare the number of bands like this to the number of Aussie progressive or psych acts and there is no doubt of it. Maybe the pioneering, farming and blue collar working man ethic of Australia has a lot to do with it, like in Detroit, guys just wanted to get down the pub after work, get drunk and rock out. The other factor is 'Sharpie Rock', a fashion, attitude and straight-forward punkish sound that arose in the early seventies. A definite influence is of course one classic Australian band in particular which may well be the ultimate good-time, bluesey hard rock band of all time, so it's not too hard to see where the heritage may have started. Since posting this I have had an enlightening comment from a reader called 'proggy' and I just had to add it here: "It wasn't as a romantic picture as you've painted.... all I recall from those times was a sense of bleakness, long hot summers (different to today), little money. A lot of narrow minded squares and dunder-headed blokes with beards,tats and no brains....a bikey pub in the main street, Liverpool speedway, fights and drags between holdens,valiants and fords all the time ..... oh, and almost no appreciation for any music differing from the norm..... Sebastian Hardie grew up near where I live telling stories of being chased out of pubs by irate patrons.... and then come the 80's ....arrgh!!!! lol! - Skyhooks music was a good commentary on the times..."

Geeza

We begin with Geeza, their track is the one on this comp that I came across first, and I guess it laid down the sound that I mostly looked for after deciding what this one was going to be about. They spent their early days driving around Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, playing where they could on the back of a flatbed truck, AC/DC did a similar thing soon after. The band began life in 1973 and early on were called 'The Geeza Rock'n'Roll Show'. They had an extravagant, glammy stage image which is another similarity to some of AC/DC's earlier exploits, and even played in drag sometimes. By 1977 they had straightened and hardened up somewhat, now called Geeza they recorded their one and only album, 'Street Life'. By 1979 they were no more but have sporadically played in various re-incarnations since.

Desert Rat released one album in 1978. They were made up of Jerome ? (vocals), Denny Stibbard (guitar), John Dee (drums) Ian John Ryan (bass) and John Moon (guitar). Ian John Ryan was previously in two great but short-lived bands, Chook and Melbourne's The Ash, that both appear on my first Australian comp: The Day After The Sabbath 21: Uluru Rock. Also, John Moon and Ian John Ryan were both in Melbourne bloozers 'Buster Brown'. 'Need Your Love' is uplifting, singalong fun!

Fox

Fox were Peter Laffy (guitar), Neil Hodgson (bass, keyboards), Michael Upton (vocals) and Les Oldman (drums). There is not much to go on for the band's history; according to Rock On Vinyl, Peter Laffy played in Aussie bands Freeway, Mondo Rock and Jim Keay’s Southern Cross. Their track here 'Times Come To Change' is one of the comp's most ambitious and distinctive; an anthemic acoustic backbone, embelished with electric lead and a few welcome hints of jarring fuzz, it's a shame it's over so soon!

Marcus Hook Roll Band

Track four gives this comp it's name, while it doesn't really count as music from obscure artists, the album remains quite obscure (it was to me at least) but on reflection is probably one of the most important albums in aussie hard rock history. As a teenager, George Young and his family emigrated from Glasgow, Scotland to Sydney in 1963. While stationed in a migrant's hostel he met up with future members of The Easybeats, including Dutch guitarist Harry Vanda [Johannes Vandenburg] and English singer Stevie Wright. None of the Easybeats were natives of Aus, and drawing on the popular sounds of the UK, they quickly became the premier Sydney rock band. After the band's relocation to London and subsequent demise, most members returned to Australia. Young and Vanda worked together on various projects, of which the Marcus Hook Roll Band was one. George's precise staccato rhythm style can be heard on 'Goodbye Jane' as it could earlier on Easybeats tracks like St. Loius, a sound that would also become the signature of George's younger brother Angus, who, along with other Young brother Malcolm, played on the sole Marcus Hook Roll band album 'Tales of Old Grand-Daddy' (1973). The rest is history. I have joined my fave two tracks from the album, the track 'Ape Man' is especially fun, maybe it was a hard rockin' response to The Kinks?

Stockley See Mason Band

Track six is from The Stockley See Mason Band. 'The Last One To Know' is a tour de force of co-operative wailing guitar work, as it is a super group of sorts with three established guitarists. I found some great info posted by Micko in the Midoztouch forum. His whole post can be read here. "....here's the SSM Band's album from 1979 "Beg Steal Or Borrow". As would be obvious to those who are into knowing who the musos are in the bands we loved back then, each of these 3 guys already had an amazing pedigree as guitarists, singers & songwriters with some of our best bands when they came together in 1978. Chris Stockley had played in Cam-Pact, Axiom, The Dingoes, Greg Quill's Southern Cross & had tenures with Rock Doctors, Jimmy Barnes & Broderick Smith among many others to come.

Same See had been an early member of Sherbet before making his name with Flying Circus, Fraternity, Greg Quill's Southern Cross & later on John Farnham's band, Goanna, Zarzoff Brothers & again Brod Smith.

Add Glyn Mason's pedigree & it's very apparent what a talented band we have her. Glyn came to Australia from NZ with The Rebels (formerly Larry's Rebels), then quickly found himself part of the Chain line-up that recorded Live & Live Again. After replacing Jeff St John in Copperwine for a short time he formed the groundbreakinbg country rock group Home who recorded 2 albums, then he joined Mike Rudd in Ariel to share vocals & writing duties. He was also a prominent performer at the Andy Durant Memorial Concert."

Canned Rock

In 1979 a live charity album was released, for the benefit of the Australian Children In Need. The hilariously (and rather cynically) entitled record 'Canned Rock' was recorded during specially laid on shows in 1978 for the entertainment of the clientèle of Paramatta Jail. It was released on the Albert label, Ted Albert being the label-owner who worked with the afore-mentioned George Young and Harry Vanda through the 70s.

Feather

A number of important artists played, including Kevin Borich, a young Rose Tattoo (huge in Germany; I was lucky enough to see them at Wacken Open Air in 2007) and a Sydney band called Feather, who feature as track 6 here. Feather was a short-lived development from well-regarded hard rock/prog-psychers Blackfeather, who's killer GTK tv show Stones cover appeared back on Vol8. UPDATE: I have recently been reading a great book about Aussie rock history called 'Blood, Sweat & Beers' by Murray Engleheart and I found these comments regarding the Paramatta Jail gig: "Chris Turner [Rose Tattoo]: 'The first thing I remember is that the actual prisoners were telling the screws to fuck off, and the screws did because they [the inmates] were lifers. They dragged us backstage at the concert hall and gave us some home brew, which just knocked my bloody tits off! Made out of potato peelings and stuff in old Fanta and Coke cans and they were smoking dope.'

Angry Anderson of Rose Tattoo

Peter Wells [Bufalo, Rose Tattoo]: 'Potato fucking booze! Have some of this! It was the worst shit! Oh God! It was like Metho and two fucking green potatoes! Got nicely fucked up on all that stuff.'

Chris Turner: 'They were showing us all their tattoos and stuff. When they closed the big gates onto where the lifers are, that was just horrible. You can imagine it: it doesn't matter if you commit one murder or ten murders because there's no future once you're a lifer. That was the scary part that I found. I thought it wouldn't matter if this guy throttled me right here and now. It wouldn't matter to him at all.

Somehow a show at Adelaide's Yatala Prison had been far more intimidating. Chris Turner: 'They didn't laugh, those prisoners. They were serioulsy heavy'.

Angry Anderson [Buster Brown, Rose Tatto]: 'The first time we arrived at Yatala the superintendant said, 'We've got a big surprise waiting for you', and and we walked out and half the audience were bald which meant you had a room full of people who looked just like me - all tattooed and bald - which was quite a frightening experience'."

U-Turn

Halfway through, and time for a U-Turn. I really like the metallic grind of this track 'Small Talk'.  Definitely one of the most obscure bands here and so far all I have found is a few tantalisingly low-res cover scans and some notes at Midoztouch :- "A band from Sydney I can’t tell you much about this one. Until I bought this album I had not heard of them although I was living in Melbourne at the time they were around so it is possible that they were a popular band playing around Sydney.

What I do know is that this appears to be their only album release. It is released on ‘Lazer Records’ and as it is produced by Sherbet producer Richard Lush (which suggests that someone was prepared to throw some money behind them) and the hairstyles were fashioned by a Faces fan. Also special mention is made of Cold Chisel and Angels producer Mark Opitz for ‘all his help’.

Musically U-Turn remind me of 70s UK good-time rock bands and the album does have some catchy tunes such as ‘I Like It’ and  ‘Lady of Light’. Other than guitarist Shane Pacey, who composed or co-composed the album with other band members, the rest of the band do not seem to have gone on to any band of note. Pacey did re-emerged a decade later in the blues band Bondi Cigars."

Stevie Wright

We return to the Easybeats legacy for the eighth track, Stevie Wright's 'Black Eyed Bruiser'. Stephen Carlton Wright was born in Leeds, UK and his family emigrated to Melbourne when he was nine, then moved to Sydney where he joined The Easybeats. After achieving much success and living through that band's international trials and tribulations, 'little' Stevie Wright found himself back in Australia as a solo artist, and his 1975 album 'Black Eyed Bruiser' was the product of one of the incarnations of his self-named band. This track features his old band mates George Young and Harry Vanda so it has that direct, solid-riffing AC/DC sound in spades, and prophetically I find Stevie's vocals sound eerily reminiscent of the current Acccadacca singer Brian Johnson. There is some extensive further reading to be had here on Rock on Vinyl.

Track nine brings us to a band that appear twice on this volume (later as 'Contraband'). Finch began in Sydney as 'Stillwater' in 1973, soon becoming Finch. They produced a few singles and in 1974 contributed five tracks to the cult surfing movie Soundtrack 'Drouyn', which are more in the heavy psych vein and I'll include on the next aussie comp which will return to the psych. In 1976, just before moving to Melbourne, they released the 'Thunderbird' LP and I think the track 'Crystal Country Gorge' can be see as their career masterpiece; it has the riffs of the Accadacca generation but it's a long-ish track that also retains some early 70s psych heaviness and subtlety, making it one of my faves in this set. After some line-up changes, guitarist Bob Spencer exited for Skyhooks (later on this comp), and vocalist Mark Evans joined, having just been ejected from AC/DC. We'll return to these guys for the final track...

Taste - Knights of Love

Taste are up next, another Melbourne band, with Joel Witenberg (drums, vocals), Ken Murdock (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Joey Amenta (guitar, vocals), Michael Tortoni (bass, vocals) and Virgil Donati (drums). They had a histrionic approach, and at times a metallic sound which sets them aside in this collection. Though they are clearly indebted to Queen's melodrama, they were a much younger band than the rest here, so perhaps they were also taking notice of the beginning of the NWOBHM at the time. It's said that Queen liked them and used to play Taste's 'Boys will be Boys' on tour before they went on stage. Taste’s lead singer and songwriter Ken Murdoch said in a recent interview: "I started singing in shitholes when I was 15, By the time I was 17, I was a veteran of pub rock alongside Joey and Michael. We had been booed, spat upon, and ignored until we got it right and that’s something bands don’t have anymore. But once you get it right and that crowd love you something magical happens between the two of you. I don’t see that happen much anymore,". Amenta left to join Redhouse (included later) in 1977, according to Rock on Vinyl's article Taste achieved quite a lot of success with two top-twenty albums, playing to audiences as large as 13,000, so it seems a shame they called it quits early on and I have been unable to find out why as-yet, but they have reformed and gigged quite recently and even made a new ten track album.

Skyhooks

Skyhooks are one final band that stand apart from the others here and were unique in their country at the time. Their image and stage antics were considered outrageous in conservative early-70s Australia. They sung observantly about issues that concerned young people at the time (endearing themselves to the student intelligentsia) like buying drugs, suburban sex and the gay scene. Their make-up and flamboyant clothes on stage projected a glam image though their social commentary and sound had more similarity with what would later be called punk, which also was approved of by the sharpies and pub rockers. They sung about people and places in their own country which was a novelty at the time that other bands were more likely to sing about American ideals and locales. The version of Revolution used here is a 1975 US single version that differs from the 1974 album cut.

Redhouse

Nearing the end with track twelve is Redhouse, who were originally from Geelong, Victoria. For a time in the mid-70s they were a very big draw around Victoria with great stage presence and guitar showmanship, though their only album, 1976's 'One More Squeeze' had some good tunes like the one included here, it failed to convey their raw qualities and critics say the production was too commercial-sounding. Interestingly, they started out in life as The Red House Roll Band, with regional success before their album coming from a single that was based on a tune from the UK counter-culture movie 'Oh Lucky Man'. 'I Got Love' is a good-time rocker in the best tradition of innuendo-filled lyrics and some tremendous guitar interplay.

Bullet - Mover

For the thirteenth track I must once again thank Robin Wills at Purepop for unearthing a hell-for-leather stomper of a single. 'Mover' is the b-side of the single 'Rock My Lady' from Bullet, who were previously know as Bullett (extra t). Again we can cheer Robin for a great track that would be lost in the midst of time otherwise. It was released on The Atlantics' own label, a legendary Aussie surf rock band who I will include at some point if I can get a heavy surf rock comp out....

Contraband

The comp ends on a track from Contraband, who were the final incarnation of Finch. After signing a US record deal they had to change their name, and their final album appeared in 1979. I do like the brilliantly machismo album cover featuring the band, brandishing machine guns, pointlessly stationed around a grounded flying boat, and the tune is another anthem to the thing that Aussies do best. See you at the bar!




Track list:

01. Geeza - Too Much Goin' On Here (1977)
       from album 'streetlife'
02. Desert Rat - Need Your Love (1978)
       from album 'home from the front'
03. Fox - Times Come to Change (1974)
       from album 'what the hell is going on'
04. Marcus Hook Roll Band - Goodbye Jane / Ape Man (1973)
       from album 'tales of old grand-daddy'
05. The Stockley See Mason Band - The Last One To Know (1979)
       from album 'beg steal or borrow'
06. Feather - Here With Me (1978)
       from compilation 'canned rock (live at parramatta jail, 1978)'
07. U-Turn - Small Talk (1977)
       from album 'living in the city'
08. Stevie Wright - Black Eyed Bruiser (1975)
       from album 'black eyed bruiser'
09. Finch - Crystal Country Gorge (1976)
       from album 'thunderbird'
10. Taste - Witches Brew (1977)
       from album 'knights of love'
11. Skyhooks - Revolution [US Single Version] (1975)
       from album "living in the 70's"
12. Redhouse - I Got Love (1976)
       from album 'one more squeeze'
13. Bullet - Mover (1975)
       single
14. Contraband - To Drunk To Know (1979)
       from album 'contraband'

Thanks for listening! Rich

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