ATMOSPHERA: Lady Of Shalott DBLCD
With rare and previously unavailable tracks, all recorded between 1975 and 1987, bar one sixteen minute track from 2002, this is the sound of a little known Israeli prog band (English lyrics-good vocals!!!) who, on this showing, makes you wonder how they came to be so little known, for this is one corker of an album in prog terms. The title track and its companion are each seventeen minute pieces from 1977 that are truly superb with extended instrumental passages, some great playing from all the musicians concerned - guitar-keys-bass-drums - the "classic" prog line-up - and the vocalist with a slight Yes tinge to things, with arrangements that are typical of many a seventies UK prog-rock band and sounding just superb for it.
Two further tracks from 1975 - eight and eleven minutes respectively - are more akin to demos in terms of quality - and reveal a different vocalist who's actually hardly featured, which is lucky because he's actually not all that audible anyway!!! The music is good but the "demo" nature rather takes away the shine from what sound like really strong compositions. The seventeen minute closing track on disc one, from 2002, sounds just great and IS great, being an instrumental composition and featuring some sizzling work from an arsenal of synths and mellotrons, electric guitar and rhythm section, and sounding decidedly seventies in its arrangements and construction but brought right up to date, keys, synths and mellotrons dominating.
Over to disc two, and you start with a video segment for computers and DVD players that lasts 15 minutes, then it's back to the audio portion with an eleven minute tracks recorded live in concert in 1976 and 1978, sounding of excellent quality audience recording proportions, and the vocalist from the first couple of tracks from disc one. On a track that once again is pure seventies prog style with some neat electric guitar-organ passages but here the guitar take more of a centre stage with some spiralling leads. After this comes a corking version of the title track, at a shade under thirteen minutes, recorded on the Israeli equivalent of a BBC Radio Session, and sounding just superb, with a version, like so many radio sessions before and since , that actually eclipses the original studio version, some sound playing from all concerned along the way. Then things go into realms that are far away from the prog-rock heard so far - the seven minute 'Catharsis' sounds like a prog keys/bass backing to a Syd Barrett track while the chaos that is the vocals and keys/synths of the six minute 'Nightmare' perfectly fits its title. The five minute 'Toridagitar' from 1984 is chaotic but addictive, almost predicting techno ten years early and a really strong track with its booming rhythmic base, a bit out of place in context, but a phenomenal track all the same. The disc finishes with a nine minute track called 'The Children Dance', once again bearing no resemblance at all with anything prog-rock related, but, once again, a stunning track (from 1987) full of deep resonant bass, huge swathes of synths and keys, big arrangements of east-meets-west soundscapes, voice samples and more, all combining to give this huge sounding, epic feel to a really amazing track. Overall, across, two discs, from vintage sounding prog-rock to compositions well ahead of their time, this is a tremendous double set and comes highly recommended.
PHILIPPE BESOMBES: Libra CD
A real cult album even in the circles of the seventies "Le Rock D'ici", this is now remastered for the first time on CD, complete with 5 minutes of bonus tracks in keeping with the main album, plus a 22 minute piano piece, that isn't. A film score, this features 21 tracks averaging about 3 minutes each, and, despite what you might think, it not only hangs together as an enjoyable album, but it's distinctly seventies sounding and structured flavour, gives it an added timeless quality that you might hope to hear. Using a variety of sources from electronics, keyboards, guitars, occasional percussion and bass, this is a collection of melodic and atmospheric slices of magic that enter, do their stuff, leave and make way for the next, as you are held there entranced, waiting for the next little vignette to appear. That it works today is testament to the feel that the composer gives in his music, a consummate master of mood and melody without conforming to the norm. Much more engaging than you'd think, this is a timeless classic still.
BIRGE/GORGE/SHIROC: Defense De CD+DVD
I used to own this on LP - way back in the early seventies. It was strange then - it's still strange now!!
We are talking 1975 and the French music scene showing distinct signs of taking over from the seriously lacking "Krautrock" scene whose peak had passed. For sheer innovation and "new music" the French scene was in its ascendancy. This album - the work of three guys on synth, keyboards, tapes, sax, flute, percussion, guitars, bass guitar, cello, percussion and drums - is one seriously mind-bending trip. Nothing is "straight" or "ordinary" - on the near 20 minute 'La Bulle Oprimante', the band deliver guitar, synth and drums at angular rhythms, stuttering beats, shards of guitar and drums flying off at tangents while the electronics squall and groan, the even odder part is that it's just on the right side of the fence to be hypnotic and riveting rather than a right old racket. Throughout the track, it's all stuttering passages at oblique angles that stray into some stark and quite unnerving territories, melodies and rhythms implied but never actually existing. The 17 minute 'Le Reveil' is equally strange, starting with boinging sequencer-like electronics and what sounds like someone hitting an electronic xylophone masquerading as a clay pot, before more cyclical electronics emerge and the whole thing suddenly veers off into Terry Riley mode, only way faster. The this splinters as the pace decelerates and drones emerge over wailing guitars and bits of notes clatter all over the place as the intensity rises and it's almost into Illitch mode. This all spirals up only to fall back down in a hail of guitars, electronics and sax, all even more oblique and angular than the previous track, stuttering along its merry way to improvisatory heaven. These two long tracks are bookended by a couple of 4 minute pieces that are the essence of French electronic/electric experimentation at the time, full of guitar runs, strange percussive rhythms and twisted chords. After this, you get nearly 30 minutes of previously unreleased tracks, starting with a 15 minute 'Surtravail 1' which sees the three musicians continuing what's gone before, producing a most amazing squall of sound as notes and chords fly all over the place. Three shorter tracks carry on this feel only quieter. The second disc is a DVD that is completely unreleased and when I get that player in my house, I will find out what this has to offer. For now, if you want experimentation, improvisation, weird sounds, angular rhythms and not a melody in sight, this will be right up your alley.
FLAMEN DIALIS: Symptome-Dei CD
Another French cult album of the seventies, this time with two bonus tracks from their one and only single, and all on CD for the first time. Here we're talking French - well, not exactly because it's instrumental, but there's no way in the world that this music could have been produced by anything other than a French musician - you only have to look back at the pioneering and ground-breaking work of the Urus and Pole labels to realise that. The brainchild of one Didier Le Gallic, together with assorted guest musicians, this is a right melting pot of styles and textures, layers and melodies, all assembled with care and attention, the result a meal of immensely varied proportions. Using keyboards, mellotrons, guitars, bass, percussion and vocals, the moods are wide-ranging indeed, with tracks having a decided seventies sound, as the sound of chiming guitars, heavenly choirs and chants, layers of mellotrons and lilting keys are justa few of the many foundations on which the thirteen compositions are based. With tracks ranging from 2 to 6 minutes, the mood is generally fairly subdued, although sometimes the sound sources are let out to play as the almost Roxy Music-esque oboe/mellotron/keys sound on 'Illusion' conjures images of some other worldly Manzanera-McKay-Eno triumvirat, while the mellotron-fest that is 'Eclosion' is much more in keeping with something like early Froese before straying into a synth-bass-flute territory that has no predecessors, a contrast that is truly mind-bending, to say the least, although, in keeping with the album as a whole, remarkably accessible and highly addictive, once you get used to the fact that you're hearing something so unique, there's hardly a reference point in sight to guide your way - here, you're on your own. Mostly atmospheric, melodic with complexities, heavenly yet slightly dark, this is the sound of genuinely unique French electronic/keys-based music.
KYRIE ELEISON: Complete Recordings 1974-1978 LTD 3CD SET
A stylish set from the little known European prog band from the '70's, featuring their two albums 'Fountain Beyond The Sunrise' and 'Blind Windows Suite' along with a bonus disc of 45 minutes of previously unreleased live music from 1975. The 'Blind Windows Suite' album was recorded live in the studio, or, as the sleevenotes state, "in the rehearsal room" - and while the sound quality is fine, the production gives it a decidedly "demo" quality with the band sounding quite raw for a vintage seventies prog-band, more like a bizarre mix of Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator, erring more towards the latter with a vocal that, at times, almost sounds like the angst if not the strength of Peter Hammill and that, alongside some seventies sounding organ work, gives it that feel for sure, only with arrangements on tracks long and shirt, more befitting a typical early seventies UK prog-rock band. That said, the guitar work is good, the playing and arranging equally so, and the band do play with passion for sure. Providing you can accept the "demo" nature of the, admittedly remastered, sound, then this is a good album.
'The Fountain Beyond The Sunrise', a studio album from 1976, fares altogether better, with a much richer sound, more mellotrons, and just 5 lengthy tracks, between eight and seventeen minutes. Here the influences are very much those of early-mid seventies Genesis, with a guy who you feel, more by accident than design, sounds like a mix of Peter Gabriel & Roger Chapman. The arrangements and performances are decidedly "of the time" and you'd have thought that anyone into seventies prog would get more than their fair share of enjoyment out of the extended tracks on this album, with great work from guitar, mellotrons and keys in particular - a more than decent album for sure and definitely an undiscovered gem, by today's standards.
Finally, the live album. 5 tracks over sixty-four minutes, the opener being nearly thirty-one minutes long. The sound quality is a tad "bootleggy" but nothing that's going to spoil the enjoyment of what is a truly superb "epic" prog-rock track - well, not much, anyway. Most of the time the sound quality is not an issue, although when the band all blaze the trail things get a tad muddy, but mostly it's the sound of bootleg live Genesis style all the way, even though the vocals do sound like the guy's singing from the balcony instead of the stage, but it's all good stuff nevertheless. Elsewhere, the story is the same - great playing, quality that generally passes the test (if you're not picky) and overall, some fine seventies prog music, mostly instrumental and all the better for it.
MAGICAL POWER MAKO: Hapmoniym 1972-75 5CD BOX SET (Ltd)
An immense, close-on five hour single work over 5 CD's, individually packaged and in a solid box, released for the first time, and as a limited release of just 500 copies. Musically, we're talking some totally far-out stuff here, from the likes of early Amon Duul, through Faust & Guru Guru, partaking in some positively hallucinogenic psychedelic musical smokes along the way. Produced primarily on all manner of guitars, drums, percussion and occasional violin, you'll hear, on CD 1 alone, passages that remind you of the first couple of Amon Duul 2 albums mixed with hints of early Can & Faust, albeit in a more minimal setting and less overtly rock releated. While some of the use of voice seems to predate Keiji Haino by some nearly thirty odd years. With a strong acoustic flavour to the first disc, it's all extremely psychedelic and really mind-expanding stuff, probably best heard on drugs - and that applies to the set as a whole - the psych angle that is, as all sorts of electric and acoustic guitars recreate, to modern ears, the sound of the explorative seventies when musical exploration was really all that mattered and commercial needs were not even considered. A good majority of the set is structured and anyone into the likes of early Osiris and similar, would do well to cop an earful of this quite staggering achievement. It sounds so fresh and remarkable in the present, while still retaining its electronic and guitar base firmly in the seventies.
MOSAIC: Ultimatum CD
A little known French fusion band from the mid-late seventies, this is a first-time CD of their main album from 1978 together with the three tracks from their first demo cassette in 1977 and two previously unreleased bonus tracks from '76 and '77. More National Health than Hatfield & The North, the pioneering Canterbury spirit and sound runs deep through this album, only with that air and sound of the seventies French Fusion scene there too, as the sounds of electric piano, electric guitar, fuzz bass and drums conjure a distinctly Canterbury taste, while additional layers from occasional fuzz guitars, samples and, on three tracks, violin, provide extra texture. Mostly fairly melodic and straight ahead, they will occasionally veer off onto a more Henry Cow level of improv with French tendencies well to the fore, this most evident on the first half of the near 9 minute 'Le Tolero D'alu I-IV'. But mostly, it's well played, soundly composed and full of feeling, and an album that should delight all fans of Canterbury-esque fusion.
