Spacecraft (France, Space Electronic, Ambient)

ProgArchives Revires:

Paradox is the first and only album by a largely unknown French guitar/synth duo called Spacecraft, and the music on this album is a psyche-tronic mess. I'd put this somewhere between the loudest krautrock and the noisiest prog electronic. The synth and electronic effects on this album are extremely bright and punchy in the mix, which makes for a slightly abrasive but very powerful kind of spacey feel when coupled with the echoing/hypnotizing psychedelic effects in the background. But, unlike most of the spacey electronic albums, this album sounds less like the atmosphere of space and more like the congested atmosphere from inside a spacecraft looking outwards toward the stars and planets. This sound is achieved from the electronics sounding very mechanical but within the context of a spacey atmosphere, whereas most prog electronic groups seem to do either one or the other. The addition of the manipulated guitar gives this album a strong krautrock flavor as well, and I'm not sure if I'm correct but the guitar playing sounds to be mostly improvised. It's all done very well, but it does sound a bit German to me. Not that sounding German is bad, but I kind of hoped for something uniquely French, considering that the guitarist of this project was also a member of Clearlight (which sounds uniquely French, in my opinion). Of course, there is no France in outer space, or a Germany for that matter. The purpose of the electronic and krautrock genres were initially to create music that sounded like it was from the depths of space. With that in mind, this album definitely succeeds, and it is a very wonderful album of noisy, congested, mechanical space music.

Spacecraft - 1978 - Paradoxe

Kalapana - Hawaiian Rock

Uma interessante banda do Havaí, com um Rock consistente e que está há muito tempo na estrada, com mais de 10 álbuns de sucesso, principalmente no Japão.

Kalapana II (1976)

Personnel:

- Malani Bilyeu (Carl James Malani Bilyeu) - acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, percussion, vocals

- Mackey Feary (Bryant Mackey Feary) - bass, acoustic guitar, gut string guitar, percussion, vocals

- D.J. Pratt (David John Pratt) - acoustic guitar, lead guitar, percussion, congas, clavinet, backing vocals

- Kirk "Guitar" Thompson - acoustic & electric piano, synthesizer, acoustic guitar, vibraphone, vocals

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- Alvin Fejarang - drums, percussion, timbales

- Michael Paulo - saxophones, flutes

Symphonic Slam - Prog Rock from Canada

Symphonic Slam biography (Prog Archives)

Symphonic Slam was mainly about Timo Laine (born in Finland, and moved to America as a child), and his polyphonic guitar synthesizer. The rest of the band was filled out by drummer John Lowery, and keyboardist David Stone. Timo had been playing the club circuit for a while, but it wasn't until he relocated to Canada that things began to happen. It was there that Symphonic Slam was discovered by A&M Records. What set them apart was the $10,000 360 systems guitar synthesizer prototype. This led to the release of their 1976 self-titled album. They toured, and played gigs with some of the big names of the time (Rush, The Rolling Stones, and the Village People). Soon they were asked to go to L.A. to work on a new album. Not being interested in this tack, Stone took the opportunity to defect to Rainbow. After the album was completed, A&M wasn't pleased (they wanted disco). Timo took it to Canada, and created his own label on which to release it. It had some modest success, but Laine wasn't interested in going back to L.A. to fight disco once again. Musea's 2001 re-release of the first album inspired Timo to get back on the horse. Apparently he had been working on another album for many years. "Her Fire" is supposed to be released some time in the future. He is also working on an instrumental solo project. You can hear some influences of Styx, Kansas, Wakeman, Emerson, a bit of E.L.O., and even some funk. However, this is not like most of what we consider to be the classic '70s progressive sound. Some of those qualities are woven in, and there are some lovely moments. But make no mistake, this is mid 70's rock and roll at the core.  The main point of interest here is really the fact that Laine basically pioneered the synth guitar. It was a very new thing at the time. 

H.T. Riekels (bhikkhu)

Symphonic Slam official website

Symphonic Slam (1976)

it's All Meat!!! - Garage,Psych,Punk

It’s All Meat were a late 60s/early 70s band that hailed from Toronto and released this excellent album in 1970 (Columbia).  Prior to that, It’s All Meat had been known as The Underworld.  The Underworld released a superb, crude garage single (“Go Away”/”Bound” – the label is Regency) in 1968 and also recorded some fine unreleased material captured on acetate.  As mentioned before, some of the members of The Underworld would form It’s All Meat.  In 1969 this new group would release their debut 45, “Feel It” coupled with “I Need Some Kind of Definitive Commitment.”  The A-side combined MC5 energy with New York Dolls-style swagger and features plenty of feedback and great guitar breaks.  It’s one of the great proto-punkers. 

Their album was released the following year and feartured 8 fresh original numbers written by drummer Rick McKIM and keyboard player/lead vocalist Jed MacKAY.  There are a bunch of good, solid stonesy garage rockers that form the axis of this lp: “Make Some Use Of Your Friends,” “Roll My Own,” “You Brought Me Back To My Senses,” and “You Don’t Know The Time You Waste.”  The latter track would be released as the group’s second and final single but “Roll My Own” and “Make Some Use Of Your Friends” were just as good, featuring fine psychedelic guitar work and raw vocals.  Other note worthy tracks flirted with blues (“Self-Confessed Lover”) and folk-rock (“If Only”) but the lp’s brightest moments were its two 9-minute marathon compositions.  “Crying Into A Deep Lake” was full-blown Doors psychedelia with spacey keyboards and spooky Jim Morrison influenced vocals.  The other lengthy track, “Sunday Love,” sounds like a strange Lou Reed/John Cale concoction with lots a great psychedelic guitar noise and soft folk-like passages sprinkled with light garage keyboards.   So while these last two tracks are very long, they never wear out their welcome and are required listening for both garage and psych fans.  The album’s production teeters between a primitive recording sound and the typical major label gloss, making it just right.

It’s All Meat is a fine, consistent trip all the way thru.  It’s one of the best late period (really late) garage rock albums I know of.  The album’s hard rock and proto-punk sounds give it a nice,  visceral edge.  It’s All Meat was reissued in 2000 by Hallucinations though originals are not hard to come by either. (http://therisingstorm.net/its-all-meat-its-all-meat/)

It's All Meat (1970)

Isolation - Psychedelic Folk

“Isolation remains today as one of the most unknown folk-psych groups of the UK.” it says. "Released in micro-quantity back in 1973" and “Reminiscent of folk-psych legends Ithaca. This is an album you’d better own!!” Hoho not too quickly ! Let me hear it first. I can’t recognise any Ithaca, except for the use of the same instruments, and some improvisation. The (not so fantastic) singing reminds me partly more of American CSNY-influenced bands. And the recording itself has so much noise reduction, the remaining music sound like it's being sandwiched. The improvisations of acoustic guitars with piano and flute are good, sometimes a bit jazzy psych-folk styled. The whole idea reminds me more of the first reissue of Oberon. The music is fine, but not fantastic. But the “remastering” could have been better.

Isolation (1973)

Keith Christmas - Folk Rock

Keith Christmas (born Keith Peter Christmas, 13 October 1946, Wivenhoe, near Colchester, Essex) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1969 his first album Stimulus was released. Christmas played acoustic guitar on David Bowie's Space Oddity album, and appeared at the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970. Through the 1970s he released four more albums, Fable Of The Wings, Pigmy, Brighter Day and Stories From The Human Zoo, while touring with and supporting bands like The Who, King Crimson, Ten Years After, Frank Zappa, Roxy Music, Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart and The Kinks. Among the musicians who contributed to his recordings were Mighty Baby, Pat Donaldson, Keith Tippett, Gerry Conway, Shelagh McDonald, Rod Argent, Peter Sinfield, Greg Lake, Mel Collins, Cat Stevens and Michael Boshears. In 1972 he was voted one of six favourite international artists by writers of Sounds magazine.

In 1976 he came back to England and after a few years stopped playing. He formed the blues band 'Weatherman' in 1991 with some friends and an album of the same name was released in 1992. In 1996 he suddenly started to write a different kind of acoustic material which almost immediately led to the release of a new album 'Love Beyond Deals' on HTD records. In January 2003 Keith released an instrumental CD, ‘Acoustica’. It got excellent worldwide reviews - ‘absolutely brilliant’, ‘this is a quite exceptional piece of work’, ‘lavish and overwhelming’, ‘a beautiful album’, and the opening track was used on the BBC documentary 'Hidden Gardens'. In 2006 he recorded and produced his first ever solo CD called 'Light of the Dawn'. The magazine fRoots reviewed it “…the sound is fantastic and grabs the attention: the confident, gutsy guitar, picked or slide, has immediacy and intimacy in equal measure; and Christmas's urgent, hoarse vocals can't help but involve the listener in the moods and stories of the songs…a fine timeless album” In 2011 Keith released a 5-track solo acoustic EP called 'Fat Cat Big Fish' and in 2012 released his first live CD 'Live at the Pump'

Keith Christmas - Fable Of The Wings (1970)

Personnel:

- Keith Christmas - vocals, guitar

- Jan Whiteman - piano, electric piano, organ, mellotron

- Keith Tippett - piano

- Mike Evans, Pat Donaldson - bass

- Gerry Conway, Roger Powell - drums

- Bob Stewart - autoharp

- Shelagh McDonald - vocals (02)

- Sandy Roberton - producer

Pazop - 70's Beligium Prog Rock

Pazop were an early-'70s progressive rock group with some jazz-fusion tendencies from Belgium. Though their music was beyond the ordinary, they were never able to release an album during their short lifetime. Pazop was formed at the end of 1971 by vocalist and flautist Dirk Bogaert, keyboardist Frank Wuyts, violinist Kuba Szczepansky, bassist Patrick Cogneaux, and drummer Jacky Mauer. Wuyts and Szczepanski had just left progressive rock band Wallace Collection, Wuyts had previously been involved with Bogaert, Cogneaux, and Mauer had been in another short-lived prog band, Waterloo. Cogneaux had also been a member of Arkham, a group that included future members of Magma and Univers Zero, while Sczcepansky, a classically trained musician born in Poland, played in the Brussels Opera Philharmonic Orchestra for a couple years before turning to rock with Wallace Collection in 1970. Even before they had decided on a name, the new group approached Wallace Collection's label, EMI, and though the record company did not sign the group, they offered them a two-day studio session to record a better demo. The four-song demo was in a style far more commercial than their normal sound, which had influences as diverse as Miles Davis, 20th century classical music, progressive rock groups like King Crimson and Caravan, and Frank Zappa. With the new demo Szczepanski and Mauer headed to Paris to hit up every record label there for a contract, but they had no success. They also finally came up with a name for themselves, Pas Op, Flemish for "Warning" but the spelling was soon changed to Pazop.

Psychillis of a Lunatic Genius They finally got a contract with producer Luigi Oglival in March of 1972, who was able to get them signed to CBS and the Barclay label. The band went into the Herouville Studio in France in July 1972 to record the album Psychillis of a Lunatic Genius. The group also played several gigs at the Gibus-Club in Paris, which brought them some excellent press, as well as other shows in France and Belgium. Meanwhile, near the end of that year, Barclay rejected their album as being too non-commercial, and chose to release one of the earlier demos as a single instead, much to the group's chagrin. Oglival, who realized he wouldn't recoup the studio costs, dropped the band as well, reneging on his contract and even keeping the master tapes. In 1973, the group was hired by pop musician Sylvain Van Holme to provide modern rock adaptations of various classical pieces by Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Mozart and Verdi. Van Holme decided to co-produce a new record by Pazop, and booked them at the Start Studio in Belgium in the late summer of 1973. Van Holme contacted several record companies, but again the album was not commercial enough. The group continued touring Belgium and France until July of 1974 before calling it quits. Their inability to get enough gigs and to release either of their LPs had left them financially and emotionally strapped, and they split up for more successful groups. Their master tapes sat in a desk drawer for years. Pazop's two albums, minus the four commercial demos, were finally released on CD by Musea in 1996. (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/pazop-mn0001976155/biography).

Pazop - Psychillis Of A Lunatic Genius

Pepper Tree - Canada Rock

Comprised of Chris Brockway,Jim White,Bob Quinn and Tim Garagon,Pepper Tree was signed by Capitol in 1970.You're My People (1971) featured the Canadian hit "Mr. Pride." Several singles followed in the early '70s,but Pepper Tree never duplicated their early success.Pepper Tree hailed from Nova Scotia and was formed in 1967.After a few years of saturating the club scene in Canada,the band finally landed a contract with Capitol Records in 1969.Producer,Jack Richardson,was drafted to produce a single which saw the band charting in their native country.Lineup changes ensued over the next year,until "You're My People" hit store shelves in 1971.The album was a solid mix of folk,pop,prog and organ driven hard rock.By 1973,the band was belly up and members went on to such bands as Rhinegold, Molly Oliver,Hanover Fist,Wrabit,Lee Aaron,Chilliwack and Headpins.Many of them are still active in both performing and producing music.

Pepper Tree - 1971 - You're My People (CAN)

Kieran White from Steamhammer

Kieran Raymond White (died March 1995, Oregon, USA) was an English baritone vocalist. and guitarist. He sang and played in the blues-rock band Steamhammer, formed in 1968. Their debut album, Steamhammer. was released in 1969 - on which he co-wrote many of the songs and played harmonica. White left the band in 1971 and recorded a solo album, Open Door (released in 1975) - he also worked for Gull Records as a staff songwriter, and later sang for the jazz-rock band Nucleus. After this period, he emigrated to the United States and became a truck driver, settling in Oregon. He died in 1995 from cancer.

Kieran White - Open Door (1975)

Supermax - Funky Dance Music

Um sonzinho diferente aqui no Som Mutante. Um Funky Dance muito bem tocado da Áustria...

In 1977, Kurt Hauenstein, multi–instrumentalist and forward thinking musician founds SUPERMAX in the city of Frankfurt am Rhein, and he releases his first Album "Don't stop the music". After his first tour through Germany’s biggest concert venues, SUPERMAX changes gear into the club-scene and introduces his exocentric, monotone (aficionados will know…) and smooth sound to a new flair oriented towards the European and American Underground-scene. The second album "World of today" yields a barn-burner hit after eleven months. SUPERMAX breaks all sales records and becomes "Best selling Artist" of WEA-Records. SUPERMAX receives its first Golden album, including the "Golden Aphax-Tape" award. Over 160 feverish concerts were played in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Spain. Born from this album was and still is the ambient disco-hit "Lovemachine", which excels SUPERMAX into galaxies of ephemeral disco heaven. Towards the end of 1978, Kurt Hauenstein leaves the European mainland to seek new inputs in the Caribbean Islands. (http://www.supermax.cc/history.html)

Supermax - 1977 - World Of Today

Backing Vocals – Juanita Schulz

Drums – Hartmut Pfannmüller

Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Brad Howell

Engineer – Fred Schreier, Jochen Wenke

Engineer [Assistant] – Armin Bannach

Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals – Rainer Marz

Lead Vocals, Bass, Organ, Synthesizer [Moog], Percussion, Backing Vocals, Strings [String Ensemble] – Kurt Hauenstein

Mastered By – Chris Brüggemann

Percussion – Daniel Ford, Jürgen Zöller, Peter Koch

Producer – Peter Hauke

Synthesizer [Moog], Piano [Fender Rhodes, Grand], Organ [Hammond], Keyboards [Hohner D6], Strings [String Ensemble], Backing Vocals – Richard Schoenherz*

Vocals – Cynthia Arrich, Tebles Reynolds*

Spiders From Mars

The Spiders from Mars group had its origins in Bowie's earlier backing outfit The Hype, which featured Ronson and Woodmansey, but Tony Visconti on bass. They were briefly signed as a band on its own, known as Ronno. With Bolder taking over bass, they were subsequently named via the landmark 1972 Bowie concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and were billed as such on the accompanying large-scale Ziggy Stardust Tour. They were present again on Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane. Another leg of the tour followed that year, with the final show captured in the film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The group joined Bowie in the theatrical style of the material's presentation. Ronson's guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era not only fit into this style, but also provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock musicians. In 1975 Bolder and Woodmansey reformed the band without Ronson, and were joined in this lineup by Mike Garson, Dave Black, Pete McDonald. Their self-titled album, released in 1976, was their only album before the group disbanded. The name came from the famous UFO sighting where a stadium crowd thought they had witnessed Martian spacecraft which turned out to be migrating spiders and not from the Martian areographic features often labelled as 'spiders' and 'baby spiders.' In 1976 the Spiders From Mars album was released. In 1975 the Spiders From Mars had been reformed by Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey but without Mick Ronson and with no contribution or connection to David Bowie.

Spiders From Mars (1976)

Kedama - Suíça

Kedama biography

Swiss band KEDAMA was formed in 1971 by Christian Linder (guitars, keyboards) and Richard Rothenberger (keyboards), and the band as such was finalized when drummer Peter Suter hooked up with them in 1972. In 1973 the band won a rock band contest giving them free studio time, which were used in between gigs to create and record their 1976 debut album "Live At Sunrise Studios" - a live in the studio recording where the trio played quirky instrumental numbers with references to the likes of Gentle Giant and King Crimson. Only two years later the career of Kedama hit full brakes though. Debts were accumulating, and the changing musical climate lead to fewer people wanting to see the band perform live. After a concert with an audience of just 30 people in 1978 the band decided to call it quits. After several years of a steadily building interest in their first album a CD reissue saw the light of day in 1999. The popularity of this second release of the album spurned a partial reunion of the band. Linder and Rothenberger got together and recorded new material, which surfaced as the self-titled CD "Kedama" in 2002. Kedama has since recorded at least one more full length album, "Hope Is...", which have yet to see the light of day. Furthermore, material enough to fill 3 more CDs have been recorded as well, but has since been scrapped over the years as the creative duo after consideration felt that this material didn't fulfill their ambitions. Time will have to tell whether or not any more of the material from this Swiss act will see the light of day sometime.

Kedama official website

Kedama - Live At Sunrise Studios (1976)