Katerinas Magic World

Billy Nicholls was originally hired by Andrew Loog Oldham as a staff writer for Oldham's Immediate Records. Oldham was so entranced by the Beach Boys' 1966 album, Pet Sounds that he enlisted songwriter Billy Nicholls to record a British response, which became this largely forgotten album. The Small Faces' Steve Marriott can be heard very prominently on "Would you believe", despite Oldham's attempts to drown them out with heavy orchestration. Oldham wanted this to be the British "Pet Sounds" but financial difficulties with the label caused it to be shelved (it only achieved an initial promotional run of 100 copies, as Immediate IMCP009) before it ever hit the streets.
Tracks
1. Would You Believe?
2. Come Again
3. Life Is Short
4. Feeling Easy
5. Daytime Girl
6. Daytime Girl(Coda)
7. London Social Degree
8. Portebello Road
9. Question Mark
10. Being Happy
11. Girl From New York
12. It Brings Me Down
13. Would You Beleieve?(Mono Single Version)
14. Daytime Girl(Mono Single Version)
15. I want to be friendly with you (out-take)
16. Always on my mind
17. Would you believe (alt vocal)
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Their self-titled record was recorded in December 1967, produced by David Rubinson for CBS Records, and released in 1968. It was rereleased on CD by Sundazed Records in 2004 with various alternate takes, demos, and outtakes.

Their sound blended a range of musical genres, including avant-garde, psychedelic, and progressive. One of the more notable points of the band was that it had no guitar player, which for its time was quite radical, as the electric guitar occupied a central position in rock music of the time. Instead, they used strings, keyboards and electronics, including primitive synthesizers, and various audio processors, including the ring modulator.

The record was released in early 1968, at a time when there was a receptive audience for “underground music” which combined musical experimentalism with radical social and/or political lyrics – other examples, in their very different ways, including the Velvet Underground (who shared a common background in the New York experimental music scene; according to Moskowitz, Nico at one point tried to join the USA), Frank Zappa (whom Byrd considered a niche-marketer "subsumed in a self-referential loop", Love’s Forever Changes, Country Joe and the Fish, and Jefferson Airplane.

Whether intended or not, the record took the form of a coherent “song cycle”, a radical commentary on contemporary American society. The words ranged from satires on decadence ("The American Metaphysical Circus" , "..Wooden Wife..") to lyrical expressions of longing (the pastoral "Cloud Song", the political "Love Song For The Dead Che"). Musically, the songs ranged from pseudo-classical elegance ("Stranded In Time", "Where Is Yesterday") to aggressive discordance and hard rock ("The Garden of Earthly Delights", "Hard Coming Love"), with heavy electronic distortion and collages of “found” music such as brass bands, Byrd being heavily influenced by Charles Ives. The final suite "The American Way of Love" integrates most of these elements, with a dreamlike ending containing a collage of earlier tracks.
The United States of America was, along with the Doors and Jimi Hendrix, one of the most played "alternative" rock albums when alternative rock meant something. After the 60's, some of these albums made it into the classic pantheon, others, just as good, like USA, are obscure.

In 1968, 99% of the rock stations refused to play this because it was too good, too topical, too loud, too literate, too weird and, well, too psychedelic. Only low power college stations would dare to played it and boy, did they ever! Over and over all night!

Dorothy Moskowitz had (has?) a voice with the beauty and power of the Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick. Dorothy, it's good to hear from you. You were great, Dorothy, why did you stop?

USA, with their synthesizer and distortion violin and without lead guitar goes where no album had gone before and few since. The first rock album to make extensive use of synthesizer as a lead instrument. This was the first and as far as I know the ONLY rock album ever released on the prestigeous classical Columbia Masterworks label.

Commander America said, "The US of A was...the most successful attempt to simulate the mental and bodily sensations of certain popular intoxicants of the Sixties".

To be appreciated it MUST BE HEARD THROUGH HEADPHONES. "Hard Coming Love" hops around your head like a rattlesnake on a skillet in an attempt to simulate an orgasm between your ears!

Full of musical and literary references, Byrd often sounds like late Charles Ives repeatedly quoting "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean". "Steppenwolf" (the book by Hesse, not the band) "the cost of one admission is your mind". "Winnie the Pooh". The visions of Hironymous Bosch's, "Garden of Earthly Delight" where Bryd descibes what he sees inside his girlfriends eyes.

"Song for Dead Che" a beautiful ballad, "Agnus Dei" which compares the aftermath of love and memory to a nuclear blast "shadows on the pavement but no bodies do you find". "Coming Down".

Don't be scared by Byrd's lead-off vehement anti-war diatribe about the military industrial complex, the "American Metaphysical Circus". I still can't listen to American Metaphysical Circus without a feeling of fear and loathing.

From beginning to end a lost classic of the sixties. Alternately lyrical, thought provoking, excessive, paranoid, beautiful, raucous, US of A is a classic with a short half-life which repeatedly appears and disappears from the marketplace. This is the real sixties, not the "Peace and Love - Flower Power" you usually hear about.

USofA was a statment against all that was violent, trivial and puerile in America. There was a war on. Students hated this war and the draft with a anger 1000% higher than war opposition today. Kids were being drafted and sent to die in a war they violently opposed. In the midst of this war, blacks were rioting everywhere. It was a violent angry, dangerous, time. The DC, Detriot, Chicago, Watts were in flames. People were dying everywhere. Today the 60's were viewed as flower-power and silly clothes and drugs, but in reality, these were escapist reactions to the ongoing madness over which they had little control.

This album was definitely NOT viewed as a gimmick. It was the leading edge. The avant garde. Synthesizers were brand new inventions, there were only 3 very obscure Pop albums on the market that used them (Gershon Kingsly), no rock bands.

This was the direction not taken in music because no one else had the wits and talent to pull it off. And no other record company had the guts to release it. by Rash67
Tracks
1. The American Metaphysical Circus
2. Hard Coming Love
3. Cloud Song
4. The Garden Of Earthly Delights
5. I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar
6. Where Is Yesterday
7. Coming Down
8. Love Song For The Dead Che
9. Stranded In Time
10. The American Way Of Love: Part I- Metaphor For An Olderman/Part II- California Good-Time Music/Part III- Love Is All
11. Osamu's Birthday
12. No Love To Give
13. I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar
14. You Can Never Come Down
15. Perry Pier
16. Tailor Man
17. Do You Follow Me
18. The American Metaphysical Circus
19. Mouse (The Garden Of Earthly Delights)
20. Heresy (Coming Down)
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The original group comprised three core members: founder and bassist Louis "Cork" Marcheschi, guitarist David Blossom, and his wife, vocalist Nancy Blossom, augmented by Kim Kimsey (drums) and Larry Evans (guitar).

Cork Marcheschi (b. 1945) grew up in Burlingame, California. In his teens he performed with the Ethix, who played R&B music in clubs around San Francisco and in Las Vegas, and released one experimental and wildly atonal single, "Bad Trip", in 1966 - the intention being that the record could be played at any speed. Interested in the ideas of experimental composers like Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Terry Riley, and George Antheil, he constructed his own custom-made electronic instrument from a combination of elements like theremins, fuzzboxes, a cardboard tube, and a speaker from a World War II aircraft bomber.

David and Nancy Blossom brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band. Together, the trio recorded a demo which led to a deal with Limelight, a subsidiary of Mercury Records.

They released one album, "Cauldron", in December 1967. It contained eleven songs, including "Fantasy", "Red the Sign Post" and "God Bless the Child", a Billie Holiday cover. Although an erratic work, it was intriguing for its mix of jazzy psychedelic rock tunes with fierce and primitive electronic sound effects. "I don't know if they are immature or premature", said critic Ralph J. Gleason.

The record sold few copies at the time, although the group had a small but intense following in San Francisco and also toured with other acts including Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry and Fairport Convention, when the band was augmented by Robert Goldbeck (bass). They broke up in 1969 when most of its members joined the musical Hair, Nancy Blossom becoming the lead in the San Francisco production and later singing in Godspell. Larry Evans returned to his hometown of Muncie Indiana where he fronted several club groups until his death in 2008.
Tracks.
1. And After
2. If Not This Time
3. Pous 11
4. The things that concern you
5. Opus 11
6. Red the sign post
7. For Paula
8. Rose
9. Fantasy
10. God bless the child
11. Cauldron
12. If not this time
13. Red the sign post
14. Fly Free
15. Desire
16. Bad Trip
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If nothing else, you've got to admire their (crystal) balls. Having been derided as far-right space cadets, you might have expected Crispian Mills and his New Age stormtroopers to return with something a little more circumspect. Well, forget that.

'Peasants, Pigs And Astronauts' is an unrepentant and farcical return, everything that 'K', Kula Shaker's million-selling debut, was - except multiplied by a thousand. It's an amazing album, remarkable even, and quite definitely the most ludicrous rock'n'roll record that you're going to hear all year.

Of course, some of you will have already decided to boycott it on moral grounds, but, hey, why bother? Kula Shaker might be dumb, but they're not Nazis. Operating out of the same cosmic cul-de-sac as Glenn Hoddle and David Icke, they've got no idea what they're saying. And, let's face it, nor has anyone else. They talk nonsense, they've been to India - who knows? - maybe they even like scented joss sticks, it's hardly a crime, though, is it?

Besides, for all their mind-expanding, erm, spirituality, Kula Shaker are essentially just a trad rock band. Mentally they might be in orbit, but musically they're a neat and tidy approximation of late-'60s/early-'70s mod-psychedelia, with the flares and mysticism on 11. There are no transcendental freakouts here, just good time boogie, and bongos. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

For a start, this record sounds brilliant. Bob Ezrin's production is so slick and crystalline you almost forget that most of it reminds you of Joseph And His Technicolor Dreamcoat. Having made his name with Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd and Kiss, Ezrin knows all about putting a sheen on the ridiculous, and that's what he does here, letting Kula Shaker run riot with chants, choirs, bird song, sitars and, possibly ill-advisedly, bagpipes.

While Crispian's off pretending to be Jesus ("This is the age of decay and hypocrisy/Sometimes I feel like the world/Isn't ready for me"), the rest of the band attempt to keep dignity levels above water with their ultra-proficient take on '60s garage. The two singles, 'Mystical Machine Gun' and 'Sound Of Drums', are both masterpieces of overblown pop-psychedelia, all manic Hammonds and tripped-out guitar effects, but they're more than matched by the psyche-mod grooves of 'SOS' and '108 Battles' (key mystical lyric: "There's thunder in the skies/And I'm frightened of what it's doing"). Sadly, though, they can only keep it up for so long.

About halfway through the scent of patchouli oil and jazz fags becomes so overpowering you can almost smell it coming out of the stereo. At which point we bid farewell to concise rock'n'roll and hello to drony prayer meetings and the last Pink Floyd album. 'Timeworm' is every bit as awful as its title suggests, while the grand finale of ambient bird song and spiritual reflection ('Namami Nanda-Nandana') will make you want to slap Mills in the face with a spicy nan.

Obviously they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it, but the thing is, they're going to anyway. This album is going to be massive, because Kula Shaker are currently providing a service unavailable elsewhere. No-one else is making such a spirited attempt to embrace the ridiculous - and you can either sit there and sulk about it, or laugh along with/at them. After all, it's 1999 - and if you can't enjoy a mad, mystical, end-of-the-world-is-nigh, concept album now, when can you?
Tracks
1. Great Hosannah
2. Mystical Machine Gun
3. S.O.S.
4. Radhe Radhe
5. I'm Still Here
6. Shower Your Love
7. 108 Battles (Of the Mind)
8. Sound of Drums
9. Timeworm
10. Last Farewell
11. Golden Avatar
12. Namami Nanda-Nandana
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Like many an overextended or depleted artist, Mayfield has dug into his past for material for this album, which sounds hastily conceived and then competently executed to meet some contractual deadline. Four of the seven tunes were written prior to 1971, during the time Mayfield was trying to find himself as a solo artist. "To Be Invisible" comes from the Claudine soundtrack, which Mayfield recently wrote and produced for Gladys Knight and the Pips. The very titles of the two new numbers, "Kung Fu" and "Sweet Exorcist," signal the lack of invention.

Mayfield has run into the same problems that marred his first three albums. Without a clear focus, a Superfly or a Claudine character to identify with, Mayfield goes off in a hundred different directions—peace, ecology, divorce, future shock—always ponderously. His love songs come out curiously detached and abstract, and consequently monotonous.

He'll sacrifice anything for a rhyme: "Don't put yourself in solitude / Who can I trust with my life?/When people tend to be so rude!"

Some of his conceits are particularly silly: "My momma borned me in a ghetto! / But no, she couldn't call me Jesus/I wasn't white enough, she said / And then she named me Kung Fu."

The music is competently routine. Almost all of it is in the Superfly boogie-down mold, but without the extras that made the best Superfly cuts stand out. The hustler hero of the movie seemed to inspire a vitality in his singing which is missing here. As are the searing tenor sax/violin charts he and Johnny Pate wrote for the soundtrack. As is the melodic inventiveness of the best Superfly cuts.

All that's left is Mayfield's basic competence in using the studio. At this point, the Superfly-derived material the Motown writers have been coming up with for Eddie Kendricks is far superior to what Mayfield can come up with.
Tracks
01 Ain't Got Time 5:10
02 Sweet Exorcist 3:50
03 To Be Invisible 4:12
04 Power to the People 3:26
05 Kung Fu 6:02
06 Suffer 4:06
07 Make Me Believe in You 5:32
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In 1973 German band Gaa released their debut album Auf der Bahn zum Uranus. With it they didn’t aim to push the boundaries of the genre, or influence numerous bands for years to come, or make some kind of statement for themselves. What they did do is write a number of rocking tunes, record them with the highest levels of technical skill, both individually and as a unit, and release it for our listening pleasure.

The opener Uranus gradually commences until eventually you can hear some spoken vocals. Now my German is a bit non existent but it sounds to me like an interplanetary public service announcement or some kind of religious sermon. In the background all you can hear is quiet guitar strumming and bass. Soon enough all the instruments start up and we hear a melodic yet dissonant vocal harmony over the floating distorted guitar. Though as soon as we start to enjoy that, it all drops right back out, and we return to the slow spacious atmosphere. The song builds slowly until band leader Werner Frey’s soloing enters, bringing the track to a rocking end and is more of a taster of what’s to come

Bossa Rustical, the second track, starts off with some quiet Spanish guitar picking, which is soon joined by an entire Spanish ensemble. Clean electric guitar joins in and captures the imagination, bringing with it the drums, which hold together a thick groove. The track slows down again and you know the band is a fan of the old slow down, speed up routine, however they use it extremely effectively. The main riff for the song starts up with the bass, then the guitar, and then the drums and for the next minute or so I dance like I haven’t before and perhaps shouldn’t.

Next up is Tanz Mit Dem Mond which is quite simply arranged as most of the song sways gently around chant like vocals and beautiful piano licks other than on two occasions where it alternates to a rockin’ strummed riff and the piano and guitar solo are set to overdrive.

Muster Erde begins with a fun guitar riff and some pulsating drums. I don’t know what it is about German drummers, but there’s definitely something, and it’s definitely good and Gaa’s Stefan Dorr is no exception. The instruments are soon joined by the catchiest and most standard vocals on the album. It even contains something that could be deemed as a chorus. A number of cool feedback effects feature throughout the middle of the track before the song concludes with some “Doo doo doo doo doo doo duh duh”s and with Frey’s magical guitar soaring over the top of it.

Similar to Tanz Mit Dem Mond in its arrangement, Weit Im Dunkel is based around a simple slow start stop guitar and drum defined riff. It’s extremely atmospheric with soothing vocals that just meander around apart from the opening and closing which grab your attention with some loud chords and fast drumming.

Crashing cymbals and some impressive picking open up the self-titled closer, Gaa, which after about a minute slides into a catchy, slightly bluesy riff. A flute joins in for no other reason than its cool and the song reaches its peak of light hearted fun with some “Bah bah bah bah”s. The bass holds down the riff while Frey’s exquisite fingers let loose over the top. The song unexpectedly stops and we return to an epic sound reminiscent of the first track and the intergalactic galactic atmosphere is brought back. The crashing drums kick back in suddenly your in The Rock Ship hurtling towards Uranus with comets whizzing either side of you and you’re riding along to the tune of some seriously tight jamming.
Tracks
1. Uranus (9:45)
2. Bossa Rustical (4:07)
3. Tanz Mit Dem Mond (7:26)
4. Mutter Erde (6:59)
5. Welt Im Dunkel (7:07)
6. GAA (7:33)
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Ask Me No Questions was originally released in 1969. "The music within was a treasure trove - friendly, poetic, organic, a little sparse maybe but played and sung for all the right reasons. John Peel served as producer and guide after hosting Bridget at the BBC studios. The album opened with the two songs chosen for her debut 7" and both were staples of her live repertoire. 'Curl Your Toes' was exactly what it said, sung in that sunny low register one always associates with Bridget. The album's title track was its piece de resistance - a magnificent sound picture of pastoral England and a fine companion piece to the Floyd's 'Grantchester Meadow' - an amazing number with harmony vocals and second guitar by John Martyn, with its middle section full of the sounds of the countryside before the guitars come back a second time. Sadly, "Ask Me No Questions" did not sell in huge quantities but it certainly gained her a small but dedicated following and laid the foundations for her albums that followed in the 1970s - and its naive and minimal production values, delicate playing and heartfelt singing make it an album I return to often especially when I want to evoke the atmosphere of the late '60s.' -Nigel Cross, liner-notes.
Tracks:
1. To B Without A Hitch
2. Autumn Lullaby
3. Curl Your Toes
4. Like Never Before
5. The Curious Crystals of Unusual Purity
6. Barefeet And Hot Pavements
7. I Like To Be With You In The Sun
8. Lizard-Long-Tongue Boy
9. Hello Again (Of Course)
10. Many Happy Returns
11. Broken Faith
12. Ask Me No Questions
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All over the 1969 musical map with wildly varying results. Some of the material is maudlin pop, some of it is post-psych jamming, some standard rock. Only a handful of the sounds merit additional listens. The title track is an intense rocker, the instrumental(ish) "Slow Motion" has a distinct Booker T feel to it, but manages to come into its own with subdued solos and a fine laid-back groove worthy of any seedy dive. Jazz and pop meld nicely in "Shilly Shally", held together by a mellow flute and dominant acoustic guitar melody. "Little Boys Life" is the standout track here, sounding not only different from the rest of the album, but from most rock albums; lead by the catchiest clarinet hook I've ever heard and twisted around an almost theatrical style that sometimes sounds like the quirks Danny Elfman portrayed on early Oingo Boingo records. Also quirky is "Hey Everybody", an uptempo parade melody with helium-induced vocals that are so silly, they sabotage what might have been a decent pop single.

If you can pick this up cheap, it's certainly worth owning, just be prepared for being thrashed back and forth from one style to the next. Diversity in musical styles can be a refreshing thing, but it doesn't usually sell many records
Tracks
01. It's Alright (3:34)
02. Wedding of the Hundred Brides (2:25)
03. What's Your Name (1:05)
04. Illusions (3:38)
05. Looking in My Eyes (5:35)
06. Freedom (2:56)
07. Electric Baby (1:45)
08. As Long as I Have You (4:05)
09. Eliza (3:36)
10. Slow Motion (6:44)
11. Little Boys Life (1:48)
12. Shilly, Shally (4:34)
13. Hey Everybody (2:41)
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This is a very cool album. While it is definitely a late-'60s period piece, it's appeal is timeless. The Flower sisters had a dark-angel harmony. Their moody take on the world is both innocently wide-eyed, yet wise beyond their tender years (17 and 13). The musicianship, by a soft-psychedelic stable of first-rate session players (guitarist Larry Carlton, drummer Jim Keltner, keyboardist Mike Melvoin, etc.) under the guidance of lounge-jazz wizard Gary McFarland (Producer), is superb, adding colorful atmospherics and breezy Brazilian washes. This album was obscure -- the original record label went out of business shortly after the album came out in 1969 -- but it has had a deserved cult following for decades. Tim and Laetitia of Stereolab are known to be big fans (Tim called it "undeniably a great LP"), and it's obvious why -- Wendy and Bonnie had trail-blazed a similar musical path 25 years before. The voices are gentle, but never vapid. The arrangements are sophisticated, and the songcraft is solid. Genesis manages to avoid many of the cliches of late '60s SF psychedelia.
Tracks
01 Let Yourself Go Another Time 2:35
02 The Paisley Window Pane 2:58
03 I Realized You 3:42
04 By the Sea 4:03
05 You Keep Hanging Up on My Mind 2:58
06 It's What's Really Happening 2:15
07 Five O'Clock in the Morning 2:42
08 Endless Pathway 3:38
09 Children Laughing 2:45
10 The Winter Is Cold 2:34
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In reality a one-man operation by Lorenzo Woodrose who wrote the songs, played all the instruments, produced the record together with Riky Woodrose and put it out on his own Pan Records in 2001. More obscure, psych and lo-fi than the new stuff but the songs are every bit as cool! Presented in a daring sleeve by Malleus sure to raise an eyebrow or two.
Tracks:
1. No Way Out
2. Baby Blows Your Mind
3. What A Burn!
4. Caught In A Whirl
5. Pandora
6. Spinning Wheels Of Fire
7. Living A Dream
8. Flaminca
9. Maya
10. D’ya Get What You Give?
11. Kara Lynn
12. Right To Get High
13. Mind And Soul
14. Nobody Spoil My Fun
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Lick My Decals Off, Baby is a record by Captain Beefheart released in 1970 on Frank Zappa's Straight label. The followup to his Trout Mask Replica, it is regarded by some critics and listeners as superior to the famous 1969 recording. Beefheart himself allegedly regards it as his best album, and due to John Peel's championing of the work on BBC radio, Decals spent eleven weeks in the British Top 50 and reached #20 on the charts. It remains his highest-charting album in the UK.

The record contains some of Captain Beefheart's most experimental music and remains memorable for both the marimba playing of Art Tripp and for its concise instrumental work. An early promotional music video was made of its title song, and a bizarre television commercial (with excerpts from "Woe-Is-uh-Me-Bop," silent footage of masked Magic Band members using kitchen utensils as musical instruments, and Beefheart overturning a bowl of what appears to be porridge onto a dividing stripe in the middle of a road with his foot) was also filmed.

Critic Robert Christgau said of the record: "Beefheart's famous five-octave range and covert totalitarian structures have taken on a playful undertone, repulsive and engrossing and slapstick funny."
Tracks
01. Lick My Decals Off, Baby
02. Doctor Dark
03. I Love You, You Big Dummy
04. Peon
05. Bellerin' Plain
06. Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop
07. Japan in a Dishpan
08. I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have To Go
09. Petrified Forest
10. One Red Rose That I Mean
11. The Buggy Boogie Woogie
12. The Smithsonian Institute Blues (or the Big Dig)
13. Space-age Couple
14. The Clouds Are Full of Wine (not Whiskey or Rye)
15. Flash Gordon's Ape
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An Evening with Wild Man Fischer is a 1968 double LP album by Wild Man Fischer released on Frank Zappa's Bizarre record label. The copyright is owned by the estate of Frank Zappa, but his widow Gail Zappa has chosen to not release it on CD, to the ire of the small but dedicated Wild Man Fischer fan club. Original vinyl copies have been sold for high amounts on the internet.
a mentally disturbed street singer discovered by frank zappa. he recorded a double album for zappa's bizarre label, some of it with zappa and the mothers of invention, the rest of it solo, giving full vent to nonmetrical original material. he recorded again for the rhino label in 1977. an acquired taste to be sure, fischer may surface again. ~ cub koda

a certified paranoid schizophrenic and acid casualty, larry "wild man" fischer was one of pop music's most unlikely and most disquieting cult figures. born in los angeles in 1945, little is known of fischer's formative years; by the mid-'60s, he had become a fixture along l.a.'s famed sunset strip, where he embraced the burgeoning hippie culture in full. jobless and homeless, fischer's stock-in-trade was to harangue passers-by for small change, rewarding their charity with an impromptu musical performance sung in his crazed vocal style; his behavior produced his 1968 debut an evening with wild man fischer.

from the outset, consensus on fischer was split; some felt his music was a valid form of artistic expression, while others criticized zappa for taking advantage of his protege's clear lack of mental stablity. a collection of autobiographical monologues, free-form rants and experimental soundscapes, an evening with wild man fischer -- complete with a jacket bearing the ominous image of a maniacal fischer holding a knife to the throat of a cardboard cut-out woman -- won the singer a small but intense following; although he made several subsequent live appearances with zappa's band the mothers of invention, the two soon suffered an irrevocable falling-out, and fischer largely disappeared from sight for a number of years.

in the mid-'70s, fischer resurfaced, making a handful of club and television appearances which proved that his grasp on reality had grown even more tenuous in the intervening years. after cutting a single advertising the rhino records shop on westwood boulevard, he signed to the rhino label for a three-lp deal; wildmania appeared in 1977, and its primal intensity found support among members of the punk community. beginning with 1981's pronounced normal, he began working with the novelty duo barnes & barnes, who couched fischer's vocals in appropriately odd electronic backing tracks and sampled soundbites. nothing scary followed in 1984; upon its release, fischer visited the rhino shop and attempted to bully customers into purchasing his albums. he was ejected from the store, and his contract was not renewed; no other recording deal was forthcoming, and he again slipped into the ether. -- jason ankeny
Tracks
Disc 101. Merry-Go-Round (1:56)
02. New Kind of Songs for Sale (7:21)
03. I'm Not Shy Anymore (0:58)
04. Are You from Clovis (1:00)
05. The Madness and Ecstasy (7:49)
06. Which Way Did the Freaks Go (1:51)
07. I'm Working for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1:21)
08. The Leaves Are Falling (0:56)
09. 85 Times (0:56)
10. Cops and Robbers (1:44)
11. Monkeys Versus Donkeys (2:03)
12. Start Life over Again (2:01)
13. The Mope (1:51)
14. Life Brand New (1:39)
15. Who Did It Johnny (1:48)
16. Think of Me When Your Clothes Are Off (1:01)
17. Taggy Lee (0:37)
18. Rhonda (0:59)
19. I Looked Around You (1:31)
20. Jennifer Jones (4:55)
Disc 2
01. The Taster (3:12)
02. The Story of the Taster (1:27)
03. The Rocket Rock (1:05)
04. The Rocket Rock Explanation and Dialog (0:49)
05. Dream Girl (3:16)
06. Dream Girl Explanation (0:52)
07. Serrano (Sorrento) Beach (1:37)
08. Succes Will Not Make Me Happy (1:49)
09. Wild Man on the Strip Again (7:22)
10. Why I Am Normal (2:43)
11. The Wild Man Fischer Story (5:35)
12. Balling Isn't Everything (1:17)
13. Ugly Beautiful Girl (1:14)
14. Larry and His Guitar (2:46)
15. Circle (2:54)

Fifth, issued in the USA and some other countries as 5, is a 1972 studio album by the Canterbury band Soft Machine. The two editions of this album have different cover art, but identical contents.

Fifth was the first Soft Machine album recorded after the departure of founding member Robert Wyatt and continued the band's trend from their original blend of psychedelic and progressive rock towards jazz fusion. Wyatt's replacement was Phil Howard who contributed to the 1971 sessions that comprise side one, after which he left and was replaced by John Marshall for the 1972 recordings that make up side two. Future member Roy Babbington played double bass on side two, as a session musician. Unlike the previous two albums, Elton Dean's saxophone is not augmented by a brass and reeds section comprised of session musicians.

An alternate version of "All White" appeared on their next album, Six. "Pigling Bland" was composed in 1969 for inclusion in a revised arrangement of the "Esther's Nose Job" suite
Tracks
01. All White
02. Dro
03. M. C.
04. As If
05. L B O
06. Pigling Bland
07. Bone
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Released on Verve Forecast in 1969. A jazzy take on Jefferson Airplane. Nice album with quite some psychedelic touches. Enjoy this is fresh from vinyl!
01. Multilevular Conversational Tightrope Walkin' Shoes
02. Boeing 707
03. Some Thoughts of a Young Man's Girl
04. Medley:
a. If I Needed Someone
b. Tomorrow's a Long, Long Time
05. See See Rider
06. What a Strange Town
07. It's Hard to Live on Promises
08. There's One Kind Favor
09. High Heel Sneakers
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Before there was Madonna, there was the Anti-Madonna. Madonna (the artist) was so sexy it was almost scary; Nina Hagen was so scary it was more than a little sexy. After two albums and a little time off for bad behavior, Nina came to New York City looking for a fight, and she found it with Nunsexmonkrock. It is a startling, visionary record, one of the milestones in the evolution of the female rock icon. Originally tagged as a punk, Nina quickly came into her own as an artiste, welding large chunks of punk, dub and the paranormal and displaying it in her distinctive (an understatement) possessed polyglot. It was kind of Yoko Ono meets Marianne Faithfull in the wild Eden of Kate Bush’s garden. To hear “Born In Xixax,” “Cosma Shiva” or “Future Is Now” is to enter the bizarre, blissed-out universe of Nina Hagen. It helps that the backing band is purely professional: session players Chris Spedding, Allan Schwartzberg and Paul Shaffer are the straight men that Hagen and Karl Rucker need to pull off a cosmic joke of these proportions. So how does it come to be that a Nina Hagen doesn’t dwarf a Madonna in the minds of young girls? Tell me that somewhere, in a wonderful gothic corner of the world, teenage girls were raising their fists in the air, communing with inner space and outer space, practicing their come-hither-so-I-can-kick-your-ass glances and not just standing in front of the mirror in a Madonna pose looking like a Geisha girl who ran through a Frederick’s of Hollywood with double-sided tape stuck all over her body. Otherwise, ladies, you have no one but yourselves to blame: A Nina Hagen doesn’t come around very often
Tracks
01. Antiworld
02. Smackjack
03. Taitschi-Tarot
04. Dread Love
05. Future is now
06. Born in Xixax
07. Iki Maska
08. Dr Art
09. Cosmic Shiva
10. UFO
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Claus Clement Pedersen, aka Tømrerclaus, decided to do something different to the usual rock guitarist routine and moved to Christiania (in Copenhagen) in 1975. This was a largely self-governed area that, since the late sixties, has been a refuge for hippies, artists and various freaks. The result was a privately recorded and released album and two cassettes, ‘Snydt’ (1977) and ‘Hepar’ (1978). All of them contained hilarious tracks based on demented fuzz guitar and even some on fuzz cello (the album contained the best material though)! The only comparisons might be Oliver's album ‘Standing Stone’, a British private release, or a brain damaged, one-man-band version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. All lyrics were in Danish. Great fun and completely unpretentious! Here's a nice interview with Tomrerclaus.
Tracks
1 Sorte mand
2 Når spindelvævene blomstrer
3 Forvalterdrengen 3.19
4 Prisen for at ryge cigar
5 Cellokarma
6 Kanibalerne kommer
7 En dag da jeg lå i luften
8 Mr. Fantastic
9 Dauu
10 Sådan er den altid
11 Koda er nedtur
12 Jeg vil gerne standses
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Originally released on Saga, this superb piece of psychedelic freakbeat should be in every record collection sharing section with UK psych gods like July, Skip Bifferty, Forever Amber, Five Day Week Straw People, The Open Mind and the likes. Even though according to the The Tapestry Of Delights book, the Saga LPs are supposed to have been recorded at a school premises rather than in a proper studio, this album has become a classic of the genre on its own, containing some killer psychedelic sounds delivered mainly by the guitar of leader Jim Thomas and his bandmate Stan Curtis' organ riffs. The line-up was completed with Jack Collins on drums and Melvyn Hacker on bass guitar. The songs are all original Magic Mixture compositions, and they are all excellent samples of what was going on in the UK when the genres who had been en vogue during the '60s (modern jazz, folk, R&B, pop...) were all put into the same cauldron in the search of a special mixture, eventually obtaining some great pop tunes played with a freakbeat edge and some early psychedelic sounds -- all pretty simple and without many gimmicks or studio trickery -- but amazingly lovely and very cool. It is one of the most sought-after Saga releases and one that commands high sums when it shows up on eBay
Tracks
1. (I'm so) sad
2. Urge to leave
3. You
4. Slowly the day
5. New Man
6. Living on a hill
7. It's allright by me
8. When I was young
9. Hey little girl
10. Tomorrow's sun
11. Motor bike song
12. Moon beams
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Found thanks to http://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com
Musicians:
Tucker Zimmerman - vocals, 12-string guitar, harmonica, piano, harpsichord, melotron
Tony Visconti - electric bass, 6-string Spanish guitar
Shawn Phillips - sitar, electric guitar
Rick Wakeman - organ
Aynsley Dunbar - drums
Great singer songwriter. released on Regal in 1968. Check http://www.tuckerzimmerman.org/ for more info on artist.
Tracks
1 Bird Lives 3:50
2 October Mornings 3:36
3 A Face That Hasn't Sold Out 4:31
4 The Roadrunner 5:38
5 Children of Fear 4:51
6 The Wind Returns Into the Night 5:33
7 Running, Running From Moment to Moment 2:53
8 Upsidedown Circus World 3:24
9 Blue Goose 6:27
10 Alpha Centuri 5:41
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The idea began in 1967 with Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra Records, which had just gained major success with The Doors' debut album. Holzman had the initial concept for the album, and hired Alex Hassilev, a member of The Limeliters, to produce it. Hassilev in turn brought in Mort Garson, with whom he had just formed a production company, to write the music. Hassilev and Garson had planned to do a series of concepts following Cosmic Sounds. Garson wrote music for one of the other intended albums, The Sea, but Rod McKuen, who was supposed to have been on the project, left and did his own version with Anita Kerr. Hassilev temporarily left the project to produce The Dusk 'Till Dawn Orchestra's Sea Drift album, which incorporated part of The Sea's intended theme.

Garson brought together a mixture of musicians, most of whom were not credited on the album sleeve. Musician and electronic instrument collector Paul Beaver, who had done music effects for films, was chosen to perform the electronic instruments. He and Hassilev went to an Audio Engineering Society convention to hire a Moog synthesizer from its inventor, Robert Moog. Emil Richards, who had worked with such musicians as Frank Zappa, Marvin Gaye and Henry Mancini, was chosen to provide an assortment of percussive instrumental surprises throughout the album. Bassist Carol Kaye and drummer Hal Blaine, both top on-demand session musicians, were The Zodiac's rhythm section. Bud Shank, a top flute performer, and keyboardist Mike Melvoin were also used. Jacques Wilson wrote the album's narration, and folk singer Cyrus Faryar was chosen (suggested by Hassilev) to narrate over the album's exotic instrumentation

The album was released in late 1967. The sleeve, by artist Abe Gurvin and art director William S. Harvey, featured a florid psychedelic design. On the back, in large purple letters, were written the instructions: "Must be played in the dark".
Track listing
01. Aries - The Fire-Fighter (3:17)
02. Taurus - The Voluptuary (3:38)
03. Gemini - The Cool Eye (2:50)
04. Cancer - The Moon Child (3:27)
05. Leo - The Lord Of Lights (2:30)
06. Virgo - The Perpetual Perfectionist (3:05)
07. Libra - The Flower Child (3:28)
08. Scorpio - The Passionate Hero (2:51)
09. Sagittarius - The Versatile Daredevil (2:06)
10. Capricorn - The Uncapricious Climber (3:30)
11. Aquarius - The Lover Of Life (3:45)
12. Pisces - The Peace Piper (3:19)
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re-upped

Mama's & The Papa's inspired vocals over dreamy sunshine pop. Released on Smash records. Vinyl rip.
Tracks
1 - lookin at a baby
2 - driftin`
3 - rainy blue memory day
4 - any day`s a sunday afternoon
5 - my mind`s at ease
6 - virginia day`s ragtime memories
7 - can i go
8 - she`s just laughin` at me
9 - ragged clown
10 - would you like to go
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Muddy Waters is obviously one of the most recognized and influential blues artists of this century. When his name is mentioned phrases like "slide guitar" and "electric Chicago blues" are associated with it, but what about "wah-wah" and "psychedelic"? For a small period in history, Muddy Waters' image became one of a psychedelic icon and if there weren't records still around from then, most people would doubt it had ever happened. The sixties were a strange time for music and musicians- none felt stranger than musicians from the previous decade trying to stay afloat then. Many times in music, established artists will try to expand upon their work and take a chance with something different. They should at least be praised and encouraged when they try to experiment with their sound. If music were condemned to always following a strict guideline of rules, it would be pretty boring. Music should be allowed to grow and explore new territories because everyone can agree that it's not exciting if it's always predictable.
We've already heard the story of Muddy's rise from a Mississippi planation to a Chicago blues legend but that only took his career so far, at least in his chosen style of music. Eventually, bands that were influenced by Muddy like the Rolling Stones (named after one of his songs), Animals, Yardbirds, Cream and Hendrix became big, raising Muddy's profile but not getting him the same level of success his descendants were having. Marshall Chess, son of the president of the label who worked at the company had the idea to try something different by putting Muddy's music into a psychedelic setting to appeal to a younger audience. After discussing the project with Muddy, he went for it. He wasn't forced into it as some have been led to believe.

Marshall Chess assembled in his words "the hottest, most avant garde rock guys in Chicago" for the album sessions consisting of Pete Cosey (lead guitar, later with Miles Davis) Phil Upchurch and Roland Faulkner (rhythm guitar), Louis Satterfield (bass) Gene Barge (tenor sax), Charles Stepney (organs) and Morris Jennings (drums). Since Muddy wasn't as accustomed to this style, he only contributed vocals, but he still played an essential part in this recording. Electric Mud (1968) was mostly recorded in live takes with few overdubs and that off-the-cuff live feel that's captured on it makes it stronger. On the opener, "I Just Want To Make Love to You," pounding drums and Cosey firing out raw screaming guitar grabs your ear with Muddy's confident singing pushing the music along. The solo on this song is nothing short of phenomenal. The guitar starts playing some distorted melodic notes then morphs into this gigantic screeching feedback riff becoming louder and wilder then continues to morph from a tearing solo until it reaches this intense mind-bending groove that sounds on the brink of collapse. At this point, the guitar cuts out, leaving you breathless, with just drums and Muddy's voice building up back to the verse, then with an out-of-your-mind guitar and organ playing off each other to the end. The next song, "Hoochie Coochie Man," begins with an incoming guitar sound and has the opposite feel of the last track. Muddy's vocals seemingly come out of the speakers at you as alternating lines come from the left and then right, giving the listener a disorienting acid-like effect. A liquidy sounding guitar that washes over like a wave accompanies the verse and changes into an expressive wah-wah lead on the chorus. There's a great, fun cover of "Let's Spend The Night Together" which the Stones must have taken as a huge compliment, having their idol cover one of their songs. Muddy and the band turn it, around making it appear like he wrote it with a big mean sounding back melody, soulful distorted guitar lines and Muddy's commanding voice sounding the way he might have sung in a club in Chicago. "She's Alright" has a trippy beginning with bass notes fluttering up then swaying back down to open up to smash your head against the wall along with crashing cymbals matched by a dirty guitar that has real spirit to it. The song makes great use of cross-overs with a screeching guitar bouncing back and forth between speakers and then somehow transforms and ends with a pleasant distorted instrumental version of "My Girl." Original material was also written for this record like "Tom Cat" and "Herbert Harper's Free Press News," with the latter as a vaguely topical song about the sixties with lines like "world is moving much too fast" and "where ya gonna run to, where ya gonna hide" and a fuzzed out guitar that parallels the confusion and outrage of the lyrics. "The Same Thing" closes Electric Mud with a slow heavy blues feel to it and a stretched out, aching guitar on top.

When Electric Mud was released, it was a huge success, selling 150,000 in the first six weeks. It was also the best selling Muddy Waters record at Chess ever, entering Billboard's Top 200 Chart. It was a triumph of a record that updated his sound and put him elbow to elbow with the bands that had influenced him. The record broke down restrictions of genres with its inventiveness and ability to re-arrange songs and have them come out as something radically different. Unfortunately, narrow-minded blues purists across the board denounced it as atrocious, offensive and a big "sell out." There's a direct similarity between this and what happened to Bob Dylan a few years earlier when he decided to go electric, making his folk-purist fans angry that he was "selling out" to rock and roll. Since Muddy is primarily a blues artist, overviews of his career would be written by a number of blues historians who would automatically dismiss this record for years to come.

But not everyone hated the album. Pete Cosey was later told by Hendrix's valet that before he would perform live, he'd listen to "Herbert Harper" for inspiration. In the '70's, when Marshall Chess went to visit the Rolling Stones rehearsal space, he saw a poster on the wall for the Electric Mud album. Led Zeppelin's bassist John Paul Jones cites Electric Mud as the inspiration for the basic riff behind "Black Dog." Marshall Chess also notes "the English accepted it; they are more eccentric." Strangely enough, rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy has emerged over the years as the biggest supporter of the record, stating "To me, it's a brilliant record. I've played it a thousand times." Chuck D also explained part of the intent of the record saying "It took me a while to warm up to traditional blues, but what struck me right away was the Electric Mud thing." Based on the success of Electric Mud, another blues musician on Chess, Howlin Wolf, was forced into recording a psych record. This Is Howlin Wolf's New Album (subtitled And He Doesn't Like It) (1969) isn't as good as Electric Mud although it did yield a minor hit with a psyched out version of "Evil." Chubby Checker even released a psych record (Chequered (1971)) that sounds better than you'd expect, though it only came out in England.

Over the years, Muddy has famously criticized EM, but around the time of its release, he seemed to have a different attitude. Blues fans claim he always hated it but the following proves otherwise. Six months after EM, the same line-up reassembled and recorded a sequel called After The Rain (1969) that still has distortion on it but isn't as overtly psychedelic. If Muddy hadn't liked EM, he would have had enough say at Chess to dismiss a follow-up, but instead he went along with it. In fact, Pete Cosey says "I'll never forget as soon as I walked into the studio for the follow-up and Muddy saw me he threw his arms around me and said ‘Hey, how you doing, boy, play some of that stuff you played on the last album." After The Rain's songs alternate between Chicago blues and distorted guitar tracks. There's a marked difference on After The Rain with Paul Oscher (harmonica) and Otis Spann (piano) from Muddy's old band joining in and Muddy playing lead guitar on several tracks. On the Chicago blues tracks, more prominent bass and drums put the music into a rock setting, but it's Muddy's slide guitar playing that highlights them. Muddy really let's loose with some striking, tenseful slide work on tracks like "Honey Bee," "Rollin and Tumblin" and "Blues and Trouble" that just send a chill through your bones. On the other side of the album, the guitar on "Ramblin Mind" lashes and cries out in dense fuzz while on "Bottom of the Sea," the fuzzy leads seem to hang in the air along with an innovative bowed bass and harmonious organ in the background (the bowed bass is also used on the record on "I am The Blues").

By the time After The Rain came out, the blues critics created enough of a backlash that it started affecting sales. Muddy must have realized that the records were upsetting his blues fanbase which had been loyal to him for over twenty years. Perhaps he feared he'd lose them forever if he stayed in this direction and that the young fanbase he had now might not stick with him as long. It wasn't until 1970 and after a more normal electric blues record (Fathers and Sons) that Muddy started talking badly about Electric Mud and then only mildly at first. Muddy released some great records in the rest of his lifetime, but he never experimented much with his music again.

In the years following Electric Mud and Muddy's Death in 1983 from heart failure , the record itself started building a cult around it, comprised of acid rock fans, record collectors and curious people. By 1996, the resurgence of popularity in the record matched with its scarcity led it to being reissued in a deluxe edition by Chess with new line notes by Mark Humphrey and Marshall Chess. Despite all the bad press Electric Mud received, Marshall Chess never stopped claiming it was a brilliant, misunderstood record.

In 2003, The Blues, a PBS-TV series produced by famed director Martin Scorsese, traced the roots of the blues from Africa to modern day society, showing how it inspired other generations of musicians. While in production, Marshall Chess got an e-mail from Chuck D saying that he heard he was doing a film that connected the blues to hip hop and that he wanted to be part of it. Chess was happy to hear Chuck D say "Electric Mud was one of his favorite, most influential albums and that all the early hip hop guys were inspired by it," affirming a connection he thought had happened. In the episode titled Godfathers and Sons, the focus is on the Chicago blues, Chess records and the effect of Electric Mud on Public Enemy, with Chuck D coming to Chicago, led on a historic blues tour by Chess. There, Chuck D's feverant appreciation of EM got him to reassemble the musicians from the sessions to perform material from it for the upcoming 20th Anniversary Chicago Blues Festival. In keeping with the experimental vein of the record, Chuck D added a turntablist (Juice) and a rapper (Kyle Jason) to the band, re-naming the group the Electric Mudcats. Having the material played at a blues festival showed how the album had finally come full circle, from being hated to being respected and enjoyed.
By Tim Shannon
Tracks
1. I Just Want To Make Love To You
2. I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
3. Let's Spend The Night Together
4. She's Alright
5. I'm A Man
6. Herbert Harper's Free Press
7. Tom Cat
8. Same Thing
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Originally released in 1969 on Stable records (think Sam Gopal), this is heavy LSD-laden progressive rock with some great guitar playing. Unfortunately this obscure Scottish band recorded just this one (now beyond rare) album before drifting into anonymity.
Tracks
01. Turn On, or Turn Me Down
02. His Town
03. You Cant Take it From My Heart
04. Love Talk
05. All Aboard
06. The Game
07. Stoned
08. Pettsie's Blues
09. On The Road
Download.

A superb album, with the newer, younger funk lineup (Blackbyrd McKnight, Ron Dunbar, Ron Ford, Donnie Sterling, Lige Curry, etc). This was originally scheduled to be a double album, with tracks like "Atomic Dog" and "I Angle" on it, but Warner Bros. vetoed that idea. It's tough to imagine it being stretched out that far, because the album is a very diffuse collection of styles, which might have been hard to swallow with many more songs. Instead, it's a great selection of ideas and new artists, with every track bringing its own surprises. "Electric Spanking..." is a Junie extravaganza, with Michael Hampton doing the guitar intro. Another dance track in the vein of "Knee Deep", this one examines the baby boomer generation and the things they've seen. "Electro-Cuties" is a clever, pun-filled song playing on electromagnetism and sexual attraction. Great bass playing by Jimmie Ali here. "Funk Gets Stronger I" has a great rhythm guitar line set up by future Zapp frontman Roger Troutman. It also features a nice, dirty horn riff and some great singing. It's just a very funky track, with great interplay between the guitar and basslines. "Brettino's Bounce" is a fun percussion instrumental, unique amongst Funkadelic songs. Better yet, it fits perfectly in the flow of songs, much the same way "Nappy Dugout" does on Cosmic Slop. "Funk Gets Stronger II" is a rollicking, powerful funk free-for-all. New Funkadelic Sly Stone teams up with Eddie Hazel to put together a track that wouldn't be out of place on an early Funkadelic album. George is having a great time doing his rap here, and Sly shines lyrically and musically, singing in a raspy, funky whisper. The same dirty horn riff on the first version of this song pops up again here. A snippet of the Beatles' "She Loves You" can be heard at the end of the song, sung by Funkadelic. "Shockwaves" is a bizarre reggae-funk composition by new guitar hero Blackbyrd McKnight and late-period P.Funk contributor Ron Dunbar, again with funny lyrics to back up the music. That slides into a soul-dance number, "Oh, I" that features great singing. The Funkadelic story ends with the immortal "Icka Prick", a song every bit as nasty and funny as "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic", the first song on the first album. "Icka Prick" features an unforgettable, hilariously obscene rap by George Clinton, backed by another great Hampton lick and some excellent backup singing. Similar in nature to Blowfly's outrageousness, it was certainly a pre-cursor to hardcore hip-hop's nastiness, but with a much better sense of humor. 'You ain't seen obscene yet!'...'...doing pushups with his clit'... 'graffilthy! Suck my mind!'...

The album overcomes the absence of Bernie Worrell with great performances by the young musicians. The material is fresh and fun, and lots of it is reminiscient of earlier Funkadelic material without being derivative. The album succeeds because Clinton isn't trying to milk a formula here; instead, he's allowing people to do their own thing. At its best, Funkadelic was a lab for musical experimentation, and it's alive and well on their final release.
Tracks
1. Electric Spanking Of War Babies
2. Electro-Cuties
3. Funk Gets Stronger (Part 1)
4. Brettino's Bounce
5. Funk Gets Stronger-She Loves You
6. Shockwaves
7. Oh, I
8. Icka Prick
Download.

Editors Notes from Stereo Review or Hi-fi Magazine 1970

"THE ELECTRIC LUCIFER" is totally unlike anything ever recorded before. It is truly a voice of the future. Listen to "Electric To Me Turn" and the anti war "War."


The credentials of the creator of "THE ELECTRIC LUCIFER" album are as diverse as they are fascinating. Bruce Haack was born in a mining camp called "Saunders Creek" in the Canadian Rockies. There were no roads in or out. I guess one either way would have served both. But only the train came in once a week to pick up coal. As a child Bruce turned-on to the mountain wind, the screams of golden eagles, the mine tunnels and the one electric light forever shining outside the mine supply store (the symbolism zonks me). After striking out for the nearest town as a young man, Bruce soon learned to turn his natural inventiveness, especially at

the piano, into his own means of expression. He went to the University of Alberta where he majored in psychology and extra-curricular activity, mostly performing and composing. He was always into something; two weekly radio shows, a performing group of piano, bass and drums. Club dates. Playing real country piano for real country dances. He even won a gold literary award. Then encouragement, even insistance from the renowned actor Charles Laughton compelled Bruce to go to New york. Since then he has earned an imposing list of credits- (his compositions have been performed at Carnegie and Town Halls, he has written ballet music, Broadway music ("How to Make a Man"), off.Broadway music ("The Kumquat in the Persimmon Tree"), pop songs (he penned three of Teresa Brewer's hits). Bruce has created hundreds of singing commer cials and is the inventor of "dermi tron," an electronic device which allows the human body to be played

as a musical device by means of skin contact. Wow. His music for the Nicolo Marionettes and Bliss Displays are heard on a national scale.

But despite all this,. Bruce devotes mast of his time to working with, and inventing fascinating electronic toys for, children.

Bruce invents, builds and plays his own electronic musical instruments. He composed and performed all the music on "THE ELECTRIC LUCIFER" as well as creating the synthesizer on which he performed. He picked up the parts for less than 50 bucks on New York's Canal Street.

And although there is a lot of meta physics in the messages of his songs, the album's appeal will be the beautiful mix of music and magic. Good rock. The appearance of the electronic voice on the album could be the most revolutionary thing about it. But as for me, I just dig it musically
Tracks
1. ELECTRIC TO ME TURN
2. THE WORD (NARRATION)
3. CHERUBIC HYMN
4. PROGRAM ME
5. WAR
6. NATIONAL ANTHEM TO THE MOON
7. CHANT OF THE UNBORN
8. INCANTATION
9. ANGEL CHILD
10 WORD GAME
11 SONG OF THE DEATH MACHINE
12 SUPERNOVA
13 REQUIEM
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Seven Up, Ash Ra Tempel's third album is often very misunderstood by fans of their music. It's a real odd one to say the least, and if you're familiar with such albums as their 1971 debut, Join Inn (1973), or Inventions For Electric Guitar (1975, actually a Manuel Göttsching solo album) this one is quite a shock indeed. By this point, trying to figure out who was in the group has became pretty pointless. Guitarist Manuel Göttsching and bassist Hartmut Enke are still here, with tons of different vocalists, and ex-Tangerine Dream organist Steve Schroyder (he played on Alpha Centauri and guested on Zeit).
The album starts off with "Space". It's a suite divided in to four movements. It starts off with "Downtown", which doesn't sound too encouraging. It sounds like downright generic blues sung by a female vocalist, but never let that deceive you. You quickly face some truly mind blowing spacy electronic effects and noise that never lets up! It's pretty much the same throughout, although three more blues songs will follow, but as always, the blues songs never last because it sounds like the band was just so stoned at the time, they'd rather blow people's mind. I can sense quite a bit of irony in the way the band played those blues numbers.

Thanks to the presence of Timothy Leary (who was in exile in neighboring Switzerland), it's no surprise that this music is the effects of an LSD trip. The second half of the album is taken up by a three movement suite called "Time". Here's where detractors of the album finds its redeeming qualities, as this is very much like like Alpha Centauri-era Tangerine Dream. The last movement of "Time" is "She" which is basically a re-recording of "Suche & Liebe" off Ash Ra Tempel's 1972 album Schwingungen. This is a wonderful, and underrated album, which if you approach with an open-mind you'll probably enjoy it.
Tracks
01. Space
02. Time
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Weird German electro/ punk band. who released only one album and a few singles. They used to be called Geile Tiere Berlin, but dropped Berlin very soon after their first release.Not much info out their on these noiseniks. It seems like they were essentially a duo, sometimes aided by a host of guests, and actually had a background in performance and media art. Obviously, they pursued a self-consciously amateurish non-musician angle, similiar to the Geniale Dilettanten movement around bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Tödliche Doris and Strafe für Rebellion. Most of their stuff is only historically interesting, but this extremely creepy track with its punishing beat and pounding bassline still sounds pretty amazing.
Tracks
01. Berlin Nite (2:47)
02. Neon Herz (3:35)
03. U-Bahn (1:05)
04. Whiskeybar (4:39)
05. Johnny (2:16)
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'Die Dominas' were two old friends of mine. They are my long time friend Rosi, who also performed on some Ash Ra Tempel records (...) and Claudia Skoda for whose fashion shows I have been composing and performing most of the music since 1976. They knew KW from Düsseldorf because they often went there together for fashion fairs. Ralf H. and Karl B. wrote down two special chords for them on a piece of paper: the 'sub Domina' and the 'Domina seven' (Domina = dominant) chords. Later in Berlin they were asking me to show them how these chords sounded. So, one evening when we were doing a nice long session together in my studio, I played them these chords. I explained a little about the instruments in the studio, and they started experimenting with them, without knowing that I was already recording the session! It was really a hilarious session, and the voices sounded like we were having a party. The next day, I started re-mixing the material, and finally got three titles out of it! Claudia and Rosi were so impressed with the result they played it to Ralf and Karl. They were so taken by the recording they offered to make the cover for the album. It turned out to be a very nice cover that looked like a silhouette in black and yellow. " Manuel Göttsching.
RARE GERMAN 10" PRIVATE PRESS
BY "DIE DOMINAS" a.k.a MANUEL GÖTTSCHING, ROSI MÜLLER and CLAUDIA SKODA, RELEASED IN 1981.
CATALOGUE NUMBER: FABRIKNEU 666
ARTWORK CREATORS & DESIGNERS WERE KARL BARTOS & RALPH HUTTER OF KRAFTWERK!

FOR ELECTRONIC FANS ESPECIALLY AS ALL 3 TRACKS ARE KILLER! THE SOUND OF BERLINS BASIC CHANNEL and RHYTHM and SOUND LABELS WAS INSPIRED BY THIS RECORD.
IRecord WAS EVEN SAMPLED BY CARL CRAIG ON THE DOMINAS 12 INCH LP HE RELEASED WITH MAURIZIO BACK IN THE EARLY 1990's.
HEAVYWEIGHT DEEP ELECTRONICS WITH DIRTY FEMME VOX MOANS & GROANS!
THE 17-MINUTES-TRACK "I BIN A DOMINA" FROM THIS EP IS MANUEL GÖTTSCHING'S BEST WORK Vinyl Rip!
Tracks
1. I Bin A Domina (16:53)
2. Herr Ralfi Und Herr Karl (2:55)
3. Die Wespendomina (5:56)
Download.

"Strange Kim Fowley produced psychedelic opus with a sanctified hippie vibe -- 'canyon music' as this Los Angeles area group might have described it; strange songs about the fires of hell and spacemen from Venus alternate with some anti 'flower power' songs and stoned sounding jams that show why they were touted by Fowley as the next 'in-thing' -- they weren't, of course, but a strong album all the same."
“[‘St. John Green’ is] one of the great lost records...Somebody will reissue it someday and people will start crying and jacking off and smoking dope to it. It’s a great record. There’s only a handful of records that I’ve made that are great.”
-Kim Fowley to Mike Stax (“Ugly Things” magazine issue #19, 2001)


Through mutual associations in Topanga Canyon, St. John Green connected with Fowley sometime in 1968, and he in turn spurred them on to outdo or to die all over what would be their sole album. They wound up doing both.

“St. John Green” is by turns frightening, dark, funny and stupid as it reeks of bad trip freak outs in matte black painted rooms with no furniture lit only by a single red bulb and burning cigarette ends. What emanates forth immediately from this darkness are the mystic incantations of vocalist/bassist Ed Bissot who is mean, moody, magnificent AND for his sins is stuck in a garage of sick creep psychedelia for all eternity. His delivery is so full of promises and not threats you begin to feel that this guy exists precariously balanced over a yawning chasm between Jim Morrison and Arthur Brown without trying at all really MEANS IT. And he is shored up all the way by a fine-tuned band in total sync with his visions of the four D’s --death, doom, damnation and dread -- in a weirdly accomplished album that runs a gamut of styles from supernatural ruminations to the cheapest of goofball novelties.

Bissot’s massive intonations open the apocalyptic “7th Generation Mutation,” where his early death god in a garage vibe bears more than a passing resemblance to Robert Calvert’s space age narratives that threaded Hawkwind’s “Space Ritual.” A total lack of drums makes his hypnotic bass line the only percussion as it sways pendulum-like above the restrained and gagged music which has already cut out from one speaker and lurks behind his initial intonation of “In the darkness of my empty cage, a being from Venus speaks to me” which then switches to a massively echoed snotty sneer:


“I have seen your planet suffer seven nuclear wars...
I’ve seen your civilisation rise from its ruin
Only to crumble once more to ash.

Noah’s Ark was a period of time, and not a boat.
It is through such misconceptions
Your beliefs are weakened and your faith lost...
WHY CAN YOU NOT SEE...?

Earth is born of molten lava
Torn from the breast of a violent star.
Man is created
And rises from the dust-fringed edges of the cooling mud
To love...To conquer...To kill...
AND HE WILL!”


Tape speed wind chases this insistently freaky track into the fading gloom and late night Booker T & The MG’s outtake from “Gris-Gris” vibe of the Fowley-penned “Canyon Women,” a place where sexually rhythmically percussion hangs in the background like swamp gas silhouetting the band as they respond to Bissot’s vocals with low, bullfrog refraining as over-recorded organ and casual grunts pass by in the shadows. “Devil And The Sea” is the psychic link between The Doors’ “When The Music’s Over” and Alice Cooper’s “Black Juju” as those familiar prominent organ swells cut in, out and all around Bissot’s vocals of truly beacon-in-the-wilderness qualities. “Do You Believe” is all corn-fed and howling harp as Bissot starts vocally delivering in down home, religious revival tones against distinctly Fraternity of Man/Holy Modal Rounders backing. “Go!” commands Fowley from behind the glass for the next gross-out, “Help Me Close The Door” signaling commencement of a somber Bissot narration painting a portrait of a broken man with the paint roller. It’s cheap pathos galore over a lullaby piano rock-a-bye-ing as several species of small furry animals chirp continually along with little girls’ persistent calls of “Daddy?” Tears well up until the surprise final set up line of “If you have any heart at all...You’ll help me close the door!” that causes all studio denizens to erupt in cackling glee at the egg on your face. “Messages From The Dead” follows with a mid-tempo “Mystic Eyes” beat and prominent 2-fingered bass. Bissot has just hooked himself a one-way ticket onto that down bound train to Sheol with ol’ Satan hisself, and with each passing level the flames shoot higher and higher: here represented by hugely recorded organ smears all up and down the keyboard against a backwards hi-hat pattern. After seven levels of Hell have been traversed, Bissot’s finally had enough of those flames licking up his body so he’s now down on his knees pleading right before the organ-led coda, “No, God....don’t burn me down in hea-uh! Please don’t burn me down, God!” So they burn down the track instead: in a way Fowley would later describe as “Vanilla Fudge minus the fucking bubblegum.”

Side two is just as diverse, great and fucked up. “Goddess of Death” is a sleep-walking creep-out supreme with all the eeriness of “You’re Lost Little Girl” by The Doors. Descending organ quietly curls like smoke in the background as electric guitar piano-type notes are plucked as Bissot intones from a waking dream: “And we walked into the endless valley...Looking back in tears while the echoes of life faded from our ears...We walked into the cold silence...being careful not to step on those who had passed out there in previous times...and I ask: ‘Why are we here? Why are we here? Why are we here?’” The band responds only with the swaying chant, “Why? Why? Why? Why?” Neither are graced with an answer. Spookeh!

Leave it to Fowley to compose St. John Green’s own signature tune, entitled (naturally) “St. John Green” and of course sounds like nothing else on the album. Bissot’s vocals now switch to Dylanesque overtones as they spread over a dum-dum re-vamp of “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” filling the background with a clutch of piano, tuba-tone bass and heavily sustained organ that clump around great lyrics like: “Just because we’re so young and deadly/Why did we have to lose our light?” Next up is the quicker paces of “Spirit Of Now” that is akin to the later basement psychedelia of The C.A. Quintet. Here, guitarist Bill Kirkland is finally allowed a solo for the first time on the record and it’s fantastic; followed by a sprinting organ solo by Mike Baxter, whose arrangements throughout are strong, fine-tuned and as consistently weird as his neatly-placed organ fills. “Love Of Hate” is an elegiac vocal (what else?) intonation accompanied by organ alone, with Bissot channeling words from and about the world beyond the grave. The Fowley-penned “One Room Cemetery” is the terrifying highlight of side two as elements of free form freak outs scatter behind Bissot’s intonations from a dark and lonely place as tom-tom rolls, solidly plucked bass lines and random, skittering guitar all conspire to creep you out. Over ominously building drums, Bissot hurls out echoed grunts, calls for bo-weevils to meet him in his one room cemetery and calmly free associating all over the place with “We’re playing with the world... We’re playing with the world...When a love song has gone wrong...where does a sad girl go? Where does the sad girl go when her love song is over? We’re playing with the world...We’re playing with the world...” right before all fades to black with a single, jerked musical curtain pull.

But as weirdly dark and epic that “St. John Green” well and truly is, where can it go but sign off with “Shivers Of Pleasure,” a bouncy showbiz coda all jaunty piano, lounge hi-hats and vocal A-Z alphabetical dedications like: “F is for Fowley: is he putting us on?”, “T is for Teenage girls” (accented by a non-too subtle pelvic thrust grunt, “Uuhhh!”) and so on; cracking sophomoric jokes in a manner altogether out of context with the rest of the album. It’s kinda disconcerting in its clean cut kid delivery, but then again, it may be an intentional move in case if too many people got the wrong idea whilst hanging onto each of Bissot’s every word, taking them too far upon the album’s termination by offing themselves outright.
For maximum effect, play in absolute darkness. By The Seth Man
Tracks
1. 7th Generation Mutation
2. Canyon Woman
3. Devil And The Sea
4. Do You Believe
5. Help Me Close The Door
6. Messages From The Dead
7. Goddess Of Death
8. St. John Green
9. Spirit Of Now
10. Love Of Hate
11. One Room Cemetery
12. Shivers Of Pleasure
Download.

The Insect Trust was a rock band that formed in New York in 1967, whose characteristic sound was a psychedelic mixture of progressive rock, jazz, folk, blues and rock and roll and had similarities to Fairport Convention, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane.

The members of the band were Nancy Jeffries, vocals, Bill Barth on guitars, Luke Faust on guitars, banjo, fiddle and harmonica, Trevor Koehler on saxophone and Robert Palmer on clarinet and alto saxophone.

According to The New York Times the band took its name from William Burroughs's detailing of a race of giant insects bent on world domination in the novel Naked Lunch;[1] however according to Bill Barth the name "Insect Trust" came from the poetry journal the Insect Trust Gazette, published by Bill Levy. Levy took the name from Burroughs, Warren Gardner then gave it to the band.

They made two albums:

The Insect Trust in 1969 and
Hoboken Saturday Night in 1970.

The band's sax player Bob Palmer later became the highly lauded rock critic Robert Palmer, while the female vocalist Nancy Jeffries became an important record company executive (A&M, Virgin, Elektra). Luke Faust had earlier been a member of the Holy Modal Rounders, an old-timey/psychedelic/eclectic group in a category by themselves.
Tracks
1. Skin Game
2. Miss Fun City
3. World War 1 Song
4. Special Rider Blues
5. Foggy River Bridge Fly
6. Been Here And Gone So Soon
7. Declaration Of Independance
8. Walking On Nails
9. Brighter Than Day
10. Mountain Song
11. Going Home
Download.

Live/Dead is the first official live album released by the San Francisco-based band Grateful Dead. It was recorded over a series of live concerts in early 1969 and released later in the year on November 10. At the time of its release, Robert Christgau wrote that parts of the album contained "the finest rock improvisation ever recorded." A landmark live album that captured the Grateful Dead's improvisations at their best – Allmusic would write that "Few recordings have ever represented the essence of an artist in performance as faithfully as Live/Dead" – it is also the final album with keyboardist Tom Constanten.
Tracks
1. Dark Star
2. St. Stephen
3. The Eleven
4. Turn on Your Love Light
5. Death Don't Have No Mercy
6. Feedback
7. And We Bid You Goodnight
Download.

Bee Gees' 1st is the debut album for the Polydor (USA: ATCO) label by The Bee Gees, released in July 1967 (see 1967 in music). Reflecting the group's early style, Bee Gees' 1st was a psychedelic rock album. The album cover was designed by Klaus Voormann who had previously done the cover for Revolver by the Beatles.

"Red Chair Fade Away" was covered by The Cyrkle as a B-side (Columbia 4-44491). "Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You" was covered by Jeordie White's LA based band Goon Moon on their second release, Licker's Last Leg. This song has also been covered by The Flaming Lips as an intro to early live versions of "Shine On Sweet Jesus" as documented on the compilation 20 Years of Weird: Flaming Lips 1986-2006. The song New York Mining Disaster 1941 was later covered by Chumbawamba on their WYSIWYG album, by Martin Carthy on Signs of Life, and as a B-side by the Levellers. Singer and pianist Nina Simone covered three songs from the album: "To Love Somebody" and "I Can't See Nobody" on 1969 album To Love Somebody and "Please Read Me" on 1968 Nuff Said.

In 2006, Reprise Records reissued Bee Gees 1st with both stereo and mono mixes on one disc and a bonus disc of unreleased songs and alternate takes.

Bee Gees 1st peaked at #7 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart
Tracks
disc 1
1. Turn Of The Century
2. Holiday
3. Red Chair, Fade Away
4. One Minute Woman
5. In My Own Time
6. Every Chistian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You
7. Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy Of The Arts
8. New York Mining Disaster 1941
9. Cucumber Castle
10. To Love Somebody
11. I Close My Eyes
12. I Can't See Nobody
13. Please Read Me
14. Close Another Door
Tracks 1 til 14 stereo
Tracks 15 til 28 mono mixes)
Disc 2
1. Turn Of The Century (early version)
2. One Minute Woman (early version)
3. Gilbert Green
4. New York Mining Disaster 1941 (version one)
5. House Of Lords
6. Cucumber Castle (early version)
7. Harry Braff (early alternate version)
8. I Close My Eyes (early version)
9. I've Got To Learn
10. I Can't See Nobody (alternate take)
11. All Around My Clock
12. Mr. Wallor's Wailing Wall
13. Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy Of The Arts (alternate take)
14. New York Mining Disaster 1941 (version two)