Clear Blue Sky - Out of the blue (1971)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 6:58 AM 0 comments

Originally a trio of friends from school, John Simms (guitar), Mark Sheather (bass), and Ken White (drums) grew up in the Acton area of London and started as a college circuit blues-rock band called JUG BLUES (later MATUSE and then X). Impressing manager Ashley Kozak, the band were given a deal with Vertigo, changed their name to CLEAR BLUE SKY and recorded a self-titled record under the production of Patrick Campbell-Lyons. Still only eighteen, the three musicians mixed hard blues with progressive and psychedelic rock in an unusually mature way, and the LP was released in January 1971 sporting one of Roger Dean's earliest album covers. The group was occasionally compared to CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN and early JETHRO TULL, though the music had a firm prog sensibility unlike CREAM or ZEPPELIN and sometimes may even remind of RUSH.

CLEAR BLUE SKY's 1971 debut (reissued on Repertoire,1991) is considered their most important and the LP is a collector's item. The second record, "Destiny" [Saturn, 1990], released twenty years after the first (and then again in 1999 on Aftermath in CD format), is old material but shows an improvement in form and approach from the first session. 1996 saw the part-concept album "Cosmic Crusader" and later another theme record "Mirror of the Stars". "Out of the Blue", a collection of live and unreleased material, came out in 2001.
Tracks
Tracklisting
01. Man of stone
02. New Dream
03. Spooky
04. Will you lie
05. Veil of the vixen
06. Taxman
07. Joanna
08. Journey
09. Mistery
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Ginhouse - Ginhouse (1971)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 2:53 AM 0 comments

A hard rock trio from Newcastle whose album is now rare. They had a good reputation as a live act and wrote some strong material on their album, with the continuous track "The House"/"Sun In A Bottle" the highlight, alongside a cover version of The Beatles' "And I Love Her". Geoff Sharkey had earlier played in Sammy.
Tracks
1 Tyne God (Sharkey) 5:27
2 I Cannot Understand (Sharkey) 4:16
3 The Journey (Sharkey) 5:55
4 Portrait Picture (Sharkey) 5:42
5 Fair Stood The Wind (Sharkey) 2:48
6 And I Love Her (Lennon/McCartney) 3:09
7 Life (Sharkey) 4:27
8 The Morning After (Sharkey) 5:11
9 The House (Sharkey) 3:30
10 Sun In The Bottle (Sharkey) 5:03
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Groundhogs - Blues Orbituary (1969)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 2:28 AM 0 comments

Originally released in 1969, Blues Obituary is the second album by ’60s British blues-rock legends The Groundhogs.
Blues Obituary finds the group beginning to stretch beyond traditional blues forms, as demonstrated on the seven-minute epic “Light Was the Day.” Beyond its memorable cover art, Blues Obituary marks the Groundhogs’ first effort as a power trio, the format in which the band would do its most acclaimed and popular work.
Tracks:
1. B.D.D.
2. Daze of the Weak
3. Times
4. Mistreated
5. Express Man
6. Natchez Burning
7. Light Was the Day
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Kazuhiko Kato - Supergas (1971)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 1:45 AM 0 comments

Kazuhiko Katō (加藤 和彦, Katō Kazuhiko?, March 21, 1947 – October 17, 2009), nicknamed "Tonovan" (トノヴァン?), was a Japanese record producer, songwriter, and singer. He sometimes used the spelling of "Kazuhiko Katoh".

As a member of the Folk Crusaders, Kato launched his recording career in the mid 1960s. "Kaettekita Yopparai (I Only Live Twice)", their psychedelic debut song composed by Kato and released in 1967, sold more than 1.3 million copies in Japan, and became one of the best-selling singles of the early Japanese popular music industry. The group also starred in director Nagisa Oshima's 1968 film "Kaette kita yopparai" (alternately known as "Sinner in Paradise" or "Three Resurrected Drunkards").

After the breakup of Folk Crusaders in 1970, Kato gained success for his production works for other musicians, including Shigeru Izumiya, Mariya Takeuchi, and Takuro Yoshida. In particular, Sadistic Mika Band, the acclaimed project he started with his first wife Mika Fukui, received international success. Their 1974 album entitled Kurofune (The Black Ship) is regarded as one of the most significant Japanese rock albums of the mid 1970s. The group was disbanded and reassembled again several times, with new vocalists such as Yumi Matsutoya, Karen Kirishima, and Kaela Kimura.

As a composer, Kato created the theme song "Ai Oboetei Imasu ka" for The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? anime film released during the summer of 1984 in Japan. He later formed a songwriting team with his second wife, the late Kazumi Yasui. Most of the songs they wrote were recorded and produced by Kenji Sawada. In 1990, Kato teamed up with graphic artists, Haruhiko Shono and Kuniyoshi Kaneko, to provide the music for the award-winning Japanese computer game, Alice.

Kato committed suicide by hanging on October 17, 2009 at a hotel in Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Police discovered a suicide note in his hotel room.
Tracks
1.Iewo Tsukurunara (02:24)
2.Arther Hakaseno Jinriki Hikouki (05:46)
3.Mahouni Kakatta Asa (02:23)
4.Sekkachito (03:15)
5.Moshimo, Moshimo, Moshimo (03:39)
6.Fushigina Hi (02:44)
7.Matankino Kokage (02:43)
8.Alcansheru (07:03)
9.Jiraiya (07:27)
10.Super Gas (01:44)
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Pandamonium - Unreleased album (1969)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 1:19 AM 0 comments

A little confusingly, the core duo of Pandamonium, singer/songwriter-guitarists Bob Ponton and Martin Curtis, recorded as the figureheads of two different groups in the late '60s and early '70s. At first, with a few other musicians, they did some mid- to late-'60s singles for CBS; then, as Thoughts & Words, they did a 1969 album for Liberty. After that obscure LP, they recorded a 1970 album that went unreleased at the time. That 1970 LP was belatedly released in 2004 in the form of this download/cd, titled The Unreleased Album, and credited to Pandamonium, though it's not clear whether it would have been billed to Pandamonium had it come out in 1970. Certainly Ponton and Curtis were supported by several notable figures on these sessions, including Gerry Conway, Jerry Donahue, and Pat Donaldson from Fotheringay; guitarist Albert Lee; bassist Chas Hodges, later part of hitmaking duo Chas & Dave; top British session drummer Clem Cattini (that is, assuming the "Clem Katiny" credited on this CD is the same guy); engineer John Wood, who worked on numerous major British folk-rock albums of the period by the likes of Fairport Convention and Nick Drake; and Shel Talmy, who's credited as co-producer. For all that, however, the failure of this material to gain release is no mystery. It's affable, diverse, but rather nondescript circa-1970 British rock that doesn't fit comfortably into either the folk-rock or pop/rock categories. Ponton and Curtis put together some fair minor-keyed, introspective numbers like "It's a Long Time" (which is very slightly reminiscent of the Moody Blues) and "I Am What I Am" (which is in turn very slightly reminiscent of the psychedelic Byrds), with touches of folk-rock, orchestrated pop/rock, and singer/songwriter influences, but the songs aren't exceptionally memorable. At other times, like "Sunrise" and the peppy "Sit and Watch the Sunshine," they seem to be gearing toward a more conventionally uplifting single, though the breezier "Waiting for Summer" is a more successful effort along those lines; the country-rock-influenced "Baby I'll Be Yours" is rather like the most lighthearted moments of late-'60s Fairport Convention with the Sandy Denny lineup. There's certainly no harm done that this album's finally available, of course, but it's only recommended to very deep collectors of British rock of the period, or specific fans of Ponton and Curtis.
Tracks
01 - I Know You - 3.17
02 - It´s A Long Time - 3.14
03 - I Am What I Am - 3.53
04 - Sunrise - 4.10
05 - If I Could Be With You - 2.15
06 - Sit And Watch The Sunshine - 3.10
07 - Baby I´ll Be Yours - 3.51
08 - Send Out A Smile - 3.03
09 - Who Knows What We May Find - 3.14
10 - Waiting For The Summer - 2.30
11 - I Believe In You - 3.56
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Jean Le Fennec - Phantastic (1968)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 12:58 AM 0 comments

Only project executed by the mysterious Jean Le Fennec, except for a promo 7inch excerpted from same album that saw a release in '69. Produced by famous Roland Kluger, the man behind Chakachas, Nico Gomez and Andrae Brasseur.
Tracks
1 L'abandon
2 L'enterrement
3 La fleur
4 Marie-Cécile
5 Mes enfants d'autre part
6 Le sorcier
7 Le chat et la souris
8 La boule et le verre
9 Le disloqué
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Blue Phantom - Distortions (1971)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 12:43 AM 0 comments

A popular album among european psych and prog collectors, Distortions was in fact released in Italy in 1971, along with a single, by a group of unknown studio musicians and later released in other european countries, among which England.
Both album and single appeared in Italy on Vedette subsidiary Spider label, and were composed (under his nickname Tical) and played by Armando Sciascia.

An entirely instrumental album that shows some influences from late 60's psych sounds.
Tracks
1. Diodo
2. Metamorphosis
3. Microchaos
4. Compression
5. Equilibrium
6. Dipnoi
7. Distillation
8. Equivalence
9. Psycho Nebulous
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Black Widow - Return to the Sabbath (1969)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 12:18 AM 0 comments

Black Widow were a rock band that formed in Leicester, England in September 1969. The band were mostly known for its early use of satanic and occult imagery in their music and stage act. The band were often confused with the better-known heavy rock band Black Sabbath, but the bands were only superficially similar.
The band originally formed in 1966 as Pesky Gee! with Kay Garrett (lead vocals), Kip Trevor (lead vocals, guitar and harmonica), Chris Dredge (guitar), Bob Bond (bass guitar), Clive Box (drums and piano), Jess "Zoot" Taylor (organ), Clive Jones (saxophone and flute). Jim Gannon (guitar, vocals and vibes), replaced Dredge in Spring 1969. The band split in September 1969.

The band released one album for Pye Records as Pesky Gee!, 1969's Exclamation Mark, before Garrett left the band. The remaining band members continued on as Black Widow and released their debut album Sacrifice in 1970.Perhaps better known than their music was the band's use of occult references in their music and their live performances, which were made more controversial with the mock sacrifice of a nude woman.These acts at time were very shocking but now a common use in the underground music scene, black metal The band attracted further controversy by consulting infamous witch Alex Sanders for advice.

Unlike one could have imagined, this Return To The Sabbath is not a re-working of the very good debut album of the lesser-known Black Widow. Each song featured on this album is a demo release of what would become Sacrifice which was released in 1970.
All these versions are dating from 1969 and they are being offered in a less achieved way than the ones which were recorded for the official album released in those early days of prog. Most of the songs are shorter in their pre-release formats if you would except the opening number In Ancient Days. The keyboards intro is more solemn and the sax parts longer.
Tracks
1. In ancient days (9:28)
2. Way to power (4:08)
3. Come to the sabbat (4:11)
4. Conjuration (5:53)
5. Seduction (4:41)
6. Attack of the demon (3:57)
7. Sacrifice (10:48)
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Autosalvage - Auto Salvage (1968)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 12:09 AM 0 comments

Thomas Danaher (lead vocals, rhythm guitar)
Darius LaNoue Davenport (vocals, oboe, piano, drums, trombone, guitar, bass guitar, krummhorn, recorder)
Rick Turner (lead guitar, banjo, dulcimer)
Skip Boone (bass guitar, piano)

This group was started in the middle of 1966 by Thomas Danaher, who was a folk and bluegrass freak, and Darius LaNoue Davenport, who came from a musical family. Lead guitarist Rick Turner, son of a poet and a painter, had worked with Ian and Sylvia and then a long line of rock groups. Bassist Skip Boone is the brother of Steve Boone, the bassist for the Lovin' Spoonful.

Originally discovered by The Mothers Of Invention, the group broke up when they saw it wasn't enough to be good: you also had to sell a lot of records to make the sort of money that made the whole hassle worthwhile. Their only album, released in 1968, is full of quiet flashes of brilliance, and there are people about still weeping at the demise of a group called Autosalvage - even if there is a fine album left to remember it by."
Tracks:
01.Autosalvage
02.Burglar Song
03.Rampant Generalities
04.Our Life As We Lived It/Good Morning Blues
05.Ancestral Wants
06.Hundred Days
07.Land Of Their Dreams
08.Parahighway
09.Medley: The Great Brain Robbery/Glimpses Of The Next World's World
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