STACKRIDGE - FRIENDLINESS 1972

Often billed as the West Country Beatles, this Bristol sextet started out of the local folk scene from there and developed quickly a strange presence on stage with the group using rhubarb leaves and dustbin lids as stage props and their strange cartoon-like characters described in their songs, a bit reminiscent of Gong’s Planet Gong. The debut album (recorded only as a quintet) is full of those very bizarre heroes, but let’s some real space for instrumental interplay often mixing their folk rock with symphonic instrumentation. By the second album, the again-sextet was building a healthy following in the club and university circuit.

Their fixation with the Beatles pushed them to require Sir George Martin’s services for their third album Bowler Hat, but although the group gained a better visibility, it was at the expense of the humour and group soul. This will cause such a rift in the band that even before the album got a release, only two members were left in the band. Having to rebuild the group, they got transferred to Elton John’s private label Rocket Records (still distributed by MCA) and in came Rod Bowkett (who will write most tunes on the new album) and Audience’s Keith Gemmel, which will change the sound of the band since they now have two wind players. The ensuing album Extravaganza returns to the madness of their first two albums with the second side simply mind-blowing. The group will again disintegrate and will reform with original bassist Crun Walter back in the fold and Dave Lawson (ex-Web/Samurai and then-Greenslade) as a guest. Their album will a full-blown concept album describing Mr Mick’s daily life and dreams.
Stackridge has reformed and released a few live album around the turn of the century.

:::: Bio written by Hugues Chantraine, Belgium ::::

Tracks :

1. Lummy Days (3:22)
2. Friendliness, Pt. 1 (2:30)
3. Anyone for Tennis (2:32)
4. There Is Not Refuge (3:24)
5. Syracuse the Elephant (8:47)
6. Amazingly Agnes (3:31)
7. Father Frankenstein Is Behind Your Pillow (3:36)
8. Keep on Clucking (4:04)
9. Story of My Heart (2:04)
10. Friendliness, Pt. 2 (1:55)
11. Teatime (5:49)
12. Slark* (4:46)
13. Everyman* (4:27)
14. Purple Spaceships Over Yatton* (6:39)

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Ripped by : evermoreblues
Artwork Included

HARD MEAT - HARD MEAT 1970/THROUGH A WINDOW 1971

Hard Meat - Hard Meat / Through a Window CD. Reissue of both unsung early 70s psychedelic acid hard rock albums from this classic UK group. Both are solid albums from 1970 and 1971 that haven't suffered from crazed hyping over the years because the original album prices didn't shoot into the stratosphere. Good stuff! 16 songs here!

Tracks :

1. Through a Window
2. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
3. Space Between
4. Time Shows No Face
5. Run Shaker Life
6. Universal Joint
7. Most Likely You Go Your Way I'll Go Mine
8. On The Road
9. New Day
10. Free Wheel
11. Smile As You Go Under
12. I Want You
13. From The Prison
14. A Song of Summer
15. Love
16. The Ballad of Marmalade Emma and Teddy Grimes

Link : @

Artwork Included

EDEN ROSE - ON THE WAY TO EDEN 1970

Rare & Great French lp "On the Way to Eden" 1970. This album was made in a very spontaneous way, most of the time live in the studio located 10, Washington Street, Paris. The music performed here is close to a kind of instrumental blues-rock, quite typical of the period, and based on long developments mainly centred on Hammond organ sounds, influenced by Progressive rock. It was then issued in 1970 on the Katema label.

The album was recorded in Paris (Seine, France) at the studio located at 10 Washington Street in March 1970. Produced by Katema.

Tracks :

On the way to eden
Faster and faster
Sad dream
Obsession
Feeling in the living
Travelling
Walking in the sea
Reinyet number

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Artwork Included

GANDALF - GANDALF 2 (1968-1971)

Gandalf 2 never existed in its own time. Sundazed cobbled it together from strays when collector interest in their reissue of the psych band's '68 LP proved high. Smart idea: the sequel is the better record. For one thing, guitar/ vox Peter Sando was adept at crafting ornate, breezy pop gems, but only a couple of them made it onto the band's sole album, which was stuffed instead with covers. Eight of Sando's leftovers find their way 2, among them a folk inspired solo acoustic guitar/ harmonica mood piece, the spare and graceful Smokey Topaz. An elongated demo of Golden Earrings, which led off the official album, is of historical interest, as are three tracks recorded by Sando with the Barracuda, all written by Bonner & Gordon of Happy Together fame.

Tracks :

Bird In The Hand
Days Are Only Here And Gone
Smokey Topaz
Ladyfingers
No Earth Can Be Won
Bad Dream
I Won't Cry No More
The Dance At St. Francis
Julie (the Song I Sing Is You)
Over This Table
Golden Earrings
Tears Of Ages
Downbound Train

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Artwork included

KAYAK - SEE SEE THE SUN 1972

This is the first album (1973) from a great Dutch band. Wonderful music, one might call it symphonic rock. It has some resemblances with the first albums of Genesis and Yes. But the group certainly has his own style: a bit baroque, wonderful melodies and nice arrangements. Especially the voice of Max Werner (passionate and a bit "mean"), the high-pitched voice of drummer Ton Koopman and the wonderful melodies from the keyboards of Ton Scherpenzeel, (also the leader of the band and composer of most songs), are from a great quality and an outstanding beauty. "Lyrics", "Forever is a lonely thought" and the titlesong are the highlights from the highlights.

(fredgon)





Tracks :

Reason for It All
Lyrics
Mouldy Wood
Lovely Luna
Hope for a Life
Ballet of the Cripple
Forever Is a Lonely Thought
Mammoth
See See the Sun
Still Try to Write a Book
Give It a Name

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Artwork Included

LOST NATION - PARADISE LOST 1970

Don't let the cover of this obscure Detroit album put you off - it depicts the band behind a balustrade on whose lower wall is graffiti on a predominantly ecological theme, but this is no hippie-rock, or back-to-nature concept album. This is serious progressive rock, soundwise somewhere between Uriah Heep and Rare Bird - busy keyboards, strong vocals, neoclassical movements, and some excellent heavy guitar. Not strictly within the main thrust of this book, this quintet merit an entry for including Ron Stults, formerly of revered heavy garage kings The Unrelated Segments. Craig Webb also had a spell in Frijid Pink.
(info taken from http://orexisofdeath.blogspot.com/2008/06/lost-nation-paradise-lost-1970-us-heavy.html







Tracks :

Tall Ivory Castle
Rome
Little Boy
Images
Seven Minute Woman
Shadows Within You
She'll Take You
Falling Inside My Mind

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Artwork included

[BY REQUEST] ANDY BOWN - GONE TO MY HEAD 1972

Multi-instrumentalist Andy Bown has displayed tremendous versatility as a sessionman as well as strength and loyalty as a bandmember in several much-loved British combos. Yet on an existential level, his greatest importance might turn out to be as a sort of Achilles' heel for warriors whose battleground is the confusing mass of data concerning recording sessions and performing ensembles. Nobody would blame Bown, who no doubt came by his surname quite honestly. The real culprits are a series of British bassists named Andy Brown, one of whom played for a bandleader named Alan Bown, whose presence in the story is an additional irritant. Discographies that list Andy Bown as playing with Alan Bown are not correct; that was Andy Brown. But scan the discography of Andy Bown and there will always be a few titles that remain in debate. The Tim Hardin album Nine, for example, is one in which Andy Brown is credited with playing bass on some copies, against the wishes of scholars who believe it is really Andy Bown. Hardin's recording label, which sometimes required proofreaders to don blindfolds, has also given the credit to Bown on some editions, arousing a faction that believes it is really Andy Brown, although nobody can agree which one.

This, however, is not Bown's problem, and he deserves a biography free of brown-outs. He began piano lessons at the age of six, and throughout his career would return to the keyboards as the bedrock of his music. While he has been a full-time musician since 1964 and in a combo called the Preachers, Bown also has a background as an artist. He created advertisements for a circus, and worked as an assistant to an editorial cartoonist. Only one year after the Preachers began sermonizing, Bown was in the Herd, and playing alongside no less a rock-star-to-be than guitarist Peter Frampton.

The Herd was active through 1969, creating its masterpiece Paradise Lost the year before calling it quits. Bown's next venture was a seven-piece band that settled on the name Judas Jump, with some members betraying their previous allegiance to groups such as the Mindbenders to join up. The group had very little commercial success, which is not something that could be said of Bown's later gigs with the ear-shattering Status Quo and mind-boggling Pink Floyd. While the latter term is often applied to Pink Floyd's music, it is even more appropriate in terms of the extravagance with which the group was able to conceive projects, leading to opportunities such as Bown had. The same Pink Floyd that is able to ship four separate sound systems around during a tour came up with The Wall production, in which the efforts of a surrogate (or alter-ego) band was required. The job went to Bown, playing alongside guitarist Snowy White, drummer Willie Wilson, and keyboardist Peter Wood. This was one of Bown's bass gigs. He has appeared on many records as both a guitarist and keyboardist, as well as a producer. "Pictures of Matchstick Men," the Status Quo single considered by many listeners to be one of the great psychedelic rock recordings of all time, remains his most-played side. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide

Tracks :

Pale Shadow
Gone To My Head
And If My Love Wants To Know
P.S Get Lost
The Mourning Leaves
Open Your Eyes
Oh, James
Eventually
Etc...Etc
If It's All the Same To You
Please Remember Me

Link : @

Front cover only, sorry...

THE ILLUSION - TOGETHER ( AS A WAY OF LIFE ) 1969

By some standards, the Illusion were one of the most successful unknown psychedelic bands of their generation -- unknown, yes, but with three LPs to their credit on the Steed label. Their personnel included Michael Ricciardella (drums), Richie Cerniglia (guitar), Chuck Alder (bass), Mike Maniscalco (guitar, keyboards), and John Vinci (vocals). The Steed label released Illusion, Together, and If It's So between 1969 and 1970. Illusion was interesting enough to observers to merit a release in England in 1969. By 1971, the Illusion's albums were being sought by kids who'd never heard the band play. One of their songs, "I Love You," has made it on to compact disc. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide






Tracks :

# 01 - How Does It Feel
# 02 - Happy Days
# 03 - Bright Eyes
# 04 - Don't Push It
# 05 - Once In A Lifetime
# 06 - Love Me Girl
# 07 - Lila
# 08 - Angel
# 09 - Peace Pipe
# 10 - Naked Blues
# 11 - Little Boy
# 12 - Together

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Artwork Included

JOHN DENVER - WINDSONG 1975

You can hear wind scraping over bare rocks and miniature plants of the alpine tundra, violently bifurcating through forests of coniferous trees, and you can feel wind swirling over the churning waters of a river, and you can see wind ripple and flow in waves through the deciduous leaves of aspen.

How would someone translate this invisible warmth into a song? John Denver begins by metaphorically expounding upon the strengths and human-like emotions and cries of the wind, announcing that the wind offers wisdom and to listen to her, finally culminating into an aural humming, representing the wind itself. It is a beautiful testament to the shifting and settling of air.

This is the original recording of the song, and John Denver re-recorded it twice in his later years (e.g. on the Very Best of album), taking advantage of newer and better recording materials. While these versions are like listening to Denver in surround-sound-super-stereo, and are almost more passionate in verse, the original track on the Windsong album will always be the first way original fans heard it. It commands more respect with its age.

Windsong, as an album, is filled with Denver's trademark layered-hums and drawn out singing styles that, I feel, make the songs more atmospheric and spiritual. This includes Cowboy's Delight, an almost haunting approach to mountains and the (to me) light that strikes them during different hours of the day. From the darkness of the Hour of the Wolf, to the dim outlines of the zodiacal light; the golden-pink bathing from the sunrise, and the noon sun sparkling off gold and muscovite, and biotite and garnets in granite, to fiery rocks in the sunset and purplish-pink lulls of alpenglow, to the silvery-blue moonshine or red-blue-silvers of starlight...

Also spiritual are Looking for Space, I'm Sorry, the pseudo-minimalist Spirit, and Fly Away (to a lesser degree). Your heart will soar at Calypso's plein-aire oceans and Love is Everywhere's upbeat folk/bluegrass fiddlin'! Shipmates and Cheyenne is a slower song with a beautiful chorus, Song of Wyoming is a calm end to the album (so calm, I can never recall the tune), and Late Nite Radio is a fun quirky truck-drivin' tune. As others have pointed out, Two Shots doesn't really belong here, but it's grown on me and I appreciate it for what it is. The song just starts off a bit too loudly.

Windsong is an immediate classic, with tracks that have unfortunately been released on many other albums...ones I got to first, so I feel this album isn't entirely new to me. But I sure wish I had been around when it was released. I would've done exactly what I do today: pop it in the tape-deck of my car, and drive off into the sunshine.
By Christopher S. Loucks "piano macabre" (Colorado Front Range)

Tracks :

Windsong 4:03
Cowboy's Delight 3:06
Spirit 3:37
Looking for Space 4:02
Shipmates and Cheyenne 3:29
Late Nite Radio 2:47
Love Is Everywhere 3:35
Two Shots 3:34
I'm Sorry 3:26
Fly Away 4:09
Calypso 3:39
Song of Wyoming 3:17

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Artwork Included

JOHN DENVER - HOME AGAIN 1974

This album was released when John was at the apex of his popularity, and the songs on this album served to propel him firmly into the stratosphere. From the comical "Thank God I'm A Country Boy' to the incredible smash hit "Annie's Song", John Denver showcases his incredible talents here. Denver almost single-handedly began the outdoor backpacking, hiking, and orienteering movements by popularizing the idea of nature as an important element in modern life, and more than a few of the young babyboomers, like John, were more than ready for the kind of unconventional intimacy with nature he sang about so effortlessly and so elegantly. From "Sweet Surrender" to "This Old Guitar'", Denver's songs soar in their description of the beauties of a simple and natural life and in being close to the "great wide-open'.

Denver also does an unusually good cover of "Grandma's Feather Bed", written by a friend by usually identified with Denver himself. Indeed, the simple and well arranged acoustic blast of infectious energy and sweet simplicity that was John Denver is here in spades, whether it be in original songs like "Matthew" or with covers of others' work, the kid who had adopted the majesty of Colorado for his setting and his inspiration sings simply, sentimentally, and superbly about the simple pleasures and undying verities of a homespun and simple life well lived. My special favorite here is "Back Home Again", and I always wondered why it (and also "Matthew") wasn't a bigger hit for John. Hearing John sing in his youthful enthusiasm about what turns him on is still a rare treat.

Tracks :

1. Back Home Again
2. On The Road
3. Grandma's Feather Bed
4. Matthew
5. Thank God I'm A Country Boy
6. The Music Is You
7. Annie's Song
8. It's Up To You
9. Cool An' Green An' Shady
10. Eclipse
11. Sweet Surrender
12. This Old Guitar

Link : @

Artwork Included