Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Boline {Denmark} [1982]

This is not of course either the masterpiece or "masterpiece" to which I was referring, neither the first nor the second of these, it is an unusual hard rock - new wave danish RIO-influenced proggish lost album along the lines of Zauberfinger but with less compositional complexity or originality, I am not sure exactly what happened to the aforementioned piece, it is perhaps somewhere on this computer but the hard drive, of course, being full of thousands, or tens of thousands of songs, is not easy to search through and in fact, although it is now downloaded onto my ipod, there is no way to transfer off this ipod back on to the computer-- apple has made this very difficult for no obvious reason to me other than mere perversity, so it may be that this "masterpiece" (I dread to use those quotes today, I know not how else to describe it though, please forgive me), will no longer show up again, how ironic that it should be so rescued from oblivion only to be thrown back into the unending ocean of nothingness again much like our simple lives and existences, but then is it not fitting, and how many other such masterpieces have truly been lost (here because I am speaking in the abstract hypothetical I dispense with the quotes) just as the plays of Sophocles that were lost, as we know from contemporary accounts, so many works from ancient Greece (--considered of course masterpieces by their brethren, who would never have dared to ironically use quotation marks as we moderns are so apt to do) are lost to us, and think of Petronius' Satyricon, this record oops I mean novel copied by hand through the brutal middle ages, survived in the end only in pieces, perhaps destroyed in conflagrations, or by over-inquisitional zealous monks, despite its prurient content it was rightly regarded by those chaste monastics as a masterpiece of literature, so it may well be like this my masterpiece of progressive will never see the sound waves of the light of day or night but then I wonder, was it ever really a masterpiece (after all when I played it for my wife her response was 'can you please stop listening to music and help me with the kids, you know, those children that you're the father of,' which was not positive, at least I didn't conceive it as such although I did appreciate the honesty which made me doubt whether ever her praise can be taken at face value or is merely polite 'humouring' of my odd taste, the middle of which cerebration suddenly was shattered by a more strident urgency in my wife's voice, 'can you please tell your children to stop!! !' (running and screaming in circles that is -- a habit of which they are peculiarly enamoured)), was I merely deluding myself in this respect because perhaps many would have disagreed, the majority even, and would have denigrated it-- would it be better I not propose it as such only to get shot down as it were, perhaps better that it is lost again to the evil criticisms of jealously impervious humanity, perhaps it is better that it is merely a memory, merely the shadow of an imagining which you can translate into your own pygmalionic ideal in your own auditory or intrasensory terms as you so choose, so perhaps let us cloister it with so many quotations, let us say, that it is indeed this " " "m" or """"--masterpiece""""""(note I do not bother with any symmetric arithmetic of the quotations now, we are in free-jazz territory as it were now) so worthy of quotes that I shall multiply the quotes million-fold until they are legion, until this page is but a series of little ticks on the tops of the lines to represent what is the greatest acoustic memory that shall never be, never be represented as such in existence, an "acoustic" "memory" that is no more a """[m]-yhwh""" than the memory of the letters and lines that I punctuate my thoughts with, let us call it the ineffable, the tetragrammaton, the "that-which-shall-render-thee-deaf" the name of god which is unspeakably strange unusual and to be placed in invisible quotes now (this is why you cannot see them anymore I wrote them in invisible ink) -- but what if it is not so either, and it is truly a masterpiece, one of the greatest ever created by human minds, then truly this is a monumental tragedy worthy of another lost LP oops I mean play of Aeschylus it is a horrific event, comparable to the extinction via space-rock of the sauropods and depressing in the extreme, wherefore I am tempted to return to the iv heroin or perhaps crushed oxycontin that is the only succour for such profound suffering and pain -- oh wait a minute, I think I just found it again... It's right here. OK forget what I just said. It'll be up shortly.sample track, appopotomax [!!] :

Monday, August 27, 2012

KPM 1193 - Classical Synthesizer (Alan Hawkshaw) and Stained Glass Windows (John Leach) - 1977

This is obviously not the "masterpiece" to which I was alluding earlier that I will be posting soon, and I say that with the requisite quotation marks not in enigmatic coyness or postmodern irony but more to protect or blanket the word in an attempt at avoiding the litigiousness and controversy demonstrated in shige's czech album post which was derided on all sides for lacking the attributes of masterpictality although given the variability of musical tastes, such an opinion can surely be defended by anyone choosing to undertake the exercise, not to mention in my blog postings I don't feel I am guilty of overhyping anything discovered by myself or others, I feel I am being honest in for ex. stating such and such a record is mediocre, or contains bad tracks, or throwaway songs, etc. -- they perhaps don't stand comparison to classic Genesis but unfortunately in a lifetime of listening to music every day all day, I can no longer enjoy those classic records anymore due to boredom or habitude though I acknowledge intellectually they are good, the emotional nausea or feeling of satiation as after one eats too many onion rings and french fries sets in & repulses me, sending me off in search of newer material (fresh fruit or vegetables) such as this record, admittedly disappointing, but worth the effort to locate and listen to once, and anyways it's not for us to determine what is or is not a "quote unquote "masterpiece" quote unquote" as when the great master shige (who I perhaps was guilty of overpraising due to my honest affection and regard for his efforts, sincerity, and extreme generosity (and for those qualities I would rather suffer the embarassment of overhyping than a reduction in our relationship),), when master shige said, that it is a masterpiece if you love it-- [notice here I remove those dread-inducing quotation marks as if running naked through a field, openly exposing myself to the laughter of witnesses, but I don't care, we are dealing with the 70s here, when streaking was fashionable, in the time before aids people ended cocktail parties with random orgies or at least this is what I read about in playboy magazine when I was young and looking through their back copies in the corner store...] and let us all remember that for most people, records made by such artists as Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, or Kate Perry are considered masterpieces, and who is going to dare argue with the populace comprising 99.99 percent of humans? -- but perhaps I am boring you. On to the music.Like a lot of library LPs this is two separate albums on one record. The first side (subtitled "Favourite classics arranged for synth and elec. keyboards") consists of synthesizer-played classical pieces, which I dreaded to hear when I saw the titles, eg. "Elise" -- what else could it be but the overplayed Beethoven piece I learned at age 9 -- then the song called toccata synthesis -- could it be anything but the Bach Toccata that so recalls Doctor Kevorkian? Similarly with "Joy of Jesus," and "Sonata in the moonlight" ... it's hard to believe anyone is not sick of hearing these pieces, but then again, I hear "Stairway to heaven" played pretty often on the radio too and I'm sure all through Oesterreich you can still hear "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik."There is one non-throwaway song which is the sole composition by Alan Hawkshaw (who is by and large a fabulous composer) called "Rhapsodie Gentille." What a shame there is not more like it on side one.Side 2 is called "Stained Glass Windows" subtitled "Art and architecture" and I assumed it might contain some cathedral organ music, which I've mentioned before I adore (see the post on Estellet-Brun which was possibly the single most popular post ever on this blog, or any blog for that matter, including even the new york times news blog), why I thought it might have organ I don't know, but take a guess as to whether it does or not. Instead you get orchestrally pompous or perhaps grandiose music suited to a religious TV show perhaps. Oddly enough there is an entry called "Mosque" which seems out of place in those pre-multiculturalist, culturally relativist, days. And it seems John was pretty inspired by that one since it's almost the longest piece in his collection.I've said it before, the european cathedral is one of the greatest art forms humanity has ever created, and I never tire of visiting them wherever they may be. But I pray that someday our progressive music will also be considered one of the greatest achievements of human creativity and will be given the credit it deserves.


Jazz, Rock (VA) - Pop '80 Nachwuchs Festival

Is it even possible to get tired of deutsches jazz oder rock? Nicht fur mich aber some out there might be reaching the breaking point. This LP won't contribute to that particular straw that broke the camel's back threading its way through the eye of the needle of the kingdom of god (of prog) because it contains some quite enjoyable music from relatively unknown (at least to me) bands. Please note that notwithstanding the title most of this record is pop or rock with only a minority of jazz and of that, of course, no true swinging jazz appears but only fusion.
First up a shout out to the wonderful growing bin online record store started by famous blogger discobasso, who is absolutely a professional art gallery curator in his choice of rare and wonderful 70s-80s records. We strongly recommend all vinyl fans take a look at his catalogue, here:
http://www.growingbinrecords.com/ In this mixture we get some straight fusion (Naima), some straight rock or pop (the female-sung Artischock really impressed me), there is some really out and out progressive jazz-rock with the Jeff Beer and Jurgen Schmitt entry, which you all will sit up and take notice of when it plays for you-- guaranteed. And plenty more pop, rock, jazz, and experimental music on side 2. Make a note as well of track b2 by the Michael Thiel und Burkhard Schlathauer Duo, which reminds me eerily of David Rose's playing or Didier Lockwood (manufacture du sucre engloutie). Anyone out there know them already? I daresay it could almost be a lost ZAO track.

Fabulous long-lost gem; as I said, we must give credit to record-hunter extraordinaire discobasso here for unearthing this german treasure... It amazes me how some of these connoisseurs are so far ahead of me in their knowledge of lost vinyls.

Incidentally, notice how long this record is, side one is roughly 26 minutes, side two about the same.

As sample I put the Artischock track with the (to me) very sexy vocals. Take a look if you can at the back cover you will see what a beautiful blonde we have here too (Denise Gorzelanny) "da wünsch ich mir ich wäre wieder ein kleines kind " [--this could be my own personal theme]


And here is the "lost zao track"


Now please stay tuned to our show because I will be posting very soon an absolutely stunning progressive discovery, that is utterly unknown. How such a magnificently well-written and beautiful record can be lost to time so completely as usual is unimaginable to me and impossible to believe. You too won't believe how good this record is when you hear it-- it has everything, jazz, rock, folk, and that progressive edge that we love so dearly: we're talkin' unusual chords, strange instrumentation, weird changes, dissonances (minor seconds and tritones) everything you adore. But there is a consolation-- we have rescued it from oblivion.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Freeport - "duanelessness" (Rec. Nov. 1979, Germany)

It was quite some time ago that the mighty osurec presented us with this little euro-jazz-rock masterpiece headed by pianist Michael Berger (responsible for most of the composition). The others are Michael Sievert and Manni Naumann. At this point all these names should be quite recognizable to the fans of the genre. This was recorded in Nov. 1979 at Atelier Fur Tontechnik, Oyten 1. Still to me is a mystery what the term duanelessness is meant to signify (no indication on the back or anywhere) but in no way does this interfere with enjoyment of this masterpiece of ingenious harmonies and powerful piano originality.

Their next record, the alternating current from a year later, was far more improvised and meandering and to me is a little less interesting. Here I want to present you with perfect audio sound so we can enjoy these musicians in our own living rooms playing for us, 32 years later, as if it is today.

Now in the days to come, look forward to more rare goodies: fusion, folk, library music, straight up rock, and in no time at all our friend master shige will be back from his own August summer break with more treasures to prepare us for the cold of fall and back to prog-school.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Hans Reffert and Sanfte Liebe (1987)

It's no secret I love Hans Reffert, who played in Flute and Voice, Zauberfinger, and Guru Guru. He also did numerous other side projects, and is active in arts (visual arts). Today he still plays electric guitar for Guru Guru. This is an EP in length, played at 45 speed, sadly too short. However, it totally brings back the craziness of Zauberfinger, with strange, odd sounds with a countryish-new wave vibe at times, well-written and always interesting.
I am back from holidays in August with many more goodies for everyone, including lots of that european jazz-rock I love so dearly, I will be re-recording the Freeport album posted about a year ago in a lossless format, so stay tuned for that gem. Getting back to work here will be slow of course, after vacations, this crazy blogging business can be pretty tedious.
And what an incredible cover, isn't it? This attracted me initially to the record.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Matao with Atilla Engin - Turkish Delight {Denmark} [1980]

Here is an album that was in my wishlist for a long time. if you like the early works of Okay Temiz and enjoy Spanish bands like Mezquita, you should definitively check this one!

the only review i found for this album comes from our friend cdreissuewishlist; "Another insane obscurity from The Alaskan Connection. As noted by the AC, Atilla Engin is a Turkish percussionist who landed in Denmark and formed a fusion group. My first thought was this is Engin's response to Oriental Wind (who were based in Sweden)! But Matao are a more fiery bunch with a strong rock component (especially in the guitar work), verse the more decidedly jazz direction of Okay Temiz's group. As if a Turkish drummer suddenly took over Secret Oyster. Not surprisingly, there's a strong slant towards Middle Eastern melodies and scales. The AC's observation about the Rock Andaluz scene in Spain is very astute as well. Another excellent discovery and well worth a CD. The AC says: "Atilla Engin is a Turkish drummer/percussionist who emigrated to Denmark in the 1970s and formed the band Matao with local Danish musicians. It seems they only stayed together long enough to record this one LP, but what an LP it is! This actually has some similarities with the Louis Banks/Sangam record I covered recently, in that it's an intense sort of ethnic jazz-rock fusion with a strong percussive drive, but obviously in this case with Turkish influences rather than Indian. But what really sets Matao apart and pushes this album over the top is the heavy dose of complex instrumental progressive rock that they throw into the mix, often achieving a sound that bears striking resemblance to some of the classic "Rock Andaluz" groups from Spain..........."

read more at:
http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.com/2012/01/matao-with-atilla-engin-denmark.html



Thanks goes to our faithful visitor Ron!
Enjoy!

Søren Seirup - Det går agurk {Denmark} [1981]

Perhaps Søren Seirup was better known by being co-founder of danish beat band Beefeaters & member of psychedelic band of 70s, Steppeulvene. Several years ago when i was trying to find some info about Steppeulvene, i visited this web site, and i learned, he made an album called Det går agurk at 1981. Since then i searched for this album everywhere, finally a week before i found the album from one of my friends (Thanks Mads!) and i amazed myself for a week with listening the album over and over again.. A  hidden treasure for the lovers of this type..

Album is a kind of experimental jazz fusion with blues and occidental elements.. and maybe this is the only information i found at net about; "A jazzy free form kind of hippie blues by some of the Danish pioneers of beat, blues and jazz/beat: Jesper Zeuther, Steen Claesson (the original guitarist in Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe), John Ravn (drummer in Savage Rose) and bassist of Peter Thorup´s Beefeaters."

Enjoy!

Bernard Benoit - Prelude Englouti {France}[1981, Velia]

Artist: Bernard Benoit
Album: Prelude Englouti
Year: 1981
Label: Velia
Style: Folk/Prog
Format: Flac + 3% Recovery
Size: 249MB
Lineage: VINYL Rip 16bit 44.1khz

Source: Album Collection

Studio Album Released in 1981

Track Listing

A1 Hentou 3:20
A2 Suite Flottante 3:40
A3 Ballade Pour Estelle 3:45
A4 Valse Boiteuse 2:30
A5 Les Macareux 5:00
A6 Raz-De-Marée 4:00
B1 Mandol Jig 3:20
B2 Lanmor 4:05
B3 Nozado 3:25
B4 Les Hauts De Kernabat 2:10
B5 À Fleur D'Eau 4:00
B6 Prélude Englouti 3:20

Line Up/Musicians

Drums, Percussion, Piano, Clarinet - Dominique Le Bozec
Flute, Synthesizer, Piano - Gwendal Le Goarnig
Music By, Guitar, Mandolin, Synthesizer, Vibraphone - Bernard Benoit

Friday, August 03, 2012

Andy Goldner (Ex- Exmagma) - Belleville 1981

Like a cross between Wigwam member Jim Pembroke's songs and Lou Reed if you can conceive of this concatenation, with a wonderful new wave-punk hard guitar sound reminiscent of the Zauberfinger or R. Bunka. This album was prod. by Goldner and Peter Garattoni (the drummer) for Peak records, on organ is Thomas Balluff, bass is Peter Weber.
As in Exmagma, the guitarwork is astonishingly superb, but quite notable is the high quality of the songwriting from Goldner, excepting (for me) the reggae song about Babylon with the grammatical mistake.



For a taste, first track:

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Robert Viger et Vladimir Cosma - Protocole, Industrie et Paysage 1972 (Musique pour l'image No.40)

Look at the absolutely astonishing cover collage a la Max Ernst! It's unusual to see a library record with such a beautiful cover-- often it is merely generic. As promised here is some more Robert Viger, alternating on this record with the great french soundtrack composer Vladimir Cosma. Orchestra under the direction of Cosma. This is modern orchestral music with hints of Ravel, Strav, etc.
It's interesting how each song introduces a qualitative description after it to explain the mood of the piece.
As might be expected Side 1 features more classical or baroque, majestic pieces, while Side 2 is a little more experimental or modern. A big standout for me is the A6 track though with its funereal and atrabilious disposition.



At the Climats comments I uploaded back cover of that record.