Psychedelic Shark :
The first thing to say is that this is one of the greatest albums in the history of music. It should be required listening for everybody who likes rock. This album deserves to be much better known. It is a very psychedelic album, in fact it is one of the best psychedelic albums ever made. The combination of power, aggression and beauty is still quite stunning after more than thirty years.
Before buying the album I had never heard anything by the Outsiders but was attracted by their legendary cult status and my growing interest in Dutch psychedelic and progressive music of the sixties and seventies. There are many great bands from the Netherlands who are far too little known internationally. The Outsiders had a short career and this 1968 album was their last. You can almost understand why this was the band's last album. There is a peaking of power and feeling here, which would be next to impossible to repeat. Every track is a masterpiece.
I bought the album a few weeks ago at Fame in Amsterdam and have been listening to it continuously ever since. If you like psychedelia I would be very surprised if you did not like this album. This is not flower power psychedelia and nor is there anything whimsical about this music, that is very hard edged. It is difficult to compare to other bands but the Pretty Things would possibly be the most similar music or the era.
style: pop folk country: germany audio: mp3 (128k) size: 36mb
Cosmic Dreams: Ougenweide was one the most significant German folk-rock bands of the seventies. Their music was quite different from the 'progressive folk' music created by the early Broselmaschine and Holderlin. Ougenweide's speciality was shorter tracks in off almost medieval folk tradition with German lyrics. The result was a German answer to British groups like Fairport Convention, Gryphon and Steeleye Span. Like these groups, Ougenweide (from Hamburg) succeeded in achieving a distinct style of their own. Their records confirm that they were obviously great instrumentalists. Through the years the nucleus of the Wulff brothers, von Henko and Isenbart remained intact. Minne Graw was their female vocalist from the third album onwards. A large part of their repertoire consisted of traditional German folk songs. The early albums are their most acoustic ones, the later works also utilised synthesisers.
Crack in the Cosmic Egg:
Formed in 1973 by Pit Hensel and Claus Kniemeyer in Frankfurt. With one foot set firmly in the early-1970's Octopus drew on new technology to present a very polished brand of heavy progressive rock. Apparently they financed the recording of their debut themselves, hawked it around as a demo before Sky took it up for release a year later.
With a female lead vocalist they often come across a bit like Curved Air (but without the classical edge) on both THE BOAT OF THOUGHTS and AN OCEAN OF ROCKS, with good chunky rhythmic structures, plenty of instrumentals and nice synthesized arrangements. Shamefully their third, RUBBER ANGEL, saw them betray their public, presenting a funky styled pop-rock with no redeeming merits. The fourth I've never heard, and don't think I want to!
Cosmic Dreams: When it comes to outrageous German sleeve designs, it's impossible not to mention the first Eulenspygel album. It presents a half-burned chicken lying in a frying pan. This really disgusting design (by Wolfgang M. Schmidt) upset so many people that the cover was withdrawn. If you have wondered why Eulenspygel named their first album 2, it was because they also counted the album issued under their previous name Royal Servants! Their first album was recorded at Studio Maschen, Hamburg, July 1971, and produced by Wolfgang Schmidt and Peter Springer. It offered a typical German progressive blend, drawing equally from heavy rock, folk, jazz and classical. The six tracks were cleverly arranged, with rich instrumentation and sudden shifts of tempo. All lyrics, containing anti-war messages and other critical political views on different aspects of society, were in German. Inside the fold-out cover there was a Black Sabbath like shot of the band at a graveyard, burying a chicken! Since the burnt chicken sleeve had caused controversy, Ausschuss (1972) was issued in a plain corrugated paper sleeve! It was recorded at the Apple Studios, London, in April 1972 with the same production team. Musically this was quite similar in style to their first album, but in my ears not as good as this. Mellotron and moog were used as well as organ and piano. The magnum opus was the 22 minute "Abfall", which went through innumerable changes in mood and melody. For some reason, the band then disappeared from the scene.
01. Set Your Spirit Free 3:36
02. Strangers 5:12
03. We Can Get Together 7:48
04. Summer Sky 3:48
05. On The Road 5:01
06. Return To Reality 7:38
07. Spread Your Wings 5:07
08. Return To Reality (Live Version) 8:10
Cliff Jackson (guitars, vocals)
Heinz Glass (guitar, vocals)
Michael Karch (keyboards, vocals)
Fritz Randow (drums)
Harvey Janssen (bass)
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Oldish Psych & Prog offers progressive psychedelic rock music mp3 lossless downloads
