from ProgWeed : The Rotters Club is definitely one of the definitive "Canterbury" albums, a sub-genre of progressive rock that was decidedly jazzier, more instrumentally based and featured a more humorous, less-pretentious take on everything. The serious musical chops and tongue-in-cheek attitude fenced off many of these groups from the kind of criticism that more theatrical contemporaries like Yes and Genesis were being pummelled with. Hatfield & the North were on the forefront of this movement, carrying some already distinguished musicians from the likes of Caravan, Matching Mole and Egg. Rotters Club was their second album and is a monster of jazz infected progressive rock, made up of great extended jams and phenomenal musicianship from all parties.
"Share It" opens up with Richard Sinclair's whimsical vocals, already familiar to all Caravan fans, and is a very nice track. However, it is the last time we see vocals for awhile, as Hatfield and the North places much less emphasis on lyrics and such than Sinclair's former band. Instead, songs like "The Yes No Interlude" and "Underdub" are just replete with exciting playing, great organ from Dave Stewart as well as exquisite guitar work from Phil Miller. "Mumps" is a huge epic track that features some more vocals here and there but for the most part is another explosive instrumental. Basically this album is probably the next step the average prog fan should take into exploring Canterbury after Caravan's best albums.
Fuzz Acid & Flowers:
From Atlanta, this is a totally demented album which should appeal to fans of weird psychedelic groups. The Hampton Grease Band somehow managed to sign a contract with Columbia and released <
... Read more »
COSMIC DREAMS: Peter-Michael Hamel (piano, organ, electronics) was born in Munich in 1947. From 1965-1970 he studied composition under Fritz Buchtger and Gunther Bialas in his home city. During this period he played free jazz, South American folk music and experimental electronics. In 1970 he founded Between with the Argentinean Roberto Detree and the American Robert Eliscu. In 1972 he guested on Agitation Free's first album, adding his peculiar hammond organ style. His interest in Eastern music and meditation resulted in several travels to Asia. His first four albums are also very influenced by such elements. Hamel (1972) was a double album, setting standards for all the albums to come: long, meditative and floating tracks in a minimalist tradition. Some tracks were performed live without overdubs. It had fantastic, colourful, sleeve artwork. Both this and Voice Of Silence were released on the legendary swirl Vertigo label. Hamel performed vocals in a special Indian vocal technique (named khyal) on Voice Of Silence and Buddhist Meditation East-West (1975)
Scented Gardens of Mind^ They were one of the Danish groups who showed the strongest affection for the San Franciscan rock scene, most notably Country Joe & The Fish and Big Brother & The Holding Company (although also influenced by Vanilla Fudge and The Beatles). Hair played long, dynamic songs with an overwhelming fuzztone guitar, semi-classical organ and good vocals. The album concluded with a long version of Take Another Piece Of My Heart". A couple of the shorter tracks are quite good, but the album fails to convince as a whole.
01. Coming through 4:40
02. Supermouth 3:47
03. Dream song 10:28
04. Everything's under control 4:30
05. Pleasant street 6:24
06. Piece (of my heart) 11:12
Benny Dyhr - guitars, vocals
Paddy Gythfeldt - keyboards, guitar, vocals
Allan Sшrensen - bass, vocals
Peter Rolnжs - drums
Formed in 1964, this quintet began as a Minneapolis-based pop band called The UNDERBEATS. They eventually relocated to Los Angeles and, changing their name to GYPSY, began pursuing a heavier, more complex sound, blending SANTANA-like guitar and organ riffs with vocals and arrangements reminiscent of early CHICAGO. They released two excellent albums on a small label in the early 70’s then switched to RCA who (it is said) pushed the band in a more commercial direction. Consequently, they lost their progressive edge and the subsequent two releases are no more than a collection of average, mid-70’s radio-friendly pop.
Their eponymous first album (70) was a double LP made up of jazz, prog rock and pop elements, featuring fantastic harmonies with vocalist/keyboardist James Walsh in the lead. The more polished "In the Garden”, released a year later, is in the same vein with Walsh really cooking at the keyboards. With the release of "Antithesis” (72) and "Unlock the Gates” (73), however, the band took a downslide into bubble-gum pop. Sole member of the original line-up, Walsh gathered some musicians in 1996 and tried to revive the GYPSY sound with an album called "20 Years Ago Today”; an average-to-good album mostly made up of new compositions plus a couple of nicely reworked classics.
Fans of SANTANA, CHICAGO, PABLO CRUISE, SPIRIT or SUGAR LOAF should definitely check out the first two albums.
COSMIC DREAMS:
One of the earliest and most legendary of German groups was Guru Guru, led by the outstanding, colourful Mani Neumeier, who was born on 31 December 1940 in Munich. Up to 1967 Neumeier and Uli Trepte were members of the free jazz combo Irene Schweitzer Trio. The Guru Guru Groove came to life in 1968 with Neumeier, Trepte and Hans Sachs, debuting at the 'Holy Hill Festival', Heidelberg, in August. On 29 September they performed at the Internationale Song Tage in Essen. This must have been something completely outrageous: Neumeier and Trepte performing improvised free jazz against which Sachs read texts. In the Spring of 1969 Sachs left and the name was shortened to Guru Guru. Several guitarists joined and quit (the longest lasting was Jim Kennedy) before Ax Genrich became a permanent member in April 1970. He had previously played with the Berlin group Agitation Free. In June this trio recorded UFO with Julius Schittenhelm. This utterly tripped out album featured notorious titles such as "Stone In" and "Der LSD Marsch", hinting at some possible sources of their inspiration. The music was thunderous, heavy psychedelic space rock, often bordering on pure mayhem. As in the case of early Ash Ra Tempel, this was a power trio dedicated to endless, improvised space excursions, like a continuation of Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" or Hendrix' "ESP" As you'll guess, this was pretty powerful stuff that could had been a soundtrack celebrating the arrival of UFOs!
Action: 10% disc1ount coupon14 for Depositfiles Gold accounts for 6 months and 1 year periods. The coupon is very simple in usage: you enter it on the Gold account payment page and after the prices are recalculated can buy an account with the discount. Your coupon: j16v917255n7tjh9af6odzgk7cjgwgg2
Oldish Psych & Prog offers progressive psychedelic rock music mp3 lossless downloads
