British progressive heavy rock bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Uriah Keep and Led Zeppelin inspired many young bands in Germany. The Germans usually preferred to use English lyrics, and several bands, like Blackwater Park, 2066 & Then and Epitaph, had British vocalists! Epitaph were founded in Dortmund in 1969. The first sessions for their debut album, released 1971 on Polydor, were recorded in an Essex studio in England. For reasons unknown to me, it was however finished in Windrose Studios, Hamburg, where a fourth member was added to the group: Klaus Walz. The five resulting tracks sounded similar to the groups mentioned above, and particularly the earliest incarnation of Uriah Heep. Epitaph's Cliff Jackson didn't attempt to copy Byron's operatic vocal style, though. There were both fast rock'n'roll numbers and slow ballads with mellotron textures, usually in the 'heavy progressive standard song length' - from 5 to 7 minutes. In 1972, Epitaph recorded their second album Stop, Look And Listen in Audio Tonstudio, Berlin. This album also contained five tracks, stylistically similar to their first offering. Both albums are recommended for fans of the heavy progressive genre. In early 1973, Epitaph released two non-LP singles on the Polydor subsidiary Zebra: "Autumn '71" coupled with "Are You Ready" (2047 003) and "We Love You Alice" coupled with "Paradise For Sale" (2047 005). After this promising start, it seems as if the band was promised a bright future by the newly founded American record company Billingsgate, that they eventually signed to. The band invested much time and money into their third album Outside The Law (1974), and aimed at an international break-through. On this album, McGillivray was replaced with Achim Wielert. The music sounded more polished this time, as the band abandoned progressive elements for a more straight forward heavy rock style. Sadly all their dreams of success were brutally shattered, as Billingsgate soon went bankrupt and all their money was lost. Epitaph had laid out on an extensive (and expensive) USA promotional tour (with ex-Karthago member Norbert Lehmann on drums) in October 1974 - on their return they had to sell their gear to survive! Their new album was part of the bankrupt estate of Billingsgate, and Epitaph were forced to disband in 1975. The band secretly reformed later the same year, but didn't record any further albums until 1979.
A power trio from Boston whose influences varied from hard to soft rock and from jazz to eastern music. Their first LP included some virtuoso guitar especially on Just Let Go and Don't Tell Me and is better than their second, which was patchy but interesting in places.
01. Knocked Out 3:15 02. Goodbye Girl 3:19 03. If She's Right 2:34 04. I Wonder Why 3:28 05. Stone Fox 3:04 06. Bad Habit 2:18 07. Just Let Go 7:41 08. Out Where The Light Fish Live 5:05 09. Don't Tell Me 4:46
This top notch Dutch band from The Hague had their pinnacle during the early Seventies when they delivered some outstanding 24 carat symphonic rock albums. EARTH & FIRE was founded by the twin brothers Chris (guitar) and Gerard (keyboards) Koerts in '68. Soon bass player Hans Ziech, drummer Kees Kalis and singer Lisette joined them. Unfortunately Lisette had to give up singing because of a serious eye-disease and Kees Kalis left. They were replaced by Ton v/d Kley and the beautiful, very sexy Jerney Kaagman. She was a discovery by GOLDEN EARRING singer Barry Hay, they knew each other from the blossoming rock scene in The Hague.
When EARTH & FIRE had a hugh success with three Sixties poprock oriented singles "Seasons", "Ruby is the one" and "Wild and exciting" (in '70 all reached the Dutch Top 5), the band decided to become professionals. Gerard Koerts bought a Mellotron, this instrument changed the Dutch progrock history because EARTH & FIRE used it for a more lush symphonic keyboard sound. Eventually they developed a very unique progrock style (a bit similar to the French progrock band SANDROSE and UK band JULIAN'S TREATMENT featuring lots of organ, Mellotron, strong and sensitive electric guitar and distinctive vocals from Jerney Kaagman. And EARTH & FIRE remained successful with their single releases, the Mellotron drenched "Storm and Thunder" ('72, #6), "Memories" ('72, #1), "Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Tonight" ('73, #3) and "Love of Life" ('74, #2) all reached the Dutch Top 10. Also the albums in that era sold very well and gained worldwide recognition: "Songs of the Marching Children" ('71, reaching #12), "Atlantis" ('73, reaching #6) and "To the World of the Future" ('75, reaching #7) are considered as 'progrock classics', especially in Japan EARTH & FIRE is even more popular than FOCUS! Gradually their sound turned into more poppy, culminating into the success of the very commercial song Weekend, reaching #1 and remaining 13 weeks in the charts! Also the following albums "Gate to Infinity" ('77), Reality Fills Fantasy" ('79, reaching #2)), "Andromeda Girl" ('81, reaching #12)) and "In a State of Flux" "82) lost most of the symhonic ingredients.
The albums "Song of the Marching Children" and "Atlantis" belong to the best of the Dutch progrock history. The epic title tracks from both albums (between 16 and 19 minutes) are recommended: the sound is very warm and melodic with lots of changing atmospheres, accelerations and surprising breaks. The one moment you hear a mellow organ, twanging acoustic guitars and a fairy-like voice from Jerney, the other moment there are bombastic eruptions with majestic Mellotron, heavy floods of organ and some fiery electric guitar work, topped by the powerful voice of Jerney. By the way, she has been married for almost 30 years with Bert Ruiter, former bass player from FOCUS...!
Another of those hitherto unknown groups that made only one album which has recently shot up in price on the collector's market. I have no information about the musicians involved, as they are not mentioned on the album sleeve. The composition credits for all tracks went to Gottfried Janko, who later became the organist and vocalist on Jane's 1975 album Lady. Dull Knife are often mentioned in second hand record lists as 'killer heavy progressive' or something like that, hut sometimes played a dreadful sort of soul-rock. The album opened promisingly enough with the hard rocking "Plastic People", putting you into the right mood, hut unfortunately the rest of the music on this side will scare the shit out of you, if you're not keen on artists like Joe Cocker or Tina Turner! Side two improved again, but far too late to save the album. This was another Rainer Goltermann production in the Dierks studio. August 1971 (mixed at Windrose, Hamburg).
Druid evolved out of a three-piece, consisting Brewer, Sharpley and someone called Robin, who in 1970 were known as Maggot. They soon added a sax player called Malcolm, and shortly after an organist (Pete) before changing names to Druid. Gigging in their local area of Berkhamstead, Herts. Robin left in 1971, to be replaced by Dane Stevens. The following year Malcolm and Pete left too, and from then on the line-up stabilised as 'B'.
In June 1974 they won the Melody maker Rock & Folk contest and with the prize money of £800 bought some new equipment. Soon after the contest McCrorie-Shand became their final keyboard player.
Both of their albums of melodic and carefully constructed pop/progressivism have now been reissued on CD, and it's worth noticing that the Beeb's Bob Harris handled production duties on the first.
Drosselbart's album will always be remembered for its outrageous cover showing a damaged globe containing worms. Maybe the group had to express their feelings about mankind's deeds here on earth? The band was from Munich. Their only album was recorded October 1970 with some help from Ralf Nowy (flute). It comprised eleven excellent, classical-influenced, lyrical and/or heavy rock tracks. The German lyrics were well-written, very doomy and aggressive. They dealt with religious symbols and mankind's vicious nature. As with Ihre Kinder, the lyrics were extremely important for the total view of the album. Several members wrote material for the album but Randt did the largest share. Two singles, "Jemina" coupled with "Du Bist Der Eine Weg" and "An Einem Tag Im August" coupled with "O'Driscoll" (a non-LP B-side) were also released.
01 - Inferno - Drosselbart 3:59
02 - Jemima 3:39
03 - Liebe ist nur ein Wort 4:27
04 - Du bist der eine Weg 3:43
05 - Engel des Todes 4:58
06 - Böse Buben 3:24
07 - Vater Unser 3:00
08 - Folg mir 2:40
09 - Montag 2:45
10 - Nach einer langen Nacht 3:52
11 - Sommer - Der Sturm 4:01
bonus: 12 - An EinemTag im August 3:35
13 - O'Driscoll 3:41
Dr. Dopo Jam is an obscure Danish progressive who melt down a lot of influences into their blend. The opening track starts with a slightly Animals-like theme before sliding into a Motown-ish chorus and a guitar solo that sounds like it could be from a French psych group like Ame Son, Couer Magique, or Nyl. Dr. Dopo Jam cover a bewildering number of events on this, their second album. There are distinct fusion elements full of dynamic instrumental play and moments of doo-wap vocals that sound like a weird combination of Smokey Robinson, the Beach Boys and the Mothers of Invention. This type of stylistic pastiche reminds me of Supersister at their zaniest, and, probably their greatest overall influence, Frank Zappa. The results are always interesting and often spectacular, especially when the group lets it rip. Instrumentally, the group is all over the map - piano and violin duets, vocal choruses (with more than one lead vocalist), horn sections and more. Such a bizarre musical amalgam is well worth the trip, but believe me, this is unlike anything you might have heard. Well worth the find for fans of oddly original music, this is a feast for the ears. The one jam with the bizarre Xhol-like sax totally won me over.
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