Oldish Psych and Prog

genre: prog

country: japan

Kimio MIZUTANI was born in Japan on June 17th, 1947. He appeared on stage as a guitarist in his teenaged days and formed OUT CAST in 1966, which currently were considered as the Japanese Garage Punk progenitor. 1971 was the special year for him. He carried out two important progressive rock project - LOVE LIVE LIFE + ONE and PEOPLE - with his improvised guitar play and terrific sound production. And also as a solo player he released 'A Path Through Haze' in the same year. 

He is very active as a session guitarist and sound creator but for over 30 years he had not released any album under his credit.  But at last in 2003 the project of Kimio and Hiro Yanagida named MA-YA produced an album 'Floating'. 

'Try to do something new just when you get confident in yourself and everything gets well for you.' is Kimio's motto.

- Kimio Mizutani / guitars

- Takeshi Inomata / drums

- Hiromasa Suzuki / electric piano

- Masahiko Satoh / electric piano

- Hideaki Takebe / bass

- Masaoki Terakawa / bass

- Hiro Yanagida / Hammond organ

All tracks by Robert Lamm except where noted

Peter Cetera – bass, vocals

Terry Kath – guitar, vocals

Robert Lamm – keyboards, vocals

Lee Loughnane – trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion, vocals

James Pankow – trombone, percussion

Walter Parazaider – woodwinds, percussion

Danny Seraphine – drums, congas, antique bells

A leading band in the developpement of the South America progressive rock scene with Los Jaivas and a few others. Their music is a solid combination of jazz rock, ethnic folk with sometimes subtle "spacey" symphonic arrengements. The initial formation is composed by Altar Tokatlian (winds), Gustavo Santaolalla (voice and guitar), Guillermo Bordarampe. They first formed several bands in the 60s (The Rovers, The Blackbyrds, The Crows) to play covers. They finally recorded their first effort back at the end of the 60?s. It?s an orinal mixture of typical Latin folk, acoustic music and 60?s "acid" rock. After the departure of Alberto Cascino, the drummer Horacio Droopy Gianello integrates the band. They record "Suite numero 1" in 1972 also for RCA. The album "Tiempo de resurreccion" published the same year will affirm the own musical identity of the band: an outstanding blend of fusion "folk" music with jazz rock. The double LP "Sudamerica o il regresso a la Aurora" represents the summit of the band in term of orchestral achievement. The music offers an unique multi influences rock universe, made of blues, native music, jazz...Released in 1973 "Inti-Raymi" is a good following to their previous effort but generally seen as less captivating. After the spiritual "Ara Tokatlian & Enrique Villegas : inspiracion" (1975) "Los elementales" (1977) will largely put the stress on freak out jazzy rock improvisations. After this classic period the band has continued to produce records until today, reaching their sound in a more new age and mellow jazz direction.

Philippe Blache, FRANCE

Aphélandra is a French symphonic prog band who recorded one album in 1976 but never saw its release, due to the ridiculously low offer from their record company at the time. For the next 25 years, the tapes have gathered dust in the keyboard player's attic until Mellow Records decided to release it in cd format in 2001. The stellar line-up included Philippe Grancher (keyboards), Pierre Videcoq (vocals, flute, tenor sax), Gerard Perret (electric guitar), Philippe Herbin (bass), Dominique Iroz (drums, percussion) and Clement Duventru (drums). Famous violinist Didier Lockwood as well as Cyrille Verdeaux (on piano and synth) also appeared as guest musicians. Except for those two, all members of Aphélandra have long since left the music industry, each going their separate way.

Their self-titled album ("Aphélandra" is the name of a flower) is made up of classic French 70's prog with an interesting mix of classical sections, composed ensemble work and free-wheeling improvisation. The mainly symphonic nature of the music is interrupted now and then by solitary piano that gives their sound a distinct feel. The long instrumental passages are a welcome change from the melodramatic vocals often characteristic of early French prog bands. Not a masterpiece by any means but still worth a listen, if only for the 18-minute epic opening track.

For collectors of rare 70's symphonic prog.

Lise (HIBOU), CANADA

Pierrejean Gaucher / guitars

Eric Bono / piano, keyboards

Laurent Kzrewina / saxophones 

Alain Mourey / drums

Pascal Gaillard / bass

Sylvie VoiseE / vocal

Caitriona Walsia / vocal

Dan Ken / vibes 

Arnaud Jarlan / percussion

Nigel Warren Green / cello