Oldish Psych and Prog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bass, Bass Drum, Guitar – Nic Graham
Performer [Border Pipes] – Paul James
Snare [Drums], Percussion – Tnuh Cram
Whistle, Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Performer [Double Horns], Keyboards – David Jackson
Drums – Jeremy Stacey
Guitar – Moonboot
Performer [Keyboard Landscapes] – Mark Jenkins
Percussion – Tnuh Cram
Euphonium – Jacob Jackson
Choir – Jasmine, Kim from Oz, Moonboot, Sue Jackson
 

 

 

Fuzz Acid & Flowers:
Housed in a delightful pop-art cover, this concept album was meant to "depict musically a man's life from birth to death" - it was written by Jay Kaye who was just 15 years old at the time. Heavily orchestrated with lush arrangements, silky vocals, backward effects and found sounds, it is dreamy soft-rock that caresses psychedelia and flirts with the 'baroque'. It occupies a hazy territory somewhere between Sgt. Pepper and The Magical Mystery Tour, the Left Banke's second album and The Zombies' Odessey And Oracle. Highlights include the delightful Eastern-influenced Magical Fingers Of Minerva, some superb, melodic slices of pop-psych like Fly and Little Children, the guitar-driven instrumental Speed and the prog-psych finale Dead which gives way to the opening bars of the album at the end. The yearning vocal style is appealing and evident throughout but particularly evident on Crystal Ball and Nobody.

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ItalianProg:
Their name is very popular among Italian music collectors because from their ashes came the commercial pop group Matia Bazar, and also among prog collectors because of their LP rarity.
Jet (or J.E.T. as their name was usually written) were formed in Genova at the beginning of the 70's from a previous band of the same name that also included later members of another pop band, Ricchi e Poveri. The group made their debut in 1971 at the radio contest "Un disco per l'estate" with their first single Vivere in te, and two other singles a year later, Non la posso perdonare and Il segno della pace, were still in a melodic pop style.
Their first album, Fede speranza carità, also in 1972, derives from a radical turn in their musical style, to the then popular progressive rock, and is a very good album, with strong hard rock influences and falsetto vocals but with nice use of organ and a solid rhythm section, as in the long Sinfonia per un re that sometimes reminds of New Trolls' multivocal parts and Il prete e il peccatore. Unfortunately this has been their only venture into prog territory, and later singles took them back to a commercial rock not particularly memorable.
In 1974 the band added a female voice (Antonella Ruggiero) and a new drummer (Giancarlo Golzi from Museo Rosenbach) changing name to Matia Bazar and starting a very long and successful career that still lasts today.

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Tapestry of Delights:
"Key Largo may best be described as a group of musicians seeking to create something fresh and unique within the supposed musical boundaries of what most people would simply term blues" state the sleevenotes to their album. In fact what's on offer is pretty typical British blues but with lots of harmonica, percussion and brass arrangements in places. The album includes lots of cover versions of W. Dixon, A. Toussaint, B.B. King and P. Mayfield songs. The better tracks include the soul/funk orientated Give It Up with a brass arrangement; the slow number As The Years Go Passing By, which features some good blues guitar work and Come On And Get It, Baby, written by thirties English pianist Stanley Black - an instrumental with jazzy electric piano, sharp guitar chords and percussion.
Kenny Lamb went on to Jellybread. ~ (Costas Arvanitis)

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Dreams Fantasies & Nightmares:
Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, (they were named after a downtown neighbourhood there), their first 45 was rather punkish but most of their material is in the pop/rock mould. Of both albums, Aardvark is definitely the superior one. The group mixed many clearly Canadian sounds and arrangements into a sometime psych-pop, sometime folk, sometime Cream-acid-rock format which was always entertaining. The first album, Avenue Road, was definitely more poppy and less representative of their live concerts. In Canada (or at least in Toronto), Kensington Market were considered Canada's answer to the Jefferson Airplane. Shades of progressive rock start creeping in on Aardvark's last piece, Dorian (co-written with Pappalardi), where odd, post-psychedelic chords strode alongside an acid/R'n'B rave-up section.
After the group split up in 1969 (barely after the release of their second album), bassist Alex Darou retreated to his apartment, not answering anyone's calls. Known for his bouts of depression, the other band members broke down his door to find him dead from malnutrition. It is assumed he was fasting, and went too far.

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Formed in Berlin in 1970, with roots going back to 1968 and the duo Blues Machine consisting of Joey Albrecht (guitar, vocals, from Hannover) and Gerald Luciano Hartwig (bass). The musicians of Karthago came from all over Germany and from various backgrounds, like Thomas Goldschmidt of Bolivian ancestry, adding a unique multi-cultural feel. Thus they were not a true Berlin band. Strongly inspired by British and American bands, Jimi Hendrix was a notable influence, but more so they were into the type of rock fusion garnered by CBS (like Chicago Transit Authority, Argent, Black Widow, Heaven, etc.). Karthago developed a more mainstream style than most Berlin acts, with strong songs, jazz and funk elements, backed up by excellent musicianship. Often they were much more Anglo-American sounding than German.
It would seem that BASF were really pleased to sign Karthago up, as their debut LP had the most extraordinary multi-fold-out cover. The album was a fine example of the genre, with many excellent tracks, yet unbefitting such crazily psychedelic artwork! It obviously wasn't such a great success though, as it took two and a half years for the aptly entitled SECOND STEP to appear, and then there was another lengthy gap till their third. With each album the Karthago sound was becoming less progressive and closer to mainstream rock, though it seems they never gained any greater success due to this, not even when ex-Jethro Tull (and Wild Turkey) bassist Glenn Cornick expanded the international make up of the band. A live double album summed up most of the best material from this era, with some tracks greatly extended.
Most of the musicians in Karthago went on to work in other bands, Ingo to Kraan and Guru Guru, Gerald to Embryo, Tommy to RMO, etc., whilst Joey Albrecht refused to give up the ghost and reformed the band on at least two occasions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ItalianProg:
Little known in the world until a few years ago, Dedicato a... is among the most wanted and expensive Italian album nowadays.
Supported by the pop artist Mario Schifano (who was not a musician, by the way), in the same way that Andy Warhol acted with Velvet Underground, this band from Rome (though Crescentini and Marini were from Veneto and Cerra from Alessandria) was created in 1967 and released their first and only album the same year. 
Bass player Crescentini, had briefly played before in the last incarnation of New Dada, a very popular garage-beat group.
Housed in an incredible gatefold cover, painted by Schifano himself, the album contains a side-long improvised track on side 1, with the long title of Le ultime parole di Brandimarte, dall'Orlando Furioso, ospite Peter Hartman e fine (da ascoltare con TV accesa senza volume), a surreal title just like the track itself. Closer to avantgarde or contemporary music performances than to rock, the stunning track gives a good idea of what the group's music and live concerts were about. Side 2 is more conventional, with five short tracks with psych influences.
The band only released another single, this time on CBS, before splitting.
Keyboardist and singer Nello Marini tried a solo career with a commercial single, L'amore è il mio mestiere/Il mio amore per te (CBS 3800) issued in 1968, and later appeared on Venetian Power's LP. In 1993 he released a self-produced CD, entitled Artista with saxophonist Carlo Ponara.

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