This is the soundtrack for 1980 Italian movie Contamination directed by Luigi Cozzi. To heighten the tension in the gory scenes and to capture the mood of pure panic towards the end, the director called on the Italian prog mayhem masters, Goblin. You can tell this soundtrack was written in the '80s. There are some out and out Miami Vice / Hill Street Blues sounding riffs. Embarrassing most of the time but a horror soundtrack nonetheless. Jim's friend said it sounded like music that would be playing at a hardware trade show.
I am so so so in love with this record! (I'm Windy.) If you don't have any Goblin records then you want to forgo this temporarily (it's just not typical of their material) and get Suspiria first. But if you already have at least one Goblin album, then get this one now. Of course, at first you had to be a little trepidacious about Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark, released in 1978, for the following reasons: [1] it's one of only two Goblin albums that weren't commissioned as soundtracks (the other being Roller), and [2] it's also supposedly their only album with *vocals*. Coulda crashed and burned if you ask me, but it turns out this album is awesome and the vocals just send it over the top! Massimo Morante's voice is dramatic and urgent yet at the very same time super melodic. And it sort of makes sense that without filmic visuals to provide visible stimulation, the vocals provide just the right amount of narrative "human" element. The songs here are so melodic and hook-filled, with tremendously beautiful minor-key climaxes that really satisfy. So great!
Comes with mpeg footage of the band (in 2001) playing music in the same Cinevox studio where they'd always recorded, and also there's a rare interview where they reveal that much of Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark is about saying no to drugs.
After 22 years Dario Argento and Goblin reunited for this 2000 thriller. The music is as you might expect very Goblinesqe. Despite the technological breakthroughs that have occured since Goblin worked with Argento on such great films as Deep Red, not much has changed in the Goblin camp, with their signature sound intact: mysterious, melodic, dark and scary and proggy.
The soundtrack for Patrick, a Richard Franklin Film from 1978 (he did Psycho 2 and a few other un-notables) featuring the kings of horror soundtrack prog, Goblin! The film sounds great: a comatose patient named Patrick uses his psychokinetic powers to terrorize the staff of the hospital in which he is confined and there's supposed to be a creepy fucked up ending. The promotional teaser was "Patrick is nearly dead and still he's killing". And while I'm now all psyched to see the film, the soundtrack is sadly Goblin at their worst, which is too bad 'cos Goblin are the *best* at what they do, but this is way later in their career (the eighties); the sound is funky, wanky and cheesy and not really all that scary. Far from the spinechilling eerie prog we've come to expect.
Known in the USA as "Creepers", starring Donald Pleasence, written and directed by horror master Dario Argento. This edition features alternate versions of songs *not* used in the film. While the original soundtrack LP of 1985 was a blend of Goblin songs with rock tracks from various other artists, this new disc can be considered the instrumental sequel to that work -- all tracks composed and performed by Goblin, with the addition of 4 movie takes and 11 unissued tracks. The cd starts with a Halloweenesqe riff with far away female vocals. Slowly it evolves into crazy wanking guitar and hectic drums. This soundtrack is eerie and suspenseful, just like the film. A great example of Italian prog rock soundtrack geniuses Goblin.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Spooky '70s Italian prog rockers Goblin are known for their soundtracks to many famous Dario Argento horror films. Here's one of the best, newly reissued on lp. Deep red indeed. Includes the tracks "Death Dies", "Mad Puppet", and "School At Night" among others.
Distributed and better known in the USA as "Deep Red", this is the wonderful soundtrack to the beautifully photographed Dario Argento classic. Twenty eight tracks total, this expanded edition features all of Goblin's contributions to the film as well as Giorgio Gaslini's chilling score.
This is an older release which we've never listed, due to problems with keeping it in stock. However recently this label has improved its distribution situation, so here we go: Not as beautifully packaged as the recent Dagored LP repress, this cd features those same tracks from Goblin's classic horror-film soundtrack, plus four bonus cuts not featured elsewhere. If you're going to buy one Goblin record, make it this one! If you're going to buy two, however, the Profondo Rosso soundtrack is equally wonderful! Essential!
Everyone's favorite Italian horror-film soundtrack rock band Goblin gets a handsome "best of" treatment on this import double cd. The first disc is the "best of" portion, concentrating on the Goblin's spooky prog-funk contributions to the '70s gore-thriler classics of Dario Argento (with tracks like "Profundo Rosso", "Death Dies", "Tenebre", "Suspiria", "Mad Puppet"...) that will be familiar to fans of the films and/or the band. Now maybe you already have Goblin cds with those tracks (if not, you should, or get this!) but even then true fans will be intrigued by disc two, a live Goblin concert recording from 1979, never before released. The sound quality is ok, and the music of course is great -- and even features a lot of vocals, something normally absent from Goblin's better known soundtrack material!
This is the 20th Anniversary Special Edition cd from the Lucio Fulci (Argento produced) classic ZOMBI! Features six bonus tracks not featured on the original release...whoops, we screwed up with this description. One of our favorite customers, Jordan Perry, happened to catch our mistake, so we thought we'd just put his whole email about it up here to clarify matters:
"...you list the Goblin soundtrack "Zombi" as being
directed by Fulci. But it's not. And it's a complicated story, so please, bear with me. "Zombi" is actually Argento's Italian cut of
Romero's "Dawn of the Dead." Argento was the producer of the film, and for it's release in Italy, he chose the film to be edited in slightly
different ways than Romero had. Goblin composed a soundtrack, but from my understanding, Romero didn't much like it and only used it sparingly in his cut of the film. Argento, however, I'm guessing used more of Goblin's music in his version, perhaps explaining why this soundtrack is called "Zombi" instead of the much better-known title "Dawn of the Dead." But then there's Fulci's zombie film too, which was called (in Italy) "Zombi 2," likely an attempt to cash in on the success of
Romero's/Argento's film by claiming itself a sequel. For its American release though, it was simply called "Zombie." The chance for
confusion here then is obvious: Fulci's American title is only one letter different from Romero's/Argento's Italian title. Most important in all of this though is that Goblin did NOT compose the soundtrack to Fulci's film. Rather, that was Fulci-regular Fabio Frizzi (The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, Manhattan Baby), and IT is an amazing soundtrack, far better I think than Goblin's for their zombie film, particularly Frizzi's chilling main theme that got me so into horror
soundtracks in the first place (this was about four months ago, and now I've got over 30 horror soundtracks in my collection). And I've been
spending heaps of time renting horror movies of late, that is why I have all these facts down pat. And if you've only heard the soundtrack to Suspiria and not seen the movie, I most highly recommend you do see it. Of the fifteen or so horror movies I have seen in this past month's spree, Suspiria still easily ranks at the top (due in large part to the brilliant Goblin soundtrack for it). So... yeah. Do what you wish with this information."
Thanks Jordan, for all the interesting info. Sorry for our misinformation!
German Oak isn't the only recent reissue from the murky zone of long-lost krautrock to get us frothing lately. There's also this welcome reissue of the Golem album, via excellent archival imprint Lion Productions (and their UK associates Acme Records). This one has a mysterious backstory indeed. We'll briefly try to give you the basics here, though there's lots more info in the liner notes that come with this release... During the mid '90s there was a resurgence of interest in krautrock, when all kinds of long lost kraut classics were being reissued on cd (many via the grey area Germanofon label), and Julian Cope came out with his infamous Krautrocksampler book. Virgin UK got into the act with a series of compilations called Unknown Deutschland. They featured tracks by some totally unknown bands, The Nazgul, Golem, Temple, Galactic Explorers, and others, supposedly originally released as limited edition lps (100 copies? 25?!) by an art gallery associated label called Pyramid, circa '72-'74, amazing archival stuff indeed. But were they fakes? Perhaps '90s recordings, cashing in on the krautrock boom? Some thought so, on account of how nobody had ever seen or heard of these records before. Definitely it seemed likely that all were the work of the same bunch of musicians, recording under different names. Eventually a label called Psi-Fi came out with reissues (?) of some of the individual albums, which hardly settled the question. This, one, by Golem, even deepened the mystery, as someone named "Genius P. Orridge" was credited as producer... Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV fans will find that rather curious. Who knows, maybe a coincidence.
The controversy has never been definitively settled. But the general consensus is that these recordings do date from Germany in the '70s, maybe more like the late '70s. In any case it's the music that matters, and yeah by that measure there's no doubting that Golem is prime krautrock indeed, sure sounds like it to us! Freeform, all-instrumental, organ and synth heavy space rock for fans of Gila, Guru Guru, Ash Ra Tempel, etc. Five long tracks (including a 14 minute 3 part suite) of superbly spaced out jamming, loose and lysergic, with an edgy, throbbing pulse throughout, and blasts of fuzzed out guitar. Title track "Orion Awakes" starts the trip off right, dark and heavy, "Stellar Launch" also builds up from nervous atmospheres and propulsive motorik rhythms to sheer ecstatic chaos, "Godhead Dance" wah's it up a la Hendrix, "Jupiter & Beyond" (the suite) is suitably far out and freaky, and the repetitive riff rock finale of "The Returning" is a catchy fuzz buzz, almost pop, yet ultra distorted, that reminds us a heck of a lot of AQ garage psych faves The Heads!! Spacemen 3, too. Also could almost be something from one of J. Cope's Braindonor discs too. Super cool.
Like we said, packaged with copious liner notes, this edition far superior to the long out of print one on Psi-Fi, though that did have nice silver metallic cover that this doesn't replicate. Here's hoping that Lion next reissues The Nazgul one, it's good too, how could it not be with a lineup consisting of Frodo, Gandalf, and Pippin?
Oh god my eyes, my eyes! Don't look at the cover (the head of Gong's Daevid Allen on a naked pregnant woman's body in stereo) or back cover (Acid Mothers Temple's Kawabata Makoto sitting on the toilet), just listen: it's the sound of '70s trippy hippy psych vets Gong getting it on with Japan's Acid Mothers Temple. Yep, white-haired pixie Daevid Allen and his current-day cohorts (that's our pal Josh Pollock playing guitar!) meet up with AMT's Kawabata and Cotton Casino for a rollercoaster musical love-in, the tracks incorporating everything from heavy riffing to George W. Bush samples to ravey dance grooves. It's goofy and freaky, with rapping/chanting vocals that will either charm you with their psychedelic nonsense lyrics or drive you utterly mad. I guess it had to happen. If you ever thought that AMT was too serious, or not indulgent enough, or should sound more like the Talking Heads, then this is for you!! Long time Gong fans should note that Gilli Smyth shows up on one track.
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
A few years ago (2006) we reviewed the debut album from unpretentious modern day prog rockers Gosta Berlings Saga, of Sweden. Checking in with them again, they're up to album number 3, released Stateside by the venerable progressive rock / new music label Cuneiform. This actually came out last year, so we're a little late to it, but this sort of prog rock is timeless anyway (it might as well be from 1975!). They're still pushing our "traditional" prog rock lovin' buttons, so we thought we ought to list it for those of you likely to feel the same way, who dig other 21st century efforts at updating this '70s genre from the likes of Astra, Diagonal, and Crime In Choir, for instance.
Glue Works, like GBS's preceding albums, is mostly instrumental, and not overindulgent (for prog) - and thus could just as easily be seen as a moderately mathy "post-rock" album (but with mellotron!) instead of anything self-consciously retro. Most of the songs are even quite short and succinct, with only two of the 7 tracks breaking into double-digit lengths, those would be the powerful symphonic epic "Island" (12:58), and the album's multifaceted grand finale, "Sorteragatan 1" (12:51).
Filled with the varied drama & delight of grimy distortion, pleasant keys, eerie synth, sweeping strings, some angular new wavy guitar, and even musical saw, the entirety of Glue Works is a melodic and moody opus that nods to the proggy '70s without growing a ponytail or anything. Quite nice!
ATTENTION PROG ROCKERS! You know who you are. We are too. And while sure there's plenty of old faves and obscure '70s reissues to occupy your/our time, it's nice once in a while to get a hold of something new, something current, that still gives you that '70s prog-rock kick, right? We do our best to find stuff like that, and when we do we want to let you know. One recent example that hopefully you've already picked up was the new album from San Francisco's Crime In Choir. Well here's something else along those lines -- the cd debut from this really cool prog/jazz/psych band from Stockholm, Sweden. Recorded mid-2006, yet chock full of Mellotron, and even flute!! Yeah! And like CIC, GBS is also an all-instrumental proposition.
Gosta Berlings Saga -- we don't know why they chose it, but their name comes from the title of a 1891 Swedish novel, later (in 1924) made into a silent film that featured Greta Garbo in her first first starring role -- are definitely sorta retro, but still seem youthful and hip (a la Dungen, perhaps). They are definitely heavy on the keys, from Mellotron to synth to Fender Rhodes, but guitar and bass aren't neglected in the lineup. The drummer also has a crucial role to play, propelling these songs through their mostly 8-minutes-and-upwards lengths... In addition, they bring in that flute for one song, and also guests playing violins on a couple other cuts. Oh, and we've got to mention that there's somebody credited with "Buddha Machine" on another track!! All of this is woven together into a delightfully proggy, jazzy sound, reminding us of bits of Yes and Univers Zero as well as (fellow Swedes) Hansson & Karlsson and Kebnekajse. The seven tracks here encompass moods both bright and cheery, or (to a lesser extent, though) dim and dark, being by turns melancholic and sentimental, or dramatic and urgent. Apparently this is a concept album of sorts, something about the interaction of the forest and the city, with detours into outer space -- and ancient Egypt?? Well, of course, since it's instrumental (and furthermore the song titles are in Swedish), we can't really tell all that from just listening, as evocative as their music is, though the cool cd booklet artwork holds some clues (as does the band's website, from whence we got our information). Add some more prog rock points then for the concept album concept! And GBS gets even more points for definitely being about the MUSIC, not the playing. While it's obvious that these guys are good, they're not showing off, they're writing and performing some marvelous, melodic music without pretense that's still wonderfully PROG.
Moogs. Magma. Need we say more? All right, we will. This reissued 1980 album is both very Moog-y and very Magmoid. Mostly instrumental, it was the work of classically trained French pianist Jean-Philippe Goude, who was also interested in jazz, rock, and minimalism, and who had played keyboards with the Magma offshoot band Weidorje in the late '70s. So though this is a solo album, he got a lot of help from various heavy friends... usual suspects from the French prog-synth-rock underground, including members of Magma and Heldon (Klaus Blasquiz, Bernard Paganotti, Patrick Gauthier, Richard Pinhas, Francois Auger, and many more, what a lineup!). Thus this fits in snuggly with the Magma-inspired, jazz meets prog "Zeuhl" movement, especially tracks like opener "Les Saturnales" (with Blasquiz on vocals) or the exciting quadruple-guitar heaviness of "Dies Irae". But this is a varied album, and despite all the guests, two tracks feature no one but Goude alone, including the quite strange and effective soundscape piece "Coma". He also does a piano/synth duet with Heldon's Pinhas on the original album's final track "Cantiliene", which has that sort of Romantic, classical vibe we associate with Cluster's Roedelius. We say original album's final track, 'cause this cd reish closes with a bonus cut, the relaxed, loping, rather happy-sounding "Trio Des Mini-Moogs". Another track we should mention is the fantastic "Machine", wherein the melancholic strings of a chamber music quartet are overtaken by bleeping, burbling mad scientist synth and chugging mechanical beats.
The entire album is a delight, being both experimental and avant-garde, AND mesmerically melodic. Like we said, interestingly varied, but always with an aura of refinement, elegance and careful composition. It makes sense that Goude would go on to make a career out of library music and soundtracks for film and television. Indeed, if we understand the liner notes correctly, several of the tracks here were rearranged from pieces Goude had previously written for a pair of privately pressed lps, commissioned for the use of the French national gymnastics federation (???).
You'll find those extensive liner notes, vintage photos, etc. in the cd booklet. Lion has done their usual thorough labor-of-love job here, although this could have used one more round of proofreading, as we noticed a few insignificant typographic errors. The only potentially confusing one, being that the tracklist on the back cover has the songs numbered 1-12, omitting 5 though, as actually there's only 11 tracks... whoops. But other than that minor glitch, this is nicely done, with the original album's retro-futuristic graphics carefully reproduced. Love the neon-looking script for the text!!
Definitely glad they reissued this, having never heard it before, many of us here at AQ are digging it, even the not so Magma obsessed. And while perhaps "warmer" than some French coldwave, fans of that sort of thing should check this out, it certainly has something in common (including personnel) with Bernard Szajner's stuff, for instance.
Prog fiends! We happen to have just a few copies of this import cd reissue in stock, an instrumental French prog artifact from 1977, so we thought we'd list it for those of you who might be into the moody mixture of romantic piano with grandiose synth drones and occasional bursts of musique concret style "sampling" that is distinctively demonstrated here... While there are several other musicians involved, it'll give you some idea of what this is all about if we tell you (in French) what instruments chief performer and composer Phillipe Grancher is credited with on the sleeve: "piano acoustique et electrique, synthetiseurs, mellotron, orgue, strings ensemble, effets speciaux". This is, apparently, Grancher's only solo album, but it was produced by Philip Bescombes, whose name may be better known to you prog fiendy types, having made several interesting albums of his own, some in collaboration with synthesizer player Jean-Louis Rizet, who also appears here as well.
It's really quite lovely, but with sudden surprises throughout. Lush, pretty piano melodies often trip delicately into the blip-bleep of sci-fi electronics, or even strange giggling voices. And on side two, the album "rocks out" just a bit more, adding electric guitar, bass and drums for extra bombastic effect. As an example, the 10 minute "Flip Flop" begins quite dramatically with the sounds of an explosion, accompanied by ominous synth flourishes and martial drumming, before mellowing out into mesmeric passages for piano and gentle guitar.
3000 Miles Away is definitely a pretty cool prog obscurity, one that we'd perhaps suggest to fans of Goblin, for instance. We can certainly imagine this being used as a soundtrack to some strange and beautiful cult film.
Surprising Utech release here, not (quite) so droney as they often are, but rather more rhythmic, and in fact downright prog-rocky. Graves And Orchestra Pits are a transcontinental two-piece, one guy (based in Stuttgart, Germany) on guitars, synths, and much else besides; the other guy (from Tokyo, Japan) on drums and electronics... Not sure how they got together, but they make a fine team, stirring up a lot of noise in a quirky, confusional, chamber-prog context. The beats are big and effected, going whap whap whap, amidst all sorts of interesting textures, some of this quite lovely really. Droned out blissful bits coexist with electronic glitch, gentle strings wrap 'round crashing cymbals, snatches of electronica intersect improv skitter... each track adding something new to the sonic stew. A compelling listen, these eight unique, instrumental mini-epics of full of fractured melody, odd noises, and disturbing drumming...
The duo format, and Japanese drummer, and overall kinetic energy, makes us think of the Ruins, but this, with its "Orchestra Pits" moniker, has an additional, avant-garde classical music gone wrong atmosphere to it, field recordings and found sounds juxtaposed with piano and glockenspiel... Plus, guests contribute violin, viola, vibes, flute, sax, etc. on a few of the tracks. So it's not exactly a stripped down sound, this is dense and chaotic and complex, though calm and sparse some of the time too, to catch you unawares.
Packaged in the usual slim, slightly oversized Utech style sleeve, and limited to just 300 copies!!
This second full-length album from Japan's Green Milk From The Planet Orange proclaims boldly on its sleeve that "Progressive Rock Is Not Dead"! Well, WE never thought it was anyhow, but if you yourself have doubts, a loud dose of this should correct your thinking. Though, while quite lively (and rather live-sounding too, on this recording), GMFTPO's brand of prog rock definitely does look to the past for inspiration, from cosmic psych-scapes of krautrock to the precision epics of Yes. And we're also hearing some not-entirely-welcome No Wave-ish yelping dissonance on one track here as well. But when song-lengths can hit the double digits as they do here (there's four tracks, the shortest clocking in an prog-respectable seven minutes and the longest stretching out to over 38!!) and you've got musicians capable of turning on a dime like these guys, something ELSE is gonna happen before the song's over for sure. So you get tripped out atmospheres AND fully cranked acid-rock electric guitar mayhem, prog-complex song constructs and punk raucousness. Some will find this eclecticism exhilirating (and of course somewhat typical of the genre-bending Japanese underground that we've been fans ever since the Boredoms first freaked us out years ago) while others might wish that they'd stick to one thing -- taking the Yessism all the way, or the psych guitar skree. But check 'em out (live too if possible -- they've toured the US a couple times already, and knocked out a great instore performance here at AQ last year, with the drummer playing a 'kit' jerry-rigged from empty soda cans, a tamborine, and duct tape) and see what you think... fans of AMT and DMBQ both might quite like.
Any band described as 'the Melvins playing King Crimson', well, how could you not want to hear that, assuming that were it true, you might have a new favorite band!! But, those sorts of descriptions are usually hyperbole, and while we love us some hyperbole, claims like that definitely bear some deeper digging.
That said, this stuff is pretty close to that Melvins meets KC claim, a sort of avant sludge, or prog-doom, or avant-prog-sludge. In addition to the Melvins and King Crimson, we're also thinking Harvey Milk, Dot [.], Moss, Swans, Black Shape Of Nexus, Blutch, Slomatics, and tUMULt's Like A Kind Of Matador, in fact, pretty sure that Gruel features the guitarist from LAKOM, and thus it has a similarly epic sludge prog feel. Four loooong songs, all clocking in at about 15 minutes, sprawling and epic and intricate, loads of parts, riffs, bombastic drumming, the sound slipping from classic sounding rock, to glacial sludge, to slo-mo ambient drift, to math metal churn, midtempo caveman pounds to frantic thrashing crush to super spare abstract ultra-mega-doom, to almost pretty shoegazey buzz to hushed barely there shimmer, the various parts laced with wild leads, mysterious percussion, children's voices, harsh hellish vox, bellowed yowls, weird field recordings, thick rib cage rattling low end, and a massive milk curdling guitar sound. So while it might not exactly be Melvins meets King Crimson, it's close enough, and most definitely plenty proggy and doomy and sludgey, and will no doubt hit the spot for fans of all the above mentioned bands, and all things slow and low, heavy and heady.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, packaged in a PVC sleeve, and wrapped in a full color sleeve that folds out into a big two sided full color poster!
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You know how much we like instrumental underground UK prog masters Guapo here, right? Andee even put out one of their albums (2001's Great Sage, Equal Of Heaven) on his label tUMULt. Subsequently they released the massive Five Suns opus on Cuneiform. And now, their new release Black Oni is unleashed by Mike Patton's Ipecac label. And they've been going from strength to strength.
Like Japan's Ruins, the Guapo trio take a lot of inspiration from '70s prog, in particular the "zeuhl" stylings of the amazing French band Magma. But where the Ruins generally concentrate the Magma sound into a hectic hyper-blast, Guapo tend to stretch things out, spreading their prog-frenzy across (in this case) a forty-three minute, five part epic composition, not unlike the five part, forty-six minute title suite of Five Suns... that's their specialty it seems. Crazed drumming and complex bass lines coexist with spaced-out keyboards (including '70s prog stalwart the Mellotron), making Black Oni a combination of energetic prog mayhem and droning electronic darkness. For fans of Yeti, Tarantula Hawk, Circle and even The Necks... and of course anyone already into Guapo will love this new one. Recommended!
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Prog nutters? These guys are, definitely. And be prepared to go prog nuts yourself for this new release from AQ-faves Guapo. This British band is now on Neurosis' Neurot label, after releases for (among others) Mike Patton's Ipecac and our own Andee's tUMULt. We've been fans of 'em for a long time, obviously, and are in good company! This new one is everything we'd expect from Guapo: extended, mostly instrumental cinematic symphonics, dark and moody, played with the virtuosity and verve of their '70s prog rock ancestors. Heck, I (Allan) played a 15 minute track from this, "King Lindorm", on my prog / krautrock radio show last night, Klaus To The Edge (www.westaddradio.com/klaus), and it fit right in perfectly alongside the '70s likes of Cornucopia and Gnidrolog!! Droning strings. Eastern melodies. Bombastic battery. Elegant eeriness.
Yet at this point, Guapo have developed their own sound to a degree where you can't just tag them as a retro proposition. Creatively, they're bringing their old school prog rock inspirations into the 21st century, and have refined their approach to a point where they have as much in common with modern post rock soundscapers as they do with the eccentricities of hoary prog heroes Magma.
As always, the duo of Daniel O'Sullivan (Fender Rhodes, piano, bass, guitars, harmonium, modular synthesizers, autoharp, voice, electronics -- whew!) and David J. Smith (drumkit, percussion) are their own veritable prog rock orchestra, though they do have occasional help from guests, including vocalist Jarboe from the Swans on one song. That'd be "The Selenotrope", one of two tracks originally from Guapo's tour-only Twisted Stems cdep, both of which are included here, and which we previously described as sounding something like a horror movie soundtracks scored by The Necks. (To Guapo fans who happen to already have Twisted Stems, we say no worries, you'll still be getting well over 40 minutes of brand new music on Elixirs too.)
All this proggy goodness comes wrapped up in a snazzy black & white artwork, packaged in a jewelcase with cardstock slipcase.
>>Sorry to say we won't physically have these until Monday or Tuesday. But go ahead and order it now!<<
After a stunning release on our own Andee's tUMULt label a few years back, the UK's finest noise-skree-experimental rock duo, Guapo return as a trio (!) and with a brand new album that...[review pauses here while Andee wildly air drums along with Guapo's one man octopoidal percussionist Dave Smith, although I suppose it's not technically air drumming if Andee's in fact hitting Allan in lieu of actual drums, but we digress...]
While their last full length Great Sage, Equal Of Heaven was a frenetic Ruins-esque, bass and drums (and sometimes sax) workout, Five Suns takes the obvious instrumental prowess and prog potential present on the first record, and turns Guapo into the only modern prog combo that could possibly threaten Christian Vander's Magma throne. Hyperbole? Hardly. The centerpiece of Five Suns is the five part, 46 minute title track. So gorgeously grand, so compositionally daunting, so fucking good, words fail us. The addition of a full time keyboardist, as well as the introduction of guitars, has helped Guapo's skeletal prog jams flower into expansive instrumental epics. The record begins with a huge swell, a swirling squall of wild drumming and thick instrumental chaos, that glitches out as if the stereo is malfunctioning, before setting you down gently, ready to embark on a daunting but inspiring musical journey. Droning ambience and repetitive hypnotic rhythms give way to ultra complex, ultra precise riffery. Melodies are subtle but infectious, slowling unfolding over the course of ten, sometimes twenty minutes. Minor key thrum underpins careening hyper complex arrangements, tense and intense, hypnotic and just breathtaking in its scope. The Ruins is still a definite reference, but all sort of other influences inform Guapo's unique take on prog, the cyclical hypno-rock of Circle (and beyond that the rhythmic propulsive psych/drone of classic Krautrock), the blissed out skree of Skullflower and Sunroof! as well as post rock, free folk, metal and all sorts of other disparate sounds. All woven smoothly and uniquely into a cohesive whole. A fifty minute track, even in the best hands, can veer into overindulgence and pointless jammery, but every second of Five Suns is perfectly placed, and perfectly played -- but without losing its organic, free feel. The two extra tracks are separated from the vast "Five Suns" by a minute long track of silence to clear your aural palate, and prepare you for two shorter bursts of rhythmic, hypnotic, droning modern prog. Originally the Five Suns album was going to be just that, the 46 minute title track, and we were a little disappointed to learn that extra 'short' tracks were being added to make the record more, ahem, radio friendly. But now listening to it as a whole, it seems like it couldn't have been any other way. The two final tracks let us slowly unwind from the dizzying sonic journey that came before. This record is fucking massive. If there was any sort of justice in the world, Guapo would be spoken of in the hushed tones reserved for bands like Magma or King Crimson. As far as we're concerned, starting right now, they will be.
Wow! UK noise-skree-experimental rock duo Guapo really take their prog-rock obessions to the limit on this new album, a joint release between France's Pandemonium label (home to AQ-faves Hint as well) and our own Andee's tUMULt label. Guapo have always
If you asked us (do it!) to recommend you a good modern day "prog rock" band, Guapo would be at the top of the list, which would be obvious if you've seen our many, many reviews of the fantastically proggy output of this long running British unit, who have released albums on such labels as Cuneiform, Ipecac, tUMULt, Neurot, and now Cuneiform again. Their all-instrumental excursions into the epic outer reaches of compositional complexity and dark moodiness certainly owe something to the '70s prog greats but don't really come off as "retro" the way, like, Astra does (though that's fine with us too). Also their inspirations aren't just the more popular groups like Yes and King Crimson, they're probably more informed by the likes of Magma and Univers Zero.
With History Of The Visitation, Guapo's first album since 2008, the band's current lineup - featuring founding member and drummer extraordinare David Smith, along with three other gents, some of whom have also played in Cardiacs and Chrome Hoof, on guitar, bass, and keyboards, PLUS bunch of guests on violin, oboe, bassoon, French horn and other fancy instruments - continue to indulge in the epic, cinematic, somewhat sinister sounds that we love 'em for. Case in point, the album's opening track, a five-part suite called "The Pilman Radiant", at over 26 minutes commandeering a good half of the disc, an entire vinyl side in fact, which does the long slow build up from sedate & somber, sorta 20th century classical hiss/drone atmospherics, to a lumbering melodiousness, to full-on jazzed-up soloing, getting pretty darn convoluted before it's over, making for a powerful prog statement all right. Whew. Could almost be a Stinking Lizaveta song, stretched to, like, ten times ordinary length, with keyboards and effective soundtracky bits added in. The remaining two tracks here (side two of the vinyl) make similar, but somewhat more concise statements. "Complex #7" is relatively brief and ambient at under 5 minutes, and then there's the over 11 minute "Tremors From The Future", the later being a repetitive, rhythmically complex hypno-prog jam with plenty of muscle.
As mentioned, Cuneiform has released this on both cd and vinyl. Both formats come with a bonus dvd, featuring live footage of Guapo on stage at two festivals - NEARfest 2006 in Pennsylvania and RIO 2007 in France, when Daniel O'Sullivan (of Aethenor, Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, Grumbling Fur, Ulver, etc.) was still in the band. That artists like Magma and Keith Emerson also appeared at those shows should tell you something.
The gatefold vinyl version is limited to 300 copies and includes a digital download.
We'll still never be able to understand why the whole world isn't gaga for Guapo. Without a doubt one of the best, weirdest, and most inventive modern prog outfits there is. Everyone who digs Magma should definitely have some cd shelf space set aside for Guapo. Record after record of dense, tangled, catchy spacey, far out post rock prog brilliance. A record on Andee's tUMULt label, a release on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, tours with Circle and various other underground bigwigs. What's it gonna take? Well at least we know AQ customers are hip to Guapo's unique musical world, and with that in mind we managed to get a bunch of these super limited tour EPs, from Aurora Borealis, the same folks who put out the Grails 12", the Moss cd, the Fungal Hex double picture disc, the Crebain picture disc and the Moss / Wolfmangler split cd. And this Guapo cd ep somehow manages to fit just perfectly. Or imperfectly. Especially considering how weird this ep is, even by Guapo's already weird standards. Gone is pretty much any trace of musical bombast, which is what pretty much defines prog. Instead, this two part epic is a gorgeously slow and moody crawl, a slithering jazzy shimmer, with shuffling drum skitter and melancholy piano, slippery underwater bass that's murky and smoky and dreamily ominous. The second track picks up where the first one left off, gradually adding more elements, a distant wah guitar, some strange metallic percussion, creepy zither like melodies, the whole thing growing ever so slightly busier musically and getting creepier by the second, with the bass building into the driving force, a thick propulsive throb under a swirl of haunted house like jazz shuffle. Sounds a bit like what we might imagine a horror movie soundtrack by the Necks might sound like. Cool!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Deranged Swedish garage prog from the early seventies. Like a punkier version of Trad Gras Och Stenar, but much looser and less focused on repetitive mantra jams. T-Doja chronicles both of their rare lps Uti Var Hage from 1970 and Gudibrallan II from 1971. Far out!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Jussi Lehtisalo of Circle reissued this classic and obscure Finnish prog effort from the seventies. Thus, you can expect it to be quite strange and amazing. Haikara were an odd ensemble, hard to pin down to any specific style. The first half of the album leans towards an accomplished conservatory-esque approach -- long, solo ridden numbers, lead by fuzzy bass, clarinets, trumpets, flutes, the occasional operatic vocal and (of course) guitar; full of shifting meters and obtuse melody lines, but also entertaining bits of smokey garage simplicity. Then, in the middle of the album, all of a sudden it's like you're listening to the title track to some 70's romance drama, albeit with a prog edge. It's actually quite lovely. The nearest thing I can relate it to is the first side of Fred Frith's "Gravity" -- on which Fred is backed up by members of eccentrics Zamla Mammaz Manna -- and it continues in this vein before ending on a decidedly Scandinavian prog-funk note! A weird one, alright, something that takes a few listens to come to terms with. But I have to say, I really like this album...!
There's so many reasons to love this record. Here's two: (1) it's about the Lord of the Rings! and (2) it's a beautiful, timeless album of psychedelic instrumental music worth listening to even if you don't know Gandalf from Frodo. So lovely. It's a big fave of most of us here at AQ. (Oh, a third reason would be that it was the first release on Sweden's Silence label, and sold quite well, helping them bring the world such essential psych as International Harvester and Algarnas Tradgard later on!)
Previously we've stocked the One Way label version of this, but now, no doubt thanks to the success of the LOTR movie, there's a newly remastered edition on Virgin that's got not only nicer packaging but also a previously unreleased bonus track! No information is given about that over eight minute long bonus track, but it's called "Early Sketches From Middle Earth" and sounds like a demo of themes later used on the album proper. This is what we wrote about the disc before:
Many of you already know and love Bjorn Olsson's atmospheric "Instrumentalmusik" cd which Omplatten released a couple years ago. What you may not know -- we didn't -- is that Olsson's album was essentially an homage to the work of fellow Swede, '70s prog/jazz/psych keyboardist Bo Hansson, and specifically his fantastic 1970 album "Sagan Om Ringen" or "The Lord of the Rings" (itself an homage to Tolkien's trilogy). Bo Hansson, together with a group of three other musicians -- percussion, saxophone & flute -- make the music. Bo plays organ along with guitar, bass and moog. The tracks, all instrumental, are lovely atmospheric numbers, reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, or similar kosmiche krautrock of the era. The album doesn't necessarily make you think of hobbits and orcs, there's no overt "fantasy/medieval" themes or anything (it's not like German pomp metal band Blind Guardian's version of the Silmarillion!). But it does capture the otherworldly, pastoral feel of Tolkien's work. Indeed, it would be appropriate to call this album magical...whether you're a Tolkien fan or not you should check it out! Recommended.
It's just too bad that Peter Jackson didn't use any of this music in his otherwise amazing LOTR film adaption! Now if only they'd reissue Hansson's "Watership Down" album as well...
Another Radioactive reissued rarity, and possibly one of the best yet. Oooh, we've got a weird one here. Seriously. But very cool we think. Didn't know what to expect from the whimsical band name and front cover artwork, but it wouldn't have been *this* anyway! The first track, "3-D, Free" starts things off pretty freaky with spacey vocal effects and a lethargic reggae beat, with heartfelt lyrics, singing lines like "I saw police shooting rats". It's reprised later at the end of the album in an even more wigged out "electronic" version. This is definitely psychedelic rock music, but also very futuristic for its time (circa 1977-1978), hinting at new wave/punk. With track two, "Positive People", things get even more Devo. And it doesn't get any more normal as it goes. Capt. Beefheart also seems to be at this party... weird weird weird. But these folks have a knack for melody amist the madness.
The Happy Dragon-Band was the work of one Tommy "The Happy Dragon" Court, who had previously released a now almost as obscure album on Capitol in 1974 as Phantom's Divine Comedy. Never heard it but we're told it's very Doors-ish and mysterious. Loading up on the synths (some very John Carpenter synths) and electronic effects and employing the services of multiple musicans and vocalists besides himself, Tommy's idea of a comeback a few years later was this quite odd band/album/project. Huh? Well, this just might have been a bit ahead of its time... or something. Ultimately, though, it's very original and, to us now, pretty darn cool.
What other precedents can we cite, or comparisons can we make? Zappa? Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come? a seriously dosed Andrew Lloyd Webber? Early Alice Cooper? Late Comus? Xolar-X? The Dreamies? Perrey-Kingsley? A back-from-the-future Ariel Pink?? With sizzling electronics, spacey effects, madhouse vocal choruses, definite hooks, serious psychological/cosmic moods, constant pitchshifting in the vocal dept, and song titles like "Astro Phunk", "Inside The Pyramid" and "Disco American", maybe there are no easy comparisons... All ten tracks have their unique charms. A chaotic, confusing, eccentric and yet (im)possibly brilliant and quite enjoyable piece of work!
Limited edition reissue of a rare Swedish psych rarity from the very late sixties (or very early seventies). Perhaps you read about or bought the Terry Riley-influenced Parson Sound double cd we raved about not long ago? Well, Harvester (after releasing
It would be pretty much impossible to fuck this one up. Steve Von Till's (of Neurosis) Harvestman, along with psych heavies U.S. Christmas, and sludgy metallic post rockers Minsk, all covering their favorite Hawkwind jams. Exactly. We didn't even really have to hear this to know we needed it. And we were not disappointed.
U.S. Christmas are definitely right at home tackling these Hawkwind tracks, as there's plenty of Hawkwind in their sound anyway. Musically, their versions are dead ringers, the same sort of urgent guitar crunch, the swirling clouds of effects, the big difference is the vocals, sounding more like a super harmonized Paul Stanley, which is not a bad thing, but it's definitely a bit weird, and does help to make these songs their own. And the songs they picked, tough to beat: "Master Of The Universe", "Psychedelic Warlords", "Orgone Accumulator" and "You Shouldn't Do That" (notable also for the specificity of vocal duties described in the liner notes: "Do That"s, "Shouldn't Do That"s and "You Shouldn't Do"s, all split between various band members). Needless to say, if this was just a U.S. Christmas Hawkwind ep, we'd be in, but there's more more more.
Harvestman too are no stranger to psychedelia, and we can bet Steve Von Till has a pretty serious Hawkwind collection, and he proves it with some cool versions of some of our HW faves, "D Rider" sounds like a Von Till original here, stripped down and acoustic but with plenty of effects, and that unmistakable rasp. "Down Through The Night" also sounds like just acoustic guitar, but wrapped in a thick swirl of hissing space psych effects, and some awesome vox, "The Watcher" is bluesy and slithery, and sounds like Hawkwind via Tom Waits, while "Magnu" is all propulsive crunch and psychedelic swirl.
Finally Minsk drop the hammer, on "7X7", "Assault & Battery / The Golden Void", and "Children Of The Sun", and get all spaced out and druggy and psychedelic, letting their pounding post rock get swallowed up in clouds of buzz and blur and his, they even let loose with some sax! Finishing off with a straight up acoustic "Children Of The Sun", which is all sun dappled and dream, until near the end, when it transforms into a churning chugging psych space stomp.
Anyone who dug those Trensmat Hawkwind covers singles is gonna want to check this out, and if you love Hawkwind as much as we do, and as these guys obviously do, you're probably not gonna be able to resist. So why try? You shouldn't do that.
I've been going Hawkwind crazy lately. I [Andee] pretty much missed out on Hawkwind completely the first time around. I was only 2 years old when this record came out. Later, I missed out again, having opted out of the whole high school, pot smoking, parking
This reissue contains the original album plus 5 bonus tracks!
More Hawkwind. And more and more and more. Lately all I [Andee] want to listen to is Hawkwind. Somehow I manged to make it to 32 without hearing Hawkwind ever. And man, did I miss out. "Hall Of The Mountain Grill" seems to be the poppiest of these 4 Hawkwind
One of our favorite records EVER from one of our favorite bands EVER (and yeah, we said that about the other Hawkwind reissue on this week's list, but in fact, the first 4 or 5 Hawkwind records most certainly qualify for such effusive praise!), newly reissued as a super deluxe lp, 180 gram colored vinyl, in super swank, heavy gatefold sleeves, here's what we had to say about this record when it was reissued on cd a while back (expanded a bit)...
We've been going Hawkwind crazy lately. We pretty much missed out on Hawkwind completely the first time around. We were all about 2 or 3 years old when this record came out. Later, we missed out again, having opted out of the whole high school, pot smoking, parking lot, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind thing as well. Third time's the charm though, and we are now immersing ourselves completely in HAWKWIND! And we're not entirely surprised to find that some of our favorite bands have been borrowing heavily from Hawkwind (consciously or not) for years. This stuff is heavy and drone-y and hypnotic and endless. Like the Stooges or the MC5 stretched and stretched until they become these epic riffscapes of wah wah guitars and thrumming low end drone, all stretched loosely over an unwavering motorik beat. Monster Magnet, Circle, Salvatore, and basically every stoner metal band/psych rock ensemble we have ever heard owe it all to the 'wind, whether they know it or not.
It's probably worth mentioning the opening track "The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke), which besides being a total space rock drug psych classic, also happens to be an impossibly perfect pop song to boot, with a chorus that KILLS, that is woven seamlessly into the otherwise soaring and swirling psychedelia and crunchy fuzzy stomp that surrounds it. And the rest of the record ain't too shabby either, heavy and heady, tripped out and hooky as hell, total psychedelic space rock bliss for sure. Anyone into the current crop of retro psych combos who have somehow yet to discover Hawkwind, here's your chance...
Also features a youthful Lemmy Kilmister, pre-Motorhead, and like the cd, the lp re-ish, contains a handful of bonus tracks!
If you need a little background on my [Andee's] current Hawkwind obsession see the review for "Doremi Fasol Latido" elsewhere on the list. Needless to say, these records are killing me. How did I mange to miss Hawkwind for all this time. All the stuff I love,
Originally released in 1971. This reissue contains the whole original album plus 3 bonus tracks.
