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Gryphon
Non-standard prog act Gryphon made their mark by incorporating abandoned instruments and ancient classical elements in their work, giving their self-titled 1973 debut outstanding differences to standard rock fare. With co-founder Richard Harvey on recorders, mandolin, harpsichord, and glockenspiel and Brian Gulland, on bassoon, crumhorns, and vocals, backed by guitarist Graeme Taylor and drummer/percussionist Dave Oberlé, GRYPHON expertly channelled contemporary English folk through forgotten me…
Mice And Rats In The Loft
*2023 stock* Originally released in 1971-- a particularly ripe vintage for freewheeling progressive folk-rock-- British trio Jan Dukes De Grey's second album Mice and Rats in the Loft ranks alongside Comus' First Utterance as one of the wildest relics of the era.
Comprised of three lengthy tracks, Mice and Rats in the Loft amply showcases the formidable talents of multi-instrumentalists Michael Bairstow and Derek Noy, joined here by drummer Dennis Conlan. Throughout these pieces, the musicians …
Strange Terrain
After exiting Buster Summers Express, Leeds-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Derek Noy formed Jan Dukes De Grey with woodwinds player, Michael Bairstow, soon opening for Pink Floyd and the Who, though LPs Sorcerer and acid folk masterpiece Mice And Rats In The Loft sold poorly. After line-up changes, in 1977, Noy assembled a new crew for Strange Terrain, cut at Brittania Row with Roger Waters co-producing, but the album’s curious mix of post-prog, acid rock and punk was deemed unsuitable f…
Osmose
Reissue of the 1970 krautrock classic. The timing was right: Five years earlier would have been too early, five years later would have been too late. But Annexus Quam from Kamp-Lintfort near Düsseldorf came along with the right music at the right moment. The seven-piece band formed in 1967 as Ambition Of Music; they were what was then called a "beat group." In 1970, working with a local trombone choir led to a dramatic change of direction. Trombone, clarinet, saxophone, scat-like vocals, various…
Psychedelic Underground
LP version. 180 gram vinyl, gatefold sleeve. The debut album from the original Amon Düül commune collective, released in 1969, stands as one of the most radical and uncompromising documents of the entire German underground scene. This is not Amon Düül II - this is the larger, more chaotic collective that spawned the more structured offshoot, and Psychedelic Underground captures their approach in all its raw, untamed glory.
Recorded in a single marathon session, the album is less about tradition…
Quatermass
"Quatermass' only album is a must-have for prog rock enthusiasts, especially lovers of the keyboard-dominated style which flourished in the early '70s. Although there are only three members of the band, their histories are just as colorful as the music they produced. Keyboard player Pete Robinson and bass man Johnny Gustafson met drummer Mick Underwood and founded Episode Six, a band which included Ian Gillan who later fronted Deep Purple. Underwood was also involved with the Outlaws as well as …
Milano Calibro 9
2023 restock This album represents the intersection of a number of trends going on in Italy at the time it was made. One was for rock bands to adopt Classical forms, sometimes even involving actual orchestras (New Trolls, Rovescio della Medaglia). Another was movies about gangsters. Another was for movies to have soundtracks by rock bands (Goblin and so on). So here you have a rock band doing music in a Classical form (prelude, theme, variations) with an orchestra as the soundtrack to a gangster…
Senza Orario Senza Bandiera
* 2023 stock * “Senza timetable senza Bandiera” was releasedo on October 23, 1968. It is the long-distance debut of the New Trolls and is also the first concept album in the history of Italian rock. A work born from the encounter between a group then considered avant-garde, the New Trolls, a singer-songwriter used to going in a stubborn and opposite direction like Fabrizio De André, the visionary poet Riccardo Mannerini and Gian Piero Reverberi, a cultured musician and arranger and prepared. A c…
Per... Un Mondo Di Cristallo
* 2023 stock * The Raccomandata Ricevuta Ritorno (also called RRR) were a Roman group dedicated to progressive rock in the years in which the genre, in Italy and in Europe, lived its best years with enthusiasm. Formed by Luciano Regoli (vocals, acoustic guitar), Francesco Froggio Francica (drums, percussion), Manlio Zacchia (bass), Damaso Grassi (flute, sax), Nanni Civitenga (guitar) and Stefano Piermarioli (keyboards) they released only one album in 1972 - "Per un mondo di Cristallo" - and then…
Intorno Alla Mia Cattiva Educazione
* 2023 stock * That the vast majority of Italian prog groups, in the '70s, was inspired by the great English groups is a certain fact. But there are many groups that have been able to produce discs with personal elements, thanks to the use of warm Mediterranean sounds, typical traditional classicisms and, above all, an Italian feeling, a touch that distinguishes the product. The result was that of a total and worldwide appreciation, so as to make the Italian progressive almost a genre in itself.…
Inferno
*2023 stock* Another very important chapter of Italian progressive rock must be dedicated to the Roman Metamorfosi, an interesting four-piece group, which mainly revolved around the figure of the excellent keyboardist Enrico Olivieri, accompanied by the singer and flautist Jimmy Spitaleri, by the interesting bassist and guitarist Roberto Turbitosi and by the drummer Gianluca Herygers. Inferno is their second album and comes out in 1973 for the Vedette record company. It is a very interesting rei…
Famine Of The Soul
A limited, vinyl-only release (each containing a different baseball card from the 1972-1974 era), Famine of the Soul is a ready-made psych oddity destined to join the ranks of such mythologized artists as Maitreya Kali and Skip Spence. Like a Nam vet street-preacher having an acid flashback, the Baseball Astrologer's debut, Famine of the Soul, despite its outward absurdity (or maybe because of it), resists easy dismissal. Using baseball as a kind of metaphor for innocence lost, Douglas Berman (a…
Dispersion
Black Editions is pleased to present the definitive edition of Dispersion, remixed and remastered from the original master tapes by Asahito Nanjo and released in a deluxe gatefold double LP edition housed in a die-cut slipcase printed entirely with spot colors and featuring spot UV gloss and soft touch finishes.
Vietato Ai Minori Di 18 Anni?
Limited Time Offer Deluxe ltd. ed. LP edition with original gatefold cover artwork and 180 gr. Clear Red Vinyl. One of the best italian progressive rock/experimental album released in Italy "Vietato ai minori di 18 anni?" is Jumbo's third album from 1973, is their most ambitious work, containing strong lyrics and fragments of avantgarde-inspired music, with the help of Franco Battiato's great VCS3 oscillators and Lino Capra Vaccina's (of Aktuala fame) bells and chimes' sinister tolling. Long spa…
Forse Le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più
**Green Vinyl** Originally released in 1977, Locanda Delle Fate's "Forse le lucciole non si amano più" is an LP for which the term 'masterpiece' is never wasted. Perhaps the last true album of Italian Progressive Rock, before the genre was completely overshadowed by waves of 'new' music, and then come back strongly in vogue in the new millennium.Reviewed hundreds of times and as many incensed, it is a record that has stood the inexorable passage of time, due to its perfect balance among its part…
Flying Tapes
Limited Time Offer **First ever LP reissue, on blue coloured vinyl!** Listening today to the music produced by Sensations' Fix, a project founded and directed by Franco Falsini in '70s, can't just leave anyone indifferent. Already in the mid-'60s, Falsini was full-time involved in musical activities: a tireless traveler and experimenter, an artist with uncommon curiosity and intuition, after having lived for some time in the United States and England, he finally established again in Italy where …
Boxes Paradise
Limited Time Offer **First ever LP reissue, on violet coloured vinyl!** Listening today to the music produced by Sensations' Fix, a project founded and directed by Franco Falsini in '70s, can't just leave anyone indifferent. Already in the mid-'60s, Falsini was full-time involved in musical activities: a tireless traveler and experimenter, an artist with uncommon curiosity and intuition, after having lived for some time in the United States and England, he finally established again in Italy wher…
Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned
** Special edition of 300 copies on Transparent/black marbled vinyl housed in reverseboard printed sleave with printed inner sleave. Comes with lyric booklet, poster and postcard inserts ** Formed in 1968, The Plastic People Of The Universe – named after a Mothers of Invention song and heavily influenced by Frank Zappa and The Velvet Underground – were iconic figureheads of the Prague Underground, a loose collective of Czech poets, philosophers and artists considered a threat by the Communist g…
Debut
*Official reissue with same original packaging of 1973* The neapolitan singer Gigi Pascal (real name Giancarlo D'Auria) had a long career as soloist in the melodic pop field, with some singles dating from the end of the sixties.
As many others he was attracted by the newly born rock groups of the early 70's, and assembled one with the odd name Pop Compagnia Meccanica. This group had a similar story to Fabio Celi & gli Infermieri, also from Naples, as they released an album in 1973 that sounds l…
La Clef Des Songes
Pentacle’s La Clef Des Songes unlocks a distinctly French prog dreamscape: lyrical vocals, flowing guitar work and subtle symphonic touches combining into songs that feel like folktales told in shifting, mist‑lit harmonies.