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Samla Mammas Manna
Exacting reissue of the 1970 debut album by this trailblazing Swedish quartet, led by composer/pianist/organist/accordionist/vocalist Lasse "Lars" Hollmer, just prior to any knowledge of anything called "RIO" (Rock In Opposition). Formed in the late late '60s in Uppsala, SMM canvassed the festival circuit (appearing on the same bill that Träd Gräs och Stenar recorded their mammoth Live Gardet 1970 album) to popular and critical appeal. Later SMM would team up with groups like Henry Cow and …
Tago Mago
Tago Mago, the first album with Damo Suzuki on vocals, features the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and was recorded at Schloss Norvenich in 1971, released later that year on United Artists. Can's influence is well known and far-reaching and the impact they made on music is felt today as keenly as it ever has been. They themselves have always been impossible to classify and reflecting this, the scope …
Paradieswarts Duul
"Recorded in 1970, Amon Düül's only album for Ohr was a visionary slice of acid-folk which has gained cult status as years passed by. Ritualistic folk-rock, pastoral hippie songs, stoned jams, Eastern flavors, mystical passages and heavy hypnotic riffing which are in fact very different from the early Amon Düül epic freaked-out improvisations (Psychedelic Underground) or Amon Düül II complex and psyched-up progressive works (Phallus Dei). These were in fact archival recordings done by a di…
God Is Good
It's been years now -- just about two, judging from the sun. OM have done their time in the desert, and ever-changing, are returned. Today, they say, God is Good. Are you surprised? Perhaps you've haven't understood what OM was saying to you. But perhaps you felt something... It's true that the one way pursued by OM leads in many different directions. It is a mystic path. Songs come from innumerable sources, filtering through the external and the internal. OM albums are rituals, personal convict…
Framtiden Är Ett Svävande Skepp, Förankrat I Forntiden
The legendary NWWish album from 1972. Recorded at Studio Decibel in 1971, this CD reissue adds two bonus live tracks from 1972. From Dan Söderqvist's notes: "We have known each other since 1968, when we met in our home neighborhood Västra Frölunda, Gothenburg. We listened to everything; Perotinus heavenly choirs from the 13th century, Messien's heavy works for orchestra, Beefheart's Safe as Milk, with it's surreal lyrics, King Crimson's endless string of chords, the beautiful acoustic Third Ear …
Crawling To Lhasa
New legit reissue of this "psychedelic jewel from Duisburg". Originally issued as a private press LP in Germany in 1972, there were a couple of bootleg LP versions of this floating around in the 80s and then a legit, but difficult to obtain CD issue on the long gone Lost Pipe Dreams label. "Their music combined various folk and Eastern influences, slightly hinting at the Third Ear Band and Popol Vuh, but closest to Clark-Hutchinson on their album A=MH2. Kalacakra's blend of mantras, blues, folk …
Saat
Recording in a good studio in 1972 with an accomplished engineer/musician such as Dieter Dierks (Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers, Tangerine Dream, and yes, the Scorpions), certainly enabled Emtidi to expand their musical style on 'Saat.' The end result was a shimmering, lush cosmic folk trip, with multi-tracked and treated acoustic guitars plus electric piano, fragile angelic femme vocals, vibes, and mellotron, (punctuated by the occasional acid guitar solo). Yes, 'Saat' is an elevated cosmic folk …
Fragments
Recorded in Berlin, 11/14/74 as their "final reunion" a loose jamming session featuring various members of the groups' different periods: Christoph Franke, Michael Hoenig, Lutz Ulbrich, etc. Like many acts that suffer from sounding a bit stiff in the studio, the live experience is the way to hear `em let their hair down and show how rock music can be dangerous in a way that other musical genres are often not. Trad Gras Och Stenar are another example of a band far more visceral and exciting…
Tibetan Bells
Tibetan Bells was a legendary 1971 album by Henry Wolff and Nancy Hennings and Drew Gladstone, originally released by Island label (while in Italy it went out on Bla Bla records, of Franco Battiato fame). It was the first recording to use traditional Tibetan bells and singing bowls, and it's a true estatic listening experience. In 1972 the world was listening to heavy, intense, high-energy music. In the midst of this rock explosion Chris Blackwell of Island Records released Tibetan Bells in the …
Electronic Mind Waves
Out of the mysterious mind of Andrea Centazzo came Elektriktus. Originally released on the PDU label in 1976, the LP Electronic Mind Waves offers a collection of eight synth-fueled songs that sound very close to what kraut/cosmische heads were doing at the time, think of Conrad Schnitzler, Deuter or Cosmic Jokers, and also other European experimentalists like Richard Pinhas' Heldon, Spacecraft, Didier Bocquet, Seesselberg, F.G. Experimental Laboratory, Roberto Cacciapaglia or Hydrus. Along with …