Friday, February 22, 2008

Connivence - II (1979)

Never really a full group of musicians per se, Connivence was more of a collective name for artistes, solo or groups from the same region: Hull, just across Ottawa opposite the river and into Quebec land. These artistes actually found easier to share recording costs and release in 77 on the same record their personal tracks, but also playing on each other’s works. From single artists Legault, Soucy to the groups Oasis (jazz-rock) and Nous Autres (sometimes close to Anthony Philips), this Connivence name housed dramatically different styles but most of them worthy of a listen to progheads. The “group” will produce three albums (until 84) with different line-ups and the second one will be heavily induced by Syncope (another prog group). The third one is more electrified or electronified and jazzed-up.

Sadly none of the three albums have been released under the Cd format and their vinyl records are not that easy to find, either.

Hugues Chantraine, BELGIUM


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Toad Hall - Toad Hall : Class of '68 (1968)

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Panama Limited - Indian Summer (1970)

Panama limited (no jug! ) band with their 4th and best psychedelic beefheartique folkrock from 1970. Posted by request.

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Saturday, February 09, 2008

Kräldjursanstalten - Voodoo Boogie (1980)

Legendary Swedish rock trio led by Michael Maksymenko, as originally issued in 1980-81. Heavily influenced by the convoluted blues of prime-era Beefheart Magic Band, these guys played a fairly unbelievable variation on the style -- intense, full throttle guitar/bass/drum interplay with absolutely crazed Swedish vocals on top. Beefheart fanatics use to fall face flat when hearing this stuff back when it came out, and I'm sure there's a whole slew of newcomers ready for the same gust of Nordic madness. Guitarist Maksymenko went on to work with Henry Kaiser in the later 80s, forming the band Crazy Backwards Alphabet (along with Magic Band drummer Drumbo French). These recordings have been legitimately "weird" -- every single day, for 25 years now!

Buy record at Forced Exposure

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Fantasia - Fantasia (1975)

Finnish prog

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Travelling - Voici la nuit tombée (1973)


Travelling are a French band playing in the trio format (keyboards, bass, drums). Musically they have links to Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt and ELP. Keyboard player Yves Hasslemann has a fairly varied playing style, incorporating classical, blues and jazz elements. In contrast to Soft Machine's Mike Ratledge, Hasselmann plays piano more frequently, but occasionally fuzz organ can be heard as well. Nice album with some excellent piano and organ playing.
In the mid- to late 60s, free jazz was a prominent feature in the Parisian nightclubs and overall had a strong foothold throughout France. On the vanguard for this movement of jazz was the Futura label. Today the label has attained a mythical stature; 1) because of the consistent high quality music the label produced and 2) the scarcity of the product. In the early 70s, the Futura label expanded its scope to include new and exciting experimental avant rock music which seemed to mesh well with the style of jazz the label portrayed. These albums were designated as the RED series and debuted, naturally enough, with a band called Red Noise.

Perhaps the most accessible of these RED bands was Travelling, a keyboard-based trio that probably represented best what the label was about: Jazz, rock and an experimental inquisitiveness. Their sole album is a combination of the early Canterbury movement circa Soft Machine 2, the continental equivalent in Supersister, piano jazz and avant-garde classical/electronics. In fact, the 18-minute title track has all these elements which include Wyatt-esque vocals (however, here in French), fuzz bass, fuzz organ, piano jazz, complex meters and echoed early synthesizers/machines; a contrast in tight ensemble playing combined with loose free improvisation. The other five shorter tracks are really just the same though more contained within the environment of a small composition. The closer demonstrates a melancholic sadness not displayed elsewhere.

Originals of any Futura album run into the small fortune area. Travelling is no exception and was a staple $600+ LP. Fortunately within the last year 2001, Italian CD label Mellow Records released this so that everyone can hear this gem. Taken from Gnosis2000


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Burning Candle - Burning Candle (1981)

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Gattch - Komplet (1971)

Hi Lisa,

I happen to have a double CD with complete recordings by Gattch...Mr Marquez seems to be looking for it so I uploaded the CD in 4 parts. First 2 links are for the album (contains some alternate takes) and the other 2 from a concert. The band were from Czechoslovakia (Slovak part)and the album was released in 1971. It is fairly good prog/jazz/rock music that people may enjoy. The front cover is included in the first .rar file.

Thank you, Marian!

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/T (1972)

Greek hard rock

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Katamaran - Footprints (1980)

German fusion third album

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Katamaran - Katamaran (1977)

German fusion

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