Hi -

Noir - We Had To Let You Have It (1971)

I purchased this CD with donation money, and what a sweet little album this is. The only release from England's first all-black rock band, this is a smooth, low-key, kinda funky, kinda prog record with some brilliant guitar work and some real nice percussion and soulful vocals.The first track, "Rain" reminds me a little of the Chambers Brothers, the rest of the album is smoky and inspirited, sometimes a little gospelly and tribal. Great album, undeservedly obscure. When I ripped it, it wasn't even listed in the Compact Disc Data Base!

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Syd Barrett - Magnesium Proverbs

Since Mr. Barrett passed away last week, I thought I would pass along this great bootleg I got from a torrent. Standard bootleg stuff, you know the drill - radio and television broadcasts, acetetes, alternate mixes, and rare live performances. Of the twenty three tracks fifteen are Syd with Pink Floyd. Four tracks are from Syd's only live solo appearance in London, 1970. Four tracks with Syd, David Gilmour and David Shirley.

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Bwana - Bwana (1972)

Fantastic Latin funk/psych rare groove special from 1972; as Latin mavens Dusty Groove say, it's 'an insanely wonderful bit of Latin funk! The groove is super heavy, and falls somewhere in between NuYorican soul and Chicano Power rock -- with a sound that's pretty close to Black Sugar, but a little bit more psychedelic, due to the heavy guitars and keyboards in the grooves. Hard congas take the lead on most of the tracks -- especially the cut 'Chapumbambe,' which starts with a nice breakbeat.' Astral-planar Latin jams, with blazing guitar and organ laid down over hot funk/psych grooves; leads off with the eight-minute runaway train 'Tema de Bwana'; what's next, you wonder? Why it's the intricate twin-guitar progressive call and response jam of 'La Patada'; the rest gets better from there, with songs that shift and flow until they hit an acid freakout point -- check out the end of 'Chapumbambe' or the second half of the thirteen-plus minute soul/psych style rave up 'Lolita' that closes the album."

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Da Capo - Da Capo (1971)

Da Capo were a part of the South German progressive scene. Taking their name from the second Love album, they were heavily influenced by the laid back American west coast sound of bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Grateful Dead. Their privately recorded album, Da Capo, included excellent tracks like "Find My Way Home", "Young Man" and "Free" - melodic and tuneful songs that were in no way inferior to those of the American bands mentioned earlier. The long instrumental track "A Day In the Rest of My Life" was a nice twin guitar jam, reflecting their live sound. It is sad that the band never recorded in a studio again, disbanding about a year later. Da Capo's legacy is as one of the best German early seventies private pressings. (Cosmic Dreams At Play)

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Fields - Fields (1971)

A hugely underrated progressive classic from 1971, which was a spin-off from the excellent Charisma band Rare Bird. Graham Field, the keyboard player in Rare Bird, left them to create this project with some session musicians of the era. It's an excellent melodic-prog album with a great vocalist in Alan Barry and very solid drumming by Andy McCullough, (Greenslade, Manfred Mann's Chapter Three and King Crimson). 'A Friend Of Mine' is perhaps the only track here that sounds like Rare Bird, with its pseudo- classical keyboard work and complex organ runs, but Alan Barry's vocals are very unlike Steve Gould's, and is much less aggressive and operatic, being more melodic. Barry's vocals shape this whole album, and he has a very accessible, pleasant voice. 'While The Sun Still Shines' is a great prog-pop song, with a hummable melody and lovely backing vocals, plus a great lead vocal. 'Not So Good' is my favourite track on the album, with one of my favourite vocal performances ever- it sends shivers up my spine every time- combining with a gorgeous chord progression and a solid rhythm section. Masterful. 'Three Minstrels' is a prog-folk experiment, with a Steeleye Span-esque flavour, and even a Richard Thompson-esque guitar flourish by Alan Barry. Very enjoyable. 'Slow Susan' is a very nice, if perhaps basic, organ based instrumental that's another highlight of this excellent album. 'Over And Over Again' is a melodic song with more good vocals by Barry and neat organ work by Field. 'Feeling Free' is another favourite track on the album, with great work from all concerned, particularly Barry's great falsetto vocalising. 'Fair Haired Lady' is an utterly charming, wistful folk song, with lovely orchestration and delightful vocals. 'A Place To Lay My Head' is more like Spooky Tooth in style, with some heavy organ chords. 'The Eagle' is a stunning instrumental, showing Graham Field had invention to spare. It's another pseudo classical track, with subtle use of mellotron, and is a perfect climax to a hugely enjoyable album. (James Jeffery-progarchives.con))

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Lucifer's Friend - Where The Groupies Killed The Blues (1972)

Lucifer's Friend was a band that, with their early albums, changed musical styles with each release. Their first album, Lucifer's Friend, is one of the best German hard rock albums of the 70's. This is their second release, and we find them in experimental mode, assaulting us with what seems to be a mix of proto-metal and hard progressive rock. Most of the material is composed by John O'Brien Docker, who will be recognized by the more adventurous downloaders as the main guy from Brave New World's 'Impressions On Reading Aldous Huxley' that I posted some months back. Vocalist is John Lawton, who went on to later join Uriah Heep. This is complex, adventurous progressive rock, unlike their first album or any of their subsequent releases, probably their finest moment.

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Irmin's Way - Opus; Destroy (1975)

A recent discovery, Irmin's Way were an obscure mid-70's Anglo-German band who recorded an LP in 1976, that remained unreleased and lost until 1995. Taking their name from the Saxon god that slayed a dragon, their conceptual opus was steeped in mythology too. In the classic tradition of Krautrock bands of the era, Irmin's Way notably drew on the cosmic side of Pink Floyd, close to Belgium's Dragon, or towards Gäa's psychedelic space-tripping. A touch amateurish, and not that well produced, it is nonetheless a classic of the genre. (Crack In The Cosmic Egg)

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OK that's it then. See you next Monday! As Always, comments appreciated.