Sunday, January 28, 2007

Thanks to everyone who left a comment last week!

Ejwuusl Wessahaqqan - Ejwuusl Wessahaqqan (1975)
No, I didn't pass out and hit my head on the keyboard, that's the name of the band. A three piece keyboard/bass/drums outfit from the same Munich scene as Amon Düül II, Embryo, and others. This group plays some very odd, experimental stuff, a real trippy fusion of styles. Hardly any vocals, guitar parts taken by self-made seven string "filouphone". Two of the four bonus tracks are from a later version of the group named Koala-Bär. My rip @320 w/scanned booklet.

Part 1 Part 2

Crazy Mabel - Crazy Mabel (1971)
Crazy Mabel was a British band whose sole album was released in Germany and the Netherlands only. This is superb, bluesy, jazzy, progressive rock that sounds a bit like Colosseum at times. Great guitar work, good songs, heavy saxophone and brass, brilliant vocals. Unusual cover of Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On". Only complaint - this seems to be a faked 'live' album. Highly recommended, this is real good! I got this from ChrisGoesRock back when he was doing torrents, so thanks Chris!

Download

Muck Groh - Grotesk (1980)
Muck Groh was a founding member of Ihre Kinder, and Aera. At least one of the other players on this was in Aera, so it's not surprising that the sound is similar to that group. Great Teutonic jazz-rock in the same vein as some Embryo and Missus Beastly.

Download

Ernst Schultz - Paranoia Picknick (1971)
Ernst Schultze was also a member of Ihre Kinder, but his first solo album was much more in the electric folkrock vein. Well mostly - one track is performed on two typewriters! Another track features some real nice sitar, and the title track is a bizarre sound collage. The rest of the tracks are more 'normal', and are very tasty, the musicianship is excellent! Wish I understood German, as the album art features characters from the lyrics. All in all a brilliant low-key piece of German psychedelia.

Download

The Famous Jug Band - Sunshine Possibilities (1969)
"A highly original recording by a very short-lived esoteric folk outfit from the turn of the 1970's. While it should be noted that the ever-enigmatic Clive Palmer, founder member of the Incredible Sring Band, is featured here, complete with two original out-there, but wonderfully crafted tunes, it's the vocalist Jill Johnson that stand out the most. Although only 18 at the time of this recording, her voice conveys a passion and wisdom of someone who has lived and died and come back as a spirit, boundless in energy and enthusiasm. The lush acoustic arrangements defy classification, an eclectic blend of so-called early music, ragtime, folk, bluegrass, folk-rock, blues and, yes, jug music. The songs, as a whole, are obscure, moody, somewhat chaotic at times, oddly serene at others, which is great if you're into the mystic, neo-acid folk in the String Band tradition, but off-putting, perhaps, to those seeking a more traditional sound. This is an experimental record in the truest sense." (Andrew Shaffer, amazon.com review) My rip @ 320

Part 1 Part 2

Albatros - Garden Of Eden (1978)
This seven-piece band from Hagen, Germany, named after that Fleetwood Mac song, only had this one release, and that's a real shame. Powerful, intense, rhythmic progressive rock with driving guitars and vocals and great use of keyboards. All you get is three long tunes, which were even longer and had to be shortened to fit on the LP.

Download

Sleepy John - Sleepy John (1970)
"Contrary to popular belief Idaho is not strictly a vast wasteland of libertarian crankiness or to be more precise it may be that on the whole but it has also had its share of hippie nonconformists some of them wielding electric musical instruments. With this archival find Gear Fab has unearthed the work of one of the more worthwhile shaggy-haired Idaho bands of the rock era. The CD pulls together two separate 1970 sessions recorded by Sleepy John and here given their first public airing. The music is quite strong often propelled by David Lee 's overdriven Hammond organ work a sound that might be thought of as the missing link between the aggressiveness of the garage and the gloomy complexity of prog rock -- think Procol Harum crossed with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown . There are a few other hints of progressive influences throughout Sleepy John particularly in the minor-key chord changes the epic episodic song structures of pieces like "Nothing " "Seasons " and "Trying to Fly " and a single lyrical nod to literary fantasy ( "Dragons" ). That said this isn't really artsy stuff doesn't take itself too seriously and even intersperses the heady instrumental passages at which the band excelled with occasional satirical nods to country ( "Losing My Plow " "Cowboy" ) and the blues ( "I Just Happen to Be (In Love With You)" ). Sleepy John isn't really psychedelic either in the generally accepted sense of the term though it's easy to see how dealers could mislabel elements of the band's music in that way especially some of those instrumental explorations. Frank Trowbridge 's intriguing guitar work sometimes approaches the sustained tone of Spirit 's Randy California and Tom Williams ' drumming is effectively elemental (listen to the raw relentless almost tribal stretches of "Al Capa Strong" ). But this is by and large blues-based hard rock albeit considerably more sophisticated, ( "Prelude to a Dream" is adept jazz-rock) inquisitive, and penetrating than the norm. These guys were perhaps only a few hooks and a decent singer -- and a state line or two -- removed from genuine success." (Stanton Swihart - All Music Guide)

Part 1 Part 2

OK that's it this week - did you like something? Take a second and say thanks, won't you?

19 Comments:

Blogger twee4one said...

Cool Krautrock stuff this week. Thx. Best of all is these Atlantis group, never heard from of them before ....

btw - I'm drinking beer. These Atlantis rip has 77777 kB, what we called in German a "Schnapszahl". That means anyone involved has one drink for free. Ok, ok - I know - we 50+ guys ever look for a reason to drink and having fun ......

Greetz

12:52 AM, January 29, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello and thank you for this weeks albums. I'm really looking forward to the Ernst Schultz album. I'll come back when I've lisened to it.

Peace
Crimsonking

12:07 PM, January 29, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Joe v Berlin says...many thanks for the ASRA Dream&Desire i hadent known it existed..such is the great thing about your Blog ,...discovering unknown jewels that one would not hear of otherwise. Many thanks for providing so much pleasure to so many. You have a fantastic Blog. I have now bookmarked it.

best wishes and thanks again
Joe v Berlin

3:15 PM, January 29, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The guy on the Crazy Mabel cover looks sick, but the music is great!

Thanks again too
:)

3:19 PM, January 29, 2007  
Blogger Barmaleyy said...

Hi, Garcolga

No words.Excellent posts.
And separate thanks for Ejwuusl Wessahaqqan!

7:16 PM, January 29, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Crazy Mabel album is a nice one.It sounds like a mixture of Blodwing Pig and Jethro Tull.

2:32 AM, January 30, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Garcolga.

Tanks for the Kin Ping Meh 3, it is inferior to the 2066 but superior to Tritonus (I think).
There is some albuns that I am looking for. Do you know something about a band called "Demon Thor"? Well, is a band formed by Geff Harrison, Peter Panka and the keyboard player os Jane, they have only an album from 1974. I am looking for the first Gommorah (released in 1970) and the two albuns of the german band Gift (Gift of 1972 and Blue Apple from 1974), if you have some of this albuns for download I will apriciate.

Thanks and great blog.

5:44 AM, January 30, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello again :-)

I was not dissapionted with the Ernst Schultz album. I simply love it.
But it would be great to understand German.....


Peace
Crimsonking

12:45 PM, January 30, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks for the sleepy john, checked it out before,wish i'd snatched it then. thanks for another great jam! peace

10:38 PM, January 30, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for all this eclectic stuff.
Would you have any Jess Roden Band or Joe Egan?

Steve

1:23 AM, January 31, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Liam. With so much to choose from it's difficult to know where to start ;-) but right now I'm listening to Albatros and though it has nothing to do with Greeny's "Albatross" it's got me pretty interested. Thanks for the entertainment. - Julie.

4:00 PM, January 31, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks very much for grotesk.I
really like german jazz rock,never
heard of this band before.See you
later

2:28 AM, February 02, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great Great music!
I would like to have some of it but I'm not able to download for some reason. When I click on "click to download" this page comes back.... and comes back.....

What is it I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

2:06 AM, February 03, 2007  
Blogger GarColga said...

Hi ARF - where are you getting this free beer??

Hi crimson king - Thanks for the comment!

Hello Joe v Berlin - glad you found the blog.

Hi anonymous - you're welcome!

Hi Tiago Webber - I'll post one of those albums next week.

Hi naturedude - yeah that Sleepy John is good!

Hello McPhjsto - sorry nothing by either one of those.

Hi Julie - you're welcome, nice to hear from you!

Hello anonymous - OK see you later!!

Hi karel - sorry I don't know a lot about that kind of stuff. I was kinda hoping somebody would step in with some advice for you. I think it might have something to do with enabling javascript, but like I say I am clueless. Have you tried a different browser?

11:26 AM, February 03, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Garcola,

You're right: it had to do with javascript.
Now I can get all that great music!
Thanks again!!

1:40 AM, February 04, 2007  
Blogger Rainbow Demon said...

Thank you so much for the music...
You are a god.

I've been searching for many years for some of this stuff...
You're going to make my little radio show so much more interesting.

Thanks Again & Peace,
=RD=

11:49 AM, February 04, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot, Garcolga!
Excellent stuff, as usual
Albatros is superb

Migg

4:36 PM, February 04, 2007  
Blogger dmtr said...

hey garcolga -- the jug band album was really good, didn't manage to download others as of now, but I will in the near future. thanks a lot for the great job you're doing, and please keep up the good work!

8:36 AM, February 05, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey
i'm new to your blog but have to say it's quite impresive. great lps.thanx a lot.
micksguitar.

12:11 PM, May 02, 2007  

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