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Fashion Pink - ...To Brainstorm (SWF Sessions)

Fashion Pink was a German band that would later change it's name to Brainstorm - this disc contains material recorded for SWF Radio in 1970 and 1971. The tracks range from song-oriented psychedelic rock to complex progressive rock to the jazzy krautrock that Brainstorm is known for. I've posted all the Brainstorm albums I think - use the "search this blog" function at the top of the page if you're interested!

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Stoneground - Family Album (1971)

I haven't stopped listening to this thing since it came in the mail last week! Hot dang, these guys were great. Originally released as a double album with three sides of live material and one side of studio material, this has never has a proper CD release. This CD-R has some minor flaws, hardly noticeable, but it'll have to do until this album gets a proper re-issue. After repeated listenings I have come to think that Sal Valentino (ex Beau Brummels) is the greatest unrecognized songwriter/guitarist of the hippie era! Stoneground was also blessed with some fantastic female vocalists. Like Annie Sampson - her duet with Mr. Valentino on "Precious Lord" is awesome. Their first self-titled album is also brilliant and can be found in the archives.

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A.R. & Machines - A.R. IV (1973)

Another vinyl rip - I'm not sure this has ever made it to CD. A.R. is of course Achim Reichel, formerly of Germany's The Rattles. Two side-long pieces of spacy cosmicness featuring Mr. Reichel's "echo guitar" aided by a host of other musicians.

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Thundermother - No Red Rowan (1971)

This is the same band that appears on the second half of the "Astral Navigations" CD from Holyground Records. Great material recorded in 1970 and 1971. Psychedelic freakouts with almost non-stop fuzzed out wah-wah guitar. Very appealing stuff.

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Coupla Prog - Edmundo Lopez (1970)

Volume 4 in the SWF Sessions series is a 'rock opera' (for lack of a better term) performed live in the studio by Coupla Prog. Great tunes, but I gotta say I don't know what the story is about, brilliant keyboard playing all the way. They never had a record contract but thanks to SWF Radio there are I think four Coupla Prog albums about nowadays. German underground rock at it's best.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES:

Coupla Prog - Death Is A Great Gambler (1972)

Haven't been able to find out a whole lot about this terrific German band - it seems they weren't that interested in becoming rock stars. They aren't even mentioned by the main krautrock references! Politically oriented, their energy was directed at playing rallies and benefits, there were no albums released during the band's lifetime. Rolf Peters, the guitarist and main songwriter, died of an overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills at the ripe old age of 21. These guys were good musicians, the music is rhythm and blues based, song-oriented proggy rock that can seem a little theatrical at times. All in all a great CD for krautrock fans.

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Ocean - God's Clown (1976)

Information on this obscure French band is hard to come by, but I did find a review of a later album on a Metal site, so I assume they changed musical direction sometime after releasing this, their first album. This is a real tasty slice of progressive rock, with English vocals, and they manage to bring to mind a more proggy Led Zeppelin, or maybe a harder rockin' King Crimson! Very nice addition to any prog collection.

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

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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OK see ya!