Friday, January 04, 2008
Albatross - 1973 - A Breath Of Fresh Air
Side 1:1."Full Moon"
2. "The Drowning Song"
3. "Escher's Door"
4. "Drop Me a Line"
5. "Bouzouki Boogie"
6. "A Breath of Fresh Air"
Side 2:
1. "The Games Cards Play"
2. "Nimbin Stopover"
3. "Mermaid"
4. "A Message to You"
5. "Seashell Secrets"
6. "Wings Of The Albatross"
7. "The Angel & the Boy"
Albatross formed in September 1972, after the split of legendary Sydney band Tamam Shud. The initial lineup was a trio, comprising Bjerre and Baron (both ex-Shud) and drummer Kim Bryant (ex-Country Radio).While bands like The Aztecs and The La De Das and were mining the rich veins of blues, boogie and heavy rock, Albatross took a different tack, exploring a mellower, acoustically-based style that was a development from the quieter side of Tamam Shud's Shud's progressive/psychedelic sound. Albatross' music incorporated elements of folk and country music, as were a number of other contemporary Australian groups like Country Radio, The Flying Circus and The Dingoes. Lyrically, the band's material continued Bjerre's concerns with sprituality, nature and environmental issues.
The band's home-base was on Sydney's northern beaches, and during the year of its existence Albatross played regularly at the Memorial Hall in the Sydney beachside suburb of Mona Vale. In early 1973 the band was augmented by Lindsay's wife Simone on vocals and in April they were joined by multi-instrumentalist Richard Lockwood, formerly of Tully, who had also played with the last version of Tamam Shud.
This augmented lineup recorded the group's only LP, A Breath Of Fresh Air (Warner Reprise), which also included session contributions from Gary Frederick (slide guitar), Pirana organist Keith Greig and Chris Blanchflower (harmonica). It's a fine album, and long overdue for reissue. Bjerre's unusual voice is perhaps an acquired taste but the album is full of excellent material, beautifully played and very well recorded. The pacy opening track "Full Moon", a road song opens with an innovative string arrangement and features some heavier sounds that recall Tamam Shud, and it's decorated with some very tasty "Layla"-style slide guitar from Fredericks. Other highlights include the rollicking "Bouzouki Boogie" and "Nimbin Stopover", a commemmoration in song of the 1973 Aquarius Festival, which features the inimitable harmonica stylings of the great Chris Blanchflower (Country Radio).
Another sought-after Warner album from this period, Total Union by Band Of Light, has been recently reissued by Gil Matthews' Aztec Music label, so there is some hope that the Albatross album will eventually be remastered and re-released on CD. Meanwhile, the original LP -- which presumably sold few copies -- has become highly collectible, with copies now changing hands for over $100.
Albatross gained important exposure with a prestigious support spot on Frank Zappa's his first Australian tour, but the band did not last out the year, and had already broken up by the time the LP was released in November.
Lindsay Bjerre spent the next few years pursuing spiritual interests and travelling; he also wrote a (never-performed) rock opera and studied mime in England with theatrical legend Lindsay Kemp. He re-emerged in 1977, with a new performance persona, simply called Bjerre, and with support from Countdown he scored a surprise hit with the single "She Taught Me How To Love Again".
Get It Here
Bill Fay
Bill Fay - 1970 - Bill FayA brilliant lost set from singer Bill Fay -- recorded in baroque brilliance that rivals the late 60s work of Scott Walker! Like Walker, Fay's as much a poet as he is a singer -- and also like Walker, he's got the great fortune here to be working with some excellent arrangements -- handled by British jazzman Michael Gibbs, and featuring some excellent guitar work from Ray Russell. Fay's style is slightly folksy at times, with echoes of Leonard Cohen somewhere in the mix -- but his overall vision is far more elaborate, and carried off here to perfection in a rare kind of "once in a career" record that still holds up beautifully today!
Get It Here :
rapidshare.com/files/Bill_Fay_-_Bill_Fay_1st.rar
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Bill Fay - From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock
(Demos & Outtakes 1966-1970)
25 Stunning Demos (22 Previously Unreleased) and Work in Progress Tracks Cut Between 66 and 70 from this Cult British Artist. 60's Pop Art at It's Finest. Wilco Fans Take Note, this Includes the Original Version of "be Not So Fearful", a Song Covered by Jeff Tweedy in the Wilco Documentary Film 'i Am Trying to Break Your Heart'.Get It Here :
rapidshare.com/files/Bill_Fay_-_Demos___Outtakes_70_s.rar
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Bio :
Obscure British singer/songwriter Bill Fay made a couple of albums in the early '70s that matched Dylanesque songwriting with unusual arrangements. Fay had actually done his first single, "Some Good Advice"/"Screams in the Ears," for Deram back in 1967, produced by early Donovan co-manager Peter Eden. The single introduced his characteristic downbeat melodies and scrambled impressionistic lyrics, though with somewhat more pop-oriented production and melodies than those heard on his albums.
It wouldn't be until 1970 that his self-titled debut appeared. Bill Fay is an odd and not particularly good record, in large part because his songwriting has the obvious ambition of song-poets like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but not nearly as much talent. His hoarse, thin singing is also obviously Dylan-influenced, but like fellow Dylan acolyte David Blue, he had the tendency to go distressingly off-key. There was a bit of the British lilting storytelling style to his songwriting, in the path of Al Stewart, Donovan, and Nick Drake, but these traits were far subordinate to the inchoate Dylanisms. Twee orchestral arrangements figure strongly on the record, as if to cover up for some of the artist's vocal deficiencies. His second LP, Time of the Last Persecution (from 1971), was similar in its songwriting, but far more straightforward and rock-oriented in its production, and more conventionally accomplished in its vocal delivery. Though still not noteworthy, it was definitely better than its predecessor, and sometimes enlivened by unexpectedly gnarly rock guitar.
~Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
posted by Ben Elephant
Labels: as Requested, B, by Friends and Visitors of this Blog, F 
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Various Artists - Maidens In The Moor Lay Vol. III
Dark Ages - Piano Magic w/Vashti Bunyan (Saint Marie EP)
Passiflora - The Gray Field Recordings (Hypnagogia)
Painted Skies - Tiny Lights (Prayer For The Halcyon Fear)
Under the Gaze - Samara Lubelski (The Fleeting Skies)
Hold You Up - Alice Despard (Thinning of the Veil)
The world is burning, so let us waltz - Post Crash High (The apocalypse came yesterday and no one noticed)
You Don't Love Me Yet - Bongwater (Double Bummer)
A Good Many Things - Matty and Mossy (Fraimers Hamey)
Down by the River - DiGiTaL DaN & EliZaBeTh (Unknown)
Dark World - Sylvia Juncosa (Nature)
This Train - 28th Day (28th Day)
The Orange Bears - Famous Boating Party (Silvery Branches)
Happy go lucky - Spray Pals (7"single)
Hiawatha - Look Blue Go Purple (Compilation)
A quiet start with one of the few worthy comebacks (Vashti Banyan), followed by the promising Gray Field Recordings (multi-instrument player R. Loftiss), a little pop/psyche with Tiny Lights with Jane Scarpantoni's cello (from 1984) and a much more recent album of Samara Lubelski (Tower Recordings) and a nice song from the real passionate Alice Despard (ex-Hyaa!). Post Crash High's song is subtitled "it's almost as good as listening to the tale of "Long Lankin" under the influence of psilocybin" and I don't have anything to add, Ann Magnuson w/Bongwater in a Roky Erickson cover, Matty & Mossy (Jana Hunter's band from 2001), in a real dark tune, and a duo (DiGiTaL DaN & EliZaBeTh) I wish I knew more: I have only a few tracks from them, but they're really good. Sylvia Juncosa (more on her in a few days - if anyone's interested) takes us high with her outstanding guitar playing and then a version of Pete Seeger's 'This Train' from 28th Day and Barbara Manning with all her youth (it was 1985!) and innocence (which I'm sure she still has). Famous Bloating Party is one of the many inhouse bands of Jewelled Antler Collective.
I must confess that the next song from Spray Pals triggered me to compile this third part of Maidens. You may know Susanne Lewis from Thinking Plague. This is one of her first recordings (from 1982) where they managed to make a song based on tribal percussion, Indian Raindance chant vocals with bouzouki solos, flavored with drops of folk. You have to listen to believe it. We close with the stormy Hiawatha from the New Zealanders Look Blue Go Purple.
Labels: Rainy Day Sponge, Various Artists
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Blues Magoos
The Blues Magoos, who started out as The Trenchcoats in The Bronx, NY, in 1964, were by 1965 denizens of the Greenwich Village scene, along with the likes of The Lovin' Spoonful, The Fugs and Mama Cass Elliott's pre-Mama's & The Papa's group The Mugwumps.
At this time they were managed by Marvin Lagenoff...who supposedly had also managed Eydie Gorme earlier on...the man that had changed their moniker to The Bloos Magoos (Magoo was short for Moo Goo Gai Pan; he'd supposedly been eating this at a Chinese restaurant). It was from there that they'd set about recording. In October of that year, they'd signed with MGM's Verve subsidiary and recorded a double-sided single, 'So I'm Wrong And You Are Right'/'The People Had No Faces', the former penned by Rick Shorter (along with Bobby Hebb and Richie Havens one of the few black musicians involved with folk music), the latter a Scala/Castro composition.
Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, they'd met up with the two men who would become the definitive lead guitarist and drummer, Mike Esposito and Geoff Daking (who, after a rift between Scala/Castro/Gilbert and Finnegan/Lapore, a la Pete Best, promptly replaced the latter) and the management team of Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus. It was with this aggregation that they began recording in November for Mercury Records, the first effort being another double-sided single, John Loudermilk's 'Tobacco Road', backed with 'Sometimes I Think About' (a/k/a 'Willie Jean'), a traditional Negro folk ballad about a condemned man set to a blues style. Due to the over-three-minute length of the former and the subject matter (however subdued) of the latter, the single received limited airplay. And I would guess that the actual composer of the latter was the condemned man.
No one will know for sure, especially considering that until the '30s no black writers could even obtain copyrights. 'Sometimes...' was written decades before. Then in 1966, while the group was playing at The Chessmate Club in Detroit, came the breakthrough. A DJ on station CKLW played '(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet' one afternoon and caused a Nationwide deluge!!! In a short time every station was playing it and it eventually reached ..5 in 1967. 'Nothin' Yet' was backed with an earlier version of 'Gotta Get Away', another song that appeared on their PSYCHEDELIC LOLLIPOP album, also released in '66.
Other albums followed, ELECTRIC COMIC BOOK and BASIC BLUES MAGOOS, but did not meet with the same success. The Magoos, meanwhile, were playing dates all over the country with The Who and Herman's Hermits and recorded more singles that met with the same fate. Finally, at the beginning of 1969, the original group broke up.
Then during the time of Woodstock, Bob Wyld put together a new version of The Magoos with only Castro remaining. His backup musicians were John Liello (keyboards & vibes...who also strongly resembled Scala), Roger Eaton (bass), Eric Kaz (electroharp) and Richie Dickson (drums). This aggregation, whose sound closely resembled Blood Sweat & Tears' and Santana's, recorded one album for ABC called NEVER GOIN' BACK TO GEORGIA (1969).
Eaton and Dickson left shortly after and Castro, Liello, Kaz and studio musicians recorded GULF COAST BOUND (1970). Then it was the end of the Magoos until 2000. Castro, meanwhile, has appeared in the Broadway musical HAIR and was in the groups Barnaby Bye and Balance. His son Jesse Doran Castro is currently heading his own group called CASTRO.
Watch them here : clip 1 ~ clip 2
Download Them Here :
Psychedelic Lollipop
Electric Comic Book
Basic Blues Magoos
Never Goin' Back to Georgia
Gulf Coast Bound
At this time they were managed by Marvin Lagenoff...who supposedly had also managed Eydie Gorme earlier on...the man that had changed their moniker to The Bloos Magoos (Magoo was short for Moo Goo Gai Pan; he'd supposedly been eating this at a Chinese restaurant). It was from there that they'd set about recording. In October of that year, they'd signed with MGM's Verve subsidiary and recorded a double-sided single, 'So I'm Wrong And You Are Right'/'The People Had No Faces', the former penned by Rick Shorter (along with Bobby Hebb and Richie Havens one of the few black musicians involved with folk music), the latter a Scala/Castro composition.
Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, they'd met up with the two men who would become the definitive lead guitarist and drummer, Mike Esposito and Geoff Daking (who, after a rift between Scala/Castro/Gilbert and Finnegan/Lapore, a la Pete Best, promptly replaced the latter) and the management team of Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus. It was with this aggregation that they began recording in November for Mercury Records, the first effort being another double-sided single, John Loudermilk's 'Tobacco Road', backed with 'Sometimes I Think About' (a/k/a 'Willie Jean'), a traditional Negro folk ballad about a condemned man set to a blues style. Due to the over-three-minute length of the former and the subject matter (however subdued) of the latter, the single received limited airplay. And I would guess that the actual composer of the latter was the condemned man.
No one will know for sure, especially considering that until the '30s no black writers could even obtain copyrights. 'Sometimes...' was written decades before. Then in 1966, while the group was playing at The Chessmate Club in Detroit, came the breakthrough. A DJ on station CKLW played '(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet' one afternoon and caused a Nationwide deluge!!! In a short time every station was playing it and it eventually reached ..5 in 1967. 'Nothin' Yet' was backed with an earlier version of 'Gotta Get Away', another song that appeared on their PSYCHEDELIC LOLLIPOP album, also released in '66.
Other albums followed, ELECTRIC COMIC BOOK and BASIC BLUES MAGOOS, but did not meet with the same success. The Magoos, meanwhile, were playing dates all over the country with The Who and Herman's Hermits and recorded more singles that met with the same fate. Finally, at the beginning of 1969, the original group broke up.
Then during the time of Woodstock, Bob Wyld put together a new version of The Magoos with only Castro remaining. His backup musicians were John Liello (keyboards & vibes...who also strongly resembled Scala), Roger Eaton (bass), Eric Kaz (electroharp) and Richie Dickson (drums). This aggregation, whose sound closely resembled Blood Sweat & Tears' and Santana's, recorded one album for ABC called NEVER GOIN' BACK TO GEORGIA (1969).
Eaton and Dickson left shortly after and Castro, Liello, Kaz and studio musicians recorded GULF COAST BOUND (1970). Then it was the end of the Magoos until 2000. Castro, meanwhile, has appeared in the Broadway musical HAIR and was in the groups Barnaby Bye and Balance. His son Jesse Doran Castro is currently heading his own group called CASTRO.
Watch them here : clip 1 ~ clip 2
Download Them Here :
Psychedelic Lollipop
Electric Comic Book
Basic Blues Magoos
Never Goin' Back to Georgia
Gulf Coast Bound
Labels: B, innocent76
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Roger Humphreys - 1996 - Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Debut privately pressed album by this Canadian solo artist. Beautiful electric/acoustic folk with a Celtic, pastoral edge. Fragile and bewitching stuff......~freakemporium
I invite you to download my 1996 Folk/Psych album :"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" via RapidShare.
This album was never available in shops. Sold about 500 copies back in the day through record collector's catalogues. I hope to put more of my music on this page soon.
Thanks, Roger Humphreys.
Link to download:
Labels: by Friends and Visitors of this Blog, H, R
The Vietnam Veterans
The Vietnam Veterans were one of the main attractions of the Neo-Psych movement and a major event in the psych scene of the mid 80s (what was rather small, sadly), with every new record. Today it seems they are Lost-In-Tyme.
The very first members were: Mark Enbatta, Lucas Trouble, Greg Jones, Angelo Jupp, Steve Palermo (Drums), D.D. Richardson (Harmonica). In this formation they produced the first LP "On the Right Track Now !" (1983). The record itself was recorded and mixed in only three days.That gave the album a pretty low sound quality, but that doesn't changes the fact that this is one of the best albums ever recorded from the post-psychedelic garage scene of the 80's, especially in Europe. It includes many great songs but probably the best known pearls are"Don't Try To Walk On Me" and "Dreams Of Today."
Vietnam Veterans - 1983 - On the Right Track Now !Mark Enbatta (Guitar & Vocals) Greg Jones (Guitar) Angelo Jupp (Bass)
Steve Palermo (Drums) Lucas Trouble (Keyboards) D.D. Richardson (Harmonica)
Tracks :
1. Don't Try To Walk On Me 2. Dreams Of Today
3. I Can Only Give You Everything 4. You're Gonna Fall
5. I Walked With A Zombie 6. Back From Hell
7. Out From The Night 8. Critics 9. That's Love
10. Dogs 11. Hey Gyp 12. Right Track Now
Get It Here (mp3) :
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans_-_1983_-_On_The_Right_Track_Now.zip
On the second LP "Crawfish for the Notary" (1984), there is a little change, Steve Palermo and D.D. Richardson left the band and Martin Joyce became the new drummer of the Vietnam Veterans. That should be the final formation of this band. "Crawfish for the Notary", was recorded in the same studio as "On The Right Track Now", but it was done in three weeks so it had a much better sound quality to it. It also contains some of the bands' best songs: "Children Eyes," "What Are You Hiding," "I Give You My Life" and more.
Vietnam Veterans - 1984 - Crawfish for the NotaryMark Enbatta (Guitar & Vocals) Greg Jones (Guitar)
Angelo Jupp (Bass) Martin Joyce (Drums) Lucas Trouble (Keyboards)
Tracks :
1. Burning Temples 2. I Heard The Wind Blow
3. I Give You My Life 4. Children Eyes 5. My Trip 6. Liars
7. Is This Really The Time 8. What Are You Hiding
9. Masters Of Time 10. This Life Is Your Life 11. Gary Cooper's Trip
Get It Here (m4a) :
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans-1984-Crawfish_For_The_Notary.zip
Get It Here (mp3) :
RapidShare or SendSpace
Not long and the third LP "Green Peas" (1985) was released, a record featuring the band's first two live gigs in Germany. This album features the best songs from the first two albums and had other songs that were completely improvised on the stage during the show- more proof of the band's unique chemistry. It's the best album to start with for someone who wants to learn about the Vets.
Vietnam Veterans - 1985 - Green Peas (Live)Mark Enbatta (Guitar & Vocals) Greg Jones (Guitar)
Angelo Jupp (Bass) Martin Joyce (Drums) Lucas Trouble (Keyboards)
Tracks :
1. You're Gonna Fall 2. Dreams Of Today 3. Curanderos 4. Dogs
5. Liars 6. Critics 7. Wrinkle Drawer 8. Tower Of Babel
9. What Are You Hiding 10. Is This Really The Time
11. Don't Try To Walk On Me 12. Out From The Night
13. The Trip 14. Dreams Of Today 15. Peas On Earth
Get It Here (mp3) :
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans-1985-Green_Peas-1.zip
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans-1985-Green_Peas-2.zip
In 1986, the band released Ancient Times, a well-produced album which contained one of the band's more stirring masterpieces- "Curanderos," among other brilliant songs such as "Tower Of Babel","Wrinkle Drawer" and "Crooked Dealers" (the first three also appeared on the Green Peas).
Vietnam Veterans - 1986 - In Ancient Times Mark Enbatta (Guitar & Vocals) Greg Jones (Guitar)
Angelo Jupp (Bass) Martin Joyce (Drums) Lucas Trouble (Keyboards)
Tracks :
1. Let It Rain 2. Ancient Times 3. Curanderos
4. Everywhere Is My Nation 5. Run Baby Run 6. Tower Of Bablel
7. Three Months Every Year 8. Wrinkle Drawer 9. Next Year
10. Crooked Dealers 11. Safety Razors
Get It Here (m4a) :
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans-1986-In_Ancient_Times.zip
Get It Here (mp3) :
RapidShare or SendSpace
"Catfish Eyes And Tales" was released in 1987 and provide to be the last Vets album. It's a special album which contains the piece, "Medley," was built out of three connected songs: "Distant Drums," "Sea Horse" and a cover of the late David McWilliams's song "The Days Of Pearly Spencer."
Vietnam Veterans - 1987 - Catfish Eyes and TalesMark Enbatta (Guitar & Vocals) Greg Jones (Guitar)
Angelo Jupp (Bass) Martin Joyce (Drums) Lucas Trouble (Keyboards)
Tracks :
1 Dead Breams Don't Bite 2 Southern Comfort 3 Maybe You Think
4 Time Is The Worst 5 Crying 6 Catfish Eyes And Tales
07 Medley : a.Distant Drums b.Sea Horse c.Days Of Pearly Spencer
Get It Here (m4a) :
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans-1987-Catfish_Eyes_And_Tales.zip
Get It Here (mp3) :
RapidShare or SendSpace
Before the band broke up, another album was released. "The Days Of Pearly Spencer" (1988) is a collection of unreleased songs and better versions of songs from the first two LP's. It also contains a live version of "The Trip" with strange people joining them on stage.
Vietnam Veterans - 1988 - Days of Pearly SpencerMark Enbatta (Guitar & Vocals) Greg Jones (Guitar)
Angelo Jupp (Bass) Martin Joyce (Drums) Lucas Trouble (Keyboards)
Tracks :
1. The Days Of Pearly Spencer 2. 500 Miles 3. Is This Really The Time
4. Burning Temples 5. Don't Try To Walk On Me 6. Dogs
7. You're Gonna Fall 8. Dreams Of Today 9. Be My Baby 10. The Trip
Get It Here (mp3) :
rapidshare.com/files/The_Vietnam_Veterans_-_1988_-_Days_of_Pearly_Spencer.zip
~@~@~@~
source : http://www.furious.com/Perfect/vietnamveterans.html
Their sound are at first rooting in the 60's Garage sound evolved into a very unique mix of Psychedelia through their records. Very recommended. posted by chocofreta
Happy Neo-Psychedelic Year !!!
Happy Neo-Psychedelic Year !!!
Labels: by Friends and Visitors of this Blog, V
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