Wow it's almost Tuesday again, can you believe it? Whatever. Let's get going here -

Taste - Taste (1969)

Taste - On The Boards (1970)

In the late sixties Rory Gallagher fronted a power trio with Richard 'Charlie' McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums. This band recorded two studio albums before imploding, and these albums are as different as they could be. The first one, "Taste" is raw. Really raw. I'm no expert, but it sounds like it was recorded live to four-track in a small studio, with little if any overdubbing or post production. Rory's guitar playing could be heavy-handed, some of the leads seem to wander, there might have been some slight issues with tuning, but Taste had soul, there's no denying that, and there are moments of greatness on this first record. The second record "On The Boards" has Rory showing a little restraint, the production is slick, the songwriting is markedly improved, with a sometimes jazzy, experimental thing going on. Personally I think "On The Boards" is the best thing Rory Gallagher ever did. As different as these two albums are, if you like guitar playing you need them both.

Taste:
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On The Boards:
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Golem - Orion Awakes (1973)

Alright. Now for some Krautrock. All indications are that Golem's "Orion Awakes" is considered an obscure classic of psychedelia from the German underground scene of the early seventies. Well I don't really know what to make of that. If I even had one microgram of a mind-altering substance in my body, I would be afraid to listen to this thing!. There are no long drawn-out spacy instrumental jams, no songs about love and peace, the emphasis is on trance-inducing, hammering, pulsing, pounding grooves. This is some real wild stuff and deserves a listen. Interestingly, this was produced by one Genesis P Orridge, later of Throbbing Gristle.

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Gäa - Alraunes Alptraum (1973)

Gäa (In English Gaia) was a suitably cosmic band of German deep-space voyagers who released one brilliant album (Auf Der Bahn Zum Uranus - On The Road To Uranus) to absolutely no acclaim, then broke up. "Alraunes Alptraum" (something about a nightmare) is a collection of unreleased material that is just as good I think as the stuff on their regular release. Gäa was the real deal, the real Krautrock deal. Enigmatic lyrics sung in German, spacy jams, quiet passages, crescendoes, climaxes, amazing instrumental interplay. If you are remotely interested in Krautrock, you should check this one out.

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OK that's it for today, I hope some of you will give this German stuff a try. Smell you later!