Wow man - the White Sox won the Pennant! That's great. Can't wait for the Series to start. OK - the blog
Outside of the fact that the lyrics today sound a little, er, trite, though well-meaning, this is a beautiful symphonic/progressive rock album, the only release from this German band. Gorgeous female vocals, with a sometimes spacey, cosmic sound kind of like early 'Eloy' and at other times an intense, melodic Pink-Floyd-ey guitar remind us that this is a rock album. Includes bonus tracks.
Part 1__Part 2
Yet another fine German band that has only a self-released album as a legacy, Lightshine was a terrific psychedelic outfit composed of great musicians. They toured with some of the best bands of the day, but were unable to secure a recording contract. What a shame, because there is such promise here, given more time they would have been brilliant.
Download
This is a solo album by Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumier, and his friends on the album include the bass and guitar players from "Kraan", keyboards and conga player from "Karthago" and sax player from "Mangelsdorff", not to mention Roedelius and Champion Jack Dupree. This is a real adventure, alternately bluesy, weird, humorous, jazzy and new-agey.
Download
Despite the fact that the members of Krokodil were Swiss (and there was one English guy), Krokodil's masterpiece is known by all as one of the biggest of all Krautrock monsters! When you realize that the dominant instruments are mellotron and harmonica, it seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. Don't worry though there's plenty of exotic instrumentation and great guitar leads and inventive percussion. This is a truly progressive work. Bonus material makes this clock in at over 70 minutes.
Part 1 Part 2
I read somewhere or other that this album was one of the few genuine "Acid-Rock" records from a UK band. This may or may not be true, but the first track is titled "I Can See Inside Your Head" so I'm pretty sure these guys were trippin'!! My god this is some heavy stuff here. In fact this may be one of the heaviest releases from this period, including Hendrix and Led Zeppelin!!
Download
British group Cressida put out two albums in the early seventies, this is their debut and the more song-oriented of the two which is OK because far as I can tell, singer Angus Cullen had one of the best voices in 70's prog music. One reviewer called this "easy-listening prog" but don't you believe it. There's plenty going on musically, but it gives off a upbeat kind of warmth that could possibly be mistaken for blandness at first half-listen. I mean, even the song "Depression' is positively good-natured.
Part 1 Part 2
OK ladies and germs that's all! See you next week.
Werwolf - Creation (1982)
Outside of the fact that the lyrics today sound a little, er, trite, though well-meaning, this is a beautiful symphonic/progressive rock album, the only release from this German band. Gorgeous female vocals, with a sometimes spacey, cosmic sound kind of like early 'Eloy' and at other times an intense, melodic Pink-Floyd-ey guitar remind us that this is a rock album. Includes bonus tracks.Part 1__Part 2
Lightshine - Feeling (1976)
Yet another fine German band that has only a self-released album as a legacy, Lightshine was a terrific psychedelic outfit composed of great musicians. They toured with some of the best bands of the day, but were unable to secure a recording contract. What a shame, because there is such promise here, given more time they would have been brilliant.Download
Guru Guru - Mani Und Seine Freunde (1975)
This is a solo album by Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumier, and his friends on the album include the bass and guitar players from "Kraan", keyboards and conga player from "Karthago" and sax player from "Mangelsdorff", not to mention Roedelius and Champion Jack Dupree. This is a real adventure, alternately bluesy, weird, humorous, jazzy and new-agey.Download
Krokodil - An Invisible World Revealed (1971)
Despite the fact that the members of Krokodil were Swiss (and there was one English guy), Krokodil's masterpiece is known by all as one of the biggest of all Krautrock monsters! When you realize that the dominant instruments are mellotron and harmonica, it seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. Don't worry though there's plenty of exotic instrumentation and great guitar leads and inventive percussion. This is a truly progressive work. Bonus material makes this clock in at over 70 minutes.Part 1 Part 2
Orang-Utan - Orang-Utan (1971)
I read somewhere or other that this album was one of the few genuine "Acid-Rock" records from a UK band. This may or may not be true, but the first track is titled "I Can See Inside Your Head" so I'm pretty sure these guys were trippin'!! My god this is some heavy stuff here. In fact this may be one of the heaviest releases from this period, including Hendrix and Led Zeppelin!!Download
Cressida - Cressida (1970)
British group Cressida put out two albums in the early seventies, this is their debut and the more song-oriented of the two which is OK because far as I can tell, singer Angus Cullen had one of the best voices in 70's prog music. One reviewer called this "easy-listening prog" but don't you believe it. There's plenty going on musically, but it gives off a upbeat kind of warmth that could possibly be mistaken for blandness at first half-listen. I mean, even the song "Depression' is positively good-natured.Part 1 Part 2
OK ladies and germs that's all! See you next week.
posted by GarColga at 10:00 PM
9 Comments:
Dude, you kraut rock! I can't believe you had a pdf of 'Cosmic Dreams', this made my day. As always, I look forward to listening to the new batch, your descriptions are quite tantalizing, can't wait. Thanks so much for the pdf ;-)
thanks for the werwolf - heard it for many years ago and couldn't find the album - and here it is
having been "working" with music for more than 30 years, I thought it was difficult to surprise me...
with your posts, I understand I was wrong...
tanx
amfm
In iTunes, you can burn a data dvd (of mp3's) which will play back (music only) in many DVD players. This allows playlists of DAYS on a disc. Of course this was ideal for the 8 Days In April material.
I barely have got into the C's (68 tracks in). So much good stuff. The Amon Duul is intriquing (I will have to look up 'Yeti' and 'Lemmings') but has a ringy, quantized sound to the high end. Not knowing the original live recording I assume I am hearing at least in part the mp3 upsampling (since the DVD is playing at 48khz). But great material, a band I never knew where to start with, now I do. Audience is great, I could hear this in an iPod commercial ;-). Brainticket, that's some trippy stuff! This one I have heard in it's entirety four times under various working conditions now, some truly trippy, trancy music. Asia Minor was very nice, thanks to? for contributing). It just keeps getting better. Cressida is playing now, the sonic quality has gotten better and better starting with Asia Minor (my disc is in artist/alphabetical order). That's my update from the remote broadcast of 8 Days In April radio.
PS, any iTunes 'tricks' to rejoin the 'Livit' tracks? iTunes provides the facility when importing from CD but right now it looks like I may just have to do by hand from converted aiff's in Waveburner (Logic/Macs pro cd software). How would you do it ?(PC techniques welcome).
Any suggestions on how to get these.rar files open without corrupting in osx, on an apple? I would ill for the Krautrock .pdf!!
Sorry anonymous - I know beans about that kinda stuff; If you'll e-mail me I'll try to send that .pdf without .rar'ing.
really wish i would have heard this heavy ORANG-UTAN as a pre-teen. woulda dug it, especially track two, "Slipping Away". normally this style of singing drives me up a wall, but this is nice, great track. thanx again for another lost gem.
Great germany prog band, thank you for this Jewel.
Thanks Liam!
Behnam
Iran
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