I have to wonder at this point - exactly who am I sharing with?

If I am sharing mainly with a bunch of anonymous downloaders who can't be bothered to ever leave a comment, it just isn't worth the time and trouble to continue this blog for the benefit of a handful of people.

Who is out there? A bunch of cheapskates filling their hard drives with free music? People who actually listen to and enjoy the music I post?

Without comments I have no way of knowing, do I.

Elektriktus - Electronic Mind Waves (1976)

Krautrock! Only it's from Italy, 1976. This rare album, never on CD, is totally inspired by 1970's German Kosmische Musik. As you can tell by the title, this is electronic music - with some great polychromatic synthesizer arrangements, the whole thing is mostly kinda on the quiet side. If you were blindfolded, or just didn't have the album cover, or maybe that guy from the Three Stooges poked your eyes out you would swear this was some German dudes, not some mysterious Italian guys.

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Exmagma - Exmagma (1973)

Exmagma was a German trio. Well two German guys and a percussionist who is a jazz drummer of some note, born in Detroit Michigan. Not particularly krautrock-sounding, the music is hard to pigeonhole, kind of an avante-garde, jazz-rock, free-jazz, jazz-fusion gumbo. Highly inventive, experimental, and largely improvised. This might be mostly for those whose taste in music can be described as adventurous. Very good stuff.

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Andwella - World's End / People's People (1970 & 1971)

I was going to post Andwella's first album, "Love And Poetry", made when they were called "Andwella's Dream", but I decided to post this instead, as you don't see it around much. This 2-on-1 disc has the remainder of Andwella's discography. No longer very psych, these albums are much more in the mainstream with some orchestration, a few brass arrangements and background singers. Maybe a clinker or two, but on the whole these are some sweet albums with some great songs. I think if you like Barclay James Harvest you will probably like these two albums.

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Hot Tuna - The Phosphorescent Rat (1973)

Hot Tuna's fourth album, and the first released after Jefferson Airplane disbanded. This release finds Hot Tuna stripped to it's bare essentials - they are now a 'power trio' in their own right, no longer a Jefferson Airplane side project. Well-crafted songs, beautiful melodies and complex arrangements, Jorma's acoustic picking and brain-burning guitar leads, plus the playing of under-rated psychedelic veterans Jack Casady & Sammy Piazza all make for a great listen. My rip @high VBR w/scans.

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Road - Road (1972)

In between stints as a guitarist with Fat Mattress and the Noel Redding Band, Noel played bass with the short-lived UK/US power trio Road. Nothing here will draw comparisons with the Jimi Hendrix Experience but this is some very good early 70's rock with some good songs and plenty of wah-wah freakouts courtesy of Californian Rod Richards, formerly of Rare Earth. Leslie Sampson on drums.

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UFO - UFO Live (1972)

Originally released only in Japan as "UFO Lands In Tokyo", this is a real nice performance, featuring material from their first two albums, "UFO 1" and "UFO 2 - Flying". This will not appeal to fans of the Michael Schenker-era UFO, he came on board the next year. Guitarist on this and the other two releases is Mick Bolton, who was much more slow-handed than Schenker. Unfortunately his playing lacked the commercial appeal of Schenker. Part boogie-based hard rock and part space rock, this early incarnation of UFO was innovative in ways that the later band never was.

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P2O5 - Vivat Progression Pereat Mundus (1978)

Great album of German hard rock, a little on the mystical side. I actually first posted this way back in December 2005! Well, blog visitor Franz from Deutschland thought the rip was a little lacking sonically, possibly due to a worn stylus, so he purchased the 180 gram vinyl reissue and ripped it himself @ 320. I have to say his version does sound better. OK way better! He also photographed the covers for us. Thanks Franz for this first-class share! Edit: forget all that, this is Franz's rip of the remastered CD with bonus tracks.

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Moolah - Woe Ye Demons Possessed (1974)

This is a very strange album, the work of two guys - Walter Burns and Maurice Roberson. A variety of keyboards, percussion instruments, found sounds, studio funny business, tape loops, weird voices - truly a subversive underground classic. From an out-of-print Japanese 'gray-market' CD reissue. The reissue LP can still be purchased. One reviewer describes this as "America's Krautrock album"! The performers say this is a "a cosmic rock relaxation creation to elevate sensory awareness to include the aura of intuitive perception of higher realm of human/divine consciousness using the astral body projection experience vehicle to pierce time/space/logic dimension barriers on the return voyage to the ultimate concept."

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Prosper - Broken Door (1975)

A private release from this German band, this is some excellent psych/jazz/prog. A real conglomeration of different styles, from symphonic rock to acoustic ballads, jazz fusion to space rock. Some awfully tight guitar playing from guitarist Evert Brettschneider, who was also a member of jazz group The Contact Trio. More than one listen will be required to fully appreciate this. Great stuff, this is a real treasure.

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Eela Craig - Missa Universalis (1978)

The fourth album from one of Austria's best prog bands is an ambitious though probably less than successful attempt to place a Roman Catholic mass in a progressive rock context. Unlike similar earlier attempts by The Electric Prunes (Mass in F Minor-1967) and German band Os Mundi (Latin Mass-1971, posted Jan 30 2006) this seems overtly religious with what may seem to be some preachy bits. Sung in four languages - if you can ignore (that is if you want to) the Christian messages what you have is some elaborate, complex symphonic prog.

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Alex Oriental Experience - Tales Of Purple Sally

Unfortunately there is very little in English about this band on the net, but as far as I can gather, this German dude named Alex Wiska is really taken with the "Turkish" sound. This is a compilation of tracks from the early 70's, and this is some very tasty Turkish-sounding stuff! Appearing on most if not all of the tracks are Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, and Michael Karoli of the band Can. The other musicians seem to be well-known in their fields too. This really needs to be checked out - wish I knew more about it.

Line-Up
- Holger Czukay
- Jaki Liebezeit
- Michael Karoli
- Gerd Dudek
- Alex Wiska
- Cem Karaca
- Huseyn Sultan Oglu
- Seyhan Karabey
- Ünol Buyükgönenc

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Charge - Charge (1973)

Charge was a studio band that only did a few gigs to support this album, which did not sell well. Two of the better known musicians on this are Neil Hubbard and Ric Grech. My only complaint is that it is so short - half the album is a 17 minute piece called 'Child of Nations'. The second track, 'To My Friends' is maybe one of the coolest thing I've heard lately. One reviewer says this is a "loud, blistering sonic attack that rarely relents" - OK it's probably not all that 'blistering' but it's pretty damn good. My rip 320 w/covers.

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Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen (1972)

Ash Ra Tempel's second album is an all time classic. Hypnotic, inspiring, experimental, dreamy and psychedelic.

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Mon Dyh - Murderer (1980)

The first album from German band Mon Dyh, like their other two albums, is just about flawless in my opinion. Not krautrock - just good old blues-based rock. Simple lyrics sung in English with soul and conviction, great basslines, subdued yet powerful drumming, and the guitar playing of Andreas Pröhl is stellar. Great stuff all around. My rip @ highVBR w/covers.

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Might Of Coincidence - The Birth Of Might Of Coincidence (1971)

Only album from this Swiss psych/folk group, who recorded and released this in England in 1971. Very ethereal and drugged-out sounding, lots of flute and hand drums. This was a very crappy vinyl rip that I worked over with my trusty copy of Adobe Audition. Didn't do a perfect job; I'm no expert and I didn't want to spend my life on it, but this is very listenable, not that bad of a job I must say! Anyway, I really like this.

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Music From The Motion Picture Medicine Ball Caravan (1971)

In 1971, at the instigation of Warner Brothers, a caravan of a dozen decorated school buses and a hundred fifty or so 'hippies' made it's way across America - this is the soundtrack to the exploitative film made of this so-called 'Rolling Woodstock'. I don't think this has ever had a CD release, so this is a vinyl rip that I cleaned up a bit. Featured are some notable hippies of the day like B.B. King (!!!), Doug Kershaw, The Youngbloods, Stoneground, Delaney & Bonnie. Highlights for me are Alice Cooper's "Black Juju" and Sal Valentino's "Dreambo". I don't know how B.B. King ended up with this bunch, but his tunes on here are pretty cool.

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Amon Düül - Collapsing - Singvögel Rückwärts (1969)

Amon Düül were a huge musical collective that had a spectacular appearance in a TV show in 1968. Before they put out their first album they split though, and one half set off to form Amon Düül II. The others kept the name Amon Düül and in 1969 published the first Krautrock album ever, "Psychedelic Underground". It was very badly produced, and the music consisted of long improvisations, but after this album no other band needed to have an inferiority complex. Their second official album "Paradieswärts Düül" (1970) is much better produced and has a folky touch. The albums "Collapsing - Singvögel Rückwärts", "Disaster" and "Experimente" stem from the same session as "Psychedelic Underground" and are of similar nature; they were published after the band had split up already. (progarchives.com)

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Jackson Heights - King Progress (1970)

After The Nice broke up in 1969, Lee Jackson hung up his bass, strapped on an acoustic guitar, and started a new band called Jackson Heights. Their first album, King Progress, was a modest, restrained, affair which had poor sales. Nothing spectacular, but pleasing nonetheless somehow. There are some excellent solos but I have to say the vocals are possibly a little weak. Interesting.

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Nautilus - 20,000 Miles Under The Sea (1978)

This is the first album from Swiss band Nautilus (I just ordered their second, 'Space Storm' can't wait til it gets here!) who obviously listened to a lot of early 70's acts like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, though this is hardly what you would call derivative. This is a great sounding disc, and it's surprising that they aren't better known than they are. The music is at times aggressive, sometimes pleasant, always strong. Great melodies and songs all the way, these guys were inspired by some great musical acts and the results are impressive.

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Indigo - Meer Der Zeit (1977)

I wasn't able to find out much of anything by this German (?) band, there seems to have been too many bands called Indigo. I did find a reference to one of their other albums, but the site obviously has them mixed up with someone else, as the personnel are completely different from what was listed. Anyway I got three of their albums from a defunct blog (thanks agamemnon!) and this was apparently their first. Standard symphonic prog with German vocals, this probably is nothing special, but it is an enjoyable listen.

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