This section is for some of our favourite new releases or reissues for which we've been lucky enough to have copies supplied to us by the label or the artists.

ESOTERIC LABEL

Label that gives us a whole stack of albums from the past, now reissued in what can be said to be the final and ultimate editions - forget the rest, these are the best....

AARDVARK – Aardvark CD-Remaster+Bonus Track
The only album recorded by a Midlands quartet in 1970, famously lacking a guitarist, so all the solo space is done on keyboards, primarily the staple diet of the early seventies prog-rock fraternity, the Hammond Organ. With songs from three to ten minutes in length, we get the quintessential seventies album of flowing songs with things to say mixed with elongated instrumental sections. The singer has a melodic, quite rounded voice that's quite soft at the same time as having an easy flow to it, almost upper class prog-rock at times, not particularly distinctive but taking cues from the likes of bands such as The Nice and Beggars Opera, something that bands the likes of Wishbone Ash and Home fans would later overlook thanks to the star guitarists. While the shorter songs are pure “public school prog”, the longer creations are, oddly and entirely coincidentally, cousins of what was going on in the Germanic seventies world of song-based Krautrock bands, and probably have one foot in each camp. The organ work in particular, while not as wild as Emerson or as loose as many a Krautrock band, is nevertheless still rooted in that glorious trademark seventies prog-rock sound, and anyone delighting in that sound, will love a lot of what they hear on this album, the longest track having more than one foot in The Nice's grave. To be honest, to hear that sound again, on songs that are not exactly world-turning but are pretty consistent, proved to be a pleasure I hadn't anticipated.

AGITATION FREE – Shibuya Nights CD
Astonishingly, a live album recorded in 2007 in Japan by the original early seventies line-up. Even more astonishing is the undisputable fact that it's absolutely awesome. A few seconds short of 74 minutes, it features half of each of the first two albums from the seventies, and more, all played to perfection by the band. In Krautrock history, Agitation Free were way outside the experimentalists and the electronic innovators, preferring to chart a course of mostly instrumental music that always had melody at the heart of whatever was being created, yet unafraid to fuse whatever influences came to mind, so that you had touches of Middle Eastern standing alongside soaring Western instrumental excursions.
Including two musicians – Lutz Ulbrich (Ash Ra) and Michael Hoenig (Tangerine Dream) – regarded as legends of the electronic Krautrock scene – the quintet just flows, drives and soars through the 14 tracks, mostly without a break, giving us expansive synthesizers that move from deep and resonant to high-flying cosmic textures, with guitar work from two guitarists that is just divine throughout, again covering every mood and feeling, infusing it all with melody, magic and muscle. All of this is founded on, supported by and driven home on a truly dynamic, varied and consistent rhythm section. The music doesn't conform to any category other than downright enjoyable, so you'll find no fusion, no jazz-rock, nothing twee or commercial, no overbearing egos, no extended solos, no random noodling – all you'll find are five musicians playing like they'd never gone away, that telepathy of support making every rack sound fresh, vibrant, solid and expansive, all with the real sense of love running through their veins. It would be unfair to single any track out as the whole thing demands to be played as one concert every the occasion demands, giving you potentially a far-reaching future into which you're going to love this album. That said, what really stands out is the way they manage to make even the more spacey interludes, still have a human heart beating away in their depths, while the overall band-played tracks, all break free of any tags such as “progressive rock” or space-rock” or the like. The band did “Krautrock” like no other at the time, electing to employ structure without indulgence and invention without experimentation, the result being compositions where the dynamics of arrangement and the sheer attention to textural detail, made every track spark and shine. With the main lead element firmly on the two guitarists, it's nevertheless a vital role that Hoenig plays by using the synths to expand the soundscapes, provide underlying textural moods and generally fill the spaces in a manner akin to what fellow synth music pioneer Klaus Schulze did on the original “Go” album. There's not a wasted or over-indulgent or boring second on the entire album, a true testament to the fact that, not only are the works of this band truly timeless, but that the musicians had so much heart and soul in what they created, that, even 35 years later, they have lost none of the zeal for playing any of it.

JAN AKKERMAN – Talent For Sale CD Remaster
Original album from the guitarist best known for his work in the prog-rock band Focus, this one being recorded in 1968, instrumental, quite jazzy and with plenty of clean-cut licks, solos, rhythms and layers from the guitarist, accompanied by a band that can swing, sway, drive and jive through the album's 11 tracks that mix commercial fusion with melodic jazz. Some of it is a bit wibbly wobbly when it comes to the arrangements and the guitar work, other tracks are a bit bluesier, some with strings that sound more like early solo album-era Harvey Mandel (guitarist for Canned Heat and John Mayall) while the guitar work has more of a bit and stutter to it, clean cut and notes rather than chords in places. There's also a strong soul element running through it, a feature that's at its height on a driving if not exactly hard-hitting rendition of the standard “Green Onions” with Akkerman's guitar work really cutting through the tracks. Memorable rhythms and swaying riffs. Elsewhere the guitar work's more jazz than rock, more blues than prog and if you like your instrumental tracks to be nothing other than sixties-made, then this is decidedly for you.

DAEVID ALLEN – Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life CD (Remaster)
His second post-Gong solo album of the seventies and, in many ways, this should have been called “Mediterranean Gong” for that's the overwhelming feel that comes shining through an album that wreaks of summer skies, love for fellow man, distrust of fellow professional music man and good natured people observation. Like its predecessor, “Good Morning”, it marked Daevid at his most straight forward and least indulgent, the performance of what are essentially electro-acoustic Gong-drenched songs actually sounding a whole lot more sensible now than they did back then, for reasons I simply can't fathom. I didn't like this album when it first came out, finding it far too lightweight and twee, so it must be an age thing when I say that it really surprised me just how much I enjoyed this album. It's got all you could want from an Allen album – poetry that's short and to the point, lyrics that run the spectrum from love explorations into the heavens through bitingly incisive side-swipes to overall good natured humour, all laced with instrumental delicacy and deliciously textural clarity. The fact of its richness of variation and that no two pieces sound the same while all 9 tracks are cohesive and consistent, all mean that this is actually an essential Allen album that anyone who liked Gong but maybe wavered on the solo stuff, should really check out as you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

ALQUIN – Marks CD (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
Dutch proggers' debut album recorded in 1972 and it's pretty well a tale of two halves. The first part of the album – what would have been side one on vinyl – is prog-fusion as the guitars and keys are accompanied by saxes and flute, predominantly instrumental and, the good news for prog fans as opposed to jazz fans, is that the accent is firmly and squarely on melody, so there's no honking or squalling. Instead, the band play a fairly wide open sea of arrangements, making it all decidedly easy to listen to (as opposed to “easy listening”) and enjoy, as the multi-instrumental arrangements move slowly along with the minimum of fuss and more enjoyment than I'd have given them credit for providing. It's a bit like first album-era Colosseum on valium in many ways, but really rather excellent, even 37 years later. A previously unreleased live track separates the “two halves” and shows this side of the band off with a bit more energy and variation as the pastoral and pacy sides are at either ends of the scale. So then we move onto the “second half” of the album, this time in the form of short and elongated songs with more vocals and, despite what you might have thought, it's not so bad – the instrumental sections have a bit more bite to them, the organ and flute work in particular on “I Wish I Could”, sound great, while the vocals are harmonious, inoffensive and, while no Peter Gabriel, don't detract from the enjoyment of the album's mood. Sometimes the songs are a bit too lightweight for what you'd have liked to hear on a prog album, although this folkier element has its pace among many prog fans, but overall, it's all in keeping with the depth of instrumentation, the jazzy prog energy and the more relaxed feel of much of the album. Complete with a previously unreleased (on album) bonus B-side, for such an ancient album, it's new makeover from remaster supremo Mark Powell, makes it something surprisingly less dated than you might have expected.

ALQUIN – The Mountain Queen CD(Remaster)
With just 6 tracks and few vocals, this is one of those “forgotten classics” of the early seventies Prog Rock era. The second album from the Dutch proggers saw a much more biting, energetic sound to the compositions and this time the sedate approach was replaced with a drive and enthusiasm that really made the band come alive, the whole thing sounding more like a cross between Focus, Germany's Release Music Orchestra and England's Colosseum and you can't deny that, in terms of an album of “dinosaur” music that's about 35 years old, it's amazingly riveting if this sort of thing is what you like. I was schooled in the stuff and yet even I'd never cottoned on to buying this album to put alongside my stack of “prog rock classics” - now I can say I'm glad that, with this excellent sounding remaster, I've redressed the balance.

NEIL ARDLEY – Harmony Of The Spheres CD
It's kinda weird that we've got to a position with music in 2009 where seventies jazz-rock sounds more “dated” than sixties pop, an indication as to where the attitudes lie, in that the song is more important than the instrumental, virtuosity of playing and technical ability, counting for very little in today's modern musical climate. Thus, this album from a guy who's technically more of an avant-garde/classical fusion composer and player, is decidedly “of its time”, yet the weird part is it's so refreshing to hear. With a lightness of melodic touch and the tensile strength of the rhythm department, the players, chief of which are the late John Martyn on electric guitar, and an impressive array of seventies jazz-rockers that included Nucleus' Ian Carr, Turning Point's Pepi Lemer, Paraphenalia's Barbara Thompson and others, proceed to turn in an undeniably languid group performance that provides what is essentially a jazz-rock instrumental album with an accessibility and enjoyment factor that is surprisingly high. From the real fusion of funk, jazz and synths-driven melodic heights on a track such as “Leap In The Dark”, arguably the finest track on the CD, through the darker tones of “Glittering Circles” where twittering synths, deep bass and space textures, slowly mutate into resonant twangy electric bass, chunky drums, spacious synths and soaring, searing electric guitar, all enriched with that melodic drive and emotion of playing which turns each track into something that you can not only get your teeth into but which isn't proving overly filling either. A meal that you can indeed, shake hands with in the dark. Throughout the album, it's the synths, keys and bass that really take centre stage with constancy, the drums providing obvious foundations, while the assortment of guitars, flutes, sax, occasional wordless vocals and brass, all provide the icing on the cake and at no time does any lead idea overstay its welcome or even appear to outdo anything else. It's very much a travelogue of late seventies fusion that, while not possessing the sheer emotional adrenaline of a Brand X, blasts the indulgences of many a jazz-rock band of the time, into gloriously commercial sounding pieces.

HARVEY BAINBRIDGE – Dreams, Omens & Strange Encounters CD
All instrumental synths music CD from ex-Hawkwind synth/keys player with four epic length tracks and a very short piece. Anyone into “Berlin”, “Cosmic” or “Ambient Chill-out” synth music should really get hold of this as it's excellent. The first track is “Fatima's Hand”, a 12 minute slice of swirling synth melodies and soaring space synth swoops over rolling electronic and electro-percussive rhythms, sounding more like a cross between Tim Blake and Pete Namlook and worthy of any of the more melodic things that came out on the mighty Fax label. It never stands still, like the best seventies synth, and it's got so much depth to it that you're absolutely riveted to it for the duration, as the warm, flowing melody lines travel forward over the crispness of the rhythms and the majesty of the space synths – a totally stunning opening track. At nearly 19 minutes long, “Nemesis” starts in cosmic mode and, almost surprisingly, reveals an amazing emotional depth to its flowing, rhythm-free layers as spacey synths flow slowly along, creating this feeling of deep space. Soon, though, the galaxy changes and fast, sequencer rhythms cascade all over the horizon as melodies begin to take shape, appear, disappear, and leave the rhythms sparkling in the cosmos with comets and swooshes of space synths all around. The melodies reappear and there's a real grandeur to the music as now we're in Ash Ra-meets-Neuronium territory and the whole thing is rising, increasing volume, increasing the depth, strength and layers. A percussive, train-like rhythm emerges from the depths and the melodies swirl all around as the track now drives ahead wrapped in layers of warm cosmic synths as the multi-layered giant of a track just travels beyond the galaxy. As it drives, so it turns into space-rock, to a degree. At one point, the melodies die away to leave this driving drumming on top accompanied by just space synth swoops as then this mighty bass rhythm enters, early Eno-esque keyboard runs emerge, a huge layer of cosmic synths flows in the background and this almighty chunky belter of a track now journeys on through the cosmos at warp factor 10, ultimately settling down on the nearest planet in a huge smoke plume of electronic landing gear. “The Scanning” is one and a half minutes of electronics and samples right out of the Hawkwind electronic eighties era, leading into the near thirteen minute “Zone Of Avoidance/The Voyage” that starts with sweeping, majestic layers of vast orchestral synths and space synths worthy of the finest early USA cosmic pioneers such as Braheny and Burmer, mixed with the vintage Ash Ra style feel of the swirling space synth backdrops, the sound of the universe distilled into this gloriously emotive, warm-hearted, room-filling musical vastness. For the second part of the track, the electronic and electro-percussive rhythms go into hyperdrive and e the arrival of assorted samples as the space synths gather and soar with purpose and menace, the feel now almost cold and dark as the rhythms continue and the icy wind blows all around. Solid sequencers arrive and it all takes on a more teutonic feel but never once lets up the intensity, eventually fading into the distance. The album ends with the massive 23 minute “Unravelled In Rye” which spends the first half of its journey in space/cosmic mode but with the added extra of distant, seqeuncer rhythms to give it more of a sense of movement as the space synths are more early seventies German than nineties American, hints of Neuronium and cosmic Hawkwind along the way. Later on, the now familiar mix of electro-percussive rhythms and sequencers are added as the track takes on more movement and begins to build and drive, with layers of melodies and fx added as it progresses, the predominant feature being the multi-layred, multi-textured rhythms that fly the track along. Then the melodies take over and it all flows along in solid fashion, the rhythms changing shape and pace until the mighty track ends on a rising wave of cosmic magic. Overall, as a synhts music album, it's up there with the giants of the genre, and, to be honest, shows more strength and consistency than any of the current synth music “legends” still trading on former glories. It's frs refreshing, familiar, superbly played and produced and one of the best of its kind around today.

PETER BANKS – Two Sides Of Peter Banks(Remaster) CD
On 6 of the 9 tracks, he's accompanied by Focus' guitarist Jan Akkerman. On 3 of those tracks, Phil Collins plays drums. On another track, Banks is accompanied by Steve Hackett on guitar, John Wetton on bass and Phil Collins on drums. Only 5 of the 9 tracks have drums on them and there are occasional interjections from ARP, Mini Moog and fender Rhodes on what is an all instrumental album. Now, I say all this, becaue if someone told you that you'd have an instrumental album composed entirely of members of Yes, Focus, Genesis, Flash and King Crimson, you'd wet your proggy trousers. But this is not a prog album, it's not a rock album; it's not a flashy album, neither is it overly technical, fast, particularly full sounding or explosive. What it actually does consist of is a well played, lovingly crafted, occasionally spontaneous and, above all, supremely tasty, set of guitars-driven compositions that are, in the main, quite relaxing, even for a predominantly dual electric guitar dominated album. There's a lot of depth to the playing, and, when there isn't a lot of depth, there's a lot of beauty. There's one lengthy jam from the Akkerman, Banks, Collins and Flash bassist Bennett, and this is more like a dynamically less extreme John McLaughlin/ Mahavishnu type of affair, only more sedate. But, overall, this is a rare example of an instrumental guitars-based album, free from category, free from cliché and the sort of album that you can put on anytime and enjoy.

TONY BANKS – A Curious Feeling (Remaster) CD
While the solo albums from the two Genesis singers were always reminiscent of Genesis in vocal terms but largely got away from prog-rock, the solo albums by the bassist and guitarist were alternately prog-rock and prog-pop, but didn't sound like Genesis. This solo album from the Genesis keyboards player admirably fulfils that half way house between the two – in many ways, the Genesis that never was. With Banks on all instruments except drums and a guy called Kim Beacon on vocals, the whoile album is very much a parallel universe answer to “And Then There Were Three” with nods to “Wind And Wuthering” on one side of the fence, and “Duke” on the other. For all it's commerciality, it's most definitely prog rock. Beacon has a strong voice capable of delivering driving numbers and soaring ballads with ease and conviction, while Banks' instrumental dexterity is conveyed with feeling and some suitably exotic arrangements, wisely avoiding any extraneous things such as strings and woodwinds. Chester Thompson on drums keeps things tight and flowing, while the sound overall is bright as the sun and the remaster brings out the clarity of sound and production in a way that you've never before heard. None of the songs here will go down as “classics” but their solid consistency of arrangement and enjoyment will please most Genesis fans, and prog-rockers who like something exotically commercial.

DAVID BEDFORD – Star's End CD-Remaster
From the guy best known for working alongside Mike Oldfield in Kevin Ayers' band in the early seventies. This is the album of his alter-ego as classical composer – and is a classical album, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a work in two parts, that features guest soloists Mike Oldfield on guitar and bass, plus Henry Cow's Chris Cutler on drums. For the first part you get what is essentially cosmic music played by a huge orchestra deep inside a neutron star, owing more to “2001-era Ligeti” than any later attempts at the orchestral cosmic blandness that would fill the ensuing decades. This is challenging but it is absolutely engaging at the same time, so much “going on” that you'll need three listens just to take it all in. The drums and bass kind of “fit into” the composition so much so, that they become part of the orchestra, an effect that you actually really want to be the case. The pieces do have melody and tunes in there too, but nothing is ever allowed to roam too far away from the solar flare chaos that's as spellbinding as it is adventurous. The way the whole piece flows as some giant orchestral parallel universe emerging from the ashes of the dust clouds that are still swirling all around, is nothing short of compositional excellence. Where Oldfield's guitar work comes into play, it couldn't be anyone else and at these times, the piece does invariably become an Oldfield track backed by an orchestra rather than the other way round, but you can't complain as it all somehow fits together perfectly. For all the albums that came out in the seventies that used orchestras to produce rock-meets-classical, you'd sacrifice the lot of them – or you should!! - to hear this absolute gem of a composition, the consummate classical music album for the more open-minded and adventurous seventies music fan – the odd part being, not only that it still holds that tag in today's music, but hasn't really dated one little bit.

GARY BOYLE – The Dancer CD-Remaster/Electric Glide CD-Remaster
History – real jazz-rock began in 1971 with Mahavishnu Orchestra – it spawned a monster as, down the years, a plethora of bands tried their best to prove that technique wins out over feeling, cool if you're a jazz fan wanting something more powerful, not so cool if you're a rock fan wanting something a bit more intricate. From the UK comes Isotope, led by the nimble and flying fingers of guitarist Gary Boyle, very much the UK answer to the Mahavishnu mob but, as you might expect, with a ton more feeling to what they played – still pretty mind bendingly technical though.
So, they come – they go – meanwhile Boyle remains the same – and records debut album where, on the five minute opener, “Cowshed Shuffle”, he illustrates quite remarkably that, in his hands, as guitarist and band leader, he could easily do anything that the Mahavishnus could, and the result is a sizzling slice of fast-paced fusion with feeling thrown in. The title track, however, at seven and a half minutes long, initially goes for a more Americanised funk-fusion approach before Boyle's guitar tears in like a whirlwind, clean and bright, as the synths and keys create the atmosphere, the bass pounds and throbs and the driving drumming veers between solid through dramatic to shuffling density. It's a slice of what later became known as jazz-funk, kind of melding Stanley Clarke “Schooldays”- styled fusion with UK jazz-rock and American jazz-funk, the result being, and I hesitate to say this, absolutely superb. There follows a neatly atmospheric minute and a half of delightful twangy bass, resonant floating keys and very Soft Machine-esque before the five minute “Lullaby For A Sleepy Doormouse” (sack that title writer!!!) ensues with, as you might expect, a much more laid-back piece where everyone gest the chance to show they can be languid and melodic and strong at the same time, remarkably, yet again, sounding rather superb. The five minute “Almond Burfi” is more funk-fusion with Mahavishnu undercurrents while “Pendle Mist” is more relaxed. The three minute “Apple Crumble” (those titles get worse!!) is a fast-paced slice of “blik and you'll miss it” fusion with spirited and fluid playing from the band as a whole, while the album ends with four minutes of “Maiden Voyage” that's really rather melodic. Overall, I am thoroughly surprised, not only by the fact that I listened to it all the way through, but that I actually enjoyed most of what I was hearing, not bad for a 34 year old album.
Conversely, “Electric Glide”, despite the appearance of special guest guitarist Gary Moore, is the exact opposite – well, sort of – in the sense that I expected it was gonna blow my socks off, but found that, if anything, although not quite as inventive, it began the trend of bands starting to play melodic, fast-ish “jazz-rock fusion by numbers”. The tracks are, by and large, fast-ish pieces with plenty of opportunity for the various instrumentalists to show their paces and for Boyle, in particular, to reveal a lot more of his electric guitar work than the previous album. Undoubtedly jazz-rock, the mood, although veering from fast to tasty, is largely one of melody, bite and attack, a great combination. It would be wrong to single out any one track as they're all good, the openers going for the fast melodic approach while the mid-paced ones would convey much more melody to their bones It's a seriously pleasant instrumental album with much more guitar work but that includes much more technique and you get the feeling that you can see the end of feeling in the distance. Either way, good album.

BRAINTICKET – Psychonaut CD (Remaster)
Hailing from 1972 and classed as part of the upcoming “Krautrock” genre, even though they weren't German, this album owed much to the more spiritually psychedelic bands of the time such as Gila, Amon Duul 1, Sam Gopal and Mighty Baby. The opening consists of predominantly flutes and bongos, cymbals and sitar, acoustic guitars and bass, all topped off with suitably smoke-haze vocals, providing the decided feel and sound of some kind of sweet-smelling smoke-filled kasbah somewhere in remotest Uzbekistan or some such similar analogy. Without warning, the spell is broken by a sudden eruption of organ, female wordless vocals, clattering percussion, rumbling bass and more, all providing the drive that makes it now sound like some psychedelic prog band – then it ends abruptly. The next song continues the psychedelic haze of the delivery both instrumentally and vocally, as the vocals are intoned as much as sung while the rippling piano, bongos, chunky percussion, deep bass and f ll provide the soundtrack to a rainy day outside and a trip-induced watching of it through window panes of joss-stick infused havens. “Watchin' You” takes the harder elements from the first track, decelerates them a little, adds a touch of early seventies Curved Air or Shocking Blue and comes up with one swirling mass of progressive psychedelia, even with a biting electric guitar lead above the pounding bass for extra bite. By now, you know what this is all about, and you're either drawn to it or confused by it, but either way, you can't ignore it.

BRAINTICKET – Celestial Ocean CD
By the time of the third album from 1973, they'd largely “gone cosmic” in Krautrock terms, still psychedelic, but with the influence of keyboards so much more prevalent, although still very much the acoustic and more ethnic elements very much to the fore. This time, they have a female vocalist who recites as much a s sings, reflecting the times and the psychedelic nature of the arranging and writing. So, there are flutes, acoustic guitars, sitar, deep bass, appealing electric guitars, keyboards and an air of open-ended, open-journied, “out there” melodic psychedelic exploration, perfect for any, now ageing hippy, who missed it all in the first place and thinks that this is how it should have been all along. So, light the candles, the joss sticks and anything else you have that's safe to burn, turn the lights out and sail off into the blissfully smoky haze of this extraordinary, long-forgotten Kraut-psych excursion.

DAVE BROCK – Memos And Demos CD-Remaster
Sixteen tracks from the man who gave us Hawkwind and an album that can truly be called “solo”, for what we have here are early demos and working versions of track that would later end up as band restructures or on the cutting room floor. Brock plays all the synths, keys, guitars, bass and drum machines, as well as singing, admits that the tracks are all “early working versions” and that the album will only appeal to Hawkwind addicts. That last one is definitely not the case – for there are rather a lot of really good tracks on here. For a start it's great to hear the man playing some sizzling guitar work pretty well throughout the album with no-one to hold him back or take over. Add to that a huge array of synth layers from driving melodies to throbbing rhythms to huge swathes of space synths as well as electronic drums and bass beats and you have an album choc full of the essence of what this pioneering space-rocker is all about. Song after song veritably surge ahead with conviction, and while the rhythms are obviously not as strong as a traditional Hawkwind rhythm section, this is more than compensated by the searing heat of the guitar work and the space-rock expanse of the synths, so much so that you surprisingly end up with an album that's got space-rock running through its veins and no mistake. It's arguably one of the great “forgotten” albums by any of the Hawkwind fraternity, worth the price alone just to hear the flame of Brock's guitar work once again.

DAVE BROCK – Strange Trips And Pipe Dreams CD-Remaster + Bonus Track
Solo album from Hawkwind's main man Dave Brock, following hot on the heels of the 'Psychedelic Warriors' album and exhibiting a similar feel apparent right from the opening salvo of instrumentals with their molten hotbed of space-rock guitars and synths leading into track 4, a mix of electric and acoustic on a re-working of the classic 'Space' featuring a stark vocal over a blend of rhythmic acoustic and stinging electric guitars and occasional crashing drums and spacey electronics. 'Self' is a synths-based instrumental that leads into the eerie, spacious and humorous opening to track 7 that evolves into a spiralling mix of guitars bass synth, soaring electronics and distant chanted vocals. 'Bosnia' is a classic mix of recitation and instrumental that sums up the feeling of helplessness at the time in that country. From here on, there follows a predominantly instrumental mix of classic cosmic rock with some magical electric guitar work and vast layers of synths. Overall, a classic CD and one which holds the middle ground between the space rock ambience of 'White Zone' and the classic mix of instrumentals and songs that is 'Alien 4'.

GARY BROOKER – Lead Me To The Water CD – Remaster + Bonus Track
I never liked Procol Harum and thought that “Whiter Shade Of Pale” to be one of the most hideous songs ever to be unleashed on the pop world – so you can imagine that when this album by that band's lead singer dropped through my door, I didn't exactly let out a whoop and a holler. As it turns out, it's actually from 1982, way after the Harum had done their evil deed,and features such luminaries as Eric Clapton, Albert Lee, Phil Collins, Mel Collins (no relation) and more. All of which leads you to suspect an album of quality and distinction – which, to a degree, you do get. What I hadn't reckoned with is just how bluesy a lot of it feels, largely thanks to the swing of the more uptempo tracks and that Brooker vocal that could, on occasion, sandpaper your outside bench at 40 paces, yet on other occasions double up for solo-era Phil Collins if he was taking a break. All of the instrumentalists make their presence felt from time to time, and the songs benefit as a result. But, this album revolves around its songs, their arrangements and his delivery of them. Variation is the key – Brooker gives us songs that could have come from classic solo Clapton era(“Hang On Rose”), slices of flowing, almost country-rock, memorability (“Home Loving”), cod-reggae meets Phil Collins-styled swagger (“Lead Me To The Water”), and generally solid, unchallenging songs that are largely things of great melodic drive, clean-cut playing, economical in solo instrumentalist terms and largely a mix of country, blues, jazz and pop. It's not my thing in any way,shape or form but I'd say that if you like Clapton minus the guitar histrionics, or Phil Collins minus the sugar, it's an album you'll get off on.

ARTHUR BROWN & RICHARD WAHNFRIED (KLAUS SCHULZE) – Time Actor CD-Remaster
After a career as a popstar in the sixties, followed by a career as a space-rocker in the early seventies, things fell back to earth from Mr Brown from the mi-seventies onwards as the solo career failed to catch fire, the embers glowing a little less with every release that came out. Compositional decline, nevertheless, failed to extinguish a quintessentially English and absolutely distinctive voice that could have quite easily led the Bonzo Dog Band or taken the place of thriller series TV star Jason King, in an alternate universe, even subbing for the guy who narrated Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy if Peter Jones had never existed – yes, THAT sort of voice – tailor-made for narrating the theory of black holes and still managing to hold you spellbound.
Enter ex-Tangerine Dream/Ash Ra Tempel krautocker and all-round synthesizer god, Klaus Schulze – who recorded a live album and had Mr Brown singing along to an extraordinarily long track, much to the acclaim of many who heard it, even those who hated the idea of Schulze – primarily an instrumentalist – with a singer in tow.
This led to a studio collaboration – which culminated in the album we know as “Time Actor”, with Schulze - aka Wahnfried – a pseudonym deriving from a track on a prior seventies album for Virgin's Caroline label – on banks of analogue synths and rhythm machines, plus Brown's clean, clear, crisp and magnetically magical voice, narrating and singing compositions based around the subject of space and time, as Schulze provided a soundtrack where rhythm foundations pervaded while layers, textures and rivers of electronics provided the sound of the cosmos flowing ever on.
To be honest, it was dull – incredibly dull – flat as a pancake, in fact – how anyone could stand listening to it for more than the first track, was a minor miracle.
Enter Mark Powell – remaster supremo for the Esoteric label – who has added a vibrancy, a production, a clarity, an edge and a stunningly expansive remaster job to an album you swore you'd never play again. I surprised even myself when, on an album I'd previously loathed, I found myself enthralled, enraptured and engaged to the whole thing in one sitting. Somehow, he's brought life into Brown's vocal – he could be narrating the London telephone directory but if it sounded like this, you'd be glued. Meanwhile, Schulze's synths are crystal (lake) clear while the rhythms have real thump, bounce and drive. It's the sound of classically rhythmic Schulze, with added vocal as texture, depth and focus, on an album which, surprisingly, has come alive – a remarkable turn around of events.

ARTHUR BROWN & VINCENT CRANE – Faster Than The Speed Of Light CD-Remaster
What I didn't know about this album was that Arthur started it all off, essentially to save Crane's life (see the booklet that goes with it)- so, whatever the outcome, the project itself on a purely human basis, has to be appreciated. “It's a good album”, quotes Brown, “not quite what I wanted at the time” and, with the Wahnfried success going on at the same time, you can see what it means, for while Brown and Schulze were looking to the future of the universe, Brown and Crane were very much looking back.
Crane was a man of simple tastes – organ and piano – electronics were not for him – so, to make up the depth and range, Brown brought in an orchestra, for which Crane conducted. The result is an album of songs that hearkens back to a more stripped-down answer to something like Rick Wakeman's “Journey To The Centre Of The Earth” or any number of Moody Blues more orchestral offerings. With many of the songs on a more melodic, restrained frame of mind, the dynamics of the arrangements, largely thanks to the orchstra, ensures that you get a textural depth while the addition of a decent drummer provided the crunch to balance it all off. Brown turns in performances that showcase the whole range of his singing voice and, while the compositions themselves do not conform to anything you're going to call “classic”, they are nevertheless decidedly “classical” and Brown fits the score on what has to be said, is a performance that does the album justice. Looking back, it's extraordinarily quaint – a sound of time gone by that will probably never come back, and, even for that reason alone, deserves to be heard.

ARTHUR BROWN – Chisholm In My Bosom CD-Remastered Edition
Recorded in 1977, this couldn't have been farther away from his early seventies realms of progressive and space-rock, if you'd tried. Across six songs averaging around 4 minutes long apiece, to one 23 minute composition, almost as you'd expect for the works of the time, Brown hardly shuts up for more than a minute, so anyone expecting lenghty instrumental work on the long track, then think again. The short tracks are relatively bouncy affairs dominated by that wholesome, rounded, full-bodied “Englishness” of Brown's unmistakable lead vocal, while the long track is more akin to a down-to-earth answer to the future excursions that he'd do with Klaus Schulze. Essentially, if you can't get enough of the man's singing, then this is for you.

JACK BRUCE BAND – Live '75 (DBL CD)
Previously unreleased concert from 1975 from a band fronted by the former Cream bassist and vocalist, joined by 2 keyboards players – Ronnie Leahy and Carla Bley – plus ex-Mayall guitarist Mick Taylor, and Bruce Gary on drums. Even before I listened to this, I was thinking that any band featuring Bruce and Bley is going to have a decided jazzier edge to it...and sure enough, I wasn't wrong. With Bley on organ, clavinet, synthesizer, mellotron and electric piano, plus Leahy on piano, electric piano and synthesizer, in many ways it's a wonder Taylor got in there at all....which, in many ways, he doesn't, being largely relegated to that of rhythm with the occasional burst of lead. Taking the second disc first – because I can – you get three lengthy tracks from 12 to just under 24 minutes, so clearly there's a lot of space for instrumental work. Once Bruce shuts up, of course. He does tend to do a fair bit of scat singing along the way in “You Turned The Tables On Me”, But, that said, there's still a lot of room for the players. But if you're looking for excitement in your music, then this isn't the place to be. All ye who enter here, make sure you have your serious listening fusion face on, 'coz a lot of this, presumably improvisation, is decidedly of the jazz-rock variety and, while technically adept, is music that “demands your ears”. In many ways, a,lot of the playing is quite laid back, only occasionally bursting out, and even then, you feel that they're all looking at each other when that happens to see who blinked first!! But, if you're in a more laid-back mood, and you want some fair old seventies instrumental fusion melodic noodling that's akin to some of the lesser known stalwarts of the “Canterbury” scene, then this second disc should do you just fine.
The first disc features 6 tracks, from just under 2 to just over 24 minutes long, and, after a breif song from Bruce on piano, the next three tracks average 6 minutes a piece, are largely vehicles for Bruce's song-writing, although still feature some spirited instrumental work on “Morning Story”, again mostly keyboard-based. The 24 minute tracks is a medley of “Tickets To Waterfalls/Weird Of Hermiston/Post War”, and the first part is all piano and mellotron, mostly the former, mostly quite delicate and melodic, with on the occasional glimpse of the “cat running across the keyboard” type of playing, and, as such, is quite peaceful and engaging. Then the band move into funkier mode as the trilogy breaks out, Bruce's gravelly vocals coming into play once again as another jazzy song moves into third gear and Taylor comes to life with a neat guitar break before Bley's organ takes the reigns and Bruce's bass moves upfront too. Overall, it's the most cohesive and exciting track on the entire double CD and really makes you want to play it over and over. The last track, “Spirit”, at just over 10 minutes, also conforms to this territory, being the closest the band get to “rocking out”, again with some sterling work from bass, guitar and organ along the way. Overall, if you're into jazz-rock of the more melodic, fairly dynamic, fairly serious variety and don't mind some of Bruce's vocals and songs in there too, then this will assuredly light up your life.

JACK BRUCE – Out Of The Storm CD-Remaster+Bonus Tracks
Former Cream bassist with a solo album from 1974 where he does it all bar guitar (courtesy of Steve Hunter) and drums (courtesy of Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon) which you could describe as “reflecting Jack's musical styles” or “eclectic”. The original 8 tracks, from 3 to over 6 minutes long, are songs – you won't find any room for solos here – well, not much, anyway. The opener sounds more like a sprightly Procol Harum without Trower – in fact I wondered where Hunter had actually gone – while “Golden Days” is a gentle little number that is there to calm your nerves and hold you in its spell, as long as you like Jack's near-falsetto, of course. “Running Through Our Hands” sounds a little like Traffic on sleeping tablets, with plenty of use of organ, piano and keys, angelic harmony vocals and a kind of languid lead vocal on a kind of languid song. “Keep On Wondering” pretty well is Traffic while “Keep It Down” finally adds a bit of life to the dog as drums kick in a bit more, the bass finally moves upfront, the guitar lets loose and something approaching rousing, replaces the previously soporific. “Into The Storm” is like a boring Elton John, while “One” is just boring, and the original album proper ends with six and a half minutes of “Timeslip” which shows a slightly more creative and inventive arrangement at the start but manages to make you want to go out and end it all by about half way through, then luckily the band decides it's time they'd better show that they can play and the best part of what's been a deathly dull album, comes into play as we finally hear some solid and red hot playing from all three musicians – but too little too late to rescue the corpse. Add to this the presence of 5 rather forgettable alternate mixes and the most pleasant thing you can say about it is “I guess you had to be there”.

CAMEL – Breathless CD (Remasster + Bonus Track)
You always got the feeling that Camel never quite got the recognition they deserved – never quite achieving the heights of Genesis or Yes, largely because they had the knack of never being able to find a stunning lead vocalist, then producing an an album called “Snow Goose” that was right at the “wince-inducing” end of prog with its sprawling orchestration and fluffy quality (the prime version being the band-only version on the radio sessions album) – and they became prog-rock's “cuddly” band – the “easy listening” end of the genre. They recruited ex-Caravan/Hatfield and The North vocalist Richard Sinclair for the predecessor to this album, “Rain Dances” and, although not exactly catchy or epic, did produce one of the most consistent song-based albums of their career to date. So, what do they do for the follow-up? Yep, sure enough – keep Sinclair but let guitarist Latimer do the lion's share of the vocals. Thus, we return largely to a half-way house – shorter songs and extended songs and instrumentals with plenty of tasty guitars and keys, gentle Latimer vocals and distinctively solid Sinclair vocals, all enriched with ex-King Crimson Mel Collins' sax and flute giving the thing even more of a “is it Canterbury or is it prog” feel about it. It's not a bad album – in fact, it's a remarkably good album – but it's not an album that stirs your soul – makes you want to hail it as “classic” - more the sort of album you play on a cold winter's night sitting by the fireside with your cat on your lap, a warm mug of cocoa by your side and a copy of the Radio Times to keep you company.

CAMEL – The Single Factor CD (Remaster + Bonus Track)
Ironic title as the one thing that the label wanted from this band was a hit single and that's the one thing they could never deliver – and on the evidence of this album, you can see why. It's full of songs – easy going vocals, lashings of fluffy harmonies, solid if somewhat one-dimensional drumming, rivers of keys and synths, and the heat of electric guitars. But, even in their day, let alone now, the songs are remarkably forgettable – don't get me wrong; when you play this album, providing you ignore some of the terribly dated lyrical content, you are swept along by its charms. Yet even for all this, there's a real sheen hovering over everything that's too smooth at best and awesomely bland at worst – even the special remastering job can't produce guts where there were none in the first place. It's light and fluffy prog for those who want to grow old gracefully.

CAMEL – Stationary Traveller CD (Remaster + Bonus Track)
Six years on from the “Breathless” album saw what was now firmly guitarist Andy Latimer's band revitalised with a concept album based around the “cold war” of the time, a solid line-up of musicians with beefy rhythms, tasty and varied guitar work, a keyboards/synth player from Dutch neo-prog band Kayak and a new full-time vocalist in the form of Chris Rainbow. But still, the spectre haunts........ It's pretty difficult to see where Latimer's lightweight vocal ends and Rainbow's more dramatic but, sadly, equally faceless, vocals begin in terms of the enjoyment of the songs – yet again, the bland leading the bland. At times, the mournful vocals of Rainbow – to reflect the subject matter – allied to brave if foolhardy attempts from the rhythm section to provide “beats you could dance to” - really did about as much for you as the lighter Latimer voice. Yet, the playing on the album is some of the most fiery that had been witnessed on a Camel album for a long while, with a plethora of textures and keys/synths/guitars solos ranging from tasty to red hot. You look back on the career of this band with its great playing and a ton of great songs and lament that if only they'd found a vocalist of quality and distinction, they could have been world-beaters – yet again, a good album, but not a great album.

JIM CAPALDI – Oh How We Danced CD – Remaster +Bonus Track
JIM CAPALDI – Whale Meat Again CD – Remaster + Bonus Track
The drummer from seventies legends Traffic whose solo albums I'd never before heard. This thing, his debut, is a shade under 40 years old. What really surprised me was not so much how amazing it sounded, but how bad it didn't sound. Nine songs that are a case of “something for everyone” in the context of an album that's got its heart in soul, R 'n' B, blues, balladry and rolling jazz. Every track has something to offer. Sung in a rather surprisingly melodic vocal quality courtesy of Capaldi, there are tracks that will cruise into your heart, tracks that make you want to dance, tracks that break your heart, tracks that roll along with horns and piano blowing like a steam engine train, tracks that are “white man's funk” and a general overall feel that's more akin to Robert Palmer's “Pressure Drop” album than anything else if you need a more famous comparison from that era. Of the 9 tracks, there's nothing that you could really say anything bad about – it's got that warm and cozy feel to it but at the same time oozes smiling passion and flowing wistfulness from every pore. By the time of 1974's “Whale” album, things had become a little more varied, but no less engaging. The lyrics became more “observational” and “opinionated” while the influences showed a little more variation with things that remind you of artists such as John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Free and Elton John, to name but a few. For an album of such solid songs delivered with feeling, the odd part is why, in its day, it wasn't ranked up there with the aforementioned artists and bands; presumably due to the profile – or lack of it – of the man himself, not exactly the most charismatic of artists at the time. But he didn't need to be – if you'd rather be remembered for substance over flash, then these two albums of quite timeless songs will show you that he managed this to perfection.

CIRCUS – Circus CD(Remaster)
The brainchild of flautist/sax player and later King Crimson member, Mel Collins, complete with guitarist, bassist and drummer, pretty well a unique line-up for the time – for an album that was more rock than jazz, that is. Now you'd think that starting with an aggressively jazzed-up mid-paced chugger that covered The Beatles “Norwegian Wood” might not exactly be the move any band should open their musical career with, yet I'm horrified to say that not only does it work, not only does it easily eclipse the awfully awful original, but that I actually enjoyed every goddamned second of it, the lengthy track being mainly instrumental with some searing electric guitar heat on top of solid rhythm foundations and topped with Collins' targeted reed work, a sterling start to what turns out to be one helluva good album. After this, “Pleasures of A Lifetime” predates “Posiedon”-era Crimso delicacy with rippling acoustic guitar then moves into slowly harmony-laden song with delicate guitar, wistful vocals and an almost early seveties Floyd-like quality to it, quite amazing considering it's still 1969!! “St Thomas” is the song that most people associate with The Nice, only here jazzed up as an instrumental with neat guitar and flute work over the lurching rhythms. Although infused with touches of fusion, the mood of the album is largely one of serenity and languid flow, occasionally filled with elements of jazzy bite, such as the instrumental “II Bis”, but when you consider they go to cover the Mamas and Papas “Monday Monday”, you not only see what I mean, but you also get to see that I'm naggingly right when I say that they do it well. All told, a surprisingly good album that does sound “of its time” yet at the same time, amazingly timeless.

CMU – Open Spaces Remastered CD
Originally recorded in 1971, although the remaster haqs a sound quality to it that you'd never believe would sound so good. The album itself is what you'd call (well, I would!!) a “consistent mixed bag”, in that no two songs sound alike, yet somehow it manages to hold together. It starts off with “Henry”,sounding like Renaissance backed by the Grateful Dead, as the female vocal flows richly along over crisp, clean spiralling guitar lines and rolling rhythms. “Voodoo Man” kind of chugs along in brooding fashion, while “Slow & Lonesome Blues” is an instrumental that has echoes of Dead, early Roy Buchanan and more. “Chanticlear” is half church-like prog and half more uptempo, while “Japan” is...well...of an oriental flavour. “Clown” is silly, with a male vocal sounding simply out of place against the quality of female vocal and guitar-led instrumentation that's gone down so far.”Mystical Sounds” is a slowly flowing ballad with gorgeous female vocal, while the album ends of “Open Spaces” sounding initially like a more restrained version of '74-era Caravan, before moving into a cascade of lone guitar that echoes Garcia gone weird or Frith gone straight. All in all, though, it's entertaining and while not exactly riveting, is a better “lost” seventies album than many you could name.

CMU – Space Cabaret Remastered CD
From 1973, what I presume is a concept album, although you'd not really know it from the flow of the songs. Here they use the male vocal much more, largely keeping the female vocal for occasional leads and rather glorious harmonies and choruses. While a track such as “Archway 272” sounds like a cross between Supertramp, David Bowie, Renaissance and The Carpenters, much of the album comes across as a UK prog-rock version of Jefferson Airplane with a much more rounded sound. For a seventies music fan, it's enjoyable enough, for a seventies prog fan possibly even more so, although it does err on the side of commercial at times with an average running time of around 5 mins a track, although the ten minute “Lightshine” does actually deliver the goods well, with some flowing synth sounds, a touch of Jade Warrior here, a touch of Airplane psych guitar there, hints of Supertramp electric piano and Nice-like organ and a number of twists and turns in a largely instrumental track, to keep you hooked. It's not a bad album, actually, although you do feel that they might have been trying that bit too hard and that if they'd not let whatever the concept behind the album is, get in the way, it would have become a much more cohesive album.

COLOSSEUM II – Strange New Flesh DBL CD – Remaster
First off, this is now almightily enhanced with a hulking great one and a half CD's worth of previously unreleased tracks from the band's demo sessions in 1975 and 1976. But let's deal with the main album first – essentially the whole thing is an incredibly slick, tight and talented band of musicians playing complex jazz-rock music, with plenty of wibbly wobbly time signatures, tons of soloing from guitarist Gary Moore and keyboardist Don Airey, lost of dual guitar-keyboards duelling, all propelled, driven, twisted and turned by the solid rhythm section of stalwart Jon Hiseman on drums and Neil Murray on bass, all well respected musicians in their seventies fields from jazz-rock to classic rock, both before and after this band's existence. The only problem is that Hiseman had the idea that this would be a song-oriented band as well – so he got in a singer – Mike Starrs. It isn't so bad that the guy comes across as a rather polite – rather too polite – follow-on to previous Colosseum vocalist Chris Farlowe, lacking that guy's sense of blues an improvisation, and substituting a soaring, clean-cut, strongly sung, wide-ranging vocal – the downside being like so many seventies vocalists in band renowned for their instrumental prowesses, he was remarkably indistinct and arguably quite bland. On top of that, the songs themselves are just too darned “clever” and “intricate” lyrically and arrangement-wise, for their, the band's and the album's own good. So it is that, for all the burning playing on the first disc of this album, weighing through the actual songs is like having to cross a ploughed field in slippers. If – and it's a big If – you like the guy's singing voice, you might just love this album. Sadly, even the bonus tracks feature the guy still warbling away incessantly and it's a test of your resilience that you make it to the end of the CD.
So, you move to disc 2 – entirely recorded 7 months after this sessions that resulted in the original album – and surprise, surprise – Starrs has disappeared. In his place, Gary Moore is doing the vocals, and John Mole is now on bass – the difference is as alarming as it is pleasurable. Somehow, even though most of the tracks – all previously unreleased – on this disc are song-oriented, somehow there's more of an edge, more of a desire to make jazz-rock actually rock, and even though a fair few of the lyrics are still unbelievably pretentious twaddle, in Moore's hands, they take on a life that Starrs simply could not provide. As a result, the second disc, is what you buy this thing for. If you're a Gary Moore fan who's followed him through all his musical styles, with a particular fondness for the seventies, then you'll love this disc. There's still a wealth of great playing on it, but in general the songs are more cohesive and sound like a proper album in progress. So, in a weird and twisted way, a reissue to be recommended.

DECAMERON – Say Hello To The Band CD-Remaster + Bonus Track
From 1973, I thought I'd heard everything that ever came out in the seventies, yet I found when this dropped through my door, that I'd never before heard this. Aaaaaaarrrgghhhhhhh!!!!!! I've managed to spend 37 years blissfully ignorant of an album that is an absolute treasure. Right from the opening track, you can't help but think “Lindisfarne” but then from the second track it's “Fairport Convention”, so you can see what territory we're sailing in here. What's absolutely staggering is that the tracks probably sound better now than they did back then – this is folk-rock of the highest order, the magic that besets Jack The Lad, JSD Band and the aforementioned, distilled into 11 tracks that represent the highest pinnacle of songwriting that seventies folk-rock had to offer. Yopu move from track to predominantly acoustic track, marvelling at the sheer immediacy of the songs in combination with the soaring harmony vocals, the “typical” folk-styled lead vocals as all the band members share vocal duties, and an army of wondrous choruses and even more wondrous stories, unfolds. There's no point going into detail – quite simply if you ever though that this album was in any way lesser fodder than the “legendary” albums from Lindisfarne and the Fairports then, like me, you've been missing out big-time, so get something amazing back into your life and go out, get hold of this album and hold it dear to your heart for many moons to come – for that, you surely will do.

DEMON FUZZ – Afreaka (Remastered + Bonus Tracks) CD
No, I'd never heard of it either – I knew of Osibisa, Assagai and other Afro-fusion bands from the early seventies, but this one missed me completely. Which is a bit of a shame, really, as they reveal themselves to be better than any of the aforementioned bands. The whole thing here was recorded in 1970 and, with its line-up of guitars, organ/piano, bass drums, trombone and saxes/flute, immediately labels itself as jazz-rock – seventies jazz-rock, at that. What worries me is that, after all this time, I like the goddamn thing. The phrase “they don't make them like this anymore” came to mind, and it's true – they don't!! OK, so it's for a reason, but it's nevertheless quite refreshing to hear something so solid, relatively simple, melodic and relaxed, come soaring from your speakers in a haze of psychedelic jazz-rock, so positively timeless, you forget that the thing's nearly 40 years old – well, not quite, but you get my drift. Those of us of a certain age, we understand!! Musically, it's a mostly instrumental album,, the compositions swing with purpose, nothing overblown and sounding remarkably like early Colosseum, pretty well throughout, the odd African features giving it that extra something, but not overbearingly so. In essence, if that style – Colossuem, Osibisa, John Mayall's seventies fusion albums, etc – are what turns you on, still, and you've never heard of this, then you really need to check this out as, on that basis, you won't be disappointed.

DEVIANTS – Ptooff! CD (Remaster)
From 1967, and I'd love to say how remarkably contemporary it sounds – instead, it sounds like it's form....errrr....1967. But where the many have described this bunch of hippy loonies as being the UK answer to The Fugs, in actual fact it's a lot more akin to what Zappa and The Mothers were doing in a kind of twisted, inverted way. But whichever way you look at it, the mix of stoned blues-soaked r 'n' b, hippy folk, chugging blues-rock and occasional glimpses of something more “far out”, gives this album a special charm, so that, even if you weren't a fan, it's a slice of history that fascinates as much as it is enjoyable.

DEVIANTS – Disposable (CD (Remaster)
Second album from the UK's most anarchistic band of the sixties, and the wind of change continues to blow, with their brew of smoking blues-drenched original tracks iced with lyrically aware writing and liberally sprinkled with the unexpected, gives the album a more cohesive feel than the first, and not quite as many cobwebs. It's still of its time, but the attitude burns a hole in your head as you feel the cynicism, spirit and turbulence with laser-guided accuracy. Like its predecessor, there's nothing earth-shaking going on in terms of songs and playing, but as a testament to an age, it's still riveting.

DEVIANTS – Three CD (Remaster)
With the arrival of guitarist Paul Rudolph and the more pared-down line-up reduced to a quartet, things began to smoke in the Deviants camp. Instrumentally it became more solid as the sixties drew to a close and the feel of psychedelic rock started to make its presence felt, the dawn of the seventies, but a heartbeat away – and, indeed, it is the guitar work on this album that lights it up and makes it undoubtedly the finest album that the band recorded. One listen to the chugging rhythms and heated electric guitar of “Broken Biscuits” and you just know that there's something about to blow in the psychedelic rock future. “First Line” sounds like USA legends Spirit, while the spirit of Zappa reappears in “The People Suite” aligning sardonic wit with blues guitar to excellent effect. From there the band moves through the death of the sixties song in mournful tones, then through rolling rhythms and cymbal splashes in an unintentional parody of the Bonzo Dog Band in “Death Of A Dream Machine” complete with out of tune guitar, another Spirit-esque song, a short slice of pure insanity in the scat singing of “Black George”, more Zappa-esque humour and wry lyrical writing, while finishing with a lengthy (for them) slice of psychedelia that bridged the sixties with the seventies to, in hindsight, surprising degree. All told, a classic, but not one the musical historians have ever realised was under their noses – until now, of course – cue this amazing remaster!!

EARTH & FIRE – Earth & Fire CD (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
Debut album from Dutch prog-rockers from 1970 and, at this point, the band clearly are finding their feet, inhabiting a territory that's more Shocking Blue than Genesis, but, like Genesis, turning the shorter songs on a debut album, into magnificent epics later on in their career. That said, with a voice that's more akin to Siouxsie of Banshees fame than you'd actually believe, the songs on this album are actually rather fine things, largely thanks to the vocals of one Jerney Kaagman, who carries the album through. Yeh, it sounds “of its time”, but somehow it really stands up in its own right today, as there's a kind of solid structure in the richness, a memorability in the writing and a constancy of flow in the playing. A couple of the tracks would sound more at home in the utterly dated “Hair” musical, but by and large, it's something I managed to enjoy in one sitting, and would come back for more (bar a couple of tracks where the “skip” button would prove invaluable).

EARTH & FIRE – Song Of The Marching Children CD(Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
Arguably the finest album this early seventies Dutch prog band ever recorded, the really surprising part is just how well it stands up to today's crop of prog bands – if someone told you this was a modern band recreating the seventies to a tee, you simply wouldn't argue. Thanks to the incredible remastering skills of Mark Powell and crew at Esoteric, this album's been restored to make it a rival of anything that the best of the likes of Yes, Genesis and Barclay James Harvest, unleashed in that decade. Their ace in the hole is a female lead vocalist, the sultry, honey-smooth voice of Jerney Kaagman, capable of carrying the most science-fiction/fantasy-laden prog rock lyric with conviction and emotion. The band play a rich and tasty brew of prog rock stew that is enriched with mellotrons, organ, electric guitar and, now solid, rhythms, with enough instrumental space allied to the song portions of the album, to please even the most demanding of seventies prog fans. The centrepiece of the album is the epic title track, decidedly worthy of a “Supper's Ready” or a “Close To The Edge” as the band play with a complete conviction that sets them alongside their more well known counterparts. Complete with 6 bonus tracks, this is one of those “lost” seventies prog rock albums that every fan of the genre should own without hesitation.

EARTH & FIRE – Atlantis CD (Remaster)
The follow-up to the mighty “Song of the Marching Children” saw the band ploughing a similar furrow of “prog rock epic” and shorter tracks in the hope of repeating the success of their awesome predecessor. As a result they elected to start with the epic title track and, right from the start, you know it's not going to work as well. The opener lacks depth, passion and strength, sounding like the icing on a cake for which someone's forgotten the base. There are mellotrons running through its veins, tasty lead guitar work but the rhythm section plods and the vocals seem more akin to someone who wants to get it over with so she can go out shopping – weary and almost trying too hard – although in some ways managing to come across as a mix of Judie Tzuke and Annie Haslam, all the same. The track itself doesn't have the same magic as “Marching Children” and you get the feeling that, in the pursuit of the concept, in the attempt to recreate the past, that they took their eye off the ball and produced a work that's certainly good, but it's not great. Oddly enough, the shorter tracks actually fare better, and you get the feeling that, without the weight of the “epic” on their shoulders, the band relaxes, breathes and lets things sparkle a bit more. These tracks are still a bit too “poppy” in the main for yer dedicated prog rock fan, but the presence of masses of seventies styled organ, guitars and mellotrons should win over most fans of the genre.

EFFLORESCE – Coma Ghosts CD
New band on Esoteric label's “Generation Prog Records” sub-label and it's “prog” in the same way that the more melodic side of Opeth could be said to be “prog”. Only this lot have a female lead singer and they don't just drive – they explode. So, maybe we're into more of an Evanescence or Within Temptation mode. Truth be told, we're all all three, as this rather excellent CD serves to testify. First off, the singer has a lead and multi-tracked presence that's the more biting side of operatic, like Annie Haslam with a rocket up her backside, a voice that's strong and memorable, harmonious, rich sounding, beautiful when soft, like a lion when roaring, soaring through the songs to perfection and, even though you get the very occasional growl, the tracks are sung – and sung incredibly brilliantly. The band are just on fire – playing guitars, synths, keyboards, bass and drums, they just rock the rafters to breaking point, but at the same time have prog-rock blood running through their metal veins. The result of this is an album featuring 5 tracks averaging over 9 minutes a track, plus a shorter three minute job, where the vocals are wondrous, the playing dynamic and powerful, the compositions meaningful, solid, driving and not a second wasted. Overall, this is one of the best new female-vocal led goth-prog-metal bands to come out of the UK in many a long while and an album that you really have to own. FLASH – Flash (Remastered + Bonus Track) CD
It's 1971 and the founder guitarist of Yes, Pete Banks, has joined forces with fellow Yes keyboard player Tony Kaye to form a band. They recruit a rhythm section and a vocalist. They produce an album, consisting mainly of lengthier tracks, but no epic length tracks. The Yes roots do shine through at many point, but there is also more than a hint of early Nice in there too, with some passages sounding more like Emerson and O'List than Banks and Kaye. The vocalist does not sound like Jon Anderson, but the vocal harmonies do sound like Yes. The vocalist is less distinctive but still just the sort of singer that prog rock fans wanted to hear in a band in those days.
The album is, largely, a prog-rock fan's delight, admittedly on the more sedate side of the genre, but with a seriously fine production to add to the depth and strength of playing that the musicians would provide. OK, so a track such as “Morning Haze” now sounds just horribly dated in parts, although even here, the harmony vocals are sumptuous, but it's a shorter track and that's no problem in the context of the album. Then you get “Children Of The Universe” which is that Yes-Nice amalgam down to a tee, as is most of what follows. The vocals are more down to earth than Anderson, less full-sounding and not as shrill, while the lyrics are every bit as bizarre, as the band's rhythm section play it in a kind of prog-fusion vein, tackling the tricky time signatures with ease, twisting and turning with a smile on their face. But, when taken as a whole, this is a rich sounding, Yes-infused example of early seventies prog-rock that has lost none of the amount of charm that it had back in its day.

FRUUP – Future Legends (Remaster + Bonus Track)
Irish prog band's debut album from 1973, lovingly restored back to its real health courtesy of Esoteric remaster wizard Mark Powell. While, in the first five of its original 8, one bonus and total of 47 minutes of music, you'll hear elements of “Selling England” Genesis, “Fat Old Sun”-styled Floyd, Supertramp and lots of classical touches, the overriding feel is of first two albums-era Yes. Many of the tracks possess that languid quality where the lazy vocals are then punctuated with biting lead guitar or full-sounding classical leanings, while the organ work provides depth and the rhythm section do what is expected of a traditional seventies prog band. It's all very relaxed for the most part and gives the feel of those two Yes albums without the rock strength that powered them on. So, if it's flowing, easy-going, well played, arranged and, predominantly, well sung prog you want, then this is for you.

FRUUP - Seven Secrets (Remastered) CD
Second album from Oct '73, and it's altogether more instrumental than the debut, much less of the Yes touches and yet still with its classical touches intact, courtesy of the strings and oboe. What it is very similar to, is the first – and only – album from Patrick Moraz's Mainhorse – it's got that whole feel of seventies prog with the songs being the vehicle more for the instrumental work, than songs in their own right. Bearing in mind the presence of some rather awful, but mercifully short, overly dramatic vocals on the first track, this can only be viewed as a good thing, and as fate will happen, the vocals on the rest of the album are more “sung” and more palatable. The playing is sound with organ predominating, although solos are few and the emphasis is more on band playing. That said, the times when the lead guitar cut through the sweeping romanticism, the bite that it adds is very much desired. Looking at the sleevenotes, the band only had 6 tracks for the album when they entered the studio, and had to come up with a final 7th track – which shows, since the final few minutes of the last track are throwaway of the lowest order. But, these bits aside, for what it is, an accomplished album, lush rather than rocky, languid rather than stirring, but for prog fans who like things with a classical, slightly folk-y, bent, and predominantly instrumental, this one will do for you.

FRUUP- The Prince Of Heaven's Eyes (Remastered + Bonus Tracks) CD
A year later and the third album from Nov '74, and it's a concept album!! Luckily, it's lost a lot of the classical touches and substituted those with a more grandiose style, although there's a lot more use of piano than on previous albums. Song-wise, it's a balanced blend of song and instrumental, while the vocals are, overall, of good quality, although still with a range from relaxed to dramatic, and much of the time it's a bit like Yes performing “Selling England By The Pound” but with any remote hint of an “edge”, firmly removed. There's a ten minute opus in the form of “Knowing You” and there's plenty of room overall, for the band to play. The songs sound like real songs and, in the main, there's more cohesion and more of a solid feel, with organ, guitar and plenty of piano leading the way. The bonus tracks are more filler than friend, but as an album goes of what is still “prog-lite”, it's accomplished, even if it is, at the end of all that, still a concept album!!

FRUUP – Modern Masquerades (Remastered) CD
The fourth and final album from Feb '75 and, ironically, their best do far. The band finally knew what constituted a solid prog-rock album, with songs, instrumental passages, varied and consistent vocals, noting too sweet, nothing too dramatic and a constancy of flow and cohesive structure that would keep most fans of seventies prog, hooked for the duration. A mix of Genesis, Mainhorse, Yes, The Beatles and Focus is unleashed across 48 minutes of songs, still with that lazy, relaxed quality but at the same time with more bite and less romance. No one track stands out for praise compared to the rest, but at the same time, no one track stands out for harsh criticism either. Overall, it's stood up fairly decently for a seventies division two prog-rock band, and at least I got from start to finish in one sitting with hardly any of the “wince factor” coming into play.

GILGAMESH – Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into CD(Remaster) NATIONAL HEALTH – National Health CD(Remaster) NATIONAL HEALTH – Of Queues And Cures CD (Remaster) SOFT HEAP – Soft Heap CD (Remaster)
Fully remastered, albeit without any bonus material, four fine examples of that curious brew of instrumental fusion from the seventies known as “Canterbury Music”, largely because most of the musicians involved in the original conception of the genre, resided in that part of the country.
Gilgamesh are the laid-back dudes – Alan Gowen, Mike Travis, Phil Lee and Steve Cook playing instrumentals featuring guitar, bass, drums and keyboards that are mostly languid, always melodic, gorgeously played and arranged, not too intricate but never overly simple, and the whole thing remains an easy-on-the-ear joy to this day, jazz (rock) for those more mellow moments, a truly sublime and essential listening slice of UK fusion history that's timeless to this day. It comes as a bit of a shock to read the line-up of the Soft Heap album and realise that all four musicians are no longer alive. As a testament to their skills – Elton Dean on saxes, Alan Gowen on piano and synth, Hugh Hopper on bass and Pip Pyle on drums – the big surprise of this album from four of the giants of Canterbury jazz-rock, is also how palatable it all is. Sure, there are passages where the free-form playing or improv rears its thankfully brief ugly head, but these tend to be few and far between as four gifted players lead and follow across tracks that are subtle in their complexity, yet complex enough to get your teeth into, while possessing the necessary bite to give the playing that extra edge which moves it on from the softness of touch that Gilgamesh provided. Playing collectively and individually, the band give melody to what many thought of as dangerously close to atonal on what remains as the finest album this band recorded.
At a time when punk was taking the nation by storm, when prog rock finally got the dinosaur treatment and musical virtuosity was regarded like cobwebs on an empty shelf, it came as a revelation to everyone that the Canterbury supergroup called National Health, which had evolved out of the always well received mix of instrumental expertise, Ayers-esque songs and overall humour that was Hatfield & The North, got amazing reviews in the mainstream music press for its debut album. The main reasons for this lie in the fact that so many of the more established bands in the fusion genre had either completely lost their way in a cloud of improv dust or technical flash or stupefying dullness – and out of all of this emerged a band who had it all where it counted – structured compositions revolving around a core quartet of Dave Stewart on keys/synths, Neil Murray on bass, Pip Pyle on drums and Phil Miller on electric guitar (three quarters of Hatfield, in fact), embellished with extra tonal colour from wordless female harmonies, touches of flute/sax and extra piano from future main member Alan Gowen – melody, depth, a natural, almost magical flow to the compsitions and nothing showy or flashy, just really solid, varied, consistent and substantial tracks that, even for their length, still managed to win the hearts and minds of critics who couldn't wait to see the end of the prog-rock/jazz-rock era. The first album features just four tracks and they pass by so quickly you're never really aware that you're listening to four mini fusion symphonies. In truth, it remains a glorious album and the newly enhanced sharpness and clarity of the sound, has enhanced this fact even further. For the second album, “Queues”, the substitution of Colosseum II's Neil Murray for ex-Henry Cow John Greaves, on bass, marked a sharper less languid approach, as the opener “The Bryden 2-Step” serves amply to testify, the whole quartet still pouring melody all over the arrangements, but the extra power of a stronger bassist lifts the rest of the band and the playing from everyone is altogether more urgent, while, on three of the four tracks, extra touches of brass, add a new tonal coloration to the sound but wisely used sparingly. The organ's got more power, the guitar work more bite and the drums more clout as the band sail effortlessly through 7 tracks of quality melodic Canterbury fusion and, overall, it's a superior album to the first. But, between these four albums, you practically have rthe essential guide to the division one of Classic Canterbury Fusion.

CLAIRE HAMILL – Touchpaper / Voices / Love In The Afternoon
All three albums have been remixed, remastered and generally lovingly been reassembled from the safe and reliable hands of maestro remaster man Mark Powell, so you already know they're going to be the definitive reissues from a sonic point of view.
Musically, well.......... “Touchpaper” emanates from 1983 and you get the feeling that this was an album that she had to get out of her system. In many ways similar to an artist such as Kate Bush, you've only got to listen to a track such as the dramatic “Denmark” to extol its virtues in the same breath as something like Kate Bush's “Army Dreamers”, only this is way more powerful with some searing guitar work and it only makes you scratch your head as to how the music industry in its infinite wisdom, managed to miss it in the first place. Then you move to the sax-led atmosphere that is “2 Fools In A Storm” full of twangy bass, hi-flying sax, soaring angelic vocal harmonies and that soft yet forceful vocal of Ms Hamill, all expressive and full of feeling, as the song once more conjures images of Kate Bush duetting with Michael McDonald, and simply sublime. Yet over and above that, she comes up with a whole host of original songs which stretch from horizon to horizon with that familiar eighties sound to the instrumentation, only now brought out to sound simply huge as the songs really hit home. The variation, consistency of enjoyment and quality of performance must surely make this as one of the most criminally ignored albums from a UK female singer in the last 25 years – anyone into the likes of Kate Bush, Maddy Prior, Fleetwood Mac and similar eighties electronic-rock would do well to get an earful of this – I think you might just be amazed.
“Voices”, from 1985, was originally on a label called “New Age”, which may just give you a clue into which directions she'd moved. In many ways a UK answer to Enya, this used the techniques of multiple vocal overlays allied to electronics, from wordless harmonies to actual songs, and the result is something that any Enya fan would be absolutely over the moon about. You only have to listen to the track “Tides” to discover just how true this is, as the lurching electronic drums drive forward and above this, the deep booming bass and expansive electronics allow the endless, angelic multi-tracked vocals to weave their spells, only instead of the syrup that Enya poured on hers, this is served with a certain sense of darkness giving it all an extra depth and presence not felt in Enya's work and more akin to something that Mike Oldfield came up with on many occasions in terms of its strength and atmosphere. Either way, it's one absolute belter of a track and worth the price of the album on its own. Throughout the album, it's way more than the “New Age” tag with which it got labelled and, in hindsight, this possibly did it more harm than good in terms of its stature in modern times. But now's your chance to address this and with a remaster that is nothing short of jaw-droping, go out and grab this album to find that you can mix strength and cohesion with beauty and angelic to come up with something that's a pure mix of Enya and Cocteau Twins and all the better for it.
The 11 tracks which form 1988's “Love In The Afternoon” show that the singer has lost none of her desire to be at the cutting edge and, if anything, the album amalgamates the styles of both of the previous albums to present a set of tracks that mixed the songwriting with the arranging, the playing with the producing, to provide a sizzling set of compositions that, once again, can't fail to win you over as a mix of Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins with hint of Cathy LeSurf and Pink Floyd are in there too. As an album of atmospheric songs, rich arrangements, variation and strong enjoyment, it's yet another “lost gem” that everyone into this so oft underrated singer and writer should correct with immediate and long-lasting results.

HARDIN & YORK – The World's Smallest Big Band CD
I didn't know this, but these two musicians used to be in the original Spencer Davis Group, then split to form their duo, an odd move considering they were organ and piano player, vocalist and drummer – that's it! So, their sound is somewhat unique, to say the least, a kind of nod towards blues, ballads and Beatles without a guitar in sight. Owing as much to someone like Champion Jack Dupree and very much a precursor to the eighties act Ben Folds Five, this is, somewhat surprisingly, really enjoyable. I don't know how, but they manage to exude such atmosphere, enthusiasm, emotion and energy with the barest of instrumentation, which probably says more for their enthusiasm as it does for their playing. In addition to studio tracks, tracks recorded “live” in the studio, there are a stack of bonus tracks taken from a 1969 radio session and a live German concert from 1970, so you certainly get your money's worth. I daresay that if the idea of a guitar-less blues-based rock 'n' roll band appeals to you and you're of a decided seventies persuasion, this will come as both a surprise and a delight.

HATFIELD & THE NORTH – S/T / Rotters Club Each - (Remaster + Bonus Tracks) CD
Part of the UK jazz-rock movement, by any other name referred to as “Canterbury Music” since that's where it pretty well all started. But, up until this point, it had either been the quirky song-based artists on one side of the fence, all hippy, drippy and easy going, or the adventurous fusion merchants, going where no fusion had gone before. What made the Hatfield mob so remarkable, and as a result, so legendary, is that they fused both extremes together and managed to create a very rare breed indeed – jazz-rock with songs that was melodic, had a sense of purpose, was in no way overblown and had a flow to it which couldn't help but endear it to its intended audience. A quartet of keyboards, electric guitar, electric bass and vocals, plus drums, they produced mini suites of positive delicacy and delight, never once sacrificing the great god melody for anything remotely “experimental”, in the process producing an album where great playing without any particular soloing is the order of the day as a group performs and writes with passion and precision, emotion and energy, creating tracks that, even 35 years on, still sound absolutely charming, magical and easy to enjoy, yet still the sort of thing that, although “of its time” still manages to sound timeless. Instrumental in the main, the occasional quirky song rearing its deliciously lyrical head, this is warm and fuzzy stuff, music capable of softening the hardest heart, and that's to be admired and adored, even all these years later. Complete with a remaster that's exceptional in its clarity and bonus tracks that are absolute essential to the spirit of the album, these two reissues are a total joy.

HAWKWIND – Spirit Of The Age – An Anthology (From Atomhenge 1976 to Earth Ritual 1984) 3CD
Up to 1975, the band Hawkwind had become the world's leading force in the genre known as “space-rock” which basically consisted of embellishing seventies heavy and psychedelic rock with all manner of synth and electronic effects and science-fiction based lyrics. But the warp engines finally burned out, the exploration of the galaxies took its toll and the spacecraft fell inexorably back to earth. But one of their number had other ideas on his mind, there were new universes to conquer right here on earth – and so the seedier side of life down on the streets, lurking in the shadows plus the hopes and dreams of burnt-out brains, all rose their collective heads as a band charted a whole new course. For three years, a certain Robert Calvert took over the reigns and created a band that would produce some of the most lyrically exciting songs of its era. Not only that but the metal foundations would be replaced by everything from world music fusion (“Kadu Flyer”) and funky driving jazz-rock (“Steppenwolf”) to attempts at pop-rock with hooks and choruses (“Kerb Crawler”), funky, driving electronic-laced instrumental work (“The Dream Of Isis”)and the odd look back to its seventies rock roots (“Back On The Street”). Decidedly back down to earth but somehow not exactly fulfilling – the band decided that they'd gone too far the other way. But then a renewed fascination with the more action-packed side of science fiction that involved humanity rather than aliens started to manifest itself in the lyrics and this was where Calvert had been heading all this time – thus was born the album “Quark, Strangeness & Charm”, the ultimate meeting of all that the writer wanted to express within the confines of an essentially space-rock band – sublime observational and storytelling compositions such as the catchy title track, the epic that is “Spirit of the Age” and the driving “Damnation Alley”, all backed by a relatively sedate rock band that preferred to chug rather than accelerate, who valued the keyboards more than the synths, who preferred their guitars to be subtle and break out on occasion rather than glow red hot – for, despite all that they stood for, it was the songs that mattered. But the band's original leader Dave Brock had not lost his desires to roam the universe and when those desires proved unfulfilled in the current band, he formed a side band in which he took control once more, called it the Sonic Assassins, went out into the concert arena and relaunched the spaceship – a track such as the soaring “Over The Top” gives testament to this, with its swirling synths and solid foundations, with Calvert still at the lyrical helm but now more far-out imagery coming into play, while “The Golden Void” revisited the final album the band had made before hanging up their space-rock boots. But even this wasn't enough – Brock went and formed another offshoot – The Hawklords – and their debut album mixed the whole lot up to quite glorious effect, first offering being the insanely catchy mix of menace and sci-fi of “Psi Power” is presented here, Calvert at his brooding best vocally, the band building up into a glorious chorus, albeit somewhat sedate by today's standards, yet still anthemic for all that, while “Freefall”, even though a ballad, hearkened back to swooping synth-laden days gone by, similarly “The Only Ones” with strummed acoustic guitars and distant mellotron, multi-tracked harmonies and arresting lead vocal. Then, in 1979, the Hawkwind machine kicked into life with an album called “PXR5” which revealed a greater sense of control from Brock so that the prospect of space exploration raised its ugly head once more, so Calvert was mixing the space imagery with his current poltical imagery (“Uncle Sam's On Mars”) and running headlong into the cosmos, the sumptuous backing from synths, bass, drums, violin and, mainly, rhythm guitars, providing the songs with a meaty foundation, all given full reign on the brooding, building “High Rise”, again songs with hooks and choruses to keep the insistent factor alive.
By the end of '79, Calvert had gone, and Brock took over once more – new visitors were about to roam the universe. “Shot Down In The Night” unleashes a wickedly rocking testament to this – warning all aliens everywhere that the space machine Hawkwind had been reinvented and firing on all cylinders as the band blasted into action with its finest composition for 4 years, the driving space-rock that signified Hawkwind to anyone who knew them, now roaring into life on a tidal wave of blistering rock guitar, swooping synths, solid driving rhythms, supercharged choruses and insistent verses, while a revisit of their old favourite “Brainstorm” let the listeners know in glowing terms that the band was back and ready to burn down the gates once more, as it roars and rolls to glorious effect. A new studio album, “Levitation” got the balance of space-rock and solid songwriting just right, Brock back on form and driving the craft with purpose and determination – synth wizard Tim Blake (ex-Gong) and ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker just two of the worthy exponents making it all sound so cohesive, while original lead guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton was drafted in as a new permamant member once more, thus completing the return to what Hawkwind had always done best – driving space-rock but compositions that sound altogether substantial, well arranged, superbly produced and played with enthusiasm and passion. As the third disc here will testify, through all manner of group changes, this renewed vision of and determinatio to play the finest space-rock in the world, never let up as far as Brock was conecerned and what you'll hear are some of the finest examples of the genre that were delivered throughout the first half of the eighties.
What you have to say about this set is that it features mostly songs – songs with extremely inventive lyrics, song with extremely well arranged backings and songs delivered by two vocalists who poured their hearts and souls into subject matter that meant something to them, managing to be singers of quality who could do this and make it work with conviction, cohesion and to maximum potential. Somewhere between rock and prog, this is a universe of tracks which, to this day, remains unique, does not sound dated and could almost be said to be timeless.

HAWKWIND – The Dream Goes On – An Anthology (From The Black Sword 1985 to Distant Horizons 1997) 3CD
With the media largely commenting what a good thing it was to have Hawkwind back as a thriving space-rock band, almost but not quite stating through clenched teeth that they'd almost missed them, the band threw themselves into doing what they do best and the final half of the eighties saw the band come up with a flowing series of studio and live albums, all with Dave Brock steering the good ship to an end point far, far away. The band still write lyrically sound songs, but now the added enthusiasm into which the science fiction writing is embraced, is embellished by the first hook-up for ten years with science fantasy and science fiction author Mike Moorcock. Combined, they proceed to unleash a space-rock concept album, “Chronicle of the Black Sword”, where classic rock, emotive ballads and tasty instrumentals stand head to head in the most natural manner imaginable. In the history of the band, so few critics ever mention the sheer standard of the songwriting, so often overlooked in the turbulence of the band's line-ups, offstage actions and portrayed imagery, but, as with many of their songs from the last few years, it's the space-rock barrier that stands in the way of the contemporary indie fan realising that, in this band, we have a glorious set of songs which stand up as above category – it's songs into which you can immerse yourself whether rocking or swaying.
Whatever, “Chronicle” showed that the band were on top of their tree as the memorable “Song Of The Swords” and the surge of “Needle Gun” amply illustrate. A tour of the concept was visually mesmerising and produced a monumental live album of the original studio tracks combined with classics from the past, and it's a true testament to the band that the uninitiated listener would not know the difference between the two as the whole thing sounds vast and direct - “Elric The Enchanter” more than stands up against something as incendiary as “Magnu”. Two years later, and with new bassist, singer and writer Alan Davey firmly implanted as a main member of the band, the band came up with perhaps the most underrated studio album they recorded in this 10 year period represented by the box set, “The Xenon Codex”. As the studio album – and a subsequent live concert broadcast on Radio One – reveals, the band were at their compositional and playing best. Davey's bass was the most cohesive thing in that department for years, his backing vocals complementing Brock's leads to perfection, while the band as a whole launched into the tracks with vigour and passion, Harvey Bainbridge's synth and Huw's lead guitar work, positively glowing as a combination, propelled by this driving hammer of a rhythm section, alternated with the rising might of the slower but no less intensely delivered compositions, as a whole new set of tracks produced one stunning album that sounds quite timeless to this day. The roar of “The War I Survived”, the surging flow of “Heads” mix with the textural instrumental beauty of “Lost Chronicles” and “Wastelands Of Sleep”.
Two years on – another new studio album, this time with new drummer Richard Chadwick in the ranks and marking the arrival of one of the longest-lived rhythm sections that the band would ever have. With Huw gone, Simon House rejoins on violin and with Harvey's keys, the album is more expansive than before, less overtly rocking and more quietly intense, but the songs stand up in their own right once again, at one end, the eloquent flow of “Wings” with new singer Brigitte Wishart adding angelic harmonies, next to the brooding stride of “Ship Of Dreams” with Brock's lead guitar work coming to the fore and an impassioned vocal to build the song to boiling point, propelled by the mid-paced muscle of the new rhythm section, while the all-out attack of “Images” at the other end show that the band can still not only rock out, but provide a song that's insanely catchy at the same time. Lost along the way in the history of Hawkwind is the fact that this band could seriously write songs with hooks that could have been top sellers by any other band. Subsequently, in what's now a band tradition, a couple of live albums highlighting tracks from the last studio albums plus a slew of older classics, simply remind you just what a powerful band this is in a live setting, although the live album “Palace Springs” did also featured some leftover studio tracks from what came before.
Two years on – another new studio album – this time “”Electric Teepee”. By now the band were reduced to the trio of Brock-Davey-Chadwick but this, if anything, focused the band's songwriting even more, so that the dominance of science fiction was now being replaced by more moral, cultural and politically aware subjects, as ever, all expressed and arranged quite superbly by a tightly knit trio. “LSD” just rocks with a huge sound towering over its song structure, the band sounding more like six than just three as this massive sound blasts out from the speakers, while “Mask Of Morning” remains another overly forgotten blast of Hawkwind-as-singles act, the song providing drive, punch, depth and a surging memorable hook that could have whipped up rock dancefloors from one end of the country to the other, and “Secret Agent” simply blasts the icing onto the already substantial cake. A year later and the band, in experimental mode, produce a largely instrumental album in the form of “It's The Business Of The Future”, showcasing the fact that they could be as eloquent and strong without lyrics as they could on songs, although the album not perhaps standing up that well by today's standards, as the best tracks on the album were the songs, of which “Letting In The Past” is another oft forgotten example of the band at their tightest, flowing best, while the skank of “The Camera That Could Lie” showed signs of the straying away from the tried and trusted formulas which would later, arguably, water the band down as much as showcase that they could do something other than what they were more known for playing and composing.
Via another live album, “The Business Trip Live”, rock's forgotten power trio flex their compositional and playing muscles with force, strength and intensity, as the mothership motor of “Right To Decide” illustrates to perfection, another hit-single-that-could-have-been, truly stunning as a slice of anthemic rock songwriting, while “The Dream Has Ended” hearkens back to the early seventies but shows that the nucleus of the song itself stands up as well over twenty years later, as it did then. Via another instrumental album, “White Zone”, the band try their hand at ambient rock, as the title track here indicates.
Two years on – another new studio album – this time with a new singer in tow, in the form of the Calvert-esque Ron Tree, who seemed to spend a lot of time, out of his (tree, that is!). That aside, he gave the band a visual and audible, sharp-as-a-needle focus that they'd been lacking for a while despite all the positives, and the new album, “Alien 4” was heralded as the best thing the band had produced in ages, for which both tracks featured here – Davey's roaring battle cry of “Sputnik Stan” and the classic Hawkwind sound of “Death Trap” - absolutely testify.
Yep, you guessed it – another live album touring the studio album, provide us with the flowing ballad of the unusually fragile beauty, for Hawkwind, of “Love In Space” next to the massive blast of space-rock might, that is their seventies anthem “Lord Of Light”.
Two years on – another new studio album – this time in the form of “Distant Horizons”, an album that long-time manager Doug Smith described to me once as “having been released too early”, by which he meant that the band could have, and in hindsight, should have, done more work on its content before it finally emerged as finished. The title track couldn't show this better, as a slice of reggae-rock comes across as pure filler – if the band were charting a new horizon, it was so in the distance as to be virtually invisible – while “Phetamine Street” is clearly meant to be another “hook-laden, hit single” type job but just goes round and round up its own black hole. A surging “Waimea Canyon Drive” almost does the same thing, but this time its repetition actually has an emotive strength to it, while its wandering into a more textural territory provides the much needed depth of which you know this band is capable of playing as the track builds into quite a forceful piece. It's left to this album's “Alchemy” to wind up a triple CD set with a studio track of roaring space-rock that, while still a bit throwaway in its initial slightly ambient approach to the vocals, ends up being a raging rocker that does the mighty name of Hawkwind, no disservice whatsoever – which is, of course, the way it's always been and the way it always should be.

HAWKLORDS – 25 Years On 2CD
Change of name from Hawkwind to reflect the fact that this is an album recorded by a floating line-up of musicians with the core nucleus of Brock and Calvert, guitarist/singer respectively, the constant factor. The clever part about the remastered original now accompanied by the extra bonus CD album, is that they've managed to come up with a bonus CD which perfectly furthers this whole idea of assorted line-ups. The result of all this, then, is one of the coldest, emotion-free albums that the band ever laid down. There's a complete sense of technical detachment about the songs on the original album, with Calvert at his most robotic and the actual songs exhibiting this sense of darkness, if anything, more outer space than when they were in space, and in an altogether darker side of the universe. That said, there are a lot of choruses along the way on an album of songs with which you can actually join in, from the rocking anthem that is “Psi Power” to the jaunty “Flying Doctor”, via the hypnotic qualities of “Freefall” and the searing icy intensity of “Cold War Kid”. In many respects, it's Calvert's show, backed by assorted musicians who steer the musical ship through icy waters with determination, power and even finesse. The bonus disc features all of the EP from another part-time Hawkwind offshoot called The Sonic Assassins, again with Calvert dominating, while an assortment of previously unreleased outttakes and demos showcase works in progress to varying degrees of success from the acoustic sparseness of “The Only Ones” through the self-indulgence of “”Assassination” to “Freefall(Take two)” that's actually better than the version on the original album!! Overall, if you like Calvert in action, you'll love this – if, like me, you could take him only in small doses, you'll find it more of an interesting discovery.

HAWKWIND – Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music CD
When this first came out in 1976, following the amazing “Warrior On The Edge Of Time”, not only was it signalled as Hawkwind's “return to earth”, it also proved to be a major disappointment to the space-rock fan that I was at the time. Oddly enough, this is the first time I've listened to it since then – and I must say that it's really rather good. Bob Calvert did have an overly dramatic, even forced, vocal style, one that over emphasized parts of words, as though teaching the listener that what he's got to say is VERY IMPORTANT, it's still evident that this was a singer acting out his lyrical imagery as he delivered it, very much the showman, very much the conveyor of observation and yet managing to give everything a sense of dark emotion wrapped in curiously commanding envelope of hypnotic entrancement. Throughout the album's songs – approximately half of the original album, as the rest were instrumentals – he dominates, prowls, snarls, snaps and strides through the lyrics with a passion and feel that veers from scary to providing a wry smile on a mischievous face, seventies science fiction wrapped in Victorian murder melodrama. So, you get the “concept” track that is the theatre of “Steppenwolf” during which you hardly notice what the band's playing, so dominating is Calvert's perofrmance, standing next to the more anthemic commerciality of the sublime “Reefer Madness” which opens the album in fine fashion, and the traditional Hawkwind rocker that is “Kerb Crawler”, a short track which sounds hopelessly dated thanks to that awful female-sung chorus next to Calvert's lead vocal that tries to be a rock singer and a plodder of a band performance, making “Silver Machine” sound like speed metal, with an even shorter version of it also featuring, for some mysterious musical reason, as part of the bonus tracks, just so you can wince at it twice. Elsewhere there are four instrumentals, of which “City Of Lagoons” and “Chronoglide Skyway” are somewhat of a cosmic nature while “The Aubergine That Ate Rangoon” is more funky, delineating the band's move towards a more earthbound stance, the line-up of two drummers and bassist clearly exerting the lion's share of the influence as Turner's sax and the keys mean that Brock's guitar work is largely relegated to backing work. That said, it's got bite, urgency and the funk gets more than ready to roll as the whole thing lurches along in fine fashion. Of the original album, this leaves “Kadu Flyer”, a song that kind of bounces along merrily with oddly addictive, pleasant sounding harmonies, sounding more like across between Quintessence and Stackridge, than Hawkwind, but it's actually a really excellent song delivered by Turner with a curiously hypnotic exotic far-eastern influence in its latter instrumental parts. As three further bonus tracks, you get the instrumental “Honky Dorky”, originally the B-side of “Kerb Crawler”, that's more circular and hypnotic than funky, as synths and rhythm section provide the meat of the track with a repeated vocal refrain engaging or annoying the crap out of the listener, depending on your point of view; this is joined by “Back On The Streets”, recorded towards the latter part of '76 with a slimmed-down line-up and, at long last, Brock's woken up, for this really is a rather fine traditional Hawkwind rocker and arguably the best track on the newly remastered album. As a bonus you get its B-side “The Dream Of Isis” which is a driving mix of swirling synthesized, almost space-rock, together with a wickedly strong electric bass line and a sizzling sea of synth soloing. All in all, it's stod the test of time more than adequately and is now an album I will play more often – except for “Kerb Crawler”, that is!!

HAWKWIND - Electric Teepee CD
A masterpiece! The only low point for me is “Sadness Runs Deep” which I've always felt belonged on a Dave Brock solo album and not here, where it seems so out of place. The many instrumentals on this one are amazing--"Going to Hawaii" is quite a psychic journey, and then the final bit, "Electric Tepee" is an ultimate statement of the Hawkwind credo, sounding brighter, fresher and, if anything, more powerful than ever. Known primarily for its high synths content, the power of the guitars and rhythm section is still in evidence, and is brought out more to the fore by virtue of the remastrering. Also you can really hear all the separate layers of sound that are built up in the mix, bringing the tracks even more to life. The synth sections come right out at you, while the whole album flows and is cohesive. I was surprised by just how good this album still sounds for the music that’s on it, and shall certainly be playing this one more often than I have done in the past – excellent job.

HAWKWIND – Live Chronicles 2CD
For the first time in the Uk – and now fully remastered – we get the whole of the 1985 concert from the “Black Sword” tour and, in many ways, this remains one of the definitive post-EMI period Hawkwind albums of the last 25 years. This was space-rock on an epic scale, but one that has got the lot – atmosphere, cohesion, energy, thought, adrenaline and passion – the sound of a band on fire and going for the burn. In many ways, a definitive Hawkwind line-up of Brock, Davey, Bainbridge, Lloyd-Langton and Thompson provide you with a non-stop rollercoaster ride through the universes as two CD's of mighty space-rock prove completely spellbinding, with legendary writer Michael Moorcock along for the ride on several short recitations. You simply can't single out any tracks as it's all one gigantic highlights and at no place do the band put a foot wrong. Although rarely in anyone's top five of Hawkwind all-time albums, it remains one of the best of a 40 year career and should be owned, treasured and loved by anyone onto space-rock.

HAWKWIND – Xenon Codex (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
Originally came out in 1988, 22 years ago, and about 15 years after their legendary “Space Ritual” album, the one that most fans pointed towards when decrying that any post-Ritual work is “not as good”. “Xenon” has never exactly been one of their studio albums for which fans would shout from the rooftops as being “the one to have” above most others, but when you listen back to the album now, you clearly have to wonder why this is. Between its instrumentals and songs, delivers possibly the finest example of space-rock that the band had put out on a studio album in the last ten years or so. So, why isn't this “the one”? Simple answer – the songs are catchy, the rhythms are commercial and the instrumentals are quite relaxed!! This album could have been the one that put them back on the map, but by not releasing the opening track as a single, the label and band missed the one thing that could have catapaulted them back to the heights. You only have to take one listen to “The War I Survived” to have it swirling around in your head, to be headbanging with the finest of metal bands, to be doing air guitar to the final searing burst of lead guitar as the track fades, to be singing along to the chorus and leaping about like a loon to the rhythmic hyperdrive of one of the best space-rock “pop” songs since “Silver Machine”. Far from punishing rhythms or driving beats, a good deal of the rhythmic drive on this album is positively “dancey” in a rock context, and it's probably straying that close to a more commercial edge, which had the fans scratching their collective heads and chins. This is evidenced by the second track, “Wastelands Of Sleep”, a more flowing, relaxed slice of space-rock balladry and imagery, but with that danceable rhythm underneath, and a gorgeous mid-song instrumental section. Next up is “Neon Skyline”, another stunning slice of “space-rock-as-pop char contender”, again, with rhythms to which you could rock-dance with the best of 'em, another storming chorus, all the touches that made “Silver Machine” a winner, the only trouble being that it's way too short to be seen as such,ending far too soon and segueing right into the piano-led serenity of “Lost Chronicles”, an instrumental with solid piano, distant electric guitar, chunky drumming, deep bass and plenty of space-synth swooshes all around, then going into a cutting, fluid electric guitar lead to add bite to the beauty, before appearing to end on an orchestral synth soundscape, only to gather drum strength and scythe into the end song portion of the track as another roaring slice of space-rock explodes into life. “Tides” is another moving instrumental with blissful lead guitar, and this sails into the angst-ridden lyrical imagery that is the strident flow of “Heads”, with a strong vocal, a multi-tracked hook, upfront bass, expressive lead guitar, solidly flowing danceable drums and synth surrounds, mid-paced but one of the band's strongest songs since the “Quark” album. Through two more instrumentals, things lead to “Sword Of The East” , another gem of commercial space-rock that, once again, will be hanging round your head for ages after you hear it, the combination of multi-tracked lead vocals, soaring harmonies, addictive beats and space-rock instrumental distilled to its most accessible levels, all combining to produce one seriously wide-ranging appeal of a space-rock song. The album ends on the beefy stomp of “Good Evening”, the presence of way too many samples obscuring another solid space-rock stormer of a song.
So there you have it – a practically faultless example of Hawkwind's space-rock tailored for the masses that the masses never got to hear and, to this day, still stunning from start to finish. Too commercial or not commercial enough? Who knows – but this is the album you give to anyone not into Hawkwind to “let them in gently”, even though, despite its “dancey” beats – it rocks!!

HAWKWIND – Pxr 5 (Remastered + Bonus Trax) CD HAWKWIND – Quark, Strangeness And Charm (Remastered + Bonus CD) 2CD
You couldn't get a greater contrast between two albums so close together in time terms, by this band, if you tried.
“PXR 5” from June 1979, even allowing for Mark Powell's normally fabulous remaster jobs, sounds as flat as a pancake. The songs are uniformly dull, the delivery from Bob Calvert pretty even throughout, while band sound as though their hearts just weren't in whatever it was that they thought they were doing. With a plethora of songs featuring predominantly sci-fi themes looked at from an earth perspective, it's only appropriate that there should be a song about Mars, as the album's got about a similar amount of life on it. There's no dynamics, no edge, no excitement, just a stack of songs with very well written lyrics performed with about as much enthusiasm as a carthorse on its way to the knackers yard. The fact that the album was only released as a “contract filler” when originally released, comes as no surprise.
But, contrast this with “Quark”, and it's like a different band – which it actually wasn't!! Recorded less than a year earlier, the album remains the crowning glory of the Calvert era of Hawkwind, and the 24 bit remaster has only enhanced it way beyond anything you thought you'd heard before. The tracks are vibrant, full of life and exciting. The songs are excellently executed with the band sounding like they're on fire and born to go. The vocals from Calvert more than do the songs justice as he positively acts out many of the song scenarios to great effect. “Spirit Of The Age” is just a gem – it somehow manages to make space-rock and science fiction sound down to earth and commercial without losing any of the spirit that is Hawkwind and yet managing to be quite a lengthy track. Much of the album is overtly commercial, as songs, hooks and choruses swirl around your head, long after the songs have gone, while the instrumental work, from Simon House in particular on keys and violin, is outstanding, the presence of a previously unreleased jam from the sessions, even further testimony to this fact, with some spirited guitar work from Brock along the way. The presence of a whole extra CD featruing previously unreleased work-in-progress versions of many of the songs on the album, are far from throwaway and sound just great, the sound sometimes lacking the depth of the finished version, but more than made up by the enthusiasm with which the band attack the tracks. With three live tracks to end things, it's a more than worthy bonus CD. This remains one of the truly great Hawkwind albums, and possibly THE album you'd use to introduce a non-Hawkwind fan to the delights of the band, the even more remarkable thing being that it doesn't sound in any way, 30 years old. Methinks a contemporary audience of indie fans would do well to check this out – I think they'd be pleasantly surprised.

HAWKWIND – Live Seventy Nine (Remaster + Bonus Tracks) CD
Having been through what could arguably be called the “wilderness years” with Calvert in the frame, it was finally a blessed sigh of relief to hear a real Hawkwind band going back to playing what they do best, which is some of the finest quality driving space-rock around. That this album represented their “last hurrah” of the seventies, made the cycle complete as the best space-rock band on the planet delivered one mighty fine set of new and familiar tracks with all the energy, enthusiasm and electricity that you'd missed over the duration of the mid-seventies. A line-up of Brock and Lloyd-Langton on guitars, ex-Gong wizard Tim Blake on synths and keys, plus the Bainbridge-King rhythm section, came as close as you could get to recreating the glories of the early seventies line-ups. From the finest slice of potentially hit-single space-rock since “Silver Machine” in the form of the driving anthem that is “Shot Down In The Night”, complete with hook and chorus, through a wild ride in the seminal “Brainstorm” and the best version you'll find of “Spirit of the Age”, to Tim Blake's Hawkwind-adapted space-rock interpretation of his own “Lighthouse”, complete with some sterling electric guitar work from the two guitarists, and a surging monster version of “Master of The Universe”, this is a non-stop ride across a universe that Hawkwind came to call their own and for which they became the rightful masters of their own universe. With two bonus tracks, a stunning sound courtesy of the remaster and space-rock at its best, this is, even for Hawkwind's mighty catalogue, one of the best five albums they've ever made.

HAWKWIND: Church Of Hawkwind (Remaster + Bonus Tracks) CD
This is a much weirder album than “Sonic Attack”, its more song-based predecessor, but after all, that's what I like about Hawkwind: the fact that they aren't afraid to experiment. Sometimes when they venture out on a limb it might not be the greatest thing ever, but I certainly appreciate the fact that they try to stretch themselves a bit. I would hate it if they were mired in a "Doremi Fasol Latido / Space Ritual" mindset. Luckily they aren't! In many ways, looking back, a transition album, marking the gradual change from a Bainbridge-Langton-Griffin orientation to a Davey-Chadwick dominated one, the latter making guest appearances on one track, while Marc Sperhawk contributes bass on a separate track, the helm being firmly in the hands of Brock and Bainbridge. A fairly even split of songs and instrumentals, this is essentially an electronics-dominated album, fairly introspective, and it would have been nicer to have the tracks linked rather than all the fades. The feel of space is prevalent throughout and there is some strong and at times beautiful lead guitar work in there too. It’s still got a flow to it and, even better, whereas you had to turn the original up louder than most to be heard, here on the remaster, courtesy of supremo Mark Powell, the sound, quality, clarity and dynamics are superb, with a handful of space-rock song-oriented gems along the way too. Of the five previously unreleased bonus tracks, “Fall Of Earth City” features Bainbridge on vocals rather than Brock, and, curiously, the effect is amazing – no better no worse, just different and lends a whole different feel to the track., while the extended “Angel Voices” is purely a few more samples and “Harvey's Sequence” is a fine slice of spacey synth music with depth, coldness, sequencers and visions of dust-storm plains on desolate planets. “Water Music” is a solid, mid-paced instrumental with some excellent playing from the whole band, featuring really strong synths and guitars. Finally, “Looking In The Future/Virgin Of The World” is an extended version of the original album closer and as a mid-paced slice of more sedate space-rock, justifies its inclusion. Overall, a much better album than has oft been mentioned, more languid in feel than some but good stuff to play in between the so-called “classics”.

HAWKWIND – It Is The Business Of The Future To Be Dangerous DBLCD – Expanded-Remaster
The first disc is the original album plus a bonus track. The original album really did break new ground for the band, being their first almost entirely instrumental album and, even from there, featuring predominantly electronic instruments from synths through percussive devices. The result, unsurprisingly for this band led by a guy whose love of all things seventies teutonic electronic is well charted, is a sea of uninterrupted flowing instrumental textures, rhythms, cosmic rock and space-tronic soundscapes, all now sounding vibrant, crystal clear and there's no way you'd think it had been done nearly 19 years ago. Injected in between the dynamics, electronics, soundscapes, serenity and power are three songs, one space-rock and “trad” Hawkwind, one coming off the back of a more reggae-ish rhythm and sounding seriously psychedelic and the other serving the only time on the album that an idea doesn't work in the form of a rather poorly played and equally poorly sung cover of Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”, an agony this release manages to compound by giving us an even poorer sung and played bonus track of the same song with Samantha Fox on vocals. But just cast this aberration aside and the rest is fantastic. The second and bonus CD features all of their two EP's “Solstice Remixes” which continue the electronic theme with foun ambient and chill-out mixes of the Hawkwind classic “Spirit Of The Age” in the capable hands of Astralasia and Salt Tank, while the other is all of the “Decide Your Future” EP featuring a blistering original mix of the Hawkwind track that should have been their greatest hit single next to “Silver Machine” in the form of the absolutely stunning “Right To Decide”, plus two more ambient/chill-out mixes and a revamp of “Camera” from the album.
Overall, this is one superb pacakge from the hands of Mark Powell and crew, bringing to life an album that's totally timeless and an era of the band that sounds just fantastic from start to finish – with one exception.

HAWKWIND – The Business Trip Live Remaster CD + Bonus Track
A live album from the Winter tour of '93 when the band consisted of just three people – original member Dave Brock, plus Alan Davey and Richard Chadwick – and, for a band reknowned for their huge sound expanse from the heady days when there were seven or so on stage, the fact that this album very much continues the Hawkwind tradition with complete success, is a testament tot he talent of the musicians concerned. Bearing in mind that Chadwick just drums – although “just” is a misnomer as he really becomes the epitome of “rhythm with feel” that ranges from full-on power crunch to cymbal-led delicacy. All of which leaves the other two creating a myriad worlds of force and finesse throughout he highlights of what must have been one hell of a great series of concerts. The 15 tracks that formed the original album, consist of recently released tracks and classic tracks that go right back to the early seventies, many segments segueing into the next. The construction of the album, and presumably the performances, largely treads a rather superb formula in that pieces build, fire up, erupt, drive then drop back to passages of soaring serenity before the next build-up, or in some cases, eruption, comes into play. Throughout the album, space-rock magic is heard as the band roar through numbers such as “Do That”, “The Right Stuff” and “Right To Decide”, with the jamming bits going as diverse as reggae at one end and cosmic soundsculpting at the other, as guitars, synths and bass provide the canvas, the paint, the ideas and the passion – the whole nine yards – to create an album that should really be regarded among the band's finest. The bonus track is an odd one out, being a largely electronic, bouncy and strong instrumental that, although good, is not really in keeping with the atmosphere of the album and, regardless of completeness, really should have been left off. Other than that, a stunner of space-rock proportions. DICK HECKSTALL-SMITH – Dust In The Air Suspended..... CD (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
IN the case of some “classic” seventies albums, it can so often be the case that you are so blown away by the line-up of the album, that you lose sight of what you're actually hearing, “Peter & The Wolf” being a classic example of utter tripe played by musicians who should have known better.
This is not as bad as that – no way!! However, if you listen to it without any regard to who's playing on it, it's not perhaps the classic you might think. The first four tracks are pretty basic early seventies examples of song-based jazz-rock, UK of course, stuff that sounded quite revelatory at the time, but which have not stood that test of time particularly well, flowery lyrics surrounded by fusion with feeling, all of which does exhibit a flow, largely devoid of anything that musically lights up your life, but nevertheless with an underlying quality beneath the lyrically overly flowing songs. Then you come to this epic piece called “The Pirate's Dream”, which, initially thanks to Chris Farlowe's tension-filled throaty holler of a vocal, at least possesses energy, while the band provide a twisting, turning, tumbling, flowing, driving early seventies UK jazz-rock backing. That it is well written and arranged, that it goes through a number of mood changes, that it's texturally rich with a variety of instrumentation without featuring any lengthy soloing, and that it builds and grows into this many headed fusion monster, is a testament as to what a mighty track it still remains. “Same Old Thing” is another song, only this time more languid and not really that dissimilar from what prefaced “Pirate”. The bonus tracks include two live, mixing desk, versions of album tracks that truly eclipse the studio versions, including an amazing rendition of “Pirate”, and well make up for the inadequacies of the other studio songs. A third live track an two studio tracks are the only surviving material from Heckstall-Smith's short-lived band Manchild, all of which fit well with the album, again, being mainly song-based with little room for instrumental prowess but still retaining the jazzy element through its veins. So, yes, it does feature members of Colosseum, Graham Bond Organisation, later Nucleus, Hookfoot and more – but it's close to, not so much too many cooks spoiling the broth, as too many cooks making different recipes.

HOT TUNA – Yellow Fever CD – Remaster / Hoppkorv CD-Remaster
Out of the ashes of Jefferson Airplane came the duo of bassist Jack Casady and guitarist/vocalist Jorma Kaukonen, a guy who garnered the reputation of “never having played the same solo twice”. Starting initially as an acoustic blues outfit in the early seventies, they recruited assorted guests along the way and became an electric and acoustic or even electro-acoustic band, performing a combination of original material – in the main – and a few covers, never straying too far from their blues roots, but always exceeding pleasant stuff and rather fine albums.
Then, around the middle of the seventies, the band plugged in with a vengeance – 3 hour electric sets would tear the roof off the venue and the audience alike as Jorma's blistering electric guitar and Casady's enormous bass were joined by a drummer and they became THE overlooked power trio of the seventies.
The first album in this format, “America's Choice”, although more powerful than than its predecessors, nevertheless only gave a glimpse as to the staggering live might that this trio became in concert. The critics couldn't hack the fact that this band had suddenly “rocked out”, and completely failed to give them credit for the songs they were playing – still their own blues-rocker originals in the main – on what was a stunning album. They sold out the London Roundhouse and were distinctly making their mark, but the album failed to catch fire. They followed it up with “Yellow Fever” in 1975, once again a driving slice of electric Tuna, but, also once again, failing to ignite the flames that were this band live in concert at the time – and even a live album, still didn't manage to deliver the sheer ferocity of performance that this band possessed in concert.
Now – with the advance of technology, along comes this remaster and at long last, there real force of the band is evident. You only have to listen to the 6 minutes of the opener to hear some of the most searing heat blues-rock guitar work that'll just blow you away every time you hear it. Kaukonen's nasally and absolutely distinctive vocal is what leads all the songs on this album, as the rhythm section play a blinder and Casady's bass pounds the life out. All the songs are melodic, some even positively heart-wrenching, making for a set of 8 tracks that are both immediate yet repeat playable to the nth degree. Meanwhile, the guitar work is gut-wrenching as Kaukonen unleashes wave after wave of attack. The production is now so incredibly great that the real power of the whole band is utterly in place and if you turn this album wayy up loud, it's gonna join the ranks of immaculate albums in your collection by many a band more famous in this genre, something you'd never thing possible, but – trust me – this is an album that not only now smokes, but goes positively nuclear, and if you like blistering electric blues-rock then this is essential for your collection.
A year or so later, and out came the third in this trilogy of electric powerhouses, an album that was, arguably, the last great electric Hot Tuna record in the form of “Hoppkorv”. Again, at the time, while the most consistently rampant of the three, still didn't ignite the metallic sparks that so many fans would have wanted to hear thanks to a rather lacklustre production. But now, in the skilful hands of Mark Powell, the balance is restored as we now have a ten-tracker that will blow your mind. The trio with the addition of keyboardist Nick Buck, not that for most of the album you'd know he was there, just go for broke with scorching originals and the occasional cover, nearly all of which are smokin' muthas of tracks, occasionally balanced by the odd moment of tenderness, although even these melodic gems are still driving along like juggeranuts. Just like its predecessor, this is now restored to the point that it should have been all along – and that's a burning testament to one of the most underrated power trios in the history of rock.

JADE WARRIOR – Kites (Remastered) CD
By the time this album came out in 1978 – the fourth in what had originally been a trilogy of albums collectively known as “The Island Years” which had largely been received with acclaim by the press at the time – the progressive rock and fusion worlds were on the wane in terms of popularity, invention and overall quality. This album – an all instrumental offering like its predecessors – continued the brand of intricately assembled “progressive-world-fusion” music that had become the style which had won the band such universal praise. Yet, at the time of release, this album was regarded as “overly complex” and “challenging” compared with its more melodic, flowing counterparts. Today, 32 years on, that's no longer the case, yet you can easily why it was. Throughout the first half of the album, the mix of flutes, exotic percussion, electric guitars, strings and more, take us through brief glimpses of the greats of mid-seventies prog and fusion – Stomu Yamashta, Soft Machine, Mike Oldfield, to name but three – and the way the music leaps from musical branch to musical branch, is a testament more to the many ideas that floated around the two musicians' heads, than anything bereft of musical accomplishments. Listening now, there is a lot on which to focus, but the fact remains that this has become something of an enigma of an album. It could only have been a seventies album – noone plays and composes like this anymore – yet, for all that, it's timeless – there's an atmosphere here that takes it outside of category, almost now “classical progressive world fusion”, and it's a journey that's decidedly worth taking if you want to enjoy something really different and, at the same time, something you can listen to loads of times and see something new in its charms, every time you play it.

GREG LAKE – From The Underground Vol 1.... The Official Bootleg CD
Before the title puts you off, let me say that all the tracks here are excellent sound quality – the “bootleg” bit refers more to the rarity of the tracks, as most are recorded live or are studio rarities. Of all the people from the original wave of British Progressive Rock back in the seventies, it's arguably singer/bassist and erstwhile guitarist Lake who's had enough scorn and ridicule piled onto him by an unappreciative media for whom he almost single-handedly represented the lyrical darkside that was “Prog Rock”. Yet, although I have to say I was somewhat sceptical when presented with this, I have to say that, as a snapshot of his work with some of the true legends of progressive rock of the seventies – of which, whether you like it or not, Lake is among their number – it didn't have me reaching for the “next” button any where near as much as I thought I would, and in fact only the sugary schmaltz of the mercifully short “Affairs of the Heart” (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) inducing feelings of panic. Elsewhere, his mastery of the bass is illustrated amply on the lengthy Emerson, Lake and (Cozy) Powell instrumental, “The Score”, while the epic King Crimson track “A Man A City” from 1969 revealed a Lake full of lyrical excellence as far as prog rock goes and the legend that was King Crimson, still ilustrates to magnificent effect, a fact further amplified by the ferocity of the album's closer, Crimso's “21st Century Schizoid Man”, here performed by The Greg Lake Band from 1981 with an absolutely incendiary guitar lead from Gary Moore making up for the sax/guitar power of the original. Between all this are ELP standards, another song from the ELP(owell) line-up, a couple of short early rare singles from pre-prog Lake and a spirited live rendition of “Heat Of The Moment” from the original Asia line-up, live in concert. Overall, for any prog-rock fan, essential listening – simple as that, really.

GREG LAKE – From The Underground Vol 2.... Deeper Into The Mine CD
Following on from the prog-rock excellence that was the first volume in this series, this one, while featuring tracks of equally consistent sound quality with many more studio-based tracks and line-ups that have never before been heard on CD, the album is very much more song-based, with few ventures into overtly prog-rock territories, tending instead to concentrate more on Lake as singer and songwriter. With that trademark vocal richness, he weaves his emotional way through a heap of songs averaging around 4-5 mins with several tracks from Toto featuring Lake on vocals, Ride The Tiger which was just Lake and fellow Asia compatriot Geoff Downes, plus more from the two ELP line-ups, a brief glimpse into the world of '69-era live King Crimson and a blistering prog-rock finale of “Fanfare For The Common Man” with Gary Moore on lead guitar. So, if you're a take for Lake as singer and writer, this one's for you.

LINDISFARNE – Magic In The Air CD-Remaster
The prospect of a reunion album from a previously established and successful band is sometime fraught with anticipation. That the said album should then turn out to be a selection of their greatest tracks might even give room for further misgivings – and when you find out that the album's not only all that, but a live album as well – jeez!! you'd be forgiven for wanting to steer a wide arc around it. But you'd have reckoned without the desire, passion and sheer joy of playing exhibited by the original members of folk-rock group Lindisfarne back in late '77 when this album was recorded in front of a sold-out crowd in their home town. The result is a sure-fire winner of an album that beats their previous live album – from the days when they were at the heights of their success in the early seventies – hands down. Sensibly they start with their greatest hit – a sensitive rendition of “Lady Eleanor” that you just know is their way of saying “right – that's got that over with – now we can start to have fun” - and they do. We get a rousing rendition of the anthem from the first album that is “Road To Kingdom Come” with some great harmonies and a surge of verses and choruses that really gets you into the zone and flying alongside. What follows is one glorious set of songs – ballads, folk-rockers, pop, folk and more – all songs superbly written and arranged and delivered just like they used to, if not better. All the members of the band acquit themselves to perfection and it really is what the title of the album suggests – the remaster just bringing out even more of the quality from what is undoubtedly a fun album and one of the first live albums from a seventies band that I've sat through from start to finish in one sitting, for quite a while.

LINDISFARNE – Back And Fourth CD-Remaster+Bonus Tracks
Following the reunion gig from December 1977, the band decided to get back together to release a new studio album. Bearing in mind how bad things had got in quality album terms after the “Dingly Dell” release back in the early part of the seventies and the ball rolling downhill at some pace represented by the awful “Roll On Ruby”, you'd have been forgiven for being seriously speculative on the wisdom of the band getting back together once again. Probably the last thing you'd have anticipated would be that the resulting album would actually be rather good. That it was – is – arguably the best album they'd released since the debut, would have floored most people – yet that's exactly what happened, and this carefully restored remaster is the proof – sadly, it was also the last great album that the line-up would record.
Lindisfarne had become that rare thing – masters of English folk-rock, well respected by that genre's fans; unequivocally North East of England and wearing it on their sleeves and hearts like a banner; and at the same time, a seventies pop sensation with several top 50 songs to their credit, still retaining their credibility as a band and continuing to fill venues for the live work. This album is all of that and more – with most of the songs written by singer and guitarist Alan Hull, three from singer Ray Jackson and one from bassist Simon Cowe, the album bears the Lindisfarne trademarks 100%. From the opener of “Juke Box Gypsy” with its five-part harmonies and undoubted swinging arrangement that stays true to its folk-rock roots, it has a surge of verses and a neat hook, with Hull on the main lead vocal and a rousing little number to begin the album. This then goes into the flowing “Warm Feeling” which just drifts wondrously on the choruses and, like the similarly warm but bouncier “Only Alone” a little further on, has great lead vocals, lush harmonies and memorable hooks – it's all so cozy and safe but in the hands of this band, that somehow becomes something of great charm and quality rather than something sickly sweet and forgettable. “Woman” was a single and is really a Hull ballad, a bit dated in modern terms, but still a decent track. “Run For Home” was the biggie – a huge hit single on a great album, complete with a falg-waving anthem of a chorus that you can't get out of your head for hours after listening to this album even now, 30+ years later, the mark of what was and remains, a truly timeless slice of folk-pop that you simply can't argue with. The what, for me, is the best song on the album in the form of “King's Cross Blues” relating the North Easterner's lack of enjoyment at having to take the train down to London, leaving the homeland, and wrapped up in the form of an express train chugger of a track complete with wailing harmonica, soaring harmonies on the hook and just a stunner of folk-rock proportions. “Get Wise” is a song with a message delivered with some bite and attack by Alan Hull over a choppy series of rhythms and ringing lead guitars as he relates the message over what amounts to folk-funk beats and a neat series of “verse-as-hooks” approach to the writing and arranging. “You And Me” bounces along as a slice of fun-folk-pop strides into the light with a typically smiling vocal from Hull and even more typical flowing harmonies on the hooks that take off tot he skies as the harmonica lends the song's instrumental hook and the thing bounces along brightly with strength and a sense of enjoyment running through its veins like a stick of rock. “Marshall Riley's Army” is the band's “historical anthem”, another flag-waver of a song that relates what the band stand for and the roots from which they came, on a stirring, emotive, surge of a folk-rock song, complete with another memorable chorus and you get the feeling that this would have served far better as a single than what they issued as “Woman”. “Angels At Eleven” is a Hull ballad largely delivered by him alone with added instrumental textures while “Make Me Want To Stay” is the band ending the album on a warm, “by-the-fireside-on-a-cold-winter's-night” band anthem with observational, looking-back, relationship-matters songwriting wrapped up in a sprightly mix of folk, ballad, jazz, blues and pop, a gorgeous way to end a wonderful album.
The new remaster adds two B-sides as bonus tracks, “Stick Together” being a bouncy solid slice of folk-pop with an oompah beat and suitably simillar song structure and hooks, while “When It Gets The Hardest” is a slice of rousing folk-rock that actually serves better as an end point to this album than the original end track ever did, taking you out on a rock rather than a roll. Overall, then, this has lost none of its charm and all these years later still stands up as quintessential English folk-rock from the seventies at its timeless finest.

MADE IN SWEDEN – Made In England CD (Remaster)
Obscure prog band from 1970 with an album of 8 songs between 3 and 8 minutes long, and this lot were a trio of guitars, keys, bass, mellotron and drums, plus vocals. The really odd part is that the songs retain a kind of “of its time but timeless” quality, in a similar way to things like Simon & Garfunkel and The Beatles, only without a chorus. This band mix so many styles as to be disorganised, yet the song structure is firm and purposeful. The vocals are decidedly seventies with that kind of flowing quality to the leads and depth from the harmonies as a band setting its sights on the songwriting sides of the then emerging worlds of prog-rock, jazz-rock and classical rock. What, I guess, made it disappear into obscurity rather than hit the heights is that many of the songs are just plain boring in terms of their subject matter and the laconic way on which the singer delivers them. At first hearing, you're actually quite captivated by something the likes of which you've not heard in decades (if you're from that era, that it) but once you've done that, it's arguable as to how often you'll want to do it again. Although, to be fair, there are a ton of way worse seventies reissues than this, on the markey right now, and the fact that remaster maestro Mark Powell has given this a new, well deserved, coat of paint, has rendered this just on the side of “recommended”, although it was a close call.

MAN – 2 Ozs of Plastic (With A Hole In The Middle) CD (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
Although it's actually the second Man album ever recorded, to me it's their first – this is where the Man band began. But, despite guitarist Deke Leonard proudly proclaiming in the new album sleevenotes that “if you don't like this you'll never like a Man album” (something with which I profoundly disagree), it remains to this day a solid and consistent, if slightly too varied, album. The opening track is a lengthy instrumental that's totally dreamy, screams of “long hot summer days” and is as atypical of what the Man band became as sausages are atypical to vegetarianism. Languid guitar drips from the speakers conjuring images of sun-kissed beaches in lands far away (well, Brighton or Herne Bay, maybe) and all is bliss – it's on the right side of twee, thankfully doesn't sound like The Shadows and as melodic, easy listening mellowness goes, is an insomniac's dream – oddly enough, it's also quite gorgeous and remarkably enjoyable. All of which makes the shock of “It Is As It Must Be” even more ear-catching, as this mix of bluesy guitar, shuffling drums, throbbing bass and bleeping sounds all converge from different directions into this driving slice of blues surge as riffing guitars and bass mutate via crunching dramatic drumming into this rush of a song topped with co-lead guitarist Micky Jones' emotive anguish of a vocal. But, yet again, it fits – it's hypnotic – it's blues from a new angle – the Man angle – and it still sounds good to this day, albeit a tad dated (hey, it's 40 years old – whaddya expect!!). Then another (nearly) instrumental - “Spunk Box” - a track that took its rightful place in the ranks of legendary seventies rock epics thanks to an incendiary 22 minute reading of it on the “Greasy Truckers” album, but here, in embryonic form, complete with whole stacks of sounds you've never before heard, thanks to the remarkable remastering job, it has a kind of rustic charm, not exactly the stuff of which legends are made, but the chugging rhythms and the way the guitars soar out all over the place, individually diverse, collectively coalescing complete with keyboard textures as depth, all topped with more anguished, slightly higher, vocals, manage to create a track that surges towards a finale that's the true bit where you really feel “whoaahhhhh..........now THIS is something special” as the band drive ahead into a guitars-meets-vocal harmonies, rhythmically strong fade-out. “My Name Is Jesus Smith” is another slice of bluesy rock Manband style, this time with Deke Leonard leading the way and as an example of what was to become his own brand of “Welsh Rock”, it's a barrelhouse stomper complete with stinging guitar shards and rolling piano over the soaring Leonard-Jones vocal and chugging rhythms, all fairly obvious but somehow special at the same time. “Parchment And Candles” is the throwaway slice of electro-acoustic prettiness in instrumental form with cruising guitars over an easy listening organ melody and gently driving percussion, all very church-like as you skip down the aisle rather than solemnly walk. “The final track from the original album is actually one of the Manband's oft ignored but quite as classic examples of what they made their own brand of “Welsh Rock” and, almost alongside “Spunk Box” in this context, is a gem of a track, bluesy and driving with that dual guitar drive and choppy organ runs that gave this album the “Man Sound” that was to become. ON the three bonus tracks you get an alternative run through “Jesus”, not that dissimilar and still good, a previously unreleased track called “A Sad Song” which is a languid but solid instrumental that mixes the bluesy nature of some tracks with the mellow nature of others and a neat addition to the album, while finally you hear a “demo” version of “Spunk Box”, again not too far from the album version and still a welcome addition. So, all in all, for a 40 year old album, it's lost none of its charm and you'd have to say that, for its age, remains an essential seventies-esque classic.

MAN – Live At The Marquee Friday 13th May 1983 2CD+DVD Box Set
For the first time ever, the complete concert on both CD and DVD, fully restored and remastered. Across 15 tracks, the quality is exemplary throughout in all areas. As a comeback gig, the compositions span the entire career of the band to date, with a consistency that's incredibly admirable. The orignal trio of Ace, Leonard and Jones are joined by newcomer to the band and ex-Gentle Giant drummer John Weathers, but the playing throughout is of a band of seasoned veterans having a great time playing the classic tracks that they know and love from their own repertoire. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the set, especially for a band renowned for their tendencies to go off on some lengthy dual-guitar-led excursions, is that the majority of the album does nothing of the sort. Instead, you get a set of short and mid-length tracks that mainly revolve around the song portion of the composition and, as such, comes across as both varied and a refreshing change from what you might have expected. Don't get me wrong, though – the guitar work throughout from Jones and Leonard is fluid, sharp, melodic, distinctive and breathtaking, some of the dual runs flowing like the most wondrous of rivers. But also, the band rocks out for most of the set, occasionally slowing things down for songs that fly rather than drive, while the lead vocals are shared by the three main guitarists. You'll hear Ace's gravelly tones, Leonard's biting Welsh lilt and Jones' almost Rush-like high register singing, all driven by a band that's got strength coursing through its veins. Only for the final two classics of “Many Are Called” and “Bananas” do the guitars go truly into stellar space, and even here it's melodic to a tee, the trademark of the band who never let indulgence get in the way of a great jam. Overall, in audio and visual terms, it's a classic from a highly underrated seventies band and a fitting testament – one of many – to the late Micky Jones.

MARSUPILAMI – Marsupilami Remastered CD
Amazingly from 1970, and another fine remaster job to make it sound all clear and up to date, in terms of its production anyway. Song-wise, well, it's a difficult one. The tracks on the album run from five and a half to over ten minutes long, and while the first two tracks feature a solid indistinctive sounding vocal, they come across as a more rock version of Quintessence, with surging if clean guitars augmented by spiralling flute playing and a dependable rhythm section. Just as you get used to this, on the third track they substitute organ for the flute and come over all early Nice on you, just to confuse you. Then, on the ten and a half minute “Ab Initio Ad Finem” (unsurprisingly, an instrumental), they mix the two so that it's like listening to a mix of Nice and Jade Warrior, only more sedate in many ways. They finish the album with a nine and a half minute track that carries on in this vein only injects a song portion to the proceedings and generally beefs things up, with the song positively, for this band, rolling along, more high-flying harmonies than lead vocals as the track twists and turns in typivcal early seventies proggy fashion, the mid-section sounding distinctly “Nice-like”, even down to the Emerson styled organ, “Rondo”-esque rhythms and O'List-styled guitar. If you had to criticise – and I do – the reason this isn't a legend of an album is that the songs themselves, although satisfying to listen to with an eye on nostalgia, simply didn't have that spark of excellence which makes you want to listen to it again and again and again, although certainly the last two tracks – and pretty well half of the album – come very close.

MATCHING MOLE – Matching Mole 2CD – Expanded Remaster +Bonus Tracks/Little Red Record - 2CD – Expanded Remaster +Bonus Tracks
After nearly 40 years, the ultimate version of a classic album from the legend that is Robert Wyatt and his ex-Caravan and Canterbury-stable mates Dave Sinclair and Dave Mcrea on keyboards, Phil Miller on guitar, Bill Maccormick on bass. The original debut album is largely instrumental, with one song in the form of the teary-eyed opener “O Caroline” with Robert's plaintif vocal and that ocean of mellotron making a love song never sound so sweet and a total emotional tear-jerker not to mention “Signed Curtain” that alludes more to the second Soft Machine album with “Moon In June” ease of effort in the songwriting department. From there on, things settle down to a mix of Canterbury fusion, progressive melodies and textures and Wyatt's occasional forays into wordless, echoed vocal gymnastics. Around this time – and beyond – there were loads of bands playing fusion or jazz-rock or whatever you care to call it. From instrumental gymnastics to show how technically adept – and mostly absolutely soul-less – the band members were to blandness of an outstanding degree from bands either playing it safe or simply jamming to infinity and back with no real purpose.
Where the Mole worked – and still works to this day – is by virtue of restraint and melody. Even when Wyatt's drumming is rolling around like thunderclaps, at no point do you “feel” you're listening to anything other than a darned excellent drummer. Add that to the band's playing founded on the basis of producing something that just flows to perfection rather than drives you round the bend, and you'll find tracks long and short that sustain every bit of their length and prove to be the missing link between fusion music and progressive rock. On the expanded edition, not only is the sound quality vastly improved on the original, but the extras will blow your mind – there's a 20 minute extended “Part Of The Dance” that sees the band in full flight, while plenty of studio outtakes and even a couple of John Peel sessions, all add to the mighty release that this has become. Because a lot of the playing revolves around pianos of various description, organ and electric guitar, there's little flash, plenty of substance, loads of melody, superb dynamics and just a friendly face all round as the band clearly enjoy what they're creating. This is all propelled by a rhythm section where Maccormick's bass throbs and pounds as the perfect accompaniment to Wyatt's chunky jazz drumming and the two occupy a place in the mix that makes them absolutely distinctive throughout. It's more than stood the test of time, and while it's clearly rooted in its era – manages to stand proud in today's musical arena as an album that made fusion music into something to be treasured rather than avoided at all costs.
“Little Red Record” follows suit only here there's a certain self-indulgence that's starting to creep in as, from the first few tracks, you get misplaced humour followed by driving jazz-rock that's suddenly become fast, furious and complex, not that the band are trying to prove anything – least, I assume they aren't – but it's somehow lost some of the “charm” that pervaded the whole of the first album. So you move from the 8 minute “Marchides” that really tested your headspace, into “Nan True's Hole” which combines the humour with the fusion to produce a piece that's really the sort of thing you'd cross the road to avoid if you saw it in the street today. So it goes, the album follows this path to arguable enjoyment levels only occasionally reaching the same emotional heights as they managed on the first album. The second disc re-issues their BBC Radio 1 “In Concert” performance and, in the context of what the band had become, fits like a glove, while the final half of the 2nd disc showcases previously unreleased studio tracks from August '72 and, arguably, the best part of the whole thing.
So – you have to buy the first album – of that, there's simply no arguing – then if you seriously love what you're hearing then go and get the second and prepare to be indulged by musicians indulging.

NATIONAL HEAD BAND – Albert 1 CD
I once owned this when it first came out and I'd not heard it for 35 years or so till this dropped through the door. Now I'm sitting here scratching my head wondering why – I'd not heard it for so long, that is!! Because, while it's not going to blow your socks off, as a document of the sort of songsmithery that was going around in the early seventies – the sort of thing you'd hear by the shovel-load on Bob Harris' Sounds Of The Seventies broadcasts – it's absolutely delightful. In here you'll hear elements of John Lennon (“Lead Me Back”), Supertramp-Heads, Hands & Feet (“Too Much Country Water”), Quiver-Supertramp (“Got No Time”), Lindisfarne (“You”), later Home (“Try To Reach You”) - and so on.... I think you get the picture here.
While, in terms of the arrangements and styles, it sounds decidedly “of its time”, the brand new sonic makeover that it's had courtesy of the musical window cleaner extraordinaire that is Mark Powell, makes it a sound of the seventies that doesn't make you wince but fills your heart with warmth – and you can't argue with that.

TOM NEWMAN – Faerie Symphony CD (2008 Remaster)
It's odd how the mind plays tricks with you – I always laboured under the, now misapprehension, that I hated this album. As a result, I never gave it the time of day, preferring instead to listen to my Mike Oldfield and Jade Warrior albums. But, when you listen to this album now, with its magnificent cathedral-like restoration project courtesy of Esoteric label's Mark Powell, you find it's something that you actually realise has more going for it than you gave credit. Imagine, if you will, the folkier elements of Mike Oldfield with the rock taken out and the more pastoral elements of later Jade Warrior with the power taken out, then combine that with almost Dan Ar Bras-esque instrumental folk, add a richness found on the more orchestral sounding parts of Stomu Yamashta's “Go” album, top all that off with an electro-acoustic melange of melody, depth, rhythm and British folk-rock styled instrumental arrangements, and you pretty well have the vast, open-ended, almost canyon-like reaches, that this instrumental album provides. With guitars, keyboards, flutes, percussion, wind instruments and more, Newman does it nearly all himself, save for appearances from Jade Warrior's Jon Field, and the result is a mid-seventies era album which has, surprisingly to me, stood the test of time and actually sounds quite vibrant and refreshing, but, and more of a testament to the album, something that you actually want to listen to, and ultimately genuinely enjoy, from start to finish, providing you have a folky heart in you, of course.

OMNIA OPERA – Omnia Opera + Red Shift DBL CD (Remastered)
The self-titled CD was the band's debut release on a serious label, having spent much of the '90's to that date doing privately released cassettes of seriously great psychedelic, space-rock music. That they announced their arrival in an 8 minute blazing inferno of space-rock proportions with guitar work that would have made Hawkwind go weak at the knees, is both a testament and a statement to what a fantastic, highly underrated band they were at the time (1993). A combination of song and extended instrumental breaks, the track twists and turns through all-guns-blazing rock to far-out universes of vocals and space synths and all points in between, with the core quartet playing an absolute blinder. The next track at a shade under 8 minutes follows suit with extra vocal harmonies from the female singers, and another blinding slice of psych-rock. The 12 minute “The Awakening” takes it all down a few notches to provide a flowing slice of psychedelia that's got a steady rhythm, slowly builds on a sea of verses and instrumental flow, leading into a searing heat guitar break that's a cross between early Roxy-era Manzanera and vintage Dave Brock. The female singers do most of the verses and sing it in hushed, atmospheric manner over the rolling rhythms and the more Hawkwind-esque vocal choruses while that guitar just soars in every break that come along and it's just one amazing track. From thereon, it's just one incendiary track after another, long and less long, evoking Ozrics, Hawkwind and more, arguably one of the most unsung psychedelic, space-rock albums of all time....until.....four years later.....
With the likes of Astralasia and Magic Mushroom Band charting a more dance-oriented course, and the then current crop of similar bands such as Dark Sun, Kava, Kava, Nukli, etc failing to live up to potential, it left this vastly matured album from Omnia Opera, standing in a league of its own, occupying a pivotal role in the field of all that's best about '90's psychedelia. Here is a band who progressed so far since previously recorded output, so as to be in another universe altogether. The lengthy compositions are highly Ozrics influenced with soaring guitars, plenty of synths, tight rhythms, space-rock passages, dubby bits, scorching lead guitars, a full immaculately produced sound and vocals that are just superb, and not a huge amount of them either. But it is the instrumental workouts on which this CD thrives with some great Hawkwind style rhythms, plenty of room for guitars and synths, a set of totally excellent tracks and absolutely essential listening for all fans of perfectly crafted, well delivered '90's psych/space-rock.
Overall, for space-rock fans who've not caught up or want to get these two incredible albums in remastered form, this is essential listening whichever way you look at it.

PHOS – Socrates CD- Remaster
Greek band from the mid-seventies under the guiding – and, at times, playing – hand of Aphrodite's Child main man Vangelis, But anyone expecting a “666”, then it's a case of “close but no cigar”. The band sing in English with a vocal that's got a kind of less sweet sounding seventies era Demis Roussos quality to it, as they burst into life on the rolling symphonic splendour of the opening track “Starvation”, performed with urgency and grandeur, predominantly vocal and arguably quite similar to the shorter tracks from the aforementioned “666”. “Queen Of The Universe” weaves and veers between acoustic song-based urgency and more uplifting bursts of keyboard-led dream-like brief instrumental interludes, quite inventive, a tad jarring but flowing well enough with the darkness of the vocals and the lurch of the rhythms, crisp acoustic guitars providing the melodic heart to the track. “Every Dream Comes To An End” is a lengthy instrumental, of course, led by piano, which, together with gently rolling ocean of acoustic guitars, piano, solid drumming and deep bass, features synth leads and fills for good measure to give extra texture to the track, as well as some sparing but biting electric guitar work along the way for added sharpness, but as an instrumental, it's rather fine stuff indeed. “The Bride” is more of a sprightly Greek-flavoured folk-rock, so much so that you half expect a hearty “fol-de-rol” at any time along the way. “Killer” opens with crisply strummed acoustic guitar and searing heat electric guitar before the band roar into life and the distant but urgent vocals provide the lyric to an urgent burner of a song that's got some stirring guitar work throughout, and the closest in rock terms to any of the more storming tracks on the A. Child “666” album I mentioned earlier. “A Day In Heaven” is more of a ballad, texturally sound and relatively palatable, while “Time Of Pain” hearkens back to the joys of rolling folk-rock, only this time with more invention, more lead guitar, more of that typical A. Chile-esque vocal and a generally rolling and rocking song for its duration. Finally, there's the 2-part “Mountains”, another, almost entirely instrumental, lengthy epic of a track, which twists and turns from delicacy to attacking and all points in between, to round off a surprisingly tasty album, with hardly any weak spots in sight, yet nothing that's going to set your world on fire, either.

PEKKA POHJOLA – B The Magpie CD(Remaster)
Reissue of instrumental album from the ex-Wigwam bassist and this was his “symphonic” album as he provides 7 tracks between 2 and 8 minutes long that mix seventies Euro jazz-rock with seventies prog-classical. It opens with a gentle two minute piano track before going into the 5 minutes of “First Morning” where the sound of restrained fusion with Chicago-like horns provides a flowing example of melodic fusion that's got the balance just right between memorable and addictive plus strong and musically interesting. The horns and winds dominate but the keys, bass, drums are always present but not intrusive. That's also the storey behind much of the rest of the album. Only one of the tracks features guitar, while, for most of the album, it's winds and horns all the way, with the bass, drums and piano adding rhythmic drive, extra strength and textural colour. A lot of the album is very relaxed but don't mistake this for boring, as, like good classical works, it holds your attention. At the centre of all of it, is melody and, providing you like the idea of symphonic fusion that's more jazz than rock, more classical than prog, then this will be a gem you somehow managed to overlook 35 years ago when it first came out – and the best bit is that it doesn't sound dated.

PEKKA POHJOLA - The Mathematician's Air Display CD(Remaster)
An instrumental seventies fusion album – with a twist – the twist being, that it's co-produced by Mike Oldfield, who actually plays guitar on three of the five tracks on the album – all of which is the main reason why this album works so well – because there are some cracking tunes and arrangements that take this well above yer average jazz-rock album. Even the opening five minute track, without Oldfield on guitars but with someone else, sets the scene with some spirited playing, flowing band work and tasty arrangements as Pohjola provides the beef on bass and the melody on piano, while the drums keep it all moving and the guitar weaves its magic. “Hands Straighten The Water” sound like one of Oldfield's early album epics condensed into five minutes with plenty going on to commend it. The seven minute title track starts with marching intent as deep bass and soaring guitar ally with spirited piano chords, crunching drums and a militaristic proggy arrangements. The clatter of the drums then ushers in some emotive bass before that unmistakeable Oldfield guitar follows suit, only to be mirrored by the heavy piano chords, which serve as a red rag to a bull, as the Oldfield guitar climbs even higher. So as not to let it fly out of sight, the arrangement changes to something more symphonic as the band proceed to fly as one across an open sky of majestic melodies and crashing rhythms. Then the guitar returns, this time accompanied by soaring synths to provide this strident, vast swirl of energised symphonic prog-rock with Oldfield firmly at the helm as it all cycles round and flows inexorably forward on waves of pleasure before dropping back down to earth like a floating feather as the gorgeous bass work sees things out. Next up is the two-part “The Consequences of Head Bending”, at a shade under sixteen minutes, the album's epic track. Now, if ever you wanted a cross between bits of “Hergest Ridge” and “Ommadawn” mixed with Brand X, Hatfield & The North and Jan Hammer, this is the track for you. It's everything you could delight in wanting if that comparison entices you, as its spirited, heady, energetic, dynamic and emotive, guitar/synths-driven, bass heavy, drum fuelled majesty serves to prove. The album ends with a short, fast throwaway piece of less than two minutes long, finishing on a fun note the same way Oldfield used to do when ending his first three epic albums. All told, still excellent all these years later.

QUICKSAND – Home Where I Belong CD-Remaster
I think it was the Old Grey Whistle Test back in the seventies who christened the bands that suddenly emerged from Wales as “The Welsh Invasion” and even devoted a programme to them that included Man, Sassafras, Budgie, the leading lights of the movement. A band that failed to get onto the show – and generally failed to get noticed for the most part – were Quicksand. That they didn't make it is primarily down to the record label they were on at the time, not capitalising on the movement and promoting the album – and, partly to the fact that the album itself, revolving mainly around the songs rather than any soloing or extended instrumental work, fell between two stools to go into second division territory with the likes of Home and Unicorn, the latter bearing a healthy comparison by virtue of the copious harmonies that you'll hear on this album from the singers, and also for the fact that a lot of the songs are fairly laid-back affairs with plenty of acoustic keys and guitars to balance the electric ones. Across ten songs, it could be from no other era than the early seventies, with distinct nods to the likes of early Yes, Wishbone Ash and similar. A song such as “Empty Street, Empty Heart” is both immaculate and absolutely exquisite in its execution and production, while many of the others compare favourably. The main instrumental space comes from the keys – organ, moog, piano – but there's plenty of room for a less intense sea of guitar work compared to the big guns of Man and Sassafras, although the vocal harmonies throughout are worthy of the Ash at their best. Surpirsingly way more enjoyable than ever I'd have expected, this is an album I'd heartily recommend to anyone who enjoyed the likes of the first two Yes albums or any of the aforementioned bands' (except Budgie) early works.

QUINTESSENCE – Quintessence CD
Oddly enough for a British band, we're going back to 1967, California, The Summer Of Love and hippies – for this 1972 album has now had such a makeover as to sound like it just stepped out of a timewarp but one in which the modern production desk had been invented but kept a closely guarded secret. The opening track, “Cosmic Surfer”, sounds like a cross between early Spirit, early Allman Brothers Band in the rhythm department, and pre-Egg Uriel in the vocals and song structure department, so those of you who are well and truly stuck in the '70's will know what I'm talking about – the rest of you won't have a clue. Meanwhile, we move forward to the next two songs proper (there's a short interlude in there somewhere) and the influences of California's Mamas and Papas comes into play as these lush vocal harmonies interplay over weaving flute, gentle rhythms and graceful lead male vocals, conveying songs of love and tenderness in a Vishnu stylee, spreading their message to any joss-sticked mentality that could soak it in. The odd glimpses of extended lead guitar breaks sound like a mix of Dicky Betts and Steve Hillage, adding a necessary bite to the proceedings, the one in “Vishnu Narain”, particularly effective and highly welcome. “Hallelujad” starts life as a ballad that intones its message of love and peace amid plumes of exotic instrumentation then emerges into a free-for-all that evokes the heady outro to something like “All You Need Is Love”, while the short interlude that is “Celestial Procession”, leads us into the assembled prayer meeting that is the congregational celebration and choir-like singing of “Self”, evoking images of the church choir accompanied by an old lady on a harmonium, with some guy stoking the bellows and a bespectacled vicar announcing the title of the hymn and that we should all be thoroughly grateful for what we are about to receive – yep, it's exactly like that!! Feeling suitably blessed, you move on to the joys of “Freedom” which starts as a chant over rumbling rhythms, shimmering flute and cascading backing – and pretty well stays like that, gradually deepening and gradually allowing the rock influence to struggle to the top as, finally, a lead guitar break provides the relief and some much needed Grateful Dead jamming styled instrumental work. Just like the Dead, in fact, without a break, it leads right into “Water Goddess”, and this actually sounds rather like the opening to the Dead's legendary “Dark Star” itself, staying suitably cosmic, even when the vocals come in, very much this band's answer to that type of thing, only not as long (but not by much, it has to be said), eventually turning into Jade Warrior as the guitar becomes vocal and the vocal becomes instrumental, so that it's the only song in existence that has you going from Grateful Dead to Jade Warrior and actually ends up sounding rather excellent for the duration and easily the finest track on the album by far. Two bonus tracks for this CD reissue consist of “You Never Stay The Same” which returns to the vocal sweetness of the opening two tracks, and “Sweet Jesus” - which does the same only with that Jade Warrior feel in there too. Overall, it's quite a gem of an album providing you can get past “the message” and for ageing hippy, it's a blast from the past that should prove exceedingly enjoyable.

QUINTESSENCE – Indweller CD
A telling part of the excellent sleeve notes to the CD booklet refers to this band as being “praised and derided in equal measure” at the time – in this case, late 1972. It's easy to see why they were derided but there's also the argument that you can't criticise what you don't believe – for this album of soft, flowing, mostly languid and quite soporific electro-acoustic songs, is built firmly around a sea of tightly held spiritual beliefs and enlightenement that a band are trying to convey in songs that they hope will be of such satisfying pleasure that they move you both on a lyrical and musical level. That they achieve the atmosphere throughout most of the songs to put you in that state of blissful nirvana is arguably decently done – the thing being as to whether you actually want to be in that state in the first place, song or no song. In many ways, Nick Drake managed to attain this state without being obviously religious, while early seventies folkies from the UK rarely sounded so deep and spiritual with so light a musical touch. So, you have eleven songs, sung well, sung in electro-acoustic cosmic splendour, given a lightness of touch that makes them quite spellbinding and lyrically interesting regardless of your beliefs. Easy to deride, hard to praise, but if you listen closely with two ears and an open mind, there's a heart of gold beating away and if you're a fan of early-mid seventies folk mixed with Jade Warrior styled flute, this should surprise you as an album you never thought you'd like in a zillion years but which gradually grows on you in ways you never expected.

RARE BIRD – Somebody's Watching (Remaster + Bonus Tracks) CD RARE BIRD – Born Again (Remaster + Bonus Tracks) CD
Fundamentally, these are both very similar albums – average length tracks around 4-5 minutes, mostly songs with solos, one recorded in '73 (“Somebody”) and one in '74 (“Born”), solid, varied and well sung and played. But the “Somebody” album is by far and away my favourite. Why? Well, first you have to say that both albums have been given a fantastic remaster makeover and sound so crisp, clean and clear. The band is musically dominated by electric guitar and electric piano, with occasional keys embellishment backed by a consistently sound rhythm section, while the vocals are yer typically emotive seventies styled vocals, not faceless but not that distinctive, something along the lines of Gypsy, Quiver, Wishbone Ash and Supertramp.
But what makes the “Somebody” album so much better is that the band are here making songs that they love, without any drive other than to produce a corking set of well sung and arranged songs, many with excellent choruses, great harmonies, great depth and a real atmosphere, sounding like they've left the rough edges in but at no time sounding rough. The songs, apart from the occasional ballad, flow well with strength a opposed to power, not progressive rock, but then not rock either, instead that weird hinterland between the two that existed in the seventies. Overall, an album that's remarkably enjoyable in the light of today's singers and songwriting, of it's time for sure, but stands up well. “Born” however, although full of similar things, has clearly got one eye on that dreaded word “commercialism” - the songs sound too polished, too smooth, the edges well rounded, the depth replaced by a pop sheen and somehow ending up sounding quite vacuous for the quality that you might have expected. They even clearly attempt to try something that sounds like they're trying to hit the charts and even though, mercifully, there's nothing on here to rival their rather morose single “Sympathy”, it's not as riveting and as satisfying as “Somebody” which is an outstanding blast from the past.

TERRY RILEY – A Rainbow In Curved Air CD-Remaster
Just two long tracks, the first the title track revolving around nothing but electric organ, but the likes of which, back in its heyday of 1970, no-one had really ever before heard. Combining, swirling, revolving, circular, echoed endless seas of rhythm layers that cycled round and spiralled upwards, with even more layers of flying organ rhythms, the track just shines, sounding so crisp and crystal clear, its mantra of clean-cut organ whirlwind combining hypnotic with melodic at a pace you' wouldn't have thought could ever work for just layers of organ notes, yet work it does, for all its 19 or so minutes, a mantra that's lost none of the wide-eyed qualities that it possessed back then and still conveys 40+ years later. The other long track, “Poppy Nogood And The Phantom Band” is denser, slower, more atmospheric, harder-hitting, adding sax to the cyclical intensity for even more of a multi-textured soundscape, and it's the pace that spawned a lot of imitators in many a UK jazz-rock band that followed in the early seventies, even arguably being an influence over the French band Urban Sax many years later. It's another mantra that's actually got even more appeal now than it did back then, and the remasterr treatment has gone a long way towards ensuring that this is one sonic experience that really does capture you in its wake, as cosmic as it is melodic as it is mantra-like as it is repetitive as it is hypnotic as it is absolutely exquisite. Overall, a true musical landmark that actually sound more accessible and better now than at any time since its inception, a truly mind-blowing album.

TODD RUNDGREN – No World Order:Expanded Edition 2CD / TR-i The Individulalist CD-Remaster
In the nineties world Of Todd Rundgren, things were starting to get really serious – Todd's view of the world , one previously filled with optimism and all things wonderful, began to turn to the negatives – how the world was messing up bigtime – and he wanted to address the subject head on. But there was technology too – things were moving fast – and Todd was moving with them, as he always had done, embracing the wonders of the modern technological world with open arms. His collision course between the two, began with “No World Order”, 16 parts (tracks to you) that gave Todd the chance to say what he was thinking – and, boy, does he say it – but wrapped up in a gigantic whirlwind of rock, electronics, rap, dance, wizardry, balladry, yet, astonishingly, unmistakably Todd Rundgren. So, once you get over the shock of the melting pot and past the smile-widening guitar riff that almost introduces things, and hit on a track like “Property”, the fifth one in and the first glimpse of the Todd you know and love, you realise that here truly is a master at work, the consummate rock chameleon with coats of many colours, all of them his own. The great god riff crops up once more at the start of “Fascist Christ” but then it heads into turntable scratching, beefy electronic percussive rhythms and Rundgren embarking on a rap that mixes huge choruses, biting lyrics and massive expanses of rhythm and melody, all extremely hard-hitting, with the gift of contemporary hindsight, a little “cliched” for the modern age, but still stands up because of its energy, invention and the nature of the message. Through a myriad musical, lyrical and vocal worlds too numerous to mention, all linked by its creator, it's an absolutely riveting sea of tracks from a musician, singer, composer and arranger who's up there with the legends such as Zappa and the like. As a bonus you also get the “watered down” (or, arguably, more commercial reworking that is) “No World Order Lite” album, the Japanese only strangeness that is “NWO (Version 1.01)” plus bonus tracks on top of that – the works. OK, so it's not Todd's finest hour, but it's stood the test of time with its head and shoulders, heart and mind, well intact and continues to be a great example of the man's legacy to musical history.
Forward two years and Todd reinvents himself as “Tr-i”, happily not in the way an artist like Prince went off the rails doing, but simply making known that here is a musician who's embracing the new technology to his own ends, and, now satisfied he's in control, having got the anger out of his system, uses it all to come up with a sumptuous, flowing, expansive and positively heartwarming selection of songs, everything done by the man himself. The result is a true Todd song-based album, one that's been highly overlooked in the intervening years as people still covet the treasures he produced in the seventies and eighties, yet here is an album of songs that's immediate yet complex, warm and strong, again truly from the heart and could be nothing other than a classic Todd Rundgren album. So, if you've overlooked this in the past for whatever reason, now's the time to redress the balance and get your self a thoroughly satisfying slice of excellence.

TODD RUNDGREN – With A Twist CD-Remaster
Quite simply this is Todd and band doing a selection of his classic songs in a Bossa Nova style. Now I'm a huge Todd fan (you know what's coming next, don't you....), open minded and all for an artist experimenting. I could have understood Todd doing a bossa nova album – nothing wrong with that at all and he'd have probably turned in a great job. But to take classics such as “I Saw The Light” and “Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference” and the like, give them the treatment and expect the audience magically to remove all memory of the originals out of their brain is, I regret tosay, asking a step too far. Consequently, you can't help comparing these to the originals and, as such, they just don't work. This is probably a fantastic album for anyone who's never heard any of the tracks before who wants a set of songs sung well, played smoothly, sounding fluid and relaxed, with a summery, starlit night feel, but for Todd fans....well, whatever it takes to enjoy these songs arranged in this way, I don't have it!!

TODD RUNDGREN – One Long Year CD-Remaster
The album gathers together a whole bunch of tracks that Tood recorded in 1997 when he'd decided to chart a course of making individual tracks available to the subscribing public as he recorded them. As a result, and typical of the man himself, the album, when originally released was criticised as being “too varied” and not conforming to any particularly singular approach. But we're dealing with Todd Rundgren, the man who can turn a curse into a blessing, and this album is the perfect epitome of that. Over 10 tracks you get a mini-”best of” snapshot, not the tracks but the styles, it's like a beginner's guide to what the man can do and how successfully he can do it.
For a start you get “I Hate My Frickin' ISP”, not only before it's time, subject-wise, but one of the best Todd rock anthems that stands immeasurably up to anything that he did similarly in his “classic” period. This is then followed by a mellower but no less strong “Buffalo Grass”, a great Todd song with a memorable chorus, multi-tracked arrangements, flowing rhythms, superb lead and harmony vocals that are the finest Todd at work. Then, by contrast, there's “Lerk”, a juddering, shuddering song with electro-percussive and electronic rhythms, textures and melodies above which treated and less treated lead vocals and phased vocals surge forward, but as you'd expect, there's a chorus in there somewhere too. “Bang On The Ukelele Daily” is a wonderful slice of Todd humour – so prevalent on the seventies albums – and here he gives us an Hawaiian rendition of “Bang On The Drum All Day” which is actually great fun for its brief duration. “Where Does The Time Go?” is a piano and percussive-led spritely slice of Todd ballad-as-anthem and remarkably commercial as well as being a stunning example of the man's seventies styled recording, a bit more like something a bit less rich from that album that had “Healing” on it. Time for a greatest hit, as “Love Of The Common Man” is given a gorgeous, flowing, easy listening makeover, just sublime. “Mary And The Holy Ghost” returns to the electronic worlds with something that's a bit more like trip-hop, but largely instrumental. “Very Fast (and I like it)” is a rush of adrenaline to the head and heart as a brooding fast-ish sea of verses alternate with mighty surges of punk-metal choruses and the effect is stunning. “Hit Me Like A Train” is another gem of a song, this time with a bit more of a funkier approach, but still absolutely typical and top-notch Todd. “Finally, there's “The Surf Talks” and things end on a huge-sounding Todd anthem that mixes everything – electronics, drums, guitars, lead vocals, soaring harmonies, uplifting choruses, depths and textures – just a great song that sounds massive.
So, the bottom line is that this is an album of high consistency, worthy of a great many of the best albums that the man's put out in his career and if there are any of the post-eighties albums that you've overlooked coz you thought that they couldn't stand up to what had gone before, then think again with this because it remains a true Todd Rundgren “classic album”.

TODD RUNDGREN & UTOPIA – Disco Jets CD
Instrumental album from '76 that the Rundgren-Siegler-Wilcox-Powell quartet threw together – and that's a fairly accurate description as a lot of this album is what you'd call “lightweight”. The opener and title track alludes to some middle ground between the “Utopia Theme” and “Prana” but elsewhere the word of the day is “fun” as they play tracks that put a smile on your face if not exactly an ache in your heart, as evinced when you hear that they take on the “Star Trek” theme, and see that titles include “”Space War” and “Cosmic Convoy”. It's spirited, uptempo, entertaining and not to be taken too seriously.

THE SALLYANGIE – Children Of The Sun CD-Remaster + Bonus CD
This was a duo of Mike Oldfield on guitars and vocals (yes, vocals) and Sally Oldfield on vocals. It's primarily acoustic, primarily exceedingly hippie-ish, totally folk-y and 16 tracks of acoustic elegance and forcefulness, now remastered to bring the best out of the original production. All of which cannot possibly mask the fact that, even for seventies folk, this is just soooooooo boring. Song after song with a vocal that sounds like a mix of Mary Hopkin and some guy whose aspirations for singing are greater than his technique, come at you wave after inexorable wave. It's not dull, just that it fails to rouse any of the senses other than the fact that at times, Sally pseudo-operatic warble makes you want to reach for the nearest air rifle. Not only that, but thanks to the restoration from the archives, there's now two whole CD's of the stuff with a complete disc of previously unreleased tracks. If you can imagine nothing better than an evening curled round the campfire with the joss stix well and truly lit, listening to gloriously insipid folk, this is the album for you – just please don't expect me to join you.

SANGUINE HUM – Diving Bell CD
Debut album from Oxford-based band and it's an 11 track album averaging around 5 minutes a track, all originals and all delivered with confidence, passion, precision and purpose by the quartet. From the opening salvo of fiery neo-prog rock that is the 5 minute “No More Than We Deserve”, you can't help but think of bands such as Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief and such like as something that's prog-rock in an alternate universe, launches intio life with soaring lead vocals, crispy crunchy drumming, beefy bass, an ocean of keys, synths and guitars, high flying choruses to die for, sky-high harmonies, bite and expanse, and a great track that gets better every time you hear it. The near 4 minute “The Ladder” is not as intense and slower, initially, coming across more like a mix of Pink Floyd and Beneath Augusta, as it then fires up with some searing heat slide guitar, lilting piano and crunchy rhythm work as the vocals become something more like what you'd find on a The Pursuit of Happiness album, that is a sort of nasally pop-rock almost Americanised vocal, but the mix of styles is thoroughly engaging on a track that just flows with texture, depth bite and strength, the interweaving vocal harmonies and leads proving to be completely irresistible as the track rockets skywards. The near 5 minute “Dark Ages” starts with rippling acoustic guitar before the drums strongly enter, the bass resonates and a slower, higher register vocal enters over silently weaving synth lines and tasty beats and rhythms, the song effortlessly intensifying into an impassioned vocal that's got that Porcies feel once again although more down-to-earth, while the song itself lurches onwards on its bumpy rhythms, as the keys, synths and guitars coalesce onto this gloriously rising soundscape filled with strength of instrumental and vocal talent. The track then suddenly does an about-turn through a brooding yet forceful instrumental section before rising strongly back into that amazingly expansive song. At 6 minutes, “Coast of Nebraska” is a sizzling and sensitive instrumental that really showcases just how amazing this band is, with a track that oozes quality as it does firepower and texture, coming across more as prog than rock, but still with beefy guitars standing next to sensitive keys, and an arrangement that twists and turns but never once loses its cohesion. “The Trial” starts life as a more sedate song, this time a more “modern indie” type of sound as rhythms lurch, multi-tracked lead and harmony vocals soar and the and lurch forwards with the rhythm section, the song slowly opening out as it travels, with resonant piano, clattering percussion, deep bass and solid drive, all leading into some wicked lead and rhythm guitar breaks, then back to the song and it's actually a lot better than you initially give it credit for being. “Nothing Between Us” is a 6 minute lament and returns slightly to that Porcies/Pineapple feel and, to a degree, structure, taken at that multi-harmony laden slower pace that befits some of the Porcies tracks so well, while the actual result isn't a million miles away from that band, again just sounding a slight touch more “Americanised”. There's a gorgeously flowing mid-song instrumental section of vast beauty and towering quality before the band lead you back into what has fast exceeded your expectations and turns out to be one superb sounding song. Two further tracks and three bonus tracks all continue this vein and are all excellent tracks, all inhabiting that world of quality songwriting and arranging so beloved and successfully produced by any of the aforementioned bands, on what is one of the finest major label debut albums around right now.

SOFT MACHINE - Bundles CD(Remaster)
Now sounding crisper, cleaner and molre vibrant than ever before, this album marked the return of the electric guitar into the line-up of these seventies jazz-rock giants, notably from legend Alan Holdsworth and it is runs and sound that give this album an edge and bite that no other Softs album had illustrated for many years before this came out. Combine this with Ratledge's constantly driving synths and keys plus the rolling rhythms from Babbington and Marshall, wrap all that up in superheated instrumental arrangements with superheated melodies, dynamics and layers, and you have an album that positively races before you when it comes to the multi-part genius that is “Hazard Profile”, before finally slowing things up a bit with the short “Gone Sailing” only for the pace to hot up once more as the title track is luanched onto the scene with heated lead guitar, swirling synths, crashing cymblas, rumbling bass and crunching drums, all infused with that all-important melody running through the heart of things. “Land Of The Bag Snake” could almost be a segment out of some seventies epic such as “Close To The Edge” or “Supper's Ready” before the slowly building fusion music gem that is “The Man Who Waved At Trains” invites itself into the house that is your heart and refuses to leave, as classic an example of slowly moving, emotional, smoky, languid yet strong and melodic fusion as they come, with the band sounding like vintage Softs should sound, and the closest thing on the album to what used to be. Three further tracks, of a more sedate nature close what is a truly superb, practically faultless example of later period Soft Machine, with Holdsworth on top melodic form.

SPOOKY TOOTH – Lost In My Dream – An Anthology 1968-1974 2CD (Remaster)
The band revolving predominantly around singer Mike Heron, guitarist Luther Grosvenor and keyboardist Gary Wright, with musicians moving through its ranks who went on to join bands such as Humble Pie, Foreigner and Mainhorse, to name but three. This is a lovingly prepared lookback at the band's career as it's possible to get, complete with rare singles, previously unreleased tracks and loads of album tracks, 34 of the things in total. As to content, well........to parody Arthur C Clarke, “my god...it's full of songs” - yep, songs – loads of the things – all sounding decidedly sixties and seventies, mainly of the moody and mournful variety, occasionally the spirit of rock rearing its ugly head, and if you want something that has echoes of everything from Spencer Davis Group and Traffic through Joe Cocker's Grease Band and The Beatles to seventies division two bands such as Gypsy and Quiver, this one's for you.

STRAY DOG – Stray Dog (Remastered + Bonus Tracks) CD
'70's rock album originally out on ELP's Manticore label and partially produced by Greg Lake, this was the first and finest album from guitarist Snuffy Walden and rhythm section. As a prime example of magnificent, typically '70's bluesy rock, this positively sizzles with some cutting electric guitar solos that will put the smile back on your face. The album opens with the swinging, scything blues-rock power of “Tramp”, a swagger of a vocal interspersed with some scorching guitar breaks as classic seventies blues-rock bursts into life. Tracks such as “Crazy”, “Chevrolet” and “Speak Of The Devil” are all prime examples of guitar-driven blues rock that stands alongside the best seventies blues-rock bands that you could name and just some proof of the undoubted quality of playing and writing that erupts from this album by the truckload, much of it championed by Alan Freeman on his legendary Saturday Afternoon rock shows on seventies Radio One. As a bonus, you get four previously unreleased tracks recorded in the studio in Reading in 1973, all of which showcase the fantastic blues guitar strength of guitarist Snuffy Walden, while two live tracks from Rome in 1973 also show the energy that the band unleashed alongside the blues-rock sizzle when performing live. Now remastered, the sound is possibly way better than it was even back then in the studio - you simply won't believe the clarity and strength of the guitar, bass and drums. Anyone into the '70's greats, such as Trower or Groundhogs crossed with mid-period Foghat and the like, should get a real kick out of this, for sure, on one of the most underrated blues-rock debuts of the '70's – superb.

STRAY DOG – While You're Down There CD (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
The main studio album was a wholly different affair from the awesome debut. Embellished by a second guitarist and a keyboard player, with way more attention to the songs than the solos, with more harmony vocals, with less bite and more bark, the album represented a marked shift in direction for the blues-rock trio that started out so explosively. The tracks are still bluesy, but in a much more lightweight, melodic, harmonised vein, even soulful at times, with a lot less room for guitar breaks. All this wouldn't be so bad if the songs themselves were classics, but most of them are enjoyable if adequate, the sort of album you'd enjoy as a lighter snack rather than the full blown meal of the debut. Bizarre part is that there are seven bonus tracks – all previously unreleased – in the form of two wicked live tracks, one from the debut album, and 5 previously unreleased studio tracks, all of which are way better than the “real” album, so, in a twisted sense, you do actually get a whole album of enjoyment for your money, even if it's not the one they intended.

TANGERINE DREAM – Electronic Meditation CD-Remaster
Essentially, the band's first foray into the studio, with the benefit of 41 years of listening to it, is an album that is truly “avant-garde”. Produced on conventional instruments such as electric and acoustic guitars, drums, organ, cello and violin, not to mention more “found sounds” than you can rattle a stick at, the resultant tracks are anything but “conventional”. For the most part there's an absence of anything resembling a tune, although melody lines do run through some of the tracks, more by accident than design. The way that the soundscapes segue into the rolling drumming, organ river and deep textures of “Cold Smoke” acts as a precursor to the drum-driven parts of the tracks that would appear on their more electronic second album. But, by and large, this is “difficult” music for any normal person to get into, an absolute joy for anyone into truly psychedelic music that's totally out on a limb and arguably too melodic and “cponstructed” for anyone into really free-form music. That said, it still has a certain charm to its bite and the memory of hearing this for the first time 40 years ago, surprisingly is still evoked on hearing it now, a testament to how well this album has stood the test of time. Even better, with the new remaster, is that you can hear things that were almost entirely buried on the original, adding whole new dimensions to the tracks. The electric guitar heat set to the rolling drumming and solid textural undercurrents of the latter part of “Cold Smoke” predates what drummer Klaus Schulze would later go onto doing with German stablemates Ash Ra Tempel – only we don't get to hear too much as it ends somewhat abruptly – so you think – because “Ashes To Ashes” effectively takes off where the track ended only a bit more “cosmic” as Edgar Froese's guitar glides out, splintering into even more shards over the solid drumming and third member Conrad Schnitzler's penchant for adding all manner of weird and wonderful backdrops, what Jamie Muir was to “Larks”-era Crimson. It all ends with funeral organ in an alternative universe parallel that would mirrir Pink Floyd's exit to “Saucerful Of Secrets” but short and making its point before the black hole of cosmic darkness heralds the arrival of what the band would later go on to explore a lot more fully when the electronics really came to life on the next album. All in all, loved every minute of it – always have – and probably always will – treat yourself to somethig seriously far-out and unlike anything anyone else has ever produced – but then they couldn't, could they.... TANGERINE DREAM – Alpha Centauri CD – Remaster + Bonus Tracks
It's 1971 – there's chaos in the cosmos – as this album, for all its cosmic leaning, clearly illustrates. In a world that had previously seen rock in the hands of Pink Floyd and King Crimson becoming more akin to “songs with fx” rather than anything overly innovative – the exceptions being Crimso's “Mars” and Floyd's “Saucerful” tracks – the other end of the scale was represented by the avant-gardists who could go out on a musical limb as far as they liked, largely because very few people travelled with them. So, it came to pass that three Germans – or four if you include the flute player – looked around at what the Brits were doing, looked around at what the avant purists were doing, looked inside themselves, looked out at the stars, and went into the studios armed with primitive synthesizers, organ, guitar, drums, a headful of ideas, a sense of “let's see what's out there” musical adventure – and created an album the likes of which the musical world had simply never before witnessed. Songs there were none, melodies few and far between, the only rhythms laid down on one track with drums that sounded more like rolling thunder than anything you'd know as rock drumming. Yet all of this substituted with soundscapes, textures, layers, fx – much of it accessibly chaotic – as the aforementioned instruments created a new cosmos, a world that would open up to many, a black hole into which many in the future would be sucked in and never see the light of day again. It could all sound so wrong, right now.
The amazing thing is that it sounds so right – this album has lost nothing of its originality and sheer unique qualities. There's been nothing like it since – bit then there couldn't be – this is music rooted in its time, yet timeless, something so far out, that it defies categorisation and won't ever date. Opening with a relatively calm four minute slice of progressive space soundscape, it moves into this lengthy swirling slice of multi-instrumental magic that culminates in the rolling thunder of the drumming as the instruments drive ahead alongside, completely textural yet totally absorbing. The 22 minute title track shimmers, shines, floats, flows, soothes, alarms, calms, unnerves and hypnotises the listener throughout its length as other-worldly electronics, flute, fx and more, all create this epic, unending world of musical adventure that was not only of its time, but ahead of its time and still is to this day. Overall, it's a landmark album in electronic music – it's not pretty, for most music fans, it's not easy – but if you're in the right frame of mind and want to journey to musical worlds the likes of which no other music reaches, then this is essential listening.
The three bonus tracks feature the early movements of the three musical visionaries Baumann, Franke and Froese and here we see more of the Floyd/Crimso elements signalling that melody – of a sort – was on the way – but that said, it's still light years ahead of both those bands – and always will be.

TANGERINE DREAM – Zeit DBL CD (Remaster +Bonus Live CD)
The main album from 1972 has undergone the “Mark Powell” treatment and now sounds clearer than ever – not only that but you get the whole thing on one CD – all 74 minutes and 4 tracks of it. Forgetting the avant-gardists such as Ligeti and the legions of syrupy string quartets playing boring classical music, this is the CD – and the band – where cosmic music – or space music – or ambient – or chill-out – call it what you will – began. This is the beginning. Across four lengthy tracks, you hear textures, soundscapes, layers – electronic and, on occasion, stringed. You are free of melodies, rhythms, tunes, structure – at the same time you are occupying an inner space that makes Pink Floyd's “Saucerful Of Secrets” sound like a structured soundtrack. As with all the early music in the seventies that Tangerine Dream played, even here, nothing stands still – apart from time itself. The reason that it blew your mind then – and still does now – is that there is so much movement on something so textural. Synthesizers, organs and guitars sound like the cosmos calling, the music that's in your head as you travel through space – the darkness of the soundscapes reflecting the darkness that surrounds. Yet at the same time, it's beautiful – the pictures that you see inside your head are reflected by the extraordinary sounds that you are hearing flowing from the speakers. It's an epic journey that's without end – once started never finsihed – as an experience in sound takes you over like no other electronic space music album has done since – even nearly 40 years later, it remains innovative and an absolutely pleasurable sonic experience. A second CD recorded live in Germany in 1972, sees some of the first fruits from the Franke-Froese-Baumann line-up that made the seminal “Phaedra” album and, surprisingly for those new to this lot, follows a path more akin to “Zeit” as the surge of soundscapes and textures takes on an altogether more powerful approach at times but largely occupies similar space, almost extending the studio album by a further 78 minutes. But you can never have too much of a good thing, especially when it sounds like this.

TANGERINE DREAM – Atem (Remaster) DBL CD
It's 1973 – Tangerine Dream have just invented “Cosmic Music” in the form of the mighty rhythm-free electronic space opus that was “Zeit” and single-handedly spawned 40 years of musicians who could do anything from take you off to putting you out. Synthesist Chris Franke had previously played drums and new guy Peter Baumann hadn't really done anything so far other than drift. So, along comes the fourth album and their label at the time, “Ohr Music”, are plastering the pre-release blurb with headlines along the lines of “Tangerine Dream are back – and using drums!!”, proudly denoting that the percussion and rhythm have returned. Well......almost....
The title track does indeed open up like some marching symphony as massed blasts of mellotrons blare out over dramatic drums and drum-like electronics as it all intensifies only to end in a kind of bubbling cauldron of rhythmic morass, leaving behind the synths and the mellotrons to...err...
drfit. But this cosmic music, as opposed to that of “Zeit” is altogether different – it marked the start of what put Tangerine Dream firmly on the map as the synth pioneers that they became and why noone else ever achieved an exact imitation – and that is because the trio never allowed anything to stand still. Even for mood music such as this, the layers of synths and mellotrons, from eerie through melodic, to harmonious and richly textured, are always on the move, layers flowing over layers, ideas drifting to a halt only to be replaced by other equally drifting ideas, and all delivered with a heart that you just didn't think could happen from “cold electronic music”. The other 14 minutes of this track conform to that and actually, even 35+ years later, still hold you under its spell. The near 11 minute “Fauni-Gena” adds more upfront mellotrons to the soup and is actually a more accessible piece of music, despite the fact that there's not a rhythm or melody in sight, yet something is making you totally absorbed. It's a kind of eerie, other-worldly classical richness that really is at the heart of a distant universe – it was astounding back then – it's not far off that, even today.The five minute “Circulation Of Events” mixes the two and adds undulating shimmer while the album ends with 4 minutes of scary voices, huge mellotrons and – yep – drums as the thing pretty well ends as it began. Contrary to expectation, this still is groundbreaking stuff. As a bonus on this reissue, you get a 40 minute previously unreleased live album from Berlin in 1973 that is the final era of the purely cosmic band live in concert, and even here, despite the absence of rhythms and sequencers – that were to come – there are also the first fruits of melody appearing in there, although, overall, it's one helluva magical sea of mood music , again, by virtue of the fact that everything moves, all the time. Pioneers they were – whether you like it or not.

TANGERINE DREAM – Green Desert (Remaster)
The album that Froese and Franke (mysteriously without Baumann even though he was around the band at the time) recorded, in 1973 as the follow-up to “Atem”, only they got signed by Virgin and shelved the thing until Froese later dug it out of the cupboard and it became the first victim of what would later be christened “Tangentizing” the album – in other words, rather than leaving it in its original state, he “fiddled with it”. So, because it's nigh on impossible to tell where the joins and original bits stop and the tweaked bits begin, any sane person says “forget all that – what's it actually like?” To which the answer is, “actually, it's rather excellent”. The album starts with the close on 20 minute title track and here we hear the fruits of later seventies Tangerine Dream beginning to blossom as slowly acoustic percussive rhythms unwind, a shimmer of organ ripples is heard underneath, mellotron choirs are starting to take a more central role and – the bit that just has to have been added way after the time the original was recorded – Edgar's lyrical, fluid, biting electric guitar work, added on top to provide a different texture, that plays the part of the melody provider and acts as the focus around which the rest of the piece ebbs and flows. Again, nothing is allowed to stand still, as layers of synths, organ, drums, mellotrons, space synth swoops and more, all build and intensify to change from something overtly cosmic into this mass of slowly rolling, multi-textured ocean of sounds, with rolling drums, infinite layers and a huge surge of solid music that mixes space with thunder to perfection. All these years later, it still sounds absolutely awesome. The other three tracks are shorter. “White Clouds” continues where the title track left off, only with the synths providing the main melodies, again the themes sounding more like something you would later hear from seventies soundtrack Dream rather than the early seventies pioneers, but still not “out of time or place” - just!! ”Astral Voyager” uses sequencers, predicting the effect that “Phaedra” would have on a musical world for which a sequencer was an unknown quantity but which was destined to have a seismic effect as far as the band and the future of electronic music was about to undergo. On top of the sequencer rhythms, an array of melodies and “Alpha Centauri”-esque soundscapes provide a moving world that seems to cross three phases of the band's seventies career all at the same time, but, luckily, comes out a winner. Finally, there's “Indian Summer” which, in a sense, predicts Froese's solo work on things such as “Macula Transfer” and “Ages” with a theme, albeit much slower, that sounds a bit like the beginning of the extended finale of the final long track on the “Ages” album. But, overall, this is superb – a “forgotten” album it may be and not normally classed as part of the band's chronological masterworks, but it should be – because it still is!

TANGERINE DREAM _ Sorcerer OST (Remaster)
Their first Hollywood soundtrack album to a William Friedkin film, which presents the 1977 sound of Tangerine Dream in 12 bite-size pieces. The result is actually a lot more successful than I remembered. The opening two compositions are huge forays into deep and multi-layered space music with soundscapes gushing out and washing over each other, while on “The Call”, the sequencers and mellotrons play a lead role as the synth melodies flow along on top and the whole thing rolls forward sounding absolutely glorious in its own right – and by now, you've even forgotten that this is a soundtrack album – which, of course, is exactly how the best soundtrack albums should be. Despite the tracks that fade rather than just stop, there's a wealth of music to enjoy from the synth music trio of pioneers, Froese, Baumann and Franke. Soaring and sailing through tracks that are cosmic, rhythmic, textural and melodic, the band moves from galaxian soundscapes to gently flowing rivers of electronic gorgeousness. Predominantly cosmic, although more powerful than that leads you to believe, it, surprisingly, remains remarkably enjoyable and repeat-playable to this day.

TANGERINE DREAM – Pergamon CD-Remaster
From the opening crash of piano, this album features THE best piano introduction that you'll find on any instrumental album that you care to name – there's a light echo on the instrument as it spans the range from beautiful fragility to melodic delicacy, the playing filled to the brim with passion and emotion. Even the fact that it's melodic cannot diminish the splendour and feel of the music, even when this synth undercurrent appears to act as an extra texture to the now resounding strength of the piano playing, there's a light that doesn't just shine out – it glows like the sun. Truly inspirational, you won't hear a better piano intro to an album – period! Not only that, but it's lengthy and yet sustains every second. But this is a Tangerine Dream album! Oh yes – it most certainly is. The way the synth river begins to morph into the piano work, rising to become this expansive horizon of huge-sounding cosmic bliss, is nothing short of breathtaking and even though you're a fair way into the first track, you've actually only heard two instruments to date – but it's absolute magic. As the space electronics subside, a gentle rhythm rises from the depths, the synths coalesce as oboe-like melodies join the flute-like tunes that float on top, all the time that rhythm gently swaying in the background. In many ways, it's like a pure electronic parallel universe Mike Oldfield. But then the skies begin to darken as amore sombre tone sets the lead, the almost brass-like melody taking centre stage, bouncing about to great effect as this solid sequencer rhythm begins to come out from the depths as all the while you feel it's going to take over but the band hold back allowing the melodies to play out to their last breath, by now a precursor to the depths and textural melodies that Clannad gave us on the “Robin” soundtrack album. Finally, the sequencers take hold, the rhythm becomes king and the track veritably drives forward into what you'd call “the Tangerine Dream that you know and love” as tunes, textures, cosmic sequences and strident sequencers play out, never stand still and provide this travelling sea of multi-part spellbinding expanse, choc full of synth tunes, soundscapes, melodies and rhythms, the full “Berlin” effect in action – and this is just part one of the concert. Part two is more adventurous, musically, taking the listener down some seriously dark allleyways as deep space and universal blackness take cosmic centre stage to awesome effect, synth or mellotron choirs emerging from the depths then diving back down. Eventually the “chaos” subsides and the sound of sequencer rhythms fills the air, as we are off on another voyage to the stars on a rocket ship fuelled by solid sequencer rhythms, soaring phased melodies and tunes that are among the finest that the band have ever produced on a later period album, in that they hold together, avoid the “twee” tag and you can see where Clannad got it from. The whole thing is loud, proud and just glorious as it all drives forward in waves of electronic power and percussive force, the whole thing sounding mighty and full of life, emotion and passion. Then, just as you think you've heard all that they have to give, this searing heat electric guitar blazes out of nowhere and adds a completely new dimension to the music, full of bite but, once again, avoiding cliché, not overly used and fitting like a glove with the electronic surrounds, undercurrents, textures, melodies and rhythms. So it goes...glorious to the end...if ever you want to have opne album that sums up the best of what this band is all about, then this is the one you should own – no arguing!!

TANGERINE DREAM – Live Miles CD (Remaster)
Just a couple of tracks recorded live from 1986 and 1987, but, in the history of the band, absolutely pivotal, for they marked the last album that would feature original member Chris Franke, the last album before the band headed off into realms of insipid commerciality that would lose them as many fans as they gained. So it is, with third member Paul Haslinger on board, that we first venture to New Mexico for a 29 minute track from 1986 where we hear a band at still at the top of the synth music tree. One of the things that separated T Dream out from every band that's ever tried to imitate them, is that, in their music, nothing ever stands still – there is always shifting musical ground happening from start to finish and that's what they remained the leading band in their field for so long. On this lengthy track, we get the lot – drums (programmed), sequencers, melodies, stabs of synth expanses, a driving universe of rhythms next to floating seas of cosmic bliss, but all tried and trusted T Dream soundscapes so that, by this time, it couldn't be any other band, so identifiable had they become. Haslinger provides an extra touch of the melodic-classical element while Franke drives home some seriously beefy rhythms, Edgar revels in the flowing strength of the melody lines and the whole thing works an absolute treat as an example of the band doing what they do best, on a piece that twists and turns but never loses your attention or meanders in ever decreasing circles for one minute, arguably one of the finest tracks they put out on any '80's album for summing up what the band is all about in one piece alone.
Forward a year to Berlin and 1987 – same line-up, and illustrating how where they play can influence how they play, initially on the 27 minute track, a lot darker with booming bass, huge deep chords and then piano and synth rivers taking off slowly as the surround sounds expand and fly. The soundscapes coalesce into melodies, as the whole band lift off majestically into this flight of spiralling proportions, again nothing ever standing still as the musicians play over, above and around each other, always something happening but never too busy, always accessible yet so atmospheric, always strong but highly emotionally charged. At times some of the melody lines do verge on the twee side of things but they don't hang around long and merge into the slowly building anthem that this track becomes, an anthem to the final throes of this band at its height on the “Berlin Scene” and the last testimony of a band that genuinely created and crafted a music world of their own making – all in all, an exceptional testimonial.

TANGERINE DREAM – Underwater Sunlight CD-Remaster + Bonus Track
Forward to 1986 and new recruit in the form of Australian Paul Haslinger, joins the rear guard of stalwarts Franke and Froese. Thirteen years on from the ground-breaking albums for Ohr, and you have a trio playing some of the most insipid, sweet, melodic and absolutely sugary electronic music known to man – the James Last of synth music.
It's all so “safe” - the first part of the album's “magnum opus” “Song Of The Whale” (even the title makes you want to groan) starts with intent as some semblance of relatively meaty sequencers begin the journey, but then you get this mid-section of sampled voice-like synths that Oldfield did a whole lot better and Mainframe ritually humiliated, attached to delicate melodies and rippling undercurrents, all quite delicate and with all the appeal of a porcelain mug. A guitar is added, presumably for extra bite – then they suddenly decide that it's a bit too much and go back to the twiddly bits. At this point the whole thing starts to build and all of a sudden this fanfare comes out of nowhere, drops back – and finally, this huge meaty electric guitar gives us something to cheer as chords are wrung out. The synths try to match this but, thankfully, the guitar takes over and, with the addition of a solid drum undercurrent, provides us with the best part of the album bar none, for several glorious minutes.
The near 11 minute second part of the track opens with classical piano and then settles in to a sea of sequencers and melodies but it's all so darned “twee”. At times, when the high-reg synths take a back seat to allow something more solid to come along, it nearly breaks out of its comfort zone, but somehow fails to make the great escape, and falls back into a synthesized Mike Oldfield without the talent. Even the presence of more electric guitar down the line, fails to save the day and the musical candy floss fades into the distance.
But it gets worse... honest...
“Dolphin Dance” at least provides a relatively solid sequencer -percussive undercurrent but tops it all with a melody so twee that you'd scarcely be able to wring anything solid out of it if you squeezed it - not only that, but UK band Wavestar were already doing the synths -guitar thing a whole lot better and more cohesive than this. It bounces merrily along as a lead guitar tries to give added bite but the melodies are all so at the top end of things, that the phrase “all icing and sod all cake” rears its ugly head as the train ride marches on its sprightly way. This is followed by the equally somnambulistic “Ride On The Ray” while the more powerful and rhythmic “Scuba Scuba” is, arguably, the besdt track on the album to mix atmosphere with something that's got texture and relegating the sugary melody quotient to third place. The title track is actually really rather good as it builds from cosmic beginnings into something that sounds more like the band's headier melodic work on soundtracks such as “Thief” and Exit”. Finally, there's the previously B-side only “Dolphin Smile” that is delicate little rhythms, delicate little melodies, twinkling keys, twinkling synths and generally setting the controls for the heart of the cream cake.
Overall, it maight rot your teeth but at least at the end of it, you'll still have teeth, although whether or not you'll want to use them to chew on this again, is open to debate.

THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN – Hollywood Dream CD (Remaster + Bonus Tracks)
They had this hit single - “Something In The Air” - back in the early seventies – of which two versions are on here – and, looking back, although I loved it at the time, you listen to it now and think “how the hell was this a hit, even back then?” - even odder part is that I still love it but I have absolutely no idea why!! The nasally vocal, the mid-song piano solo that sounds like the guy's hitting the keys with lead-lined gloves, the cheesy orchestration – hell, even this was way out for seventies pop – but it's got something that draws you to it – an “Englishness” - no other country in the world could have grown it. Without dodging the review, that's the key to the album – a curious blast of song-based nostlagia for a time when seasons were real, when bands were open-ended and where everyone listened to everything with open ears and compartmentalised music was not even a wave from the future. Thus exists this album – solid enough songs inn the main, some neat Wishbone Ash styled brief guitar solos, an emotion worthy of Stackridge and a quirkiness not far off, tasty songs at largely mid-paced and lyrics that remain absorbing, even to this date, despite some of a somewhat “flowery2 nature. The band play well, the nasally vocals work in the context by virtue of their distinctive quality and the piano work is the most solid you'll find on a song-based treasure from the seventies – I had not expected to enjoy this album, I didn't want to enjoy this album – but as a guy who grew up on every edition of “Top Gear” throughout the seventies, I did enjoy this album. Odd!!

TOUCH – Touch CD-Remaster + Bonus Tracks
Largely instrumental album from 1969 from an American band out of Portland, Orgeon, complete with 39 minutes and 5 tracks of previously unreleased bonus material, this is an album that can almost justifiably lay a claim to be the birth of American progressive rock. With two lead guitarists, keyboards player and rhythm section, the band sets out on a path of prog rock glory where melody meets muscle, emotion vies with technique and complexity runs hand in hand with accessibility, the whole band laying the foundations for what a seemingly infinite number of prog-rock bands would develop throughout the seventies. On tracks long and short, mostly long, there playing is tight, fluid, relaxed, melodic, the arrangements flowing, inventive and choc full of “tunes” standing tall next to some seriously tight and biting soloing over rhythm work that is the backbone of the album and sometimes classically inspired passages where the rhythm section takes a break. In there, too, are the odd few songs which, in a prog-rock context, don't sound too dated – well, correct that – yes they do sound “of their time” but it's a time that you can still stand rather than stagger away from. With the presence of three extra tracks lasting between 8 and 12 minutes, plus two further epic tracks elsewhere, this is a prog-rock fan's forgotten dream album that still holds its head up next to many a more famous band that followed.

TRADER HORNE – Morning Way CD
Remastered reissue with bonus tracks of ye olde folke album from 1970 featuring original Fairport Convention singer Judie Dyble and a guy called Jackie Macauley who I'd never heard of before but who's decidedly a legend on the folke circuit from what I gather from this. There are 13 songs on the original album, four bonus tracks of which two are simple abbreviations from the album in mono (yeh, mono!!) and two are exclusives. Song-wise it's mostly acoustic folk in the early seventies tradition. Dyble's got one of those soft yet strong vocals which can croon (“Down And Out Blues”) in a sultry manner or fly like an eagle (“Better Than Today”) with gorgeous airs and graceful harmonies. Macauley, on the other hand, has a sort of mid-range vocal pitch that is perfect for folke of the early seventies variety, a bit faceless in part but a perfect foil for the delights that are Dyble's vocals. It's largely Dyble's show, and the album is better for that, while the arrangements of the songs are all encompassing, from straight acoustic through acoustic with rhythm section to the embellishements of woodwinds and what sounds like mellotron giving a lush orchestral texture, but is probably really violins, as well as lush keyboards used sparingly, while the acoustic guitars provide the empetus. “Sheena” is a fine song, led by Macauley, with guitar, driving drums, low slung bass, sinewy violin, gorgeous harmonies and easily the most commercial song on the album and, even though I'm not really a fan of this sort of thing, a track almost worth the price of the album on its own. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed listening to this – dated, it may be, but at the same time, it's somehow stood the test, its richness of texture and variation allied to a subtle sparseness, all combine to make it a thing of interesting beauty.

TUDOR LODGE – Tudor Lodge CD – Remaster+Bonus Track
“They don't make albums like this anymore” is a cry you hear from fans of seventies music gone by and, good or bad, not only probably highly justifiable, but for good reason – no-one could or would want to. But every so often there comes an exception to the rule – and this folk offering from a quite expansive collective of musicians recorded in 1971, no less, has spanned the 40 year gap to such a successful degree, that, if someone had presented it to you as something recorded a lot, lot later, you probably wouldn't have given it a second thought. With a rhythm section consisting of the notable group at the time, Pentangle, drummer and bassist, the foundations were in place to allow the main duo of female and male singers and musicians, to come up with and sing a set of twelve songs (plus the bonus single B-side) which are still quite magical and, even with the subject matter of some of the songs hearkening back to an era from which they could only have emanated, it overall stands the test of time rather well. The female singer does have one of those rich, warm-sounding vocals that range from contralto upwards, while the male singer is in the vein of everything from sixties pop band The Tremeloes, through John Phillips, to a male version of Marianne Faithful. The songs are, in the main, quite magical and timeless, as the best folk should be, while the instrumentation is largely founded on floating flutes, crisp acoustic guitars, flowing percussion, plus sparingly used keyboards and biting electric guitar. It's the sort of album that you don't single out any one track as “the one” but sit, listen and enjoy from start to finish for the rounded, varied, dynamic, flowing, beautifully sung, wondrously played and well written album that it has become – legend? Well, no, I don't think so – but “stood the test of time” - definitely a big “yes” to that one. Folk of quality and distinction never dies – it just gets handed down through the generations.

V/A – Cave Of Clear Light – The Pye And Dawn Records Underground Trip 1967-1975 3CD Box Set
IN addition to what the title says, let me add that there are rare tracks, nearly four hours of songs and a lavish booklet. As to reviewing it – well, there are 48 tracks. Disc one features 18 of the things from the likes of Donovan, Status Quo, Blonde On Blonde, The Bystanders, Man, John Kongos and Trader Horne, to name but a few, and the thing that connects them all is that, although they were no doubt all completely coherent, the end results sound like they'd all been smoking far too much dope. The songs all have that psychedelic sixties, wide-eyed, horn-rimmed, tie-dyed “farrrrr out maaaannn” quality to them and you get the feeling that anyone above the age of 55 will view them with drug-hazed affection, while anyone below the age of 35 will be laughing their socks off. From this disc, the cover – ironically – of “Morning Dew” by Episode Six is by far and away the best song on the CD, the one that you'll really want to play again just because it's a great interpretation. Disc 2 features 13 tracks, starts off continuing things from the first disc, but here things begin to get a bit harder rocking and a tad less psychedelic, as Fire provide an almost Who-like start to proceedings with a six minute track that could almost have come off “Tommy”. Titus Groan the in with nearly 12 minutes of “Hall Of Bright Carvings” as the newly emerging world of stretched out hard-rock and jazz-rock start to merge with excellent results, featuring plenty of room for some great guitar and bass work in a sort of classic early seventies Krautrock stylee, echoing bands such as the later Thirsty Moon, Gash and even, closer to home, Colosseum, while the harmony vocals on the song portion are exquisite, on what is an outstanding track. Atlantic Bridge (whooooo?????) weigh in with a light and airy flute-led instrumental which is jolly pleasant, while Comus follow with 7 and a half minutes of “Song To Comus”, here with more flute, acoustic guitars, an echo to the psychedelia of the first disc, and vocals that sound more like The Chipmunks on steroids, and you really to have to be out of your trolley to appreciate this one, trust me. Mungo Jerry (yeh, that Mungo Jerry) give us a slice of hard-edged blues, bizarrely enough, while Jackie McAuley gives us what seventies singer-songwriters such as Al Stewart and Peter Sarstedt gave us way back then – very colourful and story-telling lyrics with rippling harpsichord, only then goes into a kind of jazz-rock lite song stylee that takes you completely by surprise, but it works, although I'm not sure why. Tracks by Pluto, Quiet World and Trifle pass by without incident, until Mike Cooper delivers seven and a half minutes of head-bending fusion without too much reference to boring things such as tunes, melodies or songs – it's psychedelic, it's jazzy and it's “faaaarrrr out maaaaaannn”. Demon Fuzz give “I Put A Spell On You” the fusion treatment, while Status Quo provide the first thing you've heard so far that truly rocks your socks off from the moment you hear it, as the 7 minute “Someone's Learning” blazes into being as, finally, someone discovers rock music, and riffing guitars start to make a world of difference – it's the musical version, for this compilation, of discovering the existence of fire. Atomic Rooster end the disc a lot more sedately than you'd have given them credit for doing, as organ guitar and rhythm section, plus, bizarrely, horns and strings, give us a a symphonic approach that this band is not noted for doing – and you can see why!! Disc 3 is way more varied, but more consistent and enjoyable, than disc one, the predominant axis here revolving around the worlds of acoustic rock, prog-lite, melodic jazz-rock and the occasional nod to something that mixes all of the above. Of the 17 tracks, nothing stands out head and shoulders above any other, but at the same time – and all credit to Mark Powell for putting this final disc together with bands that time forgot - no clunkers, either, so that if you want a time trip through a seventies warp that you'd forgotten existed, then this will do nicely, thank you.
Overall, nostalgia by the bucketload, excellently compiled and constructed and, at worst, an interesting bag of tricks.

WALRUS – Walrus CD
The most obvious comparison right from the start of this album is the Colosseum line-up of the early-mid seventies. From the throaty Chris Farlowe-esque vocals to the biting electric guitar and scorching sax, allied to rhythms that drive and weave, it's vintage UK jazz-rock at its finest. What separates it from Colosseum is that the sound is a whole lot deeper thanks to the presence of two sax players and a guy on trumpet, the result being something along the lines of “Third”-era Soft Machine without the excesses mixed with early seventies French jazz-rock such as the vastly underrated Rhesus O. Remixer “extraordinaire” Mark Powell has done his ever masterful job on the sound and it's vibrant, alive and leaps out at you as though it was recorded yesterday. Largely uptempo, it does occasionally become more reflective with flute and acoustic guitar leading the way on a song or two that are more overtly psychedelic, but even these prove perfect in the context of the album, meaning that the variation ensures that it's not just a faceless fusion fest. It's not a ground-breaker of an album, which is probably why you've never heard of it before, and it surely got left behind by their more famous counterparts as mentioned, but, that said, it's a more than worthy addition to the ranks of anyone who worships at the altar of seventies UK jazz-rock with a strong song element to the instrumental work.

DARRYL WAY – Concerto For Electric Violin CD(Remaster)
I hate to dodge the issue of reviewing this in detail, but the title just about says it all. The former Curved Air violinist/keyboardist provides a four track instrumental album on which fellow former Curved Air musician Francis Monkman provides the orchestra in the form of an array of synthesizers while other fellow Curved Air man Ian Moseley provides the occasion drumming. The result really is a symphony – an electronic/electric Vivaldi for the seventies prog generation – as the massed ranks of orchestral sounding synths and violins weave this immense sounding, decidedly classical, quite emotive tapestry which, if you like classical music of the easily digestible variety along with a bent for early seventies symphonic prog-rock, will be manna from heaven. That's about it really – love it or hate it – there's no half way house here.

WEST, BRUCE & LAING – Whatever Turns You On CD / Live 'N' Kickin CD
Essentially what the seventies used to call a “supergroup”, the guitarist/vocalist and drummer from Mountain, joined forces with the bassist and vocalist from Cream – great expectations were had by all. On the debut studio album, “Why Doncha”, by and large, the band lived up to the hype with a set of compositions that would not have been out of place on an early Mountain album, combined with the rhythmic strength and musical breadth of Cream. Now, the second album, “Whatever...” has always been seen as a pale comparison to that first studio album. Not having played the thing for all of 30+ years, I have to say that the first time I played this for review, I thought “uh uh – this is not good – what on earth am I going to say about this bunch of faceless material”. Then I gave it two nights, came back to it, played it for the second time and – hey presto!! - the first two tracks sounded great, well worthy of the rockin' Mountain style, albeit completely bereft of any particular soloing admittedly, but every bit as good as the guitar solo-less rockers on something like “Nantucket Sleighride”. Then I came to “Sifting Sand” and things went downhill so rapidly I went giddy – a song that is, it has to be said, truly appalling. Luckily, it's short – unluckily, what follows is even worse - “November Song” sounds like Supertramp on a bad day with a choirboy on lead vocals – jeezzzuussss!!!! Happily “Rock & Roll Machine” returns us to hard rockin fun as the band drives ahead with some great anthemic muscle on a song that actually sounds like a Mountain track. “Scotch Krotch” is a slice of barroom boogie that's piano-led, initally a vehicle for Bruce until this short, sharp but effective guitar solo is unleashed from West, but the piano leads the fray on what is a bit of an intense ride but ultimately works. After this, “Slow Blues” does what it says on the tin, only with even more piano giving that barroom blues feel yet again, while “Dirty Shoes” does the same but swings and the album is brought to a close by “Like A Plate” which is a kind of introspective song that starts somewhere and goes nowhere. I think you'd call this “a mixed bag”. However, live in concert, it was a wholly different story!!
The live album features just 4 tracks, two covers and two originals, and shorn of wanting to come across as great songwriters, the band sensibly let their instruments do the talking as four extended compositions allow the band room to solo and improvise, the result of which is one of the best CD's you'll find to rank alongside any classic live Cream or Mountain album. Leslie West is just awesome on guitar while you've rarely heard Bruce play so gutsy, powerfully and heavy, all the while Laing's drumming holding it all together and propelling things forward. The guitar work on “Play With Fire” is pure Mountain, even reprising “Nantucket” in brief touches, while the combined work on “Powerhouse Sod” is instrumentally breathtaking. There are few vocals on this album, acres of air guitar passages and one of the finest live trio albums to come out of the seventies

WIGWAM – Nuclear Nightclub CD(Remaster)
This Finnish band had been going for years before this album came out, their only decent album to date being the immense “Fairyport”, and during this time, they managed to confound the listeners as to whether or not they were a restrained fusion band, a creative Euro-rock band or a mere song-based band. So, cue “Nuclear Nightclub” and you can see why, in 1975, Virgin Records took this on board. First off, it's a purely song-based album, with 8 of the things between 2 and 6 minutes long. Secondly, it couldn't be any other era than seventies. Thirdly, you'll hear the mass of influences that they absorbed to come up with a set of songs such as this – 10CC, Genesis, Supertramp and Electric Light Orchestra, the main guiding lights. Listening back to its mix of strong songs, with well sung lead vocals, light and airy harmonies, keyboards domination, guitars as dual role lead or distant colouration, strong rhythms, it's somehow a lot more palatable than it sounded when it first came out, and a lot of the credit for that must go to Mark Powell, who's done one amazing job of remastering this, so much so, that it's like lifting a veil off the original and finding this gem of dated but satisfying seventies prog-lite, has been lurking there all this time. There's sufficient room for some really tasty solos despite the length of the tracks and the vocals have a decided mix of Lynne, Lennon, Godley and the guy out of Supertramp. All in all, I expected to hate it and I came out loving it – I must be getting old.

WIGWAM – The Lucky Golden Stripes And Starpose CD (Remaster+Bonus Tracks)
Branson must have held his head in his hands when he got this as the follow-up to the well received “Nuclear Nightclub”. For the band had, to all intents and purposes, done a kind of “concept” album, but in the process, had also gone far too clever for their own good. There are 9 songs from the original album plus two bonus tracks from a rare single from the year before. The main problem here is that the lyrics had been written with a kind of observational mix of irony, humour, politics and preaching, and, while the songs are well arranged, there's so much emphasis on the lyrics and construction, they've completely forgotten that there really should be some hooks or choruses if the thing is going to prove particularly memorable. Also, it lacks the warmth of its predecessor, plus the fact that some tracks fade out for no apparent reason, or there's just too many times where things take ages to get going then actually don't, indicate an album of half-fulfilled ideas. It's not got the charm of “Nightclub” but it's, arguably, stronger and more solid.

CHRIS WOOD – Vulcan CD
The lowdown on the music first- it's instrumental, it's UK jazz-rock, it's seventies and it's main lead instruments are sax and flute.OK – now the artist. Chris Wood was the sax and flute player with seventies band Traffic and you'll find out all about his traumatic personal life in the extensive and well-compiled booklet that accompanies this CD.What you have here is an album of parts – essentially tracks that he recorded along the way in the seventies, as Traffic came and went, but none of which had seen the light of day – until now. So, thanks to those wonderful people at Esoteric (the CD label) and Mark Powell's assemblage genius, this album has finally surfaced, and also comes complete with a bonus track of Traffic performing one of Wood's tracks live in concert, also previously unreleased. It's unmistakably a seventies album – shades of the John Mayall “Turning Point” - era style are particularly prevalent while, furthering that, hints of Mark-Almond and, occasionally, Jade Warrior, also shoot to the surface. Rhythmically, we're very much in Santana/Malo territory as the sound of drums mixed with Latin percussion is heard on many of the tracks. But, throughout, melody is the message, as the instrumentals are easy going yet solid, and each possessing an atmosphere that actually makes it seriously addictive listening for anyone from that era who craves the nostalgia of heady nights in smoky rooms listening to some smoothly flowing fusion that's easy to take in and easy to enjoy. Woods turns in many a fine performance, from the emotive slow, deep sax on “Letter One” through the jaunty title track, the almost Soft Machine-meets-Oldfield slice of “Indian Monsoon” to the languid charms of “Birth In A Day” through to the final heady, meaty take on the title track that is Traffic's rather wonderful live excursion. Overall, a must for any seventies-derived fan of melodic jazz-fusion from the UK.

STOMU YAMASHTA – Go:Live From Paris CD
Whereas most supergroups of the seventies could be liberally categorised – Cream: Blues; ELP: Prog; C,S & N: Folk – Stomu Yamashta's “Go” line-up could not – which is why it was a 1-off. Whereas the live versions of “Tubular Bells” and “Dark Side Of The Mon” were not allowed to stray from the strict structures of the original versions, “Go...Live From Paris”, by its very nature, almost had to! These two factors are linked and, combined, are the reasons why this live album actually eclipses the original studio album. The studio “Go” was great – lots of polish, smoothness, sheen and purity – the sounds of studio people rounding out any angles and structuring any loose edges – a combination of songs well sung, with instrumental interludes, well rehearsed. But this.....well, this is wayyyyyyy better. There's humanity in here by the truckload – the sound of musicians and singer (s) taking a template and bending it every which way but loose without altering its form and appearance. Thus, an all-star cast from Traffic, Return To Forever, Tangerine Dream, Santana plus a trio of backing cast and all spurred on by the hand of the Zappa-like leadership of master percussionist Yamashta, join forces for a concert to provide an almost organic, free-flowing, evolving beast of a performance that is truly mesmerising. From Klaus Schulze's space synth passages, sensibly to the point and atmospheric, through the incredible dual drumming and percussion of Yamashta and Santana's Mike Shrieve, to the biting guitar work of Al Dimeola, the playing on here just sizzles from start to finish, with much extended room for soloing compared with the original studio version and, for once in such context, the chance for the musicians to stretch out is a great and wonderful thing as they are reigned in by the structure of the work and not have to keep everything right on the money. So it ias, that the actual songs, now sound not only an essential part of the whole, but Winwood's delicious vocal and the emotion he puts into them, make them now sound as “natural” as the musical performance and not simply that a bunch of spacey or funky instrumentals have been built around a decent set of songs, as on the, admittedly good, original. The addition of Pat Thrall, later to team up with Glenn Hughes to rock out as a duo, on rhythm guitar plus female backing vocals and congas, gives the music an extra dimension and even more depth and strength, and it does make you wonder just what this lot could have done with a beast such as “Dark Side Of The Mon” if they'd been the least bit interested. But, I digress. This is possibly one of the finest yet most overlooked live albums of the seventies, to mix its many styles and come out winning, a combination of songs and playing that is truly excellent, positively timeless and, thanks to the msot amazing remastering job, sounds even better now than it did when it first came out.

STOMU YAMASHTA – Freedom Is Frightening CD
Now, if you take the fact that this CD is played by the master drummer and percussionist to come out of Japan in the seventies, and guys out of Soft Machine and Isotope, plus a keyboard player who later went on to play and arrange music for some of the greatest big screen blockbusters of all time, together with the drummer's wife on violin, and the fact that the result was one of the tightest, most free-flowing, most natural and enjoyable jazz-rock records to come out of the seventies UK music scene, should come as no surprise to anyone. What is surprising, is just how good it still sounds, 35 years on. From the gorgeous tranquility of piano and violin-led splendour on “Wind Words” through the duelling and sparring Gary Boyle-played guitars and Hisako's violin on “Rolling Nuns”, together with Brian Gascoigne's Ratledge-esque piano and driving drums and percussion, all held together by legendary bassist Hugh Hopper, to the initial spacey delights that evolve into the deep upfront fuzz bass, drifting organ work, driving synth work and, eventually, dramatic guitar work, with all musicians combined as the piece builds and builds, on the title track, then you have the ingredients in place for one stunning slice of instrumental fusion, the status of all involved, ensuring that this is the case. This style of melodic yet solid and intricate yet accessible sounding jazz-rock, with its emphasis on rock instrumentation, may be rooted in its era, but now remastered to sound as clear as a bell and absolutely cutting through, this is an album with no self-indulgence and simply the sound of a cohesive unit playing magnificently with nothing wasted, nothing overdone, nothing stretched out. A gem!

STOMU YAMASHT'A – Go CD
A Japanese drummer/percussionist whose feats up to this point included an incredibly dull solo percussion album, a rather patchy soundtrack, some rather inconsistent jazz-rock and one quite outstanding fusion collaboration, somehow manages to entice none other than Traffic's Steve Winwood & Rosko Gee, guitarist Al Dimeola, synthesist Klaus Schulze, Santana's drummer Michael Shrieve, an entire orchestra and a small group of musical minions into a studio and manages to come up with something that can only be described as outstanding, too. Recorded in 1976, the talent lay in the fact that he was able to fuse songwriting, jazz-rock, cosmic music, symphonic prog-rock, funk and rock into one melting pot and come out with something that was neither cliched nor insipid, neither boring nor bland but a complete “concept album”, virtually unbroken from start to finish, that actually had heart, soul, warmth, texture, depth and a good deal of basic humanity. The odd part is that, 32 years later, while you'd have to class it as almost “easy listening” these days, it does, for the most part, still retain its magic, albeit time-framed magic. Across an album which you really do want to hear to the end once you put it on, you hear some incredibly sensitive and emotive vocals from Steve Winwood on the portions of the album that are songs, mostly ballads, and occasionally something funkier, while the instrumentation, although rock-based, is arranged somewhat exotic and tasty, with guitar solos that are there for emotion rather than power, synth layers to create space and spaciousness rather than bore the crap, out of you, plenty of percussive undercurrents and chunky rhythms to carry it all forward, plus that occasional orchestra to give it “credibility” with the musical elite. At certain points – the backing vocals on “Man Of Leo” , the fact that, now the end of what was vinyl side 1 and vinyl side 2 are now linked to form what amounts to half a Tangerine Dream album in the middle of the opus, the cacophony of orchestra on the mercifully brief “Space Song” and other odd bits along the way – things get remarkably cheesy, while on “Ghost Machine”, they all try to create a jazz-rock version of Talking Heads out of thin air, and, oddly enough, almost succeed. Taken as a whole, it still sounds good, to my way of thinking, and I have to admit that, as a nostalgia blaster it worked a treat, and as a seventies concept album, there were plenty worse than this. Recommended, for sure.

STOMU YAMASHT'A AND COME TO THE EDGE – Floating Music CD
Odd that the meeting of the finest percussionist to come out of Japan with a, then, little known but equally fine percussionist from the UK, Morris Pert, should not only produce an instrumental fusion album of quality and distinction, but also one of THE great jazz-rock tracks of the seventies. The album is a tale of two halves and two line-ups. On the main track on the studio half, the drummers are joined by just piano and bass. Now if you think this is a recipe for a snooze, then think again, because the title of the album and the fact that this album is the stuff of greatness, revolve around this track. The combinations of tuned percussion, drums, electric piano and that beautifully lilting, omnipresent bass, are arranged to provide a sensitive track that's got a solidly beating heart, never stands still, has an atmosphere that jazz-rock normally lacks and is so unique in its idea of combining something that twists and turns, with something that always possesses a mix of delicacy, strength and warmth throughout its 18 gorgeous minutes. Worth the price of the album on its own, without a doubt. Conversely, the other studio track is a much more chaotic affair, with massed ranks of sax and brass joining the rhythmic trio but, yet again, thanks to the finesse of composition, its mix of salsa, '70's UK jazz-rock, melody and and rhythm, is something that really works, and fans of the likes of things from Colosseum to John Surman will get a kick out of this. The other two tracks are both live tracks recorded in 1972 and this time, just Robin Thompson on organ/piano/sax is added to the trio of Pert, Yamasht'a & Powell (are you thinking what I'm thinking, just now? - no, don't go there....) and they are most certainly up to the standard of the album thus far, mixing that trademark sea of depth, texture, finesse, melodic bliss and rhythmic strength, sometimes sounding a bit like Yamashta's joined Egg, sometimes sounding more like Isotope without a guitarist and, in some ways, quite “Canterbury” flavoured, with the slight touches of the exotic Far East in there to spice things up. Overall, a fine, fine album that's lost none of its magic.

STOMU YAMASHTA'S RED BUDDHA THEATRE – The Man From The East (Soundtrack) CD
Ahhhh yes – soundtrack albums! As they say in the trade, “I guess you had to be there”, which in this case, is most definitely the case. Essentially this was the soundtrack to a theatrical experience which involved a number of Japanese actors, actresses, singers and players, alongside the band making the music. The bad news – well sort of – is that all of them are on this CD. Translated, that means that you get some fine slabs of strident jazz-rock with an Eastern motif running throughout, largely courtesy of Yamashta's percussion cabinet, two thirds of the small-time UK fusion band Come To The Edge plus guest appearances from Isotope's guitarist Gary Boyle and sax man Robin Thompson, all balanced by what is, to the non-Japanese listener, equally fine slabs of complete audio self-indulgence – like I said, you had to be there. The lucky part is that the former, vastly outweighs the latter so, with a careful bit of CD programming, you end up with a fine, if short-ish, album of percussive jazz-rock that sounds created rather than assembled and, as music for a play goes, stands up in its own right. Another saying is “for collectors only” - this comes close!

STOMU YAMASHTA'S EAST WIND – One By One CD
Or, to be accurate, “music from the film “One By One”. A soundtrack designed to accompany a film on car racing. The odd part is that it works quite fine away from the film. The album opens with a the quartet of Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine) on amazing fuzz bass, Gary Boyle (Isotope) on McLaughlin-esque guitar, Yamashta himself on rattling percussion and driving drums, with Brian Gascoigne on keys providing the Jan Hammer textures as a veritable UK answer to the vintage Mahavishnu Orchestra, makes its presence felt in just five incendiary minutes. The fact that it then changes into a slice of hippy funk-fusion with a vocal that would have graced a mid seventies Can album, kind of takes you by surprise. This sidles along for five minutes with a kind of languid soul vocal but at least a lead guitar break that gives it more than something of an edge as the track actually develops into something that's really rather decent, depending on what you're smoking, of course. Then, just as suddenly, it changes back to the original theme – for a whole 28 seconds!! Bizarre!! After this comes five and a half minutes of “Black Flame” where orchestral sounding keys mix with booming bass and eerie fx to provide an almost electronic sounding slice of darkness mixed with epic that's probably great in the film but is a bit “filmic” away from it. “Rain Race” is a short piece where the violin enters and provides another taste of Mahavishnu, this time in an altogether more flowing and less fast-paced arrangement, the only drawback being that you wish it could have gone on for longer. “Tangerine Beach” opens with some sublime Hopper fuzz bass that fades into a mass of violins and deep lilting bass as the track now succeeds in conveying a really emotive atmosphere of open-ended musical splendours, delicate percussion and rippling keys adding subtlety to the main body of the melody. “Superstar” reprises the excellent Mahavishnu qualities of the opener, only now with a decided Soft Machine feel from the rhythm section as the Goodman-like violin work weaves its spell. Even the presence of a few vocals can't destroy the mood of funk-fusion that this piece conveys so expertly. This is followed by seven and a half minutes of “Loxycycle” which is even more excellent, this time a flowing slice of jazz-rock that allows the band as a whole to show its capabilities on a track that just rolls along and builds to perfection, mixing fast-paced with fine playing from all the lead soloists, as a more individual sounding slice of fusion makes its presence felt, covering all moods and allowing all the musicians to shine on what is another outstanding track. After this, you get four tracks between a minute and just over two minutes in length that range from sublimely pastoral to melodic jazz-rock. So, overall, it's an album that's weathered well and, while undeniably seventies, still largely sounds pretty decent by today's standards.

STOMU YAMASHTA – Raindog CD
From 1975 comes this album of what was essentially one of the few jazz-rock albums around at the time out of the UK where vocals were used on tracks that were as much songs with extended instrumental sections as instrumentals with vocal bits. Largely thanks to the presence of vocalists Murray Head and Maxine Nightingale, both respected singers from their time, the album manages to mix a satisfyingly cohesive blend of fusion, where drums and percussion provide a depth rarely heard other than a band such as Brand X, and even here nowhere near as exotic, and on top of all the percussive splendours, comes a brew that mixes Far Eastern atmospherics with Western jazz-rock, as leads from electric guitars, violin and keyboards, all take their place throughout the album. Unsurprisingly, several tracks feature the percussion quite heavily as featured vehicle before the rest of the band kicks in, but all this merely adds to the drama and dynamics of the tracks and serves to give them an identity that, quite simply, no other musician and arranger other than Yamashta at the time, could provide. The instrumental work has cohesion, direction, strength, texture and drive, while, when the band are at their melodic best, there's a real sense of purpose to it all, as well. From the atmospheric percussion-dominated “331/3” through the epic fusion of the fifteen minute “Dunes”, the frenetic mix of singing and playing that is “Rainsong” to the rattling “Monk's Song” with its stirring organ, percussion, drums and solid bass drive and the album's calmer, more melodic flow of a closing number that is the near seven minute “Ishi”, this album sounds altogether more together now than it did then, if you get my drift!!!

STOMU YAMASHTA – Go Too CD(Remaster)
For the third and final release in the “Go” trilogy, even with cosmic synth wizard Klaus Schulze on board, he came driving down to earth with a vengeance, as a solid album of largely driving seventies funk-rock stands next to the odd bout of seventies rock-soul balladeering, wrapped up in a tasty brew of seventies jazz-rock fusion. You can but imagine how great this all would have been with Steve Winwood still on vocals, but the presence of male vocalist Jess Roden and female vocalist Linda Lewis, provide more than adequate substitutes, while Return To Forever axe maestro Al Dimeola provides rthe lead heat, occasional orchestrations provide the depth and Yamashta's expanded rhythm section provide a driving and addictive rhythmic backbone. Sounding fresh and vibrant thanks to a storming remaster job, this actually works a lot better now than it did at the time, shorn of its cosmic explorations and back to reality with a steaming funk sensibility.

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