Classic Rock 370 Items

A veritable institution of British folk, Fairport Convention has been going strong since the mid-1960s. Double album "Live At Rock City" is chock full of winners: along with strong adaptations of "John Barleycorn" and "Reynard The Fox" there are top tracks from "Expletive Delighted", including "Three Left Feet", "Sigh Beg Sigh Mor", "Portmeirion" and "Sack The Juggler". There's beautiful symmetry between Dave Pegg's mandolin and Martin Allcock's bouzouki; Ric Sanders raises the roof on electric violin, Dave Mattacks' drums are quietly steady and Simon Nicol's guitar and voice completes the picture. A must for all Fairport fans!

While their first two releases (Prequel and Space Mirror) saw these veterans of post-punk, new psychedelic noise, and 1990s garage rock expertly navigate the murky waters of Covid isolation with yoga-worthy ambient excursions, on their third record the quartet slides into fifth gear and terraplanes toward a fresh take on instrumental prog-rock. It’s not entirely unexpected, but there’s rapid accelerated growth at play on Tabula Rasa.

Infinite River is composed of Gretchen Gonzales (Universal Indians, Slumber Party, Terror at the Opera), Warren Defever (His Name is Alive, ESP Beetles, Ethan Daniel Davidson), Joey Mazzola (Detroit Cobras, Sponge, Sugarcoats), and special guest drummer Steve Nistor (Sparks, Ural Thomas, Seedsmen to the World). These instrumental recordings were tracked between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023 in Warren Defever’s new loft studio space in glorious Hamtramck, MI, where the sessions were supervised by Defever’s cat, Brother James. “My apartment is a big, echoey room; previously we were close together in a tight space,” Defever explains. “The other studio is cozy; this is an art gallery. So it’s a really different vibe.”

Tabula Rasa is closer to what the band is like live now. It highlights the point at which new age type music can become biker rock—which at times approximates Hawkwind or much German music from 1976, while rarely sounding like anything but itself. Tracks like “Around the Sun” and

“Sky Diamonds” definitely have evolved out of the group playing new age type music together. But here, the melodies are more pronounced; the chords and harmonies are more like pop music. Drone-based elements remain, but the pieces are shorter and far more propulsive.

Gonzales shows off her noise-guitar pedigree with both subtlety and aggression. Defever has largely ditched his tanpura for a bass synthesizer. It’s a joy to hear Nistor, who’s been a member of Sparks for close to two decades, open up, and just go gonzo on his kit. Mazzola’s songwriting has followed suit; these are great (and often lovely) compositions here. And his practice in playing with the band, especially Nistor, allows Mazzola to open up new possibilities for downright prog than he’s ever shown before.

A highlight has to be their crunchy and multi-part take on “Favorite Things,” which truly shows off Infinite Rivers’ diverse backgrounds. Defever relates that “Gretchen only knew the song from Coltrane’s take, while Joey only knew it from Sound of Music.” If that’s not worlds colliding, what is?

- Mike McGonigal

Peter Green’s genius has its main roots in musical influences from a childhood spent in London’s working class East End. This intense collection features several of his best successes with the 1968-70 Fleetwood Mac — before their move towards pop stardom – and some interesting tunes from his tormented solo career throughout the 70s and the 80s.

Ryoko Moriyama x Comoesta Yaegashi x The Fuzziyama Surfers A special collaboration that transcends genre boundaries! The Fuzziyama Surfers, a Nagoya-based electric guitar and surf sound that has also been released in the U.S., and the original Japanese Wamono DJ Comoesta Yaegashi, aka Comoestas, and Ryoko Moriyama, whose cover of "Gauloise" last year made a splash, have collaborated on a special single. A surf & garage and brilliant cover of the Love Theme from The Godfather. This is a highly anticipated 7-inch single for a wide range of music fans.

The material for «Gemini Twins» was created in the summer of 2022 and finished in 2023. Serge: "I am interested in the themes of Man, his place in the Universe. From primitive times to the era of space exploration, people continue to ask themselves eternal questions: Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? The character of 'The Story Of Captain Glosster' is a slightly modified version of Homer’s Odysseus. This is the image of the End of the Wanderings. But Odysseus, after long wanderings, returned to his beloved woman. On the contrary, Captain Glosster found his love as a result of his trips. Found her in Other Worlds. I don’t use science fiction images because that’s how it’s supposed to be according to the laws of the genre. It would be too primitive and not interesting. The composition 'Time Loop' is not a reference to some kind of science fiction. In my composition, the image of the Time Loop is an image of human life. Life is rhythmic, irreversible. Under any given circumstances, we do not have the ability to press «Ctrl+Z». We can only move forward. 'Solstice' is inspired by the feeling of a calm, soft summer day. When all thoughts are stable, there is no anxiety and the world around you looks amazing through the haze of sun rays and summer smells. I tried to convey this state in my track. 'Over the Mountains' could, of course, be an image from science fiction. But not necessarily. This is the feeling of flying over the mountains. Perhaps on another planet. Or maybe not. This is a feeling of triumph from conquering air. 'Fugit Irreparabile Tempus' is my musical reflections on our world and the place of Man in this world.”

DSD was founded in the beginning of the Earth year 2011 in Oulu, Finland, on band members’ mutual love for 60’s and 70’s kraut, prog and psychedelic rock. This is the 6th full length album (4th on Space Rock Productions) by the Finnish Space Rock masters from the north! It features 6 high energy space rockers, originally released digitally in April 2023 but now it appears on Vinyl. It features several special guests including Dr Space from Øresund Space Collective. The album opens with the high energy track ‘Spaced and Confused’, with the classic DSD sound and vibe. ‘Beyond the Cosmic Wall’ has a bit of a Kingston Wall vibe and quite a psychedelic mix. ‘Void Oscillations’ is a very spacey and floating number. ‘Indigo Blue’ starts side B with a more mellow vibe for the first 3 mins and then rocks into a cool spaced out jam. ‘Matkalainen’ is sung in Finnish and features some nice flute playing on this great track. The album ends with ‘Nymphaea Tetragona (Forever Floating)’ a more relaxed track, but the end has this sort of heavy bluesy stoner vibe. Cool way to end the album. Another classic space rock record.

DSD was founded in the beginning of the Earth year 2011 in Oulu, Finland, on band members’ mutual love for 60’s and 70’s kraut, prog and psychedelic rock. This is the 6th full length album (4th on Space Rock Productions) by the Finnish Space Rock masters from the north! It features 6 high energy space rockers, originally released digitally in April 2023 but now it appears on Vinyl. It features several special guests including Dr Space from Øresund Space Collective. The album opens with the high energy track ‘Spaced and Confused’, with the classic DSD sound and vibe. ‘Beyond the Cosmic Wall’ has a bit of a Kingston Wall vibe and quite a psychedelic mix. ‘Void Oscillations’ is a very spacey and floating number. ‘Indigo Blue’ starts side B with a more mellow vibe for the first 3 mins and then rocks into a cool spaced out jam. ‘Matkalainen’ is sung in Finnish and features some nice flute playing on this great track. The album ends with ‘Nymphaea Tetragona (Forever Floating)’ a more relaxed track, but the end has this sort of heavy bluesy stoner vibe. Cool way to end the album. Another classic space rock record.

Some things are worth waiting for… "Morning Star" is the first all-new album by The Prisoners since 1986. It
features the original line-up of
Allan Crockford – bass, vocals
Graham Day – vocals, guitar
Johnny Symons – drums
James Taylor – Hammond organ, vocals
After a phenomenally successful series of gigs in December 2022 marking the 40 th anniversary of their debut album 'A Taste of Pink', the band decided to make some new music. The recording was completed in two days, one of them in Studio 2 at Abbey Road. Their preference for recording quickly hasn't changed since they recorded that first album as teenagers, also in two days, in 1982. To celebrate, they play The Roundhouse in London on May 24th, their biggest headline gig
Biography
The Prisoners formed when they were still at school in Rochester, Kent. Between 1982 and 1986 the band released four albums plus several singles and EPs. Inspired by the local Medway DIY music ethic, their debut 'A Taste of Pink' and 'The Last Fourfathers' appeared on their own label, Own Up Records whilst "The WiserMiserDemelza" was released on Big Beat (Ace Records) and "In From The Cold" on Countdown (Stiff Records).
They earned a reputation as an incendiary live act as they plied their trade around the UK and Europe, building up a dedicated following and unknowingly inspiring a generation of future musicians. Their unique sound, based on instantly memorable and melodic songs surfing on a seething wave of brutal guitar, attention-grabbing, up-front Hammond and head-pounding rhythms, made for an explosive evening of entertainment. It was a unique combination of the sonic assault and danger of The Who and 60's garage-punk, the soulful vocals and dynamics of the Small Faces plus the groove and danceability of Booker T & the MGs. Throw in the intensity, drive and insolence of punk rock, as well as an unabashed love for instrumental TV themes and you had a wonderfully off-kilter version of where the real cool kids were at in the early '80s…
Despite some brushes with 'success', the pressures of hard living on the road took their toll and they quit in September 1986. They left behind a legacy and a sound that was inspirational to many that followed. Not many under the radar bands of the 80's would merit chapters dedicated to them in biographies of such luminaries as Steve LeMacq and Tim Burgess as well as being name checked as Brit-Pop forefathers. Their original albums make regular appearances in 'Great Lost Albums' lists and continue in print to this day.
James Taylor subsequently went on to gain huge success as the best pure Hammond player of his generation with his jazz and funk quartet (jtq). His playing and sound undoubtedly played a massive part in restoring the popularity of his chosen instrument.
That work started in The Prisoners.
Graham Day and Allan Crockford, both together and apart, continue to the present playing music that has ploughed a similar furrow to The Prisoners in such combos as The Prime Movers, The Solarflares, The Gaolers, The Galileo 7 and The Senior Service.

The short but intense initial phase of Jumbo’s career, marked by the release of three albums in 1972/1973, revealed their distinctive approach to Italian progressive rock and rapid artistic growth.

“Vietato ai minori di 18 anni?”, released in 1973, represents the peak of this era, showing the band’s evolution from an English beat-related beginning to a more mature and meaningful work for Italian prog fans.

The album stands out for its investigation of controversial and taboo themes, such as physical and psychological discomfort, prostitution and alcoholism. Alvaro Fella, with his lively interpretation and touching lyrics, gives the songs an intense and captivating edge.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of this masterpiece’s release, Jumbo were invited to the prestigious Prog and Frogs festival, where they performed the entire album live, enriching the experience with interesting explanatory introductions for each track. During the show, Jumbo amazed the audience, displaying the same drive and passion as they used to fifty years ago.

The Stooges were a no brakes act who careered inexorably towards annihilation.They finally hit the wall in 1974, after the most horrible blow out imaginable at the Michigan Palace, where Iggy practically begged to be crucified by an angry mob. But remember this kids, Iggy hated himself so much he wanted to live.

Vivid peyote-induced psychedelia from Texas sounding like an impossible meld between the Elevators and the Velvet Underground but possessing a strongly unique disposition.

Recorded in 1970 but never released at the time, featuring future members of Roky Erickson’s backing band Bleib Alien / The Aliens.

Formed in Austin in the late 1960s by visionary lyricist and autoharp player Billy Bill Miller and his friend Tom McGarrigle on guitar, Cold Sun evolved from a band called Cauldron (later Amethyst) which at one point featured drummer John Kearney from Roky Erickson’s first band The Spades. Miller, a proto-Goth figure always dressed in black, highly influenced by Joe Meek and vintage sci-fi / horror movies, started to experiment with weird noises out of his electrified autoharp, favoring the audio-oriented drug mescaline over the LSD associated with hippies. Amethyst jammed with musicians such as Benny Thurman from the 13th Floor Elevators and Steve Webb from the Lost And Found (another International Artists band). The definitive Amethyst line-up, with Hugh Patton on drums and Mike Waugh on bass, played at venues like the I.L. Club, a historical landmark of Austin blues & psychedelic music.

It was through Mike Waugh’s friendship with Elevators drummer John Ike Walton that Billy Miller and the band (still unsure about their name but calling themselves The Daily Planet, changing it to Dark Shadows, and then to Cold Sun) hooked up with the local label / studio Sonobeat (Mariani, Wildfire, Johnny Winter…), who expressed interest in recording an album with the intention to shop it to a major label: thus, the now-legendary Cold Sun album was born. The band, driven by Miller’s strange electrified autoharp sounds plus the massive fuzz guitar of McGarrigle, dressed with feedback and futuristic lyrics, laid down several tracks in between rehearsals at Miller’s house on Castle Hill (west Austin). The album opens with “South Texas” (“the ultimate psychedelic track,” according to Patrick “The Lama” Lundborg), climbing to a psychedelic summit with the final 11 minutes of the fervently intoxicated “Ra-Ma”.

Never released at the time, the Cold Sun album languished in oblivion and the musicians moved on to other things. Billy Bill Miller along with drummer Hugh Patton founded Bleib Alien (later The Aliens), the famous backing band of Roky Erickson, with Billy being essential in bringing Roky back to music after his stay at Rusk Mental Hospital.

It wasn’t until 1990 that the Cold Sun album was finally released on vinyl by the Rockadelic label (in a tiny edition of 300 copies), followed by a new edition on German label World In Sound in 2008, now out of print.

For this new edition on Guerssen, we’ve tried to imagine how the Cold Sun album could have looked like if it had been actually released in 1970. It comes in a hard cardboard sleeve with vintage styled artwork by psychedelic illustrator Callum Rooney.

Sourced from the same audio master as the original Rockadelic LP, the sound has been vastly improved thanks to the meticulous and careful restoration / remastering by audiophile engineer Ezra Lesser, who has also penned the definitive story of Cold Sun for the liner notes.

*Hard cardboard sleeve with vintage styled artwork by Callum Rooney *Audiophile restoration / remastering by Ezra Lesser *Insert with detailed liner notes and photos *Download card

“One of the most important psychedelic records, and unlike any other one.” – Paul Major

“Cold Sun is an anomaly in Texas psych history. As significant as Bubble Puppy or Moving Sidewalks but in no way similar, the Austin quartet cut one cult classic in its brief existence, the spell-binding Dark Shadows, which Jello Biafra called “the best psychedelic album I know of.” – Austin Powell (Austin Chronicle)

“Billy Miller invented Post-Punk in 1970” – Julian Cope (Head Heritage)

In Ngélar—the sextet’s sophomore LP—deeper social narratives and more intimate subject matters are more apparent. In which they speak a lot about ‘tanah’ or ‘land/soil,’ owing a lot to the fact that their hometown, Jatiwangi’s history of being the country’s largest producer of clay/terracotta-based products. The people in Jatiwangi’s intertwining relationship with ‘tanah’ is simply unparalleled—even their instruments are mostly made of terracotta.

From the reimagining of their hometown’s past glories, Lair, along with singer/songwriter Monica Hapsari (who co-wrote and co-composed three songs in the album) and Go Kurosawa (Kikagaku Moyo) helming the project as the producer, sings about the rituals and traditions of harvest, to sending off prayers towards their once-prospering land and the ruins of what was once a dense forest in Jatiwangi, which they are currently trying to reclaim while racing with the massive wave of industrialisation. It is a contextually-sorrowful album as much as it is a candid, cheery commemoration of the band members’ everyday life in today’s northern shores of Java, Indonesia.

Ngélar is one of the words that might be able to describe the essence of Lair as a group. The word itself can be traced back to the locals’ culture of ‘going around in celebration of something.’ In their village, ngélar simply means a traveling performance, in which the performers would play music and go around the village, greeting the people around them as they move from place to place, or simply within their immediate surroundings, indicating that there is something nearby that is being celebrated.

Lair is simply in love with ‘journey,’ ‘time,’ and all of their interactions. Ngélar, for them, is a representation of their journey. How they go around, interacting and communicating, to celebrating and making sense of everything that is going on within and around them. For Lair, Ngélar is a method, a creative process, and—as an album—a culmination of each of their journeys since the group’s founding.