Classic Rock 2598 Items

Poster is in perfect shape.

Originally released in 1973, The Dark Side of The Moon became Pink Floyd s first number 1 album in the US, remaining on the chart for 741 weeks between 1973 and 1988. One of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed albums of all time The Dark Side of The Moon also introduced The iconic album cover artwork by Hipgnosis featuring a prism representing the band s stage lighting, the record s lyrics, and the request for a simple and bold design.

Originally released in 2014, now on the band's own Guruguru Brain imprint for the first time.

"Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs."

The Rolling Stones returned to their blues roots in 1968 on Beggars Banquet. This Record Store Day edition is pressed on heavyweight grey, blue, black and white swirl vinyl as an ode to the lyric “a swirling mass of grey, blue, black and white” from Salt of the Earth as performed in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Features original ‘graffiti’ album artwork, and a replica of an original window display poster.

Sounds like Can meets Hawkwind! Unbelievably killer and super, super heavy brand new Psyche/Krautrock album coming out of nowhere from Brown Spirits, new on Soul Jazz Records! Brown Spirits are from Melbourne, Australia. Their stripped down and tight musical unit is a trio (think Cream or Hendrix!) of raw bass, drums and shared guitar/keyboards meets the D-i-y attitude and punk/post-punk intensity, giving them a unique hi-octane sound. Like their labelmates Trees Speak, Brown Spirits have a love all things Krautrock - mixed with an overwhelmingly powerful lo-fi psyche and punk attitude. The album features super heavy and raw drums, tough basslines, heavy fuzzed-out wah and psyche guitar and analog moog synthesizers, all recorded on analogue ü inch tape. In short - they rock! With a range of influences that range from Neu! to Soft Machine, Gang of Four, Miles Davis, Hendrix, Argent, Lonnie Liston Smith, King Crimson and beyond, their powerfully progressive hard and hypnotic sound is truly unforgettable.

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

Black Sabbath began work on their seventh studio album, Technical Ecstasy, in Miami, Florida, in June 1976. During the recording of the record Ozzy Osbourne admitted that he began losing interest in Black Sabbath and considered the possibility of working with other musicians. Recording sessions were difficult and by the time the album was completed, Osbourne was admitted to Stafford County Asylum in Britain. Released on 25th September 1976, the album featured less of the doomy, ominous sound of previous efforts, and incorporated more synthesisers and up-tempo rock songs. Technical Ecstasy failed to reach the top 50 in the U.S., and was the band's second consecutive release not to achieve platinum status, although it was later certified gold. Touring in support of the new release began in October 1976, kicking off in the U.S. with openers Boston and Ted Nugent. This live performance is however a necessary step forward.

AC/DC caught in the act on their 4-months extensive tour of the US in 1978, promoting their legendary 'Powerage' LP. Their first round of shows with Cliff Williams on bass, this still shows the band in his heyday of pure energy, starting to achieve worldwide fame for the decades to come. Recorded at the Atlantic Record Bar Convention August 8th, and broadcast by WKDF radio station, this superb shows documents the Australian rockers on fiery form.

Kikagaku Moyo 1st self-titled album reissue. Originally released by Cosmic Eye Records in Sep 2013. Kikagaku Moyo's debut album exerts an elemental power. Enlivening their sound with sitars, percussive drums, theremins, wind instruments and ethereal vocals, the band manages to sound powerfully spacious and lazily serene all at once. Their songs can be light as air, or heavy as earth. comes with digital download Many evolve out of intense experiences of engagement with the natural world. The album’s first track, “Can You Imagine Nothing?” was written over a night spent jamming on a suspended footbridge in remote mountains. As the song progressed the bridge began to sway, making band members feel as though they were floating weightless in midair. =Band Description= Kikagaku Moyo started in the summer of 2012 busking on the streets of Tokyo.

Originally released as private pressing in 1971, the Farm album is highly sought after and revered by collectors. Recorded by this Southern Illinois band in 1971 at the legendary Golden Voice studios, it’s full choc of jammy, bluesy guitar psych with heavy dual guitars, organ, congas, harp… Recommended if you like Quicksilver, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, Ten Years After…

Limited 2011 Record Store Day release!

For the first time on vinyl and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

180 gram pressing!

classic prog-rock masterpiece gets the reissue on 200 gram vinyl!

- "21st Century Schizoid Man" sampled by Aesop Rock for "Kill 'em All" and
Kanye West for "Power"

The legendary Andromeda album from 1969, a hard-psych classic, as it was originally conceived and intended to be heard by John DU Cann prior to editing: a double (not single) LP featuring his never released at the time original (punchier & clearer) mix and a different tracklist, including songs and extended takes that were not finally included on the original album due to time restrictions. Previously available as a CD-only release titled “Originals”, here’s the first ever vinyl edition.

Iron Maiden recorded live @ the Palladium, NYC, NY on June 29th, 1982. Bruce Dickenson's first tour with Maiden. A classic show from the U.S. leg of the "Beast On The Road" Tour.

Orang-Utan were in fact a London based band called Hunter, featuring vocalist Terry "Nobby" Clarke (of psych-pop legends Jason Crest), guitar player Mick Clarke, drummer and songwriter Jeff Seopardi and bass player Paul Roberts. They recorded their sole album in 1971 at DeLane Lea studios. In a bizarre twist of events, their producers / managers ran with the tapes to the US, where they placed the album on Bell Records under a new band name: Orang-Utan, without telling any of the band members. A lost classic of blazing, early hard rock with minor psychedelic hangover vibes, a twin-guitar attack, and waves of fuzz/wah, along with powerful vocals. Think Leaf Hound, Budgie, Bang, Sir Lord Baltimore, Hard Stuff... Legit reissue done in co-operation with the original band members.

Insert with liner notes telling the bizarre story of the band for the first time, and rare photos. Includes download card "Quintessentially British hard-rock, transforming the blues in a way American bands rarely did, and with a kind of vocal intensity that compares to Free, Humble Pie et al" - Aaron Milenski (Galactic Ramble)

2020 repress, single jacket version

Stone Garden started in a basement studio in Prague with a nearly continuous session over several days and nights. The original concept was influenced by the raw and seemingly endless jams of psychedelic pioneers. The freeform songs that emerged from these sessions were refined over several months at the band's home in Tokyo where each song was sculpted into an uncommon form.

Compared to the relatively song-based House In The Tall Grass (2016), Stone Garden is a window into Kikagaku Moyo’s more experimental side. While improvisation is essential to their songwriting process it can take on many forms. This record enabled the band to experiment not only with instrumentation but also atonality and a playful approach to mixing. The unexpected results have become five unique songs each woven together through the same process.

1992 historical south-american appearance from the Nwobhm stars , during the ‘Fear Of The Dark’ worldwide tour

Limited to 300 copies on red vinyl. Only available at HHV.
Ironhand Records is proud to announce the EP of Mustafa Kuş & İmece, musically at the crossroads of funk, jazz, and psychedelic, with Anatolian rhythms.
Mustafa Kuş, who went to Germany for his education and founded his band İmece in 1976, released three albums and one single until 1985.
Compiled from those, the 4 songs in this EP blend Anatolian rhythms with funk and jazz, entertaining bass lines, crazy drum attacks, saxophone, and keyboard solos.
Remastered from the original master tapes, limited to 300 copies exclusive for hhv.de on red vinyl. You will hear the idol of today’s many popular bands!

In the words of Mr. Plant "This is the last night of the last tour". The final New York show and the last concert of the 1973 Tour in fact. The opening numbers are just powered through and Jimmy's playing is spectacular! The Whole Lotta Love version is a strange one , with Bonham doing a full 5 minute non-stop hammering and Plant filling in with some eerie echo moans. A necessary addition for all the Zep fans !

50th anniversary edition of one of rock music’s seminal debut albums
2LP set pressed on 200 gram audiophile vinyl
LP1 features all new, 2019 stereo mixes as approved by Robert Fripp
LP2 features all new, 2019 alternate takes & recordings with five pieces mixed by Steven Wilson and two pieces mixed by David Singleton.
artwork derived from the original paintings, as meticulously restored for the limited edition full sized, signed prints
Cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering from original 24/96 high-resolution source files.

Original album on 180 gram vinyl, newly remastered by Jimmy Page in single sleeve replicating the original album.

Limited edition of 400 copies on black vinyl.

Monster rarity here! An incredible find for anyone into late 60s /early 70s underground hard-psych and blues-rock. A full unreleased album by British hard-blues band SAM Apple PIE, recorded in 1970 possibly as a follow up album to their Decca debut. Taken from the only surviving copy of a recently found acetate (without song titles or credits), all leads to believe this was recorded by the line-up of Sam Sampson, Bob Renny, Andy Johnson, Mick Smith and Mick Stuart. A great mix of heavy blues, hard-rock and psych, with some tracks sounding not unlike Elias Hulk or Fleetwood Mac.

A hard-hitting and gloomy heavy rock band comprised of Pasadena youth who

were selected as finalists in a nationwide artist search called "America's Answer

To Black Sabbath" recorded this lost demo album in Spring of 1972. The tracks

resurfaced in the mid 90s as a mysterious proto-metal record, released by

pioneering reissuers Rockadelic records. Sudden Death's music is now being

released broadly for the first time, and with full disclosure of the band's journey.

The lauded krautrocking, global groove ensemble’s first album On maverick producer Madlib’s label. The late Christian Burchard, who founded the Embryo ensemble in 1969, loved the slogan Auf Auf, German for Up, Up, or Keep On Going. Anyone with anything more than a passing interest in the German Krautock scene of the 1970s and 1980s knows that Burchard followed that intent, all around the world, tirelessly seeking out new sounds and inspirations and creating a catalog of music unlike most anything else the world has ever heard. Madlib has often said Embryo is his favorite rock band. Of course the hip-hop-producer-with-the-deepest-musical-knowledge knows Embryo is more than just a rock band – but, for the purposes of these notes, let’s keep it simple. When Marja Burchard, Christan’s daughter, who grew up with Embryo and toured with them for years, took the reins of the ensemble after Christian’s death in 2018, she started recording what would become this album, over the course of two years, finishing it in the throes of the Covid pandemic in 2020. She approached Madlib and Egon, who had, years back, visited and jammed with Christian Burchard, and Embryo musicians Uve Mullrich, Roman Bunka and Jan Weissenfeldt, in a Bavarian wine cellar, with the idea to issue Auf Auf on Madlib Invazion. The reply was a resounding, definitive “yes.” So here is Marja’s take on the Embryo ethos, continuing with her father’s intrepid style, and leading the band in her own style. Auf Auf ranges from the deep, free-form jazz of “Alphorn Prayer” to modal music from Afghanistan on “Baran” to psychedelic-tinged jazz-rock of the title track Joining Marja are those like Embryo veterans Bunka, on oud and guitar, and Karl Hector and the Malcouns/Whitefield Brothers/Poets of Rhythm producer and guitarist Jan Weissenfeldt and others, including important players on the global scene from Afghanistan and Morocco.

Christopher were an underground acid rock trio featuring future Josefus drummer Doug Tull. They evolved from United Gas, a psychedelic band from Houston who rubbed shoulders with legends like The 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks . After relocating to Los Angeles - where they changed his name to Christopher - they played at numerous biker parties and recorded their sole album in 1970 for the Metromedia label. It’s an amazing example of West Coast psychedelia / acid-rock featuring strong fuzz-wah guitar, great compositions and superb musicianship. It was housed in a terrific cover depicting the band at the same hippie crash-pad where some scenes from the “The Trip” movie were filmed. One of the holy grails of American psychedelic-rock and the rarest album originally released by the collectable Metromedia label. Remastered sound, original artwork, insert with liner notes.

Original album on 180 gram vinyl, newly remastered in single sleeve replicating the original album.

One of the key albums when talking about psychedelic hard-rock and early proto-metal, originally released in 1969. Featuring the great John Du Cann (The Attack, Atomic Rooster, Hard Stuff…) on guitar plus Mick Hawksworth (Fuzzy Duck, Alvin Lee) on heavy bass plus the powerful drumming of Ian McLane (Neat Change, Ray Owen’s Moon).

Andromeda was formed during the final days of Du Cann’s previous band The Attack, when he decided to go in a full heavier & proggier musical direction. Recruiting his friend/room mate Mick Hawksworth on bass plus drummer Jack McCulloch (of One In A Million, soon to be replaced by Ian McLane), the power-trio was born. After initial interest from John Peel (Dandelion) and Kit Lambert (Track Records), Du Cann decided to go with a major label, RCA, who offered him the chance to self-produce their first album. Recorded at Advision Studios, the impressive Andromeda debut was released in 1969, housed in a sleeve designed by John with photos by Gered Mankowitz. But despite receiving excellent reviews and the band playing lots of gigs (some of them billed above bands like Black Sabbath), RCA didn’t know what to do with such a heavy rock band. Tired of the lack of promotion and support, John accepted an offer to join Atomic Rooster… but that’s another story.

One of the key albums when talking about psychedelic hard-rock and early proto-metal, originally released in 1969. Featuring the great John Du Cann (The Attack, Atomic Rooster, Hard Stuff…) on guitar plus Mick Hawksworth (Fuzzy Duck, Alvin Lee) on heavy bass plus the powerful drumming of Ian McLane (Neat Change, Ray Owen’s Moon).

Andromeda was formed during the final days of Du Cann’s previous band The Attack, when he decided to go in a full heavier & proggier musical direction. Recruiting his friend/room mate Mick Hawksworth on bass plus drummer Jack McCulloch (of One In A Million, soon to be replaced by Ian McLane), the power-trio was born. After initial interest from John Peel (Dandelion) and Kit Lambert (Track Records), Du Cann decided to go with a major label, RCA, who offered him the chance to self-produce their first album. Recorded at Advision Studios, the impressive Andromeda debut was released in 1969, housed in a sleeve designed by John with photos by Gered Mankowitz. But despite receiving excellent reviews and the band playing lots of gigs (some of them billed above bands like Black Sabbath), RCA didn’t know what to do with such a heavy rock band. Tired of the lack of promotion and support, John accepted an offer to join Atomic Rooster… but that’s another story.

Prog-psych / acid-folk lost classic from 1969 by this short lived London trio. Now lovingly reissued on vinyl with fantastic remastered sound and including insert with rare photos / memorabilia and detailed liner notes by Steve Krakow aka Plastic Crimewave. Named after a Cannonball Adderley track, Synanthesia formed thanks to a Melody Maker ad placed in 1968 by guitarist/vibes/vocalist Dennis Homes, answered by Jim Fraser (who played sax, oboe and flute) and Leslie Cook (an Incredible String Band fan on bongos, violin and mandolin). With their particular blend of folk, jazz and psychedelia, the trio played all the key underground venues and clubs, sometimes alongside top acts like Floyd, King Crimson or Fairport Convention. Their sole album was recorded at Sounds Technique studio in Chelsea (which was where Pink Floyd were recording their albums at the time) and subsequently released by RCA. The cover featured the trio climbed onto a tree at the same park where the Beatles filmed their “Strawberry Field” promo film. Despite the good reviews and the support of DJs like John Peel, the album was considered too far out and psychedelic and eventually flopped, only to be re-discovered several decades later by acid-folk fans and collectors.

1000 pressed. Ltd Double Black Vinyl, DL Card. Available for the first time on vinyl, with updated artwork from band leader Nick Saloman. From the fuzziest West Coast psyche to lilting acoustic work by way of Beatlesy power pop and some gorgeous organ flurries, 'Hit Squad' contains some of the Frond's most realised songs. From the faux-60s spy-film styles of the title track, the all-out rock of 'Dragons' and 'Doing Nothing', the classic psych-rock of 'Through The Hedge', to the epic psychedelic melancholy of 'Fast Falls The Eventide'. 'Hit Squad' has Saloman playing to his strengths, but not resting on his laurels." AllMusic. A magnificent uplifting collection of tales about every man's trials and tribulations mixed with escapist visions and beautiful pop songs.

First global vinyl pressing for Marianne Faithfull’s final album for Island records. 1995’s ‘A Secret Life’ received its only vinyl issue in Greece, and copies are hard to come by. The album was a new direction for Marianne and was written with the Italian composer Angelo Badalamenti, known for his atmospheric scores to David Lynch’s films. The result successfully marries his multi-layered orchestral production style with Marianne’s trademark voice and poetic lyrics to create a wholly original and timeless album.

After the space-time experience and the translation into music of the Bible of Japanese civilization, the Fulukotofumi, the following year, in 1973, Hiromasa Suzuki pushes his research and experimentation beyond the borders of his own country by venturing, with the usual companions of adventure (Kunimitsu Inaba, Hideo Sekine, etc.), along the lights and shadows of the Silk Road. A backward journey in search of the musical and cultural sources of mainland Asia, from the gates of India to the roots of China. If the Biwa lute characterized the previous chapter dedicated to the profound ancestral of Japan, here, the sitar, the Asian instrument par excellence, becomes a new narrator; Suzuki plans and manages the interventions by juxtaposing it with an opera that, like the previous one, always remains strongly jazz and rock, at times very similar to Ian Carr's Nucleus. A precious find in the endless and seminal musical archeology of modern Japanese music. Gatefold cover with insert.

Black Friday Record Store Day 2022 Reissue. Color: Black. Limitation: 2500. Jefferson Airplane Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival! The Jefferson Airplane are Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady and Spencer Drayden. Their performance took place on Saturday night June 17th, 1967.

In 1992, part of this set was released on a Rhino box set, on CD and cassette. This RSD Black Friday release marks the first appearance of this set on vinyl.

2 x Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Album, Limited Edition, Numbered, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo

Limited to 10,000 copies
1/4" / 15 IPS / Dolby A analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
Copyright 1975 Elektra/Asylum Records, a division of Warner Music Group

Originally from Chicago, Haymarket Square released in 1968 one of the rarest vinyl artifacts from the US underground psychedelic scene: the “Magic Lantern” album. Originally conceived as the soundtrack to a psychedelic lightshow art installation, the album offers crude, dark, psychedelic rock featuring trippy fuzzed out / wah guitars, male-female vocals and long tracks. Newly remastered sound, insert with liner notes, repro of the ultra-rare Baron & Bailey Lightshow poster.

An amazingly colorful album with songs that are based on solid substance rather than cheap pop structures. This is music for the bold listeners and music lovers and this awesome reissue should quickly find it’s way into the record collections of 80s synth and art pop aficionadoes. Yasuaki Shimizu did what he wanted with Mariah, pushed the borders of popular music further than anybody would have thought. Listen to a track like „Shonen“ with a repetitive rhythm pattern that hypnotizes you and somehow silky melodylines by saxophone and synth piano upon which a female voice sings in a very spiritual way. Praising pop or whatever this can be called, it is sheer magic put in music. I wonder if this would have made it into the charts back then, but you never know. It is a piece of musical art that shall be listened to. Grab your copy now!!!

All time classic album, including 'Crosstwon Traffic', 'Voodoo Chile' & more!

Stereo version, freshly pressed on 180 gram vinyl!

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

180 Gramm Reissue, mastered from the original 1973 stereo tapes!

Formed in 1966 around lead singer Richard Shirman, The Attack were the ultimate freakbeat/psychedelic band. We present a new, definitive edition of their famous “Final Daze” recordings, focusing on strictly 1967-1968 stuff with John Cann as main songwriter (plus a never-before-on-vinyl track from ’69, taken from a rare acetate), unlike previous editions that included early and post-Attack unrelated recordings. The result is a killer UK Psych sounding album featuring the impressive guitar of John Cann (Andromeda, Atomic Rooster…) and it’s the closer we can get to what the long rumoured to exist Attack’s “Roman God Of War” unreleased LP could have sounded like. Including the classic mod-psych anthem “Magic In The Air” (dropped by their record label Decca for “being too heavy”), their unreleased monster hard-psych 45 'Feel Like Flying' / 'Freedom For You', the killer title track, the pre-Andromeda demos of “Too Old” and “Go Your Way” and more! *Insert with liner notes by Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills (Shindig!) and rare photos “Inhabiting a region of the sonic solar system somewhere between the Creation and the Small Faces, the Attack languished in comparative obscurity back in their day, only to be recognized decades later as one of the most exciting bands of the era.” – Mike Stax (Ugly Things)

Rare Bird are perhaps best remembered for having the distinction of being the first act to be released on Tony Stratton Smith’s gloriously eclectic label Charisma records (also the home of Genesis, THE Nice and VAN DER Graaf Generator to name but a few) and for their excellent 1970 hit single ‘Sympathy’. Like fellow future Charisma stable mates Van Der Graaf Generator, Rare Bird was formed around the principle of keyboard dominated progressive rock which eschewed the use of guitars. In December 1969 their eponymous debut album was released to great critical acclaim.

A vitriolic quartet from Corpus Christi, Texas, considered by experts to be pivotal in the evolution of blues to heavy rock. The one album recorded in 1972 for little Acorn highlights a resounding jam attitude tied double-string to the Allmans' southern blues, peppered later with psychedelic influences. Richard Deleon's warm voice frames a picture that bewitches for the variety of its colors, at times dark and bleak, at times more vivid and sunny, but undoubtedly the protagonists of a beautiful work. The band's technical proficiency is sunny and unquestionable, just listen to the interweaving solos by Deleon and the other guitar harnessed by William Grate, but not to be outdone are James Castillo on bass and Frudy Lianes on drums, both of whom give an excellent performance

A hard-hitting and gloomy heavy rock band comprised of Pasadena youth who

were selected as finalists in a nationwide artist search called "America's Answer

To Black Sabbath" recorded this lost demo album in Spring of 1972. The tracks

resurfaced in the mid 90s as a mysterious proto-metal record, released by

pioneering reissuers Rockadelic records. Sudden Death's music is now being

released broadly for the first time, and with full disclosure of the band's journey.

Finnaly we got it, after a long time waiting we were able to reissue this 1969 killer 7" of The Blue Condition, from Waukegan, Illinois. The original wax is a most wanted and a mega rare gem searched by garage punk collectors from all over the world. With "Coming Home" as the main track, a garage punk/freakbeat killer stomper. Fuelled with fuzz and groove. The record come with 2 postcards, linernotes and interview with the band members.

Released in 1974 with a "quadraphonic" sound. Brilliant songs by a cohesive band that knew how to materialize a memorable and original fusion project at an international level.

If Latin funk exists, it's thanks to pioneering bands like Black Sugar, a Peruvian group created in the early seventies that recorded two fundamental albums for the Afro-American and Latin genre. A pair of albums that are now re-released by the Valencian label Discos Monterey with the usual sound and visual quality to which we are accustomed. The roots of this band come from the Far-Fen (syllables for Farfisa and Fender), formed in the late sixties by guitarist Víctor "Coco" Salazar and Miguel "Chino" Figueroa on keyboards. One night they were spontaneously joined by the sensational voice of Carlos "Pacho" Mejía. In the seventies, in the Peruvian capital there was a shortage of "white" sugar and the darker cane sugar was consumed. Hence the group's name. Peru was in the midst of a dictatorship and the military were against music that did not come from Peruvian folklore.

Rock and roll with foreign roots languished due to the imposition of the established power, and Black Sugar emerged, whose main skill was to mix, with enormous passion and fascinating ability, Latin sounds and the funk that came from the United States.

The result is two memorable albums, with a large part of their own songs and most of them composed by Pacho. The first, with an eponymous title, was released in 1971 by Sono Radio, whose musical director Jaime Delgado Aparicio was in charge of the fiery arrangements with generous brass and energetic percussion. Released with the credits in English, they managed to break into the Top Ten of the Miami charts with the song "Too Late". They even received an offer to record their next album in the United States, but decided to stay in their country. That second album was released in 1974 with a "quadraphonic" sound, taking advantage of the label's magnificent studios. From the mid-seventies onwards the desertions began and it would not be until 2010 that the project would be recovered with some historical and younger musicians.

To listen to Black Sugar is to go back to the Peruvian night of the seventies with fiery music, full of sensuality and rhythm. Brilliant songs by a cohesive band that knew how to materialize a memorable fusion project, very original and at an international level. Two unique albums reissued by Monterey that will delight all lovers of Afro-Latin sounds and good music in general. Alex Magic Pop

50thAnniversary – Abbey Road Half Speed Master by Miles Showell.The 180gram black vinyl is housed in a gatefold sleeve and comes complete with a replica of the original 16-page “Blue Book” of lyrics and drawings plus an Abbey Road Certificate and Obi. Recorded in August 1973 at Pavillon Du Hay, Sens, France on the Manor Mobile (24 Track). Remastered in 2018 from the original Virgin analogue masters by Simon Heyworth. Released on Virgin Records in 1973, ‘Angel’s Egg’ was Gong’s 4thalbum and 2ndin their ‘Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy’. It features Gilli Smyth aka Shakti Yoni on vocals / ‘Space Whisper’ and was the first Gong album to feature Steve Hillage as a full-time band member. Contains such fan favourites as “Other Side of The Sky”, “Flute Salad”, Oily Way” and “I Never Glid Before”.

Cluster was the pioneering German duo of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius. Formed on the cusp of the 1970s, they were a part of West Germany’s nascent Kosmische Musik scene. The group would use restrained improvisational techniques similar to Gruppo Nuova Consonanza, working with both electric and acoustic instruments (organ, guitar, tone generators, cello, etc.) to create a singular sound that Julian Cope called “a huge beating heart, planet-sized and awesome.” Following the release of Cluster II, the duo relocated to the village of Forst where they built a home studio and began to collaborate with like-minded artists such as Michael Rother and Brian Eno. 1974’s Zuckerzeit, Cluster’s first album made in their countryside studio, marked a major shift in their music from experimental noise to avant-pop. “Hollywood” starts things off with infectious loops, analog drum machines and sweeping synth. “Caramel” seems to pick up the pace even more; its sugary groove promptly dissolves into a sea of ethereal keyboards, amorphous layers and sparse chords. For Zuckerzeit, Roedelius and Moebius developed the tracks individually. They recorded in separate rooms on different days, although each piece flows into the next seamlessly. While Rother is listed as producer on the original Brain release, he was reportedly not present at the sessions and simply loaned the band some equipment. Bringing together Cluster’s haunted melodic sense and motorik rhythms, Zuckerzeit reveals not only how much the band grew from their experience in Harmonia, but also how instrumental they were in their later collaborations with Eno.

These are some of the comments you can find on Youtube by people who have just discovered Oliver’s private press masterpiece “Standing Stone”. That gives you an idea of how unique and ahead of its time Oliver’s music is. Recording all by himself at a remote farm in Wales (within hailing distance of the real Standing Stone in the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire) and assisted by his brother Chris (a BBC engineer at that time) Oliver self-released in 1974 “Standing Stone”, now a cult album, reissued on Guerssen last year.

Fans of “Standing Stone” will be blown away when they hear “Stone Unturned”, a previously unreleased second Oliver album, recorded also in 1974 at the farm and assisted by brother Chris. Performed by Oliver using a single mic, guitars and various effects devices, this is in the same vein as “Standing Stone” but even more loose and raw. Highly recommended to any acid folk / psych blues fan.