Blackwater Park - Dirt Box (1971)

Hard & heavy guitar rock from Berlin, 1971, with 'no-messin' attitude,
overloaded guitar, and english vocals. Includes a cover of the Beatles "For No One",
and a mini epic 8 min work-out "Rock Song".
Somehow we can't help thinking maybe UFO saw this lot & decided to nick their act..
Housed in a great digipak.

Another one of those German bands with a British vocalist.
The line-up was Richard Routledge (vocals, guitar), Michael Fechner (guitar),
Andreas Scholz (bass, he came from the recently disbanded Murphy Blend!)
and Norbert Kagelmann (drums). "Dirt Box" had a promisingly weird cover,
but the music was quite common for the period:
guitar-based hard blues-rock in the Anglo-American style.
The material written by Fechner and Scholz ("Mental Block",
"Rock Song" and "Indian Summer") was the best,
recalling the brilliance of Armaggedon.
Routledge's material tended towards boogie blues and sounded more like Free.
He also wrote all the lyrics.
The album also included a good cover version of the Beatles'
"For No One". This is one of many albums of which the original copies sell for
small fortunes today. To meet the increasing demand,
Second Battle re-released the album in 1990 in its original sleeve.
If you go for originals though, expect to part with 250 DM.

(info by: CGR)

1. Mental block
2. Roundabout
3. One´s life
4. Indian summer
5. Dirty face
6. Rock song
7. For noone






















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Under Milkwood - Selftitled (1970)

Reissue of a fantastic Californian psych-based only released in 1969 as test pressing
(was planned to be released on A&M label but never came out);
it had this real 'west coast' guitarsound like Jefferson Airplane,
Moby Grape, some folkrock passages ala Fairport Convention but also some exotic hippie
atmospheres ala Traffic Sound;
great alternate male/female vocals not unlike Balin/Slick but also crystal vocal passages
ala Sandy Denny. Underground masterpiece from this mystic folk band out of California.
Recorded in the early 70s, it's never been released & test pressings are collector's items.
The singer Clara Miles had a voice similar to Grace Slick,
especially on the acoustic tracks. Gatefold sleeve.

(info by: CGR)

1. Empty Room
2. Changing Seasons
3. Tell Me
4. Forgotten Bridge
5. Parade
6. Sandwiches Rock 'N' Roll
7. Lost Youth
8. Ballad Of The Spirit Of The World
9. Final Song






















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The Firebirds - Light My Fire (1969)

An intriguing mystery outfit whose albums have become sought-after for their over-top heavy psych-blues-rock mayhem that owes much to Hendrix, Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum. The best place to start is Erik Lindgren's superb 1997 CD compilation, An Overdose Of Heavy Psych which contains six primordial chunks.

The Dance Party Time LP is lighter instrumental fare that sounds just like The Animated Egg but without the fuzz. Some tracks have a haunting quality because they've been recycled: Out Of Town is Dark by The Animated Egg; and Doors Time turns out to be a pedestrian version of the backing track to The Id's Boil The Kettle Mother.

The Associated Soul Group Contessa album below is listed purely as conjecture in the hope that someone may establish a connection other than that it shares the same cover as the Electric Firebirds and is on another exploitation California label. Who WERE these Godfathers of grunge?

(info from: internet)

















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Stoned Circus - Revisited (1970)

An outstanding piece of US psychedelia from this act founded in Kansas, 1968 and not to be confused with Stone Circus that recorded for the Mainstream label. The powerful sound with male and female vocals, great organ and heavy fuzzy guitars has a strong Jefferson Airplane/Big Brother feeling. This previously unreleased (on CD)
1970 material was found in the the archives of the Cavern Sound Studios where the Wizards from Kansas also recorded. Includes "Gotta find a way", "New World", a cover of Zeppelin's "Gonna leave You" and more. Now reissued from the original masters with a detailed biography and pictures, in collaboration with the band.

A fine hippie quintet with male-female vocals in the Jefferson Airplane mould. They recorded their only album, on 4th September 1970 at Cavern Sound Studios, Missouri and were originally from Independence (Harry Truman's birthplace). This is the same studio where The Wizards From Kansas and Burlington Express laid down their first tracks. The album, which remained unissued until 1994, contains an excellent cover version of the traditional Babe I'm Gonna Leave You.

(info by: CGR)

01 - Gotta Find A Way - 3.43
02 - Feel - 2.39
03 - Try Love - 4.19
04 - New World - 3.12
05 - Trust - 2.27
06 - Sweet Lovin´ - 2.49
07 - Instrumental - 5.07
08 - Gonna Leave You - 6.20
09 - Corina - 2.29
10 - Whole Lotta Love - 2.12

















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Raw Material - Selftitled (1970)

Super rare UK progressive from the late '60s. Leaning in a psych direction with Doors like keyboards, 'Tull like flute, long tracks, quality vocals, varied instrumentation etc.This was Raw Material's self-titled maiden voyage in the studio, they would release one more album in 1971 titled Time Is. The sound created on this album was not as intense or complex as their second outing but it is a glimpse at what they would become.

This music was progressive but will most likely be looked upon as pre-progressive (i.e. Yes, Pink Floyd) by most fans and critics. Colin Catt, the vocalist and keyboard player, set the tone for the band with his trilling vocal style and Jon Lord/Deep Purple influenced keyboard playing.

Although this album has some of the fusion and jazz elements present, it is not a prevalent as their second album. Rock seems to be the foundation that everything else stems from on their freshman outing. It remains as a fine example of early prog-rock with the use of the flute, sax and harp. Although this may not be the best album that you have heard from that period of time it is good and worth checking out.

(info by: CGR)

1. Time and Illusion-7:30
2. I'd Be Delighted-5:10
3. Fighting Cock-3:50
4. Pear On An Apple Tree-2:57
5. Future Recollections-3:55
6. Traveller Man-6:10






















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Spriguns - Revel Weird And Wild (1976)

Reissue of the 1976 debut by Spriguns (previously known as Spriguns of Tolgus). The band adopted a Fairport-like electric folk-rock sound, capped by Mandy Morton's silky velvet vocals. Electric violin and electric guitars evoke misty ancient moorlands and create a suitable backing for Mandy's beautiful voice. Fabulous

Who would have believed what talent there would be inside Mandy Morton? It seems that no one were aware of her skills not even herself. Not even when her musical career started, was she given the homage she so rightly deserved.Her career started of as playing as a duo with her husband Mike Morton. The couple played as a Cambridge folk-duo on Friday and Saturday nights at the Anchor pub in Silver Street, Cambridge. They recieved a growing following, and the duo turned into a band: Spriguns Of Tolgus. They became a known and beloved act in the sorroundings of Cambridge, and their following soon demanted some album releases. Their 1974 privately released cassette was sold to students at live performances and less than 50 copies were produced.
The cassette format has ensured that their value has not reached the epic proportions of the vinylfollow-up Jack With A Feather from 1975, which boasted better sound quality and duplicated some material from the earlier cassette. The playing on the album was good and almost all the material was traditional.After this Spriguns Of Tolgus did break up as a band, but mr. & mrs. Morton continued working with music. They soon were ready to make new recordings. This band did however abbreviate the name to Spriguns. In 1976 they released Revel Weird And Wild which consisted of only of songs written by members of the band, although some of the songs were more or less stolen from traditional songs.
Already at this time Mandy was clearly in control of the band,written most of the material. The following year they made Time Will Pass, were Mandy now were the only songwriter in the band, the album were more aggressive than it's predecessor, and the music, all written by Mandy, seemed to go in a new direction. Mandy's lyrics were still mostly about knight and ladies from a time long ago. Both albums were recorded for the famous label Decca.Spriguns was now totally the vehicle of talented vocalist Mandy Morton. And the next step was only naturel, Spriguns did now only seem as being Mandy Morton with a backing band. And so she rebaptised Spriguns into Mandy Morton And Spriguns and made Magic Lady in 1978.It was this album that introduced me to Mandy's music: I borrowed the cd in the summer 1999, because I knew that my music hero Graeme Taylor was playing on the album. But soon I fell for Mandy's songs.Now performing only as Mandy Morton she recorded Sea Of Storms in 1980. And then three years did pass until her six and final release: Valley Of Light. This album is the only one not to feature Mandy's husband Mike Morton, and so Mandy was now the only one who had been al the way from Jack With A Feather in 1975. After the album Mandy retired from music.
The last three albums were recorded either for Polydor or Banshee.This page is in memory of her indescribably perfect efforts on these albums, which all are of sublime songwritingship, I know I've heard them all!!!

(info by: CGR)

01. Trysting Tree 4:01
02. Outlandish Knight 4:33
03. Sir Colvin 5:56
04. Piscie Song 4:03
05. Nothing Else To Do 2:58
06. Hasberry Howard 2:54
07. Lord Lovell 4:48
08. Laily Worm 3:18
09. When Spring Comes In 3:09






















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McDonald & Sherby - Catharsis (1969)

"Latest offering in our series of Christian titles, this time from those noted style gurus, McDonald & Sherby, whose sole contribution to the canon of 20th century music was Catharsis, an album which originally appeared on the appropriately-named Omniscient label (Omniscient Records 1426S) Some have speculated that given the band's prog/psych leanings, Catharsis was probably recorded in the '70s,
although the accepted wisdom is that the album was made at Minneapolis's Sound 80 Studios on 1969. The album consists of six long tracks with a decidedly heavy guitar-based vibe, all well- recorded and delivered with considerable aplomb. A guitar-based progressive album recorded at Sound 80 in Minneapolis. Though undated, the record sounds of a mid-seventies vintage, not dissimilar to fellow Great Lakes prog rockers Kopperfield."

(info by: CGR)

01 - Addoranne - 10.06
02 - Sharks Around Blood - 5.27
03 - Run And Hide - 4.17
04 - Space Beam - 4.35
05 - Swim Free - 15.01
06 - Drivin´ Me Crazy - 5.18

















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Flood - The Rise of (1970)

Long-lost seventies psych-rock from an act based in New York. Some bluesy workouts with a funky feel on occasion and rock'n'riffy numbers with great moments of intense fuzz guitar soloing, but really rather a disappointment. Inexplicably considered (Impossible to find) by a couple of record dealers recently, but (Extremely rare) value has been consistent for 10 years elsewhere.

(ingo by: CGR)

01 - Vacumn - 4.12
02 - Idle Time - 4.25
03 - Blessed The Young Children - 4.31
04 - Pain - 3.58
05 - Songbird Of Time - 3.30
06 - Mr. Wickett - 6.18
07 - Don´t Take Me - 3.27
08 - Hurting Time - 4.02



















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Beefeaters – Beefeaters & Meet You There (1967-69)

(no info)

















Size: 166 Mb
Bitrate: 320 mp3
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Sorcery - Sinister Soldiers (1978)

(no info)

















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Ramatam - Selftitled (1971)

Review by Joe Viglione:
Tom Dowd produced 1972's self-titled debut from Ramatam, a poor-man's Blind Faith featuring co-author of The Blues Image hit "Ride Captain Ride Mike Pinera on guitar and vocals, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. The "star" of this group was alleged to be April Lawton, a chick who had the Hendrix riffs down, to be sure, but not as creative as Robin Trower and all those other gents who carried Jimi's sound and stylings into the seventies.
An appearance by the group in Boston at the old Music Hall was pure white noise and not very memorable outside of that. The album is a bit more refined, but ultimately fails to deliver the goods.
"Whiskey Place" opens the record sounding like a brazen blend of Ten Wheel Drive meets The Jimi Hendrix Experience without a Genya Ravan or a Jimi to save the day. The horns actually clash with the guitar while the bass has a mind of its own. The production work by Dowd on the first track is totally uninspired and it certainly feels like the act was left to its own devices.
Mike Pinera and Les Sampson's "Heart Song" works much better, a jazzy vision of Traffic's brand of Brit rock meeting that of the West Coast's /Quicksilver Messenger Service.
But it's not enough - Rare Earth type macho vocals do much to implode the disc's potential totally sinking Pinera's "Ask Brother Ask".
Mitchell's great drum work is wasted on the monotony of the hook, and the musicianship gets so fragmented it sounds like Eno's Portsmouth Sinfonia without the humor. The Tommy Sullivan / April Lawton composition "What I Dream I Am", on the other hand, almost gets it done - it's pretty tune with flutes, acoustic guitar work and simple percussion from Mitch.
It fails because of vocals which just can't cut it, painful singing obliterating the disc's best chance for recognition. Was Tom Dowd out having coffee or just not interested in this whatsoever?
America could've used an answer to Steve Winwood's poppy jazz, and a Genya Ravan would have brought this experiment out of the quagmire it finds itself in with her voice and production intuition.
The blues here undefined and the tape mix far from cohesive on the other band collaboration,"Wayso". Ramatam, diffused and confused, is a tragic statement of record labels trying to make a talent rather than finding one. "Changing Days" is another decent Sullivan / Lawton easy feeling co-write with horrible vocals eradicating the core goodness of the songwriting. Mike Pinera's "Strange Place" takes the Kiss riff, from "Shout It Out Loud" and puts it in a jazz setting with vocals that sound like they are auditioning for Savoy Brown...and failing to get the gig.
If that sounds awful just be thankful you're reading about it without having to hear this mess. By 1973 the group would be pared down to a power trio of Lawton, Sullivan and Jimmy Walker on drums.
Perhaps bassist Russ Smith, ex-Iron Butterfly Pinera and Mitch Mitchell saw the writing on the wall, but how they couldn't come up with something much, much better than this is the mystery.
There's enough combined talent here to have delivered a real gem. With this album Ramatam have re-written Euclid's axiom and turned it on its head: here the whole is less than the sum of its parts. The final track, "Can't Sit Still", sounds like producer Dowd looped his old Ornette Coleman and Allman Brothers tapes with his Black Oak Arkansas projects. And if Ramatam hadn't toured, people might've thought that's exactly what this was.

1. Whiskey Place
2. Heart Song
3. Ask Brother Ask
4. What I Dream I Am
5. Wayso
6. Changing Days
7. Strange Place
8. Wild Like Wine
9. Can't Sit Still

















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Mariani - Perpetuum Mobile (1970)

Ultra-rare album originally released as acetate only in 1970 by Austin based psychedelic rock-blues combo featuring a 16 year old Eric Johnson, Vince Mariani and Jay Podolnick...contains two bonus tracks from a rare single 'Re-Birth Day' and 'Memories'.

This Mariani album comes in either a plain white cover with MARIANI written at the upper right or a cover with stamped info MARIANI at upper right, PERPETUUM MOBILE at upper right, SONOBEAT STEREO at lower right and ADVANCE COPYwith a handwritten number at lower left. That´s all.

Labels have the numbers HEC 411 / HEC 412.
The record sold for $10.000 mentioned above had the cover with stamped info

Reviewed by: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck: A trio called Mariani originally recorded Perpetuum Mobile in 1970. In 2001 Akarma Records resurrected this sought after collectable. A young 16-year-old guitarist was making some noise then, his name was Eric Johnson.
Many music lovers found out about Johnson through his breakthrough album Ah Via Musicom in 1990. After The Ventures had initiated me and opened my ears to instrumental rock, I heard Johnson's song "Trademark," which was enjoying a steady rotation on FM radio. Enamored by the new sound, I consequently started my search for all the instrumental guitar music that I could get my hands on.

This reissued classic rock-blues album comes packaged in gatefold sleeve with the original stunning artwork and lengthy and informative liner notes that fill up both sides of the inner sleeves.

I really did not know what to expect when I put this platter on my turntable. I thought it might have been one of those castaway recordings that you hear 30 years after the fact. This however was not the case. Johnson, Vince Mariani (drums, vocals), and Jay Podolick (bass, vocals) were a powerful trio. Johnson was only a 16-year-old kid but he sounded years beyond capabilities as a lead guitar player.

The cuts recorded for this album were not for the faint of heart or meant for top-forty airplay, some are complex jams that run for over five minutes. The beginning of side two starts things off with a Vanilla Fudge/Cactus like blues-rock session. That song was the decisive factor for me. It solidified in my mind that Johnson was indeed big league material long before he received that recognition.

It is time to blow the dust off your turntable and start your LP collection again. This album will inspire you ... I guarantee it.
Even if you are not interested in the music, the cover alone is a real eye catcher for science fiction buffs or album art collectors.
I loved the entire package myself, and was enlightened once again about an artist I have always enjoyed.

(info by: CGR)

1. Searching For A New Dimension
2. Re-Birth Day
3. Things Are Changing
4. Lord I Just Cant Help Myself
5. The Unknown Path
6. Euphoria
7. Message
8. Windy Planet
9. Re-Birth Day (45 Version)
10. Memories






















Size: 96.9 Mb
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