US band Yeti, from 2000's Things to Come plus 2nd release (2004's Volume, Obliteration, Transcendence), limited time only

From discogs:

US avant-rock band in the Zeuhl tradition, that is modelled on the music of Magma, adding copious amounts of contemporary classical references and angular rock dissonance in the vein of King Crimson and Univers Zero.

The band's creative thrust was cut when kingpin Doug Ferguson died, but the rest of the band kept on recording a second album, adopting a more stoner/metal approach.

Probably people are familiar with this band, which I thought only released the one album back in 2001. And it definitely did sound like a US version of Magma with the crazy angular riffs and from outer space vibe, like the Xalph I posted here once. Or you could say the Bozon Cold Fusion find is like this, but a little bit more toned down and less insane.

But as it says above keyboardist Doug Ferguson (who was a member of Vas Deference O.) sadly passed away in that same year, and the remaining members recorded another album in 2004 which is slightly more guitar based but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's stoner metal. There are a bunch of live recordings that most have never heard which I'll also post subsequently. They play long meandering and space rock type material which you can hear here on youtube.

In addition I'll post flacs limited time only as usual, though the limit is extended now with the new site we are using.

From the second album the first track is posted here.

Pepe Maina 3, Birds of Passage from 2006

 

Here's a really remarkable one, that just blew me away. Definitely the best one since his seventies work which is why I put this one separately.  I would go so far as to say it's almost better than the first 2 because of its intensity and cohesion and the quality of the original compositions. Quite impressive-- considering this is some 30 years after the style of music was in fashion, culturally.

Information here, note the lovely album cover, an outlier for the artwork too considering the times of release.

Coloured Noises, posted on youtube here, starts the album off with the usual themes and sounds of composed orchestral type passages on acoustic instruments plus keyboards, eg synthesizers with overlying flute melodies, extremely professionally played and also recorded in a crystal clear fashion.

Birds Against the Sky, posted here, features all the hallmarks of his style particularly the gentleness and flowing sound that never become boring through the different musical variations he runs through.

Even the lovely old mellotron makes an appearance, for ex. on the track called Rainbow.

Too bad about internet archive, presumably in trouble for copyright stuff.

It was too good to last long, I guess.

Pepe Maina, Part 2 [Snow, Winter Sea, Res Obscura, Koan]

 

More of the same... Consistently good and enjoyable music throughout all these releases, all very well composed and played.

From Snow, the Illusion of Silence:

youtubed here

From Winter Sea, Fire:

youtubed here

Res Obscura, title track:

youtubed here

Winter Day from Koan:

youtubed here

I'll try to get more too since a bunch of the CDs are available for purchase from Japan, oddly. Guess they love him there?

Well-known Italian composer Pepe Maina, Part 1 [Canto dell'arpa, Scerizza, Winged Fever, Pagan Night]

It's likely everyone knows him well.  One of those multi-instrumentalists who plays just about everything on his releases, and quite beautifully and flawlessly too. It's instrumental and electronic keys based so you could say it leans into the new age territory. When I recently checked the discography though I was surprised to see he released dozens and dozens of albums after his auspicious 1970s start.  These never really strayed from the prog electronic style that he began with, which is a good thing, and here and there are well worth hearing, not that I've explored even the majority by this time, though I hope to go through all of them. The music was not too much diluted down by the new age simplicity spirit that took over in the post70s decades.

Another version, less complete perhaps, of his discography is listed on progarchives here.

We can start with the first two wonderful albums, the first (Song of the harp and flute) of course, marred by the ridiculous cover photo of the teeth being brushed-- like, what was he thinking?? 

I 'll post flacs for the first 2.

From that one, Spring Song:

If you haven't heard the Canto dell arpa, you can here the sumptuous beginning of it on youtube here.

From the beautiful follow up called Scerizza (cannot find meaning of that word online, someone can assist?) La Danza del Pulcini, youtubed here:

From Winged Fever, 2003, the title track, which is definitely a little new agey but beautifully arranged, alternatively on youtube here.

From Pagan Night (2010), the oddly titled Tunes from Idetunes:

This one is on youtube here for your listening pleasure. The 12 string guitar and the intro sound eerily like something by Anthony Phillips on one of his beautiful solo albums--god how I love those to death.

As long as internet archive is down I'll post youtube links as well.

Pocket Orchestra Pheonix

 

Here's an American group that did just a wonderful RIO style, discogged here, going over all the craziness you'd expect from say Rascal Reporters or Samla M. Manna or somesuch, in the classic angular, jagged, dissonant, but approachable manner, all of it recorded in the glory days, late 70s to early 80s. A review from rym for ex.:

This musicians had a lot of surprises to offer! Knebnagäuje is not the title of the album, it's the name of the band before they called themselves Pocket Orchestra. Both bands (same musicians) didn't release any LP. What a shame! The label MIO released this CD 2005 from old demo-tapes with a very good sound. The original tapes date from 1978/1979 (Knebnagäuje) and 1983 (Pocket Orchestra). But on CD you will find the titles in an unusual order. It starts with the tape from 1983 (1-4), before you will hear the tape from 1978/1979 (5-8).

The biggest surprise is the wonderful weird music which is difficult to describe. Imagine very talented and fun spirited musicians mix in their own way something that sounds like Henry Cow, Univers Zero, National Health, Matching Mole, Von Zamla, Soft Machine, musique concrete, a big portion of madness and unpredictability and in smaller doses Zappa, Gentle Giant. This complex madness with a method is in my eyes and ears an extravagant and beautiful planet everybody should discover in the widths of the avant-prog universe.

So I was surprised to see there was another release simply called Phoenix from more recently, I guess a kind of compilation detailing their evolution from 1978 onwards, with a live recordings from the early 80s.

I absolutely adore the well-composed track called RV that permutes in so many ways through so many different musical styles:

While the internet arch. is down, for now on youtube you can hear it here.

Back to David Diggs with Love Song Strings from 1975

Information discogged here.  I had to get this for completion on the seventies output from this wonderful composer, arranger, keyboardist, etc. I ripped two others recently back here, but earlier, the formidable Elusion album wowed us back here.  As usual, you live and learn. And thank the commenter who suggested the artist!

This one is criminally short, only 24 minutes long, and features composition by others, mostly a Chuck Girard, arranged for easy listening orchestra by Diggs. It's not straight out schmaltz, but close. The compositions are quite generic, but at least there are no cover versions or standards. Now that internet archive is down (shut down by Elon's drive for free speech, no doubt), can't put up samples, any suggestions? For once, youtube is shooting blanks here.

Recent info on the internet archive being down:

On Tuesday, October 8th, the Internet Archive began experiencing a multi-approach cyberattack across several fronts, which interrupted access to our digital library.

Our main priority is keeping our archived data safe, though at the expense of service availability. As a result, we took archive.org and openlibrary.org offline over the past few days to examine and strengthen our services—the Wayback Machine is now back online in a read-only view, and our blog and Mastodon have returned. We are increasing security measures and conducting additional checks on our infrastructure to ensure our archives remain secure.

An attack on our resources is not just an attack on the Internet Archive but a blow to millions of digital learners worldwide who depend on our services. We are committed to strengthening our defenses and constantly improving our security.

We apologize for the impact this caused on you, our valued users. The support of our community is deeply appreciated, and your generosity and assistance can help us during this time. Please consider donating to support continued access to knowledge for all who seek it. We understand if you cannot contribute, but any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Well, would be great if they get back up so we can hear those samples again!

Peter Hammill and Guy Evans in 1988's Spur of the Moment [flac temporary]

 

Well, here's a guy who needs no introduction as they love to introduce the famous...

This is I suppose improvised given the title, but the music is really truly interesting, not too abstract, with enough to hold on to make it well worth listening to. It's such a surprised given it came out in the year 1988. You can see that in addition to the VDGG people, a composer called Paul Ridout contributed compositions. Since the super useful internet archive is down for the moment, hopefully not permanently (shut down by one of our billionaire overlord kings, perhaps Elon himself personally ordered it?), I'll like youtube which has everything almost anyways but less accessible in general, link for this one here. I love the dramatic sound to it.

This album for sure takes over from The Long Hello, Vol. 4 stuff but is far far more thoughtfully complex. At times, like the description, it is indeed experimental, information here.

Another track I appreciated, called An Imagined Brother youtubed in link.

Nic Potter from The Long Hello, VDGG

 

From discogs:

Profile: Bassist, composer and painter. 

Born on October 18, 1951, in Wiltshire, England.

Died on January 16, 2013 in London, England.

Nic was in the Vol. 2 which was perhaps the least successful of the series, setting aside the last one-- sorry to put it that way straight off.

The music on these post-1970s albums is quite libraryish. There are keyboards, little of any other instruments, no guitarwork, and most compositions seem a little underdeveloped.

From Mountain Music, 1984, the Morning Suite:

Sketches in Sound (1986) and Self-Contained (1987) follow along the same lines basically. So it's like the Long Hello stuff from later but more monochromatic.

"The Long Hello" Part 2

What a shame that for Vol. 4 above, they gave up on the surreal and bizarrely creepy cover with the surfing ghost in the top right, in favour of the simple blue beach photo for the cd release-- but how typical.

As I said last time the first installment is by far the best of the lot.

Vol. 2 from 1981 sadly is taken up by library-style simplistic instrumental music with pretty conventional melodies but here's Welcombe Month (composed by Evans):

From the Vol. 3, one of the few standouts is a vocal track which is unusual (sung by later King Crimson vocalist Jakszyk) called Sogno D'Oro cowritten with David Jackson:

On the Vol. 4 there is far more progressive material, surprisingly for such a late year (1983). 

For ex., Der Traum von Julius is a track written by British composer Giles Perring:

So vol. 4 is well worth hearing and digesting thoroughly.

The later Gentlemen Prefer Blues album (1986) unfort. reverts back to more simple music.

Best song, and wonderfully experimental again, is The Main Slide, written by Evans:

"The Long Hello" from 1974 Part 1

 

This was the band behind Peter Hammill in VDGG, for the most part, as per discogs:

The Long Hello first started in 1973 as a one-off project of Van Der Graaf Generator bandmates David Jackson (sax and flute player), Guy Evans (percussionist) & organist Hugh Banton, supported by friends Piero Messina, Ced Curtis and Nic Potter. In 1980 the name 'The Long Hello' re-emerged as the common title for several other albums by these ex VdGG members separately. In total, 4 albums were released :

The Long Hello (volume 1) by Jackson, Evans and Banton

The Long Hello Volume Two by Nic Potter and Guy Evans

The Long Hello Volume Three by David Jackson

The Long Hello Volume Four by Guy Evans and David Jackson

It turns out there was a fifth one though called Gentlemen Prefer Blues, listed here.

In any case the first one was by far the best, though the fourth being more experimental definitely has some worth.

I always loved The O Flat Sessions with its eerie and atmospheric mystery, note that this track was written by Italian guitarist P. Messina:

His other composition on here is Fairhazel Gardens which is also quite lovely with its odd chord progression:

Left Lane in Common from 1985 UK, requesting flac

 

From discogs:

Words from Peter Mayer:

Talking about albums from waaaay back, we are excited to announce that an album I recorded with my brother Jim, Roger Guth, and a wonderful pianist, Ray Kennedy, is going to be released in March on CD in Japan, for distribution across the globe.

The album is called “In Common” and it was released in 1985 under the group name Left Lane. This album contains music that was the earliest release (besides a cassette called “To and From”) from Jim, Roger and me.

The music has jazz roots in its harmonic and melodic sense, heavily influenced by musicians such as Pat Metheny and some of the Jazz fusion artists of that time period.

It was released just several years before Roger, Jim and I went on to form the group PM and signed a record deal with Warner Bros. records.

I'll post the mp3 briefly here, but a commenter was looking for lossless, I thought I'd put this here in case anyone has it.

It's new to me and quite interesting, mostly to me at least reminiscent of the vocal tracks from famous prog-fusion band UK, with the efforts at writing inventive song structures and interesting chord changes but on an early 80s digital keyboards basis. The title track gives you an idea of the Pat Metheny reference, but note the nice attempt at writing poetic lyrics too:

Yonin Bayashi, 2 (Live 1973, Bao, Neo-N)

 

Setting aside the live album released later in the decade, but recorded earlier than anything else, which is just hard rock, these last two are pretty decent and well worth digesting repeatedly, especially Neo-N for which all song titles start with the letter N: an odd concept for an album indeed. 

Track 5 from Bao hits it out of the ballpark with the awesome guitar riff dissonances followed by a crazy wah wah guitar soloing:

Despite the above, the album still has the somewhat pedestrian vocal rock songs too typical of the band.

They went all out with the prog though on the next and last one from 1979, starting with Nocto-vision for you:

I shouldn't say last one though since they did return a decade later, presumably playing a simpler style. But I don't know enough to say if those are worth hearing too, particularly the early releases which saw the light of day later. Anyways this album is a real gem, and odd that I never heard it before this week.

Yonin Bayashi 1 (Hatachi no Genken, Ishoku, Golden Picnic, Printed Jelly)

 

Lots of playfulness with the cover art, the pipe-wielding sloth is priceless. Despite being described as prog, these albums are all minimally so in my opinion, starting with ssw and folky vocal tracks, moving through more developed songs, rock compositions, simple hard rock, a little bit of fusion guitarwork, there's really little progressive here.  Occasionally the band does shine and guitarmaster Morizono is always stunning. Really surprising to me that I never came across this artist before.

Discogs says:

An influential Japanese rock group that formed in 1970. They are generally regarded as experimental progressive rock. They broke up in 1979, but reformed in the late 80s for special live performances which continues to present day.

'Experimental progressive rock' is pretty ridiculous in the context of these early records, but they definitely did lean into that direction by the end of their run in the 70s when sadly experimental and progressive became verboten musical elements in favour of utter simplicity as long term trend which I sadly note continues to this day, with some exceptions. 

From the sloth album which came out in 1974, Ping Pong etc., clearly a kind of Pink Floyd influence with the organ front and centre:

A track from the next album called Continental Laidback Breakers if eerily reminiscent, this time, of the classic Gryphon medieval-influenced prog, and sometimes I know the classic UK Stackridge of Slark fame made instrumentals like this one:

If only the remainder of the record was along those wonderful creative lines! Of course, such is not to be.

And despite the great cover of Printed Jelly from 1977 I didn't really find too much at all of interest when it comes to genuine progressive rock or fusion. It seems to be mostly made up of basic rock, oddly enough. Especially annoying to me is the fact its genre description is listed as prog.  Even on the level of songwriting, it doesn't compare to a band like the marvelous School Band, remember them?

Giants from 1978 [flac] and Oliver Walrus from 1976 by request

 

Giants is squarely funky latin type fusion except the simplicity leaves a little to be desired or maybe a lot, as the case may be, the Kilimanjaro track for ex. remains in the same chord for almost the whole duration.  Discogged here, note the presence of Santana and Hancock. Sample track, In your heart, which has such a nice breezy feel:

On the other hand Oliver Walrus, real name, Gary Levine from the US, is quite the mix of styles with folky acoustic, crooning soul, steel drum calypso, hard blues rock, all on one LP.  He was in the 1972 band of the almost same name, Walrus logically enough. That one had such a wonderful cover, unlike Oliver's record. Here's the title track, Me Myself and I:

And here's one of the hard rock songs, I think you can guess what the title is:

I have to admit, both guitar and synth solos are nice though.