Jean-Philippe Goude and Olivier Cote in Jeunes Annees 1976, by request

Discogged here.  I posted him before, in relation to the wonderful Gymnastique (1979) and Meli-Melodies (1981) albums, and Drone, which came in between, is the one he's most famous for I guess.  In later years he wrote more classical style chamber music which is also beautiful, usually involving a grand piano playing simple patterns with violins weaving in and out of it, but altogether not so varied as these early works. Having said that, I do really love De Anima, and La Divine Nature des Choses.  Even a couple of years ago he released Salon Noir, which is still quite similar.  The overall quite melancholy sound to his work is appealing to me, in particular at those times when I read the world news.

Olivier Cote on the other hand is the percussionist on this first album from 1976, but Goude wrote most of the music.  I think here the zeuhl influence is most prominent-- after all he was a member of the great Weidorje band, with Paganotti and Patrick Gauthier.  

Consider the second track called Piege (trap):

And how can you not admire the sheer oddness of his Melodie, especially with the odd synth sound buzzing there in the background:

David Sancious' 2004 Cinema

 

I'll assume everyone out there is well familiar with this American keyboardist's work. His 1970s fusion albums are all great and worth hearing, with a bit of wholesome new age influence that came to the forefront of course later on in the next decades. So this work too you could say is pretty new agey, with for ex. the ethnic percussion stuff, the electronic type buzzing, but the compositions are a step above the kind of drony one-chord-shows full of repetitive arpeggios you often hear in that genre.  In this regard it reminds me of the Dave Greenslade albums I posted recently, or the Matthias Frey Art Profiles from way back long ago here.

It's worth noting that Crimsoneer Tony Levin plays bass on this one too. When I mention interesting or elaborate composition, consider The Woman Theme, though the drum machine I think you might find, as I did, a little distracting:

Moon and Nightsky demonstrates the versatility and different dynamics here to be savoured:

Back to Philipsek, Part 3, with his Deepwater from 1977

 

Apologies both for poor album cover, and bitrate recording, which is of course not mine, found online.

More of the gypsy guitar type playing here compared to the great 1980 Short Stories.

The album starts like this, with Besides:

Overall, the album is more similar to the smoothly jazzy Bridge work, than Short Stories for sure.

More from Reynold Philipsek [1974 Sailor, 1976 Bridge 9086, Artifacts and Curiosities, Grey Chalet]

 

I posted his Sailor way back when and what a classic fusionary beauty that was, right?  The info on discogs is almost impossible to find, due to the commonness of the title, but it's on this page.  My post was back here, from almost 12 years ago. Today I've come back with a far superior rip that sounds almost like a different album it's so pleasing to hear, if you have the old one, please do replace it.

The 1976 Bridge 9086 was a bit disappointing in comparison and the later albums are a bit of a reversion to just what you'd expect, cf. Butterfly:

Sunbeam, from Artefacts and Curiosities:

Reynold Philipsek in Short Stories from 1980: Highly Recommended!

 

Guitarist Reynold Philipsek who is still playing and recording to this day, was in groups Cure of Ares (1970), Sailor (1972), Willow (1977), Reynold's Remarkable Rhythm Cattle (mid-80s). 

The beautiful US progressive fusion album Sailor, very similar in my mind to Natural Life, was posted here before, and I'll get back to it in our next installment.  OC requested his1978 Theme for an Imaginary Movie, which has proved impossible to find. Not sure if someone would ever be generous enough to share it with us but that would be almost beyond belief.  Most likely it will pop up for sale on discogs one of these years at a few hundred dollars.  From the samples that are available on youtube, it sounds like a true progressive gem, like this one is, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Information on this release here.  Let's start with a very short song called Dover which if you're anything at all like me, will make you fall off your chair or tumble to the ground if you're on a couch:

Can you believe it?

A track called 15 Rue Menilmontant is shockingly similar to those brilliant French prog-fusion guitarists I've exhaustively cataloged in the past on this blog like Christian Escoude, or Claude Barthelemy:

Consider Bretagne, with its absolutely unusual melody again, reminiscent of the great Fred Israel's album, note the incredible synths work from Philipsek (oh how I miss that classic sound):

Equally astonishing is the sheer fact this came out in 1980.  How could he have maintained faith in this highly complex music in that particular year? There isn't even a hint of reggae! or digital drums and jumpy chords.  Just classic prog...

Again, many thanks for (almost) requesting this...

Gene Harris, Part 2: 1976 In a Special Way, 1977 Tone Tantrum, 1982 Hot Lips

 

For myself his best album is 1976's In a Special Way, with features the intensely emotional and very European fusion sounding Soft Cycles (plus a whole ton of other goodies):

From 1977's slightly more disappointing Tone Tantrum, Cristo Redentor:

As one might have expected, 1982's Hot Lips is no longer fusion and just commercial simple funk soul.

Note that someone requested his 1984 album Nature's Way which I was not able to find-- anyone have it perchance?

Blue Denim Deals without the Arms - Armed Forces Day [1979], By Request

 

Definitely an experimental mish mash of improvisation and just sounds, plus, of course, polka.

Information discogged here for the band, for the LP.

All pieces are improvisations. Recorded Summer 1977 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.

First track, Armature:

Gene Harris, Part 1: 1974 Astral Signal, 1975 Nexus

 

Quite a huge and extensive discography, especially when you check out the bands he played with, principally The Three Sounds here.  For himself alone, the description:

American jazz pianist and keyboard player -- born 1 September 1933 in Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA

-- died 16 January 2000 in Boise, Idaho, USA.

The music is quite light and approachable, enjoyable fusion / melodic soul jazz, all or mostly instrumental, with little intensity, a lot of groove and keyboarding (I mean that in comparison to Chick Corea's Romantic Warrior, for ex.).

From 1974's Astralsignal, Summer (the first time):

From 1975's Nexus, Sauda:

Note that someone requested his 1984 album Nature's Way which I was not able to find-- anyone have it perchance?

Joel Horwitz with The Planets, recorded 1978, By Request

 

Minimal information on this one here on discogs.  Seems to have been recorded in 1978 which makes sense based on the quality of the music.  Very interesting find though, and beautifully played too.

I have to apologize first off because the tracks all run into each other, but because of my acquired attention deficit I won't listen to a 20 minute long rip without fast forward, so I split the individual pieces up, sometimes not quite successfully at the joins or transitions.

A2, Sol: present a great introduction to the rest of the work, which to be honest is quite similar to the scifi atmosphere of Cybernation Dark Plane:

Track B2's Jupiter, with vocals, really knocks it out of the prog ballpark (wherever that ballpark may be but it's for sure not crowded in the stands):

B4's Uranus is quite lovely with its incandescent, synthy shimmering chord changes, reminding me of my fave Alan Hawkshaw at his greatest:

As usual we must mourn the demotion of poor Pluto, who is no longer considered a bona fide planet. (There are too many similar sized bodies occuping the same orbit as him.)

Thanks so much to OC for requesting this treasure and I hope everyone out there is able to enjoy it, in his words:

Activate heat shields, there's a cosmic UFO on the radar!
This is a real interstellar trip :)
...a full eclipse for the ears as we are treated to this rare planetary alignment! By the time we reach 'Earth And Moon',
it's full lightspeed>>>>call in the droids, check the star-charts,
is that the Intergalactic Touring Band over there on the dark side of the moon?
We pass Phobos and there's a strange-magic lightdream path and then - BAM! holy prog-bomb!! Warrior on the edge of time warpdrive 9 in the MasterShip, a cosmic mud elephant wading through the sea of stardust!>>>>>>>
...having landed in a warm constellation, you know, just beam me up over there, second star from the right, in the hearts of space :)
Endless Thanks for this rare gem of pure cosmos, tinsel-of-genius grooves!!!

Steve Carr and Brent Brace With David Benoit & Luther Hughes - Into The Reeds (LP rip, FLAC limited time)

 

I posted David Benoit earlier here, and I thoroughly enjoyed his light proggy fusion style, similar to so many others reviewedin the past like Neil Larsen, Full Moon, etc. He handles most of the composition here, as was the case of last post's Joe Cool.

Overall information here for this LP.

First track, called Dreams:

By the way, some beautiful surprise rips coming up soon after this one.

Inner Drive's Oasis, from Russia 2014, by request

 

Profile:

Inner Drive is a progressive rock band from Moscow formed in 2006. The band started out as a trio of keyboards, bass and drums but later expanded with instruments like violin, flute and guitars and recorded their debut album in 2014 recommended to fans of eclectic fusion.

A review from progarchives in my opinion doesn't quite do it justice:

Inner Drive from Russia, this totally unknown band even in their country released the debut in 2014 named Oasis. Formed around 2006 they come up with a beautiful art work ,but the music is no less chalenging and beautiful in same time. The album is entirely instrumental and is on eclectic side, from symphonic prog to prog folk and even some fusion moments are present all done with skills and good taste, keyboards, flute, the violin parts, all are well organized delivering some intresting chops from start to finish. The head of the band Sergey Bolotov gathered around him talented musicians who know to handle the instruments, creating a good towards great release in today prog realm. All in all intresting album by this russian band, I think they need far more exposure. 3 stars rounded to 3.5.

First of all I would give it far more stars. No question the composition shows a very deep musical education, but I would prefer to describe it as European chamber music with fusion, rhythm section, and prog influences.  Many tracks feature acoustic piano plus violin and flute for example, so recalling the type of stuff later Gotic did, in their second unreleased album, or more recently the great band Kotebel.  On this blog there have been many posts like this, most recently the Japanese band TEE or the French Syrinx, or Aurora Clara, or my old favourite is Brazilian Ramo.  Amongst the classics from the 1970s, this harks back to the French masterpieces Carpe Diem and Shylock.

If you take a look at the tracklist you'll for sure notice the one called Inspired by Pink Floyd:

 

Not sure what is the inspiration here, it's a bit confusing.

The title track:

You can really appreciate the beauty of the combination of electric piano (Fender Rhodes?) with acoustic flute soloing above, plus digital strings giving it a kind of video game theme music sound by the end, on something called Transience:

Sometimes a very deep and sentient delicatesse permeates the performance, which is really evocative and transcendantly played.  In the end I would say that if you are familiar with Kotebel's work, they are most similar to that Spanish band.  A wonderful suggestion without a doubt for me, and hopefully for many others out there.  Too bad there isn't more output from them. Thanks again for requesting.

A bunch of Rob Mounsey: 1987 Local Color (with Steve Kahn), 1989 Dig, 1993 Back in the Pool, 1998 You Are Here

 

Information here.

American keyboardist, producer, arranger, composer, musician, and conductor, born 2 December 1952 in Berea, Ohio, USA. Owner of Flying Monkey Productions, Inc., Flying Monkey Studios, and Flying Monkey Music.

I checked out his stuff because he was responsible for some of the great compositions on the preceding post, Joe Cool.  

Local Color (from 1987) with guitarist Steve Kahn comes together very nicely, and is quite similar to the stuff I posted from Khan before here and here.  He sounds at times a lot like Dave Grusin, in his later, early 1980s phase, his piano playing featuring a lot of suspended chords and quite inventive and original changes too.  The delicacy of Blue Rose is very reminiscent of classic 1970s Euro-fusion:

Later albums begin to have more of the classic 1980s new age and Pat Metheny / Brazilian influences which may or may not be appealing to you.  From Dig, however, consider a truly lovely track that closes it out, Gratitude:

1993's Back in the Pool starts to sound very much more and overwhelmingly like Pat Metheny.  The Sand Covers Everything:

Nonetheless, there are great ideas throughout, scattered amongst the commercial throwaways. 

As late as 1998's You Are Here, Still Life with Mockingbird:

There's a lot to enjoy here for sure. The standout is Local Color from 1987.

Joe Cool's 1984 Party Animals, by request [FLAC limited time only]

 

Information to be found here. Light fusion with slapped bass, synths plus funky guitars, no vocals, very much typical of the times.  Well composed and enjoyable though, and highly exquisitely played.

A very typical composition would be their Freedom of Assembly:

For their softer slower stuff, consider Borderland:

Here and there one can detect influences from the 'funky prog fusion' style of Brecker Bros, and Steps Ahead going way beyond the American generic light fusion style.  And luckily I don't hear any sax, meaning none of that high-pitched squealing screeching Sanbornian influence. 

All those who were (un)fortunate to be there in those 1980s, will remember vividly the long hair and the mullets, the t-shirt under a blazer fit, and the inescapably popular David S...

Cosmic Debris Compleat: ST (1980), While you're Asleep (1983), On the Shores of a Different Time (1986)

 

 

 

 

I posted their most progressive opus, While You're Asleep, more than 10 years ago back here, and I still think it's amazing because it eschews the one-chord drony electronic format that is typical of the ST or 3.7K release from 1980.  Then I found out they also released a cassette subsequently (no cover to post for that one), but it reverts back to the old drony electronic style. Hard to listen to when the tracks get overly long. Information here.

Mr. Motaba by request, from 1997

 

Sparse information here. Was it their only release?  It's typical late instrumental guitar-based fusion like so much other stuff posted here recently.

Efoiaqui:

More Requests: Mort Garson in Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds, and UK Plus' Seven Deadly Sins [FLAC]

 

Great cover for Plus, the only album for this band, but the music is protoprog with an odd bipolar quality of dissonant, modern music string quartet arrangements that introduce the songs followed by relatively straightforward songwriting along the lines of late Beatles, early John Lennon.  I remember really loving this album when I first got into prog, so many many years ago now.

Gluttony:

The other one is a library album which I thought I posted before but maybe didn't. Who knows?

The Running Man from 1972 [FLAC]

 

Only album from this outfit that featured the great guitarist Ray Russell, here in FLAC format.  I overlooked this one or didn't listen to it closely at the time, overshadowed by the masterpiece that is Ready or Not, one of the greatest guitar-based fusion LPs of the period, in my opinion.  And surely there were a lot of those.

Description:

Early 70s UK project band led by guitarist Ray Russell, and successor of Rock Workshop.

The Running Man were a trio with the known guitarist/bassist Ray Russell, vocalist/organist Alan Greed (Harsh Reality, Rock Workshop) and vocalist/drummer Alan Rushton (Ray Russell Quartet, Rock Workshop). They released only an album in 1972 on Neon, which recording was supplemented by Harry Beckett on trumpet and flügelhorn and Gary Windo on tenor sax. Their music is an interesting mix of hard rock, progressive and jazz similar to Patto. A classic example of the creativity of 70s british underground scene.

 

Nicholas

Another