Paikappu (Japan, composed 1984) [limited time only]

This one complements very nicely the previous Rose post.

An astonishingly beautiful and well-crafted progressive symphonic purely instrumental treatise full of dark emotion, from the rear notes:

"This music was composed in 1984 and released on cassette only. We really think that it deserves to be heard by a wider audience."

As certainly do I!  You can see this was discovered by mellow records, launched on CD, and will therefore not be linked to for long.  The musicians' names also appear.

In the Subconsciousness:





The amazingly titled Bulk Mischief From The Beginning Of Man really reminds me a lot of  very latecoming progmasters Ezra Winston:

Hiroshi Kanai in Rose - Story of Murder (1984) and Bible Black

Now a fortnight of posts on rare Japanese prog.

The guitarist of Bible Black who made an official CD in 2012 obviously highly indebted to King Crimson and R. Fripp is named Hiroshi Kanai, aka Rose.  His first solo album, recorded in 1984, only released to cassette, presented two long instrumental compositions, Notebook on Murder and Story Without End.  It's unfortunate this didn't receive a wider release and audience, as it consists of classic progressive rock of the same level and caliber as the greatest King Crimson albums in its masterful 73-74 heyday, and everyone who is a fan of the style will appreciate it.  First track:





I guess those who felt really critical, perhaps on account of a bad day at the office, might complain that it's a little too much KC-based Frippery.  But I mean we're so desperate, after so many years of listening to those old classics, for some new music, aren't we?  I sure hope Tom Hayes is reading this blog for an idea of what he's missing out on.  I mean this is priority 1 level sh☆☆, bro. As you might expect there's tons of digital strings to create that symphonic aurora borealis and it seems, from the back info, that Kanai played all the instruments.

Story Without End's very Italian progressive finale:





Then if you were to compare this with the later more recent Bible Black album, which you should, you'd find the professionalism of his guitar playing has really improved with a very tight Les Paul taut precision but at the expense of the creative imagination, in my opinion.  A feature of all modern prog in comparison to its 70s heyday.

The Individuals' Trauma (USA ?1980)-- minor masterpiece alert

Is it possible that one man alone composed this amazing record?  Certainly seems that way from the back scan, where presumably just the creator (keyboardist, guitarist, vocalist) Bryan Compton appears, minus his backing band.  A complete paucity of information for this one in all databases.

Admittedly, it begins relatively inauspiciously with a very derivative Police or Cars-like opening song with that pumping bottom note and I - VIm - IV - V chord progression so ancient it's virtually paleolithic, merely an indication our mastermind hankered for commercial success, and for that we can't really blame him.

A5's Please Compromise is just magic prog AOR bliss, you can hear influences of Styx, Kansas, even Yes in the guitar/keyboard interplay of the middle section, plus the luxurious backup vocals (all Bryans I believe).





This is what I mean when I say Tom Hayes needs to keep up that ol' cd reissue wishlist.

On track B5, Reason Why? listen to that fabulous Boston-like guitarwork:





As if that weren't enough, check out how competent Bryan is / they are with the fast 'n' basic hard rock on track Slavedriver, recalling very much my old favourite from way back, Kickin' Starbound Lady:





Even has that Aerosmithy harmonica in it.  I suppose the best template for this one though is the earliest Van Halen songs, back when Eddie really played some beautiful licks on his "frankenstrat" guitar next to David Lee Roth's tongue-in-cheek singing style.

As I said,
Ave Imperator, ROCKituri te salutant.

Thank you friends for these masterpieces. please keep 'em comin'.

Steve Kimmel writes music for the Nancy Hauser Dance Company (1974)

First of all, from popsike:


RARE AVANTGARDE JAZZ - LP
RECORDED FOR THE FAMOUS DANCE COMPANY OF NANCY HAUSER
ONLY PRESSED IN A SMALL AMOUNT OF ABOUT OF 300 PIECES
GREAT PSYCH JAZZ - FUNK WITH CONGAS / MARIMBAS / TABLA / SYNTH ELECTRONIC SOUNDS
STEVE KIMMEL WAS ALSO PART OF THE PSYCH - JAZZ GROUP "NATURAL LIFE"

MUSICIANS:

1st work: Bob Rockwell, tenor and soprano saxophones, flute ; Maggie Rostan, flute ; Terry Tilley, bass, electronics, male voice ; Steve Kimmel, vibes, percussion, drum set ; Alice Block, Judy Ragir, Wendy Hambridge, Gina Wray, assorted voices ; Larry Loud, Bill Buchen, Mike Croy, Dave Olausen, Mike O'Brian, Hearn Gadboy, assorted percussionists ; Marilyn Scher, lead vocal

2nd work: Don Young, native tongue voice ; Kimmel, percussion ; Tilley, bass ; Carol Margolis, violin ; John Gessner, temple blocks ; Bruce Wintervold, congas, log drums ; Buchen, percussion

3rd work: Margolis, violin ; David Fergerson, violoncello ; Tilley, bass ; Kimmel, marimba.

LABEL: WRANEBEAU LPS 9904, released 1974 (US FIRST PRESSING / US ERSTPRESSUNG) MADE IN USA



Note the presence of Bob Rockwell here, and Terry Tilley bassist in the WERB.  This record complements the last post from WERB very nicely.

Some will hate it, personally I adore this kind of melding of modern classical music with more popular elements (jazz in this particular case-- not that you could call it popular anymore) which is so lacking today.  There are some experimental passages, some are downright silly, but certainly there's enough original, well-written music to keep us entertained for a solid hour or more.

The first side (Doll-a-Bye) is a long suite with many varied parts, in fact it's quite well-described by the liner notes on the back, should you choose to read those and I do recommend you do since they were written by Steve himself with indications of which sections were improvised and which composed, which is helpful. The silly and entirely skippable part is called Double Primal and refers to primal therapy, psychologist Arthur Janov's idiotic idea that by regressing to childhood, reliving trauma from then, and screaming a lot, people could be cured of just about anything in the world.  What amazes me the most is how naive these patients were to not recognize all of this as huge money-making enterprises for their founders, like Scientology.  But of course it's the naivete of the 60s-70s that I've mentioned before is so endearing.  Some might remember primal got a huge shot of fame through the promotion of John Lennon, whose first album (Plastic Ono Band, 1970) with songs like "Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead" references it throughout.  I hadn't realized until I reread the history in wikipedia that an offshoot called Feeling Therapy wound up being one of the most interesting chapters in the abysmally abhorrent lifespan of 20th century psychology, especially the sordid and sorry story of its American genera.  With all due respect to economics, the true dismal science of course is psychology, starting with the fraud of Freud).  The story goes that briefly, some renegade 'therapists' of primal therapy created an inpatient centre in which, after infantilizing their patients by forcing them to 'get in touch with their feelings' by punching them, literally (called 'sluggo' therapy), having sex with them if female, or forcing them to get naked, if large-breasted, created a hundreds-strong workforce for their personal gain and massive, ever-hypertrophying egos, i.e. they created a psychological cult (btw their private ranch was called the Doll Baby Ranch).  And I thought I had already read everything crazy about psychology. Always more to find.  Going back to the record though, the conversation in the second section of Doll-a-Bye does hold interest as I'm sure it's a bona fide recording, as opposed to a written, theatrical performance, of either primal therapy or possibly the feeling therapy sect.  It's amazing that adults were favorable to the idea, 45 years ago, of behaving or talking like 5-year-olds or insanely neurotic 5-year-olds perhaps.  The past truly is a different world.

But the best section of Doll-a-Bye is the intro, which is interesting because "each time the phrase is repeated it is one note shorter" in Steve's description:





In the middle passage of the the long song on side b (Mocking Song on the Spirit of Gravity) there is a section with a trinome, something I'd never heard of, in which three different prime number rhythms are polyrhythmed on top of each other ("3 against 5 against 7" in his terms).  Thus it's a metronome with three separate rhythms possible.  Incongruously, the string section then plays the irritating camp song "When you're smiling."  There comes thereafter the best part of the second long track, the Statement of Mass, with its appropriately grave and portentous atmosphere:





A really good composition I think most will agree.

The LP closes out with Rituals (a reflection on tribal rituals) which for me is just all over the place.  It sounds purely like an undergraduate music major exercise in political correctness. The most amazing aspect of it is that some guy named Don Young does a perfect imitation of a hindu guru reciting a chant, complete with that wad-in-cheeks vocal sound so made fun of on The Simpsons.  Let's remember that in those days, so long ago, it was really hard to find a real Indian guy.  I'm sure.

Inside the sleeve a wonderful typed note from Steve, whose scan I included, beginning:


TO EACH HIS RAINBOW

(a piece of musical thoughts)


Imagine the melody to one of your favourite songs...
Now hold the first note of that song in your head.
Make that note louder and softer in your head.
Stop and start, hearing that same note.
Maintain a period of inner silence.
Return to your note if you can remember it, otherwise find a new note.
Turn whatever thoughts that come into your head into a dream song, staying close to 
     that note, hanging notes if you can.  Stay here for a while.  Enjoy your
     thoughts in a musical way.

etc.

Rare for sure, but worth rediscovering.  Thanks to Steve.

Whole Earth Rainbow Band - What's a WERB? (USA 1975)

These guys hailing from Minnesota (red dot on the map) made quite a few albums, surprisingly many in fact (4) way back in the seventies, performing mostly improvised and tendentiously long, tangential and digressive instrumentals augmented by even longer boring soloing, but this one and presumably the last they made is the best by far because it does have composed passages throughout all the endlessly viscous meandering.

On a track called Northern Lights the use of synths buzzing up and down the whole tone chords on vibes and rhodes and atonal sax melody really is entrancing:





And moreover close to the 4 minute mark the synthesizer comes to the fore and takes it to an extreme, buzzing loudly all the way up a few octaves in front of the music.  It's surprising that it works.  Subsequently of course the track continues on with those overlong solos which are the embarrassing hallmark of American jazz.

Further on, a side b fully electronic keyboards song recalls the Ratledge-dominated compositions of the later Soft Machine, like for example The French Lesson off the 7th album:





Lovely stuff.
Steve Kimmel played vibes on these albums with players whose names I don't recognize, he later hooked up with Mike Elliott, Bob Rockwell, etc., for the Natural Life albums I ripped long ago and posted again recently.

A review on discogs overhypes them quite a bit but I'll quote it here:

A wonderful journey with many of Minnesota's best jazz players. Here they are putting down their free stylings and focusing on a more avant prog fusion situation. Think Soft Machine, Stark Reality, Tony Williams (Emergency, Turn it Over), Roy Ayers vibes. Rhodes. This is an overlooked gem in the age of inflation.

And indeed after the Age of Aquarius there came the Age of Inflation, while today, as my wife put it so well, and I realize every time I drive my car to work in the morning, we are in the Age of the Asshole.