Sukellusvene from 1979 with bonus single

Wow, gotta love that cover drawing for the single just above!

From discogs:

Sukellusvene was founded in Lappeenranta, Finland, in the early 1970s and released a single and LP in the late of the same decade. Sukellusvene's music was a mixture of pop, jazz and funk, but the band's debut LP was released in the middle of new wave era in 1979 and it did not succeed.  The band quit soon after the release of the album.

Name of the band means submarine in Finnish.   I've known this LP for a while, lucky you if you've never heard it before because I find it to be a perfect mixture of Finnish-style fusion (cf. Finnforest or the great Pekka Pohjola of course) so I got really excited when I heard they had released a single as bonus tracks to the CD as you can see here.  The Moon Funk:

The last track reminds me so much of Carpe Diem, but could it really be an influence here, or more likely, some other progressive rock intermediary? Have a listen, really stunning stuff with all the hallmarks of the European tendency for fusion to be more composed, emotional and intricate:

Jeannine Otis and Heikki Sarmanto in Magic Song (Hi-Hat),1980

Some will love this and some abhor it but I thought I should get it to complete the artist (I mean Sarmanto), who we've featured multiple times before but mostly in connection with other artists, see here.

The information can be found here.  A typical and quite lovely track called Flowers in the Water gives you an indication of the smoothness and professionalism of this jazz, with some interesting songwriting, led by vocalist Jeannine Otis:

Bobby Lyle in 5 albums 1973 to 1985 (Electone, The Genie, New Warrior, Night Fire, Night Breeze)

I think it goes without saying that we all love George Duke.  I'm going to stop right now and let that sink in, because it must be oh so true for anyone reading this.  So much so in fact that I am still amazed at how I was corrected when I posted that Dustar track I was so enamoured of, which was, as it happens, ripped off a Duke composition called "Love Reborn" which you might recall happened way way back here, back in Nov. 2019, back when viruses were nothing to be afraid of and masks were something reserved for, like, Februaries or something like that, for carnivals and such (the kind of thing that's terrifying in the current environment.)  I see that in that earlier post I got a little carried away discussing the records bought in various countries...  But back to the topic at hand, this was a request, and thanks to the emailer for requesting this, I love it when people mention things I was never aware of that turn out to be just wonderful, and there's still lots of that around. Luckily for me.

The first album is very much in the electronic keyboards vein, similar to the Don Muro stuff I posted a long time ago (even longer ago, when video games were played with broken sticks coincidentally also used to probe termites out of mounds).  I can't say I have much of a taste for electronica without percussion because it tends to get a little lost with the artificial sounds and to my ears requires some kind of acoustic or electric guitar to bring it back to earth a bit, a good example of the former tendency being Walter/Wendy Carlos.

The 1973 album suffers a little (for me) from being loaded with cover versions including the dreaded Shaft, hard to really improve on the original there, and By the Time I get to Phoenix, same criticism but different style.  On the other hand Jobin's Wave song really needs to be retired or needed to be retired by that year, preferably exiled to Devil's Island from which no one could ever escape.  As an example I uploaded The Dance of Love and Peace, which is really more David Sancious (brilliant in his own right) in my opinion (or imho as the kids say-- and by kids I mean anyone under the age of 40):

1978's New Warrior's Title Track intro is so very George Dukish, I mean, the riffing around is so beautiful it's almost miraculous to hear for these tired ears, starting with that orchestral drum intro, the synth squeaking, the electric piano unisoned with bass & later with grand piano:

And that whole album is quite remarkable and remarkably beholden to George Duke, incl. a track called Inner Space.

As we get further and further into the late seventies of course the music gets more and more commercial, just what you'd expect, this is not the great Robert Fripp making Discipline in 1981.  As usual, entering into the territory of the 80s without an insane asylum pass means you're going to be reverting back to acoustic jazz and giving up on the electric energy of fusion as on the album Night Breeze, which is not recommended listening at this time.  Nor will it ever be for the most of us.

PS the Electone (electric organ made by Yamaha) can be read about here on the great wikipedia.

Guido Basso in the 1970 library Love Talk

I don't remember why I bought this, noticing it didn't yet exist online in digital format.  Information can be found here.  You never know with these libraries, occasionally they can be interesting, and as everyone knows I have a taste for this very wimpy easy listening style.

The final track is composed by our well-known Doug Riley-- remember he was in the Canadian band Dr. Music featured here before, their album Transcription turned out to be not only popular but a very impressive piece of later fusion, full of interest and rare as hell, I'm so glad I found, bought, and ripped that LP.  His contribution is called Marion's Theme From the Megantic Outlaw and features some really nice chord changes and an original theme:

Fuse One, in three albums from 1980 to 1984

Discogs:

An all-star band founded by producer Creed Taylor (CTI Records) in 1980. The original band (featuring Will Lee, Ronnie Foster, Jeremy Wall and Ndugu) did a sold-out tour in Japan, where their debut album sold over 150,000 copies and yielded the hit "Double Steal." The second incarnation recorded the acclaimed Silk album in 1981, featuring George Benson, Eric Gale, Stanley Turrentine, Wynton Marsalis, Tom Browne, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Sammy Figueroa, Dave Valentin. The third and last Fuse One project, Ice, recorded in 1984, included John Tropea, Larry Coryell, Steve Gadd, Dave Matthews (3), George Young, Ronnie Cuber, Cliff Carter, Will Lee et al.

From the first eponymous album, the beyond-lovely track called Friendship which was written by a man called John McLaughlin-- hey that name sounds familiar:

From the last, A Lonely Smile, by David Matthews:

As always, so many thanks to those who point me in the direction of these albums I had never heard before!