Echettio: Tavolozza Musicale, 197?, Library, Recommended

Echettio was Ugo Fusco who made a few highly rare and collectible, presumably now expensive, library albums back in the day.  Thanks to my friend I was allowed to hear this little masterpiece of composition, mostly in the chamber music style.  Note that there is little information to be had here at all.  We shall let the music stand on its own, gorgeous and lofty as it is-- consider the first tracks, A and B parts to Melancholy:

It's ridiculous that music so good is lost to oblivion...  also ridiculous that I keep making the same statement in these pages...  I can't help it, each time someone shares with me an excellent album I'm shocked at how much better than popular music (whether rock, pop or standard classical) it is.

Images - Le Jeu de Robinson, from 1977... recommended

Now here's a huge huge one, a monster, as they say.

Not to be confused with the Henri Roger album Images which is also amazing, this is famous thanks to Tom and his list, so I'll quote from him first up as usual:

The first side is pleasant folk, with acoustic guitars and flute, and sparse vocals sung in a soft French tone. Side 2 rocks out with the addition of electric guitar, bass, keys and drums. Plenty of progressive meter changes, and comparisons to bands like Memoriance or Pentacle wouldn't be out of place. A splendid little album that very few know about, but is not to be missed! Comes in a plain white cover with an Images sticker as seen here. Also has a nice insert with baby pictures of all 5 band members.

Looks like someone has added a title here and called it 'Le Jeu de Robinson'. This is a mistake. The album doesn't have a title. It's not listed on the label or the cover. The title that was proposed is actually the name of the side long suite on Side 1, which contains the 8 songs presented here (A1-A8)

Again, I believe he gave it a priority 2.  As with the Tangle Edge, I would lower that by an integer or two.

Please notice the prices people are asking for here.  In a moment, you can be the judge(s) of whether or not these are appropriate.

As sample, the Robinson storm is part of what makes this is a progressive delight, with the classic, absolutely inimitable French style of digital keyboards (a la Ange), minor second dissonances (a la Shylock), overall dark and spectral tone (a la Pulsar), and the fuzzy sustained guitar reminds me meanwhile of Carpe Diem's style (which they often accompanied in unison with a soprano sax):





The instrumental La Femme en Rouge instead has a folky do-it-yourself proggy sound that reminds me of the other Tom discovery, Demon and Wizard (which I can post later if there's interest):





To me, the second side is much less progressive and interesting.  It really tends to drag on with little to hang your attention on.
No comparison to what I consider the masterpiece of mixed folk-prog:  Joxifications.

Feather is back with the oft-requested Chen Yu Lips from 1982 [finally]

More of the same from this group, this one from 1982...
Very easy listening vibe of course.

Gerardo Bátiz's Azul Con Leche (1986)

Delving so deeply into the eighties we can never expect miracles, and we don't receive those dispensations here to any significant degree indeed.  As far as I can tell the best track was a very Gismonti-like keyboard composition called Azucena:





--with the remainder of the tracks being quite generic mid-eighties latin (here, appropriately) fuzak...  no wonder they were missing from the online discography.  And the last record from almost 1990 will probably remain forever unheard...  At any rate, it's always important to be complete, as we saw with the missing Orexis - Georg Lawall records.

Tangle Edge: Radio Stroganoff, Cassette-Only from 1986 [no download]

From the cd reissue wishlist in 2010:

Radio Stroganoff shows a remarkable progression from Improvised Drop Outs. This transformation would ultimately lead to the brilliant In Search of a New Dawn. In fact, many of these songs ended up on that album with different arrangements. There's a little less than 30 minutes of music here, considering that the last piece is a radio interview in Norwegian, which will obviously have limited appeal. But being the archivists Tangle Edge are, I'm sure they can find enough quality material to fill a full CD including this whole album. Just consider the void of released material from 1984-1988, save 1986. Or the time from 1998-2005.  Live in the Presence of Aphrodite is probably the most stripped down recording from the band... 
Priority: 2 (on the strength of Radio Stroganoff)

A very high number indeed, and upon closer listen, I tend to agree that the higher is the more appropriate here, though I would reduce it by an integer or two.  As always I find it absolutely shocking that musicians in this year-- recall we heard typical German fusion from GDR around the same period in the last few posts-- would craft something so uncommercial and uncompromising.

From the database we have their discography, as well as info on this release.  Probably most of you are already familiar with this so-called psych or space-rock band, I wasn't aware of them, mostly because I shy away from albums described in those terms, too often they turn out to be rambling messes of electric guitar wankery with nary an original thought to perk us out of a cannabinoid haze of useless notes, often introduced by a generic blues riff usually in E or A, battling a frenzy of masturbatory percussion.  So subsequently listening to their later works I did a get sense of exactly that, but not on this cassette, where the thoughts are quite clear, succinct, and well introduced and brought out.  The band's official site is to be found here.  Unfortunately the first track is all I can provide for you at this time with the delightful title of "Long Time Since I Saw An Egg: " 

I'm sorry that again the powers that be forbid us from freely disseminating such a great work but such is the game we pay to play here, the contacts who have rarities will often mandate exactly that and those people are to be nurtured in the private sphere.

At least, I think the remainder of their releases is easy to locate.  Please note this is not expensive, although it's quite likely it will be harder and harder to locate nowadays on ebay, and few people including myself have the set up to rip cassettes.   But it can be expected someone somewhere will deliver the goods eventually online...  especially with a higher demand brought on by positive reviews.