US White Duck from 1972 (ST, In Season)

 

Artist discogs page here.  This is some nice bluesy SSW material adequately described below as 'an unspectacular country rock band' though I would at least preface that by saying if it wasn't worth hearing I really wouldn't have bothered to plant it here.

Hiatt made his first recording as a member of White Duck, a likable if unspectacular country rock band. Hiatt was on board for the band's second and final album In Season in 1972. (Hiatt did not play on White Duck's paper-thin self-titled 1971 debut record). The four band members (Hiatt, Don Kloetzke, Mario Friedel, and Paul Tabet) each contribute songs as singers and songwriters. Hiatt's two songs are the record's high points. "You Caught Me Laughin' " sounds like the type of song that would turn up on one of Hiatt's first two solo albums; the other one, "Sail Away", sounds almost like vintage Hiatt. "Sail Away" would be deserving of inclusion on a Hiatt anthology.

The songs contributed by Mario Friedel are almost as good as Hiatt's. Nearly half of the songs are written and sung by Don Kloetzke (who has a white duck sitting on his lap in the back cover photo); the quality of his contributions is inconsistent. Kloetzke shines on "Thank You" and "A Girl Who", but he overindulges on "Bull Island Boogie" and "Looney Tune", two oddball novelty songs in which Hiatt is not a credited player.

Overall, In Season makes for very pleasant listening, and should be regarded as more than just a curiosity piece for Hiatt's fans. The music on this record alternately resembles that of the Band and the Flying Burrito Brothers, but is more upbeat than either.

For the presumably first album ST (though you'd never know if it really was the 1st), discogs has a long review from badcatrecord. I'm not going to quote it as I doubt anyone would read it through. Nonetheless the description is again good.

The track called World Keep on Turning, gives you an idea of the countryish sound, could've been like my favourites Batdorf and Rodney but it's not as good, much simpler, less of the catchy hooks they were so excellent as creating:

A track called Lonely sounds so much like early 70s McCartney, which is not a bad thing (I think the singer is trying to imitate him):

For the other one called In Season which came out the same year, discogs has an astonishingly long review, again, which I doubt anyone could read through, here, also from badcat records.

From that Black album, Thank You

Sail Away is also pretty:

Canadian John Palmer's Shorelines, 1971

 

Isn't that inside photo of him on the beach with the dog amazing??

Here's a really lovely find, out of left field, unexpected, but wonderful for me.

Artist info here, release info here:

John Lonsdale Montgomery Palmer

Profile: Canadian musician (guitar, bass, keyboards), singer, and songwriter born in 1950.

Sites: lonpalmer.wordpress.com , citizenfreak.com 

This reminds me a lot of my old favourite folky acoustic master of 12-string guitar, Gene Hood, if you remember his beautiful masterpiece of earnest and heartbreaking guitarwork from way back when. It won't be as good as that one, obviously, you wouldn't expect the unforgettable stuff to keep popping up at this late stage in the game: perhaps terminal or palliative.  

Nonetheless this is quite good and is much better than the average offering here. His haunting voice, in particular, really gets to me.

The track called Cloud opens it up with some nice graceful modulation and chord changes, youtubed here albeit misspelled. You can see the youtuber posted the entire album there, here's Such a long time.

Get it, it's good, if you like earnest folky ssw stuff blessed with fresh and welcome originality.

T.R.A.M.'s Lingua Franca from 2012

 

A wonderful more recent release that really knocks it out of the ballpark for me with the intensity of the guitar-based fusion. Unfort. there is only one release, but the related band Animal as Leaders is similar. Obviously band name is based on initials of the quartet. Guitarist is the Nigerian American Tosin Abasi.

Consider Yourself Judged appears on youtube here. It's just brilliant! Top of my daily playlist, unfortunately it knocked Earthrise's Beowulf  (from last week if you recall) off the top spot for this year's personal blockbusters chart or billboard top 10.

Another nice composition called Haas Kicker can be well appreciated here.

VA Expo '70 - Multiplex sounds for Global Vision, Japan

 

Surprisingly this is listed in discogs.  Another beautiful, unusual, and well worth hearing find from my friends, god bless them. It's a little all over the place but here and there has wonderful moments. By that I mean there is a mix of folk, ssw, orchestral arrangements, synths stuff, etc. The whole was composed by the well known Tomita, who I think I could say is best known for his synthesizer versions of classical stuff, like a Japanese version of Wendy / Walter Carlos. A lot of acoustic guitar work too.

The first track starts off beautifully but then deteriorates:

Hopefully the internet archive works for that piece so you can sample it out. As one might expect it doesn't appear on youtube, at least not yet.

Have a listen and see what you think though.

Grupo De Experimentacion Sonora Del ICAIC (Cuba 1974)

 

This album is discogged here. A nice surprise from my friend to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for continuing to dig up gems from an earth already exhausted from the ceaseless mining of these lost things from the past, time perhaps to turn to new technologies like fracking.  

In fact, this agglomeration did release a bunch of albums back in the day. 

First the bio of the band, from Cuba:

Cuban experimental band founded in 1969 by Alfredo Guevara, president of the "Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos" (ICAIC) to experiment with new sounds different from the typical folklore sounds of previous Cuban music. It was directed by Leo Brouwer.

Members :

Daniel Aldama , Eduardo Ramos , Emiliano Salvador , Leo Brouwer , Leoginaldo Pimentel , Manuel Valera , Noel Nicola , Norberto Carrillo , Pablo Menendez , Pablo Milanes , Sara Gonzalez , Sergio Vitier , Silvio Rodriguez , Vicente Feliu.

The whole album posted on youtube here. The best track is b4's Grifo which unfort. you can't listen to on its own on that site, but it's a great little fusion instrumental that really hits all the marks for me.

Well, lo and behold the internet archive is back up, so let's try this:

They made more albums, a lot more actually, so I'll try to track those down and see if they're any good and report back about the issue.