Paladin in 3 (1971 Paladin, 1972 Charge!, 2002 Jazzattack)

 

Recommended by a commenter, they put out 2 album in the early 70s of proto-fusion jazz-rock, proto-prog, then another one in the same style later in the early 2000s.  Discographed here, note the comment 'not to be confused with the US Paladin.'

Obviously the fantastical cover art from Roger Dean is easy to recognize.

Third World, from the first album:

Alex Harvey New Band's The Mafia Stole my Guitar, from 1979

The keyboardist was Tommy Eyre, who was one of the composers on the fabulous Riff Raff prog band posted just a couple of weeks ago back here.  Throughout the decade he played mostly with Alex Harvey the guitarist whose original namesake band in the early 70s was given  the modifier Sensational, discographed here, and they existed from 1973 to 1978, so presumably this album continues straight on after the earlier ones, without the modifier of course which by then was superfluous.  

I personally was never impressed with the Alex Harvey LPs though they are sometimes described as prog, really more glam rock or generic rock with that ridiculous British sense of humor or rather nonsense of humor.  Anyways in this 1979 outing Alex plays mostly electric guitar based fusion, with a minimum of attempts at singing.  The quality is fair to good, we are definitely not talking about masterpiece level like Big Jim Sullivan or Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow, or Ray Russell, though the basic sound and feel are similar.

The opener, Don's Delight:

Wait for me, Mama, a track where Alex brings out his semiridiculous vocals:

Back to an earlier Sadao Watanabe with 1969's Pastoral [FLAC limited time only]

 

This one is very light listening, especially given the pared-down simplicity of the band, please refer to information databased here.  

I've posted a lot from him before, here in one big package, and here (Birds of Passage) and he's definitely a perennial favorite given the number of times I've reuploaded the package.  I guess he only got into fusion later in the seventies and definitely after this album.

I thought the Tokyo Suite would've been a huge standout given the excitement, variety, and massiveness of the city but it's surprisingly indolent and somniferous in sound.  It could've used a fusionary treatment with more a fleshed-out orchestral arrangement, for sure.  The most beautiful composition is definitely 

Someday in Suburbs:

A note regarding the record:

Recorded June 24 and July 9, 1969 at Toshi Center Hall, Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan.

Mad Sheer Khan's Talisman 1996 by request, FLAC limited time

 

The guitarist and composer for well known one-off French prog band Rahmann, an absolute genius mixed fusion/zeuhl work, is name is Mahamad Hadi.  Under the alias Mad Sheer Kahn:

Born in Algiers in 1955, of mixed Persian and Arabic origin, resides in France. Formed his first group in 1975. In 1981, he formed a duo and adopted an image that was quite rare for the time: he spent the 1980s swathed in a turban, deliberately going against what was then the normal practice. His unconventional appearance did not deter the critics, who responded enthusiastically to his playings.

In 1982 the well-known English magazine New Musical Express listed him among the ten best guitarists in the world. During this period he was in fact living in London, where he worked with Velvet Underground's muse, Nico, on the albums Drama of Exile 1 &2, and was acclaimed for his virtuosity.

You can also see on that page, as well as under Hadi, he has quite a discography.

This album is a mixture of ethnic folk with electronic and a lot of sitars.  Very little info on the database page here.

Sample, Angel in the Bath:

Osamu Shoji's Jataka from 1978 [FLACs]

 

Osamu Shoji:

Japanese composer, arranger and synthesizer player. Born September 6, 1932. Died April 30, 2018.

Related entity: Shoji Studio.

With regards to Jataka released in 1978 you can observe from this page it seems to be all composed and played by him, similar to artists like Wendy Carlos.  So far as I can tell it's also different from the remainder of his output in that it's not made up of cover songs.

Overall it's similar to my beloved Fumitaka Anzai work posted back here, but not as creative and progressive, more of the standard electronic synthesizer fiddling.  Title track gives you an idea: