Monday 17 August 2015

Trouble's 1970 After the War





Here's a fantastic horn rock opus from the earliest days of progressive rock music, or perhaps the waning days of progressive jazz music, shockingly without the strut or support of vocals so the program music has to stand on its own two feet.  And boy does it ever stand tall, at least in moments.  This one-off group created a uniquely representative jazz-rock sound, a bit more blues-centred or BST-centred than legendary contemporaneous masters Nucleus or Isotope, but with still that striking originality that makes us jaded listeners perk up, take notice, and for sure replay it and subsequently bore our close friends and family members with.

On closer examination notice that this German production featured N-H O. Pedersen, the famous Danish jazz bassist (who wrote one of the tracks as well), and who went on to incredible fame in the serious jazz world.  Music is by Botschinsky and American Ray Pitts, who moved to Denmark and played there.  For me, Pitts' last track is the highlight, showing true modern compositional skills with chromatic and quasi-atonal figures similar to the long track on famed French progmeisters Vortex's work, Les Cycles de Thanatos, although admittedly one must must first have to endure the bouncy introductory passage:





This track is called Three / Deep Six.  Isn't it a beauty?

It's an album or perhaps rip wherein one must be cautious with application of the fast forward button: the Pitts track called Circus connected to its next is remarkable, the next not so, while the Ballad following a pedestrian Lonely People is equally beautiful.  A surprisingly unknown find from my friend.



7 comments:

  1. https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/9pacft

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  2. VERY NICE SIR.
    MANY THANKS !
    D.J. ChinaBlack

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  3. Hello Julian, do you have the album "Luna Sea", American band of 1976.
    Thanks.

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  4. yes, sure. I'll post it soon, stay tuned!

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  5. А что за группа - прошу очень подробно.

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  6. Thanks for this (better late than never), I agree with your review, interesting album.
    Do you happen to have this?

    https://www.discogs.com/release/15093081-Luis-Vecchio-Jazz-Rock-Gran-Suite-Moderna-En-Cinco-Partes

    I know absolutely nothing about it and it seems totally obscure.
    I know Vecchio for "Afro-Rock", a good library of....well, as the title says.... :-p very good though.

    Cheers :-)

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