Super Freego's Pourquoi es-tu si mechant? 1982

 

The title translates to 'why are you so mean?' (but should have been 'why are you so excellent?' ) because this one-off from 1982 has always thrilled me with its highly creative intensity and guitar-based style of prog/fusion-- a little like Germans Zauberfinger, the same insanity, or like my more recent 64 Spoons, Ghoulies of course.  Too bad they only made one album.  Even the cover art is sheer wacky brilliance-- note the yellow boy's arm appearing on the right side, amputated off from the left.

The discogs description barely does them justice:

Oddball French troupe playing mixtures of jazz, folk, Zeuhl, funk, pop and new-wave

Note the brief review beneath, at the bottom of the page:

Holy Grail! Albert Marcoeur meets Brand X.

Totally unique. No Wave, Punk and Jazz Funk. A masterpiece.

Setting aside the fact the term 'no wave' is idiotic, if we look over on rym where the basement dwellers dwell in their mom's home, there's a number of great reviews that really hit the nail on its head, like the following:

It's kinda sad that this 1982 album by Super Freego was their only LP. Their style is pretty unique I think because they mix complex avant-prog/zeuhl music with some clear new wave elements. The male/female vocalists do a nice job and they are also very talented. Just listen to the title track and you'll see what I mean.

Basically, it has to be heard to be believed.

Since he mentioned the title track, here it is:

Another great ex. of their style is Tentative de Courgette (attempted crime by zucchini), note the great amalgam of funk plus new wave plus bizarre melody:

Toshiyuki Miyama & New Herd Plays Chikara Ueda in 1980's Big Stuff, requested

 

Information here.  Miyami is one artist who hasn't ever appeared here before.  I think-- but my memory is not so good now.  Could be wrong.

Sunset Valley is a nice piece, typical of the whole album, naturally:

Back to Chikara Ueda and the requested Bos and Boz from 1979

 

Definitely a lovely cover painting of the kind we shall likely never see again, for various reasons.

I've posted a lot of Chikara Ueda's stuff before, and I really liked the work called Cara de Piedra.  To rewind a bit, his profile here.  This little LP came quite early in his oeuvre and is criminally short, it has 6 tracks all of the order of 4-5 minutes long (I guess because it's a 12 inch 45 promo).   The Boz in the title is of course Scaggs who composed half of it.  Not sure who is the Bos.  Note that the guitarist is Sadanori Nakamure.

As usual the music is beautifully and professionally played smooth fusion instrumentalese, with occasional wispy female vocals expressing wordless singing, like the old cinematic porno movies (something youngsters today will never grow up to witness) RIP.

Somehow he makes everything sound like a samba or bossa nova, even the composition called Hollywood.  For those who have been there and have witnessed how supremely disappointing Hollywood is in real life or in person, with innumerable strip malls lining long boring Boulevards clogged with heavy traffic and honking Escalades punctuated by El Pollo Loco grilled chicken franchises, liquor stores, taco stands and burger joints and places to get your paychecks cashed, billboards by the road advertising endless lawyers for personal injuries, a surprisingly large number of lawyers among the wannabe stars, plus the very occasional quasi-interesting scene such as the Stars' Walk of Fame, it seems surprising that Hollywood is depicted this way on Chikara's record.  I can honestly say there is nothing tropical about the place except the constant carcinogenic blue sky.  And if you sometimes come across a store, as you are likely to, that sells liquor and guns and maybe tacos and cashes your paycheck, you have everything you need to survive in Lala land: cash your paycheck to buy a gun then steal the whiskey and take all the store's cash: another happy California customer, satisfaction guaranteed...

Island Cuckoo is a more appropriately equatorial-sounding instrumental:

Not only does this track give you an idea of the contents of this vinyl, every track is so similar you virtually don't have to bother with the rest...

By the way as expected the beautiful harmonica sound is Toots Thielemans's--I mean, who else?

Sogmusobil's Telefon from 1971 Sweden

 

Information on this group here:

Johnny Mowinckel from Atlantic Ocean and the poet Einar Heckscher formed the band Telefon Paisa in 1970 together with guitarist Tommy Broman, bassist Labbe Bergström and drummer Dick Nettelbrandt. For a while, the guitarist Ingemar Böcker also participated, but was soon replaced by Hans Berggren on saxophone. This band became notorious for their unpredictable and not entirely sober performances.

Telefon Paisa was later dissolved. Heckscher and Mowinckel then formed, together with Nettelbrandt, the band Sogmusobil, an abbreviation for "Stark och god musik utföres snabbt och billigt". In 1971, the strongly psychedelic album Telefon was released. Heckscher and Mowinckel later also collaborated in the band Levande Livet, but as late as 1976 they appeared under the name Sogmusobil.

Unfortunately only one crazy release from them.  A lot of the music is silly ('my name is Speedy Gonzalez' starts off one song) for ex blues-based and/or psychedelic throwaway, presumably social (communist) or politically conscious driveling.

Nevertheless, the stunningly creative track called Lost Identity:

In terms of the harder-edged tracks, you couldn't beat the opener, Arabic in the Morning:

By the way they went on to put out another album under the name Levande Livet, in 1973, which disappointed me profoundly since it is only simple blues, completely uninspired songs, and the simplest type of jazz noodling, eg samba.

Martin McBain - Winter, on the Harbour from 1983 [flac limited time]

 

Martin McBain:

Australian folk singer from Tasmania.

A complete change in direction here.

It's surprising this came out in 1983 because it sounds very much a part of the British folk tradition from the late 60s and early 70s.

A little bit of information can be found here.

The track called Lowerwood Courts present a lovely guitar solo:

Two More Franzettis (perhaps the last): 2016 Argentum and 2017 Luminosa

 

As you can see, Argentum is tango stuff on acoustic piano, while Luminosa is orchestral classical symphonic music, although mercifully not excessively classical.  So whether you enjoy these depends on your taste for the aforementioned styles.  From Argentum, Milonga del Adios:

From Luminosa the title track:

More Franzetti with Orquesta Nova's Salon New York, 1993

 

The follow up CD that came out 2 years later.  Similar stuff as the preceding.

Discogs information here.  Many thanks to the one who added compositional credits to discogs!! I really appreciate knowing this.

The lovely Song Without Words definitely recalls the old Carlos:

More Franzetti with Orquesta Nova in ST 1991

Compositional information is here.  Note that Franzetti wrote most of the tracks, some others from famed accordeon player / composer Astor Piazzolla, and sax man Paquito D'Rivera, even the great AC Jobim, who always seems to wind up on these latin CDs somehow or another.

Band info here.  Music is classical chamber music, unfortunately, both minimal fusion and minimal jazziness.  Pity, but had to be added to the discography.

I don't remember which Jobim album the track called Amparo appeared on, but it shows the depth of his genius and the incredible emotional resonance he was capable of, in that he wasn't just limited to the overplayed 'Desafinado' type songs or god forbid the even more atrocious 'Girl from Ipanema' ear crap:

I'll quote bandcamp:

Orquesta Nova was a dream in the eyes of Juliet Haffner and Carlos Franzetti three years ago when they first worked together and recorded a tape for string quartet of one of Carlos' pieces, "Serenata." David Chesky of Chesky Records was having the same dream, which was to record the music of Latin America with a classical chamber ensemble. It all came together with the release of their first CD, which has met with great critical acclaim. Carlos Franzetti, born in Argentina, is a well known composer who has written everything from concert pieces to film scores. He has had works played by such groups as the New American Orchestra in Los Angeles, the Buffalo Philharmonic and Musical Elements. Besides his considerable skills as a composer and arranger, his career as a pianist has brought him together with Paquito D'Rivera and as the soloist on his own album, Galaxy Dust, accompanied by a large orchestra. Juliet Haffner, co-leader of Orquesta Nova, was serenaded as a child with both Latin American and Rumanian Gypsy music, courtesy of her musical parents. Juliet, following in her mother's footsteps, began playing the guitar at an early age, followed soon by the violin, but she majored in viola at Juilliard. The artists who make up Orquestra Nova are an extraordinary group of versatile musicians, including: violinists Guillermo Figueroa and Robert Chausow, cellist Erik Friedlander, bassist David Finck, flautist Gary Schocker, and saxophone/ clarinet player Lawrence Feldman.

More Franzetti with Geminis (1987) and Prometheus (1985)

 

Geminis info.  On this record Franzetti plays with the guitarist Ricardo Lew, whose personal artist info can be located here.  This album is incredibly full of beautiful material, I would say like The Jazz Kamerata and Galaxy Dust, and the New York LP, it's virtually golden from start to end. What a wonderful surprise.

The shockingly complex and beautiful Al Mono Vilegas:

The medley that starts off the second side is absolutely insanely beautiful to my ears, with Stravinsky elements and some of the best compositional qualities of the famed Egberto Gismonti.

The tracks not written by Franzetti which are few in number are noticeably inferior, I hate to say it.  You can see the credits on the verso scan of the LP, if you zoom in on it, unfort., not on the dedicated discogs page.

The Prometheus album in contrast is completely given over to cover songs or rather jazz standards (of the most over-played kind, like Autumn Leaves), much like the city of Pripyat after the meltdown in the Chernobyl nuclear plant was abandoned to wildlife almost 40 years ago, except the title track which is quite astonishing, a shame more like this didn't appear on this record:

Back to Carlos Franzetti with New York Toccata (1985)

 

How could I have known to fully clear out and complete his works?   For the fourth time perhaps, I return to this remarkable Argentinian composer Carlos Franzetti.

New York info here.  It opens with the astonishing Arabesque, picking up right where Galaxy Dust left off:

Note that Joe Beck (posted on this blog a few months ago) plays guitar, and Paquito D'Rivera is on alto sax.

Then if you're not sufficiently blown away by the high level of composition, comes Imagenes Antes del Amenecer (Images before dawn):

Like, wow.  I still don't know how some can so perfectly blend together classical, jazz, and everything else musical humans have devised.  This to me is utter heaven, about as far away as you could get from Taylor Swift, and her "swifties" swiftly.  As with its predecessors, there are vocal tracks sung (quite proficiently, with a mild crooning vibrato) by baritone Carlos.

As You Like It - Ages Come and Ages Go, recorded 1973-1975

 

Album info here:

Recorded in England 1973-75.

British band playing genuine Progressive Rock a la Gentle Giant, Yes, England (Garden Shed), Fantasy, Spring, Genesis. Formed by ex members of Tales of Justine and The Syndicate. RCA offered them a contract which fell through, otherwise they could have been issued on RCA Neon. Their earliest surviving studio sessions date from 1973-1975 and reveal a superbly polished band playing pastoral prog rock dominated by Hammond Organ, a lost treasure for fans of Gentle Giant and Fantasy.

I think perhaps they are overstating the case, to me it sounds a bit more protoprog along the lines of Brits Fantasy (as in Beyond the Beyond) not to be confused with Fantasia, the marvelous Finnish band posted earlier here, which anyways is spelled differently at the end.  

For ex. the chord progressions on the compositions sometimes are a little derivative, I note the "Stairway to Heaven" descending A minor pattern that I mention so often appears in one of the song.

Some representative tracks, September Song:

And Together:

So is it AI or was it a real band from back in the day 50 years ago?  Who knows anymore?

Ritchie DeCarlo's Week by request, 2013

 

You can see on his discography here, he played a lot with Scott McGill who was previously posted back here.  The latter however is not playing on this work, which came out in 2013.

The awkwardly named title track, Week not Weak:

Not just crazy wham-bam electric guitar nuttiness, like the heretofore posted sets from the McGill Manring Stevens combo, this does show some delicatesse here and there and even some mellotron sounds.  I don't think there's much acoustic guitar, though I haven't listened through that carefully so far.  Synths played by Ritchie too.  So note the following keyboard track with synths + mellotron (presumably a digital or computer keyboard imitation) on the lovely complex modern classical composition called November Requiem for George:

Of course nowadays, AI / ChatGPT can do more than just replicate the mellotron sound and make it even more mellotronish, it can also replicate the whole album, making it a concept album to boot, the mood of that of the listener, his euphoria at hearing it, and even what he says to his wife upon hearing she hates the track! He can even make a new wife for the lucky guy!!  Presumably one day he will be able to create a while new personality for him too!  Isn't our future danged amazing?

Colored Music, from 1981 Japan

 

They made one new wavy, digitalish, electronic album back in 1981 then returned and made another one more recently, as you can see here.  But the music is not simple, it has a lot to interest us, of course it's not going to be at the same level some of the best already posted for ex. from Germany, but still worth hearing.  Consider, Anticipation:

And their Love Hallucination:

Forgas Band Phenomena Part 2, L'axe du fou 2009, Acte V 2012, L'oreille electrique 2018

 

That last album cover from 2018, I'm not gonna lie as my kids say, is just atrocious.  In theory it's almost as bad as the creations of AI? 

But title track from that one, L'oreille electrique, is for sure, musically remarkable:

Loin D'Issy, from 2012's Acte V, is notable for the way it changes dynamics, sound, directions several times over a relatively short (for this guy) 7 minute track:

Shockingly, it seems this gentleman is a late bloomer, for his last few albums are more interesting, at least to my (electric) ears, than the earliest ones, they show maturity and a kind of even-handedness to the progressive creative that is really heartily welcome.  Of course the style is very much our old beloved prog fusion with the classic arrangements, the typical instrumentation, but the ideas and melodies are not just original but very professionally played and thought out with none of the semi-formed ideas that characterized his first Cocktail album, with the exception of the sidelong work My Trip.  So in this case and it might be the first time for this blog (for Pepe Maina it was my impression the music became a bit boring and similar towards the end) I can honestly say it, I would look forward to any new releases from Patrick Forgas.

Forgas Band Phenomena Part 1, Roue Libre 1997, Extra-Lucide 1999, Soleil 12 2005

 

Part 3 really in the overview of this composer, after his solo works.

The title track from 1999's Extra-Lucide is remarkable, with its high energy jazz and synthesizer intensity:

The 2005 work Soleil 12, on the other hand, is notable for the fact it has only 4 tracks and one of them is over 30 minutes long!  At my age I already find it quite an imposition to listen to the entirety of a 20 minute side-long track, and this one is almost double the length in time.  I keep putting off listening to it to some other day but guess what, that day may never come.  For all I know it might even be a brilliant composition well worth the time, like Martz' The Pillory, or the Yeti, or a lot of the Xalph material.  

Note the info:

Recorded live at Le Triton, Les Lilas (France), March 15, 2005.
On the track 4. there is a brief moment of distortion on the violin at around the 8 minute mark. It is not a defect on this CD.

The title track displays this violin playing, a la Didier Lockwood quite nicely:

More Patrick Forgas with the solo works after Cocktail (L'oeil 1990, Art D'echo 1993, Synchronicite 2002)

 

The first two albums continue along the same lines as the first with the falsetto singing on top of typically one chord tracks that develop in a light or playful manner, a bit Canterburyesque but much, much simpler.  That last one from 2002 is a complete all-out new age slow keyboard work, which is radically different from all the other albums and to me a bit uninteresting.

From 1990's L'oeil, Ze / Medley is a remarkable composition but the remainder, almost the whole of it, suffers from the tinny digital synths & 80s drum machine that afflicts so many works from this period in time:

1993's Art D'echo gets a lot more interesting and is sometimes quite crazy creative, consider Cache ta Paine (hide your pain, the de facto motto of all middle aged or older men):

As mentioned earlier, Synchronicite is a departure being mostly new agey keyboards and in fact, it's the only work from him in this style, eg Anima:

At times it sounds like the soundtrack to a video game, such as that for Tomb Raider.  Perhaps inspired by that one?

French Canterburylike / Gonglike drummer / composer Patrick Forgas with the 1977 Cocktail album to begin

 

His own discography is here. As you can see 4 albums on his own and 6 more under Forgas Band Phenomenon.

Profile: French prog rock and fusion drummer, singer, instrumentalist. Self-confessed Robert Wyatt devotee, and creator of a unique French twist on the Canterbury sound.

I think it's less Canterbury more Gong with the tendency to remain on one chord and then meander in a spacey manner on top with light sounds, eg breathy singing or flutes.  The title track of his masterpiece called Cocktail, whose hghlight though is the sidelong work My Trip, which reappeared multiple times, reworked, on later albums, and with a demo version on the later CD release with bonus tracks:

Demo version of My Trip is great listening:

In fact, utterly ironically the demo tracks that follow the composed work are the best part of this CD, perhaps because they were written when he was a young man, much more Canterbury like.

Fumitaka Anzai in his first work from 1982 [DIGITAL TRIP / Juma Densetsu Synthesizer Fantasy]

 

Absolutely a masterpiece of progressive electronic, like some of the Fukumachi stuff.  I don't think there's a bad track on this record.  Artist info here.  He went on to write an incredible number of anime, film score, manga, whatever soundtracks, but this is by far the best one, if you appreciate complex prog that is.  This is as great as anything that for ex. the more famous Patrick Moraz put out back then.

Soto H, track 6, is so unbelievably dramatic:

Track 4, Dasshutsu:

Markku Lievonen's 1977 album, FLAC limited time only

This is a very librarish album with beautiful progressive instrumental compositions, very vivid and interesting, original, and melodic.

From discogs, the briefest of bios:

A Finnish jazz musician. Born on February 16, 1947 in Lahti, Finland and died on December 14, 2016 in Helsinki, Finland. Started his career in the early 1960s by playing drums in a jazz trio. Later he played bass in several groups and as a studio musician. In 1977 he released a solo album.

For me it's quite brilliant and unfortunately forgotten, presumably except in Finland.  His use of different keyboard sounds is particularly worth hearing, as in Monster Rally:

For an entirely different emotional direction, the March for the Lonely Riders:

Norwegian Barock - Bare en Blaveis, from 1976 [ FLAC limited time only ]

 

I absolutely adore this one-off album.  Information here:

Progressive rockband from Stavanger, Norway. They released only one record, "Bare En Blåveis" in 1976 with Johnny Sareussen as producer. The band consisted of Magne Høyland, Anders Bru, Bjørn Aslaksen, Reidar Olsen, Sveinung Sand and Tommi Haukland.

The album had all the right ingredients for a real progrock album in the 70s; long, improvisational solos, multi-thematic compositions, performances of classical and folk, parties with electric violin and drum solos. The lyrics was both in Norwegian and English and some of them collected by the poets Oscar Wilde and Hans Børli.

The band dissolved in 1977. Anders Bru startet Stavangerensemblet. Mange Høyland appeared in both Asfalt (4) and Wasaband and Bjørn Aslaksen in Løgnaslaget and Ryfylke Visegruppe.

Surprisingly well said for once.  But the most important part about it, it's packed with wonderful songs and compositions, a lot of that typical Beatles or solo Beatles influence that you'd find in all the 70s pop stuff, but really well thought out, creative, original, as you can hear on the opener Mr. Music Man:

To You on the Bus is another beautiful song:

But the biggest masterpiece is the instrumental composition Impressions, which absolutely entrances me in its lovely E minor ideas which keep evolving and transcending any simplistic chord movements, beautifully played, beautifully written, a true gem, like Eef Albers' Blue Capricorn track:

Cassette-only Auto Drive System - First Work from the 1970s Italy

 

Well, here's a real treasure from the past, and something you almost certainly have never heard.

An amazing electronic style progressive find from my friend, cassette only release, you can find sparse info here.  None of the 3 artists are recorded on that page as having appeared anywhere else.

Nascik  gives you an idea of what we're dealing with here:

So, similar to Sensations Fix, or French Heldon, etc.