Great Ad's Deep Down Death, recorded 1975-1976, released 2021, mp3 limited time only

Great Ad were a Swedish hard rock band that was active in the middle of the decade, as you can see here, completely unknown, undiscovered until recently, and this features all their music compiled together.  I really love this kind of high energy hard rock missing the blues and simple chords of the AC/DC style, and I've posted quite a bit in the past that is little known, such as the wonderful and for me unforgettable masters Magik Dayze, or the AOR US Ambush, or brilliant one-off Architect, Legend, wherein bonus tracks were recently found, while masters Truth and Janey and Granicus are 2 I should've posted, also undeservedly unknown.

Anyways the rock is really competent, fast and driving, interesting in terms of songwriting, and coming from Sweden, pretty damned impressive. For that nice deep Black Sabbath sound, consider Fast Love:

For a great slowed down number, transitioning from arpeggios to a wonderful tritonal chord change in the chorus, listen to  You'll Never Believe:

NZ composer/arranger Alan Broadbent in Palette from 1979

 

Here's a wonderful and surprising find for me, completely unknown, unheard of, never rereleased so far as I know.  Typical late 1970s fusion with progressive elements, perhaps a little turned towards the jazz big band side, but at least fusiony enough for me to thoroughly enjoy.

Info on the composer, on this release.

Alan Broadbent, MNZM [Member - New Zealand Order of Merit] was born on April 23, 1947 in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a jazz pianist, arranger and composer best known for his work with artists such as Woody Herman, Diane Schuur, Chet Baker, Irene Kral, Sheila Jordan, Charlie Haden, Warne Marsh, Bud Shank, and many others. He studied piano and music theory in his own country, but in the 1960s came to the US to study at the Berklee College of Music. In the 1970s he did both classical and jazz work, but from the eighties onwards he accompanied singers on piano. Later he gained note as an arranger of music and won two Grammies for arrangements he did with Natalie Cole and Shirley Horn.

So you could indeed surmise from this bio that his earliest work, and this one is from 1979 when he was 32 years young, has been oblivionated due to the later work he did as an all-out jazz arranger for the above famous artists, I would go so far as to say, a standard arranger, although from the Palette orchestrations he is definitely original.  Not to the same degree as our two big favorites of course, Yuri Chugonov in the Eastern world and Claus Ogerman in the Western.

As a perfect ex. of what I'm talking about, have a listen to the Mz Liz composition:

Another ex., his Sunrise Song:

There are definitely some cover versions in there, I recognize Stevie's Summer Soft, but the majority I'm going to assume are his creations.  Bravo!

Another problem I suppose, if we can describe it that way, is that his discography is immense and therefore difficult to weed through to find other possible gems, of which I'm reasonably sure there must be some.  The bet that his earliest stuff was golden, though, definitely paid off.  How music loves to favor youth....

VA OMN 009 - Various Artists - Fusion [Compilation, FLAC]

 

This is a very pleasant library compilation of later Omnimusic stuff I take it, many different composers.  It all hails from the early eighties period as you can tell from the jumpy synthwork, that I suppose recalls computers, binary code, digital music, etc., and that of course was one of the big hallmarks of that decade along with neon green shorts and silly dance styles.

With regards to the Omnimusic label:

American library music label based in Port Washington, New York; founded in 1976 by Doug and Patti Wood. In April 2019, Omnimusic was acquired by EMI Production Music in London. The library is now distributed exclusively in the United States by APM Music in Los Angeles.

Compositions are well chosen though and worth hearing for the most part.  Specific information for this one can be found on this page. Note the original release year of 1986 listed there.  It could be there are other good composers in that mix, I would never know, they are all unfamiliar to me.

Kerry Beaumont's Illusion:

Brave New World by John Manchester:

David Benoit's first 2 albums: Heavier than Yesterday, 1977 [FLAC], Can you Imagine, 1980 [mp3]

 

Brief write up:

American jazz pianist, composer and conductor, born 9 May 1953 in Bakersfield, California, USA. He has been nominated for five Grammy Awards.

Came upon this completely by chance, rooting around for some new undiscovered albums on discogs.

The music here is very typical late US fusion with some progressive elements (like so much other stuff I've posted here), perhaps like Harris Simon, Neil Larsen, Jeff Lorber, and of course the two big Davids: Grusin and the inescapable Sanborn.  So many over the years...

From the lovely first album, his 7-minute tribute to Los Angeles, which to be honest doesn't sound anything like the recent city I visited that features, on every block, liquor stores, cash-your-paycheck places, and homeless encampments full of druggies:

From the 2nd album, inevitably not quite as strong but still enjoyable, his Memory of Che:

Australian folk SSW Graham Lowndes in 2 album (Survival's a Song (in FLAC), Mouth Music, plus incomplete opera)

 

Wow the train derailment photo in the middle for the rock opera sure is wild, as is the graphic for Mouth Music.

Graham Lowndes:

Australian singer-songwriter who started out in the early 70s.

He recorded two albums in Melbourne.

He combined personal and social commentary to his songs.

Graham now lives in Fremantle, WA.

Of interest he was involved with the wonderful Aussie female SSW Jeannie Lewis, who made an incredible one-off prog epic in the 1976 LP, Tears of Steel-- f you recall I posted it back here, and what a great discovery from my friend the gem-sniffer-out that was.  

Jennie and Lowndes earlier collaborated for the somewhat disappointing rock opera, Terry and Frank (1974) from which I posted a few sample tracks.

As you might expect from the top cover, this is mostly acoustic folk or country music, with the occasional huge radio hit song thrown in, I say that of course completely ironically, but the great songs really are great.  Without a doubt we can agree the gorgeous Visions from the Gallery is the best song on his first, a gatefold LP, it's pretty stunning, and should've been a hit back in the day, or even today:

Also lovely is To Rosalind:

From the second album with the great graphic, Mouth Music (1975), the closer, Sails of Sadness absolutely makes me want to cry every time I hear its full-throated, open-hearted emotion:

Some LPs from library composer Douglas Wood

 

Sparse Info:

Real Name: Douglas A. Wood

Profile: Composer/arranger of library music, soundtracks and TV recordings.

You can see from the above listings he was massively prolific after 1976.

All of the music that I've heard can be appropriately described as library music, I will avoid the use of the word 'generic' as it leads to assumptions about quality that are perhaps unjustified, depending on opinions and tastes.

An idea of his style of composition from the People's Progress Suite, called Feeling Fine:

Quiet Zone, with its amazing Hammond organ:

I have these two in flac, Pastoral and Light Activity Rock and Jazz, and Peoples Progress Positive Charge (with Joe Antel).  Then in mp3, Synthesizer (more of the same), and Panorama from Omnimusic (orchestral soundtrack music) instead.  So four in total.

A request was made for the work with Lee Greenblat called Edge of the World / Rainy Days, anyone can share for us?

Brian Chatton's Vapour Trails (1980) [NO FLAC]

 

Brian Chatton:

Real Name: Brian Charles Chatton

Profile: born 19 July 1948, in Bolton, Lancashire.

In Groups: Boys Don't Cry, Flaming Youth, Hickory (4), Jackson Heights, Snafu (6), The Warriors (3)

I found this record while I was checking the artists behind the relatively unknown band, Jackson Heights, who I will likely also post soon.

Info on this particular album here.

Again, typical library music, example, Smooth Touch; note the lovely development of the basic theme:

Wolfgang Schuter Combo's Hangover [FLAC limited time only]

  

The whole album is gorgeous from beginning to end, a relative rarity for a 'contemporary jazz' type release, not fusion.  It's semi-fusion you could say, all instrumental, with vibes playing the melodies for the most part, electric guitar but a highly unfuzzy toned-down sound, electric piano, but again lightly played.

The almost preternaturally lovely Sun Up composition:

Another gorgeous one, Time and Tide:

Back to Bob Moses: Bittersuite in the Ozone, When Elephants Dream of Music, Visit with the Great Spirit

 

Brief description on discogs:

Real Name: Robert Laurence Moses

Profile: Jazz drummer/percussionist/composer, born January 28, 1948 in New York City. Also known as Rahbaat Rakhalam Ntumba Moses.

First of all notice the stunning cover art.  Boy do I miss when LPs had such beautiful paintings or graphics to admire.

Tributaries, from 1978, was posted back here (as a request), and it was surely wonderful.  Because of the involvement of keyboardist Richard Sussman I sought out his later Evolution suite, posted here, which was hugely impressive for me.  In general Bob Moses' music is in a similar vein, with a basis of elegant fusion and contemporary jazz plus a lot of modern dissonant, polytonal music, along the lines of Stravinsky influences.  The first one was Bittersuite in the Ozone (1975), which I've always loved dearly.  These compositions are all by him (of course).  

Especially noteworthy is the track called "Message to the Music Bizness," and we can conclude clearly what the message was given the strangeness of the arrangement:

From Tributaries, the title track composed by Sussman:

Moving on to the eighties there was no compromising with popular culture, just as you'd expect from this genius.  The 1982 album When Elephants Dream of Music is still incredible, from that one, Trevor:

By 1984's Visit with the Great Spirit, still no evidence whatsoever he was going to compromise with the 'music bizness' as you can discern from that one's title track:

Wonderful stuff!  And so uncompromising an artist.

Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw - Black Pearl (1973)(FLAC)

 

Album info here.

From the first side called Modern Orchestral Themes, Alan Hawkshaw's Collect:

All composed by him on that side.  

The second side is Moody Group Sounds, all by Alan Parker.  His Melody and Lace is great:

VA - Hogan, The Hawk And Dirty John Crown from 1972 [FLAC limited time]

 

A mixed bag with a great title of course, sounding quite a bit like the soundtrack of a blaxploitation movie from the early 1970s with the funky fusion and smoother orchestral numbers.  Information can be found here.

Gordon Grant's great Scorch:

For a lighter number, Simon Haseley's Hogan Baby sounds more than a little indebted to B. Bacharach to my ears (he appeared on the Electric Bird album too):

Alan Parker appears here too, remember he made the brilliant Rock Machine (with Hawkshaw) I posted here.

VA - The All-American Powerhouse (1976) [FLAC limited time only]

 

Back again with more of the amazing Alan Hawkshaw.  Info here. His Speed Run:

Listen all the way to the stunning closing out of the song.

Unfortunately not all good tracks on this typical library, though there are other really interesting compositions, mostly from the aforementioned Hawkshaw.

VA - New Blood (1973) [FLAC limited time only]

 

Unusually, no back cover scan.  One of the first times this has happened, not that it necessarily matters much for these libraries.  Information can be found here, and you will be delighted to see Alan Parker and Hawkshaw appear.  The latter is like Francis Monkman or J. Fukumachi, whereby I always say everything they touched turned to gold.  True geniuses.  I've mentioned Hawkshaw here and there quite frequently, most recently here when he passed away, RIP.

Anyways, on this LP Alan (the Hawkshaw!) again knocks it out of the ballpark with his beautiful contribution called High Driver:

There's so much interesting sound and complexity to that little 3 minute plus composition, it just astounds.  What a creative genius!

Subsequently found back cover, thanks to commenter (on the left)

Piranha Gundan 1977, by request, FLAC limited time only

 

Info appears in Japanese here.   Kind of a glimpse of some information on this alt. release page.

Overall I found this to be relatively ordinary rock songwriting, opener here as a sample:

Track 8 present some interesting sounds and dimensionality:

There is a lot of weird shouting / odd Japanese cultural oddity in here too, appealing presumably to the native audience, as if we were watching either sumo or kabuki.

Francesco Cabiati's Mirage, 1979, by request

 

Info here on this page. You can see there is not a lot of material from him apart from this LP.

Typical Italian prog along the lines of F. Battiato, or Sensations Fix.

Sample, Chok: