The Henry Lowther Band's Child Song from 1971 (FLAC) and Happy New Year to all, everywhere!

 

This is the only LP for this particular assemblage or personnel.  The band's info is on this page.  The namesake, Henry Lowther, is an "English trumpeter and flugelhorn player, born 11 July 1941 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK."  Note Daryl Runswick (eg, Atlantic Bridge, Hymas/Runswick Big Bands, libraries with Monkman, etc.) on bass and percussion.

Henry Lowther was in the unbelievably brilliant one-off high-prog fusion band called Coley (brainchild of Barry Cole) that I posted back here.  Looks like he worked with multiple other Brit luminaries, like Keith Tippett, Kenny Wheeler, Colin Towns, etc.  This album is wonderful early fusion mixed with the contemporary jazz style that you'd expect from the individual musical components / players.

I love the string quartet compositions in general, when they're well written at least, which is why I drool over the one called Between:

This then serves as intro to the next track, called Puppet Song:

Adam Holzman [The Fents] with Zombie Apocalypse

 

Long long ago I posted The Fents' wonderful EP from 1979, back here.  Their discography can be seen here.  I always thought the 1983, 1987 albums were not quite as fiercely creative as the EP.  Anyways, the main creator and keyboardist was or is Adam Holzman who had a wonderful subsequent career, as you can read there:

Born on February 15, 1958 in New York City, son of Jac Holzman and Nina Merrick. Keyboard player with Miles Davis 1985-1989. Currently playing with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. Also toured and recorded with Grover Washington Jr., Chaka Khan, Steps Ahead, Wayne Shorter, Wallace Roney and his own band, Adam Holzman & Brave New World. Led Los Angeles jazz-rock band The Fents back in the 80's. Also teaches in the jazz department of the New School University in New York City.

So it's always interesting to hear what these greats from the past are up to nowadays.  His recent album is all instrumental furious fusion, of the kind we've heard quite a bit in the last couple of years (such as McGill, Manring, Stevens, or Ritchie DeCarlo).  

For example, Friend or Foe:

Attilio' s Art Takes a Holiday from 1989, and Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all!

 

Attilio played synths on the Head in the Sand album.  Full name: Attilio Panissidi III, discogged here.

Apparently this is his only output, a CD with electronic sounds, a lot of variety, and enjoyably diverse.

I love the way the composition called Pillows develops as if it was an entire soundtrack theme:

Quarterflash in 2, ST 1981 and Take Another Picture 1983

 

Discogged:

Quarterflash is an American rock group formed in Portland, Oregon, originally called Seafood Mama. A year later they were signed by Geffen Records and changed the group name to Quarterflash. The name comes from an Australian colloquialism, "a quarter flash and three parts foolish."

Their guitarist is Jack Charles, who performed so magnificently in the band Sand, one of my favorite 'discoveries' of this blog.  The keyboardist of Sand is Attilio, whose solo work I'll post later too.

So I was curious to hear this band in the hopes some of that uncompromisingly beautiful guitar sound from Sand persisted into the 1980s with these releases, but, predictably, it was not meant to be.

From the first album which is basically commercial pop, the gem called Love should be so kind:

The lovely singer, for those like me who are curious to know, is Rindy Ross, who was in the predecessor band called Seafood Mama.

From the second album, Take Another Picture, the closer called It All Becomes Clear is both played and sung by Jack Charles (the guy from Sand), as you can tell from the (jangling open string) guitar style and voice-- what a difference a few years made back then:

Daryl Runswick / Tony Hymas big bands 1974-1978

 

Tony Hymas for sure needs no intro on this blog, there's been a lot posted by him over the years.  I added the label so in theory you can search for all the times he's been mentioned.

Daryl Runswick:

Profile: English bass player, pianist, tenor singer, writer, arranger, producer, born 12 October 1946

With regards to this blog, he was in Atlantic Bridge, the Henry Lowther just posted, and notably in Harry Beckett's Joy Unlimited which was great, but not posted here, and then the long-running prog band called IF which all prog fans are familiar with, I'm sure.

These hail from two sessions, one in 1974 and the other called Senor Funk, from 1978:

1 to 4: Live recording, 22nd May 1974, at Golders Green Hippodrome, London

5 to 10: Studio recording 1978 at Lansdowne Studios, London

Track 1 is called When the Bough Breaks and is by Tony Hymas

The remainder is by Runswick.  Rather than big band, it's leaning more towards the usual funky fusion we love and expect here.  Enjoyable stuff, but definitely and not necessarily top of the line.

Neil Ardley's Mike Taylor Remembered, from 1973

 

I've posted Neil Ardley before, who I think is a genius composer.  His Time Flowers from back here went on to become one of my favorite listens of this past year or so, and it still amazes me: I wish I could listen to it every day but I wouldn't then have time for other stuff.  I thought I posted most of Neil's earlier material in 2020, here.  On this one though he conducts and arranges, but plays music written by Taylor.  Information can be found here.  Note that Henry Lowther plays on this one too, along with Sulzmann and many other luminaries.

Notes:

Recorded over 2 days in June 1973 at Landsdowne Studios, Holland Park, London. This music was orchestrated and arranged based on manuscripts recovered from a dustbin in a residence vacated by Mike Taylor while still alive. Mike Taylor died 3½ years prior to these recordings being made.

If like me you weren't sure who that is, Mike Taylor was a jazz pianist and composer some of whose stuff appeared on albums by supergroup Cream and Jack Bruce, but whose own work I think is neglected.  He died at age 31.  Although I'm not sure his compositions for Cream are all that worth hearing, definitely not when you compare with what Jack Bruce did and went on to do subsequently.

I See You is an example of his highly original songwriting skills (vocals by Norma Winstone):

Son of Red Blues features the band, with orchestral parts written by Neil:

KPM 1226 - Dennis Farnon & Dick Walter - A Fear Of The Dark (1979) (FLAC)

 

As mentioned in the last post, the two collaborated for this dramatically different album, with Farnon occupying side one, and Walter the second side.  From the former, the quite impressively composed and dramatic Regression:

And then, the more agreeable harmonies of  Memories:

From side 2's Walter, one version of the polytonal dissonant classical Lonely Sunday:

Better than the average horror movie soundtrack without a doubt.

BMLP 114 - Dennis Farnon, Dick Walter & Otto Sieben - Soft Sounds & Gentle Movements (1974) (FLAC)

 

Continuing on with the gentle atmospheric library stuff, which seems never-ending from this period in time.

Dennis Farnon on discogs:

Dennis Farnon (born August 13, 1923, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Died May 21, 2019 in Aalst, Buren, Netherlands) is a Canadian composer, arranger and conductor. Brother of Brian Farnon and Robert Farnon.

Like so many of these guys his output is insanely large.  On this album he wrote most of the first side, as you can see here.  The second side is by Dick or Richard Walter.

Dick Walter's beautifully arranged Gentle Wave:

The third composer is Gerhard Narholtz / Otto Sieben' and this is his Sailing Dreams:

Collaborators Dick Walter and Dennis Farnon reappear in the next post which is dramatic horror movie music, completely opposite to this one.

Alan Parker aka Grant Lane, in Bright Spark's Natural Break, 1976 [FLAC limited time]

 

Library composer Alan Parker/Grant Lane's information is here.  I posted his side b (with Hawkshaw on a) for Black Pearl just recently here.  He wrote all of this one.  Appearing as a 'group' called Bright Spark, this 'their' only LP release has wonderfully gentle sounds on it, like the last library posted, and like Black Pearl too.  The unbearably cute cover is again by Nick Bantock, as in some of the preceding libraries.  Samples, Cedar Tree:

Country Lane:

Some very pleasant instrumentals altogether.

Japanese band NOA, compleat [Tri-Logic 1987, If Tomorrow Comes 2018, Journey to Babel 2021, Dagger of the Mind 2022] limited time only

 

I posted the OG album way back here-- more than 10 years ago (wow!)-- and described it as a masterpiece, which it still is, upon relistening.  I didn't realize they made more music, 30 years after that first one, and onwards until three years ago.  In those subsequent albums though they did repeat or rework tracks from the 1st record unfortunately, so there's less original stuff than one might expect.  

You can see the discography on this page.

In terms of new material, the title tracks will give you a good idea of the band's competence and continuation of the prog KC influence, from If Tomorrow Comes Part 1:

Journey to Babel:

Dagger of the Mind:

Griot Galaxy's Opus Krampus, by request, plus more

 

Discogged thusly:

Profile: American jazz band, formed in 1972, disbanded in 1989.

Members: Anthony Holland, Ben Henderson (2), Faruq Z. Bey, Tani Tabbal

The music is definitely a mixture of free jazz and fusion as so listed on the above page, perhaps less fusiony than electric jazzy free stuff with a lot of hard percussion and dissonance.   That is, missing is the furious fusionary energy and perhaps consistency.  It's not so free as to be just floating off into the ether of space / inaccessibly meandering / insanely spouting phrases all over the place, either there is some composed stuff or the band is competent enough to follow each other's narratives, and to me it appears the first minute or two is written down, then as usual this forms the springboard for individual improvs, or perhaps forms the diving board for bellyflops, depending on tastes.

From the first, 1982 album, Kin, the title track:

From the requested Opus Krampus from 1985, the opener called After Dream:

As usual I was able to locate some more material, including a 2-CD live recorded in 1983, a bootleg-like Live from Montreaux from 1982, and an "unreleased 1982 studio album," and all of these are along the same lines as the official 2 LPs.  Put together in one package for your listening pleasure.

And go ahead and post some more wishlist requests, 'tis the season for this of course, as every year, I'll see what I can do-- inshprog as we say, or, by the grace of the prog gods--

Inoue Takayuki Band's Sunrise from 1976

 

Information on Inoue Takayuki:

Japanese rock guitarist, composer and arranger. Born in Kobe 15-Mar-1941, died 02-May-2018.

He was a member of The Spiders (3), Pyg (2), the Takayuki Inoue Band, and worked for a long period as a member of Kenji Sawada's backing band.

His band is hidden (in Japanese characters) on this page:

Inoue Takayuki Band. Japanese rock group, formed in 1971 by members of The Spiders (3) and Pyg (2). The band was led by Takayuki Inoue.

Both his output on his own and the band's output are rather prolific.  There are occasionally several LPs released in a given year of the seventies!

I will have to try to get a grip on some of it to get an idea if it's all as good as this instrumental, fusionary library-like work from 1976 called Sunrise.  In fact it sounds almost like a library record, but has an enormous amount of variety in terms of composition with light sounds, breezy stuff, then more progressive fusion material.  Maybe someone can provide some insight on whether this is a worthwhile endeavour.

The first side long track is very interesting in the way it progresses through so much musical history, the last part even uses the Moonlight Sonata's famous minor-key three-note piano arpeggio in C sharp minor, but I think a half tone lower (C minor).  I detect a little bit of Pink Floyd influence [Wish you were here] in some places with the sustained keyboard chords and the dramatic buildup, though that's what you'd expect from a musical depiction of Sunrise.  I recommend you listen to it with big headphones, the biggest you've got, with noise cancellation preferably, to neutralize the external sounds of your family begging you to turn the music off and help with the household chores or children screaming in the background...

First track of the second side with its interesting organ tritonal chords, colored by surrounding synth sounds:

Track 6 or B5 if you're following on the database, highlights the kind of soundtrack (horror movie in this instance?) composition that this versatile musician was capable of:

Back to Bible Black with II - Message From Moonbase [FLAC limited time only]

 

Information on this release here.  Earlier I posted the first album and the 1984 cassette from their guitarist, called Rose, back here, long ago.  So last year, 40 years after that first cassette, 12 years after the first CD, they posted a second album with the above title, approximately in a similar style to the first Bible Black, so a very enjoyable King Crimson-like mix of symphonic and typical hard guitar prog sounds, perhaps like their compatriots Social Tension posted here.

The Opening or Intro makes it clear exactly what we're dealing with here, taking us right back to the great classics of the late 1970s in synthesizer prog:

It's followed by Subway:

And the remainder of the composition just follows in the same vein, without any let up.  Really good, classic prog.  Obviously, the guitarwork by Rose is just stunning, but the synth player, who is this guy, equally magnificent.

A track called Poison brings back the great Frippian dissonant riffs:

Japanese Anzen Band, Album A, 1975 [nonFLAC] and 1976 [FLAC]

 

Brilliant cover art in both instances, I think we can agree.

Back to the Japanese rock/prog for the next three posts.  This is a mine that never gets exhausted in its yield of pure gemology.  Here's one I could have sworn I posted before but obviously didn't, similar to my old favorite School Band, with hard rock, ssw, and fusion elements mixed together in a pretty accessible form, or perhaps like Tranzam.

Information on the band here.  Unfortunately, only 2 albums from the mid 1970s.

Track 4 from the first album gives you an idea of the delightful mix of sax plus rock this band is capable of:

Intro to the second album which appeared the next year, showcases the smooth sax sound again:

Later they get into the funky sounds, rock stuff, providing quite a lot of variety.  I absolutely adore the track 3 song, with its warmth and drive:

Stay tuned to the wonderful bridge passage with harmonics and the full-on electric guitar riff, followed by dreamy synth strings.

Another wonderful 'lost' Japanese rock album... How many more are there still undiscovered?