Strinx, from Germany 1973, with a lossless rip

A gorgeous slice of violin-based advanced fusion from Germany, surprisingly still little known.  But let it be further known now...

The first Home Grown compilation from Hawai'i, from the year 1976

The old Lewers Street in Waikiki was the main but least respectable path between the long beachside boardwalk and the main boulevard running parallel behind, called Kalakaua.  Full of cheap motels with backpackers, surfers, and bums, an old McDonalds and some coffee joints, it was deemed inappropriate for the upscale tourists that were pouring in from both N. America and more importantly Japan and was taken away more than a decade ago, to be replaced by an astroturfed outdoor mall renamed "beach walk" full of the mandatory Starbuckses, the ubiquitous P.F.Changs, Hard Rock Cafes, and Ruth's Chris Steakhouses found in every American city nightspot area or generic mall, but thankfully, a heavy helping of Hawai'i-content smaller boutiques sprang up among the weedy and totally unnecessary proliferation of Honolulu Cookie Co's.... and there a month ago, hanging from the wall of a new surf shop, I saw a display of old Hawaiian LP sleeves: the previous Kalapana, Olomano, Country Living, Seawind (in my opinion the best), Tender Leaf, and Home Grown... my jaw dropped when I saw those covers... I didn't know any of them at the time but, needless to say, I proceeded to collect a huge mass of seventies records from the islands, and here are some of them...

This VA compilation features some unknown artists and some who gained fame in that era like Country Living.  Notes on the rear are quite instructive for those who are curious though as usual discogs has all the database information.  As far as I know a series of four such records were made by the radio station up until 1980 and I'll post them all for some variety show fun.

For myself the mix of baroque fuguery with acoustic guitar and piano from an artist called "Cooper's Still" is the most delightful find though how that integrates with a depiction of the Big Island is not as clear, perhaps due to the constant fog and rain that envelops the windward, Hilo side :





"Nothing less than paradise-- it calls to me..."

When we're done with these Hawai'i rips I'll mention my favourite records from there, other than my amazing discovery Mofoya, and the aforementioned Seawind albums.... sadly, some are available on itunes and thus will not be downloadable.
But through it all, Hawai'i calls to me...

A Library Xmas: The 1976 Summits's Beat + Pop - Grundformen Und Tänze - Recommended!

A really unique little library, unknown and rare, from Germany 1976.  From Beatedelic:

Very rare german private press LP from 1979 [actually 1976- ed.] but the whole production has a late 60s, early 70s feel. The album contains a great mix of vocal and instrumental tracks and presents an impressive range of styles from Funk and Jazz to Latin and also one track in a psychedelic / progressive vein. Instrumentation includes e-piano, wah-wah guitar, scat-vocals and percussions.

The band did not release anything else, at least under this name.

Full information:

Summits  ‎– Beat + Pop - Grundformen Und Tänze
Label: Georg Kallmeyer Verlag ‎– 7102
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Tracklist

A1 Strange Exchange  2:00
A2 Como Un Helado Famoso  2:00
A3 Rumplestiltskin  1:55
A4 Sky High  2:00
A5 Shufflin' Around  2:03
A6 Flotante  1:46
A7 Naja  1:25

B1 Face Of Sadness  3:15
B2 Porfía, Por Favor!  1:45
B3 Spell Of A Passing Moment  1:41
B4 Canción Con Árbitro  2:27
B5 Drei Über Vier  9:30

Notes:
Released with a big map consisting of how to dance to the tracks.

This particular note is interesting, as my copy did not have such an insert.  On the other hand it's been pointed out there was an accompanying booklet, released separately, by the producer Marianne Ehrich.  You can see such a copy for sale here on abebooks.   Perhaps the book was the more important product, with the music as an audio illustration for its benefit?  Someone might be able to enlighten and if so please comment below.

The overall tone of this very interesting little document of those wonderfully inventive 70s, with the female vocals and upbeat tempos, is very similar to the Luna Set Art album I posted before, minus the synthesizers.  As in the review above, the band plays all kinds of different styles including bossa novas, swing jazz, funk, mellow library instrumentals, progressive songs a la Racaille, and a long psychedelic jam in the last position called three over five, presumably the dance steps or tempo measure.  I cannot say this is a masterpiece however, more of a curiosity.  For our purposes the most progressive or intricate and original pieces stand out as the A6 Flotante (very reminiscent of the Modern Sound Quartet stuff):





and the Spell of a Passing Moment:





What a lot of work put into such a lost cause (today)... but let us now return it to our collective memory.

Merry Xmas and a present for all: the highly in demand Rene George Schenderling!

Posted relatively recently, this item has witnessed a huge demand for its availability among our readers, which it well deserves in terms of the quality of its contents, and by permission of the ripper it can now be made available...


The original post:

Very beautiful private pressed prog album reminiscent of Pete and Royce or other slightly laid back Dutch albums such as Mirror, Marakesh, Saga with a strong Genesis influence.  I will post a couple of exemplar songs to give you an idea of the record, notable are the tracks B3 Jump with its minimal synth a la ping pong and the last track, B5, Imagine Another World.











Merry Christmas to all!!

The Machines Have Landed, Part One, in 1981

Hard on the heels of the bombshell Tetelestai comes this other proggers' dream platter.

"They were all males, and well-built, their hair was white, cut short, their eyes were blue, their skin was white, thus-- they were caucasians..."  Goes the intro describing the aliens exiting their UFO-- wow-- what a relief they were not black or god forbid-- Asian!  or if they had arabic features?  

Side two is the progific monster-- the prognificent masterwork AOR'ing through a bombastic prose of dissonances and tritones, FM-(the Canadian band)-style synthplay and outright lyrical silliness.  The first side definitely has more of a Klaatu art rock workaday aspect to it especially with the overlong Walter Cronkite-like intro excerpted above.  But revel in the finale of the work from these one-off Burlington, Ontario, Canadians here below which casts all the energy of amplified music into one melting pot of hot compositional alchemy:







Yes: the machines have landed, America... they landed long ago...