News: Esoteric's 2011 June-Aug schedule

I'm a little late on the June announcements, but some pretty cool stuff in this batch.

Some of what caught my eye: Earth and Fire's "To the World of the Future" is a good choice and hasn't been on the market for years. This is really the first proper reissue of the album.

Socrates "Phos" is an interesting choice. Reissued a couple of times by Vertigo in Greece, I'll be curious what Esoteric will add beyond the usual excellent liner notes of course.

It's good to see Esoteric diving in the Italian reissue market a bit deeper. There's almost no classic Italian progressive album that hasn't been reissued (and our list has a few scattered about - but the great ones have already been done - in multiple formats). However, many of the Italian greats are still limping along with poor mastering. BTF has gone back and done a nice job with a lot of the old Vinyl Magic CDs - and added some liner notes as well. Acqua Fragile is a good band to tackle and I've been looking for a nice reissue of "Mass Media Stars" myself. Hopefully they don't stop at just the English language Italian groups.

Even more exciting for me is to see Aardvark's sole album get the royal treatment. There's been a "common" copy reissued many times - and I own the Japan mini that is taken from this source. I'll keep the mini for the cover, but it would be nice to know more about the band and to hear a properly done reissue. I personally love this curious organ freakout album, with quaint, almost Canterbury-ish psych tunes thrown in.

And finally the two CD set of Tangerine Dream's "Atem" looks most promising, as that second disc is: "This Esoteric reactive edition is expanded to include a bonus CD of a previously unreleased forty minute live performance given by Tangerine Dream at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin on November 29th 1973 and features a lavishly illustrated deluxe booklet with new essay."

Here's the announcement from Vicky at Esoteric:

"June
Lol Coxhill-Ear of the Beholder-with contributions from kevin Ayers, Mike Oldfield and David Bedford
David Bedford-Nurses Song with Elephants (featuring Kevin Ayres and Mike Oldfield)
CCLR--s/t (new studio album with Bernardo Lanzetti of PFMs band with Steve Hackett as guest.)
Bill Nelson-Northern Dream (Bills 1st ever album)
Dave Brock and the Agents of Chaos-Agents of Chaos
Earth and Fire-To the World of the Future
Acqua Fragile-s/t (Italian prog with bernard Lanzetti)
Acqua Fragile-Mass media Stars

July
Aardvark--s/t Excellent Deram Nova album.
Tudor Lodge-s/t--lovely classic folk rock album with great new artwork
Richard Wahnfried and Arthur Brown-Time actor(Richard Wahnfried is Klaus Schulze)
Arthur Brown and Vincent Crane-Faster than the Speed of Light
Speedy keen-Y' Know Wot I mean (voice of Thunderclap Newman)
Soft Machine-Tales of Taliesin (lovingly packaged anthology of the Harvest Years)

August
Tangerine Dream-Atem (2Cd)
Tangerine Dream-Underwater Sunlight
Socrates-Phos
Jack Bruce-Out of the Storm
Speedy keen -Previous Convictions"

News: Achim Reichel to reissue remainder of catalog in 2012

Thanks to a ProgressiveEars note from Charles at progressiverock.com, we learned that Achim Reichel will reissue his other excellent works including Echo, 3, IV, Autovision and Erholung in 2012. This is according to a note on Reichel's Facebook page.

We'll be sure to keep an eye on this one. We still haven't seen the CD issue of Gunther Schickert's "Samtvogel" yet (though the LP did come out). Unrelated? Sure, but it reminded me of it all the same.

News: Vos Voisins to be reissued by Prog Quebec in November!

I've been sitting on this news for some time, having first caught wind of it in early January. And in fact, I do recall their being a premature announcement in early 2010. No matter, as we now have an announced release date from ProgQuebec of November 1, purposely after Halloween because of the track "Le Monstre de la Main".

Our feature of Vos Voisins here.

The topic came up in Progressive Ears for the announcement of the blues rock group Offenbach's double album "Tabarnac" (which you can order now).

Also noted is an October 4th release of a new album by ExCubus, a 1970's vintage group that PQ first introduced to us a few years ago.

And perhaps most exciting is that PQ is still working with Sony on reissuing Michel Madore's "Le Komuso a Cordes" and Franck Dervieux's "Dimension M".

News: Long Hair to release another Papa Zoot Band archival album

This is Long Hair's second archival release for the Papa Zoot Band. I thought the "Last Concert" from 1978 was pretty good, though this one sounds better to me honestly. We'll see! As always, Long Hair does a fantastic job on both sound and with the informative booklets.

Label says: "Great lost band from Frankfurt, Germany. In 1973/ 1974 Papa Zoot Band played all over Germany, mainly in clubs but also on festivals (German Pop Meeting) 1st and 2nd February 1974 in Essen, Grugahalle. Titles 01 - 04 were recorded live at SWF-Studio U1 in Baden Baden on April 13, 1973. The titles 05 - 10 were recorded at "Bunker", the bands rehearsal room in Frankfurt. The band played a very melodic sound but with a sense of drama comparable to Nektar, Eloy or Jane. Outstanding 20 minutes titles "Fly away" could be a long track by Pink Floyd of the Meddle/ Wish you were here/ Animals-Era. Characteristic for the bands sound are especially the swirling organ sound played by Ex-Nosferatu organ-player Tammy Grohe. These recordings show Papa Zoot Band during there best period. Hard to believe, that there was no record company to give them a contract. The sound of the CD is brilliant. All titles were remastered from the original master tapes. CD comes with comprehensive booklet and rare photos. Secret tip! A must have for all lovers of the genre."