Serge Bringolf / Strave ~ France

Strave Live. 1983 RBO

UMR reviews

Strave. 1980 Omega Studio. ***Reissued by Soleil Zeuhl, Feb 2011

Vision. 1981 Omega Studio. ***Reissued by Soleil Zeuhl, Jul 2012

Priority: 3

4/29/10 (new entry); 2/15/11; 7/25/12

News: Mellotronen releases archival Panta Rei album

Somehow I missed this release (titled "The Naked Truth") from April. Or did I? All I can find is this album has been released on LP, and of course that's not the focus of this site. However, here is the original advert for it, as found on progg.se (with the help of Google Translate):

"New live album with the Uppsala group PANTA REI
Their psychedelic LP from 1973 is still one of the most sought after LPs from the 70s. Mellotronen has now published five songs recorded live in Kummelnäs of 1973 with a nice 8-page mini book of the same elegant style as Asoka, Sabu Martinez disks, etc. Some 100 unique pictures and lots of information including interviews.
______________
LP LTD. 500 copies!
Also available on CD"

So there it is - a CD. Not that I can find one for sale. Probably it will come along soon. Note the slight differences in the cover art to the original.

What is with this title anyway? There are so many reissues of the 1973 album, and still NOT ONE legitimate CD of the debut. There's a legit LP (Golden Pavilion) and a pile, and I mean a pile, of pirate CD editions. And now we get what looks like a very interesting archival release from the same era. So why not a legit CD version of the album to go with this? I'm just grateful to own the original LP.

Our original feature of the album is here.
  
Perhaps the best news out of this is that Mellotronen is still releasing archival albums!

Mike Selesia ~ USA ***REISSUED***

Flavor. 1976 private

***Reissued by Shout! Jul 2012

UMR review

Priority: 1

8/14/10 (new entry); 7/4/12 (complete)

Abacus ~ Germany ***REISSUED***

Abacus. 1971 Polydor

Just A Day's Journey Away. 1972 Polydor 

Everything You Need. 1972 Polydor 

Midway. 1973 Zebra 

***All reissued by Green Tree in 2012

Moved the debut to UMR 

Until the last couple of years, I'd only heard the band's last 1970s work Midway (1973) and it was pretty horrendous save the long title track.. Recently I heard their 3rd effort Everything You Need, which is quite a drop off from the great first album. All of Side 1 is rural/country rock and is downright terrible. But all is not lost, as the second side is one long suite. Though based again on a rural rock theme, there are plenty of quirky progressive rock moves, that recall the first album. The dramatic difference between the first and later albums reminded me, again, of Nine Days Wonder. 

Priority: 2 (for the debut)

5/3/10; 2012 (complete)

Anders Koppel ~ Denmark ***REISSUED***

Aftenlandet & Regnbuefuglen. 1977 Demos

***Reissued by Cowbell Music 2012  

Anders Koppel was the keys player for Savage Rose and this his most known solo album. Parts of it were used for a soundtrack to a film called Aftenlandet, and the album definitely has a soundtrack flow to it. There's very little cohesion between the tracks, though if each composition is evaluated individually, there's much to admire. An all instrumental album, Koppel was successful in putting together a quintet, giving it more a rock band feel, rather than just a bunch of studio musicians getting together to lay down some incidental music.

Priority: 3

2/3/10 (new entry); 2012 (complete)