News: Horrific Child's very rare album coming out on Finders Keepers!

Finders Keepers is a London based label that specializes in albums with cult like followings. Mostly in the psych / funk / avant garde realms. For us at the CD RWL, they are most known for their reissue of Jean Claude Vannier's excellent "L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches". And to date, the label has been flirting with what must be considered the ultimate figure of the "cult-like following": JP Massiera. We've covered many of his albums on these pages. And no album from the master has the reputation of his Horrific Child "L'Etrange Monsieur Whinster" opus.

Our description found on the original page: "Horrific Child - L'Etrange Mr. Whinster (France) 1976 Europa. Where would the music world be without Jean-Pierre Massiera? It certainly would be a more dull place without him. Everything he was involved with can only be described as obscure. And now he's the undisputed king of the 1970's Euro oddball chase. And of all the albums he did, Horrific Child remains his most sought after, and arguably most eccentric release ever. The musical realization of a psychotronic B-Movie classic. If this were a movie, it would be on at 3:00 in the morning, on your cities' last standing UHF local station. "L'Etrange Mr. Whinster" defines Massiera's niche in life. Insanely great cover is begging for a Japanese mini-LP release."

The label says: "Part rock album, part experimental album, part imaginary horror soundtrack, L'étrange Monsieur Whinster is a psychedelic pop audio show, flowing naturally from one surprising sequence to the next. Horrific Child was the creation of one Jean-Pierre Massiera, also the composer behind the Les Maledictus Sound project from 1968. Les Maledictus Sound were an inventive, high-brow concoction of lounge-style instrumental mod big band music, with heavy brass, plucky bass and fuzz guitar. Horrific Child is certainly the logical stylistic next step from that record, evidence of the composer's having survived several years beyond the psychedelic era."

It looks like it's coming out on both CD and LP. Rarely do I take the LP reissue option, but I might in this case. Or both. It appears it will have two bonus tracks as well.

News: Long Hair reissues Dzyan's debut PLUS an archival SWF recording

Long Hair has done it again. The French/German label continues its roll, and reissues the much sought after debut by Dzyan. There was a reissue back in 1999 on the Rock Fever label out of Germany. I wasn't ever entirely sure if it was legit or not, but there was just enough evidence to presume it was, so I never included it in the Wish List. Not sure if Long Hair addresses the situation on this reissue, but nonetheless the Rock Fever issue is long OOP, and this will most certainly represent the definitive issue. I plan on buying it again anyway. It doesn't appear it will contain bonus tracks.

Even more exciting, at least for me, is the announcement of a 1972 SWF Session titled "Mandala-SWF Session 1972", and according to the label most closely resembles the debut album - which is probably my favorite of the 3, though this would put me square in the minority (I like them all in any case).

Long Hair says "Dzyan recorded 3 albums between 1972 and 1974. Each album they released was quiet different. After the release of the first album the line-up changed and Eddy Marron was the new guitarist. The SWF-session reminds a lot to their first album. Dzyan played a slightly jazzy form of progressive rock with flashes of Zappa's Hot Rats and even some VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR saxophone- fronted diversions. These radio studio recordings are even more rock oriented then the first album recordings. There are five titles. 4 new compositions and a longer (11:00 minutes) and different version of probably the best title from the first album "Dragon Song". Steels Electric/Daddy Groove is a 15 minutes suite, very inventive and with great guitar playing by Eddy Marron. ZAZ has a great ethnic feel produced by fine Zaz (Turkish stringed instrument) also played by Eddy Marron and oriented rock rhythm patterns. Finally "Resurrection" was part of a one hour suite, Dzyan sadly never recorded. This recordings are among the best ever recordings at the SWF session studio. Remastered from the original master tape. Fine booklet with a cover painting by Helmut Wenske (never used before on a cover), band story, photos. A definitely must have! "

Galie, Mexico ***REISSUED***

Galie. 1986 private

Heavily influenced by Snowgoose era Camel, with flute and acoustic guitar in the center of the instrumental parade. Gotic's Escenes is another obvious reference. A bit slicker than their 1981 debut (lovingly reissued in a beautiful black clapboard case). Perhaps a bit too lightweight overall. A fine, if non-essential, release.

Priority: none

***Turns out this was reissued as part of a 4xCD box set from 1994 called Los Primeros 15 Años, that includes Galie's first 4 albums in full. Just learned that today (6/11/24).

1/15/10 (new entry); 1994 (complete)

News: Esoteric Jan & Feb 2010 releases

From Vicky Powell:

"
Cave of Clear Light -3Cd Pye and Dawn anthology with fab artwork. This was originally going to be a project by Mark for Universal in the same series as legend of A Mind, Spirit of Joy etc and is to the same standard with the usual clamshell box.

PFM-2 CD anthology-River of Life (Manticore Years) with some unreleased—track listing etc on website and also on Amazon

Pekka Pojhola-The Mathematicians Air Display
Pekka Pojhola-B The Magpie
Wigwam-Nuclear Nightclub
Wigwam-The Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose
Jackson heights-The Fifth Avenue Bus
Jackson heights-Ragamuffins Fool
Jackson heights-Bump N Grind

Feb titles as follows

Crazy World of Arthur Brown—needs no introduction, fab remastered reissue(2CD) with a whole Cd of bonus material and a Phil Smee extravaganza on the artwork

Hawkwind –Sonic Attack (atomhenge) 2CD with wealth of bonus material
Arthur Brown and Kingdom Come-Galactic Zoo Dossier—plus bonus material.
Ken Hensley-Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf
Ken Hensley-Eager to Please
Hawkwind-(Atomhenge) Alien 4
Ramases-Glass Top Coffin
Wigwam-Fairyport
Wigwam-Being
Wigwam-Live Music from the Twilight Zone"

Site news: UME featuring great CD reissues of the past

On our sister site, we're featuring great CD reissues that have already been done. While on this site we discuss albums that still could use a CD, I thought it would be appropriate to call out the great reissues of the past. And truth be told, the best albums are already on CD! Not ALL of them (as is quite evident from this site alone, much less elsewhere), but a great majority are. We're also featuring great progressive rock albums from the modern era as well.

It's a work in progress, and there are literally thousands of albums to choose from, so it should give us a lot of material to cover the next few years at the very least!

News: More info on the Dear Mr. Time - Grandfather reissue

We first mentioned this reissue on November 1. Now its shaping up to be a great reissue. Label Wooden Hill states the following:

"First-ever official reissue of Essex-based band Dear Mr. Time's highly-regarded and much sought-after psych/prog concept album Grandfather. Heavily influenced by the Moody Blues and early King Crimson, Grandfather was recorded in mid-1970 and issued by the tiny Square Records in February 1971, but was only pressed in a total quantity of 1000 copies. This definitive release is taken from the original master tapes, and adds five superb home demos recorded around the same time as the album by guitarist and chief songwriter Chris Baker. It tells the group's story for the first time, and includes many previously unpublished photographs."