Symphonic Metamorphosis ~ USA

Symphonic Metamorphosis. 1970 London

UMR review

Priority: 3

3/31/10 (new entry)

Total Issue ~ France

Total Issue. 1971 United Artists

UMR review

Priority: 2

3/21/10

Totty ~ USA

Totty. 1977 Our First Record Company

The Totty Brothers of Tulsa, Oklahoma provide us with a strong hard rock entry, complete with a mixed up Christian-score-with-chicks message. And just how many righteous men have gotten religion for a chance at a piece of sweet ass? Hmmm-mmm, homeboy know! No matter though, 'cause this delivers the goods in the layman's sense - solid distorted guitar fronted hard rock. Pre NWOBHM, but with that same take no prisoners attitude. File alongside Truth & Janey and Poobah. This is the good stuff.

I recall their second album to be more straight ahead AOR music

Priority: 2

3/20/10

Os Mundi ~ Germany

Latin Mass. 1970 Metronome

One of the earliest examples of what we now call Krautrock. Nice organ and guitar leads, with the added gimmick that they sing in Latin (years later, this idea was picked up by the Italian group Deus Ex Machina). Still has a holdover 60s psych rock sound, making it somewhat unique for German rock.

43 Minuten was reissued by Repertoire (1998).

Priority: 2

***Reissued on LP by Missing Vinyl (2014)

3/18/10

News: Sireena to reissue the Curt Cress Clan album in May.

Germany's Sireena, along with Garden of Delights and Long Hair, continues to give us hope that some of the more obscure German albums will eventually see a reissue.

Our original entry about the album said: "Curt Cress Clan - s/t (Germany) 1975 Atlantic. Hot funky fusion from Cress' mid 70s band. Typical jazz fusion of the era, something we've heard 100s of times before, but perfectly executed. A safe bet if you're a fan of said style."

TOuCH ~ Germany

Traumwerk 1. 1980 private

TOuCh's sole album is a nice example of Berlin School electronics mixed with rock elements, primarily in the form of real drums and flute. Not as dynamic as Klaus Schulze's Moondawn or Wolfgang Bock's Cycles, but some of the sequences are inventive and the album holds up well to modern ears. The group owns a large palette of keyboards, not uncommon for the genre, though it doesn't appear they took full advantage of the tones available to them, and the album could use some color. This is particularly true on the opening 'Gethsemane 1', which is a bit dull. Once the sequencers and drums kick in on part 2, the album gets more interesting. In fact, I'd argue each subsequent track is better than the prior. The group's name is an amalgamation of the two protagonist's "TOm und CHarly". Worth seeking out for fans of the genre.

Priority: 3

3/17/10 (new entry)

Third Quadrant ~ England

Seeing Yourself As You Really Are. 1982 Rock Cottage

One of my favorite titles ever, the philosophical Seeing Yourself As You Really Are was released just a few months prior to the New Wave of Progressive Rock movement (aka Neo Prog). It arrived just a tad early to receive the press and distribution it needed to survive. It's considered one of the major rarities from the era, along with the Airship label groups like Protos and Gemini. Musically it's fairly under produced, but does possess a strong mid 70's Genesis to late 70's Pink Floyd feel. 

Mellow Records reissued a later cassette called Layered many years ago, but never did tackle this one. 

Third Quadrant have two earlier cassettes that I will attempt to hear at some point.

Priority: 3

3/16/10

Mama Bea Tekielski ~ France

La Folle. 1976 Isadora

Mama Bea's debut album is clearly indebted to Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes' early 1970s works, but honestly this is much more dense, and truth be told, completely unhinged. Perhaps it's Ribeiro's Portuguese heritage verse Tekielski's Polish background, but there's something far more disturbing going on with La Folle than anything Ribeiro coughed up (literally). While Ribeiro is far from an easy listen, she still comes across as the mysterious troubled damsel in distress. Perhaps it's her runway-fashion-model looks, but Catherine seems to be reaching out for help while still dominating all that is around her. With Mama Bea, she delivers 100 ragged nights of booze, pills and rock and roll. She has both the look and the attitude. The cover of her smoking a cigarette, with a face that says that she's had just about enough of this crap, is priceless. And so she takes out her frustrations on this recording. There are times when it would seem more appropriate that the medics come in and hustle her off to safer pastures. Meanwhile all the earmarks of a classic underground album are going on in the background, with plenty of psychedelic guitar, rumbling bass (a trademark of the French scene) and pounding percussion. It's all a bit unsettling, but it's also too real to ignore. A real grower if I ever heard one.

Priority: none

3/12/10

Tau ~ Germany

Tau. 1981 Plane

Simply put, Tau play a symphonic rock style, with bits of humor spread throughout. The progressions are very much out of the early Genesis school, and Tau could be considered contemporaries of Ivory or even Neuschwanstein. But there's also a strain of late 70s Grobschnitt found throughout, both in the zaniness and even in the AOR moments. Sung in German, which is unusual for this type of prog rock. Lots of mellotron for an 80s album. Fans of neo progressive rock are likely to enjoy this one.

Priority: 3

3/9/10

L.S. Bearforce ~ Germany

L.S. Bearforce. 1983 Up Art

UMR review

Priority: 2

3/8/10 (new entry)

Tantalus ~ Germany

Sitting in a Dream. 1980 Srilanca

Sitting in a Dream is a generic, but tasteful, symphonic progressive. Elements of Camel and Pink Floyd abound. Nice keyboard and guitar leads, and mediocre vocals. Pretty much what you would expect from this era of German symphonic rock. File next to Shaa Khan, Fly, and Indigo.

Priority: 3

3/7/10

News: Long Hair to reissue Amos Key archive material

It's been a little slow on the news front of late, so it was with great excitement that I saw the latest gem from Long Hair. Amos Key's album "First Key" is still not on CD, so maybe Long Hair will pick that one up as well. In the meantime, this CD certainly looks intriguing!

Amos Key - Keynotes: The Lost Tapes SWF Session 1973.

Long Hair says: "For the first time on CD: The radio session of classical rock influenced great German krautrockers Amos Key. Amos Key owed great debts to Bach, Beethoven and Schumann, adding a heavy krautrock twist to a music closely resembling the Nice or Egg, full of angst and weird psychedelic and space-rock touches (Freeman Brothers: In A Crack In The Cosmic Egg). Amos Key lived in Munich and consisted of great organ-player Thomas Molin, congenial bass-player Andreas Gross and superb drummer Lutz Ludwig. This fairly competent outfit recorded the radio sessions before they released their famous and very rare album "First Key" in 1973 on label "Spiegelei". Sadly bandleader and organ-player Thomas Molin passed away in the 90ies but bass-player Andreas Gross tells the band story in a very vivid and funny way. 24 pages booklet contains also a lot of unseen photos. Sound is perfect; remastered from the original tape. Don't miss this superb item."

Not sure the term "fairly competent outfit" is the way I'd advertise it... LOL.

Laura ~ France

Laura. 1980 Laura Records
Colis Postal. 1981 Laura Records

Laura's debut is a high energy, very expressive album, with lots of dual female / male vocals excitedly sung over complex progressive rock music. While the keyboards clearly represent their era, they're still played with verve. And the guitar tone is the typical compressed fuzz tone that the French are so wonderful at producing. 

Colis Postal sees the band trying their hand at more commercially oriented material with mixed results. 

Priority: 1 (for Laura)

3/6/10

Sincerely P.T. ~ Germany

Sincerely P.T. 1973 Spiegelei

UMR review

Priority: 2

3/2/10