Monday, September 20, 2010

News: Audio Archives to release Second Sign


I don't know anything about this release, but it certainly looks intriguing. Nice to see Audio Archives back doing what they do best - finding unreleased obscurities. Here is the label's description:

"A previously unreleased progressive rock album recorded at Escape Studios in Kent during the mid 70s. Female vocalist Irene Menasche sounds as impressive as Spirogyra's Barbara Gaskin or Pauline Filby of Narnia, bands to which some of the material is comparable. The tour de force here, 'Golden Age', is a nine minute prog-rock epic, full of stunning harmonies, great guitar solos, wonderful Hammond organ and gripping time changes. Imagine classic Fruupp laced with sublime female vocals and you get the picture. Comes with full band history detailing the interesting tale behind this forgotten gem."

I'll be curious what the reviews say!

6/5/11 update: Well I finally heard this myself. The above description is utter crap. There's no Fruupp within 500 miles of this. This is a poorly recorded demo of a below average folk rock album with out of place basement hard rock attempts. The 9 minute 'Golden Age' is pretty decent as is the 5 minute 'Mad River' (the only two tracks that sound pretty good), but the rest is a total waste of time.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

News: Soleil Zeuhl to reissue Noa, second Strave albums



Back in early August, we found out that Soleil Zeuhl was to reissue the first Serge Bringolf Strave album. Thanks to a tip from Achim, owner Alain had also announced two other reissues (on the avant progressive yahoo group board) for his great Zeuhl influenced label: Noa and Strave's second album "Vision" (which I think is the best of his three albums). Both of these are slotted for early 2011.

We covered Noa here and Strave here.

Excellent news. Thanks Alain for the great work you do!

UMR review of Vision here

Noa, France ***REISSUED***


Noa. 1980 private

***Reissued by Soleil Zeuhl Mar 2011

Moved to UMR

Priority: 3

1/31/10; 9/14/10 (complete)

Nova Express, Germany

Space Khmer. 1987 Syndicate Germany's Nova Express, a common band name derived from William Burroughs' novel title, are a band I fi...