Monday, March 30, 2015

News: Branco has reissued rare Love album from Japan (1977)

This is actually old news - as in 2013 old. But The AC ran across this one recently and suggested we announce it here for broader exposure. I heard the sample provided, and it does sound quite intriguing, so definitely good advice. Completely unknown to me prior to this. Label states: "The Japanese band LOVE was formed in '71. They had connections to the well known psych acts Far Out and Flower Traveling Band and the music of all these groups is comparable. Love's lone LP was released privately in 1977, in a limited edition. The album includes one live track, recorded in '74 at Japan's main rock event, the 'One Step Festival', which also hosted Yoko One and Shinki Chen. Since Love was from Fukushima, the band and label decided to donate half of all benefits from this CD-release to the victims of the city's nuclear disaster. The CD comes in a gatefold mini-LP sleeve and includes an insert with lyrics and photos, and an OBI."

Saturday, March 28, 2015

News: Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media's "Dosojin" to be reissued in May!

We recently heard from The AC, who brings us this good news: "Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media's "Dosojin" is finally being reissued on CD in Columbia's Deep Jazz Reality series! Now that they've done "By the Red Stream" and "Wandering Birds", this will complete the reissue trifecta of the most interesting (at least from my perspective) Inagaki/Soul Media rarities from the early 70s. The street date is May 20, and it's up on all the Japanese webshops. Here's the Amazon Japan link"

Some of you will recall this to be one of his many great Japanese discoveries over 3 years ago now. We had it as a priority 3. Looking forward to owning this title!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Datura, France

Datura - Mr Untel. 1982 private

Now here's a title I had on cassette years ago, and it made no mark on me whatsoever. So little in fact, I didn't even have it in the main CDRWL, much less as a separate post. As many of you know, the original list was indeed a personal CD wants inventory, and so I purposely left stuff off like Datura. It was only later I started adding everything that fit within scope, even if it wasn't a personal priority. And Datura is an album I forgot all about. Well, time has passed, and I had a chance to source the original LP at a reasonable price (in fact, the copy you see above). It's probably been 15 years (or longer) since I last heard the album, and my personal perspective has changed quite a bit since then. Not only does this belong in the main list, but it deserves a separate post.

Datura's debut reminds me a lot of early Mona Lisa, especially at the time of L'Escapade. That is to say the music is somewhat straightforward, under produced, and amateurish. But it is undeniably French and very much like Ange (whose album Caricatures is another guidepost here). There are small hints of its early 80s heritage, but the music is rooted in the 70s. There's even quite a bit of mellotron on it (one of the rare such albums not mentioned in Planet Mellotron (yet)). It's not a super album by any means, but it's a good one for fans of the French theatrical style. Not the place to start for those looking to hear this most unique genre. This one is for the deep divers. Of which I'm one, so I'm more predisposed to liking it than perhaps others.

Priority: 3

Sunday, March 1, 2015

News: Aztec reissues Company Caine's debut on CD

Nice to see Aztec still plugging along downunda. This is one of the titles they had on their Coming Soon list for about a year or so. I haven't heard it personally. Looks to be a bit of a fringe piece for the CDRWL, but certainly fits the overall genre.

Label says: "It’s rare to find an album from the early 1970s that has never been officially reissued on CD (ED: Not as rare as we would wish...). A case in point is the legendary 1971 underground milestone from COMPANY CAINE – A Product Of A Broken Reality. This highly regarded artefact is one of the last albums from the glory days of the Australian progressive-psych scene to attain a new lease of life in the modern digital age.

On Digitally Remastered CD for the first time, Aztec presents a Classic Aussie Rock album brimming with the superior and adventurous sounds of Psych-rock, Blues and Avant-jazz. The band recorded A Product Of A Broken Reality at TCS Studios, Melbourne in July 1971 and it was originally issued on the Generation label in November 1971. Only a rock scene as rich and diverse as that which proliferated in Australia at the time could have produced an album of such varied moods and exploratory styles.

Alongside the likes of celebrated entities such as Spectrum, Kahvas Jute and Blackfeather, the name Company Caine continues to fire the imagination of progressive-psych aficionados around the world. Original and rare vinyl copies of A Product Of A Broken Reality are highly sought after and can fetch high prices on the international collector market.

The story of Company Caine is based around delightfully eccentric singer / song writer Gulliver Smith and nimble fingered guitarist Russell Smith who formed the band in March 1970. Gulliver had started his career in the 1960s as Little Gulliver, recording R&B singles for the In label. Russell came out of the Melbourne blues scene and alongside Gulliver and the other important early member, multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Noone, set out to create a band that played purely original material. Several line-ups came and went before the band broke up at the end of 1972.

A Product Of A Broken Reality included the sprightly single ‘Trixie Stonewallʼs Wayward Home For Young Women’, with the rest of the album ranging from pastoral moments such as ‘It’s Up To You’ and ‘Woman With Reason’ to the spacey sounds of the 10-minute ‘Symptoms’ and on to the head-spinning, Avant-jazz leanings of the unhinged ‘The Day Superman Got Busted’. Included on the CD are six bonus tracks: the 1972 single ‘Dear Carolyn’ / ‘Now I’m Together’ and live sessions from 1971.

Package Contents

Packaged in a deluxe 6 panel Digi-Pak. Digitally remastered by Gil Matthews, with a 20 page colour booklet and liner notes by Ian McFarlane, it's a must-have for fans of Classic Aussie Rock."

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...