News: Garden of Delights reissues Embryo - Live!

While we had been anticipating the Sunbirds reissue, Garden of Delights did manage to sneak this one in on us. It's been on their Coming Soon list for many years, but we had no indication of an imminent reissue. This CD is most welcome, and I believe this represents the last Embryo "proper" LP to be reissued on CD. Of course, they have tons of archived live material that remains in the vaults, and GoD has promised us at least one of those from their late 70s' jazz funk fusion heyday. Note that there's a lengthy bonus track as well!

Label says: "Neatly recorded in February 1976, it was released on LP in 1977 (April 0003), but has not yet appeared as CD. The gig had taken place in a town near Munich. The album features the jazz-rock typical of Embryo, influenced by ethnic music, with scarce vocals and some unusual instruments like marimba, dilruba, oud, and nagasuram. Christian Burchard and Roman Bunka wrote most of the songs together. Only 'The orange man' was written by Charlie Mariano. The long CD bonus track 'Just arrived' was recorded in Northern Italy on March 6th, 1976, by the very same Embryo line-up and was as yet unreleased. The cover was then designed by Roman Bunka and was used for the CD without any changes."

News: Garden of Delights reissues Sunbirds - Zagara!

We've talked about this a couple of times in the last few years, and now the CD from GoD has been officially released! Includes one bonus track as well. Great news for fans of "Kraut jazz fusion". This is a very worthy album, and I'll buy one as soon as possible. Thanks to reader Gal for the heads up!

Label says: "Fusion from Munich, some smoothly relaxed kind of music with Latin influences. After the first Sunbirds LP from 1971, with Philip Catherine on guitar, the album at hand is the band's second and last one, recorded in 1972 and released in 1973 (Finger 2396101). It is the first CD version, drawn from the master tapes, including the bonus track 'Mbira' which was then recorded during the same session. All of the musicians were masters of their trade. Drummer Klaus Weiss, keyboardist Fritz Pauer and bassists Jimmy Woode and Ron Carter were world-famous even back then, and the others were in no way inferior. The nine artists were so skilled that nearly all recordings were perfect at the first attempt. Unfortunately, the two studio albums should remain the band's only releases. There weren't any Sunbirds gigs for lack of time."

News: Garden of Delights to reissue Panko album soon!

Whew! A bit of relief here. It seemed Germany's best reissue label had disappeared into the ether without notice. This is the first we've heard from them since 2013. We had first announced that the Panko album had been added to their "Coming Soon" list back in Sept of 2012. So this is welcome news - and Panko is something I'm most interested in hearing what they will do with it. I just have a cassette dub (like everyone else I presume), and sonically it's pretty rough. Hopefully we'll see an improvement like we did with the Cosmic Circus tape. The music is outstanding, as would be expected from 1971 Germany. See below for label's description.

In addition to the Panko announcement, they are wrapping up their commitment to reissue Virus' "Thoughts" on CD as well. This will include the two bonus tracks that were also on the Long Hair LP reissue from last year. They're very short, so not worth getting for that alone, but I wouldn't mind upgrading my old Bernhard Mikulski CD from 23 years ago, and checking out their history section (which was also a nice addition to the LH LP).

GoD is also continuing to reissue their back catalog on LP, and they have a few titles selected. One curious one is the first Eela Craig, which they did in conjunction with Amber Soundroom about 10 years ago. I bought that one immediately, and it looked like a great investment, but it appears it may lose its value now with the new reissue (except for those that collect Amber Soundroom reissues I guess....). Oh well, I'm not selling mine in any case.

Still no word on the Missus Beastly "Space Guerillas" and Sunbirds "Zagara" reissues that were imminent two years ago. Hopefully they're still on the docket. I would love to get CDs of both of those.

Here's GoD's description of the Panko album: "Panko from West Berlin (not to be confused with the much later East-German band Pankow) musically reminds of Xhol Caravan or the early Embryo. The band mostly played long jazzy instrumental pieces, dominated by flute and alto saxophone, at times interrupted by mainly English vocals and some follies. The band existed from the late sixties 'til the end of 1972. During its active career the group didn't release any material, although they definitely had much potential. In 1983 their drummer (at last) released the cassette 'Weil Es So Schön Perlt'. This tape featured live recordings of good sound quality, dating from June 1971. Now here's a great CD-edition of that tape, enriched with two bonus tracks."

News: Cosmic Circus to be reissued by Garden of Delights soon!

Here's some exciting news! This has been on GoD's coming soon list for awhile, and now it's coming to fruition. We featured Cosmic Circus last year thanks to the generosity of the Roots and Traces blog (and be sure to read the Lolly Pope's comment - more exciting news!). So the big question remains: How is the sound quality? We won't know until we get it of course, or at least start hearing from advance reviews. Musically, of course, it is brilliant. Label says: "Cosmic Circus Music from Göttingen in Lower Saxony played some extremely long spacey improvisations in the manner of the early Ash Ra Tempel without, however, trying to copy them. They do completely without lyrics but even so never become boring. As they didn't release any records back then - one MC on Andromeda Press had been planned for 1973 which then, however, didn't appear - they have hardly been known to the public as yet. There has only been one longer report on them, namely in "Sounds" issue 55 from September 1973. The CD at hand is full to the brim and includes a gig taking place in a Wiesbaden hall called Wartburg on July 14th, 1973. The stereo sound is not perfect but acceptable. During the second part of their gig, the band was joined by guest musician Tim Belbe from Xhol (Caravan), playing the transverse flute."

GoD also announced the CD reissue of Virus' "Revelation" will be coming shortly with two additional bonus tracks and the usual informative booklet we expect from them. Most assuredly this will be an improvement on the very basic Second Battle release from 1991 that I still own. Though I'm sure sound purists will protest that comment. I plan on upgrading myself. It should be noted that Second Battle later reissued this in 1997 with two bonus tracks in a digi-pak format, but I haven't seen that version so I can't comment much further. 

And for vinyl only buyers, look for Siddhartha and Vita Nova - both successfully reissued on CD by GoD many years ago - which are both available as we speak.

News: Garden of Delights reissues the Pancake - No Illusions album!

Today we learned that Pancake's "No Illusions" has been released on CD by the great Garden of Delights label. They had announced long ago their intention to reissue this album. In typical Garden of Delights fashion, first they removed it from consideration, and as we reported earlier this year, put it back on the docket. And now it has been released - ahead of other anticipated reissues like Sunbird's "Zagara" and Missus Beastly's "Space Guerillas". A quirky label for sure, but despite these eccentricities, there still is no better reissue concern today.

We featured "No Illusions" about 3 years ago. This link includes that review plus the re-listing news earlier this year. For my money, this is the best of their 3 albums, and is a most welcome reissue.

Official blurb says this: "The group from Winnenden near Stuttgart started as Nyrvana Pancake and released a very good psychedelic 7" single in 1973. In 1974, they shortened their band name into Pancake, and instead of psychedelia they now played symphonic rock. The first Pancake LP, "Roxy elephant", was released in 1975, and the second one, "Out of the ashes", appeared in 1977. The band later veered away from their symphonic style as the people lost interest in this kind of music at the time. Their third and last LP, "No illusions" from the end of 1979, is thus somewhat coarser and tougher than its two predecessors. There was now a female singer for the first time in Pancake's history, in addition to some other changes in line-up. The CD edition on Garden of Delights includes six bonus tracks and has a booklet of 32 pages."

For LP fans, Garden of Delights continues to plunder their own back catalog, with announcements that Siddharta and Missus Beastly's debut will be coming out on vinyl shortly.

News: Panko (Musik) coming soon on Garden of Delights!

WOO-HOO!! A quick glance over to the Coming Soon list at Garden of Delights shows they are to reissue this album (recorded in 1971 but originally released on cassette in 1983) - officially titled "Weil es so Schön Perlt". We first learned of its existence from Eric over at Mutant Sounds, and added it to the CDRWL back in June of 2009.

We had even mentioned back then: "This would be perfect for a Garden of Delights reissue, especially if the master tapes are still around and could be cleaned up." Could GoD be peeking over at the CDRWL? We have zero evidence that they know of this blog, but whatever the case, we'll be delusional here and take .00001% of the credit.

This is super news, and yet another piece of the grand Krautrock puzzle will eventually be filled in. As always with GoD, remember that albums can sometimes sit for 5+ years on their Coming Soon list. But they are very good about eventually getting them out!

They also will reissue the first two Virus albums. And while both of those have been out on CD legit for many years, these will most certainly be the definitive editions to own. I'll probably consider upgrading. Also for vinyl fiends, they are also planning to reissue "Revelation" on LP as well.

News: Garden of Delights to release live East of Eden show

I first reported on this title back on April 14th, but we now have a cover and more info, so I'm moving it forward to today.

Continuing with their "Essen" series, Garden of Delights, on their Thors Hammer sub-label, will release a 1970 concert from East of Eden. Like the May Blitz show from this series (which I still haven't heard), I would imagine East of Eden would be a very creative band in live form. For my money, "Mercator Projected" is one of the greatest albums of the 1960's. How's that for a bold statement? But I'm serious here. And 1970's "Snafu" is also fantastic. I'm most interested in how this will turn out.

Further notes on this release: "East of Eden from Bristol in England played elaborate progressive rock with saxophone, violin, and flute. Their only hit, “Jig-a-jig”, ist not typical for their music. The band can look back on a history of eleven long-players, not counted the many compilations. On Thursday, 22nd October 1970, the group performed in the Gruga hall at the third Essen Pop & Blues Festival. The event was recorded semi-professionally by the promoters. The recordings were mastered now in a first-class sound studio with great effort and care. The sound, however, is naturally not as good as that of the studio LPs. The 32-page booklet contains a long band history in German and English, a detailed discography, numerous cover repros as well as a personal retrospective report by Dave Arbus. A must for collectors. It is the first legitimate release of an East of Eden live recording and comes both as CD and as LP."

Gnosis Mike says: "Tom, I think I have a video from East of Eden in 1970 and it's definitely third album mode. I'm not sure how much they toured on Snafu or if they just rejiggered the line up, but there's very little early East of Eden in live form. Unfortunately cuz I'm with ya on the first two."

I should also point out for you vinyl collectors out there, that GoD will also release many of their CDs on LP (Vita Nova, Tyburn Tall, Sunbirds, Sub, Siddhartha, Lightshine, Gila-Bury My Heart). None of them caught my eye personally (you can read about my criteria for buying LP reissues here), but since vinyl is all the rage at the moment, I suspect many will rejoice. I probably would have gone for the Sunbirds, but I already own the original LP of that one. I'm still hoping they'll release the CD of Sunbirds' Zagara this year!

News: Garden of Delights relists Pancake's "No Illusions" for future release

Thanks to a comment from reader Jim D, it appears GoD has re-added Pancake's final album "No Illusions". For my money, this is their best album and I'm glad to see GoD has reconsidered.

I haven't mentioned it prior, but it's been on their site a few months, that Garden of Delights also plans on releasing a second archival album by Tetragon called "Agape" from 1973. The first one, "Stretch", was quite good and better than I expected. So we'll see!

News: Garden of Delights to release live May Blitz Show

Garden of Delights, via their non-German oriented Thors Hammer imprint, will release an archival live show from the UK based power rock trio May Blitz called "Essen 1970". GoD has released some other Essen shows in the past most notably from Xhol Caravan. I think this one could be interesting, as it would seem that May Blitz could be an adventurous act in a live setting. We shall see!

Label says: "On Tuesday, 22nd October 1970, the group performed in the Gruga hall at the third Essen Pop & Blues Festival. The event was recorded semi-professionally. The recordings could be purchased from the promoters and were re-mastered in a studio with great effort and care. The sound, however, is naturally not as good as that of the two studio LPs. The 32-page booklet contains a long band history in German and English, photographs, a detailed discography, numerous cover and label repros as well as a personal retrospective report by guitarist and singer James Black. A must for collectors. It is the first legitimate release of a May Blitz live recording and is released both as LP in deluxe gatefold cover and as CD."

News: Garden of Delights releases archival Guildenstern

Garden of Delights comes up with what looks like another archival winner! Between them and Long Hair (and others like Sireena), the pot seems endless. I hope so anyway.

Label says: "Guildenstern were founded in the Hessian town of Rüsselsheim in the spring of 1976 and played some keyboard-dominated progressive rock in the style of bands like early Genesis, early Yes, Camel, or Eloy. The band didn't release anything, but some recordings with a satisfactory sound quality have been preserved: eight tracks recorded in the rehearsal room, as well as three pieces from their rock opera "Life's a stage", recorded live in Flörsheim on September 29th, 1979. They are now to be heard on the Guildenstern CD. All tracks - most of them instrumentals - were written by the artists themselves. Some of them are played on a doubleneck 12-string guitar. Guildenstern keyboarder Bernd Scholl has meanwhile released a lot of LPs and CDs with electronic music and has become one of the leading planetarium musicians in Germany."

GoD also reissued Embryo's "Bad Heads and Bad Cats", which was previously done about 10 years ago on Disconforme. They included the same 17 minute bonus track + added an excellent track from the 1975 Vlotho festival, which we wrote about in the UMR last year. I'll definitely pick up this version eventually, though it won't be a high priority as the Disconforme version that I own is quite excellent as well.

News: Garden of Delights to reissue Sunbirds and Missus Beastly!!

What a great way to close the month. Top shelf reissue label Garden of Delights will release both the first Sunbirds album and Missus Beastly's "Dr. Aftershave and the Mixed Pickles" all with bonus tracks! These should be available very soon. And it sounds like "Space Guerilla" is right around the corner! It's not everyday we get a Priority 1 reissued (Sunbirds) and two Priority 2's (Missus Beastly). And I'm sure the second Sunbirds will follow soon as well.

It wasn't long ago that we discussed the Coming Soon list from Garden of Delights, and these were of course on there. We also have separate features for the Sunbirds and Missus Beastly.

Label says about the Sunbirds: "The fusion group Sunbirds was founded by the jazz musicians Klaus Weiss (drums) and Fritz Pauer (keyboards) in Munich in 1971, when the two of them had already made a name for themselves. They got Ferdinand Povel on flute, Jimmy Woode on bass and the world-famous guitarist Philip Catherine to join them. The band name Sunbirds was Fritz Pauer's idea, as well as the songs in E major and E minor, carrying titles including the word "sun". E is the sound representing the sun in esotericism. Due to their good connections, they could soon sign a contract with the then newly-founded BASF label. The LP was released in that same year of 1971, simply under the name of "Sunbirds" (BASF 2021110-2). The two as yet unreleased bonus tracks are from the same master tapes as the LP/CD tracks and were recorded at the same time. The second Sunbirds LP, "Zagara" is to follow on CD at a later point."

And they continue with Missus Beastly: ""Dr. Aftershave and the mixed-pickles" (April 00001) was Missus Beastly's third album, which once more presented some solid jazz rock, mostly instrumental. It was at the same time the first album to be released on April, the new self-distributing label run by Missus Beastly, Ton Steine Scherben, Embryo, and Sparifankal. The LP was recorded in the well-known Stuttgart Zuckerfabrik studio (a former sugar refinery) at the beginning of 1976. The two CD bonus tracks were recorded at the Vlotho festivals ("Umsonst und draußen" [outside and for free]) 1976 and 1977. At that time, they were presented on the annual festival LPs. "Dr. Aftershave" was actually planned to be released on CD years ago, but some unexpected obstacles caused a long delay. The fourth and last Missus Beastly LP, "Space Guerilla" from 1978, will soon be released on CD, again provided with bonus tracks." The delay is that the label Funfundvierzig was originally going to reissue these, but I don't think the label exists anymore.

I should mention that GoD's Thors Hammer label will also be issuing an archival release from the British folk band Fotheringay and the CD is entitled "Essen 1970".

News: Garden of Delights adds Missus Beastly albums to Coming Soon List

(Updated 6/23/11)

Good news here and thanks to the tip-off from an anonymous reader. We had mentioned in the Missus Beastly entry, that "According to the liner notes of the 1974 Misses Beastly album, Garden of Delights states that the German label Funfundvierzig were to reissue both of these albums imminently. However, it appears that label has since gone inactive, and so these two remain sadly unissued. Hopefully GoD picks up these titles, and many more from the great Schneeball label." Well now it looks like that will happen! .... Eventually....

We all know that just because Garden of Delights announces something, doesn't mean it's going to happen anytime soon. I think the Sunbirds albums have been on there for a decade - without exaggeration. But the good news is they EVENTUALLY do get around to reissuing the album in question, and that's what is important. Now sometimes, GoD won't even announce an album - and, BAM, there it is. Or they turn around a pre-announcement quickly. So who knows?

Looks take a look at their latest list (Thors Hammer is their non-German reissue label). My comments after each entry.

Auf GARDEN OF DELIGHTS / on GARDEN OF DELIGHTS:

BRACHMANN & LUMMER: Brachmann & Lummer (1973) --- Don't know anything about this one. (See comment section for John and Lev's observation on this album).

COSMIC CIRCUS: Wiesbaden 1972 --- This is certainly archival, but not sure what it entails. Froese used to call the Kosmische Kourier label a "Cosmic Circus" and he didn't mean that in a good way. (Please see comments for more information regarding this release. It sounds fantastic. Thanks to The Lolly Pope!)

DHOPE: Musical exhibitions (1980) --- A very rare album that I've also seen a 1976 date appended to. I've never heard it and it's been on my curiosity list for a long time.

EMBRYO: Bad heads and bad cats (1976) --- Reissued legally by Disconforme, and that's the version I have (though it is long OOP and deserves a new reissue in any case). They did a very good job, though used the same history for each release. GoD is typically more thorough.

EMBRYO: Live (1977) --- Strange as it may seem, this one has never been reissued before.

EMBRYO: Apo-calypso (1978) Same situation as Bad Heads / Disconforme.

EMBRYO: Umsonst und draußen – Vlotho 1977 --- Very exciting to know that the whole concert is available. Some of these shows were awesome. One can only hope some of the other groups also recorded their whole show. My full breakdown of these concerts can be found here.

FLUTE & VOICE: Imaginations of light (1971) --- The band themselves reissued this about 15 years ago. Musically not so interesting for me, but features a great cover, so would be better for their new LP reissue line. But it's not on there strangely enough.

FLUTE & VOICE: Hello rabbit (1973) --- Second album was released by the band on CD 15 years ago as well.

LINDWURM: Erinnerungen an Klaus (1976) --- I'm only familiar with their 1980 album "Im Windschatten". I think this is an archival release, but not 100% sure (Lev has provided some valuable detail regarding this release). Featured here.

*** MISSUS BEASTLY: Dr. Aftershave and the mixed-pickles (1976) *** Reissued!!

MISSUS BEASTLY: Space guerilla (1978) --- Both of these are great, and is the inspiration for this post. *** Coming soon!

xxx RONTHEO: Rontheo (1976) --- I'm not a fan of this folky album. xxx Removed from consideration (OK with me!)

xxx SECOND MOVEMENT: Blind man’s mirror (1976) --- Decent hard symph rock. Not too excited about this one either. xxx Removed from consideration (OK with me!)

*** SUNBIRDS: Sunbirds (1971) *** Reissued!!

SUNBIRDS: Zagara (1972) --- For me, the most anticipated reissues for sometime. The first album is sublime. Featured here. *** Coming soon!

ZYMA: Brave new world (1979) --- Another excellent symphonic rock album. Even traces of early Zao can be heard. Featured here.


Auf THORS HAMMER:

BLUE SUN: Blue Sun ‘73
F. G. EXPERIMENTAL LABORATORY: Hope (1980)
*** FOTHERINGAY: Essen 1970. *** Reissued.

None of these three are too exciting for me personally, but no matter what, I'm a huge supporter of Garden of Delights. They're the gold standard of reissues as far as I'm concerned.

Keep going guys!!!

6/23/11 news: In addition to the above updates, GoD has added one new title that I was unfamiliar with:

Franz de Byl & Heiner Hohnhaus - s/t (1970).

Lev says this on RYM: "Looking at the artwork, one can expect a radical avant-garde album, that would take the edgy German agit-rock formula further into realms yet uninhabited. Dreams, dreams. This is in fact a harmless acoustic record, falling squarely in the German singer-songwriter camp (think Krohn & Micus or Meichsner & Fertig). Not bad for what it is (a few tracks suggest acid-folk), but leave your great expectations at the door." Sounds out of my interest area as well, but GoD's audience base is quite diverse, so I'm sure this will do well - especially back in Germany.

I wish they'd put Pancake's "No Illusions" back on the list (it fell off within the last year)!

News: Surgery's "Übermorgen" released on Garden of Delights!

Last week we reported on the Sündenfall II reissue. Now we get word that they will also reissue Surgery's "Übermorgen", one of our Priority 3's! It's been on GoD's Coming Soon list for a couple of years, so I'm glad to see it come to fruition.

This is an album that I first heard courtesy of Midwest Mike, sometime in 2007 or so. And we recently featured the album here on the blog.

News: Garden of Delights reissues Sündenfall II

Here's a big time rarity that has been on Garden of Delights Coming Soon list for awhile. I remember seeing this on ebay a few years back and fetching an enormous sum. I haven't heard it, but it definitely sounds intriguing. Should be available in the next couple of weeks.

"SUNDENFALL II from the Kevelaer area at the Lower Rhine played a mixture of folk and jazz, influenced by Jethro Tull. While their predecessors SUNDENFALL exclusively dedicated themselves to jazz, the group included folk after a change in line-up and band name (following the example of Amon Duul II). In 1972, Hubert Schmitz invited the band into his Trepitia film and sound studio in Alpen-Dorfor free recordings, as he wanted to test the newly installed equipment after a recent move into the new location. Thus the recordings were made for the album SUNDENFALL II (Trefiton HS 1017), which was released in a small edition of 200 copies at the end of 1972. Today it is sold at a price of about 500 to 1000 in mint condition. The track "Montpellier", chosen for the sampler on hand, stands out due to the distinctive trumpet play both at the beginning and at the end."

News: Garden of Delights reissues Amphyrite

Released this month on Thors Hammer, GoD's sub-label dedicated to non German albums. Not a major priority for me personally, but an extremely rare album all the same and it makes its debut on CD. My blurb from the CDOWL below:

Amphyrite – s/t (France) 1973 private. Guitar blues rock trio. One guy solos on guitar while the others keep time (sort of). No vocals to get in the way. Or melody either. Sounds more American in its approach. Amber Soundroom did manage to reissue this on LP before going belly up.

News: Garden of Delights latest releases

This batch includes the rare second album by Radio Noisz Ensemble, originally released only as a cassette. Also another archival Guru Guru release, this time a Wiesbaden concert from 1973 (they previously issued one from 1972). And finally, a another reissue of Embryo's "Surfin'", first done by Disconforme over 10 years ago and long out of print.

"The Radio Noisz Ensemble, successor of the folk group Emma Myldenberger, came from the Weinheim an der Bergstrasse area and released its only LP, 'Yniverze' (Ubu Muziek UMS 01), in 1982. It was compared to works of the Third Ear Band, Between, and Tri Atma. 'Odiszee-Parck'(Ubu Muziek UMS 03), appearing only as a small cassette edition, followed in 1983. The music on this album is of a significantly freer style, more unwieldy and harder to digest than its predecessor; less meditative. The CD was drawn from the master tape. The cover motif is the same as the one used for the cassette, the only difference being its coloured design - like the concert poster of a quite similar make - instead of black and white. Once again the oboe is the leading instrument, and also the remaining instrumentation, featuring English horn, zither, double-bass, violin, flutes, etc. is quite unusual."

"Guru Guru played in the Wartburg, a Wiesbaden hall, on September 17th, 1973. It was one of the gigs recorded by Xhol (Caravan) acquaintance Muck Krieger. His recording equipment was then state-of-the-art: an Uher tape recorder CR 124 and two Revox microphones for the stereo sound, the equipment he had used the year before (CD 'Wiesbaden 1972'). The result has turned out satisfactory, although the occasional singing sounds slightly thready and reverberant. That is partly due, however, to the live sound reproduction during the gig. With its 37 minutes, 'Ooga Booga' leaves a lot of space for free improvisation. 'Round Dance' and ;Das Zwickmaschinchen' are from their fifth LP, 'Don't Call Us', which had just been recorded at that time. Thus, Muck Krieger's supply of Guru Guru material has been exhausted. "

News: Garden of Delights latest releases

A diverse batch this time that contains an obscure folk rock band as well as a 5th Xhol live album (4th from GoD alone). Most promising, to me anyway, is the archival release of Zoppo Trump - a band I'm not familiar with at all.

Zoppo Trump review on UMR

Label descriptions below:

"Zoppo Trump from Dortmund are known in collectors' circles only for the sampler LP 'Scena Westphalica'. In addition to these tracks, this CD contains another seven studio recordings. The style of Zoppo Trump can be described as progressive rock, slightly influenced by jazz and classical music, however mostly without any wind instruments. Band member Nicky Gebhard later played in Wallenstein and Martin Buschmann, son of the well-known jazz-musician Rainer Glen Buschmann, joined Cochise."

"(Yggdrasil) The sole album by this hippie-folk group from Munich in 1972 originally didn't make it past the acetate stadium. Now these wonderful sounds, with flute, violin and English lyrics, are finally available for the first time. The CD contains the five tracks from the LP plus eight instrumentals from 1970, including the soundtrack to the TV series 'Sommer in Sizilien' ['Summer In Sicily'], as well as five demo tracks recorded in the rehearsal room. "

"XHOL - ESSEN 1970. Xhol's sound was a mix of jazz-rock and psychedelia. The band from Wiesbaden (formerly known as Xhol Caravan) stood out for their lengthy improvisations, holding barely any vocals. The band became an established underground act with their two LPs released on Ohr. This release features amazing remastered live recordings dating from 1970."

News: Long Hair and Garden of Delights recent archival releases

We hadn't focused on archival releases so much here at the CD Reissue Wish List, though we will going forward, as this is an exciting market. And the high quality German labels Long Hair and Garden of Delights have recently put out some very intriguing looking items. Two have just come out in the last week, and two were put out by Long Hair in the last couple of months. I'll use their descriptions. They sure do sound great! (The latter two are available from our friends at Wayside and Lasercd - and I would suspect Syn-phonic to have soon).

Papa Zoot Band - Last Concert. 1978 Germany. (Long Hair)

"Great lost band from Frankfurt, Germany. In 1973/1974 Papa Zoot Band played all over Germany, mainly in clubs but also on festivals (German Pop Meeting 1st and 2nd February 1974 in Essen, Grugahalle). Lutz Sommer guitar, Robby Matthes bass, voc, Reinhard "Tammy" Grohe organ(Ex-Nosferatu !) and Christian Engel drums, voc. played mainly long tracks, very melodic but also with a sense of drama comparable to Nektar, Eloy, Jane or Pink Floyd. Outstanding 20 minutes title "Fly away" could be a long track by Pink Floyd of the Meddle/Wish you were here/Animals-era without being an imitation. The other two long tracks "I Wish" (9 minutes) and "Friendship or Love" (11 minutes) also show throughout fantastic guitar and organ work (as you know it from "Nosferatu" album). Unbelievable that Papa Zoot Band never made an album. 4 Years after they called it a day, Papa Zoot Band played in early 1978 a sole reunion concert at there basic venue "Sinkkasten" in Frankfurt. This concert, which had the same playlist as their performance on German Pop Meeting 1974, proved again, that their music never lost its magic. This great performance was taped from the soundboard and has a superb sound quality. As bonus tracks there are two cover versions of great Eric Burdon song "When I was Young" in a 9 minutes psychedelic version and the classic "Tobacco Road" with former bandleader and great singer Ernst Nadler (nickname: Papa Zoot) who left Papa Zoot Band in early 1973. CD comes with comprehensive booklet, photos from their performance at the German Pop Meeting, 1974 (a. o. with Guru Guru, Kraan, Nektar, Eloy). Digitally remastered. Secret tip and a must have for all lovers of the genre."

Tetragon - Stretch. 1971 Germany. (Garden of Delights)

"Tetragon, successor of Trikolon, were founded in Osnabrück (Lower Saxony) in the spring of 1971. They released their first and only LP, "Nature", in that very year. It came out as CD on Musea in 1995. At the end of 1971, Tetragon recorded in a Hamburg studio five long tracks in their well-proven style for their second LP, the release of which, however, failed. Fortunately, the master tape has survived until the present day, so that now, 38 years past schedule, the work is released on CD. Three of the five songs have been written by the band itself, one by Eddie Harris ("Listen here") and one by John McLaughlin ("Dragon song"). The two latter ones had already been worked on by Brian Auger. Especially remarkable are Hendrik Schaper's exceptional play on keyboards and Jürgen Jaehner's hot guitar play. The other two, however, are their equals in skill and talent. "

The following two were released in May and June:

Puppenhaus - Jazz macht Spazz, SWF-Session. 1973-1974 Germany (Long Hair)

"No progressive rock music fan should be misled by the album title "Jazz macht Spazz", a bowdlerization of "jazz makes fun", this is progressive jazz-rock at its best. Büdi Siebert (flutes and saxes), Herbert Binder (gt), Frank Fischer (bass), later with Release Music Orchestra, Thomas Rabenschlag (keys) and drummer Bea Maier (later with Zomby Woof and Moira), all well trained on the instruments, played a varied, inventive, melodic and often furious kind of music with lots of Krautrock magic influenced by Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Soft Machine and Weather Report. 5 titles on this CD were recorded at German radio station SWF, 2 titles are live recordings (taped from the soundboard), all in all 77 minutes of great flute and sax playing, furious and lyrical guitar and bass work, hypnotic rhythm patterns and perfect keyboard sounds. Hard to believe, that Puppenhaus never recorded an album. In 1980 Büdi Siebert with friends recorded an album under the name "Herrgottsax", which also will be released in the next month on Long Hair. Digitally remastered from original master tapes. CD comes with comprehensive booklet, band story by the musicians, many photos and especially with a wonderful cover based on a painting by drummer Bea Maier. Highly recommended."

Cannabis India - SWF Session. 1973 Germany. (Long Hair)

"Another forgotten pearl from the vaults of radio station SWF, Germany. Like Coupla Prog or other delights from the early 70ies who never made an album, Cannabis India, founded 1971 in the region of Düsseldorf, show their great talent playing their own compositions influenced by groups like The Nice or ELP Bandleader and organ-player Oliver Petry studied piano from the early age of seven. When he heard Keith Emerson for the first time he changed his instrument and played organ with great enthusiasm. Together with drummer Rüdiger Braune (in the 80ies with Gianna Nannini) and furious bass-player Dirk Fleck Cannabis India run through their pieces with infernal speed but also with a sense of drama. Nearly 12minutes epic "Lapis" and 11 minutes adaption of Beethovens 9th show what for Cannabis India music was all about. CD comes with 2 bonus tracks from follow-up band Universe. Digitally remastered from original master tapes and bandstory. Don't miss it!"

March 2011 update: After having bought all 4, personally I thought the Tetragon and the Puppenhaus were excellent, whereas the Cannabis India and Papa Zoot Band were good, but not essential.