News: Leong Lau and Abbhama now out on CD!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that, after a couple of delays, the Leong Lau CD is now out! As is the Abbhama, that was recently announced. Both are from Strawberry Rain. Be on the lookout for some notes over at Unencumbered Music Reviews in the next few weeks!

News: Strawberry Rain and Majemuk Records to reissue Abbhama from Indonesia

And speaking of albums I never got around to giving its own post, but have in the main list ("The Original CD Wish List"), here's one that I most assuredly would have eventually covered. And now I don't have to! Abbhama is an interesting album that mixes English Big 3 progressive rock with Asian pop music. I believe it was only issued as a cassette prior, similar to many Indonesian items from the 70s and 80s.

Here's the news announcement from Strawberry Rain: "One of the nice things about trading and collecting records is you meet people around the world.  One person I’ve dealt with for many years now, and developed a strong friendship with is AGUS from Jakarta, Indonesia.  Due to the amount of work we’ve both put in to the region, we’ve decided to combine forces to help bring the best products and licenses to both the World market, and Indonesian markets.  This will not only improve our overall output, but it will help the Indonesian market to get reissues in a more efficient manner.  Our first joint contract was finished today, and we’re proud to announce the upcoming release of the progressive rock “ABBHAMA BAND”, which we’ll release together on LP and CD for the first time ever!  This means both Strawberry Rain and Majemuk Records will be releasing “ABBHAMA BAND” on LP and CD in a joint venture, splitting the pressing across our regions respectfully.  I will also be supporting and helping to distribute all of Majemuk Records releases, and Majemuk will continue to support Strawberry Rain within the Indonesian region.  Look out for many projects from both labels, including Marcell Thee which is currently in production!"

News: Strawberry Rain announces reissue of Julien Grycan album

While we await our big announcement (and there may be a delay, as a new development came along late yesterday - we'll see), we were recently contacted by the good folks behind the Strawberry Rain label. They let us know that the very rare Julien Grycan 1980 album "Post-Atom" will be reissued on CD and LP. Ms. Grycan is a new name for me, but SR stated that it would be of interest to the CDRWL. I believe him! Cool stenciled drawing cover, that's for sure. The photo above comes from a former ebay auction, where the description stated: "French acid folk psych on private label Kiosque d'Orphée . with stoned vocals, effects and great guitars and acidy parts. Like 1st Manset , Denis , en ces jours or Beautiful losers..."

As well, SR filled in more detail on the Mar-Vista album we reported on earlier. This sounds better than I had imagined!  He further describes the album as thus: "Side A is influenced by Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh and even Balinese music and is very killer.  It plays as 1 long song, but it's 6 songs blended with sound effects and strangeness.  It's like a bad dream on vinyl with fuzz, lo-fi vocals like Dandelion, keys, strange loud sound effects flying left to right speaker & looping etc...  but it's not experimental, it's song oriented and progressive. Side B is 1 long song made of synths like Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream." Sounds great to me!

News: Strawberry Rain to reissue Kelompok Kampungan album from Indonesia

For the second month in a row, Strawberry Rain have come up with a reissue for an album I've never even heard of. This is a super rare artifact from Indonesia, a country that continues to unearth albums that few knew existed. As soon as I saw the magic word "Paebiru", I wanted to hear it. You can check out some samples from the Strawberry Rain main page. After hearing them, it's certainly on the folk side of the Cortes and Remalho masterpiece, but I can definitely understand the comparison. And I'm always up for hearing albums that make their own instruments! I think this title will be well received by many.

Label says: "One of the true gems of the Indonesian scene, this album stands to be one of the best, and also one of the most unique albums to come from the region.  Banned by the Shuko government soon after release, it remains somewhat obscure to most collectors up until now. An album created by Bram Makahekum (who had no musical experience or training at all) Kelompok Kumpangan had multiple members by trying to recreate the sounds of nature, even using original handmade instruments invented by the band themselves.  The end result is nothing short of brilliant, one of our personal favourites from the region.  There isn’t much to compare this to, maybe the Indonesian equivalent of a Paebiru or Genesis from Columbia at times, but it’s very unique and stands on its own.  Wonderful progressive folk of the highest caliber interweaving flutes, violins, acoustic guitars, Indonesian percussion and other instrumentation.  We can’t stand behind this one enough, it’s truly brilliant.  700 copies housed in paste on covers, includes insert with photos and history written by Indonesian music journalist Denny Sakrie.  One time limited edition, CD limited to 1000 copies and has 4 songs not on the LP version that were never released on vinyl before.  We will be releasing a 10″ of these songs in the near future."

News: Strawberry Rain to reissue super rare French album Mar-Vista "Visions of Sodal Ye"

Here's an album I've never even heard of until today. It was pressed on the do it yourself Kiosque D'Orphee, and is about as obscure as it gets. In researching, I found one previous auction, and that's the photo above. The seller described it as "cosmic prog", which sounds good to me - but who knows what it's really like. Could be one man and his synthesizer for all I know. Anyway, we'll find out soon enough as Strawberry Rain plans on reissuing this in the next couple of months!

While on the topic of Strawberry Rain, they also plan on reissuing a very rare 1973 band from Canada called Blind Owl (not to be confused with the 80s Massachusetts band). I could find nothing but an acetate cover on RYM (see below) and an Acid Archives stub calling it "obscure folk". Yet again, we'll be finding out more about this title soon.

And the previously announced Leong Lau's "Dragon Man' is on pace to be reissued between July and September this year.

News: Strawberry Rain to reissue Leong Lau's "Dragon Man"!

In the "oh wow!" category, comes this exciting announcement from Strawberry Rain. We have indirect (3rd party) contact with the label, but it appears to me they are quickly establishing themselves as the Canadian Shadoks - a label dedicated to reissuing the rarest albums from some of the world's most exotic locations (Zambia, Nigeria, Thailand, Iran). But today's post centers around Australian Leong Lau, one of the CDRWL's top discoveries of 2010! The label, according to their website, promises that liner notes will be from Lau himself. Outstanding news. Our review of both Lau albums here. "Dragon Man" is definitely the only one of the two that needs a reissue IMO.

In addition to this - the debut album by Rictus will be available later this month! I've updated the post with more info from the label.

News: Rictus debut to come out on Strawberry Rain!

Here's one that comes out of left field! Rictus band member Roland Brultey wrote in yesterday to let me know about this exciting development. I wasn't familiar with the Strawberry Rain label prior, and one look at their website showed a few other interesting releases, mostly from Indonesia. Apparently they are based in Canada, and it looks like a label worth following.

I asked Rol if the album was from the master tapes. His response: "No original tape, but a very good transfer and a restoring job which is made by one of the people restoring the Virgin and Atlantic catalogs. And on the CD, there will be bonus songs, and many photo's and an insert with the history of Rictus. I think that makes you happy guy!". And indeed it does makes me happy guy!

Thanks again to Rol for this exciting news. And to Carlos for the introduction!

We featured Rictus a little over 2 years ago.

November 2, 2012 update: From the label: "Reissue of a rare, 250 copy private press progressive rock album from France.  Recorded on a 4 track Akai in the small town of Luxueil-les-Bains, this album was only sold at a few shows and in one local shop.  Pressed at the small Le Kiosque D’Orphee pressing plant, this was truly a private offering with the band having made and glued the covers themselves.  A long album, including the 14+ minute Theme Guerre, the music spans from lo-fi fuzz laden garage sounding numbers to strong progressive songs with numerous bridges and changes. Conceptually a Rock Opera, but plays like a full length progressive album that could rival anything from France at the time.  Remastered with wonderful sound quality, this is sure to open the ears of many who’ve overlooked the band until now.  Limited edition one time pressing in heavy paste-on sleeves, including insert full of photos and history of the band as told by Rol Brultey himself.  LP limited to 550 copies, CD limited to 1000 and includes bonus songs not included on the original album.  Shipping late this month, in shops by November 2012."