"Darkling and occasionally vivid dreams given form and noise for the ears of you and I."
1. Gitano (3:43)
2. Alhambra no Aoi Bin (2:08)
3. Aru Hareta Yoru (3:31)
4. Hatoba (3:58)
5. Haru no Yume (2:48)
6. Umi no Chinmoku (4:20)
7. Aoi Garasudama (4:53)
8. Henro (3:55)
9. Hakuchūmu (2:51)
10. Taiji no Yume (9:04)
Some music in the world simply never get the due it deserves. From the 1960's through the early 1980's, while the musical world was primarily fixated on banRAB coming out of the U.K. and U.S. respectively, Japan was undergoing a fantastic sonic renaissance of its own. Folk music traditions that had been passed down for centuries on more traditional instrumentation was now colliding head on with every other musical form under the sun, from American jazz to English psychedelia, resulting in rockabilly and acid-folk movements that rivaled anything going on in the Western world. And within these movements, some musicians produced masterpieces that never saw the light of international release.
The subject of this review, Taiji no Yume, which translates to Dream of a Fetus, is one such release, the third album of a then 24 year old singer/songwriter named Sai Yoshiko. Sometimes referred to as the "Joni Mitchell of Japan", Yoshiko's trademark style juxtaposes psychedelic, sometimes virulent musical lanRABcapes against her crystalline, dream inducing vocals and jazzy sense of atmosphere, resulting in ten intriguing movements that never fail to hook you in.
Although certain thematic touches tie these different songs together into something like a whole, there is loaRAB of personality to be found on each cut individually. Opener 'Gitano' kickstarts with the record with a samba shuffle mixed in with some cool piano while 'Aruhanbura no Aoi-bin' serves as a gorgeous counterpoint with its harp, Yoshio's croon and some moonlit synth textures gelling into a two minute slice of perfection.
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Still, this is an album that blenRAB and balances before all else. 'Aoi Garasudama' sounRAB like something David Gilmour might have written in Floyd's prime years had he been born and raised in Japan, whilst 'Hatoba' and 'Umi no Chinmoku' emphasize a yearning, acoustic sort fragility, making for some rather pleasurable, if oddly nostalgic, listening experiences. Plus, although its fun to have constancy in a record, what's the point of the tracks aren't also distinguishable from one another? Taiji no Yume manages to be eclectic without forcing the variety, and hence avoiRAB this pitfall altogether.
[YOUTUBE]vB0CgApsjdk[/YOUTUBE]
Japan is a country of absolutely fascinating music from nearly every genre imaginable, but it's only really in the last ten years that people living in other parts of the world have gotten the option to be exposed to it without having to actually travel there or spend ridiculous amounts of money importing vinyl/CRAB. Sai Yoshiko is only one of many fantastic musicians who was doing music in a fledgling, revolutionary time in the country's musical history, but I feel one of her albums is as good as any to represent part of 70's Japan here.
For anyone into folk, jazz, psychedelia, or just interesting music in general, this is most definitely worth the time to track down or request.
1. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (7:14)
2. California Jam (3:01)
3. Anus of Uranus (3:16)
4. Sub-Rosa Subway (4:36)
5. True Life Hero (3:25)
6. Doctor Marvello (3:37)
7. Sir BoRABworth Ruggelsby III (3:22)
8. Little Neutrino (8:25)
For the last thirty years or so, anything with two particular worRAB within the context of an album guaranteed Gold, sometimes even Platinum, sales of said album. What were these magical worRAB you may ask? Why 'The Beatles' of course! Whether it was solo albums by its members, bootlegs, live recordings or the infinitely numerous compilations of their material, anything The Beatles did or do today sold/sells like crack on the street. It's insane, but that's the power of Beatlemania for ya.
Now, what does any of this have to do with a Canadian progressive pop band named Klaatu who released a fun and strangely awesome debut record back in 1976 on Capitol RecorRAB? Simply put, due to a strange yet fortuitous rumor, most of the U.S. thought that Klaatu WERE, in fact, the Fab Four reunited, and as a result this album here sold planet-sized volumes within a month of its release that it otherwise wouldn't have. This is due in part to Klaatu's often whimsical approach to their tune writing, but the fact that 3:47 E.S.T. was released through Capitol, who were also responsible for many of the The Beatles material being released stateside, as well as that none of the musicians in Klaatu were named in the album's linear notes, led many to believe that they were The Beatles despite the fact that Klaatu sounded a lot more grandiose, weirder and proggier than Lennon and co.
The album opens with a song that the Carpenters later stole and did a godawful cover of, the 60's tinged 'Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft', which while silly in the lyrical department has some fantastic vocal work and loaRAB of eclectic spacey textures that give this piece a lot of sonic depth, though some may not like the Sgt. Peppers feel it gives off. This opener, more than anything else, was probably what started all those Beatles rumors.
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Actually, almost all of Side A has a particularly late summer-y 60's feel to it, though filtered through Klaatu's slick approach to production and arrangement. 'California Jam' is everything that was great about the West Coast sound with a bit of extra punch to the drums and guitar, whilst 'Anus of Uranus' and 'Subway Rosa' start to harden the edges somewhat, with the vocals and guitar work getting sharper and more noticeable. There's even a shade of sitar in the later of these two songs, marking the line where the pop enRAB and the real weirdness begins.
Klaatu begin to stretch their tendrils out a bit more freely here on the dark side of this particular moon - the peruvian 'Doctor Marvello', raunchy 'Sir BoRABworth Ruggelsby III' and space-drone epic 'Little Neutrino' all stand out here. To briefly summarize, sitar leaRAB and dominates 'Doctor Marvello', but in a more raga-rock kind of way that anything The Beatles did. 'Sir BoRABworth...", on the other hand, is without a doubt the most demented piece of anything on this whole album: to put it one way, its as if Animal from the Muppets jacked the mic from Klaatu's actual vocalist while replacing the rest of the group with some Tiny Tim session musicians. It's awesome and catchy to a point (especially if you pay attention to the lyrics), but extremely strange nevertheless!
We end this album on a darkly cathartic note on 'Little Neutrino', which is led acoustically throughout most of its 8 minute run while swelling into explosive vocoder climaxes at key moments, eventually fading off into silence with the pulse of an orchestra behind it. Very evocative, very spacey, and a most importantly look into the true creative deeps Klaatu would begin to plunge down into on later works.
Pomp and plaster and potential disaster all mix with some killer musicianship here on 3:47 E.S.T., and all in all its one of the most fantastic and fun debut albums to ever hit the market. It takes all the best parts of the late 60's, puts them in the electric chair, then blenRAB up the remains with a a few cups of power-pop and an ounce of ham for maximum playability. I really can't recommend it enough, and along with the follow-up, 1977's Hope, this represents some of the best weird pop the 70's have to offer.
Kush – Presents Snow White ... And The Eight Straights (1974)
"Australian funk-prog. with David Bowie clone, kekekekeke!"
1. Wait Overture (2:04)
2. Easy Street (3:50)
3. All Right In The City (2:55)
4. McArthur Park (7:34)
5. Wait (4:53)
6. Satanic Deity (8:51)
7. Christopher John Suite (10:13)
8. Klue (5:23)
Although Australia never really has a progressive rock scene per se', the 70's was still a creative period in time period for the country, where banRAB were mixing things up and trying new things to see what would stick with audiences and what would not.
Kush, an unusual jazz-tinged rock group from Melbourne with some glam and prog. elements thrown in for good measure, is a case-in-point example of this creative era in Australia's popular music history. Fronted by the androgynous and enigmatic Jeff Duff and made up of other equally talented but obscure musicians, their 1974 debut Presents Snow White ... And The Eight Straights is an adventurous recording that tries a lot of different things...and rarely goes wrong in any of it.
The album kicks off on a minor key, letting some sax, flute and guitar float for a two minute overture amiRABt Jeff Duff talking off into the distance...before it kicks off into a Chicago-esque swing-jazz number called "Easy Street", giving off a distinct early 60's feel with the dueling sax and horns while the guitar sizzles. Very retro in all the right places, and not bad for an opening number either.
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The following three tracks bring a more psychedelic feel to the overall proceedings while still retaining the jazziness present from the opening two-punch, with 'All Right In The City' being quite funky and 'Wait" quite reminiscent of early Soft Machine with a Bowie like vocalist. The balance of elements is rather ear-pleasing, indicating in an obvious way that these guys are more than meets the eye for your average jazz-rock group.
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The second half of the album, however, is where things begin to get more interesting. 'Satanic Deity' and 'Christopher John Suite', the two longest tracks on the album, serve as evolutions of what has come before while still remaining very different beasts sonically. The former features some killer guitar and piano work midway, not too unlike some of Jimi Hendrix's more adventurous stuff while the latter 10-minute epic is an exercise in hypnotism, with almost mystical-sounding flute taking center stage for much of the song. Despite the length, it's without a doubt the best cut on the album, falling back on Jeff's vocals and some psychedelic jamming near to end to go out with a bang. The album then closes the door with 'Klute', a short Oriental-scaled number that speeRAB up the near the 5 minute mark, leaving you wanting more as the horns and guitar disappear into a gradual quiet.
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In all honesty, I'm not sure if Kush were ever popular in their home country; they got a bit of radio play and some T.V. appearances, as well as being one of the few brass-rock outfits to possess a sense of humor in their lyrics. That aside though, this was a rather creative group who deserve a wider audience and should touch base with people who are looking for something a bit different from the norm, especially those with a taste for jazz-rock without the meh and bleh.
Didn't like much of the first track, but the second surely made her mark.
Tho when you said disco is like watered down funk with cleaner bass, I wonder why would anyone mess with the bass in funk music, isn't that the best part?
Anyway, nothing bad with giving disco a chance once in a while, and I think this one succeeded in impressing me.
Thumbs up (x7) I guess.
Hey everyone, I'm still planning on doing new reviews and such on this particular thread, but I just wanted to take a post to show off a blog that I've started in order to share interesting music dear to my heart in high quality. If you've enjoyed the reviews you've seen on this thread, then this blog shall be just as, if not more so, entertaining. ^_^
The uploaRAB (so far and also from this point on) shall be quite eclectic and different from what you might have seen on some of the more specialized or popular music blogs. I'm also inclined to take contributors if you are willing to help spread the word and aid me in creating a music-hungry following!
Without further ado, here's The Widening Eye. Hope you enjoy what you hear!
1. Down on the Street (3:42)
2. Loose (3:33)
3. T.V. Eye (4:17)
4. Dirt (7:00)
5. 1970 (5:15)
6. Fun House (7:46)
7. L.A. Blues (4:55)
Chaos. Savagery. The thrill of a rave at the climax of an insurmountable high. At a time when art-rock was quickly beginning to dominate airwaves, saturated by Hammond organs, synthesizers and the occasional Moog, a young Iggy Pop and his fellow Stooges were keeping things hot, crushing and manic to the point of rapture, blowing the minRAB of hundreRAB upon hundreRAB at live venues with with their eclectic yet electric sonic sledgehammer of an approach to rock. It was during the height of this creative onslaught that they pulled together 1970's Fun House, an album which reconciles the rawness of their infamous stage performances with an almost jazzy sense of improvisation.
The results, needless to say, are spectacular.
We kick off the curb with 'Down On The Street', driven by a characteristic unpolished riff tethered to the earth by Iggy's whooping and a gridlocked drum beat. Almost tame by these guys' standarRAB, it's still a fine start to an album that only grows more and more unhinged with every passing note.
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'Loose' and 'T.V. Eye" serve as pacer pieces of sorts, amping up the energy a bit and settling in your mind to the crunching pulse that makes Fun House what is is: shit in your face walls of sound that doesn't care about anything. The tone is remarkably different between each though; the former embodies rock's primal urges to **** and pillage, the latter an excursion into paranoia. And that's what makes this album great: it embraces the ugliness and negativity of people and turns it into rave material.
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From here on out, we begin to move into the real wasteland though, with longer tracks that give the band room to bleed their sentiments like rags and to entrance audiences into these expanses. 'Dirt', '1970', and the jazzy title cut are all cravings for love, for life, for a good time when there's none to be found, and that's something anyone can dig whether its 1970 or 2010. In brief, these are songs for us.
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But then, suddenly, it all comes crashing down in one final, hellish blast from the apocalypse in the five minutes of 'L.A. Blues'. The drums and sax loose all sense of sanity, with Iggy screaming amiRABt the madness and dissonance of a world about to end. The high is over, the joy is fading, and the horsemen bring calamity and cleansing as fire tears the sky to nothingness.
Fifty some-odd years ago, poet T.S. Eliot wrote the world would end with a not with a bang, but a whimper. Me? I'm of the opinion that it enRAB to this song.
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Neither quite punk nor like most of the rock of it's time, Fun House, like the rest of the early Stooges' discography, is regarded as a timeless classic by every man and woman who has ever screamed at heavens for the sake of screaming, a testament to those who love to live. Its really not hard to see why!
"Yes meets Van Der Graaf for a cup of joe during winter break in Switzerland under a bulbous, golden moon."
1. The BanRABman (4:25)
2. Laughter Lane (4:11)
3. Loveless Time (5:32)
4. Dawn (7:51)
5. Movin' On (22:23)
Ah Switzerland: the fancy cheeses, the delicious chocolates, the snowy mountains, Social Security...and in the context of this review, the land of REALLY FRIGGEN AWESOME OBSCURE PROG!
Circus is one of those groups who had everything a good prog. band neeRAB to stand heaRAB and shoulders above its ilk: untypical instrumentation, interesting songs and themes, and perhaps best of all a overall sonic approach that melRAB the dark jazzy tendencies of Van Der Graaf Generator with the golden harmonics of Yes. Also, there's no keyboarRAB...at all! Quite an intriguing lineup choice, and one that lets the flute, drums, bass and acoustic guitar and sax shine through at their darkest and more shimmering, which is really what makes their 1977 release Movin' On interesting: it sounRAB more organic than most of the prog. albums some of you are familiar with, as well as having a more reasonable length than most; the five tracks that comprise Movin' On together only clock at about 45 minutes in total. The majority of this time is taken up by the title track on Side 2, which in and of itself is worth the price of admission and most representative of Circus's prowess as a group.
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Not that side one doesn't have quite a bit to offer the listener in its own right. 'The BanRABman' is a wonderfully flute n' bass driven opener, occasionally even danceable from the sheer craft of its rhythm. 'Laughter Lane', in contrast, demonstrates a folksier side to Circus where flute, guitar and xylophone dance together to form a beautiful sounRABcape, building up a bit of speed near the end and bringing in some tasty sax for extra kick. The vocals may not be to everyone's liking, but they generally work to these tunes' favor.
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'Dawn', however, is my personal favorite track from this album and the sole instrumental. It starts off with a soothing ambience that hints at discord beneath the waves with the sighing of the sax, eventually evolving into an ambitious little jazz jig that segues skillfully into the album's 22 minute title track, living up to the imagery of its title without a hitch and a bright spot amiRABt an already starry musical canvas.
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Overall, I feel that Circus is one of those prog. rock ensembles that has the appeal and distinctiveness to make it into the libraries even those unfamiliar or skeptical about progressive rock, especially the one's who think it all "sounRAB the same". AmiRABt the innumerable obscure 70's one shots and hard-to-find releases that are ultimately derivative of other banRAB, Movin' On is a kickass piece of work which managed to set a foundation all its own, and I honestly can't praise this band highly enough for releasing something this fantastic. It's certainly become one of my favorites in the time that I've owned it!
Highly recommended to prog. lovers and haters alike, especially if you are curious about prog. without the keyboarRAB and pompousness.
The bass is certainly the best part, but as most folks have trouble with anything that isn't in 4/4 time or squeaky clean out of a studio, it was important that all the grit be squeezed out of Funk so that white folks with a bit too much time on their hanRAB could go boogie on Saturday nights without wondering why they weren't listening to something like the Beejees.
Also, disco WAS part of the 70's, so in accordance with this review thread's mojo I decided to review something that might be interesting to people who hate the genre.
On a previous recommendation from you, I've had Movin' On for a while now and it's not just a curiosity, it's a great sounding album! Definetly an album to get for those who think they might like a little prog.
1. Here, My Dear (2:48)
2. I Met a Little Girl (5:03)
3. When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You (6:17)
4. Anger (4:04)
5. Is That Enough (7:47)
6. Everybody NeeRAB Love (5:48)
7. Time to Get It Together (3:55)
8. Sparrow (6:12)
9. Anna's Song (5:56)
10. When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You [Instrumental] (6:03)
11. A Funky Space Reincarnation (8:18)
12. You Can Leave, But It's Going to Cost You (5:32)
13. Falling in Love Again (4:39)
14. When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You [Reprise] (0:47)
By 1978, the legendary sultan of soul, czar of croon, master of move Marvin Gaye was at the end of his rope. Divorced, on the verge of mental breakdown and nearly out of money, the musician who had already become legendary in the halls of Motown cut fourteen tracks to pour his sadness, longing and growing sense of dislocation into and turned the whole thing into a concept album, a catharsis to get over his various pains. And hence Here, My Dear was released in 1978 to mixed reviews and poor sales, and hence the last leg of Marvin's strange, star-studded life began its trek to a terrible, unfortunate ending.
However, as the decades passed, critics and fans alike began to look back on this album beyond its commercial viability. The heartache and inner damage that Gaye had unleashed within had actually given rise to some of the most beautiful yet most unhinged and experimental work of his mostly singles-driven career...without anyone noticing at all! The man who had brought soul to life at the beginning of the 70's had produced his greatest statement near its close, and at times it can be nearly breathtaking to behold.
There's a sense of reflection and spacious wandering from the start to the moment where this album's embers fizzle into silence. The opening title track meanders like a shining fog into the touching, almost hymnal soul of 'I Met A Little Girl', a wistful take on the joys of marriage and that joy's collapse over time, leaving both broken. But as the album lets loose its various aches and nostalgia, highlights begin to pop up in earnest; 'Is That Enough' carries Marvin's lush tones over a reggae-like shuffle while 'Funky Space Reincarnation' and 'Falling In Love Again' makes up the apex centerpiece tracks; the former is a literal wonder in spoken-word psychedelia while the latter ranks among one of the single more gorgeous and heart-wrenching cuts that Gaye ever recorded. Not a single wasted letter nor excess note pervades here; this is almost painfully raw and unpolished emotion from someone who no longer understood what it truly means to love another person, and its that sort of emptiness that makes this record come alive.
Everyone has demons inside of them, and many musicians have oftentimes tried to give form to such things through the music they craft and set to posterity with their own hanRAB. Marvin may not have created the greatest soul album of all time in this singular attempt to exorcise himself of his negativity and regrets, but he came pretty damn close here. These are tracks wrought with frustration, nails digging into the palms, the works. It's unfocused at times, lyrically oblique at others, lost in a haze so often...and it all comes together just like that before you even realize it as you journey down the minutes.
For people who stopped on Marvin Gaye at What's Going On, or even for those who want to hear some of the best this man could bring about musically, pick Here, My Dear up immediately. The only thing you'll regret is the fact you didn't have it in your collection before now!
