Psychedelia / Prog / Kraut / Space / Psychedelic Folk (60s-70s)

http://www.discogs.com/artist/944022-Bodo wrote:Bodo Molitor was born in Germany, traveling all over the world and playing music. His album "Hits Internacionales" was recorded in 1968 and released in 1969. Bodo recorded this album for Orfeon records, Mexico, as label mates of Kaleidoscope. Bodo created the cover for Kaleidoscope and several other covers for Zave Records. After "Hits Internacionales", Bodo left Mexico to travel the the world playing with other musicians. For many years now he lives and plays music in Cairo, Egypt.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1534 wrote:Inspired by the American folk music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Joni Mitchell, German master of acoustic guitar Peter Bursch formed the first line-up of BROSELMASCHINE back in 1968 alongwith flautist/vocalist Jenni Schucker - a female singer with an irresistible whispy voice - Willi Kissmer on vocals, guitars and zither, Lutz Ringer on metallaphon and bass, and Mike Hellbach on congas, tabla and mellotron. Although many tracks bear German names, almost all are sung in English. The quintet disbanded after a first album in 1971 and Bursch, keeping only guitarist Kissmer from the original line-up, pursued his musical endeavours under the name of PETER BURSCH UND DIE BROSELMASCHINE, joined by percussionist Mani Neumeier (GURU GURU), drummer Jan Fride (KRAAN) and three other musicians.

Their eponymous LP is definitely their best: a wonderful acoustic album full of finesse of subtle Indian, Middle-Eastern flavour (sitar, tabla, flute) as well as Irish/Scottish traditional folk (mandolin, multi-voice harmonies). Their second album, released under the moniker PETER BURSCH UND DIE BROSELMASCHINE, unfortunately doesn't even come close to the first. In spite of its decidedly folk flavour and many guest appearances, it is altogether different and less inspired, putting the emphasis on Bursch's acoustic guitar techniques (although Kissmer's electric guitar steals the show at times).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Revoluci%C3%B3n_de_Emiliano_Zapata wrote:La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata was a 1970s music group in Mexico that broke sales records in Europe with their song 'Nasty Sex'. Breaking ties with their original concept, they continue actively interpreting romantic ballads.In the era of psychedelic rock and under the influence of American hippies of the late 1960s, a young band from Guadalajara headed by Javier Martin del Campo, formed with the intention of interpreting contemporary popular songs of the era in their own style. Initially, their hobby led them to play at local parties, but the resulting fame soon spread beyond their city. The group won the most call-in votes during a contest organized by a local radio station called "Radio ondas de la alegria" "Waves of Happiness Radio", and earned themselves an audition with an important record label

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2131 wrote:Formed at the end of the 60's, Gomorrha rised from the German progressive rock scene thanks to the help of the producer and sound engineer Conny Plank. The band original line up includes Helmut Pohl (drums) and Eberhard Krietsch (ogan, bass) with Ad Oschel and Ali Claudi at the guitars. They released their first album in 1970. The second recording "trauma" (1971) really marks a new step in the development of Gomorrha's original song. They distinguish with a dense heavy psych rock experience punctuated by organ dominated sequences. It now includes lyrics in English and a lead singer in the name of Peter Otten. In 1972 they release what will be considered as their summit "I Turned To See Whose Voice It Was"; An adventurous album featuring catchy instrumental jams, krautrock's original psych / spacey mood, pastoral flute parts and heavy guitar riffs. The concept of this release is focused on the apocalypse theme and the book of revelation. They suddenly split up in 1973 after the publication of two memorable documents of German independent rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktuala wrote:Aktuala were a pioneering band from Italy, formed in 1972. The name comes from the Esperanto for "contemporary".

Their music has been categorised as world music, progressive rock, psychedelic, or avant garde, or "sounding like that of the English group Third Ear Band".[citation needed]

They formed in 1972 in Milan by husband and wife team Walter and Laura Maioli who were collectors and performers of ancient and ethnic instruments. For a while the group lived together in a musical commune, "picking olives and playing music". They played unconventional venues including asylums and wharfs.

They signed with the Bla Bla label and released their debut, self-titled album in 1973. Two members, Lino Vaccina and Walter Maioli, left soon afterwards to pursue a collaboration with Trilok Gurtu. All three returned for their second album, La Terra, which was released in 1974. Following this, the band moved to Morocco to produce their third album, Tappeto Volante, in 1976.

Many of the band members went on to other music ventures. Maioli went on to the Futuro Antico project, Cavallanti to the band Muzik Circus, Gurtu to world music.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Open+Mind wrote:The band was originally formed as The Apaches in 1965 by four musicians from Putney, South London. A personnel change a year later brought about the new name “The Drag Set,” which consisted of Mike Brancaccio (guitar, vocals), Timothy du Feu (bass guitar), Phil Fox (drums), and Terry Martin (a.k.a. Terry Schindler - guitar, vocals). They enjoyed a solid reputation and a modicum of success on the London blues circuit throughout 1966, backing such visiting luminaries as Wilson Pickett and John Lee Hooker.

In 1967, they laid down some tracks with a “very enthusiastic and encouraging” Joe Meek, but his suicide less than a week later quashed any potential release. In March, the CBS subsidiary Go released their debut single, the Mod-inflected “Day and Night” b/w “Get Out of My Way.” Despite favorable reviews in Record Mirror and NME, the single sank without a trace (although the band would rework the A-side in the future – more about that in a moment).

About this time, the band’s management were “muscled out” of the picture by well-known boxing promoter Benny Huntman, who installed his son Roger as manager. By now, “a lot of bluesy bands were starting to go psychedelic, and we were no exception,” exclaims bassist Tim du Feu, who “thought up the name The Open Mind to reflect our attitude towards life.”

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1012 wrote:They got their names from the Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvallier's brutal presidential guard that was named TONTON MACOUTE. Why, I am not sure but if that name is original, so is their sole album released on rare and collectable Neon Record (also SPRING and INDIAN SUMMER). Paul French on kbs and vocals is not to be confused with the awesome Pete French singer in ATOMIC ROOSTER and CACTUS and LEAFHOUND. The rest of the band consist of Chris Gavin on bass and guitars, Dave Knowles on winds and vocals, Nigel Reveler on drums.
Their record is full of jazz-inspired prog rock with long instrumental interplay in even longer tracks. Their music oozes fun and good-natured moods and should please most everyone, even the ones wary of jazz-tinged music, as this is hardly their only inspiration. Highly recommended to the progheads that seek to deepen their knowledge of early 70's prog rock and looking for unknown gems such as this one. This got released on CD by Repertoire Records.

http://prognotfrog.blogspot.gr/2006/11/please-please-196869-uk-60s-pre-t2-320.html wrote:UK legendary 60`s psychedelic underground.

A collection of demos taken from original master tapes and restored acetates from 1968-1969.

Featuring members of The Flies, Bulldog Breed, Gun and pre T2.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3328 wrote:COUPLA PROG from Baden-Baden/Germany is known for a melange of Kraut and Heavy Bluesrock, full of suspense, theatrical in parts, with a derivative sense of professionality. The band existed for nearly seven years and reached the peak from 1970 to 1972 for sure being homogenous with its style and without any commercial approach. The forerunner named "Wilde Reiter GmbH" played simple Soul/Rock covers and split in 1969. To compose something radically new COUPLA PROG was founded by four members: Hubert Donauer (drums), Reiner Niketta (bass, piano, vocals), Rolf Peters (guitar, vocals), Wolfgang Schindhelm (organ, guitar, trumpet, vocals). The new band name results from a shortened version of "A Couple Of Progs".

The band's complete material is live played, pure, without reworking and overdubbing, the result of four sessions recorded at studio U1 of Radio Südwestfunk between 1970 and 1972. The first release by the german Long Hair Music label is the album 'Sprite' with early recordings from February 1970 and April 1971, strongly influenced by the new experimental post-beat phase. COUPLA PROG's centerpiece comes up with the Prog opera 'Edmundo Lopez'. Vocal-oriented because telling the story about a young man who lives in South America and gets between the enemy lines of a civil war. This 60 minute opus, finally released in 2000, contains 11 songs which are blending into each other. Thematically a gripping story with Hammond drenched parts remembering at Vanilla Fudge or Procul Harum but also containing symphonic and freakish psychedelic Kraut moments.

Some line-up changes occured later on. Peters, the creative brain, responsible for the concept of 'Edmundo Lopez', sadly died at the age of 21 because of an overdose of alcohol and drugs in July 1971 and was substituted by Walter Kümmich. And then drummer Hubert Donauer left COUPLA PROG at the beginning of 1972. With two new members the band managed to record some new songs with the highlight 'Death is a great gambler, but if I win, finally I can die', written in memorial of Rolf Peters whose death had been a heavy loss for the band. So the last SWF session release by Long Hair contains a mix of songs recorded with but also without Peters including a very free interpretation of Donovan's "Season of the Witch".

COUPLA PROG tried to move on for some years but stagnation and differences about the musical direction occured, members changed to other regions and finally missing motivations forced the creeeping disbanding until the end. The band's story was closed early 1976.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Insect_Trust wrote:The Insect Trust was a rock band that formed in New York in 1967.

The members of the band were Nancy Jeffries on vocals, Bill Barth on guitar, Luke Faust, formerly of the Holy Modal Rounders, on guitar, banjo, fiddle, and harmonica, Trevor Koehler on saxophone, and Robert Palmer (1945-1997) on clarinet and alto saxophone. Elvin Jones and Bernard Purdie both drummed with the group at times.

According to The New York Times the band took its name from William S. Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, detailing a race of giant insects bent on world domination. However, according to Bill Barth, the name came from the poetry journal Insect Trust Gazette, published by William Levy. Levy took the name from Burroughs, Warren Gardner then gave it to the band.

Robert Palmer later became a well-respected and widely published rock critic and blues/jazz historian and served as the popular music editor of The New York Times in the 1980s. Nancy Jeffries became an executive at A&M, Virgin, and Elektra.

The band's second album, Hoboken Saturday Night, which has been reissued on CD, includes a song, "The Eyes Of A New York Woman", with lyrics from Thomas Pynchon's novel V.

http://psychedelic-rocknroll.blogspot.gr/2010/07/summerhill-1969-parker-burger-hickman.html wrote:Summerhill were formed in Los Angeles in 1968 by "Doug Burger" (keyboards), "Larry Hickman" (bass guitar), "Alan Parker" (vocals, lead guitar) and "Del Ramos" (drums, percussion).
Produced by "David Briggs" and recoreded at "Wally Heider Studio" in San Francisco during 1969, their eponymous album "Summerhill" ("Bill Cosby"'s record label Tetragrammaton T-114) features ten original compositions, all four members contributed material giving the album a diverse, but occasionally unfocused feel.

Summerhill's only and underrated album possibly failed to find an audience because it never settles on any particular style, plus I assume that Tetragrammaton Records were pretty underground, despite having "Deep Purple"'s "The Book Of Taliesyn" on their catalogue

The set certainly sported a late-1960s West Coast vibe, bouncing all over the musical spectrum, including Hendrix-Rock style ("Bring Me Around"), Sunshine Pop ("Soft Voice"), "Curt Boettcher"-influenced Psychedelic Folk-Rock ("Follow Us"), a touch of Jazz ("What Can I Say"), and brushes with more experimental moves (check out the aural meltdown on side two's "The Bird").

http://orexisofdeath.blogspot.gr/2008/12/after-all-after-all-1969-us-heavy-psych.html wrote:After All may have only been a band in the loosest sense of the term, but its only record is a quite wonderful -- if ultimately difficult to categorize -- one-shot relic of the transitional late-'60s. The four members of the combo were actually friends and acquaintances in different bands on the Tallahassee, FL, rock circuit before culling their skills together, along with lyrical assistance from young local poet and songwriter Linda Hargrove, when an opportunity to record an album in a Nashville studio presented itself. The resulting piece of work is the type of strangely compelling hybrid album that could only have come together in the musical gumbo of the post-psychedelic era.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1022 wrote:AERA is a band from Germany who performs progressive fusion in the style of NUCLEUS, EMBRYO and DZYAN. Spacey guitar passages are the strongest characteristic in their music, as well as good flute and saxophone passages. They have 6 albums, of which "Humanum Est" is considered their best effort.

- Bruno Aun

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/reign-ghost-mn0000250193/biography wrote:Reign Ghost was a late '60s rock group from Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The member lineup was a changeable one, consisting at one time or another of singer Lynda Squires, guitarists Bob Bryden and Jim Stright, keyboardist Dave Hair, bassists Jerry Dufek, Russ Erman, and Joe Gallant, and drummers Helge "Rich" Richter and Bob Stright. In 1968, the band signed with the Allied Records label. The result was a self-titled album released in January of the next year. The band dissolved after that, but was quickly reborn under the same name. Still with Allied, the group tried once again to make a go of it, but by 1970 they gave in and moved on to other projects. In 1991, Reign Ghost's debut album was re-released.

http://visualmelt.com/Album-Of-The-Week-4-The-Baroques wrote:With song titles as preposterous as “A Musical Tribute to the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon,” who knows what the famed RnB label Chess Records was thinking when they decided to sign Milwaukee’s The Baroques in 1967. They did manage to stir up a little controversy with their anti-drug (so they claimed) song, “Mary Jane,” but besides that it looks like Chess was stuck with a very strange, unmarketable record. And don’t expect an onslaught of spacey sound effects and weird noises a la the early Pink Floyd, this is a less overt type of psychosis that slowly but surely embeds itself under your skin.

The Baroques - 1967

http://7-floor.blogspot.gr/2008/02/electric-toilet-in-hands-of-karma-1970.html wrote:tone cold classic US '60s heavy psych rock album that was released on the same label as Felt and Whalefeathers. The band came from Memphis and the album includes the awesome track "Within Your State Of Mind". Buddhist vibes meet Southern hippy rock with cosmic sound effects and trippy acid guitar work. Fantastic. Features a mini gatefold LP styled CD cover and improved sound quality.

Not a mega-blowout album, Just driving bluesy R&R with southern twang, growly lead vocal with black baptist church choir style backing. Vocals aside, it sounds like it was a studio live recording. Highlights include interplay between the lead guitar and Wurlitzer organ puncuated with erie moog effects and propelled by a solid rhythym section. Lyric wise, its largely a reiteration of the "Golden Rule". Some may find the first track corny, but overall the songs hold up better than a lot of stuff from that era by better known groups. A promising effort from a sadly ill-fated group. Two members died in a car crash within months of its completion and the group broke up. Anyone know what became of guitarist/songwriter Dave Hall?

http://www.allmusic.com/album/ladies-wc-mw0000150170 wrote:Credit to the band this much -- they actually went right ahead and started their album with a flushing toilet, living up to their name and album art (the latter provided by guitarist/organist Adib Casta, later to gain more fame for his paintings). That droll touch aside, Ladies WC's sole album, like that of many one-offs from the Latin American late-'60s rock scene, is caught somewhere between moments of individual flair and amiable imitation of obvious favorites. Reissued by the Shadoks label in 2004 as part of their continuing exhumation of various small-release rarities -- the original album only received a pressing of 4,000 in 1969 -- it's still one of the more enjoyable full-lengths to get a digital revival. In his liner notes, bassist Steve Scott, the one American member of the Venezuelan quartet and co-writer of most of the songs with Casta, speaks of their love of such acts as Paul Butterfield, early Steve Miller, Cream, and so forth.