Albums that need Reissue - The 11s

OK here's the next tier. There's lots so I'm not going to review or blurb them and if anyone whose reading knows something here has had a legit CD copy I don't know of, by all means I'd appreciate the correction. Some of these I probably haven't listened to or researched in as much a decade. So here we go...

Ablution - st
Cannonball Adderley - Experience in E/Tensity/Dialogues
Arco Iris - Agitor Lucens V
Association P.C. - Erna Morena
Babia - Oriente o Occidente
Berits Halsband - st
Toto Blanke - Spider's Dance
Toto Blanke/Electric Circus - Live at the Quartier Latin
Blim - Zero (MC)
Wolfgang Bock - Cycles
Brave New World - Impressions on Reading Aldous Huxley
Cai - Mas Alla de Nuestras Mentes Diminutas
Dr. Dopo Jam - Fat Dogs & Danishmen
Dragon - Scented Gardens for the Blind (due out in the near future)
Emergency Exit - Sortie de Secours
Franco Falsini - Cold Nose
Flame Dream - Calatea
Flame Dream - Elements
Flasket Brinner - st
Flying Island - st
Fondation - Sans Etiquette (MC)
Good God - st
The Graced Lightning Side
Group 1850 - Paradise Now
Peter Michael Hamel - The Voice of Silence (this may have been used as bonus material)
Happy Family - Flying Spirit Dance Live (MC)
Ibis - st (Sweden)
L'Infonie - Volume 3333
Kolinda - 1514
Kvartetten Som Sprangde - Kattvals
Dave Liebman - Lookout Farm
Michel Madore - Le Komuso a Cordes
Magdalena - Lanean Sartzen
Michel Magne / Elements - L'Eau
Alain Markusfeld - Le Desert Noire
Bennie Maupin - Slow Traffic to the Right
Memoriance - Et Apres
Metropolis - st
Micah - I'm Only One Man
Barry Miles & Silverlight - st
Mtume - Rebirth Cycle
Organisation - Tone Float
Oriental Wind - Chila-Chila
Oriental Wind - Bazaar
Oriental Wind - Live in Bremen
Het Pandorra Ensemble - III
Panta Rei - st
Parrenin/Fromont/Lefebvre - Chateau dans les Nuages
Dave Pike Set - Album
Dave Pike Set - Salamao
Placebo - 1973
Ram - Where? In Conclusion
A.R. & Machines - Echo
Dieter Reith - Knock Out
Yochk'o Seffer Neffesh Music - Ima
Shakti - BBC In Concert
Sunbirds - st
Third Ear Band - New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanach (MC)
Tri Atma - Instead of Drugs
Uludag - Mau Mau
Michal Urbaniak's Fusion - Atma
Michal Urbaniak - Fusion III
Stomu Yamashta's East Wind - Freedom is Frightening
Zanov - Moebius
Zypressen - st (MC, 1992)

Jumbo - Vietato ai Minori di 18 Anni?

In 1973 the Italian blues band turned progressive rock juggernaut released their third and final studio album, leaving behind nothing until Mellow decided to add a black eye to their rep with one of the worst demos of all time (from a far later period) and a balanced but perhaps slightly uninspired 1990 live show from when they opened for Magma and IQ, perhaps one of the first examples of a concert where two different audiences shared a venue. But with Vietato ai Minori di 18 Anni? the band left behind what is probably one of the finest testaments of the Italian progressive rock movement from the 70s. With an almost Dylanesque, poetic soul the band took their almost folksy song-oriented sound, already developed into progressive rock by the time of DNA, and made one of the most startlingly consistent yet experimental albums to come out of the scene. Where PFM were blazing pastoral Moodys and Crimsonesque soundscapes and Banco were almost turning classical music into rock opera, Jumbo were almost the perfect example of how you could throw almost everything else into the stew. Over and over again, fragile ranconteur-like songs, sung by a raucous, earthy bard explode into different directions, sometimes expelling the most incredible rock riffs, at others meandering dreamily into dissonant and swelling soundscapes, and sometimes even being bent Dali-style in the studio, as if the whole session was being operated by guest Franco Battiato. All of this is delivered in the rawest of emotions, an expressiveness that arises from gravel, rock, anger, rage, repression, viciousness and yet a basic humanity, a wistfulness like a wise old man retelling a life story. There's absolutely no note wasted on this, even on the experimental, tortured "Gil" one is rapt as the anguish is wrapped in layers of mellotron, spiralling VCS3s from Battiato and eventually an Aktuala-like tabla beat from Lino "Capra" Vaccina. It all reminds you that progressive rock will just never be the same again, as if modern music was just too self-aware or post-modern for there to ever be this combination of sheer naivete and musical brilliance again, as if a similar cornucopia of moods and styles would prematurely decay due to the looming fist of musical culture and reference and knowing mockery so prevalent today. What was once letting it flow is now chutzpah but here you have a jigsaw of original brilliance that actually centers on a rough blues singer strumming on an acoustic guitar, at its heart there's such a depth of soul that in the end it leaves you ragged and most importantly like you've traversed gigantic differences in only 40 minutes. And not only is the music cohesive despite it bringing so many strands together, but woven through are some of the most catchy and immediate riffs and themes ever produced by the style, the equal to the greats of the era without the mistake of overburdening the music with concept, musical egos and excessive sentimentality. At the end one can't help but think of the bard packing up his strings and walking to the bar for a mug already looking ahead to the next stop.

Mike's List of Criminally Out of Print CDs

OK so now the Top 30 unreissued CDs are out of the way, I think it's time to tackle some CDs that I'd like to see again. This won't be as comprehensive, as if I own some really out of print CD already I won't post it here, as that would take some research to figure out what's gone or not. This is a list of discs I'd really like to see again as I missed them or sold them or whatever.

1. Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale

Edgar's got a serious penchant for adding graffiti to his old art that's extremely frustrating to his fans and to date I haven't seen a single positive review of the redos of albums like Epsilon and Aqua, which apparently have been techno-fied and modernized and well, just about everything a classic fan doesn't want. I thought I'd read this has to do with conflict with Virgin, but nonetheless I can't think of much worse than dressing up old recordings (although perhaps we'd have to put one point in the Froese column for Green Desert). Anyway unlike Aqua, Epsilon's been out of print for ages and is prohibitively rare and not only that but the Virgin CDs were utterly abysmal sounding. In fact I actually owned this once and then got rid of it for that very reason, keeping a copy of the Brain LP but as these things go, I never listen to it and would do so had I had it on a CD or CD-R. But anyway this is one I don't expect to see despite it being the top one on my list. It's one of the best mellotron and electronics albums ever created, like the soundtrack to a prehistoric vista.

2. Hatfield & The North - Hatwise Choice

This is already out of print apparently but the small boutique outlet who distributed it pushed it outside the realm of viability for overseas customers by adding exorbitant postage and insurance charges (that is it would cost about $30 in the end for one disc). I have no idea if it would have any viability via a US reissue but I'd love to see it as it's a ripping collection of a band who was extraordinary live. Of course, what I'd really like to see is the full shows (for instance the bootleg of 3 BBC sessions that nearly everyone has is really one of the finest live comps of all time), but hey we're getting to fractions of fractions. Maybe I'd be the only left buying a 6 CD anthology of live Hatfield albums but then again maybe that would make paying for insurance reasonable.

3. Kaipa - Stockholm Symphonie

Released in very small quantities in Japan this is not only the best document of Swedish prog band Kaipa but includes some of the best Allmans-inspired guitarwork from Roine Stolt, slightly stretching out some of the comps and giving it all an amazing atmosphere. Just writing about this makes me wanna hear it but I bet 90% of the owners have a boot copy of some sort. I say make it a double if there's some more unreleased live material from the band and get it out there again. This is the main argument why they were Sweden's answer to Yes.

4. Can - The Peel Sessions

I expect one day we'll see another round through the Peel Sessions vaults so this is one I'm not terribly worried about, even if it's second only to the magnificent Tago Mago in terms of great Can. Although perhaps someone would have to license it out now such as what we've seen with Soft Machine's Peel Sessions. Would like to see the Gong sessions out again as well and I'm sure there are more I can't think of off hand.

5. Dan Ar Bras - Douar Nevez, Terre Nouvelle

Perhaps the closest the French folk scene ever got to progressive rock and featuring stalwart Magma (and I think Fairport) related musicians in the back up bands, this Hexagone release was always lost in distribution outside of Europe, usually only showing up in catalogs for $25 to $30 when you could find it, in fact it was quite a bit rarer than the Malicorne CDs were. With an LP and rip in hand, it's not terribly crucial, but I like it enough to want an original. His best album by far.

6. Gwerz - Au Dela

The very best work from the short lived French folk band Gwerz, this had a really epic feel I always found that transcended what can be a painfully hard to listen to genre (bombardes aren't to everyone's tastes and certainly not mine). But there's something lyrical, majestic and almost Dylanesque about this at times and I find it mesmerizing. But once I'd heard it it was already too late to find a hard copy. Musea even reissued their first and inferior release so I was hoping this would follow, but alas good Musea releases of any sort seem far and few between these days.

7. Steve Roach / Vidna Obmana - Circles and Artifacts

When doing an ebay sweep a couple years I went one or two items too deep and this was one of them, in fact I have absolutely no idea what I was doing unloading this, I think I wanted to thin up on a massive Steve Roach collection (mostly the first few albums, the guitar releases etc). Anyway I miss it, it was certainly right in line with the drony stuff they were doing around the black box era IIRC. Perhaps too, having it as part of a photo exhibition (nicely done but not really something I ever have time to sit down with) was partly the reason for letting it go, but now it seems to go for about $40 to $50, so I hope one day it gets its own CD release without the frills.

8. Ragnar Grippe - Sand

Bought this when it was released in small quantities only to realize, perhaps later that the CD was defective and a whole spot in the middle of the CD had peeled off killing half the CD. So I suppose I could sit with the original packaging and plop a CD-R inside knowing I paid my dues, but you know that really annoying collector thing just gnaws at you. Cuz this is a really cool pingy, weird synth album that's really like no other, it just has a unique one of a kind atmosphere. But I suppose a stopgap will have to do as I was not only surprised it ever got a CD release, but would be even more so to see it get a second one.

9. George Harrison - Wonderwall Music

With Beatlemania in full fling, this early Harrison instrumental album is one I'm not particularly worried about, I've seen it go in and out of print all the time, it's just that it's always been a bit pricy. But I've always found it so charming and surprisingly good for an album that gets little chat. Who knows maybe a search on Amazon right now would turn this up for a good price, it's included here based on my last search which showed a minimum $50 for a copy.

10. Motoi Sakuraba - Shining the Holy Ark

This is a step down from the first 9 on the list but I wanted to make it an even 10 and it gives me a chance to whine about how hard it is to get Sakuraba CDs outside of Japan. In the video game industry the man's a soundtrack titan but just when you think prog rock is a niche, pair it with video game music and it's like a niche in a niche. Sure, Motoi can get a bit too epic and corny at times, just a little syrupy for my taste, but I love it when he's high energy and spitting out incredible organ riffs over mellotrons and synths (and this comes from a guy who barely can stand most ELP and generally gets bored with keyboard trios). And I think it's just amazing that even to this day his video game soundtracks are prog through and through (such as Star Ocean: The Last Hope). Seriously there's nothing like battling evil with a Hammond B3 playing. Anyway I think Shining was his second released CD and it's not the only one I'd like to see, now that his debut Gikyokuonsou is also OOP as is Beyond the Beyond and maybe a dozen I don't even know.

Mike's Top 30 Unreissued Titles (Part 6 of 6)

And last and only slightly least...

26. Association P.C. - Rock Around the Cock

This unfortunately titled and covered masterwork is maybe only marginally the best of the five Association P.C. albums, of which only one seems to be reissued in the still all too slow MPS reissue series, which seems to be dallying with mediocre titles at the expense of masterpieces like this one (although I should cut them some slack as they initially took one of these off the list.) This is a rather perfect example of what the Europeans brought to the American jazz rock movement, a little bit of freakiness, a slightly askew and dissonant electricity to it and a rise and fall like breathing. Like the Chris Hinze albums mentioned earlier in this series, Courbois and co. start mellow and bring most of the work to screaming climaxes of intensity, all with a fuzzy subtlety than enhances the whole. As a sidebar, lets tag on Erna Morena to this title which if it didn't make this top 30 was only a few slots behind.

27. Peter Frohmader - Spheres

The last of his three early cassette releases and unlike Jules Verne Cycle and Orakel/Tiefe, I believe this one was released privately. It's a surprisingly inside release for the experimentalist but Frohmader's one of those guys I'd always wanted to hear do something inside and this spacy masterpiece foregoes the usual dark, macabre atmospheres for something a bit more Berlin school and a bit more new agey. It's gigantic on resonance and even beautiful in spots and is nothing at all like the Cuneiform albums to come which also concentrate a bit more on pure electronics but take it in a much weirder direction. So how about a two CD release, JVC, O/T and Spheres. Am I the only one who wants this?

28. Makam es Kolinda - s/t (aka Szelscend Utan)

Apparently this once was reissued on CD in Japan in micro quantities, or at least I remember seeing the catalog number at a store once, but at a time when I could have nabbed any Japanese reissue I wanted this one went in and out with a bang and when a disc is this rare, to the point where you know nobody who actually owns one, you have to still count it in the unreissued spot. This was the first of at least two collaborations between Hungarian and post-Hexagone label folksters along with the more Cage/Riley-esque Makam ensemble and it's possibly the very best work by either group. Recorded in the early 80s it definitely cants towards the Kolinda direction but excels in that it continues the band's progression from the early albums into more angular and progressive directions to create a lively East European gypsy folk prog that's weird, mystical and unmatched in its field.

29. Carnascialia - st

Like the previously mentioned album, this is another that came out on CD (apparently under the names of the original musicians rather than the Carnascialia band name) and disappeared almost immediately. Along with members of Area, the duo created a bizarre late 70s avant-folk release with the typical Arabian motifs and weirdness that area also sported, lots of unusual modal riffs that flirt with high energy while remaning almost toe tappingly tuneful. Not exactly progressive rock, like most Italian albums this late (such as Venegoni e Co., the first Mauro Pagani etc) its experimentation is more a collision in various world styles that includes just enough rock to make it buzz as well as a Battiato-like penchant for exploration and collage.

30. Clivage (Andre Fertier) - Regina Astris

An ancient and psychedelic world fusion with an impressive cover, the debut album of the Fertier-led Clivage, who released three albums, exudes the type of electricity built up from trancey type structures that got their cue from bands like Third Ear Band, Between, Oregon and Aktuala, Clivage approach the same formula from a more restrained base, with hints of classical music and jazz that would become more apparent on later albums, all of which I reviewed a while back here

The Beatles

Yes, I am fully down with the Beatlemania at the moment, I preordered the Stereo box something like a month or so before it finally came in the mail, and I am quite glad seeing some of the waiting times for the next production run. It came in a week or so ago and I'm all the way through Yellow Submarine and can barely wait to get Abbey Road in the player, in fact it would have been today but I left it at home, alas.

So some quick thoughts. I think everything sounds fantastic. While I've been afforded with copies of Dr Ebbets work and various mono versions and this and that I think I heard about the remaster project long enough ago that I was never in a hurry to hear the unofficial stuff and was kind of glad I waited. These all have the clarity and three dimensionality I was always hoping to hear and I'm still virtually stunned that the artists and so on managed to record so many of these classics on 4 and 8 track machines. But I suppose calling the Beatles remarkable is pretty obvious these days, it's not only true but fairly redundant.

I'll admit, I can easily give the first five albums very little attention. I do love songs throughout all five but I think when you take this part of their canon and realize that so much of this stuff really never became icons like so much of the post Rubber Soul material, that they weaken a little with time. Of course the great remastering did indeed pull me through listens of all of them and I'll probably give them another couple for respect, but Rubber Soul is where it starts for me, even if it's clearly the transitional record into Revolver. Things just get better and better. Putting on Magical Mystery Tour on mix with some other things with friends one night last week, late night, was just powerful, it's truly like looking a magnificent work of art from all sides, as if not only the songs, but the effects and production stand out in crystalline clarity. It's really hard not to envision the whole wide world of psychedelia and spirituality bubbling up from this well, not entirely true of course, but perhaps enough to be true. On Mystery and, naturally, Sgt Peppers there's a sense of innocence, wonder and timelessness that age just won't fade, it's just so redolent with the splendor of human creativity. Frankly I felt some pain readjusting Gnosis numbers after listens as albums like Peppers, the White Album and Abbey Road are just objective 15s in every way, they define shifts in the musical paradigm as clearly as anything possibly could. But at least I know I'm on my way with these.

So yes, in the thralls of Beatlemania I am.

Mike's Top 30 Unreissued Titles (Part 5 of 6)

21. Jukka Hauru - Information

Finnish guitarist with a Jimi Hendrix complex, like many guitarists had worldwide in the early 70s and perhaps half of his debut album has the overshadowing influence during some high energy workouts. The other half ranges between more songwriter oriented spots and some zanier moments, all of which manage to create an "in hold" dynamic that makes the guitar freak outs even more powerful when they show up. My more indepth review can be found here.

22. Peter Frohmader - Jules Verne Cycle

The Jules Verne this most reminds me of is 20,000 Leagues under the Sea due to a prevalance of bubbling synths. As I mentioned before with Orakel/Tiefe, this is one of the Auricle cassette releases and a mighty fine one at that, with an amazingly huge sound for the format, layered electronics and some great pulses moving it all forwars. It reminds me that the finest thing about Frohmader during so much of his early work is this great sense of science fictional imagination, one that never manifests as something geeky so much as mysterious, unusual and evocative. Often this one surpasses Orakel/Tiefe for me, depending on mood.

23. Limbus 3 - Cosmic Music Experience

A free music ensemble better known for the Ohr label album Mandalas (by Limbus 4), I've always preferred the earlier work due to its more vast atmosphere and instrumental panorama. Something of a precursor of bands like Aktuala, Between and the like, in this case the same-period albums by Don Cherry might also be a reference although like Mandalas, it doesn't have much in the way of jazz chops. Just a lot of drumming, droning, and varying noises by all sorts of instruments, none of them played particularly splendid, but nonetheless a beautiful chaos does arise from the collaboration. For now only a Germanofon bootleg seems to exist (and it's actually one of the better ones soundwise).

24. Zanov - Green Ray

Debut album by French synthesist who manages to create a Berlin inspired electronic album with some of the thickest analog sounds on record thanks to the ARP 2600, VCS3 and the like. IIRC the Green Ray's one of those theosophy inspired ideas and a Jules Verne book, all named from the solar phenomenon where the sun temporarily gets a green flash around it during sunset or sunrise. This differs from the usual Berliner style by the sequences being fairly slight for the most part and for an unusual dark atmosphere to it. Similar in ways to Wolfgang Bock Cycles when it's not in Moondawn mode.

25. Mars Everywhere - Industrial Sabotage

Review here. Great US mix of space rock and electronic tendencies and their prime effort.

Mike's Top 30 Unreissued Titles (Part 4 of 6)

16. Chris Hinze Combination - Sister Slick

One can not start a large list without expecting it to change even during the duration and this 70s Hinze album put an immediate dent in the top 30 with a first listen. Like Mission Suite, this is just titanic, intense, creative and energetic jazz rock in that early 70s idiom where the style hadn't quite crystallized into the quasi-Return to Forever-ish style it would in just a couple years ago, in fact this is actually kind of hard to compare to other jazz rock bands in that it manages to stay much more in the rock circle than many of its contemporaries. Very few new albums manage to bring this much grinning delight to my musical intake, it's the kind of record where it's difficult to do anything else as it just constantly begs for your attention due to the musical chemistry and their absolute mastery of the rise and fall of energy with playing. Honestly this is likely to chart a lot higher than 16 when all is said and done and could easily move up into my top 5. It's crazy to think that the only reissued album from this era is basically soundtrack music when there are monsters like this still in the vault.

17. Emmanuel Booz - Dans Quel Etat J'Erre

Booz is now an actor, in fact I believe he starred in one of the Bourne movies, if I've got the IMDB citation correct, but over his long career he managed to get out four solo albums, starting with an early French version of Alice's Restaurant, likely to be lost on anyone not speaking the language, all the way up to this torturous and delirious progressive rock masterpiece, where finally the level of lyrics and vocals gets the right balance with twisted and incredibly well-played instrumental segments. It's a short one and I've forgotten the list of fairly high profile musicans who helped out with this, but it's also quite sweet, three tracks that you'd think Musea would have knocked off a long time ago, but like Ma Banlieue Flasque and Eider Stellaire this one's long overdue (and I'd throw his third Clochard in there for good measure as well, even if it would fall much lower on a list like this).

18. Michel Madore - La Chambre Nuptiale

Progressive rock fans, including my cohort here, prefer Madore's more overtly progressive rock first album, and while it's certainly a nice one, I think his second, electronic piece is the more overtly original and interesting of the two, with a view to the atmospheric and concept. Very different from the German styles so popular at the time and the French scene it was perhaps part of due to the label (Madore's Canadian), Madore drew more on concepts of musique concret to fashion the music and there's hints of Pierre Henry in this work as well as hints of Wendy Carlos Sonic Seasonings in there, with a combination of huge electronic soundscapes merged with found and recorded sounds. It's huge, heady, and somewhat mystical given that the concepts of marriage are often alchemical metaphors. And the production's a lot better than on the first as well, which doesn't hurt. Where the debut seems to be practically a predestined Prog Quebec release, the question is whether this one fits their agenda or not given it probably plays to a different or at least expanded audience. I'd call dibs on both.

19. Von Zamla - No Make Up

Apparently the live Cuneiform release was created as something of a substitute for No Make Up, with the idea that it was never destined to be a CD release, which would be a crying shame as it's be the best of the third incarnation of the Samla Mammas Manna family, in fact their best release since Familesprickor. To my ears there's just a lot more kinetic energy and tight compositions at work here and I don't think the live release quite rises to the level of the album except for in a couple spots. Perhaps a precursor to the Swiss band Nimal in some ways.

20. Pinguin - Der Grosse Rot Vogel

Superb German progressive rock album and a very different one as it diverts the usual expectations by being more English inspired than the usual German release but then does the same type of diversion by actually singing in their own native language rather than using English, perhaps making it one of the few albums from that country to create this kind of flip flop. I hear quite a bit of Canterbury in it which probably makes its closest cousins bands like Brainstorm or even the Tortilla Flat album I mentioned yesterday. Tom put up a review or blurb on this one recently on this blog or the reissue wish list blog, so there's little need to add to that, accept I think we're both in accord on getting this one out to the public.