Alphataurus - Live in Bloom. 2012 Italy

I bought the CD mainly to hear the fully realized versions of 'Ripensando E…' (7:36) and 'Valigre di Terra' (12:02), both tracks from the unfinished second album. As it turns out the former composition is an instrumental and so it wasn't quite as different as I expected. But 'Valigre di Terra' was the highlight of that archival release, and to hear it with vocals, makes this well worth the price of admission by itself. That along with the beautiful cover art (the CD is in the mini-LP format), painted by the same gentleman who impressed everyone with the brilliant triple fold out of the original 1973 album.

The LP leaves off these two aforementioned tracks, and IMO detracts from the primary reason to own this. The renditions of the debut album are all excellent, but not dramatically different.

Ownership: CD: 2012 AMS/BTF

7/12/12 (new entry)

Forgas Band Phenomena – Acte V. 2012 France

Patrick Forgas continues on with his 5th namesake Band Phenomena album. No surprises here if you're familiar with the great trajectory Forgas' career has taken since his early solo career from 1977 (has it been that long!?). What makes the Forgas Band Phenomena so great is the synergy of an instrumental 7 piece band. So in addition to the standard rock quartet of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums - you also have dedicated members providing violin, trumpet and sax/flute. The music is tight and energetic, while never forgetting that their main premise is to rock your britches off. How many progressive bands today forget this last component? Anyone familiar with the early to mid 1970s European jazz rock scene will find much to enjoy here. Forgas, in addition to writing and arranging all the compositions here, keeps everything moving forward with his fine drumming precision.

Ownership: CD: 2012 Cuneiform (USA). The CD cover is a nice homage to their debut Roue Libre album. Along with the CD, there is a full DVD of their NEARFest 2010 performance.

7/3/12 (new entry)

Barrett Elmore - Woodlands. 2012 Sweden

The first significant track here, 'The Creek', gives us a sleight of hand, as it purports that Barrett Elmore are coming from the neo-psych / shoegaze camp. But my fears were quickly removed by 'The Nixie', and the album manages to get weirder, more psychedelic and even progressive with each track. By the end of the album, on the 12 minute bonus track 'Psilocybe Semilanceata', Barrett Elmore are firing on all the right cylinders (or dropping all the right tabs). This is the kind of album one would expect to come out of the Subliminal Sounds stable with Gustav Ejstes writing the songs and Reine Fiske providing acid fuzz leads. File next to your three Smell of Incense albums.

Ownership: CD: 2012 Trail (USA)

7/2/12 (new netry)