Ampledeed - A is for Ampledeed. 2013 USA-California

Ampledeed is a new group from the Los Angeles area, who clearly have an affinity for the classic early 70s Canterbury scene - unwittingly it may appear. The genre itself has always been a favorite of the UTR, due to its highly appealing combination of melody and complexity. Other characteristics include fuzzy psychedelic tones and a jazzy rhythmic base. And the well studied Ampledeed succeed on all 4 accounts. Of course, much of the "analog" keyboard tones are derived from samples, but that's a small thing. It's the sound itself that counts, right? What's interesting to me is that the band themselves do not indicate that they know Caravan, Soft Machine, National Health, but rather the usual suspects of Pink Floyd, Yes, and King Crimson. So perhaps they came to the same conclusion of Dave Stewart and company, rather than as a direct influence. Even better as far as I'm concerned. I found myself, predictably I realize, enjoying the instrumental work as some of the vocal oriented songs can drag a bit. Really curious where the band goes from here.

Ownership: CD: 2013 private

11/30/13 (new entry)

Tripwave: A Retrospective Collection of Russian Psychedelic Progressive Music. 1989-2010 Russia

Starting from the beginning, which the label conveniently placed in chronological order:

Eastern Syndrome – Celt. 1989. A mix of unhinged psychedelia and 1980s New Wave songcraft and associated production qualities. Vocalist sounds like David Byrne, while the reckless psychedelic guitar abandon could be from an old F/I album circa “Space Mantra”. Some fine spacey sax as well. A little bit like the Saqqara Dogs overall here. It appears this track comes from an unreleased album called “Studio 13”. Fascinating stuff, and perfect for a compilation.

The Moon Pierrot – Moon Dream. 1990. Thick bass, happy rhythm guitar, danceable beats, sonorous vocals. Sounds like 1985 New Wave to me! But… I thought this was a psych prog collection? No, the  Moon Pierrot belongs somewhere else, despite some fine electric guitar about half way through. I like it anyway.

Do Major – To Rake Your Fingers Through the Grass. 1992. More slap bass, canned drums, and synthesized vocals. Guess we’re still in the New Wave “neo psych” section of the album? I should state that I find music like this quite good, even if not necessarily what I associate with terms like “psychedelic progressive”.  The guitar work here, in particular, is exemplary. As are the female vocals. I should investigate this band further.

Decadence – Dream #5: Love. 1999. Seven years on, and we’re still in 1980’s territory. Hmmm.  This is from an album that was released by Musea. I can hear influences from bands such as Porcupine Tree here. Apparently the album has a prog metal slant, though this track eschews the distorted muscle. Pig squealing guitar, however, is not omitted. Not bad though.

Disen Gage – Solaris. 2004. Moving along quickly from a chronological perspective. This track comes from their debut “The Screw-Loose Entertainment”, and musically sounds like a modern interpretation of the motorik side of the Krautrock house like Harmonia with some post rock heaviness applied. Excellent stuff. Gotta love a Russian band that utilizes, as their band name, a play on words with English.

Rada & Ternovnik – Interlude. 2004. Well here’s a band with a dozen albums and a gazillion musicians. Could be a commune band, or a professional troupe? I have no idea. The music treads within the confines of the cold and clinical King Crimson cookbook, yet with some splendid acid guitar leads. And then the wordless female vocals takes this to the exotic – the sublime.  Who are these guys? Jeez…. Spent most of my life tracking interesting obscure progressive rock down, and here’s a band with a ton of albums that no one knows about. Gnosis lists ELEVEN of them with exactly zero ratings between them.  My goodness.

Krtl – Soda. 2006. First group here that it doesn’t appear released anything prior.  Also the first band here that is giving me that Gong influenced space rock sound. Danceable psychedelic guitar driven space rock with synthesizer “splooshes”…. right…. Ozric Tentacles. I thought I was getting a whole CD of it. Well… fortunately I received something else. This track is good. So is the whole CD so far. Damn….

Deti Picasso – Happy End is Inevitable. 2006. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m a Russophile? This doesn’t fit a single bucket of music that I would normally enjoy…  yet, I’m loving this track! Missing Persons singing in Russian with heavy psych guitars, via… hell I have no idea what. Need to learn more….

Vespero – Inna Burst Into Tears. 2007. Now this is one I knew of prior. And those dogs at Trail know exactly what they’re doing!  I’m pretty much a Vespero fan boy, and yet they somehow found the absolute BEST track in the entire Vespero canon (from their debut CD “Rito”). When I think of exotic space rock with female vocals, this is the track that comes to mind. OMG. Brilliant in every way.

Kafedra.org – Entrance to Invisibility. 2009. Another band that is totally unknown. Despite the captures-the-imagination track title name, this one is a rather straightforward rock tune with spacey synths and female vocals. Maybe my least favorite song from this album.

Liompa – Thee. 2010. The last track from the comp also features a band without a recording history. Yet another band that propagates the space rock instrumental (guitar-bass-drums-percussion) with soft female vocals. Would really like to hear more from these guys!

Absolutely love the industrial apartment block photo that adorns the CD package.

Overall, a CD that comes highly recommended. I certainly learned a few things here.

My good friend Lev, who is from Russia, had the following insights about two of the bands mentioned above: "Rada & Ternovnik is a cult band led by the idiosyncratic singer Rada Anchevskaya, a good acquaintance of mine and a really talented lady. Basically you can never guess what you might find on their albums - the only constants in the lineup have been Rada herself and her husband Vladimir Anchevsky, and they are known for shifting styles and musical moods effortlessly. If I were asked to describe their music in one word, I'd go with psych - purely on the basis of Rada's shamanic vocals and loose improvisational structures of many pieces. However, in fact they often merge it with many other genres, from traditional folk to so-called "dark folk" with a lot of mysticism, from postpunk to atonal avant-garde jazz. Oddly enough, their latest lineup is the proggiest, featuring keyboards for the first time (played by Fedor Amirov).

Another band which I can heartily recommend is Deti Picasso - once again, led by my old acquaintance, brilliant singer Gaya Arutyunyan (together with her brother Karen - yes, it's a male name in Armenia where they hail from!). Sadly they disbanded a couple of years ago (although Gaya and Karen are now members of the equally excellent Budapest-based Wattican Punk Ballet), but up to that point they were basically acting as two different bands within one. The first one focused on their Armenian heritage - folk songs with a unique Deti Picasso twist, as well as self-penned tracks in a similar style. "Ethnic Experiments" and "Turbo Mairik" are albums that showcase this side of the band, and I'd very much recommend them as it might be easier for a foreigner to get into their Armenian repertoire (it essentially got them famous in Europe which led to their moving to Hungary on a permanent basis). However, I like their Russian side even more - epitomized on the albums "Glubina" and "Gerda". This is a truly genre-mixing, style-bending experience, from alternative rock to prog to avant to theater music and everything in between, with great lyrics and fantastic vocal and instrumental performances... Totally unique too, I'm struggling to think of any comparisons."

Ownership: CD: 2011 Trail

11/28/13 (new entry)

Phase - Midnight Madness. 1979 USA

Phase is smoking fusion first, instrumental progressive rock second. A great mix of instrumental dexterity, with complex compositions and ferocious playing. RTF meets Kenso; or Iceberg meets Transit Express for a more obscure reference.

So let's get Ken's quick summary of the background first: "Phase was keyboardist's Regan Ryzuk's band and they were based out of Montville, NJ. Two years later Regan released it under the Fusion Quartet "Comprovisations" title. It's a very good album that I think will floor a lot of people and it deserves to be more widely known."

Now let's get some impressions of the music. Midwest Mike says: "Instrumental progressive jazz rock of the highest caliber. From the very start this album explodes out and doesn't leave you with much room to catch your breath! Top notch musicianship with fiery solos of bass, piano, Moog and electric guitar. Odd and complicated time meters with killer trade-offs as well as incredible unison sections. This sometimes reminds me of Iceberg, a bit of Return to Forever and the Italian band Nova (at their peak). As mesmerizing at it is amazing! I believe once this gets known it will become a future rarity. Highly recommended to jazz rock, fusion and progressive rock fans."


The AC was brought into the action as well. He picked one up immediately and had this response: "Killer album! Really complex and edgy for a private fusion LP of this sort, almost getting avant-progish at times. I think the fact that the keys player uses a regular piano rather than a Rhodes also lends to this impression. Guitar gets quite ferocious at times, too. Love the ultra-technical music geek notes on the back of the sleeve! Wonder whatever happened to these guys? They really were top-notch players."

LP: 1979 Red Mark
CD: 2013 Modulus

Phase's one album pretty much escaped everyone's radar until Midwest Mike discovered it a couple of years ago. His discovery lead directly to the CD reissue, as well as our entry into the CDRWL. The 1981 second press has a different cover, band name and title (Fusion Quartet - Comprovisations). Ken reissued the CD with the preferable original cover, in exact detail similar to how the Japanese do it. The booklet contains unique liner notes from the participants from the original recording, plus the ultra-technical music geek notes from the LP (as the AC so appropriately put it). A superb reissue, that all fans of progressive fusion should look into.

Siddhartha - Trip to Innerself. 1998 Turkey

I've often thought that Turkey is a country that could - perhaps should - produce amazing psychedelic space rock albums. The indigenous music culture alone, outside of any rock influence, speaks to the exotic and... well... the psychedelic. But it really hasn't happened that way, even if you consider the more known stars of the 1970s like Baris Manco and Erkin Koray. Siddhartha at least made a sincere attempt at mixing the music of East and West. Though unfortunately it weighs too much towards the latter, and ultimately sounds like any number of bands from Europe emulating the various stages of instrumental Pink Floyd and the like. Still, there's much to admire here, in particular the title track, 'The Explorer', and especially 'Nervous Breakdown'.

For Middle Eastern psychedelic cosmic rock, it's hard to beat Agitation Free's Malesch (Germany 1972). And for modern bands, Astrakhan's Vespero is the gold standard for such a sound. But there's never too much of this type of music as far as I'm concerned, and I do hope Siddhartha do consider reforming in some form or fashion. Though it appears that one of the key contributors - namely Özgür Kurcan - sadly passed away in 2011.

Ownership: CD: 2009 Trail

Reissue of 1998 self-titled album.

11/27/13 (new entry)

Yuji Imamura & Air. 1977 Japan

Air's sole album features two side long tracks clearly influenced by the deep funk groove of mid 70s Miles Davis albums like Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea. No trumpet, but the saxophone is instead treated to sound similar. Much more flute and spaced out than classic Miles, but still plenty of wah wah guitar and dual percussion to get down with. A few jazzers from Japan were highly influenced by Miles Davis, and percussionist Imamura is one of the finest emulators I've heard to date. 

Ownership: CD: 2013 Sony / Three Blind Mice. Papersleeve.

1//09 (first listen); 11/23/13 (review / new entry); 11/20/24

Takeshi Inomata & Sound Limited - Sounds of Sound L.T.D. 1970 Japan

Nice bit of psych exploitation from Japanese jazz group. Beautiful flute/Hammond driven soundtrack styled pieces ('Theme-Mustache', 'Monster', 'Lullaby for Yuh' (haha, yea that's the spelling), 'Theme') are offset unexpectedly by the one 7 minute freakout on here: 'Scotland Scene', with its massive fuzz bass and psychotic electric guitar leads. Not near as insane (or frankly as sublime) as the 1971 followup "Innocent Canon", but this album is a heck of a lot of fun. Pick it up if you see it.

CD: 2013 P-Vine

CD comes in a fine mini-LP sleeve.