Shampoo - Volume One. 1971 Belgium

Shampoo were a band from Belgium, who released this one album before dispersing. Though not as revered as many other bands from this classic era, they just happen to play in my personal favorite style. That is to say - jazzy psychedelic progressive rock. Shampoo are in the same genre as Hot Rats era Zappa, Moving Gelatine Plates, Xhol Caravan, and Mad Curry - the latter of which the band obtained the majority of its members from. Throughout, you'll hear plenty of sophisticated ensemble work, with energetic solos (love the electric sax work), and psychedelic dreamy vocals. Not all is a success (the opening straight-up psych track; the overlong drum solo on Side 2), but still worthy of your attention. Overall it's a product of a much missed period in music history.

LP: 1971 Motors (France). Day-glo pink gatefold cover. Online acquisition (2000)

There's some disagreement on the date of release. Here's what I wrote for Discogs: "Looking at our LP copy. There's a stamp inside the gatefold: 17 Nov. 1971. There's also a sticker on each label side: JB 17.11.71. Have to presume that was the receipt date for the original owner (we purchased this copy in 2000). 1971 is also a date used by many other sources going back before the internet (not all sources of course). These data points have lead to the change here. There is no date on the LP itself. We're not seeing any corroboration for the 1972 date on this entry, so moving to 1971 unless other concrete data -emerges." (1971 was later corroborated by another user).

Recently learned (6/5/24) that this album was reissued on CD by a legit label called HKM.

2000; 8/2/09; 9/14/19 (new entry)