McChurch Soundroom - Delusion. 1971 Switzerland

One of the most prized Krautrock albums from a collector's standpoint. McChurch Soundroom were one of the early albums on Pilz, before the label became a bastion of Germanic folk psych. You won't find a more dedicated and enthusiastic fan of classic 70's Krautrock than moi, but even for a biased cheerleader like me, this album has to rank as a slight disappointment. In the end, it's pretty much basic UK styled heavy rock, with some flute and a few progressive rock moves. Rather generic overall, and certainly puzzling how it's gained such a lofty reputation.

Former ownership: LP: 2015 Ohrwaschl. Online purchase (2020). Straight up reproduction of the original gatefold with a xerox of the original Pilz hype sheet. 

Originals are super expensive, and the most sought after original LP on the legendary Pilz label. It was never reissued on LP by Pop Import like most Pilz albums in the 1980s were. Ohrwaschl owns the reissue market here and the album is basically in production.  Nowadays you can get the LP in your favorite color, presumably to match with your latest Smart Phone. Ay-yi-yi. 

1997; 11/12/16 (review); 9/25/20 (update new entry)

Far East Family Band - Parallel World. 1976 Japan

While Germany is most known for being at the forefront of electronic psychedelic music, Japan certainly had its share of cosmic travelers. One of the best of these groups was Far East Family Band, a band who would gain some stature throughout the world during the latter part of the 1970s. 

Klaus Schulze was one such luminary to be attracted by this large Japanese ensemble. Helping produce their early albums (the first two albums are very similar, the latter of which was re-recorded and sung in English, and other slight variations), Schulze saw an opportunity to promote cosmic rock all over the globe. However, I always felt the debut album/successor tried too hard to be the next Dark Side of the Moon. The instrumental bits are great only to be ruined by sensitive pop ballads - not Far East Family Band's strong suit I'm afraid.

But it all came together on Parallel World. Focusing on their instrumental cosmic sound and pretty much foregoing the pop commercial-oriented songs, the six-piece Far East Family Band unleashed a gem that easily could have found itself on the Kosmische Kouriers label. In fact, the recording comes closest to sounding like the first Cosmic Jokers album with more focus given to the whooshing synthesizers than the guitars (Schulze's influence?). As one can guess, the two keyboard players are featured most prominently, and it's hard to imagine that Far East Family Band actually had two guitarists as well!

The album opens with 'Metempsychosis' (Arzachel anyone?) which is a tribal drum and synthesizer atmospheric backdrop piece that sets the stage for 'Entering' which contains some intense fuzz bass and a ripping guitar sequence among the 12 minutes of keyboard ecstasy. Brilliant, and this is the finest track Far East Family Band has ever recorded! 'Kokoro', thankfully, is a short psych ballad. This is the sort of piece their first albums featured, so one can get a brief whiff of this style. The side long closing title track sounds like a long-lost Galactic Supermarket recording and aptly finishes a masterwork of cosmic progressive space rock.

Ownership: CD: 2009 Super Fuji. Purchased new online upon release. Fine mini-LP with the first press cover and original poster. One has to be very careful when looking for reissues of this title. There are only 2 legitimate presses that exist, as I write this. There are numerous pirate editions, so be careful!

3/3/01 (Gnosis) 

Le Orme - Verita Nascoste. 1976 Italy

After the disappointing commercial effort Smogmagica, Verita Nascoste is a nice return to form for Le Orme. Having acquired a full time guitarist for the previous effort, Le Orme had a new sound to experiment with. Not that Le Orme do much with it. On the contrary, the guitar seems to only add color and little else. By now, Le Orme are completely a song-based rock band, though more complex than their American contemporaries. This quality is displayed clearly on Verita Nascoste, where Le Orme's unique style makes for an overall enjoyable listening experience. 'In Ottobre' is an excellent example of how Le Orme could incorporate their progressive era sound into a tight commercial style rock framework. Throughout, Aldo Tagliapietra's voice is as wonderful as ever. There's even some nice violins on the pensive title track. While not as essential as their classic progressive rock albums, Verita Nascoste is a very pleasant listen, and a fine addition to the Le Orme catalog.

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I have to say on this revisit, the album continues to improve to my ears. And I don't say that about many albums anymore...

Ownership: LP: 1976 Philips. Own 2 copies. The first one I bought was in a Omaha, Nebraska record store way back in 1989 and has a 3 hole punch on the cover to designate it as a cutout. Over the years, it has become a sentimental favorite, and one of my most treasured albums (I have my personal reasons as to why). Sometime within the last 10 years, I bought another without sale marks, probably because it was cheap. The LP features a wonderful gatefold cover too. 

3/11/01 (Gnosis); 9/21/20 (new entry)

Area - 1978 Gli Dei Se Ne Vanno, Gli Arrabbiati Restano! 1978 Italy

An interesting close out to Demetrio Stratos' career before his untimely death. Starts off in strong fusion territory, but ultimately goes all over the place. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've never been a huge Area fan - in fact of all the bands that I haven't embraced over the years, it would seem Area would be the one that I'm the most diametrically opposed. That's not to say I don't enjoy their albums, I most certainly do, but they have long spells of experimental noise that doesn't appeal to me. When reflecting on the band, the element I enjoy most are the vocals, which ironically might be the most experimental aspect to their sound. In the scheme of things, as strange as '1978 Gli Dei Se Ne Vanno, Gli Arrabbiati Restano!' is within the Area discography, I'd probably rank it 3rd behind 'Arbeit Macht Frei' and 'Crac!'. Wouldn't expect to receive much support for that position. 

Ownership: LP: 1978 Ascolto. Nice gatefold cover with full recording details and photos. Acquired online in 2004.

9/21/20 (new entry)

Klaus Schulze - Body Love. 1977 Germany

Well it's Klaus Schulze circa 1977, so there's no surprises here at all. It's music that was used for a pornographic film, but the music really doesn't match the topic. It's more rhythmic than Mirage, in line with Moondawn perhaps. If you're a Schulze fan, it's one to add to the collection, but this isn't one of his more revolutionary albums.

Ownership: LP: 1977 Metronome. This is the original with the movie set shots. Certainly wasn't going to do well here in the States looking like that (and other more conservative countries back in 1977), so they made an "export version" that was considerably less risque. I've owned this copy for many years, snatched up on ebay.

Le Stelle di Mario Schifano - Dedicato A... 1967 Italy

As noted below, yet another 20+ year delay in hearing an album. My score was pretty high on this one, so I expected to lower it as my tastes have changed on items such as this. Not at all! I still enjoy the side long freakout, though I found myself admiring more the second side, which contains some fine psychedelic pop tracks with excellent melodies. Groundbreaking album in so many ways, especially for Italy.

Ownership: LP: 1999 Akarma. Originals are famously expensive, a true 4 figure rarity. This is one of those albums where I bought the CD (Mellow) and shortly thereafter picked up the LP (2000?) - likely at Amoeba in San Francisco - mainly for the cover. Wow - glad I did. What an amazing package this is to behold (original libretto; liner notes). I never heard the LP copy until this past week. Sounded great to me. By most accounts, this one falls into their legit release category.




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Magma - Retrospektiw I-II. 1981 France

Hadn't heard this in 25 years - and recalled nothing about it. Well it's live Magma, so the surprises are about nil at this point. It's a spirited show, but pales against Magma Live Hhai, or even some of the released archival 70s shows that have come out in recent years. My score went down a bit, but still has to be considered essential for Magma fans.

Ownership: CD: 1994 Seventh. Nice fatbox 2 CD set. Don't think I ever had this one on LP,  and this CD would have been my first and only copy. No extras are provided.

The Eleventh House - Level One. 1975 USA

I personally feel that Level One is a half step up from the debut. All the edgy instrumental work has stayed in, but with stronger songwriting this go round. Coryell's fiery guitar work remains intact, and there's quite a few melodies to latch onto. A very good fusion album. As for the cover, I think we can lay claim that Coryell is the original Leisure Suit Larry...

Ownership: LP: 1975 Arista. Just recently picked up the LP at a local garage sale. Surprised I hadn't run into it prior within the last 18 months, given its commodity status. Admittedly I wasn't looking for it at the local shops. This replaced the basic Wounded Bird CD that made up the original entry.

2/14/13

Maquina - Why? 1970 Spain

Maquina represent the earliest forays into psychedelic music for Spain, similar to fellow countrymen Cerebrum. Coming from Barcelona, their Catalan roots look north to France for inspiration, and one can hear snippets of Les Goths, Omega Plus, Dickens, even the Chico Magnetic Band. The album opens with its gem 'I Believe', a beautiful piano led piece, with a gorgeous melody and some wicked fuzz. The 2 part, 25 minute title track is a loose jam for the most part, and the length takes quite a bit out of its bite. Had this been consolidated into 10 minutes, it would have been a marvel. Again, it's hard to look past the psychedelic guitar here, as he's definitely in "fire" mode most of the time. It's a short album, and even worse, it's short on ideas. On the plus side, when it does fire on all cylinders, the album is sublime. And for the historical record, that is 1970 Spain, it's quite an extraordinary accomplishment.

Ownership: LP: 2004 Wah Wah. Recent online acquisition. Super reissue with a poster, full liner notes (in Spanish and English), and great sound. This replaces the CD on PDI that was the source of the original entry.

6/6/18

UMR week of Sep 20

And then.... he went silent.

Many moving parts in the last month. Sure, there was the usual work issues. It was a great month for my career, so no complaints. My efforts contributed directly to the news in the last 2 weeks. If you know who I work for, and you Google the company, then it will become apparent what I've been doing. 

Then there was the jury duty saga. Oh boy, is that a story. It only lasted one day, but it was this close to lasting 3 months to a year! That would have been the end of me.

And then finally, I've been reassessing my collection in depth. Primarily the CDs. Just too much here, and it's time to start letting go. I love my CD collection, but there's too much dead weight. And there's no more space. Contrarily, the LP collection continues to grow. Always looking for that "best" copy as well.

Anyway, threw out a couple of unknowns here for you to learn about, that I had prepared a month ago. There's so many great 45s I have to share with you all, and I will be getting back to that shortly.  The unknown blog will be kicking off soon too. And the collection cleanup project has been nonstop - so lots to report there as well.

I probably will go back to adding as I go, and dropping the weekly format. I'll keep these rambling free-associating notes going though...

See ya soon.