*Fripp & Eno - Evening Star. 1979 Antilles (LP) (1975). Much of the ambient electronic genre can be attributed to the early Fripp & Eno albums. No Pussyfooting features more raucous guitar rave-ups from Fripp and clearly was an influence on Richard Pinhas and his future group Heldon. You can also hear Fripp & Eno in the works of many German artists as they moved away from their Krautrock roots into something more serene and surreal. Frequent Eno collaborator Cluster being probably the most well known. Evening Star is more subdued than No Pussyfooting, though no less engaging. The shorter songs on Side 1 even reflect what we hear coming from Jade Warrior during this era, given the Asiatic presence. The side long piece is more Germanic in tone. Deep space like early Klaus Schulze but with searing guitar, similar to a Gottsching contribution. When I get around to putting together a King Crimson page, I'll add these Fripp & Eno albums in there, for a lack of a better page. (12/6)
*Gil Trythall - Luxikon II / Echospace. 1980 Pandora (LP). Now here's something different. Found this at a thrift shop with another album of his, that's actually quite famous. It's called Switched on Nashville (Country Moog) and might be the craziest album I've ever heard. This album is nothing of the sort, a very academic electronic album commissioned by a couple of dance and multi-media companies in Atlanta. You wouldn't miss the front cover, presenting itself like the coolest private album at the record store. The back cover will give you some pause. He looks all the world like your local middle-aged short-haired church organist, sitting behind the Big Moog and a bank of wires. And he's happy. You can't be happy! lol. Actually he was a professor at the University of West Virginia when this was released. In any case, how is the music? It's excellent as it turns out. This is not Klaus Schulze or any of his followers. It's a serious electronic album that changes moods, textures, and rhythms throughout. Not ambient in the slightest. And nothing like Berlin School. Nor Gershon Kingsley. 1980 is a little late to rely heavily on the big Moog, but here is one example. Gets pretty wild on Echospace. Have to keep this one. (12/2)
Hoverkraft - Schwebende Musik. 2021 Special Low Frequency (MC). This tape was recommended to me by my record store partners at What's Left here in Colorado Springs. Hoverkraft is the name of an electronic project headed by Paul Riedi, here under the name of Wolfgang Sebastian Reidl. This appears to be his 5th album using this moniker. Everything is in German, and the album is clearly an homage to early Klaus Schulze, Deuter, Tangerine Dream (Zeit), and the rest of them. Paul Riedl's primary band is Blood Incantation, a highly regarded Denver based experimental death metal group, who mix in all sorts of prog and space rock into their mix. I haven't dug into their material yet, but probably someday will. The What's Left brothers are good friends of the band, and Paul in particular. And Paul's knowledge of the German masters is impressive, more so than one might expect. He's one of my LP customers via the shop, who buys some of my prog albums, though I haven't met him personally. Interesting to note he plays a Moog Prodigy, a synthesizer I once owned and sold to Ron Boots. Schwebende Musik is of the slow build ambient variety, and I find it to be a bit dull honestly. Really wanted to like this, for obvious reasons, but not really my kind of electronik musik. (10/30)
Synergy - Cords. 1978 Passport (LP) clear vinyl. Earlier this year I concluded Larry Fast's second album Sequencer with "I have his next album on LP here in the stacks. We'll see if it fares any better." Hmmm, not really. I figured he'd take a stab at the Schulze / Tangerine Dream sound at some point, but I guess he never did. It's more cinematic (in the traditional sense) and classical oriented. From 1978, this sounds more like a 1985 product, which I suppose should be a compliment. It is high praise from a technology standpoint, but not a musical one. Either they over-pressed these albums, or they sold gobs of copy in their day, as they remain somewhat ubiquitous in the marketplace. I need to lay off future Synergy titles unless I see some solid financial gains. Glad I never pursued these real time in the early 80s, as I'm sure I would have been disappointed. (9/4)
Ned Lagin - Seastones. 1990 Ryko (MC) (1975). I remember this album being something of a big deal when I first started going to record shows in the mid to late 1980s. Seems it was in high demand at the time. I never inquired further once I found out it was Grateful Dead related. I had presumed this album was in their west coast psych meets hippie blues meets country style. I could not have been further mistaken. This is really quite an intriguing release. Essentially it's serious electronic music, closer to Stockhausen than Tangerine Dream. Perhaps Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht could be thrown out here as a comparison. It's atmospheric electronic music of the blip-bleep variety, but very well done. Apparently Lagin, Lesh, and Garcia would perform music like this during interludes of their concerts from 1974. Definitely an academic left turn for a band with no such desires otherwise. Great thrift shop find, though I don't need to keep this. As noted elsewhere, I'll eventually build out a Grateful Dead page and include this. (7/20)
* - Keeping for the collection
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