Roman Bunka ~ Germany

Dein Kopf ist ein Schlafendes Auto (1980)

If you've read enough of my ramblings on this blog you'll have probably noted that I'm a huge fan of guitarist Roman Bunka. He's one of those uniquely gifted artists that never disappointed, and yet is widely unknown. He recently passed away last year with barely a mention. He had found the perfect bandmate in Christian Burchard, and the two ensured Embryo would never be tempted by commercialism. Outside of Embryo he's most known in world music and film circles, as he became fascinated with, and ultimately a master of, the oud.

Dein Kopf ist ein Schlafendes Auto (Your Head is a Sleeping Car) is Bunka's only rock oriented solo album, and that's a pity as one can tell the creative juices are just beginning to flow. Bunka's background is on full display here making for a very disparate, but ultimately satisfying album. This is miles away from most progressive solo artists of the era anxious to demonstrate that they too can release pop slop like everyone else. You won't get a 'Funny Feeling' here (Steve Hackett if you must ask). I wouldn't even know how to qualify the album's opener... maybe a mutant Can updated for the 80s with a patented Embryo styled finish? This is followed by 'No More Jogging' which sounds like 'Lost Scooters' with Garden Wall's Alessandro Seravalle on vocals (deep dive reference, but if you know Garden Wall, then you know it's pretty crazy). The following two tracks demonstrate Bunka's love for Asian music and provides a nice, if somewhat jarring, contrast. This gets us to Side 2, and it's here we get the highlights of the album. Now we're in Embryo's jazzy-ethno-psych-jammy phase of the late 70s, something I'll never tire of. B1 has a killer psych sequence towards the end. Be sure to get ahold of the CD as well, as it features another great track, as Bunka covers 'On the Corner' era Miles Davis on a 10 minute excursion with his own material. Overall the album is nearly impossible to categorize. Is it world fusion, no wave, psychedelic, jazz rock? Yes. For categorization purposes, progressive rock it is. 

Ownership: 

1996 ATM (CD). Booklet with informative liner notes and the aforementioned key bonus track. Acquired in 1996.

1980 private (LP). Acquired in 2013.

1996; 2010; 11/29/17; 9/7/23 (review / new entry)

S.T. Mikael - Soul Flower. 1996 Sweden

S.T. Mikael (Mikael Sundstrom) was one of those born-too-late types who followed his own muse. His earlier, more obscure albums, tend to me more popular with his followers. To me, they sound more like a guy still learning how to compose and play. There's charm in that, and there's also some hits with the many misses. However, by 1996, it all came together for Mr. Sundstrom. Soul Flower is a sprawling double LP opus that is all over the place, but definitely conjures up the spirit of the original Krautrock movement. This album is slathered in atmosphere, that most unique type of sound that we associate with the art loft in Berlin circa 1971. I've said it many times, but it's difficult to pull that off after the fact, as it's nigh impossible to eliminate contemporary influences. S.T. Mikael managed to do that. He has a few albums, so if looking for which to start with, I'd suggest Soul Flower.

Ownership: LP: 1996 Xotic Mind. Purchased new online upon release. Double LP set. Basically it's a colorful folder (like the ones from grade school) inside of a plastic bag. Comes with a cool booklet insert. Very homemade looking.

The Mandrake Memorial - 3 Part Inventions. 1969 USA-Pennsylvania (archival)

3 Part Inventions was originally to be the album that followed Medium, The Mandrake Memorial's sophomore effort. This second album is where the band's interest in experimental music began to take hold. So much so, that founding member Micheal Kac bolted from the scene (amicably I might add). Traveling to London in the summer of 1969 to record, The Mandrake Memorial seemed on the verge of releasing their breakthrough album. But the producer, the well known and respected Shel Talmy, thought their brand of music to be hideous and quit. That left the band on their own, without any support of the British music unions, to finish what they started. Once complete, a couple of publications announced the imminent release of 3 Part Inventions.

Of course that never transpired. The label wanted them to rerecord the album, which they dutifully did, and that lead to their final effort Puzzle. In retrospect, it's hard to argue with the label here. The album doesn't really gel together. It's a set of disparate ideas and it's not crisp at all. As an archival album, however, this disparity works completely in its favor. We're hearing a band at the vanguard of music that only groups such as Pink Floyd were exploring back then. The blueprint for Krautrock honestly.

The first 3 tracks all would end up on Puzzle. I didn't compare them to the album proper, but here they seem like 3 random songs that fly by without notice. The album begins to come together on the excellent previously unreleased 'Part of My Dreams'. Here's where the Pink Floyd references start to come out. The primitive synthesizers and trippy tones are what makes this era of music so special. 'Wouldn't You Like It?' was also unreleased, and as the band notes later, should have been the hit single of the album. 'Bucket of Air' of course is the landmark track from Puzzle, from an experimental point of view that is. This version, which I'm sure is different than Puzzle's, is quite excellent as well. You could just picture these guys in front of some strobe-light film extravaganza in Berlin circa 1970. 'Witness the End' comes from Medium, but is a new tripped out version. These latter duo of tracks were to make up Side 2 of 3 Part Inventions. Way ahead of their time. The Mandrake Memorial are far more cohesive than a band like fellow Americans' Friendsound, but the music has this similar go-for-broke attitude.

That concludes the album itself. There are two more tracks thrown on, an unreleased version of 'Cassandra' and 'The 12th Brigade' a track that was left off of Medium. Too bad on the latter, as it's quite excellent psychedelic rock.

For fans of Puzzle era Mandrake Memorial, 3 Part Inventions is a must pick up. Otherwise it's probably going to be too "out there" for fans of just their earlier material.

CD: 2016 Flashback (UK)

The CD booklet has an encyclopedic amount of info regarding the full history of the band. Though oddly only a small fraction is dedicated to the 3 Part Inventions portion of their career. Also has photos, concert posters, that sort of thing. The album is taken from the original masters reel. Essential for fans of the band.

Pseudo Buddha ‎- 3 Months In Fat City! - Hooka-Jooka Vol. IV. 2002 USA

I had been impressed by San Antonio based Pseudo Buddha's contribution to the Fluorescent Tunnelvision space rock anthology. A lot of bands today exist to create loose, jamming, psychedelic music and Pseudo Buddha are one of the best. Four long tracks were culled from even longer jams (on 4 different dates) and spliced together for a truly mind blowing cosmic freakout. Not a lot of wasted notes, which is truly remarkable. Maybe it's in the editing, and I'm all for a good editing - especially when it comes to improvisational music (if only more bands took a page from this playbook). Imagine Agitation Free on Second jamming with Amon Duul II on Yeti. Many sounds are deployed - including exotic stringed instruments, winds, hand percussion, and analog electronics. This album captures the true spirit of Krautrock.

Personal collection
CD: 2002 Dogfingers

Originally reviewed: May 15, 2004

Chillum. 1971 England

Chillum is basically the third Second Hand album - and is in reality - a series of loose instrumental jams while auditioning for a new guitarist. Urged on by a French industry friend, the band was encouraged to release the tapes as a mysterious underground group. And thus the legend of Chillum began. So while conservatory compositional awards are out of the question, the album does work well within a 1971 English underground context. The epoch's instrumentation, production styles, and attitude are in abundance here. Good period piece that delivers exactly what it promises.

Ownership: CD: 2010 Sunbeam. Jewel case. Contains a fresh new set of historical liners, unique photos, and another group of bonus tracks - some overlap with the See For Miles reissue, and others are unique to this release.

My first copy was a cheap 80s bootleg LP, before upgrading to the See For Miles CD. This version contains fine liner notes and extra bonus tracks. A few years ago I decided to purge it and subsequently reacquired the album via the Sunbeam issue. 

1994 (first listen); 1996; 2008; 5/8/14 (review / new entry)

Holy River Family Band - Welcome to Riverhouse. 1997 Sweden

Welcome to the Riverhouse is the second album from Sweden's Holy River Family Band. They took the ambitious step of releasing a double CD that is chock full of space rock and psychedelic music, offering up an exhausting 108 minutes. Despite the length, I found Welcome to the Riverhouse more digestible than the debut, which was only a mere hour long. There are more actual songs here rather than the - at times - insufferable long psychedelic jams the debut brought forth.

What's most disconcerting about Welcome to the Riverhouse, is that there are no obvious sublime moments to be found here. That one track that makes you drop everything you are doing and focus intently on the stereo. There's plenty of great to go around, but not exceptional. It seems a bit more thought should have gone into the pacing, and of course some obvious editing would have helped. The vocals are also not an asset, often times you'll find yourself hoping they will end quickly. Overall, the album still falls into the "excellent" category, but on the low side. The good news is there are no clunkers here, so this is a good album to hit play, and let it reveal itself in the background. Without question if you're looking for a place to start with the Holy River Family Band, this is the CD to go with, though I'm just as fond of the debut rating wise.

Ownership: CD: 1997 The Wild Places (USA). Purchased new online upon release. If you want the full album, you'll need to get the double CD. There is a truncated version on LP, but I cannot imagine the allure beyond owning it in that format. How times have changed. In 1998, new albums being pressed on LP were rare - only a bare few labels still engaged in that practice. The Wild Places/Gates of Dawn owner Michael Piper was a major LP collector, so he would press albums on LP where he could. But there wasn't much demand honestly (including me - still the case for new albums!). Today it would be the opposite. One would expect a 5 LP set with different colors for each vinyl. And then a simple slip case CD would be included, and that would be truncated! Crazy world.

8/19/12 (new entry); 5/24/19

Holy River Family Band - Haida Deities. 1996 Sweden

Haida Deities is an excellent debut album by Holy River Family Band, a group born from The Spacious Mind, and shortly thereafter also bred Kundalini. The album starts off, perhaps predictably, more peaceful and tranquil before launching its first full force acid guitar fronted jam on 'Eztetl'. The 29 minute closing track is like eating only the frosting on the cake - especially if you're a psychedelic instrumental freak. There's quite a bit to take on at once, and watch out for the sugar rush if not careful. Guitars, organs, synthesizers, hand percussion, and a slew of exotic stringed and percussive instruments are on display. If you love the 1990s Swedish psychedelic sound, itself spawned from the early 70's works by Flasket Brinner, International Harvester, and Algarnas Tradgard, then Haida Deities is a no-brainer purchase.

Ownership: CD: 1996 The Wild Places (USA)

8/19/12 (new entry) 

Cauldron - The Sanctuary Suite. 1998 Sweden

Another random pull from the collection. I bought this in 1999, not too long after it was released, listened to it a few times, and filed it. 13 years later, we return.

Cauldron is a dual collaboration of members from The Spacious Mind and Holy River Family Band. Both were already releasing albums on Michael Piper's The Wild Places label. Cauldron's music is geared towards the psychedelic far out reaches of The Spacious Mind's canon. Long spaced out journeys with droning organ, psychedelic jazz guitar, hand percussion, sitar, trumpet and other sundry instruments are used to create the aural journey. Catches a late 60's Pink Floyd vibe. Put away your jam kit, Cauldron is for late-night zone outs. Excellent album if in the right mood.

CD: 1998 Wild Places (USA)

5/6/12 (new entry); 6/8/22 (removed from collection)

Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting – Orosvisor. 2010 Sweden

Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting are a really fantastic new band from Sweden that has completely captured the mood of the anarchic 1970 Scandinavian underground. Long instrumental psychedelic journeys filled with loud acid guitar solos, droning violin and an active rhythm section. The mystical Dark Ages folk of yesteryear provide the basis for the melodies. No doubt Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting absorbed first album Flasket Brinner as a blueprint, and further added touches of the second Kebnekaise and some of the more lucid moments from Algarnas Tradgard. It's exciting to know that there are modern groups out there exploring paths that were stopped way too soon. Orosvisor could be considered a distant cousin to Dungen's debut.

Ownership: LP: 2010 Kommun 2. Single sleeve

12/16/11 (new entry)

International Harvester – Sov Gott Rose-Marie. 1969 Sweden

On the Heldon Electronique Guerilla post, I spoke of the anarchic subversiveness to which that particular album portrays. When compared with International Harvester, Heldon comes across as a conservative Reaganite, preaching the values of capitalism. While left wing politics were typical in late 60s, early 70s European progressive rock, especially from France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, International Harvester has to be one of the most overt of all of them. Typically playing in clubs sponsored by the Communist Youth League, International Harvester were laying their own brand of radical free rock. On the album you'll hear screaming chants of "Ho Chi Minh" which pretty much sums things up from a philosophical standpoint. But this is no polit-rock album (known as Progg in Sweden), of which I'm not usually a fan, but rather one of the first examples of primarily instrumental avant garde rock that one could buy on the market, along with early Can and Amon Duul (I and II). An important evolutionary work. International Harvest evolved from Parsson Sound, a group we all learned about in the late 1990s due to Subliminal Sounds' great archival release. The group evolved into Harvester and Träd, Gräs och Stenar, and some members found their way onto to perhaps the greatest avant garde rock album of all time: Älgarnas Trädgård's Framtiden Är Ett Svävande Skepp, Förankrat I Forntiden.

CD: 2001 Silence
LP: 1984 Silence

Pretty rare as an original, and not even released in their native Sweden, no doubt due to its subversive political views. Years later, Silence bought the rights from Love and reissued it on LP. Had International Harvester come out one year later, most assuredly it would have been released on Silence, a label known for radical free thinking music groups.