Coupla Prog -Sprite (1970-71 Fantastic German Heavy Prog-Psych)

Coupla Prog from Baden-Baden/Germany is known for a melange of kraut and heavy bluesrock, full of suspense, theatrical in parts, with a derivative sense of professionality. The new band name results from a shortened version of "A Couple Of Progs".Though they were active between 1969-1975; the band's complete material is live played, pure, without reworking and overdubbing, the result of sessions recorded at studio U1 of Radio Südwestfunk between 1970 and 1972. Heavy blues rock, blues, electronic music, free style, occassional classical music references and echoes of post Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Vanilla Fudge but also Procol Harum distinguished the sound of the band.

The music is extremely varied, never commercially oriented, but always homogenous and exciting music, which occasionally diverge from the well travelled tracks of kraut and prog rock. Talented craftsmen, the band captures the zeitgeist of the era.The group played not only in relevant clubs and youth centres but also to large audiences at open-air concerts in Karlsruhe and Heidelberg.Although the group never managed to secure a record company deal they did, thanks to SWF, leave behind an extensive and musically valuable legacy for underground and progressive rock fans. Highly addictive.
"Sprite" contains 7 tracks that were recorded on 26.02.1970 and 16.04.1971.

- from progarchives.com -

Line-up :
- Rolf Peters / guitar, vocals
- Reiner Niketta / bass, piano
- Wolfgang Schindhelm / organ, piano, trumpet, vocals
- Hubert Donauer / drums

Track List :
01. I Wanna Be Free (5:10)
02. Goodbye, Guns, Be By Gones (11:45)
03. The Queen Is Selling Out (9:30)
04. Die Wut Über Den Verlorenen Groschen - The Anger Of The Lost Penny (4:35)
05. Ode To The Vanilla Fudge (7:00)
06. Auf Dass Er Sich Im Grabe Umdrehe - He Would Turn In His Grave (12:00)
07. Dies Irae - De Mortuis (5:00)

Intense awesomeness!!

Music Emporium -Music Emporium (Great 1969 U.S Psych)

"Nam Myo Renge Kyo" -Music Emporium. Cool!

Wallenstein -Mother Universe (1972)

Wallenstein were one of Germany's best known "space rock" bands, clearly indebted to Pink Floyd but also developing a personal style of their own. Jurgen Dollase founded the group Blitzkrieg as an international group with Bill Barone (from the USA), Jerry Berkers (from the Netherlands) and Harald Grosskopf (from Germany!). Dollase had previously studied art and classical music. In late Autumn 1971 Blitzkrieg had the repertoire ready for an album, but as a British group already was using the name "Blitzkrieg", the German group changed their name to Wallenstein and kept Blitzkrieg as the title of their first album. This featured four very long tracks in a symphonic progressive rock style (all written by Dollase) and almost completely instrumental. Dense, complex and powerful stuff!

Mother Universe (1972) pictured Dollase's grandma on the sleeve acting as the grandmother of our universe. Musically this was a more dynamic album, introducing some quieter, folky passages with acoustic guitar between the more usual powerful and pompous electric guitar and organ outbursts. Jerry Berkers wanted to do more of these folky things, and quit Wallenstein to record his own solo album Unterwegs - which musically I find it to be in a rather dull singer & songwriter tradition. After Dollase and Grosskopf had taken part in the large scale projects Lord Krishna von Goloka (Sergius Golowin), Tarot (Walter Wegmuller) and the Cosmic Jokers-sessions, they recorded Cosmic Century (1973) in September 1973. This album brought another change of style, clearly influenced by Dollase's recent "cosmic" experiences. It was marketed as the first album by the 'symphonic rock orchestra Wallenstein' (text on the sleeve). It consisted of five refined symphonic rock tracks and a short piano piece. Dollase's strained vocal parts lowered the overall standard of this album, but apart from this the music was good! Sadly this was to be their last great album...

Stories, Songs & Symphonies (1975) attempted to bring in more conventional rock and jazz styles for a kind of extended fusion, but was largely an artistic failure. Only their adaptation of Bartok's music on "Symphaty for Bela Bartok" was of much interest. The rest represented Dollase's failed attempts to be a serious singer-songwriter. Wallenstein split in 1975 and Bill Barone returned to the USA. Harald Grosskopf was engaged as the drummer for Klaus Schulze, Ashra and more recently Central Europe Performance.

Tracks:
All music and lyrics by Jürgen Dollase.
1. Mother Universe - 8:38
2. Braintrain - 8:38
3. Shakespearesque - 4:19
4. Dedicated To Mystery Land - 7:56
5. Relics Of Past - 6:24
6. Golden Antenna - 4:18

Personnel:
- Jürgen Dollase - lead vocals, keyboards
- Bill Barone - guitars, vocals
- Jerry Berkers - bass, lead vocals
- Harald Großkopf - drums, percussion

intensely enjoyable!

****Apocalypse -Apocalypse -1969 German Psych.-ESSENTIAL CLASSIC!*****

HERE IS A ME3DLEY I MADE OF ALL THE TRACKS, CLICK PLAY BUTTON BELOW:

apm2mp3

1. Life is your profession.
2. Let it die.
3. Patricia.
4. Milkman.
5. Try to please me.
6. Pictures of my woman
7. Linda jones
8. Blowing in blow
9. Reflections of a summer.

password = sam1957

GET WHOLE ALBUM HERE!!

Truth -Of Them & Other Tales (Wonderful, dreamy '69 U.S Psych, ex-Them members)

"Music is Life" -Truth. Very indicative of the rest of the album. its all good!

Truth, Of Them and Other Tales (Epilogue). Although Truth never released an LP while they were together, in 1995 this 68-minute CD was salvaged from 1969-70 recordings. Most of them were made for a soundtrack of an obscure film, with three other tracks coming from a Chicago studio session during the brief time in which Ray Elliott was in the band. Perhaps to the surprise of some listeners aware of Truth's Them connections, there's not much of a hard R&B-blues- British Invasion influence. It's far more reminiscent of late-'60s California guitar psychedelia, along the lines of some of the more economic and harmony-driven bands in that style, like Moby Grape and (more distantly) Love. In this respect, Truth recall Fat Mattress (Noel Redding's group), another act with heavy British Isles roots that took major cues from West Coast harmonized psych, though Truth and Fat Mattress aren't extremely similar. Truth play late-'60s psychedelic rock with a breezy lightness, yet with some guts, anchored by extremely versatile guitar lines by the underrated Jim Armstrong. The songs might not be classic, but they're very pleasant go-with-the-flow period sequences of images, with one vocal (on "Blackboard Words") closely approximating the sound of late-'60s Roger McGuinn. On "Sonic Sitar," the group expands upon the raga-rock explored in the post-Van Morrison Them's best cut"Square Room," and in fact "Archimed's Pad (Squared Room)" is an impressive instrumental remake of "Square Room" that's an underrated highlight of the whole raga-rock genre, with its hypnotic drawn-out interplay of drones and Indian-influenced guitar melodies. The three songs recorded with Ray Elliott on flute and piano go into jazzier grooves with good effect, adding nice icing to a record that's on the whole better (and certainly more consistent) than either of the late-'60s Them albums on which some of the Truth musicians played.

01 - Music Is Life (4'13")
02 - 6 O'Clock Alarm (9'14")
03 - Mysterios (1'21")
04 - Music From Big Puce (4'27")
05 - Country Funk (0'39")
06 - Blackboard Words (2'47")
07 - Sonic Sitar (3'18")
08 - High! (6'35")
09 - Archimed's Pad (Square Room) (11'4")
10 - Getting Better (5'27")
11 - Circle 'Round The Sun (5'19")
12 - Ride The Wind (6'37")
13 - Castles In The Sand (7'18")
14 - October ´68 (The Tears That You Cry) (5'23")

dreamy, baby!

Anyone's Daughter -Adonis -BLOODY BRILLIANT Symphonic prog. Ignore and you're a loser!

Absolutely incredible German act,formed in mid/late-70's and starting as a DEEP PURPLE cover band.Soon they developed their composition skills to release their debut ''Adonis'' in 1979.At very difficult times for playing progressive rock,ANYONE'S DAUGHTER created an amazing musical treasure.''Adonis'' combines the nventiveness and interplays of GENESIS with the strong melodies of CAMEL and the deep atmosphere of ELOY's works.The result is absolutely fantastic with a sidelong epic dominating this work,filled with intense emotions,melodies and keyboard/guitar solos,and three shorter tracks,yet they follow the same path of space/symphonic music with changing moods and almost jazzy interplays at times.No more to say than ''Adonis'' is so close to a masterpiece of progressive rock and,of course,it comes extremely highly recommended to every prog rock fan,who respects himself!

Band info: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=22

Review by greenback SPECIAL COLLABORATOR "Another excellent German progressive rock band. ANYONE'S DAUGHTER's debut was in the late 70's, so that they use slightly more modern keyboards than prog bands of the 70's, but they still keep an old sound. The music is quite complex: the drums are fast, the bass is sophisticated and not timid at all, the numerous guitars solos are extremely melodic & is sophisticated and not timid at all, the numerous guitars solos are extremely melodic & melancholic, and the keyboards are varied, melodic and elaborated. This is their first album, and probably their best one. There is often the presence of rythmic guitar, distortion free, like CAMEL. The electric guitar is never aggressive, despite some solos are near the hard rock style. Actually, the overall sound and style is similar to CAMEL, in a more melancholic way. The keyboards are often floating too, giving some relaxing ambience. The English lead vocals have a strong German accent, like Triumvirat. I would say this record can be quite sentimental. The first track, "Adonis", is a near 25 minutes of delightful prog rock: you can't stop listen it once started: at the very end, there is one of most POIGNANT guitar solos ever recorded: just hear the sustained notes full of tremolos: U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E, despite the sound is not at its best! The side 2 contains 3 excellent songs: The "Blue House", an emotional combination of moog solos and electric guitars. The second track, "Sally", is a joyful piano+saxes song, full of punchy elaborated bass; again tons of excellent drums & lead vocals. The third song, "Anyone's Daughter", has beautiful cohesion between keyboards, guitars, bass and drums: organ solos and floating keyboards, fast guitar solos, very fast and complex drums. guitars, bass and drums: organ solos and floating keyboards, fast guitar solos, very fast and complex drums Yes, "Adonis" is a sad album, melancholic, an emotion transporter. IMO, it is one of the most poignant record in the progressive rock history."
Tracklisting / Tracks / Songs / Faixas / Músicas:

1. Adonis (24:09)
Part I: Come Away
Part II: The Disguise
Part III: Adonis
Part IV: The Epitaph
2. Blue House (7:20)
3. Sally (4:20)
4. Anyone´s Daughter (9:10)

Total Time: 45:19

Line-up / Musicians / Musicos / Formação:

- Harald Bareth: bass, lead vocals
- Uwe Karpa: acoustic & electric guitars
- Kono Konopik: drums
- Matthias Ulmer: keyboards, vocals

GET IT NOW!!

Psychelatte's Playlist -Essential tracks, Essential Albums!

"Marsbeli Kronikak" (The Martian Chronicles) -Solaris. Coool Cool album from a Cool cool band. Space ROCKS!!

"Epistle to Paradise" -The Plastic Cloud. As good as the rest of their fab album.

"Gone with the Mouse"- Fuchsia

"...and the madness" -Cornucopia. Typical mad track from this wacky album. Love it!

Eroc (from Eroc 1st album 1975)-Typical nuts experimental electronic tomfoolery from Mr. Eroc. I love him!

"Summer for the Rose" Dr. Z -typical track. Love it!!

The Garden of Earthly Delights -United States of America -Awesome track, one of many great great tracks off this essential psych masterpiece!

"Stresemannstrasse" -Liliental. LISTEN!!

"High Evolution" -Novalis

"And I was Blue"- Sunforest.

"Vision On" -The Tv Sets...Wow isn't this the greatest theme tune??

"Eli's Coming" -Affinity. Love it, love it, love it!

"The Four Horsemen" -Aphrodite's Child, -("666"). -Demis Roussos in fine vocal form!!

"Little Ruby Rain" -Markley. -Delightful! (as is the rest of the album).

"Will you Walk with Me" -The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Vol 1. Lovely melody as they so often do,

"Hurry Sundown" -The Bubble Puppy. Love the guitar work on this album!

"Haunted Island" -Agitation Free ("2nd). spooky!

"Anyone's Daughter" -Anyone's Daughter (From "Adonis") -The rest of the album is really as good as this!

"It's a Rainy Day Sunshine Girl" -Faust ("So Far")

"Fly" -Epitaph. (Stop,Look and Listen) -surprising variety of styles on this great rocking album!

"The Kettle" -Colosseum

Hoelderlin -Hoelderlin

Hoelderlin was founded in November of 1970 by the brothers Joachim and Christian von Grumbkow together with Nanny de Ruig. This fabulous album was released in 1975. It is their first album in which they are also using english lyrics.

01. Schwebebahn
02. I Love My Dog
03. Honeypot
04. Nürnberg
05. Deathwatchbeetle

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Alan Stivell -Chemins De Terre

01. Susy MacGuire
02. Ian Morrison Reel
03. She moved through the Fair
04. Can Y Melinydd
05. Oidhche Mhait
06. An Dro Nevez
07. Maro Ma Mestrez
08. Brezhoneg' Raok
09. An Hani A Garan
10. Metig
11. Kimiad

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Krokodil -An Invisible World Revealed (1971) -Includes bonus tracks

1 Lady Of Attraction (4:21)
2 With Little Miss Trimmings (1:42)
3 Oddyssey In Om (15:19)
4 Green Fly (4:23)
5 Looking At Time (14:03)
6 Last Doors (4:00)
7 Pollution - Bonus track (3:41)
8 Krokodil Session Part 1 - Bonus track (11:26)
9 Krokodil Session Part 2 - Bonus track (11:42)

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Freedom -Through the Years (1971)

Freshly departed from PROCOL HARUM, Bobby Harrison & Ray Royer founded FREEDOM, a Heavy Blues infected Psych Rock combo, that toured with BLACK SABBATH among others. FREEDOM never reached great success and is often seen as a middle-of-the-pack band. Sure it's not as inventive and catchy as other British bands of the era, but FREEDOM still delivers some great tunes and good Heavy Rock tracks that really deserve a listen
1. Freestone
2. Through the Years
3. Get Yourself Together
4. London City
5. Thanks
6. Toe Grabber

Roger Saunders - acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Walter Monaghan - vocals, electric piano, Mellotron, bass guitar
Bobby Harrison - vocals, drums, percussion

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Tea -The Ship (1975)

1. Breakdown 7:15
2. Through Scarlet 4:43
3. The Ship 6:50
4. See You Again 4:03
5. I'd Never Have Bothered 8:00
6. A Dog Called Joe 3:19
7. Crystal Rivers 2:50
8. Summer In the City 2:50

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Mammut -Mammut (1971)

One of the rarest German private releases ! Dual guitar led long tracks, wild / furious fuzz psych soloing, howling vocals. Regarded by some as the best private pressing from the German burgeoning underground.

This group made one of the most legendary German private pressings. It is now incredibly rare. The sound of a squeaking mouse opens the album, released on 'Mouse Trick Track Music' (amazing choice of label name!) The album is a thematically linked "Mammut Opus", with the word "Mammut" included in all the track titles. A rhythmic and dramatic instrumental overture with wistful flute ("Bird Mammut") and a short interlude for piano ("Classical Mammut") put you in the right mood before the lengthy, heavy guitar riffing tracks "Mammut Ecstasy" and "Footmachine Mammut" strike you. Perhaps Elias Hulk and parts of the first Embryo album are comparable to this. Side two starts with a "Short Mammut" - sounds of gunfire and bomber planes. "Schizoid Mammut" had violent, paranoid lyrics with music to match. "Nagarn Mammut" is their attempt to be more lyrical. The album closes the same way as it started with large doses of instrumental music ("Mammut Opera"), what Pete Townshend would name 'underture'. The most impressive aspect of this album is that all the biting guitar statements are woven in-between the vocals. A typical golden artefact from one of the most fertile years of modern music (1971) incorporating both classical and heavy acid blues influences. Good production as well, considering it was a private release.

1. Bird Mammut - 4.03
2. Classical Mammut - 1.21
3. Mammut Ecstacy - 4.27
4. Foolmachine Mammut - 3.08
5. Short Mammut - 1.48
6. Shizoyd Mammut - 3.21
7. Nähgern Mammut - 6.59
8. Mammut Opera - 13.33

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Cardiacs -Sing to God -Wild, wild progressive punk! -Gotta hear!!

Cardiacs biography
THE CARDIACS are rightly famous for being the founders of a musical genre of their own: pronk (a mixture of prog and punk). Although the current sound of THE CARDIACS is closer to punk than in the first fifteen years of their career, you'd still not mistake them for mainstream rock. Their songs are just too twisted and complicated, their wall of sound approach to mistake them for mainstream rock. And for a regular audience, their still too progressive for their own good. The band was founded in 1977 by brothers Tim and Jim Smith. Even their first primitive recordings feature their trademark sound of Banksian chord sequences, ZAPPA-esque twisted time signatures, Pythonesque lyrics and a love of fast drums and gnarly guitars that betray their punk influences. (These recordings were later collected on "Archive Cardiacs" and "The Seaside"). Starting with what later became "Songs for ships and iron" the band was in the classic line-up of Tim Smith (guitar vocals), Jim Smith (bass), Sarah Smith (sax), William D. Drake (keyboards), Dominic Luckman (drums) and Tim Quy(percussion). "A little man and a house and the whole world window " and "On land and in the sea" are the band at their proggiest with a diverse instrumentation (including Mellotron, lent to the band by IQ's keyboard player) and a potpourri of musical styles in every single song. It was during this period they scored a small indie hit in the UK with the Big Ship single and were invited by Fish to open for MARILLION on a UK tour. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Sarah Smith and William Drake left the band and THE CARDIACS were now a foursome, relying on backing tapes for keys and choirs. 1992's "Heaven born and ever bright" was a step backwards but 1995's "Sing to God part 1+2" was a return to form with classic CARDIACS songs like "Fiery Hand Gun" and "A Dog Called Sparky". "Guns' was once again a step back. At the moment the band is in the studio recording a new album. Nothing much is known so far. It's interesting though that in late 2003 the band went back to their earliest, most progressive period and did a couple of shows where they played only songs from the first few years, songs that had never been played live in more than twenty years.

Disc: 1
1. Eden On The Air
2. Eat It Up Worms Hero
3. Dog-Like Sparky
4. Fiery Gun Hand
5. Insect Hoofs On Lassie
6. Fairy Mary Mag
7. Believe
8. Horses Tail
9. Manhoo
10. Dirty Boy

Disc: 2
1. Wireless
2. Billion
3. Odd Even
4. Bell Stinks
5. Bell Clinks
6. Flap Off You Beak
7. Quiet As A Mouse
8. Angelworm Angel
9. red Fire Coming Out From His Gills
10. No Gold
11. Nurses Whispering Verses

Psychelatte says: WOW this is mad!! More info progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1488
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Krautrock -Music for Your Brain Vol 3 -Essential Introduction to Krautrock!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

6CD Set with 67 tracks as a good overview to German Krautrock. Artists featured: Dschinn, Odin, Floh de Cologne, Sahara, Franz K., Subject Esq., Anyone's Daughter, Mythos, Mammut, Rufus Zuphall, Krokodil, Pell Mell, Thirsty Moon, Nektar, Witthüser & Westrupp, Gila, Wallenstein, Wolfgang Dauner, Message, Guru Guru, Bröselmaschine, Dzyan, Eloy, Eulenspygel, Faust, Hoelderlin, Tangerine Dream, Udo Lindenberg, Passport and many more.

CD 1
01 Dschinn Rock'n Roll Dschinny 03:06
02 Hairy Chapter It must be an Officer's Daughter 08:00
03 My Solid Ground The Executioner 03:29
04 Odin Make up your Mind 13:35
05 Birth Control Just before the Sun will rise 07:37
06 Virus King Heroin 05:41
07 Floh de Cologne Die oberen Zehntausend 03:33
08 Sahara The Mountain King Part I & Part II 13:17
09 Franz K. Bock auf Rock 03:17
10 Subject Esq. Mammon 12:36
11 Fashion Pink Brainstorming 05:04
79:15:00

CD 2
01 Nektar Do you believe in Magic? 07:14
02 Witthüser & Westrupp Das Märchen vom Königssohn 09:25
03 Floh de Cologne Ford Capri 02:23
04 Gila Kommunikation 12:57
05 Coupla Prog Goodbye Guns be by gones 11:38
06 Apocalypse Let it die 06:08
07 Wallenstein Golden Antenna 04:15
08 Wolfgang Dauner Take off your Clothes to feel the setting Sun 04:00
09 Thrice Mice Jo Joe 08:48
10 McChurch Soundroom What are you doin' 08:31
11 Et Cetera Lady Blue 02:59
78:18:00

CD 3
01 Frame Frame of Mind 04:10
02 Anyone's Daughter Anyone's Daughter 09:07
03 Analogy Analogy 09:43
04 Toto Blanke PPG 06:02
05 Dies Irae Trip 06:47
06 Krokodil And I know 07:40
07 Jud's Gallery Follow me 11:12
08 Mythos Harry Chanceless 04:59
09 Jerusalem Moon's new Way 06:00
10 Mammut Mammut Opera 13:37
79:17:00

CD 4
01 Wallenstein Braintrain 08:40
02 Message Heaven knows 09:47
03 Guru Guru Der LSD-Marsch 08:29
04 Tiger B. Smith Help for a blind Man 05:45
05 Walpurgis Disappointment 04:20
06 Annexus Quam Troblush El Eisch 05:25
07 Bröselmaschine Gedanken 05:06
08 Nosferatu No. 4 08:43
09 Dzyan Back to where we come from 08:53
10 Franz K. Peterlied 12:52
78:00:00

CD 5
01 Rufus Zuphall Freitag 07:14
02 Krokodil Marzipan 06:05
03 Epsilon 2-Four-4 07:27
04 Pacific Sound Gates of Hell 05:42
05 Pell Mell Friend 07:02
06 Violence Fog Rolli Zink 06:40
07 Haze Fast Career 08:31
08 Et Cetera Mellodrama Nr. 2 A 05:10
09 Thirsty Moon Black Clouds (Live) 09:50
10 Nine Days Wonder Drag Dilemma 12:48
11 Bernd Witthüser Wenn ich ein wenig fröhlicher wär' 02:52
79:21:00

CD 6
01 Eloy Future City 05:35
02 Eulenspygel Die Wunde bleibt 01:58
03 Eulenspygel Staub auf deinem Haar 07:58
04 Faust The sad Skinhead 02:31
05 Hoelderlin Nürnberg 03:04
06 Peter Baumann Bicentennial Present 04:48
07 Sweet Smoke Kundalini 13:24
08 Tangerine Dream Coldwater Canyon (Live) 17:39
09 Birth Control Trial Trip 06:43
10 Udo Lindenberg Cowboy Rocker 05:57
11 Passport Uranus 06:40
76:17:00

Design -Design/Tomorrow is So Far Away (2 LPS) -Rare vinyl rip of band featured on Fading Yellow 5)

Design -Design. Sunshine Psych Pop, vocal harmony and sparkly acoustic fans will fairly gag when they hear this masterpiece. It would definitely fall into the Free Design and Collage domain but like the others, occupies its own unique locale and that locale might be called 'Art'. The musical arrangements are stunning and the vocal arrangements are creative but never inaccessible. The songwriting ranges from perky to zany to introspective to ethereal and on and on - exemplary.

Tracklisting:
1. Coloured Mile
2. Willow Stream
3. Marguaretta
4. The Lonely
5. Thinkin
6. Matchbox Man
7. The Minstrel's Theme
8. Speak
9. Buttercup Stranger
10. Children Of The Mist
11. Dawn Chorus

All songs by A.C. Smith except The Minstrel's Theme by Barry Johnston
Musical Director: Sydney Dale
Vocal Arrangements: Tony Smith

DESIGN: Kathy Manuell, Gabrielle Field, Tony Smith, Barry Johnston, Geoff Ramseyer and John Morgan Original B&W Graphic: Karenlee Grant

Design - Tomorrow Is So Far Away -Two of the original group members have been replaced but the essence is the same. The opening track, Take A Boat is as sensational as any cut from the 1st album as are a number of the others like Sad Fisherman and Love Is. There is an artful cover of the Beatle's Strawberry Fields Forever and a lush and faithful cover of The Groop's The Jet Song. One more cover is Paul McCartney's Man We Was Lonely that the group does beautifully by - a sight better than Paul himself did with this substandard, throw-away tune. Also of note is the album's title track, the lovely and tender Tomorrow Is So Far Away.

track listing :

Take A Boat
Jet Song
Celestina
Ladybird Don't Fly
Strawberry Fields Forever
Tomorrow Is So Far Away
Sad Fisherman
Butterfly Catcher
The Time Has Come
Man We Was Lonely

musicians

Barry Alexander : vocals
Gabrielle Field : vocals
Kathy Manuell : vocals
Geoff Ramseyer : vocals
Chris Spedding : guitars
Alan Parker : guitars
Herbie Flowers : bass
Tony Campo : bass
Clem Cattini : drums
Roger Coulam : keyboards
Alan Hawkshaw : keyboards


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Agitation Free -Fragments

(Review from Amazon.com)
One of the lesser known Krautrock bands of the early 70s, the Agitation Free discography deserves greater exposure. While bands like Can and Amon Duul started out psychedelic and evolved into (less interesting) progressive rock acts, Agitation Free did exactly the opposite. Their first album, Malesh, is their most well-known, and exudes a self-conscously arty and progressive vibe. While many fans spotlight that work, one could take a revisionist stance and argue that the band's early work is marred a little by nerdy prog rock clichés, especially noodling solos bookended by clunky riffs. Their followup album, "Second", improved things a bit by loosening up the vibe, especially on the great "Layla," but their live work paints a different story of the band.

Like many acts that suffer from sounding a bit stiff in the studio, the live experience is the way to hear `em let their hair down and show how rock music can be dangerous in a way that other musical genres are often not. Trad Gras Och Stenar are another example of a band far more visceral and exciting when heard out of the studio. This live set (and also the similarly excellent "Last" album) snapshot the band in a trance-inducing psychedelic vibe. The live setting is wholly appropriate given their stiff and soulless precision in the studio, but still highlights their musicianship as far above wasted and sloppy psych clichés.

The original record has three long tracks and a short, forgettable blues-inflected number. The Garden of Delights reissue lengthens a couple of these and adds a passable bonus track. The long workouts are near holy grails for those who seek spaced out mantras that always seemed integral to the psychedelic experience, but are few and far between on well-known albums. Pretty fine, but the zoned vibe of their album "Last" reaches even greater peaks.

Track Listings
1. Someones Secret
2. Mickeys Laugh
3. We Are Men
4. Mediterranean Flight
5. Blues

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Agitation free- The oTher Sides of Agitation Free (1999)

*Psychelatte says: Very unlike their previous spaced out music but as a jazz-fusion experiment I enjoyed this album very much.

1. Atlantic Overcrossing (5:34)
2. Abulafia (6:17)
3. 6th Floor (5:11)
4. Deliverance (4:24)
5. Latino Catherine (3:37)
6. Get It Out (4:21)
7. Offstage (2:47)
8. Song Für Den Proletariersohn, Teil 1 (5:38)
9. Song Für Den Proletariersohn, Teil 2 (2:55)
10. Song Für Den Proletariersohn, Teil 3 (1:36)

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Agitation Free -River of Return (1999)

This is quite the impressive comeback for Agitation Free. A little cleaner than earlier albums, but still has that spacey/ambient feel added to the krautrock stew that made Agitation Free quite remarkable.

Top-flight German space-rock featuring synthesist Michael Hoenig and future Ashra guitarist Lutz Ulbrich. Both Malesch and Second are excellent space excursions worth taking, featuring droning and warbling synths, wailing guitars and the like, but with a strong rock rhythm section giving it more drive than your average space-rock band. Malesch has a strong Middle-Eastern feel to it, incorporating some taped street-sounds apparently recorded live in Cairo into the music. Second is more Euro-folk inflected, with a stronger use of acoustic guitars and (on one track) bouzouki! I haven't heard Last. If I had to compare them to anyone, it would be Ash Ra Tempel, but they really defy comparison. -- Mike Ohman

Lutz "Lüül" Ulbrich / guitar, keyboards
- Gustl Lütjens / guitar, keyboards
- Burghard Rausch / drums
- Johannes "Alto" Pappert (ex-Kraan) / saxophone
- Michael "Fame" Günther / bass, keybopards
Guest musicians:
- Chris Dehler / overtonevoice, Didgeridoo
- Koma / Bagpipe
- Minas Saluyan / percussion
- Bernard "Potsch" Potschka / guitar, Mandoline, Udu

1. River Of return (8:24)
2. 2 part 2 (5:46)
3. Fame's mood (4:10)
4. Susie sells seashells at the seashore (10:01)
5. The obscure carousel (5:16)
6. Nomads (7:07)
7. Das kleine Uhrwerk (5:04)
8. 177 spectacular sunrises (13:08)
9. Keep on (3:57)

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