Group 1850 -Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth (1968)

Group 1850 is an interesting, if sometimes exasperating, late-'60s Dutch band who ranks among the most accomplished and original Continental rock acts of the era, though they made little impression in English-speaking territories. Starting as a more or less conventional beat band in the mid-'60s, they had taken a turn for the more psychedelic and bizarre by 1967. Determined to drive into the heart of the psychedelic beast, their songs (performed in English) are quite eclectic for the era, shifting from doom-laden tempos with growling vocals to sunny, utopian passages with breezy harmonies.

"Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth" was one of the most ambitious psychedelic albums to emerge from continental Europe in the late '60s. The LP's nominal concept was, like many early such endeavors, obscure, involving something like the journey of Agemo from a paradise-like planet to the more chaotic imperfection of Earth.

Musically, the record owes a lot to late-'60s British psychedelia (particularly of the Pink Floyd school), with hints of the onset of progressive rock in its less-conventional passages. Although plenty of melodic shifts, celestial organ, wiggling distorted guitar, harmony vocals, Gregorian chant-like singing, Mothers of Invention-like horns, beatific respites (on "Reborn"), and general freakiness entertainingly convey the exploration of new psychic territory, it ultimately lacks the lyrical and musical cogency of, say, late-'60s Pink Floyd. At times the bold weirdness gets self-indulgent, throwing in phased drum soloing, solemnly intoned spoken female romantic exclamations, and multilingual murmuring.

01 Steel Sings
02 Little Fly
03 I Put My Hands On Your Shoulder
04 You Did It Too Hard
05 A Point In This Life
06 Refound
07 Reborn
08 I Know (Bonus Track)
09 I Want More (Bonus Track)
10 Mother No Head (Bonus Track)
11 Ever Ever Green (Bonus Track)
12 Zero (Bonus Track)
13 Frozen Mind (Bonus Track)
14 We Love Life (Bonus Track)
15 Mother No Head (French Version) (Bonus Track)
16 Mother No Head (Instrumental) (Bonus Track)

Peter Sjardin - guitar, flute, keyboards
Daniël Van Bergen - guitar
Ruud Van Buren - bass
Beer Klaasse - drums

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Group 1850 -Polyandri (1974)

The history of GROUP 1850 (aka GROEP 1850) starts from year 1964 from the band called THE KLITS.

There were several changes in the line-up’s during the the decade their career lasted, only Peter Sjardin remained as the permanent member of the band.

Their first public performance with the name GROUP 1850 was in the Scheveiningen Casion in March 1966. Their gigs gave them attention in the underground scene, and some single releases and radio airplay in Holland followed.

In September 1967 they warmed up MOTHERS OF INVENTION at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and their first longplayer "Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth" (1968) has been stated as the first Dutch concept LP.

Acid rock elements are clearly present in their first albums from the end of 1960’s, and PINK FLOYD’s “Saucerful of Secrets” album has surely been an innovator for them, like to so many other spaced out groups.

Their music isn’t an exact copy of their innovator’s sound though, as there is a wide spectrum of different styles merged to the band’s music in custom of psychedelia’s artistic freedom.

The overall feeling of the band’s early music is nonrelaxed but not very aggressive, probably pleasing the fans of music describings a cosmic journey within one’s mind.

The career of the band continued with both inactive and active periods and with continuous changes in the personnel.

Musically maybe the most important event was release of the album “Polyandri” in year 1974. Their mostly instrumental music grew to a larger scope containing strong musical elements.

Now elements from progressive jazz-rock had flown in, most audibly on "Russian Gossip" and "Avant Les Pericles" (most beautiful!), with contributions from the well-known sax player Hans Dulfer.

There are only vocals on three of the eleven tracks, if one ignores the crazy Russian gossip!

With this brightened, freaky jazz-mood, Group 1850 suddenly sound similar to Daevid Allen's Gong (Review by Scented Gardens Of The Mind, D. E. Asbjørnsen)

Tracklisting:
01. Jojo (P. Sjardin) [1:34]
02. Between eighty and fifty: part 1850 (P. Sjardin) [2:57]
03. Flower garden (P. Sjardin) [0:32]
04. Thousand years before (P. Sjardin) [4:35]
05. Starfighter (P. Sjardin) [2:29]
06. Silver earring (P. Sjardin) [4:10]
07. Patience (P. Sjardin) [2:48]
08. USSR gossip (P. Sjardin) [5:03]
09. Cages (P. Sjardin) [5:23]
10. Avant les pericles (P. Sjardin) [6:19]
11. Pumping up the rubber trees (P. Sjardin) [3:11]

Group 1850:
*Peter Sjardin: Organiser, piano, vocals, flute
*Dolf Geldof: Bass guitar
*Dave Duba: Guitar (on [2, 3, 4, 8])
*Martin van Duinhoven: Drums and percussion (except on [1, 5, 11])

Guests:
*Paul van Wageningen: Drums (on [1, 5, 11])
*Leo Benninck: Guitar (on [1, 5, 11])
*Barry Hay: Flute (on [6])
*Hans Dulfer: Saxophone (on [8, 10])
*Marc Boon: Solo guitar (on [11])
*Frank van de Kloot: Guitar (on [7])
*Maarten Lucas Troost: Piano and voice (on [3])
*Neppy Noya: Congas (on [8])

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