wotzinvubagvisweke?
AMON DUUL Paradieswarts Duul
The first LP by the original band. After hearing about banks of
bongos for years this seems surprisingly drum light. Very spare, near
acoustic sounding electric band play 3 long tracks (plus both sides
of the single on this Captain Trip version)

CHROME The Chronicles I & II
Dossier CD version of 2 of the LPs that came as extra records with
the original vinyl box set if I'm thinking right. This is the one
with Anorexic Sacrifice and Beacons to The Eye on. Heavy skronking
psych metal? Dunno how this is normally classified. I'd say File
Under Chrome? Or maybe Avant Garage?

OUM KALSOUM The Mother Of The Arabs
The great Arabic singer with acoustic small group sounding
instrumentation. This has next to no information but sounds
atmospheric. Can't think what to say other than she's one of Jah
Wobble's favs and I've been meaning to get her material for years.

CONGOS Heart Of The Congos
One of the essential Reggae LPs. Perry imbues the production on what
otherwise would be a folk-gospel-harmony LP with so much spaciousness
that it is downright psychedelic. I hear comparisons to things like
Can as well as Malian stuff by the likes of Kasse Mady.

UFO 2 Flying One Hour Space Rock
Mogg and co playing heavy spacerock from 72. Some great wah wah and
slide herein, though the rhythm section occasionally seems to drag.
But I keep wondering how the original vinyl came out was it 2 sides
of ½ an hour each or what? Pretty difficult to break it up otherwise
with 2 majorly long tracks and 3 semi normal ones

POPUL VUH Hosianna Mantra
Mostly instrumental stuff by Fricke and co. Here joined by the guitar
of Conny Veit between Gila incarnations. Very Ambient mix of Fricke's
piano and Veit's Noodlehood. Nice stuff especially thanx to the
ethereal vocals of Djong Yun. Fricke by this time has taken on the
band name for himself.
Finally got to look at a copy of the book in the library here. Those
Mayans would've made great late 60s SF poster artists.

JADE WARRIOR
Strangely ambient sounding first LP by ex July progsters. Sections of
heavy guitar and mainly African derived ethnic drumming.
If this band's this good what were July like? Anything similar though
earlier?

OXFORD CIRCLE Live At The Avalon 1966
66 garage-impro-raveup Yardbirdsy takes on Brit invasion sounds
including covers of The Animals and the typical Bo Diddley etc.
Should disparage the idea that Blue Cheer couldn't play since Paul
Whalley is stretching out here quite adequately 2 years before
Vincebus Eruptum

LARRY YOUNG Lawrence Of Newark
Very Spacey psychy jazz lp by organ player Young and pretty big band
apparently including first appearance of James `Blood' Ulmer on not
very guitar sounding guitar and an uncredited Pharaoh Sanders.

SHIRLEY COLLINS Within Sound Disc2
2nd disc of the box set ranges from stuff with Davy graham in 64 to
an Xmas LP from 69. The portative organ by her sister Dolly is great
and the later tracks sound oddly psychedelic for acoustic traditional
stuff.

KINKS Ultimate Collection
Had to start somewhere didn't I? Been meaning to get some of their
stuff for years. And found this in a sale. Where next after this? It
sounds pretty good up to about 72.
Dunno about the late 80s stuff at the end though.
See My Friends has been claimed as one of the earliest raga-
influenced rock tracks.
Ray Davies seems to be a closer influence on most of the other mid
60s Brit invasion songwriters than Dylan.

SAVAGE REPUBLIC Jamahiriya
`88 Last planned studio LP by LA based ethnic-drone rockers. Very
Psych and also heavily krautrock sounding. I know the influence is in
there.
I think the reissues are still available from here
http://www.mobilization.com/catalog.html
I foolishly lost the rest of the cds when my bag disappeared or
they'd be being eulogised here too. This was both my fav and the only
one in at Rough Trade when I was there over Xmas.

YARDBIRDS Cumular Limit
The Page era stuff mostly live including the Yardbirds take on Jake
Holmes Dazed and confused, which has different lyrics to the Zep
rewrite.
I grabbed this from Stand Out after fearing I'd missed it when I
forgot to buy it a year earlier. I thought I'd heard that Mr Page
withdrew it from sales almost as soon as it was released. Pretty
tasty though.

SAUTER, DIETRICH, MOORE Barefoot In The Head
Crunching freeblowfest from Borbetomagus' horns and Sonic Thurston.
An entire disc of instrumental L.A. Blues from NYC?
Comes with liner notes by Thomas Pynchon and leaves you with no ears.
Luvlee. 2 Freedmen and A Slave.

KRAFTWERK Man Machine
'78 LP in English version. Long after their krautrock dissonance this
is percussively rhythm centred melody. Contains an Albini-free The
Model and Neon Lights which the Blue Nile tried to rewrite on Hats.

PESHAY Fuzion
What do you call this stuff? From this example pretty good. Got
slipped this by somebody who does the distribution.
Is he a Metalhead or something? Sounds very like that stuff.

WARHORSE As Heaven Turns To Ash
Ultra heavy doom/stoner rock with weird jazz like undercurrents and
folky ambient short tracks breaking up the sludge. Some of this
reminds heavily of things like Guru Guru only the rhythm section keep
reminding you that it's metal.
Anyway one of my most frequently played discs of last year.

CHARLES WRIGHT AND THE WATTS 103RD STREET RHYTHM BAND Express
Yourself: the Best of
LA late 60s/ early 70-s funk crew. Been meaning to get this since I
saw him interviewed in the Lee Perry covered Grand Royale several
years back. Very funky though I was heavily surprised by the Stax
like deep Soul stuff. I wish this had the recording dates down cos I
like knowing what years things like this are from.

GENTLE GIANT Octopus
Trying to work out what it is about this that I love. Seems like a
mix of folk and jazz with Beatlesy touches that would pass as pretty
great pop if played straight. What the band did here though was to
break up melody lines between as many instruments as possible and add
filigree to points of near Baroquery. Heavy influence from medieval
folk too. To think these were once the White soul band Simon Dupree
and the Big Sound!!!

GOLDENROD
Famous session musicians for the likes of the Fifth Dimension play
heavy stoner instrumentals. Here in both mono and stereo takes with
very different playing times.

FRACTION Moonblood
Hippy Heavy Jesus rock with Morrison as aged tramp vocals. And some
majorly tasty guitar. Just been reissued from masters with 3 extra
tracks. Was gonna ask why this sounds so bad but I guess its just a
Flashback Boot

SWANS Feel Good Now
The Children of God Swans put a band together and have everybody play
rhythm. And no t'aint as funky frenetic as the JBs. Dashed tasty
though. Martial rhythms and guitar like a gutpunch.
Gira at the time decried the idea of improvisation. Could have fooled
me. How do you get from 6-minute songs to 20-minute versions without
it?


MISSION OF BURMA (Rykodisc compi)
The US answer to WIRE etc? I hear echoes of the same influences as
Joy Division picked up on. This is the currently out of print cd with
the first e.p. and VS LP on.
I've read people wondering why Roger Miller got to write so many
tracks since his writing style seemed less coherent than Prescott's.
The idea seems to be that he should have stuck to the out of left
field guitar stuff and added to songs by a tunesmith instead of being
too Avant-garde(at least that's how I remember it).
Me I Like this. Especially the elegiac stuff like Einstein's Day .
Was it Chrome or Destroy All Monsters that Miller was a short-term
member of? Must get hold of a copy of that Sproton Layer LP

Stevo