Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1981)

Definitely wound up with a fresh appreciation of Zappa's considerable guitar talents this year, so an hour and a half of guitar solos sounded like a worthwhile acquisition.  Originally a set of three individual mail-order records: Shut Up, Some More & Return Of The Son Of, then a 3-LP box set, then 2 CDs, this entirely instrumental patchwork was mostly recorded live between 1977 and 1980.  

 

Sometimes excerpted from known songs (eg the three title tracks come from Inca Roads performances), sometimes on-the-fly improvisations, Zappa deftly edited these solo highlights into an order that aimed to vary the textures and tempi.  He also "grouted" it all with little snippets of chatter which "just served as punctuation", "to hear another texture and then set you up for the next thing".

The results, which might have come across like the ultimate overindulgence in lesser hands, form a durable, enjoyable portrait of a guitarist who was really maturing as an individual stylist in this era.  Even when there's not much beyond a basic vamp going on behind him (Treacherous Cretins, Soup 'N Old Clothes), Zappa's playing is never less than scintillating.  The sequencing works really well too: rather than front-load all the best cuts, the three-volume album actually gets better as it goes on, so my personal highlights Pink Napkins and Stucco Homes sit on Disc 2 here.  Then, to finish with something completely different (or perhaps he didn't have quite enough material selected for six sides), Zappa lets the album play out on a violin/electric bouzouki duet with Jean-Luc Ponty from 1972.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

For Zappa-CD-variation trainspotters: source is Japanese Ryko 2-CD from the 80s ("grouts" sit at the beginning of tracks rather than end of track prior).

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Sleep Dirt (1979)

Found this lovely little sleeper (sorry, couldn't resist) album lurking in the midst of Zappa's late 70s legal debacle with Warner Brothers.  Sleep Dirt is part of a group of contract-fulfilling albums which Zappa tried at one point to compile into a 4-LP set, eventually posthumously released as such on triple-CD.  Anyway, the seven instrumental tracks here were recorded in '74 and '76, meaning that my holy trinity of Zappa musicians (George, Chester & Ruth) make appearances.  Sounds promising already - as does the fact that Zappa had wanted to call this album Hot Rats III.

 

After an atmospheric, almost King Crimson-like guitar-based opener, a fantastic jazzy sequence of tracks spotlight my three faves named above; the Grand Wazoo-era composition Regyptian Strut is particularly enjoyable.  From the original side two, the title track is a very nice, almost proto-Windham Hill acoustic guitar duet, then the final track is simply magnificent.  After a fun catchy intro, The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution builds into a multi-tangent guitar-bass-drums jam (edited down from over 40 minutes to 13), with Zappa on uniquely-tuned Fender 12-string.  More FZ-shredding next week!

Come the 80s, with Zappa having regained control of his catalogue, he set about tweaking Sleep Dirt into how he'd always wanted it to sound.  By the time the album debuted on CD, there were drum overdubs, editing and remixing in places, and most drastically three tracks had gained a female lead vocal (performed by Thana Harris).  With lyrics from an unfinished theatrical project about an evil queen and a giant spider, these songs now suggested the monster-flick equivalent of classic Bond themes gone insane, and are loads of fun.  So which version of the album wins overall?  Only way to decide is to try both...

Original instrumental album (restored by 2012 CD)

Vocal/remix album (from 1995 CD)

pw for both: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Traffic - The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (1971)

Jazzy, folky prog in its prime from the revived lineup of Steve Windwood & co, which always gets a fair bit of summer playing from me, so why not drop it in here.  Ghanian-born percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah, one of two 70s Traffickers who'd wind up in Can, came on board at this point, and bassist Ric Grech made his only studio appearance with the group here.  Gordon, Capaldi & Wood fill out the lineup.

After a mellow beginning in Hidden Treasure, the 11-minute title track is next.  Slowly building into a memorable snappy groove in the choruses, the lyrics are one of the better-written 'music business' gripes, and it was my instant highlight when first hearing it on a best-of.  The funky Rock And Roll Stew closes out the original LP's first side.

Side two contains another three tracks, all of which are fantastic.  Plenty of electric piano and flute to luxuriate in on the mid-tempo Many A Mile To Freedom, and funked-up fuzz guitar in Light Up And Leave Me Alone.  The atmospheric Rainmaker, with its central Chris Wood flute line, is my other highlight of the album, and features future Only Ones member Mike Kellie behind the drumkit.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa / Mothers Of Invention - One Size Fits All (1975)

This album is about as far as I go with 'songwriter Zappa' - after 1975, it's pretty much just his increasingly ambitious instrumental music and ever-better lead guitar noodlings that tickle my fancy, so more of that in the coming months.  For now, here's the wonderful OSFA (that anagram of 'sofa' not escaping anyone's notice), which kicks off with one of Zappa's most satisfyingly oddball song masterpieces.

We actually heard Inca Roads a couple of weeks back in its Helsinki performance from the previous year, and here it is in studio-polished form with parts of the Helsinki guitar solo expertly grafted in, and of course the closing shout-out to Ruth Underwood's sterling performance.  Purportedly mocking the pretentiousness of progressive rock lyrics, the UFO narrative sung by George Duke gets progressively sillier, with his high-pitched vocal inadvertently bringing Jon Anderson to mind - especially when Yes duly obliged the exact stereotype with Arriving UFO a few years later.

Can't Afford No Shoes is next - as a mid-70s economic malaise lament with "can you spare a dime" references, it's like Stephen Stills' Buyin' Time a year early, only way better/wittier.  Other highlights include two versions of part of the 'Sofa' suite from earlier in the 70s, one instrumental and the other with partly German vocals; the lengthy guitar solo in Po-Jama People, and the always entertaining San Ber'dino with Beefheart harmonica cameo.  Source for this classic album is another 2012 remaster, so everything sounds exactly as it originally did - a shout out here is definitely due by now to this fantastic resource for keeping me right.

 

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Vangelis - La Fête Sauvage (1976)

More Vangelis music for a Frédéric Rossif wildlife documentary, this one seemingly focused on big cats judging by the various album cover pictures used over the years.  When originally released, the soundtrack album's LP sides were simply titled La Fête Sauvage Part 1 and Part 2; this has transferred to CD (at least on this Polydor one, some other reissues differ) as a single 38 minute track.

It's great Vangelis music, rooted in his mid-70s sound and very much looking ahead to the late-70s lushness of Opera Sauvage in its second half.  First though, we get what I presume maps to Side 1 of the LP, in just over 18 minutes that takes in an uptempo theme, three short sections of percussion, voices and flute (performed by guest musicians) and lastly a more laidback electronics and percussion theme.  That last section leads in nicely to the long Vangelis-only piece that takes up the rest of the album.  With reverbed electric piano and lush synthesisers, it shows Vangelis honing in on the gorgeous sound of his late-70s work.  It's effectively a theme and variations, returning to the main melody right at the end, and has lately become one of my absolute favourite pieces of Vangelis' music.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
L'apocalypse Des Animaux

Opera Sauvage

Antarctica
Soil Festivities
Invisible Connections

Doldinger's Motherhood - Motherhood (1970)

Just before he started the successful jazz fusion outfit Passport, Berliner saxman Klaus Doldinger had this early-Deep Purpleish heavy prog band on the go for a couple of albums, of which this is the second.  If you were looking for a German comparison, I suppose Xhol Caravan wouldn't be a million miles off.  Lots of grungy organ (Doldinger handled all the keys as well as the reeds) and fuzz guitar make for a typical late 60s psych-tinged hard prog sound, particularly effective on the lengthy opener Devil Don't Get Me, and on Song Of Dying which follows - that one suggesting they might've been listening to early Black Sabbath.  Side One is rounded out by a brief novelty instrumental, aptly titled Circus Polka.

The album's second half might start on the album's low point with Men's Quarrel - seriously, there's lyrics here that even Spinal Tap might have drawn the line at - but it picks up again.  Turning Around and the closer Yesterday's Song are really nice psych-pop efforts at giving the album a bit of light and shade, and in between is another groovy workout, Degeneration.  Yet another one of these albums that's very much of its time, but as longtime readers will know, I love digging out little snapshot-of-the-era curios like this every so often - plenty of great fun to be had giving this a spin.

link

pw: sgtg

Tangerine Dream - Cyclone (1978)

Been on another big TD binge these last few weeks, and worked through the Virgin years until I got to this - supposedly the 'black sheep' of their classic era.  Time to give it a fair hearing with fresh ears? Absolutely.

Tangerine Dream at the end of 1977 saw their stable lineup of the last six years fracture, with the final departure of Peter Baumann.  Edgar Froese and Chris Franke returned to the studio the following January, adding drummer Klaus Krüger and multi-instrumentalist Steve Jolliffe.  The English-born Jolliffe's association with TD actually predated their first album, so he was effectively rejoining the band.  The sessions by their own accounts were a bit of a try-anything blank slate, with competing voices for the overall direction.  Then Jolliffe decided to sing...

Cyclone remains one of only a tiny number of TD albums with vocals.  And to be honest, Jolliffe's weird, often effects-laden voice suits the electronic prog sound of Cyclone pretty well.  The lyrics are no more or less nonsensical than on any number of prog classics you could name, and do help establish a fantasy-sci-fi atmosphere.  In the middle section of Bent Cold Sidewalk, Jolliffe's wind instruments add another fresh colouring to the TD palette.  Then for the side-long closer Madrigal Meridian, Froese, Franke and Krüger got their heads down and turned out a classic sequencer-based epic that solidified the Berlin school-prog hybrid they would perfect on the following year's Force Majeure.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Phaedra (scroll past main post)
Encore
Force Majeure
Tangram
Logos: Live At The Dominion
Hyperborea

Steve Hackett - There Are Many Sides To The Night (1995)

Steve Hackett live and acoustic, from the Palmero Teatro Metropolitan in December 1994, supported only by keyboards from Julian Colbeck.  Steve's on sparkling form, and in jovial spirits, frequently teasing bits of his old classics (and even tracks from his time in Genesis) before claiming to have forgot them all.  He does open with Horizons, and touches on his earliest solo records (links below) with Kim and a re-arranged Ace Of Wands.  The rest of the set highlights his acoustic records as might be expected, plus a nice bit of Vivaldi, a blues where he drops the guitar in favour of harmonica, and a cover of Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Voyage Of The Acolyte
Please Don't Touch
Defector

Gong - Angel's Egg (1973)

Psychedelic adventures with Pothead Pixies, Octave Doctors and more from Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage & co.  This album by the classic Gong lineup starts with a spacey introduction, which segues into a great piece of jazz rock with some wonderful lead guitar from Hillage, and continues on in this vein for the rest of the album.

Many of the tracks are short connecting pieces which give the various band members a turn in the spotlight: more Hillage on Castle In The Clouds, Didier Malherbe on Flute Salad, Pierre Moerlen on Percolations.  Allen's "mystical histories of an undiscovered planet... for children of all ages" keep the narrative tied together among all these various interludes, and the three songs that close the album (including Hillage's I Never Glid Before) are among Gong's very best.

link
pw: sgtg

Gong at SGTG:
You
Shamal
Gazeuse!
Expresso II
Daevid Allen at SGTG:
Dividedalienplaybax80
Steve Hillage at SGTG:
Motivation Radio
Green
Open/Studio Herald
Rainbow Dome Musick
Point 3: Water

Herbert F. Bairy - Traumspiel (1979)

Ferdinand Försch, born 1951 in Bad Brückenau, Bavaria, is a sound sculptor who released only one album under his Herbert F. Bairy alias in 1979.  Elements of progressive rock, jazz rock, classical, world music and more all combined into what the liner notes, explaining the "dream game" title, described as "...four musical playgrounds.  The listening dreamer may find his own music in it."

I'm hearing some mid-late 70s Popol Vuh reference points here, particularly in the two longest tracks, with perhaps the hypnotic spiritual minimalism of Fricke's sound world toned down into something a little more conventionally prog, but no less fascinating and worthy of repeat immersion.  Some common ground with "ethnic fusion"-style bands like Between as well.  I actually hovered over the 'krautrock' tag for this post, before deciding it was a bit of a stretch.... maybe if it had been released a few years earlier, and was more improvisatory in nature.

Whatever it is, Traumspiel is a wonderful record, fleshed out at various points by a dozen other musicians.  Wordless voices, lysergic lead guitars, piano & synth, cello, tablas... you name it.  The second track, Runnin', has a definite jazz fusion influence to it, before the almost 15 minutes of Lady Ollala combine eerie drones, lead guitar & acoustic, synths, bells and more for what's probably the highlight of the album.  A definite cult classic.

link
pw: sgtg

Ilitch - Periodikmindtrouble (2000 compi of recordings 1974-1978)

Two and half hours of phenomenal organ/guitar drones, ambient sounds and other strangeness, from French artist Thierry Müller and associates.  Originally a photographer and graphic designer, Müller started making music in the early 1970s, sometimes assisted by his brother Patrick on synth and recording engineer Ruth Ellyeri.  Their first album as Ilitch, Periodik Mindtrouble, was released in 1978.

This double-CD collects all the material released on the LP along with outtakes from it and other early recordings.  Taking the CD running order then, the first thing here is the 25-minute title track which originally filled Side 2 of the LP.  Starting with some frantic, stabbing organ improvisation, it settles down after a few minutes and then begins a hypnotic drone that Terry Riley would've been proud of, adding guitar in the final minutes.  This is followed by the three-part, 23-minute Ballades Urbaines, originally planned for the LP but ditched in favour of newer material, in which environmental recordings are paired with near-formless reverbed guitar.  A further 20 minutes of unreleased material from 1974 rounds out Disc 1, with more organ, this time in gloomy dark ambient mode, bookended by guitar experiments.

All of the 1975-78 material on Disc 2 comes under the heading of 'Innerfilmsequences', and it was from this group of recordings that the finalised first side of the LP took shape.  The CD tracks that appeared on the LP are 2-3, 5, 8-10, although the last one there appears to be a 1999 re-recording.  More guitar and synth abounds, along with harmonium, occasional percussion and tape manipulation.  The unreleased material reveals an absolute treasure trove of lengthy drone pieces: To I Dien for organ, synth and tape and Impasse Raga for harmonium and percussion, both 8 minutes; and two stunning 16-17 minute tracks, which are my favourites on Disc 2, Trans Sud Omnibus for organ and synths, and Voyage (Limit Speed Disintegration) for organ, synth, guitar & tapes.  A hugely recommened collection, especially to fans of Heldon/Richard Pinhas.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Egberto Gismonti - Academia Da Danças (1974)

Often regarded as his earliest masterpiece, Academia Da Danças was the album that saw Egberto Gismonti sign with EMI Brazil.  With their recording & production facilities to hand, Gismonti would record some of his most ambitious and sophisticated albums for the label.  Early on in this blog I posted the technicolour adventures of Circense (link below) from 1980, and Academia from six years prior shows Gismonti well on his way to that kind of sound, with two side-long suites.

The first of these suites is the fully-segued Corações Futuristas (a title Gismonti would reuse for his next album), made up of five songs.  Strings and synths abound, and in fact introduce the album, as wordless vocals accompany the entry of Gismonti's rolling guitar arpeggios.  There's almost a prog feel in the playing and arrangements, which reminded me of early Steve Hackett; wonder if he heard this album?  Given his relationship with Brazilian artist Kim Poor, it's entirely possible.  Some of the song titles here, for instance Palace of Paintings and The Enchanted Door (in their English translations) are also kind of Hackett-like.

After all the energetic twists and turns of the first suite, the album's not-entirely-segued second half (titled Academia Da Danças) starts with two gorgeous haunting ballads, with Egberto on vocals and piano.  The arrangements are stripped right back - a bit of organ here, a lovely flute feature there.  The album picks up pace again after that, for four short instrumentals that dance around in great arrangements, until the memorably bizarre finale of crazed electric piano & flute collapses in a hallucinatory swirl of electronics.  A highly recommended album from a singular artist.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Circense
Sanfona (by which time Gismonti was using 'Academia Da Danças' as a band name)
Dança Dos Escravos
In Montreal (with Charlie Haden)

Steve Hillage - Open/Studio Herald (1990 compi from 1979 LPs)

Steve Hillage had a particularly productive year to close out the 70s - a double-live album, his first ambient album Rainbow Dome Musick (see list below), and then Open - another funk-psych-prog-electronic record in the vein of Motivation Radio and Green.  That live double, Live Herald, actually ended with a studio side, and when Open came out on CD in 1990 the four 'Studio Herald' tracks were added at the beginning of the disc.  Hillage also re-shuffled the running order of the Open tracks, and added a single-only cover of Getting Better from Sgt Pepper's.  This has all since become canon on subsequent reissues, so might as well go with it.

Studio Herald, then, is likely to have been a further overspill from the two albums' worth of material that made up Radio & Green - it's in a similar ballpark, with the nine-minute New Age Synthesis (Unzipping The Zype) particularly good.  Elsewhere, Hillage attempts to go punk on 1988 Aktivator and just comes off a bit Hawkwind, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - overall, Studio Herald is a decent EP overture.  So how about Open?

As mentioned above, Hillage rejigged the track order for this release, resulting in LP closer Earthrise being the first thing from Open that we get here.  It's based on a melody by Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum, and works well in this arrangement.  The title track comes next, with a bit of nifty vocoder and the same twee-but-pleasant lyrics as on Motivation Radio.  As on the other Open tracks, the synths & sequences are well integrated with the guitars and gently funky rhythms, making this album a sort of distillation of its two predecessors, with its high point probably Day After Day (which was the original LP opener).  The Beatles cover is a bit slight but fun in a Hillage kind of way, and don't miss the muscular workout Don't Dither Do It near the end of the CD.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Motivation Radio
Green
Rainbow Dome Musick
with Gong: You
with System 7: Point 3: Water

Alan Stivell - Symphonie Celtique (Tir Na N-Og) (1980)

Whilst trying to pay attention in French class at school, I noticed a poster on my teacher's wall: a long haired, bearded bloke playing a harp, along with some other (presumably) musicians, and the word "Stivell" at the top in a Celtic-style font.  That image stuck with me, as I thought it could be something I might like if it was an artist/group.

A while later, I did indeed discover Breton harpist, singer, folklorist and composer Alan Stivell (born Alan Cochevelou, 1944), and got hold of an LP of the legendary Olympia concert.  Still don't have the Dublin concert, the source of Mr. Weir's poster, but now I do have this awesome "symphony" of Celtic prog-folk that Stivell wrote and recorded at the end of the 70s, which remains his most ambitious undertaking.

The Celtic Symphony is structured in three 'Circles' on sides 1-3 of the original double-vinyl, with the fourth side being a celebratory suite.  The circles represent the concentric structure of Tir Na N-Og, the island afterlife of Irish mythology also alluded to in one track on a recent post here, and break down into four tracks in each 'Circle'.  Missing from the CD is a minute-long reprise at the end of the Third Circle, but whatever the reason, that's no great loss.  What is here is wonderful.

I'm hearing some similarities to mid/late 70s Popol Vuh, albeit with a much more Celtic flavour, particularly in Ar Geoded Skedus and the stunning nine-minute Divodan.  Elsewhere there's organ drones, orchestrated pieces for strings, obvious spots for Stivell's beautiful harp playing and his vocals in Breton language/French/occasional English.  Intending the Celtic Symphony to be a more internationalist celebration of minority cultures, life, the universe and everything, there's also a reach beyond Stivell's traditional palate to more proto-World music sounds, hence bits of sitar and such.  An ambitious undertaking for sure, and one that pays off in spades.

Alternate cover, closer to original vinyl.  1988 French CD cover at top.

link
pw: sgtg

Gong - You (1974)

One more Gong/Hillage post for the time being, in the last (studio) occasion that they'd both intertwine.  This album is the sweet spot of psychedelic Gong for me, where they got to fully flex their musical muscles on four lengthy tracks, and the remaining short pieces are the ones that carry most of Daevid Allen's comic-space-opera narrative.

After You opens with two of the latter plus a short atmospheric instrumental, Hillage is the first to get the musical spotlight with Master Builder.  I'm assuming the main riff was his, as it would appear again as The Glorious Om Riff on Green, and his guitar solos here are nothing short of blinding.  The next track, the nine mind-bending minutes of A Sprinkling Of Clouds, might prefigure Rainbow Dome Musick to begin with, but the master synther in this case is Tim Blake rather than Hillage/Giraudy.

The absolute star of You, however, IMO has to be bassist Mike Howlett.  Rock solid throughout, the generous dose of psych-jazz-funk that he lays down throughout the album reaches its apex on the ten minutes of The Isle Of Everywhere.  Laying down a hypnotic bassline that Holger Czukay might've been proud of, everyone from Blake to Hillage to the French percussion team that would shortly take ownership of the band gets a chance to shine on this album high point.

link

Gong - Gazeuse! (1976)

A hugely enjoyable slab of mid-70s jazz rock, from the era of 'Pierre Moerlen's Gong', after the departure of Daevid Allen ended the ever-changing group's first psychedelic era.  Steve Hillage had departed too for his solo career by the time this album was recorded, and for this album was replaced by Allan Holdsworth.  An utterly unique guitar player and writer, Holdsworth's solo albums have been on my radar for ages but I'm never quite sure where to start - any suggestions welcome.

Holdsworth is the composer for two tracks on Gazeuse!, Night Illusion and Shadows Of, and both are great showcases for his stunning style.  The solo he unleashes about three minutes into the latter is particularly breathtaking.  The lion's share of the rest of the material is Moerlen's; as a sometime member of Les Percussions De Strasbourg, his percussive credentials formed the core of the Gong sound in this era.  The preponderance of mallet percussion on Gazeuse! makes it essential for fans of Frank Zappa's jazzier ventures, and perhaps even those of Steve Reich's percussive work.  Entirely befitting its title, this is a great little album that fizzes with effervescent energy and creativity throughout.

Alternate cover (USA, where the album was re-titled Expresso)

link

Steve Hillage - Green (1978)

In early 1977, Steve & Miquette had two albums planned: one was to be The Red Album, the other The Green Album.  The former became Motivation Radio, from last Friday's post, but the latter kept to the original theme in its final title.  Whether it was the original intention or a later evolution, the distinction is clear - where Motivation Radio was rockier and more song-based, with only one instrumental, Green is over 50% instrumental, and points the way forward to Hillage & Giraudy's future direction.

Nick Mason was an apt choice for producer, as you can definitely draw more obvious parallels between Green and the classic Floyd sound.  Again, though, the lyrics are much more upbeat than Roger Waters' glass-half-empty world, and although very much of their time are accessible and heartfelt rather than just stoned ramblings (which I think is where I struggle with Gong, only really warming to them when Pierre Moerlen takes over.  But anyway, back to Hillage and Green.)

As mentioned above, with the exception of Unidentified Flying Being, which feels like more of a Motivation Radio track, this album is much spacier and atmospheric.  Most of the tracks flow into each other, and UFB segues into a stunning instrumental suite that will only be broken by one more minute of singing for the rest of the album.  Miquette and Steve really come into their own here as masters of ambient sequencing and other synth wonders, and this is also uniquely the album where Hillage favours guitar synth over regular guitar, further broadening the electronic palette.  Ending with a reworked Gong theme, Green really is space rock par excellence, and certainly my most enduring favourite in its genre.

link

Steve Hillage - Motivation Radio (1977)

Back to Steve Hillage, with his third solo album.  Appearing after two solid slabs of psychedelic prog, this is where Hillage reshaped his sound around the funk and proto-disco music he was unashamedly enjoying at the time (despite fans who spoke to him carping about it, which only spurred him on).  The result was a massively fun record of eight tightly arranged shorter songs, and a cute little cover of Not Fade Away to finish.

Motivation Radio's lyrics can seem a bit dated (however, is it just me that finds Radio quite prescient, given the rise of the internet/social media as an admittedly imperfect counter to mainstream media?) and hippy-dippy, but at their heart just boil down to self-confidence/self-discovery platitudes and other messages of positivity.  Which is kind of nice; there's a great line in the AMG review of the album, although I suspect they won't have been the first to use it, about Motivation Radio being "the light side of the moon" in comparison to the largely downbeat Pink Floyd MO of the era.

Floyd are a vaguely useful musical comparison too; the album has a great 70s rock production with a generous dose of synth, both courtesy of Malcom Cecil of Tonto's Exploding Head Band, and there's also lingering traces of Hillage's time in Gong (see Octave Doctors).  Miquette Giraudy's synth talent, pointing the way to the future, is worth mentioning too.  What really elevates Motivation Radio, though, are Hillage's great guitars, energising the whole record with driving riffs and blistering leads.  When this coincides with the more purple lyrics, the result is a nice balancing act that stops the songs seeming too twee - Light In The Sky and Saucer Surfing are perfect examples.  With a tight rhythm section wrapping all this up, the result is just a wonderful album.

More to come on Monday! ;)

link

Sensations' Fix - Fragments Of Light (1974)

Great cult album of floaty and burbly synths galore, recorded - depending upon which sources are correct - either by Italian musician/producer Franco Falsini alone during a short period in Virginia, or as the first album proper by Falsini and new Sensations' Fix bandmates after he returned to Italy.  Yep, even researching this album was weird.  Odder still are the Amazon/iTunes downloads of the handful of Sensations' Fix albums available, with atrocious remixing and track shortening, even cack-handed overdubbing.  I've therefore had my eye on this long-deleted Polydor CD for a while, and finally got one that wasn't going for silly money.

Whether recorded by Falsini alone or not, Fragments Of Light is a gorgeous little oddity of 11 short tracks based around guitar and Eminent and Minimoog synths, all instrumental bar two tracks.  To deal with those two first, Space Energy Age is a cute little piece of space-pop with an early drum machine, and Do You Love Me sounds oddly out place, with a more tuneless vocal and what does seem like a full band (could still be Falsini overdubbing everything, dunno).

The rest of the album is a quite lovely trip through accessible, melodic electronics, basic rhythm guitar and little bits of psych-influenced lead guitar.  Squint a little and it could occasionally be Heldon without the darkness, or a more succinct, clear-eyed Cosmic Jokers session. Falsini was a definite Fripp fan too, with the LP including the message "Dear Robert, you'll be glad to know that the heavenly music organisation has branches here too".  Brilliant, evocative track titles abound - my absolute favourite is Music Is Painting In The Air, with its basic four chords and an echoey lead guitar over a floating bed of synth clouds.  Space Closure is the longest and most prog-like at 6 minutes, and Telepathic Children the perfect kosmiche closer.  Highly recommended.

link

Czesław Niemen - Niemen Vol. 1 & 2 (1973)

Staying in 70s Poland for the moment, here's a couple of fascinating albums by the legendary singer, organist and songwriter Czesław Niemen (1939-2004).  Released at the height of a jazz fusion phase, Niemen Vol. 1 and Niemen Vol. 2 are actually regarded as a double-album released as two separate LPs - most subsequent reissues have them as one CD under the title Marionetki, but the one I managed to get hold of was on two CDs under the original titles.  Which is nice, but anyway, on to the music.

Since the late 60s, Niemen had been gaining popularity as a classical-influenced, progressive rock organist, and a strong, soulful singer.  Both are very much in evidence here, and the lyrics are settings of verse by Polish poets.  The language barrier unfortunately precludes me from enjoying the latter, but that doesn't matter much on Vol. 1, which is dominated by two lengthy instrumentals.

At 17 minutes, Requiem dla Van Gogha is the longest and most abstract - lots of atmospheric organ and scraping violin.  After a short, upbeat piano and fuzz-guitar based song (the guitarist is SBB's Apostolis Anthimos, who worked with Tomasz Stańko in the 80s), the 13-minute Inicjały brings back the organ, violin, has intermittent wordless vocalisations, and introduces lengthy trails of smeared trumpet.  The result of that is strongly reminiscent of 70s Miles Davis at his most open-ended - think He Loved Him Madly - and is probably my favourite thing here.

Vol. 2 has five tracks, all with vocals - even if the only Polish I can remember from my brief time there is 'dwa bilety prosze' for the bus stations, it's hard not to be moved by how great Niemen's voice was.  I've read comparisons to Joe Cocker, but he's not quite as gritty/bluesy as that to my ears.  Anyhow, we start with Marionetki, with doomy organ and drums for a few minutes, before setting off on another epic journey with Piosenka dla zmarłej and some enojyably knotty jazz-prog in the intro.  There's much more guitar on Vol. 2, and Anthimos' solo midway through this track is a good taste of what's to come.

Nine minutes of Z pierwszych ważniejszych odkryć are announced with some driving guitar, before Anthimos switches to a mellower slide for the verses.  Lots of good gear-changes follow, more fuzz lead and even some funky drumming - I think this track is my highlight of Vol. 2.  The minute-long oddity Ptaszek made me look up the lyrics and pop them into a translator just to find out what the manic laughter was about - it's a great absurd verse describing a crazy bird.  The writer, inter-war poet Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, certainly seems to have been a fascinating character.  Lastly, Niemen stretches those great pipes of his again for Com Uczynił, a powerful ballad with another fantastic jazz-funk middle section.

Disc 1
Disc 2