Siloah - Sukram Gurk (Kraut-Rock 1972)

Siloah was an almost completely different band when they recorded Sukram Gurk, their second and final album. On the record, released in 1972, the group turns up the volume a couple notches as the acoustic guitars are traded in, and the group is pared down to an electric three-piece of organ, bass, and drums, with an extra percussionist thrown in. The record is darker and edgier than the earlier album, but at the same time, it is not a complete about-face, as Siloah retains their unpolished sound, amateurish playing, and loose improvisational feel, with long instrumental jamming and bare-bone riffs. The record opens with the garage-band attack of "Milk Blue Mind," with vocal chorus caterwauling "Mother, I'm dying," before the piece drifts into long improvisations, more energetic vocal screams and wails, and even a drum solo. Except for some more rough vocals on "Feast of the Pickpockets," the rest of the record is instrumental, though no less effective, whether the mid-paced "Magic carpet Ride" or the slowly building organ grind that begins "Feast of the Pickpockets," or the avant-funk of "Stony," with its thundering drums and driving bassline. The bonus track, "She Is on My Mind," done a year later by a couple members of Siloah with a couple members of Os Mundi, sounds like a wretched attempt at a commercial pop song, and not at all up the standards of the material on the CD, and does neither Siloah nor Os Mundi any justice.

AMG Review by Rolf Semprebon

Paladin - Charge! (Great Hard Rock 1972 - bonus tracks)

A good progressive/hard rock outfit, their first album was recorded live
in the studio and their strength was really as a live act. Lou Stonebridge
went on to play for McGuinness Flint. Joe Jammer also recorded as a solo artist.

Paladin may only have ever released two albums, but their second 'Charge'
is an absolute classic of early 70ís prog. There are many different styles and
sounds on the album, yet the whole is nothing less than a coherent masterpiece.

The Roger Dean sleeve may not be an absolute guarantee of quality,
but Paladin sit well with their peers such as Yes, Uriah Heep, Asia, etc.,
whom Dean graced with his artwork.

There are four feature tracks on the album. The opening "Give me your hand"
sets the tone, with rich organ and guitar backing a strong vocal for a fine
piece of melodic hard rock. "Good lord" is a slightly softer but still upbeat
song with some excellent guitar work by Derek Foley. It leads into the album's best track,
the wonderfully atmospheric "Mix your mind with the moonbeams".
The multi-tracked vocals and trippy lyrics are pure early 70's
("Let the cosmic light diffuse itself, in all its magic ways").
The track is awash in keyboard layers, and chiming guitars.
This is PENDRAGON years before Pendragon existed! Also included is an
all too rare Hammond organ solo, similar to the one on URIAH HEEP's "July Morning".

The closing track "Watching the world pass by" has everything in about 9 minutes.
It starts with some interesting keyboard moods, before breaking into an almost
funky harmonica led wall of sound backed piece. About midway, we suddenly
lurch into a barn dance, before a superb guitar solo of some length brings
the album to its climactic conclusion.

The album is rounded out by three shorter tracks. "Well we might" is an almost SLADE
(yes Slade!) like rocker with some great guitar and some very effective stop go interludes.
"Anyway" is a melotron backed ballad which contrasts superbly with the
generally upbeat nature of the album. This track appears to have been a
late addition to the original LP, as it appears on a sticky label added
to the track listing. "Get one together" is the only dip,
being a pretty nondescript instrumental.

"Charge" is a truly superb album, very much of its time,
but still highly enjoyable. The band were destined to split before
recording any further albums, but at least they went out on a high.


01.Give Me Your Hand
02.Well We Might
03.Get On Together
04.Anyway
05.Good Lord
06.Mix Your Mind with the Moonbeams
07.Watching the World Pass By
08.Give me Love to you (Bonus)
09.Sweet Sweet Music (Bonus)
10.Any Way (Variation - Bonus)
11.Sweet Sweet Music (Variation - Bonus)
12.Well we Might (Variation - Bonus)
13.Fill up your Heart (Instrumental - Bonus)
14.Bad Times (Instrumental - Bonus)

Post by CGR

Sapphire Thinkers - From Within (1968 Fine Fuzzy Californian Psychedelia)

Excellent 1968 Californian band who with their mix of male and female vocalists and fuzz lead guitar bear comparisons with Yankee Dollar or Peanut Butter Conspiracy.
If anything this band are better than those acts and their album features some excellent harmonies and nice trippy touches - in particular the Doors like keyboards and backward effects.
Other than Vernon Joynson's entry in Fuzz, Acid and Flowers and his very similar summary of the album in "Flashback", used in the sleeve notes for the CD re-issue, there is very little information on this excellent band and their work. Joynson's summary from the sleeve notes was as follows " ...similar to Jefferson Airplane and Peanut Butter Conspiracy...based in LA, they were probably Californian. The album contains some pleasant vocal arrangements/harmonies and nice touches of acid and fuzz guitar and is recommended". I couldn't agree more. If it's light and breezy West Coast psych inflected pop you're looking for, then this band make all the right moves. In addition to melodies and male/female vocal harmonies to rival The Mamas & The Papas, and a groovieness in the vein of Ultimate Spinach, there's a few more things that really stand out on the album for me. These are the technically brilliant snappy keyboard backing on most tracks, the stunning lead guitar breaks that really lift several of the tracks, and the sprinkling of flute over the album.
The standout tracks are the title track "From Within" and the amazing "I Got To You" which is contains the best harmony work on the album and some beautifully introspective guitar pieces. Yet another talented bunch of musicians that never received the attention they deserved.

1. Melancholy Baby
2. I Feel A Bit Strange,
3. Get Along Boy
4. Blues On You
5. From Within
6. I Got To You
7. Not Another Night
8. Let Her Come In
9. Please Understand
10.Blind With A Borrowed Light
11.There's A Woman
12.Doin' Alright

Post by CGR

Paul Kossoff - Back Street Crawler (Great Blues-Rock 1973)

Back Street Crawler, despite being Paul Kossoff's first post-Free album, contains contributions from all members of that band. "Molten Gold," the most accessible song on the album, features the talent of Free vocalist Paul Rodgers, and is an overlooked shoulda-been hit. Otherwise, the album is highlighted by Kossoff's blues- and rock-based guitar. "Time Away" is a haunting, atmospheric instrumental duet with avant folk-jazz guitarist/singer John Martyn that originally registered 18 minutes in length. The full version was eventually released on the Free box set Songs of Yesterday, but here is edited down significantly in favor of the 17-minute A-side track "Tuesday Morning," a more upbeat but less interesting choice. Regardless of this fault, this is one of those albums that deserves a place in the pantheon of classic rock.

AMG Review by Rob Caldwell

Barclay James Harvest - Baby James Harvest (Great Art-Rock 1972)

"Baby" is all right, I guess, as out of all the early period BJH records this one's the most seriously flawed. Said to be rushed over the course of four weeks, it also featured the band members working separately (Wolstenholme was in London recording the orchestra part while the rest of the band were recording everything else in the States), and this probably was a major factor adding to the album's lifelessness. Of course, maybe they had just temporarily run out of their minor hooks and tiny ideas. Like, totally. Overall, the sound is pretty depressed and tired, and this is obvious from the very first track, 'Crazy (Over You)', with its tired riffs (as usual, monotonous ones but also pretty devoid of energy, tired solos, tired vocals and tired lyrics. It just doesn't seem to particularly go anywhere except for pointing out the fact that the band was tired. Well - I gotcha. Next time, try some Prozak. The bulk of the album is completely eaten up by two 'epics' this time around, a bad sign even before actually hearing the numbers, as their best album of that period didn't include even a single ultra-lengthy epic. Lees' Summer Soldier' is a stately bore that could have been moderately nice for two minutes; for some reason, it goes on for more than ten. I appreciate the boys writing a harsh anti-war epic, with soldiers marching and shouting 'kill!' and all, but I don't feel the melody. Maybe it's just a subjective feeling of my own, but there's no hook I'm aware of. Just a lot of mid-tempo acoustic rhythms, a strained wah-wah lead tone and prophetic lyrics with not a single interesting twist of the vocals. I hate that kind of crap when it's done by a band like Kansas, but turns out Kansas weren't the first to invent the "completely wasted time epic" genre. (Of course, there was also Van Der Graaf Generator, but at least you could actually ponder over Pawn Hearts trying to guess its mysterious message; here, the message is as clear as water). Even worse is 'Moonwater', though. If that's the kind of stuff for which Wolstenholme travelled to London, I wish somebody'd hijacked his plane on the way. Seven and a half minutes of a pure orchestral composition with a few vocal lines thrown in for good measure. And ALL of that composition sounds like the prelude to a Hollywood musical, something like that. Where's the sense of measure that so far has not eluded these guys? Down the drain it goes. I don't want to even talk about that shit, it's so painful to realize that the very thing that had once been the saving grace of these guys - amazingly economic and up-to-the-point use of their orchestration - has now turned against them due to just one silly member's 'ambitions'. Aaaarggh. So the day is only saved by the remaining fifteen minutes of music, without which the album would have been an absolute disaster. 'Delph Town Mom' is one more try at an upbeat uplifting folksy hymn, and a successful one. It reminds me of Elton John a lot, maybe because the vocals sound Elton Johnish and the piano is very prominent, but it sounds like good Elton John. There's also 'Thank You', a somewhat corny, but effective pop-rocker, introduced by a distorted riff not unlike the one used in CCR's 'Up Around The Bend' and all drenched in that unbeatable Britpop essence that somehow adds taste and dignity to even the weakest songs when applied with knowledge of the subject. But, of course, the absolute winner, and one of the absolutely best Barclay James Harvest songs ever, hell, maybe THE best pop song of 1972, is the ballad 'One Hundred Thousand Smiles Out'. Has it got an undeniable BJH identity? Heh. It's about 50% McCartney, 25% The Move, and 25% Elton John with extra points going to the Bee Gees. That probably means it GOT an undeniable BJH identity. But forget about abstract generalizations, the bare fact is - this is a gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking ballad, devoted to the perennial subject of space travel (you may be pretty sure the boys spent a long time studying Honky Chateau what with all the subtle Elton John influences on here). See, even the subject is not original. Nothing is. Just the actual hook, although I believe the line where Lees sings 'can you hear me down below?' is borrowed directly out of some Roy Wood number, just can't remember which one exactly. Whatever, the vocals do their job so beautifully I just love the song, and urge everybody to hear it. The good news is that since Baby James Harvest is usually available packaged together with its predecessor, you actually get it for free when you purchase the band's best early album! Ha! Then just be sure to program out the two hideous 'epic' perversions and enjoy a solid fifty minutes of vintage Harvest, spraying it down with some first-class Barclay. And the James? Don't forget the James!

http://starling.rinet.ru/music/barclay.htm

Martha Veléz - Fiends & Angels (Blues-Rock 1969)

Martha Velez only issued five albums in her recording career of the 1960s & 1970s. But she has a cult fan following and her albums feature a host of guest musicians. Recorded in 1969, Fiends & Angels is making its worldwide CD debut & features Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Brian Auger, Christine McVie, Jim Capaldi, Mitch Mitchell and the list goes on.
38 minutes approximately. Good warm sound. How could you go wrong with Clapton,Webb(of Chicken Shack)and Kossoff on guitar? Add to that Jack Bruce on bass,Brian Auger on organ,Christine McVie on keyboards,Jim Capaldi(Traffic)and Mitch Mitchell on drums,plus the rhythm section from Chicken Shack,the great Duster Bennett on harmonica,and the cream of session horn players at the time-it added up,hopefully,to some good music.
Combining several originals with a number of well-known tracks made this a great if unknown album. Velez's voice is similar to Bonnie Bramlett(of Delaney and Bonnie)with just a touch of Julie Driscoll. As was mentioned previously,the sound is straight out of the late sixties-a slight blending of instruments and voice that makes for a good,naturally warm sound. This is an advantage,for Velez's voice could easily sound harsh and cold in a digitally stark remastered version. As expected,the quality of the backing band is great and helps place this album above the average run of the mill release. On various tracks its easy to hear which guitarist is playing,and while there are no long solos,the arrangements are just fine.
It's a shame this album was not more well-known upon it's release,but with so many other albums,by so many great groups during this era,Velez's album was here and gone. Hopefully,it's release on cd may rectify this oversight-because this album is a prime example of the music recorded in an era of much great music. It's good to hear it again,and isn't that the mark of good music?

http://www.amazon.com/Fiends-Angels-Martha-Velez/dp/B0015I2Q0S

Greg Sage - Straight Ahead (Wipers' frontman solo album 1985)

Finally, the Wipers' incredible frontman finds a new label to release his records, and in this case, he tries a solo outing instead of convening a fourth Wipers album to go with the three stunning ones they did from 1980-1983. Side one is Wipers-type guitar songs from an uncharacteristic folky approach, and fans will likely lap them up with the same joy that they did the output of Is This Real?, Youth of America, and Over the Edge, which every fan needs. This is what we expect from Sage, in terms of his characteristically involved guitar playing pegged to more simple riffs, a formula that still works so well for him. Side two, though, now that's a totally different kettle of fish, one no one could have expected. How to describe it? Let's call it all strange-echo-soundtrack experiences/insights on the human race. There are no drums; it's almost like a soothing but spacey guitar orchestra, the man testing the outer limits of the moods a mere six strings can manage without other sounds' interference. It all adds up to another interesting look into a true and obvious talent. Get his Wipers LP too, though, you need everything this man does.

AMG Review by Jack Rabid