Psych /
Litia
LP version, on 180 gram vinyl. Released in 1983, the Litia album concluded Asmus Tietchens' études phase and bid a farewell to rhythmic synths -- well, almost. All the signs of "pseudo pop" as heard on Biotop, Spät-Europa, and In die Nacht resurfaced: squeaky sounds and protracted, rattling rhythms grouped into abstract forms through their accentuated artificiality. Sporadic noisiness is as much a part of it as is a winking gesture, which should not detract from the basic sobriety of the work, h…
Kinder in der wildnis
The fact that this album appeared at all in 1983 owes less to Günter Schickert and more to Steven and Alan Freeman, who sought him out for their Krautrock encyclopedia The Crack in the Cosmic Egg. On learning that Schickert had heaps of recordings in his archive, the Freeman brothers proposed compiling an album. Schickert agreed and handed over material which the English YHR label had released in cassette form. Kinder in der Wildnis is a more heterogeneous album than either of its predecessors, …
Galaxies
Laurence Vanay is the pseudonym for Jacqueline Thibault, wife of producer and musician Laurent Thibault (Magma). Her debut album "Galaxies" (1974) is pure genius: almost all instrumental, with gorgeous keyboards of many types, acoustic/electric guitar, even a little Zeuhl bass. There are wordless vocals on many of the tracks, although she occasionally sings in a soft, seductive manner. Incredible, spacey “avant-garde progressive chanson,” a Holy Grail for most collectors of 70's underground Fren…
Free Love
"Free Love", the only LP ever released by Kaleidon, is one of the many 'forgotten ones' from the Italian progressive rock era. The title "Free Love" takes its name from the eponymous band, 3/5 of which were North American musicians living in Italy. Free Love released two 45rpm's in 1970; the first one, "Sandy / Temple of Stone", highlights the remarkable ability of each individual component, if we also consider their young age. The second single contains the theme of the movie western "Roy Colt …
Outlaw
"Probably best known as the writer of the Les McCann/Eddie Harris 1969 hit 'Compared To What', Daniels continues that song's groove-based political message on the Outlaw album. Produced by Joel Dorn and directed by William S. Fischer (1960's sideman for Eddie Harris, Joe Zawinul, Fathead Newman, Herbie Mann), Outlaw hits hard with late 60's black power messages and anti-government statements..." Exact repro, manufactured by Rhino. Originally released in 1970.
Inspiration Information + Wings Of Love
Ignored upon its release in 1974 and celebrated upon its reissue in 2001, Shuggie Otis' fourth and last album Inspiration Information exists out of time, a record that was of its time, but didn't belong of it; a record that was idiosyncratic but not necessarily visionary. It was psychedelic soul that was released far too late to be part of any zeitgeist and it was buried at the time. Yet no matter what David Byrne claims on the sticker - he says Shuggie's "trippy R&B jams are equal to Marvin's a…
Monster Planet
Welcome to Monster Planet, Steve Maxwell Von Braund’s 1975 classic of Australian proto-electronica, a big blast of Kosmische dust, Korgs working overtime…Arguably, the first fully electronic Australian album, Monster Planet is a solo recording from one half of the infamous Australian electronic duo, Cybotron. Von Braund recorded this pre Cybotron album upon his 1973 return to Australia after soaking up the sounds of psychedelic 60s London where he mingled with Hawkwind, The Soft Machine and Grah…
Africa
Africa, originally released in 1992 on Materiali Sonori, may be a late entry in the Embryo catalog but it is one of their most ambitious and truly progressive albums to date. As the name implies, the Munich group not only draws influence from the continent to their south, but also employs an African percussion ensemble on many tracks. A hypnotic and beautiful affair reissued for the first time since its original release. Presented on LP with CD included.
2nd
Agitation Free's 2nd stands as one of Germany's finest instrumental rock albums of the 1970s and a classic for fans of progressive rock and Krautrock. Despite the fact that the group had problems keeping its cohesion at the time, these troubles never affect the music. 2nd presented a daring blend of Krautrock-type extended jams, laid-back attitude, and experimentation. The music remains very psychedelic in nature, more early Can than Faust. The presence of acoustic guitars and bouzouki emp…
Spat-Europa
LP version. Comes on 180 gram vinyl. While Asmus Tietchens planned to head off "into the future" ("In die Zukunft") with Biotop (1981), Spät-Europa witnesses his arrival. Released on Sky Records in 1982, the second album in the "Zeitzeichen" phase not only continued in the style of its predecessor, it managed to refine it a little more precisely. Spät-Europa also conveys a banefully distorted pseudo-pop soundscape of disjointed rhythms and oblique melodies, defined by nervous pulses, cool alacri…
Biotop
scenes from the lab of German electronic music composer Asmus Tietchens are just a few skewed demonstrations of his distant mastery of highbrow composition guised in synth-pop's veneer
Tappeto Volante
Exclusive reissue in a digipack CD format of all of the three Aktuala releases; "Tappeto Volante" is the third and last one of this series, made by an 'open musical collective' from milan, a fixed nucleus with many different contributes from guest musicians. As the Third Ear Band have always been inserted in the international prog panorama, the same happened with Aktuala, who were real music pioneers able to blend world, ethnic, jazz and avantgarde music.
"Tappeto Volante", published in 1976 alw…
La Terra
Finally repressed on CD, milestone reissue! This reissue is enriched by a booklet with rare and unreleased images, plus the bonustrack "Dagli Etruschi a Picasso", taken from the solo works of Walter Maioli, the true spiritual guide of Aktuala and still today a tireless investigator of extra-european music and culture. "La Terra" was released in 1974 and consolidated the fame and the harmony of Aktuala, more and more at the center of attention of critics and listeners, who used to attend…
Aktuala
Finally repressed on CD, milestone reissue! This reissue is enriched by a booklet with rare and unreleased pictures, plus the bonustrack "Flauti" by Walter maioli... Following the same path as Third Ear Band in England, Embryo or Gruppe Between (and even Limbus 4, Kalacakra and Popol Vuh), Aktuala tried to mix together the western musical tradition with african and asian instruments, rhythms, cultures and avant-garde forms, creating a pioneering new form of music that went beyond anythin…
Live Kraut: Live Rock Explosions from the Heyday of Krautrock
"This compilation recalls an exciting time in the former West Germany when a real spirit of optimism prevailed and a musical phenomenon emerged which became internationally known as Krautrock. With performances from Karthago, Grobschnitt, Guru Guru, Mythos, Anyone's Daughter, Embryo, Eulenspygel, Virus, Gila, Ougenweide, and more."
Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2: Experimental German Rock And Ele
Deluxe full color gatefold 2LP version, volume 1 of 2. Artists: A.R. & Machines, Can Roedelius, Michael Rother, Popol Vuh, Michael Hoenig, Agitation Free, D.A.F. Harald Grosskopf, Amon Duul II, Conrad Schnitzler & Wolf Sequenza, Broselmaschine, Eno/Moebius/Roedelius, Gila and Wolfgang Riechmann.
The first seeds of German rock and experimental electronic music were planted in 1968, as students and workers in Paris, Prague, Mexico and throughout the world demonstrated against mainstream society, t…
II
2018 repress. Originally released in 1972, this is the second album by legendary German ambient pioneers Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Moebius and Roedelius essentially create ambient electronic soundscapes that ebb and flow, droning on in a suspended world of anti-gravity where machine has conquered man. Includes bonus CD of the album."This album closes Moebius & Roedelius early radical experimentations in electronic, guitar/organ works. Compositions are always made of repetitive p…
Septober Energy
A mammoth, fifty-person enterprise featuring the cream of the early-seventies jazz-rock brigade, Centipede's 1971 album 'Septober Energy' proved to be an exercise in both gargantuan excess and instrumental brilliance. Naturally, opinions on the release are divided. The line-up is far too numerous to list here, though it did include the likes of Soft Machine alumni Marc Charig(cornet), Elton Dean (sax), Roy Babbington(bass), Robert Wyatt (drums), Nick Evans(trombone), John Marshall(drums,…
The First Ear
First released on Vertigo in April 1972, this is the first LP by Miki Curtis (Samurai front man) following the break-up of the band. It's a fantastically otherworldly psychedelic LP and a totally different sound than Samurai. The First Ear finds Eastern-tinged psych of the highest echelon! Strange harmony vocals, a spacy guitar solo, queerly sawing synths, everything's efficient and even compelling! "Forty days on a stoned-out camel" moans Miki (yes, he knows some English, too) and that is just …
Time to Decide
A compilation of rare studio and live tracks from the band, circa 1978-1980, not on RVNG Intl.'s Music Is Painting In The Air... collection. On 180 gram vinyl with CD of the album. "Formed by Florentine guitarist Franco Falsini (formerly of Noi Tre) and American drummer Keith Edwards, Sensations' Fix was one of the most exciting acts to come out of the Italian music scene of the 1970s. Beginning in 1974, from their outpost in the Florentine countryside, Falsini and Edwards (along with bassist Ri…