La Vie Electronique 13 (3CD)

One of the finest releases of the era "Procol Harum” captured the exquisite song writing of Gary Brooker and Keith Reid and the excellence of the musicians in the group, namely Gary Brooker (voice, piano), Robin Trower (lead guitar), David Knights (bass guitar), B.J. Wilson (drums) and Matthew Fisher (Hammond organ). The overall result was a collection of songs that would prove to be truly ground breaking, despite only having being released in Mono at the insistence of producer Denny Cordell.Newly re-mastered from the original tapes, this Deluxe edition of "Procol Harum” has been expanded to include 27 bonus tracks (8 previously unreleased) over two CDs, including the classic singles "A Whiter Shade of Pale”, "Homburg”, along with rare B-sides, alternate session takes and stereo mixes and seven previously unreleased BBC Radio sessions from June and September 1967.This expanded deluxe edition of "Procol Harum” also includes a lavishly illustrated booklet that fully restores the original album artwork and features a new essay by Procol Harum biographer Henry Scott-Irvine, along with a facsimile promotional shop poster for the release of the album in January 1968.Disc One1. CONQUISTADOR2. SHE WANDERED THROUGH THE GARDEN FENCE3. SOMETHING FOLLOWING ME4. MABEL5. CERDES (OUTSIDE THE GATES OF)6. A CHRISTMAS CAMEL7. KALEIDOSCOPE8. SALAD DAYS (ARE HERE AGAIN)9. GOOD CAPTAIN CLACK10. REPENT WALPURGISBONUS TRACKS11. A WHITER SHADE OF PALE12. LIME STREET BLUESA & B SIDES OF SINGLE13. HOMBURG14. GOOD CAPTAIN CLACK (SINGLE VERSION)A & B SIDES OF SINGLE15. ALPHA16. SALAD DAYS (ARE HERE AGAIN) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASEDRECORDED AT OLYMPIC STUDIOS, LONDON – 29th MARCH 196717. UNDERSTANDABLY BLUERECORDED AT OLYMPIC STUDIOS, LONDON – 17th JULY 196718. PANDORA’S BOX (INSTRUMENTAL)RECORDED AT ADVISION STUDIOS, LONDON - 24TH AUGUST 196719. CERDES (OUTSIDE THE GATES OF) (ALTERNATE MONO MIX)20. SOMETHING FOLLOWING ME (ALTERNATE MONO MIX)Disc Two1. A WHITER SHADE OF PALE (EXTENDED EARLY VERSION)RECORDED AT OLYMPIC STUDIOS, LONDON – 29TH MARCH 19672. HOMBURG (EXTENDED STEREO VERSION)3. REPENT WALPURGIS (EXTENDED STEREO VERSION)RECORDED AT ADVISION STUDIOS, LONDON - AUGUST 19674. CONQUISTADOR (1971 STEREO MIX)5. SHE WANDERED THROUGH THE GARDEN FENCE (1971 STEREO MIX)6. SOMETHING FOLLOWING ME (STEREO MIX)7. MABEL (UNDUBBED STEREO MIX)8. KALEIDOSCOPE (STEREO MIX)9. CERDES (OUTSIDE THE GATES OF) (STEREO MIX)10. HOMBURG (1971 STEREO MIX)11. MORNING DEW12. A WHITER SHADE OF PALE13. MABEL"EASYBEAT” SESSION 14th JUNE 1967 BBC LIGHT PROGRAMME PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED14. HOMBURG15. GOOD CAPTAIN CLACK16. SHE WANDERED THROUGH THE GARDEN FENCE17. KALEIDOSCOPE"TOP GEAR” SESSION 27th SEPTEMBER 1967 BBC RADIO ONE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 

By now everyone knows that Cherry Five was the precursor to Goblin before they signed with Cinevox.  Original drummer Carlo Bordini (of Rustichelli - Bordini fame) and vocalist Tony Tartarini have formed a new version of the band.  Bordini and Tartarini have enlisted Taproban keyboardist Gianluca De Rossi and rounded out the lineup with Ludovico Piccinini (guitar) and Pino Sallusti (bass).So the obvious question is - how is it?  Its a two part answer.  First off its 40 years since the first Cherry Red album was recorded.  This sounds nothing at all like Cherry Red or Goblin.  Tartarini sings in Italian and the music doesn't have the Yes vibe that the original lineup had.  But the second part is actually good news.  The music is a three part conceptual work with epic length tracks.  This fits right into the RPI ("Rock Progressivo Italiano" for those that don't know) vein.  Like his work with the terribly underrated Taproban, De Rossi is the focal point of the band's sound.  Piccinini's guitar tone is a bit modern sounding for the vibe they are trying for but its got a dark energy that fits in well with the keys.  This one's going to be a grower and an easy recommendation.

Oh so you say you want to get fancy?  How about the CD/DVD digipak edition?  The bonus DVD comes with live footage from the recording of the album as well as interviews.Second studio album from what may be the ultimate chops band.  Guthrie Govan (guitars), Bryan Beller (bass), and Marco Minnemann (drums) turn it up an notch further.  Everything is set to 11 on this one. Lots of notes flying around and different styles as well - on "Louisville Stomp: I'm hearing some cool country style pickin' from Guthrie Govan that is welcome and unexpected.  He sounds like the second coming of Danny Gatton.  Other tracks are a non-stop shredfest - that's what the Aristocrats are all about.  Highly recommended.

Part 12 of the required series of rare tracks of the German electronics pioneer!!DISC 1: "Picasso..."  is Klaus' longest composition so far. Originally it were various 1992-'93 recordings for a film soundtrack, but the film producer could not pay for it and accordingly Klaus withdrew his collaboration and his music. For the Silver Edition release I put the music in logical order. It continues on the Disc 2.The denomination of "Picasso geht spazieren" was "Picture Music in Three Movements" due to the fact that twenty years earlier Klaus invented the term "Picture Music" for one of his earliest albums. This description and name did still fit in 1993 ...especially with the variety of sampling pictures you'll hear while dear old "Picasso Takes a Walk".DISC 2: In 1995, '96, '97, '98, '99 and also in the year 2000 the more than two and a half hours long (!) "Picasso geht spazieren" was elected by the members of "The KS Circle" among the top ten of the most popular of the many KS titles, the highest position was number 3 in 1997.Words from the booklet of the original release: In terms of time, the history of Electronic Music is essentially limited to the twentieth century -in terms of a successful work inside this genre just to a handful. In terms of struggle for the new and unknown to a few, if not to just one. Though Klaus Schulze may not have the trained piano playing craft that other players outside his genre have, he gives, I think, far more poignancy, tenderness, and feeling, yes I dare to say: Soul. The truth of an artist is as simple as that: He puts his soul into his work. DISC 3: The original tape of "The Music Box" had the working title "Meditation I" first. Klaus recorded it in 1993 and gave it for free to the "Guttemplers", an institution that helps alcoholics. For the first release in Silver Edition I had given it the full title "The Music Box -Tongemälde in fis-moll" (Sound picture in F sharp minor). PS: Of course I had the famous movie in mind when I invented the title "The Music Box", yes I speak of Laurel and Hardy's only Oscar winning epos (the one with the piano up (and down) the many many steps). I did put some other Laurel and Hardy titles and references in Silver Edition. Not just KS believes that the two (and also W.C. Fields) were true geniuses, they put their souls into their work.

"Can it be possible that we've got to 2014 without me ever having heard a studio album by Lazuli? Yes, ladies and gents, that is possible, I can assure you. Whilst I vividly remember Lazuli live in Tilburg some years ago in 2007 at the Symforce Festival and actually finding them making a huge impression with their live performance, I simply never got around to either buying nor listening to their studio albums. Shame on me for not doing so. More so as I now fully realise what I have been missing in music for quite some years. What a joy it was to hear the Lazuli sound again and now on a new album as well.For days Tant Que L'Herbe Est Grasse has been spinning its rounds in many CD players, be it in the car, at work or on my home system. Opener Déraille with its environmentally engaged lyrics gets on its way with a fine rhythm and very varied sounds and immediately draws you deep, deep into the world that is Lazuli's. I must add that Dominique Leonetti's passionate singing and the way his vocal lines, to these ears, are almost an instrument in their own right set them apart from many other bands. It may just be that you get drawn to listening to the lyrics even more and try to understand them that much better.Une Pente Qu'On Devale has the slightest bit of a Marillion vibe that reminds me a wee bit of the feel of their semi-acoustic tracks like Man Of A Thousand Faces, yet this is more modern and Lazuli rock out towards the end. There's also some fine, fine soloing in there too.Homo Sapiens just grabs you. It's more ballsy and reminds a bit of Riverside whereas the second half of the song tips its hat to latter day Fish, that is before the band start again and we get a fine Léode solo. The Fish vibe also appears to shine through on Tristes Moitiés and L'Essence Des Odyssées, yet it is not that these songs make Lazuli sound a 100% like everyone's favourite Scotsman; not at all, yet there is a comparison in sound that, to me, flows back to the Raingods with Zippos days. Fish himself features on J'Ai Trouvé Ta Faille where he gets to sing in the second part of the song. Another fine song on this very fine album, but there is plenty more to hear before we actually get to that one, the eighth song on the album.What Lazuli have delivered here is an album rich in sound and where all band members get to shine, be it individually yet moreover in how much this album is a band effort. On first listen you might find that the songs are just songs, but their build has more to them than appears on first listen. This is an album that grows each and every time you hear it. There are parts that are prog, world music, folk rock, storming out and out rocking moments and they are all brought together in this album. As I once more listen to Tristes Moitiés Lazuli again fully draw me into their realm. What is it that makes albums present themselves as ever growing in beauty? The textures, the soloing, the intricate drum and percussion parts that get to you more and more with each and every listening session. I dare say that this album has all that and, as already mentioned, there is the great singing!Multicolèlere, a play on the words "multicoloured anger", speeds things up once more and shows a heavier Lazuli. This whole song very much gets to me and perhaps there's another bit of Riverside, but let's just cut to the chase; this band sounds every inch like Lazuli should. And there is only one way to find that out for the not yet initiated and that is to just go and listen to this fine gem of an album. Don't think you can do like me and miss out on one of the finest prog bands around - why should you? You'd be missing out on real beauty. And yes, listen to this album all the way through, you won’t find that hard at all as J'Ai Trouvé Ta Faille is another beauty as is the closing song, Les Courants Ascendants, the only song to reach beyond the 6 minute mark. But count that as an asset that Lazuli have to their songwriting; they succeed in writing compact songs that are all very varied throughout the album." - DPRP.net

"GAZPACHO was formed in 1996 by Jon-Arne Vilbo and Thomas Andersen and Jan-Henrik Ohme, later completed by the three others. They released six studio albums, which were well received. The Norwegian band is bringing out their seventh album, ‘March Of Ghosts’ which Vilbo describes as “a collection of short stories. The idea behind the album was to have the lead character spend a night where all these ghosts (dead and alive) would march past him to tell their stories. Characters include Haitian war criminals, the crew of the Marie Celeste, a returning American WWI soldier who finds himself in 2012 and the ghost of an English comedy writer who was wrongly accused of treason.”You might then expect quite a dramatic concept album with a lot of turbulent and heavy soundscapes or with the ghostliness some eerie and ethereal, thickly layered atmospheric songs, but with the mixture of ambient and folk elements into their post-art rock sound the music is more on the relaxing side. Though the layers and atmosphere are there, it’s rather straightforward and unpretentious and accessible. Many of the songs are dreamy, mostly evoked by Ohme’s vocal, take the first part of the ‘Hell Freezes Over’ songs, of which the second part, following the first, ups on the intensity, but it’s still pretty low key affair, reminiscent of MUSE. Added interest to this song comes with some bagpipe-y, Celtic sounds towards the end raising the oomph as it fades.‘Black Lily’ is enhanced by some unimposing and non-bombastic orchestra parts. Some compare GAZPACHO to ANATHEMA, PORCUPINE TREE and MARILLION, yet the sound so many times reminds me of the band I’ve previously mentioned – MUSE, this track in some ways is the most representative of it - with the vocals and the way the melody sways, lets go and intensifies with that nearly MUSE-like music diction. Guitar details and folk-ish elements in the ‘Gold Star’ change this tack somewhat and earn rather the comparison with MARILLION. The violin and dreaminess in the third part of ‘Hell Freezes Over’ and its melancholy create the best moment of the album together with ‘Mary Celeste’ which has this precarious steering towards heavier sound with some wonderful detailing going on with piano, and darker, moodier strings. The lyrical narrative stands out more here too.‘Golem’ has a most pronounced sense of experimentation woven together in an appealing way. Lyrically I especially enjoy how they’ve worked the legend of Golem into an interesting metaphor. The last part of ‘Hell Freezes Over’ is the hardest here, yet atmospheric and quite beautiful and the reference to ANATHEMA comes justified here. In fact within the last few sentences I have also written some of the adjectives that fit this album overall quite well - appealing, (very) interesting, beautiful, and also a multi-faceted and richly rewarding listen. " - Reflections In Darkness