Creative Rock

Creative Rock are a loud, brassy, bluesy rock group found on the early Brain label who are obviously influenced by early Chicago (Transit Authority). In fact, this is the type of music that makes me think of the Blues Brothers, although Creative Rock's vocalist is much more earthy and masculine than either brother. There are eight tracks on Gorilla, the band's debut album from 1972. Throughout, we are given a taste of American-styled brass rock in all its bluesy guises, from full-title boogie to more, tasteful, progressive movements such as on the set's longest track "Blind People" and its follow-up "The Word Between 6 and 8 a.m." Due to the wealth of great music to be found on the original Green Brain series, Creative Rock are often overlooked, after all their music is much less inventive and engaging than at least half the catalog. But it's pretty fun rock in its own right, and there is an occasional twist here and there to keep it interesting. Mike McLatchey Gnosis 2000

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Creative Rock - Gorilla (1972)













CreativeRock - Lady Pig (1974)

Mithras - For We Trade In Fun (1976)

Trio from Scotland (one woman, two men) on vocals, flute, and concertina who recorded this super rare UK folk album. A pure recording with just a few re-takes, which took place one weekend in 1976. A very releaxed atmosphere. Freak Emporium


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Green Lyte Sunday - S/T (1970)

Singer/keyboard player Michael Losekamp had been a late-inning member of The Cyrkle (replacing Earl Pickens). Following that group's break-up he apparently returned to his native Dayton, Ohio where the late-1960s found him working with Green Lyte Sunday. Showcasing the talents of Losekamp, woodwind player Fly Barlow, singer Susan Darby, guitarist Jason Hollinger, drummer Rick Kalb and bassist James Wyatt, the band attracted the attention of King Records which signed them to a contract resulting in the 1969 single 'She's My Lover' b/w 'Lenore' (King catalog number 6178). While the single did nothing commercially, it attracted the attention of RCA Victor, which promptly picked up the band. Recorded in Hollywood with Peter Shelton producing, 1970's "Green Lyte Sunday" featured an interesting mix of originals (largely penned by Losekamp) rounded out by a series of three covers - a Joni Mitchell effort and two Laura Nyro compositions. Musically the album offered up a pleasant mixture of breezy pop with some nice jazzy touches ('Glen Helen' and 'What Makes Him Happy') and tougher rock moves ('Happy Happy' and 'Woman's Blues'). Darby and Losekamp were both impressive singers (Darby was particularly good), and while their silky smooth group harmonies drew apt comparisons to the likes of The Free Design, or The Gentle Soul numbers such as 'Lenore' and 'High Up in the Sky' benefited from fuzz guitar and other rock touches. (One or two more rock songs and this would be a four star collectable.) [SB]


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Wadsworth Mansion - S/T (1973)

Led by siblings Mike and Steve Jablecki and former Tangerine Zoo rhythm guitarist Wayne Gagnon (see separate entry), Wadsworth Mansion (the name came from a well known local landmark), was the epitamy of the one-shot wonder. Formed in Providence, Rhode Island (a well known rock oasis), the quartet survived long enough to record a single self-titled album in 1971.

Issued by the small Sussex label, "Wadsworth Mansion" contained minimal information other than band members names, producers, song titles and a pair of blurred group photo. Largely written by Steve, material such as "Long Haired Brown Eyed Girl", "Michigan Harry Slaughter" and "I Like It" seldom offered more than anonymous boogie and conventional rockers. Lacking a strong singer or unique sound, the album wasn't exactly one of the year's most earth shattering efforts. Among the isolated highlights was the fluke top-10 single "Sweet Mary" b/w "What's On Tonight". Backed by a extensive touring schedule opening for a slew of acts including Edgar Winter, the set charted, though peaking at #218 it wasn't a commercial blockbluster (ha!).

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Nautilus - Space Storm (1980)

Nautilus was a Swiss Band (not the German one), that combined the talents of Urs Lerch on bass, Dieter Ruf on guitars, Peter Fibich on drums, Ralph Stucki on keyboards, and Christian Bauer on guitars. Ruf, Stucki, and Baur all contributed to the vocals. They only released two albums (1978's "20,000 Miles Under the Sea" and 1980's "Space Storm"), and not much is actually known about them. It's an obscure band, to say the least.

This band is a bit of an oddity, given the time period. At a time when prog was on its way out, they decided to record psychedelic, proto-metal inspired, symphonic rock (sound weird? It should). There is a strong early Uriah Heep component, with touches of John Lord, a smidgen of Genesis, a dash of Black Sabbath, and even some ELO style harmonies. But that's not all. Don't forget the Pschedelic component. The best analogy I can make, is imagine if Iron Butterfly went symphonic.

So, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The lyrics, and vocals can come off as cheesy at times, but the music stands up. There is solid composition here, and it's much different than other symphonic bands of the '70s. Hats off to these guys for attempting it in the age of punk and new wave.

H.T. Riekels (bhikkhu)

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Mayfly - S/T (1973)

Dutch folk psych.

In 1970, a group was founded in Bergen, N.H. by the name of Guruperide. In 1971, the name of this soft rock group was changed to Mayfly.

Members: Gustaaf Verburg (vocals, bass, guitar and piano), Onno Verburg (vocals, guitar), Ide Min (vocals and electronic instr.), Maarten Min (vocals, drums), Huub Nijhuis (bass, cello), Arie de Geus (piano and violin).

In 1973, Huub was replaced by Walter Tromp, and the group began working with a drummer called Paul Goes. In 1974, the brothers Min left the group; they were replaced by Tjeerd Smit (lyricist), Michel Marion (bass, ex-Machine; replacing Walter), Marinus Groeneveld (sax, flute). After 1975, Mayfly was no more. Paul Goes went on to join Music Garden, and so did Michel Marion. Taken from Alex Gitlin

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49th Parallel - S/T (1969)

Their first 2 singles "Laborer" and "She says" are pieces of pouting prairie punk. In 1969 they had a hit in Canada and the US with "Twilight woman", a lovely song that sounded poppier and slightly folkier than the UK band Tomorrow. The succes of the singles resulted in a release of their one and only album on MGM. This is easily one of the best canadian rock albums ever released featuring excellent material and including pulsating psychedelia, ultra strange tracks as well as a quintessential punk edginess. Strong melodies, great playing and a sympathic production make for a very desirable collection of songs.

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Universe - S/T (1977)

US heavy prog

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Brother Fox and The Tar Baby - S/T (1969)

US pop psych.

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Ablution - S/T (1974)

Ex-Baltik progressive from Sweden.

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Yancy Derrniger - Openers (1975)

If you like that hard rockin' boogie sound from the mid 70's then Yancy Derringer is a must! If you're into bands like Stonehouse, Wizard, Blackfoot or The Godz then you will love this cd. Their great 1975 LP "Openers", another great Wisconsin band which featured outstanding guitars and keyboards and the 7 minute long "Weedburner" Here's what Keith Pettipas of allmusic.com had to say about Yancy Derringer:

Yancy Derringer was a four-piece band from Wisconsin that recorded an album titled Openers in 1975. With an original pressing of only 1,000 copies, the album reflected the band's live act and creative talents in seven original songs. The sound of Yancy Derringer was similar to that of some of the more hard-driven Southern rock acts of the day, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and many more. After selling out the initial 1,000 pressings very quickly, the band ordered a second pressing, which got caught up management hassles and was delayed. This caused fans to lose interest in the band, and by 1976, the group's momentum had passed. Yancy Derringer broke up, leaving the world with another limited-pressing album. In the late '90's, Gear Fab acquired the rights to the band's original masters and released that long lost album for fans of '70's rock to enjoy. With detailed band history and song information (as in all Gear Fab releases), Yancy Derringer can now take their place in the history of American rock music.

Buy high quality reissue from Gear Fab

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Sunblind Lion - Above & Beyond (1978)

Some AOR for calm Tuesday evening ;) More info & buy CDs here

Sunblind Lion is a pretty obscure band, hailing from Wisconsin (US), as not many people are aware of the band. This is a bid of a shame, as they released 3 fine albums in the late 70's with classic POMP tunes.

Their first release, called OBSERVER, saw daylight in '76 and is filled with pure POMP in the same style as their contemporaries STARCASTLE did. Even the lyrics are like STARCASTLE, as S.L also sometimes likes to sing about wind, sun, seasons and that kind of stuff. The albums kicks off with Ride the wind, an uptempo pomp-song with a great Hammond solo in the middle. Next tracks, Cat Eyes (bit like EMPEROR) and Jamaican Holiday are bit average but the rest of the album is all very listenable.

Especially Games of the lonely (like first JAUGERNAUT) and the epic Spring Essence (STARCASTLE all the way), this song is build up out of 3 parts (Dawn - Storm - Sunset), has a long intrumental passage in the middle including many keys. Last track to offer is again an epic, the titletrack, and has an oriental sounding chorus, but again very pompeus with many keys and harmony vocals. Great debut, only the production is a bit a spoil-spot but the music makes that good.
Two years later they relaesed their second album called Above and Beyond. First thing that attracts the attention is that there was an almost complete line-up change. Only the main songwriter, guitarplayer and vocalist Keith Abler and Dave Steffen (also guitars) survived from the debut line-up. Also this time, the production was much better and there were no weak songs. Like JAUGERNAUT during their second release (Take 'em there), there're still pomp traces left but the songs have a more down to earth appraoch. Still they like to sing about the wind as the firsttrack to offer is called Sing out the wind, and this is the weakest song on the album, although, please don't misunderstand me, is very nice !

Things start really rolling with 4 classic tunes in row. Especially The bottom is a long way down ( now I know where JAUGERNAUT got their style), the up tempo PILOT 1407 (GROUNSTAR like), the Promise of Adam (catchy songs with nice hooks and lyrics) and last but not least the final song on the A-side Hurry World, with great lead keys, reminding very much like Love I do from JAUGERNAUT. Blood from the sting on the B side has haunting keys all over and is the best song to offer (in my humble opinion), a really chicken skin song ! Although it's hard to choose the best song on this fine album, because the last song, The king and his parlaiment, is also very good. This epic song starts up heavy, big drums on a militarist rhythm but ends smoothly with great harmony vocals, synths, acoustic guitars and even cello's on the backgound. Great song.

In '80 they released a live album. I haven't heard it yet, but it's in the post and maybe I'll tell you about some other time. All their albums were released through HOMEGROWN REC. and are also available on CD. For further details, please check out the site: http://www.excel.net/~kabler/

Latest news on the band is that they're back together and did some succesfull live shows this summer. There are also plans for recording new material upcoming winter, so stay tuned as the LION isn't death yet, to be continued .... 

(This story was made by Willy Vanbuel)

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Antares - Sea Of Tranquility (1979)

A little known group that only released an album and a single at the end of the 70's, Antares were an italian group signed to the Unifunk label, notable among collectors for producing one of the rarest items by Antonius Rex, the single released in 1971 as Invisible Force.

And the connection with Rex leader Antonio Bartoccetti is strong in the album, as two of the six tracks are co-written by him and the overall sound of Antares' music is not far from the 1978 album Ralefun by Antonius Rex.

The album was mainly based on keyboards, an electro-pop album sung in english and with light progressive leanings, and was recorded in Oslo. Nothing is known about the musicians, two of which were surely italians by name, but even the guitarist can be an italian with a fake foreign name.
As in Automat's case, this is an italian electronic prog group that has very little in common with the most part of other italian artists of their time. Taken from Italian Prog

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Garolou (aka Lougarou)

Garolou is a French Canadian folk-rock group created in 1975. It was originally called Lougarou, but had to change its name after being sued by a dance troup named Les Loups-garous. The group became popular fast, not only in Quebec but across Canada, with its rock sound and its lyrics taken from French and French Canadian traditional songs. More info at ProgQuebec

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Lougarou - Lougarou (1976) Thanks to nahavanda!

















Garolou - S/T (1978)




















Garolou - Romancero (1980)













Garolou - Centre-Ville (1982)

Impuls - C'est La Vie (82)

NDW!

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Oskorri - Oskorri (1979)

Basque folk

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Zeus B Held - Zeus Amusement (1978)

Zeus B. Held was the keyboardist for the German band Birth Control during their most progressive period (such as Plastic People, Backdoor Possibilities, and Increase). After the release of Increase, Zeus B. Held embarked on a solo career and released this album, Zeus' Amusement.

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Lodestar - Lodestar (1977)

Pretty good US hard rock for the morning! ;)

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Alastair Riddell - Space Waltz (1975)

From New Zealand in 1975 comes this fantastic no.1 album of Bowie influenced visionary rock.

Moving on from a band he formed in '72 (that included drummer Paul Crowther and guitarist Wally Wilkinson) Riddell began writing songs of sci fi imagery and named his new project Space Waltz. Enhancing the imagery by designing and tailoring dramatic costumes from acres of curtain material, like Bowie, it was not for him the de-rigeur denim uniform of the day.
His debut single Out On The Street with an irresistible bad attitude "she'll vamp around town, trying so hard to be cool." visceral yet voyeuristic, hit no.1 down under.

So too the album, released by EMI NZ, as Alastair Riddell won a New Faces style TV contest towards the end of 1974 and toured extensively on the back of it.

A New Zealand review:
"The characters in the songs of Space Waltz populate an imagined world, it is androgynous and disquieting, a planet that shifts on its tectonic plates as Alastair's guitar modulates from ferocity to tenderness. In a land that has neither flag nor borders and its citizens dream of cyber-love, to the strains of keyboardist Eddie Rayner's synthesizer. It is Godzone, yet devoid of god; a paradise comprising metal-flake, eyeliner and nine precocious idylls created by a guitar virtuoso from the back of beyond."

Given this is the early 70's at a time of Ziggy Stardust, the Spiders from Mars, Space Waltz is everything you want from an album of the period and a parallel to the UK scene. The album created a major impact down under. One of the runners up in that 'New Faces' contest were the group Slit Ends, who by now included Crowther and Wilkinson in their line up. When Space Waltz had scored and been toured, the Keyboardist, Eddie Rayner, joined Tim Finn and that group took off supporting Roxy Music on tour as, Split Enz.


Buy great reissue from RPM at CHERRY RED

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Atlantide - Francesco Ti Ricordi (1976)

Coming from southern Italy, Atlantide were a family band made by four brothers, based in Rottweil (Germany) since 1973. In that country they supported such major bands like Message, Atlantis, Scorpions, gaining a good live experience and press reviews.

For mysterious reasons their self-produced album, only released in Germany in 1976, is completely sung in italian, and very different from the typical production of the time, being a hard-rock album with very small prog influences and based on the good fuzz guitar playing of Mimmo Sanseverino. Italian listeners will find the singer's strong dialect accent a bit disturbing, but the record is very well played and includes six long tracks varying in length from 5 minutes to the 11:15 of the long La luna.

This group has nothing to do with another band called Atlantide from France, that released an eponymous LP in 1976 on Crypto. Italian Prog

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