Kato apo to dentro - S/T [2010]

Blues, Rembetika, Pentatonic and other Greek traditional melodies, Dub basslines, African melodies and rhythms, meet unexpectedly through acoustic guitars, bass, mandolin, melodica and percussion in the music of the group ''Kato Apo To Dentro'' ("under the tree'' in English) which is a collaboration between several musicians and friends, based in Athens, Greece. Couplets in the blues mood, tales of adventures in faraway places but also something from Greek traditional fest fun (panigyriotiko) compose this musical journey.

Enjoy! 

Thanasis Papakonstantinou and the Laikedelica - Ta zontana [2004]

The legendary Greek composer, singer and musician in a full-length double CD program of new works, and songs from previous his two recordings (Vrachnos Profitis and Agrypnia ) given a whole new perspective by the amazing ensemble he has backing him up. One of the best  recordings of 2004, from anywhere on the planet. Highly recommended, especially for those who like creative, roots-inspired progressive rock-folk music.

Enjoy!

Legion of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1 [2005]

Buried beneath Jerry Garcia’s endless side projects, guest appearances and solo endeavors is the rarely mentioned Legion of Mary. The LOM lineup consisted of Merl Saunders, JGB bassist John Kahn, Martin Fierro on sax and flute along with Ronnie Tutt on drums (who replaced Paul Humphrey in early ’75). The band was short lived—lasting only from July of ’74 to July ’75—but during the time it lasted the Legion of Mary was a rare force, blending the sounds of jazz, rock and R&B with a touch of psychedelia.

The two discs here feature 14 selections recorded at either the aforementioned club, the Portland Theater and the Great American Music Hall; none of the material has been previously released.The first disc includes readings of Bob Dylan's "Tough Mama," and Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," as well as the staple "I Second That Emotion." But the greatest surprise is the improvisation in "Talkin' 'Bout You" that closes the disc. Garcia's interplay with Saunders is simply magical, and Fierro's saxophone work here pushes them both. The second disc ranges from rollicking early rock & roll classics like "Let It Rock" and "Mystery Train," to more Motown tunes such as "Money Honey" and "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved by You." The playing is off-kilter funky, relaxed but adventurous throughout.

                                                                   Enjoy! Cd1   &   Cd2

The Earthbound - The Earthbound [2000]

Formed in Athens (Greece) in 1998 by six former members of The Last Drive, Honeydive, Rockin’ Bones and Engine-V. The Earthbound recorded their self-titled debut album with producer Jim Spliff, which came out in 2000. The album contains three cover versions, namely Kyuss (Gardenia), Woody Guthrie and Guillermo Portaballes. Expect on this platter a sultry mix between americana and rock.

                                                                                Enjoy!  

Pierre Cavalli - The fantastic guitar sound of Pierre Cavalli [1973]

Original Italian pressing on JOKER label (SM 3478), from 1973. Italian-only project from the cult Swiss jazz guitarist famous for his Un Soir Chez Norris / Chasse A L'Homme French OST single. Cavalli plays all kinds of very stylish and very funky rhythms using wah wah pedals / fuzz distortion box and other studio trickery. Several important compositions like the stunning psychedelic funk cum bumpy samba - bossa of THE TOAD, the groovy horns / orchestral strings and scat chorus theme ONCE WE WERE IN LOVE, the twisted and super-funky PLANT A SEED with psychedelic fuzz motifs and the funky beats / basslines and trippy riffing throughout WINTER WIND. Killer breaks burst out of nowhere on the otherwise mellow, EASY GOIN' too. Wonderful backing orchestra and singers with a now sound / euro Library / soundtrack feel. Track for track, this Lp is even better than his German-only, Souvenirs From Brazil session. 

                                                    Enjoy!

                          

The Moonflowers - Colours and sounds [1995]

The Moonflowers were a Bristol-based rock band formed in 1987. The band was active as a performing and recording unit until 1997. To date they have released eight EPs and seven LPs on their own PopGod Records label. Famed for colourful and spectacular live shows, designed and built by Liam Yeates.
 Moonflowers in 1993 released their second (though first really good) LP called 'From Whales to Jupiter and Beyond the Stars to Rainbohemia' which mixed folk, dub, rock and dance influences. Yet still they aimed higher and dreamt they could free themselves -and us all- from the bonds of commercial modern existence and so decided to remove themselves from society to create their own utopia, their 'Rainbohemia', a place where days are spent in creativity with music and art a way of life.
The band waved goodbye to their friends and drove away in their yellow bus across the sea and far away...
In 1995 masters for an LP were sent to Pop God offices (from an unknown destination) which was the masterful 'Colours and Sounds' LP. This record was released and though not well known, very worth tracking down for its incredible range and orchestration. 

                                                                                 Enjoy!

SJOB Movement - Move In The Right Direction [1974]

Heavy heady funk from the 70s Nigerian scene – a wicked little record that's unlike anything else we've heard before! SJOB is a combo made from ex-members of the group of Sonny Okosuns – all top-shelf players who've clearly got their chops down in the groove department, but are also really willing to experiment with their sound as well! There's some hip spacey elements to the music – cool keyboards that weave in and out of the guitar and tighter rhythms – creating a sense of darkness that's totally great, even when things are still pretty funky. The structure of the tunes is far from familiar Afro Funk too – pretty offbeat and jagged – familiar rhythms one minute, then fresh ones the next! 

                                                               Enjoy!

Otis Redding / The Jimi Hendrix Experience ‎– Historic Performances Recorded At The Monterey International Pop Festival [1970]

Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell, and Noel Redding were the rage of England in that summer of love and psychedelica but they had yet to play the United States and thus were no more than a rumor to most of the Monterey crowd. Their appearance at the festival was magical: the way they looked, the way they performed, and the way they sounded were light years away from anything anyone had seen before.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience owned the future and the audience knew it in an instant. The banks of amplifiers and speakers wailing and groaning as Hendrix's fingers scurried across the strings of his guitar gave the trio's music as much density as other rock groups were getting out of the studio 8-track tape machines. And, of course, Hendrix is a masterful --though seemingly off-hand-- performer. Pete Townshend of The Who had become famous for destroying his guitar. Hendrix carried the ritual a couple of fantasies farther with lighter fluid and dramatic playing positions in "Wild Thing." When Jimi left the stage he had graduated from rumor to legend.
 

Otis Redding had been performing and recording for five years, but his fame and his following --despite a couple of undeniable hit records-- were largely confined to black rhythm and blues audiences in America and to Europe, where he and the Stax/Volt Revue had a justly fanatic following. The Monterey International Pop Festival was comprised of rock people who were still a year or two away from rediscovering their roots, "the love crowd," as he characterized them.
It's difficult to characterize the extent of his impact Saturday night. He was the last act in a day of music which had left the spectators satiated and pleasantly exhausted. Redding went on around midnight, close to the curfew agreed upon by festival organizers and the local police department and sherrif's office. Booker T. and the MGs and The MarKeys had played a brief instrumental set and played onstage to back Redding. Within moments after Otis Redding hit the stage, the crowd was on its feet, and --for the first and only time in a weekend of five massive concerts-- was impulsively rushing toward the stage to dance in the warmth of his fire.
He rocked and rolled past the curfew with a dazzling performance which no one could think of stopping. That night he gave the Monterey International Pop Festival its high point and he was embraced by the rock crowd as a new-found hero. Six months later he was killed in a place crash, leaving Monterey as perhaps the high point in his performing career.

                                                               Enjoy!

The Flamingo Group - This is our Soul [1971]

Fabulously funky sounds from the Czechoslovakia. These tracks are mostly cover versions of songs by American artists but there's enough energy and personality here to make this album a very worthwhile listen with some great party starters.  And both sides end with a mind-melting instrumental freak-out!

                                                                Enjoy!

The Shades Of Black Lightning - S/T [1968]

It isn’t often that a young musical group discover themselves, and at the same time, discover their music. Such was the case with the Shades Of Black Lightning. When the Shades first came to my attention, the group was in the midst of developing. They had an exciting style in Rhythm and Blues.

Coming into the studio gave them further opportunities for experimentation. Here, the creativity and imagination of the individual members flowered, matched by enthusiasm and the joy found only in people who love what they are doing.

They have come to this happy point in their development. They want to share it with you. I think you’ll agree that the Shades are different. They bring with them sound of today and previews of tomorrow. (Freddie Piro – Album Liner Notes)

                                                                Enjoy!

Katerina Gogou & Kyriakos Sfetsas - Sto Dromo [1981]

 This is the soundtrack of the movie Paraggelia of Paulos Tassios that was made in 1980.It is a collaboration between the poet Katerina Gogou and composer Kyriako Sfetsa.
Gogou was one of the most important underground poets of that period.On this album she recites poems from her first two poetic works.
Excellent album!

                                                                                  Enjoy!

Roy Harper - Return of the sophisticated beggar [1967]

Digitally remastered reissue of the British Folk-Rock singer's 1966 debut album with one bonus track: 'Legend'.

This is where it all began for British folk-rocker Roy Harper: a slim volume of poems and psychedelic ditties set to music, backed by a simple Revox machine, and transformed by instrumental turns that display Harper's deft guitar work. "Girlie," "Big Fat Aeroplane," and "Legend," while steeped in traditional folk idioms, hint at Harper's still-developing songwriting style. His caustic wit and passion are evident in the wordplay. "Forever" is as pretty a love song as you are likely to hear, while the mostly instrumental "Blackpool" displays as much acoustic dexterity as the playing of Leo Kottke and John Fahey. The electrified "Committed" takes a darkly humorous look at Harper's 15-week spell in an institution undergoing electro-convulsive therapy treatment after he faked mental illness to get out of the Royal Air Force. Very much a first album with rough edges and no-frills production, The Sophisticated Beggar nonetheless displays the talent and possibilities Harper would soon command. 

 

 

 

                                                                 Enjoy!

Amadou & Mariam - Wati [2003]

If you think Mali is all about the kora or the Super Rail Band, you need to take a listen to Amadou & Mariam, a blind married couple who take Malian music in a whole different direction. They keep to the bluesy, pentatonic root that's the heart of the desert sound of Mali, but bring it toward the West, even letting guitars howl here and there and funking things up with some lovely keyboard work. Amadou & Mariam sing both separately and together (indeed, they're at their strongest together, when the two voices can work off each other on songs like "Chauffeurs"), and they're both strong writers, using rhythm as much as melody for a sound that's remarkably down-home. There's nothing complex about it -- perhaps the Bamako equivalent of a bar band, albeit a very good one. "Sarama," for example, rocks wonderfully and hypnotically, and wouldn't sound out of place in a roadhouse, getting the crowd up and dancing. Perhaps it's because they don't sound especially African in their approach to music -- allowing the roots to be just one part of the whole.

                                                                Enjoy!

War - Live [1974]

In between studio efforts, the band released WAR Live, a double LP documenting the dazzling dynamic synergy the band's concerts were renowned for. Recorded during a four-night engagement at Chicago's High Chapparral club, the set includes classic WAR favorites such as "Slippin' Into Darkness," "All Day Music" and "Get Down" in their original long form, as well as the previously unrecorded "Ballero," a fiery Latin jam that reached #33 on the pop and #17 on R&B singles charts. WAR Live continued the band's commercial success, eventually selling a million and a half copies. 

                                                              Enjoy!

Ginger Baker – Stratavarious [1972]

Stratavarious is an album by Ginger Baker, the drummer from Cream, released by Polydor in 1972. Baker had many associations with an eclectic mix of musicians brought together under numerous band titles bearing his surname. Stratavarious is the only album which was released under the name of Ginger Baker without other associated names. The lineup on Stratavarious includes Bobby Tench, vocalist and guitarist from The Jeff Beck Group, who plays guitar under the pseudonym Bobby Gass and the Nigerian pioneer of Afrobeat, Fela Ransome-Kuti who appeared at concerts with Baker at this time.Great album!

                                                                               Enjoy!

Kristi Stassinopoulou - Taxidoscopio [2006]

Kristi Stassinopoulou has created her own unique electro-world style with Greek folk rhythms, psychedelia, haunting vocal harmonies and a crystal clear voice.
The successful blend of traditional Greek rhythms and sound colours, haunting Byzantine vocal lines, rembetika music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica, combined with Kristi's vivid scenic appearance and personality and her colourful band, sparked great response and led to frequent appearances in music festivals and clubs mostly in Europe, N. America and Brazil..
 As on this album, she normally collaborates with her long-time musical partner & husband : composer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their current approach is still internationalist, neo-hippie, paganistic, experimental and described by them as ‘greekadelia’.Normally a 5-piece, the band on this album play a wide variety of instruments including : saz, laouto, lyre, gaida (greek bagpipe), saxophones, guitars, keyboards, percussion & djembe - and is expanded by guest musicians on individual tracks playing harp, tablas, trumpet & trombone.

                                                                                Enjoy!

Dr John - The Sun, Moon & Herbs [1971]

This classic recording sees Dr John's transformation into the persona of the Night Tripper fully complete. Most notably it benefits from some really fantastic production, sounding deeper and darker than ever before. His status as a cult musician had risen to the extent that the album featured numerous famous guests, with some guitar from one Eric Clapton. Other names that can be dredged up from deep within the smoky haze include Ronnie Barron, Graham Bond, Jim Price, Bobby Keys, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, Bobby Whitlock and Fuzzy Samuels. Mick Jagger is also somewhere in the background. 

On first listen the pace is so leisurely as to possibly seem uneventful, but if you are patient and allow yourself to succumb to its odd charms it will begin to draw you into a very strange headspace and worm its way under your skin. It is certainly quirky...a kind of funky, gritty, gumbo blues with a mind-bending undercurrent of light psychedelia mixed with equal doses of voodoo and humour.

 The Sun, Moon & Herbs is best listened to on a hot, muggy night with the sound of thunder rumbling off in the distance like jungle drums. A monumental recording!

 

 

 

                                                               Enjoy!

Magic Carpet - Magic Carpet [1972]

True psych-folk eastern fusion. Blended sitar (Clem Alford), keening vocals (Alisha Sufit), guitars (Jim Moyes and Alisha Sufit) and Indian tablas (Keshav Sathe).

High quality combination of classically trained sitar player - as opposed to usual home counties chancer - imaginative songs delivered in slinky timbre and quick moves from lower to higher register. Hypnotic, dreamy and melodic chime.  An unique journey of sounds!

                                                                   Enjoy!

Sagram - Pop Explosions Sitar Style From Sagram [1972]

Clem Alford  was considered as the best western sitar player of his time.In 1970 he formed a group named Sargam with two other musicians - Jim Moyes (guitar) and Keshav Sathe (tabla) - and this innovative trio recorded an album inappropriately released as Pop Explosion Sitar Style! under the band name Sagram (Sargam is the name of a note in an Indian scale), mispelt by the Windmill recording company, who issued the recording without the bands consent or knowledge.The front cover picture is not of Clem. The whole thing was got up to look 'sexy' and 'cool' to improve sales. And of course it's not a 'pop explosion' but a beautiful Anglo Indian folk sound.

                                                                               Enjoy!

Eric Burdon & War - The Black-Man's Burdon [1970]

Eric Burdon's second and final album with War, Black-Man's Burdon was a double set that could have benefited from quite a bit of judicious editing. Composed mostly of sprawling psychedelic funk jams, it does find War mapping out much of the jazz/Latin/soul grooves that, cut down to much more economical song structures, would shortly bring them success on their own. Highlights include the soulful vamps "Pretty Colors" and "They Can't Take Away Our Music" and the 13-minute "Paint It Black" medley that reflects the height of their eccentricity.
Fantastic album!

                                                                    Enjoy!   Lp1  &  Lp2