HawkWind- Space Bandits

This is a pot smoking or cocaine drug album

Hawkwind faithfull know how hard it would be to describe the band's sound for those who have not heard the calling. I wil not even try since I assume all those reading this are already aquainted with Dave Brock and the lads.

This is a great album with, as far as I know, all original material. The disk has a somewhat lighter tone than some of Hawkwinds' other offerings. There is more of an emphasis on songs rather than the self indulgent ambience in which the boys have been known to indulge.
That having been said, the music is still recognizable as being Hawkwind. This recording reminds me a bit of Choose You Masks. Thematically, there is an definite nod to environmental protection. There is also a talented female vocalist on some tracks. If you like Hawkwind you will like Space Bandits. I cannot say more.

Coil- Horse rotorvator

Coil- Horse Rotorvator

Good for heavy drugs

Hosting "Horse Rotorvator Parties" at midnight about once or twice a year. Obviously, the station was not known at the time for spinning New Kids on the Block or Poison or Paula Abdul or whatever.

Anyhow, this CD became a much sought-after collectible in the local record stores and I remember paying upwards to $30 back then for my copy. From the opening track to the bitter end, this CD had me enthralled---rather "spellbound" if you don't mind the cliche.

I certainly wouldn't call this music "GOTH" by the standards as they were at the time, but it definitely has a dark and menacing quality to it. In fact, I really don't think Bauhaus, the Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim, or Joy Division ever came this close to the pleasing cacaphony found here. Those who relish electronics will certainly find nirvana here, but its not electronics in the fashion of Depeche Mode or New Order. The electronics herein are used to create a complete soundscape, as opposed to providing an upfront rhythm. This is not to suggest that "Horse Rotorvator" is completely driven by synths, however. In fact, some rather unique flamenco-style guitar is featured on this album, which is comprised mostly of originals and a fantastic cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who by Fire." While this disc contains no recognizable singles, "The Anal Staircase" was released as a 12-inch back in the day.

Few of Coil's releases measure up to this one, and the ones that come close usually aren't as dark as this one. While I do possess a rather large Coil collection, I easily consider this to be their swan song. If you buy it and like it, be sure to also check out Click Click's "Bent Massive" and Tangerine Dream's "The Sorcerer."

Anodyne- Uncle Tupelo

This is a good album to listen to when drunk and mellow

Uncle Tupelo was one of the most influential alternative rock bands of all time. Sucessfully merging rock and roll with Gram Parsons-esque country, folk, and bluegrass, their influence can be heard today in the ragged sounds of the Drive-By Truckers, Lucero, and Slobberbone. This, 1993's Anodyne, is the last album the band made, and they went out with a bang.

The styles of this album range between Jay's melancholy downbeat cries, and Jeff's funny upbeat poppy songs. Both songwriters have fully emerged at this point, and despite the fact that they couldn't get along at this point, they both made some of the best music of their career on this release. "Slate" and the title track are both beautifully heartbreaking songs, while Jeff gets his rocker pose out on "The Long Cut" and "We've Been Had," an attack on the music industry.

Later, hippie rock star Doug Sahn comes on board for a energetic version of "Give Back The Key To My Heart," which might be my favorite on the album. "Chickamauga" has a breakneck pace with a furious guitar solo.

The album loses steam a little bit near the end. High Water kinda drags along, and No Sense In Lovin' is decent. Had they got rid of those 2 songs, I would've gave this a 5. However, the sad refrain of Steal The Crumbs makes up for it.

This is a fantastic album, a little bit off the path, but accesiable enough for the modestly interested. Buy it now. It's a different kind of road trip.

Bat Chain Puller - Captain Beefhaert

Bat Chain Puller

Captain Beefheart

The song "Bat Chain Puller" was based upon the rhythm of the windshield wipers on Vliet's Volvo car.

The dear old Captain returns to idiosyncratic form here. Odd stylings, off-kilter tempos & surreal subject matter all coalesce again after DVV's dreadful "commercial period" of Unconditionally Guaranteed and Blue Jeans & Moonbeams. But this album teeters a bit as the Captain regains his sea-legs. The first three tracks, "Tropical Hotdog Night", "Ice Rose" and "Harry Irene" all sound a bit schmaltzy, DVV's sentiment still gets in the way of artfully rockin' out like he was still obviously most able. By the time "Bat Chain Puller" ominously roars out of your speakers, the OLD CAPTAIN NOW SAILS GLORIOUSLY and somewhat chaotically over the bounding riffs. Beefheart is best taken all gruff and oddly time signatured. While the Captain himself exhorts his artistry of word-smithing about the oddness of the everyday. "Candles Mambo" sputters a bit again but "Love Lies", "Suction Prints" and "Apes Ma" are all rock & roll channeled thru Beefheartian insensibilities and churned out as PURE WEIRD ROCK. Fans of Beefheart will not be disappointed by this or the dastardly awesome albums to follow: DOC AT THE RADAR STATION and ICE CREAM FOR CROW. Albums upon which Beefheart raised the seas with mighty art rock and sailed like a mythic hero out of the music biz and into the stuff of rock legends. (***UPDATE 022415*** YES, "schmaltzy" you persnickety wonderers. As Merriam-Webster defines it: "sentimental or florid music or art." And it's all OK, fanboys. How is "Harry Irene" or "Candle Mambo" not schmaltzy...yeah? DVV aka CB exercised a penchant for sensitivity & overly emotive (if oblique) stylizations throughout his oeuvre. That is not to say those expressions were BAD. In fact, schmaltz is a much beloved ingredient in jewish/yiddish and MY cooking! Forgive this reviewer who prefers Don's brusquely defiant brushstrokes of sound on TMR, DATRS, SP (ooh, yeah!), ICFC (oh, hell yeah!) or especially his masterpiece LMDO,B (yes, not TMR, read my review on this one!) because the Ol' Captain certainly explored richer musics in those slabs than the few mis-steps off this album, an album I mostly praise. So, cheers, you bored trolls & buy all the Beefheart you can!)

Between Interval- Secret Observatory

Between Interval- Secret Observatory

Four long-form mixes of timeless dimensionless atmospheres, traverse the abyss of space, seeking - and finding - glimpses of other, distant worlds. Through a powerful imaginary "telescope" comprised of delicate harmonics, sublime electronic tonalities, and deep space atmospherics, trance-electronic composer Between Interval searches the skies, discovering beauty and darkness throughout, and revealing with real purpose the co-existence of the past, present, and the future.

Tree full of Secrets--- Pink Floyd

Tree full of Secrets---- Pink Floyd

On these 18 CDs you'll find all the A and B sides of all the Pink Floyd singles, all the promo, edited, obscured, or remixed versions, and all the soundtracks bits of your favorite Pink Floyd and solo tracks.

Basically, this collection includes (nearly) all songs officially released, but not on regular album (compilations, singles, promos, soundtracks...), as well as rare versions from acetates and studio outtakes. We didn't consider live tracks (concerts, radio or TV appearances), unless they're part of a single or a promo single.

We also left out of this scope the Syd Barrett solo rarities, because it mainly consists in slightly different mixes of regular versions. Some other things are not included, mainly because they could be treed separately, as a whole entity: "Live at Pompeii" and "The Wall" soundtracks, mono editions of albums ("The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", "A Saucerful of Secrets"), quadraphonic editions of albums ("Atom Heart Mother", "The Dark Side of the Moon" & "Wish You Were Here")...

There are in fact 17 audio CDs and one data CD. This latter CD contains all the artworks and booklets (with all you ever dreamt to know about each track of each CD!), and some bonus files (that we hope you'll enjoy) while keeping the secret about their contents.

We tried to make the most definitive Pink Floyd rarities compilation, in both completeness and sound quality.

Home made Bongs when Your in a Money Bind

Home made bongs when you in a bind

Link to Herb.co Below

http://herb.co/2015/11/11/5-homemade-bongs-for-when-youre-in-a-bind/


Below is my version

Front

Side

Deep Purple- Shades of Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Shades of Deep Purple

I first heard this on vinyl, and I can truly say John Lord was awesome, and so was the rest of the band. They do some cover tunes that are just plain great. Hush, Hey Joe, etc.. If you wanna to hear a band at it's best this is the cd to get. That's the reason I'm buying it again, cause it was such a great one. John Lord rips his organ over and over again, plays it like the professional he is. This is truly one great product and you can take that to the bank. And Richie Blackmore is just plain awesome too. This is real rock & roll at it's best. My advice: Buy it and you won't regret it.

The album was not well received in the UK, where it sold very little and did not chart. In the US, on the other hand, it was a success and the single "Hush", an energetic rock track originally written by Joe South, became very popular at the time, reaching number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The good sales of the album and the intense radio play of the single contributed largely to the attention Deep Purple would get in their early US tours and also during the 1970s. Modern reviews of the album are generally positive and consider Shades of Deep Purple an important piece in the history of Deep Purple

Coil- Time Machines

Time Machines is Coil's landmark drone music album, released under the alias Time Machines. It consists of four tracks which are composed of a single tone, called a drone. Each tone represents a certain hallucinogenic chemical (see track titles). It is similar to Brian Eno's early ambient albums, except instead of creating an atmosphere of calm, it facilitates time travel, according to band founder John Balance. Each tone was tested and retested in the studio for maximum narcotic potency. John Balance described the album as an attempt to create "temporal slips"

1. "7-Methoxy-β-Carboline: (Telepathine)" – 23:10
2. "2,5-Dimethoxy-4-Ethyl-Amphetamine: (DOET/Hecate)" – 13:28
3. "5-Methoxy-N, N-Dimethyltryptamine: (5-MeO-DMT)" – 10:02
4. "4-Indolol, 3-[2-(Dimethylamino)Ethyl], Phosphate Ester: (Psilocybin)" – 26:51

Coil- Music to Play in the Dark Vol 1

COIL- Musick to Play in the Dark

It's hard to put the Coil experience into words. On the surface, it's just weird music, but underneath it all is deep symbolism, cosmic energy and some truely mind warping tones. John Balance and co. are definitely tuned into something on a much higher plane than the rest of us and MtPitD really illustrates this. One moment, the music is serene, peaceful and very relaxing. The next moment it's all torn away from you and the music takes a dark plunge, full of chaos. The first track, Are You Shivering, is quite chilling (not to make a bad pun), the sound penetrates you and chills the root of your being. Brocoli is another noteworthy track. I can't tell if this is some kind of strange joke. The lyrics don't give you a second to take it seriously. The music is a lot more structured than Coil had produced in the last few years and it's definitely welcome. You can tell a lot went into this recording and listening to it is a very rewarding experience.

Pink Floyd- The Endless River

The Endless River

"I think this is a lovely album. It's not a ground-breaking classic like Dark Side Of The Moon, Meddle or The Wall, say, (although there are musical references to all of them) nor does it have individual songs of the brilliance and beauty of Wish You Were Here or Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but in total it is a fine album with some genuinely beautiful music on it.

Put together from off-cuts from The Division Bell and then heavily re-worked and edited, this has been billed as a tribute to the late Rick Wright - and it's s fine tribute. There is plenty of his trademark keyboard sound, along with a lot of truly fabulous guitar work from David Gilmour. He's a great guitarist and there are very few people who can bring that degree of beauty and aching melancholy from the instrument. He's on fine form here, as is Nick Mason whose drumming perhaps doesn't get the recognition it deserves in creating the Floyd sound.

This is almost an ambient album in many ways, although there's more to it than that. There is an unbroken sequence of fairly brief tracks which are varied but hold together well as a unit. There are almost no vocals, just Steven Hawking speaking on Talkin' Hawkin' and a genuine song in the last track, Louder Than Words. Both are about the importance of settling disputes through talking and, appropriately, it is here that the absence of Roger Waters as a songwriter shows most clearly, because for me neither the melody nor lyrics are up to Waters' standard. It's a tiny blemish - not even a blemish at all, really, just a reminder - and the album as a whole is really good, I think.

This won't convert you if you don't like Pink Floyd, but if you do I think you'll really like this album. It's lovely music, beautifully played and produced, and I recommend it warmly."

Fripp and Eno- No pussyfooting

No Pussy Footing

It has been 35 years since King Crimson's Robert Fripp and the then-recently departed Roxy Music keyboardist Brian Eno joined forces to create "No Pussyfooting", an album that over the years would go down in history as one of the forerunners of what is now known as Ambient Music.
While music of this nature is now considered commonplace, back in 1973, it was quite a different story. When "No Pussyfooting" was initially released, critical reactions were quite mixed. Some didn't know what to think about an albums worth of sustained guitar lines looped through two tapes machines while others found the sounds embedded in the record grooves to be groundbreaking. Over time, the public slowly caught on to the innovative ideas heard in this album and it's now considered to be a timeless classic.
The original album contained two long tracks (one per side of the original LP). The opening track "The Heavenly Music Corporation" was recorded in August 1972 and consists soley of Robert Fripp's guitar being played through two Revox tape machines. The tape machines are manipulated by Brian Eno to create looped phrases and a massive wall of sound. The overall effect is beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Fripp would later perform similar music to this on his own coining the term "Frippertronics" to this guitar/loop technique.
The other track "Swastika Girls" was recorded one year later is more 'composed' in its over all structure. In addition to Robert Fripp's sustained lead guitar and frentic rhythmic guitar loops, Eno adds a busy synthesizer sequence to the music which repeats throughout the entire piece giving it somewhat of a base-structure.
After its initial release on CD in the early '90s, "No Pussyfooting" fell out-of-print and became a sought-after collectors item. Now in 2008, the album is available once again in its most definitive version - a remastered 2-CD edition that includes the complete original album plus the entire album played in reverse and a half-speed version of the opening track "The Heavenly Music Corporation". The reversed and half-speed versions of these tracks give the music a new dimension and offers a completely new listening perspective. While listening to the reversed version of the album, it's almost unnoticeable that the music is actually being played backwards. In fact, it almost sounds like alternate takes played forwards. As for the half-speed nearly 42-minute version of "The Heavenly Music Corporation", the music becomes a deep ambient drone and doesn't sound too different from today's artists who uses low drones as the basis for their music (think of the long-form drone works of Steve Roach or Robert Rich).
All in all, it's great to have this classic album available again. It has definitely been worth the wait. The music is as wonderful now as it was then and shows just how ahead their time Fripp and Eno were and still are. Without any hesitation, this newly remastered 2-disc edition of "No Pussyfooting" is HIGHLY recommended.

Roger Waters- Music from the body

Music From the body

Not for the faint-hearted listener, this 1970 soundtrack album to a medical documentary entitled "The Body" was created by avant-garde composer Ron Geesin & Pink Floyd bassist/singer/composer Roger Waters (Geesin & Waters would work together again on Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother," but "Music From The Body" was their first joint project). The album is pretty wild stuff to say the least, with lots of experimental sounds, instrumentation, vocals and effects. The wonderfully goofy opening cut, "Our Song," with it's rhythmic sound collage of clapping, belching, farting and baby noises (accompanied by ragtime piano, no less!), pretty much prepares you for what will follow. But in between Geesin's far-out pieces (other highlights include the vocal experiments of "More Than Seven Dwarfs...", the spooky "Body Transport," and the fun "Mrs. Throat Goes Walking"), Roger Waters drops in to play some very nice, simple acoustic numbers, like "Sea Shell And Stone," "Chain Of Life," and "Breathe" (a very different song from the "Breathe" that appeared later on Floyd's classic "Dark Side Of The Moon," although it shares the same opening lyric: "Breathe in the air"). Finally, the rest of Pink Floyd themselves---David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright---join Waters at the album's end for the uplifting finale, "Give Birth To A Smile." "Music From The Body" is definitely not an album to play at a party, but if you're a diehard fan of early Pink Floyd, then I think you'll enjoy this weird, wonderful record from Ron Geesin & Roger Waters.

Frank Zappa -We are only in it for the money

We are only in it for the money

We're Only In It For The Money arose in the wake of the hippie era in 1968. Frank Zappa must have not liked hippies because he's makes fun of them throughout this album. He also takes a stab at riots involving hippies and politics.

This album is great. It's pretty obvious that The Beatles used this as a basis for their Abbey Road album, showing how inspirational it was at the time. When I purchased the Record in the 70s, it had a different cover though. It was yellow and had all the band members on it and the CD cover was the gatefold. This confused me a lot. It was probably a manufacturing error. This album outdated now but it's a classic in the Mothers catalogue.

I'd encourage Mothers fans to get this CD and listen to it a few times to really understand how great it is.

Its sounds trippy with headphones on.

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen

Schwingungen

Schwingungen, which is probably my favourite Ash Ra Tempel album, opens with the utterly sublime Look at Your Sun. This is a towering psychedelic tour de force, building gently with the most beautifully laid-back guitar and bass and lyrics of a direct intense simplicity ("I look out my window and see the blue sky", "and I know, we are all one"), through the maniacally frantic central section and then back to the classic Gottsching lonely guitar sound as the track drifts away.

Flowers Must Die is a stunning trippy powerhouse of a song belted out by a manic John L, who sounds totally out of his tree. In places vaguely Hawkwind-ish, the overall feel of this track is surprisingly punk/new wave and therefore many years ahead of its time.

The extended third track, Schwingungen (Vibrations) covered the entire second side of the original album and is a brilliant example of the definitive Ash Ra Tempel cosmic/ambient sound.

A warning though! This track is significantly hypnotic and mood-changing, and it is not recommended to listen to this while you're driving!

The sleeve notes on the original album said something like "You're not hearing this music for the first time - you are recognising it once more" and you will understand what is meant when you listen to this. That classic Ash Ra Tempel chord sequence (later reprised in the Time sequence on the Seven Up album) does seem to grab you at a visceral or primordial level and, once heard, will be with you for ever.

Existing Ash Ra Tempel fans will surely not be able to resist this, and those of you yet to experience this music will not regret letting it into your lives!

Klaus Schulze- Irrlicht

Irrlicht

The year was 1972 when former Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel member Klaus Schulze embarked on his lengthy solo career which continues to this day.

Although it is considered to be a pioneering classic in Electronic music today, Schulze's solo debut "Irrlicht" was not well received when it was first released 34 years ago. Many listeners (as well as members of the orchestra which Klaus used on the album) didn't quite know what to think at the time. However, the listening public finally caught up with Klaus's crazy ideas and the album has since become a blueprint for the ambient/drone genre.

Although Klaus Schulze has long been regarded as a pioneer of synthesizers, "Irrlicht" was actually created without any synths whatsoever as Klaus did not own one yet. The instruments and tools that were used were the above-mentioned orchestra as well as a primitive electric organ, a broken guitar amplifier, echo and effect devices as well as other miscellaneous objects.

"Irrlicht" is essentially an album-length piece divided into three distinct movements. The opening 23-minute movement "Ebene" opens with a giant orchestra rush which leads into a low-end organ drone centered around D-minor. As the organ drone shifts and pulsates, the orchestra creates and intense cinematic atmosphere around it. After about 10-minutes, the mood becomes more intense as Klaus brings in a dark chord sequence which builds with suspense. The panning effect as well as the shrieking background noises used towards the end of the movement add further intensity until it's all washed away by loud gong-like crash.

The crash begins the short second movement, "Gewitter". While it sounds like there is a primitive synthesizer being used on this track, it actually is Klaus using a broken-down amplifier and a rewired organ. The intense organ theme of the first movement is pushed to the backround while strange sound effects as well as various percussive sounds (which sound like cymbals, gongs and trash cans being hit while being drenched with echo) come to the forefront.

The last movement, "Exil Sils Maria", is probably the most experimental movement of the three. It begins with a dark orchestral/organ theme similar to the first movement only more forboding. This leads into an extremely avant-garde section consisting of a droning collage of backward-sounding noises and what sounds like a car motor being amplified. This section is a real treat to be heard with headphones. Afterwards, the movement shifts back to how it began with its dark organ theme.

The newly remastered edition includes a highly informative essay from Klaus Schulze himself as well as a never before released bonus track. "Dungeon" was supossedly recorded in 1976 (although there is speculation that it could have been recorded earlier in the liner notes) but is very much in the same style as the original "Irrlicht" album with its long held chords and drones.

With this said, if you've never heard Klaus Schulze's "Irrlicht" before, now's the time to do so especially since it has been given pristine treatment on this reissue. The sound is amazing and so is the music. This is definitely music that was way ahead of its time when it was first released in 1972. Now, three decades later, it's an influential classic!!!

Klaus Schulze-Galactic Supermarket

Galactic Supermarket

Without a question one of the all time greatest examples of space travel without the water wings! If "Galactic Supermarket" does not absolutely blow your lips off then I'll eat my spacesuit! COSMIC JOKERS take ASH RA TEMPEL to the next dimension tossing in the sound-bites of classic psychedelia along the way. The COSMIC JOKERS were a short lived German offshoot band who clearly had creative improvisation aspirations while writing and recording. This all star lineup includes Klaus Schulze, Harald Grosskoff, Manuel Gottsching, Dieter Dierks and Jorgen Dollase so this should sort of give a idea already as to the direction and sound of the band. Essentially "Galactic Supermarket" is 2 overly long but scrumptious epic space jams which are given pure unconditional space to explore space in a space like way. Musically this album blends acid laced guitar solos over Schulze's analog space bedding with zainy soundbites and forboding atmospheres. "Galactic Supermarket" will certainly freak you and your grandma out while sitting on the couch. An original and masterful piece of space prog !

Galactic Supermarket" is very spacey to open and it's building as guitar and drums join in. It settles as whispered words come in then guitar. It turns spacey with organ and drums come in. Very experimental to end this first part.The second part is calm to begin with as percussion and a beat starts. Sounds like flute too.The guitar is making some noise. Synths before 4 minutes as drums pound. Organ late.The last part opens with Klause and Female vocals that echo. Very psychedelic. Drums are joined by the guitar which starts to lead with spacey synths joining in as well. Crazy out of control stuff here as spoken words are heard. A wall of sound after 7 minutes to the end.

Deep Purple-Deep Purple

Deep Purple

What artwork! On this the 3rd album by Deep Purple, Rod Evans, Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice and Nick Simper produced another gem. Nice opening track "Chasing Shadows", the psychedelic-pop of "Blind", really like the modern jazz playing by Jon Lord, Blackmore also gives a stand up job too. Donovan's "Lalena", Rod Evans vocals are fantastic, nice cover. "Fault Line/The Painter", one of my favorites from early Deep Purple, Blackmore's guitar work is freakin' great, Lord's organ and Ian Paice's drumming is tops. this should be played on every classic rock station! "Bird Has Flown", with that funky beginning, almost reminds me of Evans' Captain Beyond. Another solid effort here, after this album bassist Nick Simper and vocalist Rod Evans would be fired, months later in came Ian Gillan and Roger Glover from Episode Six. Next studio album would be "In Rock", for 1970. A big change in direction for the band. I own this CD and probably heard it first (Vinyl) around '70/'71. I loved it right away and did my early trippin' to it. What memories! As the other reviewer said, this stuff beats out the following more commercial material. The sound quality is the best you're gonna get. It amazes me how the original tapes have held up after 35/40 years. If you like acid rock with a few twists (the Donovan song "Lalena") you will be glad you made this purchase. Go for it!

Klaus Schulze- Cosmic Jokers & Galactic Supermarket

Cosmic Jokers and Galactice Super Market

 

 

COSMIC JOKERS
This is the first of the (in)famous Cosmic Jokers releases, culled from master tapes of jams by members of Ash Ra Tempel, Wallenstein, et al that Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser surreptitiously released on his Cosmic Couriers label...eventually resulting in the demise of that and the Ohr label, as well as R-U Kaiser's career! Seems that these jams came out without the permission (or compensation!) of the artists involved, and at the time those circumstances were highly controversial. Controversy aside, though, this initial Cosmic Jokers release is a wonderful thing, a pair of truly psychedelic (supposedly the sessions were highly LSD-drenched affairs) and flowing jams reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, and then-current efforts of Tangerine Dream (viz their "Electronic Meditiation" album). A very trippy landmark of space-rock, to be sure.

=======================================
GALACTIC SUPERMARKET
Here is a truly amazing spacy Krautrock album worth looking in to. Cosmic Jokers was an unintended gathering of some of the biggest names to record for the Ohr, Pilz, and Kosmische Musik labels. This was the project that killed the career of Rolf Ulrich Kaiser and the labels he ran: Ohr, Pilz, and Kosmische Musik, because of lawsuits against him. This was the big reason why the likes of Klaus Schulze moved to Brain and Tangerine Dream moved to Virgin, and many others to other labels (often Brainm who were founded by ex-Ohr employees who didn't feel all was right at Ohr). Musicians involved were Manuel Göttsching, Klaus Schulze, Harald Großkopf, Jürgen Dollase, Dieter Dierks, Rosi Müller, and Gille Lettmann, names familiar to all who are in to this type of music. With associations with the likes of Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Wallenstein, etc., you know what to expect with the Cosmic Jokers. Galactic Supermarket was the second in a series of Cosmic Jokers albums, all released in 1974, and is one tripped-out jam, ranging from guitar-oriented jams that sound like they came off Ash Ra Tempel's Join Inn, to percussion experiments, heavy on synthesizers, lots of electronic effects, the occasional female spoken dialog from Rosi and Gille, and so much more. The music is certain to keep you glued from start to finish. There's even a passage on the first cut, "Kinder des Alls" where the Mellotron rears its head.

It seems that Klaus Schulze was most angered. He calls these recordings an embarrassment and he wished they never existed. Manuel Göttsching thought better of these recordings and had a much better opinion of Kaiser than did Schulze. Plus he did think highly of the music, and for good reason. There seems to be too many stories regarding Kaiser (as well as Gille Lettmann, his girlfriend), but apparently they were not driven out of Germany. They simply gave up on the music industry altogether and went into seclusion (which lead to rumors of mental illness not unlike Syd Barrett).

Regardless what's the real truth behind the story of the Cosmic Jokers and Kaiser, I have to still say that Galactic Supermarket (as well as their other releases) is a complete must have for those who enjoy Krautrock, particularly Schulze and Ash Ra Tempel fans.





Quick Silver Messenger Service

Quick Silver Messenger Service

This album was released in the spring of 1968, a year that produced a great deal of music that's now very hard to listen to. Even the Grateful Dead didn't hit their stride until the "Live/Dead" album of 1969. The Doors were in a slump, the Beatles were at each other's throats, and even the Rolling Stones wouldn't break their British Invasion mold and come into their own until the next year, with "Let It Bleed."
There's a gleeful sloppiness to this album. At this time, many garage bands were producing material of their own (remember the Strangeloves' "I Want Candy"?), but there's something different about Quicksilver Messenger Service. Though this sounds like a garage album, it's a garage album by a band of extraordinary talent and discipline.
From the opening notes of "Pride of Man," a grossly overlooked anti-war anthem that more peace advocates today should utilize, we're bowled over by the skill and quality of the band. In particular, the guitar majesty of the late John Cippollina leaves any number of current lesser imitators in the dust. The songwriting leaves something to be desired on most tracks, but Quicksilver Messenger Service was never a songwriters' band. They have the chops to cover shaky lyrics, and it's difficult to weary of listening to them.
In a day when studio tricks have washed out the human qualities of most rock bands, this album sounds like there's real human beings, playing in concert, right here. The very elements that make it dated make it desirable from a music lover's point of view. Not everyone will like it--ir represents values that have now gone out of date--but for those who appreciate solid playing and honest artistry in their rock, this is an album to be treasured.