Ivo Papasov & His Bulgarian Wedding Band - Bremen 3/16/92; Zurich 11/90; Moers 6/2/90; Vilshofen, Germany 6/91
A collection of excellent sounding live recordings of this phenomenal group that seems to have won over its share of avant/progressive fans due to their extraordinary musicianship and fun compositional work. I’d never heard any of their records, something I’m going to have to fix soon, but I was astonished at the level of musicianship here, particularly the bass player and drummer who navigate the twisty compositions like they’d been practicing them for a decade. A real kick.
Popol Vuh - Selispreisungen Outtakes, Baumberg Kirche, Germany 1973
Live Popol Vuh documents are very rare. There are some German TV outtakes from the nascent form of the band that was basically a big moog and a pair of drums that are mildly interesting and maybe one or two from later (one with Djong Yun on vocals that iirc was lip synched). However once we get into the band’s prime Fischelscher and Fricke period, there are very few documents, hell I’m not sure if they played out at all given the obviously need for multiple takes for a multiinstrumentalist like Fischelscher. Anyway the first time I heard this over 15 years ago on a muddy cassette it was basically unlistenable, one glop of noise that was barely identifiable as Popol Vuh. Since the advent of Sharing the Groove and Dimeadozen, better and better copies have surfaces, maybe as many as three or four upgrades and they’ve finally got this thing up to just listenable, only for the listening to demonstrate some rather tired outtakes. I think I’ve got one more upgraded copy, but I can say I’m not in any hurry to get to it.