Micah - I’m Only One Man (1971 USA) Head and shoulders above most of these hard rock / psych US private pressings from 1971 (on Sterling Award). Long runs of guitar and organ solos, with a great vibe throughout. I love the way the Hammond is played in a choppy manner, as well as the wah wah guitar solos. Just nonstop kickass music, the way you want all of these type of albums to sound, but rarely do. I haven’t even seen a bootleg of this album, it’s really a rare one. Supposedly from New York, but who knows really? Anyone in the band still alive and care to contact me? I want to know more! Only bummer is that Side 2 is only 11 minutes long. No reissues exist, which is a pity. Mike also recently wrote about this album here.
Goodthunder - s/t (1972 USA). At its core, Los Angeles (?) based Goodthunder are a good time rock and roll band, with folk and pop trimmings. If that’s all they were about, then they certainly wouldn’t be a band I’d write about! No, Goodthunder weren’t content to settle for lowest common denominator music. With a prominent keyboardist in the band, and a wide range of dynamics, timeshifts and colors, Goodthunder somehow managed to create a sophisticated hard rock album. And the guitar is pretty heavy for the era, including some nice riffing, in a proto metal style. Not solid all the way through (there are plenty of straightforward moments here), but the progressive breaks are, especially given the setting, quite surprising - and it’s this sort of contrast that makes this album work. In some ways, you could almost compare Goodthunder to what Culpeper’s Orchard were doing in Denmark. They never reach those highs, but still a worthy investment of your time. Originally on Elektra, Goodthunder’s sole album remains without a legit CD reissue.
Fantasy - s/t (1970 USA). One of the more oddball reissues, with the Swiss label Black Rills reaching over the pond and reissuing this unusual Californian group, who released one eponymous album on Liberty - which I’m sure was quickly forgotten upon release. Then again, maybe it’s not so unusual as Fantasy have that unique European take on the Jefferson Airplane sound, themselves of course also from California, to the point of defining the time and place altogether. So we’ve come full circle maybe? For the first half of the album, Fantasy reminded me heavily of England’s Julian’s Treatment or even the Belgian act Mad Curry, and their European subtle, yet sophisticated, variation on a quintessential hippyesque American original. Featuring a powerful female vocalist, nasty fuzz guitar overlays and a stronger than normal melodic ability, Fantasy would seem to be one of the very best of the early US progressive rock acts. But they couldn’t maintain through the whole album, as they started to paint with a wider brush, as to say they weren’t sure what style might stick in the Billboard parade. In the end, it’s another massive-potential-but-ulitmately-wasted opportunity from the endless sinkhole that was the post-psychedelic 1970 American rock scene. With a nice legit CD reissue available, while most of their brethren are stranded in bootleg land, Fantasy may well be the best option to sample this curious breed. This Fantasy is not to be confused with the UK bunch who released “Paint a Picture”.