Outer Music Diary

As Mike alluded to a week or so ago, OMD is wrapping up it’s Winter and Spring session. We both decided to take a break from the daily postings. The idea is to return in September with a fresh batch. However, we are not bound to this on either side of the equation… that is to say, we may return earlier or later, depending on mood and inspiration. And also to mention that OMD is not solely represented by Mike and I, and perhaps some of our other writers will suddenly reappear with a batch of their own reviews. We both would welcome this event as well.

Thanks for all your letters and support over these past three years. We’ve enjoyed reading them and they’ve been inspiring to both of us!

We’ll see you soon…

Sensory System - s/t (1974 Denmark). Like many Danish rockers, Sensory System has their basis in rural rock, and are not that dissimilar from Day of Phoenix, Culpepers Orchard and Midnight Sun. It’s a bit more straightforward than these groups, but does feature some fine guitar work. Also reminds me of the debut by Rush, oddly enough. Note that this album was released in Germany on Nova as the group System. No CD exists.

Anders Koppel - Aftenlandet & Regnbuefuglen (1977 Denmark). Anders Koppel was the keys player for Savage Rose and this is most known solo album. Parts of it were used for a soundtrack to a film called “Aftenlandet”, and the album definitely has a soundtrack flow to it. There’s very little cohesion between the tracks, though if each composition is evaluated individually, there’s much to admire. An all instrumental album, Koppel was successful in putting together a quintet, giving it more a rock band feel, rather than just a bunch of studio musicians getting together to lay down some incidental music. No CD for this one either.

Xaal - s/t (1989 France). Until recently, I didn’t realize Xaal had a debut cassette prior to their two CDs, which I became familiar with upon release. Here, Xaal is more barebones than on subsequent albums. The Zeuhl influence is there, as is a sedated jazz perspective. The ideas aren’t quite as developed and the compositions seem like mere skeletons of what they could be. In fact, two of the five tracks will indeed show up on the next two albums, each album claiming one. And as expected they are more fleshed out. Still a pretty adventurous album for the time, and worth seeking out. Probably would be worth a CD reissue to fans of the group and Zeuhl music in general.

The West Coast Workshop - The Wizard of Oz and Other Trans Love Trips (1967 USA). One of the better exploitation albums you can hear. It’s primarily orchestrated pop music geared for a mature adult crowd. That is, until they break into these cool long jams featuring flute, tablas/hand percussion and sitars. In the end, you have a “psychedelic” version of the original Oz soundtrack + a handful of originals. Get hip man. Solid. As one online zine (Scram) states it’s “easy listening gone horribly awry”. Well said. Again, no legit CD exists.

Nadavati - L’Esprit Souffle ou il Vent

This is one of those French one-offs I used to see cruising the old Musea discography books, the kind of arcana that made collecting rare progressive music such a joy at the time, even if a good percentage of these bands never made the grade. Nadavati are very much a combination of two major influences, the lion’s share comes from fusion, the smaller but still substantial influence, particularly in the album’s bookends, comes right from old Chicago Transit Authority (I think mostly from the first couple albums). It has the horns, the electric guitar soloing and the Chicago method of amping a songs intensity by changing to a higher key with the full horn section in swing. Surprisingly this influence is only relegated to a song or two, the lion-share of the middle parts are internationally inspired jazz rock, most obviously Mahavishnu Orchestra or mid-period Return to Forever, but also, bridging the two influences, Tower of Power. Here the band creates lots of vamps for plenty of guitar and horn solos and as such does a fine job of it; I also have to also borrow Tom’s previous comment on the unison lines which often act as the backbone to the songs. Obviously the extreme derivation in parts knocks it down a little, but overall this is a nice slice of horn fusion, with a much heavier American influence than most French prog-related rarities.

MOTUS - Machine of the Universal Space

Another bizarre French one off that could be considered similar to something like Concept from Canada or even a more hippy Godley and Creme, a band whose art pop crosses a number of different styles and due to the era occasionally bridging progressive rock. MOTUS, however, are a lot more mainstream than Concept were and throughout there’s a concentration on the sort of post Crosby Stills and Nash pop and folksy rock that you’d find in the Eagles on the most populist side and something like Ophiucus referencing an obscure countrymate. This is likely not to be interesting to anyone except those who collect strange, but quirky records, although at times the band does a remarkable side of aping the song stylings of American bands that has a tendency to make you look up and wonder what you’re listening to. Certainly not a waste of time to stop by and check this one out, but not one you’re likely to return to either.

Need to clear out a few that didn’t make the grade…

Alessandro de Lucchi - s/t (1978 Italy). Systems style cosmic electronic music similar to maybe Roberto Cacciapaglia’s “Sonanze” or Franco Leprino. Stefano Pantaleoni would release a similar album nearly 10 years later. Not much in the way of rhythms or tonal changes. Seems like de Lucchi did what he could with the one synthesizer he was provided. At times it comes across as a sound-test record. Will have a limited audience.

Firma 33 - Se Först (1978 Germany). Firma 33 primarily play a commercially oriented rock style with German lyrics, similar to late 1970’s Novalis. There are some nice fusion moments interspersed throughout, with flute, sax, synth and guitar leading the solo parade. But the vocalist tends to croon, thus diminishing what potential they had.

Duty Cycle - Nero (1976 Netherlands). Duty Cycle plays a standard vocal pop rock with a light jazzy sound. The melodies are lacking and the vocalist isn’t up to par. The flute work, however, stands out - especially on the opening instrumental track. Overall, not a good album. Duty Cycle were friends of Marakesh, and their sole album shares the same label.

Ceddo - s/t (1979 Germany).
Ceddo - Aufhören (1980 Germany).
Ceddo - Step by Step (1983 Germany). Ceddo, on their debut, is very much from the jazz school, but in the same way as Association PC and Electric Circus. Long tracks, and the guitar playing gets pretty wiggy, so a real plus there. The bass plays fretless and has that warm 80’s jazz sound. The drumming is scattered which is nice. Closest comparison would be Dzyan’s “Time Machine” (more jazzy though) or maybe Alpha du Centaure’s album (rhythm section not so strictly straight jazz). “Aufhören” is very similar and continues with a mixture of jazz and rock styles. Band features guitarist Jochen Schrumpf (and in fact the band is later known as Jochen Schrumpf’s Ceddo), who later went onto the reformed 1980’s version of Kollektiv. “Step By Step” begins the journey towards fuzak, with smooth jazz sax, Caribbean steel drums, cocktail-hour Spanish themes and an overall feel of a cruise ship lounge act. Despite all of that, there’s still some fine guitar work. In this way, I’m reminded of Santana’s 1980s output. They also have, incredibly, two more albums. So much output from such an obscure band.

Nadavati - Le Vent de L’Esprit Souffle Il Vent (1978 France). Mike gets the credit for this post, as he mentioned the album to me yesterday, and I scrounged around in the pile until I found it. I think he plans on posting his thoughts here soon as well (hopefully not stealing the thunder here). “Le Vent de L’Esprit Souffle Il Vent” is an interesting jazz rock album, that opens incongruously with a Chicago styled horn rocker (again, Mike’s keen ear clued me in on this). There’s a definite Mahavishnu streak that prevails, especially in the violin and guitar parts. Some nice flute jazz too. They seem to favor unison runs to overlong solos, and that scores points in my book. Nadavati do not offer anything that hadn’t already been done countless times prior, but for what they do, it’s quite competent. A good one that I’m sure many fusion fans would enjoy if it was to be reissued on CD.

Grateful Dead - Winterland 1973  The Complete Recordings (11/9-11/73 + Cincinatti Gardens 12/4/73 bonus disc)

There was something of a debacle involved when the Grateful Dead released the Fillmore 1969 box set. As a limited edition of 10,000 copies the box became an instant collectors item and now goes for around $1,000 on e-bay. I was very lucky when a small window opened for cancellations and I managed to grab one, but I felt for anyone interested who didn’t, particularly as that series of shows is among the best in the Grateful Dead’s catalog, hell I’d say it’s one of the best live series of shows by anyone.

However, Rhino seems to have fixed the issue for the next box set, covering three gigs at Winterland in later 1973. This time it doesn’t appear to be a limited edition and potential customers had plenty of time to decide and still get the bonus disc. And not only that but no expenses were spared for the presentation, quite simply one of the most amazing box sets ever devised, with a gorgeous outer box with an eye in rose in skull wreathed in an aura of fire and casting blue and green wavy lines all over the rest of the outer box. Inside, three 3 CD fold out booklets, all of which open up as one third of the box’s essential artwork (on the inside), including a similar skull insignia but surrounded by members of the crowd, all ranging from mythical to real figures. Also a “Good Ol’ Grateful Dead button, a sizable booklet with new liner notes and a repro of the original 1973 mail out announcing the concerts. And if you were early a CD in slip case of the highlights from the Cincinatti Gardens show a little later in the year.

This is one of the band’s strongest Winterland runs. I suppose I go against the conventional opinion in thinking the Dead were generally not at their best at this venue, but in this case, at least for the 10th and 11th gigs, I wouldn’t have good evidence for my opinion. The 9th, like many first shows of a run, is tentative for the most part, an average first set and a second set that starts to promise for the rest of the series with the Weather Report Suite>Let It Grow> Eyes>China Doll suite. The band would play Weather Report Suite all three nights, each one, perhaps, an incremental improvement.

The 10th is definitely one of those special nights and in particular the sandwich suite at the head of set 2, only played a few times by the Dead, is spectacular: Playin>Uncle John>Morning Dew>Uncle John>Playin. The band’s digging its feet in and even the first set has a number of gems, including a beautiful Tennesee Jed and Brokedown Palace. There was a real fragile beauty about the guitarwork around that time, perhaps the band’s fusion influence at the time or maybe Weir’s ascendance in his own right. Much of the playing is interactive, yet delicate and most importantly the group seems to lack all self consciousness.

The 11th is nearly as good, after all it’s the set of the week with a rather fantastic and at times, very abstract Dark Star, which benefits from all the interplay and near psychic integration involved. This was the only show I was familiar with beforehand and found it benefitted from the mastering work. Or at least it seemed a bit more energetic than I had remembered. It’s also one of their rare shows without a Playin’ in the Band, but you’d barely miss it.

The bonus disc captures most of the relevant and important material from the 12/4 Cincinatti Gardens gig, including the relatively short second set in its entirety. To my ears while there are some nice moments like in Truckin’>Stella Blue, for the most part the slightly lesser quality and relative mundanity of the playing here make this less notable than its attached box set, but it does seem like in the end one disc would be all you need from the show, at least given the rest of the set list.

Near pefection really, a great stint from one of the band’s best years housed in fantastic packaging. If only the live material of every band had this sort of attention. Right now I’m kind of wondering why I haven’t pulled it out again!

Sirius - Running to Paradise (1982 Germany). Sirius’ debut is one of the better Genesis inspired albums out there and compares favorably to other German bands like Ivory or Neuschwanstein. I’ve been higher on this album in the past, but my 2008 ears are hearing too many Genesis knockoffs to get too carried away with the contents. Still, as far as these kind of albums go, Sirius is better than most of their contemporaries, and are nowhere near as laughable as a band like Deyss or most of the SI stable, for example. In fact, had they been part of the UK new wave of progressive rock, then I could imagine them having the same kind of success as IQ, who they resemble perhaps the most.

M. L. Bongers Project - Pacific Prison (1978 Germany). Funny that I’d recently run across the Sirius “Running to Paradise” album prior to hearing this M.L. Bongers Project album for the first time. My revisit of the Sirius album had demonstrated to me that the proliferation of classic early Genesis moves just hasn’t aged as well as I’d prefer. M. L. Bongers Project is cut from the same cloth, but I’d found this album more welcoming. One reason for this is the decidely earlier era instrumentation. Not so much a distinction from 1982 to 1978, but rather more like 1973, as the M. L. Bongers Projects definitely sounds like a band from a different period. Such characteristics such as fuzz tone guitar, heavy doses of organ and predominant use of flute add to this perception. Perhaps even more enticing is that “Pacific Prison” gives off the impression that they’re just as comfortable operating as a space rock band than as a “Foxtrot” wannabee. I’m not sure I’ve heard this combination of Hawkwind meets Genesis in the past, which justifies for me at least, consideration that this a tier 1 album. If there’s an issue I have with “Pacific Prison”, it would be the heavily accented English vocals, a common problem for German bands in those days.

Mirror - Daybreak (1976 Netherlands). One of the true European rarities that I was fortunate to hear as early as 1992 or so, and then eventually traded my way into an LP copy a few years later. Sometimes it’s hard to be objective about big ticket items such as this. On one hand there’s a tendency to say it’s great, just because it’s rare as hens teeth (though the internet has mitigated this effect somewhat). Then, on the other hand, there’s the temptation to state all of these rarities are just amateurish wannabees, and the only reason it’s a rare private release is because they weren’t good enough to sign to a major. Of course, as with most things, the truth is found on a case by case basis, and the generalities rarely apply. With Mirror, knowing full well my sympathies weigh heavily in favor of a positive outcome, and trying to be as objective as possible, I still feel it’s a strong album based on merits alone. It certainly isn’t a flashy release, and the compositions aren’t going to win any Conservatory awards. But what they lack in academic pedigree, they make up for in naive sincerity. Mirror bring that intangible known as atmosphere, that certain something that special recordings possess. Make no mistake, “Daybreak” is seriously flawed, but that’s part of its charm. Even in my most cynical musical moments, I find albums like this refreshing. A tier 1 album. Band evolved into Lethe, and even managed to improve on a similar methodology.

Zyma - Brave New World (1979 Germany). I first heard Zyma on the “Proton 1″ compilation that was released by Kerston in 1974, which featured five up and coming new German bands. Of those, Zyma and Sun were the only groups to eventually get a full length LP. And with Zyma, they managed two releases, “Thoughts” and “Brave New World”. “Thoughts” was reissued by Garden of Delights a few years back, which allowed me a revisit of that fine album. And now I’m finally returning to hear their followup. Zyma were similar to many of their late 1970s contemporaries, with a strong melodic sense, female vocals, and a slight fusion edge. Groups like Eden, Credemus, Rebekka and Werwolf all come to mind. One significant difference, however, is the use of scat vocals. And she can get quite hysterical at times, which reminded me of early Zao strangely enough. Lots of violin and flute as well. I would expect GoD will eventually reissue this one as well. And it would be worth the effort.

Cos - Babel (1978 Belgium). While Musea has tackled Cos’ first two classic Canterbury inspired albums, as well as their final 1982 “Pasiones” release, they have so far neglected Cos’ “disco era”. For some folks, “Babel” is the pinnacle of their musical achievement. It is a one of a kind album, a mixture of complex Canterbury and Zeuhlish compositions, filtered through the disco mirror ball - fat danceable beats, sweeping strings and Studio 54 debauchery. Closest comparison might be the French group Cortex, though Cos on “Babel” are far more disturbing (in the Univers Zero sense of the term), as well as more disco-ish. And while that doesn’t make any sense, I think that’s its intrinsic value. Not sure if Musea plans on reissuing this one. IIRC, you can pay for a download from the band direct.

ES - Wham Bang (1979 Germany). Now here’s a strange bird. ES is made up of former members of Tomorrow’s Gift and the Release Music Orchestra. On the surface, “Wham Bang” is a straight ahead pop rock / disco album. And after each track’s cringe worthy vocal section finishes, one might expect a short instrumental followed by some more tawdry vocals. Except the instrumentals don’t stop and ES begins to introduce a complex fusion sound, as one might find on an earlier RMO release. Everytime I was about to write “Wham Bang” off as a cheap European knockoff, then wham! bang! I’d hear an impressive instrumental bit. Yes, I think the album may have been a conscious satire on the then current music trends.