The departure of Peter Nicholls after the successful "The Wake" and the immediate addition of Paul Menel as vocalist for their third album, "Nomzamo", implied a change in IQ's musical direction, leaning towards light and translucent structures dominated by typical eighties synthesizers, to the detriment of the more complex and intricate sonorities timidly present.

And so, after the intriguing introductory keyboards of Martin Orford in the persistent "No Love Lost", the album travels for most of its journey through tame waters of few risks, with developments that approach the most melodic and accessible AOR, such as the jovial "Promises (As the Years Go By)", the ballad "Still Life", which Ray Carless' saxophone tries to save, or the festive "Passing Strangers" and "Screaming", the latter piece even with an undisguised pop wink.

The recessive gene of IQ's progressive vein is visible in fragments that add nuances to the general appearance of the album, such as Paul Cook's tenacious percussions with African reminiscences in the piece "Nomzamo", the extensive "Human Nature", or the emotive and pacifist "Common Ground", with Mike Holmes' arpeggiated beginning and a luminous counterpoint with Orford's synthesizers that lead to a beautiful guitar solo by Holmes towards the end. Surely the best piece on the album.

Despite the always laudable intention of expanding musical horizons, it seems however that with the departure of Nicholls the band loses more than it gains, even in its graphic aesthetics. "Nomzamo" is a decent album, to be sure, but it could have been better.

2.5/3 stars

Many people who got into Porcupine Tree and No-Man in the 1990's also took a look at Blackfield. This is an energetic if sad collaboration between SW and Aviv Geffen, who is very popular in Israel. It's sad because all the music is melancholy and based on minor chords. This is Wilson's forte. He really likes sad songs. He excels in the emotional venue of dissatisfaction with life. His best Porcupine Tree tracks are also sad songs. He finds that sad emotions brings out the best in high emotions. The catalog of Blackfield is great music that most people have never heard. They never had commercial success because they make music that is outside the mainstream and young people like the lame stream which is the core of the main stream. This compilation is the best they did up to 2018. 4.5 solid stars.

Annette Peacock is an American composer, multi- instrumentalist, singer and on and on. She was at the forefront of Timothy Leary's movement in the early 60's as well as feminist movements as heard in her often irreverant lyrics. She is probably connected most to the avant/jazz style of music even though she was an early user of the moog as Robert Moog gave her a prototype in the late 60's.

"X-Dreams" is her second studio album from 1978 and her vocals are the focus as she speaks, sings and well you name it. Even though we have an astonishing amount of talent on her instrumentally she didn't take advantage of that. We get 5 bass players including Jeff Clyne, 4 drummers including Bill Bruford, 6 guitarists including Mick Ronson, Brian Godding, Chris Spedding, one keyboardist Peter Lemer, 3 sax players and 2 conga shakers. She had to be an influence on Laurie Anderson the way she speaks and sings and the sensual nature of the lyrics. I really do not like "Dear Bela" but the two opening numbers along with the closer are pretty good.

3 stars as the enjoyment factor is low.

— First review of this album —

THE STARK REALITY were a Jazz band from Boston who managed to release this one studio album in 1970 but broke up after a failed tour. More on that later. This has to be one of the most unique recordings in my collection. It's just such an unusual idea to basically re-do a children's album from Britain circa 1958 by Hoagy Carmichael that was used on his PBS children's show. The lyrics here are for kids make no mistake like "30 days has September, April, June and November..." etc. A double album back in the day of about 90 minutes or so.

So you can imagine trying to tour with this record right? Who is your audience? Parents bringing kids or adults just not showing up. I feel the Bio here doesn't do this band justice. This is Monty Stark's band and he is the singer and talented vibes player. But come on, the Bio here should emphasize that the legend named John Abercrombie is on guitar here. We also get bass and drums with this four piece. Abercrombie has been a staple on the ECM label for decades and his first two solo albums from 1975 are classics "Timeless" and "Gateway" which I spun the other night much to my delight.

The music here is for adults for sure and impresses me to no end, but then the silliness with the vocals seems to fight against the seriousness of the instrumental work. This is a highly improvised, reimagined interpretation of Hoagy's recording. Interesting that Abercrombie adds his own composition "Blue Pillow" which is pretty much him on acoustic guitar and sparse bass and the words "Blue Pillow" are beside his name and picture on the back of the album. Yes the man with the moustache and guitar who I shall call from now on Mr. Abercrombie.

I checked about 8 tracks that I was really impressed with so this is a 4 star album in my world, just very unique and possibly sitting with MOTHER GONG's "Fairy Tales" even though this is quite different from that and in my opinion this is not quite as impressive as what MOTHER GONG created. I mention Stark's vibes work and the guy does get creative with them and often leads along with Mr. Abercrombie as far as soloing over top goes. I really like the setup. There has been some archival material surface many years after this that are from 1969 when they had a fifth member playing sax and flute which obviously changes their sound.

I think my favourite track is the over 8 minutes "Dreams" but that short "Travelling" song with those vibes is so good and closing it out with both "Comrades" and "All You Need To Make Music" at over 12 minutes is finishing strong. Of the earlier tracks I have four in "The Old Prospector", "Cooking", "Shooting Stars" and "Rocket Ship" that leave me very satisfied.

These guys are players, I mean the bass and drums are both killer supporting Mr. Abercrombie and Stark. There are a ton of extended instrumental passages on here, often starting that way then several minutes in the vocals show up briefly and possibly return later. Again such a unique record by a very talented band this one is for the jazzers out there who still have that kid in them.

Continuing from the British blues rock scene that got underway in the mid-60s with bands like the Yardbirds and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the power trio BAKERLOO rode in the wave of the more accomplished blues rock acts that culminated with Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Serving somewhat as a crossroads pit stop between the blues rock 60s and the blues-based hard rock that would take the 70s by storm like its early namesake The Bakerloo Blues Line (a London subway line) then shortened to simply BAKERLOO, this short-lived band only existed for a mere two years but proved to be quite influential as well as the gestating grounds for all of the musicians involved.

Initiated by guitarist David "Clem" Clempson and vocalist / bassist Terry Poole the band went through a couple of drummers before settling on Keith Baker BAKERLOO was a fast-rising hit at local London establishments such as Henry's Blueshouse before receiving an invitation to join the UK Big Bear Ffolly tour which included the soon to be called Black Sabbath band Earth, Locomotive and Tea Symphony but also opened for Led Zeppelin's London debut event at the Marquee Club on the 18th of October, 1969. While the band seemed like a guaranteed success story, BAKERLOO only released its sole self-titled album in September of 69 and would soon part ways with all members joining some of the most famous blues based hard rock bands that the UK produced in the 1970s.

The original album featured seven tracks which added up to 46 minutes of playing time but future reissues have found various numbers of bonus tracks included. While the album was primarily self-penned originals, "Bring It On Home" was actually an uncredited Willie Dixon song, a trend that was common in the British blues scene of not giving credit where it's due as well as a tasteful rearrangement of a Johann Sebastian Bach's "Bourée in E Minor" composition in the form of "Drivin' Backwards." All three members were at the top of their game and effortlessly delivered fast-paced virtuosic blues rock jamming sessions bringing a sense of sophistication that the style wasn't particularly known for which possibly proved to be a bit alienating for the audiences who gravitated towards the style but caught the attention of the early prog rock lovers for its attention to detail and in particular the 15-minute closing "Son Of Moonshine."

The opening "Big Bear Ffolly" which refers to the tour which got them noticed immediately finds the band firing on full cylinders with a fiery enthusiasm that found the members almost telepathically crafting a super tight instrumental interplay. The creative diverse musical motifs and lightning fast playing style surely must've wowed the audience because BAKERLOO was truly on another level of competency. While mostly looking back to the earlier blues rock style of Cream as the primary source of inspiration, tracks like "Gang Bang" clearly pointed to the future world of faster hard rock with more intense instrumental displays and heavier chord stomping including an exquisite drumming solo. "The Worried Feeling" slows things down a bit to offer a more traditional blues style with less reliance on rock. The sprawling closer "Son Of Moonshine" showcases the band's expertise in extended jamming sessions and a 15-minute string of creative improvisation skills. While not exactly reaching prog rock territory certainly wasn't too far away from jumping on that bandwagon.

Although the band had only formed in February 1968 and found enthusiastic reviews over its album, the first to jump ship was Clem Clempson who would soon join Colosseum and then eventually Humble Pie and The New Jazz Orchestra. The band's end soon followed with Terry Poole most notably forming May Blitz and Keith Baker also joining May Blitz and Uriah Heep. Early drummer John Hinch would go on to join Judas Priest while early drummer Poli Palmer went to Family. A short stint for all involved but BAKERLOO's sole release is a fondly remembered album and live band from the era and had it continued could've gone far in the anything goes 70s. As it stands this is the only representation of the band's recording efforts but what a pleasant and exhilarating display of blues rock BAKERLOO unleashed. The bonus tracks on future editions are also very nicely done.

3.5 stars. I spent a week with "Electric Bath" back in the spring of 2021and was actually just recently surprised to see Don Ellis is on our site. I'm more about being inclusive than exclusive so bring on Buster Williams, Les McCann, Donald Byrd and on and on. The big negative for me with this 1967 release is that it's Big Band music. My dad may have liked it but me not so much. Hearing multiple horns as in 15 horn players on here has never been my thing which is in part why I'm not into orchestral music or Classical music. Now as I've always said there are always exceptions to my musical prejudices and when it comes to Big Band music I love TOSHIYUKI MIYAMA & THE NEW HEARD's "Yamataifu" from 1972. Experimental and dark, it's unique.

Don Ellis is a trumpet player and he's got something like 20 plus musicians helping him out. That cover art had to be controversial in 1967, they blanked it out on RYM. It does look like some art from the classics. Lots of horns yes but lots of percussion too and we also get some sitar surprisingly opening and closing "Turkish Bath" and clavinet 8 minutes in. "Alone" reminds me of some of those theme songs for 60's TV shows. The closer is all over the place so I guess you could say proggy. I like the opener "Indian Lady" for the energy but my favourite has to be "Open Beauty" for the electric piano and flute, this is laid back.

A lot of traditional jazz stuff on here of course, this is 1967 and I just have trouble getting into a lot of it.

"La notte anche di giorno" is the third studio album by La Coscienza di Zeno and was released in 2015 on the Fading Records label with a line up featuring Alessio Calandriello (vocals), Gabriele Guidi Colombi (bass), Andrea Orlando (drums, percussion), Stefano Agnini (synthesizers, Moog, organ), Davide Serpico (guitars), Luca Scherani (piano, synth, Mellotron, Hammond organ, bouzuki) and Domenico Ingenito (violin) plus the guests Joanne Roan (flute), Melissa Del Lucchese (cello) and Simona Angioloni (vocals). It's an interesting concept album, divided into two long suites, about two female characters and two different ways to face fear and pain. It confirms all the good qualities of the band's previous works and the cover with a beautiful painting by Priscilla Jamone gives a visual form to its dark atmospheres and reflective mood...

According to the liner notes, the first suite, "Giovane figlia" (Young daughter), was inspired by the figure of a suicidal girl, Serena Zanimacchia, and is dedicated to her memory. It is divided into six parts but, despite its complexity, is well structured and flowing. The first part, "A ritroso" (In reverse), begins with music and lyrics evoking the image of an empty, very particular swing hanging from a tree, a girl floating in the air like a kite without string. Then the music and words take us back in time conjuring up the images of an unexpected pregnancy and of a girl in a hospital fed by syringes and nurses. She feels helpless, as if she were put on trial for her sins and condemned even by her own mother... The following section, "Il giro del cappio" (The turning of the noodle), marks a change of perspective, the atmosphere is calm and reflective, the mood melancholic. The narrator tries to understand the reasons for such a tragic, extreme action. There's pity and mourn, the memories of the deceased girl emerge from the shadows, with all her efforts to change and the sense of impending tragedy that slowly grows. What did they do to her? She lived in darkness even during the day, but who forced her to hang herself, who knitted the fatal rope? The vortex of memories becomes a hurricane in the third section, "Libero pensatore" (Free thinker), where the narrator draws the image of one of his friends and of his brilliant girlfriend, a bit crazy but friendly and tenacious, now lost forever... In the next part, "Quiete apparente" (Apparent quiet), comes back the image of the girl swinging in the air like a kite while the light chases the shadows along the walls at dawn. A short instrumental part, "Impromptu pour S.Z.", leads to the last part, "Lenta discesa all'Averno" (Slow descent to Avernus) which attempts, once again, to investigate the reasons that pushed the unfortunate girl to take her own life. She couldn't overcome her crises, some evil persecuted her like a slithering serpent. What follows is a long, scary journey throughout the holes of the soul, where our hell simmers, a gloomy place that only the wise or the madman dare visit. The last verses of the suite are sung in French by the guest vocalist Simona Angioloni and are taken from a traditional ballad that tells, in a very poetical form, of a terrible family crime. The ballad is "La complainte de la blanche biche", in the past interpreted, among others, by bands such as Malicorne and Tri Yann...

The second suite, "Madre antica" (Ancient mother), is divided into four parts and is dedicated to Bianca Orsi, one of the most important Italian sculptresses and to Sfefano Agnini's father, Gregorio, who during World War II lived in the Po Delta area. Born in Salsomaggiore Terme, Emilia, Bianca Orsi trained in Milan at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and in the first half of the 1930s frequented artistic and intellectual circles. Later she experienced the horrors of World War II first hand taking part in the Resistance as a partisan relay and a profound trace of that experience remains in her works. The first part of the suite, "Il paese ferito" (The wounded country), describes fake scenes of normality in a country ravaged by war: a little girl playing in the street, an old man smoking tobacco, two lovers kissing passionately, two stray cats on the run... The second part, "Cavanella", takes us in a village of the Po Delta and conjures up the image of the young Bianca walking barefoot on the bloodstained sand while some boys amuse themselves throwing stones with their slingshots at some corpses in uniform floating on the river waters. Mercy seems to be vanishing in war times and violence rules... The third part, "La staffetta" (The relay) depicts Bianca as a partisan messenger in Salsomaggiore Terme. In fact, the most common task for female fighters was the staffetta. The staffete brought or collected weapons and sent messages between the various fighting groups. They were women, in most cases very young, who perfectly knew the territory and moved on foot or by bicycle. The risks they faced were very high... The last part, "Come statua di dolore" (Like a statue of pain) evokes images of the concentration camps in Germany and tells of how Bianca managed to overcome that horror: now her blade cuts into the wood generating statues that recall death, statues of women pierced by pain...

On the whole, an excellent work!

— First review of this album —

Witold Szczurek is a very talented Polish bass player who has been in a number of bands over the years. He's also released many solo albums and this is his debut from 1984. He played double bass and acoustic bass here along with bowed bass. A four piece band of bass, drums, guitar and vocals(on 2 songs) with Witold composing and arranging the music. By the way Witold has an alias in Witold Rek.

I was so disappointed with this when I visited it at the end of doing my "best of" Jazz and related list several years ago, actually saving this for the end because I was so excited to spend some time with it. Man I was disappointed especially when I saw this tagged with Zeuhl and hey it's an album created by a bass player and I love bass but not doing my homework here as I'm not big on acoustic bass or double bass. But I like the bowed bass of course bringing melancholy to the fore. But this album is so mellow, surprisingly so. The Zeuhl tag is for the track "Hey, Hullo" which sounds like a MAGMA outtake but that's not enough to save the day here at least not in my music world.

Maybe my expectations were unrealistic as I've seen some high ratings for this but "Basspace" will always be an album that I look at as one that let me down.

Long before it started to smell like teen spirit, another blissful band coalesced in the fertile London underground in 1966 just in time to join the nascent psychedelic scene that was quickly sweeping away the old and ushering in a new era of rock and roll world domination. Formed by the songwriting team of Irish guitarist and vocalist Patrick Campbell-Lyons and the Greek born keyboardist / guitarist Alex Spyropoulos, the duo was fairly forward thinking in its musical approach that mixed aspects of 60s rock, Baroque chamber pop, folk, jazz, Latin music, classical and is now considered one of those proto-prog albums for releasing what is considered by some to be the first narrative concept album in the form of its 1967 debut THE STORY OF SIMON SIMOPATH beating The Pretty Things, The Who as well as The Moody Blues (Days of Future Passed came out a month after this one).

This album was indeed ahead of its time conceptually although very much steeped in the sounds of its era. Described as "A Science Fiction Pantomine" it narrates the fantasies of a boy named Simon Simopath who dreams of having wings abut ultimately grows up to work in one of those sterile office cubicles which leads to a nervous breakdown. But luckily after ending up in a mental institution he fantasizes about entering a rocket and befriends a centaur and a miniature goddess named Magdalena whom Simon falls for and marries! Now if this isn't the subject matter of a really good LSD trip then i really don't know what is! Far from the Seattle grunge band that adopted the NIRVANA moniker (and was sued by this band and settled out of court), THE STORY OF SIMON SIMOPATH is one of the earliest examples of childish twee pop and almost comes off as a musical fairytale meant to be played for children at bedtime.

Although NIRVANA was a mere duo, guest musicians included Sylvia Schuster (cello), Michael Coe (French horn), Brian Henderson (bass) and David Preston (drums). The music falls somewhere between simple 60s sunshine pop and a fully orchestrated classical crossover behemoth but the emphasis is on the cute and cuddly endearing storyline and the overall pop hooks leaving the orchestrations are a mere backing that only accent the overall performances. Nevertheless the Baroque chamber rock arrangements were quite unique when they emerged and have although the band itself attained only marginal success and the music they created evokes only a lukewarm response, it is fairly agreed upon that this NIRVANA was very influential for many bands to come including the earliest examples of progressive rock by The Moody Blues, Deep Purple and The Pretty Things.

While broken down into two acts with 10 tracks, the entire album only slightly exceeds 25 minutes of playing time making it one of the shortest concept albums for sure. This NIRVANA is probably more famous for having the same name as the successful 90s grunge band fronted by Kurt Cobain than for its own music mostly because it's a bit too hokey for its own good. While the spirit is heading in the right direction, the gleeful innocence of it all really does make it feel like a kid's album of some sort that could easily be played next to classics from Sesame Street or Peter The Wolf. Overall NIRVANA's debut is a fun little curiosity that warrants a listen just to place a sound to a name most are familiar with as the FIRST Nirvana but as an album that stands on its own it falls short of a totally captivating experience in any way. It sort of reminds me of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" at times except not even close to as ingeniously constructed. One that serves as a footnote in history and worthy of a spin or two but not something i would return to often.

Napolitano bands Osanna and Cervello unite (reuniting brothers Danilo and Corrado Rustici) for some groovin' jazzy blues-rock fusion.

1. "Tailor Made - Part 1 & Part 2 (5:09) what starts out sounding rather funky turns into driving blues-rock when the singing starts, but in the instrumental intervals between vocal passages it's highly-charged Jazz-Rock Fusion! Saxophonist Elio D'Anna is on fire but so is that rhythm section! What a temperamental song from these headstrong lads! (9.25/10)

2. "Something Inside Keeps You Down - Part 1 & Part 2 (6:11) opens as a kind of meandering, wandering "warm-up" or "practice" session turns into something quite else when Corrado Rustici enters singing in a high almost-falsetto voice. After two minutes, the singing shuts down and the band folds into a heavy rock motif that is anchored by some awesome deep bass playing and amazing drumming from Franco Lo Previte. Heavy and brooding but not bombastic or pedantic, this is very solid instrumental (9.25/10)

3. "Nova - Part 1 & Part 2 (7:10) opening with some funky rhythm guitar, Franco enters with some stunning drum work while everybody else settles into the rock 'n' roll groove. Elio takes the lead with some awesome sax screaming--on multiple instruments--while the guitars work out from beneath who's the lead and who's the rhythm. The brothers duke it out with Danilo shrieking out his more blues-anchored style before giving it up to Luciano Milanese's bass by way of short bursts from Elio and little brother Corrado with his fire-breathing machine gun. Elio gets another solo sixth minute which allows us to focus more on the different playing styles of the Rustici brothers: Danilo being all blues-orented while Corrado is so much more Mahavishnu--which is especially demonstrated when he finally lets loose in the final 30 seconds with some of his fire and brimstone. (13.5/15)

4. "Used to Be Easy - Part 1 & Part 2 (5:12) picked and strummed electricguitar chords over which Corrado starts singing in his higher-pitched vibrato voice that I'm so familiar with from my love of the band's Vimana album. The music beneath is sounds quite firmly founded in blues-rock, though you can tell from both his vocal and guitar that Corrado is very much interested in going a different direction (Elio, too); as a matter of fact, the rhythm section of Franco, Luciano, and Danilo all feel so firmly rooted in the blues-rock forms that this is the first time I'm conscious of the rift that must have led to their departure from the band. (8.66667/10)

5. "Toy - Part 1 & Part 2 (4:21) nice semi-funky rock with some jazzy elements coming from the rhythm guitar, lead sax, and drums (a bit)--the rest is more instrumental jam-band rock. By the time they get to the third and fourth minute the infectious groove has gotten so inside your being that the solos become quite enjoyable. I can't believe how 180 my view of this song became over the course of its four minutes! (9/10)

6. "Stroll On - Part 1 & Part 2 (10:33) hard-drivin', blistering-paced, near-metal blues rock with rather coarse and aggressive vocals from Corrado while the band races forward for the first six-and-a-half minutes, Luciano Milanese sounds very much like he's trying to match the speed and style of Percy Jones. Then they slow down a bit, allowing for a bit of space within which the various instrumentalists are able to clearly, patiently inject their solo--though the highlight of the entire song is Elio and Corrado's paired melody lines during the song's final two minutes; the two are in sync! (17.75/20)

Total Time 38:36

Interesting to contrast the two guitar styles of brothers Danilo and Corrado: the former is far more blues-rock oriented with lots of note bending and favoring a much more "dirty" sound while the latter is clearly a student/emulator of the technical wizardry of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. At times Corrado's vocals sound so much like David Bowie! As accomplished as the musicians are, the sound engineering mix is not very enjoyable: the bass and drums are mixed farther forward than any of the other tracks! And Luciano Milanese is no Percy Jones (future member/contributor to the band) but he and drummer Franco Lo Previte are quite a force as a rhythm team. Though the music is often far too close to standard blues rock in both sound palette and style, I have come away very impressed with the power and presence of this album. I think the power of the music even helped me to cast aside my initial myopic orientation to only being open to Jazz-Rock Fusion. This is not Jazz-Rock Fusion. Still, it is my opinion, that the band's core trio's next move--to move to London, England, where they will use studio musicians in supporting rolls to record their next albums--is the best move they could have made.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of hard-driving technically-awesome jazz-infused bluesy rock 'n' roll music.