MOIRA

Side A 1. "Para Jofrey" (8:05) flute, piano and wind chimes opens this with guitar lurking behind until Jörgen Kanwischer's electric is revealed at the end of the first chord progression. After another round of this introductory chord progression, the band settles into a spacious two chord groove with Latin rhythmic foundations and instruments providing the background for acoustic guitar and electric guitar and saxophone weirdness to solo over the top. At 2:54, as if by Divine providence, the band suddenly switches into more serious Fender Rhodes-supported jazz-rock motif over the Latin percussion over which Jörgen solos with his acoustic guitar (with chorus-only electric accompanying in the background). The electric seems to step delicately forward in the fifth minute only to be relegated to support for an organ and electric piano solo from "Doctor" Bogarth. At the six-minute mark the Fender steps to full frontal confidently soloing while Jörgen's electric provides some nice rhythm support behind. All the while, the Latin-bound rhythm section behind all this is rock solid, even fully entertaining in and of themselves. It's almost as if they're really Latins! A bit odd-especially in the sound engineering choices--but overall a pretty cool song. (13.75/15)

2. "Crazy Countdown" (5:55) opens with 75 seconds of breakfast/kitchen coffee percolation, pouring, and conversation coupled with African vocal rhythm talking, kitchen table utensil noises, and even a vocalist mentioning his California trip in English! Then, as if out of the percolator, the band bursts into full jazz-rock fusion with some fuzz guitar in the lead (sounding a bit like a kazoo!). In the third minute the instrumentalists get pretty serious with some Percy Jones- like bass from Rainer Frank and some searing fuzz lead guitar over the tight, syncopated rhythm section and hand play on the congas. This is a lot like Al Di Meola's early solo stuff with a little more melody involved (and less clean/sterile sound engineering). Next, a different motif takes over as the band cruises down a funky autobahn in support of a keyboard solo from the Doctor before then returning to a cycle of the first two motifs (as well as the breakfast table vocal percussion). (9/10)

3. "Smile" (5:41) some very quiet keyboard work opens this song--playing for about a minute and a half in this very subdued, though-dynamic fashion. Then the sound of a sitar notifies the band that there is going to be a launch into some discordant chords are employed in equally discordant (yet not repelling) sequences so that electric guitar, flute, and keys can solo. The way the drums and bass jump in at a more dynamic level late is pretty awesome (and powerful), taking a little away from the flutist's limelight but making the song that much more interesting. Too bad there isn't a little more variety in the three-chord foundation of this (until the very end), cuz it's very powerful. I love the band members' laidback confidence throughout. (8.875/10)

Side B 4. "Mata Meme" (5:45) odd volume pedal-controlled electric guitar experimentation over loosely improvised hand percussion play. The guitar play seems to morph in and out of Robert Fripp-like sustained loops and Al Di Meola-like speed riffs with several very convincing flourishes. Interesting and impressive though not necessarily top notch jazz- rock fusion. (8.875/10)

5. "Gemini" (4:12) a fast-strumming flanged acoustic guitar start with stop-and-start Mahavishnu-like pacing and structure unleashes a torrent of blistering Larry Coryell-like playing. The band keeps up the rather frantic Mahavishnu/Return To Forever-like pace and complexity through to the end even accommodating for a couple breaks for some solo acoustic guitar riffs. (9/10)

6. "Always Later" (6:34) sounds like a cut in from some jamming the band might have been doing on some old blues- jazz motifs. Even the saxophone solo in the lead position is playing with this old-time jazz flair and flourish. The performances are pretty cool despite the old feeling to the music. Then surprise of all surprises! About three minutes into the song the band suddenly shifts into a kind of disco-jazz mode, picking up the pace considerably, with funky synth, sax, and electric guitar taking turns soloing over the top. The chordal construction is still pretty rudimentary rhythm & blues jazz but the instrumentalists sure make it zing! The synth sound used is so unusual it could be wah- wahed--like something Jan Hammer or Thijs van Lier would come up with--practically sounding like an electric violin. The song races along with the engineer hand-volume-fading the soloists in and out of the "front" of the mix while drums and bass speed along. (8.875/10)

7. "Spain Mandala" (5:01) coming straight out of the blocks sounding incredibly like something off of one of Al Di Meola's first two solo albums--the Latin-infused power electric pieces or suites. Great imitation--even down to the Mingo Lewis percussion play and Al Di (though sometimes more Larry Coryell)-like solo guitar runs and injection of Spanish acoustic guitar towards the middle. (9/10)

Total Time 41:13

Despite some questionable recording choices, I find the rawness of these songs, played by very capable musicians, acting as if with quite a little humor and fun, quite charming and enjoyable. It seems as if the band's one and only wah-wah pedal was traded around amongst the electrically-miked instruments for different songs, which is a clever and entertaining experimentation.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of clever, eclectic, and fairly innovative experimental jazz-rock fusion that I think every prog lover would enjoy hearing.

"Reise Nach Ixtlan" gets us started and it begins slowly with jazzy guitar and bass as it slowly builds. Synths and drums join in then organ around 3 1/2 minutes. Great sound when that organ arrives boiling away. The bass is outstanding throughout this track. The guitar starts to solo over top after 7 minutes and it sounds pretty amazing. So fluid. It stops around 9 minutes. Very busy drumming here with the bass and organ helping out. The tempo slows after 10 minutes and synths will return. "Oase" is a 3 1/2 minute tune of drums and flute throughout.

"Kristall" opens with some depth and nasty organ here and I like it! The guitar is just as good too as it starts to solo after a minute. Okay the bass and drums impress as well. It then settles back before 5 1/2 minutes but then it kicks back in 2 minutes later. One of my favourites along with the opener. "Einsame Schatten" opens with bass, drums and organ before we get some nice guitar work after 2 minutes along with synths. I like the way the guitar and keys trade off briefly followed by a calm. Vocals in German for the first time on the album 4 minutes in. "Resume" is the just over a minute closer with spoken German words along with experimental sounds.

1984 wasn't exactly a stellar year for adventurous music so this is a breath of fresh air.

"Papa Jefrey" opens with relaxed flute, guitar and atmosphere before it changes to an "island" vibe a minute in. Not into this section at all but then pulsating keys arrive 3 minutes in as the acoustic guitar is played in the classical style. Percussion and organ standout before 5 minutes then electric piano leads 6 minutes in followed by guitar a minute later. "Crazy Countdown" is my favourite track by far. It opens with percussion and the sound of many people speaking like at a party. It doesn't kick into gear until 1 1/2 minutes in and it's fairly jazzy here. I like this! The guitar takes the lead after 2 1/2 minutes and he's lighting it up pretty good. Some nice bass as well then the keys replace the guitar before 4 minutes but the guitar returns late.

"Smile" has these sparse sounds with not much going on. We get a melody that starts to slowly appear before 2 minutes with flute and picked guitar. It's building a minute later. "Mata Meme" has slow paced sax, a beat, electric piano and bass to start but it's the dissonant sax that impresses. The tempo picks up before 3 1/2 minutes to a jazzy KRAAN-like groove. The guitar arrives before 5 minutes with prominent bass as the sax returns late. "Gemni" is all about the acoustic guitar and it's impressive but not enjoyable for me. "Always Later" is guitar and percussion mainly along with other sounds that come and go as this song meanders along sounding like an improv really. "Spain Mandala" ends it in a catchy and uptempo manner. It's picked and strummed acoustic guitar early but thankfully the electric guitar starts to light it up over the drums, bass and keys.

A good record but like the foggy album cover I feel like I must be missing something because it's all over the place and there's just not enough enjoyment for me to give 4 stars.

My only problem is that there is a sharp drop off in quality with the last two cuts, mostly due to the vocals on "Einsame Schatten" and the narration on "Resume", but those two tracks only account for about 7 or 8 minutes and the rest of the music is so good that I can forgive it. I would highly recommend this to any fan of 1970s-style jazz fusion.

This was another obscure release from a mysterious 70's jazz/krautrock band which was a kind of melting pot of musicians coming from Munich and as Lise mentioned already in their biography informations about those guys are either non-existing or confusing. Best-known musician was Edgar Hofmann playing with EMBRYO where Butze Fischer was involved occasionally as well (i.e on "Apo-Calypse). Burkhard Plenge is obviously still busy in terms of music as a composer, arranger, producer and as guest keyboardist at some concerts. Jofrey Ramos played Kongas as well on JULIUS SCHITTENHELM's (songwriter, artist and producer for OHR records) album "Aristoteles" but both Rainer Frank and Jürgen Kanwischer did not leave any other trace behind than this sole album here which is most remarkable in case of the latter one since he obviously was a really talented guitarist. But apart from him the musicianship presented by all members on here is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately I don't have the original album in my hands instead just a vinyl-rip that I luckily found in the huge collection of a fellow music maniac. On this copy each side has been ripped as one file thus I even couldn't tell any titles of the seven compositions since here on PA there isn't any tracklist assigned as well. Nonetheless I'll try to describe briefly what's been offered here on this rare gem:

Side one (19:14) starts with track #1 having a running time of about 8 minutes in a rather relaxed vein with some laid-back jazz fusion though being played quite oddly and highly interestingly for any proghead. Track #2 (ca. 6:15) starts a bit weird with some ambient noises spreading an authentic Krautrock atmosphere but after about 1 1/2 minutes the band starts playing again great jazz-rock, here somewhat more vitally than in the first track and centered around electric guitar and keyboards with great drums/percussion and bass work. The remaining 5 minutes of side one are occupied by great again more laid-back jazz fusion played on flute, electric guitar, bass and drums with some keys added up.

Side two (19:42) is even better than side one containing more free-form jazz/rock fusion with great fuzz guitar and awesome sax playing by Edgar Hofmann best examplified in the first track having a running time of about 6:45 minutes. Second one contains some four minutes or so of extraordinary jazzy acoustic guitar bringing guitar heros like DI MEOLA or McLAUGHLIN into one's mind. Absolutely stunning morever if keeping in mind that the player was more or less a complete nobody. In the third track (about 5:00) we get to hear some more brilliant soloing this time on electric guitar combined with really strange and odd percussion,flute and sound effects. The remaining 3 ½ minutes are occupied with the last track which consists of some great driving jazz-rock not that far away from NUCLEUS to name just one reference point.

I guess the material on "Crazy Countdown" had been recorded already a few years before its actual release since it's sounding a bit inappropriate for the year of 1977. But anyway I'd consider it a real lost gem and an absolute worthy addition to any Prog collection. I didn't have the chance so far of getting hold of the second album listed here which has been done with a complete different line-up and had been released also by independent label SCHNELLBALL but possibly hasn't to do anything with the first one. I read a very positive review about it saying that it's jazz-rock as well with a strong psyche and Krautrock touch. Obviously even weirder for 1984 as year of release. Thus I can just advice any lover of rare obscure AND excellent jazzrock to grab a copy whenever he/she comes across a vinyl assigned with this band's name.