PSYCHEDELIC/SPACE ROCK

1. "Short Story" (2:24) simple and so sparse in its opening 50 seconds, yet simply gorgeous. When drums and other instruments join in it does spoil the established mood--especially the marching band-like Sigur Rós-like drums. (9/10)

2. "Last Lunch" (7:00) great empty atmospherics and awesome final minute with drums, bass, and distant vocal. My favorite song on the album. (10/10)

3. "Little Man" (4:38) opens with promise as a nice glockenspiel-like keyboard tinkles around, but then drums, guitar and voice enter and it becomes a very typical NoSound song. The chorus is nice and the following return to the simple innocence of the opening keyboard sound is reassuring. Really cool guitar/slide guitar solo in the fourth minute followed by a breakdown into wonderfully sparse simplicity to the end. (8/10)

4. "In Celebration Of Life" (5:34) opens very spaciously with slow, deliberate notes and chords from both electric piano and acoustic guitar. Piano, bass and drums add a nice foundation without taking away from the mood. Giancarlo and Vince Cavanaugh sing of the abundance of life before one of Giancarlo's searing guitar solos takes over. Kind of set up as an instrumental, this is the perfect NoSound song. (9/10)

5. "Sogno E Incendio" (4:44) is a wonderfully romantic song sung in Italian (grâce à Andrea Chimenti). To me, this exemplifies all that is unique and wonderful about Italian pop singers. I would like to hear Giancarlo sing in Italian. I like the guitar tone chosen for the solo in the third minute and then the other screaming one for the finale. More! (9/10)

6. "Emily" (3:19) Though I like the drum, cello and trumpet synth work here, the song sounds weird, tired, and redundant. (8/10)

7. "The Perfect Wife" (7:27) opens with electric guitar arpeggi that sound like they're right out of some classic rock ballad. Then the typical slow-paced rhythm section joins in. Giancarlo sings in a quite, almost folk tone, but then the chorus amps things up--including multiple tracks of Giancarlo's vocal. Nice change up but, in the end, the song does nothing extraordinary. Piano and cello part is okay. (8/10)

8. "Love Is Forever" (2:51) piano based with haunting synth working in the background as Giancarlo sings plaintively, maybe bitterly, between and within. Reminds me of Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas." (8/10)

9. "Evil Smile" (4:33) opens with two drum hits before acoustic guitar, bass, drums, voice and piano complete the ensemble. There's something special about this one that I can't put my finger on--something in the chord or key structure. Or perhaps it's just that more acoustic sound. (9/10)

10. "Scintilla" (6:27) opens with acoustic guitar and 'distant' synth and spacey electric guitar notes. Piano joins and the buzz-saw-like synth sound moves forward causing the soundscape to start to thicken. Singing does not commence until the two minute mark. Giancarlo's stark, untreated voice is front and center but kind of buried by the instruments--a very cool effect! Around 3:35 the voice starts to get a bit overpowered by the instruments but then, as if purposefully, the song switches to a foundation of arpeggiated piano chords--and Giancarlo is finished singing. Sadly, some marching band snares and fake sounding trumpets diminish the song's mood and beauty. Could've been great had they left it alone. (8/10)

A very good album offering a new, more stripped down sound for the NoSound fans.

Robbi got relatively famous as the guitarist and vocalist for Tribe After Tribe, starting with South Africa as the homebase, later settling in the US. He also founded the band 3rd Ear Experience, which meanwhile have some excellent albums in the back. When it comes to Germany it's impossible to imagine the relevant psych/space community without Paul Pott. Besides other tasks he has played the bass for Zone Six and currently is busy with the band Space Invaders. Both once met at Burg Herzberg, made friends, and the idea to produce some songs together, by handling all the instruments on their own, was on the run sooner or later.

Released on the praised Nasoni label the album consists of studio songs, four out of five at least, which are equipped with a rather unique flair, not really related to what they are playing with their regular bands. This is more of an acid style, the opening Flesh 'n Steel shows some Hawkwind leanings. The drumming is very straight, I assume Paul is responsible here. The extended Grass comes as a Lemmi cover, including an interlude with gripping overdubbed guitars and a speech contributed by Amitrakripa. As the title promises Space Ear marks another sharing product, their first ever to be precise. The hypnotic bass certainly convinces.

Besides these proper heavy psych tunes Prophecy #1 shines as the album's highlight. Here we have an extended space jam with remarkable support on keys (Joshua Adams) and drums (Dennis Gockel), taken live 2015 in Germany. A fascinating affair, predominantly due to the repetitive mantra-like guitar, though constantly modifying over the course. This one especially proves Robbi's empathic live presence, very impressing. Eh ... number #1 implies a follower? We will see. I definitely can hear that they had a lot of fun together. Despite not every song completely meets my taste, this is a good album quite obviously. To be checked on their bandcamp page.

The unique style of CATHERINE RIBEIRO was a product of her traumatic upbringing. Born in Lyon, France in 1941, not only did she suffer from the early traumas of WW2 with a constant barrage of bombings as the daughter of newly established immigrants from Portugal, but she also experienced such traumas as her baby brother dying at a young age and experienced mental instability which landed her into psychiatric wards where she experienced intense sessions of electro shock therapy. The culmination of these incidents would be expressed through her various artistic endeavors. Although she started out as an actor, by the mid-60s she began to take interest in music and once she met Patrice Moullet, the chemistry immediately clicked and together they would synergize their talents to create a totally new kind of freaky psychotomimetic musical creation that even to the present day stands out as quite unique. Despite members coming and going throughout their eleven year run, RIBEIRO and Moullet would remain together for the entire run. The band better known as CATHERINE RIBEIRO + ALPES starting on album "No. 2" initially began under the CATHERINE RIBEIRO + 2BIS moniker which on their eponymous debut album cover proudly presents the "Pop Free" stamp of approval.

From the very first sounds experienced, it's obvious that this was out of left field for the time and to this day remains so. With RIBEIRO blasting out her declamatory style of semi-sung, semi-spoken lyrical content completely in the French language we are instantly transported to another musical world where pain and disdain of the injustices of the world are suddenly transmogrified into musical majesty. "Lumiere Écarlate" (Scarlet Light) begins with the avant-garde instrumental sounds of Moullet's hypnotic self- invented cosmophone along with tribal drumming and RIBEIRO's spectral passion-fueled chants that sound as if they are supplicating the universe for some kind of healing ritual or some other occult scene. While "Soeur De Race" (Pedigree Sister) is less haunting it continues the lugubriousness as RIBEIRO seduces the listener with her soft sensual vocal style that belies the following track "Les Fées Carabosses" (The Wicked Fairies) where shows how versatile RIBEIRO is and displays her full bravado in bombastic rants and moody guffaws where she can create intricate melodies only to shatter them in a fit of rage in a full-voiced madwoman ebullition followed by screams, hysterical laughs and other vocal madness.

It's not only RIBEIRO's vocal antics that stand out and demand the listener's attention. The otherworldly sounds of Patrice Moullet's homemade instruments are equally wild. While RIBEIRO handles all lyrics and vocals throughout the band's existence, it was Moullet who wrote all the music and invented several instruments such as the percuphone, cosmophone and orgolia that give this music the most unique and unparalleled sound in the progressive music scene. This one / two punch guarantees the listener will be taken somewhere they never knew existed: a strange new world where the psychedelic and avant-folk meet in the lysergic renegade poetic wilderness. Along with the experimental instrumentation and larger than life vocal contributions, the album is also filled with all kinds of psychedelic techniques much used by other acts of the era including backmasking, tribal drumming and hypnotic folk guitar sequences. Some of the tracks are sweet and sensual and others come completely unhinged however the music always remains in a rhythmic harmony of some sort while RIBEIRO herself is the one who dishes out the bouts with chaos and mental instability. CATHERINE RIBEIRO + ALPES is a very interesting late 60s release that showed all of the band's strengths from the beginning, however they were just getting started and as good as this debut album is, it's not as well accomplished as some of the albums to come. Album number one is certainly an entertaining musical trip that not only delivered ample amounts of originality but managed to boil the avant-garde ingredients into a digestible stew that sounds like a completely mature product.

"Soundtrack 1984" is a top three for me and an instrumental. A bass/ drum intro here as mellotron rolls in. I really dig the guitar, especially after 1 1/2 minutes. "Maybe" is heavy with floating organ. How good is the mellotron and vocal melodies before a minute. The heaviness will be contrasted with the calmer vocal sections with organ. Some nice guitar before 3 minutes that goes on and on until that mellotron/ vocal melody passage from earlier is reprised. This song sounds like a late sixties tune, I really like it.

"Soft Focus" features keys and harp-like sounds and is very much a ballad with sappy vocals. "Fantastic Mirror" has an RPI vibe with the keyboard sounds. Unfortunately this is contrasted with sugary sections where the vocals just don't sound very good. Not a fan overall but it has it's moments. "Poltergeist" is bouncy with pulsating keys and drums not fitting the title of the song in my opinion. There is guest violin on this one that I'm not into, sounds like acoustic violin. The guitar, organ and violin take turns leading the way.

"An Old Castle Of Transylvania" suite includes the last four tracks and the songs blend into one another. Other than the first track this is the highlight of the album. "Forest Of The Death" is dark and brooding, experimental too with organ and synths standing out. A change after 2 1/2 minute as the drums come in and slowly build and the organ arrives with power. Check out the guitar! Great tune and top three for me. "The Cursed" continues with the darkness as the organ floats in before it all turns dramatic after a minute with the guitar and drums joining in. Vocals before 2 minutes then the guitar returns as it will come and go. Excellent!

"Darkness Of The World" is similar in sound again but more uptempo and more powerful, at least until the vocals arrive and it settles back some. Powerful organ ends it as it blends into my final top three "An Old Castle Of Transylvania". Guitar joins the powerful organ and steady drums quickly. I like how the guitar soars before 2 minutes. Mellotron follows then vocals before 3 minutes. A minute later we get this stunning ending of thunder cracks, rain and wind. It's like your right there in this wild storm.

As I said earlier there's so much on here that cries 4 stars yet at the same time we get plenty of less than steller passages that have me wondering why they went that route. Well worth checking out if your into Psychedelic music.

Hey, then you are on a right track on this occasion. Maybe you won't believe, so please, give it a try from start to finish! VESPERO are offering something rather perfect here. Which means, this is either recommended for the tripped-out late hours of your next beach party (yep!) ... or alternatively, in the same way, for a secret solo session by handling a bottle of wine and headphones (another yep!). Living in Astrakhan maybe causes a special inspiration - more than ever I'm wondering how they are able to realize such high quality albums, quasi in a row, since more than ten years now.

Although still deriving from a space rock fundament, there is a further step towards a jazz/fusion attitude to state overall. The embedded drive is based on the collaboration of two percussionists here, apart from core member Ivan Fedotov, Alexander Timakov is on board too. Great presence by all means! The special 'Lique Mekwas' event is starting with The Course Of Abagaz, driven by afro beat, dub, jazz, mellotron and what else, equipped with an Ozric Tentacles feel somehow.

Besides the violin - melancholy here and Vital(it)y there - the saxophone is very present too, there's no mistaking. Over the course of seventyfive minutes playing time I can't detect anything decreasing, the niveau remains on a top level. Strangely enough it took some time for me to concentrate on this album. Strike! I get a kick out of it! 'Lique Mekwas' proves that VESPERO are real top scorer when it comes to the progressive rock genre. Excellent musicianship taken for granted. Every album differs, they have successfully avoided to repeat themselves until today. 4.5 stars!

"Animals", as we all know, represents a shift into much darker territory that Pink Floyd's earlier spacey musings had seldom touched. Whether this was a response to the punk movement or a reflection on English society at the time, I think it was a well- needed change. Floyd's previous releases, "Dark Side" and "Wish You Were Here", while containing some strong music, were on the whole very monochromatic and, frankly, sterile. This is not the case with "Animals". For the first time in a while, Pink Floyd has actually decided to expand past their typical tepid productions and create an album that rocks.

The meat of this album, of course, is contained in the three long pieces. Let it be said that "Dogs" is a masterpiece. Containing a very quick opening by Pink Floyd standards, it is here that Floyd realize how essential tension and release are to creating cathartic music. And man does it work. Ranging from tense ostinato-ed verses that give a sense of paranoia to spacey psychedelic interludes to more straightforward rock-oriented sections, the change of pace in "Dogs" is paramount at setting up Gilmour's best solo of his career, played not just once over the course of the song, but twice. Yes, that vast, expansive, Floydian wall of guitar sound that we all know and love, but this time accentuated so much more when put in the proper context. One other strength of "Animals" worth noting is that the use of sound effects is very effective. While dogs barking and pigs snorting could come across as a complete corn-ball cliche, on "Animals" they actually blend very well into the overall sound, heightening the atmosphere of the album.

There are only two real points of contention on this album as far as I'm concerned. The first is the inconsequential "Pigs On The Wing" pieces, which are not terrible, but certainly not necessary. The second is the tendency for "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" to overstay its welcome a tad with its very repetitive riff. While the song contains some very strong moments, such as one of Gilmour's most explosive solos closer to the end, it's enough for me to demote "Animals" from full masterpiece status.

Minor flaws aside, this barnyard triptych is one of Pink Floyd's best offerings. It's also worthy of the title "Pink Floyd for those who don't like Pink Floyd". 4 solid stars.

The album was assembled around hours of leftover scraps and fragments from the 1994 "Division Bell" sessions, all held together with synthetic glue supplied by the late Richard Wright. But it doesn't sound at all artificial or anachronistic, thanks to the sensitive, affectionate editing of the scattered parts into a more cohesive sum. There's even a casual, half-realized concept behind it: the all-too human need for real communication, something not always apparent in the band's own troubled history.

It's actually more subtext than theme, expressed through the individual track titles ("Things Left Unsaid", "The Lost Art of Communication"), and of course in the bittersweet beauty of the music itself, mostly organized into atmospheric, ambient soundscapes, with occasional mid-tempo rock interludes in classic Floyd vernacular. Except for the curtain-closer "Louder Than Words", the album is entirely instrumental: a rare thing for this group, and entirely appropriate to the unspoken focus.

Roger Waters of course wasn't involved in the project, beyond a predictably testy comment on his Facebook page. I wouldn't be surprised if he considered it a purely mercenary exploitation of a dead comrade's memory, and maybe he has a point. But Pink Floyd has always drawn inspiration from its ghosts, beginning with Syd and now including Richard.

It will never be remembered as the long-lost Floyd album that never was. But as a belated postscript it adds a welcome coda on the otherwise unresolved non-ending to a turbulent musical career. Three-plus stars, rounded up for closing the door gently on the way out.