PROGRESSIVE ELECTRONIC

This is the second and final album by this Canadian trio based in Toronto. And what an unusual setup of electric sax, keyboards and hand percussion. The self-titled debut was released in 1970 and was dominated by synths. The electric sax and hand percussion certainly weren't given equal billing by a long shot. They were more like guests on that one. No dynamics either, and as we know the result is no nose bone. A 2 star record in my world.

This followup from 1971 sounds more like I thought that trio would sound like. Everyone is getting their moment in the sun, very much an equal billing thing happening. We have nose bone as well. Now I must admit that I really don't like the tone of the electric sax. So it becomes be careful what you wish for at this point. We get eight tracks over almost 38 minutes. They brought in an orchestral string section which is heard briefly on "Syren" but in a much greater way on "December Angel". Strings later on "Ibistix" as well, and it's the second longest song at 8 minutes.

The opener and closer feature a memorable melody, but that's it. We do get some experimental sections that I like. And I like that eerie start to the longest tune "December Angel" which is 9 minutes long. The 3 1/2 minute closer called "Aurora Spinray" might be my favourite. It's just nice to have some warmth in the form of those organ sounds. And there's some vocals very late. I should mention the short "Tillicum" which was recorded for CTV and the TV show "Here Come The Seventies". It does sound slightly familiar as I no doubt as a kid heard this opening theme for that show. We were only able to get two TV channels back then, so the odds are pretty good I heard it and saw that show.

So a much better album than their debut, but this just fails to do much for me at all. This just isn't a band that I was able to get into unfortunately. Maybe I still have a bad taste in my mouth from my recent time sent with their debut. I like that other trio from Toronto though that would arrive a few years after this release.

3.5 stars. Teddy Lasry came from France, and from a musical family. His parents were in an experimental band that released many albums, with the first being in 1960. In fact Teddy would play on some of those beginning in the late sixties. Lasry also was a horn/flute player for MAGMA. Playing on their first three records before quitting and going solo. This 1976 release is one of Teddy's solo records, and many are tagged with Library music by RYM, including this one.

While Lasry does it all pretty much, he did get a drummer and a bass player to help out. The drummer is on two tracks, and that bass player happens to be Janick Top and he also plays on two tracks. Neither guest really stands out, rather they are part of the sound. It's a 38 minute record with 8 tracks. The opener and closer are really the same song with minimal keyboard sounds over 1 1/2 minutes. The intro and outro you could say. So yes, Lasry is all over this record playing clavinet, marimba, soprano sax, clarinet and adding electronics and effects.

While this album did grow on me, I really am on the fence with it. I didn't even like it at first, but after 4 spins I was feeling like it was actually pretty good. Still, it's too inconsistent for me to go 4 stars. The one song that stands out is "Quasar". A dizzying array of sounds on this one, but it's the last 2 minutes where the we get the best section of the whole album. They just step it up a notch, and it's great. "Earth" is another good one with a fair amount of piano.

It's odd that on the song "Nebular", before the 5 minute mark, we get sax coming out both speakers but playing different melodies. This happened with the piano on "Earth" as well. I'm not big on a lot of the high pitched electronic sounds on this record, like to start "Birth Of Galaxy" for example. And then "Birds Of Space" features chirping birds for over 3 1/2 minutes. Way too long! And even when we do get soprano sax like to start "Nonsense" it just sounds so old school. It's brief, but the drum and percussion section that follows goes on for far too long.

There is this attention to detail here that I admire, but this is a recording that I have trouble enjoying.

SYRINX were a Canadian band who released two studio albums, one in '70 and the other in '71 before calling it a day. A unique trio of keyboards, hand percussion and electric sax. The leader was keyboarder John Mills-Cockell who had been in a number of bands prior to this. He was also one of the first Canadian musicians to purchase a moog. And this appears to be the album where he tries it out. Moog dominates this album, in fact, take away the hand percussion and electric sax and no one will notice.

It's beyond surprising how mundane and unexciting this 39 minute album is. Moog all the time, but John also adds organ a fair amount, and piano sparingly. It's almost as if John knows this album will be held up down the road as being one of the very first Canadian albums with moog on it, so lets not blow it. Lets not embarrass ourselves by doing anything out of the norm on this historical recording. Okay, maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't get over the discipline in play to make such a monotonous record. The hand percussion is heard a few times. The electric sax leads twice as a solo instrument. Otherwise the sax is buried amongst the moog and organ sounds, it's another layer.

For me the most interesting track is the opener "Melina's Torch" where we get three different sounds eventually being apart of this track. It's melancholic and repetitive and not that great, but not bad. Same with that 11 1/2 minute closer where we get some moments like that but not many. The hand percussion might be at it's most upfront on that closer. "Father Of Light" is slow moving to a fault. Some piano on "Hollywood Dream". The one song that kind of clicked with me was "Field Hymn". A melody that is moving.

Their second and final release "Long Lost Relatives" is so much better. It's kind of what you would expect with that unique trio. This one is a rare 2 star album for me.

When Mellotron albums are talked about, we talk about the obvious ones like the Moody Blues, Yes, King Crimson, Tangerine Dream (and solo Edgar Froese), and Genesis, and the less obvious ones, but equally important and well loved, like Spring, Beggars Opera (Waters of Change, that is), Anglagard, Anekdoten, Museo Rosenbach, Celeste, Earth & Fire, Barclay James Harvest (mainly the 1974 Live album as most of their albums features much more real strings, and less tron than you imagine), and too many others. One artist completely missing is Chuck Minuto and his Celluloid project from the 1980s, not exactly tron friendly times. Mercury was the debut, and while it does feature some Mellotron, it mainly credits a computer, which was supposedly actually a rented Synclavier II. It's the next album Neptune that's a completely different story, and the reason it's barely discussed amongst tron lovers is because the album is very rare and hard to fine, and the only reissue is a dodgy 2-for-1 that includes Mercury. Neptune is created entirely on the Mellotron, and it truly is a Mellotron tour-de-force if there ever was one. I find it hard to believe he used only one tron, as it's clear he's using tons of tron FX as well as the tron standards like strings, flute, and choir. Also, where is he getting those synth sounds? Unless they were included as custom tron tapes, I simply believe he was using a synth that was hanging around his home. Regardless you'll never hear so much tron in your life. The music is often ambient and experiment, with all sorts of sound effects to stuff inspired by "Revolution 9", King Crimson, and Genesis. He does use a lot of reverb and echo boxes as well. It's clear this is a home-made affair so you're not getting a full professional production, but it's surprisingly well-down given Chuck Minuto was still a teenager. Hard to believe this was 1983. This was at a time when Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, The Thompson Twins, and even Talk Talk (they were still a New Wave synth pop act then) were on the airwaves, with MTV airing their videos, and hair metal was just starting to hit the scene with Quiet Riot, the now-makeup-free KISS, and Def Leppard going that direction with Pyromania. Neptune sounds more like an album that belongs in the previous decade, and in this case, all for the better. The original LP is naturally rare and expensive, but it's really worth it for all tron nuts out there!

I have never had so much paper work, cdrs, posters etc. spread all around me for a review in my almost 20 years of doing this! More on that in the post script. BLISTERING MOMENTS was the project of Jim Leggett and Rik Wilson who were based in Texas. Rikky had worked in a record store from 1970 to 1981. And it was 1981 that Rik was invited to Jim Leggett's house to jam. A musical match made in heaven as they say. Jim had a Robert Fripp styled reel-to-reel frippertronics set up and they played, and it sounded great. Both were music collectors as well.

BLISTERING MOMENTS ended in 1990, but Jim and Rik would continue to work together in various projects from 1996 to the present. They originally named themselves SURGICAL II LS and self released 9 or so cassettes under that name. "Therapeutic Dreams" would get the attention of the label boss for Dead Man's Curve Records in London, England. He suggested they change their name, feeling it was too industrial sounding. Hence the name change to BLISTERING MOMENTS. I think it's ironic then that RYM has them tagged as ambient, drone, sound collage, minimal synth, progressive electronic and... Industrial.

There is a lot of audio samples on this album, but let's look at what the boys were playing during this recording. Jim adds a variety of keyboards, synths, roland organ/strings, mini moog, solina string machine, 2 mellotrons, gibson sg guitar and more. Rik adds conrad bass, wurlitzer organ, roland juno 106, farfisa organ, mellotron, various percussions, samples, and yes, a vacuum. They had stuff. "Therapeutic Dreams" is just under 47 minutes over six tracks, and the compositions were created between 1983 and 1986.

And while the notes, distortion, effects and presentation are distinctly psychedelic, they would open for artists from the avant- garde world and beyond. It's so cool they shared the same stage as Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper and the bands they were apart of at the time. From the humble beginnings of playing for 12 people at a record store to opening for some names including FAITH NO MORE, to being signed by a record label. And the liner notes were written by Dave Henderson, a significant voice in music from the UK at the time. They must have been proud.

Rik the artist designed posters for every upcoming show, more on that later. These two were so creative. A lot of experimenting for sure, to get to the final results. When a lot of people think of Texas, they think of religion and guns. And both are featured prominently on this record. "Night Prowler" opens with this sinister rhythm in a warm humid atmosphere. He's coming. Spacey synths will join in but man I really like that intense rhythm. "77Seven, I Guess" opens strangely with an audio sample before a preacher arrives followed by a heavy atmosphere and relentless gun fire. Reminds me of some of those early psychedelic PORCUPINE TREE albums, but this predates them.

"The Plat-Eyed Position" is an 11 minute tour de force. Spacey sounds to open as we hear footsteps and heavy breathing in atmosphere. This is powerful, almost overwhelming as far as the atmosphere goes. The sound will slightly change as this plays out leading to the preaching at 7 1/2 minutes which ends with "Will you listen to the crowing of the cock?" Next we get the sound of someone trying to start a car over and over. Just trying to get out of dodge. Back to previous sounds after 9 minutes.

"Bushwacker's Overture" opens with heavy gun fire and more as another preacher does his thing. Okay, this song had me giggling like a school girl many times. Usually when I played this at night while under the green spell. At first I found it annoying, but then the gun fire stopped and I just heard the preaching. It was when the gun fire returned the light went on. And I started laughing. And speaking of annoying the start of "Clean Thyself" where we get an official announcer declaring "R" words one after another. Then determined beats kick in. It all turns more powerful when the "R" words stop.

"Die Muther[%*!#]er" is the almost 15 minute closer. Fast paced percussion sounds and more before turning experimental. This is "out there" at 3 minutes. All kinds of banging sounds, keys, vocal expressions and more follow. My music! The creativity on this record is off the charts. It's not perfect by any means but I'm proud to own this.

P.S. I was contacted by Rik Wilson a couple of years ago asking if I'd be interested in hearing the music from some of the projects he was involved with over the years. I didn't know Rik prior to this, but gladly gave my address. I was not expecting such a large package of cdrs, posters and information that he sent. Rik was an art teacher at one point in his life, but before that he was responsible for the cover art of all of his and Jim's albums over the years. The man is creative. So many ideas with not only the various cover art he's done, but the posters really meant a lot as well to me. The inventive ideas to get people out to hear them. A lot of humour too.

Rik is now based in North Carolina and his present project is B. WILDERED. He has his own studio and many releases under his belt. I'm honoured and proud that he dedicated a song from one of those albums to myself. From his "Illiop" record from 2024, we have a song called "New Grange(For John Davie)", that's me!

Here is the third in a series of releases from Hydrogen Band, the name given to Barney Jones (guitar, bell tree, tape machine, metal clarinet), Dave Newhouse (e piano, organ, bass clarinet, flute) and Bev Stephenson (synth, bell tree, organ, penny whistle) who recorded these sessions in 1980. Barney and Bev are no longer with us by Dave has worked in Ian Beabout to bring to life these old recordings and make them into something new. This time we have just one long track, "3 Eye", which is actually four sections edited together from two separate sessions, with some overlaps/fades.

Given it is from the source, it is no surprise that this is a logical follow-on from the other two EPs in this series, with all three musicians heavily into experimental improvisation, going where the mood takes them. The different multi- instrumentalists switch between what they are playing with an almost hypnotic repetition on keyboards at times and is definitely one of those when if the listener is prepared to spend the time then they will be richly rewarded. It is not as immediate as the others, but Dave and Ian have worked hard on the tapes to create something which is cogent and with direction, as opposed to senseless meanderings ? working through music in this way reminds me a great deal of Robin Taylor and some of his works with Taylor's Free Universe (if you enjoy either act then I highly suggest you check out the other), although the output is quite different. I do not know how much more material is available from these sessions but let us hope there is still more to come as this is both experimental and essential.

In 1980, Dave Newhouse (keyboards), Barney Jones (guitar), and Bev Stephenson (synth) dragged their gear into the basement studio at the Mars Everywhere house (Barney was a member of Mars Everywhere at the time) and recorded a series of tapes straight through without stopping and no overdubs. This EP, which contains two tracks with a total playing time of more than 20 minutes, is the first in a series of three recordings which will be made available on Bandcamp, having been de-mixed and re-mastered by Ian Beabout at the Rec. Room.

Dave is these days often asked to provide his wonderful woodwind playing on multiple albums, but he has always been a keyboard player as well, but I think this is the first work of his I have come across where he is only playing keys, apart from possibly some live recordings in The Muffins. Consequently it seems quite strange, but there is never any doubt that he is in a room with kindred spirits as he and Bev combine to create some wonderful sounds while Barney carefully pays attention and adds nuances, or sits out of a section, or rides roughshod with distortion over the top. As well as being a fine musician in his own right, Ian Beabout is doing some wonderful work these days and he has managed to provide a clarity here which makes it sound as if this was recorded in the finest digital studio only a few days ago, as opposed to in a basement more than 40. This is wonderful improvised electronic jazz which has nods to ambient as well as Canterbury and I look forward to the next two with great interest.

Following on from 'H2 One' we have 'H2 Two', which will soon be followed by 'H2 Three'. Yet again what we have here are two lengthy tracks recorded live and without overdubs by Dave Newhouse (keyboards, flute), Barney Jones (guitar, metal clarinet), and Bev Stephenson (synth, bell tree). Recorded in 1980 the recordings have been de-mixed and remastered by Ian Beabout and are now being made available for our listening pleasure. Dave does make a confession that there are two one-minute sections on "The House on the Hill" where he accidentally combined two different sessions ? he was going to delete them but when he listened to what he had created he felt this was a happy accident and perfectly fitted with the ethos of the band.

I generally think of Dave as being primarily a woodwind player, but of course he did also play keyboards in The Muffins, and here he is combining with Bev to create layers and ideas while Barney can often be found moving in a quite different direction, yet somehow, they all combine together to make musical sense of what is taking place. In many ways this is a logical progression from what Dave had already been doing with The Muffins, while Barney was heavily into experimentation with Mars Everywhere (they released 'Industrial Sabotage' the same year this was recorded). Together the trio created music which is still exciting and taking us in new directions in 2024, some 44 years after they created it out of the thin air.

Largely experimental and occasionally provocative, 'Alpha Centauri', or the second studio album released by Tangerine Dream, is a 1971 album that bridges a supposed gap between krautrock and electronic music, seeing the German band led by Edgar Froese embarking on a space-themed odyssey developing in peculiar cosmic movements with the predominant use of organ and flute., eventually inspired by the experimental sounds of Pink Floyd's early psychedelic recordings, particularly 'A Saucerful of Secrets' and 'Ummagumma'. Froese and Co. had taken up that chilling cosmic soundscape-creation and elevated it to a hypnotic work where electronic instrumentation prevails and provides an often-ominous but always intriguing musical background as well as a fine space for improvisation, which is what this album is largely about.

And while the remains of the group's krautrock pedigree can still be heard, 'Alpha Centauri' is the first really significant step towards Tangerine Dream's magnificent exploration of texture, timbre, and ambience, all sheathed in cosmic reverence, making this a somewhat transitional recording. Here we have the organ-heavy 'Sunrise in the Third System', a fine tone-setter for the record, the skeletal and tender composition 'Fly and Collision of Comas Sola', which reveals a distant krautrock echo towards its ending, and the first massive movement of sound by Tangerine Dream, the 22-minute title track, a worthy anticipator of the musical form explored more thoroughly on 'Zeit'. Reissues of the album bring along fascinating bonus tracks like the ethereal 'Oszillator Planet Concert' and the rare and abrasive prog single 'Ultima Thule', developing in two parts. All this makes 'Alpha Centauri' incredibly interesting as well as an important piece of the Tangerine Dream puzzle, with its spacey sounds and structure-less experiments.

'Kraftwerk 2', the follow-up to the German band's 1970 debut release, is by far the least characteristic album of their 70s output. Generally continuing the krautrock experiments initiated on the self-titled predecessor, this record is a mish-mash of random noises and instrumental patches sown together in a moderately confusing way, resulting in a work that is above all patchy and monolithic with certain hypnotic qualities, mechanical and lacking a clear direction, especially in comparison to the album coming before it. As the band approach a more ambient domain of sound, the listener gets the least electronic and most abstract work of the group's earliest proceedings.

Ralf, Florian and Conny Plank are once again responsible for the creation of this work, this time lacking a drummer as nobody would be interested in providing a rhythm section to the random swirls of musique concrète, quite ubiquitous on 'Kraftwerk 2', an album that bolsters various effects, tapes and tape echo, molding a palette of unusual sounds from their guitar, flute and violin recordings. 17-minute opener 'Klingklang' is indeed a great peace that goes through different shapes but ultimately ends up being enjoyable enough to be understood, while 'Atem' is simply constructed from recordings of breathing. It is the four tracks on side two that dare to go into a more exploratory direction, and the overall impression is of a poorly conceived bulk of sounds, with occasional glimpses of intrigue and intelligent stitching. This recording is inferior to the debut album, which is why it has been mostly ignored by the band members and critics alike.