Which is why I usually say something about each album when I do polls.

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel In The Lotus is really a one of a kind album and Mwandishi-related. So that will almost automatically get my vote. But Art Zoyd - Musique pour l'Odyssee comes close. 

Matching Mole is great, but rarely an album choose to I listen to. That Violeta De Outono-album I remember as quite a pleasant listen. I don't recall it as particularly jazzy at all though. The softer side of prog like Camel, Cressida and early PFM with some added psych-bits? Noodly jamband krautrockers Guru Guru is not my bag at all. That said Dance of the Flames is by far the best I've heard by them. The flipside is listenable through and through. Almost as enjoyable as Embryo. Bella Band is very competent and well played, but to my ears one of many bands that lacks personality and stand out qualities. Not heard the Egg archival live-collection or Softs British Tour '75 tour. Maybe I should check out the latter, as it features Holdsworth-era Soft Machine material sans Holdsworth (not a fan). 

My fifth favourite Art Zoyd album and part of the appeal is Daniel Denis and Michel Berckmans from Univers Zero being part of this seven piece band. I mean having Denis, Berckmans, Hourbette and Zaboitzeff playing in the same band? 

I'm a huge fan of this period of Soft Machine and I love the liner notes written by the new guitarist John Etheridge. He's so honest talking about how hard he had to practice once he got the job because he knew when playing live he would need a lot of stamina because that band puts their heads down and play going non-stop from one track to the next. 

And how do you replace Allan Holdsworth? Well it was Holdsworth who actually recommended Etheridge so that had to help.

Same lineup as Floating World that's on the other poll except for Holdsworth on that earlier tour.

Such a detailed reply and like Logan the Maupin and Art Zoyd stand out for you guys. Much respect for the opinions of you two. You should check out British '75 with Etheridge and what about the NDR Workshop from this period played in Germany but with Gary Boyle on guitar? Boyle's on that Keith Tippet release on the other poll. I can't disagree about Violeta De Outono, I always felt that it had that psychedelic sound more than anything but the guitarist has that GONG connection playing with Daevid Allen playing Gissando guitar and stuff. Anyway I love that one and voted for it. Talked to the guitarist on here by private message thanking me for the review then sending me that Invisible Opera Company Of Tibet cd that kills. Hard to be star struck in cyber space but that was close.

They added Jazz/Fusion to their sound thanks to getting a new guitarist Houschang Nejadepour from the band Eiliff who was influenced by John McLaughlin.

Hi,

And I think it was an excellent combination, that sadly would only last one album. At the very least, the long cuts show some great material ... The Girl from Hirshhorn/Dagobert Duck's 100th birthday/God's Endless Love are all excellent, and I don't even know that I would consider it jazzy much ... to me this is "progressive rock" at its best ... and with a little fun in it. Both the drumming and the guitar in all three of those pieces are supreme, and a lesson that most drummers won't take. A friend of mine, whose hero was Carl Palmer and had a huge drum set with 12 toms, could not keep up ... he also had a hard time with Pierre Moerlin, when I played the stuff from YOU ... it was too complicated ... and to my ear not quite stuck to a beat as much as it did the quality of the music around the drummer.

Not sure I described that well ... but Mani was known that he didn't play rhythm or beat ... he played with the guitar, and in this album ... it is quite a treat.

Well said and I agree I love each of these musicians on here. That electric piano always gets me.

The liner notes also state that when Nejadepour left the band he was replaced by Gila'sConny Veit but that only lasted a few months, it was after this that Manni decided to disband the trio with the constant lineup changes being the reason.

Hi,

Thank you ... 

Guru Guru's next album is the first one of theirs that is "jazzy" and would even compete with KRAAN really well, and make a stunning double bill! TANGO FANGO is a very nice album, but it has excursions into jazzy areas that are nice, and complement the songs they played. It was sort of a "pop jazz" kind of thing with a band that was more able to go everywhere than jazz or rock. But they put out a nice album, even though the most important piece in the album is the one that no one wants to talk about, and it is a very heavy dig at schlagger and the East German music "choice" or "preference" ... but in the ending of it we know who the rock God is ... Chuck Berri as an image for the new rock music, and statement from the youth of the world. To my knowledge, he was not allowed to be played in EG is what I was once told, and probably because the subject of many of his songs are "riske" and suggestive.

I've only bought a couple of the other GG albums after TF. Somehow, the touch, taste and structure is not there, and while the videos and concerts are entertaining, I still think that DANCE OF THE FLAMES was the last "great" Guru Guru album!

I did listen to some of Gurumaniax last night from 2010 and man the boys look old, oh because they are? We get the trio of Neumeier, Genrich and Segers. Yes Guy Segers.