AHORA MAZDA

This album is a really fabulous psychedelic nugget from the land of the flowers and the windmills. It combines both more close-to-earth flute fronted bluesy jazz rock in style of German Rufus Zuphall and free freak-out improvisational soundscapes with some really cool jazz styled saxophones. These both elements are presented in the funny opening track "Spacy Tracy", telling us a tale of a girl interested in the psychedelic way of life, starting as a mellow groovy rocker later morphing as completely free improvisation. "Timeless Dream" is then a minor key melodic tune, having sadly a quite disturbing fade-out ending taking place in the middle of the song. The two following about eight minutes long songs combine again the freeform improvisations and nice themes, featuring some very good jazz saxophone tunes from Mr. van Wageningen, and also Peter Abbink blows some really good raw electric guitar solos in style of Jimi Hendrix and Manuel Göttsching. "Power" is one of the few mostly constructed songs, containing really weird and scary effects used in the singing verse, creating a very mysterious overall feeling.

The last five bonus tracks are a bunch of excerpts from the band's collective jazz improvisations, which sound sometimes resemble the primitive passages of Syd Barrett's "Lanky", sometimes the cosmic electronic sound walls of Hawkwind. Sadly the excerpts are only cuts, varying in length from under two minutes to over four, beginning and ending from a silent void. I wouldn't have mind hearing some improvisation "mistakes", rather the hearing only glimpses of the grooves. But anyway, I really liked the little melancholic but still laid back feeling of this album, and I would recommend it warmly to anybody liking both 70's psychedelic blues/jazz rock and dreamy impressionistic collective jams. Also the flute melodies are here very strong, so the fans of that instrument might want to try giving this album a listen.

Flexibility and relaxation on their face, and inexpressibly seriousness and aggressiveness on another side - AHORA MAZDA should have TWO faces undoubtedly!

The point I'm very surprised is that AHORA MAZDA seem to play relaxed from start to finish, without any prickles or needles on their mind. We can see the fact in Peter Abbink's laidback guitar solo or Rob van Wageningen's graceful flute one. But wait please don't be deceived - ingeniously AHORA MAZDA has set a trap as an album. Above mentioned aside, I feel the most ingenious part should be the rhythm section by Tony and Winky, two skilled but inconspicuous (sorry!) men. Really they can absorb us listeners with comfortably streaming beat and tempo...I wanna say the basis is absolutely their steady rhythm. Magic, they can do. Needless to say on the first track Spacy Tracy, even the simple bass sounds on the next Timeless Dream are heavy and strict, suitable for the rigid ground of this song. Over this rhythm section, a graphic flute, a terrific guitar, and psychic chorus should spread one by one. Furthermore in Oranje Vrijstraat mysterious and spiritual percussion spelling should knock us away deeply to Ahorholic world. I always wonder why such a complex beat can immerse us like an amphetamine. Another impressive part is Peter's lazy and fatigued voices. Indeed his voice may be underevaluated but this psychedelic world do needs his characteristic growlin'. Like a junkie, he goes through songs with his obscurity, especially the fourth track Fallen Tree. This floating atmosphere continues on Power, that has depressive and "indoor" air with twisted horizon. And at last in Fantasio African beats by rising-up-to-the space percussion should keep us holding under MAZDANDELION-coloured psychedelia!

They released this album as their one and only work in 1970 - again surprised. They already have conquered our mind with their trap!

This 'Flying Dutchmen' appeared only once, sad to say. They surely have been inspired by acts from the neighbourhood right beside. Hence this album has much of a krautrock effort. The band name is derived from the Persian mythology and indeed you will find some (rare) oriental impressions when listening. Founded by jazz oriented musicians Rob van Wageningen and the Abbink brothers Peter and Winky AHORA MAZDA represented a rather avantgarde approach decorated with weird, experimental moments and fuzzy psych guitars. Here and there flute and sax remember at German band Missus Beastly with Jürgen Benz and Friedemann Josch aboard.

This ingredients are mixed up to a quite irresistible cocktail, which means any attempt will fail to categorize them in a strict sense. Just take Oranje Vrijstraat which puzzles me as no other. On one side this sounds improvised at all cost ... but then I get the impression as if this is totally arranged, provided with a well thought out structure. A jazzy trippy thing where every member is soloing beyond exception, even drummer Winky Abbink. Can't imagine really that this is spontaneously.played. And if they really did .... respect, respect. Never mind, if you're searching for a challenge you've found the right album here.

While Spacy Tracy starts very popular beat alike shaped, quasi referring to their musicals roots, it all develops to something new due to Peter Abbink's incredible fuzzy guitar playing after a while. Next the drummer seems to drive crazy. And then somehow you begin to smell that the first collapse won't be long in coming. So you can say this song describes their metamorphosis from a pop combo to an experimental prog band. An that's it with the following songs in the same way. The band basically serves a jazzy setting but the Abbink brothers are the counterpart first and foremost with psychedelic guitar and unusual virtuoso drum playing.

Pseudonym's digital re-release is enhanced with five additional excursions where they are crossing their special spaced-out realm, seemingly excerpts from long improvisations which qualifies them for the krautrock category so much the better. Probably recorded live because they were known for offering intriguing hippy-underground gigs. The band's eponymous effort is a sonic adventure. This album sounds ahead of time. A surprising snapshot from this short-lived crew. Absolutely recommended to anyone who is searching for original prog bands with an experimental approach when making the transition to the 1970s.

AHORA MAZDA were from Holland and this is their only release from 1970. They offer up a Psychedelic / /Krautrock blend of music with lots of flute. I did think of the Proto-Prog genre a lot too. We get a fair amount of vocals, sax and drums / percussion as well. Oh yeah there's lots of strange effects too.

"Spacey Tracy" is a cool song. I like the lyrics because it reminds me of this girl in high school we hung out with.We called her Spinney. Drums, vocals and flute lead in this catchy track. The last 5 minutes is all instrumental as guitar comes in with drums and percussion. Piano 5 1/2 minutes in. "Timeless Dream" is led by soft flute early and strummed guitar. Drums and vocals 1 1/2 minutes in. "Oranje Vrijstaat" has these odd and different sounds that come and go. Sax is prominant late with lots of atmosphere.

"Fallen Tree" kicks in after a minute with mainly flute and drums. Great sound. Guitar before 4 1/2 minutes and it stays all instrumental until just before 9 minutes when the vocals return to end it. "Power" features strummed guitar, bass and flute early. Vocals 2 minutes in including some processed vocals. Guitar solo before 4 1/2 minutes as drums continue. Nice. "Fantasio" opens with tribal-like drumming. Sax after 2 minutes becomes dissonant. Flute before 5 minutes.

I think this will appeal to fans of the genres I mentioned at the start of the review. This is sort of a rare find to be honest and is worth tracking down.