STREETMARK

This album was quite sympathetic experience, providing some sincere dreamy psych rock poetry from 70's Germany. The album is dominated by keyboard sounds doing both sharp piano and organ chord runs cloaked within tapestries of large spacey sound layers. Also lead male vocals with supporting female backing vocals are quite front, and this singing is much better here than on the first record. The band has matured also with compositions and musical ideas during their years.

The album is like a sad autumn evening, full of mellow sorrow and dramatic melodies. Quite simple compositional structures are studied with different approaches and easy arrangements. From classic psychedelic progressive rock perspective interesting moments worth mentioning might be "Passage", being a minimalist surge to a Hawkwind sounding cosmic vortex. The beginning of "Sea of Melted Lead" has very beautiful dreamy surreal soundscapes, which are later expanded to synthesizer illuminated dystopian vision culminating to a beautiful guitar solo. "Eileen" is also quite interesting, very nice sounding long hypnotic pulsing aural cavern. The title track of the reissue is clearly the best, having very descriptive name for loose adventure of sounds where the rock band jams slightly in manner of early Santana, strengthened with powerful Tangerine Dream sounding synthesizer presence, and concluding to a hollow choral singing.

I was positively surprised by this album, as my expectations after their first album weren't so big. One comparison could be a lesser neurotic incarnation of Bachdenkel's "Lemmings" album. There's also an acoustic folk music oriented tune as a bonus track on this reissue version. Thus a recommendable little album for those interested of warmhearted synth dominated psychedelic prog, and hunters of European underground art rock records who are not searching "Eileen" record due its really beautiful gatefold covers.

Sorry that this, my first review on progarchives, is to be so acerbic. Without going into a full song-by-song, blow- by-blow about just how awful this album is, I'll just mostly agree with kenethlevine's review.

Cringe-worthy, unbearable, over-the-top vocals, too much sustained organ notes... I couldn't make it completely through any one song once the singing started. This is one of the many, many examples of Prog Rock that might have been good without vocals. Overall, thoroughly forgettable, 1/2 star rounded up to one. If you are curious about exploring this band's music, I suggest you start with a different album, as this one has killed any interest for me.

There are times that I listen to something the first time and don't like it, then go back years later and love it, wondering "what was I thinking when I didn't like this the first time??". I don't think that is going to happen for this album . I discovered it while exploring The Progressive-Kraut-Psych-Avant-garde Rock Collection [Part 23], and if I weren't such a completist, I'd just delete it. Maybe I will anyway.

For a second release Streetmark had to say goodbye to singer Georg Buschmann, who joined the Hard Rock band Straight Shooter and bassist Wolfgang Westphal and welcome Wolfgang Riechmann on vocals and Manfred Knauf on bass.Riechmann, who wrote all titles of this second release along with Thomas Schreiber, had an Electronic background, having played next Michael Rother of Kraftwerk and NEU! fame in an act called Spirit Of Sound in late-60's.''Eileen'' was again recorded at Conny Plank's Tonstudio and was released in 1977 on the Sky label.

The splendin opener ''Crazy Notion'' sees the band stabilizing in the great Symphonic/Space Rock style of their debut, having evident GENESIS influences in the keyboard parts and ELOY inspirations in the guitar solos, emphasizing on an orgasmic performance by Raukes on alternating piano, harsichord, organ and moog synthesizers.The rest of the first side sees Streetmark moving in a more spacey sound with long synth and organ passages, psychedelic drumming and smooth electric guitars, while the vocal performance of Riechmann is rather limited, giving space to extended instrumental textures.The second side confirms the change in style presented in the later parts of the opening one, highlighted by the 12-min. ''Dreams''.Hypnotic synthesizers, narcotic bass lines and drumming typical of the Kraut Rock style are combined with sensitive vocals and Electronic soundscapes in a fine result of Electronic/Space Rock.The symphonic influences are not totally abandoned, some light moog synth and organ moves do retain the early style of the group, although the general soundscapes are more in a Teutonic, cosmic vein.The parts with the dual and triple keyboards are very good, although a bit repetitive, and Riechmann's impact on the band's sound is now more than obvious.

With this second album Streetmark leave behind the British-styled Prog of their debut for a more German/Kraut Rock taste along the lines of Space Rock.Quite good effort, just not as good as the band's debut.Still warmly recommended.

Streetmark came from the D'sseldorf region and were found in 1968 by female keyboardist Dorothea Raukes and guitarist Thomas Schreiber.An early concert review of the time described them as a band ''combining Baroque-type Rock with breezy Jazz Rock'', however the jazzy influences seem to fade by mid-70s, when the band recorded the debut ''Nordland'' in October 75' at Conny Plank's Tonstudio in Neukirchen, eventually released the following year on German label Sky Records.

The album opens with the inventive ''House of Three Windows'', a beautiful lighter version of NOVALIS with dreamy organ and expressive vocals by new singer Georg Buschmann, much in the vein of PROCOL HARUM/THE MOODY BLUES, finally building around the great guitar chops of Schreiber into a nice cover on The Beatles' ''Eleanor Rigby''.''Amleth Saga'' marks no changes.Deamy organ/synth/harsichord-based light Symphonic Rock ala PROCOL HARUM with light jazzy influences on Schreiber's guitar and a spacey feeling towards the end.The short instrumental ''Italian Concert in Rock'' is an attempt by the band to bring on their Classical influences in the vein of TRACE or THE PINK MICE, quite needless as these are evident on the first couple of great tracks.The album closes with the 20-min. eponymous epic, which is rather overstretched in my opinion.A long spacey introduction will lead to Buschmann's vocals, who have a slightly theatrical/romantic edge this time.A fiery organ/synth-part will follow, much like a DEEP PURPLE clone and the band will fall again into spacey Progressive Rock with a calm symphonic atmosphere before the more energetic finale with guitars and electric piano on the forefront along with Buschmann's passionate vocals and strong Blues Rock inspirations.

The first side of this LP is absolutely essential for all fans of the lighter side of Classic Prog, especially ''House of Three Windows'' is a must-listen for its original structure.The flipside's epic has its moments, but ends up being a bit pale compared to the first couple of great tracks.Overall a strongly recommended effort and notice there is also a CD reissue out (from 1993) again by Sky Records...3.5 stars.

I wasn't first very keen of this band, but when I learned to know its sound and sympathetic characteristics deeper, I grew to like it more. The album "Intro" starts with synthesizer solo, a sound which dominates the band quite powerfully. Soon a pulsing cavern of percussion and synthesizer sounds is entered, reminding Tangerine Dream's sounds and eventually hastening and disappearing to the void. "Welcome" is wished with a dramatic theme, sounding Hawkwind oriented cosmic tones and thick layers of shining keyboards. Organ solos are accompanied with strong presence of rhythm section, increasing pace for catchy multi-harmonic vocal themes and tasty dialogue of solo guitar and keyboards with some interesting arrangement solutions. "Sunny Queen" has a calm waiting feeling, soon released by Beatlesque verse. Some sections resemble also Camel due both synth and shiny guitar sounds. "Lovers" is a very organ driven sad song for vocal duo, getting dynamics with fast paced drums, and then later leading to contrast giving keyboard solos lines. This ability to unite happy fast sequences with slow sad themes is quite interesting capability from this group in my opinion. Acoustic folk is studied on tune "Drifting", a piece for vocal duo with pop melody, also giving association of "Nuclear Nightclub" era Wigwam for a Finnish listener, and containing interestingly shifting themes and compositional sequences. "Disco Dry" is not maybe so pleasant tune here for me, being some kind of "Abba carnival" with thick percussion layers, maybe quite successful joke song however. The original album ends to shorter melody based bluesy romantic song "Watch Out", and the reissue bonus track "You Want It" has more tones of Euro-pop already in it. Thought there are some elements, which probably don't please everybody, even not me, I think there is warmth and character in this music, which are worth checking out and contain positive qualities, sadly often absent from the everyday life.

Musically fairly rich and dense in a heavy symphonic sort of way, "Nordland" suffers mercilessly at the hands of vocalist Georg Buschmann, who mangles almost every track with screams and taunts. if that isn't enough, we have to contend with yet another drama queen version of Eleanor Rigby, and a quasi reprise called "Da Capo". Indeed the best parts of this album are the instrumental parts, even those that last mere seconds. Of particular note is "Italian concert in rock", which is very classically influenced, keyboard dominated and sans vocals.

Streetmark seems to be having trouble deciding exactly what image they want to project, and in fact therein lies a major flaw. The album seems to be about projecting images, fleeting pastiches of posturing and method acting. While Buschmann is the main culprit, admittedly skilled guitarist Thomas Schreiber must shoulder a fair amount of blame. He is too often guilty of the same type of overemoting on his instrument. Keyboard player Dorothea Raukes seems to hold the fort, lending a consistent mood to the excellent "Waves and Visions", while providing momentary inspired flourishes in between the rants.

There are many better places to start your exploration of German prog from the 1970s than this Streetmark album. In fact, it would be hard to imagine anyone who would recommend it first. Whatever of the myriad styles projected by Streetmark, there is a band that handles it with far greater clarity and conviction.

On this album multi-instrumentalist Wolfgang Riechmann (vocals/guitar/synthesizers) joined Streetmark. The sound is very melodic and pleasant but the level of the compositions varies: at some moments beautifully arranged with heavy symphonic overtones (great vintage keyboard sound like in the composition track Dreams with strong wah-wah guitar) but at other moments a bit poppy and amateurish. Many years ago I bought this album in the famous German record store Saturn in Cologne, I played it one time, the second time was this evening and I am afraid it will be the last time because there is so much more interesting German prog to explore. Rating 2,5 stars.

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Streetmark from Germany were at the time, a excellent progessive Band, especially with the Studio recording of the Album " Dry " is by far the best from the Band. A very melodic and chic from start to finish.Still worth a listen even 30 years later.

The beautifully drawn album covers attracted my attention to this record, but sadly the music of it didn't please me very much. The effort is still very sincere. This is quite keyboard-driven and melodic stuff, but some stylistic elements just don't sound very good to my ear. There are few longer suites here, like "House of Three Windows", if more challenging keyboard driven compositions should be a target of special interest. However the vocals are not very well sung, and I wonder if they should have been sung in German instead of English? Anyways, I have learned to like clumsier pronunciations from other continental European vintage rock records, and maybe the screaming won't just work here as good as on Uriah Heep's "Salisbury", heh. Also the cover version of "Eleanor Rigby" is quite silly performance, unlike Vanilla Fudge's version. In addition to this, the composition "Italian Concert in Rock" felt quite hilariously serious, bringing and an association of an angry school teacher to mind bashing the piano staccato's in vein of pre-Haslam Renaissance albums. Song "Da Capo" sounds then more like Black Widow, and the other longer piece "Nordland" has a very imaginative theme. I couldn't help laughing alone to the "Ladoga" sequence though, I was wondering was the song about the agony of the Vikings hard work founding the settlements of Staraja Ladoga? At least there is pain in the vocals which was very infectious. Well, maybe not, "Reality airport" finally brings a disturbed conclusion to this musical piece. The later albums "Eileen" (or "Dreams" and "Dry" were much better albums, and I got impulse from this record to hunt them down. There are certainly some unique and nice elements included on this band's sound, and I believe this debut divides opinions so it is worth checking also, though I would not recommend blind purchasing without careful listening first.

Streetmark is one of the lesser known german bands of the 70's.One of the reasons is that the musicians kept their day-jobs, toured mainly in their area and didn't develop a follow up like GROBSCHNITT or NOVALIS who toured heavily.STREETMARK played together since 1968 but took time to record their first record 'Nordland'.They took the time to play the songs live and work them out. 'Nordland' was recorded and produced by the well knownengineer/producer Connie Planck on the new Sky label.Side one starts with a suite ' House of 3 windows'. The first part shows influences of Ekseption and Focus especially towards the end when G.Buschmann does vocalises like T. van Leer.The second part goes more in the direction of Procol Harum, Gary Brooker being the obvious model for Buschmann.The third part is a cover of 'Eleanor Rigby' ( a minor hit for STREETMARK) and quite an interesting approach of such a classic track. STREETMARK plays the song up- tempo and agressive which works fine.'Amleth Saga' is another Procol Harum influenced track. The only weak track on side one is 'Italian concerto in rock' a pseudo baroque instrumental à la Ekseption or Wendy Carlos with cheesy synth sounds. The second side 'Nordland is more athmospherique.The first part, an instrumental reminding NOVALIS goes into a more jazzier track' Lyster Fjord'. The third part 'Ladoga' is my favourite track on the record, a beautiful melody ,the only weak point are the vocals. The second side closes with 'Reality Airport' an uptempo rocker with nice rhythm changes. On the CD edition there is a Bonus track 'Da Capo' a variation on the 'Eleanor Rigby' theme.