Wigwam - The Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose

“Happy face human race/swinging in the rain/ get yer rags together ‘cos/we’re going down the lane.” Those words are magic geniuses thanks to Finland’s own Wigwam. After having success with their previous album, Nuclear Nightclub, some of the critics believed that Wigwam were about to follow in the right footsteps. But it wasn’t going to be that easy as they went commercial which wasn’t a bad idea for them to do when they released, The Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose in 1976.

The band was signed to Richard Branson’s label, Virgin Records and recorded the album at the Manor in Oxfordshire in January. They finally hit the mainstream which had mixed opinions from the music critics at the time the album was released. It was ahead of its time, but The Lucky Golden Stripes is one of those albums that still sound like a cleanly fresh jewel that you haven’t wore for 34 years and Wigwam’s ninth album is one of them.

The tracks on the album were written by leader of Wigwam, pianist and lead vocalist, Jim Pembroke starting off with the lifting introduction about being free from the mental asylum and starting a new life on Sane Again while International Disaster carries in the realm of The Band’s Stage Fright-era. The short instrumental composition, Timedance, is basically an improvisation that has a Gentle Giant feel thanks to Hessu Hietanen’s homage to Kerry Minnear. It is very short, but it is almost like a jam session between drummer Ronnie Osterberg, Hietanen, and guitarist Pekka Rechardt creating some jazzy funk with an attitude.

The 6-minute epic, Colossus starts off with Pekka creating a mystic guitar rhythm as it segues with Hessu doing an atmospheric style on the keyboards. Then it becomes a driving rock beat as the tempo begins to reach the higher ground. There’s a lot of the Fusion-esque sound that you could hear more of that with Return to Forever and Weather Report, but the track still is carrying the layered ethic touch to the sound of Wigwam and Pekka is unbelievable on the guitar and he deserves 100% credit on this track. Elsewhere, Eddie and the Boys is very more pop-orientated than Album-Orientated Rock. This was the band’s beginnings of going commercial. While some of the fans have a hard time to love or reject this track, Rechardt is really going to town with this on his funk-like sounds on his guitar.

But on Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose, it has more of the progressive feel on the beat and changes. Pekka is again just shining by doing a space rock sound on the guitar in the midsection while Osterberg is working on the drums carefully like a real jazz-drummer and Hessu’s keyboards has a very haunting overtone and then it goes back into the rock sound to close the track up as if Jim’s vocals and Mosse Groundstorem’s bass lines that have more the funk beats than Pastorious if you like during the short complex midsection.

June May Be Too Late is Pembroke’s homage to the Soul sound representing the Motown sound in Detroit but with a Soul Train attitude. There’s some shuffles and cool riffs between each instrument that you would be blown away by. You can imagine Don Corneilus bringing this band to his show and the audience being blown away by them and seeing how damn good they are. You won’t hear a damn disco feel on this, but more with the sound of soul, it really has the train pumping out the music.

The partnership between Pembroke and Rechardt are sort of Finland’s answer to Lennon and McCartney (in a Prog-Fusion style of the Beatles) on the soothing crystal ballad on Never Turn You In as the final track, In a Nutshell, a glorified progtastic opium in the realm of Frank Zappa’s One Size Fits All-era. It’s a bag filled with: Pembroke singing the melody as if he’s doing the time changes with the instruments in a spoken word-rap feel as Hessu, Pekka, Mosse, and Ronnie create a humorous fusion finale that is sometimes quirky and in the realm of Camel’s Moonmadness at times. The two bonus tracks which are featured on the Esoteric reissue which were recorded in Stockholm and Kingsway Studio in 1975.

Tramdriver could have been recorded in the sessions of Fairyport while Wardance has a mystical yet eerie upbeat tempo provides so much of the jazz fusion and conceptual ideas of the Blue Moon and the Twilight sky for a dance beat. Lucky Golden Stripes and Starpose may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s not only an incredible album, but it’s a shame that the album would divide the fans and critics like drawing a line in the sand whether to accept the album or not.

Darryl Way's Wolf - Saturation Point/Canis Lupus/Night Music

One of the most eclectic jazz-prog fusion bands that had an amount of voltage of one virtuoso violinist, Darryl Way and his band Wolf are one of the most independent prog bands that released only three albums in the ‘70s. After he left Curved Air to pursue a solo career, he formed the band Wolf which featured: guitarist John Etheridge, Caravan bassist Dek Messecar, and Marillion drummer Ian Mosley. These three albums reissued on the Esoteric label of their three albums: Saturation Point, Canis Lupis, and Night Music which are one of the best works for Wolf to allow the symphonic influence to come forward around of shrieking violin work and fast time signatures which is the evidential look on Saturation Point. The fiery introduction with the glowing blaze of The Ache is a wonderful opening which features Dek’s storming bass lines while guitarist Etheridge is doing some eruptive guitar work as Darryl lets him take over as he takes the violin by playing almost like Vivaldi (reference to Curved Air, mind you) at the very end as the band do a climatic crescendo.

Two Sisters is an extreme muscular drive while Slow Rag carries the jazz-fusion romantic haunting instrumental ballad in the realms of Tomaso Albinoni. Etheridge is doing a classical guitar solo as Way’s violin sounds like it’s crying while Mosley’s drum playing just let’s it rip to lead Darryl to follow the lead with the other members on this. It still sounds fresh and yet an underground classic – fierce and explosive including the medieval improvisation on Market Overture, very John McLaughlin-esque sound thanks to Etheridge as he just takes the rhythm to a standstill and some electrifying violin and drum work that tastes good as for Game of X, which sounds like Fusion Heavy Metal. You have the crazy scatting with some shattering violin works, and then all of a sudden, it has at the end, a growling effect on the guitar for its disturbing finale. The title track, has its jazz works that is very Canterbury sound with Way’s Rhodes keyboard sound, Mosley’s homage to Billy Cobham, Etheridge just playing going a lot of scales going up and down the frets while Dek is creating some fusion grooves on the bass to make you get up and dance.

The finale 7-minute composition, Toy Symphony, is probably one of the highlights on the album. You have Darryl doing a dramatic pastoral violin introduction while Dek is using a fuzz tone sound on the bass through his days in the Canterbury scene of the late ‘60s as he and the other members go at each other to create a different mood change. To me, it’s a rumbling epic with all the ingredients adding to the mix, hell, you’ve got yourself one hell of a track that you might want to play at your memorial service. Three bonus tracks give a closer look of the band’s roots of their upbringing. The blues shuffle of A Bunch of Fives, The Western Fiddle Rocker Five in the Morning, and a single version of Two Sisters that adds a lot to the historical roars of Wolf. Canis Lupis, their second album to the follow up of Saturation Point, comes in to the picture with the twisted opener, The Void, just a crazy yet emotional breathtaking track that should have been a hit single, even though Isolation Waltz has a raunchy and tough track and the swirling moog spacey sound on Wolf wears a lot of the space-like fairy tales in the realms of The Little Prince, it goes batshit crazy with the screeching allegro realm of New Trolls concerto grosso on Cadenza.

The true evidence of Darryl Way’s Wolf’s fire about to go into a blaze of glory, is probably, their final and magnificent third album, Night Point – a creative thunderstorm of Prog Fusion that needs a lot of attention. Move over, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Wolf is here to stay by giving all the energy and the power they get to close the curtain off. And adding special guest of IF’s vocalist John Hodkinson, you got yourself a full prog weekend. Dek takes center stage on his funky bass intro on The Envoy, a 6-minute driving-on-the-highway song that is very ferocious. There’s Darryl, Ian, and Etheridge just chug like a speeding train as Hodkinson creates a glorified view of the hero seeing where the city is laying and looking at the views of War and fighting in the battlefield. You don’t expect to hear it on a Wolf album, but this is a real kick-ass number. Black September has a moody and angelic laying down on the sun song at first and then it turns into a crackling psychedelic finale for the last 2-minutes.

Even though Flat 2 55 is a 6-minute dooming and eerie instrumental track featuring a roaring introduction that sounds like the swirling land of hell, it is quite astonishing as they are back into the Canterbury Jazz Fusion sound. John’s guitar playing is very Hendrix-like while Dek is doing his Hatfield and the North bass lines as for Ian is going up on the tempo steadily on the drums while Darryl is going off on the violin like a mad scientist. Yet another moody and story-complex drama and being a hunted prey on songs like Anteros and We’re Watching You goes through a synthesized treatment that Keith Emerson could have done as Darryl does it very perfectly and would have Keith shaking hands with Way. In more of the realm of the Jazz Fusion technique, Steal The World would be something out of Gentle Giant’s Octopus sessions, but would be a 17th century exercise with the symphonic rock sound added to the mix and that includes another homage of the Medieval Rock sound on the closing track, Comrade of the Nine.

These three albums are very innovative and deeply enjoyable. For Curved Air fans who admire Darryl Way’s extractive violin work, they will be completely blown away to have a treasure of underrated progressive rock bands to marvel and have their hearts sink into. There’s more of the symphonic jazz fusion hopefully coming in the next few years into the future. But for him to reunite with Curved Air is the real turning point for Darryl to be a happy and be back on his game with the band like putting on shoes that you haven’t wore for a long time ago.

Matt Stevens - Ghost

There’s a lot of surprises in the download community in store for Guitar lovers around the globe, for Matt Stevens, his new album, Ghost as the follow-up to Echo, is one of the most magnificent acoustical beauties that really deserves a lot of attention to music collector’s of the Prog genre out there. He isn’t like Jimmy Page, or Carlos Santana, but on Ghost, it’s almost like an experimental journey that fly’s majestically.

Stevens releases his music online and it’s a perfect ingredient to get the word out. He’s one of the most up-and-coming virtuoso guitar players that I really enjoy hearing the music. This isn’t your daddy’s instrumental guitar album; this is a work of genius mastermind who isn’t playing the guitar to show off his talent, but a guitar player who know his love of the Progressive music scene.

Matt Stevens is going to be next Jonny Greenwood and Robert Fripp by using a lot of the layered guitar sounds and very much making it very ambient and atmospheric. I could imagine Fripp having a huge grin on his face when he sees Matt performing as if he’s passing the torch to him as if he’s taking over the guitar world. With Ghost, he is the conductor and makes his own music that he’s helping them to see where he would go with his guitar sound.

It begins with Into The Sea; a moody classical piece that shows again his love of Ottmar Liebert’s guitar beats and the intensive percussion beats on the track. There’s a bit of the dramatic and reaction throughout the piece as he plays each note on the guitar. The beats provide adds tension as the number groove through different changes in the composition.

The energetic comes forward on Big Sky. This tune has a New Age yet atmospheric moog-like sound. The tune is has an upbeat tempo, it adds the space sound as he uses the Kosmiche effect sound with a little bit of the NEU! 75-era for a good reason, you have the whooshing effect with a lot of amazing techniques and flying into the sky and seeing where the sunlight will follow the musician as he plays like a magician that knows the tricks and trades very well.

Eleven is a haunting melody almost in the style of Mike Oldfield’s earlier work. There’s the eerie layered sound that Stevens does with the muting guitar ushering and glockenspiel references that is gently towards a suspenseful film score as Orson Welles and Dario Argento teamed up to work with him to create a dark yet disturbing masterpiece while Draw is in the realm representing the Kid-A era of Radiohead.

Burnt Out Car is a wonderful little strumming ditty that is almost a driving towards the sunset as if he’s outside on the porch with the car as if he’s performing a mourning to the Car that has been in ashes and dust as he gives this exquisite force that follows the homage to Thom Yorke’s The Eraser with the electronic beats and more of the atmospheric sound that creates a ghost-like melody on Lake Man. It works very well as for the soaring Glide which is him doing a Pete Townshend type of guitar work. He’s strumming and finger picking at the same time including a comforting keyboard sound that sounds very much like a twisted mellotron. But somehow Matt makes it very perfect on his own that really gives it a real heart and mind to listener’s throughout the prog-web community.

8.19 is back on the throne with the guitar shuffle and probably one of Matt’s accomplishments like he is giving himself a pat on the back with the drums as he and the percussion move more of a Jazz-Alternative Rock sound as for the title track brings back the Progressive Rock format. I can tell that he’s back again the genre with the scariest pieces that has a ghostly beat and what a scare he gives what sounds like a twisted accordion and a bit of the disturbing fairy tales that has been told throughout a camp fire scaring the little kids out of their seats.

The last track, Moondial, is almost the track that could have been used as a bonus track from Echo. And you can tell Matt is back on his feet. The instrumental piece has more of the haunted similarities in the 16th century style. He’s playing almost like a Spanish guitar sound on his instrument. Remember, he isn’t showing off, he’s doing a damn good job from start to finish.

A good follow-up that proves that Matt Stevens might have something up for his next album, and it’s a reminder that the guitar and how good he really is to deal with an album that the dream is growing on him and he makes it better with a lot to say.

Fields - Fields

Holy Shit! It’s hard to understand why Graham Field, keyboardist of Rare Bird decided to leave the band after having the success with the hit single, Sympathy and the delightful debut album in 1969. There are no hard feelings towards the band members as Graham formed a trio featuring drummer Andy McCulloch of King Crimson and bassist/guitarist/lead vocalist Alan Barry on their only debut album released in 1971 on the CBS label simply called Fields. The band that could have given Atomic Rooster, Aphrodite’s Child, ELP, and a bit of Le Orme, a warm handshake with this unbelievable album that deserves a lot of attention.

And while the prog trios have achieved success or decided to call it a day including Fields themselves over the frying pan and into the firing line, we may have a rough time deciding why bands are either underrated or overrated. Now we are in the 21st century where Progressive Rock is now longer a dirty word anymore and the geeks are coming back from the dead, do we care that the band features some amazing arrangements including a session singer whose vocals are different from any singer in the genre? Well let’s take a look at the answer to that question.

When you pick up a copy of the Esoteric reissue that is absolutely spot on and features amazing liner notes by Sid Smith including an interview with Field himself about the making of the album, the answer is no. I think Alan Barry has a tremendous voice and his guitar and bass playing are very much in the realm of pre-Starcastle and of course Andy McCulloch’s drumming which I applaud – after admiring his work on King Crimson’s disturbing masterpiece, Lizard. And this is a perfect trio or should I say a supergroup in the realms of Rare Bird and KC in the mind of Fields. Excellent, characteristic, and charismatic ingredients of heavy progressive music.

Given that fact that they were well received in European Festivals and the label dropping them after a new A&R manager deciding not to continue with the band, they decided to give it all they got for the last time as they threw the magic carpet to fly off into the soaring sky. Opening track A Friend of Mine acts like a volcanic eruption thanks to Fields dazzling keyboard work in the reminiscent of J.S. Bach, a great introduction of the classical rock orientation that gives us what is about to come next and gives us a real roar.

While the Sun Still Shines has a very memorable FM Radio sound as the crystal touch balladry of Not So Good has a bit of the angelic harmonies. You have the piano, organ, bass, and drums’ combining together as Graham takes over leading the band into services inside the church as if the band is giving a lecture inside the cathedral to a married couple. It all becomes very much of a mourning sound on Three Minstrels, a reminiscent of the 17th century Renaissance Music ala Gentle Giant style.

Slow Susan is an instrumental homage to Bo Hansson’s Lord of the Rings-era as Field does a pastoral feel on the keyboards as it leads up to the rumble raunchy prog-funk sound of Over and Over Again. In the track, Andy is playing wildly on the drums as if he’s doing a Bruford style while Barry creates some magic on the bass as Graham goes quiet and loud on the organ to give the band the signal to come in. Now in the midsection, this is the part I love. They go into almost a bit of the fusion-esque sound that is very powerful and has a lot of Barry’s singing and Field’s cool Rhodes-like sound on the keyboard as if he’s Chick Corea. At the very end, is Field going crazy on the organ as the band members are blown away of how far can Graham go on.

Feeling Free and A Place To Lay My Head are in the realm of Church music. You can imagine the gospel choir in the background singing with them with a lot of heart and soul and sweating buckets to the band and a lady doing some harmonizing vocalization with the band. Fair-Haired Lady is an acoustic crisp sound that has medieval folk-like sound as Barry fingerpicks the guitar in this romantic beauty of this gorgeous yet beautiful woman that sees before his eyes. The Eagle closes the album with more of the pastoral, but symphonic rock sound as Barry does a Spanish guitar sound while playing a wonderful mellotronic sound for a brief while and then BAM! He, Graham, and Andy go at it together to see who can win the boxing match at the very end of the piece while Field plays a quiet somber uplifting finale on the grand piano.

It’s a shame they never made another album after the label dropped them, but this is the real deal of the underrated bands that is still growing strong and it’s like a flaming fire that won’t burn out as the gasoline keeps on pouring for more of the fire to come at it like a speed demon. Even though they split up, it is a highly recommended album that you really need to sink your teeth into.

Paul Jones - Crucifix in a Horseshoe

Probably best known for his work with Manfred Mann on hit songs like: Do Wah Diddy Diddy and 5-4-3-2-1 along with his acting debut with the 1967 cult classic Privilege, Paul Jones underrated 1971 album, Crucifix in a Horseshoe remains one of the must-have albums in any record collector to enjoy British Pop music with a bang. Originally released in 1971 on the Vertigo label, he decided to head to New York to record the album to come up with a mixture of Country, Jazz, and Soulful Blues as if he’s a composer to the band.

It’s not what you hear from his solo work, but it’s something worth the wait and Jones creates some magic on the album. According to the liner notes by King Crimson expert Sid Smith for the RPM reissue, Paul said that the title actually came from a magazine. “There on the front cover of one of them was a famous man. And he had this medallion hanging round his neck. It was a very large crucifix. Christ on the cross, surrounded with this horseshoe. The horseshoe says ‘good luck’ but the crucifix says ‘I’m a believer in Jesus Christ’, and therefore luck doesn’t come into it.”

All the songs on the album including the unreleased bonus tracks for the upcoming album follow up to Horseshoe which the label declined to release as if it felt it was too mainstream and no single on the album to promote it. Cut to years later, RPM created one hell of a packaging to feature the unreleased tracks that could have made it him a part of the Vertigo family. While Paul Jones enjoyed recording the album in the heart of the Big Apple, listening to these tracks has a New York feel and makes you feel that you are in the city including the soulful upbeat opener,

Life After Death, which has a Jackie Lomax sound that deals with how the religious movement has gone horribly wrong. Since becoming a born again Christian, Paul now has difficult time trying to appreciate this amazing track. But let’s move on. Motel Blues, a cover of Loudon Wainwright, is an eerie number with an acoustical beat. However it features some nice organ solos and guitar work done by Charlie Brown (no pun intended) while the background vocalists including the late Vicki Sue Robinson, creates angelic voices in the background during the number. And You Say I’m Too Dependent On My Mind is a down-home funk blues sound that almost is a reminiscent of Paul McCartney’s Ram-era. Now we get into the Country roots sound that Paul grew up as a child. It almost as if it could have been written during the Let it Bleed sessions about the life of a man who works in the industry as he gives the Construction Worker’s Song.

Now the next title, get ready: Song (For Stan Stunning and the Noodle Queen) I know it sounds very weird, but it’s a great little ditty. It also an homage to the Motown-era of the late ‘60s as you can feel the background in the song that resembles the soul and beauty of the Detroit scene. I could tell that Paul was in his happier times recording this song that how much the label showed a huge importance of him growing up. Next up is The Pod That Came Back has a swinging blues jazz upbeat as the song deals with Jones’ comeback in the limelight while The Mighty Ship resembles 1965 as if it’s a reminiscent of the Denny Laine-era of the Moody Blues. The last two tracks really takes us by surprise.

Who are the Masters which has a sinister yet disturbing bone-chilling amusement park rock sound followed by a sound that is in the mind of David Bowie’s Hunky Dory and Family’s Music in a Doll’s House as for Strangely Human Sound carries the image of the previous track with the ghost-like folk composition. Yet it has a little bit of the haunting elements to the number, the ending is features the wind going through the city. Next we come to the bonus tracks. The 8-minute groove, Voices, is one of the most wildly jazz fusion grooves that is real and has a catchy beat. Featuring Dave Macrae’s style of Herbie Hancock’s wah-wah organ funk introduction and Jones shattering Mouth Harp, it brings Jones extreme vocals to a predicted standstill. Wrestler is sort of in the style of Cream’s debut album as Paul Jones and his harmonica taking a trip with us with a song dealing with a wrestler struggling to achieve astonishment to a wild crowd.

Then it gets back into the Jazz Fusion beat with Two Tough Kids from a little help with female vocalist Joy Askew who worked with artists like: Joe Jackson, Laurie Anderson, and Peter Gabriel to name a few as she and Paul bring the energy with this Theatrical knot roar. Joy’s vocals really captures the scenery with Paul on how these two kids grew up in the streets and one day trying to be the next Bonnie and Clyde while the 7-minute homage to the Broadway scene in New York of Life Story. It has a bit of the Jacques Brel influence along with Brecht and Hair influence in there, but it’s a perfect combination.

The guitar shuffle and piano rocker Peter is a quirky little country ditty as the last number Marooned is a very quiet soft ballad with a bit of a romantic feel as if it was recorded for Manfred Mann to perform, but giving Paul Jones free rein to give it a real soaring closing. A truly masterpiece that deserves credit and for Paul as well, and even though Paul is a changed person and has some mixed feelings with the album, he deserves it 100%

Amon Duul II - Phallus Dei

While the British Psychedelic Scene at the end of the late ‘60s was about to emerge, there was a band that took the German scene into a thunderous firestorm and gave birth to the beginnings of Krautrock. With an attitude of the Avant-Garde scene with it, Amon Duul II put together a disturbing path, combining experimental music, early Zappa, and kosmische music all wrap into one. The band was formed in 1968 in the West German scene in Munich where the infamous terrorist group the Baader Meinhof Complex founded (in which the band 100% disagreed with everything with the group were doing to the people). The music was layered yet futuristic at the same time. That and their debut album, Phallus Dei (God’s Penis), is considered a cornerstone in the beginnings of the Krautrock scene of the 1970s.

This album constructs a disturbing yet middle-eastern freak-out sessions that could have been recorded for the therapists when they were taking Primal Scream pills for the insanity. They play very much like a classical piece for John Cale and Edgard Varese and made it more of a twisted piece that could scare the living shit out of the hippies and the flower power generation of the ‘60s. Chris Karrer, John Weinzieri, Renate Knaup-Kroetenschwanz, Lothar Meid, Falk U Rogner, and the late Peter Leopold brought a fierce and disturbing debut that blew the music world away with this magnificent schizoid magnetic structure that deserves a lot of attention and almost gave birth to the Industrial Rock scene.

They brought the weird and aggressive overtones to the table with the opening 20-minute title track. It starts off with an ambient dooming intro followed by yelps with eerie vocalization as it segues into a twisted psychedelic dungeon jam session as guitar and bass create a lot of high voltage along with the drums to make it sound like an erotic orgasm beauty. And then it reaches into a shrieking crescendo as Karrer takes over by going for a gothic approach on the violin as the music becomes an African tribe beat as the members go into the primal scream mode with the shrieks, yelps, and haywire noises from the instruments as if it was something out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that makes it fun and enjoyable to listen to before ending with a dramatic finale with Karrer’s violin and chant-like vocals.

Kanaan comes in the picture with more of the middle-eastern rock sound as if they recorded it for the pharaohs and the goddess of Egypt as Renate Knaup brings the ghost-like vocalization to the piece while the vocals sound like a spoken-word ritual. Dem Guten, Schönen, Wharen introduces some wildly mad scientist experiment groundwork with eerie vocals, sinister keyboard work from Rogner, and almost a reminiscent of the Wolf City-era while Luzifers Ghilom is an underrated composition that shows the band’s structural time changes and weird cosmic rock sound with an experimental punk attitude that would have made Public Image Ltd approve this number.

Henriette Krötenschwanz is the closing finale with a militant tribe drum section done by Leopold as Renate takes over the vocalization in an operatic voice that would have tenors scare shitless by her magnificent yet eerie vocals that she does in the number. It’s a fitting end to the album that is in the foreplay. The two bonus tracks are very interesting. You have the Indian-raga homage to Ravi Shankar with the 10-minute new age sound of TouchMaPhal and the industrial rock homage to Rammstein and Arthur Brown and Kingdom Come’s Journey-era that sounds very much of the 21st century in the style of the Berlin trilogy of I Want The Sun to Shine. Twisted? Yes Strange? Yes? Fun to listen to? All of the above, this is one of the most underrated beginnings of the Krautrock scene for anyone who wants to get into the music of Amon Duul II.

Looking Towards The Sky: Progressive, Psychedelic, and Folk Rock From The Ember Vaults

The eccentric and eclectic view of progressive, psychedelic, and folk rock of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s is a real treat. But thanks to the reissue label, Fantastic Voyage, who are helping to revisit the indie label Ember Records, this is worth checking out to know about the obscure and the underground scene of the psychedelic movement that reached to a cult status. It’s like Treasure Island, but it’s hidden through the generosity of the bands you’ve never heard throughout this compilation, and it pulls together like a tightrope. Looking Towards The Sky: Progressive, Psychedelic, and Folk Rock from the Ember Vaults may be considered one of the volumes on undiscovered gems of the independent rock scene that are filled unheard bands and artists to come close to the essence of unheard music that will give you goosebumps and take you surprise in the new dimension. Don’t forget, the track-list covers 15 of the bands that will make you have a love/hate relationship in huge debates, so let’s cut the bullshit fellas. So if you are interested and already have a huge growth in the music genre, this is your Wonka ticket here. If you were a part of the underground scene and for a new generation of upcoming progsters discovering this music, well here it is.

Now for most of you are thinking, “Is this a rip off of the Nuggets compilation?” No it isn’t. this is the history of the record label and for you listeners who are mouth-watery of hearing this will be blown away. Looking Towards The Sky takes you through a magic carpet ride through the unheard masterminds of the bands/artists that never saw the light at the end of tunnel to achieve the big time and drew from the weirdness and beyond the musical infinity.

Starting the album off is the political driven folk romp of 9:30 Fly’s Life and Times which includes a dynamic acoustic background and fuzz tone solo that is very dramatic including the vocalization as well while the Canadian garage rockers The Dorians push the nuggets envelope further with a dosage of psych-pop on the chugging rhythm section on Help For My Waiting and the eerie Beatle-esque harmonization of Good Love. Welsh-Prog Rockers Blonde on Blonde make an appearance on the album to give you a real kick in the gun with a strong energy in the force-like compositions like: Heart Without A Home, the homage to Arthur Lee and Love’s Forever Changes-era on Sad Song For An Easy Lady, and the 7-minute album version middle-eastern beauty of Circles from the Rebirth Album that you need to get thanks to the vocalization of David Thomas who could have been the next Roy Orbison.

As for US indie psych rockers Blue Beard, they brought an organic garage nugget flavor to Loving You as Rusty Harness who could have been the next Mick Farren with the upbeat soul dance clap of Goodbye on the edge of your seat. But it’s tracks like Doin’ The Best I Can by Paddy Maguire that bring a heartfelt ballad to eternity as if he and Traffic teamed up to create this piece while Knocker Jungle pays homage to Marc Bolan’s Tyrannosaurus Rex on I Don’t Know Why and Reality that makes it linear and harmonic. Meanwhile, 9:30 Fly are back on the horseshoe again with the 7-minute prog epic that could have been a cornerstone in the genre with the exhilarating number, Mr. 509.

Elsewhere, Davey Payne & The Medium Wave bring a pastoral horn section and string quartet along with a dynamic James Bond feel with the title track. You can tell this is something out of the oven that is cooked well-done and freshly baked as well. Then we get into the proto-hard rock antique in the reminiscent of Otis Redding with Milt Matthews Inc. as he brings the soul into the anti-war number on Disaster Area and as for the finale, The Back Street Band’s This Ain’t The Road is a fitting closing that is very power pop and very much in the mind of Badfinger’s Magic Christian Music-era.

This is a perfect compilation for anyone who wants to sink their feet in the hidden treasure of the obscure prog gems and look towards the next compilation Summer Turns To Autumn. For the tracks, this is a true adventure of the unheard bands and the possibilities of how prog rock stays alive and never dies.