Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink [Deluxe Edition]

“In the land of Grey & Pink where only boy scouts stop to think/They’ll be coming back again, those nasty grumbly grimblies/And they’re climbing down your chimney, yes they’re trying to get it/Come to take your money isn’t it a sin, they’re so thin?/ They’ve black buckets in the sky, don’t leave your dad in the rain/Cigarettes burn bright tonight, they’ll all get washed down the drain.” Sings Richard Sinclair of Caravan as he describes the Tolkien-sque fantasy story line in the quirky resemblance of Whimsical humor.

Since its release in 1971, In The Land of Grey & Pink remains one of the most essential works that Caravan has released and has been a favorite for fans and music lovers to enjoy the Canterbury pioneers to take the listener to a wonderful and embracive journey they are about to embark on. That and this wonderful 2-CD deluxe edition including a DVD featuring a new 5.1 stereo mix done by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson, who’s been working really hard on the King Crimson 40th anniversary reissues and Jethro Tull’s Aqualung for the fall of this year, it provides a wonderful surround sound and experience that you’ll never forget.

When you hear the new 5.1 surround sound and the new stereo mix that Mr. Wilson has done, you will be completely blown away and have your breath taken away. Hearing the title track is very different from the original version (the rhythm guitar section comes in front while Richard’s voice comes in between Pye’s guitar sound); there’s also the Beat Club footage that the band perform to promote the album including the fuzzy version Golf Girl and a never-before-seen performance of Winter Wine that was cut before they were about to be on live TV.

Now the new stereo mix and 5.1 sound is marvelous, but this is a question that you might ask me and yourself, “Why this album stood the test time?” and, “What’s the best Caravan album to start off with that will get me going?” Well if you want the evidence, this here is a perfect way to start your journey into the Canterbury sound and feel like you have embarked on a whimsical adventure after listening to the first or third time that you have embarked on.

You have to love David Sinclair’s Hammond organ sound and the way he uses a Mellotron to give a jazz and psychedelic feel structure solo of the comedic touch on Golf Girl and goes at it to take turns on the mind-blowing 20-minute composition Nine Feet Underground while Pye Hastings doesn’t do any noodling on the guitar, but lays the beat down and has a sense of humor on the upbeat melody Love To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly). And then there’s drummer Richard Coughlan who brings the power and energy on the drums for Caravan as David’s younger brother, Richard who plays bass almost like in the realm of Paul McCartney, has a terrific voice and shows that he can really go for it and take the music to the next stage.

Then we get to the bonus tracks that are featured on the first and second disc of the reissue. We have different versions of Love To Love You and an alternate mix of Nine Feet Underground. However, on Frozen Rose and an early take of Aristocracy which would later be on their fourth album, Waterloo Lily shows that the band needed to make a small antidote for Grey & Pink while the soaring organ/piano melodic touches of jazz-psych-pop comes back in full crooning sound of Pye Hastings scatting on It Doesn’t Take a Lot.

And of course, the BBC sessions they did for Sound of the Seventies and the late John Peel who championed the band in the late ‘60s for his Sunday concerts in March and May of that year they were promoting the album and makes you feel that you are there at the sessions having a nice cup of tea and eating some biscuits while enjoying the beauty of Caravan’s music to tap your toes and clap to the beats they would do on their instruments.

Surprisingly, while the album and the new stereo mixes stands like a new diamond that has been freshly cleaned and repaired that will have fans blown away and know that Steven Wilson understood the album and how he gives a wonderful remix that would have fans enjoy the music to embrace it. And while they would draw a line in the sand to decide whether or not the album needed a new remix or not, it doesn’t matter, this was needed a full restoration and Wilson was up for the job to go through the multi-tracks to find what was left hidden underneath the analog tapes.

However, the most wonderful moment is the extended version of Love To Love You that features an unheard ending that was cut off due to time restraints as Jimmy Hastings gives his flute a time to fly into the heavenly sky and it remains one of the best unearth tracks. And while some people might prefer the original version, this new ending is breathtaking and you could see how Hastings, Pye’s older brother, deserves a lot of credit. Caravan was about family, not giant rock stars, but they proved they could be a pretty damn good Canterbury band in the psych-progressive movement in the underground era.

This is a fine treatment that the good people at Universal has done with the 40th anniversary Deluxe Edition CD-set of Prog’s magnetic bands to come out of the late ’60s, if anyone who wants to get into their music, this is it!

High Tide - Sea Shanties / High Tide

There’s a lot of debate to decide where to start with the birth of Heavy Metal and who was the first band that started the wagon rolling. They think of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Kinks, or the Who to be more precise, but one of the most obscure bands to come out of the woodwork was High Tide, an unknown proto hard-rock band that had an eerie and dark flavor with some sneering guitar work and fierce violin playing that really would set the tone for the stories of Edgar Allen Poe.

Featuring Tony Hill of the garage rock band, The Misunderstood and Simon House who would later join the Space rock cadets Hawkwind, High Tide started off as a backing band when they played on Denny Gerrard’s album, Sinister Morning, Gerrard who was so impressed with the band, produced the band’s first album, Sea Shanties released in 1969 on the Liberty label. When Sea Shanties was released it was received an unanimous review from the Melody Maker, but it’s now stood the test of time and has remained one of the most obscure gems that almost gave birth to hard rock and progressive metal.

The album itself has a fierce feedback noise sound between Tony Hill and Simon House as they duel it out. Sometimes it’s raunchy, calm, evil, and loud at the same time. Almost as if The 13th Floor Elevators have gone heavy metal on our asses with a mighty punch with Pushed, But Not Forgotten and homage to the Doors Soft Parade-era on Walkin’ Down Their Outlook but then the noise goes up to a high voltage as Hill and House duke it out with guitar and violin on the 9-minute instrumental epic, Death Warmed Up and the fierce volcanic eruption opening rocker, Futlist’s Lament still scares the shit out of listeners.

Sea Shanties is a disturbing album, but sometimes un-fucking-believable. Then comes the second sole self-titled debut album released in 1970. It may have mixed feelings and may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the band decided that it was time move away from the hard rock sound and move into the acid folk sound with a psych-prog flavor taste to it. However, they show their true colors on the three tracks including the psych wah-wah fantasy opener guitar/violin duel, Blankman Cries Again.

Then they go into a jazz rock sound in the realms of the soaring mournful organ beauty of The Joke while the 14-minute composition, Saneonimous sounds like an early incarnation of Luv Machine meets Catapilla with an attitude. It’s not the greatest album that they made, nor an okay album, but it’s definitely worth checking out. The two albums which have been originally reissued on the defunct Eclectic Discs, is reissued from Esoteric that features rare bonus tracks and its worth checking out.

Now you might ask, what is the most obscure album worth seeking? Check out Sea Shanties and see what you think.

Slow Motion Rider - Slow Motion Rider

Coming from the Orange County area of Los Angeles, this psych-proto hard rock trio, Slow Motion Rider certainly brings the sound of early hard rock and psychedelic music to the center of core. Since you can buy the album online either on their MySpace page or on Facebook, the band shows how important the sounds of the garage rock sounds and the early beginnings of heavy metal sound mixed with some early Floyd can be a real magic carpet ride to take an amazing adventure that you’ve never dreamed of.

Amazingly, these 4-track debut compositions sounds like it could have been used for a Roger Corman film or as an alternate soundtrack to the British Horror Hammer Films of the early ‘60s, this would have definitely been a huge cup of tea to drink over from start to finish, but with an attitude. With fuzz tone guitar sounds, sneering organ sounds, fuzz bass lines, and powerful drums that realms Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, there’s a lot of potential electricity for Slow Motion Rider.

There might be some criticism to think they are a rip off of the psych-hard rock scene, but they’re not and here on this album, it brings a powerful force that springs the listener to a wonderful boundary of a magic potion. The trio touches the obscure prog sound and the early heavy metal sound as well like the homage of a feedback yet soaring space metal touch on the opening track, Hold Your Hand Out to the Sun, featuring the vocals in a double-track sound that is almost straight through a leslie speaker and with a strumming rhythm section to fill the scenery straight out of Black Sabbath’s sole self-titled debut album.

Interestingly, the haunting psych-prog touches of Mighty Baby’s music comes in handy with the wah-wah section and moody atmosphere on I Like The Way You Look while Kids Ain’t Got No Soul combines the Nuggets-era with leaps of the spooky organ sound and raunchy guitar and powerful kicks of the drums that would have you spellbound. The two tracks have a sinister and kick in the gut feel like its 1970 all over again, but Wondered Why is a fierce yet energetic upbeat tempo that closes the album with the organ and guitar dueting while the bass comes in with some heavy duty fierce lines with a fuzzy attitude.

The inventive beauty of this debut album is almost well produced and it really
carries a mighty and heavy pound kick like no other. It’s kind of hard to say about this album, but with a sound of High Tide meets Black Sabbath meets The Doors Strange Days-era and when you listen to it, it sounds like the Psych-Prog sound is back from the dead and there is absolutely no stop sign for it to slow down.

The best of 2011...So far!

Well since we are not at the end of the year for 2011, I think it's time to take a look at what were the best albums of 2011 so far at the moment for the top 10 albums at this moment so far are:

1. William D. Drake - The Rising of the Lights [Onomatopeia]

2. Van Der Graaf Generator - A Grounding in Numbers [Esoteric]

3. Phideaux - Snowtorch [Bloodfish]

4. Pallas - XXV [Mascot]

5. Rick Ray Band - Can't Lie Hard Enough [Neurosis]

6. Blood Ceremony - Living With The Ancients [Rise Above Records]

7. Odin of London - The London Tapes [Self-Released]

8. The Fierce & The Dead - If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe [Self-Released]

9. Dotma - Sleep Paralyses [Scarlet]

10. Within Temptation - The Unforgiving [Roadrunner]

Acqua Fragile - Mass-Media Stars

Formed out of the ashes of Gli Immortali and approval from a little help by Italian Prog pioneers Premiata Forneria Marconi, Acqua Fragile was a band that could have made the big time, but was short-lived. However like Flash featuring Peter Banks of Yes, they were also a five piece band that paid homage to what was going on in the UK. One of the most underrated vocalist was Bernardo Lanzetti who would later join PFM on Chocolate Kings, his vocals sound familiar in the realms of Derek Shulman, Roger Chapman, and Peter Gabriel and would have fans sort of blown away to realize what the hell was that?! This is fucking great!

While the band’s sole self-titled debut album had English lyrics which was unheard and interesting for Italian bands to reach the boundaries to sing in a different language, their next and last album Mass Media Stars would explain why they were ahead of their time and giving the Prog pioneers a stamp of approval to give them the green lights, but they certainly remain one of the most see-them-before-they leave-them bands of the Italian Prog genre. Starting with the spacey 7-minute Cosmic Mind Affair, combines with quiet harmonies and Yes-like vocals with a lot of spiritual flows throughout each of the instruments to embark on a mesmerizing adventure that you’ll never dream of.

Acqua Fragile were way ahead of their time and bring a huge resemblance of Gentle Giant’s first four albums that would have your jaws dropping. You can hear the influences on the time changing improvisations of the title track and Opening Act, which has classical boundaries, bass lines flourished, and providing the surrounding Italian structures to fit the pictures inside the exhibition to have the grooves dance-like.

Swooshing down like an Eagle soaring 30 miles per hour on Professor, a fierce energetic power house rocker that shows they can give a lot of the arranging and composition pieces a real kick in the gut from the reminders of Nektar’s concept story line and soar to the quirky fuzz tone organ sounds and bass structures of an homage to sci-fi story structures in the realms of Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury to come in mind. The lukewarm prog folk crisp of Coffee Song which closes the album brings the symphonic beauty sounds of Family’s Music in a Doll’s House-era with classical guitar beauty, keyboards mourning and a mellotron like sound makes the piece very orchestral and some touching early Genesis sound.

While people may cringe to Acqua Fragile and have mixed opinions about the albums and the band and have a wonderful sound on Mass Media Stars, you couldn’t just deny them, this is an album that stood the test of time and has finally almost deserves the respect it needs well and accepted.

La Seconda Genesi - Tutto Deve Finire

Already a collector’s item, thanks to the vinyl reissue and giving it a second chance, there is a lot of hope for an unearthed band that never saw the light of day and this Italian band would have made Lee Dorrian’s feet tickled for joy. La Seconda Genesi’s Tutto Deve Finire was originally released on the small indie Italian label Picci in 1972 and this album almost sounds like an early beginning of Italian progressive metal renaissance of Jethro Tull meets The Jimi Hendrix Experience with a mighty punch plus adding jazz, classical, and the sounds of the Avant-Garde sounds of the 20th century, it could be viewed as an obscure Italian gem.

Like a breath of fresh air on what would have made them the darker version of the Italian Rock scene, it’s not your typical symphonic and glorified enjoying pleasures than what Yes and ELP were doing at that time period. There’s a haunting introduction of a jazz-psych freakout with the opening track Ascoltarsi Nascere where the sax pays tribute to David Jackson and Lox Coxhill while it goes through various moods while L’urlo paints a reminiscent picture of an earlier beginning of the Omar Rodriguez Lopez quintet where you can hear parts of the composition on Boiling Death Request a Body to Rest Its Head On.

Then we come to the spooky and haunting melodies on Se Ne Va Con Noi. You could hear the influences on King Crimson’s Lizard with its mourning organ and pounding drum section as if its telling the story on how death is waiting to approach us whereas Vedo Un Altro Mondo is a roaring guitar, flute, and organ fierce structure that will have your socks blown out of your feet. Not to mention the flute pays tribute to the Stand Up-era of Jethro Tull meets Flied Egg’s Goodbye. Mind-blowing and somewhat breathtaking on that if you have a craving of the early beginnings of Progressive Metal.

The militant sinister rocker, Dimmi Padre has more of the various improvisations to combine a structure of Symphonic Metal’s early days where you have a pounding bass line, sneering and flourish organ sound, and not to mention the drums and flute going at it like they’re in the battlefield fighting for their lives and not to die as a punk. Breve Dialogo is a 1-minute classical guitar instrumental where this and the organ set up a beautiful scenery like almost as if you are walking in the forest waiting for the sunrise to come up for a wonderful and beautiful day in a glorified way.

Then it goes into a hard rock shuffle mode on Giovane Uomo that chills the groove and gives it a dance feel where you can see them dance to this composition not to mention they would dance straight to the time changes as the finale, Un’infanzia Mai Vissuta starts off a calm-like finger picking Spanish guitar as it goes up and down the frets as if the piece is to let the listener know that everything’s okay while the electric guitar, organ and the flute come up with some emotional melodic structures to set the tone of the piece.

An unsung gem, that is worth to spend your hard earned cash on and something to look and listen to from start to finish.

Maxophone - Maxophone

The influences of the English version on Maxophone’s 1975 sole self-titled debut album drew influences from PFM, Greg Lake, Triumvirat, and Gentle Giant, however they were carrying a baggage of the symphonic structures and owed more of a tribute to the British Prog scene like a breath of fresh air. Formed in Milan at the golden-era of the ‘70s, this six piece band could have been become the biggest booming sound of the Progressive Rock movement in Italy, but they didn’t get the attention they deserved and they led their only debut album with their roots as students in music class.

It’s a classical folk atmosphere for them with keyboards, bass guitar, saxes, French horn, and background vocals that provide the influences of the Shulman brothers and what really makes this lost and hidden prog gem, a real special treat. Great time changes of moody scenery’s makes a wave of unbelievable movement’s that sets the tone of the album and you can hear the eerie quiet turned emotional balladry on When We Were Young.

However on the opener, Life Can Be Like Music, it’s like an opening to the Olympics with an attitude where the classical piano and organ are through the stadium giving a warmth fanfare as it goes through melodic vocal arrangement while the ending has a dramatic orchestral rock sounding that will send a chill down your spine. Thunderstorms and lighting flashes through this album like no other to have a nice pasta dish on Six Against One goes through a dooming organ introduction before going into a jazz-like fusion improvisation that could have surprised audiences with creative complexes to set the music a wonderful experience.

Fase is filled with a dramatic guitar introduction before going into the Jazz Fusion sound and then into a Gentle Giant improve with the vibraphone and you can hear the influences of their music on this track while the last track that really could have given PFM a stamp of approval for them with a classical guitar, French horn, folksy vocalization, strong and powerful organ sound before getting into a booming prog explosion and not to mention a sinister guitar solo that is almost the Italian Midas touch for all prog fans to have their mouths watered over this composition.

The writing almost could have been done by Pete Sinfield and could have gotten them into the cult status and international audiences to approve and appreciate the work they have done though the album had never saw the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a shame they were in a huge competition to see who the best Italian Prog band was and Maxophone never got attention, they were almost the mysterious prog rock band of 1975. Sad they never received attention, but here on this album, you can tell how damn good they really were and the result is here in the pudding.