KebneKaise IIis Swedish prog-folk-rock with great grooves, Nordic folk elements and no absurd prog wankery. Superficially not unlike the best ethnological krautrock but when you get in it's deeply psychedelic and steeped in the mystique of Swedish folklore yet also kinda jaunty at times. Kebnekaise II was released in 1973 on the legendary Swedish prog label Silence, home of Bo Hansson, Älgarnas Trädgård, Träd Gräs O Stenar, Anna Själv Tredje etc.
Horgalåten is apparently a traditional Swedish tune rearranged by Kebnekaise. Mesmerising haunted ancient melodies amongst the mantra rock with a toe-tapping beat. Nice.
Kebnekaise - Comanche Spring (1973)
Epic psych jam that closes the album. Sweet mary jane was surely invented for listening to this.
*Greatest back cover ever. All bands should be beautifully drawn up a tree.
If you've not ever heard this one look out. For fans of of avant-garde and acid-folk vocal histrionics à la Comus, Tim Buckley, Yoko, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Peter Hammill et al. at their most outré, I promise this will not disappoint. Aria is the opening song to Sorrenti's debut LP of the same name. It wouldn't surprise me if side 4 of Nick Cave's Ghosteen was influenced by this epic track as there are some uncanny vocal melody parallels.
A few years later Sorrenti strangely enough went on to represent Italy at Eurovision. I can vouch for the quality of the rest of this LP while others also rate the follow up, after that he begins to depart from this aesthetic mission statement.
Poli Styrene Jass Band - Draino In Your Veins (1975)
This was really something. What on earth was it? It's like a blueprint for something that nobody ever bothered to follow up on. I mean you can hear hints of Roxy Music and misc. prog but what is the rest? Psychedelic soul? This is the sort of amalgamation of non-overt influences that also informed Television, Pere Ubu etc. I really think Draino In Your Veins is a forgotten little psych-prog anomaly of a pop song that deserves to be heard.
Poli Styrene Jass Band - Circus Highlights (1975)
This is the flipside to Draino In Your Veins. It's that classic in-between scenes syndrome innit: Too late for 60s psych into prog, not quite fitting mid 70s art rock and way too early for neo-psychedelia of the 80s and 90s. Melodically reverse-reminiscent of early Mercury Rev. If this incarnation had carried on in the maverick vein of this 7 inch they might have become legendary like their contemporaries Pere Ubu and electric eels instead of just a footnote.
Styrene Money - Radial Arm Saws (1977)
Weird for weird's sake maybe but these guys were compelled to make such a record surely that counts for something. Is it a paean to naff novelty faux-psychedelic cash in singles of the late 60s?
Styrene Money - I Saw You (1979)
Sounding almost conventional here, even endearing but I guess not many punk groups had piano led singles. It's actually more psychedelic than anything. This is why genre categories are pointless sometimes. Did the genre people ever use psych-punk as a term for this kind of thing? I Saw You is psychedelic and punk.
Styrene Money - Everything Near Me (1979)
Another sort of likeable slice of music that is at the precise intersection of psychedelic and punk. I guess not unlike some stuff The Homosexuals did.
Styrene Money - Jaguar Ride (1979)
The first Styrenes thing I heard back in the day because it was on an 80s Cleveland compilation. This is supposed to be a cover of the electric eels tune but it barely even resembles that song. It strangely actually sounds closer to Pere Ubu. I wonder if they just played this by memory considering there were no actual recordings of the electric eels version available at the time.
Good bit of hard-punky pub-rock. Narcotic pop at its finest, this was a top 40 hit in Britain. As the guy in the comments said "I'm 52 and still suffering from the teenage depression"
Belgium's Blast are a fun noisey blast of proto: Proto-punk, proto-thrash, proto-Motorhead and proto whatever else. The vocalist keeps it in a pop song realm making it somewhat less harsh than those future genres turned out to be though. I think they did just this one 7" single. Pretty cool.
A spritely piece of funky boogie from Japan. An 80s bass and saxamophone extravaganza. An 80s dancefloor anthem from a parallel world. If you want an entire other 80s of this type it's ready and waiting for you in these Japanese recordings.
"They" can smear MJ all they want but a massive part of the population know he is still the king of pop and all the unkind words in the world will not change their love for him.
After The Jackson 5 left Motown they changed their name to The Jacksons and signed to Philadelphia International. This Gamble & Huff tune is one of the most lushly lovely tunes Michael Jackson ever did. A total nitrous oxide marshmallow: Luxuriant mellifluousness.
Great Teddy Pendergrass vocal backed by MFSB on this 1973 Gamble & Huff tune. The secret architect here is legendary veteran arranger Bobby Martin with superior strings.
