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Rainbow Ffolly - Sallies Fforth - 09-Nov-09 12:40 PM
Obviously influenced by labelmates The Beatles, the sole album of Rainbow Ffolly is a psychedelic delight of the first order. Lush, inventive arrangements and sharp winning melodies are presented in a truly wide range of styles at once sophisticated and witty. It can be said without exaggeration that this album exceeds on musical grounds the period piece value of many of its contemporaries. Great use of sound-effects contributes to its excellence, while the feeling is so thoroughly English as on few other albums. A single with "Drive My Car" on the flip, which is not the Lennon/McCartney song, sank without a trace and no further recordings were made. The vast diversity and the great accessibility make it hard to understand why this album was completely ignored, but it makes completely clear why it is as sought-after as it is.

Brave New World (4) - Impressions On Reading Aldous Huxley - 20-May-09 07:18 AM
Yes, this must be a concept album, at least according to the title, but not much inside the grooves conveys a Huxleyan atmosphere. Although the brainchild of O'Brien, who wrote or co-wrote all the material, the main ingredient is the truly magical flute of Geller, who can produce any style imaginable and does so convincingly, too.
A sad recorder over solemn organ in ''Prologue'' slowly gives way to the warm sound patterns of ''Alpha'', a versatile piece of jazzy rock and leading to passages with experimental use of different tape speeds. ''Lenina'' is very serene with a narration and multi-voiced flutes, while ''Soma'' is krautrock in the best of traditions with long guitar improvisations over a floor of organ. Almost early Pink Ployd, but with the unusual sound of an embedded flexatone. And there is ''Malpais Corn Dance'', an unlikely track that sounds like folk music played by Martians.
Side B is dominated by the long suite ''The End'' (nothing to do with The Doors, of course) which pulls all stops. Wistful wind, English horn, ocarina, double-tracked recorders, sombre monk's choirs, Scottish percussion, wild electric guitars, heavy synths, cascading saxes, soft-horror, well anything almost, but somehow forged into a meaningful whole, that can hardly be compared with anything else we have heard. Krautrock in its best form, an at times almost magical record!

Alan Stivell - Celtic Rock - 10-Nov-08 11:05 AM
Folk raged in Germany in the early seventies, so this release seems logical enough. Previous Stivell LP's were only available as an import in Germany. Undoubtedly this is one of his best and this serves as a record that makes it clear why Stivell almost singlehandedly succeeded in carving an international niche for folk (rock) from Brittany. Apart from the almost pugnacious rock track Brezohoneg' rock, a convincing incentive to speak the native language of Brittany, it is traditional material almost throughout, but presented in a unique and strictly personal manner. Stivell's main instrument is the celtic harp and he uses this in itself quiet instrument with great elasticity and verve. The elegant guitars of Dan Ar Bras dominate the finely honed arrangements. The Breton material is powerful and full of uncommon twists, a far cry from the diluted versions for tourists in places like Vannes and Lorient. All tracks are filled with a combination of down-to-earth and even gritty directness with celestial widths and etherical visions, a combination that made Stivell a national hero after an exhausting career. The importance of Stivell for Breton culture cannot easily be overestimated.

Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste - 01-Feb-08 11:13 AM
An almost incredible leap upwards and forwards compared to the debut, this album still stands as one of the highlights of early British prog-rock. The liner notes say it all: ''we have recorded each composition with the one thought - that it should be unique, adventurous and fascinating.'' It is a rare event, that this is not only expressed in words on the cover, but actually hearable almost everywhere in the music. The stunning vocal parts reach a complexity previously unheard of in rock. The interplay is inventive and innovative: combinations of sounds that we have not heard before, still completely clear and misleadingly facile. You never hear the efforts that must have gone into this recording, everything sounds as if it's totally natural. In an interview of March 1998 in 20th century music magazine Ray Shulman states: ''I think Aqcuiring The Taste, our second record, was probably the purest in terms of making music. We just made music and it was never for any other reason. There were no business concerns because we weren't even known. I think that is when you make the purest music because you don't even have an audience.'' Although the last part of this statement maybe doubtful, it perfectly sums up from which angle the music was made. Some 35 years later this still pays off! There is some room to quibble anyway, of course. Some moog-explorations sound dated and the plain rock songs aren't that exciting. On the other hand, the first two tracks are nothing less than masterpieces of inventive rock and there is so much to explore inside the arrangements, that the album will easily outlast the even most diligent listener. Top-notch.

Spirogyra - Bells, Boots And Shambles - 30-Nov-07 03:17 AM
The utter clarity of Gaskin's voice, the erratic songwriting and many interesting and imaginative arrangements, these all seem to peak on this their third and last album. The sadness and despair, already strongly present on their previous efforts, come to a head and now sound chillingly urgent. The contributions of Henry Lowther's trumpet also work wonders, greatly so in ''The Furthest Point'', a minor classic all by itself. Boasting not one single under-average track, this record belongs to the very top of Britain's seventies folk-rock.

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