Prog Not Frog Radio Presents: The Voice of The Moon #015, With The Herbalist (Lost Loves: Torment & Melancholy)

Well, the subject of this week is love. Why Not? Love and music have been connected for centuries. According to some scholars the idea of romantic love in the western world was created during the middle ages inside the poetic frame of wandering trovadours. Before that, couples were “constructed” by alliances based on convenience or simply by availability. The deep emotional bonding that happens between a man and woman, became the subject sung by trovadours and was made legend by raconteurs around the XII century…

I am not so sure if that is true, but if minstrels invented love as we know it, then the history of love is also the history of music.



Anyway, we all know that love has many sides. The bright side of it, is possibly the deepest emotional experience a human being can have. Is you ask around you’ll find that for most people, happiness seems unreachable without true love. On the other hand love can be cruel, the loved person can be stolen, lost or horribly simple, that loved person might not love us back.

The romantics took love to its next level. During the secons half of XVIII Century, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe invented Death by Love, in his novelette “Werther” and with that he also conceived Heart Breaking. We suspect that he also invented blues that same day but I have been unable to prove it.

Anyway, love has inspired artists for centuries. We are surrounded by all kinds of love stories. Some heroic, some sad, some fantastic, some tragic.

Since then History of Love has also been the History of Aching, Despair.
No other feeling can be so sublime or so harmful.

This show compiles some love songs that aim to please the most demanding ears… and hearts.
Our companions in this dangerous adventures will be Peter Hammill, Nick Cave, Craig Armstrong, Swans and some others. Be ready for a few surprises.

That’s all I wanted to write about today’s show.

May your love life be happy.

If it is not, well get deep into this show. I guarantee that after listening to it you will feel a heavier heart pounding inside your chest. Tears will follow. Enjoy being alive and,

Keep Listening…!!!

--> This way to The Voice of The Moon # 015 <--

Image:
"Tote Frog Night" contemporary figurative painting by Joe Moorman at Riverson Fine Art

See here: http://www.riversonfinemosaics.com/painting_tote_frog.htm

Günter Schickert - Überfallig {Germany} [1979] @ 260 VBR (Krautrock)

What this is, in a sense, is an album that might be considered to be the Evil Twin of Manuel Gottsching's "Inventions for Rock Guitar". Whereas Gottsching offers up a minimalistic and kosmische shimmer of corruscating guitar and delay multitracking, Gunter Schickert takes more or less the same apparatus and creates a soundtrack to some sort of lysergic bummer-trip. Gunter Schickert's deep heavy ooze dripping slab of Teutonic electronic bliss through treated mayhem overcomes you. This is probably what it sounded like inside of Jimi Hendrix's brain stem under that LSD-soaked tie-dyed bandana onstage - totally lit and lividly lucid, another planet
opens up a searing tunnel through space and time while this sublime album plays on.

Schickert's exceptionally hypnotic space-echo guitar work similar to Manuel Gottsching is matched by fascinating rhythmic pulsations (at times recalling prime Can-like velocities or AR & the Machines circular bubbliness, and some Pink Floyd "Meddle" era pastoral psych as well).
Guitar, drums, some voice, and nature sounds.

a mindblowing album.

Link in Comment.

Keith Tippet: The Dartington Concert {UK} [1992] @320 (Ex King Crimson Collaborator, Avant-garde Solo Piano, like Jarrett on Acid)

Keith Tippett’s biography is a long story of great musical achievements, poor album sales, ambitious projects followed by commercial disaster, infinite marriage happiness, musical spirituality and incredibly virtuoso piano playing.

He started in the 60’s forming a jazz sextet that used to play the London circuit. Like every other band at the time, they were soon under the influence of the psychedelic movement and fell into the Canterbury scene, becoming collaborators of extraordinary musicians like Elton Dean, Robert Wyatt and Mark Charig.

Eventually Tippett’s odd and eerie piano playing caught Robert Fripp`s attention and he was included (with Charig and Trombonist Nick Evans) in the recording sessions of “In The Wake of Posseidon” King Crimson`s second album. Later he would collaborate in the following King Crimson LP’s: the introspective and dreamy Lizard, and the corrosive and lyrical Islands.

These collaborations with Fripp and King Crimson lead to the album that could be catalogued and the most ambitious of the whole Progressive Rock Era. Centipede Orchestra.

Centipede was an ensemble of 50 musicians that included la crème of Canterbury School and british intellectual rock. To name just a few, in the line up Centipede had: Roy Babbington (bass), Ian Carr (trumpet), Elton Dean (saxophone, cello), Alan Skidmore (sax), Karl Jenkins (oboe), John Marshall (drums), vocalists Zoot Money (ex-Animals), Julie Driscoll and Robert Wyatt (drums). The album was produced by Fripp, who of course played the guitar. It consisted of one long and complex composition by Mr. Tippett himself called Septober Energy.

Sadly, the album was a deep failure. It didn’t sell well. It was misunderstood by the critics and it had horrible reviews.

But Tippett is a virtuoso and Centipede’s tragedy didn’t stop him. Actually he found a solid place in the british music scene just after that.

There was another thing that made him happy about centipede. He married Julie Driscoll, singer of Brain Auger’s Oblivion Express, certainly a soul mate, because Julie herself is a master jazz avant-garde singer. They have been together since then and have released several extraordinary, extremely exquisite albums that I should post here in the near future.
So, from that failure Tippett learned that music is his religion and he found his own priestess.
His solo piano works or his collaborations with Julie have a certain spiritual fervour that they permeates the songs. No wonder their best album is called “Couple in Spirit”. Tippett has become a man who communicates with the piano soul and from that communication he gets placiod phrases, harsh key note hammering as he were a torturing machine. Alien landscapes. Inner visions of beauty and madness..

During the 80’s he formed Mujician a band that became his expressive vehicle for improvised jazz, but also started a series of solo concerts of improvised works like this one we’re posting, very hard to classify or include inside the frame of any contemporary musical label.

Tippett’ss style is extreme. He can play incredibly beautiful tunes. Then get into the paino mechanism and do weird things a là Cage. His desire for experimentation is boundless. His playing absolutely outstanding.

When Keith Tippett is not playing or touring he teaches at Dartingtin Summer International School of Music.

Welcome to the world of a secret magician (and “mujician”)

In the Inner Notes of the Original Cd there’s a phrase of Tippett I’d like to reproduce here:

“May Music never just become another way of making money.”


Keep Listening…!!!

Keith Tippett - One for you Dudu (Intro fragment)...

Quad - "Quad' {UK} [1990-1997] @192 (Kraut Psych Ambient)

Hello kids this review is taken from Gerald Van Waes the link is on bottom.

"Sun Dial with its predecessor Modern Art started an exploration which was building up an important contribution to the 80’s and 90’s sound of psychedelia, which in reality became merely a very spaced out, loosely structured, stoned and improvised, as a kind of dream-to-sleep psychedelia, which had its own specific and not too large public.

Quad was a much later project by Gary Ramon, who in the meanwhile had worked with Current 93 a lot, amongst a few other bands. This was a solo project he recorded over the years first with two improvisations on electric sitar with lots of echoes, drums, bass and spacey keyboards. This isn’t too different from some Modern Art or even Sun Dial material, with its recognisable echoed room which has its own psychedelic effect, and the improvisations which build around and forward like smoke from of a joint.

Third and last, nice improvisation starts slightly more experimental, in its spacey rhythmic UFO-kind of repeated pulses, mixed with some Middle Eastern whistle instrument improvisation (clarinet like) at first. This improvisation soon is replaced by an electronically deformed female voice with some spoken word about a spacey or psychedelic experience, nicely gliding the listener into it as a hypnosis induced speech, until the earlier used kind of clarinet instrument and some keyboard ending outro concludes at over 21 minutes."

(http://progressive.homestead.com)

Keep Listening

Links in Comments

Here is the place for requests, contrubutions, suggestions..you can reach this section by clicking requests from the homepage..this place is not aiming to be a downloading arena..so please contrubute your albums with small infos, reviews..please dont request albums from 1997-2007..only 1 request at a time so every of us can focus to find.. this place will be a collective work of all prognotfrog family (you counted)..so let we try to find requests all together..it is also a tiny simulation of upcoming forum..sharing is caring!

Links in comments.. :)

Prog Not Frog Radio Presents:The Voice of The Moon #014, With The Herbalist (Were the 80's really that bad?)

There is a common believe among popular music collectors about the 80's. Most will tell you that the whole decade was lost in terms of music creativity.

Some others might tell you that the 80's produced music for robots, or out-of-control punks.

These feelings have deep roots in several phenomena that happened at the end of the 70's. One was the explosion of Disco, a music which lacks any kind of artistic value and which is devoted exclusively to make people dance while suppressing almost all thinking process at the same time.

The other trgedy at the end of the 70's was the catalepsy that trapped many of the great progressive bands of the 70's. Some fell into a cold fusion abyss, others simply stopped making records for sometime.

The political background wasn't too nice either. The whole planet was trapped between two opposite systems: extreme capitalism, represented by Reagan, Thatcher and their gang, and extreme communism, represented by the Holy Supreme Soviet.

There were hot spots in Central America and Star Wars was not only a movie but also a defensive project. Nuclear Holocaust was very possible. Fear was our daily breakfast.

Add to this background a high rate of unemployment in Europe and what you get is that unorganized, anarchic movement in pop culture that eventually we came to know as Punk.

Punk was protest in its purest form. Its motto was "No Future". Its weapons: Ugliness, Violence, Radical and Free expressions of Nastiness.

Although Punk was not, musically-wise, a rich movement, some bands grew and matured with time resulting in interesting proposals like Gang of Four, New Model Army, etc.

Parallel to this, the 80's became the era of the pseudo-robots. The release of the album "Man Machine" by Kraftwerk in 1978, gave birth to a whole generation of techno pop androids like Fad Gadget, Orchestral Manoveurs in The Dark, Human League, The Vapors, Devo, and many others which, some more, some less, produced songs guided by the technology, especially drum machines and sequencers. To our ears that music might sound boring and empty of emotion. But of course that was not every case. We know that here and here there are hidden jewels inside techno pop, waiting to be discovered.

My position is that possibly, the most interesting music done in the 80's was composed and performed by those bands and artists inside the so called New Romantic Movement. They also used the technology at hand, but their approach was more poetic, aiming at a higher level or artistic achievement, using exotism, melancholy, and delicacy as tools to deliver not just pop songs, but cultural objects. We could say that the fathers of 80's New Romanticism are composers like David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jhon Foxx, to name a few.

Finally post-punk and new romanticism had another child: dark wave. A morbid and nihilistic genre that in time evolved itself into goth rock, gloom, neo ritualism, and some other hyper-sensible ways of making music and poetry.

Of Course the 80's were much more than all this. There was also reggae, dub and ska from Jamaica, three genres that had enormous influence at global level. The 80's were also the background on which Rap had its infancy.

It wasn't after all a dry decade. But it was for sure a time of transitions, a decade of forking paths, many of them leading to dead ends, but some leading to our eclectic 2000’s.

So, maybe The 80's were not that bad. They produced the 90's. That's good enough I think.

Anyway, you don't need to believe me right?

Listen for your self here ---> Get your Voice of The Moon # 014

Murasaki - "Starship'' {Japan} [1971] @192 (hard rock)

Hello friends!! Umm this album may make happy those who love deep purple and early camel..unfortunately i couldnt find a good information in english in net..you are welcome to share informations, reviews experiences in comments..you know where the link is

KeEp Listening!!

mAzE..

(PS. a few weeks ago i found an awesome band..i am not more into jazz..but this one great..unfortunately it is new to post here..but you may buy/find..take it as a recomendation or just listen it :) soil & pimp sessions - pimp master 2005,Japan)

Suffocation..

Urubamba - "Urubamba'' {Peru} [1974] @192 (traditional folk)

You've heard this wonderful instrumental South American group if you've heard "El Condor Pasa" by Simon & Garfunkel or "Duncan" by Paul Simon. Known as los Incas when Simon first encountered them in 1965 while appearing on the same bill in Paris, the renamed quartet produced an appealing debut. "Kacharpari" was recorded during Simon's Live Rhymin' tour in 1973. Using traditional Andean instruments that can sound otherworldly to North American ears, Urubamba covers a wide emotional range, following the eerie "Death in Santa Cruz" with the joyous "Good News Pan Pipes." The group is named for the river that winds at the foot of Machu Picchu, the final fortified city of the Incas. (Mark Allan, All Music Guide)

This melodies come from heaven..it was very hard to select a sample song to put here..all of them awesome for me..maybe for you too..it is like a box of chocolate..

kAcHaRPaRi..

Links in comments..

Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman {UK-Egypt} [1990] @256 (Superb World Music, Highly Recommended)

The album "Songs from the Victorious City" was a very pleasant surprise for all us in 1990. Anne Dudley was well known for being the brain behind the futuristic Techno-Pop act known as Art of Noise. On the other hand, Jaz Coleman was the mind that controlled Killing Joke, a fierce and emblematic post-punk band with a corrosive sense of humour and a good dose of political sarcam.

But, hey, don't let those facts mislead you, both musicians have, believe it or not, a very solid academic formation. Dudley is nowadays a respected composer (with a bunch of great film scores in her resume, and with the position of Composer in Association for the BBC Concert Orchestra) while Coleman has shown his skills as an excellent arranger and producer for several national Orchestras (His work reformatting Pink Floyd's music for orchestra in the album "US and Them" is not only superb, but far better than the feeble David Palmer's previous arrangements. Highly recommended, by the way)

For those not aware of such impressive achievements, an album like this, done by two "Extravagant Pop" musicians, seemed very unlikely. This kind of unexpected album is what makes us seek, buy and collect albums.

The story is simple. Dudley and Coleman traveled to Cairo in 1990 (for Coleman is wasn't a visit but a return, he had studied in the Cairo Conservatory) and there they gathered a huge amount of musical information to create a work that aimed to reflect both branches of the city's traditions: Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Islam. With the help of extraordinary local musicians and The Cairo String Ensemble they recorded the album and then went back to London where it was edited and mixed.

The result was one of the masterpieces of World Music and , arguably, one of the best albums of the xxth Century)

In these days, when Middle Eastern culture is so ill-understood an album like this is a joyful multi-cultural experience that deserves to be heard carefully. It is an eye opener. A window to the glory of remote times.

"Songs from the Victorious City" is the celebration of history seeded in the soul of modernity. It is powerful, trance inducing, exotic to the extreme of making you dream of desert nights, disturbing belly dancers, abrassive sand, brave travellers, sensual and deep euphoria.

One of my Top 100 list.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Keep Listening...!!!

Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman - Endless Festival...

Pangée - ''Hymnemonde'' {Canada} [1995] @192 (Dark, instrumental art rock)

Their name comes from one of the two original continents at the birth of planet Earth, the other being Gondwanna. This band only managed one album (so far) and no news have filtered through for another. The album is of a conceptual nature, is totally instrumental and deals with the early mythology of our planet.

The band obviously takes its inspiration from the "classic" 70's era, the band does not sound like a 70's retro act. If someone told me this album was from France circa 1976 I would have had no reason to doubt it, as it exhibits many of the hallmarks of that country's best bands; dark, lengthy instrumental suites and gorgeous, apocalyptic climaxes rife with smoldering guitar and an array of analog synthesizers. Most importantly, manage to imbibe Pangéehe compositions with a sense of authenticity and urgency that is sorely lacking from many of the symphonic releases of the 90s. In many ways, Pangée bears some similarity to Anglagard, especially in their heavy instrumental emphasis, and alongside the dark, starkly satisfying King Crimson-meets-Shylock approach that both bands adopt at times. But where Anglagard provides respite with touches of Scandinavian folk and other related influences, Pangée retain a distinctly French vibe throughout. The group's musical approach draws inspiration ranging from obvious standards like Genesis and King Crimson to the best French progressive rock of the 1970s, bringing to mind the angularity of Shylock, the grandiose melancholy of Carpe Diem and Pulsar, and the pyrotechnic, emotional urgency of Arachnoid.

The album is made up of three extended compositions, all of which carry a consistently solid approach throughout, barraging the listeners with gradually unfolding themes and ideas that build into ferocious, whirling emotional peaks of cascading mellotron, Moog and rhythmic guitar motifs. Wide variety of keyboards is used including mellotron and organ, and the guitar playing is characterized by a wide, open, spacey sound. A phenomenal and undeservedly obscure album that sits nicely along either of the Anglagard CDs as a sterling example of contemporary, uncompromising symphonic prog with a natural, refreshing feel that manages to sound "retro" with out being formulaic or hackneyed.(compiled from progweed and progarchives)

Pangée - Quartus Frénésis:

Link in comment. Enjoy!

Holger Czukay – “On The Way To The Peak Of Normal”{Germany}[1982] (Post-Kraut Psyched-out Quasi Ambiental Insanity)

Between 1963 and 1966 Holger Czuaky studied composition and electronic music under the guidance of the famous composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1968 he founded the influential krautrock band Can, possibly the quintaessential psychdelic band, a vehicle that he and his co-workers used to explore the inner and hidden musical collective consciousness. In 1969 Czukay and Rolf Dammers, recorded “Canaxis” a bold experiment with magnetic tapes and ethnic filed recordings that was decades ahead of its time and that became the seed of what later was called Ethnic Experimental Music.

During the Czukay became the motor of the Can, or at least what was shown as the band leader, although with Can it wasn’t exactly like that. Anyway, we need to give credit to all the members because somehow all of them created a unique style that has spreaded Can influence well into the 2000’s.

In 1979, after the demise of Can (they resurrect the band later for a short period), he edited “Movies” an album in which he left the bass behind to explore the possibilities of other instruments, in this case several kinds of keyboards.

In 1981, he joined Can ex drummer, the virtuoso Jaki Liebezeit and extraordinary producer Conny Plank to make the album “On the Way to the Peak of Normal”, a piece work in which we feel that Czukay was already planning his future days without Can.

With this album he polished his skills as editor, producer and multi-instrumentalist. With the exception of the drums, he shows his abilities on almost every instrument: bass, guitar, French horn, keyboards and one of his favorites “proto musical objects”: a short wave radio.

Czukay is a man in love with noise. But he likes quieter, nocturnal, thoughtful and refined noise. He likes organized, delicate and organic noise. If you hear carefully the opening track, that incredible mid-tempo trip titled “Ode to Perfume”, you will understand why he is considered the Forefather of Ambient.

The third track, “Witchès Multiplication Table”, shows a direction that Can could have taken. The French horn sounds really wacky there.

Another high point of this album is the delicious “Two Bass Shuffle”, and interplay with one of Czukay’s most advantaged pupils: Mr. Jah Wobble.

I think this album was not well understood in its time. I have never got tired of listening to it.

I truly recommend it for those with twisted tastes and half baked brains.

Get on this trip and…

Keep Listening…!!!

Holger Czukay - Hiss 'n' Listen...

Fuchsia - ''Fuchsia'' {England} [1971] @ 256 (psychedelic folk)

While albums from Trees, Pentangle, Spirogyra, Spriguns were until now more generally known and appreciated, this album never got its deserved attention. It was left unknown for much too long a time. But never-the-less it has all the necessary elements: a powerful play, Pre-Rahaelitic woman's voices, a beautiful male troubadour's voice with sometimes an almost female energy, with second high female voice, with many additional chamber music arrangements, long tracks, strong song structure, and a gifted individual approach Spirogyra's 3rd album, to give you some idea. Both sides are equally pleasant with their additional chamber music arrangements.

Line-up

- Tony Durant / acoustic & electric guitars, vocals
- Michael Day / bass
- Michael Gregory / drums, percussion
- Janet Rogers / violin, backing vocals
- Madeleine Bland / cello, piano, harmonium, backing vocals
- Vanessa Hall-Smith / violin, backing vocals

Track listing

1. Gone With The Mouse (4:59)
2. A Tiny Book (8:03)
3. Another Nail (6:57)
4. Shoes And Ships (6:14)
5. The Nothing Song (8:23)
6. Me And My Kite (2:34)
7. Just Anyone (3:33)

In 71, there were plenty of musical possibilities yet unexplored and Tony Durant thought about integrating the strings developing soothing rather between ELO’s first three album and JDDG’s superb, haunting spine-chilling Sun Symphonia. Rather closer to ELO’s sweeter sounds (circa Eldorado) than JDDG’s crazed sounds, the album is a pure pleasure for progheads enjoying string works that is precisely between ELO’s first three album and JDDG’s superb, haunting spine-chilling Sun Symphonia, the album is a pure pleasure for progheads enjoying string works. Although you can sense the inexperience of the group (only Durant had actually recorded before) and therefore an underlying naiveté, the album operates full-charms out on the unsuspecting proghead, even though the album’s inventiveness might not appear at first listen.

Although you will probably their music very symphonic, the real feel pervading is a rather soft folk rock with intricate (almost medieval) string arrangements. From the opening Gone With The Mouse (in JDDG’s loft? ;-) and its marvellous naïve pastoral feel, to the fabulous mini-epic A Tiny Book with its exuberant feel reminding the better ELO days, where the wise-at-first strings dare go in adventurous demoniac/fiendish grounds. The lyrics throughout the album are hardly innocent or hippy dippy rather concentrating on Mervin Peake’s oeuvre, but do not hold much wickedness, but the album is a must for anyone into Titus Groan.

Another Nail is one of two tracks that come from their Durant’s Louise days (the other being the sub-par Kite), but it is definitely the first inside the coffin of your sanity. Here the girl trio provide a hellish intro before the group takes over, but Bland’s harmonium keeps popping up and the girls come into the group to provide delicious licks on their strings and then outro the track as well.

The second side of the album starts softly on Shoes and Ship, with the whole thing definitely progressive but staying calm and featuring haunting cello drones (I was not sure I could place this line for 100 points ;-) on the closing section. When listening to the extensive mini-epic Nothing Song, one can wonder if Lynne and Wood had not laid their hands on a copy of this album. The album is not always even as there are tracks when the string section is used in a conservative manner: Kite and are hardly more than songs where a strings synths could suffice nowadays. However the closing Just anyone holds a tense suspense where the women are more discrete than on other parts of the album.

While it does not hold the insanity of Tea And Symphony, the pagan savagery of Comus and the extraordinary enthusiasm of Jan Dukes De Grey, this album is yet another just unearthed gems from the early 70’s, just waiting for progheads to stumble on it and carve out a 24-carat reputation.(some parts of review are Hugues Chantraine's)

Fuchsia made progressive music crisp and intelligent, dignified and sophisticated way beyond the pretensions of some of their heavier and indeed lighter contemporaries. A beautiful album.

Fuchsia - Gone With The Mouse:

Links in comments.

Sahara - ''Sunrise'' {Germany} [1973] @320 (Jazzy Art Rock)

Before they were Sahara, this band were known as Subject Esq. Sahara’s second album “Sunrise” is a stunning album mixing folk and fusion elements.
Musically these guys blend mellotron/organ/piano symphonia with flutes, guitars and accentuated bass in a well crafted format not unlike Yes did.There are some spacier and/or symphonic parts that recall Nektar, Genesis (around Trespass), and maybe early Eloy.
The first side is made up of shorter tracks and in themselves are good but it is clear that Side 2 is what everybody should indulge in once a week. The 27 min track is everything a proghead asks for and he gets it here. Long monumental instrumental passages with mellotrons (something relatively rare for german bands) and many developments with reminders of the themes.

One of those forgotten treasures just waiting for you to discover it. VERY recommended!

Sahara - Marie Celeste:

Links in comments.

Island - ''Pictures'' {Switzerland} [1977] @256 (Theatrical, dark, disturbing progressive rock)

One of the best things to come out of Switzerland, along with the fantastic CIRCUS to which it shares a few points: they both are Alemanic, have no electric guitar, winds instruments play a vital role and they recorded around 76/77 .

The biggest influence for Island definitely seems to be Van der Graaf Generator, and the band certainly approaches progressive rock from the darker end of the spectrum. In a similar fashion to VdGG, the group relies on saxophone and other wind instruments for heaviness rather than guitar, and goes for a quirky, sometimes dissonant, but strangely melodic feel. Unfortunately, the fire behind VdGG was always Peter Hammill's seething lyricism and incredible voice, as well as that band's ability to effortlessly build up into moments of raging apocalyptic fury. Island just doesn't go the distance the way their heroes do, preferring to meander along with well executed arrangements, and a merely acceptable vocal delivery. The band also evokes Gentle Giant in many of their more overtly complex moments, which can be superb at points but cold at others.
there are much ZEUHL leanings on this record. Zeuhll, you said? You mean MAGMA? Well certainly as far as the bass is concerned, but the overall style of the music on this album , this all yells out Zeuhl.

Line-up

- Benjamin Jäger / lead vocals, percussion
- Güge Jürg Meier / drums, gongs, percussion
- Peter Scherer / keyboards, pedal-bass, voices crotales
- René Fisch / sax, flute, clarinet, triangle, voices

Track listing
1. Introduction (1:28)
2. Zero (6:13)
3. Pictures (16:51)
4. Herold And King / Dloreh (12:13)
5. Here And Now (12:15)
Bonus track on cd release:
6. Empty Bottles (23:35)

The four guys from Switzerland really offer prog rock at it’s very best. The “Introduction” causes an atmosphere which is slightly reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. It’s made of percussion-breakouts, gongs, and weird saxophone, one of the best prologues I know, hilarious and attention-grabbing. With “Zero” follows a tune which finally gets you into this album (yes so early). It’s an instrumental which reminds me of Gentle Giant and Brand X at the same time. Again, the percussion is the dominating element. I also want to mention the tremendous so called walking-bass in the middle section. ISLAND’s music has a jazzy approach which is caused mainly by the Saxophone, flute and clarinet. “Zero” is a really terrific instrumental and alone worth download the album. “Pictures” has Gentle Giant like vocals, melody lines like the early Genesis but because of the free jazz approach totally different and unique. It’s also important to mention the nice clarinet solo in the middle of the song as well as the perfect rhythm section. The fragile vocals of Benjamin Meier append a mysterious coloration to the general sound, lovely. “Herold and King”, the song you can download, also has the right to be called masterpiece. A marvellous piano introduction introduces the song which is in general much queerer than all other songs of this album. Percussion attacks and backwards sung lyrics really grab hold of you. “Here and now” is the last song of the original LP. I really like the vocals and the long instrumental parts which are again a blend of Gentle Giant and some Fusion…every time the Saxophone appears you also can hear some VdGG…but I said it before, due to the free jazz approach the whole sound is totally new and can’t really be compared to any of the named bands. “Empty Bottles” is a bonus track of the CD-Reissue. It’s a mammoth track recorded some time in the studio. According to the sound maybe during a jam session.
(review compiled from progarchives and progweed)

Links in comment.

Island - Pictures:

Prog Not Frog Radio Presents:The Voice of The Moon #013,With The Herbalist (With These 13 songs we show that beauty kills bad luck)

Hello! I had a rough week but the things that happened to me in the last few days have nothing to do with number 13.

Anyway I just discovered that beauty cures bad luck and melancholy, so, after having discovered that, I embarked myself in the quest of songs that have as a common quality what we couldloosely call "beauty".

Of course these songs are beautiful according to my taste which could differ greatly from yours, because beauty as an idea or quality is made of subjective preconceptions that vary from one cultural background to the next.

To show what beauty means to us we selected today a song by the catalonian Joan Manuel Serrat a living legend with a huge amount of fans in the hispanic world. That's going to be the opening title.

We'll listen to some David Sylvian, and as one David didn't seem enough we also included stwo David Crosby's tracks that although composed almost 40 years ago, still sound really well to our contemporary ears.

I believe that the big surprise will be the score and soundtrack composer Bruno Colaius. We will have him with two songs from two different movies.

Do not miss this edition of The Voice of The Moon, it is a blend of herbs guaranteed to cure melancholy, bad luck and specially effective against bad taste.

Keep listening...!!!

>>This way to The Voice of The Moon # 013<<

Sintesis - 'En Busca De Una Nueva Flor'' {Cuba} [1978] @192 (prog rock)

Recorded in 1978, this album is a very interesting mixture of traditional prog and folk elements and some of "Nueva Trova", an epic Cuban revolutionary songs style. Soft, elegant and beautiful, a sort of a very melodic prog music. Very nice interplay between male and female voices (in Spanish), chorus, electric guitars, classic piano, Moog and organ (the first track is a good example of the band's potential). A couple of songs are not really progressive, but very enjoyable too.

The song "Poema" has beautiful lyrics from Pablo Neruda (Chilean Nobel Prize winner), and the highlight is the homonymous "En Busca De Una Nueva Flor", almost seven minutes of piano and synth lead music.

Both long bonus are quite interesting: "Variaciones Sobre Un Zapateo" has influences from Italian symphonic rock blended with Cuban folklore, and "Elogio De La Danza" is a space- atmospheric-ethnic track.

A recommended album, not extremely complex but very nice, delicated and full of Cuban colours.(reviewed by Marcelo Matusevich)

Poema XII

Para mi corazón basta tu pecho,
para tu libertad bastan mis alas.
Desde mi boca llegará hasta el cielo
lo que estaba dormido sobre tu alma.

Es en ti la ilusión de cada día.
Llegas como el rocío a las corolas.
Socavas el horizonte con tu ausencia.
Eternamente en fuga como la ola.

He dicho que cantabas en el viento
como los pinos y como los mástiles.
Como ellos eres alta y taciturna.
Y entristeces de pronto, como un viaje.

Acogedora como un viejo camino.
Te pueblan ecos y voces nostálgicas.
Yo desperté y a veces emigran y huyen
pájaros que dormían en tu alma.

..Pablo Neruda..

SiNteSis - PoEmA..

Keep Listenin & Links in comments ..

SoMoS la fLoR..

Piirpauke - Piirpauke {Finland} [1975] @320 (folk prog rock)

Truly pioneers in the world-music scene, Piirpauke fuse traditional Finnish folk forms with motifs and rhythms from Latin, Caribbean, Arabic, and Asian musical styles. Starting out in the mid-'70s, Piirpauke have remained insistently eclectic, and their range of influences can stretch to encompass Senegalese drumming and Andalucian singing on a single disk. ~ Leon Jackson, All Music Guide

Keep listenin & Links in comments..


Uusi laulu paimenille..

Ma Banlieue Flasque - ''Ma Banlieue Flasque'' {France}[1979] @128 (French experimental, fusion)

first of all: This album is VERY obscure, so, very hard to find. i found it only with 128kbps. Sound quality is really good; i can guarantee.

Nothing does crazy like French experimental music, but some of it wouldn't have been done in the first place if it wasn't for Frank Zappa. From the opening vocals on the album, it's evident that, vocally, the intent is satirical and humorous (although most of this is lost on me, due to the language), and the falsetto is typical of Frank and co., especially in the "Baby Snakes" days. MBF have a guitars/sax/flute/bass/drums instrumental line up and there is plenty of room for instrumentals once the initial "13'20 D'Happiness" is over. "N.S.K." shows strains of "Legend" period Henry Cow, with more falsetto vocals, and some very nice drumming. I think it's about two minutes into this track that you hear one of the first of several instrumental jams on the album, definitely what make this piece compulsory. Brilliant drumming, a chance for some really nice solos, including bass. A Canterbury-like flavor permeates, subtly similar to early Caravan's jams, a great piece of music. The album really escalates in quality from here (don't let the first track put you off.) "H.B.H.V"'s slight Happy the Man feel is quite captivating, although the scaling is slightly off-kilter, and when the lead guitar kicks in, you start to realize how much Gong is going on here as well. The last two tracks continue at an incredibly high level of energy, the music just gets better and better.
(review taken from Gnosis.)

there's some excellent playfulness here that only the best musicians master, an interplay that is on an unusually high level. A great one-shot, no doubt, VERY recommended to fans of RIO, Jazz, and Canterbury!

A real lost gem from 70's France.

Ma Banlieue Flaque - N.S.K:

Link in comment.

Circus - ''Movin' On'' {Switzerland} [1977] @290~VBR (Art Rock)

Very strange line-up, unique sound.
Hauser is one of the better percussionists (still playing but in jazz bands nowadays), bassist Cerletti (the only non-Alemanic in the band) is certainly excellent plays also acoustic guitar. The other two, Fri and Grieder, share the wind instruments with the vocals. That's it! No KB and almost no el. guitars, at least on the first two albums.

The lack of keyboards is filled by melodic woodwind playing from flute and sax along with vibraphone, which provides a similar harmonic dimension to that of keyboards. There is a large amount of acoustic guitar to contrast the electric, and this goes some way in adding to the already atmospheric sound created by the flutes. They are able to shift seamlessly from up-tempo rocking passages to mellow and atmospheric parts.
The instrumentation of the band is very unique in some points making you think of VDGG (mostly the saxes but also in one superb section of singing much better than Hammill himself because more melodious) , but also Maneige during the classical influenced moments , Crimson but IMO not much like Tull although this album is loaded with orgasmic flutes.

The first three tracks are fairly typical, but good seventies symphonic rock. Here they sound like mid-seventies Hoelderlin with hints of Genesis and the gentler side of Gentle Giant. Movin' On (get the album title?) with Dawn is entirely instrumental (8 min long) and is one of the better example ever of what descriptive music is , and ranks up with some of the masterpieces of impressionist classical composers of early 20th century. In between some realy gloomy athmospheres at the end of the night to the soothing birds calls and wind breezes to the first rays of the sun, this is simply astounding.

They could've easily made a suite of this 22 min+ number but chose to let it express itself as an entity of its own. This pieces starts of with the most genial rythms sprinkled with sax and flutes lines and 6 min into the number comes in some scatting (no jazz feeling though) with suddendly one of the three vocalist breaking into another scheme making this grandiose. Bass and flutes take over only for Roland Frei to break into this Hamillian-singing worthy of Pawn Heart. We are now just barely half-way through and are now lying on the floor ready for the final blow , the ultimate nail into our coffin. The music flutters by, twiddles , twirls around you and circles , swirls not giving you an instant to recuperate and now comes the blow. The finals verses are shared in the most beautyful call-and-respond manner so well delivered that if have not shot your intellectual wad by now, you must be frigid or impotent. The number closes of with fabulous music unfortunately (the only slight mistake) sticking to close to my fave number from Crimson, Starless.

This absolute masterpiece (I strongly insist on this) gradually builds up to a superb climax progressing from one track to the other.

This album is a must have!

Circus - Dawn...

Links in comments...

Triode - ''On N'a Pas Fini D'avoir Tout Vu'' {France} [1971] @192 (art rock)

One of those hidden gems from the not yet totally discovered French jungle (this one dates back from 71) it was released on the Futura Label (only five or six albums before extinction) . The common error that most review makes is to mention Jethro Tull just because there is a flute. Ofr course there is a bit of that but also much more. Of real interest is a cover of one of my fave Beatles number Come Together but instrumental . Yes sir! Instrumental! Great interplay with all the musicians makes this album a valuable pearl to you would sorry to miss out on. review taken from progarchives

Triode - Ibiza Flight..

Anyone with an interest in flute-dominated music should have this album!

Links in commets...

Roberto Musci, Giovanni Venosta and Massimo Mariani: Losing The Orthodox Path. [1997] {Italy} @256 (Extraordinary Ethno Trip) (dedicated to Benito X)

This post is the result of an interaction between this blog and decoderblog.blogspot.com (visit it!) administrated by our friend, Benito X, a guy with great musical taste.

I was wandering one day around the peripehrals the musical blogosphere and found an album I have heard of but never had the chance to listen to. “Doublings and Silences Vol 1” by Doubling Riders. As soon as I saw it there I downloaded it, and immediately after that I got Vol 2 from the same source, which resulted even better. (Actually Vol 2 is so good that I played a song from it in TVOM 012). The thing is that I got into the comments and read that I was not the only one amazed and marveled by this Italian masterpieces. There were several enthusiastic comments about Doubling Riders and other related Italian projects. Notably the ones that Roberto Musci and Giovanni Venosta had done in the 90’s which were later reedited by Recommended Records for the public outside Italy.

The one we post today is the last of a triad of great albums, and definitely the most experimental and academic of the group.

Let’s focus on the fact that these albums by Giovanni Venosta and Roberto Musci are experiments in ethnomusicology, using the samplers to create sound collages made of layers and layers of tiny music pieces from all around the world, mixed brilliantly, with a sense of musicality and delicacy not very often found in experimental music.

I believe that the works done by these Italians represent what electronic music should be.

The Trio of albums are:
- “Water Messages-Urban Portraits” which is a combination of two lp’s done by Venosta and Musci in the 80’s.

- “A Noise , A Sound” in the same vein but combining ethnic samplers with somed sonic objects taken from classical European music from the XX century among many other sources.

- The one we are posting: Losing the Orthodox Path, done by Venosta and Musci with a little help from the electronic composer Massimo Mariani . This album is like a big cauldron where they melt all that they learned with the previous works adding some medieval and religious music to the mix.

There are other projects done by Musici solo, and also there are some films scores by Venosta. (Notably the one he did for the beautiful film Pane e Tulipane (Bread and Tulipans, Dir. Silvio Soldini, 2000)

The work of Venosta, Musici and their collaborators is a fresh approach to electroethnic blend. They took the torch where Brian Eno and David Byrne and left it and carried it way further, creating a new sonic planet.

This album is absolutely recommended for those who like Laszlo Hortobagyi or Vladiswar Nadishana, but even if you don’t know who those two are I must say that these album is recommended to anyone with brave ears, to anyone willing to expend his/her musical horizons.


Welcome to the adventure.

And…

Keep listening…!!!

Musci, Venosta & Mariani - Broken Oxygene...

Pierre Moerlen’s Gong – Time is The Key [France, mainly] (1979) @256 (Excellent Jazz-Rock)

We all know that Gong’s discography is quite labyrinthic and dizzying. There are so many Gongs, Paragongs, Mother Gongs. Euterpes, Gongzillas, Gonmaisons, New York Gongs, Here and Nows, Bananamoons and Invisible Companies of Tibet that one has to be an expert cryptographer to be able to decipher the Right Path that Goes to the Planet of The Pixies.

I think that one day I’ll write a mystery novel about a guy who finds a yet unknown an unedited Gong Related album that some weird and semi fascist sect is willing to kill for. I’ll be the next Dan Brown.

Meanwhile let’s concentrate on the Gong at hand. The one that belonged to the recently and untimely deceased Pierre Moerlen, one of the best drummer in Rock history and a luminary in his country: La France.

Born in Alsace in 1952, Moerlen was interested in Piano but soon turned to Classical drumming under the influence of the master Jean Batigne, who made a classical percussionist out of him. (not many rock drummers have such an exquisite education process in their résumé).

In 1973 Moerlen joined Gong while the band was based in Paris. By 1978 after Daevid Allen (Gong founder, Supreme Priest and Guru) decided to have a rest, he took temporary control of the band making it a very successful jazz-rock and fusion act. This doesn’t mean that the psychedelic Gong had disappeared. On the contrary, it was as if the Gong family had a new, fresh and talented offspring. Because talent abounds in Pierre Moerlen’s Gong.

The fist album under Moerlen’s official command was the magnificent “Downwind”, although we could say that albums like Gaseuze, Shamal, or Expresso in which Allen doesn’t participate are closer to Moerlen’s vision of avant jazz than to the hallucinated and pixie–infested universe of Daevid Allen.

Many people like to compare both Gongs. I hate that. I think that both approaches are truly diverse but one doesn’t exclude the other. The psych and magic Gong of Allen is playful, childish, mystical. The Jazzy Gong of Moerlen is musical, virtuoso, serious and deep. That’s the good thing about good music. It has many sides.

“Time is The Key” was edited in the last quarter of 1979. The line-up was very impressive: Peter Lemer played the keyboards wisely without saturation; Hansford Rowe did an unforgettable job on bass. (He’s a precursor of fretless heroes like Mick Karn). Bon Lozaga (later with the recommended Project lo) played the rhythmic guitar as no one else had in any fusion album adding a new dimension to his instrument. That guitar torturer known as Alan Holdsworth put his grain of salt to this delicious broth. Above all of them we have the glorious drumming of Moerlen, a man with a unique touch that resembles no one. His drumming is super exact, he knew well when to hit hard, when to stroke delicately, when to add a dry tune, to scratch a cymbal. He was a master player of the Rototoms, a set of (usually) three drums without shell, mounted on a zinc or aluminum frame that have a defined pitch. Some composers use them as a tuned percussion instrument. Moerlen took them farther than no one.
In terms of tuned percussion he was a giant. Listen to tracks like Arabesque and be delighted by his use of vibraphone (electric and acoustic)

These are some of the bands in which he played: Mike Olfield’s, Brand X, Super sister, Pekka Pohjola, Project Lo, Tribute and Slap Happy.


He died on May 3rd 2005.

I never had the chance to see him playing live, so recently I bought a Mike Oldfield DVD just to see him. Don’t get me wrong, I like old Mike a lot, but I have had the need to see those drumsticks being shaken by Moerlen’s hands for decades.

I truly dedicate this post to his memory.

Keep Listening…!!!

Pierre Moerlen's Gong - An American in England...

Apologies: Here is the Track List for The Voice of The Moon #012

It seems that I forgot to put the list into the rar..or either I did it and it dissapeared under mysterious, arcane, esoteric and occult circumstances.
So here it goes again:








The Voice of The Moon , September 09th, 2006

1.- Holger Czukay – Dark Moon
2.- Einsturzende Neubauten – Total Eclipse of The Sun
3.- Pablo’s Eye – The Wedding Girl
4.- Tarwater – Visit
5.- Doubling Riders – Lines of Spain
6.- Amy Denio & Pale Nudes - Axis
6.- Ze Ramalho & Alceu Valença – Dança das Borboletas
8.- The Legendary Pink Dots – Glasshouse
9.- The Legendary Pink Dots – Joey The Canary
10.- Tom Waits – Way Down to The Hole
11.- Tom Waits – Earth Died Screaming
12.- Pere Ubu - Wasted

Enjoy!

Prog Not Frog Radio Presents:The Voice of The Moon #012,With The Herbalist (Now we have a Dirty Dozen so, we have gone rather experimental and freaky)

Twelve.

That's a number rich in symbolic content.

Twelve Works of Hercules.

Twelve Deeds of Buddha.

Twelve Apostols.

Twelve Tribes of Israel

Twelve Astrological Signs.

..and so on.

Although it is not as manageable as Ten, Twelve seems nice and complete.

So, after the very nice reception that #011 had (...thanks for the comments...) I felt encouraged to go a little further and get a bit more experiemental on this one. Of course, experimental is a term too broad and could mean many things. John Cage's prepared piano works were very much experimental and still sound very odd to our ears, but on the other hand Sgt Ppepper's by The Beatles was definetely experimental and avant garde in 1967, and nowadays are part of our lives soundtrack.

Having in mind that the term is vague, I have tried not to wander away into realms that might be sonically too difficult or cacophonic. Don't get me worng. I'd love to play some Stockhausen and Varèse for you, but that kind of music doesn't fit well in radio or webcast format. Academic Avant-garde demands a special mood, a special moment and a special place to be listened too.

I don´t think that the public downloading The Voice of The Moon is after that kind of music. (but check our links, under classic and you'll reach some great blogs that deal with those genres).

Anyway I might be worng and maybe you all love Schoenberg, Messiaen, etc. Let me know if that's the case.

So, I decided to explore popular avantgarde. Or some artists that dwell in the fringe of Pop, Rock, Folk and Experimentalism.

This week we'll be exposed to the dramatic ambients created by Holger Czukay, founding member of Can. We'll also be introduced to the nocturnal experiemnts of the Italian collective Doubling Riders. After that, we'll meet a stunning singer whose name is Amy Denio. Near the end I will make you listen to one of my favorites bands. Legendary Pink Dots.

But hey, there's much more!

Give us an ear and we'll blow your soul!

And, of course,

Keep Listening...!!!

Complete your dozen------>> here

Jiří Trnka - The Hands (small movie) -1965-

...
Jiří Trnka - The Hands
...

Hello my friends! This time i would like to share a small movie and a small suprise..(whew at last youtube give me a director account to upload more than 10min movies) Keep your silences..take a deep breath..and pres the play button :) Jiří Trnka (24 February 1912 Plzeň - 30 December 1969 Prague) was Czech puppet maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director, renowned for his puppet animations.
He graduated from Prague School of Arts and Crafts. He created a puppet theater in 1936. This group was dissolved when World War II began, and he instead designed stage sets and illustrated books for children throughout the war. After the war ended, Trnka established an animation unit at the Prague film studio. Trnka soon became internationally recognized as the world's greatest puppet animator in the traditional Czech method, and he won several film festival awards. One animator called him "the Walt Disney of the East". He won an award at the Cannes Festival in 1946, just one year after he began working in film. His films were mostly made for an adult audience. Beginning in 1948, the communist Czech government began to subsidize his work, although this did not seem to affect the message or style of his work. He also created animated cartoons. He wrote the scripts for most of his own films. He died of heart trouble in 1969.

Well nowadays i am very busy in real life..so it is hard for me to create an extra time for the blog..a few days ago i uploaded rapidshare, a various artists comp. from 70's of my country (turkey) for one of my friend..i would like to share this album with you 2..Altough it was released in 2005 (vinyl form) it is a bit rare at least inside of the album there are many rare names from turkey..it is psyche rock/jazz..people who dont like suprises may stay away :) Click here to download..keep listening & nice days to all of you..Adios for now :)

Carolanne Pegg - "Carolanne" {UK} [1973] @192 (Powerful Female Balladry)

I have always been a fan of the Yorkshire folk act Mr. Fox, whose two albums are classics of the genre (Mr. Fox and The Gypsy) but recently I discovered the first solo album of one of the two Mr foxCarolanne Pegg Oh boys!, what a powerful voice, this is truly amazing!.

After leaving Mr Fox -her first band were she played with her husband Bob- Carolanne Pegg recorded in 1973 his eponymous first solo album.

This work last almost 50 minutes, all the tracks were written by Carolanne itself, except the first track (a Judy Collins cover) and "Man of War" written with H Weightman.

In words of Mark Coyle: "Like her work with Mr Fox, Ms Pegg’s solo music is folk in style and sound rather than being modern renditions of traditional song a la Steeleye Span and Pentangle. Although Track 5 Fair Fortune’s Star (which sounds like a long lost Child’s ballad) is reminiscent of her previous work, most of the songs aren’t. On this album, Ms Pegg uses a broader musical palette than before, with some songs, most notably Track 6 Clancy’s Song, having an almost country feel to them. Whatever their style, many of the songs have brooding, melancholy, if menacing, feel to them. This is most noticeable on Tack 4 The Sapphire. Track 7 The Lady and The Well, and Track 11 Winter People (the outstanding track on the album) and is achieved through Ms Pegg’s distinctive voice, and singing style (which I’m not going to even try and describe)."

For me this album need some listenings before it cast its spell, but believe me it will be engraved on your head!! a must for any folk collection, PERIOD!

Many Thanks Carolanne this is QUITE POWERFUL! SERIOUS MUSICAL STUFF

Link in Comment

Keep Listening!

Carolanne Pegg-"Winter people"

Carolanne Pegg-"The Sapphire"

Nick Mason – Fictitious Sports {UK}(1981) @VBR (Post Progressive Rock or Happy RIO or Rock-Jazz or Hard To Classify, Unfairly Forgotten Masterpiece)

My relation with this album is one of Love At the First Sight (or in this case at the first listen). It came out at the right moment, because by 1981 progressive rock was quite dead (although some might think it wasn’t, for me it was very much deceased and still is).

With Prog out of the equation, things were not easy for avant-rock collectors. Punk was a neat escape valve and valid way to express the anger of a whole generation tired of Cold War and Crooked Politicians. But Punk although beautifully truthful, wasn’t able to fill our musical expectations. Too simple, too noisy. On the other hand, most super bands were half retired, bankrupted or had gone into fusion, many of them repeating cold formulas only to show how fast they could play, or how complex they were.

The other problem was that honesty was hard to find in the music scene in 1981. The excesses of drum machines and sequencers had created a whole generation of Bad Albums.

Few artists were really on the right track, Bauhaus (and most 4AD bands), Einsturzende Neubauten (and most proto industrial bands), Gary Numan ( and a handful of Technoids), Both Peters (Hammill and Gabriel), their protegés, and a short etcetera.

Having in front of us such a deserted scenario, the release of this Nick Mason album was a nice, pleasant and stunning surprise.

I have always thought of Nick Mason as an intellectual and a man with a deep vision of modern music. He might not be the best drummer on earth. Come on… maybe he is just an average drummer in a band that never needed a better drummer, but it is also true that Nick Mason has interesting friends and he has always been close to the most respected musicians of Rock In Oposition and /or Canterbury.

For example, Nick Mason knew Robert Wyatt in the 60’s when he was the drummer of the still very unknown Pink Floyd and Wyatt (not yet paralyzed) was the inventive drummer of Soft Machine. Both bands used to play in the legendary UFO, a venue in London dedicated to psych acts.

When Wyatt was left paralyzed from the waist down in a freak accident, it was Mason who helped him producing the first Wyatt solo album: Rock Bottom, probably one of the 10 most important albums in the history of Art-Rock (Or..maybe The Most Important?). That happened in 1974.

Then Mason surprised us again by producing an album for Gong: the extraordinary Shamal, a magnificient blend of jazz, psych and oriental hallucinations.

Having those masterpieces in his resumé as a producer, it is not a surprise that Mason gave us an album like this, truly far from what he was used to do with Pink Floyd, but nonetheless highly recommended.

Actually this album is so hard to classify that I am not sure if it is rock.

My friends, I am not even sure if it is a Mason album. All the songs (including the crazy lyrics) were composed by the canadian pianist Carla Bley, so technically, this album should be credited to her and not to Mason. But the mystery is that it was Mason who received the starring role.

The lead voice is done extraordinarily well by Wyatt himself and the album’s line up can’t be any better:

Gary Windo, Gary Valente and Mike Mantler on horns, Chris Spedding on Guitar, Carla Bley on Piano, Steve Swallow on bass and some other friends on the rest of the instruments.

Those of you who haven’t heard Fictitious Sports must be asking.. well if it doesn’t sound like Pink Floyd then.. What is it?

That’s a tricky question. It has elements of Jazz but it is not Jazz, the tempos are all twisted. (And here I must contradict myself and say that he is a Great Drummer, a fact which I am sure you will accept after listening to the songs).

The bombastic arrangements could do well in a Ska album but this is not even close to Ska. The rhythms are unbalanced, odd and funny. The performances are impeccable. Actually this album is a lot of fun.

Humor impregnates every song, every chord and every phrase. But hey don’t get confused, this is a serious album. It is seriously hilarious. And it is very good music.

It is as if they had a great time doing it.

I believe you’ll also have great time exposing yourself to this happy madness.

Enjoy and,

Keep Listening.

The links are there, are usual.

Nick Mason - I was Wrong...

Sogmusobil - "Telefon" {SWE} [1971] @128 (Bombastic Wacky Psych Trip)

Ok Guys, prepare for this: a totally wacky psych artifact, an unbeliavable album indeed! full of manipulated instruments (like the piano) studio trickery and hippies declamating in a loud and hysterical way!.

If you want to make an idea think in Damo Suzuki, Frank Zappa, Holger Czukay, Captain Beefheart and Bob Dylan planning to record all together their version of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

The lyrics are both in english and swedish, and believe me, are funny as hell, hilarious in a hippie relaxed irreverent mood.

Really guys, this is THE CLASSIC SWEDISH PSYCHEDELIC ALBUM , ¡a pretty insane and wacky trip!

By the way, Mowinckel, one of its members were previously on Flasket Brinner (prior to their first album) and Atlantic Ocean, and before sogmusobil on Levande Livet.

Keep Listening!

Link in Comment

Sogmusobil-"Arabic in the Morning"

Emeraude - "Geoffroy " {FRA} [1981] @256 (Melancholic Folk-Prog)

Emeraude is a late french prog band that in 1981 enregistered their first album "Geoffroy" in tiny quantities as a private pressing.

Acording to Asbjønrsen, their music "was conceptual, progressive folk-rock with barique touches and lots of spoken English lyrics, centered around two long tracks: "Viking" (12:00) and "Geoffroy" (16:28)". Some Parts have acoustic guitar and piano only, others have the full electric treatment with melodic guitar, piano, bass and drums".

Their sound could be described as a nostalgic mix between Pentacle and Cressida. I think that fans of neoprog (i honestly hate it) could find themselves pleased with their melodic sounds, while certainly fans of prog would find in that album a very classic melodic prog sound.

At last you will notice that for be a private pressing, the sound quality its quite good.

Keep Listening

Links in comments

Emeraude-"boule de plume"

Prog Not Frog Radio Presents: The Voice of The Moon #011, With The Herbalist (This Week We get Semi-Classical, Acoustic and Rather Folky)

I try to put my heart and senses in every Voice of The Moon show I do, but at the end of the day, I like some shows better than others. This one I really enjoyed doing and listening to after it was done. I selected to play today two of the musicians that have filled my heart and mind in the last decade. Wim Mertens from Belgium and Iva Bittova from the Czech Republic.
Of course there are, as usual, many other suprises.


I am doing my best to improve my spoken English rhythm but only you, my dear friends can tell me if I am doing any better.

I am very grateful for those nice comments we have been getting with this radio show, or webcast or whatever you want to call it.

I must remind you again that The Voice of The Moon is done to give room to things we can’t post in the blog because we avoid posting things younger than 20 years old.
Another thing I’d like to remind you at this point is to visit our archives. Here and there you’ll find some good albums that you’ll want to get.

Final announcement for this week is that I won’t be posting albums myself as often as I used two at least for the next few days because I will be working on other aspects of Prog Not Frog, but please pay attention to what our friends Nahavanda, Algarnas and Micaus are posting. They are doing a great job. For you. And Because of you.

Be well.

Behave well.

See you again very soon!

This Way to The Voice of the Moon # 011