British-Italian progressive rock band of the early 70's. While their career was less successful than Italian bands of the progressive rock movement, such as Primiata Forneria Marconi, or Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, they were very popular for a few years, and were very much appreciated by critics, especially because of their talented leader, keyboard player Joe Vescovi, who is often reffered to as the Italian counterpart to Keith Emerson. The band is also notable as British guitar player Ritchie Blackmore was in the lineup before joining Deep Purple.
The band was established in London in 1966 when Riki Maiocci of I Camaleonte fame decided to create a new band to explore the new oppertunities brought about by the advent of psychedelic rock. In London, Maiocci had met with Ian Broad, who joined Maiocci's project; they also recruited Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Arvid "Wegg" Andersen (bass/vocals), and William Grey (also on guitar). The band debuted in Italy as "Maiocci and the Trip." Blackmore left in December 1966 and returned to London where he continued as a session musician until 1968 when he joined Deep Purple. He was replaced by Luciano Galdolfi. When Galdolfi, Maiocci, and Broad left, new and fundamental additions were made to the personnel. Namely Joe Vescovi (keyboards), and Pino Sinnone (drums).
In 1970, the band (who had been renamed "The Trip") signed with RCA Italiana, releasing their first eponymous LP. At the time, progressive rock was not yet clearly identified as a genre: The Trip is in fact, a rather traditional rock and blues album. Also in 1970, the band was featured in a surrealistic Italian movie entitled: Terzo Canale: Avventura Monte Carlo.
The Trip's second release, Caronte, (1971) was a major shift towards progressive rock. It was a concept album which blended mythological themes, structured compositions, and virtuoso keyboard plating by Viscovi. It payed tribute to rock giants Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
After Caronte, Grey andSinnone left; a new drummer was hired, Furio Chirico. This lineup released Atlantide (1972). At the time, The Trip had become a trio (keyboard, bass, and drums) and their overall sound came as close as ever to that of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer.
In 1973, that same lineup released the last official album of the band: Time of Change, this time, with the label Trident. This too was a mythology-themed concept album, with a sound that blended progressive rock with some jazz elements.
After Time of Change the group disbanded, with Chirico leaving to establish his own band Arti e Mestieri, that also had some success on the Italian progressive rock scene. Viscovi joined the band Aqua Fragile, and then Dik Dik, one of the most popular Italian pop-rock bands of the time.
Spettri was a five piece band from Florence, Italy, formed by brothers Ugo and Raffaele Ponticiello in 1964. They had a fairly long career and released several singles during the Italian Beat era, although their sound had eventually evolved by the turn of the decade, and they had turned to performing covers by contemporary heavy rock groups from the U.K.and the U.S.A. The band also underwent a lot of personnel changes during the intervening years, and among the musicians that came and went was drummer Maro Sarti of Campo De Marte fame. The youngest member of the Ponteciello clan, Vincenzo, joined in 1971, making the band a real family affair.
Between 1970 and 1971 the band had written enough original material for a full length album that was later recorded in a single session on October 13, 1972, with a sound that is rather primative and badly produced. However, the album never saw the light of day until 2011, when Black Widow records released a remastered edition of the self titled work, almost on the eve of it's 40th anniversary. It's a concept album that portrays one man's search for his inner self by means of a seance, although it's also an allegory on the selfishness and hypocrisy of a modern society and the erosion of humanity. The protagonists journey into the abyss is aptly accompanied by a dark atmosphere of heavy guitar riffs and Hammond organ that together sounds like a collision of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
Spettri had a good live act, but disbanded in 1975; according to the albums liner notes, the members followed different musical paths due to "growing public disinterest in refined music" around that time. Defining Spettri as "refined" might strain the listeners credulity somewhat, as the main appeal of this band seems to be characterized by it's very defects, it's rawness and sheer exuberance.
Posthumous archival release from Noah, a band out of Salem, Ohio, who played around Cleveland,
Youngstown, and Pittsburgh doing support gigs for B.B. King, Keith Emerson & The Nice, and The James Gang. Noah's overall vibe lies between Iron Butterfly, and a more jammy (!!!) Deep Purple. Heavy psych? Proto-prog? Who can decide.
Lots of fuzz, and a good kind of muddy production that lends atmosphere rather than cloud the music. The aggression and fuzz on "Why Should I Care" and "We Wanna Be Free" is pleasantly abrasive. Heavy organ and guitar trade off somewhere near the cutting edge for that year, though this L.P. reaches all over the globe in terms of heavy psych, and often successful proggy explorations. Lot's of pentatonic jams by a would-be Hendrix. Track 2 is a 21 minute affair, which segues. Track 6 is another lengthy one, at 14:30. This time showcasing the organ, and a bit of trade-off with a great guitar jam Deep Purple fans would gobble up with a quickness. The compositions taste a bit like Cleveland's 'Dragonwyck' at times. Very much a product of the Midwest, and the time and place are very apparent.
This one is truly a lost gem.
The Lineup (tracks 2,4,&5):
Larry Davis - Drums
Paul Hess - bass/backup vocal, lead vocal on track 4
Mark Schuering - guitar/lead vocal
Danny Hall - keyboards/backup vocal Tracks 1,3 (earlier lineup):
Larry Davis - drums
Paul Hess - lead guitar/backup vocal
Terry Davis - bass/lead vocal
Mike Rifle - keyboards/backup vocal
Cadavering credits are due to Al Simones, who unearthed these unreleased recordings and set about to actualize them on vinyl only in the mid-90's. There was a warpage problem with the small batch of 350 copies during storage as the covers were plagued with production flaws. In the past, he has taken L.P.'s, flattened them and housed them in rediculously thick sleeves.
The scarcity of the reissue has guaranteed sticker shock (couldn't even find it on discogs!). There was no "original" 1969 release, as this is the first issue after it's unearthing. This is the full release as put out by Head records. Once in a while, one pops up on ebay within' the range of $90 to $250.
Grupa SOS was a Black Sabbath inspired rock band founded in Beograd (Serbia) in 1972. They released 4 singles in 1974 & 1975, and split up in 1977. Some members re-appeared in the later 70's as a band called 'Riblja Corba', with the common members being Rajko Kojic (guitar), and Vico Milatovic (drums). The rest of Grupa SOS was Miroslav Aliksic Misa (bass/vocals), Dragan Stulovic Stuks (guitar '72-'77), Aleksanar Tasic Tasa (guitar, 1972), and Stevan Stevanovic Stiv (drums, 1972-'77)
The band took it's name (SOS), the acronym for the distress call, and had posters advertising the band with: "If you are in urgent need of assistance in the form of good music, call to the aid Group SOS"
The group initially performed as a quartet, but with the departure of Tasa, continued as a trio.
Necronomicon from Aachen, Germany, was one of the very few progressive bands using German lyrics. The band was founded in 1970 by Walter Sturm (guitar/vocals), Norbert Bruer (guitar/vocals), and Gerd Libber (bass). Only a short while after beginning, Harald Bernhard (drums), and Fistus Dickman (keyboards) joined the project. The band's name was the title of an H.P. Lovecraft book. They were the first German band to use this name, long before the appearance of the contemporary thrash metal band bearing the same name.
In 1971, Detley Hackenbeck took over on bass, and in 1972, Bernhard Hock became the band's bass player. During the first years, Necronomicon played covers, in English, from such bands as John Mayall, Pink Floyd, Ten Yearsa After, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Deep Purple. The lyrics of their first original works were in English as well. They even thought of releasing an album of them entitled: "History of a Planet." Yet, before the record would have been released, the began singing their lyrics in German, written by Norbert Bruer, with the purpose of drawing more attention to topics they felt were important at the time: thoughtless abuse of nature, overpopulation, exploitation, injustice and violence.
In the spring of 1972, they had six tracks, which they recorded in a very small studio in the Dutch town Kerkrade on a Revox double track tape machine. The L.P. was mastered by the Carl Lindstrom GmbH, Cologne, and 500 copies were pressed. The title: "Tip Zum Selbstmord" (How to Commit Suicide) isn't meant as an instruction on how to end ones personal life, it rather refers to mankind, which is devastating the Earth, and thus destroying it's own basis for living. With the self made cover they had something extraordinary in mind; it folds out five times, and in consequence, has six squares, which builds a cross when it's unfolded. While one of it's sides is blank, the other filled with drawings by Harald Bernhard. This unique concept of the band's name, the music, the lyrics, and the records title found it's completion with this design and the according illustrations.
In 1973, Dieter Ose took over the keyboards from Fistus Dickman, and Gerd Libber was back on bass. Walter Sturm, who, in the meantime, had quit the band for one year to play with Rufus Zuphall, rejoined the band in 1974.
In 1976, Necronomicon split up. However, some members didn't come to terms with this and carried on with the name. At this point, they began using English lyrics. All forms of the band had split up for good in 1981. Then in 2010/2011, the band reformed and is now playing once more. Official Webpage
Formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1969 by Christer Stalbrandt, Richard Rolf, and Bjorn Inge, November has been called Swedens first hard rock/heavy metal band. They were known to plat "as fast as they can" and with lots of guitar solos, but their style has little in common with speed metal. Their music was instead partly inspired by American acid rock, but also heavy and blues based, like a mixture of Uriah Heep, Cream, and Led Zeppelin.
November started in 1968 at Teglhogen, a youth club in Vallingby (a Stockholm suburb). At this club, Christer Stalbrandt and Bjorn Inge played together with two friends as The Imps. After a few months Stalbrandt left the group to form a new group called Train. Bjorn Inge joined shoetly after. Train also featured Snowy White on guitar. In autumn of '69, White decided to return to his homeland, England, and Richard Rolf joined after as their new guitarist.
On November 1st, they supported Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac at the Que Club in Gothenburg, and therefore, decided to call themselves November.
November was one of the first Swedish rock bands with Swedish lyrics. Most of the lyrics were written by Stalbrandt and were inspired by the 60's 'Flower Power' movement. Despite Swedish lyrics, November were quite popular in England. While touring England their lyrics were often translated to English, however the crowd insisted that the band sing in Swedish.
November recorded three albums which all reached high positions in the Swedish charts. At their last concert at Club Domino on New Years Eve, 1972, the band split up and up until 2007, had only performed once, namely for release party for the CD, November Live-1993 (recorded on tour in 1971) on 30 November, 1993.
Dust was formed in 1969 by Richie Wise and two teenagers, Kenny Aaronson (later of Derringer and HSAS fame) and Marc Bell (a.k.a. Marky Ramone). The trio's producer and manager, Kenny Kerner, also wrote the band's lyrics. Their eponymous debut album was released on Kama Sutra records in 1971, followed by a sophomore release Hard Attack on the same label the following year, which sharpened the band's edge and intensified the band's approach, thus it became the more sought after of the pair by collectors interested in the roots of American metal.
At the dawn of the 70's, hard rock and early heavy metal were almost completely dominated by British innovators. Dust was one of the few American bands to try picking up the gauntlet, playing a progressive brand of proto-metal that was explicitly indebted to their British contemporaries.
Dust didn't last long, nor did they get up to much touring: "No, we didn't get far", says Richie, "and I think, if we'd stayed together, I think we would have gone a lot further. But in the Midwest, there was, for some reason, the radio stations there, and some of the cities, like St. Louis, started to play us -- I guess they really like that kind of rock sound. And I guess they did for many years after that, because they broke a lot of the heavy bands in the Midwest. Kiss, who I later on produced, broke in the Midwest. Detroit, places like that. I remember us playing with Alice Cooper, Uriah Heep, King Crimson, Cactus."
Although Wise began writing material for a third album, the band dissolved due to lack of promotion and Wise's growing disinterest in producing.
While the group only released two album's, the band gained interest in collectors of early heavy metal. Both albums were reissued on April 16, 2013 together as a combined CD set titled Hard Attack/Dust, as well as on vinyl on August 20 for Record Store Day.
Wise and Kerner went into production for Kiss, among others, producing their first two albums.
Bell's next project after Dust was Estus. He played on their 1973 eponymous album. In the mid 70's, he joined Richard Hell and the Voidiods, playing on their seminal Blank Generation L.P. In 1978, he replaced Thomas Erdelyi in the Ramones, assuming the name Marky Ramone.
(Potions of this article written by Steve Huey - Allmusic)
Truth and Janey formed in Iowa originally in 1969, and took their name from Jeff Beck's album Truth, and member Billy Janey's last name. The original lineup included drummer John Fillingsworth, however, in roughly one year's time, he was replaced with Dennis Bruce. The rest of the band included Dennis Bunce, and Steve Bock. In 1972 they released their debut 7 inch 45 "Midnight Horseman" along with a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb".
The following year they released "Straight Eight Pontiac" b/w "Around and Around" on their own Driving Wheel label. By 1976, they recorded No Rest For the Wicked, which sold only 1000 copies upon it's original release. 1977 saw the release of a second album: Just a Little Bit of Magic. However, during the late 70's, they disbanded several times. Bassist Steve Bock eventually joined a group called Nowhere Fast, Billy Lee would go on to release several solo albums, and Bunce left the music business completely.
Ray Russell and Alex Harvey formed Rock Workshop in the early 70's, and it became an expansive band of thirteen musicians, most of which were of the U.K.'s leading young jazz musicians, who created an innovative and technically innovative form of experimental rhythm and blues.
Rat Russell recalls that he was playing with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and then appeared in the 'Hair' musical together with Alex Harvey's brother Les. It was from this meeting, and Alex Harvey's involvement on backing vocals in the musical, the idea of Rock Workshop was born.
The collective's first album was issued in 1971 to great critical acclaim. However, due to their record label wanting to market them as an English 'Blood Sweat & Tears', they never achieved any great commercial success. A second album was released, 1971's The Very Last Time before the band folded and Harvey went on to great commercial and critical success with his own band.
A few years ago, if you had wanted to hear this record, you would have had to hunt down a bootleg copy (which in itself, may have set you back a few big $$$), or spend thousands on an original, that is if you found one, as there were only 200 copies that comprised the 1971 release.
L.A. based Fraction, were in theory, a Christian rock band but at times, sounded like some seriously deranged and dangerous people. The lineup was: Jim Beach - vocals, Don Swanson - lead guitar, Kurt Swanson - drums, Victor Hemme - bass, and Robert Meinal - rhythm guitar.
Tapping the same wave of down-tuned, bleakly heavy, savage come-down psych that informed contemporary's like Black Sabbath or The Stooges, Fraction were a working-class band who would rehearse and record in the early morning hours before starting their day jobs. Beach himself describes those early days: "The guys met through various acquaintances that we had in L.A. All of us had been in bands before, but were seeking something with more teeth. We had a small studio in an industrial complex in North Hollywood and started practicing sometimes as early as 4 a.m. We all had day jobs, so we did what we could."
Thanks to that dedication, there is a spacious sort of loneliness at the heart of the noise they make. "Come Out of Her" is positively demonic, singer Jim Beach's ragged growl and unparalleled pained howls has been likened to Jim Morrison, and also gives influence nods to proto-everything, the Yardbirds (though lines from The Doors' 'LaMerica' pop up on the album) but there's a desperation and anxiety here that the hansom, wealthy son of a Navy senior officer never had. (fascinatingly enough, Beach cites the much punker 'Love' as his fave L.A. band over the Doors), while guitarist Don Swanson incorporates excessive wah-pedal and fuzzed out distortion to the limit. Swanson's blown-out fuzz riffs set a template for today's stoner metal.
On a strict budget, the five songs that made up the original release were recorded in one three hour session, with no overdubs or added effects. As Beach further states: "The Moon Blood recording took place at Whitney's studio in Glendale Ca. early in 1971. All of the tracks 'one-takes', all of us played simultaniously, no overdubbing or effects. Basically what you hear is 'old school' recording."
Moon Blood is a brilliantly odd record. A snapshot of a time when Jesus-freak hippys still knew what it was like to have some angry toxins running through your brain. Naturally, the band never got anywhere, and for decades, no one but the most obsessed got to hear them.
