JOAN ARMATRADING – Starlight

Joan Armatrading – Starlight (2012)

Born in 1950 on the island of St. Kitts, British singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading was her country’s — as well as Britain’s — first woman to make commercial inroads into her chosen genre, spicing her take on folk with elements of rock, blues, and jazz, and has had a remarkably long, consistent career.
If you know Armatrading best from seventies hits such as Love and Affection and Down to Zero, you may be surprised at the pure jazz spirit inspiring her playing on Starlight. Akin in spirit to Joni Mitchell’s 1979 homage to jazz, Mingus, on this album Armatrading explores the complexities of life and love through rhythmically advanced songs such as I Want That Love and Tell Me, which features some deft Alan Murphy-style soloing.
Ambitious and musically sophisticated, this is a satisfying return from one of our finest home-grown singer-songwriters.
1. Single Life (3:48)
2. Close to Me (3:55)
3. Tell Me (4:52)
4. Back On Track (3:39)
5. I Want That Love (4:28)
6. The Way I Think of You (2:55)
7. Always On My Mind (3:49)
8. Starlight (3:45)
9. Busy with You (4:42)
10. Summer Kisses (3:57)
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BÉLA FLECK AND THE MARCUS ROBERTS TRIO - ACROSS THE IMAGINARY DIVIDE

BÉLA FLECK AND THE MARCUS ROBERTS TRIO
''ACROSS THE IMAGINARY DIVIDE''
JUN 5 2012
ROUNDER
62:43


01 - Some Roads Lead Home/0:6:10
02 - I'm Gonna Tell You This Story One More Time/0:5:38
03 - Across the Imaginary Divide/0:4:41
04 - Let Me Show You What To Do/0:4:50
05 - Petunia/0:4:57
06 - Topaika/0:4:28
07 - One Blue Truth/0:4:22
08 - Let's Go/0:5:53
09 - Kalimba/0:6:16
10 - The Sunshine and the Moonlight/0:5:32
11 - That Old Thing/0:5:01
12 - That Ragtime Feeling/0:4:05

Béla Fleck/Banjo
Rodney Jordan/Bass
Jason Marsalis/Drums
Marcus Roberts/Piano
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SAVOY BROWN - Seattle Center Arena (1972)

Savoy Brown - Seattle Center Arena (1972)
Time for Savoy Brown, for the first time here this blues-rock band from London that has a long career and has had plenty of musicians through the years.
This radio recording made on the Seattle Center Arena is from March 10, 1972 only a month after the release of Hellbound Train, an album that got to the U.S. Top 40 chart.
These days they are still doing their business, led by Kim Simmonds, guitarist and founder.

Sound Quality: 9
Source: FM Broadcast

Track List:
01 - Going Down
02 - Let It Rock
03 - Hellbound Train
04 - Tell Mama
05 - All I Can Do
06 - Shake It Baby
07 - Wang Dang Doodle

http://fp.io/77b74a9b/

OZRIC TENTACLES - Bits Between the Bits (1989)

Ozric Tentacles - Bits Between the Bits (1989) (@256)
(Review from progarchives.com)

The last of the tentacles :)

This album was to close the chapter in the early cassette-era releases. Roughly the same time as “The Bits Between the Bits”, they released “Pungent Effulgent”, their first proper-label release. “The Bits Between the Bits” were leftover material that never made it on any of their albums from “Erpsongs” to “Pungent Effulgent”. But these aren’t half-ass rejects that should’ve been thrown in the trash, but top quality material that should’ve appeared on those albums in the first place. Because of this, the material is a bit more eclectic than anything they did before.

The opening cut, “Eye of Adia” sounds like something off “Pungent Effulgent”, and in fact was used on that album, as part of one of the cuts. “Sparkling Oasis” is another one of those reggae tunes the band liked doing at this early stage of their career. “Tidal Otherness” in this version, is just a short, ambient piece, with just the main, recognizable theme, and that’s it. The original (off “Erpsongs”) is much longer, which ventured more in to Tangerine Dream-like electronic music. “Symetricum” is a wonderful piece, utilizing Ed’s delayed guitar method, with some great spacy passages. Of course, I could live without Joie’s use of the cheesy Casio CZ-1000 (I should know, I used to own a CZ-101, which is exactly the same thing, but with smaller keys, and was a pretty second-rate synthesizer). “Floating Seeds” is a wonderful ambient piece, with some ethnic influences. Then you have “Wreltch”, which re-appeared on the 1990 reissue of “Pungent Effulgent”, so if you own that album (that is, the Dovetail version or the Snapper version), you know this song already. Great way to close off their cassette-era, as from here on out, they’ll be releasing albums on a proper label, with more great albums to come!

Line-up :
- Ed Wynne / guitar, keyboards
- Steve Everett / sampling
- Joie Hinton / synthesizer, sampling
- Tig (Nick van Gelder) / drums
- Roly Wynne / bass

Track List :
01. Eye of Adia (4:24)
02. Fragmentary Aura (3:09)
03. Sparkling Oasis (4:30)
04. Tidal Otherness (0:59)
05. Secret Names (5:23)
06. Symetricum (4:37)
07. Floating Seeds (5:40)
08. Ozrosis (2:33)
09. Wreltch (8:29)
10. Afterswish (2:41)
11. Koh Phangan (7:09)
12. The Cave of Aeolas (5:52)
13. Puff Puff on a Chuff Chuff (2:13)
14. Health Music (4:45)

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OZRIC TENTACLES - Sliding Gliding Worlds (1988)

Ozric Tentacles - Sliding Gliding Worlds (1988) (@256)

Many regard this as their best cassette-era release, but I’m not one of them, as I fell “There is Nothing” and even “The Bits Between the Bits” are better. But of course, this being an Ozric album, it’s full of great stuff, and I never ran across a bad Ozric album. This being originally a privately issued cassette, the cover artwork was still black and white (done by Blim, an anonymous figure responsible for the trippy colorful psychedelic artwork once the band started recording for proper labels). The band also witness the most major linup change at this point, with two major figures coming in. One is the arrival of drummer Merv Pepler. He was obviously responsible for several of Ozrics best albums, and he stayed with the band until 1994 (previous drummer, Nick Van Gilder aka. “Tig” left because he really wasn’t too interested in the music Ozrics played, and you’ll find out once he joined Jamiroquai for a short time from 1992 to ‘94). Another key figure to make his premiere here is John Egan, on flutes (sometimes he goes by his Gaelic name of Eoin Eogan, since if I’m not mistakened, he is Irish). He is still with the band to this day, and he was responsible for giving the band a more ethnic bent, which obviously helped improved on the band’s sound.

“Sliding Gliding Worlds” is quite an accomplishment given it was originally a privately issued cassette the band released themselves. While I though “There is Nothing” was better because it was more energetic and exciting, “Sliding Gliding Worlds” was perhaps a more consistent offering (you don’t get experiments like the original version of “The Eternal Wheel”, for example) and the band was obviously going for a more exotic and ethnic feel. Here you get the original version of “White Rhino Tea” (later re-recorded for Strangeitude). This version has a more ’80s sound (especially the drum machines). “Kick Muck” makes its premiere here as well (exactly the same as “Pungent Effulgent”, but with an ambient experiment tagged at the end, rather than seguing in to “Agog in the Ether”). “The Dusty Pouch” was the album’s only excursion in to reggae, but what makes this really interesting is John’s exotic flute at the end. “Mae Hong Song”, despite the Chinese title, sounds more like Balinesian gamelan. “(Omnidirectional) Bhadra” has more of an Indian feel, no doubt helped by someone named Marcus “Carcus” playing tabla. It’s amazing that in ‘88 any band would combine both digital and analog (since too many bands at that time were too stuck on digital to give a rat’s ass to anything that existed before the Yamaha DX-7). This is some great material, to say the least, and it’s little wonder why the band would get proper label treatment pretty soon after this.

Line-up :
- Ed Wynne / guitar, synthesizer
- Joie Hinton / synts, sampling
- Roly Wynne / bass
- Merv Pepler / drums
- Steve Everett / keyboards
- Paul Hankin / percussion
- Marcus “Carcus” / percussion
- John Egan / flute

Track List :
01. Yaboop (5:29)
02. Soda Water (4:10)
03. The Code for Chickendon (4:59)
04. Guzzard (2:05)
05. The Dusty Pouch (4:22)
06. Sliding and Gliding (4:54)
07. Kick Muck (5:30)
08. It’s a Hup Ho World (6:42)
09. Atmospheric Underslunky (3:33)
10. (Omnidirectional) Bhadra (2:58)
11. Fetch Me the Pongmaster (6:12)
12. Mae Hong Song (3:19)
13. White Rhino Tea (4:05)
14. Loaf Jaw (1:11)
15. The Green Island (3:04)

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OZRIC TENTACLES - There Is Nothing (1986)

Ozric Tentacles - There Is Nothing (1986) (@256)
(Review from progarchives.com)

This was their final album to feature Tig (Nick van Gelder) who later spent a short time with Jamiroquai (although not on the album that featured that hit with the dorky video, “Virtual Insanity”). This is truly Ozrics on their way to more great things to come. The album opens up with “The Sacred Turf”, an intense jam that the band often finds themselves doing on many of their albums, this is pretty typical Ozrics. You have an original of “O-I” which was later re-recorded for “Pungent Effulgent”. Sticks pretty much the same, with a different solo. “Jabular” is one of their more techno-like pieces, but I mean more in an ’80s fashion, not ’90s, like often heard on the albums they did when Rad and Seaweed were in the band (like Curious Corn, Waterfall Cities, and The Hidden Step). “Staring at the Moon” is one of the three reggae type pieces found on this album. “Lull Your Skull” is an interesting one, with some great synth work, and Roly giving us an odd combination of fretless and slap-bass work. As a matter of fact, I feel Roly gives us his best bass work here, showing his abilities on fretless, as well as the standard bass using the slap-bass technique, something he didn’t seem to do on other albums. “Crap Nebula” and “Kola B’Pep”, once again, are more reggae pieces, while “Thrashing Breath Texture” is a more thrashing piece. Not all the pieces on this album work. For example, the original version of “The Eternal Wheel”. It was vastly improved on “Erpland” with actual guitars and drums, this one is little more than a drum machine experiment that seems to little for me, and it’s almost completely unrecognizable. The album closes with the wonderful title track, a cool ambient experiment with ethnic influences (and despite the ethnic influences, just to let you know that John hadn’t even joined the band yet). With the exception of “The Eternal Wheel”, another great Ozric albums, in my book.

Line-up :
- Ed Wynne / guitar, synthesizer
- Joie Hinton / synthesizer, sampling
- Tom Brooks / synthesizers
- Roly Wynne / bass
- Tig (Nick van Gelder) / drums
- Paul Hankin / percussion

Track List :
01. The Sacred Turf (3:14)
02. O-I (4:42)
03. Jabular (3:53)
04. Staring at the Moon (4:52)
05. Airy Area (3:44)
06. Travelling the Great Circle (4:05)
07. Imhotep (12:03)
08. Thrashing Breath Texture (3:31)
09. Crab Nebula (5:39)
10. Lull Your Skull (3:01)
11. Invisible Carpet (5:47)
12. The Eternal Wheel (9:53)
13. Kola B’Pep (6:36)
14. There is Nothing (1:19)

http://fp.io/c35a33m8/

OZRIC TENTACLES - Live Ethereal Cereal (1986)

Ozric Tentacles - Live Ethereal Cereal (1986) (@256)
(Review from progarchives.com)

Much maligned live Ozrics album, I think the only reason for that criticism is the sound quality, which isn’t the best, luckily it isn’t that “recorded off someone’s home cassette recorder” quality. I have no problems hearing all the instruments being played. You also have to bear in mind, in 1985 and ‘86, when “Live Ethereal Cereal” was recorded, the band still had no recording contract with a record label, and they already had two cassettes under their belt, with “Tantric Obstacles” and “Erpsongs” that they produced and released themselves. Of course, being an unsigned band at that time, they didn’t have the benefit of top quality digital equipment like a band at that time who was recording for an actual record label.

“Live Ethereal Cereal” consists of performances from four separate shows in England, three of them in Reading (September and December 1985, and February 1986) and one in Glastonbury (October 1985). Given the circumstances, this is a truly amazing and underrated live album. All but two cuts are actually stuff found nowhere else! You get to hear early OZRICS performing some rather raw and exciting stuff, like “Erpriff”, “Tentacular Explosion”, and one of my favorites, “Obstacular Explosion”. Two songs from their then-current cassette releases, “Tantric Obstacles” and “Erpsongs” were represented by “Og-Ha-Be” and “Dots Thots”, both of them arranged a bit differently from the originals, but with the familiar themes still intact. All the wonderful OZRICS stuff can be already found here: totally wild guitar from Ed Wynne, with lots of great spacy synths from both Joie Hinton and Tom Brookes. Roly Wynne (Ed’s brother, sadly now deceased) handled the bass, and Tig (aka Nick Van Gelder) handled the drums. If you bear in mind the technical limitations the band had at the time in the process of recording a live album cassette, you got yourself some amazing performances. Luckily they paired this album with There is Nothing (perhaps their best cassette-era release, in my book, although many say “Sliding Gliding Worlds”) as a 2-for-1 CD set (prior to that, sold separately on CD by Dovetail, and before that, part of the “Vitamin Enhanced Box Set”). Great stuff, if you don’t mind the sound quality!

Line-up :
- Ed Wynne / guitar
- Joie Hinton / synthesizer
- Roly Wynne / bass
- Gavin Griffiths / bass
- Tom Brooks / bubbles
- Paul Hankin / congas
- Tig (Nick van Gelder) / drums

Track List :
01. Erpriff (a) (9:33)
02. Tentacular Explosion (b) (10:07)
03. Stupid Reggae (a) (6:16)
04. Om Riff (b) Gong (4:37)
05. Obstacular Explosion (c) (13:46)
06. Og-Ha-Be (a) (8:38)
07. Dots Thots (d) (4:50)
08. Erpitaph (c) (3:47)

http://fp.io/m33dee25/

OZRIC TENTACLES - Tantric Obstacles (1985)

Ozric Tentacles - Tantric Obstacles (1985) (@256)
(Review from progarchives.com)

It’s hard to believe what a different world Ozric Tentacles was back in 1985. Flutist John Egan was not even in the band yet. Future members, such as drummer Rad were barely in their teens at that time (and Rad replacement, Schoo aka Stuart Fisher was around 10 years old then). A future member of Jamiroquai by the name of Nick Van Gelder (Tig) was the drummer. They had two keyboardists, one being Joie Hinton (who stayed with the band until 1994), and Tom Brookes (who left not too long after this album, only to reappear as a guest on “Erpland”), and guitarist Ed Wynne’s brother Roly was the bassist. Also the band was basically in their infancy and released their second cassette, “Tantric Obstacles” in 1985, the same year as “Erpsongs”. Quite an accompilshment, since each cassette at that time equaled to a double LP’s worth of material. This isn’t some cassette released on some label, this was a band doing all by themselves, bought a batch of 90 minute blank tapes, get someone by the name of Blim to do the cover artwork, and photocopy all this stuff. Apparently there was some more fancy artwork for the cassette that never made it to the Dovetail CD reissue (or the more recent CD reissue on Snapper/Recall that also packaged “Erpsongs”). During this time, the band totally forgot to write down song titles, so the song titles you know from these early cassette releases came through the Dovetail reissue (that were sold either as part of the “Vitamin Enhanced” box set or separately, or the songs that were lucky to make it prior on their 1991 compilation “Afterswish”).

The music is a notch above “Erpsongs”. For one thing, the band seemed to be able to correct their mistakes. Still they’re a bit inexperienced with the mixing, so often the drums end up too loud and the bass is a bit buried. The music has improved as well. Songs such as “Shards of Ice”, “Sniffing Dog”, “Atmosphear”, “Ullular Gate” and “Trees of Eternity” prove. Plenty of VCS-3 like synth bubbles and tons of great analog synth sounds (which is a bit odd given this was the ever digitized year known as 1985 where everyone else was toying with Yamaha DX-7s and similar stuff), plus Ed’s tradmark wild guitar. You’ll notice a mostly lack of an ethnic sound, just one excursion in to reggae with “Sorry Style”, but you won’t find any Asian or Middle Eastern styles here (probably because John was not present).

Though stuffed with great material, this is basically a historical item and might not be the best place to start for newcomers, but it’s still very worthwhile.

Line-up :
- Ed Wynne / guitar
- Joie Hinton / synthesizers
- Tom Brooks / synthesizers
- Roly Wynne / bass
- Tig (Nick van Gelder) / drums
- Paul Hankin / percussion

Track List :
01. Og-Ha-Be (4:42)
02. Shards of Ice (3:56)
03. Sniffing Dog (6:33)
04. Music to Gargle At (3:30)
05. Ethereal Cereal (2:15)
06. Atmosphear (4:32)
07. Ullular Gate (4:27)
08. Tentacles of Erpmind (0:39)
09. Trees of Eternity (7:26)
10. Mescalito (4:04)
11. Odhamshaw Style (1:53)
12. Become the Otter (5:00)
13. Gnuthlia (5:26)
14. Sorry Style (3:46)
15. The Aum Shuffle (3:06)

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OZRIC TENTACLES - Erpsongs (1985)

Ozric Tentacles - Erpsongs (1985) (@256)
(Review from progarchives.com)

This is the very first release from the Ozrics. As a matter of fact, they weren’t signed to any label. Let’s examine what’s going on: it’s the mid 1980s, the kind of space rock bands like Gong and Hawkwind were doing the decade before is now long out of fashion. Record labels once sympathetic to that kind of music (like Virgin, which Gong recorded for) turned their backs on that kind of music and started including punk and new wave acts on their roster. Ozric Tentacles knew at the time they wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell finding a record label to release their material, so they took matters in to their own hands and released cassettes that were produced and released all by themselves (until the time their reputation spreaded far enough, they would get a record deal, in 1989, that is, but that’s later on).

“Erpsongs” is that first cassette, and for a home made affair, this is quite a decent album. Certainly the production is a bit messed up in places, and it has its share of throwaway filler, but this album proves that they were already making great space rock, with the ever wild guitar work of Ed Wynne, and great spacy synths from Joie Hinton and Tom Brookes. Ed’s not the only one handling guitar here, as Gavin Griffiths is the other guy handing guitar too. Also we get future Jamiroquai drummer Nick Van Gelder (aka. Tig). “Erpsongs” is a wonderful historical item, but things will only get better, that is, their following cassette releases, and their more polished official label releases. If you’re a newcomer, don’t start here, but if you’re a fan, you shouldn’t go without.

Line-up :
- Ed Wynne / guitar
- Gavin Griffiths / guitar
- Joie Hinton / synthesizers
- Tom Brooks / synthesizers
- Roly Wynne / bass
- Tig (Nick van Gelder) / drums
- Paul Hankin / percussion

Track List :
01. Velmwend (4:40)
02. Fast Dots (3:49)
03. Thyroid (5:07)
04. Spiral Mind (3:35)
05. Synth On a Plinth (2:01)
06. Dharma Reggae (4:58)
07. Tidal Otherness (5:41)
08. Erpriff (1:43)
09. Descension (5:04)
10. Misty Gliss (4:35)
11. Dots Thots (4:31)
12. Clock Drops (2:49)
13. Five Jam (6:55)
14. Oddhamshaw (6:18)

http://fp.io/7de7a51c/