Haggard - 2004 - Eppur Si Muove

Genre: Crossover Prog

Origin: Germany

Covers included

Type Mp3 320 Kbps

Size : 105204 KB

Released : 2004

No Password

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Symphonic elements in Metal is nowadays in fashion like never before. Bands like Therion made it largely popular and even way before neoclassical artists such as Ygnwie J. Malmsteen were amazing listeners with a blend of classical elements and Heavy Metal. But the German combo Haggard pushed this form of expression to a newer level with 2002's highly acclaimed "Awakening The Centuries". A full orchestra, a full choir and a very talented Metal base ranging from Heavy to Death Metal brought listeners to their knees. In this context, "Eppur Si Muove" surfaced in early 2004 and totally rocked my world.A one-piece monument of orchestration and head-banging riffs is the simplest way to sum up what this album has to offer, but it doesn't even come close to describe its content. Real piano, violins, violas, oboes and other flutes make this record an unmatched experience. The wide choir is a revolution in Metal spheres and the grunts and growls of the guitar player/singer add a tremendous dose of power, rage and emotion to the vocal department. Alternating pure classical pieces and epic blends of aforementioned styles, "Eppur Si Muove" is one of the best albums ever written. Every single listener would find his own favorite song here as they all produce a different effect. The duo composed by operatic singer Florian and growling singer Asis really expresses more than could be written about it while guitar riffs are astoundingly commanding.Not only is their music classical, it also carries a great deal of folkish aspects, medieval folk would be a better term in Haggard's case. 'Of A Might Divine' is the perfect example, with a imposing force that drives the melody from A to Z and let you totally speechless. 'Herr Mannelig' is another deep moment on the album with the purest voices I've ever heard and that male bass voice that makes you want to sing along although you know you cannot do it. It's a slow-paced piece but the guitars are so heavy that it's one of the catchiest song on the CD. 'The Observer' is another "epic picture", one can see visions unfold while listening to this one. Better than any movie one could see! The title track is one crazy composition, featuring splendid soprano female vocals on the chorus, but overall a terrific journey from which you'll never return. Once grabbed, there is no turning back.All these tracks are pure art and no doubt that Haggard is going to be around for a long time, at least let's hope so. The distinctiveness of their brilliant music is too much to be overlooked. So, forget all you've worshipped before, Haggard is almost certainly the only thing you'll want to hear afterwards. "Eppur si Muove" is one of 2004's must-listens, and if you still feel like avoiding it, know that it should be considered a crime

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The Band

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Asis Nasseri - Guitars,Grunts and Vocals

Luz Marsen - Drums

Andreas Hemberger - Electric and Accoustic Guitars

Robin Fischer - Bass

Gaby Koss - Soprano

Veronika Kramheller - Soprano

Fiffi Fuhrmann - Tenore / Crumhorn

Hans Wolf - Piano, Organ and Cembalo

Judith Marschall - Violino

Michael Stapf - Violino

Steffi Hertz - Viola

Kathrin Hertz - Violoncello

Ivica Percinlie - Violone

Florian Bartl - Oboe

Andreas Peschke - Tenore / Flauto

Mark Pendry - Clarinetto

Michael Schumm - Timpani / Tamburo

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Track list

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"All'inizio ? La Morte" ? 6:50

"Menuetto In Fa-Minore" ? 1:16

"Per Aspera Ad Astra" ? 6:40

"Of a Might Divine" ? 8:20

"Gavotta In Si-Minore" ? 0:58

"Herr Mannelig" ? 4:50

"The Observer" ? 4:40

"Eppur Si Muove" ? 8:19

"Larghetto / Epilogo Adagio" ? 2:13

"Herr Mannelig (short version)" ? 6:10

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Enjoy!

Chicken Shack - 1969 - 100 Ton Chicken

Genre: Blues-Rock
Origin: United Kingdom
Covers included
Type Mp3 256 Kbps
Size : 79051 KB
Released: 1969
No Password
Japan 24-Bit Remaster

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This British blues-rock group is remembered mostly for their keyboard player, Christine Perfect, who would join Fleetwood Mac after marrying John McVie and changing her last name. Although they were one of the more pedestrian acts of the British blues boom, Chicken Shack was quite popular for a time in the late '60s, placing two albums in the British Top 20. The frontperson of Chicken was not Perfect/McVie, but guitarist Stan Webb, who would excite British audiences by entering the crowds at performances, courtesy of his 100-meter-long guitar lead. They were signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label, a British blues pillar that had its biggest success with early Fleetwood Mac.
Chicken Shack was actually not far behind Mac in popularity in the late '60s, purveying a more traditional brand of Chicago blues, heavily influenced by Freddie King. Although Webb took most of the songwriting and vocal duties, Christine Perfect also chipped in with occasional compositions and lead singing. In fact, she sang lead on their only British Top 20 single, "I'd Rather Go Blind" (1969). But around that time, she quit the music business to marry John McVie and become a housewife, although, as the world knows, that didn't last too long. Chicken Shack never recovered from Christine's loss, commercially or musically. Stan Webb kept Chicken Shack going, with a revolving door of other musicians, all the way into the 1980s, though he briefly disbanded the group to join Savoy Brown for a while in the mid-'70s.

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The Band

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- Christine Perfect (vocals and keyboards),
- Stan Webb (guitar and vocals),
- Andy Silvester (bass guitar),
- Alan Morley (drums).

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Track List

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01. Road Of Love
02. Look Ma I'm Crying
03. Evelyn
04. Reconsider Baby
05. Weekend Love
06. Midnight Hour
07. Tears In The Wind
08. Horse & Cart

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Enjoy!

Chicken Shack - 1968 - Forty Blue Fingers

Genre: Blues-Rock
Origin: United Kingdom
Covers included
Type Mp3 256 Kbps
Size : 107887 KB
Released: 1968
No Password
Japan 24-Bit Remaster
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This British blues-rock group is remembered mostly for their keyboard player, Christine Perfect, who would join Fleetwood Mac after marrying John McVie and changing her last name. Although they were one of the more pedestrian acts of the British blues boom, Chicken Shack was quite popular for a time in the late '60s, placing two albums in the British Top 20. The frontperson of Chicken was not Perfect/McVie, but guitarist Stan Webb, who would excite British audiences by entering the crowds at performances, courtesy of his 100-meter-long guitar lead. They were signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label, a British blues pillar that had its biggest success with early Fleetwood Mac.
Chicken Shack was actually not far behind Mac in popularity in the late '60s, purveying a more traditional brand of Chicago blues, heavily influenced by Freddie King. Although Webb took most of the songwriting and vocal duties, Christine Perfect also chipped in with occasional compositions and lead singing. In fact, she sang lead on their only British Top 20 single, "I'd Rather Go Blind" (1969). But around that time, she quit the music business to marry John McVie and become a housewife, although, as the world knows, that didn't last too long. Chicken Shack never recovered from Christine's loss, commercially or musically. Stan Webb kept Chicken Shack going, with a revolving door of other musicians, all the way into the 1980s, though he briefly disbanded the group to join Savoy Brown for a while in the mid-'70s.
If one can overlook Stan Webb's hyperventilating vocal excesses (which ain't easy), this is a promising debut, especially noteworthy for Webb's Freddie King-inspired guitar sting and Christine Perfect's understated vocals (only two, unfortunately compared to Webb's six). Webb does justice to his mentor with two instrumentals, King's "San-Ho-Zay" and his own "Webbed Feet," and Perfect proves the ideal counterpart — one of the few pianists paying homage to King's longtime collaborator Sonny Thompson. Nice spare sound, typical of Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label.

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The Band

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- Christine Perfect (vocals and keyboards),
- Stan Webb (guitar and vocals),
- Andy Silvester (bass guitar),
- Alan Morley (drums).

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Track List

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01. Letter
02. Lonesome Whistle Train Blues
03. When the Train Comes Back
04. San-Ho-Zay
05. King of the World
06. See See Baby
07. First Time I Met the Blues
08. Webbed Feet
09. You Ain't No Good
10. What You Did Last Night

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Enjoy!

Audience - 1969 - Audience

Genre: Eclectic Prog
Origin: United Kingdom
Covers included
Type Mp3 256 Kbps
Size : 88843 KB
Released: 1969
No Password
Japan 24-Bit Remaster

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Howard Werth was born and raised in East London. The fledgling Werth was hooked on rock’n’roll from its inception, at an age when he was barely able to do more than eat, sleep and listen.
His earliest influences were drawn from the wide spectrum of rock’n’roll stars of the fifties; from Fats Domino, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Little Richard, to Presley, Johnny Cash, The Everlys and Buddy Holly through to The Coasters, The Drifters and many others of that period.
His musical taste buds were further tickled by his introduction to the jazz world of Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Miles Davis, along with his first introduction to the incredible voice of Ray Charles. In his early teens he was deeply drawn to the music of James Brown.
It’s hardly surprising that Howard’s early semi-pro outfits displayed a mixture of all these influences, especially those of Charles and Brown.
In the sixties Howard went to art school at the outset of the pop-art era and was trained by some of the major British exponents of that movement. Musically at the time Howard was indulging in the blues and r’n’b, which ran into his Motown / psychedelia period. At the same time Howard’s art & design skills had secured him a job at Pye Records designing album covers for The Kinks, Sandie Shaw, Marlene Dietrich and the Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds (and related) EP series, among countless other projects.
Towards the end of the decade Howard was working for IPC magazines as well as gigging at the Flamingo and various other London clubs of that era, and spending much of his spare time at the UFO Club, the Electric Garden, or the Drury Lane Arts Lab, where the notion of forming what was to become Audience first started to take form and nag at his creative nodes.
In early 1969 Audience took off and recorded the first of four albums, gigging in many and various corners of planet earth, creating merry and influencing the hippest, whilst charting in Europe, Australia and the U.S. along the way, as well as playing shows with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, touring with Rod Stewart & The Faces and Jeff Beck (to name but a few), and being supported on a regular basis by bands such as Genesis.
When Howard brought Audience to a close in late 1972 he got to work on his first solo album “King Brilliant” (now reissued on Luminous Records) and it was around the time of this album that Howard was approached by The Doors and asked to fill the space left by Jim Morrison. Howard spent some time rehearsing with them, but after some agonising and deliberation, Ray Manzarek decided against The Doors reforming. However Howard was later to reunite with Ray in Hollywood, where they worked together extensively on Howard’s songs, some of which would later be re-worked to form the basis of the album “Six Of One and Half a Dozen of the other”, which was originally released on Howard’s own METAbop! label, in conjuction with Jake Riviera, Elvis Costello’s manager and business partner, the man who started Stiff Records.
Howard has also worked extensively in Los Angeles with members of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, as well as producing the first recordings by X, L.A’s proto-punk outfit, who were later (coincidentally) to be produced by Ray Manzarek. Howard also recorded some of his own work on the Dangerhouse label during this period, two tracks of which - “Obsolete” and “Mangoman” - have been added to his album “Six Of One and Half a Dozen of the other”.
A London-based band who were popular on the club and college circuit. After an album for Polydor, which is now rare and sought-after because it was withdrawn soon after its release, they were signed to Charisma after they were spotted by the label's boss Tony Stratton-Smith supporting Led Zeppelin at the Lyceum in London.
Friend's Friend's Friend and The House On The Hill were both creative and worthwhile rock albums. Both, especially the former, are dominated by the outstanding sax and flute playing of Keith Gemmell and Werth's strong and rather unusual vocals. Shel Talmy was lined up to produce the Friend's Friend's Friend album but declined at the last moment because he didn't like some of the material. He was looking for a big commercial album and while tracks like Belladonna Moonshine and It Brings A Tear probably appealed to him many of the others (e.g. Raid) were more experimental and didn't. As a result the band ended up producing the album themselves. Their Indian Summer 45, which sold quite well in the States, and the House On The Hill album were produced by Gus Dudgeon. This had a cover version (I've Put A Spell On You) but otherwise, like the first two, was made up of self-penned material including the R&B Jackdaw and the gentler I Had A Dream.
The band toured America with The Faces and built up a good underground following there. The line-up was augmented for the Lunch album by Nick Judd and American sessionmen Bobby Keys and Jim Price. This was probably their magnum opus but after its release personality rifts, particularly between Keith Gemmell and the rest of the band, ripped them apart.
They also performed the score for the 'Bronco Bullfrog' movie (also released under the name 'Angel Lane') which was written by Howard Werth. It was a film shot in the East End with a team of kids from a theatre, none of whom were professional actors.
After the band split, Gemmel joined Sammy; Werth apparently went to the US in an attempt to make music with the surviving Doors members, before returning to the UK. In 1975 he recorded as Howard Werth and The Moonbeams. Trevor Williams went on to Jonathan Kelly's Outside, and then The Nashville Teens; Connor first joined Jackson Heights and then Hot Chocolate; and Judd joined first Sharks (May '73 - Jul '74), then The Andy Fraser Band, eventually becoming a session musician.


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The Band

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- Howard Werth / guitar (acoustic), banjo, guitar, vocals
- Tony Connor / percussion, piano, drums
- Keith Gemmell / saxophone, wind, woodwind
- Trevor Williams / bass, guitar (bass), keyboards, vocals

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Track List

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01. Banquet
02. Poet
03. Waverley Stage Coach
04. River Boat Queen
05. Harlequin
06. Heaven Was An Island
07. Too Late Im Gone
08. Maidens Cry
09. Pleasant Convalescence
10.Leave It Unsaid
11.Man On Box
12.House On The Hill
13.Paper Round (Bonus Track)
14.The Going Song (Bonus Track)
15.Troubles (Bonus Track)


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Enjoy!

Odin - 1973 - SWF Sessions

Genre: Heavy Prog
Origin: United Kingdom
Covers included
Type Mp3 256 Kbps
Size : 90437 KB
Released: 1973
No Password
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SWF Sessions 1973, is a compilation of live in-studio performances for German radio. The cuts include a 12 minute version of the band's masterpiece "Life Is Only" and a brilliant version of the Zappa composition "King Kong." In addition, a 13 minute concert performance of the band's previously unreleased "Make Up Your Mind" clearly shows the direction of the band’s early work, featuring the incredible musicianship of Jeff Beer on the Hammond organ.
Founded in summer 1971 in Germany by German organ player Jeff Beer, Dutch guitarist Rob Terstall and English bass player Ray Brown and drummer Stuart Fordham. This is high level guitar and organ dominated progressive rock. After the release of thier one and only album on Vertigo in 1972, ODIN were invited by German radio SWF to produce 4 titles for a radio show in February 1973. A 12-minutes version of "Live is only" and a 11-minutes version of the Zappa composition "King Kong" are fine examples for ODIN's terrific musicianship.
"Oh no" (6:30) and the Terstall composition "Turnpike lane" make the radio recording session complete. In addition to the radio recordings there is a bonus track from a concert in autumn 1971 titled "Make up your mind" (13:10) which is an impressive example of the bands early works. All titles are digitally remastered. The booklet contains a comprehensive band history with a lot of rare photos.
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The Band
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- Jeff Beer / keyboards, vibraphone, percussion, vocals
- Rob Terstall / guitar, vocals
- Ray Brown / bass, vocals
- Stuart Fordham / drums, percussion
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Track List
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01.Turnpike Lane
02.Life is Only
03.King Kong
04.Oh No
05.Make Up Your Mind (Bonus)

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Enjoy!

Odin - 1972 - Odin

Genre: Heavy Prog
Origin: United Kingdom
Covers included
Type Mp3 256 Kbps
Size : 78578 KB
Released: 1972
No Password
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Odin, like NEKTAR was a British band residing in Germany. While NEKTAR received some success (especially the United States when Passport Records showed an interest in their music), ODIN simply released one album, disappeared, and has pretty much been ignored. The album was released on the swirl Vertigo label, and due to its obscurity, one of the more desired titles on the label. While NEKTAR sometimes flirted with Krautrock styles (often so far as being called Krautrock, even if they weren't German), ODIN mainly stuck to a heavy guitar/organ-dominated prog style that was typical of the British scene of the early '70s. The band consisted of Jeff Beer on keyboards, Ray Brown on bass, Stuart Fordham on drums, and Rob Terstall on guitar, all credited to vocal duties, aside from the drummer.
If you love the sound of the Hammond organ, this album is a total must, often Jeff Beer played his organ with fuzz tone, not unlike DEEP PURPLE's Jon Lord, or Peter Robinson's work with QUATERMASS (whose style was much closer to Lord's in that band than say, when he was in BRAND X, which was much more similar to Robin Lumley's). In fact the band so much as covers a QUATERMASS song as well!
The album starts off with "Life Is Only", a totally killer piece stuffed with cool guitar and organ solos. There are some passages that bear more than a passing resemblance to ELP, in fact it's the only piece on the album to feature ELP-like passages. "Tribute to Frank" is a jazzy instrumental that brings to mind some of ZAPPA's instrumental works, so unsurprisingly the tribute would be to Frank ZAPPA. "Turnpike Lane" features a lot of wordless vocals, and at times almost reminding me of certain Italian prog bands. Of course, the guitar and organ solos are more typical of British bands. "Be the Man You Are" finds the band doing a nice, laid-back acoustic piece. Certainly the vocals are no CSNY, but still a nice piece. Then there's the cover of QUATERMASS' "Gemini". If you know the original, you'll find they pretty much stick to the original, except they added on guitars (since of course ODIN featured a guitarist and QUATERMASS didn't), and an extended solo the original didn't have. "Eucalyptus" is a rather laid-back instrumental piece with some early string synth (presumably a Freeman, as it's too early for the Elka or Solina, and the Eminent, which was around in '72, didn't seem to get much use outside of Italy and France). "Clown" goes back to the heavy style that is most typical for this band.
The album was luckily reissued on CD, and given the kind of music this is, this album would be perfect for Repertoire Records out of Germany to reissue. Instead a small German label called Living in the Past got a hold of it, making it not as easy to get a hold of, but if you can find a copy, get it!
Certainly the music is dated, the heavy organ/guitar format of the music makes it obvious that this was the early '70s, but as long as the music is great, as this album demostrates, I don't care.
Truly an amazing and forgotten gem of British prog. If you like early '70s guitar/organ- driven prog, this album is a total must!
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The Band
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- Jeff Beer / keyboards, vibraphone, percussion, vocals
- Rob Terstall / guitar, vocals
- Ray Brown / bass, vocals
- Stuart Fordham / drums, percussion

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Track List
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1. Life Is Only (10:55)
2. Tribute To Frank (1:58)
3. Turnpike Lane (3:43)
4. Be The Man You Are (2:45)
5. Gemini (8:54)
6. Eucalyptus (2:51)
7. Clown (8:35)
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Total Time: 38:11


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Enjoy!