Faraualla - Tonga

After they had gone in for polyphony within ancient music for a long time, Faraualla have applied themselves to study traditional songs of mediterranean provenience, concentrating on emissions, polyphonies and harmonic unusualness, sounds of the words and, in general, on what that most of all fascinate singers: the vocal language. After the success of their first record "Faraualla", their are known in Europe to be the "Zap-Mamas of the Mediterranean", who through their experience with ethnic sources and improvisation games are always looking for new musical frontiers. The result of these auditory, singing and emotional experiences is now represented in original songs, in which their invented and used language becomes sound. "Sind”, in the dialect of Bari (Apulia, South Italy) means "hear, listen": it is not easy to describe the sound of Faraualla and for this reason when someone asks them "what kind of music do they play?", they simply reply: "Sind!"  From: https://amiatarecords.com/faraualla

Buddy Miles Express - Let Your Lovelight Shine

Best known as the drummer in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, Buddy Miles also had a lengthy solo career that drew from rock, blues, soul, and funk in varying combinations. Born George Miles in Omaha, NE, on September 5, 1947, he started playing the drums at age nine, and joined his father's jazz band the Bebops as a mere 12 year old. As a teenager, he went on to play with several jazz and R&B outfits, most prominently backing vocal groups like Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, and the Delfonics. In 1966, he joined Wilson Pickett's touring revue, where he was spotted by blues-rock guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Bloomfield had left the Paul Butterfield Blues Band earlier in 1967 and was putting together a new group, the Electric Flag, which was slated to be an ambitious fusion of rock, soul, blues, psychedelia, and jazz. Bloomfield invited Miles to join up, and the band made its debut at the Monterey Pop Festival; unfortunately, the original lineup splintered in 1968. With founder Bloomfield gone, Miles briefly took over leadership of the band on it’s second studio album, which failed to reignite the public's interest. With the Electric Flag's horn section in tow, Miles split to form his own group, the similarly eclectic Buddy Miles Express. Signed to Mercury, the group issued it’s debut album, Expressway to Your Skull, in 1968, with Miles' fellow Monterey Pop alum Jimi Hendrix in the producer's chair.  From: https://prince.org/msg/8/164332

Curious Grace & Black Rabbit - Scars And Children

Led by married songwriting duo Tom and Mary Erangey, Chicago sextet Curious Grace & Black Rabbit is “an indie art rock band that unites the talents of six performers who draw on everything from 70s/80s Brit rock, prog, and classical, to Irish traditional music and metal.” As you’d expect for such a description—as well as influences that include Thin Lizzy, Queen, Joe Jackson, the Beatles, Elvis Costello, ELO, and “the guy who plays down at the pub on Saturday nights”—their music is wonderfully eclectic, dense, and simultaneously celebratory and grave. In particular, their latest LP, #WorldOnFire, is a charmingly complex yet welcoming slice of fantastical social commentary. Billed as “an album for this moment,” the band notes that it was “born out of the madness and magic of living in a Twitter-driven world that can’t tell whether a dream is upside down or downside up.” In creating it, the troupe “tapped into the angst, the defiance, the uprising” to create a record that “celebrates complicated dreams, heroines, and heroes.” In a nutshell, they evoke the lively elegance of Phideaux (including male/female vocals), the steampunk theatrics of Gandalf’s Fist and Dirt Poor Robins, and the sobering deliveries and commentaries of Andy Tillison (The Tangent) while yielding a vastly gripping, imaginative, meditative, and cohesive conceptual production.  From: https://www.rebelnoise.com/reviews/curious-grace-black-rabbit-worldonfire

The Moody Blues - The Lost Performance - Live in Paris 1970

 The Moody Blues - The Lost Performance - Live in Paris 1970 - Part 1

 

 The Moody Blues - The Lost Performance - Live in Paris 1970 - Part 2

 

This is an amazing find, and a piece of history I didn’t realize existed until I came across it in a record store not long ago. I was traveling and as usual didn’t bring enough music to fill the evenings in the hotel, so I managed to find a record store and picked up this and three CDs. It wasn’t until I got back to the hotel that it occurred to me that all the discs I had bought were live recordings. Go figure.
This is apparently some obscure and rather amateur video recorded at La Taverne de L’Olympia in Paris during the band’s 1970 European tour supporting the release of ‘A Question of Balance’. The club setting is actually a night club, with small tables of Parisians sitting around drinking and smoking while the band performs on a small stage at the front center of the room. There appear to be at least three cameras, one of which is clearly hand-held and wobbles a bit from the back of the room. Another is on or near the stage and shows some very close-up views of the band members, while a third is positioned behind Graeme Edge and shows several unoriginal shots of his back. Not sure what the thought process was behind that one. The quality of the video is marginal at best, with the close-up shots being pretty good and the ones further away a little washed-out due to the overhead lighting. The audio is quite good though, especially considering it was recorded thirty-seven years ago and sounds like it comes from positioned microphones and not the soundboard. The subtext narration is also primitive, just simple white lettering (Times New Roman I believe) with the names of the band members flashed at the beginning, and the song titles scrolling past as each one begins. At the opening the hand-held camera tracks the band as they carry their drinks and instruments from the dressing room and through the audience to the stage. Very laid-back, and kind of charming.
The song selection is quite good, even though there is quite a bit of overdubbed music, especially the vocals. But it includes what were probably the band’s best- known tracks at that time: “Never Comes the Day”, “Are You Sitting Comfortably?”, “Ride My See-Saw”, and “Don’t You Feel Small” among them. The crowd responds enthusiastically to a great rendition of “Nights in White Satin”, as well as to “Tuesday Afternoon”. Most of the songs are very faithful renderings of the studio versions, which is a bit surprising considering the modest and informal setting. Justin Hayward and Ray Thomas keep up a small bit of banter with the audience between tracks, while Michael Pinder mostly sets off to the side playing his keyboards and a bit of acoustic guitar. This is a great snapshot of the band in their heyday, although it is quite unpretentious considering the simple packaging and pretty much nonexistent promotion behind its release. The closing “Question” is an excellent fadeout to an enjoyable sixty minutes of music.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=14532

 

MoeTar - Regression To The Mean

MoeTar were formed in 2008 by the pair of singer Moorea Dickason and bassist Tarik Ragab, who played together in the Funk band No Origin. Original formation featured also Dave Flores on drums, Matthew Charles Heulitt on guitar and Bob Crawford on keyboards, who was soon replaced by Avant Rock specialist Matt Lebofsky. The band debuted live in May 2009 at the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco and several lives followed since. For over a year they worked on their debut 'From these small seeds' in four professional and home studios, the album eventually was released independently in 2010, re-released in 2012 on Magna Carta. Former member Bob Crawford still played Wurlitzer piano in two tracks.
The band cited Frank Zappa, Queen, XTC and Classic Prog acts like Yes and Genesis as the main influences.Do we hear these sources in the album? We certainly do. Although they sound more like a modern Gentle Giant, producing quirky, fast and intelligent music, some sort of innovative Avant Pop Prog with Punk and Classical touches. This is genuine music by any means, A.C.T. could be an appropriate comparison, still MoeTar sound a bit more retro-styled in the process, they even cross the borders of bands like Rascal Reporters or The Muffins at moments. Tracks are rather short, but the music is complex and intricate without losing much of its accesibility and freshness. Great female vocal harmonies, clever poppy tunes and progressive firepower with complicated twists, changing paces and climates in a blink of an eye, searching for the land of salvation in the genres of Jazz Fusion, Pop, Classical Music, Avant Rock or Musical. The arrangements are dense and dynamic with superb breaks and the atmosphere is extremely pleasant. Although much of the content is vocal-heavy, the instrumental background shines through, fantastic teamwork on interplays and tons of time signatures, with professional musicianship and an impressive technical level. Gentle Giant fans will love this to death; it’s modern Prog played with passion and tremendous consistency.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6171

Everything Everything - Supernormal

Tragically underappreciated Band - Everything Everything. This band is not exactly new, yet has remained under the radar. They were founded in Manchester in 2007. They are, in my mind, the successors to the progressive rock movement, which has morphed into adjacent genres. They combine instrumental prowess, intricate arrangements, and incorporate dance and pop elements which offsets their art rock aspirations nicely.
Instrumentally, Jeremy Pritchard is perhaps the finest contemporary rock bassist(at least in the United Kingdom). Jeremy's chops remind me of Nick Beggs who emerged as a virtuoso from a dance pop band. Even a bit like Chris Squire with respect to his backing vocals which lend so much to the music.
Singer Jonathan Higgis is immensely talented and unique. He features stream of consciousness lyrics. His vocal range is considerable and he harmonizes exceptionally well with his bassist Jeremy. Higgis incorporates spoken word in a raplike patois. His lyrics range dark, deep, and languid. He incorporate lovely choruses and adds hooks to the music with his vocal delivery.
Lots to like about this band. They have one of the most unfortunate band names. During their formative years, a film with the same title "Everything, Everything" was released by a major studio. This drown out their 'searchability' on sites like Google and Amazon who were then hyping the film. Their albums contain lots of hidden gem tracks, with minimal filler.
Recommend checking out 'Get to Heaven' and 'Fever Dream' then checking out their earlier, mathrock leaning, 'Arc.' Lots of great tracks, such as 'Kemosabe,' 'Get to Heaven' 'No Reptiles,' 'Night of the Long Knives.' I first discovered them when Q Magazine highlighted their first single 'My Kz, Ur Bf.' The bassline and unusual lyrics had me hooked from my first listen. I've been listening to them now for a decade, and highly recommend giving them a listen.  From: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/tragically-underappreciated-band-everything-everything.1144437/

Devil Electric - The Dove & The Serpent

Devil Electric  are a riff-heavy, four piece rock ’n’ roll band from Melbourne, Australia. Taking musical cues from the hard rock greats of the ’70s and combining them with powerful, female fronted vocals they sound refreshingly new and absolutely essential. We caught up with lead vocalist Pip to find out all about them and the wonderful new album ‘Godless’… Apologies to the band for the lateness of the interview recorded back in November last year and just retrieved from a hard drive that died shorty afterwards.

Mark: Great to be able to chat today, when I got sent the album I wondered how the heck I didn’t know about you guys, I guess it’s because of not being able to get over East for the last two years. You’ve put an album out that’s made me want to dig into the back catalogue and I also have my eye on the splattered vinyl of ‘Godless’.

Pip: Awesome.

Mark: But it is an album made for vinyl isn’t it?

Pip: It’s is yes and I think that’s been part of the joy of this kind of music, it’s not meant to be heard in snatches digitally, it’s meant to be heard in one sitting as an experience.

Mark: It absolutely is. For those out there like me that don’t know, let’s cast things back, where did it all began for Devil Electric?

Pip: Well, we all kind of somewhat knew each other. Everything I think from the beginning of our band kind of centres around one bar in Melbourne – the Cherry Bar. We all kind of were friends or in the periphery of each other through that bar. I was playing in another band at the time when Christos, Beek (Mark van de Beek) and Tom starting talking about Devil Electric. I had just played a gig with Christos’ other band ‘The Ugly Kings’ a month prior to that and they invited me in to try out for this new band they were putting together. I knew Christos and Beek quite well, but I hadn’t met Tom yet so I met him there the first time in the recording studio. So we all just sort of came together bit I always wondered why they wanted me in the band, as it didn’t seem logical as I was sort of playing in more Punk and Hard Rock bands.  But I went in there and sung and I guess I got the job (laughs).

Mark: ‘Godless’ works so well, it’s an album that grabs you from the intro ‘I Am’ and doesn’t let go till the end, just my kind of music and I can guess a lot of the bands’ 70’s influences in there but there’s also a wonderful twist. To me it sounds a bit like a Heavier Metal version of The Nymphs, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that band from the early 90’s?

Pip: No, but I will be checking them out now!

Mark: They only did the one album before they imploded but I guess I get a lot of the mood of that band and so many others of course. Do you all have similar influences or is it as I imagine a nice melting pot?

Pip: We’re very different I think, but we do cross over in some areas, I mean you can probably hear the Sabbath influences in the band and some of that more traditional Hard Rock that we all share, but we’re all very different at the same time. I think that’s what really makes Devil Electric, Devil Electric. I think with the first album we were all pretty new and feeling each other out as musicians but this album we’ve been together a few years now, we know each other and we have a really tight knit friendship between all of us, and I think you can  really hear that in the second album. And all those little twists and turns too, like all little bits of each of us peppered through, it’s the best way to describe it. We are the same but different in our likes and dislikes and we always make sure we tell each other! (laughs)

Mark: It all comes together beautifully and heavier than I imagined. I think when I got to ‘I Will Be Forgotten’ which is one of my favourites on there we were going to let a lighter moment but it was only for a few moments…

Pip: (laughing)

Mark: I love the fact that you keep the heaviness all the way through. The album is out of course.

Pip: Yes, it’s been out a week now, and it’s really exciting for us as we started releasing it early last year (2020) as singles as we went into Covid so it’s been the longest release ever! (laughs) Over 18 months of trying to get this out, but now it is it’s amazing. We’re so happy that everyone can finally hear it because we feel like we’ve been waiting forever.

Mark: When did you start the writing? Was it pre-Covid?

Pip: We wrote and recorded it all prior to Covid, we had a whole strategy in place to release the first single and then when the next was coming out, and videos and whatever. But the weekend that we released our first single ‘All My Friends Move Like the Night’ that was when the national lockdown was put in place. That was the end of March.
Mark: I was over in Melbourne two das before that! It’s crazy! What awful timing, but it’s here now. Such a crunching sound, so moody and atmospheric, everything from the shorter songs that just grab you to ‘The Cave’ at the end which has this wonderful groove and swing to it that almost had me thinking of what would happen had Tom Waits discovered Heavy Metal!

Pip: (laughs)
 
Mark: Let’s go even further back now. What got you into music in the first place? You said the band all had their own sets of influences – what was it that first grabbed you?

Pip: I was actually born into it I guess is the best way I can describe it. My Dad is a country musician and has been my whole life, so he had a recording studio growing up so I was always around it. I think it was always an expectation I was one of those kids whose Dad would go to work at 7PM and come back at 7AM while all the other kids had Dads with normal jobs, and I wanted that! (laughs) Having the day then playing gigs and going on tour and things like that. I remember feeling as a kid like ‘why can’t I just have a normal family?’  but now I’m very, very thankful I had him I guess as my mentor to open the door to a life of bands and playing music. It’s good now! (laughs)

From: https://www.therockpit.net/2022/interview-devil-electric/