[engl] Originally released 1978 on Pennine Records, two catalogue numbers before they issued the famouse "Rosemary Lane" album by Tickwinda! Even European music might have quite an exotic feeling and Latvian ethno rockers ALVA are the living proof. Based in England at the time they released their sole album “Ja tik butu” they fell straight into the folk rock genre with their cross of melancholic, even slightly psychedelic rock and colorful, mystifying Baltic folk and all of this in the middle of the UK punk explosion. So you will certainly be aware of the raw edge the rock part of their music bears. But this is just the fundament of the songs on which anthem like haunting melodies grow to entwine around your mind like ivy. The result is mind expanding and you can be sure that this is something you will hardly have experienced before in such a radical form. Folk, melancholic rock and laid back punk rock melted into one enchanting sound with the Eastern, the Baltic folk being holding the biggest share in the overall picture. The punk feeling on the other hand is the result of a rather energetic playing while all musicians are as skilled as a band should be. ALVA leave the sloppy performance always associated with punk rock to others. They even reach a post punkish area with the strange, yet also anthem like and humorous “Vilcenu dziesma”, sixth track on this colorful album. ALVA could have inspired fans from 1960s garage rock to haunting Eastern European gypsy folk to more sophisticated punk rock and become a major force in the rock world if the business was just a little bit more fair. This album is like a trip in spirit through an idyllic landscape most of the time but there is always a feeling of uproar backing up the flaming melodies. Listen with a free mind and you will be dragged into a world of sheer beauty and joy.

[engl] PLUS BONUS TRACK! Back in 1972 German progressive rock band ANALOGY released its sole classic “Analogy” and even scored a deal for Italy but soon seemed to have faded into obscurity. Nobody really was aware of a recording named “The suite” that happened around 1980 and presents the folky side of ANALOGY who seemed at least quite creative for a time when electronic pop took over the whole music scene from disco sounds and poisoned the minds of musicians and fans even more. ANALOGY went into the opposite direction and reached out for musical realms that have been visited by legendary English acts like TREES, FAIRPORT CONVENTION or STEELEYE SPAN a decade or longer ago. Dramatic and powerful rock with a progressive edge meets mystical and magical British folk in a way that you might think this is rather an English or Irish original band from 1972 than a bunch of Germans about to cross the threshold to the 80s when music went plastic. This is handmade and the musicians play with a simmering passion. Two epic compositions were originally part of “The suite” but for this mighty reissue a bunch of bonus tracks has been unearthed from the vaults to add even more value to this gem. You will automatically be dragged into a world like a fairytale when you turn on this record even though it all just happens in your imagination. Several passages have a theatrical approach and feel like music from a stageplay and movie like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” or records good old MEAT LOAF has recorded in the late 70s but those aspects are only tinges of color in an overwhelming sound picture drawn by a truly progressive band. For everybody who loves the heavier HORSLIPS and epic stuff like OMEGA with their “Suite” from 1974. This album develops passage for passage and makes this journey into your dreams a worthwhile trip.

[engl] Ángeles De Opio was an underground heavy–psych power trio featuring JC Sisto (Mater Dronic, Shakti’s Delirium) and Sergio and Adrián Ceballos (RIP KC). Two long tracks of extreme acid–fuzz–wah guitar jamming, recorded in 2005 but not released until now. RIYL: Human Instinct, High Rise and LOUD IN YOUR FACE HEAVY PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

[engl] Originally released in 1979

[engl] "Truth" is the new album by this incredible heavy–psych duo from Portugal, famous for their storming live shows at famous festivals like Reverence Valada and Barreiro Rocks and for supporting big neo–psych names like The Cosmic Dead, Pink Mountaintops and Endless Boogie. You won’t believe how just two guys can create such a brutal sound. Echoes of Blue Cheer, Hawkwind, Tractor, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly and Pink Fairies spiced with doses of Kraut, Doom, Drone and Space–Rock.

[engl] Originally released in 1974

[engl] The Bayan Mongol Variety Group existed from the early '70s to the late '80s. After the collapse of the USSR, the ensemble began to experience serious difficulties with funding and booking concerts, and finally disintegrated, after which the participants lost contact with each other. Fortunately, thanks to efforts from the fans, some old contacts were reestablished, key records and sound sources were dug up, and now this historical record is released again. File under funk, jazz rock, prog rock, or psychedelic rock. Reissued in cooperation with the band.

[engl] Limited soundtrack 45 of music and dialog from the 1974 Ozploitation biker-psych cult classic. Including exclusive unreleased tracks not available on forthcoming LP and CD. Meet Stone. The trailer says it all. A deep Australian drawl narrates the scene over a psychedelic swamp-funk rhythm section doused in electronic percussion and treated keyboards. "Stone Is A Trip... The grave diggers are on the move - a new breed of motorbike gang" The screen fills with images of slo-mo bike accidents, hallucigenic trips and a death defying cliff stunt which could easily mistaken for a doppelganger scene in Psychomania. "Vietnam veterans with their own style of life, their own rules, their own religion." The scene swathes to a satanic ritualistic burial at the hands of a denim-clad crew of outlaw bikers with strangely familiar faces. To many global record collectors, DJ's, music producers and general retrophiles living outside of Australia "Stone" was primarily known for its electronic sound effects, psychedelic guitars, cosmic sound scapes and funky basslines... In 80's and 90's, before the global DVD boom, Stone to many people was first and foremost a Soundtrack... The kind of soundtrack that makes you wish you could see the film but it’ll probably never happen. Limited edition 45 to accompany the full soundtrack release available now!

[engl] Recorded live during summer 1975.

[engl] Written and composed on Autumn 69. Recorded at Strawberry Studio on May 1971.

[engl] German proto heavy metal and proto doom metal has always been more of an underground topic due to the fact that most bands only reached a regional level in every aspect. DIES IRAE are certainly something of an exception to the rule when it comes to the quality. What you get here is a heavy and dark music with open song structures that leave much room for experimentation. Despite the fact that the simmering fuzz guitar cuts through your burning soul like a chainsaw there are still many parts in each song showcasing a fondness for playful jazz inspired passages where all musicians can prove their skills and the whole band still conjures a gloomy atmosphere. Except for the short interlude “Salve Eumel” which is just some Latin babbling. But you feel the light footed swing the musicians have while playing in those certain sections. In other cases DIES IRAE go utterly crazy in a psychedelic freak out fashion. We have to remember this album came out in 1971 and musicians as well as fans quite often were completely out of their mind. Trippy moments are given on “First” in abundance in between the hard hitting heavily grinding doom outbursts. Nobody was even eager to call it doom yet but all ingredients were there. Think of a jamsession with BLACK SABBATH and AMON DÜÜL II and you come at least close to something that could sound like DIES IRAE. This album is highly original and unique and definitely has a place among the greatest KRAUTROCK albums of all times. You can literally hear the acid doing its work but in a very skillful way. Friends of proto metal from the early 70s who dig a progressive edge with their music and have a fondness for trippy psychedelic rock shall grab a copy of this beautiful reissue for originals on PILZ Records fetch prices above 1500,00 US$. And this is definitely an album worth spinning every once in a while. Turn on, tune in, drop out!!!

[engl] Originally released in 1974.

[engl] Originally released in 1978.

[engl] Never released before live from 1978 at R.I.O. Festival, gatefold sleeve, 180gr black vinyl

[engl] Originally released in 1981.

[engl] Alaska, 1980. The robotic harmonica and his Clones have landed on glacier planes. Meet mutant commander Gary Sloan - this is the dawn of Harmonitalk! Less than 1000 copies of this privately pressed Alaskan electronic harmonica album by the tight-knit synth trio called Clone actually survived the journey out of their Anchorage base camp, leaving an explosive trail of unidentified synth pop, New Age, low-fi blues, techno, vocoded folk funk and prog rock blazing behind them. See what happens when a homespun innocent blues collective become pos- sessed by the souls of Vangelis, Klaus Schulze and Suzanne Ciani on the frost bit- ten film set of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Over 30 years later Cache Cache and Finders Keepers Records resurrect Harmonitalk's original black box and find more lost transmissions in the process. Originally released as a privately funded 1000 copy vinyl run in 1980 this rare LP by Alaskan electric harmonica player Gary Sloan and his interchangeable synth trio known as Clone is a record that pushes the concept of American outsider music to its furthest geographical limits. With few physical copies travelling beyond their tight Alaskan fan base upon release this mutant album of conflicting mediums and truly forward thinking electronic pop music combines an unlikely mix of synth pop, New Age, low-fi blues, techno, folk funk and prog rock - providing the locale’s sparse vinyl industry with a much needed and veritable document of this collective’s truly unique and open-minded psyche. With its origins lying a decade earlier in the 1971 release of Sloan’s first privately pressed prog rock electric blues combo, Proof, the transmuted music of Clone stands as a triumphant example of how independent and experimental American music can flourish and evolve outside the restraints and fashionable whims of the major music industry. Taking the true essence of rhythm and blues and applying it, without inhibition, to the most profound mediums available, Sloan’s integration with local synth enthusiasts Paul Alexander and Kurt Riemannn (known internally as The Trio) coupled with a wide range of unfiltered influences (comprising everything between New Age to new wave) lead to what is perhaps one of the most unexpect- ed, improbable and underexposed pop fusion triumphs to emerge out of 1980s North America. Throughout the 70s and 80s, as a pillar of the Anchorage live music scene, Gary provided local musicians (including himself) with welcome platforms via his organised events and radio shows, such as The Import Hour which opened two way doors for regional and international artists resulting in various members of the Proof family collaborating with names such as Harvey Mandell and Klauss Schultze. The ongoing Proof records, limited cassette releases, and the Boogie Til Dawn production company have also played host to a wider community of North American both blues, punk and New Age artists with the same integral free-think- ing and progressive policy (some of whom can be heard for the first time guesting on this LP).