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Takehisa Kosugi “Catch-Wave” (CBS/Sony, 1975)
It was only five months ago when I reviewed Taj Mahal Travellers’ August 1974 in this space, and sadly, on October 12, that group’s leader, Takehisa Kosugi, passed away at age 80. So, this seems like...
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Neu! “Neu! ’75” (Brain, 1975)
Of their indomitable holy trinity of albums, Neu! ’75 tends to be these krautrock legends’ most overlooked full-length. (The less said of their mid-’80s dud, Neu! 4, the better.) Neu! ’75 lacks the...
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Edgar Froese “Aqua” (Brain, 1974)
Edgar Froese was on fire in the mid ’70s, both as leader of Tangerine Dream and as a solo artist. For the former, he helmed the super-deep kosmische space-outs of Phaedra and Rubycon, while under his...
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Tangerine Dream “Phaedra” (Virgin, 1974)
A lot of smart people—and yours truly, too—think Phaedra represents peak Tangerine Dream. With a catalog as vast as this German electronic group’s, you’ll never get a consensus on said peak, but for...
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The Art Of Noise “Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?” (ZTT, 1984)
The Art Of Noise’s debut album has the air of a Dadaist art prank (orchestrated by NME journalist and propaganda minister Paul Morley) mixed with the savvy production of a prog-rock/synth-pop genius...
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Gong “You” (Virgin, 1973)
Led by guitarist/vocalist Daevid Allen and singer Gilli Smyth, Gong perfectly threaded the needle between prog rock and psychedelia during their early-/mid-’70s peak. The group’s ability to blend the...
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A.C. Marias “One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing)” (Mute, 1989)
A.C. is Angela Conway, the mysterious chanteuse who cowrote the 10 songs on One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing) with Wire/Dome guitarist Bruce Gilbert. She’s also appeared on Wire bassist Graham...
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Jon Hassell “Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two)” (Ndeya, 2020)
I don’t usually review new albums here, but this one by a world-class innovator, 83-year-old American trumpeter/keyboardist Jon Hassell, deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. With Seeing...
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Terry Riley “Shri Camel” (CBS, 1980)
As we round into the most stressful week of the most stressful year in recent memory, we need frequent immersions into the transcendent sonic world of Terry Riley, the greatest living American...
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Ned Lagin “Seastones” (Round, 1975)
Seastones might be the strangest document to emerge out of the vast Grateful Dead diaspora. From 1970-1976, Ned Lagin was the psych-rock figureheads’ modular-synth guru, a computer-savvy maverick who...
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Lenny White “Venusian Summer” (Nemperor, 1975)
For a musician who played drums on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and lent rhythmic bombast and intricacy to fusion gallants Return To Forever, Lenny White is (un)fairly obscure. But his debut solo album,...
View ArticleSeesselberg “Synthetik 1.” (self-released, 1973)
I’m fascinated by artists who release one amazing album and then go quiet, for whatever reason. Examples? Skip Spence, the United States Of America, Tomorrow, Friendsound, Ibliss, McDonald & Giles,...
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