HW: My Top 10 Space albums

[Stephan Forstner]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 19:06:37 -0500, Tim <ma-paharper at IOPENER.NET> wrote:
>...Would like to know where you find Marble Sheep cds, all i've ever
> found was _Stone Marby_(love the track  "inside out")

All the early (i.e. their best IMHO) stuff is out of print (Old From New
Heads, Whirl Live, Shinjuku Loft, s/t) so probably it will have to be eBay.
Note that the early stuff doesn't sound like Stone Marby, it has more of a
Hawkwind meets Amon Duul I vibe and is a bit rougher around the edges - a
psychedelic garage band doing jamming versions of the Stone Marby songs and
stretching them out to twice their length might give an idea!

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:02:49 -0500, Nick Medford <nickmedford at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:
>the first Ash Ra Tempel album (probably because I saw it going cheap
>somewhere, thus are a few great purchases and some not-so-great ones
>made) and it is as you say an absolute classic, a thousand times better
>than the concert I'd seen. The only other one I have is "Join Inn",
>which- naff title aside- is of a similar standard (similar format too-
>two side-long pieces, first side freaked-out jamming enlivened by
>Schulze's incredible drumming, second side much more meditative, almost
>devotional).

I rank the debut and 'Join Inn' as 1 and 2, so you've got what I would
consider their must-haves. 'Schwingungen' and '7-up' are the other 2 early
albums, which actually came out betweeen the 1st and JI, and Schulze was
not on either of those - I think they're also pretty good, though not at
the same level, and with more of a weirdness factor to them due to some odd
vocals (Timothy Leary on 7-up for example) and stylistic shifts. After Join
Inn they did 'Starring Rosi' which is more hippy-folky, with prominent
female vocals (from Rosi, thus the title) - not bad but no longer really
spacerock.

>(around '76?) it seems to become essentially a Gottsching solo project- how
>is that stuff? One album that I've often seen available at cheapish price
>is "Inventions for Electric Guitar"- anyone got any comments on that?

After 'Starring Rosi' Gottsching made ART a solo project and renamed it to
Ashra, going more-or-less digitally new-age. The only thing I've got from
those years is a compilation disc, pleasant but not anything that made me
want to explore any deeper. 'Inventions for Electric Guitar' on the other
hand is I think credited as a Gottsching solo album and has a very good
reputation - I haven't heard it but do intend to pick it up at some point.

>Moving on to Acid Mothers, I've generally found them an amazing live band,
>but they unfortunately seem to have got into the habit of releasing far
>toom much (any old noisy jam session will do it seems) regardless of
>quality-

Fair point - it's probably not a coincidence that my 2 favorite AMT discs
have them doing covers of works by other people (Riley on In C, Trad on La
Novia) - they're best when they have a solid structure on which to hang
their wild jamming.

>are interesting, as "In C" is easily my favourite of the albums I've heard,
>but I've never heard La Novia, (though I've heard the title track performed
>live a few times), so I'm wondering whether I should check that one out,
>despite deciding a while ago that I really didn't need any more AMT albums.

I would definitely recommend that you get it - the 40 minute title track is
much better than any of the live versions I've heard from them, and is also
much more varied and dynamic than their usual freak-out jam. And if you
don't have it I would also put in a good word for 'Troubadours from Another
Heavenly World', which is comparatively languid and mellow and has some
great guitar work.

>Another question- Amon Duul's "Psychedelic Underground"- where does this
>fit into the Amon Duul I/II saga- is this the one that was recorded right
>at the start before the split? How does it sound compared to Paradieswarts
>Duul, say?

This was the very first official Amon Duul (I) release, from before the
split as you say. Muddy sound, repetitive tribal strumming, drumming, and
humming (OK, no humming, chanting actually - but some of the muddy sound
could be due to mains hum I guess), and odd tape effects - it sounds like
someone used a beat-up old tape recorder at a hippy commune doing a sing-
along jam session, then accidentally taped over bits of it, which is what
it basically was! By comparison Paradieswarts Duul sounds like a
professionally produced mainstream folk-psych album - and its far from
being that, as you know, so that should give you an idea of how far
underground Psychedelic Underground really is. (I like Paradieswarts a lot
too, but its a very different animal).

Stephan