Samurai - Samurai (1971)

Samurai was previously known as Web. Once Web became Samurai, the band was no longer recording for Polydor, but for a far more obscure label, Greenwich. This is early '70s, where many progressive rock bands were still making song-based material, and Samurai was one of them. In fact, I really think the reason progressive rock got such a bad reputation later on was many people felt too many bands abandoned writing great songs in place of showing off their instrumental abilities and how complex they can make their music.
Samurai is truly another great, lost gem of early British progressive rock. I really like the jazzy feel that goes with it, and this is one progressive rock album you can't call "pretentious" (and we all know every prog rock detractor out there calls this kind of music "pretentious"). It's nothing but a collection of great songs with interesting use of instruments (organ, wind instruments, and the way the vibraphone is integrated in the music, rather than using it during jazzy solos like many other bands did at the time). I really highly recommend this album!

Track Listing...
1. Saving It Up For So Long
2. More Rain
3. Maudie James
4. Holy Padlock
5. Give A Little Love
6. Face In The Mirror
7. As I Dried The Tears Away
Bonus Tracks:
8. Give A Little Love (Live)
9. Holy Padlock (Live)
10. More Rain (Live)
11. Concerto For Bedsprings (Live)
12. Love You (Live)

Love Sculpture - Blues Helping (1968)

Love Sculpture formed in Cardiff in 1966 out of the remnants of another local band called The Human Beans, and disbanded in 1970, although Edmunds went on to enjoy solo success in the 1970s. The band itself was essentially a showpiece for Edmunds' considerable technical ability on the guitar. Love Sculpture mostly performed blues standards, slightly revved-up, but still largely reverent to the originals, releasing their debut album, Blues Helping with such songs as "Summertime", "Wang Dang Doodle" etc. They are best known for their 1968 novelty hit in the UK Singles Chart, a high speed cover version of the classical piece "Sabre Dance", by Aram Khachaturian, released on the Parlophone label (R 5744). The recording was inspired by Keith Emerson's classical rearrangements.[3] "Sabre Dance" became a hit after garnering the enthusiastic attention of British DJ John Peel.[3] This was followed by a second album Forms and Feelings, with songs including: "In The Land of the Few", "Farandole", "People People", "Seagull" and the equally fast cover of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me".They recorded three times for BBC Radio 1's John Peel sessions in 1968 (twice) and 1969.[4] Love Sculpture split up after a U.S. tour, having recorded two albums. Edmunds shortly went on to further number one hit success with "I Hear You Knocking", and collaborated heavily with ex-Brinsley Schwarz bassist Nick Lowe, eventually forming the band Rockpile with him.

Track Listing...

1...Stumble
2...Three O' Clock Blues
3...I Believe To My Soul
4...So Unkind
5...Summertime
6...On The Road Again
7...Don't Answer The Door
8...Wang Dang Doodle
9...Come Back Baby
10...Shake Your Hips
11...Blues Helping

Agnes Strange - Theme For A Dream (1972)

This heavy trio from Southampton, England, led by singer-guitarist John Westwood, somehow didn't make a splash on the early '70s boogie circuit despite their obvious similarities to beloved acts like the Groundhogs, Budgie and the almighty Status Quo. Despite some heavy names in their corner, including management company DJM (led by Dick James, who had made a mint off the Beatles' publishing) and A&R folks at Pye Records, some bad luck and inexplicable business decisions led them off course. Foremost among these was a fundamental misunderstanding of the term "pub rock," which led Pye to release Strange Flavour on a one-off label called Birdsnest, which was affiliated with a chain of theme pubs of the same name, owned by the beer manufacturer Watney's.

Track Listing...
Unreleased Masters:
01.Theme for a Dream - 2:23
02.Messin' Around - 4:58
03.Graveyard - 5:19
04.Rockin' in 'e' - 4:39
05.Dust in the Sunlight - 3:50
06.The Day Dreamer - 3:49
07.Book With No Cover - 5:54
Original Demos:
08.Failure - 5:51
09.Motorway Rebel - 3:46
10.Children of the Absurd - 7:17
11.Clever Fool - 3:31
12.Strange Flavour - 4:15
13.Odd Man Out - 3:45
14.Highway Blues - 9:41

Iron Maiden - Maiden Voyage (1969)

Not to be confused with the legendary wrinkly rockers Iron Maiden of the 80's with Steve Harris, but an earlier band from Basildon. Recorded between 1969 and 1970, this - their debut album, is a classic piece of early doom metal progression featuring the spine chilling guitar of Trevor Thoms. Also includes the (at the time) longest single ever and two tracks by Bum!
A welcome reissue. Not the Iron Maiden, but a much more obscure and earlier outfit with the same name. The 'A' side to their sole 45 is a brilliant lengthy guitar-led piece with a solo well beyond the length of a 1970 single.They were known as Burn up until January 1970 and in March of the same year they toured Australia.

Track Listing...

01. Falling - 6.04
02. Ned Kelly - 3.15
03. Liar - 12.21
04. Ritual - 8.47
05. CC Ryder - 6.12
06. Plague - 8.26
07. Ballad Of Martha Kent - 6.50
08. God Of Darkness - 4.18

Road - Road (1972)

Akarma brings you another piece of essential rock history with Noel Redding's Road. Redding was also a member of the Noel Redding Band & Fat Mattress, not to mention Jimi Hendrix's astounding bassist. Recorded at Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles in 1972, the trio features Redding on bass, Rod Richards on guitar & Leslie Sampson on drums, with all three taking turns on vocals. A classic power trio whose only album finds itself at home in the heavy rock terrain, & which hasn't faded one bit in the past 30 years. A necessary tribute to these megaliths of rock.

Track Listing...

1. I'm Trying
2. I'm Going Down to the Country
3. Mushroom Man
4. Man Dressed in Red
5. Spaceship Earth
6. Friends
7. Road

Fuzzy Duck - Fuzzy Duck (1971)

Fuzzy Duck Has Been Compared to Groups Like Wishbone Ash, Camel and Atomic Rooster. They Certainly Maintain a High Standard of Musicianship. The Fuzzies Formed in North London in 1970 and Signed to Decca Offshoot Label Mam, but Only 500 Copies of their LP were Pressed. This CD Edition Has Eight Tracks, Including 'a Word from Big D', an Entertaining Performance from Roy Sharland Offering his Humorous 'ducking' Vocals. Among Four Bonus Items Are the a and B-sides of Two Singles that Featured Top Guitarist Garth Watt-roy. Original Vinyl Artwork in Square CD Digi-sleeve Format (Card Wallet - No Plastic) plus Inserted Fold-out Poster. Booklet with Authoritative and Extensive Liner Notes by Respected Author and Journalist Chris Welch. Limited to Only 3,000 Copies.

Track Listing...
1. Time Will Be Your Doctor
2. Mrs. Prout
3. Just Look Around You
4. Afternoon Out
5. More Than I Am
6. Country Boy
7. In Our Time
8. Word From Big D
9. Double Dealing Woman (Bonus Track)
10. Big Brass Band (Bonus Track)
11. One More Hour (Bonus Track)
12. No Name Face (Bonus Track)

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Part 2

Candida Pax - Day (1971)

Taking symbolic cues from the burnt-down candle ends of loner blues-psych, and also the soul searching rasp of post-hippie Christian salvation, Northern English group Candida Pax released Day in 1971 on the obscure Deroy Sound Service label (a studio and manufacturing facility that specialized in private-press deals for independent artists), and that was the last anyone heard of them. In the artwork, there’s a photo of the band where one member is not so subtly concealing a copy of the first Fleetwood Mac LP in his arms.
The sight of a band literally wearing an influence as close to the sleeve as possible might worry more discerning listeners, but there’s enough earnest playing and haunted passages here to call it a very minor lost classic.Day is a moody affair, filled with guilt-wracked lyrics and slow-paced, shadowy arrangements that smolder with repentance in the knowledge that the men behind it will sin again, or will possibly never be saved. This bleak mood works to the band’s advantage, as there’s none of the hotdoggin’ that taints so many white British blues albums of their time. The riffage is tasteful and soulful, a la fallen Mac leader Peter Green, and the arrangements spare and lean, with the occasional sound of a wooden recorder brightening the dual guitar and rhythm section ambience.
At their most active (“Darkness”), those twin guitars engage in some low-level yet tense interplay; the leads circle each other, not so much answering the licks that come before them so much as punctuating them with subtle stabs, like bringing knives to a fistfight.Gospel influences, particularly on how they merged with the search of certain early rock ‘n’ roll and R&B records, are the prevalent overtone here; they’re heard in the shuffle of “Dark Clouds” with its wearily soaring chorus, and particularly in the minimal four-chord hymn vamp of “My Life,” recalling a bluesier, less-histrionic Van Morrison circa Astral Weeks, or a Joe Cocker type really trying to hold back. With so many sounds in their collective palette, it’s not a surprise that Candida Pax didn’t make more noise than they did in their day, but listening to this fine album, that seems almost beside the point; this music of theirs has only improved with age and the hopes for rediscovery.
Track Listing...
1. Day
2. Don't Leave Me
3. White Dove
4. Darkness
5. Dark Clouds
6. My Life
7. Reach Out
8. Free

Agnes Strange - Strange Flavour (1975)

"The forgotten saga of Agnes Strange and their lost album is one bizarre tale. The result of an unlikely joint venture between a major label (RCA) and the Bird’s Next chain of real ale music pubs, the Southampton-based power trio’s one and only album sank without trace in 1975, thanks in large part to the winding down of the band’s bookers, the Dick James Agency.
Now reissued for the first time, it comes with three bonus tracks (the single mix of Give Yourself A Chance and outtakes Motorway Rebel and Strange Flavour), and boasts both UK and European sleeve art. This collector’s item, with its big, warm analogue sound feels like the sort of wholesome fare that once upon a time surfaced on Harvest or Vertigo. Stuck in the no man’s land between the hard rock boom of the late 60s/early 70s and the dawning of punk, and produced by early rock’n’roll devotee Dave Travis, Agnes Strange crank their hearty blue collar mix of heavy rock, blues and rock’n’roll with occasional nods towards Taste, The Groundhogs, Budgie and, in their more boogiefied moments, vintage Quo.

Track Listing...
1. Give Yourself A Chance
2. Clever Fool
3. Motorway Rebel
4. Travelling
5. Strange Flavour
6. Alberta
7. Loved One
8. Failure
9. Children of the Absurd
10. Odd Man Out
11. Highway Blues
12. Granny Don't Like Rock 'n Roll
13. Interference
14. Give Yourself A Chance

Andromeda - Andromeda (1969)

Andromeda is a spectacular band. Despite being a forgotten band from the late 60's, the most amazing thing upon first listen is just how GREAT the songs are. The band felt like they wanted to take the Hollies vocal style and combine it with some extremely heavy blues rock and psychedelic elements, and it works pretty darn well.
The vocal melodies are quite catchy and the guitar playing is always top notch, and the rhythm section sounds really cool when the band wants to jam out a little out (though most of the time Andromeda kept things relatively straight forward, there are some jamming sections on this collection).
I wish more people were aware of this great album. Just because it's not popular doesn't mean it's no good- that's absolutely NOT true in this case. Andromeda will be remembered for those lucky enough to listen to this collection of songs. There really aren't any weak moments. They probably would have become a classic band had they continued to stick around.

Track Listing...
01 Too Old - 5.00
02 Day of The Change - 5.04
03 And Now the Sun Shines - 4.01
04 Turn to Dust - 6.52
05 Return to Sanity - 8.22
06 The Reason - 3.33
07 I Can Stop the Sun - 2.10
08 When to Stop - 8.43
09 Go Your Way (Bonus) - 3.05
10 Keep Out Cos I´m Dying (Bonus) - 3.47
11 The Garden of Happiness (Bonus) - 3.13
12 Return to Exodus (Bonus) - 2.28
13 Let´s All Watch the Sky Fall Down (Bonus) - 4.04
14 Darkness of Her Room (Bonus) - 5.12
15 See Into the Stars (Bonus) - 7.15
16 Search On (Bonus) - 3.09

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Ashkan - In From The Cold (1969)

Here’s a nice obscurity from the UK Decca Nova label 1969. This LP reminds me so much of ART & SPOOKY TOOTH. The opening track ‘I’m Going Home’ is a great track with some nice guitar work!



Track Listing...

1. Going Home

2. Take These Chains

3. Stop

4. Backlash Blues

5. Practically Never Happens

6. One of Us Two

7. Slightly Country

8. Darkness

Human Beast - Volume One (1970)

The Human Beast was an English band of Heavy Psych who left this single record, "volume one" was launched in 1970, the title can assume that there would be a volume two, but after the first album the band disappeared without a trace.
The sound of the group is contained by heavy riffs and aggressive, on the first track "Mystic Man" is a killer guitar with Wha wha. Another feature and mixing of heavy rock with experimentalism, something that makes it similar to Flower Travellin Band, Jimi Hendrix.
This disc is much sought by collectors in the version in vinyl and remained unknown to many until in 2004 to record the Second Life relaunched in CD format, fully remastered and with a booklet of 16 pages with photos and a biography of the band, unfortunately no lost track left.

Track Listing...
1. Mystic Man
2. Appearance Is Everything, Style Is A Way of Living Appearance Is Everything
3. Brush With The Midnight Butterfly
4. Maybe Someday
5. Reality Presented As An Alternative
6. Naked Breakfast
7. Circle Of The Night

High Tide - Sea Shanties (1969)

This is a folk-metal record from 1969. So yeah it sounds like early metal stuff like Blue Cheer, Wicked Lady, Groundhogs, or Sabbath with a violin player (Simon House, later in Hawkwind). It's like Mahavishnu Orchestra doing an album about pirates. That said, there's no stupid gimmicky stuff, this is straight powerhouse electricity rock and roll. "Futilist's Lament" opens the record with a swash of fuzzed out guitars, quickly joined by stomping bass, shredding violin, drums that seem to be filling half the time, and a singer who sounds a little like Jim Morrison. "Death Warmed Up" stays on a similar keel but is instrumental and goes on for twice as long. Then, on "Pushed, But Not Forgotten", the band drops into a surfy ballad. This turns back into an ampstackscreechfest by about the minute mark, but there are a few more periods of calm like this smattered throughout the rest of the record. "Pushed" is probably my favorite track on the record, but it's all pretty good.

Track Listing...

1. Futilist's Lament
2. Death Warmed Up
3. Pushed, But Not Forgotten
4. Walking Down Their Outlook
5. Missing Out
6. Nowhere

Budgie - Nightflight (1981)

The second to last album from these squawky Welsh birds, finds them in a different mood than on Power Supply. Fewer AC/DCish chords, and better song ideas overall makes it an improvement over it's predecessor (personally, Power Supply has always been my least favorite Budgie album) Lots of huge heavy drums courtesy of Steve williams even though most of the tracks are "lighter" and the heavy ones I find the most dissapointing. Superstar is mere filler, She Used Me up almost hits the mark. The ballad Apparatus gave them a minor hit in the U.K. (one of VERY VERY few!) and opener I Turned To Stone uses a great light-heavy-light-heavy mid paced song structure with a galloping guitar solo laden outro, and is one of my favorite tracks from the 80's era of Budgie. I tip my hat to these batty birds, I can't imagine ever getting really SICK of their music, and I don't blame them for giving up when they did. Things change, music changes, and Budgie just didn't fit the mold of pop music at the time, nor did they ever. Listen, learn, and buy all their damn albums if you don't have them already!
Track Listing...
1.I Turned To Stone
2.Keeping A Rendezvous
3.Reaper Of The Glory
4.She Used Me Up
5.Don't Lay Down And Die
6.Apparatus
7.Superstar
8.Change Your Ways
9.Untitled Lullaby

Three Man Army - Third of a Lifetime (1971)

Guitarist brothers, Adrian and Paul Gurvitz, formerly of GUN, later of THE BAKER/GURVITZ ARMY, ( with drums God, Ginger Baker,) make a not-surprisingly guitar-ecentric album of surprisingly fresh hard rock from 1971, full of riffs, hooks, and variation. More upbeat and sharp than overly heavy, but still a great hard-rock CD. This is quite the album. After hearing the great playing and super tunes on this disc, it makes you wonder what became of the brothers Gurvitz.
Track Listing...

01.Butter Queen
02.Daze
03.Another Day
04.One Third of a Lifetime
05.Nice One
06.What's My Name
07.Three Man Army
08.See What I Took

09.Midnight
10.Together

Armageddon - Armageddon (1975)

Keith Relf's final album before his tragic death in 1976 (from electrocuting himself accidentally). "Buzzard" kicks things off with a guitar so grimy sounding you could fry Eggs on it. it explodes into a wall of Wah Wah pedals and complicated drum fills. you just end up drooling at this bands potential. Next up the beautiful "Silver Tightropewhich" is obviously written by Relf having heard the folky classical stuff he had written for the first two Renaissance albums. It is soaked in phased guitar effects with Relf singing in a beautiful falsetto voice sounding completeley different from his Yardbird's days. This is the only mellow moment on the whole LP. "Paths and planes and future gains" its back to the heavy metal the characterizes this LP. Overall a fantastic album which gave us glimpse of what may have followed.
Track Listing...
01.buzzard
02.silver tightrope
03.paths and planes and future gains
04.last stand before
05.basking in the white of the midnight sun
06.warning comin'on
07.brother ego

Dark - Round The Edges (1971)

Fuzzy and fairly heavy for its time(early 70's),here's another proto-metal must have! I'd also consider this proto-Prog as well,in respect to the (for the time) ambitious arrangements - I'd wager that the guys in Opeth have a copy of this in their collections!If your bag is obscure early 70's hard rock,i'd say you need a copy for yours too.

Track Listing...

1. Darkside

2. Maypole

3. Live For Today

4. R.C.8

5. Cat

6. Zero Time

7. In The Sky

8. Wasting Your Time

9. Could Have Sworn

10. Matpole

Stray - Stray (1970)

Stray are a British band formed in 1966. Vocalist Steve Gadd (born 27 April 1952, Shepherd's Bush, London), guitarist Del Bromham (born Derek Roy Bromham, 25 May 1951, in Acton, London) (ex Tradera), bass player Gary Giles (born Gary Stephen Giles, 23 February 1952, in London) and drummer Steve Crutchley (born c 1952) formed the band whilst all were attending the Christopher Wren School in London. Richard "Ritchie" Cole (born 10 November 1951, in London) replaced Crutchley in 1968. They signed to Transatlantic Records in January 1970.
The group's brand of melodic, hook-laden hard rock proved to be a popular draw on the local club scene during the early 1970s. However the band did not have commercial success with its record releases. At one stage Charlie Kray (brother of the Kray twins Ronnie and Reggie), was their manager. Gadd left the band in 1975 due to artistic differences and was replaced on vocals by Pete Dyer.
The original Stray finally dissolved in 1977, although Bromham later continued to play in various resurrected versions of the project well into the 2000s.
There are two Iron Maiden connections to Stray. The early song "All in Your Mind" from the Stray 1970 debut album was covered by Maiden, and Maiden bassist Steve Harris's daughter has covered "Come On Over".
Track List

01. All In Your Mind
02. Taking All The Good Things
03. Around The World In Eighty Days
04. Time Machine
05. Only What You Can Make It
06. Yesterday’s Promises
07. Move On
08. In Reverse/Some Say
09. Change You Mind
10. The Man Who Paints The Pictures
11. In The Night
12. Outcast
13. All In Your Mind (Single Version)

T2 - It'll All Work out in Boomland (1970)

2008 digitally remastered and expanded reissue of this album featuring three 1970 BBC sessions as bonus tracks. The rise of power trio T2 in 1970 was rapid as they made appearances at virtually every major venue in London. Then their debut album was released; they seemed poised for a breakthrough. As the band recalled, they were playing the Marquee club, with John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix hanging out backstage, which was all to the good. But people were coming forward saying, "we can't find your album anywhere." In short order, the band fell apart. Still, their sole Decca album has become well established as an all-time classic amongst Progressive and Psychedelic music collectors-even the Techno and DJ crowds. The fact that it has done so without hype is a testament to the innate quality of the music. The album is packed with melodic acoustic passages, frenzied fuzz guitar workouts, not to mention acid-trip induced lyrical and musical content. It is, in every way, an extraordinary album, one of Rock music's best kept secrets, on a par with all the other major works that form the rock music canon of the time.

Track Listing....

1. In Circles
2. J.L.T.
3. No More White Horses
4. Morning
5. Questions and Answers [*]
6. CD [*]
7. In Circles [*]