Octopus - An Ocean Of Rocks (1978 germany, progressive anthem rock - MP3 320k and FLAC)

Really active with several bands, always being a contact person for local musicians in Frankfurt with the “Initiative Virus Music”, and committed at “Radio X”, a local non commercial local radio station.

Seppl Niemeyer has various agile memories: .Before that I have played with Ax Genrich Highdelberg, an intellectual who was approaching all head moderately. Then I came to Frankfurt and could play just like I wanted - they loved how I played - the Octopus group. Octupus was one of these progressive rock bands with very tricky parts and one of the few bands ex Frankfurt who toured all over Germany" Niemeyer still today associates an exciting period, musicians who played hard at the limit of their abilities, an organist who shakes his Hammond and a self-confident singer, who loved to counter them.

The Eschersheimer flat-share with its wild parties also still is unforgotten. Musicians, who lived together (even though not in communes) belonged to that time just like to drive to see all festivals in Germany. Today maybe one is laughing about the music of some German reek bands but it was a very interesting time, you just have been outside of the society, lived in your band, that was a cosmos of its own, a network.

Today all this only is business!" Martis Scharff-Kniemeyer, the wife of the much too early passed away bass-player and manager of the band, Claus Kniemeyer, who also was responsible for the art-work of the cover remembers: When I went through the pictures for the cd-booklet, I thought, that for this time ft could be remarkable how we did the cover for ,,An Ocean Of Rocks" because we really drove with the band bus to the ocean of rocks at Odenwald, placed table, chairs, dishes, and costumes just for the picture.

Today unimaginable, Now all would be assembled at the computer But the shooting was mega fun despite of coldness and snow!" The times they are a changing but music still remains for decades or even longer.
by Dettef Kinsler

Tracks
1. Start The Music - 3:59
2. On My Mind - 5:40
3. Son Of Sorrow - 6:30
4. The Delayable Rise of Glib Part 2 - 3:42
5. The Entrance - 2:24
6. The Shifting Of Space And Time - 5:35
7. Octopus – The Survivor Of Atlantis - 7:13
8. An Ocean Of Rocks - 6:00

Octopus
*Seppi Niedermeyer - Drums, Percussion
*Jennifer Hensel - Vocals
*Claus D. Kniemeyer - Bass
*Pit Hensel - Guitars
*Werner Littau - Keyboards

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Tomorrow's Gift - Tomorrow's Gift (1970 germany, krautrock, progressive jazz rock - MP3 320k and FLAC)

This was the second album by Germans Tomorrows Gift (recorded in 1972), and isn’t as well known, perhaps due to being unavailable as a reissue for many years. For the last few years it’s been available as a CD-R bootleg from Shroom Productions, but now that you can buy it on a proper CD it seems like a good time to give this classic the public look-in it deserves.

Tomorrow’s Gift started out in the late 60’s as more of a conventionally-styled heavy progressive band with a late psychedelic hangover, though by no means ordinary or forgettable. Driven by heavy, churning organ and guitar riffage and ornamented by iconic flute and the masculine vocals of fiery-haired heart-throb Ellen Meyer, Tomorrow’s Gift Mk. 1 bore some general comparison to Frumpy, but in my opinion were better by and large, certainly less patchy and more likely to appeal to today’s underground heads.

Tomorrow’s Gift had darker overtones (as you’d expect from a band who had song called things like “Prayin’ To Satan” and “The First Seasons After The Destruction”), though not without some non-soppy love and light vibes to counteract the despair with some inspired hope, their riffs leaning more to a Teutonic Purple/Heep-like proto-metal than hippy blues rock.

They could also jam up a weird storm, as documented by the 20-minute live jams found on the various artists live albums ‘Pop& Blues Festival ‘70’ and ‘Love and Peace’, where they twist “Season of the Witch” (as “Sound of Which”) and “Indian Rope Man” (interspersed with their own “At the Earth”) respectively far beyond their original structures into demented heavy psychedelic jams.

By 1972, Tomorrow’s Gift had been reduced to only keyboardist Manne Rürup and bassist Bernd Kiefer from the original line-up that recorded the debut, and took on board drummer extraordinaire Zabba Lindner from crazed underground rockers Sphinx Tush to create a totally different instrumental group that would tackle music that was far more original, unconventional and psychedelic, and with more insane spontaneity and light-hearted nuttery. In fact you might as well regard Tomorrow’s Gift Mk. 2 as a totally different band, because there is no resemblance between the two whatsoever.
by Achuma

Tracks
1. Riddle in a swamp - 8:02
2. Prayin' to Satan - 5:09
3. One of the narrow minded thoughts - 3:28
4. Tenakel gnag - 2:55
5. The first seasons after the destruction - 13:02
6. How you want to live - 7:32
7. Grey aurora - 1:40
8. Ants - 2:51
9. Breeds there a man - 3:21
10.King in a nook - 4:21
11.Sandy concert - 8:08
12.Enough to write a song about or two - 2:00
13.Second song - 0:27

Tomorrow's Gift
*Carlo Karges - Guitars, Percussion
*Bernd Kiefer - Bass
*Ellen Meyer - Lead Vocals
*Gerd Paetzke - Drums
*Manfred Rürup - Keyboards
*Wolfgang Trescher - Flute
Guest Musician
*Jochen Petersen - Alto Saxophone (11)

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Soul Caravan - Live 1969 (1969 german krautrock mix of jazz-rock and psychedelia - Wave Pack audio format)

Recorded in early 1969, just prior to when the band had changed their name to Xhol Caravan.

I've heard there's one other earlier effort from this German krautrock / experimental band - 'Get In High' ( ' 67), not sure if it's been reissued on CD yet or not.

What we get here is an 'incomplete' thirty-seven minute live performance that is so well edited, I honestly could not tell which songs might have had certain parts cut out.
Either way, sound quality is great.

Starting off with Roger / Hammerstein's all-out jazzy "My Favorite Things", it dawned on me that this CD import would likely be a bit different than the other Xhol titles I've heard.
Next up is the thirteen-minute "All Green" with (sort of) a psychedelic vibe to it - although it's a bit more jazzy than I was maybe expecting as so was "Skipping" but I have to admit the drum solo was somewhat impressive.

Last two songs are covers - their well played remake of Otis Redding's "(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay" and their inspiring homage to James Brown with "Lick A Stick" - personally, I thought this tune was the best song on the entire CD.

Myself, I like some of the other discs by Xhol and their various / similar line-ups better - like 'Electrip', 'Motherfuckers Live' 2-CD or (also out on the Garden Of Delights label) 'Hau-Ruk'.
CD comes with a 28-page booklet with a listing and an image of every GoD title put - releases numbers 1 through 117, so you can see what other label titles you don't have. (by Mike Reed from Aural Innovations)

Personnel:
Leon - vocals
Werner Funk - guitar
Klaus Briest - bass
Ocki Von Brevern - keyboards
Hansi Fischer - soprano sax
Tim Belbe - tenor sax
Skip Van Wyck - drums.

Track List :
01.My Favorite Things
02.All Green
03.Skipping
04.Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay
05.Lick A Stick

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Sinto - Right On Brother (1972 german krautrock mix of jazz-rock, funk rock and progressive - APE lossless format)

Here is one of the true jewels of German prog-rock. Sinto's Right On Brother is my recent discovery and it quickly became one of the favorites.

Those expecting kraut-rock must stop here. It's nothing but pure prog in the British tradition and in fact there's almost no "Germanity" on this album, it could have been easily recorded in UK around the same time (1974).

Sinto's complex prog is wonderfully diluted by some funky elements - that can probably make this album appealing for both prog- and mainstream rock fans.

Instrumentation is very rich including not only guitar (Alfred Jones produces some blistering solos throughout the album) and keyboards (funky piano of Peter Holzwig is superb!), but also violin, which plays a prominent part in the whole mix.

Plus, here is a special guy who plays on different congas, bongos and other percussive instruments and his inclusion makes the rhythm-section more versatile.

All the tracks are song-oriented, but this shouldn't repulse you. Vocalist is no Demetrio Stratos, but he does a nice job and it seems that there is no accent in his pronunciation (which is characteristic of many German vocalists daring to sing in English).

Despite the simple structure of most of the tracks (the closing "Another Voice" is the only exception), they are quite unusual harmonically so that they can be labeled progressive rock by all means.

The musicianship is of the highest class and the interplays between guitar and violin are simply great.

Here are some up-tempo rocking songs with obvious funky stylings (opening title-track, "In My Times", 'Don't Wait") and some sad and extremely beautiful ballads ("Rome").

Closing "Another Voice" reminds me of Sinto's compatriots from Pell Mell - the same dark piano riff and violin extravaganza on the top.

Overall, this is a wonderful album. Due to the skillful combination of catchy funky parts and complex instrumental showoffs it can surely please both prog bigots and mainstream rock lovers.

To be honest, I'm pretty surprised this album is fairly obscure, since it seems consciously made for satisfying the wide audience.

Anyway, I highly recommend everyone to check it out. (www.progressiveears.com).

In My Times:


Track List:
01.Right on brother
02.Rome
03.Things I see
04.In my times
05.Don't wait
06.Everytime
07.Another voice

Sinto:
*Hannes Beckmann: amplified violin, acoustic bass, percussion, vocals
*Cotch Black: congas, lead percussion, laughter and vocals
*Abu Dram: drums, percussion, vocals
*Ralph Fischer: bass, percussion, vocals
*Peter Holzwig: piano, organ, marimbaphone, percussion, vocals
*Alfred Jones: guitar, percussion, vocals


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