Quatermass-Quatermass (1970)

For fans of progressive rock is a must have album Quatermass unique, especially for those who like where the keyboard is the dominating style that thrived in the early 70s. Although the band had only three members, their stories are as colorful as the music they produced. Pete Robinson (keyboards) and Johnny Gustafson (bass) joined Mick Underwood (drums) and founded Episode Six, a band that included Ian Gillan who later became the voice of Deep Purple. Underwood was also involved with The Outlaws and The Herd, only a few years before Peter Frampton arrived. When the band finally formed Quatermass in 1970, they had set eyes on a format where the energy used in their Robinson keyboard would give them the sound. Both issues, "Black Sheep" and "One Blind Mice", were released as singles, but fell on deaf ears, but the sound of the band was equally moved as the repertoire of The Nice. The Quatermass sound is far from being a hollow sound isolated and without direction. After this album the band split, with Gustafson later doing session work for Kevin Ayers, Steve Hackett, and Ian Hunter and others, while Robinson found new life in the progressive jazz band Brand.

Exmagma-Goldball (1974)

This power trio, formed in the early seventies, was part of the Krautrock genre, specifically its progressive jazz-rock subgenre. They released two exciting and explosive albums before disbanding in the mid-seventies. Comprised of keyboardist Thomas Balluff, guitarist, bassist, and saxophonist Fred Braceful, and drummer Andy Goldner two Germans and one African American they recorded their self-titled debut album in 1973. On this first release, the powerful trio showcased an experimental jazz-rock sound infused with psychedelic elements, featuring standout tracks like the captivating “The First Tune” and the epic 19-minute jam “Tripping With Birds/ Kudu/ Horny”. A year later their second and final album, the one we are discussing, “Goldball”, would appear. It is a less dark and more accessible work where they continue with that energetic and experimental jazz, but introduce elements of acid rock and atmospheric sounds such as the epic “Marylin F. Kennedy”, jazz and rock improvisations “Adventures With Long S. Tea” and “25 Two Seconds Before Sunrise” or clearly avant-garde cuts such as “Groove Tango Wolperaiso” and “Greetings to the Moroccan Farmers”.

Five Day Rain-Five Day Rain (1970)

Five Day Rain was a British psychedelic and prog rock band that emerged during the transition of those sounds in the late sixties and early seventies. Formed by guitarist Rick Sharpe, bassist Clive Shepherd, and drummer Dick Hawkes, who were already performing as Iron Prophet, they recruited organist Graham Maitland and named this new group Five Day Rain. Their only album, recorded and released in 1970, featured additional guitarist John Holbrook, as well as singer Sharon Tandy and members of the band America, who contributed vocals and backing vocals on the folk-influenced tracks "Goodyear" and "Sea Song". The album is notable for the powerful and psychedelic sounds of "Mariés A Woman" and the expansive instrumental "Rough Cut Marmalade", with its abrasive, distorted guitars and sharp, stellar Hammond organ sounds. Originally released as a limited edition, it wasn't until almost 20 years later that the original pressing of the album was discovered and bootleg editions began appearing, targeting the collector's market. Years later, the Italian label Nightwings released a remastered edition with the participation of the band's original members.

The Web-I Spider (1970)

The Web are another one of those obscure bands, little known to the general public, who today are among the most coveted by collectors and, at the same time, deserve to be rescued from oblivion. Their beginnings date back to the late 1960s as a band associated with the jazz and blues genres, with certain influences of proto-progressive rock. Their first two albums featured the powerful voice of African-American singer John L. Watson and those of their two guitarists, John Eaton and Tony Edwards, who provided the band's signature muscular sound. These first two works, titled “Fully Interlocking” (1968) and “Theraposa Blondi” (1969), despite their undeniable quality, went somewhat unnoticed by fans of the time, a fact that led to a reorganization of The Web with the departure of singer Watson and bassist Dick Lee-Smith and the addition of keyboardist and singer Dave Lawson. This would prove decisive in the band's progressively deeper sound, which is reflected in their third and final album, "I Spider." Here, they offered a powerful benchmark for the subsequent evolution of progressive rock in the jazz-rock realm. Energetic bass lines, organ, and percussion are supported by soaring guitar and saxophone melodies, all accompanied by their characteristically passionate vocals. The five-part suite "Concerto For Bedsprings", along with the instrumental "Ymphasomniac", the relaxed "Love You", and the hazy jazz of "Always I Wait", are highlights of an album as captivating as it is brilliant.

Odyssey-Setting Forth (1969)

Hailing from New York, this band has the honor of having recorded one of the most interesting psychedelic albums ever made. This little-known band, formed in the late 1960s on Long Island, consisted of Fred Callan (guitar), Vincent E. Kusy (organ and keyboards), Jay Sharkey (drums), and Louis Yovino (vocals). Their discography is limited to this sensational album, "Setting Forth", which is brimming with energetic heavy rock guitar sounds, screeching organs, piercing vocals, and electrifying drums. Their repertoire is simply devastating, starting with the pulsating, fuzz-infused "Angel Dust", the jazzy "Church Yard", the hard rock "Got To Feet It", the psychedelic "Tied By A Rope", "St. Emo's Fire", and "Come Back," and the bluesy boogie "Denky's Boogie". The limited promotion of the few copies that were put on sale and the apathy on the part of the record company, more interested in other more media-savvy bands, would cause this superb album to sadly disappear into oblivion, until it would be reissued years later, becoming another of those records coveted by collectors of psychedelic rarities from the 60s.

Van Der Graaf Generator-The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other (1970)

The start of the successful career of the British band Van Der Graaf Generator didn't begin with the psychedelic, still rather rudimentary, and to some extent baroque "The Aerosol Grey Machine" (1969), but thanks to their second release, "The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other", the band gained significant prominence in the world of rock with an album that paved the way for them in the early 70s progressive scene. This second release contrasts dark landscapes like the demanding "Darkness (11/11)" with David Jackson's incisive saxophones almost on the verge of suffocation, or the bewitching "White Hammer" and its disconcerting ending, with sublime moments of luminous fragility like the beautiful and unmissable "Refugees", where an emotional Peter Hammill, without falling into sentimentality, caresses the verses instead of singing them. But it's not until the album's final track that VDGG's full-fledged progressive influences emerge, with the expansive and intricate "Alter the Flood". Here, Hugh Banton's keyboards and David Jackson's saxophone intertwine in an intense, otherworldly layering, while Hammill subtly accompanies them with acoustic guitar and his distinctive vocal style. "The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other" is not only a spectacular album but also the cornerstone for the band's future sound. From this point on, VDGG would prioritize the development of expansive works infused with jazz elements, frenetic avant-garde improvisations, and sublime melodies, all set to sophisticated and intelligent lyrics the product of the brilliant mind of the unique and irreplaceable Peter Hammill.

XII Alfonso-Charles Darwin (2012)

For two years, the musical project ALFONSO XII were composing, arranging, recording and mixing their new album. Composed of 3 CDs of one hour each, devoted to the life and work of historical biologist and researcher Charles Darwin, eternal curious, who loved life in all its forms and who tried, until the day he died, to decode the mysteries of it. These 3 CD's recount, in chronological order, the most important events of his life. With 22 songs and 30 instrumental pieces, XII ALFONSO try to illustrate his biography with different notes and styles, tones, sounds, rhythms, atmospheres and words. All topics we talk about their beginnings, youth, home, dreams and doubts. The instrumental pieces are an attempt to reflect the most important concepts of his thoughts: 'The coral of life', 'Descent with modification' Struggle for Existence ',' On the origin of species' ...
In this album, besides paticipating a lot of great musicians like John Helliwell, Supertramp saxophonist, Maggie Reilly, singer Mike Oldfield, Tim Renwick, Pink Floyd guitarist, Mickey Simmonds (keyboards), Terry Oldfield and John Hackett (flute ), Raphael Ravenscroft (sax), Robin BOULT FISH guitarist, guitarist Ian Bairnson Alan Parsons and Kate Bush, David Paton, bassist Alan Parsons Project, FISH and Kate BUSH, Francis Dunnery, It Bites guitarist, Elliott Murphy (voice ), Huong Thanh (vocals), her husband Hong NGUYEN (zither), Ronnie Caryl (guitar, vocals), Amy Keys, Alistair Gordon, Jayney Klimek, Gerard Lenorman and Freegh (vocals) and Ton KAYAK SCHERPENZEEL more keyboards. This is the sixth official studio album of French XII ALFONSO, group led by brothers Philippe (bass, guitars) and François CLAERHOUT (keyboards), who joined Thierry Moreno (drums) and Stéphane Ducasse (flutes), achieving between them, the musicians mentioned above and a few other less known but proven worth, an ambitious album inspired by the life and work of Charles Darwin.
For 15 years, XII ALFONSO unclassifiable has composed music that is not jazz or rock, progressive or classical, traditional nor This group has been characterized from the beginning by his imaginative musical approach (progressive symphonic as one of the best references to what do), and on this record homered. His musical style is everything they say it is not very varied thanks to the intervention of different musicians and singers in every song and every issue, but mostly thanks to a supplementary instrumentation deviates frankly than usual. A acoustic and electric guitars are added mandolins, bouzouki and Vietnamese instruments like koto or give bao (string lute), Madagascar instruments as vali (zither-bagpipe) or kraar Ethiopia, balafon, xylophone, harp Burkina Faso straw, drums, ptithécophone (monkey skull) and dolphinophone, (dolphin bones), theremin, E-Bow, rain stick, etc.

Eminently romantic life and legacy of revolutionary scientific DARWIN told in the style that has always distinguished humanist aesthetics ALFONSO XII, a melting pot of cultural influences and traditions from around the world