Tropea-Short Trip To Space (1977)

Largely unknown in Europe, John Tropea is one of the most important guitarists of 1970s American jazz fusion. His career has been marked both by his own solo work, with over a dozen albums released, and by his work as a session musician in some fifty collaborations with artists such as Van Morrison, Deodato, Michael Franks, and Eric Clapton. "Short Trip To Space" (1977), his second solo album, showcases his jazz fusion style with funk sounds influenced by psychedelia, resulting in a dazzling work of sophisticated, elegant, and dynamic jazz. Without reaching the complexities of progressive jazz, Tropea approaches jazz fusion with spacious atmospheres and expansive instrumental developments featuring piano, guitar, winds, and percussion, performed with an addictive, unpretentious style that appeals to both purists and fans of mainstream jazz. For this second album, Tropea would have several top collaborators such as Larry Fast, Michael Brecker, Lou Marini or Randy Brecker among other musicians from the nascent North American jazz scene of the time.

Bliss Band-Dinner With Raoul (1978)

Bliss Band was a British band from the late 1970s that released two albums before disbanding in 1980. The band was formed by vocalist and keyboardist Paul Bliss in 1976 after leaving Dog Soldier, with whom he had released an album in 1975 and had also contributed to several Moody Blues projects. For the production of their first album, "Dinner With Raoul," released in 1978, Paul Bliss enlisted Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff Baxter, along with Michael McDonald on vocals, Andy Brown on bass, Alan Park on keyboards, Phil Palmer on guitar, and Nigel Elliott on drums. This debut album is brimming with great compositions in the purest West Coast style, venturing into more jazzy moments, all overflowing with catchy and pleasant melodies. The melodic sections are combined thanks to the vocal prowess of Bliss and McDonald, along with the keyboard elements that make this an excellent example of late-seventies Californian rock. The final result is astonishing, and it's no surprise given the production by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and the outstanding contributions of Michael McDonald ("Slipaway" and "Stay A Little Longer"), which evoke the sound of early Steely Dan and The Doobies Brothers, making it a hidden gem of West Coast melodic rock. Tracks like "Over The Hill", "Don't Do Me Any Favors", "Right Place, Right Time", and "Here Goes" only need Donald Fagen's involvement to transform "Dinner With Raoul" into a lost "Katy Lied", with that smooth, striking, and subtle music contained within its grooves. Inexplicably, as happened to so many others, this album was lost in the abyss, perhaps because there were simply too many similar releases at the time (which there undoubtedly were), which is why many of these works inevitably went unnoticed.

Agitation Free-Malesch (1972)

Agitation Free were a classic of the German krautrock genre, creating a highly original style with sounds that combined repetitive electronic music, elements of world music and the European avant-garde with soaring guitar solos, spacey sounds, and breathtaking atmospheric improvisations. Formed in 1967 in Berlin by Jörg Schwenke (guitar), Lutz Ulbrich (guitars, 12-string guitar, and Hammond organ), Michael Hoenig (synthesizers, steel guitar, and electronics), Michael Günther (bass), and Burghard Rausch (drums, percussion, and vocals), they released their debut album, "Malesch", in 1972. Its style was rooted in Middle Eastern ethnic sounds, a product of the band's extensive travels over the years to countries like Egypt and Libya, all infused with British and American psychedelia, featuring guitar solos and hypnotic sounds. A year later came "Second" (1973), their second album, which, unlike its predecessor, featured a more "Western" sound, predominantly space rock with multiple keyboard elements and acid guitars reminiscent of Ash Ra Tempel. Following these two eloquent and terrifying albums, the live album "Last" was released in 1976, a much more experimental record that marked the end of this magnificent band's first adventure until almost 25 years later when they reunited to record a series of albums that were well-received by the progressive rock community.