Discover an Unfamilliar Artist

The Doctor wrote: Egg was great.  It strikes me as a cross really between Canterbury and symphonic, musically it is very symphonic, but had those silly canterbury lyrics with great song titles like "Don't Worry James, Your Socks are Hanging in the Cellar with Thomas".  The main member was Dave Stewart later of Hatfield and the North.  Definitely worth checking out their first album "Egg" and "The Polite Force" is also a great CD.  I do not yet have their posthumous "Civil Surface."  But I've heard that's getting a remaster.  So it will soon be in my collection.

Sounds interesting. Thanks.
Anyone else have something to say?

So, no one knows anything about Egg?

memowakeman wrote:   Thanks for the info Ivan, actually Fernández Ledesma is one of the most prolific musicians in the prog scene in México, he has released several albums which sadly are unknown even here in México, right now he is playing with another prog rock band called "Saena" where ex Nazca´s and Decibel´s violin player Alejandro Sánchez plays as well.   There is no much info available about José Fernández Ledesma, but i will look for it and see if i can help with his addition, i am sure Cesar Inca could help as well

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - August 08 2007 at 15:06

Hi HT Yes i thought it could be in both, but Abbhama is IMHO more an unfamiliar artist than a priceless Relic for all the people.

glass house wrote: schizoid_man77 wrote: Can anyone fill me in on (wow, I am quite embarrased to ask this) Spocks Beard? They seem like a pretty big band, but dont exactly get high ratings.   I have their Beware of Darkness cd and The Kindness of Strangers. I've played the former more than the later one so I'll give you a quick tour of that cd.   The first time I heard Beware of Darkness I was delighted with the Gentle Giant influences. But that's not all, listening more I think they make some really good classic prog with enough modern input ( at that day ) to stay interesting. Influences enough but original in it's own way. The recent stuff is I believe more mainstream rock. Don't know all their releases. Give them a try.

Now is the turn for a very rare band, just posted about them in the Symphonic thread but really they became an addiction, I'm talking about ABBHAMA, a septept from Indonesia who released one cassette in 1978 or 1979 (the inormation mentions the two years) called "Alam Raya",. which was hard to find until a Japanese label edited a CD.

 

Simply out of this world!!!!!

 

Not because of quality because they are not outstanding, but because of the original of theior proposal.

 

The band is formed by the brain and sould Iwan Madjid a classically trained pianist, ONA a keyboardist who makes miracles with a kit that sounds like a 200 bucks Casiotrone and Dhrama who plays a very sweet flute, the other 4 members play Oboe (Hendro), Robin on drums, bass (Darwin) and Cok B in the guitar

 

But the most incredible fact is the vocals of Madjid, he sounds like a 12 years old Jon Anderson singing for an made in India musical. Their sound is well…..everything combined from Asiatic Disco to Euro Pop with a solid Symphonic structure, Neo Classical touches and Baroque fugues with an ethnic edge.

 

If you add to that a clear Focus and Triumvirat influence, you got a complete salad bar that tastes very well

 

Sometimes it’s hard to take them seriously but I end listening it over and over because the voice is hypnotic, really a great acquisition for any Proghead.

 

 

Iván

 

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - August 07 2007 at 17:27

Can anyone fill me in on (wow, I am quite embarrased to ask this) Spocks Beard?

sleeper wrote: I would like to learn more about Art Zoyd

can you tell me how much you've heard by them? they have done work in two major areas, one being dark, RIO chamber rock with symphony-style percussion and the other in orchestrated but somewhat industrial, ambient film scores.

they're... not a happy band. they're comparable to Univers Zero, and I think members of each band maintained an exchange. it's also hard to buy their older work because only box sets seem to be available, and that wouldn't be a good starting point for a new listener.


Edited by laplace - August 07 2007 at 08:16

I would like to learn more about Art Zoyd and Discus.

Embryo are part of a musical collective that started in the late 60s. This collective chiefly consisted of the bands Embryo, Amon Düül2, Guru  Guru and Kraan; other connected bands were Missus Beastly, Harmonia and Karthago (not in the archives yet, by the way). These bands exchanged musicians back and forth. Embryo started out as a jazz-rock act, but soon started integrating ethnic music from all around the world. In the late 70s they started a trip into the orient into countries like Afghanistan and India. In India they studied Indian music at the Karnataka College of Percussion, with whom they recorded several albums. (The Karnataka Colloge of Percussion is quite famous; two of the best percussionists of today, Trilok Gurtu and Ramesh Shotam, studied there). They also made albums with the African Yoruba Dun-Dun Orchestra and with South-American influences. Important members of Embryo are Christian Burchard, the founder and only constant figure in an ever-changing line-up (drums, xylophone, marimba and other tuned percussion), guitar and oud player Roman Bunka (who was recently added to the archives), Chris Karrer of Amon Düül 2 (who plays guitar and oud too), Edgar Hofmann on violin and saxes and Roland Schaeffer of Guru Guru. A highly recommended album to get into their music is "Embryo's Reise" which documents their trip to Afghanistan and India. Also definitely listen to the only sound example of them in the database ("Radio Marrakesh / Orient Express").