Jotcamp is a pair of art students with some vague principles on media gluttony. We don’t want to just sit back and consume all the tasteful art we come across, so we’ve made this blog to compile and comment on that delicious media to keep our TV, music, and movies habit from becoming a one way conversation.
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290 posts tagged progressive rock
Rotor - Karacho Heizer
I took a few newish albums with me to Italy and they were pretty hit and miss. My favourite has to be 4 by Rotor, a German post-rock band that’s been putting out records since 2001. Their fourth album is filled with tons of great riffs and enviable guitar tones. I need to go and track down some more stuff by them for sure.
0 Plays
Ramases - Life Child
As usual I didn’t post these songs in the right order. I really thought I’d done something from Ramases’ Space Hymns before, but as I haven’t, here’s the opening track, Life Child. It has about 50 seconds of ambient flute stuff, but after that, it’s one of the best psychedelic guitar pieces ever recorded, and it has one of my favourite guitar solos.
Though Ramases died in 1978, a significant fan network has built up around his two albums. If you want to read about him and his career, there’s an extremely detailed fan site here run by Brian Currin.
13 Plays | Download
Ramases - Long Long Time
I’d never thought to look for another Ramases record after listening to the debut, Space Hymns, because it seemed so unlikely to me that a record company would twice back a guy who claimed to be the reincarnation of a Pharaoh, destined to spread through the world the truths he’d learned about the universe during his multi-millennia trip through the after-life.
But Vertigo was such a company, and apparently Ramases (Barrington Frost) had a fair bit of charisma since he scored the services of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra members for this record. I love Ramases’ first album for its unabashed strangeness and eclectic psychedelic moments, but Glass Top Coffin might actually be a lot better. Its songs feel more cohesive, all focussed on a progressive rock space opera that unfolds at just the right pace.
8 Plays
Lindisfarne - Meet Me On The Corner
Lindisfarne’s second album,Fog On The Tyne, was just as magical as the first, full of lots of short folk songs. I love the amount of harmonica that’s played on this album, and all of the vocalists have wonderful British voices. Some people think that most of the songs are short because their record company was pressing them to produce records too quickly, but I think some of it has to do with the band pursuing more of a traditional blues and country style without a lot of psychedelic touches like lengthy soloing.
4 Plays | Download
Wigwam - Frederick & Bill
Wigwam’s second album is a progressive rock masterpiece. Half of the Finnish band’s material would feel at home in a Clapton set, slow jamming blues songs with tasteful guitar and organ flourishes, while the others, like this song Frederick & Bill, borrow heavily from Canterbury prog influences and feature great jazzy guitar riffs. I found this long interview of the band’s keyboard player which is worth checking out if you’re interested in the history of Finnish rock.
41 Plays | Download
Cirith Ungol - Edge of a Knife
Cirith Ungol was an American metal group most active during the 80s that started off sounding like a 70s hard rock act akin to early Judas Priest. They weren’t really revivalists, though; they’d formed in the early 70s but just didn’t manage to score a record deal until 1980. I think the album’s cover is the perfect level of corny for a record like this. It matches the band’s constantly over-the-top vocal and guitar theatrics that make their songs so fun to listen to.
42 Plays
Quest For Fire - The Hawk That Hunts The Walking
I went on a bit of a music dig this week so that I’ll have lots of new albums to listen to on my flight to Italy. I think I’ve come across a bunch of promising stuff.
Quest For Fire is a Canadian psychedelic rock band that put out their self-titled debut in 2009. They sound similar to Tame Impala, so like a spaced out Sam Roberts, but they write longer, open-ended songs in the vein of post-rock groups like Pelican. I have a feeling this record is going to get a lot of attention from me this summer.
43 Plays | Download
Lucifer's Friend - In The Time of Job When Mammon Was A Yippie
Happy Record Store Day! I celebrated by picking up an original copy of Lucifer’s Friend’s self-titled debut. These Germans are probably my favourite of the country’s hard rock acts. Their later releases became more oriented toward jazz-rock, like a lot of German and Eastern European bands’ material became in the late 70s, but this first album was all about heavy, distorted riffing. This is the album to listen to if you’re interested in the pioneers of heavy metal.
40 Plays | Download
Shocking Blue - Daemon Lover
On their third album, the second one featuring Mariska Veres, Shocking Blue played around with a bluegrass style of psychedelic rock. The guitarist still occasionally rocked the sitar, but this record focuses more centrally on his straight-up awesome guitar and banjo skills because that’s where the band truly shines. I think the lyrics on this album branched into more creative directions that on their previous two releases. Also their drummer and bassist are always kicking ass in the background. I’m definitely going to try to track down a vinyl copy of this when my exams are over.
31 Plays | Download
Wigwam - Pidan Sinusta
Wigwam’s 1969 debut, Hard N’ Horny, is a little deceiving. With a cover like this, I thought I’d be listening to some heavy guitar rock, but the record turned out to be a dark, jazzy progressive rock journey with some amazing keyboard tones. They were from Finland and they had a reasonably successful recording career, releasing a dearth of records during the 70s and reuniting to release a couple in the 2000s.
10 Plays | Download
