More British Classic Rock!

Freshly departed from PROCOL HARUM, Bobby Harrison & Ray Royer founded FREEDOM, a Heavy Blues infected Psych Rock combo, that toured with BLACK SABBATH among others.

FREEDOM never reached great success and is often seen as a middle-of-the-pack band.

Sure it's not as inventive and catchy as other British bands of the era, but FREEDOM still delivers some great tunes and good Heavy Rock tracks that really deserve a listen.

This is the American press on Cotillion and is somehow easier to find (and cheaper also!) then the original UK press.

Go check Toe Grabber on the player and let me know what you think.

ENJOY!

FREEDOM "Through The Years" - 1971 - UK - Cotillion SD 9048 (US press)

The Electric Elves

Before he sang for BLACK SABBATH (among other bands), Ronnie James Dio ran a band called ELF, and they released their debut in 1972, a Classic Rock milestone. But the band needs no introduction, does it?

I found this original US press a coupla years ago, with a 3D lookalike cover. I don't know if it's a repress or any limited edition, as I've only seen it once, and subsenquently bought it.

I've seen some original copies sell for over $60 here in France, I wonder what it's worth in the US.

Please give a listen to Never More on the player, and enjoy.
This truly is a must-have, filled with hard boogie Rock anthems and the inimitable voice of Dio, the man that invented the sign of the devil (yes he's the first guy who threw the horns back in the 70's).

ENJOY!

ELF "s/t" - 1972 - USA - Epic KE 31789

Music to smoke to

ASH RA TEMPEL is one of the Krautrock leaders, mainly because of their debut LP (highly valuable and pretty hard to find in great condition).

"Discover Cosmic" is a French only release that consists of two ASH RA TEMPEL LPs : "Inventions for Electric Guitar" and "Seven Up" with the late Timothy Leary.

"Inventions..." is a Manuel Göttsching album only, as ASH RA TEMPEL broke up weeks earlier. This LP is about monolithic cosmic riffage and various guitar effects. Aerial et hypnotic, perfect soundtrack if you've been having a bad day and are out of pot. You don't need much if you have this.

"Seven Up" is a Timothy Leary/ASH RA TEMPEL collaboration, recorded in Switzerland with a lot of LSD and other drugs. Blues, experimentation and effects galore for a very peculiar album. Tracks are all mixed in together with bizarre noise and moog keys.

Downtown and Power Drive are the two first tracks of this album and I hope you'll like them.

ENJOY!

ASH RA TEMPEL "Discover Cosmic" - 1975 - Germany - Ohr 940.117/18 (French only)

Stop! Look! Listen!

From Dortmund, Germany comes EPITAPH and its second offering "Stop Look And Listen", by far its greatest achievement.

The band went on to common Hard Rock in the 80's and thus will not be discussed here.

But this one is tasty as hell!

You get some kind of Rural almost Folk intros that merge into some smart Heavy Rock, laid-back, cool but solid.

The 5 cuts here are sharp and precise, floating between false Hippy Rock and crude Hard Rock.

This German press doesn't come up very often, so I advise anybody to catch it while they can. You won't buy it for the cover (ain't that shit ugly?). You'll have to spend at leat 40€/50€ for this one, but I tell you it's worth the price!

I give you the title track, cut #5 : Stop Look And Listen.

Enjoy!

EPITAPH "Stop Look And Listen" - 1972 - Germany - Polydor 2371 274