Exposé Online » Reviews of releases for 1975

Harry Beckett - Joy Unlimited

My first encounter with trumpeter Harry Beckett, who was born in Barbados in 1935, was as a session player on the debut album by Manfred Mann Chapter Three, then he turned up on the Keef...

Arktis - Arktis, Arktis Tapes & On the Rocks

Arktis have a style like a mix of Cream, Black Sabbath, Steamhammer, and German bands like late Frumpy or Atlantis. Unlike some of the sub-par bands on Garden of Delights, Arktis make up for a...

10cc - King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents 10cc in Concert

The King Biscuit archives are vast commodity of lost recordings of live bands in action, as they were: warts and all. One of the many missing chronicles in live music history is the early period of...

Renaissance & Illusion - Scheherezade, Turn of the Cards & Madonna Blue

[Note: This review from 1994 refers to reissues on the TRC label. The albums involved have since been legitimately issued, and those releases are listed at the end of this...

Grup Doğuş - Grup Doğuş

If you are looking for a fun-filled album of Turkish psych music, look no further than this 2019 reissue of Grup Doğuş’ 1975 cassette. Grup Doğuş was formed by brothers Tufan Aydoğan...

Nova - Blink

This was reviewed in #1 and certainly deserves second mention. Nova was the best known offshoot of Osanna and Cervello and this, their debut was by far their best. Later albums include performances...

Hatfield and the North - The Rotters' Club

Here's a title I don't really need to relisten to to remember, having played it countless times in the past to the point of having it stamped in the memory. Hatfield were one of music's...

Humble Pie - Joint Effort

Back in 1974, Humble Pie was in a very uncertain state. Founding member Steve Marriott had left the band briefly, but was coaxed back to work with Dave Clempson and Jerry Shirley for sessions at...

Oho - Vitamin Oho

Oho is an American progressive rock group in the symphonic style that unfortunately didn't get to release this album when it was recorded, and was only reissued by Little Wing many years ago on...

Various Artists - Psychedelic Underground 8 - 10

One of the fundamental limitations of mining and other industries that rely upon non-renewable resources is that those resources will eventually run out. You would think the same rule would apply...

Various Artists - Psychedelic Underground 8 - 10

One of the fundamental limitations of mining and other industries that rely upon non-renewable resources is that those resources will eventually run out. You would think the same rule would apply...

Various Artists - Psychedelic Underground 8 - 10

One of the fundamental limitations of mining and other industries that rely upon non-renewable resources is that those resources will eventually run out. You would think the same rule would apply...

Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh

I hate to admit it, but this is one English import LP I just plain loved for the album cover alone, an amusing rock 'n roll version of the children's game Snakes and Ladders (e.g.—...

Trettioåriga Kriget ‎– Krigssång

With their second album, a year after their outstanding debut, Trettioåriga Kriget put out another classic in Krigssång. Musically, it picks up right where the previous record...

Jodi - Pop Espontáneo

In 2016 Guerssen reissued Jodi’s first album, Pops de Vanguardia, and since then Joern Wenger unearthed a set of unreleased recordings in his basement that had been sitting there for...

Graham Collier - Workpoints

Keith Tippett and ian Carr may be better known, but they were far from the only active jazz practitioners in Britain in the late 60s and early 70s. Bassist Graham Collier was another part of this...

Peter Frohmader - Kanaan Live 1975

Peter Frohmader was in a number of groups in the early 70s that predated his tenure with the moniker “Nekropolis.” Kanaan is one of these groups, presented here live in concert in 1975....

Gilgamesh - Arriving Twice

The musical world suffered a major loss in May of 1981 when Alan Gowen died of leukemia at the age of 33. Perhaps best known for his work with National Health, Gowen had also been the leader of his...

Strawbs - Ghosts

At long last, the Strawbs catalog is given proper treatment by the band’s first label, A&M, as one of five albums getting a much needed overhaul, Ghosts was the seventh album...

Synergy - Electronic Realizations, Sequencer, Cords, Games & Audion

Synergy is, of course the name of the ongoing electronic music project of keyboardist / engineer / producer Larry Fast, also known for his work with Peter Gabriel, Nektar, and numerous other bands...

Genesis - Archive 1967-75

At long last, the first Genesis box arrives. The compilers have chosen an interesting tack with this collection. Whereas many box sets consist primarily of (someone’s) favorite tracks, plus...

Nova - Blink

A logical precursor to Brand X, Nova is an Italian fusion band that features the mind-numbing bass and drum interplay of Brand X, but follows through with guitar, sax and vocals as well. Vocals are...

Bättre Lyss - Till Den Sträng Som Brast Än Att Aldrig Spänna En Båge

On February 22 the Guerssen sub-label Sommor released the first reissue of a rare Swedish album that was privately released in 1975, Till Den Sträng Som Brast Än Att Aldrig...

Reaktor 4 - Pannschüppenczewski

The one and only LP by this band from Bottrop-Vanderort in the Ruhr area of Germany exists only as a single copy (dub plate), created by the band as a gift to drummer Reinhold Stania in 1975. Why a...

Embryo - Bad Heads and Bad Cats

As far as Embryo albums go, Bad Heads and Bad Cats is one of the cornerstones of their career in the early to mid-70s, a turning point where the band was celebrating its new-found freedom...

Embryo - Surfin'

Embryo is one of the seminal German bands from the 60s that have continued to record and perform. Surfin', released in 1975, was their seventh album. Their earlier albums featured...

El Reloj - El Reloj & Second Album

El Reloj is an Argentine group influenced by the more harder rocking bands of the early 70s like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Their sound on their first album is a dual-guitar rock that keeps a...

The Muffins - Chronometers

A strange release at first glance. One CD, 70 plus minutes, 21 tracks, one track is 23 minutes long. Hmmm. This is a compilation of outtakes and general weirdness from 1975. The Muffins are often...

Hudson-Ford - The A&M Albums

Richard Hudson and John Ford (drums and bass respectively) began as the rhythm section of Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, who later, sans-Elmer, with the addition of guitarist and singer Paul...

Billy Cobham - Shabazz

In 1974, drummer Billy Cobham took advantage of a break in activity for Mahavishnu Orchestra by putting together a band to play Montreux and other shows in Europe. His band included the musicians...

Malicorne - Malicorne (II AKA Le Mariage Anglais)

While credit is due to Alan Stivell for being the first great figure of the modern French folk revival, my favorite group of the entire genre is Gabriel Yacoub's Malicorne. Even though it was...

Hatfield and the North - Hatwise Choice & Hattitude: Archive Recordings 1973-1975

The two studio albums released by Hatfield and the North sit firmly in my mind as two of the highlights not just of the Canterbury scene, but of all music recorded in the 70s. They embody so many...

Hatfield and the North - Hatwise Choice & Hattitude: Archive Recordings 1973-1975

The two studio albums released by Hatfield and the North sit firmly in my mind as two of the highlights not just of the Canterbury scene, but of all music recorded in the 70s. They embody so many...

Magma - Théâtre du Taur - Concert 1975 - Toulouse

By the early 90s, Seventh Records had showed up, started reissuing the original Magma albums along with some offshoots, and began to open Magma's considerable live vaults. The...

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

My first copy of this in high school was probably like most, with the die cut windows starting to wear. Back then I liked some of the songs, but over the decades the album has improved with every...

Cromwell - At the Gallop

Cromwell was an obscure Irish band that self-released an album in 1975, then promptly disappeared. Over the years At the Gallop has become a much sought after collectible, claiming prices...

Brinsley Schwarz - It's All Over Now

In 1974 Brinsley Schwarz’s began work on It’s All Over Now, the album intended to relaunch their career in the United States, but things did not go as planned. At that time the...

Clearlight - Forever Blowing Bubbles

So before the internet, one of the best sources of musical information was the series of books called Rock Record, I think the one I owned was the 4th edition. I nearly tore this book...

Grateful Dead - 9-28-75 - Lindley Meadow, Golden Gate Park

As I was playing this again this morning, my coworker came around the corner during the absolutely blazing version of "Truckin'" that starts the second of the two discs of this show...

Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale

The original cover of the Tangerine Dream leader's second solo album is what I'd probably call a fernscape and it's one of those covers that really sets the tone and mood of this...

Curved Air - Midnight Wire & Airborne

The final two albums by this seminal British band, always seeming to straddle the line between many styles, have finally been brought to CD. Unlike the early albums, which were solidly committed to...

Conrad Schnitzler - Filmmusik 1 & 2

Conrad Schnitzler was one prolific composer. Six years after his passing we are still presented with music from his archives. In 1975 he recorded a number of untitled pieces intended as soundtracks...

Conrad Schnitzler - Filmmusik 1 & 2

Conrad Schnitzler was one prolific composer. Six years after his passing we are still presented with music from his archives. In 1975 he recorded a number of untitled pieces intended as soundtracks...

Spirit - Salvation... The Spirit of '74

One of the heretofore undocumented periods in Spirit's career began shortly after Epic's rejection of Potatoland in '73. Randy California left the group (for the second time)...

Opus Avantra - Introspezione, Lord Cromwell & Strata

Led by composer/keyboardist Alfredo Tisocco, and fronted by vocalist Donella del Monaco, Opus Avantra – much like their name might imply, offers a music based in avant-garde classicism mixed...

Heldon - Electronique Guerilla & It's Always Rock 'n' Roll

The reissue of Heldon's first album is one that this writer has surely been anticipating for quite some time. What's even better is that Heldon's very elusive double third album has...

Heldon - Electronique Guerilla & It's Always Rock 'n' Roll

The reissue of Heldon's first album is one that this writer has surely been anticipating for quite some time. What's even better is that Heldon's very elusive double third album has...

Pihasoittajat - Hattukauppiaan Aamu

These two discs contain material culled from three albums released in the early 70s. The earliest album, Kivinen tie Dublinniin (Rocky Road to Dublin), was released in 1972, and finds this...

Magma - Théâtre du Taur - Concert 1975 - Toulouse

The long awaited fourth release on Christian Vander's AKT label is a legendary concert from September 24th, 1975 in Toulouse. The lineup here includes Christian and Stella Vander on drums and...

Magma - Théâtre du Taur - Concert 1975 - Toulouse

Recorded in Toulouse roughly three months after the concerts from which Live were taken, this two CD set was released for the first time in 1994 on Christian Vander's AKT label. The...

Magma - Live

McLatchey's Second Tier

This post will be umlaut free for efficiency. Hhai Live is the top Magma on my list if for no other reason than it was probably the first one I...

Magma - Live (Hhaï)

1975 saw several personnel changes in Magma's lineup, but the instrumentation which recorded the brilliant Köhntarkösz remained virtually unchanged, only adding Didier...

Crystalaugur - Terranaut

Crystalaugur’s Terranaut has been one of those rarities from the 70s that has collectors drooling whenever a copy surfaces. This private pressing of 200 copies has been bootlegged...

Tyll - Sexphonie

Tyll was a German band formed in the early 70s when Kerston Records approached Det Fonfara about releasing a Krautrock album. Fonfara and former bandmate and ex-Eulenspygel drummer Günter...

Arti e Mestieri - Tilt & Giro di Valzer per Domani

Much ink has been spilled about the drumming of Furio Chirico and for good reason: the guy is phenomenal. He is all over the place using all available musical space yet is never bombastic or...

Enzo Capuano - Storia Mai Scritta

A very rare Italian solo, Enzo Capuano's music cuts the line between Italian canzone (Battisti, early Storm Six and many more) and a symphonic soundtrack type of music. The vocal music is...

Jukka Tolonen - The Hook & Hysterica

Tolonen is a Finnish guitarist who spent the early 70s toiling with the progressive band Tasavallan Presidenti. After leaving that band, he put out a series of obscure but very worthwhile solo...

Trace - Birds

Often unjustly dismissed as "Rick van der Linden's post-Ekseption band" or "Ian Mosley's pre-Marillion band," Trace certainly deserve to be remembered for what they...

Tangerine Dream - Rubycon

McLatchey's Top Tier #27

Top 5 probably this one, the first Tangerine Dream album I ever owned. Features the pivotal Berlin electronic school moment on "Part 2."...

Klaus Schulze - Timewind

Next in the Revisited reissue series after Blackdance is Timewind, Klaus’ fifth release, the one he considers his breakout album and the one that brought him worldwide...

Kansas - Kansas & Song for America

The first two Kansas albums contain some of the group's best material and show a band on the way up in their formative years. Commercial success for the band would not arrive until two albums...

Alfredo Tisocco - Kátharsis, Ritagli d'Anima & Ballet Collection

Alfredo Tisocco's solo career apart from Opus Avantra, began in 1975 with the release of...

Finnforest - Finnforest / Lähtö Matkalle

At the core of this classic Finnish prog-fusion unit were two brothers, Pekka and Jussi Tegelman, on guitars and drums respectively. They recorded three albums in the mid-late 70s; the first two...

Napoli Centrale - Napoli Centrale

In the vein of bands like Perigeo, Agora, Duello Madre, and Dedalus; Napoli Centrale are an Italian jazz rock outfit playing music quite different from their symphonic contemporaries. They're a...

Bonfire - Bonfire Goes Bananas

This Dutch four-piece produced a spirited instrumental rock during the mid 70s, leaving one album behind as the only recorded evidence. Their sound is very progressive, constantly changing tempo...

Goma - 14 Abril

Goma was a five piece in the grand Spanish tradition, mixing a hard rock sound with elements of folk, in many ways similar to bands like Triana and Bloque, but Goma came several years earlier, and...

Trace - Birds

Birds, released in 1975, was the second album by the Dutch progressive band Trace. This CD reissue contains the complete original album plus two bonus tracks, "Birds" and...

Atoll - Musiciens-Magiciens, L’Araignée-Mal, Tertio & Rock Puzzle

I always thought of Atoll as being the number two French symphonic rock band in the 70s, after Ange. Like Ange, they applied the ideals and techniques of progressive rock to French culture and came...

Cherry Five - Cherry Five

Keyboard fans take note. Cherry Five was a predecessor to Goblin; Claudio Simonetti (keyboards) and Massimo Morante (guitars) were later in that band. Cherry Five's sole release is a true...

O Terço - Criaturas da Noite & Casa Encantada

O Terço are a Brazilian rock group that I've always found to be overrated. They suffer from being unclassifiable, and therefore, like many bands are given the label...

Ash Ra Tempel - Le Berceau de Cristal

Remember Tangerine Dream's Green Desert? Many a time have I discussed its legitimacy as a long lost album with people. Hailing from 1985, yet claiming to be from 1973, it just...

Syrius - Rock Koncertek A Magyar Radio Archivumabol

As best I can tell (my Hungarian is a little rusty) this release is an archive recording from 1975 that was originally a Hungarian radio broadcast. The band has a "big band" line-up,...

Kestrel - Kestrel

Here's another mid-70s British prog rock albums with Mellotron and sounding like Fruupp, Spring, Fantasy, and all those I mentioned in the

Jet - Jet

The travels of guitarist David O'List (from the Nice to Roxy Music) eventually found somewhat of a home in Jet, a splinter group from the remains of John's Children. O'List fit in well...

Carol Grimes, Uncle Dog & Sweet F.A. - Voiceprint 2000 Reissues

Upon the demise of Delivery (Phil Miller's quartet augmented by Janis Joplin stylized blues vocalist, Carol Grimes), Grimes moved off to join another blues-based, less improvisational group,...

Satin Whale - Desert Places & Lost Mankind

For the latter part of their career, Satin Whale were a commercially oriented rock group who's music fell way outside of much of the more progressive German rock of the era. However, their...

Henry Cow - In Praise of Learning (Original Mix)

For readers familiar with In Praise of Learning I need say no more than, “Here it is, come and get it.” This release captures all the wonderful strangeness of the original in...

Pentacle - Le Clef des Songes

This reissue is a long time coming for Musea, as this nifty piece of French history has only seen one Japanese LP reissue since its Arcane release in 1975 (that is barring a French reissue). This...

Steve Hillage - Fish Rising

McLatchey's Second Tier

There's a lot of historical information missing if you chart the evolution of Gong from You into Shamal and Steve Hillage's...

John St. Field - Control

This 1975 release by Scottish folkster St. Field was released only in Spain, originally on the renowned Movieplay label. I don't know if St. Field actually lived in Spain (all the musicians are...

Atila - The Beginning of the End

Atila dates back to 1973, when guitarist Eduardo Alvarez Niebla formed the band as a trio with two of his friends, Paco Ortega (keys) and Juan Punet (drums). This, their first album – so rare...

Gualberto - A la Vida, al Dolor

Gualberto is Gualberto Garcia, a young guitarist and songwriter who recorded two albums in the late 70s. The first album was A la Vida, al Dolor ("To the Life - To the Pain), and...

William Sheller - Lux Aeterna

Lux Aeterna is one of the few successful early examples of the fusion of rock music and orchestra. Masterminded by William Sheller, who at the time was a successful French singer, he...

Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting & Evening Star

Enough has been said about No Pussyfooting, a record of singular stature and importance to the gradual adoption of the avant-garde by popular artists, that if its creative success and...

Ash Ra Tempel / Manuel Göttsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar

McLatchey's Second Tier

No matter how many times a young future guitarist will plug his or her axe into an amp and echo/delay pedal in years to come, this sixth album by Manuel...

Area - Crac!

McLatchey's Second Tier

As a whole I believe Area's third album Crac! is generally considered their best album, it was definitely the first one I heard and if...

Kaipa - Kaipa, Inget Nytt Under Solen, & Stockholm Symphonie

In their early years, the Swedish band Kaipa were a quartet playing music in the symphonic rock vein as typified by Yes or Genesis. Vocalist/Keyboardist Hans Ludin is nearly a dead ringer for a...

Klaus Schulze - Picture Music

McLatchey's Top Tier #22

OK now for the deep dive into 70s German electronic music. When I was 16 or 17, some friends and I did radio shows at our high school radio station. One of...

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn

McLatchey's Top Tier #19

I was in my early to mid teens when I was at a friend's house down the street. One end of a long living room sat the record player was and there were LPs...

Klaus Schulze - Timewind

McLatchey's Top Tier #23

This album had a massive impact on my teenage brain; it was often the soundtrack of many... voyages. "Bayreuth Return" is still one of those pieces that...

Exit - Exit

Exit was an obscure Swiss band dating back to 1972. In 1975 they recorded and privately issued their only album of 350 copies that rapidly became a collector’s item. Exit continued to perform for...

Lard Free - Gilbert Artman's Lard Free, I'm Around About Midnight & Third

Artman's Lard Free project has received considerable amount of documentation in progressive periodicals, so I won't bore you with the details. Here's a quick overview; all are essential listens —...

Frijid Pink - Hibernated

Jazz Q - Živí Se Diví: Live in Bratislava 1975

Sahara - Sunrise & For All the Clowns

Formed from the ashes of Subject Esq., Sahara got lost among the mass of other mid-70s German prog groups (Grobschnitt, Novalis, SFF, et al.) in spite of their good distribution, though they didn't...

Gentle Giant - Giant on the Box

Gentle Giant - Artistically Cryme, The Missing Face & Playing the Cleveland

Gentle Giant’s headlining and support tours are further documented in three more marginal bootleg renditions from Voiceprint in the UK. Artistically Cryme is the first release, and a...

Gentle Giant - Out of the Woods - The BBC Sessions

Gentle Giant - King Biscuit Flower Hour

Gentle Giant - 2005 DRT Remasters

[Note: This review was written upon the release of the albums on DRT in 2005.]

DRT is Derek Shulman’s US based label, which has taken ownership of the band’s North America CD...

Glass - No Stranger to the Skies

Jan Hammer - The First Seven Days

Eroc - Eroc 1, 2 & 3

After 30 years Eroc’s solo albums are now available on CD and finally finding their way to the US in 2007. Eroc remastered them from the original tapes, added bonus material, and included liner...

Novalis - Novalis

Novalis was a Krautrock band from Hamburg, Germany and their self-titled second album is part of Revisited Records’ reissuance of the Brain back catalog. This album is an amazing mixture of folk...

Ariel Kalma - Le temps des moissons

Subtitled “Electronica Ragas of the 70s” Le Temps des moissons was Ariel Kalma’s first solo recording. Ariel had spent a lot of time in India learning the basics of modal music and...

Apoteosi - Apoteosi

Quiet Sun - Mainstream (Deluxe Edition)

Kaipa - Kaipa

Barclay James Harvest - Time Honoured Ghosts

Magma - Rock Duo »Magma«

Secret Oyster - Vidunderlige Kælling

Aera - Humanum Est / Hand und Fuß

Carmen - Fandangos in Space & Dancing on a Cold Wind

Carmen - Fandangos in Space & Dancing on a Cold Wind

S.O.S. - Looking for the Next One

Strange Days - 9 Parts to the Wind

Finch - Glory of the Inner Force

Carmen - Fandangos in Space & Dancing on a Cold Wind

Aquelarre - Brumas

Maxophone - Maxophone

Ah yes, yet another great Italian band. The closest comparison that I can make is with Locanda delle Fate, but that doesn't quite describe Maxophone. While Locanda was a full, rich seven piece that...