THE AQUA BARONS Extreme Guitar Conditions

Get That Beat Records

( Οops!!!! Today I received the cd Extreme Guitar Conditions by The Aqua Barons  for review from the person who has taken over the distribution in Greece!! However, this  long delay is due to me and how I perceive time. Anyway.
However, I saw that this had been released in 2020 and the band had sent it to me for download and review, and of course I didn't remember that I had written about this release. So, simply what follows is what I wrote then.)

The surfers Aqua Barons from Lechaio, Corinthia return with their second album. The first was the Southeast Stompers in 2016, and the first release for the band was two songs for the compilation Searching For Atlantis in 2014. Ok, I guess that all we know that they are playing instro/surf, they have great guitar touches and their Influenced come mainly from the 60s (and back) bands. The atmosphere of the album is extremely relaxing with tunes such as jungle calling, unknown seas etc, and sufficiently more uplifting with tunes such as spy romance, galaxy cruise, gulag party etc. The songs that swirl my mind more than the rest is the crazy orbits, yes the one containing theremin (played by the legendary Englishman Simon Jones-Vibrasonic and The Space Agency) and which takes me like a ping pong ball to earth and space, and the grand finale, a very nice track with vibraphone for blow off our souls!!Yes, it’s winter here but with these releases the sun will be always bright!!

THE WHITE KITES Devillusion

Deep Field Records 

The White Kites from Poland are back 6 years after their first album, Missing, which was released in 2014! The band consists of Sean Palmer-vocals, Przemek Piłaciński-guitars, Jakub Lenarczyk-keyboards, Paweł Betley-flute, Marysia Białota-rhodes piano, bass and Jakub Tolak-drums, while there are several guests. Their music is a mixture of British rock of the 60s and 70s, folk, art-rock, while they also add polite doses of psychedelic, blues, baroque, jazz, elements. The sound is great, the compositions are quite high level, the Spinning Lizzie that opens the album is surprisingly lively, in Not a Brownie the band goes from prog to jazz orchestrations, in Devillusion, which lasts just 50 seconds the music is extremely jazz/baroque 40s-50s style, the tracks Blurred, Mother Mars and Fallen Star are perhaps the closest to psychedelia, but the song I fell in love with is the marvelous Mysteries in the Sky with the crystal clear voice of Ola Bilińska. Of course, another element that gives White Kites a distinct entity is the ideal voice for this genre, the voice of Sean Palmer.                                                                                                                       This is a great progressive album, ideal for fans of this kind of music as it evolved in the late 60s and from early to mid 70s.

Recommended!!

THE ELECTRIC FAMILY Echoes Don’t Lie

Sireena

 This is the sixth album by Electric Family's three years after Terra Circus. Electric Family released their first album in 1997. Many years have passed since then and now the band is releasing their new album entitled Echoes Don’t Lie. Here the band of Tom "The Perc" Redecker, Rolf Kirschbaum, Harry Payuta, is completed by several guest musicians such as Roman Bunka (embryo), Marlon Kleim, Milla Kapolke, Rolf Muller and many more. All these years the Electric Family records songs of progressive rock, folk, pop kraut, all of them filtered in a psychedelic pot from where the smells of other decades emerge. The song that opens the album, the sacred land contains rather mellotron and is very good, as is the cover of Neil Young's I’ve been waiting for you. But the songs that shook me the most are another giant leap and strange things.                                                                                                                 Electric Family's new album is also the most rock they have done so far, while Redecker's voice remains consistently charming!!

 

EDEN ROSE On the way to Eden

Guerssen

Guerssen's reissue of this album of French Eden Rose. It was first released in 1970, and Guerssen reissued it again back in 2016. It is an instrumental album based on the organ of Henri Garela and the guitarist Pierre Alacen. Eight fantastic tracks where the organ dominates elsewhere, the guitar elsewhere while the bass and drums accompany the improvisation with a very special way. Their sound can be characterized as early progressive, it is groovy, little psychedelic, and tracks like Walking In The Sea, Reinyet Number, Faster And Faster, Traveling, you have the feeling that opening your mind on fire for a long time!! In summary, however, I cannot fail to mention that listening to this French masterpiece comes to my mind the track Ellis Island by Brian Auger Julie Driscoll & The Trinity from Streetnoise, an album that I imagine influenced Henri Garela in both playing and sound of On the way to Eden overall.

Recommended!

 

RUBBER TEA Infusion

Sireena

Rubber Tea is a German band and Infusion is their debut album. They consist of Lennart Hinz (keybords, vocals), Vanessa Gross (vocals, sax, flute), David Erzmann (bass), Jonas Roustai (guitar), Henri Pink (drums) and with the help of some guests recorded these 8 songs. Their music is a whirlwind of progressive, art rock and psychedelic rock, as it was played in early to the mid-70s. In these 8 songs what impresses is the very expressive and warm voice of Vanessa Gross. Especially in the amazing in weeping waters where the rhythm hypnotizes our souls, her voice takes us off over mushroom seas!! Also, another balm song for our mental health is the excellent The drought, with the very nice and suitable male and female vocals. In general, Rubber Tea recorded a very good album with songs where they bring out a fairytale mood, a dreamy dive into infinity. The many fans of the genre will bow to the talent of the band.

 

FOREVER AMBER The Love Cycle

Guerssen

Forever Amber's The Love Cycle was one of the rarest albums of English pop/psych music. It was released as a private press in only 99 copies, with the first official re-release in 2007. Forever Amber was Richard Lane (lead guitar, voc), Christopher Jones (rhythm guitar, voc), Anthony Mumford (bass guitar, voc), Christopher Parren (electric organ/piano /harpsichord/voc), Michael Richardson (vocals). Well, in 1968 they released an album, a milestone for English sunny psych/pop music. Acrobatic between Beach Boys, Zombies and Beatles, Forever Amber recorded some of the most ingenious songs written in 60s England!! The Dreamer Flies Back for example is a small masterpiece, like Better Things Are Bound To Come, and the inconceivable On Top Of My Own Special Mountain, and the exquisite I See You As You Used To Be, but also My Friend. (Can I mark all the tracks?)                       Extremely vocals, the sound of the songs is wonderful, the mood is psychedelic.     Forever Amber at one point could be special melodic and pop and the next one unrivaled psychedelic.                                                                                 Recommended.

 

ICARUS PEEL’S ACID REIGN Shallow Oceans

Billywitch Records

Icarus Peel is a talented guitarist/composer. Either with Honey Pot, or with Crystal Jacqueline, or alone or with Acid Reign, he manages to write songs that are remarkable. Here, under the name Icarus Peel's Acid Reign, they record their second album after The Window On the Side Of Your Head which was released in 2018. Here (and here) the guitar dominates, the softly and dreamy moments follow the explosions of guitar derailments and vice versa, the sound goes between The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream etc, but also goes back  to Bevis Frond and Barry Watts with Outskirts Of Infinity or Dr Brown. Great acid-rock moments are everywhere on the album, the divided is hard enough, while the psychedelia is present. Top song?  Of course the exceptional shallow ocean, probably the most psychedelic track of the album!

Icarus Peel is an important guitarist who has already join into the psychedelic scene in recent years.

Released on CD and in a limited edition vinyl of 199 copies!