Alien 1979

For fans of Jerry Goldsmith's score for Ridley Scott 1978 movie Alien, this two-disc Intrada set is the ultimate fantasy. Everything is here and then some. Disc 1 contains Goldsmith's entire score as he originally intended it with every cue in place, including those that were later cut from the film plus his recomposed versions of cues the director made him change (Goldsmith's original main theme, for example, appears without its signature heroic trumpet melody because the director thought it wasn't creepy enough). Disc 2 includes the original soundtrack as issued on LP plus six other bonus tracks of demonstration takes and even the brief except from Eine kleine Nachtmusik used in the film. The stereo sound here is fabulous, the performances definitive, and the liner notes exhaustive. And the score, like the film, is a classic of its genre. With its mixture of the ecstatic chromaticism of Scriabin, the skittering strings of Penderecki, the harmonic waves of Ligeti, and the atmospheric percussion of Herrmann, Goldsmith's score became a template for all subsequent science fiction/horror movies. But as this splendid release so amply shows, the original still can't be beat.

Efendi's Garden was - despite of their exotic musical sound - a band from Hannover. Founder Wolfgang Krantz formerly played with the bands called Jane and Harlis, then he took a year off, to make a terrific return in 1979 with Efendi's Garden. Activated by the former bandmember of Jane, Klaus Hess, as well as bassplayer Frank Meier, drummer Wolfgang Schreiner, Saxophone player Heinz Alberding and the uncommon singer Thomas Stender, Krantz presented a collective which had to search one's own kind in former musical aera of West Germany. Arabian singing, amplified by a megaphone, between shrill and hypnotic but always very intensive joining the slick arranged music. Partly like a soft ballade then again hardrock sound á la best Jane-tradition - even disco elements (it was the big disco fever at that time) are to be heard and are integrated into the musical concept…

Muck Groh was born in 1946 and started his musical life by first learning the trombone before he became more known as a guitarist, first band he was featured in being the the krautrock band Ihre Kinder. Later on he founded Aera which mixed jazz and progressive rock and which he left in the 70's to pursue more solo projects, like his album "Muckefuck" (it is a German word for bad coffee) and another jazz rock group Grotesk. Besides a rich music career, Groh spent much of his time as a freelance painter until 2006 where he initiated a revival of Aera called Neue Aera with which he tours regularly. Groh's musical endeavors can therefore be checked in bands mentioned above while his only solo album in 1979 is a fine record with folk overtones that might also please fans of Frank Zappa's jazz rock oriented albums.

Pancake from Winnenden near Stuttgart in Suabia emerged from their psychedelic predecessor Nyrvana Pancake in 1974 and now played progressive rock with clear symphonic tendencies. With changing members they released three LPs with self-written tracks, namely "Roxy Elephant" from 1975, "Out Of The Ashes" from 1977, and "No Illusions" from 1979.
Pancake's debut, "Roxy Elephant" is a good representative of the German rock sound of the mid 1970s. So it's not really Krautrock per se, but it definitely has a progressive mindset, with plenty of good ideas. There are no keyboards, and the songs are driven by dual guitars. From a compositional perspective, mid 70s Jane and Birth Control would probably be a good guidepost here…

Muck Groh was born in 1946 and started his musical life by first learning the trombone before he became more known as a guitarist, first band he was featured in being the the krautrock band Ihre Kinder. Later on he founded Aera which mixed jazz and progressive rock and which he left in the 70's to pursue more solo projects, like his album "Muckefuck" (it is a German word for bad coffee) and another jazz rock group Grotesk. Besides a rich music career, Groh spent much of his time as a freelance painter until 2006 where he initiated a revival of Aera called Neue Aera with which he tours regularly. Groh's musical endeavors can therefore be checked in bands mentioned above while his only solo album in 1979 is a fine record with folk overtones that might also please fans of Frank Zappa's jazz rock oriented albums.

Doomsday (1979). Gravestone play somewhat somber Progressive Rock of a rough nature. This is a re-release of their 1979 album on the Garden of Delights label. The music is at times jazzy and bouncy, and there are hints of blues throughout, and the majority of the tracks are instrumental. There is a lot of improvisational blues styled stuff going on here. The guitars are the main lead instruments, although there is an organ tickling the background, the guitars are full front, screaming in true psychedelic fashion on the latter tracks of this album.
War (1980). In the eighties, Gravestone from Illertissen, Swabia, became quite famous as a hard rock and metal group. What many people don’t know is that they initially - and with a different line-up - released two LPs with progressive rock and critical lyrics, namely “Doomsday” from 1979 and “War” from 1980, in small editions of 1000 copies each…

Farout is a progressive/jazz rock band from Lappeenranta, Finland. It was founded in 1977 and was active until 1982 with various setups. Farout was the progressive rock champion in the Finnish Rock music contest in spring 1978. The band recorded their only LP-record so far for Kompass Records at Birdland Studios, Mellunmaki, Helsinki, in 1979. The creditable record engineering was done by Dan Tigersted, the studio guru of those days. He recorded the material on an 8-track recorder during five long working days.
The tenor saxophone and flute player, late Pekka Poyry guest starred on the record. Poyry, who died in 1980, became well known for his credits with e.g. Tasavallan Presidentti and Jukka Tolonen Band among numerous other recordings…