Accept Balls To The Wall (1983) (1990, Rca, ND 74472)

A balls to the wall mountain bike film introducing the world to the mind-blowing, new school freeriding craze

A t this stage, the "show" was relegated to a continental cult of listeners whose musical tastes belonged to a bygone era. And it was for them that BJH continued to release fresh works every year or so, covering familiar ground while availing themselves of what new bells and whistles they could lay their hands on. "Welcome To The Show" sounds modern by BARCLAY's outmoded standards, suggesting any number of artists whose prog sensibilities had long since succumbed to the allure of well-crafted albeit timid pop music (e.g., Mike + The Mechanics)…

The Overlanders were a highly underrated group whose history took them from the prime years of the British Invasion into the Summer of Love – their one U.K. hit – a chart-topping British single of the Lennon-McCartney song "Michelle" – usually gets them pegged as a cover band, while their origins as a folk group specializing in harmony vocals often gets them lumped in with Silkie, the Ivy League, and other vocal ensembles. And their being put into Castle Records' sunshine pop series Ripples also gives the group a slightly lighter-weight veneer than they deserve. Their actual sound was a beautifully wrought synthesis of folk-inspired vocals and Merseybeat-style harmonies, rhythms, and instrumentation – they were comparable, in some ways, to the Searchers, with whom (not coincidentally) they shared the same producer, Tony Hatch.

Started as a project between Francesco Paladino and Pier Luigi Andreoni, The Doubling Riders quickly grew into a collection of sounds that ranged between new age, folk, electronic music and balls to the wall experimentation. "Garama" was originally released on Il Museo Immaginario in 1991. The Doubling Riders make trippy music, their compositions oscillate between a soundtrack to a meditation session and a blissful look at a potentially never-ending painting. This is a wonderfully evocative album of old school , synth infused ethno-ambiance of the highest caliber. A concept album of sorts, it references the ancient Saharan kingdom of the Garamantes, who lived in what is now central Libya. Eerie, melodic, mysterious…

The debut album of a folk-rock band from Bergen, formed in 1971. The name of the group has to do with a gang of criminals from the American Wild West. “Hole-in-the-Wall” - the so-called mountain pass in the county of Johnson (Wyoming), where the criminals had their own shelter. The band’s music is an interesting blend of American country, folk, rock’n’roll and psychedelia. Folk component is emphasized by active use of acoustics and typical violin passages, but at the same time in many tracks there are various keyboards and blues guitar. The frontman of the band Rune Walle later became a member of Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and also played with The Flying Norwegians. In 1978, with a new composition, the band recorded the second album “Rose Of Barcelona”.

Writing on the Wall's only album was theatrical heavy blues-psychedelic-rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. The organ-guitar blends owe much to the Doors, Procol Harum, and Traffic, though the attitude is somehow more sour and ominous than any of those groups. The vocals are sometimes pretty blatant in their homages to Arthur Brown, particularly when Linnie Paterson climbs to a histrionic scream; Jim Morrison, Gary Brooker, and Stevie Winwood obviously left their imprints on him too. Throw in some of the portentous drama from the narrations to the Elektra astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (particularly on "Aries") as well…