Express Rip

Although Autobahn was a left-field masterpiece, Trans-Europe Express is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album. Melodic themes are repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals; the effect is mechanical yet hypnotic.

Definitive's mini-anthology of classic recordings featuring pioneer electrically amplified guitarist Charlie Christian is an excellent core sample taken from his brief and eventful career. Note that Definitive has also issued what purport to be compilations containing all of Christian's complete live and studio recordings, as well as another more modestly proportioned sampler entitled The Genius of the Electric Guitar. Charlie Christian was like a will-o'-the-wisp, a strikingly creative sideman who appeared at studio sessions and live jams during a span of months only adding up to a couple of years before succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1942. On Definitive's Celestial Express, the guitarist is heard with various groups led by Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman, with Edmond Hall's Celeste Quartet, and with the Kansas City Six (a band including Count Basie and Lester Young) at the second From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall.

Primarily based in Leeds, The Lewis Express is comprised of many of the musicians that have graced previous ATA releases: George Cooper, Piano (Abstract Orchestra) Neil Innes, Bass (The Sorcerers, The Magnificent Tape Band, Tony Burkill), Sam Hobbs, Drums (Dread Supreme, Tony Burkill, Matthew Bourne) and Pete Williams, Percussion (The Sorcerers, The Magnificent Tape Band, Tony Burkill). Recorded over an intense two-day session by the band of the same name, “The Lewis Express” is a nod to the classic soul jazz recordings of The Young Holt Trio / Young Holt Unlimited and Ramsey Lewis, from who this group take their name. But, delivered with a distinctly European feel. As with many of the classic Ramsey Lewis cuts this album was recorded live, capturing the rich inter-relationship between the players and leaving in some of that chunky room noise, lending the album a sound that’s as thick as a steak and raw as a carrot.

Kraftwerk (German: [ˈkʁaftvɛɐ̯k], lit. "power station") are a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1969 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1974 and Karl Bartos in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet…

Sound Express was formed in a smal town named Vänersborg in Sweden. Their album "The Sound Express" was voted the best Swedish debut album in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The band consists by the duo Tillbjörn Persson and Ingemar Landén. That have been playing Beatles influenced music during the 60's under the name Tilles. But when the band disbanded they created Sound Express. Their first suggestion of band name was Regis Gotorum that means Götarnas Konung. But it wasn't a good suggestion so they changed it to Sound Express and was signed by the record label Anette. They only released one album but what a masterpeice! It sounds like Hansson & Karlsson and sometiems even better. Heavy jazz influenced psych with just drums and organ and some elements of harmonica and guitar.

French instrumental prog-rock/fusion band from mid 1970's that did 3 albums and backed violinist David Rose and singer Yves Simon. Serge Perathoner is a notable member who has gone on to produce many artists. This group started as a back up of one of the most secretive but highly regarded singer of La Chanson Française, Yves Simon, but soon decided to form their own career in parallel to their monetary occupations. The standard prog quartet was lead by keyboardist Perathoner and they recorded in Herouville their first album, Priglacit, in 75 and released it through Y Simon's label RCA Balance and they developed a good jazz-rock that's somewhere between MAHAVISHNU and BRAND X.

Formed from the ashes of Rare Breed, Mansfield Ohio's the Ohio Express came together in 1967 and enjoyed some of the largest successes of the bubblegum rock craze of the late '60s. The initial line-up included Joey Levine on vocals, Dale Powers on guitar, Doug Grassel on second guitar, Jim Pflayer on keyboards, Dean Krastan on bass and Tim Corwin on drums. Under the aegis of producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, Ohio Express surfaced repeatedly on the late-'60s pop charts.
Their first single, a reworked Rare Breed tune called "Beg, Borrow and Steal" cracked the charts, but it was the sugary-sweet one-two punch of "Yummy Yummy Yummy" and "Chewy Chewy" that produced their biggest hits…