Martin Carthy ‎– Landfall (1971) [reissue 1996]

Starting life in Edinburgh, Scotland, as The Premiers, then, following a few personnel changes, enjoying some critical acclaim as innovative organ-led rock trio 1-2-3, The Clouds were at the epicenter of the thriving progressive rock scene from its inception in the mid-late 1960s. They remained there until 1971 but never really hit the big time and remain one of Prog's great unsung.
According to some sources, 1-2-3 were instrumental in influencing Keith Emerson's band The Nice to stop being P.P. Arnold's backing band and become a classically influenced organ-driven rock group themselves, although Emerson has never confirmed this…

The French band Rhesus O was formed in 1971 by future Magma keyboarder Jean-Pol Asseline with musicians from the jazz and jazz-rock field and released one self titled record. Soft Machine is the main influence to be found on the record and to a lesser extent Magma, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa. The record presents a melodic jazz-rock with folk and classical elements, based on an instrumentation of two keyboarders: Alain Monier on organ and Jean-Pol Asseline on e-piano and harpsichord, two bass players: Guy Pedersen on double bass and Francis Moze on electric lead bass, Thierry Blanchard on drums and Alain Hatot's sax & flute arrangements.

As if the sound is breaking through your speakers, Alpha Centauri begins its journey. Crackling and swirling synthesizers seize control of your stereo. Like a call to psychedelic arms, the first track "Sunrise in the Third System" marches on with its organ. The mixing of the three tracks found on Alpha Centauri leaves something to be desired, in that the tracks are not mixed the way they would be today with each track endlessly flowing into the next like a stream. Nonetheless, when one is not paying too close attention to such details, the album seems to flow quite smoothly. The sound is not of the highest standards either, as should be expected, this being a 1971 release of "space music"…

The Rattles performed in Hamburg, and played at the same venues as The Beatles on several occasions in 1962. In 1964 the group recorded "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", which charted in the UK. In 1968 they recorded their first version of "The Witch", with vocals by Henner Hoier. The band's records sold well in Germany during the 1960s. Their second version of "The Witch" in 1970, this time with vocals by Edna Bejarano, became their only international hit. "The Witch" appeared in the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, the top 20 in Austria, and reached the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., the first German record to reach that chart. It eventually sold over one million copies.

When Made In Germany published their eponymous album on Metronome in 1971, this was the reward for their committed practising in grumpy rehearsal rooms for many years. All this began at Beethoven Gymnasium (College) in West Berlin. The West Berliners had started as a schoolboy band in order to play the hits of their protagonists. Under the name of "Cosmics" they still considered the "making of music" a hobby. In 1968 they won the first prize in an international beat festival together with the Chechen band "Atlantis". The bands became friends and saw each others. When the musicians of "Atlantis" split up, their guitarist (Stan Regal) stayed in Berlin, married and started to work in Audio recording studio. This was a favourable combination for the band to fulfil their dream to record their music material in a proper recording studio and to get a recording contract as they were technically well-experienced and sufficiently self-confident, too…

Formed by ex-patriate Brit and ex-Kinks bassist Peter Quaife and ex-Just Us bassist Stan Endersby who met while Endersby was in England in 1968. Maple Oak was a collaborative Canadian/UK hybrid that took six months to come to fruition with Endersby and Martin Fisher (ex-Flying Circus/Olivus/Bobby Kris & The Imperials) going to England to team up with Quaife in April 1969. The band was revealed to the world in the centre spread of NME on 3rd April, shocking the members of Quaife's former band The Kinks.
They embarked on a tour of Denmark during May 1969 but after the tour Cook left and Fisher brought in fellow Canadian and former bandmate MacBain (ex-Flying Circus/Olivus/Bobby Kris & The Imperials) as a replacement…

Polyphony was a short-lived US outfit active in the early 70's. The band, consisting of Martin Ruddy (bass, vocals), Christopher Spong (drums), Craig Massey (vocals, organ, moog), Glenn Howard (vocals, guitars) and Chatty Cooper (percussion), recorded the album Without "Introduction" which was released in 1971. Polyphony comes close fusing Hendrix's psychedelic guitar style with ELP's take on Hammond-based symphonic progressive rock.

Ronald Binge was responsible for creating in 1951 the ‘cascading strings’ sound that made the Mantovani Orchestra famous throughout the world. This was achieved purely by clever scoring, dividing the violins into several parts, each allotted a different melody-note in turn, which they sustain and then fade out, until called upon to move elsewhere. Binge’s inspiration came from his love of church music, particularly Monteverdi. Composers of sacred music had to allow for the long reverberation inevitable in cathedrals, and this is reflected in their writing. The first big success was ‘Charmaine’, followed by many others that made Mantovani’s albums million-sellers, especially in the USA. Binge’s association with Mantovani dates from 1935 when he played in, and did all the arrangements for, Mantovani’s Tipica Orchestra…