Mountain Queen:

Dutch band Alquin released four studio albums in the early to mid-'70s, initially playing prog rock influenced by Pink Floyd and Roxy Music. However, by 1975's Nobody Can Wait Forever (the only Alquin album released in the U.S.), the band turned to a more varied style encompassing blues and hard rock. The original group comprised guitarist/vocalist Ferdinand Bakker, vocalist Job Tarenskeen, bassist Hein Mars, drummer Paul Weststrate, and horn player Ronald Ottenhoff; Michel Van Dyke joined the band as lead vocalist in 1975. A live album appeared in 1976, and the best-of Crash! was released a year later. Bakker and Tarenskeen played in the new wave outfit the Meteors in the late '70s and early '80s.

Sony repackaged and re-released five LPs by Mountain on Windfall – Climbing!, Nantucket Sleighride, Flowers of Evil, Twin Peaks, and Avalanche – as a slipcased box set. It's not a bad way to acquire the albums if you don't already own them, but isn't recommended for the casual fan.

Mountain - Climbing! (1970) {Repertoire Records REPUK1094 rel 2007}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 251 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 106 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2007 Windfall Records / Repertoire Records / Sony BMG | REPUK 1094
Rock / Classic Rock / Hard Rock / Blues Rock

Mountain was the combined forces of Leslie West, a gigantic guitarist/vocalist who had played with New York garage-psych rockers the Vagrants, and Felix Pappalardi. Pappalardi had a slightly more impressive track record, coming from the modern East Coast folk-rock movement (the Youngbloods), before he applied his production skills to Cream. Through this, Felix never really stopped playing and eventually formed Mountain. Often billed as a junior-league version of Cream, Climbing!, Mountain's debut, had a lot of things going for it as well.

Mountain's meteoric ride through the early '70s was as memorable as it was brief – so much so that this excellent greatest-hits set was released less than four years after the band had inaugurated their career at Woodstock…