Smoke (1970)

Liquid Smoke were a Long Island, New York group that consisted of Sandy Pantaleo (lead vocals), Vince Fersak (guitar), Ben Ninnman (keyboards), Mike Archuleta (bass), and Chas Kimbrell (drums). The group formed while students at ECU and signed with Avco Embassy in 1969, releasing their lone lp in early 1970 which was produced by Vinny Testa who also produced Frijid Pink and co-produced with Shadow Morton the Merchants Of Dream’s 1968 psych masterpiece “Strange Night Voyage”. The group’s killer psych track “Lookin’ For Tomorrow” was the highlight of Peruvian band Gerardo Manuel & El Humo’s debut lp “Apocallypsis”. The album also includes their single “I, Who Have Nothing” a cover of the Ben E. King hit.

Esoteric Recordings are happy to release a new remastered edition of the self titled album by Progressive rock group Aardvark. The band were an imaginative quartet comprising David Skillin on vocals, Steve Milliner on keyboards, Stan Aldous on bass and Frank Clark on drums who came together in 1969. Driven by Steve Milliner’s keyboard playing ability, Aardvark’s only album was released in 1970 on Decca s short lived progressive imprint Deram Nova. One of the best albums released on Nova, Aardvark features such outstanding pieces as the evocative "Once Upon A Hill", "Many Things To Do" and the powerful album closing track "Put That In Your Pipe And Smoke It". This Esoteric Recordings reissue has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and features a booklet with fully restored artwork and new essay.

Argent's back catalog remains in a parlous state 20 years on from the group's peak, with great swathes of the repertoire unavailable on CD, and even some of the band's best-known and loved recordings are still chained up in a vault somewhere. Thankfully, this two-fer rendering of their first two albums is an exception to that sorry rule, as the group's transformation from the logical successors to the Zombies into one of the finest prog bands of the early '70s is traced out across 19 songs, almost any of which would be a shoo-in for some future "best-of" Argent compilation. It is true, of course, that Argent was prone to excess on occasion – what is remarkable is just how naturally the band approached that state, as songs build on their own momentum toward peaks that even the best oiled of the group's peers audibly struggled to approach.

Released in December 1970, King Crimson's third studio album, Lizard, is often viewed as an outlier in the pioneering British prog outfit's nearly half-century discography. It's not easily grouped with 1969's stunning In the Court of the Crimson King debut and 1970 follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon, and along with 1971's Islands it's considered a transitional release on the band's path toward the relative stability of the Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974) trilogy. Plus, the Lizard sessions were difficult and the core group lineup acrimoniously collapsed immediately afterward, as bandleader/guitarist Robert Fripp, with lyricist Peter Sinfield, continued brave efforts to save King Crimson from disintegrating as the group's lengthy history was just getting underway.

May Blitz were formed by vocalist/guitarist Jamie Black who recruited Tony Newman on drums, (ex Sounds Incorporated and Jeff Beck Group), and Reid Hudson (bass, vocals) in 1969. The original lineup featured bassist Terry Poole and drummer Keith Baker, from Bakerloo, but both left before recording anything for the band. Baker had a better offer from Uriah Heep, and went to record "Salisbury" with the band.
The band survived long enough to record two incredibly heavy, powerful and psychedelic albums with strong blues undertones and progressive tendencies, despite the lack of keyboards. These were released on Vertigo, who we also associate with Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep - but the music is probably heavier than either. Their style comes in somewhere around High Tide and the Pink Fairies - but these are really ballparks…

Produced by former Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor, Hawkwind's first album was rightfully compared to Pink Floyd's early sound: an appealing conglomeration of hippie rock grooves and interplanetary guitar trips set to the phosphorescent wandering of Dik Mik's electronics and Nik Turner's cool sax playing. Hawkwind may not have been their most lucrative album, but it's where it all began. Hawkwind's initial galactic blues-rock sound is based on Dave Brock's guitar playing, rising smoke-like through the haze of lyrical space funk. The two opening tracks set the tone, with "The Reason Is" sinking in nicely to the mood of both Dave Brock's and John Harrison's guitar viscosity. After this, the real Hawkwind begins to emerge, as the eight-minute "Be Yourself" is delightfully plastered with echoed vocals and comic book ominousness, putting drummer Terry Ollis in the spotlight this time…

Released 26 six years after their split, this 2000 release gathers the two studio albums recorded by German-based Brooklyn progressive rock band Sweet Smoke onto one disc. Produced by Rosie Schmitz and Winifred Ebert, 1970 debut Just a Poke is an experimental affair, featuring just two 16-minute epic tracks, "Baby Night," which includes a cover of the Doors' "The Soft Parade" and "Silly Sally," which contains a five-minute drum solo. While 1973 follow-up Darkness to Light, produced by John G. Möring and inspired by a previous trip to India, features a more acoustic flavor on its six psychedelic tracks.