Ufo Guru Guru

Guru Guru's debut album shows why the band, even if it never reached the levels of appreciation and influence the likes of Can or Neu! did, still maintained a healthy reputation over the moons for its early work. Opening number "Stone In" has a quite appropriate title for a starting track - it is wonderfully tripped out, to be sure, and if Manuel Gottsching was more of a guitar god, Genrich kicks up a lot of frazzled noise. The principle of the Trepte/Neumeier rhythm section seems to have been "find loud weird grooves and then play them, sometimes chaotically." Again, they aren't Can's wickedly effective combination of Holger Czukay and Jaki Leibezeit, but they're not just falling over themselves either. The title track is the most memorable song, almost entirely eschewing conventional rhythm for an inward collapse of feedback and noise that sounds either like the Stooges' "LA Blues"…

The third album from the essential Krautrock power trio Guru Guru's early forays is as essential to the avant-rock collector as Faust's Faust Tapes, Can's Tago Mago, and the early experiments of Kraftwerk and Neu! Dating from 1972, it's an unprecedented display of drone-rock on the heavier, psychedelic side of the '70s German underground. Guru Guru's lineup changed periodically, and throughout the '70s, the project took contributions from Conny Plank and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, among others, and were tightly connected with the Kraftwerk off-shoot Harmonium. This album is undoubtedly one of their greater works, alongside UFO and Hinten recorded by the essential trio of Ax Genrich on guitar, Uli Trepte on bass, and leader Mani Neumeier on drums and keyboards.

Japanese psychedelic rock ensemble offer an extended progressive, jazz infused track, a rockin tune and an experimental acoustic folk composition. Kawabata Makoto (electric guitar, electronics, fuzz bass, tape, speed guru), Higashi Hiroshi (synthesizer), Jyonson Tsu (voice, acoustic guitar, mandolin), Satoshima Nani (drums), Wolf (bass), Geoff Leigh (saxophone, flute).

The original cassette tape was released by Nanjo Asahito's La Musica. (probably 1998 or 1999). The sources were incomplete demo recordings of early Acid Mother's Temple. Nanjo equalized and distorted to his trademark "Nanjo Sound". When Kawabata got these tracks of this cassette tape, he remastered for upload on Bandcamp. The tracks included here were later completed and included on the first cassette tape and the first album.

The Space Box contains three discs of prog rock and art rock, as well as trance-inducing Kraut rock, from the early '70s. Most of this music was inspired by the sonic experimentalism of late-'60s Pink Floyd – it builds on the long, free-form coda to "Interstellar Overdrive." There are subtle differences between the bands – for instance, Hawkwind tends to lean toward hard rock more than their contemporaries, who explore psychedelia and classical music flourishes. Even though the set is well compiled and contains some fine songs (Faust and Gong sound particularly good), there's no denying that there is a limited audience for this, even among prog-rock fans. It's experimental music that is oddly limited, working the same vibe, if not the same sound. If you're not a fanatic of space-rock, then the three discs of The Space Box will simply be too much to digest.

This is the live recording at "19th Acid Mothers Temple Festival" in Nagoya 2020. Also it was Taigen Kawabe's first show to replace Wolf as bassist. The original CD was released by Acid Mothers Temple in 2021. (Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies.)

These tracks are from the split albums (with Träd, Gräs och Stenar and Kinski) for their Japan tour with Acid Mothers.

"In 2016, 21 years after Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. were founded in Osaka, Japan, there was a major shift in the line-up and "Next Generation" was added to the bands name. We now view the first 20 years of the bands career as chapter one in our story, and we are now turning the page to start chapter two. In 2018, it's time to re-record our classics with this new line-up, we just opened the door to the next stage!” (Kawabata Makoto 2018)

SIXTY-NINE is a little known German progressive rock duo formed in 1969 by Armin Stöwe (organ, piano, synthesizer, guitar, vocals) and Roland Schupp (drums, percussion, gongs). SIXTY-NINE gained significant popularity as a live act and consequently had the opportunity to play, often as an opening act, at a variety of rock festivals with the likes of popular bands such as GOLDEN EARRING, AMON DÜÜL II, UFO, BEGGAR'S OPERA, PETE YORK, WEST BRUCE & LAING, BIRTH CONTROL, JUD'S GALLERY, AGITATION FREE, FRUMPY, and GURU GURU. The band produced their only studio album in 1973, Circle of the Crayfish, on PHILLIPS Records. On side 2 of the album there were 2 tracks including the lengthy 15 minute "Paradise Lost".