Moving

The short-lived Houston, Texas late-'60s psych band Moving Sidewalks are generally best known as one of the first bands of Billy Gibbons, who went on to fame in biker-blues arena rockers ZZ Top. In their day, Moving Sidewalks recorded their sole LP, Flash, as well as a few singles of psychedelic blues-rock, before evaporating into garage rock history and seeing Gibbons off to radically different prospects. The Complete Moving Sidewalks collects all known studio work by the band as well as demos and unreleased tracks from the Coachmen, the Gibbons-fronted predecessor that came just before Moving Sidewalks. As an album, Flash is very much a product of its time. Gibbons' vocals, guitar playing, and songwriting are all under a heavy Hendrix influence, borrowing the stoned blues side of Jimi's nonchalant playing and electric hippie persona.

On their impressive 1971 debut, France's Moving Gelatine Plates create a unique brand of jazz-influenced progressive rock. Parts of the album are reminiscent of the music recorded by groups from England's Canterbury scene (e.g., Soft Machine), but the Moving Gelatine Plates' driving rhythms and catchy thematic shifts set the band apart from their English counterparts. Drummer Gerard Pons pulls the listener along at a frantic pace on tracks like "Gelatine" and "Last Song." With help from the growling distortion provided by guitarist Gerard Bertram, Pons keeps the album firmly grounded in rock. Maurice Helmlinger's jazzy horn work and Didier Thibault's hopping basslines provide a striking contrast to these rock underpinnings…