Kontra - Kontran Toinen Puoli (1978 Love Records)

This one really is a mixed bag and oddball case music for your freakers balls. I'm interested with this because of the two tracks: cover of Let's Make The Water Turn Black originally by Frank Zappa and Jack The Idiot Dunce originally by... Who.. no not The Who but I just don't know who. Kontra's = Mauri Konttinen's = Moog Konttinen's peculiar wordplay in his lyrics is really something: stupid, childish and clever all at the same time. Maybe he tries to be some kind of poor man's Zappa. And. By the way "Lahjakkuus on hyve" is a Sparks's "Talent is an asset" cover.

Uranus - Aamun Hauta (1975 BASF)

Uranus is funk rock or prog rock if measured with a bit wider scale. I don't care much of those Wonder or Redding covers, but most of their own songs are fairly good and Eero Raivio's composition named "New Production" is a small-scale prog-jazz-funk gem. Eero Raivio by the way hears to be a very skillful guitar player. Maybe better-informed people know him of course, but this is first time i hear of him. I know that Lucjan Czaplicki has before and later this Uranus played with most Tampere area bands, playing sax and clarinet. "Aamun Hauta" is a kind of mixed box and it is meant to be like that. As being a quite rare album too this is an absolute keeper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0JzNLA8xaw

Morning again

Once again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrn3d1HsdqM&list=PLD6F899EDC74BA114&index=1

Mr Flood's Party

Mind circus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9CrQSLW2rg

Edwin Arlington Robinson: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174245

Kak - Kak / Kak-Ola (1968 CD 1999)

I don't know why the CD was named Kak-Ola. originally it was just Kak. Maybe they googled and found the Finnish insane asylum for prisoners named "Kakola" and thought it was funny. No, not really. What Kak means and what Kak-Ola means is a mystery to me. It was lucky they did not name this "Kakka" because this not kakka at all. On the contrary this is smart Acid Rock. Gary Yoder later went to Blue Cheer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVyZ3HFK2xI

The Music Asylum - Commit Thyself (1970 UA)

I try to listen my records once in a while and this albums is one of those that first tend tocome to my mind when thinking what would i listen today. "Commit Thyself" is quite unique flowing jazz flavored rock with some psych elements. It is music made for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Tiaa9UfSQ

Ochsfan at RYM:

In the late '60's, United Artists was one of those labels that specialized in signing unknown, often brilliant psych bands, and subsequently letting them die a quick death in the marketplace through utter lack of promotion.  Music Asylum was one such band. 

The Kaplan Brothers - Nightbird (1978 this CD)

I like. Pumped into it when searching information about The Aaltos and someone on the net somehow compared The Aaltos's attitude to the The Kaplan Brothers'. There is no other need to compare Aaltos sisters and Kaplan brothers than the devoting take to the music, the message and confidence to oneselve's abilities in any case.

I don't know many covers of King Crimson's Epitaph but here is one. Not bad version at all. Maybe the oddest moment is when they play few bars of Yes's Roundabout intro. No quite like Steve Howe but almost.

I copy here the review from "jazzis" at RYM because he says everything that i think about "Nightbird"

This is the 3rd and last album by the obscure US (Chicago) group The Kaplan Brothers, which included three brothers: Ed Kaplan, Richard Kaplan and John Kaplan. Completely beyond classification, the music the Kaplan Brothers produced was an insane mixture of Psychedelics, Prog, kitsch, pastiche and pure genius. By the nature of the beast, this is definitely not for everybody, but for lack of a better drawer to put it in, it falls (rather uncomfortably) into the Prog one, just for being weird enough, the extensive usage of Mellotron and of course the King Crimson cover. I personally find it both amusing and entertaining, but I'm known for my weird taste. Weirdos of the world rejoice!

Mittsommer Humppa From Finnland

Das Model. Kraftwerk cover by Eläkeläiset = Pensioners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wipMf4O2qEs

Pink Floyd - The Best of Tour 72 (1972 Unofficial)

Think if you marry the most beautiful girl you can imagine and get her gorgeous mum top it off. This is the Mum.

Explanation: Dark Side of The Moon was the "beautiful girl" I met in 1974. This Live album is her Mum who I never met but now giving more depth and base to understand her daughter even over 40 years later.

-----
Did you know: This bootleg was recorded almost one year before Dark Side of the Moon came out. He who did it, heard it wrong believing one the songs was "The Great Pig in the Sky", not "...Gig...". That is why he decided to take a photo of a sow with piglets and put it on the cover. He later understood his mistake but so what, the cover photo was good anyway. Roger Waters got to know this funny mistake
and when processing their album "Animals" he fooled with the idea of a big size of a Pig flying and Pigs on wings.

Is that "Did you know" -writing above:

a) just my own idea and associations?
b) written in Nicholas Schaffner's book: "Saucerful of Secrets - The Pink Floyd Odyssey"?
c) told me by Roger Waters himself?

The Aaltos - The Aaltos in Scandinavia (1972 ECR)

This rare Finnish origin family's Xian album is more organ driven Jesus music than the other one I found today. The songs written by Eva-Maria Aalto are sang in Finnish, Swedish and English. I understand and speak all those three languages but some others may be a bit confused of thinking what this is all about. The basic style in most songs is playing xian gospel music in a way we here in Finland call "humppa", a kind of folk-pop dance music. In this album there are some a bit jazzy flavoured songs too as a difference to the other album "The Aaltos" (1972). I think this is musically much better than "The Aaltos" album. Timo Aalto sings a bit in a that dramatic way Finnish gypsies use to sing. This is a real mixed bag in a very good way. No wonder some real collectors are interested in this family Aaltos music.Those songs sang in English sound better to me. May because the girls sing in those songs, not Timo. Sometimes they in the same song sing first in English and then turn to Finnish. That is funny in a good way. I'd describe this organ driven "gypsy"-jazz-xian-folk-psych-walz-humppa music. Extraordinary music anyway. Xian music book Archivist (Ken Scott) describes Aaltos's music as primitive psych garage.

Song titles on the foldout cover are both in Finnish and English but the lyrics are in Swedish. The Aalto family moved from Finland to Sweden obviously in 1960's  and to Cloquet Minnesota, US in around 1983.

If you like The Aaltos, you may like Eläkeläiset too. Or vice versa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVvrveRLAQ8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFcv8ypg9t0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEBxqKKm6po
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZmuvVNahU4

The Aaltos - S/T (1971 ECR)

I was lucky today at a flea finding these two Finnish/Swedish Xian albums for 2 euros each. The first four songs are sang in Swedish and the rest eight songs in Finnish. In Archivist Xian records book they describe this music as "primitive psych garage".  That is not far from truth. This Finnish origin Aalto family is five sisters playing Xian gospel music in a way we here in Finland call "humppa", a kind of folk-pop dance music. The vocalist Timo Aalto sings occasionally in a dramatic style Finnish gypsies sometimes use to sing. In this xian case it sounds very funny. I don't usually listen xian but this is some interestingly odd. This is musically a kind of The Shaggs family case. The music is not like Shaggs but there are something some elements that remind me of them. Very interesting case indeed. Very rare Jesus album too.

P.S. Humppa is fast Finnish dance music in 2/2 or 4/4 time signature. Its origin is in jazz and foxtrot and was developed around year 1910 and after. It was later in 1950's influenced by a same kind of German music too. It is very common and popular music in Finnish dance halls.

Dreams - Imagine My Surprise (1971 CBS)

First time I found these Dreams about six years ago and bought it mostly because I noticed Billy Cobham was member of the band. Have to say this album was not any surprise to imagine. Same year 1971 Cobham joined Mahavisnu Orchestra and played on their jazz-rock masterpiece "Inner Mounting Flame". Later he made two excellent solo albums "Spectrum" and "Crosswinds". But back to Dreams... I don't know what happened to the other band members, but at least Cobham's dreams came true, I believe. Maybe the others calmly walked into a Pike's maw and were left there. No, not really.. They have met success too. The music on this album is standard a bit funky jazz-rock with no bigger surprises. I paid only  5 euros for this near mint copy.

Bangor Flying Circus - S/T (1969 Dunhill)

Found another near mint copy of this for a reasonable price yesterday. BFC is organ and guitar driven jazz-hard-rock.  After HP Lovercraft disbanded the drummer Mike Tegza founded BFC. Later without Tegza, they  started Madura  - a very fine group too. Both BFC and Madura are the kind of music I love to listen. The whole band plays well together. The  bird has flown (Norwegian Woods) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nNM-iejunk

Elijah - S/T (1972 UAS)

Funky horn rock. Horn rock is normally okay for me but this time the funky element makes it sound a bit odd. I picked this up at a flea today after hesitating some time. Then I decided not to have a hamburger meal instead of this. Stupid or not stupid...? I'm not a very fat guy anyway.

Isotope - Illusion (1975 Gull)

John McLaughlin meets Weather Report... Great album, great guitarist Gary Boyle, Hugh Hopper. This is music made for my ears.

Marillion - Misplaced Childhood (1985)

I earlier told i skipped the whole 80s and have not regreted that. My opinion has been there were not good music made in 80s. BUT this Marillion is a big positive surprise. With this I feel like finding a lost Genesis album after the superb Selling England, Nursery Crime and Foxtrot trinity with Gabriel singing. Funny that i don't feel at all like condemning the fact this is a Genesis clone. I like this a lot.

I have learnt now that Marillion started the second coming of prog.

Awful cover art but so what.

The Rolling Stones - Big Hits (1966 This re 1977?)

Buckinghams' The - Greatest Hits (1969 Columbia)

Hmmh... Why?  I don't know.  What is this? Sunshine maybe... half cloudy rather cause of those horns. I forced myself to listen the side B too and found it better than the A side. That is mostly because of the Foreign Policy. Susan is nice too.

4.6. I usually like brass but somehow I think The Buckinghams' use too much of it. The songs are quite nice and okay, but Chicago Transit Authority playing at the same time with them is a bit too much. If they had used that smooth organ sound that occasionally appears in "Kind of a Drag" instead of that Chicago brass, they would have made it.

Fine group anyhow and at least those two "italianos" Giammarese and Fortuna seem to be still alive and strong. That's great and take care!