Lady Lake - No Pictures - Symphonic Progressive Rock - 1977

Lady Lake, from The Netherlands, present a pastoral, melodic, yet complex progressive rock album. Acoustic guitar is the backbone to their sound, and recalls early Genesis around Selling England By The Pound. This ostensible light background is offset by plenty of psychedelic guitar sequences, which are quite striking in this setting. Moog and Fender Rhodes play a major role as well. Vocals are fortunately sparse and ultimately unnecessary. The music never sits still too long, always on the move, while surprisingly being able to maintain its melodic core. My vote for best track would be 'Fading Trees' though 'Magic Twanger' is a close second. Mirage era Camel is probably the most obvious influence overall. More obscure references would include Hoelderlin (Clowns and Clouds), M.L. Bongers Project, and Ivory.



As mentioned below, the CD also contains newly recorded material from 1997 that was originally composed from 1979-1982. Not surprisingly, the music has a similar compositional quality to the original No Pictures album. Of course, the guitar here is more "90s pig squeal" and less "70s psychedelic" which is a pity. The aural landscape is more broad brush, with less finely pointed detail. But still a fine effort, and shows the band hasn't lost touch with their ambitious progressive background. Camel clearly remains their main influence on these tracks. From here, they were to continue and actually improve on their next proper release Supercleandreammachine (2005).


The CD (the second cover photo) is outstanding. It features wonderful sound, a complete history of the band with unique photos and insights. Perhaps even better, the CD contains a completely new album's worth of material recorded in 1997, and could easily be considered two albums on one CD. Musiphyle is a sub-label of none other than Musea. Not sure why the different designation, though it may have something to do with the new album being included with the reissue.  

Tracks:
01. Cornwall — 5:40
02. Magic Twanger — 8:10
03. Fading Trees — 7:17
04. You Make Me Feel So Fine — 5:24
05. No More Gentle Treatment — 2:42
06. Between Bremen And Hamburg: Part 1 — 3:18
07. Between Bremen And Hamburg: Part 2 — 4:16
08. Between Bremen And Hamburg: Part 3 — 4:56
 

Bonus (1997):
09. Must Have Been More Than… — 5:56
10. H.P. & H.P. — 4:52
11. Falling Stars Don’t Scream — 4:23
12. Do The Dubbe — 4:32
13. 22 cm With Dentures — 5:45
14. Reshoot — 5:32

BAND:
Fred Rosenkamp — electric & acoustic guitar (01-08), guitar (09-14)
Stanley Dijkhuis — vocals (01-08)
Eddy Bakker — bass (01-08)
Leendert Korstanje — keyboards (01-14)
Joop Van Leeuwen — drums & percussion (01-08)
Jan Dubbe — drums (09-14)

ACÁ

 

Galaxy-Visions-1978-KrautRock

Galaxy from Bremen were not rediscovered until the late 1990s and are relatively unknown among collectors, which is no surprise as their only LP 'Visions' of 1978 (SST / PR 020978) had a circulation of only 500 copies. Even during their 'lifetime' they led a lonely wallflower existence in their hometown with just about 10 to 15 gigs. This is totally unjustified as their record is more than just good and sheer pleasure for the listener, except for the rather silly 'Consequences'. Certain Hawkwind quotations and a touch of art rock are the ingredients of a harmonious achievement. The lyrics are mostly taken from the world of science fiction, which explains the name of the band, the LP title and the cover artwork, a sort of alienated Milky Way. The fact that a band from Oberursel (LP / CD: 'Nature's clear well') has the same name, is purely co-incidental. 

Members:
*Thomas Asche - Bass
*Bernd Steinhardt - Vocals, Guitar, Percussion
*Heiko Beck - Drums, Percussion
*Frank Dahmne - Vocals, Guitar
*Gottfriend Antpohler - Keyboards

Tracks:
01. Ladies in the Wind
02. Morning of the Magicians Part One
03. Supermarket
04. Consequences
05. Visions
06. Excerpts “Time” Part Two
07. Warrior of the Endless Time
08. Atomic Flight

ACÁ