gts170 “septoctish”
Used the phrase “six seven” on the lady at the bank, she was mystified. Not sure if that’s because she’s in her 30’s or because, you know, banker.
01-01 Lutz Rahn – Solo Trip 104 – September (1978)
— Lutz answered a newspaper advert for a keyboardist in 1971, turned out to be for the band Novalis (see below)! In 1978 he plowed out a solo album of his own.
01-02 Minotaurus – Fly Away 101- 7117 (Musik Zum Gleichnamigen Film) (1978)
— self-pressed album and the only release by this band. Some websites today won’t show you the cover, depicting a naked minotaur with penis on display. Apparently not a sell-out edition, as the band gave away copies for free at shows, but only in paper sleeves without the naughty jacket art! Due to a misprint on the jacket, guitarist Lucky Hofstetter is credited as “Cucky”. Today, if you want to buy an original vinyl copy, that’ll run you 500 euros.
01-03 Ramses – Eternity Rise 102 – Only Yesterday (1978)
— second album from Ramses, featuring brothers Norbert Langhorst on guitars and Winfried Langhorst doing keys and vocals. Winfried wrote this one and if you hear something like the band Yes, that’s due to the producer Klaus Hess, who played bass for the phenomenal band Jane. Apparently Hess was a real jerk of a genius, as everyone he worked with eventually hated his guts.
01-04 Novalis – Wer Schmetterlinge Lachen Hört 102 – Der Geigenspieler (1978)
— starting as a Crimson/Floyd cover band in 1971, Novalis is named after the pen-name of a German poet from the late 1700’s: Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg. They adapted a Hardenberg poem on their ’75 eponymous 2nd album, as well as a prog-rock version of classical composer Anton Bruckner’s 5th Symphony. Personally, prefer Bruckner’s 4th Symphony: Romantische. Of course that is Lutz Rahn on synth, mellotron, and the Hammond.
02-01 SBB – Live In Prague 02 – Going Away (1978)
— 2-digit track number, as this only saw the light of day in the CD era (1998). Recorded at Lucerna in Prague on 1978-03-18. Four movements in this opus:
a) Freedom With Us
b) 3rd Reanimation
c) Going Away
d) Mountain Melody (Zyweic)
03-01 Ota Petrina – Super-Robot 103 – Nebýt Tebe (1978)
— Ota plays his guitar with a bottleneck here, with Jan Neckár on keys, drums by Anatoli Kohout, and bass guit courtesy of Vladimír Padrunek.
03-02 Bohemia – Zrnko Písku 05 – Milenci Pred Pollockovým Obrazem (1978)
— only album put out by the band, music written and sung by the sax/clarinet/flautist Jan Kubik, but with lyrics done by famous Czech poet and playwright Pavel Vrba.
03-03 Mini – Vissza A Városba 103 – Rakétaember (1978)
— flute and vocals by band founder Ádám Török, Mini came out of Hungary and originally included three brothers: Tamás Németh, Alajos Németh, and Károly Németh, but by 1978 only Károly and Alajos remained (keys and bass respectively).
03-04 FSB – FSB II 07 – Song (1978)
— from Bulgaria so not surprisingly, every bandmate’s surname ends with the letter “v”! As mentioned when played on this here show (twice before), “FSB” was a sly poke at the acronym of the Soviet-era secret police, though to avoid persecution they maintained that the name was “Formation Studio Balkanton”. When allowed by communist authorities to play outside Bulgaria, they went by “Free Sailing Band”. Groove on this one from 1978 because, by 1980 FSB had morphed into a disco band.
03-05 The Brecker Brothers – Heavy Metal Be-Bop 201 – Sponge (1978)
— actual brothers Randy (trumpet) and Michael (sax) had an actual hit in 1979: “East River”. Originally from Philadelphia, the Breckers landed in NYC. Four years earlier in ’74, the Brecker’s first album had David Sanborn on saxophone, and a couple years later, Michael was playing with the Herbie Hancock Quartet along with Wynton Marsalis.
04-01 Rush – 1978-12-02 Cobo Hall Arena, Detroit, MI 110 – Closer To The Heart (1978)
— barely outside their Canada homeland, this Detroit set was merely rumoured to exist for decades before it surfaced in 2001. Sourced from soundboard, the audio is nothing short of superb. ’78 is Peak Rush.
04-02 Frank Zappa – 1978-09-21 Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Poughkeepsie, NY 11 – Conehead (1978)
— references Laraine Newman, one of SNL’s Coneheads (along with Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner). The chorus here: “Remulac” is, of course, their home planet, not France like they told the simple Earthlings.
04-03 Gong – Expresso II 201 – Soli (1978)
— released simply as “Gong” to fulfill a label contract, Daevid Allen had already departed, and this outfit would shortly be renamed “Pierre Moerlen’s Gong”. That’s Pierre you hear, credited on glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, and tubular bells. This track has Allan Holdsworth on the guitar, formerly of the influential progressive rock band Soft Machine.
04-04 Rialzu – Rialzu 201 – I Lagramanti (1978)
— this time we have THREE sets of brothers: François Mac Daniel on bass with Christophe Mac Daniel doing keyboards, then Gilles Renne on guitar and Olivier Renne banging drums. Dominique Gallet does violin while Jean-Philippe Gallet adds to the unearthly chorus. Incredibly rare album released only on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which is notoriously hostile to outsiders. Last time a copy of this vinyl sold was 2021 (Sept 30th) for $700; mint copies are thought to be worth over $1,000 so we are lucky (not cucky) that this was re-released on CD thirty years later. Words on this tune are by Ghjacumu Thiers.