URIAH HEEP cover song @youtube / medley of Trevor Bolder tracks

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today's BGM in our office :
MANOWAR / Kings Of Metal (1988)

This was the first MANOWAR album that I listened to.
Around those days, in 1988, I was a middle-teen and was looking for attractive/incentive Heavy Metal like METALLICA whom I was in love with at that time.

I didn't know anything about MANOWAR, but the cover-design was so cool, and eventually their sounds and words struck me like a lightning.
I wanted to collect all MANOWAR album but it was almost impossible in Japan, in 1988.
Only a few friends did know MANOWAR, and all of them didn't know Manowar albums except for Kings Of Metal and Fighting The World which could be found on CD, except for 1 maniac who's elder brother had INTO GLORY RIDE LP.

Into Glory Ride 's cover-design was ... so unique for me,  just an agricultural people in Japan, but it was also amazing that "True Metal" sounds on the LP, too.

MANOWAR visited Japan for stages only once, in 1993 until the last year, and finally they had a superb live-stage in 2014, the first time in these 21 years.
I found that they are still one and only "True Metal" group to blow all False Metal away.

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something about Pekka Pohjola

today's BGM in our office :
MADE IN SWEDEN / Where Do We Begin (1976)

Re-released from LOVE RECORDS in 1996.

I don't know, actually, well about this group, MADE IN SWEDEN but I looked for this album and got because I heard that PEKKA POHJOLA is joining on this album.
PEKKA, who is one of my favorite musician, who sadly passed away in 2008 had released not so many, but so attractive solo albums after he left WIG WAM.
** I love WIG WAM music even after Pekka's departure. I'll write about them later.
The most important and the most impressive solo-album by Pekka may be "Keesojen Lehto" since it was released in many countries, and it was an epoch-making because of collaboration with MIKE & SALLY OLDFIELD and PIERRE MOERLEN (of GONG).
Of course, I love it very much, but the best solo-album of Pekka Pohjola for me is Changing Waters. The album shows many faces of Pekka with wrapping them in a clear, silky cloths. Difficult Counterpoint-melodies in beautiful sounds, spontaneous fusion of Jazz and Classical music, some Rock sounds within ambient-like atmosphere. Everything which is called "music" may be contained on that album, I think.

** Changing Waters (1992) **

Apart from his solo-career, he also played on some other musicians' albums, like MIKE OLDFIELD "Exposed (LIVE)" on which album Pierre Moerlen is also playing, THE GROUP "Self-Titled", GABOR SZABO "Belsta River", and MADE IN SWEDEN "Where Do We Begin".

It was a good surprise for me that Made In Sweden music matches my taste very very much. 70s Hard Rock style with some Fusion tastes. It was what I wanted to listen more after I dug up many underground-British Jazz Rock groups in the 1970s.


There are a few more albums which Pekka joined.

This album also features PEKKA  on bass.
ORRENMAA BAND / Make My Day (2009)

This was released months after Pekka had gone. This is said the last album which Pekka Pohjola played on (and of course, I have it) and this album became a big surprise for me (and for fans of this kind of music, I believe).
Billy Cobham who is known as the drummer for MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA plays drums on all tracks, Pekka Pohjola plays bass on all trakcs, and this album also fearues superb TOWER OF POWER HORNS.

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today's BGM in our office :
NAPOLI CENTRALE / self-titled (1975)

Re-released from BMG RICORDI in 1995.

featuring
JAMES SENESE : vocals/sax (sax tenore acustico ed elettrico/voce solista)
MARK HARRIS : e.piano (piano electrico Fender)
FRANCO DEL PRETE : drums/percussion/whistle (batteria/percussioni e fischio)
TONY WALMSLEY : bass (basso chitarra)

I love Italian Prog-Rock music as much as Italian pops.

Of course, I love so-called "mainstream" of Italian-Prog like Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM), Osanna, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso etc. etc., but I love, too, more domestic and/or traditional groups like L'uovo Di Colombo, Corte Dei Miracoli, Area, Nuova Idea, Rovescio Della Medaglia etc.etc.etc....
Napoli Centrale is one of those groups, but their sounds slightly differs from so-called "Italian Progressive Rock". This kind of music which Napoli Centrale plays should be compared with Jazz/Fusion artists, especially of Jazz-Funk ones, I think. Not like other "typical-of-Italian-Prog" groups, their music is closer to tastes of groups, if calling them a prog-rock group, like KRAAN (Germany), RIFF RAFF (UK), Zao (France) etc. Much closer to Miles Davis' "On The Corner" than King Crimson.
This era, around 1975, this Jazz-Fusion style was already well-established and recognized in many countries by superb Jazz musicians like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders and Weather Report etc. from the Jazz-field, and by Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago, early Earth, Wind & Fire from the Rock-field, so these "local/domestic" groups should be counted together with above groups by whom love this kind of music.

The unique sounds (though it's typical in Jazz/Fusion field) may be created from the leader, James Senese's blood. He, part-African-American and part-Italian, sings with very strong voice and plays saxophones very emotionally. His "no-border" playing style matches to stylish el.piano chords by Mark Harris who was born/grew up in the USA. Franco Del Prete who was a group-mate of James Senese in THE SHOWMEN plays many notes on his snare drum, and Tony Walmsley who was from UK let his bass-sounds dance on Franco's percussive notes.
In the USA, and UK, those "jazz/fusion" sounds was getting sophisticated around 1975, but music on this album is (was) still rough, bare and wild.

Music is like the universe for me. It's easy to find brighter and famous stars, but there are many many more, unkonwn stars which are shining brightly, which are very big, and which are very beautiful. We can't visit to those far stars, but we can find and listen to those "hidden" music (though they were just hidden for the listener's self). 

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today's BGM in our office :

I ROMANS / Il Meglio Dei Romans (The Best Of Romans)
1995 - Duck Record (Italia) - DGCD 010

I didn't know well about I ROMANS until I bought this CD
(although I still don't know well about them).
Although I didn't know them, I was confident that this CD would be good for me, and eventually it was right.
Same as many other grupos italiano, I Romans' music is gentle, melodic, having both happy/sad feelings, and lyrical.
For me (with small knowledge about Italian musicians), I Romans' music is evergreen like Michele Zarrillo and Il Giardino Dei Semplici.

 ... shop SANREMO

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