Darius, Don't You Get The Feelin: 2023-01-22

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Eloy - Eloy (German Hardrock 1971) (2CD)

Size: 129 MB

Bitrate: 256

mp3

Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock

Artwork Included

ELOY's debut album is one of Germany's 70's heavy weights and one of my personal favs. This stonker of an album captures the wonderful underground 70's krautrock magic, clearly standing up though as a very different sounding ELOY than subsequent album would prove for sure. Like so many great 70's German prog recordings, ELOY's debut album was produced by... yes you guessed it Conrad Plank.

The overall sound is dark and deep with a heavy focus on electric guitar and percussion. From this albums original lineup, 3 of the 5 would stay behind to work on subsequent albums and retain the core of ELOY... Frank Bornemann (guitar, harmonica, percussion), Manfred Wieczorke (guitar, bass, vocals) and Wolfgang Stöcker (bass) with Erich Schriever (lead vocals, keyboards) and Helmuth Draht (drums) exiting after recording this masterpiece.

Lead vocalist Erich Schriever has actually a great tock voice and adds that extra rough sound which adorns this album. Songs are exploratory and full of great 70's instrumentation with loads of wild guitar solos and great percussive sounds. Their overall sounds is quite heavy and does not yet introduce the space sound ELOY became associated with but I put this album in a different category and think of it as ELOY MK2. Brilliant stuff!

- Frank Bornemann / guitars, vocals

- Helmut Draht / drums

- Erich Schriever / lead vocals

- Wolfgang Stöcker / bass

- Manfred Wieczorke / keyboards

Track listing

01. Today (5:56)

02. Something yellow (8:15)

03. Eloy (6:15)

04. Song of a paranoid soldier (4:50)

05. Voice of revolution (3:07)

06. Isle of sun (6:03)

07. Dillus roady (6:32)

Bonus CD

01. Walk Alone (2.46)

02. Daybreak (2.51)

03. Interview With Manfred Wieczorke (23.08)

1. Eloy

2. Eloy

Rats - First Long Player Record + 10 Bonus Tracks (1st Album Glamrock UK 1974)

Size: 161 MB

Bitrate: 320

mp3

Found in DC++ World

Artwork Included

Very much a vehicle for cult figure David Kubinek, aka Kubie. Kubinec had been a leading light of the World of Oz, a pop psych band who released a highly regarded album on Deram in 1969. He'd also been signed to Motown and he later had a solo album on A&M produced by John Cale. A talented original writer capable of beautiful tunes, haunting lyrics, though obsessed with despair, drink, drugs.

The Rats album was a collection of Kubinec songs recorded by producer Adrian Millar with musicians brought in for the job. Adrian Millar had a history in the studio going back to engineering for Joe Meek, and by the 70's was partner in several production enterprises with Andrew Loog Oldham, of which The Rats was one. (Millar's next move after The Rats was to put together another group of musicians to form the Babys.)

With only one single to their credit, the Rats were forgotten until they and that single, "Turtle Dove," were excavated for RPM's junk-shop glam rock Boobs -- and a few years later, RPM put out First Long Play Record, the first time a full-length Rats record ever surfaced. Appropriately for a band that barely existed in the charts, the Rats weren't so much a real group as a project, fronted by David Kubinec and produced by ex-Joe Meek engineer Adrian Millar.

They were meant to ride the glitter wave, so it's not much surprise that they sounded like a blend of T. Rex and the Sweet, two of the biggest bands in the style, and that kind of unapologetic theft is part of the pleasure here.

Glam and glitter always sounded better when they were trash, and what's trashier than stealing from other bands? But the Rats stole with style, crafting a bunch of really intoxicating pop along the way, including the boogie of "L.A. Highway" and "Oxford Donna," which brings to mind shades of Bolan's "Mad Donna." If the cheap pleasures of First Long Play Record kind of fizzle out by the end of the album, it nevertheless has plenty of punch throughout, and is the rare glitter record that comes very close to delivering on the promise of its single.

(First Album UK 1974)

01. Turtle Dove 02:23

02. L.A. Highway 02:41

03. Nose Job 03:57

04. Rolling Railroad Wagon 03:03

05. Queen 03:31

06. Glad That You're Not Me0 3:53

07. Very Small Child 03:04

08. Oxford Donna 02:54

09. Main Horse Cowboy 03:39

10. Child He Die 03:27

(Second Album UK 1974)