12.05.2006

Though psych and acid rock were birthed and raised in the British and American rock scenes, that by no means implies that they were the only cultures to embrace and master the form. Once records by Hendrix, Sabbath and the like hit some foreign shores a whole crop of guitar toting challengers were brought up abroad. Even if some of these artist's brilliance is just being unearthed now, it still stands up over time. These are definitely two of my favorite foreign guitar records of the time.

Strawberry Path - When the Raven Has Come To Earth
Strawberry Path boast everything a great proto-metal group needed; hard blues inflected guitar, a writhing sense of rhythm and the wailing vocals of Hiro Tsunoda. Amazinly, for the amount of noise
these guys produced they were just a duo. Hiro manned the drums and vocals and the amazing Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo did his best to wrangle every tortured note he could out of his guitar. These guys went on to be members in Flied Egg another of Japan's heavy rockers. Hendrix is felt all over the guitar on this one and with a little help from some friends on organ you can't help but hear Steppenwolf in there. Not only one of my favorite guitar records but this has to be up there with Power of Zeus for best overlooked records of the 70's.

Download:
[MP3] Strawberry Path- Maximum Speed of Muji Bird
[MP3] Strawberry Path - Five More Pennies

Charlie & Esdor - Charlie & Esdor
This stands as the only available "album" of the combo of Edmund "Charlie" Franzen and Esdor Jensen. The group was part of the incredibly productive Swedish psychedelic scene. They began playing together with a few friends in a band that
never materialized, recorded several singles and almost enough material for and album that was never formally released. Heavy acid guitar rock with a pounding backbeat and sitar galore. If you have any interest in Dungen, you can really see hear that sound as it existed in its own time. The folkier raga tracks stand up but it's the heavy guitar oriented ones that really propel this into essential territory. Reportedly their original band was to have been even heavier and more out than any of this stuff but that group only existed for a short time and was never recorded, shame.

Download:
[MP3] Charlie & Esdor - Fuck The Cops
[MP3] Charlie & Esdor - TvÄ Mans Bridge Blues

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posted by dissensous at 1:25:00 PM

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