RockOn! – Abacus – Abacus 1971

The German Rock band Abacus released their self-titled debut album in September 1971 on Polydor. Abacus evolved from the band Fashion, an unrecorded act from Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia. They became Abacus with the arrival of English singer/guitarist Chris Williams, fresh off a stint with Grail. He joined keyboardist Chris Barutzky and guitarist/sitarist Hans Rolf ‘Charlie’ Schade in the group’s songwriting core. In 1971, Abacus played before an audience of 30,000 at the Germersheim Festival, appearing alongside Pink Floyd, ELP, and Santana.

Prog Archives: “or someone who had previously only heard this band’s later material, this album came as quite the surprise. The two-part “Pipedream Revisited” is the very quintessence of the album, bursts of symphonic organ/synthesizer and touches bordering on avant-garde weirdness in a sort of holdover psych/Krautrock framework.… Read more...

Jonesy – Keeping Up… (1973)

Keeping Up… is the second album by the British progressive rock band Jonesy, released in June 1973 on Dawn. Jonesy were an early 70’s band in the style of King Crimson but with the unusual element of electric trumpet from Alan Bown. Other band members were John Evan-Jones – guitar & backing vocals, Jamie Kaleth – lead vocals & keyboards (including some excellent Mellotron), Gypsy Jones – lead vocals, bass guitar & recorders and Plug Thomas – percussion and backing vocals.

PA: “Jonesy is one of the most overlooked and underrated progressive rock bands to come out of the early 70s. Eclectic is the best word to describe this band’s style. This CD features a lot of upfront Mellotron ala King Crimson, as well as clever pop passages backed by a string quartet in a Beatles style.… Read more...