Tuesday, November 30, 2010

APOLLO-S/T, LP, 1970, FINLAND



One of the very first Finnish prog bands, Apollo was in fact the launching pad for the world renowned fusion drummer Edward Vesala, whose gorgeous work I've previously posted both under his own name and as a member of Toto Blanke's Electric Circus. Dag Erik Asbjornsen described this extraordinary acid rock/proto prog crew in Scented Garden's Of The Mind as sounding "like they're fronted by a singing moose", a description too perfect to try to top, though it only applies to the half of the album where they're in post-Cream acid pummel mode, but oh...when they are, it's sublime. If any of you out there have been hepped to Kalevala, you'd almost swear this was the same band when they're functioning off this tip; Apollo's iteration sounding as though it's being filtered though the same heavy fogbank of dope smoke that also resulted in expressions of this form like May Blitz or Peru's Tarkus. Yes. That heavy. Stomping stoned caveman shit that is just too gobsmackingly ridiculous and wonderful for words. It's also contrasted about 50/50 here with swoon-worthy orchestrated proggy prog that's very McDonald and Giles/early Crimson in tone. The tension between these poles makes for a truly epic listen.

Get it via Rapidshare here

13 comments:

Hajul Ellah said...

Many thanks for sharing this rare album. Cheers.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I humbly bow to your wisdom and knowledge your grace and always look forward to the verbiage in the reviews.

However, I must take a smart tone here to make a correction - VESALA is a free avant DRUMMER not bassist.

peace - SP

vdoandsound said...

SP-Yup. Right you are. And I absolutely knew Vesala was a drummer as well, so my mis-typing of that is doubly ridiculous. Blame the combination of racing to make a self imposed deadline and downing more than one tiki cocktail for the particular error. Sometimes my brain can temporarily depart me under such circumstances :-)

Anonymous said...

This has been reissued on cd.

vdoandsound said...

anonymous-indeed. A long out of print one, from all indications.

Anonymous said...

Thanx frum urkenny

preverb said...

A truly stupendous album. These guys were it!!!! Thanks very much for posting this. I send you a mental cocktail! Thanks!!!

Hippy Robot said...

this is sounding good! wow! epic indeed! thanks!

Anonymous said...

http://www.recordshopx.com/artist/apollo/apollo/#cd-1

vdoandsound said...

anonymous-congratulations on having ferreted out what appear to be the last remaining copies of this CD to be found on the web (albeit copies at 5.99 EUR suggesting used/cut out bin prices). My criteria for posting something is very simple: if a title cannot actually be found by doing searches for it under multiple combinations (in this case, Apollo CD Finland, then Apollo CD Finland 2002, then even using the catalog number for it with Apollo cd 0927-47661-2 ), it cannot realistically be said to be "available". In this case, through your diligence, you've made it available by apparently being a Finnish person who knew where to go to look for it. For anyone else...nada. Maybe the handful of these otherwise-not-to-be-found and apparently remaindered/cut out priced copies of this that you've uncovered will now sell out for those that like originals and wouldn't have found it but for your help.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to bitch here (this is a very nice post) but IMO there's very little 'fusion' in Edward Vesala, or his playing, atleast in the meaning usually given to it in the jazz world. Also, this record didn't really launch him into anything, as he very quickly directed his interests to free jazz and world musics.

Anonymous said...

Btw I wasn't bitching, I think it's great that you share these forgotten gems. Just thought I'd help people find the (poorly promoted) cd.

Unknown said...

thanks for this, love Edward Vesala.