Rapunzel - Mornin' Sunrise / The Riddler/Changes. 1973 USA-Massachusetts

From a commune in western Massachusetts. A solid hard rock riff opens A), nice organ and a good mid song solo. Pretty rockin' stuff here, in the early Grand Funk Railroad tradition. B) side picks up perfectly with a faster riff, and some 60's Batman-era Riddler vocal hysteria. This jams hard - more mid to late 70s sounding. Excellent two sider.

Lots of strangeness as for the release itself. There are four pressings (maybe more) - three on the Corn label, one on Nork. The three on Corn each have a different catalog number and one is from the UK. More data here about the artist and label. 

4.0 / 4.0

3/31/24

August - All the Time in the World / Old Lady. USA-Boston

Pop / Bubblegum psych with light hard rock touches. Has some decent distorted soloing. Mostly unknown. Label is from Boston, so likely a New England based group. 

1/23/24

Paraphernalia - Watch Out / Never. 1970 USA-Boston

I have the A) side on the Overdose of Heavy Psych comp. Good riffing hard rock with organ maybe like Sir Lord Baltimore, so it's slightly ahead of its time. Listening to the flip for the first time. Usually when only one side is featured on the comps, the other is to be avoided. But that's not the case here. This sounds more like its era, and is a wonderful dreamy psych piece. There's a slight Latin Soul Rock vibe I'm getting (think early Malo), which is entirely coincidental I'm sure (especially since they were from Medford, Massachusetts). Great two sider.

2/2/19 (first listen); 12/31/23 (review / new entry)

Marianus - Magical Man / Prelude to Magical Man. 1980 USA-Boston

It's been many a year since I heard Boston based Marianus' sole album Visions from Out of the Blue. I don't recall much great about it - but clearly I missed the boat on some of it. 'Magical Man' is probably more inline with my memory. It's something of a New Wave / AOR / prog hybrid. Not too bad actually in reflection, and certainly the kind of sounds I would have scoffed at 20 years ago. But the real money here is 'Prelude to Magical Man', which is just slathered in mellotron. As atmospheric as one could possibly hope for. It looks like it's simply known as 'Prelude' on the album proper.

Ownership: SP: 1980 Jupiter Phonodisc. No real reason to seek out this 45 to be honest, as the LP isn't out of reach cost wise. I just happened to pick this one up on the cheap, while getting some other albums online. I'll keep it.

2/23/20 (first listen / review / new entry)