Eurock for Jan 76

1975 turned out to be a good year for fans of Euro-rock and the coming year should be even better. As it turned out, there were over thirty albums by European groups realeased here last year and this yeare there should be twice as many. 75 started off with KRAFTWERK's dramatic rise to the no. 5 position in the nation's charts with their "Autobahn". Releases by CAN, TANGERINE DREAM, AMON DUUL 2, and PASSPORT were offered early in the year. Several groups had omre than one released last year; this included three from KRAFTWERK and two each from BARABBAS, RANDY PIE, LUCIFER'S FRIEND, AMON DUUL 2, and TRACE. From France came GONG and LES VARIATIONS. The Italians gave us LE ORME, OSSANA, PFM, BANCO, LIBRA, and PERIGIO. More German groups: TRIUMVIRAT, NEKTAR, ATLANTIS, SCHLOSS, EINZELGANGER, KRAAN, ELOY, TIGER B. SMITH, EMBRYO, andSILVER CONVENTION. OMEGA was the lone entry from Hungary last year, but this year promises the return of LOCOMOTIV GT as well as another LP from Omega. We got ABBA from Sweden and SECRET OYSTER from Denmark and from Japan the SADISTIC MIKA BAND. Although most of the groups didn't come over for tours, the ones that did were quite successful and included NEKTAR, PASSPORT, ATLANTIS, KRATWERK, TRIUMVIRAT, FOCUS, PFM, andGOLDEN EARRING. In the coming year we'll see the return of many of these groups as well as debut tours by groups like KRAAN, RANDY PIE, and GURU GURU
. . . .N E W S. . . .
New releases here include some very good classicaly based rock out of Italy on the Pausa label from L.A. REVERBERI is an album of the melodies of Liszt, Schumann, and Chopin arranged in a modern rock style with strings and woodwinds and v;oices. Offering excellent lyrics and musicianship are MAXOPHONE, a prog rock group that is very popular in Italy. . . .KAYAK have a new el pea released here on the Janus label called "Royal Bed Bouncer." It's the second U.S. release for this Dutch group. The first was released here on Harvest (see review in Aug 74 Triad). . . .ELOY's newest is called "Power and the Passion.". . . .SOLUTION has a new LP out in England called "Cordon Bleu.". . . .The name of the new album by VANGELIS is "Heaven and Hell.". . . .Lead singer from ACQUA FRAGILE has joined with PFM and appears on their new album "Chocolate Kings.". . . .The newest record from TANGERINE DREAM is a live recording called "Ricochet." They recently completed another tour of England including several dates inside cathedrals. . . .TRIUMVIRAT have moved to Los Angeles and will have a new album out in a few months.(eof)