(Prog- Psychedelic/Folk) Axe "Live & Studio" 1970 - 1995, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Axe biography
Rumored to hail from Northampton, UK act AXE (or AXE MUSIC according to alternate sources) were one of the most obscure acts in the field of psychedelic rock and hard rock of the late 60's.

They made a handful of acetate copies of an album in 1969, named "Music" in the original version (or "Axe Music" if alternate sources are correct; and also released as "Live & Studio"), and in more recent years a live concert with the band performing cover versions of various tunes have emerged as a CD named "Live 1969".

The line-up consisted of Vivienne (Countess Vivienne according to some sources) on vocals, A. Barford (guitars). R. Hilliard (acoustic guitar), M. Nobbs (bass), S. Gordon (drums, percussion).

"This album hit like an axe to my head, though some in it characteristics restrained me to give it five stars, though many songs here fit to my musical tastes best as anything in psychedelic music style does. The short intro is distributed among the album creating flasbacks of the theme, and the whole song can be heard as a poor sound quality live version in the end of the record. The voice of the singer is soft, pleasant and untalented in classical sense, though she hits to the key well and Iike her voice very much. The singing is present only in more calmer moments of the songs, so the band gets much instrumental space to hit the harder acid rock gear on, and the do it very well! The compositions are quite simple, more like creating frames for playing. Also the melodies though they are pretty, the band does not have very broad scope creating variations of it. The sound could be somekind of mixture of sound of early JEFFERSON AIRPLANE and both live jammings of CREAM and THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE spiced with some acid folk influences. And do not be fooled by the association of the hit songs by these comparisons, AXE's music is very experimental certainly progressive, like the adventorous moments of those bands are too! If you like good quality psychedelic stoned-out rock expanding to higher level leaving the fences of commercial rock standards behind, search this album and enjoy! Personal highlights are mantralike long "The Child Dreams", growing tension in very delightful way. With little more variation to the composed melodies and slighlty more better lyrical content, and maybe focusing even yet more to the hazy improvistaional playing which is now present in maybe 75% of the music, this would be a real masterpiece. About the mannerism, "Strange Sights & Crimson Nights" sounds quite much like another arangement of great song "Another Sunset, Another Dawn". But even with these few lacks, this is anyhow very recommendable album to the fans of this kind of style!"
-- Eetu Pellonpää@progarchives

EAC extraction logfile from 16. February 2009, 13:57 for CD
Axe / Love & Studio

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