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Thread: Identify The Prog Band

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  2. #2
    Member interbellum's Avatar
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    No idea, but it sounds lovely.

  3. #3
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    I haven't listened to it in a few years, and I'm at work, so can't check it properly, but it sounds quite similar to Games -Stargazer, a late 70s American Prog-Rock album.

    If that's not it, it's certainly a better guess than the people who in the comments guessed Atomic Rooster and Renaissance. Those people need to clean the wax out of their ears.

  4. #4
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    ^ That's not it. First song would fit, but too many male vocals after that. I do think it sounds late 70s American, though.

  5. #5
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    Sounds West Coast.

    that information and a MetroCard will get me on a bus or subway.
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  6. #6
    To me, sounds late 60s or early 70s, US. But no idea who this is.
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  7. #7
    A couple of years back, Ashratom (I -think-) posted a list on RYM containing nothing but female-led progressive bands in one way or another. But the album in question here is not featured.

    To me it sounds American and probably post-mid-70s due to the sound of the synthesizers, their use and the continuing emphasis on three-part vocal harmonies. It sometimes reminds me a bit of the Harlequin Mass album, although that's more instrumentally focused and takes a completely different slab at the "female vox" spectrum.

    A nice listen and a good find nonetheless!
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  8. #8
    Tom Hayes/Ashratom is your only hope. If he doesn't know this, nobody does.

  9. #9
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    It would have helped to narrow possibilities if the reddit OP had clarified whether the mislabeled cassette was a commercial cassette mislabeled by the manufacturer, or a recordable blank cassette that had been mislabeled by an individual.

  10. #10
    the OP just says "Mysterious unlabelled cassette tape found in a Gregg Allman 'Laid Back' case ... but its definitely not Gregg Allman ..." so unknown as to what that means. However, I've googled combinations of all the lyrics I can make out and nothing comes up, nothing even close. As well, I've used four different "sound recognition" apps, also nothing. I'm going through disogs.com trying to match potential song titles to the 1970s (due to the synth) but again nothing obvious coming up. It's a head scratcher!

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    It's hard to tell from this iffy YouTube dub, but it doesn't sound like a very big-budget production to me. Could be just some local band who sold this tape at their gigs, rather than something 'released' as such. Mid-late 70s, IMHO.

    Quote Originally Posted by moecurlythanu View Post
    If that's not it, it's certainly a better guess than the people who in the comments guessed Atomic Rooster and Renaissance. Those people need to clean the wax out of their ears.
    Nothing like Stray either, who were heavier and guitar-driven! It's somewhere between, I don't know, Starcastle and Magnum.

  12. #12
    I think if you give the songs a deep listen, there's some quality songwriting and musicianship there... multi-part vocal harmony, great synth and guitar work... remember we're listening to an open air recording of a casette presumably... can't really speak to the production. There's a sax on Side B- Track 1 (I'm calling it "Look at the Sky")...

  13. #13
    Love the Husker Du live clips from Joan Rivers.

  14. #14
    Sounds like a demo tape, going by the silences between the tracks and the vacillating styles of the material. Whatever it is, it’s pretty good; this band had chops! The mix of prog and power pop had me thinking of Crack the Sky (just as a comparison, not suggesting it’s them). Also agree that this sounds NOTHING like Renaissance or Atomic Rooster!
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  15. #15
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    The last 3 songs almost sound like they could have come from a different and later session, which had me wondering if it was a posthumous release. It would be nice to know the age of the tape, so we could eliminate everything that came after.

  16. #16
    Is it all from the same band? I hear such varying styles. Some of it sounds late 60s reverb drenched Psychedelia while some of it sounds similar to the style of Sweet and bands like that.
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  17. #17
    we don't know, all the OP said in the reddit post was she found an unlabelled cassette at a thrift shop.

    I was searching on discogs.com for title = "Night Bird" ( a guess based on the chorus of the first song) and 1970s releases and found an album called "Speed on Wheels" by Maximum Speed Limit which has a song with the same title. I cannot find any online audio of this band, only a review which circumstantially could describe the mystery album:

    https://rateyourmusic.com/release/al...eed-on-wheels/

    Anyone heard this album?

  18. #18
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    Ashtastic, great detective work! I had the pleasure and honor of meeting the guitar player to this band and became friends with him. He gave me some of these tracks on a CD which I will try and dig it up. The guitar players name was Terry Saunders, and he was one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen play on TV, live, or in concert. I contacted his widow and musical partner last night after I recognized the name maximum speed limit. She confirmed that he plays a great solo on Homegrown, so this looks like it is his band. I’ll try and find some more information out from her later this weekend.

    A lot of the things guessed by the group I believe are true : being a demo, and I think it was early to mid 70s. I’ll get back with any information I can.

    Terry also had a big hand in Tower Of Power’s success and sound played with Michael Jackson for a very short time. Both him and his wife were great friends with Tuck and Patti, who summarized how great of a guitar player this guy really was below. We miss Him, he was a handful but man what a guy and what a player!

    https://www.facebook.com/OfficialTow...2721894507274/

    https://www.facebook.com/TuckandPatt...5369365248726/

  19. #19
    Member ashratom's Avatar
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    I was summoned here (cheers Mark!). Straight up, I'd never heard this before. So I pulled out all the tricks from my DBA past, but no hits there either. Sorry folks!

    Maximum Speed Limit is something that recently crossed my radar, probably because of Steve's review. It doesn't appear that band had female vocals though - at least not credited - and the review doesn't mention them either. Steve also mentions a horn section and brass, but all I hear is some saxophone. But the Maximum Speed Limit album only credits sax as well. I have seen reviewers call a saxophone a horn before, so I suppose that's possible. As well, other than 'Night Bird' not seeing too much track correlation. 'Look at the Sky', 'Run for Cover'. I'll ask him to validate though.

    Other than that, my observations aren't any more insightful than what you've read... I do enjoy the music though. Would like to know more for sure.

  20. #20
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ashtastic View Post
    we don't know, all the OP said in the reddit post was she found an unlabelled cassette at a thrift shop.

    I was searching on discogs.com for title = "Night Bird" ( a guess based on the chorus of the first song) and 1970s releases and found an album called "Speed on Wheels" by Maximum Speed Limit which has a song with the same title. I cannot find any online audio of this band, only a review which circumstantially could describe the mystery album:

    https://rateyourmusic.com/release/al...eed-on-wheels/

    Anyone heard this album?
    The album apparently contains a good bit of Funk, so may only have a portion of the tracks from the tape on it. In any case, the 1979 LP is going for relatively substantial dollars on the second hand market. More than I would pay for an album that has more Funk than Prog-Rock on it, which it might.

    Still, I look forward to hearing more about the tape.

  21. #21
    this is great guys! No big detective work on my part, just good ol' guess and test Hopefully markowitz and/or Steve via ashratom can verify if the youtube audio is the same as their copies... here's hoping!

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by markowitz View Post
    Ashtastic, great detective work! I had the pleasure and honor of meeting the guitar player to this band and became friends with him. He gave me some of these tracks on a CD which I will try and dig it up. The guitar players name was Terry Saunders, and he was one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen play on TV, live, or in concert.
    hmm Terry Saunders does not seem to be credited on "Speed on Wheels" either in that review or on Discogs...

  23. #23
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ashtastic View Post
    hmm Terry Saunders does not seem to be credited on "Speed on Wheels" either in that review or on Discogs...
    An excellent observation. The tribute written by Tuck makes him sound like a long-term Funk guy. Not the kind of guy you'd expect to make the tape in question. There are a couple or so styles on the tape, but Funk isn't one of them. The issues Tom brought up are also relevant. Hopefully markowitz will be able to get to the bottom of it.

  24. #24
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    now that it's out in the open, i bet the album sold more copies in the past few days then it did in the last 50 years

  25. #25
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    now that it's out in the open, i bet the album sold more copies in the past few days then it did in the last 50 years
    There's 4 on Discogs. The cheapest one is $200.

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