VA - Holding A Dream : 20 Obscure Freak, Sike & Early Prog Winners (2007) @ 192

Holding A Dream: 20 Obscure Freak, Sike & Early Prog Winners is a cult-classic compilation album. It is highly prized by crate-diggers for unearthing obscure late-60s and early-70s psychedelic, freakbeat, and early progressive rock tracks, bringing together hard-to-find vinyl rarities.

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"Expanding the previous exclusively European based volume Le Discoteque Psychedelique (reviewed elsewhere on these pages) onto the American continent as well, and still sticking to the late early period as the main source, this one’s sure to keep the dance floor just as crowdy.

The opening title tune by the Welsh Northern Soul scenester GENE LATTER sets the tone with his usual kind of a blue eyed funk, with the surprisingly sweet sounding pre-Uriah Heep combo SPICE, adding a bubblegum-ish quality to the same matter.

Getting quite psychedelic within the equally danceable rhythmic coda, are the Swedish bluesy progsters LOTUS, as well as the Californian YELLOW HAND, featuring an, at the time (1970) unreleased Neil Young tune Sell Out (on their album, along with Down To The Wire and four of Stills unreleased Buffalo Springfield tunes, now available as demos on their box), while Spaniards ALBERT BAND provide a spooky “brown coloured“ trashy-mod-freakbeat-hard-psych crossover.

Other “obscure winners worth the mention include a latter days Music Machine-like fuzzed out garage punker from New York’s PEGASUS, some psychedelic latino sounds coming from the Swiss SOUNDATION, as if putting “Satisfaction through-Santana, Cleveland’s CIRCUS add a power-popin feel to an otherwise proggy number, while MARTHA VELÉZ is an American girl, residing in UK, with a song that isn’t too unlike some of Sharon Tandy’s freakiest stompers."~ Garwood Pickjon

"Subtitled Freak, Sike & Early Prog Winners, you’ll also find soul and R&B in this wide-ranging compilation, with a title track which was sung by Gene Latter, an Arabic R&B/soul singer from, of all places, Cardiff. All that and more… The highlights are the early prog-connected workouts, one of the most delighting being Dietro Noi Deserto’s Dentro Me, Featuring one Antonio Bartoccetti on bass (the principle force behind the spooky prog outfit Jacula, featured in a recent review, RC 342). This 1971 single was composed by Bartoccetti, adopting a late 60s psychedelic vibe. Another early prog band is Brother T & Family, who included a former member of the bands Asterix and Electric Food. Even for lovers of obscure prog, this outfit will generate blank stares amongst most although, in this case, Walking Down Paradise Street is a typical blues-rocker. The band only released one obscure early prog album, Drillin’ Of The Rock, on the Fass label in Germany." ~ Paul Rigby

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Boss-A-Tone Records label specialized in compilations of rare mid/late Sixties-early 70’s tracks, selected and produced by cool DJs, Launched in early 2000 with the now classic “Stasera Shake!” compilation, the loungy italian soundtrack-alike “Love Strings And Bossa", the all girly soulish “Mondo Girls", the European freak “La Discoteque Psychedelique”, the transworld “Holding A Dream”, the U.K. Psych Marvels compilation "Jigsaw Puzzle".

Hold your dream until the next volume …

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1. Gene Latter - Holding A Dream (2:59)

 2. Tommy Korberg - Igor The Dog (3:16)

 3. Spice - What About The Music (2:52)

 4. Mi Generaciòn - Triste Y Solo (3:00)

 5. Soundation - Tricky Dicky (3:50)

 6. Lotus - Epoch (3:08)

 7. Yellow Hand - Sell Out (3:48)

 8. Pegasus - Fire (4:46)

 9. Chris Hodge - We're On Our Way (2:56)

 10. The Albert Band - Ella Tiene El Cabello Rubio (2:42)

 11. Marsha Hunt - Somebody To Love (3:09)

 12. Circus - Stop, Wait And Listen (3:00)

 13. Dietro Noi Deserto - Dentro Me (4:15)

 14. Brother T & Family - Walking Down Paradise Street (2:23)

 15. Blue Beard - Sly Willy (3:25)

 16. Thumper - Montreal (2:37)

 17. Martha Velèz - Swamp Man (2:55)

 18. Rosetta Hightower - Big Bird (3:09)

 19. Putney Bridge - The Meaning Of Love (2:54)

 20. Merry Clayton - Gimme Shelter (3:35)

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