A Visit To The Space Ship Factory

20 tracks of obscure early 70’s rock, hard rock and proto-metal. The subtitle is a bit misleading as there’s nothing too prog about any of the bands aside from Fuzzy Duck & Beggar’s Opera which are only ½ way there. Labeling aside, it’s a LOT of fun and nice look back at what quite often were great “coulda been”, “shoulda been” bands.

(((1))) Swingin’, funky beat, garage-y guitars and histronic chorus. Dated but pretty swell.
(((2))) Excellent drumming and bass but the Guess Who-ish vocals don’t really work.
(((3))) Typical, early 70’s wailing guitar rock centered around the sing-songy chorus.
(((((4))))) Groovy, sorta-prog with a big guitar and organ sound. Some really cool drumming and vocal harmonies. Sorta like a less heavy Deep Purple.
(((((((5))))))) KILLER proto-metal from Israel (& the UK), totally over the top (for ’72 anyway). Loud & raunchy vocals and twin guitar harmonies! The riff is very close to early Rush and the vocals are reminiscent of Nazereth.
((((6)))) Low-end based Deep Purple/Led Zep-ish- rawk. Some really nice guitar work.
(((7))) Solid guitar playing but really weird, overcompensating “mystical dude” vocals.
((((8)))) Fuzzy, rudimentary, garage rawk/proto punk playing through Blue Cheer’s amps.
((((9)))) Weird, psych/hard rock, trippy organ-laden with dramatic Arthur Brown-like vocals.
((((10)))) Speaking of Mr. Brown, here he is with a space rock/psych with funky bass number. It oddly sounds like early Roxy Music.
(((11))) Vocal-centric with occasional moves to hard rock guitar/organ jams.
((12)) Nice guitars and organ but the overly-emoting vocals really kill it. (That and the dude reminds me of Lou Gramm of Foreigner).
(((13))) Silly vocals and a riff right out of James Gang’s “Funk #49”. Pretty amusing.
(((14))) Funky, loose 70’s rock with some pretty powerful Roger Daltry-like vocals.
((((15)))) The same “Rock Bottom”, “Doctor Doctor” UFO. This is pre- Michael Schenker. Solid, reverby, bassy, rambiling hard psych rock.
((16)) Beatles-ish vocals with fast strummy guitars. Some points for a few guitar wails but nothing else too interesting.
(((17))) Low-end hard-ish, swaggerin’ rock. Flat vocals but good interplay and solid groove towards the middle.
(((18))) Silly, vocal-based, bouncy pop with occasionally fuzzed out guitars, killer drum breaks and cowbell, yes–cowbell.
((19)) Twangy, Southern/Boogie Rock sounding thing. Discount Skynrd.
((20)) Low recorded, piano based swingin’ 70’s rock with more histronic vocals.