Subject Esq / Sahara - 2016 - Lost Tapes

Subject Esq / Sahara

2016

Lost Tapes

01. Gras 14:28
02. Freedom 10:56
03. Moon 3:41 n n
04. Two Stones 4:44
05. Giantania (A Capricorn Is Flying) 6:27
06. Mind 3:56
07. From Emmental To Cheesebourg 5:26
08. 3 Moniate 8:23
09. Marie Celeste 10:03

Recorded At – Musicland Studios

Drums – Holger Brandt (tracks: 9)
Drums, Percussion, Glockenspiel – Harry Rosenkind (tracks: 1 to 8)
Guitar – Günther Moll (tracks: 9), Nick Woodland (tracks: 1 to 3), Peter Markl (2) (tracks: 4 to 8)
Organ – Peter Stadler (tracks: 7, 8)
Organ, Keyboards, Piano, Synthesizer [Moog] – Hennes Hering (tracks: 1 to 3, 9)
Vocals, Bass – Stephan Wissnet\

Vocals, Flute, Saxophone, Guitar, Keyboards – Michael Hofmann De Boer
Vocals, Harmonica, Saxophone – Alex Pittwohn (tracks: 1 to 8)

1 & 2: Live Insel Lindau 18.8.73.
3: Musicland-Studio 1972.
4 & 5: Bavaria-Atelier June 71.
6: Bavaria-Atelier 3.6.71.
7 & 8: Live Tölzer Str. 20.2.71.
9: Live in Innsbruck 1975.

In the mid-1960s, Harry Rosenkind and Michael Hofmann from Munich formed a beat band with two schoolmates that was named "The King and the Subject". You soon noticed that the name wasn't very handy. In 1966 the group was renamed The Subjects. A little later you were as Subject Esq. on the way, under which name a first album, released in 1972, was released (see " Subject Esq. "). In 1973 the band, which had come from Out Of Focus by Hennes Hering, added the name Sahara, under which they are now working again. Apparently, the group sees 1966 as the actual founding year, as this year (2016) they are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band.

On this occasion, an archival album has now been released by Ohrwaschl Records, which contains some previously unpublished material that was recorded between 1971-75. The disc titled "Lost Tapes" comes in a simple cardboard sleeve and contains various numbers that Subject Esq. or Sahara were recorded live or in the studio during the aforementioned period. Most of the playing time is spent on recordings of Sahara (tracks 1, 2 and 9), which is why the album is assigned to this band, even if the numbers 3-8 are actually from Subject Esq. were recorded. The sound is consistently very good (the live numbers) to excellent (the studio pieces).

Two sweeping live recordings from August 1973 are at the beginning of the album. Sahara offer an expansive progge, a powerful mix of jazz rock, blues rock, keyboard protoprog and some hard rock that is based on simultaneous Anglo-American productions (a cross between Colosseum, Tempest and Greenslade perhaps), but is on a par with them.

The next four numbers are studio recordings with excellent sound, apparently recordings by Subject Esq. That did not make it on the only album that was planned as a single, or demos. "Moon" comes out of the speakers loosely, westcoast-like, dominated by brisk George, harder e-guitar throws and acoustic clatter. With “Two Stones” it gets even harder rock and “Mind” rocks more bluesy and hard. Before that there is a track called “Giantania”, which also appears in a different version on “Subject Esq.”. Here comes a herbaceous, echo-laden flute rock out of the speakers, primed again with bluesy-rocking e-guitar inlays and full e-georgel.

The next two tracks were apparently recorded in February 1971 in the same location as the two on the CD reissue of “ Subject Esq. “Live numbers to be found. Here it is again quite blues-rock, but the flute, sometimes double-staffed saxophones, the voluminous organ and extensive jazzy jamming create a (proto-) prog atmosphere. The music of the British colleagues from Warm Dust, Colosseum, If or Web is not too far away here.

At the end of the album there is a live version of "Marie Celeste" from the Sahara debut " Sunrise ", recorded in 1975 at a concert in Innsbruck. The band is very powerful on the proggen, with a significantly modernized sound compared to the pieces from 1971, an expanded key arsenal and one or the other classically inspired interludes. The sound is still determined by a bluesy howling electric guitar. The singing also suggests that on the second album of the formation (see “ For All The Clowns ”) it was slipping into more mainstream realms.