The Golden Dawn: Power Plant 1968 (US 1968 Original Vinyl Press)

 

The Golden Dawn are an American psychedelic rock band formed in Austin, Texas, United States, in 1966. The band released one album, titled Power Plant, before breaking up soon after the album's release in 1968. The 1966 release of the album was withheld by International Artists, until after The 13th Floor Elevators' album Easter Everywhere was released, even though Power Plant was recorded nearly a year earlier. As a result, the Power Plant 's reviews tagged it as a copycat record, unworthy of positive consideration. George Kinney remained a recluse figure in the music world for decades until a reemergence in 2001, when Power Plant became an iconic psychedelic recording.
                                          

Though the early break up of the original band was unfortunate, this was not the end of the band's influence. George Kinney, lead singer and lyric writer for the band, went on to renew the band with several incarnations up to the present day version resulting in the latest recording, Rebel Heart (2017).
                                                

In 2017, George Kinney release what he called the "second Golden Dawn" album, Rebel Heart. The Members of this band were:
George Kinney - Songwriter, Guitar and Lead Vocals
James Henry - Lead Gutar
William vonReichbauer - Upright and Electric Bass, Backing Vocals
Michael Morris - Drums, Backing Vocals
Miranda Morris - Flute, Percussion and Backing Vocals
Peter Gordon - Piano, Organ
Some of these members are also part of the Lone Star Hippie Band.
                                       

The 13th Floor Elevators were seen as oddball one-hit wonders in most of the United States during their glory days from 1966 to 1968, but they were heroes (at least for a while) in their native Texas, and plenty of psychedelic acolytes from the Lone Star State cited them as a major influence. It would be
hard to name a band that borrowed more from the Elevators, or did it to better effect, than Austin's the Golden Dawn, whose debut album, Power Plant, sounds like a folkier companion piece to Easter Everywhere. Lead vocalist George Kinney was friends with Roky Erickson and they briefly played together in a teenage garage band, and while Kinney lacks Erickson's feral intensity, his voice bears an uncanny resemblance to the open and quietly passionate tone Erickson was reaching for on songs like "Splash 1" and "Dust." As a songwriter, Kinney couldn't quite match the acid-fueled philosophizing of Tommy Hall, but his lyrics are thoughtful and insightful, reaching for something deeper than the "listen to the sound of purple" clichés that dogged many psych band of the era.
                                                  

The opening cut, "Evolution," uses a set of wind chimes to punctuate the arrangement much in the same way the Elevators used Tommy Hall's jug, and the lovely melodic sense of "This Way Please" and "Reaching Out to You" recalls the more mellow moments of the Elevators' folk-influenced numbers. While the Golden Dawn could rock out when they were so inclined on tunes like "Starvation" and "I'll Be Around," their approach is informed by a gentleness that sets them apart from their contemporaries

-- there's a grace in this music that's uncommon for any era, and the interplay in the guitar work of Tom Ramsey and Jimmy Bird shows a subtle sophistication that makes Kinney's melodies all the more compelling. Kinney has frequently told journalists that Power Plant was recorded before Easter Everywhere, and though it's hard to believe that the Golden Dawn didn't learn a lot from the 13th Floor Elevators, the music on this album is good enough to insist they weren't stealing, just following a similar path, and it takes them to a very fine place on Power Plant. Sadly, the Golden Dawn broke up before they could record another LP, but Power Plant shows them to be one of the best bands to emerge from the Texas psychedelic underground during their brief renaissance in 1967.
[By Mark Deming]

The Golden Dawn – Power Plant
Label: International Artists – IA-LP #4, International Artists – IA-LP-4
Format: Thick unflexible viny, US Original Press
Country: US
Released: 1968
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Garage

SIDE A

                                     

A1. Evolution  (Written-By – Bobby Rector, George Kinney)  2:50
A2. This Way Please  (Written-By – George Kinney, Tom Ramsey)  5:10
A3. Starvation  (Written-By – George Kinney, Tom Ramsey)  2:50
A4. I'll Be Around  (Written-By – George Kinney, Tom Ramsey)  3:00
A5. Seeing Is Believing  (Written-By – George Kinney, Tom Ramsey)  2:15

SIDE B

                                                              

B1. My Time  (Written-By – Hallmark, George Kinney, Bird)  4:00
B2. A Nice Surprise  (Written-By – Hallmark, Rector, George Kinney)  3:00
B3. Every Day  (Written-By – George Kinney, Tom Ramsey)  4:50
B4. Tell Me Why (Written-By – George Kinney, Tom Ramsey)  2:05
B5. Reaching Out To You  (Written-By – Bill Hallmark, George Kinney) 2:35

ORIGINAL MEMBERS

                                                                          

George Kinney – vocals, guitar
Tom Ramsey – lead guitar
Jimmy Bird – rhythm guitar
Bill Hallmark – bass
Bobby Rector – drums

MP3 @ 320 Size: 78 MB
Flac  Size: 220 MB

Magna Carta: 5 Albums 1967 - 1977

 

Magna Carta is a well know UK Psychedelic/folk rock band released their most populair work during the Golden Era. Their debut album was released on the “Mercury” label which was part op Philips. Another known and highly wanted release on this album was “Ancient Grease”. Their second and third

studio album were released on the mighty “Vertigo” label, also part of Philips. Magna Carta was born in April 1969 in London, UK. On May the 10th in that year, “Magna Carta” did their first live performance. The band is still active today but with a different line-up. In progressive rock circles, Magna Carta are a bit like the Little Engine That Could -- from relatively modest beginnings in 1969, they've endured across 36 years and counting, even as their louder, more heavily amplified rivals from the same era have long since been consigned to history. Acts such as King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer may be better (and much more widely) known, but Magna Carta have stayed together, making music decades longer.
                                    

The group was founded in 1969 by Chris Simpson (who also sang) and Lyell Tranter on acoustic

Gibson guitars and Glen Stuart singing harmony. Formed in London, they made their debut at the Coalhole Folk Club in Cambridge, and coming off of the enthusiastic response to the ten songs they did that night, Magna Carta were rolling. They were not, strictly speaking, a pure folk group even then, but utilized folk and traditional elements very heavily in their songwriting and sound, in a manner similar to that adopted by John David Gladwin and Terry Wincott of the Amazing Blondel at approximately the same time.
                              

They were signed to Mercury Records' British division and debuted with a self-titled LP. They were then shifted over to the related Vertigo label -- which was more specifically devoted to progressive rock

acts -- for their second album, Seasons. By that time, their sound had solidified around Simpson's singing, songwriting, and steel-strung Martin D18; Tranter's arrangements and nylon-strung Gibson; and Stuart's vocal arrangements and his five-octave harmony range. Seasons, produced by Gus Dudgeon, featured as its centerpiece the side-long title work, and also a much larger contingent of musicians, among them Tony Visconti on bass, Rick Wakeman on keyboards, Tim Renwick on flute, and Davey Johnstone on guitar; it was also the group's first record to be released in America, under license to Dunhill Records, though it made virtually no impact on the U.S. side of the Atlantic.
                                 

When Tranter decided to return to his native Australia, Johnstone, a virtuoso-level guitarist fluent in several styles, replaced him in Magna Carta, leading to the core lineup that recorded Songs from

Wasties Orchard and the live album In Concert before Johnstone was stolen away -- with help from Dudgeon, who used him on his sessions -- by Elton John and, later, Kiki Dee. Johnstone's replacement was guitarist Stan Gordon, who worked on Lord of the Ages (1974) and was joined by bassist Graham Smith. By 1975, however, the group was down to one member -- Gordon and Smith left in 1974, and a disagreement about their sound and future direction led to Stuart's exit in 1975 after the release of Martin's Cafe (the latter also marked their final release on Vertigo).
                                        

When the appropriately titled Putting It Back Together was released in 1976 -- featuring Simpson, guitarist Tommy Hoy (late of the Natural Acoustic Band), and bassist Nigel Smith, with Chris Karan and Pick Withers on drums -- the group was on Polydor (the parent label of Vertigo) in Europe and Ariola in the United States. Withers later became an official member of the group for a short time,

before joining Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler, and John Illsley in what became Dire Straits, and other new members from this period included Robin Thyne and Lee Abbott, who ultimately took over the bassist spot. Thyne and Hoy only lasted a couple of years, and for the next three years the membership in Magna Carta became rather fluid, with Alistair Fenn, George Norris, and future Albion Band member Doug Morter passing through on guitars, along with several drummers, including future Icicle Works alumnus Paul Burgess. They enjoyed an unexpected radio hit during this period with "Highway to Spain" off of the 1981 LP Midnight Blue, and Simpson also released his first solo album, Listen to the Man, around this same time.
                                          

The turning point for Magna Carta and Simpson, both professionally and personally, came the next year when he met Linda Taylor, a Yorkshire-born singer and guitarist. At the time, Simpson was promoting his solo single "Sting of the Gin," and she was recording a material of her own. He ended up playing on some of her sides, and she appeared on some of his new songs, and by 1983 she'd joined the group. Her

arrival reinvigorated Simpson's work, and through 1984 -- a point where virtually all of the other progressive rock bands with which they'd started had long since ceased working -- Magna Carta kept performing and recording, with Simpson and Taylor, supported by Abbott, at the core of the lineup. The middle of the decade, however, saw the pair withdraw from performing -- instead, for two years they ran a music club in the Middle East. It was in 1986 that they revived the group, with Abbott once more joining them in the core lineup and a considerably expanded sound, including a keyboard player (Gwyn Jones) and lead guitarist (Simon Carlton).
                             

In 1990 Simpson and Taylor married, and since 1992 with Abbott's exit, they've comprised the core of Magna Carta, which continued to tour Europe, where the band had a large audience, regularly. In keeping with their appeal as a live act, most of their releases since the early '80s (with the notable

exception of 2001's Seasons in the Tide) have been concert recordings. Polygram reissued the group's early Vertigo albums at the end of the 1990s, and in 2004 Repertoire Records re-released Seasons in a mini-LP gatefold edition re-creating its original packaging format in miniature. Although some critics, embarrassed by the more pretentiously "arty" and fey sides of progressive rock (especially in its folk division) have expressed disdain for Magna Carta, that reissue and the periodic release of anthologies of the group's work testify to the existence of an audience for their work, even 40 years into their history.
By Bruce Eder.

MAGNA CARTA 1969

 
             

Magna Carta – Magna Carta
Label:HTD Records – HTDCD68
Format:    CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 1996
Country: UK
Released: 1969    
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Folk, Country

TRACKS

01. Times Of Change    2:46
02. Daughter Daughter    4:04
03. Old John Parker    2:42
04. I Am No More    4:09
05. Ballad Of Francis Alabadalejo    5:17
06. Spinnings Wheels Of Time    3:19
07. Romeo Jack    3:34
08. Mid Winter    3:32
09. Shades Of Grey    3:09
10. Emily Thru' The Window Pane    3:26
11. Sea And Sand (The Isle Of Pabay)    3:20
12. Seven O'Clock Hymn    6:13

Bonus Track

                                                 

  
13. Seven O'Clock Hymn / Mid Winter (Live)    12:20

MP3 @ 320 Size: 135 MB
Flac  Size: 310 MB

SEASONS 1970 + SONGS FROM WASTIES ORCHARD 1971

 
          

Magna Carta – Seasons 1970 + Songs From Wasties Orchard 1971
Label: Mercury – 538 812-2
Format: CD, Compilation, Reissue, Remastered 1999
Country: Europe
Released: 1970 - 1971
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Folk, Prog Rock, Country

SEASONS 1970

                                           

      
01. Seasons   22:21    
1a. Prologue    
1b. Winter Song    
1c. Spring Poem    
1d. Spring Song    
1e. Summer Poem    
1f. Summer Song    
1g. Autumn Song    
1h. Epilogue    
1i. Winter Song (Reprise)    
02. Goin' My Way (Road Song)  02:55
03. Elizabethan   02:38
04. Give Me No Goodbye   03:09
05. Ring Of Stones   03:50
06. Scarecrow   02:17
07. Airport Song  03:48

SONGS FROM WASTIES ORCHARD  1971

                                      

  
08. Time For The Leaving   04:08
09. Isle Of Skye   02:53
10. Sponge   02:23
11. Sunday On The River   03:33
12. Good Morning Sun   02:43
13. Home Groan   02:28
14. The Bridge At Knaresborough Town   05:00
15. White Snow Dove   02:11
16. Parliament Hill   02:46
17. Wayfarin'   03:49
18. Down Along Up   02:11
19. Country Jam    01:50
 

MP3 @ 320 Size: 177 MB
Flac  Size: 426 MB

LORD OF THE AGES 1973 + MARTIN'S CAFE 1977

 
                        

Magna Carta – Lord Of The Ages 1973 + Martin's Cafe 1977
Label:Mercury – 538 813-2
Format:    CD, Remasred 1999
Country: Europe
Released: 1973 - 1977    
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Folk, Prog Rock, Country

LORD OF THE AGES  1973

                                            

  
01. Wish It Was
02. Two Old Friends
03. Lord Of The Ages
04. Isn't It Funny (And Not A Little Bit Strange)
05. Song Of Evening
06. Father John
07. That Was Yesterday
08. Falkland Grene

MARTIN'S CAFE   1977

   
09. Easy If You Try
10. Tomorrow's Up For Sale
11. Mixed Up Sensations
12. Old Man
13. All Part Of The Game
14. Roll On
15. You Are Only What You Are
16. People's Friend
17. Won't Set The World On Fire
18. I'm Gonna Take You Down
19. Martin's Cafe

MP3 @ 320 Size: 168 MB
Flac  Size: 397 MB

Love And Rockets: 5 Albums Box 2013

 

The band's name was derived from the comic by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, which Gilbert later mocked in his book Love and Rockets X, where there were several different bands named "Love and Rockets" for a period.
                          

Love and Rockets comprised guitarist/vocalist Daniel Ash, bassist/vocalist David J, and drummer

Kevin Haskins, all former members of the pioneering goth band Bauhaus. Despite their previous band's status as gothic rock icons, Love and Rockets moved away from that genre, as demonstrated by their first minor hit being a cover of the Motown classic "Ball of Confusion".
                                                

Their first album release, "Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven" (1985), leaned more towards post-punk,

psychedelic music and proto-rave atmospheres. Their second release, "Express" (1986), continued in that vein. It included the dance hit "Yin and Yang (the Flowerpot Man)." The 1987 follow up "Earth, Sun, Moon" had a folkier sound and spawned the minor hit "No New Tale to Tell."
                                              

However, the group didn't sound very similar to its first incarnation. Instead, Love and Rockets

emphasized the strains of psychedelia and glam rock that appeared underneath Bauhaus' gloomy drone, adding elements of pop songcraft, folk, and R&B, as well as cryptic, self-important lyrics. For most of the late '80s, the group had a devoted cult following, resulting in a surprise Top Ten hit single, "So Alive," in 1989. During the early '90s, the group's audience steadily declined, although they still retained a number of loyal fans.
                                        

After Bauhaus broke up in 1983, David J recorded a solo album and collaborated with the Jazz Butcher,

while Daniel Ash concentrated on a side project, Tones on Tail. Haskins soon joined Tones on Tail, but the group folded in 1984. Haskins and Ash then attempted to reunite Bauhaus. David J agreed to the project, but the band's lead vocalist, Peter Murphy, refused. Instead of pursuing an incomplete Bauhaus reunion, Ash, J, and Haskins formed Love and Rockets, taking their name from the underground comic book created by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez.
                                    

Love and Rockets released their first album, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, in 1985; it received

mixed reviews but it began to build their following. Express, released the following year, was more successful, charting in both the U.S. and the U.K. On Earth Sun Moon (1987) the band retreated to more atmospheric musical territory, with the notable exception of the alternative/college radio hit "No New Tale to Tell," which helped increase the group's fan base. Love and Rockets, released in 1989, broke the band into the mainstream, thanks to the T. Rex-inspired Top Ten single "So Alive."
                                  

The album was nearly as successful, breaking into the Top 20 and going gold. After a grueling tour

schedule in support of their big hit, Love and Rockets took a few years off before returning to the studio together. The result was a move to an electronic sound that had more in common with the Orb than their rock or goth roots. Their label, RCA Records, dropped them. They signed with Rick Rubin's American Recordings to release "Hot Trip to Heaven" (1994), followed in 1996 by "Sweet F.A.".
                                       

After the success of Love and Rockets, the members of the band concentrated on solo projects for nearly a half-decade. Love and Rockets returned to recording in 1994 with Hot Trip to Heaven, which

failed to make any inroads on the pop or alternative charts. In 1996, they returned again with Sweet F.A., and Lift followed two years later. Love and Rockets announced in October 2007 on their MySpace page that they would reform to play one song at "Cast a Long Shadow," a tribute to Joe Strummer and benefit for Strummerville, The Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music, on December 22, 2007 at the Key Club in West Hollywood, California. They covered "Should I Stay Or Should I Go," playing the song twice, the second time inviting members of the audience to join them onstage to sing along.
                                                  

                                 
They performed 27 April 2008 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and also at Lollapalooza on 3 August 2008 in Chicago.

LOVE AND ROCKETS - 5 ALBUMS BOX

                                  

The new Love and Rockets set collects the band’s ’80s albums — Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven,

Express, Earth.Sun.Moon and Love and Rockets, each with bonus tracks from previous reissues — plus a new compilation called Assorted! that features the Swing! and Bubblemen EPs, six live tracks, a stray B-side and the previously unreleased song “Sorted”, plus an additional collection of rarities.
                            

Although it may not be the type of package that fans think the trio deserves, there's little else to quibble about here. Every single track is in place, including both Canadian and U.S. mixes or edits of several

early singles ("Ball of Confusion," "If There's a Heaven Above," "Haunted When the Minutes Drag") that divided fans, plus their alias single as the Bubblemen and six live tracks recorded in December 1987. The earlier editions of these albums had been showing their age (and lack of remastering) for many years, so it's a treat to have the seminal, underappreciated, prime-era work of Love and Rockets available in a pristine digital mastering. 

                                                                   

Love And Rockets! – 5 Albums
Label: Beggars Archive – BBQCD 2102
Series: 5 Albums, Beggars Archive
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Box Set, Compilation
Country: UK & Europe
Released: May 13, 2013
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, New Wave

DISC 1.    SEVENTH DREAM OF TEENAGE HEAVEN 1985       

                                   

01. If There's A Heaven Above    4:58
02. A Private Future    5:07
03. The Dog-End Of A Day Gone By    7:38
04. The Game    5:09
05. Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven    6:37
06. Haunted When The Minutes Drag    8:04
07. Saudade  (Arranged By [String Arrangement] – John A. Rivers/
Electric Guitar – David J)   5:01

BONUS TRACKS       

                                       

  
08. Ball Of Confusion (12" UK Mix)  (Composed By – Norman Whitfield And Barrett Strong)   7:20
09. Inside The Outside    4:23
10. If There's A Heaven Above (12" UK Mix)    7:00
11. God And Mr. Smith    4:50
12. Haunted When The Minutes Drag (USA Mix)    4:32
13. If There's A Heaven Above (Canada Mix)    4:26

MP3 @ 320 Size: 175 MB
FLAC  Size: 503 MB

DISC 2.    << EXPRESS >>    1986

                                              

01. It Could Be Sunshine    4:59
02. Kundalini Express    5:52
03. All In My Mind    4:43
04. Life In Laralay    3:32
05. Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man)    5:56
06. Love Me    3:55
07. All In My Mind (Acoustic Version)    5:05
08. An American Dream  (Choir – Alan Brookes, James Lowry, Robert Willey/
Chorus Master [Choir Master] – Allan Baker)   6:09

BONUS TRACKS       

                                         

  
09. Angels And Devils    6:10
10. Holiday On The Moon    6:07
11. Lucifer Sam  (Composed By – Syd Barrett)   3:21
12. B Side # 1    1:17
13. B Side # 2    1:32
14. Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man) (Remix)    5:29
15. Ball Of Confusion (USA Mix)  (Composed By – Norman Whitfield And Barrett Strong)   6:17

MP3 @ 320 Size: 164 MB
FLAC  Size: 503 MB

DISC 3.    EARTH . SUN . MOON    1987   

                                              

01. Mirror People    4:06
02. The Light    4:17
03. Welcome Tomorrow    3:36
04. No New Tale To Tell  (Flute [Monkey Flute] – Mel Thorpe)   3:26
05. Here On Earth    3:10
06. Lazy    3:12
07. Waiting For The Flood    3:38
08. Rain Bird    3:17
09. The Telephone Is Empty    4:00
10. Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven    5:13
11. Earth, Sun, Moon    3:34
12. Youth    4:42

BONUS TRACK       

                                       

  
13. Mirror People (Slow Version)    4:27

MP3 @ 320 Size: 120 MB
FLAC  Size: 331 MB

DISC 4.   LOVE AND ROCKETS    1989

                                        

  
01. (Jungle Law)    4:32
02. No Big Deal    4:56
03. The Purest Blue  (Engineer – Whispering Angus)   3:44
04. Motorcycle    3:31
05. I Feel Speed    3:25
06. Bound For Hell    6:01
07. The Teardrop Collector  (Synth [String Synth] – John Fryer)   4:09
08. So Alive  (Backing Vocals – Lorna Wright, Ruby James, Sylvia Mason James)   4:16
09. Rock And Roll Babylon  (Arranged By [String Arrangement] – Bill Thorp/Cello – Josie Abbott/Viola – Penny Thomposon/Violin – Bill Thorp, Brian Brooks)   3:22
10. No Words No More    3:50

BONUS TRACKS

                                          

  
11. Bike    3:54
12. Bikedance    7:08
13. No Big Deal (12" Remix)    7:11
14. Dreamtime    8:41

MP3 @ 320 Size: 161 MB
FLAC  Size: 418 MB

DISC 5.    ASSORTED!   2013   

                                   

01. Mirror People '88 (Full Length Version)    5:26
02. Wake Up    4:00
03. Cuckoo Land    2:49
04. The Early Worm    2:13
05. 1000 Watts Of Your Love    2:50
06. Bad Monkey    4:22
07. David Lanfair    7:13
08. Sorted    3:40
09. Mirror People (Live)    5:03
10. No New Tale To Tell (Live)    3:34
11. Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven (Live)    7:18
12. Love Me (Live)    4:31
13. Kundalini Express (Live)    5:08
14. Lazy (Live)    3:34

THE BUBBLEMEN           

15. The Bubblemen – The Bubblemen Are Coming    5:14
16. The Bubblemen – The Bubblemen Rap    5:21
17. The Bubblemen – Dub Rap    5:23
18. The Bubblemen – B Side (Edit)    2:13
                                                  

The Bubblemen were a side project formed in 1988 by the members of alternative rock band Love and Rockets. Love and Rockets members Daniel Ash (guitar, saxophone and vocals), David J (bass and vocals) and Kevin Haskins (drums, synthesizers) dressed up in bee-like costumes for performances.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 186 MB
FLAC  Size: 535 MB

Assorted Details:

5-1, 5-7 and 5-9 taken from the "Mirror People" 12".
5-2 to 5-6 are the tracks originally intended to be released as "Swing EP", available before only with this 2002 release; "Love And Rockets / Swing!".
5-8 otherwise unpublished.
5-10, 5-13, 5-14 not released otherwise before.
5-11 and 5-12 taken from the "No New Tale To Tell" 12".
5-15 to 5-17 originally published using the alias, The Bubblemen, on their "The Bubblemen Are Coming!" release.
5-18 originally published using the alias, The Bubblemen, but is in an edited form from its original full-length version on their "The Bubblemen Are Coming!" release.