Stagg - SWF-Session 1974 (2018)

The history of the Long hair label starts with the release of recordings of more or less unknown bands from the late sixties/ early seventies, who run a band competition in former German radio station SWR (South West Broadcast) and received with the recordings a wider public. A few of them like My Solid Ground, Kraan, became famous and recorded a lot of albums on well known German Krautrock labels. Others like Coupla Prog, Puppenhaus, Papa Zoot or Jud´s Gallery played and recorded their music at the radio studio but received no official record deal and most of the band members started a career in an other profession. STAGG, four guys from Frankfurt, all students are one of the very best who recorded at the SWF. Well trained on their instruments flute and sax, organ and keyboard, guitar, bass, and drums STAGG recorded the five tracks, all in all about 40 minutes of amazing and extra ordinary music. They are a real gem! The music is full of energy, amazing melodies and surprise twists. The sound is absolutely unique and reminds a mix of Gomorrha´s playing on their second album, a more rocking version of Thrice Mice or early Thirsty Moon but also of Jethro Tull at times of Benefit or Aqualung. Two long tracks (each about ten minutes) which allowed the musicians to show their musical abilities with a surprising organ and keyboard sound, often unisono with sax or flute, a rocking guitar with slightly Spanish interjections, very tight bass and drums playing with a drummer playing in 'an always getting forward' style. This Frankfurt band played a lot of concerts in Frankfurt area but also Berlin, Munich, Hamburg or Cologne clubs. The music is really amazing and the melodies played by guitar, keyboard and flute and sax reach your heart and brain and after the album finishes, you will start to hear it again and again. This is one of Long Hair´s finest albums ever. We are very proud to release it after seven years for searching for the guys who played this unique sound! Front- and backcover are from a original painting by famous German painter Helmut Wenske (covers for NEKTAR, Dzyan and many more other Bacillus bands) . CD comes with 24 pages booklet (vinyl album with gatefold sleeve and four sided full coloured insert) with band story, a lot of photos and other notes. The radio recordings were remastered and the sound is brilliant. Don´t miss this yet unknown but soon legendary sound. A MASTERPIECE!!!