January 31, 2012

Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band - Floating 7" (1971)


At first listen, Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band sounds a lot like their name suggests: feel-good hippie commune music with a lot of acoustic guitar— somewhere in between Ya Ho Wa 13 and The Family International. But the grandiosity of the harmonies might clue you in to the group's proggier pedigree. The songs are credited to A. Koulouris and A. Loafer (a pseudonym). The former is Argiris "Silver" Koulouris, guitarist for Greek cum French psych superstars Aphrodite's Child. A. Loafer is most likely* bandmate Vangelis, who went on to great fame as a solo artist, in particular as composer for the Bladerunner soundtrack and this fucking song.

Floating was released on BYG Records (1967–1978), a French label that focused mainly on psych, jazz, and progressive rock out of France and the US. (For an excellent introduction, check out the Finders Keepers compilation The BYG Deal [2009].) While keeping the lights on with reissues of classic American jazz records for the French market, BYG recorded a string of avant-garde and free jazz albums under the Actuel imprint for the likes of Don Cherry, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Gong, Brigitte Fontaine et Areski, Sonny Sharrock, and Archie Shepp.

This single is the only recording made under the name Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band, but the members of Aphrodite's Child would continue to play together, mostly on each other's solo material but also in other one-off side projects like this one.


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Update: Apologies to anyone who had trouble opening the file. I've reuploaded it, so the music is yours for the listening.

7 comments:

Flash Strap said...

There seems to be something wrong with the file... when I try to open it, I get a message that says it's "not a .rar file."

I want to hear this though! I love Vangelis, actually. Even the ubiquitous "Chariots of Fire" theme, and especially the stuff from Opera Sauvage that made it into "Year of Living Dangerously" (even though that film is pretty terrible, in my opinion). Of course his work on "Blade Runner" is fantastic... Some of his stuff with Jon Anderson (yes, of Yes) is, perhaps surprisingly, just amazing. Their "State of Independence" (which Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder turned into such an awesome disco hit that Brian Eno occasionally talks about loving it) is incredible, and all of Private Collection is great.

I love Vangelis, is what I'm saying. For some reason, though, I haven't ever dipped into Aphrodite's Child. Any recommendations beyond this single?

Murky Recess said...

Thanks, Flash. I just uploaded it again as a .zip file. Should work okay now.

Someone with greater knowledge of the deep cuts is welcome to chime in, but for my money 666 is by far the best Aphrodite's Child album. I don't so much care for their two previous records.

Flash Strap said...

Ah, how wonderful! Thanks, man.

Holly said...

Thank you, Murky!

Flash, I'm sure you saw this:
http://tinyurl.com/6phcbcy ;-)

666 is the best aphrodite's child lp, but unlike Murkey I think the prior 2 lps also have their charms. Try & find/listen to the 2010 Esoteric cd remasters for best [cd] sound & tons of extras.

I also like Vangelis' solo lp Earth (Vertigo, 1973).

Gilles said...

Man you are awesome.thanks for all your great links. I can imagine the amount of work that is behind . Greetings from France

Thorsten said...

This is cool!

infinit0 said...

спасибо!!!