AGAIN PSYCH !!
VALHALLA - VALHALLA

(u.s.-1969)

Il disco che vi propongo oggi è un ottimo disco di musica psych (qualcuno parla di heavy psych ma non sono molto daccordo...) Secondo la mia opinione è un ottimo disco da ascoltare con piacere anche se potevano fare qualcosina in più!
Mi sento di consigliarvi le canzoni "Hard times","overseas symphony", la strana "Deacon" che mi ricorda la canzone della pubblicità della valleverde (ovviamente non ricordo assolutamente il titolo!) e anche "Roof top man". La particolarità di questo disco è un graduale aumento della complessità nella stuttura delle canzoni fino al top di "overseas symphony" bove si ha un vero effetto sinfonico...beh...che state aspettando?! Ascoltate!!!!

Early psych-simp.prog from a one record (1969) band. Songs start out rather simple and turn into massive fusion-psych-hard rock jams (take a listen to "Overseas symphony"and "Hard times" and "deacon")! Very good album!

Enjoy it!

review by www.allmusic.com

Valhalla's only album was a rather haphazard mix of end-of-the-'60s psychedelic and heavy rock influences. Even if it's not particularly outstanding or original, however, it has its enjoyable aspects, especially for those who enjoy late-'60s combinations of bluesy hard organ and bluesy hard rock guitar. In its slightly overreaching, over-serious feel with a hint of religious pomposity, it's often slightly reminiscent of early Deep Purple and — more distantly, especially in the fairly penetrating organ — the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Graham Bond, and Lee Michaels. Throw in some more guitar-oriented hard rock with songwriting and riffs reminiscent of Cream and the "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"-era Yardbirds, and it's a little surprising to learn that this band came from Long Island, not Britain. At times, too, the record takes strange right turns into more orchestrated, skewed pop and jazzy tempos, as if they were trying to get a little more mainstream but couldn't quite iron out their more uncommercial aspirations. Some faint symphonic pretensions both add and detract in some ways, but there are some pretty commanding lead vocals and organ, which put it a notch above many other secondary psychedelic albums of this kind.

band info:

Valhalla is a symphonic rock band who recorded one record for United Artists. Mark Mangold, now a celebrated AOR figure, played keyboards with this Long Island unit who performed local gigs until management pushed the group to compose original material to ensnare a recording contract. Here the young Mangold honed his songwriting chops while developing a love for synths and mellotons which he would carry into his next band, American Tears. American Tears evolved into Touch and Mangold also formed Drive, She Said and has worked with Aldo Nova, Randy Jackson, and many others. He wrote Cher's faux metal smash "I Found Someone" with Michael Bolton.

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