| | Gandalf - Peter Sando Gandalf CD Gandalf - Peter Sando Discography of CDs
Gandalf's self-titled album has some attractive baroque-psychedelia with a spacey air, though its quality depends very much on the standard of the material. Generally they're better the more they rely on the slightly weird and spacey production, as on "Scarlet Ribbons" and their cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream." On tracks like "You Upset the Grace of Living" there's a nice balance of melody and quasi-classical keyboards on the cusp between pop, progressive rock and psychedelia. "Can You Travel in the Dark Alone," one of the few originals (by Peter Sando), is nice, harmonic sunshine pop with a slightly experimental feel, along the lines of some of the better things being done by Californian cult figures like Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher at the time. Other selections are nothing special, however. ~ Richie Unterberger
With spellbinding, atmospheric songs which spin from soft dreamscapes into blistering fuzz guitar breaks, Gandalf casts a powerful spell. Led by singer/guitarist Peter Sando, the group was signed by Lovin' Spoonful producers Charlie Koppelman & Don Rubin & conjured their sole, self-titled album for Capitol in late 1967. One of the rarest major label psychedelic releases, Gandalf (not to be confused with the heavy metal outfit with the same name) features swirls of Hammond B3 organ, caressing vibraphone runs & electric sitar on Sando's originals as well as imaginative recastings of songs by Tim Hardin, Gary Bonner, Alan Gordon & Eden Ahbez. First-ever domestic CD release. 2002.Mojo (Publisher) (9/02, p.118) - "...think ODYSSEY & ORACLE era Zombies teamed with Phil Spector...lysergic-fuelled metaphysical epics of mesmerising beauty." Gandalf - Peter Sando Gandalf Songs | 1. | Golden Earrings |
| 2. | Hang on to a Dream |
| 3. | Never Too Far |
| 4. | Scarlet Ribbons |
| 5. | You Upset the Grace of Living |
| 6. | Can You Travel in the Dark Alone |
| 7. | Nature Boy |
| 8. | Tiffany Rings |
| 9. | Me About You |
| 10. | I Watch the Moon |
|
Gandalf Review
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Purchase Gandalf CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | C A Quintet Trip Thru Hell CD (1968)
Gandalf album
 $14.75   
There's not much to compare this album to, even in the weird musical climate of 1968 -- there are echoes of Country Joe & The Fish and the Doors, ...
| | Misunderstood Before The Dream Faded CD (1982) (Import)
Gandalf CD music
$15.65 
| | West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Part One CD (1967)
Gandalf music CDs
$11.69
Digitally remastered by Bob Irwin (Sundazed Studios, Coxsackie, New York).
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band's first album for Reprise was the best of the group's career, in large part because it was the most song-oriented. It was still plenty weird, almost to the point of stylistic schizophrenia, but when you got down to it, much of the record was comprised of fairly catchy songs in the neighborhood of two and three minutes. At times they sounded like reasonably normal, fairly talented Byrds-like folk-rockers ("Transparent Day," P.F. Sloan's "Here's Where You Belong"); at others, a Kinks-like garage band ("If You Want This Love"); and at others, a fey Baroque pop outfit (the orchestrated "Will You Walk With Me"). There was an undercurrent of unsettling weirdness and even paranoia, though, in some cuts with otherwise pleasing tunes, like "Shifting Sands," with its sizzling distorted guitars; "I Won't Hurt You," with its heartbeat bass and disconnected vocals; and "Leiyla," where a standard teen garage rocker suddenly gets invaded by ...
| | West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Volume Two CD (1967)
Gandalf songs
$11.65 
Digitally remastered by Bob Irwin (Sundazed Studio, Coxsackie, New York).
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, no strangers to weirdness on their prior 1967 album Part One, had still often stuck to relatively straightforward, concise, and pop-flavored songs on that LP. Here they stretched out into less structured, more avowedly psychedelic (and indeed experimental) territory, with mixed results. "Smell of Incense" (covered for a small hit by Southwest FOB) was sublime psych-pop. Yet "Suppose They Give a War and No One Comes" was just some fool -- actually the band's chief investor, lyricist, and tambourine player, Bob Markley -- grafting silly, self-consciously freaky recitation of a vintage 1936 Franklin Roosevelt speech onto an ominous fuzz guitar backup. Other cuts like "In the Arena" and "Overture -- WCPAEB Part II" were free-form psychedelic creepiness without ...
| | Music Emporium CD (1969)
Gandalf album
$11.79
Digitally remastered by Bob Irwin (Sundazed Studios, Coxsackie, New York).
The Music Emporium's sole release is a fair psychedelic obscurity, best when it goes heaviest on the dreamy melodic elements and Carolyn Lee does the singing. "Velvet Sunsets" and "Gentle Thursday," for instance, sound a bit like a garage version of a mixture of the Jefferson Airplane and the United States of America. The more upbeat items, on which Music Emporium leader Casey Cosby takes on the ...
| | Clear Light CD (1967)
Gandalf CD music
$11.59
Kind of a minor league version of the Doors, Clear Light were a West Coast phenomenon, and although they didn't last too long, were an interesting group. A very good slice of Los Angeles psychedelia, Clear Light were a six-piece band that combined folk, rock, psychedelia, and even a touch of classical to their sound. The end result, though, is a little ponderous and pretentious, but strangely listenable. The big hit off this album (produced by Paul Rothchild and engineered by Bruce Botnick) was "Mr. Blue," a psychedelic folk song written by Tom Paxton. It's over six-minutes long and a bit overbaked, but it does have an odd appeal. The finer moments are guitarist Bob Seal's psychedelic folk-rock songs, namely "With All in Mind" and "They Who Have Nothing." Singer Cliff DeYoung went on to have a successful ...
| | Big Sandy Feelin' Kinda Lucky CD (1997)
Gandalf music CDs
$10.69
| | Asha Mystic Heart CD (2004) (Import) United Kingdom
Gandalf songs
$16.15
| | O'Neill Brothers P.S. I Love You CD (2002)
Gandalf album
$11.99
| | Twin Sisters Gentle Fitness CDs (2007) Digipak
Gandalf CD music
$5.79
| | Neal Phillips Lovegrove Street CD (2002)
Gandalf music CDs
$15.19
Neal Phillips is a singer-songwriter with a dry sense of humor and a flair for intelligent, evocative lyrics and melodies. A Maryland native and a member of the Baltimore Songwriters Association, he is known for his thought-provoking and pointedly funny songs, including tunes that have been performed by Bob Zentz, Holly & Glenn Yarborough, and Pete Seeger, among others.Neal has played and recorded ...
| | Akshara Weave 10 Minute Chakra, The CD (2005)
Gandalf songs
$13.59
| | Colosseum Valentyne Suite CD (1969)
Gandalf album
$12.05
Recorded between 1969 & 1971. Includes liner notes by Shaun Stallard.
One of England's prime jazz-rock -- or, more accurately, rock-jazz -- outfits, most of the members of Colossuem had apprenticed in blues bands, and it shows very strongly on some of the material here. Both "The Kettle" and "Butty's Blues" are essentially tarted-up 12-bar blues, although they work well in a grander context; in the latter case much grander, as a brass ensemble enters for the last part, drowning out everything but the guitar, an indication that this recording is in dire need of remastering. "Elegy" is a fast-paced, minor-key blues that stretches guitarist James Litherland's vocal abilities. Things do get far more interesting with "The Machine Demands a Sacrifice," which offers solo opportunities to organist Dave Greenslade and sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith before re-emerging in what can only be called a proto-industrial style, all heavily treated clattering percussion. The album's real joy comes with "The Valentyne Suite," which takes the band out of their bluesy comfort zone into something closer to prog rock. Bandleader Jon Hiseman is a stalwart throughout, his busy drumming and fills owing far more to jazz than the studied backbeat of rock. Greenslade proves to be a largely unsung hero, his only real solo in the suite something to offer a challenge to vintage Keith Emerson, but with swing. As to criticism, bassist Tony Reeves has very little flow to his playing, which severely hampers a rhythm section that needs to be loose-limbed, and Litherland's guitar playing is formulaic, which can be fine for rock, but once outside the most straightforward parameters, he seems lost. In retrospect this might not quite the classic it seemed at the time, but it remains listenable, and for much of the time, extremely enjoyable. ~ Chris Nickson
This double-CD anthology offers a healthy cross-section of Colosseum's work from across the five albums they cut on the Bronze label between 1969 and 1971 -- in that regard, it is a more expansive alternative to An Introduction to...Colosseum, released a few years later, and many of the tracks do overlap, including all of the obvious ones, such as "Walking in the Park" and "Valentyne Suite." Where this ...
| | J Ax Di Sana Pianta CD (2006)
Gandalf CD music
$17.19
| | Donnie Ray Evans Jr Holding On CD (2009)
Gandalf music CDs
$13.15
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