Pan & Regaliz · Pan & Regaliz (aka "I Can Fly", 1971/2003 Remastered Edition)
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Album: Pan & Regaliz · Pan & Regaliz (aka "I Can Fly", Remastered Expanded Edition)
Released: 1971 (2003)
Genre: Psych/Prog-Rock
Gnosis Rating: 10.04
File Format: EAC->FLAC 1.1.2 (EL5), CUE, LOG, Scans (full set, 600dpi)->RAR(218.09MB)
Source: Wah Wah Records Sound - WCD004
A reissue of one of the rarest psych/prog albums recorded by a Spanish band in the early seventies. A world class item featuring spaced vocals, effects, astonishing guitar work, flute... The Wah Wah edition respects the original gatefold sleeve and features extensive information on the band, plus nice photos, memorabilia and one rare bonus track from a single that was not included on the original 1971 LP. - Rockadrome
PROGRESSIVE ROCK WITH PSYCH INFLUENCES A MIX OF GROUP 1850 AND EARLY PINK FLOYD MEET JETHRO TULL, EXCELLENT GUITAR WORK. ONE OF THE BEST EUROPEAN PROG PSYCH SEVENTIES ALBUMS MADE. - Freak Emporium
One of the earliest Spanish rock group to have released an album. THEY DID IT BECAUSE THEY DID NOT KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE, says the booklet, and they got a good point. Although the Franco was on its last years, the dictator was still keeping a firm grip on the country, large overtures were being made for European tourism, to spend its money, the regime was not as incredibly tight as it once was, which meant that some of those rebel groups were able to release rock records by squeaking through the nets. Among the other early groups were SMASH (with Gualberto Garcia of Gualberto fame), OM (jazz-rock), MUSICA DISPERSA later SISA (folk-rock), MAQUINA (killer prog RnR) and TAPIMAN (with Max Sunyer, future ICEBERG).
This band is Guillermo Paris’s project - these guys are from the suburbs of Barcelona and had been in part of a folk group Els Mussols, before changing their names to Aqua De Regaliz, under which they released some singles and again (along with drummer) just prior to recording their sole album again to Pan & Regaliz). The least we can say is that the group members loved JETHRO TULL’s debut album, This Was and somehow CREAM was not far from it either. The group has more than one link with cross-town rivals/friends MAQUINA, playing many gigs together, sharing members and even at first sharing the same label. But further changes (and bringing ex-Tapiman members) would soon have the best of P&R - ProgArchives.com
Spain isn't the first place you think of for psychedelic gems, and especially not during the Franco regime, but Pan & Regaliz pulled off such an album, in 1971, during Franco's regime. This is not a name of a duo, but the name of a band, which consisted of bassist and vocalist Arturo Domingo, vocalist and guitarist Alfonso Bou, drummer Pedro Van Eeckhout, and vocalist and flautist Guillermo Paris.
This album was thought of as sounding like Jethro Tull's Stand Up under the influence of acid. Well, comparisons to Tull can be true to a point, but the flute work is absolutely nothing like Ian Anderson's at all. Strange psychedelic sounds can be heard in the background to many of the songs. And while released in 1971, the music has a more late 1960s feel.
Although from Spain, all the vocals are in English. Some of my favorites include "I Can Fly", "One More Day", "Today, It's Raining", "Waiting in the Monster's Garden", and "Thinking in Mary". It's a little difficult trying to describe the songs, because they are all more or less in the same mould. "Dead of Love" reminds me of Triana, a flamenco influenced prog band also from Spain that existed from the mid 1970s to early 1980s, except without the flamenco influences.
A wonderful album that really took me be surprise. Also, this album is very rare and collectible, but if you can track down a copy, you too will be pleasantly surprised. - Hippyland
I was absolutely taken by surprise by this album. Pan & Regaliz was a Spanish proto-prog/psych band that released this album, I Can Fly in 1971, smack during the Franco regime (I've seen some sources say the album is just entitled Pan y Regaliz). A band must have had really big balls to play music like this in Franco-era Spain, but it wouldn't have been such a problem if this was Germany or Great Britain. I was expecting perhaps a "government approved" vibe throughout the whole album like I do with many of those communist-era Eastern European albums (from Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, countries that had prog rock potential were it not for the governments). But that's not what I got. What I got was top quality prog/psych with a great vibe that makes you think it came out of Great Britain or Germany. They hailed from Barcelona, home to Antoni Gaudi and Pablo Picasso.
- Arthur Domingo: bass and vocals - Alfonso Bou: guitars and vocals - Pedro van Eeckhout: drums, percussion - Guillermo Paris: vocals, flute, jaw harp
If you're expecting any Spanish cultural references (like Triana, Ibio, Mezquita, etc.), you won't find it here. What you get is basically early prog that leans more on the psychedelic side (though recorded in 1971, it has a more late '60s sound to it), with surprisingly a strong hippie vibe. If no one told you they were from Spain, you could be easily fooled for perhaps certain British or German bands, as mentioned about their description up above. There are a lot of strange effects to go with the music that make me think a little of the Krautrock bands that existed at the time. The vocals are in English, but are surprisingly good! I have the CD-R in which the track listings are supposedly messed-up. I've heard the music being described as a like Jethro Tull's Stand Up under the influence of LSD. I can understand the LSD part, the Jethro Tull part, not so sure. Alfonso Bou's (I guess) vocals at times does remind me a bit of Ian Anderson at times. Certainly Guillermo Paris played flute, but certainly not in the style of Ian Anderson. The flute playing reminds me of the New York Jewish psych/prog band based in Germany called Sweet Smoke. Anyway, let's get with the music: many of the songs seem to have that repetitive nature, like "I Can Fly", "When You Bring Down" and "Today It is Raining", but in a good way. Some of the songs have more jazzy leanings, like "One More Day". A totally killer album, how did these guys do it under the Franco regime? Probably by sneaking it under his nose and made sure the government never found out. One song I can live without however is "A Song For the Friends". It's crap. It sounds like 1930s cocktail lounge music that should have been thrown in the trash. They should've used that space for another song like the rest. Forget "A Song for the Friends", because this is truly one of the great, but totally forgotten gems of prog/psych! - CGR
P&R’s sole album has finally been released on Cd and the artwork sleeve is trying to match as much as possible the original although this is a digipack release. Having had to change name, label and drummer (Belgian Peter Van Eeckhout replacing Santiago “Jackie” Garcia), P&R settled in the studio to record a few tracks - they had released two singles before, which tracks would end up on the album - and what a fine gem it is for psych/proto prog fans.
Made up of five short tracks, the first side of the vinyl sticks very close to a bluesy/jazzy/psych-rock, which is very reminiscent of Jethro Tull’s debut album. Highlights are the opening One More Day, Monsters’s Garden and instrumental Thinking In Mary (somehow close to Serenade To A Cuckoo on Tull’s debut), but unfortunately a rare out of context track (but thankfully short) closes that side. The second side is rather harder rocking with the sombre mood Bringdown complete with a great bluesy guitar and closing with the reflective acid-blues title track. But the centrepiece is clearly the 9 min track full of psych-out moments that give this album, the final touch of flavour for stoner-rock fans with its strange mouth harp, lenghty space Floyd-like space trips. The bonus track is the only track that was on a single release not to be part of the album and it is superb addition, blending perfectly with the rest of the album, but more the happier first side then the more sombre second side.
For some, it might be a little too derivative with its superb Tramp-like flute work (clearly even Abrahams’s guitars were also present), but if you love that period of time, I Can Fly is a must-have. - Hugues Chantraine
From 1969 through 1971, the Spanish music scene saw the birth of a singular movement - singular, at least, if we have in mind that we were still under Francisco Franco's fascist dictature. Those were the years of Spanish progressive music, and some real fine vinyl gems were to be released, many of which are highly interesting for the "hippie generation sounds" afficionados. Some of the best productions of the era include fantastic works as Dioptria, Pau Riba's first LP, backed by superb band Om (Concentric, 1970); Maquinal's Why? (Als 4 Vents-Diabolo, 1970); the only album by Musica Disperse (Als 4 Vents-Diabolo, 1970); or Glorieta De Los Lotos, by Smash (Philips, 1970). With records of this quality, one understands that still today, at the gates of the 21 century, there's a healthy interest in the Spanish genuine underground music movement.
If there is one album that must be given special mention to, this is the fantastic 33 r.p.m. recorded by Pan & Regaliz, Guillem Paris' band, for Ekipo-Dimension. It is a great event that the people at Wah-Wah Records have decided to make this classic available again. This new reissue respects the original gatefold sleeve, originally designed by Guillem Pan's himself, and contains, as a bonus cut, the magnificent 'Magic colours', a song that was originally released as the "B" side of the group's third and last single. This is a real banquet for those of us who are unable to pay the big amounts of money for which the original pressings change hands in today's collector's market.
To begin with the story of Pan & Regaliz, we have to move to the Gracia neighbourhood, in Barcelona. It was there where, circa 1968, a bunch of friends got together to play some folk music under the name of Els Mussols (which are the Catalan words for The Owls) . Their leader was an intrepid 18 year old kid by the name of Guillem Paris, born in Palma de Mallorca (Majorca, Balearic Islands), who had already been playing for some time in other outfits. The group soon began to perform in front of live audiences, and they even won the first prize on a competition that took place during the anual popular party of their neighbourhood. As the months went by, the sound of Els Mussols evolved to meet the influences of some foreign groups that had taken the hearts of the boys, such as Cream or The Jimi Hendrix Experience, opening their music to more bluesy and psychedelic styles.
Towards the end of 1969, when the small progressive scene of Catalonia had already spread through the young Spanish "in" crowd, and was beginning to be covered in the pages of the music magazines (Mundo Joven, El Musical, Disco Expres), Pan's & Co. changed their name to Agua De Regaliz (Liquorice Water, for those who will never take the bother of learning two Spanish 2 words) . It was by those days when a young Santiago Garcia, a.k.a. "Jackie", joined the band. He had been the drummer of the early Maquina!, with whom he had recorded their first 45, 'Lands of perfection' / 'Let's get smashed' (Als 4 Vents-Diabolo, 1969), before being replaced by Josep Maria Vilaseca ("Tapi", for his friends). So the original line-up for Agua De Regaliz was: Guillem Paris (vocals, flute), Alfons Bou (guitar, vocals), Artur Domingo (bass, vocals) and "Jackie" (drums).
Als 4 Vents was born as a record label in 1967 under the direction of Angel Fabregas, who was the owner of the Barcelona based book publishing company and bookstore El Hogar Del Libra. The new label waxed several releases recorded by artists from the "Grup de Folk" (which was formed by several Catalonian folk singers). In the summer of 1969, Fabregas launched a new label to release the recordings of the emerging scene of Catalan progressive groups. The label's name was Diabolo, and their first reference was a smashing single from one of the most interesting bands of the moment: Maquina!. Als 4 Vents-Diabolo would also release the recordings of other groups from Catalonia, such as Musica Disperse or Vertice, as well as others from Andalucia, such as Smash or Nuevos Tiempos. Early in 1970, Agua De Regaliz entered the Estudis Gema to record two splendid tracks for their Diabolo single: 'Waiting in the munster's garden1 / 'When 4 you are so bringdown' . Both songs, written by the band and sung in English , were an excellent debut and a warning of what was to come from this great group that showed their love for the sounds of bands like Cream, Hendrix or Santana. The 45 was favourably reviewed by the musical press, who compared their sound to Jethro Tull, but the sales were poor due to the country's predilection for more danceable sounds: soul music or catchy street party 6 music .
During 1970, Agua De Regaliz played in some of the biggest progressive events of that year in Barcelona. They could be seen on stage at the venue LAIianca del Poble Nou on May 7 , during a festival in which they shared the spotlight with Maquina!, Vertice and Genesis (the Spanish group, not to be confused with Peter Gabriel's outfit). Several months later, on October 16 & 18, they shared the bill with Maquina! again at the Primer Festival Permanent de Musica Progressiva, organized by promoter-bussinessman Oriol Regas in the Salo Iris, which took place from mid-October through early December . It was also that year that "Jackie" Garcia left the band to do the military service. His place was initially taken by Francesc "La ???? Ferocfsima", but he would soon be replaced by Peter Van Eeckhout. More difficulties came from some dissagreements with label chief Angel Fabregas, which led to the group quiting the company. As Fabregas had the legal rights on the name, the band found themselves forced to change it. Although their initial intention was to call themselves only Pan, their fans already associated them with the word 'Regaliz", so they finally chose Pan & Regaliz (Bread & Liquorice) to be their new name.
1971 saw the group signing for Ekipo's Dimension, a subsidiary label created by Artur Mas in 1969 for the release of progressive sound record had already released the recordings of Evolution (a Spanish-German quinted established in Barcelona) and Cerebrum (a band from Madrid, a city that also counted with several progressive groups such as Franklin, Truth, Blue Bar, Skorpis, a.o.). By signing in Pan & Regaliz, Mas was contracting the services of the band that, for many, were the natural substitutes for Maquina! as the front group of Catalan progressive music . Soon their first 45 saw the light, containing 'Dead of love' and Thinking in Mary'. The "A" side showed Paris, Bou, Domingo and Van Eeckhout's devotion for the sounds of Cream and Love, while the instrumental flip was a sample of the nicest side of the outfit. That was April '71, and the prestige of the boys began to grow and spread all through the country among the Spanish hairy community.
On May 22 and 23 , in the Catalonian city of Granollers took place an open air international music festival, which was labeled by the country's press as the "Spanish Wight". Of course, Pan & Regaliz were present at the event, as were Fusioon, Eddie Lee Mattison, Evolution, Delirium Tremens, Tucky Buzzard, Sisa, Maquina!, Tapiman, Smash, Family, a.o. Our friends performed the songs that would be released that same month on their own LP. The album is a classic in the Spanish progressive music scene, containing the songs from both singles, plus four previously
unreleased originals, including a cabaret styled piece in a Ray Davies/Paul McCartney vein ('A song for the friends') and a couple of hallucinating numbers that were strongly reminiscent of Pink Floyd's Saucerful Of Secrets ( Today it is raining' and 'I can fly').
Having finished his military service, "Jackie" Garcia came back to play drums with the group in the summer of 1971. This led to the departure of Peter Van Eeckhout , although he was still present on the last Pan & Regaliz 45, released on September that year and featuring 'A song for the friends' from their LP. The "A" side, 'Magic colours', a great number that wouldn't sound out of place in any volume of Bam Caruso's Rubble series, was at the time seen as a concession to comerciality by the specialized press. Certainly, it was the band's most "catchy" song, but that doesn't mean it was a minor piece in their discography.
1972 was Pan & Regaliz's last year of life as a group. In their final days, only Guillem Parfs remained from the original line-up. "Jackie", Artur Domingo and Alfons Bou had left their respective places to old friend "La ???? Ferocfsima", a certain Jonas and Miguel Angel Nunez (ex-Tapiman). The new band appeared in a contest organised by Barcelona's famous boite Trocadero, together with Maquina! and the ones that were to win the contest: Tapiman. Sadly, the progresive era was reaching its end in Spain. Record industry, dance halls and audience had lost their interest in the sounds of bands such as Pan & Regaliz. A second album, nevertheless, was recorded but never released as strong differences between the boys and the label, EMI, left the sessions unfinished.
Guillem got involved in several other projects. He became a member of the Hair cast, performing the play through all Spain. Later in the seventies he formed Lavanda Paris and did different music related works, such as the recording of radio and TV publicity jingles or recording a couple of maxi singles with rock & roll meddleys to be played in discotheques. He has also kept his work as a graphic designer, which has become his current job.
- CD Notes
1. One More Day 03:29
2. Waiting In The Munster's Garden 03:11
3. Dead Of Love 03:15
4. Thinking In Mary 03:29
5. A Song For The Friends 02:21
6. When You Are Son Bring Down 03:14
7. Today It Is Raining 09:17
8. I Can Fly 03:38
Bonus Track:
9. Magic Colors 02:53
Arturo Domingo - bass, voice
Alfonso Bou - guitars, voices
Pedro Van Eeckhout - drums, perc
Guillermo Paris - vocals, flute, harmonica, mouth harp
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