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We Are Kin (UK): Pandora (Bad Elephant Music BEM010, CD, with digipak and booklet, 2015)

Rock/Progressive

Hannah Cotterill (joint lead vocals), Lauren Smith (occasional vocals)

This is song-based progressive of a modern kind – their style seems to fall midway between Magenta, Frequency Drift and Big Big Train, with the only discernible seventies influence being a few hints of Pink Floyd circa The Wall. The music ebbs and flows effectively enough, with a pleasantly spacy mood, but there’s one significant problem – it’s all so utterly dreary. GRADE: C.

We Are Kin (UK): And I Know (Bad Elephant Music BEM027, CD, with digipak and booklet, 2016)

Emma Brewin-Caddy (principal vocals)

A big step up from their dull debut, this is a much more interesting and distinguished album, mixing stately ballads with hard rock guitars to excellent effect. New singer Emma Brewin-Caddy is a major plus too, bringing a jazzy touch to proceedings, and overall And I Know suggests that We Are Kin have the potential to produce a great LP if they hone their hooks and dynamics. The first 50 copies came with a bonus CDR Live At The Castle. GRADE: C+.

We Are Kin (UK): Bruised Sky (Bad Elephant Music BEM072, CD, with digipak and booklet, 2019)
Progressive
Emma Brewin-Caddy (principal vocals)
The band’s decision to drop guitars entirely moves their music much closer to the ambient, electronic direction of groups like Frequency Drift. In fact, this has much stronger pop and trip-hop elements, with the whole thing – echoey, spare and sparse – not really falling into any musical category. The good news is that it’s nowhere near as dull as their debut. The bad news is that it’s nowhere near as good as their second, and ultimately this is all atmosphere and not much substance. GRADE: C+.

We Are Space Horses (USA): Apologia (No label, download, 2023)

Psychedelic/Progressive

Gabbi Vanderhoof (bass)

This 38-minute song-suite is difficult to describe, other than to say that it’s all very spacy and frequently quite heavy. Yet, despite one moment that recalls Pink Floyd’s ‘One Of These Days’ it’s not what would immediately think of as space rock, notwithstanding the acid guitars and whooshing synthesisers, and despite being heavy (at one point recalling stoner acts such as Fireball Ministry) it’s not really metal either and opens in a folky vein. However, it is consistently engaging, surprising and inventive, making for a deeply impressive debut. GRADE: B–.

We Five (USA): You Were On My Mind (A&M LP-111 / SP-4111, 1965)
Folk/Pop
Beverly Bivens (principal vocals)
The LP covers a lot of ground, from rather middle-of-the-road covers of ‘My Favourite Things’ and ‘Tonight’ to the slightly eerie folk/rock of ‘Love Me Not Tomorrow’ (which recalls Jefferson Airplane on their first album). Overall this is a pleasant listen, but only the latter track really stands out – they would have managed a far superior album had they pursued a particular style instead of attempting to embrace every variation of mid-sixties folk and pop. GRADE: C.
We Five (USA): Make Someone Happy (A&M LP-138 / SP-4138, 1967)
Folk/Pop
Beverly Bivens (principal vocals)
They still can’t decide whether they want to be a contemporary folk/rock outfit (‘Let’s Get Together’, ‘High Flying Bird’) or a close-harmony vocal group (‘Somewhere’, ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’), but this is again a solid, if inconsistent, set. GRADE: C.
We Five (USA): The Return Of We Five (A&M SP-4168, 1969)
Folk/Pop
Debbie Burgan (joint lead vocals)
As the title suggests, this is a reunion with a slightly different line-up. It’s also different musically, being as close to MOR as to folk/rock. Alongside a few self-penned numbers, there are covers of Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers & Hart and Bricusse & Newley songs. The closing ‘Lazy Bones’ has a slight psychedelic folk feel, with sitar and tablas. GRADE: C–.
We Five (USA): Catch The Wind (Vault 316, 1970)
Folk/Pop
Their final album takes them back to their folk/rock roots, with covers of Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Donovan, John Stewart and the Beatles, plus a couple of token originals. It’s pleasant and mellow, but also over-arranged and ultimately rather nondescript. GRADE: C.

We The People (USA): We The People (International Recording Co. 9931, 1976)
Lounge/Country
Penny Burns (joint lead vocals), Diane Langmeyer (joint lead vocals, autoharp)
From the band name, I assumed this was Christian music, but the autographed photo included with my copy makes it clear that We The People are a lounge outfit. For the most part, their covers are country-influenced and fairly unremarkable, but there are three obvious highpoints: a lovely cover of ‘Streets Of London’ that tips the balance towards folk, an excellent version of ‘See See Rider’ that recalls both the Grateful Dead and early Jefferson Airplane, and the atmospheric Faraway Folk-like ‘Nova Scotia Farewell’. GRADE: C.

WE-Trion (Sweden): Du Är Mig En Källa Till Glädje (Free Lance FLPS 731, 1971?)
Folk
Birgitta Eklind, Annwor Wernerson, Ingbeth Wernerson
This is a lovely album of Christian folk from three young girls, who appear to be in their mid-to-late teens from the cover. Aside from one traditional number, everything is penned by Birgitta Eklind and the girls’ gentle, pure vocals are backed only by acoustic guitar. The overall effect falls somewhere between Spinning Jenny and a school project album, and whilst a little variety in the mood and arrangements would have lifted the disc somewhat, it’s undeniably charming and beautiful. GRADE: C+.

Chantal Weber (France): Chantal Weber (No label KO/830106, with insert, 1983)
Singer/Songwriter
Chantal Weber (lead vocals, guitar)
Like the Dell Dudenhoeffer album from Australia, this sounds like the work of a singer/songwriter but contains nothing penned by the artist – the lyrics were by one Olivier Noguet and the music by Nataesh Koham. Unlike the Dell Dudenhoeffer LP, the backing is quite varied, from light jazzy band arrangements to fretless bass, spacy electric piano and chamber orchestra. Synthesiser adds a mildly psychedelic edge here and there, most notably on the excellent ‘Malvide’, and I can hear faint influences from both Françoise Hardy and Joni Mitchell (the weirder, spacier end of her repertoire circa Hejira or Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter). The release was limited to 226 copies, each individually numbered on the insert and label, housed in a handsome silkscreened sleeve. GRADE: C+.

Webcore (UK): Webcore (A Real Kavoom FREUD 16/ARK 27, 1987)
Rock/Psychedelic/Progressive
Karen Kay (occasional vocals), Jacqueline Hanna (occasional vocals)
This festival band managed an unusual set, combining slightly jazzy, new wave-ish songs with lots of studio effects and electronics to create some almost avant-garde moments. In some ways they remind me of both Gong and String Driven Thing, but their influences are far more wide-ranging, with the record constantly going in different directions. That said, the singing is less than brilliant and the songwriting and playing are rather amateurish, so this is an interesting curio rather than a classic of eighties underground rock. However, side two’s Arabic-flavoured opener ‘Teiwaz’ is quite impressive, and clearly demonstrates the band at its best. They had previously issued three cassettes with an all-male line-up. GRADE: C+.
Webcore (UK): Webcore Webcore (A Real Kavoom FREUD 22/ARK 22, UK, 1988)
Rock/Psychedelic/Progressive
Karen Kay (occasional vocals), Karen Worth (guitar)
With a slightly different and somewhat slicker style this time round, the album sometimes sounds like a new wave twist on Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes, though mainly with male vocals. It’s not the most varied or adventurous LP in the world, but there are some pretty good moves here and a few enjoyably trippy moments. GRADE: C+.

Elyse Weinberg (USA): Elyse (Tetragrammaton T-117, 1969)
Singer/Songwriter/Folk/Rock
Elyse Weinberg (lead vocals, guitar)
A good singer/songwriter affair, ranging from bluesy hippie-rock to folkier pieces, often with a psychedelic edge. Weinberg’s fractured voice is something of an acquired taste (not to the same extent as, say, Joanna Newsom’s, though I could imagine some people rejecting this purely for the singing), but the songs and arrangements are uniformly pleasing. Whilst all the other material is self-penned, it’s her sitar-laden cover of Bert Jansch’s ‘Deed I Do’ that’s the album’s most celebrated cut. GRADE: C+.
Elyse Weinberg (USA): Elyse Weinberg (Trident Studios, unreleased acetate, UK, 1970?)
Singer/Songwriter/Folk/Rock
Like her first, this has full electric band backing with a nice jangly psychedelic pop feeling; seven songs are new whilst three are remakes of numbers from Elyse. This time round, her singing is considerably more mellifluous than on her debut, often reminding me of (seventies and later) Marianne Faithfull, making for a very enjoyable set. Only one copy appears to be known of the acetate, made in the UK; the labels note ‘copies [sic] of USA acetates’ so it seems likely that an American original exists. In any case, her name is misspelled on the labels as ‘Alyse Weinberg’. It’s also not clear whether this precedes or follows Grease Paint Smile, another unreleased album recorded around the same time, which got one step further by reaching test pressing stage. In 2008 she returned to recording with her fourth album, In My Own Sweet Time. GRADE: C+.

Weirz (USA): The Weirz (Bonsall W2-2622, 1975)
Rock/Lounge
Maria Weir (joint lead vocals, bass), Estelle Weir (joint lead vocals, keyboards), Joan Weir (joint lead vocals, percussion), Theresa Weir (joint lead vocals, saxophone), Cathy Weir (joint lead vocals, trumpet), Pixie Weir (joint led vocals, trombone, flute)
This mostly female band’s debut album is a pleasant lounge set, with all-original material spanning the gamut from hard rock to funky prog to fifties and sixties nostalgia. The cheese factor may be a little high for some ears, and anybody disliking horns is not going to enjoy this, but overall this is a good example of its genre. GRADE: C+.
Weirz (USA): The Weirz (Prelude-West JBX 272, 1979)
Rock/Progressive
Maria Weir (joint lead vocals, bass), Theresa Weir (joint lead vocals, saxophone), Cathy Weir (joint lead vocals, trumpet), Pixie Weir (joint lead vocals, trombone, flute), Estelle Weir (keyboards), Joan Weir (percussion)
The band’s much more sought-after second and final album tones down the lounge elements considerably and prioritises guitars over horns, offering an enjoyable mixture of hard rock, AOR and powerpop. On the closing ten-minute ‘Journey’, they move into jazzy progressive rock realms to create by far the best music of their career. GRADE: C+.

Welfare State & Lol Coxhill (UK): Welfare State And Lox Coxhill (Caroline C1514, with poster, 1975)
Jazz/Folk/Avant-Garde
Jane Durrant (saxophone, pipes, effects), Liz Lockhart (flute, pipes, effects), Cathy KIddle (clarinet, pipes)
According to the sleeve notes, ‘Welfare State create and animate massive outdoor events with elemental sculptures, focused theatre pieces, celebrations, dances, processions and surreal sideshows.’ Their first album is a peculiar mixture of brass band music, folky themes, mediaeval-esque textures recalling both Shirley & Dolly Collins and ‘The Wicker Man’, poetry recitations, taiko-style drumming and pure avant-gardism. It’s fascinating and constantly surprising, not to mention historically important as an early example of RIO, but with 26 tracks performed by 16 musicians in different combinations it’s also unfocused and rather disjointed. GRADE: B–.
Welfare State (UK/Holland): Welfare State Songs (Look LKLP 6347, with insert, UK, 1978)
Folk/Progressive
Liese Eyckmans (joint lead vocals, percussion, euphonium), Sue Fox (joint lead vocals, saxophone), Maggy Howarth (joint lead vocals, percussion), Sandra Hill (harp)
As the title suggests, their second album compiles songs rather than instrumental segments from their multimedia shows. The result is a frequently bizarre mix of ethnic folk styles from around the world, with particular emphasis on Caribbean music and Brechtian elements. In many ways, it represents a folkier sidestep from Slapp Happy, with strong hints of Sylvia Moore and lots of dark humour. GRADE: C+.

Welfare State International (UK): Magic Island Meringue (Makers/Linden Sounds, cassette, 1981)
Folk/Jazz/World Music
Sue Fox, Maggy Howarth, Hannah Fox, Janet Benham-Porter, Lois Lambert, Wendy Meadley
Song titles like ‘Whistling Rufus’, ‘Mexican Waltz’, ‘Comedy Undertaker’, ‘Duchess Song’ and ‘Magic Island Merengué’ confirmed that this was going to be in the same whimsical vein as their second rather than focusing on avant-gardism like their first. Once again this sounds like a folkier Slapp Happy with the world music and cabaret elements played up, but (again) the big difference is that Slapp Happy generally wrote great songs whereas the ones here are merely likeable. GRADE: C+.

Weltraumstaunen (Germany): Weltraumstaunen (Nasoni, 1999)

Psychedelic

Silk Heinrich (joint lead vocals, bass)

This offshoot from Growing Seeds focuses more on the talents of multi-instrumentalist Dave Schmidt, with Silk Heinrich co-writing and performing on only two of the five tracks. I don’t find the music quite as fully realised as Growing Seeds', as side one consists of somewhat scrappy free-form jams, though the two longer cuts on side two are nothing short of superb. GRADE: B–.

See also Growing Seeds

Wendy & Bonnie (USA): Genesis (Skye SK 1006D, 1969)
Pop/Rock
Wendy Flower (joint lead vocals), Bonnie Flower (joint lead vocals, guitar)
Cut by two talented teenage sisters, this is a beautiful album of gentle hippie pop/rock with jazz and folk undertones. The best two tracks probably come at the end: the haunting, trippy ‘Children Laughing’ and the heavier ‘The Winter Is Cold’, with its assertive fuzz guitar solo. For lush yet naïve late sixties sounds, this is pretty much top of the pile, and unsurprisingly it’s long been sought after by collectors.

GRADE: B–.

Werwolf (West Germany): Creation (No label F 667.943, 1984)
Progressive
Gitta Löwenstein (principal vocals)
The lyrics may be unfortunate – this Christian album, produced by Eden’s Dirk Schmalenbach, appears to have a concept about visiting ‘the land of flying pigs’ – but musically it’s mostly excellent. Gitta Löwenstein’s voice sometimes recalls Beate Krause of Carol Of Harvest, and there are occasional musical similarities too, but for better or worse this is much more rock-oriented and a great deal livelier. Whilst there are a few neoprogressive edges, the tracks are mostly complex and inventive, with some excellent melodies, hooks and riffs, and a high standard is maintained on all the songs and instrumentals. GRADE: B–.

Werewolf (Germany): Mystic Land (No label, CDR, 2014)
Rock/Metal/Progressive
Heike Dittberner (principal vocals, flute)
With guitarist and leader Gerd Heuel and drummer Peter Besting surviving from the eighties line-up, the slightly renamed Werewolf return with their first album in 30 years. Such reunions – compare Bröselmaschine Carol Of Harvest and Epidaurus – are rarely anything to write home about, and this doesn’t really buck the trend. For sure, the early seventies-style symphonic hard rock here is pretty pleasant, with some nice chunky riffs and lush keyboards, but this is a lot less ambitious than Creation (which is directly quoted during ‘Land Of Paradise’). GRADE: C+.
See also Jacamis

Helen West (Finland): Helen West (Femme Fatale FEMME 2, 1985)
Pop/Rock
The proggy intro isn’t a foretaste of what’s to come: this is mainstream eighties pop/rock that’s mostly self-penned, mostly quite good and entirely pretty dated. As such, this is a mildly likeable effort but it’s not that difficult to see why Ms West (real name Heli Nevakare) didn’t record again. GRADE: C+.

Mae West (USA): Great Balls Of Fire (MGM SE-4869, 1972)
Rock/‘Incredibly Strange Music’
Mae West (lead vocals)
West’s ‘rock’ album, cut when she was almost 80, has long been a popular item among ‘incredibly strange music’ collectors. As the title suggests, it’s strongly influenced by late fifties music, although it has more of a mid-sixties garage pop feel, with West delivering her vocals in an arch but effective semi-spoken manner. For most readers, the highpoint will be her loungy, deadpan rendition of ‘Light My Fire’. GRADE: C.

Mike Westbrook’s Metropolis (UK): Mike Westbrook’s Metropolis (RCA Neon NE 10, 1972)
Jazz
Norma Winstone (lead vocals)
This excellent album of jazz improvisations covers a wide range of moods and styles without ever falling into any of the clichés that bedevil the genre. It also features a superb line-up including many of the best British jazz musicians of the late sixties and early seventies (Kenny Wheeler, Ray Warleigh, Alan Skidmore, John Taylor, Gary Boyle and Norma Winstone among others). GRADE: B–.
See also Azimuth, Michael Garrick Sextet With Norma Winstone, Norma Winstone

Nancy Westbrook (USA): Nancy Westbrook (No label NW-69, one-sided test pressing, 1984?)
Pop/Rock
Housed in a die-cut yellow sleeve to match the labels, this isn’t singer/songwriter fare as I expected, but mainstream eighties pop/rock with highly professional arrangements and lots of keyboards and drum machines. Whilst this isn’t my kind of music, it’s perfectly well done, and she could easily have scored hit singles with some of this material. GRADE: C–.

Staffan Westerberg & Thomas Wiehe (Sweden): Met Örat Mot Jorden – Ett Musikalist Rymdäventyr (Silence SRS 4661, double, with inners, 1980)

Folk/Rock

Turid Lundqvist (joint lead vocals), Ellika Lindén (occasional vocals), Maj-Lis Granlund (occasional vocals)

This concept album – subtitled ‘A Musical Space Adventure’ – was presumably aimed at children, as the short, naïve folk songs (hinting vaguely towards the Incredible String Band, whilst being nowhere near as freeform – are interspersed with long passages of dialogue and sound effects. This means nothing to non-Swedish ears, of course, sometimes making the album heavy going, although the spacy effects heighten the trippiness quotient. Turid Lundqvist sings a number of the songs, whilst Ellika Lindén and Maj-Lis Granlund provide some of the dialogue. GRADE: C+.