[The 60's-70's Vault] Axis

Axis were a rock group based in France but all their members were Greek. Their style was difficult to describe, but judging by the time they emerged in the scene, they mostly played progressive/psych rock based in organ, having their lyrics in English.

They released their first album in 1971 called Osanna. The music on this one was straight and a little archetypical heavy progressive rock with the presence of organ being very strong and the 2 guitars adding beautiful solos. Demis Visvikis' deep voice - he also plays the organ - and the backing vocals by all members, reinforce the melodies of the songs.

The second album came out in 1972 and it was called Axis. There wasn't great variety in the musical direction, only the songs were a little better, mixing different styles, from sunshine pop to heavy organ driven music. Some beautiful tracks on this one were "Dedicated", "Long Time Ago" and the really trippy tune "Bad Trip".

The last album these Greeks released was the also self titled Axis in 1973. The improvement was evident in all areas with more weird songs and a more progressive feeling to all of them. All members manage to carry out the variety in style with strong confidence on themselves and very good technique, especially the 2 drummers George Hadjiathanassiou and Christos Stassinopoulos add much power to the album. Check out the weirdness in tracks as "Dancing Percussion" and "Asymphonia I" and "Asymphonia II", the symphonic prog rock in "Sewers Down Inside" and the jazzy tunes "Materializing the Unlimited and Roads".

To sum up, Axis have a great history, they were very talented and skilled and their music was very interesting and kind of strange but that adds more, to tell the truth. I strongly believe that their last album especially, is a must have for all fans of organ driven music, for its beautiful tracks and orchestration.

Written by Pijo

Take an Axis taste from the youtube playlist below: