Music For Nations Presents: STRIKTLY FOR KONNOISSEURS - LP 2

And here it is "Striktly For Konnoisseurs" second LP.
In the '80s, Kerrang! Magazine was 'the one' you needed to check to be updated if Hard Rock / AOR / Heavy Metal was your thing. Their journalists in conjuction with the recently founded (and now legendary) Music For Nations label, compiled songs from American / Canadian bands that were pretty unknown at the moment and released a double-LP album under the title "Striktly For Konnoisseurs".
Despite its 'Germanic' title the vinyl was intended for the British audience, and only was pressed & published in UK.

You have here great tracks mostly taken from the first albums (late '70s / early '80s) of bands that later become pretty successful, like Legs Diamond, Angel (turned Giuffria), Wrabit, etc, besides wonderful cuts from acts that deserved to be huge such as Trillion, 707, Balance, and more.
Many of these albums were already reissued on CD some time ago, but others will remain forever into oblivion as the Reggie Knighton Band, Marcus or the awesome Mayday.
However, I have preserved the original full vinyl-rip because some tracks seems to be featured with a different mix, or, as happens with Canadian hard rockers Moxy's "Another Time Another Place", it's an exclusive version for this compilation.



I took notice of "Striktly For Konnoisseurs" some years ago thanks to a great collector (and frequent visitor of this blog) Mr. Homer64, who provided me a copy.
This is a new vinyl-rip, done by an English friend of mine and restored / cleaned / enhanced by me.
A true collectors piece.


LP 2

01 - Teri Desario - Caught
02 - Rex - Trouble
03 - Mayday - So Young So Bad
04 - Trigger - Gimme Your Love
05 - The Boyzz - Too Wild To Tame
06 - Ram Jam - Gone Wild
07 - Joe Perry - Let The Music Do The Talkin'
08 - Angel - The Tower
09 - Starz - Live Wire
10 - Reggie Knighton - The King
11 - Trillion - Give Me Your Money
12 - Max Webster - Oh War
13 - Starcastle - Wings Of White




STRIKTLY FOR KONNOISSEURS - LP 2
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TRIGGER - Trigger (1978)

TRIGGER was a four-piece act that rocked the New Jersey / New York circuit during the Seventies. The band recorded a private vinyl at the middle of the decade, but their great opportunity arrived when Gene Simmons presented Trigger to Kiss' recording label, Casablanca.
The deal was done and Trigger's self-titled album released in 1978.

If you take a look at the cover you can see that the image suggested to Trigger by the label has pretty much in common with other Casablanca artist: Giuffria's Angel.
But musically, Trigger is timeless catchy rock 'n roll with high doses of radio friendly melodies. They could be compared with Starz, Legs Diamond, Moxy and John Waite's The Babys.



Despite the year of recording, "Trigger" sounds crisp and commercially close to the refined early Eighties. The album was co-arranged & produced by Corky Stasiak (who worked with Kiss at the time) and together with Jay Messina (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick) and Dennis Ferrante (Alice Cooper) engineered the whole thing. So you know what to expect here.
Most tracks are sung by drummer Derek Remington with his slightly raspy throat, but guitarists Jimmy Duggan (RIP) and Richie House also did lead vocals on a couple of tracks each.
With three well trained lead singers plus bassist doing backgrounds, Trigger develops here as well very nice multi-part harmony vocals.



Apparently Trigger recorded a second album but they fell into oblivion with Casablanca's bankrupt.
Their album - only released on LP - become a collectors hard to find piece for many years, until a British specialized label reissued the disc on CD some years ago.
But this is a rip (not mine) from the original LP which sounds warm 'n nice. I did a scratch cleaning from the original .wav files, but kept some 'typical vinyl little noises' because it adds a special charm to the listening experience.
Quite rare album, packed with lovable, melodic American late seventies rock music.


01 - Somebody Like You
02 - Gimme Your Love
03 - Baby, Don't Cry
04 - Shake It Up
05 - Rockin 'Cross The U.S.A.
06 - Deadly Weapon
07 - I've Heard That Line Before
08 - Beware Of Strangers
09 - I Think I'm Ready
10 - Don't Stop Your Love
11 - We're Gonna Make It

Jimmy Duggan - guitars, vocals
Richie House - guitars, vocals
Tom Nigra - bass, backing vocals
Derek Remington - drums, vocals






TRIGGER 1978
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