Even members of successful bands don't have all the luck when they strike out on their own, especially if they're not the star of their former band. Though the fertile music environment left chances open to many, not everyone who struck out on their own could sell records like Blind Faith. Hell they didn't even sell that many and they were a "supergroup", these faired a bit worse but that doesn't totally discount their talent and effort.

	Fat Mattress - Fat Mattress Noel Redding was always a bit resentful of his position in The Experience, though he and Mitch Mitchell created one of the greatest rhythmic backbones rock ever saw, he was a guitar player at heart and never really settled into his role at
the bass. So when the opportunity presented itself, as Jimi dissolved The Experience in favor of the Band of Gypsys, Noel struck out on his own as Fat Mattress. The band played around the London scene and didn't fair well with the press and more often than not this credited his role in The Experience as the only reason to check out his new project. Moving away (probably wisely) from his former band's blues based sound and into a wispy folk-rock style, Noel's songwriting isn't terrible, its more that it wasn't what fans were expecting. Its clear that Noel and his cohorts had their heads deep into West Coast psychedelia and maybe London just wasn't the place to market this sound at the time. Aside from its tangential connections its well worth listening to with a blind heart, try to forget where the members came from and its got some great nuggets that can fall in alongside some other West Coast sound-alikes such as Wizards of Kansas. Download: [MP3] Fat Mattress - I Don't Mind [MP3] Fat Mattress - How Can I Live Support the artist. Buy it HERE
	Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond Captain Beyond culled together some top ex-members of Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly and Johnny Winter's band. Despite this core of talent, they were to be sorely overlooked for much of their career. This debut record stands alongside
the Moody Blues and Hawkwind as a great prog/ space-rock forerunner. Mixing elements of jazz, heavy blues and what was burgeoning into progressive rock the band's most obvious touches of space-rock laid in their lyrics. The band's roots allowed them to develop into a tight, cohesive unit more quickly than most bands were able to on their first release, and this experience crafted a seamless head trip that is just now getting the attention it deserves. The band was subject to some lineup changes following this album and never really achieved this level of brilliance on subsequent releases, especially the third which suffered from the loss of singer Rod Evans. However, this album stands much more than the test of time and is one of the great lost albums of the 70's. Download: [MP3] Captain Beyond - Mesmerization Eclipse [MP3] Captain Beyond - Thousand Days Of Yesterdays (Time Since Come And Gone) Support the artist. Buy it HERE