John Michael Roch

John Michael Roch – With You in My Arms (1976/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:14 minutes | 364 MB | Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Subliminal Sounds

John Michael Roch has a long music career that began in the late ’60s and continues on to this day, but it wasn’t until 1976 that he released his first solo album – With You In My Arms. A record that was unknown to collectors until the psychedelic scholar Patrick Lundborg got hold of a copy of this lost gem. He understood its musical and esoteric quality, which in the end resulted in a reissue on Subliminal Sounds done by the label owner and longtime friend Stefan K’ery. Only a few copies are known to exist of the original pressing (I only know of two) and the recent reissue is for the first time introducing the music of With You In My Arms to the wider audience, which it truly deserves. The album has similar qualities as some of the great psychedelic singer-songwriters of the late ’70s and has been compared to the likes of Justen O’Brian and Michael Angelo (but it also reminds me of Jade Stone at times). Although, in the end the record reflects John Michael Roch’s own artistic vision more than drawing inspiration from other musicians, which is what you always search for in a record like this.
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