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You may be wondering how there can be any news about an instrument that's over fifty years old. Well... It seems that, despite the ever-encroaching software sample package (damn you M-Tron! Damn you M4000D!), the state of play in the World Of Mellotrons is healthier than it's been for years, so expect a new entry every time I update the site.
Two months? Two months? Finding myself at an unexpected loose end on the last day of the month, I've decided on a last-minute update, as the list entries were building up, as were the new reviews. As I said last time, Lars Fredrik Frøislie's Gamle Mester is the big news this time round, while Custard Flux's newie is more than worthy of your time, too (apologies for the nepotism). More Discogs diving has pulled a handful of albums out of the sample dungeon (I can't be right all the time, you know), with, no doubt, more to come.
Two significant deaths, sadly: Simon House only played Mellotron on a couple of studio albums for Hawkwind, but he went for it in a way that few others could manage. Listen to Assault & Battery from Warrior on the Edge of Time for proof. Brian Wilson's tape-replay work is best-described as 'minor', but his loss has been felt right across the music world. Watch for more Beach Boys reviews soon, incidentally.
To be perfectly honest, little to report this time round. What, I've managed an update three months after the last one, with over a hundred new reviews? Shocker. Mellotronically significant releases include Altamira Lux's various tracks on Bandcamp, the previously-unknown-to-me Chronicles of Father Robin, several recent Julian Cope albums, Kedama's Complete Recordings, which supplants any previous issues of their work, Ske's Insolubilia and Tumbleweed Dealer's Dark Green, while Nick Frater's latest, "Oh Contraire!", while light on the Mellotron, is a truly fab release. Also, look out for Lars Fredrik Frøislie's new album, Gamle Mester, released early this month, too late for this update.
Right! As of now, I'm imposing an official moratorium on sample-loaded prog albums of a certain type: the bands who spit out release after release, all packed with pointless samplotron. Yes, The Flower Kings, I'm looking at you. And your multifarious offshoots. And Glass Hammer. And The Tangent. In fairness, there's been an unofficial moratorium on some of these acts for years, anyway, I'm just codifying it.
Well, that was only three months, wasn't it? With well over a hundred new reviews going up! Never let it be said I don't sweat blood etc. for you lot. Highlights of this batch? Nick Carlisle's truly splendid Sailors on the Roiling Sea, Malady's catalogue, Fritz Doddy's long-overdue second 'proper' album, The Gardener, Mats Lundgren & Mattias Olsson's Insectual Music, which is genuinely like nothing you've heard before (the clue's in the title) and Kentucky Express' That's Not What Lovin' is, albeit only for its insane Chamberlin quotient. Next update? Er... When it happens. See you then.
Another six months... Well, what's that between friends? Life keeps getting in the way, but I've slowly chipped away at my sizeable reviews backlog, leaving it still... sizeable. Oh well. Little real news from the World Of Mellotron, but a handful of worthwhile releases, not least Custard Flux's Einsteinium Delirium and Live at the 20th Dream of Dr Sardonicus Festival 2024 (nepotism alert: I play on both), Scott Hepple & the Sun Band's Lammas (nepotism alert: my Mellotron) and, er, another Paul Weller album (I have nothing to do with this). Neutral Earth have made several albums available on YouTube, while I've caught up with several '23 releases, not least those by Steven Wilson, Sun Dial, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Pixie Ninja and Spirits Burning's recent Moorcock collaboration.
Sad to say, the biggest Mellotronic news this time round is Mike Pinder's death, at the age of eighty-two. While some would say they haven't aged especially well, the Moody Blues are held in massive esteem by the generation of music fans whose tastes were informed by late '60s psychedelia. Mike is considered to be one of the great Mellotron players, his MkII modified to hold two sets of lead tapes, used on almost every track from Days of Future Passed to Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. RIP, Mike.
Since my last update, I've discovered a raft of recent Italian progressive releases featuring one of two Mellotrons: Alfio Costa's and Studiosette Studios' machine. Have a gander at reviews of De Rossi e Bordini, Cherry Five, Ellesmere, Daal and Taproban. Ex-The Luck of Eden Hall head honcho, Gregory Curvey's new project, Custard Flux, have just released their fifth album (review to come), Einsteinium Delirium, with none other than my good self on 'remote Mellotron' recorded in the UK, then mixed in the US. Look out for UK dates this summer! Other current releases include Viima's latest, two new download-only Neutral Earth albums, a new Pixie Ninja, a Regal Worm I'd missed, a new Spirits Burning and a long-overdue official release of all surviving Genesis BBC sessions.
Reading my last entry, I'm reminded that someone wrote me an angry FB message regarding my political stance, although it had disappeared the next time I looked. So, to reiterate: they might not have anything to do with Mellotrons, but I loathe far-right bullshit, so the odd political comment may creep into my reviews. There you have it.
New releases? I've already mentioned Lars Fredrik Frøislie's Fire Fortellinger, which turns out to be (unsurprisingly) magnificent, while Nick Frater's Bivouac (vintage keys recorded at my studio) is marvellous. Glass have put a raft of digitised tapes up on Bandcamp, many of them featuring Mellotron, as have Pallas, while, on a sadder note, we have to bid farewell to Finland's premier Mellotronist Esa Kotilainen. R.I.P.
Shit really, innit? Over a year between updates? People are starting to write to me saying things like, "I don't know if you're still doing the site..." Guilty as charged, m'lud. Excuse? None whatsoever. Actually, during a brief burst of reviewing terrible albums recently, the reason (which still isn't actually an excuse) became apparent: listening to bad music isn't much fun. Of course, I also get to listen to good (and occasionally great) music, but more often than not, it's another mediocre indie effort featuring a little sampled Mellotron, leaving me quite despondent after listening. The really bad stuff (Mark Medley's ongoing series of jaw-droppingly appalling Xian sludge springs to mind) can actually be fun, in a twisted kind of way, but it's the middlingly-bad stuff that really drags me down.
Enough self-pity. After all, no-one's actually making me do this, are they? Are they?
SO... What's happened in over a year? Well, Covid hasn't gone away, but it's retreated (even I finally succumbed a few months ago), Russia continues to be the world's current no.1 aggressor, far-right despots continue to be voted in everywhere, legally or otherwise... Oh, in the weird, claustrophobic world of Mellotrons? Well, some albums have been released, very few of which I've yet heard (or, duh, I'd have reviewed them), although the biggest news is an upcoming release: Norwegian prog god Lars Fredrik Frøislie's first solo release, Fire Fortellinger, due out just after this update goes live. I'm sure some other stuff has happened, but it's hardly worth mentioning it a year later, is it? Anyway, while I can't see myself managing another update in two months (I have a busy summer coming up), it won't be anywhere near another year, let alone longer.
Honest, guv.