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Force it (1975, 37.42) ****/TTLet it RollShoot Shoot High Flyer Love Lost Love Out in the Street Mother Mary Too Much of Nothing Dance Your Life Away This Kid's/Between the Walls |
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No Heavy Petting (1976, 35.23) ****/TNatural ThingI'm a Loser Can You Roll Her Belladonna Reasons Love Highway Lady On With the Action A Fool in Love Martian Landscape |
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North London-based UFO started life as a bad space-rock band, releasing a couple of albums which only sold in Germany and Japan, but in 1973 they went through a series of guitarist changes, ending up with 17 year-old German wunderkind Michael Schenker, nicked from support act the Scorpions. I doubt if Schenker was actually responsible for the immediate stylistic change; I suspect the band had been wanting to head in a more mainstream direction anyway and utilised young Michael's considerable talents to that end.
'74's Phenomenon (***) is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair, although it contains future classics Doctor Doctor and the mighty Rock Bottom. By the following year, the band had really got their act together and Force it has nary a duff track on it, with no less than five songs finding their way onto their superb live double of a few years later, Strangers in the Night (*****). High Flyer is the album's ballad, with some Mellotron strings under Schenker's (melodic, as always) guitar solo. Producer Leo Lyons, from Ten Years After (non-coincidentally also on Chrysalis), brought in TYA's keyboard player Chick Churchill on keys; he adds some particularly effective Mellotron choir onto Between The Walls, a beautiful instrumental piece by the guitarist, presumably referring to the still-extant Berlin wall, segueing in from This Kid's.
The band brought in a full-time keyboard player, Danny Peyronel (from the Heavy Metal Kids) for their follow-up, '76's No Heavy Petting, a move which appeared to be only sporadically successful on stage. The album's pretty much as good as its predecessor, although fewer of the tracks became live favourites; talking of which, is the fantastic live b-side version of On With The Action ever going to be made available on CD? Anyway, I've only just decided that there's definitely Mellotron on the thing, with strings on Belladonna that I'm still not entirely sure about and a definite (if background) choir part on Peyronel's Martian Landscape.
UFO kept the quality up through their next handful of releases, until Schenker left in 1978 and the band started their irreversible decline. They're still (technically) going today, back with Schenker (note: he's gone again), but their glory days are sadly long behind them. As far as Force it (dreadful pun!) and No Heavy Petting go, if you like UK hard rock, they're two of the five or six essential UFO albums, although Mellotron fans probably need not apply.
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Om Bobbo Viking (1975, 32.38) ***/TT |
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| Hallå Mrs Space John Silver Rock'n Roll Revolution Riddarna av Mörkret Bobbo Viking Flens Rock Okänd Värld |
Raggarna Starlet |
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Magnus Uggla went solo in the early '70s, after singing with JUSO, 1975's Om Bobbo Viking being the first fruits of his labours. If one were to accuse Mr. Uggla of having something of a Mott/Ian Hunter fixation at the time, he'd have to hold his hands up and declare, "Guilty as charged, guv". In Swedish, of course. It's not a bad album, but Uggla's so clearly in thrall to his influences that, over forty years later, it's difficult to take it, or him, seriously. For all that, there's some decent material on board, not least the choppy John Silver, the funky (kind of) title track and closer Starlet.
Keys man Anders Olander plays Mellotron, with rather shrieky strings on Rock'n Roll Revolution, less shrieky ones on Riddarna Av Mörkret and flutes on Starlet. Swedish Mott/Bowie soundalike, anyone? This is actually better than I'm making out, but I think it'd be fair to call it 'derivative'.
See: Samples etc.
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Suddenly, Sound: 21 Songlines for Piano, Drainpipe, etc. (2009, 50.45) ***/T |
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| Songline No. 1 Songline No. 2 Songline No. 3 Songline No. 7 Songline No. 8 Songline No. 11 Songline No. 10 Songline No. 12 |
Instrumental No. 1 Songline No. 5 Songline No. 15 Songline No. 9 Songline No. 18+19 Songline No. 6 Songline No. 16 Songline No. 20 |
Songline No. 14 Songline No. 13 Songline No. 4 Songline No. 17 Songline No. 21 |
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Torben Ulrich (1928-2023) was Denmark's very own Renaissance Man; jazz musician and critic, journalist, filmmaker, visual artist and tennis professional into his late forties. Oh and father of Metallica's Lars. Well, no-one can have it all, I suppose. 2009's Suddenly, Sound: 21 Songlines for Piano, Drainpipe, etc. is his first collaboration (of three) with jazz pianist Søren Kjærgaard, an incredibly sparse set of pieces, either instrumental or featuring Ulrich's murmurings, Kjærgaard playing acoustic and electric pianos, organs and Mellotron, while Ulrich contributes various forms of percussion. This is about as far from 'rock'n'roll' as you can get; Lars, take note. Do any of the album's 'songlines' particularly stand out? No. 12 is unusually rhythmic, while No. 17 seems to be a recording of Ulrich's frenzied breathing, although six-minute opener No. 1 probably typifies the album's sound. Incidentally, the CD adds four tracks to the vinyl version, italicised above.
Recorded in Seattle, I've no idea where the duo sourced Kjærgaard's Mellotron (right), although it turns up on Songline No. 7, with polyphonic cellos forming the backbone of the piece. As I said, not rock'n'roll, in fact, not rock at all. One for your avant-garde side.
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Silver Tones Smile (1998, 58.38) **½/T |
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| Twist Bent on TCBA Plenty Salem 100 Watts Water What He Said |
Jonesin' Peacock Throne St. Augustine Stupid Ringside [Hidden track] |
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Nashvillians Shonali Bhowmik and Michelle Dubois formed Babyfat after moving to California in the '90s, becoming Ultrababyfat (later Ultra Baby Fat) after an initial album, releasing their first recordings under their amended name, Silver Tones Smile, in 1998. It's a typical US indie-influenced pop/rock album, not unlike the related (but better-known) Luna, at its least dull on the vaguely energetic St. Augustine.
Keith Cleversley plays Mellotron strings on Water, dipping in and out of the mix throughout the song and background flute stabs on the brief hidden track secreted away after official album closer Ringside.
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CDS (1998, 20.27) ***½/TT½ Stay Young Underwater Love Story Can't Say No |
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CDS (1998, 32.41) ***½/T½ I'll Show You Mine One Plus One Final Solution Lovesick I'll Show You Mine |
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CDS (1999, 10.52) ***½/T Floodlit World Getting Better Death of a Drag Racer |
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Everything Picture (1999, 87.29) ***½/TTT½ |
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| Cross My Heart Same Band Stay Young Suckle Fame Thing Happy Times (Are Coming) Aire & Calder Sentimental Song |
Floodlit World My Impossible Dream Everything Picture |
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Ultrasound's roots lie in wonderfully eclectic Newcastle combo Sleepy People, via the short-lived Pop-a-Cat-a-Petal; vocalist Tiny Wood and guitarist/songwriter Richard Green played in both bands, Green switching from bass for the new outfit. Ultrasound took what they learned and applied it to late-'90s UK indie, creating a crossover I can only describe as indie/prog, for its sins. They released a handful of singles before their sole album, Everything Picture, after which they imploded. Tiny (guess what: he isn't) was last seen guesting with Blue Apple Boy, but the rest of the band's whereabouts are currently unknown.
I haven't heard their debut single, Same Band and there's nothing Mellotronic on their first for Nude, '98's Best Wishes, but the first version of Stay Young from later that year (it was released in two different versions) features strings, flutes and cellos on one of its b-sides, the lengthy Can't Say No. The non-album I'll Show You Mine uses all three tracks on its last listed track, Lovesick, while one of the extra tracks on the first version of Floodlit World, the band's version of The Beatles' Getting Better, features the cellos.
My copy of Everything Picture is a double CD that says 'limited edition' on the cover; I believe the italicised tracks above aren't on the single-disc version (the timing is for the double only). Despite its sometime-overt Indieisms, it's actually a pretty good album, although Tiny's vocal stylings can grate after a while; strange, since they didn't with his previous (and subsequent) bands. Oh well. Tracks lengths tend to veer between four and six minutes, with ambient links making them appear longer, apart from the title track, which is about six or seven minutes of song, followed by thirteen or fourteen of freeform noise, ebbing and flowing over its length. It's followed by nearly fifteen minutes of silence, with a short piano-led uncredited track at the end of the disc, à la some versions of Nirvana's Nevermind. I suspect this track is missing from the single-CD version, if it exists; the album length I've put above is minus the gap.
The Mellotron use is actually quite heavy; flute parts on Cross My Heart and Happy Times and some excellent strings on Sentimental Song. There are more flutes on the song part of Everything Picture itself, then during the improv section, keyboard man Matt Jones utilises the strings superbly, particularly in the quiet section and then to the end. I believe Ultrasound bought an M400 from Streetly at considerable cost; I've no idea what's happened to it since the split, but hopefully it was passed on to a deserving case.
I have to recommend Everything Picture, even to die-hard progheads; it's a good album, though 'great' eludes it, mainly due to the sometimes rather indifferent songwriting. Good record, good Mellotron. Don't spend a fortune, but pick it up if you see it at a sensible price (I did).
See: Samples etc.
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Live at Roadburn (2013, 53.08) ***½/T |
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| Bracelets of Fingers In the Past Can You Travel in the Dark Alone? Soon There'll Be Thunder Today Velvet Sunsets Street Song 66-5-4-3-2-1 |
I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) Magic Hollow Impromptu Performance (Dedicated to Can) |
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For some reason, Norwegians Ulver's increasingly-distant black metal origins hang around them like a bad smell, although they'd largely shucked off the genre's tropes by their second release, as early as 1996. Their appearance at 2012's Roadburn consists almost entirely of tracks from their '60s covers album, Childhood's End, giving not the faintest hint that they'd ever even been considered 'metal' at all, let alone of the 'black' variety. Excellent versions of better-known songs (The Pretty Things' Bracelet Of Fingers, Jefferson Airplane's Today, The Electric Prunes' timeless I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)) rub shoulders with material from the likes of We the People, The Beau Brummels and Gandalf ('60s version), effectively acting as a late '60s primer for the uninitiated, encoring with a Can-inspired jam, faded out on the record.
The band's current fourth member, Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo, Mothlite), plays Matthijs Herder's borrowed M400 through a Roland Space Echo on a couple of tracks, with background strings on Soon There'll Be Thunder and flutes on Magic Hollow, albeit neither to any great effect, sadly. Is this worth hearing for its Mellotron use? No, frankly, although anyone who enjoyed Childhood's End should get something from hearing its contents played live.
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Fare Well (1997, 49.49) ***/TT½ |
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| Friday Morn' Downtown Cemetery Lullaby New Year's Day Palisades Slow Mailman's Blood |
Untitled Ghosts Deep End Jealousy Under the Water Wheel |
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Uma were the trio of Chris Hickey, Sally Dworsky and Andy Kamman, 1997's Fare Well being the last of their three albums. Essentially '90s pop/rock, better songs including Lullaby, Slow (Dworsky singing both) and Untitled, although a bit of an edit would have tightened the album up somewhat.
Patrick Warren and Jon Brion play Chamberlin, while Dan McGough's on Mellotron, although it's difficult to know whether McGough's credit is genuine. Anyway, we get a startling, sudden Chamby male voice part on opener Friday Morn', watery cellos on Lullaby, distant flutes on New Year's Day, strange, watery Mellotron choirs on Mailman's Blood, a weird, dusty Chamby woodwind sound on Ghosts, wavery flutes on Deep End and cellos and strings on Under The Water, although the cello on closer Wheel is presumably Martin Tillman's real one. Little of the tape-replay work is that overt, but at least it's real.
See: Sally Dworsky
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Demolotion (1997, 57.57) ***½/½ |
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| Half Man Half Wrecking Ball Fly The Wannabees Mother No Mattress The Middle of Monday The Walls You Walk Through Girl Named God |
American Pipe Daphne's Disease Matador Skywriting Union Umbrella My Weary Eyes |
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The Umajets were basically ex-Jellyfishers Tim Smith and Roger Manning's next project and, while they've carried some of their alma mater's talent over to the new outfit, the overall impression I get of Demolotion (listed as 'Demolition' everywhere, of course - I had to look twice) is of a band trying desperately to be as good as their previous outfit and not quite making it. The excellent Half Man Half Wrecking Ball starts things off well, but so-so efforts such as No Mattress or Girl Named God fatally compromise the album. Actually, with a bit of editing, this would've made a far better 40-minute record. It could even have been pressed on LP...
Manning is credited with Mellotron on The Wannabees, but unless those are flutes hidden somewhere in the mix, it's effectively inaudible. However, suspiciously Mellotron-like lines crop up on a few other tracks (notably Daphne's Disease), but aren't mentioned in the exhaustive track-by-track credits, so who knows? Overall, this falls into the 'good not great' category, I'm afraid, so unless you're a powerpop obsessive, I'd only really bother if you see it cheap.
See: Jellyfish
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The Beginning of the End (2009, 31.56) ***½/TTTStory SongLu Lu The Pretty One Caboom Do Do Do |
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The End of the Beginning (2011, 41.24) ****/TTT½Dumb NumbRains and Pours The March Somebody The Ups and Downs Chromy Surfy Dream Lust Do Do Do Do... |
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Somedays Coming Soon (2014, 36.20) ***½/TT½ |
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| Stick it Apple Pickin Tree Distraction Oh Pretty Please Slip & Slide Jazzy Hands Somedays Coming Soon Things |
The Poodle Song Bonus Track |
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Someone Will Love You But it's Just Not Me (2018, 43.00/45.36) ***/TTT½ |
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| Gotta Get it Coronal Mass Ejection Nosheki The Golden Sea Ark Walking in the Sand Going to School You're Too Weird |
Someone Will Love You But it's Just Not Me I Really Really Dark Owl If Not for You Jamaica [Cassette version bonus: The Adventures of Zeppy and Quinntar] |
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Umbra & the Volcan Siege/The Anna Maze Split 12" (2023, 43.43) ***½/TTT |
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| [Umbra & the Volcan Siege:] Hercules Try Your Luck Universal Minds My Life Elleipsis Romeo & Juliet |
[The Anna Maze:] Years Roll By... Our Afternoon's Murder Song Lonely I am Gonna Tell Me That You Love Me |
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Chicago psych sextet Umbra & the Volcan Siege are led by Jim Licka ('Mellotron, Guitar'), ex- of local heroes The Luck of Eden Hall. Their first release, 2009's mostly-instrumental The Beginning of the End EP, is a pretty mixed bag, stylistically speaking, opener Story Song being a straight (albeit instrumental) rhythm'n'blues effort, Lu Lu a three-chord jam, Caboom twisted country... I think you get the picture. Two Mellotron tracks (Licka's M400): The Pretty One kicks off with a beautiful polyphonic flute part, with more flutes, (sometimes outrageously-pitchbent) strings and choirs throughout, while closer Do Do Do features more of those flutes, before it takes a short break, only to return with a string part meandering through the rest of the piece. The band's debut full-lengther, 2011's The End of the Beginning, covers much psychedelic ground, every track at least subtly stylistically different to every other. Highlights include deranged noise-fest The Ups And Downs, the slow, brooding Dream Lust and lysergic closing jam Do Do Do Do...; strangely, despite no fewer than four 'guitar' credits, no-one's credited with vocals (I suspect Licka), although they're not exactly a major feature of the band's work. Licka and Curtis Evans play Jim's new M4000 on most tracks, with upfront flute and strings on opener Dumb Numb, a huge, polyphonic flute part, followed by strident strings on The March, flutes on Somebody, flutes, strings and muted, pitchbent choir on Chromy, more upfront flutes on Dream Lust and gentle ones on Do Do Do Do...
Stylistically, 2014's Somedays Coming Soon is probably closer to a weird surf/new wave cross, with Dick Dale-esque guitar work running head-on into vaguely Talking Heads vocals, shifting from the queasy Tex-Mex of instrumental opener Stick It through to the blues/punk of Distraction, the low-fi jazzy balladry of Oh Pretty Please and the psychedelic blues of the title track. Overall, not all that much of the M4000, relatively speaking, with background choirs and flute on Apple Pickin Tree, rather wobbly choirs on Oh Pretty Please, vibes on Jazzy Hands, background strings on the title track and Things, leaving the untitled 'Bonus Track' as the album's Mellotronic tour de force, a mélange of heavily-echoed Mellotron tracks, not least various string and church organ parts, including pitchbends and tape-delayed stabs. 2018's Someone Will Love You But it's Just Not Me picks up where its predecessor left off, veering between multiple variations on psychedelia, highlights including The Golden Sea and their doomy cover of the Shangri-Las' Walking In The Sand, although I'm less sure about Going To School's twisted blues intro and several other less structured tracks. Licka plays mucho Mellotron, with upfront strings on Coronal Mass Ejection, The Golden Sea and Dark Owl, background strings and choirs on Nosheki, strings and choir on Ark, Walking In The Sand, the title track and I Really Really and strings and occasional flutes on cassette issue-only The Adventures Of Zeppy And Quinntar.
2023's self-explanatory Umbra & the Volcan Siege/The Anna Maze Split 12" features the same four musicians on both sides of the record, only operating as the two named outfits. Not the first time it's been done, but a tad confusing. Anyway, Umbra's side features the expected psychedelic indie pop/rock, at its best on the slowburn Universal Minds and the instrumental Elleipsis, while The Anna Maze's starts off in a country-rock vein, shifting into a more straightforward indie sound, 'best track' award probably going to Murder Song. Jim plays Mellotron, as you'd expect, with strings on Try Your Luck, with a radical pitchbend at the end, strings on Universal Minds, upfront strings on My Life, sax and what sounds like mixed strings on Elleipsis and strings on Romeo & Juliet. On The Anna Maze side, we get distant strings on Murder Song, Lonely and (very distantly) closer Tell Me That You Love Me.
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Blood Lust (2011, 47.36) ***½/TI'll Cut You DownDeath's Door Over and Over Again Curse in the Trees I'm Here to Kill You 13 Candles Ritual Knife Withered Hand of Evil ['Bonus' track] |
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Cambridge-based trio Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats began as a recording project, releasing the limited-edition Vol. 1 on their own label in 2010, following up with 2011's Blood Lust, also picked up for vinyl release by Rise Above. According to interviews, the album's supposed to be something of a concept effort involving a witchfinder type, his wrongdoings and eventual comeuppance, which is certainly backed up by the lyrics. Musically, the band have one basic influence: Black Sabbath. Unafraid to channel that early '70s boogie feel (or 'the pariah of modern doom'), the album comes across as a straight cross began pastiche and homage, tracks like opener I'll Cut You Down, Over And Over Again (great guitar hook) and the superb Withered Hand Of Evil displaying Uncle Acid's Ozzy-esque vocal style to its best advantage.
Mr Acid himself plays the upfront, real-sounding Mellotron strings on Withered Hand Of Evil and flutes on the untitled bonus track (is this missing from the vinyl version?); where did he source a real machine? Who knows? This knocks your average doom-by-numbers crew into the proverbial cocked hat; a band with a genuine love of an era, with the will and songwriting chops to carry it off, unlike others I could name, but shan't. The vinyl's long sold out, but this is still available on CD. Buy.
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What an Experiment His Head Was (1991, 47.48) ***/T½ |
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| I Always Knew You'd Come to Me I Don't Know (I Just Wish) I Don't Wanna Know About it I'm Goin' Down The Deal of a Lifetime Like Today Guilty Party By the Way (Not Even Then) |
Misfit Mouth Ephenus I Won't Let it Drop Don't Fix it if it Works Jack-a-Drum |
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Book of Bad Thoughts (1992, 46.12) ***½/TT |
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| I Know All About You I Don't Wanna Know About it Wake Up Now Look Into the Light Bellingham She's Storing it Up You're Getting Into it In Good Time |
He Woke Up Naked The Blue Light A Good Man I Always Knew You'd Come to Me |
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Forming in 1980, power-popsters Uncle Green took six years to get an album out, 1991's What an Experiment His Head Was being their fourth release. It combines college rock sensibilities with powerpop (frequent bedfellows anyway), better tracks including the powerpop of I Don't Wanna Know About It, Misfit Mouth and Don't Fix It If It Works. Producer Brendan O'Brien (credited as 'Bud O'Brien & His Dog') plays Mellotron, with raucous cellos on opener I Always Knew You'd Come To Me, skronky strings on I Don't Know (I Just Wish) and great string pitchbends and flutes on Like Today.
The band were clearly on their last legs (at least in that incarnation) by their fifth album, 1992's Book of Bad Thoughts, which turned out to be their swansong. It's actually a pretty good record, far better than efforts I've heard by supposed deities of the genre, although it falls slightly short in places (so how many albums don't?). Best tracks? Possibly I Don't Wanna Know About It, He Woke Up Naked and A Good Man, despite its generic-boogie intro, with nothing actively cringeworthy on board. Band member Bill Decker and producer Brendan O'Brien both play Mellotron, with a strings solo on opener I Know All About You, pitchbends included, with more of the same on You're Getting Into it and massed cellos on closer I Always Knew You'd Come To Me, making for a medium-heavy Mellotron album, definitely worth it if you're a powerpop fan anyway.
Incidentally, after their mid-'90s split, the band regrouped as the awkwardly-named 3 Lb. Thrill, although I don't believe they used a Mellotron again.
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Pleistocene Moon (2014, 78.07) **½/TPleistocene MoonTribe Apini Requiem for Biodiversity Kotsoteka Is the Spine the Dividing Line? Methane Rising The Transformation of Matter Greedy Tongue |
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Texans Unconscious Collective play a particularly uncompromising form of improv-psych on 2014's Pleistocene Moon, incorporating elements of space-, jazz- and all-out avant-rock, to the point where a large chunk of the album will fall into the 'near-unlistenable' category for many people. Perhaps restricting it to 'vinyl length' (ironically, this is only available on double LP) would've produced a stronger end result?
Bassist Aaron Gonzalez plays Mellotron (almost certainly Klearlight Studios' M400), with choirs and strings on the opening title track, also probably the album's strongest piece. One for those moments when only avant-rock/jazz (note: not jazz/rock) will do.
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War in the Night Before (1971, 37.14) ***½/TT½ |
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| War in the Night Before Top Invocation Cronic Illness Cool Paradise Car Driving Una Lettera Hard to Group Oblivion |
Libitium Hot Paradise Useless Obsession Hopeless Train |
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For many years, the mysterious Underground Set were so anonymous that one usually well-informed expert listed them as being British. It seems they actually consisted of members of Nuova Idea, their material being composed by Le Orme's producer, Gian Piero Reverberi. 1971's instrumental War in the Night Before (their second and last release) has more than a whiff of soundtrack about it - in fact, tracks by the band were used in films - highlights including the dirty, heavy psych of the opening title track, the lethargic Cool Paradise and Oblivion, while the slothful Una Lettera is a dead ringer for Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale.
It seems likely that the uncredited keyboard player was Nuova's Giorgio Usai; whoever he is, he adds Mellotron to several tracks, with MkII brass on the title track, a clicky, pitchbent flute solo on Cronic Illness [sic], more lead flute on the cinematic Car Driving and the gentle Oblivion and a final blast of unruly brass on closer Hopeless Train.
See: Nuova Idea
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Cosmic Truth (1975, 41.18) ***½/TEarthquake ShakeDown By the River UFO's Lil' Red Ridin' Hood Squeeze Me, Tease Me Spaced Out Got to Get My Hands on Some Lovin' 1990 (I Know) I'm Losing You |
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Motown master writer/producer Norman Whitfield, responsible for The Temptations' success, amongst others, formed The Undisputed Truth in the early '70s to further his psychedelic soul vision. Cosmic Truth was their fifth album (of six) and is certainly true to Whitfield's ideal; it opens with an outrageous slice of psych/funk/rock, Earthquake Shake, before 'souling-up' Neil Young's Down By The River, which responds surprisingly well to the treatment. UFO's is a ludicrous song about alien invasion paranoia, fuelled by acid-fried vocals and fuzz guitar, while Squeeze Me, Tease Me is a bonkers hard rock/funk crossover. I think you get the picture...
Mellotron (from Mark Davis) on one track only; the last two minutes of Earthquake Shake are a Mellotron strings'n'flutes extravaganza, over the earthquake rumble that runs through the track, though sadly, that's it on the Mellotron front. This is the kind of soul album, not entirely unlike the Chairmen of the Board's Skin I'm in from the previous year, or anything by Funkadelic, that it's acceptable for rock fans to listen to, with plenty of ripping leads and experimental production tricks. There ain't a lot of Mellotron, but it's worth buying to hear the one relevant track.
