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Rare on Air Rē Records |
Reading Festival Red Hot + Blue |
Rime of the Ancient Sampler Roqueting Through Space |
SI Magazine |
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Rare on Air, Vol. 1: KCRW Live Performances (1994, 63.51) ***/T |
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| Tori Amos: Silent All These Years John Cale: Cordoba Peter Himmelman: Always in Disguise Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield: My Drug Buddy Michael Penn: Coal |
X: Arms for Hostages Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: God's Hotel Beck: Mexico Los Lobos: Peace Lindsey Buckingham: Never Going Back Again |
Mark Isham: The Moderns Brendan Perry: The Captive Heart Natalie Merchant: How You've Grown Lucinda Williams: Which Will David Wilcox: Chet Baker's Unsung Swan Song |
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KCRW is a Santa Monica-based community radio station, although as a non-American, I'm not entirely sure what that means. Non-commercial? No matter. The station not only apparently provides a worthwhile service in its area, but has released several volumes of its Rare on Air series, containing tracks culled from live sessions. 1994's Vol. 1 features an eclectic range of artists, from singer-songwriters Tori Amos, Michael Penn and Natalie Merchant through to the jazzy Mark Isham and the almost-uncategorisable Beck and Nick Cave, featuring exclusive performances from all concerned.
Patrick Warren turns up with Michael Penn, adding real Chamberlin to Coal, with string, flute and pedal steel parts, although, to my knowledge, it's the only tape-replay work to be heard across the entire, several-volume series. While this probably isn't worth hearing for a single (albeit nicely upfront) Chamby track, fans of any of the artists concerned might wish to hear these beautifully-recorded, largely stripped-down performances.
See: Michael Penn
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Rē Records Quarterly Vol. 3 No. 3 (1991, 49.42) ***/½ |
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| Steve Moore: Chiaroscuro Jocelyn Robert: Photoproject 1 When: Bell Tom Djll: Tombo Hail: Racer Hero |
Illegal Function: Microclimats 5UU's: Carousel of Progress Abdo Men: Intense Grace Erik Hug: Diary XI-V |
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ReR Megacorp (or ЯēR), a.k.a. Recommended Records, is ex-Henry Cow man Chris Cutler's label, distribution network and, for a while, magazine, concentrating on the determinedly uncommercial end of the musical spectrum, better-known artists including Faust, Terry Riley and Sun Ra. The label ran a magazine, Rē Records Quarterly, from 1985-91, plus a handful of later editions, including an LP (later CD) of featured artists for their readers' edification. Vol. 3 No. 3 includes tracks by Lars Pedersen's When and American avant-rock troupe 5UU's, alongside the lesser-known Illegal Function, Erik Hug and Abdo Men (ho ho), at its most conventional on the alt.rock of Hail's Racer Hero, Erik Hug's Diary XI-V and 5UU's Carousel Of Progress.
The credited Mellotron on 1986's Vol. 1 No. 4 turned out to be a dud, but this time round, 5UU's Carousel Of Progress features a few bursts of Sanjay Kumar's background choirs, in those largely pre-sample days, although it doesn't seem they used one again. This has finally turned up on a download blog, but you're really not going to bother for such minimal Mellotron use.
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Reading Festival 1973 (1973, 48.25) ***/T |
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| Rory Gallagher: Hands Off Strider: Road Runner Greenslade: Feathered Friends Status Quo: Don't Waste My Time |
The Faces: Losing You Andy Bown: Long Legged Linda Lesley Duncan: Earth Mother Tim Hardin: Hang on to a Dream Person to Person |
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Reading Rock Volume One (1982, 91.45) ***/T |
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| Whitesnake: Walking in the Shadow of the Blues Terraplane: I Want Your Body Marillion: He Knows You Know Jackie Lynton: Slow Rider Budgie: Superstar Bernie Marsden: S.O.S. Chinatown: I Wanna See You Tonight |
Randy California: Come on Woman Stampede: There and Back Twisted Sister: Shoot 'em Down Michael Schenker: Attack of the Mad Axeman Marillion: Three Boats Down From the Candy Terraplane: Turn Me Loose Just Good Friends: You Really Got Me |
UFO: Hot and Ready Budgie: Panzer Division Destroyed Grand Prix: Keep on Believin' Spider: All the Time Chinatown: Caught on the Wrong Side Jackie Lynton: Hedgehog Song |
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Although the Reading Festival (originally the National Jazz & Blues Festival) has been going, on and off, since the early '60s, I only know of two years where albums of the event were released, 1973 and 1982. The '73 LP, Reading Festival 1973, was released by GM (Gaff/Masters) Records, the recording imprint of Rod Stewart's management company, Gaff Management, so it should come as absolutely no surprise to find that almost all (all?) of the eight artists represented had a clear GM connection in one form or another, with several cases of inter-band co-operation, too. Fair enough - it's their album... Despite containing an artistically pretty mixed bag, the album's chiefly of interest these days for its otherwise unavailable live tracks, although, surprisingly, it not only had a vinyl reissue in 1990, but has also made it onto CD via those nice See for Miles people.
So, what do you get for your dosh? Live Rory Gallagher, Status Quo, Faces and Tim Hardin tracks, none (to my knowledge) available elsewhere, plus less collectable ones from Lesley Duncan, Strider, Andy Bown (uselessly credited as 'Brown' by his own bloody management, with a track he later recorded with the Quo) and the reason this album's here at all, Greenslade. The tracks are worth hearing for their curiosity value, at least, although (to my ears) side one easily outclasses the flip, Duncan and Hardin's tracks skating perilously close to MOR. Greenslade's Feathered Friends is the set's one Mellotron track, Dave Greenslade adding a strong string part to the song, although the strings on Duncan and Hardin's tracks are real (real strings at Reading? Huh?). Since this is actually available, unusually for such an album, it's probably worth it should you see it cheap and want to fill in small gaps in your Quo/Rory/Faces collections, or would simply like to hear a sort-of cross-section of the kind of acts that played Reading in the early '70s. For what it's worth, the 1990 version (and the CD) is titled Reading Festival '73 and the sleeve features some great pics from the weekend not on the original LP.
The 1982 double LP was optimistically entitled Reading Rock Volume One, although I'm quite sure it was the last of its kind. By this point in the festival's history, it was a solid heavy rock event, although as the '80s wore on, it assimilated other contemporary styles before the 'big crash' of 1988, when it failed spectacularly, was bought out by the well-named Mean Fiddler Group (think about it) and eventually, went on to its current huge success. The album is, unsurprisingly, the usual mixed bag, even sticking in a couple of tracks from earlier years (Whitesnake's rip-roaring Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues is from '79 and UFO's Hot And Ready, released as a b-side at the time, is from '80), with long-forgotten third-raters such as Chinatown (with TWO tracks?), Spider (fun, but ultimately forgettable) and Just Good Friends (WHO?), rubbing shoulders with the likes of Budgie, Twisted Sister, Quo mate Jackie Lynton (supported him once, y'know) and Stampede.
Of the rest, Terraplane, a.k.a. Terrible Pain, were tipped for greatness, only actually (allegedly) achieving it after a split, reformation and name change to Thunder, Michael Schenker was at the peak of his post-UFO solo career, Bernie Marsden appears twice, with Whitesnake in '79 and solo in '82 (guess which is better), while Marillion's set was their breakthrough after a year of solid touring. It's the latter outfit's contributions that interest us here (for once), despite the shoddy drumming (poor old Mick); he very noticeably speeds up on He Knows You Know... Anyway, Mark Kelly, in probably one of the last times he used their Mellotron in anger, adds strings to He Knows You Know (replaced by synth on the following year's album version, of course) and the same string part to Three Boats Down From The Candy as on the Market Square Heroes EP.
Do you bother with either of these? Are you a big enough fan of enough of the featured artists to want to shell out for a handful of live tracks you can't get anywhere else? Then yes. Do you bother for the Mellotron? Probably not.
See: Greenslade | Marillion
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Red Hot + Blue: a Tribute to Cole Porter (1990, 77.46) ***/½ |
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| Neneh Cherry: I've Got You Under My Skin Neville Brothers: In the Still of the Night Sin?ad O'Connor: You Do Something to Me Salif Keita: Begin the Beguine Fine Young Cannibals: Love for Sale Deborah Harry & Iggy Pop: Well, Did You Evah! The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl: Miss Otis Regrets/Just One of Those Things |
David Byrne: Don't Fence Me in Tom Waits: It's All Right With Me Annie Lennox: Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye U2: Night and Day Les Negresses Vertes: I Love Paris k.d. lang: So in Love Thompson Twins: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? |
Erasure: Too Darn Hot Jungle Brothers: I Get a Kick Lisa Stansfield: Down in the Depths Jimmy Somerville: From This Moment on Jody Watley: After You, Who? Aztec Camera: Do I Love You? |
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It's 2009. You're producing a tribute album. Which names do you pursue? The Thompson Twins? The Fine Young Cannibals? Erasure? It just goes to prove how ephemeral some artists are and how difficult it is at any given point to work out just who will last and who won't. Cole Porter's lasted... Whether or not you feel any affinity at all with his songwriting, it defines its era, while much of it is jaw-droppingly audacious, not to mention piss-funny. It really was another time, where tunes and arrangements were almost entirely subservient to lyrics, starting the tradition of rating lyricists as highly as the poor sods who write the tunes, despite the practice's frequent irrelevance in the pop and rock world. I mean, who cares what most bands write about? The level of wit and invention in most modern songwriting is rock-bottom, making it a pleasure to hear a whole album of songs written when it was a real craft and lyricists would spend months agonising over a single line. Maybe.
Red Hot + Blue: a Tribute to Cole Porter works about as well as most similar efforts, i.e. it's a complete ragbag of artists and styles, only vaguely held together by Porter's inimitable writing style. Some artists (k.d. lang, Jody Watley) opt for the 'trad' route, playing the songs pretty much as they were written, while others (Neneh Cherry, U2, The Thompson Twins) tackle them as they would their own compositions, which, while it can be heavily hit'n'miss, at least makes for something new. Highlights include Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry's Well, Did You Evah!, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's Miss Otis Regrets/Just One Of Those Things medley and, of course, Tom Waits' It's All Right With Me.
Said track, frankly, sounds like just about everything else he's done over the last two or three decades. There's credited Chamberlin, but if you can tell exactly what it's doing, then mister, you're a better man than I (sorry, wrong songwriting era). I think someone's playing bowed saw, while the Chamby's apparently set to the female voice with all the treble filtered out. So; you're not going to get this for its tape-replay content, but for a quick skip through 1990's great and good tackling songs way beyond their comprehension, it's possibly worth hearing. Oh and for Waits completists, of course.
See: Tom Waits
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Rime of the Ancient Sampler: The Mellotron Album (1993, 77.42) ***/TTTTT |
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| Matt Clifford: Then and Now Bill Nelson: Mellotronix Michael Pinder Waters Beneath the Bridge Patrick Moraz: Owner's Guide Gordon Reid: Julia Sheila Maloney: Berlin Boys |
Blue Weaver: Mello Blue's Blues Derek Holt: Resurrection Nick Magnus: Night of the Condor Woolly Wolstenholme: Deceivers All Ken Freeman: Attack of the Azimuths Martin Smith: Engulfed |
David Cross: Not So Chris Taylor: Bradmatic David Kean: Lift Julian Colbeck: Heartfelt David Etheridge: Mighty Tron 1964 Mellotron Demonstration Disc: El Cumbanchero |
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Very quietly, in the early '90s, bathroom fitter Martin Smith and John 'son of Les' Bradley opened for business as Streetly Electronics, just outside Birmingham, helping to kickstart the revival of Mellotron use in the UK. They brought my own machine back from the dead in 1993, coincidentally the same year they compiled Rime of the Ancient Sampler: The Mellotron Album, released on Voiceprint. Now long out of print, copies change hands for considerable sums on the Mellotron fan circuit although, if I'm going to be utterly, brutally honest, it's not quite the classic it's made out to be. What's more, although Martin and John spent some weeks trundling a Mark II all over the country for artists to use, only ten of the sixteen tracks recorded especially for the album actually use real Mellotron, one of the sample casualties being Martin's own track, Engulfed. No, I don't know why either.
In retrospect, some of the artists seem rather odd choices. Bill Nelson? (Be-Bop Deluxe only ever used one sparingly). Julian Colbeck? Several lesser-known singer-songwriters/session men? To be fair, the project was put together pretty quickly and several high-profile names wouldn't commit and there are a few classic names from Mellotron history. The booklet helpfully lists every sound used by each musician (trainspotters? Us?), even when those sounds are now known to be samples and there's a good selection, apart from the ubiquitous violins/flutes/choir, including mixed brass, trumpet, sax, oboe, Hammond and Patrick Moraz' special FX set.
The music. Hmmm. This is where it gets a bit difficult for me. I know several of the people involved with the project (like the namedropper I am), so it's with a heavy heart that I say: it's not very good. All but two of the tracks were written specially for the record, the artists being given complete carte blanche and most of them sound like '80s-hangover session muso stuff, I'm afraid. You know; programmed drums, nasty digital synth patches, no discernable tune. That sort of thing. It's not all bad; The Strawbs' Blue Weaver plays a nice bluesy thing in Mello Blue's Blues, although you can hear the samples at a couple of points and Moraz' Owner's Guide is intentionally amusing, but most of the material has a rather rushed feel about it, as though the artists were only given a couple of days' notice to come up with something. A few tracks quote from Mellotron classics of yesteryear, notably the Climax Blues Band's Derek Holt, on Resurrection and my old friend Dave Etheridge, on Mighty Tron. A quick aside here, to say a public 'thank you' to Dave for a) letting me play his Mark II back in the mid-'80s - the first Mellotron I ever laid hands on and b) ringing me excitedly at work one day in '93 to tell me he'd found someone to get my Mellotron working again. Enter Martin...
However... unsurprisingly, there is some mighty Mellotron work here, with Ken Freeman going completely bonkers with the choirs on Attack Of The Azimuths (you can tell this man's worked on the machine's innards), while the violins (plus his real one) on David Cross' Not So are as in-yer-face as you could ever want; the track's not bad, either. David Kean (US Mellotron resurrector) shows off shamelessly by playing Mellotron, Chamberlin and Birotron on Lift, named for his fave obscure US prog outfit and Dave Etheridge's Mighty Tron cops The Beatles, The Moody Blues and Genesis and why not? And Dave, 'Watcher' is in F#, not G...
Whither the two tracks not actually recorded for the album, I hear you ask? Ex-Barclay James Harvester Woolly Wolstenholme's Deceivers All is the best song 'proper' on the album, being recorded for his second solo album in the early '80s, finally seeing the light of day on Black Box, which came out the year after Rime, also on Voiceprint. It's swamped in M300 strings and not only has a tune, but a damn' good one and is the only track here available elsewhere, for what it's worth. Apart from Woolly's track, the highlight of the album has to be El Cumbanchero, the original '64 Mellotron demo disc; in fact, the album's (almost) worth it for this alone, though only almost. It consists of a cleaned-up 7" single of an unknown musician playing some cheesy Mark II string chords over a left-hand manual rhythm, with some dweeb with a slightly mid-Atlantic accent extolling its virtues, before a further selection of rhythm tapes and some wild Hammond soloing on the right-hand manual. Stupendous. No, I mean it; well, very nearly...
So; it's rather academic whether or not I recommend this, as it's almost impossible to find, especially outside the UK and if you're a Mellotron nut, it's probably at the top of your 'wants' list, whatever I have to say about it. A reissue is apparently a no-no, permanently, so if you're absolutely hell-bent on owning a copy, keep your eyes open and good luck.
See: Be-Bop Deluxe | Mike Pinder | The Moody Blues | Patrick Moraz | Climax Blues Band | Woolly Wolstenholme | Barclay James Harvest | Maestoso
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Roqueting Through Space (2011, 46.25) ****/T |
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| Vibravoid: No Silver Bird Vert:x: I Come From Another Planet, Baby Helicon: Hallogallo Cranium Pie with Baking Research Station: Blacksand The Luck of Eden Hall: Lucifer Sam |
Frobisher Neck: Isi The Grand Astoria: Oh Yeah Diarmuid MacDiarmada: Telstar Alpha Omega: Transdimensional Paradox Sendelica with Nik Turner: Urban Guerilla |
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Fruits de Mer's LP/7" set Roqueting Through Space is a tribute to space rock in all its glory, the contributing artists all tackling the genre in their own inimitable styles. I don't know if the label rejected anything, but there's not a bad track here, from Vibravoid's take on the obscure Hooterville Trolley's No Silver Bird, through Helicon's lengthy Hallogallo (possibly Neu!'s best-known track), The Luck of Eden Hall's excellent Lucifer Sam (Pink Floyd, duh) to Diarmuid MacDiarmada's krautrock version of Joe Meek/The Tornados' Telstar, other covered acts including Can and Julian Cope. The 'bonus 7"' contains versions of two (actually three) Hawkwind tracks, Alpha Omega concocting an inventive mash-up of Transdimensional Man and the superb Paradox, while Sendelica actually get Nik Turner to play on their slightly dancey Urban Guerilla.
Tony "Frobisher Neck" Swettenham adds upfront Mellotron flutes and strings to Neu!'s Isi, although the strings on Cranium Pie/Baking Research Station's take on Brainticket's Blacksand are presumably sampled. The bad news is that this isn't available on CD and the vinyl's long sold out; come on, chaps, bugger all that 'vinyl is king' stuff and stick this out on a little shiny disc...
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SI Magazine: Compilation Disc (1991, 72.42) *½/½ |
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| Brassé: Pawn Overture Pendragon: Fallen Dreams and Angels Landmarq: Suite St.Helen's The Last Detail: Man Out of Time Tracy Hitchings: Escape |
Oblique: Time Differences: Changing Jadis: The Beginning and the End For Absent Friends: Attitude Now: Back to the Silence |
Gandalf: The Call of Nature Egdon Heath: Secret Fence Shadowland: Dorian Gray Pallas: War of Words |
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One of the first independent progressive labels of the '90s, The Netherlands' S.I. (Sym-Info) are now largely forgotten, despite their groundbreaking work; they went to the wall in the middle of the decade, doubtless due to the standard cashflow problems encountered by labels run by fans, although most of their better releases have been reissued on other labels. Actually, if we're going to be brutally honest, S.I.'s roster was pretty awful, with the likes of neo-prog horrors For Absent Friends, Aragon and Egdon Heath, although they also gave Scots experimentalists-turned-neoproggers-turned-Genesis-copyists Citizen Cain a chance and were the first label to reissue Twelfth Night's seminal Live & Let Live (*****), whilst also foisting several dreary Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena) projects on the world, amongst other unpleasantnesses. Basically, with a handful of exceptions, they released then-current neo-prog by bands who were never going to get a deal with anyone else. Ever. See: Coda.
The wittily-titled SI Magazine: Compilation Disc (the large '10' on the cover refers to the mag's tenth anniversary) featured most of the early-'90s' neo-prog leading lights (such as they were), including some who never actually released anything else on the label, not to mention several exclusive and never reissued tracks. Among these are my good friend Nick May's only recorded work with Jadis, before being dropped like the proverbial hot potato and the only thing Pallas released in their twelve-year gap between albums, War Of Words. It's this last that interests us here, as it's also their last recorded Mellotron work, played by returning original keyboard player Mike Stobbie, who eventually left to be replaced by his original replacement, Ronnie Brown. With me so far? It's actually a piece of unmitigated AOR shite, to be quite honest and really should have been left unavailable, in my (very) 'umble opinion, featuring a brief and distant choir part that does nothing to dig the song out of its quagmire of slop. Unfortunately, in their completist zeal, the band elected to include it on their massive archive effort, Mythopoeia, albeit in MP3 form, although that does mean that completist fans won't have to shell out the sheckels for this dismal effort, if they simply can't bear to be without it.
The rest of the album's pretty awful, too, but as it's long-unavailable and exceedingly unlikely to be reissued, you're not going to find a copy anyway. Gandalf's hilariously-titled The Call Of Nature brings to mind Now (also present here)'s side-splitting debut, Complaint of the Wind, not to mention Québecois Visible Wind's entire career. Want to use English idioms? Ask an expert. Or at least an English speaker. OK, for what it's worth, the only tracks which didn't trigger an overpowering urge in me to hit the 'skip' button were the ones by (maybe surprisingly) Landmarq, Jadis and Gandalf, while Now's effort had some nice Yes-like 'da da da's, although the track sounds a bit throwaway.
So; you're rather unlikely to find this, but in case you've actually got it on your 'wants' list for some strange reason, I can only urge you to delete it immediately. The bulk of this compilation is irredeemably horrible and should never have been released. Unequivocal? Moi?
See: Pallas
