AMBIENT/TRANCE/TECHNO, etc:
BT: Music From And Inspired BY The Film "Monster" CD+DVD
The audio CD lasts seventy four minutes, features fifteen tracks and is largely a simply gorgeous set of melodies, rhythms, atmospheres and arrangements, from start to finish. In its way it's really the perfect meeting of film music and ambient electronic, so that while you'll hear many layers of guitars, bass and percussion in there with the synths and keyboards, it's the overall effect that comes shining through as this warm, flowing and unbelievably beautiful melodic music makes its presence felt throughout, the stature and scope of film music with the undoubted warmth and heavenly music that is carefully thought-out downtempo ambient, and the sort of music that crosses the tastes of a wide horizon of music fans, from electronic through those who like a good melody in their music to those that like it truly inspirational. There isn't a less than engaging track on the entire album and it's just great music, more melodic guitars-keys-drums-bass than anything but with a warmth that will give you a deep glow inside on a cold winters day. The second disc is a DVD that contains over two hours of original music, the album in dts 5.1 surround sound and exclusive extras, overall, a quite superb package at an amazingly decent price.
GALAXY: Science Of Ecstasy CD
As classic an ambient album as they come with 9 tracks over a seventy-five minute running time and nothing less than brilliance throughout. Not only that, but it crosses over into an almost "Berlin School" style of things as typified by the solid and cascading sequencer rhythms that pop up throughout this CD. Apart from moments of a more spacey nature, it's generally a mix of Tangerine Dream, ambient dub, languid techno, blissful downtempo elegance, full-sounding and chilled-out expanses provided by layer upon layer of synth atmospherics, melodies and rhythms. It's one of those albums for which no mere review can do it justice, and if you like the sound of evolving cyclical synth, sequencer and electronic drums rhythms, all blended into this warm-sounding sea of soundscapes that immediately endear themselves to you and refuse to let go until you've heard the very last second of the CD - it's all absolutely brilliant and one of the finest of its kind I've heard for ages.
JUNO REACTOR: Labyrinth CD
For the first five minutes of the two-part track that begins this album, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd walked into the wrong album, as foreground acoustic guitars mix with string -like and flowing synth backdrops, sounding for all the world like something that recent Mike Oldfield might have come up with. But then this fierce sounding sea of synth rhythms and effects comes welling up from below and, from here on in, it's a full-on electronic rampage for the finishing line, as the album comes truly alive with a vengeance, a typhoon of pounding rhythms, huge-sounding synths, guitars and floor-shaking electronic drums, all provide the most perfect set of powerful passages that are positively jaw-dropping in their mix of strength, power, passion and direction. It's a wild ride through some of the most explosive sets of heavy technoid electro-industrial hammering that you'll witness, as track after track roars into your skull with a vengeance, but so remarkably composed to give the thematic core of the compositions an identity that means you not only enjoy what you are hearing, but you want to go back for more on many subsequent occasions. Quite brilliant.
TIM KOCH: Islandtones CD
Despite the presence of some quirky electronic and electro-percussive effects, melodies and rhythms on certain parts of this sixteen track, sixty-eight minute album, if you get below the surface, you'll actually find a most rewarding set of downtempo tunes unfolding before you. There are tracks that are majorly strange, but even these have a kind of hypnotic quality that's in keeping with the atmospheres of what is, admittedly, a rather strange album, overall. It's the sound of creativity at work, much of it succeeding, but even the odd ones that don't (in my opinion), have their charm, and you can be safe in the knowledge that nothing stays of the melodic, atmospheric path for too long. For those that like it languid, with acoustic guitars, synths, electronics, electronic drums, strings and deep electronic bass, this is really a quite lovely but adventurous album.
OS: Compilation CD
You know how it is when you hear something and you can't actually pinpoint what it is that hooks you, but inexorably hooked you become - this album's like that. The easiest access point, from a review way of looking at things, is the twelve minute track 'peterlp 1' which could almost be a partner track to the magnificent and timeless Astralasia classic, 'Aloo', and it's almost safe to say that if you know and love that track, then you'll know and love this one too - starts with a gorgeously expansive, drifting string synth line in the distant horizon, as, slowly further layers and rhythms are added and the track becomes altogether more cohesive and solid as it goes. But whereas the 'Aloo' track maintained a certain electronic ambient-trance presence, this one decides to veer off in an altogether different direction, so that just over the five minute point, a train-like set of electro-percussive rhythms begins, the electronics subside a little, and the ride begins, as layers of hypnotic synths and throbbing bass are added to awesome effect, and, building more synth and electronic textures and layers as it goes, this train-time piece surges to its amazing conclusion - a track that is simply incredible.
The twenty-five minute 'Bear Loop', although slightly cyclical as the name suggests, is actually predominantly rhythmic for the first seven minutes, with chunky beats and layers of electronics and bass, similar in feel and construction to the previous track, before the rhythms subside to leave acres of flowing synths, electronics and textural supports, that flow, drift and soar to full-sounding effect, until thirteen minutes when this searing mass of phased electronic-drum dominated rhythms sweeps aside everything in their path, the rhythms still very much in a souped-up ambient dub vein, but sounding so harsh yet to stunning effect. Just short of sixteen minutes, the track returns to its more tranquil start, only this time assorted synths and samples help determine the final voyage of the piece, as it drives amid a myriad layers and textures, to its chunkily rhythmic conclusion, and another gem of a piece. Before all this, 3 seven and 2 nine minute tracks, all exuded the spirit, feel, depth, warmth and textural density of the tracks reviewed, with not a less than engaging second on any of them, the opener, 'Star Destroyer (jabba dub)', starting with soaring cyclical, semi-phased electronic rhythmic cascades, as electronic drums enter, a thudding beat emerges and the whole canopy of sound starts to expand, the track possessing all the magic of the finest early Astralasia dubbier tracks, but without the clichés that go with them, as solid and satisfying a slice of driving ambient dub at its chilled-out, downtempo best.
RAPOON: My Life As A Ghost CD
Seventy-two minute studio album that uses rhythm as a weapon in almost the same way that the early pioneers of Krautrock such as Can & Faust used to do, way back in the early seventies. Only here we have an almost ambient-techno version of Krautrock with electronic drums to the fore, ghostly swooshings of electronics that spread all over the musical horizon, bursts of electronics that provide a sort of foreground focus, occasional narration that adds to the effect, sometimes brief, sometimes more strung out, and an overall impression that hearkesn back in many ways to a modern ambient version of Byrne & Eno's 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' project, with whose atmosphere, this shares a great deal, albeint with the atmosphere substituting for the busy sound of the former, while the ongoing drums rhythms and longer tracks make this an altogether more languid, chilled-out yet bitingly appealing experience. Even on a track such as 'Terrain Sounds' with its opening miles of electronic choral effects and space electronics, as rhythms are pushed to be heard above it all, until this thudding, shuffling electronic drum rhythm rises to the top accompanied by an ocean of droning electronic choral sea, you're talking a sensation that is both modern in terms of contemporary downtempo electronic music, et also has feet firmly derived in both the feel of the seventies, in terms of its almost pioneering approach, and the sound of the eighties, in terms of its willingness to create and assemble. Track through impressive track reveals some of the most mesmerising rhythm-based electronic music that you've yet heard from a true creative force in music and for many years a genuine musical pioneer - the fact that after all this time he can still produce an album as awesome as this, one that takes your breath away every time you play it, a testament to his talent - amazing!!!!
V/A: Goa Classics Vol 2 3CD SET
Across three CD's, you'll hear the most infectious brew of floor-filling, foot-stomping, head-bending, far-out psychdelic Goa Trance. Even though listed as a wealth of different artists, all the music on here has been created, arranged, played and produced by exceptional talent Jake Stephenson, who sadly died only a few days before this review was completed. Featuring tracks from many of his previous "compilation" releases, this can almost be seen as a "greatest hits" guide to the huge-sounding mix of synths, sequencers, electronic drums and programs, swirling space synths, thudding rhythms and dynamic drive that he employed by the truckload in the creation of the music. Here the discs are separated out into "Psychedlic Moon Stompers" on CD1, "Transcendental Transmissions" on CD2 and "Moonlight Chillouts" on CD3, all played with bongloads of passion, as the highly addictive rhythms and melodies put you under their spell at the same time as having you leaping around the room like a whirling dervish. Through three massive sounding full-length CD's of melody, muscle and movement, this is Goa Trance at its heartfelt finest and a wonderful testament to just a part of the electronic music talents of such a great musician and arranger.
EURO-ROCK/CONTEMPORARY:
CRANIOCLAST: Lost In Karak & Somnii Parlus CD
The 5th track on here lasts twenty-four minutes - imagine the spacey bits of Tangerine Dream's 'Alpha Centauri' album crossed with certain parts of Cluster's ground-breaking album 'II', add a touch of eerie industrial cosmic backdrops, and you pretty well sum up the nature, flavour, atmosphere, origin and soundscapes of the space music epic that unfolds before you, on a track that is as timeless as its aforementioned pioneers. Before this, we have 4 eleven minute slices of eerie cosmic, keyboards/electronics-derived music that, in terms of sound and feel, mix CMI label industrial darkwave space music with early seventies pioneers of the genre in a supremely heady structure that will seriously derange and disengage, yet it's so utterly hypnotic, you'll find yourself sucked right in to its musical black hole.
GROBSCHNITT: Die Grobschnitt Story 5 DBLCD
Over two and a half hours of previously unreleased tracks, of which the first eighty minute disc is all music, while, of the second eighty minute disc, just under half is music, the rest composed of lots of sections of early interviews and typically Grobschnitt madness, a definite "plus" if you can speak German. So, effectively you are still getting just under two hours of music for your money and a trip around the "programmable tracks" part of your CD player on the second. But, despite the nearly all instrumental tracks on CD2, which when played together sound just fantastic, it's still CD1 that you will be playing to death with some surging music which just builds and builds from the five minute 'Der Western' through nine minutes of fiery 'Nickelodeon' to eleven minutes of 'Magic Train', and all of this just the starter for what's to come, even though you'll hear some powerful and magical instrumental work from the guitars, synths and rhythm section that cook up a most potent brew.
Because, then it's into the full eighteen minutes of 'Der Sinfonie', a live rendition of the longest track from the very first album, and here sounding so on-fire and urgent, as it powers its way into your head with a passion, the work from the bass, drums, organ and guitars sounding just unbelievably red hot and sensational. For this is the sound of a complete eighty minute concert from 1973 - yes, 1973!! - and you're plunged headlong into the classic, psychdelic, ground-breaking, distinctive sounding seventies Krautrock explosion and what you're hearing here is simply jaw-dropping as the guitars, keys and rhythm section deliver a seriously strong psych-prog offering.
But, if all that didn't have you salivating, the best is saved for last as the band launch into a 1973 live rendition of the undeniably classic epic, 'Solar Music', and here you witness the birth of what was to become one of their, not to mention rock as a whole's, greatest live tracks ever. With a strong introduction that sees the band and vocalist on fire, the track dies down to a more cosmic Krautrock sea of atmosphere as guitars shimmer, the keys provide a deep river of sound below and the bass gently throbs, this calming down even more to just guitars and keys, before, around eight minutes on, the drums re-enter, bass throbs, the organ provides the backdrop to the chiming guitars and then it begins - the cyclical riff that the band as a whole start to play, becoming louder, more thunderous, more intense as your skull threatens to explode from the sheer magical way the passage is building, only saved when the lead guitar breaks out into a searing solo above the still building sea of Krautrock thunder. For the next twenty minutes you are lifted out of your body to an altogether better place as the magnificence that is this performance of 'Solar Music' takes you up and out there on wave after scorching wave of driving, addictive rhythms, organ backdrops, a seriously full, mighty sound and some of the most fiery red-hot electric guitar duelling that you've ever heard, so potent you'd think you were in the middle of some Led Zeppelin maelstrom only proggier and way more psychedelic. All of this rises to an almost unbearable climax as you just sit there, open-mouthed at what you're hearing, barely able to come down from a high so incredible, but then the track begins the journey down for you as the brakes are finally applied and it's full speed down to a pace that is positively sedate, the final four minutes appearing so blissful and languid in comparison, as the guitars chime slowly the rhythm section takes you down and the organs fills out the sound, a truly cosmic climax to the almost hallucinogenic musical trip you've just been on - and one of the most amazing tracks you'll ever hear.
Believe me, you'll play CD1 for years and years to come - it's 32 years old and sounds absolutely timeless - and it's worth the price for this on its own. Another triumph from the archives and another reason you should own every version of 'Solar Music' (and there are many) that you can lay your hands on.
JANE: III - Remaster CD
Third album in and a band showing that, so far, no album could typify the band - after the debut with stinging guitars and surging organ, from around 1972, through the rather short but more molten production that was 'Here We Are', came this classic of the Krautrock era and a band now more concerned with guitars, as the quartet of two guitarists, bass and drums provide a quite magical brew of mid-seventies rock as on the Germans could do at the time - in other words, inventive and free of the normal influences, carving out a niche of their own, bluesy to a degree, but in no way really comparable with anyone else. Opening with the best track on the album in the form of the nine minute 'Comin' Again', where that shimmering guitar riff that carries the song along, still sounds so awesome to this day, while the remastered sound brings so much more to the music than you ever really heard from the, now stale-sounding, original. After this, 8 other songs reveal some corking Krautrock songs and instrumental work on tracks averaging around five minutes a-piece, as the German equivalent, to a degree, of Groundhogs, mostly let rip on some outstanding tracks. As seventies rock, that is more rock than metal, goes, this is still a gem.
YATHA SIDHRA: A Meditation Mass CD
From the days when the Europeans were crossing genres like a greyhound on speed, comes this gem of a psychedelic-Kraut-electronic crossover album from 1974, which exudes such wondrously heady atmospheres, it's the musical equivalent of burning joss stix. A four-part single composition, the track opens with lilting bass, slowly cascading, chiming guitars, bongos, soaring flute and gently rhythmic drumkit. The accent is on melody and atmosphere as the sheer feel of the seventies and echoes of hippies in front of open log fires or smoke-filled rooms enshrouded in patterned cloth and candles, are evoked with the spirituality of a religious homage. This opening track, at nearly eighteen minutes, th longest part of the composition, slowly winds, flows and soars its way through an ever changing landscape, the distant chiming guitars and undulating bongo rhythms acting as heart and rhythm, while the flute, assorted distant effects and, eventually, chanting vocal, maintain a musical spell that has you well and truly hooked. I don't normally like something that features flute heavily, but the feel and atmosphere of this part has remained a favourite of mine for 30+ years and still sounds timeless to this day.
A more solid sounding three minute part two with flute and electric piano taking the lead over a way cool jazzy bassline and drum work, lead you into the twelve minute third section, this time with a distinctly Floydian bass line over the slightly more strident bongos, while the flute climbs ever higher on some fantastic lead work, shortly overtaken with phased guitars to provide yet another gem of a texture as the drums, percussion and bass take a now more directly rhythmic route as the whole mix becomes heavily phased to magical extent, the pure essence of the seventies, shining through. The pace quickens and the guitars and phased effects carry on to just short of eight minutes when it all decelerates and the sound of electric bass and rippling electric piano bring you back to earth, before another Floyd-like, slow bassline starts to move forward above which the flute soars sinuously once again and the drums slowly re-enter, once again now providing a similarly heady atmosphere to what started it all off, and this languid sea of slowly moving yet ever changing melodies and layers delivers the goods to both head and heart. The final seven minute part four, reprises and continues the sounds and feel of part one, taking the album to a positively sublime ending. Consider yourself thoroughly cleansed and spiritually awakened. A gem!!!
GENERAL:
GROUNDHOGS: Hogs In Wolf's Clothing CD
Somehow down the line, I'd missed out on this album, but, on hearing it now, I realise what I've missed. A tribute to the giant of blues that is Howlin' Wolf, here a three-piece Groundhogs led by the electric and electrifying guitar work of vocalist Tony McPhee, unleash 15 corking tracks, all covers, that include such timeless classics as 'Smokestack Lightning', 'No Place To Go', 'Ain't Superstitious', 'Wang Dang Doodle', 'Down In The Bottom' and many more, all given the searing Groundhogs makeover. You can tell this was a labout of love for the band, and McPhee in particular, as he provides one of his finest vocal performances throughout, delivering the songs with passion, while throughout the electric guitar, solos and drives to perfection, making a whole raft of traditional blues standards sound magical and memorable. This is the heart and soul of electric blues at its very roots, without a lass than amazing version on the entire album, so why don't you make up for lost time right now and get this album - you won't regret it, believe me. Blues-rock UK at its best.
GUITAR MUSIC/GREAT GUITARISTS:
JIMI HENDRIX: Am I Blue DBLCD
This time, a double CD of his blues jams that focuses firmly and squarely on the great man's guitar work across two CD's of excellent quality, essentially previously unreleased, music. Now you'll notice I said "essentially" and that's because this CD has come out at practically the same time as the 'Villanova Junction' single CD, with which this double shares three of its 9 tracks, notably a couple of ten minute tracks and the twenty-seven minute 'Villanova Junction Blues'. This means that, if you get this, then you'll have all but twenty five minutes of the 'Villanova' CD, making this one the one to get. From the 'Villanova' CD you have one of THE finest tracks you'll have heard from the man - the opening part being the song, '3 Little Bears', delivered in typically rolling fashion, before the song becomes the end eight minutes of 'South Southern Delta' and you've rarely heard such beautiful, laid-back and so exquisite playing from him before, as the track just sails effortlessly by, the playing so beautiful and expressive. The ten minute 'Country Blues' (two minutes longer than the 'Villanova' version), although a little more rhythmically uptempo, nevertheless remains a fine vehicle for some, initially laid-back, electric guitar work that becomes a smouldering sea of guitar heaven, never actually taking off, but remaining solid and expressive from start to finish, almost funky and bluesy at the same time. The version of 'Hear My Train A Comin' on this double CD is actually different from the one on 'Villanova' so we'll come to that in a minute. The other track that crosses over is the twenty-seven minutes of 'Villanova Junction Blues' , here a previously unreleased "studio" rendition. The initial riff will be familiar to many who know and love the 'Rainbow Bridge' double, and the epic instrumental jam is full of the stuff you know and love about the group's playing with some sizzling guitar work throughout, from laid-back through explosive to blues and beyond, always melodic and just a towering example of the man's guitar genius.
Elsewhere, you have nearly ten minutes of the instrumental 'Stray Blues' that is simply fantastic, while CD2 opens with one of THE bluesiest renditions of 'Voodoo Chile' that you'll have heard, featuring Steve Winwood on organ and a track that rises to unbelievably great guitar-led heights. The version of 'Hear My Train A Comin', at twelve minutes long, is an excellent quality sound live track that really sums up what the guitarist was all about, managing to go from blues to furnace heat with such ease and passion that it makes you wonder why anyone else bothered to play the guitar after hearing this - luckily it worked the other way - everyone wanted to be Hendrix -hearing this, you can understand why. There's an eight minute slow blues of 'Once I Had A Woman' followed by the whole double album's only "less-than-pristine" sound quality track, a slightly echoey live rendition that is ten minutes of 'Cherokee Mist/In From The Storm/Valley Of Neptune', but, despite that, seriously enjoyable and fine in the context of this project. Overall, then, simply timeless, jaw-dropping electric guitar blues from THE master guitarist and a set you simply have to own.
