EDGAR FROESE: Aqua - 2005 CD
All I can say is "wow" - the first time in this series of reworkings that the new edition eclipses the original. Take the title track - the wealth of synthesized water sounds now serves as a backdrop for a groove-laden set of electronic and electro-percussive rhythms, slowly moving at first but gradually adding strength as the rhythms become louder and assorted sequencers are added, the whole thing sounding exactly like something off a vintage Pete Namlook album, and just superb - after this, you'll never listen to the original again and think anything other than it's past its sell-by date - this new reworking is fantastic. The mellotron feast that was 'Panorphelia' has largely been kept intact and, apart from some space synths flying overhead, stays pretty well the same, subtle overlays managing and a beautiful core track. The same largely applies to the sequencer-led 'NGC 891' where any synth additions actually enhance the track as a whole and leaves you wondering why it never sounded so good before, as the sequencers roll on, the core melodies swirl as before but string synth layers and curiously seventies-sounding textural overlays are all added to the effect that the track becomes a hybrid of Froese & Schulze in one fell swoop. 'Upland' is hardly touched, while the album finishes as it began, this time giving 'Upland Dawn' a complete makeover that turns it into a solid, driving, rhythmic thunder of a track with booming drums, grinding electronics and cyclical electronic and percussive rhythms producing a mesmerising effect that is just brilliant and positively blitzes the original, of which there's actually not a lot left by the time Froese's finished with it in this case. So, a classic seventies album becomes a classic new millennium reworking - even better and rather excellent.
EDGAR FROESE: Macula Transfer - 2005 CD
Well, the good news here is that he's hardly changed a thing - for the opening two tracks, always timeless pieces of seventies synths/mellotrons/sequencers music, the overlays and textural additions have been kept both subtle and, where more evident, totally in keeping with the flavour and nature of the track - thus, what you hear is practically the original album - and all the better for it. The same applies to the other three tracks where any enhancements, really are just that, and the result is that this remains one of, if not THE, finest albums the musician ever made.
EDGAR FROESE: Stuntman - 2005 CD
Right from the start, you see that the guy is thinking very much along the same lines as I was - the old title track sounded stale and slow and stilted - now, given a more contemporary makeover but following the same melodic guidelines, it has become altogether more vibrant, more urgent, faster and decidedly more magical than before.` Far from subtle, throughout the album, whole sections have been redone or enhanced, often quite markedly, but nearly always following the structure and feel of the track concerned, as always with this series, using the core of the original album as a template on which to paint an even more extensive musical portrait. The result is an album that sounds so much fresher than ever before, an album that lacked life and character, now turned into something altogether sharper and more musically satisfying.
EDGAR FROESE: Pinnacles CD
The original was fairly faceless - despite the enhancements, nothing's changed - it's been given a lot fuller sound in the main, but even that can't hide the compositional wasteland that is this album. I can't say too much about the extra music as, even though it's only a few weeks since I heard the original, I can't remember a thing about it. Call this a review? Of course, you don't - but it's all you're getting.
MARK JENKINS: If The World Were Turned On Its Head, We Would Walk Among The Stars CD
An album of three tracks that range from fourteen to over twenty-five minutes long. But what I love about this album, and what makes it work so well, is that here you have both a musician and a composer using analogue synths and sequencers and doing his best NOT to sound like yet another T Dream copyist. Sure, the very sounds he uses, the sequencer runs he produces, do sound very "seventies", very "Berlin"-derived, but it's the way he arranges, assembles and composes it all, that make this album such a refreshing change. The twenty-five minute title track opens the proceedings, and far from outstaying its welcome, it actually goes through many different changes, changes that are still long enough within the track to enjoy to their fullest, but, ever aware of dynamics, the moment he feels an idea's done its bit, he moves on. The result is an absolutely stunning slice of music with plenty of swirling synth melodies, some ultra-strong sequencer work both at the top and bottom end of the scales, and there are parts of this where the sequencer work would have most T. Dream fans foaming at the mouth in delight, as the big beefy rhythms move ever forward. Choc full of layers, melodies, rhythms and general electronic spaciness, this is one magnificent track and, arguably, the finest composition in this style that he's done to date. The fifteen minute 'I Have Known The Void' continues the sound and feel of the first track to a more easy-going, but no less engaging an extent, the first six or so minutes standing largely in the spacey furnace of a hot glowing sun, only for an unexpected resonant African drum rhythm to emerge, as all manner of space music soundscapes swirl and sizzle away on top. Then the drums accelerate and multi-track, a glorious string synth takes centre stage as wickedly strong bass sequencers come right out at you, and the whole thing just dives forward in unstoppable fashion, this immense sound of synths, string synths, space synths, drums and sequencers, all arranged and played seemingly effortlessly and with maximum feeling, captures your head and heart as you sit there and take it all in. The album ends with the fourteen minute 'Nutty Puppet Mayhem', again starting slowly in resonant bass depths and flowing cosmic synths, but after just over a minute, the awesomely beefy sequencer rhythm emerges, combines with ever increasing synth soundscapes and backdrops that well up from below and all around, as the synth rhythms and undulating fast sequencer lead lines, all take over. Cascades of high-register synth tinklings allied to strong bass from below, and more, all serve to create this richly textured yet solid and never standing still, slice of triple threat electronic music - a 100% certified gem, and no mistake.
PETER MERGENER & FRIENDS: Live In Concert - Nox Mystica DVD+CD
Incredible value for money package - you not only get the DVD concert but you also get the full thing on an audio CD, all in one lavishly packaged set.
The CD I reviewed last year so dig that out to see just how great that is. For now, we'll concentrate on the DVD. First off, it's immaculately recorded on all fronts - audio and visual - with crystal clear production and visuals. The even better thing is that the concert is performed by a quartet with Mergener and the gorgeous Alquimia on synths, with electric guitarist and drummer, and you get the whole concert, too. Not only all that, but there's a huge backdrop showing more visuals. It's rare enough these days to get a live concert DVD by a synth band that isn't Jarre-related, rarer still to get one as good as this - because on all levels, musical and visual, it's simply a stunning set of synth music that really will entertain and enthral for a long time to come - plus there are all sorts of bonus features on the DVD too. At this price, AND with the audio CD too, you just can't go wrong with this.
NEURONIUM: Quasar 2C361+Vuelo Quimico - Remastered DBLCD
Wow - in retail terms, this is where I began - talk about bringing back memories. I've not heard these two albums (the band's first and second albums respectively) for over twenty years, so it's very much a case of "let's see if they've stood the test of time" - so, let us, indeed, see……….
The opening, title, track on the first CD lasts twenty-six minutes, opens with synths, flute and acoustic guitar sounding for all the world like more pastoral answer to the spacier parts of T Dream's 'Alpha Centauri' before the string synths emerge and the next ten minutes are spent in full-sounding seventies cosmic mode with all sorts of layers and spacey melodies rising up to provide a superb sounding sea of synth music. This takes us to twelve minutes whereupon what comes up from the depths is this massive sequencer rhythm that is pure "Berlin/Tangs" and, around this resonant sequencer rhythm, all manner of phased, swirling, shifting, space synths are heard to provide this immense cosmic backdrop, as the sequencer rhythm become even more "classic seventies Tangerine Dream' sounding and take centre stage to such a degree with the melodic and spacey backdrops that you could easily be listening to a parallel universe 'Green Desert' or even 'Ricochet' and when the soaring electric guitar lead comes in around the seventeen minute park, you are in seventies-era Tangerine Dream-sounding heaven, and it's just immaculate. This carries on to the twenty-one minute point whereupon the sequencers disappear to leave the swirling phased organ and synths, above which this gorgeous melody is heard as the whole piece slowly rises and flows towards a tranquil and magical finish, ending as it began with synths, acoustic guitar and flute. Stood the test of time? Hell, yeh - and then some!!!! The eight minute 'Catalepsia' is the sound of the spacey, swirling cosmic music of the first track, briefly injected with sequencer and guitar, and its phasing makes it sound so "of its time" if not beyond, and the effect is addictive. The five minute 'El Valle De Rimac' is the start of what would later become the band's trademark sounding "psychotronic" space music as the mix of melody and cosmic begins to unwind from synths, organ and effects. The album ends on four minutes of chiming guitars, soaring synths/organ and sounds more like something from really early Schulze, ending proceedings on a full-sounding slice of melodic magic.
The second album, 'Vuelo Quimico' was, at the time (1978), the one renowned for "featuring Nico" but the reality was that, while her contribution to the fourteen minute title track was icing on the cake, the album has a whole showed that the trio of musicians was moving firmly in the right direction as a force to be reckoned with alongside the Berlin triumvirat of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Sculze & Ah Ra, as the music on this album more than amply illustrates. The twenty minute Abismos Di Terciopelo' that opens the album, adds mellotron to the space synths/organ and then weaves a gorgeous lead synth melody above the backdrops, as, slowly, extra synth layers and strings are added, a so-emotive electric guitar lead emerges and then, just over seven minutes in, the sequencer rhythms begin as the track takes off to the cosmos on a suitably Tangerine Dream-sounding slice of magic, to the twelve minute point where a Fripp-esque lead guitar just sails over the winding , flowing synths background and then fades, whereupon a typical slice of their cosmic, melodic space music takes you to the end of the track - superb stuff. Just under three minutes of pulsing electronic rhythms, space synths and undulating synth melodies take you on to the fourteen minute title track, that opens with one minute of Nico's wondrous spoken-word vocal above the chiming strains of a harpsicord-sounding keyboard and space synth swoops as string synth emerges and then layer upon layer is added, including more space synths, string synths, electric guitar and synth swoops, to create this magical sounscape to the eleven minute point as Nico re-emerges for another minute, then the skies gather, the cosmic sea swells and the sound of choral-led space synths and keys takes you to a seriously uplifting end. In many ways, as timeless, if not as overtly "strong" as the first album, it nevertheless is a mighty work that still sounds great.
PERCEPTUAL DEFENCE: Wishtone CD
Ltd to just 99 copies, this is probably going to be close to out of print by the time you read it, but it's a 4-track, fifty-six minute album performed by the musician on synths and it's an album of epic, deep, dark and occasionally droning space/cosmic music that stretches out in front of you in its own infinite universe of sound. Mostly from the darkside, this isn't going to win any prizes for lightening your mood, but it is seriously addictive once you dive in, so be warned. Musically, it's well crafted and performed with the musician ensuring that the soundscapes and space electronics don't become boring or end up disappearing up their own Uranus. As deep and eerie, sometimes challenging, totally addictive and decidedly dark electronic cosmic music goes, this is quite innovative stuff.
PYRAMID PEAK: Caveland CD
Brand new seventy-three minute, 9 track studio album The fourteen minute title track that opens the album starts sedately enough with a hushed array of space synths and water droplets, before this huge cyclical sequencer rhythm emerges and proceeds to dominate the landscape. Then an echoed, distant voice is heard and the combination of the voice and sequencer rhythms, now overlaid and stronger, not only, and surprisingly, works a treat, but somehow takes me right back to the early seventies, evoking a memory almost remembered, but musically not sounding seventies at all - strange, but it works, as sequencers have rarely sounded so full of feeling, and a way of opening the album that is both familiar and yet innovative at the same time. The use of spoken word samples emerges for the first couple of wildly spacey minutes of the ten minute 'Beasts Of The Hill' only for a gorgeous string synth to appear as everything else stops, and the sound of strings and thudding percussive beats welling up from below, create a most wonderful soundscape. Sequencer rhythms then emerge and the combination of string synths, weaving lead melodies and cyclical sequencers continue to work their magic. With their sights set firmly in the electronic universe, what this band produce is a richly textured, solid enough mix of sequencers, cosmic synths and traditional Euro-mainland melodic and flowing synth compositions, yet they manage not only to do it so well, but in a way that doesn't have those comparisons leaping out of your head at any time - instead it's an album to turn on and enjoy for what it is, and that's a rather excellent slice of multi-synths magic with real depth and feeling.
RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL: Emissaries DBLCD
Half new studio album, half live radio broadcast - all rather wonderful!!
The studio disc lasts an hour, contains no surprises other than the fact that the band have created a brand of "Berlin"-influenced music that's gone way beyond a lot of what many similar bands allude to creating. The opening track of this disc is practically the three year history of Tangerine Dream from '74-'76 distilled into sixteen glorious minutes - and then it stretches even further, aas the waves of mellotrons, sequencers, synths and electric guitar create as spectacular and warm-feeling a track in this musical genre as you'll ever hear. Without a break, it segues into the next thirteen minute section, and here, amid rolling sequencers, backdrop string synths, soaring lone synth lead and bass-heavy percussive sequencers, a siren-call of synths slowly meanders to the surface to put the icing on an already substantial cake, a steaming electric guitar solo wah-wah'ing its way to the top then disappearing almost as soon as it appeared. The nine minute 'Mad Bob' track goes back even further to the sound of Tangerine Dream around 1974 and one of their typical live improvisations, while the nine minute 'Emissaries' strays more into the sound of '75-era Ash Ra mixed with '74-era T Dream-esque mellotrons, and all of it simply stunning to hear. A seven minute space music mixture boils away in its cosmic cauldron and the disc ends with a wondrously sedate three minute, slowly flowing mix of distant guitar, gentle percussives, deep resonant electric bass and fades into glory just as you could do with this whole new universe unfolding - to be continued, I guess. Overall, one of their finest studio works to date that can't fail to amaze and delight anyone into this style of music.
The second disc, recorded live on Philadelphia radio in 2004, is the sound of the group improvising in and into the small hours, with a seventy-six minute track that is truly breathtaking, and amply illustrates the almost telepathic approach that this band have come to know, with a sea of mellotrons, synths, sequencers and guitar that rivals the best of what the mid-seventies T Dream has become renowned for doing. You don't need a blow-by-blow account to know that, if you're a fan of that era's music and a fan of the best of what RMI have done to date, then this will just blow you away.
STELLA MARIS: To The Promised Land CD
First new release in ages from the former Hyperium label band, and it's a new studio work that's crafted to perfection in terms of its arrangements, songs and production. With acres of synths, heavenly choirs, angelic vocals, soaring female vocal, tranquil male support vocal and legions of electronics, drums and acc/el guitars, it's very much a mix of Enigma & Adiemus, only without the prevailing tweeness and commerciality that each of those possesses. Here every songs sounds solid and the contrast between the two voices works beautifully in the context of the richly arranged and multi-tiered instrumental backings, from soaring synths to crunchy drums, but always uplifting and several songs guaranteed to send shivers down your spine every time. Throughout, there is great attention to detail with the production bringing out the best - 'Your Head On My Shoulder' featuring rich synth textures, but also layers of piano, drums, acoustic guitars, vocals and percussion, all perfectly audible in the excellent mix. With a fair share of chunky beats and rhythms, this album drives forward to quite gorgeous effect.
TIM STORY: Caravan CD
A soundtrack album from an apparently stunning film shot in Africa and Nepal and this music, while it may well fit perfectly with the film, is just wonderful outside of it. The master of melody and atmosphere that is keyboards/synth maestro Story teams up with collaborators on percussion, woodwinds and cello, with different teams on each track - sometimes solo, sometimes duo, etc - to creat an album of gloriously evocative music that positively exudes the wonders of the natural world, from the giddy heights of the mountain ranges to the burning heat of the desert. But none of it is done in any way a clichéd manner - this is music from the heart, mus8c that means something, music that stirs the soul, warms the heart and fills your head with wonders. The combination of the synths and cello on a track such as 'Hidden Country' is just so beautiful and almost sad in a lovely sort of way that you can feel the lump developing in your throat as it goes, then the mood changes slightly as piano chords and wordless chanted voice emerge to take you to an altogether higher level - just amazing. Over a total of 22 tracks, the music never fails you once. Each track is a painting in sound, a soundtrack to a movie in your mind let alone to one on the big screen. This is keyboards, synth and textures, occasionally percussive, that takes you to worlds apart and out there on the greatest journey of all - the musical discovery of your own inner self - while at the same time being rooted completely in the world around us. This is quality music, melodic music, richly textured, lovingly composed and beautifully created music, music for the soul into which you immerse yourself and are enriched as a result. "Magnificent" doesn't do it justice!!!
V/A: Lightnoise DBLCD
Ltd to just 99 copies, this features all new, long and exclusive tracks by all the leading figures in the world of Italian space synth music, including Solyaris, Klaus Wiese, Oophoi & Klaus Wiese, L.E.M., Oophoi & Tau Ceti, Tau Ceti, Sostrah Tinnitus, Netherworld and Perceptual Defence. The whole two hours is a glorious celebration of drifting, deep, dark, spacious, expansive, droning, mysterious, relaxing, eerie, spine-tingling and ultimately endlessly hypnotic cosmic/space synths/electronics and anyone into this style would be wise to snap these up as soon as possible before they disappear completely.
CYRILLE VERDEAUX: Solar Translation - Kundalini Opera Vol 3 CD
With a support band that includes Gong's Didier Malherbe on saxophone and flute, as well as musicians on electric guitar, violin and bass guitar, keyboards/synths wizard Verdeaux has created a quite joyous celebration of the human spirit. The album opens with a thoroughly sprightly slice of music revolving around keys, flute and sinuous violin, as the track positively drives along on an almost Gong-like rhythmic base only with the electric bass well upfront and the drums sounding decidedly chunky, as the lead instruments weave the melodies that flow and soar on top, a full sound and gloriously produced whole all adding to the enjoyment. 'Elf Dance' that follows, is even faster paced and the sort of almost jig-like rhythms that have you leaping about the place unstoppably, as the lead violin, electric guitar and solo mini-moog-like synth take the stand, with the whole track once again rampaging along on a whirlwind of drums, bass, guitars, piano, violin, synth backdrops and more as this huge symphonic sound rolls inexorably forward. 'Shushunmna Tango' goes for a fast, trance-like rhythm and the effect is like a mix of Eat Static, Clear Light & Curved Air in some parallel universe, and when guitarist Christian Boule lets forth with, of all things, a harmonica solo, you just know you're on another plane of existence altogether, as the composition drives ahead with the violin soaring, the keys galloping and the whole rhythmic tour-de-force going at express proportions. This then is the story of the rest of the album - a mix of chunky ambient-trance rhythms delivered primarily on drums and electric bass, while all around the symphonic, melodic and huge-sounding sea of instruments, dominated by the keys, synths and violin, conjure many leads and layers that keep it all so fascinating and enjoyable. A veritable symphonic trance of the danceable kind.
