NEKTAR: Sounds Like This Remaster+Bonus CD DBLCD
The third of the trilogy that are, for me, the ESSENTIAL Nektar albums. As one who has always thought - and still thinks to this day - that 'Remember The Future' for all its plus points, does still not hold a candle to the first three albums, I regard this as the last great album that the band made before commercialism set in. The sound on this remaster is so vastly superior to anything that's gone before, you might as well throw the old copies in the nearest bin, because you'll never play them again after hearing this. The polish job that has gone on here has brought the instruments up so bright that you'll need sunglasses to listen to them. Throughout, the guitar and organ work is simply jaw-dropping, now, and it's like listening to a whole new album as every note rings out in absolute top production job clarity. The album itself is a mix of short songs and mini-epics, a song like the five minute 'New Day Dawning' having feet in the camps of Deep Purple & Led Zeppelin if you listen hard enough while the five minute 'What Ya Gonna Do' is a slice of prog-psych boogie that echoes Deep Purple circa 1972 only a lot tastier. Then you get the near thirteen minute '1-2-3-4' that allows the band to show off their psychedelic leanings with plenty of wah-wah guitar, choppy rhythms, streaming organ and some searing guitar leads along the way that are truly stunning, the mostly instrumental track really showcasing what this band were capable of producing and pure Nektar, in both senses of the word. Of all the albums they made, this is arguably THE classic Nektar album and certainly one that everyone into great seventies music with influences from the aforementioned bands and their own brand of space-rock, allied to some seriously fine song-writing, would do well to purchase. Across a reflective, and explosive in equal measure, seven minutes of 'Do You Believe In Magic' the band really lets rip after a positively gorgeous intro, to great effect, while the other 2 epics tracks that follow are simply brilliant. A couple more songs complete what is a slice of seventies genius that you can't afford to miss. But we don't want to give you that - oh no - we want to give you more - and more comes in the form of a bonus disc that featured the band, in the studio, performing a seventy minute set in front of an invited audience, but recorded 6 months before the sessions that became the main 'Sounds Like This' album and, thus, you'll hear what is essentially a crystal clear quality live set from the '72-era band that glows even more than the main album, with tracks that went on to be reworked for the main album, tracks that are embryonic versions of ideas that would lead to the 'Remember The Future' epic and jams along the way that simply showed how incendiary a live band this quartet was at that time. Including a twenty minute 'Cast Your Fate Jam' that is red hot from start to finish, the bonus disc is the delicious icing on an already addictive cake. As a double CD, you simply can't fault it.
SASQUATCH: Sasquatch CD
13 tracks in just under forty minutes from a stoner rock trio that is bluesier than most and really creates some storming tracks. The classic power trio format and they come up with a heady brew that tips its hat to everything from Blue Cheer to ZZ Top. Throughout the album there's an intensity but one that's never overbearing thanks to the crisp, sharp and immaculate arranging and producing, while the tracks themselves open out in a wall of fuzzed-to-feck psychedelic riffing, blood-curdling electric bass and solid, dynamic drumming, above which the guitarist sets the thing on stun and rolls right over you. Vocally, it's almost stoner Hetfield territory as they ride out to perfection. The tracks themselves are choc to death with melody and head-shaking riffery, easily most being the sort of thing you'd leap onto the rock dancefloor to get maximum air-guitar enjoyment out of. Nothing goes overly fast, but neither does it go overly slow - these guys know how to get the most out of a song - keeping it stoner but keeping it vibrant and alive, track after heavy track. The guitar positively smokes throughout, while the trio provide this monster sea of heavy stoner blues and boogie to perfection. A stunning album that is in a class of its own.
ROCK/METAL:
BUDGIE: Radio Sessions 1974 & 1978 DBLCD
The title is a tad misleading actually since it should really be called "Radio Broadcasts" as opposed to "sessions" since this album consists of two live concerts that were recorded for subsequent radio broadcast. But, quibbles aside, you can't argue wit the quality of it all. What you get is a rare and on-fire set from the pre-'In For The Kill'-era band a they launch proceedings with two legendary tracks from the 'Never Turn Your Back On A Friend' album before diving headlong into a couple of tracks from the future 'In For The Kill' album. A stirring performance of 'Parents' from the 'Never…..' album then follows before the set ends with a rousing 'Rocking Man' from the 'Squawk' album - all in all, a truly incendiary performance and so good to hear the classic seventies band era as red hot as this.
CD 2 goes forward to 1978 and the tracks are generally shorter and punchier, with 10 of the things including all the gems from the 'Never…..' album, plus the two absolute corkers from the 'Bandolier' album that are 'Who Do You Want For Your Love' and 'Breaking All The House Rules', the former a slow burner that builds into a furnace heat rocking and riffing explosion while the latter is a full-on rocker of gigantic proportions. Four further later period tracks complete the picture on what is a superb quality concert. Overall, essential purchase for all fans of the band - you can't argue with something as vintage as this.
HENNING PAULY: Credit Where Credit Is Due CD
This is on the USA ProgRock label but it sure as hell ain't prog-rock. It's rock - but it's just any rock. This thing wants to be King's X, Linkin Park, Devin Townsend, Dream Theater & Ministry -all in one whacking great sonic cauldron of steaming proportions. When this thing catches fire, you can see the flames for miles, as a hulking great blast of ferocious guitars, wall-to-wall synths, rampaging drums and thunderous bass all go positively nuclear - just witness the jaw-dropping track 4 (I'm not even attempting to write it out) for an example of this storm force stuff - six minutes of hurricane delight that blitzes the senses in the finest way possible. Many of the songs on this album conform to that status as they fire off and blow you out the water. Even the ballads don't escape the rampant need for muscle as they start quietly, build, and then erupt like you wouldn't believe, the ten minute 'Halo' really being an superbly anthemic example. Overall though, this is modern metal mayhem with keyboards that is a seismic eruption, superbly played, arranged and composed, menacing, anthemic, and just awesome.
SYNTH MUSIC:
AIR SCULPTURE: TranceAtlantic DBLCD
The facts - a live double CD, 6 tracks, over two hours of music, perfectly recorded and excellent sound (radio broadcast quality). The opinions - well, ever heard of "space sequencers", anyone? Thought not - now you know how most thirty minute "Berlin School" tracks are based around meaty, beefy sequencer rhythms - this isn't one of them. The band start the track ('Walk The Locust Part 1') with solo piano right out of the Schmoelling "play in a day" handbook circa Tangerine Dream 1980, and then this sequencer rhythm begins - now I'd call this "space seqeuncer" since it's quite slow, doesn't possess any real power but drives forward nevertheless. Above this, the band play assorted layers and flowing rivers of pseudo-melodic synths, but even when the core rhythms are embellished by an electronic drum rhythms around the twenty minute mark, it's still all very spacey and slow, albeit a bit chunkier. Eventually it all moves forward to a predictable cosmic finale and the work is done. Then comes 'Part 2', a twenty five minute track that opens in a swirl of synth soundscapes before a mellotron lead that's right out of Tangerine Dream's 'Ricochet' period emerges amid space synth swoops and diving layers while all around the electronics shimmer and shine. Around twelve minutes, via a sampled train moving through the concert hall, the nature of things changes and it all goes a lot darker and more eerie with hissing synths and textures, out of which comes - at last - a solid, beefy sequencer line, then more of the things and finally a melody overhead and - hey presto!! - it's a Tangerine Dream album!! Around 1975, if I'm correct. This continues to the end of the track and is the best thing you've heard so far. The CD ends with a sprightly four minute burst of heavy sequencers and bouncing melodies.
Then it's onto CD2. A three part title track opens with a near forty minute piece - and here you think "hang on, I've heard this before" (although you haven't!!) as the track begins with - wait for it!! - a solo piano. This time you get six minutes of it - and a few tinkling synths in the background - before - wait for it!! - a sequencer rhythm begins - this time a tad more sprightly than on CD1's opening track, and with more depth to the synth flows that are overlaid, so while you're thinking it's a re-run of what went before, it actually isn't at all - and it sounds more like what the previous thirty odd minute track should have turned into. Penalty you pay for improvising, I guess. Anyway, around the ten minute mark, things are going well - neat sequencers, if not exactly powerful, lots of string like flowing synths soaring above it all and faint bass depths down below. As it travels, more layers, melodies and sequencer/el drum rhythms are piled on top, this time to superb effect as the track really travels somewhere, the whole seventies Tangerine Dream influences never far away. Around eighteen minutes, the sequencers die away to leave this deep and eerie thunderous bass synth soundscape and what sounds like an electronic bouzouki!! This then morphs into this passage of moving sound sculpting and deep, cosmic electronic rumbles as the, now space music depths, continue their paths right up to the thirty seven minute end point, this time finally ending on - a solo piano! The nineteen minute 'Part 2' effectively starts where the sonic sculpting and amorphous soundscapes of the first part, left off. This goes on for eight minutes before the band set up - yes - a beefy sequencer rhythm, this time with electronic drum rhythms and serious synth strings rather than mellotrons, accompanying its passage. Adding a few melody lines, but seeming to get slower and slower as it goes, this pattern takes you through to the end of the piece. The third and final part is like the second part distilled into ten minutes. That's about it really - I think you get the picture!!!
ASTROGATOR: The Darkness Between CD
Just 3 tracks - essentially three parts of a single piece - between fourteen and a shade under twenty seven minutes, of which the longest opens the album with five minutes of early Schulze-sounding cosmic soundscaping before a piano chord wanders along as the synths begin to gather - more choral, more full-sounding - a light but chunky electro-percussive beat begins, the organ and synth rivers of sound start to flow and the whole track moves along with purpose while still retaining its atmospheric and multi-layered identity. With the addition of a single sequenced synth rhythm, the track begins to be moulded into a kind of early T Dream- Schulze kind of thing, only starker sounding than that might imply. Eventually, the addition of a beefy bass synth rhythm adds extra, necessary, strength to the track as it all continues to move in its new, more familiar realms, with synth leads now beginning to wander on top as the whole thing gradually flows back in time to the seventies. Around sixteen minutes the rhythms drop away to leave the rivers of space synths to drift and meander to the twenty minute point, whereupon a sequencer rhythm tarts up and the pattern of sound flows along below, all exceedingly seventies "Berlin"-like, eventually fading to a cosmic conclusion on a track that works by virtue of its construction. The fourteen and a half minute second part is a purely cosmic space synth affair, with assorted layers and textures doing their bit in an almost early Neuronium sounding manner and overall, keeping your attention as the soundscapes unfold. The near seventeen minute final part, is introduced by more space synths only this time a lot darker with an almost industrial intensity, and this swirling mass continues to the five minute point, whereupon a sequencer rhythm begins and the track is propelled into a driving sea of sequencers and electro-percussive undercurrents. Above all this the space synths continue to swirl as the rhythms strengthen and more melody-oriented synth overlays appear on top. The piece takes on an even more solid identity when a bigger, beefier drum rhythm appears but this only lasts a few seconds, sadly, as the rhythms as a whole begin to subside leaving just the cascading sequencers and layers of space synths to take the track to an eventually drifting conclusion. Overall, a good album - a bit minimal sounding compared to others in the field - but well constructed and arranged.
CLUSTER & ENO: Cluster & Eno - Remaster CD
Now in crystalline sound quality, this thirty six minute CD is a legend among electronic music albums, as it saw the first fruits of a collaboration that was made in heaven. Across 9 tracks, the feel of wide open spaces is paramount as the electronic and keyboard music occupies a space and time that is timeless. It opens with undulating bass and synths as piano weaves melodies across tonal electronic coloration before we come to the shimmering electronic beauty of 'Schone Hande' with its warm layers and subtleties that grab your attention throughout. Each track lasts three or four minutes or so, creates its own sound world that allows your mind to wander to far distant places, then disappears and a whole new universe appears on the next one. Largely ambient in the Eno sense, it nevertheless moves constantly, albeit slowly, with layers and soundscapes that can generally be described as stark yet warm, gorgeous and yet somehow ghostly, but overall addictive and endearing, music that is absolutely timeless.
THOMAS FANGER: Parlez-vous Electronique? CD
Although I've heard so much of this style of music of late, there is something about the nineteen minute 'Vanilla Crush" track that opens this seventy seven minute album, that kept me listening from start to finish. In essence, it' "Berlin School", not particularly trying to be T. Dream or anyone else of that ilk, but it has a wondrous line in mid-paced solid, beefy sequencer rhythms that is the thing which keeps you hooked. Above this entrancing use of seventies styled sequencers, assorted synth swirls, space synth surrounds, distant melodies, echoed flute-like synths and cosmic backdrops, all combine to make sure that your attention never once wanders as the track becomes one of the truly great tracks to grace this style of music - there's something about it - whether feel, atmosphere, structure or what - that makes it sound so seventies while at the same time sounding so incredibly well produced with a crystal clear shine to it all. Yet it's not copyist, it doesn't try too hard, it doesn't do more than it should - in essence, it's the perfect "Berlin School" composition for the new millennium, and worth the price of the CD on its own. But what follows, not only makes you smile, but impresses you too, as the musician only goes and recreates seventies Kraftwerk on the instrumental splendours of the nine minute 'Twinkling Sun' as you hear strains of 'Ralf & Florian" soaring through the airwaves on one of the best tracks of its kind and the closest thing to that period Kraftwerk I've ever heard. But, again, it's no mere copyist - it's performed, arranged and produced to perfection, even with an almost glissando guitar-sounding drift in the background for added effect, but as a track in its own right, it's enjoyable from now till the sun goes down. If all this hasn't already taken your breath away, for the near nine minute 'Jungle Bar', together with guest Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock, he comes up with a track that, as an undercurrent of rhythm and drift, is pure Klaus Schulze, while KHH adds the layers on top to give it a more individual identity as soft guitars, mellotrons and twinkling synths put the icing on the cake. Following this are 5 tracks, 4 of which are shorter pieces that carry no less a riveting selection of atmospheres, rhythms, space synths and melodies, while the ten minute 'Velvet Beach' is a slowly moving slice of 'Mirage'-era Schulze infrastructure, above and around which assorted synth choirs, drifts and melodies all sparkle above the sequencer foundations. The album ends on the fifteen minute 'The Land Of Milk And Honey' simply carries forward the ideas and styles that began in the opening track, to create yet another "Berlin School" gem that is every bit as good, only this time with more mellotron sound to give it that real "seventies" feel, once again, the musician doing what comes naturally without trying too hard, and the results show this to spectacular effect. Overall, one of the best synth albums around right now, without a doubt and without a wasted second on the whole thing.
FREE SYSTEM PROJECT: Impulse - Remaster+ Bonus Track CD
Newly remastered to sound more alive than before. What this shows is that no matter how well you remaster something, you can't disguise the presence of a drum machine rhythm that sounds like it came out of junior school. They must have spent at least five pounds on that drum machine!! But, somewhat lightweight rhythms aside, the album soars into life with some stirring lead synth work over relatively solid cyclical sequences and that tinny, lightweight drum machine. It's all pretty vacuous stuff and sounds one hell of a lot older than its ten year lifespan would suggest - and that's after only five minutes of the opening near ten minute track. Track 2 is called 'The Nightmare' and - sure enough - things don't get any better as the whole thing sounds just SO "primitive" - there just doesn't seem to be any warmth in any of this as wailing synth melody line flies over more cyclical sequencers, another relatively insipid drum machine rhythm - that thankfully disappears around the four minute mark - and a sound through which you could drive a truck. It's layered and there's a background, a lead, a rhythm and swirling undercurrent, but it all sounds so "hollow" - and slow, boy is this thing slow. The pace does actually pick up in track 3 and even more so in track 4 and, to be fair, by track 4, things are beginning to gel, the band now warming to their subject and coming up with a solid performance and production that should have been like this about thirty minutes ago. But ultimately it returns to how it began, and ultimately leaves you disappointed. There's a bonus track on here lasting nearly twenty two minutes - they don't say when it was recorded - but my guess would be a lot later - as this track is THE business. It's got everything that the main album doesn't have - depth, a huge sound, deep bass, solid soundscapes, strong rhythms, walls of synth choirs, those trademark Tangerine Dream seventies styled sequencers, seventies styled soundscapes that spread across the musical horizon as the whole thing expands like some vast galaxy filling the heavens - and a track that fully redeems everything that the main album misses by a mile.
FREE SYSTEM PROJECT: Moyland CD
It's not intended as a negative comment, and I hope that the band will not see it as that, more a tribute to the band, when I say that you would be forgiven for thinking you'd wandered into Tangerine Dream's 'Rubycon' or, probably even closer, 'Ricochet' when you're listening to this album. What you have to admire about this band is that they play a form of synthesizer music which has its origins back in the seventies, via the groundbreaking aforementioned albums, and yet, out of the explosion of bands and artists that have come along to play their own version of that genre in recent years, this band remain the best of the lot. Across album after album, they have consistently delivered music of quality, music that sounds as much of its time as it does of today, and have always got it spot on, in terms of the sheer organic "feel" that they have for the music they want to play, and that sense of adventure and enjoyment allied to an almost telepathic empathy from the musicians. That is what makes previous albums, and now this one, into truly magnificent landmarks of electronic music. 'Moyland' is no exception. Effectively a single, near sixty minute track, with 5 subdivisions, as well as an eight minute end track, you only have to hear the first few minutes of mellotron magic and expansive space synths, to know that you are in for a treat - and the entire album does not disappoint at any stage along the way. This opening sea of cosmic heaven moves slowly forward to the four minute mark where the sound pattern changes and a fuzzed organ-synth like sound wells up from below as a lone synth melody glides overhead and this takes you to seven minutes. Just then, the sequencer rhythms kick in - nothing tinny or cheap or lightweight - we're talking big, beefy, solid and window-rattling sequencers here - the real deal - and the space trip truly launches into life as more sequencers rolling above oceans of cosmic synths and synth layers, the whole thing oozing seventy-five era Tangs from every fibre of its being - and you're only ten minutes into a sixty six minute album. What follows is all just as good - from obvious to hints - "Berlin School" styled music but delievered to perfection with the group not putting a foot or hand wrong at any stage along the way. In short, if you're a fan of early -mid seventies Tangerine Dream, you have to own this album - you'd be a fool not to!
JEROME FROESE: C8H10N4O2 CD Single
Ltd to just 500 copies, this is a single exclusive seven minute track. Bearing in mind that it's all done on guitars and guitar fx, it sounds remarkably electronic, the first five minutes being quite powerful as solid rhythms form the foundations of the track as the electronic sounding leads and melodies hurtle along on top - quite addictive stuff it has to be said. Just short of five minutes, it all calms down to leave a multi-layered sea of spacey melodic spacescapes to drift towards the end - and that's it. As a track on its own, it's great.
HASHTRONAUT: The Lamda Variant CD
Just 2 similar length tracks over fifty one minutes, and the first could well pass as a demo from Klaus Schulze around the early seventies. It's got that swirling feel of something like 'Floating' or 'Mindphaser' as the rivers of synths flow and meander, assorted space synth overlays and melodic leads all playing their part in providing the busy-sounding brew. What does separate it out from being a clone, is the use of the solid but slowly moving electronic drum rhythms to accompany about seven or eight minutes of the track, but further one, the liberal use of sequencer rhythms then puts it firmly back in the "Berlin School" climate. As a track in its own right, I would imagine that anyone into the early Schulze synth releases would appreciate where this is at. The title track starts with early seventies sounding organ and deep bass synth drones as rivers of electronics are added and the whole thing swirls around for about five or six minutes when this galloping rhythm made up of electro-percussive clatter, deep bass synths and phased synth sequences, piles in. On top of this, the swirling mass of electronics charts territories that drive headlong into space and it becomes a raging sea of '73-4-era Schulze with Hawkwind-esque space synths as the vast canvas of sound gets the engines going and heads for the heart of a nearby sun. This huge-sounding space voyage lasts well into the track and it's only around twenty two minutes when the trip subsides, the engines are switched off and the electronic craft is allowed to drift into dock, slowly and effectively.
INKEYS 19: Electronic Music CD
The latest issue of Inkeys and this time we have a largely Andy G -free disc with the voiceovers done by the excellent Kath Garibaldi and Dundee's leading female singer/writer Michele Mclaren. Musically, the star turns include a world exclusive CD preview of the new Manuel Gottsching album 'Concert For Murnau', musician John Dyson telling us that's he's still around and providing Inkeys with an exclusive, previously unreleased track from Wavestar, a non-album track from emerging ambient act Apologist, a track especially composed for Inkeys by Dundee's very own Box plus album tracks from Gel-Sol, Ian Boddy & Marcus Reuter, Rasal Asad, Ron Berry, Alisa Coral, Free System Project, The Glimmer Room, Kevin Kendle & Headshock.
INTERSTELLAR CEMENT MIXERS: Red Earth CD
With just 4 tracks, seventy nine minutes of music and compositions lasting between fourteen and twenty four minutes, this is the finest, most consistent and cohesive album that this band have produced to date. In many ways, what they have produced here is a 2006 answer to Tangerine Dream's 'Zeit' with 4 long space, cosmic music tracks that take you to another dimension on a trip round the cosmos that you'll want to take time after time. With hardly a rhythm or melody in sight, the music does indeed have both, implied rather than stated, by the way they produce the soundscapes and the way the layers and textures are produced and how they sound. Like that groundbreaking album from TD, here nothing stands still - there is always movement in the music which features electronic and synthesizer layers and textures that fill the galaxy with sound while at the same time having that very stark and eerie quality which endeared 'Zeit' to most synth fans to this day. You'll hear seventy nine minutes of the most addictive and hypnotic cosmic music since 'Zeit' and with a similar feel, firmly seventies sounding and even a nod towards 'II'-era Cluster in parts for extra effect. Sometimes, as on parts of the twenty three minute 'Ganghoh Ministry', the sounds will well up and become altogether denser and more powerful than anything on'Zeit' but, as I said, this is 30 years on and you have to take that into account. Yet it retains its "analogue" feel - in fact it may well be a wholly analogue album - there's no telling - and becomes a dark, seriously hypnotic, multi-layered synth music experience, but a journey through time and space that you'll want to take many times. Pure genius and the mark of a truly awesome, outstanding electronic music band, inhabiting a space music genre where there are loads of compatriots, yet producing something that is miles ahead of the rest.
