SYNTH MUSIC (CONTD)
JAMES OTTAWAY: Aurora CD
Debut album from new Australian synthesist which opens with a two and a half minute track that is absolutely spellbinding as layers of flowing, floating synths create this magical expanse and immediately your attention is drawn to it as it slowly fades and you wonder what's around the corner. String synths herald the warm sounding, analogue arrival of the nine minute 'Fortune' as the warm sounding, stretched out melodies rise slowly in majestic fashion, all quite beautiful, cosmic and blissfully symphonic, a space music track that is, once again, absolutely magical but infused with slowly flowing melodic content, more Serrie/Braheny-esque than the more amorphous compositions of someone such as Roach. From here it's onto the near thirteen minute 'Aurora Borealis' where a new universe of space and cosmic synth layers are built up, and here, as the album builds and strengthens, so you find a deep river of cosmic bass synth giving extra depth to the soaring magic that is the flowing synth layers which occupy the glorious full-sounding musical landscape, cosmic electronic music that really holds your attention, as the layers change and develop. The five minute 'Light of Day' floats along on a layer of string-like synths with deep bass undercurrents as the majestic sounding lead synths flow slowly along to open another wide-eyed universe of sonic delight. The 3 lengthy and one short tracks that follow all occupy different elements of this expansive sea of space and cosmic synths music, the whole thing strong, purposeful and superbly played, produced and arranged, to make this one of the best examples of warm, flowing, analogue-sounding cosmic synth music to come along in ages.
PHINNEY/McGEE: Escape From Earth CDR
There are times in this job where I worry about about my ears - sometimes I worry about my sanity - but never usually both at the same time - until now. These two musicians have succeeded in cooking up a brew that involves Moog Rogue (whatever that is!), Moog Etherwave, Theremin, Casio VA-10, Shortwave radio, FX, Korg Poly 80, Moog Prodigy, treated guitar, space flute, more FX plus Subtractor, Malstrom and Synoptic Probe software synthesizers - phew! That the brew is like nothing on earth probably reflects the title, for you have 6 tracks, each around the ten minute mark, that are like avant-garde space-rock done on synthesizers and electronics, only it doesn't rock. What you get are huge soundscapes that drift, throb, drive, shuffle, flow, wheeze, soar, fly as vast layers of sound are squeezed, choked, mangled and generally cooked to boiling point by the two musicians, both of whom clearly took off long before you did.
As a result, for the first three tracks and beyond there's a sort of searing sonic seam running through the heart of what sounds like some vast other world factory run by electronic sounding beings that speak in a language with which you are wholly unfamiliar, yet the more you listen to it, the more it somehow begins to make sense, even though after 65 instrumental minutes of the thing, you're still completely unable to understand one blessed thing about it. It's challenging, it's different, it's engaging (if you fancy a challenge) and, while the first 3 tracks are seriously "far-out" (although never actually unlistenable), the last three tracks, although equally on another planet, really hold your attention. Flying through a black hole was never so much fun!
REMY: Sense CD
The album opens with a slice of sombre symphonic music as deep bass, low-pitched piano chords, acres of string synths, distant choirs and ripples of keyboard melodies all combine to produce a quite funereal beginning. The second track, 'Destination', is just…..well………odd. There's not other way of describing it. As synth goes, with its weird sounding layers, blips, bleeps, backwards effects and extraordinary vocals that sound like they've drafted in some tramp off the nearest street and enticed him to sing into a microphone, while treating the results with some electronic processing, all means that nine minutes of this sixteen minute track are just plain crazy - all of which becomes even more annoying when, just after nine minutes, the sequencers fire up, the synths go into overdrive, and seven minutes of mighty synth music powers away to an awesome degree. Bizarre. 'Behaviour' opens with space synths all over the place as a gorgeous sounding '75-era T Dream-esque synth choir rises up and takes center stage, eventually a sequencer rhythm bobbling about underneath as the whole thing drives along, until the end comes with just sequencers, then just space synths. Track four, 'Maze', is just under twenty minutes long, starts life as cosmic synths and deep strings before a buzz-saw cello-like rhythm begins as a male vocal with an irritating accent starts to narrate the story as spoken word meets synth and just sounds sooooo dated, it's untrue. This goes on until the seven minute point when the strings and synths and deep bass rhythms take over as, once again, infuriatingly so, the track becomes totally spellbinding, owing more to Klaus Schulze's 'X' album than anything. But around ten minutes in, just as you might expect a sequencer rhythm to come in, this awful bouncing electro-percussive rhythm begins, which wouldn't be so bad if it was a tad more "train"-like but it just sort of bounces along as string synths weave melodies all around it, the whole thing trying desperately to be a Namolok/Schulze hybrid and missing the mark completely. By now, it actually doesn't matter what the rest of the album sounds like, because there's no way you're going to enjoy this thing based on the bits that have so far marred the entertainment, so here my review endeth - god rest all who sail in her.
ROEDELIUS: Works 1968-2005 DBLCD
Quite simply there is no other electronic music player in existence that has carved out 4 decades of musical innovation with as much consistency, variety and pleasurable enjoyment as Roedelius. You might not like everything he's ever done but you can't deny that, for most of the styles for which he's made music, he got there first. Whether the avant-Kosmische Musik of the early works with Conrad Schnitzler & Dieter Moebius, the glimpse into the technoid future that predated Kraftwerk's greatest hits that is Harmonia, the pre "New Age" pastoral leanings of mid-late seventies Cluster and all points in between and beyond, this musician can rightly be regarded as electronic music's greatest pioneer and innovator, of that there is no argument.
This double album is a snapshot of all those facets that go to make up his four decades of musical creativity. To review it in detail would fill a small book, as there would be tangents and avenues to fly down on the way - in fact if you want a review of this music in detail, simply go out and seek Stephen Iliffe's Roedelius biography, "Painting With Sound". But, as I alluded, there is a whole world of electronic music on here, all of it consistent, all of it absolutely spellbinding, 31 tracks and not a one that's out of place or lacking compared to the rest. With added keyboards, guitars, occasional vocals and other instruments used on selected tracks as textural icing, there is a wealth of overtly electronic music on here that will have you hooked for the duration. It's been compiled not only as a showcase for his talent but as an album that plays well from start to finish, an album that you will play often as it becomes an essential, distilled guide to the incredible and life-enhancing music of arguably the greatest electronic musician of our time.
SURFACE 10: Surface Tensions CD
OK - let me tell you that, in terms of electronic music categories and pigeon-holes, there simply isn't one that exists, into which you could place the music on this CD. Too complex for techno, too busy for space music, too easily accessible for avant-garde, too adventurous for synth - you get the picture? - in fact it is one gloriously over-the-top melting pot that has resulted in a unique musical form that no-one's even got close to identifying. Across its 11 tracks and sixty-six minutes of music, it destroys every musical convention known to man, while at the same time embracing them too - a contradiction? You'd better listen to this album and see what I mean. There are passages that are truly sublime, positively eloquent, mingling with passages that will get on your nerves and make you want to hurl the CD player out of the nearest exit. To say it's inventive, is like saying the Pope's Catholic, but in its adventurous travels, such as on the gorgeous track 6, it positively sings to you as the stuttering rhythms, bouncing bass and almost ambient dub qualities are overlaid with seas of serene space synths, the only nod towards avant-garde coming from subtle drones down below. But don't be fooled - track 7 starts like some ethno-ambient piece that's been recorded too fast, mixed with a downtempo slice of ambient jazz that's been infused with the wrong lead synth as this somewhat "old skool" moog-like melody, wails away on top. This, my friends, is one bizarre world of electronic music - it's challenging but, mostly, it's not unlistenable and, in many places, actually become extremely hypnotic. It does, however, remain unique, both a plus and a minus, depending on your musical taste and standpoint. Myself, I think Boddy's (for 'tis on his Din label - you might have guessed!!!) doing this just to test my reviewing skills - so it's 4-3 to Boddy right now!!
JOHAN THIMAN: Trip Into The Body CD
When I saw the label were reissuing this, with vague memories of when I first sold it on vinyl, I thought 'what on earth are they doing wanting to reissue THIS'? Then the copy arrived and I put it on thinking that my memory would be playing tricks with me - or hoping it would - as I remembered that it wasn't really up to much. Sadly, my memory wasn't playing trick and this punchy sort of 'Kraftwerk-meets-Yellow Magic Orchestra-meets-Gary Numan" sort of thing jumped out of the speakers to quite vacuous effect, all manner of bouncy beats, commercial melodies and phased, '80's-styled vocals, all rang out to ear-grating effect. Not a good start. Sadly, with its phased chorus of "lalalala" opening things up, the second track does not bode well, and, despite its more solid sounding melodies and mid-eighties Genesis-styled rhythms and melodies, the track just sounds so twee and more like a rather bad Jean-Michel Jarre castoff. Things get even worse towards the end of the track when the synths and voice wheeze away and you clearly think that someone really should send an ambulance over somewhat sharpish. Luckily, the thing does actually expire - although when you hear the opening of track three, you'll actually wish it hadn't - as THE most godawful, twee insipid and absolutely wince-inducing combination of melodies and rhythms begins, and it takes the strength of Hercules not tot urn the whole thing off and throw it through the nearest window - sadly I didn't have that strength - anyone know a good glazier?
A SELECTION OF BACK CATALOGUE SYNTH ALBUMS WE'VE NEVER REVIEWED BEFORE:
AEOLIAH: Angel Love CD
The heavenly cosmic sounds of drifting synthesizers, piano chords. Angelic choirs and strings across two twenty + minute tracks which transport you to a significantly higher plane.
IAN BODDY: The Living Planet CD
Twenty three tracks with none of them over three minutes and eight seconds in length, the effect is like someone's taken all the best bits out of a huge range of class synth music albums, to create an album of highlights - it's like someone removing all the guitar solos from a selection of classic rock albums, only here there's a lot more going on than just solo synth. Surprisingly, once you get your head around the fact that the tracks are so short, what you then realize is just how much movement and action, Boddy manages to get into a composition that lasts such a short time, many actually feeling like they do last longer, so enjoyable are the melodies and rhythms. Overall, and surprisingly, it works as an album.
CHAR-EL:Worlds Without End CD
For anyone that remembers the excellent cassette-only releases by the USA synth group Voyager back in the eighties, this is then debut solo album by one of the guys in that group. It's a gem, too, continuing that tradition of long and short tracks of constantly moving, evolving, full-sounding synths music. Using an array of keyboards and synths that include Mellotron 400 and Minimoog, we're talking analogue heaven here and while it's not "Berlin School", you have to say that you could imagine a lot of that audience, who wants something altogether more full-sounding, getting right into this. But the overall feel is more of something like Synergy without he classical bits, Ron Boots without the sequencers, hints of Vangelis and cosmic, between-track-live-interlude, seventies Tangerine Dream. With tracks from two to over fourteen minutes in length, it's a gorgeous voyage through blissful, spacious, spacey, solid, evolving and expansive multi-synths universes that really delivers the goods.
SUZANNE CIANI: Dream Suite CD
Piano and strings, the strings coming courtesy of the Young Russia Orchestra and, as you might imagine from that and the title of the album, we're in romantic instrumental mode, a classical territory of expansive themes and heart-felt delicacy as both unfold to provide the soundtrack of your dreams, providing you dream of things like "Gone With The Wind" or "Love Story" - you pays yer money, you takes yer choice!
MICHEL HUYGEN: En Busca Del Misterio CD En Busca Del Misterio - Remaster CD
The odd one out in many ways, as it is a soundtrack album featuring music specifically composed for the TV Series. Surprisingly, it loses none of its Neuronium-esque magic, across 14 tracks between one and five minutes in length. The shortness of many of the tracks is not a problem since the music is a mere reflection of the images and the music holds up as a train-ride glimpse into scenery that all too frequently passes by, yet the beauty of it remains in your memory. Largely cosmic, with the occasional foray into more rhythmic territories, it's a fine and cohesive album.
BJORN LYNNE: Return To Witchwood CD
Elegant pastoral symphonic electronic would not be wide of the mark as a term to categorise this music, as a myriad of influences from Oldfield, Anthony Phillips, Gandalf, Wakeman, and classical music ghosts gone by, all add their weight to a variety of instrumental compositions that are a kind of "concept" album style melting pot, thematically consistent while still retaining individuality. It's well played, produced composed and arranged, in parts is quite grand, in others more reflective, full of excellent work from synths, electric guitars, keyboards, acoustic guitars, strings, flute and bass, covering a territory that is predominantly Oldfield-Gandalf oriented, only with less beef and less depth, no edge and no power, mostly icing and little cake. But if you like it that way then this should please you fair and square.
BJORN LYNNE:Dreamstate CD
Basically two 26 min suites plus a bonus 14 min track and it's quite brilliant. 'Universe OIf The Mind' opens as a full-sounding spacey synth passage emerges from the depths with a distant echo effect, soon joined by a booming drum refrain and more languid lines of string synths as the intensity rises, the track crashes in and a solidly powerful rhythm strides along consisting of synths and electronic drums, as above this a layer of melodic synths weaves intricate webs sound and layers are pile d on before the music suddenly ends and a new melody rises out in almost oboe-like fashion above a cascading set of percussive synth rhythms and creating a delicate yet symphonic effect the flows smoothly through the airwaves in almost classical majesty. Gradually a vast sea of string-like synths joins the central work, then a slow bass sequencer is heard far below the mix giving the track depth and even more grandeur. The oboe-like lead line then dies briefly to reveal a new synth line before returning at a slightly lower register as a real set of cohesive, percussive rhythms beneath the proceedings, still relatively slow, and the section fades into the distance leaving behind the percussive rhythm sequence and then a beautiful multi-layer of charming synth melodies surface and take the track on with the ending consisting of a very symphonic sounding piece of low-key space music with a spiralling lead synth taking it to oblivion as segment 3 begins on a wave of hissing electronics, 'Tubular bells-style opening percussive bursts and a rich synth backdrop that covers the mix before the core of the track emerges and a mighty, towering layer of melodic splendour forms and flies high in the skies over a deliberate, mid-pace, almost African rhythm with synths soaring away over the slow beats and layers of electronics, creating a really full sound with almost too much going on and a section guaranteed to reveal new riches on every play. A fragile piano line also emerges briefly and then is gone as the main body of the piece continues and fades.
Part 4 enters with echoed split-stereo synth rhythms amidst a classic almost prog-style lead line and a vast string-like backdrop, as the section then takes on several more layers and a truly majestic set of melodies can be heard wrapping themselves around the rhythms as another gorgeous piano melody emerges on top, again quite majestic, mid-paced and classically structured with long, flowing synth backdrops and top layers. Finally, segment 5 spends its first half being an altogether spacey affair that leads into a solid drum rhythm over which passing synth waves and what sounds like an exquisite electric guitar solo shines out to magical effect.
The next suite 'Material Matters' starts with a great echoed sequencer and string synths before a massive percusssive/electronic rhythm starts and stops and starts again, this time with the sequencers more prevalent as the most incredible dual-wave of string synths and lead synth solo spirals upwards amidst a multi-layer of sounds that flows cohesively along as the piece changes shape. It leads directly into segment 2 which is similarly structured and paced only this time with a stronger melodic content as a combination of synths weaves some spectacular layers above and around the core percussive rhythms, with the sequncers far in the background and another powerful piece of music emerges that could have been off Pickford's 'Maelstrom' if I hadn't known what I was reviewing, and when it fades you are left wanting more of this classic segment.
Section 3 rides in on another symphonic layer, almost soundtrack-ish like it should accompany some vast film such as Lawrence Of Arabia' with its booming refrains and rhythms eventually giving way to a very pastoral set of , again, almost classical style melodies to end the piece in grand fashion. Segment 9 consists of 3 minutes of Shreeve-like rhythms and soaring melodies, all very heavy and deliberate but with a marvellously rich and full sound. Segment 10 starts with a weird effect that quickly turns into a no-holds barred slice of classic synths-driven music, again very Shreeve/Pickford style only with a combination of progressive synth and strident piano lead melodies and even a touch of the swirling Dyson's (you can get pills for that ) in there as well on what is a synth fan's slice of mid-paced, majestic heaven.
Finally segment 11 starts with eerie space effects as a combination of haunting flute-like lead synth, spiralling bass synth and a vast string-laden backdrop is heard. Then a throbbing bass sequencer rhythm begins, electronic drums pile in and The most majestic set of synth layers on the entire album so far soar in and then out again, this pattern being continued a few times before taking off for real and the massive melody layer come into their own, flying through the track only to fade around the 4 min point leaving a set of string synths and a beautiful piano refrain to see the segment to its conclusion. The bonus track is no less brilliant being a set of ever changing, flowing synth melodies, piano refrains, string like synths, drum rhythms, in fact the whole shooting match in one glorious cauldron of towering synths and delicate yet cohesive melodies, all of which drive to majestic and almost spiritual effect through the 14 min track. Overall, then, here is a CD that is solid, excellently produced, has a full sound throughout, plenty of soaring, multi-layered melodies, crisp and tight rhythms, all full of great emotional depth and a much underrated album.
BJORN LYNNE: Colony CD
Well, if it's tunes you like in your synth music, then you will be incredibly happy with this album because it is crammed full of melodies, tunes, easily accessible rhythms and generally foot-tapping stuff. Largely founded on a full-sounding bed of sequencers, synths and electro-percussive rhythms, the vast array of synths and occasional guitars, soar away on top delivering multi-layered backdrops, lead solos and altogether a quite hefty sounding musical landscape. But throughout it all, the melody never loses out, the tune is never far away and the accessibility factor is as high as it gets if that is the sort of thing you want from your synth music. I could well imagine fans of the old I.C. label, Jarre, Peru, Rainbow Serpent and the like having a field day with an album like this. Not for me though.
BJORN LYNNE: Revive CD
Powerful album of huge-sounding symphonic synth instrumentals that crosses over to "Berlin School" at one end, with its rolling, solid sequencer rhythms, while nodding towards classic prog-rock at the other end with liberal use of electric guitars solos and leads that range from fiery to passionate. With added electronic drums and digital drum programming providing beefier rhythms and crunchier beats, the whole thing drives along. Topping the tracks off are an ocean of synth melodies and tunes which spread over the foundations with strength. Across tracks ranging from three to over eleven minutes, this isn't a million miles away from '80's Shreeve only probably more commercial in terms of its melodic content and shorter tracks, plus its proggy leanings.
PATRICK O'HEARN: Trust CD
The majority of the tracks on this album conform to what you could refer to as "slow moving symphonic space music that occupies a melodic section of the universe". With most tracks featuring the huge-sounding expanse of string and similarly sounding flowing synths, there is also a good deal of movement in there too, sometimes actual courtesy of drums and percussion, sometimes more subtle courtesy of some of the best use of a bass guitar in synth music that you'll hear.. With added synth music swirls and spacey subtleties all around, this mass of flowing synths also features textural guitar layers on several tracks to complete a well-rounded, multi-layered picture. A lot more substantial and deeper sounding with more melody and rhythm than yer average space music album, this remains a class act of timeless music to this day.
PATRICK O'HEARN: Metaphor CD
Following on from the 'Trust' album, the two guest guitarists, fellow ex-Zappa sideman Warren Cuccurullo, plus David Torn occupy a more constant space on the album with their acoustic and electronic textural guitar prowesses while O'Hearn handles synths, keyboards, bass and percussion. The result is a much more vari-textured album than before, in fact varied all round with less of that symphonic feel persisting all the time. In its place is a more expansive sense of melody and a more multi-textured sounding setoff musical layers. From the piano ripples in the opener through the acoustic guitars in the next track, there's a much more open-minded approach to the compositions, so that while the electronics still dominate, that sense of symphonic grandeur still remains, albeit less persistent this time around. Almost in the vein of the artists on the legendary space synth music album 'Desert Spaces' only with more melody and movement, this is quality stuff throughout.
ROBERT RICH: Open Window CD
A solo piano album which is all very well as long as you like piano. Choosing a style that's got more of a clout rather than anything dreamy or embarrassingly sickly, the music does indeed carry a lot of weight in its playing, with a more brooding presence and altogether a mix of the sombre and expansive.
JOHN SERRIE: Flightpath CD
For a guy better known for his space music, this one starts with a surprisingly sprightly four minute composition that has bouncy rhythms, acres of flowing synths and soaring melodies. After this it's into the ten minute 'Sky Safari' which slows thing down but still features flowing rhythnmic undercurrents, multi-layered melodies from synths and keys, plus extra texture from percussive splashes, violin like drones and expansive electronic soundpools that move out like ripples on a pond. The near seven minute 'Muroc' is a trademark slice of cosmic music while the four minute Outreach' returns to the more muscular rhythmic qualities of the opener. The near eleven minute 'Deep Starship' is a space synths composition with plenty of deep rumbling bass undercurrents to provide added depth and texture, while the nine minute 'Glyder' that ends the album, is a warming slice of pure, flowing space synths tranquility.
CYRILLE VERDEAUX; Piano For The Third Ear CD
For a piano solo album, this one's different yet again from the more dreamy-like Ciani albums at one end and the deeper works of Rich at the other. Here, we are in a territory with a greater degree of classical feel to it all, and although the compositions are all melodic and quite heart-warming, there's something about it that cries "classical" all the same. By and large, it's fairly slow moving, rippling layers of beauty, but you do feel that you should be admiring the technique of approach as much as the results themselves. Still, as I always say, if you like pleasant sounding, varied and consistent piano solo music, then this will do nicely.
