 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| Updated: 28/01/08 | © 2008 Cool Bunny Media | Da Cool Bunny sez 'Splank that Plank, Baby!' | |
#4 |
|
There are times when it is almost impossible to describe easily the style of an album being reviewed. This is one of those... Katja Werker is a German singer/ songwriter multi-instrumentalist that on the surface seems to fit into the camp of Ricky Lee Jones, PJ Harvey, Tori Amos and especially Janis Ian. But that would be a disservice to Ms Werker who on the evidence of this album has a unique sound all of her own. What the Bird Said is a very understated album, usually just one or two instruments and Ms Werker's low husky voice. We are talking intimate performances here backed by an innate jazzy feel that make the songs funky in a strangely restrained way. This minimalist approach works very well, allowing the songs, and especially the voice plenty of sonic space to work their magic - just listen to the title track or Cross the Bridge or How Time Can Slip. All in all What the Bird Said is well worth searching out and experiencing. InfoPoint Web: www.katjamariawerker.de
This latest album by Stormclouds continues to draw on the rich imagery of fantasy, horror and science fiction writing and movies in a very listenable collection of psychedelia-tinged rock. The genre writers who have inspired this collection of songs include Anne Rice, Brian Lumley, William Hope Hodgeson, H.P. Lovecraft, George Martin, Sheridan Le Fanu, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Clark Ashton Smith, H. Ryder Haggard and several others. I'll admit immediately that I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that Stormclouds have produced and I'm not changing that opinion now. Sleep No More is a very easy on the ear collection of songs played by excellent musicians who ably support Melanie Townsend's dreamlike voice like a glove. The sound is jangly and melodic, richly textured and with some highly imaginative axe gymnastics. All the songs seem to capture the essence of the books and films they are based on, but as I haven't read or seen all of these I can't verify that. Stormclouds consists of Steve Lines: writer/multi-instrumentalist, Melanie Townsend: Writer/vocals, Childe Roland: writer/guitars, Ken Flyn: guitars/keyboards/b. vocals, Mark Angell: vocals, Reefus Moons: drums, guitars. Sleep No More contains fifteen tracks, a few more than the vinyl version - the extra tracks being remixes. I'm not going to pick favourite tracks as the standard here is so good I don't think that I can! Just get yourself a copy of this limited edition CD and see what I mean. InfoPoint Sleep No More costs £10 for the CD or vinyl version, and that includes UK p&p. Cheques to Rainfall Records, 28 Churchill Close, Calne, Wiltshire. SN11 8EN, Great Britain. Email: stormclouds@bigfoot.com Various
Artists - Gifted: Women of the World Periodically Real World bring out a sampler compilation showcasing new albums and artists on the label. Gifted seems slightly different in that it collects together a selection of their best women artists and is sponsored by a perfume company. That aside, this is a lovely album, featuring artists I've mostly not heard of before: Izzy, Susana Baca, Susheela Raman, Eleftheria Arvanitki, Assitan Mama, Yungchen Lhamo, Sheila Chandra [who I have heard of and performs here an reworking of her early hit Ever So Lonely], and several others. Being a Real World cd the common denominator here is that these performers come from all over the world, so there is a wide diversity of music and vocal styles on show here and all of them dazzle. If this is a mid price or budget release then I reckon Gifted is well worth buying - the return is much better than buying a lottery scratch card! Country music is one of the most popular forms of music on this planet, yet it is still perceived as being desperately uncool by most music critics. Not this one - real country music, as opposed to the Nashville hit factory stuff can be as good as a bracing belt of rock 'n' roll. This compilation CD from Hendersonville, Tennessee-based Midland Records tends to straddle both camps. All the singers here are, I assume, on the first rung of 'stardom' in that this is their recording debut and first contract. Lexi Love starts the album off with a bang with the bouncy I Love You Honey, followed by the mid-tempo ballad Blues Brown Eyes In Town, by Bobby G Rice. A similar range of styles are followed by the rest of the contributors to this showcase: Michael J Morris, Angie, Freddy Holcomb, Patty Brown, Johnny Irwin, Rosemary Gnip, and Dianne Connor. All the songs thankfully stick to traditional Country instrumentation and rhythms - no rock excess stylings ala Shania Twain. This album should please the country music fan looking for that good ol' sound.
Before the Beatles there was only one major group in the UK and that was The Shadows, either as a backing group for nascent rocker Cliff Richard or in their own right. The Shadows is their debut album, orginally released back in 1961 but now digitally remastered. Indeed the cd is something of a collectors item as it contains the album twice - both the mono and stereo mixes. So, 14 tracks duplicated, but we'll ignore the question of the mixes - you play whichever you prefer. As for the music, well, this is typical early 60's pop, with almost all the rock and roll leached out of it. There are some excellent classic Shadows instrumentals: Nivram, Shadoogie, Stand Up And Say That, Gonzales, Theme From A Filleted Place and Sleepwalk. The songs, on the other hand, are okay, though the close harmonies veer towards the bland. For me the Shads will always be one of the great instrumental groups and this album laid the foundations to their illustrious career. Adiemus
- Adiemus IV: This new album by the Adiemus team of composer Karl Jenkins, vocalist Miriam Stockley and recorder player Pamela Thorby is the soundtrack to a new S4C documentary tv series called The Celts. I guess if you've heard the Adiemus music before you will know what to expect, though this time there is a strong Irish/Scottish influence to the music. Indeed, at times I thought I was listening to Riverdance IV. The Eternal Knot should certainly appeal to everyone who took the Riverdance show to their hearts, it has that definable Irish/Scottish tourist ethos. As before the sound is big: a large orchestra, an equally large group of vocal and instrumental soloists [Davey Spillane, Martin Taylor, Catrin Finch], celtic instruments and the choir. Despite all this I still find the Adiemus sound pretty bland - very listenable, to be sure, but it just glides past the ear in a pleasant, vacuous way. To me, it seems as if all that makes celtic music distinctive has been leeched away leaving a Disneyfied approximation of what will please the most people, with all the rough edges ground away. I'll probably be in a minority with this view, I know a lot of people like the Adiemus sound, but I tell it how I hear it. The
Beach Boys - The Best of the Beach Boys 1970-1986: The Brother Years
And now with the new Brother Years compilation I can discover what I missed - the boys grew up, took over from a whacked out Brian and continued producing classic music that in the 70's didn't hit the charts as often as it should have, but what bloody great quality! Songs such as Add Some Music To Your Day, Susie Cincinatti, 'Til I Die, Surf's Up, Marcella, Sail On Sailor, California Saga, The Trader, and many more. This new cd ties in with the reissue of many Beach Boys Brother label period albums for the first time on cd,and is a marvel - it shows a group still producing the goods long after they were written off as a nostalgia act. For sheer beauty of melody, composition, and harmony anyone thinking of going into music should buy this collection [and the 60's one too!] just to see what benchmark they should aim for. Highly recommended. Joi - We Are
Three That second album is always a difficult beast, especially if the previous debut one was well received. We Are Three follows on from One and One and One last year, and continues Joi's exploration of their ethnic roots [asian music] and contemporary dance music. Again we have big beats throughout, but mixed with field recordings from Bangladesh, and asian instruments. As before it is a fascinating hybrid of tradition and modernity, west competing with the east. It's also a cracking album of dance music which should appeal to the clubbers. Joi are, or were, the duo of Farook and Haroon Shamsher, but sadly Haroon died after returning from Bangladesh with the field recordings that give this album so much of its colour and life. So as well as marking Joi's rite of passage to the next level it is a tribute to a brother. With track titles such as Journey, Prem, The Holy Side, Deep Asian Vibes and Flying With You, We Are Three does take you on a world-spanning trip. |
Rockoon dates from 1992, and by this time TD had slimmed down to a regular duo of Edgar Froese and his son, Jerome, with a few guest musicians added as needed. A studio album, Rockoon is one of their best albums and provided much of the material that TD played live in the early/mid 90's: Big City Dwarves, Rockoon, Touchwood, Funky Atlanta and many others. The style had become streamlined into a very slick and commercial electronica and Edgar Froese, probably through his son, was experimenting with dance rhythms. Many of the best tracks on Rockoon have been remixed for club use [try the excellent Dream Mixes for these], and this album with added use of guitar and saxaphone set the template for most of their 90's output. The Great Wall of China is one of TD's latest albums, a soundtrack to a documentary movie [I think] of the same name, and again is a duo comprising Edgar and Jerome Froese. Opening track Meng Tian is quite impressive, a dance beats-heavy number with samples of Chinese voices. This leads into the very gentle and wistful Summer in Shauxi, which in turn morphs into another beats heavy track The South Gate Knights. The rest of the album is pretty much variations of the styles used in the first few tracks, and I must admit that the album doesn't sound like a soundtrack, more a fine example of the TD conveyor belt of releases that come out every year. I doubt if the fans will be disappointed by this one. InfoPoint
Jörg
Hüttemann & Friends - FantasyLine Compilation One Jörg Hütteman is one of those Jack [or perhaps that should Johannes?] of all trades who has set up his own record label to service his own and his friends recordings. It's a common way of distributing music now that the major labels are shying away from all forms of originality. Jörg records under the name of JayAge and Fantasyline is his label, the latter also being the outlet for his collaborations with other musicians. FantasyLine Compilation One is the first of these albums and finds him making music with Dieter Powalla, Lothar Blum, Donk, Ralf Sobiech and Bernhard Ioan Siegel.
Fantasy Line 3 is another collaborative album from Jörg Hüttemann and his friends. This time the album is synth and guitars-led, with few techno rhythms. In style I guess you could say it is a mixture of Tangerine Dream-like electronica and Weather Report/Mahavishnu Orchestra-type fusion. Fantasy Line 3 appears to be a concept album, loosely drawn around the Gaia mythology, and being totally instrumental your mind can put the pictures to the music. With track titles such as Gluon Balls [something to do with Quarks - don't ask!], The Awakening, Recently at the Free Space Club, Starship Caravan, Solar Wind and Holo-Moon Suite the sci-fi fan should enjoy this as well. In musical terms this album is quite adventurous, mixing jazz fusion and space rock with ambience and electronica. I really enjoyed this album from the first track, all three musicians play well together and there is much to enjoy here. Second Touch: JayAge is German electronica musician Jörge Hüttemann with an assortment of friends providing the voices. The style is a hybrid of techno, ambience and industrial, with many dashes of jazz and funk throughout. There's plenty of variety here, with No Panic getting my vote as the funkiest homage to Kraftwerk I've heard in a long time. Maxx Two is one of those slow burners that grows with intensity and funkiness everytime the drum synths are cranked up! Kay Enn is a short piece of ghostly ambience that leads into the epochal sounding Demons Surfing - all huge shimmering chords and sub harmonics. Eating My Head sounds like a bunch of drunk ghouls having a singsong around the pub piano - very strange. Exploring Area starts as a lengthy synths and guitar workout, reminiscent of 70's Tangerine Dream, but then morphs into something a little funkier. I've only mentioned the tracks that really impressed me here, but in truth there really isn't much on this cd that falls below the high standards of these tracks. A lot of the material isdamn catchy and you end up with them running through your head when away from the cd player - that's the mark of good music in my book.
InfoPoint
Thunderbolt have recently reissued three albums by German Synth wizard Klause Schulze. Schulze has been releasing albums of electronic music for over thirty years and while he isn't a 'household' name like Tangerine Dream (of which he was a brief member) or Jean Michel Jarre he is widely regarded as one of EM's founding fathers and continues to pioneer new explorations of synth music. These three albums date from between 1980 and 1986, with Dig It being the first.
En=Trance was recorded in 1986 and you can tell right away that the synth equipment has been beefed up to the latest models. The sound is richer, lusher and the technique expanded. The title track is a graphic showcase for these improvements - it begins with a few minutes of cosmic percussion then segues into a looping riff which slowly increases tempo until the end. A-Numerique begins with some keyboard explorations before the sequencer kicks in with some gentle but propulsive riffs. Variations of these two elements take the track to its 16.32 conclusion. Fm Delight is more laid back, with some ambient atmospherics that build up to a point where the drum and rhythm loops kick in and take the track into orchestral territory. Final track Velvet System is a bit of a belter, starting fast and slowly getting faster over its eighteen minutes. Dreams has a much more orchestral [albeit electronic] sound, extremely rich in instrumental textures. A Classical Move certainly starts in symphonic mode and stays like that for several minutes before the drums kick in. Five to Four starts with some minimal oriental chimes effects before the sequencers kick in with some jazzy woodwind and piano loops. Title track Dreams is another orchestral sounding work-out, mixed with 2001-type choral loops that phase in and out of the mix. Final track Klaustrophony is a monster: twenty-five minutes long, it begins with gentle clock-like chimes that slowly morph into an orchestra of chimes and choral loops, which eventually explode into a mass of drums and beats. Very floaty, but not always melodic. Unfortunately Klaus Schulze starts to sing rather incoherently about half way in and through to the end of the track, which spoils an otherwise good instrumental. Three very interesting albums by a musician I knew only by repute before now. Of the three my favourite is En=Trance, I think - the others are okay, but not up to the same level. Lightwave
- Cantus Umbrarum
The album is split into thirteen linked tracks described as a "poetic exploration of the underworld - a world of shades, of stones, of memory and oblivion". And I can believe that - this is the sort of music that your mind could conceive while laying in an isolation tank. Music and sounds that disassociate you from reality and delve down into the depths of your psyche. It's both scary and impressive stuff. The CD also includes a two part bonus section containing tracks recorded live in the caves - this "Musical Map of the Underworld" is equally impressive, not least for the sheer technical effort involved in such an undertaking. That aside these live tracks are very beautiful. Cantus Umbrarum is simply a stunning album, it might not be conventional music but to those open to its irrisistible charms it offers much sonic exploration. InfoPoint
Elvis Costello
- When I Was Cruel
There’s no sign of anger management courses in Costello’s background, and as you might expect from his diverse musical interests, there’s a satisfyingly eclectic range of styles and traditions here, from elegantly structured love ballads and Costello’s patented heartfelt ‘grumble’ songs with subtly caustic lyrics, to heavy rock cuts with agreeably raucous guitars. Former members of the Attractions, keyboard wizard Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas are among the support musicians, and When I Was Cruel features 16 tracks, making this an excellent value for money album with total running time of 66 minutes. The witty and semi-autobiographical 45, partly about the importance of recorded music in our lives, gets the whole package off to a good start, and Tear Off Your Own Head (It’s A Doll Revolution) is one of three superb pop triumphs here that all sound like vintage Costello. The unevenly melancholic When I Was Cruel No.2 features rhythmically repetitive vocal effects and quotes aptly from Abba’s Dancing Queen. There’s a fantastic horn section on 15 Petals that makes up for the smartly rhyming yet incomprehensibly vague meaning (“Mussolini highway/There’s a frankincense tree” Eh?) of the wordplay. Tart conjures up some appropriately sexual imagery about fruit, and benefits from a wonderful grand-piano-backed chorus. Alternative versions of Dust 2 (the second of which …Dust is jazzier) bracket the heated rage of Dissolve and, my favourite track here, Alibi, which catalogues poor excuses with impressively blistering cynicism (“You deserve it, ’cos you’re special”), and belongs right up there with the classic Riot Act. Daddy Can I Turn This? is another foot stomping rocker that includes the wryly droll line: “Is anybody acting your age?” The quite extraordinary Episode Of Blonde is a pointed satire of reportage on tragedy and infidelity, with a tongue-in-cheek warning about fair-haired femme fatales (of course!), while closing track Radio Silence boasts highly atmospheric sequenced guitars, and alludes to the hijacking of airwaves by dubious commercialism. What else can I say… with the possible exception of Peter Gabriel; I think Costello is easily the most phenomenally accomplished and formidably talented singer/songwriter alive today. Buy this, or you’ll miss all the fun! Pages at the official EC website at www.elviscostello.com download quickly, have much more interesting content than just the inanely flashy graphics found on many other music promo sites, and so it’s definitely worth a visit. Review by Tony Lee ©2002
One Little Victory opens with a stunning drum roll intro, and has all the Rush trademarks of first class musicianship but, for me, at least, they don’t really show us what they can do until second track, Ceiling Unlimited. This is the one that let’s everybody know they’re back (“If culture is the curse of the thinking class”)! Lifeson and Lee’s guitars blast out with greater energy than I’ve heard since their old style heavy metal years evolved into the more progressive rock forms. Ghost Rider is partly informed by Peart’s journeys via bike through Canada, USA and Mexico (read his autobiographical book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road) and its chorus (“Shadows on the road behind/Shadows on the road ahead/There’s nothing can stop you now”) is undoubtedly one of the haunting tunes that Rush have yet composed. Despite its cryptic traditional ‘fantasy’ lyrics, Peaceable Kingdom is obviously a reflection on the events of September 11th. If you miss those references, note that the basic visual motif for the CD insert and lyrics booklet is Tarot cards, and the page for this particular song has ‘The Tower’ card as a complementary image. There’s often been a science fictional element in Rush’s music and The Stars Look Down recalls the hard-SF truism of an indifferent universe (“Are you under the illusion/The path is winding your way?”). My favourite track on this CD though, the genuinely heartfelt How It Is, tackles the difficult topic of depression by sensitively blending Peart’s acutely poignant lyricism - sounding the depths of his own family tragedies (his daughter, and his wife, were both killed in the space of a few months) - with a relentlessly upbeat refrain. Secret Touch is arguably the hardest rocking track here, with multi-layered dynamic riffs and a powerhouse chorus (“There is never love without pain/A gentle hand/A secret touch on the heart”), which borrows a line from Joseph Conrad’s 1915 novel of romantic tragedy, Victory. Earthshine is an evocative piece with some excellent acoustic guitar work, Nocturne considers what dreams are, and the rousing final track Out Of The Cradle quotes from great American poet Walt Whitman, with Lifeson’s “Endlessly rocking” classy guitar rhythms supporting Lee’s magnificently soaring vocals, and Peart’s keenly insightful philosophy “It’s not a race/It’s a journey” intact. This is marvellously uncompromising rock music, setting a new benchmark for mature musical ability combined with remarkably intelligent lyrics, and sonic vertical takeoffs that are the envy of NASA. If you have not bought anything by Rush, buy this one. You will never look back. If you don’t mind JavaScript pop-ups (HTML or Flash options), check out the official site for this album at www.vaportrails.com. Review by Tony Lee ©2002 |
I
grew up in the 60's [which'll give you some idea of my age!] and unlike
most of the kids in school who raved over the Beatles I found myself listening
to the Beach Boys music much more. Those colourful surfing songs hit the
spot much more accurately with me. I grew up, as one does, and when the
BB's dropped out of the charts I moved on to other groups, but those classic
early hits still reverberated around the back of my mind and I eventually
bought one of the Capitol compilation cds to revive those memories. Of
course, with an adult mind I could appreciate the genius of Brian Wilson
and the rest of group, the intricate orchestrations and harmonies.
This
trio of recent Tangerine Dream releases [on their own label] covers a
wide spectrum of the group's history, starting with a 1982 live recording.
Sohoman was recorded in Sydney, Australia and features the Edgar
Froese, Johannes Schmoelling and Chris Franke line-up performing a selection
of their early 80's classic repertoire: White Eagle, Logos Part One,
and new material: Ayers Majestic, Bondi Parade and Convention
of the 24. As live albums go it is featureless - none of the usual
audience noise or interaction which adds atmosphere tso a live gig, but
the music and the recording quality is excellent. Sohoman would
actually make a great introduction to Tangerine Dream for the neo-fan,
and the inlay booklet contains a very eye-catching spread of group pictures,
and some extremely beautiful landscape photographs of the Australian outback.
Well,
most of the tracks on this cd come from a number of albums, including
the already reviewed Second Touch. The 12 tracks on FantasyLine
Compilation One explore a variety of electronic forms: ambient, trance,
techno, drum and bass and stuff I just can't classify! No Panic
makes a welcome reappearance here, while Fett sounds like musical
representation of the X Files, a trance-like soundscape with very weird
treated voices weaving in and out. Blunas Revenge has a distinct
tribal feel, slowly approaching drums morph into other sounds and back
again. Very atmospheric. This is certainly a varied album and well worth
exploring if you see how German electronica is progressing.
There
are four lengthy tracks on Dig It: Death of an Analogue, Weird
Caravan, The Looper isn't a Hooker and Synthasy. All have a
strong percussive base, and it sounds like real drums too, not a drum
machine. Death... starts with low key synth loops that slowly build
up, topped with vocoder vocals. Weird Caravan is a lot funkier,
drums and bass synths thump away with a jazzy keyboard riff bubbling away
on top. Looper... is more ambient, a brooding bass riffage morphs
into a JM Jarre-type instrumental with some oriental-style percussion.
At over twenty-two minutes in length, Synthasy is almost an electronic
symphony, with distinct sections of synth and sequencer loops. It begins
in a very cosmic, minimal way, but layers of sound and rhythms are added
until it's rattling along at quite a fast tempo, only to slowly die away
away again. 
This
is the first time I've come across the French synth/ electronica duo Lightwave.
Lightwave consists of Christian Wittman and Christolph Harbonnier, along
with assorted guest musicians. Cantus Umbrarum is a collection
of electronic soundscapes created for performance deep in an underground
cavern in the French Choranche Caves. In that respect the music sounds
suitably apt: epic washes of echo-laden ambience, whispering voices, fey
and ghostly instrumental melodies and most important of all a lot of atmosphere.
This
is Elvis Costello’s first solidly composed rock ‘n’ roll
album for a good few years (while he’s been working on some collaborative
arty projects with the likes of Brodsky String Quartet, Burt Bacharach,
London Symphony Orchestra, etc) and if you enjoyed Spike (1989)
or Brutal Youth (1994) then put this at the very top of your wants
list because it’s probably his finest work since those distant days
of the early 1980s, when Costello was the angry young man in Buddy Holly
spectacles bringing a scathing - yet lyrical - intensity to the punk movement…
an intensity that no amount of outrageous public behaviour by his so-called
peers could match.
It’s
been well over five years since this band’s last outing, Test
For Echo (1996), but the Canadian trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson
and Neil Peart have made a stunning return with possibly their strongest
album ever. The first thing you will notice is the complete lack of keyboards,
and it’s only by the end that you realise there’s also very
few proper guitar solos - and no instrumental track at all. Vapor Trails
took a whole year to write and record, with Rush working at a more leisurely
pace than usual. However, the result, by anyone’s standards, is a
range of exceptionally high quality material (13 tracks) in sufficient
quantity (a busy 67 minutes) to have been worth the long wait.