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I am the Cosmos (1992, recorded 1973-75, 54.18) ****/T½ |
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| I am the Cosmos Better Save Yourself Speed of Sound Get Away You and Your Sister Make a Scene Look Up I Got Kinda Lost |
There Was a Light Fight at the Table I Don't Know Though I Know She Lies I am the Cosmos (slow version) You and Your Sister (country version) You and Your Sister (acoustic version) |
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Chris Bell left Big Star after their seminal #1 Record and after various false starts, recorded the material that eventually became I am the Cosmos over a period of several years, in various locations worldwide, including Heureville (France), London and Memphis. Most of the songs are every bit as good as you'd expect from a Big Star songwriter, although a couple of the rockier numbers are slightly unnecessary. Highlights include the title track, the fantastic, slow-burning Better Save Yourself and Look Up, though there's very little wrong with most of the tracks.
The Mellotron isn't credited, and I don't know where the relevant tracks were recorded, but it seems likely that bassist/organist Ken Woodley's the guilty party. The original version of You And Your Sister has a brief 'Tron flute melody, although I can't tell whether the cellos are real or tape replay. The 'country version' added to the end of the disc has a major strings presence, while the fabulous Look Up heavily features the flutes again. As with Big Star, the Mellotron use is sparse and uncredited, but it's still well worth hearing.
Tragically, after several attempts to reform Big Star came to nothing, Bell died in a car accident in December 1978. It took his brother David nearly 14 years to compile this album, but it was worth the wait. I wouldn't buy it for the Mellotron, but for Beach Boys/Beatles-style clever, intelligent pop, it's as essential as the first two Big Star albums. Buy.
See: Big Star
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The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998, 45.21) ***/T |
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| It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career Sleep the Clock Around Is it Wicked Not to Care? Ease Your Feet in the Sea A Summer Wasting Seymour Stein A Space Boy Dream Dirty Dream Number Two |
The Boy With the Arab Strap Chickfactor Simple Things The Rollercoaster Ride |
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Legal Man (2000, 9.27) ***/½Legal ManJudy is a Dick Slap Winter Wooskie |
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Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000, 40.53) ***½/TT½ |
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| I Fought in a War The Model Beyond This Sunrise Waiting for the Moon to Rise Don't Leave the Light on, Baby The Wrong Girl The Chalet Lines Nice Day for a Sulk |
Woman's Realm Family Tree There's Too Much Love |
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Storytelling (2002, 35.28) ***/½ |
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| Fiction Freak Dialogue: Conan, Early Letterman Fuck This Shit Night Walk Dialogue: Jersey's Where it's At Black and White Unite Consuelo Dialogue: Toby |
Storytelling Dialogue: Class Rank I Don't Want to Play Football Consuelo Leaving Wandering Alone Dialogue: Mandingo Cliche Scooby Driver Fiction Reprise Big John Shaft |
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Belle & Sebastian (named after a French TV cartoon) are possibly the most fey band to come out of Scotland, and they're up against pretty strong competition. I'm not sure exactly when they discovered the delights of the Mellotron, but to my knowledge, they first used one on The Boy With the Arab Strap, named in honour of their friends, fellow Scots Arab Strap, in turn named in honour of an obscure sex aid. That's nice, then. I presume it's keyboard player Chris Geddes on the 'Tron, although they don't credit it on any of their albums. All I can hear here is a nice flute part (alongside real strings, by the sound of it) on Chickfactor, but one track doth not a 'Tron album make.
Several singles and EPs appeared before their next album, although the only 'Tron track I've been able to trace is Winter Wooskie (aargh!), from their Legal Man EP. A short flute part in a short song; very pleasant, but rather unexceptional. However, it's all over Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (those titles!). It's just a shame it's all so unbearably twee, really; they could be a nice Nick Drake-ish outfit if they chose. As for the Mellotron, apart from the real strings, there are flute melodies on The Model and Waiting For The Moon To Rise, and a chordal strings part on Beyond This Sunrise. Some marvellous chordal flutes enliven the 'how much more fey could they be?' Nice Day For A Sulk, although the solo flute on Family Tree sounds real to my ears.
Storytelling is a sort-of film soundtrack to Todd Solondz's film of the same name, although many of the tracks never got used in the final cut. Anyway, it's still recognisably Belle & Sebastian, adding a surreal element to the mix by incorporating several short 'dialogue' tracks, presumably from the film. There are a couple of more upbeat numbers, too, although much of the album sticks to their tried and trusted formula. This time, practically no Mellotron, although the strings on Freak have to be, although I don't know about the flutes.
So; three extremely fey albums, although if you like the quieter end of UK indie, you may well go for this stuff. Fold Your Hands Child... is the only one that's worth it for the Mellotron, though. More news if I get to hear all their non-album tracks from the period, although there's nothing on 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress.
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Mainly Mute (2009, 49.08) **½/TT |
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| This is Life Spaceship, Move Slow! Lost My Way Swimsuit in May Sculpt Me a Dream Celestine Sleep Forever All That is Beautiful |
Requiem Andrew |
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Norway's Arne Johan "Bellman" Rauan seems to be named in honour of a peculiarly Scandinavian joke-form, akin to various other worldwide forms, not least the Irish/Kerryman/Polack 'harmless idiot' variety. On his debut album, 2009's Mainly Mute, he's opted to combine dreamy, vaguely chamber pop with post-rock, which might possibly turn out not to've been a good idea; I'm sure his intention was to produce an album of transcendental beauty, or somesuch, but the end result is an overlong, dreary effort, suffused with Rauan's strange, high voice that convinced me it was female until I learned otherwise.
Pål-André Rauan plays Mellotron on three tracks, with a melodic flute part, deep in the mix, on Swimsuit In May, while Sculpt Me A Dream opens with upfront, 'wobbly enough to be real' flutes and we get another majorish flute part on All That Is Beautiful. Overall, while not terrible, this is pretty dull fare, unless, I presume, you should be into this particular brand of indie. Fairly decent Mellotron work, but that's about it.
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Battling Giants (2009, 46.54) */½ |
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| Apologise If I Let the Ladder Down Stalemate Battling Giants Questions & Answers Therapy She is Love What if I? |
All Played Out Should I Believe You? Interlude Bitter End Letters |
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Jamie Hartman has written pop hits for several currently popular artists, so it's no surprise that his band, Ben's Brother's second album, 2009's Battling Giants, features cameos from the likes of Joss Stone (poor man's Aretha) and the horrible Jason Mraz. The album itself consists of the wettest, most insipid kind of lightweight indie you can imagine; even the vaguest notion of any 'best tracks' is laughable, or would be if this wasn't so appalling.
Hartman and Nikolaj Torp play Mellotron, with a quiet flute part on closer Letters that can't have taken two people to play, although the album's various string parts sound real. This really is vile; the kind of music that's tailor-made for use in drippy TV programmes involving people feeling bad about nothing in particular. Another thing: what a truly, truly terrible sleeve. OK, we're not quite in the realms of Paul Simon's offensive-to-the-eye Surprise, but it's still complete 'artistic' drivel. An all-round shitter, then.
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Laughter Tracks (2003, 35.02) ***½/T |
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| Happy Man Skylight The Way it's Going to Be for the Rest of Our Lives Sweet Somethings I Wrote a Song About Sadness Hey Rock and Roll Josephine Geraldine |
Huge in Heaven Play Through the Rain Under the Surface Stockholm Sky |
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If I didn't know better, I'd have said that Ben's Diapers were American; I'm sure experts in the genre could probably nail them down to their hometown. Music? Americana. Vocalists' accents? Pure American. Even their name. Saying that, they're really rather good at it, and are probably the best American band in Finland. Stylistically, they seem to cover all bases, from the balladry of The Way It's Going To Be For The Rest Of Our Lives, the country-rock of I Wrote A Song About Sadness or the proper Americana of Happy Man.
Mellotron on one track only, played by Finnish owner Tom Hakava, with a 'classic' flute part (you know, 'Strawberry Fields') on Stockholm Sky, although that's it, it seems. Nothing on their latest release, Little Pilgrims (***½), sadly, but both albums are worth hearing if you're into the genre.
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Around the House in 80 Days (2007, 50.22) *½/0 |
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| Young at Last Stainless The Big Wide Out There Rusty Money Parting Shot I'm So Blue I'm Black All Strings Attached (Happiness Runs) Last Needle in the Haystack |
Saint Want First Man Standing Grandeur Fever Vacuum Dreamer |
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The Bench Connection are the duo of Matt Deighton (Mother Earth, some other drivel), making him rather older than expected and Chris Sheehan, whose debut, 2007's Around the House in 80 Days, is a slushy, wet-as-water so-called 'folk' effort, horribly reminiscent of the worst West Coast nonsense you can imagine. Think: lots of tambourines. Does it have any 'best tracks'? No, it does not.
Mike(y) Rowe is credited with keyboards, including Mellotron, on several tracks, but the only two possible appearances, both on Saint Want, turn out to be real strings and flute. Oh well, there go another fifty minutes of my life, with not even a genuine Mellotron sighting to show for it. Pointless.
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Uncreation (2006, 53.24) **½/T½ |
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| Uncreation Benedictum #4 Misogyny Ashes to Ashes Wicca Heaven and Hell Them |
Two Steps to the Sun Valkyrie Rising The Mob Rules |
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Benedictum are an American metal band with an unhealthy obsession with Ronnie James Dio and his works, it seems. Not only do several of the band double in a Dio tribute act, but two of Dio's former associates (Jimmy Bain and Craig Goldy) guest on their debut album, 2006's Uncreation, on which they cover not one, but two Dio-era Sabbath tracks to boot. OK, Dio is a God Of Metal, but TWO songs? And they tackled Rainbow In The Dark on an early demo... You wouldn't know it from listening to this album, but Benedictum boast a female singer, Veronica Freeman, clearly not a woman of the ultra-feminist persuasion, by the looks of her stage garb. She gets a whole picture gallery to herself on their website and... Yup, there it is: the obligatory near-soft porn shot [sigh].
None of which has much to do with the album. Well, it's a typical modern metal release, in that it combines 'classic' metal with relentless double-kick work, downtuning and near-ambient keyboard work. Near-ambient keyboard? Chris Morgan adds lashings of tasteful synths to the album, eschewing flash for atmosphere, in a welcome move from which many of their contemporaries would do well to learn. It's not actually a bad album, but, keyboard work aside, it's about as unoriginal as you'd expect of a modern metal album, and the Dio influence does them few favours.
Dokken's Jeff Pilson's production almost certainly explains Morgan's Mellotron use (he also shoehorned one onto albums by War & Peace and Lynch/Pilson), although it seems to be buried in the mix in places; are those 'Tron strings in the background on #4? Or choirs on Misogyny? Definitely strings at the end of the latter, with solo cello underneath, although I'm not totally convinced it's genuine... There's a shot of Pilson at a generic modern keyboard in the studio on their website, but that means nothing. Anyway, choirs on Wicca and Valkyrie Rising, with strings on Sabbath's Heaven And Hell, although you can hear the real thing do the same on 1982's Live Evil, boys'n'girls...
So; one for what I believe are now known as 'metalers' (ugh), although Black Sabbath/Dio fans probably won't want to bother. A couple of the band's own tracks have their moments, notably the lengthy Valkyrie Rising, but this isn't something to quicken the old-school hard rock fan's heart, nor that of anyone hoping to hear loads of Mellotron in a metal setting, real or otherwise.
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The Palace at 4am (Part I) (2002, 70.19) ***½/TTT½ |
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| Puzzle Heart Talk to Me Whispers or Screams Shakin' Sugar C.T.M. Drinking on Your Dime My Darlin' No Church Tonite |
Fireworks Forgiven Like a Photograph Venus Stopped the Train California Little White Cottage It Hurts |
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Jay Bennett left Wilco after the problems surrounding the mixing sessions for their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot effort, teaming up with Edward Burch and recording The Palace at 4am (Part I) soon after. It's an intriguing mix of powerpop and the alt.country for which Wilco are known, with hints of '60s orchestral pop, making for a rich, detailed record. The material's good without being outstanding, better tracks including opener Puzzle Heart, the powerpop of Whispers Or Screams, No Church Tonite and lengthy near-ambient closer It Hurts. If the album has a fault, it's that old bugbear: length. Why make a 70-minute album? Once upon a time, the double-LP was a once-in-a-career option; now it seems to be standard. Too long, sir, too long.
Multi-instrumentalist Bennett plays Mellotron, amongst many other things, with a distant flute part on Talk To Me, murky strings on Shakin' Sugar and a few second of flutes at the end of C.T.M. There's a major flute part on Drinking On Your Dime, a distant one on My Darlin' and more obvious flutes and strings on No Church Tonite, with queasy string parts on Venus Stopped the Train and California (plus flutes) to finish things off nicely. At several points, the tapes sound like they're slipping, making it highly likely that we're talking real Mellotron here, which makes a nice change on a modern album, sad to say.
As a tragic postscript, Bennett died on May 24th, 2009, aged all of 45. Due to the iniquitous American system of health insurance (a major evil of the modern world, not least due to its international influence), he couldn't afford a hip replacement operation and died from an accidental overdose of painkillers. Thank you, free-market economics; chalk up another victim. Bennett apparently had several projects in the pipeline when he died, including a second volume of The Palace at 4am with Burch; we can only wonder how it might have turned out.
See: Wilco
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Baby Dry Your Eye (2004, 46.43) ***/½ |
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| Intro/Love for Sale Tomorrow is Today Adios Amigos Can I Keep Him? Shame on Me I Will Always Be Your Soldier Let's Just Fall in Love Come Back and Haunt Me |
Mystery Place Your Bets You're With Me I Miss You Outro |
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Marit Bergman (ex-punk outfit Candysuck) makes upbeat pop/rock in the way that the Swedes seem to do so well (wasn't there a major Swedish pop group in the '70s?). Baby Dry Your Eye is her second solo album, a Swedish chart-topper, and while it would be easy to dismiss it as 'just another mainstream pop album', it's actually got rather more depth than that, particularly in the lyric department. I'm not saying it's going to appeal to the average Planet Mellotron reader, 'cos it isn't, just that it's better than you might expect.
Björn Yttling plays Mellotron on Mystery, but given that he's battling against clarinet, flügel horn and solo violin, it's rather hard to work out what he might be playing: background strings? Flutes? There's something going on well down in the mix, but I'll be buggered if I can work out what. So; the acceptable end of pop/rock, Swedish style. Better than bloody Roxette, anyway. No appreciable Mellotron use, however, although it would've fitted nicely (and audibly) onto two or three tracks here.
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Unterwegs (1972, 34.09) **½/TJeder Tag Sieht Ganz Anders AusGlaub Mir, Susanne Es Wird Morgen Vorbei Sein Dafur Lebe ich Nur Grauer Bettler Ich Klage An Gelobtes Land Seltsam |
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Dutch-born Jerry Berkers comes with impeccable krautrock/German prog credentials, having sung and played guitar and/or bass on Walter Wegmüller's Tarot and Sergius Golowin's legendary Lord Krishna von Goloka, not to mention being a member of Wallenstein on their first two albums. All of which makes his sole solo album, Unterwegs, all the more of an oddity, as it mixes mainstream pop/rock (the jaunty Glaub Mir, Susanne), Hammond-driven vaguely psych/prog (opener Jeder Tag Sieht Ganz Anders Aus, Gelobtes Land) and Euro-balladry (Ich Klage An, Seltsam) into a rather unappetising stew. It isn't all bad, admittedly, but there's little here to excite the Europhile proghead or krautrocker.
Mellotron on Dafur Lebe Ich Nur, with an unexpected brass part from his Wallenstein colleague Jürgen Dollase, though that seems to be your lot. So; a pretty unexciting album, to be honest, with one fairly unusual 'Tron track, should you feel so disposed.
See: Wallenstein | Walter Wegmüller | Sergius Golowin
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New American Language (2001, 60.05) ***½/T½ |
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| Sweetness New American Language Alaska Highway God Said No Turning Over Black Tornado Albuquerque Lullaby Tape |
Honeydoo! Toledo Rice Thanksgiving Day Parade |
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Dan Bern's been known to joke that, "Bob Dylan was the Dan Bern of the '60s"; not arrogance, humorous observation. Bern's songs and style sound a lot like Bahb's, although his voice is a lot more tuneful (despite the great man's influence), but his welcome moratorium on modern equipment and production gives his albums a timeless feel, certainly compared to many of his just-predecessors' '80s shockers.
Bern has a handful of releases under the self-deprecating, ironic name "Dan Bern & the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy", including his fourth full album, 2001's New American Language. The material's reasonable, but as with so many singer-songwriters, the lyrics are probably regarded as being more important than their vehicle, making a couple of casual listens a little unfair. Wil Masisak plays Mellotron, amongst other 'boards, although the only obvious use is the excellently-played flutes and cellos throughout ten-minute closer Thanksgiving Day Parade, giving the album the unusual distinction of one-and-a-half Ts for just the one track.
There are two more Bern 'Tron releases, 2003's Fleeting Days and the following year's explicitly political My Country II EP, which I shall review when I get hold of copies. As far as New American Language is concerned, don't bother for the Mellotron, but it's a pretty decent album of Dylanesque songs for those into the style.
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Exil (1982, 35.57) ***½/TTT½Un et DifférentVoir le Soleil Le Lieu d'où l'on Ne Revient Pas Intérieurs Exil Les Mendiants d'Amour Le Véritable Ami Le Père qui Regarde |
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Patrick Bernard (he feels the need to say, "previously known as Bernhardt", on his site, for some reason) seems to specialise in 'devotional music', lyrically heavily influenced by his many years' study in India. It seems he was actually born in French colony Algeria, and has lived in various places, including France, Britain and Québec, although as he's settled in the latter, that's the nationality I shall list. Amusingly, the discography on his website lists nothing prior to 1989, after what the French Wikipedia describes (in translation) as his 'second mystical crisis'. Hmmm. So, New Age dreck, anyone? Anyway, 1982's Exil (actually his sixth album, it seems) opens with an early 'World'-type piece, Un Et Différent, before shifting into a pleasant, if undemanding kind of fairly straightforward slightly progressive rock, with a largish dose of French chanson thrown in, particularly noticeable on closer Le Père Qui Regarde; not a million miles away from the less proggy stuff Morse Code were doing a few years earlier, I'd say.
Plenty of Mellotron, apparently played by Bernard himself, with high string notes on Voir Le Soleil, making a template for the album's 'Tron use overall; a particularly good example is the opening to Les Mendiants D'Amour ('The Beggars of Love'), with a well-played melodic part before the more 'standard' chordal work later in the song. Cellos, for a change, at the beginning of Le Véritable Ami, alongside the more standard strings, so with only two songs being 'Tron-free, I'd say this is a surprise 'worth getting' album, assuming you can find a copy. Unavailable on CD, as Bernard isn't even acknowledging its existence, the only way I can see anyone putting it out is if the original record company decides there's any sort of demand for it; none of the specialist prog reissue labels will be interested, as it isn't 'progressive' enough. Is there a demand from Mellotron fans? Should I start 'Mellotron Records'? Don't even go there...
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Heidi Berry (1993, 46.34) ***/½ |
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| Mercury Little Fox The Moon and the Sun One-String Violin Darling Companion Distant Thunder Heart Like a Wheel For the Rose |
Follow Ariel Dawn |
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American-born but British-raised makes Heidi Berry effectively a Brit (this logic is reversed in other places on this site), although her confessional singer-songwriter style is probably more transatlantic than home-grown, ironically. Her music, at least on her third, eponymous album, fits loosely into 4AD's 'house style' (think: Cocteau Twins), being laid back to the point of drifting, although it seems to have little of their appeal. Don't get me wrong; it's perfectly pleasant, but too undemanding to actually grab the listener's attention, although I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree.
Credited Mellotron on one track, Little Fox, from Robert Lord, but given that the track already features real strings, all I can hear is a faint background flute part that really wasn't worth recording. So; inoffensive but ineffectual, with next to no 'Tron. Next...
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Longtemps (2005, 41.14) ***/½ |
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| Rêver d'L Je Joue Elle Pleure Les Frôleuses Audimat La Saga des Gnous Sous la Pluie Sans Toi |
J'Ai Pas l'Temps Tant Pis pour Tout Rendez-Vous là-Haut Longtemps |
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Algerian-born Louis Bertignac is a French singer-songwriter, once a member of both Shakin' Street and Téléphone, two of his country's premier late '70s outfits. Including the two albums he made with Bertignac et les Visiteurs, 2005's Longtemps is his sixth solo studio release, a perfectly acceptable vaguely roots-rock effort, although, as with so many similar, I'd imagine you'll get more out of it should you speak the language. It shifts between the expected rock-with-acoustic guitars through the ethnic-ish La Saga Des Gnous to the folk-blues of J'Ai Pas L'Temps and the straight folk of the title track, making for a decent level of stylistic variety on the kind of album that, all too often, is rather one-dimensional. Best track? My personal favourite is the lengthyish Longtemps itself, but only because it has a slight psych feel to it.
Johan Ledoux plays background Mellotron flute chords on J'Ai Pas L'Temps, albeit not to any great effect. This an unexpectedly decent singer-songwriterish effort, then, although non-French speakers should probably approach with caution.
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The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (2010, 46.33) **½/T |
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| Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent Pt.1: The Ocean Pt.2: The Innocent Chicago Train Albatross Glass Printer Land of Living Skies Pt.1: The Land Pt.2: The Living Skies/font> |
And This is What We Call Progress Light Up the Night The Lonely Moan |
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The Besnard Lakes are the husband/wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, who play a rather gloomy form of indie. On their third album, 2010's The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, they are toweringly unambitious, clearly content to make the most unimaginative music they can, er, imagine, waffling along for three-quarters of an hour, although it feels longer. The nearest the album gets to highpoints are two-part opener Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent, mainly due to their style having not yet become completely tedious and the slide guitar opening to Albatross, although it slumps into their default slough of despond all too soon.
Lasek and Goreas both play Mellotron, with uncredited flutes on part one of Land Of Living Skies, The Land, although both are credited with the strings on Light Up The Night. Do you like waif-like indie? Really? Well, you stand a good chance of going for this, then. I don't, so I'm more than happy never to have to hear this again. A little Mellotron, but really not enough to be worth the bother.
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Ceci est Cela (1979, 40.16/79.09) ***/T |
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| Princesse Lolita Géant Pawa 1 Ceci est Cela Seul [CD adds: Traversée Trio |
L'or des Fous 4 L'or des Fous 2 PFJ 159 PJF 137] |
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After working with Jean-Louis Rizet on Pôle and making two albums with Hydravion, Philippe Besombes released Ceci est Cela in 1979, although there seems to be some dissent over not only its year of release, but even its title. Now-defunct Israeli label MIO reissued the album as a greatly-expanded CD, but misspelt its title Cesi est Cela and gave its year of release as 1979, although it may well be from 1976, pre-dating Hydravion. To add to the confusion, opening spoof disco number Princesse Lolita is sequenced in such a way that you have to wind back from the beginning of track 'one' to hear it at all. Once you get past that horror/joke/selling point, most of the album, unsurprisingly, largely consists of atonal electronic hums and squawks, although the odd tuneful bit sticks its head above the ramparts in paces. As with Pôle (below), this isn't an album for the faint-hearted, or the 'standard' EM fan (aren't these one and the same thing?).
Obvious Mellotron on one track only, with an ominous string part on Géant that forms the bedrock of the piece, and while it's possible that the screechy noises on a couple of other tracks are 'Tron-related, it seems unlikely. So; avant-EM. Isn't that how it should be? Borders listenable in places, to be honest, but one decent 'Tron track for the (should be) committed.
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Pôle (1975, 75.49) ***½/TT½Haute PressionEvelyse Armature Double Lundi Matin Montélimar Rock à Montauban Synthi Soit-il |
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Philippe Besombes and Jean Louis Rizet were French experimental musicians who only properly collaborated once, on 1975's Pôle (named for the independent label on which it was released), a double album of electronic music, sometimes cited as the best French album in the genre. Despite superficial similarities, don't think Tangerine Dream here; Besombes-Rizet were far more percussive, and the music has a completely different feel - comparisons with another French electronic duo, Heldon, are more relevant. Much of the music spread across the album's four sides is quite harsh, albeit interesting; lush melodies and Mellotron soundscapes are notable by their absence, substituted by brittle synth work and manic percussion.
I've really no idea who plays what here; a whole raft of gear was used, including Rhodes (principally on Evelyse), Mellotron M400, MiniMoog, ARP Odyssey and various EMS equipment, mostly to good effect, with several modular-sounding percussive patches finding their way onto various tracks. On the Mellotron front, Haute Pression features male choir throughout much of its length, plus a smattering of strings, but on the side-long Armature Double the duo go completely overboard, utilising Mellotron vibes and percussion, with some vicious tympani and tubular bell work (!), after a rich string intro. Montélimar only has a brief burst of strings on the intro, and that would seem to be your lot.
So; you're not going to find a vinyl original of this, and the excellent Israeli RIO label have gone under, so once their pressing of Pôle has sold out, it's gone. EM fans who wish to venture beyond their 'Berlin School' comfort zone or anyone who wants to hear Mellotron percussion used in anger would do well to invest in a copy while they still can.
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How Does Your Garden Grow? (1998, 58.26) **/½ |
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| Je Ne M'en Souviens Pas One More Murder At the Stars Like it Like That Allison Foley Under You Live Again Happy Day MāMā |
Pull Particle Beautiful Mistake Everything in 2's New Kind of Low Low Coma Waxing or Waning? |
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Although they apparently started life as a proto-Americana outfit in the late '80s, by their fourth album, 1998's How Does Your Garden Grow?, Better Than Ezra had turned into a whiny indie act, with Kevin Griffin's vocals being particularly worthy of opprobrium. It's saying something when a song as weak as the two-part New Kind Of Low can be hailed as the album's highlight, although its first part, Low, provides a much-needed burst of energy just when you'd given up all hope.
Griffin is credited with Chamberlin, spelt properly for once (hurrah!), but amongst a cluttered production, with real strings and something called a 'metasynth', the only places it's at all obvious are a rude outburst of brass in the middle of Happy Day MāMā (dunno why the accents) and a brief flute part (possibly a rhythm track?) at the beginning of the next song, Pull. As a result, this is worth it for neither the music nor the Chamby. Avoid.
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Lamprey (1995, 49.27) ***/T |
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| Keepsake Ray Ray Rain D. Feathers Re-Feel-it 21 Days Cybor*D Tell Me, Sad Crutches |
Something So Wild Totally Freaked Out Silent Spring |
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Mellotron used:
Bettie Serveert ('Bettie serves', from a Dutch TV show) coalesced properly in 1990, after a failed dry-run in the mid-'80s. Although usually described as 'indie', their sound, at least on their second album, 1995's Lamprey, has more than a touch of the Neil Youngs about it, if you can imagine a female-voiced Neil transplanted to 1990s Holland. It's actually pretty good, particularly opener Keepsake, although a bit of dead wood could've been trimmed with no ill-effects.
One (uncredited) Mellotron track, with flutes and strings on D. Feathers from drummer Berend Dubbe, to reasonable if not earth-shattering effect. Incidentally, Mr. Dubbe left after their fourth album and has gone on to form the retro- and Mellotron-happy Bauer. So; Lamprey: much better than expected, if slightly overlong and not really worth it for its 'Tron input.
See: Bauer
