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Highlighting in album tracklistings denotes 'contains Mellotron'. On 'multi-part' tracks I've tried to indicate which parts contain 'Tron, although this isn't always possible.
Ratings:
The * rating (½-5) is my personal, entirely subjective and completely partisan rating of the music.
The 'T' ('Tron, of course...) rating (0-5) is an only slightly more objective indicator of an album's Mellotronness.
By the way, if you know of any Mellotron albums that aren't listed here, please look at my albums page first! Thanks.
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Rime of the Ancient Sampler SI Magazine |
Schizoid Dimension The Spaghetti Epic |
Stay Awake Tales From Yesterday |
This is an Orange We're a Happy Family |
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Rime of the Ancient Sampler: The Mellotron Album (1993, 77.42) ***/TTTTT |
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| Matt Clifford: Then and Now Bill Nelson: Mellotronix Michael Pinder Waters Beneath the Bridge Patrick Moraz: Owner's Guide Gordon Reid: Julia Sheila Maloney: Berlin Boys |
Blue Weaver: Mello Blue's Blues Derek Holt: Resurrection Nick Magnus: Night of the Condor Woolly Wolstenholme: Deceivers All Ken Freeman: Attack of the Azimuths Martin Smith: Engulfed |
David Cross: Not So Chris Taylor: Bradmatic David Kean: Lift Julian Colbeck: Heartfelt David Etheridge: Mighty Tron 1964 Mellotron Demonstration Disc: El Cumbanchero |
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Very quietly, in the early '90s, bathroom fitter Martin Smith and John 'son of Les' Bradley opened for business as Streetly Electronics, just outside Birmingham, helping to kickstart the revival of Mellotron use in the UK. They brought my own machine back from the dead in 1993, coincidentally the same year they compiled Rime of the Ancient Sampler: The Mellotron Album, released on Voiceprint. Now long out of print, copies change hands for considerable sums on the 'Tron fan circuit although, if I'm going to be utterly, brutally honest, it's not quite the classic it's made out to be. What's more, although Martin and John spent some weeks trundling a Mark II all over the country for artists to use, only ten of the sixteen tracks recorded especially for the album actually use real 'Tron, one of the sample casualties being Martin's own track, Engulfed. No, I don't know why either.
In retrospect, some of the artists seem rather odd choices. Bill Nelson? (Be-Bop Deluxe only ever used one sparingly). Julian Colbeck? Several lesser-known singer-songwriters/session men? To be fair, the project was put together pretty quickly, and several high-profile names wouldn't commit, and there are a few classic names from Mellotron history. The booklet helpfully lists every sound used by each musician (trainspotters? Us?), even when those sounds are now known to be samples, and there's a good selection, apart from the ubiquitous violins/flutes/choir, including mixed brass, trumpet, sax, oboe, Hammond and Patrick Moraz' special FX set.
The music. Hmmm. This is where it gets a bit difficult for me. I know several of the people involved with the project (like the namedropper I am), so it's with a heavy heart that I say: it's not very good. All but two of the tracks were written specially for the record, the artists being given complete carte blanche, and most of them sound like '80s-hangover session muso stuff, I'm afraid. You know; programmed drums, nasty digital synth patches, no discernable tune. That sort of thing. It's not all bad; The Strawbs' Blue Weaver plays a nice bluesy thing in Mello Blue's Blues, although you can hear the samples at a couple of points, and Moraz' Owner's Guide is intentionally amusing, but most of the material has a rather rushed feel about it, as though the artists were only given a couple of days' notice to come up with something. A few tracks quote from 'Tron classics of yesteryear, notably the Climax Blues Band's Derek Holt, on Resurrection, and my old friend Dave Etheridge, on Mighty Tron. A quick aside here, to say a public 'thank you' to Dave for a) letting me play his Mark II back in the mid-'80s - the first Mellotron I ever laid hands on, and b) ringing me excitedly at work one day in '93 to tell me he'd found someone to get my 'Tron working again. Enter Martin...
However... unsurprisingly, there is some mighty 'Tron work here, with Ken Freeman going completely bonkers with the choirs on Attack Of The Azimuths (you can tell this man's worked on the machine's innards), while the violins (plus his real one) on David Cross' Not So are as in-yer-face as you could ever want; the track's not bad, either. David Kean (US 'Tron resurrector) shows off shamelessly by playing Mellotron, Chamberlin and Birotron on Lift, named for his fave obscure US prog outfit, and Dave Etheridge's Mighty Tron cops The Beatles, The Moody Blues and Genesis, and why not? And Dave, 'Watcher' is in F#, not G...
Whither the two tracks not actually recorded for the album, I hear you ask? Ex-Barclay James Harvester Woolly Wolstenholme's Deceivers All is the best song 'proper' on the album, being recorded for his second solo album in the early '80s, finally seeing the light of day on Black Box, which came out the year after Rime, also on Voiceprint. It's swamped in M300 strings, and not only has a tune, but a damn' good one, and is the only track here available elsewhere, for what it's worth. Apart from Woolly's track, the highlight of the album has to be El Cumbanchero, the original '64 'Tron demo disc; in fact, the album's (almost) worth it for this alone, though only almost. It consists of a cleaned-up 7" single of an unknown musician playing some cheesy Mark II string chords over a left-hand manual rhythm, with some dweeb with a slightly mid-Atlantic accent extolling its virtues, before a further selection of rhythm tapes and some wild Hammond soloing on the right-hand manual. Stupendous. No, I mean it; well, very nearly...
So; it's rather academic whether or not I recommend this, as it's almost impossible to find, especially outside the UK, and if you're a Mellotron nut, it's probably at the top of your 'wants' list, whatever I have to say about it. A reissue is apparently a no-no, permanently, so if you're absolutely hell-bent on owning a copy, keep your eyes open, and good luck.
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SI Magazine: Compilation Disc (1991, 72.42) *½/½ |
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| Brassé: Pawn Overture Pendragon: Fallen Dreams and Angels Landmarq: Suite St.Helen's The Last Detail: Man Out of Time Tracy Hitchings: Escape |
Oblique: Time Differences: Changing Jadis: The Beginning and the End For Absent Friends: Attitude Now: Back to the Silence |
Gandalf: The Call of Nature Egdon Heath: Secret fence Shadowland: Dorian Gray Pallas: War of Words |
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One of the first independent progressive labels of the '90s, The Netherlands' S.I. (Sym-Info) are now largely forgotten, despite their groundbreaking work; they went to the wall in the middle of the decade, doubtless due to the standard cashflow problems encountered by labels run by fans, although most of their better releases have been reissued on other labels. Actually, if we're going to be brutally honest, S.I.'s roster was pretty awful, with the likes of neo-prog horrors For Absent Friends, Aragon and Egdon Heath, although they also gave Scots experimentalists-turned-neoproggers-turned-Genesis-copyists Citizen Cain a chance, and were the first label to reissue Twelfth Night's seminal Live & Let Live (*****), whilst also foisting several dreary Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena) projects on the world, amongst other unpleasantnesses. Basically, with a handful of exceptions, they released then-current neo-prog by bands who were never going to get a deal with anyone else. Ever. See: Coda.
The wittily-titled SI Magazine: Compilation Disc (the large '10' on the cover refers to the mag's tenth anniversary) featured most of the early-'90s' neo-prog leading lights (such as they were), including some who never actually released anything else on the label, not to mention several exclusive and never reissued tracks. Among these are my good friend Nick May's only recorded work with Jadis, before being dropped like the proverbial hot potato, and the only thing Pallas released in their 12-year gap between albums, War Of Words. It's this last that interests us here, as it's also their last recorded Mellotron work, played by returning original keyboard player Mike Stobbie, who eventually left to be replaced by his original replacement, Ronnie Brown. With me so far? It's actually a piece of unmitigated AOR shite, to be quite honest, and really should have been left unavailable, in my (very) 'umble opinion, featuring a brief and distant choir part that does nothing to dig the song out of its quagmire of slop. Unfortunately, in their completist zeal, the band elected to include it on their massive archive effort, Mythopoeia, albeit in MP3 form, although that does mean that completist fans won't have to shell out the sheckels for this dismal effort, if they simply can't bear to be without it.
The rest of the album's pretty awful, too, but as it's long-unavailable and exceedingly unlikely to be reissued, you're not going to find a copy anyway. Gandalf's hilariously-titled The Call Of Nature brings to mind Now (also present here)'s side-splitting debut, Complaint of the Wind, and Québecois Visible Wind's entire career. Want to use English idioms? Ask an expert. Or at least an English speaker. OK, for what it's worth, the only tracks which didn't trigger an overpowering urge in me to hit the 'skip' button were the ones by (maybe surprisingly) Landmarq, Jadis and Gandalf, although Now's effort had some nice Yes-like 'da da da's, although the track sounds a bit throwaway.
So; you're rather unlikely to find this, but in case you've actually got it on your 'wants' list for some strange reason, I can only urge you to delete it immediately. The bulk of this compilation is irredeemably horrible, and should never have been released. Unequivocal? Moi?
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Schizoid Dimension: A Tribute to King Crimson (1997, 73.03) ***½/TT |
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| Controlled Bleeding: Talking Drum David Cross: Exiles (edit) Brand X (West): Red Brand X (East): Neil & Jack & Me Chrome: Moonchild Melting Euphoria: Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part 1) Alien Planetscapes: A Sailor's Tale |
Architectural Metaphor: Cirkus Pressurehead: 21st Century Schizoid Man Astralasia: I Talk to the Wind Xcranium: Cat Food Spirits Burning: Red Solid Space: In the Wake of Poseidon |
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Unusually for a 'tribute' album, Schizoid Dimension is largely very listenable, with a high good-to-shite quotient. I'm tempted to say this is a result of the excellence of the source material, but that doesn't stop most similar efforts being vile; maybe it's the fact that very few of the contributing artists deviate too far from King Crimson's original arrangements. Brand X (West) and Spirits Burning's respective recreations of Red are almost identical to the 1974 version, while Solid Space's In The Wake Of Poseidon could actually be the original, although most of the rest of the artists involved stamp at least a little of their own personality on their chosen tracks. Most innovative? Xcranium's Cat Food is a hard rock take on the track, while Astralasia's techno-orientated I Talk To The Wind moves furthest from the song's roots although, amusingly, without the programmed percussion, it would be almost identical to Crimson's version.
As is so often the case with modern recordings, it's extremely hard to tell whether any of the 'Mellotron' work here has even a whiff of genuine tape-replay about it, but without more detailed information, I shall have to assume that an M400 was involved in the proceedings. Alien Planetscapes' A Sailor's Tale has some strings that may just possibly be real, probably from band leader Doug Walker, while Solid Space's In The Wake Of Poseidon sounds like fairly genuine strings (credited, anyway) from Daniel Todd Carter. Architectural Metaphor's Cirkus dispenses with the Lizard version's strings, flute and brass, but layers plenty of 'Tron choir all over the track, making for an interesting departure, due to Crimson's non-use of the sound, although they're almost certainly samples, given that Paul Eggleston has never owned a 'Tron. Although Astralasia's I Talk To The Wind sounds like it could contain 'Tron flute, it's far more likely to be a synth, ditto the vaguely 'Tronnish parts on a couple of other tracks.
So; not a bad effort, as tribute albums go, although like so many similar, it all seems a bit pointless, really. Particularly low marks, incidentally, for the appalling sleeve; it appears to be a crude parody of the late Barry Godber's fantastic artwork for In the Court of the Crimson King (I mean, what's going on with those eyes?), but since I can't imagine why the compilers would wish to mock the original, I can only assume that it, too, is meant as a tribute. In fairness, it's the worst thing about the album; worth picking up second-hand.
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The Spaghetti Epic: Six Modern Prog Bands For Six '70s Prog Suites (2004, 134.14) ***/T |
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| Haikara: The West Randone: Jill Tilion: Cheyenne La Voce Del Vento: Harmonica |
Taproban: Morton Trion: Frank |
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The Spaghetti Epic: Six Modern Prog Bands For Six '70s Prog Suites is the second Colossus/Musea collaboration (see: Kalevala), and adds another factor to the mix, namely, 'each suite should be 25 minutes maximum' which means, in practice, 'each suite will be at least 20 minutes'. The album's premise, however, is a fascinating one; tackle Sergio Leone's famous spaghetti western, 'Once Upon a Time in the West', in long-format, '70s-inspired progressive form. Not your standard prog fare, then... Would you believe, though, that it seems to've brought out the best in some of the bands concerned? Surprisingly, maybe, being forced into a previously-unexplored area has pulled them out of their comfort zone and made them produce something a bit different.
On disc one, Haikara's The West exudes a sense of menace, with unusual (but fitting) use of harmonica, and while Randone and Tilion's tracks are good, they can't quite match Haikara for sheer invention. La Voce del Vento are, amusingly, British, being a Guy Manning side-project, and produce a pretty decent effort in Harmonica. Taproban are reasonable enough, at the heavier end of things, but the much-fêted Trion are, sadly, the dullest thing here; producing a 'side-long' piece of music doesn't just mean 'solo till the cows come home', and their neo-prog tendencies grate somewhat.
Not an awful lot of Mellotron, to be honest; Randone use samples, and while Tilion have ensured me they're using a real one, played by Alfio Costa, it's not the most upfront use you'll ever hear. Manning and Trion both use samples, as they do on their regular releases, and if you think Taproban's pseudo-Hammond is bad, wait till you hear their voice samples... This has got to be the nastiest, stretched, low-rate sample it's been my displeasure to hear in a long while. Anyway, a good start, but tails off rather, and this 20-minute plus thing only encourages bands to be self-indulgent. Not bad, not great, probably not as good as its predecessor in the series. Not much 'Tron, either, excluding samples.
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Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films (1988, 63.33) ****/½ |
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| Opening Medley Ken Nordine: Hi Diddle Dee Dee (an Actor's Life for Me) Natalie Merchant, Michael Stipe: Little April Shower Los Lobos: I Wan'na Be Like You (the Monkey Song) Bonnie Raitt and Was (Not Was): Baby Mine Tom Waits: Heigh Ho (the Dwarfs Marching Song) |
Medley Two Suzanne Vega: Stay Awake Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvath: Little Wooden Head Syd Straw: Blue Shadows on the Trail Medley Three Buster Poindexter: Castle in Spain Yma Sumac: I Wonder Aaron Neville: Mickey Mouse March Medley Four Garth Hudson: Feed the Birds |
NRBQ: Whistle While You Work Betty Carter: I'm Wishing The Replacements: Cruella De Ville Sinéad O'Connor: Someday My Prince Will Come Medley Five Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Pink Elephants on Parade Harry Nilsson: Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah James Taylor: Second Star to the Right Pinocchio Medley Ken Nordine: Desolation Theme Ringo Starr: When You Wish Upon a Star |
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Stay Awake's certainly an odd one; a weird tribute album to Disney's finest, put together by noted producer Hal Willner (Saturday Night Live). As he says in his sleevenotes, it would've been easy to've filled the album with comedy efforts such as Public Enemy performing Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?, but that would not only have been lazy, but ultimately unrewarding. As a result, he pulled together a wide range of artists, giving them free reign to treat the material as they liked; unsurprisingly, the end result mirrors that of most tribute albums, containing everything from near-carbon copies to wildly original reinterpretations.
Some of the tracks brought back memories of the originals for me, while others were completely unfamiliar, in some cases because I'd never actually seen the films, but standouts are Buster Poindexter, otherwise known as David Johansen of the New York Dolls doing Castle In Spain ('Babes in Toyland'), Suzanne Vega's fragile a capella Stay Awake ('Mary Poppins') and, of course, Tom Waits' quite bonkers reworking of Heigh Ho from 'Snow White'. He turns a jolly little number into a grinding, painful evocation of the drudgery of hard, physical labour, with the lyrics being the only obvious connection with the original. Compare this to NRBQ's Whistle While You Work, from the same film...
Anyway; tape replay? Tom Waits, of course, or rather, Mitchell Froom, who plays Chamberlin flutes on Heigh Ho, though not a great deal, to be honest, in time-honoured Waits style. Thinking about it, this might've been Waits' first use of the Chamby; he'd only just used a Mellotron for the first time at this point, on Franks Wild Years. Waits 'plays' Optigan on the track, too, providing the dirty, fucked-up rhythm track. Look, you REALLY have to hear this! I don't know if the track's available anywhere else, but make the effort to track it down; you won't regret it.
So; the usual mixed bag that you expect from tribute albums - beats dumb metalheads trashing Rush songs to no apparent purpose, anyway... For what it's worth, I found playing this an enjoyable experience, altough little of the music (like, none) falls into my usual listening categories. Hardly any Chamberlin, but that wasn't unexpected. I still wish Willner had actually got Public Enemy to do Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?, though...
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Tales From Yesterday (1995, 76.29) ****/½ |
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| Robert Berry: Roundabout Stanley Snail: Siberian Khatru Steve Morse Mood for a Day Magellan: Don't Kill the Whale Steve Howe & Annie Haslam: Turn of the Century Shadow Gallery: Release, Release World Trade: Wonderous Stories |
Cairo: South Side of the Sky Patrick Moraz: Soon Enchant: Changes Peter Banks: Astral Traveler Steve Morse: The Clap Jeronimo Road: Starship Trooper |
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Tales From Yesterday was one of five 'tribute' albums released in the mid-'90s by US prog indie Magna Carta, and as far as I understand, is easily the best. A bit of background: Magna Carta appears to be heavily connected with one of the first bands to appear in the US prog resurgence, Magellan, who released the classic Hour of Restoration (*****) in 1991, although they've never managed to equal its impact on subsequent releases. All five albums featured essentially the same pool of musicians, in or out of their respective bands, although quality varies wildly. I haven't heard the Jethro Tull album, To Cry You a Song, but the others are Supper's Ready (***½) (Genesis), the rather pointless The Moon Revisted (***) (Pink Floyd's Dark Side complete) and the dreadful Working Man (**) (Rush). The label don't seem to've learnt their lesson on the Rush front, with another dodgy-looking effort, Subdivisions, due any time.
However, unlikely though it may seem, Tales From Yesterday is really very good indeed. Now, you may not think that Yes would be the easiest band to reinterpret, but many of the bands (both established and one-offs) here have done exactly that, with aplomb. Robert Berry's Roundabout and Magellan's Don't Kill The Whale (in the style of 90125) are standouts, while Steve Howe has a good stab at a different take on Turn Of The Century (from Drama), along with Annie Haslam of Renaissance. There are a few 'why did they bother' tracks, with Enchant's carbon-copy of Changes, and World Trade's not-far-off-it Wondrous Stories, but there isn't a single track here that actually offends me, which is praise indeed in the murky world of 'tribute' releases.
So, "Where's the Mellotron?", I hear you cry. Well, 'Stanley Snail' (a one-off including various members of Giraffe, who can be heard on Progfest '94, above) slightly rearrange Siberian Khatru, with a cheeky quote from Heart Of The Sunrise at the end. Looking closely at the credits discloses the information that a certain (and much-missed) Kevin Gilbert plays keys on the track. Gilbert was known as an analogue-keys man, and sure enough, the 'Tron flute'n'strings part from the song's quiet middle section is reproduced, possibly with a more adventurous string part added. That would appear to be it for the track and the album, but for the Yes fans out there, I can genuinely recommend this as that rarest of things, an excellent tribute album.
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This is an Orange: A Compilation of Scandinavian Progressive Rock (1995, 66.37) ***½/TT |
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| Ravana: Wounded Crome Yellow: Deathwish/Autumn Fruitcake: How to Make it Ab Intra: Fatherland Crack of Ice: Dusty Highway Winterland: Shadow of My Mind |
Manticore: The Maiden Villblomst: Blackest Cat in Town (live '78) Folque: Fanfare ('80) Orchid Garden: Moonchild Anekdoten: Cirkus (live) |
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This is an Orange is, as the saying goes, as rare as rocking-horse shit, or maybe a moment of Emersonian good taste. Anyway, you're simply not going to find this (or at least, an original), as for some bizarre reason, it was pressed in a limited edition of 250 copies, which sold out immediately, probably for the otherwise unavailable Anekdoten track, even if it is 'only' a live Crimson cover. It's actually a pretty good compilation, covering various bases, from the almost blues-rock of Crack of Ice's Dusty Highway and intelligent hard rock of Winterland's Shadow Of My Mind through to the more familiar strains of the understated but really rather good Fruitcake, the overrated Manticore and, of course, Anekdoten. Fruitcake's contribution is the only track (I believe) that is otherwise available, and a couple (the slightly dull Villblomst and the surprisingly good Folque) date from, respectively, 1978 and 1980.
As for the album's Mellotron content, the Manticore track, The Maiden, is different from the album version with extra added Mellotron, while Orchid Garden's Moonchild (another Crimson cover!) has a choir intro and flutes throughout, played by future White Willow man Jan Tariq Rahman. Finally, Anekdoten's fabled take on Cirkus is taken from a gig in Oslo, January '94, when they played no less than three actual Crimson numbers, plus their version of Holst's Mars, in the days before they had enough of their own material to fill an entire set. It's a rockin' version, utilising their MkV 'Tron well, doubling up strings and brass on the 'chorus', as on the original.
So; if you can find someone to copy this for you (as I did), it's worth hearing, with several otherwise unavailable worthwhile tracks on board, two of which are also worth it on the 'Tron front.
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We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to the Ramones (2003, 48.37) ***/T |
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| Red Hot Chili Peppers: Havana Affair Rob Zombie: Blitzkrieg Bop Eddie Vedder, Zeke: I Believe in Miracles Metallica: 53rd & 3rd U2: Beat On The Brat Kiss: Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio |
Marilyn Manson: The KKK Took My Baby Away Garbage: I Just Wanna Have Something to Do Green Day: Outsider The Pretenders: Something to Believe in Rancid: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker Pete Yorn: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend |
The Offspring: I Wanna Be Sedated Rooney: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Tom Waits: Return of Jackie & Judy Eddie Vedder, Zeke: Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love) John Frusciante: Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World |
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We're a Happy Family was pieced together by the inimitable Rob Zombie and Johnny Ramone, not so long before the latter joined his erstwhile ex-colleagues Joey and Dee Dee in the hereafter (bet they're all having fun there...). Like pretty much all multi-artist tributes, it's the proverbial curate's egg, being a mixture of pointlessly faithful copies (The Offspring, the risible Green Day), no-hoper attempts at reworking the material to fit the artist's style (The Pretenders, Garbage), and the occasional gem, where it all comes together to produce a genuinely new take on a familiar piece of music. I never thought I'd hear myself say it, bus Kiss' joyous brass-driven take on Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio (no, really!) is a highlight, as are Pete Yorn's (admittedly slightly predictably) melodic, Byrdsian take on I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and, of course, Tom Waits' bonkers Return Of Jackie & Judy.
As for the Mellotron (who'd a' thunk it, on a Ramones tribute?), it had to come from Marilyn Manson really, didn't it? He turns The KKK Took My Baby Away into a bizarre industrial dirge with shrieky 'Tron strings from his current bassist, Tim Skold, swelling up nicely near the end of the song, which isn't to say the track's actually any good, sadly. In fairness, the bulk of the album's (mostly) not actually painful, although much of it passes by without really impinging itself on your consciousness (Metallica? the Chilis? U2, for fuck's sake?).
So; stick to the first three classic Brudders albums and a compilation of the best bits from the rest of their career and give this rather pointless effort a miss, although there are a handful of tracks actually worth hearing. One thing I can say about it is that everyone involved sounds like they mean it (even U2), which makes a nice change. Maybe everyone really does love the Ramones? Let's hope so.
