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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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Adrian Wagner Rufus Wainwright Tom Waits |
Rick Wakeman Walkabouts |
Wallenstein Wally |
Joe Walsh Waniyetula |
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Distances Between Us (1974, 36.23) ***½/TTDistances Between UsSolstice Mourning Glory Steppenwolf Music of the Spheres |
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Instincts (1977) ***/TWhere Are We Going?Waterbrook High Seas Love Theme Amazon There's Another Summer Coming Machu Picchu Above the Horizon Leaving it All Behind |
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I don't actually know an awful lot about Adrian Wagner, other than he's the great-great-grandson of the better-known Richard and he's a British electronic musician who released three albums in the mid to late '70s, of which Distances Between Us is the first and best. The side-long title track is probably the strongest piece, also featuring the most Mellotron, although the vocals were probably a mistake, in retrospect; it would've made a far better instrumental. Distances Between Us is actually a very ambitious composition, with an effective sound effects sequence in the middle, and interesting use of various modular and semi-modular synths. The only vocal parts on the album that actually work to any real degree are the contributions made by Hawkwind's poet in residence, Robert Calvert, who manages to imbue his parts with a genuine gravitas. It sounds like him towards the end of the title track, and Steppenwolf appears to be the same lyric he later recorded with Hawkwind on their Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music album.
The Mellotron use is basically confined to the first and last few minutes of the title track (strings with a little choir) and album closer Music Of The Spheres, with some epic strings chords, again with choir mixed in. To be honest, this isn't a great album, although some of the synth textures are worth hearing for students of the genre. Top marks to Wagner for attempting something different; I'm just not convinced that it worked.
Wagner took a while to get round to his second album, Instincts, and I have to say, it's rather nearer the electronic music mainstream, with a couple of odd 'South American' tracks in Amazon and Machu Picchu, which I don't personally feel work very well. He's insisted there's a lot of 'Tron on the album, but all I can really hear are some background choirs on There's Another Summer Coming and Leaving It All Behind. There may, or may not be strings on opener Where Are We Going? and a couple of other points during the album, but I really wouldn't care to say either way.
His third album, The Last Inca (***) has a similarly 'mainstream' sound, and don't really grab my attention either, I'm afraid. Incidentally, there are some hilarious misspellings in the equipment list on Distances...; 'Melatron', 'Clavanette', 'VCS 111' and 'APR', anyone? At least they got 'Farfisa' right...
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Rufus Wainwright (1998, 53.21) ***/½ |
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| Foolish Love Danny Boy April Fools In My Arms Millbrook Baby Beauty Mark Barcelona |
Matinee Idol Damned Ladies Sally Ann Imaginary Love |
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Poses (2001, 52.54) ***/½ |
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| Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk Greek Song Poses Shadows California Tower of Learning Grey Gardens Rebel Prince |
Consort One Man Guy Evil Angel In a Graveyard Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise) |
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Rufus 'son of Loudon' Wainwright (not to mention his mother, Kate McGarrigle, his aunt, Anna or his sister, Martha) seems to have single-handedly revived the art of the torch singer, with his uncompromisingly gay approach to his art (the sleeve of his recent Want Two pretty much redefines the term 'camp'). I'll be completely honest here, and say that his music does very little for me at all, although the only word I can find to describe his voice is 'gorgeous', despite its being fairly conventionally male. As a result, I'm not even going to attempt to review the music on these two albums; plenty of online reviewers have already done a good job of doing so, so I'll leave it up to them.
His debut, 1998's Rufus Wainwright has considerable orchestral input; in fact, it could be described as 'overblown' - I believe Wainwright himself wasn't that impressed by its OTT production. By and large, it's difficult to work out exactly where Jon Brion's Chamberlin has been used, though it sounds like Chamby flutes on April Fools, and there's some sort of loop at the end of Danny Boy (not that one, thankfully) that could be Chamby, although it could just as easily be a sampler.
It took Rufus three years to follow up with Poses, probably due to his much-publicised drug issues (crystal meth? Just say no!), and despite being described as more down to earth, it's not that different to his debut, to be honest. Richard Causon plays Chamby this time round, with what sounds like distant choirs on California, and while several other tracks may have some hidden in the mix, it's pretty much impossible to tell.
So; Rufus' very singular style appeals to many, but try as I might, I find myself unable to join them, despite my appreciation of the music's quality. As for Chamberlin use, I'd go somewhere else, if I were you.
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Franks Wild Years (1987, 55.34) ****/T |
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| Hang on St.Christopher Straight to the Top (Rhumba) Blow Wind Blow Temptation Innocent When You Dream (Barroom) I'll Be Gone Yesterday is Here Please Wake Me Up Franks Theme |
More than Rain Way Down in the Hole Straight to the Top (Vegas) I'll Take New York Telephone Call From Istanbul Cold Cold Ground Train Song Innocent When You Dream (78) |
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Bone Machine (1992, 53.44) ****/T |
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| Earth Died Screaming Dirt in the Ground Such a Scream All Stripped Down Who Are You The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Jesus Gonna Be Here A Little Rain |
In the Colosseum Goin' Out West Murder in the Red Barn Black Wings Whistle Down the Wind I Don't Wanna Grow Up Let Me Get Up on it That Feel |
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The Black Rider (1993, 55.40) ***½/T |
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| Lucky Day (Overture) The Black Rider November Just the Right Bullets Black Box Theme 'T'Ain't No Sin Flash Pan Hunter (Intro) That's the Way The Briar and the Rose Russian Dance |
Gospel Tain (Orch) I'll Shoot the Moon Flash Pan Hunter Crossroads Gospel Train Interlude Oily Night Lucky Day The Last Rose of Summer Carnival |
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Mule Variations (1999, 70.42) ****½/½ |
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| Big in Japan Lowside of the Road Hold on Get Behind the Mule House Where Nobody Lives Cold Water Pony What's He Building? |
Black Market Baby Eyeball Kid Picture in a Frame Chocolate Jesus Georgia Lee Filipino Box Spring Hog Take it With Me Come on Up to the House |
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Alice (2002, 48.25) ****/T |
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| Alice Everything You Can Think Flower's Grave No One Knows I'm Gone Kommienezuspadt Poor Edward Table Top Joe Lost in the Harbour |
We're All Mad Here Watch Her Disappear Reeperbahn I'm Still Here Fish & Bird Barcarolle Fawn |
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Blood Money (2002, 42.18) ****/½ |
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| Misery is the River of the World Everything Goes to Hell Coney Island Baby All the World is Green God's Away on Business Another Man's Vine Knife Chase |
Lullaby Starving in the Belly of a Whale The Part You Throw Away Woe Calliope A Good Man is Hard to Find |
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Real Gone (2004, 72.09) ****/T |
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| Top of the Hill Hoist That Rag Sins of the Father Shake it Don't Go Into the Barn How's it Gonna End Metropolitan Glide Dead and Lovely |
Circus Trampled Rose Green Grass Baby Gonna Leave Me Clang Boom Steam Make it Rain Day After Tomorrow |
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Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films (1988) ****/T[Waits contributes]Heigh Ho (the Dwarfs Marching Song) |
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Before I begin I should explain that while I have immense respect for Tom Waits, and can see what so many people see in what he does, I actually have trouble taking it in myself. As a result, these reviews will concentrate on his Mellotron/Chamberlin use, rather than being lengthy dissertations on music I don't really understand. As far as I can work out, he's never had a 'purple patch', although I'm told he may be starting to repeat himself on recent albums, but then, count the numbers of artists on the fingers of both hands who aren't after 30 years?
Waits had already been ploughing his lone furrow for nearly fifteen years by the time he released Franks Wild Years, containing all his usual characters and sung in his usual asthmatic drawl. As ever, his style was rooted in the forties, pre-rock'n'roll, and despite being recorded at the tail end of Satan's Decade (the '80s, like you had to ask), has a timeless quality about it, due in no small part to Waits' refusal to bow to appalling '80s production values. Waits makes a pretty appalling racket with Mellotron flutes on Please Wake Me Up, along with an Optigan (ancient optical disc player), although top track has to be the ultra-melancholy Train Song.
Bone Machine does all the same stuff musically, although I believe by this point, Waits had bought an ancient Chamberlin Musicmaster 600, using it on three tracks. Earth Died Screaming has an arranged Chamby brass part at the end, The Ocean Doesn't Want Me consists of just Waits on faint Chamberlin strings and brass over vague percussion and vaguer vocals, while In The Colosseum has various faint tape-replay noises, including (I think) brass and choir.
Waits' next project was the soundtrack to a German stageplay, The Black Rider, with involvement from both Robert Wilson and the inimitable William Burroughs. Some of the material was recorded around 1990, and the rest recreated in California in '93, with all four Chamberlin tracks unsurprisingly being from the American sessions. Black Box Theme has effectively inaudible Chamby, but Crossroads makes up for it with Chamberlin solo female voice, while the last two tracks have bits of it, but used, as always, in a highly atypical manner.
Six years on, Mule Variations has a more guitar-based sound, like he's just caught up with the rest of the world, though it's still unmistakeably Tom Waits. There's even someone on turntables on several tracks; what's the world coming to? I'm not sure what the Chamberlin's even supposed to be doing on Black Market Baby; maybe the vibes? Waits has certainly used it more openly, even by his standards.
Alice and Blood Money were released simultaneously in 2002, both being rather belated releases of the music for another two German stageshows from a decade earlier. Alice is based on Lewis Carroll's favourite obsession, while Blood Money is an update of the old tale of Woyzeck, a soldier driven to kill his lover. A rare Waits Mellotron (flutes) outing on Alice, paired with Chamby vibes on Everything You Can Think, although I can't hear the Chamberlin on the witty Reeperbahn, or Barcarolle at all. Blood Money's Everything Goes To Hell sounds like Chamby vibes again, although once again, I can't hear a thing on either Coney Island Baby or Starving In The Belly Of A Whale.
I'm told by Those In The Know that Real Gone is a definite return to form, with Waits moving away from the self-parody he was in a very real danger of falling into over his last few releases. Saying that, it still sounds exactly like Tom Waits, although he seems to've reigned in some of the really bonkers stuff, leaving just the Essence Of Waits encapsulated in a slightly gruelling 72 minutes of music. His son Casey plays on several tracks (largely turntables and percussion), with Marc Ribot on guitar again, as is Waits himself, barely touching the keyboards he was known for at one point. The only exception to this rule is the by-now traditional Chamberlin track, Circus, where he adds ghostly Chamby flutes and trumpet, with the vibraphone-like sound being credited as 'bells', for some reason.
So; Tom Waits - eclectic to the last (which, thankfully, doesn't sem to be yet). Since there are loads of sites with Waits reviews that actually know what they're talking about, I'll sum up his tape replay stuff. Frankly (ho ho), don't bother. Sorry, but apart from a couple of tracks spread over these seven albums, you can barely even hear the Mellotron/Chamberlin, although what you can hear is mostly unusual use, which has to be applauded. Oh, make your own minds up. See if I care.
Incidentally, Waits contributed his utterly unique version of Heigh Ho (the Dwarfs Marching Song) to the 1988 various artists effort Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films, managing to produce one of the most original pieces on the album, complete with Mitchell Froom's distant Chamby flutes. Now there's a surprise.
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Nighttown (1997, 61.04) ***/T |
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| Follow Me an Angel These Proud Streets Tremble (Goes the Night) Unwind Lift Your Burdens Up Prayer for You Immaculate Nocturno |
Heartless Slow Red Dawn Harbour Lights Forever Gone Nightbirds |
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Nighttown was The Walkabouts' seventh album 'proper', ignoring compilations of EPs, live efforts etc, and lives up to its title with aplomb, channelling the melancholy end of those '50s Sinatra albums, anything by Scott Walker... You get the picture. Their record company apparently described it as 'the sound of a band committing suicide' (it wasn't), although it's certainly one of the most unremittingly downbeat things I've heard in a while.
Orchestral arrangements (mostly strings) on most tracks, making it difficult to spot Glenn Slater's Mellotron when it appears. From what I can tell, though, we have a distant flute line on Unwind, with equally distant strings on the chorus, and what sounds like a polyphonic flute part on Slow Red Dawn, under the orchestral arrangement, but that would appear to be your lot. So; slow and stately, barely rock at all in places, but maybe just not quite as miserable as I like it. Or maybe the instrumentation's wrong; certainly not enough Mellotron (a common complaint, you'll have noticed). Good at what it does, however. Worthwhile.
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Blitzkrieg (1971, 43.22) ****/TTTLuneticThe Theme Manhattan Project Audiences |
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Mother Universe (1972, 40.32) ***½/TTMother UniverseBraintrain Shakespearesque Dedicated to Mystery Land Relics of Past Golden Antenna |
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Cosmic Century (1973, 42.45) ***½/TTRory BlanchfordGrand Piano Silver Arms The Marvellous Child Song of Wire The Cosmic Couriers Meet South Philly Willy |
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Stories, Songs & Symphonies (1975, 37.46) ***/TThe PriestessStories, Songs & Symphonies The Banner Your Lunar Friends Sympathy for Bela Bartok |
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Wallenstein are one of those German progressive bands, along with Grobschnitt and Novalis, who always find themselves lumped in with the 'Krautrock' scene, next to Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül 2 et al., while not actually being anything of the sort. They were, in fact, a fairly typical prog band of the era, moving from their more guitar-heavy early material to a more symphonic keyboard-led style later on, before sliding into mediocrity in typical late-'70s fashion.
Blitzkrieg is a very early 'regular' prog album by German standards, although thinking about it, it's actually as much 'post-psych' as anything, with a fairly primitive sound. Keyboard player/main man Jürgen Dollase already knew the direction he was heading in, I suspect, and the end result is intense but tuneful, with some fiery playing from all concerned. Opener Lunetic (they had an American in the band at the time - couldn't he have told them how to spell it?) is probably the album's highlight, but there isn't a bad track to be heard, with reasonable Mellotron flutes and strings on all but the first track.
I believe the venerable elderly lady on the sleeve of Mother Universe was Dollase's grandmother - the rear sleeve shows the back of her head, hair in a bun. The title track opens the album in full-on symphonic style, 'Tron strings to the fore, although the band take a sharp left turn on the rocking Braintrain. The rest of the album veers between the heavier and more symphonic ends of the band's style, with some less obvious 'Tron on Shakespearesque, and an almost inaudible part on Dedicated To Mystery Land. Best track? Definitely Mother Universe itself.
Cosmic Century features a violinist, Joachim Reiser, along with the band's regular guitar/bass/keys/drums lineup. The material is rather more 'mainstream' than before, in a mid-'70s kind of way, of course, with no particular album highlights, although none of the tracks are actually bad. Dollase plays 'Tron on five out of six tracks, but it's fairly minimal, with the choirs and cellos on Song Of Wire being the most overt use. Be warned, though - some tracks feature no more than a few seconds of 'Tron, noticeably The Cosmic Couriers Meet South Philly Willy, which has a few flute notes on the fadeout.
By Stories, Songs & Symphonies, the band were describing themselves as 'The Symphonic Rock Orchestra Wallenstein', a bit of a misnomer, given that they still sounded like prog-ish mid-'70s rock on several tracks. The lengthy Your Lunar Friends is probably the album's best piece (Dollase's vocals aside), although the only Mellotron is some thin-sounding strings on the title track, so, better music than 'Tron, though not that great on either front, really.
So; a classic case of a band getting worse as they went along, to be honest. Blitzkrieg might not be their most 'symphonic' effort, but it's certainly the most energetic, and has the best 'Tron use. For fans of the German Sound, though, all these albums are probably worth the effort, though they did get a bit up themselves on the later ones. Like most of their contemporaries, Wallenstein 'went commercial' in the late '70s; their fifth effort, No More Love (**) is awful, and I'm sure later albums are even worse. Avoid.
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Wally (1974, 40.10) ***/TThe MartyrI Just Wanna Be a Cowboy What to Do Sunday Walking Lady To the Urban Man Your Own Way |
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Valley Gardens (1975, 41.15) ***/TValley GardensNez Percé The Mood I'm in The Reason Why Nolan The Charge Disillusion |
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Wally suffered the rather dubious distinction of being championed by The Old Grey Whistle Test's 'Whispering' Bob Harris, these days known best for being a country music DJ (he sneered at the New York Dolls when they appeared on the Whistle Test, so he was hardly going to go for anything too energetic, was he?). In fact, Wally was produced by Harris and Rick Wakeman, which doesn't exactly inspire much confidence. While the band fitted (very) broadly into the 'progressive' category, there was more than a hint of country/rock about them, especially with Paul Middleton's steel guitar; West Coast Prog, anyone? Actually, the album isn't that bad, just rather forgettable, with a regrettable lack of energy. Paul Gerrett plays Mellotron on one track only, the twelve-minute To The Urban Man, with a string part drifting in and out of the song. Pete Sage's electric violin confuses the issue in places, but it's definitely only the one 'Tron track.
Second (and last) album, Valley Gardens, carries on in a similar vein to their debut, including a side-long track, The Reason Why, which was probably the best thing the band recorded. Gerrett was replaced by Nick Glennie-Smith, who gets marginally more 'Tron in this time round, with strings on the title track and the first part of The Reason Why, Nolan, but it's all pretty minor, to be honest. So; so-so albums, minimal 'Tron. Not that exciting, really, although I've heard an awful lot worse. I believe that's called 'damning with faint praise'. Oh well.
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So What (1974, 37.57) ***/½Welcome to the ClubFalling Down Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty Time Out All Night Laundry Mat Blues Turn to Stone Help Me Through the Night County Fair Song for Emma |
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The trouble with Joe Walsh solo albums is that I always expect them to rock rather more than they do; he's written a few genuinely great songs, but seems to restrict himself to one per album, which gives him about half-an-hour's worth over his entire career. So What's classic is Turn To Stone, with other highlights being Walsh's version of a Ravel piece, Pavane, played entirely by himself on synths, which actually works far better than you might expect, and the epic-ish County Fair.
Its sole Mellotron track (played by Walsh himself, incidentally) is the rather ordinary opener Welcome To The Club, with a single-note string line near the end turning into a decent enough chord sequence, but hardly in the 'classic' league. Since there was a 'Tron in the area, it's a shame Walsh didn't put it on a couple of other tracks; Turn To Stone would definitely have benefitted from its inclusion, but there you go. So, so-so album, minimal 'Tron usage. Buy the double Look What I Did! The Joe Walsh Anthology (***½) instead, with most of his best stuff and Welcome to the Club.
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A Dream Within a Dream (1983, 44.38) ***½/TThe ForebodingAlone Feathery Bird Valley of Unrest A Dream Within a Dream Song of Master and Boardswain If I Could Tell You Dreamland Yessertronics |
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Waniyetula's history is rather confused, encompassing forming in 1969, recording an album in '75, released three years later under a different name, then finally getting something out under their own name fourteen years after forming. Not to mention frequently being mistaken for Swiss... The story goes, their '78 release, Nature's Clear Well, was released by a moronic US label under the name Galaxy, and while it sounds little like the band's later work, it's worth hearing for what it is. '83's A Dream Within a Dream (a Poe quote) sounds like deceptively commercial-sounding Canadians Saga across most of its length, with the odd un Saga-like touch such as unusual time signatures, and the occasional burst of Mellotron. Heinz Kühne does his very best Michael Sadler impersonation (a German trying to sound like a Canadian trying to sound like an Englishman?), and the band have their twiddly synth hooks down to a tee, making for an actually very pleasing end result, as long as you like Saga.
Norbert Abels gets a distant Mellotron flute melody in on Valley Of Unrest, and a far more overt one, key-click and all, on Dreamland, although that's definitely it on the 'Tron front. A grinding Hammond on If I Could Tell You is also very non-Saga, but otherwise, they stick fairly closely to the Canucks' template, featuring mainly early '80s polysynths, from the era just before interesting keyboards dissolved in a huge vat of digital unpleasantness. This is actually a very decent album, deserving wider recognition amongst Saga and UK fans. It isn't easy to write this kind of stuff without morphing into pure cheese, but Waniyetula manage to keep on the right side of the dairy debate, making an album that should keep Saga fans happy, in lieu of any more archive releases from the real thing.
Incidentally, an archive release from Waniyetula themselves appeared in 2006, entitled Iron City, and while I don't know whether it has any Mellotronic input, it's quite possible. The album also features early versions of Alone and Valley Of Unrest from A Dream Within a Dream; more news when I get to hear a copy.
