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Flicker (1999, 41.05) *** |
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| Panic Donut Tattoo Sun Amsterdam Crown Halfway to Texas Cheeseman Motherbear Still Flicker |
Sweet Nothing Dirt on Your Heel Almost Gone |
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After Hungarian-born Eszter Balint's family's theatrical company moved to the States, she shifted into acting, working with the legendary Jim Jarmusch, before moving into music, playing violin on some of Swans' Michael Gira's Angels of Light's releases. Her first solo album, 1999's Flicker, is a world-weary record, strongly influenced by her mittel-Europa heritage, with gypsy, folk and pre-war jazz motifs in evidence, while also obviously being allied to the Gira camp.
Dougie Bowne is specifically credited with 'Mellotron sample' on Tattoo Sun, but I'll be buggered if I can work out what he might be doing with it; this would get a '0' on the 'Tron front, were it applicable. So; a decent enough album of its kind, but not even any obvious Mellotron samples, let alone Mellotron.
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It's Kinda Lonely Where I am (1995, 14.29) ***It's Kinda Lonely Where I amDocklands Blues Another Member of the Millhill Self Hate Club Bled a River Over You |
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Ed(ward) Ball's story is told (albeit briefly) in my review of his 1997 album, Catholic Guilt; suffice it to say that his on/off membership of the Television Personalities allows him time for a solo career, 1995's It's Kinda Lonely Where I am EP appearing the same year as his solo debut, If a Man Ever Loved a Woman. The EP's four tracks (the title track is from the album) are in the kind of indie/singer-songwriter style you'd expect, better than many, its best track probably being the witty Another Member Of The Millhill Self Hate Club, complete with local geographical references.
Ball adds sampled Mellotron to Bled A River Over You, with overly-smooth strings and murky, buried choirs, making me wonder just how genuine the credit is on Catholic Guilt. You'll have trouble finding this, should you wish to; Creation (Ball was a label exec) went under in 1999, so start scouring those second-hand shops...
See: Edward Ball
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Glow in the Dark (2008, 77.37) *** |
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| Nothing Really The Sorrow, the Fish, and Glastonbury Hill God's Little Do-Over Chauncey Saucer Survives 2012 Moon v. Moon Stethoscope Resuscitation |
Glow in the Dark Something Probably Next Life... Let's Just Wave to Each Other |
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Kevin Bartlett has been around since the '80s, acting as musician, producer, label boss... A general mover'n'shaker then, it seems. It's difficult to tell how many solo albums he's released over the years, but 2008's Glow in the Dark is around the 30th on which he's worked, which isn't bad going by anyone's standards. I can't tell you anything about its predecessors, but this release falls into the new age/prog category, with drifitng, ambient material (Nothing Really, Stethoscope) shaking hands with tracks in more upbeat, almost AOR territory (The Sorrow, the Fish, And Glastonbury Hill, Moon V. Moon), with even a Celtic influence in places. Vocals, such as they are, are confined to wordless male and female voices, while Bartlett's Hackettesque guitar work does that sustained thing as well as anyone. Think: a gutsier Gandalf, maybe, and you won't be too far off the mark.
Now, I was told this album contains 'Mellotron', but Bartlett's booklet credit for 'GForce for the killer M-Tron Mellotron' rather gives the game away, as do the sounds; it might be possible to make a real Mellotron sound like this, given enough reverb, but the strings and choirs lack the immediacy of the real thing. His chief sample use is the choirs on choirs on Moon V. Moon, although several other tracks feature it too. So; the symphonic prog fan may not find enough to keep him/herself interested, but for those looking for a more relaxed ride, Glow in the Dark may be exactly what you're looking for.
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Communication (2003, 45.49) ***½ |
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| The Camera I'm the Message 15 Minutes of Fame Reality Electronic Apeman Life Cyberspace Interview |
Ultraviolet Another Reality |
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Karl Bartos is one of the two ex-members of Kraftwerk's best-known lineup that you're less likely to be able to name (the other being Wolfgang Flür); Bartos left the band in 1991, frustrated at their glacially-paced workrate, immediately forming Elektric Music to make music in a similar vein.
2003's heavily Kraftwerk-flavoured Communication is Bartos' only fully solo album to date, released some five years after the last known activity of Elektric Music. He opts to sing through a vocoder on most tracks, slightly diluting its still startling effect (it's one of those things, like, er, a Mellotron, that shouldn't be overused), although his occasional uneffected vocals (notably on Life) are perfectly good, making you wonder why he chooses to hide behind it. Despite the odd minor detour into dance-pop, most of the album's material would fit perfectly well onto a later Kraftwerk album; maybe the one they didn't get around to making in the '90s? Stronger tracks include opener The Camera, I'm The Message and instrumental closer Another Reality, but there's little here to upset those of a synth-pop persuasion.
It's hard to tell whether Bartos is actually using any analogue gear at all; some of the synths sound like they could be, but with so many pseudo-analogues and softsynths around, who knows? The occasional 'Mellotron' strings on Cyberspace are very obviously sampled, but it's nice to hear someone working in this area use the sounds at all, to be honest. So; one for Kraftwerk fans who wonder whether they'll ever actually record again.
See: Kraftwerk | Elektric Music
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En Otra Ciudad (2006, 49.52) ***½ |
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| Dock Surf Un Auto Para Lynn El Mismo Lugar El Hombre de Blanco Camino a Oxnard Un Dia Todo el Veterano Dios Quiere Mi Chocolate El Valle |
La Entrevista Avanza Mas Lejos de Casa |
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A chap by the name of Kerry Leimer has written the kind of review of Bauer (Argentinian version)'s En Otra Ciudad on seaoftranquility.org that makes me feel like the amateur I am, wittily comparing them to an elastic-walled triangle, the points of which are made up of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Le Orme and Tool, with a lengthy explanation of how this might inform their music. To the rest of us, a description of them as a surf/metal/prog/psych/indie outfit should explain everything. Possibly. The album's actually a far better proposition than that might indicate, better tracks including the psychedelic Un Auto Para Lynn, the heavy-as-fuck El Hombre De Blanco and the almost Crimson-referencing Dios Quiere Mi Chocolate.
The band allegedly use Mellotron samples 'taken directly from a friend's machine', although given how few Mellotrons there are in South America, either a) they know an owner abroad, or b) they're lying. Anyway, we get male choir on Camino A Oxnard, angular strings on El Valle and smoother ones on Avanza, none of which sound that much like the real thing, frankly. Overall, then, a surprisingly good album that sounds sufficiently different to any one other band to be almost categorisable as 'original'.
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De Mi Puño y Letra (2009, 40.43) ** |
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| Colgando en Tus Manos No Me Abandones Amiga Mia En Nuestro Aniversario Lloran Mis Labios Tú No Sabes Que Tanto Donde Está el Amor Que No Duele Nada Se Compara a Ti Te Extraño Porque te Extraño |
Me Quiero Casar Contigo Mariana No Quiere Ser Mojigata Que Fácil es Decirte Cuanto te Quiero |
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Carlos Baute (Jiménez) is a Venezuelan singer and TV host, apparently, who found a greater level of success after crossing the Atlantic to Spain. His fifth non-compilation, 2009's De Mi Puño y Letra (In My Hand), is pretty much what you'd expect, a string-laden modern pop/rock effort with occasional contemporary production touches, the only track that stands out from the pack in any way being the overtly-Latin Mariana No Quiere Ser Mojigata.
Juan Carlos Moguel is credited with Mellotron, but the background choirs on Me Quiero Casar Contigo fail to convince, frankly, although I'm perfectly willing to reverse the decision to quarantine this should I receive any definite information regarding genuine Mellotronic involvement.
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Från en Plats du Ej Kan Se (2003, 58.58) ***½Från en Plats du Ej Kan SeToday Spegeldans Brother Poison Ivy and the Full Monty A Good Excuse Om en Utväg Fanns A Psychic Amplifier |
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Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two (2008, 74.20) ***½As the Sun SetsInto the Night The Hunter South of the Border Cashflow The Downward Spiral/Chimay Sleeping in Traffic Sunrise Again |
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Destined Solitaire (2009, 76.44) ***½Awaken the SleepingDestined Solitaire Until You Comply (including Entropy) In Real Life There is No Algebra Where the Rain Comes in At Home... Watching Movies Coup de Grâce Abigail's Questions (in an Infinite Universe) The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of |
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Mammoth (2011, 52.16) ****The PlatformAnd the Stone Said: if I Could Speak Tightrope Green Waves Outside/Inside Akakabotu Without Saying Anything (feat. Ventriloquist) |
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Beardfish formed in 2000, releasing their debut, 2003's Från en Plats du Ej Kan Se, as a quintet. I'd expected either the bastard son of neo-prog or generic 'modern prog' (i.e. sub-somewhere between Spock's Beard and Dream Theater), but we actually get a refreshingly different, inventive (albeit fairly '70s-influenced) version of the genre, sounding like no one other band (to my knowledge, anyway). Touchstones include Zappa and Gentle Giant, but several factors, notably the band's slightly unorthodox (not to mention mostly undistorted) approach to the guitar parts make this stand out from the pack. 'Mellotronically' speaking, we get sampled Mellotron strings on Spegeldans, with a lush chordal part and flutes on Brother, more flutes on Om en Utväg Fanns and a short burst of choir closing the album.
No pseudotron on 2006's excellent fully English-language two-disc The Sane Day or the following year's Sleeping in Traffic: Part One (both ****), replaced by what sounds like authentic Solina string synth. 2008's Sleeping... Part Two seems both slightly less cohesive and appealing than its predecessors, possibly due to being that bit too eclectic. I mean, what's going on with the lyrics in South Of The Border? Anyway, a decent effort, particularly the bonkers thirty-five minute title track, if not quite as effective as ... Part One. Samplotron strings on said title track, dipping in and out over its length.
How can one band produce so much quality music? 2009 brings Destined Solitaire, another good effort, though not quite up to those two four-star efforts from a couple of years earlier. Is the quality of Beardfish albums directly related to their non-use of Mellotron samples? Discuss. Anyway, the album's chief fault is its extreme length (although at least this one's only a single disc), which makes for a slightly wearying listen, especially if you tackle several of their releases on the trot. Shan't be doing that again in a hurry, I can tell you... More samplotron than on its predecessor, though less than on their debut; they succeed in using the sounds without over-using, a trick from which many other modern prog outfits could learn.
2011's Mammoth is, if anything, even more eclectic than its predecessors: Green Waves sounds like a proggier version of Deep Purple, as much as anything, Akakabotu has much Canterbury about it, not least in the sax work, although top kudos go to closer Without Saying Anything, which opens with the catchiest, yet uncheesiest riff I've heard all year. Possibly. Plenty of that sampled stuff again, with strings, flutes and choir used throughout, with the kind of subtlety that most real Mellotron owners utilise. Although it isn't.
So; do you bother hearing Beardfish? If you can handle the sheer length of most of their releases and are interested in hearing a current progressive band who aren't content just to serve up the same old same old, then yes, make the effort. Neo-prog fan? Go elsewhere. I recommend Pendragon. Or maybe Jadis.
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From an Ancient Star (2009, 48.42) ***½ |
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| Belbury Poly Logotone The Hidden Door From an Ancient Star A Year and a Day The All at Once Club Time Scale Adventures in a Miniature Landscape Widdershins |
A Great Day Out Clockwork Horoscope Remember Tomorrow Model Country Seed Ships |
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Belbury Poly are a Jim Jupp nom de plume, 2009's From an Ancient Star being the eleventh release in Ghost Box's Belbury series of very English music, all test cards, late-night OU programmes and primitive electronica. It veers from few-second opener Belbury Poly Logotone through the Kraftwerk-if-they-were-Brits The Hidden Door, the pastoralisms of A Year And A Day and the village green reggae of A Great Day Out to the Jarre-isms of Seed Ships, all interspersed with little snippets of hymns and old English folk tunes. Eclectic, but impeccably constructed.
We get samplotron strings, flutes and choppy choirs all over Adventures In A Miniature Landscape, with more choirs on Widdershins, alongside the album's ubiquitous (presumably softsynth-derived) synthscapes. If that peculiar strand of British '70s incidental TV music and early synths appeal, you stand a decent chance of enjoying From an Ancient Star, although I wouldn't bother for the low-level sampled Mellotron.
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Invisible Baby (2008, 42.05) ***½Bus RideRecord Book Atari The Real Morning Party You Must Be a Lion If You Keep on Asking Me Ruby Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? |
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Me Not Me (2009, 42.57) *** |
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| Golden Now They're Writing Music Seems So Long Ago, Nancy Mephisto Twin Killers Call Home Heartbeats Sing it Again |
Friends Run of the Mill |
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A Berklee graduate, Marco Benevento (who's worked with Bobby Previte, amongst others) is a New York-based experimental jazz keyboard player, although his second solo album, 2008's all-instrumental Invisible Baby, keeps both styles well in check, opting to serve up a cluster of tuneful, mostly piano-led pieces. Highlights include opener Bus Ride and the wonderful Record Book, based on a circular 11/8 piano riff, although the slightly irritating The Real Morning Party (its cheap organ giving it a (very) vague Johnny & the Hurricanes feel) and the more overtly jazzy Ruby let the side down slightly, at least for this listener. The album opens with very obviously (deliberately so?) sampled Mellotron, a probably sequenced repeating string part running through the first minute of Bus Ride, flutes joining in as the strings return, with more strings on closer Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody?
Benevento followed up with Me Not Me, containing mostly covers, including Beck's Sing It Again, Leonard Cohen's Seems So Long Ago, Nancy and Led Zep's Friends, instantly recognisable, despite its unorthodox setting. Somehow, though, the album seems less joyous than its predecessor, despite its highlights (particularly his thunderous take on Friends). Samplotron all over, with particularly strident strings on Now They're Writing Music and upfront flutes on Call Home.
Overall, two worthy efforts, although Invisible Baby, despite its relative brevity, could probably be improved by removing a couple of lesser tracks.
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Play Pause Stop (2006, 47.46) *** |
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| Play Pause Stop Echo Park Soba Best Reason to Buy the Sun Powder Something for Rockets Walking, Running, Viking |
Hate Frame Memphis |
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Keys man Marco Benevento (above) and drummer Joe Russo met at school and started working together in 2001, quickly becoming associated with the jamband scene through their collaborations with members of Phish. 2006's Play Pause Stop is their fifth album, containing nine frequently distorted Wurlitzer-heavy, Phish-like pieces, better tracks including Echo Park and the (reasonably) gentle Powder.
Benevento plays a skronky sampled Mellotron string line on Walking, Running, Viking and rather muffled chords on closer Memphis; good to hear, but shame they couldn't have tracked down a real machine. Surely John Medeski could've lent them his? Personally, I think I prefer Benevento's solo work to the duo, but that's only going by one album apiece, so may be an unfair judgement. Anyway, a decent enough effort in its field, but not something that'll appeal to everyone.
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The Dog Follows the Bull (2007, 14.43) **½Like Jackson PollockGod on Our Street Look What They've Done Game Over |
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The National Crisis (2008, 42.14) ** |
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| The Person #3 The Cannonball The Lake of Gold Our Endless Days Our Own Killing Fields Soldiers We Live Inside the Matchbox The Borders Went Down |
The Lover and the Thief Two Stones for the Luck Life Insurance We Might Never Fall in Love |
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There's no getting away from it: the Lisbon-born, London-based Walter Benjamin (not to be confused with any German philosophers of your acquaintance) is unremittingly dour in his works, unless I've missed his sunshine pop phase. 2007's The Dog Follows the Bull EP isn't too bad, as it only gives us a small dose of Señor Benjamin's worldview, but even fourteen minutes of this stuff begins to drag. He's credited with 'Mellotron emulation' (shame more artists can't be that honest), the cellos on Like Jackson Pollock and, weirdly, the piano on Game Over proving his point.
Benjamin's second download-only album, 2008's The National Crisis, effort of the kind that sounds great for about two tracks, until it becomes apparent that it isn't going to do anything else. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that makes Radiohead sound cheerful. Are there any best tracks? Possibly opener The Person #3, working on the aforementioned basis that you haven't yet tired of his sound by that point. On the clearly sampled Mellotron front, we get vaguely Mellotronish sax on The Person #3, flute on Our Endless Days, single choir notes and strings on Our Own Killing Fields and strings on Life Insurance.
I'm sure Benjamin is utterly sincere, but I'm afraid his music bored the crap out of me, a handful of fakeotron tracks doing little to improve matters.
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The Coast is Never Clear (2001, 41.12) ***½ |
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| Hello Resolven A Good Man is Easy to Kill What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades? Gene Autry Silver Lining Popular Mechanics for Lovers Gravity's Bringing Us Down Hey Brother |
I'll Be Your Lampshade Cruel Minor Change Burned By the Sun Night is the Day Turned Inside Out |
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Yoko (2003, 44.55) *** |
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| A Man Like Me Landslide Baby You're Only King Once My Side of the City Hovering Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore Fooled With the Wrong Guy Your Mother Loves You Son |
Don't Forget to Breathe Wipe Those Prints and Run |
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Beulah are associated with Apples in Stereo, and they certainly have a similarly skewed way of looking at the world, although far less '60s-centric. Psychedelia, but not as we know it, Jim. The Coast is Never Clear is their third album, sounding pretty upbeat for a modern psych record; to be honest, this is the kind of music that needs more than the cursory play I can give it to appreciate it properly. Suffice to say, no duff tracks and several excellent ones.
My job is made far easier here by the band's inclusion of full instrumental credits on their website, although I'm quite certain all the 'Mellotron' is actually sampled. Thank you, chaps. No fewer than four different people play 'Mellotron' on the album, including three on one track (Hey Brother, if you're interested). Pat Noel plays a string part on Hello Resolven, while Steve LaFollette does something on A Good Man Is Easy To Kill, alongside real strings and adds discrete flutes with more upfront strings on Gene Autry. Noel and Bill Swan stick some strings and cellos on Popular Mechanics For Lovers, then we're back to LaFollette's strings on Gravity's Bringing Us Down before the relative 'Tronfest of Hey Brother, with LaFollette, Swan and Bill Evans playing string and flute parts at various points. After a 'Tron'-free gap, the album closes with LaFollette's on Night Is the Day Turned Inside Out.
2003's Yoko was planned as the band's swansong, and is a rather more downbeat affair than its predecessor. Once more, nothing immediately stands out and I suspect the album simply isn't as good, although subsequent plays (er, when?) may well prove me wrong. No idea who plays 'Tron' this time round, although Pat Noel seems a likely bet. Anyway, pitchbent strings on Landslide Baby and a full-on string part on You're Only King Once, with strings and flutes on Hovering and more strings on Don't Forget To Breathe and Wipe Those Prints And Run.
So; two modern psych albums that are probably growers. Yoko's OK on the 'Tron' front, but The Coast is Never Clear is actually well worth hearing for its samplotronic input. Worth the effort.
See: Apples in Stereo | Miles Kurosky | Ladybug Transistor | Marbles | Of Montreal | Sunshine Fix | Thee American Revolution
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Tight Empire (2004, 47.44) ***½Shit to PimpBall Deep, Mountain High Kicking Birth Sexual Dry Gulch Fuckin' A Iron University Thou Born in Jail |
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The superbly-named Bible of the Devil tread the fine line between garage rock and balls-out metal, ending up sounding like early AC/DC crossed with something even dirtier, with a side-helping of Thin Lizzy twin guitar. On their second album, 2003's Tight Empire, vocalist/guitarist Mark Hoffman has his Bon Scott impression down pat, screeching incomprehensible-yet-clearly-filthy lyrics to songs called things like Shit To Pimp, Ball Deep, Mountain High and Sexual Dry Gulch, although my personal favourite veers between Fuckin' A and Born in Jail, although, thinking about it, Iron University's pretty cool, too... The music? Sub-AC/DC, but there's worse things to be.
Somebody calling themselves Iowa Blackie allegedly plays Mellotron, but the squawking strings on Kicking Birth sound little like a real one. If you're after yet another (minor) variant on kick-ass rock'n'roll, you could do an awful lot worse than pick up a copy of Tight Empire, though you won't want to bother for the Mellotron.
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Bard (2002, 67.30) **½ |
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| The Last English King Broken English This is Where We Came in Harold Rex Interfectus Est Blacksmithing Malfosse Love is Her Thing |
How the Earth From This Place Has Power Over Fire A Short Visit to Earth For Winter A Long Finish |
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Gathering Speed (2004, 55.34) ***High Tide, Last StandFighter Command The Road Much Further on Sky Flying on Fire Pell Mell Powder Monkey Gathering Speed |
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The Difference Machine (2007, 54.57) ****Hope This Finds YouPerfect Cosmic Storm Breathing Space Pick Up if You're There From the Wide Open Sea Saltwater Falling on Uneven Ground Summer's Lease |
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Big Big Train formed as a fairly typical neo-prog outfit in 1990, releasing their first full album (after a clutch of demos), Goodbye To The Age Of Steam, in '94, following it three years later with English Boy Wonders, although various lineup problems delayed the more mature Bard until 2002. It starts promisingly enough with The Last English King and the fourteen-minute Broken English, but descends rapidly into boredom, the balladic neo-proggy likes of This Is Where We Came In and Love Is Her Thing doing it no favours; given the album's length, cutting some of the weaker material would've improved it no end. You get the feeling that, as with most singer-songwriter albums, the lyrics actually take precedence over the music, which really doesn't work in a progressive setting; I don't think it's an accident that this is the only one of the band's albums no longer available. On the samplotron front, we get pretty obvious string choir and flute samples on most tracks, the string part that opens For Winter being one of the most obvious sample giveaways.
2004's Gathering Speed is a concept effort involving a World War II pilot, although you'll have to listen to the lyrics pretty closely to tell. Musically, it's a distinct improvement on its predecessor, more dynamic all round, although the distant stench of neo-prog still hangs around in the background. Unfortunately, the same caveat applies as before: the lyrics are clearly regarded as the most important thing about the album, so the music suffers, with too many lengthy, laid-back sections. Fine, if you're following the story, but if not... Samplotron all over the place, with string, choir and flutes parts on pretty much every track, all pretty obviously sampled.
2007's The Difference Machine is quite startling in its scope, being an excellent modern prog album, like a less dour and more inventive Pineapple Thief, say. Long, slow pieces that develop over ten minutes or more are this album's stock in trade, with the occasional almost pop moment to catch you off guard, and more unusual instrumentation (viola and sax) than you might expect. It's actually quite difficult to describe this music; symphonic yet modern, without slipping into the neo-prog clichés of some bands I could name but shan't. Famous guest spots from members of Marillion and Spock's Beard may help to sell this album, but are musically unnecessary; I'd forgotten they were on there, and didn't realise until I looked at the credits afterwards, but if they help to get this music to a wider audience... The 'Tron sounds (the now ubiquitous M-Tron) are used very nicely; enhancing without swamping, although a high choir note at one point lets you know they're fakes. Next time, chaps, you can use mine, OK?
The Difference Machine's a very pleasant surprise, although I'd have trouble recommending the two earlier albums, particularly Bard. Like their contemporaries Galahad, Big Big Train have now moved on from their copyist past into new and more interesting areas. Long may they carry on doing so.
See: Big Big Train
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Amplifier (1998, 65.20) **½ |
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| Still Breathing Lovely Mausoleum God Made Heaven Someday (Time and Space) Jimmy Star in the Book of Life Wouldn't it Be Cool Psalm 72 |
What Would Jesus Do? Ready, Steady, Go Thanks Real Thing Rivalry West Memphis Lawyer Come on People |
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Unsurprisingly, given their name, Big Tent Revival are a Christian rock band, so at least we're not talking generic CCM, although it's still pretty irritating stuff. Musically, it falls into a vague Tom Petty/Bruce Springsteen area, were those artists given to singing brain-mush about how much they love their lord (sorry, Lord), etc. And what the hell's going on with the ten minute-plus Thanks, which appears to be the album's credits, spoken by the band. Er, y'wot? CD inserts for the illiterate? Good of them to cater for their core audience I suppose...
David Alan's credited with various elderly keyboards, including Mellotron, although I have to say, the strings on Lovely Mausoleum sound Mellotronic, but are played far too fast and outside the Mellotron's range, although the ones on God Made Heaven sound a little more authentic. Strings on several other tracks and flutes on the Christian mantra (ho ho) What Would Jesus Do? (aargh!), but I'm pretty sure it's samples across the board, although I've been wrong before. So; Christian rock that doesn't even appear to feature a real Mellotron. Just don't.
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Binário (2008, 55.09) **½ |
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| Funeral Amor Liquido Balinha LKJ Jazzhole Diretirz Ibirapuera |
Tarde Demais Experimental (Catnip) Vamanda DDP E ai Galera Voitei |
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Brazil's Binário combine Tropicalia, post-rock, jazz, electro and various other styles into an unusual and sometimes (but far from always) danceable mixture of Latin and European musics. Their eponymous 2008 debut is rather overlong, but works well enough in its field, assuming, of course, their field is yours, too...
Producer David Brinkworth is credited with Mellotron, with a flute line on Experimental (Catnip), however... Given that the album was recorded in Brazil, not a country known for its Mellotron surplus and that Brinkworth has already used samples with Harmonic 33, I think it's safe to assume that it's fake. So; good at what it does, but personally, I'll be happy never to listen to this again.
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Bantam to Behemoth (2008, 69.25) ****Birds Flying Into BuildingsTerra Fire Tunguska Caution Congregates and Forms a Storm Chronicle of the Invisible River of Stone Yucatan 65: The Agitation of the Mass Chakra Khan Battalion Sunken City, Sunny Day |
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Birds & Buildings are a Deluge Grander side-project, featuring their Dan Britton on keys/guitar/vocals and Brett d'Anon on bass and guitar. Their sole album to date, 2008's Bantam to Behemoth, has much in common with the parent band, being in the more (relatively) experimental area of current progressive, as against the neo-neo- (you guessed it: a poor copy of a frequently poor copy) or metal/metal-ish fields, both oversubscribed (particularly the latter) and both stuffed with third-rate drivel. Despite being rather overlong, the album keeps things interesting with its offbeat approach, although Brian Falkowski's sax on several tracks won't be to everyone's taste, ditto the occasional, unnecessary vocal interjections. Best tracks? Probably the opening title track and Caution Congregates And Forms A Storm, although I'm less convinced by the punning title and Canterburyisms of Chakra Khan.
Britton adds samplotron strings, choirs and/or flutes to most tracks, some parts sounding more authentic than others. Overall, then, a fine album, although losing the odd ten-minute epic might've actually tightened the release up a little. Incidentally, a very public apology to Dan; he sent me this CD three years ago, making this a rather belated review. I know it's important to bands to have several online reviews of their new album, not their three year-old one. Sorry, Dan.
See: Deluge Grander | All Over Everything
