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The Water (2008, 50.16) *** |
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| You're a Star Be My Saviour The Water I Can I Will Famous for Being Famous Camelot Revisited I Don't Have to Ask I Have Been Burned |
Stalker Future Gods and Past Kings Faith No. 2 Pay Attention to the Human |
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Colin MacIntyre (a.k.a. The Mull Historical Society) is a Scottish indie/folky type, whose first album under his own name, 2008's The Water, is a surprisingly diverse set of songs, better moments including the title track's folky feel, the effective rhythmic changes in Stalker and the complete change of mood halfway through closer Pay Attention To The Human, complete with its cameo from legendary British Labour politician Tony Benn. Much of the remainder, sadly, is fairly generic indie, but the album's good moments just tip the balance to give it a three-star rating.
MacIntyre and Nick Franglen are credited with Mellotron, but if the strings on Famous For Being Famous are anything to go by, it's sampled, a viewpoint exacerbated by a slew of pics from the recording sessions on MacIntyre's website, none of which show a Mellotron. Then again, nor do they show any other vintage keyboard, with the honourable exception of a harmonium, although several are credited, not least a (Yamaha) CS-80, which is possibly obscure enough to be genuine. Doubt it, though.
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Mad Men & English Dogs (2001, 59.02) *** |
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| Swing That Tail Pomporwot Funky Shogun Cheers Murray! Dreadnought One Hump or Two I.C.F. Hot Sausage |
Mirrors Snow-Capped In Memory of... |
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Nigel Glockler is chiefly known for his on/off retainership of the drum stool for NWoBHM survivors Saxon, although his first major job was drumming for Toyah (Wilcox) in the early '80s. Mad Men & English Dogs are his duo project with guitarist Doug Scarratt, their eponymous album being partially an excuse for the latter to shred over Nige's drum and keyboard parts, although several tracks on the album take a more 'progressive' turn than that might suggest, not least Pomporwot, Dreadnought and Snow-Capped.
Despite various string and choir sounds, the latter track is the only one with actual Mellotron samples and then only the choirs that come in towards the end of the piece. Mad Men & English Dogs is an album for the guitar lover in your life, although it has far more depth than most of the one-dimensional shredding nonsense it's been my displeasure to hear. Worth the effort.
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Revolutions (2001, 96.37) **½ |
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| Children of the Sun i) Spirit of the Land ii) The Journey iii) The Battle iv) Thanksgiving Opus 1 The White Witch i) Overture ii) The White Witch |
iii) The Plague iv) Reflection v) The Spell Man the Machine i) Man and Machine ii) War iii) Remembrance iv) The Watchers v) Lightspeed vi) First Contact |
Opus 2 Genetesis i) The New Age ii) Renewed Purpose iii) ANew Life iv) The Search for Faith v) The Creed The Warning |
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Seven (2004, 76.31) **GluttonyEnvy Lust Greed Anger Pride Sloth |
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Home (2005, 67.46) **½ |
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| This Life Hurt Moving on My Home Town (Far Away) Brave New Land The Journey Towers of Hope Demons |
Morning Sunlight Joe A Dream The Visionary Journey's End The Travellers Lament Home |
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New York Suite (2006, 40.02) **½ArrivalHome From Home White Lies Truth This Life - Reprise |
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A few years ago, I and a group of like-minded individuals who shall remain nameless stood outside the hall where Magenta were playing at a small UK prog festival. Every minute or so, someone would pipe up: "Tarkus!" "Something from Topographic!" "Something else from Topographic!", all to much laughter. It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that ex-Cyan multi-instrumentalist (but mainly keyboard player) Rob Reed's next venture, er, 'somewhat lacks originality'. The female-fronted Magenta, with Christina Booth at the mic, play the kind of contemporary neo-prog that keeps old Marillion fans happy, without sounding like a direct copy; as a result, they outsell many more worthy bands.
They debuted with 2001's sprawling double-disc Revolutions, consisting of four lengthy, multi-part tracks, one shorter piece and two genuinely nice brief acoustic guitar instrumentals, easily the best thing about this album. The bulk of the set merely reinforces my original impression of the band; there appears to be no end to the artists Magenta are prepared to 'borrow' from, including Yes (hugely), Marillion (natch) and even The Beach Boys on part one of Man The Machine, just before they shift into a bit of Squonk-style Genesis, so close rhythmically to the original (albeit without its power) that it comes across as pastiche. In places, Magenta effectively lift whole chunks of other artists' work (spot the Heart Of The Sunrise cop on part four of Genetesis, just before the Awaken bit), to the point where I'm surprised they're not challenged on the subject more frequently. Another minus are the almost autistically-literal lyrics, particularly on Man The Machine, making Neil Peart sound like Tennyson, although the bulk of the music's enough to drive most old-school prog fans away. Rather like the aforementioned Topographic Oceans, any random, brief snippet of this album will have you screaming 'PROG ALERT!', but more than a minute or two may well leave you craving something with a little more... originality.
Reed actually underuses his Mellotron samples, which first make themselves apparent in the form of the rather murky strings on part three of Children Of The Sun, The Battle, with more of the same on the 'title track' section of The White Witch plus 'are they/aren't they?' flutes in a couple of places, notably at the beginning of part five of The White Witch, The Spell. Choirs? Hard to tell whether they're Mellotron samples or merely generic ones. I was tempted to give this a paltry two stars for its various failings listed above, but at least Reed has the taste to rip off some decent bands (and Marillion), although the lumpen way the contrasting styles are jammed together betrays a sorry lack of genuine prog talent.
2004's Seven is, as you can see, a concept effort based around the Biblical seven deadly sins, although a preponderance of sickly ballads drags the album down; not so much 'heartfelt' as 'rather too slick for their own good'. Fewer obvious cops from other artists' work, although I spotted a recreation of the ARP Pro-Soloist patch Tony Banks used on Ripples at one point, modulation and all, used in a similar setting. Overall, this loses half a star from an already fairly paltry score for its high boredom quotient, while the choirs on a few tracks might not even be Mellotron samples; it's hard to tell. Reed & Co. shamelessly rip off '70s Pink Floyd on the following year's Home, right down to the well-placed sax solo, not to mention Genesis again and solo Steve Hackett (on Demons). We also get some cod-Celtic nonsense on the title track for bad measure, although the same 'right style, wrong notes' caveat applies as before. As I said, minor samplotron, with brief string parts on Brave New Land and The Journey, but, once again, they're underused. 2006's New York Suite was marketed as an EP (and included as the second disc of the Home reissue), but in my book, forty minutes is an album, so an album it is. Conceptually, it appears to follow on from Home, assuming you're actually listening to the lyrics, which I'm not, while it sounds a lot like its predecessor musically, with a snatch of samplotron strings at one point.
Magenta are the F2 label's flagship act, as far as I can work out, which probably has more to do with having a female frontperson than anything to do with the quality of the music. Go on, argue effectively with that one. Met any British prog fans lately? I can't recommend either of these albums, largely due to their blatant copycat approach, sometimes tipping over into full-blown plagiarism, although should modern neo-prog be your bag, go right ahead.
See: Cyan
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Little Girl Lost (2002, 48.13) **½ |
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| These Things All Over Air I Need My Soul I Need My Love Never Fall Again Mermaid Vandalist Virgin |
Little Girl Lost I Take the Blame Green Dragon |
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Magenta (nothing to do with the outrageously unoriginal UK 'progressive' band) seem to be a Norwegian goth band, for want of a better description, although their sound is rooted as much in 'traditional' indie as anything. They're an augmented trio, effectively, with any number of guests joining the core of vocalist Vilde Lockert and guitarists Anders Odden and Daniel Hill, both of whom double on almost everything. Little Girl Lost is their second full release and, apart from the odd moment (the first part of Mermaid, the electronic title track), made me want to take it off immediately, I'm afraid. Bored-sounding female vocals intoning in bad English doth not a dark, scary album make, people.
Andreas Bjørk and Tore Ylvizåker are credited with 'Mellotron', but none of it sounds that authentic, the real giveaway being the muted choirs on I Need My Love, which just don't cut the mustard at all. The rest of their sample use consists of strings on opener These Things, overdubbed strings and flutes on Mermaid and 'Strawberry Fields'-esque flutes on closer Green Dragon, some of which doesn't sound bad, but none of which convinces me it's real. Now, of course, I'll be proven wrong... Anyway, half-arsed goth, sampled 'Tron, don't bother.
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The Body Gave You Everything (2004, 47.47) **½ |
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| Rhythm is Deified Summer's Here French Movies Soft Foot Shuffle Jumpneedle Hunter-Collector The Pick-Up Rock Chick |
Pistolero Savvy Buttburner Assault on Magnus |
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Magnus are a Belgian synth-pop duo, 2000s style, so no Human League/Soft Cell-style pop sensibilities here, more a dance-influenced, sample-based approach, so contemporary that, seven years later it sounds quaintly old-fashioned. Better tracks include Jumpneedle and Rock Chick, but I can't imagine this is going to excite anyone who has a place in their heart for the first wave of synth-based pop.
Peter Vermeersch adds obviously fake (yet credited) Mellotron strings and flutes to French Movies, with vaguely similar sounds cropping up on a couple of other tracks. All rather dull, really, particularly on the fakeotron front.
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Inhaling Green (1999, 53.09) ***½ |
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| Velociraptor Free the Spirit The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Cantus Conquistador Dixon Hill Veil of Sighs Theme One |
Inhaling Green Part One - Anatomy of the Mind Part Two - Stripping of the Flesh Part Three - Weighing of the Souls |
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Hexameron (2004, 50.26) ***½SingularityDancing on the Waters Marduk Sophia's Song Double Helix Brother Sun Sister Moon Seven Hands of Time The Power of Reason |
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Children of Another God (2010, 50.15) **** |
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| Children of Another God Doctor Prometheus Twenty Summers Identity Theft The Colony is King Crimewave Monkeys The Others |
Babel Tower Howl the Stars Down |
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Nick Magnus joined The Enid as second keyboard player in 1976, playing with them for a few months before leaving to form the Portsmouth-based Autumn, whose recordings finally appeared in 1999 as the highly-recommended though sadly Mellotron-free Oceanworld (****). After a fortuitous mix-up with a 'musicians wanted' ad, Nick teamed up with Steve Hackett for a decade, playing on his run of albums beginning with 1979's wonderful Spectral Mornings, releasing his first solo album, Straight on Till Morning, in 1993, after contributing to the semi-legendary Rime of the Ancient Sampler: The Mellotron Album, albeit in sampled form.
Nick apparently uses Mellotron samples on Straight on..., although the first album of his I've actually heard is '99's Inhaling Green, an album of mostly instrumental symphonic progressive rock, although the female-vocalled Cantus, maybe surprisingly, is nearer the dance end of the spectrum, while Dixon Hill is more in a swing vein and Nick's take on George Martin's Theme One (you'll know the Van der Graaf version) is slightly techno-flavoured, would you believe. Best tracks? Probably the flute-led Veil Of Sighs and the lengthy, three-part title track, part three being especially Hackett-esque. Those Mellotron samples crop up here and there, with strings on Free The Spirit, The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea and Weighing Of The Souls, although it's not the heaviest use you'll ever here, sampled or otherwise.
Five years on, 2004's Hexameron can been seen either as more cohesive or less varied, depending on your outlook (I prefer the former description), concentrating more on the progressive end of the spectrum. Nick adds vocals to the mix this time round, guest vocalists including ex-Hackett colleague Pete Hicks and ReGenesis man Tony Patterson's Gabrielesque tones, other guests including guitarist Geoff Whitehorn (If, Procol Harum) and Hacketts John (flute, of course) and Steve. The furthest the album deviates from the (loosely) symphonic template is the Celtic flavourings on Sophia's Song, most of its material sitting somewhere between Enid-style symphonics, contemporary guitar-driven prog and a touch of new age in places. On the samplotron front, we get strings and/or choir on several tracks, including Marduk, Brother Sun Sister Moon and Seven Hands Of Time, used, once again, with welcome restraint.
2010's Children of Another God ups the ante somewhat, possibly even being Nick's Big Progressive Statement, featuring repeating musical and lyrical motifs throughout in true concept album style. Top tracks include the opening title track, the Hackett-esque The Colony Is King, with its strange, chanted vocals and the slightly Spock's Beard-esque Babel Tower, while Doctor Prometheus is reminiscent of mid-'70s Rick Wakeman, albeit considerably better, leaving the female-vocalled The Others as the album's odd man out, sounding like it belongs on another record. The 'guest list' this time round is fairly familiar, including Hicks, Patterson and both Hacketts again, plus Nick's old Enid bandmate Glenn Tollett on upright bass. Did I use the phrase 'welcome restraint' regarding Nick's sampled 'Tron use above? Am I mad? This time round he gets strings and/or choirs in on most tracks, used with considerable taste, as I'd expect, often alongside sampled Taurus pedals, using the ever-faithful Genesis template; a compliment, in case you were wondering.
Well, at this rate, Nick's next album will be a complete classic; his composition improves with every album, making Children of Another God the best buy of these three, although they're all worth hearing. Nick gigs in a duo with John Hackett, often supporting The Watch; get to see 'em if you can.
See: Steve Hackett
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Lullabies for the 21st Century (2010, 47.34) **** |
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| Your Century Terry the Toad Crash Position Handbirds Alien at Home Horror Stories Up to You |
Supermarket Dream Lucky You Cry Me to Sleep Insect Under the Stone |
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Duncan Maitland used to play in Irish sensations Pugwash, so it should come as absolutely no surprise at all that his first solo album, 2010's Lullabies for the 21st Century should be a gorgeous, sun-drenched concoction of intelligent pop and gentle psychedelia. Think late-period XTC; actually, keep thinking that as you listen to the first track, Your Century, as it sinks in that none other than XTC's Colin Moulding's playing bass. There genuinely isn't a bad track here; mind you, not everyone's going to get the 'Light Programme' whimsy of closer Insect Under The Stone, in which case they should probably go for the Beatles-esque Your Century, Terry The Toad (beautiful chorus) or Alien At Home, to name but three.
I had to apply a little pressure, but Colin eventually owned up to using samples, largely because I couldn't work out how he'd tracked down a Chamberlin in Ireland. He uses 'Tron or Chamby samples on nine of the eleven tracks here, with a wider range of sounds than most real Mellotron users can manage (often a 'sample giveaway', that one), notable parts including the 'Tron flutes on Your Century and Cry Me To Sleep, the 'Tron strings on Up To You and Supermarket Dream and the Chamby sax solo on Insect Under The Stone, "So good", says Duncan, "That I credited it to a fictional player!" ('Herbert Ginshell', for what it's worth).
The upshot of all this is, a great little album, although if you don't like Duncan's influences, you're unlikely to like his music either. Fake tape-replay, but done well in an excellent setting. Buy.
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Songs From a Solitary Home (2010, 46.06) ***½ |
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| Ecophobia Solitary Home Teenage Mannequins Simone! Card Boxes The Age of the Paranoia Dance With the Cookie Man |
Trampoline Superstar Downtown Boogie Heart of Hickory Domestic Violets Adville The Transient |
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Major Parkinson find themselves variously described as 'prog', 'alternative rock' and 'pop/rock', the truth, unsurprisingly, lying both somewhere in between and elsewhere. Influences on their second album, 2010's Songs From a Solitary Home, are as disparate as '77 punk, Brecht & Weil (notably the deranged Dance With The Cookie Man), French chanson (Downtown Boogie) and early '80s post-punk, while I'd be amazed to hear they'd never heard Cardiacs. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, however, so trying to nail this lot down to any one style is an utterly futile exercise.
Someone plays fakeotron strings and flutes on Solitary Home and Domestic Violets, with possible background use elsewhere, but it's hardly the album's defining feature. This is a very good album that repeated plays can only make better, its eclecticism showing a million lesser outfits the way. As a result, they'll probably sell very few records.
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Hirror Enniffer (2008, 34.35) ***This LandDeath Shawl Annwn Black Running Water Suckling a Dead Litter Cyhraeth |
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Mamiffer are one of American guitarist Aaron Turner's multifarious projects, albeit one actually led by vocalist/pianist Faith Coloccia, whose debut, 2008's Hirror Enniffer, is probably best described as 'post-metal', whatever you take that to mean. Coloccia's piano is the lead instrument throughout the bulk of the record, although Death Shawl is essentially a slow build-up of distorted organ and closer Cyhraeth is similarly piano-free.
Coloccia is credited with Mellotron, but the strings on Black Running Water sound pretty shaky from where I'm standing (OK, so I'm sitting), although whether they're actually Mellotron samples or generic strings credited as such is hard to say. So; is this any good? Good at what it does, assuming you like the sound of ambient piano overlaid with wordless vocals and distortion.
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A Single Book of Songs (2001, 55.33) *** |
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| To Gloria Vipera Berus K Aum The So Called 4th Sect What Happened in Antioch? Evening Streeted Pleroma |
Brave Manic Mover Out-Take Noara Dance What if Instead of Circles |
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Mammoth Volume are part of the 'third wave' of stoner hard rock/metal, following the late-'80s burst of activity from Trouble, Monster Magnet et al. But are they any good at it? I hear you cry. Well, I've heard better, to be honest, although they have a certain level of competence going for them and a disinterest in 'playing the game', making every track sound like every other, all of which sound like a bad amalgam of Black Sabbath and Hawkwind. You know the type. Maybe I'm just becoming incredibly jaded, but even on a second listen, I can't really warm to their second full-length effort, 2001's A Single Book of Songs, although it has its moments.
The 'Mellotron' parts are fairly obviously sampled, with strings on opener To Gloria, The So Called 4th Sect and Evening Streeted, with distant, phased choirs on Pleroma, strings and cranky flutes on Brave Manic Mover and finally, more strings on closer Instead of Circles, which would've given the album something like TTT were the 'Tron genuine.
There's supposed to be more 'Mellotron' on their eponymous 1999 debut, but all I can hear is some dodgy generic string samples, though I've been wrong before... As far as A Single Book of Songs goes, it's fairly adventurous for a stoner band, but somehow, I just couldn't engage with it properly, (fake) 'Tron or no. Sorry.
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Lycanthrope (2005, 62.17) ***Echo AbsoluteWerewolf Suite: Cosmotraffic Jam Call Me Alias Lycanthroparty Hum/Animal Song The Boy That Howls at the Moon The Mask The Transparent and the Obscure |
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Mangala Vallis' first album, The Book of Dreams, features real Mellotron, although that's just about its only redeeming feature. However, their follow-up from three years later, Lycanthrope, proves that neo-proggers can improve, if only slightly. It starts off as a vast improvement on its predecessor, although it still opens with a Genesis steal (Watcher this time). Guest vocalist on their debut, ex-PFM man Bernardo Lanzetti, seems to've become a full member by this time, making Chocolate Kings comparisons inevitable; better than Script though, eh kids? Mangala Vallis' previous Spock's Beard influence seems to have become more dominant here, with the vast bulk of the hour-long album taken up by the sort-of title track, the Werewolf Suite, replete with loads of Enzo Cattini's Hammond and fake Mellotron work. Hurrah! This isn't to say it's all good, by any means; Lycanthroparty pumps away at a mainstream rock groove for far longer than necessary, including the obligatory dullsville guitar solo, and in fact, the quality dips as the album progresses, until by the end, it isn't an awful lot better than its predecessor. What a shame; if only the album had been shorter, maybe the band could've tightened up their arrangements and made for a better release all round. 'Tron samples across the board, mostly strings, with bits of flute and choir here and there, although some of the notes hold just that little bit too long.
So; a partly good partly non-neo-prog album with fake 'Tron. Concentrate on what makes the first half of Lycanthrope good, lads, and your third effort could be very reasonable. Incidentally, many thanks to my old pal Gary for extracting a sample use confession out of the band.
See: Mangala Vallis
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Touch Wood (2004, 66.29) **½Fatal SignVicious Circle Cold World Penelope I Close the Book Help Me Wizard of Tunes Back Again City of Darkness |
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Facing the Sunset (2005, 57.30) **½Facing the SunsetI Fear the Day There Must Be Another Way Hidden Dreams |
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Beyond Reality (2009, 67.39) **Daydreamer's NightmareTime Will Tell Love and Beyond Reality Fades Beyond Reality Voyager |
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Mangrove formed in the mid-'90s under a different name, releasing their first full album (after a brace of demos), Touch Wood, in 2004. Obvious influences include 'mid-period' (i.e. post-Gabriel, pre-chart success) Genesis and, I'm sad to say, Marillion, their sound being pervaded with an unfortunate neo-prog sensibility, particularly in the vocal department. Actually, I'm reminded in places of superior Scottish neo-proggers Citizen Kane, also IQ, although with little of either band's sometime inventiveness, the nearest this gets to an exception being the vaguely bluesy/jazzy touches in closer City Of Darkness. This is one of those 'OK in small doses' albums, where any single track is perfectly listenable, but over an hour in one go becomes exceedingly tedious. Samplotronically speaking, obviously fake string, cello and choir parts on opener Fatal Sign, flutes on Vicious Circle and combinations of these four on most of the rest.
The following year's Facing the Sunset is basically more of the same, albeit in longer form, featuring four lengthy tracks; unfortunately, the band's talents don't really extend to complexity in any great way, so they all become a bit dull after a while. Once again, not terrible, just thoroughly average. Less samplotron than before, but better sounds, for what it's worth. After 2006's double live (bit early for that, isn't it?), Coming Back to Live, 2009's Beyond Reality is, unbelievably, even worse than its predecessors. Most depressing of all, though, is that the band manage flashes of inspiration, then brutally smother them to death with endless minutes of utterly clichéd neo-prog drivel. Guys, guys... Can't you do better than this? Stop listening to Marillion; that'll help. More of the usual samplotron, not that I care any more.
I had a nasty feeling that Mangrove were going to suck, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and have been comprehensively defeated. If I (or anyone) could actually be bothered, there's probably about twenty minutes of good bits spread over all three of these albums, which is vastly too little to be any use. Why do the Netherlands chuck out so many of these bands? Please stop.
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This is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998) *** |
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| The Everlasting If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next You Stole the Sun From My Heart Ready for Drowning Tsunami My Little Empire I'm Not Working You're Tender and You're Tired |
Born a Girl Be Natural Black Dog on My Shoulder Nobody Loved You S.Y.M.M. |
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The Manic Street Preachers' story has been one of tragedy; their arch-propagandist, Richey James, disappeared in the mid-'90s, having almost certainly thrown himself off the Severn Bridge during a bad bout of depression. The band regrouped, recording Everything Must Go as soon as possible to try to overcome the trauma. In retrospect, Richey didn't seem to actually do an awful lot in the band, existing more as their public face than anything else, so their subsequent career hasn't suddenly taken a lurch in a different direction. The Manics started off wanting to be The Clash, but quickly mutated into a stadium-rock outfit for disaffected teenagers, an area they still inhabit today.
This is My Truth Tell Me Yours does nothing to change this state of affairs; mostly mid-paced, with a great deal of rather hollow lyrical rhetoric and somewhat clichéd song structures. Session keyboardist Nick Nasmyth brought in a raft of vintage gear, principally a Hammond and a Wurlie piano, and makes reasonable use of them across the album, although it's interesting to note that the band's next effort featured a noticeably stripped-down sound, as they apparently felt that This is My Truth was a bit 'lush' in the production department. I've always been under the impression that the credit for 'Mellotron' meant exactly that, but going by the interview with producer Dave Eringa here, it seems they're samples.
Anyway, fake 'Tron on three tracks; the rather pretentiously-titled single, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next has some nice 'Tron strings running through it, while the balladic You're Tender And You're Tired has a short arranged string part in the middle. The Manics also used a proper string section on the album, so Nasmyth was obviously going for a distinct 'feel' by using the pseudo-'Tron here. Album closer S.Y.M.M. (South Yorkshire Mass Murderer, apparently) has a background strings wash, with a slightly more upfront part on the second verse.
So; as a non-fan I'm really not in the right place to recommend this or otherwise, while the Mellotron use is OK but not stunning, or genuine. Interesting to note that 'Mellotron/Mellatron' manages to be spelled two different ways in the liner notes... Anyway, your choice, as ever.
Aimee Mann (US) see: |
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Sister (2007, 38.16) *** |
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| Stars Ending and Leaving Eliza Just for You Lost I Gave in Sing for You Sister |
Black and Blue In the Book of Love |
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Manna Jäntti is a Finnish singer-songwriter, clearly aiming at the international market by singing in English. Her debut, 2007's Sister, is a surprisingly decent effort, largely steering clear of the genre's expected cheesy melodies and limp arrangements, better tracks including Lost, I Gave In and the title track. Manna's close-mic'd voice is considerably better than those of many of her transatlantic contemporaries, thankfully missing the nasal edge that so many American singers seem unable (or unwilling) to drop.
Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm is credited with Mellotron on opener Stars, but the vague strings on the track sound little like a real machine to my (admittedly jaded) ears. It's notable that probable sample users Soundtrack of Our Lives' Martin Hederos plays on the track, although whether or not he's had anything to do with the presumed fakeotron is unknown. Anyway, good at what it does, but unlikely to appeal to most Planet Mellotron readers.
Manning (UK) see: |
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Expo (2005, 25.27) **½ |
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| Circuit When You Open Magic Out of Zone Jewel of India Hello Sun |
Expo Cruel Sound Blossoms Move on |
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Marbles are basically the solo side-project of Apples in Stereo mainman Robert Schneider, taking less of a '60s and more of a late '70s/early '80s turn on 2005's mini-album Expo. Largely informed by synth-pop, a handful of tracks work well enough in isolation, but the overall effect, even in under half an hour, is of tedium, I'm afraid, and as for Schneider's well-documented ambition to sound like ELO...
Given my chariness at the Apples' Mellotronic veracity, it comes as no great surprise to report that the credited 'Mellotron' here... isn't. Some of the strings barely sound like one at all, although it's possible they're actually something else, but the supposedly definite 'Tron strings don't sound right at all, ditto the choirs, leaving only the easy-to-sample flutes sounding at all genuine. Sorry, but if you want to hear retro synth stuff, there's an awful lot better around than this. I like the Apples' albums, but I'm afraid this leaves me cold.
See: Apples in Stereo | Beulah | Ladybug Transistor | Of Montreal | Sunshine Fix | Thee American Revolution
