|
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
Fune (1995, 50.11) **½ |
|
| Welcome Power to Dream Fune Wreckage Saksit Preparation Julia Bird Tide Soliton |
Mirror Image 3-4 (March 4th) Home |
|
Current availability:
Susumu Hirasawa formed Mandrake in 1973 (although their two albums'-worth of recordings were only released in the late '90s), most of their members going on, towards the end of the decade, to become one of Japan's premier technopop outfits, P-Model. 1995's Fune is their eleventh album, a mix of very synthetic and more organic material, pianos sitting side-by-side with up-to-the-minute synths, although the bulk of the album's contents are too generic to make much headway in the international market.
Somebody plays sampled Mellotron strings and flutes on Julia Bird and flutes on closer Home, although the various choir sounds used on the album sound more like generic samples than Mellotron ones. Fans of YMO and other Japanese synth outfits might find something to like in P-Model, but I think the rest of us can safely leave them to their home market.
See: Mandrake
 |
Sensors (2008, 42.50/56.16) ****½ |
|
| Happiness Your Misery Gasoline Téa Hypnotique Absinth Minded Sensor |
[Japanese ed. adds: Prologue Shame] |
|
 |
Breathing (2011, 50.03) ***½ |
|
| Gone Fading Out Shells In That Room Andrum No More Rollercoaster Breathing Surrounded |
Smärtan Ploing My Friend Precious Over and Out |
|
Current availability:
Regular readers of this site should be no strangers to Paatos, the band that rose from the ashes of Landberk to take Swedish prog into the 2000s. After three albums and increasingly finding their own voice, the band opted for a live release, 2008's Sensors. It's an efficient summation of their career to date, the tracks recorded across three dates from the previous year's European tour, the Japanese edition adding no fewer than two extras, irritatingly for their European fans. With no bad tracks on board, picking out highlights is difficult, although the nine minutes of Sensor itself (from their 2002 debut) might just tip the balance. Johan Wallén adds Mellotron string samples to just about every track, plus occasional flutes, some hanging chords at the ends of a couple of songs giving the game away. When I saw this lot in 2003, they used their weird, baby-blue M400, but I'd heard it had been sold, so the samples are hardly a surprise. Anyway, if you haven't heard the band before, this is probably an ideal starting point, squeezing several of their best compositions onto one disc without actually being a compilation.
Two founding members, Wallén and Stefan Dimle, left in 2009, severing the band's last links with Landberk. After recording and rejecting an album's-worth of material, the new lineup released Breathing in early 2011, widely reputed to be 'not prog', although the audio evidence tells me they've got a long way to go before they can shuck off the term. Thankfully. Saying that, material like the title track and Smärtan are rather more 'mainstream', albeit without tipping over into pop territory, but older fans shouldn't get too panicky. Samplotron strings on several tracks, but it really isn't sounding particularly real any more. What's the betting they'll drop it by next time round?
So; two more worthwhile Paatos albums, particularly Sensors, but the last we'll hear of a real Mellotron on their records.
See: Paatos
 |
Road Salt One (2010, 50.18) *** |
|
| What She Means to Me No Way She Likes to Hide Sisters Of Dust Tell Me You Don't Know Sleeping Under the Stars Darkness of Mine |
Curiosity Where it Hurts Road Salt Innocence |
|
Current availability:
Daniel Gildenlöw's Pain of Salvation have been around in one form or another since the mid-'80s, when Gildenlöw was all of eleven, releasing seven albums since the late '90s. 2010's Road Salt One gets Planet Mellotron brownie points for not sounding like Dream Theater, unlike most of the copycat bands all too happy to align themselves with prog-metal, although I find it difficult to actually describe the album, which contains elements of avant-prog, folk and psych alongside the expected riffy guitars and block-chord strings, online fans bemoaning its lack of similarity to their previous work. Well done, Pain of Salvation, is all I have to say.
Fredrik Hermansson plays keys, including (allegedly) Mellotron, but a cursory listen to the background male choirs on Curiosity and Road Salt itself tell you that a real M400 came nowhere near the studio during recording. For some odd reason, initial copies of the album were some minutes longer, featuring an extra track at the beginning and several extended (or unedited) versions. If that version was good enough for their fans, why is it not good enough for everyone? I'm not sure I can actually recommend this album as such, but I applaud the band's decision to head for pastures new and leave a moribund genre behind them.
 |
Hymnemonde (1995, 47.14) ***½Quartus FrénésiFondation Trépanation Portuaire Vermeil Armada Cataracte Le Sanctuaire d'Euterpe |
Current availability:
It would seem that Québec's Pangée produced just the one album in the mid-'90s, Hymnemonde, then simply disappeared. Interestingly, it's difficult to pin down, style-wise; to the band's credit, they don't really sound like anybody at all. Maybe their (relative) cultural isolation had something to do with this; after all, (listenable) Québecois progressive rock has been pretty thin on the ground since the late '70s, so the band seem to have developed their own instrumental style, based around clean guitar, tricky rhythms and pad-like keyboard work. Difficult to pick out album highlights; suffice to say, despite a certain low-budgetness, it's actually a pretty good listen, and a long way from the sort of neo-prog nonsense that their countrymen were producing at the time.
I'm actually having serious doubts as to the veracity of Jean-François Bergeron's 'Mellotron' here, though; one minute the strings on Cataracte sound a lot like the mighty 'Tron, the next the same strings on Le Sanctuaire D'Euterpe sound more like string samples until they get into the lower registers. And as for the choir on the same track... 'Tron or non-'Tron? Samples? Generic sounds? Hard to say.
Overall, then, a good, rather unusual album, although with the band obviously long gone, it's out of print, and (sadly) probably likely to remain that way. I wouldn't go looking for it as some sort of lost Mellotron classic, but it's decidedly worth hearing on musical grounds.
 |
Shade of Fate (2005, 49.56) **½ |
|
| Shade of Fate Follow Me Closer to You Trace to Find (a Day Without Rain) Spectastral The Final Line Why Mindtrip |
Knocking on My Door After Rain Orpheus Whisper |
|
Current availability:
I know I shouldn't be unkind to very competent bands from countries a long way from musical centres, but Bulgaria's Pantommind's entirely generic prog-metal sounds like a straight cross between Queensrÿche and the more melodic bits of Dream Theater. In fairness, it's not exactly a top genre in their own country, making it difficult for the band to release anything at all, so it's quite a bonus that their first non-demo full-length release, 2005's Shade of Fate, is as professional as it is, to the point where you'd have no idea they weren't American if you didn't know.
A bloke calling himself Scaldor allegedly plays 'Mellotron, Moog, ARP and other analogue synthesizers'. Oh yeah? Well, the 'Mellotron' goes no further than some generic string patches which barely even qualify as samples and I can't say I spotted anything else even slightly analogue-like. So; it's borderline whether this should be here at all, but if you're keeping an eye open for prog-metal that's better than, say, Germany's tedious Vanden Plas, you could probably do a lot worse than to investigate Pantommind.
 |
The (Im)possibility of Longing (2004, 25.59) *** |
|
| Non Servium I Should Be Leaving Gunsmith Julius All Things Well Pika Doun War Interlude Albatross |
Icarus Postlude |
|
Current availability:
Although I believe the band's sound has changed as their membership has contracted, on their 2004 debut, The (Im)possibility of Longing, Pattern is Movement are quite clearly a math-rock outfit, reminding me in places of my old pals The Monsoon Bassoon, themselves heavily influenced by unwilling math-rock gods Don Caballero. A review of this on Amazon says that towards the end it made the reviewer, "...Feel like jamming my desklamp down my throat", apparently a compliment. I wouldn't go quite that far, but then, when you've heard the more angular end of '70s prog, a little dissonance, stop/start rhythm work and offbeat riffery is no big deal. It's actually a perfectly good (mini-)album, with enough content to satisfy genre fans, although, like most math-rock, it comes across as rather cold to the non-aficionado, lacking the depth of the aforementioned '70s prog outfits.
Andrew Thiboldeaux plays sampled Mellotron on several tracks, notably the flutes and strings on opener Non Servium and flutes and cellos on brief closer Postlude, with flutes used elsewhere. For such a rigid, stratified genre, math-rock is surprisingly popular; my limited live exposure to the real deal has been more impressive than actually enjoyable as such. If you go for this stuff and haven't encountered Pattern is Movement, though, they do it with aplomb, at least on this release.
 |
Scenario (2006, 37.38) **½Shinjuku By NightPart One of a Scenario in Three We Swear it Was Self-Defense Honor February Introducing New Details Shinjuku By Night (orig.) February (orig.) |
Current availability:
Québec's Pawa Up First's debut, 2005's Scenario, is one of those soundtracky records, mixing hip-hop-lite, electronica and Morricone into the kind of sound that occasionally lifts its head about the parapet, but mostly doesn't. Had they expanded on the pseudo-orchestral parts of the record, I might've liked it more, but that obviously wasn't the effect they were after.
Daniel Thouin and Mathieu Parisien are both credited with Mellotron, but the strings on opener Shinjuku By Night and February don't quite convince, so this stays here until I'm informed otherwise. One for modern soundtrack fans, then; so when are this lot actually going to soundtrack a film?
 |
40.02 (2008, 40.02) ** |
|
| A Espera é um Arame Barro e Lama em Mão Alheia Frio Bafio Camaleão Nortada Barbitúrica Luz Atiro ao Alvo Folha |
Sabujo Estátua de Espantar |
|
Current availability:
Peixe: Avião are Portugal's entrant in the crummy post-rock/pop stakes, a.k.a. the 'who can sound most like bad Radiohead' 3.30 at Aintree. Their debut, the wittily-titled 2008's 40.02 (spot the disc length), slowly drained my spirit, leaving me an empty, shattered husk. Luckily, I got better. The only track of any interest here is Barbitúrica Luz, arranged, in doo-wop fashion, for multiple voices, everything else being the most tiresome, sub-Coldplay dross imaginable.
Someone adds bland fakeotron flutes to two tracks, with major parts on Camaleão and Atiro Ao Alvo, which do little to improve matters. I can't imagine why anyone outside the band's indie-kid fanbase in their own country would want to hear this. I wish I hadn't.
 |
Chupacabras (2005, 48.30) ***½ |
|
| Okay Chupacabras a) Supper's Calling b) The Shepherdess c) A Brief History of Truth and Beauty d) Chupacabras Stomp e) Get My Goat f) Study & Review g) The Gift Party |
Fortress of Sand Ruffian on the Stairs: Ruffian on the Stairs Sunburnt Return of the Ruffian Titan |
|
 |
313 (2006, 48.10) *** |
|
| Railyard Have You Hugged Your Robot? A Storm of Cats Never Gonna Go Pyramid There's Only One of You Orangutan Sick of Me |
In Search of Bitter Ore Body to Space Watching Machine Run Singing Tiger Benediction |
|
 |
Doomsday Afternoon (2007, 66.53) ***½ |
|
| Micro Softdeathstar The Doctrine of Eternal Ice (part one) Candybrain Crumble The Doctrine of Eternal Ice (part two) Thank You for the Evil A Wasteland of Memories Crumble |
Formaldehyde Microdeath Softstar |
|
 |
Number Seven (2009, 62.48) *** |
|
| Dormouse - A Theme Waiting for the Axe to Fall Hive Mind The Claws of a Crayfish My Sleeping Slave Darkness at Noon Prequiem Gift of the Flame |
Interview With a Dormouse Thermonuclear Cheese The Search for Terrestrial Life A Fistful of Fortitude Love Theme From "Number Seven" Storia Senti Infinite Supply Dormouse - An End |
|
Current availability:
Phideaux are effectively the duo of multi-instrumentalist Phideaux Xavier and drummer Rich Hutchins, utilising other musicians on an album-by-album basis, not least Valerie Gracious' vocal contributions. Their third album proper, 2005's Chupacabras, is an inventive work, slipping from the Celtic-inflected title track through occasional neo-prog and even prog metal moves to a not untypically-American style of contemporary progressive on most of the album. Highlights? Possibly four-part closer Ruffian On The Stairs, but nothing here appals. Sampled Mellotron here and there, but it isn't exactly central to the band's sound.
The following year's 313 isn't quite up to the standards of its predecessor, although it still contains some fine music, notably closer Benediction. An overall lack of cohesion, too many lengthy slow sections and some irritating vocoder work scupper it slightly, although not enough for me to try to dissuade anyone from hearing it. Heavy samplotron use on the first couple of tracks and Body To Space, although that seems to be your lot. 2007's eccentric Doomsday Afternoon is a return to form, with more of an 'American' sound to several of its tracks. Next to no samplotron this time round, though, with naught but a smattering of strings on opener Micro Softdeathstar and The Doctrine Of Eternal Ice (Part Two).
2009's Number Seven is a decent enough effort, but a thought struck me about half-way through: would I rather be listening to this or to something else? Sadly, the answer is: something (albeit not anything) else, sadly. It's not a bad record, but it just fails to grab me in any meaningful way. So to speak. It appears to have a concept, which is entirely impenetrable, while the music fails to hold the interest supposedly provided by the lyrics. There are a few tracks of samplotron, notably the distant choirs on Hive Mind, stabbed strings on Interview With A Dormouse and flutes on Thermonuclear Cheese.
Phideaux remind me of the wave of progressive bands who appeared about a decade earlier - you know, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings et al., not so much musically, but in the way in which they would churn out huge volumes of complex, highly-composed music, often at the rate of an hour-long album (or longer) a year. Inevitably, quality control will eventually suffer; I think Phideaux might do well to cut back slightly on their release schedule and wield the editing scissors slightly more brutally. Saying that, these are all perfectly acceptable albums, but all at least slightly overlong, with too much filler.
 |
L'Avventura (2003, 44.11) **½ |
|
| Night Nurse Ginger Snaps I Deserve it Out Walking Moonshot Hear the Wind Blow Your Baby Threw it Away |
Knives From Bavaria Random Rules Indian Summer |
|
 |
7" [as Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom] (2007) **½ He's Coming Home Old Toy Trains |
Current availability:
Luna's Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham released L'Avventura not long before their parent band split, the only album they've released under that specific appellation, subsequently working as Dean & Britta. Unsurprisingly, it's not a million miles away from Luna's 'dream pop', with strong hints of Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra's easy listening '60s vibe about it, which is unlikely to endear it to fans of '70s prog or hard rock; even psych fans may well reject this for its excess corn. Several of its tracks are covers, not least Madonna's I Deserve It and The Doors' Indian Summer, all treated to the same smooth, velvety treatment which you really will either love or hate, I suspect.
Producer Tony Visconti (that explains the album's sound, then) plays 'Mellotron' flutes and strings on Out Walking, but the low string notes give their sampled origin away, making it a tad irritating that it's credited as 'Mellotron'. Again. A rather ordinary part, anyway, on an album you're probably not going to like, although I'll admit it's good at what it does. The duo (as Dean & Britta) released a Christmas 7" in 2007, pairing He's Coming Home with Old Toy Trains, the latter initially released as a download a couple of years earlier. Er, it's a Christmas single, so you get what you expect, with faint Mellotron string samples on the 'A'.
See: Luna
 |
The Full Sentence (1997, 65.39) ** |
|
| It's Like the Man Said The Full Sentence Marry Me Keep on Keepin' on Battle Flag Glory Bound P-Street Phunpurephun |
Who's to Blame 31st of July More Than Just a Girl Fire's Comin' Down For Those Gone on Honor |
|
Current availability:
Pigeonhed were the Seattle-based duo of Shawn Smith (Brad, Satchel) and producer Steve Fisk (production credits include Soundgarden and Screaming Trees), who, going by their second and last album 'proper', 1997's The Full Sentence, mixed'n'matched genres to the extent that, to be brutally honest, it's all a bit of a mess. Better efforts include the drifting title track, the funky P-Street and semi-ambient closer Honor, but over an hour of genre-hopping and overlong tracks wore this listener down.
Fisk is know around these parts for crediting himself with 'Mellotron' for years, when what he actually meant was 'Mellotron samples' (he's finally bought a real machine, apparently), the strings on Phunpurephun being fairly obviously sampled. I'm afraid to say I can't honestly recommend this album, although a half-hour of its best bits might be rather more listenable.
See: Satchel
 |
A New High in Low (1997, 125.33) **½ |
||
| Low Radio Bagpipe Kiss King (High High High) Burundi Bring Unto Me More Nutopia |
Methylated I. Breathalised II. Crystalised III. Synthesised IV. Immortalised Aboriginal Metal Tangerine First Taken Third Found |
Warzone You Know/You Know/You Know High The Howler: an English Breakfast (Chapter 1, Part 1) Train The Howler: an English Breakfast (Chapter 1, Part 2) |
|
Current availability:
Coalescing in 1990, Pigface have been described as an 'industrial supergroup', formed by Brit Martin Atkins (PiL, Killing Joke, Ministry) and Yank William Rieflin (Ministry, RevCo, Swans, Nine Inch Nails) while touring Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste. The pair carried on working together, recruiting other musicians from the tour, conceiving the band as having a 'revolving door' policy with regard to collaborators. I'd guess that their fourth album, 1997's A New High in Low, is essentially based around samples taken from who-knows-where, rhythm tracks and extraneous noise added in the studio. Is this a valid way of producing music? Of course, but I can't say it's one that gladdens my heart. Many of the track titles come from repeating phrases used in the source samples, while the second disc's two lengthy The Howler: An English Breakfast pieces consist of no more than treated rhythm tracks under a voice (Atkins'?) spewing a diatribe about, er, something to do with British life.
Atkins is credited with Mellotron on Warzone and You Know/You Know/You Know, to which I have to say: Are you taking the piss? The sampled choir patch used on both tracks has little to do with a Mellotron, to my ears, to the point where I'm not even sure one was the basis for the samples. Overall, then, if you like your Ministry and your Rev(olting)Co(cks), you stand a good chance of liking this, but the rest of us probably need not apply.
 |
 |
Sell Control for Life's Speed [a.k.a. Into the West, by Pilot Speed] (2006, 53.11) **½ |
|
| Knife-Grey Sea Barely Listening A Kind of Hope Over-Ground Don't Stare I Won't Blame You Turn the Lights on Lover Come in |
Ambulance Hold the Line Into the West |
||
Current availability:
Pilate's second album, 2006's Sell Control for Life's Speed, is a pretty typical indie effort, fifth-hand Velvets influenced present and correct, to the point where I'm having trouble thinking of anything else to say about it. Better tracks? Maybe piano-and-vocal closer Into The West, although it's still pretty dreary. And (recurring bugbear here) why is it so long? Albums of this type should never top forty minutes.
Chris Stringer plays 'Mellotron' on Over-Ground, with a decidedly background string part that shows off its sampled origins as it rises to the top of the mix at the end of the track. To be honest, on an album this lacklustre, it's all a bit irrelevant, anyway. Pilate have subsequently changed their name to Pilot Speed after threatened legal action, retitling this album, for some unknown reason, Into the West. Oh well, good way of selling it twice, eh?
 |
Pilgrimage (2004, 54.56) *** |
|
| Circus of the Absurd Ghosts of Years Believe Me Now Building a Perfect Universe pt I i) Endless Space ii) The Spark iii) Creating God Building a Perfect Universe pt II i) Understanding the Machine ii) All That You See |
Song of the Albatross Black Sun ['Bonus' tracks: Reborn (live) Circus (edit)] |
|
Current availability:
Seven years on, Pilgrym are beginning to look like a one-off project, the brainchild of guitarist/vocalists Andy Wells and Tony Drake, with contributions from a couple of other musicians. Their sole album, 2004's Pilgrimage, certainly has its moments, particularly the Kansas feel of opener Circus Of The Absurd and Black Sun, although the first half of Ghosts Of Years sounds like one of those ballads towards the end of a mid-'70s Elton John album, while Believe Me Now is cheesily upbeat, in an almost sub-Asia vein. Criticisms: too long. Not just the album, but individual tracks could well do with editing, repetitive instrumental sections in major need of trimming. 'Bonus' tracks: they're not bonuses, as I can't imagine there's a version of this available without them. Circus (Edit) is precisely that, while a live track, Reborn, is dreadful neo-prog, actually dragging the album down by its inclusion.
Wells' 'Mellotron' is quite clearly sampled, with background choirs and over-extended strings on Circus Of The Absurd and a major string part on Black Sun amongst the more obvious use. So, guys, don't put 'Mellotron' on the credits. 'Cos it isn't. If you're into that modern prog thing, you may well go for Pilgrimage, but don't be surprised if you encounter the same problems with it as me.
 |
Ghastly Good Cheer (2004, 40.47) **½ |
|
| S-Channel Telemetry Ghastly Good Cheer Genco Sister Pavane For Vinchy Closet Carpetbagger Testimonial Match A Throng With Sticks Hug Dusty |
Throe Stasis Mister Clicks (Curmudgeon) Christian Strifry Vampire Tonic |
|
Current availability:
I've seen Pilot Balloon's Ghastly Good Cheer described as 'the best hip hop record that has nothing to do with hip hop'; the jury's out on the 'best' bit, but otherwise, that fits. Strictly speaking, if it's possible to categorise the album at all, 'electronica' might be nearer the mark; the duo's magpie sensibilities lead them to throw a bit of everything into the pot, from 'typical' hip-hop influences through jazz, various world musics, classical and, er, prog. Huh? Well, I've no idea where they first heard King Crimson's immortal Starless, but not only do samples from it end up on several tracks, but they even play mutated versions of its iconic opening chord sequence on others. Has Fripp sued yet? And if not, why not?
This is now the second album on this site to be reviewed for the use of samples of a Mellotron track, as against playing Mellotron samples. So which is more authentic? Either? Maybe they're equally inauthentic, just in different ways. Anyway, we get what sounds like played Mellotron string samples and bits of the actual track, faded in gently, then whipped away again before they become established, in a form of Mellotronic prick-tease. Maybe that's how they've got round the sample issue? Anyway, most of the album's well constructed and surprisingly listenable, although I could've done without the occasional crummy rapping. Different.
 |
137 (2002, 71.30) **** |
|
| Lay on the Tracks Perpetual Night Shift Kid Chameleon Incubate Doppler Ster Release the Tether How Did We Find Our Way? |
137 Reserve Warm Me PVS MD One |
|
 |
Variations on a Dream (2003, 63.00) **** |
|
| We Subside This Will Remain Unspoken Vapour Trails Run Me Through The Bitter Pill Resident Alien Sooner or Later Part Zero |
Keep Dreaming Remember Us |
|
 |
12 Stories Down [a.k.a. 10 Stories Down] (2005, 66.58/60.23/118.53) **½ |
||
| Prey for Me It's You and Me The World I Always Dreamed of Oblivion From Where You're Standing Slip Away Watch the World (Turn Grey) Clapham |
Catch the Jumping Fool Start Your Descent Take Our Hands The Answers [10... loses four tracks and adds: Wretched Soul Light Up Your Eyes part I - I Light Up Your Eyes part II - Who |
Early eds. add 8 Days Later: Sunday - Crash Monday - Sleep Tuesday - Haboob Wednesday - The Snail Song Thursday - Fifty Four Friday - 5 Minutes Saturday - Reverse Sunday - King Street] |
|
 |
Little Man (2006, 56.18) **½ |
|
| Dead in the Water God Bless the Child Wilting Violet Wait Run a Mile Little Man November Boxing Day |
God Bless the Children Snowdrops We Love You |
|
 |
What We Have Sown (2007, 57.31) ***All You Need to KnowWell I Think That's What You Said Take Me With You West Winds Deep Blue World What We Have Sown |
 |
Tightly Unwound (2008, 59.30) **½My Debt to YouShoot First Sinners The Sorry State Tightly Wound My Bleeding Hand Different World And So Say All of You Too Much to Lose |
Current availability:
It seems Pineapple Thief started life as a Vulgar Unicorn side-project, lead by VU man Adrian Soord's brother Bruce; VU are supposed to have used Mellotron on a couple of later albums, although I've only heard their first two and it's quite certainly sampled anyway. It seems that PT's second and third releases, 137 and Variations on a Dream, both contain Mellotron samples, despite the sleeve credits for 'Mellotron'. So, are the credited Rhodes and Prophet 5 samples too? Anyway, both albums remind me strongly of that strand of modern British progressive that seems to emanate from the No-Man/Porcupine Tree axis and, specifically, Henry Fool. Moody, introverted music with more than a hint of Radiohead about it, PT disguise their uneasy listening with deceptively smooth tones, allowing the inherent edginess of their sound to creep up on the listener, unnerving them before they've realised what's happened. Variations on a Dream is probably the better of the two albums, as Soord develops his own style, which isn't to denigrate 137 in any way. I suspect the best track over both albums is Variations' closing 16-minute epic, Remember Us, although there's no such thing as a 'bad' track on either release.
Adrian Soord's 'Mellotron' can be heard on several tracks on each album; surely it can't have been that difficult to source a real one for recording? You get the impression that many of these bands couldn't actually care less; as long as an approximation of the sound's there, it's immaterial how it's produced. Maybe they have a point. However, samples always seem to lose something in translation, and they're just that little bit too... perfect. However much of an arse-pain a real 'Tron can be to maintain, or even play, 'that' sound just doesn't sound right coming from anything else, especially when it's had its rough edges rounded off, not to mention being looped...
What's happened in such a short space of time? Admittedly, the reviews from here on are being written some years on from the two above, but has my taste changed so much in the meantime? Maybe it has. Anyway, 2005's 12 Stories Down (apparently a 'pre-release version), quickly reissued with a revised tracklisting as 10 Stories Down, is a dreary dirge of an album, the band's previous ability to captivate with their mournful Radioheadisms converted into an ability to bore the listener to distraction. Are there any plus points? Energetic opener (on both versions), the punning Prey For Me, while 12...'s Catch The Jumping Fool has its moments, as does 10...'s Light Up Your Eyes Part II, but as for the rest... Poor Mellotron string and choir samples on a couple of tracks, notably on Light Up Your Eyes Part II, but you really don't need to hear them. Early editions of 10... add a whole extra album, 8 Days Later (8 Days was an earlier bonus release), which might actually be better than its parent album. A couple of notable fakeotron tracks, with choirs and strings on Monday - Sleep and strings on Thursday - Fifty Four.
Little Man isn't any better, frankly, with next to no samplotron, merely some choppy strings on God Bless The Children. For some indefinable reason, 2007's What We Have Sown is a bit of an improvement, strangely, as it's effectively an odds'n'sods collection, rather than an album 'proper'. So why is it (marginally) better? Less heart-rending/breast-beating vocalising? Longer tracks (particularly the twenty minute-plus closing title track)? (Stop raising your eyebrows like that; sometimes longer IS better. So to speak). Anyway, an extra half star. Loads of fakeotron this time round, a major string part opening All You Need To Know, with more of the same on other tracks. 2008's Tightly Unwound is, well, it's another Pineapple Thief album, frankly. If you don't know what they sound like by now, you probably aren't going to bother. Some fakeotron work on a few tracks, but only the most cloth-eared would mistake it for the real thing.
So; although I can cautiously recommended 137 and Variations on a Dream, admittedly not for those who can't stand anything that isn't 'uplifting', I can't say the same for the other titles here. Is there such a thing as 'downlifting'? File alongside Henry Fool and Radiohead.
 |
After the Battle (2002, 61.25) **½ |
|
| The Battle After the Battle See the Dwarf Sleeping Warriors End of the Line Death and Lost Glory Ghost Town The Hunchback |
Sign of the Knife There Come the Warlords Remember Forever |
|
Current availability:
Plackband's history has already been précised in my review of the original '70s band's lone archive release, 2000's 1981 live recording The Lost Tapes. Twenty years on, that album and 2002's After the Battle bear some comparison, the bulk of the new release being average, uninventive, limp neo-prog, notably closer Remember Forever, the lengthy 'modern prog' title track being about the best thing here. The whole affair could've been much improved by judicious wielding of an editing knife, but at an interminable hour long, it's all a bit dull, frankly.
Obviously sampled Mellotron all round, with a major string part on the title track, along with an overextended choir chord that gives the sample game away, just in case, plus choirs and strings on End Of The Line and a couple of other tracks. I can't in all honesty recommend this album, much as I applaud the band's tenacity. Listen to someone other than Pink Floyd, Camel and (ahem) Marillion please, chaps.
See: Plackband
 |
Peacock Swagger (2009, 52.36) ***½ |
|
| You Sentimental Fucks/Life on Other Planets Cock Rock 101 Champion Tragic Boy Fishwife Cancer What Do You Know About Rock & Roll? Shame |
New Town, Different Day San Francisco You're Not Free My Three Friends Rainy Season |
|
Current availability:
As I've said in my review of Plasticsoul's genuine Chamberlin-heavy debut, 2005's Pictures From the Long Ago, they sit somewhere inbetween Americana and powerpop, the two genres being more closely related than you might think. The band have followed up with 2009's Peacock Swagger, a slightly more laid-back, countryish effort, highlights including opener You Sentimental Fucks/Life On Other Planets and the acoustic What Do You Know About Rock & Roll?
Band mainman Steven Wilson (no...) has admitted to me that all the 'Chamberlin' here is sampled; the band clearly fell in love with the sound while recording their debut and couldn't bear to let it go, just because of a lack of access to a real one again. Anyway, we get that peculiarly raucous string sound on half of the tracks here, plus that oh-so-distinctive solo male voice on Cancer, occasional flute use and a whole strings phrase on My Three Friends sounding not dissimilar to the MkII Mellotron 'moving strings'. Despite the differences between their two releases, anyone into the band's debut will find things to like here, while of the two, Americana fans will probably prefer this.
See: Plasticsoul
 |
Make Believe (2006, 38.06) **½ |
|
| Will You Be Around Lonely Eyes Happiness Make Believe Picture Perfect If You Believe in Love Love Can Kill the Blues I Pray |
Piccadilly Lane Goodbye My Love |
|
Current availability:
Platinum Weird were a long-lost early '70s outfit, helmed by a young Dave Stewart (Eurythmics, not Egg/Hatfields) and legendary vocalist Erin Grace, who recorded an album's-worth of material... OK, they're not. In the grand tradition of The Rutles, The Dukes of Stratosphear, Spïnal Tap and others, they're an elaborate fake, although Stewart went all-out to create a backstory for the band, including fake websites, one amusingly claiming to've existed since 1987 (yeah, like CDs signed by Hendrix). They're supposed to've influenced Fleetwood Mac just before their Americanisation and indeed, 2006's Make Believe sounds a lot like a less catchy version of the Rumours-era band. So; who is Erin Grace? Kara DioGuardi, as it happens, a performer/writer/general industry mover'n'shaker who was attempting to write material for The Pussycat Dolls with Stewart when they diverged into this project.
But is it any good? I hear you ask (possibly). Er, faux-mid-'70s soft rock? Whadd'ya reckon? It's sort-of amusing for its accuracy and commitment to 'getting it right', but only once. Actually, it's so easy to forget you're listening to a fake that it quickly just becomes dull, full of slushy ballads and spot-on half-arsed attempts at 'rock', like If You Believe In Love or closer Goodbye My Love. Someone called Noel Chambers is credited with Mellotron, but the veracity of both is a bit suspect, frankly. Given that he's working with Stewart, Chambers seems to have no online presence whatsoever, while the 'Mellotron' is not only too smooth (M-Tron! M-Tron!), but Love Can Kill The Blues features a string chord holding rather over the maximum eight seconds. Hardly surprising, given that a) Stewart's never been known to use one before (please correct me if I'm wrong) and b) the whole thing's a fake, anyway. The samples crop up on most tracks, with strings across the board and the occasional flute part, although by the time we get to the strings on Goodbye My Love, the fakery is fairly apparent.
So; amused by fake bands per se? You'll love Platinum Weird. Love Rumours-era Mac? You might find this an amusing diversion. I did say 'might'. Everyone else? I rather doubt that you'll get much from this, but you never know. Plenty of fakeotron, but I can't really say it improves the material overmuch.
