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Vaka Valinors Tree Vampire Weekend Vandaveer |
Vermilion Sands Versus X Vertigo Go Veruca Salt |
Vespero Vibravoid Viima Vintersorg |
Violet Burning Violet Sedan Chair Viva Voce Volt |
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Kappa Delta Phi (2009, 51.43) *** |
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| The Ship Born to Secrecy I of Everything Stigma Omega At the Hands of Loss Glacialis Like an Astronomer Somersaults |
Stalemates For Redemption |
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Vaka are effectively the one-man band of Karl Daniel Lidén, whose variety of extreme metal would be more palatable if he didn't insist on growling his way through it like a wounded bear. There's certainly more invention here than on many similar (and believe me, there are many similar), although it's slightly spoilt by its frequent incursions into silliness. One bonus is plenty of proggish keyboard work, particularly piano, which makes it stand out from the pack a little.
Lidén plays 'Mellotron', although I'm quite certain he's using samples, with strings on several tracks, in a standard 'block chord' kind of way. If you're of an extreme metallic bent, you may well go for this; in fact, you may well do so if you go for the more mainstream stuff, as it's fairly tuneful, almost 'symphonic' in places. Forget it for real Mellotron, though.
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Kingdom of Sadness (1998, 42.12) ***Kingdom of SadnessCold Memories Deep |
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Valinors Tree, going by their debut, Kingdom of Sadness, deal in a sort of metal-influenced prog, maybe like a less talented Anekdoten, while retaining a Scandinavian feel, particularly with regard to the music's darker aspects. I keep finding myself wishing they'd tone down the powerchords a bit, not to mention reinserting the vocalist's laryngeal retaining bolts, but there are plenty of good bits between the overly-Americanised sections.
I've had it confirmed that all the Mellotron on the album is 'first generation' samples, taken from Kenneth Magnusson of The Moor's M400. The samples are all over the album, largely strings, making it a pity it's not real, as their use is pretty good. For their second effort, And Then There is Silence, they borrowed Magnusson's machine and actually recorded it this time, so I'll report back when I get to hear a copy (nb: see review here). You never know, maybe they've got themselves a better singer. And an apostrophe.
See: Valinors Tree
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Vampire Weekend (2008, 34.13) **½ |
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| Mansard Roof Oxford Comma A-Punk Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa M79 Campus Bryn One (Blake's Got a New Face) |
I Stand Corrected Walcott The Kids Don't Stand a Chance |
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Contra (2010, 36.38) ** |
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| Horchata White Sky Holiday California English Taxi Cab Run Cousins Giving Up the Gun |
Diplomat's Son I Think UR a Contra |
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Vampire Weekend's vaguely Afro-New York-indie (they call it 'Upper West Side Soweto') is inexplicably popular, their eponymous 2008 debut selling several hundred thousand copies in its first few months of release. Vampire Weekend sounds like The Bhundu Boys trying to be The Strokes which, amazingly, is even less appealing than it sounds. Best tracks? Walcott has a chorus that doesn't immediately irritate, A-Punk is at least vaguely distinctive, and the mad, frenetic string arrangement on M79 could almost be described as original, all of which are damning with faint praise, I would say. Keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij plays Chamberlin samples, as he's admitted in interviews. Their two obvious moments are really quite similar, moving two-note flute intervals on Mansard Roof and A-Punk, although the string chords on I Stand Corrected sound real.
They followed up in 2010 with Contra, every bit as bad as its predecessor; there's something particularly bogus about hearing upper middle-class white boys pretending to be African. 'Cultural appropriation', I think it's called. The title appears to be some kind of convoluted reference to The Clash's Sandinista, the Contras being the Sandinista's particularly unpleasant right-wing opponents, while, although not explicitly stated, I suspect Diplomat's Son is a reference to Joe Strummer, who was never quite as working-class as he'd have liked. Or indeed, at all. More Clash referencing on I Think UR A Contra, which namechecks their finest moment (go on, argue with me), the Complete Control single, while Holiday starts with a quote from Fairport Convention's version of traditional death ballad Matty Groves, for some reason. The Chamby samples turn up again, notably in the form of the harmony trumpet part on Run and the strings on Diplomat's Son and I Think UR A Contra, for what it's worth.
Anyway, despite a couple of brief fake-o-Chamby moments, these are pretty grim. Avoid.
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Divide & Conquer (2009, 42.12) **½ |
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| Fistful of Swoon Woolgathering Resurrection Mary A Mighty Leviathan of Old Divide & Conquer Turpentine Long Lost Cause Before the Great War |
The Sound & the Fury Beverly Cleary's 115th Dream |
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Dig Down Deep (2011, 39.47) **½ |
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| Dig Down Deep Concerning Past Future Conquest Beat, Beat, My Heart The Great Gray As a Matter of Fact The Nature of Our Kind Spite Pick Up the Pace |
AOK The Waking Hour |
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I've seen Mark Charles Heidinger's Vandaveer project described as 'alt.folk', but his fourth album, 2009's Divide & Conquer, sounds more like a soft rock/indie crossover to my jaded ears. Admittedly, there is something of a folk influence on the record, but only really in its acoustic whimsy, as against anything particularly 'trad'. Better tracks include Resurrection Mary and Long Lost Cause, but I'm having a lot of trouble summoning up any real enthusiasm for this at all, I'm afraid. What's more, I very strongly suspect Justin Craig's 'Mellotron', which presumably provides the warbling flutes on Resurrection Mary, isn't.
2011's Dig Down Deep isn't any better, frankly, insipid material like the countryish The Great Gray and Pick Up The Pace doing the album no favours. Best track? Probably Concerning Past Future Conquest, but only because it's less boring than the rest of the album. Craig on non-'Tron again, the background flutes on Pick Up The Pace sounding little like a real machine.
Vandaveer is/are for people who think they like 'folk music', but unbeknownst to them, are confusing it with 'slightly wet singer-songwriter'.
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Water Blue (1989, 46.26/73.23) *** |
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| My Lagan Love Ashes of the Time In Your Mind Coral D - The Cloud Sculptors Kitamoto Living in the Shiny Days The Poet |
[Musea CD adds: The Love in the Cage In the Night of Ancient Tombs The Love in the Cage (live) In Your Mind (live)] |
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Vermilion Sands (from the Ballard novel) were one of many one-off Japanese progressive bands of the late '80s, whose sole release, 1989's Water Blue, is a perfectly pleasant, yet rather unengaging album, combining an on/off neo-prog feel with a huge helping of Renaissance, Yoko Royama's vocals bearing strong comparison with those of Annie Haslam. Nothing especially stands out, although the synth/wordless vocal/flute version of the 'trad.arr' My Lagan Love that opens the record bears replaying.
There's nothing even remotely Mellotronic on the original album, but the Musea reissue's first bonus track, The Love In The Cage, despite the generic strings throughout most of its length, has a distinctly Mellotronish string part near the end. The track was originally recorded for Musea's 1993 various artists effort 7 Days of a Life, although I believe the track was recorded in '89. Is it real? I suspect not; like Social Tension, I think we're looking at early sample use here and while I'm fully prepared to be proven wrong, they're also audible on the live version of the same track, which pretty much proves it. Anyway, pleasant enough, but the Japanese scene threw up many more interesting albums than this.
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Disturbance (1996, 57.37) ***Curtain CallIn Silent Age The Mirror of Division |
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The Turbulent Zone (2000, 57.31) ***½Cutting the VeilChanging Conditions Laying Bare the Nerves On Fertile Ground The Gentle Coat of Night In Distant Niches Between the Phases of the Night Strange Attractor The Hostile Sea |
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Live at the Spirit (2002, 64.40) ***Curtain CallStrange Attractor To Go Free The Mirror of Division |
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Primordial Ocean (2008, 73.02) ***The Pulse of EarthFrom a Distance Essentially Human Fingerprints Into the Vast Unknown |
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Versus X are a German prog outfit who I've seen lumped in with the prog metal crowd, although they're actually far more diverse than that. The influence is there, mainly in Arne Schäfer's guitar sound and his propensity for powerchords, while the music is less adventurous than it could've been and certainly less than the band believe it to be, but it still knocks the socks off the average Euro-prog metal crew. 1996's Disturbance is a decent enough effort, although the neo-prog influence that creeps in here and there isn't so welcome. Three lengthy tracks make for some fans' idea of prog heaven, no doubt, although they rather exceed their talent boundary on occasion, while MiniMoog tuning might have made the end of The Mirror Of Division more listenable. Very little samplotron, the only obvious use being the strings and choirs on The Mirror Of Division, other similar parts sounding more like generic samples.
Their next album, 2000's The Turbulent Zone, isn't dissimilar to its predecessor; the only track that doesn't way exceed the ten-minute mark is Between The Phases Of The Night, with Cutting The Veil topping twenty, giving the band plenty of room to stretch out compositionally, although I maintain that a few more key changes and 'interesting' chords would liven proceedings up a little. There's a fair bit of 'Mellotron' to be heard, particularly on The Hostile Sea, but the eight-second limit is exceeded on a regular basis and a perusal of the band's site reveals that keyboard man Ekkehard Nahm owns a Vintage Synth module, along with various other digital facsimiles and, to be fair, a MiniMoog and a set of Taurus pedals. No criticism intended, incidentally; not everyone can own a raft of bulky vintage gear and Nahm at least owns a couple of items, although it's nice when bands make the effort for recording. However, I know from experience how other band members can be less than wholly enthusiastic about the expense and hassle of 'going authentic'...
2002's Live at the Spirit captures their set at the legendary Spirit of 66 in Verviers, Belgium, giving us three familiar pieces and one otherwise-unreleased, To Go Free, essentially in the same vein as the rest of their material at the time. Would you like to hear these pieces played live? Buy this album. A little samplotron, with choirs and strings on Strange Attractor and more (overloud) strings on The Mirror Of Division, but that's your lot. After a lengthy gap, 2008's Primordial Ocean mostly sticks to the familiar Versus X 'a handful of very long tracks' formula, the one dissenter being From A Distance, a brief piano solo. Unfortunately, the band's neo- tendencies have also survived the hiatus, ridiculous, wordy lyrics and all, putting this essentially in the same basket as their earlier work. 'Mellotronically' speaking, the album opens with some pretty awful string samples, with more strings and choir throughout.
The Turbulent Zone is probably Versus X's best album, but I'd have difficulty really recommending any of their work to anyone not already a fan of that neo-/metal-influenced prog that first appeared in the '90s.
See: Apogee
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Vertigo Go (1999, 38.03) ** |
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| Caminando por la Cuerda Floja La Guerra de los Sexos Tumbalah! Ese Oscuro Objeto del Deseo Todo el Dano Que Has Hecho Manana Dame un Beso Tiempo Perdido |
A Sangre y Fuego Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus |
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Spaniards Rafa Legisima and Diana García-Pelayo met in (although presumably not actually on) Miami Beach in 1997, formed Vertigo Go, were signed the following year and released their eponymous debut in '99. Unsurprisingly, it's a thoroughly mainstream Latin pop effort, full of cheesy choruses, appalling, outdated slap bass and lightweight everything, although to slate it for being exactly what it is seems pointless, although that's never stopped me before. Why, though, did they cover Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin's legendary Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus? The word 'hubris' springs to mind.
Second track in, La Guerra De Los Sexos, opens with Javier Losada taking a stab at the iconic Strawberry Fields Mellotron flute part, for some unknown reason, plus strings later in the track, rather giving the game away on the sample front while he's at it. So; Vertigo Go is a perfectly respectable Latin pop album, all assuming you give the genre any credence whatsoever, which I don't, not helped by fairly obvious fakeotron.
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Eight Arms to Hold You (1997, 51.10) *** |
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| Straight Volcano Girls Don't Make Me Prove it Awesome One Last Time With David Bowie Benjamin Shutterbug |
The Morning Sad Sound of the Bell Loneliness is Worse Stoneface Venus Man Trap Earthcrosser |
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IV (2006, 56.51) **½ |
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| So Weird Centipede Innocent Circular Trend Perfect Love Closer Sick as Your Secrets Wake Up Dead |
Damage Done Blissful Queen Sun Comes and Goes Save You Salt Flat Epic |
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Chicagoans Veruca Salt (named for Roald Dahl's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory character, of course) formed in the early '90s, 1997's Eight Arms to Hold You (apparently The Beatles' original title for Help!) being their second full album, a year after the superbly titled Blow it Out Your Ass it's Veruca Salt EP. It's a pretty typical 'alt.rock' effort of the period, the writing split roughly 50/50 between the band's two founders and frontwomen, Louise Post and Nina Gordon. Best tracks? You're asking the wrong man; I don't get this stuff, although it seems to do what it does perfectly well. An interview with producer Bob Rock quotes him saying something about 'bringing the Mellotron out' during recording, but a band interview puts the record straight: it seems Rock owns (or owned) two machines, but they were in such a woeful state that they sampled them and used the end results, which is at least better than using generic, off-the-shelf samples. The samples are hardly used, anyway, with only a faint string part on The Morning Sad, distant choirs on Sound Of The Bell and more upfront strings on closer Earthcrosser.
2006's IV appeared after a six-year gap, long after Gordon's departure, although, musically, it seems to be business as usual. Unfortunately, what (apparently) seemed fresh and exciting in the '90s now sounds tired and dated, the band's 'punk' credibility worn thin by repetition. Stephen Fitzpatrick is credited with 'Mellotron', although I've no idea where, as the cellos are real and there's nothing else audible. So; you probably already know whether or not you like Veruca Salt, but in case you haven't previously encountered them, expect plenty of energy, little finesse and no actual Mellotron.
See: Nina Gordon
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By the Waters of Tomorrow (2010, 63.09) ***½DaphnePercious Amaryllis Gao Zült Tall Tree Punto Fijo Pavane Lacryne Seagulls Sing (When it Rains) Aurora Borealis |
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From Astrakhan in Southern Russia, Vespero play a psych/prog/space rock mash-up with the occasional Middle-Eastern influence, managing to sound like no one other outfit in the process. 2010's By the Waters of Tomorrow is their third official album, a little overlong, although material of this kind should probably be left to develop at its own pace, which is precisely what the band have done. These guys know how to jam without slipping over the boredom threshold, which is more than I can say for an awful lot of artists working in this area. Valentin Rulev's violin on three tracks adds considerably to the album's air of slight exotica, although you wouldn't really call the album ground-breaking in any meaningful way.
Alexei Klabukov is credited with Mellotron, but since, to my knowledge, there are precisely zero machines in Mother Russia, it comes as no surprise to hear obvious samples all over the album, to wit, strings on most tracks plus brass on Punto Fijo. Overall, then, a fine modern psych effort, different enough to catch the ear of the connoisseur, while 'mainstream' enough not to offend the genre's core audience. Worth hearing.
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The Politics of Ecstasy (2008, 42.14) ***½The Politics of EcstasyDoris Delay Incense and Peppermints Playing With Beuys Oscillations Audio Revolution Vol 1 Your Mind is at Ease |
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Distortions (2009, 43.16/53.54) ***½Christmas on EarthRandom Generated Future Eye Shaking King Save My Soul Mother Sky Save My Soul (reprise) [CD adds: Mother Cubehead's Daily Black Out] |
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Minddrugs (2011, 54.10) **½SeefeelWhat You Want Do it Allright You Keep on Falling Lost Intensity Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun |
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German psychonauts Vibravoid have been around for about a decade, releasing albums every couple of years or so, plus several vinyl-only singles, as you might expect. 2008's The Politics of Ecstasy is their third full-lengther, ignoring EPs and a side-each vinyl collaboration with Sula Bassana and lays out their stall with aplomb. Backwards recordings? Sitars? Drones? All present and correct and why not? They cover the Strawberry Alarm Clock's legendary Incense And Peppermints, they insert a 22-minute drone-fest, Your Mind Is At Ease, they unashamedly play psychedelia in the grand tradition. And the problem is? Christian Koch plays a sampled Mellotron flute solo on Doris Delay, although that would appear to be your lot.
The following year's Distortions is a rather different album, living up to its title by starting off with three raw, garage rock tracks, notably raucous opener Christmas On Earth, although they revert to type on the dreamy Save My Soul and the nineteen-minute Mother Sky, not dissimilar to The Politics of Ecstasy's epic Your Mind Is At Ease. Much more 'Mellotron' this time round, credited to 'Vibravoid': all members? Anyway, we get string, flute and choir parts on Save My Soul (hey guys, they didn't introduce the choirs until 1972...), a lengthy flute solo on Mother Sky and major string, flute and choir parts on Save My Soul (Reprise).
Unfortunately, the title of 2011's Minddrugs is all too apt; this is the point at which Vibravoid appear to have jumped the shark. OK, I'd be lying if I said it was all bad; Seefeel is decent enough druggy garage punk and the twelve-minute What You Want jams along pleasantly enough, but too much of this album disappears up its own fundament for its, or anyone else's good. Its centrepiece is the twenty two-minute version of the just post-Syd Floyd's Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, possibly the best thing here, despite its relatively extreme length; maybe they should've done what the Floyd are rumoured to have wanted to do with Echoes, record a forty-odd minute version and make it the entire album? As far as the 'Mellotron' goes, the vague flute sounds on Set The Controls... don't even sound like one.
Psych fan? Haven't previously encountered Vibravoid? Looking for something new? Look no further. Politics... and Distortions are well worth hearing, the latter far more relevant on the samplotron front, but I'm not sure I'd bother with Minddrugs.
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Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta (2006, 42.26) ***Leijonan syksyAjatuksia maailman laidalta Ilmalaiva Italia Meri Luuttomat Johdatus |
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Viima are a Finnish outfit who released a track on a compilation as Lost Spectacles before deciding on a name-change, self-releasing their debut album, Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta, in 2006. Best described as female-fronted folky progressive, it's a perfectly pleasant effort, if slightly unengaging, the acoustic sections a good deal more interesting than the electric ones, particularly the rather faceless guitar solos. Keyboard player Kimmo Lähteenmäki adds various samplotron parts, to reasonable effect, although too often they're used as 'padding', filling out gaps that didn't need filling.
Viima followed up with the superior Kahden Kuun Sirpit (reviewed here) in 2009, real Mellotron present and correct. Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta is rather less interesting, but by no means a failure.
See: Viima
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Solens Rötter (2007, 52.51) **½ |
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| Döpt i en Jökelsjö Perfektionisten Spirar Och Gror Kosmosaik Idétemplet Naturens Mystär Att Bygga en Ruin Strålar |
Från Materia Til Ande Vad Aftonvindens Andning Viskar |
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Along with Waterclime, Vintersorg are one of several projects run by Andreas "Vintersorg" Hedlund, this one landing somewhere between folk and metal, often combining folk melodies with metal instrumentation and drastically different styles of singing, from the accepted 'folk style' through massed chants to death grunts. Does it work? In places, but the culture clash is often too extreme to really gel, although the album's quieter moments work well enough on their own level.
'Mr. V' (Hedlund) plays 'Mellotron' on several tracks, with varying combinations of string and choir parts, all fairly obviously faked. Do you bother with this? Folk metal now seems to be a major sub-genre in its own right, although when Sabbat's Martin Walkyier formed Skyclad at the dawn of the '90s he was seen as either a pioneer or a nutter, which shows how things can change, I suppose. In other words, buy according to taste.
See: Waterclime
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Drop-Dead (2006, 52.12) ** |
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| Humm All I Want Do You Love Me? Already Gone More Swan Sea Eleanor Rewind |
Blown Away Trans The Ends Begin One Thousand Years |
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Violet Burning have been around for two decades, although I can't say I've ever encountered them before. Imagine a vaguely Christian band who sound like U2. Er, U2? OK, another one. That'll be Violet Burning, then. 2006's Drop-Dead is their ninth album, an irritatingly bland and sub-U2-ish mess of sort-of alt.rock that goes absolutely nowhere. Is that an adequate description?
Michael Pritzl supposedly plays Mellotron, with uncredited strings on More plus credited ones on Swan Sea, the latter of which give the sample game away badly. Do you really need me to reiterate how I feel about this album? Thought not.
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Seven Suns (2010, 35.42) ***½ |
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| Seven Suns (Rising) Slow Vibration Hovercraft Mother She's Doing Fine Long List of Lovers Keep Climbing 500 Years Last Man in Space |
Seven Suns (Setting) Re Fa Mi Si Sol La |
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This record has got to be one of the oddest entries on this site (against some competition, I have to say). The story goes something like this: rather battered vinyl copies, featuring a copyright date of 1971, started appearing in second-hand shops in the States in late 2010, bemusing psych/prog experts, who'd never heard of it. Violet Sedan Chair? Seven Suns? What? The truth slowly crept out. JJ Abrams, creator of cult TV show Fringe, had name-checked the album, after which copies started turning up. Yup, it's bogus, apparently containing clues to mysteries from the show in the lyrics. Or not.
Like other faux-historical artefacts (notably XTC's alter-egos The Dukes of Stratosphear), Seven Suns gets close musically, but is let down by a too-modern production and the (accidental?) inclusion of elements of more current styles (shoegaze etc.). However, it's fun trying to spot the influences, which tend, in this tiny sub-sub-sub-genre, to change from track to track. Here, we get (and these opinions are partly copied from online references, before anyone complains) The Who, The Byrds (on Keep Climbing), various lesser-known US psych merchants and lashings of early Floyd. And is the title a sneaky reference to that nonsense in the Book of Revelations? The lyrics are fully (and fairly accurately) reprehensible: "She needs rhythm, but she don't need rhyme" (She's Doing Fine). Ouch!
Mellotron: real? I think not, so it gets quarantined unless I hear otherwise (highly unlikely, given the genesis of the whole project). The unknown player (real or fake name) adds background strings to opener Seven Suns (Rising), although I suspect the flutey sound that crops up in a couple of places is a Farfisa patch rather than Mellotronic. Anyway, this is turning up on download blogs now; it's the only way the vast majority of us are going to get to hear it. Amusing and actually not at all bad. Oh, and thanks to Ken Leonard for pointing me at this one.
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Lovers, Lead the Way! (2003, 65.14) ** |
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| Fashionably Lonely One in Every Crowd Red D-Lish Wrecking Ball That's Right,... Watch Out! Birds on the Wing N(Heart)W/U Brightest Part of Everyone |
Yr Epic Heart Best Thing Ever (Maybe Not) The Tiger & How We Tamed it Perpetual No (Wrecked Reprise) Salsalito Someplace Worth Being Let's Bend Light |
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The Heat Can Melt Your Brain (2004, 38.04/67.39) ** |
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| Alive With Pleasure Lesson No. 1 Business Casual The Lucky Ones High Highs Daylight The Center of the Universe Free Nude Celebs |
Mixtapes = Love They Never Really Wake Up [Reissue adds: Paper Doll (demo) Wrecking Ball (Tunng remix) Lesson No. 1 (demo) Red D-Lish (radio) Fashionably Lonely (radio) |
Wrecking Ball (radio) Doo Wap Death Trap (demo) Tonight You Belong to Me (live)] |
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Viva Voce ('by word of mouth') are the Portland, Oregon-based duo of Kevin and Anita Robinson, who released their second album, Lovers, Lead the Way!, in 2003, five years after their debut. It's essentially a typical indie release, turgid in the extreme for over an hour. I know they probably had five years'-worth of material, but is it fair to subject us to it all in one go? Loads of obvious samplotron, with strings, flutes and choirs on at least half the tracks, not that it improves matters any.
The basic version of the following year's The Heat Can Melt Your Brain is at least a sensible length, although the duo clearly couldn't resist almost doubling its length for the reissue a few years later. Musically it's the same old guff, their limited ideas strictly rationed: one per song, like it or not. Actually, several of these efforts seem to've missed the 'ideas' stage completely. Why is so much indie stuff so bloody awful? Are they really that talentless? Or is it deliberate? 'Playing down to the audience's expectations'? Bloody rubbish. Less samplotron this time round, like it matters.
Can I put you off Viva Voce any more? Do I need to? Terrible indie-by-numbers, with not a single original thought, wispy vocals, rhythmless guitar, all-round gutless nonsense. Apart from that, they're fine.
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Through the Rings (2005, 73.08) ***½Journey to the RimDark Entrance Through the Rings Soaring Beneath the Surface |
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Volt (or VoLt) are the British EM duo of Michael Shipway and Steve Smith, whose third (?) album, 2005's Through the Rings, slots solidly into the 'synths and sequencers' bracket, doing everything you expect of an EM release, while failing to actually say anything new, until final track Soaring Beneath The Surface, which surprises with its creative use of white noise. But what's with the track titles? I think we have to assume that, contrary to appearances, the duo have an undercurrent of very British humour, given that one of their earlier albums is titled Far Canal (a title originally used back in 1970 by Jody Grind). Far canal? Farkan' 'ell? Oh, forget it. Anyway, Journey To The Rim, Dark Entrance and Through The Rings all have a sniggeringly schoolboyish feel to them, although, of course, I could be wildly wrong in every case. But I doubt it.
The duo eschew their Mellotron samples on opener Journey To The Rim, although those are clearly sampled strings on Dark Entrance, choirs, flutes and strings on Through The Rings and choirs on Soaring Beneath The Surface. Given the genre's general lack of variety, I can tell you that Through the Rings is a solid EM release, but (at least to my ears) you won't be buying it to hear anything very new.
