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ANTHONY
MOORE - "Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom" / "Secrets
of the Blue Bag"
This
CD emanates from 1971, the year before Moore's band Slapp Happy
was formed and is part of a trilogy conceived in Germany in the
early 1970s.
The mantra 'JamJemJimJomJum' is apparently a musical palindrome
that takes over 20 minutes to complete before landing again at
precisely the same point the three vocalists, Ulf Kenklies, Glyn
Davenport and Gieske Hof-Helmers started at.
(This is pretty hard going as you can hear from the nervous laughter
coming in near the end.)
There are two other equally hypnotic pieces although the second
has some rather jarring scraped string noises (Take those away
and this would be a nice piece but that might be the missing
the point the artist was making)
The one I liked best was 'ABCD Gol'fish' with its 'jangly' eastern
sounding hi-hat ('Zappa' Diermeier) and harpsichord sound. It
reminded me a bit of the sequence at the beginning of The Who's
'Won't Get Fooled Again' (or maybe this music's has 'befuddled
my brain' as Gary Brooker would say!)
'Secrets of the Blue Bag', also from 1971, is apparently concerned
with the 120 different combinations of the first five notes of
the diatonic scale and is a homage to the coding/ decoding engines
of early computer history and also to Raymond Lully the 13th
century inventor of the rotating encryption device. (Blue bag
being a Chinese expression for the universe) That's not as bad
as it sounds as Moore ingenuously 'combines and recombines' with
the help of different instrumentation and voices. It's a pity
no information is given on exactly how this was achieved.
While 'Pieces' could fulfil a role as meditative, even 'New Age'
music, 'Secrets' main appeal may well be to music students rather
than musical listeners. Intriguing!
Thanks to Simon of 'New Horizons' for supplying the names of
the musicians on 'Pieces' (See www.voiceprint.co.uk) Buy online for £13.14
(Blue Print BP327CD, BP328CD) (Phil JACKSON) musician and reviewer,
Paradox
One
SYMPHONY
X - "V (The New Mythology Suite)"
Having
only ever heard Symphony X on a sampler of their career to date
('Behind The Masks'). I described the band back then (AD #23)
as 'standard heavy metal music' invoking Rush and Threshold.
Our own Roland Roque in AD #21 had already reviewed 'Twilight
in Olympus' very positively with comparisons to the likes of
Dream Theater and Rainbow.
I got quite a shock when a friend played me this album on hearing
just how far this band had advanced. Perhaps the strong concept
running through 'V' has brought out the best in these accomplished
musicians. It starts off sounding like an alternative creation
myth on 'Evolution (The Grand Design') and there are references
to the coming and going of Ma'at, Atlantis, Poseidon, Egyptian
pharaohs and a great battle between darkness and light as five
becomes one.
Beginning with an operatic prelude sung in Latin the atmosphere
on 'V' is super charged and never lets up in over an hour of
outstanding music. Lyrics and melodies are very strong and only
rarely on tracks like 'Fallen' do Symphony X take the straight
heavy metal route suggested by the sampler I referred to earlier.
This is no criticism at all of 'Fallen' where the two Michaels,
Romeo and Pinnella exchange synth and guitar licks brilliantly.
The segue 'Transcendence' is an outstanding example of film music
and takes us into 'Communion and the Oracle' with pastoral acoustic
guitar and a solid and inventive rhythm section of Michael Lepond
and Jason Rullo taking us through strings to an epic theme with
vocal harmonies strongly reminiscent of Yes. Michael Romeo's
guitar break is economical and cleverly constructed. Not a minute
of music is wasted on this album, a rare achievement indeed!
Again Romeo and Pinnella trade solos and the orchestral quality
of this work shines through.
A haunting ending and quick key change bring us to highly appropriate
power chords to portray 'The Bird-Serpent War/ Cataclysm'.
A raging sea carries us to a 3minute long segue entitled 'On
The Breath of Poseidon' another lovely orchestral creation with
all that entails with a heavy metal interlude that fits perfectly.
A brief Zeppelin 'Physical Graffiti' era section follows next
and again one is struck by the breathtaking musicianship as 'Egypt'
takes nearly as many twists and turns as the Nile in its 7 minutes.
There's a mesmerising Romeo solo (Returned by Pinnella of course)
with inventive bass playing and inspired drumming- every keyboard
sound and note seems perfect to my ears! Listen to the piano
at the end and weep! Once again the vocals (Russell Allen) and
vocal harmonies (Romeo and Pinnella) are very strong. If the
album had stopped right there I would be out of breath but there
is still half of it to go!
Another awe inspiringly complex passage follows with some marvellous
drumming, a guitar progression right out of the Brian May school,
church organ and scraped and plucked string sounds before the
Latin 'choir' returns.
While Romeo and Pinnella are central to the credits each band
member takes a share of the writing apart from Lepond.
Classical influences continue to mix with progressive metal as
we reach the 12 minute climax 'Rediscovery' (preceded by another
segue)
Wagner, Mozart and Bartok are all names I've seen mentioned with
reference to Symphony X but I couldn't really pin the influences
down!
Whatever they are following in the footsteps of Deep Purple and
staging a collaboration with an orchestra would be quite an event!
It is almost too intense to bear the white heat of this music
at times- it's as if everything good about progressive metal
has been compressed into this recording.
I confidently predict that 'V' will become an all time progressive
metal classic.
Contact: www.insideout.de
Reviewed
by Phil Jackson) musician and reviewer, Paradox One
Buy for £13.63 (Inside Our IOMCD 066)
JPT
SCARE BAND - - Past Is Prologue
If
you like it loud, then this is for you. If you like it heavy,
this is for you. If you like it blue and cheer, then this is
for you. Starting off as the backup band to a female country
rock singer back in 1973, called 'Carol Cruise and the Cruisers,
the band used to jam late nights, creating a crushing power trio
sound that modern day stoners are going crazy for.
However,
back in the day, they spent their time as opening act for Alvin
Lee, Savoy Brown, and REO Speedwagon and a host of others. They
continued to jam and record and those recordings are the basis
for the albums and CDs that their record company is releasing.
Those
amongst you who yearn for the days of Frank Marino and Robin
Trower blazing away are in for a treat. Because this is a remarkable
release considering its origins three decades ago. The vocals
are used sparingly and what you're left with is a series of focussed
jams, spiralling onwards and upwards. Terry Swope, guitar and
vox, Paul Grigsby, bass and vox, and Jeff Littrell on drums must
surely wonder why they remained in the third division all those
years ago while Mountain and Cactus were releasing major label
records.
There
are a lot of jazz influences much like Gov't Mule today. If
you were looking for a couple of key tracks, then go for "Sleeping
Sickness" with its awesome wah-wah guitar solos or "Time
To Cry" with its free jazz inspiration. A contender for
2002s best of list.
http://www.jptscareband.com/
jptsb@jptscareband.com
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