Vangelis & The New American Orchestra "Blade Runner" 1982**** vs. Vangelis "Blade Runner O.S.T." 1994*****

Citizen Kane my ass! Blade Runner is the best movie ever produced in the history of the medium! It renewed film noir and science fiction and stands as an unsurpassed landmark in both genres. And its influence stretches beyond film to other visual arts, design, advertising and literature: the Cyberpunk movement was SF's reaction to the unprecedented mix of high tech and low life, the twin reality of the gleaming Tyrell Corporation towers and crumbling Los Angeles ghettos. And although it didn't stick very close to Philip K. Dick's original story, its version of the future shared the writer's pessimism: No leisurely living thanks to the machines, at least not for everyone: While the rich enjoy the fruits of android slave labor, the bulk of humanity scrapes a living under the domination of huge corporations and police oppression. Murderous as these replicas are, you can't help but sympathize with them in their quest for...meaning? freedom? revenge? I suppose it's different things for each one. The film's music was no less revolutionary in its mix of jazz noir, electronic and symphonic music. Composer Vangelis Papathanasiou (known outside his native Greece just by his first name) was a veteran of the Greek pop scene, starting with his invention of the popular Yanka dance craze in the early 60's. He shot to international fame after his collaboration with Demis Roussos in the prog-pop Aphrodite's Child and had since become a pioneer of proto-electronic music. His music for the film "Chariots Of Fire" had already won him an Oscar and he deserved another one for "Blade Runner", but fell victim to the Academy's contempt for science fiction. Sounds improbable that an iconic film like Blade Runner would go on to win 0 (zero) Academy Awards, but there you have it. Despite the obvious appeal of the film's music, there was no official soundtrack release until 1994 - which is how this album came to being. Entitled Blade Runner - Orchestral Adaptation Of Music Composed For The Motion Picture Soundtrack, it's a recreation of some of Vangelis' original music from the film. For many years it served as O.S.T. for us fans and I must admit that, although I clearly heard that it wasn't exactly the same as the film, I hadn't realized it was a completely different work until recently. Which doesn't render it useless at all. It still displays that revolutionary mix of jazz and electronic music and it still conjures up scenes from the movie - which is a secondary but important function of film soundtracks. The opening "Love Theme" is an orchestral piece with late-night sax, romantic but thankfully not as corny as would be expected by its title. "Main Title" is another mellow tune featuring an orchestra, synthesizers and subtle acoustic elements like small bells. The next song entitled "One More Kiss, Dear" is the album's only vocal track and sounds like a 30's jazz tune, only it's not an original one. It was composed by Vangelis for the film but you wouldn't be able to tell the difference just by listening to it. "Memories Of Green" is an older Vangelis piece included in his See You Later album, a delicate piano tune with an orchestral backdrop. "End Title" and "End Title (Reprise)" are big electronic synthesizer music. Pretty much of their time, yet classic all the same. "Blade Runner Blues" is a melancholic jazz piece with a lonely sax playing over atmospheric synths and "Farewell" is another mellow orchestral/electronic mix, with a slightly oriental flavor. It may not be the best track in the album, but it always moves me because it reminds me of android Roy Batty's unforgettable farewell speech in the film: "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die"

***** for Memories Of Green, End Title

**** for Love Theme, Main Title, One More Kiss Dear, Blade Runner Blues, End Title (Reprise)

*** for Farewell

I wrote the above review in 2015. At the time I only had the CD of the NAO version of Vangelis' music for the film. Later, I bought the vinyl reissue of the real 1994 O.S.T. This was originally released in CD only, finally becoming widely available on vinyl in 2015, while there's one more version (the final word?) released as a triple CD under the title Blade Runner Trilogy.

For now, though, we'll focus on the 1994 O.S.T. and its differences with the NAO CD I presented here more than a decade ago. Obviously these are two very different records, the NAO one being a more orchestral work, and the original score a more electronic/synthesizer-based one. Opener "Main Titles" starts with a minute-long intro including spoken word followed by Vangelis' imposing synths, exactly what the opening sequence of the movie demanded with its futuristic cityscape, flames, and first glimpse of the Tyrell Corporation pyramid. Thaks to the absense of electronic instruments, the song "One More Kiss Dear" is the closest match between the two albums, although the OST vocal probably gives off a more vintage feel. "Memories of Green" (originally from 1980's See You Later LP) is a fragile piano-based piece, without the classical dimension of the orchestral version. The romantic "Love Theme" sounds superior here, with the sax providing the necessary smoky noir element to complement the atmospheric synths. "Blade Runner Blues" on the other hand is more ambient, and less jazzy, than the NAO version, and "End Title" (which was previously split in two) is presented in its whole, a majestic classic of early electronica. The NAO LP contained 7 tracks, of which only "Farewell" does not appear here. But, even though there's still a lot of the actual film music missing, we do get 6 tracks absent from the NAO version: "Blush Response" (complete with dialogue from the film) takes us back the first meeting between Deckard and Rachel, "Rachel's Song" features some gorgeous female vocalizing, and "Damask Rose" some cello-like synth emulating what sounds to me like a traditional Greek mountain village melody. "Wait For Me" is another atmospheric electronic piece incorporating film dialogue while "Tales Of The Future" contains a distorted vocal reminiscent of traditional Asian music. Closer "Tears In Rain" features some of the film's best dialogue with a suitably emotive instrumental backing. All in all, although the NAO version still sounds quite good, being orchestral it's curiously more like conventional film music than the actual OST. Vangelis' original music is way more interesting, with its futuristic synths, smoky jazz feel, and dialogue excerpts conveying the right atmosphere for this seminal sci-fi noir cinematic masterpiece. Most of the music could work well as a standalone piece of electronica, but combined with the stunning cinematography of Blade Runner, it makes for one of the greatest soundtracks of all time - in my opinion even better than Vangelis' Oscar-winning Chariots Of Fire.

Unbeatable, really.

***** for Love Theme, Blade Runner Blues, Memories Of Green, Blade Runner (End Titles), Tears In Rain

**** for Main Titles, Blush Response, Wait For Me, Rachel's Song, One More Kiss Dear

*** for Tales Of The Future, Damask Rose

Beyond The Wizards Sleeve "Spring" 2006***

I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not into electronic music, like, at all. I mean it occupies a very small corner in my wall-to-wall CD shelves. Just a few very mainstream stuff: Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk etc. So what is a 12'' "dance" vinyl by a couple of underground UK DJ's doing in my collection? I stumbled on it by accident at my neighborhood record store's bargain bin, and was drawn by the cover artwork. So I took it to the shop's listening station and liked what I heard. First of all, a few words about the artist: As it turns out, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve consists of two famous London DJ's. One of them (Richard Norris) used to work for Bam-Caruso in the 80s; I have some fabulous 60's popsike compilations by that label, and can only imagine how much psychedelic music flowed into their offices for them to be able to compile those LPs. So it's not surprising that Norris himself likens it to "going to psychedelic university". Since he came in contact with these psychedelic 60's rarities, his self-confessed obsession became to combine them with modern dance music, something that drove him to get involved in the acid house scene of the late 80's. Finding a kindred spirit in DJ/producer/remixer Erol Alkan, they starting organizing DJ sets together and re-editing some of their psychedelic faves for the dancefloor. Spring marks one of their earlier releases, showcasing their ability to bring new life to psych pop classics by re-editing them, adding beats, and inserting samples both of older works and of newly constructed music by the duo. Two of the pieces they choose to cover are fairly well-known: The Rolling Stones' "2000 Light Years from Home" (1967) and Neu!'s - "Hallogallo" (1972). From the fact that the sale of this release on discogs isn't permitted, I would guess that the guys haven't exactly obtained permission for their use of these samples. "Light Years" (as it's called here) sounds trippy in this incarnation, but then again so does the original. Seeing as it's such an overly familiar tune, I may have like to hear it more transformed. I prefer what they did with The Neu! song (here under the name "I Swim Around"): it's chugging along in its familiar motorik rhythm but it's far more spacy. According to the whosampled website, it also contains a sample of "The Other Side" by Tiny Tim (1968). Opener "Don't Cry Girl" is really Illés' "A Bolond Lány" (1967), an upbeat rocker from Hungary with a funky beat that lends itself well to a dance-floor friendly re-imagination. Ditto with "Words", originally a glam pop single called "It's Only Words" (1973) by completely unknown (to me, that is) band Rescue Co. No. 1. "The Fifth Note" meshes garage rocker "Black Butter, Present" by Strawberry Alarm Clock with spoken word "The  Blue Sari" by Chiitra Neogy (both 1968), while closer "The Perfumed Garden" only utilizes the spoken word intro on "Romany Soup"  by Tyrannosaurus Rex (1969) backed by a music carpet of spacey/psychedelic sound effects. This mix of classic psychedelia with dance music seems to have created an exciting sub-genre: Another band in the same vein would be The Amorphous Androgynous (also known as the psychedelic side project of techno duo The Future Sound Of London). Their Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble compilations are also highly recommnded.

**** for Words, I Swim Around

*** for Don't Cry Girl, The Fifth Note, Light Years 

** for The Perfumed Garden

These Trails "These Trails" 1973*****

This is another album I hadn't heard in many years. When I took this out for a spin, I thought "I remember this, it's a good one - native American acid folk". Close enough: it's really Hawaiian, but there really is a crucial native element here, as the music and lyrics are steeped in that island country's tradition and inspired by its tropical landscape. Maybe the font used on the cover played tricks with my memory, as it reminded me of old Western movies. The songs are mainly the work of a local couple: singer/guitarist Patrick Cockett was a native Hawaiian and student of traditional music, while singer-songwriter Margaret Morgan was a Hawaiian-born white girl from an old and distinguished family of sugar plantation owners. She was away studying in California, but they met at Hanalei beach in Kauai island during her college break, bonding over music, and ended up living together in a rural Hawaiian setting for a while. Her vocals are one of the most defining elements of the album: fragile and dramatic, reminiscent on occasion of Kate Bush or maybe Joni Mitchell, but with a pronounced vibrato often compared to Donovan. The songs initially only featured Margaret on lead vocals and dulcimer, with Patrick on vocals and acoustic guitar, using both traditional Western strumming and the Hawaiian slack key style. They must have already sounded quite nice in a folky kind of way, but it's when they took the songs to the "big city" (in this case, Honolulu) that magic happened: At Sinergia studios they were introduced to Dave Choy, sound engineer and ARP synthesizer pioneer, whose experiments with electronic music turned out to blend unexpectedly well with the couple's acoustic pastoral sounds. Another important element was Uruguayan composer/guitarist Carlos Pardeiro who joined the band in the studio, as did their friends Eric Kingsbury on guitar and Ron Rosha on the ipu, a percussion instrument made from gourds, commonly used to provide the beat for hula dancing. Last (and, from a musical point of view, probably least) of the contributors mentioned in the liner notes is Boogie Kalama, a surfer friend of the couple. He's credited with "feet" - no he doesn't stomp his feet or anything like that on record, it's just his feet that we see on the front cover photo. Opener "These Trails" is a short acid folk tune strongly reminiscent of Incredible String Band. "Our House In Hanalei" celebrates rural island living, and has a more definite Hawaiian feel, with soft percussion and beautiful harmonies. The use of the melodious pidgin dialect makes it even more charming. "Of Broken Links" is an atmospheric piece with multi-tracked harmonies while "El Rey Pescador" is a Spanish language track written by and sung with Carlos Pardeiro, who also adds some nice sitar textures. South American, Pacific, and Indian influences blend remarkably well here. "Psyche I" is an acoustic guitar instrumental that segues into "Share Your Water". The combination of ethereal female vocals and electronic effects reminds me of a 60s psychedelic band called The United States Of America. If you're not familiar with their work, you should check them out. It's followed by "Hello Lou", a delicate folk duet with string and synth orchestration reminiscent of Robert Kirby's work for Nick Drake. "Rusty’s House" is an unadorned folk tune segueing into the more cosmic and richly orchestrated "Lost in Space" with ARP simulating the sound of ocean waves. "Psyche II" continues from where "Psyche I" left off, adding more synthesizer sounds. "Sowed a Seed" is another experimental track with weird synth sounds and dulcimer, followed by the more conventional folk of "Rapt Attention". "Waipoo", named after the waterfall in Waimea Canyon, is full of naturalistic imagery and lush strings, and closer "Garden Botanum" is a quietly exuberant celebration of flowers and nature, full of arpeggios and synth washes. All in all, this timeless album resembles nothing else I've ever heard: yes, the words and vocals have this twee 60's hippy flower power element, but then the traditional Hawaiian instruments give it an ancient earthy feel, while the experimentation with early electronic music has a retro-futuristic effect akin to witnessing 2001:A Space Odyssey. These Trails is a singular album. Eccentric as hell, yet approachable and utterly enchanting. It's really a time capsule—an intimate snapshot of two musicians (and their circle of friends) channeling their surroundings into music. The record is credited to These Trails, but there was never a band as such; it was a title chosen by Choy because the record had to have a name. There were never any public performances of the music, and no follow-ups. Under pressure from her family, Margaret returned to college never to record music again; she didn't even stay long enough to listen to the final form given to her songs. Patrick has sometimes appeared playing alongside folkies Taj Mahal and Buffy St. Marie. The limited pressing of this LP sold out pretty quickly, for it to gradually became one of those rarely heard legendary collectors' items. Of course original copies are beyond the reach of most of us, but even reissues aren't easy to come by, so if you come across a copy, don't hesitate to grab it.

***** for Of Broken Links, El Rey Pescador, Share Your Water, Hello Lou, Lost in Space, Our House in Hanalei, Waipoo 

**** for These Trails, Sowed a Seed, Rapt Attention, Garden Botanum

 *** for Psyche I, Rusty’s House, Psyche II

Laibach "Opus Dei" 1987 ****

I'm visiting friends and family in Athens, where I am originally from. We were having dinner with friends, when one of them (also called Kostas) said he was going to leave early to go to a concert. I asked who's playing and he replied "Laibach" who I knew to be of his favorite bands. I'm not as big a fan as he is, but I think they're a very original and interesting band, and so I tagged along. The band was supposed to tour behind their classic Opus Dei LP, which I also happen to like a lot. It's become quite a trend for bands to perform a classic album in its entirety, followed by an encore featuring hits from the rest of their discography. I've been to such concerts by U2, The Who, Opeth, Love, etc. Laibach opted for a different approach: after an endlessly repeated drum loop that went on for an hour, they opened with some rather experimental, often discordant, songs, which I didn't recognize. As it turns out, these were early album cuts beloved by the fans, but not very likely to win over new ones. The presentation was nevertheless flawless: Milan Fras was half singing - half reciting slogans mimicking the language used by totalitarian regimes, while the screen presented  black & white film excerpts ranging from propaganda videos to news reel snippets to enigmatic weird stuff. After maybe 45' of this I was impressed but not won over, yet. It was the introduction of the second (female) singer that elevated the concert for me. Not only she added a more melodic semi-operatic element, but from that point on the discordant noise was toned way down and songs took on a more conventional structure while keeping all the typical Laibach traits: marching drums, Wagnerian keyboards, sharp riffs etc. A radical reworking of Dylan's "Ballad Of A Thin Man" gave way to their post punk cover of DAF's "Alle Gegen Alle". After a short intermission they continued with the songs from Opus Dei, followed by two remarkably beautiful ballads and an ironic but highly entertaining sing-along version of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" - at that point they had been playing for more than 2 hours without losing steam, having frontloaded their setlist with the "difficult" stuff at the start, and ending with the crowd pleasers. For the 2nd encore, they treated us to "Strange Fruit"; a menacing Billy Holiday cover that removed the melody and hit you hard with the lyrics while images of a bombed-out city (Berlin? Gaza? Mariupol?) played at the background. All in all, not a performance one is likely to forget any time soon.

I guess I should start with a short introduction: Laibach is an art collective rather than just a rock band. Their music, interviews, performances, and record artwork, form an aesthetic that both simulates and satirizes the art favored by totalitarian regimes, drawing comparisons between pop culture and fascism without ever being explicit about it - indeed they embrace that esthetic with a straight face, leaving the listener to decide whether they're seriously influenced by fascism or mocking it; "We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter" they've declared. The band was formed in Slovenia, then part of communist Yugoslavia, around 1980 - Laibach is the name Germans used for Slovenian capital Ljubljana during its occupation by the Nazis. The use of the German language and Nazi-style artwork must have been a red flag (pun unintended) to the commissars, but somehow they managed to overcome censorship. In the beginning their music was more experimental, but by the release of Opus Dei in 1987 they had hit the right balance, as evidenced by the two covers opening this CD: "Leben Heißt Leben" is a German language cover of pop hit "Live is Life" by Austrian band Opus. It features martial drumming and trumpets, operatic vocals, and heavy metal guitar soloing. The same elements, including the use of German, are employed for "Geburt Einer Nation", their infectious cover of Queen's "One Vision". Those two represent the most commercial/entertaining side of Laibach, but the rest of the album is also quite accessible: the industrial metal "Leben - Tod" reveals Laibach as the prototype for future successes by Rammstein, while "F.I.A.T." is more cinematic/orchestral. This is followed by "Opus Dei", which is basically the second cover of Opus' "Live Is Life". This one is sung in English; compared to the German version this is more epic, less dark and oppressive. "Trans-National" is more experimental and atonal, focusing on drums and electronics. "The Great Seal" is an orchestral piece evoking the more heroic moments of Hollywood soundtracks, culminating in a recitation of Churchill's famous "We shall fight them on the beaches" speech. The CD version of the album adds 4, then still unreleased, tracks written for the stage: Krst pod Triglavom: Baptism was a play about the defeat of pagan Slovenian Slavs in the hands of Christian Germans, and their subsequent forced mass Christianization. These tunes are much more experimental, featuring martial drumming, orchestral parts, and excessive use of samples. I'm not one to complain for free extras, but I have the feeling that these bonus tracks deduct rather than add to one's listening pleasure; they may be interesting, but way too different and less accessible than the vinyl version. Only the last track ("Krst [Baptism]"), which basically mostly consists of slow and super loud drumming, blends well with the rest of the album. Interestingly, the band has just released a re-recorded version of Opus Dei, featuring the current touring band with the dual vocal talents of Milan Fras and Marina Mårtensson. It was on sale during the concert, but I decided against buying it. Much as I liked the new singer, I can't imagine them improving on this. It is a classic, hugely influential, album in the intersection of Goth, Industrial, Classical, and Metal genres, as well as a perfectly accessible introduction to a highly original, albeit "difficult" group. 5* for the LP version, 4* for the CD. 

***** for Leben Heißt Leben, Geburt Einer Nation, Opus Dei

**** for Leben - Tod, F.I.A.T., The Great Seal

*** for Trans-National, How The West Was Won, Herz-Felde, Koža (Skin), Krst (Baptism)

** for Jägerspiel

Prins Obi "New World Boi" 2023***

The first time I got a CD by Prins Obi I didn't know what to expect; I used to be well informed over the Greek alternative rock scene, but since I left the country 15 years ago it's been hard to keep up. My impression at the time was of a band creatively recycling elements from rock's glory days of the 60's and early 70's. Nothing wrong about that; only downside was that they sounded like a studio band, whereas I prefer bands who pay their dues honing their craft in front of live audiences. This time I (thought I) knew what to expect, but I was mistaken: from the first few seconds, it's evident that Prins Obi's gone funky: opener "New World Boi" reminds me of those 70's Stevie Wonder albums where the artist played all instruments including primitive synthesizers. Indeed, New World Boi doesn't feature The Dream Warriors from the previous album; in fact it's a solo project by Prins Obi a.k.a. Georgios Dimakis, a more varied and ambitious one. Second track "The Slumber Machine" is also funky, but more contemporary, featuring rapping and electronic beats. It's followed by the first Greek language track "UFO από Άλλο Πλανήτη" (UFO from another planet): this has a rather 80's disco-style production and an earworm of a chorus. The day after I received this CD, I played it on the car stereo on the way to the beach with my girlfriend and our two nieces. The girls didn't seem to notice the other songs, but sang along to this one, then asked for continuous repeats - it's now our official anthem of Summer 2024! After three quite upbeat songs, we get a melancholic piano ballad called "Sister Can't Help Falling Down". Along with "Yawning Caves of Blue" and "Oh Vera", they constitute a trio of sympathetic Bowie (or is it Suede?)- indebted glam ballads. "Deep Sleep" incoherently incorporates chants, tribal beats and Jamiroquai-like funk, while "Resurrection" seems to take its cue from Tricky, and "Alice (Don't You Call Me Back Home)" from Beck. So many different styles, and it's not over yet: there's still a successful stab at dub reggae ("Ninja Assassin") and spoken word ("Αυτοψυχανάλυση"(auto-psychoanalysis)). The former also offers some sound voting advice: voting for the anarchists, communists, or ecologists is OK, but we should never vote for the scumbags; if only more people heeded your advice, dear prince... 

**** for UFO από Άλλο Πλανήτη, Yawning Caves of Blue

*** for New World Boi, The Slumber Machine, Sister Can't Help Falling Down, Resurrection, Alice (Don't You Call Me Back Home), Ninja Assassin, Oh Vera

** for Deep Sleep, Αυτοψυχανάλυση

Neil Young "Mystery Train" 1982-1988(rec) 2001(comp)***

As a general rule, any Neil Young LP should be a solid purchase. There are at least 50 of them, and they mostly fall in one of two categories: folk rock balladry or guitar-heavy psychedelic rock, the latter usually featuring Crazy Horse as a backing band. He is an expert on both styles, and remarkably consistent - the sole exception being his time on Geffen Records (1982-1987). Indeed during this period his work was so inconsistent and unpredictable that the record company sued him for making "unrepresentative" and "uncharacteristic" albums. Those records get such a bad rep that I too avoided buying any of them: I have all 13 LP's that preceded the Geffen contract, as well as the first 8 that followed. Post-2000 my Neil Young collection gets patchy - like I said, most of them are solid but samey. So Mystery Train marks my first approach to the maligned Geffen period. It's the second attempt to anthologize it, after Lucky Thirteen which contained mostly alternate/live mixes. As expected, it doesn't gel that well as an album; besides Neil's voice, each album of the period has a wildly different character: First off, we have Trans (1982), his electronic/synth album which baffled everyone when released. On most of the tracks he used a vocoder device to scramble his vocals, rendering the words incomprehensible. Ηe later provided an explanation, connecting this creative decision with what was happening in his personal life, raising a quadriplegic child lacking the capacity to speak. That inspired the main theme behind Trans, which is communication, or difficulty thereof, hence the vocal distortion. Only one of these vocoder songs is included here: "Transformer Man" which, despite the alien feel you get by the electronic effects, is a rather sweet ballad. "Little Thing Called Love" and "Like an Inca" are two great guitar rockers; especially the latter which, with its 10-minute duration, sounds like "Like A Hurricane" given a typical 80's production. Recorded in 1983, but shelved by Geffen until 1985, Old Ways is the polar opposite of the futuristic Trans; an album of straight up traditional country, complete with fiddles, mandolines, steel guitars, and cameos by country legends. Half of it is included here: upbeat country "California Sunset", blues-influenced "Old Ways", and sappy ballads "My Boy" and "Once an Angel". Willie Nelson adds more authenticity on the Hank Williams-like "Bound For Glory". Old Ways is a passably good country record, but when Young presented it to the company, they initially told him to stick it where the sun don't shine and give them a rock album. Which is what he did, as a fuck-you: Everybody's Rockin' (1983) is rock alright, just not the 80's kind: it's 50's rockabilly, half of it original songs and the other half covers. It's the only one I was familiar with, as a former girlfriend had it on cassette tape and I had listened to it with her a few times; my opinion then and now is that it's pleasant enough but nothing special. The covers are better than the originals, which is why we get 4 of the former and only one new composition, retro rocker "Everybody's Rockin'". Neil's voice doesn't suit these oldies a lot (with the possible exception of Jimmy Reed's "Bright Lights, Big City") but there's otherwise nothing wrong with these covers. The compilers bypass Young's next album for Geffen (Landing On Water, 1986), and only include one track from Life (1988). Featuring Crazy Horse, "Around the World" is an all-out hard rock basher that sounds to me like a predecessor to "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World" - except for the weird synth-dominated chorus, that is. Despite the infamy surrounding the albums anthologized here, they evidently contained some good songs. Certainly there's nothing in this compilation that might be considered embarrassing for the artist. I might even go ahead and buy some of the original LP's, if I find them cheap enough. Until then, this CD will suffice.

**** for Around the World, Like an Inca, Transformer Man

*** for Everybody's Rockin', Little Thing Called Love, Mystery Train, California Sunset, Bright Lights  Big City, Bound for Glory, Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes

** for My Boy, Old Ways, Once an Angel, Rainin' in My Heart

 

Deuter "Cicada" 1982***

OK, so this isn't the kind of album one usually finds in my collection: alphabetically it sits between Greek punk rockers Deus X Machina and German industrial punks Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, both of whom are the antithesis of Deuter's introspective melodies. I brought it back from the neighborhood record shop, because it was in the bargain bin and I remembered coming across the composer's name in the progarchives website. That was somewhat misleading, as this album isn't even remotely connected to progressive rock - which is not to say that it's without its charms. Having bought it in the pre-Christmas period, I found it puts me into holiday mood, especially the serene but joyful opener "From Here To Here" and the slightly sprightlier "From Here To Here (reprise)". The composer though seems to have other religious interests: German-born Georg Deuter moved as a young man to India, changing his first name to Chaitanya Hari after a Hindustani saint, and living in an ashram, which is the local equivalent of a monastery. Nevertheless his music doesn't sound like other Indian albums in my collection (I have some Ravi Shankar, a little Bollywood etc). It sounds more like the kind of meditation CD's one hears play as a musical background at yoga/reiki centers, albeit with better musicianship than most. Kudos for that to Deuter, who plays all the instruments himself. The most prominent sound here is that of the flute, backed by discrete synthesizers, gentle acoustic guitar, a little sitar, bells, etc. Deuter's synths also imitate birdsong, most notably on the title track, while some other nature sounds (splashing waves, rustling leaves) may or may not be sampled. It's warm and soothing music, a bit too sweet and placid for my taste to tell the truth. My interest is sometimes piqued when the synthesizers come to the fore, as in the longer tracks "Light" and "Alchemy" which remind me of Vangelis similarly blending electronic music with acoustic instruments and oriental themes in his China LP. Other than that, it slips into the background, which is I guess the intended function of ambient music. Another notable piece is the bucolic "Haiku", if only for featuring the only guest musician, Deva Renu on harp. All in all, this may well be a prominent work in the field of spiritual/new age music. I would probably recommend it to someone looking for some nice background music for relaxation and meditation, but it's definitely not my cup of tea. 

**** for From Here To Here, Light, From Here To Here (Reprise)

*** for Sun On My Face, Sky Beyond Clouds, Haiku, Alchemy

** for Cicada, Between Two Breaths

Vangelis "China 中國" 1979****

A few days ago, Greek music lost one of its most famous and beloved composers, Vangelis Papathanasiou - internationally known by first name only. He's mostly celebrated for his Oscar-winning soundtrack work, and as one of the progenitors of New Age, but he started his career in '63 playing organ and writing songs for Forminx, one of the most popular Greek pop bands of the 60's and inventors of the yanka dance craze - at least as everyone in Greece is (still) concerned. In reality Forminx's "Jeronimo Yanka" was based on a Finnish traditional tune called Jenka, but who bothered to check? Similarly, "Rain And Tears" -Vangelis' first big hit with his second, more famous, band Aphrodite's Child- was based on a piece by 17th century composer Johann Pachelbel. What of it? It's not about where your inspiration comes from, it's what you do with it that matters! Aphrodites Child were based in Paris, France, since its members were fleeing the oppressive Greek junta but couldn't get a visa for the UK which was their original target. After releasing seminal prog album 666, they broke up, with singer Demis Roussos enjoying a successfull MOR career and Vangelis delving further into progressive/electronic music. By my count, China was his 7th solo album in as many years, and was inspired by the history, tradition, and music of the Far East. The composer had never visited China, and neither does he explore its culture, tradition, and philosophy in depth. Instead, like so many European orientalists before him, he borrows some elements of its traditional art and derives inspiration from its landscapes to create an Oriental-flavored Western work of art. This doesn't detract a single iota from the album's worth. It's not meant as an introduction to Chinese music but as another exploration of the synthesizer's ability to create enticing soundscapes. This time it's not all electronic though. Vangelis accompanies himself on piano, as well as Chinese flutes, gong, and various plucked instruments, with the only external additions being the playful violin (more Balkan than Chinese-sounding) of "The Plum Blossom" and the narration of an 8th Century Taoist poem on the tranquil "The Little Fete". Despite the overall relaxed feel, the album starts off with a bit of elemental noise gradually settling into a melodic synthesizer piece with recurring electronic tones "Chung Kuo". The evocative piano of "The Long March" is followed by the more upbeat and electronic "The Dragon" with its percussive flourishes."The Tao of Love" is a beautiful oriental melody played on some kind of plucked instrument. "Yin & Yang" also starts with a lovely plucked melody, but this is undermined halfway through by a menacing electronic sound in the background that reminds me of Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days". Thankfully, Vangelis doesn't threaten to cut us into little pieces like Floyd did, and the song ends more or less like it started. "Himalaya" is a long atmospheric synthesizer piece that reminds me of Tangerine Dream whose Klaus Schulze, another wizard of the synthesizer, we also lost very recently. It evokes snowy mountain peaks, and comes to its conclusion with the cinematic "The Summit". All in all an immersive and relaxing experience, it is similar to ambient music but actually has the opposite effect: instead of negating other influences to help you clear your mind, Vangelis fills it with images and sensations taking you on a mental trip to an idealized, completely imaginary, China. If you enjoyed his music for films like "Chariots Of Fire" and "Blade Runner" you should love this, too. If, on the other hand, you're not already a fan of instrumental/synthesizer music, don't expect to be converted after listening to China.

**** for The Long March, The Plum Blossom, The Tao of Love, The Little Fete, Yin & Yang

*** for Chung Kuo, The Dragon, Himalaya, Summit

N17 "Defy Everything" 1999💣💣💣

On November 17 1973 in Athens Greece, a tank demolished the main gate of the Polytechnic University. It was the fourth day of a student demonstration that had gradually morphed into a peaceful rebellion against the country's military dictatorship. In the end, the dictators brought in the tanks and proceeded to violently crush the resistance, murdering two dozen people in the process. When I was in high school, the day had become an (unofficial at first, official later) school holiday with emotional speeches against tyranny, while there was also a yearly protest march that, to this day, ends at the U.S. Embassy to denounce American support to the dictators. The right wing establishment of the time first denied that there were any dead, then blamed unnamed leftist insurgents, then -after the regime's fall- grudgingly accepted that army and police had murdered civilians. Today we've come full circle: the importance of the uprising is played-down and its protagonists portrayed as wily lefty politicos. Historical revisionism becomes easy when one only has to post "alternative facts" on one's website. No need to present real evidence, the public can just choose the version of history they prefer. Greek cabinet minister and vice president of the ruling conservative party Georgiadis, for example, has declared that there weren't any dead demonstrators, based on the fact that no bodies were reported found inside the campus itself.  Interesting note: the minister used to promote Holocaust-denial books and neo-nazi writers in his TV shows when he was with the extreme right-wing LAOS party. Getting a first taste of power in the brief period that LAOS became a minority partner in Government, he and a number of LAOS MP's hopped over to the mainstream "center-right" ND party. Just one apology to the Greek-Israelite council, and they weren't fascists anymore. Same with minister Voridis, once head of the EPEN Youth which recognized the (imprisoned since 1974) dictators as national heroes and its nominal leaders. Now they're both manufacturing hate against anyone challenging their rule: apparently the "real danger to democracy" isn't tanks but today's unruly students. Together of course with striking workers, squatters, protesters, immigrants, communists, human rights activists and so on. Oh, and the judges investigating them for corruption: they've vowed to bury them when they return to government, and sure enough now that they're back in power it's those judges who are under investigation for judicial misconduct.

What I wanted to explain before my long introduction was derailed, is that this band couldn't have chosen a more controversial name. The students taking part on the November 17 uprising were vilified as troublemakers, then worshiped as heroes, while now there's an attempt to write them up as frauds. To make matters worse, the name N(ovember)17 was co-opted by a leftist terrorist organization ("urban guerillas" to their friends) which was still at large at the time of this album's release - though safely behind bars now. I'm guessing that this Phoenix (AZ) metal band were inspired by the student uprising, rather than by a terrorist organisation that murdered U.S. citizens including a number of military officers and a CIA station chief. More probably they weren't aware of the specific connotations but liked how militant it all sounded. Their lyrics are a hazy call for defiance and rebellion against the Establishment in general, betraying a lack of political education. The album cover looks like a WW II-era communist poster, though the tools exhibited may also allude to the "industrial" nature of their music. Fortunately the music is more substantial: A non-stop barrage of industrial electronic beats and fast metallic riffs reminiscent of Rammstein or Ministry, raspy death metal vocals, and the occasional movie samples and hip hop scratching. Opener "Rust" is the perfect encapsulation of the band's sound. Apparently it was used in a Levi's jeans commercial - I tried to find it on youtube but had no luck. Other highlights include "Mirror", "Mute" (both include some nice electronic elements, while vocals alternate between whispers and growls), the gothic instrumental "Descent", and Sepultura-meets-System Of A Down-like "Suffering". "Waste"'s introduction with its electronics and movie samples reminds me of early Porcupine Tree before exploding with more heavy riffing. Towards the end of the CD the style remains the same but quality drops - either that or repetition starts to grate a bit. Thankfully, after the end of last track "Baal" there's a cool tribal drums instrumental that closes the album on a different note. This album is nothing if not intense and guaranteed to get the old adrenaline pumping. Highly recommended only if industrial metal is your kind of thing! Otherwise its relentless pace might wear you down.

UPDATE 2020: This year, the pandemic gave Greece's right wing government the perfect excuse to annul the November 17 memorials: By order of the Police, article 11 of the constitution (freedom of assembly) was suspended temporarily between 15 and 18 November, in order to block all events regarding the anniversary of the uprising. All public gatherings of 4 or more people were declared illegal for this period, despite the fact that buses continue to run full because "there is no money for more vehicles" and that workplaces are likewise crowded. Opposition parties vowed to keep all necessary public health measures (symbolic minimal representation, masks, distances) but were warned that they would get arrested if they violated the 4 person rule. To demonstrate the hypocrisy behind the rules, the 40 or so students who kept the Polytechnic open in order to allow people to pay their respect to the victims of the uprising were arrested -ostensibly to "protect them from the pandemic"- and stacked together in a tiny cage, with no regard to distances and other health safety precautions.

**** for Rust, Mirror, Mute, Waste

*** for Left, Cleanse, Descent, Suffer[Ring], Hidden Track

** for Brash, Minion, Baal

The Sisters Of Mercy ‎"Enter The Sisters" 1982-83(rec) 1987(comp)*****

I was recently at Utrecht's Tivoli concert hall to see one of my favorite 80's bands, The Sisters Of Mercy. I refer to them as an 80's band although they've been active for nearly 40 years, because they released their last LP way back in 1990. They've been touring the world playing their Goth Rock classics ever since, without bothering recording another album. Sometimes I wonder if anybody would object to, say, The Rolling Stones doing the same. To be honest, the concert didn't live up to my expectations: Singer Andrew Eldritch still caries that characteristic bass voice, but the live sound didn't do him any favors so he came over as suffering from a throat infection. The electronic beat and light show made it look like being in a techno festival, which I didn't mind at all, but the two guitarists didn't add that necessary something: The one (I learned later that his name is Ben Christo, with SoM since '06) played a few good melodic parts. The other (Dylan Smith, new member) basically just posed and played riffs. The SoM riffs can be simple yet effective, but in the concert they lacked volume - by which I don't mean loudness but fullness. These songs that sounded huge played on the speakers of the rock clubs of my youth should kick ass live. Certainly the venue's sound betrayed them, but I think the guitarists are also not up to the task - not only was their playing pretty basic, they failed to harmonize correctly as backing vocalists. I unfortunately didn't get the sense that this tour was something more than a hastily thrown together moneymaking routine for Eldritch. That said, I did have a good time, and so did thousands of other spectators greeting every song with an enthusiasm I rarely see nowadays. Truth be told, The Sisters' songbook does constitue the Goth Rock Bible. Bands from Rammstein to Paradise Lost to Fields Of The Nephilim owe them a lot.

I don't know if the enthusiasm of those 40-something fans was fueled by the songs or by the throwback to the good-old-days of the 80's and 90's. Because those were certainly good times, even if they aren't often refered to as such. At least in Athens where I grew up there was a vibrant (rock) club scene, live concerts, and lots of great new music coming out. My first acquaintance with the SoM was around 1987-'88, and back then this was the album to get. As far as I knew, it was their most famous LP. Little did I know it was a bootleg release, and much less that it was limited to Greece. These early recordings were initially scattered between various singles and EP's, to get them on import would cost a fortune. So a nice Greek bootlegger with the mysterious name Black Swan Records included the best of them in one LP and put it out on the market. Someone had to do it. The Sisters only came round to it circa 1992, when they released their early output as the Some Girls Wander By Mistake CD. But until then, this was the indispensable companion of every Greek Goth. Here the band doesn't deal in metallic riffs like they would towards the end of the 80's, but Ben Gunn and Gary Marx play some sharp post punk guitar and a few nice melodic solos. Craig Adams' propulsive bass adds buzz, but it's the synthetic part of the rhythm section that dominates the beat department: SoM's drum machine Doktor Avalanche may well be the most famous non-human rock musician. Despite seeing various incarnations through the years, the doctor is the only "consistent" member of the band - save for its programmer and singer Andrew Eldritch. Eldritch's deep bass-baritone voice is one of the most recognizable in rock: imagine that of Leonard Cohen stripped of its particular elegance and warmth and wrapped in the icy atmosphere of Joy Division with a hint of Christopher Lee gravitas. The band were certainly Cohen fans: the borrowed their name from one of his songs, while the title of their album Some girls wander by mistake ("...into the mess that scalpels make") is a line from another Cohen song from the same record.

The earliest tracks here (the "Body Electric/Adenochrome" and "Anaconda" singles) are pretty much in the post punk vein: The bass and atmosphere are reminiscent of Joy Division, guitars of The Sound, and the vocals are very deep and theatrical. Their first EP contained the rousing rocker "Alice" with its spidery guitar, and the mutant disco of "Floorshow", both featuring more animated vocals betraying an Iggy & The Stooges influence. "Burn" and "Lights" from 2nd EP The Reptile House are quite different: slow and dark, they justify the Gothic label that followed the band. Eldritch sounds here like Nosferatu singing from the inside of his coffin. The (chronologically) last tracks come from the Temple Of Love EP. The eponymous song became their biggest hit when they revisited it ten years later, but the infectious guitar intro and operatic chorus was already present in this original version. "Heartland" is mid-tempo song with a catchy chorus, and "Gimme Shelter" an imposing cover of The Stones' masterpiece. Quite different really, the original was more soulful when this is slower, starker, and more sombre. Subsequent SoM albums would favor a richer sound with female backing vocals and harder guitars, while the music here is relatively underproduced, bleaker and more electronic. The sound quality of the vinyl is not bad, given that the bootlegger's source was most certainly his own vinyls rather than the original master tapes. More importantly, it really has the feel of a bona fide complete LP: the duration is right, there is a uniform production style which is rare for compilations, there is a good balance between fast and slow songs, and between side one and side two. Sure, the official Some Girls...CD is better sounding and longer with a more complete tracklisting, but it doesn't gel as well. To me, Enter The Sisters will always be The Sister Of Mercy's first, and best, album.

***** for Temple Of Love, Floorshow, Alice

**** for Anaconda, Adrenochrome, Body Electric, Heartland, Gimme Shelter

*** for Burn, Lights

Brian Eno "Ambient 1 Music for Airports" 1978****

This is probably Eno's most celebrated album, yet I avoided it for years and only came around to buying it after finishing with his conventional, song-based, 70's  discography. I'm not a fan of instrumental music, still less of new age and ambient styles. But I thought I'd make an exception since this is widely considered the first (and, by some, the best) ever ambient album - in any case the first that was expressly created as a mood piece. Eno's purpose was to create music that, although interesting, would pass unnoticed while "inducing calm and space to think”. This is its saving grace as well as what separates Eno's ambient albums from shopping mall muzak, which steers away from thoughtfulness towards shopping-friendly mild euphoria. As you may have guessed atmospheric is the keyword here, tranquil instrumental music with no obvious hooks such as you might find in classical or jazz. Resonant melodies played by synths, pianos and human voices (I know I said it's an instrumental album, but the wordless vocals are strictly used as a musical instrument) are intertwined but, because the music is so sparse, the result isn't discordant or busy sounding. Rather like the calming sensation of lightly falling raindrops, birdsong and a running brook, if I may get poetic for once, the elements are neither harmonising nor conflicting. The first track "1/1" is the longest: 17,5 minutes of lovely piano snippets (composed and played by Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt) repeated endlessly over an atmospheric synth background. If you're listening intently, it'll bore you to death. Which makes it the perfect opener for this album: after 5 minutes or so, either the music has melted into the background and dug itself into your subconscious or you feel the need to yank the record out and put something more meaty. On "2/1" the piano is replaced by "angelic" female vocals inducing a choral spiritual/meditative feel. "1/2", opening what originally used to be the LP's side 2, blends the sparse piano and vocals of  the previous two tracks to great effect. Probably the prettiest piece on the record. While still being extremely calm and hypnotic, "2/2" is a fuller piece than what preceded it, almost like a conventional jazz/modern classical composition. The synths emulate a wind instrument playing an actual melody next to the usual wave-like sound. Apparently the record fulfilled its stated purpose for a time, serving as background music at New York's LaGuardia airport -until commuters started complaining that it was too "depressing". For myself, I couldn't disagree more. I find it a gorgeous piece of music that never fails to set the mood right when used in the correct occasion.

***** for 2/1

**** for 1/2, 2/2

*** for 1/1

Sissi Rada "Pragma" 2016***

This was a present from my friend, Anastasia. She's the only person still giving me CD's without asking me whether I own them first. Everyone else assumes that, if something is up my alley, I probably have it already. Not unreasonably - after all, even I buy me albums I already have, sometimes. Embarassingly, the last weeks I bought about 20 CD's of which it turned out that I already had 4. Anyway, I hadn't even heard of Sissi Rada before. Apparently she's a Greek harpist now living and working in Berlin. Her harp and fairy-like vocals remind me of Joanna Newsom, while the more amospheric pieces have something of This Mortal Coil, a "goth" band I love dearly. According to a press release I found, Sissi calls her music "coquettish-classical-electro-doom pop". It's a charming label, but I've been around too long to be impressed by such genre mixing: Anything "experimental" you think you came up with, pretty soon you'll find that Pink Floyd, Can, Faust or someone else probably already did it in the early 70's. So it's really a question of songcraft and atmospherics. This album has at least one great piece of songwriting "Little White Boat". It could make my Best Of The Year compilation - if I wasn't too deeply absorbed with the past to still make those compilations. It's melodic dream pop of the best order, often reminiscent of Kate Bush, with poignant harp and strings. "Your Laptop" is another strong song, an atmospheric ballad with dreamy vocals and beautiful harp. The lyrics, about us being more intimate with our technological devices than with people, sound sadly too true. "Sunday" is another highlight, mixing Joana Newsom fey-isms and P.J.Harvey rock-isms. "Clouds" also contains some bursts of electric guitar - unwelcome, if you ask me. "Judy Garland" is a rather experimental piece, but the rhythmic elements work quite nicely. "Elevator" also successfully blends the electronic sounds with dreamy female vocals, in a manner reminiscent of Portishead's 3rd album. The Greek language songs "Batman", "Seirinas" are among the more electronic ones and remind me of Greek electronic music pioneer Lena Platonos. Not among my favourites here, and neither is "Macaroni And Tears", or "Sousourada" which sounds like a Bjork song from that musical where she played a blind girl. Generally, though, quite an interesting album which could benefit from a more straight approach: Sissi and her collaborator Max Trieder try too many things out, and not every one is a success. I guess that's how you progress, though: trial and error. I'm looking forward to hearing what they'll do next. 

**** for Little White Boat

*** for Sunday, Elevator, Judy Garland, Your Laptop, Batman, Sousourada

** for Lapislazuli/Macaroni and Tears, Clouds, Seirinas

Wayne Kramer "Citizen Wayne" 1997***

Wayne Kramer is mostly known as former guitarist of the MC5, the 60s' most out-there, revolutionary rock group. The MC5 started off as a loud garage band playing rock'n'roll covers at high school dances, but got radicalised in the polarised political climate of the times, eventually joining John Sinclair's radical left White Panther Party and playing all kinds of benefits and demonstrations. They recorded 3 hugely influential albums, inspired by free jazz and inspiring, in turn, countless punk and hard rock bands. But they soon disintegrated, as they couldn't handle the responsibility of publicly representing the whole radical left movement, getting dragged from one violent protest to another and being endlessly persecuted by the authorities. In 1969, their manager John Sinclair was framed and imprisoned for drug charges (John Lennon campaigned vigorously for his release). A few years later, an addicted and disillusioned Kramer also got imprisoned for passing cocaine to an undercover cop. His road to recovery was long and arduous. By the time he resurfaced in 1995, many of his comrades in the MC5 was already dead and gone: singer Rob Tyner and guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith (Patti Smith's husband) coincidentally both died of heart failure at the age of 45. This is Kramer's third solo record, produced by David Was of Was (Not Was). The music is a mixture of prose, funk, heavy metal and electronic music. His autobiographical lyrics and guitar playing remain stellar, the music unfortunately less so. The CD does begin impressively with funk-metal "Stranger In The House" sounding like a cross between Frank Zappa and Guns N Roses. "Back When Dogs Could Talk" is a typically experimental piece, poetry recited over jazzy licks, metallic riffs and soul backing vocals. "Revolution In Apt. 29" is the second highlight of the record, featuring sympathetically satiric lyrics about his days with the far-left middle-class "revolutionaries": "We're having a revolution/ In apartment 29/ Someone brought bazookas/ Someone's chilling wine/ We'll write a manifesto /Just after chips and pesto/ We've got more problems than solutions/ But no one seems to mind". "Down On The Ground" is a welcome hard-rocking return to the days of MC5 and "No Easy Way Out" an earnest autobiographical mid-tempo rocker about addiction. "You Don't Know My Name" is funk-metal and "Snatched Defeat" a straight-up hard rocker a la Neil Young. Most of the rest is a combination of electronic sounds, metallic riffs and prose. The most interesting moments of these are "Shining Mr. Lincoln's Shoes"'s oriental bouzouki licks and bluesy guitar solos, and the captivating storytelling about the U.S. penal system in "Count Time" and  CIA covert operations in "Dope For Democracy". Interesting album, for sure, as is Kramer as a person. Yet a far cry from his MC5 heyday...

**** for Stranger In The House, Revolution In Apt. 29

*** for Back When Dogs Could Talk, Down On The Ground, Shining Mr. Lincoln's Shoes, No Easy Way Out, Snatched Defeat

** for Dope For Democracy, You Don't Know My Name, Count Time, Doing The Work, A Farewell To Whiskey