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Mutantlab - Mass Mutation - 16-Nov-09 12:12 PM
Mass Mutation is a fascinating concept album regarding the (in)famous occurrences at the Rev. Jim Jones Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in Jonestown, Guyana (South America). Woven between samples of well-known songs (the intro drums from Led Zeppelins "When The Levee Breaks", for example) are cut-ups of speech taken from the death tape that was recovered following the mass suicide of approximately 900 people. The final track "Mass Mutation" is the aforementioned tape in its entirety accompanied by some funky (albeit repetitive) backing music and is nothing less than hypnotic. The best album I never bought.

King Crimson - The Compact King Crimson - 01-Feb-09 07:08 AM
A good collection, only hampered by the fact that the albums from "In The Wake Of Poseidon" through to "Red" are ignored and not represented at all here (thats six full-length records by the way), a fact slightly rectified by the double vinyl version. Regardless, most material here is culled from the three Fripp/Bruford/Levin/Belew albums "Discipline", "Beat", "Three Of A Perfect Pair" and the bands first LP "In The Court Of The Crimson King".
The Compact King Crimson is exactly that; compact, and largely superfluous to most aficionados of the band but remains a decent entry point for newcomers or worth picking up if investing in King Crimsons back catalogue seems too daunting a prospect.

Also; its worth noting that the version of "Sleepless" here is not the Bob Clearmountain mix present on some (early?) versions of the "Three Of A Perfect Pair" album.

Hawkwind - Live Chronicles - 23-Nov-08 04:18 AM
Best Hawkwind live album? Live Chronicles takes the Black Sword / Elric concept onto the road and creates rock theatre with it, mixing Hawkwind classics and unreleased (Dreaming City, Moonglum) songs based upon Michael Moorcocks anti-hero. Have heard that some dont like the Hawks 80s output - too bad, the quality is superb, album versions have somehow been improved (the awesome Shade Gate) or completely rearranged (Choose Your Masques) and seamlessly woven into the stage show. Unfortunately some elements of this performance are missing; Michael Moorcocks narrations and a couple of the songs he helped write (Sleep Of A Thousand Tears) were omitted due to a feud with GWR manager Doug Smith. Get a semblance the complete picture by finding of the Zarozinia 12" (which includes two missing numbers) or paying the best part of £100 for the Griffin Music double CD that was released in 1994, which includes all narrations and missing tracks.

Christian Death - The Scriptures - 24-Jul-08 01:41 PM
I dont particularly like Christian Death that much, but somehow I seem to acquire their releases anyway. If theres anything by them that Id keep (if I had to keep ONE) then its this. The Scriptures is probably the closest thing they ever did to a consistent album, and could be furthest from the shenanigans and shock-tactics that theyre best known for. Whilst the first half of the album stands firmly in "goth-rock" territory (or what goths might listen to), it has a distinct progressive edge to it. Valors concept (a "translation of world beliefs") is thought-provoking, entertaining and fits the music very well - almost what Christian Death should be like all of the time. The second half of The Scriptures is experimental, traditional song structure is abandoned and improvised noise and samples are utilised instead (with the exception of Golden Age). The soundtrack to the apocalypse? Probably not.

Christian Death - Jesus Christ Proudly Presents - 17-Jul-08 11:30 AM
Though the lavish presentation of a boxset is a nice touch, the sound quality on many of the 7-inch records within varies greatly; 7-inch vinyl was never the best format for good sound reproduction, and is quite a puzzling choice for an "archive" set such as this. It should come to no surprise, then - knowing of Christian Deaths repuation for poorly produced material - that many of the tracks on these records ranges from "bad bootleg" to "good bootleg" (tinny, but listenable). Records 3 and 4 are obviously the best quality-wise, the sheer bombast of tracks like "Believers Of The Unpure" eclipsing the poor quality that mars most of this release. Not for the casual listener.

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