• Contributed Releases (286)

• Pending Submissions (331)

• Browse Collection (1204)

• Browse Wantlist (85)

• Contact

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 (that's 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 band's 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 Crimson's back catalogue seems too daunting a prospect.

Also; it's 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 Moorcock's anti-hero. Have heard that some don't like the Hawks' 80's 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 Moorcock's 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 don't particularly like Christian Death that much, but somehow I seem to acquire their releases anyway. If there's anything by them that I'd keep (if I had to keep ONE) then it's 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 they're 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. Valor's 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 Death's 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.

Controlled Bleeding - Knees And Bones - 09-Feb-08 06:04 AM
Paul Lemos' liner notes describe this as a primal scream of sorts and despite it's reputation for being a totally uncompromising racket there does appear to be an underlying structure to it all - wether this was achieved on purpose or by accident I cannot say, though I'm tempted to go with the latter. I've actually given this a full listen and it's actually not a bad record, despite the band's own admission that this is a slab of hellish noise. Believe it or not, some segments are actually pleasant and could even be regarded as - dare I say it - ambient. (27:00 - 31:11, 46:10 - 48:19)

View all 7 reviews...