"Echos" Another very nice piece, with a dreamlike quality. This isn't an album I could imagine sitting down and listening to in headphones, as I suspect it would quickly send me to sleep, but as background music for a car journey or in general to blot out the outside world, I think it would be very effective.
Ah, no wonder I liked it, as Love Will Change is clearly the one big highlight so far for me. Not "à chier" at all!!! Same. I cried. Talking of rivers, one that is not "endless", is the green one by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Yesterday night, I was at the "celebration" CCR John Fogerty show. I paid some big money for it (200$) and it was just great rock'n roll fun, the guy's relentless, jumping and running around, rejoicing at the possibility to own (and play) his old classics after half a century of legal litigations. As a stage presence, he was fantastic, a mix between the old geezer and the young rascal, and the screaming voice's still there, not as growling as it used to be but clear and sharp. As far as brothers are concerned, I guess Ray and Dave's relationship is a cool and calm river, compared to that of Tom and John Fogerty…
Endless River is a really difficult one... At some point I need to listen to it with the movie... but I was nonplussed by the album, so I haven't raced out to do that. By the same token, in context with it essentially being leftovers from The Division Bell, and somewhat of a tribute to Richard Wright... it's kinda nice... but I'd probably need to some really good weed to get fully engaged.... and I'm a huge Floyd fan.
reminds me of the story of Half Man Half Biscuit who turned down a potentially career igniting appearance on The Tube because it clashed with a Tranmere Rovers match: Half Man Half Biscuit and the depths of Tranmere Rovers loyalty
Yes Tranmere played on Friday evenings back then. Another Kinks football related tale, on World Cup final day in 1966 when they were headlining a Big Beat BBQ in Torquay, they decided to stay in North London to watch the match which all we know went into extra time before starting the 220 odd mile journey in a pre-motorway age to the West Country. They did make it, but only played 3 songs before the power was cut to enforce the midnight curfew. In the 1970/71 season which Arsenal famously did the double they decided to go and watch the Arsenal before heading off to a gig in Nottingham - they were only 5 hours late. But, amazingly most of the audience had hung around.
Interestingly ... I love the Hollies singles, but was never vaguely interested in getting their albums. One of the somewhat rare instances where a compilation fills my requirements for a band (whether rightly or wrongly)
If I were to recommend Hollies albums, I'd suggest: 1966 'For Certain Because' 1967 'Evolution' 1970 'Confessions Of The Mind' 1971 'Distant Light' There's then the overly twee psychedelic 'Butterfly' from 1967, the different lead singer (Mikael Rickfors) album 'Romany' from 1972 and 1975s 'Another Night'.
I can relate as in high school i had a Scottish mate who had a loft full of teams less the ones i kneeled on and broke during our matches so when i saw a local store miraculously stock a Subbuteo set a year or so later i just had to buy it! P.s. Was the transformer part all about first setting up a race track that didn't work?
Echos I like the meditative feel of this track. The ambient synths and the wordless singing of the choir builds a dreamy mood that doesn't overstay its welcome. A beautiful interlude on the album.
Strangely, Russ's site doesn't seem to mention either the Purusha or Aschere projects. He does signal a later project with his father, Open Road. About/Russ Davies — RUSS DAVIES
We Are The Ancestors. We open with a synth drone and then we get some sort of effects kick in, and we break into a beat that then moves into a very atmospheric synth section, that almost sounds like a horror movie of sorts. Then we get a robotic voice proclaiming that We Are The Ancestors. It sounds like this is a run down of all the things that they did wrong or something. There is a generally ominous sound and tone to this, and I get to some degree it has a kind of Kraftwerk in the modern era vibe to it, seemingly being a more dark variation on the We Are The Robots track, without the mild dance vibe.
"We Are The Ancestors" Well this one certainly seems to mine the Floyd Dark Side territory (particularly "On The Run") at the outset. Until we get to the voice where that treated voice takes over (actually reminds me of a voice Prince used on The Black Album). Then we get some choral elements that I hope Ray appreciated! Today's track seems a bit more distinct than the others and more dramatic.
"We Are The Ancestors" Not having the background in Pink Floyd I'm not able to spot anything on that front. To me this just sounds like it's from the soundtrack to a straight-to-video sci-fi/martial arts movie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's nothing in this one that I find particularly memorable or distinctive.
There are a few good compilations of Hollies singles and then there’s this, where you get everything by the Nash era band. It’s almost like having Please Please Me through the White Album by the Quarrymen in one package: The Hollies - Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years (The Complete Hollies April 1963-October 1968)
I'd like to know why you'd choose to bring martial arts films in this conversation! I mean, it does sound like cheap sci-fi… But martial arts ? Or perhaps you meant sci-fi films with bad martial arts action sequences in it ? Anyway, agreed on everything else you said : no need to know anything about Pink Floyd to understand that this track is the least interesting/engaging so far, by far. Those ancestors actually make me think of some sequences with the antagonists in Superman II… But it's a distant memory, I haven't watched the famous "Donner cut", the original version before the film was redone by Richard Lester, which indirectly brings us back to British pop (it's not Sunday, so I have to keep my freeform instincts in check).
I just got off reading your above entry, hopped over to Visual Arts and what do I first see: Superman II - Richard Donner Cut vs Richard Lester
We Are The Ancestors Another moody transition piece that meanders around establishing a dark visual of some sort for most of it. This may the "battle scene" in the story. Towards the end we get the dramatic victorious climax that all "battles" end on with the heroes winning out in the end. Of course, the story is hard to follow and since this is not the actual end of the album, I'm not sure of any of this! The spoken word stuff here is spelled out in the booklet. Must read the story again someday in the far distant future. Maybe. For now, I'll just stick with the album.
We Can Do This Together I like taking these a few at a time… The songs seem to reference back (or foreshadow?). This one starts to sound a bit more industrial or robotic, with the spoken vocal and ticking rhythm. Then the almost arcade-game sounding synth comes in. The backing vocals (?) also sound good, and makes me wonder how Ray’s choral treatment could be used on this track! Echos I like the callback here to the earlier song. Really makes this whole thing like one long symphony/suite with these different movements and motifs that appear and reappear throughout. I am not a huge classical/symphonic music connoisseur, but it reminds me of the compositional structure of Jupiter from Gustav Holst’s the Planets. That’s always been my favorite, and it is because we played it back in high school symphonic band! It has several sections themes and come and go, handled by different instruments or even different intensity and feeling. And that’s what I sort of get out of this project. We Are the Ancestors This seems much more industrial and robotic/metallic sounding to me, and more foreboding and almost sinister. There’s a change in the weather! See the holocaust risin’ over the horizon. These are the images that come up in my mind as I listen. A solid change in mood/feeling at this point in the overall listening experience.
My only listen so far was several days ago as background music on a long flight and I enjoyed it. I was impressed to learn that this soundtracky, soundscapy stuff was in Dave's skill set (I too wonder how much is Russ' artistic sensibility vs. Dave's), but after Fractured Mindz, I suppose nothing should surprise me about the guy's range. No further comment from me, however, since I haven't listened closely enough to individual tracks.