bob.

Halloween themed trade from NumberNineDream....


this is a 31 track compilation of 50/60s rock-a-billy/surf horror themed tunes

first off i had not heard one of these songs before....and honestly i had only heard of a couple of the artist and those were also on compilations....which just made this comp a bit better....right away i was expect the regular slew of "monster mash" type songs.....and i must say out of the 31 tracks only one song resemble that classic and it really barely resembled it

first thing i did was load this onto the ipod and go for a nice fall evening bike ride....and this was perfect listening material....fun, upbeat, and at times hilariously creepy!....this is a perfect Halloween compilation....i have already shared this with some of my best friends to enhance their holiday

the first track (Bo Diddle in the Jungle) opens with what sounds like a dolphin getting clubbed to death....and the entire comp just takes of from there!...i'm going to write short little reviews for my favorite and most stand out tracks....but i must say this entire album is wonderful and just tons of twisting fun! (the polar oppisite of what i sent NumberNineDream )

Big Bee Kornegay - House Of Frankenstein - i swear if in Back To The Future is was the "Creature in the haunted House" dance this would be the song playing....straight up rockin' tune with what i would describe as "Louie Armstrong" style vocals....top tappin'...girl swingin' romp about everyone favorite mad scientist

Lee Ross - The Mummy's Braclet - creepy heavy bass lines...story song about a thief who stole the mummy's bracelet and gave it to his girl....and now she has a a mummy bellowing "GIVE ME MY BRACELET BACK!"....and when he catches up with the mummy turnbs her to stone and the thief gets taken to the nut-house!

Lou Chaney - Monsters Holiday - this is the one song on the comp that sounds similar to 'Monster Mash'....and check out this plot.....its Christmas and the monsters are bored so they decide to rip off Santa and ruin Christmas...sound a little familiar....anyways Santa stops them and gives them all gifts and they all twist ...the werewold finally gets that electric shavers he's been wanting

Ben Colder - Shudders and Screams - a great old country style tale about finding out that the house you used to live in is now occupied by the craziest of all monsters...including , Frankenstein, Igor, Drac...some really hilarious sound effects in this song!

The Savoys - The Mortal Monster Man - this one is just awsome and might be my favorite track on the entire comp....great guitar work...50s style with a little bit of psychedelic sound....and about being a monster who creeps all the kids out but loves it

Bobby Bare - Vampira - i had always thought that only The Misfits wrote an ode to the ole mistress of the dead....this song is just great and seriously sounds like it belongs right on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack

Tarantula Goul - Graveyard Rock - as the name eludes to thios is pretty much a rip off of of the Elvis classic....but whats great about it is it opens with a sultry voice that says "tired of living? want to die? well heres a real good reason why!"....why? so you can fucking party!!!!!...this song is just great

Pasquale & The Lunar Tiks - Moon Madness - and that is exactly what this is....just 2 minutes of crazy tribal drumming and people wailing and howling and other insane noises

Sonny Day - Crature from Outer Space - 9 foot tall hairy monster from space here to attack earth?....no! he's here to fix your car!....this is interesting due to the fact that they use some great guitar tracks....like the stuff the Sonic Youth have famous...but here it's just making creepy "space" sounds....cool romp

tons of fun....while writing this review i download the second album called 'Monsters Bop'....look forward to listening to both of these more.....great trade NumberNineDream!

__________________
A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.

Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.

dankrsta

from NumberNineDream

The Mandrake Memorial - Puzzle (1969)

From the moment I saw this Escher(esque) cover art, title 'Puzzle' and the band's name that was strangely familiar and mysterious, I knew I was about to hear some real hidden gem. I heard much more. Despite my love for 60s psychedelic rock and many bands from that period, I've never encountered Mandrake Memorial before. This is their third and last album described as their most ambitious, psychedelic and even progressive work. Because of my incredible experience with this one, I will definitely check out the previous two albums, although they're supposed to be quite different, more traditionally song oriented. I'm hoping they too have the same magical feeling.

This album seems to be conceptual, but the concept is a puzzle. I have no idea what it is, but it's undeniable that it's there. Maybe that's the point. It can be said that the more song oriented psychedelic rock tracks are interspersed with preludes, snippets of songs, chants or abstract passages and they all more or less pour one into another. There's a song 'Just a Blur' in three versions, except it's not really a song, more like a theme, a passage that ties all these other sounds and images together and closes the album. What does this reoccurring song adds to the concept in terms of ideas I don't know, but with a title 'just a blur' so in line with 'puzzle', it adds to the overall mysterious feeling of the album. I think aesthetic, sensational concept here is just as, if not more, important than that of ideas.

The album has 15 songs and I feel that it's divided in two parts. The first part opens with 'Earthfriend Prelude', a very spacey piece of music with a strong solemn and classical feel that flows right into the 'Erthfriend', a great psychedelic, space rock song with some magical keyboard and guitar work, one of the best on the album. After the first appearance of 'Just a Blur' theme, we're in for another treat, a song 'Hiding' (this is the one #9 used to lure me into this album ). It's another highlight, a more traditional psychedelic song that has strength not only in layered, floating instrumentation, but especially in vocal. It's the same male vocal I first heard in 'Erthfriend', but it especially shines here. I really cannot describe how enchanting this voice is and how deeply vulnerable it sounds while producing strangely elusive, uncatchable melodies. It has a certain familiar quality in its folkish style but that's just a hook. The more you listen the more you feel like it's not from this world.

The second part of the album is where things started getting weird and unexpected. 'Kyrie' is like a Gregorian chant; 'Vulcano Prelude' with it's incredible tension and chorus sounds like something from The Omen soundtrack, but ends in guitar noise; 'Whisper Play' has psychedelic, noisy and abstract sounds married with fairy-like, baroque female voices and symphonic passages; 'Children's Prayer' is a baroque boys multi-voice choir that dissolves into guitar noise again. Even more traditional songs like 'Ocean's Daughter' and 'Volcano' have this mysterious and unsettling feeling, a danger of falling apart. The central piece of this part of the album is a 9 min long 'Bucket of Air', an instrumental epic that in many ways defines the whole album with its layered, spacey and above all unpredictable quality worthy of the early Pink Floyd. All it needs to be perfect is that magical voice . But that voice gets to shine again in the title track 'Puzzle', after which, by now, familiar blurry theme closes the album.

What strikes me especially is that all these different aesthetics, of baroque, choir, religious chants, symphonic, psychedelic and space rock, work together. Unlike some of the later progressive rock acts, Mandrake Memorial managed to merge all this so tastefully with a deep understanding that sum has to be more than its parts. And it shows beautifully on the album. Every part is transformed through an abstraction first so that rock part isn't really rock anymore, baroque and classical aren't literally that. Everything became something else, the Mandrake Memorial last album. And I must say it's one of the best psychedelic albums from the 60s I've heard so far. Thanks NumberNine for this great find.

Oh, and #9, I owe you another review, but I totally exhausted my inspiration with this one. I'll try and write it tomorrow.

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ThePhanastasio

For dankrsta - Would have gotten the review out sooner, but my play just closed yesterday, so I didn't QUITE have the time to write a proper review until now!


dankstra told me that this album was based on the band's "opera without words", and a little research helped me delve into this aspect more.

TuxedoMoon's opera without words was performed in 1982 at the Polverigi Theatre Festival in Italy. It was entitled "The Ghost Sonata", and the soundtrack (this album) was not released until 1991, although its brilliance was as relevant then as it was in 1982, and even in the present day.

I was also told that several bits of this "opera without words" were available on youtube, which I took full advantage of later to capture the visual aspect of the experience as well as the auditory.

The album itself is rather on the dark side, rich with layered instrumentation (numerous electronics, violin, woodwind, strings, piano, and what I perceived to be a vocoder on many vocals) and intriguing spoken word sections.

The album opens chillingly with "The Funeral Of a Friend", eerie spoken word dialogue over dark-layered instrumentation which segues perfectly into the title track.

The title track itself is foreboding, melancholy, and etched with deep sadness as well. It was perfect to listen to as I did for the first time, at night in my bedroom, completely absorbed in the soundscape TuxedoMoon beautifully etched out for their listeners.

"Catalyst" was certainly one of the more unsettling tracks on the album, although a mere 43 seconds. The sounds were disturbing, jarring almost, and a deep, evil voice was heard, along with the frightening screeching sounds. It segued into "An Affair at the Soiree", one of my overall favorite tracks upon repeated listens.

There were dark samples of laughter, sounds reminiscent of glass breaking, bells chiming, and even what sounded like distant screams near the beginning, although the instrumentation itself was surprisingly upbeat. Set to the dark samples, however, it sounded less like a joyous carnival (which I feel it could have) and became more reminiscent of a party gone horribly awry. I thought of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death", in which the host, Prospero, holds an elaborate party in spite of the overwhelming amounts of death in the town. The illness (The Red Death) which killed the townspeople had, unbeknownst to Prospero, made its way into the castle in human form, ultimately becoming the death of the revelers. It's an ominous tale to be sure, and is what this track caused me to think of. Another eerie spoken word bit appears at the end of this track, darkening the tone even more.

"Music Number Two", the fifth track, opens with melancholy piano strains, giving way to a duet of piano and violin. This track is much more sad than it is creepy, although it is strangely beautiful in its way. The sound of water splashing at the end (which continue into the following track, "A Drowning") certainly take the sadness into outright terror.

In "A Drowning", I was completely unsettled while listening at home alone. The sounds of water splashing along with the particularly macabre instrumental work and layering of sounds (often grating and dissonant) makes this one of the more difficult tracks for me to listen to. It's brilliant, but it's terrifying, and coupled with my own personal fear of drowning, particularly effective.

"The Cascade" is another track which is far more melancholy than frightening, before working itself into a frenzy of sound. The violin and piano race violently, quickly, with occasional other instrumentation to add a since of urgency to what I can only perceive as escape - escape from utmost horror. The music slows, sadly, futile, making it feel as though escape has not been successful, as though the inevitable has occurred.

"A Mystic Death" has vocoder-fed vocals, whispers, and sounds of what could be a heart beat, a drum of soldiers marching...whatever it's meant to be, it doesn't sound particularly happy. The echoing of the different voices is frightening, unsettling - it seems to me that they're ghosts. As the track gives way to the following track, "Basso Pomade (Dogs Licking My Heart)", the strings return.

This feels less like a track of personal terror, more of general darkness. "Licorice Stick Ostinato" is quite unsettling. The use of vocal samples at the beginning made me uneasy, and the music that followed was epic and dark, reminiscent in a few ways of something Danny Elfman might compose for a film score. It concludes with the sound of thunder, going into a full on storm as it makes its way to the next track, "The Laboratory (Parts 1&2)".

The sampling in this one is particularly great, the screeching of strings and dark sounds underneath making for particularly alarming emotional response. The maniacal laughter sample halfway through as the music kicks back in startled me a bit. As the dialogue comes back in, the music increases in intensity and tempo, further darkening the atmosphere. I couldn't help but think that if a walk-through haunted house were planned and executed perfectly with this is a soundtrack, it would knock the pants off of any other haunted house in existence. Very intense stuff.

"Les Odalisques" opens with more of the narration, the voice perfectly setting the mood of the piece, with female dialogue brought into the mix of the narration. This track is another which is less frightening, and more Gothic - although I mean Gothic in the historical sense; not in the kids wearing all-black and listening to Marilyn Manson sense.

"An Unsigned Postcard" goes headfirst back into the more unsettling soundscapes of previous tracks. It begins in slower tempo, sounds lower in the mix making for an intriguing (although probably still frightened) listen. This gives way into the reprise of "Music Number Two".

"Music Number Two (Reprise)" perfectly wraps the entire listening experience up. It starts off sad and beautiful, gradually building a few darker elements into the mix, and definitely has the feel of an epic finale. It's lovely, dripping with melancholia and feels quite antique (although I mean that in a really good way; that was just the word it evoked) ultimately.

Ultimately, this is a glorious album. Thank you very much to dankrsta for this trade; it will certainly be played much more, and I'm going to check out some more Tuxedomoon stuff in the future, for sure!

dankrsta

^^That's a beautiful review Phanastasio. I'm so glad that Ghost Sonata hit the right notes for you. And you were worried about reviewing it sooner? I still have one more album to review for NumberNine (we traded two this previous trade) before I move on to yours . But I did listen to your album and it's right up my alley. I'll try to write a review in a couple of days.

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NumberNineDream

^I still have to apologize for not reviewing both your albums Dankrsta, although I've heard them many times now. I think I'm going to find some time for them this weekend, the Halloween holiday should help.

Glad you loved it, that was some epic review. So was bob.'s btw, another trading success .

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dankrsta

Based on bob's review that Horror Hop compilation is really something. It totally piqued my interest.

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bob.

it's the most fun i've had in some time just listening to an album.....the songs are just flat out hilarious and at time very strange....i would suggest it to anyone

__________________
A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.

Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.

Husky McDump

thanks james for reviewing my album....feel really appreciated on this site.

__________________
not everyone can make it to the pros,
some rise to the top, others down low.

James

I'm so sorry man
I'll get it done

Husky McDump

i understand if you're busy n stuff we all have lives you should have just hit me up to let me know it was going to be late.

cheers

__________________
not everyone can make it to the pros,
some rise to the top, others down low.