Pink Floyd - More - Review

Songs: Cirrus Minor, The Nile Song, Crying Song, Up the Khyber, Green is the Colour, Cymbaline, Party Sequence, Main Theme, Ibiza Bar, More Blues, Quicksilver, A Spanish Piece, Dramatic Theme

Type of Music: Psychedelic Folk-Rock (Space-Folk)  

By 1969, Pink Floyd was well appreciated in progressive art circles apparently as they were asked to write the soundtrack for Barbet Schroeder´s movie More. You have to bear in mind they were only active as a recording band for about 2 years. Also, they had little time to write and produce the soundtrack. Maybe that’s why Roger’s voice seems to sound a bit fragile at times. However, I believe it combines well with the spacey folk material on the album.

The story of the film goes as follows: In the midst of the psychedelic revolution, a young German, Stephan, leaves the Fatherland to travel. In Paris he meets the beautiful and mysterious Estelle and falls in love despite many warnings that the girl is a heroin addict. Estelle leaves for Ibiza and invites Stephan who follows. Despite the romantic setting of the island and the many parties it soon becomes clear to Stephan that Estelle indeed uses heroin. After his initial protests he soon gives in to temptation and the couple slowly but surely become junkies. Stephan also suspects that Estelle is sleeping with her dealer, a guy called Wolf. Despite everything the couple tries to get clean with the help of LSD.

It goes okay for a while until Wolf returns in their lives. Stephan is tormented by jealousy and resorts to heroin again. When a friend from Paris tries to persuade him to leave the island, he goes looking for Estelle as he doesn´t want to leave without her. She probably went out with Wolf and Stephan roams the island in a desperate quest. As he fails to find her, he takes an overdose and dies.

A heavy story indeed!!

And now The Music. This is likely to be the least known and most underrated album of the band. Probably because sound tracks are usually considered as nothing more than background music for the film itself. But that´s not the case here. Sure there are bits of music, like A Spanish Piece and Party Sequence, that only make sense when watching the movie but hey, there are some great songs here.

Most of the good stuff was written by Roger Waters who apparently used this album to try and create a style of his own. I’m sure the basis for later albums was laid here maybe even without Roger realising it.  Most of these goodies are actually folk rock tunes and they are stunningly beautiful. I consider Cirrus Minor the best but it is closely followed by Crying Song, Cymbaline and Green is the Colour. Listening to Cymbaline I believe I know where groups like Air and Groove Armada found their inspiration. This is perfect lounge music and we are talking 1969 here! There are some good instrumentals as well like the jazzy Up the Khyber, the obviously bluesy More Blues and the spacey Main Theme. This song seems to have inspired the German band Kraftwerk in their later work. Only Quicksilver is a mere collection of sounds without any meaningful direction.

Actually, the album would have been even better if it weren´t for two hard rocking Heavy Metal songs that seem completely out of place, although they aren’t bad songs. They do sound very similar. The Nile Song and Ibiza Bar might have inspired David Bowie to undertake his Berlin adventure. In fact I don’t believe Pink Floyd rocked in this style ever again. 

So my advise to you is to program your CD without those two songs, make yourself comfortable on the couch and pour yourself a nice dram of whisky. 

Just close your eyes while listening to the Main Theme or Quicksilver and you can almost imagine yourself floating in deep space!

Make sure you get the new re-mastered version!

Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  This is an Essential Pink Floyd Album as it helps to define Roger’s style. It also has inspired other musicians in my opinion. As such it should be part of every great Classic Rock Collection

Something Special Review

Country: Scotland

Brand: Something Special

Bottled by Hill, Thomson & Co. Ltd., Paisley

Type: Blended Whisky

Age: Unspecified

Alcohol: 40%
Chill-Filtration: Yes

Colour: Deep Golden (Artificially Coloured) 

Nose: When you pour this Blend in your glass you immediately get Peat and Light Smoke that remind you of a light Islay whisky. However, the Peat and Smoke are driven back quickly to the back of the glass and Dried Fruits, Grain, Wood, Nuts and Malt come into play. After a while in the glass, Earth and Wood tones begin to dominate. There isn’t much sharp Alcohol, which is good but I only get hints of Fruit and Sherry and that’s a pity! This Blend would benefit from some more fruity tones.

Taste: Sweet (Sugar, Honey) and Spicy Oak.

Finish: Not overly long and quickly getting dry. Some Cocoa Powder, Nuts and Wood.

When adding four or five drops of water, the Peat on the nose withdraws to the background and floral - and mineral tones appear. The palate however just gets watered down. So you can nose this blend with -and without a few drops of water but better drink it neat.

Rating:  77,5

Nose: 20– Taste: 19– Finish: 19 – Overall: 19,5

General Remarks: The Longmorn Distillery (Speyside) is the home of this Blend. It is said that Something Special contains a lot of the Longmorn 15 Years, maybe as much as 35%. I also suspect some Islay malt and assorted Grain Whiskies. The Distillery is currently owned by the French Pernod Ricard Group, that also owns Chivas Regal. Something Special, a blend created in 1793, is said to age in Bourbon and Sherry Casks  but I can’t find too much Sherry influences in this Blend which is a pity. Something Special with its Diamond shaped bottle was a huge success in the Seventies. Today it still flourishes in Latin America and in countries like Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia.

The Longmorn Distillery

Drinking Experience Neat: Okay

Drinking Experience on the Rocks: Okay

Conclusion: With the Speyside Single Malt Longmorn 15 Years at the heart of this blend, I would have expected more fruity and floral tones. Instead I get a lot of Earth and Peat and Wood tones. Maybe even a bit too much (cheap) Wood. I wonder how a younger Longmorn, say 12 years, would have fitted in this Blend.

So is this Blend really Something Special? I don’t think so. It’s more of a missed opportunity in my opinion. It’s not very expensive of course. You can get it for around US$ 25,- in the Duty Free Shop. I picked one up there but I think I’ll pass next time!

Jan van den Ende                                                              March 25, 2012

Stand Up - Jethro Tull - Review

Songs:  A New Day Yesterday, Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square, Bourée, Back To The Family, Look Into The Sun, Nothing Is Easy, Fat Man, We Used To Know, Reasons For Waiting, For A Thousand Mothers. 

Type of Music: Mixture of Blues and (Hard) Rock with touches of Jazz, Folk and Classical Music.

Comments:

Guitarist Mick Abrahams left JT after This Was and was replaced by Martin Barre. This immediately resulted in a more Hard Rock orientated sound as opposed to the Bluesy atmosphere on the debut album. And that´s not at all bad.

In fact the combination of Martin´s guitar, Ian´s Flute and, not in the least, Ian's excellent songs make Stand Up one of the great Classic Rock Albums of all time. The whole album sounds very rough, sincere and to the point.

The instrumental Bourée is a good example. It´s the perfect mix between Classical Music and Rock. It’s stunningly beautiful. This is Classic Rock!

Stand Up is a great mix of (hard) rockers (A New Day Yesterday, Back To The Family, Nothing Is Easy, For A Thousand Mothers), ballads (Look into The Sun, Reasons For Waiting) and Folk (Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square). This last song will serve as a reference for many of the Tull’s later Minstrel Songs.

The opener A New Day Yesterday is a great Blues Track transformed into Hard Rock with fine drumming and a perfect interplay between Martin’s Guitar and Ian’s Flute.

Quite different is the funny Fat Man, an Indian sounding George Harrison type of song. In fact, Ian managed to stay thin for a long time. And if you ever wondered where the Eagles found their inspiration for Hotel California, listen  to We Used To Know. Both the melody and guitar solo were “used” by Don Henley & Company.

At the end of the sixties, JT also released many great singles. Two of them, Living In The Past and Sweet Dream are included in this Remastered version released in 2001, together with Driving Song and 17.   

Jethro Tull would make other great records in the coming years. But few were as consistently good as this, their second Album. And Stand Up was a good title for the music still stands up after all these years!

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  This is both an Essential Tull as well as an Essential Rock Album. Therefore it should be part of your Rock Album Collection.

Bonus Tracks: Living in the Past, Driving Song, Sweet Dreams, 17 

Glenfarclas 12 Years Review

Country: Scotland

Brand: Glenfarclas

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Region: Speyside

Age: 12 Years

Alcohol: 43%

Date: 21/03/2011

Colour: Gold/Amber

Nose: First impressions include Malt, Oak, Dried Fruits (Raisins) and Nut-Cake. Tones of Honeyed Sherry and Grass and a bit of Salt. Hardly any alcohol present. After a while I find very light Peat and a bit of Chocolate. There is a light sweetness but it’s not dominating. Pleasant but not overly complex nose.

Taste:  Sweet Caramel and Sherry. Some Spice (Ginger and Cinnamon) and Salt. Oak. A light bitterness as in Orange Zest.

Finish: Quite Long with lingering Caramel, Sherry and Oak. In the end there are some distinct Earth Notes. Quite interesting that.

I added a couple of drops of water that brought out more Peat and Floral/Grassy tones to the Nose. It also enhances the Sherry and Spices on the Palate. And the finish becomes more Fruity while maintaining the Earthy tones right at the end. The bottling at 43% certainly allows you to experiment with a couple of drops.

Rating: 87

Nose: 21,5– Taste: 22– Finish: 22 – Overall: 21,5

General Remarks: The Glenfarclas Distillery was founded in 1805 and is still in the hands of the children of the founders, the Grant family. That’s extremely rare these days. Maintaining quality and a distinct Speyside character will certainly have helped to survive all these years.

Drinking Experience Neat: Good

Conclusion: I have tasted the 10 Years expression in late 2011. While there are certainly some similarities, the two years extra have mellowed the whisky down. The nose of the 10 Year was more adventurous but the taste and finish of the 12 year are much more mature and balanced. So while I like and recommend them both, the 12 Years slightly beats his younger brother.

Jan van den Ende                                                               March 21, 2012

David Crosby - Oh Yes I Can- Review

 David Crosby - Oh Yes I Can - 1989 

Songs: Drive my Car, Melody, Monkey and the Underdog, In the Wide Ruin, Tracks in the Dust, Drop Down Mama, Lady of the Harbor, Distances, Flying Man, Oh Yes I Can, My Country ´tis of Thee.

Type of Music:  Mostly Generic Rock and Ballads  

Comments:

David´s first Solo effort after finally having cured his Lebanese Flew. The mood of the album is very optimistic. David is letting us and his wife Jan (not a relative of mine) know that “ Oh Yes I Can still make music” and “Oh Yes I can still be the man you fell in love with”. And David invited a lot of friends to celebrate his return. The whole West Coast Scene took a train and went to the Studio. You will recognise Graham Nash, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Lukather and many others. And David´s band includes Russ Kunkel and Joe Vitale on Drums, Craig Doerge on Keyboards, Joe Lala and Danny Kortchmar on Guitars,  George Perry on Bass and Mike Finnegan on Organ. And, finally, David´s voice is back in full.

So everything and everybody is set to make a great record. Unfortunately that did not quite materialise because of two reasons. Firstly, the songs, mostly written by David alone or in association with Craig Doerge, are very mainstream and miss quality. And secondly, the production is very generic. Artists like Toto and Jackson Browne came to my mind when listening to Melody and In the Wide Ruin.       

There are some exceptions to the rule of course. There is quality in songs like Monkey and the Underdog and Tracks in the Dust. The first song is the story of David (The Underdog) in his battle against drugs (The Monkey). And in the second song we welcome Graham Nash´s harmony vocals. That probably explains why I consider this song to be the best on the album.

So yes, David is back and that´s great. But Oh Yes, You Can Do Better!!

Rating: ****** (6 out of 10)

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record: Only for the Ultimate David Crosby Fan. Not Relevant for the Rest of the Universe.