YTSEJAM Digest 4974 Today's Topics: 1) Neil's reviews volume 439 by "Gallop, Neil" 2) Re: YTSEJAM digest 4972 by "Miguel Farah F." 3) re:Internet Radio by Michael Zachariadis 4) DREAM THEATER MERCHANDISE*** by "trsgroup" 5) re: Jethro Tull by Brian Hansen 6) re: Mergers and CDNow by Paul Fini 7) re: Jethro Tull by "TheCowGod ." 8) Re: Mullmuzzler... by Steve Chew 9) Re: Mullmuzzler correction... by Steve Chew 10) re: Mergers and CDNow by Brian Hansen 11) MP Video in the Fall... by Dave Ware 12) Re: Mullmuzzler... by Steve Chew 13) Spock's Beard live? by CyberDuke ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 15:26:01 +0200 From: "Gallop, Neil" To: "'email_address_removed'" Subject: Neil's reviews volume 439 Message-ID: Hi all lots of reviews coming along in a minute, but first a few words from me about my ratings. Some people have written to me, asking why I mostly give 8s and 9s, with an occasional 10 or 7: why do I never trash anything? The reason is simple - I only review stuff that I buy, and I won't buy anything I'm not convinced of. This also applies to promos that I receive from time to time. OK, now on to the fun. LEMUR VOICE - Divided (Telstar-Sky TCD 20002-2) I still remember the first time I listened to the track "Aksasha Chronicles" from the band's first album - I had rarely been so impressed by a new band (well, new to me) so I was naturally apprehensive about my first impression of "Divided". From the moment Marcel Coenen's crunching guitar jumped in on the opening track, I knew I would not be let down. This is everything the first (and excellent) album was and more. The production is much better, clearer and crisper. Gregoor van der Loo has improved a lot as a singer, and fortunately he doesn't make the mistake of trying to sing above his natural range. Barend Tromp shows what a Chapman stick can do in competent hands. Drums and keyboards are very polished - and then comes the guitar work! Wicked riffs to fox and fool the most accomplished air guitarist, very chunky and crunchy stuff topped with some great solos. Good progressive songs with a nice portion of heaviness, some very interesting and surprising twists and turns, lots of depth. Sometimes the hard riffing and weird rhythms remind me of Meshuggah on valium. The only thing I'm not too keen on is the sax on "Divided". It's hard to pick a favourite on an album with so many great songs, but "Lethe's Bowl" stands out for me. And watch out for the surprising and amusing cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It"! Now all the guys have to do is come to Germany. 9/10 MADDER MORTEN - Mercury (Misanthropy Records 019) If you like The 3rd And The Mortal and you want more music like this without listening to a clone, then get Madder Morten. This is how this album was recommended to me, and it's how I'll recommend it to you. Mercury features all of the aspects that makes The Mortal so fascinating to me - sometimes heavy, often etherial, very experimental, melancholy and searching. Creative use of samples, multi-layered guitar parts, and the haunting voice of Agnette Kirkevaag combined with the ability to write unusual but catchy tunes make Madder Morten a band with a future. My favourite here has to be "Remnants", a track based on a simple bass riff in which the vocals and guitars drift in and out, giving you tantalizing glimpses of what you think might be there. 8/10 MASTERMIND - Excelsior! (InsideOut IOMCD 033) OK, call me ignorant, but I'd never heard of Mastermind until now, and I can only say if the rest of their stuff is even remotely as good as this little beauty, then I've been missing a lot of good music. As far as I know, the band consists of the brothers Bill Berends (guitars, midi guitar), and Rich Berends (drums), supported by various guest musicians. In this case, it is our very own Jens Johansson from Stratovarius on keyboards. Cold beer in hand (courtesy of Uli's Musicland, the best CD dealer in Germany http://www.ulismusic.de/) I popped the CD into the player and had absolutely no idea of what to expect. I was grabbed from the very beginning and didn't land again until I'd listened to the whole album in a trance-like state. Try and imagine Mahavishnu Orchestra playing their early stuff with the heaviness and technology of the late 90s - that's what this album is about. Prog metal meets jazz fusion. Everything fits together perfectly. The drums are a real instrument, not just percussion, the interplay between guitar and keys is spot-on, and the guitar work is so like McLaughlin it's almost scarry. What do I mean "like McLaughlin"? Perhaps "inspired by" would be better, because these tunes aren't rip-offs. Complex structures, solos big enough to sink the Titanic, and everything tighter than Graham Borland's wallet (don't forget he's Scotish). I can say now that this will be one of my top 5 albums of the year, regardless of what is still to be released. I can't recommend this one strongly enough. The sounds of the midi guitar and the guitar synths took me back to my youth, when I grew up listening to stuff like this. For me, "Sky Dancer" is the outstanding track, with the drums playing a driving "tribal" melody on which the keyboards and guitar can gyrate and pirouete about each other. Having listened to this album I can tear up my prescription for Viagra. I hate to do this to you Jens, but 10/10 hardly says enough about what I think of this album. SUNDOWN - Glimmer (Century Media 77250-2) Mathias Lodmalm created Sundown when he disbanded Cemetary. Their first effort, "Design 19" which featured Johnny Hagel from Tiamat, didn't quite live up to its expectations, even though it went a long way towards combining traditional gothic with metal. The new album continues on this path, adding industrial and stoner elements in combination with some good samples and overlays to produce a sound that is cold, dark, hard and threatening. This is the bastard child of Rammstein, Die Krupps and Nine Inch Nails. Very well arranged and produced, the overall feel of the album is experimental, with Lodmalm's voice seeming to come from hyperspace where is it distorted just as much as the midi guitar that is used extensively. Techo beats pump out of the speakers only to be trodden on by the driving bass and the heavy riffs. Metal/gothic or gothic/metal? Who cares, I like it and I'm prepared to give it a well earned 8/10. TESTAMENT - The Gathering (USG Records USG 1033-2) Grind, grind, grind, thrash, thrash, thrash. Nuff said? OK, I'll elaborate a bit - one of the best thrash metal bands ever is back, and as Emperor Caligula said "this time it's no more Mr. Nice Guy". This album is an ugly son of a bitch - if it were a baby, its parents would only take it out with a bag over its head (and at night). 45 minutes and 11 songs of full speed thrash. No finesse, no niceties, no long wanky songs, just power, raw, hard power. That's not to say that the musicianship suffers - on the contrary, some of James Murphy's guitar solos are simply excellent, and Dave Lombardo's drumming can be positively sick, especially his double bass work on my favourite song "Legions Of The Dead". Put the cat out, warn the neighbours, turn it up and party! Why do I have images of Beavis and Butthead head banging in my mind when I listen to this album? File next to Machine Head and Slayer. 9/10 WELTENBRAND - Der Untergang Von Trisona (MOS Records MOS030 CD) The contrast to Testament could hardly be greater. This album is very dreamy gothic/darkwave that has a very strong medieval feel to it. Very heavy on the keyboards, you won't find any guitars here. What you will find, however, are two lady violinist, one female and one male singer, and some very majestic, rich and flowing music. WeltenBrand have also managed to avoid one of the pitfalls so common to this type of music - it isn't in the slightest bombastic, just atmospheric. A couple of the tracks are instrumental ("Manes Ed Lapidem", with its obvious Celtic influences and which could easliy have come from an album by Loreena McKennitt, being worthy of particular mention), while the other tracks tell folk stories from the imaginary land of Trisonia. Highly musical, very varied and very relaxing. The vocal arrangements are often in the form of dialogs, with the male and female parts singing more to each other than to the listener. A special note worth mentioning is the guest appearance of Liv Kristine from Theatre Of Tragedy on the last track. 9/10 That's all from me for now. Comments, feedback or questions about these reviews and albums welcome (especially from Marcel and Jens). stay safe and happy listening Neil Gallop (nga@software-ag.de) Currently playing: PALE FOREST - Transformation Hymns ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 10:01:07 -0400 (CLT) From: "Miguel Farah F." To: email_address_removed Subject: Re: YTSEJAM digest 4972 Message-ID: > >Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 18:00:02 EDT >From: email_address_removed >To: email_address_removed >Subject: Mergers and CDNow >Message-ID: > > >A common victim of Darwinian Capitalism is competition. At first a large >entity comes onto the scene (you could use the example of Best Buy) and sells >a similar product (in this case cds) for a lower price than the smaller >competition (Kemp Mill, Camelot, whoever). The consumer, seeking to get the >best deal, then buys all his cds (in our case, mostly domestic-release cds) >at Best Buy due to superior price and selection. Next thing you know, the >competition goes under (this process took a few years in the case of Best >Buy) and the prices go up; way up. Upto here, you're right. >To apply this lesson to CDNow, their prices are superior to any other online >vendor (especially with the $x-off deals). CDNow has swallowed up its major No, they're not. CD Universe and CD connection are both cheaper than CD Now. As a matter of fact, my first option is CD Universe, UNLESS I get hold of a CD Now coupon - and then, not in every case CDN prices beat CDU. >competitor (Music Boulevard) and now a merger with the only other major >mail-order cd vendor, the cycle is about to be complete. Will CDNow's prices >go up? I have to believe they will. What can we, the buyer do? Not much. >In a market where price is king, this is the way of the world, and we can >only hope another CD "gas station" opens on the next corner. The idea that >distributors may be owning sales outlets, while helping them, is disturbing >to the consumer because another gas station, so to speak, may not be able to >get its gas at a reasonable price. We better hope there is a counterweight >or else cd prices are going to go up... I'll worry if CD Now merges with Amazon.com, not before. Besides, if prices DO go up, they'll reach a point where it be economically feasible to set up a new store to compete with it. -- MIGUEL FARAH // miguel@webhost.cl #include // http://www.webhost.cl/~miguel <*> "Trust me - I know what I'm doing." - Sledge Hammer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:51:43 +0300 From: Michael Zachariadis To: Ytsejam List Subject: re:Internet Radio Message-ID: Hi there A good source for Progressive music on the internet is Spinner. Go to http://www.Spinner.com, download the spinner plus, install it. There are many different channels among others, rock, metal ,progressive......just check it out. Later Mike ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 10:36:14 -0400 From: "trsgroup" To: "YTSEJAM" Subject: DREAM THEATER MERCHANDISE*** Message-ID: <006901beced7$95457440$message_id_removed> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01BECEAD.DCC4C660 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hey, Check out the cool DT merchandise at: =20 www.trsgroup.com see you there! www.trsgroup.com ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01BECEAD.DCC4C660 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
    Hey,
 
    Check out the = cool DT=20 merchandise at: 
 
 
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------=_NextPart_000_000B_01BECEAD.DCC4C660-- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 16:18:09 +0000 (GMT) From: Brian Hansen To: email_address_removed Subject: re: Jethro Tull Message-ID: Someone asked: > hey .. i'm not sure why but i've still yet to pick up a jethro tull or > moody blues cd Jethro Tull - Aqualung. It's considered one of their best albums. It's sort of a concept album, with many great songs. If you don't know anything about Tull, it's 70's style, lot's acoustic guitar and flute, but it also have it's share of 70's style electric guitar (which isn't very heavy in today's terms). BH _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 09:27:19 -0500 From: Paul Fini To: email_address_removed Subject: re: Mergers and CDNow Message-ID: Kevin wrote: >To apply this lesson to CDNow, their prices are superior to any other online >vendor (especially with the $x-off deals). CDNow has swallowed up its major >competitor (Music Boulevard) and now a merger with the only other major >mail-order cd vendor, the cycle is about to be complete. Will CDNow's prices >go up? I have to believe they will. What can we, the buyer do? Not much. >In a market where price is king, this is the way of the world, and we can >only hope another CD "gas station" opens on the next corner. The idea that >distributors may be owning sales outlets, while helping them, is disturbing >to the consumer because another gas station, so to speak, may not be able to >get its gas at a reasonable price. We better hope there is a counterweight >or else cd prices are going to go up... I used to order quite a bit from CDNow (and occasionally from Music Boulevard) since they often had good deals, especially with coupons such as those often advertised on the 'jam. But then I started ordering from smaller vendors such as CDConnection (www.cdconnection.com) and Pentagon Records (www.pentagon.net), which may not have the slick interface of the big hitters, but definitely they compete price-wise. I've been particularly impressed with Pentagon's selection, since I've had a hard time "stumping" them on harder-to- find CDs. So as far as I'm concerned, competition is alive and well on the web, and with enough support from price-conscious consumers, it'll stay that way. Long live the small guy! p. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. Paul T. Fini U.C. Santa Barbara email_address_removed Materials Dept. voice (805)893-8869, fax (805)893-8971 MOCVD group -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. -.-- -.-- --.. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 12:37:28 AST From: "TheCowGod ." To: email_address_removed Subject: re: Jethro Tull Message-ID: >From: Brian Hansen >Subject: re: Jethro Tull > >Jethro Tull - Aqualung. > >It's considered one of their best albums. It's sort of i dont see why. it's good, but not nearly as good as Thick as a Brick, i think. i guess it's just a matter of differing opinions, but especially as a prog fan, i find Thick as a Brick much more enjoyable. For those that don't know, the album is essentially one 45-minute song. I would definitely reccomend thick as a brick before aqualung. moo. *** END OF TRANSMISSION *** ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 13:21:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Steve Chew To: email_address_removed Subject: Re: Mullmuzzler... Message-ID: > > As the subject says....Anyway I remember someone posting a link to >some radio site or something with a song called "His Voice" off Mullmuzzler >and was wondering if they could post it again as well as links to anything >else off this album. > Hi, You can find the Mullmuzzler sample at the URL below. Try the NV2.2 sample to hear it: http://musicsojourn.com/Playlists/Night_Vision/NV_SG.htm The quality isn't that high, but it sounds like it will be a cool song! Steve ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 13:41:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Steve Chew To: email_address_removed Subject: Re: Mullmuzzler correction... Message-ID: > > As the subject says....Anyway I remember someone posting a link to >some radio site or something with a song called "His Voice" off Mullmuzzler >and was wondering if they could post it again as well as links to anything >else off this album. > Correction on that last Mullmuzzler message. The sample you want for the Mullmuzzler is Program NV-2.6. The URL was right: http://musicsojourn.com/Playlists/Night_Vision/NV_SG.htm Steve ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 20:30:56 +0000 (GMT) From: Brian Hansen To: email_address_removed Subject: re: Mergers and CDNow Message-ID: ]From: email_address_removed > A common victim of Darwinian Capitalism is competition... > Next thing you know, the competition goes under... and the prices go up; way up. > To apply this lesson to CDNow, their prices are superior to any other > online vendor (especially with the $x-off deals). > Will CDNow's prices go up? I have to believe they will. >The idea that distributors may be owning sales outlets, while helping them, is > disturbing to the consumer because another gas station, so to speak, may > not be able to get its gas at a reasonable price. --- Yes, prices will probably go up with CDNow in the future. Another thing you have to consider is the "getting ready to sell the business syndrome". Many business owners will offer deep discounts to make their business look better (in terms of numbers of sales, volume, and customer base) right before they sell. This is probably the case with CDNow, where it seemed that they were losing money on many of those deals (coupons). After the sale (or merger) the new owners raise prices to make more (or start to make) profits. Lucky for us, it's fairly easy for new competition to pop up against CDNow. Anyone could start selling over the web tommorrow. It's the distributors and record companies that can get together and raise prices, since they basically have a monopoly. (Unless some artist decides to do it all themself, like Kevin Moore did with Chromakey). my $.02, BH _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 15:32:39 -0500 From: Dave Ware To: "'email_address_removed'" Subject: MP Video in the Fall... Message-ID: <63E392974AF3D211A88600104B93BD8B02D845@bham-xchg> Hey guys, Just followed a link from MPs site to Hudson Music (http://www.hudsonmusic.com). They are doing a Video with Mike slated for Fall 99, this is what it says... "We will videotape Mike in the same studio in Upstate New York that Dream Theater has just recorded its latest album in. The plan is to show Mike playing his drum parts along with the master tracks from the new album, with the actual recorded drum tracks mixed out-a first class "music-minus-one" lesson. He will then break down and slowly demonstrate his drum parts for each tune and discuss the ideas behind their development" Oh baby, does that sound good or what, I see all the Drummers on the list (including myself) will be buying more than just the new Album when it comes out. Dave (a UK Jammer - currently in Alabama). NP : It Bites - Once Around The World. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 16:57:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Steve Chew To: email_address_removed Subject: Re: Mullmuzzler... Message-ID: Does anyone know when James LaBrie's Mullmuzzler CD is due out? I listened to the sample (see previous messages for URL) a couple times today and I want that CD! ;) Steve ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 12:47:42 +0200 From: CyberDuke To: "email_address_removed" Subject: Spock's Beard live? Message-ID: Does anyone know if SB do tours in Europe? Which cities? Are they big enough to do world tours? Still don't own any album of the dudes, but I gotta see them live, judging from jammers gig reviews and some songs I heard from SB! :) Any news on the Vai new stuff yet? :( -- CyberDuke ________________________________________ "Lisa, get away from that jazzer!" - Simpsons ________________________________________ ------------------------------ End of YTSEJAM Digest 4974 **************************