HW: And other stuff too

[Mark Lee]

And lo, from almost utter silence did I return to pass comment thusly,
following
the arrival of these many missives in my tray of in:-

>> > > P.P.P.S.  I'm ignoring Tangerine Dream because I don't know enough
about
>> > > them...I see merit in their first 'rock' album (Electronic Meditation),
>> but
>> > > I was bored with 'Zeit.'
>>
>> Tangerine Dream has long been one of my obsessions.  The band is pretty
much
>> useless now (and has been for quite some time-- at least a decade), but the
>> earlier stuff is some of the greatest experimental music of all time.
Until

[ big snip here ]

I've been into TD since around '74 and have most of the relased material since
EM came out, my intro to the music was finding my old fella half stoned and
lying on the floor listening to this weird noise - I waited several days
until he
was out and then had a listen for myself, hooked...  I think that there is
merit in
most of the albums including the more commercial ones of the last few years
but have to agree I'd rather listen to the earlier material, usually
Tangram or
Phaedra though I play the the Dream Mixes quite regularly and very loudly.
Along with most of the TD 'purists' I hate the vocalised material with
passion,
the exception being Tyger - one of the best treatments of William Blake
I've ever
come across.  It was actually through listening to TD that I was first given
a taste of Hakwind - on of my mates heard my playing Rubycon and told
me I just had to try some of his HW collection, followed by Floyd, Yes, and
old Genesis.  I don't care what anybody says, without bands of TD and HW
creative stature then music as we know it today would still be no more
adventurous than Status bloody Quo.


Then there was this,

>Andy Gilham writes:
>
>> > Isn't there a tendency to rubbish anybody doing a front(wo)man role in HW
>> > post-Calvert?
>> >
>> > Ian
>> > ian at abrahamsi.freeserve.co.uk
>> >
>>
>> I suppose there is, but that's just because Bob was the best, and a real
>> one-off.  Ron's a likeable bloke, but he's no Calvert.
>>
>> (And I thought he looked disturbingly like Adam Ant at Croydon :)
>
>Hmmmm, Maybe they could get Adam Ant into the band?
>
>If they can't get Tim Blake or Simon House back permanently though,
>perhaps they could speak nicely to Ed Alleyne Johnson...

I second that as long as he leaves Denise at home, that guy makes some
mean music - just the thought of him reproducing some of the soundscapes
from Ultraviolet with Baron Brock is mouth-watering. However when 20-20 vision
got played I hated most of it purely for the vocals - the only track that
worked
for me was White Rabbits.

There are loads of other really interesting snippets from people saying
so-and-so was the best, we all have our fave line-ups and fondest
memories etc - my view is that for whatever reason the line-up has
changed with sometimes startling speed but that the music has
rarely failed to be creative in some respect, even when it's been a rehash
of earlier material.  For me at least nobody could replace Rob Calvert
but I have to say that Ron came closest to giving a stage performance
which was anything like as visually entertaining - well done Ron.

Those who like a really SOLID bass line would likely favour Alan, as do
I  on many tracks but Huw is best for other stuff, it's all a matter of
balance.

Anyway - meetings to got to, later guys,

Mark.