HW/OFF: while I'm at it...

[Captain Bl@ck]

Dunno, but I'd be interested to read it. Negative criticism is good for ego
balancing and reminding us we're not immortal.  Perhaps I should send him a
copy.

Captain Bl at ck


----- Original Message -----
From: ANDREW GARIBALDI <andygee at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: HW/OFF: while I'm at it...


> Dunno what prompted Jon to do this - maybe I missed something - but it
does
> throw up a few points that I'd like to answer - can't wait to see what he
> says about the Starfield album - wonder if he'll feel the same about an
> album done by a guy who actually plays in Hawkwind!!!
> For those interested, read on, otherwise the rest of you move on to your
> next e.mail..
> Andy Garibaldi (the guy who runs Dead Earnest on which label the Krel
album
> is released)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jon Jarrett" <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
> To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 12:07 AM
> Subject: HW/OFF: while I'm at it...
>
>
>          Dear All,
>                     and here is a review of Krel's _Ad Astra_. I
>  particularly enjoyed the spot-the-HW-riff bit and recommend that everyone
> gets a copy to play this game themselves :-)
> REPLY>>>>Tad cynical but at least you're recommending it so thanks for
that.
> ------------------------
>          "Krel are one of the few remaining British space-rock groups. Or
> they were. They started in the early eighties I believe, shedding various
> people who went on to form Spacehead, PXR1 and Cellular Structure and some
> time two or three years ago finally went pling leaving one Martin M with
the
> name. He is now Krel. And though they were apparently very highly thought
of
> on the scene in the early nineties, only now (well, 1999) has
>  anything more album-like than limited edition cassettes emerged. And
since
> it's all Martin's work I wonder how much it's like proper Krel. But
anyway.
> REPLY>>>>>>>>>>>>No such thing as 'proper Krel' - the early albums will
all
> be released onto CD, so you can hear the old Krel for yourself and no
doubt
> compare it to the new Krel, and soon we may have the debut CD from
> CyberKrel - it's all an ongoing process.
> ----------------------
>          "This album is a very good example of a phenomenon that really
> irritates me in the British underground. By which I mean that its a very
>  good album within that phenomenon. That phenomenon is the inability of
> British space-rock to do anything more than rip off, imitate and generally
> fail to get over Hawkwind.
> REPLY>>>>>>>>>There is no attempt to 'rip-off' Hawkwind on this album,
> musically, but when you're a musician into Hawkwind and space-rock who is
> very heavily influenced by them, what do you expect - Yes samples!!! The
> accusation of imitation may irritate you but I have always said that if
> something is worthwhile musically, even if it sounds like someone else, it
> is still worthwhile musically and you simply can't argue with that. This
> album is a worthwhile and highly enjoyable musical statement and you can't
> say fairer than that.
> --------------------------
> Now, Hawkwind are a lgend, and though they do turn out some crap they are
> capable of complete transcendence and no-one else does it the same way.
But
> Krel and Spacehead particularly seem to be unable to get further than
> recycling those riffs and putting new lyrics on
>  the old themes (Hawkwind haven't dedicatedly sung about space since the
> early seventies)
> REPLY>>>>>>>>Hang on a minute - Hawkwind can go from crap to transcendence
> and that's OK, but every other band has to be transcedent AND original all
> the time - not fair, that one - and Hawkwind still sing about space live
in
> concert, even if not on CD, although I'll bet that's arguable.
> ----------------------------
> . Now, this is a good album. The keyboards are very nice, the textures
good,
> the samples well-chosen and placed, and the playing of the other
instruments
> cant be complained about. Even the sleeve is nice although the fact that
all
> the information is inside the booklet annoys me
>  - it would be nice to check a track number without extracting it.
> REPLY>>>>>>>>>>yes - blame me for that. It was the first CD we released
and
> we made mistakes - I should have put more on the back but we loved that
> photo treatment - incidentally, without using any special lenses, the
cover
> is South of France and the inside and booklet back are looking over the
> delights of Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire from a higher point in
> Etruria, a mile or two away.
> ---------------------------
>  I am often hyper-critical of the stuff that gets claimed as "better than
> Hawkwind" or "reminiscent of Hawkwind at their best so I'll try and make
> clear again before I launch into the diatribe that there are lots of good
> points about this album and I do like it
> REPLY>>>>>>>>>Thanks for the comments - not sure if I ever claimed it was
> 'better than' (check that old promotion!!!) but compared to something like
> 'Distant Horizons', this is sensational stuff - all a matter of opinion I
> suppose, but I go back to my previous statement - this is a class album
> regardless of who or what it sounds like.
> -------------------------
> . The only musical argument I have with it per se is that Martin isnt a
> great singer, and that he mixes his vocals too loud. This is a particular
> problem on the second part of the first track, `Towers', which has a
> deliberately arythmic vocal. So the riff just gets established (and its
not
> a brilliant riff, but it does) and you're just hooking onto it when the
> words arrive and throw you off it. Once you know when they're coming in
its
> OK but on first listen that is not good.
> REPLY>>>>>>>>Your taste, but what you are saying, in that it is an
original
> treatment of the style, while it may irritate you, goes against the
> accusation of lack of originality. He's loud so you can hear the words -
not
> exxactly Shakespeare, but for us it all fits well together
> --------------
>          "The lyrics are not too bad. Spacehead have the wrst lyrics in
the
> world, the sort of junk spacerock set to Motorhead-like patterns that you
> can generate for hours on end, rhyming `space' with `race' and so on.
> REPLY>>>>errr......I don't release Spacehead for their mastery of the
> English language - fair point but they freely admit a heavy Hawk influence
> to the degree you say, but we like it and that is our only criteria for
> releasing CD's.
> --------------------
>  This stuff is much better, the same pattern but unexpected words and
things
> that sound thoughtful. And though the early rock tracks have a bit too
much
> of the singalong bounce about them,
> REPLY>>>>>ahh - commerciality - sometimes you can't do right for doing
> wrong!!!!
> ---------------
> REPLY: I won't bore you with replies to the specific tracks, just to say
> that it is nit-picking in the minutest detail to say that a part of a riff
> sounds like something out of a Hawkwind song and then sort of damn it with
> faint praise, especially on an album where this has simply not happened on
a
> conscious basis, if at all.
> ---------------------------
> "So, in conclusion, it's a good approach at doing Hawkwind classics in
> nineties dressing, and if Hawkwind still put spacerock of this quality out
> they would still be legendary. The fact that Krel too are drawing on
> Hawkwind's past glories should not be allowed to detract from the fact
that
> they do it well. But so do Hawkwind. How many parrot acts do we need? And
> when will someone do something new?"
> REPLY>>>>>>>>>>>>>Need? It's not a question of 'need' - if a space-rock
> group does a great album, it's greeted with acclaim and people buy it - if
> Hawkwind do a poor album, people still buy it - if Hawkwind did an album
you
> hated, you'd still buy it 'for the collection' - and something new? After
40
> years of the music industry in the 'modern era', there's very little 'new'
> (in the sense that you've never heard anything like it before ) under the
> sun - you could lay the ghost of many a Krautrock band of the seventies
> against many of the USA space-rock bands in a similar manner!!) but there
is
> tons and tons of great music out there - always has been, always will be,
> and hopefully we'll weigh in with a few along the way at Dead Earnest.
> Andy Garibaldi (speaking for/as Krel/Dead Earnest)