HW: Dave Brock - Memos And Demos / Notes And Quotes

[Stephan Forstner]

As previously mentioned, this has more guitar on it than Spacebrock -
basically I think you can take equal parts Spacebrock (the album), the Brock
tracks on Distant Horizons, and Electric Teepee, mix well, and add a
sprinkling of Earthed to the Ground, Agents of Chaos, and Alien 4, and
you've got M&D. Here's a breakdown of the album tracks, for you to elaborate
on or disagree with:

1. Clouded Vision - same song as on Distant Horizons, but different version,
with continuous percussion and much stronger guitars. Going back to DH to
compare this track with the 'final' version brought up two points for me -
first, despite it's being out for a bunch of years I'm still not all that
familiar with DH, second, this is more proof that Dave should unleash his
guitar.

2. 3. State of Mind (instr)(vocal) - new-to-me piece in an energetic
guitar-centric Electric Teepee style. Putting in 2 versions isn't padding,
they sound different enough to me. Although the piece as a whole is new,
parts of it were recycled - some of the lyrics went on to be part of Right
to Decide, and some of the musical ideas appeared in Love in Space.

4. Tune-ing In - another 'new' track - starts out very promisingly, with
driving guitars, but after about a minute it drops into faux-reggae mode and
pretty much stays there for the bulk of the track. Oh well.

5. Kauai - very similar to if not the same as the Spacebrock version.

6. Morpheus - new track, unfamiliar lyrics/music, with a tribal rhythm
underpinning it and alternating guitar and synth sections.

7. Find the Right Way - similar to but longer than The Right Way on
Spacebrock, and with percussion.

8. Didn't Have a Problem - new track, good lyrics, synths and guitars. For
some reason I see this as fitting in well on the Dave Brock and the Agents
of Chaos LP.

9. Luna - another new track, a guitar-based rocker in the Electric Teepee
vein. Depressing lyrics about sudden death and suicide.

10. Love in Space - pretty much most of the final elements of this song are
in place on this demo version.

11. Surreal Sex Dreams - uses the vocal sample from Sex Dreams on Spacebrock
and has a chugging rhythm, but is a rather different version. The rhythm
here is done with heavy/sampled guitars (as on I Am the Eye That Looks
Within/Blue Skin), there is also quite a bit of 'live' guitar going on as
well, and the vocal sample from The Nazca also makes an appearance. Much
better version IMHO.

12. Just Drifting - a mellow synth/percussion piece. Some of the elements
sound familiar but I can't place them.

13. Sweet Obsession - song 1st appeared on Earthed to the Ground but in a
different form than here.

14. Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk - Do You Want This Body from
Spacebrock but w/o the Cuckoo's Nest sample.

15. Space Riders and Sex Dreams - like SSD, this has a driving rhythm
created with sampled guitars, and both The Nazca sample and the Sex Dreams
sample appear again. The second half of the track sounds pretty much like
SSD w/o the 'live' guitar.

16. Distant Islands - another mellow synth/percussion piece - again parts of
it sound vaguely familiar but I can't place them.

Over to you,
Stephan