(Off) space ritual get it now or forget it. "Naked" reviewed

[trev]

thanks very much  eli,

you are a true blessed one.
i was actually a bit worried about releasing a desk mix (and as it says on 
the cover, the technical quality of the first track is a bit iffy), but i 
knew that performance had a bit of majic and there was great empathy between 
all the musicians involved.
we set off on that tour (as usual) after a two hour rehearsal. i had never 
played with tommy, paul, or joe before, and neither had jim or rick. i was 
jamming along with whatever was going on for a lot of the songs but the 
superb rythm section of tomy, paul, and joe carried the day (tommy and paul 
were the only ones who actually knew the set thoroughly), apart from nik, 
but he doesn't count..lol
i must add that the final gig of that tour was at glastonbury festival, and 
that was one of the best gigs i have ever been involved with...ever. i met a 
young..(ish) ron tree, who was in the audience..he bought a tape off me...

i was a bit pissed (drunk) when i wrote that last post, but i think that it 
was due a lot to mike colemans bad influence (as usual).

trev

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <EliPXR5 at AOL.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 7:23 PM
Subject: Re: (Off) space ritual get it now or forget it. "Naked" reviewed


> In a message dated 12/14/07 5:16:51 PM, judge48 at HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>> and i see (as usual) that no one has posted anything positive about NAKED
>> yet, apart from my lovely BLESSED ONES.
>>
>
> Well, Judge, let's rectify that right now. I just received my copy of 
> Space
> Ritual "Naked" from you a few days back, (thanks to my good friend Mike 
> Coleman
> for arranging it), and I've finally had time to sit down and listen to it.
> And I'll say right off that I totally enjoyed it. This CD is a live 
> recording of
> Space Ritual in Freiburg, Germany on their 1994 European tour. But other 
> than
> front man Nik Turner this band is an entirely different line-up than the
> group that consists of several former Hawkwind members that have been 
> touring for
> the last few years. Instead this line up contains Judge Trev Thoms of ICU 
> on
> lead guitar, Rik Welsh (a frequent Turner cohort) on trumpet, Commander 
> Jim
> Hawkman on synths and vocals, Joe Blake on drums, and two American based 
> space
> rockers Tommy Grenas (who iirc is originally from Ireland) on rhythm 
> guitar and
> Paul Fox on bass. Grenas and Fox were also part of Nik Turners two 
> American
> Space Ritual bands in 1994 and 1995. The duo were also a recording and 
> touring
> act under the name The Brain in the nineties, supporting a reunited 
> Cluster on
> tour in the U.S. Grenas and Fox were also half of the band Pressurehead, 
> and
> Tommy Grenas also was a member of Farflung, The Anubian Lights, a latter 
> day
> incarnation of Chrome with Helios Creed, and has performed and recorded 
> with the
> Damo Suzuki Network. So their space rock pedigree is pretty firmly based.
> This is the first full length document ever released of this line up. Two 
> songs
> by this band (Thoth and Ejection) from a peformance on this same tour from 
> a
> gig in Holland appeared on the Nik Turner double CD set Transglobal 
> Friends and
> Relations, but its nice to have this full length recording available after 
> all
> this time.
> The CD is titled "Naked" because it is a straight from board tape to CD
> recording, no overdubs or tweaks. That being said, the audio quality is 
> quite
> excellent throughout. The only problem with the sound is that owing to the 
> neeed to
> flip sides on the board tape the very end of "Ejection" gets slightly cut, 
> as
> does the beginning of "Brainstorm". However these two defects really don't
> significantly detract from what is otherwise a very nicely balanced and 
> clean
> recording. The performance however is the thing...and the band does rock 
> out. As
> the great Judge threatened...his guitar shredding does perfectly fill the
> void left by the absence of the also great Helios Creed from the American 
> tour
> that preceded this European tour. Where Creed's sound was more evocative 
> of
> distress cries from broken down space ships (intended as a compliment), 
> Judge Trev
> comes on with a much more ferocious, metallic kind of approach and is just
> scorching for most of the set. The set list includes some Hawkwind 
> favorites
> like Watching the Grass Grow, a nice take on Sonic Attack with some cool 
> synths
> and background effects. Masters of the Universe, Orgone Accumulator, the
> previously mentioned Calvert classic Ejection, Brainstorm, and a long 
> jamming
> rendition of Silver machine. But the highlight of the show for me is a 
> great version
> of Thoth, from Nik Turner's Sphynx project which just crackles and sizzles
> with cosmic energy, and the nice jazzy feel of the Roland Kirk 
> instrumental
> Serenade to a Cuckoo.
> So thanks very much Judge Trev. Nice one. If you've got any more 
> recordings
> from this tour lying around don't hesitate to get them out. I'd be very 
> happy
> to hear other shows from this tour. And for fans of Nik Turner, and people 
> who
> enjoyed his live releases from the nineties I would think this is as 
> essential
> as "Space Ritual '94" or "Past and Future".
> Eli Friedman (a real person, not a Judge Trev alias.swear.)
>
>
>
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