Epinions Recent Reviews for spacefrog

The mellow Beefheart

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:39:16 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Don van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, is often cited as a major influence for artists such as PJ Harvey, The Fall, Public Image Limited or fIREHOSE, to name just a few in a long list. At the same time, Captain Beefheart's discography...

A Bit of This and A Bit of That

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:03:13 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - I'm not somebody who easily buys Best of and compilation albums, because I think that an album should a bit more than a bunch tracks slapped together on a CD. Ideally, an album should be the musical expression of what an artist (or a band) has to say at...

Clunkers and Pearls

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 10:09:38 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Anita Lane's first album Dirty Pearl, released back in 1993 on Mute Records, had been quite a miracle, since the tracks recorded during ten years in Australia and Europe, partly already released on different albums, presented in reverse...

A soundtrack full of cover versions

Sat, 2 Apr 2005 07:38:55 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - **** your dreams, this is heaven is the quite obscure original soundtrack of a video-film I never managed to see. I heard about this album back in the eighties, when it was released. I was listening to the British Forces Broadcasting Services...

Skip this

Sun, 22 Aug 2004 18:16:37 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Given my interest in Ryuichi Sakamoto (I actually own 13 of his albums), it was quite predictable that I would want to check out the Yellow Magic Orchestra (also known as YMO), the band that Ryuichi Sakamoto founded together with Yukihiro...

Not New and Not Improved

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 11:37:30 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - The extremely prolific Japanese composer, musician and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto became a Japanese pop icon during the eighties while he was a member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. He earned international recognition for his various movie soundtracks and...

Malcolm goes, Damo comes

Sat, 19 Jun 2004 19:45:07 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - The German band Can existed from 1968 to 1978 and reunited briefly in 1986 to record a last album. The band is sometimes categorized as 'kraut rock', but I prefer the label 'progressive rock'. Soundtracks was Can's second album after...

Rare tracks from the San Francisco era

Sun, 30 May 2004 10:03:06 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Writing about Tuxedomoon is like walking on quick sand, not only because of the band's constantly changing line-up, but also because of the Tuxedomoon's deliberate intention to ignore the habitual boundaries between alternative rock and electronic...

Shallow Gold

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 15:00:58 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - It is not my habit to establish any lists of favorite albums, tracks or musicians, but if I would try to make up a list of my favorite drummers, Anton Fier certainly would figure among the top 5. His drumming is heavy and yet extremely precise on Bob...

No longer and not yet

Sun, 4 Jan 2004 10:02:50 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - David Sylvian earned first fame as the leader of the British new wave band Japan, that was disbanded by Sylvian at the peak of its fame. A few years later, David Sylvian reemerged with the quite jazzy solo album Brilliant Trees, followed...

Makes my Day

Wed, 19 Nov 2003 12:05:12 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Since Secrets of the Beehive, David Sylvian is expected to make sad, beautiful ballads and atmospheric tracks at the very border of ambient music. Of course, this is only one side of David Sylvian's complex personality, and energetic and funky...

How strange indeed

Sun, 9 Nov 2003 12:43:48 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Tuxedomoon has never been an average new wave band, not during its first period, when the band was still in the United States, and even less during its European period. The Ghost Sonata is probably the band's most ambitious project. Aroun...

a haunting new age masterpiece

Sun, 21 Sep 2003 11:57:33 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - The first time I heard Jon Hassell's trumpet was during the eighties, on the Talking Heads album Remain In Light. And then again on David Sylvian's first solo album Brilliant trees. This was enough to make me curious, although...

Feels like being stuck in an elevator

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 09:00:46 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - The grass is green. The grass is green so green. I looked outside and I have seen that the grass is...

Good Music - Bad Compilation

Thu, 26 Jun 2003 11:31:42 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Captain Beefheart alias Don Van Vliet is known for being a friend and fellow musician of Frank Za...

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo record

Sun, 30 Mar 2003 08:02:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Ryuichi Sakamoto is certainly one of the most prolific and versatile Japanese composers and performers of the 80's and 90's, mainly in the field of synthesizer based pop music. He has been a member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and is also known...

Killer loops from Houston TX

Sat, 25 Jan 2003 18:03:05 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - The Pain Teens from Houston were formed by multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer Scott Ayers and female singer Bliss Blood (who wrote the lyrics too), completed by David Parker on drums and Steve Cook on electric bass. Ralf Armin plays guitar on 3...

Early Can tracks

Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:50:31 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Can is certainly the most creative and influential German rock band, and their most important works are: Monster Movie (1969), Soundtracks (1970), Tago Mago (1971) Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973), the last album with Damo Suzuki on vocals...

Cologne, this is where I lived...

Wed, 20 Nov 2002 10:38:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - If you come to Cologne as a tourist, you'll be happy to know that 90% of the tourist attractions are located in a quite small area around the Gothic Cathedral, the Dom, and the Central Station, the Hauptbahnhof: Historical and Art Museums,...

Hail Hail

Thu, 31 Oct 2002 10:47:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Around 1990, Thinking Plague members Bob Drake and Susanne Lewis have spent several weeks in the First Film Studios of Denver Colorado to record their sophomore album Turn of the Screw. According to rumors, singer Susanne Lewis was unable...

Dark Companion

Tue, 22 Oct 2002 09:58:08 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Bob Mould has a certain tendency of making an almost uplifting album followed by a rather dark one. This was the case for Beaster the follow up of Copper Blue and some years earlier for Black Sheets of Rain the album after the...

Are You All Set?

Wed, 5 Dec 2001 11:14:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Looking retrospectively at the evolution from Another Music in a Different Kitchen to Love bites and finally A Different Kind of Tension, we see a downward spiral: All the energy and determination from the first album (think of songs...

Welcome to David Sylvian's obscure debut

Fri, 19 Jan 2001 11:32:27 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - If David Sylvian had three wishes, one of them might be to make all copies of this album disappear. But instead of making assumptions, I'll better tell my story about this album.

When I was an adolescent, I used to listen to the radio and I...

The Art of Punk

Wed, 13 Dec 2000 07:06:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - Père Ubu is a filthy, selfish and ignorant king (Père is French and means father). Père Ubu was invented by the French author Alfred Jarry at the beginning of the 20th century. Père Ubu started as a bad joke and...

special treatment

Thu, 16 Nov 2000 17:55:15 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author spacefrog - The following review completes my review of Desire/No Tears where I give some information about the line-up and history of the band.

This Tuxedomoon re-release on the Belgian label Crammed Discs comprises an LP (Half-Mute)...