Twine [Enhanced]

1. G_R_V

2. Plectrum

3. Piano

4. Girl Song

5. Kalea Morning

6. Pendant

7. Asa Nisi Masa

8. Counting Off Again

9. Strobe

Twine,Twine,Ghostly Int'l,Dance Music,Experimental Ambient,Pop,Rock/Pop

The Color Purple (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
Average customer rating:

Where's Fantasia when you need her

Purple Passion

Just Like Being There!

Still gives me shivers...

Excellent music from an excellent play

The Color Purple (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
Brenda Russell , Allee Willis , Stephen Bray , Linda Twine , Joseph Joubert , LaChanze , Elisabeth Withers-Mendes , and Renee Elise Goldsberry
Manufacturer: Angel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Musicals | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music
General | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music
General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Original Broadway Cast)

Sweeney Todd (2005 Broadway Revival Cast)

The Wedding Singer (2006 Original Broadway Cast)

Jersey Boys (2005 Original Broadway Cast)

Grey Gardens - A New Musical (2006 Original Broadway Cast)

ASIN: B000C1ZFA2
Release Date: 2006-01-24

Tracks:

Overture
Huckleberry Pie/Mysterious Ways
Somebody Gonna Love You
Our Prayer
That Fine Mister
Big Dog
Lily Of The Field
Dear God
A Tree Named Sofia
Hell No!
Brown Betty
Shug Avery Comin' To Town
All We've Got To Say
Dear God
Too Beautiful For Words
Push Da Button
Uh Oh!
What About Love?
Act I Finale
African Homeland
The Color Purple
Church Ladies' Easter
I Curse You Mister
Celie's Curse
Miss Celie's Pants
Any Little Thing
What About Love (Reprise)
I'm Here
The Color Purple (Reprise)

Amazon.com

On paper, this adaptation of Alice Walker's best-selling novel has all the markings of a hit. It makes Oprah Winfrey's debut as a theater producer, the libretto is by Marsha Norman (Night Mother), and the lyrics and music are by a trio of seasoned pop pros: Allee Willis (the eccentric woman behind "Neutron Dance" and the theme from Friends), Stephen Bray (who worked on such Madonna hits as "True Blue" and "Express Yourself"), and Brenda Russell (the smooth soul-jazz songstress behind "Piano in the Dark"). That team has put together a series of fairly catchy songs that may lack depth but adeptly handle various idioms like gospel ("Mysterious Ways"), R&B ("Push Da Button"), and African rhythms ("African Homeland"). Though the inspirational vibe can get a bit much, softening the edges and preventing genuine artistic complexity, The Color Purple is a great showcase for its cast. As Celie, LaChanze delivers one of her usual sensitive performances, but watch also for Elisabeth Withers-Mendes's Shug--who sings a passionate paean to Celie ("Too Beautiful for Words")--and Renée Elise Goldsberry's Nettie (duetting with LaChange on "African Homeland"). The chance to hear these women strut their stuff almost makes up for the show's weaknesses. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Customer Reviews:

Where's Fantasia when you need her.......2007-07-23

Surprisingly void of any real emotion it is very easy to hear that there are 3 different composer/lyrisists at work here. The music is still very listenable but it's too bad Fantasia wan't in the original cast. If you heard her performance on the Tonys you will know what real emotion is about and what is lacking on this CD

Purple Passion.......2007-07-07

The next best thing to being there. Saw the show twice.... Fantasia is FANTASTIC!!!!!

If you get to NYC... this is a must see.

Just Like Being There!.......2007-06-26

Wonderful! Fabulous! Just like being there! This CD is true to the original production and every time I listen to it, I am back in the theater on Broadway where I heard it for the first time! Sensational score, vocals, and delivery. Can't miss w/ this one!

Still gives me shivers..........2007-06-11

Hearing this soundtrack takes me back to being in the audience every time I hear it. Beautiful, beautiful words and music.

Excellent music from an excellent play.......2007-05-27

We really enjoyed listening to the music after we saw the play.
It was even better then I remembered!

Average customer rating:

Goldrush: Works for Percussion

Manufacturer: Chandos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Fantasies | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Fugues | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Percussion | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Prelude-
Fugue
Fugue No.5 In F Minor
Fantaisie-impromptu In C Sharp Minor
Etude No.4 In C Sharp Minor
Alborada Del Gracioso
Prelude In C Major-
Prelude In F Sharp Major-
Prelude In D Minor
I. Dawn-
II. Mask Dance-
III. Drought-
IV. Dancers In The Night-Reminiscence-Finale (Dancers In The Night)
Twine
Goldrush

Average customer rating:

TWINE TIME

Manufacturer: MARVLUS
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000F3GMQ8

Product Description

25 TRACKS

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 7; Mass in C

Average customer rating:

My Favorite Beethoven 7th
beecham at his best
Beecham's Beethoven

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 7; Mass in C

Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Haydn: Symphonies #99-104; Sir Thomas Beecham; Royal Philharmonic
Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 93-98
Haydn: The Seasons
Handel: Solomon; Love in Bath
Brahms, Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos [Hybrid SACD]

ASIN: B0007RA7AO
Release Date: 2005-05-24

Tracks:

I. Adagio Molto - Allegro Con Brio
II. Larghetto
III. Scherzo & Trio: Allegro
IV. Allegro Molto
I. Poco Sostenuto - Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto - Assai Meno Presto
IV. Allegro Con Brio

Tracks:

Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Overture: Andante Con Moto - Allegro, Ma Non Troppo - Beecham Choral Society
Chorus: Daughter Of High-Throned Zeus - Beecham Choral Society
Chorus Of Dervishes - Beecham Choral Society
Turkish March - Beecham Choral Society
Chorus: Where Freedom Hath Triumphed - Beecham Choral Society
March & Chorus: Twine Ye Garlands - Beecham Choral Society

Customer Reviews:

My Favorite Beethoven 7th.......2006-10-20

I have been looking for this recording since my college day when I often went to music library between classes to get motivated by listening to Beecham's Beethoven 7th Symphony. I just received the CD I bought and listen to it over and over. What a wonderful 7th this is! I also have numerous other 7th in my collections which include Karajan's 63 BPO, Furtwangler VPO, Klemperer's Phil, etc... they all have it's merit. However, it's Beecham's I missed the most. I am so glad I finally found it at Amazon.com. What distinguishes Sir Thomas' style to the rest is his ability to turn the music loose and let it flows. He was asked by a music critic one time regarding his ability to make fine music; he simply said that he hired the best musicians and let them play...The listener for this CD will tell his Beethoven is not heavy to the ears and music seems to be so much alived. Another Beecham's wonderful talent is his tastefulnees in music phrasing. Listen to this and I can assure you won't be disappointed.

beecham at his best.......2005-11-29

I bought this album on vinyl in the early sixties, when as a teenager, I acquired my first stereo system. In fact, it was the first vinyl I bought, so I MEMORIZED it! Later in the university, I was blessed to have as an orchestra conductor and teacher, Geoffrey Gilbert, who was Beecham's first flautist for some thirty years. So, I felt that I got to know Sir Thomas personally. I this recording I hear so many of his hallmarks: the graceful turns of phrase, the attention to tiny details, allowing the composer to speak, dynamic contrasts, and humour. This is not Toscanini, but it is beautifully played and conceived. I highly recommend it to all.

Beecham's Beethoven.......2005-10-05

EMI has had their share of questionable reissues lately, but with the "Gemini" series, the label's new incredibly inexpensive two-disc budget classical line, they've produced some real winners. One of the titles I most anticipated was this reissue featuring Sir Thomas Beecham's stereo recordings of Beethoven's 2nd & 7th Symphonies from the late 1950s. While Beecham's Beethoven may not be as acclaimed as his masterful readings of the late Mozart and Haydn Symphonies, they are still thoroughly enjoyable, first rate performances. Throw in a second disc of the Mass in C and The Ruins of Athens Incidental Music (neither of which I previously owned) and you've got a set that's essential for Beecham fans. Enjoy!

Average customer rating:

original, evocative, powerful, impressive, austere, dark, odd

Rehnqvist: Sun Song

Manufacturer: Bis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000IMRA
Release Date: 1999-04-01

Tracks:

I. I Saw The Sun - Lena Willemark
I. I Saw Men There - Lena Willemark
II. Fun, Sun, Vine And Twine - Lena Willemark
II. Extinguish The Sun - Lena Willemark
III. Another Day Departs - Lena Willemark
When You But Walk On The Ground - Asa Af Geijerstam
Two White Doves Ascended - Susanne Rosenberg
Shi Olvot - Susanne Rosenberg
A Lily Grew Up - Susanne Rosenberg
Woman Has Long Hair - Susanne Rosenberg
It Was Heard All Over The Earth - Susanne Rosenberg

Customer Reviews:

original, evocative, powerful, impressive, austere, dark, odd.......2005-07-20

impressive recording and performances of what i think are some highly original works. she seems to have found a definitive voice for herself sythesizing folk influences, a beautiful harmonic vocabulary, and a gift for orchestration from diverse instrumentation (from full orchestra to two sopranos with timpani). it seems to me that Rehnqvist has a gift for conveying the power of the female voice--perhaps through the metaphor of the "herding calls" she quotes--and on this album the singers seem to generate the unique soundscape as if by invocation. i heard "puksanger-lockrup" on bbc3 one afternoon and it stuck in my head for at least a year before i found this recording.

Average customer rating:

Prefix.com Review of Twine
Milkfactory UK Review of Twine
Stylusmag.com Review of Twine : Twine
Pitchfork Review

Twine
Twine
Manufacturer: Ghostly Int'l
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000DIJS2
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Tracks:

G_R_V
Plectrum
Piano
Girl Song
Kalea Morning
Pendant
Asa Nisi Masa
Counting Off Again
Strobe

Customer Reviews:

Prefix.com Review of Twine.......2004-03-30

Truly a group for the tech age, Twine is much like the Books in that its collaborators -- Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder -- live more than a thousand miles apart and trade their material online. This, Twine's self-titled sophomore album, opens with two minutes of detuned and handpicked electric guitar backed by random dialogue and percussive bumps. Their songs come as collages, created from what seem like absolutely un-incredible moments.

Slightly off-key strings, missed notes and abstract vocal bursts introduce a distinctly acoustic flavor into their programmed world. Every noise undergoes electronic treatments but remains strangely personable, its strums and burps revealing their imperfections more appealingly than those of the electronic majority. At times, the wavering guitar notes require lyric-less melodies to balance their compositions, but Twine's lo-fi aesthetic prevents any new age embroidery from clouding the record.

The twelve-minute long "Kalea Morning" will divide the enthusiastic from the uninterested. Some will think that its shifty rhythmic afterthoughts and single hanging notes comprise a stunning ambient backdrop. Others will find themselves barely able to tolerate the continued drudgery. And both arguments have merit.

Those expecting the beats to take off and explode will be sorely disappointed, but Twine is decidedly not a monotonous bore. The most exciting moments of "Piano" are delicate: single reverse keyboard tones forming dramatic progressions amid ten thousand square feet of reverb. "Girl Song" is a rhythmic pattern built on the continual retuning of a guitar, set apart by the timed female vocal samples, which sound much closer to South Asian chant than any recognizable Western style (or language) and hum throughout the track with beautiful restraint.

Another standout is "Plectrum," where a repeated guitar chord sits punctuated by some of the only recognizable phrases on the album: "Good morning, goodnight" and a short rumination concerning "the guitar I'm playin' ... and the thoughts that I'm thinkin' ... and the words that I'm writin' ... " Twine seems to find several perfect moments when the single chord begins to grow old, and they respond by jumping key for one heightened phrase, only to immediately resume the first static pattern.

That the members of Twine very obviously do not just push the buttons and sit back helps them escape the chronic stagnation so unfortunately prevalent in ambient music. Their style nods toward traditional sources like Eno, Harold Budd and Aphex Twin while contorting their influence into an original variation. Realistically, this record will at no time become a staple for any sort of gathering without sessions of intense contemplation, but it rewards the fickle mind with surprising revelations.

Milkfactory UK Review of Twine.......2004-03-30

Twine have constantly refined their sound since the release of their first album, Reference, four years ago, redefining the boundaries within which their music evolves and uncovering new grounds with each album. Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder met at high school in the late eighties, and after learning the ropes in a variety of rock bands during the nineties, eventually formed Twine. Now based far apart from each other, Malcolm in Baltimore, Maryland, and Mossholder in Boulder, Colorado, the pair have learnt to adapt and allowed Twine to evolve in a totally unique way, each member performing live independently as well as together under the Twine banner. Their last two records, Circulation, released on Swedish label Komplott, and Recorder, released on Bip-Hop, showed a progressive move toward extreme sonic abstraction, yet using traditional instruments to expand their glitch-ridden soundscapes.

With this fifth album released in as many years, Twine transcend more than ever the electronic nature of their music, basing the almost entirety of these nine tracks (ten on the LP) on guitars and pianos, creating elegant moody structures on which vocals components get trapped, looped and deconstructed to become simple components of the compositions. The electronic backbone is kept working in the background, bringing discreet textures to each track while at times, seismic percussions smash the ethereal ambience to introduce a mechanical element. A stark contrast from the austere abstraction of their previous album, Twine appears incredibly organic and pure, evoking the sonic affluence of My Bloody Valentine, the contrasted terrains of Seefeel and the dark meanderings of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2, with haunting touches of Dead Can Dance layered over luscious soundscapes. Scattered all throughout this album, the voices of Shelly Gracon and Alison Scola, in turn drones, mesmerising songs or lacerated conversations, develop as integrant part of the music, becoming simple sound sources. After a short intro in the shape of G_R_V, built around excerpts of conversations, Plectrum sets the tone, with a strummed guitar guiding intriguing vocals through the murky ambience created by Malcolm and Mossholder. The appropriately entitled Piano is reminiscent of the collaboration between the Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd on The Moon & The Melodies. Yet, here, the naked piano melody is draped in swathes of distortions, emphasising on the atmospheric nature of the composition as the track evolves almost imperceptibly. Whereas on Pendant and the LP-only Sbrent, Twine offer a collection of slightly more conventional ambient soundscapes, they build, with the epic Kalea Morning, a particularly haunting piece of music, mixing oriental and occidental singing over layers of processed guitars and syncopated beats, adding discreet glitches all the way through. As the composition slowly develops, it reveals more and more beautiful luminescent sonic touches swirling around an ethereal melodic cloud. The spooky Asa Nisi Masa is by far the most intriguing moment on offer here, as the pair assemble processed reversed vocals over a hypnotic.

If the use of processed vocals, guitars and pianos is not entirely new, the sonic landscapes exposed on this album are incredibly dense and denote the unusual approach to sonic structures adopted by Twine over the last few years. By far one of the most fascinating record released this year, Twine transcends genres like no one else.

Stylusmag.com Review of Twine : Twine.......2004-03-30

Review of Twine : Twine
www.Stylusmagazine.com

On Twine's early releases, the duo seemed to be striving to bring subtle horror-film soundtrack darkness to the precisely sculpted, post-Autechre terrain of IDM. Their 1999 debut, Reference, featured manic, abstract beats and marrow-chilling atmospheres a la Witchman (a British producer who flashed brightly from `95-'98 and then vanished) and the evocative use of disembodied voices popularized by Scanner. From this disc as well as the 2001 LP Circulation on Sweden's Komplott imprint and 2002's Recorder, you sense that Twine's Chad Mossholder and Greg Malcolm are serious sound scientists who know their musique concrete and electro-acoustic composers, but also possess the soft-centered emotional capacities of the most heartfelt singer-songwriters. It's a rewarding combination rarely found in laptop musicians.

Recorder offered a yet more refined, subtle distillation of Twine's trademark abstract sound. They fed and manipulated guitars and pianos through software, lending an organic poignancy to the oft-sterile laptop-music genre. "None Some Silver" even verged on prog-rock, with its guitar tones stretched and ruptured like a John McLaughlin solo heard through a bad cell-phone connection, while "Touched" toggled between psych-rock bliss outs and Farmers Manual-style fractured circuit-board emissions and distorted, scattershot percussion. Throughout Recorder, Twine fused post-rock and IDM DNA to produce a superior breed of sonic ions whose microscopic actions coalesced into macrocosmic masterpieces of unusual textures and shapes. Much like Oval's Markus Popp, they found the beauty in fragmentation, the gorgeousness in the glitch. It was, quite simply, clicks & cuts for people who actually leave their computers once in a while and interact with human beings.

Twine's new self-titled debut for Ann Arbor, Michigan's Ghostly International is a triumphant culmination of the group's vision. The disc begins with "G_R_V," a red herring of a track whose tentative acoustic-guitar picking, static and a mundane phone conversation don't prepare you for the extraordinary music to follow. But track 2, "Plectrum," reveals Twine's unique modus operandi in full flower. Building tension with a tightly coiled guitar riff and a seemingly sedated asylum patient reciting a hypnotic mantra ("Get on, get on, was she?"), Twine deftly weave in subliminal operatic female vocals, haywire electronics, and a sample of a Southern gent discussing guitar and banjo playing. The contrasting voices and instruments create a pleasing cognitive dissonance. On "Piano," chords from that instrument are tweaked into a luminous digital glow, while a forlorn dirge, like Main scoring a David Lynch western, fills in the background. The track exemplifies Twine's penchant for crafting beautiful tuneage that struggles through a software-erected forcefield.

Twine's most interesting tracks feature the vocals of Shelly Gracon and Alison Scola (I can't distinguish who's singing on what, but Twine effectively deploy both in their spacious music). Album highlight "Girl Song" sets gossamer vowels floating over gently stuttering and shuddering pulses and plangent guitar twangs, forging some of the most ethereal blues ever. Deeply haunting and mysteriously beautiful, this could be a cyberspace collaboration between Mazzy Star and Ry Cooder. That it ends with spluttering, squealing tones of a Buchla synthesizer on the fritz reveals Twine's perverse side. Similarly, gorgeous, lamenting vowel emissions that sound like Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard in a cave kick off the 12-minute "Kalea Morning." Nervous-tic beats and panned cymbal hits with metallic accents point toward Twine's debt to Autechre, but these traits are tempered by an enveloping Steve Roach-like ambient drone that aligns your chakras free of charge. The striking contrast between hectic rhythmic twitches and darkly tranquil tone floats again displays Twine's mastery of blending incongruous elements. Another brilliant use of the female voice occurs on "Asa Nisi Masa"; here, an Asian woman repeats the title words over rainfall and a lulling, Harold Budd-like organ fugue. Her sibilance and extended vowel sounds, combined with the slow-blooming dirge, form a hymn for an obscure South Pacific religion that even anthropologists haven't discovered.

It's utterly mesmerizing.

Pity the people who have to market Twine. This disc eludes easy classification, possesses too many dense layers, and covers too much arcane ground to be reduced to a pithy sound bite. While it contains chillout characteristics, the album also carries subtly disturbing undertones and rhythmic ruptures leaving listeners unable to completely zone out. Ultimately, Twine is best heard on headphones and with a clear head. You'll need that clarity to absorb the plenitude of rich details Twine magnanimously bestow.

Dave Segal

Pitchfork Review.......2004-02-26

Twine
Twine
[Ghostly International; 2003]
Rating: 8.2
You are listening to a record. There's the music, and then there's everything else. The time of day, your mood, the room you're in, the person you're sitting with. Sometimes the "everything else" can obscure what's happening with the music, other times it can clarify. In either case, the how and wherefore matter.

I knew Twine's self-titled record was good the first time I put it on. It was clear that Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder had refined their approach, found what was most interesting about their moody style, and amplified it. But I didn't really hear it until a few weeks later, when hurricane Isabel tore through Richmond in late September and my apartment was without electricity for ten days. The night the storm hit, my wife and I plugged one of my computer speakers into her Walkman radio so we could listen to the news and follow what was happening. Even as a passive transmitter (no batteries for its amp) the speakers made the headphone signal audible as long as we maxxed out the volume.

The next evening, after my wife went to bed and as I was reading by the light of a half-dozen candles, I plugged my CD Discman into the speaker and put on new Twine. With the Discman cranked to 10, the music was loud enough to be heard clearly, but having the internal headphone amp at that level imparted a faint halo of distortion. Which, at that moment, was perfect. It was completely dark except for the candles, even outside my window. Every house on the block, the streetlights, the traffic light on the corner-- all were without power. And Twine sounded like they were being beamed in via shortwave from some place halfway around the world.

If only everyone could hear this album under those exact conditions (although you might want to skip the following morning's bone-chilling shower in a bathroom so dark you can't see your body to wash it), but it's not necessary. All you really need is for the sun to go down. Twine is a quintessential nighttime record, filled with broken transmissions and drones stretching into the vanishing horizon; it's the kind of night where an edge of paranoia is cut with flashes of comforting solitary bliss. You curl up to this thing.

By customary definition, Twine is an IDM act, but the comparisons that stream through my head when I'm listening to this record come from elsewhere. The beats are nothing alike and Twine haven't a lick of hip-hop in them, but I can't help thinking of DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, the way this record uses disembodied voices and builds spacious atmosphere brick by brick. There's also a hint of Stars of the Lid in the drones that Twine favor this time out, and cinematic rock a la Godspeed seems somehow related, although Twine eschew extreme dynamics, and their only conventional instruments are guitar and piano, both of which are treated and looped.

Ultimately, though, the thread holding Twine together is the voices. About half the tracks contain wordless vocals by Shelly Gracon and Alison Scola, and their contributions are key. On "Plectrum", which is built around slowing strummed guitar, the voice is clipped and percussive, where a word is snatched from meaning mid-syllable and set looping, giving a feel reminiscent of Laurie Anderson. Furthering the modern music references, "Plectrum" combines the sharp punctuation with some Tehillim-style sacred howls. In contrast to this art music approach are the ethereal Middle Eastern vocal drones with Taj Mahal reverb that snake through the 12-minute "Kalea Morning".

There are the live vocals, and then there are the words, pinched and compressed by cheap radio transistors, which crackle in and fade out almost constantly. Adding "lost transmissions" to brooding electronic soundscapes is nothing new, obviously, but there's a subtlety to Twine's approach that makes it work. The voices appear and dissolve unexpectedly and the meaning is unclear; what they're actually saying doesn't seem terribly important-- the words are another layer in the dark cloud of sound that drifts slowly across the record. On "Pendant" an intercepted telephone conversation (an argument, maybe) is almost completely drowned out by the throb of electronic percussion. The track wouldn't be complete without it.

Since forming in 1999, Twine have averaged a record a year, but their albums seem carefully laid out and constructed to work as individual pieces. They're not tossing tracks willy-nilly at every compilation that comes along and then gathering them together as a new CD. Twine has no killer must-hear track, and yet, each piece benefits by its relationship to what came before and what follows. It's an album in the old-fashioned sense of the word, and a damn good one. Try it at midnight first.

Tracks:

You Really Got Me
All Day And All Of The Night
Money
The Jolly Green Giant
Twine Time
Land Of 1000 Dances
The In Crowd
The Jerk
Jerk Town
She's Not There
Downtown
Limbo Rock
InThe Misty Moonlight
Beau And John Charles Talk About The...

Album Description

The Knickerbockers mighty-rare first album from '65! From the original mono masters, here's the complete LP plus three bonus cuts, 'Downtown', 'Limbo Rock' & 'In The Misty Moonlight', as well as an interview with group members Beau & John Charles! Cool vintage artwork & extra photos from the band's archives! Sundazed. 1993.

Average customer rating:

ISB Try Something Different and Do Not Please
The ISB go prog
"Rockin'" Incredibles
ISB Bid Us Goodnight
Adieu to ISB

Hard Rope & Silken Twine
The Incredible String Band
Manufacturer: Edsel Records UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000011TY
Release Date: 1994-04-06

Tracks:

Maker of Islands
Cold February
Glancing Love
Dreams of No Return
Dumb Kate
Ithkos

Customer Reviews:

ISB Try Something Different and Do Not Please.......2005-06-10

`Hard Rope and Silken Twine' is a very atypical album by The Incredible String Band on Island rather than their original home, Elektra and produced by Mike Heron rather than their long time handler, Joe Boyd. I just got finished reviewing a Donovan Leitch collection and commented that he often changed his style to fit the times and his perceived audience. And, until I came to review this album, I thought how constant and true to their basic style Heron and Williamson has been. That is, up until this album.

There are six tracks on this album on which they seem to be aping styles from Procol Harum to Yes to the Blues Brothers take on country and western music.

On top of that, the sound quality on some cuts is very uneven. Either some cuts were recorded in the studio and some were recorded live, or they were recorded at two or more different live venues.

My primary interest in this review is to warn you off if you really like albums such as `The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' or `The Big Huge Wee Tam'. I temper that warning with the observation that if you also happen, like me, to really like Procol Harum, then you may want to take a chance with this one. Only two out of the six tracks are by Williamson, so if it is Robin's peculiar way with lyrics which entrances you about The Incredible String Band, then I suggest you look to some of their earlier albums or Williamson's solo efforts (but be choosy here, the quality is uneven. My best recommendation would be the album he did together with John Renbourn).

On the other hand, the cover art is delightful.

The ISB go prog.......2001-08-02

A bit of a messy album - two nice ballads (One from Heron, one from LeMaistre), two muggy sounding live songs, a wonderful Williamson song & a prog rock epic.

The ballads are both nice. Williamson's "Dreams of No return" features the sitar and sounds like something circa "Liquid Acrobat."

Someone once said that the ISBs songs go from A to B to C through to Z, rather than following a typical song structure. This is evident on Ithkos, a 20 minute long Epic that begins with twanging Greek sounding instruments, rolls around in acoustic mode for a bit, zips through a bit of heavy Wishbone Ash rock, dips into some orchestral bits, then ends with a Synth workout. Never boring. I can see why some fans dislike this album, but I loved it, even if they were recycling themselves a bit.

"Rockin'" Incredibles.......2000-04-18

The last ISB album, and while it has its moments of genius they are much more thinly scattered than on earlier records and the whole thing is a little cumbersome....from a band who wove such filigree masterpieces as "Hangman's" and "Wee Tam" this was really quite sad. Most of the music here actully worked a whole lot better in a live setting: the epic "Ithkos" was a total blast on their final tour. Perhaps though, considering the prog-rock excesses that were going on at the time, it was just as well ISB decided to throw in the towel after this album. Still worth getting to complete the collection and for "Dreams of no Return" (a major return to form from Robin), but a long way from their best. Nice cover art.

ISB Bid Us Goodnight.......2000-02-18

ISB's final album, and it didn't come a day too soon: "Hard Rope" is the sound of a band who've carried longer than they should have.

Problem is too much of this album is like going over old ground. Thus Mike Heron's reasonably affecting "Maker of Islands" is merely the latest in a series of sensitive piano-based ballads stretching back to "Light In Time of Darkness" on "U". Mind you, it's a work of genius in comparison with "Dumb Kate", a particularly tired variation on the cajun knees-up Heron first premiered with "Log Cabin Home In the Sky" way back in the 1960's (to coin a phrase) and political correctness-wise a bit suspect too. Mike could still write great songs at this time, the transplendent "1968" from a contemporary John Peel Show radio session proves that.

Even the best song on the album, Robin Williamson's "Cold Days of February" - a brave song about Northern Ireland when nobody else was writing songs about the subject - is a musical echo of his earlier "The Circle Is Unbroken". Still a great song though, pity that the version on the album is a muddy live recording. Williamson's other song (what, just two Robin Williamson songs on an ISB album!), "Dreams of No Return" is good too, a refinement of those melancholy jazz-tinged ballads of his that had cropped up on the previous two albums - nice to hear Mike Heron's sitar being taken out of mothballs too.

As for Malcolm Le Maistre, well he has just one song on the album, the drippy "Glancing Love", probably the worst song of his (brief) songwriting career: co-written with fellow Scientologist, Mike Garson of "Aladdin Sane" fame.

Half of the album is taken up with Mike Heron's Ancient Greek saga (no, that's Norse isn't it?) "Ithkos". Lyrically this is pretentious in a way that old ISB never were, even when they were being pretentious (if you catch my drift). Musically .... well it's ambitious I'll give it that. I suppose I should be pleased to see Heron return to the suite-like extended form of "A Very Cellular Song" and "White Bird" and the like after the AOR sellouts of the previous album but somehow it's not entirely convincing. Oh sure, it has some lovely moments (mostly when Mike sings) and Robin plays a mean Mahavishnu Orchestra-like electric violin at one point (honest!) but it also has Malcolm trying to come over all Mick Jagger and some rather unconvincing "rocking out" before the whole thing dribbles out in a rather unpleasant prog rock flourish.

All in all, not the ISB LP to put at the top of your shopping list, rather somewhere near the bottom.

Adieu to ISB.......2000-02-03

ISB's final album, and it didn't come a day too soon. Not as bad as their previous album, "No Ruinous Feud", which is a real bummer - "Hard Rope" is the sound of a band who've carried longer than they should have.

Tracks:

Les Illuminations, Op.18: I. Fanfare - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: II. Villes - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: IIIa. Phrase - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: IIIb. Antique - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: IV. Royaute - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: V. Marine - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: VI. Interlude - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: VII. Being Beauteous - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: Parade - John Mark Ainsley
Les Illuminations, Op.18: Depart - John Mark Ainsley
Nocturne, Op.60: On A Poet's Lips I Slept- - John Mark Ainsley
Nocturne, Op.60: Below The Thunders Of The Upper Deep - John Mark Ainsley/Julie Andrews
Nocturne, Op.60: Encinctured With A Twine Of Leaves - John Mark Ainsley/Hugh Webb
Nocturne, Op.60: Midnight's Bell Goes Ting, Ting, Ting, Ting, Ting - John Mark Ainsley/Stephen Bell
Nocturne, Op.60: But That Night When On My Bed I Lay - John Mark Ainsley/David Hockings
Nocturne, Op.60: She Sleeps On Soft, Last Breaths - John Mark Ainsley/Nicolas Daniel
Nocturne, Op.60: What Is More Gentle Than A Wind In Summer? - John Mark Ainsley/Kate Hill/Julian Farrell
Nocturne, Op.60: When Most I Wink, Then Do Mine Eyes Best See - John Mark Ainsley
Ser, Op.31: Prologue - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: 1. Pastoral - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: 2. Nocturne - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: 3. Elegy - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: 4. Dirge - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: 5. Hymn - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: 6. Sonnet - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt
Ser, Op.31: Epilogue - John Mark Ainsley/David Pyatt