Mind Fruit

Track Listings

1. It's a Fine Day

2. I Talk to the Wind

3. Flow

4. Stars in My Pocket

5. Sea People

6. Evolution Rush

7. Into This Universe

8. Up

9. Alzir

10. Outro

Mind Fruit,Opus III,Atlantic / Wea,Ambient,Club/Dance,Dance Music,Dance-Pop,Hip-Hop,Indie Pop,Indie Rock,Pop,Popular Music,Rap,Shoegaze,Space

Mind Fruit

Tracks:

It's A Fine Day
I Talk To The Wind
Flow
Stars In My Pocket
Sea People
Evolution Rush
Into This Universe
Up
Alzir
Outro

Customer Reviews:

Mind Candy.......2007-06-12

Boy, context is everything. Or, in this case, nothing.

I came to Opus III after being captivated by Kirsty Hawkshaw's voice on a couple of Delerium albums. But where Delerium seduced the listener with conversations between synthetic and organic sounds, Opus III has all the subtlety and sensuous curves of a drag strip; where Delerium caressed the listener with bass lines that drew the listener into the songs, Opus III plows straight ahead with thumping one-note bass lines.

There are fewer ideas on this album than in your average TV theme song.

One single flash of brilliance.......2006-07-02

There were a lot of albums like this in the early 1990s. Mind Fruit consists of Opus III's big hit, and ten b-sides. Thankfully Opus III's big hit was It's a Fine Day, a cover of a song by Jane and Barton from the early 1980s. It is the first track on the album and it is wonderful. Haunting, surreal, and odd. It is so absolutely nice and up-beat that it is sinister. Although the production sounds old-fashioned it is a classic of its genre and of its time. But an album requires more music than just one song, and Opus III was presumably pushed for time to write forty minutes of music. The group has nothing to match It's a Fine Day, a song which it did not write, and only a few of the other songs are entertaining.

The second track is a cover of King Crimson's I Talk to the Wind, from the album In the Court of the Crimson King. Full marks for an esoteric choice of floaty pop-dance cover, but it's neither here nor there; the original song is dated hippy nonsense, and the cover is insubstantial. Flow is just filler, it sounds like the introduction to a song, but it stops after two minutes. Stars in My Pocket is very nice, a flowing chill-out number that is an up-beat precursor of trip-hop. But it's only three minutes long. It is over before it gets going.

Sea People unfortunately sounds like Enigma. Evolution is a generic piece of early 1990s instrumental club dance music. It is the kind of thing that might have been used in a fashion show. Into this Universe is an experimental song on which the vocalist talk-sings. It is useless. Up is also very generic and Alzir is pleasant muzak but again it is only three minutes long, which is too short for an ambient-style piece of music. Outro is thirty seconds of filler. The second half of the album is terrible.

The group's major attribute was the vocalist, but she only sings properly on three of the tracks (It's a Fine Day and Stars in My Pocket are the two best things on the album, and the King Crimson cover is at the very least interesting). Otherwise her voice is processed or used in tiny snippets, as a background effect. It's a Fine Day is unlike the rest of the album, and vastly superior.

And that is that. I give the group kudos for not trying to fill out the album with remixes of It's a Fine Day, although there were several.

Amazing.......2006-04-15

It's unbelievable that this CD was released almost 15 years ago. The tracks still sound fresh, and rival most if not all of the trance CDs released today. As all of these reviews indicate though, Opus III's trump card is the incomparable Kirsty Hawkshaw. Today, there are many electronica efforts that are fronted by female vocalists (among my favorite are Tiff Lacey, Tina Dico, Colette, Omi (Way Out West), and Nicola Hitchcock), but Kirsty sets the bar IMO. If you buy this CD, you should also check out Meta Message which is a compilation of her fine work over the years. If you can get your hands on it (it's out of print, although you can purchase it from her web site...), also check out that has the awesome track "Leafy Lane". On this CD, a must have track is the classic "It's a Fine Day".

Fruit for your mind..........2004-02-24

Kirsty Hawkshaw and her former bandmates have made one of the best trance/techno/house albums. Besides a terrific cover of the Edward Barton penned "Its a Fine Day", there is also a great King Crimson cover ("I Talk To the Wind") and an original song called "Evolution Rush". This album definately is better than their follow up album and is one album I always recommend to any electronic music lover.

Out there and ethereal!.......2003-05-20

I loved this CD for the sheer beauty and range of Ms. Hawkshaw's voice and for the "way out there" atmosphere that Opus III created as a backdrop for her vocals. Opus III generates strong rhythms throughout the better part of the tracks and that fact just makes this CD all the more danceable and well, listen-able. I look forward to hearing more of her and Opus III's work!