I met Jasun Martz at NEARfest this year. He admitted to me that he does not own a Mellotron and that he used samples for his CDs, "The Pillory" as well as on his latest CD with 140 or so musicians and who's, title I cant manage to care about.. This guy is on ebay claiming his CDs are the "Holy Grail" for Mellotron enthusiasts. If you need 140 musicians to cover your lack of talent, you are far worse than I am. I can get by with one or two usually.
Let me first say, in response to his claim, that Jasun Martz is a nice guy. Jasun Martz is also full of shit. I think that I can also say, as a amateur critic, that the Pillory is crap! I don't care is Jasun licked Frank Zappa's ass hole back in the day. That CD, which I happen to have listened to all of the way through at least one time, is actually the "Holy Grail" of wasted blank CDs. It pales in comparison to anything Mike Dickson ever did and Jimmy's and Ken's CD also blows it away. I have never heard anything from anyone on this list as bad as his crap.
"The Pillory" is a good title. Because that is where you would have to put the average listener to get them to listen to that CD. Although it is OK in a, "I think I'll get some folks to help me see if all of these different instruments work and I guess I'll record it while I check 'em out..." kind of way.
Oh, and by the way, I'm selling a official state of the art, 'back then,' original Mellotron tape frame carrying case on ebay, which is where I noticed the "Holy Grail" of Mellotron CDs.
Frank
PS. Remember folks... stretching the truth is one thing. Lying is something else altogether. Well, not exactly... so disregard that. That's actually stretching the truth. No.. that's lying... Or am I stretching the truth by saying that?