Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

...and to add insult to injury, the Maneri CD lists it as "melatron".

Just heard another new CD today by Field Notes "Color Of Sunshine"
(Woodson Lateral Recordings label, USA), and the last track ("Lonesome
Microphone") boasts some nice flute/cello interweaving up front in the
mix with nice lyrics, easy vocals, strumming acoustic guitar, and
reverb drumming. No mention of who's who playing what anywhere,
however...That brings up I'm sure the main problem you and I face
trying to keep a true 'tron recordings list up-to-date and factual;
the fact that recordings of the past 20-25 years may not be the real
thing, but imitations that come dangerously close (imagine an
imitation of a reproduced sound...such cruelty). I first became
suspect of that listening to some old transitional Columbia-to-A&M era
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark recordings. Then comes the listing
of Mellotrons/Chamberlins under the umbrella term "keyboards" which
begs for the breakdown. The treatments and modifications sounds
undergo these days almost makes it futile to list the instruments used
like Jan Hammer, Isao Tomita and Tangerine Dream once did during
simpler times when folks knew a Ford from a Chevy.

It almost to the point that stating that you used a Mellotron or a
Chamberlin on your CD isn't going to be good enough unless you say the
model number or even the tape sounds, lest someone suspects you used
samples. It's like the picture of the person standing out in a field
pointing to the sky where they saw the UFO.

Alright--I'm being a bit Mellodramatic perhaps.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum? Well that's a love hate relationship. The
two studio CD's I've heard by them have fleeting moments of sheer
tightly wound brilliance amidst broad swaths of inconsistancy. They
sound like something that ought to be on the Ipecac label between
Fantomas and John Zorn. I'd love to see these guys on stage to see if
they can pull off some of these incredible passages live.