| previous by date | index | next by date |
| previous in topic | topic list | next in topic |
Touche………
-----Original Message-----
From: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com[mailto:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com] OnBehalf Of markpringnz
Sent: Friday, October 16, 20097:39 PM
To:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Re:Court
Apparently in the 50thanniversary edition the mellotron will be replaced with a kazoo.
--- In newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com,Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@ ...> wrote: >
experience. And
> This may sound like heresy....
>
> Does anyone else have the new 40th anniversary edition of 'In The Court
> of the Crimson King'? I do (as you may expect) and believe it or not,
> what has been done to it in terms of sonic quality is astounding. It's
> even better than the 30th anniversary edition (which I thought was
> outstanding) and comes with some really good extras too.
>
> But.
>
> To me, the biggie on this album was always 'Epitaph'. It was really this
> track that showed me the way and pointed me at a style of music I don't
> think anyone else in the genre has come /close /to equalling. And it was
> always the Mellotron that did it. Everything else in the track was
> great, but the piercing shreik of the Mellotron propelled it from being
> a /fairly/ standard minor key tune into something really magical.
>
> Which begs the question: /what the shiny blue fuck has happened here? /I
> was listening to the track again today having had a feeling of loss in a
> couple of previous listens, and have suddenly found out where it was
> coming from. Or not. At the close of the first chorus the Mellotron
> climbs to the top E as well all know...and never gets there. The note is
> /not there/. One note. Big deal, you may say, but it is a /sublime
> /note. As Fripp himself has droned, you '/can play any note they like
> provided it's the right one/'. And this is the right one. It's sweet and
> perfect and rounds off the chorus perfectly. So why is it omitted. It's
> even in tune!
>
> Worse is to come. /That pitch bend. /My 14 year old jaw dropped on
> hearing it for the first time. I think I destroyed my first copy by
> dropping the needle onto at point again and again and again. It is a
> fantastic, blood-curdling hair-on-the- back-of-the- neck > on the 40th anniversary set it is /sludged out/. The crescendo behind it
> absolutely overwhelms it to the extent that you can hear the trick; one
> Mellotron plays a crescendo climbing 'flat' to E-minor whilst the other
> one bends up to it. Expert fading on the original ensured that the
> /effect /was heard but that the squeak of strings ratcheted up like that
> /was not/. It's a superb moment. And you can barely hear it on the new
> release.
>
> Has anyone else noticed this or any other weirdness/ It's the only track
> I have listened to in such detail so far, which makes me a tad scared
> for the rest now. Actually, I'm playing it now and the clarity of the
> piece now makes it sound like Mike Giles banging on timpani in a studio,
> not the far-off and distant /sound of doom /that I know so well. Maybe
> less is nore. Perhaps Fripp has /tinkered beyond. /Perhaps I'll ask him.
>
> Musical choices aside, the sound quality is to be heard and disbelieved.
> A friend with a good 5:1 system says that 21CSM is like having the band
> play in your front room. It's that good.
>
> --
> Mike Dickson, Edinburgh
>
> Free Music Project: http://www.mikedick son.org.uk/
> Or http://www.last. fm/music/ Mike+Dickson
> Or http://soundcloud. com/mikedickson
> Or http://www.planetme llotron.com/ revd4.htm# mikedickson
>