JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

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In 1975 I gave away my copy of the original 1974 LP of "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" and never bothered to replace it, as I found the music too 'commercial' for my taste and parts of the performance sub par. Actually, listening to the 1974 album again now on YouTube, it is certainly no masterpiece and I find it corny and cheesy in places. To make matters worse, some of the singing was poor, especially ASHLEY HOLT's strained and often out-of-tune vocals. Furthermore, I'm not a huge fan of live albums (the 1974 release was a recording of a concert in the Royal Festival Hall) as I find the occasional imperfections and crowd noise rather irritating. There are exceptions, of course, but generally I prefer a studio-recorded album (even if a group puts a track down live in the studio, it's usually better than a concert recording).

So why did I fork out my hard-earned cash now for this 2012 reboot by RICK WAKEMAN? Curiosity, mainly. I wanted to see if he had improved on the 1974 original. I was also interested to hear if the singing would be better than the, at times, dire singing on the original (I had hoped, in vain as it turns out, that ASHLEY HOLT would not be singing on the 2012 album). Furthermore, the prospect of hearing the parts of the work not included in the 1974 performance was also a factor. And, finally, I was interested to hear a polished studio recording of the work rather than a recording of a live performance.

So, what is the new release like, then?

I can't say I've changed my mind about the music itself: it's as commercial-sounding and corny as on the original album. In fact, some of the added parts sound even more commercial, that feeling reinforced in places by the vocals of HALEY SANDERSON. Yes, a female vocalist participates this time, singing the parts originally performed by GARY PICKFORD-HOPKINS as well as singing the newly-added songs. Don't get me wrong, she has a lovely voice, but RICK WAKEMAN's mainstream melodies coupled with her vibrato singing style at times are more middle-of-the-road or pop than progressive rock ('Journey's Dawn' and especially 'Echoes' are pure ANDREW LLOYD WEBER to me, for example). Mind you, I would rather listen to her than ASHLEY HOLT. To be fair, his singing on this studio album is much better than on the recording pressed onto the 1974 LP, but I do wish RICK WAKEMAN had used someone else.

DAVID HEMMINGS, the narrator on the 1974 album, died in 2003. His distinctive voice was one of the better things on that album, but PETER EGAN, another British actor, does a credible job on this reboot as he also has a clear, pleasant voice with some gravitas. He could perhaps have injected a little more awe into the narration, but it's fine.

I have to say that the studio recording is good; the music sounds crisp and well-played. The orchestration is also good, and the synthesizer sounds are there too. The booklet containing the CD just lists RICK WAKEMAN's instruments as 'keyboards', without specifying the makes and models. My guess is that most -- perhaps all -- were digital rather than the analogue keyboards he played in 1974. Whatever they were, they sound good to this synthesizer fan. Overall, then, I prefer this reboot to the original live recording. I suppose my musical tastes have mellowed over the years as well, so the more-commercial sound does not grate as much as it did back in 1974.

The accompanying 130-page Classic Rock special and replica of the 1974 tour programme make interesting reading. Classic Rock magazine are to be commended for releasing this CD and associated 'album fanpack', and I very much hope it is a commercial success and brings the music to a new audience, not just to the old guard.

By the way, there are a few short pauses (track changes?) when I play the Audio CD on my Audio CD player in the lounge, but it plays seamlessly in the optical drive on my laptop so I assume the problem lies with my stand-alone CD player rather than the Audio CD.

I'll be hanging on to the album this time, but I can't say "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" is essential or even particularly important to own if you are a fan of progressive rock. Unless, that is, you collect also for a historical perspective, in which case it is as much a piece of the 1970s as 'Close To The Edge', albeit nowhere near as good. But it is quite fun and, let's face it, you can hum or whistle along to this stuff. My rating for the original 1974 album was 2 stars (Collectors/fans only) but I'm going to give this 2012 rehash 3 stars (Good, but not essential). Actually, were such a thing possible, I might even be tempted to bump that up to 3.5 stars to take into account its historical interest.

in a big picture this new full-fledge version is a masterpiece work as it tells the whole story with excellent music composition and orchestration. However, it has a very low point on the use of female vocal that really disrupts everything. Fortunately not every vocal line uses female.

My view on original recorded live version (1974)

This album is a BIG thing for me personally. The first time I knew this album was the first period I was introduced to progressive rock world by my brother, Henky, who then was the radio broadcaster for Geronimo radio station based in Yogya, Central Java. That was the time of my "right-placed childhood" (ugh .. what is it? It's an antithesis of Marillion "mis"placed childhood as I was so fortunate that I had a great big brother who forced me to prog ). He just gave me a "naked" cassette with no title at all, sent to me in Madiun, a small town in East Java. I remember that the recording quality was very poor. And at that time I never heard any kind of music with a lot of narration like this album. But the cassette really BLEW me!!! I played it everyday almost 2 or 3 times and not knowing who the artist/band was. I finally realized the artist behind the cassette after I catch a compilation of songs produced by Prambors radio (Jakarta) in which an edited version of "Journey" was listed and yeah RICK WAKEMAN mannnnn!!! Wow .. no wonder! By that time I only knew RW through his involvement in YESsongs and Fragile.

I admire on the high quality standard of this recorded live album. It's so fascinating music that has always made my adrenalin EXPLODED when I listen to this album! I mean it, my friend. No joke at all for a man as great as Mr. Wakeman! He's the greatest keyboard player I have ever known in my life. Needless to say that the overall composition of this album is definitely, absolutely top class! By that time I was not aware any inclusion of orchestra in rock music composition (later I knew DEEP PURPLE's Concerto for Groups and Orchestra and JON LORD's Windows).

About this 2012 version

Thanks to Amazon UK who delivered my fanpack copy faster than I expected. The first impression about this is off course the package which is really excellent especially the Classic Rock magz that describe the whole story about this seminal work from Rick Wakeman. Having read the story I realized that Journey was supposed to be the first solo album by Wakeman. But due to lucrative investment cost he then recorded the Six Wives first until it reached commercial success and used the proceeding to finance the recorded live version in 1974.

On the content of the CD itself I am pleased to hear the introductory narration by Peter Egan as the original narrator died in 2003. It's OK with this new one even though the powerful word of " the Hansbach!" is different in energy than the original version (sounded much more dynamic than the current one). The overture is really beautiful it is now recorded in digital era, the sound production is quite clear. I am really disappointed when the female voice starts to enter the music - it's really the lowest point of this version. It's nt that I don't like female voice but she does not sing charismatically so the music tends to be mellow like typical pop song.

The high point of this new version is when the album reaches The Battle - Cumulus Clouds - The Story - The Cemetary. For those who love this album I guarantee that you would like this new version better when it comes to The Battle. Oh man ... I love the dynamics of this piece as it starts wonderfully with Rick's inventive keyboard work. For some reason, I find this new version is much more compelling than the 1974 version. The keyboard solo is much more dynamic and it makes me really hooked with this piece. I keep repeating this piece when it reaches The Battle. I love the parts where it reaches SAVE ME ... SAVE ME ...as well as PRAISE GOD ...PRAISE GOD! Oh maaaaannn ....this is really a real progrock music! Yeah! Not only that, there is an addition 1 minute piece at the end of The Battle and its transition piece. It's sooooo wonderful I tell you! The narration part in Cumulus Clouds is really beautiful. The Story demonstrates great keyboard solo by Rick and it fits beautifully with The Battle. It then flows to The Cemetery (narration) nicely.

This is for sure an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW