RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL

We get seven tracks all in a similar style and really the only hiccup for me is the song "Legacy" but at 3 1/2 minutes it's not a big deal. "Rain Falls In Grey..." is the over 17 minute opener that opens with experimental sounds in atmosphere before a heavy beat arrives around 3 minutes. A horn after 4 minutes and it turns dissonant. Organ takes the lead for a while then guitar. Just a great sound here around 7 minutes in. Love the vocal melodies 10 1/2 minutes in that last to the 12 minute mark. More guitar before the mellotron arrives before 15 minutes. So good!

"Bett'r Days" opens with heavy drums and organ before the bass arrives. Just a great sound overall here then the guitar starts to solo over top. It winds down some after 5 minutes and even more after 8 minutes before turning quite spacey. "Shut Up" is very spacey, haunting and experimental. An excellent number.

"Syd" is under 3 minutes of bliss, quite dark, heavy and psychedelic. "Emissary" is headphone music for sure early on. We get drums before 3 1/2 minutes and a horn after 4 1/2 minutes. Some nice guitar before a dissonant horn comes in late. "...Far Away" ends it with a lone guitar to start and this will continue for some time as it cries out in atmosphere. Bass will help out along with mellotron later on as it all builds.

This is a must for fans of heavy Psychedelic music. The mellotron is a bonus of course but man this is my kind of music. Closer to 4.5 stars.

"Organ Harvest Part One" has this spacey intro which is joined by sequencers before 3 minutes. The mellotron starts to come in waves after 6 minutes before the sequencers stop a minute later. I really like the sound here right to the end. It's so spacey and I love that haunting mellotron. "Geiger" has this relaxed electronic beat with guitar and mellotron flute. I like the bell that goes off at different periods of this track. More mellotron 5 1/2 minutes in. "Edison" has synths and sequencers that standout early on and then it turns powerful before 1 1/2 minutes before it all settles back down a minute later. Piano joins in which is both surprising and interesting. Mellotron helps out later on.

"Rainy Day Song" has these repetitive sounds that come and go with atmosphere. Sequencers join in before 2 minutes. Sounds cry out a minute later as it continues to build. The guitar comes in late ripping it up. "Organ Harvest Part Two" has mellotron and tons of atmosphere, electronics too. Sequencers 4 minutes in along with percussion sounds as the atmosphere continues to dominate. The mellotron is killer 5 minutes in. It ends in an experimental manner. "A Minute Of Silence" has drums, guitar and atmosphere early on. The guitar starts to cry out then the synths drop like rain after 2 minutes as the guitar takes a back seat until after 3 minutes when it returns. The mellotron flows here as it continues to rain until all you here is rain.

I'm a big fan of RMI's early stuff and this is no exception. A solid 4 stars for this one.

More than once innocuous and once more the Tangerine Dream resemblance starts around minute 12+-, and from there the idea of sounding like Radio Massacre International kind of music turns out like Radio Mellow incorporated does the TD.

Two 28 minutes compositions (each), full of "dreamy" textures, accompanied by sequencer pulses and the inevitable swirling guitar solos. Music composition wise there are no new proposals, in turn this band could be considered (if you are willing) true followers of TD's legacy, therefore this release could kind of fit in your Progressive Electronic collection in that same proportion.

The best part of this release, is when RMI sounds like RMI. Their true nature seems more inclined to surface in their semi Dark, drone like atmospheres, which in this record seem to work as overtures or closures for their stubborn and unimaginative TD's or ASHRA's renditions. The first 12 minutes will make my point crystal clear, but market wise, I can bet their followers would not be so thrilled.

Now, if you, like me, are kind of bored with these endless repetitions of TD peak era styling and musical idiom involuntary/voluntary repetitions, well avoid it at all cost and spend your bucks on Tim Hecker if you were expecting a real Maelstrom (inevitably for me Edgar Allan Poe's short story is my referential point) , or on TD's or Ash Ra Tempel's 70s works, from where this UK trio were totally touched and inspired.

***3 "for their very loyal followers and some" PA stars.

Disc one starts off with "Wrecks" an over 20 minute track with what sounds like liquid keys early on as this spacey atmosphere flutters and flows. A fuller sound arrives after 3 minutes including mellotron which really comes to the fore 7 1/2 minutes in. It all picks up and gets louder before 9 minutes. Great sound before 11 minutes with that electronic beat and mellotron that continues to the end. "What's The Point Of Going To Crete?" has these fearful outbursts that come and go then electronics and a deep atmosphere roll in. An electronic rhythm kicks in before 2 minutes. Incredible sound after 4 minutes on this one. "Small Frozen North" sounds like the atmosphere is causing powerful waves of sound. An electronic rhythm is added around 2 minutes. "Rosemary's Baby" is very cinematic and powerful with what sounds like piano joining in. "Drown" has an eerie feel to it not surprisingly considering the title of this track. Check out the mellotron after 3 minutes, it's majestic to say the least. A change after 5 minutes with an electronic beat coming in and less atmosphere. It's building though then it settles back. It all sounds very urgent as it builds again.

Disc two features only two long tracks including the 28 1/2 minute "Frozen North I" which opens with deep sounds that echo before spacey sounds take over quickly. It's interesting hearing the sounds after 3 minutes because i'm really reminded of Holger Czukay's "Boat-Woman-Song" from 1969. This continues for about 11 minutes when it changes with different beats and spacey sounds joining forces along with mellotron. It calms down after 17 minutes then we get percussion sounds and twittering after 21 minutes. The deep sounds from early on are back as it ends much like it began. "Frozen North IV" is the over 40 minute closer. A haunting sound from the depths stands out as lighter sounds chime in and out. The mellotron choirs after 2 minutes are heavenly. It eventually settles back as sounds crash in the background while mellotron choirs come in waves. Another calm after 14 minutes as pleasant sounds ebb and flow. Haunting mellotron then another calm 19 1/2 minutes in before the electronics arrive a minute later. The mellotron is back as the electronic beat continues. After 30 minutes the sound has such a depth to it then that beat stops before 33 minutes as it turns eerie with lots of mellotron. It ends as it began.

So another winner from RMI that's full of mellotron. I wish it was shorter and there was more guitar but this is excellent to say the least.

I will try later *Radio Massacre International's "Maelstrom", which I hope gets better, as far as original music composition goes. In "The God of Electricity" it is quiet scarce, and not that daring, beyond some cacophonies of white noise and noise alone, at the end of "part 5". Part 6 will have mellowed down some really "obscure/dramatic" previous song, but as it is, it is just a nice "mellow" distorted electric guitar song, which so far is the only real "original" non TD song, although, it could be anyone's Folk/Blues/Rock electronic song, with a blurry background mellotron. Part 8 returns again to the "Rubycon' years with added touches of rain.. To be honest, I was really enthusiastic about this band, quiet a disappointment, if you grew up with the golden "era" of TD.

This is the kind of work that needs to many justifications to be listened with empathy, and I will recommend it, ONLY, if you have already bought it, and kind of see it as "tribute" to TD's great years "redux", performed by a younger generation of electronic musicians.

AND if you kind of feel they owe you music for such a *massive name of a band, turn to Tim Hecker's "Ravedeath", that is a real electronic radio "massacre" and even "international". (Tim's Canadian)

***3 PA stars, if you see it as a "tribute", I repeat, of TD'S greatest works, besides that, you are on your own.

The environment along with the circumstances of any given concert is always essential - I guess more than we will ever know. Sometimes it´s the feel of the audience that makes the artists give just that little extra - transforming what could have been a run of the mill gig into something unintelligible and magic. Take the Band of Gypsys record with Jimi Hendrix´ sonic rendition of the Vietnam war during Machine Gun, or maybe the Santana performance at Woodstock from the same year. Both of them contain a ferocity and an inexplicable energy that transcends both time and space, and leaves the audience in sheer unadulterated awe.

However blasphemous and pagan this may sound to you, Radio Massacre International actually manage to evoke those same feelings and connections between the music and the gig. This is just an electronic concert... Recorded back in 1996 under one of the biggest satellite dishes in the world, Knutsford in May feels like a major event, that just 2 decades earlier would have made booming headlines, and drawn music fans from all over the world to experience this far out and riveting experiment. One of the key elements here, is that you can virtually feel - and almost grab a hold of the inspiration during this gig. It is practically running down the sides of the satellite dish, and all through this event, the band continues to give just that little extra sounding like a string of soft implosions - and explosions, so when it actually finishes, I feel like I´ve been through an asteroid storm and I could sleep for a decade. It´s exhaustive and fulfilling at the same time.

Through improvisational skills, bleeping sequencers, choir mellotrons, waves of gentle riffing guitars to muffled yearning and simple string work, there indeed is some kind of deep space travel going on here. Imagine Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese rolling up a doobie, for then to start communicating with a towering mountain, and you are almost there, but then again not really.... It is so easy to compare electronic artists to those 2 godfathers of yesteryear, and sure RMI utilizes much of the same instruments and wobbling textures, but then it only makes it all the more fantastic, that these guys emanate a distinctive personality. They sound like themselves so to speak...

This is an astonishing take on the Berliner school, and I urge anyone with an interest in experimental electronic music to have a listen. It is slow moving music that takes its time to develop, and if you´ve ever seen those nature movies where the cameras have been filming for long periods of time - capturing the snow-capped peaks of Kathmandu changing colors in the most enchanting way inside a time frame of 30 seconds, then try imagining these natural mechanics applied to music.

I am not going to scrutinize these tracks, because they feel like they belong to themselves in their own little world, and personally I think it´d perhaps destroy these mysterious images that burns inside my mind - like imagination infused petrol - all on account of the music.

What this record really sounds like, makes me think of the ascending smoke from a lit cigarette. You know those spiraling smoke patterns caught in the light from an overhead window - looking like shifting mosaics of a rising spirit piloting for the upper stratosphere, if only the winds would keep to themselves. Welcome to the magic.

There are notes with each track as well in the liner notes. I also wanted to mention that on the Planet Mellotron site Andy gives this five Trons.That means it's stuffed to the gills with mellotron, and if your a fan of RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL's early mellotron drenched albums then this is a must.

Disc four is my favourite as we get such powerful soundscapes filled with atmosphere and mellotron.Quite haunting at times too. I'm not going to go track by track since there's about 7 hours of music here but for fans of this band you should know that the music here doesn't take a back seat to their official releases. And I find the info about each track very interesting.

This is a valuable addition to my RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL collection, in fact it really completes it.

"Seeds Crossiong The Intersteller Void" opens with the feeling i'm standing in a wind storm until around 2 1/2 minutes when horn-like sounds come and go. Mellotron before 4 minutes.Yes ! Synths come in then we get guitar 7 minutes in. An electronic beat then takes over after 8 1/2 minutes and it will stop late. "A Preist Crossing Frozen Water" has this beat with spacey sounds. Sequencers take over then guitar and mellotron (the dynamic duo) come in before 4 minutes. Hell yeah ! It turns spacey to end it and blends into "Mad Bob's Self Inflicted Torment". I like how this sounds with that picked guitar, mellotron and synth sounds. It becomes louder and more spacey before 6 1/2 minutes. Processed vocal sounds after 8 minutes as it blends into "The Emissaries Revealed Themselves". Sequencers arrive and build. Mellotron before 5 minutes. It settles and blends into "The Ice Garden" which isn't as rhythmic as the other tracks and a little more experimental. Mellotron rolls in halfway through. "A Promise Of Salvation" ends the studio album and it has a beat that builds with some deep sounds too. A fantastic studio album right there which the band calls the "Emissaries Suite" because this is one long suite divided into sections.

The live album isn't quite as good in my opinion but almost. "An Intersteller Vacuum Is Far From Empty" is a beautiful piece that is spacey and haunting. "Mobile Star Systems" features a lot of sequencer sounds and I really like it. Guitar after 7 minutes. "A Piano Wanders The Incandescent Vapours" does have piano in it surprisingly enough. It's spacey with guitar expressions early though then we get keys followed by mellotron. Just a great sounding track. "Sympathy For The Bedeviled" has a spacey backdrop with sparse guitar.This is excellent ! Some organ too in this impressive track. "The Arrival Of The Seeds" has lots of sequencer sounds with synths over top. "Deliverance From Nucleur Winter" ends it with more sequencers and eventually spacey synths over top.

A fine recording indeed that will appeal to fans of ASHRA,TANGERINE DREAM and many other high quality Electronic bands.