MERCURY

Highly collectable obscure Electronic releases from the 80's.Celluloid was actually a moniker created by a young American teenager named Chuck Minuto.Reputedly he performed his music only armed with a mellotron.His first effort saw the light in 1982, a long Electronic suite entitled ''Mercury'', privately pressed for Wax Museum.

Side A includes the first part of the ''Mercury'' suite, split in three moves.The first one ''The Formation Of Space, Land, And Sea'' is pure dark Electronic ambiences, hard to believe the sound comes out of a mellotron,it is more like long monotonous analog synth music,the second one being ''The Melting Of Stars'', yes, this is mellotron here along with sound effects, really more interesting than the boring move 1.The closing move ''The Arrival Of Man'' flows in the same style, mellotron-drenched electronic soundscapes with sampled spacey choirs and bells, which gets more into electronic soundscapes towards the end.Really sinister stuff.

Side B consists of the second and last part of ''Mercury'', the 15-min. ''The Civilization Of Planets''.Big surprise here,Minuto's mellotron (really sounds like organ here) is supported by his vocals, a good combination of haunting Electronic stuff with spacey vocals and choirs until the middle.I definitely hear some loops afterwards and surpsingly again Minuto delivers some sort of brass section, much in THE BEATLES' mood (!), before the 3-min. spacey outro.

For a one-man effort this album is decent enough, but no that decent to spend three or four digit-bucks to purchase the original LP.It is somewhat far from the essentials of the genre,still if you like muddy mellotron-drenched and dark Electronic/Ambient stuff, ''Mercury'' deserves some hunting at a reasonable price...2.5 stars.