I just got my grubby, greedy, grabby, synth-lovin' paws on the latest Cleopatra Records various artists tribute album thingy, 'Synthesizer Classic', featuring Wakeman Downes & Moraz (synth heroes in their own rights) as well as others doing covers of commonly known synth-oriented pieces from pioneer synthsters like Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk etc.
On first listen: not bad at all! No horrible vocalists here, all instrumental (except for the cover of Tour De France). Wakeman's entry is cool. Geoff Downes does Vangelis 'Pulstar', the piece that apparently inspired Francis Monkman to create the piece that inspired Downes to go to the Ice Bridge. Curious if this was recorded after the whole Ice Bridge misunderstanding, it says all tracks recorded 2021. It would be amusing if he did choose Pulstar because of that, some slightly cheeky humor there.
One quip is that the album is rather short - 8 tracks, and none of them particularly long. The version of Tubular Bells of course isn't a full 21-minute thing. Could have been more, but going by the basic digipack case with just basic info and no booklet it was probably slapped together rather quickly, hot on the heels of the latest Prog Collective disc - though this one is Billy Sherwood-free. Someone probably should have covered some Tangerine Dream material. It's a glaring omission. Perhaps a volume 2 would eventually come out down the line.
All in all enjoyable enough though could have been longer. Anyone else heard this?
On first listen: not bad at all! No horrible vocalists here, all instrumental (except for the cover of Tour De France). Wakeman's entry is cool. Geoff Downes does Vangelis 'Pulstar', the piece that apparently inspired Francis Monkman to create the piece that inspired Downes to go to the Ice Bridge. Curious if this was recorded after the whole Ice Bridge misunderstanding, it says all tracks recorded 2021. It would be amusing if he did choose Pulstar because of that, some slightly cheeky humor there.
One quip is that the album is rather short - 8 tracks, and none of them particularly long. The version of Tubular Bells of course isn't a full 21-minute thing. Could have been more, but going by the basic digipack case with just basic info and no booklet it was probably slapped together rather quickly, hot on the heels of the latest Prog Collective disc - though this one is Billy Sherwood-free. Someone probably should have covered some Tangerine Dream material. It's a glaring omission. Perhaps a volume 2 would eventually come out down the line.
All in all enjoyable enough though could have been longer. Anyone else heard this?
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