:: theLogBook.com Music Reviews ::

A very strange album, this, but it has a kind of hypnotic appeal to me. Most of the numbers are very slow, acoustic, and at best are mesmerising. The “group” consists of Simon Honisett and Penny Hewson, with occasional guest players, and the production values are low-tech, maybe barely a step above the Finn Brothers’ debut album (you can’t hear most of the tape hiss), but the sameness of most of the songs may lose Sunglass some points with some listeners. On the good side, the lyrics are often interesting, and there are some interesting vocals - Penny Hewson sometimes comes across sounding a little like Julee Cruise.

1. Most Days (4:18)
2. The Saddest Girl in the World (2:47)
3. The Biggest Mess (4:19)
4. Dust (2:15)
5. Before The Light (4:37)
6. Hollowhead (2:37)
7. Here We Go Again (2:56)
8. When Stars Collide (2:17)
9. You and Me (2:05)
10. For Real (4:33)
11. Sugar Sweet Goodbye (2:48)
12. I Want To Be There (7:10)
13. Bringing Someone Back (5:48)
14. Remember These (4:41)

Released by: Choc Chip Records
Release date: 1994
Total running time: 48:37

Though a bit pricey, this is a nice compilation of the early 60s stock library music used to track the pivotal Doctor Who four-parter, The Tenth Planet. And the timing is no accident - this CD hit the shelves in Great Britain hot on the heels of the much-anticipated video release of the same name.

My biggest complaint about Tenth Planet is its length-to-cost ratio. Not even twenty minutes long, the CD costs just over ten pounds (roughly equivalent to $15 US). The real incentive in this CD is the rarity of the material. This music has previously been released on such past barely-legit CD releases as Music From Tomb Of The Cybermen and Space Adventures, both of which, like this one, were limited releases, and now sell for ridiculous amounts on online auction sites.

The remastering on these library tracks is fairly good, bearing in mind that the oldest of this material is four decades old, several years older than the show in which they were re-used! Space Adventures parts 1 and 2 were used not only as the “theme” for the Cybermen during their reign of terror in the 60s, but was also the stock music used in many a moment of danger for the Doctor and friends during that era (including, among others, The Web Of Fear). It’s sort of like the fight music from Star Trek’s Amok Time episode - it was used for everything in those episodes where original music was not commissioned. There’s also a certain Carl Stalling-ish quality to this material as well.

I’d advise you to get your hands on this one before it becomes the next Space Adventures - in other words, before it becomes high-priced eBay bait. The music may not be to everyone’s taste, but this may be the last chance Doctor Who music completists have to get a hold of it. After years of seeing Space Adventures sell for huge amounts of money, I was happy to pay only $15 to get this.

1. Blast Off! by Roger Roger (2:24)
2. Music For Technology by Walter Stott (1:35)
3. Power Drill by Douglas Gamley (1:15)
4. Space Adventure Part 1 by Martin Slavin (0:41)
5. Space Adventure Part 2 by Martin Slavin (1:25)
6. Space Adventure Part 3 by Martin Slavin (0:17)
7. Drama In Miniature Part 1 by Dennis Farnon (1:31)
8. Drama In Miniature Part 2 by Dennis Farnon (1:10)
9. Machine Room by Douglas Gamley (3:02)
10. Drumdramatics 7 by Robert Farnon (2:33)
11. Drumdramatics 10 by Robert Farnon (3:08)

Released by: Ochre Records
Release date: 2000
Total running time: 19:01

This incongruously titled new collection from Man…Or Astroman? is also an incongruous entry in the band’s surf-rock-on-acid catalogue, but it’s not bad. Imagine, if you will, Dick Dale having a head-on collision with the Art of Noise. That’s kind of what this sounds like. Samples and electronic percussion work their way into the MOAM mix for the first time, and the result is very strange but still listenable. The theme seems to be a retro vision of the future, when everyone expected the world to be run by huge, room-filling computers with open reels of magnetic tape whirring constantly. Some MOAM purists may be offended by the techno leanings of EEVIAC, but I was amused by them - and relieved that the band has found, even if only for one album, a bizarre way to keep their sound fresh.

1. Interstellar Hardrive (2:17)
2. D:contamination (2:20)
3. U-235 / PU-239 (2:02)
4. Domain of the Human Race (1:33)
5. Theme from EEVIAC (2:33)
6. A Reversal of Polarity (3:32)
7. Fractionalized Reception of a Scrambled Transmission (1:18)
8. Engines of Difference (2:42)
9. Psychology of A.I. (numbers follow answers) (1:33)
10. Krasnoyask-26 (1:14)
11. Within the Mainframe, Impaired Vision from Inoperable Cataracts Can
    Become a New Impending Nepotism (2:54)
12. As Estrelas Agora Elas Estao Mortas (2:53)
13. _____ / Myopia (6:26)

Released by: Touch And Go
Release date: 1999
Total running time: 36:53

And to think, you thought ELO’s story was over. A series of rare tracks, live cuts, concerts and rarities have kept the band alive for fans during the 90s - not to mention a little band called ELO Part Two, who have been paying Jeff Lynne’s mortgage from publishing royalties alone for the past decade. But with the abrupt end of ELO Part Two, now operating under the somewhat generic name Orchestra, we should’ve known something was up. Jeff Lynne’s been a busy boy, supervising the restoration and remastering of the original ELO session tapes and finishing incomplete recordings which originated anywhere from 1980 to ‘82. Alternate mixes of “Do Ya”, “Mission (A World Record)” and “Mama” are included here, along with a murky 1973 home demo and a completely new version of “Xanadu”, performed by Lynne in a style which seems to owe more to the Traveling Wilburys than to ELO.

There are many familiar and somewhat more obscure tracks in this box set, and the remastering that has been performed on that material is quite a revelation. For the first time, “Shangri-La” and “Livin’ Thing” aren’t pureèd by the noise reduction technology of the 70s - the latter in particular has had a very annoying overmodulation effect in the build-up to the last chorus since I first heard it, so it’s nice to hear it the way it was originally performed for the first time.

New bits are heard here and there as well, such as an interesting synth instrumental right before “Hold On Tight”, some Beatlesque echo-drenched count-ins, and so on.

The edits and alternate mixes of classic songs are interesting from a completist point of view; personally, unlike Jeff Lynne in his liner notes, I have never felt that 1972’s “Mama” was an overly long number, and to say that I preferred the original mix of “Mission (A World Record)” as released in 1976 would be an understatement. This new mix is an interesting way to study the song’s densely layered arrangements, as it lacks many of the backing vocals of the original, but that’s all. And I can’t tell if “Do Ya” is a grand rebirth for one of ELO’s oldest songs (it was originally a Move number), a product of extensive computerized editing, or both.

The real gems, however, are the half-dozen or so outtakes and previously uncompleted songs from the early 1980s. “Grieg’s Piano Concerto In A Minor” is just what it says it is, given a groovy Ventures-style surf-rock arrangement which has to be heard to be believed (!). “Tears In Your Life” is a somber reject from 1982’s Secret Messages album, which Lynne completed with a new three-part harmony vocal (the original intent was for the entire song to be sung through a vocoder), and sports some elegant middle-eastern-influenced string work. Other leftovers from the Secret Messages sessions are the incredibly silly “Who’s That?” (a Monty-Python-esque bit of messing around with fart sounds that was probably never intended to appear in any officially-released form) and “Helpless”, which has some amazing vocal harmonies hearkening back to ELO’s glory days.

But in my view, the real treat is “Love Changes All”, a never-before-heard number from the 1980 sessions for ELO’s half of the Xanadu soundtrack. Not only are the pre-requisite swirling string arrangements there, but so is a large choir and some of Lynne’s best vocals (and lyrics). It’s a shame the song was never finished until this year.

The box art is a fantastic revisitation of some of the concepts from 1977’s Out Of The Blue cover art, which forever solidified the ELO/spaceship/science fiction connection that furthered the group’s reputation as a cult-following-only band, right up there with most other well-loved science fiction icons. The booklet contained in the box is an almost fawning tribute to Lynne’s genius. I love Jeff Lynne’s songwriting and production style, but these things should not be stressed at the expense of such pivotal past members as Bev Bevan, Kelly Groucutt (who sued his ex-bandmates in the 1980s over whether he was a full member of the band entitled to royalties, or just a high-paid session musician who just happened to play on virtually every song the group recorded between 1975 and 1983), and co-founder Roy Wood.

With its steep price tag, I’m not sure that Flashback will spark the ELO renaissance that Epic is hoping for - and with the announcement of Zoom, a completely new ELO album created by Jeff Lynne for a 2001 release, I’m sure there was some hope that Flashback would generate some real interest. Die-hard ELO fans like myself are sure to pick it up for the new material, but will the general music-buying community catch on fire for this? Only time will tell.

Disc one
1. 10538 Overture (5:31)
2. Showdown (4:12)
3. Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (3:54)
4. Mr. Radio (5:03)
5. Roll Over Beethoven (7:48)
6. Mama - new edit (6:05)
7. One Summer Dream (5:21)
8. Illusions In G Major (2:41)
9. Strange Magic (4:29)
10. Eldorado Overture (2:12)
11. Can’t Get It Out Of My Head (4:24)
12. Eldorado (5:18)
13. Eldorado Finale (1:29)
14. Do Ya - alternative mix (4:09)
15. Mister Kingdom (5:08)
16. Grieg’s Piano Concerto In A Minor (2:59)

Disc two
1. Tightrope (5:23)
2. Evil Woman (4:19)
3. Livin’ Thing (3:34)
4. Mr. Blue Sky (5:07)
5. Mission (A World Record) - alternative mix (4:31)
6. Turn To Stone (3:48)
7. Telephone Line (4:45)
8. Rockaria! (3:15)
9. Starlight (4:45)
10. It’s Over (3:55)
11. The Whale (5:06)
12. Sweet Talkin’ Woman (3:49)
13. Big Wheels (5:32)
14. Shangri-La (5:36)
15. Nightrider (4:24)
16. Tears In Your Life (3:06)

Disc three
1. Don’t Bring Me Down (4:04)
2. The Diary Of Horace Wimp (4:17)
3. Twilight (3:42)
4. Secret Messages (4:38)
5. Take Me On And On (4:58)
6. Shine A Little Love (4:11)
7. Rock And Roll Is King (3:15)
8. Last Train To London (4:31)
9. Confusion (3:40)
10. Getting To The Point (4:51)
11. Hold On Tight (3:08)
12. So Serious (2:43)
13. Calling America (3:27)
14. Four Little Diamonds (4:06)
15. Great Balls Of Fire - live, 1974 (3:06)
16. Xanadu - new version (3:21)
17. Indian Queen - demo (0:57)
18. Love Changes All (3:28)
19. After All (2:24)
20. Helpless (3:19)
21. Who’s That? (1:26)

Released by: Epic/Legacy
Release date: 2000
Disc one total running time: 68:52
Disc two total running time: 71:01
Disc three total running time: 73:42