Various - Acid Dragon Sampler, Autum 2000

Year of Release: 2000
Label: Acid Dragon
Catalog Number: ADREC02
Format: CD
Total Time: 47:43:00

Acid Dragon, the brainchild of Frenchman Thierry Sportouche has been running since 1988. This handy A5 sized English-language prog fanzine released its 28th issue in the Autumn of 2000. Amongst the many CD-reviews, this 48-page booklet also contains interviews with Arjen Lucassen, Locanda delle Fate, Present, Tryo, Spock's Beard and Pallas. Some of the CD-reviews only contain a couple of lines whereas a review of Mind Gallery's "Three Meals From Revolution" is spread over two whole pages!

New subscribers now get a unique sampler CD as a gift. Contrary to sampler CDs given away with Progression and Mellotron magazine, this CD here is a CD-R put together by Sportouche with the help of the artists which are featured on the disc. Acid Dragon releases one CD per year so each time you renew your subscription you get one sent to you. The next one will contain 2001, A Prog Odyssey which will introduce a selection of current prog bands from the Lyon area of France.

But let's get back to Voices, the current CD. On it you will find seven tracks, five which have been lifted from existing CDs and two otherwise unavailable tracks. It's, of course, these last two which are of main interest for collectors as chances are they already have the other material. Ken Senior who is now also a permanent member of Parallel or 90 Degrees is also active with his very own Purple project. "Airwaves" is lifted from his People Eater album and has the softer side of Pink Floyd written all over it, whilst the guitar solo contains a great deal of Steve Hackett references. Out of Quest For Truth comes "Overture/Why?!!?" by the late Brian Hirsch. Hirsch, who recently commited suicide, was the man behind Moonchild records on which the full CD was released. It's a very bombastic, instrumental orchestral piece filled with great synthesizer parts and a great sense for harmony. The rhythmic "J'accuse" by Robert Urban apparently is a protest song against the [destruction of the] environment, lifted from the album Elegies and containing some nice piano parts and wonderful build up with hidden cello interventions. Great song with a Brian May sounding guitar solo to end. Out of Dan Maske's The Age Of Balance album comes "Island Kingdom", a complex sounding instrumental filled with breaks and heavy outbursts. This is exactly the kind of material which might get people to turn towards prog in the first place. Excellent choice. "Crushed" is an acoustic piece by Chris Fournier, aka Fonya, which results in a "dark" sounding whole. This comes from Sunset Cliffs the first album on the band's very own Redshift Productions label. As already mentioned, the album closes with two unreleased songs, the first being by multi-instrumentalist Björn Lynne. From the projected CD The Gods Awaken, Acid Dragon has chosen "Jooli", a song which contains some Eastern influences and nice orchestrations, and could clearly be used as a soundtrack. Journalist Phil Jackson closes the album with two parts from his projected Reality Quake album, which he wants to release under the pseudonym of pArAdOx OnE. It's the most cosmic sounding song of the album and will please fans of electronic music and prog alike.

It might well be that these "so called" unreleased tracks were indeed unreleased at the time this compilation was put together, but have in the meantime been released in their own right making the term "unreleased" no longer valid. Whatever the case, it's always interesting to include audio material together with a magazine (cf. Progression, Mellotron) as "our" music is hardly played on the radio anyway and by including a CD, the interested reader finally can hear what all the fuss is about. Voices contains a nice selection of the current prog revival and is a nice introduction for those who have just opened the prog door.

[While this special CD is no longer available, the works of the bands therein are available - if not from your favorite prog vendor, then somewhere. And, the magazine itself appears still active; the companion radio show "Prog À Part" is still broadcasting (and available as a podcast). -ed.]

Tracklisting:
Airwaves (Purple) (10:52) /Overture-Why?!!? (Brian Hirsch) (7:35) / J'accuse (Robert Urban ) (4:32) / Island Kingdom (Dan Maske) (5:25) / Crushed (Fonya ) (4:20) / Jooli (Björn Lynne) (7:34) / Urbmon 116 Parts 2 And 3 (pArAdOx OnE) (8:47)

Musicians:


Discography:
Various - Acid Dragon Sampler, Autum 2000 (2000)

Genre: Various

Origin VA

Added: November 20th 2000
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: aciddragon.eu
Hits: 2221
Language: english