Customer Reviews

11th Hour

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a heavy-duty New Age lover since I was like 8 or 9 years old. It was Mars Lasar's 'The Eleventh Hour' that eventually made New Age one of my favorite genres of music.

I at first thought New Age was just a kind of sleepy music kind of genre that seemed more like boring meditation music but The Eleventh Houre blew all that perception away. Many other albums since then have proven that New Age can be a very energetic genre, sometimes even more danceable than the antiquated, unlistenable R&B garbage of today.

In fact this CD sounds more like music from the future, like from 2093 instead of it's release year 1993.

Where most New Age CDs are mostly pleasant serene music, The Eleventh Hour is an album that is actually socially conscious. I might sound a bit odd but I often compare this to Janet Jacksons powerful 1989 masterpiece Rhythm Nation 1814 because this album is just as moving and awe-inspiring even though these two albums are from totally different genres. It shows that all genres can express messages.

The Eleventh Hour not only is energetic it is also a kaleidoscope of many sounds and the songs all have a distinctive sound ranging from the disturbing title track to jazzy like in Why Violate Every Law OF Nature to even fun like in Live at the Eleventh Hour to the tear-jerking yet joyous The Gift and Cathedral Waltz. No other album in my opinion stimulates so much imagination, not even the Eleventh Hours successor 11:02 even though that album comes close. Strangely the only other album that I compare this album to is Karma because while 11:02 was great, Karma has the kind of melodies that this album contains. 11:02 was more on the creepy space side where Karma had the peculiar melodies and the natural sounds of this album except Karma is far more ancient in sound.

To go into a detailed review of the songs to me would not be enough to do this extraordinary album justice because this album is like nothing that any other New Age artist maybe except Patrick O'Hearn my other favorite New Age meistro, can even dream of creating. It's that good. In fact it has even been powerful enough to shape the way I look at the world.

This is an album of my lifetime. It's one of those album I would buy again and again as I wear out copies over my lifetime.

And by the way this is a 19 year old who absolutely despises the horrofic gender-bashing R&B of today.

Give me the frightening darkness of Hidden Crater or In The Den anytime over any of the sunny cheap R&B trash of Destinys Child or Ja Rule.

Believe me this is an album to live by.

This, along with Delerium's "Karma," is my favorite CD in my collection. This CD has the distinction of being on almost non-stop repeat in my CD player at work. It's mix of warning and optimism is just wonderful. My favorite track, "In the Den," has a terrific beat, but it also has a terrific message if you listen to the words closely enough.

A truly great CD.

The Eleventh Hour has become one of my favorite new age albums. Mars Lasar uses many great sounds in it and he has created a great album. However it is the only album I own by him but I have heard from reading other reviews that his album "Karma" is supposed to have similar sounds in it.

The CD lasts over an hour and has 16 songs on it. When I read the back of the CD I saw that this album was dedicated to hope for a world in crisis and in my opinion that is a very serious issue. Anyway, I'll mention a few songs from the album. "The Eleventh Hour" is a great song to start off the album. It has great keyboard sounds and also it has a few voices in it. "Plateau Of The Gods" is another one of my favorite songs. It starts out soft and gets louder towards the end, it also featured guitars in it. One song I thought that could really exist in the future was "Cellular City". I would picture a future city in space. "Hidden Crater" was one that was a little bit more on the dark side. It has great keyboard sounds in it with a few whispers here and there. One song I thought was a bit unusual was "City Jungle" it had strange keyboards with a lot of water sounds in it. That's all the songs I am going to talk about but mostly all of them are worth the listen.

If you liked The Eleventh Hour you might want to try "Olympus". It is different than The Eleventh Hour mostly because of the different sounds he uses. Well that's all I have to say!

Good-Bye!!

Mars Lasar creates a future-world of aural landscapes that are flowing in the air of orchestral lushness or bubbling from a funky groove kicked by a rhythmic, industrial noise/ sound effects punch. Ricochet rifle shots are blended into the drum lines with other percusion sounds and they blend to rock a melody. A cleverly crafted soundscape hauntingly recalls american indian music, and a realisticly sounding indian voice tells about the great warrior and yet peaceful man,Geronimo- complete with horse hooves and naying that blend into the rhythm line. A child's lullaby emerges beautifully from the tune of a windup music box. A song about blasting into space and a cocktail lounge ditty defy the ability to conveniently label Mr. Lasar.

Mars masters the unification of textile sound and aural grace. This album has variety, beauty,conscience,power,and wisdom- all delivered with a unique melodic flare of a master electronic composer. There is a theme of futuristic doom unde! ! rlying the concept of the "Eleventh Hour", but it crackles with a stubborn underlying optimism of the churchbell's gong triumphing over the electronic beep...and in some parts you can even dance to it!

I never paid for a word of communism and a burp before. The rest of the CD is not bad, but it does not deserve the top rating.

Another great CD from Mars Lasar. Just like Mars's previous album Olympus Mars makes great keyboard sounds. I picked this CD up at BORDERS only knowing Hidden Crater from the radio. When I started listening to it I thought it was great the CD is good from the beginning to the end. On the eleventh hour the 16 songs are about hope for a world in crisis. Every song on the album I thought was good but my favorite song still was Hidden Crater for the darkness in the song. If you like new age music then this is the album for you. Believe me you will not be DISAPPOINTED!

What a wonderful CD this is. Very thought-provoking, yet it's also something you can just lie back and listen to, letting the music wash over you. This CD spans many musical styles (I hesitate to say genres, because it is all clearly New Age)

The standout piece on this is "In the Den," with it's mixture of rhythm and message. "Plateau of the Gods" is wonderfully cosmic in scope, bringing a space-like listening sensation.

The CD lasts over 72 minutes. With a mediocre CD, that would be almost cringe-inducing. Here, though, almost every minute is wonderful.

This will be repeated in your CD player many times.