Customer Reviews

The Best of Mickey Hart: Over the Edge and Back

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

 

 

Mickey Hart's "Best of" CD has a nice cross-section of pieces the percussionist has made.

All of the CD is good, but too short. I would have liked to have heard a bit from Hart's first solo effort, Rolling Thunder, but maybe that would have got in the way of contractual agreements between GDM and Ryko Disc.

The songs range from Hart's Diga band piece "Sweet Sixteen" to the Apacolype Now Sessions' "Compound", to Hart's first 90's foray into the world of percussion "On The Edge" with "The Eliminatiors", to Hart's award winning follow-up Planet Drum with tracks "Undo Chant" and "Temple Caves", to a tribute to the combination of music and voice found on Mystery Box tracks, "Where Love Goes (Sito)" and "Down The Road", to the opening track on Supralingua "Angola".

Unfortunately no tracks from "Spirit Into Sound" are to be found on this compilation (again maybe due to the fact that GDM was involved with the distribution of that project).

The real treat of this set comes at the end with Hart and Co. doing a superb Opening Ceramonies piece form the 1996 Olypiad -- called "A Call To All Nations" which is fabulous.

So, in this compilation you have some positives and negatives. If you want to enter and have a taste of Mickey's world, by all means purchase this. Be forwarned though, you might want to pick up the original albums from where these songs originated.

I bought this album in order to flesh out my already significant awe for Mickey and the succession of material he has produced. It's all the familiar great stuff, but utterly marred by the inclusion of the two tracks from "Mystery Box". In short Mickey, they should have remained a mystery. They are Vocal, R&B cheesy, saccharine and entirely out of place. If you like to listen to Hart for the shamanic beats and interestingly coloured exotic atmospheres, prepare to program your CD player to skip tracks 2 & 3 as they are just awful and guaranteed to ruin any moment. A poor choice from the producers; no doubt why I was able to buy it on ebay for £1.50.

I think there is nothing to be gained for the Hart fan here. One would be better off buying the original albums. Buy "Mystery Box" only if you feel in need of aural punishment.

Mickey Hart's solo work doesn't get the attnetion it deserves. He does a different type of music than he is normally associated with as one of the Grateful Dead's drummers. He's not looking to duplicate his successful group work in his solo outings.
This is a compilation from various solo CD's so there is different personnel on different cuts. Many times there are multiple percussionists playing various percussion instruments, some of them unusual and exotic. Percussion is universal in so many countries music and it's very interesting stuff here. Many who buy the "best of" here will like it so much that they will search out the individual CDs that these cuts from- I did.

Mickey Hart is an acquired taste for some. This CD is fully loaded with beautifully written and expertly performed original music from one of the best drummers out there. Hart travels the world of music and incorporates a myriad of styles and arrangements. Every song feels like he is sharing a personal experience. Very heart felt and emotional. On the light side, the beat, the melody and the lyrics all lend themselves to audience participation. I can't sing a lick, but I sound great when accompanied by Mickey Hart!