Customer Reviews

Dreams Beyond Control

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

 

 

This cd is too much criticized for its singing. This is really a great album. One of the greatest Spyro Gyra releases you can get. This is there most jazz influenced album, mainly with the appearence of Birks Law. Back to the vocals. When you think of it, there's only vocals on two tracks, one of them, Patterns In The Rain, is actually a great song. Come On! You can't live with one bad track. On a cd, there's going to be at least 12 tracks. One of them is bound to be a clinker. Anyway, the opener, Walk The Walk is the total essence of Spyro Gyra. Who ever called this album smooth jazz? Give me a break! With Patterns In The Rain, and South Beach, this cd just reminds me of summer. Mainly because I first got this cd in the summer and played it all day long, while I was outside in the pool, you know, all those summer things. Waltz For Isabel is absolutely beautiful. I can't believe what a bad rap this cd has, this is real Spyro Gyra. As good as it gets! And I'm not on drugs.

Spyro Gyra is one taletned band and Dreams Beyond Control is no exception. Some people may criticize the vocal songs but they are not bad by any means. Its just the band broadening their horizons and Alex Ligertwood sings both with much emotion.

Nonetheless, the instrumental prowess of this fine band stands tall on many cuts especially Waltz For Isabel and Kindred Spirit. The piano solos on the later just blow me away. The Marimba touches on South Beach and Bahla are also worth noting. After a while many of the songs become quite tuneful.

It certainly soothes my needs so why not give it a try?

I have nine Spyro Gyra albums and this is the only one I never play. That is because there is not a single tune I want to hear again. I like "Patterns In The Rain" but the Alex Ligertwood vocals completely destroy it. And I like "South Beach", but the poor arrangement just makes me wish someone would record it again.

That is all I can tell you. I don't play it.

Update : I played it to review it, and now I am playing it again, but just one track - "South Beach". I've discovered that if I play it through speakers instead of headphones, the things I don't like about the arrangement are outweighed by the quality of the tune and the parts of the arrangement I do like. You can also get "South Beach" on their "Millennium Collection" album if you are unsure about buying this.

Spyro Gyra were comming to Austin to play a show at the One World Theater out in Rolling Wood. My older brother has been a fan of them for years and I invited him to come stay with me and see the Spyro Gyra show. he was cool enough to buy the tickets but before I saw them I wanted to get a couple of their albums. I went to a Hastings in College Station where I was visiting family at the time. They only had a few Spyro Gyra album and I decided to start with the oldest they had which was Rites Of Summer. I liked that album quite a bit and decided to get another one. The next oldest was this one. I listened to it when I got home and was surprised they has songs with singing on them. To tell you the truth I was just getting into Spyro Gyra and thought of them as a strictly instrumental jazz band and had no idea they had a few songs with singing. Well like the other reviewers have mentioned the vocals kind of kill the feeling of Spyro Gyra. I don't really have anything against jazz with vocals but for Spyro Gyra I just don't think it works and I'm not real fond of the singer's voice on here. Moving along to the album itself Walk The Walk starts off the album and is smooth funk jazz with nive keybaords from Tom Schuman and nice sax from Jay Beckenstein. Nice happy sounding opener. Next song is a vocal song Patterns In The Rain. Like I mentioned earlier I don't like the vocal songs so I'll skip this one and the other vocal song being Send Me One Line. Breakfast At Igor's is a great song and probably my favorite from the album. They actualy played this song at the show my brother and I saw and I recognized it but since I'm bad with song titles when songs are instrumental couldn't remember what the title was. Jay had introduced it after they played it and I thought great. They played a Dreams Beyond Control song. Another one of my favorite parts about this song is that ex-Flecktone Howard Levy plays harmonica on this song. I've always loved Howard and thought the Flecktones sounded best with him. This song also features the Tower Of Power horn section. Waltz For Isabel is a nice, peaceful sounding ballad which is nice to mellow out too. South Beach is a good latin song which brings the beach to your mind. Bahia is very percussive at the beginning and get very smooth with marimba and sax. Kindred Spirit is ok but a little boring and nothing special. Birk's Law sounds like a song you'd hear a nightclub band play at a traditional jazz club. Nice piano from Tom. Same Difference is ok but sounds a little to poppy for me. Lastly is The Delicate Prey which closes the album very nicely being very smooth and the sax taking the lead in this one with a good rhythem section on the keybaords. The album for the most part has a real good flow except for said vocal songs which sound out of place. Maybe it's because I started with later Spyro Gyra albums and not the classic first few they put out why I don't hate this album like some of the other reviewers do. i think this is a very nice album and I'm glad to have it in my cd collection. I am working my way backwards to albums like Morning Dance, Spyro Gyra, Cathcing The Sun and Carnival. I also really love the artwork on this alkbums cover as I think a lot of their album covers have really great artwork. Overall if you are a Spyro Gyra fan of some of the earlier work I recomend you get this album. You might even find it used in a store like I did for real cheap. Definetly get it. You need it for the collection. Now I will go listen to Catching The Sun.

I like all the song from this album, I think this is the best CD album of Spyrogyra from so much collection that I had, One song that I like very much is Waltz for Isabel, this ballads song always fill my mind while I hear this song.

This is a great CD...it was my first Spyro Gyra Cd and love it...I would say that South Beach is the best song on the CD!

Dreams Beyond Control is a pretty good album by Spyro Gyra. It was released in 1993.(The mid-90's didn't have that good of Spyro Gyra music, in my opinion). This cd does have good tracks on it and has many relaxing and well-played solos. It isn't their best work, however. Especially considering the addition of vocals in today's modern jazz, including a couple of songs off of this record. The first one is good, though. In my opinion, the addition of certain vocals in today's jazz has made a lot of the music sound the same and has placed a stereotype on the genre. But that's a whole different story.

My top 3 favorite songs off of this record would be 8,10, and 11. Kindred Spirit is a beautiful and powerful song with fantastic piano playing by Tom Schuman. Same Difference is a great song with an extraordinary beat and tempo. The Delicate Prey has very good bass, guitar, and keyboard parts in it and is a good song.

All around, this is a pretty good release. However, the songs that are featured in the middle of this recording aren't that good. I don't know what happened in the thick of this cd. It is worth the purchase. Thank you for taking the time and generosity to read my review.

I've been a Spyrogra fan since I got they're 1980 release "Carnaval", which I bought because I liked the artwork and the name of the band sounded interesting. When I put it on, I was amazed how good it was. Each song had it's own distinct sound. I went out and bought they're three previous albums and every album since. "Dreams Beyond Control" is the last album I have purchased by them. I gave it 4 stars because like another reviewer I am NOT a fan of vocal jazz. With the absence of vibist/marimbaist Dave Samuels I feel the band lost a very difinitive voice in the Spyrogyra "sound". Subsequent albums seem to exhibit the trend of so many instrument jazz groups today, towards the "Kenny G" style of jazz that has no feel, no heart,and no distinct sound of its own. The instrumental cuts on this album are first rate, as good as any of their previous stuff. "Kindred Spirit" is a wonderful ballad reminding me of " Innocent Soul" from their "Rites of Summer" CD. If you enjoy the classic Spyrogrya sound as I do, check out "Island Stories" and "New Horizons" by Dave Samuels current band,the Carribean Jazz Project. You will not be disappointed.

You know how most people will say either they don't dream (which, by the way, is NOT true) or else they can't remember them; well, this album is one dream you DON'T want to remember!

I totally discount ALL reviewers that have not intensely listened to the entire catolouge of the group they're reviewing (but, of course, there are exceptions). I own the entire Spyro Gyra (SG) catolouge; accordingly, my individual ratings are based on the recording at hand, considering the group's entire catologue, not just one or two other albums. How on earth can anyone say something is "the greatest" when they have an incomplete basis for making such a ridiculous claim!

Music is subjective. All opinions I assert are my honest evaluations based on my likes and dislikes, as well as the group's total output.

This being the case, this is not a very good album.

First: if you'd told me the group was gathering people like the Tower Of Power Horns, Will Lee, and Lani Groves--I'd have thought we'd be in for one terrific recording. Well, these folks are on this cd, and, to say the least, the way they are used here is TOTALLY disappointing! And while I generally love Alex Ligertwood's vocals (especially his work with Santana!), they just don't work here. In fact, both vocal inclusions seem silly and totally out of place.

Second: the recording seems to have no idea of what it wants to say or where it wants to go. Most songs are not written by Jay, and perhaps this has something to do with it.

Third: aimless, general tunes, out of place vocals, lame and silly Jamaican/Caribbean/Reggae-like numbers are completely out of charcater for SG, and they are a rather embarrassing inclusion here, IMHO.

On the brighter side--Birks Law (written by Jay) is a decent tune.

In conclusion, this is one of the weaker efforts by what I consider a great group. I have been an ardent fan and follower of the group since their inception. I have seen them live many times. I admire Jay and his work. I generally like most SG songs. But (and it hurts me to say this) this is just not a very good album. There are much better SG albums available, and I would advise staying away from this recording until, at least, you've sampled many other SG albums.

Thanks for reading my reivew!

Rock on!

I don't understand how anybody could compare this album to either "Breakout" or "Stories Without Words" and not conclude that this is a bore. (They're the other two SG CDs that I own). I like laid-back Jazz to the likes of Chick Corea, but this is at the level of the more insipid Benny Goodman stuff. Even for background music, it'd be very easy to find music of higher quality.

I do agree with the other reviewers that the vocal songs are especially deplorable. It's sort of like Buddy Rich singing-- it's something they should obviously not do.