Customer Reviews

Emissaries

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

 

 

RMI has signed on with the U.S. prog label Cuneiform for this release, which offers two great CDs for the price of one, a great introduction for American fans who may not have heard of them until now. This British trio features Steve and Duncan on synthesizers and Gary on guitar, and they specialize in long instrumental electronic numbers, largely improvised. Disc one is new studio material, and begins by whooshing by like a solar wind, if you could hear it in the vacuum of space. Mellotron strings come in low, then synth oboes playing over the top of each other, followed by eerie male choirs. From this formless atmospheric mélange comes a lone guitar, and then the inevitable sequencer starts percolating. The band continues to find previously undiscovered niches of sound that are highly appealing. Disc two is a live set recorded for the Star's End radio program in May 2004. It too is full of wonderful moments, like the pinging bubbling woody sounds in the middle of the opening track, and a percussion-based sequence to start the energetic, dramatic "Mobile Star Systems." The disc closes with a brisk Berlin school number that keeps the foot on the accelerator to the end. A must-have CD.

For fans of early/classic period Tangerine Dream, Ash-Ra Temple, Klaus Schultze, Hawkwind, Amon Dull II, and the like. This double-album serves as a best-of into disc to US fans likely to be unaware of Radio Massacre International. The 1st disc is culled from their non-domestic releases, while the 2nd disc was recorded live in the USA in May, 2004.
Highly recommended to all space fans.

When I first heard this 2005 release by English group Radio Massacre International, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. While the overall sound was pretty cool, I found their "traditionalist" approach to electronica a bit dull. In fact, their strict adherence to 1970s "Berlin School" electronica is very surprising given that the United Kingdom is currently a hotbed for some of the more interesting developments in electronica. Along these lines, newer groups that I enjoy a great deal include Boards of Canada (Scotland), along with The Orb and Future Sound of London (both from England).

Fortunately though, while this may not be the most original stuff out there, they do a great job of capturing the 1970s Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream sound so effectively that it eventually won me over. The overall sound on the album is, as you might imagine from some of the references, very much in keeping with electronica as it existed in the mid-late 1970s: atmospheric and brooding soundscapes, throbbing sequencers, lots of mellotron, and analog synthesizers of all descriptions. Another nice touch is the use of the electric guitar, which spices things up a bit and is also heavily reminiscent of the approach that Edgar Froese (of Tangerine Dream) used; particularly on their live album Encore (1977).

Speaking of live sets, this 2 CD set includes one studio set (disc 1) and one live set (disc 2). The sound quality of the live set is crisp and sounds as if it was recorded in the studio - there is no audience noise whatsoever

All in all, while there is absolutely nothing new to be found here, I generally liked the overall sound and the fact that there is a lot of music on this 2 CD set (something on the order of a little over approximately 2 hours). Overall, I would recommend this album to fans of electronica as it existed in the mid to late 1970s.

I just recently discovered RMI, well better late than never. Well, I saw a description of RMI on their 2005 American release, Emissaries, and it sounded interesting, and I bought it and I wasn't disappointed.

This album got released on Cuneiform, a label that existed since the 1980s that specializes in progressive rock, experimental, avant garde, RIO, etc. And what a great way for me to get started with RMI than Emissaries, after all, being released on Cuneiform, it obviously would be more readily available than their other releases.

RMI is a British electronic trio consisting of Steve Dindale, Duncan Goddard, and Gary Houghton. Are you, like me, believe that Tangerine Dream hadn't released much anything worthwhile in the last 20 years? Are you sick and tired of hearing of another electronic act coming down the pike claiming they're the best thing since mid 1970s Tangerine Dream, only to end up as another generic New Age act? Well, RMI has came to the rescue. If Emissaries is anything to go by, I will be looking forward to getting their other releases (if they show up, that is, which I'll explain). They have a huge back-catalog, but only available on a small British label, and for every commercially available CD, they issued something like 5 CD-Rs which you can only get from the band. If it keeps going like this, and you include the CD-Rs with the CDs, they'll be quickly overshadowing Tangerine Dream in amount of recorded output within another decade.

Well, I really like this retro-electronic approach. They go for a truly wonderful analog approach, with analog keyboards, like different Moogs (Memorymoog, Source), EMS AKS (although this CD don't mention anyone using one, although the photo shows Duncan Goddard with an EMS synth, you only saw the top part, but I discovered it was an AKS, which is esentially a Synthi A with a membrane keyboard included), Yamaha CS50 and CS30, Roland SH-3, and most of all, the Mellotron, and believe me, this is the real deal, not some digital facsimile! Another keyboard not mentioned, although I do hear it, is the Elka Rhapsody.

Although comparisons are made to Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, Richard Pinhas, Redshift, and even Hawkwind (?), the overall feel I get is that of mid '70s Tangerine Dream. I don't understand the Hawkwind comparison, however, I can understand comparisons to those other acts. These guys tend to use sequencers, and when the sequencers work overtime, they would given them a rest for some really nice, ambient passages. Emissaries is essentially two lengthy pieces ("The Emissaries Suite" and "Ancillary Blooms") divided into six separate parts each. First CD is a studio recording made in England, recorded late 2004, the first, recorded earlier in 2004, is recorded here in America, from a Philadelphia radio broadcast (courtesy of WXPN) called Star's End, originally two hours long, this is the 76 minute excerpt. Don't expect any audience cheering on this live half, but the band sure proves they can hold their own live.

This is an enhanced CD, which you can access a comic done by Matt Howarth through the Acrobat Reader on your computer, and believe me, this ain't the comics you grew up as a kid (Spider Man this is not). It has a post-apocalytic theme involving a nuclear winter, alien flowers coming to Earth, and a priest and a madman. He did this comic to fit the theme to this album. Many of the song titles relate to the comic, like "Seeds Crossing the Interstellar Void", "A Priest Crossing Foreign Water", "The Ice Garden", "The Arrival of the Seeds", etc.

It's great to see new electronic music every bit as good as the best stuff from the 1970s. There is no New Age fluff to be found anywhere, and nothing that reveals this was recorded in 2004! Great stuff I highly recommend!

Radio Massecre International was new to me prior to this 2CD release. I like a lot of music and this double set is filled with very listenable electronic ensemble music.I suppose you could call it 'Space Rock' at times, however more often I am reminded of mellow Tangerine Drean, Deuter, Robert Rich, Steve Roach and the like. And there are more traditional instruments as well such as electric guitar, reed instruments (or at least they sound that way).

The players are excellent and the musical pieces are well written. When I listen to the live disc, it sounds as tight and clean as in the studio.
Excellent spin!