Customer Reviews

Last Man to Fly

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, I don't traipse around amazon handing out 5 star reviews. This may be the first i've given.

This cd is fabulous. I just picked up joy division, das ich, die form, r(italin)x, dire straits and this. And this is all i play. I had downloaded romulus and venus a long time ago and bought the cd on account of it. This is my first tear garden cd.

To the uninitiated, tear garden is the psychadelic love child of Eddie Ka-Spel and Kevin Crompton. Or whatever their names are. cEvin's sound manipulations are as brilliant as in skinny puppy, yet this time somehow playful. All the songs twist the listener's perspective to a rose colored reality, cEvin does that. I believe Ka-Spel's (or whatever) lyrics are the most intelligent, poetic and mystitying (quirky too). Real instruments, melody, never heard anything like it.

There are no awful songs on here. The Great Lie and Empathy With the Devil are spoken, so they get old after a while. Apart from that everything is great. If i hear the beginning of 'hyperform', i have to hear the song out, i can't skip it. Romulus and venus could be my favorite song of any artist, for right now. Love notes and carnations and isis veiled are both also insanely awesome.

If you're like me you surf reviews like these looking for mp3s to start on. Get romulus and venus and one other (hyperform, love notes and carnations, isis veiled), then buy the damn cd.

The Tear Garden is one of the supreme powers of electronic music. In my opinion, the Tear Garden is musical genius cEvin Key's best project. With bands like Skinny Puppy, Hilt, and Download under his belt, you know that is a tremendous compliment. I hate the way the CD starts though. "Hyperform" had no business being the first song. The CD starts off slow and builds momentum at uneven intervals. Relax and open your mind to the awesome synth work. This CD is mind music. Check out "Romulus and Venus." This song makes the whole CD worth buying. It is the best piece of electronic music I've ever heard. Awesome synths, strings, movie voice-overs, pounding beat, and unforgetable chorus meld together to form a piece of true magic. Worth checking out. Probably not for everyone though. I you like ORIGINAL music check it out NOW!!!!

I have been a huge Skinny Puppy fan for years and I was in my local music store about 5 months ago. Anyways, one of the workers saw I was looking into Puppy and asked if I ever heard of Tear Garden? Amazingly, I never had, he instantly put this disc into my hands and compared it to Pink Floyd turned electronic. After blasting it for 5 months straight I have to say, this is such an amazing album. Personally, my favorite song would be "love notes and carnations" I always have that chorus stuck in my head. I have to admit the spoken word is a bit too much sometimes, but all in all, this disc is a return of psychedelic music with an upgrade.

This is by far Tear Garden's best work. This album is richly textured and multi-layered such that one hears something new every time it is played. I have owned this CD since 1995 and have never grown tired of it. "Last Man To Fly" is something to behold when one is receptive to psychedelia, you understand; it is like an entire life lived in the duration of a single CD. Further, it is what I imagine Pink Floyd to have sounded like if they formed twenty-five years later than they did, with technology and sensibilities fitting the early 90's. After all, the 90's DID make the 60's look like the 50's...

this collaboration between members of skinny puppy and the legendary pink dots hit its climax with this magnificent excursion into the fields of psychedelic pop--this is on my top ten list of albums I own--why?--every song is a superb synthesis of electronic and instrumental, and every song offers the reader another unique and pioneering entree of poetic vision--
Edward Ka-Spel, as usual, has proven he is a master of writing intelligent lyrics with a tip of the hat to a macabre theatre of the absurd, and Dwayne Goettel and Cevin Key are masters at creating electronic effects that do not turn the music into techno, but rather bolster the otherworldlyness of the songsmanship--highlights? The Running Man (great bass line), Last Post (endearing love dreams), Empathy w/ the Devil (driving psychedlic macabre funk)

"Romulus and Venus" is perfection. I have listened to it hundreds of times and I plan to listen to it hundreds more. There are not enough superlatives for it. Amazing. Buy the CD for this song and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the rest of the music. The CD demands repeat listens but eventually rewards. Perfect middle-of-the-night music.

Well I recently bought this cd and as soon as I got home I popped it in, turned out all the lights, and just listened. All I can say is wow! Being a huge Skinny Puppy fan and knowing that Cevin Key was a member of this band I knew I was gonna hear at least a good cd but I had no idea I was about to hear a great cd. Not since discovering Skinny Puppy almost two years ago have I been so impressed by the creativity and sheer emotion of an artist. The only way I can think to desribe this cd is a dream because never have I heard music that remindes me so much of a conscious dream. All I can say is go buy this as it is well worth your hard earned money. This is music, this is ART.

This cd is just freaking incredible, one of my all time favorite cds ever! From start to finish there is not a bad song!

My favorite tracks include
Hpyerform
Running Man
Isis Veiled
Last Post

Good tracks for the dance floor include Empathy with the Devil & Romulus & Venus.

This project has a mix of members from Skinny Puppy and Edward Ka-Spel from the Legendary Pink Dots and is #1 on my list of bands to see live if they would ever play live (never have to my knowledge). You will never find a more original and intelligent release in these genre of music, this is a must have cd for djs as well as your personal collection!

love the cd last man to fly if you love music then this is it easy fast and perfict mustown a copy for your libary

..on what you like, also what you consider 'psychedelic'. For me, the term refers to trancey grooves akin to techno music on the one side, or the Jimi Hendrix/Pink Floyd era on the other. This CD falls into the latter category of 'psychedelic rock', though Tear Garden's 'Last Man to Fly' often reminded me more of "The Cure" or "Flock of Seagulls" than Pink Floyd, esp in the first half of the album. Track 11 "Isis Veiled" started to reminisce Pink Floyd and the remainder of the album also veers that way. Overall though, these guys are of a more industrial 80s Brit sound than the Floyd.. I came to this Tear Garden album with high hopes based on reviews but while it includes the obligitory collage of background voices, sound bits and other noise that make up its 'psychedelica', and the album gets a little better as it goes on, I still wasn't hugely impressed. It was ok. I debated between 3 or 4 stars. For much better modern psychedelia - rock that borders on trance (or vice versa) without all the gimmicky sound bytes - try Silo Instar.