Customer Reviews

Live at Glastonbury

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

 

 

Everyone knew that Kincajou was a song for dancing, but who knew that the rest of the "Last Train to Lhasa" material would go down so hot at a live show?

This is a solid live release of Banco de Gaia, one of the UK's (and the world's) great electronic pioneers, performing live some time after the Lhasa record came out, so the bulk of the show is from that. Somehow, Toby Marks makes tracks I never would have thought danceable ("White Paint"?!) into driving club beats, although his earlier material goes down more sensationally ("Heliopolis," "Data Inadequate"). As Toby at this stage was performing alone, it is never clear exactly how much he is controlling the myriad and cascading layers of beats, synths and Eastern samples and how much he is relying on playback. "Heliopolis" and "Lhasa" sound almost unaltered from their original studio recordings, save for a few bits of timbral tweaking here and there. But other tracks are clearly more interactive experiences and are completely revamped for the live show. "887," which had to be shortened to avoid some "incriminating sampling," goes down particularly wickedly. Bottom line, it all sounds good live, and even if you have both this disc and "Last Train to Lhasa" you will find them sufficiently different that it will be worth the expense of owning both.

I had never heard of Banco de Gaia before listening to this album, but it provides a look at one of the better crop of world music mixed with electronic beats style artists.

You can really get a feel for a band on record albums, and this album is full of energy, but mellow enough for a sunny afteroon as well. Its foot-tapping, drum-beat led fun that would make a great addition to any music collection.

Posibly its only fault is that, as a live album, some tracks are a bit overlong and were extended for the crowd. However stick this on a CD player in a park and that detraction soon goes away.

Overall - an excellent album, which perfectly evokes an outdoor vibe. Recomended.

Banco de Gaia were doing the world-beat/electronica thing well before it became hip, and they were doing it right. This is a re-issue of an album that was released some years back of their performance at Glastonbury, UK that has a lot of the energy and beat of their earlier work.

Banco de Gaia were doing the world-beat/electronica thing well before it became hip, and they were doing it right. This is a re-issue of an album that was released some years back of their performance at Glastonbury, UK that has a lot of the energy and beat of their earlier work.

I saw that know one had reviewed this yet so I had to chime in. This album is second only to the Orb Live '93. Electronia and Ambient are very much studio forms of music, very tricky to get just the right vibe live. This one did it with flying colors! A must for any collection.

At first I was a little skeptic.. afterall, electronic music played live can't sound good on a disc.. but I trusted the people who urged me to get it. And as usual, they have been right. This is an amazing piece of art. It was my first introduction to the music of Banco de Gaia, and about two minutes into Last Train to Lhasa - I knew I was going to get more of them.

This is a great album by Banco De Gaia. The crowd loved it (I was there!). This is a relatively popular but still unknown, but well loved by those who love this sort of music. If you want a general CD by Banco De Gaia, this is it. It has all their best tunes from their previous albums.