Customer Reviews

Nightflight to Venus (Hk) (Reis)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although the songs from Boney M have been released many and many times over on compilation cd's, this is actually the second time that this album is going to be released on cd. As a fan and collector I was hoping that this release would bring some rareties that were still not released on cd before. Partly that's what we get.

The tracklisting:
Nightflight To Venus 4:47
Rasputin 5:52
Painter Man 3:11
He Was A Steppenwolf 6:52
King Of The Road 2:37
Rivers Of Babylon 4:21
Voodoo Night 3:31
Brown Girl In The Ring 4:02
Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night 5:33
Heart Of Gold 4:05
Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord (Bonus track) 5:49
Dancing In The Streets (Bonus track) 3:59

On vinyl this album has been released 4 times around with different running running times of zeveral songs. For example, the first vinyl release contained a 7 minute version of nightflight to venus and a 6:39 minute version of rasputin, while on the second vinyl release the nightflight track ran 5:55 and on the third it lasted only 4:58 and the 4th and shortest only 4:45. And unfortunately, this short 4:45 minute version is the one used on this cd. Can you inmagine how I (colletor and fan) hoped that finally that long version became available. Hence my dissapointmend. Also the second track, rasputin is the 5:52 minute version and not the first vinyl (6:39) or second vinyl (6:03) version, but again the fourth vinyl short version.

Other omissions for me, the 12" version of rivers of babylon (yes, there is a officially released vinyl promo-only 12inch that runs 7:22, released in 1978 so no later done re-mix). Also missing the 12inch for dancing in the streets (6:18, never released on cd), and why not included the 12inch for mary's boy child (6:18) which is unavailable on cd instead of this more common 5:49 version. Also am I missing the 12inch for rasputin (7:33). The cd now only plays for 54 minutes, so why not filled her up till 79min with these missing tracks. Would have made this re-release much mor worthwile.

I grew up listening to two albums specifically, Boney M's Nightflight to Venus, and Oceans Of Fantasy. As I got older, Boney M was not "cool" anymore and I stopped listening to them. It wasn't until the early 90's, after their Boney M "Gold" release, that I got back into them. I was unaware that they had so many albums, let alone singles. I'm proud to say that thanks to Amazon.com I own every album that they've released, and I'll be attending their concert this coming March. Anyway, back to the review, it's as good now as it always was. A lot of credit is given to Liz and Marcia and Bobby, but if anyone just listened to the album, you'd know the best part of any Boney M album is the incredible percussion and infectious dance beats. As much as I've gotten all the albums, Nightflight and Oceans remain the best. And contrary to one reviewer, it's even better on CD. There may not be bonus tracks, nor lyrics inside, but they've never had those things on any of their albums. I'm happy they were re-released the way the were the first time around.

But if you're going to buy any Boney M albums, and you want the best, get this one.

This 10+ million selling album was one of the best-sellers from 1978, rivalled only by "Saturday Night Fever". Although Boney M. was always considered a disco act, and this album was released at the height of the disco fever, "Nightflight To Venus" - containing no less than 4 UK Top 10-hits - is actually so much more than just another disco record; this album took Boney M. into a wonderworld of fantasy ... the mysterious title track opens with a robot voice inviting the listener on a nightflight to Venus on board the starship Boney M., breaking into a hypnotizing drum beat with space effects, a catchy guitar riff, suddenly changing into a military march theme, and then back to the basic beat, while the robot voice continues with technical details on the voyage to Venus ... the CD-version contains the most common 4:46-mix of the song but connaisseurs should seek out the early German vinyl pressings which feature an even more amazing 6-min. version of this fantastic masterpiece of producer Frank Farian. The beat flows nicely into the next tale, the story of "Rasputin", "Russia's greatest love machine", an edit of which was the second single off the album, and a huge hit everywhere but in the US. A gorgeous piece of a disco theme with its kitchy kozak parody and not least Farian's concluding "Oh those Russians!" ... Boney M. did a 10-concerts-in-8-days tour in Moscow in December 1978 and was asked not to include "Rasputin" for "historical reasons"! Boney M.'s two previous albums had proved that they could do the least expected cover versions, and covering psychedelic UK band Creations' "Painter Man" in a raunchy guitar-loaden rock stomper was no exception to the rule! Although Marcia Barrett had probably been a more obvious choice for the lead vocal, Liz Mitchell's vocals nevertheless made "Painter Man" reach the UK Top 10 February 1979. Then starts the strange tale of the lonesome Steppenwolf man, a 7-minute-piece with a heavy dragging beat, dramatic string orchestration, haunting echo-laden trumpets, and the two Boney M. divas Liz Mitchell & Marcia Barrett singing in unison in a cold staccato. Marcia Barrett leads a wonderful mid-tempo disco version of "King Of The Road" that rounds off side 1, a small gem of a recording! Side 2 opens with the first single off the album, "Rivers Of Babylon" which was a landslide of a single, and actually the best-sold single in Britain just next to Paul McCartney & Wings' "Mull Of Kintyre". Boney M.'s adaption of this traditional with Liz Mitchell's harmonies proved pure magic, the 7" kept the top spot of the UK charts for one month and gave the group their only US #30-hit. Just as the single was dropping out of the UK Top 20, DJ's started playing the B-side which was an adaption of a Jamaican nursery rhyme "Brown Girl In The Ring" ... and this calypso theme with Liz Mitchell's arguably most charming vocals shot to the UK #3. "Voodoonight" was a song that was released as an A-side in Japan, an eery mid-tempo disco song with the two Boney M. divas singing in unison, interfered with a dark-voiced "Voodoonight" chant. Every trace of kitch is however wiped off with the sophisticated, mature "Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night", elegantly arranged with Marcia Barrett on lead vocals. Sheer class, that's what it is, one of Boney M.'s best tracks ever, as is the closing track, Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold". Liz Mitchell & Marcia Barrett's voices blend wonderfully on the acapella intro, leading into a stunning interpretation which keeps true to the original spirit of the song, another piece of pure magic and a fitting end to Boney M.'s most successful album! This 1994 CD re-issue would have benefitted from enclosing their mega-selling 1978 Christmas single "Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord" as a Bonus Track, as well as its B-side, the funky disco stomper "Dancing In The Street" (with all vocals by producer Frank Farian) that was issued as an A-side in the U.S. to coincide with Boney M.'s first promotional tour statesides, Spring 1979 (although this never brought the group its much deserved breakthrough in the US). Also, you could wish that BMG had enclosed the innercover group photo from the original LP in the booklet as well as the postcard photos of the fab four individual members.

I have to say I really like the music on this CD, most of the songs being really good and entertaining, and above all, a great reminder of my childhood days. First, I have to say, I expected a better sound quality of a remastered 70s album. The sound on this CD (as well as on the other Boney M CDs) is quite "flat" especially in comparison with other recordings of that era and it's NOT sounding better than the LP version of this album. I think the album was simply not made from the original master tapes. Proof would be (and I think all Boney M CDs were made of the same generation tapes) that on the CD "Oceans Of Fantasy" the abbreviated version of "Ribbons Of Blue" (which can definitely not be the MASTER tape, which is the long version) was used. Another complaint (also concerning all the Boney M CD releases) is this silly "Boney M The Complete Collection Now Available On CD" PRINTED on the covers and therefore "destroying" them, instead of using a removable sticker on the CD box. Why did they do that? Just very disturbing I find. Also why this print "Original Album Artwork" again PRINTED on the back side of the booklet. This is just not necessary and I never saw something like that elsewhere!! Talking of the booklet, this ISN'T a real booklet as the lyrics (which were contained with the LP releases) and the additional artwork is NOT included! Finally NO BONUS TRACKS (which is the least problem) were in included. To sum it up, the releases of these CDs were in my opinion rather an attempt to make "quick money" instead of an act of giving something interesting to the fans. Obviously the record company wants to "cash" again with later "better" releases ("original master recordings") but I tell you..I won't buy the CDs a second time!!

This album was popular all over Europe and remains one of the finest disco albums ever recorded. It included four tracks that, released as singles, became huge UK hits for them - and the other tracks were also of a high quality. The title track (included here) was not released as a UK single but must surely have been considered for such a release.

The first single off the album was Rivers of Babylon, a cover of a reggae song from the sixties that was originally recorded by the Melodians. It spent five weeks at number one in the UK before beginning a slow decline. Just when it looked as if it was near to dropping out of the charts (over three months after its original release), the record was flipped and its B-side, Brown girl in the ring, was heavily promoted. The record climbed the charts again and eventually re-entered the top five. By the time the record finally dropped out of the UK chart, it had been there for forty weeks.

While the above double-sided single was still in the charts, Boney M released Rasputin, which made number two in the UK. Following a Christmas single not taken from the album, they returned to this album for one more single, Painter man, which only just made the top ten. Being released more than a year after the album from which it came, I suspect that a lot of people already had the album by then.

The other tracks include unlikely but brilliant covers of King of the road (Roger Miller) and Heart of gold (Neil Young) as well as three original songs of which my favorite is Never change lovers in the middle of the night.

The hits are, of course, available elsewhere, but this fine album is worth hearing in its entirety - if you can find it.

I agree with the Mexican fan, who wrote a review below. I had bought this CD at Amazon as soon as I found it but was disappointed by its poor sound quality. No deep bass, unbalanced channel separation, etc. Luckily, I had a chance to get an original Hansa German LP a few months ago. You know what? The sound is so very much better than the CD. Actually, just perfect (also with the inner post cards and double jacket). So... I sold the CD and am enjoying the LP a lot. If you have a record player, I would recommend you to follow my example.:-)

Im no audiophile Im thinking I just may be a little fanatical when it comes to audio because my car is even more extensive than this but in my home I have a 9.4 setup consisting of a Onkyo 5008 a Emotiva XPA-5 amplifier, 4 Mythos STS's, 4 Mythos Gem XL's, 4 Super cube Reference sub woofers and a Oppo bluray player as my main CD player witch sounds better than my PS3 when playing music or movies. I also have over $2,000 of acoustic panels and bass traps in my room. With the Onkyo and the Emotiva together they pump out around 2,300 watts to my 9 speakers and with the 4 Super cube Refs and built in amps in the Mythos STS's I have a total of 8,400 watts of powered subs. So audio is very important to me! And when buying older music that I am already familiar with the thing that I am looking for most is has the audio quality improved on the remastered or re issued versions of my old favorites. The vocals are very clear and distinct on this album they are just right not too loud and not too quiet. In my opinion I would have liked the vocals to be just a bit louder and more pronounced. Bass is pretty good for the age of the music I do find myself turning the bass up slightly here and there and fiddling with it. The audio quality of this CD is pretty good for music from the 70's and it does not disappoint. The audio is not going to blow you away but it is better than most of their stuff I have heard in the past. The music here is really beautiful and if you are looking at this disk and reading this review and are familiar with Boney M then you already know this. I have bought another 3 Cd's from Boney M all remastered and reissued and all of them sound identical musically and sound as if they are all on the same disk if they are played in succession. I went with 4 different Cd's from Boney M and not with one of the greatest hit's albums because I didn't want to be missing any of my favorites from them. I have the same review on the other disks I bought from them since all the disks sound Identical. One thing that I was really pleased with is that the disks don't have loud hiss in the back ground like many of the older Cd's I have recently bought. I give the audio quality of this CD 4 stars and the CD it self 5 stars.

When this was first released in Europe and especially in the United Kingdom, it is believed that a lot of the music shops, almost were out of the copies that they had within the week. But then came the release of the single, "Rivers of Babylon," and it went straight to number one in the United Kingdom charts and remained there for five consecutive weeks. In the discos, "Night Flight To Venus" and "Rasputin" could be heard being played. People who were not Boney M fans, began to purchase the album and the single.

Today, after twenty odd years, Boney M is still remembered and especially the album, "NIGHT FLIGHT TO VENUS."

The album is absolutely brilliant and is worthwhile listening to it just once to get to know what it really is like.

First heard songs off this record (I guess they call them 'CDs' now) in Keflavik, Iceland in 1978 and it was HOT! Really appreciate the European flavor of what I'd call 'Euro Disco,' a distinct style that just keeps you locked in. This compilation is a wonderful mix of their style of music, and can be seen as a collection of some of their best early work. Glad to hear they're still performing!!

this is the group's best album, a winner from start to finish, which marked the group's commercial and creative peak when it was released in the summer of 1978; opening with the drum-led title track into segues in one of the group's best original songs, the classic eurodisco narrative 'rasputin', which is lyrically ridiculous as much as it is engaging - mindless fun; following is a blazing version of 'painter man', and the atmospheric narrative of 'he was a steppenwolf', a bit overlong; 'king of the road' is, as usual, superbly delivered by marcia barrett; side two opens with 'rivers of babylon', another cover version, the group's biggest hit and among the ten best selling singles of all time in the UK - it is simply superb; 'brown girl in the ring', a cute sing-along, was also a huge hit; closing this great album are two ballads, 'never change lovers...', with barrett giving a resigned, yet sensual, smooth interpretation; the version of neil young's 'heart of gold' is great, with a beautiful a capella introduction