Customer Reviews

Reel to Real Cacophony

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

 

 

This album is a lost classic! Eerie, cryptic, and mesmerizing, it's easily the darkest, most psychedelic music Simple Minds have ever recorded. It's quite a singular effort, of the likes I've never heard before or since--in a league inhabited by only Can, Joy Division and Public Image Ltd. Though a bit challenging at first, you'll find this sunken treasure is filled with some of Jim Kerr's best writing and the band's most creative instrumentation. Perhaps this music was ahead of its time? Modern experimental rockers/technos could certainly learn a thing or two from the tone, sounds and grooves on this disk. The only sour note: the sound could benefit greatly from a little REMASTERING! The whole Simple Minds catalog is in dire need of an update, but I'm sure this disk is no where in sight of a record exec's agenda. My advice: Get it before it's deleted completely!!!

Let's face it: Fans of mid-80's Simple Minds stuff will more than likely NOT enjoy this album. However, fans of experimental new wave and post-punk music should give it a listen. It takes some time to grow on you but it's fairly rewarding, although most of it tends to lack the emotion of post-punk music. Indeed, a few songs fall flat, but a few are just fantastic. Uneven, but a good effort.
The album sort of comes off as a mix of Kraftwerk, Tuxedomoon, Legendary Pink Dots, Bauhaus, Devo, and Magazine, with some touches of Roxy Music, late-70's Bowie, and early XTC...but not too much like any of them individually.

This album deserves 4 stars from me, but I'm a fan who really, really digs it. The average listener (who is objective and receptive to this kind of music - i.e. not a die-hard Def Leppard fan) would probably assign it 3 stars. This is ground-breaking music, heavy with electronic experimentation.

The first side (or first 7 tracks) is highly experimental and therefore more challenging. Some tracks are a rather difficult listen such as the unweildy "Naked Eye." However, the opener "Real to Real" is a good song with a haunting quality and "Veldt" sounds like a stroll through a surrealistic jungle (or "field" as the title would indicate). Most of my favorite music has a "trippy" quality, and this stuff definitely qualifies.

The second side still contains plenty of electronics, but it is more easily digestable, either for it's more familiar song structures or because some of the songs rock out quite a bit more. "Premonition" steers straight ahead into strange territory, guided by a solid bass line. "Changeling" is perhaps the best song on the album. It certainly rocks the most and has positively corrosive synth and guitar figures along with a confident, loping drum beat. "Film Theme" is an evocative, lazy, hypnotic instrumental - beautiful. "Calling Your Name" is another unique sounding rocker and "Scar" is an epic sounding song that would sound great in a futuristic film. It half-way reminds me of old U2 (but I bet they would dislike the comparison).

Kerr's vocals are great as always, although they are often affected to sound wierd or cool. He's got a phenomenal voice, but it's less evident on these earlier records. If you're interested in early rock/electronic music, you can do far worse than this intriguing album.

On Real to Real Cacophony, Simple Minds live up (or down!) to the album's clever title. The music is not cacophonous (although one or two tracks, such as "Citizen" and "Naked Eye" come distressingly close to that description!) However, there is no doubt that some of this music makes for difficult listening.

Essentially, Real to Real is Simple Minds at their most experimental. To do so was a necessity, because on their debut album "Life In A Day" the band was drowning in its influences and realised that if they were to get their act together, they needed to find their own voice. And so, on this follow-up album, they begin their voyage of self-discovery. Hence, we get the cellos of the title track, the "sound collage" of Veldt and the curious instrumental work of "Film Theme." Not all works, of course.

However, during the second half of the album, our heroes stumble into something interesting. On "Premonition" and "Changeling" Kerr's voice and Forbes's distinctive bass-playing emerge. Burchill's subtle guitar eruptions quickly follow! Progress is made.

However, this is not an album for newcomers. For dedicated fans, this album is an exellent shapshot of a young band trying to find their sound, which, by the time of "New Gold Dream" they do so. New listeners are referred to that album.

This is indeed an odd album...I may even say I like it for some reason. Maybe it's because, even at this stage, Simple Minds had a natural talent for catchy melodies, maybe it's because the murky, thin sound goes naturally with the opaque nature of the lyrics. But there are blasts of distorted guitar here and there, Jim Kerr barely sounds like Jim Kerr at the beginning of "Naked Eye" (more like Johnny Lydon), and the angular, rather harsh sound of the whole thing lends a rather industrial flavor to this whole affair(they even have a sound collage of factory sounds). The whole thing is unique and uncompromising. How fitting it is that the cover has no artwork at all-just dark, dark blue. Anyway, for those who like the clean, friendly rock we heard in the back 15 years from this band would be fairly shocked by this album. I wonder what these songs sound like live, these days.

I call this "Robot Rock". Ghostly, distant vocals, opaque lyrics, jerky beats and clammering guitars occasionally give way to eerie instrumentals that bring to mind music from "The Twilight Zone". There are real songs, though, and some of them are actually good-favorites are the pulsing "Premonition", the instrumental "Film Theme" and the pretty closer "Scar".

Challenging 2nd album from Scot band who veered sharply left from their debut. Contains their first 2 classic numbers, "Changeling" and "Premonition." They still do "Factory" in their current set. Rhythm and art that challenges and rewards, with only "Veldt" straining under the mix. Their next album would be their first classic.

underrated album that still stand up after many years
if you like bowie's LOW,early-Eno Roxy music or the sheffield punk electronic era
you may really like this. after that being said it still has it's own sound.

This is a very paranoid album . The first time I listened to it it freaked me out but gradually within time I began to like it .

The thing is though when you buy this album don't expect it to be some bombastic pop/rock record . This is dark, eerie and to some extent a very scary record to listen to . As one of the listeners said Veldt kinda sounds like some aquatic jungle .

Now I still find new elements to the songs even though I've owned the album for close to a year and a half now .Well this is it's second stint because the last one got so badly scratched that I could only replace it when I went on holidays in Holland( it is a rare thing for me to rebuy an album after it has been scratched but this makes it all the more worth it ) . If you listen to it on your headphones there's things that make some of the songs even more menacing than what you thought once before . All in all making it a more and more appealing album .

Listen to this if you want experimental music taken to it's most darkest of elements . If you're looking for looking for something a bit more warm however you could always try the fantastic New Gold Dream which has all of what Simple Minds would later become to be known better for ( without the bombast )

I have been a fan of Simple Minds since the very beginning--the late great CFNY in Toronto (the best radio station ever) played "Life in a Day" and I was hooked. This album is not so great but it does signal a huge change from the uneven pop of their debut. The sound here is much more electronic, but it is also very muddy--this is not a fault of the cd but of the original masters, which were overproduced. I think the band recognized this because I seem to recall they issued live versions of a few of these tracks as b-sides a few years later. Now there are still some great songs on this album (Changeling for one) and if you like Sons and Fascination you need to check it out...but be prepared. Empires and Dance is much more fully realized--that is their first truly great record. (And Sparkle in the Rain is maybe their last)