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Poisoned Electrick Head - The Hanged Man
| Artist: | Poisoned Electrick Head |
| Title: | The Hanged Man |
| Label: | Bleuprint BP236CD |
| Length(s): | 52 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1996 |
| Month of review: | 11/1996 |
Line up
Well, there are 9 of them and just first names, so I didn't bother naming them.
Tracks
| 1) | Way | 0.27
|
| 2) | Can You See What I See | 6.04
|
| 3) | The Machine Doesn't Work | 0.28
|
| 4) | Single Room | 6.10
|
| 5) | I Drink Therefore I Am | 5.20
|
| 6) | Time | 2.55
|
| 7) | These Are Not Dreams | 0.44
|
| 8) | Collecting Bones | 5.48
|
| 9) | I Need Some Advice | 1.46
|
| 10) | Animal Machine | 4.38
|
| 11) | Through The Mill | 1.37
|
| 12) | Tied Up In Knots | 5.11
|
| 13) | Calm Insipience | 2.09
|
| 14) | Hanging By A Thread | 7.28
|
| 15) | Barefoot In Equador | 1.41
|
Summary
The first album of this band was the first I reviewed, ever. This is their
third to date and I missed out on the second one. I once saw them live and
they're really something to see, although they do not reflect that well
on the record. Maybe things have changed...
The music
Well, things haven't really. The band brings a mix of Cardiacs craziness
and Hawkwind space rock, so I think anyone familiar with these bands would
expect an energetic album. Still, it is known that the live reputation of
this band was never translated very well to the studio and in this case
the result is even less good than on previous efforts. The synthesizer
is still important melodically and also to inject those Hawkwindish bleeping
sounds into the music, and also the lyrics are above progressive rock average.
Unfortunately the music is not so good, with lots of repetition and too little
pace to make up for it. What also strikes me that the music would have been
better if it had been a bit louder and clearer. This probably has something to
do with a lacking production, but also the vocals of the singer are a bit
low and in those areas, the vocals are not so good as well. The keyboards
remind me a bit of Mastermind, being bombastic, but the sound of Mastermind
is fuller. The instrumental inbetweenies are nice and the guitarwork in
combination with the keys in Animal Machine is also well done, but the
raplike singing and the many unnecessary repetitions also kill these good
intentions.
Conclusion
In short: give us a live album/video, gentlemen.
© Jurriaan Hage