My PA negative review archive

For I strongly dislike the practice attaching a numerical score to my negative reviews, I've decided to pull the plunge and remove those reviews from the database, temporarily changing all the ratings to 5 stars. I'll request the mods to remove those ratings in a sec.

Anyhow, here are those reviews:

BEDFORD, DAVID - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
What a mess.

This album sounds like a recording of someone trying to pretend to be able to play the piano with no musical knowledge. The record starts off with promising organ chords, but then something goes wrong. You hear a bunch of unrelated piano parts on top of each other with notes interfering and not making sense at all. Then, there's this section with random percussion and synth effects. You thought the improv part of Moonchild was tedious? This is something along the lines of that but turned up to 11. And then the off-pianos played by a chimp return back into the spotlight.

In addition to that the cacophony is sprinkled with unfitting narration that has nothing to do with the music. Neither does the narration fit the annoying piano puke nor does this racket illustrate the narration, like a good score in a film or a rock opera. Generally speaking, the whole album is a mix of everything but the kitchen sink, where no element is really fitting.

This is a perfect example of music put into a blender and shattered, then put back together by an amoeba.

MACKAY, DUNCAN - Visa
Duncan Mackay, a promising (UK born) piano wunderkind from South Africa, equipped with a collection of cutting edge polyphonic and mono synths, with the Hammond organ being his weapon of choice, set out to the world of the British Isles to unfold the wings of his musical career as a session keyboard player, and presumably escape the unyielding restrictive regime of apartheid. In 1977 Score, a full blown symphonic prog album featuring a philharmonic orchestra plus a phenomenal circle of guest performers (many of whom can now be considered legendary), like John Wetton, Andy McCullogh and Mel Collins, saw the light of day. A triumphant step up into a higher dimension from his previous effort, Chimera (1974, recorded in South Africa), which to be fair, I can safely describe as a second-rate Keith Emerson study piece that suffers from underwhelming lead vocals (provided by Mackay himself) and quite anemic production. Score was in my view a magnificent piece of art which blended Mackay's eclectic array of influences with the real deal progressive rock energy, that by 1977 was starting to eat its own tail in the UK and slowly being retooled into more accessible and radio-friendly formats by the once upper echelon bands like Yes, Genesis, ELP, and even smaller acts like Gentle Giant. I think Score, despite being one of the last great British progressive rock efforts, was definitely one of the best (a swan song of sorts).

With the essence of the dawn of the new decade around the corner, in 1980, Duncan Mackay decided to jump into the rapidly rising electronic music bandwagon, while unfortunately also jumping the shark and released... Visa.

It's a ruthlessly, shockingly "dollar bin keyboard" sounding work, but not in a cool jazzy funky way, like those Rompler/Workstation demo tunes or Demoscene/Keygen music. No, this is much much more uninspired and tasteless. Vangelis and JMJ got it right, but Mackay's album, even if technically at around the same level, lacked the emotional (human) aspect. Imagine the bottom barrel of DOS/Adlib video game music, the kinda stuff that's usually done by amateur "composers" as an afterthought for a shovelware game that has a deadline approaching, but somehow even more yucky. 🤮 But, to be fair, the one thing about Visa that really makes it a pain to sit thru is the repetitive, cookie cutter writing, a true sign of an artistic burnout.

I can't imagine what Duncan Mackay was thinking when he was ready to release this stinker. xD Perhaps he had too much faith in the emerging sound synthesis technology and drum machines, and thought it was good for the already low standards of the musical direction he had chosen or, I dunno, at least passable? Except.... he was dead wrong. What a mess! Visa sounds like a product that hasn't been finished, that also aged poorly.

The only tolerable song on this record, that doesn't make me cringe from embarrassment, is the penultimate track Night Flight, with its only saving grace being the fact it reminds me of Alexander Brandon's soundtrack to the 90's shoot em up Tyrian.

LEITMOTIV - Entangled
I'd say the music is really well done. The guitar playing is impressive, the keyboard work complements it nicely and the drumming is solid. The bass playing doesn't stand out in a negative way either. Compositionally the album is also very good, even if some parts may feel a bit drawn out and repetitive (filler ish) almost as if the songwriter(s) needed more ideas despite not being able to come up with enough parts. Overall, it's very nice. Kinda jazzy, but with some rockin' touches, a good balance between imaginative and atmospheric. I'd give the musical side of Entangled a thumbs up.

There is one thing that kills my enjoyment of this album. It's the vocals. TBH I can tolerate the accentuating on the wrong syllable, the off pronunciation, the constant uncomfortable wailing, the vocalist randomly breaking into spoken word and the incredibly strained vocal tone. But... the vocals are off pitch! Yes. The vocals are out of tune. Ouch! And that alone makes them unbearable. They ruin the album, I'm afraid. So, sorry folks, I can't really rate this album any higher because of this glaring flaw.

RILEY, TERRY - A Rainbow In Curved Air
A Rainbow in Curved Air by Terry Riley is, to me, frankly, a great example of an album, the universal critical glorification of which was shaped purely by the fact that it is "an important album" and not really its contents. Critics (especially the Progarchives ones) rave about its innovativeness and significance in the evolution of progressive or electronic music... and I'm like: ok? So, is it a good album after all?

The answer is: No. Not at all.

The album's fatal flaw IMO is the fact that its compositional side is simply not very captivating. If you throw away all the circumstances in which it was recorded, it's essentially a session of organ noodling that goes nowhere. The challenges Riley faced in '69 to design soundscapes never before heard on tape, don't instantly make it a masterpiece.

In conclusion, probably the most critically overpraised album ever made without a real reason other than the fact it was a technological marvel, at least for its era. Huge disappointment.



Edited by Hrychu - March 29 2025 at 11:30