Return of the Mellotron

Tony wrote: I guess you could say that along with the Mini Moog, the Mellotron is my favourite instrument used in prog rock. I don't think it is necessary to demonstrate why here, as I guess I'm not the only one who enjoys its sound. Anways, the tron has made quite a comeback in the last 5 years or so, after being pretty much unused in all of the 80s and the 90s. Porcupine Tree uses it alot, Opeth started using it because of SW, Radiohead used it and now there's lots of it on the new TMV. Is it going to be used on more and more diverse albums with time? And were there any other example of its recent use? Will we see the return of the ARP, or the Moog or the Hammond organ soon?

We can only hope

Hi folks;

My favorite instrument in Progressive Rock is also the Mellotron. It features some of the prog essential sounds, like strings or choirs.

Stay tuned for the upcoming album by a new norwegian band called WOBBLER. The band´s keyboard player Lars Fredik Froislie uses no less than 3 mellotrons (he owns 2 of them) on their debut album. They are going to play the prog festival NearFest around June or so and the album may be released by Laser´s Edge by that time.

LONG LIVE PROG ROCK & THE MELLOTRON

Cheers,

Roger

http://freespace.virgin.net/andy.thompson/

not completely up to date but still amazingly comprehensive.

Mellotron is great! Here's few superb Mellotronic songs that first come to my mind:

Genesis: Watcher of the Skies ; King Crimson: Epitaph, In the Wake of Poseidon ; Moody Blues: Legend of Mind, My Song ; the whole album by SPRING ; Barclay James Harvest: She Said.

Discipline uses Mellotron, do I remember right?

chorus of one wrote: PROGMAN wrote: I think U2 used the Mellotron for the intro to "It's a Beautiful Day". Unusual for a Pop Rock song ........is it? Not sure about that one, but you'd be surprised at the variety of bands/artists who have used the mellotron. Check out the site James Lee posted above, excellent resource.

That is in fact a Mellotron at the beginning of "It's a Beautiful Day."  I can pick a Mellotron out of virtually any song because of owning one for nearly 25 years.  Absolutely no synth or sampler can reproduce the warm sound that the tapes make going over the tape heads.  Ikey Owens from The Mars Volta is one of the most recent keyboardists to use one.  My all time favorite usage of the Mellotron was Genesis' Tony Banks' bending the pitch wheel with the choir sound during the live version of "The Waiting Room" from "The Lamb Lies Down" tour.  I use to do the same thing, but I would also incorporate a Space Echo and Leslie in with this technique.  Chilling, I tell ya.