HIGH VOLTAGE

"High Voltage" is a compilation album of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and that was released in 2010. It has only tracks from four studio albums of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and a track from the Emerson, Lake & Powel's album. It has three tracks from their debut studio album, two tracks from "Tarkus", one track from "Works Vol. 1", one track from their debut live album "Pictures At An Exhibition" and one track from "Emerson, Lake & Powell". So, their studio albums "Trilogy", "Brain Salad Surgery", "Works Vol. 2", "Love Beach", "Black Moon" and "In The Hot Seat" aren't represented here.

So, "High Voltage" is a compilation album with only eight tracks. "Tarkus" is from "Tarkus". "Tarkus" is a suite divided into seven parts, "Eruption", "Stones Of Years", "Iconoclast", "Mass", "Manticore", "Battlefield" and "Aquatarkus". This is a very complex and a fantastic piece with great creativity, very experimental and certainly very avant-garde for those years. This great progressive epic represents the lengthiest studio song made by the band until their song "Karn Evil 9" released on "Brain Salad Surgery". This remains a favourite song for the fans and was consistently played live by the group. It's probably also my favourite piece of them. "Battlefield" is absolutely superb, beautiful, memorable and an unforgettable song. "Pictures At An Exhibition" is from "Pictures At An Exhibition". "Pictures At An Exhibition" was a suite written for piano by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. This band's version of Mussorgsky's beautiful work remains as one of the best examples of a rock version of a classical piece. This wasn't their first treatment of a classical piece. Keith Emerson had made several previous versions of some other classical pieces with The Nice. But it was the first time he reached a mass audience or get heavy radio play, at least some excerpts. It introduced the notion of "classical rock" to millions of listeners, making the classical music seen from another point of view, becoming to be considered less pretentious and more popular into the public. "Nutrocker" is from "Pictures At An Exhibition". It's a jazz variation of a Tchaikovsky's theme. This is a showcase of the band disposition to light things up after an extended, demanding display of the serious music. This re-elaborated version of a "Nutcracker" section is yet another example of the trio's interest in exploring the roots of chamber music and translating it into a rock context. "Touch And Go" is from the Emerson, Lake & Powell's album. It's a simple rock track. This is a Greg Lake's driven song with his voice sounding steady and clear, with a power to it which had been lacking on the immediately previous albums. It has good and majestic keyboards, an intricate bass line and Powell plays simple and effective drums. This is probably the easiest song to emulate and has a sort of up-tempo and energy with a touch of light classical music. This was the "hit" of that album, the song to be passed on the radios. "The Barbarian" is from "Emerson, Lake & Palmer". Despite it has been attributed to the trio, this is a musical arrangement of a Bela Bartok's piano piece, named "Allegro Barbaro". Although, the original piece is only for piano, the band rearranged the song for organ, bass and drums. It's quite a heavy song, entirely instrumental and almost completely dominated by Keith Emerson's Moog and other synthesizers. This is a great aggressive track with a hard rock influence. "Fanfare For The Common Man" is from "Works Vol. 1". It's a great interpretation of a classical piece of Aaron Copland re- arranged for a rock band. Aaron Copland's original is wonderful, and ELP didn't do a bad job on the arrangements. Synths are heavily used, especially in the later sections. It sounds like the early ELP, being experimental and heroic. "Lucky Man" is from "Emerson, Lake & Palmer". It's a ballad written by Greg Lake for acoustic guitar, when he was a schoolboy. However, at the beginning, the song wasn't well received by Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer. It's a song with acoustic guitar, beautiful singing and a great synthesizer solo towards the end. It's one of the best songs written by Lake. It also became as one of the band's most commercial and accessible tracks in their entire career. "Take A Pebble" is also from "Emerson, Lake & Palmer". It's a beautiful ballad by Lake. This is the lengthiest track on that album. This is a magnificent song with powerful vocals by Greg Lake. It's a soft acoustic track with Greg Lake in fine vocal form and playing some wonderful acoustic guitar. His singing is simply terrific, with the final line of the verses building on the legacy of King Crimson's "Epitaph", which sounds even better.

Conclusion: Like is usual with almost all compilation albums of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "High Voltage" is a good compilation album from the band, despite it doesn't cover the majority of the career of ELP. Still, and like is also usual with almost all their compilation albums, it has a good selection of tracks where some belong to their best and most progressive phase. It has especially four of their best and most acclaimed pieces. I'm talking about their four lengthy pieces, "Tarkus", "Pictures At An Exhibition", "Fanfare For The Common Man" and "Take A Pebble". Besides that, we can also see some other great tracks from the band that belongs to their golden era, "Nutrocker", "The Barbarian" and "Lucky Man". Even "Touch And Go" from "Emerson, Lake & Powell" is really a great addition to this compilation album.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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