Various - The Brave And The Bold

I've been listening to the Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album, "The Brave And The Bold," (which can be found here) a lot in my car lately.  I've had it for several years and just rediscovered it again.  It's a grower of an album.  I also kept thinking how the originals sounded.  Sure, we all probably know Daniel and Thunder Road (but I didn't know them all that well).  So, after the 30th listening,  I decided to track down the originals, which I did tonight.  All songs are the album cuts, except for Melanie's song, which is a live rendition (if anyone has the "Gather Me" album, I couldn't find a good link to save my soul).   I'm going to burn this to cd and throw it in the car to compare.  I'm not really certain this is going to be any good together.  We'll see.

01 Milton Nascimento - Cravo e Canela

02 Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

03 Minutemen - It's Expected I'm Gone

04 Elton John - Daniel

05 Lungfish - Love Is Love

06 Don Williams - Pancho

07 Devo - That's Pep!

08 Melanie - Some Say (I Got Devil)

09 Richard & Linda Thompson - Calvary Cross

10 Quix*o*tic - On My Own

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Fyi: For now I didn't bother with any artwork.

The Irresistible Force - Flying High

Irresistible Force, The - Flying High (1992) (Instinct Records, EX-258-2, 1993) (320)

Let's get back to the music.  Mixmaster Morris should be familiar to everyone, but unfortunately he's not.  The people that do know him, really respect his output as a musician, and as a dj/promoter.  This is an early 90's gem that I didn't buy until probably '96.  I just grabbed this cd yesterday from the cd shelf and threw it in the car and it still sounds incredible.  I dunno, you should just check it out now.

Obligatory review or two:

Ambient house was given artistic depth by pioneers such as Irresistible Force, the project of disc-jockey Mixmaster Morris (Morris Gould). Flying High (1992) was inspired by avantgarde composers such as Harry Partch and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and was reminiscent of Brian Eno, Steve Reich and Tangerine Dream, while revealing affinities with Terence McKenna's hallucinogenic metaphysica.  scaruffi.com

Along with the Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and the KLF's Chill Out, Irresistible Force's Flying High is one of the first and finest of the new ambient crop. Mixmaster Morris' mix of electronic and organic textures and epic song lengths helped set the standard (and was responsible for more than a few clichés). All but one track, tellingly, features the word "high" in the title; the one that doesn't is called "Symphony in E." Essential. ~ Sean Cooper

Included in CMJ's 5 Essential Downbeat Albums - ...Mixmaster Morris' epic tracks blend electronic and organic textures, which blazed the trail for downbeat music back in the early '90s...  CMJ  (10/23/2000)

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