Both from albums of electronicized versions of Holst's The Planets released the same year - 1976.
Wonder which came out first and who was the more pissed off?
Tomita's has the edge I think for its frolicking stereophony and shimmery reverb
Gleeson's sound palette is a bit flatter and duller
Tomita's flickers are that much more scintillating and well, mercurial, darting hither and thither .... tickling your ears in an almost ASMR-y way
Strange because if Gleeson had done something as far-out as his contributions to Herbie Hancock's Sextant, than he would have won the battle.... perhaps having to be tied to the score held him back?
Used to love listening to Holst's Planets as a boy, "Mercury" was a favorite, but my ab fav was "Neptune".... so eerie and oneiric... I used to listen to it sprawled on my parents's bed half-swooning into the mystic mist billowing out of the old-fashioned sideboard-style radiogram
So let's compare electronorenditions, shall we?
Again, Tomita the clear winner.... the machine Gleeson is using is a cruder and clumsier instrument than his rival's
But where I think the Tomita electronic rendering brings out dimensions to "Mercury" not available to Holst, when it comes to “Neptune, the Mystic” think the original orchestral template creates a diaphanous, elusive quality that electronica makes too clear and bright...
Here's a whole playlist of orchestral interpretations of "Neptune"
Emerson, Lake and Powell (not Palmer) did a version of Mars, the Bringer of War. It sounds exactly like you'd imagine ELP (not P) doing a version of Mars, the Bringer of War would sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6I3mmPiG7c
ReplyDeleteooh, that's pretty horrible. Mid-80s ELP.
Deleteapparently the ideas dates back to King Crimson days when they did a live version
Possibly inspired by the ultra-hip (in certain circles) Diamond Head borrowing the rhythm and some of the chords for ‘Am I Evil’ on their first album. Later covered by Metallica.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/WlfS-oakUxM?si=Efy6w84ZuktPfva0
I have a memory that quite a few metal bands used to come on stage to ‘Mars’. Saxon, perhaps, for one. Early 20th Century Classical was popular walk-on music in the 80s. The first time I heard the ‘Rite of Spring’ was because the Banshees used it. And didn’t the Smiths come on to Prokofiev?
Elvis used to come on to the opening bars of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (i.e., the 2001 opening).
DeleteAnd ELPowell (I think that's how fans style it) lacks that pleasantly rubbish thrug that made ELP very occasionally vaguely tolerable, a thrug that perversely resembles Status Quo.
"thrug"? This is a new one on me! Self-coinage? Cross between 'chug' and 'throb'?
DeleteIf we're going to run with this, then just to say that I read relatively recently that the Bunnymen used to come on stage to Jon Hassell's 'Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics'.
DeleteI honestly thought "thrug" was a word. If not, I'm claiming it as the onomatopoeia for the unthinking, though appealing, power chord propulsion that defines, say, Satus Quo's Down Down, ELP's Fanfare for the Common Man, or Oasis' Rock N Roll Star.
DeleteApparently, an early band of Bowie's - the Kon-Rads? the Lower Third? anyway - used to use Mars as their walk-on music. Also worth noting that the reason that piece in particular was so familiar to them and the other musicians of that era was that it was the opening theme of the first two Quartermass serials
ReplyDelete