Mark Jenkins
Live Archives
‘The Sun in Splendour’ is from a concert in 1989 though to me it sounds much more early 80s. There is a fine sequence and nice slightly metallic melody, a good way to start the album. Next up we have ‘Red Light City’. It was taken from the same show as its predecessor again making use of a really good sequence and melodic motifs but is even better in that so much is going on. It crams more interesting twists and turns within its six minute duration than many a sequential epic lasting three times as long. The third track ‘Moon Under Water’ (iffy title department) is another cut from the same gig and continues in a similar style with harp, piano and brass sounds providing the lead lines. ‘Wednesday Evening’ is from 1987 and starts sounding a bit like Steve Jolliffe before it becomes more rhythmic then later on David Vorhaus comes to mind.

‘Dolphin Square’ (another iffy title) is from 1988 and tries to incorporate many styles and layers but was probably a bit ambitious as on my first couple of listenings it sounded a little messy. Who knows though, it could be a grower. ‘Tell Them I Said Something’ is from the same 1988 concert and makes nice use of an overdriven guitar sound but then like its predecessor becomes a little muddled. ‘Souda Bay’ was from a Sheffield Electronica in 1985, the drums and in fact the whole thing sounds very dated. ‘Take a Chance’ follows continuously on and is much better in the melodic department but still sounds dated, wrong choice of drum machine or whatever. The next four tracks comprise of linked pieces taken from the first UK Electronica in 1983. ‘Overture’ is a gentle opener before we move into ‘The Visitor’, starting from spacey beginnings it develops into a sequencer / drum romp but I’m afraid both do sound even more dated than most pieces recorded around this time.

‘Koyaanisqatsi’ is a Gothic / organ laden piece and is very effective. Really the main things that let Mark’s 83 / 85 pieces down are those dreaded drum sounds he used. The tracks such as this which didn’t have a rhythmic content come over so much better. As for ‘Finale’, see my earlier comments concerning ‘The Visitor’. Mark mentions in his introduction that these tracks can be seen as a history of the synthesizer as a performance tool, that might be true, but as a collection of pieces to sit down and listen to the three pieces from the ‘Winter Solstice’ festival in 1989 are great but the others I found a bit of a struggle. (DL)

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