RMI concert review.
2004-05-09 by Jeff Coulter
just two words: f*cking phenomenal! just got back from the show... two mellotrons [jimmy moore's "formicatron' and my plain vanilla model] they opened the show with about 15 minutes of superb tron noodling. two tron flutes at once in a beautiful church atmosphere will raise the hair on your neck and give you the chills... it gave me flashbacks of the tangerine dream show i saw in '77. [in a good way - a VERY good way!] it was great to hear two trons being played by a couple chaps that know how to play them well. they have a couple very neat and clean racks of doepfor MAQ16/3 sequencers, racked synth modules, and neat keyboard controllers with sliders to control the rack modules. very efficient rigs to drag across the ocean, and they can pump a lot of sound out of them. at this moment they are playing live on the air at the WXPN studio. [WXPN is the U of Penn radio station that features the programme "star's end" - a cosmic/space music show that's been on the air for over 20 years now, hosted by chuck van zyl. chuck is the person that sponsors these concerts on the Penn campus known as "the gatherings" (see http://www.thegatherings.org)] kudos to chuck for organizing these shows. [carrying the torch that our own gino wong lit many years ago] btw: both trons performed without a hitch and sounded haunting in the church where the concert took place. gorgeous! thanks to jimmy moore for the loan of his one of a kind tron! the two of them drew quite a crowd after the show with gawkers staring open-mouthed at the workings of these things... [my EMS Synthi-AKS also made a few people drool - i think duncan will have to get himself one ASAP, as he really enjoyed twiddling around on it for some extended wierdness which they are so good at] so... if you are a fan of classic 70s era tangerine dream/berlin school electronic music you MUST catch RMI live and support these guys - they do it as well as anyone i have ever heard. oh, and i need to mention the guitar playing was totally dead on appropriate and added a great deal of interest to the jams. they really play together well and keep things interesting for every moment of a performance... it's not a clone of TDream, as they truly make it their own. they use some VERY original synth patches that they obvioulsy have put a lot of work into, and the gutarist's pallete of sounds is HUGE. thanks for a great show guys! have a safe flight, and please come back to philly again soon. i'll be glad to loan you my tron again if you need it. g'nite all... i'm beat... too many steps with a tron in my hands today... i am really going to feel this tomorrow... jeff ======================================================== mailto:jeffc@... http://www.netaxs.com/~jeffc/ ======================================================== "Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on others' kindness, how can it be that in the middle we neglect kindness towards others?" - Tenzin Gyatso - His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama ========================================================