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Lizard

2009-10-27 by Mike Dickson

I've just played through the '40th Anniversary' remix of Lizard and it seems to be more of the same. Weird mixing decisions. Odd stereo placements. McCullochs (frankly) annoying snare stuck way too high in the mix. But worst of all is what they do to the Mellotron. It's fairly well established in Cirkus and has a prominent place in the alternative version of Lady of the Dancing Water, but unfortunately it's posted missing in my favourite bit in the album.

The coda to the god-awful Jon Anderson song features a colossal Mellotron section that restates the melody from the verse, culminating in a wonderful resolution to A which then drops to A minor in entrance to the bolero. Oh dear. But it doesn't. The harmonic complexities of this section are lost once we realise that of the two Mellotronii recorded for this section, only one is on the new recording. Consequently, it all sounds a bit thin and a bit anti-climactic.

On the positive side, the clarity on the CD is breathtaking, but the mixing decisions are weird in the extreme.
-- 
Mike Dickson, Edinburgh

Free Music Project: http://www.mikedickson.org.uk/ 
Or http://www.last.fm/music/Mike+Dickson
Or http://soundcloud.com/mikedickson
Or http://www.planetmellotron.com/revd4.htm#mikedickson


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