Okay
somebody asked me to let them know about The Gathering - Accessories
First I had to get past the hyperbolic promo sticker on the front:
"The Gathering and Century Media have opened the Vault!!!
2-CD set full of rare and unreleased material including "the b-sides" from all of their out-of-print, import CD-singles, as well as unreleased demo recordings.
Included are THE GATHERING's unique take on classic songs from Dead Can Dance, Slowdive & Talk Talk. Also includes a deluxe booklet containing detailed liner notes by the band and rare photos."
To be fair, we can dismiss some of this right away. "Deluxe booklet"? Well, if twelve pages is deluxe, then I suppose so "rare photos"? Fair on the surface but the "rare photos" are all compressed into two pages, and therefore too small to amount to much. "Detaled liner notes by the band"? No. Interesting liner notes by Hans Rutten. I have to assume since Hans is involved, that this was all sanctioned by the band, and not just a mere profit-taking venture by CM.
But ~ on to the music!
The demos are for the Nighttime Birds and How to Measure a Planet CDs the latter including the last material recorded with 2nd guitarist Jelmer Wiersma which gives the tunes a different texture than the finished versions on Planet. Like most demos, they are obviously not "finished" product but they give interesting views into what the songs started out as. And given that Planet is a startlingly strong collection of material for a double CD, these are good.
There are two songs with Anneke singing with an orchestra: Strange Machines, and Leaves. Anneke with strings! With horns! Woodwinds! Interesting, if not terribly vital.
The covers: of the three, the Slowdive cover sticks in my head the most. I need to listen to these again. There are a couple of songs recorded for the 1996 Festival season, uptempo to leaven their doomy live material, and two live songs, In Motion and Leaves, the first live recordings with Anneke after Mandylion. The rest of the stuff is from CD singles and such.
Verdict: There's a lot of interesting stuff here, and some curiosities (the orchestral tracks) that are fun once or twice but not essential. This package is a definite buy for completists, and for people who prefer the earlier stuff to the later. If you prefer the newer stuff to the old, this is probably not going to convert you. But as always, with that voice out front and center, I think its worth it, especially from The End (16.49, postage free).
First I had to get past the hyperbolic promo sticker on the front:
"The Gathering and Century Media have opened the Vault!!!
2-CD set full of rare and unreleased material including "the b-sides" from all of their out-of-print, import CD-singles, as well as unreleased demo recordings.
Included are THE GATHERING's unique take on classic songs from Dead Can Dance, Slowdive & Talk Talk. Also includes a deluxe booklet containing detailed liner notes by the band and rare photos."
To be fair, we can dismiss some of this right away. "Deluxe booklet"? Well, if twelve pages is deluxe, then I suppose so "rare photos"? Fair on the surface but the "rare photos" are all compressed into two pages, and therefore too small to amount to much. "Detaled liner notes by the band"? No. Interesting liner notes by Hans Rutten. I have to assume since Hans is involved, that this was all sanctioned by the band, and not just a mere profit-taking venture by CM.
But ~ on to the music!
The demos are for the Nighttime Birds and How to Measure a Planet CDs the latter including the last material recorded with 2nd guitarist Jelmer Wiersma which gives the tunes a different texture than the finished versions on Planet. Like most demos, they are obviously not "finished" product but they give interesting views into what the songs started out as. And given that Planet is a startlingly strong collection of material for a double CD, these are good.
There are two songs with Anneke singing with an orchestra: Strange Machines, and Leaves. Anneke with strings! With horns! Woodwinds! Interesting, if not terribly vital.
The covers: of the three, the Slowdive cover sticks in my head the most. I need to listen to these again. There are a couple of songs recorded for the 1996 Festival season, uptempo to leaven their doomy live material, and two live songs, In Motion and Leaves, the first live recordings with Anneke after Mandylion. The rest of the stuff is from CD singles and such.
Verdict: There's a lot of interesting stuff here, and some curiosities (the orchestral tracks) that are fun once or twice but not essential. This package is a definite buy for completists, and for people who prefer the earlier stuff to the later. If you prefer the newer stuff to the old, this is probably not going to convert you. But as always, with that voice out front and center, I think its worth it, especially from The End (16.49, postage free).
