Tarkus

After an excessive binge of prog rock records, I landed myself with five Emerson, Lake & Palmer records. I am reviewing them in order and today’s turn is Tarkus.So progressive rock is not the most accessible genres of music on the planet. The weird blend of hard rock, jazz and classical is something that makes the live performers comes across as pompous, arrogant and big headed. You would be right on all accounts. But what people don’t appreciate is the sheer level of genius that band’s like King Crimson, Yes and ELP had in their gigantic brains.Tarkus is a brilliant example of why these guys are some of the greatest musicians in the industry. Sure their song writing abilities were not about catchy pop hooks but the intense musicianship is something that a lot of people need to sit down and listen to. The band play more chords and notes on one song than the average musician is aware of. The average drummer probably couldn’t count a steady beat to at least half of the songs on this album. Probably because the frantic change in tempo and time signature is as constant as Keith Richards’ heart beat. You just never know where it will go next and that is what I love about this band.The opening track Tarkus is a twenty minute opening monster that is perhaps the band’s most creative number period and a perfect example of what I mentioned above. The seven part epic is a genre defining classic and it is worth buying the album for the song alone. The song still features that raw power that was present on their début album but has an improved sense of music complexity that would make Rush blush. The music is frantic and intense as it constantly swerves through different groove and melodies which is so damn exciting. Sure it must be a little alienating to the average bum but it is a great challenging piece.The rest of the album is more of the same. There are no real ballads and soft folk tunes as such but more rocking prog. Whilst side two of the album is not bad by any means. The songs are superbly crafted. It just does not compared to the monster title track. Rush fans could compared this to listening to their classic, 2112. Each song is roughly three minutes long and have a much simpler song structure. But good luck following the band on this one. They play like they sold their soul to the prog rock Devil.Tarkus sits nicely next to Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery as the centre piece of their back catalogue. They vary in styles but never go into heavier commercial territories like later albums. It is a great continuation of a quadrilogy of albums that deserve more praise. If you like your music complex and weird then I could not recommend this album more. Tarkus is as offensive to musicians as it is brilliant. It puts us all to shame by rubbing the genius in our faces.Published by Steven Lornie

Tarkus is, in my opinion, one of ELP's best. The title track (all of side 1 in the days of vinyl) is a great piece. It overshadows the remaining tracks but they are good too, from the serious to the fun tribute to their recording engineer (Are You Ready, Eddy?). So this is a good place to start with ELP but my guess is that it will appeal mostly to the faithful.The key for existing owners is the sound quality. I have had the Manticore release of Tarkus on CD for a long time and that's my comparison start point. The simple answer is that this edition of Tarkus sounds a lot better; the sound is cleaner and more distinct without, thankfully, a superfluous boost in volume level. As others have said, Tarkus has never sounded so good. I have focused on the remastered/remixed stereo version (each multi-track part cleaned and then the whole remixed with the intention of sounding faithful to the original). It's good. For other tastes, there is a remaster of the original mix and then 5.1 and stereo versions on a DVD (there is video on the DVD too but it is essentially just a set of menus).So Tarkus sounds great and it has also grown by two extra tracks, both solid additions to the album, and an alternate version of one existing track. The whole thing is packaged nicely in a four part card 'roll' that somehow reminded me of the monumental triple vinyl of Welcome Back my Friends! Lots of reasons to buy this and the price is the final bonus.

I rarely review anything anymore. I'll leave out the whys and wherefores. But this thing is SO exceptional and the experience SO incredible that I couldn't resist tossing in my 2 pence.What can possibly be said about Steven Wilson's audiphile sensibilities? The depressingly inadequate description "Ceremonially Olympic" comes to mind. And if EVER there was a band that was born to be heard in surround, it HAS to be the seminal progressive rock supergroup of Emerson, Lake & Palmer when in their prime. What more do you need? Simply the complete set of 16 Track session tapes (sadly, N/A in the case of the debut album) and Master Wilson's technical-artistic perfectionism.Oh My Gawd!!!What a stunning, stupifying masterpiece this composition is! And that was before SW got hold of it!On the proper system, and in the proper moog... er... mood, _Tarkus_ is now trancendentally multiversal. I KNOW they're digging it in the 9th dimension "this" minute! Shouldn't you?BTW: My wife is the only person I personally know who NEVER once heard this, until we got SW's 5.1.She really REALLY liked it... sat through the whole thing without a fidget. So if you're one of those who's in the market for some sumptuous surround sound but aren't sold on ELP, just get it and don't tell your amateur rock critic friends. What they don't know, will delight you!