Regular Columnists

Artist: Band: Sonic Residue From Vapourspace
CD Review: The following is a 65 minute space trip through the entire Magna Carta catalog. Vapourspace (aka Mark Gage) took a year to find just the tracks he wanted to electronically enhance, finally settling on

Girl From Enchilado - Attention Deficit
Blue Mondo - Niacin
Led On - Steve Morse
Time Enough - Explorers Club
Osmosis - Liquid Tension Experiment
Dark Corners - Bozzio Levin Stevens
Melt - Bozzio Levin Stevens
Another Dimension - Liquid Tension Experiment
Kansas - Steve Walsh
Jenny Nettles - Tempest

The truly amazing, magnificent thing about this cd is that nothing has been added. No extra instruments, according to the info. It’s just Vapourspace in the studio, transforming the original tracks into (mostly) instrumental techno/electronica collages of sound, and he certainly demonstrates that the Real music lies in the orchestration. The disc also shows a clear and solid relation between electronic music and prog.

Magna Carta is the champion progressive label, now sporting classic bands like Kansas and up and coming masters like Niacin. Frank Zappa’s drummer Terry Bozzio also has a big stake in the label, and this particular cd, since he’s also part of Liquid Tension Experiment. Bozzio likes his music rock hard, with plenty of flipping cues and musical twists. So it’s hardly surprising that from these influences, the Sonic Residue left over is loud, harsh, intelligent and utterly captivating.

But be warned. The remixes are a far cry from the originals, and that’s how it should be. If you want to hear the originals, buy the Other cds. Though if you’re a proghead like me, you’ve already got the first releases, and now, you’re minutely comparing make to remake, aren’t you? Great stuff, isn’t it?

www.magnacarta.net