Prog4You.com - Progressive Rock Review - John Miner's Art Rock Circus - Mantra Sunrise

MANTRA SUNRISE
The Band Joel Bissing Lead vocals and bass John Miner Electric and acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars and vocals Wayne Garabedian Drums and keyboards with Ann Jorgensen Flute Gary Newmark Drums	Tracks Why Time Of The Year Brudenell Dying Day Sleeping Whales Northern Light Your Heart Your Heart (acoustic) Casino Land Of Sprinagar Mantra Sunrise
MANTRA SUNRISE: The band, consisting of Joel Bissing on lead vocals and bass, Wayne Garabedian on drums and keys, and John Miner on guitars and vocals, is clearly bent on re-creation, rather than invention; indeed, their album will clearly evoke a classic, 60's psychedelic hippie sort of feel, and it's sure to push many of the right buttons for listeners who are old enough to mechanically resonate down drugged-out memory lane. And therein lies part of the problem of this self-titled album. Overall, the album has a mellow, at times sombre sonic quality. However, what begins as a somewhat dark, and occasionally trippy work soon tires, becoming a somnolient, languishing emotional monotone. This is a shame, because everywhere on this album one can find interesting ideas that are unfortunately stretched beyond necessity. My other issue with this album concerns the execution of the music and the recording itself. In many places, one is faced with tempos that are sloppy, guitars that bury the vocals in the mix, and harmonies which take liberties one would expect from the Eddie Vedders of this world, but not from a polished, professional band. Case in point: The opener "Why", which has great guitar work and a good melody that are rudely diminished by vocal harmonies that are way out of key. Perhaps this was deliberate, but it certainly doesn't serve the song. "Time of Year" follows in a more bluesy vein, and is highlighted by an interesting bass line, but as the album progresses the initial atmosphere created wears out it's welcome. Songs like "Dying Day" and "Northern Light" are major lulls, in spite of some nice arrangements (I liked the tasteful use of flute at the end of "Dying day" and the subtle and unusual interplay between the bass and drums in "Northern Light"). Even the acoustic numbers, such as "Brudenell" and "Mantra Sunrise", are interesting, but lack dynamics. Of course, this could hardly be a prog album without an epic, which in this case is the 20+ minute "Land of Sprinagar". While length is a good thing in certain aspects of life, this opus in c minor clearly demonstrates that the binomial "length=good" is definitely NOT a law of nature in music. This song hits many of the typical clichés, and does nothing to change the dynamic of an already morose album. I must confess that it pains me to write this, because I realize that there was a great amount of work and dedication that went into making this album. But in all honesty, I cannot recommend it. There is such a huge amount of music out there these days, that it would be a disservice to all the other musicians who toiled under similar duress and produced a more varied and musically coherent release. At the same time, I would like to urge people who read this to take the time to visit tributarymusic.com, and listen to the audio samples. Make up your own minds. Certain reviewers have raved about this work. Some of them actually know what they are talking about! You be the judge. Reviewer: Luis Nasser Rating: 4 keyboards. Click here for the Tributary music website for more info. Review Date 10/24/01

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Heavens Cafe Live

The Band
Produced by John Miner
Live version's line-up:
John Miner / Guitar
Jon Cornell / Bass
Jon Weisberg / Drums
Melanie Grimmet /Violin

Tracks
Last Smile Sunshine 3.07
Astralography 3.41
Heavens Cafe' 4.08
Never Alone 4.23
Classical Man 4.13
Labyrinth 7.12
Tower of Information 7.58
Again 1.44
Flowing Home 1.40
The Dark 6:12
Robin's Lullaby

HEAVEN's CAFE, LIVE: This is a very ambitious, multi-media presentation, featuring the musical talents of ART ROCK CIRCUS (John Miner-guitars, Jon Cornell-bass, and Jon Weisberg-drums), a cast of six singers, Melanie Grimmett on violin, and a slew of dancers, costumes and props.

The concept is the brainchild of John Miner, and it constitutes what younger music critics derisively call a "Rock Opera". It is also, more significantly, a very successful union between psychedelic rock and Broadway musical theater. While neither is really my cup of tea, I was impressed by the end result.

The story is somewhat vague (perhaps following the blueprint of works such as Tommy), centering on the spiritual implications stemming from the encounter of several reincarnations of the same person in a place called the Heaven's Cafe; a meeting of the self from various perspectives, punctuated by some soul food. Actually, there is obviously no soul food involved, but I just couldn't resist the lame joke. That aside, each character or facet of this single soul entity is entertainingly and convincingly introduced and developed by a different member of the cast of talented singers, and the result is an engaging sort of schizophrenic dialogue.

Concerning the musical performance, I am compelled to quote Robert Fripp, who in his sometimes-inexhaustible pompousness, once wrote: "The aim in presenting this live performance is to reflect the spirit of the group in a moment of its appearance. Live recording is not a precise art. But then, neither is recording". I couldn't agree more with Bob. This album really captures a band of musicians during a good night at the bizarrely named "Flamingo Theater of Performing Arts" in Las Vegas, Nevada. The production is far from pristine, but the CD is a good aural snapshot of what went on that night.

My only complaint here is the fact that I don't have the benefit of watching the performance, and at times Miner's music lacks enough dynamics to engage the listener successfully. If ever there was something suitable for a prog underground DVD, I think this would be it.

To anyone who wants to hear what a Broadway performance of psychedelic rock would sound like, check it out. It is really quite different, and I don't give it a higher rating simply because the music lacks enough variety to carry the weight of this ambitious multi-media work by itself. But I feel that many people could find many things of interest here. Even the less robotic Ayreon fans could dig this. It certainly lacks the lab coat, anti-septic protools digital dryness of Ayreon, but by the same token Heaven's Cafe is NOT a sci-fi gumbo, and is thus much more organic and sincere. Kudos to tributary for taking a chance on such a project! The CD includes a libretto (crucial). Go to Tributary music and hear the samples, and decide if you want to take the full journey.
Reviewer: Luis Nasser

Rating: 6 keyboards

Click here for the Tributary music website for more info.

Review Date
10/23/01

Oh well.
No sooner do I finish reviewing two of Miner's works than I receive a third. And while Heaven's Cafe was an ambitious multimedia production, Vegas-style, A Passage To Clear can only be described as pretentious and immensely tedious. But fear not, gentle readers, as there is supposed to be a "story" threading these songs into a concept album (always a crowd pleaser among progheads, the concept album). The main character is Dawn, a painter who is promised the world and the sky by her agent, only to be summarily dumped as she goes from flavor of the month to proverbial day-old throw away at Dunkin Donuts. In my opinion, this is hardly something one would want to talk about, much less commit to an album unless you have some real killer tunes to beef up the obvious lack of plot. But alas, in this regard Miner's shortcomings are no lesser! The music offered here is, quite frankly, boring, bland and very poorly recorded, mixed and mastered. I really tried to find some good things to say about this album, but this time I am at a loss. There are nice instrumental snippets here and there, like at the end of "Strange", but they are soon ruined by more tedium and chordal clutter. Both vocalists
are good, and Monsieurs Lebsack and Manning do their best to keep this hodgepodge together, but they are only human. There are sound bytes at Tributary's website, so if you are curious and think I'm full of crap, go hear for yourselves (but don't say I didn't warn you!). I can only conclude by saying that this release will probably come in handy to clear the house at the end of dinner parties.
Rating: 1 keyboard.
Reviewer: Luis Nasser

Click here for the Tributary music website for more info.

Review Date
11/26/01`