reviews of new singer-songwriters

I once did a first radioshow on dreamy voices, featuring Basque and Robin O'Brien mostly :

Lacqua Rec. Basque : Radiate (1999) **** :

Tr.1, "Wool and Water", 6 min, tr.2, « Mari Posa » 5 min, tr. 8, "Aboriginal Lulleby" 7 min

www.basquemusic.com

Private Robin O'Brien & David Mitros : Tree of Life (1987?)****'

tr.B3 (1022),"Open Eye" 8 min, tr.B4,(1712) "Big as a wall" 4 min

Lacqua Rec. Basque : Falling forward (2000) ***°

Tr.2, "Falling forward", 8 min,tr.3, "Kamehameha", 4 min, tr.4, "Grey and green" 6 min, tr.6, "In the hollow of your hand" 6 min

Private Robin O'Brien & David Mitros : Tree of Life (1987?) ****'

Track A1, "Tree of Life" 8 min

Private Vishnu's Secret : 3 candles (1997 ?) *** :

tr.1, "Requiem de Sol" 5 min, tr.5, « Happy Endings » 5 min, tr.2, « 3 Candles » 12 min

http://www.jukebox.com/shop?cf=0&d=m&id=vishnussecretiuma and :

http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Vishnu's_Secret/

and http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/ftp/music/Vishnu's_Secret/lyrics.html

Private Robin O'Brien & David Mitros : Tree of Life (1993) ****' :

tr.5, (2630), "The darkness is a seed" 4 min

Private Basque (1998) ***

Tr. 3, "Swollen Stranger" 4 min

Private Vishnu's Secret : 3 candles (1997 ?) **** :

tr.4, « Love lies » 5 min

Middlesex The Changelings : Amphibian (1998)

Tr.2?7 : "Frog Song", "Caterwaul" 9 min

http://www.changelings.com/

MP3.com Majesty's Monkey (1999) ? : (PS only the 2 tracks fit perfectly)

Tr."Crisscross Applesauce" & "MzMisery" 10 min

http://www.majestysmonkey.com/

Private Spacefairy (2000) **** (a bit more psychedelic)

Tr.4,"Summerian Dream" 7 min, tr.5,"Turtle Shell 13" 6 min,tr.8,"Autumn" 6 min

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/spacefairy and http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/147/spacefairy.html

Private Diana Obscura,(2000) *** :(a bit more folky)

Tr.4, "Hylas" 4 min, tr.7, "Estoria" 3 min, tr.1, « St.Cecilia » 2 min, tr. 2, "Twa Corbies"2 min

www.dianaobscura.com

I once bought the wonderful and beautiful album "Trees of Life" from Robin and David. Years I was looking for more items, to get into contact with the duo. Finally I found Robin on the net. This led to a full program dedicated to this wonderful singer Robin and also to the fine instrumentalist David Mitros. The music can be described as very dreamy. Most recommended is "Tree of Life", one of my favourite dreamy albums (and top 100 albums) at that time. Secondly best from the items I know might be "The flowering",...

PLAYLIST of radio show n°2 :

Private Robin O'Brien : Apple (1984-1987) : Tr.2, "Daybreak" 2 min, Tr.5, "Apple" 4 min

Private Robin O'brien : Roothead (198?) : Tr.2, "Hey Love" 5 min, Tr.7, "If you" 3 min

Private Robin O'Brien : The Saffron Sky (1986-1996): Tr.10, Julie (1983) 3 min 18, Tr.5, "Darkness is a seed" 4 min

Private Robin O'Brien & David Mitros : Home Flag (1987): Tr. 5, "My guide" 4 min 29

Private Robin O' Brien & David Mitros : The Flowering (1988): Tr. 1, "The Flowering" 5 min, Tr. 2, "Moving under the snow" 10 min, Tr. 4, "Wind Chant" 4 min, Tr. 8, "Under Ground" 4 min 45

Private Robin O'Brien : The Saffron Sky (1986-1996): Tr.2, With George Reisch , Eric Clark : Summer (1991) 4 min

Private Robin O' Brien & David Mitros : Tree of Life (1993): Tr.1,"Tree of Life" 8 min, Tr.2, "Lie here" 5 min (fragment),Tr.4, 9 min, Tr.10, "Apple" 6 min

Review of this cd at http://www.babysue.com/Reviews-March-97.html

Private Robin O'Brien : Wearing the Angel (1995): Tr.10, « Once I was » 3 min

Elektra Tim Buckley : Goodbye and Hello (1967): Tr.6, ""Once I was" 4 min

Private Robin O'Brien : Picture of You (1990-1995): Tr.2, "Hey Love" 4 min, Tr.3, "June Rain Storm" 4 min,

Tr.5, "Marianne" 4 min, Tr.11,"I am" 5 min,Tr.12, "Love Song" 4 min,Tr.18, "Love someone" 2 min

Beautiful compilation of mostly (home made) love songs.

Private Robin O'Brien : Wearing the Angel (1995): Tr.20, "Bridge" 3 min

Private Robin O'Brien : The Saffron Sky (1986-1996) : Tr.5, "St.John" (from "The Aftermath") 3 min

Private Don Campau : Preexisting Condition / Robin & Don : Western Union (1997): Tr.12, "Caged Animals" 3 min

The style of Don is more 'alternative'.

Review of this cd at http://www.babysue.com/LMNOP-Reviews-January-98.html

Private Robin O'Brien : The Wailing Layer (199?): Tr.14, "Wearing the Angel" 4 min

Private Robin O'Brien 40th birthday bootleg (1998): Tr.5, "Change" 3 min, Tr.7, "Blood all over " 2 min,

Tr.8,"Day is Don" 4 min,Tr.13,"Love Song" 3 min

The guitar sounds here more primitive (more high tones, a bit harsh) due to the kind of recording I guess ? Once you get over the surprise of the difference it's clear this makes the recording less dreamy, but more bluesy any how. Good compilation of her songs !

Review of 40th birthday bootleg : http://www.gajoob.com/reviews/o/2574.html

Contact label / Robin,Don at : http://lonelywhistle.tripod.com/ campaudj@jps.net

Adress : Lonely Whistle Music P.O. Box 9162 Santa Rosa CA 95405

More revieuws at http://lonelywhistle.tripod.com/GoAheadYouReviewIt/id8.html

Another item with Robin O'Brian guest vocals at http://www.chrisharford.com/sounds/music_02.html

Private Spacefairy (2000) : Tr.1, "Moonpie" 3 min

Web adresses : www.spacefairy.com, http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/spacefairy and

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/147/spacefairy.html

Rainf.R. Stormclouds : Sleep No More (UK,2001): Tr.3,"Nightwinds" 5 min

Web site at www.bigfoot.com/~stormclouds E-mail : stormclouds@bigfoot.com

Private Amy K (Amy Kalisher) : Original Sins. : Tr.3, "Child of God" 4 min, Track B1 "Good Bye Morning" 4 min

Amy K guitar, female singer songwriter is available at Don Campau's address too.

Bob Theil's first opinion : "Her voice sound too flat, but her songs are ok" "Now hearing the cdr I realised there was something wrong with the tape and tape speed. No, I really like this"

A few years after this show Robin O'Brien was re-discovered. Not all later solo items are equally good. I still believe the Mitros/O'Brien period was the most magical moment, but many of these early tapes are still worth discovering.

Lonely Whistle Music

Robin O’Brien : Ilsanjo (US,2004)**°'

Some years ago now, I discovered this very nice item by Robin O’Brien and David Mitros, “Tree of Life”, and later traced her through the net. She seems to be the wife of Don Campau, who is, besides being an underground musician, mostly known for his radioshow. Robin seemed to have little interest in getting known and recognised more widely , modestly she self-produced some (musically well conceived) releases with David, some solo worl, sometimes with Don, a variety of tapes, which were later self-reissued on CDR without any serious cover art or professional work to finalise these released objects, giving it an attention it actually deserved. I did a radioshow once with these products, designed two covers myself to compensate for this, at least for my own collection. Now some years later, I was contacted for this new release, an actual CD on a real label (as it seemed, but in fact it is a professionally looking cdr which pretty much looks like a CD), again with a deliberately “overmodest” cover. As a graphic artist, I have to say I saw more modest covers, but at least with a real graphic vision on the letters, the spaces etc. I find this lack of deeper vision on the visual work a shame, because this way it does not attract kind of attention. The album itself is a collection of songs with a certain togetherness, but also some differences in arrangement approaches. Favourites of mine are songs like “Judy”, or “St.John”. Here Robin shows the utmost, -something she realized before with her cooperations with David Mitros and in some solo works-, all aspects of a “heavenly voice”. With accompanying acoustic or strummed guitar, Robin here adds lots of voice arrangements on such songs, varying from whispers to airy backing vocals. It is something of a similar approach which other people might know from another voice, Linda Perhacs -who more than luckily received a bit more attention with her reissue-, although the last singer experimented with such arrangements much more as something that worked on its own too. What I always found a bit odd was that the solo music of Don is much harsher underground music with more one-dimensional straightness in performing. He participated here in several tracks. One contribution on two tracks is with a rhythm box, which is luckily mixed / produced well with the music by Robin & Mark Benanti. On another track he plays in a very fine way acoustic guitar. Although all tracks are fine, and good enough, I personally think when Robin goes deeper into subtle territories and adds more acoustic arrangements her talent appeal and voice comes over best. The three following tracks are this way : “Blue Light”, arranged with extra bass, oboe and keyboards, with again this wonderful dreamy factor, followed by “Appleseed” and “Apples”, with voice, slightly echoed guitar, oboe, whistle.

Info on the Lonely Whistle label and on the releases of O'Brien : http://lonelywhistle.tripod.com/lwcatalog/id5.html

Luxotone Rec.

Robin O'Brien : Fore -4-track EP- (US,2006)**°

It’s been a while since I heard from Robin O’Brien. I still remember my enthusiasm when checking her tapes, with the, for me, highlighting cooperations with David Mitros. Without David, she’s even more bare and naked, but the help of four-track additional vocal arrangements enrich the songs well. Simple strummed guitar, and simple songs don’t make easily a difference, or revealing easily a deeper core, but the performance and dedication in her voice and many vocal arrangements still succeed to make that difference.

The original recordings were picked from earlier tapes from 80's and '90s.

Audio, info & review : http://cdbaby.com/cd/robinobrien

Info : http://lonelywhistle.tripod.com/lwcatalog/

Label info : http://www.luxotone.com/artists/robinobrien/fore/rb_fore.html

Homepage with audio : http://www.myspace.com/selkebbinnn

Other audiotracks : http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=275196

Other recordings By Robin : http://lonelywhistle.tripod.com/lwcatalog/id5.html

Luxotone Rec.

Luxatone & Robin O'Brien : Day -single- (US,2006)***

The group Luxotone did an 8 minute remix on one of Robin’s tracks, “Day”, which will be released as a single soon. Luxatone is a folktronic group, who arranged the “Day” track like a track by Sheila Shandra, with additional droning overtone voices in the background. Such a cooperation really reveals Robin’s talent well. More though, she no longer stand so alone. The song arrangements added warmth, comfort, “Tibetan” meditation, and the last few minutes, an Inuit landscape and an Indian touch. Nice !

Label info : http://www.luxotone.com/artists/robinobrien/fore/rb_fore.html

Other Luxatone review on http://psychemusic.org/prog13B.html#anchor_182