ARTiST: Greg Weeks
ALBUM: The Hive
BiTRATE: 195kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Wichita
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 65.80 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 44min 13sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-11-21
STORE DATE: 2008-11-21
Track List:
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01. You Won't Be The Same Ever 4:26
Again
02. The Lamb's Path 5:26
03. Lay Low 4:53
04. Borderline 3:37
05. Burn The Margins 2:50
06. The Hive 9:04
07. Funhouse 2:30
08. Not Meant For Light 2:37
09. The Wait 3:26
10. Donovan 2:21
11. Division 3:03
Release Notes:
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In his self-penned press notes for this album, Espers frontman Greg Weeks talks
with a feverish excitement about having constructed his own analogue recording
studio, with a 2" tape machine and a mellotron at the heart of his new sound.
Despite these advances, Weeks is still enthusiastic about throwing some medieval
sounding recorder into the mix: opener 'You Won't Be The Same Ever Again' stays
very much within the prog-folk Espers sound world. Indeed, despite this being
billed as a solo outing The Hive features bandmates Otto Hauser and Helena
Espvall as well as regular contributors Jesse Sparhawk, Margaret Wienk (aka Fern
Knight) and Orion Rigel Domisse. Espers have been known to come up with some
inspired cover versions in their time (best represented on The Weed Tree album),
but Weeks' joy-sapping version of Madonna's 'Borderline' is a most curious
thing, changing virtually all elements but the lyrics. It's almost an entirely
different piece of music, featuring brilliantly creepy dulcimer phrases
evaporating at the back end of the mix. Oddly, this album was mixed on the very
same mixing console through which the original 'Borderline' was produced. The
Hive takes in some very fine songs indeed, and the analogue recording is
lovingly rendered, all adding up to something that's more than merely a stopgap
between Espers LPs. Highly recommended.
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