Spirits Burning is a musical collective overseen by American composer/producer Don Falcone. To date the band has released a number of albums, which feature a dazzling array of musicians from the jazz/progressive rock and space rock fields.
In 1998 Spirits Burning released their first CD. It brought together over 30 musicians answering the call to celebrate space rock and new music. Each believed in the idea of creating new sonic adventures from unexpected line-ups.
Behold The Action Man is the tenth Spirits Burning album. Headed up by Don Falcone, the Spirits Burning project brings together contributions from a collective of musicians to create music that covers all possible points on the Space-Progressive Rock axis. The CD is described as “A Space Rock journey into Film Noir… investigated by Don Falcone & Roger Neville-Neil. Roger Neville-Neil will be known to Hawkwind fans as the lyricist to the songs Needle Gun, The War I Survived and Heads, Like all Spirits Burning albums, this one has a diverse cast of contributors, including Daevid Allen, Albert Bouchard (Blue Oyster Cult), Alan Davey, Bridget Wishart, the members of Melodic Energy Commission, and many more.
Among the highlights on this 16-track album are the tracks Rendezvous At Lava Lounge, Internal Detective, Strafed By A UFO. HypnoSpy, The Train and Hemlock On The Rocks. There is a proven track record in terms of sales for the Spirits Burning recordings and the special guests from high profile bands also add to the desirability of the album.
Behold the Action Man is the ninth actual album by international band project called Spirits Burning. This time the space rock collective dives into the world of Film Noir with Roger Neville-Neil’s surrealistic detective character the Action Man. We have been able to read the Action Man series for years on the pages of Aural Innovations, and Neville-Neil has also written lyrics for Hawkwind and Farflung.
Other writers for this album are Spirits Burning leader Don Falcone and ex-Hawkwind singer Bridget Wishart. As usual, also other old members of the Hawkwind family are included (Alan Davey, Paul Heyes) as well as members from bands like Jefferson Starship, Blue Öyster Cult, Melodic Energy Commission, The Starfighters, The Moor etc. And don’t worry; of course the steady member Daevid Allen (Gong, University of Errors etc.) is on-board again as well! All in all, about 30 people have been part of the album process.
'When Don told me about this album project a few years ago already (yes, he always seems to have several Spirits Burning projects under way simultaneously) I somehow got the picture that the end result would be smoky jazz or something like that, but this doesn’t really differ that much from the other Spirits Burning albums. Sure, there is a nice amount of the feel of the old black and white moves but it’s all put through a psychedelic, experimental and progressive filter and I like it that way!
'The 72-minute-long album includes 16 tracks. Mellotron gives its own special tone for the opener ”Rendezvous at Lava Lounge” and ”Stand and Deliver” sung by Kev Ellis is rather straight-forward, old-school rock. The next piece “The Real Time” has a more electronic pulse but also some violin, for example. “Internal Detective” is a bit more relaxed instrumental and the highly effective ”Straded by an UFO” real good space rock. “Outcast” sung by Bridget is again more electronic stuff and “HypnoSpy” peaceful, instrumental sound tapestry. The soft ”Crank Up the Vibes” offers for example some glissando guitar by Daevid Allen. Allen is also featured on the following track “The Train” that sounds a bit like late 70’s Hawkwind and also on the next, hypnotic and psychedelic instrumental ”Hemlock on the Rocks”. ”Every Space Opera” has some of that smoky, early last century nightclub atmosphere I was expecting and the horns are definitely helping on this. Daevid Allen’s very familiar voice can be heard on the wacky “Obelisk of Fondue” and Bridget is back on charge on the little bit faster piece “Astral Flight Gassed” that gets pretty weird before its minimal ending. The track ”This Mark You Make” instructs you to aim carefully to avoid stray bullets accompanied by for example Falcone’s carnival organ and Allen’s freak guitar and the shorter ”Pieces de Innocents Noir” takes us into Marrakesh (or is it Casablanca?) of some parallel universe. The disc is finished off with the Mellotron-and-violin filled, laid-back and cosmic “Underworld Messiah”. Yet another excellent, atmospheric and varied Spirits Burning release!'
www.spiritsburning.com 15.11.11 by Dj Astro
