utorak, 30.12.2008.
The Nice - Here Come The Nice: The Immediate Anthology (2001)
3CD set includes 40 tracks, some previously unissued, as well as their 3 complete albums for the label.
Discussions about the birth of that equally feted and reviled musical genre known as progressive rock usually award a little too much credit to the original King Crimson line-up. Their 'pioneering' debut tour de force 'In The Court Of The Crimson King' brought ecstatic praise from most quarters - the sort of praise that often eluded the true pioneers of prog, the Nice. Indeed the group have garnered more fame in the thirty years since their demise as 'that band that used to play with P. P. Arnold and had Keith Emerson in them' than on their own merits. To dismiss the Nice merely as the experimental nursery ground of one of the greatest pianists/organists in rock history, is to do the band a serious injustice. For Emerson, Lake & Palmer fans there is no further excuse not to give Keith's former band a thorough reinvestigation with 'Here Come The Nice' available. The packaging of 'Here Come The Nice' is admittedly somewhere just above shoestring but within there is the band's first three albums - 'The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack', 'Ars Longa Vita Brevis' and 'The Nice' - four previously unissued live tracks and a plethora of alternate versions, demoes, stray b-sides and singles. The Immediate label have managed to cram all these delights onto just three compact discs. Also included is a fairly comprehensive history of the band so little needs to be said of that here. A reevaluation of the music of the Nice is, however, long overdue. Their debut LP 'The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack' can, quite rightly be seen as one of the epochal releases of the late 1960s. Reviews have been written claiming that ultimately it is too psych for prog fans and too prog for psych fans. This view is easy to understand but doesn't stop their first album being a must for fans of prog and psych as it neatly traverses both genres. It is the most psychedelic of their first three LPs probably because it is the only to feature original guitarist Davy O'List who became disenchanted with Keith Emerson's increasing dominance - a dominance that would lead to Keith himself quitting also in a few years. On 'The Thoughts Of . . .' The Nice show themselves to be capable of being just as bombastic as ELP but also more willing to be subtle and understated at times. The band are probably sick to death of constant comparisons with ELP, but it is worth noting that the standard of recording on Nice records is undoubtedly inferior to that on ELP albums - a fact particularly noticable on 'The Thoughts Of . . .'. There is not even the merest hint of a filler on 'The Thoughts Of . . .' however and the companion singles are also exemplary, particularly their version of 'America' which was legendarily accompanied with a ritual burning of the stars and stripes at Nice gigs. The band's sophomore effort 'Ars Longa Vita Brevis' is remarkable for the side-long title-track subtitled 'Symphony For Group And Orchestra' which is a hugely entertaining, eminently successful and surprisingly enduring experiment in what would come to be termed 'classical rock' with its pioneering use of an orchestra. The group's self-titled third album shows them shorter on ideas than they had ever previously been and they devoted the second side of the record to two, nevertheless brilliant, live performances of 'Rondo' from the debut and extraordinary progged up version of Bob Dylan's 'She Belongs To Me'. There is even the feeling on 'The Nice' of Emerson somewhat taking on the role of band-leader of a jazz combo, especially in the extended, syncopated workouts of 'For Example'. Subsequently the length of the Nice's tours and Keith Emerson's piano and organ soloes would increase exponentially and the pressure would rise to boiling point within the band. This anthology leaves us at the point when the Nice were on the verge of their biggest commercial successes and then their acrimonious split. Progressive, psychedelic, either, neither or both, the Nice remain one of the best kept secrets of the late 60s - a group many have heard of but that few people own material by. The Immediate label have compiled an excellent and exhaustive box set here and with the band's two other CDs 'Elegy' and 'Five Bridges', this is an essential purchase...N. Whittaker
Codec: mp3
Bitrate: 320 kB/s
Size: 500 MB
Genre : Progressive Rock
Cover: Front
Tracklist:
CD 1
01. The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack 02:51
02. Azrial 03.44
03. Sampler for The Thoughts of Emerlist Dayjack 05:19
04. Flower King Of Flies 03.19
05. Bonnie `K` 03:26
06. Rondo 08:24
07. War and Peace 05:15
08. Tantalising Maggie 04:37
09. Dawn 05:19
10. The Cry of Eugene 04:38
11. America 06:22
12. The Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon 02:49
13. Daddy Where Did I come from 03:45
14. Little Arabella 04:18
15. Happy Freuds 03:29
16. Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite 08:59
17. Don Edito El Gruva 00:13
CD 2
01. Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Symphony For Group And Orchestra) 19:22
02. Brandenburger 04:28
03. Azrael Revisited 05:58
04. Hang On To A Dream 04:48
05. Diary Of An Empty Day 04:02
06. For Example 08:56
07. Rondo (Live Fillmore East '69) 07:57
08. She Belongs To Me (Live Fillmore East '69) 11:52
CD 3
01. America ( Live Newcastle '68 ) 07:17
02. Rondo ( Live New Castle '68 ) 11:17
03. The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack ( Long Version ) 04:15
04. Flower King Of Flies ( Alternative Version ) 03:38
05. Bonnie 'k' ( Alternative Version ) 03:22
06. America ( Alternative Stereo Version ) 06:17
07. Dawn ( Alternative Version ) 05:06
08. Tantalising Maggie ( Alternative Version ) 04:25
09. The Cry Of Eugene ( Alternative Version ) 04:34
10. Daddy Where Did I Come From ( Alternative Version ) 02:50
11. Brandenburger ( Demo Version ) 04:26
12. Pathetique Symphony 4th ( Live Fairfields Hall '69 ) 10:33
13. Lt Kije ( The Troika ) / Rondo ( Live Fairfields Hall '69 ) 08:11
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