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Art Rock Circus - Heavens Café Live!

Artist:	Art Rock Circus
Title:	Heavens Café Live!
Label:	Tributary Music Label 1944-70003-2
Length(s):	46 minutes
Year(s) of release:	??
Month of review:	[02/2002]

Line up

John Miner - guitar, composition
Jon Cornell - bass
Jon Weisberg - drums
with
Melanie Grimmett - violin
Kristine Keppel - choreography, direction
and a cast of
Todd Ashmore - vocals of lark
Allison Gifford - vocals of robin
Timothy Burris - vocals of kral
Sean Critchfield - vocals of guardian angel
Josh - vocals of the dark one

Tracks

1)	Last Smile Sunshine	3.07
2)	Astralography	3.41
3)	Heavens Café	4.08
4)	Never Alone	4.23
5)	Classical Man	4.13
6)	Labyrinth	7.12
7)	Tower Of Information	7.58
8)	Again	1.44
9)	Flowing Home	1.40
	10-11) The Dark	6.12
12)	Robins' Lullabye	1.41

Summary

John Miner is a busy man: his solo album, his work with Mantra Sunrise and this, Art Rock Circus, form the focus of the Tributary Music Label.

The music

This version of John Miner's rock opera is a live one recorded in Las Vegas. On the first track the singing strikes me as being somewhat "far away". The bass is zooming along, the musical gait is bouncy with, and this occurs often, an acoustic guitar playing the lead line. The melody is on the merry side and a bit too simple for my tastes. One might be tempted to think of folk here. Later the electric guitar makes its entrance and we even get an atmospheric intermezzo.

Astralography is heavier with a guitar that reminds of psychedelic music. The overaccented vocals are irritating, the other vocals are ratehr flat again. The "title track" sounds more theatrical with some nice violin, but gets to be quite commerical. The female singer is a good one with plenty of volume. The song itself is repetitively acoustic.

Never Alone is an easy going track, but not a boring one. Percussion, a lone guitar and mumbled vocals make for a nice atmosphere. The music gets more typical for musicals on Classical Man with overaccented spoken vocals. Recitation is also present, in addition to a gurgling bass, on Labyrinth.

Tower Of Information is one of the most appealing songs on the album with a melodic beginning and acoustic that remind of Hackett and/in Genesis. The violin sounds really sad on this one.

Mars rhtyhms we find on the short and tuneful Again. Lots of vocals through intertwine and on the whole a bit too plain and simple. After the merry Flowing Home we come to the more powerful The Dark which happens to be split over two tracks. The first of these is an intro the Great Gig In The Sky inspired second part. Well sung.

The closer is a short somewhat folky tune.

Conclusion

The recording quality of this album is not great and some parts of the vocals I did not like. The female singers do well on this somewhat musical like rock opera, and there are a few tracks worthy of attention (like Tower Of Information). On the whole though, I was not overly impressed. I think I prefer the limited studio edition, which sounds a bit more cohesive.