MOFO

From a new-beat fan from Canada:
Even though I wasn't quite sure what to expect at first, it was still different from what I was expecting (!)....if that makes any sense.... but it was definitely interesting. I think that "progressive electronic pop" might be a better description for it than "progressive new-beat", though. There's a few things of which it reminded me -- there's a bit of similarity to Robert Wyatt (especially in the vocal style) for one, and in places it also reminded me of The Buggles and the french synthpop band Telex (around the time of their 1981 "Sex" album, specifically). These are just very loose comparisons, but there you go anyway....
My favorite track was definitely the "Last Days Of The Century" song (#3). I think this more "rock" approach nicely balances out the other elements in the music, and is something you should think about doing more....it sounds good! Out of the more instumental dance/electronic cuts, the ones I liked best were "Sleep Position #68", "Doom Entry" and "Welcome To House X".

From John MacMaster (megalon75@hotmail.com)

North Carolina, USA:
I've listened to this a bunch of times since then and think it's AWESOME!!! A whole lot of music styles put together rather uniquely. I'm gonna hang on to this baby so when Awaken becomes big international stars, I can say "hey, I know them!" :-)
(...) I've really gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this!
(...) it's got some pretty ahh.. _unique_ sounds to it. The more and more I listen the more qualities of it I'm picking out. A friend listened to it and he thought it rocked, too!!

From Chris Knight

England:
I'm enjoying listeing to something a little different from my usual music...

From Charlie Hulme (author of Page 27)

Hi- I really like your CD- Please keep on movin-'

Dedication from Glenn Hughes, co-writer of "This Time Around".

I'm afraid that will not help...

Words from Al Stewart, co-writer of "Last Days Of The Century", when he was asked to show the cd on a picture. See the LAST DAYS OF THE CENTURY JAM special page.

Illinois, USA:
I'm glad to see the local-level European music scene is not as dull as the US is. Just about everything that aspires to achieve here sounds like some Pearl Jam wannabe (or some retro-blue-based hack-fest). . . and everyone has forgotten how to integrate instruments. It's all guitar, with keys and bass as backup. Keyboards have become too closely associated with dance music and few seem to have the wherewithal to write truly engaging, multi-voiced music. Hang all egotistical guitarists!

From Terry L. Skaggs, Jr

South Korea:
I'm listening to your CD now; Nothing could Be Good. Vocal is similar to Robin Gibb + Al Stewart in "Time Passages".
From Park Duk-Hyeon.

New Jersey, USA:
I gave it a quick listen the other day, and, while it doesn't seem to be my cup of tea as far as musical style - I'm more of a fan of straight-ahead melodic rock - I did find it to be very interesting. I particularly liked all the cool and unique keyboard work throughout, and a lot of the arrangements were quite progressive. As far as the cover of "This Time Around," that's got to be one of strangest DP covers I've ever heard! It starts off in a relatively standard way, true to the original, but it's pretty wild when it goes right into "Blind" and then into the keyboard-driven "Owed To G." Pretty cool stuff!

From Damien DeSimone

Sweden:
I've been listening to it and I definitely like it. although I must confess that I usually don't listen to synthesized music, but I really enjoyed your cd. As for the music, I particularly liked *Sleep position no 68*, *Doom entry*, *Welcome to the house-x/nostalgic boom*, *A simple love* and *Zlurp*. I must say, you have a great sense for arranging music. and I like P'tit bout's singing, especially on the tracks *Requiem for a golden destiny* and *Memories of a teenage cat* (superb track... and title!). As for the dp-cover, again you have a great sense for arranging. I like the way *Blind* is kinda stuck in the middle of it all. Also, let me commend you for your imaginative titles.

From Jouni F. Maho

Belgium:
Imaginez l'équivalent sonore d'un Plan Nine From Outer Space ou d'un Zombie 90, le passage au ralenti de toutes les séquences de La Roue De La Fortune, un concert d'Hélène à 180 db... Cet amas informe de compositions miéleuses, de rythmes hoquetants et de chant approximatif ravira les spécialistes. Indispensable.

From a magazine called Noyade Mécanique, 1994. The journalist talked about AWAKEN's second demo tape, Phase 2: Scrappy....

Incalculables & inclassables, les belges nous gratifient d'un album électro-pop inattendalbe tout droit sorti du congélateur. Si vous voulez tester vos limites de tolérances, sûrement que cet album vous aidera à situer la barre tant il est pas évident. Plus d'infos à venir, mais pour du tout de suite : http://www.ping.be/~ping9712/awaken.html

From Kult Magazine (On Line) at: http://www.mygale.org/05/kultmag/us.htm

AWAKEN est un très très bon groupe. Leur musique est d'un nouveau genre très prometteur, vachement hard, qui est entre le mélodieux et l'électronique. Je recommande d'acheter le cd chez Gilles Snowcat, vous trouverez son adresse e-mail sur la Décharge. Ils ont déjà plusieurs concerts à leur actif, avec des sons nouveaux, comme par exemple tchouc-tchouc-tchac. Je n'ai jamais vu l'ensemble du groupe, mais je connais très très bien Gilles, qui est vachement cool et qui apparemment dans son nom aime bien les chats et la neige.

From mort184@yahoo.fr

Je ne vais pas reprendre titre par titre car vous risquez de vous faire chier comme un rat mort ; je vais plutôt donner un avis global.

Un point positif pour commencer (et pour vous ménager) : le chant... de P'tit Bout, bien ajusté avec un chouette timbre, bon anglais. Bref, j'aime. Dommage qu'elle ne soit plus là... Quant au chaton, bin, heu... bof, bof... C'est pas qu'il chante faux, mais sa voix manque singulièrement de précision et est rarement bien posée. Même s'il s'en sort plutôt bien sur "Last Days of the Century", c'est une catastrophe sur "Rescue", "Blurping..." et "The Tale...". [...]

Les compos : Il y a ça et là de bonnes choses ("Sleep Position n° 68", "Numbness...", etc...) mais ça manque un peu de développement, à l'image de "Requiem..." qui s'arrête au moment où l'on pense que cela va décoller. Tout n'est pas génial cependant, loin de là, mais je me suis surpris à parfois murmurer "Pas mal, ce passage...". Mais ce n'est que trop anecdotique, car les compos dans leur entièreté arrivent rarement à capter l'attention, n'ayant pas fil conducteur. D'autres par contre sont carrément nulles à chier, comme "Blurping the Blurp" !

L'instrumentation : Bon je ne vais pas aller par 4 chemins, c'est une catastrophe !!! Batterie électronique crispante, claviers Bontempi, guitare et basse trop anecdotiques. Je comprends maintenant ce que veut dire "Electro-blurp" ! Tout cela sonne beaucoup trop artificiel, sans aucune chaleur. C'est dommage car cela nuit complètement aux rares bonnes parties que j'évoquais ci-dessus.

[...]

Jean-Marc Roussel, journaliste à Prog-Résiste

(...) J'ai écouté les reprises de Captain Beyond et de Deep Purple et je les trouve... géniales! Je dois avouer que la reprise de "This Time Around" est particulièrement bluffante: quelle grande idée de confier cette chanson à une voix féminine! Merci pour cette belle musique!

Jean-François

MOFO

From a new-beat fan from Canada:
Even though I wasn't quite sure what to expect at first, it was still different from what I was expecting (!)....if that makes any sense.... but it was definitely interesting. I think that "progressive electronic pop" might be a better description for it than "progressive new-beat", though. There's a few things of which it reminded me -- there's a bit of similarity to Robert Wyatt (especially in the vocal style) for one, and in places it also reminded me of The Buggles and the french synthpop band Telex (around the time of their 1981 "Sex" album, specifically). These are just very loose comparisons, but there you go anyway....
My favorite track was definitely the "Last Days Of The Century" song (#3). I think this more "rock" approach nicely balances out the other elements in the music, and is something you should think about doing more....it sounds good! Out of the more instumental dance/electronic cuts, the ones I liked best were "Sleep Position #68", "Doom Entry" and "Welcome To House X".

From John MacMaster (megalon75@hotmail.com)

North Carolina, USA:
I've listened to this a bunch of times since then and think it's AWESOME!!! A whole lot of music styles put together rather uniquely. I'm gonna hang on to this baby so when Awaken becomes big international stars, I can say "hey, I know them!" :-)
(...) I've really gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this!
(...) it's got some pretty ahh.. _unique_ sounds to it. The more and more I listen the more qualities of it I'm picking out. A friend listened to it and he thought it rocked, too!!

From Chris Knight

England:
I'm enjoying listeing to something a little different from my usual music...

From Charlie Hulme (author of Page 27)

Hi- I really like your CD- Please keep on movin-'

Dedication from Glenn Hughes, co-writer of "This Time Around".

I'm afraid that will not help...

Words from Al Stewart, co-writer of "Last Days Of The Century", when he was asked to show the cd on a picture. See the LAST DAYS OF THE CENTURY JAM special page.

Illinois, USA:
I'm glad to see the local-level European music scene is not as dull as the US is. Just about everything that aspires to achieve here sounds like some Pearl Jam wannabe (or some retro-blue-based hack-fest). . . and everyone has forgotten how to integrate instruments. It's all guitar, with keys and bass as backup. Keyboards have become too closely associated with dance music and few seem to have the wherewithal to write truly engaging, multi-voiced music. Hang all egotistical guitarists!

From Terry L. Skaggs, Jr

South Korea:
I'm listening to your CD now; Nothing could Be Good. Vocal is similar to Robin Gibb + Al Stewart in "Time Passages".
From Park Duk-Hyeon.

New Jersey, USA:
I gave it a quick listen the other day, and, while it doesn't seem to be my cup of tea as far as musical style - I'm more of a fan of straight-ahead melodic rock - I did find it to be very interesting. I particularly liked all the cool and unique keyboard work throughout, and a lot of the arrangements were quite progressive. As far as the cover of "This Time Around," that's got to be one of strangest DP covers I've ever heard! It starts off in a relatively standard way, true to the original, but it's pretty wild when it goes right into "Blind" and then into the keyboard-driven "Owed To G." Pretty cool stuff!

From Damien DeSimone

Sweden:
I've been listening to it and I definitely like it. although I must confess that I usually don't listen to synthesized music, but I really enjoyed your cd. As for the music, I particularly liked *Sleep position no 68*, *Doom entry*, *Welcome to the house-x/nostalgic boom*, *A simple love* and *Zlurp*. I must say, you have a great sense for arranging music. and I like P'tit bout's singing, especially on the tracks *Requiem for a golden destiny* and *Memories of a teenage cat* (superb track... and title!). As for the dp-cover, again you have a great sense for arranging. I like the way *Blind* is kinda stuck in the middle of it all. Also, let me commend you for your imaginative titles.

From Jouni F. Maho

Belgium:
Imaginez l'équivalent sonore d'un Plan Nine From Outer Space ou d'un Zombie 90, le passage au ralenti de toutes les séquences de La Roue De La Fortune, un concert d'Hélène à 180 db... Cet amas informe de compositions miéleuses, de rythmes hoquetants et de chant approximatif ravira les spécialistes. Indispensable.

From a magazine called Noyade Mécanique, 1994. The journalist talked about AWAKEN's second demo tape, Phase 2: Scrappy....

Incalculables & inclassables, les belges nous gratifient d'un album électro-pop inattendalbe tout droit sorti du congélateur. Si vous voulez tester vos limites de tolérances, sûrement que cet album vous aidera à situer la barre tant il est pas évident. Plus d'infos à venir, mais pour du tout de suite : http://www.ping.be/~ping9712/awaken.html

From Kult Magazine (On Line) at: http://www.mygale.org/05/kultmag/us.htm

AWAKEN est un très très bon groupe. Leur musique est d'un nouveau genre très prometteur, vachement hard, qui est entre le mélodieux et l'électronique. Je recommande d'acheter le cd chez Gilles Snowcat, vous trouverez son adresse e-mail sur la Décharge. Ils ont déjà plusieurs concerts à leur actif, avec des sons nouveaux, comme par exemple tchouc-tchouc-tchac. Je n'ai jamais vu l'ensemble du groupe, mais je connais très très bien Gilles, qui est vachement cool et qui apparemment dans son nom aime bien les chats et la neige.

From mort184@yahoo.fr

Je ne vais pas reprendre titre par titre car vous risquez de vous faire chier comme un rat mort ; je vais plutôt donner un avis global.

Un point positif pour commencer (et pour vous ménager) : le chant... de P'tit Bout, bien ajusté avec un chouette timbre, bon anglais. Bref, j'aime. Dommage qu'elle ne soit plus là... Quant au chaton, bin, heu... bof, bof... C'est pas qu'il chante faux, mais sa voix manque singulièrement de précision et est rarement bien posée. Même s'il s'en sort plutôt bien sur "Last Days of the Century", c'est une catastrophe sur "Rescue", "Blurping..." et "The Tale...". [...]

Les compos : Il y a ça et là de bonnes choses ("Sleep Position n° 68", "Numbness...", etc...) mais ça manque un peu de développement, à l'image de "Requiem..." qui s'arrête au moment où l'on pense que cela va décoller. Tout n'est pas génial cependant, loin de là, mais je me suis surpris à parfois murmurer "Pas mal, ce passage...". Mais ce n'est que trop anecdotique, car les compos dans leur entièreté arrivent rarement à capter l'attention, n'ayant pas fil conducteur. D'autres par contre sont carrément nulles à chier, comme "Blurping the Blurp" !

L'instrumentation : Bon je ne vais pas aller par 4 chemins, c'est une catastrophe !!! Batterie électronique crispante, claviers Bontempi, guitare et basse trop anecdotiques. Je comprends maintenant ce que veut dire "Electro-blurp" ! Tout cela sonne beaucoup trop artificiel, sans aucune chaleur. C'est dommage car cela nuit complètement aux rares bonnes parties que j'évoquais ci-dessus.

[...]

Jean-Marc Roussel, journaliste à Prog-Résiste

(...) J'ai écouté les reprises de Captain Beyond et de Deep Purple et je les trouve... géniales! Je dois avouer que la reprise de "This Time Around" est particulièrement bluffante: quelle grande idée de confier cette chanson à une voix féminine! Merci pour cette belle musique!

Jean-François