Search - Crazy World of Arthur Brown :: Vampire Suite

Absolutely great!!!!

Alan Riva | Valley Village CA, USA | 03/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is so cool it's hard to describe. There are so many "flavors" of musical styles yet they are woven together to make an incredible tapestry of moods and images.



I purchased the download and liked it so much I then purchased the CD when I found that it included the story-line in text (slightly edited) and read (in full) on the 2nd CD by Arthur Brown. I found this out on Amazon UK. Why isn't that review here? I would have purchased the CD 1st had I known that. Anyway...



I can't say how innovative this CD is overall. Some of the tracks are reminiscent of soul, blues, and jazz (staying pretty strictly in those genres), and others have a dark mysterious quality to them a la Peter Gabriel.



There is some narration over music (shorter tracks on music CD) which hint at the story and Arthur Brown puts down some awesome literature here both in print and spoken word. I'm not sure who actually wrote the story but the CD insert says the Vampire Suite Concept was created by Arthur Brown/Josh Philips. Arthur's reading is awesome, he changes character when reading (he's very theatrical as you may know) and I have to say that this is a bargain at full price because the music CD and the story (which runs at 50 minutes) would each be worth the price individually in my opinion.



It seems to me he should have a lot more recognition then he does. What a shame. His material is so innovative and original.



The production, arrangements and performances are all over the top. Quite frankly, this is one of my favorite CD's of all time.



Thanks Arthur for keeping up the tradition of putting out great innovative music (theatre) for all these years!!!!"