When German symphonic rockers Anyone's Daughter released their double vinyl Live album in 1984 it consisted of various recordings made in 1983. The fact that they used more than one recording illustrated the band's professional attitude towards the music business. In the wake of their brand new studio album Danger World now comes another collection of vintage live takes. Spread over 2CDs this would have been a quadruple album should it have been released in the vinyl age! Both CDs highlight a different period in the band's history, when touring mainly meant promoting the latest output. Hence the fact that all of the stuff on the first disc is taken from the albums Adonis and Anyone's Daughter, whereas the second disc highlights material from the albums In Blau and Neue Sterne, which in the wake of the then famous "neue Deutsche well" included German lyrics. Disc one contains recordings made in 1980, 1981 and 1982 and features the last ever appearance by drummer Kono Konopik who was then replaced by Peter Schmidt. Sadly it doesn't say clearly which tracks were recorded when, so it's impossible to say whose drum solo we are actually listening to! The sleeve notes clearly mark that Konopik stayed until the summer of 1981, after which Peter Schmidt took his place, but as the songs included have been recorded on three different nights and do not include track-by-track information we still don't know who plays what. The second disc was recorded on four occasions spread over 1982 and 1983 with Schmidt joining Ulmer, Bareth and Karpa. The first disc includes all of side one of the band's debut album Adonis, four songs segued into one and well mixed so all the little details are present. In "Come Away" the guy responsible for the recording does add a fair amount of echo and reverb to Bareth's voice which isn't a very good move. The synth solo however sounds clear and crisp. Certain parts of the recording, though, suffer from minor dropouts and over modulation, the latter resulting in disturbing crackle. On the track "Adonis" extra reverb is added to Harald's voice, whilst we get more bad sound once the drums are hit hard. Sounds like the guy behind the mixing desk had certain things way too high and didn't know the music well enough in order to deliver the perfect mix. My favourite "Blue House" sadly produces the odd bum note, yet it remains a wonderful song with outstanding keyboard playing. The live rendition of "Thursday" includes the obligatory (in those days) drum solo, yet as already stated we don't really know who deserves the credit. The song continues with a bass solo as well, and we all know that Harald Bareth is the one to congratulate here. That bass first starts with a funky feel before switching towards a Squire-like approach and hitting the melody of "In The Mood" as made immortal by Glenn Miller. Disc one ends with a rousing version of "Anyone's Daughter" played as en encore in a place which had to close down because of the neighbours' complaint about the noise! As said before, the second disc of this package focuses on the period where the band handled German lyrics. The sound quality is better as the volume is better adjusted. The opening section of "Nights Für Mich" kind of has a medieval feel, whilst the next section offers a great combination of guitar-synth. "Sonne" is an acoustic, simplistic song that blends well with Harald's voice. The acoustic guitar gets close to Steve Howe whilst the feel of the electric piano is one that will please fans of Solution. Towards the end of the song, Bareth's bass guitar gets the upper hand leading straight into "Carrara," a song which also featured on the band's Live album and which I think was only reserved for live gigs and never featured on any of the band's albums (I don't know the material on their 1986 album Last Tracks, so maybe it can be found there?). Rubbing shoulders with fusion, "Carrara" mainly is a forum for Mattias Ulmer's attack on the organ, whilst his sequencer repeats its hypnotic rhythm. Having played in excess of 500 concerts during its existence, Anyone's Daughter has evolved into a well-oiled musical machine as one can hear during the lengthy epic "Tanz Und Tod." Taken from the album In Blau, it sounds more contemporary than their previous work with a more accessible edge where drums/bass are concerned. During "Tanz Und Tod" the band wants to make clear that you don't have to see death as the end of life but as part of life, almost as vital as breathing. A lengthy piano solo kind of segues two large parts together ending in pure symphonic style. The intro for "Für Eines Kleines mädchen" kind of reminds me of Gryphon with gentle acoustic guitar paving the path for Harald's unique voice. When the inspiration for writing interesting lyrics dried up, Anyone's Daughter simply decided to go ahead with the words "la la" hence the song "La La" which contains some great guitar playing as well as outstanding organ chops. In a way the "la la" chorus makes me think of the improvised Jon Anderson part on "Yessongs" just before he introduces Rick Wakeman's solo spot. The album closes with the fragile nature of "In Zerbrochnem Glass" which sees Harald sing along with the synth. As a final song on this double disc one would have wished it would end in a climax, with loud cheers from an ecstatic audience, but instead there's only a lukewarm applause by a couple of enthusiasts right at the very back of the venue. The quality on this second disc however is much better than on disc one. Compared to the previous Live album (as re-released on CD by WMMS in 1993) only six tracks on this new 2CD set were present then as well, whereas fourteen tracks can be heard live for the very first time here. Sadly the quality is inferior to the previous Live album, and yet again we don't hear anything from Piktors Verwandlungen which rumours have it was the band's best selling album. Although this new set perfectly illustrates the talent of Anyone's Daughter, I dare say that Adonis remains THE album to get if you're into lush symphonic textures with a decent amount of Camel and Novalis references. Reviewed by: John 'Bo Bo' Bollenberg |
