From: Alan.Tai@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Alan Tai)
Subject: Review of "Beyond the Mind's Eye"
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 15:25:03 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.misc


            Review of "The Mind's Eye" by Jan Hammer
            Miramar MPCD 2902, 1992, 15 tracks, 49:41


1.   Seeds (instrumental): Cusco-ish pan pipe and rock beat
     punctuate this upbeat piece.

4.   Sunset: Beautiful repeating motif, a slow and reflective
     love song.

5.   Transformers: similar to the title track of Speer's
     "Collection: 991".

6.   Nothing But Love: slow and easy classical guitar and
     synthesizer.

7.   Virtual Reality: starts out with Vangelis-like horns, then
     shifts into auto with a robotic rhythm.  Music for the
     cyberspace traveler.

8.   Pyramid: Sounds like a traditional Russian polka, but with
     electric guitars.

9.   Brave New World: Pulsating synthesizers provide a backdrop
     to the piano main melody.

10.  Windows: rhythm similar to Vangelis' "Nerve City" on "The
     City"; nice driving song.

11.  Midnight: Nice jazzy funk, complete with wicked bass and
     electric guitar.

12.  Afternoon Adventure: Starts and ends slow; middle is a fast-
     paced rock song without the vocals.

13.  Voyage Home: Slow jazz/adult contemporary.

14.  Beyond: Electric guitar with lush synthesizer accompaniment.

15.  Seeds (vocal): Exactly like the instrumental except for the
     well-sung vocals by Chris Thompson of the Manfred Mann
     Group.

     "Beyond the Mind's Eye" is a far departure from the
soundtrack to the original "Minds Eye" by James Reynolds. 
Whereas the original was, for the most part, a score to accompany
the video, rich in its ambience but lacking in its melody.  Jan
Hammer's sequel, however, abounds in rhythm and melody (electric
guitar most of the time).  Yet, there is a lot of variety here. 
Some songs have heavy dance beats; others are slow and
reflective.  You can hear Vangelis' futuristic album "The City"
in some of the songs.  You can feel the complex rhythms of Mars
Lasar's "Olympus".  And Tangerine Dream's "Rockoon" and Paul
Speer's "Collection 991" are very similar with their guitar
wizardry and power chords.  If you like these albums, I'm sure
you will like "Beyond" also.
     Someone once mentioned to me that the best electric
guitarist he had every heard was Jan Hammer on keyboards!  Well
over half of the songs feature electric guitars; whether they are
sampled or real, I really can't tell.  Anyways, I wish there were
more to the sparse CD insert. like perhaps frames from the film
or even a message from Jan himself.  Now to see the video; I hope
it's as impressive as this album...

Fave tracks: Seeds (instrumental) (1), Sunset (4), Transformers
(5), Virtual Reality(7), Brave New World (9)

Rating: 8/10   (note that this is my personal preference)


Alan Tai
actaix@mail.wm.edu, actai@moles.chem.wm.edu, Alan.Tai@bbs.oit.unc.edu

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