The Analogues - Dutch Tribute To The Beatles

 

The Analogues — трибьют-группа из Нидерландов, исполняющая песни The Beatles. Цель коллектива, образовавшегося в 2014 году, заключается в том, чтобы исполнять музыку «Битлз» позднего студийного периода, используя аналоговые и существовавшие в то время инструменты. С самого начала Analogues при поддержке духовых и струнных инструментов исполняли живьём песни и целые альбомы, которые сами The Beatles никогда не играли на концертах. Группа не прилагает усилий, чтобы быть внешне похожими на «Битлз», но их называют мастерами по воссозданию и воспроизведению оригинального звука. ~ https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analogues

The Analogues are a Dutch tribute act to the Beatles. Founded in 2014, the Analogues' ambition has been to perform the Beatles' music from their later studio years live, using analogue and period-accurate instrumentation.[1] The Analogues distinguished themselves by performing songs and whole albums live, which the Beatles never played live. While the band does not attempt to look like the Beatles, they have been noted for accurately recreating and reproducing their music

~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analogues

THE ANALOGUES ТВОРЯТ ЧУДЕСА

(THE ANALOGUES MAKE MIRACLES)

THE BAND :

BART VAN POPPEL

Musical director. Walrus. Sloppy execution can induce grumpyness. Wears sandals to the office. Bass, keys, vocals.

JAC BICO

Silent Force. Makes anything weep gently, as long as it has strings. Prefers playing over talking. Guitars, bass, sitar, percussion, recorder, keys, vocals.

JAN VAN DER MEIJ

Irreplaceable as ‘loud McCartney’. Temporarily unavailable due to 40 years of faithful service in front of a guitar amp. Guitars, vocals.

FELIX MAGINN

Finally, a native speaker of English. Replaces the irreplaceable. Part-time crooner. Amazing equestrian skills. Guitar, vocals.

FRED GEHRING

Seriously annoyed by dwindling awareness of the Beatles-songbook; chairman of the (future) Beatles Preservation Society. Drums, vocals.

DIEDERIK NOMDEN

Born many years after The White Album was released. Likes to trump Bart as main nit-picker on barely audible subtleties. Keys, guitar, vocals.

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MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

What The Analagoues have chosen to accomplish doesn’t seem that complicated: they perform songs from the latter part of The Beatles’ career. They do this album by album, each of which they play from beginning to end. However it’s not quite as simple as it sounds, especially in the case of Magical Mystery Tour, which wasn’t really an album to start with.

It was originally released in Europe as a double EP with six songs that served as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. However, the American market wasn’t big on EPs, and six songs weren’t enough to fill a LP. Therefore the singles that the band had previously released in 1967 were added to the original soundtrack, making a grand total of eleven tracks – and it’s this ‘complete’ version of the album that The Analogues bring to life.

It's rather ironic that Magical Mystery Tour, a cut and paste job, was the successor to the first ever concept album (Sgt. Peppers). But this turn of events didn’t bother the press or the public: Magical Mystery Tour was a huge critical and commercial success.

Replicating the exact same sounds that the fab four made in the studio does require a lot of attention to detail, but this brings its own rewards for audience and band alike: just check out the tubular bell that’s brought on stage especially for one part of ‘Penny Lane’. Other highlights include the stunning string and horn arrangements that come to the fore in ‘I Am The Walrus’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, guitarist Jac Bico’s turn on the flute for ‘Fool On the Hill’, as well as lesser known gems like ‘Flying’ and ‘Blue Jay Way’ that truly take off in The Analogues’ expert hands.

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SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY

HEARTS CLUB BAND

Much has been written about the Beatles’ eighth album. Depending on who you believe, it’s either the soundtrack to the summer of love in 1967 or the band’s response to ‘Pet Sounds’ by The Beach Boys. But perhaps the simplest truth surrounding the LP is also the most accurate: it’s the world’s first concept album. Yes indeed, as it was the first time that an album was something more than a bunch of songs that happened to be presented on the same piece of vinyl.

It was also the first time that the band went into the studio without worrying about how they would have to perform the songs live. This meant that they enjoyed the luxury of significantly longer recording sessions: a whole five months, instead of the single day that their debut ‘Please Please Me’ was made in. The Beatles enthusiastically embraced the possibilities for experimentation that were blossoming at the time (despite the fact that they were still forced to use with a 4-track recorder) and George Martin, ‘the fifth Beatle’, assumed an increasingly important role in proceedings.

In the worlds of Paul, Sgt.Pepper was a kind of alter ego for the band that made it easier to work in a freer, more creative way. “People played it a bit safe in popular music,” McCartney said, “but that’s when we realized you didn’t have to.”

Now it’s The Analogues’ turn to perform this masterwork live in all its analogue glory – an honour for which no effort has been spared. This means another truckload of wild and wonderful vintage instruments rolling up to add to The Analogues’ already impressive list. There’s a sitar and tabla for ‘Within You, Without You’, a rare Lowrey keyboard for ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’; a harp for ‘She’s Leaving Home’, plus, of course, a huge array of strings and horns. If you’re curious as to whether a kazoo (or a comb wrapped in toilet paper, that legend suggests the band used during recording) will pop up on ‘Lovely Rita’, you’ll just have to come and see for yourself.

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THE WHITE ALBUM

Although we refer to it as The White Album, as you may well know, the record actually goes by the title The Beatles, following on from the album's conceptual and rather minimalist artwork. The entirely white sleeve was quite a departure from the band's two exuberantly colourful predecessors, Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. Its somewhat austere cover was in no way a reflection of the musical content however, for The White Album was the most diverse album The Beatles would release.

The (visual) break away from Sgt. Pepper was perhaps a subconscious strategy to avoid any comparisons with Pepper. At the time The White Album was released, Sgt. Pepper had already attained something of a mythical status, which might have proved a tough act to follow, but the group somehow managed it. Rolling Stone Magazine said of The White Album: "Whatever else it is or isn't, it is the best album they have ever released, and only The Beatles are capable of making a better one."

Included in the album was a fold-out poster featuring four separate portraits of The Beatles. Looking back, this doesn't seem to be a random choice either, as many of the songs that appear on The White Album could be deemed 'private projects’ of the individual members, and, at the time the album was being recorded, The Beatles could often be found working on their own tracks in separate studios.

The Analogues play Beatles albums in their entirety, from the very first to the very last note. Attempting to do so presents quite a challenge, especially in the case of The White Album: it is a double LP after all, containing roughly twice as much material. In addition, there are a number of tracks on it that you wouldn't exactly categorise as 'crowd pleasers'. Producer George Martin even suggested at the time that the group should 'kill their darlings' and put out a standard length LP. Fortunately, The Beatles stuck to their guns, and left us with what we consider to be a joyous and eclectic multitude of styles, which collectively lend this album its wonderfully unique character.

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LET IT BE ABBEY ROAD

The end of the sixties; it's not that on January 1, 1970, there was a collective urge to branch out to something completely different than the preceding ten years, yet the Zeitgeist seems to neatly keep pace with the decades. Apparently, The Beatles also felt that their name should remain connected to that era in which hope and change predominated, although 'Abbey Road' was already glancing surreptitiously at the seventies. Some lyrics hint at a life after The Beatles, and musically the possibilities were expanded with the eight-track recorder (nothing compared to todays standards, but at the time twice as much as before) and the Moog, the very first synthesizer (in itself an unmanageable beast, but with it The Beatles managed to add some new colors to their palette).

We probably don't have to explain to you that Abbey Road really was The Beatles' last album. As a true Beatles connoisseur, you know Abbey Road is a reflection of The Beatles' last studio collaboration, although Let It Be was released after that. A collaboration that wasn't obvious. The Beatles started working on Let It Be soon after the release of The White Album (the recordings of which weren't just a pleasant, harmonious get-together). Let It Be was conceived not only as an album, but also as a documentary about the creation of that album. With this project, The Beatles were again ahead of their time, because the documentary turned out to be a kind of reality TV avant la lettre, with a lot of controversy and pettyfogging between the band members, and the permanent (unsolicited) presence of Yoko Ono. Plenty of ingredients for an interesting film, but making good music turned out to be a lot more difficult under these circumstances.

So it was remarkable, to say the least, that after this (half) failure Paul made some phone calls; one last attempt at making an album "the old way". So again with producer George Martin and technician Geoff Emerick; Martin had barely interfered with The White Album and Emerick had quit halfway through the recording of that album, and they were not around during the recording of Let It Be. "The old way" also meant a return to familiar ground: Abbey Road Studios. The idea that this might be the last thing they did together hung the air, despite it was not being voiced by anyone. So: ego's aside - to show once more what they were capable of. The result is a masterpiece that marks the end of an era, but has lost none of its power fifty years later.

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http://theanalogues.net/

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