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Reviews: |
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Here you will find quotes from independent reviews, and links to the original source. Please not that copyright for the original review remains with the author.
Click Here to skip down the page to reviews of Brendan Pollard's solo material.
Click Here to go to the discography page, with samples of the music.
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Rogue Element - Reviews: |
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Here you will find quotes from independent reviews, and links to the original.
Images of a desolate monastery came to mind as a lonesome bell chimes out over a windy landscape. Thunder joins it then wonderful electronic drones and loads of gorgeous Mellotron which could have come straight from 'Encore' or even 'Epsilon in Malaysian Pale'. Delicate flutey lead lines float over the top. We are less than three minutes in to 'Beyond Cerberus' and I reckon retro fans will already be in heaven. All that is missing is a sequence which then come one after another with an absolutely brilliant mid seventies lead line doing the business over the top. If there is anything better than heaven we have now reached it. The Mellotron keeps going underneath but everything else changes as a new sequence builds to devastating proportions. More fantastic tron comes in and the lead lines get even better. Things aren't allowed to stagnate as element after element mutates or is changed, the only constant being quality. There is enough in this one track alone to fill an entire album. I simply can't praise it highly enough- essential in any Berlin School collection.
The great sound of TD in the 70’s we all keep in mind, still lives, the name is Rogue Element.
The Album presents four tracks full of melody and sequences combined with mastery. Dense and dark atmospheres give way to powerful and epic rhythms always surrounded by those wonderful rich sounds the authors extract from their unbelievable large equipment.
If you are keen on electronic music you must have this Album, and if you don't, after listening to it, you'll get to love it and want more. When are we going to hear more of Rogue Element? I hope it'll be soon. 2004. Enrique Moës / Spain.
A new shiny toy arrived in the post this morning.....WOW this *IS* TD!! The Album has 4 tracks ranging from 15 mins to 17 mins, and all are uptempo sequencer dominated pieces with plenty of melody and the TD sounds that we all know and love. If your a Fan of 70's TD, particularly around the Encore / Ricochet era and want more of that sound, then this album is for you... Some real nice piccies of the gear used are located in the CD booklet that blows you away looking at them..and believe me, the music matches what you would come to expect from two guys who know how to play all this equipment. On a personal note.....I Love it, great sequencing, great melody great Music!!
2004. Nick Adams
After acquiring over 100 Tangerine Dream CD's I ran into this one by Rogue Element titled Premonition. Wow!!! This sound is very reminiscent of any of Tangerine Dreams many sounds.
The CD has four tracks with all four blending together as though they were one long track. I enjoyed how Track #1 opens with the bells & storms slowly drifting to a very nice upbeat tempo. Track #2 is at a slower movement however it tends to lift the spirit from your body to begin an out of body voyage. Track #3 is a continuation with an eventual release into a nice upbeat sound. Track #4 slowly brings you back around full circle as if the CD were starting over again. It's a shame there are only 4 tracks, personally they could have played all night long!
This CD is an excellent collection of sound performed by just two musicians: Brendan Pollard & Jerome Ramsey. The multitude of equipment used was awesome. As a newcomer to EM music I have no idea what each piece does BUT I DO KNOW WHEN I HEAR GREAT MUSIC. Thanks guys for sharing your sounds with all who choose to listen. And for those that don't you should really check this band out. Will be waiting very impatiently for your next release. Until then Keep The Music Playing!
2004. Art Howe / USA
If you are into TD at their classic 70s best, stop reading. Buy. Now. My track summary:
Track 1 Lovely, floating intro passage, with very Jarre phased strings and woodwind tones, plus shimmery white noise effects leads into simplistic but effective BS sequences. Traditional wandering melodic components, excellent Mellotron choirs. The drum rhythm programming is not as developed as some other exponents of this style, but fits perfectly in the general mix, making room for future growth. Central section breaks down and simplifies into an almost jazzy e-piano with filter swept sequencing. Return of the phased strings gives the track a good sense of coherence. Last three minutes has shades of Ricochet's echoes vocals and eerie, windswept soundscapes. Overall, a thoroughly pleasant opener.
Track 2 Water effects open up, with thunderstorm and acoustic piano with deep, "new age" type echo. Again, strings and woodwinds start the development of the piece. Natural, woodland/rural type of atmosphere is built on the simple melodic materials by sound effects of birdsong et al. Really rather pleasant. Then it all turns a little less content and calm. A simple sequence enters and is built up with octaves and basic counterpoints into a bed for a long, slow attack type of lead sound, again rather melodic. This fades away into a more pulsing rhythm that takes a few moments to settle down into the next - dare I use the word? - groove. Lovely Mellotron moments here too! The drums underpin and fit well with the very simple sequences used. All the sequenced passages are very dry - little or no effects to put some ambience around them, which propels them to the forefront of the audio landscape. there are some slights slips of timing between the live recorded playing and the metrical rigidity of the sequencing, but it makes it all sound "hand made" and less robotic. Last sequence is in a higher register and fades into more ambient samples/soundscapes. Again, a pleasant and relaxed listen. Think Ricochet or Rubycon. Same feel, similar instrumentation, but no "Interval of God" bouncing bass lines.
Track 3 Opens with panned echoing drums - tabla-esque. Mellotron flutes join in for a mellow feel, underpinned by more angular, mechanical sounding "jittery" sounds adding tension. The album seems to settle down to a certain "feel" around here. Can anyone enlighten me here? - is this studio jamming or composed/rehearsed pieces? First sequence enters and is again accompanied by authentic 1970s "ticky-clicky" drum sounds. The vocal sounds that enter are mutated and transformed to add to the sonic interest. As the underpinning sequence is built upon and added to, the track remains clear and uncluttered. So far, one of the trademarks of these pieces is the relative absence of major effects processing. The rhythmic sections drop away to leave massed choirs and spacey harmonies. pulsing internal features of the sounds used add to the metrical interest here, as the different shimmery comings and goings play across each other to great effect. Aha! - then the "Interval of God" arrives! the sequencing chatters away in classic style. Classic BS, with a relaxed and basic feel to it. Not music to get into a sweat over, but really very enjoyable indeed for those more calm moments. Light Mellotron vocals and intermeshing sequences in classic style. It all breaks down in waves of white noise back to what sounds like a _real_ guitar and Mellotron duet. Something in this makes me think of the seashore. I can't put my finger on it but ... Anyway, a nice way to wind down the track to a definite, rather than fadeout, conclusion.
Track 4 Classic filtered white noise wind effects fly around your ears - at least, they do on headphones - before a portentous organ enters, complete with Leslie decoration. Birdsong and vaguely aquatic/tropical flavours replace the wind. A flute joins the organ, picking out a melodic, meandering course, accompanied by Mellotron strings. The organ fades out as a buzzy 70s string ensemble type of sound picks up the counterpoint with the other two instruments. Then into another classic 70s workout. Nice interlocking sequences and guitar lines with washes of choir behind and brassy interludes. And there's even THOSE ambient clangy noises heard in Ricochet! Yes .the REAL THING. The original TD sounds. As the guitar and brass drop away, a simple synth leads picks up and adds regularity and pulse to the mix, with some amount of repeated motifs in the solo that make it more than another wibbly wander (hey, keep up - this is proper musical terminology where I come from!). A gentle fade away into the distance is what you expect. You actually get a closure. The piece ends.
And there you have it. My $0.02. A mandatory purchase for 70s retro sequencer fest fans.
2005. Steve B / England
This disc came with some heavy baggage in the form of lofty expectations. From the moment I heard about it, people were calling it the best vintage Berlin school EM in years, up there with the best of Redshift, Node, and others. Then came the naysayers, quick to say they snagged the disc, and that it was okay but not great by any means. To those people, I just have one thing to say: “Phooey!” Some revel in the chance to be elitist and say something isn’t that good, when it almost inarguably is. I defy a true Berliner to stand up and say to me that this isn’t some of the best classic synthesiser music ever made. The first time I played Premonition I was driving along the Oregon coast on a weekend trip. You know that feeling when the moment and the music sync up perfectly? This was one of those, and I will always remember it. From the opening bells of “Beyond Cerberus” to the wind and choirs, Mellotron flutes and strings, even before the first sequence, I knew this was something special, right up there with Edgar Froese’s Epsilon In Malaysian Pale. When the bass and the sequencing get going near the 4:00 mark, I can tell this is going to be one fantastic ride. The very essence of vintage electronics from Baumann-era Tangerine Dream is distilled into these four deliriously delightful slabs of exemplary space music. By the eerily haunting end of track one, I don’t even care how the remainder of the disc sounds, it’s that good. But thankfully the rest delivers as well. From the light piano and atmospheres of “Tropospheric Propagation” to the chugging energy of “Rainbow Runner” and the almost majestic organ of “Falls The Shadow”, it’s all good. The best CD of 2004, hands down.
2004. Phil Derby / Electroambient Space
This brand new UK EM duo is bound to set the scene on fire with their debut disc. Fans of mid 1970's T. Dream will love the pulsing sequences and dense Mellotron which harkens back beautifully to PHAEDRA and RUBYCON. Composed of four extended excursions, each track is a veritable cornucopia of rhythms, flowing Mellotron backdrops and various space plucks and laser flashes of effectual synthetics.The album is NOT just a TD copy, but uniquely original in its own right.
Rogue Element are a new UK electronic duo comprising Jerome Ramsey (keys) and Brendan Pollard (err, keys). The proud owners of two Mellotrons, it's hardly surprising that they're splattered all over their debut, Premonition, along with a raft of other gear, both analogue and digital, the highlights of which are an ARP Odyssey, a Solina string synth and some modular equipment. Of course, the question to which you all want the answer is... do they sound like Tangerine Dream? Of COURSE they sound like Tangerine Dream, but don't let that put you off; most EM seems to sound like either the Tangs or Klaus Schulze anyway, the chief criteria being "do they do it well?" Well, I can report back to say, "Yes!", they do it excellently, thank you very much.
As for the album's Mellotron use, well, how much more 'Tron could you desire? OK, they resist the temptation to play the things non-stop, but every track features dirty great slabs of the things, not only strings, choir and flutes, but brass (don't know which) and, I'm told, some original Tangs sound effects tapes (r.m.i. own at least one original Tangs frame, too). All in all, a 'Tron-lover's delight, and one of the better electronic albums I've heard in quite some time. Buy.
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Brendan Pollard - Reviews: |
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Here you will find quotes from independent reviews, and links to the original.
Brendan is one half of Rogue Element and what we have here could very well
be a continuation of their first album 'Premonition'. It has all the Berlin School /
analogue excitement of that album but shows a honing of his talent to produce a more
consistently excellent CD. We begin 'Tegula' with subterranean sounds. Little water
droplets drip from high above as electronic twitters shimmer from the speakers. Mellotron
'choir' effects give rather gothic overtones. We then get a section of 'cosmic' winds
which lead to more Mellotron but this time of the flutey variety which take us to the
first brace of sequences, one an awesome bass laden monster and the other a rapid high
register pulse chaser. This is absolutely superb stuff containing elements of a host of TD
albums from 'Rubycon' to 'Force Majeure'.
Not sure how many sequencer lines are going as new series of pulsations seem to shift in
and out of the mix all the time. There are lead lines but these tend to be subtle, like
wisps of steam rising from a lake of lava as it bubbles and boils over. In the thirteenth
minute everything seems to morph and evolve now seeming like a steam train hurtling down
the track into the distance. 'Toxic Blue' initially sounds as if we are by the side of
some fizzing power source- the engine of a spaceship perhaps. The mood then changes and
the images are of a swamp with some lovely moody flute lead lines. This has a most
definite 'Sorcerer' feel to it. Softer, really lush pads herald the next chapter. The tron
is never far away however, making a brief return to take us to a windy moorland. A cello
gives a rather melancholy feel to proceedings.
Every sub section of this track is extremely effective but never left to outstay its
welcome before moving on to the next. The 'next' in this case is represented by the
appearance of a slow brooding sequence. Then another- and another as the excitement starts
to build to ball breaking intensity in the sixteenth minute. The sequences now spewing
forth are of the very best bass laden ground shaking variety. The tron is brought back yet
again providing the lead role as unbelievably the sequences are cranked up yet another
gear.
This is Berlin School heaven. 'Nebulous' is appropriately cosmic, full of sonic twitters,
weird spooky sounds and whooshing effects. Ideal music to portray an alien graveyard in a
sci fi movie.
'Valve' starts off in similar territory but at just over forty seconds in first one
sequence then another surge forward. Both rather rapid stunning examples of their breed
they are too. A wonderful track but at only seven minutes long it just didn't give them
long enough to fully reach their potential. We finish with the very short 'Aquarius', a
lovely little watery gently melodic number that calms us down just in time to steady the
hand so it can press the play button once again! What an amazing album this is. (DL)
The genre of Space music was born out of a hand-full of albums released by a few Berlin based groups in the mid-1970s. Since that time, a great deal of music has been created which owes much to this faction's inspired early work. Of the multitude of albums produced, only a few manage to accurately re-create the mysterious moods and sprawling scale found on the originals. Add to this constellation Expansion (60'55") by Brendan Pollard. This album aspires to something beyond the mere imitation of the classics. Pollard's work is more about rediscovering the spacious minimalism responsible for the enigmatic character of the original than it is the process of moment-by-moment recreation. Along with an arsenal of vintage instruments, key in producing the hallmark sounds of classic cosmic music, is Pollard's sense of pacing, arrangement and scale. He comprehends that everything worthwhile is happening between the notes. Melodic and harmonic content is provided by an abundance of time-honoured Mellotron sounds and synthesiser tones. His lead lines hover wistfully above the throbbing pulse of interlocking, multi-layered sequencer patterns which race ahead then diminish into swirling atonal ether. The compositions are restrained, rendered without any sharp edges, and posses an authenticity of both tone and mood - right down to the yearning of a generation seeking to find its place in the cosmos.
Brendan is part of the Rogue Element duo, and his solo album branches off from their classic TD sound as well. Celestial synthetics and pulsing sequences rise and fall as the cosmic vibes spill out of the speakers. A must for Berlin School fans!
I received the Expansion CD today, and have listened twice to them already. What can I
say, but wow!! This is reliving the 70's all over again, TD resurrected once more. Brendan
delivers the goods right on target and literally blows away all the competition who try
and imitate or do poor copies of TD, like all that rubbish mentioned at the top:
Astrogator et al. RMI and FSP do not even have a look-in as far as this CD is concerned.
You want the real-deal in EM then buy this, it's money well spent and it will be jewel in
your collection for many years to enjoy. So Mr. Pollard hurry up with your next CD, my
cash is waiting. I forgot to mention - Loads of sequences, Mellotrons and more Mellotrons
what more could you possibly want/ask for. 2005. Animal Leader / UK
After listening 3-4 times I can say, that the whole CD is a very good work from Brendan. It is varied. In my opinion the best track is TEGULA, followed by TOXIC BLUE. (On the promo disc THE BEAST SINGS.. is also remarkable). I listened to some other electronic music CDs in the last weeks. But this was the best, definitive! 2005. Helmut Paul / Germany
A few words come to mind when I play this album, Magnificent, exceptional and a real shot in the arm for 70's synthesised music. Well done Brendan,and in fact the promo disc is even better if this is possible. 2005. Gerry Quirke / England
After listening 3-4 times I can say, that the whole CD is a very good work from Brendan. It is varied. In my opinion the best track is TEGULA, followed by TOXIC BLUE. (On the promo disc THE BEAST SINGS.. is also remarkable). I listened to some other electronic music CDs in the last weeks. But this was the best, definitive! 2005. Helmut Paul / Germany
If you like your TD 70's rather than the aural wallpaper they now put out, then buy this album. Basically does exactly what it says on the tin - takes Rogue Element's Premonition and expands it into a far more musically accomplished whole. Worth it for Valve alone (although I would have liked to have seen another 10 minutes on this track) but Tegula and in particular Toxic Blue challenge the listener more and are ultimately more satisfying with the waves of Mellotron sound and well crafted sequencer developments reminiscent of Phaedra and Rubycon. If you only buy one EM CD in the next 12 months then make it this one. 2005. Martin Dimmock / UK
A few words come to mind when I play this album, Magnificent, exceptional and a real shot in the arm for 70's synthesised music. Well done Brendan,and in fact the promo disc is even better if this is possible. 2005. Gerry Quirke / England
Bert Strolenberg: Brendan Pollard - Expansion. 4.5 Stars.
The CD Expansion is the debut from Brendan Pollard, who is one half of the vintage synthesiser band, Rogue Element. Last year Rogue Element released the much acclaimed album 'Premonition', and they use the original Tangerine Dream sound effects frame dating from 1975, which has now been applied in a further improved manner. I even dare say things have become even better as the impressive music on "Expansion" proves that Brendan is a "1-man Rogue Element". The new album is massively loaded with classic TD sounds from the mid seventies ranging from pulsating sequencer tapestries and mesmerising effects to haunting vintage textures. For example there's a chilling group of male choir mellotron sounds featured on the second track 'Toxic Blue", which is the absolute highlight of the album. While listening to this grand music you sense Brendan is going all the way, mirroring the energetic sequencing of TD's ricochet in the second part of the track.
There's so much beauty and depth to be found in all five tracks that words to describe them wouldn't do it justice. The album comes to an end with the the tranquil textures of the shortest track "Aquarius". By all means, this is a top-notch album for anybody that enjoys great music of the retro Berliner School. Highly recommended!
Bert Strolenberg.
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