Revealing and well-done. The new Iron Maiden documentary Burning Ambition tells the tale of heavy metal giants Iron Maiden. Wonderful live clips from a 50-year career, new interview comments from all living band members, including both former vocalists, and of course numerous fans - famous and unknown. Perhaps most surprisingly the great Chuck D from Public Enemy, and, among others, Kiss icon Gene Simmons. Mostly we get views from everyday hardcore Iron Maiden fans. And if anything, it’s the relation to their fanbase that is at the center of Iron Maiden’s greatness. This is a cool and warm and interesting rock documentary, with wonderful live clips, a lot of them, but no full songs, not even as extras.
Informal AC/DC 4 CD box set The Broadcast Collection 1981-1996 includes two concerts from 1981 (on three CD:s) and one from 1996. The cover picture, however, shows the Bon Scott-era band, but all concerts are with Brian Johnson on vocals. Not a reassuring start.
The recordings, however, are fine. CD one live from Tokyo 1981 is good, and CD 2-3, from Melbourne, also 1981, is particularly good. Really, a stunning concert from prime time AC/DC, just after the blockbuster album Back In Black was released, the first album with Brian Johnson, after the tragic death of Bon Scott. Perhaps the very best album with AC/DC.
Last CD in this box set is live from River Plate, Argentina, 1996. We don’t get full concerts here, unfortunately, but 10-14 songs each. It is also somewhat annoying for live discs that the sound is faded down between songs instead of opting for a continuos and electrifying live feed. But that said, what we get is very fine recordings of a great band at their prime, spectacular even, at times. With a price slightly over 20 euro, the price/quality relation is really very good. For that price it is even ok that no booklet is included. Would have been nice, though, but the riffs do the talking here. Great.
Legendary synth pioneers Kraftwerk released fabulous 8 CD-box The Catalogue (English version) and Der Katalog (German version) in 2009. I bought both of them then. Yesterday I bought a second German version of the box from Black & White, some 16 years later. The price was just right and every home should have that box set. Kraftwerk is a must, if you are into music. Perhaps the most inventive band in history, in their prime. The German (original) versions are also superior to the English, in my opinion. Only minimalist masterpiece The Model is, perhaps, better in English, but then the German version includes a special twist that the English version lacks, and is therefore definitely worth having too. As a whole, this box set consisting of Kraftwerk’s eight main albums (including The Mix, which is as close as you get to an official best of) is just astonishing. The booklets are beautiful, in 12” LP-size, and the albums well remastered. The first three Kraftwerk albums are missing, though, as Kraftwerk prefer a narrative starting with Autobahn. And you can argue that these eight albums are the mature Kraftwerk productions, while the three earlier are not on par, not systematically designed album-wide ideas, but rather more experimental and rootsier, krautrock/electronic music, with both synths and analogue instruments present. They are fine and interesting albums too, but somewhat of a different type - and time. So, here we have the real Kraftwerk deal, the concept- and album-driven, visionary -both sonically and visually - electronic group. Some 50 years later, and these are still innovative recordings. At best, 1977-1981, nothing short of Genius.
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