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Party In Lyceum's Toilets

(AWAKEN)

01. ONE CARESS (M.Gore)
02. EESOM (B.Potts)
03. SEND MY BODY HOME (D.Annegarn)
04a ONE THING (N.Young)
    b BEST KEPT LIES (S.Prestwitch)

05. L.A. IS MY LADY (Q.Jones/P.Jones/A.Bergmann/M.Bergmann)
06. RUN OUT OF TIME (T.Banks/M.Rutherford)
07a YOU'RE REALLY OUT OF LINE (J.Robinson/D.Wolinsky)
    b GOLDEN AGE DREAMS (M.Stein/C.Appice/D.Hitchkings/R.Bishop)
    c I'M GONNA LOVE YOU (P.Criss/S.Penridge)
    d HEART OF ME (Cerrone/L.Lovitch/Gaubert)

08. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS (J.Hetfield/L.Ulrich)
09a CHRYSALIDE (P.Juvet)
    b OPEN THE KINGDOM (P.Glass/D.Byrne)
    c THE DANCE (J.Williams)
10. SWEET THING (D.Bowie)

A DARK DREAM OPERA IN TWELVE ACTS :

act one: ice cream neon girls on a psychotic supermarket
11a KOYAANISQATSI (P.Glass) 
    b SHANDI (P.Stanley/V.Poncia) 
    c THIS IS LOVE (T.Banks) 

act two: sleepless depression on a vinyl room
12. Interlude: CLOUDS & RAIN (I.Gillan/R.Glover) 

act three: drifting on a sea of broken glass
13. IN SEARCH FOR ENGLAND (W.Wolstenholme) 

act four: windy dance on a field of sand
14a TYGER (E.Froese/P.Hasslinger/C.Franke/W.Blake)
    b EVERYBODY (M.Jackson/T.Jackson/M.McKiney)
15a SWEET DREAM MACHINE (H.Beatty/B.Holland/E.Holland)
    b COME INTO MY LIFE (B.Holland/E.Holland/R.Davis)
    c LOVE I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD FEEL SO GOOD (F.Stafford/R.Brown/R.Davis/B.Holland)
16. SOMETHING I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN (CT.White/M.Fisher) 

act five: terror on the street of flying smiles
17. TAKING IT BACK (S.Porcaro) 

act six: open-air muzak behind a locked window
18. JAZZY (R.Lhoest) 

act seven: blind walk on the forests of no-future
19. YOUNG GIRLS (R.Mael/R.Mael) 

act eight: explosive visions on moving mountains
20. (THEME) ONCE UPON A TIME (D.Summer/G.Moroder/P.Bellotte) 

act nine: an urban dream within a dream
21. ONLY THE FOOL SURVIVES (D.Summer/B.Sudano/M.Omartian/V.Weber/J.Bettis/H.Faltermeyer) 

act ten: a dark hall full of cold fruit
22a HEARTS TO HEART (M.White/B.Taylor/A.Lawrence) 
    b MOONWALK (D.O'Connor/D.Porter) 

act eleven: ghostly melancholy on dead wood
23. HERE TODAY (P.McCartney) 

act twelve: total darkness
24. THE CANDIDATE (A.Stewart)
25. UNTIL... (B.Gibb/R.Gibb/M.Gibb)

MOFO

From a new-beat fan from Canada:
Even though I wasn't quite sure what to expect at first, it was still different from what I was expecting (!)....if that makes any sense.... but it was definitely interesting. I think that "progressive electronic pop" might be a better description for it than "progressive new-beat", though. There's a few things of which it reminded me -- there's a bit of similarity to Robert Wyatt (especially in the vocal style) for one, and in places it also reminded me of The Buggles and the french synthpop band Telex (around the time of their 1981 "Sex" album, specifically). These are just very loose comparisons, but there you go anyway....
My favorite track was definitely the "Last Days Of The Century" song (#3). I think this more "rock" approach nicely balances out the other elements in the music, and is something you should think about doing more....it sounds good! Out of the more instumental dance/electronic cuts, the ones I liked best were "Sleep Position #68", "Doom Entry" and "Welcome To House X".

From John MacMaster (megalon75@hotmail.com)

North Carolina, USA:
I've listened to this a bunch of times since then and think it's AWESOME!!! A whole lot of music styles put together rather uniquely. I'm gonna hang on to this baby so when Awaken becomes big international stars, I can say "hey, I know them!" :-)
(...) I've really gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this!
(...) it's got some pretty ahh.. _unique_ sounds to it. The more and more I listen the more qualities of it I'm picking out. A friend listened to it and he thought it rocked, too!!

From Chris Knight

England:
I'm enjoying listeing to something a little different from my usual music...

From Charlie Hulme (author of Page 27)

Hi- I really like your CD- Please keep on movin-'

Dedication from Glenn Hughes, co-writer of "This Time Around".

I'm afraid that will not help...

Words from Al Stewart, co-writer of "Last Days Of The Century", when he was asked to show the cd on a picture. See the LAST DAYS OF THE CENTURY JAM special page.

Illinois, USA:
I'm glad to see the local-level European music scene is not as dull as the US is. Just about everything that aspires to achieve here sounds like some Pearl Jam wannabe (or some retro-blue-based hack-fest). . . and everyone has forgotten how to integrate instruments. It's all guitar, with keys and bass as backup. Keyboards have become too closely associated with dance music and few seem to have the wherewithal to write truly engaging, multi-voiced music. Hang all egotistical guitarists!

From Terry L. Skaggs, Jr

South Korea:
I'm listening to your CD now; Nothing could Be Good. Vocal is similar to Robin Gibb + Al Stewart in "Time Passages".
From Park Duk-Hyeon.

New Jersey, USA:
I gave it a quick listen the other day, and, while it doesn't seem to be my cup of tea as far as musical style - I'm more of a fan of straight-ahead melodic rock - I did find it to be very interesting. I particularly liked all the cool and unique keyboard work throughout, and a lot of the arrangements were quite progressive. As far as the cover of "This Time Around," that's got to be one of strangest DP covers I've ever heard! It starts off in a relatively standard way, true to the original, but it's pretty wild when it goes right into "Blind" and then into the keyboard-driven "Owed To G." Pretty cool stuff!

From Damien DeSimone

Sweden:
I've been listening to it and I definitely like it. although I must confess that I usually don't listen to synthesized music, but I really enjoyed your cd. As for the music, I particularly liked *Sleep position no 68*, *Doom entry*, *Welcome to the house-x/nostalgic boom*, *A simple love* and *Zlurp*. I must say, you have a great sense for arranging music. and I like P'tit bout's singing, especially on the tracks *Requiem for a golden destiny* and *Memories of a teenage cat* (superb track... and title!). As for the dp-cover, again you have a great sense for arranging. I like the way *Blind* is kinda stuck in the middle of it all. Also, let me commend you for your imaginative titles.

From Jouni F. Maho

Belgium:
Imaginez l'équivalent sonore d'un Plan Nine From Outer Space ou d'un Zombie 90, le passage au ralenti de toutes les séquences de La Roue De La Fortune, un concert d'Hélène à 180 db... Cet amas informe de compositions miéleuses, de rythmes hoquetants et de chant approximatif ravira les spécialistes. Indispensable.

From a magazine called Noyade Mécanique, 1994. The journalist talked about AWAKEN's second demo tape, Phase 2: Scrappy....

Incalculables & inclassables, les belges nous gratifient d'un album électro-pop inattendalbe tout droit sorti du congélateur. Si vous voulez tester vos limites de tolérances, sûrement que cet album vous aidera à situer la barre tant il est pas évident. Plus d'infos à venir, mais pour du tout de suite : http://www.ping.be/~ping9712/awaken.html

From Kult Magazine (On Line) at: http://www.mygale.org/05/kultmag/us.htm

AWAKEN est un très très bon groupe. Leur musique est d'un nouveau genre très prometteur, vachement hard, qui est entre le mélodieux et l'électronique. Je recommande d'acheter le cd chez Gilles Snowcat, vous trouverez son adresse e-mail sur la Décharge. Ils ont déjà plusieurs concerts à leur actif, avec des sons nouveaux, comme par exemple tchouc-tchouc-tchac. Je n'ai jamais vu l'ensemble du groupe, mais je connais très très bien Gilles, qui est vachement cool et qui apparemment dans son nom aime bien les chats et la neige.

From mort184@yahoo.fr

Je ne vais pas reprendre titre par titre car vous risquez de vous faire chier comme un rat mort ; je vais plutôt donner un avis global.

Un point positif pour commencer (et pour vous ménager) : le chant... de P'tit Bout, bien ajusté avec un chouette timbre, bon anglais. Bref, j'aime. Dommage qu'elle ne soit plus là... Quant au chaton, bin, heu... bof, bof... C'est pas qu'il chante faux, mais sa voix manque singulièrement de précision et est rarement bien posée. Même s'il s'en sort plutôt bien sur "Last Days of the Century", c'est une catastrophe sur "Rescue", "Blurping..." et "The Tale...". [...]

Les compos : Il y a ça et là de bonnes choses ("Sleep Position n° 68", "Numbness...", etc...) mais ça manque un peu de développement, à l'image de "Requiem..." qui s'arrête au moment où l'on pense que cela va décoller. Tout n'est pas génial cependant, loin de là, mais je me suis surpris à parfois murmurer "Pas mal, ce passage...". Mais ce n'est que trop anecdotique, car les compos dans leur entièreté arrivent rarement à capter l'attention, n'ayant pas fil conducteur. D'autres par contre sont carrément nulles à chier, comme "Blurping the Blurp" !

L'instrumentation : Bon je ne vais pas aller par 4 chemins, c'est une catastrophe !!! Batterie électronique crispante, claviers Bontempi, guitare et basse trop anecdotiques. Je comprends maintenant ce que veut dire "Electro-blurp" ! Tout cela sonne beaucoup trop artificiel, sans aucune chaleur. C'est dommage car cela nuit complètement aux rares bonnes parties que j'évoquais ci-dessus.

[...]

Jean-Marc Roussel, journaliste à Prog-Résiste

(...) J'ai écouté les reprises de Captain Beyond et de Deep Purple et je les trouve... géniales! Je dois avouer que la reprise de "This Time Around" est particulièrement bluffante: quelle grande idée de confier cette chanson à une voix féminine! Merci pour cette belle musique!

Jean-François

RIF-RAF

From Kris "M.Erciless" (Belgium):

Sometimes we ask ourselves: what goes on in the underbelly of our major cities. Kids playing their asses off, whether on keyboards, others try to be the next best thing on the charts. Some try to be the guitar hero of the new millennium. Awaken cannot be defined as a band who is trying to make it. They make their music like they think it should be. Whether you like it or not. Now they released their new baby. And we don't know what to do with it. The double cd-set contains more tracks than an average 10cd box with 60's classics. To find one's way in this offer of tunes and (almost) soundscapes, it takes a while. I'll try to pick some of the most remarkable song and give some comments.

CD One
The CD starts of with a keyboard promising the new Genesis (or Tony Banks) music.
But suddenly some weird guitar-riff disturbs the dream. A voice from under the counter comes in and brings us a most horrid melody. The guitar continues in a subtle progressive mood, but the singer kind of misses the raw power to fulfil his duties.
'Cold as my Heart' sounds pretty promising, but a techno-like voice brings the listener out of balance. This is a very funny song, because of the rhythms and the double-voiced chorus. Also nice guitar-work.
'Carla's Dream' is the fore bringer of more things to come. Awakens nucleus, a most mysterious guy calling himself Snowcat, sings this song in a duet with their 'main' singer Lionel. They sing out of tune, which is a sad thing because besides the vocal part, this is a very original song. Again very nice guitar work.
'Neons of Lyceum's toilets' is SO f*ng weird you have to listen to it yourself. It kicks of with a 70's organ-sound (oh no, is this Heep's July Morning? No it isn't) It reminds me of some obscure Alice Cooper song or a lost part of Genesis' 'Lamb…' Very progressive, even the sequencing sounds nice. Some ELP influences. This is real Underground, màààn. Very cool.
'Down the Drain'; finally: a female voice. And IN TUNE!! Cool melody, interesting, one of my favourites.
'Dead in a Subway'; a sneaky guitar introduces us to a 'spoken word', very theatrical song. The Lionel-voice needs some booze here. Spooky.
'Spleen Fourteen' brings some rest in this adventurous cd. Nice.
'Lycee Nase': besides the fact I don't like rap and/of hip-hop music (which is really an understatement), I think this skills are very well placed in the music as a whole. After all, this is a Brussels-based band, and this is where subcultures (no disrespect) meet.
'Britney and Barry': this is horrible; skip it.
Then we come to the Magnum Opus (is it?) of the CD.
'Four Dreams Suite' is a 30' collage with several (18) instrumental and sung parts. The well-educated listener recognizes all the influences that make Awaken what it is today. Seventies progrock and 80's electro pop. (...) 'FDS' is the proof of it. Some nice soundtrack-stuff here, but I wonder: who is able to listen the whole track trough without chemicals or alcohol, deserves a medal for self-sacrifice.

CD Two

This cd contains cover-material from, well, you name it, and it's there.
'One Caress' is quite well sung and with a minimal keyboard, is also a highlight.
Philadelphia and L.A.-based music is common knowledge to most listeners. But, a serious gamble to bring this music as Awaken does it. Of course, these rhythms are very tempting.
'Eesom' sounds like a French movie-tune from the early seventies. Interesting!!
Song no. 3: Gilles: Shut the fuck up!!
'One thing' and 'Best kept Lies': very nice sounding songs, even I don't know the originals.
'L.A. is my lady': is this Love Boat Cruise music? Yes it is. Gilles tries to sing in tune, and…
sometimes he manages.
At last: a Genesis-song. And even the female voice is drunk (or high).
'Nothing Else Matters': hope James never hears this or he'll rip your head off.
The song called ''A Dark dream Opera In Twelve Acts' is really side 4 of this cd if it was to be a vinyl product. (Imagine the complexity of this thing).
Again a million or so well or less-known songs are presented is a most personal way.
Highlights: Kiss' Shandi. (good vocals on this one Lionel!!)
They play a part of the Clouds and Rain album, a dreadful album by Gillan/Glover. And they chose the most awful song….
'Sweet Dream Machine' is sung by Julie. And quite a job she does. Very well!
Also 'Only the fool survives' Here we hear the difference: Julie sings, Lionel is strangling himself.
'The Candidate': Al Stewart knows the art of singing very subtle and very English.　His voice and melody bending is so difficult, and even more difficult for French-speaking people.
The result shows. Well tried, Gilles

Well, what is next?
I think everybody should buy this cd because:
1: Once it will be a collector's item
2: It shows (again) that success is not obvious
3: It is much cheaper than 10 grs of marihuana, and has the same effect
4: These people put such an amount of energy in it, they deserve it.
5: Jim Morrison is probably dead.

M. Erciless.
Cheers.

From Dick Annegarn (France / Holland), writer of "Send My Body Home":

Ca ne me plait pas.

From Mort184 (Belgium):

AWAKEN est le meilleur groupe des années huitante-vingt. C'est le groupe le plus endormi que je connaisse, à rêver tout le temps (dream over????) de vendre plus de 500 albums dans la même journée. Tout ça c'était pour vous dire que c'était qu'une connerie. Non en fait AWAKEN c'est mon groupe préféré après AC/DC, Iron Maiden ,Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deep Purple, c'est vraiment pour vous dire que c'est un bon groupe dont le niveau dépasse facilement les sousbroucccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkksssssssssssssssssssssss. Le premier cd du deuxième album est très... nouveau! Par de là se conception et l'organisation de la musique.

Vous trouverez des morceaux très très intéressants qui vous permetteront d'élargir vos horizons verticals. Avec des morceaux tels que "Cold as my heart", "Carla's dream" et "Neons of lyceum's toilets". Je vous déconseille le rap "Lycée nase" et vous indique d'écouter la meilleure chanson du monde "Britney & Barry" qui est vraiment au-delà de toute mesure de la conception du rire des meilleurs humoristes d'au-delà des frontières de l'humour intersidéral.

ET en moins de temps que vous pourrez dire "oh putain de merde qu'est-ce que c'était bien" vous aurez cette petite petite petite chanson en tête: "Carla's dream" qui résonnera résonnera résonnera résonnera et vous rendra fous d'Awaken, le groupe le meilleur, celui que tout le monde préfère, Il .

Par contre, "Neons of lyceum's toilets" vous motivera, vous élancera, vous réveillera, pour aller frapper des Parisiens.

"I'll disagree" vous remettra d'aplomb après une journée éreintante de travail.

"Dead in a subway" vous foutra le plus gros cafard du monde que vous n'avez jamais vu même dans le restaurant Italien où vous allez le dimanche manger une pizza avec votre belle-mère.

Pour le deuxième cd du deuxième album il vous relaxera tout en vous donnant envie de vomir et de baiser en même temps, après un bon shoot dans un aquarium.

Ecoutez d'abord le 2ème cd du 2ème album avant d'écouter le 1er cd du premier album.

Marie-Aline si tu lis ça tu as acheté le cd? TU DOIS!!!! Sinon Snowcat a promis de se jeter dans le Canal du Centre. Réponds-moi vite à mort184@yahoo.fr

Pour les conclusions, si vous préféreriez acheter un album des Sousbrrrrrroooouuuuccccccckkkkss au lieu de celui du magnifiquement grandissime Awaken c'est que vous devez être :

1- complètement con

2-complètement débile

3-en manque de drogue

4-complètement Parisien (ce qui résume à peu près le point 1 et le point 2)

5-fou

6-n'avoir aucun goût musical (ce qui équivaut au point 4)

7-en manque d'argent (vous devez vraiment être dans la dèche parce que c'est presque gratos)

Voilà mes conclusions.

Allez vous faire shampouiner.

Suite au prochain épisode.

Celui qui n'a pas peur de la mort,

mort184@yahoo.fr

From Rainer (Germany):

The music on the discs is honestly weird, but especially I like the two KISS cover tunes "I'm gonna love you" and "Shandi". Awesome for a Kiss fan like me.

From Jelle -Kiss Related Recordings- (Holland):

Played both discs all in once.... What can I say ... it's different. in one way it's relaxed music, meaning that I came home after a tough day of work really tired .... Playing the disc made me dream a bit ....So the bandname is good anyway ...

From Bart (Holland):

I only like one song, Four Dreams Suite! What a trip! Around 7:55, the soloing is so brilliant. The rest of the CD doesn't excite me that much, and the covers CD is crap to me. :-( But Four Drzams Suite, it's so psychedelic, I love it!!!!