ANTHONY PHILLIPS - Slow Dance (2CD/DVD)

    • Official Post

    Hi everybody


    We have another review online. This time it's the 2CD/DVD Expanded Deluxe Edition of Anthony Phillips album Slow Dance.


    Enjoy reading and comments or alternate opinions are welcome!


    https://www.genesis-news.com/c…e-2CDDVD-review-s718.html


  • Amazing remaster and 5.1 mix. Wonderful music and wish he produced something as good - nothing as such since 1990. If you haven't heard this in 5.1 try to do so.

  • That's an interesting review. Some small points I'd mention:


    Throughout the review reference is made to Lenta Chorus - the title is actually Lenta Chorum. Keen students of Latin will spot the reference.


    Most of the album was actually recorded with a click track.


    The Burnt Out Cattle Truck Hits The Road is not a Slow Dance out-take - it was recorded almost two years after the album was completed.

    • Official Post

    Thanks Jon. I have passed that on to the reviewer. He was one of the guys who payed music by Ant back in 2014 during the Anthony Phillips Event in Germany

    • Official Post

    Most of the album was actually recorded with a click track.

    interesting, Ant himself told the reviewer back in 2014 during our event that he didn't use click tracks on that one....

  • I highly recommend one of Ant's strongest albums, Slow Dance - which Esoteric reissued a couple of years ago, so should be easy to find. I'm an Ant Phillips collector, so happy to answer any questions or provide insight if needed! :)

  • The Burnt Out Cattle Truck Hits The Road is not a Slow Dance out-take - it was recorded almost two years after the album was completed.

    About 1998 I wrote a review of Ant's Archive Collection Vol. 1 for the printed predecessor of this website (https://www.genesis-news.com/c…No-1-2CD-review-s201.html). I alleged there that Cattle Truck derived from Slow Dance sessions. As I was told, it was that review that our recent Slow Dance reviewer Tom referred to now when conveying the aforementioned allegation.


    Was I very wrong? In my review 20 years ago I had referred to the booklet of the original issue. It said:

    The Burnt-out Cattle Truck Hits the Road (1990)

    [...]

    A variation on a theme that we discovered on the same tape as the Slow Dance single demo.

  • Although The Burnt Out Cattle Truck was indeed found on the same tape as the Slow Dance single demo, and logically it may sound from the information in the booklet for Archive Collection as if both tracks were from the same time, the dates of recording are actually at least six months apart.


    Slow Dance as an album was completed by the end of March 1989. After Ant signed the deal with Virgin Records in the spring of 1990, he returned to the idea of having a single based on themes from the album and recorded the Slow Dance single demo in the late spring or early summer of 1990 - just over a year after the album itself had been completed.


    With access to all of the original tapes and the accompanying documentation - which was not possible at the time Archive Collection was compiled - we now know that The Burnt Out Cattle Truck Hits The Road was actually recorded in January 1991.


    Too complicated? Now you have an idea of what I have to work out when putting the extra tracks together for Ant's re-issues :)

  • We can only assume how complicated that is. There must be tons of tapes and stuff. Even in case everything is marked properly, it's still quite a job to see things through, I am sure.


    Thanks for this insight!


    Actually, I find Slow Dance a little boring, it could have been done with more ambition. I think I read somewhere that Ant wanted to rerecord it with a full orchestra? Any news about this plan?

  • Press 'Play' and listen, for instance ;). This time, do it (I quote you) 'with more ambition': Try and discover recurring themes; find the motif in 5/8 above an ordinary basic rhythm; listen carefully and discern electronic and 'real' instruments ... Enjoy!