666 (Aphrodite's Child)
This album is among the most superb prog records of all time. It was a strange move for Aphrodite?s Child, since all of their previous releases had been straight forward 60s pop with romantic lyrics. They had huge success in Europe in the late 60s, and it laid the foundation for both Vangelis and Demis Roussos solo careers. At the time of working on this album, the relationship between the band members had completely fallen apart, so Vangelis took the task of composing and producing the album himself, only getting the rest of the band in when he needed their services. Frustrated after prostituting himself for several years doing commercial pop music, Vangelis went for a full scale double album, based on a concept by Costas Ferris, who also wrote a concept book and all the lyrics, based on Saint John?s Revelation.
The concept is firmly rooted in the 60s, and it?s about a circus troupe performing a show based on the Acopalypse, while the real Apocalypse his happening outside. The record company was shocked when they heard the album, and Vangelis had to fight for two years before they agreed to release it, and only after he had done serious editing on the track ?[Infinty Symbol]?. The album was outlawed in several catholic countires, but it was well recieved critically, and the album is very often on lists of best prog albums of all time, both in magazines and among other artists. Oh btw, Enigma sampled half their debut album from this record.
The Good
The playfulness of this album is amazing. The music is a combination of progressive rock, jazz, psychedelia, pop and even traditional Greek music. With track lengths varying from 10 seconds to 19 minutes, you would think the album is disjointed. Nothing could be further from the truth. From the opener ?The system,? where the lyrics literally tells us that we got the system to fuck the system, we jump straight in to the tour de force rock track ?Babylon,? where Roussos? voice soars over the powerful backing track. From there on it?s a journey through a wonderful tune that will stick in your head for days (?the Four Horsemen?), ambient soundscapes (?Aegian Sea?), instrumental jams (?the Battle of the Locust?) and wild jazzy moments (?Tribulation?). And that?s only the first CD!
The two major moments on CD2 are a track which takes its title from the mathematical symbol for infinity and ?All the Seats Were Occupied.? The first one is a track where the Greek actress Irene Papas fakes an orgasm for five minutes (the unedited version was 39 minutes!), while Vangelis walks around the room banging a drum. It?s a track that?s interesting, to say the least, and it?s not the kind of track you would bother your neighbours with. The latter is 19 minutes with rock, latino, Indian music and loads of guitar and percussion, spiced up with the occasional outburst of horns and saxophones. It?s a full on jam session, but what really makes the track is that it quotes sections from the entire album, and it all portrays the vision of the end of the world beautifully. It ends in a cacophony of an explosion, and the album ends on a calm note, which comes as a relief at this point, with the track ?Break.?
The bad
This is among my favourite albums of all time, so there?s not really anything bad to say about it musically. The music has not dated in style, in fact, it sounds more relevant these days than ever, but the sound quality is bad at times. This is probably due to bad cd mastering. The album comes on two CDs, and that is unnecessary since the album doesn?t last more than 73 minutes. A remaster would be most welcome, but until then, get this album and devour it.
You can trace Pink Floyd's "The Wall" double concept album to a great number of influences, just as you could "Dark Side Of The Moon". Alongside the usual suspects, such as Genesis's "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", Aphrodite's Child's "666" (1971) is a rarely recognised ur-text which undoubtedly had a hand in the conception of both Floyd's and Genesis's work. Roger Waters's idea of an audience at a rock concert being bombed to bits and loving it is an echo of "666", in which the apocalypse is played out on a rock stage before a stadium of screaming, applauding fans. There's a message buried in there somewhere, something to do with the power of spectacle, but this is also pure entertainment: in ride the four horsemen to a blistering psychedelic guitar solo, soft ambient washes herald the lamb of god. The more terrible the events, the more sumptuous the music. You can also draw an irreverent parallel with Douglas Adams's diners at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe feasting merrily while creation explodes around them.
Should you take any of it seriously? In the hands of any number of heavy metal bands, the idea of putting the Book of Revelation to music would be a good excuse for a lot of cod-demonic imagery, devil-signs and daft lyrics about the number of the beast. Aphrodite's Child are doing something far more sophisticated here. This isn't so much a Christian tract as a commentary on the death of the counterculture -- one of the final acts in the show is called "Altamont", reference to another apocalypse-as-spectacle, but also to the end of a dream. "666" is not just the end of all dreams, but the end of all possibilities. The lyrics take on a J G Ballard sense of apocalypse by degeneration: "The day the cars will lay in heaps/their wheels turning in vain." Throughout, there's not the feeling of empty-headed satanic celebration, but of wistful regret. You don't have to believe any of the Christian imagery to be moved by the idea of hopelessness, the knowledge that all you did and all you said and all you put your trust in counts for nothing. As a full stop on the psychedelic dream, this is as potent a statement as Roger Waters's "The Wall" was a full stop on the rock star dream.
For all that, don't think this is all one grinding dirge. The album spits and rants and explodes with some of the finest heavy drumming and guitar playing of its age, but there are also long passages of majestic proto-world music, funky raves, heart breaking ballads, and some very strange experimental sequences. If you only know of Demis Roussos from his atrocious late-1970s AOR fodder, his operatic voice in several of these tracks will astonish you -- it works perfectly even in the heaviest of settings, as demonstrated by the fake-live opener "Babylon" and the album's masterpiece "The Four Horsemen". His isn't the only voice, however, and the constant changes in instrumentation and vocalist and style keep up interest throughout, even during the last side's 20-minute reprise "All The Seats Were Occupied", its title a final sarcastic comment on the spectacle. It's baffling why this album isn't mentioned in the same hushed tones as "The Wall" or "The Lamb". I guarantee, it'll be the most rewarding thing you'll buy this year.
Around 1972, a friend came back from a holiday in Italy with tales of the popularity of this singer, Demis Roussos, who apparently had black hair down to his ass and performed in a floor length black cloak. Sounded cool, so next time I was at Opus 69 (the only record store in E-town that sold imports), I asked about it. The guy had a demo copy of a double album behind the counter with this singer on it. "Aphrodite's Child - 666". I gave a few tracks a listen and couldn't believe my ears. I pleaded and begged and though he wanted it for the store, he let me buy it. Holy shit... it changed my idea of what music could be. It was the Gothic Rock Art Holy Grail that Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator w
ere trying to attain and all fell short of. I tell you, this thing rocked my world. Sad to say it's a bit dated these days, but that isn't to say someone couldn't take the non-dated 90% and redo it with modern instrumentation.
Vangelis was the mastermind behind this masterpiece and he's been hard pressed to write anything as good since. ("Earth" comes close, but nothing else is even in the ballpark. Trust me, I kept buying and hoping for two damn decades.)
Where do I start trying to talk about this thing? "The Wedding of the Lamb", "The Four Horsemen", "Altamont", the Infinity track... it just doesn't stop. Iconic greatness in every note. And then... holy shit... he ends it up with the greatest rock art orchestral track of all time: "All the Seats Were Occupied". The thing was so much larger than my little 15 year old brain I think I grew an extra lobe just to take it all in.
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