Marc Berger
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Great Introduction
This 2 cd set spans the "classic" era of Paul Roland's discography. It covers the basic "near hits" (as sadly none of his material has charted in my recollection) beginning with the gothic masterpiece of "blades of battenburg" to key album choice cuts from what should have been his breathrough LP Danse Macabre in the late 1980's. This is a well put together overview, and knowing how difficult it is to find his material, this serves not only as a reminder of his talent for those in the "know", it also is the best place to start for the beginner fan.
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Rasmus Wittsell
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Essential compilation of Roland's enigmatic music.
Gaslight Tales is an excellent compilation of Paul Roland's musical wizardry. The first half of his production was vinyl only and almost everything is out of production anyway, so for any late-comer, like me, this is a rare opportunity. The selections were picked from all of the artist's production from 1980 up to 1995 when he took a seven year time-out from the music. If this is your taste in music, you will find Gaslight Tales to be a very solid album. These are all the original recordings, though some have been carefully touched up by very subtle additions to the tracks. This is music that really grows on you; generally it's both very melodic and very poetic. It's difficult to find any bad selections here, though I personally feel that the album Duel could have been better represented. My personal favourites (currently), listed in the order they appear on the album are: Blades of Battenburg, Dr Strange, Captain Blood, Death or Glory, Burnt Orchids, Gabrielle, Witchfinder General, In the Opium Den, Wyndham Hill, Walter the Occultist, Cousin Emilia, Nosferatu, The Crimes of Dr Cream, Pharaoh, Candy Says and Aleistair Crowley.
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