November 20, 2010

Feeding the starving: the "Magic" never realised demo of the Thirds (1989)...


Just after the second Italian tour (documented with the wonderful "New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanac" live recording), from March to May 1989, TEB (Sweeney - hand drums; Carter - electric guitars & effects; Dobson - soprano sax & flutes; Smith - violin), came into Alchemical Studios to record a new album announced as "Magic". A demo tape of that sessions was recorded in few takes.

TEB in Bergamo,  January 1989.

On next July, when the band come to Italy for a concert in Vinci (read at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/02/third-ear-band-last-photo-session-vinci.html), due to her job as a teacher in the school, Smith was replaced by Allen Samuel.
Anyway, the new line-up never went into a studio and the original "Magic" demo was shelved and never realised (infact the album, published later as "Magic Music" by Materiali Sonori, was recorded by the new TEB line-up with Neil Black, some new different titles and a bonus live track). 

The original tape written by Glen Sweeney.
Actually this rare studio recording, just circulated in the TEB entourage as a demo  tape (Glen gave me a copy of it just to listen to...), is an incredible document of the potential power of (original 3/4) TEB 19 years later, as a semi-acoustic group.
Listen to these rough incredible tracks being indulgent about technical quality and try to imagine which kind of music this fabulous line-up could play!

"Magic" demo tape
1. "Reading the runes" (7:.09)
2. "Exorcism" (8:51)
3. "Behind the pyramids" (7:42)
4. "New Age Raga" (12:06)
5. "Witches Dance" (7:15)

note:
1. same title on "Magic Music", just longer (on the album is 5:48)
2. titled "Necromancy"(8:52) on "Magic Music"
3. same title on "Magic Music", but shorter (7:16)
4. titled "Sun Ra Raga" (12:01) on "Magic Music"
5. titled "Solstice Song" (7:03) on "Magic Music"


no©2010 Luca Ferrari
Edited by Luca Chino Ferrari

7 comments:

  1. MircoNovember 20, 2010 at 11:42 AM

    Questo è il demo che Ugo Baci aveva recensito in anteprima su Rockerilla...inutile dire che mi piacerebbe molto ascoltarlo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luca Chino FerrariNovember 20, 2010 at 12:37 PM

    Scrivimi sulla mail personale e ti invierò il link.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sean PloughmythNovember 22, 2010 at 12:34 PM

    Oh God this is just too much...

    ReplyDelete
  4. SedayneNovember 22, 2010 at 12:36 PM

    Or even...

    Oh my God - this really is too much! Many thanks for this Luca...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Luca Chino FerrariNovember 22, 2010 at 2:52 PM

    Soon I'll be able to edit some other few rare '90's tracks and a 40-minutes of rehearsals recorded at the Cambodian Embassy of London in August 1987 (Glen, Paul, Carter, Allen), just before the first Italian tour...
    But the cave is going to exthinguish...!

    ReplyDelete
  6. SedayneNovember 24, 2010 at 4:38 PM

    From what I've heard of the Cambodian Embassy tracks (the 2 tracks on Voiceprint's so-called "Radio Sessions" CD - a Glen joke perhaps? - and Necromancy on the Live Ghosts CD edition) I'd say they have a crucial place in the Third Ear canon.

    My dream is that I might listen to these on Christmas Day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Luca Chino FerrariNovember 24, 2010 at 6:37 PM

    Yes, I'll post them on Christmas Day, be sure!

    ReplyDelete

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