Here's something I haven't come across very often
so far - a double album. And in a nice box too. Just like a mid seventies prog
concept album in fact. And like a lot of those seventies prog acts, it seems ambition had taken over and the time had come where James felt he couldn't say all he wanted to
say on a single disc. I suppose when an album is based around an 'East Meets
West' concept then he could potentially have spread it out over a ten disc set
and still not scratched the surface. Saying that, the 'East Meets West'
title is in fact both an accurate and a misleading indicator as to what's going on
within these particular grooves.
Firstly, it's dishonest in that the 'Meets' part of the title is misleading. There's no cross genre pollination going on here - the music of the 'East' and the music of the 'West' are self contained on the two separate discs, meaning there's about as much chance of them 'meeting' as parallel lines. Neither are those 'East' and 'West' titles used as broad headings to produce two distinct albums of music based around (for example) Eastern Phrygian dominant and Western diatonic scales. Nothing so exotic I'm afraid; as intimated by Last's 'Carry On Cowboy' and 'Carry On Cossack' garb on the cover, the 'East' is based solely around the stylised music of a pre-revolution Russia while the 'West' is an idealised, all American cowboy affair. This much is also confirmed by the 'subtitles' of both discs - "Country And Western Dance Party" and "Memories Of Russia". On the other hand, 'East Meets West' is true and accurate in that, despite the lengths taken to put clear water between them, once its all been through Last's easy listening sorting hat, 'East' and 'West' do meet somewhere in the middle at a point where it all sounds pretty much the same.
The 'West' record blasts off like a rocket with a version of 'Orange Blossom Special' that flies like its tail is on fire, but all too soon the sweep of the orchestra's strings hold sway to ground it and bland out any heat that could have sparked from similarly breakneck versions of 'Chicken Reel', 'Oh! Sussana' or 'Turkey In The Straw'. Sure you can dance to this stuff, even in this format, but not with any abandon and the tunes retain a certain level of formal stuffiness and artificiality that's more cosy Roy Rogers than the grit of 'Deadwood'.
If anything, the 'East' disc is worse; I'm not overly familiar with many of the tunes on it (and some are Last originals), but in going for a 'Memories' theme it tries to position itself as the opposite of the music of the 'West' and present a wistful, subdued sort of tone instead of any thrashing dance accordions, balalaikas and stamping feet. Which would be fine, except Last's orchestration does not sound particularly Russian and the main 'memory' it invokes is of the music on the other disc; in tone and substance it sounds pretty much the same.
Which is largely the problem with all this - just as in both of those cover pictures James Last looks exactly like James Last, albeit James Last in token fancy dress, the same charge of fakeness and lack of authenticity can be levelled at the music. 'East Meets West' is music in fancy dress, nothing more and neither album conjures up the feel of a time and a place with anything approaching a conviction. As a concept it doesn't really work, and maybe the two discs would have fared better as individual albums. Truth be told though neither of these themes lend themselves well to a full orchestra treatment, and certainly not to the schmaltzy easy listening one the Last subjects them to. Maybe it would have sounded better if I hadn't sat through all four sides in one go, but I did, and it turned out to be too much James Last for me, meaning I can only say that a more honest title for this would have been 'James Last - More Of The Same'.
Firstly, it's dishonest in that the 'Meets' part of the title is misleading. There's no cross genre pollination going on here - the music of the 'East' and the music of the 'West' are self contained on the two separate discs, meaning there's about as much chance of them 'meeting' as parallel lines. Neither are those 'East' and 'West' titles used as broad headings to produce two distinct albums of music based around (for example) Eastern Phrygian dominant and Western diatonic scales. Nothing so exotic I'm afraid; as intimated by Last's 'Carry On Cowboy' and 'Carry On Cossack' garb on the cover, the 'East' is based solely around the stylised music of a pre-revolution Russia while the 'West' is an idealised, all American cowboy affair. This much is also confirmed by the 'subtitles' of both discs - "Country And Western Dance Party" and "Memories Of Russia". On the other hand, 'East Meets West' is true and accurate in that, despite the lengths taken to put clear water between them, once its all been through Last's easy listening sorting hat, 'East' and 'West' do meet somewhere in the middle at a point where it all sounds pretty much the same.
The 'West' record blasts off like a rocket with a version of 'Orange Blossom Special' that flies like its tail is on fire, but all too soon the sweep of the orchestra's strings hold sway to ground it and bland out any heat that could have sparked from similarly breakneck versions of 'Chicken Reel', 'Oh! Sussana' or 'Turkey In The Straw'. Sure you can dance to this stuff, even in this format, but not with any abandon and the tunes retain a certain level of formal stuffiness and artificiality that's more cosy Roy Rogers than the grit of 'Deadwood'.
If anything, the 'East' disc is worse; I'm not overly familiar with many of the tunes on it (and some are Last originals), but in going for a 'Memories' theme it tries to position itself as the opposite of the music of the 'West' and present a wistful, subdued sort of tone instead of any thrashing dance accordions, balalaikas and stamping feet. Which would be fine, except Last's orchestration does not sound particularly Russian and the main 'memory' it invokes is of the music on the other disc; in tone and substance it sounds pretty much the same.
Which is largely the problem with all this - just as in both of those cover pictures James Last looks exactly like James Last, albeit James Last in token fancy dress, the same charge of fakeness and lack of authenticity can be levelled at the music. 'East Meets West' is music in fancy dress, nothing more and neither album conjures up the feel of a time and a place with anything approaching a conviction. As a concept it doesn't really work, and maybe the two discs would have fared better as individual albums. Truth be told though neither of these themes lend themselves well to a full orchestra treatment, and certainly not to the schmaltzy easy listening one the Last subjects them to. Maybe it would have sounded better if I hadn't sat through all four sides in one go, but I did, and it turned out to be too much James Last for me, meaning I can only say that a more honest title for this would have been 'James Last - More Of The Same'.
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