Windham Hill Memories

Just a quick note, I will not continue my Michael Manring posts until after the holidays. The reason being is that it would be too overwhelming for me, with preparing for Christmas and all. I will, however, repost the album, "A Windham Hill Christmas Vol 2." within two weeks from now. This January, I will be discussing about Manring's collaboration albums. Stay tuned! Happy Thanksgiving!

Now it is time to cover Michael Manring's 2005 release, " Soliloquy ". Yes, the time has come to conclude the Michael Manring solo albums as I will be reviewing the collaboration albums he put out with other artists, starting January. My brief descriptions of the tracks:  Track 1: Fast paced bass, Track 2: Slow, funky bass, a hint of early Manring Track 3: Psychedelic, experimental, Track 4: sad, acoustic, tells a story Track 5: Similar to track 2, Track 6: Weird, oddball, experimental, has nothing to do with the title Track 7: Dark, deep bass, Track 8: Somewhat uplifting Track 9: Slow, steady, depressing, Track 10: Light, tuneful, a bit cheerful Track 11: Fast, bassy, experimental 12. Fast, bassy, Track 13. Same as Track 12, only darker, with more bass 14. Slow, relaxing bass On to the Amazon reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars   Great CD, easy to listen to   February 25, 2013 By   Thedeadbeat86 Format: MP3 Music | Amazon Verified Purcha...

The time has come for me to jump to 1998 as we explore Manring's next solo album, The Book of Flame, from. As for last week's post, it didn't contain much information due to the fact the internet gave me a very difficult time doing research on it. My brief descriptions of the tracks:  After listening to clips from the album via Amazon.com, I can tell you, briefly what I personally think of all 11 tracks. This is a new feature so expect to see this in future posts as well. For starters, I thought Track 1 was beautiful and acoustic, though dark. Track 2 sounded like an experimental jazzy track and Track 3 was very trippy, with a touch of jungle. Track 4 had massive bass, Track 5 was funky and full of bass, and Track 6 was ear candy bass, catchy, though tripped out. Track 7 was eerie, but groovy, Track 8 was very progressive, and Track 9 was a lot like Track 7, expect it also had a bit of an experimental sound to it. Finally, Track 10 is heavy rock with bass and...

Today, I will be reviewing Manring's 1995 album, " Up Close 21 " from the three-record labels, Windham Hill, High Street Records and Boston Acoustic. This is Michael Manring's fifth studio album, and to be honest, I haven't found anything about this album in terms of reviews. As a matter of fact, I can't even find any of the songs from the album on YouTube. All I can say is that, based on the track listings, it's a collection of previously recorded or re-recorded material. That's all I know. If anybody has any other information on this album and/or has a copy of it, please let me know in a comment so I can update my post. In the meantime, here's the track listings:  1. Life in the Trees  2. Cruel and Unusual  3. Oyasumi Nasai  4. Hopeful  5. Red Right Returning 6. Blue Orleans 7. Welcoming 8. Monkey Businessman 9. On a Day of Many Angels 10. Snales Got Legs And here's the link to download the limited edition ...

Just a quick post this week. I want to wish everyone a happy Mischief Night tonight and a happy Halloween tomorrow. Halloween is also my birthday so I'll be enjoying a nice holiday off. I will be back with the usual posts next week.

I finally improved last week's blog post, however I don't have time for a new one this week. Next week will be a Halloween post so my coverage of Michael Manring won't continue until November. Thanks for understanding.

This week's "Manthing" post is from 1994 and it's the first solo album by him that is NOT from the Windham Hill label, but by the Highstreet label. My friends, this is the album Thonk ! This is his fourth album, which shifts from soft jazz to what was described as "New Age Death Metal Fusion", with a bit of bass playing. After listening to tracks, such as "Bad Hair Day" and "Disturbed", I can say that Manring took a risky move, changing genres a bit, just to get listeners to be wowed by his works. For me, it's not my favorite album, but it IS a pretty epic one if you like or love instrumental rock. I will not explain any more. Just listen to "Disturbed" for yourself. Here are the reviews from Amazon: 5.0 out of 5 stars   AMAZING!   March 19, 2004 By   "dyldo" Format: Audio CD "This album is truly amazing! If you thought the extremes of bass could not be pushed much further than...