What is Your favourite Musical Mellotron Moment?

[seismic1]

Ok. Time for a new thread.

What is your favourite use of Mellotron in a piece of music?

I love the sound of 'trons. I grew up listening to them in many Prog bands, and one of the bands I was in (Hobgoblin) used to have one. It gave us quite a "big" sound.

I'm still thinking about this, but I'll start the ball rolling with Genesis' "Watcher of the Skies". So powerful.

It's the first track on this video. The intro is menacing, but the ending surpasses that.

[Tuonela]

As an old, old prog head from the late 60s, probably a toss-up between

and

but of course you can't ever forget Epitaph by King Crimson, everything Genesis did with a mellotron in it, the first album by a band named Gracious! which uses the thing for percussive keyboard effects, or the wonderful

Check out Nick(?) Awdey's book "Mellotron" if you're really into this, it's fascinating and about much, much more than mellotrons. :listening:

[seismic1]

I think my second-favourite KC Mellotron-based piece is probably In the Wake of Poseidon:-

[seismic1]

Here is the Daddy....

The mellotron only really features at the beginning and the end, but what a track this is.

[GaryG]

Maybe not the most 'out there' choice but always thought the mello on "Nights in White Satin" was just about perfect... As are the strings on "In the Court...".

2nd Gen proggers like IQ (The Wake FTW!) and Pallas had their mello moments. Pallas had a deeply unpleasant tune called "The Ripper" that had a really unsettling passage; claustrophobic, descending strings. Really rather disturbing to my young mind.

And all those early Tangerine Dream albums of course...

[GaryG]

Here is the Daddy....

Jeez, I love that album.

[seismic1]

I think Nights in White Satin was the first track I heard that made me think "What is making those sounds?". They were strings, but not quite right, yet they were so right.

Red is a complete juggernaut. Every track is superb. The first time I listened to it, I couldn't believe my ears. I had never heard anything remotely like it, and I still haven't. It's a dark, sledgehammer experience. I have it on vinyl and the 2000 CD remaster too. When the family are out, I like to give the speakers a good workout with some of this :maniac:

[Under the Net]

10 seconds thad changed my world when I was a kid...

[logicgate]

Here is the Daddy....

The mellotron only really features at the beginning and the end, but what a track this is.

+1

[Mac of BIOnighT]

Anything by early Tangerine Dream, to me that is THE Mellotron...

[Under the Net]

Anything by early Tangerine Dream, to me that is THE Mellotron...

Edgar Froese - Epsilon In Malaysian Pale

Mellotron master, Froese, founder of Tangerine Dream, in one of his most inspiring (Mellotron) moments.

[Mac of BIOnighT]

Mellotron master, Froese, founder of Tangerine Dream, in one of his most inspiring (Mellotron) moments.

That's what I mean, yes He had something special when playing that instrument that I've never found in anybody else, instantly recognizable.

[Tuonela]

Mellotron master, Froese, founder of Tangerine Dream, in one of his most inspiring (Mellotron) moments.

That's what I mean, yes He had something special when playing that instrument that I've never found in anybody else, instantly recognizable.

Definitely. "Phaedra" is one of my all-time desert island discs, especially the track called Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares. It used to turn up in my dreams.

[Mac of BIOnighT]

Definitely. "Phaedra" is one of my all-time desert island discs, especially the track called Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares. It used to turn up in my dreams.

I can easily believe that, Phaedra is such an incredible masterpiece!