Search - Esquivel :: See It in Sound

See It in Sound
Esquivel
See It in Sound
Genres: Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (11) - Disc #1

A long-buried release from Esquivel's recording days in the 1960s, See It in Sound brings to life an even more eclectic and peculiar chapter in this music experimentalist's canon. Like Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music and Othe...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Esquivel
Title: See It in Sound
Members Wishing: 4
Total Copies: 0
Label: House of Hits
Original Release Date: 11/9/1999
Release Date: 11/9/1999
Genres: Pop, Rock
Style: Easy Listening
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 667487700221

Synopsis

Amazon.com
A long-buried release from Esquivel's recording days in the 1960s, See It in Sound brings to life an even more eclectic and peculiar chapter in this music experimentalist's canon. Like Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music and Other Worlds, Other Sounds, it's a campy yet serious-minded sonic blitzkrieg, filled with lounge-act cheese, utterly insane arrangements, and the vertigo-inducing possibilities of stereo recording techniques. Bird calls, beeping horns, jungle sounds, and God knows what else ping-pong back and forth across the speakers, while Esquivel sambas, cha-chas, and swings merrily along. Yet while this record is more extreme and brazen in its musical whimsy than Esquivel's other work, at times pushing the outermost boundary of contemporary pop, it still maintains the martini-mixing feel of his other Martin Denny-esque "easy-listening" releases--just barely. Chanting tribesmen and wild-animal howls reverberate with a somber French horn on "Similau," while strange marching-band tempos and movie-soundtrack clips of trench warfare whiz by on "Inca's Dream." The goofy main melody of "Honky Tonky Cha Cha" is carried by an old barroom piano straight out of a spaghetti Western's dusty old poker hall, while splashing water, marimbas, and a chorus of laughing children bounce around weirdly in the background. There's no denying that it all sounds pretty crazy and, in reality, it is. Still, nobody else has ever, or will ever, go this crazy again and still manage to sound this cool. --Matthew Cooke

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CD Reviews

After about 30 years, Esquivel's most unusual album!
Carl Howard | Columbus, OH USA | 11/23/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ahh, Brother Cleve, the saviour and the protector. Truly the keeper of the flame. He persevered and made this release a reality, Esquivel's lone unreleased album, shelved in 1960 and again in 1997, both times as being too bizarre, too uncommercial! Brother Cleve is of course a key player in Providence, RI's fantastic Combustible Edison, but he's also been feverishly involved with preserving the legacy of El Maestro, Esquivel. There's a track on the CE release "The Impossible World" that begins with the source recording of footsteps in a street scene. Now I know what he was thinking of. Esquivel deliberately, in "See It In Sound," made the most of conventional RCA Records propaganda relating to the clarity of the hi-fidelity stereo field. Ambient recordings of urban environments flit in and out throughout the tracks, and the music shapes itself to the rhythms in the source recordings (which were not random, it would seem, but engineered). This is the first Esquivel reissue... well it isn't a reissue, is it? ...which offers complete session lists for its tracks. Loungeaholics will want to compare, for example, the different stylings of different session musicians, such as Alvino Rey, the king of the bent note. So more than just a fun disk to listen to, this is actually one you can study. It's that reflexive quality that lends only a hint of self-consciousness to the project -a theme album if you will- and detracts just slightly from the giddy, fun for which Esquivel's records were known... thus 4 stars from me rather than 5. Now if Brother Cleve can finally get Esquivel's 1962 signature album "Latin-Esque" back onto the shelves, his place on a bamboo throne in heaven (oddly colored cocktail firmly in hand, of course) will be assured! And what happened to the noises web-swingers were hearing a couple of years ago of a "new" album in the works from El Maestro? Talk to us, Brother!"
Nice to have but not his peak
PaulP | Harrisburg, PA United States | 03/29/2000
(2 out of 5 stars)

"See it in Sound was a bit of a disappointment! After Other Worlds,Other Sounds and Latin-esque, it would have been difficult for J.G.E. to top those LPs. Lounge music lovers are lucky to have this LP finally made available to them and it is an appreciated addition to a great lounge collection. I thought it was a bit gimmicky however and the sounds effects didn't mesh, or arrange well, with the orchestra as I had hoped for. This is not Esquivel in top form! So many LP's that were recorded during this time span and then shelved by the record companies (i.e Rose Mary Clooney's "Love" LP which also was picked up by Sinatra's Reprise after Clooney's label shelved it) are greatly appreciated when they finally see the light of day. This is no exception. See It In Sound didn't affect me like Latin-esque. It compares well to Mel Henke's "La Dolce Henke" but even with that LP, the sound effects are too contrived, such as the teeth of a comb being plucked if you are familiar with Henke. I would put See it in Sound on the same level with La Dolce Henke but I would take the later as my pick. See it in Sound has the same impact on me....too contrived! The children's laughter on Honky Tonk Cha Cha was downright annoying. Cumana made me feel as if I was seated in front of my mom and dad's B&W TV set and we were watching a man spinning plates atop of canes on the Ed Sullivan Show....the canned applause was faded in and out like an old Sullivan show. Other effects just got in the way of Esquivel on this LP. I wanted less gimmick and more Esquivel genius and I didn't find it here."
A missing gem
bill renek | sunset,utah | 02/04/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"what a great find by brother cleve that is like "zounds!what sounds! and martin denny combined.like another reviewer mentioned--hopefully brother cleve can get "latin-esque"also released on cd,what a home run it would be--it is begging for re-issue on cd!"