Sam Wick's dense four pages of liner notes to
Esquivel's
See It in Sound album provide a window to this fascinating kaleidoscope of intonation which, shockingly, RCA Records refused to release after it was recorded in Hollywood in May of 1960. In order to be objective one has to take oneself away from the cult who adore
Esquivel's work and just hear this magical adventure away from the rhetoric and judge it on its own merits. The verdict:
See It in Sound is a vibrant and tremendously creative artistic achievement. Keep in mind, just five years prior to this, RCA Records released Don Charles' the Singing Dogs -- and went Top 25 with "Oh! Susanna." Understand? The record company released "Dolly," "Pearl," "Caesar," and "King" barking on a record but, as the liner notes explain,
See It in Sound was..."just way too bizarre for the brass of RCA." That being said, perhaps
Lou Reed got payback for
Esquivel by forcing that label to release four sides of
Metal Machine Music. The "dextrorotory components" of
Lou's vision turned to sound was a supreme joke played on the record label that inhibited the release of
See It in Sound. The textures and depth of
See It in Sound must have been a joyful banquet for mastering engineer Bill Lacey (conversely,
Reed gives special thanks to Bob Ludwig for mastering
Metal Machine Music, no doubt thanks for allowing him to torture the guy). There's such an ocean of delightful real life sounds mixed in with music that the 39 minutes plus available here seems a lot longer than it is. When not having the disc provide background sounds and tuning in to the project, one gets lost in the wonder of it all. Originally produced by Neely Plumb -- and the question is how does one produce a project like this? -- the new compilation was produced by Paul Williams, who also did the tape research. All the dates of the original recordings are next to the songs, as well as the serial numbers, and all this material is previously unreleased. This 1999 release of music recorded 39 years earlier is as inspiring as it is entertaining. After hearing the disc multiple times the listener still doesn't have a complete handle on it, and perhaps never will! But one knows when one likes something, and this is very likeable, and will no-doubt get stuck in the CD player for hundreds of spins. As
Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant soundtrack work on the original Planet of the Apes film pushed the limits, the music and sounds here intertwine and delight nonstop. A revelation. ~ Joe Viglione