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	Pepper’s Ghost Second Impressions November 2004 After I had heard Pepper’s Ghost for the first time (see the Blasted Away For 53 Minutes-article in this section), I had to wait for almost a month before I found the package with the promo CD on my doormat. I wanted to play it immediately but some friends stopped by so I had to put it off for a while because I wanted to listen to it without people present who would bother me by speaking, asking whether there’s any beer left or by breathing too loudly. After they had left, I sat down on my sofa with just a few candles lit and the curtains closed so I could focus on the music best. My first impression was that Pepper’s Ghost was hard, loud and fast. But when I listened to it for the second time, I realized that it wasn’t that fast.  Maybe, having Contagion in mind, I expected something softer the first time. Maybe it is because of the impact that listening to Opera Fanatica for the first time had on me. That song came over me like a tsunami. Maybe this last impression of the first listen was blown out of proportions during the weeks of desperately waiting for the promo to arrive. The album still appears louder and faster than Contagion, but my idea that it was one big adrenaline rush with one slower paced song in the middle was not true. Another thing that struck me are the variation of beats the album contains. It seems to have five/four, six/eight, seven/eight. Even when the band plays a good old four/four, it can be confusing. Maybe it is there on Contagion as well, but I had not noticed it like I do now with Pepper’s Ghost.  After the mania of the last song has ended, I pushed ‘play’ immediately to hear it again. I started recognizing some things. The fairground sounds the album starts with remind me of the part in Opera Fanatica where the guitar and the keyboards play the same melody. I asked myself what purpose the distortion of Rob's voice serves in Purgatory Road (‘One day I will lie down’). I do not really like it. Is it not interesting enough when you just hear his ‘natural’ voice? It reminds me of that Cher song Believe – although that really was too much (I still wonder what they made out of the ribs they cut out of her). The voice distortion in Bedlam Fayre on the contrary does sound OK to me. Some of the choruses are too unnatural to me as well (too many overdubs). At times, you cannot even distinguish any individual voices anymore, like in some parts of Smoke And Mirrors and Purgatory Road. It’s for this same reason that I like A State Of Grace better in its acoustic version on Radiance than on The Visitor. With the ‘real’ voices, there is more tension, more suspense. Compared with the diversity in beats, the drum fills appear very straightforward. Maybe they are too straightforward as they fill in every sixteenth beat there is. Possibly a fill - and with that a song - could gain tension with more diversity. The beginning of The Shattered Room sounds very ‘disturbing.’ I think this song will turn out to be one of my favourites. I cannot wait to hear this one performed live. I must say that I fear a performance of Tantalus as the crowd will try to sing along to ‘Trust in no one.’ Another favourite of mine is Purgatory Road. I like the guitar and bass riff that the first part of the song is based upon and I like the pulsing drive forward of the second part. Do I really hear Rob singing ‘Till the Martians land in London town’? I do not know what the connection is between aliens and the Victorian times, but hopefully I will figure it out when I start reading the lyrics properly. When I start listening to a new album, I just focus on the music. The lyrics will come later. Maybe those people supposedly chopped up by Jack the Ripper were really the victims of those nasty green extraterrestrials that Clive now writes about. Opera Fanatica is big, noisy and over the top just as Clive announced it. This is his ‘ultimate progressive rock mini epic.’ In the past co-producers would say to him: ‘Let’s not go that far. Let’s do it the next time.’ But there never was a next time. ‘Now there is’, Clive said with a smile on his face. ‘Did it go over the top? Absolutely. I hope so.’ These comments make the song more interesting and easier to digest for me. For example, the first time the chorus sings ‘The king is dead, so worship me’ there are 48 voices (!) dubbed over one another. That is exactly the point I made earlier about not being able to distinguish individual voices. However, here I find it not the least annoying. Keeping in mind what Clive said about it, makes it sound even better. I was asked to write down my impression of the album after having listened to it for the first, the second and the third time and finally to add my definitive impression. You have now read the second impressions, but my definitive opinion of the album will have to wait. That will take more listening to the music and particularly to the lyrics. If Ian’s ninja character would start swirling his Nunchacku's at me asking whether I like Contagion or Pepper’s Ghost best, I would now choose the former but that is not definitive either. By: Niek Hermsen