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MADHOUSE IS OUT OF THIS WORLD..... 8 & 16!!!!!!!!

Immanuel7 | Los Angeles, CA United States | 02/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had purchased the vinyl albums when they both came out back in the 80's. But years later, I discovered that the albums were also in CD format. I paid a grip of money on ebay to obtain these jewels but it was soooooo worth it (I was unable to purchase them here on Amazon)! Being a Prince fan has its priviledges. Just to be able to listen to rich music like Madhouse 8 & 16 is like heaven. Prince was before his musical time with these two compilations. It is a shame that the jazz world was unaware that Prince was exploring new avenues with his music or maybe they couldn't believe that this man was and is a musical genius. It makes me wonder if Miles Davis got to discuss the elements of these jewels with Prince. Prince beautifully captures space, time and sound in track 14. Track 15 is my favorite today. Tomorrow, it could be track 9. You never know from day to day when you listen to these wonderfully creative blessings from Prince. If you have the opportunity to purchase Madhouse 8 and Madhouse 16, don't walk...run and grab them, if you can. You will not be disappointed. Madhouse 8 & 16 isn't for the closed minded "Purple Rain" fanatic. You know the type. The lame PR fanatic can't get pass PR. This fan is so closed minded that they stay locked in what they call one of the "best rock albums ever". These fanatics do not have the ability to enter into new musical territories with Prince. Perhaps, that was the reason only a few of us knew, at the time, that these compilations were from Prince. A true Prince lover knows when he has his hands, heart and soul in the music. Get these compilations and blast them in your ipod or car and just feel and allow the music to take you to another world....heaven!!!!!"

R U Legal Yet?

Andre S. Grindle | Brewer Maine | 05/10/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The mid 80's were a time of incredibly heavy recording period for Prince. A lot of the music in his huge vault comes from his 1986 era production and there was a lot of diversity within that. Even for that this particular project was a unique departure. I am not 100% sure but even though it's credited to Madhouse this album was laregely the pet project of Prince's talented Sign 'O' the Times era saxaphonist Eric Leeds and featuring many of the members of the Prince band from that era. Prince's mid 80's music was starting to have a strong jazz flavor here and there but it was on this recording that it all really came together. Between voice samples (includes the moaning of Vanity from 1982) this music has a complete live band feel. It's not only the jazziest music Prince had recorded until this point but it's amazing how within these eight cuts,all titled sequentially with no real title but the number spelled out all explore different subgenres of jazz from swing styled horns,be-bop rhythms and a huge amount of fusion. As is typical of Prince's musical style these often show up in the same song. Now that's not to say this album doesn't have it's funky moments. "Four" is stripped down,bass heavy funk at it's finest and it's very obvious because of the arrangement this probably came from the pen of Prince himself as did most (if not next to all) of this material. Sometimes the melodies on these numbers are strong and other times the musicians take off into these heavy flights of fancy on some fairly adventurous solos. Even though these instrumentals are presented individually they have the flavor of having been sewn together with the vocal loop and samples from one session. In retrospect the combination of live band jazz/funk and voice samples anticipates some of the hip-hop/jazz fusions of Guru and Easy Mo B with Miles Davis in the years to come. This wasn't obviously a huge commercial success but was critically acclaimed and well received enough that it spawned a follow up later in the same year."