Search - Emerson Lake & Palmer :: Manticore Vaults 2

This is a FANs album only!

Mark Salomon | New York, NY USA | 11/12/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well, I am glad to have these, but they are NOT for casual listening.The performances are excellent, but the sound leaves LOT to be desired. Yes, I know that they are bootleg recordings, but the sound, for the most part is really poor. Mostly echoing, bassy boominess from the hall that these were recorded in.The one from 1977 (a sound board) is the exception, and is a really nice listen... there are flaws, but that is true with ANY soundboard tape.I hope that there are more of these releases, and maybe the quality of the boots will go up. I wish that they could have released the 1978 Nassau Coliseum radio broadcast, but I guess that they could not get the permissions to use it for this release.Maybe in the next bootleg release?"

Some of their greatest shows ever

Michael Topper | Pacific Palisades, California United States | 02/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Vol.1 of this series brought us the Long Beach arena show, which was one of the finest boots of ELP's early period. Now, Vol.2
gives us the much sought-after Buffalo concert from the Brain Salad era, which just might be the greatest show these three musicians *ever* gave. As with Vol.1, the sound quality is poor, but no-one should be complaining since 1)these are taken
from thirty-year old boots and released for their historical importance, and 2)you get eight discs for [$$] to compensate for this. I don't see how anyone could buy a set entitled "The Original Bootleg Series" from an early 70s act and then complain about lo-fi sound. And there is the '77 show, which is actually pretty decent sound-wise and almost rates with their officially released live albums. The earliest show here, Hammersmith Odeon '72, is the poorest in quality but still a fine performance. The next, Wichita '74,
is even better, with a storming version of "Aquatarkus" and one of the rare performances of "Benny The Bouncer". By the time we get to Buffalo, the group's playing was far in advance of the
concurrently released "Welcome Back My Friends" triple live release; the group's improvisations were now far removed from the studio versions and the Moog work is simply extraordinary (and well worth the less-than-perfect clarity), especially on "Tarkus" and "Pictures". The final show, from New Haven in '77, features a slightly compressed but still storming version of "Tarkus" and excellent, superior versions of material from the Works 1 and 2 efforts (for another good show from this period check out the King Biscuit Flower Hour release). The rendition of "Karn Evil 9 1st Part 2" here is unusually funky,
and "Take A Pebble" is as moving as ever. For ELP fans, this
set is essential; for the novice, the sound quality is too poor to justify a recommendation but once one has listened to the studio albums, this series is a logical next step (the performances being superior in most cases to the officially released live albums).Actually, the Boot series might have been best served had there just been one box of the Long Beach '72, Buffalo '74, New Haven '77 and Wiltern '93 shows--featuring the best performances with the best sound quality--but I suppose it was considered a generous move to give the fans who had been waiting decades for these to come out everything all at once."