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Deep Purple - Space Vol 1 & 2 I know Aachen 1970 quite well, but throughout the opening few minutes of 'Wring That Neck' alone, I can pick out so much more of Jon's deft organ work that it might as well be a completely different show.
'Black
Night' next, pumping with energy and enthusiasm, then 'Paint
It Black' shambles in, the chaotic, almost anarchic beginning we're
used to from this era quickly sharpening up, before Paice starts beating
seven shades out of his drum kit. Breathtaking! As soon as Ian Gillan starts to speak, you know that you're in for a good one. Clear, crisp and completely unmuffled, the sound restoration alone makes the purchase essential. I have six different boots of this show and wasn't expecting anything amazing, but I have to say that I'd arrest anyone on sight who claimed they were a Purple fan and didn't own a copy of this. Amazing, essential, brilliant. "Do you feel alright?". Most certainly! Review : Martin Ashberry
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Jon
and Ritchie are really battling throughout this. Jon's second
solo is a lengthy affair, the usual expected combination of classic
/ humorous snippets, where the audience can be detected in the background
applauding wildly. Blackmore's second solo then follows another burst
of the riff, and again you can detect stuff that was clearly inaudible
(hey, my first oxymoron!) on the original boots (to my cloth ears).
And then, before you know it, it's over. Twenty minutes or so over in
the blink of an eye.
Closer 'Mandrake Root' is a diabolically
rude blast of sheer power, the vocals overloaded (as they are throughout
the set), but when the musical performance is this good and the quality
this unexpectedly sharp, you just have to sit back and let it all down
to your knees. Clocking in at over 33 minutes, it's the expected musical
tour de force that anyone with other recordings from the era will be
familiar with, Ritchie exercising a restraint over his backing where
you feel he is plotting to unleash something spectacular when he gets
the chance, and eventually when his tremolo arm does come in for some
heavy abuse, coupled with the thundering bass and pounding drums, signalling
the beginning of the end. Things really do reach a caustic peak, willing
you to visualize it in your mind's eye (and I can). A quick "thank you
" and that's your lot.
History
has it that the tapes were taken direct from a feed on the stage
and recorded on a basic stereo machine hidden inside a Volkswagen
camper van (which certainly accounts for the overloaded vocals).
In some places the sound is actually panned from one channel
to another, so they may even have mixed it live.