Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Annie Haslam, Jim McCarty Band, Jane Relf, Jim McCarty, John McCarty
All Music Guide:
The history of Renaissance is essentially the history of two separate groups, rather similar to the two phases of the Moody Blues or the Drifters. The original group was founded in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty as a sort of progressive folk-rock band, who recorded two albums (of which only the first, self-titled LP came out in America, on Elektra Records) but never quite made it, despite some success on England's campus circuit.
The band went through several membership changes, with Relf and his sister Jane (who later fronted the very Renaissance-like Illusion) exiting and McCarty all but gone after 1971. The new lineup formed around the core of bassist Jon Camp, keyboard player John Tout, and Terry Sullivan on drums, with Annie Haslam, an aspiring singer with operatic training and a three-octave range.
Their first album in this incarnation, Prologue, released in 1972, was considerably more ambitious than the original band's work, with extended instrumental passages and soaring vocals by Haslam. Their breakthrough came with their next record, Ashes Are Burning, issued in 1973, which introduced guitarist Micheal Dunford to the lineup and featured some searing electric licks by guest axeman Andy Powell. Their next record, Turn of the Cards, released by Sire Records, had a much more ornate songwriting style and was awash in lyrics that alternated between the topical and the mystical.
The group's ambitions, by now, were growing faster than its audience, which was concentrated on America's East Coast, especially in New York and Philadelphia -- Scheherazade (1975) was built around a 20-minute extended suite for rock group and orchestra that dazzled the fans but made no new converts. A live album recorded at a New York concert date reprised their earlier material, including the "Scheherazade" suite, but covered little new ground and showed the group in a somewhat lethargic manner. The band's next two albums, Novella and A Song for All Seasons, failed to find new listeners, and as the 1970s closed out, the group was running headlong into the punk and new wave booms that made them seem increasingly anachronistic and doomed to cult status.
Their '80s albums were released with less than global or even national fanfare, and the group split up in the early '80s amid reported personality conflicts between members. During 1995, however, both Haslam and Dunford made attempts to revive the Renaissance name in different incarnations, and Jane Relf and the other surviving members of the original band were reportedly planning to launch their own Renaissance revival which, if nothing else, may keep the courts and some trademark attorneys busy for a little while.
Wikipedia:
Meathook Seed was an industrial metal project formed in 1992 by Napalm Death guitarist Mitch Harris. Since its founding, two Meathook Seed albums were released.
Embedded
Debut album Embedded was released in 1993 via Earache. The band consisted at that time of Harris and Obituary members Donald Tardy and Trevor Peres. Peres, being Obituary's guitarist, took the role of vocalist here. The album had two instrumental tracks on it: "Embedded" and "Sea of Tranquility", the latter a nearly 14 minute long hypnotic track of alienating and electronic sounds, with samples by Shane Embury (also of Napalm Death fame) and Steve Guney. Earlier prints of the album used printed semi-transparent paper along with thick coated paper for the artwork, while later editions used regular paper only.
Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E.)
In 1999, Meathook Seed released their second album Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E.), recorded by Paul 'Bag' Siddens and Si Reeves at Framework Studios in Birmingham. With the original Obituary members replaced, the band's sound shifted from industrial metal to a more industrial rock sound. French Out vocalist Christophe Lamouret took on the vocals, while former Benediction drummer Ian Treacy took on the percussion and Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury joined on bass. A session guitarist, Russ Russell, was also added to complete the lineup with Harris.
