Cloud Nine - 1992 (GER.) (UPDATE 2023)

Dominik


Mike

CLOUD NINE & THE VITAMIN C (the name was shortened to simply CLOUD NINE for the last two concerts) was a band founded in the Rhein-Main-Area nearby Darmstadt and Mannheim, Germany, in 1983 and existed until 1992 in various line-ups, always centered around keyboard player Dominik Engel and bass player Mike Schröder.

CLOUD NINE recorded some demos culminating in this one from 1992, for the first time using a semi-professional 8-track recording studio. But during the recording session the band split and the demo was never really finished. The master tape was lost and sadly only some rough mixes of those sessions survived.

UPDATE (December 2023): After more than 30 years the album was finally released as: DRAW DOWN THE DISTANC (see info below). Read the first review here: https://timemachine-productions.gr/2023/11/30/cloud-nine-vitamin-c-draw-down-the-distance-2023-lp-cloud-nine/ 

The basic tracks of those 6 songs were all recorded live in only two days (!) and only some vocal and guitar parts were later added. 

Dominik and Mike (1989)

CLOUD NINE & THE VITAMIN C played some kind of neo psychedelic rock, heavily based on late Sixties/early Seventies bands like The Doors, Pink Floyd or the old Krautrockers Amon Düül 2 or Can, but one can also find a slight Wave influence of bands like The Cure or even some UK rave acts like The Charlatans. They were famous for their free form improvisations or "take off" parts mostly in the middle of songs like Draw Down the Distance, Survivor or Sunspots. The psychedelic light show of the band (mainly consisting of selfmade Super-8-movies and art/ink-slides) was also legendary and quite unique in the late 80s and early 90s in that area: The first psychedelic light show since the one of their famous colleagues Nektar, who came from the same region in Germany some years earlier.

Mike S. later went on to play in ORANGE, another experimental psychedelic band based in Frankfurt and also recorded some solo stuff as ANYONE'S DREAMCOLOUR.

   

The cover artwork for HLFP before there was an official cover

CLOUD NINE - 1992

(8-track demo, rough mix - slightly remixed version) (mp3 zip, 6 songs (36 min), 52,3 MB, covers included)

1. (It Makes) No Difference (3.13)

2. My Sunday On A Friday (3.33)

3. Call (4.18)

4. Draw Down The Distance (10.19)

5. Sunspots (7.28)

6. Empty And Cold (6.40)

UPDATE (December 2023):
This version is no longer available since there now is an official release of the remastered songs in much better sound quality (December 2023).

 

You can order your Copy directly at Musikgarage Bensheim: unser_kleiner_musikshop@t-online.de
or at Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/de/artist/13014570-Cloud-Nine-The-Vitamin-C 

https://cloud-nine-and-the-vitamin-c.blogspot.com/ 

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