CD Review from USS Beagle

The Following is a Review in its entirety from Paul Bines who produces the USS Beagle. It Should be noted the actual price is £12:50 per CD plus $1.50 p&p per order.

"Songs From Down Below Vol. 5"  by The Edinburgh Alliance   EABCD5  £13

First came William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.  Now, Babylon 5 fans have their revenge. This CD carries a warning on the cover; "Warning The singing on this CD contains murder of melody and torture of tempo"  They ain't kidding.  This is a professionally presented CD of song parodies, all on the theme of Babylon 5, all sung by members of the notorious Edinburgh Alliance, a group of B5 fans based in, three guesses, Edinburgh. Songs parodied include "Y.M.C.A" and "In The Navy" by the Village People, "Grandad" by Clive Dunn,  "Theme from Dad's Army" by Bud Flanagan, "The Lumberjack song" by Monty Python and many more. This is truly an evil listening experience; it's not something you put on the CD player for the discerning music lover.  This is late night after a heavy session down the pub CD, and even then parts of it may be unbearable. Stand out tracks are "Theme from Delenn Ranger" a treatment of the "William Tell Overture",  (or "The Lone Ranger Theme"), which consists entirely of samples of Alliance members singing the word 'Delenn';  "Two Drazi in a fight" based on Boney M's classic hit "Brown Girl in a ring", and both versions of "Entil-Zha" (in both English and Russian, for no reason other than one of the Alliance works as a Russian translator!), which is based on the Phil Spector version of "Jingle Bells".  The Alliance suggest the hardened listener might like to program all 5 parts of "Michael Stitched Him Up A Treat" to play together, (the 5 parts, all based on the traditional tune "Michael Row the boat ashore" are spread across the disc); I wouldn't recommend it. This is well worth buying; the vocal quality may not be 'tuneful', but the enthusiasm shines through every track, and it is readily apparent that the Alliance members had a great deal of fun recording it.  Worn out those Shatner albums?  Buy this and treat yourself. (Review by 'Music Lover'.  This CD is not available in any shop, but if you are interested in getting a copy, try writing for details to:

The Edinburgh Alliance,
c/o The Claremont Bar,
133-135 E.Claremont St.,
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
EH7 4JA.

 Or visit their website;

http://www.ph.ed.ac.uk/~gowdy/SciFi/EdAli/

Remember to mention USS Beagle if you write to them!)

(This review originally appeared in "USS Beagle" Issue 25, edited by Paul Bines)