Kestrel-Esoteric reissue

[JKL2000]

Has anyone heard the 2nd disk of the Esoteric reissue of the Kestrel album, and if so how is it? It's mostly alternate versions of songs from the album.

[dnieper]

I have the 2CD version on Belle Antique, which presumably has the same extra material, and here are my thoughts:

"Part of the Machine" and "The Searcher" are pretty good songs, but not quite as good as the eight songs on the main album. They don't have any mellotron blasts, and are probably towards the poppier side. The lyrics to "Part of the Machine" are sort of amusing- they're about why the guy won't date a woman who works a M-F 9-to-5 type job (and is therefore "part of the machine"). Also noteworthy is the different version of "August Carol," which has 1 or 2 minutes of music that was cut from the version on the album, though some of that is a drum solo. The singing on this other version of "August Carol" and "The Acrobat" is the main difference- the singer sounds less confident, so it's somewhat interesting to hear if you already know and love the album as much as I do. The single edits are sort of pointless, though it's interesting that the single edit of "August Carol" is actually the second half-the instrumental part, not the sung part.