FEATURED CD - Happy Rhodes : Many Worlds Are Born Tonight

**Duncan Glenday** · 01-29-2015

Per Allmusic:

Many Worlds Are Born Tonight is an impressive assemblage that echoes the past glories of David Sylvian, Alison Moyet, and Kate Bush. Given the content, it's likely to fall on very in-the-know ears, for current radio trends are unlikely to embrace this diva's eclectic brand of pop music. Where this album fails is not in talent, but in her sometimes, almost plodding arrangements of otherwise strong material.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/roller-mw0000341984

**soundsweird** · 01-30-2015

I have an earlier compilation that has a few good tracks, and I used to have another album or two that didn't do anything for me. I listened to a used copy of this album on more than one occasion in the record store. Nicer production values than before, but many of the same chord progressions/melodies, and that high Kate Bush-clone voice is a real turn-off. She should stay in that lower register, which sounds more original.

**Sordel** · 01-30-2015

I want to love this album (in fact, I want to love Happy Rhodes' music in general so much that I have five of her albums, all seldom played) but I've always found it to be the sort of thing that I put on for two or three tracks and then I'm done. It's a pity, because she is a genuine talent, and her sound world (very close to later Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel) is one that I like a lot. On the other hand, I think that she sometimes falls in love with the atmosphere of her own recordings (their production sheen, electronics and vocal recording) and neglectts to develop her songs fully. What impresses over the course of one minute or so can feel rather drawn out at the length of five, and "style over substance" is definitely a criticism that comes to mind.

Still, I wish she were more widely known because it's dispiriting to see such a creative musician continuing in such relative obscurity.

**helicase** · 01-30-2015

Decent enough album, but when I'm in the mood for some Happy Rhodes I tend to go for Find Me. Find Me keeps up the quality throughout the album while this one has a few tracks that are only so-so.

**JKL2000** · 01-30-2015

Was wondering if she'd come up in the Out of Left Field Women thread. Didn't she once cover something by ELP? Used to have an album of hers but didn't care for it.

**Echoes** · 01-30-2015

Wow!. I was shocked to see Happy Rhodes mentioned here. I think she should be, but I don't recall ever seeing it. Her music, up through this album, was almost all briliant. Here's a review I wrote in Pulse.
HAPPY RHODES
Many Worlds Are Born Tonight
Samson Music
* * * * ½
Happy Rhodes is an upstate New York singer-songwriter and vocal chameleon who has been working an extraordinary magic for years on ten self-produced albums. She draws immediate comparisons to Kate Bush: her voice leaps to the same precarious highs, but she also touches deeper, seductive lows. At times her voice is knowing, poignant and serene, ascending into choirs, then whispering huskily into your ear that "Everything I do is madness."
Rhodes has always delved into dark, interior states of mind, often arising out of a troubled childhood. Orchestrating a textured electronica landscape, she makes inquiries into God, existence and on "100 Years," computer games. Swampy, distorted percussion, searing e-bow guitars and looping melodies populate the interior rooms of a wired world, in which Happy Rhodes is a cyber-troubadour, keeping watch on our souls.
John Diliberto

**Echoes** · 01-30-2015

And here she is performing live in my living room. This is a video we "officially" made but someone else uploaded this unofficially.

**Sunhillow** · 01-30-2015

Gosh. I loved Happy Rhodes in the 90s, but I haven't really even THOUGHT about here in ages. Good feature!

I wonder what's she up to these days.

**Dana5140** · 01-30-2015

Yea, what has she been up to? And isn't her real name Ellen?

**interbellum** · 01-30-2015

I think I have collected almost all her official albums, plus contributions to albums from Robby Aceto, Kevin Bartlett (including Aural Gratification V. 1 & 2), Percy Howard's Meridiem V. 3, Bob Holroyd, Jeff Oster, Project Lo and Hansford Rowe. Yeah, I love her work, even more than Kate's.

**interbellum** · 01-30-2015

Originally Posted by Dana5140

Yea, what has she been up to? And isn't her real name Ellen?

According to http://www.auntiesocialmusic.com/mus...-happy-rhodes/ she was called Kimberley.

**Firth** · 01-30-2015

Happy Rhodes is sublime. Yes an upper NY state phenom, but well known at the Tin Angel in Philly, although I never saw her there. Saw a video of her there. There was thread here when I first joined and I bought a couple of CDs mentioned here. I suggested that she would be good for a prog festival and there was some support.

**dropforge** · 01-31-2015

This is a good one.

**Nijinsky Hind** · 02-01-2015

Originally Posted by Echoes

And here she is performing live in my living room. This is a video we "officially" made but someone else uploaded this unofficially.

Thanks for that, it was beautiful. Glad I clicked on the thread. All new to me.

**Zalmoxe** · 02-02-2015

Originally Posted by Dana5140

Yea, what has she been up to? And isn't her real name Ellen?

Kimberley Tyler Rhodes

**Zalmoxe** · 02-02-2015

Originally Posted by helicase

Decent enough album, but when I'm in the mood for some Happy Rhodes I tend to go for Find Me. Find Me keeps up the quality throughout the album while this one has a few tracks that are only so-so.

A fact little known about "Find Me" (unless, of course, you own the album and you checked the credits) is that Bon Lozaga and Hansford Rowe of fusion group Gongzilla appear on it.

**interbellum** · 02-02-2015

Originally Posted by Zalmoxe

A fact little known about "Find Me" (unless, of course, you own the album and you checked the credits) is that Bon Lozaga and Hansford Rowe of fusion group Gongzilla appear on it.

Happy Rhodes sang on the Bon Lozaga-band Project Lo (CD: "Black Canvas", 1997), which might explain this connection.

**Dana5140** · 02-02-2015

Kimberley, yes. Ellen is Tori Amos.

**soundsweird** · 02-03-2015

Myra Ellen Amos

**interbellum** · 02-03-2015

Lots of clips of Happy Rhodes in this thread on the Nick Drake-forum:

http://www.nickdrake.com/talk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5504

B.t.w. David Torn has quite a few fine appearances on Building The Colossus, while Jerry Marotta plays on a couple of tracks too. This is one of her most arranged albums.