The concept album to end all concept albums has come again. Fifty-two years after its initial release, 666 by Aphrodite’s Child – a sprawlingly ambitious and bombastic sonic interpretation of The Book Of Revelation – gets the kind of reissue treatment reserved only for the most revered of cult classics.
As well as a double album and four-CD set, there’s also an exhaustive box set featuring the remastered original album, a 1974 Greek release mix, a 5.1 mix and an Atmos Up-Mix overseen by Vangelis before his death. And if that weren’t enough, there’s a Blu-ray interview with Vangelis from 1972 taken from the French TV show Discorama to get stuck into as well.
As its subtitle, The Apocalypse Of John, suggests, the album concept is essentially the Biblical end of the world, with Aphrodite’s Child performing in a big top as the Rapture kicks off beyond the conical roof. The godfathers of eschatological prog can foresee Judgment Day with an audacious clarity – even if they didn’t anticipate the internecine studio bickering or the protracted dispute with Mercury Records that was to follow.
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The record begins with a crowd chanting ‘Fuck the system!’ and that’s where any semblance of order dissipates. The unexpected comes in many forms, be it the rolling toms and clarion trumpets of Babylon, the musique concrète of Seven Bowls, the tin whistle and bodhran merry dance of The Wedding Of The Lamb, the interjections of spoken word on tracks like The Capture Of The Beast, the wild jazz horns of Tribulation, the proto-ambience of Aegian Sea or the jazz-rock dadaism of Do It.
If that doesn’t provide enough variety, there’s also Infinity, where Greek actress Irene Papas chants for five minutes while simulating an orgasm. It’s certainly not a record for the faint-hearted, or for Mercury, as it goes, who stalled the release for a year thanks to that offending track.
Nevertheless, for all the lunacy, there’s also Four Horsemen, an irresistibly original melange of ethereal chimes and pitch-bending drones and Demis Roussos’ inspired, vertiginous singing, with the whole track lifting off from the introduction of Lucas Sideras’s unerring breakbeat. It’s pure alchemy, and rendered in Vangelis’s Atmos mix, it makes Armageddon sound surprisingly inviting.
By the time 666 eventually made it into the world, Aphrodite’s Child had already broken up; though in a way there was really nowhere left to go after such an insane record. With that in mind, Roussos’ subsequent schmaltzy, unchallenging balladry can almost be viewed as therapy.
666 is on sale now via UMR.
