Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
'Landing Soon' the most recent release from LIFE ON MARS shows the musical versatility of the two ladies that power this rock solid combo. Vocalist Tracey Blue and Linda Marso on piano.
These two talented (and drop dead gorgeous) ladies are capable of not only serving up groove laden rockers, but also the well-thought-out complexities of a good power ballad.
With tracks such as the hypnotic seduction of "Anyway", the groove laden mover "In Over My Head" and the haunting "Things Were Fine". Linda and Tracey have voices unlike any other.
'Landing Soon' is a CD that will have your undivided attention from start to finish. You just don't hear straight ahead rock music like this anymore.
'Landing Soon' is a great album and worthy of a listen by anyone who appreciates great songwriting, powerful vocals and great music in general.
Whoever says women can't ROCK has never bothered listening to LIFE ON MARS. These girls can rock and there's no doubt about it.
Life On Mar's sound is clean and crisp and every song rocks. I for one am looking forward to what Life On Mars come up with next.
Review by Dedicated Rocker Productions
MARCH 2006
- ALL ACCESS MAGAZINE.COM
Thank you for taking the time to look at this :-)
You can hear our interview with Paul Slatkus if you visit this link for the audio file:
http://goodnews.lot212.com/printout.asp?id=105363&type=0
OUR INTERVIEW IS LISTED AS:
Life on Mars
4/5/2006
Online Audio Interview!
Good News speaks with Linda Marso and Tracey Blue.
Thank you again for considering Life On Mars! :-)
April 2006 - Good News Broadcasting
*****! (5 stars out of 4 with !)
Reviewer: Olivier Morin
Life On Mars have delivered a superb melodic rock album providing a great alternative to contemporary corporate rock. The quality is so consistent that picking standout cuts is almost impossible.
The album flows beautifully from track to track with each song being delivered with sheer intensity.
Nothing here has been left to chance and you can feel the emotion poured into each note.
There is a lot of music going on here and a lot of different musical parts to get to know from haunting ballads to intelligent rockers. It grows on you as you get to know them with each play revealing another wrinkle.
Full marks go to keyboardist and songwriting wizard Linda Marso as well as stellar singer Tracey Blue for creating such a great chemistry and providing us with an utterly brilliant collection of songs.
An essential purchase. - CDBaby-Consumer Review
*****! (5 stars with !)
Reviewer: Sheko
Fantastic melodies and atmosphere surroundings, great vocals! - CDBaby -Consumer Review
*****! (5 stars with !)
Reviewer: Honor Cotton
You ladies are great... I love your music.. I hope everyone else enjoys your music just as much as I do. I love every song on the cd. Keep keepin on. Rock on with your Music... - CD Baby-Consumer Review
The well-dressed duo that makes up Life On Mars is comprised of singer Tracey Blue and keyboardist/sound designer Linda Marso.
These stunning ladies have created some passionate music that has its new age roots but moves beyond them into the world of rock.
Marso's keyboard playing is accomplished and strong, creating a solid musical bed for Blue's emotional delivery of their heartfelt and poignant lyrics. There is a theme of healing through the record, and it's obvioius these ladies are survivors, not to mention powerful performers.
Their well-produced music is loaded with great keyboard playing, and their image is fantastic.
Life On Mars should find a lot of success right here on earth! - Robert Gennet
Do you remember the US group Heart from the 1980's? Two rock chick sisters who were more or less famous for their big rock ballads.
The 21st century now has an equivalent and I have to say that they look and sound a lot better than Heart ever did.
These days there are not a lot of women who take to singing rock music anymore and it is a shame as the music market is just saturated by lame Dido wannabes.
The sort of music that Life On Mars makes is a nice change.
Founder Linda Marso, a classically trained pianist along with lead vocalist Tracey Blue, who has the vocal cords of a goddess, together make the sort of grandiose music that Jim Steinman is famous for.
Due to this the songs do sound familiar to this reviewer and at times it is hard not to like what this group are doing. The songs are not the least bit cheesy as each one has their own charm.
While the focus on Life On Mars are obviously the two women, the other musicians have had either some sort of musical training or have performed with other artists.
As with most rock music, you can expect guitar solos to crop up at certain points of each song and thankfully these do not outstay its welcome.
So there you have it - if big dramatic rock ballads without the cheese is your sort of thing, you will enjoy Life On Mars.
****
October 2005 - Phase 9 (UK, USA and Canada)
Discography
Life On Mars - Life On Mars (3 songs)
Life On Mars - Too (5 songs)
Life On Mars - Sola (5 songs)
Life On Mars - Cry The Morning After (single)
Life On Mars - Last Thursday (single)
Life On Mars - Landing Soon (album)
All 11 tracks from Landing Soon available for streaming. Archival recordings upon request
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Linda Marso started her formal classical training young enough that she had to climb up the piano bench for her first classical performance because her feet could not reach the floor.
In addition to studying jazz piano, synthesizer programming and composition at Dick Groves in Los Angeles, piano and composition at The Juilliard School in New York and sound design at New England Conservatory in Boston, she was mentored by a series of some of world's best pianists including Edwin Swanston (Louis Armstrong, Harlem All Star Blues Band) and John "King" Cleary.
Besides founding LIFE ON MARS' in 1989, she also played keyboards for legendary guitarist Larry Mitchell, worked and performed with "Toys" in Germany and prior, a solo performance on RAI, Italian television.
She wrote and produced "Landing Soon", the most recent Life On Mars release in addition to engineering many of the sessions at Life On Mars" studio, Mars Bars Records. Marso also wrote articles as the keyboard technical writer for "The Music Paper".
Tracey Blue, who replaced the original lead vocalist in 1991. The range of expression and passion generated by her vocal chords are a ten-course meal for your ears.
It is almost unheard of for a vocalist with her power and range to attain her results without professional training, which makes her talent even more extraordinary.
Blue co-wrote the lyrics of "Mirror Mirror" and "Why" included in the last release and are one of the arteries of LIFE ON MARS.
Tracey and Linda knew that filling Larry Mitchell's shoes when he relocated to New Mexico was a daunting search but fortunately, were joined by long-time friend, Ray DeTone.
His melodic and emotional style and many of LIFE ON MARS' live performances highlight his phenomenal guitar talents. Ray has been featured in Guitar Magazine, has licensed his music in Japan and to MTV. He is sponsored by VHT Amps, DR Strings, MIT cables, D'Andrea picks and Bag End speakers.
If LIFE ON MARS has never been an average rock band, part of the reason is the addition of cellist, Dave Eggar. Eggar began his career as a Leonard Bernstein scholar at Harvard University making his professional debut performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Eggar was a founding member of Flux and has performed with The Who, Sinead O'Connor, Ornette Coleman and studied with Yo-Yo Ma.
JP Patterson, the backbone of the beats, is known best as the drummer of Dictators and Wild Kingdom and lives up to his nickname "Thunderbolt". He also has over 100 film and television credits.
Bassist Yanko Valdes was born in Mendoza, Argentina, raised in Santiago de Chile and began to play the guitar at the age of seven. He moved to Brooklyn at twelve and convinced his mother to buy him an electric bass.
Yanko has performed and recorded with Chilean compser Hugo Moraga both in N.Y. and Chile as well as double bass with Kiyoto Fujiwara (MG4, Horace Silver, Thomas Chapin).
As a solo artist, he has composed and produced two albums, Zekondz (2001) and Ideas de Camara (2003)
Life On Mars is currently in pre-production for their next CD titled “Phoenix” to be released in fall of 2006.
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