By day, I'm a father of seven and husband of one. By night, I'm an author, a biographer, and a prog rocker. Interests: Rush, progressive rock, cultural criticisms, the Rocky Mountains, individual liberty, history, hiking, and science fiction.
Canadian (Floydian/space) prog band, Innerspace, has released its first video from the first album, “The Village.” This past summer, I wrote this about the new album.
Greatly indebted to 1970‘s Pink Floyd (and especially the guitar and vocal work of David Gilmour), Innerspace offers some incredible space rock, haunting vocals and sound effects, and beautiful melodies. From the information listed on the official website, the members of Innerspace look very young, and it gives me hope that these four will only get better (starting off very powerfully already). I’m especially impressed with their lyrics–touching and imagistic vignettes, full of emotion and hope when dealing with ordinary folks. The lyrics are also, in the great tradition of prog and, most especially, Pink Floyd, quite skeptical of political and economic authorities, in particular for those “behind the throne” where a “masquerade exists.” I’m with these guys. While the album flows together as a seamless whole, lyrically as well as musically, it really becomes a thing of brilliance around the middle of the third track, “Wild Flower.” From this part in the album, I just sit back and enjoy the ride.
For our British friends, a message from Matt Cohen of The Reasoning.
There will be a feature on wales tonight programme which is on ITV now and also on S4C this evening at 9pm Y Byd ar Bedwar, please watch if you are in Wales xx
Can it really be 15 years? A whole 15 years since Hanson’s ‘Mmmbop’ was No.1? June 1997 was quite the month for seismic rock masterpieces chronicling our millennial woes and sticky fears, and Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’ was right there in the claustrophobic thick of it. To toast its birthday (16 June), here are 20 things you might not know about it.
Saturday saw the end of the final act in the life and times of English prog band Twelfth Night after 33 dramatic years of recording and touring.
This took the form of a concert performed in front of friends, fans and family at, very aptly, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s theatre at the Barbican in London.
Twelfth Night first appeared on the scene around about the time the label neo-prog was invented to describe other emergent bands such as IQ, Pallas and of course, Marillion as well as themselves.
However, early claims to fame included appearances on the very first David Essex Showcase on television in 1982 and later on the Old Grey Whistle Test. But they carved their own special niche through the song writing combination of lead singer Geoff Mann and multi-instrumentalist Clive Mitten which yielded a trove of distinctive songs, many of which were revisited on Saturday.
The history of the band is thoroughly documented in Play On (The Authorised Biography of Twelfth Night) by Andrew Wild and charts a band career that has been scarred by death (of Mann from cancer in 1993), marred by poor record sales and finally, it reached an untenable situation where two different factions were going out on the road playing the music.
So the decision was made to make Danfest in Leicester last month, the final public appearance by one of the factions, the Cryptic Clues who also played the Peel in Kingston, London; the Summer’s End and Proguphoria festivals to much acclaim from critics and fans. Continue reading “Curtain Comes Down on Twelfth Night”→
By way of introduction, I grew up in and around Southern Appalachia. I’m as conversant on Roscoe Holcomb, Flatt & Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers as Robert Fripp, Crack the Sky and Spock’s Beard. I grew up hearing pop, psychedelic and folk/country stirred together. When I was 8 years old Tommy James’ “Sweet Cherry Wine,” with its church organ, quasi-religious lyrics and Leslie speaker-distorted background vocals helped shape my standards for genre-bending music. It was fairly inevitable that I would fall in love with progressive rock. But I have a peculiar need to find harmony in disparate styles. That in part explains my choice for a first submission to Progarchy.
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The most memorable mental picture I have of early Genesis came from a set played on Belgian TV: Steve Hackett, with black beard and aviator spectacles, sitting at Peter Gabriel’s hand, ripping through the furious instrumental break of “The Musical Box” on his black Les Paul. After whipping the pick up the neck Hackett dropped his hands to his knees and sat like a classical musician at rest, his section of the piece done. I’d never seen anything like his demeanor in a rock band. Hackett could have just played with the London Philharmonic.
It’s easy to forget that Steve Hackett was not the first Genesis lead guitarist. A year earlier his “seat” was filled by Anthony Phillips, classmate of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford at Surrey’s exclusive Charterhouse School, a place where future gentlemen were groomed. Among many distinguished Old Cartusians was Ralph Vaughan Williams, collector of English folk songs and hymns who melded them into memorable classical pieces like Norfolk Rhapsody and the fantasias on “Greensleeves” and a Theme by Thomas Tallis. To listen to Phillips-era Genesis is to be reminded of Charterhouse manners and influence, which included things like mandatory chapel attendance and respect for the ancient traditions of England. The medieval, the rural, and the sacred surrounded the lads as they turned their attention to becoming pop song writers in 1967.
I always enjoy reading best of lists for progressive music. To see how the music I listened to resonated with other listeners, to agree or disagree with the finalists, to discover a gem that might not have hit my radar, it’s a great time of the year, especially with the strength of the music in 2012.
Let me start by saying that I list both my good list and not so good list, which may ruffle a few feathers if those releases were on your good list. However, having played drums since the age of 8, and still trying to play along with these amazing musicians via headphones today, I have profound respect for the challenges and extraordinary effort it takes artists to produce an album today. There are few dedicated musicians, especially in progressive music, due to the need for other sources of income to support themselves and their families. If you have ever sat through recording sessions, it is painful, tedious, boring and demanding. And we really don’t appreciate how good these musicians are today, the hours of practice, the days of writing, to produce this body of work we pick through for our best of lists.
Top 7 Releases of the Year
Echolyn- The Windows CD. Beautiful production, brilliant harmonies, outstanding attention to detail by a band who has been at it for 16 years and keeps getting better.
Big Big Train-English Electric 1. High expectations, and the band did not disappoint. Another great production,, with a larger soundstage and bigger sound, continuing the brass but adding some fiddle/violin and strings, recorder, banjo and a dense chorus of vocals. Tied with Echolyn for most ear time in 2012.
Anglagard-Viljans Oga. Superb musicians take a bit of Crimson, the Scandinavian influences, folk, classical and progressive elements and blend them into a unique offering. Only their third release in 20 years (!), the band has had a rocky past and has restructured since the release of this CD, with the departure of Mattias Olson and the addition of a new drummer and keyboard player.
IZZ-Crush of Night. Strong composition and consistent performance make for another great IZZ CD that has held up great since release. Love the mix of male and female vocals.
Gazpacho-March of Ghosts. Not quite up to Tick Tock and Night, but a beautiful soothing release. Wish they could tune the production a bit as the mix gets messy in the louder sections.
Glass Hammer-Perilous. I still like IF better, and the drums are kind of muddy/muffled, but the music is a progressive feast. I could do without the similarities to Anderson in both style and lyrics-(we dance, we sing, the river, I could see the truth and at once we raced from darkness to light) make the similarities to Yes a bit unnerving in a few sections.
Sylvan-Sceneries. Maybe because it was released in spring, and there are some beautiful dramatic moments, but I have enjoyed this CD all year.
One of my greatest pleasures of 2012–and there have been many–has been listening to massive quantities of progressive rock, mostly for pleasure.
Being a literary and humanities guy, I’d contemplated rejecting the entire numerical ranking scheme. Rather, I thought about labeling each of my best albums with various qualities of myth. These albums achieved the level of Virgil; these of Dante; these of Tolkien, etc. But, I finally decided this was way too pretentious . . . even for me.
Below are my rankings for the year. Anyone who knows me will not be surprised by any of these choices. I’m not exactly subtle in what I like and dislike. Before listing them, though, I must state three things.
First, I loved all of these albums, or I wouldn’t be listing them here. That is, once you’ve made it to Valhalla or Olympus, why bother with too many distinctions. The differences between my appreciation of number 8 and number 2, for example, are marginal at best.
Second, I am intentionally leaving a couple of releases out of the rankings: releases from Echolyn, The Enid, Minstrel’s Ghost, Galahad, and Kompendium, in particular, as I simply did not have time to digest them. Though, from what I’ve heard, I like each very much.
Third, I think that 2012 has proven to be the single greatest year in prog history. DPRP’s Brian Watson has argued that we’re in the “third wave of prog.” He might very well be right. But, I don’t think we’ve ever surpassed the sheer quality of albums released this year. This is not to belittle anything that has come before. Quite the contrary. I am, after all, a historian by profession and training. The past is always prologue. Close to the Edge,Selling England by the Pound, and Spirit of Eden will always be the great markers of the past.
Well prog pickers, it has been another stunning year of music in the progsphere and as the slogan on one of my tee-shirt reads, “So much prog: so little time”. How true is that! Reviewing prog rock is probably one of the most complicated but ultimately rewarding jobs on the planet. It is never easy to assess any prog album simply on one take or at face value. It takes time to appreciate the months and often years of work which go into making this kind of music.
There are without doubt many albums I have missed this year, many of which have appeared in others’ picks of the years. Hopefully, I will get around to hearing them in due course, but already, 2013 is promising to be another incredible year of new music. It has been a hard task picking 12 but ultimately, these are the albums which rocked my world this year and hopefully, yours too.
12. Moments – IO Earth. This is the second album by the Birmingham band whose brand of hauntingly atmospheric prog continues to delight and confound in equal measures. It is moody and magnificent with some highly original passages and virtuoso playing.
11. Crimes and Reasons – Steve Thorne. A sublime collection of varied and thoughtful songs featuring a stellar cast of artists such as Tony Levin and Nick D’Virgilio brought to you by the very under-rated Mr Thorne, who writes, plays and has one of the most haunting voices in prog.
Canadian (Floydian/space) prog band, Innerspace, has released its first video from the first album, “The Village.” This past summer, I wrote this about the new album.
Progarchy 