This Sunday, 2pmEST, Geoff Banks will be presenting his ten best prog albums of the year. Geoff is a master not only of prog, but he’s also an excellent host (no matter how humble he is about this). Make sure you tune into his show, PROG DOG, this Sunday.
December 16: http://myradiostream.com/progdog
Enjoy.
Dear Artists, Groups, Record Labels, Engineers, Producers, Managers, and assorted Fellow Humans,
We the Progarchists absolutely love music. Indeed, we consider it one of the finest things in the world. Please let us review your work. We’re dropbox, email, and mail friendly. If you send us something, I promise we’ll consider your trust in us a sacred one. We will treat your work with all due respect.
Though we specialize in progressive and art rock, we feel qualified to review anything classical, rock, jazz, or blues related. Sacred music is fine as well.
For email notices, inquiries, news, etc., please contact us at bradbirzer@gmail.com.
For actual, physical, tangible mail (yes, we still love CDs and vinyl), please use the following:
Brad Birzer/editor
Progarchy
6 West Montgomery
Hillsdale MI 49242 USA
We also love interviews.
Yours,
The Progarchists
Ave, Greg Spawton! Greg has just revealed the cover art for the forthcoming English Electric Part Two. Out March 4, 2013.
by Brad Birzer, Progarchist Editor
Though Progarchy is only two months old, I’m absolutely thrilled with its successes. A thanks, first, to all of you out in the world (it’s a blast to look at the google map of who checks us out daily) who read us. I hope you keep coming back to us.
Second, though, an immense thanks to all of the Progarchist writers. Everything written here is purely voluntary. We each have full-time jobs and families, but we do this because we love it.
We’re certainly not the biggest music website, but I believe that–in terms of sheer literary quality–no other website matches us. I would hold any one of our writers (individually or collectively) against any other group of writers in the blogosphere. If this sounds cocky, I apologize. But, as editor, I find it quite humbling. We really like each other, but we also believe that the importance of the music demands that we write and try to match with our utmost abilities. On this, I think we’ve succeeded.
Additionally, though the site is based in the western Great Lakes of North America, we also have writers from the U.K., Brazil, and New Zealand. We’re hoping to have someone from Antarctica soon—Penguin Prog?—but, it’s been more difficult than one might first imagine.
As 2012 comes to its necessary and inescapable end, each of the Progarchists has been asked—as time permits—to rank her or his favorite albums of the past year.
I’ll be ranking my top fifteen albums as well, and I’m sure my number one pick of the year, which I think is the best album of the last twenty-four years, will probably come as no surprise to anyone.
Continue reading “Songs from the Hedgerow: Preliminary Awards, 2012”
I received this via email this morning. Glad to see it. I ordered my physical CD quite a while ago, but I’ve still not received it. It seems to be quite the rage in British and European prog circles. Now, North and South Americans can download it as well. Amen.
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Firstly we would like to thank everybody for purchasing the album and for all their kind words and compliments. The album is really doing well and getting a great reaction across the board.
We would really appreciate any way that you can spread the word about Kompendium; Forums, Facebook, Radio Stations and TV.
For us it’s all about getting the word out that this special album is available. So all help is warmly appreciated.
Continue reading “Kompendium now available for download”
Two things I never hide: my love of Christmas Music and my love of the music of guitarist Matt Stevens. Matt is one of our single best living guitarists. Here, he puts his own very reverent and tasteful twist on a holiday classic. You can listen to it for free. If you like it, please purchase a download copy. It’s very much worth supporting Matt–as an artist and an entrepreneur.
If any of you are looking for profundity in rock, look no further than the new Glass Hammer album, PERILOUS. I finally had the chance to read through the entire story and lyrics last night. What a moment. Indeed, I really doubt that I’ll ever forget that reading.
From the opening line, I fully entered into the story, an immersion that only T.S. Eliot and Big Big Train (Greg Spawton!) have offered me before.
Steve Babb has explained that the lyrics are an allegory, meant to be discovered by each listener. I must admit, I’m still not sure I’ve figured out the allegory despite having this CD in rotation almost constantly since it arrived in late October. But, the imagery of the lyrics–or, more properly, the “Imagism”–is more than a bit boggling to the mind.
The best way to describe the obvious meaning of the text is of a man (whether alive or dead; or perhaps on a journey through the purgatory in a Dantesque or Bradburyesque fashion) is of a man crossing through a grave yard, meeting many souls (redeemed, damned, and otherwise) and being offered distractions and temptations the entire way.
Babb is somewhat famous in the prog community for being a master storyteller as well as for being a satirist. But, these lyrics are even something special for the already brilliant Babb. This is the kind of album that reminds me progressive rock is not just “rock plus” but true art.
Even if you’re not a prog fan, you will almost certainly find the lyrics stunning. I’ll offer a full review of the album very soon, but I had to post this now–such is my state of euphoria regarding this album.
Progarchy 