“What other planets are out there? Could there be any life 40 light-years away?” – The new 360° video for Richard Barbieri’s track “Solar Sea”, explores these questions, imagines these new worlds – colliding planets, ice crystals inside a hollow comet, volcanic asteroids spewing molten lava into open space and a breathtaking finale.
Does anyone have any idea how to categorize movie soundtracks?
Certainly, by its very nature, prog is cinematic, often eerily so. But what about actual sound tracks? Do soundtrack composers–aside from Trevor Rabin–think of themselves as classical artists? Rock? Or, are soundtracks their own strange genre?
Why do I ask, you ask.
Since BATMAN BEGINS first came out in the theaters, I’ve regarded it as one of my two or three all-time favorite movies. It didn’t beat out my favorite, Hitchcock’s ROPE, but it came really close. In fact, I liked it so much, that I never quite made it through THE DARK KNIGHT, as I felt that second movie undermined everything the first accomplished.
Elbow has yet to make it big in Jap. . . the United States. I’m not sure why. Their sensibilities should be perfect for a variety of radio formats here. But, sadly, Elbow remains generally unknown. I first came across them because Greg Spawton of Big Big Train recommended Elbow as well as Mew as two of his favorite bands.
Then, of course, Peter Gabriel produced a stunning version of the band’s “Mirrorball.”
Since 2009, I’ve ordered the bands complete catalogue, much to my own personal happiness. For whatever reasons (and I’m sure there are several, but they remain unexamined; Socrates would not approve), my favorite albums from the band are THE SELDOM SEEN KID and BUILD A ROCKET BOYS!
Continue reading “What Do You Do With a Problem Like Elbow?”
I’m very happy to announce the release of a new band and a new album: BECOMING ONE by Birzer Bandana. Yes, for better or worse, I’m the Birzer in Birzer Bandana. The Bandana is Dave Bandana of Salander.
When Dave asked me to write lyrics for a forthcoming album, I was beyond thrilled. Having been a prog rock fan since my earliest memories of childhood, I’ve always wanted to be an intimate part of the act of creation. Sadly, though I have wide-ranging as well as specific tastes in music, I know next to nothing about composition or performance. I do, however, have lots of ideas and words floating around that odd organ known as the human brain. The first idea that came into my mind came from one of my favorite novels, Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. This provided the opening scene, but everything that followed came from my own love of vast, deserted, and broken landscapes and Mark Hollis-esque minimalistic and imagist lyrics. “Becoming One,” then, is a bit post-apocalyptic sci-fi, a bit psychological and theological, and a whole lot of cathartic. Dave masterfully took these poor words and made them something epic. Proggy and epic. But, then again, all prog is epic and all epic is prog. We hope you enjoy our first collaboration—Brad (and Dave), March 18, 2017.
All instruments played by Dave Bandana—except Olga Kent violin on “Awash” and “The Dance” and Mick Bennett who played guitar on “3 To 1.” Dave on vocals, bass, guitars, drums, drum programming, synths, piano, organ, and mellotron.
Produced, engineered and mastered by Dave Bandana at Villa Clavell studios.
Written by Dave Bandana (music) and Brad Birzer (concept and lyrics); Birzer Bandana, ©2017.
Drawing by Lyn Phillips; colouring and graphics by Kim Varner-Fulmer.
https://birzerbandana.bandcamp.com
Andy posted this two days ago on Facebook. My apologies for not getting it up on Progarchy sooner. My excuse: I’m on spring break!
So here’s where we are right now.
“All is safely gathered in” as the great English harvest hymn proclaims. Just over a week ago Theo Travis was up here in Yorkshire having a lot of tea and recording all his parts for the new record… the final bass sections arrived from Austria where Jonas is currently recording and the record is now in the mixdown stage.
This time it’s gonna be completely different in procedure. I decided that it was time to have a change in how we produce our records and after Luke’s excellent work for us on “A Few Steps” decided that it was time to hand over the reins to a guy who has been a colleague and friend of mine for nearly a decade now. Luke threw himself into helping me with the production of “Comm” and in the years since then I think that his talents in the production department have advanced so much that it would be senseless to ignore them in favour of satisfying my own desire to do the work myself.
Rather than do a kind of “shared” production, I decided that Luke should totally “have the Conn” as they say in all good submarining films and “Star Trek.” That was, of course, if he accepted the job – and I’m very pleased to say he did.
The album has been composed for months now and was all put together here in Yorkshire on my PC system (other than guitars, basses and Marie’s vocals) A couple of months ago, everything was normal… but then came the major task… we had to migrate the whole session, lock stock and barrel from a PC in Yorkshire to a Mac in Brighton running a totally different recording system. I’ll just take some time to explain what this involves….
One way we COULD have approached this was by me submixing a Drum track, bass track, keys track and guitars track etc… so that Luke could do a mix of – well… er… what i had already mixed. After a few discussions we decided that this isn’t what we wanted to do – we wanted Luke to have the whole enchilada available to him so he could actually do a real mix as is if had the whole multitrack archive..
So – the procedure started – of taking every single instrument, every sound, every vocal line, every drum, cymbal, hi hat and sound effect an making a full stereo or mono file of just that. In the case of Slow Rust this meant generating a 26 minute long 24 bit wav file for more than 60 instruments or microphones. Then sending these 60 half gigabyte files over the internet.
This would have all been a lot easier if I’d been a Mac user, but that’s not the case, so this way was the only way to give Luke the true freedom of the mix.
For me it’s been a weird and unsettling experience. It’s the first time that I have ever taken my hands off the wheel in one of our projects. But now, as the results start to come in, I am delighted with the way it’s all sounding – and indeed am forging a relationship with the music of this album that isn’t as tainted by my frustrations of having had to mix it. Luke understands my ideas so well, knows what I’m after yet introduces new techniques and ideas that were beyond my normal experience.
Of course I am still involved in the mix – I suggest tweaks, modifications, like ideas, reject ideas… ask for things to be done etc… but this is more of an “executive” role than the one I have played since the beginning. It’s allowed me to spend more time on the composition and playing and keep my head clear right to the end of the process.
Couple of weeks from now it will be all done.. and in July – hopefully you’ll hear the fruit of our labours. The content of the album is very much “an album I wanted to make” rather than a career move or an attempt to solidify our position in global rankings. I started writing it in 2014 while on tour with The Tangent and Karmakanic. A lot has happened since then – both to me and to the world. When it’s finally done. I’ll tell you more.
I often believe that Marillion is as much a mood or a state of mind as it is a band. I try hard to keep up with band, but, frankly, it’s hard at times. The band does so much and so often that I sometimes realize months later that they’ve released this or that DVD, blu-ray, CD, or download. Clearly, this is a first-world problem, and it’s a joyous one.
Only about a month or so ago did I realize that the band had released a blu-ray set of its three nights playing in the Netherlands in March, 2015. One disk per night.
Disk one: “Waves and Numbers,” March 20, 2015
Disk two: “Marbles in the Park,” March 21, 2015
Disk three: “Singles Night,” March 22, 2015
A mood, a state of being. The essence of Marillion?
I have few regrets in life, even after 49 years, but I do regret that I have yet to see the band live. I hope the Good Lord grants me the time still to make this a reality.
Ok, so I’m a sucker for cool names and unusual titles. Whatever melodeath is, I don’t have a clue. But, the word intrigues me.
An email from the band states: “Iapetus is not a project based on any desire for fame or monetary success – we’re just two dudes who love making music, and who want people to hear and connect with what we’ve made. To that end, our album will be entirely free in its digital (and possibly physical) format forever.”
Here’s the press release:
This looks pretty great.
From MVD:
Culled from concerts in Chile, Brazil and Argentina in 1993 and 1997, ELP Live in South America is an essential collection to the catalog of this progressive rock supergroup. Features versions of their hits from their forty five year career including Lucky Man, From The Beginning, Hoedown, Knife Edge and Pictures at an Exhibition. Four CDS of great listening.
CD TRACKLISTING
Disc 1:
From ForceField Media:
“We walked down streets and crammed onto trains, our faces masks of fear. Unsure how to react, we, collectively, did not react. We grieved for a country and an ideal we never thought would die. We grieved for a loss of certainty.
We argued about what we thought would happen. We preached understanding. We advocated for anger. Some people said that we’d at least get some incredible art, other people said that was a small view of a world we were quickly realizing we’d misunderstood. Everyone was right. Everyone was wrong. Art made in precarious times matters as much as we let it matter.
But what are we looking for from the art we enjoy? Escapism? A reckoning with harsh reality? A temporary shared hallucination? Music can heal because it presents the pain of being human as universal.
Musically, an homage to Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, “Kingmaker” tells the story of a powerful and devout medieval woman, Eadgyth, the granddaughter of King Alfred the Great, and often remembered in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions as “St. Edith” (one of a few St. Ediths, this Edith might have been known as “St. Edith of Polesworth; not surprisingly, many of the traditions are vague).
The sister of King Athelstan, she married King Otto of Germany in 929. Wildly popular, she promoted a devotion to St. Oswald, one of the most romantic figures of the high middle ages.
Only relatively recently, English scholars discovered her bones.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/17/archaeology-forensicscience
Continue reading “Princess Eadgyth (Edith), the “Kingmaker” by Big Big Train”
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