Author: bradbirzer

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.

Galahad’s SOLIDARITY: When Live is Even Better than Studio

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Galahad, SOLIDARITY: LIVE IN KONIN (2015).  Tracks: Salvation I and II; Guardian Angel; Empires Never Last; Secret Kingdoms and Secret Worlds; Singularity; Beyond the Barbed Wire; This Life Could Be My Last; Sleepers; Guardian Angel (reprise); Painted Lady; Seize the Day.

Birzer rating: blissfully stunned.

Out toady: Galahad's latest live album, SOLIDARITY.
Out today: Galahad’s latest live album, SOLIDARITY.

Sheesh.  What to say?  What to write?  Today is the release date of Galahad’s latest live album, SOLIDARITY: LIVE IN KONIN.  As with all live albums, of course, these are songs that had been perfected in the studio and on the mixing boards.  Our ears become rather use to these things of perfection.  And, certainly, few modern prog bands sound as good as Galahad when it comes to the studio releases.  It’s clear that the band comes together in amazing ways, all songs perfectly nurtured and engineered.

I wasn’t, however, quite sure how Galahad’s more recent music would translate live, though I know the band possesses a rather strong reputation as a live act.  As I understand it from my British and European friends, this comes from 1) the tightness of the band; and 2) the rather natural showmanship of Stu Nicholson.

Well, let me just state as bluntly as possible: SOLIDARITY is a gorgeous album.  Not only does the music sound every bit as good as on the studio albums, but Galahad clearly has some fun playing around with live sounds.  Additionally, the band has crafted a concert that has has much art to it as any placement of the tracks on a studio album.  That is, SOLIDARITY sounds like something beautifully crafted as an album, in and of itself.  It’s akin to a brand new studio release.  The positioning of tracks allows the band to present a long and relatively coherent story.  The placement of “Guardian Angel” toward the beginning and the end of the concert But, most of all, it’s Nicholson’s voice that stands out on SOLIDARITY.  If anything, he sounds even better live than he does in the studio!  And, this is about the highest praise I could give any vocalist.

The prog rock world is not only different from what it was a decade ago, but it’s also significantly different from just two years ago.  Galahad has made its own style of music since 1985, and the band has continued to hone that sound in vastly creative ways.

Long live, Galahad!

Journeys Through Beauty and Honesty: Kinetic Element’s TRAVELOG

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Kinetic Element: Mike Visaggio (keys and vocals); Michael Murray (drums and vocals); Todd Russell (guitars); and Mark Tupko (bass).

Travelog tracks: War Song; Travelog; Into the Lair; Her; and Vision.

Birzer rating: Mysterious and perfect

If I had to put a label on this. . . I would label it. . . .

Kinetic Element's second release, TRAVELOG, a thing of mystery and beauty.
Kinetic Element’s second release, TRAVELOG, a thing of mystery and beauty.

As much as I hate labels and labeling as forms of dismissal, I also recognize how important labels can be for finding context.  Every once in a while, I find a thing that is so beautiful it defies any labels or categorization.  Such is the new Kinetic Element album, TRAVELOG.  I’ve had a review copy for about 2 weeks, and I’ve enjoyed every listen.  Yes, every single one.  Indeed, “enjoy” is simply too weak.  This is an absolutely incredible album at every level.

For some reason, as I listen, I can’t get fanciful mergers and conglomerations out of my head.  TRAVELOG could be, an Americanized Flower Kings album.  This is what comes to mind most frequently.  Yet, I hear elements of Zebra and Saga and Triumph and Glass Hammer.  There’s psychedelia and folk and prog.  Lots and lots of prog.  No one would mistake this as anything other than a very authentic American expression of prog.  But, what kind of prog?

If early Styx wrote A TRICK OF THE TAIL.  If 1971 Allman Brothers wrote TORMATO.  If 1975 Kansas wrote the one and only Blind Faith album.  Yes, it’s this last one that fits best.  If you can imagine Livgren and co writing and performing “Do What You Like,” you’ll start to get the idea of Kinetic Element.

I love this album.  It’s a thing of intense and meandering beauty.  Just as the title of the album suggests, TRAVELOG is a journey through the dark night of the soul, finding doubts but also vistas of joy and, amazingly, patriotism.

Though over 20 minutes long, “War Song,” the opening track to the album, pulls the listener into the journey, full immersion, demanding a complete surrender of the will.  Though dominated by instrumental excursions—all heavenly—the minimal appearance of the lyrics makes the vocals all the more important.  The protagonist must choose between his love of country and his love of a specific woman.  Nothing is easy, and the choices demands sacrifice.  The listener feels every aspect of the pain the man goes through in his decision.

Track two stunned me.  A reworking of “America the Beautiful,” the song made me cynically wonder at what point would the band proclaim the irony of what they’re doing.  There is no such irony.  These guys absolutely mean what they say: America is beautiful, and we denigrate it at our own peril.  Honestly, as an American who rather proudly came of age in the 1980s in Kansas, I’ve not felt this proud to be American since 1989.  Thank you, Kinetic Element.  This is a song that could’ve gone wrong at every point.  It never does.

The third track, “Into the Lair,” is a cry against conformity, mediocrity, and a duplicitous Leviathan.  A new voice takes the lead vocals, a more folky version of Glass Hammer’s Suzie Bogdanowicz.

Track four, “Her” begins with unrelentingly romantic keys, but the lyrics reveals that the woman is not all she seems on the surface, seeking to devour her prey.

The final track, “Vision of a New Dawn,” is almost as long as the first track and certainly as epic.  Lyrically, it’s an anthem, a call for integrity, openness, and honesty.  This is Kinetic Element at its most Peartian.

To purchase the album, please go here: http://melodicrevolutionrecords.com/album/travelog

A final note, it wasn’t until I’d finished this review that I realized that Steve Babb and Fred Schendel mixed this album.  A lot more makes sense now—all to the good!

Musical Memories, Day 2: Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

Musical memory day 2.  My great friend, Tobbe Janson, nominated me to offer seven days of musical memories.  On day one, I talked about my love of two songs as a little kid: the theme from the Banana Splits and Snoopy and the Red Baron.

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up in a house where music always played and albums littered (in a very Germanic, organized fashion!) the walls, the shelves, and the vinyl boxes.  All music was accepted in our house: classical; opera; jazz; rock; prog; pop; and even musicals.  The latter two, admittedly, did the least for me, while I cherished the others.

This memory, however, comes not from the Great Plains of Kansas as a child but from Innsbruck, Austria, as a sophomore in college.  That year (July 1987-July 1988), I spent at the University of Innsbruck with several close friends, including current Facebook friends, Jim Otteson and Liz Bardwell.  Kevin McCormick was spending the same year in Rome.

This memory is intimately tied up with the place, but it is also tied up with my soul.  Sometime around the age of 13, I had decided I was an atheist or agnostic, and I became rather militant about it.  Without getting into the nitty gritty of it all, let me just state here and now that I was rather proud of my atheism, despite the the rather brilliant witness example of my extended family members and the continuing but very patient arguments about this with Kevin McCormick.  I found God on a train in the deserts of Morocco in late February, 1988.  Or, He found me.

When I made my way back to Innsbruck, I decided to attend high Mass at St. Jakob’s.  I was a minute or two late on a Sunday morning, and it was during an opening moment of silence.  At the end of that pregnant pause, the immense choir erupted into Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor.  I’m not sure I’d ever heard anything that beautiful or beatific in my life.  Though I’d always loved Mozart, his music had been just that: music.  Never had I heard it integrated into worship.  My soul soared at those opening coral notes, and I don’t think I’ve been the same.  When people tell me that Mass is a glimpse of heaven and I hear bad folk guitar playing the tripe of Marty Haugen or Dan Schutte, I cringe.  Surely, God has more class than this.

When I heard Mozart. . . then, I heard heaven.

Day 1 of Seven Musical Memories: Infancy

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My great friend, Tobbe Janson​, asked that I offer seven days of music-related memories. Thank you, Tobbe. Let the nostalgia begin.

Even earlier than my actual memory allows, I used to crawl out of my crib in the middle of the night. Sometimes, I was rather dangerous. My mom and two older brothers remember with much horror the one night that I had crawled onto the stovetop, lighting all the burners to full. When they heard me screaming, they ran down to find me standing in the middle of the stovetop. Amazingly, I stood perfectly in the middle, unharmed.

Usually, though, my 3 in the morning explorations were just plain mischievous. As far as I know, there was never a time in our house that we didn’t have music. Classical, jazz, musicals, rock. All was acceptable. Born in late 1960s, I became rather obsessed with two records. Frequently, I crawled out of the crib, descended downstairs, and put one of my two favorite singles on the stereo system. I’d not only figured out how to play records before I could walk, I knew how to blare the records at full volume, waking up my family. Most likely, I awoke several neighbors in my hometown of Great Bend, Kansas, as well. Our stereo went to 11.

The two songs: the Banana Splits Theme and Snoopy and the Red Barron.

Anglo-Saxon Perfection: English Boy Wonders by Big Big Train

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock3 Comments

Big Big Train, ENGLISH BOY WONDERS (Giant Electric Pea, 1997; 2008)

14 Tracks on the re-released version, 2008.  Interior/booklet art by Jim Trainer.

The interior art of English Boy Wonders. All interior art and design by Jim Trainer.
The interior art of English Boy Wonders. All interior art and design by Jim Trainer.

ENGLISH BOY WONDERS is, by far, the most “English” of all of Big Big Train’s albums.  Articulate, intelligent, penetrating, and romantic, the album should properly be listened to under grey skies with fog clinging to the land, an iron-gated cemetery to one side and a beautiful pale-skinned, red-headed woman just out of reach on the other, with a slight bit of drizzle in 55-degree weather.  The listener, of course, should be wearing tweed and fiddling with his pipe.  Perhaps, he should also have a battered, leather copy of Wordsworth or Tennyson as well.

I exaggerate, but only slightly.

As explained at the EBW promotional site:

English Boy Wonders was originally recorded on a limited budget & released by GEP in a semi-complete state in 1997. It has been unavailable for many years. For the 2008 re-release, Big Big Train have returned to the original master tapes & have re-recorded much of the album. Additional sections of music have also been written to complete the album as it was once intended. A bonus track featuring Martin Orford has been included & the album has been completely remixed & remastered by Rob Aubrey.

English Boy Wonders tells the heart breaking story of a doomed relationship across its 80 minutes of music & words. The album is a unique blend of progressive rock & English pop featuring many of Big Big Train’s finest songs.

Never shy about his melancholic, autumnal imagination, Greg Spawton actively and openly wrote a heart-wrenching story about loss on this second Big Big Train album.  And, not just loss. . . but desire, hope, longing, and unrequited love.

For those of us—and we are becoming immense in our numbers—who have come to fall in love with David Longdon’s voice (a voice I consider to be the single finest in the current era of rock), it’s difficult to hear BBT without him.  And, yet, on EBW, it was so.  No Longdon.  Not yet.  He’s not the only one missing.  A quick look reveals, of course, no Manners.  No D’Virgilio.  No Gregory.

Holy schnikees, what is this thing I hold so delicately in my hands?  How can it be so great as it is without those four distinctive personalities?

Well, at least Poole and Spawton are here.  And, thank the Northern pantheon of gods, very much so.  One can hear them and their brilliance in every note.  Not only is EBW so very English, it is so very BBT.  The complexity of the arrangements, the searing guitar, the swirling keyboards, the anxious drums, and Spawton’s heart rending lyrics.  Yes, this is Big Big Train.  With all BBT releases, Spawton and Poole never shy away from reflecting those they admire.  There’s some mid-period Genesis here, but there is also quite a bit of atmospheric jazz, with keyboards and drums far more daring than Collins and Banks ever tried.

And, for the newer release, the unofficial member of the band, that Anglos-audiophilic genius Rob Aubrey lends his extraordinary skills to EBW.

While the entire album is excellent and a must own, the tracks that lodge themselves firmly in the soul and mind are “Albion Perfide,” “Out of It,” “Reaching for John Dowland” and “The Shipping Forecast.”

Jim Trainer and Greg Spawton offer a nice look at the remake of the album and what needed to be done in 2008 in this interview: http://www.englishboywonders.com/ebw_interview.html

Apologies and An Explanation

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock3 Comments

progarchy a

Dear Progarchists,

First, let me apologize for all of the changes to progarchy.  I did my best to upgrade the site, but I, frankly, bit (byte?) off more than I could chew.

Second, I have returned us to the site as it was on September 29, 2015.  All links and credits are working again. Perfectly, from what I can tell.

Just to let you know, I had hired a third party to host the site rather than WordPress.  We are now back with WordPress, and I don’t anticipate leaving again.

I hope and trust you all approve, and, again, my apologies for the craziness.

Yours, humbled, Brad

P.S.  Today is the 3rd anniversary of Progarchy!!!!

Who Were the Inklings: A Primer

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While anyone who knows anything about C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, or Owen Barfield knows of the existence of the Inklings, The post Who Were the Inklings: A Primer appeared first on The Imaginative Conservative.

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/09/who-were-the-inklings-a-primer.html

Prospective – Chronosphere

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Bologna is not the first place that will pop on your mind when it comes to djent, but now we know that this Italian city has incepted at least one band that falls upon the djent tag. Originally project of multi-instrumentalist Flavio Cacciari, Prospective transformed to a full-time band with Cacciari focusing on drums, and…

http://www.prog-sphere.com/reviews/prospective-chronosphere/