Are we mad? What is Progarchy doing? Who would foolishly dare to review a new single from the Beatles?
Thanks to the miracles of artificial intelligence, John’s vocal track was able to be isolated and separated from his piano accompaniment. Then Paul and Ringo were able to finish what they started with George back in 1995: a complete Beatles rendition of John’s song idea.
It’s wonderful stuff, and let the following observations suffice for our review. The Beatles have always been a prog band. They were the first rock and roll embodiment of the prog spirit, taking the genre to progress beyond rock’s apotheosis in Elvis and his predecessors. The progression of the Beatles is evident by contrasting the Red Album with the Blue Album: there are no limits to the rock genre beyond imagination.
Therefore the genre evolved beyond singles to albums. And it is the album that is the playground of prog music. Beyond a mere single, prog needs at least 30 to 40 minutes in order to embody its imaginative ideals. Thus, the Beatles perfected the rock album with progressive influences on Rubber Soul and Revolver, both replete with innovative strings and tech-savvy sound effects.
Finally, they invented the prog album with Sgt. Pepper’s, the White Album, and Abbey Road. Side two of Abbey Road became the mission statement for every prog rock artist ever after. And now the Beatles are first to deploy AI to consolidate their definitive prog rock immortality.
Hence we state quite clearly: now and then, it is prog that rules. Call it “progarchy,” if you will. But the Beatles, as ever, now and then, show us the way. Excelsior!
With the release of The Harmony Codex, it’s now official. Steven Wilson is a member of The Academy of the Overrated.
I’m not talking about him as technician. He is indisputably a technical wizard who can create amazing sonic experiences. Beyond his own work, he is well known as someone who remixes classic albums and creates the best audio soundscapes.
But as a musician and songwriter he is vastly overrated. Sure, he’s a great instrumentalist, just as he is a great technician and arranger. But after releasing two stinkers in a row—The Harmony Codex and The Future Bites—we must admit that his only two works of genius—The Raven That Refused to Sing and Hand Cannot Erase—are total outliers.
Everything else he has done, whether solo or in a group, has always struck me as abominably overrated. There’s something lacking in the vast majority of his work. Set aside his only two brilliant albums and his work as an audio consultant. Everything else is just pretty good, but yet consistently soulless and pretentious.
How then could he produce two brilliant albums? Well, a stopped clock can be correct twice a day. But a better analogy for Wilson would be a perpetual motion machine that finds a true groove only twice in its lifetime of operation.
His soullessness and pretentiousness is magnified to intolerable degrees on The Harmony Codex and The Future Bites. The latter album was pretty bad, but The Harmony Codex is even worse. Take the spoken word nonsense on the title track, which then reappears on “Staircase.” It’s devoid of any meaning except pretension. Hey Steven, actual brutal fact: you alone dreamt up this album, and really it’s boringly bad.
It’s hilarious to me how many people in their reviews give this new album the benefit of the doubt and profess faith in how much better it will sound after more listens. Hey people, that tactic didn’t pan out with The Future Bites, and it’s sure not gonna happen with this one.
There are no songs here. The only moments of promise are the “love it all” catharsis in “What Life Brings,” and the one minute of awesome bass playing around the half-way mark of “Staircase” (but that killer bass work only lasts for a single minute; instead of wisely building on it to an album crescendo, Wilson blows it and decides to end the disc with repetition of the sophomoric doggerel from “The Harmony Codex”).
The diminishing reappearance of Ninet Tayeb on this album also demonstrates that Wilson is secretly operating according to an invisible template. Despite his desire to be original, he just keeps on being an unoriginal version of Steven Wilson. (Even his trademark falsetto is getting old.)
But if he were to do another homage to classic prog, like Raven it would paradoxically become original (because paradoxically it takes real skill to pay truly noble tribute to one’s betters). Instead he gets stuck on dumb ideas for the sake of originality: “Guitars are boring. Let’s do everything with synths instead.”
The failed attempt here at a real prog instrumental (“Impossible Tightrope”) goes nowhere, despite Wilson’s attempt to walk the tightrope of pleasing his prog fans (but nonetheless finding that task impossible). This illustrates what is perhaps most galling: the fact that Wilson consistently self-sabotages his best self. Instead of working within a recognizable idiom, he tries too hard to be original. But face the music: Wilson hasn’t reinvented music; he has just ended up being soulless and pretentious again.
The actual brutal fact (I repeat the phrase, so that we now get to the plurality alluded to by the “Actual Brutal Facts” track) is this: The Harmony Codex is garbage that nobody will be listening to fifty years from now—unlike the masterpieces that Wilson regularly remixes, and that he has failed to learn from.
Sure, The Harmony Codex sounds really nice. And Wilson is a master of marketing and promotion. But there is no songwriting here, other than “What Life Brings,” which feels like Wilson included it for perverse reasons: i.e., to show he could write songs like he did on Hand Cannot Erase if he wanted to, but he has decided not to. But like the three pretentious periods gratuitously inserted into that album’s official title, Wilson sabotages his own creative potential.
The Harmony Codex is just an exemplary audio demo record: i.e., what the sales dude at the stereo store puts on to demonstrate how good this stereo and speakers sound. But don’t savvy shoppers bring their own disc to play anyway? Because the cool demo record is something completely different from your favorite album. The former demo makes a good audio impression, but the latter classic disc is what you are actually buying the stereo for: i.e., what achieves its true purpose, beyond the superficial wow-factor of novel synth sounds.
What if Wilson actually tried to make an album that sounded unmistakably inspired by Yes or King Crimson, but crafted and adorned with state-of-the-art 21st century audio tricks? It would be Nirvana.
Instead, we now have two shitty albums in a row. They do nothing but highlight the fact that alleged prog emperor Steven Wilson has nothing going on beneath all the vapid talk about how wonderful is his kingdom of sounds. What a waste.
Rock and roll icon Lee Aaron and her crackerjack band played an unusual gig last night in White Rock, British Columbia. Not only was it a free concert played outside by the beach, it was also played for a hometown crowd, since Aaron now resides in the area. She joked to the all-ages crowd that they probably recognized her from shopping at Canadian Tire.
Aaron’s voice remains as mighty and as impressive as it has always been. The sound mix allowed us to hear her vocal gifts loud and clear, with many nicely timed echo effects for dramatic emphasis. Aaron’s husband John Cody played thundering drums; Dave Reimer played propulsive bass lines and sang soulful backup; and superstar guitarist Sean Kelly flew in from Ontario to wow the crowd with his virtuoso shredding and glam-inflected backup singing, snarling, and pouting.
My sister lives in White Rock and, regular beachgoer that she is, has a paddleboard strapped to the roof of her car. So she easily drove us down the hill from her place, and used her special resident parking savvy to find us a most convenient car spot around the corner from the beach.
The concert venue was at the west beach, which has a nice little patch of grass overlooking the water and sand, separated from the area only by a fence and train track. That means the concert, which started at the magic hour sunset timing of 8:30pm, was adorned with the beautiful lighting of the open sky and the soothingly expansive ocean vista. Some people watched from boats in the water, others on the grass in front of the stage, and still more looked on from beachfront restaurants or home-front terraces.
I was pleasantly surprised by how excellent the concert was. Aaron played a full arena-sized set of eighteen songs, ninety minutes long, including an encore. The musicianship was impeccable and the concert versions of the songs had remarkably palpable enthusiasm added to them. You could tell the band was comfortable in the setting and having a blast playing the gig.
Aaron’s multiple decades of experience showed that there’s no pro like an old pro. She strutted and danced around the stage, singing her sweet little heart out. Happily interacting with and gazing into the eyes of the fans crowded around the stage, she even dedicated one song to the teenage girls up front jumping up and down all night.
She frequently strapped on a guitar, throwing mighty superhero kicks into the air as she roared around the fretboard. I was continually amazed by how incredible she sounds when playing live.
Aaron remarked to the crowd that if, that evening, she could inspire just one girl there to write songs and get into rock and roll, then her mission was accomplished. I would be surprised if she failed at this goal, because her show was undeniably exceptional and inspirational.
I noted that the crowds of young girls coming to dance in front of the stage only increased over the evening, and that they were the first ones to hold up their phone camera flashlights as lighters. This illuminated Aaron’s ballad intimacies, well-timed for after the sunset.
On balance, the concert wasn’t a parade of old hits from the 1980s. Aaron noted to the crowd that she has released six new albums since 2016. (That impressive half-dozen includes a Christmas album, as well as a superb live disc from Germany on both a CD and a DVD, which I would highly recommend if you read this review and wish you could see a show. The recorded evidence backs up my assertion that Lee Aaron is still shining brightly in the rock and roll pantheon.)
For last night’s set, Aaron played two songs from Metal Queen (1984), two from Lee Aaron (1987), four from Bodyrock (1989), two from Some Girls Do (1991), one from Fire and Gasoline (2016), three from Diamond Baby Blues (2018), two from Radio On (2021), and two from Elevate (2022).
When it comes to the studio versions, I can play favorites with many of the songs. But when hearing them live—because they each reach new elevations with the spontaneous gusto the band adds when singing and playing them—it’s hard to pick out highlights. In the moment, your favorite song is the one you are both seeing and hearing right then.
That said, my sister’s favorite was “Metal Queen,” and mine was “Lady of the Darkest Night,” for unavoidably nostalgic reasons.
Lee Aaron still passes the live music test with flying colors. It’s not rock and roll at its finest unless it’s the full sensory experience, and it’s hard to top an oceanside setting. Last night, by storming the beach scene of the unique White Rock, Canada’s one-and-only Lee Aaron truly slayed. God save the metal queen.
Set List:
“Vampin’,” from Radio On (2021)
“Hands On,” from Bodyrock (1989)
“Black Cat,” from Diamond Baby Blues (2018)
“Elevate,” from Elevate (2022)
“Powerline,” from Lee Aaron (1987)
“Lady of the Darkest Night,” from Metal Queen (1984)
“Diamond Baby,” from Diamond Baby Blues (2018)
“Nasty Boyz,” from Bodyrock (1989)
“Sweet Talk,” from Bodyrock (1989)
“Some Girls Do,” from Some Girls Do (1991)
“Sex With Love,” from Some Girls Do (1991)
“Fire and Gasoline,” from Fire and Gasoline (2016)
Happy Canada Day from the good folks here at Progarchy! We hope you’re rocking out with suitable Canuck tunes. But, if you are looking for some new music, why not check out these three albums from the top bands descending from up in the True North?
Brass Camel, Brass
Since they have just completed a magnificent musical tour across Canada, it’s worth drawing the band Brass Camel once again to your attention. I highlighted this album as one of the best last year:
Here’s an obscure one for you, but it will seduce your heart and mind. A genuinely unique mixture of hard rocking funk plus an intricately overlaid tapestry of prog. Dive into this album (the follow-up to their 2018 debut) by sampling the prog cred on tracks like “King for a Day,” “Easy,” and “Last Flight of the Vulcan.” I’d say one of the strongest contenders for Prog Song of the Year is “Last Flight of the Vulcan,” because the way that song takes flight is truly thrilling. As it fades out, you just want it to circle back and never end. The album itself ends perfectly with “Only Love.”
This Vancouver supergroup burst on the scene in 2000, with their debut Mass Romantic. It was unmistakable power pop perfection, announced via the glorious single “Letter from an Occupant,” which featured Neko Case’s impressively soaring vocal trajectories.
Next, two classic albums followed after the requisite time for their consummate craftsmanship to reach fruition: Electric Version (2003) and Twin Cinema (2005).
Then, over the ensuing decades, five more gems were released in a steady stream for the audio enjoyment of the cognoscenti.
This year, the New Pornographers show no signs of senescence, as the glorious disc Continue as a Guest (2023) demonstrates their musical skill to be still of the highest level.
It’s worth the effort to hunt down this album for the art rock masterclass given on standout tracks like “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” “Angelcover,” “Wish Automatic Suite,” and the dazzling title track, “Continue as a Guest.”
Crown Lands, Fearless(Deluxe)
Last but certainly not least, I have to mention what I already know is the Album of the Year for 2023. It’s the masterpiece Fearless from the mighty Crown Lands.
No other album in my collection has received more repeated listens this year than this one. I alerted you to the lead track, “Starlifter,” back in February. Then, with the release of the whole album in March, it has been in heavy rotation in the succeeding months.
Despite the many top contenders for Prog Album of 2023 that have issued forth since then (such as the perfect-score five-star wonders from The Winery Dogs, Yes, Riverside, Haken, and Tanith), I now have indisputable proof that Crown Lands must be awarded the top prize for 2023. That proof is the Deluxe edition of Fearless that was made available last weekend.
Added to the nine tracks that comprise the Fearless album, we now have eight instrumental versions (so you can do Crown Lands karaoke, or practice playing the musical parts on your own instruments—and the number is eight, because the album track “Penny” is already a guitar instrumental in the tradition of prog palate cleansers like Steve Howe’s “Mood for a Day” or “The Clap”); not only that, we also have seven live versions of tracks from the studio version of Fearless (and it’s seven, not nine, since the album tracks “Context” and “Right Way Back” date back to 2021, and we’ve already witnessed live audio and video versions of those songs in the intervening months).
The Deluxe edition live versions of the Fearless tracks are nothing short of amazing. Usually bands sound worse live than on record. But with Crown Lands, we get versions of the studio tracks that sound even heavier and even more energetic than the carefully produced prog perfection originals.
Somehow, Crown Lands manages to capture on this recording a special energy that they obviously have when they play live. Kevin’s riffs are even darker and more menacing, and the synth sounds punch and crackle with tactile gusto. Cody’s singing is impassionate and immediate, hitting all the high notes and even adding extra sentiment in the heat of the moment. The drum fills are astonishing, as they fly from speaker to speaker and you feel like you are standing behind the kit next to Cody as he kicks out the songs with enhanced verve. Kevin’s guitar solos and bass lines induce ecstasy, which is symbolized by all those bonus fretboard dive-bombing finger slides and power chord zoom blasts.
Fearless (Deluxe): You have to hear it to believe it, and you won’t be able to pick a favorite version of the album—live or studio—since they each have their own special charms. All that the listener can do after hearing Fearless (Deluxe) is to pronounce the winner of Album of the Year for 2023: unquestionably, it has to be awarded to the invincibly fearless and unstoppable Crown Lands.
All hail Cody Bowles and Kevin Comeau! Prog on, eh? Happy Canada Day!
I pre-ordered the new Yes album, Mirror to the Sky, hoping it would show up today (Friday, May 19, 2023) for the official day of release. But on Tuesday this week, something really weird happened. Amazon delivered a giant cardboard box, the size of a microwave oven, onto my front door step. Baffled as to what could be inside, I opened it up. It was empty, with nothing in it, expect for a handful of tiny air-filled plastic cushions that scarcely made a dent into the empty space. But there, right beneath them, in the far corner of the box, was the Mirror to the Sky 2-CD set!
I don’t know why the new Yes album showed up early in such bizarre fashion, but I like to speculate. Maybe a fellow Yes fan, working at Amazon, sent the album out early to me in secret solidarity: maybe items receive extra fast shipping, if the big box functions to indicate a high-margin, top-priority item. Or maybe the algorithm controlling the shipping had achieved sentience and decided autonomously to prioritize the Yes shipments, because of course any sentient AI truly worthy of its name would, after surveying all the digitized music in the world, undoubtedly become an aficionado of Yes music.
Or maybe there was just a screw-up. Who cares! It got me the Yes discs early, which meant I could digest them with advance special treatment in order to write this review. Usually I listen to music in my car (where I can turn it up as loud as I like) or through ear buds (during daily exercise). Only rarely do I actually put a CD into that ancient device in the living room known as a stereo system. Sure, it has the best sound, but who has time to sit around like a teenager doing nothing else but listen to vinyl LPs?
Reader, I made the time. The early arrival was a message from the sky that I had to immerse myself in this record. Just like the good old days, when there was no demand on your time—just a copy of The Yes Album or Fragile or Close to the Edge on the turntable. I gave Mirror to the Sky the special treatment, following along with the accompanying booklet, reading every line of lyrics as it was sung.
During instrumental passages, I was silently thrilled to read in the liner notes about exactly which guitars Steve Howe used on each track! The info here is so precise, it tells you exactly what time codes Jon Davison is playing acoustic guitar, or exactly when the orchestra comes in. I absolutely love it, and I volunteer to write liner notes for Yes or any other band after they get me to interview their musicians about what pedals and other gear they used on every track. I can’t recall the last time I listened to a new album this way, with album cover and liner notes carefully caressed by the trembling hand of the true collector. But if any band deserves it, surely it is Yes, a band that introduced me early on to such wondrous arcana. This is the way.
Despite what you may have heard, I don’t think you can believe the hype. I reserve the right to change my opinion after many more days of listening (because I recall hating ABWH at first, only to reverse that absurd reaction 180 degrees soon after), but I don’t think Mirror to the Sky is on equal footing with the three classics I named earlier, or with any other of their very best albums. We can save that debate for another day, but I would also include Drama, 90125, and The Ladder.
Production-wise, this is Steve Howe’s baby, and I can understand his urgent fervor at 76 years of age to assume control and make no compromises regarding his musical legacy as it enters its final stage. (I note that Mirror to the Sky is lovingly dedicated to Alan White.) But what makes The Ladder great is an outside ear, and Bruce Fairbairn gave that disc a unique flavor—a fact which Steve Howe agrees with me on, since we discussed this very point at the Yes VIP Meet and Greet in Vancouver, Canada, which was where the album was recorded. Another essential ingredient for capturing the full energy of a band is to have them all live on the studio floor together. But a band-produced outing, without the outside ear that will argue for another take with more verve, or without a one-take wonder live off the studio floor, runs the risk of sounding like a collection of demos.
(Also, a producer wouldn’t let Steve Howe sing lead or duets. But Howe is excellent when he does classic Yes background vocals with Billy Sherwood or Chris Squire. By the way, I can’t get enough of Sherwood singing lead: he has the ability to sound like Peter Gabriel, which Arc of Life takes advantage of on many an occasion. But Howe is the producer, so we hear him loud and clear on this release, where I would have chosen more Sherwood.)
That’s really the worst I can say about Mirror to the Sky, because this album in fact sounds amazing—I just found myself imagining what these songs would sound like live, because that is the Yes that I know and love. Sure, their albums are amazing, but that’s because they can actually play all that crazy shit live too.
So let’s get right down to it. Yes fans will be hypercritical and debate this versus that, just because we can. None of it is a knock on the world’s greatest band. It’s just a way of expressing how much time and thought we devote to meditating on the beautiful musical experiences Yes gives to us. I can lay my cards quickly on the table, and then we can compare notes.
The best track is “Mirror to the Sky,” which is no doubt why it is the title track. Despite my earlier remarks about non-equal footing, this track does in fact achieve entrance into the Yes pantheon. It is destined to be ranked among all their very best songs. And I can only dream of what it sound like live. Because I know it will be a dream come true. I hope I get the chance to hear it someday.
Two more tracks off the album also achieve the highest rank. “Luminosity” and “Circles of Time” are both stunning. Each is achingly beautiful in its own special way. As I listened to these tracks, I realized that Jon Davison has consolidated his place in the history of this band as one of its giants. Just as we would find it foolish to denigrate one giant at the expense of another (Bill Bruford vs. Alan White, or Rick Wakeman vs. Geoff Downes, or Trevor Rabin vs. Steve Howe), so too must we admit Davison is one of this band’s giants, no less so than Anderson.
Now on to the lesser tracks. Sure, “Cut from the Stars” has that nimble Billy Sherwood tribute to Chris Squire, but it still sounds to my ear like 3/5 Arc of Life and 2/5 Yes. (Which is no criticism, since I classify Arc of Life as truly Yes, and no less so than ABWH.) Still, the hippy-dippy lyrics are ambiguous: one day they sound to me like loving homage to Jon Anderson (he of “shiny flying purple wolfhounds” et cetera), but another day they sound like an SNL parody of Yes. I guess that “All Connected” strikes me the same way: it’s inspired by the best Yes music of ages past, in the same way that Arc of Life is inspired, but not quite there yet in the upper echelon of Yes achievements.
None of this is a negative evaluation, because even lesser tracks on a Yes album are better than anything you will hear elsewhere. I’m just insisting that “Cut from the Stars” and “All Connected” are the lesser tracks, and they do not reach the highest levels of Yes achievement, which “Mirror to the Sky,” “Luminosity,” and “Circles of Time” all do. Those three tracks make this the best Yes album since The Ladder or Magnification. (Fly from Here has a top-notch title track, just like Mirror to the Sky, but it also has some lesser material too, just like Mirror to the Sky.)
I appreciate Yes striving to make a classic LP-length statement. Mirror to the Sky is a perfect 47 minutes long. That’s why I fully support the decision to have a second CD with three bonus songs, even if they could all be on one disc. By making a second disc, the band is making a principled artistic statement: disc one is the album and disc two has the bonus tracks.
And for Mirror to the Sky, this makes sense, because disc one has the unifying thread of the use of a studio orchestra on all six tracks. Disc two, however, has no orchestra, and the songs are all written by Steve Howe, unlike the first disc, where everything has collaborations with at least two band members, except for the solo-scribed Jon Davison masterpiece, “Circles of Time.”
But let’s be honest, the Downes-Howe collaboration “Living Out Their Dream” is the worst of the six tracks. If I were the producer on this Yes album, or I could be pulling rank on them at the record company, I would have replaced “All Connected” with “Unknown Place,” which is truly a killer track. That’s no doubt why it is placed first on the second disc. The amazing keyboard and organ work by Geoff Downes is a real highlight, and the sonorous organ pedals blow you away so much that you wanna get up and get down.
Also, I would have swapped “One Second is Enough” for “Living Out Their Dream.” “One Second is Enough” has Steve Howe shredding away in glory, and at key points I think the track even invokes some memories of “Tempus Fugit” off of Drama. The only filler seems to be “Magic Potion,” but hey, not every Yes track is equal in magic.
But “Mirror to the Sky” brings us right back to the old magic. And that’s why you cannot miss out on Mirror to the Sky.
For, in the end, every band must be weighed. And finally answer to Yes!
Syd Barrett named Pink Floyd after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. But it took The Anderson Council to finish the job, by composing their own name from what remained. Although PF has faded away in acrimony, The Anderson Council keeps the retro vibe alive and well. They have persistently maintained the genre of psychedelic power pop, so that it won’t simply be hidden away in a time capsule. But on their new record, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, the band grows and advances in an interesting way, while still delivering their customary fab harmonies and energetic pop-rock.
Standout tracks include the Peter Horvath collaborations with songstress Dawn Eden Goldstein, “Alone with You” and “Times on the Thames.” Both are classic written-for-radio pop gems that would merit inclusion on Voyager’s record of Earth’s audio archetypes. Previous songs written by this nascent Lennon/McCartney-like team include “Camden Town” on Worlds Collide (2019) and “Girl on the Northern Line” [song by Goldstein, arrangement by Horvath] on Assorted Colours (2016).
Assorted Colours provides a nice overview of the band’s early catalogue. While four of the songs were new, there were also three songs each from their earliest discs: Coloursound (2001), The Fall Parade (2006), and Looking at the Stars (2012). Thus, some of their best songs were conveniently compiled in one place: “Never Stop Being ’67” (2001), “Pinkerton’s Assorted Colors”, (2006) and “We’re Like the Sun” (2012). Even so, everything The Anderson Council does is golden, because they consistently draw inspiration from the sounds of the 60s that they refuse to let die.
Yet this is what makes the new album so interesting. While largely adhering to their trusty playbook, the band branches out in a way that bears witness to their continued growth as a tight musical unit. The first track, “Tarot Toronto,” made me think of Fountains of Wayne, and therefore seemed to signal an increased willingness to draw positive musical influences from any era.
I had a grade school friend with whom I always exchanged vinyl LPs. He insisted, “You know, there’s a song about everything. You just have to keep listening until you find it.” So, I smiled when I heard The Anderson Council’s “Buying a House” on The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon. It may be only 1:51 long, but it is yet more fulfillment of that teenage prophecy.
Standout tracks on the new album include “Messes Up My Mind” and “Jump Right In.” While the former is a clear example of The Anderson Council at their concise best, the latter is a song that extends to be about twice the length of the band’s usual tune. It revels in a sonic richness that makes it a perfect completion to the album.
Also not to be missed is “Sunday Afternoon,” which even includes a magical sing-along chorus at the end and then a killer guitar solo for the outro. All together, the disc works very well as your summer soundtrack for 2023. Whether it’s blasting from your convertible at the beach, or making people dance at the BBQ picnic, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon offers 39 minutes of happy times. And that’s just groovy, baby.
Peter Horvath — Vocals, Guitars Simon Burke — Bass Guitar, Vocals Michael Potenza — Guitars, Vocals Scott Jones — Drums and Percussion
Big Big Train has made the pre-order of Ingenious Devices available at Bandcamp.
Head on over there to support them, ideally on the next Bandcamp Friday (May 5), so they can obtain maximum cash flow.
The band explains the upcoming touring situation in their Bandcamp pre-order note:
PLEASE NOTE: Ingenious Devices will be released on 30th June 2023 (NOT on 9th June). We have setup this pre-order earlier than usual to generate some income to help us with touring costs later this year. We will be on tour in August and September but many of our touring costs will fall in the next four months and we will not receive income from the tour until the autumn.
Ingenious Devices consists of new versions of East Coast Racer, Brooklands and Voyager, which prominently feature an elite 17-piece string section recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.
With the exception of the late David Longdon’s lead vocals, which have been compiled from the original album sessions, East Coast Racer is a completely new studio version recorded by the line-up of the band as it was in 2019. Brooklands features newly recorded drums, bass and bass pedals, while Voyager includes additional guitar and violin. All three songs have been re-mixed for this release and all the audio is presented at 24/96.
Ingenious Devices also includes a previously unreleased orchestral piece called The Book of Ingenious Devices, which links East Coast Racer and Brooklands.
BBT’s Gregory Spawton explains: “I was always happy with the original recorded version of East Coast Racer, but re-arranging the song to feature a full string section gave ECR a further lift. The new recording also features Dave Gregory’s guitar solo on the closing section, a solo which has only previously featured on live performances of the song. I am pleased we now have the definitive studio version on Ingenious Devices. The timing of this release also deliberately ties in with the 85th anniversary of the Mallard’s speed record which inspired the lyric.
“By contrast, I was never entirely satisfied with Brooklands and felt it got a bit overlooked on the Folklore album. The Abbey Road strings have significantly enhanced the song and I’m delighted with the outcome. The additional track, The Book Of Ingenious Devices was composed to act as a segue between East Coast Racer and Brooklands and I like the way the tracks now flow into each other. The changes to Voyager are more subtle but still elevate the song beyond the version on our Grand Tour album.”
Ingenious Devices also features a live performance of Atlantic Cable, recorded at Friars, Aylesbury in September 2022.
New BBT vocalist Alberto Bravin comments: “Atlantic Cable was recorded at our second show of the tour last year. It’s not an easy song to play at all and we were both amazed and relieved that we pulled it off so well. I experienced a real baptism of fire playing that show in front of over 1,000 passionate BBT fans, but their response to the song and the rest of our live set that night was truly motivating.”
Nick D’Virgilio says: “Ingenious Devices is a great way of uniting four of Big Big Train’s epic songs about technology. The album also celebrates the wonderful vocals of our late, great friend David Longdon on East Coast Racer, Brooklands and Voyager and looks forward to the future with Alberto putting in such a great performance on Atlantic Cable.”
If you like Porcupine Tree, or Pink Floyd, or The Pineapple Thief, or Riverside, or Anathema, or The Gathering, then you’re sure to dig the 20:20 stunning epic “Babel” from Lesoir.
We are big fans of Lenoir’s album from 2020, Mosaic. What a thrill to then hear them take things to the next level, with this beautiful long-form song that clocks in a quad-digit run time.
They’ve done a limited edition pressing of the CD version of this song. If you pay attention to the sensitive and empathetic lyrics, it should come as no surprise that Lesoir has announced that they are donating all proceeds from their Babel CD to the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria:
ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE SALES OF THIS ALBUM WILL BE DONATED TO THE EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS IN TURKEY AND SYRIA.
When the flood disaster in Limburg (NL) took place in 2021, the band Lesoir decided to donate all proceeds from their one-off Babel live performance to the victims of the disaster. Now with the terrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Lesoir wants to do the same.
The band cannot bear to watch how the people in this area have to deal with the terrible suffering. Lesoir therefore wants to donate all income (excluding shipping and transaction costs) from the Babel EP (CD) to Giro555.
Will you help Lesoir collect a nice amount and then donate it?
Of course, the song is 1 whole, but especially for the CD, we have marked the different parts separately, so you can ffwd to your favourite part right away.
Art rock band Lesoir made a virtue of necessity in the quiet but turbulent lockdown period and in 2020 started working on something that would then become an ‘interim project’ for the band. Recorded at various locations in South Limburg, the resulting 20-minute and 20-second epic grew into a full-fledged addition to the band’s already existing repertoire.
Under the name Babel, Lesoir’s creation was released on vinyl, handmade and limited to only 250 pcs in January 2022. Each piece is numbered and on request signed by the band.
By popular demand the band have released Babel as a limited edition CD in January 2023. All proceeds of the album sales since the devastating earthquake will go the victims in Turley and Syria.
Prepare for prog liftoff! Are you ready for Rush: The Next Generation? This exciting new video from Crown Lands shows them playing their newest song live. It’s an amazing performance. We can’t wait for their Fearless album release at the end of March.
Crown Lands’ music tells a story inspired by what songwriter Cody Bowles calls “Indigenous futurism.” There’s a science fiction narrative running throughout their catalogue, about an anti-capitalist space hero fighting colonization across the stars. Genre pastiche is a huge part of Crown Lands’ approach, but this feels unique.
Why not explore their back catalogue while you await the Fearless double LP to be released at the end of March 2023?
They say the third time’s the charm. But the third album from The Winery Dogs is more than just charmed, because we have already heard undeniable magic on their first two albums. This time, however, we witness a truly jaw-dropping breakthrough.
What is worth noting here is that we have been given a solid album with ten songs that strongly lock together. They flow inexorably, as the coherent whole of what I believe will eventually be recognized as a classic album, one even better than the merely rave reviews it has already been getting. Its magnificence gets more and more impressive with each further listen.
On previous releases, I found myself picking out favorite songs. The range of the band’s material was stunning, and while all of it was impressive, there were still standout tracks that clearly rose above the rest. On the debut, for me those were: “Elevate,” “I’m No Angel,” “Not Hopeless,” and “Regret.” On Hot Streak, they were: “The Bridge,” “War Machine,” “Devil You Know,” and “The Lamb.”
But on this release, rather than pick favorite songs, I can only pick out favorite moments within the songs. Because every track is a standout, I love them all, and I cherish those detailed special moments that each one of them contain for the dedicated listener.
“Xanadu” and “Mad World” were the two pre-release singles, which led us to expect more of the same Winery Dogs virtuosity from their earlier albums. Their magical ability is to bring Richie Kotzen’s guitar and Billy Sheehan’s bass and Mike Portnoy’s drums together in astonishing acrobatic coordination, a higher realm of musical motion which only the true greats can access, like Alex and Geddy and Neil on “Free Will.”
Yet while we get more of such magic, we also get interesting new details on this album, like the startling jazz chords in “Mad World” or the unusually intriguing lyrics to “Xanadu” which shift and change even with the musical repetitions of the chorus. Kotzen’s impassioned vocals seem to be taking an accusation (living clueless in Xanadu/Malibu) and flipping the accusation around as a badge of honor to be worn, as Kotzen makes it clear he (and the band) doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
With that declaration of independence, and with their secession from the world’s madness, The Winery Dogs then shift direction and reveal the first two tracks to have been something of a head fake. “Breakthrough” seems to me like the kind of killer radio-friendly track that a record company would demand as the first single. But, as track three, it comes as an unexpected twist after the clever “business as usual” first two tracks.
With this twist, the album launches into the upper echelons of the most classic of classic rock territory. The punchy power chords of the chorus invite air guitar participation. Both the riff and the vocal phrasings unexpectedly remind me of Saturation-era Urge Overkill, which I found to be a delightful and obscure surprise.
“Rise” astonishes with its complexity and soulfulness, as the band continues it third-album ascent, now conducting cakewalk “business as unusual.”
But it’s “Stars” that veers off into truly delightful prog territory. Sheehan supplies a steady bass pulse for Portnoy and Kotzen to go completely bonkers around. Kotzen demonstrates beyond all doubt that he is one of the greatest of all time on this track, because his guitar solo lasts for a minute and forty seconds of such insane, imaginative, and inventive sounds that it’s unbelievable. The song enfolds all this into such a satisfying and catchy groove, it marks an outstanding conclusion to a staggeringly impressive Side A.
But the album’s B-side is astonishingly equal in achievement to the A side. The kickoff, “The Vengeance,” has one of those cathartic Kotzen vocals (like “Regret” or “The Lamb”) whose emotions are equalled by the intelligence of the lyrics (which wisely affirm that it is the weak, not the strong, who need revenge).
This track illustrates well my thesis about each album track having additional small but memorable details: here, it is the helicopter-like synth-sounding pattern which leads into each chorus, and I call it “synth-sounding” because it somehow bleeds into what sounds like a guitar. It’s a truly magical transformation, and such a thrilling little detail, yet I have no idea how it is done, but it excites the listener to no end each time it is heard.
As if that were not enough, “The Vengeance” also has more Urge Overkill overtones, with those little “ooh ooh ooh” background vocals that remind me of the musical positivity of “Positive Bleeding.”
“Pharaoh” levels the listener with a heavy riff that knows just when to hold back and also just when to smash, all while Portnoy builds pyramids with massive slabs of pounding drums.
And then there’s no respite, as the following track, “Gaslight,” delivers a musical imitation of a gaslighting assault of craziness. Its boogie blitz comes charging out of the gate with more notes per second than the human mind can possibly count. All you can do is try and shake your tail feather to keep up.
Perfectly timed for breath-catching, “Lorelei” is a slow, bluesy 6/8 waltz. It’s the type of song that would function for a lesser band as a filler cool-down track at album’s end. But for The Winery Dogs, this become merely the penultimate track, and yet another one that they use to confound listener expectations.
Sometimes nothing is more boring than a blues guitar solo, but Kotzen convinces us that we have not heard it all before, as he plays his solo lines with such feeling that we find ourselves amazed. Not only that, when he sings on the chorus, he soulfully adopts such unusual phrasing that I am reminded of Steve Perry 80s Journey. The song unexpectedly wormholes me on a journey into a magic world of nostalgic teenage school dance waltzes.
The epic final track, “The Red Wine,” begins by seeming to deliver on the promise of the album opener’s Rush-word: “Xanadu.” For the first eighteen seconds, “The Red Wine” sounds like classic Rush. I did a double-take the first time I heard those bars, and had to look again at the song name, which for those moments I thought was actually: “The Red Star.”
But after those opening flourishes, “The Red Wine” makes an abrupt stage-left turn and turns into a funky and groovy dance-along track, replete with a sing-along “party time” chorus. We even get a verse imagining senior citizens playing air guitar with their canes, as the whole world falls under the spell of The Winery Dogs’ live music.
Happily, the track ends back in Rush mode, as the camera pans up (or so I imagine) from the outside dance party, up past the patio lanterns, and then ascends into the stars as the band turns again into the Rush of the opening half-minute. We get a mellow cosmic cool-down to end the album, as the band invokes the atmospherics, yes you guessed it, of Rush’s classic “Xanadu” mood. Billy’s bass is the last one sucked into the Cygnus X-1 black hole, but it beams back a cosmic echo, advising you to buy this album and find your way to the Dogs’ dance party.
Confounding the cynics, Kotzen and Sheehan and Portnoy are clearly not just a super-group of super noodlers. With this album, they demonstrate they are one of the greatest bands to have ever rocked the Earth. With III, they leave their paw print in the pavement, preserved for all time, in the pantheon of the Rock of Fame.
Progarchy 