Wow, I haven’t seen a movie this good in a long time! What a masterpiece. It’s incredibly well done, and I can’t wait to watch it again.
Five stars, both for the eight-hour movie and its cool soundtrack. You gotta love that title sequence and its awesome music…
Listen to “City Lights” below and read the story over at WSJ.
Hmmm … no Walsh or Livgren, not even Elefante, but still pretty darn good …
Check out the great new album from Paper House, just released today: The Remains of What Was Left. You can listen to the whole thing for free over at Bandcamp (and then buy your own portable digital copy).
It’s their finest release to date. All the tracks are solid. The elaborate instrumentation has many very cool retro sounds, the songwriting is really good, and the best tracks are even the prog-length ones: “Intricate Wisdom” and “The Remains of What Was Left.”
I want a CD of this one. Would vinyl be too much to ask? Let us know, guys, because this is a really fine record. Nicely done, with a sweet classic sound.
Wow wow, wow wow, you have to read this fun list over at the Telegraph. It starts off like this:
From the moment 18-year-old Kate Bush stepped on to the stage at Top of the Pops and gave a career-defining performance of Wuthering Heights, she has beguiled and baffled with her every unhinged shriek and wild, wide-eyed gesture.
Since that extraordinary 1978 debut, she has released a further 30 singles, despite being anything but your typical singles artist. Bush’s greatest hits – and even those that failed to much trouble the charts – all display a creativity and variety unparalleled in pop music.
Prog reports:
Bassist and producer Steve Babb tells Prog: “This is pure Glass Hammer. Fred Schendel and I are handling more of the vocals than we have in several years.
“But Susie is front-and-centre throughout most of the album – and our fans have not been shy in telling us that’s the way to go. Guitarist Alan Shikoh and drummer Aaron Raulson complete the Valkyrie lineup.”
Describing it as a concept album in the vein of 2002’s Lex Rex and 2005’s The Inconsolable Secret, Babb adds: “It’s the story of a soldier’s struggle to return home from the horrors of war, to the girl who loves him and must ultimately find her way to him.
…
“The burden was on Susie to bring the lyrics to life, and build an emotional crescendo for the album’s finale. Like a live show, it has to end with a bang.
“She delivers. The whole album builds till that final track and then – we’ll see you soon and I hope you’ll agree: it’s an epic finish.”
Read more at the link, including the track list.
Intrigued?
For more McLuhan, check out the man himself on The Medium is the Massage (2011 CD reissue).
Assorted Colors is a compilation of tracks selected from the first three albums by The Anderson Council, but it also includes four new songs. You can listen to the whole album on SoundCloud and then go buy the CD.
Bob Makin explains the group’s name in his album review:
Fans of early Pink Floyd, early Who, Cream, “Sgt. Pepper”/“Revolver” Beatles and other British Invasion rock bands will get a kick out of this anthology of New Brunswick-based The Anderson Council, right down to faux English accents. Featuring four new tracks splattered among the best of three previous releases, [this album, which is named] “Assorted Colors” takes its title from [one of the selections included on it as track #4, called] “Pinkerton’s Assorted Colors,” a fun, energetic art rocker from the [band’s] 2006 release, “The Fall Parade.” The [song title is a] nod to [the band] Pinkerton’s Assorted Colors, an obscure British one-hit wonder from the mid-’60s, [and the song itself] also sounds like a blend of Floyd’s “See Emily Play,” The Who’s “Can’t Explain” and The Beatles’ “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
Speaking of names, The Anderson Council derived theirs from the same bluesmen who inspired Pink Floyd: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Given such allusions, it’s not surprising that “Assorted Colors” isn’t very original, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable, especially a contagious passion and an array of tight, intricate harmonies. It’s kind of like a tribute to a time when pop music was very artistic before the record industry got fat, rich, and lazy, then conglomerated and virtually obsolete.
Check out the rest of his fine review, in which Makin singles out some of the best tracks on the release: “Girl on the Northern Line” (written by the amazingly talented Dawn Eden) and also my other favorite track on the album, “We’re Like the Sun”. Shine on, you crazy diamonds!
You can now pre-order the new King Crimson. Here’s the key concept:
Three themed CDs of material recorded in 2015, each forming a separate discrete
performance with audio selected from a variety of shows and fully mixed from multi-track tapes by Chris Porter, Robert Fripp and David Singleton. As no audience is audible between tracks, this allows for a “virtual studio album” effect. (The current King Crimson line-up was deliberately conceived as a performing band rather than as a band concerned with making full studio recordings).
You can read more over at DGM news. Here’s a taste, along with artwork and video:
Radical Action To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind is the title of a new multi-disc set from King Crimson scheduled for release on 2nd September.
pre-order links for the 3cd/2dvd/1blu-ray limited edition are as follows
Inner Knot (USA) and Burning Shed (UK & Europe)Pre-order for the 3cd/1blu-ray set are as follows
Inner Knot (USA) and Burning Shed (UK & Europe)All copies come with a postcard featuring Francesca Sundsten’s striking cover artwork
Taken from the 2015 tours of the UK, Canada & Japan, Radical Action To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind represents the most comprehensive release for this incarnation of King Crimson, and will be available as a 3cd/1blu-ray set, and in a 3cd/2dvd/1blu-ray limited edition.
The live set eatures every song and piece performed by Pat Mastelotto, Bill Rieflin, Gavin Harrison, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp and as Fripp commented last month while supervising mixing, “This is King Crimson… re-imagined.”
Audio/Video performances include:
Threshold Soundscape
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part One
Pictures of a City
Peace
Radical Action (to Unseat The Hold of Monkey Mind)
Meltdown
Radical Action II
Level Five
Epitaph
The Hell Hounds of Krim
The ConstruKction of Light
Scarcity of Miracles
Red
VROOOM
Banshee Legs Bell Hassle
Easy Money
Interlude
The Letters
Sailor’s Tale
The Light of Day
The Talking Drum
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part Two
Starless
Devil Dogs of Tessellation Row
In the Court of the Crimson King
21st Century Schizoid Man
Suitable Grounds for the Blues
One More Red Nightmare
Progarchy 