Category: progressive rock

My Very Own “Late-to-the Party Best of 2016”

On By Jay WatsonIn progressive rock1 Comment

Our good friend and fellow Progarchist Time Lord posted a great 31 December addition which he called “Late to the Party—Best of 2016.”  He so perfectly expressed what all music lovers who make year-end lists encounter…too much great music and not enough time (or money). I too would add to my list the following albums which I hastily, but fervently, listened to in the last two days of calendar year 2016. They are all added to my “Honorable Mention” list:

FRACTAL MIRROR: Slow Burn 1 (Stellar musicianship, and the kind of project that makes you feel not just better after listening to it, but smarter.)

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Avenged Sevenfold Embrace Their Inner Prog

On By Bryan MoreyIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Avenged Sevenfold released a surprise album a few months back, but I hadn’t listened to it until this week… when iTunes dropped the price into a reasonable range. New drummer Brooks Wackerman is a huge improvement over Arin Ilejay, bringing a punch to A7X’s music not heard since Mike Portnoy was drumming for them following the tragic death of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Personally, I’m more of a fan of early Avenged Sevenfold, but I enjoy music from across their catalog.

Well, with their most recent album, The Stage, the band finally embrace their inner prog metal souls. They have always been great musicians, and “The Rev” was one of the best drummers in metal. His style was heavily influenced by Portnoy, and it always showed in his playing. This is why it is so awesome to hear these progressive influences worn on their sleeves with their new album. The final song happens to be the longest song the band has ever written, and it almost sounds as if Dream Theater wrote it. It is over 15 minutes long, but the way it is written makes it fly by. As you sail into the new year, enjoy this little piece of brilliance by A7X:

“Late to the Party” — Best of 2016

On By Time LordIn progressive rockLeave a comment

As the year winds down, I would like to start a new feature over here at Progarchy.

This new feature is called “Late to the Party.”

Its purpose is to communicate albums that I found out about too late to include on my own Best of 2016 lists.

That is, I found out about them mostly by reading other people’s Best of 2016 lists!

Upon checking out their suggestions, anything that I fell in love with, and consequently started playing on heavy rotation, is placed on my “Late to the Party” list.

(We can continue this feature into January, if people are willing to share their late year-end discoveries. I know I always learn about a ton of great new music from CEO. Carl will always keep me busy for a lot of January!)

Also, you can include items on the “Late to the Party” list from years prior to 2016, items that you nevertheless discovered in 2016, and played heavily during the year, just as if they had been brand new discoveries that edged out all the competition in 2016 for a time on your playlists. (I include two of these “REALLY Late to the Party” discoveries below: i.e., Harvest and Gowan.)

First up is Anakdota, who have an absolutely fantastic, crazily progtastic album that I learned about thanks to Nick here at Progarchy:



Anakdota — Overloading

Also, the MoMM taught me about the existence of Maschine. I absolutely love their jazz tinges and I am giving this one much heavy play in December also:



Maschine — Naturalis

Further, AMG alerted me to this excellent 80s-style metal album, which totally rocks:



Eternal Champion — The Armor of Ire

And now on to the big revelation for December. MoMM also gave me The Jaguar Priest, which is probably the album I am playing in heaviest rotation this month. If you can’t handle death metal vocals (i.e., growly “Cookie Monster” singing) as part of the vocal palette of a cast of multiple singers, then skip tracks 1, 2, and 4 on this release. But do not miss the rest of the album which, even with those three tracks deleted, remains one of the finest prog metal epics of the year. Don’t believe me? Then download one track, “Awakened By the Light.” I did and I was soon hooked, buying the whole album in short order:



Universal Mind Project — The Jaguar Priest

By the way, I discovered Harvest in 2016 and ended up listening to their Northern Wind album from 2014 an incredible amount of times. This was also an album where I downloaded only one track at first, “It All Becomes Clearer,” but fell in love with it and soon purchased the whole album, which I listened to again and again:



Harvest — Northern Wind (2014)

Finally, I saw earlier this year that an album by Gowan from 1990, Lost Brotherhood, was re-released on iTunes. I never listened to it at the time, but it turns out that it has three brilliant tracks that totally hooked me this year: “Love Makes You Believe,” “Message From Heaven,” and “Holding This Rage.” Highly recommended!



Gowan — Lost Brotherhood (1990)

It’s never too late to come to the rock and roll prog-party!!!

Remembering ELP: Genuine Art and Beauty

On By Time LordIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Bruce Frohnen has an essay over at TIC about ELP, arguing that they are “the most important musical group of the rock era.” Here’s part of his argument:

“Karn Evil 9” is not overblown, it is genuinely and intentionally music on a grand scale, combining classical techniques with multiple, interlacing rhythms, and polyphony to immerse the listener in a web of sound that for a time creates its own reality.

“Counterpoint” is a concept (not to say a reality) little understood among most rock musicians; but it was crucial to ELP’s ability to produce sounds that made sense at a level frankly higher than can be achieved in most blues-based music, with its emphasis on a single, simple melody underscored by rhythms deeply rooted in a single beat. At their usual best, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer performed according to a vision of rock music as rooted in the classical past. They produced both direct classical adaptations (“Fanfare for the Common Man” being the most famous) and original compositions that likewise combined modern rhythm and technique with melodic sophistication to create genuine art—pieces of beauty capable of affecting the souls of listeners.

2016 – A Year of Joy and Sadness

On By Erik HeterIn progressive rockLeave a comment

To say 2016 was a turbulent year would be an understatement.  For good and bad, the events of 2016 are going to ripple for years, if not decades to come.

Fortunately, one area in which 2016 was not a turning point was in the trend of excellent prog releases, which kept coming without any letup from 2015 … or 2014 … or 2013 … you get the picture.  Like those years, 2016 saw a bumper crop of excellent releases, and in a few cases, saw bands hitting new highs.  Truly, this was one area where we can be unequivocally thankful for what 2016 brought.

Continue reading “2016 – A Year of Joy and Sadness” →

Firth of Fifth Friday

On By Jay WatsonIn progressive rock1 Comment

In my recent “Best of 2016” Prog albums I gave an “honorable mention” to one Gustavo Santhiago for his instrumental endeavor “Animam.”   I called it “stunningly beautiful” because that’s exactly what it is. You can read more about this 17-year old (I know? right?) Brazilian composer at his own website: http://gustavosanthiago.wixsite.com/gsanthiago  but I wanted to post this clip of his playing ‘Firth of Fifth.’

Mellotron set to 11

 

CEO’s Ten Favorite Prog & Rock CDs of 2016

On By carleolsonIn progressive rock6 Comments

After failing to post any “Favorite Music of 2015…” lists last year, I’ve decided that I should avoid elaborate explanations for my choices, but simply note a thing or two about each release that captured my ears and held my attention. I’ve also decided to post three separate but fairly short lists: Prog/Rock, Jazz, and Everything Else. In short, I’m trying to kill my propensity for overkill. I suspect I’ll fail! Here, first, are my picks for favorite prog & rock albums of the past year (give or take a few months):

• “The Prelude Implicit” by Kansas | This is, I think, one of the best feel-good stories in kansas_thepreludeimplicitprog of 2016. After all, Kansas could have just kept touring and playing the same old—ranging from good to great to classic—tunes. Instead, they produced a very good, even great, album. As I wrote in my Progarchy.com review: “In short, the band has found a commendable and impressive balance between old and new, with plenty of prog-heavy, classic Kansas-like passages, but with an emphasis on ensemble playing over solos.  … Kansas is to be commended for embracing their past while clearly moving forward with a confident and often exceptional collection of songs. Highly recommended for both longtime Kansas fans and for those who like melodic, well-crafted prog that puts the emphasis on memorable songs and musical cohesion over theatrics and solos.”

• “Secrets” by Ian Fletcher Thornley | I was initially flummoxed by this album, expecting thornley_secretsa variation on the hard-rocking, high energy music of Big Wreck and Thornley, both fronted, of course, by the prolific Canadian singer, guitarist, writer, and producer. I finally listened to it late one night, in the dark, and I finally heard it on its own terms: acoustic, reflective, mellow, mournful, defiant, sad, and yet shot through with a sense of cautious hope. Thornley demonstrates that his remarkable writing skills are equal to his vocal prowess, which is an aural wine bearing hints of Big Country (“Frozen Pond”), Chris Cornell (“Feel”), Peter Gabriel (“Stay”), Bruce Springsteen (“Just To Know I Can”), and Jeff Buckley (“Blown Wide Open”). In the end, this is a modern blues record featuring every shade and hue of sadness, longing, and loss.

Continue reading “CEO’s Ten Favorite Prog & Rock CDs of 2016” →

Another “Best Of 2016” List

On By Jay WatsonIn progressive rock3 Comments

Here are my favorite prog rock albums of 2016.  Some albums are not on the list simply because I did not get a chance to hear them.  Some made my “honorable mention” list but were just a hare’s breath away from cracking the “Top Ten.”  Musical appreciation is both subjective and ephemeral at times.

HONORABLE MENTION (i.e. good enough that you should listen to these works and purchase them as well):  In no particular order:

Neal Morse Band: The Similitude of a Dream (every Morse endeavor could be on a Top-Ten list)

Haken: Affinity

Gustavo Santhiago: Animam (stunningly beautiful)

The Man from Ravcon: The Puzzle Master

Iamthemorning: Lighthouse

Frequency Drift: Last

Hawkwind: The Machine Stops (c’mon!!!  It’s Hawkwind 🙂 )

Opeth: Sorceress

Dream Theater: The Astonishing (for the single-minded audacity of releasing a Nibelungen-length endurance contest in the face of certain critical rejection, and, great moments of music as well)

My Favorite Prog albums of 2016, AKA “Watson’s TOP TEN”:

Cosmograf | The Unreasonable Silence #10

10. COSMOGRAF: The Unreasonable Silence (Robin Armstrong’s fifth studio release continues his record for crafting intelligent and thought-provoking masterpieces of speculative musical concepts. Smart and enriching!)

Big Big Train | Folklore #9

9.  BIG BIG TRAIN: Folklore (Another penultimate “British pastoral-prog” gem from a band that can do no wrong. The problem [which isn’t really a problem] is that it has to be “penultimate” compared to the greatest-of-great albums in their discography “English Electric Full Power.” While every track is “bottled faire” my favorite is ‘The Transit of Venus Across the Sun.’

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8. STEVEN WILSON: 4 1/2 (Yes, it’s an EP and had I moved it to a special EP-only category it would have been #1 and I then would have had room for another worthy addition on this list…BUT…this collection of songs is just so darn good, and I listened to this disc so many times in 2016, that it earns a spot with these other longer works.  The songs ‘Happiness III’ and ‘Don’t Hate Me’ are my favorites. Achingly beautiful!

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7. THE DEAR HUNTER: Act V Hymns With the Devil In Confessional (Incredible that only last year in 2015 the auteur genius behind The Dear Hunter, Casey Crescenzo scored a huge success in prog-land with “Act IV Rebirth in Reprise.” In fact Act IV came in at #4 in my Top Ten of 2015 [one ahead of Steven Wilson’s ‘Hand, Cannot, Erase’]  Again, we find a perfect melding of dream-pop & power-prog stirred up in a stew of vaudevillian show-tune melodies, Queen/Muse-like anthemic oratorios, with a dash of steam-punk attitude. Probably the most fun of any album on this list. I’m not sure I can even pick a favorite song…they’re all that good.  Maybe my favorite is track 4 ‘Mr. Usher [on his way to town]’ because it takes a ‘swinging’ rat-pack, retro-cocktail hour jazz number [which could have been sung by Seth McFarland or Harry Connick Jr.] and progifies it so much you can’t wipe the grin off your face.

Image result for tiles pretending to run #6

6. TILES: Pretending 2 Run (This four man band from Detroit has turned in one of the most fully-realized and ambitious concept albums of the year. Produced with crispness and audio fidelity by Terry Brown [he, of Rush fame] and assisted on several tracks by Moog-Maestro Adam Holzman and Drum-guru Mike Portnoy, this neo-proggish double record bathes the listener in swirly Vangelis like loops and synth creations that enhance the catchy melodies and sing-along choruses. For most of the year this album was riding at #1 on my prospective list–it’s just that good. I love the artwork in the digi-pack as well as the choral additions by The Renaissance Group & Con Spiritu. Ian Anderson even adds a tasty flute accompaniment on track 1 of disc 2.  My favorite song, and maybe my favorite prog song of the year, is ‘Fait Accompli’  My 2016 would have been less rich by far had I not purchased this moving and heroic work of art!

Glass Hammer | Valkyrie #5

5. GLASS HAMMER: Valkyrie (As EVERYONE here/there/and everywhere seems to have trumpeted–THIS IS GLASS HAMMER’S MAGNUM OPUS.  And they’re correct. This is a tour de force and easily my favorite GH work. Every song is 10/10 and some are 11/10…my favorite track might well be ‘Rapturo’ wherein during the 6:12 of its run time one approaches a sonic empyrean bliss.  Susie sings like a seraph, Babb’s base has never sounded better, and the band delivers a classic for the ages.

Product Details #4

4. MARILLION: F.E.A.R. (This is at times a difficult album to listen to because the subject matter and gravitas of “H’s” vocals are very intense and weighted with anger, frustration, and sorrow. This is Marillion’s finest album in years and just barely edges out Glass Hammer for the #4 spot. Interestingly, not all the songs are perfect [like on “Valkyrie”] and the album is uneven.  But there’s enough Rothery beauty and Mark Kelly sub-strata that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  And then part IV of ‘The New Kings Suite’ comes along and I have to pick myself up from off the floor. Indeed, part IV ‘Why is Nothing Ever True’ is better then best and I give it 13/10…easily the best song on the album.  These guys have been together, enriching our lives, for so long…it’s just a warm and happy feeling that they can still make music this darn good.

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3. ERIK NORLANDER: Surreal (other than Steven Wilson’s 4 1/2, this is the album I listened to the most during the past year. I am a sucker for melody and love instrumental pieces more than most songs with vocals.  Between Norlander’s keyboard wizardry and Alastair Greene’s crazy axe-riffing, I was head-bobbing (but in a ‘Prog way’) the entire 57 minutes. If you like your instro-prog and are a fan of Wakeman-like keyboard legerdemain, buy this album.  This is better than California sunshine, air, and orange juice for a massive vitamin D “hit.”   Smiling all the way.

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2. AIRBAG: Disconnected (This is a very intelligent, nuanced, and elegant collection of songs that is the perfect antidote to “bombastic” and overwrought prog and prog stereotypes. If you are a fan [and you should be] of Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, or Riverside, you will love this album. At times melancholic but always reflective and centering. Scents of Floyd, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Piotr Grudzinski waft about leaving the listener in an aural dream with the perfect soundtrack/score of simple pleasures.

AND NOW, my FAVORITE (and I think the “BEST”) PROG ALBUM of 2016:

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1. CYRIL: Paralyzed (Lush, full throated melodies and harmonies, hooks galore, tight musicianship, this 6-man German band has given the entire prog community an almost perfect melding of progressive playing [tinged with both classical and jazz motifs, as well as fusion-esque runs] with pop sensibilities–the gorgeous melodies and toe-tapping rhythms make this the one album that you will simply replay over and over during the course of a day. Uplifting and feel-good music for the soul and spirit. Every track is perfect but my favorites are ‘Rainbow’ with a really neat Spanish-tinged/Flamenco classical guitar intro, as well as the 18-minute Prog Epic ‘Secret Place Part One.’  If you can only buy one more album, make it “Paralyzed” by CYRIL.  At the last few notes fade away on track 7 you will feel as if you’ve been transported into Reepicheep’s little canoe and you’re about to enter Aslan’s country.

Thank you 2016. My ears are happy. Thank you Progarchy. Thank you Dr. B….and…

Mellotron set to 11

 

 

Interview with Erez Aviram of Anakdota

On By NickIn progressive rock3 Comments

anakdota

Anakdota is a progressive rock band from Israel who this year came up with the release of their debut album titled “Overloading.” The band admits that they make “highly intensive, ears demanding and jaws breaking music.” Pianist Erez Aviram spoke with us about the meaning behind the band’s name, the writing process, “Overloading”, and more.

What made you go for the name Anakdota?

Lots of brainstorming, we searched for a name to describe our music. By definition, an anecdote (Anekdota in Hebrew) is a tale which usually contains a comic twist or a message. We added our own comic punch line in the name itself, we misspelled the word so it shows “Anakdota”.

How do you usually describe your music?

Our music is like a really fast japanese super high tech train driving through beautiful enormous fields of tulips.

What is your writing process like?

Painfully slow. Satisfying though. Usually Erez Aviram (Piano guy) writes all the material including the arrangement but the parts are given new life by Guy Bernfeld (Bass) and Yogev Gabay (Drums) and they add their own ideas to the mix. Then we press “Randomise” in Cubase and hope for the best.

Who or what is your inspiration, if you have any?

Daily life, lots of stuff going on every single day. Emotions and thoughts which you never seem to notice too much, but they exist and present all the time. So that’s my inspiration mainly.

overloading

What is your favourite piece on the “Overloading” album?

We all have different favourite tracks, but mine (Erez Aviram) would have to be track no’ 4 “Mourning”. It’s a soft ballade sung by Ayala Fossfeld and she really does a great job delivering these painful lyrics, it moves me each and every time I listen to it.

What makes “Overloading” different?

Different from what? I believe it is new and that it was never done before, mainly because it’s us and we’ve never existed before. Sure, we’re influenced by lots of music, old and the new, but I can assure you that this album is something you’d want to listen to at least a couple of times just to understand it and really let it get inside you.

What should music lovers expect from “Overloading”?

Nothing and everything. Expectations ruin everything, it’s better you’d be surprised.

What kind of emotions would you like your audience to feel when they listen to your music?

All the emotions they want to have but I think everyone would like to discover new feelings and sensations they never had before. I strongly believe music has the power to do so.

Which do you like most, life in the studio or on tour?

Never went on tour so life in the studio for me!

Pick your three favourite albums that you would take on a desert island with you.

An album with a toothpaste, an album with a sleeping bag and an album with a satellite phone.

https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2741213045/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/