Category: progressive rock

Big Big Train Swan Hunter News

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment
Big Big Train by Simon Hogg
Big Big Train, photo by Simon Hogg.

SWAN HUNTER by Big Big Train

Three times Progressive Music Award winning band, Big Big Train, will be releasing the Swan Hunter single on 13thJuly 2018.

Swan Hunter is an elegy for the shipbuilding communities of the north-east.

Vocalist David Longdon says:

Imagine being a child who grew up within this community, seeing these huge vessels grow daily until their launch. Imagine the relentless sound of machinery and construction workers. Your father most likely would have worked there and probably his father before him. It must have been almost impossible back then to imagine a time when this way of life would come to an end. This is what you knew and it defined you.

The single release features a remix of the studio album version and a live performance of Swan Hunter, alongside two previously unreleased tracks.

Swan Hunter is available on CD, download and streaming from 13thJuly.

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Big Big Train Live:

Big Big Train will be playing at The Anvil, Basingstoke, England on 11thJuly and at Loreley, Night of the Prog festival, Germany, on 13thJuly.

 

Press and radio comments:

‘Big Big Train have revisited the sound world of early Genesis and Yes and have managed to create music with great emotional clout’ John Bungey, THE TIMES

‘They make beautiful, pastoral quintessentially English music: their name is Big Big Train’Bob Harris, BBC Radio Two

‘Beautifully understated yet consistently enthralling, Big Big Train wield pathos and poignancy with elegance and relish, amidst a musical backdrop that is as vivid as it is finessed’ Dom Lawson, PROG magazine

 

 

 

Moody Blues News

On By kruekuttIn classical, progressive rockLeave a comment

From the latest post on my favorite classical music blog (which also regularly includes fascinating insights regarding world music and Sufism), On an Overgrown Path:

Long Distance Voyagers is a 796 page resource book about the Moody Blues rock band. Surprisingly given the high profile of the band – they have sold more than 80 million records and were one of the pioneers of the concept album and of classic rock – this is the first major volume devoted to their oeuvre. The book is the labour of love of Marc Cushman, who is best known for his monumental books analysing Star Trek and Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space series. This latest massive volume is equally monumental – it is only volume one taking the story of the band up to 1979.

Recently I have been impressed and rewarded by several major historical books about art music icons, including the Nick Drake anthology Remembered For A While. This comes from long-established publishing house John Murray, and has commensurate high design values and sharp sub-editing. Long Distance Voyagers comes from new media publisher Jacobs Brown and suffers from the lacklustre design and lightweight sub-editing that are the hallmarks of desktop publishing. But this should not detract from what is a very rewarding document for those who, like me, underwent their musical and other rites of passage in the 1960s to the soundtrack of In Search of a Lost Chord.

Needless to say, this beauty went on my Amazon wish list immediately, with plans to purchase it Very Soon Now.  Blog author “Pliable” is a former EMI classical recording engineer, eclectic in his musical tastes and erudite in his commentary.  His pungent, all-too-sharp observations on the negative effects of social media recently prompted him to sever his links to Facebook and Twitter (a gutsy step I’ll honor by keeping this post off them).  I can’t help but agree with his lament in a previous post on the magnificent Moodies:

Gone are the days when Visconti’s Death in Venice, Ken Russell’s Music Lovers, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ and Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Pictures At An Exhibition could add a new diacritic to young lives. Instead the mantra of our digital age is ‘more of the same please’ driven by the insidious dynamic of social media approval.

Do check out On an Overgrown Path — it’s always excellent reading about music that matters — as well as Long Distance Voyagers!

— Rick Krueger

 

Ancient Empire, “Eternal Soldier”

On By Time LordIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Not only can you now hear “The Fifth Column,” the eight and final track on the forthcoming album Eternal Soldier (July 27, 2018), but you can now also watch and listen to the first killer track which shares the same title as the album itself: “Eternal Soldier.”

In other good news, I hear that Ancient Empire’s first album When Empires Fall (2013)(currently my abstractly top-ranked favorite, but of course I love whichever one I am listening to in the moment) will be getting a re-release with an extra bonus track.

This is fantastic, because the CDs are all sold out and I don’t own a copy. Yet I have to! It is one of the best metal albums I have ever heard, with upper-echelon, truly supreme tracks like “Shadow of the Cross,” “Wings of Steel,” “Ancient Empire,” and “When Empires Fall.”

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Music fans of a certain age will have the listening experience to understand why these connoisseurs of classic heavy metal are serving up some of the best metal you will ever hear — because these dudes have that same life experience, as well as the metal chops to deliver the goods!

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Bryan Hears a Who! Roger Daltrey Live at Ravinia – 6/23/18

On By Bryan MoreyIn progressive rock6 Comments

Roger Daltrey, Live at Ravinia, Highland Park, Illinois, June 23, 2018

Setlist: Tommy (whole album except for instrumental “Underture”)
Who Are You
Baba O’Riley
Always Heading Home (new solo song from Roger Daltrey)

Players: Roger Daltrey (vocals), Simon Townshend (backing vocals, guitars), Frank Simes (guitars, backing vocals), Loren Gold (keyboards), Jon Button (bass, backing vocals), Scott Devour (drums), Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Keith Levenson)

Landscape view of the Ravinia pavilion and stage from the back left of the pavilion.
Pre-show – I’ve just about given up taking photos with my phone during concerts because they always look like garbage, and it distracts both me and other audience members from the music

Roger Daltrey’s performance of Tommy was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. One of the benefits of being a younger fan of progressive rock is the thrill of seeing many of the classic prog and classic rock bands on their 40th and 50th anniversary tours playing their classic albums. I’ve seen Ian Anderson perform Thick as a Brick, The Moody Blues perform Days of Future Passed, B. B. King doing a greatest hits show, Dennis DeYoung doing greatest hits of Styx, Kansas doing greatest hits… next week I’m seeing Yes for the first time, and I’m seeing the other Yes (Anderson, Wakeman, Rabin) in September. I’m proud to add Roger Daltrey of The Who to that list. And he played the greatest rock opera of all time! It was a fantastic evening, to say the least.

Continue reading “Bryan Hears a Who! Roger Daltrey Live at Ravinia – 6/23/18” →

New 3RDegree Released

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

3RDegree

A copy of the new 3RDegree album arrived at progarchy HQ this weekend.  Very much looking forward to listening.  3RDegree are always extraordinary in their passionate intellect as well as in their perfectionist presentation.

One of America’s finest, to be sure.

To order a copy, go here: https://3rdegree.bandcamp.com/album/ones-zeros-vol-0

Lee Speaks About Music… #87 — Lee Speaks About…

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Rites At Dawn – Wobbler Introduction… With the release of their 2nd album Afterglow back in April of 2009 doing quite well and the departure of their singer Tony Johannessen. There was no time to stop and a month later the 4 remaining members of the band started work on what was to be the bands […]

via Lee Speaks About Music… #87 — Lee Speaks About…

Tom Timely’s “The Elf King”–a Prog Masterpiece?

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment
Screen Shot 2018-06-24 at 7.55.27 AM
Just a smidgeon of confidence!

Tom Timely has written, produced, and released a single under the title, “The Elf King.”  Unfortunately, at the moment, it seems only to be available as a Facebook video. Here’s hoping Timely will move it to Youtube.

 

Somewhat astoundingly, Timely begins his video with “Introducing A Prog-Rock Masterpiece,” all in Tolkienian, Elven script.

Indeed, he writes on his Facebook post:

My new song! Remind yourself of an earlier time over and over…until it becomes your reality. Think of the things you could do if you had the key to unlock the past….You could change things! Some call it nostalgia, I call it the key. Check out my song and see if it takes you back.

So, kudos to Mr. Timely for possessing so much confidence.  His pronouncement of “introducing” a “classic” reminds me of the founding father Benjamin Franklin when he wrote, rather proudly, that he possessed the virtue of humility.

Some things, simply put, cannot be bestowed on one’s self.  Anyway, I’ll just take this as Mr. Timely’s enthusiasm.

The single, “The Elf King,” is quite excellent, introducing us to some very Yes-ish bass, combined with Kansas and Genesis-like keyboards throughout much of the song, though harpsicord is the first instrument the listener hears.  I can’t quite place the voice, but Timely (I’m assuming it’s Timely on vocals) has a Styx-like feel to me.  While the entire middle and sections sound very reminiscent of Tony Banks’s work on Gabriel-era Genesis, the song itself seems to have been a long, forgotten part of Leftoverature.

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Since I’ve referenced Yes, Genesis, Kansas, and Styx, you might very well get the opinion that this is pure nostalgia prog.  Heck, even Timely himself admits the element of nostalgia. Yet, this song is definitely more than a sum of its parts, and no one of the bands mentioned above could’ve written this song as is.  Thus, there’s a real genius in the way Timely pulls all of this older pieces together into a new whole.

I have a feeling Timely might very well have introduced a masterpiece. What say you???

 

 

Ancient Empire, “The Fifth Column”

On By Time LordIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Check out this awesome complete track from the forthcoming album Eternal Soldier now up at Ancient Empire’s Bandcamp page.

The album is described as: “The 4th saga from the ongoing struggle between humanity and the ancient alien invaders.”

You can read about the preceding trilogy here on Progarchy (just follow the link), or simply gaze at the “pulp fiction”-style album art.

My favorite is Part 1, When Empires Fall (2013). But what will be my response to Part 4? Stay tuned…

Glass Hammer Addendum

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

gh mostly live in italy

In my previous post on Glass Hammer News, I forgot (rather stupidly) to include Tad Wert’s excellent review of Glass Hammer’s Mostly Live in Italy.  No time like the immediate to fix a mistake.

Here, for one and all–wonderful Wert’s wonderful (yes, I employed “wonderful” several times) review: https://progarchy.com/2018/05/05/glass-hammer-lives-it-up-in-italy/

Glass Hammer News

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

America’s greatest rock band has released some teasing but enticing words about their forthcoming album.  And, praise the Lord above, it’s going to be a concept album.  Glass Hammer–the best.  Concept albums–the best.  Glass Hammer concept album?  Yes, you guessed it. . . the best.

Big surprises on the new album…some cool cameos, some obscure cameos…some familiar Glass Hammer styles and some you haven’t heard. The concept is bizarre…but we think it might be a home run with you guys.

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For more on this stunning band, go to any of the progarchist articles listed:

Glass Hammer – Chronometree – 2000 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Lex Rex – 2002 – Video Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Live at Belmont – 2006 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Live at the Tivoli – 2006 / 2008 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Perilous – 2012 – Brief review of lyrics by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Ode to Echo – 2014 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Ode to Echo – 2014 – Review by Tad Wert

Glass Hammer – The Breaking of the World – 2015 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – The Breaking of the World – 2015 – Review by Tad Wert

Glass Hammer – Double Live – 2015 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer – Valkyrie – 2016 – Review by Brad Birzer (supplement to Brad’s review here)

Glass Hammer – Untold Tales – 2017 – Review by Brad Birzer

Glass Hammer–Lives It Up in Italy–Review by Tad Wert

Essay by Brad Birzer on Glass Hammer, September 14, 2013