As much as I love all things Arjen Lucassen, nothing of his has hit me quite as hard as Universal Migrator Part I. I’m sure it has to do with the fact, in large part, that Ayreon takes the overall story of the blind minstrel from Arthur’s court from high fantasy to high science fiction with this album. It serves as a wonderful transitional album, essentially moving Lucassen as well as us from Ayreon 1.0 to Ayreon 2.0.
(For what it’s worth, I think we’re living in Ayreon 4.0, but that’s a post for a different time.)
What would you do if your drummer and bassist quit? The remaining members of Perfect Beings — vocalist/keyboardist Ryan Hurtgen, keyboardist Jesse Nason and guitarist Johannes Luley — upped the ante. Their goal became “a four-sided double vinyl album with four continuous compositions that cover one side of each album,” with Luley on bass and sessioneer Ben Levin on drums.
Adding to the degree of difficulty, Perfect Beings’ second goal was avoiding the dead spots some listeners (including me) find in their obvious model, Yes’ divisive Tales from Topographic Oceans. I’m happy to say the band’s superb new album Vier (German for “four”) succeeds on both counts. It’s sound is spacious and elegant, but it’s not about style over substance, The music is thoroughly, consistently enticing; something marvelous is always happening, and the band’s sense of invention seems inexhaustible.
From classical music to thrash metal, all within six degrees of musical separation. For Dream Theater, channeling this stunning wealth of influences is nothing novel. But, a concept album clocking 96 minutes and without any weak moments is extraordinary.
Covering the full spectrum from Overture to catchy choruses — “Are you justified, Are you justified —- Justified in taking, Life to save life” — they comfortably elevate progressive musicianship to stratospheric levels. Layered passages with grinding riffs and complex time signatures — that sheer jazz like drumming with adequate doses of coarse and clean vocals. These drawn out compositions simply demand our undivided attention.
Within a world of carefully orchestrated concept albums, this level of spontaneity with elaborate structural progression is uncommon. In short, brazenly intricate and yet restrained, Dream Theater composes a rare aesthetic blend of metal and prog mindset. Musically and emotionally complex, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a progressive epic even without attempting to be one.
Featured Image : Shot by yours truly (San Francisco, circa 2012)
Florida-based prog rock lover Barry Weinberg launched his most recent album “Samsarana” back in January, a record, which in the musician’s own words, should inspire its listeners. In an interview for Progarchy, Weinberg discusses what it took to come up with this ambitious project.
What made you go to release “Samsarana” under your own name? Does it feel more personal that way?
I was original going to release Samsarana under the name of my production company: DRP: Dream Reality Productions, but under advisement from my co-producer/sound engineer, we decided to call it “Barry Weinberg’s Samsarana.” Other than the drums (performed by Glenn Welman out of South Africa), I performed everything on the album…and, as the album is semi-autobiographical, it is definitely very personal to me.
One of the all-time great album covers. This one, of course, by James Marsh.
I suppose one could accuse me of being just a bit too obvious regarding this fourth installment of Second Spring. After all, it is April 5. I even contemplated using another Talk Talk track for this fourth part. Then, I put “April 5” on, and I realized immediately how right it is for today. After all, it’s following yesterday’s Big Big Train track, “The Permanent Way.”
Big Big Train is as close to perfect as the world will allow. Still, Mark Hollis joining BBT would make the band just a bit more perfect. . . .
This is common ground for almost all newer bands of our time, yet what has brought the rapid downfall in CD sales and decline of the music industry — the internet — also presents us with a range of new possibilities to support the bands we love and cherish even stronger than before.
Instrumental progressive metal band Art Against Agony from Germany have produced two albums and two EPs since 2014 and have toured Europe, Russia and South America over the course of the last few years, taking the management and production of the band fully into their own hands.
For the production of their third album Shiva Appreciation Society the project has now joined funding platform Patreon to give their fans a unique opportunity to support the band and become a part of the new production themselves.
From a range of 1€-50€ support, the band is offering anything from a free album until a complete involvement into the production process, being able to give the band feedback about raw tracks during composition and mixing of the album. Additionally, there is a very limited amount of t-shirts available exclusively for the Patreon supporters only!
The third album of the artist collective will be very experimental and progressive, yet one can expect a big focus on the bands Indian percussion player the_maximalist and their piano player the_surgeon, giving both of them a major spotlight.
The band will release their new record in October 2018 and follow up with a European tour, and there is more to come!
Video trailer for the new album Shiva Appreciation Society can be seen below.
The seventeenth track, “The Permanent Way,” on Big Big Train’s ENGLISH ELECTRIC: FULL POWER (2013), might very well be one of the most important songs written and produced during what many call Third-wave Prog.
Two masters of the word.
The album itself, of course, is extraordinary, especially in its building of textures–all of which weave in and out, away and to, near and far, above and beyond.
Not only is the weave exceptional, but so is the actual existence of time during the album, which, depending on how BBT shape the music, slows up or speeds down. As the title suggestions, “The Permanent Way” considers those things that remain, those that stood strong and remain standing. Thus, the song represents a still point, around which time itself flows.
The still point of the song is the profound British poet, John Betjeman, rivaled in stance only by T.S. Eliot in twentieth-century poetic achievement. With brass, guitars, keyboards, bass, and a variety of other instruments, the band slowly approaches the poet. Longdon’s voice gently offers a prelude as homage. The moment Betjeman speaks, Longdon defers, treating the master with all due deference and respect. The result is a majestic whole that brings together past, present, and future. This is what Big Big Train does best. And, frankly, no one does it better.
Inspired by Craig Breaden’s brilliant 104-part Soundstream, I’ve decided to post music that reveals that rock and jazz (and some other forms of music) are not the end of western civilization, but the culmination of western civilization up to this point in time. A second spring, if you will.
It’s hard to believe that I first encountered The Fierce and the Dead almost a full decade ago. They’ve been such a part of my musical life over the past eight years, that it’s actually hard to remember a time when I didn’t listen to them.
As I’ve had the privilege of arguing before, The Fierce and the Dead is, essentially, what might happen if Johnny Marr played with King Crimson.
But, labels.
Who needs them? Just know that Matt Stevens and co. give theirs hearts, minds, and souls for the world of music. And, we are all the better for it.
Inspired by Craig Breaden’s brilliant 104-part Soundstream, I’ve decided to post music that reveals that rock and jazz (and some other forms of music) are not the end of western civilization, but the culmination of western civilization up to this point in time. A second spring, if you will.
Inspired by Craig Breaden’s brilliant 104-part Soundstream, I’ve decided to post music that reveals that rock and jazz (and some other forms of music) are not the end of western civilization, but the culmination of western civilization up to this point in time.
A second spring, if you will.
For our first entry, from our own cherished progarchist, Kevin McCormick. This from his 1999 album, SQUALL. “Storm Front.”
Progarchy 