Porcupine Tree, ANESTHETIZE: LIVE IN TILBURG, OCTOBER 2008 (Kscope, 2cd/1dvd, 2015).
I’m a relative late comer to his music. As chance happened (as chance does), I actually turned on a radio (something I’d really not done since the late 1980s) while driving through Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the early fall of 2002. And, miraculously, at that moment, the station was playing something from IN ABSENTIA.
“Trains,” I think.
Continue reading “A Not So Gentle Reminder: Anesthetize from Porcupine Tree”
The Enid, one of the most iconoclastic progressive bands have ploughed their own furrow over the last 40 years guided by the individual (some might say bloody minded) vision of Robert John Godfrey, a unique musical visionary who polarises opinion with his outspoken critiques, yet he has driven The Enid forward for the last 40 years and with the current tour being his last hurrah with the band as he steps back and lets the young blood in the current revitalised incarnation take over, I was lucky to catch up with Robert, and Enid vocalist Joe Payne last month before they flew of to Japan, to talk about their latest opus Dust.
Robert John Godfrey
Robert is one of the most erudite musicians I have ever interviewed, an intelligent and passionate individual he has so many ideas that we would veer off topic at a regular occurrence including several off the record chats that sadly I cannot reproduce here, witty, self deprecating and very down to earth I think when he steps aside from the stage work he should do a few ‘Evening with…’ theatre shows.
We started our chat by talking about their mighty fine new album Dust and Robert explained the albums concept and themes,
‘Basically there is stardust round and round us, and it’s the culmination of a trilogy, Dust is a prophetic look at where we’ve got to.
It’s about 7 things represented by a seven-point star, there are six things that are on a collision course with massive consequences, the environment vs consumerism, the sacred and the secular and wealth and poverty.
The seventh is something that might have been implicit at the Big Bang, when you got a Terry Pratchett disc world and the 6 points are all fighting each other and this enormous problem us something the next generation has to sort out is the legacy of the mess my generation have made. In this pretty devastated place at the end of it all you’ve got Love, which you must have had in place at the start.
Love, it’s what you’re left with at the end and the stuff of creation, the message that was behind (classic Enid album) Something Wicked this Way comes.
Is this the end? A punishment or a great forest fire, a reset. The trilogy is about the relationship between the one and the many.
It’s about being interested in ideas of mortality and what it means to be a believer, I honestly don’t know and don’t pretend to know.
I’ve spent my life half rationalising against the idea of God and the other half talking to him’ Continue reading “The Enid, Dust to Glory.”
Yes, the title is an exaggeration. Perhaps it should be “albums no one admits to listening to or liking”! I’m sure there are plenty of others who like some of these albums. In fact, a few of these albums sold quite well. But reviews tended to be tepid, mixed, or worse. And in certain circles (yes, I’m looking at you, Rolling Stone magazine), most of these albums were either panned or scorned. Or they were simply ignored. (Deep question: “If Chris Cornell makes an album with Timbaland and no one listens to it, does it really exist?”)
The bottom line, I suppose, is that these albums tend to not fit comfortably into the larger body of an artist’s or band’s work. It might be that the album simply isn’t as good as other albums; or, it tended to be dismissed or downplayed because of apparent shortcomings or actual flaws. But, for me, these are often the most interesting albums, even if they are not the best albums. Just as really great people become more human and thus more fascinating when their flaws or failures are revealed or recognized, great artists reveal something in work that is “left field” or somehow not considered to be 10/10 material. (And, yes, I do consider ABBA to be a great band. Really. I’ll explain why soon enough.)
I’ll be posting my Top 10 “albums no one else listens to or likes” over the next few weeks. The first album on my list is: Continue reading “My Top 10 Albums No One Else Likes or Listens To: Album #10”
A number of you have asked about the band and the music of Third Voice–I played “A Day Like Today” on PR Episode 6.
Here’s a link to the band’s website: http://www.thirdvoicemusic.com
And, here’s the video for the song I played. Enjoy!
In a perfect world I would just travel to New Jersey and buy the guys numerous “rounds” of their favorite adult beverages as we talk music. I want everyone not just talking about this band but buying their current album, back catalog, and next release. Full disclosure dictates that I confess: I love this band and named their 2015 album “Ones & Zeros: Vol. 1” as my favorite prog album of the year. In that perfect world I would interview Robert & company face to face. But second best (e-mail/cyber interview) with 3rDegree is still first degree cool! My “fan-boy” questions (I’m JW for Jay Watson) were graciously answered by most of the band: RJP (Robert James Pashman), PK (Patrick Kliesch), GD (George Dobbs), EP (Eric Pseja), Bryan Zeigler (BZ).
By the way, every true-blue East Coast prog fan needs to know that 3rDegree is playing live in 2016:
May 5: 10th Street Live, Kenilworth, New Jersey (with Circuline and Ryche Chlanda)
May 6: Aspire Hotel, Gettysburg, PA, (RoSfest)
May 19: Drom, New York, NY (with District 97, IZZ, and Tiles)
I want to thank Bryan, Craig, and Nick for such a civilized discussion regarding politics and art. I also want to thank the many commentators who joined in.
I only have a personal, autobiographical, inward-looking comment. I grew up in an extremely anti-war, pro-Catholic, libertarian household. I’m deeply thankful to my mom, my aunts, my maternal grandmother, and the Dominican nuns for teaching me that EVERY SINGLE HUMAN LIFE (regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, skin tone, etc.) matters.
Life is precious, and the good life is even more so.
…the next move, after Manuel Gottsching’s E2-E4, pulls the thread of that piece’s guitar work and comes up with Gabor Szabo at his funky six-string best, in Stockholm in 1972. From the album Small World (available as a compilation with its sister album, Belsta River, as In Stockholm), “Impressions Of My Country / Foothill Patrol” is a duel with Janne Schaffer — a Swedish guitar hero known mostly for his work with Abba. In 1972 Szabo, a serious jazz cat with a penchant for interpreting pop tunes (and riding that line between elevator music and the sublime), might have been primed to explore this Hendrixian territory. The previous year his “Gypsy Queen,” from the album Spellbinder (Impulse, 1966), had been adapted to round out Santana’s cover of “Black Magic Woman” on the album Abraxas. That song reached number four on the charts, while Abraxas went to number one. Szabo’s approach on Small World may have been, in no small part, influenced by Santana. The usually clean tones are fuzzed out, wah-wah pedals are employed, and there is a freer, funkier feel to the proceedings. Coming from Szabo, though, it’s no surprise, and his experimentation with tone and feedback in the 60s, coupled with the use of his native eastern European melodies, helped define a psychedelic sensibility that lent itself to the jam.
I go back and forth between naming The Wall the best album ever, or Genesis’ Selling
England by the Pound. They are both worthy of the title for different reasons. Selling England moves beyond the mere genre of rock and grounds itself in the western tradition. The Wall, though, tugs and pulls on our emotions while telling a timeless story. Does this make The Wall the better album?
Today, I say it does. If you ask me tomorrow, I may tell you that Selling England by the Pound is the best ever. I’m annoying like that. The Wall has so much going on, and it all fits together so perfectly. In a way, it really is just one very long song, like Thick as a Brick. It tells a story beginning with Pink, a rock star, as a young man. It continues with his story as a rock star, living a life of debauchery and drugs, and it ends with his trial. Throughout the whole story, he gradually builds a wall around his emotions to protect himself from his pain.
We can’t all relate to having a crappy, oppressive childhood, but some can. We don’t all live like rock stars, surrounded by drugs and sex, but some do. We don’t all find ourselves standing before a judge after our wall has collapsed, but some do. We don’t all build a wall inside of us to hide from the rest of the world, but a lot of us do.
Even if we can’t relate to all or any of those things specifically, in some way, we either understand them or we have experienced something similar. That is the brilliance of The Wall. Every time we listen to it, it connects with us in some new and exciting way. Some days, we throw our fists in the air to “Another Brick in the Wall Pt.2” as a way of sticking it to the man. Other days, we close our eyes and sing along to “Comfortably Numb,” as we enjoy those fleeting moments of carefree protection within our walls.
From undertones of anti-progressive governments to emotional despair, this album has it all. Furthermore, what it means to me is likely much different than what it means to you, and it is probably different than what inspired Waters to write it in the first place (the death of his father and grandfather in the two World Wars).
That is why, today, I say The Wall is the best album ever made. It defies time and genre. It makes us ponder our own existence and whether or not we too are building emotional walls to protect ourselves. Were Pink Floyd the best musicians in the world? No, not by a longshot, but they managed to compose their music in such a way that it conveyed the emotions they were getting across in the lyrics. This album will persist long after we are gone, in part, because it connects with people at a deeper level than most music. That is why The Wall truly is the best.
If you dig around a bit, you’ll find that Big Big Train has been slowly but surely releasing parts (big and small) of the new album, FOLKLORE.
The band has sent review copies out to print magazines, to British radio stations, and to a few others, but not yet to websites.
For us North American die-hard fans–just remember: STONE AND STEEL will eventually make it here, and so will FOLKLORE. We just have to be patient and trust the band’s release and marketing strategy.
Here, below, are a few snippets available now.
***
About 13.5 minutes into this podcast, you can hear a single from the new album.
http://www.progzilla.com/podcast-francis-dunnery-radio-show-edition-012/
UPDATE – APRIL 22)
Davids voice sounds a little different at times. He still sounds very much like, well, David. But sometimes he’s a bit more gravelly. There are moments in ‘Brooklands’ where some might confuse him with Peter Gabriel. It fits the music and his storytelling on the album very well.
As David hinted in his first blog (http://bit.ly/1VpDzCT) Folkore is really all about storytelling. That’s in the lyrics, the delivery but also very much in the music. Greg wrote (http://bit.ly/1T37HxC) about how the subtext of ‘London Plane’ is the passage of time. Well, you can HEAR that. (Or maybe that’s just my imagination.)
Yesterday I wrote that Folklore might be Big Big Train’s best work to date. While I wrote it, I thought maybe it’s a little early for such a big conclusion. Today I think, although it indeed was early, it’s the right conclusion.APRIL 21)The crow has landed! Folklore. We all know Big Big Train’s music needs a little time to sink in and to unfold and bloom completely. That’s why I will review the album ten times. Or, better, I will take ten days to complete this review. I will write about my first impression today and will update this tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow after tomorrow. Etc. Up to ten updates. (Today: 1/10)I’ve heard the album twice and I can say two things: BBT is proggier than ever on Folklore. And (dare I say it?) poppier. I mean that in a positive way, I keep humming those melodies. They are very (!) catchy at times. “Telling the beeeeees.”I don’t want to be too enthusiastic yet (i have nine review-days to go wink emoticonWho knows, maybe i’ll get bored with this music on day three.) But I’m afraid I have to tell you that Folklore is BBT’s best album to date! More tomorrow. http://youtu.be/U8MzlCvQqn8
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Progarchy 