If you were considering taking the plunge into classical music but were wary of the cost, you no longer have an excuse. The Bach Guild is releasing excellent collections of classical music on Amazon at incredibly low prices. For example, you can get more than33 hours of very fine performances of baroque music for less than $3.00. Yes, that’s right – less than 3 bucks!
Unlike iTunes tracks, these are DRM-free mp3’s. You can stream them off the cloud, download them to listen to on any mp3 player, or burn them to CD.
The Big Baroque Box, Vol. 1 features the music of Vivaldi, Dowland, Torelli, Bach and many others. 305 tracks for $.99.
The Big Baroque Box, Vol. 2 is more of a “Baroque Greatest Hits”, with Handel, Albinoni, Pachelbel, Bach, etc. 214 tracks for a whopping $.99.
The Big Baroque Box, Vol. 3 continues high quality performances of interesting selections of Rameau, Gluck, Purcell, Vivaldi, etc. 129 tracks for – you guessed it – $.99.
The Bach Guild has also released huge collections devoted to individual composers, including Bach (surprise!), Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn, Purcell, Mozart, and Beethoven, among many others. Even if you decide that a particular composer isn’t your cup of tea, you aren’t out a large investment. Take the plunge!
While knocking one of these lists out seems easy for the first 70-80 or so albums, there are hard choices to make once you near the 100 mark.
Do you include or exclude something based on it merely being one of the first albums that turned you on to music, whether or not you listen to it anymore? Does the inclusion of a live album or compilation constitute cheating in some way?
With regard to the latter: To you, if a live album represents the definitive work of the artist, then why not? Also, if your introduction to a band came via a compilation, I think that counts as it’s your “go to” album by them. So, I’ve unapologetically added a few of those here.
With my list, it’s clear that my formative music-listening years were from around 1978 to 1988, but as a friend once told me, your years from 10 to 20 are when the bulk of your musical tastes are formed (might be up for debate, but not by me!).
The fun thing about these lists is that it’s not always about what’s on them, but what’s NOT on them. So, you’ll see that I wasn’t at all influenced by many of prog and/or hard rock bands that so many hold dear, such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or Genesis. On the flip side, my love for some bands is such that numerous albums of theirs are represented here.
No matter what, these 100 – and others beyond – are the soundtrack to my life, 1968-present:
AC/DC, Back In Black
Alcatrazz, Disturbing The Peace
Animal Logic, II
Asia, Asia
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, An Evening Of Yes Music
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles, Abbey Road
Big Big Train, The Underfall Yard
Big Big Train, English Electric
Bourgeois Tagg, s/t
Bourgeois Tagg, Yoyo
Crowded House, Recurring Dream
Dada, Puzzle
Dada, s/t
Dave Matthews Band, Remember Two Things
Dave Matthews Band, Under The Table And Dreaming
Dave Matthews Band, Before These Crowded Streets
The Doors, Best of The Doors
Dream Theater, Images And Words
Dream Theater, Awake
Dream Theater, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Dream Theater, A Dramatic Turn of Events
Dream Theater, s/t
Emerson, Lake & Powell, s/t
Frost*, Milliontown
Halloween, Alaska – Champagne Downtown
Peter Gabriel, Security
Peter Gabriel, Us
Iron Maiden, The Number Of The Beast
Iron Maiden, Piece Of Mind
It Bites, Once Around The World
It Bites, The Tall Ships
Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking
Jane’s Addiction, Ritual de lo Habitual
Billy Joel, The Stranger
King Crimson, Discipline
King Crimson, Beat
King’s X, Gretchen Goes To Nebraska
King’s X, Ear Candy
Kino, Picture
Luce, Never Ending
KISS, Alive
KISS, Alive II
Barry Manilow, Live (you heard right)
Marillion, Clutching At Straws
Bob Marley, Legend
Wynton Marsalis, Hot House Flowers
Mr. Mister, Welcome To The Real World
Mr. Mister, Go On…
Mr. Mister, Pull
Trevor Rabin, Can’t Look Away
Roxy Music, Avalon
Rush, A Farewell to Kings
Rush, Hemispheres
Rush, Permanent Waves
Rush, Moving Pictures
Rush, Power Windows
Rush, Roll The Bones
Saga, Worlds Apart
Saga, Heads Or Tales
Saga, Behaviour
Saga, The Security Of Illusion
Seal, s/t (second album)
Simple Minds, Street Fighting Years
Frank Sinatra, Classic Sinatra
Spock’s Beard, Beware Of Darkness
Spock’s Beard, Day For Night
Spock’s Beard, V
Spymob, Sitting Around Keeping Score
Steely Dan, A Decade of Steely Dan
Steely Dan, Everything Must Go
Sting, Bring On The Night
Sting, The Soul Cages
Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
Swing Out Sister, It’s Better To Travel
Swing Out Sister, Live At The Jazz Café’
Talk Talk, Sprit Of Eden
Tears For Fears, The Seeds Of Love
Tears For Fears, Raoul And The Kings Of Spain
Tears For Fears, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending
Threshold, Critical Mass
Toto, XIV
Toy Matinee, s/t
Transatlantic, Bridge Across Forever
U2, The Unforgettable Fire
UK, Danger Money
UK, Night After Night
Van Halen, Fair Warning
Whitesnake, s/t
Winger, s/t
XTC, Skylarking
XTC, Oranges And Lemons
XTC, Nonsuch
Yes, The Yes Album
Yes, Close To The Edge
Yes, Drama
Yes, 90125
Yes, Big Generator
Frank Zappa, Sheik Yerbouti
3, To The Power Of Three
By the way, I reserve the right to sneak in here and swap out an album here and there – hey, like I said, it’s really hard to decide on those last few. 🙂
The sampler is now available. Pre-order as soon as possible.
Kevin J. Anderson is a wonder. When it comes to the mythology of Rush–whether it’s 2112 or CLOCKWORK ANGELS–Anderson might very well be the uncredited fourth member of the band. In everything this Hugo-Nominated author does, he conquers and with absolute brilliance.
New York based composer Pontus Gunve has just put out his new release, an EP titled “IV.” This excellent, five track EP is available from Bandcamp. We talked with Pontus about the new music.
How do you usually describe your music?
Progressive Instrumental Rock – or Cinematic Rock.
What is your writing process like?
Sporadic and intense. I go through moments of 5 pieces in a week – and then nothing for a month. I have to be inspired at the right moment – or sometimes go through themes in my head and try to develop those in to full pieces.
Who or what is your inspiration, if you have any?
As a guitar player : I like Steve Vai for fluidity, Dave Gilmour for extra dimensional soul, Zappa for head expansion, Marty Friedman for interesting shred, Yngwie Malmsteen for outrageous shred and 16 notes runs, Angus Young for pure guitar tone and Fripp for brainy stuff.
Swiss progressive rock group The Crazy Juggler’s Prog Orchestra, besides having a great name, also makes great music what is probably best documented on their latest opus, a studio album titled “Planet Euphoria – Part I.”
The band is already working on the follow-up to the mentioned album, and here is what they had to tell us about their work.
Define the mission of The Crazy Juggler’s Prog Orchestra.
Our mission is to combine the two generations of progressive rock music (70’s prog and the modern one) in a very various and experimental way. The Crazy Juggler, a character from our story behind, conducts the Prog Orchestra – ourselves, the band – to tell the story of Utopia from album to album.
Tell me about the creative process that informed your album “Planet Euphoria – Part I” and the themes it captures.
It was clear for us very early to create a story about a paradise-like Planet, the first album our characters find together and experience adventures on the search of paradise. It was an interesting challenge to find the suitable melodies and themes to this beautiful landscapes. As the music itself the fantasy of the lyrics don’t have any limitations, and that’s the best motivation for us to write music.
What is the message you are trying to give with “Planet Euphoria”?
It’s the message of an amazing planet, a paradise-like place called Euphoria, on which people and other creatures can live together in peace and freedom and in harmony with the nature and its beautiful landscapes: The classical utopian story.
Jim Trainer’s cover for Big Big Train’s UNDERFALL YARD
For what it’s worth, I took a quick break from work this evening and forced myself to write down my twenty favorite rock albums. I gave it almost no thought–I just brain stormed and listed my all-time favorite albums of the rock era. [I intentionally left off all Rush albums.]
Despite my own restrictions, I discovered something very interesting. At least to me.
For the last 29 years, I would have listed my favorite album of all time as Talk Talk’s The Colour of Spring. My iTunes numbers tell me something different, and I must agree.
Gosia Sutuła-Grabowska: basses, lead and backing vocals
Krzysztof Sarna: drums
Beata Grzegorczyk-Andrejczuk: Fender Rhodes piano
THREE WORDS.
There’s something just so terribly infectious about the music of Newspaperflyhunting.
Granted, the name of the band is the weirdest thing since Annie Oakley shot three playing cards (ace of hearts, of course) at 100 yards while looking at the target through a mirror. Yes, as with Oakley, Newspaperflyhunting brings a standard of excellence to every single thing it touches and produces.
The band’s latest EP, THE THREE WORDS, is a thing of wonder, beauty, and majesty.
Though the three-song EP has a familiar Newspaperflyhunting sound, THE THREE WORDS is different from their other releases and offers the long-time listener even new aural ecstasies.
As I’ve mentioned previously, the band’s music possesses much in common with the American and British neo-psychedelic wall-of-sound revival of the late 1980s which saw the rise and glory of such bands as Opal, Mazzy Star, the Cocteau Twins, and My Bloody Valentine. Whatever the similarities, however, Newspaperflyhunting (as the name would suggest) is very much—maybe even absolutely—its own band. Other than being from Poland and believing in the purity of art, Newspaperflyhunting evades any easy labeling or categorization.
At nearly 11 minutes in length, the opening track, “3 Words,” a song ostensibly about wisdom, tradition, and loss. The song builds slowly but surely in the first two minutes, exploding at the 1:56 mark. The voice drones (appropriately) as much as sings in a longing fashion, a plea for attention and contemplation. The mood of the song changes numerous times through the 11 minutes, demanding the full immersion of the listener.
At just under 10 minutes, “Past Perfect (revisited),” track two, is a remake of an older Newspaperflyhunting song. Never satisfied with the song, the band completely rebuilt it for the THREE WORDS EP. The new version of the song is nothing short of stunning. The female vocalist especially brings the song to life, drawing the listener into introspection as well as inspiration.
“Demolished Mansions” reflects the overall themes of the EP: the loss of tradition, replaced by heartless modernity. There might also—though I speculate, nothing more—be something scriptural in the title, a loss and the death of God in our insane whirligig.
The band’s description of itself: “Formed in 2006 in Białystok, Poland. Prog/post/space rock. Longing, melancholy, and rays of light scattered throughout. Introspective music, disregarding trends or expectations.” One of the most accurate self-evaluations I’ve encountered in my life.
