Story Tellers Part Two – Tiger Moth Tales Introduction… The latest and 4th studio album release of Tiger Moth Tales is the sequel to the 2nd album Story Tellers Part One and I was so glad to that Story Tellers Part Two had been in the making and was to be the next album to hit […]
Kudos to Erik and Brad for being willing to step up and speak on this. This post began as a comment on Erik’s post (which was a response to Brad’s posts), but the words kept coming and it seemed better to add to the conversation separately.
I am probably the least informed of all of you with respect to the cutting edge of current Prog. I haven’t had a chance to listen to either album in question, so I shan’t speak to those specifically. I will say, that I’ve come to realize that a lot of the music that I enjoyed when I was younger was filled with political posturing that mostly sailed right over my head. But now, years later, when I listen to much of it I find the perspectives to be quite vacuous and it does spoil my experience of the music. Political criticisms can be powerfully done, but they typically work better when written in prose by people who have been gifted with insights for such things. Poetry can work to that end, but it takes an extremely deft hand (Shakespeare & Eliot come to mind) to really make it art.
If anyone has read the attacks below, posted on Progarchy, that are assaulting the latest from both Roine Stolt and The Tangent, I just want to encourage people to ignore the ranting and raving, and to actually go and listen to the music and lyrics instead.
Stolt releases a song called “Lost America” and suddenly some heads explode at Prograchy. Hey guys, calm down. How about you actually listen to the song? Is it too much to thoughtfully digest what an artist offers, before pronouncing premature rash judgment?
The music to “Lost America” is itself not too bad. Musically, there is nothing offensive. I admit the track doesn’t do much for me, because musically it has nothing too innovative or elaborate to get me excited. But, the guitars are great, and it’s still pleasantly enjoyable to listen to, nonetheless.
Continue reading “Lost Progarchy: Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much”
One of our esteemed founders, Dr. Birzer, has had a few excellent posts today on the intersection of art and politics, in part to a reaction of some recent releases and in larger part in reaction to some larger trends. In reading them, I had about 1.5 cents of my own I wanted to throw in.
This isn’t to say I don’t ever like political subject matter intertwined with music. But some ways of doing it are more appealing than others. One of my favorite albums this year – Galahad’s sprawling, incredible Seas of Change – is very political in its lyrics. It’s focused on the tumult in the U.K. over Brexit. However, which side of that debate it eventually comes down upon is hard to say. I’ve read reviews that say it’s pro-Brexit, others that say it’s anti-Brexit. When I pore over the lyrics, I come away with … I don’t know. It seems like Galahad has plenty to critique on both sides of that debate. Irrespective of that, one of the things I like about it is that it takes a “clean up your own backyard first” approach. Nobody is doing a Roine Stolt on Lost America here, sitting back smugly criticizing another polity as if theirs is somehow perfect. The path Galahad has chosen is one of self-reflection, the one chosen by Stolt is cheap, smug, self-superiority. Galahad’s path is engaging (as is Marillion’s FEAR), Stolt’s is off-putting.
Do you long for the days when listening to FM rock radio meant hearing classic Todd Rundgren, early Chicago, ELO, ELP, Pink Floyd, and maybe a little Autobahn courtesy of Kraftwerk? Do you miss watching Rockford Files and Barney Miller on TV? If so, then you will love Glass Hammer’s new album, Chronomonaut. It is a trip back in time to those heady days of the 1970s when DJs thought nothing of playing an entire album side in the middle of an afternoon.
Brad Birzer has already written an impossible-to-improve-upon review of Glass Hammer’s latest, but I am so captivated by this album that I had to add my voice to the chorus of praise it is garnering. While Valkyrie was a beautiful and sympathetic examination of the horrors of WWI trench warfare and the toll it took on soldiers, Chronomonaut is a much lighter affair, at least in its brilliant mix of styles of music. Tongues are firmly in cheek throughout this update on the hapless protagonist, Tom Timely, whom we first met in 2000’s Chronometree.
Tom’s still convinced he’s receiving secret messages via prog music, and he is not a happy inhabitant of the 2010s. He is sure that he can travel back in time to the 1970s and fix whatever it was that made his life go off the rails. Where Chronometree was pretty much all in fun, though, this new chapter has some deeper messages lurking beneath the surface.
The music is all over the place, and I mean that in a good way. I hear snatches of early Chicago in the horns, some Houses of the Holy – era Led Zep, some early-80s new waviness, and a heavy dollop of Something/Anything? – era Todd Rundgren. Babb and Schendel put it all in a blender and it comes out sounding pretty glorious. Susie Bogdanowicz is still on board, thankfully, contributing her trademark angelic vocals. Aaron Raulston is solid as a rock throughout. He is the most adaptable drummer I’ve heard – regardless of the musical style, his percussion is a perfect fit. Steve Babb is now my favorite bassist – he is endlessly inventive and melodic without dominating the proceedings. And of course, Fred Schendel is marvelous on guitar and keyboards, pulling all kinds of vintage sounds out of his instrumental arsenal.
In the end though, amidst the sheer pleasure of listening to all of this ear candy, there is a sobering message: nostalgia for its own sake can be dangerous. As they sing in the album’s final and finest song, “Fade Away”,
“If you could truly travel back
You’d still not find the things you lack.
The glories you seem to recall
Were not glory after all.”
Tom, it turns out, is searching for Truth, and in the end he finds it. It’s a deeply moving moment in the arc of the album’s trajectory. There are not many bands who could pull off such a mix of engaging melodies with such a serious message. Glass Hammer, however, are not your typical band. They make it look easy, which is all the more impressive. Long may they run!
Oak, False Memory Archive, 2018
Tracks: We, The Drowned (5:24), Claire De Lune (7:16), False Memory Archive (4:56), Lost Causes (8:30), Intermezzo (1:42), The Lights (10:34), These Are The Stars We’re Aiming For (4:19), Transparent Eyes (4:59), Psalm 51 (7:26)
[Edit: The original version of this review included a track listing with the wrong track order. I offer my sincerest apologies to the band and to our readers for this mistake.]
Have you ever found yourself so utterly satisfied by something in life that you find yourself feeling guilty for enjoying it? For me, that is Oak’s music. Their two albums are flawless. Every note. Every theme. Every lyric. Every wash of sound. Perfection.
2016’s Lighthouse blew me away. I’m not sure how much attention the band has received in more popular press (i.e., Prog magazine), but beyond Progarchy, the Dutch Progressive Rock Page (where I and Andy Read have promoted the group), Prog Sphere, and the Prog Mind, I haven’t seen the band covered all that much. That is a downright shame because this band has reached into a completely new level of brilliance.
Oak is prog in the vein of Pink Floyd’s, Riverside’s, Porcupine Tree’s, and Steven Wilson’s atmospheric and contemplative moments. Unlike those bands, Oak never abandon that overarching theme. Their new album, False Memory Archive, may start with a pounding drum intro reminiscent of the heavier moments in rock history, but that does not take the band away from their overall sound. Instead, it grounds them in rock, and it allows them to explore broad soundscapes. The band goes from quiet contemplative moments to heavy guitar driven rock in places all over the album. Throughout the first track, the heavy drumming seemingly contradicts the warm vocals and soothing piano and synth sounds, but when taken together it really doesn’t. The end result is a layered effect that allows the music to build gradually.
Continue reading “Immersed in Memory: The Rising Brilliance of Oak”
Check out the full album premiere of Oak’s “False Memory Archive”.
via Album Premiere: Oak – “False Memory Archive” — The PROG Mind
Music is something that should speak to the soul. It can lift you through hard times and soothe when stressed. It can light the way and enlighten and can make for a great night of intimacy if Barry White’s deep timbre is your thing. (thang?)
The Tangent’s most outstanding moments in a ten album career have been consistent and frequent, and the best of those have been where the music and words speak to the soul in a way that is tangible and personable. Songs resonate with fans from all corners of the earth, from Japan to Peru and the U.S and Manchester. It’s the soul in the music that links everyone, as the words and emotions speak on a higher level. The politics of recent times can voice anger and frustrations but the universal messages of love, joy, fear and doubt (to name a few) speak loudest and to the most.
As complex and thought provoking as the songs have been over the years, a few have been taken to the fans’ hearts because of the simplest themes such as the loneliness of old age ‘In Earnest’ or the sadness felt at the hidden homeless of ‘Perdu Dans Paris’. We’ve been taken on American road trips and been stuck in traffic in the daily rush hour but the passion comes from core moments of the human condition that we all feel.
The newest of albums – ‘Proxy’ has many songs that will stand out as worthy additions to the canon. The political overhang of Slow Rust is there in the title track and the return of Supper’s Off serves to highlight the frustration of struggling bands against the glossy marketed bands of old that consume the market presence. Yet where Andy and the rest of the band really succeed in their latest release is the joyful, layered spirit in ‘The Adulthood Lie’.
Quite simply the track shines and should prove to be one that stands out as a key moment in the band’s career.
The Adulthood Lie is Andy Tillison’s EDM fused look at Ibiza and the dance culture therein. Controversially the sound itself may ruffle feathers but in truth the mix of beats and synth is truly progressive and holds true to the outline of what progressive music should be. It’s not a new concept in this fusion of sounds, Frost* and Galahad have mixed dance elements with rock over recent years.
Fans of The Tangent know well that the band do not stick to conventional progressive rock formats and The Adulthood Lie is no exception. Michael Akerfeldt of Opeth remarked in an interview that fans who were outraged at the musical change in direction ‘weren’t paying attention’ and the same can be said of the latest from The Tangent.
This isn’t to say that there is total reinvention. If anything there is plenty of the definable Tangent sound in the piece particularly the tones from the ‘A place in the queue’ period with hints of ‘GPS culture’ that playfully add colour.
The sonic landscape of the Adulthood Lie perfectly compliments the feeling of passion for music and dance. It’s about love and excitement for what music is all about and its pulsating backbone is inspiring and uplifting. There is an addictive quality to the beat that leaves the listener wishing for more.
The narrative behind the music is paradoxically simple and complex at the same time as Tillison paints a pretty picture of bliss in a warm evening in Ibiza and the way the music ignites the fire within. Deeper into the song we find a melancholic centre which deals with ageing and regret. It’s an often explored topic for Tillison’s lyrics and here the sense is that he wishes that he had done things differently in his 30’s and 40’s “I blinked and I missed it”.
The regret spills over into frustration at the loss of youthful opportunity and “pissing away the day” and some of the conceptions that he had then about the dance sound. “That’s not music”.
The beauty of the lyric “as I got older I let those dreams die”, is both profound and cutting.
As usual for the Tangent the long form songs take the listener on a journey. The resolution to The Adulthood Lie is that it’s not too late, “there’s still time…” The closing segment of the song brings back a sense of optimism and perhaps this life grabbing opportunism is borne of the return to health after heart problems seriously affected Tillison in the recent past. 
We all feel some sense of regret of places we turned left and should have turned right, of how we took dogged viewpoints that in hindsight deprived us of opportunity. There’s truth in the saying ‘Youth is wasted on the young’ and this speaks to us all deep down of how we might do things differently if somehow we could return to our past and talk to our younger selves. Perhaps the lasting message should be that of the Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s track – ‘Deep Kick’ poached from the Butthole Surfers ‘Sweet Loaf’ – “It’s better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do.”
There’s magic in Proxy which will set the album apart from many of their previous releases and should put it into many fans favourite album shortlist. The quality of superb musicianship is ever present throughout from the groovy, funky bass of Reingold to the effortless fretboard skipping of Machin on guitar. They always augment the writing and raise it to a higher level of excellence. Crucially though, Tillison has bottled something this time around which is truly sublime.
The new album from The Tangent – Proxy is released on Inside Out records on the 16th November 2018. Available from the website: https://www.thetangent.org
“Here We Are” is a debut EP release from a Copenhagen-based alternative/progressive metal act Project Sapiens, comprised of five songs.
Kicking off with the title track, “Here We Are” hints its diversity. Elements ranging from hard rock, heavy metal to Opeth-influenced Prog Metal and alternative motifs are included.
There is definitely potential here, and “Uprising” and “My Prison Cell” prove that. The transition between different parts is rather smooth. “Anger” starts with a very nice melody provided by a clean guitar of Poul Jakobsen and clean vocals by Mads Rahbaek. The guitar riffs that can be heard on this one, and throughout the record, are another highlight and an element that makes difference. Closing “Keepers of the Realm” starts very atmospherically, but it doesn’t take too long to become a hybrid child of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Porcupine Tree.
What is important here is that Project Sapiens made a brave step to produce a release that is stylistically very different, and with the experience called “Here We Are” I’m sure that they will take the best out of it and use that knowledge on their next release.
“Here We Are” is available here.
A nice update from Kscope, in the midst of celebrating 10 years of excellence.
Progarchy 