Great Brit Robin Armstrong, master of time, just released his first single/video from the new Cosmograf album, The Man Left in Space.
The first track, “The Vacuum That I Fly Through,” is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO_klTAF7I0
Performed by Robin, Greg Spawton, Matt Stevens, and Nick D’Virgilio. Mastered by Reverend Rob Aubrey. The song is as moving as it is tasteful.
By Alison Henderson
Well prog pickers, it has been another stunning year of music in the progsphere and as the slogan on one of my tee-shirt reads, “So much prog: so little time”. How true is that! Reviewing prog rock is probably one of the most complicated but ultimately rewarding jobs on the planet. It is never easy to assess any prog album simply on one take or at face value. It takes time to appreciate the months and often years of work which go into making this kind of music.
There are without doubt many albums I have missed this year, many of which have appeared in others’ picks of the years. Hopefully, I will get around to hearing them in due course, but already, 2013 is promising to be another incredible year of new music. It has been a hard task picking 12 but ultimately, these are the albums which rocked my world this year and hopefully, yours too.
12. Moments – IO Earth. This is the second album by the Birmingham band whose brand of hauntingly atmospheric prog continues to delight and confound in equal measures. It is moody and magnificent with some highly original passages and virtuoso playing.
11. Crimes and Reasons – Steve Thorne. A sublime collection of varied and thoughtful songs featuring a stellar cast of artists such as Tony Levin and Nick D’Virgilio brought to you by the very under-rated Mr Thorne, who writes, plays and has one of the most haunting voices in prog.
This Sunday, 2pmEST, Geoff Banks will be presenting his ten best prog albums of the year. Geoff is a master not only of prog, but he’s also an excellent host (no matter how humble he is about this). Make sure you tune into his show, PROG DOG, this Sunday.
December 16: http://myradiostream.com/progdog
Enjoy.
Dear Artists, Groups, Record Labels, Engineers, Producers, Managers, and assorted Fellow Humans,
We the Progarchists absolutely love music. Indeed, we consider it one of the finest things in the world. Please let us review your work. We’re dropbox, email, and mail friendly. If you send us something, I promise we’ll consider your trust in us a sacred one. We will treat your work with all due respect.
Though we specialize in progressive and art rock, we feel qualified to review anything classical, rock, jazz, or blues related. Sacred music is fine as well.
For email notices, inquiries, news, etc., please contact us at bradbirzer@gmail.com.
For actual, physical, tangible mail (yes, we still love CDs and vinyl), please use the following:
Brad Birzer/editor
Progarchy
6 West Montgomery
Hillsdale MI 49242 USA
We also love interviews.
Yours,
The Progarchists
Ave, Greg Spawton! Greg has just revealed the cover art for the forthcoming English Electric Part Two. Out March 4, 2013.
Leah’s 2012 Symphonic Metal Debut: Of Earth & Angels
Leah released her first full-length album in 2012, Of Earth & Angels, and I first learned of its existence when Leah’s song “Ex Cathedra” (featuring suitably epic Latin lyrics) found its way into my Facebook feed, thanks to a student who had taken a number of my Latin classes over the years. After a quick sample of the album’s songs online, I knew I had to download the whole thing.
That was back in September. This month, as I was assembling my Top Ten of 2012 for the Progarchy archives, I realized that Leah was in my upper echelon, because, months later, I had not moved on from her album; if anything, I was enjoying it more and more, which is a sure sign that an album is a rare and special find, especially with a new artist. I love this time of year, when I look back and survey the wreckage and the survivors: the many albums that I had such high hopes for (but then turned out to be sad disappointments); the few surprises that came out of nowhere (to become treasured discoveries). Leah’s music has surprised me, and it stormed its way into my Best of 2012.
by Brad Birzer, Progarchist Editor
Though Progarchy is only two months old, I’m absolutely thrilled with its successes. A thanks, first, to all of you out in the world (it’s a blast to look at the google map of who checks us out daily) who read us. I hope you keep coming back to us.
Second, though, an immense thanks to all of the Progarchist writers. Everything written here is purely voluntary. We each have full-time jobs and families, but we do this because we love it.
We’re certainly not the biggest music website, but I believe that–in terms of sheer literary quality–no other website matches us. I would hold any one of our writers (individually or collectively) against any other group of writers in the blogosphere. If this sounds cocky, I apologize. But, as editor, I find it quite humbling. We really like each other, but we also believe that the importance of the music demands that we write and try to match with our utmost abilities. On this, I think we’ve succeeded.
Additionally, though the site is based in the western Great Lakes of North America, we also have writers from the U.K., Brazil, and New Zealand. We’re hoping to have someone from Antarctica soon—Penguin Prog?—but, it’s been more difficult than one might first imagine.
As 2012 comes to its necessary and inescapable end, each of the Progarchists has been asked—as time permits—to rank her or his favorite albums of the past year.
I’ll be ranking my top fifteen albums as well, and I’m sure my number one pick of the year, which I think is the best album of the last twenty-four years, will probably come as no surprise to anyone.
Continue reading “Songs from the Hedgerow: Preliminary Awards, 2012”
I was sorely tempted to do a “Top 10 ‘Top 10 of 2012’ Lists” list. But I decided that’s a bit meta so instead I tried to scientifically rank my favourite albums released in 2012 and present them with my thoughts about why they’re so awesomely excellently fabulously brill.
I even considered building an Excel spreadsheet. Imagine if you will a matrix, using subtle pastel hues of course, with a list of 2012 albums (alphabetical by title for convenience) down the left side and a list of prog ‘features’ (aka clichés?) along the top. Then I’d cross-reference the albums by the ‘features’ they contained, and put a little tick (that’s a ‘check’ to you US types!) in the corresponding box. Perhaps I’d even colour-code each tick to weight it based on such criteria as homage to past bands/decades/instruments/guest artists/dress sense/lack of dress sense. The album that got the highest score would be the clear winner. It would be awesome*.
Easier said than done. Plus, the winner wouldn’t have been my favourite album. Not by a long, long way.
So I went back to basics, to think about what I really mean by ‘favourite’. I considered that even though I bought a lot of music in 2012 very few albums are still played routinely in my house or (and this is reserved for the holier-than-holy) elevated to a spot on my car’s MP3 player, which is where I have some of my most profound musical moments. Drivers of NZ beware!
So I present my easy-to-use criteria for blistering prog:
1. Tears flow.
2. Smiles erupt.
3. 1 often occurs concurrently with 2.
4. Ermmm…that’s it.
And without further ado, I present my Top 10 Albums of 2012:
1. Big Big Train – English Electric Part One
1. Echolyn – Echolyn.
OK, so I failed at making even a Top 10 list, but I am very happy with my top shared first place selection. Each does weird/good things to me for completely different reasons, and each will join me as a truly special companion on my (hopefully) long journey into the future. Kudos, BBT and E!
Finally, if I may make an honourable mention of other favourite 2012 prog moments, in order of merit again:
1. Being invited to contribute to Progarchy.com.
1. Joining the Big Big Train facebook group and meeting some incredibly fantastic people.
Enjoy December everyone, however you choose to/not to celebrate. Personally I will be training for the 2013 Hedonism Olympics. Huzzah!
Progarchy 