Damian Wilson and Adam Wakeman: KICKSTARTER

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

Hey Progarchists, a plea and an appeal.  Damian Wilson and Adam Wakeman have launched a Kickstarter pledge program.

Please, please, please support them.

The campaign lasts until February, and they’ve received about 30% of what they need at this point to complete and produce the album.

For those of you who might not know, these are the two who brought us the exceptional and outstanding [headspace] albums.  These guys are genius, and they very much deserve our support.

To support this project, please go here.

 

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Top 10 Metal Albums of 2017

On By Time LordIn progressive rock4 Comments

As the resident metalhead among the Progarchy editors, I offer not only my Top 10 (Prog) Albums of 2017, but also my TOP 10 METAL ALBUMS of 2017 (below). Ever since I first discovered Rush, my favorite genre is prog metal, and you’ll observe the tilt in taste in that direction below. If you like prog, then you will enjoy all the complex and satisfying metal that has made my list below.

Witherfall Nocturnes and Requiems has perfect metal vocals combined with breathtaking musicianship (the blistering guitar work and intricate drumming are astonishing), making this a truly superb album achievement.

Every few albums, Rush would include a pure instrumental showcase, but what if they had ditched Le Studio and took off to Scandinavia to record an entire album of instrumentals? That’s what sleepmakeswaves Made of Breath Only sounds like to my ears, and it puts a smile on my face every time I hear this amazing album.

Odd Logic Effigy gives you everything you want in an advanced prog metal album, woven here into an especially satisfying, coherent musical whole, and it is truly a shame that this band is not better known, because their art is magnificent.

Soen Lykaia is a distinctively original metal album that combines all the sounds you love from intricate metal into a highly unique whole, marked with upper-echelon musicianship.

Lucid Dreaming The Chronicles Part II is an incredible heavy metal concept album with populist vocals that sound like the cast of a Broadway musical, in service of the dramatization of The Chronicles of Prydain. (Dream Theater totally blew it with The Astonishing pile of crap, but Lucid Dreaming shows what a stage musical metal concept album should really be like instead.)

Leprous Malina is a mysterious and infectious slab of metal that I can thank Progarchy editor Carl for turning me on to, and its richly dark textures get better and better with each listen. Thanks, Carl!

Continue reading “Top 10 Metal Albums of 2017” →

Some Neglected Music of 2017, Part I

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock3 Comments

By neglected, I don’t mean by the world.  I mean, by me.

In a few other posts, I have had the privilege of listing my top albums, in the order I loved them.  My 2017 list goes, from no. 10 to no. 1: Anathema, The Optimist; Bjorn Riis, Forever Comes to an End; My Tricksy Spirit; Ayreon, The Source; The Tangent, The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery; Cosmograf, Hay-Man Dreams; Glass Hammer, Untold Tales; Newspaperflyhunting, Wastelands; Dave Kerzner, Static; and Big Big Train, everything released in 2017!

There are, however, a number of great releases from the year that I simply did not have time to grasp fully or immerse myself in the way I think necessary to review properly.  None of this, however, should suggest–to my mind, at least–even a kind of lesser quality or second-hand citizenship in the world of Prog, or in the republican anarchy that is progarchy.

For what it’s worth, I thought each of the following extraordinary as well, and, I hope, when Kronos allows, time to embrace each in the way it deserves.

***

lifesigns cardingtonLifesigns, Cardington.  I think John Young is a treasure of a musician and composer, and I’m honored to travel this world at the same time as he.  Intelligence radiates from everything the man does, and, even better, it’s an intelligence utterly in the service of good things.  The first Lifesigns was a shock of joy to me.  This one as well, though I’ve just not had the time to dive into it.

When I listen to Lifesigns, I actually think of Young and the band as the anti-Radiohead guys.  Imagine the darkness of Radiohead and then do exactly the opposite, in terms of melody and lyrics.  And, you might arrive at Lifesigns. My favorite track on this new release is nine-plus minute “Different.”

Continue reading “Some Neglected Music of 2017, Part I” →

Steven Wilson at TIC

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock6 Comments

Yesterday, I had the grand privilege of introducing the The American Conservative audience to the joys and delights of Big Big Train.  This morning, I’ve had an equal blessing in introducing Steven Wilson to The Imaginative Conservative audience.  It’s prog week in the Birzer house!  Then again, when isn’t it prog week in the Birzer house?

For this one, I focused on Wilson’s previous album, HAND.CANNOT.ERASE and explored the Christian humanist elements within it.

A huge thanks not only to Winston Elliott and Steve Klugewicz, masterful editors of The Imaginative Conservative, but to Stephen Humphries as well.  As some of you might very well know, there is no one in the world outside of Wilson himself who knows more about Wilson than Humphries does.

To read, please click here.

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Big Big Train at TAC

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

The kind and professional folks at The American Conservative have given me some space to spread my love for all things Big Big Train.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/an-ode-to-progressive-rock/

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Lucid Dreaming, Heavy Metal, and The Chronicles of Prydain

On By Time LordIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Over at Angry Metal Guy, Swordborn has a good review of one of my favorite releases of 2017, Lucid Dreaming’s The Chronicles Pt. II, which is a heavy metal adaptation of The Chronicles of Prydain books. Here’s a taste:

These books were favorites of mine as a child, and remain so to this day. The first installment of The Chronicles remains one of my go-to favorites when illustrating one of the most thematic and spiritually faithful translations of fantasy novel to metal album, despite a relatively unenthusiastic reception in many power metal courts. To no one’s surprise, I’ve been following the progress of Pt. II with interest, and have been entertaining pretty high expectations for it.

Stylistically, Lucid Dreaming is very raw power metal in a myriad of ways. Not only does the mix feel very vocal- and bass-forward, but the array of guest vocalists that breathe life into Prydain’s characters are sourced from throughout the European heavy/power metal underground. None of them bear the polished pedigree that so many of the more commercially successful power metal acts are often noted for, but rather, they infuse the compositions with gritty, energetic, and passionate imperfection. Consequently, The Chronicles, Pt. II boasts an immense amount of character that is lacking in so many concept and story albums produced by the metal genre at large. Tobias Sammet and Arjen Anthony Lucassen may be able to conjure epic soundscapes to assist their grandiose artistic vision, but I’ll bet an oracular pig that neither of them could whip out such an earthy, authentic literary adaptation as this (and probably could never be bothered to).

A listen through the first several tracks will quickly indicate the order of the day for Lucid Dreaming: long, vocally-driven compositions are laid over relatively simplistic but well-formed power metal frameworks spearheaded by hooky rhythm and lead work composed by Oberboßel.

YABOL (Part 2)

On By Dr NickIn progressive rock1 Comment

Welcome to Part 2 of Yet Another ‘Best Of’ List!

After presenting that montage of my top sixteen albums from 2017 in Part 1, it’s time to start ranking them. So here we go, from sixteenth place to ninth place…

16. Tangerine Dream – Quantum Gate

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A controversial release, given the opinion of some that ‘The Tangs’ should have bowed out gracefully following the death of founder and last remaining original member Edgar Froese a couple of years ago. But Thorsten Quaeschning has proven himself a safe pair of hands, more than capable of moulding the ideas and musical thumbnail sketches that Edgar left behind into something that is most satisfying, and recognisably a TD album. Definitely worth a listen if you are a fan of the band, or of electronic music in general.

15. Charlie Cawood – The Divine Abstract

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Charlie’s taken time out from bass-playing duties with Knifeworld and his various other musical projects to produce his first solo release – and very good it is, too! An utterly delightful collection of subtle and fascinating compositions, some with a distinctly oriental feel, played largely on acoustic instruments. Charlie handles guitars & sitar, and a host of others play everything else (among them various other members of Knifeworld, and Haken’s keyboard maestro Diego Tejeida). Particular highlights are The Earth’s Answer, Garden Of The Mind and closing track Apotheosis.

Continue reading “YABOL (Part 2)” →

2017, another great year for prog passionistas!

On By alisonscolumnIn progressive rock5 Comments
Jargon 2
From Athens with love – Jargon of Verbal Delirium

 

2017 – what a year it has been for prog. Against the backdrop of some highly perplexing and disturbing events across the world’s stage, but, to quote the title of Paul Stump’s excellent assessment of prog, The Music’s All That Matters.

On a personal note, it has been a particularly challenging year, having early on developed a stress-related condition due to pressures presented by a previous employer, which led to an emergency operation and a month’s recuperation.  This was coupled with seeing a parent being subsumed in the clutches of dementia. However, equilibrium was restored in the latter part, thanks to the kindness, belief and support of many people both inside and outside the prog bubble.

Though prevailing conditions resulted in me missing several high profile happenings, including HRH Prog in March, 2017 has continued to astound and astonish with the quality of the music being produced, and also the wonderful community of people. This is the tribe that cherishes and follows prog in individual capacities from the fans and supporters, to the writers, the promoters, the merchandise sellers, the record label owners and of course, the artistes themselves, most of whom make scant financial returns on their considerable investments of time and energy. As was originally stated, the music is all that matters.

Without further ado, here are the highlights, and some of the lowlights, which made 2017 another great year for us prog passionistas.

Top Albums:

1) The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery – The Tangent. As one of prog’s most outspoken savants, Andy Tillison brings profound political and social commentary into the narrative of this musically outstanding album. This is a clarion call to wake up and see how our perceptions of the world are being manipulated. Some stellar musicianship peaks on Dr Livingstone (I Presume), co-written by his brilliant fellow Tangential collaborator Luke Machin. Thoughtful, profound with hints of jazz and dance-trance, it also features some extraordinary hard hitting artwork by DC Comics cartoonist, Mark Buckingham.

Continue reading “2017, another great year for prog passionistas!” →

soundstreamsunday #90: “A Spoonful Blues” by Charley Patton

On By Craig BreadenIn blues, folk music, progressive rockLeave a comment

patton_crumb2While John Fahey was working on the set of songs that included “Sunny Side of the Ocean,” for The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death (1965), he was completing his master’s thesis in folklore at the University of California at Berkeley, the first biography and analysis of the work of blues guitarist/singer Charley Patton.  It was published in paperback form in 1970 and is now considered a classic of blues literature.  (Like most early Fahey endeavors, original printings go for exorbitant sums.  However, indulge yourself here for free.)  Fahey’s obsession with Patton is clear but also realistic, and contains in it the reach and grasp of a true scholar.  One gets the impression he probably could have rattled this off in his sleep, despite the occasional dry stiffness no doubt desired by his thesis committee.  Fahey’s point: blues and folk scholarship was missing out big on players like Patton, who for years had been written off as being past the cut-off point of interest of circa 1928, i.e., more influenced by records than oral tradition and thus not worth bothering over.  The racism banked deep in this position aside, Fahey argues successfully that the atmosphere of non-direction in the recording studio for blues artists of Patton’s era (1929-1934) in particular — a result of A&R men having no idea what black communities wanted in the “race records” they were promoting to those same communities — gave players like Patton freedom to perform more naturally than they might otherwise, and produced work that provided a window into African American existence in the Mississippi Delta in the first half of the 20th century.

Fahey’s efforts notwithstanding, Patton remains a dazzling mystery, dead and mostly forgotten for over thirty years before Fahey’s scholarship and the debts acknowledged by artists like Bob Dylan.  Far wilder in lifestyle and presentation than that other King of the Delta Blues, Robert Johnson (himself no stranger to the on-the-edge, rough life of an itinerant Delta musician) Patton’s repertoire was also more diverse, and his showmanship as much a part of his legend as his musicianship to the people who knew him and had seen him perform (to the extent that Son House expressed surprise to Fahey on hearing a Patton record Fahey played back for him, not recalling his friend’s potent guitar prowess but instead Patton’s “clowning”).  While Patton’s legacy never attained the rock’n’roll sanctification accorded Johnson’s work — there’s no equivalent for Patton to Cream’s cover of Johnson’s “Crossroads” or the Stones’ “Stop Breaking Down” — his work constitutes in its rawness an essential rock document, the direct antecedent to the entire career of Howlin’ Wolf (who Patton mentored), and thus by association Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits.  So if Robert Johnson is closely associated with classic blues rock as exemplified by Cream and the jam bands that followed, Patton can to some degree be claimed by artists who inhabit rock’s lunatic fringe.  This isn’t, of course, an all-or-nothing proposition, but just one possible, shifting observation.  Patton was a punk.

Continue reading “soundstreamsunday #90: “A Spoonful Blues” by Charley Patton” →

BBT Christmas–True and Beautiful

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

Only a week old and already a favorite in the Birzer house.  The kids are running around singing “Mer-rr-y Christmas” in full-blown David Longdon style.  What a beautiful gift to the world, capturing everything that matters about the season.

Merry Christmas by Big Big Train.