Delights forthcoming from Glass Hammer. As Steve Babb writes: “PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS AND MORE UNTOLD TALES begins with songs from 1993 and concludes with a live recording from 2017.”
Knowing Glass Hammer, this album will serve as the equivalent of one of Tolkien’s appendices in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. And, I couldn’t be happier!
Though Neal Morse’s Radiant Records has become much less friendly (at least to reviewers) over the last year or so, I’m still rather excited about this release.
SNOW has been a masterpiece of prog since it first came out 15 years ago. I’m still kicking myself for not purchasing the deluxe package of Marillion’s last album, so I’m not going to make that mistake for this one.
And, I’ll not so quietly wish that Neal Morse and Radiant become more responsive to their fans in the not so distant future.
To order, go here: http://www.radiantrecords.com/products/692-snow-live.aspx
In “I Can See Clearly Now,” Johnny Nash rejoices in the rain ending, the clouds parting. In “Asa Branca,” Gilberto Gil brings the boogie down party to a song that prays for the rain to return. Written in 1947 by Luiz Gonzaga and Humberto Teixeira, this oft-covered Brazilian chestnut — and Gonzaga’s own versions are pretty uniformly great — is about two lovers separated by the economic conditions of the drought-ravaged region of Sertão, forcing the narrator to leave his beloved Rosinha to find work in the city, with a promise to return.
I love Gil’s work. Along with Tom Zé and Caetano Veloso, Gil was at the cutting edge of Brazilian music in the late 1960s and paid the political price, as did Zé and Veloso. The music he continues to create and perform is remarkable, and when I saw him live several years ago, even at age 70 he played two hours, electric guitar over his shoulder and wicked band behind him, to a rapt crowd he kept dancing in the aisles. He’s an ambassador without a badge, a teacher without a blackboard, and when he plays, he’s on fire. Along with Caetano’s first four or five records and the albums by Os Mutantes, Gil carved a path for singular Brazilian expression. By 2003 he had become such a hero that he was named Brazil’s Minister of Culture. Sure, “Minister of Culture” sounds Orwellian to me too, but if you’re going to have one, by all means make it Gil. Two hours. 70 years old.
Gil covered “Asa Branca” on his 2001 live album São João vivo, and it’s been a live staple for him ever since. This version is from the live tour supporting his album Fé na festa, the same tour we saw, and while some record company minion got the upload video quality wrong, the audio is fine and the performance jaw-dropping. So great.
soundstreamsunday presents one song or live set by an artist each week, and in theory wants to be an infinite linear mix tape where the songs relate and progress as a whole. For the complete playlist, go here: soundstreamsunday archive and playlist, or check related articles by clicking on”soundstreamsunday” in the tags section.
by Rick Krueger
“Rock ‘n’ Roll might not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them.” — Pete Townshend of The Who on Good Morning America, 1978.
From the 1960s through the early 1980s and beyond, Michigan loved The Who. The only place their first single “I Can’t Explain” was a hit in the USA was Detroit. Flint’s Holiday Inn became infamous as the hotel where, according to legend, Keith Moon drove a Lincoln Continental into its swimming pool on his 21st birthday. Their 1975 show at the Pontiac Silverdome briefly held the record for largest indoor concert.
So it wasn’t as if I hadn’t heard songs from Who’s Next before I went to college in 1979; at that point, “Baba O’Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” were inescapable on FM radio. But it was at the end of my first term away from home that the 1971 album became something more to me.
Continue reading “The Albums that Changed My Life: #4, Who’s Next by The Who”
by Rick Krueger
Today is — well, sort of — the official release day for The Pineapple Thief’s Where We Stood concert video. Turns out that, while vinyl and downloadable/streaming audio versions are now available, the Blu Ray, DVD and CD versions have been delayed until early October. Kudos go to the fine folks at Burning Shed for sending along mp3s of the full concert to folks who pre-ordered in those formats!
After just one listen, I’m mightily impressed. Back in my eMusic subscriber days, I ran across the Thief via the albums Tightly Unwound and Someone Here Is Missing, enjoying them thoroughly. A decade ago, high quality new prog was still scarce enough that I absolutely delighted in hearing Bruce Soord and company plowing similar furrows to Steven Wilson in Porcupine Tree. Unfortunately, the follow-ups All the Wars and Magnolia were, as our head Progarchist put it last year, good but bland. Thankfully, 2016’s Your Wilderness was a major step back up, as Gavin Harrison’s stylish, tasty drumming slotted in with Soord’s sleek new tunes and moody guitar lines to hypnotic effect.
So Where We Stood is the right move at the right time, capturing the re-energized Pineapple Thief onstage in London, with an enthusiastic crowd egging them on. Harrison is astonishing and impeccable as always, driving the band with relentless grooves and jaw-dropping fills, locking tight with Jon Sykes’ powerful bass lines. While Steve Kitch’s keyboards conjure impressive atmosphere, Darran Charles and Soord seamlessly slide from badass surf music riffs to full-on metal chording, inspiring Soord to new heights of vocal power and expression. This Thief rocks hard, with guts and class, in the service of first-rate songs from throughout their checkered career.
I’m optimistic that the visuals of Where We Stood will match the excellence of the music; in my opinion, the chance to see Gavin Harrison weaving his percussive magic in close-up is gonna be worth the wait all by itself. Plus the Blu-Ray also includes Your Wilderness, 8 Years Later and bonus acoustic tracks in 24/96 stereo and surround. If you haven’t ordered this baby yet, what are you waiting for?
by Rick Krueger
Autumn is coming; can a Big Box Set o’ King Crimson be far behind? In recent years, we’ve seen multiple-disc, multiple-format bundles based on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Red, Starless and Bible Black, and THRAK, along with a package focused on the 1980s albums (Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair). Each set has yielded an surfeit of riches: the 40th anniversary stereo and surround mixes of the studio albums; album rehearsals, outtakes and alternate mixes; and (for my money, the best part) more live performances, on both audio and video, than you can shake a stick at.
Robert Fripp has called the period covered by Sailors’ Tales (1970-1972) King Crimson’s “interregnum.” After Ian McDonald, Michael Giles and Greg Lake left the original band, Fripp and lyricist Peter Sinfield struggled to assemble a Crimson that would stay together long enough to record and tour. In the Wake of Poseidon (1970) mixed players and ideas from the 1969 band with new material and musicians, including stunning saxophone work from Mel Collins. Lizard (1971) spun in a more avant-garde direction; the cream of British free jazz players sat in, but vocalist Gordon Haskell quit before the album was even released. (Is this why Yes’ Jon Anderson sings lead on one track?) For Islands (1972), a solid line-up finally coalesced: Fripp, Collins, vocalist Boz Burrell (taught to play bass parrot-fashion for touring) and drummer Ian Wallace. This Crimson proved ferocious live, but as they downplayed the new album’s pastel romanticism in favor of straight-up blues/jazz improv, friction mounted again. Sinfield was forced out; the remaining quartet fell apart, then did a contractual-obligation US tour (documented on the bargain live album Earthbound), then tried to reform, then broke up for good.
No wonder Fripp basically disowned this era of Crimson for years; it took his 1990s reconciliation with Collins and Wallace, the release of multiple 1971-72 concerts through the King Crimson Collectors’ Club, and Steven Wilson’s revelatory remix of Lizard to ultimately change his mind. With the current Crimson regularly performing music from all three albums (and Fripp and Collins both tearing up these selections onstage), the time is ripe for the rest of the world to find out why.
Thus, Sailors’ Tales. As spelled out in the DGM press release:
Too much? The budget option is a new CD/DVD edition of Earthbound, expanded from 5 to 12 tracks as on Sailors’ Tales, with the DVD also containing Summit Studios and “Schizoid Men.”
Both Sailors’ Tales and Earthbound are available for preorder from DGM and Burning Shed. Release date is Friday, November 3 — my birthday. Hmm … anybody feeling especially generous?
The Grim Reaper continues to exact a heavy toll in 2017: now Holger Czukay, a founder member of the influential German band Can, has left us…
The Guardian has an excellent obituary, featuring this memorable quote:
The bass player’s like a king in chess… He doesn’t move much, but when he does he changes everything.
Today is the birthday of Dr. Bradley Birzer, co-founder, lead editor, and driving force behind this little gem of a website. Happy Birthday, Brad!
Brad and I first met when I interviewed him about one of his many fine books (about Christopher Dawson, if I recall correctly), back in 2008. We quickly found out that we had much in common when it came to theology, philosophy, literature, and, yes, music. We began to share notes and thoughts about music, and eventually I suggested that we should consider putting together a site dedicated to any and all thoughts we had about music. The next day—the next day!—Brad sent me a link to Progarchy.com. Apparently he had stayed up most the night creating it. So when I think of Brad, these following descriptives come to mind: tireless, passionate, honest, brilliant, funny, self-effacing, joyful, and bursting with life.
I’m not sure of the exact date, but Brad created this site sometime in either late September or early October 2012. So we are now at the fifth anniversary. And anyone who pays attention to the site knows that Brad has been the heart and soul of what we do here. Thank you, Brad!
I hope Brad won’t mind, first, that I used one of his Facebook photos for this post: of the young Birzer in college thirty years ago. And, secondly, this playlist that he posted today:
Rush—Tom Sawyer
BBT-Hedgerow
World Party—Is it Like Today?
XTC—Then She Appeared
Beethoven’s 6th
Kevin McCormick—Solearas
Matt Stevens—Into the Sea
Cosmograf—The Vacuum That I Fly Through
The Tangent—The Canterbury Sequence
Echo—The Killing Moon
Flower Kings—I Am the Sun
King Bathmat—Sentinel
Mew—Snow Brigade
Marillion—Ocean Cloud
NAO—Wires
Peter Gabriel—Rhythm of the Heat
Porcupine Tree—Time Flies
Happy Birthday, Über-Progarchist!
Drifting Sun, Twilight (2017)
Tracks: Twilight(9:27), Wings of Hope (5:13), Mystery of Lies (5:46), Soldiers (7:23), Summer Skies (10:49), Remedy (5:19), Outside (5:24), Remain, (8:11)
Drifting Sun have made another leap forward with their latest album, Twilight. With their last two albums both reviewed favorably here at Progarchy, that is no light praise. A UK based studio project, Drifting Sun has re-emerged over the last few years from their initial formation in the early 1990s to produce high-quality music worthy of any progressive rock fan’s collection.
The lineup has remained relatively stable since their last album, 2016’s Safe Asylum, with only one member changing: Mathieu Spaeter replaces Dan Storey on guitars. Other members include founder and keyboardist Pat Sanders, vocalist Peter Falconer, bassist Manu Michael, and drummer Will Jones. All of these guys are at the top of their game. Throughout the album I found myself thoroughly enjoying the musical complexity of drums, guitars, keyboards, and bass. New guitarist Spaeter adds a classic touch of rock brilliance to the band’s overall sound. Furthermore, Peter Falconer has a fantastic voice with a remarkable range. At times smooth and others times rough, his voice matches the music perfectly.
Continue reading “Drifting Sun at Twilight: An Inter-Review”
Progarchy 