Sgt. Pepper’s at 50. Meh.

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock5 Comments

I turn fifty in two months.  I’m about six months younger than SGT. PEPPER’s.

As almost all of you surely know, Apple/Parlophone/EMI/Capitol/Universal has released a new stereo mix of the uber-famous 1967 album.  Just as the convoluted name of the company suggests, the new album comes in a variety of packages from one disk to innumerable ones.

splhcb

Growing up in a family that loved music of all types and genres, I’ve had the Beatles running through my head from my earliest memories.  No one in the house was a fanatic, but we certainly appreciated the music.  My two older brothers tended to like the pre-REVOLVER Beatles best, but I always loved REVOLVER through ABBEY ROAD the best.  For about a six-to seven-year period in my life—mostly in college and early graduate school–I was obsessed with the band.  I bought and read all of the books about the band, and I knew every song and every lyric from REVOLVER through ABBEY ROAD.  I knew the most minute details about the recordings, the controversies. . . well, everything.

Continue reading “Sgt. Pepper’s at 50. Meh.” →

soundstreamsunday: “Wardenclyffe” by S U R V I V E

On By Craig BreadenIn electronic1 Comment

rr7349Scored by S U R V I V E’s Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, the Netflix show Stranger Things can at times seem written around the music, such is the importance of its soundtrack.  The duo’s band creates very similar music but in longer form, developed stories in contrast to Stranger Things’ vignette accompaniments.  If they recall the European progressive synth work of Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream, as instrumental narrative S U R V I V E’s tropes, fresh as they are, are the well-heeled scions of horror and suspense soundtracks of the 1970s and 80s — those coveted analog burblings so influencing rock archetypes that today a band like S U R V I V E can be embraced by a culture that may not have looked so warmly on the be-caped japes of synth lords in their keyboarded cathedrals of yore.  This is a good thing, as is S U R V I V E’s 2016 album RR7349.  The punky, catalog number-as-title approach is embedded in the band’s music, in its wordlessness plain spoken, symbolic of itself, its images so strong — or perhaps its ability to conjure notions and memories of images we’ve grown used to associating with such music — that there’s an enjoyable lack of heavy lifting here.  As instrumental albums go, it’s a seamless ride through the horrorshow.

“Wardenclyffe” is the heart of RR7349; it is an opus of classic thrash metal rhythm, a slow burn, slow bleed psychedelic nod off, an American folk opera circa 2016.  It is everyman music, an electronic field holler to the collective national iThumb and Assemblage of the Hallowed Streaming Box.  Like its mothership album, it is so woven into the now that it’s a blip on the screen; but mark it, for when the future civs recreate our campfire dances, this is the soundtrack.

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 above.

Do Hours Pass? The Timelessness of Newspaperflyhunting’s WASTELANDS

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock2 Comments

There are few things in the world of music more pleasurable to me than listening to the philosophical-art-drone-wall of sound-innovations of Poland’s newspaperflyhunting.  The band is probably the greatest unknown band in the world.

Yet, they do nothing if not without utter and complete excellence.  So very prog.

To my shame (and business), I have had their latest album, WASTELANDS, for a few months now without formally reviewing it.  Admittedly, I’ve been a bit selfish, hoarding this grand and glorious music all to myself.

Continue reading “Do Hours Pass? The Timelessness of Newspaperflyhunting’s WASTELANDS” →

Rick’s Quick Takes: Captives of the Wine Dark Sea by Discipline

On By kruekuttIn progressive rock1 Comment

by Rick Krueger

As a Detroit native, it’s a bit embarrassing that most of my Motor City progressive rock knowledge has come from — you guessed it — Prog Magazine.   That’s where I first came across Tiles and their fluent, anthemic take on mid-career Rush and 1980s neo-prog.  From Tiles, it’s been just a hop, skip and jump to their darker, more Gothic peers, Discipline.

There’s definitely an edge to this band, springing directly from Matthew Parmenter’s lyrical “Magic Acid Mime” vision, honed by music that channels and modernizes the gloomy flair of Peter Hammill & Van Der Graaf Generator, the plummy drama of Gabriel-era Genesis, and the hypnotic counterpoint of 1980s King Crimson.  Stirring in just enough alt-rock crunch resulted in two minor classics, 1997’s Unfolded Like Staircase and 2012’s To Shatter All Accord; Parmenter’s fatalistic narrative drive and the band’s inexorable momentum shake you up and sweep you along — usually toward an unavoidable crash landing.

For Captives of the Wine Dark Sea, Tiles’ guitarist Chris Herin joins the veteran roster of Parmenter on vocals and keys, Matthew Kennedy on bass and Paul Drendzel on drums; Terry Brown (yes, he of “Broon’s Bane” fame from Rush’s Exit Stage Left) produces.  Clocking in at just over 45 minutes, the new album doesn’t waste time or motion, as Parmenter fires off sardonic verbal volleys at the futilities of aging (“The Body Yearns”), the white collar working world (“Here There Is No Soul”), desire (“Love Songs”) — even creativity itself (“Life Imitates Art”).   The music, subtly powerful and accomplished, carries the words with an appropriate gravity.  Herin’s licks and tone provide plenty of style and color, Parmenter weaves enticing, compelling keyboard webs, and the rhythm section is rock solid.

Building from lullaby to anthem to fiery guitar/synth playout, the 15-minute finale “Burn the Fire Upon the Rocks” aptly sums up Discipline’s aesthetic: rage against the dying of the light — but keep moving as you do it, and find comfort where you can.  Not exactly fun or even contented, but triumphant on its own stubborn terms.  On Captives of the Wine Dark Sea, Matthew Parmenter and company stoically look failure and frustration in the face, leaning into the understated strength of their music to make it through.

 

You can listen to (and buy) Captives of the Wine Dark Sea at Bandcamp: https://lasersedge.bandcamp.com/album/captives-of-the-wine-dark-sea

 

Soup – Remedies

On By Frank UrbaniakIn progressive rock3 Comments

a3913523140_10Norway-based Soup has been around since 2005 and has released 6 albums since then.  Their last full length CD released in 2013, “The Beauty of Our Youth” really grabbed me at the time with the overwhelming sense of melancholy in the songs, accented by fragile vocals offset by understated instrumentation. With the number of new releases since then I must admit they have not been in my listening rotation in a few years, which is pretty typical of most of my collection.

This makes the release of their new CD Remedies such a pleasant surprise. Their indie post-rock sound has grown tremendously and has a much more progressive feel with a new drummer and production by Paul Savage  ( who mixed their last and has produced Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand).  Lasse Hoile, Steven Wilson’s visual collaborator, has been a long-time fan and friend of the band and provides some stunning visuals.

Skjermbilde-2016-11-20-kl.-20.28.24Remedies is short-three songs are 8, 11, and 13 minutes, with two shorter numbers totaling just over 40 minutes. The music typically begins softly-the melancholy remains, and builds to a wall of sound over repeating themes building to heart-wrenching finales. The vocals remind me of Grandaddy (Jed the Humanoid on the Sophtware Slump) and The Flaming Lips (Yoshima Battles the Pink Robots) overlaying their sound which has hints of God Speed You Black Emperor, Snow Patrol, Mogwai and Porcupine Tree.

The three longer songs-Going Somewhere , The Boy and the Snow and Sleepers are the highlights, while the shorter tunes Audion and Nothing Like Home , allow the listener to decompress after the intensity of the extended tunes . Sleeper and The Boy and the Snow really showcase the power of the new rhythm section, adding to the ‘progressive’ feel of Remedies.

The music is a collection of ear worms that make you want to hit repeat as soon as it ends. Highly recommended.

Click on the link for the Youtube video-at about 3 minutes the band really kicks in.

Soup is signed to Crispin Glover Records distributed by Stick-Man Records.

Soup’s Bandcamp Page

 

 

 

Dutch Progressive Rock Page Debuts New Facebook Page

On By Bryan MoreyIn progressive rockLeave a comment

The DPRP has just released a new Facebook page to replace their old FB Group. For those of you so inclined to participate in the book of face, check it out, like, and follow to keep up-to-date on everything that great website is doing.

https://www.facebook.com/dprp.net/

Rick’s Quick Takes: Is This the Life We Really Want? by Roger Waters

On By kruekuttIn Pink Floyd, progressive rockLeave a comment

by Rick Krueger

When it comes to Pink Floyd, I usually prefer the atmospheric to the polemic: i.e.  “Echoes,” Wish You Were Here, and even A Momentary Lapse of Reason to Animals, The Wall and The Final Cut.  True, Roger Waters’ growing desire to beat the listener over the head with his irascible critiques of modern life brought the Floyd to new heights of popularity — but they also helped poison relationships with his collaborators and blow up the band, leading to a solo career with much lower impact.  Until, that is, he pulled out the vintage Floyd warhorses and started touring them again, to deserved acclaim.

For me, Is This the Life We Really Want?  strikes a welcome new balance between the prototypical Floyd sound and Waters’ ongoing preoccupations.   It’s the most listenable and perhaps the most effective of his solo albums, harking back to Dark Side of the Moon in its precision and its muted (but undampened) fury.

Nigel Godrich’s lean, colorful production helps immensely here, keeping the musical tension on the boil throughout.  Ironically, it also helps that Waters’ voice has aged; no longer able to bellow with his previous venom, he insinuates and rasps instead. Especially when his singing is paired with acoustic guitar or piano, you can more easily hear the blunt, direct expressiveness he admires in his heroes — early Dylan, Neil Young, John Lennon circa Plastic Ono Band and Imagine.  Funnily, lowering the volume of his complaints makes them more compelling.

Another surprise: Waters owns the culpability he so thoroughly excoriates in the world around him (notice the pronoun in the album title).   The songs still take plenty of scabrous, deeply profane potshots, earned and unearned, at Stuff Roger Thinks is Bad and at People He Utterly Despises.  But he’s also quick to call himself out, and to stand in solidarity with the masses, even if he believes they’re dead wrong.  “Broken Bones” and the title track are the best examples; they pull no punches, but Waters makes no excuses for himself, laying out his own neglect and indifference, calling himself to accountability along with everyone else. (The judgmentalism is diminished; the ambition, not so much.)

In sum, Is This The Life We Really Want? comes from a Roger Waters who seems more vulnerable and less inclined to condemn humanity wholesale — but not soft by any means.  After 25 years without an album of new rock material, it’s good to know that there’s life in the old boy yet.

Crowbar’s Dream Weaver

On By Mahesh SreekandathIn Heavy metal1 Comment

With dragged out progressions and downtuned guitars, Crowbar effectively filters out the sober trance like attributes of the original Dream Weaver. Now add Kirk Windstein’s grating vocals, and this brew of molten sludge metal blend is complete. With this newer darker context, even the lyrics  – “Driver take away my worries of today And leave tomorrow behind…” – seemed depressing.

Crowbar’s atmospheric doom and sludge metal texture effectively leveled those vibrant emotions exhibited by Gary Wright’s work. This transformation sort of spanned the full spectrum – all the way from rainbows to gunmetal gray. Adapting a synth-pop ballad into a grungy wall of sound might be a creative leap, but Crowbar did spearhead sludge metal.

ART AGAINST AGONY’s New EP “Russian Tales” Out on July 22

On By NickIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Art Against Agony

Germany-based collective Art Against Agony announce today their new EP titled Russian Talesscheduled for the release on July 22nd. The ensemble of musicians and artists combine different elements; their instrumental music evolves around progressive metal, experimental rock, jazz fusion and avant-garde.

Speaking about the forthcoming EP, the band commented: “The ‘Russian Tales’ EP gathers all of our experiences from our tour through Russia during the Siberian winter of 2016: Driving 12000km and playing 20 shows in 3 weeks was heaven and hell, with wonderful hospitality & delicious food, marvellous nature & wild animals, but also including insomnia, anxiety & social break ups.”

To coincide with the release of the Russian Tales EP, Art Against Agony will embark on a tour across Russia in late July, followed by dates in Brazil in August. For the full list of dates see below.

Russian Tales is available for pre-order from Bandcamp (downloads) and Bigcartel (CDs). A video trailer for the EP can be seen below, and “Coffee for the Queen” single can be heard on Bandcamp here.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Russian Tales EP Track Listing:

1. Königsberg Präludium
2. Nothing to declare?
3. Tea for the Dragon
4. Coffee for the Queen
5. Saratov Incident

Art Against Agony – “Against All Odds Tour 2017” live dates:

29.07. Back Luny Festival, Russia
30.07. Kaluga, Russia
01.08. Yelets, Russia
02.08. Voronezh, Russia
03.08. Tula, Russia
04.08. Zelenograd, Russia
05.08. Saint Petersburg, Russia
08.08. Sao Paulo, Brazil
09.08. Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil
10.08. Rio de Janeiro – Botafogo, Brazil
11.08. Petropolis, Brazil
12.08. Rio de Janeiro – Barra, Brazil
13.08. Sao Joao de Meriti, Brazil

Art Against Agony line-up:

the_sorcerer (lead_guitar, philosophy)
the_machinist (rhythm_guitar)
the_surgeon (piano)
the_heretic (bass)
the_malkavian (drums)
the_maximalist (mridangam)
the_architect (photography)
the_switch (live_visuals)
the_harlequin (merch)
the_glasses (japan_supervisor)

Art Against Agony online:

Official website

Facebook

Bigcartel

Bandcamp

Chilling Out: The Biological Pleasures of Exciting Music @LakeStreetDive

On By Time LordIn progressive rock1 Comment

There’s an excellent discussion up online today (“The chills we get from listening to music are a biological reaction to surprise“) about how music can give us the “chills” (wherein we learn that, actually, the technical scientific term is “frisson”). The whole thing is great, but especially the example the author (Katherine Foley) uses to illustrate her discussion. The example comes from Lake Street Dive, also a perennial favorite over here at Progarchy amongst the editors. Here it is:

Take this version of “What I’m Doing Here,” a song by Lake Street Dive, sung by Rachael Price.

This blues piece was written by Price herself, who is a trained jazz singer. Right around 2:06, she sings at comparatively lower notes, followed by a crescendo where she hits an extremely high note before dropping back down immediately afterward. The quick turnaround between the high and low notes, combined with the build-up in between, is climactic, surprising, and resembles wailing in a way. And if all that weren’t enough, there’s a key change a few seconds later (around 2:50) that offers another unexpected treat for the ears.

It’s more than enough to give me chills, and sometimes a lump in the back of my throat. That said, this song resonated with me during an emotionally charged time in my life; those memories undoubtedly enhance my listening experience.

If you’re looking to learn more about the innovative excellence of Lake Street Dive, in addition to buying all their albums, you should read this extremely well written musicological piece on them: “Lake Street Dive: Searching for the Unexpected Chord” (H/T: Progarchy editor Carl E. Olson).