Big Country is one of those bands that still gets me rather excited, even after three decades. That excitement, however, leads to joy as well as to disappointment. For me, all of the first album, THE CROSSING, eight of the ten tracks of STEELTOWN, and two of the ten tracks of THE SEER are perfect. Yes, perfect rock songs. The rest are not just “meh,” but actually kind of bad.
Your thoughts? Am I being unfair to the rest of Big Country’s output?
I will never know, I mean KNOW, what a lakou is, in the same way that a Haitian will. It is a backyard, a coming together, a process, a form, a spirit. It is a community and a memory of communities stretching back through time all the way to the only successful slave revolution in recorded history and beyond. A summation and a celebration. It’s also just a freakin’ party, where all the significance of what Lakou means ends up in the bottom of a bottle of rum.
Lakou Mizik built itself as an experiment of sorts, coming out of 2010’s Haiti earthquake with a purpose, to revisit traditional Haitian music and recast it for a world pop culture tied to YouTube, not radios. In full disclosure I know this band, or they at least they know my house, as I hosted them for dinner (and yes, rum), a road-weary touring unit criss-crossing the states. The songs they sang in my living room included this gem, a homebrew version of “Gaya,” a raveup with Michael Brun that otherwise looks like this:
Their lone LP Wa Di Yo is the ultimate lakou. The beautiful “Pran Ka Mwen,” featuring vocalist Nadine Remy and Steeve Valcourt’s gorgeous guitar, and a chorus of cornets and percussion, is the gem in the goldmine (well, then there’s “Poze” …). This is joy drawn from the ashes, as brave a get down as any I can think of.
“I came on earth to live in peace
Down here on earth, we are all one”
Lakou Mizik: https://www.lakoumizik.com/home
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.
I stumbled across this video today. It appears at least one member of the Cornell family is capable of carrying on Chris’ legacy – Toni has some pipes like her father!
And I’m lost, behind
The words I’ll never find
And I’m left behind
As seasons roll on by
Thus far, 2017 has been a rather amazing year when it comes to rock and prog. PROG magazine is back and better than ever. Thank the Good Lord for Jerry Ewing.
The music releases–already and forthcoming–this year are nothing less than stunning. Big Big Train has released the finest of the band’s career, and The Tangent’s new release has yet to come. Steven Wilson is coming out with a progressive pop album, and newspaperflyhunting and Bjorn Riis have, as with BBT, released the best thing either’s written and done, thus far in their respective careers. There’s a new Anathema that is pretty good, and Steve Hogarth seems, at the moment, unstoppable with Marillion as well as with Isildur’s Bane.
Now I want to fly above the storm
But you can’t grow feathers in the rain
And the naked floor is cold as hell
This naked floor reminds me
Oh the naked floor reminds me
As I type this (having just returned from a conference on libertarian thought in 1840’s France), I have just received in the mail two grand packages. The first I opened is Steven Wilson’s remix of Jethro Tull’s SONGS FROM THE WOODS. The second is Aryeon’s signed five-disk ear-book, THE SOURCE. Honestly, I’m not sure how to react with anything that would be regarded as decorous. I’m a 13-year old boy, at the moment, just having had my first listen of MOVING PICTURES.
Holy schnikees.
Continue reading “Seasons, Jimi Hendrix, and the Virgin: Jammin’ in the Kingdom with Chris Cornell”
So far, we have covered Act I and the beginning of Act II in our synopsis of Schooltree’s magnificent Heterotopia. Stay tuned for more to come…
As I said in my review of Schooltree’s fantastic concept album Heterotopia, at the beginning of Act II of this amazing prog opera, there is an LP’s side worth of immediately accessible, instant rock and roll classics.
The power and sophistication of these songs is jaw-dropping, so I thought I would devote this current post to them alone, as I resume the synopsis of the prog opera’s storyline.
I also include the last track of Act I, Specter Lyfe, on my playlist of the five classic tracks on the album that became my first-listen favorites. Here are the other four, which kick off the storyline of Act II:
Suzi encounters three shadows who taunt her for her ghostly “condition.” We’ve seen how this story ends, they prophesize, and you’re already dead, just like the rest of your kind. (Dead Girl)
Metanoia reaches out to Suzi after this altercation and teaches her the power of the strange – throughout your experience you will encounter strangeness, you yourself will become strange, but don’t be afraid – form is illusory, lines can be broken down and shaped by your will. Use the strange to adapt yourself and the world around you. (Turning into the Strange)
As Suzi moves through this world and tries to adapt, she begins to realize she’s spent her life overcome, in a cycle of unwitting self-destruction. She’s been a sort of ghost all along, but feels more uncertain and insubstantial than ever now (for obvious reasons). She feels unsure whether it’s her life as a human or her life as a ghost that’s the “reality.” Metanoia offers some perspective on this – all these things that make being a ghost hard are also what make it extraordinary. You are alone, but that makes you singular; you can’t touch anything but you can move through walls; the lines of reality are broken so nothing confines you. This is what will enable you on your quest: the power of the ghost. For a moment Suzi sees clearly the path before her. (Edge Annihilate, Power of the Ghost)
Don’t miss the fine interview with Greg Spawton (GS) and David Longdon (DL) over at Stereo Embers.
Here’s a snippet, wherein they muse on the themes of the “Grimspound” title track:
DL: So much of today’s world is based in the digital realm that it is intriguing to think about what will be left of our times as hard archaeology. If that connection to the digital realm is somehow lost due to whatever will befall our species in the future, I don’t think that much physical matter will remain to tell our story. Impermanence is a concern. That is what this song is about.
GS: My background is in archaeology and history and it is interesting that many of our activities these days are ephemeral. Information is so easily shared and yet deeper knowledge and understanding doesn’t necessarily follow. One of the core themes on the album is a call for a return to the Enlightenment tradition. We seem to be getting slightly adrift from the humanist values which gave birth to modern society.
Well, as you may know, enlightened people do leave behind vinyl…
I’ve never really listened to Soundgarden, but I’m fully aware of their importance in the history of rock. When I saw this morning that Chris Cornell died, likely of a suicide, it certainly made my heart sink. I thought instantly of fellow Progarchist Carl Olson, who has expressed his love and admiration for Cornell’s music in several posts here at Progarchy over the years. His tribute today to Cornell captures that sense of loss that we all feel when one of our musical heroes passes away.
Continue reading “Peace, The Strawbs, and the Tragic Passing of Chris Cornell”
Progarchy 