soundstreamsunday: “Waltz of the New Moon” by The Incredible String Band

On By Craig BreadenIn folk music, progressive rock1 Comment

Although there is the potential today for historically reconstructing The Incredible String Band as a folksy psychedelic sideshow, the core group of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson were among the most imaginative and deeply schooled of the musicians emerging out of Britain’s folk revival in the late 1960s.  Succored by Joe Boyd and Elektra records, the band was in sympathetic company, and mined both sides of the Atlantic, and eastern drones, to create music and lyrics at turns profound and humorous, instantly identifiable, and hugely influential on far more successful bands who rode in their wake (Led Zeppelin particularly saw the writing that ISB flung like spatter art on the wall).  They themselves didn’t emerge out of a vacuum, however; connecting the dots from someone like John Jacob Niles, the Incredible String Band can be viewed on a continuum with John Fahey, Bob Dylan, and Martin Carthy, and were surrounded by the time of their third album, 1968’s The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, by like-minded souls in Fairport Convention and Pentangle. “Waltz of the New Moon” is one of the many shifting centerpieces of that record, which is a paste-up of folk melody and imagery dissolving into each other, bounding across the frontiers separating east and west.  The musicianship is breathtaking, and while the songs do hang in the air like a cannabis haze, I wonder if this association is because the Incredible String Band in their genius created such a sound to begin with.

soundstreamsunday playlist and archivesoundstreamsunday playlist and archive

Serdecznie zapraszamy: Newspaperflyhunting

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

According to my translator, this means, “You are warmly welcome.”  I’d expect nothing less from one of the greatest bands of our era in rock.

npfh

The Resurgent Appeal of Stevie Nicks

On By Time LordIn progressive rockLeave a comment

“Just be Stevie Nicks. That’s all you have to do.”

Great feature in The New Yorker:

The Resurgent Appeal of Stevie Nicks

Her generous songs provide an antidote to today’s often embattled pop music.

By Amanda Petrusich

The Mute Gods Release Video for “Nightschool For Idiots”

On By Bryan MoreyIn progressive rock1 Comment

The Mute Gods have released a music video for their song, “Nightschool For Idiots,” which happens to be my favorite song off of their album, Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me. This song was certainly written from the heart. I’ve read mixed reviews on it, but I love it. Enjoy.

Ayreon Specials

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment
All 9000 tickets for the Ayreon Universe shows have sold out within 48H!

Here’s a special message from a very thankful Arjen.
And now for another shameless commercial plug: Mascot is having their annual holiday sale right now!

20% discount on all Ayreon items (except bundles), including the Deluxe Vinyl Editions** of The Final Experiment and Actual Fantasy Revisited, and… pre-orders for the new CD re-issues (to be released in 2017)!

Use code MASCOT2016 in the EU/WWW shop: www.mascotlabelgroup.com/ayreon/holiday-sale
Use code USMASCOT2016 in the US/CAN shop: usa.mascotlabelgroup.com/ayreon/holiday-sale

** Disclaimer: The Deluxe vinyl is only available in the EU/WWW shop.

Cuneiform Records Sampler

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Dear Progarchists, one simple thing makes us extremely happy–when record labels treat us well and professionally.  We hope we offer the same courtesy in return.  One of the best labels–especially from the standpoint of a small website like ours–is Cuneiform Records and its creative giving spirit, Joyce.  Thank you, Joyce!  And, thank you, Cuneiform.  Long may your goodness and creativity reign!  Yours, Brad



This 15 song compilation album, Cuneiform Records: The Albums of 2016, features over 80 minutes of simply great and utterly creative music made by musicians from around the globe; selected from albums that Cuneiform Records released in 2016.

It is now available to stream or download at a price of YOUR OWN choosing via Cuneiform’s Bandcamp page:
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cuneiform-records-the-albums-of-2016

CUNEIFORM RECORDS: THE ALBUMS OF 2016
TRACK LISTING
1. São Paulo Underground – Olhaluai [from Cantos Invisíveis] 05:21
2. Richard Pinhas / Tatsuya Yoshida / Masami Akita [Merzbow] – TVJ 33 (Core Track) (excerpt) [from Process and Reality] 05:55
3. Wadada Leo Smith – New Orleans: The National Culture Park USA 1718 (excerpt) [from America’s National Parks] 12:12
4. I.P.A. – Sir William [from I Just Did Say Something] 05:46
5. Ergo – That never came [from ‘As subtle as tomorrow’] 05:49
6. The Claudia Quintet – JFK Beagle [from Super Petite] 03:28
7. Bent Knee – Leak Water [from Say So] 04:41
8. Naima – Bye [from Bye] 04:56
9. The Ed Palermo Big Band – Dirty White Bucks [from One Child Left Behind] 04:39
10. Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei [featuring Sarah Stiles] – The Broken Record [from Music from Max Fleischer’s Cartoons] 03:07
11. Empirical – The Two-Edged Sword [from Connection] 02:32
12. Thumbscrew: Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara – Sampsonian Rhythms [from Convallaria] 04:03
13. Rez Abbasi & Junction – Self-Brewing [from Behind the Vibration] 06:20
14. Richard Pinhas & Barry Cleveland (feat. Michael Manring & Celso Alberti) – Zen/Unzen (excerpt) [from Mu] 08:06
15. Deus Ex Machina – Figli [from Devoto] 06:59

Arcade Messiah III: Now Streaming

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

ALBUM PREMIERE: Arcade Messiah dish out a dose of instrumental perfection with “III” http://thesludgelord.blogspot.ie/2016/11/album-premiere-arcade-messiah-dish-out.html

Sludglord Blog are exclusively premiering the Full Album Stream of Arcade Messiah ahead of tomorrows release date, Arcade Messiah III is released on November 25th

Arcade Messiah III Album Preorder – https://arcademessiah.bandcamp.com/album/iii

John Bassett the singer, songwriter and producer of UK Progressive Metal Band KingBathmat) has announced the forthcoming release primarily on bandcampof ARCADE MESSIAH III (release date 25/11/16)

The mostly instrumental one man project combines progressive metal with post rock, sludge, doom and stoner rock with Bassett recording all instruments and producing the album himself.  Says Bassett, “Arcade Messiah III has certainly been a labour of love for me, never before have I refined a record to the degree that I have done with this album, I incorporated many new production techniques and have learned a lot from the experience of putting this record together. I’m very excited to release this out into the wild.”

Acompanying this release is a music video for track 1 of the album “Revolver” it includes eye popping timelapse visuals of Tokyo at night by darwinfish105
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm7gPRG4ACc

Arcade Messiah III
(25/11/16) track listing
1. Revolver
2. Citadel
3. Deliverance
4. Life Clock
5. Black Tree
6. Sanctuary

Review: Riftwalker – Green & Black

On By NickIn progressive rockLeave a comment

riftwalker-band

As much as I have attempted to explore it, I cannot say that I have been able to decipher — much less appreciate — the trend of deathrash metal. There have certainly been bands in the style that I have greatly enjoyed, but as a whole, I cannot understand its fixation with speed and soloing over what I perceive to be musicality, not to mention the fact that so many of the bands seem content to mirror the existing sounds of the style. On that note, I see a world of potential when the aggression of thrash is melded with more progressive sensibilities. Voivod pulled it off beautifully, and now Riftwalker — a prog deathrash band from Vancouver — is taking these genres and going somewhere interesting with it. True enough, Riftwalker’s debut album “Green & Black” is not revolutionizing the sounds of the genre by any degree, but the band’s greater depth in their composition makes them one of the best bands on the current scene.

riftwalker-green-black

From the album artwork alone, I get the feeling that Riftwalker is taking after more classic progressive outfits. The music generally follows suit with this, although there is certainly a drawn influence from the more straightforward acts like Slayer and Exodus. The music is fast and furious for the most part, relying on riffs that immerse themselves in technical finesse as well as a rawer aggression that I sense often in the style. Balancing this out though is a dynamic, not only from heaviness to softer moments, but also in tempo. Often, the band will go from a blistering foray of furious soloing and likeminded rhythms, and then break down into something more atmospheric and doomy. The fast parts are admittedly fairly generic from an instrumental standpoint, but the fact that these compositions are given more than one-gear speed is enough to make Riftwalker stand apart from most in my books.

Maybe the best thing about Riftwalker are the vocals, performed here by all three members. Leading Riftwalker with higher pitched rasps, the sheer range that the guys are able to take their voices into is astounding.

Riftwalker’s “Green & Black” is a very good debut, taking the best parts of thrash metal and making an album that is both intelligent and a hell of a lot of fun.

“Riftwalker” can be purchased here.

Stone The Crow(s)

On By russellclarkenzIn progressive rock2 Comments

Big Big Train release their first (double!) live album “A Stone’s Throw From The Line” on December 2nd and it’s now available for pre-order here and here. It showcases some of the finest moments from last August’s sold-out-in-the-blink-of-an-eye concerts at King’s Place in London.

band_live_kings_place_cob_16_aug_2015_sm

Scott and I were fortunate enough to secure tickets so we travelled to the UK for a bit of a holiday and attended the Saturday gig before we flew back the following day. And I can honestly say it was one of the most remarkable days of my life.

This wasn’t just a chance to see our favourite proggers in concert for the first time in…well, forever – it was also a chance to catch up with friends we had made at 2013’s Big Big Weekend, which (if you missed it) involved much merriment in the beautiful English city of Winchester, a rag-tag group of Passengers (as BBT fans are known) being led around the landmarks (including pubs and a curry house) by Alison Reijman and Greg Spawton, with special guest appearances from Andy, Rachel, Danny, Rob, Robin Armstrong and Steve Thorne, to name but a few. It was a truly extraordinary weekend, and something that will stay with me for a very long time. The opportunity to catch up again for a ‘family reunion’ of sorts and witness some amazing music and extraordinary camaraderie was therefore a pretty significant moment in my life.

As a result this review’s not very objective, as it’s impossible to completely separate the sounds from the experiences we had back then, but I’ll try my best. Caveat lector, as the Roman music reviewers used to say to Internet people back then.

King’s Place is an arts centre just down the road from King’s Cross Station in London. BBT played to a seated audience of just over 400 – it’s quite an intimate venue, the sound is warm and that’s captured well on this album. On rare occasions it feels like there’s a lot of audio happening at once but in general it doesn’t get too claustrophobic or chaotic. To my tin ears the second act sounds a bit more lively and expansive than the first – certainly on my initial listen I thought David’s vocals and some of the harmonies were lost on the early tracks of the first act, but this does quickly improve. I should also note here that the review files we received were lossy so I’ll have to give it the lossless test before I can fully appreciate the sound. Hopefully my own copy arrives on my doormat soon so I can perform this critical benchmark!

astfl-web-site-post

Here’s the track listing…

Act One
Make Some Noise
The First Rebreather
The Underfall Yard
Uncle Jack
Victorian Brickwork

Act Two
Kingmaker
Wassail
Summoned By Bells
Judas Unrepentant
Curator Of Butterflies
East Coast Racer
Hedgerow

Many of you will be familiar with these tunes already so I won’t go into detail, suffice it to say that there’s a lot of music – it’s great to see so many long-form delights, and fantastic to see most of my favourites are included – the sublime TUY (get that brass section!), Victorian Brickwork (not a dry eye in the house), the rip-roaringly powerful East Coast Racer (she flies!) and the marvellously fun Judas Unrepentant (with a gloriously ostentatious NDV drum intro.) Curator of Butterflies isn’t one of my favourites from the English Electric albums, but the version on this release really does bring it to life. I’ll have to give the studio version another spin…

Early-BBT fans may be disappointed that there’s nothing on the track list from before 2009’s excellent The Underfall Yard. Personally I’m not unhappy about this because the majority of pre-TUY work doesn’t float my metaphorical boat, although I am sure I share a certain agog-ness with others at the prospect of hearing re-recorded pre-2009 material in the near future.

Anyway, what else do you get on this double album? Virtuoso performances, some very cool alternative arrangements allowing the guys to stretch their musical legs (Rachel’s violin and Danny’s keys on TUY, and Rikard’s guitar work on Victorian Brickwork being just a few examples), and of course that ‘live’ atmosphere that transports some people to strange places… Some (but not overly much) audience interaction from David, a few in-jokes, and the Passengers are also in excellent form – respectful, enthusiastic, with (joy of joys) minimal whooping at inappropriate moments.

In summary:

  • If you were at the concerts last year you’ll appreciate the memories of a great evening this album rekindles.
  • If you are a completist you have already ordered it. Why are you reading this?
  • If you are neither of the above, this is a solid exploration of BBT’s relatively recent catalogue, with the added joy of hearing them out of the studio – something that happens rarely enough that it’s definitely worth experiencing.

Review: Infinity Shred – Long Distance

On By NickIn progressive rockLeave a comment

infinity-shred

Hailing from New York City, trio Infinity Shred has been around since 2012. In October this year the band released their second album “Long Distance,” a follow-up to 2013’s LP “Sanctuary.”

These three musicians have mixed post rock, electronica, shoegaze, black metal and math-esque rock together to form this mélange of amazingly enjoyable music. It’s fast, slow, heavy, light, crushing, light; everything all at the same time. It is hard to explain this record and yet, so easy to understand everything that is happening.

long-distance

Bursts of emotion and intensity line the opener “Choir VI”; the bottom layer of slow epic synth holds up the fractured percussion/bass. All the different sounds and textures add to this incoming tidal wave that is Long Distance: a stunning example of how to expand the sounds of acoustic instruments. This record has rises and falls, climaxes, explosions of intensity, etc. The thing that makes it so different is the small little tweaks they made, and huge leap of using mostly electronic sounds in their music.

Although using mostly electronic instruments in music is not a new idea, their application is very fresh. There are no weak songs on this record. There are some parts which could have been extended, and sometimes it feels as if the drums are too overpowering compared to everything else. Over all, the record is quite consistent in staying interesting.

The complexity of this record seems to be derived from it’s simplicity: there are no solos, insane guitar riffs, piano runs, odd time signature jumps, or unfamiliar keys. The beauty is extracted from the sum of all it’s parts working in a wonderful harmony that is consistent, fresh, interesting, and most of all: lively.

Grab a copy of “Long Distance” from Bandcamp.