The Mysterious Sound of CFCF

On By Thaddeus WertIn Progressive rockLeave a comment

CFCF is Michael Silver, from Montreal (where a local TV station is CFCF-TV). I discovered his music via Spotify, where it is part of their Atmospheric Calm playlist. My students enjoy working on calculus problems while it plays in the background.

The playlist is several hours long, and CFCF’s songs consistently grabbed my attention. I went ahead and purchased his 2013 album, Outsiders, and it is a true work of beauty. He mixes 21st century ambient electronics with subdued vocals and compelling melodies. Fans of classic Peter Gabriel, Talk Talk, and Brian Eno will love this stuff. It has a definite ’80s vibe, in a respectful and appreciative way. I can’t stop listening to it.

Here’s one of the best songs off of Outsiders, “Strange Form Of Life”:

Album Review: @DaveKerzner — Paranoia EP and New World Live LP ★★★★★

On By Time LordIn Progressive rockLeave a comment

Dave Kerzner continues to amaze. His new Paranoia EP starts off with two new tracks. Don’t underestimate these. The more you listen to them, the more they take hold of you. Dave is an underrated songwriter. This EP proves it. These first two tracks are incredibly finely crafted songs, but unlike most prog they do not draw your attention to that fact. Instead, they are subtle, and your appreciation of them will only grow. Absolutely stellar tracks, they leave me wanting more. I can’t wait for Dave’s next full album.

Also on the EP are two live tracks that are taken from the extended 2015 Deluxe Edition of New World. “Secret” was never a favorite of mine, but here in this live version the song is much enhanced. It works so much better live, and Dave even drops an F-bomb to liven up the saccharine Barry Manilow vibe that I always thought ruined the song. Well, I understand the track much better now. The sappy atmosphere is actually meant to be totally ironic. Listen to the lyrics, and you’ll get it. I now love this song. I guess it needed to be abstracted from the two-hours-plus version of New World in order for me to finally appreciate it. Well, I really love it now.

As for “Recurring Dream,” I always really, really liked the song. The way it starts is so cool, and the whole harmonious structure is so beautiful, graced with one of Dave’s very best melodies. I can understand why it seems to be being played as an encore here. Bravo! This is a rock solid EP, and a real gift to the fans.

Continue reading “Album Review: @DaveKerzner — Paranoia EP and New World Live LP ★★★★★” →

Some Random Prog Thoughts

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock1 Comment
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Press play.  Repeat.  Thank you, Glass Hammer.

My apologies for being so quiet for a bit now.  After the great visit by the Reverend John Simms and his beautiful bride, Jude, I’ve been working on tons of things not directly related to music or to progarchy.  Mostly classes and lecturing, but quite a bit of traveling as well.

Yet, at the back of everything, prog keeps reminding me what matters most in the world–hearth, home, kids, my students, beauty, truth, and goodness.

I’ve been rather obsessed with a few albums through the first third of this academic semester: Glass Hammer’s VALKYRIE; Marillion’s FEAR; and SAND’s SLEEPER.  If you’ve not gotten these yet, please do so.  They have  been in constant rotation.

Continue reading “Some Random Prog Thoughts” →

Review: AsZension – Portals

On By NickIn Progressive rockLeave a comment

aszension-portals

There are some really great albums that were released this year. We almost came to the end of 2016 but terrific sounds keep coming all around the world. The Canadian instrumental progressive metal band AsZension has just released their third studio album titled “Portals.” And with this release they placed their name in the mentioned category of the best and tastiest records to come out in 2016.

As mentioned, “Portals” is completely instrumental. There are some vocal-ish things here and there in some of the songs, but it doesn’t change the fact. What is clearly noticeable throughout the record is harmony between all of the instruments they are using. There are seven songs in total total on “Portals.”

The opening “Metamorphosis” starts with a flute solo and it keeps on with calming sounds of keyboards. Then guitars come with a distorted tone combined very well with keyboards and effects. This piece reflects to the rest of material in terms of composition.

What I mostly like about this album is the sound of keyboards, courtesy of Kevin Thiessen and Gabriel Palatchi, which complete the other instruments. In other words it could be said that keyboards on this album are just like vocals on any standard recording. The moment you expect to hear some vocals, keyboards are coming to the stage and they take this craving of your ears to hear a sound completely maintain by a voice.

The self-titled, sixth song brings in some ethnic roots, especially at the beginning. A great choice for a song that also gives the album its name. Calm, great acoustic style, percussions that give oriental figures to the piece; all that nicely combined with the sound of piano. The song has its personality and it has its mystery. And of course, keyboards are again at the frontline, just like on the other tracks which makes this album special.

All in all, “Portals” is a must-hear record put out this year. Give it a chance!

Album Review: High Spirits — Motivator ★★★★☆

On By Time LordIn Progressive rockLeave a comment

Sometimes, in between the prog epics, you need some straight-up hard rock or heavy metal to cleanse the ol’ palate. Well, here’s a great new old school rock album for you. There’s a terrific garage band vibe to this one. It’s like the guys down the street who jam on weekends suddenly made a totally kickass album. It’s got a nice, slightly underproduced sound. A touch of raggedness gives the feel of authenticity to the whole exercise.

You know the only reason these guys are playing these songs is because they love to rock. In just thirty minutes — no muss, no fuss — they get the job done: they rock your socks off. I must say this album, while obviously harkening back to an earlier era of uncomplicated rock and roll, is nonetheless a refreshing surprise. It’s as real as it gets.

Enjoy this revival of 70s guitar rock at your leisure, because it’s guaranteed to put you in high spirits. With Motivator, these dudes have recorded their best album yet.

[H/T to Angry Metal Guy for getting the word out on this one.]

Who Is This Steven Wilson You Keep Going on About?

On By Thaddeus WertIn Progressive rockLeave a comment

wilson-transience

If you’re a regular reader of Progarchy, you’re probably familiar with Steven Wilson, whether it’s as the leader of Porcupine Tree, a solo artist, or the go-to remixer of classic progressive albums. And you’ve probably raved about his work to uncomprehending friends and relatives.

Well, Mr. Wilson has just released a compilation that speaks more effectively to his artistry than any words. Transience consists of fourteen songs, clocking in at more than an hour. There’s not really anything new, unless you want to count a couple of edits, but they were hand-picked by Wilson, and as such make for an interesting listen.

All of the songs highlight Wilson’s “pretty” side – in other words, his extraordinary gift for composing a beautiful melody. The flow of the album is flawless, moving from one entrancing moment to the next. One thing that struck me was just how good his first solo album, Insurgentes, was. “Harmony Korine”, “Significant Other”, and “Insurgentes” are all included, and they really stand out.

Continue reading “Who Is This Steven Wilson You Keep Going on About?” →

soundstreamsunday: “Warszawa” by David Bowie

On By Craig BreadenIn art rock, avant-garde, Progressive rock1 Comment

bowieenoForty years on it seems like it must have been inevitable, obvious even, the crossing paths of Iggy Pop and David Bowie and Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, in service to Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy.  In Act Two of their collective careers, they became in the late 1970s the center of a wheel spoking to progressive rock, art rock, post punk, and new wave, the albums coming out of Bowie’s residency in Berlin among the richest, most genre-defying rock records created, documents of a grasp catching up with its reach.  “Warszawa” is from 1977’s Low, the second Berlin collaboration (after Pop’s The Idiot, for the trilogy is really a quintet, taking into account the records Bowie produced for Iggy during this period) and a document of Bowie’s dissolving spirits.  Here is where he throws the hammer at the mirror, where all his past characters like Ziggy and the Thin White Duke are shown the door.  The sound is fresh, with Eno, coming off his work with Cluster, applying broadly-stroked synth washes straight from the school of Moebius and Roedelius, encouraging Bowie to approach the music with deliberate freedom.  The result, like on the song “Sound and Vision,” is raw and buoyant.  It can also be wild and studied, as on the constraint-driven “Warszawa,” an exercise in composition employing  Eno’s planned accidents and oblique strategies.  In it, as on much of the album, you can hear an origin story of bands like U2 and Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division/New Order, and a second-wind promise Bowie himself would continue to fulfill, off and on, for the rest of his life.

soundstreamsunday playlist and archive

The Colin Tench Project

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock1 Comment

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Revel in the beauty of it all!

***

The digital album is now officially released and the song that Peter Skov has picked as the best song in the world is this one.
14. Part 4b [7.56]
Peter Jones: Lead Vocals
Phil Naro: Lead Vocals
Colin Tench: Guitars
Gordo Bennett: Orchestra, Percussion, Triangle, Thing that goes boing
Petri Lemmy Lindström: Bass guitar
Angelo Hulshout: Fretless bass
Jay Theodore McGurrin: Drums
https://colintenchproject.bandcamp.com/track/part-4b

John Wesley–A Week from Today

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rockLeave a comment
InsideOut Music Header
John Wesley launches new track ‘to outrun the light’

 
Renowned singer / songwriter & guitarist John Wesley is set to release his forthcoming 8th studio album ‘a way you’ll never be’ on October 7th, 2016 on InsideOut Music. Following the recent launch of the track ‘by the light of a sun’, he is now pleased to reveal the next new track, the atmospheric seven minutes long ‘to outrun the light’. 
You can watch the lyric video for it here: 


John had this say: “The lyrics in this song try and touch upon that moment when you know your life is going to change forever and there is nothing you can do about it. You begin to question your own identity. You look back on all the years invested and fear that everything you thought you knew, was wrong to begin with. You wonder if perhaps, you have, “outrun the light”.”
 
Pre-order the album digitally from iTunes or AmazonMP3, and receive both ‘to outrun the light’ and ‘by the light of a sun’ immediately:
 
 
Listen to ‘by the light of a sun’ now here: 
 
‘a way you’ll never be’ was produced by Jim Morris at the legendary Morrisound Studios and you can find the full track-listing below:
 
1. by the light of a sun (5:32) 
2. a way you’ll never be (7:18) 
3. to outrun the light (7:07) 
4. the revolutionist (5:57) 
5. nada (5:41) 
6. the silence in coffee (5:09) 
7. unsafe space (4:17) 
8. sun.a.rose (6:44) 
9. epic (4:51) 
10. pointless endeavors (03:38)
 
The album will be available in Digipak CD, Digital Download.
  
 
John Wesley has built a long and varied career as a songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. His music has been called lyrically sensitive and musically dynamic. His song-writing style incorporates emotionally-charged vocals that evoke the honesty and intimacy of Roger Waters and Patty Griffin coupled with a melodic yet intricate guitar style reminiscent of David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, and Jeff Beck. John Wesley has performed as guitarist/vocalist for critically acclaimed UK based recording act Porcupine Tree, during the “In Absentia”, “Deadwing”, “Fear of a Blank Planet”, and “The Incident” world tours with whom he played with for nine years, culminating in 2010 with sold out performances at Radio City Music Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. 
 
In support of the album, John will head out as support to Marillion & Steven Wilson in the US & Canada and you can find the full list of dates below:
 
With Marillion
Friday 21 October 2016 – The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA, USA
 Saturday 22 October 2016 – Saban Theater Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, CA, USA
Tuesday 25 October 2016 – Paramount Theatre Denver, CO, USA
Thursday 27 October 2016 – Vic Theatre Chicago, IL, USA
Friday 28 October 2016 – Vic Theatre Chicago, IL, USA
Saturday 29 October 2016 – Hard Rock Live Northfield, OH, USA
Monday 31 October 2016 – Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON, Canada
Tuesday 1 November 2016 – Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre Montreal, QC, Canada
Wednesday 2 November 2016 – L’Impérial Bell Québec, QC, Canada
Friday 4 November 2016 – Royale Boston Boston, MA, USA
Saturday 5 November 2016 – 9:30 Club Washington, DC, USA
 Sunday 6 November 2016 – Keswick Theatre Philadelphia, PA, USA
 Tuesday 8 November 2016 – Playstation Theater New York, NY, USA
 
With Steven Wilson
Thursday 17 November 2016 – Center Stage Atlanta, GA, USA
Friday 18 November 2016 – The Plaza Live Orlando, FL, USA
Saturday 19 November – State Theatre Tampa, FL, USA
Sunday 20 November – Culture Room Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
 
 
Look out for more information on the album in the coming weeks.
 
Discography:
1994 – Under the Red and White Sky
1995 – The Closing of the Pale Blue Eyes
1998 – The Emperor Falls
2002 – Chasing Monsters
2005 – Shiver
2011 – The Lilypad Suite
2014 – Disconnect
2016 – a way you’ll never be
 

Exclusive Interview with Glass Hammer: VALKYRIE, The Best of 2016

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock1 Comment

 

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Glass Hammer’s Latest, VALKYRIE–2016’s best album.

From the beginning of this, let me [Brad] note that I think that VALKYRIE is not only Glass Hammer’s finest achievement, but it’s the best album of 2016, thus far.

Questions

PROGARCHY: Steve and Fred, after so many years of writing, recording, and producing, what motives you?  I ask this, because most bands go the other direction.  They start strong, and they lose it.  You, however, do just the opposite.  You started very strong, and you just keep getting better.  Why, how?  What’s your secret?

Fred: Luck, perhaps?  It may have a little to do with the fact we’re easily distracted and move from one thing to the next like butterflies so we never have a chance to get too stale.  We are always interested in trying something different.  I think in this case we benefit from having little bits of stuff fly by on the wind and stick to us- post rock, ambient video game music; things we don’t necessarily know well enough to emulate too specifically, but that influence what we’re doing at any given time.  The other thing is surrounding ourselves with the right people and I think that has a lot to do with the new album working out as well as it has.

Steve: We’re driven and we just don’t stop. Momentum is important. We have awesome bandmates who invest themselves into our vision and a support team that keeps everything behind the scenes running smoothly. I’m with Fred on the butterfly theory. There are a million things I’d like to try with Glass Hammer. We’ll never get to the end of my list or Fred’s.

***

PROGARCHY: What do you think Glass Hammer means as a band, a concept, a project?  Where do you see Valkyrie in your personal history, and where do you see it in the long tradition of rock and prog?

Fred: I don’t know what it means.  I feel like I have to leave those questions to the people on the outside looking in; people that have an objective view of it all.  My perspective is kind of mundane.  For me Glass Hammer is an outlet for the music I write and Valkyrie is the latest work we’ve done and that’s it.  Time will tell us where Valkyrie fits in the history of the band and of prog in general.  I have high hopes though that it will be remembered as an important album in our catalog but it’s not my call.

Steve: For me, Glass Hammer satisfies the need to create and share the work. We’re a musical expression of a world-view as well, and I guess I’ve driven that idea. Valkyrie is or was quite personal. The story of the soldier and the girl started as a way for me to deal with trauma from my own experience. The hope being, that as I wrote it I could build the story toward a hopeful ending, and thus, find answers to my own dilemma. What happened was that I realized how insignificant my experience was when compared to others. It helped me mend. My Valkyrie has already arrived and guided me home so to speak. What happened to me was no battlefield experience and we need to confess that unless we’ve actually been in that situation there is no way we could possibly be able to relate to those who have, or even write music about it. I can’t reduce that sort of horror into music or lyrics. Still, trauma takes many forms in many lives. I just hope Valkyrie helps others, and especially encourages family and friends of trauma survivors. Survivors don’t make it home without help. As for Valkyrie’s place in history I can’t say. We just hope everyone enjoys it and that it has as much or more impact as other important albums in our back catalog.

Continue reading “Exclusive Interview with Glass Hammer: VALKYRIE, The Best of 2016” →