Canada’s Metal “Queen Mother” has a new album in the pipeline.
Spock’s Beard- The Oblivion Particle. A grower AND a shower.
Today, InsideOut Music releases Spock’s Beard’s 12th studio album, The Oblivion Particle. This marks the second official release with the lineup Alan Morse (guitars), Ryo Okumoto (keyboards), Dave Meros (bass), Ted Leonard (lead vocals and guitars), and Jimmy Keegan (drums and lead vocals on “Benett Builds a Time Machine”)
Overall, it’s a very strong album, but it didn’t click with me right away, unlike Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep. The Oblivion Particle is definitely a grower, just because there are a lot of new sounds, that you may not expect from Spock’s Beard, being thrown at you from all directions. The arrangements are very strong, although the album doesn’t feel as much of a cohesive unit as BNaDS, perhaps because of the multiple writers involved. Stan Aumus wrote “Tides of Time”, Morse and Okumoto wrote “The Center Line”, Leonard wrote “Minion” and “Hell’s Not Enough”, and seasoned Spock’s writer John Boegehold wrote the rest of the tracks.
“Tides of Time” is a very strong track, a perfect opening, telling you that you have made no mistake- You are listening to prog and with all great prog, this one takes you on a journey. The song starts a little too abruptly, though. It’s like being a passenger in your friend’s really fast car, and he goes from 0 to 60 before you even got a chance to fasten your seat belt. The beginning is great, I just wished it waited to start 2-3 seconds after the play button was hit. I do have the album in digital format, but perhaps the CD itself is programmed with a little more time before take off.
The first couple of minutes are undoubtedly Spock’s Beard. Then we get some great power synths thrown into the mix which make the piece sound very “Turn It On Again” by Genesis or perhaps a lost B-side of Abacab. I can totally picture Phil Collins singing the lines of the 2nd verse of “Tides of Time”- “You’d thought you’d know by now, but know it you do not. It’s a hard cold cross to bear, but pain is all you got”. From there we get a beautiful ballad section, but it doesn’t last as long as it could. Then we get some Spock’sy counterpoint and harmonic acoustic guitars which turn into an awesome metal riff. There are some really great dirty guitar shredding and blazing rock organs afterwards, but Okumoto’s and Morse’s solos seem to get cut off by the vocals too soon. It’s a very concise prog song just under 8 minutes, so I understand what they may have been going for, but I could have easily listened to 3 more minutes of it.
“Minion” has a Kanasas-like vocal rock anthem intro, but then immediately goes into a whole new territory. The section changes, groove changes, riffs and vocal melodies are so fantastic, it’s hard to pay attention to Leonard’s powerful lyrics at first. “Hell’s Not Enough” is a fantastic track that keeps on stepping it up notch after notch. At first we get a synth-flute which is something fresh to the SB arsenal and then Meros adds an interesting bass line. The end is very powerful and gospelly- which works really well in this song about cult-like religions. I can’t put my finger on it, but the background “Ah”s at the end remind me of something I heard already in early Neal Morse era Spock’s Beard, or probably more likely from Morse’s Christian Prog-rock endeavors.
At first it seems as if “Bennett Built a Time Machine” doesn’t stylistically belong with the rest of the album. Leonard takes a break here and passes the gavel over to Keegan for lead vocals. The vocal harmony combined with the leads sounds a little like Weird Al overdubbed on himself, which is unfortunate because it disguises the beautiful voice Jimmy really has, but I do like the background Beach Boys-like “Oooh”s toward the end. Some of us who have seen Spock’s Beard live recently, may have seen Jimmy come out from the drums and sing “Carrie” from Snow. Of course “Bennett” doesn’t have as sweet of a style or melody, but I still felt as if he was robbed of his moment due to overproduction, mainly on the vocals. It does have a very Spock’s Beardy transition into the 2nd half, which starts with a very unexpected but exciting chord progression, which leads to a really cool bass solo- a great homage to the late Chris Squire. Okumoto then brings in some really nice synths.
When “Get Out While You Can” starts to play, all bets are off. This is not your father’s Spock’s Beard. It’s not very proggy and the first minute plays like something you’d expect from a Depeche Mode song. Leonard’s vocals go from silky smooth to gritty, really following the entire spectrum of the energy of the track.
If you could mind-meld with Spock’s Beard’s collective brain, “A Better Way to Fly” is the song you would hear. There is some quite impressive drumming by Keegan, but everyone really does give it their all in this song. It will be quite impressive to see this one done live.
Okumoto performs some great piano solos on the album including on the intro of “The Center Line” after which we get Meros to add a little Spock’s Bach counterpoint. There are a lot of notes in this song; I would also be impressed to see SB do this live. My favorite piano solo of the album is on “To Be Free Again”. Love the jazziness! Not sure why, but when listening to this song I get the impression it may be about Frodo taking an adventure and at the end he throws the Ring into the fires of Mordor.
The Oblivion Particle forms a black hole in the Large Hadron Collider and destroys all existence in final track “Disappear”. Just kidding, that’s not what it’s about, as far as I know, but that could have been awesome! “Disappear” is an appropriate finale to the album. Not only does it have the Kansas influences (I hear bits of Magnus Opus in the middle), which Spock’s Beard has had since their beginning, but it also has Kansas’s David Ragsdale tearing it up on violin. I like that it doesn’t have a big epic ending, but rather just “disappears.” But, of course, we all are hoping that Spock’s Beard will not disappear and release their 13th album in the next 2-3 years.
The album was produced by Rich Mouser, Alan Morse and John Boegehold and was engineered, mixed and mastered by Rich Mouser at The Mouse House. As with all Mouser mixed productions, you’ll definitely want to listen to The Oblivion Particle with great speakers or on headphones. There is so much going on here, so you’ll also want to listen to it multiple times. Every time I listen to it, I hear new things that I like. I can’t decide on one favorite track, but my three favorite are “Tides of Time”, “Hell’s Not Enough”, and “A Better Way To Fly”. The album is being released by InsideOut Music. The special edition CD also contains the bonus track “Iron Man”.
When I first listened to The Oblivion Particle, I was outside my place (A/C wasn’t working and it was too hot to listen to inside). When Ted sang, in “Tides of Time”, “I hope I can find my way home”, I couldn’t help but to look up at the stars. Spock’s Beard has always had that special magic which would somehow make me do such a thing in the first place. It was a beautiful moment. ★★★★
Chasing Light by Built for the Future
A few weeks ago Facebook friend and prog-rocker jHimm (you can read my review of his debut album here) called my attention to a new band named Built for the Future. B4TF hails from San Antonio, Texas, and consists of only two members: Patric Farrell (all instruments, backing vocals), and Kenny Bissett (lead vocals). This dynamic duo released their debut album Chasing Light on July 28. They are supported by Dave Pena and Chris Benjamin on guitars and Imaya Farrell on cello/violin/viola. The album is dedicated to the late, great Chris Squire.
B4TF sound like a fusion of Yes, Porcupine Tree, and Spock’s Beard. Throw in some Tears for Fears, and I believe that impressive concoction comes closest to describing these alternative prog-rockers. At the end of the day, however, B4TF definitely maintain their own unique sound.
A concept album, Chasing Light is an exciting debut. These songs in particular stand out:
“Arrive” – the opening song bursts forth with energy, setting the tone for the rest of the album.
“Speed of the Climb” – as the title suggests, this piece is a thrilling, fast paced rocker that may remind one of Spock’s Beard.
“Build for the Future” – has a more somber feel to it; similar in sound to Porcupine Tree, but not quite as dark. The title alone suggests hope, and the possibility of a better tomorrow.
“Running Man” – features sensational distorted guitar work. My favorite song on the album.
“Samsara” – echoes of Yes with multilayered synths and acoustic guitars.
“The Great Escape” – the closer; stunning epic on an excellent album.
I am always pleased to find a new album to review, and I highly recommend this one. The influence of some of the best symphonic prog bands is evident, but Farrell and Bissett add their own touch to the album, and what emerges is a distinct style worthy of praise. For the best (and most succinct) description of the album, however, here is Patric Farrell himself:
“This theme was inspired by true events in my life, and each song actually represents real feeling and escapism from that experience. Change in life is a big ordeal, looking for truths, looking for a better place, looking for light is all we can do when we are faced with such a turn.”
You can purchase the album here: https://builtforthefuture1.bandcamp.com/releases
Miracles (and Music) Out of Kansas
In one of my first posts here at Progarchy.com–“A Pilgrim’s Prog-ress”–I wrote about the key role that Kansas (the band, not the state) played in opening the doors to prog for me:
Around 1985 or so, I bought a copy of “The Best of Kansas”. That opened the door to prog. There was something about the mixture of Livgren’s lead guitar, Steinhardt’s violin, and Steve Walsh’s amazing voice, along with lyrics soaked in spiritual longing and Americana, that grabbed me by the scrawny neck. Over the next three or four years, I ended up collecting everything by Kansas, Kerry Livgren (solo and with AD), and Steve Morse (solo, Dixie Dregs, etc.). My favorite Kansas albums are “Song for America” and “In the Spirit of Things”, although they weren’t the chart-toppers that “Point of Know Return” and “Leftoverture” were.
Early on in the documentary, “Miracles Out of Nowhere”, which was released in March, drummer Phil Ehart emphasizes that it was Livgren’s song writing, Steinhardt’s violin, and Walsh’s vocals that made Kansas such a distinctive-sounding band in the 1970s. He is surely correct about that, but he also, in saying so, humbly passes over another key to the band’s steady rise and eventually rather surreal success (or miraculous, a consistent theme in the documentary): he own unassuming, balanced personality and rooted, yet deeply musical, drumming. As Garth Brooks, one of several rather surprising guests, marvels in recalling his first Kansas show: “It was the first time I’d seen a drummer play actual notes!”
Miracles and music: those are the two constant themes throughout the documentary, which begins with childhood memories and concludes with 1977’s “Point of Know Return”, Kansas’ fifth album and the apex of the band’s commercial success (it hit #4 in the U.S. and featured the band’s biggest hit and best-known song, “Dust in the Wind”). That album is, arguably, a fitting conclusion to the documentary as the band would soon learn there really are points of no return; or, in the words a certain young lady, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”. It wasn’t long, in fact, before Walsh departed, then Livgren, and then the band entered into the post-classic-Kansas era (I provide some details here). Continue reading “Miracles (and Music) Out of Kansas”
Behind The Hedgerow: Big Big Train (from the London Concert Book)
[Earlier this year, Professor Geoff Parks very kindly asked me to contribute to the BBT Concert Book, introducing and celebrating the band live for three dates this past weekend. As any progressive rock lover knows, this happened and, surprising to no one except the members of the band, BBT performed with absolute and utter brilliance. From my perspective, praise of BBT is praise of integrity itself. Below is what appeared in the concert program. I am deeply honored to have been a part of this event, even if armed only with a keyboard and separated by 3,500 miles–Brad]
Over time, most bands fade, while some others merely linger. A few, however, grow, evolve, develop, broaden, deepen, and reach. Toward what? Toward excellence, toward true community, toward art, toward creativity, and toward beauty.
Big Big Train is such a band. More importantly, it is an artistic community, in and of itself.
Founded in the early 1990s when progressive rock had become not just “weird” but almost anathema for most folks, Big Big Train stood for something solid and good even when the footing was unsure. Writing dramatic and cinematic pieces—complete with false starts and re-dos and some clumsy grasps (one album from 2002 is even a four-letter word)—Greg Spawton and Andy Poole pursued their dreams of making their own music. Though they correctly offered pieties to the past of Genesis and Yes, they wanted to be their own touchstone.
Then, something happened. Gathering Speed. At once an homage to the brave who defended the motherland against the rapacious fascists of central Europe, Gathering Speed proved to offer a distinctive sound, a “Big Big Train” sound. Drama, time shifts, jarring passages becoming melodic and melodic becoming ethereal, and truly fine lyric writing made this album a gem.
Then, something happened. Again. The Difference Machine. Astonishingly, even better than Gathering Speed, The Difference Machine told the haunting story of the stars and the souls, and the souls and the stars. At what point do the two become one? Chaos, order, sacrifice, dreams, death, loss. Everything that matters in life (and death) is here, in every lyric and every note.
Then, something happened. Again. The Underfall Yard. Oh, the majesty of that new voice, that voice that so perfectly captures Spawton’s and Poole’s music. That voice doesn’t just define the sound that the two remaining founders of the band had so long pursued, it gives it harmony in a perfect, Platonic sense. The listener begins the album, lulled by that voice. Toward the middle, we don’t know if we’re in Hell, Purgatory, or Holy Mass. By the end of the album, we care desperately that an electrical storm has moved out to sea.
Then, something happened. Again and again and again. English Electric One, English Electric Two, English Electric Full Power. A two cd set with a glorious booklet. And, now, we see what Spawton and Poole had seen for twenty-three years: an idyllic English landscape, marred by human error and the will to destroy. But, also leavened with the will to love, to discover, and to create. English Electric, despite the power implied, is the delicate holding of a soul, a soul that can choose the good or the ill, the true or the terrifying, and the beautiful or the horrific.
And, now, a toast of Wassail to three live dates in London, 2015. There, in the heart of English liberty, the heart of English commerce, and the heart of English dignity. For there, behind wind-swept pioneers, Spitfires, divers and architects, station masters, fallen kings, intriguing uncles, decrepit athletes, shipping manifests, curators, and loyal dogs, lies . . . something.
There, just behind the hedgerow. If you look and listen with attention and care, you’ll find the keepers of all things good, true, and beautiful. They call themselves Big Big Train.
The State of Progarchy, Mid-2015
Dear Progarchists,
This year, 2015, has absolutely blown me away in terms of quality in music. Since nearly a decade ago, I’ve been convinced that each year is the best prog year ever, only to find that the following year is even better.
Long may this trend continue.
As I’ve had the opportunity to explain before, the five main editors—Carl Olson (AOR), Chris Morrissey (Metal), Craig Breaden (Blues, rock, experimental), and Kevin McCormick (classical)—and I (prog) founded progarchy with the intent of offering writing equal to the music. That is, we felt it only just to write as well as our favorite musicians played. After all, who wants to read a sixth-grade level review of a Big Big Train album? Greg Spawton is extremely smart. Andy Tillison is extremely smart. Leah McHenry is extremely smart. Robin Armstrong is extremely smart. Well, you get the point.
What would be a site dedicated to the beauty of music be without writing and thinking to match the level of the art reviewed?
Have we always succeeded? I’m not sure. Have we always tried to succeed and match the quality of our thinking and writing with the quality of the music we hear? Absolutely. And, whatever the faults of progarchy, I can state with certainty that I believe this website to be one of the finest websites—in terms of writing—that exists on the internet.
Since the founding of progarchy nearly three years ago, our readership has grown and grown, while our base has remained steady. In addition to over 3,000 permanent email subscribers, we get an additional 400 to 8,000+ visits a day, depending on topic. In case you’re interested, our biggest draw is Neal Morse with Rush being a close second.
Yesterday, something somewhat surprising but very nice happened to us. A very, very high quality music label asked us if we’d be willing to advertise. When we started progarchy, we avoided this for two reasons. First, we were brand new and who would want to advertise with us? Second, we wanted to prove our “objectivity” first. Well, objectivity isn’t exactly the right word. Craft, honesty, art? Enthusiasm, certainly. Criticism, often. But, honesty—definitely.
After receiving the offer, I immediately emailed the other four editors. Unanimously, we agreed it was time to promote commercial interests and labels who fight not just for success but for excellence. So, beginning very soon (perhaps as early as tomorrow), you’ll see a brilliant banner and link across the top of progarchy.
I think we’ve proven ourselves over the last 2.9 years. And, just in case you’re worried the money we receive from advertising might just send us on round-the-world junkets, be not afraid. The first thing we’ll do is pay for our domain name for the next 12 months, spruce up the site a bit, and, especially, start indexing our reviews and interviews—making them far more accessible to our readership.
A huge thanks to the editors and authors of progarchy and to all of you reading this.
Yours, in appreciation and humility, Brad
The Duda Abides: Progarchy’s Interview with Riverside’s Mariusz Duda
Recently, I had the good fortune to be able to talk to Riverside’s bass player, lead vocalist, and creative genius extraordinaire, Mariusz Duda. Despite nursing a summer cold, Mr. Duda was quite pleasant and offered some fascinating insights into Riverside’s most recent album (Love, Fear and The Time Machine), connections among albums, and a host of other topics. At the end, I tried to entice him and his Riverside band mates, with food, to play a local gig. Hope it works. Cross your fingers for me.
—————————————————————
Progarchy: First of all, thank you for taking the time for this interview. We really appreciate it. Second, congratulations on the new album. I’ve heard it a few times now and it is absolutely spectacular. Love, Fear, and the Time Machine has dispensed with the heavy metal elements and many of the hard rock elements of previous Riverside albums for a more melodic approach. What is the impetus behind the change in sound?
Mariusz Duda: Well I think that Riverside is that kind of band that [uses] melodies and emotions. We started with that kind of album, our career. Our debut album is full of emotions, full of melodies. Later I started to experiment a little bit. But I think since the previous album I went back to the main core that we have. I don’t want to repeat myself and repeat all the things that I have heard before. The thing I can do best is when I focus on the melodies and I focus the things that I am good at. So I just said to the guys that it’s time to reach into this melody mood, because this is the main idea behind Riverside’s music. Of course I would like to go even farther and focus on the melodies even more. But first of all, I wanted to change a little bit, the music, I wanted to change the mood. And I didn’t want to repeat myself. I didn’t want this time to delve into this vintage 70’s whatever. I wanted to push the boundaries and end up in a different place. I communicated this 80’s – I called it 80’s – I think that is the new path, the kind of era, in our music on the new album.
Progarchy: Yes, the third song, #Addicted took me back to my 20’s, as it had a lot of that 80’s sound.
Mariusz Duda: You know, those are my times. I’m not the generation of the 70’s, I’m 10 years later if I can say that. I grew up on tapes, I grew up in the time of the 80’s when on the radio I could hear songs. What I think is that in the 80’s we got really good songs on the radio. Now everything is, very shallow, flat, it sounds like a product made very quickly on an iPhone or iPad. In the 80’s you got really good songs that have lots of layers beneath the surface. Examples like Peter Gabriel’s stuff, or U2, or whatever. I really love that. I remember when I was 10, when I was 15, that was my era, and that’s the time machine, some memories connected with the new album. I really wanted to go back to this era. So I thought that would be great, to not maybe delve into 80’s, but to connect 70’s and 80’s with our style and come up with some kind of strange mixture. It’s not very progressive to be in the 80’s, but that’s the paradox because this [album] sounds much more progressive than other retro-vintage sounds.
Progarchy: Can you explain how each term in the album, “Love”, “Fear”, and the “Time Machine” relate to the overall concept of the new album?
Mariusz Duda: Actually, this is not an album about those terms themselves. The album is about making the important, life-changing decisions. I think in your lifetime there is a moment when you need to decide if you want to change your life or not. That kind of situation is usually when you have a midlife crisis, or you have some time where you are sick and tired of some patterns and you want to change something, what do you do? Let’s say you decide to change your life, some kind of twist, 180 degrees. Let’s say you decided to change your job, or you life, or move to another country, what’s going on then? Life changing decisions, something important, something that will have an impact on your future. From one side you feel this excitement, this freedom, maybe you said to your boss, “goodbye, I don’t like you, I’m going to start another life.” So you’ve got this good, positive feeling, and I called it “Love.”
On the other hand, there is this fear of the unknown, you didn’t know what to expect of this new life. You don’t know exactly. And there is other stuff, your experiences of the past and your imagination about the future, and I called it the “Time Machine.”
All these three elements are the most important forces that force you to make this very important, life changing decision. So that’s why it’s titled, those are the most important things when you want to change something in your life. You need to touch of love, touch of fear, and touch of your experiences from the past, your memories.
Progarchy: So what prompted you explore this theme?
Mariusz Duda: Well, actually, there is some kind of personal background. And I think it is always connected with developing, evolving. We wanted to change something with our music too. I just felt it was kind of interesting. I wanted to do something a little bit optimistic than I do usually, a little bit more brighter, lighter. Last year, I did the solo project which is called Lunatic Soul, and it was very dark, it was about suicide. It was like a prequel about someone who died. And I just discovered, “my God, I’m delving into this darkness for so many years, maybe it’s time to do something a little bit more, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel.” So that was my first idea, to focus on the positive emotion. And focusing on the positive emotions was kind of connected with this transition into someone who is sad and was full of misery and he’s just trying to himself into someone who is more, in a better mood if I can say that. Someone who is more happy, to be happy, to feel happy. So, that was some kind of challenge to me, to go back maybe to go back to some kind of tunes that are not so dark. And I think the new album is also different.
Progarchy: Is there a connection with the last Riverside albums, since in the very last song on SoNGS, the protagonist seems to be saying “I’m going to take control of my life.” Even though that album had a pessimistic or dark tone, that piece seemed to be a little bit of optimism, he was saying “I’m not going to be a new generation slave, I’m going to be in control.” So could you say that relates to the new album, or there is a connection there?
Mariusz Duda: Well I have to tell you the last three Riverside albums are kind of connected again. I wouldn’t call it an official trilogy like the Reality Dream trilogy. I call it an unofficial new trilogy, I call it the Crowd trilogy, because all the lyrics on these albums are connected with social media, with the new modern life, those kind of elements that surround us these days. On ADHD and SoNGS, and the new album we’ve got this new modern language. I just wanted to take some features of our times, and that why we have #Addicted, that’s why we’ve got Celebrity Touch, and Under the Pillow, and ADHD we have this regular disc which is [a] Blu-Ray disc which is high definition and everything. And I think everything goes in this direction. Since the beginning of Hyperactive on ADHD until the final track on the new album, Found, I think there is this transition of the main hero who is just trying to finally feel positive. Maybe that’s not very original. But he is just in the moment when he realizes life doesn’t suck (laughs). You can deal with your life. And that is the whole truth, and it’s kind of obvious, but take a look at us and notice that so many people realize it maybe too late or when they have aged more than they would have liked to. That’s the way it is, you need to grow up and realize that, and you need to have your own experiences and to finally say “I like my life, I love my life even.”
So I think there is some kind of connection, maybe not strictly like on the Reality Dream trilogy. But I always try to create albums as movies. Yeah, Coda on the last album, that’s kind of positive too I would say, so that was like the pre-life of the life we have on the new album.
Progarchy: In general, where do you find sources of inspiration to use for a Riverside album?
Mariusz Duda: I don’t like to work an album like it’s some kind of job. I just feel that there are lots of things within my head. It’s kind of messy and kind of buzzy, and I know that I need to spit it out from time to time. It depends on how I feel and has different colors. It’s more introverted or more extroverted stuff. It doesn’t matter if it’s Lunatic Soul or Riverside or not, everything must be connected to or inspired by my personal stuff. I don’t need to be influenced by bands I am listening to now or read lots of dark books and decide “because of this, I will create that kind of mood on the albums.” Right now, since SoNGS, the last Lunatic Soul, this album, that was kind of personal. When I decided to do something about “slaves” let’s say, and I wanted to have this dark mood, then I started to connect the inspirations. Mostly I start with my personal experience, my personal needs of dealing with this subject that is just stuck in my head. I am usually trying to spit out what I have in my soul, in my heart, I don’t know, somewhere.
Progarchy: Do you think you are going to do another Lunatic Soul album before the next Riverside Album?
Mariusz Duda: I don’t know yet. If I catch a good flow with the guys we will continue this somehow. But I definitely have unfinished history with Lunatic Soul. I would like to do at least two more albums, including another prequel, because in my head I’m digging … I just see six covers and six symbols, different symbols of these albums. I will definitely need to go back to this. But I’m not sure if it will be Lunatic Soul first or another Riverside album, I have no idea. Maybe it will be something totally different to destroy this pattern somehow. I need to refresh myself from time to time too.
Progarchy: Do you ever have any internal conflict regarding an internal idea as to whether you should pursue it with Riverside or with Lunatic Soul?
Mariusz Duda: I’m one of these guys that can say “goodbye” to even the best ideas I have in my mind. Sometimes I really reject lots of good ideas for a more general cause, if you can say that. Because of this there is usually not a conflict like “ok, I don’t know if I should do this for Riverside or Lunatic Soul.” When I work on an album, I work on this album right now. So when I work on Lunatic Soul, this is this, I create this, I create that, but at times I see that this may be good for Riverside so maybe I’ll leave it, but it’s just an idea, not an entire song. I always know if it’s more for Riverside or Lunatic Soul or another future project. Riverside and Lunatic Soul are different musical worlds. Even if they sometimes sound similar in the studio, I can change instruments and change the whole mood.
But I have to tell you one thing – the track called Afloat, that was my idea that I wanted to use on the last Lunatic Soul, but it just didn’t fit, so I left it. When I started to compose the new Riverside with the guys and myself, I realized this idea could be very nice, I can use this somewhere in the middle of the album to take some rest. But actually it was something I [originally] wanted to use on Walking on a Flashlight Beam.
Progarchy: That’s an interesting bit of perspective. How would you describe the creative process in making a Riverside album, who does what?
Mariusz Duda: Well, I would say that I do just about everything (laughing). In the beginning we were trying to do lots of things together but I was this guy who was this director, editor, screenwriter, whatever. So I’m writing lyrics, I’m writing lyrics.
But to let you know one thing, when I do stuff with Riverside, I always try to use our band. I’m bringing my ideas and we are composing this together, and I am watching for reactions from the guys for these ideas. Thanks to this I know what I can follow, I can go in this direction and that direction. I need that. And sometimes there is interaction in bands, and thanks to this I can know where we should go with the music. This time I did kind of a personal thing and did a lot of things by myself, but also together with the guys. They were doing some composing.
Riverside should be a band anyway, but as the leader, the main composer and writer of lyrics, I don’t want to transform this into a one person band. No, each of us has a different musical style, a different way of playing, and that’s very necessary. Because of someone’s skills, you know what you can do and you know the limits, and that can help to find the final result.
Progarchy: And you know what the guys like to do, what their influences are and that affects the direction?
Mariusz Duda: Just imagine if you have musicians, you pay the musicians, and they can play everything, exactly everything you want them to. That’s kind of dangerous because the music could be everything and nothing at the same time. When there’s a band, and there’s guys where you know each other, you know what they like, what kind of music style, and you can write the music and you know the areas you can be in. Thanks to this you can develop the band’s style.
Progarchy: Poland is obviously a very different place now than it was at the time you and your bandmates were still growing up, having gone through a political upheaval and massive change at the end of the Cold War. It’s quite different from when you were different from when you were a kid in the 80’s right?
Mariusz Duda: I’m not from Warsaw, I grew up in a very small town in the north of Poland. It was almost a village, 18,000 people lived there. I moved to Warsaw at the new millennium when I was 25. But I remember as a kid, I did not have almost anything. We were really not rich as a family. My mother and my father, they would try to save money. I knew that we were limited, and this what I see in Time Travelers [from LTFM], that go back to the world of 30 years ago. I don’t want to go back to a times when there was nothing in shops.
I remember one thing when I was 10 I needed to wait for something, I need to respect things more, I need to deserve something. I was truly waiting for the small things, and I was really happy when I got it. Now these days you can have access to everything on each possible platform and everything at every moment in time. It’s just sometimes it’s ridiculous. People don’t know what to do with that, and they don’t feel happy these days. Where is their reason to be happy? You don’t have to wait for anything. I remember when I was a kid I was waiting for better times. I remember hen my friend got a computer, a Commodore Amiga or Atari or whatever, and I had nothing. Probably because of this, 30 years later I am a huge game lover and have this PS/4 and I can just woo woo!! And I don’t want to grow up!
I have that kind of job where I don’t have to work in the office, I can from time to time, of course, work hard in the studio. But mostly I can watch movies, play video games, and feel free!
Progarchy: My last question, but a very important one. I live in Austin, TX. Whose arm do I have to twist to get you guys to do a gig down here?
Mariusz Duda: Our manager, we’ll send you his personal contact (laughs). That would be great. This year will be our second tour in the U.S. So far we have only played single shows. Two years ago since Shrine we started to tour in America and played more shows and hopefully this year we will come back. One thing has changed in Poland, something connecting American visa. Now we have less problems with that. In the beginning we couldn’t even play [here] in 2005, but now I have 6 or 7 visas, working visas. Hopefully there will be a time when we play in your neighborhood. Mention this interview. I truly hope that will happen.
Progarchy: Ok, if that happens I’m going to contact your manager and take you guys out for barbecue after the show.
Mariusz Duda: Oh definitely. I don’t think of anything else right now! (laughs heartily).
Progarchy: Thank you very much for your time.
————————————————————
Some parting thoughts, in bullet point format:
- What a cool guy, this Mariusz Duda. He answered my questions better than I could have possibly hoped. In general, I found him to be very easy to talk to and a very interesting conversationalist.
- I loved the insights into the new album that he provided. In particular, I enjoyed hearing how there is a connection between the current album and the previous two, with the hero, as he called him, finally decides to take control of his life and realize he’s in control. In a sense, it reminds me of what Albert Camus once stated: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
- Mariusz and the rest of the guys, if you end up reading this piece, make sure to look at the picture below (ignore the hypnotic waves emanating there from … ):
That’s what’s in store for you if you play here. Oh, and don’t let those pikers in Kansas City tell you they have better barbecue. They don’t. Texas has the best. Period. And to your manager, if he makes a gig in Austin happen, I’ll buy his dinner too. So, Mr. Riverside’s Manager, we have the Austin City Limits Music Festival in the fall, South By Southwest in the spring, and lots of great venues available year round. Are you hungry?
😉
Good-bye mass culture, good-bye prog: “It was fun watching the applecart being upset, but now where do we go for apples?”
Are we entering the era of the end of real prog?
Here’s the argument:
You can kiss the mainstream culture goodbye, because there is no such thing anymore. And if there is no mainstream culture, there is no can be no real prog because there is nothing “mass culture” for it to react to. So, we’re all proggers now, insofar as no one partakes of mass culture anymore.
Need more color on that “end of mass culture” thesis?
Here you go, some interesting commentary from Instapundit on the lack of enthusiasm for mass culture anymore:
First, while it had an enormous influence, mass culture had a surprisingly brief life. The first nationwide radio networks, the predecessors to the big three commercial networks, were born in America in the 1920s, right around the same time that Hollywood had completed building its nationwide movie chains. But mass culture has been dying since the mid-to-late 1970s, when cable TV, the VCR, and videogames first began to break the monolithic stranglehold that the three commercial TV networks had on viewers. It was around that time that the personal computer first took off, allowing early adopters to dial into the first information services such as CompuServe and early homebrew bulletin board systems.
…
While the Beatles were obviously influenced by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and other early rockers, we were lucky that the Fab Four came of age during a period when there was still a traditional music culture they could ransack ideas from, including Tin Pan Alley, big band swing music and crooners, and classical music (thanks to their brilliant producer/arranger, George Martin). And as Charles Paul Freund perceptively noted at Reason in 2001, by the time of Sgt. Pepper, while the Beatles “continued to use rock elements to make their music, there is almost as much British Music Hall in their later work as there is rock.”
While the Beatles leaned heavily on the music traditions of the mid-20th century, concurrently, Berry Gordy borrowed a very different show business tradition to build his musical empire at Motown. Even as it was beginning to fade as a production technique in Hollywood, Gordy used the Hollywood studio system as a model to run Motown as a business. In the studio system, the film studios signed actors to long-term contracts, gave them allocution and dance lessons, and generally groomed them for stardom. Gordy did the same thing for his artists, and supplied them with songwriters and a crack house band called “the Funk Brothers” who played on virtually every great Motown hit.
Arguably, the Beatles’ role as a benchmark for what was possible in rock music didn’t wane until the end of the 1980s, when genres such as punk rock-influenced grunge and death metal removed much of the melodic impulse from rock. Motown’s influence on the soul and disco music of the 1970s would start to end in the early 1980s, as record labels and MTV pushed rap, which eschewed melody and traditional pop craftsmanship entirely.
…
“It was fun watching the applecart being upset, but now where do we go for apples?”
Big Big Train – live review, Kings Hall, London, Friday 14 August 2015
“Light bleeds from the world
Starcross, the Underfall Yard
the iron and the stone is broken
the dream of the Western mind
searching for reason is gone now“
It seems a lifetime since these words have been etched into my mind. Countless runs on the moors and trails of our Pennine hills amongst old quarries, broken shepherds rests, along sheep trods to old mining tracks, rusting old machinery dramatically lit by shafts of sunlight amongst stark moorland beauty ….. the words silently going round in my mind as I run blissfully up the hills.
Yet, somehow, it is but a few years since the Underfall Yard came into my life.
Never has music resonated and connected with me so strongly to the extent that it has almost become my theme tune for running, for life even …
So here we are, in a rainy and warm London, having a pre-show pint with some wonderful friends about to witness this magnificent piece of music performed live for the very first time. In my mind there was somehow a nagging doubt that it was all some huge spoof, a wind up, and we would get to the venue to find it had all been a dream and that the concerts were in fact just us fans wishing beyond dreams that BBT would perform live.
The venue could not have been any better, a mini Bridgewater Hall lookalike with perfect views wherever. Small, modern and intimate – perfect.
There was palpable tension in the air and, as alluded by Nick on a previous post, a slight worry that the sound might not be right, the tracks may not lend themselves to live performance, could the group cut it ….. ?!
The lights went down. The band walked out. The audience was hushed.
Then David Longdon said “Hello ..shall we make some noise ?”, in a cheery voice and you could almost feel everyone relax.
And it started ….
Two and a half hours of the most sublime, moving and emotionally charged music I have had the pleasure to witness – ever.
Although they started with my least favourite track of the evening, it was a joy to see these people who I have listened to for so long, actually there on stage, performing with such energy and fun. My eyes were casting back and forward, yes, there’s Dave Gregory, that’s Greg Spawton tucked away at the back on the right, just next to Nick D’Virgilio … wow.
Once the little opening track had allowed them to loosen up, we moved into a powerful section with ‘The First Rebreather’ providing drama and the first opportunity for David Longdon to really open up that fantastic voice :
‘Searching for hope at the ninth hour …..’
What I wasn’t expecting was the 24 minute epic ‘The Underfall’ Yard to be so early in the running order but boy, did this deliver. From those first opening chords to the magnificent section with the lyrics above, this was a stunning tour de force : powerful, precise, tight, dripping with emotion and passion for the subject matter ….. wonderful.
I never thought I would get to see this track performed live and it really did feel like I had died and gone to heaven.
As a bit of light relief we then had ‘Uncle Jack’ which has always struck me as a quirky track with an awkward but charming feel to it. Maybe it’s the use of the banjo or it’s structure, but it was a delight to listen to live despite a couple of timing issues, not to be unexpected I guess in a first live performance !
So far we’ve not mentioned the brass band, or more correctly the brass section. At first I was a bit non-plussed as I could hear them but there was no sign on stage. Then I noticed they were sitting in the balcony just above the band. This was good timing as another track from ‘The Underfall Yard’ was next – ‘Victorian Brickwork’.
If you know this track, you will be aware of the power of the closing section with it’s huge build up of brass, guitar and keyboard. If you don’t, you need to rectify that situation with immediate effect. The track itself is wonderful, a haunting lament that rolls along as the waves and sea it describes envelope us to finish off with the beautiful brass-infused wall of sound finale.
The hairs on my arms were tingling at this point, particularly when the trumpet (or cornet ?) soared so clear and emotionally over the crescendo coming for the stage below ……
Time was going so quickly, as I knew it would. I couldn’t stop time, despite wanting to.
A 20 minute interval allowed everyone to regather themselves, take in what they had just witnessed and try and absorb what had just been.
An interesting choice to start the second part of the performance was ‘Kingmaker’ which, for me, is an often overlooked track sitting as it does somewhat between albums. The live performance was captivating and had me quickly checking my iPod on the journey home to give it the attention it deserves.
One feature of the performance was the energy of David Longdon. He was superb : lively and energetic. He added pathos and drama and at one stage even donned a subtle face mask during ‘Wassail’ that, along with his flute waving, was completely in keeping with the track. He really connected with the audience and delivered a virtuoso vocal performance that was stunning to see at such close quarters.
‘Summoned by Bells’ followed and was played with sumptuous ease, and again, we were treated to a wonderful brass section that could have frankly gone on for several hours and I think we would have all been very happy ….
Now, as a rule I hate drum solo’s with a passion, so was a bit taken aback as Nick D’Virgilio suddenly started thrashing around in a very accomplished drummer sort of way but then suddenly – bang ! – we are into ‘Judas Unrepentant’ as quickly as you like. A stunning way to open this track actually. Again, if you know this track you will be realise it’s quite a complex little fellow with odd phrasing, clever structure and a wonderfully chaotic feel to it. Somehow, this was performed with hardly a missed beat, at least I didn’t notice one, and this was a complete hoot to see live. Loud, energetic, fun and impeccable played.
The mood changed dramatically for the next track – ‘Curator of Butterflies’ from English Electric 2. Danny Manners’ cultured keyboard playing provided a beautiful backing for Longdon’s vocals to soar powerfully. This wonderful track has, for me, always evoked feelings of loss, gentleness, delicacy and compassion and to hear it so beautifully played was mesmerising.
Grown men were weeping at this point it must be said ….
This utterly captivating performance was coming to a close, it had to, it couldn’t go on for ever. There was a sad inevitability that this was a moment in time that was going to be over too soon.
Anyhow, enough reverie. There was some serious business to complete in the form of ‘East Coast Racer’ a track which I have enjoyed immensely from the very first listen but is fast becoming my second favourite track of all time. There is something about its movement and rhythm, the way it mirrors the Mallard steaming along the rails at 120+mph, the elbows jutting from the cab and caps worn in racing style – everything about the lyrics, the history and the industry combine to stunning effect.
The performance of this track was simply astonishing.
During the mid-section the power of the brass section, the drum work of D’Virgilio and the build up of layer on layer of keyboards was spellbinding and when Longdon gets to the final lyric and belts out over all this …..
‘into history
into legends
she flies ………’
Goodness me ….. I’m not sure I’ve seen any live music as compelling as this and yes, I’m a fanboy and know the music inside out, so perhaps my views are a little biased but there was something out of this world about this performance.
To expect any great encore was maybe pushing it but we were treated to a lovely rendition of ‘Hedgerow’ which included sublime violin work from Rachel Hall. In fact, this seemed to captivate Dave Gregory so much he didn’t seem quite ready for his guitar part, as though he was lost in the music and enjoying it as much as us .. a lovely moment !
So, that was it. It was over.
A performance I feel privileged to have seen and one I hope will be repeated should the band feel it was a success.
I sincerely hope they do because from a fan’s perspective it was everything I had dreamt and more …….
Thank you to all the Big Big Train band and the brass band guys for a truly memorable evening.
Setlist :
Come on Make Some Noise
The First Rebreather
The Underfall yard
Uncle Jack
Victorian Brickwork
—- interval —–
Kingmaker
Wasail
Summoned by Bells
Judas Unrepentant
Curator of Butterflies
East Coast Racer
—–
Hedgerow (encore)
Progarchy 