Anathema Thoughts From A Different Angle

On By Dave BandanaIn progressive rock music1 Comment

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I loved We’re Here Because We’re Here. Weather Systems was also really good. So I was looking forward to my first play of the new album Distant Satellites. The familiar keyboard strings started and for 15 seconds it was nice and then the drum kicks in at a hundred miles an hour. I wasn’t expecting that. I listened all the way through and at the end I thought that I must have missed something. My immediate thought was that it sounded very samey. Does that make sense? What I mean is that every track started quiet, repeated the tune a lot and grew to a loud intense bit and then got quiet again at the end. I had to play it again. This time I noticed the Drum Machine sounds that some people have compared to Kid A Radiohead. It still didn’t do anything for me, apart from two stand out tracks and I do mean stand out. The first is The Lost Song Part 2 and the second is Ariel. They both stick to the formula I mentioned earlier but they are good songs but sung really well with great emotion and both by Lee. The rest of it is disappointing to me…… but why?

 

My favourite Anathema song ever is “Everything”. So maybe I am comparing this new album to that and its not coming up to scratch. But then I started thinking a bit more . ( which can sometimes be a bit dangerous for me ) What do Anathema think of this album? I bet they think it is the best thing they have ever done.

I am sure a lot of you know I am half of the teen pop sensation Salander. Just this week we have finished the recording of our yet untitled new album. Depending on how long it takes to finish the mixing, it could be out in the next few weeks. We had some fantastic reviews for our last album ( thanks Brad ) but we never felt we were competing with it when recording the new one. However, as each new track was recorded there was this feeling that it was the best thing we had ever done. As an artist I think you will always feel this because each new track is fresh and in the moment. But as a consumer I will always compare to my favourite songs. Tony Banks said that he preferred the songs Genesis recorded later in their existence to their earlier work. Hang on….you think Invisible Touch is better than Suppers Ready!! But as an artist you have to think that way or you might as well not record anything else. As a consumer I will always have my favourites to compare to. As an artist I want to experiment and come up with something new. As a consumer I want familiarity.

 

Just because I think that Anathema’s new album isn’t as good as WHBWH doesn’t make it a bad album. As I said, there are some great moments on it. But its the best album Anathema thinks Anathema has made. And fair play to them.

 

Hunky Dory ★★★★★ Still, Even If Bowie Bonds Going Through Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

On By Time LordIn Progarchy1 Comment

Since they were originally issued, the Bowie Bonds have gone through ch-ch-ch-ch-changes:

When music icon David Bowie in 1997 introduced an unusual marriage between the rock scene and Wall Street, it was first billed as an innovative union.

The rock ‘n’ roll legend issued bonds backed by future revenue of the 25 albums he had recorded before 1990, paying a generous 7.9% interest rate over 10 years. The bond issue earned Bowie $55 million, which he used to buy back songs owned by his former manager.

Maybe a good idea on paper, but in March 2004, Moody’s Investors Service cut the Bowie Bonds to just one notch above junk. A spokesperson from the ratings agency … said the downgrade “was prompted by lower than expected revenues generated by the assets due to weakness in sales for recorded music,” according to The Telegraph.

The rating on the bonds may have changed, but some things will always remain the same.

Classic albums are — by definition — forever classic.

So let’s reaffirm the rating…

David Bowie — Hunky Dory

Progarchist Rating: ★★★★★

Natural Science: Rush and Evolutionary Biology

On By Time LordIn ProgarchyLeave a comment

I couldn’t resist quoting Rush in this book review that I did of Brendan Purcell’s From Big Bang to Big Mystery: Human Origins in the Light of Creation and Evolution (New York: New City Press, 2012):

For my part, after presenting the material of Chapter 9 (on Kierkegaard and how “we choose to choose”) in the third week of my seminar, I would enjoy citing Neil Peart’s lyrics for a famous Canadian musical ensemble: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice” (Rush, “Free Will,” Permanent Waves).

Marillion: A Sunday Night Above the Rain – Review

On By Gianna EIn progressive rock music1 Comment

When I think of Marillion, the first image that comes to mind is sincerity. It was the band’s sincerity that grabbed me the first time I heard “Afraid of Sunlight,” a nearly 7-minute story of celebrity and self-destruction that nonetheless ends with an invocation to hope, and again when I stood in the audience at the band’s weekend convention in Montreal last year. Lead singer Steve Hogarth likes to introduce the autobiographical “This Strange Engine” with the claim that the song is “perfectly true” – a sentiment that in fact captures all of what Marillion does and is. 

ImageThis is where the band’s latest live release, A Sunday Night Above The Rain, succeeds – it reveals the sincerity that has come to define Marillion. The live release is the band’s third installment from the 2013 “Weekends” in Holland, England, and Canada, and features Sunday night performances recorded at both Montreal’s Theatre L’Olympia and Centre Parcs, Port Zelande. The band performs their 2012 studio album, Sounds That Can’t Be Made, in its entirety, interspersing the more recent tracks with other songs from their 30+ year catalog. From the opening 17-minute prog epic, “Gaza” it’s clear that the audience is in for something special. When Hogarth cries “it just ain’t right” for the children of Gaza, you believe him. As the band moves into “Montreal,” you can’t help but note their admiration and appreciation for the city and its fans. And when they reach “Neverland,” a highlight of every Marillion show, the mood in the room borders on transcendent.  

The setlist showcases the band’s unique reimagining of prog music, weaving narratives and odd time signatures with contemporary rock elements in “Power,” Beatles-esque riffs in “Lucky Man,” and soaring, melodic guitar solos in “The Sky Above the Rain.” The lights and screen projections succeed in creating an atmosphere and story appropriate to each song, but also to the whole of the experience, elevating fans “above the clouds” if only for a few hours. When the camera pans to the audience, expressions range from joyful to dumbstruck. And the band themselves, having seen this in one form or another for more than 30 years, nonetheless seem genuinely surprised by it all. Every time.  

A Sunday Night Above The Rain brings those 30 years into a pitch-perfect two and a half hour distillation. From the abject power of “Gaza” to the tongue-in-cheek-I-forgot-the-lyrics-again “Garden Party,” any fool can see the bond that has grown between the band and its fans. And watching the show unfold, it is easy to see why.      

Craig Breaden: Progger and Mountain Surfer

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Just in case you ever wondered what the editors of Progarchy did before Progarchy (or, even the internet!) existed, here is a rare glimpse into the early life of editor Craig Breaden.  Taken in the Rockies, somewhere near the Utah-Idaho-Wyoming border.  Ca. 1991.  Photo by yours truly–BB, ed.

craig surfing

Sending Our Love to The Reasoning

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

In my recent attempt (scattered–some with a three- and a five-year old happily crawling all over me as I typed–and completed too hastily) to improve the progarchy website, I neglected to list one of my all-time favorite bands, an essential element of third-wave prog, THE REASONING.  To Matt and Rachel, my sincere apologies.  The love continueth from this side of the Atlantic!

Here’s to brilliant Welsh Prog!!!

the reasoning plus progarchy.001

Interactive Album Cover Art: The Next Evolutionary Stage

On By Time LordIn ProgarchyLeave a comment

The power-pop geniuses known as The New Pornographers have a new album, “Brill Bruisers,” coming out in August. You can pre-order and download the first track.

On their web site, they have an interactive version of the nifty album cover art. It’s a fantastic experience and it makes me think that this is the future of the album cover.

While this brilliant band hearkens back to the good old days, especially with their plans to release a paint-splattered vinyl version of the new album (also with a 3D poster and 3D glasses), I do think that perhaps we have a glimpse here of where tablets could take us for the album cover future.

Don’t you think the vinyl aficionados amongst us would pay for a tablet that is the shape of an album cover?

And what about when the technology permits us to have flexible and foldable screens? We could then have some wonderful gatefold-style simulations of the classic album experience in the future!

The album cover lives. And the new tech is simply taking us to the next evolutionary stage.

The Punctuated Funk of Norway’s Karisma Records

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock music1 Comment

Looking for a new, interesting label?  

You get the serious funk just looking at this logo
You get the serious funk just looking at this logo

We’ve spent so much time chasing down Kscope over the past five years that some other labels might have gotten too little attention.  Kscope has certainly been distracting for us, serving as a kind of Pixar to the prog and post-prog world.

Here’s one that definitely demands watching.  And, demands because it’s going to be an interesting ride with them.

At a time during which the major, big player, colossal labels of the last three decades are crumbling under the weight of radio formatting changes and imploding because of the extreme decentralization of the market–due to the release and outreach of the work and through the fundamentally democratic ethos of the internet–it’s great to see some new innovative and entrepreneurial labels realizing and offering the positions of ombudsman, muse, and midwife.  Kscope has that in spades.

This label I want to introduce to you now, has it well–again–in spades.  This one is Karisma Records.  Good solid, interesting, innovating lyrics and intense music.  Prog, psychedelic, bass-blues, funk, real funk, funkadelic., nineteenth-century folk instruments . . it’s fusing and combining in ways you might not be expecting.

Dang, does it work.

Karisma seems likely to be the next big label, ready to step in where the old have failed to adapt to such a fundamentally altered marketscape.

If you have time for nothing else at the moment, please set your browser to stun and at least visit the magical and mythic snow world of Norway: http://www.karismarecords.no/

Even the website makes my brain swirl with Pink Panther-like effects.

[Updated, June 16, 2014: fixed ca. 10 typos]

 

POSTAL ADDRESS:

Karisma &
Dark Essence Records AS
Postboks 472
5805 Bergen
Norway

PRESS, GENERAL CONTACT

Tel: +47 95 74 92 19 (Martin)
post(a)karismarecords.no

DISTRIBUTION, WHOLESALE, SHIPPING

Tel: +47 922 66 316 (Bjørnar)

FINANCE / ACCOUNTING / CONTRACTS

+47 412 11 208 (Kristine)
kristine(a)karismarecords.no

Video: Glass Hammer Live

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

American genius.  Susie looks like she’s having a blast.

Charity Auction: Drumhead from Neil’s First Kit at $1,026

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

rvkeeper's avatarrush vault

tom-headThe bidding on one of Neil’s original Slingerland 12″ concert tom drumheads has surpassed $1,000 with three days remaining in a charity auction.

DrumsforCures is using the auction to raise money for people with cancer and their support network. The organization hosts Drumstrong events, which are rhythm and arts festivals that raise money for cancer education, research, and survivorship help.

slingerlandNeil played the Slingerland in his early years with Rush and the drumhead was part of that set. “Up for auction [is] a very rare historical piece of music memorabilia for any Rush fan or collector,” the auction description says. “An original 12” concert tom drum head that was mounted on Neil Peart’s first drum kit with Rush (1974 chrome Slingerland). This head was used during “All the World’s a Stage” tour and was later signed by Neil Peart himself on 9/26/2010. A Certificate of Authenticity will also be provided.” 

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