James Marsh Talk Talks

On By Thaddeus WertIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Over at Album Cover Hall of Fame is an excellent interview with James Marsh, the artist responsible for all of Talk Talk’s album covers. He provides some fascinating background on how each cover was chosen for Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock, and After the Flood.

Here’s a sample:

“When asked to consider producing a cover for SOE, I recall being consciously aware of permeating undertones from the natural world that were somehow imbued on the album, as far as I had heard on the sample tracks, so it seemed quite apt for me to suggest something containing naturalistic imagery. I produced some visuals to discuss at the next meeting, along-side showing Keith a selection of transparencies of my personal, unpublished work, a painting titled “Fruit Tree” being one of them. It was a simple case of him saying “Oh, I like that image, I’d like to show it to the band”, or words to that effect, which he promptly did and shortly afterwards a unanimous decision was taken to use it.”

Great Moments in Prog — Part 3

On By Time LordIn Progarchy1 Comment

 

Temple blocks! Cowbells! OK, citizens, let’s go exit stage left (see video below), for “The Trees”… where things really get interesting at 1:46; the tension starts to build at 2:24; and — whoa! — now, here we go at 2:52! Alex’s amazingly effective solo starts at 3:08. And then, one of my favorite “great moments in prog” happens from 3:25 to 3:54.

The rest of the song is appropriate election commentary.

Peart fans: check out the drum part analysis starting on p.43 of Neil Peart: Taking Center Stage – A Lifetime of Live Performance Book. And this book has all the info you need in order to build your own replica of the drum kit used in the song!

Stabbing That Dead Horse a Second Time!

On By bradbirzerIn Progarchy2 Comments
Thanks to The Chaos Engineers (at least we hope they don’t mind that we use this photo)

[N.B.  I asked my friend, Ian, to write this up.  He told me that he wasn’t “really a writer, but that he’d give it a go.”  As you can readily see, Ian is a spirited writer!  And, I’m very proud to have him among this group of insane progarchists.  And, for attentive readers, you know that we’ve posted another review of the tour here.  Thanks to Ian and Nick for such excellent insights.  And, yes, Matt Stevens, we obviously really love you.]

 

The Lexington, London Friday 2nd November 2012

I had never been to the Lexington before. 5 minutes walk from the centre of Islington, The Lexington is a bustling pub down the Pentonville Road. Downstairs is a pleasingly traditional bar selling an impressive selection of real ales and lagers, including some from the USA (Sierra Nevada Torpedo 7.3%!!!). Upstairs is a large room converted into a small music venue with a raised bar area looking down on a standing area and stage.

This was the last leg of the brief UK Tour featuring Trojan Horse, The Fierce and the Dead and headliners Knifeworld. Sponsored by Prog magazine but effectively funded by the bands themselves, the tour had reached as far north as Glasgow but was finishing in the home town of members of TFATD and Knifeworld.

Pigshackle

To warm proceedings up, local 4 piece band Pigshackle, who have been around for 8-10 years, took to the stage. They treated us to a blend of dissonant, experimental music and, metal (in all its various guises) with an obvious King Crimson influence (which the band themselves quite happily admit).

One of my friends said they initially reminded him of free jazz group Last Exit (Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock etc) although he later retracted this, pointing out that Last Exit make a free form unstructured ‘noise’ whereas Pigshackle play a tightly disciplined ‘noise’. The set appeared to consist of one long track lasting about 30 minutes although as I discovered afterwards talking to the band, they, in fact, had played 4 tracks. The music was punctuated with occasional growling, shouting and screaming, some in death metal mode; discordant saxophone and frequent key and time signature changes for the lead guitarist, whose array of effects pedals was reminiscent of NASA Mission Control. Obviously skilled musicians, Pigshackle were tight and disciplined. The sound quality excellent with an emphasis on LOUD, so loud at times it was seriously chest-filling. The music pushes the boundaries and is challenging, at times gloomy with very few uplifting melodies but its worth having a listen to. Check out their recent album Unplug the Sun on Bandcamp.

Trojan Horse

Hailing from Salford, this 4 piece band, with their checked shirts and beards and looking like hillbillies from the Appalachians, conjured up music in my mind that would follow a similar path, i.e. with instruments including fiddle, harmonica and Jew’s harp. I was very wrong. Their website claims they have brought Yes, King Crimson and Tull ‘…kicking and screaming through the subsequent decades…’. So I was intrigued… Unfortunately things started badly with an amp being blown causing a hiatus lasting about 10 minutes with the other members of the band ‘filling in’ while the keyboard player franticly tried to get his keyboard working. Amusing banter from the band maintained a good atmosphere while the technical gremlins were sorted out but it obviously affected  their set.

Personally I find it difficult to define their music as Prog, well certainly not in the traditional sense. The opener ‘Fire’ from their recent EP sounded more reminiscent of classic indie-punk and at about 2 minutes long was the right length for this genre (pronk, prunk?). However the rest of the set was energetic and intelligent music, at times heavy, with even a touch of ‘funk’. A special mention for a bravura performance from the bass player (great posturing!). Check them out.

The Fierce and the Dead

Next up was Matt Steven’s (relatively) new vehicle, TFATD, a 4 piece band playing purely instrumental music. Matt is a gifted guitarist, totally in control of his instrument but like all the bands on view during the evening, all the band members were exceptional. TFATD have recently released a new EP ‘On VHS’ following their unusually titled album from 2011 ‘If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe’. Well, if it carries on like this they should achieve the recognition they deserve and be playing bigger venues than Morecambe (for the benefit of non-UK readers, Morecambe is a rather old-fashioned seaside resort in the north of England). The music is held together by strong bass-lines and very energetic drumming and is characterised by simple, ‘catchy’ melodies and riffs. At times Mogwai-esqe without the multi-layered guitars, the music was both heavy and light and I would say they occupy the post-rock side of the ‘Prog spectrum’. Played with plenty of creativity and enthusiasm the set finished far too quickly for my liking. Excellent stuff.

Knifeworld

By the time Knifeworld took the stage the venue was almost full and there was an atmosphere of heightened expectancy… could they add the icing to the cake? Led by Kavus Torabi, known for his work with the Cardiacs, I’ve read that this is experimental, psychedelic, art-rock. An 8 piece band including saxophone(s), bassoon(!) and multiple backing singers. Torabi is a natural ‘rock star’, full of charisma, with his witty, intelligent remarks going down well with the crowd.  He is also an exceptionally gifted songwriter and guitarist. My first impression that the music was going to be different was the look in Kavus’s eyes that to me indicated a likeable form of mild insanity. The complexity of the arrangements were superbly handled on a crowded stage with a small PA system. It’s difficult to categorise or describe the music as it’s, in a sense, ‘genre-less’. The music is involving and journey-like, twisting and turning in different directions. The encore, a song from the new EP, ended up with the members of all four bands singing along which was a nice touch, as was Kavus’s dedication to Cardiacs front man Tim Smith. Highly recommended.

This gig attracted some peer group interest as spotted in the crowd were a number of prog ‘celebrities’ – Sel Balamir of Amplifier and John Mitchell of It Bites/Frost/Kino amongst them. Also enjoying the music was Steve Davis, snooker legend, long-time prog-rock fan and now radio presenter.

Overall what impressed me with this gig was not just the superb musicianship, variety, complexity and originality of the music but the real enthusiasm shown by all the bands. It’s great to see bands enjoying themselves, interacting with the audience and helping each other out (fixing technical problems,videoing each other and joining each other on stage). This attitude is infectious and creates a great atmosphere.

With bands like this around the state of modern prog is in good hands.

—Ian Greatorex is a 50 yr old accountant with more time on his hands now both his children are (sort of) adults. He has a love for all types of music from classical through jazz to heavy rock and metal. 

These Birds Have Flown

On By Pete BlumIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Remembering:  Mahavishnu Orchestra, Birds of Fire (1973)

One of THE touchstones for the merging of jazz and rock sensibilities in the 1970’s.  Birds of Fire arguably brought the jazz impulses of the players closer to the hearts of rock fans than had their prior album (The Inner Mounting Flame), by capitalizing explicitly on a short song format for maximization of intensity and impact.  Yet within that more restrained format, John McLaughlin’s range, in both composition and performance, insistently burns with its trademark spiritual glow.

And “that album cover”!  (See my prior post on this topic.)  The flame is there, and its center burns white-hot, but its presence on that cover has an uncanny subtlety and softness.  It’s a flame to which we are invited; it beckons quietly into the not-so-quiet world of sound within.  I remember the impulse to hug the album to my chest, hoping to fly with those birds, while realizing once I heard the music that in doing so, I would have burned my hands.  When I listen now, I still feel the heat.

But the album also never loses sight of the implied silence that sound transgresses, or of the darkness without which the glow of the fire could not be made manifest.  Sri Chinmoy’s poem seeks to capture the passage:

No more my heart shall sob or grieve.
My days and nights dissolve in God’s own Light.
Above the toil of life my soul
Is a Bird of Fire winging the Infinite.

These birds have flown.  Listen, and they might fly again.  Isn’t it good?

Approaching Olympus: Ave, Aryeon!

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized8 Comments

What would happen if Led Zeppelin and Queen joined forces to write not just a soundtrack but a full-fledged movie with a story told in the grand tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984, or, the best of all, Walter Miller’s Canticle of Leibowitz?  Maybe Vernor Vinge might contribute as well.  Or, what if all five authors came together to produce one absolutely huge science-fiction story dealing with life, death, amusement, boredom, hypocrisy, statism, ideology, eco-destruction, godlessness, and every other issue that really matters but which we more often than not find convenient to ignore?

And, what might happen if you found Ridley Scott or Chris Nolan or Alex Proyas to direct?

Maybe you could throw some elements of The Island or Dark City or Equilibrium or Brazil into the film?  The serious issues raised by the first, the film noir of the second, the violent intensity of the third, and the dark humor of the fourth.

And, maybe you might be able to get the man who made replicants feel so very, very real to lead this surreal dark descent into an ideological and inhumane dystopia (it’s worth remembering that when Plato used the Greek word, “utopia,” he chose the word because it meant “no where”)?

And, what if instead of Led Zeppelin and Queen you found a man who could not only write compelling space operas but who also had the courage to state some really uncomfortable truths about the post-modern world and where we might, as a species, be headed?  And. . . who could also sing well and seemingly play very well every instrument known to the rock world?

And not just well, but really, really, really well?

If you could bring all of these disparate things together, you might find at the center of this eccentric collection one of the most interesting and original science-fiction story tellers of our day, a perfectionist by the name of Arjen Anthony Lucassen.  Or, as he playfully puts it in the liner notes: “Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Arjen ‘I’m not a control freak’ Lucassen at the Electric Castle.”  Oh, I like this man, and I’ve never had the grand privilege of meeting him.

And, you might find that all of his previous work–with the prog operas of Ayreon, the theatric romance of Ambeon, the prog metal of Star One, and the driving Goth prog of Guilt Machine–led to this most recent story, “Lost in the New Real.”

Lucassen has created a prog and science-fiction masterpiece with this brand new release.  Every thing is perfect–the story, the lyrics, the narration (by Rutger Hauer, of Blade Runner fame), and even the CD booklet.  Every thing.  Perfect.

And, what an over-the-top bombast of thought–all connected, all meaningful–a trip through so many emotions and realizations.  A blast, to be sure.

In his video promo for the album, Lucassen states the “Lost in New Real” is a culmination of every thing he’s done before in terms of musical styles: a mixture of psychedelic, of prog, of power pop, and of metal.  But, the story is so compelling and immersive and the types of music so appropriate to each respective part of the story, all feels like one centric whole, no matter the style changes.

With Hauer’s narration and Lucassen’s flawless delivery, I happily journeyed down this rabbit hole.

The story revolves around a Mr. L, revived in the future and guided by an omnipresent “hardheaded shrink” (Rutger Hauer) to help this man of the past adjust to the future.

The future, known as “The New Real,” hasn’t worked out too well.  For one thing, their history is totally off: Ronald Reagan won numerous Oscars; the Rolling Stones never touched drugs; and Madonna was actually a virgin.

At some point in the not so distant past of this future, Yellowstone blew, spewing toxic fumes around the world.  Now all that remains of western North America is, presumably, a plaque to commemorate “Yellowstone Memorial Day,” the day that the human race finally learned that Mother Nature ultimately always trumps technology.

The e-police (a wonderful play on Cheap Trick’s famous song of yesteryear) watch over every thing and privacy is a thing long forgotten.  Humans live to 164 and find life incredibly boring.  Thankfully, though, Dr. Slumber will happily euthanize you into the next world, complete with pretty nurses and bouncy Beatle-like music.

Most interestingly, though, the government has instituted a “Parental Procreation” policy, and parents must submit official forms to the state for approval to bring children into the world.  (I can guarantee the reader that should Mr. Lucassen’s vision ever become reality, your current reviewer and his family would be in serious trouble.)

In the end, Mr. L cannot determine if he’s human anymore or if he has become mechanized beyond recognition.  “I’m alive . . . But in a dream.  Am I only. . .a machine?”  Whatever Mr. L’s fate, the story ends with his despair.  Even the narrator seems to have given up after giving a bit of a tricksterish chuckle.

Ok, so let’s bring in not just Bradbury, Huxley, and Orwell (who appears in the story–he “was hot!”) but also every important critic of modernity, postmodernity, and extreme glorification of technology: from Romano Guardini to Russell Kirk to Marshall McLuhan.  All of this can be found in this magical mystery tour through the whirligig of our post-modern abyss.

But, it’s not over.  Disk Two (yes, Lucassen seems constitutionally incapable of doing any thing only partially) is full of really interesting covers (Pink Floyd (an absolutely stunning metal cover of “Welcome to the Machine”), Led Zeppelin, Alan Parsons, and Frank Zappa) as well as glorious original tunes–vignettes, if you will–of the world of the “New Real.”  After exploring the essential questions of our humanity on Disk One, Lucassen asks the larger existential questions respecting the universe.  The most intriguing question he asks (“Our Imperfect Race” and “So Is There No God?”): would it be better for aliens to exist or not?  Wouldn’t it actually be the more horrible of the two possibilities if all of existence and life and purpose really did rest on us–and us alone–in the entirety of existence, time, and space?

As I stated earlier, this two-disk affair is one seamless, intelligent, and mischievous blast of sound and ideas.  As many times as I’ve listened to it already, I can’t stop smiling.  Every line, every transition just makes me thankful such a thing as this exists.

I’ve enjoyed every thing Lucassen has done over the past fifteen years, though he’s often much heavier in his music than I would have thought I would have liked–I being a Big Big Train, Talk Talk, Genesis, Marillion, Tin Spirits, Gazpacho, Matt Stevens kind of guy.  (Still, I’m a huge Rush, The Reasoning, Riverside, and Oceansize fan–so maybe there’s more heaviness in my tastes than I often think).

But, I like every thing Lucassen has accomplished, and I’m certainly not alone.  There’s a strong following behind Lucassen, and, I assume, it will grow only much wider and much deeper with this latest album.  He is a man willing to take any number of chances, and, thus far, the deities of prog have been faithful to him.

With “Lost in the New Real,” Lucassen approaches as closely to Olympus as the gods will allow.  Ave!

 

[A slightly different version of this appeared on my personal blog this past summer–ed.]

Kings and Thieves / Geoff Tate – Review

On By Craig BreadenIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Kings and Thieves / Geoff Tate – Review

(Insideout Records, available Tuesday, November 6, 2012)

Received wisdom from the now far-distant era of grunge has things playing out thus: hair metal, riding high through the 80s in various forms, from NWOBHM to G’n’R, was coffin-ed by Nirvana and their Seattle brethren, who brought the music back to rock basics in 1991 with a DIY ethic and no-frills aesthetic.  But like a lot of stories that have been settled on for historical convenience, the Grunge-Killed-the-Metal-Star fable is over-weighted by victim and victor alike.  Hair metal had been killing itself slowly starting about the time of Aerosmith’s remarkable reinvention as an AOR band, blazing a suspect trail based on power balladry that had a lot of us ready to impale ourselves on our air guitars.  Add to this that grunge, if not so-called, had been healthy and growing for years in bands like Husker Du and Pixies.

I think if grunge, as made popular by Nirvana’s pop nugget Nevermind, did anything for metal it was to make it healthier in the long run, and Geoff Tate’s album, which is a solid rock record, is a good case in point.  I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about him, as my familiarity with his band Queensryche pretty much begins and ends with “Silent Lucidity” — one of the aforementioned power ballads that chased me, screaming, to the edges of mainstream metal in the late 80s — but I’m impressed with this record, and have probably missed out on more than I’d like to admit.  Technically gifted vocalists like Tate have a natural advantage in hard rock, where the bar can sometimes be very high (Paul Rodgers, Rob Halford, David Coverdale, Chris Cornell, Ronnie James Dio), and with a good lyric and a good riff can continue to make great records for years.

That’s certainly the case with Kings and Thieves’ opener, “She Slipped Away,” complete with a classic rocking opening progression reminiscent of the Eagles’ “Chug All Night,” an anthemic chorus, really nice guitar soloing, and a well worn, but true, take on relationships and highways.  Here and in other tracks (“In the Dirt,” particularly) I’m also struck by a real Peter Murphy-ish sound, part of which is Tate’s vocal tone, but also in the song structures, which want to tend toward pop even as they’re definitely coming out of metal (in Murphy’s case, goth).  It’s as if there’s a desire for rebirth or newness, and even when this fails, as it does in the playa’ attempt of “The Way I Roll” (the man’s no Eminem or Kid Rock, and he shouldn’t feel he needs to be) I have to admire that he’s going after it.

The low-end grind of “Take a Bullet” and “In the Dirt” makes for awesome, straight-up hard rock perfect for the open highway.  Tate knows how to make his voice match a lyric and a lick, and carries it off even when he’s lyrically pushing things a bit (“She’s got moves like I’ve never seen, rides me hard like an exercise machine” … really? Smell the Glove, anyone?).  This record is like all those hard rock albums that came out on the various Columbia subsidiaries of the 70s — it’s like a Nugent record, where you’d get a handful of duff tracks but the rest rocks out enough to make you want to flash the horns, and between it and the next record you’d get enough great tracks for your one-band mixtape.

For those wanting a return to 80s power glory, look no further than “Tomorrow,” with its Kashmir-ish break and vocal choruses of “Tomorrow starts today…sometimes love is not enough….”  This is a bow to fans from back in the day, but Tate can really pull it off, convincingly and refreshingly.  Kashmir, interestingly, is referenced again in the next song, as “Evil” recycles another part of that indefatigable Zep riff, but it’s hard to care, because Tate really brings it to the mic.  “Dark Money,” with its stab at privilege and eco-political power, is an odd moment, not terribly well-matched by the absolute rock star howl that Tate can whip up (kind of like if Ian Gillan led Deep Purple through a ditty about the gas crisis of the 1970s).  “Glory Days” may suffer from the same problem, but again, is buoyed by Tate’s delivery and a crack band, which is really together throughout the album.  It’s a guitars and drums forward record, live sounding, with a rumbling bass lending metal grind to the tunes.  Pianos and synths illuminate when necessary, and keep me thinking, this is a really tastefully produced rock record that fans of classic Queensryche and hard rock in the new millenium can enjoy.

The last two tracks, “Change” and “Waiting,” make well-chosen closers, bringing it down a bit, showing how Tate and company influenced the metal side of grunge (Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains would be at home here), and making me appreciate how much classic metal and hard rock really benefited from the shifts that happened a generation ago.

Craig Breaden, November 2012

Gig Review: Stabbing a Dead Horse, 30 October 2012

On By Dr NickIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Last Tuesday evening, I took a short walk from my place of work to the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, that night’s venue for the Stabbing a Dead Horse tour. This unnerving title derives from the names of the tour’s participants: Trojan Horse, The Fierce & The Dead and Knifeworld. All three bands are leading lights of a vibrant ‘modern progressive’ movement here in the UK.

Trojan Horse opened proceedings with a cover of Neil Young’s Ohio before attacking their own material – four songs in total – with gusto. From the short and sweet staccato prog-punk of Fire from their latest EP through to the brooding 8-minute epic Mr Engels Says from their eponymous debut album, this was powerful, uncompromising stuff, played with an infectious manic energy by the Salford-based four-piece. I was particularly taken by the jerking and pirouetting of Lawrence Duke, who wielded his bass guitar as if it were an untamed beast, and by the mad dash of brother Eden through the audience during Mr Engels Says, as he attempted single-handedly to get us all singing the “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum” lyric.

Then it was time for The Fierce & The Dead, who treated us to a masterclass in instrumental music drawn from their recent EP On VHS and from debut album If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe, with a new piece called Arc (Ark?) as a bonus. There is something very special about the aural landscapes created by this band. On the face of it, their sound is very sparse and modern, and yet somehow the solid groove created by Stu Marshall’s drums and Kev Feazey’s powerful bass combines with the hypnotic interplay of Steve Cleaton’s and Matt Stevens’ guitars to conjure beguilingly rich, intricate and expansive music. There was complete commitment on display here, and real showmanship, too – albeit of a less demonstrative kind than that of Trojan Horse. It was clear from TFATD’s interactions with the audience that they were having a blast, despite the low turn-out.

Headliners Knifeworld, performing as an eight-piece ensemble, brought the evening to a suitably exciting conclusion with a set drawing heavily on the terrific 2009 album Buried Alone: Tales Of Crushing Defeat and recent EP Clairvoyant Fortnight. It also featured an excellent new song, whose name I unfortunately didn’t catch.

Saxophones are relatively commonplace, but I’d hazard a guess that you don’t often see a rock band performing on stage with a bassoon. It’s a powerful symbol of just how unique Knifeworld are in their approach. I find it difficult to articulate just why I find them so interesting, but the fact that they are so gloriously unpredictable must have something to do with it. You never quite know where they are going with a song; heavy riffing can give way to a blast of Mellotron, then delicate vocal harmonies, then glockenspiel and sax, before guitar takes the reins again. A typical piece will feature unusual chord progressions and time signature changes galore. Any band trying to stuff that many ideas into a four- or five-minute tune is treading a fine line, but Knifeworld usually manage to stay the right side of it, leaving you exhilarated rather than exhausted.

The final verdict? A truly excellent night’s entertainment, and outstanding value for money at only £7 for the ticket. The only disappointment was that so few had shown up. I can only hope that the poor attendance doesn’t dissuade any of these bands from coming back to Leeds at some point in the future.

Tales of the Edge

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized3 Comments

by Alison Henderson

Tucked away along the endless leafy lanes of south east England lies a little prog oasis not many people know about. The elegant Grade II Listed façade of the period home of Trading Boundaries in deepest East Sussex gives away no clues that it is currently the location of an exhibition of probably the most famous prog artist in the world who has been joined in the celebrations this weekend by a special “old friend” of his.

The name Roger Dean is synonymous with the iconic album covers of chiefly Yes, but also other great prog rock bands such as Asia, Uriah Heep, Greenslade and now the legendary Dutch band, Focus.

Yet Dean considers himself to be nothing more than a landscape artist. That is some diminution of his role in creating the entire backdrop for a generation of prog rock lovers and perhaps being a huge influence on a very successful contemporary film but that is another story.

Living close by in the Ashdown Forest area of East Sussex, this is the third time Roger has exhibited his vast collection of work at Trading Boundaries.  And here in this shopping emporium among imported Indian wooden cabinets and wardrobes, soft furnishings and desirable trinkets are currently hung some of the most iconic examples of his work.

So around every corner currently, there is another Roger Dean masterpiece to lose yourself in ranging from the huge swirling blue inner landscape he developed for Rick Wakeman’s Return to the Centre of the Earth to the intensely intricate design for Asia’s Alpha which the artist explains brought out his inherent skills as a draughtsman.

There are also the suites of logos for Yes, including the more recent dragonfly designs, and for Asia, both of which demonstrate how important it is for a band to have its own identifiable branding especially when so beautifully conceived and crafted by Dean.

Of all the works, it is the cover of Tales From Topographic  Oceans which still draws the eye the most. That whole universe captured in one panorama throws up so many visual questions. Is it all meant to be beneath the sea – hence fish – or how can it be when there is a waterfall running through it – and what about the distant pyramid and the blueness of the heavens above? Like the contents of the album, the image is a mystery, a conundrum and above all else, a journey.

Oh yes, and did I mention earlier on that an old friend joined him? That would have been one and only Mr Wakeman who has supported him both evenings this weekend in Trading Boundaries’ intimate and atmospheric Elephant Cafė, (Carl Palmer, John Wetton and Steve Hackett have also played there recently), to reflect and reminisce on the past as well as contributing  three musical interludes.

Well, the stories and laughs flowed thick and fast, most of them worthy of a separate post once I have deciphered the shorthand hieroglyphics  I took down at speed in virtual darkness, so allow me some time to translate and share them with you some other time.

However, I can tell you this. Despite christening it Toby’s Graphic Go-Kart, Rick rates TFTO is his favourite Yes album cover whereas the artist has gone for Relayer which he said looks as though it has been painted “with dirty water”.

Also, the first time Roger showed the band an example of his work to use, Rick was admiring it and said how nice it was until the artist told him he was holding it upside down.

What came over loud and clear however was the tremendous mutual admiration and respect between the pair throughout this impromptu chat, conducted on a couple of easy chairs with the emporium’s dog occasionally wandering onto the stage and stealing the show.

And yes, Rick played – though only just when he was presented with the resident “school” piano, which in his own inimitable way, made it sound like a Steinway.

To a backdrop of even more of Roger Dean’s incomparable works, Rick played “And You And I” using some of the original chord sequences. Well, need I tell you how absolutely sublime it sounded and still as hypnotic as the version which we all now have in our collections. Then he just made us all melt with The Meeting, that gorgeous prog hymn from Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe (ABWH). Rick explained he and Jon had been at George Martin’s studio in Monserrat before the volcanic eruption where they recorded the album. Both liked the idea of trying to create instant music so the melody line was what they came up with and the very first take was what appeared on the album. He made it all sound so simple, of course.

Finally, to end on a more light-hearted note, he decided to play The Nursery Rhyme Concerto using the style of the great composers such as Mozart for Baa Baa Black Sheep and Ravel’s Hickory Dickory Dock.  British readers will be particularly interested to learn that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was performed in the style of Dawson, Les Dawson. Note to American readers, Google Les Dawson piano – you’ll get the general idea!

Well, that was certainly an evening you never imagined would happen. And it does not end there either.  As part of the exhibition events, both top tribute band Yessongs Italy and also Focus will be playing live there in the next three weeks. What a wonderful way to celebrate a man who drew on his own unique imagination to inspire ours and also that of the music which shaped our lives.

For more information, go to: http://online.tradingboundaries.com/rdex2012

 

 

 

Storm Corrosion – Review

On By Craig BreadenIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Review – Storm Corrosion (Roadrunner Records, 2012)

Mikael Akerfeldt is right, with a few qualifications.  On the website for the new Storm Corrosion album, a collaboration between Opeth frontman Akerfeldt and psych/prog stalwart Steven Wilson, Akerfeldt says, “It’s a demanding record. If you’re doing other shit as you listen to it, it’s going to pass by like elevator muzak. You really have to sit down and pay attention! If you allow it to sink in, it could be a life companion.”  Any fan of Opeth or Wilson (No-Man, Porcupine Tree) will be looking for reasons to like this album, but also hoping that it achieves a distinctiveness apart from previous projects.  And this is problematic, because Akerfeldt and Wilson have been collaborating since 2001, when Wilson produced Opeth’s fifth album, the landmark Blackwater Park, a layered, dense, progressive version of death metal (or death metal version of progressive rock).  Take a moment (okay, 9+ minutes — nothing about any of this music is succinct, nor, really, should it be) and check out Bleak from Blackwater Park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8atiEPs0bQ

Wilson and Opeth, which around this time Akerfeldt began to make his own (at least from a fan’s perspective), really hit their stride with the dual albums Damnation and Deliverance.  Where Deliverance followed up on the electric, distorted heaviness of Blackwater Park, and utilized to great effect Akerfeldt’s signature take on the growled vocal delivery common in death and black metal, Damnation was the mindblower, indebted I think fairly heavily to the work Wilson was doing with No-Man.  It was a heavy album where the acoustic and electric guitars (Akerfeldt and fellow Opeth guitarist Peter Lindgren used Paul Reed Smith electrics, an important aesthetic and tonal detail that set them apart in their genre) are stripped of their distorted treatments, Akerfeldt’s beautiful straight-ahead vocal delivery is featured across the album, and the songs are minor-key, droney, melancholic, but melodic and dynamically arranged.  It’s heaviness comes from its complete approach, rather than its sonics alone, and for this it’s an incredible achievement.  To get the full effect of this record (and its companion Deliverance), you really need to check out the marvelous Lamentations DVD, which captures Opeth at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2003 (and, bonus, shows them working in the studio with Wilson). Here’s an amped version of Closure, originally on the Damnation album, from Lamentations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hodPV0XglVg

It is Damnation, and perhaps No-Man’s Returning Jesus (with its Talk Talk influences, something Storm Corrosion’s creators have also explicitly mentioned), that Storm Corrosion most closely resembles in character, it’s low-key, meditational approach standing outside the typical Opeth or Porcupine Tree record, but demonstrating the restlessness that underlies both Akerfeldt’s and Wilson’s work.  The record begins with “Drag Ropes,” which sets the tone:  fingerpicked guitars, minor-key arpeggios, strings and woodwinds, and cinematic snippets of lyric in service to the tune.

(The video for “Drag Ropes” is a darkly gothic theme — not unexpected, given the death metal connections I suppose — leavened and made creepier by animator Jess Cope, whose take on the song’s stripped-down lyrics is a story in itself, and is nothing like what my mind conjures as I hear the song.  See her take on it here: http://jesscopeanimation.tumblr.com/dragropes.  I like this because these songs are of a type best finished by the listener.)

I am reminded of Deep Purple’s lofty Concerto for Group and Orchestra, which I always rather liked (and I think Akerfeldt must have too, as the cover art of that record was duped for Opeth’s In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall).  The orchestra/group approach has come full flower here, but with far greater and personal effect, and the album’s title track is also redolent of that particular period of British rock’s embrace of the orchestra, this time a fair and beautiful reminder of Ray Thomas’s flute work for prime era Moody Blues.  The flute is replaced in the second half of the song by a vocal line that speaks to the vox-ness of this record.  Both Wilson and Akerfeldt are capable of affecting, fragile vocalizations, sometimes bordering on too delicate, an irony given Akerfeldt’s former Opethian growlings.  “Hag,” the third track, demonstrates the necessity of the softer vocal timbres in this record, while also reminding me most of Damnation, with its dramatic drum breaks and dynamic shifts.  These drums gave me a breathless pause.  They are low-fi, almost seemingly intentionally so.  Nothing these cats do is low-fi, and I searched my brain for a WHY until it lit upon a purchase:  it transported me to the drumming on Popol Vuh’s Letzte Tage Letzte Nachte.  Mikael Akerfeldt has claimed Popol Vuh as a major influence before, and explicitly in an interview regarding Storm Corrosion.  Not to stretch the point, but a good bit of this record has a Popol Vuh/krautrock thing happening, particularly the closing song, “Ljudet Innan,” a grand, drifting piece that opens with a jazz-ish vocal from Akerfeldt before some major drift that would be right at home on PV’s Affenstunde or Aguirre.  Getting there, we’re also treated to an instrumental piece, “Lock Howl,” that energizes us before the finale and reminds me why pacing is so important to an album, an LP relic often forgotten in the MP3 era.

I like this record and wish more like it were made today.  If Wilson and Akerfeldt were jazz musicians (which, from a musicianly point-of-view, they are), they would have just made this record 15 years ago, no big thing, then guested as leaders on each of their respective groups’ albums and collaborated every other year until they were 80.  That they’re associated with rock means they have to carry the weight of “supergroup” to any sort of collaboration like Storm Corrosion, which is something of a pity.  I don’t feel like this record is loaded with trying to live up to expectations, or an ego trip or anything else associated with supergroupness.  Beyond the whys and influences and connections this album has, if it were released anonymously, and I had no context to hang my thoughts on, I think I’d have the same reaction to it.  Yes, there is aural history here, a moogish mellotronish flutes’n’strings thing, but these are not derivative of 70s prog: they are necessary to the songs.  Storm Corrosion is a worthy achievement from two artists who have a significant history creating groundbreaking music, together and apart.  While the record has many touchstones, it is not the sum or product of a record collection, but an original and expressive statement of two consummate musician-composers who are rewarded by their ongoing collaboration.

Craig Breaden, November 2012

Thank you Insideout Music and Radiant Records

On By bradbirzerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

A huge thanks to Paul Gargano of Insideout Music for sending us a number of fantastic CDs for review.  And, an equally huge thanks to Chris Thompson and Radiant Records for the same.  Eager to review so much excellent stuff.  And, reviews there will be aplenty!

To any musicians, record labels, and book publishers, anything you’d like reviewed (and we want to review it!), please send hard copies to:

Brad Birzer/Progarchy

6 West Montgomery ST

Hillsdale MI 49242/USA

And please send links to music (any format) or pdfs to bradbirzer@gmail.com.

Again, a profound thanks to Paul and Chris.

–Brad (editor)