Excellent roundtable review of the new Beardfish, Void, at DPRP.
Threnodic Introspections in Neverland: The Reasoning
Call me a total nerd (and it would be true, for better or worse), but I experience a thrill every time I meet a new word. Hello new word, I’m Brad. Well, ok, I’m generally not quite this formal, especially with vocabulary.
With The Reasoning’s newest masterpiece, Adventures in Neverland, I had to look up the word, “Threnody.” A funeral dirge. For the previous EP, And Another Thing, I had to look up “Apophenia.” A false perception of patterns.
Nice.
From the first moments I can remember listening to Progressive Rock, I have always appreciated not only the intelligence and creativity espoused by the artists themselves, but I’ve also loved the ways in which prog artists demand a certain intelligence and creativity on the part of the listener.
If I’m going to spend any where from thirty minutes to 120 minutes listening to something, I want full immersion.
Every The Reasoning album is a full immersion into the wonderful and meaningful ream of art–by design and certainly without apology. “Here we are,” Matt, Rachel, and the gang seem to be proclaiming. “We’ve given you everything we have, and we very much hope you enjoy it as well. Regardless, we’re having a blast.”
And enjoy it I do, Matt and Rachel. Every album, every song, every time.
I first encountered their music in 2008 with the release of their second album, Dark Angel. No mediocre band would give themselves such a lofty name, I correctly assumed. I was equally intrigued by the title and cover of that album.
The cover itself is worth describing (and I’ll paste a picture of it here, I hope–please wordpress, please!). A gorgeous, leather-clad, barefooted, winged woman walks across black and white tile (my first thought is a chessboard) in the ruins of a castle or cathedral, with a full moon and ravens above her. A few planets hover in the background, as does a small glimpse of a renaissance village, and the floor decays as the angel moves forward, away from the village.
Since that moment four years ago, I’ve purchased everything The Reasoning has recorded in the studio, including their haunting cover of Duran Duran’s best song, “The Chauffeur.”
The first album, Awakening, appeared in 2006. Dark Angel came out in 2008, and the Duran Duran cover in 2009. In 2010, The Reasoning released Adverse Camber. This year, The Reasoning released the EP, And Another Thing, in the spring, and Adventures in Neverland just about a month ago. These guys are unstoppable. And, we’re all the better for it.
The newest album, Adventures in Neverland, lives up to every one of my very high expectations. From the opening moment–guitar, keyboards, and a countdown–until the last note, Adventures in Neverland drives and rocks. It is a truly great album. Superb in every way.
As it does move, it moves almost relentlessly, driving the listener toward the Apocalypse. Most of the music has been written by the bassist, Matt Cohen, and the lyrics have been penned by his wife, Rachel Cohen.
He’s clearly a perfectionist, one of the best bassists in rock, and a man driven. Rachel’s clearly a brilliant and poetic wordsmith, possessed of a voice equal to her imagination. I could listen to her sing me into the gates of heaven itself.
As with other The Reasoning releases, the cover of the new CD is inviting, if a bit ominous. It appears, visually, to be a sequel to Dark Angel. Rather than seeing the angel cross the ruins from inside of the ruins, the viewer sees the ruins (most likely) from a great distance, with birds still hovering but an omniscient eye overseeing it all, including what appears to be the Dark Angel atop the ruins themselves. Fading at each end, the title: “Adventures in Neverland” hangs at the bottom.
Every song on Adventures in Neverland is a gem:
1. HYPERDRIVE
2. THE OMEGA POINT
3. THE GLASS HALF
4. STOP THE CLOCK
5. OTHERWORLD
6. END OF DAYS
7. NO FRIEND OF MINE
8. THRENODY
9. FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH
10. ADVENTURES IN NEVERLAND
If you’re happy with this new wave of progressive rock (Brian Watson of DPRP fame called it the “third wave”), you’ll be especially happy with The Reasoning. For me, they’re an intimate part of the revival. They’re leading, and they’re leading very well.
Every reader of Progarchy should support The Reasoning. Here’s the official website (click here).
As a sidenote, I have also followed Matt Cohen (@thereasoning) on Twitter and Facebook for quite some time. The guy is absolutely hilarious, down to earth, and extremely talented. He also calls things as he sees them. In other words, he’s not just a great artist, he’s a real person.
The Rules
I always say that it’s about breaking the rules. But the secret of breaking rules in a way that works is understanding what the rules are in the first place.
— Rick Wakeman
Join Neal Morse’s Inner Circle for Free right now.
Excellent news from Radiant Record’s Chris Thompson. Join the Inner Circle for free and get the new Inner Circle release, Neal’s take on Flying Colors.
Click here!Happy Halloween (Santa vs. Frankinstein from Radiant Records)
Thank you Neal Morse and Radiant Records for some great music and some visual levity.
Frankincense
Who said it? “I was a nerdy shut-in who listened to prog-rock…”
Surprise, surprise, the lead of singer of Soundgarden (and Audioslave), in this April 2012 interview in Details magazine:
DETAILS: What were you like growing up?
Chris Cornell: Wild. And reclusive. Sometime between 12 and 14 I smoked PCP and had a real bad reaction. By the time I was high-school age, I didn’t want to do drugs anymore, so I went a couple years without having any friends. I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.DETAILS: And yet you became a frontman. Did playing music change you?
Chris Cornell: I was a nerdy shut-in who listened to prog-rock—and then I got on stage. Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We’re more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage. Nobody ever said a positive thing to me, ever, in my life, until they heard me play music.DETAILS: I bet it helped you meet girls, too.
Chris Cornell: Oh yeah. Initially I was a drummer, and I remember standing somewhere in public with a pair of drumsticks, and these cute girls came up and started talking to me. We hadn’t even played yet! It was actually uncomfortable. I thought, “Is that all I have to do? Just hold drumsticks?” It immediately made me not like the girls.
Ha! Gotta love the sense of slightly twisted humor. Cornell also has this to say about the state of rock music:
DETAILS: There’s been a lot of talk recently, most of it negative, about the current state of rock music. What’s your take? Is rock dead?
Chris Cornell: It’s definitely lost its place at the center of the musical universe. Rock never meant the same thing to everyone, but when I was growing up in the late seventies, everyone could identify the five, ten bands that formed the center. Even if you preferred the fringe—the Clash over, say, Van Halen—you still knew what the center was. Now kids turn on the radio and hear Eminem or Kanye, so that’s what they gravitate toward. They’re making music on iPhones. Everything’s fractured. The reason there’s no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn’t have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.
So, what Cornell song is most proggy? That’s nearly impossible to say, as the “prog” elements (strange chords, odd time signatures, epic and semi-mythical lyrics) used by Cornell and Co. are seamlessly mixed into a delicious musical stew that also draws on early metal, Krautrock, punk, pop (the Beatles, to be exact), blues, gospel, and even Middle Eastern music. But here is my choice: “Limo Wreck” from Soundgarden; it is one of my 5 favorite Soundgarden songs, but was never a single or a hit:
>
>
New Cosmograf, 62 days away
Very exciting news. Robin Armstrong (fountainhead of COSMOGRAF) has just updated his website site with a countdown clock for the new album. 62 days and counting. Order early and often–I promise it will be far more exciting than the outcome of the American presidential elections.
First Ever Progarchy Competition begins NOW
I’m happy to announce our first ever Progarchy competition. The prizes: cds of Rush, “Clockwork Angels”; Big Big Train, “English Electric Part One”; and The Reasoning, “Adventures in Neverland.”
The contest (brain child of my friend, Seth James): 1) come up with the best name for a prog band. 2) come up with the most absurd name for a prog band. Do not use names of actual bands (past or present). These must be original. No need to distinguish, however, which is best and which is absurd.
The judges will be the Progarchists, and we will announce the winner on the Ides of December.
So, to enter, just comment below–name of the band and a way to get ahold of you. Competition ends on December 8, 2012.
Nick D’Virgilio News
Thanks to Prog for posting this:
http://www.progrockmag.com/news/nick-dvirgilio-not-giving-up-on-spocks-beard-reunion/
Like Radiohead? Like jazz?
Then you don’t want to miss what I think is the best jazz album of Radiohead songs to be had: “Tribute to Radiohead” (2010) by Amnesiac Quartet. Don’t let the pedestrian title fool you: this is not muzak or some sort of cash-in project. Led by pianist Sebastien Paindestre, the French quartet also includes soprano saxophonist Fabrice Theuillon, bassist Joachim Florent, and drummer Antoine Paganotti. There are just five songs—”Everything in its Right Place”, “Morning Bell”, “A Wolf at the Door”, “Sail to the Moon”, “I Might Be Wrong”—but each is, I think, a perfect interpretation of the original tune, equally languid and intense.
Three things stand out. First, the use of soprano saxophone is inspired, as it has a yearning tone, occasionally agitated rhythm, and acrobatic runs that are very Thom Yorke-like (I don’t know that a tenor sax would have been nearly as effective). Secondly, the attention to detail is wonderful: the drums and bass present a whirling complexity and propulsive energy that constantly move and coil and dash around behind Theuillon’s wonderful lines, and the electric piano brings a welcome warmth to the proceedings. Finally, this is very much a band effort, focused on the songs, not simply using them as vehicles for solos. It succeeds fabulously. As John Barron notes in his AllAboutJazz.com review, “With a tight ensemble sound and exceptional soloing, Amnesiac Quartet maintains the inherent beauty heard in the music of Radiohead while tapping into seemingly unlimited potential for future improvisers interested in unique source material.” Here is the band in 2007, playing “I Might Be Wrong”:
Progarchy 