The first single from the forthcoming Big Big Train album “Grand Tour” is now online. My impressions follow the jump:
Rush: The Animated Series
Take a look at the sample pages available: This Rush comic looks great.
It makes me think of a great idea, which Progarchy freely offers here: why doesn’t somebody make an animated cartoon about the adventures of the Rush trio?
What I have in mind is something with the great retro animation vibe of the Star Trek animated series. That would be the look and feel.
As for audio, every episode would end with a snippet of a Rush song playing as part of the concluding soundtrack, just like shows such as The Goldbergs or Schooled do in their own televised exercises in nostalgia.
The high concept for Rush: The Animated Series is that, one night, while recording tracks for the album A Farewell to Kings, a dimensional portal opens up as the harmonic frequency of one of their jam sessions bends space and time by resonating with the black hole in Cygnus X-1.
On the other side of the portal, the Rush dudes get to hop in a spaceship and go exploring different worlds in the multiverse. They get to do this in each episode, whenever one of their songs hits just the right note and unexpectedly opens the portal. Not only that, they can also use their spaceship to visit any time and place on Earth, so the story possibilities are endless.
The trick is: the spaceship is powered by Rush harmonic convergence music energy. So, whenever they are low and about to run out of fuel, they have to return to the studio and record another song. The process of songwriting and recording fuels up the spaceship again and the portal reopens.
The running joke could be: they write longer songs on purpose, because that makes the fuel tank fill up more. Also, replaying old songs works fine to open the portal and power the ship, but extra energy and wider travel is unleashed whenever a new track is created.
Rush should definitely get behind this idea. If you were retired rock stars, wouldn’t it be on your to-do list to star in your own sci-fi comedy Saturday morning cartoon? In any event, it is always possible for a motivated fan to create their own series. Prog on!
A Genesis Extravaganza: The Musical Box in Vancouver (April 9, 2019)
The best part of the show was Act III. Acts I and II felt much less energetic than the actual Genesis originals, most of which I have heard the real Genesis play live. Out of that lot, “Lilywhite Lilith” came across the best.
Not until Act III did the band progressively pour it on, with more and more energy with each song, making the concert a consistent crescendo into the encore finale. My favorites were everything from “Can-Utility and the Coastliners” to the end.
Also, “Cinema Show” was so good that as result “Aisle of Plenty” felt especially emotionally moving as I pondered the magnificent artistic legacy of Genesis.
The band likes to sit down a lot, and has pretty given up on costumes, other than a leather jacket for Rael, and the fox head and red dress for the very end of “The Musical Box.” I was underwhelmed in Acts I and II but then Act III redeemed the evening for me, as they poured on the jets.
In the end, I am reminded just how great Genesis is and how unrepeatable they are, despite those who would try to imitate as best they can. It’s sincere flattery, but perhaps Andy Tillison summed it up best on the last track of The Tangent’s Proxy: all the other bands are skint.
Act I: The Wind’s Tail
In That Quiet Earth / Robbery, Assault, and Battery / Wot Gorilla?
Blood on the Rooftops
Dance on a Volcano
Entangled (Ending Part)
Los Endos
Act II: Broadway Melodies
Fly on a Windshield
Broadway Melody of 1974
In the Cage
Back in N.Y.C.
Hairless Heart
Counting Out Time
The Carpet Crawlers
Lilywhite Lilith
The Waiting Room (Ending Part)
Act III: Before The Ordeal
A Place to Call My Own
Time Table
Seven Stones
Can-Utility and the Coastliners
Looking for Someone
Firth of Fifth
After the Ordeal
The Cinema Show
Aisle of Plenty
Encore:
The Musical Box
Music Flies Over Borders
It’s five o’clock on an atypical Saturday in London, a day during which one million people have taken to the central city streets to protest about a political and democratic decision which threatens the entire nation, its relationship with Europe and indeed the whole world.
Discarded placards are stacked up against railings in Trafalgar Square, symbolic to a degree because of the history of the place. There, on top of his high plinth, stands the British naval hero Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, who was partly responsible for curtailing the expansive ambitions of French emperor, Napoleon Buonaparte.
So much has changed in the ensuing 214 years after the Battle of Trafalgar, the country now totally at war with itself over the European referendum, the deadlock in the differing political ideologies causing fear, anxiety and confusion.
But tonight, in the city, there’s a far more discreet French invasion taking place in a subterranean corner of Soho, adjacent to the massive earthworks of the Crossrail train engineering project.
Jokingly, the band in question, the Gallic fivesome Lazuli think this incredible turn-out on the streets on London is for them. In a saner world, Lazuli would indeed be filling huge auditoriums. In these extraordinary circumstances however, it has taken them nearly four hours to navigate their way around motorways and roads into London to get to the venue.
With one of their staunchest fans, who took part in the day’s protest, in possession of a European Union flag, they are fully aware that they are among friends here at the Borderline, a popular if slightly claustrophobic music venue/nightclub, which has undergone a significant facelift since they were last here two years ago.
There’s around 160 in the venue tonight, a very healthy number considering a sizeable new prog festival is happening about a two and a half hour’s drive away and there are a couple of major gigs in town the following evening (Lifesigns and the Neal Morse Band).
This London date has been rescheduled from the previous autumn when the band embarked on a mini-tour of the UK, culminating in a triumphant third headlining appearance at the British flagship prog festival, Summer’s End.
Back under the tender loving care of tour manager, Nellie Pitts, a second show has been added the following night at Level III , another fascinating basement music venue located in the south-west English railway town of Swindon.
But tonight’s is a completely different show to the ones delivered last autumn to promote their thoughtful, achingly lovely album Saison 8 (to reflect this being their eighth album). This is a two and a half hour celebration of their finest and most popular songs.
But first for those unfamiliar with Lazuli, this band is very much a family-centric enterprise, which began with brothers, the elvish Dominique and Claude Leonetti, whose base is just outside the southern French city of Nîmes.
Claude was the guitarist in the early incarnation of the band, but a motorcycle accident in the 1980s robbed him of the use of his left arm, rendering guitar playing impossible.
Prophetic
However, he had a prophetic dream about an instrument which would allow him to continue playing. And behold, the unique Léode (a combination of his second and first names) was created, a box of sonic programmable tricks – a cross between a guitar, synthesiser and musical saw – from which he can produce the most extraordinary effects, which gives the band their iconic original sound.
The present line-up has been together nearly a decade and represents a steady ascent in their popularity across Europe, notably Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with, alas, less recognition in their native France. The UK has also embraced them especially after they toured with one of their heroes, Fish, in the autumn of 2015, when the crowd reaction seemed to be along the lines of “What on earth was that!?”
An understandable reaction indeed to a band, influenced among others by the Beatles, Peter Gabriel and the inimitable Fish, who also appears on one of their albums. It might also be down to the exquisite sound and visual experience they provide so spectacularly.
Along with Claude’s Léode, Domi plays electric and acoustic guitars, one of which has been custom made by his son Elliot, again underlining the family connections. Domi’s distinct clear high register voice is effectively another instrument especially to the ears of non-French speakers who can concentrate on and marvel at his incredible perfect pitch.
You can find the expressive, animate multi-instrumentalist Romain Thorel on keyboards with added bass (there is no bass player in the band), drums and French horn, while the solidly reliable ‘timekeeper’ Vincent Barnavol takes care of drums, djembe and marimba. As for the flamboyantly dreadlocked Gédéric Byar, his guitar does all the talking with a little help from a screwdriver and a veritable battery of effects pedals.
Visually, the front three resemble the cast of an unwritten Lord of the Rings chapter, their extravagant hair tied up or braided, Domi sporting his customary plaited beard, costumes sombrely black with ‘aprons’ and bondage trousers included somewhere in the mix, while the clean-shaven, ever-smiling duo of Thorel and Barnavol make up the back line.
However, together, their live show pulsates with a transcendental energy seldom encountered on the world’s stages and the love they feel when they perform transmits directly to the audience. As I have said previously, they simply gather you up and take you on a magic carpet ride to their own musical universe.
Translation
Admittedly, the meanings of the songs probably get lost in translation, but as Domi once declared, “I have the soul of a Frenchman, so it would be very difficult to sing in English.” Their songs are full of imagery and metaphors which would not flow if imagined in English. But such is their humanistic view of the world, they are not afraid of tackling big subjects such as the environment, climate change, immigration, injustice and male violence against women.
For tonight’s show, it’s a walk-through Lazuli time (literally) to revisit some of their most popular songs from the past including the sublimely beautiful Cassiopée and the volcanic L’Abîme (The Abyss).
However, for your humble reviewer, two other “old” songs provide the highlights, one being the fabulously evocative 15 hr 40 (Twenty to Four) in which they perfectly capture the sound of a ticking clock locked in the moment of the hour. The following evening in Swindon, they meet the fan who originally asked them to put the song back in the show and duly dedicates it to him.
The other is Naif, a song from their first album Amnésie, which struck a chord when we first saw and fell in love with them in 2011 at the Summer’s End festival, but which Domi explains that he wrote when he was an idealistic youth, and probably still is. This is a particularly clever acoustically driven song on which Thorel crafts a regimented pattern of beats on a snare drum while Barnavol taps out the song’s underlying rhythm on his beat box. It still resonates as strongly as it did nearly eight years.
Despite his halting English, Domi has rehearsed his lines well enough to crack jokes about his recent bout of flu, which, unlike the true tenor tuning made his voice sound like Barry White – which he then changes topically to British Prime Minister Theresa May when she lost her voice during a Brexit debate in Parliament.
He also sounds a more serious note when introducing Les Côtes, a song about the thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and seeking a better life arriving on the southern shores of Europe. “Without immigration, this stage would be empty”, Domi declares, he and brother Claude having Italian ancestry along with Byar’s North African roots.
There’s also an element of gravity to the haunting Les Sutures, a song all about finding each other and relating to one another “under all the sutures of our wounded souls”, whose drama comes when Barnavol begins a military drum beat that is then taken up by Domi and Thorel on a single snare drum mid-stage.
Les Malveillants is another show-stopping favourite, an angry song about malicious people and their evil intentions, which is the nearest they get to prog-metal, this being a full-on, no holds barred barrage of riffage from both guitars and Léode. It comes to a climax when Domi and Byar bravely jump off the stage into the audience and go walkabouts.
Bringing the show to a close, Les Courants Ascendants (The Updrafts) is one of those slow burning songs which suddenly ignites, Thorel going full throttle on the French horn as Byar’s fizzing fretwork suddenly morphs into a ringing, melodic riff, bringing the song to a rousing climax.
Conductors
As the band leaves the stage, the audience, who know this is far from the end, start singing back the riff and that’s the cue for Lazuli to return as crowd conductors, while Thorel on keyboards and Barnavol on drums duet on some jazzy impro work.
With the passing of this beautiful evening comes the passing of the seasons, Domi launching into the gorgeous Un Automne from Amnésie then brings their story right up to date with J’Attends Un Printemps (I Am Waiting For A Spring) from their Saison 8 album – very apt for a late day in March.
Finally, they regroup for their jaw-dropping finale, Nine Hands Around A Marimba – basically, the five of them playing together on just the one instrument, in which they improvise several familiar tunes, which, tonight include Solsbury Hill and Michelle – all delivered with some knockabout humour.
It’s another phenomenal show from a band who are musical joy bringers. Their fraternal love and respect for each other as musicians and friends (there’s a song in the show called Mes amis, mes frères – My Friends, My Brothers – which sums this all up) is writ large throughout their shows.
Sadly, with the current political situation in the United Kingdom, there’s great uncertainty for bands like Lazuli and other foreign favourites such as the Franck Carducci Band as to how it will impact on future tours to these shores. Already, it is a huge logistical operation to bring their show across the Channel from the south of France and any subsequent red tape as a result of Britain’s drawn-out departure from the European Union could exacerbate this.
As Lazuli’s new tee-shirt slogan so perfectly says, “Music flies over borders”. For now, we can only wait with anticipation for the upcoming new album later this year, which Domi says is a very special one. Let’s hope they will be able to bring it to us live next year.
All photographs by Martin Reijman taken at Level III, Swindon, 24 March 2019.
In Concert: Nick Mason Pours Chicago a Saucerful
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, The Chicago Theatre, April 4, 2019.
“After twenty years, I got tired of waiting for the phone to ring.”
Always quick with a quip, drummer Nick Mason tossed off that one during the first lull in his new band’s voyage through Pink Floyd’s early catalog. Dryly diplomatic and subtly duplicitous (it’s actually been 25 years since Mason last played in North America, 14 since the Live 8 Floyd reunion), it was nonetheless revealing.
In recent years, Roger Waters has trotted his favorite era of Floyd (first The Wall, then a Dark Side of the Moon through Animals-based set) around the globe; David Gilmour toured his solo album Rattle That Lock, then decided to auction off his guitar collection for charity, keeping the door firmly shut on nostalgia following Rick Wright’s passing. Mason, on the other hand, has dug deep into the history of the band he co-founded — prepping the massive box set The Early Years with Gilmour, then working on the touring memorabilia exhibition Their Mortal Remains. So when Blockheads guitarist Lee Harris and post-Waters Floyd bassist Guy Pratt suggested a group focusing on the pre-stardom Floyd repertoire, Mason was itching to give it a whirl.
It’s a great idea. Freed from the expectation of playing the hits, Saucerful of Secrets dives headlong into a rich stream of psychedelia, prog and pastoral balladry, setting back the clock to when Pink Floyd’s audience had no idea what was coming next. And there’s something for everybody here: trippy blues barrages “Interstellar Overdrive”, “Astronomy Domine” and “One of These Days”; the whimsical Syd Barrett-led singles “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, along with Barrett’s later, profoundly disturbing “Bike” and “Vegetable Man”; hushed, acoustic post-Barrett meditations like “If” and “Green Is the Colour”; the bludgeoning rock of “The Nile Song” and “Childhood’s End”; and extended free-form explorations of “Atom Heart Mother”, “Let There Be More Light” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”.
Tackling this wide range of material, the quintet was tight enough to keep the audience engaged, but loose enough to veer into clamorous group improvisation as the mood (frequently) struck them. Pratt and rhythm guitarist Gary Kemp (best known as the main songwriter for Spandau Ballet) divvied up the lead vocals and drove the tunes forward, with Pratt cracking occasional jokes about absent Floyds during breaks; Harris spun off one obliquely creative solo after another on a bevy of guitars; Dom Beken captured Rick Wright’s spectrum of tasty keyboard colors and open chord voicings to perfection.
But ultimately, it was Mason’s show. Sometimes damned with faint praise like “the best drummer for Pink Floyd,” his fine playing reminded me of Ringo Starr (another criminally underrated drummer) onstage. Self-deprecating about his lack of technique in interviews, Mason turns any limitations into assets by laying down an immovably solid beat, leaving plenty of space for his fellow players, and embellishing the grooves in simple, ear-catching ways (his malletwork on tom toms being the most famous example). His reward? Finally getting to play the gong on “Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun” for this tour. (Mason’s spoken intro: “Roger Waters is one of my best friends, a brilliant musician, a brilliant songwriter — and not good at sharing.”)
So unlike later Pink Floyd tours, including The Division Bell outing I saw in 1994, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets isn’t about the spectacle (though the light show was fabulous), or the star power. Rather, it’s about the music — and about the accomplished crew of players that bring these neglected Floyd gems alive in the moment, headed by the drummer who’s somehow become the most stalwart conservator of his band’s legacy. For the 3,000 appreciative fans that rewarded Mason and his compatriots with a tumultuous standing ovation, that was enough.
Setlist:
- Interstellar Overdrive
- Astronomy Domine
- Lucifer Sam
- Fearless
- Obscured by Clouds
- When You’re In
- Remember a Day
- Arnold Layne
- Vegetable Man
- If
- Atom Heart Mother/If (Reprise)
- The Nile Song
- Green Is the Colour
- Let There Be More Light
- Childhood’s End
- Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
- See Emily Play
- Bike
- One of These Days
- A Saucerful of Secrets
- Point Me at the Sky
— Rick Krueger
Has Devin Townsend Released the Album of the Year?
Yup, I think he has. Empath is brilliant. It combines the best elements of the various musical aspects of the metal legend’s career. He has made it clear in recent interviews that he’s trying to break down the facade surrounding him and be more real with his fans. The result is this album, and I’m stunned. I’ve barely been able to listen to anything else over the last several weeks. From the blast beats and pounding screams to the gentler side of Devin’s voice soothing our ears, this album is absolutely phenomenal. The lyrics are personal and powerful. Musically it is Dream Theater on steroids and without the fluff. Buy it and enjoy it.
King Crimson 1997-2008: Heaven and Earth (And Beyond)
Just announced at Discipline Global Mobile:
The latest in the acclaimed series of King Crimson boxed sets is now available for pre-order. Heaven and Earth is a 24 disc – 18 x CD, 4 x Blu-Ray and 2 x DVD-A – set and represents the most comprehensive collection in the series to date and covers the period from December 1997 to August 2008.
The box, to be released on May 31st, will include:
A comprehensive look at Crimson’s experimental ProjeKcts (1, 2, 3, 4, 6 & X): 1 CD each of ProjeKcts 1, 2, 3 and 4; every single concert by every ProjeKct plus all studio albums and other releases on 2 Blu-Rays! This was an incredibly rich period — more “research and development” than anything else — with sundry configurations of Crims improvising like mad onstage, spraying sonic fireworks in all directions as they devised and refined new material. What I’ve heard from this era is utterly thrilling, and this material should be worth the hefty price of the box all by itself.
A re-imagining of 2000’s The ConstruKction of Light, on CD, DVD & Blu-Ray. To quote the press release, “The loss of the original recordings of the electronic drums allowed Pat Mastelotto to completely rerecord the material on his current acoustic/electric kit making for a virtually completely new album of familiar material,” remixed by Don Gunn. On DVD: the remix, a 5.1 surround mix, the original mix in hi-res stereo and ProjeKct X’s Heaven and Earth. On Blu-Ray: all of the above plus over 10 hours of live video from the 2000 European tour, audio of the 2000 London show (released on video as part of Eyes Wide Open), the Level 5 mini-album and more. On additional CDs: live concerts from the 2000 and 2001 tours.
An extended/enhanced edition of 2003’s The Power to Believe, remixed by David Singleton. On DVD: the remix, a 5.1 surround mix, the original mix in hi-res stereo and the Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With mini-album. On Blu-Ray: all of the above plus the live Elektrik album and more. On additional CDs: live concerts from the 2003 tour.
To top it all off, two live CDs of the short-lived 2008 quintet Crimson (which introduced Gavin Harrison to the line-up), recorded in concert in New York.
Quite frankly, what’s included on Heaven and Earth is beyond my wildest dreams — it should keep me in Crimson hog-heaven at least until I see their 50th anniversary tour in September. If it sounds like too much at one go for you, the 40th Anniversary Editions of The ReconstruKction of Light and The Power to Believe (including the relevant CDs and DVDs listed above) are available separately, to be released on the same date. Pre-orders for all these releases are live now at Inner Knot for the US and Burning Shed for the rest of the world.
— Rick Krueger
Big Big Train Announce New Album
The countdown is over.
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Au Revoir, Avants
Mark Hollis, 1955-2019
Scott Walker, 1943-2019
Interview: Steve Deaton of WHITESIDE’s DAUGHTER Talks Upcoming Concept Album “The Life You Save”
You may think, “here’s another prog rock concept album; nothing new here,” but Whiteside’s Daughter from Jackson in Mississippi are set to launch their full-lenght “The Life You Save” this June, a record “about James, the gay son of an Alabama Pentecostal preacher, who in high school rebels and falls in with John, his ex-Baptist atheist classmate and guitarist for a high school death metal band called Village Witch.” Putting together progressive rock and proto-metal makes things even more bizarre, but that’s what we love about prog, anyways.
Read an interview with multi-instrumentalist Steve Deaton.
Alright, first thing is first. Before we dive into all the music stuff, how’s life?
All is well. Busy, but good.
Speaking of new music, you have an upcoming album. What can people expect from “The Life You Save”?
Well, it is a concept album, so I hope they can expect a compelling story set to some adventurous music. It is a dark story about religious indoctrination, guilt, depression, and suicidal thoughts. But in the midst of all that, too, is a joyous celebration of teenage rebellion. So the music has many moods, and therefore many styles—from minor key prog rock and prog metal, to major key power pop, and a bunch of stuff in between. It has elements of the Southern Gothic literary tradition which explores the dark, taboo, grotesque elements in traditional Southern culture—in this case, hellfire preaching, suppressed sexuality, casting out demons—basic “snake handling” sort of stuff. But it is set somewhere in 80’s or 90’s. Anyone, especially rock and metal fans, who lived through the “Satanic Panic” in the U.S., predominantly in the South, will certainly get that vibe.
What was it like working on the album?
All in all, it was fun. I’ve known and worked with Brian, the drummer, and Poff, the vocalist, for years, so we always seem to be on similar wavelengths and the creative process goes pretty smoothly. The only thing that made the process long and difficult is that this was a long distance collaboration—I live in Mississippi, and the two of them now live in Alabama—Brian in Birmingham and Poff in Montgomery. So a lot of file sharing and hashing things out in a Dropbox folder.
Are there any touring plans in support to “The Life You Save”?
Not touring so much, but we are working up a live performance of the concept, and we plan to stage it periodically, more like a theatrical performance than a club show. Plus, we all have other pursuits that make sustained touring impossible.
While we are on the subject of touring, what countries would you love to tour?
It would be awesome to stage the show in the UK or Scandinavia. Mainly because so much of the music that I like comes from that part of the world, but also because our social media seems to get a lot of traffic from there—it seems there is a devoted audience for progressive music all concentrated in a small geographic space. We have a lot of prog heads in the US, but we are scattered all over a vast expanse.
Who and what inspires you the most?
Any artist or musician who isn’t afraid to explore and do something that may not be popular—even though if they do it well, they often DO become popular, even if it’s with a smaller niche of fans. So my heroes are diverse—David Bowie, Rush, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, Fishbone, even Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
What other genres of music do you listen to? Have any of the other genres you listen to had any impact on your playing?
So, as I alluded to, I listen to a lot of music. Though I’ve always gravitated toward rock and metal, I love classic country (Hank Sr., Willie, Waylon, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash), psychedelic So Cal country like the Flying Burrito Brothers, and great pop or folk music—I love the Mamas and Papas for instance and Simon and Garfunkel, too. But a lot of Southern influences creep into this prog rock project—especially Southern rock like Molly Hatchet or even the Allman Brothers. I’ve played in alt-country bands and even some that do straight up honky tonk. So I guess that can’t help but influence what I write and play.
I really appreciate you giving us your time today. Is there anything else you would like to tell us and the fans before we wrap things up?
Well, we obviously really hope you dig the concept and the music when the full album comes out in June. If you really dig it, we are always more than grateful to those who spread the word. That’s how independent music has always made the rounds. Our local rock stations here in Jackson, Mississippi, aren’t going to play a prog rock concept album about the gay son of a Pentecostal preacher. Ha!
You can preview the Act I of “The Life You Save” on Bandcamp. Follow Whiteside’s Daughter on Facebook and Instagram.
Progarchy 