Ever since Gungfly’s On her Journey to the Sun dominated my January listening, the year 2018 has been saturated with the brilliance of Rikard Sjöblom, especially as I proceeded to mine the stereophonic riches of the Gungfly Rumbling Box since its release earlier this year.

Even so, I was scarcely prepared for the devastatingly jazzy prog onslaught of Friendship when it finally arrived. Thanks to multiple listens, which have only led to ever-increasing enjoyment, the disc makes my Top 10 Prog list here at #3.

The theme of friendship is very skillfully handled, making this a concept album that ascends to the highest echelons of excellence.

In an age where digital media are relentlessly assaulting polite society, and people whom you thought were your friends suddenly unfriend you and ghost you on account of some mysteriously vague line demarcating a non-negotiable political tribalism, the poignancy of this Gungfly album’s deep exploration of childhood memories is all the more powerful.

The album gently evokes not only feelings that many will recognize as resonating with their own experiences of personal loss, but it also evokes the loss of genuine human sympathy and compassion as a generational event, as technology brutally empowers people to treat others as they themselves would never want to be treated.

After heavy immersion in the album’s seven main tracks over many months (thanks to a review copy obtained far in advance), I am now also enjoying the amazing extra tracks on my CD copy, which I of course purchased to support this fine music, yet which only recently arrived in my mailbox.

Mark my words, you will want to own this CD, and your bonus reward will be the absolutely fantastic extras: “Slow Dancer” and “Past Generation” (and a radio edit of the title track slicing it down to 6:31, less than half the length of the original epic of 13:41).

It’s almost impossible to pick a favorite track on Friendship, thanks to the continuously dazzling diversity in the music. But currently, for me, I am most fond of the rockin’ “Past Generation.”

Nonetheless, you yourself are sure to make every track your personal favorite, depending on the day of the week, and on exactly where you are in discovering the many beautiful depths of this stunning release, just as I too experienced, spinning through it and exploring every tree and glade, winding through the cycle of seasons.

I discovered this hidden gem earlier this year via a local record store, and it has been in my heavy rotation ever since, earning the #2 spot this year, due to my frequency of listening.

But it is now available for purchase online here and also on iTunes. Check out www.djbrasscamel.com for more info.

In fact, the album only has three prog instrumental tracks, “The Bane of William Watson,” “Buenas Noches,” and “Letters of Last Resort,” yet these are surrounded by a wealth of other funky rock tracks that contain superb songwriting and impeccable musicianship.

I was lucky enough to see this band play live twice this year, and they are even more impressive in concert than on record, if you can believe it. That’s because of the truly stellar line-up of musicians, and also their penchant for covering classic prog tunes.

Mark my words, get to know this band now, because they are only getting started, and they are truly a major musical force to be reckoned with, as this fine album attests. Their funkadelic prog is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

DJBC is the real deal: talent to burn, and songs that blaze into glory like the most majestic of fireworks. Long live rock!

This year I have decided to unveil my year-end top 10 lists by following the order of my most frequent listens.

Usually I have preferred not to rank in any order (since being in a top 10 list is arguably enough of a distinction) or to attend to my more subjective emotional and intellectual responses to various features of musical excellence.

But this year (since the times they are a changin’), let’s try something new, and so I have decided to use the simpler and more objective criterion of the sheer quantity of listens.

I was surprised to discover that puts Southern Empire’s Civilisation at the top of the Top 10 Prog list for me. It took awhile for me to be won over fully to this album, but after diligently repeated listens I achieved this, and then continued to return to it again and again, because its four formidable tracks are just so gosh darn good.

“Goliath’s Moon” (9:12) has superb prog music, but the lyrics have always annoyed me as being ridiculously flimsy. I thought that, instead of singing about his stupid “diamond,” the space pirate should rather have been singing about an “angel” that he had been, against his will, compelled to sell into slavery — an action that he, lovesick for her, eternally regrets. In any case, the music is so good, I came to ignore this just complaint of mine, and to simply imagine my own better, more tragic lyrics while listening to it instead.

“Cries for the Lonely” is for me the supreme track. The first few minutes of the track are entirely instrumental, with some of the most thrilling prog of the year. And the excellence continues. Everything is dazzlingly perfect in this 19:13 epic.

“The Crossroads” (29:15) is even more epic and musically diverse. It took me awhile to know and love every bar of it, but there you have it. I listened to it enough times to acknowledge this track for what it is: a tour de force.

“Innocence and Fortune” (10:22) is a very unique song that midway veers off into some pleasingly familiar Genesis territory, in a surprising and delightful turn of events. But, most thrilling of all, is the wild finale, where we get some Dixie Dregs virtuosity, to close out the album, in its very final minutes, with uplifting and transcendent musicality.

Well, I do think I like this new rating system that I am trying out for 2018. And I am most pleased to recommend Southern Empire’s Civilisation to you as my top Top 10 Prog pick of the year. More anon.

 

Vancouver’s world famous Sikora’s Classical Records has been killed off by the Five Dirty Ds:

The big D is digitization, “downloads, MP3s, streaming.”

Another is downsizing — “people are moving into smaller places and are limited by space and can’t collect the way they used to”.

The third D is distribution — “getting hold of good reliable sources for import stock has been challenging”.

Number four is the desertion of some customers to online retailers like Amazon.

Sadly, the last D is “the demise of a generation that supported us for 20-30 years. We’re getting phone calls from their kids saying ‘My dad died, what do I do with all of his CDs?’”

…

One of the most loyal customers was Dr. Gabor Mate … “Sikora’s was the scene of the crime,” said Mate.

“I’ll tell you, it was the greatest classical music store in the world. I’ve been all over Europe and North America, and there was nothing like it. The knowledge they have about the music, the selection they have of all the different recordings and works … It’s a real loss.”

Sikora’s does have an extensive selection. Savenye thinks the current inventory is about 15,000 albums and 5,000 CDs. There are 16 bins of Bach CDs, for example, 13 bins of Beethoven CDs, and eight bins of Mozart.

“We’ve never had a digital Excel spreadsheet database,” said Savenye.

“We’ve never had anything other than a manual inventory. Data entry is me entering by hand with a fine-point sharpie the ordering code information on a little plastic slip that fits over a CD in a security box. We are classically old school in that way, and damn proud of it.”

I came across this nice history of Asia, which contains an appropriate appreciation for the most excellent but usually underrated and underestimated Asia album Phoenix:

In 2007 a new album was released, the first since Astra in 1985 by the same line up. Phoenix for me is one of the very best prog stories ever. We all know what prog was like in the early 70s… magic, wonderful, unparalleled music by the very best bands in history. But how many of them were still able to release such a fantastic album some 45 years later? Well, Asia managed that. Phoenix has beautiful and meaningful songs. “An Extraordinary Life” (Wetton’s Carpe Diem motto), “Never Again” and so many more.

The song I was closest to, however, was “Orchard of Mines.” I remember going to my local park in the countryside on New Year’s Day in 2009 and listening to that song with my beloved Sennheiser earphones, whilst enjoying a lovely walk in the snow. I was worried that I had cancer (which luckily later proved not to be the case) and somehow that song gave me the strength to relax and be strong.