Tag: prog pop

SVYNX: Inside “This is Not Art”

On By NickIn progressive rockLeave a comment

As SVYNX prepares to unveil their debut full-length album This is Not Art on September 14th, we sat down with the progressive/alternative metal duo from Cologne, Germany, to discuss the album’s themes, the influence of the pandemic, and their creative process. Tackling heavy topics like societal disillusionment, corporate greed, and political unrest, the album pushes boundaries both musically and lyrically. With their unique blend of progressive rock, pop, and alternative music, SVYNX has crafted an album that reflects the uncertain times we live in. Below, the band shares insights into the creation of This is Not Art and how their personal experiences shaped its message.

Your upcoming album, This is Not Art, explores themes of societal change and disillusionment. How did the pandemic influence the creation of this album, and how do you think these themes resonate with listeners today?

Disillusionment fits the record’s concept well. The very beginning of the pandemic felt like a time for all of us to come together as equals and awakened hope for change. When that change fell flat, we had to write about our disappointment. Post-pandemic, the world seems even colder than it did before, and the political climate keeps evolving in a troubling fashion. All of these developments are still relevant and probably always have been. But it was the pandemic that revealed my own naivety, which is a recurring theme throughout the album. These emotions resonate with all of us when dealing with disappointment, be it in a grander societal context or in our interpersonal relations.

The track “Art Won’t Save Me Now” sets a poignant tone for the album. Can you elaborate on the message behind this track and how it reflects the overall message of This is Not Art?

“Art Won’t Save Me Now” serves as somewhat of an antithesis to the record’s title. It references Ton Steine Scherben’s “Musik ist eine Waffe” but focuses much more on my own shortcomings as a socially mindful person. Making music will not likely remedy that fact, but maybe it doesn’t have to.

You mentioned that many songs started as short ideas recorded on your computer. Can you walk us through your creative process? How did the studio become an instrument in shaping the album?

Tobi: All of the songs on the album were written collaboratively, but often we were not even in the same room, just elaborating on what the other had done. I honestly don’t know which guitar or vocal lines I came up with on my own and which Wolle has edited and twisted beyond recognition. Our workflows are very compatible that way. I usually take a quick and dirty approach, while Wolle is very detail-oriented.

Tracks like “Follow Me” and “Feed Me” tackle modern conveniences and their impact on our lives. How do you approach writing lyrics that are both thought-provoking and accessible to a broad audience?

Tobi: Lyrics are always difficult. I don’t know if they are thought-provoking or accessible. I try to stay away from absolute truths and write about my interpretations and intuitions—the writing itself is a way for me to understand myself, if that makes sense. [laughs]

“Harvest Season” and “Europa” delve into issues of corporate greed and Europe’s historical role. What inspired you to address these specific issues, and how do you hope your music will influence discussions around them?

Wolle: We are very privileged here in Germany. We feel like the right thing to do is to share our resources and build a more diverse society. Populists are weaponizing migration and turning the poor against each other, while big companies—and sometimes politicians—are stuffing their pockets with more money than anyone would ever need in their lifetime. What used to be common sense now needs to be said out loud: f*ck fascism, f*ck racism.

In “Never at Ease,” you highlight privilege and its influence on choices. What personal experiences or observations led to the creation of this track, and what message do you hope to convey through it?

Tobi: “Never At Ease” is one of the few tracks that was inspired by very specific situations. As a teacher, I’d love to believe that everyone has the power to shape their own lives. But many values I hold in high regard and might subconsciously use to judge someone’s character can’t be taken for granted by everyone. It’s much harder to be punctual, well-dressed, rested, or motivated if you’re responsible for preparing your siblings for school and cooking dinner. I failed to realize this until a 13-year-old pupil of mine shared their story with me. It really makes you uneasy when you hear things like this.

The album was self-recorded but mixed and mastered by professionals at RRenimArts. How did this collaboration impact the final sound of the album, and what was the experience like working with them?

Wolle: We worked for a long time on the album and initially tried mixing and mastering it ourselves, but we were never quite satisfied with the results. By the time we decided to let someone else handle the final touches, we were already very attached to how it sounded. Luckily, Gabri and Konny at RRenimArts knew exactly how to preserve our vision while improving the mix, especially considering we had songs that utilized both bass guitar and synths.

The album ends with “Alexandria,” which addresses rising right-wing forces in Europe. How do you view the role of music in responding to and influencing political and social issues?

Tobi: Tough question! Personally, I want artists to position themselves clearly, so it was important for us to do so. I don’t really know how effective music is in shaping the political landscape, and I don’t want to pretend to have all the answers. That’s part of the inspiration behind the album title. I don’t know who cares about what we’re singing, but we have to sing it.

You’re set to perform at the Euroblast festival this October. What does it mean to you to return to this festival, and how does it feel to perform alongside other bands that have inspired you?

Wolle: Last time we played Euroblast, our music was vastly different—more funky, less modern. After working on this music for over two years, we’re especially proud to return. Euroblast is the best time of the year for us. You meet a lot of open-minded people, and the music ranges from nasty riffs and blast beats to grand-sounding ballads. We really feel like our music fits right in, and we’re thankful for the opportunity to perform again this year.

As a duo, how do you manage the balance between your DIY ethos and the need for professional production? How has this balance evolved over time, especially with this album?

Wolle: Over the years, we’ve acquired a lot of equipment and now have our own little studio. It’s nowhere near professional-grade, but I think the sound we managed to capture speaks for itself. We were motivated by the saying, “If it sounds good, it’s good,” and a video of Devin Townsend recording vocals in a hotel room with mattresses for sound isolation. For the next record, I think we’ll be less obsessed with perfection—imperfection has its own value.

Svynx

How has your approach to blending progressive rock, pop, and alternative music evolved with this album? Are there any new influences or techniques you experimented with on This is Not Art?

Tobi: Our previous releases were written and fine-tuned while jamming in the rehearsal room, and we limited ourselves to the sounds typically associated with a rock band. After listening to How I’m Feeling Now, I was super inspired. Incorporating synths and heavily effected vocals was our way of achieving a more modern sound. That said, no one wants to hear me play guitar in 4/4, so it had to be proggy. [laughs]

Looking ahead, what are your plans following the release of this album? Are there any upcoming projects or performances that fans should be excited about?

Wolle: Right now, we’re focused on playing shows and festivals and getting reviews out for this record. We both work full-time (Tobi is a teacher, and I’m a nurse), and since we’re only a duo, we can’t do everything at once. There are a few song ideas we’ve started working on, but with our limited time, we’re focusing on making this release as big as possible.

This is Not Art is out on September 14th, and is available as a digital download from Bandcamp, with the vinyl version coming later this Fall. For more about SVYNX visit their website, or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Bon Voyage: Melody Prochet’s Fantastic Journey

On By chuckhicksIn art rock, avant-garde, jazz rock, pop, progressive rock, psychedelic rockLeave a comment

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This summer saw the long-awaited second release from Melody’s Echo Chamber: Bon Voyage arrived after five stop-and-go and, at times, tortuous years. On its June 15 release date Melody Prochet (vocal, guitar, synthesizers, violin, viola) wrote on her Facebook band page,

Today is a day life forced me to give up waiting for… ‘Bon Voyage’ is a little monster I hope will find it’s home in some of your hearts and…if not soothe, will resonate somehow positively…

So it comes down to listeners interacting with this beast, a theme-park ride of a record, while the artist, one imagines, pulls the covers over her head. First off, it is little, clocking in at a compendious 33 minutes. But given its twists and turns, its density and scope, the brevity of the work allows repeat listens to work out its strange but satisfying logic.

As I told a friend: I can’t imagine a Syd Barrett or Brian Wilson or Todd Rundgren or Wayne Coyne not really liking this record.

Prochet (b. 1987, Puyricard, France) began working on her sophomore project and releasing tracks (e.g. “Shirim”) in 2013. Rumor has it she threw away some of the material. Then last year she was involved in an undisclosed accident resulting in serious injuries. Her fans despaired until Bon Voyage was dropped in time for the summer solstice.

Melody’s Echo Chamber (2012) was readily classified as “psych pop.” But for those who tire of musical taxonomies Bon Voyage is as open borders as they come. The opening track “Cross My Heart” begins with composite acoustic guitar chords followed by a swelling string arrangement, a mid ’60s Wilsonish verse, then a beat box section folding into a flute and percussion-driven jazz passage embellished with some fanatical bass lines. The lyrics here, as throughout the album, flow freely between English and French. We’re escorted back to the opening chords for a reprise of the main (?) verse and a riff-laden, cinematic flourish.

As soon as “Breathe In, Breathe Out” drops a power rock groove the listener’s head-bobbing is interrupted by a trance section before the track accelerates again to its finish, the opening themes reworked but almost unrecognizable in the sonic whiplash.

Prochet cites composer Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992) as a favorite, and perhaps what we catch on this record are flecks of his emphasis on color and unusual time signature.

The first of two foci on this record is “Desert Horse,” pairing a dark Middle Eastern groove (including on old Black Sabbath riff) with a bright but plaintive chorus,

So much blood
On my hands
And there’s not much left to destroy
I know I am better alone

…except the isolation that birthed this record finds its emotional epicenter in the epic “Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige.” Ironically it’s among the more conventional and readily accessible tracks on the album, even at seven minutes. Imagine the Bee Gees not taking that disco detour…

[spoken word] …it comes through the window like a whistle or a whisper under the bed and little children think that the monster —

Angels, aching
Keep smiling
Ain’t no karma, only love
To punish those with rotten heart

Good to have Melody’s Echo Chamber back — and this creature on the loose.

Robert Smith–The Cure Redux!

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Cure Disintegration
1989’s DISINTEGRATION.  Still waiting for its proggier sequel.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love The Cure–at least the non-bubbly Cure.  P—ography and Distintegration are two of the greatest albums of the rock era.

Needless to write (or, maybe, needful to write), I found this interview with Smith somewhat disturbing and a bit painful.  How he’d can’t recognize his own influence on at least two generations of those of us living in western civilization is simply beyond me.

And, Robert, please–just go full out prog and experimental and artsy on the next album.  What do you have to lose!?!?!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/07/the-cures-robert-smith-i-was-very-optimistic-when-i-was-young-now-im-the-opposite?CMP=fb_us

Sarah McLachlan’s FUMBLING at 25

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock13 Comments

sarahmclachlan fumbling
1993’s FUMBLING.  One of the all-time great albums of the rock era.

Let me throw down the mother of gauntlets as I start this piece.

Of all the bands and artists I’ve seen perform live over my fifty years of life, no one has ever exceeded Sarah McLachlan in intensity and performance.  And, yes, I’m comparing her to Rush, to Yes, to Tears for Fears, to Neal Morse, to Kansas, and to a whole host of others.  I’ve seen McLachlan numerous times, and I’ve yet to see anyone give as much as she does.

She gives every single thing she has, and she always has.

There.  The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Sadly, too many readers—and, undoubtedly, progarchy readers—know her for her somewhat sappy and quasi-ideological songs from the late 1990s and after.

Yet, to look at her first three studio albums is to see an artist as artist, an artist before the fame, an artist who knew and loved the art, an artist who simply wanted to become one with her art.  No angels, no building mysteries, and nothing fallen.  Just pure intensity–an artist, her heart, her soul, her words, her bandmates, her engineer, and her producer.

touch
McLachlan’s first, TOUCH (1989).

McLachlan’s first album, 1989’s TOUCH, remains a delicate masterpiece, fragile yet held together invincibly by sheer force of honesty.  Just in her 20s, she already offered the Canadian equivalent of Mark Hollis on this album, full of proggy pop worthy of XTC and Tears for Fears.  Indeed, TOUCH—with its piano and 12-string guitars—might very well have been the perfect mix of Hackett-era Genesis and later Talk Talk.  Though each song on TOUCH is a pop song, the album as a whole is a prog album, having created the most coherent and unique of atmospheres.

Continue reading “Sarah McLachlan’s FUMBLING at 25” →

Up and Over: Mew’s AND THE GLASS HANDED KITES

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

MEW Kites
Such a hideous cover for such a perfect album.  What were these guys thinking with this cover?  It ranks up there with LOVE BEACH.

Many years ago now, I bought my first Mew album, FRENGERS, because of the recommendation of Big Big Train’s Greg Spawton.  Greg has impeccable music tastes (and book recommendations as well), so I was more than happy to learn of the Danish band.

I can state with no exaggeration that FRENGERS pretty much blew me away.

To a lesser extent, the same true of NO MORE STORIES.

Only very recently did I purchase AND THE GLASS HANDED KITES.  For whatever reason, it’s difficult to obtain in North America.  I had to order a used copy.

Whatever I thought of Mew’s other albums, this one is perfection itself.  It’s not only magnitudes better than their other albums (which are already excellent), but AND THE GLASS HANDED KITES is up there with PET SOUNDS, SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR, and SKYLARKING.

In other words, we’re now in the realm of prog-pop godhood.  Holy schnikees.  If you don’t have AND THE GLASS HANDED KITES, get it now.  Granted, the album art is simply terrible, but don’t judge an album by its cover!!!

A proper review is forthcoming.

If 1982 Came to 2015: The Receiver’s ALL BURN (Kscope)

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Review of The Receiver, All Burn (Kscope, 2015).  11 tracks.

All Burn (Kscope, 2015).
All Burn (Kscope, 2015).

Formed a decade ago, The Receiver is the brothers Cooper – vocals, synths/keyboards, bass.  Each of the brothers handles vocals while Casey plays keyboards and bass and Jesse plays drums.  ALL BURN is the band’s third album, the first with Kscope.  The thing that strikes the listener immediately upon hearing the new album is the quality of the vocals and the vocal lines and melodies.  They are gorgeous.  Absolutely and completely gorgeous.  So gorgeous in fact that one could drown in their beauty.

Kscope has labeled The Receiver as “symphonic dream-prog” and if they had to be compared to another Kscope band, they would come closest to Sam Healy’s always-stunning North Atlantic Oscillation.  The Receiver resides on the pop end of Kscope’s offerings, they’re still far more pop than NAO.  Indeed, the best comparison would be to Thomas Dolby’s first album or something from mid-period OMD. Though the production—for the most part—is 2015, the sound is very 1982.

[As a side note, I’ve often wondered what a Big Big Train or a Porcupine Tree would do with One of Our Submarines.]

A moment ago, I mentioned the vocals.  Again, let me state: they are amazing, and these two brothers know how to sing together, and they especially know how to write vocal lines.  They use their voices rather perfectly for the lyrics.  In this way, they are far superior to Dolby or OMD.

If there’s a problem with the album, it’s the production of the bass and keyboards.  The musicianship is excellent, but the end product sounds tinny.  Frankly, I’m having a hard time gauging what’s exactly “not right” with them.  I think it’s that the vocals are so good and so well done that the bass and drums sound a bit thin and superficial, as though they were added on merely to make this a pop album.  It’s possible this is also due to the limitations of streaming the music—I’m listening to it streamed through an online promo on my MacBook Pro.  So, not ideal listening conditions.

Back to the good.  All Burn is pop in the best sense.  There are lots and lots of catchy hooks and lots of returns and repeats to key sections in the music. Still, there’s enough mystery and variety in the music to make it not simply another pop outing.  Songs such as “Dark Matter” have a Steven Wilson feel, and “April Blades” might have come from a Vangelis album.  The music grows moodier and moodier as the album progresses.  My favorite song, by far, is the penultimate track, “How to Be Young,” an existentialist pop navel gazer with lots of backwards production.  The final song, “These Days,” is probably the poppiest, taking us back to an Alphaville moment.

Don’t let my criticisms hold you back.  If you like good pop or pop prog, this album is for you.  If you want to imagine what a “Golden Age of Wireless” would sound like in 2015, buy this.  Or, if you simply love glorious vocals and vocalists, get this.  I probably won’t come back to this album too often, but I am quite interested to see what they do next.