Tag: Progressive rock
STARDUST 20 Years Later: The Flower Kings
The Flower Kings, STARDUST WE ARE (Insideout Music, 1997). Two disks, 20 tracks.
Every once in a while, I see some progger comment on the internet, “I don’t get The Flower Kings,” to which I always want to yell: “What’s not to get? Hippie prog love and lots and lots of it.”
Admittedly, I’m a huge fanboy when it comes to Roine Stolt and The Flower Kings. I’ve listened to them so much over the past two decades that there’s no way I could ever be objective when analyzing the band or its music. To me, every album by The Flower Kings is a small but mighty celebration of the goodness in the world. Each album represents a mood, a state of mind, a sense of being.
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Birzer Bandana–New Prog
I’m very happy to announce the release of a new band and a new album: BECOMING ONE by Birzer Bandana. Yes, for better or worse, I’m the Birzer in Birzer Bandana. The Bandana is Dave Bandana of Salander.
When Dave asked me to write lyrics for a forthcoming album, I was beyond thrilled. Having been a prog rock fan since my earliest memories of childhood, I’ve always wanted to be an intimate part of the act of creation. Sadly, though I have wide-ranging as well as specific tastes in music, I know next to nothing about composition or performance. I do, however, have lots of ideas and words floating around that odd organ known as the human brain. The first idea that came into my mind came from one of my favorite novels, Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. This provided the opening scene, but everything that followed came from my own love of vast, deserted, and broken landscapes and Mark Hollis-esque minimalistic and imagist lyrics. “Becoming One,” then, is a bit post-apocalyptic sci-fi, a bit psychological and theological, and a whole lot of cathartic. Dave masterfully took these poor words and made them something epic. Proggy and epic. But, then again, all prog is epic and all epic is prog. We hope you enjoy our first collaboration—Brad (and Dave), March 18, 2017.
All instruments played by Dave Bandana—except Olga Kent violin on “Awash” and “The Dance” and Mick Bennett who played guitar on “3 To 1.” Dave on vocals, bass, guitars, drums, drum programming, synths, piano, organ, and mellotron.
Produced, engineered and mastered by Dave Bandana at Villa Clavell studios.
Written by Dave Bandana (music) and Brad Birzer (concept and lyrics); Birzer Bandana, ©2017.
Drawing by Lyn Phillips; colouring and graphics by Kim Varner-Fulmer.
https://birzerbandana.bandcamp.com
Harken to the Night Siren
Steve Hackett The Night Siren
Now I’ll be honest the latest Steve Hackett album I have heard is 1994’s Blues With a Feeling, which is not your typical Hackett record, and whilst I have the premonitions set, with the lush 5.1 remastering of his early solo works, despite having heard him guest on other albums, and seen him live several times, cost and life getting in the way have stopped me getting some of his more contemporary work.
Still, he is the only former member of Genesis who is putting out new material on a regular basis, advancing and expanding his sound, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarist in prog, and this album, as it should be is a mighty impressive contemporary prog record.
Princess Eadgyth (Edith), the “Kingmaker” by Big Big Train
Musically, an homage to Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, “Kingmaker” tells the story of a powerful and devout medieval woman, Eadgyth, the granddaughter of King Alfred the Great, and often remembered in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions as “St. Edith” (one of a few St. Ediths, this Edith might have been known as “St. Edith of Polesworth; not surprisingly, many of the traditions are vague).
The sister of King Athelstan, she married King Otto of Germany in 929. Wildly popular, she promoted a devotion to St. Oswald, one of the most romantic figures of the high middle ages.
Only relatively recently, English scholars discovered her bones.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/17/archaeology-forensicscience
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A Prog Odyssey
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
FOUR Major Awards for Big Big Train Last Night
So, from checking social media this morning, it seems that some big things happened in England last night for our great friends, the eight members of Big Big Train (nine if you count Rob!).
[First post listed only THREE awards–corrected. FOUR. Apologies for the error.]
This is from David Longdon:
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Pre-Order GRIMSPOUND by Big Big Train
Greg Spawton posted this minutes ago:
The new Big Big Train album, Grimspound, will be released on April 28th 2017. Pre-orders of the album are now available at our official stores at Burning Shed (for vinyl and CD’s)
https://www.burningshed.com/store/bigbigtrain/
and the Merch Desk (for merchandise and CD’s)
Pre-orders of hi-resolution downloads are available at Bandcamp
https://bigbigtrain.bandcamp.com/
All LP versions feature double, 180g vinyl with a gatefold cover and 4 page booklet featuring lyrics and the stories behind the songs. A complimentary code for a high-resolution download version of the album is provided with each vinyl order. There is a limited edition clear vinyl version alongside the standard black vinyl version and orders of this limited edition version will include a postcard signed by all band members.
The CD version comes in a gloss laminated softpack and features a 24 page booklet with lyrics and the stories behind the songs.
The hi-res download version includes a PDF of the CD booklet.
A limited edition blue vinyl version of the Folklore is also available at Burning Shed (orders will be shipped with a complimentary hi-resolution download code).
Big Big Train are playing three shows at Cadogan Hall, London, in the autumn. The first two shows are sold out and only a few tickets remain for the third show (a Sunday matinee performance.) http://www.cadoganhall.com/event/big-big-train-2016/
Rare Riverside Boxset Available at Burning Shed
For the Riverside diehards among us, Burning Shed has for sale the Riverside Reality Dream Boxset, originally released in Poland in 2011, but extremely hard to find in North America. Believe me, I’ve searched high and low for a decently priced copy here in the States. Now, it’s available again. Order as soon as you can. My guess is that they will go quickly.
Burning Shed’s description:
A six cd box set collection containing Riverside’s Reality Dream studio trilogy, Out Of Myself (2003), Second Life Syndrome (2005) and Rapid Eye Movement (2007), plus the contemporaneous extras and live releases Voices In My Head (2005), Second Live Syndrome (2008) and Rapid Eye Movement II (2007).
Presented in a beautiful six panel digipak.
Pre-order for 24th March shipping.
N.B. This is the 2011 Polish release on the Mystic Production label.
To order, go here: https://www.burningshed.com/store/progressive/product/99/8523/
GrimspoundPaLooza: Big Big Train
As we approach the release of Big Big Train’s tenth album, GRIMSPOUND, don’t hesitate to catch up on all things Big Big Train. As far as I know, we have more articles about the band than any other site on the web, with the important exception of the band’s official website.
Enjoy and celebrate one of the greatest artistic acts over the past century. Greg, Rachel, Rikard, Dave, David, Danny, Nick, Andy, and Rob. Amazing humans, amazing collective.
Big Big Train–Interview, part I–2013
Progarchy 