Porcupine Tree, ANESTHETIZE: LIVE IN TILBURG, OCTOBER 2008 (Kscope, 2cd/1dvd, 2015).
I’m a relative late comer to his music. As chance happened (as chance does), I actually turned on a radio (something I’d really not done since the late 1980s) while driving through Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the early fall of 2002. And, miraculously, at that moment, the station was playing something from IN ABSENTIA.
“Trains,” I think.
Continue reading “A Not So Gentle Reminder: Anesthetize from Porcupine Tree”
A number of you have asked about the band and the music of Third Voice–I played “A Day Like Today” on PR Episode 6.
Here’s a link to the band’s website: http://www.thirdvoicemusic.com
And, here’s the video for the song I played. Enjoy!
I want to thank Bryan, Craig, and Nick for such a civilized discussion regarding politics and art. I also want to thank the many commentators who joined in.
I only have a personal, autobiographical, inward-looking comment. I grew up in an extremely anti-war, pro-Catholic, libertarian household. I’m deeply thankful to my mom, my aunts, my maternal grandmother, and the Dominican nuns for teaching me that EVERY SINGLE HUMAN LIFE (regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, skin tone, etc.) matters.
Life is precious, and the good life is even more so.
If you dig around a bit, you’ll find that Big Big Train has been slowly but surely releasing parts (big and small) of the new album, FOLKLORE.
The band has sent review copies out to print magazines, to British radio stations, and to a few others, but not yet to websites.
For us North American die-hard fans–just remember: STONE AND STEEL will eventually make it here, and so will FOLKLORE. We just have to be patient and trust the band’s release and marketing strategy.
Here, below, are a few snippets available now.
***
About 13.5 minutes into this podcast, you can hear a single from the new album.
http://www.progzilla.com/podcast-francis-dunnery-radio-show-edition-012/
UPDATE – APRIL 22)
Davids voice sounds a little different at times. He still sounds very much like, well, David. But sometimes he’s a bit more gravelly. There are moments in ‘Brooklands’ where some might confuse him with Peter Gabriel. It fits the music and his storytelling on the album very well.
As David hinted in his first blog (http://bit.ly/1VpDzCT) Folkore is really all about storytelling. That’s in the lyrics, the delivery but also very much in the music. Greg wrote (http://bit.ly/1T37HxC) about how the subtext of ‘London Plane’ is the passage of time. Well, you can HEAR that. (Or maybe that’s just my imagination.)
Yesterday I wrote that Folklore might be Big Big Train’s best work to date. While I wrote it, I thought maybe it’s a little early for such a big conclusion. Today I think, although it indeed was early, it’s the right conclusion.APRIL 21)The crow has landed! Folklore. We all know Big Big Train’s music needs a little time to sink in and to unfold and bloom completely. That’s why I will review the album ten times. Or, better, I will take ten days to complete this review. I will write about my first impression today and will update this tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow after tomorrow. Etc. Up to ten updates. (Today: 1/10)I’ve heard the album twice and I can say two things: BBT is proggier than ever on Folklore. And (dare I say it?) poppier. I mean that in a positive way, I keep humming those melodies. They are very (!) catchy at times. “Telling the beeeeees.”I don’t want to be too enthusiastic yet (i have nine review-days to go wink emoticonWho knows, maybe i’ll get bored with this music on day three.) But I’m afraid I have to tell you that Folklore is BBT’s best album to date! More tomorrow. http://youtu.be/U8MzlCvQqn8
I’m absolutely thrilled to read this news. I think the previous three albums have been outstanding, each better than the one before, and the solo album by Bjorn Riis was a thing of beauty as well. They started off rather Pink Floydish, but they’ve certainly become their own band with their own sound over the past two albums.–Brad
 AIRBAG ANNOUNCES FOURTH STUDIO ALBUM “DISCONNECTED” ON KARISMA RECORDS
“Disconnected” out June 10; teaser video streaming online
|
 OSLO, Norway – Norwegian progressive rock act, Airbag, has announced its fourth studio album, Disconnected, to be released on June 10 via Karisma Records. A teaser video for Disconnected, the follow-up to the band’s critically acclaimed 2013 release The Greatest Show on Earth, can be seen on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/gG8vNaWnm1g.
Guitarist Bjørn Riis comments: “The early demos for ‘Disconnected’ were written during a couple of months in late 2014. The idea and inspiration for most of the lyrics, and the title track in particular, came from me realizing that I had to make some changes in my life. I was tired of the daily routine, working 9-5 in an office doing basically nothing and never having enough time for my family and music. I took a year off and started writing for the album.
“As for the music, you want to look forward and explore new sounds and musical ground. We talked a lot about wanting to use more electronic elements and giving more room for the drums, allowing them to be more percussive and basically avoid the usual rock formula on all songs. We also wanted to do a more stripped down production and create a more spacious and dynamic sound.”
Featuring six songs with a common theme of alienation between the individual and society, Disconnected was recorded with long-time collaborator and engineer Vegard Sleipnes and produced by Airbag vocalist Asle Tostrup and guitarist Bjørn Riis.
 1. Killer
2. Broken
3. Slave
4. Sleepwalker
5. Disconnected
6. Returned
Airbag’s music is best described as scenic, epic rock – a sonic journey of lush soundscapes and arrangements, underlined by soaring guitars and soulful vocals. Airbag’s three previous album releases: Identity (2009), All Right Removed (2011) and The Greatest Show on Earth(2013) have gained the band a solid following and reputation among both fans and the press. Prog Magazine hailed The Greatest Show on Earth as a “confident step in the right direction, so much so you’re led to believe that album number four really could be the big one.”
Over the years, Airbag has also become a solid live act, playing at several major festivals and as support and in double-bills with bands like Marillion, Anathema, Pineapple Thief, Riverside, RPWL and Gazpacho.
Stay tuned for more information on Airbag and Disconnected, out this June on Karisma Records.
-###-
|
|
Airbag is:
Bjørn Riis – guitar
Asle Tostrup – vocals, keys, programming
Anders Hovdan – bass
Henrik Fossum – drums Airbag online:
|
A personal journey, Part I.
Twenty-five years ago this fall, progarchist editor Craig Breaden and I were in Waterloo Records, Austin, Texas. There it was on the shelves—the final Talk Talk album, LAUGHING STOCK, in all of its James Marsh-esque glory. Of course, I purchased it as quickly as possible. After all, it had just come out, and Craig and I were living in pre-internet days in northern Utah. We had a music store nearby, but however good it was—and, frankly, it was pretty good—it wouldn’t have dreamt of carrying anything by a band so strange as Talk Talk.
So fortunate we were at a history conference in Texas at the same moment as LAUGHING STOCK’s release.
Craig and I were not only officemates and apartment mates, but we were best friends and music mates. How many hours flew by with Craig and I devouring music—old and new—and then discussing and analyzing every bit of it. I still cherish these nights and even weekend-days as some of the best of my life. Though I’d grown up in a house that respected nearly every form of music, I had never been introduced to some of the great psychedelic and experimental rock acts of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Unless it was by Yes, Genesis, or Jethro Tull, I really didn’t know it. Craig played Procol Harum, Soft Machine, Spooky Tooth, and Traffic for me. I fell in love with each. As the time Craig and I (and another close friend, Joel) were spending so much time together, the music scene itself was going through a bit of a psychedelic revival—with World Party, Charlatans, and others—and this only added to our excitement.
As soon as we returned from Austin, I recorded the full album of LAUGHING STOCK on each side of a double-sided TDK cassette and enthusiastically played this tape over and over and over and over. . . . Even though Craig and I had shared many enthusiasms with each other, this obsession with Talk Talk seemed more than a bit too enthusiastic to Craig.
Understandably so.
By sheer force of will, I fear, Craig had to accept this or our friendship would suffer! Of course, here we are, a quarter of a century later, still very close friends and co-editors of progarchy. . . . You know the story ended well.
For nearly thirty years, I instantly answered the question of “what is your favorite band” with Talk Talk and Rush. If pushed a bit more, I would add Tears for Fears and, depending on my mood, Genesis or Yes or XTC. This rote answer became almost proudly knee-jerk on my part.
When challenged about this opinion, I rather haughtily pointed to THE COLOUR OF SPRING, SPIRIT OF EDEN, and LAUGHING STOCK. After all, who could top fourteen months a shot, recording in dark, deserted churches, challenging every single bit of corporate conformity in the music business.
Mark Hollis, Tim-Friese-Green, and Phill Brown were not just three more musicians in the industry, they lingered as demi-gods at the very edge of Valhalla itself, ready to release Ragnoräk at any moment. And, power to them! As far as I was concerned, the music industry needed and deserved a revolution.
Recently, I’ve realized that Talk Talk no longer holds top spot in my mind when it comes to bands (Big Big Train has finally replaced Talk Talk in my mind and in my soul), but it will always be in the top three for me. For too many years, Talk Talk was my go-to band, my comfort and my first love in the world of music. To this day—and, I presume, to the end of my days—the final three albums the band made will always be the three by which I judge every other release in the music world. Few albums or bands, then or now, can measure up to such heights. But, such is my mind and soul.
Part II to come soon. . . . In the meantime, enjoy 19 minutes of Hollis talking about LAUGHING STOCK.
 |
|
Big Big Train, STONE AND STEEL (GEP, 2016), blu-ray; and Big Big Train, FROM STONE AND STEEL (GEP, 2016), download.
Twelve stones from the water. . . .
Yesterday, thanks to the fine folks at Burning Shed, the first blu-ray release from Big Big Train, STONE AND STEEL, arrived safely on American soil. Then, today, thanks to the crazy miracle of the internet, Bandcamp allowed me to download FROM STONE AND STEEL.
In a span of twenty-four hours, my musical world has been thrown into a bit of majestic ecstasy.
2016 might yet be the best year yet to be a fan/devotee/admirer/fanatic (oh, yeah: fan) of the band, Big Big Train. I’ve proudly been a Passenger since Carl Olson first introduced me to the band’s music around 2009. And, admittedly, not just A fan, but, here’s hoping, THE American fan. At least that’s what I wanted to be moments after hearing THE UNDERFALL YARD for the first time.
Continue reading “The Incomparable Gift of Excellence: Big Big Train’s STONE AND STEEL”
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade (!) since the release of “Milliontown” by Frost*. It was an album that seemingly came out of nowhere and didn’t sound quite like anything in the genre – a dense, dynamic, keyboard-heavy, and at times industrial-sounding album full of killer playing and plenty of memorable melodies.
The brainchild of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jem Godfrey, “Milliontown” remains one of my all-time favorite albums. I’m not sure a week has gone by in those 10 years without my giving at least one or more tracks from it a listen. Since then, the band released a follow-up album, “Experiments In Mass Appeal,” played quite a few gigs, went through some lineup changes over the years in the rhythm section department, released a couple live albums and bonus tracks, and has been an on-again, off-again unit since “Experiments.”
Well, the band is very much on again as Godfrey, John Mitchell (It Bites, Arena, Kino), bassist Nathan King (Level 42) and drummer Craig Blundell (Steven Wilson of late) have recorded “Falling Satellites,” their third full-length album and first in nearly eight years.
Never a group to do the obvious thing – a look at their many “Frost* Reports” and live videos kicking around YouTube will more than prove that point – the Frosties gathered at Rockfield Studios several years back to record some of their tunes live off the floor. One of those tracks,”Heartstrings,” is well known in the Frostiverse, but will see its studio debut on “Falling Satellites,” which will be released May 27th.
(By the way, it’s not like you need me to connect any prog dots for you, but if Rockfield Studios sounds somewhat familiar, it could be because Rush recorded “A Farewell To Kings” and “Hemispheres”at the Wales-based studio)
Taken from “The Rockfield Files” DVD, Godfrey excerpted and posted this beautifully-shot and edited video for “Heartstrings” earlier this week. Enjoy!
Progarchy 