I didn’t plan to start a new thread but I wasn’t sure which post I could add it to. Those instruments you love to hate, though no mention of crumhorns. Any more to add?
The Daily Mash takes a potshot
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The Snowflake Generation pt. 94
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The article itself makes one universal point: that in your thirties you have less free time with careers, young children etc. than when you were 18. Twas ever thus.
And he’s a bit sad that he’s not got as many friends to go and see the Libertines with as 20 years ago.
But the BTL comments are great, including a prog-loving poster that must almost certainly be an Afterworder by another name.
But really…I’d almost call him a c#######n except he’s got an article on music published in the Guardian and I haven’t. Pull your socks up man!
Spare ticket for Anathema at the London Palladium Saturday 7 March
My friend can’t make it so his ticket is looking for a home. It’s in the Circle, priced at around £30 but no reasonable offer refused. You’ll have to sit next to me but I promise I won’t be singing along or playing with my phone. Drop me a line at mikesargent56@gmail.com if interested. Thanks.
Jazz : A Force for Good
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I am not a jazzer. No way. Expose me to pure jazz, and I will run a mile. It just doesn’t work for me, and I have tried (as have friends). It really came home to me when I went to see Bill Bruford some years ago. There I was looking forward to this alumnus of three of my favourite bands but, No! This wasn’t right at all. It was all clarinets and marimbas.
Yet, when the music in my comfort zone gets exposed to jazz, that’s when it really gets exciting. Joni when she gets Jaco. Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. My favourite folk dance thrives when Andy Cutting’s melodeon, the hurdy gurdy and the bagpipes, get cut with multiple saxes and it swings. Above all, at the recent live reincarnations of King Crimson, what has got me on the edge of my seat with delight, what has enthralled me and kept me guessing, has been the syncopations, the flights of fancy, the vaulting instrumentals setting off at tangents. I have to concede; it’s the jazz which makes it.
Given the recent expose from the Daily Mail that a love of jazz renders suspect the credibility of Scottish » Continue Reading.
Prog Mag : Greatest Genesis Songs …. Ever
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They’re doing a survey, so we don’t have to.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/vote-for-the-greatest-genesis-songs-ever
Recommend some long, please
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Wandering through Spotify lately, I’ve been drawn to longer pieces.
Came across an LP, Perpetual by Ryuichi Sakamoto, its second movement clocks in just under 20 minutes. Also have been enjoying Blackened Cities by Melanie de Biasio which I discovered through the Afterword’s best of 2016.
I’m looking for some more, any suggestions?
Difficult, uneventful, busy, calming – I don’t mind.
Prog-Rock Disco
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According to Stuart Maconie on today’s Freakier Zone show. Some right bobby dazzlers on the list. Do you agree? Could you suggest other Prog tracks that would get you on the dance floor? Here’s mine. I used to “freak out” at the BIT disco on many a Saturday night I can tell you. Proper shook my hair about (when I had it).
Free Prog! Free Wilko Johnson!
Quick heads up – we went to the Stonefree festival at the O2 today where we found that tickets are only needed for the evening and the main arena. The afternoon acts on the other stages, the Fireball in the lobby and the Indigo, are free entry.
I suppose this might have annoyed anyone who splashed out for a festival tickets because they were fans of Michael Monroe or Therapy? and then found out that could have seen them free, but anyway … Today is prog day at Stonefree and Indigo have a bunch of acts I have never heard of (contemporary prog isn’t my thing – you may know and revere the names) but is headlined (from 4 to 5pm) slightly incongruously by Wilko. Full schedule here (remember it’s the Fireball and Indigo only which are free, or at least we’re yesterday –
Looking for a concept
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Decorating day, looking for something different to listen to, so fancied some good concept album, preferably with a story that you can follow (any narration welcome). Enjoyed Rick Wakeman’s Journey to Centre of Earth so now onto Myths & Legends of King Arthur (not so great…) But what should I try next?
Official Trailer
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Oh look. Here’s a nice trailer for a forthcoming 2016 blockbuster movie.
Look again. This is a trailer for the new Dream Theater concept album “The Astonishing” due out on January 29th. A double-concept album of almost 150 minutes of Progressive Rock. Or tosh, if you are not a fan. DT have produced a few decent recordings in the past and I do like the widdly twiddly tunes of keyboard wizard (Stop please – Ed.) Jordan Rudess on his solo work.
The first review of the album, by Teamrock.com, was positive. Calling the album “stupefyingly complex, cinematic and ambitious almost to the point of lunacy” That’s me convinced then. I shall be rushing down to the shops (Amazon) with my Christmas record token to purchase (listen online) this new release. In the meantime, here is the first single “The Gift Of Music” from the LP (I’ve warned you – Ed.)
https://youtu.be/B3YdzMy593Y
Calling Colin H
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I know @colin-h is a completest of all things Mahavishnu. Just in case he has not seen this recent posting, John McLaughlin chooses his favourite prog artist.
http://prog.teamrock.com/features/2015-12-16/john-mclaughlin-chooses-his-favourite-prog-artist
Steve Davis Prog Top 10 – Actually Very Interesting
Over the past couple of years I’ve warmed to the idea of ‘Prog’. I still show a clean pair of heels to The Tull, ELP, Camel and so forth, however I did recently see King Crimson with their three drummer onslaught and was suitably hooked, so I guess like the wonkier end of Prog, and I also like bands like This Heat and Henry Cow which I suppose are somewhere between Prog and Art Rock/Post punk. I never imagined 80s snooker ace would have a great influence on my listening habits but sure enough his list of Snooker Loopy tunes is quite fantastic. I’m already familiar with Robert Wyatt and Gentle Giant and am particularly taken with his relatively recent tips of albums by Trojan Horse and Skeletons both of which I’ve snapped up and I’m blown away by, and my ‘wants’ list includes the Camberwell Now back catalogue. Anyone care to recommend anything else in this vein? It strikes me that there are some amazing bands around that carry that somewhat toxic ‘Prog’ tag which means they get overlooked.
Big Big Train. Encore!
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For @niallb and other fans of new Progressive Rock. Marvellous.
Anyone fancy seeing Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) Tues 29 Sep at Royal Albert Hall?
He’s going to play a non standard set including early solo and Porcupine Tree songs. Seatwave has really good seats at only £35. Sadly I don’t seem to know anyone who wants to go and is free that night. Anyone fancy coming along?
Free Steven Wilson Sampler
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from Amazon. Couple of live tracks and remixes to interest existing fans.
Prog Alert…
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A couple of years ago, I was tipped off about an Oxford-based prog band called Sanguine Hum. I bought the two albums then available, and thought they were pretty good, though unable to resist the usual “not as good as those golden-age prog bands” caveat. However, Sanguine Hum have recently released their third album, and it’s a corker. Whether you’re a prog fan from those far off days of the early 70s, or a nu-prog youngster, I strongly urge you to check out their double-CD behemoth, “Now We Have Light”. Not just a prog album, but a prog CONCEPT album, by golly! I really didn’t think I’d ever hear another prog album as dazzlingly original as this one. Here’s a taster – if you like it, I assure you it’s all just as good as this.
Daevid Allen latest to shuffle off this mortal coil
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lung cancer got him. Retired to Byron Bay after to pathbreaking years heading Soft Machine then Gong. Funny,never knew he was an Aussie.
Revisiting the criteria for PROG
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I know we debated this in the old place but hey new site ,let’s argue the same stuff again.
David Peperell, a bloke I know in Melbourne , a veteran of the Melbourne music scene and someone whose musical opinion I respect came up with his own criteria for Prog. He was prompted by this silly list of prog bands ….Toto?
http://www.listchallenges.com/top-100-prog-bands-of-all-time?fb_action_ids=10153124109608724&fb_action_types=og.comments
According to David, prog bands must be 1. English and 2. Active in the period 1969-1979. German bands are Kraut Rock not Prog and bands after 1979 are just out of the cultural loop.
I queried the English only criterion and thought prog bands could exist outside his time period but I concede this is where the original and the best comes from. I offered this definition. I Bands using elaborate time scales, a bevy of keyboards , musically trained classical influences if not classics lifted, extended instrumental passages and lyrics pertaining to fantasy worlds to me are prog. Throw in a few capes and you’re a cert.
And here was his list of who he regarded as genuine prog. ( Yes I spotted Focus as anomalous to0)
ALAN PARSONS PROJECT ATOMIC ROOSTER BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST BEGGARS OPERA » Continue Reading.
Jethro Tull – the Rock Opera
I love the fact that in his dotage, Ian Anderson is embracing the more absurd and extreme forms of prog rock.
After last year’s Homo Erraticus concept album, he’s now gone to the next level with plans for a rock opera about Jethro Tull (the man, not the band).
It’s what the world has been waiting for.
