Gates Of Delirium - JC Progressive Rock Thread

The only boring music for me, that comes to mind at the moment, is anything by Snorah Jones. zzzZZZzzz

Don't. Get rather the older Best Of Volumes 1 and 2.

There was a Volume 2?

 

There was a Volume 2?

Oops. Well Volume 1 is enough.

 

Time to up this thread.

Been listening Asia's Silent Nation for some time now. I'm not going to write a track by track analysis but there's no weak songs in the album and couple of songs like What About Love and Midnight I really like. Perhaps the songs are not overall quite at the same level with Aura but good nonetheless. As a group Asia however sounds perhaps better than ever. Geoff Downes plays fantastic melodies and Chris Slade is good as usual. The highpoint here is definately the guitarist Guthrie Govan (btw he could easily enter Ian Anderson look-a-like competion). Govan may not be as technical as Steve Howe but certainly he's a truly fantastic guitarist. The lowpoint here is John Payne's vocals which at couple of times sound quite annoying. In the earlier albums I've liked his vocals but this time I'm a bit disappointed. But in any case great album and while there was nothing really spectacular on the making of DVD included in package that too was quite good. Best album of 2004 in any case.

Then I finally bought the debut album of the most famous sound engineer of the world, Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe by The Alan Parsons Project. Alan Parson became famous as the recorder of albums like Abbey Road and Dark Side Of The Moon. The Alan Parson Project features an impressive list of musicians and of course a top quality recording and producing. The songs are based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and are quite dark at the mood but each song is just brilliant. This is definately art rock. Highly recommended.

And a couple DVD mentions here too. First I'd like to recommend Nektar Live. This shows most of Nektar concert at the Nearfest 2002. Guys are older and don't look exactly like rock musicians but they sure can play. Mo Moore is perhaps the most underrated bass player ever. Great show with most of their classic songs. Unfortunately only an extract of Remember The Future is included here. But at least we get King Of Twilight (Iron Maiden did a cover version of that in the 80's). If you don't know Nektar already, this is quite a good place to start.

THen also a brief mention of Uriah Heep's Magician Birthday Party. Perhaps not exactly prog but close enough. This is also from 2002 and what makes this concert special is that former heeps John Lawton and more importantly Ken Hensley join the band on stage. Heep is one of the best live bands in the world (I just saw them second time live about a month ago) and they're really on fire on this show. Some classic songs are missing from the song list but that's hardly a problem since concert is still superb in every way. Special mention for the special guest Thisj Van Leer of Focus who also appears on show with his flute playing and yodelling.

Focus may well be next group I'm going to check out. You can hear an example here. Just scroll down a bit and check especially that Hocus Pocus. Rock songs with yodelling are not so common after all.

 

Lately I haven't had very many new prog experiences but I still decided to mention a couple of Yes news bits here.

Yes is going to release a new live collection probably this spring. This set is supposed to contain some not so often heard gems of nearly every line up of Yes. Not very much details are available so let's just hope it will be a good collection.

Also the new Yes tour DVD is going to be released this spring (april in the US). The 35th anniversary tour was so great that I'm absolutely going to get the dvd too.

I'm still hoping that the guys will record a whole new studio album as soon as possible. There are some rumors about that possibility but that's all.


That's all for now.

 

Heh, I'll be seeing Asia live in less then a month. I don't expect much, but it might turn out OK...

 

BTW, anyone familiar with Saga? Excellent Canadian band with a great guitar player. They're like a mix of Gentle Giant with 70's disco-ish beats and some 80's new wave thrown in for good measure. You can tell they've been an influence on some video-game music.

 

I have Saga's self titled debut album and I've also listened their second album couple of times. Excellent stuff. Their guitar player is really good. I haven't tried any of their later stuff.

Asia would be nice to see on stage someday. They would be in Stockholm just few weeks from now but unfortunately that date is not good for me. Hopefully I'll be able to see them some other time.

 

Few days ago I still thought that Camel's Live Record and DVD Coming Of Age were the only decent live stuff from Camel but then I found The Paris Collection. It's a recording of Camel's Paris concert in 2000. Nearly everything possible went wrong during this tour but the concert and the recording are flawless. Andrew Latimer had a bad flu so Colin Bass and Guy LeBlanc did the vocals, and they did really excellent job in that. And more importantly Latimer's flu did affect his guitar playing at all. On the contrary guitar playing on this album sounds more inspired and emotional than ever. The opening number "Ice" starts the album with such a beauty that listener comes close to tears. The rest of the album keeps up the spell and then at the end the album closes with the magnificient version of the "Lady Fantasy" leaving the listener totally spellbounded. Luckily there's still a very relaxing late night version of "Slow Yourself Down" as a bonus track.

Live Record may still be the ultimate Camel live album but The Paris Collection is just as great and really shows that despite numerous personnel changes the old magic is still there. Too bad Camel stopped touring couple of years ago. I'm still hoping for a release of their Nearfest concert from their final tour.

 

*bump*

make sure you check out Steve Hackett's latest classical masterpiece, Metamorpheus. Yes, it is that good.

 

When is that damned Yes live box set coming out? I'm really sick of waiting...

 

July, I think.

I'm more tired of waiting for a new studio album, now that Wakeman has vowed to quit live performing by the end of 2006.

Then again, Wakeman and the other guys of Yes have vowed a lot of things that never remotedly saw the light of day.

 

Up.

 

Big News for Pink Floyd fans...

Roger Waters has reunited with David Gilmour and the rest of Pink Floyd for the upcoming "Live 8" series of charity concerts in Europe later this year.

Anyone can find the details on Google, or I'd suggest my favorite PF fansite, PinkFloydOnline.com

I think that this is huge news -- akin to if the Beatles reunited ( were that possible ), because I'd never expect this in a million years. I know that this is, at this point, just for a certain number of shows for charity, but this is such a huge step by itself that I wonder if anything is possible now, down the road...

 

i am hoping that this will lead to a tour!

 

I'll be there if the original Floyd tours!

Here's an item that may interest European prog fans....

http://www.noblepr.co.uk/zappa/

Frank Zappa's two sons, Dweezil and Ahmet are embarking on a first of its kind European tour playing their father's music this fall: Zappa plays Zappa. Many special guests from Frank's career are expected to appear.

I have my fingers crossed that they will bring the tour subsequently to the states!

 

Do you mean Syd Barret era "original" Floyd, Tobie-Wan? Keep praying...

That's awesome about Ahmet and Dweezil. Zappa has always been big here in the U.S., so I'd expect a tour stateside. I hope that Terry Bozzio makes a cameo.

 

Do you mean Syd Barret era "original" Floyd, Tobie-Wan? Keep praying...


Ha! Maybe performing a forbidden ritual will be more apt to make it happen.

 

Rosemary Breen, Syd Barrett's sister, told him about his old band mates reforming for the Live 8 concert - news which was met with complete indifference, apparently.

I'll be in line for a long time if they tour with Waters (and without too)

I'm almost as excited as when I heard that Lucas would make episode 1-3, no maybe more excited, I've never really expected this to happen

 

Syd has been indifferent to Floyd for ages anyway. He seems to be content to stay at home, drink tea and paint, from what I understand.

 

That should be "paint and drink tea."

Although who knows, with his mental state...

 

It's been quite a long time since I've posted here but here's some of my latest thoughts.

I have to admit that I'm quite indifferent concerning the news about Pink Floyd reunion. I'm not very enthusiastic about Waters. If however the classic line-up of Genesis would reunite that would be a whole different case.

Some time ago I finally got Focus - Moving Waves. I've meant to get that album for a long time and I finally managed to do so. I've heard that this would be the best album of Focus and that may well be so. First song on the album is their big hit single Hocus Pocus which features very aggresive guitar riffs by Jan Akkerman and yodeling interludes by Thisj Van Leer. Classic stuff. Rest of the album is equally enjoyable. The other highlight is 23 minute Eruption-suite.

And then the more interesting new purchase. I bought just today the new Yes DVD Songs From Tsongas. The concert is close to three hours long and it's just superb in every way. Only in the opening number Going For The One Jon Anderson's voice is not as clear as it used to be. But otherwise guys perform faultlessly. And camerangles are really good too. Though I would have liked to see the audience just a bit more. But what few glimpses they show the audience are just perfectly timed. And this time there are no annoying animations or stuff like that in the DVD, like the ones in Keys To Ascension DVD. When I left the Yes concert in Helsinki a year ago I was already determined to get this DVD and now that I've got it I'm not disappointed. The version of South Side Of Sky here would be worth the whole DVD alone.

 

Have any of you heard of Guapo? They've recently released an album on Mike Patton's label Ipecac Records. They're an English group that crosses Magma with the more bombastic side of ELP or King Crimson, though without vocals, and far heavier than any of those bands ever were. Instrumentation is drums/bass/keyboards (mostly Fender Rhodes ). These guys are amazing!

official website!

 

Anybody listen to Gong?

If so can you recommend an album?

 

You and Angels Egg are good..

 

I'm not personally familiar with either Guapo or Gong, but for people who want to know something about them (or about every other prog group) I recommend excellent Prog Archives.

Has anybody seen Jon Anderson solo tour? I would have a chance to see him next september and I was wondering if anybody could say if he's any good without Yes. I'm not very familiar with his solo stuff. I have only Olias which is absolutely brilliant.