PROG-ROCK:
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Live-Remaster CD
It's rare to classify a live album by a band as one of - if not THE - definitive albums of their 30 year career - but in this case, the act was completely justifiable. Now - thanks to a wondrous remastering job courtesy of Mark Powell - the idea carries even more weight, for this is truly one of the most underestimated prog rock albums of the seventies. OK, so there are no twenty minute epics, but there are a series of passionate performances of studio tracks that add a vitality and energy that was sorely lacking on the originals. Take the openers - ten minutes each of 'Summer Soldier' and 'Medicine Man' that sound crisp, clear, solid and sharp, the assorted peaks of lead vocal, gorgeous harmonies and the duelling and soloing from lead guitar and, primarily, mellotron rising and rising to giddy heights. Then the sizzling rendition of the short but steaming 'Crazy City' that features some scorching mellotron stabs amid a hail of guitars and synths while light and airy but purposeful lead vocals and harmonies fly high as the rhythm section drives it on - superb. Following a selection of tracks from three to over six minutes long, all of which take these essences and play with them so delightfully, there is the anthemic eight minutes of 'She Said', a track that took the idea of prog-rock ballad to altogether greater heights, as the mellotron sea added to the flowing, searing lead guitar, rises and falls with the structure of the song, the vocals delivered with heartfelt grace and passion throughout, the whole thing making th hairs stand up on the back of your neck without a doubt. The tenth track, 'For No-One' is equally gripping, albeit with more of an upwards constancy to the soloing and structure, while the finale of their seminal track 'Mockingbird', very much a partner to Crimso's 'Moonchild' in many ways - a lot of this album sharing roots with that band's debut - draws a classic album to a jaw-dropping finale as the multi-part harmonies and combined lead vocals deliver a song with tenderness and dynamics as the band drive forwards on a wave of guitars and mellotrons to jaw-dropping delight. Deservedly, and still, a classic seventies prog-rock landmark.
GLASS HAMMER: The Inconsolable Secret DBLCD
The first studio album in a while sees a new revitalised band in action, a band that has made one vital change from the previous two studio albums - economy!! Although I adored the previous two albums, you can't deny that this band "threw in the kitchen sink" when it came to the layers, instruments and production. Now, they've managed to produce an album that their fans always wanted - class songs, three epics, a decidedly seventies approach to it all but arrangements where you get to hear the core instrumentation in the same vein as the legendary seventies bands such as Yes, Genesis & ELP, whose influences pervade most of this album, without being buried under tons of extra layers. As a result, the opening fifteen minute 'A Maker Of Crowns' almost takes the seventies by the scruff of the neck and simply updates it - mellotrons soaring out, Wakeman-Emerson styled organ work rippling away, while the crisp and crunchy rhythm section tie it all together, as lead synths and guitars appear from time to time for maximum impact rather than being all over the place. The vocals just soar, the song flows majestically and the whole feel of something like 'Foxtrot' or 'Close To The Edge' is never far away. The other track on CD1, the even more epic twenty four minutes of 'The Knight Of The North', continues this whole sound and feel, so much so that you close your eyes and it could be some lost classic from this seventies greats that you simply never knew existed. In addition to the aforementioned elements, there are also more intricate vocal harmonies, some solid piano work, more rivers of mellotrons, excellent vocals and an overall arrangement of a sheer quality epic track that will have you riveted for years to come. The instrumental section around 8 minutes that sees organ, synth and mellotron sparring away is breathtaking while the gorgeous acoustic guitar around twelve minutes evokes early seventies Hackett playing before it all suddenly erupts in a sea of rhythm section and mellotrons to jaw-dropping effect. Throughout the track, the electric guitar takes up a much more background role as this is a keyboard-dominated epic of immense proportions, one of the finest keys-synths-mellotrons epic track of its kind.
Over to the second CD, a collection of 9 tracks between two and seven minutes bookended by a ten and a thirteen minute track, and it starts pretty much as the opening track left off, if anything sounding more like classic Yes than anything with the lead guitar now back upfront and the mellotrons still flying high , as the harmony vocals evoke Starcastle and the whole feel and, even sound (particularly the Steve Howe-esque slide guitar lead that soars in at just over two minutes) is even more Yes-like as the organ and mellotrons and synth transport you to an altogether higher plane. A magical ten minutes that's even better than what's already occurred. The following nine tracks are just so stunning that I'd need all day to tell you in detail, but just trust me - this is one amazing set of songs, playing and arranging that tops anything they've ever done before by miles. The band end the album with a thirteen minute gem that starts sedately and rises up to a glorious crescendo of sound that will have the hairs standing up on the back of your neck as it all ends and the only thing that's left to do………is go back to CD1 and play it all over again. A triumph!!!!
DOUG HILSINGER with CAROLEEN BEATTY: Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy CD
Album of the year so far?? - No, seriously - this is genius!!
These days you can't move for tribute albums to this group and that, even several bands doing a tribute to one particular album. Well, move aside all ye timewasters, because the real deal's here - one guy, and his female vocalist, completely recreating a single album, track for track - and no ordinary album, either - we're talking Brian Eno's seventies classic follow-up to 'Here Come The Warm Jets'. This second album received many plaudits and has since become the stuff that the phrase "classic" revolves around. So, for some guy to come along and stay faithful to the style, spirit and, by and large, structure of the original, while at the same time providing an album that you'll not only listen to for years and years to come, but which is arguably as good as if not better than, the original, and you'll get some idea of the stature of this re-creation. For a start the use of a mid-range, atmospheric, strong, soaring female vocalist is a touch of utter genius - as she carries songs that you would have thought to be untouchable by anyone other than Eno himself and certainly would never have carried that same air of humour, mystery and magic, but Ms Beatty does it all as though it were her own, even to the extent of making the opening two songs even more anthemic than ever they are on the original album. But then we come to the music - jaw-dropping is perhaps the only phrase to use. The arrangements of guitars, bass, drums, percussion and keyboards is utterly incredible - he's not only managed to reproduce the magic that made the originals so unique, but he's done it while still making it sound wholly original so that, while you know and love the songs concerned, you get the distinct feeling that this could have been a new millennium makeover by the great man himself rather than someone else, almost the "Tubular Bells 2" of the Eno world, only done by someone else. Trust me when I say that, if you know and love this album, you just have to own this as it will take the place of the old one in the heart of your collection. I've not played an album so much in the space of time that I've had this, in a long long time, and every time I hear it, I'm just astounded by how great it sounds, how brilliantly it's been arranged, played and performed and, as I said, what a complete work of utter musical genius, it is - OK so he had genius as a template, but even so……you can't argue with something THIS good.
DANIEL J: Losing Time CD
NO!!! Listen………….I'm telling you - this is a King's X album!! What do you mean, Daniel J - don't give me that rubbish - it's a King's X album, isn't it!! Look will you - believe the evidence of your own ears will you - those guitars, that grungy bass, the amazing production, the song structure, those harmonies, the thrashing drums, the sense of dynamics - it's bloody King's X I tell you. It couldn't be any one else. Next thing you'll be telling me is that Porcupine Tree are really Pink Floyd in disguise. Jeez - Daniel J? - Sure it is………..
OK - I was going to leave it there but that seems a tad unfair - after all, it really is a thunderously good album. But if you know the aforementioned band, then you'll be positively jaw-dropped at the similarities, only where that band could be prone to the odd lapse, this is sensational all the way through. Largely composed, played and sung by the one guy - odd guest appearances popping up from the likes of Jordan Rudess - this is what you'd call "quality rock" rather than "prog metal" with guitar work to wake the dead as leads splinter off into the night skies amid a production and depth of playing that is red hot. But it's in his aptitude as all-round songwriter, singer, arranger and complete clever dick that this guy is so unbelievably brilliant - song after song just leaps out of the speakers, defying you not to gyrate around the room like a dervish on heat, while at the same time being just SO listenable and enjoyable, it's almost a crime not to listen to the whole thing in one sitting each time you play it. Fantastic - you simply can't fault rock music that's as good as this - a contender for rock album of the year - and I mean that!! Makes the likes of Darkness, Velvet whatever they are and the rest look like Punch and Judy in comparison. Stunning and then some.
LEGER DE MAIN:The Concept Of Our Reality/Second First Impression - Remastered+Remixed DBL CD
The opening 8 min track of 'Concept' sets the scene with soaring Haslam-like vocals, only more dynamic, over a strident rhythm section with Squire-like bass guitar and a storm of electric guitars and keyboards swirling and driving in grand fashion on an extended instrumental break that really tears loose in the grand prog traditions, with a sense of urgency that eventually decelerates to reintroduce the vocal over a sea of chiming guitars, booming bass and crashing drums. Then it's off again, this time with synths upfront and a 'Relayer'- era Howe style guitar line. This pattern of inst interludes and the song base is the theme of the track, superbly produced, driving, crystal clear sound and a brilliant opener. The 5m and 4 m tracks 2 and 3 carry on in a similar vein, rich and powerful, with lush textures from guitars and synths over driving rhythms with high-flying female vocals, sounding a bit like Geddy Lee on track 3, the whole track having a definite Rush influence. Then comes the album's 'tour-de-force' , a 20 min track that is a cross between Rush, Yes and Renaissance. Mere words cannot describe what a surging, dynamic slice of brilliance this track is. The CD ends on a 7 min stormer, bringing a great prog album to a close.
The title of the second CD is very apt, because if your first impression of the band was their debut CD, and that was good, this should now actually be seen as the first real impression of what their music is all about because this is just SENSATIONAL compared to the first album. A mind-blowing album of real progressive rock taking its cues from everyone and no-one. You recognise all sorts of influences along the way from the giants of prog (touches of Yes, ELP, Rush and Renaissance), but just glimpses, as the music emerges fairly and squarely as Leger De Main, and the result is very impressive as a new musical force is born. The first 8+ mins of the disc are instrumental and red hot with layers of kybds/synths and gtrs. The first of 4 songs (from over 6 to 12 mins) starts more relaxed with Melissa's delightful and dynamic mid- register vocal soaring over the gradually more powerful symphonic backdrop, changing the picture constantly as it goes from simple acoustic guitar backing to Emerson style synth histrionics over pumping prog rhythms. The songs are structured for the vocals to be an integral part, yet giving miles of room for featuring the lead instrumental work from the synths and guitars, while the rhythm dept is rock solid, inventive and forceful. The tracks all have excellent range, dynamics and pace, superbly produced, occasionally reflective, building tension and letting rip into prog supernova. Each track is well played and arranged and this is destined to be one of the best modern yet familiar prog masterworks of '98 from a band who've matured beyond belief, and this is only album number two. A killer.
OM TRIO: Globalpositioningrecord CD
Instrumental from bass, drums and keyboards/synths, with a guest electric guitarist on 3 of the 14 tracks. For those of you at this point who are thinking 'Nice-yawn-ELP-yawn", let me tell you that you are completely on the wrong track. It's actually incredibly non-progressive sounding. The drummer sounds like he should be in Can while the keys/synths player could have been off any number of seventies albums that utilized this style of and sound of keys/electronics. The whole thing swings and has a real groove about it, preferring to have you swaying and dancing rather than sitting there in wrapt attention - although you can do that as well. It's actually one of the most addictive albums of its kind that I've come across in ages - the rhythms get you for a start, but as to its musical identity - it straddles a line between Krautrock, fusion, prog-rock and all done with a seventies flavour for sure, so that bands such as Suntreader, Keith Tippett and a guitar-free Isotope come to mind, not to mention the Canterbury stalwarts such as Hatfields & Mole (without guitars of course). But then, on a track like the six minute 'Tor S' they'll suddenly introduce a delicious Hammond organ lead that'll tthrow you completely as to where this album's really at. I've not heard its like in years and years - and this is a feast of keyboards and rhythms in what is more meodic fusion than anything but will have an appeal to a wide cross section of music fans.
OZONE QUARTET: Live At Local 506 CD
Recorded in 2000, this remains the only live document of a truly fantastic instrumental band who manage to make the line-up of electric guitar-electric violin-Chapman Stick-drums sound like it really should have been the way forward. The sound quality and performance are exceptional - that's for sure - and anyone who was into the likes of Curved Air, Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Caravan and Wolf will get off on this band's music. With the ensemble work to the fore, the band vary between strident fusion and sinuous prog, but always with melodies flowing as the central core of what this music is all about. There's a definite passion to the playing and there's no point at which your brain switches off a they maintain a great sense of dynamics in the arrangements, so that you get a couple of storming tracks such as 'Dragonfly' and 'Mutoid Man' then a relative rest as the gorgeous strains of 'Flood' ring out and that wonderfully fluid violin just transports you to another dimension, before the main riff and rhythm kick back in, the guitar takes the role of backdrop and the muscle begins to flex as the band go all solid and lead into a searing guitar solo that takes you even higher. As a well crafted set of compositions it manages to make the amalgam of melodic prog and fiery fusion work impeccably and, of its kind, is one of the best you'll hear.
PINK FLOYD: In London '66-'67 CD
You need to get hold of this - and fast - because they have remastered it on SBM system - and it sounds just amazing, now. You only have to compare the opening bars of a storming near seventeen minute, previously unreleased (when this first came out) studio version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' to hear the difference - the bass is really upfront, the hiss has gone, the distortion has gone and the whole thing sounds like a real studio track and not some forgotten demo. Louder, too, this can now be regarded as a killer rendition of the legendary sci-fi-rock instrumental, with the original Barrett-Waters-Mason-Wright line-up delivering a most potent outing. The same is true for the instrumental 'Nick's Boogie' which has now got equally amazing sound and is just superb at still nearly twelve minutes long. In addition, you get the video footage of the performance of ' Interstellar' on the CD-ROM portion of the disc, completing what is an absolutely essential addition to any Floyd collection, and what would make a superb addition to anyone's space-rock or '70's prog collection for those who maybe weren't into Floyd because of the songs but REALLY fancy the idea of the band doing just instrumentals - and long ones at that. Superb
QOPH: Pyrola CD
In many ways, it's like Belew-led '80's King Crimson with more of a rock edge to it, but the ways the compositions twist and turn, the ways the guitars fly, soar and splinter off at all angles, the way the rhythm section rolls, drives, stumbles and powers its way to oblivion only for the whole thing to stop short of supernova, in classic Crimso traditions, calm down with chiming guitars, solid rhythms and assorted effects, only to power up once more and shoot out of sight. With 7 songs between four and fourteen minutes, there are also, believe it or not, elements of 10CC in the songwriting and singing, but it's the Crimso influence that rings through, while the overriding feel is that of some lost seventies album. I reckon if you liked seventies rock that had a prog flavour and no keyboards, no violins and just guitars, then this will do you just fine.
RENAISSANCE: Heritage CD
Magical seventy -eight minute album that features half electric performances and half acoustic performances, all recorded live in concert and all in immaculate sound quality. The seven acoustic tracks are taken from the long deleted 'Unplugged' album and include some of their best shorter tracks, including the chart hit 'Northern Lights' with vocalist Annie Haslam showing that just because it isn't electric, doesn't make it any less fantastic, giving a solid and high-flying vocal performance that's note-perfect throughout, while the band play it sensitively and with feeling. The electric first half is electrifying as both band and vocalist deliver some of their finest long and short tracks, including a magical fourteen minutes of 'Can You Hear Me Call Your Name' with flowing leads from synths and keys as the main melodic focus, but arrangements and a positively unique sound showing that this band truly were a one-off. If you've never heard the band before, then, while this isn't THE definitive studio album to start with, it's certainly, at this price, one of THE definitive live albums, arguably better than many studio albums also, and comes highly recommended to fans and newbies.
TWELTH NIGHT: XII -Remaster+Bonus Tracks CD
The final studio album from 1986 and it's a set of tracks averaging four to five minutes apiece, the main album culminating in an eleven minute composition. But, largely, it comes across as sounding rather more typibally eighties than I'd remembered - more art rock than prog rock, certainly neo prog at best. In fact you hear more Blancmange than Marillion in here, as the songs unfold with those typically bouncy eighties rhythms and you do wonder if Virgin Records didn't actually miss a trick at the time because this is way more commercial than any normal prog-rock album - in fact to callit a prog rock album at all, is fairly wide of the mark. Fans of Spandau Ballet, ABC (in particular) and their ilk could treat this as some lost eighties pop gem that sacrificed overt commerciality for musicianship, and on that level it works a treat. But as a prog rock album? Give me a break!!
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: Godbluff / World Record / Quiet Zone-Pleasure Dome / Vital (DBL CD) - Remastered+Bonus Tracks EachCD
Surprisingly, the best of the bunch here is the live album, 'Vital', quite simply because it's one of the most raw, most powerful statements that the band ever issued. In the dawn of punk, something must have rubbed off on the band, as the performances here are way more electrifying than on any of the studio albums, with an electricity in the air as the combination of guitar, violin, cello and sax never sounded so searingly hot, while vocalist Hammill hollers forth lyrics that make you sit up and take notice, a voice that has you hanging on every nuance and compositions from across the range of their catalogue that can truly stand up as one awesome concert. Now restored to the full concert and running order, remastered to sound even hotter, it's also superb value, and if you only ever get one of the albums here, this is the one.
V/A: Colossus Of Rhodes DBLCD
A concept-album follow-up to the previous double 'Spaghetti Epic' album where six bands were consigned to produce tracks that were completely in keeping with the seventies style of classic prog, had to be at least twenty minutes long and followed the concept as laid down. Well, this is produced along similar lines. The six bands here are Leviathan, Greenwall, Sinkadus, Mad Crayon, Velvet Desperados & Revelation. Each track averages around twenty five minutes. Leviathan open up with a track in which I don't think I've ever heard so many vocals in a prog epic in my life - the singer barely lets up throughout the whole thing and, bearing in mind all the vocals are in Italian, it's something that definitely has to be described as an "acquired taste" for anyone who isn't Italian. The Greenwall track is more successful although here it sounds distinctly "film" or "sountdtrack" in style with strings and flutes, as well as the usual instrumentation, but - yet again - with tons and tons of, this time, dual female and male vocal, only this time sung in both Italian and English, which makes the whole thing even more bizarre than it already is. This leaves Sinkadus to see out CD1 and at least they sing in English (not that I'm biased!!!!) and the track itself, shorn of all pomposity, is a solid, traditional prog epic with plenty of rioom for instrumental space, plenty of twists and turns along the way and, after what has come before, a positive blast of fresh air.
Over to CD2. Mad Crayon start proceedings by immediately launching into song with multi-tracked male vocals, in Italian, and while the vocal is probably the most palatable one on the album so far, the guy once more, rarely shuts up so that any instrumental break is always relatively short before he comes in again, a great pity as there are oceans of mellotrons, organ, piano and guitars at work above the varied and twisting rhythmic foundations. It is a superb track - of that there's no doubt - but if you don't understand the vocal, it kind of diminishes the enjoyment. The track from Velvet Desperados starts off as pure early seventies Pink Floyd even with a faintly Gilmour-esque vocal (in English) with glimpses of the Floyd influence in evidence along the way, as the song launches into a much more organ/piano dominated arrangement that more "trad" seventies prog. As the song progresses, with thankfully plenty of instrumental passages and workouts, the intensity at last increases and you hear some suitably fiery duelling and soloing from the synths, organ, lead guitars and piano, the song then returns before a sax solo appears to add extra tonal coloration to the whole piece. The mood having quietened, a piano starts the next passage as, for the next few minutes, they slowly build things to a crescendo so that by the twenty minute mark it's back to anthemic Floyd-esque (this time later era Floyd) territories of singing and playing with organ-guitar sparring over the strident rhythm section, even a brass section adding to the seventies Floyd-like effect. Finally, the track from Revelation and this is much more Genesis influenced, vocals in English, and with a distinctly 'Selling England By The Pound'-era stylistic influence so apparent, you wonder at times if it wasn't recorded side by side with that classic album.
So, overall, CD2 is superb - even the Italian vocal can be forgiven there - while CD1 has one classic for English closed-minded ears, two if you get on with Italian vocals, but the Greenwall track misses me by a country mile. You pay your money, you take your choice.
RICK WAKEMAN: The Ultimate Experience 3CD Set£15.99 Three hours of electric songs and instrumentals that encompass the 'Stella Bianca' album and more as you're treated to an impressive selection of tracks from the seventies Yes and Wakeman classics, encompassing such gems as 'Merlin The Magician', an eighteen minute medley of 'Catherine Of Aragon/A Crying Heart Pt 1', 'America', 'Awaken', 'Starship Trooper', 'Long Distance Runaround', 'Roundabout' and more. Comes with a fold-out black and white poster of Wakeman,
