THE FLOWER KINGS “Tomas and I aren’t working…”
10 YEARS OF KSCOPE From Anathema to Steven Wilson
What’s gone wrong with Sweden’s top proggers? Celebrating a decade of post-progressive sounds
WIN! SIGN
E GEDDY LD EE BASS BOOK
“Hemispheres felt like the end of an era.” The inside story of the band's last epic prog rock album
IRMIN SCHMIDT
His unique journey from krautrock to classical
TWELFTH NIGHT
80s pioneers make shock return with new recordings
ENGLAND
The story behind prog's great forgotten band
Sanguine Hum Antimatter Gungfly Shattered Skies
PROG 93
Contents ISSUE 93 30.11.18
IT’S ON HERE
There’s something truly prog about that record, and I think that fans of the genre really appreciate that.
Rush p 34 The story behind Hemispheres, and Geddy Lee schools us on bass guitars…
FIN COSTELLO/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
IF IT’S IN THERE
FEATURES The Flower Kings ___
REGULARS BLOODY WELL WRITE
pg 10
Missives, musings and tweets from Planet Prog.
THE INTRO
pg 12
We’ve got the very latest on the new Dream Theater album, plus news from Thomas Giles, Soen, Claypool Lennon Delirium, Ramblin’ Man Fair, Jacco Gardner, Kikagaku Moyo, Emperor Norton and more…
RECORD COLLECTION
pg 30
Comedy writers Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris, responsible for the Ladybird Books For Grown Ups, BBC TV’s Philomena Crunk and more, find that prog is no laughing matter. As their record collections prove…
Q&A
pg 32
pg 68
She lost her heart to a starship trooper and inspired the likes of Nightwish and Within Temptation along the way. So we ask ourselves, how prog is the darling of the musical theatre world, Sarah Brightman?
THE PROG INTERVIEWpg 92 Irmin Schmidt was a founding member of the revolutionary Can, and now he creates film scores and classical music. This is his story.
THE MUSICAL BOX
pg 98
Album reviews from Rush, Keith Emerson, Within Temptation, Andy Mackay, Barclay James Harvest and more…
TAKE A BOW
pg 118
We’ve seen King Crimson, Haken, ELO, Pendragon, Riverside, ZIO, Caligula’s Horse and more…
MY PROG
AlithiA____________ Pg 50 The Australian proggers recall the harrowing experience of recording The Moon Has Fallen.
Kscope____________ Pg 54 We celebrate the record label’s decade of post-progressive sounds.
Gungfly___________
Former XTC bassist Colin Moulding is back making music with drummer Terry Chambers. Here he reveals all about their new outfit, TC&I.
OUTER LIMITS
Pg 46 Keyboard player Tomas Bodin isn’t on the new album… is there trouble afoot? Prog finds out…
Pg 60
Rikard Sjöblom ponders childhood innocence and memory on his new album, Friendship.
Twelfth Night______
Pg 64 Surprise! The 80s neo-proggers find themselves back in the studio…
Voices from The Fuselage___________Pg 72 Singer Ashe O’Hara digs deep on the band’s new album, Odyssey: The Founder Of Dreams.
England __________
Pg 76 The amazing story of the greatest prog band you’ve probably never heard of!
Shattered Skies_____ Pg 80 The Anglo-Irish proggers muse on the impact of social media in today’s world.
Sanguine Hum______ Pg84 The complexities of the buttered cat still occupy their thoughts on new album Now We Have Light.
Antimatter_________Pg 88 pg 130
The ever-delightful Anneke van Giersbergen reveals what goes on in her own prog world.
Uncomfortable tales from the dark side from Liverpool’s Mick Moss on Black Market Enlightenment.
“By not having to be The Flower Kings, I can do whatever I want and play with whoever I want. I don’t have to be held back by restrictions of playing with certain people. I have to follow my heart and do what feels right for me…”
WILL IRELAND
Roine Stolt
progrockmag.com 7
Jerry Ewing - Editor
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progmagazine.com Get your daily fix of prog news and features at www.progmagazine.com
UE
You can subscribe to Prog at www. myfavouritemagazines. co.uk/PROG. See page 116 for further details.
I XT SS Dec
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here does Rush’s Hemispheres sit in their impressive canon of work for you? I know for a fact that it is both Steven Wilson and Les Claypool’s favourite Rush album. And if I remember correctly, Prog readers rated it just behind the twin behemoths of 2112 and Moving Pictures as the band’s greatest work. Whatever your thoughts, it stands as a bastion of creativity at a time when musical values were being questioned and re-evaluated. Upon its release in October 1978, punk had already burnt itself out, the strains of new wave were starting to sound distinctly old wave and the NWOBHM was about to blow in, carrying Rush as one of its prominent bands. Hemispheres itself, as Geddy Lee himself says, felt like the end of an era. It represents the band at their most flamboyantly creative (Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres and La Villa Strangiato) and their most rockingly forthright (Circumstances and The Trees). Acknowledging their past and looking towards their future. As ever, restlessly progressive. That’s why it’s a delight to celebrate the album’s 40th anniversary this issue. To look back and admire how these albums of our youth have held up over the years. And in this case, I’d say remarkably well. We’ve a strong supporting cast, too. Can’s Irmin Schmidt, the story of the Kscope label, Twelfth Night, Anneke van Giersbergen, England, The Flower Kings, Sanguine Hum, Antimatter and loads more. I hope you enjoy it all. We’re back with the last issue of the year on December 28. Which means, even though I am writing this in November, I really should wish you all a happy and suitably proggy Xmas. Peace and love to all…
NE
Ed’s Letter
Letters
Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future Publishing, 4th Floor, The Emerson Building, 4-8 Emerson Street, London, SE1 9DU, or email [emailprotected]. We regret that we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment and prog news and views, find us on facebook.com under Prog.
MATTHEW WRIGHT
TWEET TALK Follow us on twitter.com/ progmagazineUK 10 progmagazine.com
@Matthew_ Wright Think I’m having a religious experience… @HawkwindHQ
Opeth: better than Paul McCartney?
PRESS/STEVE THRASHER
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ Those of us of a certain age will remember clearly experiencing the raw excitement, originality and sheer quality of the music of the 60s. The eager anticipation of a new single or album by any one of a number of amazing artists, all of whom delivered the goods regularly and without fail, was almost unbearable. Two of my favourites in those halcyon days were, no surprises, The Beatles and Eric Clapton: both of whom were unquestionably ‘progressive’ (using the word in its original sense). The brilliance of The Beatles is well documented, as, of course, is the genius of Lennon and McCartney. I tended to prefer the Lennon songs but McCartney wrote some indisputable masterpieces: The Fool On The Hill, Eleanor Rigby and Let It Be to name but three. Eric Clapton moved around a bit in the 60s – The Yardbirds, John Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith and solo – and yet he established the role of the lead electric guitar virtually single handedly (or should that be slow handedly) with his groundbreaking guitar playing (at least until the arrival of a certain Jimi Hendrix). So here we are in 2018, 50 years since the release of two of the greatest double albums ever in The Beatles’ White Album and Cream’s Wheels Of Fire. Indeed, The Beatles and Eric Clapton even got together on the White Album to produce the stunning While My Guitar Gently Weeps, with a piano intro from McCartney and one of most emotional guitar solos you’ll ever hear from Clapton: still one of the greatest songs ever by anyone. And if you need another demonstration of guitar virtuosity, just listen to Clapton’s soloing on Crossroads – that’s live, one take! Still in 2018 and what have we got? New albums from both musical legends: Egypt Station by McCartney and Happy Xmas by Clapton. Should be amazing right? Er, well not quite. Egypt Station sounds like an album by an also-ran 60s band given a one LP record deal and then allowed to fade into obscurity as they couldn’t compete, either lyrically or musically, with the likes of, inter alia,
The Beatles. As for Happy Xmas, if you’d said to me in 1968 that Clapton would be releasing an album of Christmas carols, including Jingle Bells, Silent Night and White Christmas 50 years later… well, my reply would have been unprintable. Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra have already been there, done that and produced the album (rather more than 50 years ago). Thankfully we still have musicians from that era, or thereabouts, producing the goods: Yes, Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull and, of course, until their recent retirement, Rush. No coincidence, methinks, that those three bands are prog and how wonderful that we have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of topquality new and not-so-new prog bands making quality music and flying the flag. Of the better-known bands, Opeth top
the list for me along with Steven Wilson, Mostly Autumn and Riverside. Of the lesser-known bands, take a listen to Cloud Over Jupiter, Koneskin, Kylver and Chaometry to name but a few: none of whom I would have picked up on were it not for the excellent Prog mag CD (long may it last). Graham Smith VIP OR RIP-OFF? From a reader who lives in Australia, I would like to respond to Chris Robert’s Paperlate piece in Prog 91 about the rise and rise of the VIP packages as a fundraising model for artists of all types (prog and otherwise). I am lucky enough to know a couple of local promoters, who make two points quite clear. Firstly, Australia is an expensive country to tour if you’re an
CRAIG BLUNDELL
RICK WAKEMAN
@craigblundell #Tokyo #Japan it’s been very special, next up it’s #Brisbane #Australia on Wednesday #stevenwilson
@GrumpyOldRick The Victoria Theatre in Halifax is one of the most beautiful theatres I have ever played in. Lovely people too. Hope I can play there again some time in the future.
S LETTER
omething happened recently that I have not seen before in the plethora of gigs I have attended over the years. Having arrived at the 1865 Club In Southampton to see Magenta, I made the effort to be on time to catch the support band When Mary. I don’t think I was aalone in wondering who they were. Well, their performance blew my socks off. The duo gave an amazing, powerful, professional and just awe-inspiring show. And they had a standing ovation. IIf they had played all night and I had missed Magenta, for once it would not have mattered. Trude Eidtang, the lead ssinger and multi-faceted sounds/effects
keyboard player, was so cool and smooth in delivery, with Christian Paulsen on guitar who was just on it, like clotted cream on scones. Several of your readers might already know When Mary [We featured them as a Limelight band in Prog 84. – Deputy Ed.], but for the 1865 few on a Sunday night, we saw and heard one of the great undiscovered prog bands and I hope we will get another chance to see these Norwegian greats again in the UK soon. I don’t normally write to magazines, but this band’s performance was just exceptional, off the charts. Launce Morgan
This T Th i issue’s i ’ star letter wins a goodie bag from The Merch Desk at www.themerchdesk.com. overseas musician of any genre. Secondly, sales of tickets to prog g gigs in Australia are often ‘lacklustre’. It’s hard to guarantee a profit for any artist, and sadly in many cases the economic reality is that touring ‘Down Under’ is certain to make a loss, and therefore isn’t worth bothering with. Obviously, in the currentt day, d to t make k money as a musician you need to be a businessman as well as an artist. Selling the sizzle as well as the sausage is an essential tool towards making ends meet. The number of deluxe vinyl box sets and the like currently on the market are a testament to this. The VIP packages we see are clearly a part of this survival strategy. I consider that the VIP packages are a bit like business class seats on the plane: they help to subsidise the cost of the tour and keep the costs down for the economy class ‘passengers’. The reality currently is that many (probably a majority) of artists visiting Australia offer VIP experiences as a part of their tour. The difference between the prog artists and many of the rest is the level of commitment shown by the artist. Yes, as Chris states, many offer nice seats, VIP merch, pre-show parties and the like, but no actual interaction with the artist. In my experience the prog VIP is a bit different: you get to meet the artist and actually spend some quality time with them. Yes, I admit I’m one of the lucky ones. When there’s a good gig in town, I’m usually looking for a VIP ticket. I don’t
MARJANA SEMKINA @marjanasemkina Twitter, I got my visa s we won.
AAbove: bove: Paperlate in issue 91 has inspired some debate…
Below: Alberto takes inspiration from Prog 91’s Supper’s Ready…
m mind paying a premium for a chance tto say thank you to somebody who genuinely has gone to the effort to come g aall the way to Australia and perform live ffor me here. I guess that’s the key. Some artists use V VIP tickets as an easy way to make extra money for little personal effort for their m aalready profitable tours. Many prog artists use VIP tickets as a way to survive in u a harsh economic climate and go out of ttheir way to make the effort to look after ttheir serious fans. Without the extra VIP dollars, they probably wouldn’t be here at d aall. For that, they deserve my support, and I expect to continue buying VIP tickets into the future. Philip Briddon COOKING WITH PROG I’m following dear Pete Trewavas’ Caribbean Chicken thighs recipe you published in Prog 91, huddled in the safety of my pseudo silk kimono, for better results... Cheers from Buenos Aires! Buen apetito! Alberto Lago
Future PLC 4th Floor, The Emerson Building, 4-8 Emerson Street, London SE1 9DU Email [emailprotected] twitter.com/ProgMagazineUK You can also find us on facebook.com under Prog Editorial Editor Jerry Ewing Deputy Editor Hannah May Kilroy Art Editor Russell Fairbrother Production Editor Vanessa Thorpe News Editor Natasha Scharf Reviews Editor Jo Kendall Lives Editor Malcolm Dome Designer Louise Brock Editor in Chief Scott Rowley Contributors
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Cover images Shutterstock, Getty Images. Cover manipulation: Sam Williams at MagicTorch Advertising Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Clare Dove [emailprotected] Group Advertising Director Mark Wright [emailprotected] Advertising Manager Kate Colgan [emailprotected] Account Director Anastasia Meldrum [emailprotected] Account Manager Jason Harwood [emailprotected] International Prog is available for licensing. Contact the International department to discuss partnership opportunities International Licensing Director Matt Ellis [emailprotected] Subscriptions Email enquiries [emailprotected] UK orderline & enquiries 0344 848 2852 Overseas order line and enquiries +44 (0)344 848 2852 Online orders & enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines. co.uk/PROG Head of subscriptions Sharon Todd Circulation Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers Production Head of Production Mark Constance Production Project Manager Clare Scott Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson Production Manager Keely Miller Management Managing Director Aaron Asadi Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham Editorial Director Paul Newman Head of Art & Design Brad Merrett Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9060 ISSN 2045-2260 We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from ȸƺɀȵȒȇɀǣƫǼɵȅƏȇƏǕƺƳًƬƺȸɎǣˡƺƳǔȒȸƺɀɎȸɵƏȇƳƬǝǼȒȸǣȇƺٮǔȸƺƺȅƏȇɖǔƏƬɎɖȸƺِ The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill holds full FSC ٢IȒȸƺɀɎ³ɎƺɯƏȸƳɀǝǣȵ!ȒɖȇƬǣǼ٣ƬƺȸɎǣˡƬƏɎǣȒȇƏȇƳƏƬƬȸƺƳǣɎƏɎǣȒȇِ All contents © 2018 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) ǣɀȸƺǕǣɀɎƺȸƺƳǣȇ0ȇǕǼƏȇƳƏȇƳáƏǼƺɀِ«ƺǕǣɀɎƺȸƺƳȒǔˡƬƺيªɖƏɵRȒɖɀƺًÁǝƺ Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not ƏǔˡǼǣƏɎƺƳǣȇƏȇɵɯƏɵɯǣɎǝɎǝƺƬȒȅȵƏȇǣƺɀȅƺȇɎǣȒȇƺƳǝƺȸƺǣȇِXǔɵȒɖɀɖƫȅǣɎ material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents, subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material is for publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.
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progmagazine.com 11
INTRO
IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE
DREAM THEATER INJECT VELOCITY INTO THEIR 14TH STUDIO ALBUM US-based proggers celebrate new label deal with InsideOut and announce the first dates of their anniversary tour for Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory. Dream Theater have revisited the old ways of working on Distance Over Time, out on February 22 through InsideOut. It’s the first time since 1992’s Images And Words that the full band have written and recorded together. “It was so cool for the whole band to be together and that really lent itself to the spirit of the album,” says singer James LaBrie. “This is the culmination of what I think represents Dream Theater musically.” The album was crafted between June and September, with the band splitting their time between an old barn-turned-recording studio in Monticello, upstate New York, and a nearby residence. Being on site without interruptions fuelled their creativity and they completed the songwriting in record-breaking time. “[After 17 days] we said, ‘Holy smokes, I think we just finished our last song!’” says LaBrie. “We
12 progmagazine.com
“As proud as we are of The Astonishing, it were isolated so there were no definitely did polarise our fans,” says LaBrie. distractions. When you’re in “I think the progressive heads and the theatre Manhattan, you walk out the music heads loved the album but the metal door and you can pretty much heads were a little perplexed! I think what’s cool go to incredible culinary about Distance Over Time is that there are destinations, they’re right at definitely the classic progressive moments your fingertips. [This time] throughout the album with the instrumentation we were able to really focus and virtuosity that happens with Dream on why we were there. That’s Theater. At the same time, I think the more why it was so productive. We predominant element is the heaviness. It’s really had such a great experience gonna hit people upside the head but there’s also we were like, ‘It’s kind of a beautiful balance between the progressive end a no-brainer. When we do and more subtle, ethereal side.” the next album, this is definitely The album is produced by where we should be coming.’” guitarist John Petrucci and has been But anyone expecting a sequel mixed by Ben Grosse (Depeche to 2016’s grandiose The Mode, The Flaming Lips). LaBrie Astonishing is in for a shock. On describes the results as “very Facebook, keyboard virtuoso “This album is organic-sounding”. Jordan Rudess has described really gonna hit “What Ben has done is incredible. one of the songs as having “an people upside He’s really bringing out the sonic awesome Yes meets Rush” chord the head.” representation of the songs which is concept, but the rest of the so important because there’s a lot of album is quite different.
Prog news updated daily online!
progmagazine.com
This month, Intro was compiled by Jordan Blum Malcolm Dome Jerry Ewing Jo Kendall Martin Kielty Hannah May Kilroy Rhodri Marsden Matt Mills Mike Orvis Natasha Scharf Johnny Sharp Rick Wakeman Rich Wilson
CLAYPOOL AND LENNON GET REAL Primus bassist and GOASTT musician team up for second magical mystery.
stuff going on. I think once the fans hear this, they’re gonna be flippin’ out!” The band also regrouped with long-time collaborator Hugh Syme (Rush, Iron Maiden) for the striking cover artwork. Teaser tracks are now online, and Dream Theater will be playing material from Distance Over Time on their forthcoming tour, which begins in San Diego on March 20, 2019. Inspired by last year’s successful Images And Words shows, the evening will be in two parts as the band are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory. “It’ll be an evening with Dream Theater and we’re going to be playing that album in its entirety,” says LaBrie of their fifth studio recording. “We have to nod our hat to Awake as well because that will be 25 years [old]. Everything’s coming up on anniversaries!” Further dates are still to be announced and the band plan to return to the European festival circuit next year. For the full list of shows as they’re announced, visit the official website www.dreamtheater.net. NRS
Les Claypool and Sean Lennon have reunited as The Claypool Lennon Delirium to release South Of Reality on February 22 via ATO. The nine-track recording mixes psychedelic sounds with satirical social commentary. It was self-produced and mixed by Claypool at his own Rancho Relaxo studio. Lead song, the six-and-a-half minute Blood And Rockets, pays tribute to American rocket engineer Jack Parsons who was also a leading member of Aleister Crowley’s occult group, Ordo Templi Orientis. Says Lennon, “The end bit [of the song] is in 5/8, which I thought was funny because a pentagram has five points. It cuts to the section when, in my mind, he’s crossing the threshold from this reality to another dimension.” Another track, Boriska, takes musical inspiration from 70s pop-proggers Klaatu and tells the true story of a Russian child who claimed he was a Martian in a former life. “I think we excel at encapsulating wild stories in song,” says The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger musician. “I think that partially comes from working with Les because so many of his songs are very funny stories about very odd people, like [Primus track] Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver.” The pair have described South Of Reality as the “organic extension” of their 2016 debut Monolith Of Phobos. It follows on from last year’s covers EP, Lime And Limpid Green. The Claypool Lennon Delirium play three live shows in California in late December with more dates expected in 2019. For full details, see www.theclaypoollennondelirium.com. NRS
ELO’S HUGH MCDOWELL DIES
Cellist Melvyn Gale pays tribute to his celebrated ELO predecessor and the John Wetton collaborator. Hugh McDowell, former cellist with ELO and Wizzard, died on November 6 after a long illness. He was 65. McDowell, whose first professional musical performance took place when he was 11, joined ELO aged 19 in time to take part in their first live shows. He briefly followed Roy Wood to Wizzard but returned to Jeff Lynne’s group and was part of what’s regarded as ELO’s classic line-up. He was dismissed in 1980 when Lynne decided to abandon string instruments. He went on to teach music, took part in Bev Bevan’s ELO Part II, and also appeared on Asia’s 2008 album Phoenix. Fellow ELO cellist Melvyn Gale said, “We met in our mid-teens and were close until 1980. He was a beautiful free spirit, had such a natural gift as a cellist and [was] just a lovely bloke.” MK
Great Discovery: Hugh McDowell in 1979.
FIN COSTELLO/REDF ERNS/GETTY IMAGES
MARK MARYANOVICH
Sean Lennon and Les Claypool: under the magnifying glass.
progmagazine 13
INTRO THOMAS GILES BLURS THE GENRES ON HIS LATEST SOLO ALBUM
Soen: as their sound unfolds…
Between The Buried And Me’s frontman enlists key guest players on fourth outing.
STEVEN CONTRERAS
Thomas Giles (aka Tommy Rogers) has teamed up with bandmates Dan Briggs (bass) and Blake Richardson (drums) on Don’t Touch The Outside, out now through Sumerian. The album is his most emblematic yet, and also includes appearances from guitarist Wes Hauch (Alluvial) and vocalists Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver), Einar Solberg (Leprous), and Carley Coma (Candiria). “Kristoffer was on my bucket list,” says Giles, acknowledging the creative role that Ulver’s visionary played on the album. “Because his voice is so deep and distinguishable, our voices work well together. He sent me a lot of ideas that ended Thomas Giles: up being in Milan.” stepping into Giles also tells Prog the light. that the 70s soulinfluenced lead track Milan is one of his favourite solo songs that he’s written. Giles brought in Coma for I Win because he knew he couldn’t rap, and wanted to put Solberg “outside of his comfort zone by throwing him on an electronic track [Everyone Is Everywhere]”. Musician Wes Hauch created a big contrast with Mr Sunshine’s shredding guitar solo, leading Giles to conclude, “Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I try to get guys that I really admire, either as I was growing up or influencing me later. It’s amazing to work with these people.” Giles says he lived and breathed the record for a week in the studio, allowing him to find a different inspiration to experiment and try new things each time. In this way, Don’t Touch The Outside signifies a move away from the electronic focus of his 2016 album Velcro Kid and towards a varied representation of the many different kinds and moods of music that the keyboard player and singer enjoys. “There’s a lot of personal stuff, too,” he continues, “like Sway, which is about my wife and I, and Exordium, which is about me moving west. I tend to get more personal with the solo material. Lyrically, they hold a special place because of that. “There’s not an overall concept or anything,” he continues. “I take it song by song with my solo stuff.” He reveals the title and cover art were inspired by the notion that being anonymous today is difficult, inspiring him to “represent what a lot of people miss about not always being engaged with humanity”. Thomas Giles is currently on tour in Europe with Between The Buried And Me, and joint headliners TesseracT. Although he has no immediate plans to play Don’t Touch The Outside live, he “It’s amazing says he’s open to figuring something to work with out later in 2019. JB
these people.”
For more, see www.thomasgilesmusic.com. 14 progmagazine.com
INTRO extras
BBT UK TOUR FOR 2019 Big Big Train have announced their biggest UK tour so far with six shows scheduled for next autumn. The dates, which kick off at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on October 26, will also see them perform with a fivepiece brass ensemble. The international collective are expected to tease some material from their as-yet-untitled next studio album as well as songs from The Underfall Yard. Sweet Billy Pilgrim will support them on the tour. For the full list of shows, visit www.bigbigtrain.com.
SOEN FIND THEIR IDENTITY ON LOTUS
New sound and new guitarist for the band founded by Opeth’s former drummer. Swedish supergroup Soen release their fourth album Lotus via Silver Lining Music on February 1, and drummer Martin Lopez regards it as a work that’s “realistic” about the modern world. “It’s a natural step to finding our own identity,” he tells Prog. “That’s been happening over the last two albums. There’s a lot of honesty – we feel we should enjoy writing music for ourselves and we’ll have a following. I think there’s a lot more energy on this album.” Lotus explores the mid-life experience of “feeling trapped in the wheel” of society, he explains. “The older you get, the more you start wondering, ‘What the fuck have I done?’ You say, 99 per cent of people don’t agree with the system, but we’re still trapped in it and pay to make it work.” He also adds that they’re neither positive or negative about the observations made. The release is Soen’s first to feature Canadian guitarist Cody Ford who, says Lopez, brings a heavier element to their sound. “We’ve kind of had different guitarists on every album,” he adds, admitting he’s not sure how it happened. “But the songs are always mainly written by Joel Ekelöf and myself, so that’s the same. Marcus Jidell, who’s not in the band any more, had more of a vintage sound. Now we have more of a current sound but keeping the same core.” Soen play the O2 Academy Islington on March 25 as part of their European tour. The full dates can be found on their website www.soenmusic.com. MK
ANATHEMA TO HEADLINE RAMBLIN’ MAN’S PROG STAGE First wave of progressive acts announced for 2019. Anathema have been confirmed as headliners for the Prog In The Park Stage at next year’s Ramblin’ Man Fair. They played at the inaugural event in 2015. “It was still daylight when we came on,” recalls Daniel Cavanagh. “For me, though, it’s always better when it’s getting dark and you use your own lighting.” It’ll be the first time Anathema have headlined any major UK festival stage. Says Cavanagh, “I can’t think of a better place to do it. Nice location, good facilities and great people. It’s too early to say what we’ll do in our set. But even if we’ve finished our new album by then, we won’t play any of it at Ramblin’ Man, as no one will know the material!” Riverside and Pain Of Salvation have also been confirmed. Ramblin’ Man runs from July 19-21 at Mote Park in Maidstone. For more, see www.ramblinmanfair.com. MD
Anathema: playing over the summer night horizon.
WILL IRELAND
Caption
INTRO HEXVESSEL RETURN WITH TREE STORIES
The Neal Morse Band: heading for a great adventure.
Helsinki-based folk proggers promise to get ‘back to basics’ on fourth full-length album.
ROB REED’S FESTIVE SINGLE Conjuring woodland spirits: Hexvessel get back to nature.
Finnish-British folk prog collective Hexvessel release All Tree on Century Media on February 15, 2019. The first song from the album will be unveiled in early December, and frontman Mat ‘Kvohst’ McNerney reckons that the follow-up to 2016’s When We Are Death will be “perhaps the most Hexvessel record we have ever made”. “The songs that grew into this record are the purest to what I feel the concept of Hexvessel truly is,” he says. “There are still some strong progressive elements and psych rock influences but I think they’re more integrated to the songs.” The title reflects Hexvessel’s enduring fascination with the magic and spirituality of nature, says McNerney. “All Tree is our mantra. Nature is our interface to godliness. For me it always comes back to that. It’s the word ‘tree’; the root of all existence, from which everything springs.” Englishman McNerney spent his summers in Ireland as a child, captivated by ghost stories and Celtic mythology. He’s now based in Finland, having moved on from his work with Norwegian extreme metal bands Dødheimsgard and Code to write songs with a more bucolic feel for the six-piece he regards as a community. “Mythology and tradition is still alive in Finland,” he says, “and there’s still a keen interest in their old pagan heritage. They’re in constant reflection, revival and preservation of their past, and in that you’ll find a lot of secret knowledge about the meaning of the universe.” There have been line-up changes since Hexvessel’s last album too, with Simo Kuosmanen replaced by Jesse Heikkenen on lead guitar, and bassist Niini Rossi also departing. However McNerney is enthused to reconnect with long-time collaborator and Code co-founder Andrew ‘Aort’ McIvor, who guests on acoustic guitar. “His love of old English folk and prog music can be heard throughout,” McNerney commented recently on Facebook, but while the band’s style continues to evolve, there’s still that same immediacy to many of the songs that was a winning trait of previous records. “There will always be a catchy chorus on my albums,” says McNerney, “since I like to communicate. I think when a song speaks to us and we get hooked to it, we feel more in touch. It strengthens “There will our sense of community and in that we come close to godliness. We become always be a catchy chorus more at one with the universe.” JS
on my albums.” See www.facebook.com/hexvessel. 16 progmagazine.com
Magenta’s Rob Reed has teamed up with Mike Oldfield collaborator Les Penning for a very special Christmas single. The pair have reworked Oldfield’s 1975 hit In Dulci Jubilo and it’s available from Burning Shed on December 10. “We didn’t want to do a copy as it’s a classic, so we came more from the original spirit of the piece,” says Reed. “Our version has all the trappings of a Christmas classic: monks, a friendly narrator, church bells and choir singing. It’s been great fun.”
NEAL MORSE BAND’S NEXT ADVENTURE
US five-piece revisit The Pilgrim’s Progress ahead of their international tour.
The Neal Morse Band release double concept album The Great Adventure on January 25 via Radiant /Metal Blade. It can be regarded as a direct sequel to their 2016 masterpiece The Similitude Of A Dream – although it took until 45 minutes before the end of the recording sessions for Morse to feel it had worked out. “Some of the guys didn’t want to do a Similitude… Part 2, and I wasn’t sure,” Morse tells Prog. “I thought if it wasn’t coming to me, maybe it wasn’t the way we should go. You can have a bunch of great themes and a bunch of great songs, but it can still not be satisfying.” Writing went right to the wire, with drummer Mike Portnoy only having a matter of minutes left before other commitments took him away. Morse recalls, “It didn’t really all fall together until the final hour. We were trying to put together the very last bit.” He told bandmate Bill Hubauer they only had 45 minutes to work it out. Fortunately, they did. The Similitude… was based on John Bunyan’s allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, and the new title explores the “angrier” story of Pilgrim’s abandoned son. Fans can expect to hear the whole double album on the band’s upcoming tour, principally on Portnoy’s insistence. Morse admits, “It’s going to be amazing. It’s still coming together for me, to be honest.” The Neal Morse Band play London’s Islington Assembly Hall on March 24 towards the end of their international tour. For the full list of dates, visit www.nealmorse.com. MK
GREAVES SIZES UP NEW DEAL Former Henry Cow and National Health bassist signs to Manticore and revisits old tunes on his latest solo record. John Greaves, a one-time member of Henry Cow, releases the album Life Size through Manticore on November 30. It’s a mixture of new and old material, including spoken word pieces. Says Greaves, “I was asked to do this album by [Manticore’s artistic director] Max Marchini. It was originally for his Dark Companion label, but then he took over the reactivated Manticore, so it was switched.” According to the musician, the album was developed over two years. “I had complete freedom to do what I liked at my pace. So I could do things y own p g as they occurred to me. I’ve been lucky enough h to have input from some great musical guests, like King Crimson’s Jakko Jakszyk on guitar, cellist Vincent Courtois and Zeena Parkins on the harp. The whole project is selfish, in that I had d no thought of having to be commercial.” For more, visit Manticore’s website www.manticorerecords.com/life-size. MD ng John Greaves: getti to the point of it.
PRESS/ROBERT SMITH
INTRO extras
INTRO FAD GADGETS Rhodri Marsden on three of the latest must-have gizmos currently putting the prog in progress… STYLOPHONE BEATBOX The original Stylophone, launched by Dubreq in the late 1960s, became a much-loved instrument despite its limitations (you could only play one note at a time) and its inadequacies (it sounded like an insect). It’s been used by everyone from Bowie to Little Boots, and a few years back a reconstituted Dubreq relaunched it. This pocket drum machine is its little brother, incorporating a bass synth, electronic drums and human beatbox sounds. You prod the pads with the stylus, creating a lopsided but rather charming noise – just like the original. www.dubreq.com
SPIRIT PRO Slowly but surely, headphones with wires are being replaced by their Bluetooth counterparts. These beasts caught my eye because of the big deal the firm make about them being sweat resistant. They’re evidently pitching at fitness fanatics, with blurb promising a “heavy-hitting wave of sound” to help you “break through the wall”, but they shouldn’t ignore the appeal to someone like me, who sweats like a pig when he hangs up the washing. www.soundcore.com
THIS STRANGE ENGINE
A case of mistaken identity leaves Rick in a bit of a pickle! I was stood on the platform of the “Yes, he mentioned that name as well. wonderful North Norfolk Railway in Holt I wonder which he uses on his passport?” when a well-dressed gentleman approached me. “Probably Mike Stock,” said another. “They He asked politely, “Do you still own the Flying used three different names when they recorded Scotsman? Wonderful engine…” that Kylie Minogue. He went under Stock, I smiled back politely and replied, Aitken and Waterman.” “Sorry to disappoint you, but you’re “Oh, I know who he is!” said confusing me with the songwriter another in the group. “That’s Rick and producer Pete Waterman. I’ve Perfect from Status Quo.” met him; he’s an amazing man and “I don’t recall him ever buying a train fanatic. I love trains as well, a train,” said one with a hat. “And “He was so but could never afford anything like didn’t he pass away recently?” polite that the Flying Scotsman.” One chap, who had remained I couldn’t be “Isn’t that amazing that you silent throughout the whole rude and call should have the same name as him! discussion suddenly piped up. him a twat.” Did you ever consider buying “I think you’ll find that is Rick something smaller like a tank Wakeman. He was in a band called engine, Mr Waterman?” Yes who became ARW and then Yes featuring “Actually, I’m Mr Wakeman”. ARW, or something like that.” “As in Pete Wakeman-Waterman?” “So what’s his real name then?” He was so polite that I couldn’t be rude and The one lady in the group joined the call him an ignorant twat, and so once again, conversation and muttered, “I’m not sure, but he I smiled politely and tried to get through to him. had a big solo album called Tubular Balls. I know, “I don’t have a Pete or a Waterman in my I’ll go and ask him!” name. It’s just Wakeman, Rick Wakeman.” She wandered over to me and very politely “Very wise. I’m sure it must have been said, “I’m sorry to bother you, we know you’ve confusing for both you and Pete.” got Tubular Balls but we’re very confused as to We shook hands and he wandered off to what your real name is. Can you tell me? It’ll put a group of enthusiasts at the far end of the us all out of our misery.” platform. That’s when I overheard him telling I smiled sweetly and replied, “Of course, I’m them, “That’s Pete Waterman over there, you Richard Branson.” know, but he’s changed his name to Rickman or “Thank you”, she said, completely missing my something like that to avoid being recognised.” sarcasm. She wandered back to the group and “Looks like Rick Wakeman to me,” said one said, “We were all wrong. He’s that one who chap, gazing in my direction. makes the chutney and pickle.”
MODULAR FIDDLE
KEVIN FEBRUARY
This isn’t the first 3D-printed violin, but it might be the first that doesn’t sound like a rusty hinge. Created by David Perry, its modular design means that all the pieces are replaceable in about 10 minutes, and you can either buy the bits online or download them and build it yourself. In the words of Stradivarius, “It actually sounds… okay!” – which might sound like faint praise, but those Stradivarius dudes have pretty high standards. www.openfabpdx.com
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Limelight
Look To The East: Kikagaku Moyo are making their own stamp on psychedelia.
KIKAGAKU MOYO
Former buskers from Tokyo turn Europe on to Eastern psychedelia. YOU ONLY GET one chance to make a first impression. If that sounds like the kind of bohemian, improv-heavy Unfortunately for Japanese experimentalists Kikagaku Moyo, origins that spawned the early krautrock bands and many they haven’t always made the impression they intended. more late-60s prog groups formed out of communal living “When we started, we couldn’t really play very well,” and a shared creative philosophy, it’s no accident. Echoes of explains drummer and vocalist Go Kurosawa. “So we thought krautrock and the Canterbury scene are evident alongside we’d create a bit of mystery around us by playing one of hints of David Axelrod’s psychedelic studio visions. our early shows in Tokyo completely covered in smoke. “Can were a big inspiration for us, and also the PROG FILE “We thought, ‘No one will be able to see us because British folk rock movement,” Kurosawa admits. we’re invisible, and people will think we’re special.’” “We’re fans of people like Soft Machine, but we also Unfortunately, there were unintended side-effects. like the jazz approach of Magma. Yet all of this is “The venue thought that something had been set on combined, I think, with a Japanese sense of melody.” fire, so they called the fire brigade, stopped the show They mostly record live with few overdubs, and and we were banned from the venue for life.” share the psych era’s interest in Eastern exotica, Thankfully, in the years since their 2012 formation evidenced in the sitar playing of Go’s brother Ryu, LINE-UP Go Kurosawa (drums, who was taught by legendary maestro Manilal Nag. as a “free music collective”, the band have gone on to vocals), Tomo find more understanding homes for their shows, “He still goes to India once a year, and has Skype Katsurada (guitar, a stable line-up and an enthusiastic following, even lessons from his guru,” says the elder Kurosawa. vocals), Daoud Popal after revealing their faces to the world. We meet them (guitar), Ryu Despite their Japanese origins, the five-piece are Kurosawa (sitar), as they prepare to release their fourth album, Masana now an international affair, partly based in Kotsu Guy (bass) Temples, their most focused, groove-based release yet, Amsterdam. That’s where Go and Tomo run SOUNDS LIKE but one which retains a freewheeling, genre-fluid vibe Guruguru Brain, a label aiming to promote Stoned, sitar-wielding about it, born of their origins busking for hours on end Canterbury hippies south-east Asian prog and psych music to western in the lesser-populated metro stations of Tokyo, which jamming with early audiences. Can they recommend any of their roster? krautrockers on the served as their rehearsal spaces in the early days. “Minami Deutsch have a great new record this foothills of Mount Fuji “On the street or in the metro you can play forever,” year and will be touring Europe next year, and CURRENT RELEASE says guitarist Tomo Katsurada. “We’d only make three Masana Temples is out Sundays & Cybele, from Hokkaido, play in the UK or four euros a day but we didn’t care. We’d get kicked now via Guruguru Brain this autumn – they’re more like Japanese prog. out a lot and moved on but some stations, where there “What they have in common with us is that WEBSITE were less cops, you could play all night. It was better they take Western rock forms and add their gurugurubrain. bandcamp.com than paying for a studio or practice room.” own Asian identity.” JS
“Can were a big inspiration for us, and also the British folk rock movement.”
progmagazine.com 19
INTRO MY PROG HERO
Inspiring the wider music world…
The Watchers: Nik Fiend has been hugely influenced by Hawkwind’s sound.
YOUR PROG CHEF:
CECILIA FAGE (COBALT CHAPEL)
“I only started to love cooking a few years ago – my husband’s a great cook and after one of my particularly failed attempts (‘Well, thankfully salmon’s a very forgiving fish’) he showed me some tips about flavour which gave me more confidence. We live in the country and often have a bonfire in the evening, and an episode of [Netflix show] Chef’s Table inspired me to try fire roasting. It’s lovely for having friends over: Jarrod [Gosling, Cobalt Chapel partner] and our live band are visiting soon, and will be my guinea pigs for a fish and vegetarian/vegan version. Once the food’s cooking you can relax around the bonfire – though if you’re fond of floaty nylon dresses like me, be careful not to set yourself alight!”
Ingredients (serves 4) Lamb shoulder, 4 large sweet potatoes, 4 corn on the cobs, 2 handfuls of mushrooms, a head of garlic cloves, 2 red or yellow peppers, olive oil, several sprigs of rosemary, butter, salt, pepper.
Preparation “Soak the cobs in cold water for 15 minutes beforehand and use butter to coat. Meanwhile, rub olive oil, salt and pepper over the lamb and vegetables. Make small incisions in the lamb and stuff with fresh rosemary and garlic. I got carried away and picked some wild garlic too, but didn’t like the taste so I’d leave that out. “Fire up your bonfire and once it’s raging and there’s a good build-up of embers underneath, wrap everything separately in two-to-three layers of kitchen foil, and nestle it in the ash under the flames to cook. Gardening gloves are handy here. “The lamb takes about one hour and 15 minutes to cook until slightly pink inside. The vegetables take 30 minutes and the corn 15 minutes until it’s quite blackened on the outside, but tender inside. Because the seasoning’s simple, the roasting enhances each vegetable’s individual flavour. And what better excuse to toast marshmallows for dessert? “Prog readers should make this dish because it’s experimental, dramatic, and not without risk – much like prog! I love this recipe because it’s fun, easy and versatile. You can try different veg or leave out the meat entirely.” JK 20 progmagazine.com
PER-ÅKE WÄRN
On the menu: Lamb Ashes Are Burning (aka Bonfire Lamb)
NIK FIEND From fan to labelmate, Alien Sex Fiend’s frontman says Hawkwind are the masters of his universe. “I started getting into Hawkwind Hawkwind’s In Search Of Space when I was cleaning windows. is mine and Mrs Fiend’s ultimate Some of it was a bit too far-out for me favourite album and we’ve been when I was 13 or 14, but I’d heard playing it back-to-back in recent Silver Machine and picked up this times. It really takes me on a journey. sampler that had Master Of The Master Of The Universe is our Universe on. That was the beginning favourite track and I still get a rush and I wanted to find out more. when I hear those words, ‘The wind of The first guys I did music with time is blowing through me…’ They had an echo unit and that was the were cooking when that one was going first time I heard Pink Floyd’s Relics, down. I like the new stuff too. I’ve just which is one of my favourites. Then, been listening to Tunnels Of Darkness [in the late 70s, with former band off The Machine Stops. Demon Preacher] we went to the Isle Hawkwind inadvertently influenced Of Wight to do a gig and ended up Alien Sex Fiend. When we first started doing magic mushrooms. That out, we used to jam indefinitely and we changed my headset. I’d been quite did a cover version of Silver Machine rude to [wife and synth player] Mrs as well. Lemmy said he liked it. We’ve Fiend not long before saying, ‘All that been in and around their music with weird stuff is shit! I don’t wanna hear our funny career. We did [single] it!’ When I came back, I said to her, I Walk The Line at Flicknife when ‘Can you play me all that they were doing The weird shit that I was rude Chronicle Of The Black about?!’ Now I love Can’s Sword and now we’re Tago Mago, Neu!, King both on Cherry Red. It’s Crimson’s In The Court Of mental. Mrs Fiend and “ In Search Of The Crimson King – when I looked at each other and Space is my she played me 21st Century went, ‘Fuckin’ ’ell! This is favourite Schizoid Man, my head unreal!’ Hawkwind deserve album. It nearly flew off! I was mad a lot more credit.” NRS really takes on Frank Zappa too: his music would set me off Possessed is out now via me on doing big murals on my Cherry Red. Visit www. a journey.” bedsit walls. asf-13thmoon.demon.co.uk.
PROG IN BRIEF
Annie Haslam, Sonja Kristina, Steve Hogarth and Patrick Moraz are among the artists honouring Chris Squire (right) on A Life In Yes: The Chris Squire Tribute. The covers album is out via Purple Pyramid and produced by Billy Sherwood.
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson has teamed up with drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, The Mute Gods) for an unnamed new project. More updates are expected soon. The pair previously worked together on Minnemann’s 2017 album Borrego.
TOSKA
Limelight
Instrumental three-piece finally find their feet with latest project.
“Because of bands like Animals As Leaders, we felt that there was a level of relevance to instrumental prog.”
CARLA MUNDY
“We initially auditioned singers,” Massaad reveals, “but it WHEN YOU’RE IN a band, there is no substitute for just didn’t happen. Then we did the first EP, so we thought, chemistry. You can be the best musician on the planet, but if ‘Let’s just stick this out!’ Because of bands like Animals you can’t connect with the other members of your group, you As Leaders, we felt that there was a level of relevance to won’t be climbing the ladder of success any time soon. instrumental prog. Plus, we’ve experienced other singers Luckily, this isn’t a problem that plagues Brighton’s cosmic saying, ‘Can we chop this or shorten that?’ while we’d be instrumentalists Toska. thinking, ‘Oh, those are good bits!’” Toska debuted in 2016 with their Ode To The Author EP, Tosca’s 70-minute concept album Fire By The Silos but the power trio of guitarist Rabea Massaad, bassist successfully balances Massaad, Hollingworth and Dave Hollingworth and drummer Ben Minal have PROG FILE Minal’s obvious talents with the heaviness of actually been playing together in a plethora of different pounding grooves and the ambience of spoken-word bands for more than a decade. interludes. When all of these elements combine on “The first band was ChasinJade, which was tracks like Prayermonger, the result is a dark, a teenage passion project,” Massaad recalls of their atmospheric journey befitting of the album’s metal beginnings. “I met Dave first. I was at Leeds dystopian storyline. College Of Music when I was 16. I was just jamming “It’s set 20 years from now,” Massaad explains. in a room and he came in. He was like, ‘You sound LINE-UP “The government requires people under a certain pretty good! Wanna jam?’ Four or five months later, Rabea Massaad I met Ben through the singer of ChasinJade. When wage to pay their debts by, basically, being cast out (guitar), Dave Dave and Ben came to jam, it seemed the three of us from society. And it focuses on one individual’s Hollingworth (bass), Ben Minal (drums) just had that mutual connection between us. That mental journey through this. Throughout the album, SOUNDS LIKE he gets more angry and twisted, but then he realises, was 13 years ago now!” Space-age instrumental because of that, he’s no better than the people he Fear not, ChasinJade’s metal is a far cry from the metal that uses dark experimental, cinematic heaviness that Massaad and wanted to stand up against.” riffs to create vast co now specialise in. After Chasinjade’s 2012 split, its On Fire By The Silos, Toska challenge with cosmic landscapes three instrumentalists stuck together, refining their ethical quandaries that accompany their hardCURRENT RELEASE hitting metal. With the complexity of its music repertoire by playing for various bands like Toseland, Fire By The Silos is out Dorje and, ultimately, Toska. Interestingly, despite the now and self-released and its concept, it goes without saying that the WEBSITE album is a triumphant leap forward for these trio’s technical prowess, Toska is their first-ever purely www.toska.tv progressive comrades. MM instrumental outing.
Toska, L-R: Ben Minal, Rabea Massaad, Dave Hollingworth.
progmagazine.com 21
INTRO ALL AROUND THE WORLD Our far-out trip to far-flung prog
LEVEL HEADED
Lucky Number: short-haired prog rockers 22.
(POLYDOR, 1978)
Sweet, eh? The acknowledged masters of 70s bubblegum pop rock. And yet here they are in Prog. Surely a mistake, right? Absolutely not. Because on their sixth album, the band were shifting into musical areas which had perhaps been off limits to them before. Not that the four had ever been prepared to stand still. They had long taken leaps into a more powerful, aggressive rock style on album tracks, something at odds with their charting singles. Now, in what would prove to be the final release from the classic line-up, Sweet went even further. They brought in psychedelic twists and daubs of progression to augment the melodic nature of the music. It meant that Level Headed was an ambitious project, one that stretched the four-piece’s talents in a way that had never been done previously. They led off by taking the listener on an expected journey, offering only glimpses of what was to come. So, Love Is Like Oxygen, their last big hit, mingled an opaque psychedelic intricacy with an obvious pop rock tune. It’s interesting to note, though, that the album version is a lot longer and has more depth that the edited single. The same can also be said of California Nights and Strong Love, both of which offer the semblance of being prime style Sweet, yet also have a slightly bolder approach. This is developed with Silverbird, which allows itself to get lost in a swirl reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane. But it’s on Anthem No I (Lady Of The Lake) and Anthem No II where things really depart from the norm. Here Sweet go for what can only be described as an art rock indulgence, with the articulate guitar work from Andy Scott complemented by classical style keyboard and string sections. It says much of how creative the band could be that it never sounds forced. Self-produced, this album represents Sweet as you’d never heard them before, going for a more introspective and adventurous path. They weren’t prepared to give fans what was perhaps expected, but instead took musical leaps off the edge of the cliff. It would be foolhardy and misleading to suggest the band fully embraced progressive music. But on Level Headed they moved a lot closer to 10cc and Supertramp than anybody might have expected. The album wasn’t a commercial success, but now stands as arguably the most fascinating and challenging release of their career. Who knows what might have been achieved if vocalist Brian Connolly hadn’t left in 1979, and this quartet had stayed together. Level Headed shows what potential Sweet had as they deliberately abandoned playing safe. MALCOLM DOME 22 progmagazine.com
IDA VIE/PRESS
SWEET
22 Norwegian guitarist Magnus Børmark and his cohorts find their musical home via Queen and a robot mascot. Norway’s city of Trondheim is musical wilderness, they’ve finally steeped in musical history with found their niche in prog thanks to strong ties to the worlds of jazz and a tour with Leprous and Agent Fresco. classical. Motorpsycho come from the “We’d been trying to go more area and so do the self-described mainstream rock and hit that audience “short-haired prog rock” quartet 22. but couldn’t really break through. “When we made the first EP Now we’ve found lots of people who [2008’s ESP], our vision was clear; we really appreciate what we’re doing,” wondered what kind of music we says the guitarist. “I wouldn’t have would make if we got up at five in the described us as progressive [before morning to do rehearsals!” reveals this tour] because I had just guitarist and main songwriter Magnus associated that with capes and Børmark. “We wanted to tap into that dwarves [laughs] but I’ve come to creative realm, straight from dream understand that’s not the case!” state. That became our sound: a lot of They might be dwarf-free, but notes per second!” 22’s creative concept is bolstered Although they formed more than by another popular motif; the robot. a decade ago, 22 have spent the last Their digital human synergy enabler few years on hiatus. In 2017, they is called HAL 22000 and it’s one of returned to the studio reinvigorated the key characters in the ambitious with the early Muse-like You Are video quadrilogy for You Are Creating. Creating: Limb1. It’s just been “We’re telling the story of the robot repackaged with the second we use on stage, HAL 22000, and instalment and released as a double a renaissance kid called Akira. It’s quite album via Long Branch. ambitious,” says Børmark. The concept, which The first two instalments, explores the listener’s Sum Of Parts and Call Me active role in defining Trimtab, are already online music, blends their love of and 22 are now looking technical wizards Mars forward to playing the “I had just Volta and Meshuggah tracks live next year. NRS associated with the quirky pop prog with sensibilities of Queen and We Are Creating is out now capes and Kate Bush. And, after via Long Branch. For more, dwarves!” spending many years in visit www.22.no.
PROG IN BRIEF
Devin Townsend heads out to Europe next spring for a solo acoustic tour. ‘An Evening With’ starts on March 30 in Helsinki and includes six UK shows in April. The intimate event will feature material from his catalogue and a Q&A.
Riverside (left) return to the UK next March with four bonus dates on their Wasteland tour. Tickets are now on sale for the shows in Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow and Birmingham. The Polish band will also perform at Cruise To The Edge next February.
JACCO GARDNER
Limelight
Dutch traveller puts down the mic to explore the cosmos.
Stargazer: Gardner finds inspiration in a 17th-century sci-fi novel…
“The turning point for me as a teenager was discovering Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd.”
MARIA PANDIELLO
IF A PICTURE can paint a thousand words, sometimes it from black and white to technicolour with the help of one feels like a passage of music can do much more. Dutch singerparticular prog icon. songwriter Jacco Gardner increasingly felt that way when he “The turning point for me as a teenager was discovering decided to leave his new, third album vocal-free. Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd,” he says, “and through that “I noticed the instrumental records I was listening to I discovered more psychedelic and progressive music.” seemed to be giving me more intimate experiences than In due course, Gardner would gig and make an album hearing someone singing something,” the 30-year-old tells with drummer Hugo van de Poel as “freakbeat psych duo” Prog over a Skype call from Lisbon, where he’s now based after The Skywalkers, but his reputation was truly cemented with many years of touring. “You don’t immediately think of the two solo albums of what he calls ‘baroque pop’, 2013 debut person singing when you hear the music or visualise their Cabinet Of Curiosities and 2015’s Hypnophobia. They are face, so your imagination is free to roam.” records strikingly influenced by the late Mr Barrett, but they On that basis, he created Somnium, a set of also showcase a talent for evocative melodies and cinematic, highly atmospheric pieces that evoke some potent atmospherics. PROG FILE of prog’s most distinctive soundscape designers, from Somnium is another big leap forward, and although Mike Oldfield to Tangerine Dream to Goblin and even he’s always produced his own records, this one was French electronic mavericks Air. mastered by someone who knows a fair bit about Absence of lyrics hasn’t stopped the multiambitious studio undertakings – Tubular Bells instrumentalist from telling a tale and following co-producer Simon Heyworth. a vividly illustrated narrative, and he based Somnium “Simon mastered or remastered a lot of albums on a pioneering, stargazing 17th-century novel of the that I love – folk, synth and progressive. A lot LINE-UP same name. Jacco Gardner (drums, of them have a unique sound because of the bass, guitars, keys) “It’s by Johannes Kepler,” he explains, “an Austrian different studios they were made in. As a mastering SOUNDS LIKE astronomer and alchemist. He wrote the book engineer you have to work with sounds like that and Mike Oldfield and Air Somnium in 1608 [although it wasn’t published until I imagined my own sound was even more weird, so tripping on a space 1634] and it’s about a dream in which he visualises I needed someone to bring everything the right station with vintage synthesisers and what it’s like to travel to another world. balance together, so Simon was perfect.” ancient novels “I liked the combination of science fiction – the The album has been two years in gestation, partly for company book is regarded as one of the first ever written in the due to Gardner intending the album to be performed CURRENT RELEASE genre – and the mysterious, powerful aspect of the live. And although dates over here are TBC, he has Somnium is out now human imagination and dreams.” lofty ambitions: “I’d love to play it in London via Full Time Hobby Growing up in the small Friesland town of Zwaag in Planetarium. I don’t know how easy that will be WEBSITE the north of Holland, young Gardner always had his to set up, but if it happens, I hope to see you and www.jaccogardner. bandcamp.com head in the clouds, he says, and those dreams went lots of Prog readers there!” JS
progmagazine.com 23
HAVE A CIGAR
Saluting the scene’s supporting crew
THE BIG QUESTION
As any socio-economics expert can tell you, when a group expands there are bound to be problems. Any group that gets too large becomes hard to manage and it’s human nature to want to branch off into smaller tribes. Another problem with large, established groups is the need to reassure new members that they are welcome and as much a part of the ecosystem as anyone else. Now that progressive music has entered its second renaissance with an explosion of fresh talent flooding the airwaves with exciting sounds and fascinating compositions, this has naturally led to an influx of fresh-faced fans eager to join in the conversation both on and offline. While there have been some absolutely fascinating discussions, there is one question that has raised its ugly head time and time again: ‘Is [insert band name] prog?’ This banal line of questioning sends a shiver down my spine as my forehead swiftly meets my hands for a little rest. It’s usually well-natured in origin but causes a large and collective moan from across the community. This isn’t to say I don’t understand the reasoning behind it: everyone wants to know if their favourite artist fits in with everyone else’s. We need to feel included, especially when we’re new! With the internet (for better or for worse) giving everybody the ability to take part in global discussions regarding their niche, this question has become prolific across the board. You’ll see it crop up in almost any thread regarding the subject of prog. While seemingly innocuous, it’s bound to put a multitude of people on the back foot and will lead to responses made harsher by the relative anonymity a forum can bring. The answer to the question is very simple: if it feels like the music transcends what you consider ‘normal’ or ‘mainstream’, then the likelihood is that, yes, it’s prog. Prog doesn’t care that you didn’t like Mikael Åkerfeldt when he sounded like a lion. It doesn’t matter what your opinions are about Genesis post Peter Gabriel. Prog doesn’t care if you think a particular King Crimson album isn’t using enough wafty time signatures. As a musician who’s played his fair share of venues, I can tell you that half the bands you call prog will undoubtedly be referred to as ‘rock’ by most landlords and venue owners anyway. Prog is an over-arching concept; one that’s just as nourishing, exciting and indeed broad today as when it started. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if no one else but you thinks a band is prog or not, because for you that band is special, transcendent, and evokes emotion. That’s what prog really is, friends. MIKE ORVIS Got an opinion on the matter that you’d like to share? Please email us at: [emailprotected].
INSTAGRAM.COM/THERECORDDECKUK/
A Prog reader wonders why some fans can’t help asking the same thing…
Riverboat Song: Luke Guilford and his floating music shop.
THE RECORD DECK Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream… but bring a wallet for the UK’s water-based music vendor. Wander slightly off-grid from “I had the boat as a home, so Fairport Convention’s yearly I built shelves, made a hatch in the Cropredy festival and you might find side and built a sofa bed that fits yourself on the Grand Union Canal, eight crates of vinyl under it,” he amid boaters and traders making the says. “This is the most stock that most of the atmosphere. One trader I can carry. I’m looking at the place is, erm, making waves: Luke Guilford, now, it’s full of records!” with his floating music shop The Cropredy isn’t his only stop-off; Record Deck. After four years’ Guilford books in a year of canal-side trading, the 40-foot narrowboat events across the Midlands, home named Tashtar is Guilford’s home counties, and London with a regular and business, and an essential mooring in Hackney on the river Lea. stop-off for proggers. He looks out for new releases and “I come from the boating side even hosts ‘on-store’ gigs. anyway,” says Guilford, who’s lived on Stock comes from markets, private board for 20 years. “My mum’s got collections or other boaters selling up a boat and she used to take it to and moving on. Guilford’s preference Cropredy. I saw other traders there is “old Fairport, Pentangle and folk and it sowed the seed.” crossover stuff from ’68 to ’72,” but A kid in the 90s, Guilford admits today he’s handling a bundle that that he and his friend “had the biggest features Hatfield & The North, paper round in Northamptonshire Henry Cow and Matching Mole to file purely to fund our record buying alongside rare items such as Fruupp, habits” as they visited record fairs and an original Joy Of A Toy, and The built up their collection and Madcap Laughs. knowledge. Later, Guilford The fun part of the worked in a library in business is meeting Hackney for a number of people. “Every day’s an years but “never really education,” he says. “You enjoyed the regular nine to learn something from five,” so decided to take every customer.” JK “I’m looking his record collecting nous at the place and try and to make See www.facebook.com/ now, it’s full a living from it. therecorddeckuk for more.
Swallow The Sun release the 14-minute single Lumina Aurea on December 21 via Century Media. It’s followed by the album, When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light on January 25. It’s their first new material since 2015. 24 progmagazine.com
Susanna Wallumrød’s (left) concept album about Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch is out on February 22 via SusannaSonata. Susanna & The Brotherhood Of Our Lady’s Garden Of Earthly Delights was originally performed live last year.
Lost Crowns’ debut album Every Night Something Happens comes out through Bad Elephant on January 25. The supergroup, led by Stars In Battledress’ Richard Larcombe, also features Knifeworld’s Charlie Cawood and Prog’s Rhodri Marsden.
Quantum Pig are about to release their new single Citizen And State on John Mitchell’s White Star. The duo, formed by multiinstrumentalist Ian Faragher and author Mark Stevenson, release their as yet-untitled album in 2019.
ANNE VALEUR
of records!”
What got us all grooving this month…
US, THEM & YOU
SIGNED GEDDY LEE’S BIG BEAUTIFUL BOOK OF BASS!
The prog top 30 albums October 2018 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Compiled by
RICK WAKEMAN Piano Odyssey SONY CLASSICAL TAME IMPALA Currents FICTION COHEED & CAMBRIA The Unheavenly Creatures ROADRUNNER
R
ush vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee will release a book showcasing his collection of bass guitars and the stories behind them later this year. Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass will be published on December 4 via Harper Collins and will also see the Rush star explore the history of the instrument and features contributions from vintage expert Terry Foster and his Rush bandmate and guitarist Alex Lifeson. The 400-page book will also include interviews with artists including John Paul Jones, Adam Clayton, Robert Trujillo, Bill Wyman, Les Claypool and Bob Daisley, and we have one signed copy to give away. The synopsis of the book reads: “From Rush frontman Geddy Lee’s personal collection of vintage electric bass guitars, dating from the 1950s to the 1980s, comes the definitive volume on the subject. “For the past seven years, Geddy’s dedicated himself to studying the history of the instrument that’s been so essential to his career, collecting hundreds of basses from around the globe, 250 of which are presented here in breathtaking detail with specially commissioned photography by Richard Sibbald. “Representing every tone in the bass palette, every nuance of the rock and roll genre as well as blues, jazz, pop, and country, this one-of-a-kind collection features so-called ‘beauty queens’ – pristine instruments never lifted from their cases – as well as ‘road warriors’ – well-worn, sweat-soaked basses that proudly show their age and use. “Complete with personal commentary from Geddy that showcases his knowledge both as a musician and an aficionado, this luxuriously produced volume is a revelatory look at the heavy hitters in the world of bass – Fender, Gibson/Epiphone, Rickenbacker, Höfner, Ampeg-and lesser known but influential global luthiers such as Antonio Wandr Pioli, Dan Armstrong, and Tony Zemaitis.” The book will also take a closer look at the instruments Lee used on Rush’s final R40 tour, along with his stage and recording gear used between 1968 – 2017. For your chance to win, visit www.bit.do/rushcomp and answer the following:
MATT BERRY Television Themes ACID JAZZ HAKEN Vector INSIDE OUT SPIRITUALIZED And Nothing Hurt BELLA UNION JEAN MICHEL JARRE Planet Jarre SONY MUSIC CG JEFF LYNNE’S ELO Wembley Or Bust RCA MOODY BLUES In Search Of The Lost Chord UMC POLYPHIA New Levels New Devils RUDE RECORDS HAWKLORDS Brave New World HAWKLORDS RIVERSIDE Wasteland INSIDE OUT BLACK PEAKS All That Divides RISE RECORDS URIAH HEEP Living The Dream FRONTIERS A PERFECT CIRCLE Eat The Elephant BMG HAWKWIND Road To Utopia CHERRY RED MOGWAI Kin – OST ROCK ACTION IAMTHEMORNING Ocean Sounds KSCOPE PINEAPPLE THIEF Dissolution KSCOPE ROGER WATERS Is This The Life We Really Want COLUMBIA RUSH A Farewell To Kings UMC/VIRGIN TOSKA Fire By The Silos DISTROKID.COM ROXY MUSIC Roxy Music VIRGIN MASTODON Emperor Of Sand REPRISE MOODY BLUES Days Of Future Passed DECCA MARILLION All One Tonight – Live At The Royal EAR MUSIC JOHN MCLAUGHLIN/JIMMY HERRING Live In San Francisco ABSTRACT LOGIX ELO Secret Messages EPIC
What year were Rush inducted into the Juno Hall Of Fame? a) 1991 b) 1997 c) 1994 See www.rush.com and www.harpercollins.com for more information.
JETHRO TULL Heavy Horses RHINO
TERMS AND CONDITIONS:This competition will be open from 30 November to 28 December. By entering the competition you agree to our competition rules (available at www.futureplc.com/competition-rules ). The winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received by the closing date. No employees of Future Publishing or any of its group companies or the employees of any entity which has been involved with the administration of this competition or any member of their households may enter this competition.
ORB No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds COOKING VINYL
Find out more at www.officialcharts.com Now our turn… The Editor
The Art Guy Russell Fairbrother
The Lone Office Lady Hannah May Kilroy
Musician
The Writer
The Reader
Jerry Ewing
Keshav Dhar
Daryl Easlea
Jeff Cooper
THOM YORKE
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO
ANTIMATTER
BEN HOWARD
THE BETA BAND
Suspira (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film)
RIKARD SLÖBLOM’S GUNGFLY
Smells Funny
Black Market Enlightenment
Noonday Dream
The Beta Band
XL
RUNE GRAMMOFON
MUSIC IN STONE
ISLAND
REGAL/ASTRALWERKS
Friendship
26 progmagazine.com
INSIDEOUT
EMPEROR NORTON
Limelight
Young proggers take their cues from the classics.
“I was listening to the sort of music that a skateboarding kid would until one day my grandfather put on Close To The Edge.”
Emperor Norton: they love to get Close To The Edge…
MATTHEW KULMER
Emperor Norton formed in York at the end of February THE LONGEVITY AND ongoing inventiveness of the 2017, and quietly honed their material before trying to progressive genre remains startling and the current wave of develop a momentum on the live circuit. Their first gig was younger bands bodes well for the genre’s future. And while supporting Syd Arthur, which Corry describes as a “pretty these musicians may not have grown up in the age of classic horrible” experience, with a poor sound hampering prog, many felt a serious sense of excitement when they their determination. However, despite their troubles, discovered the music of that era. Emperor Norton are PROG FILE the crowd reaction was positive, which encouraged one such band. them to press ahead with their approach. “At the age of 13, I was listening to the sort of music “A lot of the places we were trying to get gigs in that a skateboarding kid would until one day my were refusing to let us play because we didn’t have grandfather put on Close To The Edge,” recalls guitarist a recording,” recalls keyboard player Marc Green. Scott Neumann. “He told me to have a listen to it and “We did a really rough-and-ready recording and it just made my mind explode. We never wanted to be then got a gig. Then we were all aware that we copycats or be accused of simply parroting bands that LINE-UP needed to record it properly before we moved on have influenced us. One of the ways we addressed that Matthew Corry to the next stage.” was to explicitly reference those influences, so for (vocals), Scott The result is their engaging, self-titled debut example, there’s a guitar line on one of our tracks Neumann (guitar), Marc Green album, which was released earlier this year, and it’s which is from Close To The Edge. We just wanted to (keyboard), celebrate the music that we enjoy. But I would say that James Kulmer (bass), a recording that has already garnered a number of at no point did we sit down in say the first session and Joe Rees-Jones positive reviews, much to their entertainment. “The feedback has been unexpected and discuss what music we wanted to write. We just played (drums) SOUNDS LIKE overwhelming,” says Corry. “We got a comment what we liked.” Classic 70s prog with on YouTube where one of our tracks was compared “We all have a lot of old influences, despite being a twist of modernity fairly young for a prog band,” suggests singer Matthew directly to 2112 by Rush. I mean, we really don’t CURRENT RELEASE Corry. “We take our influences from bands like King Emperor Norton is out deserve that, but people seem to genuinely like Crimson… for me, Frost is a big one… and there’s Yes now and is self-released the music.” The band have already gathered together material and Gentle Giant. We wanted to evolve that music as WEBSITE for another album, which is slated for release best we could and develop that sound, as that’s the www.facebook.com/ EmpNortonBand next year. RW music that means so much to us.”
progmagazine.com 27
INTRO
JASON HAZELEY AND JOEL MORRIS They met as kids and subverted the school paper. Now they’re doing the same with Ladybird Books For Grown-Ups, BBC TV’s Philomena Cunk and more, with Ravel, Radiohead and Jeff Wayne in their heads… Words: Jo Kendall Portrait: Will Ireland
I
f you grew up in the 70s you were steeped in prog anyway,” begins Joel Morris. “We both love Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds, which was the first cassette of music that I owned.” Jason Hazeley: “I love it so much I’ve got the multidisc coffee table version. I’d loved to have been at the meeting where Jeff announced a multi-record concept album based on a Victorian sci-fi novel with the best session guys in town and an orchestra and someone said, ‘That sounds like a reasonable commercial prospect.’” Joel: “People who said Rick Wakeman’s Journey To The Centre Of The Earth was ‘prog nonsense’ would have this. It’s not seen as prog, it’s seen as retro. But it’s the last of a cycle of prog records based on a novel.” Jason: “It’s also very good – Richard Burton’s narration then that fucking great D minor string section. Bernard Herrmann would have been proud of this. Then there’s those electronic sounds, all really well done.” Joel: “Because of the electronics, it plugged straight into the first LP I ever had, the Radiophonic Workshop’s BBC Sound Effects No 19. If you liked Doctor Who, Jeff Wayne was completely comprehensible to a kid who has listened to TARDIS sound effects. But you weren’t into prog rock, were you?” Jason: “I tried Tangerine Dream but they wouldn’t let me in. I played classical piano since I was about four.” Joel: “When we met we crossed into each other’s musical worlds. I’d been into rock and heavy metal. When I first heard Led Zeppelin I expected them to be heavy, but there was folk and prog and flutes and Sandy Denny, songs about Hobbits and shagging. I went looking for who else was doing that and someone recommended Yes. I got Relayer, which I bought “The first time second hand for 25p. The first time I put it on that I put I thought it was at the wrong speed. Recently Relayer on, I tried to learn the guitar parts and found I didn’t I thought it have enough frets. I love the bigness of it, the art… was at the the after-the-battle bit in The Gates Of Delirium is wrong speed!” one of the finest pieces of music I’ve heard.”
“
30 progmagazine.com
Jason: “At this time I’m listening to Changes by John Williams, put together by Stanley Myers and his orchestra. Myers is a ludicrously underrated musician most famous for writing the tune on this album, Cavatina. He’s a great orchestrator and this is a brilliant album that says, ‘I’ve got John Williams who can play the guitar really well, what can we do with him?’ So there’s a thing based on a Bach prelude strung out to four minutes of weirdness. After this, I move into Brian Eno and minimalism.” Joel: “I shared a flat in college with a guy whose record collection started with Roxy Music and then got into all the bands that sprang from that. Knowing Eno was ambient I was surprised to find guitary, poppy stuff such as Before And After Science. It’s not only got King’s Lead Hat, the audition for him to produce Talking Heads, it’s also got all the German musicians, like Cluster and Roedelius. It’s got a lovely British pop sensibility.” Jason: “This is the most important record I ever bought: John Adams’ Harmonium. I used to record things from Radio 3 and if there was a name I didn’t recognise I thought, ‘I’ll give that a whirl.’ Through this I discovered Ligeti, Judith Weir, Xenakis and John Adams. I couldn’t stop listening to this. It starts with a sound of just a single D emerging out of a vast space. Then it gets gigantic.” Joel: “You got me into Adams ’cos you’d play that a lot in the car when we were kids.” Jason: “I found out Harmonium was minimalism so I went in search of more, and then bought Shaker Loops featuring Steve Reich. I played it recently with [conductor] Charles Hazlewood at Colston Hall in Bristol and he arranged us over the floor of the venue so the audience could walk around and get a different sonic experience. I’ve followed minimalism my whole adult life and I started going to as many Adams premieres as I can. Last year, as one of the celebrations for his 70th birthday, I went to a premiere in Berlin of The Gospel According To The Other Mary. On the flight back, I noticed John Adams. He was in business, I wasn’t. I bowled over and said, ‘Great gig last night!’ and he said, ‘Thanks, man.’ I went back to my seat and then thought I should have said to him, ‘You’re the reason I’m on this plane.’ Him and Ravel are the two most important things in my head.” Joel: “We both were in bands; in the 90s mine found itself sliding towards folk, based on a gut feeling that I’d been raised by Bagpuss and The Wicker Man soundtrack. We were doing a TV show with [presenter and Prog supporter] Matthew Wright and he said, ‘Have you heard the Strawbs? You remind me of them.’ I sought out From The Witchwood, which I found very powerful. “Thinking about bands that fed into Britpop, has anyone mentioned Camel? There are lines from Britpop to prog, such as Damon Albarn’s dad managing Soft Machine. A friend played me Breathless, saying, ‘You’ll like this,’ putting on Down On The Farm, which is Blur’s career in one song. It’s a whimsical take on country life interspersed with ‘doo-doo’ harmonies and big guitars.” Jason: “Mike Oldfield has Tubular Bells hanging around his shoulders to the extent that he’s made about nine versions of it. But Amarok is a delightful, surprising, weird and accessible album. A friend told me, ‘It’s one track, it requires some commitment, but go with it.’ It’s great, it starts with a fidgety thing that can’t make up its mind as a time signature, then the thing goes ‘blam!’ and comes to life. His stuff is great to work to.” Joel: “I work to Mogwai and Midlake, to their album Antiphon. I used to like Midlake for the lyrics, but this is great, very antiverbal and minimal – a psychedelic prog record to get lost in. I need music to blot out…” Jason: “Me.” Joel: “We both love Talk Talk’s Spirit Of Eden. I can’t think of another album like it apart from Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom. An album of isolation, people in a strange mental space. The only band that have taken that forward is Radiohead. All these bands can write a pop song but what happens when you go beyond that? That’s what prog is.” Jason: “For a band everyone regards as very serious and worthy, the opening track on each Radiohead album is a burst of joy.” Ladybird’s Story Of Brexit is out now, also Cunk On Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena is available now via www.tworoadsbooks.com.
Joel Morris (left) and Jason Hazeley.
progmagazine.com 31
INTRO people get burned at the stake. Our manager was a very naughty man but we lived to tell the tale. Then when we left Virgin in ’87 and went into the independent label world, that was murky and a mistake. I thought, “Come back Virgin, all is forgiven!” What about the track Kenny? It’s about building on playing fields and asking where will the children play? We knew a Kenny at school who went on to play professional football. He played on the fields and waste grounds of old Swindon and nurtured his imagination there. I was the son of a caretaker at the biggest school in Swindon with the biggest playing field and it’s now been built on. The bungalow where we lived has gone too. The summers of ’69-’71 were idyllic, I’d go out of my gate and there were 10 acres of freshly mown field ahead. Not anymore.
COLIN MOULDING Keeping the home fires burning in Swindon, it’s a new EP and a return to the live fray for the XTC bassist, alongside former bandmate Terry Chambers. But things might have been different if he’d taken up an offer from a certain Mr Gilmour… . Words: Jo Kendall Portrait: Lou Dommett Young
O
ut of the spotlight since XTC broke up in 2006, Colin Moulding found himself back in (music) business at the end of 2017 alongside former bandmate and drummer Terry Chambers in a new configuration called TC&I. So far, they’ve released a four-track EP, Great Aspirations, and have just done a handful of live shows in their hometown of Swindon. With Great Aspirations out now on limited 10-inch vinyl – and a mighty 40 years since XTC released their debut album White Music – it was time for a catch-up with the celebrated bassist.
What’s TC&I all about? Is it a nod to the film Withnail & I? [Laughs] I suppose the name is with Withnail in mind. Lovely film, isn’t it? Terry had been married and living in Australia, but divorced and came home. I had some songs I’d been working on when I heard he was back, so we went out, had a few drinks and I sort of popped the question. It was quite well-received. It’s all very home-grown, isn’t it? Yes, it was recorded in my music room and very hands on. When one was singing the other was working the controls, just two of us flying this plane. I’d recorded my voice before but I hadn’t much experience of recording other things. That was a learning process as one went along. And you’ve released it yourself, with the help of PledgeMusic and Burning Shed? I could have got assistance – I’m used to being signed to a label – but I didn’t. It’s a shock to the system, suddenly you’ve got to go out and get your own milk [laughs]. The DIY world is really nice, though. We had the CD out then somebody said, “You need to do vinyl, Colin.” Really? Oh, alright. So we are.
“David Gilmour called asking me to come to the studio…” 32 progmagazine.com
There are four songs on the EP. Comrades Of Pop seems pointed in the direction of XTC? It’s not, it’s my outstretched hand is offering new bands a bit of advice. We’ve been singed. A lot of
Scatter Me sounds light and fun, but is quite heavy? I wanted to prove that you can write about death and it would still be a positive thing. There’s been lots of poetry about death and when I read it, there was a connection for me. I think it sounds uplifting. Scatter Me also comes from a lovely walk I do outside Swindon. The Marlborough Downs, the Cotswolds, Uffington White Horse. It’s good exercise, but you also see these little shrines – a photograph, a posy – for people who also walked there. What were you doing before TC&I? XTC fizzled out in 2006 when me and Andy [Partridge] had differing visions of how we’d like to see the band. It was a shock when it all ended. Expected, but a shock. It was like getting a divorce, you can’t take on a new love because you’re still betrothed to the old one in a way. I went into tailspin for a couple of years, wondering what the fuck I was going to do. So I didn’t do anything, I just sat and watched TV. I missed the human connection. It’s pretty soul-destroying working on your own. You did contribute to Billy Sherwood’s Return To The Dark Side Of The Moon project, though? Oh yes, and that was good. Also working with Allyson Seconds and Anton Barbeau. I’m proud of those songs. I’ve never been one for being a hired hand, though. I didn’t want to be the outsider. You were asked to join Pink Floyd, too? They were looking for a bass player and singer as they were going out on tour. I had a phone call from Dave Gilmour and he said, “Would you be interested in coming down?” I said, “I haven’t toured for 25 years,” and there was a big silence at the other end of the line. They wanted to go out for a year and that’s just not me. So I said, “It’s very kind but I wouldn’t be interested,” and we left it. Are you surprised that XTC are so loved by prog fans? We dipped our toe in the warm waters of prog a few times. We’re not huffy about different areas of music, it’s all music, good or bad. It’s my background; I was a big Tull fan, and Atomic Rooster. And for a bass hero, Chris Squire? I was a Chris Squire fan, absolutely. We were working on Oranges And Lemons in LA and I was putting on a bass part and [laughs] you don’t want Chris Squire walking through the door at that point, do you? He stood in the doorway, this imposing figure, nodding his head. It was slightly off-putting, but I bore it as best I could. You’ve been partial to a pseudonym: The Colonel, The Red Curtain (in The Dukes Of Stratosphear)… what’s the appeal? Most people do that as a slight disclaimer so if the whole thing explodes they can walk away from it with some dignity. It takes the pressure off, you can be anyone. One time, Andy and I thought about doing a bubblegum pop sampler. We thought, “Why don’t we invent 10 different groups for this?” Ludicrous, really. You go to the record company with the idea and their face just drops. The success of The Dukes was a shot across their boughs, though. Great Aspirations is out now. See www.pledgemusic.com/projects/ tc-and-i for more information.
Colin Moulding (left) with Terry Chambers.
progmagazine.com 33
An Exercise In Self-Indulgence… This year marks the 40th anniversary of Rush’s Hemispheres, well-known as one of their most challenging records to make, but its stunning 36 minutes remain a clear indication of the band’s incredible chemistry. Geddy Lee remembers its creation, and ponders its legacy…
“W
hen you’ve been a band for as long as we’ve been around, almost every day at this time of year, it’s an anniversary of something…” Poor old Geddy Lee. Just as the legendary bassist thought he was at least temporarily relieved of the task of talking about Rush, another gargantuan anniversary loomed over the horizon. Forty years have passed since the release of Hemispheres: not just one of Rush’s most widely beloved records, but arguably the one that most thrillingly encapsulates the progressive abandon of the Canadians’ first decade together. Recently reissued
in ultra-lavish, multi-format form, Hemispheres certainly deserves a louder commemorative cheer than most, even though Lee remains sceptical about the need to mark every possible milestone. “We always tried to release our records before Christmas or just after Christmas, if we could, so this time of year is flooded with memories of release dates for me,” he notes. “It’s a bit crazy at times. I saw somebody posted a celebration of the 33rd anniversary of Mystic Rhythms [from 1985’s Power Windows] today, on some internet site. Well, thank you very much! [Laughs] This guy was doing a rendition of Mystic Rhythms, which was actually quite beautiful and it was nice to hear it played on just acoustic
guitar and voice. He did a great job, but do you celebrate the 33rd anniversary of anything? It’s a bit mental.” When it comes to Hemispheres, Lee is more than happy to regale Prog with the inside story. One of the most vociferously debated and lauded albums in Rush’s vast catalogue, these 36 minutes of explosive, pioneering prog are notorious for having pushed the three musicians to the limit of their abilities. In fact, Hemispheres is often cited as the album that nearly broke Rush for good. In truth, as Lee explains, as they arrived in the spring of 1978 after finishing a gruelling world tour in support of the hugely successful A Farewell To Kings, Rush were too full of ideas to contemplate taking a rest.
“I remember writing La Villa Strangiato was great fun because the whole inspiration was these crazy dreams that Alex used to foist upon us every morning at breakfast. He’d start, ‘You’ll never guess what I dreamed last night…’ and the groaning would begin.”
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ILLUSTRATION COMPOSITE: MAGICTORCH, SHUTTTETRERSTOCK AND GETTY IMAGES
Words: Dom Lawson Portraits: Fin Costello/Getty Images
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“I think we were tired after the touring but at the same time we were also feeling pretty good,” he says. “Our range was expanding and we were feeling pretty ambitious at that time, which is evidenced in the crazy record that we made in Wales! We’d had a good experience working at Rockfield Studios before and that left a good taste about the whole idea of recording in Britain again. When we arrived in Wales we were psyched, we were excited, but at the same time we were not super well prepared. Although we had a lot of ideas, we hadn’t really hammered them out, so we found ourselves in a new situation, in a house not far from Rockfield. We’d planned to be there for a short time and it turned into a much longer time, as everything to do with that album did. I’d say we were excited and a little bit nervous about the lack of preparation, but we were ready to dig in.” emispheres’ reputation as a difficult album to make is arguably well-founded. With nothing concrete to lay down on tape, Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart were under considerable pressure to conjure an album’s worth of material within a few short weeks. It is perhaps indicative of exactly how potent the chemistry was between the trio at this time, that being woefully underprepared seems to have pushed them to unexpected new heights. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the songwriting sessions were spent working on Hemispheres’ grandiloquent opener, Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres, the sequel to A Farewell To Kings’ grand, conceptual closer, Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage. “Once the lyrics started coming together and we saw that Neil had this strong conceptual piece in his head, that sort of helped us to form a plan of action and so I think it was quite an exciting way to work,” states Lee. “In the past, we’d usually save one song on any album to write while we were in the studio, just off-the-cuff. Usually those songs would point us in a different direction for the next record, songs like The Twilight Zone [from 2112, 1976], Vital Signs [from Moving Pictures, 1981] and New World Man [from Signals, 1982], for example. But this was a lot more than just ‘Let’s write a short, five-minute tune.’ “We’d get together in this room in the house where our gear was set up and we’d just wrestle with the lyrics and put together melodies,” he continues. “We’d do all of that sitting around with each other, not necessarily plugged in, with Alex on an acoustic guitar, perhaps, and me on my bass, or sometimes we’d both write on acoustics. Then, with Neil, we’d hammer out a loose
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Rush in May 1979. Recording Hemispheres the previous year had pushed them to their limit.
“The Trees song was one of the most fun that we were working on at that time, for sure. We were surrounded by all that nature at Rockfield and it just made sense.” structure and then we’d take it to the next step, get behind the machinery and start playing it out until we were able to form the song. It was very much a three-way street in terms of coming up with the final version of the song.” One familiar apocryphal tale about the making of Hemispheres posits that Neil Peart was struggling with the job of writing lyrics and felt under
immense pressure to deliver something special. Not so, according to Lee, who notes that continuing the Cygnus saga was fundamental to defining the new music’s direction. “I think [writing a sequel] made it easier for him, to be honest. I think he’d been thinking about this for a while and I think he knew where he wanted to go. It was just a matter of fleshing it
Screen Time: the guys chilling backstage at the Gaumont, Southampton on May 13, 1979.
Alex Lifeson on the first UK date of Hemispheres tour.
out. He was probably more prepared lyrically than we were musically. Alex and I were really playing catch-up.” emispheres is best known for its two magnicient bookends: the sprawling, joyously intricate title track and the instrumental, showboating blitzkrieg of La Villa Strangiato. But at a time when Rush were significant figures in the rock world and increasingly in demand on US rock radio, Hemispheres also managed to conjure two of the band’s most succinct and enduring songs. The sub-four-minute splendour of Circumstances, in particular, hinted strongly at another possible direction for these young masters to pursue, while giving them a much-needed break from the arduous longform songwriting process. “Yeah, that song was a bit of a holiday for us at that time, like,
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‘Let’s do something short…!’” Lee laughs. “The truth is, we don’t write more than we can use. If, along the way, a song doesn’t cut it, we just kick it out. We famously have no hidden tracks because every song took maximum effort and we didn’t see the point in putting in maximum effort for a song we had doubts about. So we decided that we needed one more song for Hemispheres, Neil had these Circumstances lyrics, and it became a great opportunity to do something different. Working on a side-long piece is so draining on many levels, you feel like you’re a slave to this concept, so anything that’s not like that feels way more fun!” Strangely, the song that became one of Rush’s biggest ever hits, both on the radio and within their enormous fan base, was Hemispheres’ skewed, sidetwo curio The Trees. A deceptively spiky tale, this disquieting fantasy about oaks and maples competing for the sunlight is an unlikely anthem, particularly given its rather unpleasant denouement. (Spoiler alert: the oaks get chopped down to size.) “That song was one of the most fun that we were working on at that time, for sure,” Lee says. “We were surrounded by all that nature at Rockfield and it just made sense. I remember mixing it at Trident Studios, and the engineer was a lovely guy. He was new to our music and I remember him, after one runthrough of the mix, saying, ‘This is a nasty little tune, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘Well, maybe a little…’ But yeah, it was great fun to do that song. I loved the textures and the changes. It just turned into one of our classic songs, I think. Surprisingly, I still hear it a lot travelling around America. I remember reading, when it first came out, that it was a big radio song on some big FM station in Texas, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s weird…’ It is progmagazine.com 37
“I was a huge Yes fan, and still am. Did I know what the fuck Jon Anderson was talking about most of the time? No! Does anyone? Does Jon?” kind of odd, but it’s sort of become one of our iconic songs.” There remains something wonderfully subversive about the thought of hearing The Trees nestling alongside More Than A Feeling and The Joker on US rock radio rotation, but Lee attributes the song’s enduring success to Neil Peart’s unerring ability to leave room for manoeuvre in Rush’s lyrical world. “Well, one thing that was always important to me, as a songwriter and regardless of what Neil was talking about, was I always felt the audience needed to have a choice,” Lee avows. “You need to have the option of what you get out of the song, whether it’s just a musical thing or if it’s the sound of the lyrics or whatever, that’s fine. You don’t have to understand it the way I understand it. And I don’t always understand it the way Neil understood it. I’m the first interpreter in that chain and the audience are the next set of interpreters. That’s the beauty of art, 38 progmagazine.com
and I think it’s important to have that in music.”
Above: Rush looking dapper in 1978.
it’s what makes it so alive. It should be communal and international in a way. It should be open to interpretation.” Is that another one of the benefits of playing progressive rock? It’s a genre that deals in so many ideas and concepts that the unexpected is almost expected… “That’s true. You can’t really write a rootsy country song about an eggsucking dog [he’s referring to Johnny Cash’s Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog] and keep any kind of mystery about what it’s about! I hate having things so explained to me sometimes. I was a huge Yes fan, and still am. Did I know what the fuck Jon Anderson was talking about most of the time? No! Does anyone? Does Jon? [Laughs] He had an idea and only really he knows what he was trying to get across. I have my own takeaway from those songs
ake a quick straw poll of any random gaggle of Rush fans and it seems safe to say that La Villa Strangiato would come out on top of any list of favourite songs from Hemispheres (although, it has to be said, there are only four songs on it in the first place). Perhaps the ultimate showcase for the mind-bending musical chemistry between Lee, Lifeson and Peart, it has weathered 40 years impeccably and still sounds like what it truly is: the sound of three young, preternaturally gifted musicians showing off and being insanely, joyfully inventive in the process. Thinking back to Rockfield, Lee notes that the sense of utmost urgency we hear on Hemispheres’ closing track is the result of a lot of blood, sweat, tears and insanity. “I don’t really remember how the writing came together but I do
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remember rehearsing the hell out of it beforehand. We really wanted to record it all in one go. It’s about 10 minutes long and we wanted to do it in one shot. I remember writing it was great fun because the whole inspiration was, of course, these crazy dreams that Alex used to foist upon us every morning at breakfast. He’d start, ‘You’ll never guess what I dreamed last night…’ and the groaning would begin! But it was a really fun, visual and musical exercise, constructing a soundtrack to an insane person’s dreams! [Laughs]” More than any other Rush song, La Villa Strangiato captures the wild energy that drove the band in their early days. You can almost hear them grinning as they switch moods and tempos on the head of a pin. “Doing something like that gave us licence to change as often as we wanted, to make the music as complicated as we wanted, to stylistically shift gears every 30 seconds. All of that is free and open to you. That’s the beauty of doing that kind of instrumental. You can make it up as you go along, you can decide what the script should be and it doesn’t have to bear any relation to anybody’s idea of what an instrumental song should be. So it was super fun to do and it’s still super fun to play live. It’s one of my favourite songs to play.” Legend has it that they recorded more than 40 takes of La Villa Strangiato before nailing the final version. Is that close to the truth? “I don’t remember how many takes it took but I do know that we never got it in one go!” Lee chuckles. “We’d set out to get it in one 10-minute go, but again, our ideas were more solid than our ability to play them! So we settled for doing it in four pieces. We divided it into four, focused on those and then used the good old magic of editing tape to stick them together into one cohesive piece. Those were the days before click tracks and that digital, metronomic attitude towards putting music together. So it was very much down to how you felt in the moment. Sometimes you’d get excited and you’d speed up, and sometimes that’s the way it should be. That’s why it feels so live.” riginally planned as a fourweek excursion to Rockfield, the Hemispheres sessions steadily turned into a much lengthier mission for all concerned. Due to both the complex nature of the music and the efforts required to perform it properly and to various technical problems that slowed the recording process, Rush and co-producer Terry Brown found themselves running out of time, working around the clock to somehow piece this preposterous magnum opus together.
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“At this time we’d developed this crazy foot pedal system, kind of a version of MIDI before that existed, and it arrived in time for the writing sessions in Wales but it didn’t work,” Lee recalls. “We were so upset about that and we spent way too many hours trying to make it work. We got some semblance of it working, certainly
Three Kings: Hemispheres was three incredibly gifted young musicians showing off and being wildly inventive.
enough to be able to record. We really had a lot of fun working there, but the hours were getting later and later. We were sleeping until four in the afternoon and having breakfast at supper time, and then before you know it we were up until six in the morning again, going to sleep as the birds were tweeting and the sheep were baa-ing, progmagazine.com 39
Choose Your Weapon: Alex Lifeson during rehearsals at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, in April 1979.
you know? It was a crazy schedule and we ran out of time there. They had other people coming in, so we had to high-tail it, so we didn’t use the time we had set aside for mixing at Advision [Studio]. We used that to record vocals.” Famously, Neil Peart introduced a gong into his percussive arsenal on Hemispheres. Meanwhile, Lee was experimenting with new effects pedals. Added to the intricacy of the songs themselves, is it any wonder that Rush struggled to get everything done in time? “I think basically what we wanted was to record everything live on the floor. We wanted to record the songs in long pieces. Cygnus Book II was an adventurous piece of music to play 40 progmagazine.com
Above: Neil Peart behind his beloved kit during soundcheck at the Gaumont in 1979.
and it was much more difficult than we expected, so in a way our skill set wasn’t as polished as our ideas were. What’s the expression, ‘Our reach exceeded our grasp?’ So it was difficult. We had to raise our game and that’s really what that album was all about, raising our game.” Another well-worn snippet of Rush mythology concludes that the band struggled during the Hemispheres sessions because they were deeply unhappy about the state of their living conditions at Rockfield. Again, Lee dismisses the idea, noting that they had been there before – to record A Farewell To Kings – and were more than aware of what to expect. “Oh, it was fine. I mean, you need something to complain about, right? Otherwise you start picking on each other. But I think we were okay there. We were happy there. I mean, we were there for far too long and after doing two projects in a row, we didn’t really want to go back there again! I think we set a record for the number of grey-skied days we spent in Wales, but at that time of year, it’s fairly typical for Great Britain, right? At any time of year, in fact… But we really liked the people at Rockfield, they took great care of us. We have very fond memories of Kingsley [Ward], who ran the place, and Otto [Garms], their in-house tech who was desperately trying to help me to fix my technical issues.” With the four new songs committed to tape, Rush abandoned their Rockfield hideaway and headed for Advision Studios in London to add Lee’s final vocals. By this point, the band were perilously over-schedule and while they still felt hugely positive about the music they were making, the atmosphere in the studio was undeniably tense: not the ideal environment for hitting some
of the highest notes that the frontman has ever attempted. “It was getting later and later and people were getting a bit gnarly about the record and when it would be finished,” says Lee. “I was certainly a bit gnarly when I was doing the vocals. The difficult thing was that as we’d sketched these songs out, sitting around in a casual manner and humming the melodies – I hadn’t really sung them out against recorded, heavy tracks. When I came to record the vocals, of course, it was all in a very difficult key and it really pushed my range. That made me a very unhappy puppy! Unfortunately, I gave our producer Terry Brown a very rough time while I was recording, because I was so frustrated. I was in that vocal booth at Advision trying to hit those notes over and over again, trying to make them as perfect as I could, and it was tough. It was really up there!” Forty years on, those absurdly high notes have simply become a recognised part of Geddy Lee’s vocal repertoire. Looking back, however, he cites those sessions as an extremely educational moment in the band’s evolution as songwriters and album-makers. “Oh, it was a major lesson learned. It was a major faux pas,” he admits. “I think part of it was that I was angry at Terry, in a way, because I thought, ‘This is what producers are supposed to do, isn’t it?’ You know? Shouldn’t he have come in and said, ‘Do you think that’s in the right key?’ but that was something that almost never happened with Terry. Whatever we wrote, he made sure we recorded. He would, of course, question arrangements and make suggestions on structure, but I don’t think he ever suggested I try something in another key. It wasn’t until I started working with Peter Collins [on Power Windows, 1985] that it became a matter of course and you did that with every song. He’d say, ‘Let’s try this song in different keys!’, ‘Let’s see where your voice goes!’ or ‘Let’s see what works best!’ Those were things I was still learning when we made Hemispheres, so yes, lesson learned on that one!” Can you still hit those notes, 40 years later? “For short periods of time? Absolutely. When we went out on the R40 tour, we realised we were going to play some oldies, like Lakeside Park, which is another song that’s way up in the stratosphere. I kept wanting to transpose the song down and Alex kept saying, ‘No, you can do it!’ We tried different transpositions and he was like, ‘They don’t sound good, Ged, come on…’ So when we got into doing it at rehearsals, yeah, I could hit those notes and I managed to do it for the whole tour, so I can do it if I rehearse
including reaching number 14 in the UK – confirmed that the band were still heading onwards and upwards. For Lee, Lifeson and Peart, it was a case of sitting back and waiting for the fans’ responses to start trickling down to them. As far as they were concerned, they had made a great, if challenging, new record, but there was no guarantee that everyone else would agree… “No, I had absolutely no idea how people would take it,” says Lee. “I just thought people would think it was way too weird! We had no idea. I knew it would be a tough sell to radio, because these pieces were so long. But you can’t worry about that stuff when you’re doing it. I saw this interview with Robert Redford the other day and he quoted TS Eliot, and Eliot said that it’s all about the trying, and what happens after that is none of our
Hugh Syme’s artwork was heavily inspired by Neil Peart’s lyrics.
“It’s a weird cover. It freaked people out. The brains were not received well by all, but it’s definitely very proggy.” properly and take care of my voice. But I couldn’t do it night after night.” emispheres was released on October 29, 1978, resplendent in its none-more-prog artwork, courtesy of regular Rush collaborator Hugh Syme. Artfully capturing the album’s lyrical preoccupation with duelling sides of mind and spirit, the cover’s giant floating brains added an extra layer of intrigue and eccentricity to what was already the band’s most ambitious and thought-provoking record to date. “Yes, the artwork definitely helped,” Lee grins. “Hugh was very much wanting to express the ideas that came out of Neil’s lyrics. He was really into that whole thing, what the songs were trying to say and how that should be expressed somehow in the artwork. Neil and Hugh went to town, they’d run it by Alex and I and we’d give them our opinion. I think both of the chaps on the cover are Hugh’s pals. One was a ballet dancer and the other guy, I think, was a bank robber! I’m not sure if I’ve remember that correctly. But it’s a weird cover. It freaked people out. The brains were not received well by all, but it’s definitely very proggy.” A surprising critical success, Hemispheres did not take off in quite the way that Rush’s record label bosses may have wanted, but its initial, solid performance in charts worldwide –
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that I have so many fans come up to me and say that they think it’s the ultimate Rush album. That surprises me! Les Claypool is among them, that’s his Rush album. So it has become iconic in a way, for our band, as a representation of our most complex period.” mere 15 months after the release of Hemispheres, Rush would casually redefine their entire sound, ushering in a new decade with the timely sheen of Permanent Waves. But while history may remember Hemispheres as a moment of transition, wherein Rush began to fully embrace music’s limitless potential, Geddy Lee remembers the album as an exhausting, if momentous, full-stop at the end of Rush’s rise to prominence. “It didn’t feel like a transitional record. It felt like the end of an era for me,” he concludes. “I felt that the sidelong thing was getting predictable for me as a writer and I wanted to bust out of that. In a sense, it felt like saying goodbye to that period. I had ideas of where I wanted us to go. Songs like The Trees and Circumstances pointed in that direction. I wanted to tell stories but I didn’t want to be weighed down by themes that had to keep repeating over a 25-minute period. I wanted to be able to accomplish many more musical ideas over 25 minutes, you know?” Nonetheless, for many, Hemispheres remains the ultimate Rush album: 36 minutes of jaw-dropping, no-holdsbarred prog rock, conjured from nowhere and delivered with ageless, life-affirming enthusiasm. And that’s worth an exuberant anniversary in anyone’s book. “I don’t know if I can ever possess the necessary objectivity to be able to see and hear what people see and hear in Hemispheres,” Lee concludes. “But I like to think that it’s the ambitiousness in the effort we put in. There’s something truly prog about that record and I think that fans of that genre really appreciate that.”
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Hemispheres 40th Anniversary Edition is available now in three versions of Super Deluxe, 2CD Deluxe and 3LP Vinyl. See www.rush.com for more information.
Above: Geddy Lee at a studio in Shepperton, December 2, 1978. He’s playing a small Moog synthesiser with his foot… because he can.
business. I’d say that sums up how we felt after making Hemispheres.” Were you surprised by how well received it eventually was? “Yes, yes I was. It wasn’t initially super successful, it was a slow burn. But what surprises me to this day is
Hemispheres 40th Anniversary Edition is a must-have for fans. progmagazine.com 41
Beauty & The
Words: Dom Lawson
“I
have this bass, it’s a ’64 Dakota Red Fender Jazz bass that I bought from a fellow in Dublin. He owned it his whole life and played it in an Irish showband. When I got it, I opened the case and you could smell Guinness and cigarettes. I love that bass.” It may come as a huge surprise to many readers, but Geddy Lee has only recently turned into a massive bass guitar nerd. Despite being routinely cited as one of rock’s all-time greatest bassists, the Rush frontman has largely regarded his instrument as a means to an end: a conduit for musical ideas, rather than the star of the show. All that has changed, however, and Lee has spent the last eight years immersing himself in the world of classic basses, amassing an extraordinary collection along the way. The results can be seen in all their full guitar-porn glory in the Canadian’s
Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass: it’s time to reinforce your coffee table, folks…
“I became interested in the romantic idea of basses that my heroes played. Why didn’t I ever play a Gibson bass like Jack Bruce? Why didn’t I ever play a Höfner violin bass like Paul McCartney?” 42 progmagazine.com
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In recent years, Rush’s Geddy Lee has dedicated himself to collecting bass guitars and studying the history of the instrument. He’s just released a breathtaking book, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass, that delves into the world of bass in lavish detail, and includes interviews with fellow bass greats. He tells Prog more…
Geddy Lee has always loved his basses, but now things are a little more out of control.
new book, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass: a lavish, hardback coffee table-flattener, full of gorgeous photos, interviews with an eclectic selection of legendary bass players and collectors, plus plenty of anecdotal colour from the man himself. “The first good bass I ever bought was Fender Precision,” Lee begins, by way of explanation. “It was all I could afford. The salesman in the shop told me it was workhorse and I could rely on it, and he was right. I played on that in all my Rush pre-history, all through the high school gigs and bars, at a bazillion shows. Then when I got my first record deal, I was able to buy a Rickenbacker and that was another big change for me. But I was never a collector of basses. For me, for the longest time, basses were tools. In the process of making this book, I’ve learned that musicians mostly look at their instruments as tools first. Then there are guys like [The Who’s] John Entwistle, and they’re collectors.” Primarily known for playing his trusty Fender Jazz, Geddy Lee has long since passed into bass guitar folklore as one of the instrument’s greatest ever exponents. But, as he insists, the Big Beautiful Book Of Bass is not a book about bassists: it’s about these rare, iconic guitars themselves, the people who played them and the obsessives, like Lee, that spend countless hours hunting them down. “Guys like Entwistle, they couldn’t keep playing the same bass and they kept switching. Bill Wyman was the same, always restless. To begin with, I was looking for the sound and the tools that could give me my sound, and that was it. But in the last eight or so years of my life, I became interested in the romantic idea of basses that my heroes played. Why didn’t I ever play a Gibson bass like Jack Bruce? Why didn’t I ever play a Höfner
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Geddy Lee and his trusty Fender Jazz.
violin bass like Paul McCartney? So I thought it would fun to put together a modest collection of iconic basses, and just play them for my own satisfaction, to see how my now developed, confident fingers would feel on those instruments… and that’s when my troubles began!” As all dedicated nerds will be aware, the most innocent of hobbies can easily spiral out of control. Lee’s initial plan to collect a few bass guitars for his own personal use and enjoyment would not have lent itself to a weighty 400-page tome, so it seems safe to say that a lot of cash has changed hands over the last eight years… “Oh yeah, what was supposed to be 12 instruments has grown into over 250 instruments,” he notes, audibly wincing. “I guess that’s just how I roll! But along the way, I realised that I needed to justify this in some way, so why don’t I do a book about the electric bass? If you go into book stores and look at books about the bass, they always seem a little incomplete and there’s not enough artful glory in showing these instruments. They’re not romantic enough for me. So being the completist kind of dude that I am, I decided to do a book where I brought these things together and showed how beautiful they are to me and try to get other people to see how beautiful they are, too.” From its not inconsiderable size and weight (“Don’t drop it on your foot!” Lee advises) to its classy design, Lee’s book is every inch the painstakingly conceived and executed labour of love. The original plan was to focus on the sheer visual charm of the instruments, but as the project escalated, Lee caught the author’s bug and began to expand the book to include the nerd-friendly detail and debate that lies at the heart of his new obsession. “Originally I didn’t want any text in the book, so it would be like an arty thing, the beauty of the bass guitar elevated to its full glory,” says Lee. “But then I felt I’d be selling people short if I didn’t explain certain things. Obviously the guitar nerds and the people I chitchat with about basses, they know most of this stuff already, but by virtue of who I am, other people are going to come to this book and be interested, perhaps. So I felt I owed it to them to tell certain stories and to do it in an unobtrusive way. The pictures speak for themselves. You don’t need to read the text, but it’s there.” Lee’s modesty is endearing but he’s being daft. It’s hard to imagine there will be many Rush fans, let alone bass guitar nerds, that won’t want to pore over the Canadian’s observations or read his interviews with four-string luminaries ranging from John Paul Jones and Les Claypool to Bill Wyman and Bob Daisley. In essence, it’s a history of rock’n’roll from the bottom end up. The book also provides great insight into the musicians that influenced Lee in his formative years. Today he talks excitedly about his heroes, citing Cream’s Jack Bruce, Yes’ Chris Squire, John Entwistle and Jefferson Airplane’s progmagazine.com 43
“One of the great stories in the book is about Paul McCartney’s first bass, which is legendary,” says Lee. “It was his first Höfner, which is a model called a Cavern. I felt one of the jobs I had to do was to explain exactly what a Cavern is, because there are many basses referred to as a Beatle bass or a Cavern bass, but they only made that exact model that Paul played for four months in 1961, with those exact features. There are others that came out afterwards that sort of look like it, but they’re not a Cavern. A true Cavern has to have certain specifications. So that was one of the hardest basses for me to find.” Non-musicians should not panic, by the way. Despite its density of detail and chief target audience of bass freaks, Lee’s book retains the wry, self-effacing tone that Rush fans have come to expect from him over the years. Where many books about musical
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Jack Casady as his biggest inspirations. Still very much a fan, Lee brims with the irresistible enthusiasm of someone who has some really cool shit to share with you. “Part of the beauty of doing the book and having this collection is that you have all the amazing stories that go along with these instruments and I think they’re interesting. Other people may not! I think it’s nice when you get an instrument that someone has played for 40 years and he has made a life with that instrument. That’s a story. So to me, these basses represent the artfulness of the middle of the 20th century. They represent the people that made a living playing them and using them. And that to me is pretty cool.” It’s also clear that Lee has really enjoyed taking on the role of interviewer, after decades of being the one batting away silly questions. Chewing the bass-related fat with certified
Above and right: it’s a stunninglooking book, and not just for bass obsessives.
megastars like U2’s Adam Clayton is a tough job, but Geddy’s happy to do it. “I could have done a book that was nothing but interviews with other bass players. It was so enjoyable. It was the biggest surprise to me, how much fun I was having talking to people in their homes and studios and so on. I tried to put together a grouping that wasn’t obvious. For example, one of the nicest interviews in the book is with Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, who many people don’t realise is a bass player. They have a very good bass player in Wilco, John Stirratt, but he was away at the time. Jeff’s first instrument is bass and he still has his first Precision and he’s a mad collector of things. But I could’ve easily called all the people I know and respect and just talked about bass playing. Maybe that’s my next project?” Aside from musicians’ war stories, the Big Beautiful Book Of Bass is also a heartfelt tribute to those next-level nerds, the bass guitar collectors. Having not dabbled with many different makes or models over his time in Rush, Lee has clearly taken to his new hobby with something approaching rabid alacrity. He has embraced both the historical value of unearthing the guitars’ stories and, for maximum nerd points, the finer details of the instruments’ specifications and design. 44 progmagazine.com
“Once I’ve finished promoting this book, I do hope to become a musician again! But I have no idea what form that will take. I have no plans and I don’t know where I’m headed.”
Geddy Lee, backstage with his guitar collection on the All The World’s A Stage tour, 1976.
instruments are needlessly exclusive and bogged down with technical waffle, this hefty volume was written with a firm “Welcome one, welcome all” philosophy in mind. “I just tried to make sure that the book was like a conversation,” Lee notes. “That’s what I hoped to achieve, with comical asides. Just have some fun with it, you know? Sometimes you have to take the piss out of the nerdiness yourself! It was great fun to do. It was way more work that I ever imagined it to be and it really does feel like quite an accomplishment. “I wish I’d had more pages, to be honest,” he continues. “I fought for 408. I had to cut it from the original 600 or so! But there are potted histories in there, there are collector’s tales and what I call ‘nerd bubbles’, pointing out the most obscure details. Sometimes we take the instruments apart so you can have a look under the hood. It’s fun to do that. So this is what I’ve been doing in my spare time!”
Now that he has completed his paean to the bass, Lee is bracing himself for the onslaught of questions about his future musical plans. Nearly a year has passed since Rush announced their retirement, and little has been heard from any of the band. Lee is perhaps the Rush member most expected to re-enter the fray, so Prog asks if there is any prospect of new music on the horizon. “The honest answer is no. Not really,” Lee chuckles. “I go down to my studio, which I do, and I play these bass guitars because I have quite a few of them and they’re fun to play. I like to keep my fingers in shape. When I play, ideas come out, so I record them and then I forget about them. When I go back to them, I’m sure half of them will be shit and I’ll erase them. But I fully intend to go down one day and see what I’ve gathered down there. Once I’ve finished promoting this book, I do hope to become a musician again! But I have no idea
what form that will take. I have no plans and I don’t know where I’m headed.” Whatever he does end up doing, it’s a safe bet that Geddy Lee will be armed with more bass guitars than he actually needs. And he’ll be loving every single nerdy second of it. “I took about 27 various guitars out on the last Rush tour and it was super fun,” he concludes. “People expect me to be playing my [Fender] Jazz and I remember the looks on people’s faces when I first went onstage with a Gibson Thunderbird… it was like, ‘What the hell is he doing with that? Why would he do that?’ It was funny. And if I’m honest, I can’t imagine ever doing a tour again without taking a bunch of basses with me.” Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass is out now via Harper Design. Turn to page 26 for your chance to win a signed copy. See www.rush.com and www.harpercollins.co.uk for more information. progmagazine.com 45
It seemed that supergroup The Sea Within would be this year’s primary focus for guitarist Roine Stolt, but suddenly he’s reappeared in his Flower King guise… Words: Nick Shilton Images: Will Ireland
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ome albums are long in the making and well signposted, while others are not. Announced only in September and released in November, Roine Stolt’s new Flower King album, Manifesto Of An Alchemist, falls clearly into the latter category. Manifesto… follows hot on the heels of Stolt’s new supergroup The Sea Within’s eponymous debut album, which was only released in June, just before that band’s live debut at the famed Night Of The Prog festival at Loreley in Germany. It transpires that the genesis for a new Flower King album – we’ll revert to the nuance of ‘King’ in the singular – was in fact the preparations for The Sea Within’s NOTP show. Given NOTP’s stipulation that The Sea Within’s debut live appearance should constitute a European exclusive, drummer Marco Minnemann was faced with a long journey from his California home for a single show. “I was thinking about how we could motivate Marco to come to play the Loreley show,” Stolt explains. A convenient solution was to involve the drummer in a recording session for what has become Manifesto Of An Alchemist. “It was very spontaneous. I hadn’t really figured out which songs to record,” Stolt professes. Indeed, Stolt explains that without the tour that they are currently on (alongside Spock’s Beard to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the InsideOut label, preceded by a handful of dates this month in Mexico and South America earlier in November), he would probably only have started work on the album next year. However, when InsideOut boss Thomas Waber suggested a joint Flower Kings/Spock’s Beard tour, Stolt had to tell him that there
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wasn’t currently a Flower Kings in existence. Waber pointed out that Stolt has written the vast majority of The Flower Kings’ dozen albums, plus his solo 1994 album The Flower King, and that there was plenty of music to play. And so Minnemann’s visit to Europe meant that drums were recorded in Holland this summer, before Stolt returned home to Sweden to continue work on the album, which InsideOut proceeded to fast track for a pre-Christmas release. “That forced me to record and mix the album within a month, which is something I haven’t done in the last 25 years. I found it interesting. Now with everyone having a computer-based recording and mixing studio at home you can go on forever, spending months polishing your recording to perfection. There’s a certain level of perfection that you want, but I was thinking I could do things in a different way this time.” With five years having elapsed since the last Flower Kings album, Desolation Rose, Stolt solicited various other musicians to join him for Manifesto…, albeit juggling the logistics of trying to assemble an album during the summer holiday season. “It’s not the ideal time to record an album, but in a strange way I enjoyed being forced to record very quickly and having people
“The Flower Kings may look like a tight unit, a band sharing everything, but we’re not. We’re friends and at certain times we can make good music together, but at other times it doesn’t work out.”
Roine Stolt: in a reflective mood.
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Flower King Stolt is (ahem) blooming loving his independence.
“In the end, bandmembers turn their back on you anyway and you realise you’re alone. I’ve come to terms with that.”
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coming in with spontaneous stuff and People walk in and out of it. Sometimes trying to make sense of everything. Karmakanic is more important to Jonas; So this album was a very unusual Roine Stolt discusses the state of supergroup Tomas makes his solo albums. Everyone experience for me. With other is waiting for me to call them and say, The Sea Within… albums I’ve always had lots of time… ‘Let’s make a Flower Kings album or do sometimes too much time.” a tour.’ But I’m the guy who’s paying With Minnemann having recorded them. The Flower Kings may look from drums, Stolt considered reuniting the the outside like a tight unit, a band rest of the Flower Kings line-up from sharing everything, but in reality we’re Desolation Rose. Vocalist Hasse Fröberg not. We’re friends and at certain times and bassist Jonas Reingold were swiftly we can make good music together, but on board. Stolt’s brother Michael, an at other times it doesn’t work out.” early member of The Flower Kings, also Stolt is conscious that The Flower returns on bass. But long-time Flower Kings have churned their way through Kings keyboardist Tomas Bodin is drummers in particular over the years The Sea Within: still very much afloat. conspicuous by his absence and Stolt but is at pains to stress that the desire is touring with American keyboardist to part company with various players hile Stolt is enthroned again as The Flower King, The Zach Kamins of An Endless Sporadic has frequently not been his. “Usually Sea Within remains very much a going concern. The (who appears on Manifesto…) and it’s other people in the band, but I have supergroup got off to a less than auspicious start when they Italian drummer Mirkko DeMaio. to make the painful telephone call. proceeded to lose their charismatic singer, Pain Of Salvation Stolt is very alive to fans’ reaction to That’s my reality, but the fans never leader Daniel Gildenlöw, almost as soon as they had begun. Bodin’s absence from the album and understand because they don’t see it “Maybe it was a bad idea in the first place that Daniel was in the tour. “Some people are really upset from the inside.” band,” Stolt sighs. about it,” he admits. Conceptually, being in a true band The Sea Within’s launch stuttered further when bassist Jonas Reingold proved unavailable for their live debut at Loreley, with So why isn’t Bodin involved? “Let’s scenario holds considerable appeal to Marillion’s Pete Trewavas subbing, while Flying Colors’ vocalist put it this way: things haven’t worked Stolt. “The vision is beautiful. I always Casey McPherson has apparently permanently replaced out that well on the last few albums and wanted to be in a band like The Beatles. Gildenlöw. Strangely – and contrary to Stolt’s own wishes – The tours,” Stolt says. “Also, Tomas works But without Paul McCartney The Beatles Sea Within have yet to tour, although they are scheduled to play as a music teacher now, which makes it would have collapsed around Revolver Cruise To The Edge next February. difficult to tour. Sometimes you work or Sgt. Pepper. Money keeps the band Together with some mixed reviews for their eponymous debut really well together, sometimes not. going. In a band where you’re sharing album, Stolt acknowledges that the first year of The Sea Within You shouldn’t force things. You should everything, there’s always one or two has been far from plain sailing. “People get confused with just work with the people that you feel guys who want their money now to buy someone else coming in singing, even though Casey sang a couple of songs on the album. And while Loreley wasn’t super, it was you’re creative with in a particular a new car or whatever. In a band that’s OK. We did a good job given we didn’t even have a soundcheck. moment in time. And in this particular a true collective it could be chaos.” We all agreed when we left Loreley what a great week we’d had moment in time it really doesn’t work According to Stolt, The Flower Kings rehearsing and playing. We could feel the chemistry.” for me to work with Tomas.” have never been a true collective but Consequently, Stolt is optimistic that The Sea Within will rise So are the issues personal, musical or rather he has operated as the de facto to greater heights. “So far it has turned out a bit strange, but both? “Well, both probably.” owner and CEO, with all the other we are now planning a spring tour. I think we can solidify and Stolt appreciates that Bodin remains musicians earning session and live fees. build up momentum. It’s weird to have this gap of six to eight close to many Flower Kings’ fans’ Nevertheless, and notwithstanding months between releasing the album and touring. Also, once we hearts. However, he is keen to clarify the continuing involvement of Reingold get out and play live and make a second album, the dynamics the keyboardist’s contribution to the and Fröberg, Stolt has chosen now to within the band will be clear.” Stolt takes encouragement from the last rehearsal that The band. “The fans probably think that he revert to the billing of The Flower King Sea Within undertook prior to performing at Loreley. “I’ve did more than he actually did. Tomas rather than Kings. “It’s out of respect for never been in a band that sounded so perfect,” he enthuses. has been on every Flower Kings album the guys who were in the band when we “Transatlantic for sure didn’t sound that perfect! Neither did The apart from [2001’s] The Rainmaker, stopped four years ago,” he explains. Flower Kings. I know The Sea Within will sound fantastic once we because it was a difficult time in his “I didn’t want to upset people or have get 10 shows under our belt. And after another album we can life and he’d gone through a divorce. lots of discussions about, ‘This is not judge whether it really works or not. The last word hasn’t been He’s credited on the album sleeve, but The Flower Kings.’ Because I pay for said about The Sea Within!” NS I played all the keyboards. everything I have the right to the name “That’s not to downsize his ‘The Flower Kings’ and I own all the involvement or importance for the band,” Stolt continues. “Tomas has recordings. Frankly, I wanted to tour just as Roine Stolt.” been a very important part of the band.” While fans may get excited about the brand under which Stolt is Indeed, Stolt cites Bodin’s contributions to early (and standout) issuing Manifesto… and touring, the man himself professes ambivalence. Flower Kings’ albums Retropolis, Stardust We Are and, in particular, “To me, it doesn’t matter. All I want to do is continue making music Flower Power: “We wrote Garden Of Dreams together and had a really and touring. I don’t want any circumstances around people I’ve been good working relationship at the time. working with to stop me, or want more money, or not want certain “But then people start doing solo albums and can’t devote time. songs on the album.” It could be about money or involvement. It’s natural. There’s no way He’s also fatalistic about band members: “In the end they turn their you can work for so many years without friction. People looking at back on you anyway and you realise you’re alone. I’ve come to terms this album will ask why Tomas doesn’t play on it. Well, I wrote all with that. But it’s not bad – I have my family and music, which is what the music and it doesn’t mean I have to work with people that I’ve keeps me going. This romantic idea of a band worked for some years worked with before.” with The Flower Kings, but doesn’t work every time. There’s also a myth that Stolt is keen to explode about The Flower “By taking control and not having to be The Flower Kings, I can do Kings: “People look at The Flower Kings as a band. But The Flower whatever I want and play with whoever I want. That situation now Kings has never been a band like The Beatles. The Flower Kings has feels more exciting for me. I don’t have to be held back by restrictions been a band on a payroll. People don’t understand that. If I lose a lot of of playing with certain people. I have to follow my heart and do what money on a tour, the other guys walk out with money. I have nothing. feels right for me…” “From the outside people think we’re a tight unit, but there could be months when we haven’t talked to each other,” he adds. “It’s not like Manifesto Of An Alchemist is out now via InsideOut. we’re sitting in a rehearsal room, living and eating together all year long. See www.roinestolt.com for more information.
TURBULENT WATERS
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IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS
AlithiA, L-R: Nguyen Phambam, Mark ‘Vel’ Vella, Jeffrey Ortiz Raul Castro, John Rousvanis, Danny Costantino, Tibor Gede.
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Aussie psych proggers AlithiA decamped to Athens to create their second album, but it very nearly broke them. They discuss their journey “to the edge of chaos”… Words: Dannii Leivers Images: Andrew Basso
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elbourne’s AlithiA first crash-landed on Prog’s radar with their 2014 album To The Edge Of Time, knocking us sideways with their ambitious, accurately self-described “astral space core”. A transcendent, interstellar mix of post-rock, tribal rhythms and ethereal epics, it placed the band firmly alongside their peers Voyager, Jericco and The Red Paintings as another band owning the thriving Aussie psych prog scene. To The Edge Of Time was recorded in Budapest. After all, music which flings the listener past several moons and planets should, where possible, be created in farflung destinations, and since guitarist Tibor Gede had a Hungarian passport and connections there, it seemed a good choice. The band spent almost two months living like locals and absorbing their environment while working with esteemed noise rock producer and Thurston Moore collaborator Daniel Sandor. The result was an album that pushed boundaries and expanded on sonic conventions as insistently as the very edges of space. “No one was in their day jobs, no one was in their regular lives,” remembers Gede, talking to us via Skype where he’s back in Budapest for a few months before his bandmates join him for their European tour with Norway’s avant-garde prog metallers Shining. “We were living and breathing the album, nothing else existed.” That immersive experience had a huge impact on AlithiA. Keen to repeat it, they made plans to record their follow-up, The Moon Has Fallen, in Istanbul, until a spate of ISIS attacks forced them to rethink. Instead, they ended up decamping in Athens. “We’re big admirers of the 70s Greek prog scene,” enthuses Gede, explaining why they chose the city as their next stomping ground.
“WE’RE BIG ADMIRERS OF THE 70S GREEK PROG SCENE: APHRODITE’S CHILD ARE A BIG INFLUENCE ON US, AND ALSO A BAND CALLED MOTHER OF MILLIONS, WHO HAVE A BIG CARNIVAL INFLUENCE.” “Aphrodite’s Child are a big influence on us. Also a band called Mother Of Millions, who have a big carnival influence, and Villagers Of Ioannina City, who mix 70s prog with stoner rock and Greek traditional instruments to make this weird ancient fusion. There are some great bands in Athens.” The band piled themselves and their crew into a 14-bed house and got Sandor back to produce, preparing to recapture that creative fire. Athens, however, turned out to be quite a different experience. “Unlike Budapest, where we had a really positive energy around us, Athens was the opposite,” Gede says. “We ended up booking the cheapest Airbnb we could find and it was in the most dangerous part of Athens. We saw stabbings on the street, drug deals and homeless refugees. We were next to this strip where all the sex slavery was progmagazine.com 51
“THERE WAS ABOUT 10-15 MINUTES WHERE THE BAND WAS PROBABLY BROKEN UP AND NOT GOING TO EXIST ANYMORE. WE WERE AROUND SO MUCH DARK ENERGY THAT IT GOT INTO OUR PSYCHE…” happening and it was fucking intense. You could see packs of men, like 10 or a dozen of them, going from door to door to these cheap brothels where there were women that had their passports taken off them and were forced to be prostitutes for like 20 euros. “We were surrounded by this beautiful city but the area we were living in was the heart of extreme negative energy. There were a lot of crazy moments where we pushed ourselves into a negative headspace. One day our singer got super drunk and high and tried to leap off the balcony from our apartment. Me and the percussionist were grabbing him for a solid hour from the edge, our producer was grabbing his face and crying, saying, ‘Don’t jump!’ And he was like, ‘I’m good, I’m fine…’ We tried to kill each other at the airport as well. Everyone was pretty pissed, we were at the airport and we started throwing punches at each other. The next day we all laughed about it, but there was about 10-15 minutes where the band was probably broken up and not going to exist anymore. We were around so much dark energy that it got into our psyche...” Some music simply can’t be rushed, especially for a band like AlithiA where one song can span four genres. The band had spent seven weeks in Budapest creating their debut, but due to tight scheduling, they had only 18 days for The Moon Has Fallen. “This time we really felt the pressure of needing to finish the record to a clock, which is a really unnatural way to finish a record, especially in our kind of music,” says Gede. “We’re really egalitarian in everything we do. We write the songs together, there’s not one principal songwriter. We decide on everything in a democratic way. It takes a long time to work things out. There’s something special about having the space and energy to be spontaneous in the studio. Some really exciting ideas come out from that and that energy wasn’t there all the time.“ When AlithiA first announced The Moon Has Fallen, the band’s enigmatic singer John
Rousvanis told Prog: “We didn’t choose to make this album, rather it was its own entity already in the etheric plane, which chose us as its conduit birthing parents. In turn, the writing process affected myself and the other members of the band in an extremely challenging way, leading to tumultuous ups and downs.” When we repeat back this quote to Gede, he chuckles, shaking his head. “I saw that statement and had a bit of a laugh: it’s comically poetic. He’s in his own galaxy, and I say that with admiration and respect.” However, Rousvanis’ mind-boggling words do highlight the challenges AlithiA have overcome, and we’re not just talking about recording prog space rock in one of Athens’ dodgiest neighbourhoods. After years of touring, the frontman was forced to either step back from the band’s 2017 tour with Leprous and Agent Fresco, or face serious damage to his hearing. The band had two choices: pull out of the dates, or go ahead without their singer. They chose the latter, hiring Marjana Semkina from Russian duo iamthemorning to fill in temporarily on vocals. “John was advised by every doctor not to go on tour but it was such a huge opportunity for the band,” explains Gede. “He really suffered a lot. We’d long announced that tour in advance and cancelling a month away would have done us a lot of harm. We had to do it. “John didn’t know if he would be able to play music anymore due to tinnitus. He’s said, ‘Music is the only thing I have going for me in my life.’ That frightening concept that if he doesn’t have music, then his life doesn’t mean anything at all is always there for him. That really came to the surface on that balcony.” John has now resumed vocal duties although he needs to take precautions to look after his hearing. “He can’t check out the supports, he can only come in, play the set then he has to get out of the building,” explains Gede.
When Gede talks about his life in AlithiA, it’s clear he and his comrades would slog through hell and high water for their band. And it seems to have been worth it: The Moon Has Fallen is a triumph. Although it’s every bit as out-there as the band’s debut, this time around everything feels bigger, bolder and brighter. With kaleidoscopic colours and celestial crescendos melding with Latin rhythms from new full-time percussionist Jeffrey Ortiz Raul Castro, the album’s eight tracks are a testament to perseverance. “We’ve always had odds against us. It’s never made logical sense for us to be in this band because it’s cost us so much over the years,” says Gede. “It’s not like someone’s financing us to do this. But we’ve made insane decisions like, ‘Let’s go do a nine-date tour of Russia and record albums in Greece or Hungary.’ We can’t help it. We’ve got to a point where we’re playing good shows back at home and on good tours in Europe but for us to get there we’ve had to fight against odds and do tours where we played night after night in front of no people. Most bands break up from that because it’s disheartening.” The music industry is a tough gig these days and Alithia are by no means alone in their struggle to find their footing while the goalposts change around them. Yet what’s abundantly clear is their commitment to fight until their music is heard. Looking back on it, was recording in Athens a positive experience? “Of course!” says Tibor emphatically. “We sent ourselves to the edge of chaos and learnt a lot about ourselves. So many crazy things have happened and we’re still here. The one member you should never replace in your band is your singer, and we still did the tour, we still needed to move forward and now we’re stronger than ever. We learned that you could throw a 10-ton truck at this band and we’ll still be there. That’s a good feeling to have.” The Moon Has Fallen is out now via Wild Thing. See www.facebook.com/alithiaband for more.
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A Decade Of Post-Progressive
From Anathema to Steven Wilson, British record label Kscope have produced some seriously impressive releases within the modern prog world. With the label celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, Prog delves into their story. Words: Dave Everley
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008 wasn’t the worst 12 months in the history of prog, but neither was it shaping up to be a banner year. The giants of the scene were either inactive (Genesis, Floyd, ELP), in
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creative holding patterns (Tull, King Crimson) or in their customary state of late-career disarray (Yes). The bright spots came from a generation of bands who were helping pull prog out of its decades-long slump.
Anathema: if HMV ask, they’re definitely not metal, okay?
Opeth, Meshuggah and The Mars Volta all released significant records: Watershed, ObZen and The Bedlam In Goliath respectively. But there was another, less heralded release that would prove to be a landmark for different reasons. Released in May 2008, Tightly Unwound was the seventh album from West Country art rockers The Pineapple Thief. The previous six had come out via Cyclops Records – a passionate but small bedroom operation – but this was the first release on a brand new label, one that would come to define
“Any contribution I had to the direction was only in the sense that my various projects were – at least in the beginning – the foundation of the label’s catalogue.” Steven Wilson
the sound, feel and look of modern progressive music: Kscope. “Before that, the prog scene was probably at its lowest ebb,” says The Pineapple Thief’s frontman/mastermind Bruce Soord today. “The 90s and early 00s had been pretty bad in terms of being in a band and reaching people. But from the start, Kscope had a real passion for what they were doing. Suddenly, it felt really exciting again.” Ten years after that first release, Kscope have grown into one of the great labels of the modern prog era: a self-contained powerhouse that nurtures and elevates the kind of supposedly ‘fringe’ music that the mainstream industry lost interest in a long time ago. Today, they’re home to acts as diverse as Anathema, Tangerine Dream, TesseracT, iamthemorning and ex-Mansun singer Paul Draper – a corps of artists who sound nothing like each other, but all of whom share a left-of-centre aesthetic. “Kscope have made a place for themselves in the music industry,” says Catherine Anne Davies, aka The Anchoress, who released her 2016 debut album, Confessions Of A Romance Novelist, via Kscope. “They’ve helped revitalise progressive music or art rock or whatever you want to call it.” he notion of the Great Progressive Rock Label is almost as old as progressive rock itself. Charisma, Harvest, Vertigo – they all came into existence shortly after prog’s Big Bang, providing not just a home for this new wave of sonic explorers but also a shared identity. Nearly 50 years on, it’s a role that Kscope fulfil. “People would buy records purely because they came out on Charisma or Vertigo or [iconic punk-era label] Stiff,” says Tony Harris, one of Kscope’s co-founders. “That was in our minds when we set it up. We thought, ‘As long as we’re putting out music that’s good, people will listen to it.’” We’re sitting in a pub near the label’s offices in Marylebone, London. Harris is a music industry veteran whose time on the frontline stretches back to the 1970s. He’s wry and reserved, with the air of someone whose tolerance for bullshit expired a long time ago. Next to him is Kscope co-founder Johnny Wilks, the livewire yang to his colleague’s laconic yin. Both men are still hands-on with the label’s day-today running, even if they’re vague about job titles. “My card’s got nothing on it,” says Harris. “I’m part of the furniture.” The two of them were integral to the birth of Kscope along with MD Fred Jude, though the label’s beginnings stretch back to 1999, long before its official inception. At the time, Harris, Wilks and Jude were working at
T
Steven Wilson: a big hitter for Kscope.
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Snapper Music, an independent British label founded a few years earlier. “We didn’t really focus on specific genres,” says Wilks of Snapper, which remain Kscope’s parent company. “We did a bit of rock, a bit of blues, a bit of prog.” In late 1998, Wilks received a demo of Stupid Dream, the new album from Porcupine Tree, a band who were almost single-handedly keeping the British prog scene alive. Porcupine Tree were looking for a bigger label than their current home, Delirium, and Snapper were a potential option. Wilks listened to the tracks and loved what he heard. “I remember running up to our A&R guy at the time, going, ‘This is fantastic, we should do it!’” he recalls. “There was a lot of excitement.” This enthusiasm was a big draw for Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson and his manager. They liked the idea of signing to Snapper. But there was one condition. “The label were just starting to branch out, but were still predominantly known as a budget reissue/back catalogue label,” Wilson tells Prog. “I felt it was important that PT were not perceived to be a part of that.” Wilson asked that his band have their own imprint. He wanted to call it Kscope – partly a contraction of the word ‘kaleidoscope’, partly a nod to 70s budget label K-Tel. “K-Tel put out the cheesiest compilations, and I loved anything that made me nostalgic for my childhood,” he explains. When Stupid Dream was released via Snapper Music in 1999, Kscope was little more than a logo on the corner of the sleeve. It remained as such for the next few years, largely existing as an imprint for various Wilson-related projects: PT’s Lightbulb Sun, No-Man’s Together We’re Stranger, the first two Blackfield albums. That changed in 2008. On the advice of Wilson, Bruce Soord sent the demo for The Pineapple Thief’s seventh album, Tightly Unwound, to Johnny Wilks. He loved it. “I had the same Kscope founders Johnny Wilks and Tony Harris.
Catherine Anne Davies, aka The Anchoress, signed to Kscope so she could retain her creative freedom.
feeling I had when I listened to Stupid Dream,” says Wilks. Around the same time, Wilson himself wanted to make a solo album. Porcupine Tree had left the label for an ill-fated stint on Atlantic in the early 00s, but the frontman’s other endeavours ensured he’d retained close links with Snapper.
An idea struck Wilks. He collared Harris in the office kitchen. “I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a label for bands who sound like this. I don’t think anybody is really covering it.’ And we went upstairs and had a conversation with the MD and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’” And so, over a cup of tea, Kscope graduated from a name on a record sleeve to a fully fledged label. Tightly Unwound was released on May 19, 2008 with the catalogue number KSCOPE101. Other albums soon followed: Steven Wilson’s solo debut Insurgentes; No-Man’s Schoolyard Ghosts; Hindsight from the revitalised Anathema; and the self-titled debut from Riverside guitarist Mariusz Duda’s Lunatic Soul side project. After a decade in the wings, Kscope were ready to step out into the spotlight. scope’s identity was in place early on: complex, cerebral yet emotional music that existed outside the parameters of what the gatekeepers of the record industry and the media deemed ‘cool’. They offered a modern update of
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“Steven Wilson said, ‘You should sign to them.’ He was nothing but positive about how they launched him as a solo artist.” Paul Draper
Kscope MD Fred Jude.
progressive rock’s boundary-pushing approach, yet were firmly focused on the here and now. Harris and Wilks both laugh at the suggestion that they had a mission statement in place from the start. “If there was,” says Wilks, “it was purely to provide a home for artists who wanted to be slightly more experimental.” The pair weren’t unaware that progressive music was still in recovery and cut their cloth accordingly. “I never, ever felt like it was taking a chance,” says Harris. “We didn’t blow our brains out with advances. I felt pretty comfortable with everything we were putting out in those early days.” Harris identifies Steven Wilson’s second solo album, 2011’s Grace For Drowning, as the point where it became clear that Kscope was going to work. “Historically, when it comes to solo albums from successful bands, the success rate isn’t huge,” says Harris. “But Steven’s wasn’t like that – it was going up and up and up.” Wilson has been a totemic figure for the label over the years. His 2015 album,
A few years after pairing the label up with The Pineapple Thief, he played a part in convincing Paul Draper to join the label’s roster. After Kscope approached the former Mansun frontman to see if he was interested in putting out a solo album, Draper met up with Wilson, a fan of his former outfit, for lunch. “He said, ‘You should sign to them,’” says Draper. “He was nothing but positive about how they launched him as a solo artist.” Where Wilson had come up through the prog rock underground, Draper had risen to prominence in the Britpop era. Mansun never hid their art rock ambitions, but their former singer was wary of being placed in the ‘prog’ pigeonhole. “The label came down to my studio with a pile of CDs and said, ‘Prog’s not what you think it is these days, check it out,’” says Draper, who released his debut solo EP, One, on Kscope in June 2016. Tony Harris remembers it well: “We had to convince him that Kscope isn’t a ‘prog’ label. It’s progressive rather than prog.” Draper wasn’t the first artist from outside prog’s established boundaries to step into Kscope’s orbit. Catherine Anne Davies, who collaborates with Draper in her guise as The Anchoress, released Confessions Of A Romance Novelist at the beginning of 2016. “To be honest, I wasn’t aware of them before that,” she says now. “But seeing what Steven Wilson had been able to do in terms of keeping creative control was part of the reason I signed with them once my album was recorded. Not having someone sticking their oar in halfway through and going, ‘Have you got a radio
“We still get a lot of demos of 70s-style prog from people thinking we still want to hear a new band that sounds like Yes.” Tony Harris
Paul Draper: the ex-Mansun singer was brought into the Kscope family by Steven Wilson.
Hand.Cannot.Erase, remains Kscope’s biggest seller, and the label’s identity is intrinsically linked with his own. But Wilson bats back the suggestion that it was moulded in his image. “Any contribution I had to the direction was only in the sense that my various projects were – at least in the beginning – the foundation of the label’s catalogue,” he says. “I suppose for the guys running the label it was then a question of bringing in other bands that had a similar approach.” Still, Wilson has acted as unofficial pitchman for Kscope more than once.
single here?’ Or, ‘Have you thought of putting some more flutes on it?’” Davies calls Kscope “the 4AD of progressive music”, referencing the iconic British imprint that carved out its own unique identity in the 80s as home to such disparate artists as Bauhaus, The Cocteau Twins and the Pixies. “It’s very eclectic, a very broad church,” she says, “but everything sits under one roof.” In truth, it does more than just sit. An active collaborative network exists between many of the label’s artists. As well as her work with Paul progmagazine.com 57
Draper, Davies has appeared with both The Pineapple Thief (on a reworked version of their 2016 track Fend For Yourself) and Steven Wilson (both featured on Draper’s 2016 song No Ideas). Draper himself has toured with Wilson’s solo band. Wilson produced Anathema’s 2010 comeback album We’re Here Because We’re Here. And on it goes. This was the plan from the start, according to Johnny Wilks. “We wanted to have a family of artists that could work together, write together, produce each other,” he says. “It was like the labels I listened to when I was growing up, whether it was Mute or 4AD or whoever.” This internal exchange of ideas isn’t the only thing that helps gives Kscope its identity. Everyone we talk to points out the attention Kscope give to physical products: the lavish packaging that accompanies many of their new releases and reissues alike. “They’re brilliant at making desirable products,” says Bruce Soord. “These ridiculously lavish box sets they do with 100-page booklets and four discs. It makes people want to put it on their shelves. Just bringing back quality.” Catherine Anne Davies singles out the label’s creative director, Scott Robinson, for praise on this front. “There’s a beautiful attention to detail with the artwork,” she days. “I worked
“From the start, Kscope had a real passion for what they were doing. Suddenly, it felt really exciting again.” Bruce Soord
Mariusz Duda: his Lunatic Soul debut was one of Kscope’s first releases.
very closely with Scott on the conceptual ideas for Confessions Of A Romance Novelist, and I don’t know how many labels would be willing to indulge that level of artistic expression.” Paul Draper, who helped oversee a lavish deluxe reissue of Mansun’s debut album, Attack Of The Grey Lantern, puts it more bluntly: “When they do something like that, you know its going to be fucking good.” decade after its inception, Kscope have carved out their own place in the wider music industry landscape, albeit comfortably and consciously towards the margins. They’ve successfully
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yoked an independent, individualistic spirit to what Paul Draper calls “the functions and levers of a major label – they operate in a mini-major way”. Kscope aren’t a small operation by any stretch, but they do have an agility and boldness that their bigger contemporaries lack. Tony Harris says that they have released somewhere in the region of 380 records during their existence. He doesn’t think they’ve put out an album that isn’t, or hasn’t been, available on vinyl – an industry standard now, but one the label was ahead of the curve with. It’s a triumph of the physical in a digital age. “We’ve been putting out vinyl a long time,” says Harris. “I was getting it
The Pineapple Thief: their 2008 Tightly Unwound album was Kscope’s first, and defining, release.
in the neck from the accountant: ‘Oh, Tony’s just old school, he wants vinyl.’ But you could see this gradual increase.” “One thing Kscope understand very well is that there are still potentially a lot of people out there who prefer to buy a physical CD or vinyl copy of an album if they feel there has been some care taken with the presentation and contents,” says Steven Wilson. “In turn, Kscope have put a lot of attention into the way that the music is packaged, with bonus discs, 5.1 mixes, art direction, special editions, etc. All that contributes to the listeners wanting to own and cherish physical editions of the music, rather than just being happy with downloads and streaming.”
SPECIAL K Russians iamthemorning are one of the many diverse acts at home on Kscope.
Like any successful modern label, a chunk of Kscope’s income comes from older records and reissues. According to Harris, “we currently have 25 Porcupine Tree titles, something like that”. But Kscope don’t exist purely to fuel the nostalgia of prog fans. “We still get a lot of demos of 70s-style prog from people thinking we want to hear a new band that sounds like Yes,” sighs Harris. Instead, the label balance a respect for the genre’s foundations with an eyes-fixed-forward ethos. While Kscope have signed numerous newly minted outfits over the years, Wilks and Harris point out that many bands had already released several albums before they signed to Kscope: The Pineapple Thief, Anathema, TesseracT, even Tangerine Dream, whose latest album, Quantum Gate, Kscope released last year. For every band Kscope have picked up, there’s been one that has got away. Harris cites Opeth’s last album, Sorceress, as something he would have loved to have released on the label. “I really admire them, I like Michael Åkerfeldt, it would have been a good fit. But it wasn’t to be.” (Ironically, Kscope’s sister label, Peaceville, own the rights to the records of the Swedish band in their metal incarnation.) Then there’s Steven Wilson. 2017’s To The Bone album saw the man who helped lay down the foundations for Kscope nearly 20 years ago jump ship to Caroline Records, a subsidiary of multi-national major label Universal. Wilks and Harris understand why Wilson decided to leave Kscope, though they admit they’re disappointed. “Who wouldn’t be?” says Wilks. “I can’t lie to you. We loved working
with him, massively admired what he does. He doesn’t bow to anybody.” Harris: “He probably felt like he was in a bit of a prog bubble with Kscope.” Wilson doesn’t refute that notion. “[Kscope’s approach] means there is faith between the label and the listeners; the fans know that all releases on the label will share a similar musical vocabulary, and that strong recognisable identity can be good in terms of getting fans to buy albums ‘blind’ or check out lessknown artists on the label,” he says. “I think that’s very important for independent labels. But by definition it’s also means the label take a risk if they deviate too far from that sound, and I guess that’s why I felt after four albums it was time to move on and work with a different label for To The Bone.” But the departure of their MVP hasn’t taken the wind out of Kscope’s sails. The Pineapple Thief’s most recent album, Dissolution, became the band’s first record to break into the UK Top 40. Anathema’s last two albums, 2014’s Distant Satellites and 2017’s The Optimist, reached No.33 and 34 respectively. “They still give us a bad time if HMV puts their records in the ‘Metal’ racks,” says Harris of the Liverpool band. There are other, big-name artists they’d love to have on the label. Harris names Brian Eno and “the Talking Heads bloke, what’s his name?” (He means David Byrne, obviously.) Wilks: “We’d love to work with Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead. Bands who are experimental, who care about what they do.” Harris: “Thom Yorke? It annoys me – he’s probably never heard of the label or the artists or any of the music.” In truth, he doesn’t sound annoyed. Kscope have made it this far without feeling the need to reshape what they do to accommodate stars of a bigger magnitude than the ones they already work with. More importantly, they’ve done so while playing a significant part on the ongoing revitalisation of the prog scene. Though Harris and Wilks baulk at the suggestion. “It’s down to more than one label,” says Harris. “It’s down to the bands themselves, to the fans that have never gone away and to magazines like Prog as well.” “We’re fans of the music we put out, that’s the thing,” says Wilks. “Yes, it’s business, but we’re passionate. You just assume that something’s going to be successful.” “Sometimes wrongly,” adds Harris. Maybe. But if the last 10 years have proved anything, mostly not. See www.kscopemusic.com for more information.
Ten essential Kscope albums. THE PINEAPPLE THIEF Tightly Unwound (2008) The album that kicked off the Kscope revolution, and one that would help shape the sound of things to come: artful, intelligent post-progressive rock that looked forwards rather than back.
ENGINEERS Three Fact Fader (2009) The second album from arguably the most overlooked band in the Kscope family, Three Fact Fader sits somewhere between indie rock, dream pop and the epic soundscapes of Sigur Rós. Even on a label where no one sounds like no one else, this really sounds like nothing else.
ANATHEMA We’re Here Because We’re Here (2010) The Liverpool band hadn’t put out an album of new material in seven years when Kscope signed them. The Floydian We’re Here Because We’re Here was the perfect comeback and the start of their metamorphosis from a metal band into something else.
STEVEN WILSON Grace For Drowning (2011) Wilson played a pivotal part in founding Kscope, and remains the label’s best-selling artist. The breadth of his sprawling second solo album (his first following Porcupine Tree’s split) summed up Wilson’s restless spirit – and that of the label, too.
BRUCE SOORD WITH JONAS RENKSE Wisdom Of Crowds (2013) On paper, the union of The Pineapple Tree’s Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse, singer with one-time Swedish death metallers Katatonia, should have been a disaster. In reality, their evocative, hands-across-the-ocean approach turned out to be a thing of beauty.
NORDIC GIANTS A Séance Of Dark Delusions (2014) The debut album from mask-wearing post-rock duo Nordic Giants brought together evocative electronica, movie soundtracks and general weirdness in one striking package.
IAMTHEMORNING Lighthouse (2016) Prog, classical and East European folk music came together on the second album from Russia’s iamthemorning. In pianist Gleb Kolyadin, the band have one of the most prodigious talents in modern music.
THE ANCHORESS Confessions Of A Romance Novelist (2016) Catherine Anne Davies’ first album as The Anchoress is surely the most left-field release yet on this left-field label: vivid, baroque pop that was as perfectly placed on daytime radio as it was within Prog magazine.
PAUL DRAPER Spooky Action (2017) The ex-Mansun singer had taken a step back from the frontline before he signed with Kscope. But the deal revitalised him – as well as releasing his long-gestating debut solo album, the label also reissued a lavish deluxe version of Mansun’s classic Attack Of The Grey Lantern.
TESSERACT Sonder (2018) Showcasing the edgier side of the label’s aesthetic, Brit prog metal mainstays TesseracT signed with Kscope for their third album, 2015’s intricate Polaris. This follow-up brought the mammoth riffs back without returning to their ‘djent’ sound of old. For both band and label, the future looks bright. DEV progmagazine.com 59
Taking inspiration from an idyllic childhood and friendships left behind, Rikard Sjöblom’s Gungfly’s fourth album takes the listener on an emotional and nostalgic journey. The former Beardfish and current Big Big Trainer tells Prog more… Words: Dom Lawson Images: Lisa Marklund
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ou never know what a good rummage will unearth. Being the helpful soul that he is, Rikard Sjöblom was assisting his parents with a house move when he stumbled upon a stack of old photos. Among them was one particular snap that immediately triggered a flood of childhood memories in the Gungfly man’s mind. You can see the photo on the cover of Sjöblom’s new album, Friendship (below right): there he is, the young Swede, perched on top of a perilous-looking treehouse, peering down and surveying the world below. “My uncle took the picture. I actually remember staring down at him from that angle,” he notes. “The treehouse was in the woods behind my parents’ place, where I grew up. I was actually on top of the goddamn thing! I can’t believe they even let us build it because it was pretty high up in the trees. We built like four or five treehouses h and d that was one of the bigger ones, or one of the higher ones at least. It was probably seven or eight metres up in the air. You were standing without a railing or anything so it was kind of insane!” The way he describes it, Sjöblom’s childhood was idyllic. Growing up in a small village just outside the also fairly small town of Gävle in Sweden, his formative years were a blur of long summers spent outdoors and a real sense of freedom. Most importantly, Sjöblom had
numerous close friends of a similar age and spent countless hours in their company. On discovering the aforementioned photo, his first thought was to wonder how, as the decades drifted by, those incredibly close friendships had eventually faded away. “Where we lived, it was just a small village and I think there were three or four families that had kids the same age, so we’d all hang out every day and get up to no good, as kids do,” Sjöblom recalls. “I started thinking about all these friends that you grow up with and all of a sudden you lose touch with them, which has always been a weird thing to me. You’re the best of friends fri and then the next day, da you’re gone from each other’s oth lives. You know everything ev about each other oth and then suddenly there th is nothing there anymore. an It’s very strange.” As with most of the records Sjöblom has rec released over the years, rel both bo as a solo artist and an formerly with the much-missed h i dB Beardfish, d there is a strong air of both melancholy and optimism written through Friendship, Sjöblom’s new full-length endeavour. The melancholy seems to come from that gentle sense of loss, when once closely linked lives split apart and cherished childhood allies vanish into the ether. “For my own part, I don’t think I felt that way at the time that it happened. It’s more about looking back at it. People go somewhere else and you don’t keep track of each other anymore. Of course, Facebook
helps with stuff like that these days, but you still lose that special connection that you had with that person, even though it’s always gonna be there in a strange kind of way. It’s a weird sensation. Thinking about that spawned several songs, even before this record. I guess I’m stuck in the past!” One of the new album’s most affecting and succinct moments, They Fade is the closest that Sjöblom comes to directly addressing the feelings conjured by that photographic glimpse of times long gone. “It’s the first song that I wrote for the album,” he explains. “It was more inspired by the photo than any of the other songs. I started thinking about this friend that I built the treehouse with, and then for some reason I started thinking about two other friends too, who weren’t even involved with it. Basically, there were some really important events in life that happened to me, with these three friends, so I wrote the song about the three of them, even though they didn’t have anything to do with each other. One of my close friends from when I was young, he died after we lost touch. He drowned, actually, when he was only 13 years old, which was a really tough thing for me. Up until that point I had this feeling that I was kind of immortal, you know? That’s how you feel as a kid. Then suddenly, one of my closest friends drowns, so it was a really weird thing to go through. That song has been waiting to be written for quite some time, I guess.” If you’ve followed Sjöblom’s career for any length of time, you’ll have noticed that he is one of those musicians that seems pathologically unable to stop making music. Beardfish fans barely
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“One thing that influenced me is that I love how Greg Spawton and Dave Longdon are able to portray a situation really well. Their storytelling is just remarkable.”
Rikard Sjöblom: nostalgia trippin’.
hood
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Sjöblom’s new album goes the whole prog hog.
“People go somewhere else and you don’t keep track of each other. Of course, Facebook helps with stuff like that, but you still lose that special connection that you had with that person.” had a moment to mourn the demise of their favourite band when their leader came hurtling out of the traps with On Her Journey To The Sun: technically, the third Gungfly album, but arguably the first to present the whole thing as something more than an eclectic side project. Friendship is undoubtedly the next step in that evolutionary stroll and sounds even more like the work of a living, breathing prog rock band than its melodically rich and intricate predecessor. 62 progmagazine.com
“I know what you mean and I guess that’s a good thing!” Sjöblom laughs. “I think that Gungfly is always a solo project, really, no matter how I try to turn it around in different variations. It’s always been that way but there’s still this really good connection within the live band, as we call it. I’ve known Petter [Diamant, drums] and Rasmus [Diamant, bass] for many years, since we went to music school, and we’ve been playing together for so long now. They don’t mind it being this way,
or at least that’s what they tell me! It’s just that Gungfly has always been my getaway, to do exactly what I want. Then I have the fortunate situation where there are musicians that like to play this music together with me, in a live situation.” Do you ever miss the slightly more intense band camaraderie that you had in Beardfish? “Well, I do sometimes regret that this is not a band in that sense, even though I like this situation, too! But sure, I do miss the style we had with Beardfish and how we did things. Even though I wrote all of the songs there as well, there was still that garage band feeling. That’s been kind of lost these days, but I don’t think it would work, to start a new band like that for me right now.” In contrast with the first few Gungfly records, which were pointedly less proginclined than the music Sjöblom was making with Beardfish at the same time, Friendship exuberantly goes the whole prog hog. Epics like the multi-faceted, Floyd-tinged title track and the gorgeous, expansive If You Fall, Pt. 2 (as you might imagine, the sequel to If You Fall, Pt. 1 from On Her Journey To The Sun) showcase a refined updating of Sjöblom’s trademark blend of traditional and esoteric prog tropes. You may also detect the occasional nod to Big Big Train, the now-legendary UK proggers that Sjöblom joined in 2014. The two projects have plenty of clear musical water between them, of course, but the Swede eagerly sings his British bandmates’ praises and acknowledges the effect their music has had on his own. “Oh, absolutely,” Sjöblom nods. “One thing that influenced me quite a bit is that I love how Greg [Spawton] and Dave [Longdon] are able to portray a situation really well. I love their storytelling. It’s just remarkable, and that’s the thing that caught me when I was learning the songs, the first time I went over to play with them. I think it was Summoned By Bells from English Electric that really caught me. Also, I think they made me find a way to lay back a little in the music. I think they influenced me in that way, because I can be a little in-your-face with my songwriting! I’m not holding back too much, but I’ve learned I can back away every now and then.” The best part of 30 years have passed since Rikard Sjöblom stood on top of that treehouse, but he’s still enjoying a life full of experiences, friendship and freedom. As he excitedly notes, 2019 looks like it will be one of his busiest years yet, with tentative plans for a full European Gungfly tour and, just maybe, a surprise performance at one of the UK’s biggest historical tourist attractions. “Since I have this connection with Big Big Train, I really do want to include England on every tour I do because I love being there,” he concludes. “And not just in London! We went there with Beardfish a few times, but I’ve really grown to appreciate the countryside in England. I love travelling around. It’s a beautiful landscape. Maybe we could play a show at Stonehenge? That would be very cool.” Friendship is out now via InsideOut. See www.rikardsjoblom.com for more information.
MARK HUGHES
Circa 1983, L-R: Andy Revell, Geoff Mann and Clive Mitten.
Twelfth Night today, L-R: Mark Spencer, Andy Revell and Brian Devoil.
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The ‘Punk Floyd’ of the neo-prog scene, Twelfth Night always stood apart from the crowd. Now with the band back in the recording studio, they’re set to play on once again. Words: Joe Banks of the early 80s (this writer included), Twelfth Night remain the most innovative and enigmatic group of that era. The roots of Twelfth Night stretch back to an instrumental duo formed by Revell and Devoil in the mid-70s, initially to enter a battle of the bands competition, which they subsequently won. The music was based around Revell’s experiments with a WEM Copicat echo unit, creating a shimmering, propulsive guitar tone that would become central to Twelfth Night’s sound. “I wanted to take the ambient atmospherics and driving rhythms of krautrock, but instead of using synths, marry those ideas with the more organic nature of the guitar and blues,” says Revell. The initial Twelfth Night line-up was completed by bassist Clive Mitten
“I defy anyone to show me better lyrics in rock music. What Geoff wrote was just astonishing, and so true – it’s exactly what’s going on in the world now.” – Brian Devoil something that is true of a few other Twelfth Night classics, so the idea had been in my mind for several years,” says Devoil. “It was the first time that the stars aligned and the opportunity presented itself to do justice to the track.” Guitarist Andy Revell adds, “Although we kept faithful to the best-known arrangement, we expanded some sections, added some fantastic orchestration, and even re-instated some parts that appeared in earlier versions of the track.” t’s 40 years since the band first came together at Reading University, and despite splitting up in 1987, their legacy is stronger than ever. For many of us who first came to music during the neo-prog glory years
the same time as punk is because we had that punk ethos in the sense that we did it ourselves,” notes Devoil. Somewhat ironically then, a review of Live At The Target in Musicians Only magazine described Twelfth Night as the best band in the world after Genesis, which led to a rethink in direction, and the decision once again to find a vocalist. Twelfth Night auditioned potential singers, but eventually realised that Geoff Mann was actually the man for the job after all. Devoil remembers, “He sent us our version of Sequences from Live At The Target, and he’d fleshed it out with a full set of lyrics and sung over it. And it was so much better than anything else we were getting. So we went up to see him in Manchester just before the [1981] Reading Festival and said, ‘You know we’ve been saying for months you can’t join the band… Erm, would you like to join the band?’”
Andy Revell (left) and Clive Mitten playing Reading Festival in 1983.
and classically trained keyboardist Rick Battersby. Artist and friend Geoff Mann joined briefly on vocals in 1979, but decided it wasn’t what he wanted to do at that time. “He then spent the next two years badgering us to get back in the band!” chuckles Devoil. The band recruited American singer Electra MacLeod and self-released their first single, but soon reverted to playing as an instrumental quartet, and in 1981 put out the Live At The Target album, neo-prog’s first significant release, once again on their own label. “One of the reasons I didn’t have any issues with performing at
MARK HUGHES
t’s only towards the end of Prog’s chat with Brian Devoil – drummer, manager and keeper of the flame for neoprog heroes Twelfth Night – that he drops the proverbial bombshell: for the first time in 25 years, the band are back in the recording studio. He won’t be drawn on the details, other than to suggest the possibility of new material alongside recordings of old songs, but he does mention a tantalising, though at the time top secret, project that relates to this news. By now, the cat is out of the bag. On Armistice Day (November 11), 100 years on from the end of World War I, Twelfth Night released a new recording of their anti-war epic Sequences. “We’d never released a studio version of the track,
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ROBERT WOLF
Brian Devoil playing NEARFest in 2012.
Geoff Mann performing Creepshow, 1983.
Mark Spencer, 2012.
MARK HUGHES
“If I’ve got anything to say about it, then yes! I would love to be back on stage with the band.”
Mann would go on to make his live debut with Twelfth Night in front of a festival crowd of thousands, and quickly established himself as both a riveting performer and supremely talented writer. While still an inventive and exciting musical unit, the focus of the band shifted to highlight Mann’s uniquely expressed worldview and his rough-hewn, confrontational vocal style. Back in June, the band released a 3CD Definitive Edition of their 1982 album Fact And Fiction. Lauded by this very magazine as one of ‘The Albums That Saved Prog’, it’s a still stunning showcase for Mann’s humane yet acerbic lyrics and the band’s stark, modern updating of the progressive rock template. Along with a remastered version of the original album, the package also includes a disc of live interpretations of its tracks, plus 66 progmagazine.com
– Mark Spencer a disc of covers from prog luminaries including Pendragon, Galahad and Tim Bowness – evidence, if it were needed, of Fact And Fiction’s enduring appeal. And yet Fact And Fiction was an album that only really came about by happenstance. Looking to land a record deal, the band had demoed a synthbased take on The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. “And that came to the ear – I don’t know how – of Andy Macpherson who ran Revolution Studios, and he thought it had hit potential,” explains Deovil. “So he said come up and record this single, and we could use studio downtime to record other material. And that’s how Fact And Fiction came about.” Working late at night injected the album with a nocturnal urgency, even if the in-house engineers didn’t always share the band’s enthusiasm. “Some of the engineering is really not up to standard,” says Devoil. “In the end, [Macpherson] spent longer mixing the drums for Eleanor Rigby than it took for us to mix the rest of the album! We mixed it in two days, and of course, it was all hands to the pump and on the sliders, nothing automatic. And then we escaped with the tapes…”
Even if the finished product wasn’t sonically perfect, the material on Fact And Fiction was stellar, with We Are Sane and Creepshow in particular being two of the stand-out tracks of the neoprog period. Much of their impact was down to Geoff Mann’s prescient words and impassioned delivery. Devoil concurs: “I defy anyone to show me better lyrics in rock music. What he wrote was just astonishing, and so true – it’s exactly what’s going on in the world now. One of the reasons I did the Definitive Edition was to focus on the lyrics and to make Geoff very much the central person in the packaging and pictures, because it’s the lyrics that mark that album out.” Suffice to say that neither Fact And Fiction nor the Eleanor Rigby single set the charts on fire upon their release in 1982, but Twelfth Night were rapidly becoming one of the leading lights of the neo-prog scene. A stunning performance at the following year’s Reading Festival, subsequently broadcast on Tommy Vance’s Friday Rock Show, should have been a turning point for the band – and it was, but not in the way they expected. evoil explains, “We had a lot of interest from CBS at the time. We did some demos with them in the summer of ’83, and we thought that was going to lead to a signing. And then they dropped their interest literally two days before Reading, which I didn’t tell the rest of the guys in the band. They told me off for that afterwards…” And if that wasn’t bad enough, soon afterwards Geoff Mann announced his decision to leave the band. “It was a shock initially, but what we were being told was that record companies didn’t get Geoff, and
MARK HUGHES
Letting their hair down at London’s Marquee in 1983.
Ex-Twelfth Night bassist Clive Mitten on his new solo work.
we weren’t going to get signed with him,” says Devoil. “Although there was a huge similarity between Geoff and Fish, there was also a huge disparity. In retrospect, if he had stayed, I think we would have convinced the record companies that he was viable, but at the time they said no. So changing vocalists was a way for us to reposition ourselves. “We did the same as Marillion and Pallas,” continues Devoil. “We replaced our theatrical performer with someone who was a better singer. And Andy Sears was fabulously talented.” He stresses there were no bad feelings though. “When we started auditioning for vocalists – several of whom came to those farewell shows at the Marquee, including Andy Sears – we took videos and sent them to Geoff for his opinion, so he was involved in looking for his successor.” Also present at Mann’s farewell shows was Mark Spencer, singer at the time with LaHost and subsequently a session player for some of rock’s biggest names. When Twelfth Night reformed as a live band in 2007, Spencer joined as a multiinstrumentalist, and by the time of the band’s ‘farewell’ show at the Barbican’s Guildhall in 2012, had graduated to lead vocalist. A Blu-ray, DVD and double-CD of that performance is due out by the end of the year, entitled A Night To Remember. It certainly was for Spencer: “I’d just come off a mini-tour playing keyboards and bass with Alan Reed, supporting It Bites, and we’d all got really ill. I’d done a gig in Glasgow the night before, literally walked off
stage, got in the car and started driving back down, unable to speak, and not entirely sure whether I’d be able to sing. So getting as close to singing as I did on the night is quite pleasing…” Devoil adds, “One of [the Guildhall] students was doing a final year in lighting and production, and blagged about a million pounds worth of lighting equipment – apparently the company he went to, the main guy said, ‘Twelfth Night, no problem, I used to see them at the Marquee, have whatever you like!’” There are other retrospective releases potentially in the pipeline: footage and soundtracks from the band’s performances at Loreley in Germany and Tiana in Spain, plus video of Geoff Mann’s farewell shows. In addition, Spencer has recorded a solo version of the entire Fact And Fiction album, which should hopefully be released in the near future. But with the band (based around a core trio of Devoil, Revell and Spencer) now back in the studio, the big question is: will Twelfth Night ever play live again? “If I’ve got anything to say about it, then yes! I would love to be back on stage with the band,” enthuses Spencer. Devoil is more circumspect, but certainly doesn’t rule it out: “If we were to create some new music, and there was clearly a demand, and somebody made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, then I think it’s possible.” The new version of Sequences is available from the Twelfth Night website. The Definitive Edition of Fact And Fiction is out now via F2/Festival. A Night To Remember is out soon. See www.twelfthnight.info.
Staying Sane: Mitten examines the modern world.
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fter an extended break away from music, Twelfth Night bassist and songwriter Clive Mitten has returned as The C:Live Collective and released The Age Of Insanity. Mainly comprised of instrumental suite The Fifth Estate (a full vocal version is due out early next year), the album also features radical reinterpretations of Fact And Fiction classics We Are Sane and This City. Mitten explains: “The Fifth Estate deals with the world as we know it today, with social media controlling people’s thinking, populist parties coming to the fore, the myth of nostalgia, and the manipulation of power. We foresaw in We Are Sane what I’m writing about now. Originally we were going to use it as an overture, but that sounded pretentious, so I made it ‘Part One’! It’s looking into the future, which is what Geoff did – and here it is now, but it’s even worse! “This City was purely because of Grenfell [the Grenfell tower fire in London, June 2017]. I wasn’t particularly looking to do another Twelfth Night track, but Grenfell happened. In Kensington & Chelsea, you’ve got the richest people in London living across the street from the poorest. [Grenfell] showed you’re either wealthy or you’re ignored.” While still recognisably ‘progressive’, The Fifth Estate is a cinematic piece with strong orchestral and dance music influences. Mitten stresses that relations with Twelfth Night remain “cordial” – indeed, the album features Mark Spencer, as well as ex-LaHost and Pendragon drummer Fudge Smith – but states, “When I decided to do music again, I wanted to go in a new direction. I had to move my head on.” JB
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Sarah Brightman
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ong before her disco hit I Fell In Love With A Starship Trooper, space was the place for Sarah Brightman. A child of the 60s – born in 1961, in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire – when Apollo 11 reached the Moon in 1969, the historic event became her inspiration. “It changed me,” she told TV show Loose Women in 2013. “I saw that human beings could do amazing things in their lives and think out of the box. It was the moment I started to really focus on what I could do.” If the seven-year-old Brightman sounds precocious, it’s because she was. She’d been dancing and playing piano since age three. By 11, she’d won a place at a performing arts school in Tring, and trained in ballet in Birmingham. At 13, she was appearing on the West End. As her performance skills developed, so did a passion for prog. “I loved looking at my dad’s records,” she says. “He loved bands like Deep Purple and I was drawn to the covers, taking on board how important artwork was, alongside music.” And the first album that Brightman bought? “It was ELP’s Brain Salad
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I’d been listening to Floyd, Santana, Mike Oldfield, White Noise… when I think about it, I was pretty proggy very early on. Surgery,” she laughs. “I’d been listening to Floyd, Santana, Mike Oldfield, White Noise… when I think about it, I was pretty proggy very early on.” Leaning to drama, Brightman needed to channel her focus. “Art school is a form you have to adhere to,” she explains. “You have the ideas, strength and aptitude but you have to learn how to put your artistic spirit forward. “I needed ‘form’ because I wasn’t going to a be a rock singer, that wasn’t my way of life,” she says. “I was coming from something traditional but underneath there was always a rage and experimental things going on.” As a dancer, singer and songwriter, at 16 Brightman landed a job with Top Of The Pops’ house dance group Pan’s People before being recruited to
Above: 1978 single I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper.
Pan’s People in 1977, with Brightman second from right.
Hot Gossip, who performed in clubs before being spotted by director David Mamet, who gave them a regular slot on ITV’s The Kenny Everett Video Show. Their sexed-up, rock’n’roll routines made immediate waves, with antipermissive activist Mary Whitehouse’s open disapproval making them more popular. “I was always dressed as the virgin in that group,” Brightman laughs. “I was 17, 18 and the first song we worked with was Kraftwerk’s TransEurope Express. Because of Kraftwerk E I went out and bought a Yamaha CS-80 synth, which was quite amazing. When I became a female solo recording artist I wrote a lot of my B-sides on that.” One night, Brightman and a friend passed the village green where they lived in Little Gaddeston and heard a party at the nearby manor house. They gatecrashed. “I said, ‘We heard the music and wanted to come…’” Brightman said – to Andrew Graham-Stewart, the manor-owner and manager of Tangerine Dream. They began dating, and married within the year. “He managed very interesting groups like Magazine, who were amazing. I was fascinated by electronica because I loved the layers it created. It was like a choir for me. Electronic music would become my future.” Brightman was selected to front a pop single, backed by Hot Gossip, called I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper. Written by Brit duo Typically Tropical, it cashed in on the sci-fi/ Star Wars boom of the time (‘Flash Gordon’s left me, he’s gone to the stars/ An evil Darth Vader has me banished to Mars’). Graham-Stewart helped out as a spotlight temporarily hit her “because I didn’t know what was going on”. It went Top 10 in November 1978 and sold 500,000 copies, so Brightman recorded a few more disco singles, which she released on her own
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She lost her disco heart to a Starship Trooper in 1978, but 20 years later would become one of the biggest classical crossover stars in the world. From Hot Gossip to The Phantom Of The Opera to concept albums about space, we have to ask: how prog is Sarah Brightman?
Angel Of Music: Sarah Brightman.
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label, Whisper. These had less success, so it was time to recalibrate. Musical theatre was a chance to exercise her three-octave soprano vocal range. Working her way up the cast rankings in Cats and The Pirates Of Penzance to become the lead in 1982 musical Nightingale, Brightman caught the eye of Andrew Lloyd Webber. They fell for one another romantically and artistically, separated from their respective partners and married in 1984. Two years later they’d hatched a hugely successful new rock musical, The Phantom Of The Opera. Brightman took the chief role of Christine. “Andrew had grown up in the progressive era,” she says. “He loved and was fascinated by progressive rock as well as Rachmaninoff and Puccini – he’d already done [the classical and rock fusion album] Variations [in 1978].” Tarja Turunen (left), formerly of Nightwish, and Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation have a similar gothic style to Brightman.
The pair’s love of prog fed into their new project alongside nods to Meyerbeer, Mozart and Gilbert & Sullivan. “Classical composers were the prog artists of their day,” she says. “But when I think of Phantom…, I think of Pink Floyd. They’re in the main song [sings ‘der-der-der-derder’], that’s from Echoes.” With Phantom…, Brightman’s voice soared. “In rock,” she explains, “you can let your voice go into all sorts of areas as an outpouring of emotion and the trials of human life. Think about Freddie Mercury and Queen: one isn’t really polite about the voice and lets it just go there, which is what you do with opera as well. It takes the voice and thought into areas that you can’t imagine – that’s what makes it so grandiose. That’s also the essence of prog.” As Brightman embraced opera and classical music, her image became more theatrical. In the hands of visionary costume and set designer Maria Bjornson, Phantom…’s gothic 70 progmagazine.com
Andrew [Lloyd Webber] had grown up in the progressive era. He loved and was fascinated by progressive rock as well as Rachmaninoff and Puccini. couture was revamped from a virginal white wedding dress and natural make-up to low-cut, corseted gowns and billowing, hooded satin cloaks set off by red lips, enormous mascara’d eyes and tumbling brunette locks. Around the world, female singers with a predilection for things gothic and operatic took notice: by the mid-90s this was part of the visual blueprint for a new wave of female-fronted symphonic prog and metal bands. When Prog brings this up, Brightman seems unaware of her influence. “Do you mean Lady Gaga?” she asks. No, we
Below: 2008’s Symphony album.
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Brightman performs onstage at London’s Royal Albert Hall, 2001.
mean Within Temptation, Nightwish, Therion, Epica… Nightwish even cover The Phantom Of The Opera with Tarja Turunen. “Oh, I didn’t think in terms of fashion or inspiration, I was just doing it from passion,” she laughs, before remembering her 2008 album in particular, Symphony. “The artwork for that with that bright red dress and that gothic look. The background’s at an angle and I’m running away from something – I was going through a dark time in my life,” she says. The gothic operatic feel wasn’t the only thing that Brightman wanted to explore musically. Her 1988 debut solo album, The Trees They Grow So High, looks like a 4AD album, and the tracklisting is versions of folk songs arranged by Benjamin Britten. Folk and musical theatre pervade the follow-up A As I Came Of Age. By ’93, Brightman had divorced Lloyd Webber and found a new direction – and a new love interest – with Enigma producer/ engineer and samples man Frank Peterson on the water-themed album
Sarah Brightman (right) with her Cats co-stars Finola Hughes and Paul Nicholas 1981.
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Brightman in pure pop mode performing her hit, I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper.
Dive, her image shifting to cyberpunk mermaid. Through Peterson, electronica was back in Brightman’s toolbox. She heard of him while performing in New York in 1990. “I was working on Aspects Of Love on Broadway and every day the sound guy would put on Enigma,” she says. “I thought, ‘What is this, it’s absolutely amazing,’ so I asked and got the album. “I was looking at being a solo artist and getting out of theatre for a while and I was told that Frank had had the idea for using Gregorian chant in the band [he went under the name F Gregorian], so I got in touch.” Peterson lived in Hamburg and as they began working together and grew closer, Brightman found herself immersed in two musical worlds. “During the week I’d be in Italy learning bel canto – the operatic form for classical music – and then I’d go clubbing in Hamburg at the weekends and be listening to people like Sven Väth,” she says. “That’s why my music got pretty fused and we ended up with the album Fly [1995] – a very pure progressive rock album with electronica, rock, classical and touches of opera [La Wally]. We kind of started the classical crossover genre.”
Above: debut album The Trees They Grow So High, and new album Hymn.
Peterson was a prog fan and ready to push boundaries but he was, she admits, “the practical one. He’d rein my ideas in to not lose the audience.” The audience remained, and, through her classical connections, grew vastly. In 1996, her duet with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Time To Say Goodbye, sold 12 million copies. Brightman performed at huge televised events such as the 2007 Concert for Diana and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with peers such as Domingo, Carreras and China’s King Of Pop, Liu Huan. To date, she has sold more than 30 million units globally and is a UNESCO Artist For Peace. Brightman also champions young women in science and tech and sponsors new musical talent with scholarships to the Royal Northern College Of Music. But the cosmos drew her back. 2013 album Dreamchaser reunited Brightman with producer Mike Hedges, once the 19-year-old engineer on Starship Trooper, for a space-themed record that prompted tutelage in Russia for an actual trip ad astra. “I did all the training to go into space,” she says, “then for reasons I can’t go into I had to pull out. But being a trained cosmonaut is pretty proggy and out-there in itself, if you think of Floyd and Bowie…” Prog is even at the heart of her new album, Hymn. Barclay James Harvest’s 1977 track takes centre stage, sumptuously developed for the Brightman masses. “It a beautiful song, both grounded and heavenly,” she says of a record bursting with influences and styles, and reflecting on the opulent artwork that she chose for its spiritual feel, loaded with symbolic references from Masonic to secular art. Thirty years on from Phantom…, whether she is reimagining Sigur Rós and Cocteau Twins on Dreamchaser or mixing John Bonham samples with Procol Harum on La Luna, Brightman is compelled to keep experimenting, and her audience lap it up. “It’s always been about concept,” she says. “The first time I heard Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds, I knew I wanted to do that. “Things just kept coming into my life,” she continues. “I was a pop artist exploring electronica. I was a classical artist who loved dance music. When everything came together it created the career that I have now, which is very wonderful.”
YOUR SHOUT! She lost her heart to a starship trooper, and you didn’t disappoint with the gags on that front. But most of you were ready to seriously ponder the question of Brightman’s prog credentials… “She sampled Tubular Bells and got Andrew Eldritch (Sisters Of Mercy) to sing backing vocals, so maybe she’s on the very, very outer limits…” Steve Hawkins “I think her ex-husband has more of a claim than she does.” David Meadows “She was in the German chant band Gregorian? Her sister is still a member. That sounds pretty prog to me.” Wedgepiece “Her singing in Phantom Of The Opera is the gold standard that all female vocals for that genre should be measured against. True prog fans who haven’t listened to that musical should check it out.” Tim Boucher “She’s currently been working with Yoshiki from X Japan so that should improve her credentials. Don’t think she’s into the visual Kei makeup, though.” Phil Hopwood “Goddess.” Heather Findlay “What are you on? Just no.” Steve Harrison “Great dancer… some shite music behind her though. Has she flipped over from the dark side of light entertainment and started doing something good? I’m intrigued.” Martin Frankcom “She took the career path I aspired to. Marry a millionaire then get divorced.” Jon White “She pushed a lot of boundaries – and made the most of her talents. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote to her strengths.” Mark Cotton “Fly is a great album, not least due to the presence of the mighty Chris Thompson on How Can Heaven Love Me?” Andy Rawll “Ghost In The Machinery is somewhat proggish.” Alex Lazcano “The Outer Limits feature should always be ‘interesting’. And this sounds interesting. Looking forward to reading.” Jeff Cooper “Her and Loreena McKennitt are top people. She definitely belongs within the progressive realm.” Jeramy Stanton Essary “Just listened to her new version of Barclay James Harvest’s Hymn and progressive wasn’t the first word that sprang to mind… Nor was it the second or third!” Stacy Dollar “She did Phantom Of The Opera with Steve Harley, so definitely opening the doors of prog, and she was in Hot Gossip – let the Brightman in!” Marc Hughes
Hymn is out now via Decca. See www.sarahbrightman.com for more. progmagazine.com 71
Voices From The Fuselage, with Ashe O’Hara second from left.
With Voices From The Fuselage’s anticipated second album, that follows up conceptually from their 2015 debut, frontman Ashe O’Hara has opened up about his struggles, from mental health to substance abuse, like never before. Words: Dannii Leivers
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or many fans of prog music, Ashe O’Hara is a familiar face, and a much-loved voice. In 2014 he decided it was time to step down as vocalist in TesseracT, following a twoyear stint during which the band released album Altered State. O’Hara’s departure disappointed fans, but it meant he was able to turn his attention back to Voices From The Fuselage, the proggy post-rock outfit he’d co-founded and fronted since 2010. “Lots of people have said, ‘I’m so glad you’re back in Voices,’ but I never left Voices!” he protests. “I was doing a degree and the last two years of it was spent on the road with TesseracT. I barely had any time to do anything with Voices but they always said they never wanted to replace me and I never wanted to leave them either. They were happy to take a back seat and they were really supportive.”
His return also enabled him to realise a musical vision he’d cooked up way back in college: the creation of two musical ‘Odysseys’, the first being sonically ‘dark’, and the second ‘light’. Voices From The Fuselage’s debut album, 2015’s Odyssey: The Destroyer Of Worlds, represented the first of those instalments: an intricate delight which balanced heaviness and pop-inspired melodies, technicality and accessibility, using the deftest of touches. Today though, we’re here to chat to O’Hara about its successor, Odyssey: The Founder Of Dreams. As originally envisioned, it’s the more ethereal of the two chapters, packed with simmering, radiant melodies. But you only need to take a closer look at the lyric sheet to recognise that these tracks come from a dark place, delving bravely into O’Hara’s past, in particular his tumultuous childhood. “With the release of this album, I feel like I owe it to the fans to be more
“With the release of this album, I feel like I owe it to the fans to be more honest and open about where my music comes from. I’ve been scared to do that.” honest and open about where my music comes from. I’ve been scared to do that,” O’Hara explains. “My mum put me in a Catholic school for part of my childhood. I fucking hated my time in that school. As I got older, the pictures didn’t make sense to me, the idea there is someone watching over us and trying to lead us through to a better path of righteousness, that everything
we face is a challenge and we’re being tested. With me coming to terms with the fact that I’m gay and everything negative that’s happened in my life I thought, ‘Fuck these tests.’ It didn’t add up to me. “When you’re a kid it’s difficult to define yourself because you’re still trying to sense what everything around you is,” he continues. “I was surrounded by Catholics and I felt very confused, a little bit lost. It was around that time that knew I liked boys in a different way, but I didn’t know that was gay. I felt that way about Christianity. I knew I didn’t believe in it, but I didn’t know that was atheism.” O’Hara has never known his father, or “the sperm donor” as he refers to him with an edge in his voice, and instead was brought up, initially, by his mother. By the time he was 12 however, she had developed a serious drinking problem and needed to be hospitalised. At that point, O’Hara was placed progmagazine.com 73
into foster care. It marked the beginning of a traumatic period which would continue into his adult years. “We thought she was going to die, the doctor said she had two days left,” he remembers. “My first foster mum took me to the hospital to say goodbye and she looked horrible, like a skeleton, with green skin, full-on liver damage and liver spots all over her body. She was so malnourished. It was horrible, possibly the worst day of my life. She’s ok now, she recovered, went into rehab, got her own place and picked up her life. How can a doctor be so wrong? Nothing any doctor has told my mum has been right. I was 12, and it angers me when I look back because I was so young and vulnerable, and all that grief I felt at the time was unnecessary.” While his mother recovered in intensive care, O’Hara was moved between foster homes before settling with a couple called Lena and Dave, who he lived with until he was 20. “I was broken, I’d had three foster homes which said they didn’t want to look after me,” he says. “The first was a short term one and it didn’t work out well. Then I moved onto another place, that lady was in her 50s. She had three grown-up sons, her middle son was gay and she didn’t have a good relationship with him. She secretly packed up my things when I was at school. My social worker came and told me I was being moved because she said I was ‘strange’ and that I reminded her of her son. I think it was because I was obviously gay, but I didn’t know that at the time. As you can imagine that’s why I felt very lost and didn’t have much hope. “After that I went into an emergency place for about a week and then I eventually moved into Lena and Dave’s. I remember that night really clearly: I was outside the house crying up against a tree like a fucking child. But I spent about seven and a half years with them and they changed my life.” Fast forward to 2016. After living apart for many years, O’Hara moved in with his mother in Northampton in order to get a handle on his drug use, which had started to spiral. “I moved down to Brighton to go to university and I had friends who probably weren’t the healthiest relationships,” he says frankly. “I don’t blame them, I take full responsibility, but [they were] enablers and encouragers. I started taking methamphetamines, getting into all the horrible class A shit. There was a lot of Mandy [MDMA], a lot of meow [mephedrone] and a lot of coke. It’s weird because I hated the idea of drugs, but it just took one sniff and it was downhill from there. “When I moved to live with my mum I didn’t stop taking drugs though,” he admits. “I met a guy who 74 progmagazine.com
“There was a lot of Mandy [MDMA], a lot of meow [Mephedrone] and a lot of coke. It’s weird because I hated the idea of drugs, but it just took one sniff and it was downhill from there.”
Ashe O’Hara: back from the brink.
I was seeing, he is the inspiration behind Via, the first track on the new album. He was a ketamine dealer: he dragged me even further down. The reason I came off of it was because it was overflowing onto other people in my life. There was a point where I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” Not only did moving home eventually help O’Hara get off the drugs, it also gave him and his mother a chance to overcome their painful past. “It was a weird dynamic given we’d only lived together for 11 years of our lives prior to that, but I’m glad we did. She has been there, she has tried to raise me. Where the hell has my father been? Nowhere. I’ll always forgive my mum and never hold against her what happened because I’ve recently gone down a similar path with drugs.” O’Hara wrote his first song when he was just nine years old and it quickly became a coping mechanism, a way to shrug off the unhappy realities of his home life. With Odyssey: The Founder Of Dreams however, escapism wasn’t an option the singer laid out for himself on the table. On the contrary, these are easily the most on-the-nose, candid tracks he’s ever written. Take a song like The Monolith, for instance, on which O’Hara sings about ‘Wrestling, grappling with my demons.’ Elsewhere, single Nine Levels includes the lyric: ‘Are you depraved are you depraved down here? Will you survive the place I’ve endured for several years? It pulled me underneath.’ “They always say the most broken people make the best art,” he muses. “I’m very much a ‘beauty in sadness’ songwriter. When I was about 12 I was diagnosed with depression. I’ve always felt depressed since then. I have good days, I’ve had laughs, I’ve had good times, but I’ve never been truly happy with my life or who I am. I’ve kind of made my peace with that, with the fact I’ll never be truly satisfied and I don’t think you’re supposed to be.” Is O’Hara nervous about releasing such a personal record, especially given fans’ tendencies to pore and theorise over his lyrics? “No, I like it,” he replies. “It’s helped me. Some of the messages I get from fans are so encouraging. People have said my lyrics have stopped them wanting to kill themselves and given them a revived outlook on life. That’s literally more than I could ever ask for.” Odyssey: The Founder Of Dreams is out now via White Star. See www.facebook.com/ VoicesFromThe Fuselage for more information.
England circa Garden Shed, L-R: Frank Holland, Martin Hutchinson, Jode Leigh, Robert Webb.
Timing is everything, as England know – their 1977 debut was released when prog was seemingly in decline. But with a new release and a live show announced, they’re now back in business… Words: Mike Barnes 76 progmagazine.com
“I
believe England to be unique,” says the group’s keyboard player, Robert Webb. “It’s a great musical achievement, both compositionally and as a performing group, and the chemistry between us made it extraordinary. Garden Shed has never gone away from me. I suppose if you are the composer as well as one of the players, it’s a bit like giving birth.” In a time when anything old, well-known and of reasonable quality is likely to get labelled as “classic” or “legendary”, we have over-enthusiastic fans mixing up rarity with quality and championing “great lost bands” who rarely live up to that description. But England’s 1977 debut Garden Shed was, indeed, until its reissue on CD in 2005, something of a lost classic of 70s progressive rock. And over time, the group have deservingly achieved something of a legendary status among the cognoscenti. Listening to the album now, it holds its own with those of the group’s more illustrious peers. It’s adventurously structured and richly melodic: the contrapuntal keyboard and vocal lines on a track like Midnight Madness are imaginative in a way that recalls Gentle Giant, and there are hints of Yes and Genesis. Jode Leigh’s drumming – which he says was influenced by King Crimson’s Michael Giles – is particularly individual, swelling from a deft, light touch to dynamic fills. From Mike Cosford’s cover artwork, which is a pastiche of the Robertson’s Golden Shred marmalade label, to its pastoral Mellotron moments, there’s something about the punningly titled Garden Shed that feels as English as tea, toast and marmalade. Record labels had embraced the new progressive rock music into the 70s and, with groups like Jethro Tull and Family promoting their hit singles on Top Of The Pops, no one knew how far this new phenomenon would go. But come 1977, the year that punk broke big, if you were a band or artist with moderate sales you were unlikely to survive. David Bedford, for example, had made a number of moderateselling orchestral and keyboard-based concept
albums for Virgin, but when the label signed the Sex Pistols, he was soon dropped. For a budding progressive rock band like England it was a cruel case of wrong place, wrong time. They formed in 1975 and by 1976 had landed a deal with Arista. They rehearsed at the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone, where their gear was permanently set up, and they recorded some backing tracks there with the Rolling Stones Mobile. Arista were keen to get them a producer, and one in the frame was a big name. “Several people were offered, one of whom was Keith Emerson, and like a twat I turned him away, because I would have felt awkward with such an amazing player,” Webb admits. “Keith had been a great influence on me, and I would have found it difficult. Also, I saw him
more as a keyboard player and a creative artist. He had no track record in producing.” Instead they agreed on David Hitchcock, who had produced Caravan and Genesis. He reckoned the group needed to finish off in a professional studio, so they decamped to Air Studios in London. As a producer he had a light touch and England felt that they needed something a bit more “directive” but they sent a demo to the label, who were happy with the results, and so the group basically ended up producing the album themselves. With an excellent debut album in the can in early 1977, all looked set fair – in theory at least. Webb was disappointed when he got a proof of the cover artwork back from the printers and noticed that some of the colours were wrong and so he complained about it. What followed this shows just
Above: debut album Garden Shed. Right: Robert Webb in 2018.
I think there is a tendency to come up with a progressive rock sound, with singers either modelling themselves on Peter Gabriel or Jon Anderson in a loose kind of way. I don’t think that’s progressive. progmagazine.com 77
how much and how quickly the musical landscape was changing. “To get a new set of plates would have been expensive,” says Webb. “And our manager said, ‘If you don’t accept the sleeve as it is, I don’t think they’re going to bother to put the album out’, so I said, ‘OK, I accept it!’ Then when it was scheduled for release about a month later in March, there were two marketing guys, one was just about to come back from holiday and one was just about to go on holiday, and our album got put in a slot between the two. The guy who came back from holiday didn’t want to carry on promoting what the other guy had started doing, and the other guy who was going on holiday didn’t want to finish what he started. It was a right mess. So we left Arista.” If Garden Shed had been released a few years before the convulsion of punk or a few years after – when a second wave of progressive groups like Marillion, Pendragon and Twelfth Night appeared – it would surely have been a high-profile release. People’s tastes didn’t suddenly change overnight and the album gained some media attention – Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale was impressed – but without promotion it slipped under the radar. The group then extricated themselves from their manager, who, although proud of Garden Shed, had turned his attentions to newer signings. Webb got a job as a musical director for a musical show, Squeak, in Hornchurch, with England members playing in the orchestra pit. When the show finished, the group lived in a shop in Tunbridge Wells, where Webb assembled a PA, made a 24-channel mixing desk and, soldering iron in hand, repaired local musicians’ amplifiers, while drummer Jode Leigh did up Morris Minors and sold them on. They got some gigs off their own bat but then hooked up with a London agent. “Eventually it reached a head,” Webb recalls. Cheery Chaps: Frank Holland (left) “We did three gigs – two and Robert Webb. with The Enid and one with Renaissance in Plymouth – and the money we got paid barely covered the petrol.” But the group were still expected to pay the agent his 10 per cent and, with two on the dole and no money coming in, they split. Webb joined Jenny Darren’s touring band. The Melody Maker review of Garden Shed described it as “Yes in Toyland”, and although England didn’t paint on quite so large a sonic canvas, the comment was both glib and far from accurate. But then there is a similar feel about some of the vocal harmonies, even the texture of the voices, particularly on Three-Piece Suite. Although the group didn’t 78 progmagazine.com
Back In Business: England in 2006.
Robert Webb: taking a breather from Mellotron sawing…
Above: 1997’s The Last Of The Jubblies.
have a lead singer out front, Webb, Leigh and guitarist Frank Holland all had good voices. “I’d been in Merlin before and a couple of other bands,” says Webb. “We had written our own material, but I’d never written anything for voices that were in harmony, I just had a melody line that I sang or someone else sang.
“Because of hearing Yes, particularly Fragile, I thought, ‘Ah, that’s a great idea, maybe I could write some voices together?’ I didn’t copy anything, but it does sound a little bit Yes-like because of three different voices. But we found a blend that worked.” One of the stories circulating online is that Webb sawed a Mellotron in half. If this is true it needs some qualification, as it makes tales of Keith Emerson and his daggers between the keys seem quite tame by comparison. “It’s true,” says Webb, “and the reason is because it’s too big and incredibly heavy – a four-man job.” The instrument, a Mark II Mellotron, once owned by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, belonged to original drummer Mark Ibbotson and was languishing in the back of his three-ton truck “like a piece of furniture”.
Martin Henderson: in the pink.
writing. I think there is a tendency to come up with a progressive rock sound, with singers either modelling themselves on Gabriel or Jon Anderson in a loose kind of way. I don’t think that’s progressive, I think it’s progressive nostalgia, although I’ve got nothing against it. “It features Jenny Darren on vocals on one track and Mark Atkinson of Riversea on another, so there’s quite a bit of variety in there, and so we aren’t going to be able to feature that all at one gig.”
Jode Leigh: sadly suffered a stroke in 2001.
Several people were offered, one of whom was Keith Emerson, and like a twat I turned him away, because I would have felt awkward with such an amazing player.
“One day the roadie said, ‘Why don’t we get that Mellotron out and see what it bloody does?’ And we did. It had two three-octave keyboards side by side with a piece of wood in the middle, so you cut through that vertically. It’s much easier than it sounds. I had to get various other bits cut in half, like the capstan in his Leslie Speaker to altering the vibrato wheel that drives the tapes across the heads, effect on his Minimoog. but I did eventually get both halves working. “The Fender Rhodes had drawing pins in it “With the Hammond C3 there wasn’t really and was tuned an octave higher than it should much happening in the bottom half, so in the be,” he says. “I was very interested in finding late 60s it became quite common for people new sounds and on Garden Shed it’s got this to cut them in half so you could carry them. really strange ‘pingy’ sound.” We call it a ‘split Hammond’. I think about England’s reputation has grown over the half the Hammonds that years. A compilation of survive have been split unreleased tracks from 1976either by amateurs or by ’67, The Last Of The Jubblies, people working in the organ came out in ’97, and the repair business.” band reformed for some live Webb remembers that dates in 2005. Sadly, Leigh when he worked at Selmer had a debilitating stroke in in London in 1972 he offered 2001, but six of his drum to split a new Lowrey organ tracks were recorded in 1998for a customer. ’89 for a mooted England “I was downstairs in release. This appeared as the shop – the organ Box Of Circles, this year. department was with the “It’s a very different drum department – and album,” says Webb. “It was I pushed this brand new always conceived as an Above: 2018’s Box Of Circles. organ on its back and got my England idea and I followed handsaw and started sawing it through. It just took a long through it, and the guy who was the drum time to do. Only Wheel Of Fortune really salesman was saying, ‘I don’t believe it!’ It was reminds me of the early England days. But successful and the customer was happy.” it’s what I call progressive rock in the sense Webb was always keen on modifying that you’re not going to sit still, you’re always equipment, from changing the speaker cones learning, always progressing with your
The gig is the Fusion Festival, Stourport in March 2019, where England will be performing Garden Shed and material from Box Of Circles with a line-up including Webb, guitarist Frank Holland and bassist Martin Henderson from the 70s line-up and singer Mike Morton, guitarist Dave Lloyd and keyboard player Gabriele Baldocci from The Gift. “I’m interested in what younger people think of this style of music,” says Webb. “There seems to be a deep interest from people who think that this is an artistic style of music, which is appreciated for its artistic value and should be kept alive.” Does Webb reckon that England will keep going and produce new material? “I live in Greece now and the band need to get together to rehearse, so there’s complications,” he notes. “But if it goes forward, there’ll be new material. As a keyboard player my ideas would change with what the other musicians added and that’s not been the case with Box Of Circles because I’ve been more or less left on my own to come up with what I want. But if we can go on I’ll write for these musicians knowing what their skills are and what they could explore.” Box Of Circles is out now via Nu Music – Green Tree Records. See www.englandprogrock.com for more information. progmagazine.com 79
Glimmering
Hope Shattered Skies’ second album examines the effects of social media and reality television on our mental health. From the idea of the ‘tortured artist’ to their forays into synthwave, they discuss the creation of Muted Neon. Words: Sophie Maughan Images: Annie Batten
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“I
think it’s a trope in pop culture. That the ‘tortured’ artist is going to produce the best, most beautiful and most emotional piece of work. I’ve been through that, and that’s not what depression is. That’s not what anxiety is. It doesn’t make you create.” Shattered Skies’ frontman Gerry Brown is pondering over the dangerous idea of the ‘tortured artist’, that mental health problems will result in the most stunning work. As
someone who has struggled with his own mental health, Brown believes that this idealised view is misguided. “It’s only when you come out the other side that you get that required energy and passion back in your life,” he continues. “You can take things from it, those experiences, but they’re not what make the art. There are stigmas surrounding mental health, but as someone who has struggled with it, I just don’t have time to worry about them. You’ve just got to be who you are and do what you have to in order to get what you want to do done!” Shattered Skies certainly do get things done. It’s been a sometimes bumpy ride to get to where they are today: the band uprooted from Ireland to London in 2013 to further their career, only to have their original singer Sean Murphy leave amicably two years later. But thankfully, they found Brown, and the rest is history. “Long term, I don’t regret the move, we have had more opportunities here and the line-up we’ve ended up with I think is the strongest we’ve ever had, but it was difficult,” guitarist Ian Rockett explains. “Trying to get up on our feet in a new country in terms of living, financially and everything else. Upheaval like that takes its toll.”
“These societal and cultural trends make you want to compare yourselves to other people’s bests – and subsequently, you’re thinking about your worst.” Gerry Brown The band are all also very aware of the toll that mental health problems can take on a person, both generally and within the music industry itself. Indeed, their second album, Muted Neon, examines a very modern mental health issue: warped societal ideals depicted on reality TV and social media, and the resulting damage we inflict upon ourselves in that constant quest for validation. “These societal and cultural trends make you want to compare yourselves to other people’s bests – and subsequently, you’re thinking about your worst,” says Brown. “The fact that you’re connected to everyone all the time means that you don’t ever feel
properly connected and, more than that, you have got to think about the fact that social media is a tool. A tool that is being controlled and developed by someone else or some other organisation.” Rockett admits that rising above all of this is not easy. “When I was writing those lyrics, I was basically picturing being like the average person you see trying out for stuff like Big Brother or Britain’s Got Talent. People are literally willing to compromise their own
Shattered Skies: it’s probably safe to say they’re not fans of Big Brother…
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character to try and get some sort of relevance,” he sighs ruefully. “Initially when I first started to use stuff like Facebook, it was just a handy means to speak to your mates and post pictures and promote your band a bit. As it’s progressed, it’s become how people identify themselves by it. That said, there is no way you don’t get a little adrenaline rush when you post something and it gets a lot of likes. All of us experience it, including me! “It’s a weird place to be right now,” he continues, “and that’s happening in conjunction with people confronting the mental health issue. I’m sure there are a lot of artists covering this right now, but that’s because it is the main issue of our day. This is our approach to it.” The video for lead single You Will Know My Name examines these ideas further: conceived by Annie Batten, friend of the band and interdisciplinary artist and owner of visual arts company Tabula Rasa, it is a reflection on society’s desperate and insatiable need for relevance. “You’ve got this person staring down the camera trying to get in people’s faces and getting weirder and worse and more desperate as it goes on,” Brown explains of the concept. “The powder and the UV paint – that was someone trying to be as eye-grabbing as they could, even if they are masking themselves. The ‘neon’ part was the idea of getting someone to look less and less human. But as eye-catching as they can, because they’re doing it on purpose.” “It represents him constantly trying to change and shift to become relevant in some way,” says Rockett. “It’s also a visual metaphor for the whole ‘I’ll turn myself into whatever you want as long as you just look at me’ thing.” Boasting a vibrant, dynamic exploration of sound, Muted Neon takes the heavy prog of Shattered
Skies’ former material and adds even more memorable hooks, pushing further into accessible territory without compromising on the aggressive intensity or sense of hopeful exuberance that makes them so captivating. From the grandiose bombast of opener The Disaffected, which arrives with heady twists and turns, to the uneasy sprawl of electro-tinged earworm The First Circle, the 11-track album is a powerful force. Between the album’s moniker and two members of the band specifically handling synth programming, the 80s aesthetic throughout is undeniable. There are nods to Escape From New York-era John Carpenter sitting alongside the darkly melodic melange of classical composition and synthesisers mirroring the futuristic film noir of Blade Runner. But forays into synthwave aside, Muted Neon has more than enough substance and sonic complexity to keep any fan of progressive music gripped, with additional influences rooted in a range of acts associated with the genre. “Devin [Townsend] is definitely one of those artists that we listened to when we were writing. Especially his earlier solo stuff,” Rockett recalls. “I also took a lot of influence on the keyboards from early Dream Theater. Images And Words and Awake – specifically the keys on those. Their first keyboardist, Kevin Moore, did some really interesting things with these strange string patterns and pitch bends, and almost slightly computer game-esque-
sounding synths and the way they mixed against heavy guitars.” “We’ve also got to give credit to Ross [McMahon, drums, programming],” Brown interjects. “He did all the mixing and mastering. We wanted to fit so much in, and to get that warp of sound without it becoming less was a huge ask. In all honesty, the drumming only comprises 30 or 40 per cent of what he actually does in the band!” Shattered Skies have already conquered festival giants ProgPower, Euroblast and the UK’s Bloodstock, and Muted Neon has just been released, but they’re not about to rest on their laurels. “It doesn’t matter what type of band you’re in – whether it’s one that plays in the pub on a Friday night or one that’s hitting up huge tours on a regular basis. Whatever category that band fall under, it needs to be part of the puzzle that makes up your life,” Brown declares emphatically. “Because if that band is not essential to who you are as a person and what your life is, then you’re never going to stick it out.” “I think we can probably speak for that more than most bands, having moved countries and having had those line-up changes,” Rockett concludes. “Some would argue it’s all about perseverance. Idiotic, relentless perseverance. You’ve got to need to do it – because if you only want to do it, something along the way will demotivate you enough to stop you doing it. When you get that feedback that people really love what you’ve written, and that they’ve gleaned something from it, that always drives you forward. That makes all the difference. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t making a huge amount financially – it’s the passion that will drive you forward.”
“I also took a lot of influence on the keyboards from early Dream Theater. Images And Words and Awake – specifically the keys on those.”
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Ian Rockett
Muted Neon is out now and is self-released. See www.facebook.com/ shatteredskiesofficial for more information.
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Let There Be
Light… From buttered cats to soft synths, Sanguine Hum’s concept-heavy Canterbury-influenced sounds are a purr-fect addition to modern prog… Words: Mike Barnes Images: Carl Glover
“I
think that, for us, Now We Have Power is about enjoying playing the music, having fun realising it and making it as interesting as it can be,” says Sanguine Hum’s Matt Baber on their new album. “It’s a much more expansive soundworld than we have achieved before.” Now We Have Power has the same sort of elegant intricacy as its 2015 predecessor, Now We Have Light, but Sanguine Hum’s music is like an ongoing work-in-progress, mixing new compositions with music from their library of demos, some of which date back a number of years. And while on earlier albums they were keen to try to replicate these demos when they re-recorded them for release, here they have also reworked, rearranged and experimented with them. This more open process has produced a greater feeling of scale and space, and yielded some particularly striking moments, like the chorales that open The View Part One, sung by guitarist, vocalist and keyboard player Joff Winks. Current drummer Paul Mallyon has contributed some sections, while bass guitarist Brad Waissman, although not a composer per se, is credited with arrangements and acts as the group’s “arbiter of taste”, in that songs that meet his disapproval have been dropped. Baber, who plays keyboards, reckons that although he might have written the majority of the musical ideas, it’s their most collaborative recording to date. The album is also more keyboardorientated, with Winks playing less guitar and more keyboards this time around. “The acoustic piano plays
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a major part,” says Baber. “And we spent a lot of time recording it in the Jacqueline Du Pre Music Building in Oxford, a specially built rehearsal and performing space where we rented the whole building and a Steinway piano for two days. But Joff in particular has been exploring a lot of software samples.” “We branched out into the ‘soft synths’, which are recreations of the classic synths, the ARP Solina, the Yamaha CS 80, the Oberheim SEM, the classic minimoog,” Winks confirms. “So in a way, the new sounds that we have reached for are a recreation of the sounds that we grew up listening to, used by people we admired, like Bowie and Eno.” They also admit that Todd Rundgren – particularly A Wizard, A True Star and Todd – was an influence on some of the rippling background synths on tracks like Skydive. But the conceptual narrative that began on 2013’s The Weight Of The World and is more overtly stated on Now We Have Light and Now We Have Power was also influenced by Rundgren’s exploration of theosophical themes on albums like Initiation. The story dates right back to 2001, years before the formation of Sanguine Hum, when Baber and Winks heard the buttered cat joke: that toast always lands on the buttered side and a cat always lands on its feet, so if you butter a cat’s back and drop it, it will keep spinning. This prompted ideas of harnessing this energy for powering turbines and within a day or so Winks rang up Baber with news of a song he had written on this subject called Chat Show.
“I think that in the last 10 years or so, more and more bands are connecting in one way or another to prog rock and progressive music as a survival technique.” Matt Baber
Sanguine Hum, L-R: Brad Waissman, Matt Baber, Joff Winks. progmagazine.com 85
The buttered cat conspiracy accreted over time into a kind of absurdist sci-fi construct, which comes in a booklet with the new album. This most recent instalment finds the protagonist Don, aka Bubble Man, bursting through a breach in the space-time continuum and falling to Earth, where, among other things, he is hailed as a new messiah. Also featuring in this story are Antique Seeking Nuns, a group the two were in before Sanguine Hum. All of which begs the question: why did they want to write that most maligned of musical statements – the concept album – and one with such a bizarre story? “For me, it was influenced by people who’d done those sort of albums, like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, even Frank Zappa doing Joe’s Garage,” says Baber. “And Joff and I are both massive fans of David Bowie’s Outside album and the idea of telling a story with music is just a very natural thing to do. And that was a nice way to write in that you could always dive into part of the story and you can start working on the lyrics without having a blank page and thinking, ‘What do I feel like today?’” Winks adds, “We’ve both been working away on the lyrics for some time, and they become kind of intertwined with what’s going on in your personal life. As Matt was saying, the story provides a narrative arc that you can work with, but we’ve also got the opportunity to tell a different kind of story in the emotional feel of the pieces, and the lyrics can be read in different ways. If you don’t know the story, I think you can listen to the songs and have them resonate with you on a personal level.” The concept could be described as pretty loose, or at least flexible, but does using it as a sort of template have much of a bearing on the way that you write the music? “I think that it does as you are led by the story’s events,” says Baber. “But then you might have music that you have already written and you start mapping it onto the story and think, ‘Ah, that bit’s going to fit there.’” “Also, the other way around, I think that the music has equal bearing on the story in many ways, so there’s definitely a push and pull between those two elements,” adds Winks. Sanguine Hum’s music is complex, but with a strong sense of melody. With their repetitive yet constantly shifting keyboard arpeggios, they create structures that remind Prog of some minimalist composers. “There’s a big nod in the Sanguine Hum sound to Steve Reich,” Winks admits. “Even if it’s not directly in the notes, there’s an element of his approach to the writing. The kind of 86 progmagazine.com
canoning that is going on in Tehillim is a massive influence. There’s lots of canoning going on in Flight Of The Uberloon as well and the instrumentation is somewhat similar to a Reich chamber group. It’s like our humble version of that.” Baber reckons that Reich’s influence is so ingrained in the fabric of their writing that they couldn’t ditch it now even if they tried. “On Bedhead we have those clouds of trumpets, literally stolen from Steve Reich’s Music For A Large Ensemble,” he admits. “It’s the first time we’ve had trumpet on a record and it’s played by Brad’s cousin, Mark Kesel.” The 70s Canterbury scene bands are another influence on Sanguine Hum, particularly in regard to the fact that they tend to write music in irregular time signatures. But rather than ostentatiously lurching around from rhythm to rhythm – “Like a signpost has been put at the end of each bar,” as Baber says – Sanguine Hum achieve
“For me, it was influenced by people who’d done those sort of albums, like Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, even Frank Zappa doing Joe’s Garage.” Matt Baber a similar kind of swinging momentum, with some seesawing moments created by adding or dropping beats. “On Now We Have Light Joff wrote the last section for Derision and the chord sequences slide around the rhythm, so you never get the chords in the same place twice, and it took just forever for me to get the hang of it,” says Baber. “It was one of the hardest things for me to figure out. And I wrote a riff for Now We Have Power, the instrumental A Tall Tale, and it took just months and months to rehearse. I felt it naturally, but if you don’t feel it naturally you have to sit down and work it out. Then we’re often surprised when we find out it’s in something like 19/16!” But it’s not just the mathematically impressive time signatures that can prompt some extra hours of practise to get the right feel for the music. “On Speech Day we had gone through this meticulous process, mapping out the bars,” says Winks. “We worked hard on getting it right and we came back to the song after [guest vocalist] Kimara Sajn had sung the melody and we realised, ‘Oh, it’s just in four.’ It’s a regular time signature but it’s syncopated: it’s just off beat here and
there. We’d completely gone around the houses to get to that conclusion of, ‘Oh yeah, it’s just simple!’” Sanguine Hum have been influenced by many groups and musicians who didn’t have anything to do with 70s progressive rock, like electronica maverick Aphex Twin, neo-psychedelicists Flaming Lips and the jazz-infused post-rockers Tortoise.
It’s all categorisation, but if they deemed themselves post-rock, no one would bat an eyelid. But without wishing to resurrect the ages-old – and never satisfactorily answered – question, ‘What is prog?’, are they happy to be deemed a prog band, especially given some older listeners’ reluctance to embrace new groups operating in that area?
“Even if we were vehemently saying, ‘No, we’re not prog’, if someone sticks on The View Part One or The View Part Two and they are a Yes or Genesis fan, they might enjoy it,” says Baber. “Then you might hit Pen! Paper! Paper! Pen! and say, ‘Oh, it’s Canterbury.’ “I think that in the last 10 years or so, more and more bands are connecting in one way or another to
Above: the lads enjoy a night on the tiles.
prog rock and progressive music as a survival technique – you have to align yourself to it just to be seen, to be listed on Prog Archives or to be chatted about on Progressive Ears [online forum], or to be in Prog magazine itself.” “It’s still very hard to feel like you should fit into a category, somehow,” Winks adds. For practical reasons, Sanguine Hum don’t play live as much as they used to do, not least because both Baber and Winks are full-time music teachers. They have played a duo gig recently, which Baber found “a real pleasure”. But, as they say, with a full band onstage, they will always be chasing after the recorded sound, which is already layered and means that a number of lines might need to be synthesised into a single playable part. And Now We Have Power has become further textured by the involvement of several guest musicians, so some compromises have to be made and they are loath to have parts played onstage by a laptop. The band also recently changed record labels. “Part of the reason that the group have moved from Cherry Red’s Esoteric Antenna label onto Bad Elephant records was so there was less pressure to play gigs and more time to work on the music,” says Baber. “We wanted to take our time more with this one and I think we wanted to relax a bit. Of course, Esoteric is part of Cherry Red, so whatever you do you are always going to be fighting for time a little bit and I think that we’ve enjoyed this time. They have been great and helpful, and they have certainly raised our profile and got us noticed. It’s frustrating for them as well, as we were not able to do live work so much. It just felt a much more sensible approach. It’s not that we can’t play live but it has to be planned.” But right now – and without resorting to plot spoilers – the buttered cat conspiracy saga feels as if it ends a little inconclusively, rather like the proverbial shaggy-dog story. Is that the end of the trilogy, or might there be further instalments? “We genuinely didn’t know if there would be anything else and we were trying to make it as nice a conclusion as it could be if it was the last thing,” says Baber. “But there’s definitely room for us to come back to it at a later date. We are well into writing a new album that’s completely free of the story. So it’s a different experience for us now, having to sit down and actually think of something to write about.” Now We Have Light is out now via Bad Elephant. See www.sanguinehum.com for more information. progmagazine.com 87
Man In The Mirror: Mick Moss faces his demons.
Numb UNCOMFORTABLY
Antimatter have never shied away from personal lyrics, but with new album Black Market Enlightenment, they’ve created one of their darkest and most honest recordings to date. Prog finds out what led frontman Mick Moss down that path. Words: Natasha Scharf
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man in stained clothing awakes in a sparsely-furnished bedsit. His head still hurts from yesterday’s excesses. If he can just make it through the day without using, he’s taken his first steps towards sobriety. But he can’t face up to his habit: he gives in and the cycle of his addiction continues. The opening scene of Antimatter’s video for The Third Arm could have been taken from mainman Mick Moss’ own life. Between the ages of 16 and 21, the Liverpudlian singer-songwriter was addicted to street drugs, which eventually led to a complete mental
breakdown. He explores this five-year period on the melancholic project’s seventh studio album Black Market Enlightenment: a poignant journey through his soaring highs and crashing lows. “It was weird [filming the video] but I love it,” Moss admits. “I’ve been able to take a difficult, horrendous period of my life and turn it into a positive. I didn’t shy away with the album cover either: that image is a sarcastic view of me and my life. I knocked it all in the end just after 2000 and it’s been 18 years for me. I look back now and I feel sorry for myself.” Moss isn’t the first progressive musician to have been drawn to mindexpanding substances, and he’s
unlikely to be the last. Drugs have long played a creative role in the world of modern music. It’s hard to imagine what The Beatles’ playful Sgt. Pepper’s… universe, Hawkwind’s swirling space rock, or Pink Floyd’s more ‘experienced’ work might have sounded like without a tab, sniff or toke. Each vibrant lyric, slinky bass line and otherworldly melody holds a message that’s been passed down to subsequent generations. The teenage Mick Moss took this message to be one of approval as his musical tastes shifted from metal to psychedelic and progressive sounds. “I was smoking cannabis from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep, and I was dropping acid
maybe two or three times a month. That went on for five years,” he reveals. “Cannabis opened up a valve in my brain and put me in a relaxed state. When I tried LSD, it was like that times 100. It was the state I wanted to stay in. I couldn’t be bothered with sobriety; that was just shit. I even took one of my GCSEs on LSD and it was the best fucking grade I got! “But as with anything, you can’t just bang it every day and there was no message like that in the music. Jim Morrison didn’t sing, ‘Break on through to the other side (but only do it once a month)’! If you fast forward to ’69, those original spokespeople were quiet. Syd Barrett, Peter Green [Fleetwood Mac] and Roky Erickson [The 13th
“It would really piss me off if I got hit by a tram and my unreleased songs just died with me.” Floor Elevators] had fried themselves… this is all mentioned in [Black Market Enlightenment’s final song] Liquid Light. Nobody was saying, ‘We got it wrong and we realise that thousands of kids listened to what we said.’ So those records continue playing for future generations to hear and take as a seal of approval.” Despite the heavy topics, Moss comes across as upbeat. His banter progmagazine.com 89
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Antimatter mainman Mick Moss.
“I couldn’t be bothered with sobriety; that was just shit. I even took one of my GCSEs on LSD.” what I’m doing in as many ways as I could. I succeeded… but at the cost of my own sanity!” Since 2007, Antimatter has been a one-man project with a revolving cast of collaborators, which has included both former and present members of Anathema. Black Market Enlightenment is no exception with multiinstrumentalist Daniel Cardoso in charge of mixing, but there are some new faces among the guests as well. Moss’ distinctive vibrato vocals – as heard on Astral Architecture, the recent single from iamthemorning’s piano virtuoso Gleb Kolyadin – are complemented not only by the warm tones of local singer Carla Lewis, but
also by Aleah Starbridge’s beautiful chants. The South African vocalist and Antimatter fan has popped up on several Swallow The Sun and Amorphis recordings, and was also part of the Swallow The Sun/ Nightwish side project Trees Of Eternity. Although Starbridge died unexpectedly in 2016, she had been lined up to guest on Black Market Enlightenment. With a little help from her former partner, Swallow The Sun guitarist Juha Raivio, Moss was able to honour her memory with a haunting guest appearance. “I’ve always been perversely and artistically interested in posthumous appearances. It would really piss me off if I got hit by a tram and [my unreleased songs] just died with me,” admits Moss. “Juha sent me this piece and it was perfect for Existential, it’s almost like she recorded it for the song. I wove the qamancha in and it sounds like they’re doing this trade-off. I was glad I was able to do this for Aleah, and Juha is over the moon with it.”
JAN VAN KLEEF
is interspersed with throaty chuckles, often as he laughs at his own reactions. But this cheerful exterior hides a troubled past that he’s only hinted at on previous albums. Throughout our interview, he chooses his words carefully to make sure that he’s fully understood. Several times, he even points out that Black Market Enlightenment is a commentary of his journey rather than a criticism of the path others may choose to follow. He’s refreshingly open about his source material at a time when many of his peers prefer to shy away from revealing too much about the more personal aspects of their inspiration. In Black Market Enlightenment’s raw lyrics, he explores the paranoia and dissociation that the songs of his youth failed to warn him about. It takes the listener on a personal journey from spiritual enlightenment to mental breakdown. There’s no happy ending, just the unspoken knowledge that he eventually made it out the other side. In fact, it was during these uncertain times that he began crafting the music that eventually became Antimatter and gave his life new meaning. Unlike the project’s recent albums, which have mostly seen Moss digging into his extensive archive of ideas, he wrote this one from scratch. The results take him firmly out of his comfort zone with the bulk of the songs composed on keyboard and electric guitar rather than his trusty acoustic. Although album opener The Third Arm could be the sonic sequel to Stillborn Empires from 2015’s The Judas Table, the remaining eight tracks follow a more electronic path with nuances of krautrock, the occasional echo of doom metal, a pinch of darkwave, a touch of 80s saxophone, and some delicious Middle Eastern flavours on Existential. The latter uses a particularly proggy instrumental and was inspired by Peter Gabriel’s The Last Temptation Of Christ, and Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance)’s soundtrack for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. “I had this sound in my head and I asked Andre [Simonian, from The Beautified Project] if he could find me an Eastern bowed instrument. Vardan Baghdasaryan is one of the most famous Armenian qamancha players, but Andre had no idea this was who he was dealing with until he saw his face!” Moss explains of the unusual collaboration. “The way the qamancha is played, you don’t rest on any single note; it’s all over the fucking show. If you’ve got a 30-second solo, the amount of notes is outrageous. I’d love to play it live but really I can only ask the guys [in my live band] to jump on the less ridiculous pieces. “These aren’t straightforward songs and I tried to push the boundaries of
The more Moss reveals about the album, the more it’s clear that he’s really gone the extra mile. His ambition extends beyond the songs as well: it’s Antimatter’s first independently released studio album, a decision he partly attributes to the success of last year’s DVD Live Between The Earth & Clouds. “I’ve been watching small bands self release via Facebook. People are doing things themselves and something inside me felt it would appeal,” he says. “I guess there’s a control freak in a lot of creative people and there is one in me. I don’t like to out-source jobs. The record company [Prophecy] did a great job and they wanted me to carry on, but I thought I’d do it this way, for better or for worse.” Is this now his preferred route for future releases too? “Ha! Ask me in six months!” he says, laughing. “I’ve ended up having to do 14-hour days every day without a day off. I’m kind of shell-shocked and I feel like I’ve been down the rabbit hole for
18 months. I’d love to be able to hear the album with fresh ears. I’ve been asking friends, ‘What’s the album like?’ I have no idea what I’ve just done!” Moss has made life even tougher for himself by releasing the physical CD in three different packages. In addition to the standard album, there’s a two-disc and special edition version of Black Market Enlightenment available, both of which come with the bonus DVD, Finding Enlightenment. This extra disc includes an in-depth documentary that explores the story behind the album as well as the promo for The Third Arm. The extended editions also have expanded liner notes and reproductions of watercolours that Moss painted during the 90s. “People are interested in something that’s exclusive and really personal, and all the way through the process, I wanted to do it in three tiers. The special edition has handwritten lyrics and I’m even doing a hand-numbered card with
Below: the new Antimatter album Black Market Enlightenment.
a section of guitar string from one of the instruments played on the album,” he explains. “The idea is that if you watch the documentary and read through the lyrics, you’ll realise what every song is about. It’s quite personal to speak about it to the world, but I have in the hope I can help people understand what the album is about.” Moss’ journey so far has been an incredibly emotional one and it’s not over yet. Over the summer, Antimatter played in front of thousands at Germany’s Night Of The Prog festival and, earlier this month, the live band finished up the first part of the Black Market Tour. The circuit has taken them around Europe although their itinerary only featured one UK show at London’s intimate Black Heart. They’re not the only UK progressive act to attract much larger crowds on the continent, but in their case a reluctance to tour the UK isn’t entirely the fault of local audiences. “Other bands have told me over the years, ‘The UK is shit; shitty clubs, shitty audiences,’ and that’s soaked in. I’ve thought, let’s not waste too much energy throwing something together when I feel it’s doomed for failure. That said, [our gig at] the Camden Barfly was great two years ago,” admits Moss. “I do prefer bigger clubs though because I’m not banging the head of my guitar into [bassist] Steve Hughes’ shoulders and I’ve not got [drummer] Fab Regmann’s cymbals literally three feet away from the back of my head. But I wasn’t doing anything before Antimatter so any size audience or club is a bonus. There’s no ego here: I’ve done living room concerts in front of 15-20 people with an acoustic guitar and I’ve played in front of thousands. It’s all good.” With the second leg of the tour due to kick off next spring and rumours of some festival appearances on the horizon, there’s no risk of Moss being bored. He’s also been recording guest vocals for a handful of secret projects and is starting to think about a new album with electronic side-project Sleeping Pulse. Then there’s his 25-song archive to go through. “Music has been my best friend my whole life and it’s a fantastic, positive distraction technique.” He adds with an audible smile, “Besides, the Mick Moss of 2018 is a helluva lot more grounded than the Mick Moss of 1996.” Prog wonders whether that young man in his bedsit would have ever dreamed of this. Black Market Enlightenment is out now via Music In Stone. Visit www.antimatteronline.com for more information. progmagazine.com 91
IRMIN SCHMIDT Schmidt was busy as a conductor, performing with the Vienna Symphony and others, while also serving as a composer and concert pianist. All of this formal grounding – including work for film and theatre productions and a spell as pupil of György Ligeti – played into the approach of Can, who opted to reinvent themselves amid the cultural ruins of post-war Germany. Following Can’s first break-up, Words: Rob Hughes Portait: Diane Zillmer Schmidt Schm moved to the South of France S and iimmersed s co-founder as Tago Mago, himself in of Can, Ege Bamyasi him soundtracks for film, alongside and Future Days. soun TV and theatre. Holger “Everybody had 1980 Czukay, ideas,” he recallss 198 saw the arrival of his Michael Karoli and of their unique h solo debut, Filmmusik, followed Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin chemistry. “Thee Film by the likes of Toy Schmidt left an indelible imprint music had so Planet on the musical landscape of the many different Pla (with Bruno Spoerri), Musk At late 60s and 70s. The German styles because we Sp rstücke. Dusk and, in 1991, collective, formed in Cologne in all contributed D New album 5 Klavie Impossible Holidays. 1968, drew from elements of rock, everything Im Can briefly reformed in 1986 jazz, ethnic funk, classical music we knew.” for Rite Time, eventually released and minimalism to create a new Schmidt happened to know three years later. Further kind of language, governed by a lot. Born in Berlin in 1937, he’d reunions took place in 1991 and an intuitive sense of exploration. attended a handful of music 1999, though any subsequent The band’s keyboardist and (later universities across his homeland hopes of getting together were on) occasional singer, Schmidt prior to studying composition quashed when Karoli died in remained with Can through to with Karlheinz Stockhausen in 2001. Liebezeit and Czukay both their initial split in 1979, a run that Cologne during the first half of passed away last year. included such peerless classics the 60s. Around the same time,
The Prog Interview is just that: every month we’re going to get inside the minds of some of the biggest names in music. This issue, it’s Irmin Schmidt. A founding member of German krautrockers Can and the last remaining original member, he began his career working as a conductor and has now written more than 100 film scores, an opera, a ballet and many solo works including a new album, 5 Klavierstücke.
When I founded Can, I didn’t think about a rock group. I wanted to bring together jazz, rock, new music and ethnic experiences of different people and find out what happens.
Can had a “unique chemistry”.
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A
Among Schmidt’s other exploits is Gormenghast, a threeact fantasy opera based on Mervyn Peake’s celebrated Gormenghast Trilogy, that had its premiere in 1998. “I’m no longer an avant-garde artist, out to shock,” he declared at the time. “I want people to enjoy my music.” Factor in a ballet (2008’s La Fermosa), various anthologies, collaborations, more film soundtracks and 2012’s Schmidtcurated The Lost Tapes – a glorious three-album box of previously unheard Can treasures – and he’s hardly stopped for breath over the past decade or so. In 2015, he was knighted by the French Ministry of Culture and was made a Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres for his contribution to art and music. Despite his myriad endeavours, Can is an unshakeable part of
Irmin Schmidt: musical renaissance man.
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Schmidt’s artistic identity. Last year he premiered Can Dialog, two new pieces written for orchestra, at London’s Barbican. The work is due to feature again this December, when Berlin’s Volksbühne will host the piece alongside other treats. “I will conduct an orchestra with Filmmusik and Can Dialog,” Schmidt explains to Prog. “Can Dialog is not orchestrated Can pieces. They appear as themes in an orchestra piece in its own right. And afterwards, like at the Barbican, a rock group made up of Berlin artists – put together by Jochen Arbeit of Einstürzende Neubauten – will play a Can tribute.” This all comes in the wake of the publication in May 2018 of All Gates Open: The Story Of Can. A book of two halves, alves, Rob Young examines the history of Can in part one, before Schmidt tells his own story in the second section, which takes the format of famousfan interviews and diary entries. And now comes Schmidt’s new solo 1971. Can’s Tago Mago, album, 5 Klavierstücke.. Consisting of five minimal piano pieces – what he calls “spontaneous meditations… formed from an emotional memory in which Schubert, Cage, Japan (Gagaku) and Can are equally present” – it was recorded in his South of France studio with producer Gareth Jones. Like just about everything Schmidt turns his hand to, it bears repeated listening. How did the idea for 5 Klavierstücke come about? I wanted to make a piano record with both prepared and normal piano. I was one of the very first – and sometimes the first in certain cases – to perform John Cage music in Germany, like Atlas Eclipticalis with a symphony orchestra and Winter Music on piano. I’d met him and he showed me how a piano should be prepared, so I did it for 5 Klavierstücke as I’d learned it from Cage in the 60s. Prepared piano is part of a certain tradition in Europe, from Haydn to Stockhausen. And since all my music plays with 94 progmagazine.com
the consciousness of being in a tradition, my memory functions like Can’s Future Days this. I have , 1973. travelled as a pianist doing recitals l off Haydn, d Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Cage. So it’s all in my head. And of course, there’s my personal tradition, where Can has a very important place.
What kind of a Wha mentor was Cage? men had a lot of He h humour and hum seemed so natural seem He and relaxed. r was eextremely charming and very h concentrated. 5 Klavierstücke has so much of the spirit of Cage in it. You just let it happen. It has its own life presence and you don’t interfere. That is very Cageian,
very Zen. As a painter, you might spend your whole life trying to catch an image of a bird on a bramble. You try and try and paint again and again, then throw it away. Then one day you do it in five minutes and it’s wonderful. That’s the way these new piano pieces were done. Nothing was written beforehand, except for one little melody I wrote an hour earlier. All the rest is spontaneous, played once only and recorded at
Architecture’s loss is the music world’s gain.
the same time. And afterwards no corrections. When I listened back to it with my sound engineer and producer, we didn’t find any reason to edit anything. This is also an extension of the philosophy you’ve had right from the start: the idea of turning the acoustic environment into music… Right. That’s what I did from the beginning. You’d go to dinner with
Cage before a performance and he’d tell you about how he tried to find mushrooms in some swamp in Alaska, rather than tell you what’s happening onstage. Then when we’re in the hall, right before we’re due to start, he turns to me and says: “Why don’t we just push chairs around?” It was spontaneous and surprising. It gave the performance an impact that it wouldn’t have had if we’d prepared or composed the thing.
PRESS/LUCI LUX
Sometimes Michael [Karoli] and I would take a tiny little bit of LSD, which doesn’t give you any hallucinations or anything. It just makes everything look more brilliant.
something to do with structure, Throughout your life, you’ve which music has too. But finally placed a lot of value on the attraction of music was so surrounding yourself with much stronger. silence on a regular basis. Why do you think people tend to be You studied with Stockhausen, suspicious of silence? who is often portrayed as an port It’s part of our unwaveringly un contemporary serious se culture or character. But is cha civilisation, wheree that an accurate tha people have to assessment? ass have images and There were two The sound all the time.. sides to him. side So I think it’s As llong as he very necessary was working to make big holes on composition, co into this constant either teaching or eithe noise. Again, First solo album Fil analysing, he was analy this is very mmusik, 1980. extremely straight extre Cageian in and d severe. There a way. One of the was no humour in an analysis of reasons I was so attracted to Gruppen or whatever. It was very this Cageian philosophy, which concentrated, serious work. But is very much influenced by then he’d invite us to his house Zen – he even wrote a book and we’d have parties, when he called Silence [1961] – is that became just totally normal. You I’d already been doing it before. could laugh with him about silly It might have something to do things. He was able to separate with my childhood. I loved to himself like that, because that sit all alone somewhere and was his character. For him, music just have silence around me. was something holy, like going to I have a very strong memory church mass. of sitting in this kind of tree cave and listening to silence or Is that something you relate to little rustles. My mother was from your own experience, too? a wonderfully understanding Yes, I can totally relate to that, person, but sometimes, of course, because even if it’s a different parents want to punish you spirit – whether it’s piano because you did some shit or recitals or conducting or being other. I remember that she put on stage with Can – making me in my room, refused to let music is something e me leave and had thee shutters that absorbs closed. So I was everything of you. ever sitting there As aan ego, you all alone and sort of disappear I wasn’t unhappy in it. it You don’t at all. This wasn’t entertain yourself ente punishment to by playing music. p me. In fact, after In the t moment some time she you become heard me singing. a kind of k In the end, my medium; you me mother became become the be even more angry, . 90 19 , t ne Pla Solo album Toy music. And if m because she that happen, th t doesn’t d had failed. then something’s not right. Ask any classical pianist and he or she She should’ve put you in a noisy will tell you the same. room instead… Yeah, that would’ve been torture! In 1966 you visited New York, where you discovered Terry At the age of 14, you were either Riley, La Monte Young, Steve going to be a conductor or an Reich and the Fluxus movement. architect. What swayed you Was it a big culture shock? towards music? Quite. The most astonishing It was just a kind of need. My thing for me was that this father was an architect and from strict separation between him I learned how to draw and popular music and classical in plan houses. And I liked the Germany, between so-called idea of creating form. It had progmagazine.com 95
entertainment and serious music, didn’t exist in New York. You just made music and found out whether it was good or not, or accepted or not. And you experimented. America has another music history because of the blues and the he population spread of Africans into Western culture. It created a totally new tradition and consciousness for music. And that was really something totally y new for me. It wass a revelation.
Stockhausen. But at the same time I was thinking, “I have to change something.”
Most bands are founded by groups of friends, but when you formed Can you hardly knew each other. How critical critic was that? I knew kne Holger [Czukay] from [Czu Stockhausen Stoc composition com courses, but we cou weren’t friends. wer And An Michael [Karoli] was [Ka Holger’s student, Ho or pupil, at the boarding school bo s, 1991. Impossible Holiday where Holger w So what did you ttaught. g So I didn’t do when you returned home? know Michael at all when we got I had several concerts with together for the first time in my Cage music, then I travelled on house. As a person, I knew Jaki my own and with a group of nine [Liebezeit] only vaguely. I’d been or 10 musicians, only playing to see his free jazz group, the [the genre] new music, like Manfred Schoof group, in concert
in Cologne, but we didn’t know each other very well. I didn’t actually ask him to join the group, because I didn’t want a free jazz drummer. I wanted somebody like Max Roach, so I asked Jaki if he knew of anybody. To my surprise, he came to me and said: “I’m ready to join you.” I was very suspicious of that. I thought, “Shit, I don’t want a free jazz drummer.” And then it turned out that he didn’t want to be one anymore anyway.
How difficult was it to implement the Can philosophy of creating music while trying to forget your formal training? Well it was difficult. But we were hard-working and we were obsessed with inventing ourselves and finding out how to build a kind of organism that makes very genuine music.
Was progressive music ever on your radar? Not really. When I founded Can, I didn’t think about a rock group. I wanted to bring together jazz, rock, new music and ethnic experiences of different people and find out what happens. We never saw ourselves as a rock group. We were a group that played something that might be called rock, but it was contemporary music.
It’s part of our contemporary culture or civilisation, where people have to have images and sound all the time. So I think it’s very necessary to make big holes into this constant noise.
Can never saw themselves as a rock group, says Schmidt.
PRESS/MICK ROCK
All these terms like ‘effort’ and ‘work’ are OK, but they miss the point, because there was so much passion. Something is in your head and you want to define it. And you want to be precise, you want to really hit the idea. You just do it.
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Do you think Can were never fully appreciated in Germany? You have to consider that, after the war, there was not the faintest idea left of a German pop tradition. The same applied to modern art and modern music. All this had been destroyed and had vanished. So art or music of the 20th century had to be re-imported to Germany after 1945. In the 50s and 60s, everybody thought that the real thing was what came from America and England. Nobody
believed in Germany’s own production, which meant that slowly, in the 60s, culture and art had to be recreated and rebuilt. When we started Can, journalists thought that we couldn’t play, because we didn’t sound like what they were used to from America and England. But we didn’t want to. This all goes back to tradition. When you listen to the melodies, whether it’s with Can or later work, you’ll find the German tradition of the beginning of the 20th century – Kurt Weill and that kind of music.
Were you surprised by the level of adoration Can often received from audiences on that first UK tour? Not really. When you have something very strong, there’s something vibrating between you and the audience. You feel it. Sometimes it goes wrong of course, because taking risks and inventing onstage isn’t a guarantee for a successful concert. Did it feel slightly surreal performing I Want More on Top Of The Pops in 1976? Well, surrealism is part of the tradition of 20th-century art, so why not? Was composing for film a natural medium for you? Very much so. It sort of naturally grew out of my work as a student for theatre and making music for plays or conducting. I conducted two Brecht plays with a small orchestra, then I started making my own music for theatre plays and, after that, short films. Even before Can I made two or three film music pieces for movies, which I brought into Can. It was a good way to earn some money, because in the beginning we were very poor. After Can, I was offered film music and thought it was a nice way to do it again.
PRESS/GULLICK
There’s a story about you taking LSD and driving the van when Can toured the UK for the first time in 1971. Is that true? Well, no. [Laughs] Sometimes Michael and I would take a tiny little bit of LSD, which doesn’t give you any hallucinations or anything. It just makes everything look more brilliant, more shiny. But it’s not the truth when it comes to that aspect of my life as an artist.
And during the 80s I did it a lot, though I stopped for a while in the 90s to write Gormenghast, the opera. Is there a division between intuition and improv, in terms of the musicc you’ve made over the years? I don’t see it so much as a division, because Gormenghast, 20 sometimes my 00. film music is created intuitively. I discuss the structure of the film with the director, and where to put music, and then I might get a very spontaneous idea. This happened, for instance, when I was sitting with Wim Wenders on Palermo Shooting [2008]. He’d asked me to write the music for it and we sat down to watch it together. At some point in the middle of the film I said to him: “I hear an accordion playing in this scene, like something from
Wonder what music is on loop in his head right now…
a certain opera.” It was a totally intuitive idea and later I had to work this out to make it fit. Composing Co po g happens ppen after something so appears in your ap head he and you start sta to shape and define it.
head. I didn’t hear anything and it frightened me horribly. Then on the 11th day, all of a sudden I heard a violin concerto. And not an existing one – just a violin with a big orchestra. For six hours I didn’t stop jubilating like mad. That was a very special moment in my life.
Do you y still hear music in your mus head all the time? Yes. And it’s not always alwa my own. I might mig wake up the morning in th and the last d have h movement of Schumann’s fourth symphony in my head, then go down to the studio, pick up the score and look to see if it’s the same as how I hear it. It could be old music or classical, it might be a jazz record or whatever. But there is always music. Just once in my life, for 10 days, I did not. I had a kind of bleeding in my skull and it was hurting incredibly. But I got more scared by the fact that there was no music in my
Has last year’s sad passing of Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay made you re-evaluate the legacy of Can in some ways? You’re the last man standing from the very first line-up… I don’t have to re-evaluate. It’s just there. Of course, Jaki and Holger disappearing is horrible. The work I did with them formed and marked me in such a strong way. Even after Can, on a lot of my solo work I made so much music with Jaki and Michael. So it’s in me. The influence of these guys is part of my most important musical experience. 5 Klavierstücke is out now via Mute Records. See www.irminschmidt.com for more information. progmagazine.com 97
Edited by Jo Kendall [emailprotected]
New spins…
GEDDY LEE As Rush exit stage left, the story continues with members indulging other avenues. In three editions – Ultra Limited, Luxe Limited and Standard, the band’s bass ace tackles a book project of biblical proportions. Words: Jerry Ewing Illustration: Pete Fowler
L
et’s get one thing straight: this book, much like a well-known outdoor wood care oil, does exactly what it says on the cover. It’s very big – so big, in fact, that you should be careful lifting it. We’re being serious. It did this writer’s back some damage just carrying it home from work in a backpack! Little wonder that elsewhere in this issue Geddy Lee warns, “Don’t drop it on your foot.” It’s also very beautiful. Eye-catchingly lavish, rich in detail and deep in thought. And yes, it’s full of bass. Lots and lots of bass. More than 250 of the instruments spread across more than 400 pages, captured in crystal clear detail and in fulsome, striking colour. Never has the bass guitar appeared quite so beautiful before. Throw in a series of candid interviews with some of the rock world’s most prominent exponents and collectors of the bass, an engaging essay from the author, in which he declares that “It’s not surprising that sooner or later I’d dive down the proverbial rabbit hole into the world of vintage bass guitars”, an overview of Lee’s own bass rig for the final Rush R40 tour, a look at his stage and recording gear from 1968 to 2017 and an engagingly humorous timeline of bass history, including such highpoints as when Rush donned kimonos for the first time for 1976’s 2112, and this is a most reasonably priced Christmas gift, not just for any bass head, but any Rush fan to boot. As Lee explains in our feature starting on page 42, he didn’t used to be much of a bass collector. Then, some eight years ago, he found himself drawn more to the idea of the instruments his own heroes collected and wondered why he hadn’t followed suit. The initial idea was to spend some time amassing a modest collection. Now he owns more than 250 bass guitars, from his trademark Rickenbacker and Fender, through Gibsons, Epiphones, Höfners and Ampegs,
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Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass HARPER DESIGN
An engagingly humorous timeline of bass history, including such highpoints as when Rush donned kimonos for the first time. to the works of lesser-known luthiers such as Tony Zemaitis and Antonio Wandre Pioli. Finding time on his hands in the wake of Rush’s last tour and with the band mothballed for the foreseeable future, the idea of a book about his chosen instrument reared its head, and Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book Of Bass became a reality. Along the way, Lee chats to a variety of some of the finest bassists in music, including John Paul Jones, Les Claypool, Rob Trujillo, Bill Wyman, Jeff Tweedy, Adam Clayton,
Bob Daisley and more. Anyone who has interviewed Lee will tell you what a genial conversationalist he can be, and this comes through strongly in these interviews. When you read about these bass players sitting down and chewing the fat over their beloved instrument, the passion and musical intrigue they still clearly possess is evident. Reading about Claypool’s love of Lee, Chris Squire and Tony Levin’s bass sound, how the youthful Clayton dug Genesis and Pink Floyd or how Trujillo became the proud owner of Jaco Pastorius’ bass of doom, both theirs and Lee’s passion is infectious. It helps immeasurably, too, that Lee has no need to pander to the whims of a magazine or newspaper editor, just himself. These interviews are refreshing, open, insightful and, most importantly, great fun to read. One senses that they were also great fun to conduct. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when John Paul Jones declared, tongue-in-cheek of course, that “Led Zeppelin is not my chosen subject”. One suspects that if Rush had chosen not to step back after R40, this book might never have seen the light of day. But, with his newfound free time, Lee has crafted something unique and quite wonderful. There are enough insights into his and Rush’s lengthy career to pull in non-bass nerds, too, such is the relaxed, everyman nature of Lee’s delivery, while his affection for the subject matter simply leaps off of every page. And Rush fans? They’ll be in seventh heaven. Especially with the look at Lee’s equipment from over the years, as well as the detail on the 27 or so bass guitars he chose to take on the road for the band’s final jaunt. Each and every one of them, however, is likely to catch a breath, as Alex Lifeson in his hilarious Backword at the start of the book opens with the line, “Geddy Lee is still my best friend.” A lovely and fitting tribute in a wonderfully impressive book.
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Black Market Enlightenment MUSIC IN STONE
You Are Creating: Limb 2 LONG BRANCH
Mick Moss gets gloomier and heavier, rekindling chemical memories.
Arena-hankering Norwegians bring the tunes again on this sequel to Limb 1.
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f anger is an energy, Mick Moss has got a fair bit of mileage out of it in recent years. But now he seems to be exploring different shades of black mood. 2015’s The Judas Table took lyrical aim at “the people whose callous and disrespectful, backstabbing actions caused me countless wasted years of depression”, as he put it. A happy-clappy affair it wasn’t, but the intensity of the songs made for a riveting listen, even if sometimes it felt like you were eavesdropping on a huge row.
Thundering, windswept dramatic soundscapes. But let’s face it: rock musicians that gain most inspiration from happier periods in their lives are in a pretty small minority. So maybe that’s why, for this seventh studio set, Moss seems to have once more reached back into the murkier corners of his past for creative fuel. In the making-of documentary DVD included along with this seventh Antimatter album, he explains Black Market Enlightenment as an exploration of his younger days, where his habit of using acid trips and weed to open the doors of perception ended in him being “diagnosed with psychosis and suffering from derealisation and daily panic attacks”. There’s also a distinctly different feel to the music. The Judas Table’s rage was punctuated with acoustic passages and more subtle electronic and singer-songwriter-ish textures. Black Market Enlightenment feels more insistently, sometimes claustrophobically heavy, the closest Antimatter have come to fully cloaked-up, symphonically enhanced gothic rock. Thundering, windswept dramatic soundscapes are the order of the day as Moss rekindles the fires of his own drug hell, and while it might not offer the same degree of contrast or light-and-shade dynamics, it sure is effective. ‘All it would take is a whisper or a kiss to seal my place within the abyss,’ Moss sings in an Eddie Vedder-esque basso profondo as the sublime Wish I Was Here builds from pianoled soliloquy into sweeping, soaring melodrama driven by booming power chords. There are also some intriguing light touches, though. Sanctification is similarly huge-sounding in parts, but before it ends in an apocalyptic storm of pummelling double-bass drum, clouds of Floydian sax float overhead before haunting Middle Eastern stringed instrument the qamancheh adds a really spellbinding diversion. When the qamancheh surfaces again later at the climax of Between The Atoms after our hero’s vocal is reduced to a warped whisper of ‘Am I still here?’ it initially sounds like a man attempting to sing underwater. Which may well be the intended effect. So he’s drowning, not waving, once again. But however grim Moss’ situation, we just can’t tear ourselves away… JOHNNY SHARP
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hey took seven years to follow up 2010’s debut album Flux, but now this Trondheim quartet are back in business, and clearly intent on making up for lost time, following up last year’s Limb 1 with – well done, everyone – Limb 2. Calling themselves “stadium-appealing progressive rock”, 22 can certainly boast an ability to create big, fat arena-shaking hooks, albeit irregularly thrown in the air from the tumult of mathy prog grooves. And when you find some footholds, they’re rock solid. The itchy, creeping bass groove beneath Autumn Stream really gets under your skin and Dillemanns
Clarity has an irresistibly falsetto-boosted melody reminiscent of Muse as it tells a suitably oddball tale of a man’s quest to ‘compromise in life but not in art’ with the help of a pair of red boxing gloves. Admirably obtuse stuff, although at times, as on Chroma Key, it sounds like a battle between a conventional rock band with another bunch of musicians that want to rip said song to pieces with jerkyquirky shards of jazz rock. But when the Wagnerian Queenisms are allowed to take flight, as on the choral peaks of Sylphs, the joyous contrast only heightens the dramatic impact. JS
ABRAHAM MUSIC PROJECT First The Honesty, Then The Promise SUNLIGHT DIGITAL A conceptual smorgasbord of prog, classic rock and AOR.
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here’s no mistaking the fact that LA-based Abraham – no surname is offered – is a student of Floyd, The Beatles and Tull. His debut solo release suggests many hours spent poring over the classic records by those groups. An album for those that still believe music should tell stories, this is a lovingly produced, exquisite-sounding piece of work blessed with strong commercial potential – especially its first half, which soars with an almost evangelical melodic intent as its main character, called simply ‘Horizon’, journeys towards a revelation that changes his life. Just as you think you’ve
got Abraham pegged, the electric guitars break out with a powerful instrumental called Resist The Devil that symbolises his moment of truth. The only way to follow such a display of vigour is The Glory Be Suite, 16 minutes of pure prog that encapsulates frenzied, Mellotron-driven arpeggios, crashing chord changes and harmonised subtlety. Neal Morse would surely applaud not only the apparently spiritual message, but also its musical delivery. Afterwards, the slightly clunky There You Are is a little anticlimactic, but boy… this album shows some potential. DML
ALEC K REDFEARN AND THE EYESORES The Opposite CUNEIFORM Definitely not your local polka band.
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hen a band describe their genre as Dada, refencing the avant-garde art movement that set out to challenge and offend the sensibilities of the bourgeoisie, it’s a safe bet it’s not going to be an easy listen. Alec K Redfearn And The Eyesores have grown and shrunk from project to project depending on the demands of their material. This latest iteration of the band for their eighth album is a quartet with Redfearn on accordion, horn player Ann Schattle, bassist Christopher Sadlers and Matt McLaren on drums. It’s the accordion that dominates the music, which can sound like a folk band playing
a blend of krautrock and post-rock while drawing influences from Can, Tangerine Dream and Residents. The tracks are built around droning, repetitive accordion riffs, with the other players there to either reinforce the main part or drop in and out to add dynamics. The arrangements and production can be repetitive, so there’s not much to distinguish between The Opposite and Carnivore. Bat In My Living Room adds more distortion to the accordion while McLaren plays industrial style tom-tom beats. It’s often abrasive and melodically inaccessible, but that seems to be the point. DW
KEITH EMERSON
AMGALA TEMPLE
Beyond The Stars SIMAX CLASSICS
Invisible Airships PEKULA Superheroes of Norwegian jazz rock assemble: fireworks ensue.
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nother week, another album of jazz-infused psych rock from Norway. It’s striking how much excellent music of this persuasion comes from there, though it may be because everyone plays with everyone else. Amgala Temple are no exception, a trio comprising of multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), drummer Gard Nilssen (Bushman’s Revenge), and hotshot guitarist Amund Maarud. There are hints they want to break free from Nordic preconceptions – Amgala is an oasis in Western Sahara, the sleeve resembles a Japanese dreamscape – but fans of densely hatched, fiery out-there
rock are in for a treat. Beginning with a slightly sinister, Radiohead-ish melody on treated piano, Bosphorus evokes an early morning in Istanbul before Maarud’s heavily chorused guitar burns through the haze. There’s a confluence between pure and impure sounds, a tight rhythm underpinning keening keys and a huge Hendrix-esque freak-out. Avenue Amgala is more nimble, but that rich, overdriven guitar still leaves scorch marks in the air. The sparse riff and spacy atmospherics of The Eccentric is the album’s most progfriendly track, like a crafty jam between King Crimson and Tangerine Dream. JB
RHETT BREWER The Thaw HP RECORDINGS Classical American ex-pat conjures a change in the weather.
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ow do you make contemporary classical music more attractive to modern audiences? Rhett Brewer may have done so by tapping into the topical theme of global warming. These 15 contemplative pieces may be more spirit than flesh and blood, but in lacing their New Age structures with subtle undercurrents of stress and strife he adds character to their coldness. We’re in Michael Nyman or Arvo Part territory, but Brewer plants his own flags with atmospherics that evoke a sense of a planet expanding, cracking, melting. Inspired by experiencing a Russian winter 20 years ago, The
Thaw is the result of years of commitment, with the British-based American composer having taken financial gambles to get it first played live with an orchestra, then recorded. It’s sometimes minimalist, occasionally cinematic, with Brewer’s use of his own voice as an emotionally suggestive instrument. It’s a wilfully wintry listening experience, yet its shimmering quiet storms prompt inward-looking reflection as much as climate concerns. It also confirms that the xylophone and vibraphone are, in terms of impact, among the most underrated of musical tools. A slowly defrosting comfort. CR
DARWIN Origin Of Species ORIGIN OF SPECIES LLC Simon Phillips takes to the drumstool for an elaborate plot and marathon tracklist.
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re you sitting comfortably? The labyrinthine story behind DarWin’s debut concept album Origin Of Species is set in 2028 where climate change has ravaged the world, and we find the perplexed protagonist awaking having no idea where or who he is. Over the ensuing 18 (!) songs the character, DarWin, attempts to rediscover his roots. Stoking the prog flames further, the rockers’ “epic saga” will also be supported by graphic novels and videos. But what about the music? In the driving seat and drum seat too is veteran Toto/Oldfield sticksman Simon
Phillips, and the tracks are a smorgasbord of styles, dipping into Yes pomp, melodic pop and riffy modern day rock. The chops are notable, as is the songwriting, with the theatrical Escape The Maze juggling swaying strings with harmonies that swaddle you like a warm blanket on a winter’s night. If you ignore when it veers dangerously close to the edge (no pun intended) of cheesiness before pulling back in the nick of time, Origin Of Species is one hell of a ride – but just remember to clear your mind and get a comfy seat before jumping in. Great website too, at www.darwin.is. CC
Clear vinyl pressings for celebratory classical events.
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n the sleevenotes for The Nice’s 1970 album Five Bridges, Keith Emerson wrote, “On a journey from the almost utopian freedom of our music to the established music school I met Joseph Eger who was travelling in the opposite direction.” Eger conducted The Five Bridges Suite, which merged classical with pop and jazz and so, in Emerson’s mind, the two musicians were no longer diverging. But the sort of crossover
The full blossoming of his voice as an orchestral composer. between rock and classical that Emerson was looking for was not straightforward. Some orchestral musicians at the Five Bridges concert made a statement by stuffing their ears with cotton wool and, frankly, The Nice’s Sibelius and Tchaikovsky with a 4/4 beat now sounds clunky. Wind forward to 1977 and Leonard Bernstein was approached to conduct Emerson’s Piano Concerto No.1 for Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Works Vol. 1, but the composer was derisive about the piece. It all felt rather like rock upstarts going cap-in-hand to the classical establishment for their blessing, only to be told they had written “student pieces” because they weren’t orchestrated in a certain way. But with the popularity of orchestral works by minimalist composers like Arvo Part and Philip Glass, and with recent orchestrations of electronicists such as Mouse On Mars and Aphex Twin, that proscriptive approach to deciding what orchestral music is worth listening to seems, thankfully, to belong to a bygone era. Beyond The Stars features some of the pieces played at the Keith Emerson Tribute Concerts last year, beginning with Rachel Flowers playing the third movement from Emerson’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in a punchy, vivid recording, with the Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields conducted by Terje Mikkelsen, which surely warrants the concise, attractive piece being released again in full. Emerson’s grandson Ethan, a prodigiously talented 12-year-old, plays sparkling piano on The Dreamer. Side two features The Keith Emerson Band playing pieces recorded at the sessions Tarkus Concertante in 2012 with the Munich Radio Orchestra, including Emerson’s arrangement and orchestration of guitarist Marc Bonilla’s The Mourning Sun. There’s a version of Emerson’s arrangement for Aaron Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man, with its dramatic melody lines arcing over a rock groove. But the highlight is the title track, on which Emerson’s crisp, intricate orchestration balances romantic melody with a modernist edge. It feels like the full blossoming of his individual voice as an orchestral composer, an avenue of expression that was sadly cut short. MIKE BARNES
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ANDY MACKAY
EVERSHIP
3Psalms GOOD DEEDS
Evership II ATKINSONG
All I want is pew: Roxy legend rewrites the book of psalms.
Highly accessible mainstream prog from rising Nashville band.
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n their 1973 album Stranded, Roxy Music closed side one with the eight-minute Psalm. Debate still rages – politely – among Roxy fans as to whether Bryan Ferry was being ironic with its imagery. Forty-five years on, the man who played “oboe, saxophone and treatments” on that classic reveals an ongoing obsession with actual psalms. He began work on the three pieces (plus interlude) gathered here in the mid-90s, aspiring to interweave his varied musical passions from classical to rock, from choirs (he was a boy chorister) to electronica. Things lay
Rock follies are put away; this stretches for transcendence. fallow for a while, but in 2012 he picked up the threads, and now 3Psalms gets us to the church on time. It’s an extraordinary album, in that it’s unusual. Laden with religiosity, it will have you anxiously counting your sins, or, if you’ve watched too many horror movies, expecting Damien Thorn to pop up at any moment. Mackay’s fascinated by ancient poetry and song, and often deploys the original Latin and Hebrew. Harry Day-Lewis (nephew of actor Daniel) delivers the strict, straight-backed lead vocals while the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra are predominant among the musicians constructing swelling backdrops. Phil Manzanera guests on guitar, but don’t for a second expect this to revel in the realms of Roxy. Even the world’s premier art rock outfit never got this rarefied. Eno brought the science, Ferry the romance. Mackay, it appears, has put all rock follies behind him and is stretching for a different kind of transcendence. If you find marriages of music and religion too pure and goody goody for your blood, this will feel like dutifully sitting through an overlong Sunday service, even though it’s only a half hour in total. Love is no longer the drug for Mackay, or at least not the earthly, sexy kind. What might convert you is his playing, for the man still blows a mean instrument or three. Praise: Psalm 150 examines motifs which find a lovely halfway-house between Philip Glass and Hovis ad, while the choir build in scale and Manzanera blasts in with a solo which rattles the stained glass windows. Deep: Psalm 130 murmurs in with rippling waves, cymbals and subliminal voices, then asks a lot of DayLewis, but it’s Mackay’s solo passages which woo with charm. The brief Interlude offers a welcome spell of ambient piano/ synth haze, and Refuge: Psalm 90 has Mackay duelling with himself in shapes staccato and serene. The climax is, inevitably, epic. While 3Psalms is no fun-filled party, it witnesses a Roxy graduate still delivering the peculiar and unexpected. Amen to that. CHRIS ROBERTS
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s Chevy Chase’s character observes to Burt Reynolds in The Last Movie Star, there’s more to Nashville than country music. With prog luminary Neal Morse based nearby, Nashville is home to Evership and keyboardist Shane Atkinson. Since forsaking a career in the software industry, Atkinson has returned to music and is Evership’s mastermind. With a couple of great guitarists on board and a versatile vocalist in Beau West, Evership’s second voyage is hugely entertaining. The album gets off to a strong start with brooding opener The Serious Room, which explodes into
life with a couple of terrific guitar solos. Elsewhere, Wanderer begins like Kansas at their most energetic before mellowing out into a lovely prog ballad helmed by West’s gentle vocals and underpinned by some beautiful strings. II isn’t perfect: the almost 30-minute epic album closer Isle Of The Broken Tree is compelling in places but overall feels a bit disjointed, while the drumming, credited to Atkinson, is pretty rudimentary and lacks subtlety. But overall this is an impressive sophomore effort, and with some fine tuning the good Evership’s next voyage could be very exciting indeed. NS
JAN FELIX MAY Red Messiah JAZZLINE Think you know jazz/prog fusion? Think again.
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nyone who reckons that everything has already been done in jazz/prog fusion is cordially invited to sit down with Red Messiah for a bit of a rethink. On Major, for example, the band play terse, overlapping lines in different time signatures with dropped beats aplenty, and tricky unison sections – that Frank Zappa is one of May’s major influences is no surprise. But all this is cut with more lyrical passages where rippling electric piano morphs into rhapsodic acoustic piano and sax solos, with the drummer and guitarist also let off the leash. May Love, featuring vocalist Torun Eriksen,
has a jazz ballad lightness of touch, although the listener never knows quite what sort of odd musical byway the ensemble might veer into. The juddering pseudo-dance beats and techno synths on the nineminute Hardcore Bling give way to kit drums and May’s high velocity keyboard runs. It settles down after three minutes into a more sedate melodic mood, albeit with further twists and turns, but there’s always compositional structure. If all that sounds like a bit over-egged, the German composer’s strength is that he uses these devices for contrast rather than complexity for its own sake. MB
FOUR STROKE BARON Planet Silver Screen PROSTHETIC Nevada progressive rockers cook up distinct, catchy sound on second album.
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our Stroke Baron quip on their Facebook page that they’re a band “over seven billion people don’t know about”, but their new album should make all the difference. Snatching explorative riffs, the spunky fun of Brit alt heroes Reuben and the booming vocals of Type O Negative together with new wave theatrics, this Nevada trio know how to party. Exuberant opener Cut acts as a microcosm of what’s about to come, with a synthwave escapade morphing into a tech metal attack. While the band’s second full-length doesn’t quite excel enough to attract all of those uneducated billions out there,
there’s enough for both proggers and headbangers to grab onto. A Matter Of Seconds for instance, swoons with Mastodon groove, while Neon Person exudes a peculiar whiff of a jagged Jimmy Eat World conjoined with prog metal. The best is kept to last though, with the dreamy Duplex providing a moment of calm before Shining honcho Jørgen Munkeby pops up on the eight-minute Video Maniacs to slather on some sax and make you ponder why his greatness hadn’t been unleashed earlier. Crunchy, clever and contagious, it feels like the only way is up. CC
JAZZ PROG Sid Smith rounds up the best releases from prog’s jazzier reaches.
ANJA GARBAREK The Road Is Just A Surface DRABANT MUSIC/MEMBRAN Conceptual soundscape from Norway’s first lady of experimental pop.
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nja Garbarek’s new album – her first since 2005 – comes in two editions: rest assured that Prog is reviewing the full length theatrical ‘Red’ version, described as an “occasionally sinister conceptual soundscape”. Inspired by Garbarek’s research into psychiatric disorders, it tells the story of Bob and his struggle with mental illness. That name conjures images of surreal Lynchian asylums, which the spooky, disconcerting feel of much of this album does little to dispel. Disembodied questions and stray piano notes give way to the bleeps and clanks of In Between, but Garbarek’s calm,
intimate voice is front and centre, with just a hint of Kate Bush as she skips nimbly into a higher register. During the first half of the album, she acts as our guide and focus, walking us through the caressing sound of Lazy Predator and the foreboding industrial ambient of Heavy Forms. These initial songs seem teased into existence by Garbarek, but the deeper we travel, the spikier the music becomes: the lilting, deconstructed art pop of Less Lonely is followed by the processed beats and discordance of Bob’s Song. A film for the ears: a serious and ambitious work. JB
HAWKLORDS Brave New World SHELLSHOCK The puzzle of who carries the Hawkwind torch with greatest aplomb continues.
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he latest instalment of Hawkwatch is further complicated by the fact that Dave Brock’s actual Hawks have just delivered a disappointingly pedestrian, Mike Battorchestrated set of reimagined former glories, while the old master’s former apprentice ’Lords continue to astound with amazing music. Favoured with the sort of rich, lush, modern production their evocative space rock demands, Brave New World improves upon last year’s Six in both sonics and scope. Triumphal opener Devil In Your Head plummets out of the ether in similar style to latter-day Killing Joke,
before breaking into a psych-dusted spoken word segment that’s pure Robert Calvert. Even down to the clipped dramatic weightiness of his singular vocal delivery. Too much? Post-Zep newbies Greta Van Fleet, all bets seem off as regards trademarking a characteristic vocal intonation, and considering it sounds so right in this context, how can it be wrong? Today’s four-piece ’Lords boast an intuitive gift for ensemble interplay that combines tightness with fluidity excellently. There are truly unshakeable rock hooks within these sometimes ambient off-the-hook grooves and plenty of them. IF
KARMAMOI The Day Is Done SONICBOND Hands across the sea in support of the Grenfell blaze.
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he fourth album from these Italians focuses on the moving humanitarian tales which emerged in the wake of the Grenfell fire disaster, particularly that of two Syrian siblings, Omar and Mohammed Alhajali, who had fled to London in search of refuge and a new life. Mohammed became one of the 72 souls that perished, with his brother surviving. Karmamoi had already written a chunk of the album, so The Day Is Done isn’t only about Grenfell. Instead the core duo of multi-musician Daniele Giovannoni and guitarist/ backing vocalist Alex Massari seek to channel the sadness and anger they feel
for innocent victims anywhere. With guest spots from ex-Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin and Steven Wilson’s flautist/ saxophonist Geoff Leigh, the results are poignant: save for the subject matter, Karmamoi’s minimalist approach could almost be termed soothing. The empty spaces allow vocalist Daniele Giovannoni room to radiate the lyrics with passion. The album’s centrepiece is Mother’s Dirge, a captivating nine-minute piece for which a compelling video has been filmed. Try it first on YouTube and then investigate this harrowing yet rewarding piece of work. DML
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his superbly curated set of previously unavailable in-concert material from Michael Gibbs And The Gary Burton Quartet Festival 69 (Turtle) documents a stomping 49-year-old show from Belfast over two discs. A third album features solely the Gibbs band in Lancaster featuring luminaries such as Jack Bruce and John Marshall amid the cream of late 60s British jazz. One of the great vibraphone players, Burton’s chiming harmonies dart across Gibbs’ arrangements with a luminous intensity. Tightly structured, jazz and rock mix it up on these uninhibited performances. Danish guitarist Jakob Bro’s Bay Of Rainbows (ECM) occupies a resplendently shimmering meditative space in which the light from Bro’s radiant, w da dappled arpeggios play over cavernous po pools of bass and trickling cymbals co courtesy of Thomas Morgan and Joey B Baron. This trio’s capacity to quietly build fr from poetic, starry intervals and surge in into abrupt gear shifts of passionate force is nothing short of spine-tingling. When it comes to Orchestra Of The h Upper Atmosphere’s Theta 4 (Discus), describing it as ‘epic’ feels like selling it short. The large, Sheffield-based ensemble, directed by saxophonist/keyboardist Martin Archer, harnesses a hybrid patchwork of electroacoustic textures that brings to mind the spacey explorations of Alice Coltrane, Terry Riley, Tangerine Dream, Can et al. Choirs, choppy strings, throbbing beats, dreamy vocals and snarling bass rise and soar into bold themes creating a diverse and thrilling listen. If you’re unfamiliar with their previous three albums, then start here. UK guitarist Mark Wingfield’s Tales From The Dreaming C City (Moonjune) possesses a yearning, plaintive quality in his sound that pl oc occasionally echoes Terje Rypdal’s p patented melancholia. However, there’s n nothing dreamy or intangible about W Wingfield’s smartly choreographed w writing, delivered here with a hefty g galvanic punch via bassist Yaron Stavi aand drummer Asaf Sirkis. S h i Kj il Møster’s two-disc States Of Mind Saxophonist Kjetil (Hubro) features a quintet that includes telling contributions from Motorpsycho’s Snah and his one-time colleague, drummer Kenneth Kapstad. Brainwave Entertainment offers a fevered and sometimes manic collision of tense yet tonal music, filled with gestural splashes of vivid colour, pensive moods and thrumming resonant overtures. Led by Møster’s rich tenor, the sepulchral Mystère evokes a mid-period VdGG as it snakes along while the hypnotic waves of glissando-like guitar in Phantom Bandotron add to a psychedelic, blissful air. An impassioned, soulful mix of orchestral washes, ambient field recordings and subtle electronica percolate between A Arve Henriksen’s trademark highre register trumpet and singing on The H Heights Of The Reeds (Rune Grammofon). It coalesces with a rare power that is m moving and intimate. A contender for th the most glacially beautiful album you’ll h hear this year. progmagazine.com 103
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KUU! Lampedusa Lullaby ACT
THE ALGORITHM Compiler Optimization Techniques SELF/ATONAL An epic adventure in digital djent.
Pan-European quartet’s alchemically complex jazz punk alloy.
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n first stumbling into the discombobulating aural orbit of KUU! your mind might reel with bafflement. Lesser mortals might find their reason waving a little white flag of surrender in the face of such disorientating countergrooves, but judging by the publication you’re perusing, we can safely credit you with a rare taste for the sonically adventurous. And KUU! are just that. Comprised of Germans Christian Lillinger (drums) and Frank Möbus (guitar), Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima and fronted by Jelena Kulji´c, a Serbian vocalist of vision who’s trained an instinctive punk penchant
for the raw and disturbing toward a controlled, dependable, jazz-inclined, dark sophistication. As the appositely entitled Impossible casually jars its spectacular magic, you’d be forgiven for wondering if there’s something wrong with KUU!. Have they lost their minds? And then, as you detect twisted elements of Yes emerging, you begin to wonder if you’ve lost your mind. But as Scream astounds in splashes of post-punk Crimson and About Death thrashes with hints of Nina Hagen, you recalibrate your expectations and come to accept a new norm that’s really rather wonderful. IF
STEFANO LENTINI Suite After The Furies COLOORA Roman composer presents a blend that’s a classical gas.
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y its very nature, prog can lend itself to the easy listening classical market, most recently with Rick Wakeman tinkling on TV ads. During the 50s, arranger Geoff Love successfully led orchestras behind Max Bygraves and light entertainment giants, hitting big himself as Manuel And His Music Of The Mountains; all swooning strings and wordless lonely siren chorales draped in rhapsodic ambience. Italian producer Stefano Lentini uses his experience in composing for TV and movies to make a lavish panoply of prime Manuel and cinematic classical flavours; heftier in emotional
departments but happy to sculpt the odd dream sequence over soft-focus orchestral nirvana on Shine On Darkness, Introitus and You Must Respect The Sea. Throaty jazz sax rears in the churning title track and Gilda Butta casts the only vocal – in French – on Les Fleur Du Mal. Lentini is at his most evocative when he lets strings take over on the stunning Stabat Mater (Concert For Violin and String Orchestra), although White Fish Black Fish – which could have been constructed from an early Genesis reverie – shows one foot holding up the prog canon. Obviously a major crossover talent afoot. KN
QLUSTER Elemente BUREAU B Roedelius and Bock keep the experimental synth flame burning.
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he early 70s albums released as Cluster by Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius were beatless krautrock charting post-apocalyptic electronic soundscapes that influenced many, including Bowie and Eno. As Cluster continued sporadically, Roedelius pursued projects including Harmonia and the solo career that solidified his trademark haunting pianos and electronics. After Cluster returned to record 2009’s Qua, Roedelius created Qluster when Onnen Bock replaced the departing Moebius, joined by Armin Metz for 2013’s Antworten and the piano trio excursions
of 2015’s Tasten. Roedelius continues to make fearlessly-foraging music with his cohorts. This latest set sees the trio exhuming vintage analogue. Xymelan and Perpetuum start like coalescing globules in an intergalactic fish tank before expanding into astral fanfares or pulsing electronic meteor showers, joined by beats on Tatum and synth melodies on Zeno. But deepest, time-defying space is always at the core, venturing further than even Tangerine Dream’s early voyages. Now 84, Roedelius is one of krautrock’s few surviving founding fathers, and seems to be far from done yet. KN
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metal guitarist first and foremost, Frenchman Rémi Gallego began experimenting with DIY recording and 80s-style software instruments in the late 00s, before the Algorithm eventually became a live beast. Those tempted to dismiss the complex instrumental blend of bleep, bludgeon and rhythmic wizardry as a cheap trick will now have witnessed a multi-album evolution: from the smashed Gameboy arpeggios of early demo collection Critical Error,
Rug-pulling smarts that demand concentration. through to 2014’s Octopus4, which seemed to directly lie at the crossroads of djent and EDM, and then 2016’s Brute Force, which sounded like Survive discovering blastbeats. It takes a certain love of the niche, the heavy and the retro synth setting to dig into this stuff in depth, but once immersed, it is a heady trip through Tron-land. So, where next? Well, while Brute Force sounded reflective of a time when it was widely agreed the world was descending into darkness, fourth album Compiler Optimization Techniques is reflective of an era when the world does not widely agree on anything at all. There’s a clear sense that these ideas are more untapped at the start and more honed at the end than previous efforts, meaning the five tracks here are gigantic in their scale, yet seamless in their convergences. We are far from ‘mash-up’ territory, instead the songs on COT are closer to symphonies in terms of their arrangements – bizarre and grandiose as that claim may seem in this filthily distorted, futurist context. The 11.43 Cluster, for example, lays down a heavy gauntlet, mutating from Kavinsky-style cyber-punk to Iron Maiden gallop into an oddly uplifting jungle centrepiece – and that’s only half of it. There’s also a boss fight 8-bit maelstrom and a final djent beating. Fragmentation initially seems to offer some much-needed respite, opening out into a drifting, spacious electronic arrangement, augmented by a slower Stranger Things-style heart beating kick drum, but this sense of security evaporates as it morphs into something altogether more menacing – all while finding a convincing rhythmic link between hip-hop and stoner metal as an electronic kick-snare gives way to a looming wall of riffs. Gallego has made a record of rug-pulling, unbalancing smarts that demands concentration. Whether or not you see this as a flaw is up to you, but Compiler Optimization Techniques is certainly not dinner party music. Think of it instead as a Ready Player One-esque compilation of cultural reference, both disorientating and awe-inspiring. If you’re a listener after a challenge, this might well be it. MATT PARKER
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TIGER MOTH TALES
RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP
Story Tellers Part Two WHITE KNIGHT Pete Jones weaves tales of whimsy based on classic children’s lit.
Possum (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) ROOM 13 RW’s first film soundtrack, featuring Delia Derbyshire sketches. Be very afraid…
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t’s not unreasonable to suspect that there hasn’t been an instrument invented yet that Pete Jones – otherwise known as Tiger Moth Tales – couldn’t play if he decided to put his mind to it. He performs all of the musical parts on his new album Story Tellers Part Two himself, in the process covering everything from piano and guitar to clarinet and harmonica, and they’re always performed with aplomb. On bass he doesn’t simply plod away on the root notes, but deftly dances up and down the frets as though it were his life’s calling.
His considerable talents as a songwriter and musician shine. His recent profile-boosting recruitment into Camel clearly hasn’t consumed all his creative energies, although the main influence apparent here is Gabriel-era Genesis. Story Tellers Part Two is unashamedly melodic and English in character. Like the first Story Tellers album, the songs are inspired by fairy tales and writers that Jones loved as a child, a theme laid out most plainly in tracks like The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Toad Of Toad Hall. At times, the album has a family-friendly style, from the playful humour of Three Little Pigs to the big, Disney-esque ballads with lyrics about friendship and true love. On that front, Eternity features an impressive guest vocal from Emma Friend, while the album is bookended by Best Friends and Best Friends Reprise, the latter featuring a sweeping melody borne aloft by swelling strings. There are three instrumentals: Kai’s Journey has a classic prog vibe, Hundred Acre Wood is a lovely duet between piano and clarinet that’s quite gorgeous, while The Palace reveals more of Jones’ rock leanings with a showcase electric guitar solo. Jones’ vocals on The Boy Who Cried Wolf certainly sound a fair bit like Peter Gabriel, while Match Girl, based on the tragic story by Hans Christian Andersen, conjures the sadness of its source with a bluesy, mournful harmonica and gentle piano. Jones doesn’t seem to be on a mission to chart the deepest water of prog, as there are tracks here that could fit comfortably on a children’s album. So for those who take their prog po-faced and earnest, this isn’t likely to be a good fit. There’s nothing as grand in scale and ambition as Winter Maker from his The Depths Of Winter album, or Tigers In The Butter from Cocoon, but that’s clearly not the goal behind the Story Tellers concept. This should find its home among those willing to embrace a distinctly English sense of whimsy, in the tradition of Nursery Cryme-era Genesis, and occasional bouts of silliness for its own sake. And Jones’ considerable talents as both a songwriter and musician shine through every track. DAVID WEST
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ixty years since coming together at the BBC to provide electronic textures, sound effects and music such as the Doctor Who theme, the Radiophonic Workshop have composed their first ever movie soundtrack. Marking Matthew Holness’ directorial debut, Possum is a horror film and the current Workshop (once only permitted to keep its technicians for three months in case it drove them nuts) rise to the occasion, building tracks (38, including nine bonus pieces) using drones and electronic sketches found in Delia Derbyshire’s attic. Throughout, they create an unsettling
backdrop of dread, fear and tension to fit the storyline about a children’s puppeteer who faces his evil stepfather. Anchored by its recurring flute theme, screeches, eerie night howls, sudden attacks and brooding pulses litter tracks like The Barracks, Nightmare 2 and Pursuit. The shock eruption in Behind The Door/Mummy And Daddy will catapult you clean out your seat. Incredibly for these techdrenched times, the Workshop have upped the game of making alien sounds hit on the deepest emotional levels, particularly undiluted terror: just as they always have. KN
RAINBURN Insignify SELF-RELEASED Bangalore brethren add some spice.
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he role of Indian music in widening prog rock’s sonic horizons is wellestablished, so it was inevitable that the country’s own bands would later be influenced by western developments. Bangalore’s Rainburn – formed in 2011 by singer-guitarist Vats Iyengar – started with cover versions of Porcupine Tree and Rush. By 2014’s debut EP Canvas Of Silence, they were playing their own songs. They are also the organisers of the Progworks festival, and became hailed as India’s leading outfit on a scene that didn’t exist when they started. Insignify sees Iyengar leading original drummer
Praveen Kumar, bassist Ravi Nair and guitarist Paraj Kumar Singh on his concept album about existential angst, significance of life, narcissism and social alienation. It’s deep stuff that avoids pretentious minefields through the music’s well-oiled prog machinations, like the breakneck widdling on The Wait or the soaring jangle of Merchant Of Dreams. Convoluted time signatures add to their prog joyride, compounded by the flute solo on School Of Atlantis. Rainburn should be praised for shining a light on progressive music in a country where it came from afar. KN
RED DIRT SKINNERS Under Utopian Skies RED DIRT SKINNERS Country meets folk meets prog on this acclaimed duo’s sixth record.
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K multi-instrumentalists Rob and Sarah Skinner formed the Red Dirt Skinners in 2011, and have since been recognised by the British Blues Awards, the UK Americana Association Awards and the JUNOs (they now live in Canada). Where’s the prog in all this? Well, the husband and wife cite Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Dream Theater as influences, and these do leech through into the substantial, beautifully rendered folk music on their sixth album. Most obvious is their version of Comfortably Numb, a lilting take retrofitted with a waltzing 6/8 rhythm and Sarah Skinner’s alto
saxophone ably replacing Gilmour’s Strat. That instrument evokes Logical Song-era ’Tramp elsewhere and – at a push – their lilting acoustic guitars evoke the gentler lulls of Petrucci and band. But strong songwriting crosses genres, and the wholehearted Hey Crawford (about a good teacher’s legacy) is positive and catchy, and while its title might make even Fish blush, An Isolated Episode Of Global Amnesia is an engrossing, Canterbury-esque instrumental. The Skinners’ trademark close harmonies elevate their uplifting, quality material throughout. GRM
POST-ROCK Alex Lynham guides us through the peaks and valleys of essential post-rock.
SAGA So Good So Far – Live At Rock Of Ages EAR MUSIC You can have too much of a good thing.
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s it just us, or are there too many live albums these days? Regrettably for our fellow disciples of Saga since the 1980s, the Canadian pomp rock merchants are wrapping a 40-year career. By the time you read this, a final tearful goodbye will have been waved in the quintet’s unofficial second home of Puerto Rico. No doubt it will be recorded and filmed for posterity. So why bestow the same honour upon this show from earlier on the Final Chapter tour – a festival in Seebronn, Germany – back in 2017? That said, here the sound quality and band performances are more than
acceptable. Nonconformist as ever, Ian Crichton rips it up on Careful Where You Step, and Michael Sadler is in fine voice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, with eyes set firmly on the finishing line, Sagacity, their final studio release, is overlooked in favour of a 16-song setlist that delves all the way back to a self-titled first album in 1978. The band’s early years are represented, though the nostalgia-fest somehow manages to overlook How Long, The Perfectionist, Take It Or Leave It, What Do I Know? and Only Time Will Tell. Save your pennies for the Puerto Rico DVD, maybe? It won’t be far behind. DML
JAN SCHELHAAS Ghosts Of Eden SHELL/PLEDGE A downbeat set from Caravan’s veteran keyboardist.
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hosts Of Eden finds Jan Schelhaas, of Caravan and Camel fame, in a melancholy mood. Perhaps that’s only fitting for a musician in their seventh decade. It’s cut from the same cloth as 2017’s Living On A Little Blue Dot, with lyrics that suggest someone looking back over their life and, at the risk of morbidity, looking to make peace with their past. ‘In the blink of an eye, it’s all over,’ he sings in Blink, ‘No more fear or regret, we are stardust and new life is waiting.’ Such sentiments run through the album like a thread – No Requiem, They’ll Be Gone, Die Trying, Heaven Knows… it’s
not exactly upbeat. Musically, Schelhaas’ keys take the front seat and the overall sound isn’t a far cry from Caravan tracks like Better By Far, just with notably less guitar. It lacks the fuller production of the classic Canterbury sound, with programmed drums and rather too much synth brass. Jimmy Hastings plays sax throughout the record, very much in a smooth jazz, mellow style. The whole experience is elegiac, with slow, unhurried tempos and Schelhaas’ very soft, almost spoken vocals that typically sit low in the mix, creating a distinctly sombre listen. DW
TC&I Great Aspirations TC&I/PLEDGE Vinyl reissue for the 2017 EP by XTC’s Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers.
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or those of us who grew up adoring XTC’s unique, sideways slant on music, hearing Colin Moulding again is quite the Proustian rush. The bassist/singer/ songwriter was a vital part of the band’s sound, and though he fell into a postband-collapse slough in the noughties, the four new songs on this EP prove the now-63-year-old can still weave his brand of magic. The TC to his I is XTC’s former drummer, Terry Chambers, whose presence only adds to the sense of pedigree and chemistry here. Scatter Me is a charmingly whimsical and brightly elegiac pop tune, its verses reminding what an
important part of XTC’s charm Moulding’s phrasing was. Churchill, Spielberg and McCartney are cited on the pleasant Greatness (The Aspiration Song), while Comrades In Pop is a bitter, knowing look at how money and lawyers can destroy bands. The real jewel here, though, is Kenny. Its oblique, catchy guitar riff is the kind Moulding and XTC comrade Andy Partridge specialised in; its lyrics harking back to innocent English days of allotment plots, falling conkers, tadpoles in jam jars. This is pop, yeah yeah, packed with character, meaning and nostalgia, and wearing its brilliance lightly. GRM
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he biggest news in the post-rock and math rock scene at the moment isn’t a record, a gig, or a festival. Sadly, it’s the news that Dan Wild-Beesley, the guitarist of ‘turbo prog’ two-piece Cleft, has passed away after an extended fight against cancer. Following a fundraising g effort from the whole of the scene, nearly £100,000 was raised, and with his current band GUG he played his final show at ArcTanGent this year. As part of this fundraising effort, a live recording of Cleft’s gig at the now-defunct Stag And Hounds in Bristol from their farewell tour was released (cleft.bandcamp.com), and it’s a fitting tribute to his power as a guitar player. If you want to hear something you genuinely don’t hear every day, then check out Jo Quail’s upcoming album Exsolve Ex (self-released). A virtuoso ce cellist and composer, Quail uses lo looping and extended technique to co conjure otherworldly soundscapes fr from her instrument. She’s played a slew of festivals, supported Boris, c completed two European tours with p post-rock giants Caspian and performed t concerts for Robert Smith during two hi curation ti off th his the S Southbank’s Meltdown Festival. Naturally, Exsolve is meant to be experienced in full, but if Causleen’s Wheel appeals, with its dark drones, choral layers and pounding percussion, then you’re going to love the album. Scottish proggers Atlas:Empire have finally come out with their debut LP, The Stratosphere Beneath Our Feet (self-released). It’s very much crossover modern progressive rock in the vein of Arcane Roots, with nods to the atmospherics of post-rock and some of the eccentric timings of math rock. For a taste of the more intense, up-tempo side of the album, check out The Moment We Were Exploding. For something with more of a post-rock vibe to it, start with the brooding Gethsemane, which effortlessly builds from gentle acoustic figures to a squalling crescendo. Since participating in the classic Sonic Cathedral singles series, Daniel Land has been reliably knocking out great sh shoegaze tunes for a decade, first with h band the Modern Painters, and now his as a solo artist. The Dream Of The Red Sa (self-released) is his latest effort, Sails a it sees the cult legend return to and a dream pop sound that recalls the P Painters’ first album, Love Songs For The C Chemical Generation. This reflective and s self-referential style is reflected in the nostalgic l i quality li off the h songs, a loose theme triggered by a cancer scare last year. For a taste, try the lead track Summer Song, the conceptual centrepiece of the record. Finally, post-rock titans This Will Destroy You have surprise-released a new album, New Others Part Two (Dark Operative). After teasing new material, the band released the album within 24 hours with the cheeky message, “Surpriiiiiiiiise! Sixth studio album,” and that was that. It’s a harderhitting LP than their last. For a frenetic cut, try Sound Of Your Death, for dynamic shifts, try Clubs and for grooving whimsy, try Jesse Ray. progmagazine.com progmagazine com 107
WITHIN TEMPTATION
THAT JOE PAYNE
Resist SPINEFARM
What Is The World Coming To THATJOEPAYNE.COM
Den Adel’s crew come back with galactic prog.
The former Enid frontman strikes out with pride on his first EP release.
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n their 20-plus years, Dutch symphonic proggers Within Temptation have never been afraid of bombast. Four years on from their sixth studio offering Hydra, Sharon den Adel and co deliver it again and then some. From its opening bars – all soaring fanfares and distorted guitars – Resist blasts off into the stratosphere and heads into orbit. The level of accomplishment on display in Resist is spectacular. After den Adel’s recent struggles with ill-health and writer’s block, it would not have been unreasonable for Within Temptation to have called it a day. And when den Adel announced a solo album My Indigo in 2017, some
Themes of resistance, struggle and hope feel very contemporary. thought it meant that the Within Temptation story might come to an end. Resist is a reminder that this story has got a long way to go yet. Longtime fans will find much to satisfy them – the vast, soaring anthems, the wide-open production is all there – but this is also their darkest and most industrial album. This is an album where every line of music is urgent and hard-won. For all its pomp, Resist feels (in the light of den Adel’s struggles) surprisingly intimate and revealing. Set in a technologised world of violence and mechanised enslavement, the album’s themes of resistance, struggle and hope feel very contemporary. Opener The Reckoning features Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix, and Shaddix and den Adel create a wall of vocal sound. When they sing, ‘We’ve cried tears a thousand times, we rise against, we’ll hold the line’, they speak of personal struggles as much as global ones. As on Hydra there are several more vocal collaborations: in Flames’ Anders Fridén adds vox on Raise Your Banner and Arid’s Jasper Steverlinck offers back-up on Firelight. Resist takes the groovier dance feel found on Hydra and develops it on tracks like Supernova, while Martijn Spierenburg’s sequenced keys echo 80s electronica acts angling for a hit. Lest anyone think Within Temptation have gone fey, these dancey gestures are always in service to the song, and while the band remain masters of melody – Mad World is seriously catchy Euro-Rock – their grooves are grounded in some mighty riffage. Closer Trophy Hunter announces itself with a beastly riff that could fill a stadium, while Raise Your Banner has growls and breakdowns to satisfy the most discerning prog metalhead. On Trophy Hunter den Adel sings, ‘Breathe, I need to breathe…’ By the end of this album you might feel the same way. Resist is immensely accomplished and satisfying. Within Temptation rightly have a large following already, and this album should take them to the next level. RACHEL MANN
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ould Joe Payne have picked a more timely name for his new EP? He’s joined by some of his former Enid bandmates, including producer/choir wrangler Max Read, who excels on the title track. It’s an epic symphonic piece that’s almost crossoverclassical in parts, with grand production, big strings and Payne in extraordinary, operatic mode. It’s a little bit Queen, a little bit Andrea Bocelli, and, well, a lot Joe Payne. There’s something of Muse’s Matt Bellamy in his treatment of Henry Purcell’s Music For A While, the singer gliding through the modulating keys
with incredible control, attending faithfully to the song’s baroque ornamentation. The CD release includes some piano versions of catalogue favourites. Taken from his debut single, I Need A Change and Moonlit Love are still powerful when shorn of their bombastic arrangements, and his take on Methexis’ The Origin Of Blame plays like a character interlude from a top West End show. The two Enid tracks – Who Created Me? and One And The Many – are intimate and only confirm Payne’s natural gifts. Whatever the world is coming to, it’s a better place for him being in it. GRM
THE BEVIS FROND We’re Your Friends, Man FIRE Brit-psych hero still in bloom on album 23.
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t 65 years old and with more than 20 albums behind him, The Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman is forever industrious. As well as running his own label and record shop, he’s come up with another double album’s worth of songs. We’re Your Friends, Man finds the veteran musician in reflective mood, although getting older by no means signals a slide into grouchiness. As he points out on Theft: ‘I’m an old muso, an interesting relic, I’ve never been busted, so I’m not psychedelic.’ If you want to pick a theme, it’s coming to terms with disappointment and lives gone slightly awry, punctuated with
outbursts of frustration. Always masterfully understated, he makes quietly devastating, poignant asides, such as the reference in Little Orchestras to songs that are ‘intended to console but hurt instead’. Closing track You’re On Your Own is a 13-minute tale of a hellish drive over London’s Westway, ending in a squall of twin guitar duelling. Frond fans have come to expect the equivalent of an allyou-can-eat buffet with every release, but the glut of material here is difficult to get your head around in one sitting. A little more focus wouldn’t have gone amiss, but life’s messy like that. CE
THE INTERSPHERE The Grand Delusion LONGBRANCH Grand vision or smoke and mirrors?
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here is an appropriately misleading quality to The Grand Delusion. The fifth album from German pop proggers The Intersphere sounds familiar in so many ways: there are alt-rock riff clichés, a clean nu-metal vocal straight out of the early 00s and those jerking guitar and drum thrashes first coined by Biffy Clyro. Yet all of these touchstones have been juggled and jumbled in such a way that it feels like an Eno cut-up. Things don’t start well: Don’t Think Twice is a slab of puce pop rock that sounds like the kind of meek B-side that the likes of Feeder would lay down on a spare studio day.
Mind Over Matter has more cut and thrust to it, wrong-footing with snare snaps and aggressive guitar bursts that are interspersed amid big chords ’n’ chorus sections that might otherwise sound stale. Things get more compelling as the record progresses and stretches. Secret Place, Man On The Moon and New Maxim, in particular, ably strike a balance between gut-punch and pop hook. Elsewhere the progressive elements are delivered in microbursts, amid some duller tropes. When it works though, we get anthemic pop rock with clever punctuation. MP
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST Grant Moon has a rummage down the back of the Prog sofa for the ones that nearly got away…
THE LAZE Cryptic Plumage SELF-RELEASED Wonderful Wirral wyrdness.
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ometimes there’s nothing like bonkers prog, and Merseyside’s The Laze are up there with the best on this cassettedownload follow-up to their 2014 soundtrack to 1925 horror classic Phantom Of The Opera. There are seven musicians, including keys and sax, ejaculating what they describe as “Sexy stories that the Alpha mother dwarf recounts in her catacomb while the gods crack mountains in the barren surface of a demon-ridden world.” They sound like they’re all playing at the same time in perfect unison as they navigate Magma doom-bomb riffs, convoluted Mahavishnu rapids and
resuscitate hoary prog motifs at treble velocity. After six relatively short tracks (with names like Totally Sirius and Rainbow Amoeba), the closing Scaffolds is the set’s epic, tearing through Zeuhl-like bombardment until a ‘normal’ male voice glides in like any MOR prog warble: a shock after the mangled cement mixer vocals beamed up previously from Hell’s latrine. You can picture them, sitting in clouds of smoke, cackling at the next move they’ll pull off before hotwiring another VdGG-riffed demolition derby. Rock loves boxes: say hello to speed-prog. KN
TIM MORSE III CYMBALICK Heavily Yes-influenced third album by US multi-instrumentalist.
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alifornia-based Tim Morse is perhaps best known as the author of Yesstories. He’s also served time as the keyboardist in Yes tribute band Parallels. That background provides a reasonable steer regarding the sound of Morse’s own music, though he occupies the lighter end of the Yes style spectrum. For this – surprise! – third solo album, his stated goal was to “get to the ‘emotional core’ of the songs… and eliminate some of the fiddling about”. That mission may have been additionally motivated by a more prosaic consideration, namely Morse’s desire to see III released on vinyl.
Consequently there’s a discipline that informs five of the seven tracks, with Morse relaxing his self-imposed rule only for Labyrinth and The Path, two songs whose very titles demand a certain amount of musical elongation, such that the album runs only to 45 minutes. Musically, III is enjoyable. Morse is a skilled writer and player and an adequate, if unremarkable, vocalist, with a voice reminiscent of Ajalon’s Wil Henderson. Given that his ego permitted employing a handful of guest instrumentalists, next time around he should consider sub-contracting some lead vocals as well. NS
THOM YORKE Suspiria (Music For The Luca Guadagnino Film) XL Italian horror remake gets a Radioheader’s soundtrack.
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eimagining the score for a film that already has one of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks is a display of major artistic cojones on Yorke’s part. But he pulls it off by supplying a central theme that’s as haunting and unforgettable as the Goblin original – the song Suspirium is a thing of wonder, those blissful, looping piano arpeggios and Yorke’s voice combining to create another benchmark in beautiful sadness. While it’s the highlight of this collection, Yorke doesn’t skimp on delivering the type of spooky mood pieces befitting a modern horror movie, many of them occupying the space
between droning electronica and avant orchestral music: The Hooks features a panicstricken string synth and the type of foley work last heard in Berberian Sound Studio, Volk is a prime slice of Radiophonic dread. But it’s the vocal tracks that are the most compelling. Both Has Ended and The Universe Is Indifferent dive deeper into the mystic 60s psychedelic loam that A Moon Shaped Pool dabbled in, all smeary sitars and stoned incantations, while Unmade is almost in traditional singer songwriter territory, albeit like Harry Nilsson slowly descending into hell. JB
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ncluded in the high-pedigree ranks of Dutch/Brit five-piece Dilemma are former Darwin’s Radio frontman/Frost* guitarist Dec Burke and Kayak/Neal Morse drummer Collin Leijenaar. The band’s sumptuous new platter Random Acts Of Liberation (Butler Records/Music On Vinyl) is steeped in modern prog textures and totally packed with hooks, moods and melodies. Twelve-minuter The Inner Darkness hits numerous prog G-spots, Prodigal Son touches on Steven Wilson/John Mitchell h bi territory, and on the likes of the metallic Pseudocomaphobia Burke and Paul Crezee’s guitars frequently succeed in boggling the mind. Keiron Phelan’s work with littlebow saw him classified as un unclassifiable, and post-rockers State River W Widening won the singer a certain cult following. fo On his likeably diverse and ac acerbic solo album Peace Signs (Gare Du N Nord), he leads his collective through a crafted, slightly psych set that evokes D Donovan, Tindersticks, Knifeworld and m much in-between. Clever, melodic flute h hooks are detailed by harp and organ, one h songs iis actually called Canterbury, and Brona McVittie off the offers beautiful, folky counterpoint to Phelan’s pleasingly natural voice. The lyrics are wry (New Swedish Fiction), the music often mesmerising (Satellite Hitori, Song For Ziggy), and the Genesis-friendly 12-strings of Apple Shades are among the many things to enjoy here. Seasoned keyboardist/guitarist Tim Brown’s one-man project is Blurred Turtle, and it really sees him come out of his shell. The eponymous, self-released album is a fun, symphonic and at times avant-garde dive into Brown’s synth-heavy, instrumental soundworld. You might hear some of these sound presets on a Rick Wakeman or John Carpenter record; other cheapo brass patches, you certainly wouldn’t. There’s a wholeheartedness to Riding The Crests, intense musicality in the surging Heading Out, and Brown’s tongue-in-cheek sense of pomp throughout is contagious. Two different bands supply our djenty goodness this tim around. Shading are a progressive time m metal quintet from Venice, Italy. Their se self-released album The Vanishing Of O Lore posits ‘a hostile world ruled by Our h high-functioning machines and artificial in intelligence’. Yes folks, another dystopian sc world concept album, but a well sci-fi d done one at that. It’s song-centric, a atmospheric and packs a real punch, ith eye-watering t i vocals from the brilliantly named with Damiano Affinito. TesseracT’s Acle Kahney mastered the brutal track Breathless, which gives you an idea of where they’re coming from. And last but by no means least, psychedelic trio Little Jimi are coming at you from a garage in Bordeaux, and they’ve clearly enjoyed something altogether more mind-expanding than a bottle of the local claret. On EP.1 (MRS Red Sound) the young trio take the sledgehammer stoner rock of Queens Of The Stone Age and wreath it in a Hawkwind haze, and they’re great. Modern vintage sounds, reverberating vocals and big, woozy riffs to nod your head to: what’s French for ‘Light ’em if you got ’em’? progmagazine.com 109
Old turns… BE-BOP DELUXE DEL
CHRIS CARTER
Sunburst Finish: Expanded and Remastered ESOTERIC
Chris Carter’s Miscellany MUTE
Classic third album gets successful sonic zhoosh.
Limited-edition box set of Throbbing Gristler’s earlier machinations.
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ver since Be-Bop Deluxe’s 1974 debut Axe Victim, a serious momentum had gathered behind the band who transitioned from a support act with attitude blowing the headliner off stage to one elbowing their way into the spotlight. Chief songwriter and frontman Bill Nelson candidly admits surprise that they were nudged towards a chart-friendly direction aided by the single Ships In The Night released primarily at EMI’s behest.
Adds ravishing details that don’t detract from its vital energy. In his essay accompanying this four-disc set celebrating the band’s third album, Nelson says that he always regarded Be-Bop Deluxe primarily as an albums band. “I considered hit singles as belonging to the domain of ephemeral pop acts, rather than the currency of a ‘serious’ rock band.” Originally released in 1976, Sunburst Finish is the product of a band with road-honed confidence and technical prowess to match the aspiration tucked into some truly smart songwriting. Eager to build on their previous forays in the studio, newcomer keyboard player Andy Clark extends Be-Bop Deluxe’s fluency and textural range, creating a complementary space within the foundations of Charlie Tumahai’s sleek bass and Simon Fox’s on-point drumming. Collected with a 68-page book, the audio content includes demos, radio and TV footage and six previously unreleased tracks. However, the real attraction in this package is Stephen W Tayler’s new stereo and surround sound mixes, which add ravishing details that command attention without detracting from the vital energy accrued from the album’s hurtling pace. Nelson’s guitar solos are constructed in the manner of a series of epic sagas, which draw upon the myths and legends of existing rock music while casting a visionary eye toward future times. Imbued with a striking theatricality, his runs evidence an inclination toward calculated precision on the one hand and reckless abandonment on the other. Much of the album reads like a seminar on how to create a rock’n’roll hybrid with dazzling illustrations. Fair Exchange showcases this souped-up approach at playing fast and loose with hairyarsed riffing, a typically precocious reference to a rousing jig and later, polishing off the overdriven tones of Jimmy Page as the icing on the cake. Crying To The Sky and the sumptuous orchestral manoeuvrings during the Beatles homage Crystal Gazing add further testimony to the album’s heroic scale. In order to fly you have to have the courage to jump. Nelson’s ability to swoop between these various extremes with what appears to be greatest of ease remains a key factor in Be-Bop Deluxe’s success back in their heyday, and in the inherent freshness that spills from them now. SID SMITH
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t’s a measure of the esteem in which Chris Carter is held that even the Radiophonic Workshop are among remixers on a new EP drawn from his album. With the electronic blueprints he started unleashing more than 40 years ago with Throbbing Gristle and then with lifelong partner Cosey Fanni Tutti long ingrained in music’s fabric, he’s been enjoying another lease of life as a solo artist since releasing Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons Volume One earlier this year. His first solo work this century, its success sparked live appearances and now a four-CD/six-LP box set comprising three earlier albums plus bonus 70s foragings. If any further evidence is needed to position Carter as possibly the UK’s greatest living keyboard exponent and sonic scientist, it’s all here. These tracks capture this sonic activist/selfconfessed tech geek in the ongoing search for the perfect sound, shade or beat that sometimes prompted his own inventions.
1985’s Mondo Beat displays Carter plugging into the electro and proto-acid that was gripping the world then, but putting his own spin on Noevil and the title track before descending into the clammy sewervamp of Nobadhairdo and TG-like fever dream of Beyond Temptation. Acid house had gone and techno moved in by the time Carter recorded 1998’s Disobedient and ’99’s Small Moon. On vinyl for the first time (both coloured wax doubles), the former forges into fathomless deep space via a radioactive jungle river, deploying deep techno flavours on Domank and Lixiez, while the latter explores drum’n’bass on Arcadia before Non-Pop and sirensdraped Soho…3am twist the possibilities in electronically generated rhythms. Archival Recordings 1973 To 1977 shows that Carter’s trademark steely ambience and extra-terrestrial finesse had been there since before TG; he simply refined it as technology appeared to catch up with his rampant muse. And nothing here sounds dated. KN
PATRICK GRANT Fields Amaze And Other Strange Music PEPPERGREEN MEDIA Retitled 1997 album Attack Decay Sustain Release, remixed and expanded.
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rant has worked with musicians as diverse as avant-garde composer John Cage and Robert Fripp in The League Of Crafty Guitarists, and also participated in perhaps the most prog event ever – a performance by 175 keyboard players in New York City in 2012 – that has found its way into the Guinness Book Of Records. Attack Decay Sustain Release was recorded at Philip Glass’ Looking Glass studios with additional material that Grant recorded later at his studio, using mainly piano, electronic keys, tuned and other percussion, wind instruments and occasional guitar. And while there are significantly more differences than similarities between Grant’s music and that of Glass, on the title track there is a procession of Glass-like chord changes and on A Visible Track Of Turbulence I, a similar perpetual motion of agitated activity. …Turbulence II begins with a formal introduction of wind chorales with a Stravinsky feel, but as the track progresses, keyboard themes circle round but sound like they are twisting
themselves inside out on a Möebius strip. Grant studied gamelan in Bali and you can clearly hear the influence of that musical culture on the title track where he plays gamelan orchestral instruments, and in the latter half of Everything Distinct: Everything The Same on which the pianos take the top lines, which is followed by drumming, and punctuated by low gong-like notes. Although this music is richly melodic and rhythmic, some of the pieces do feel rather relentless. Light relief comes with the two “soundtracks”, Imaginary Horror Film – Part 1 and 2, which move episodically from musical scene to scene, from gothic church bells, eerie dream sequences and spooky still-life passages to frantic chases through dark woods and dramatic surging guitar chords when the monster’s face is finally revealed. Driven on by tom-toms, The Weights Of Numbers features an intricate mosaic of themes on electric keyboards, but there is a particular lightness about it, like a stone being skimmed across a lake. MB
MIKE + THE MECHANICS The Living Years – Super Deluxe 30th Anniversary edition BMG Four-disc vinyl/CD repackaging for Rutherford project’s 1988 breakthrough.
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he chief USP of this 30th anniversary edition of Mike + The Mechanics’ massively successful second album is that, unlike the 25th anniversary edition that came out four years ago (bit of a production delay on that occasion), this one is available on vinyl. And not just any old flimsy platter but a double-LP version with remastered live tracks included, plus a two-CD version thrown in just in case vinyl goes back out of fashion again next year and those much-maligned shiny silver things begin to catch our eye once more. Despite the rather dubious marketing announcements surrounding this release (“available on vinyl for the first time ever” – what a surprise for the millions who bought the LP in 1988), there’s no new material included here, but if you’re revisiting the album for the first time since the 1980s the 2014 remastering still sounds good and the 30-year-old material has held up well, despite the quintessentially 80s production. Gated drums, squelchy
bass, tinny synths and anaemic ‘Sussudio’-style funk rock touches abound. Yet it’s a testament to the sheer strength of songwriting that it can’t smother the heart of the music. Even the uneven lyrics aren’t a dealbreaker, although it’s interesting to note that the same man – BA Robertson – wrote the bland truisms of Nobody’s Perfect (key sentiment: ‘We are what we are’) and then on the very next track, the timelessly resonant, heartbreaking lyric of The Living Years. There are punchy live renditions of several tracks from this album and previous hits including Silent Running and A Call To Arms, but most intriguing is the 2014 reimagining of The Living Years, with current M+TM frontman Andrew Roachford making a strong fist of emulating Paul Carrack’s original vocal, and an African choir offering extra anthemic swell. To these ears, the original is still the best, but at least they’ve done something creative with it. JS
STEREOLAB Peng! / The Groop Played “Space Age Batchelor Pad Music” TOO PURE / BEGGARS ARKIVE
Clear vinyl reissues of first two albums from indie’s kraut-reviving revolutionaries.
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tereolab didn’t exactly burst onto the scene in the early 90s, but inveigled their way into indie’s collective consciousness via a series of limited edition singles and EPs, such that by the time of these two releases – their 1992 debut and a mini-LP from the 1993 – an underground buzz had grown up around them. They’re one of the groops that matter, creating and defining a scene that combined fragments of the past – krautrock, library music, exotica, etc – in a way that sounded fresh. Compared to Britpop and grunge, it was a quiet revolution, but one nonetheless. The great leap forward was still very much in the middle of happening on these early releases though, with Peng! tracks such as Orgiastic clearly in hock to the prevailing shoegaze sound of the time. But Stereolab’s idea was to de-emphasise “noise-as-rush” and instead focus on drone and repetition as an expressway to yr skull – the beats may be more indie disco than motorik, but there’s an immersive, hypnotic
quality to these songs, and more often than not, no verse/chorus dynamic, just a sense of the constant now. Yet it’s on the more contemplative material where they really shine, in particular when Laetitia Sadier’s allusive, close-mic’ed vocals come to the fore against a backwash of Farfisa organ and Moog, such as on Super Falling Star. Elsewhere, there’s an experimental, though never alienating, sensibility, whether it’s the big effected drums of You Little Shits or the electro-shock throb of Mellotron. By the time of Space Age Batchelor Pad Music, their sound had evolved to encompass both a post-ironic easy listening vibe (Ronco Symphony) and the full-blooded embrace of Neu! (before everybody else got there) on We’re Not Adult Orientated. A re-flowering of progressive tendencies in alternative music, these albums reset the co-ordinates for a whole generation, not just in their influences, but in their attitude too. JB
BRIAN ENO Discreet Music/Music For Films/Ambient 1: Music For Airports/On Land UMC/VIRGIN Genre-naming chillout pioneer hiked back to wax, deluxe-style.
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ashaying into the 70s as Roxy Music’s glam-peacock synth-mauler, Brian Eno already harboured the introverted experimental alter ego he liberated on the instrumental albums he slipped out between art pop sets. Preferring European sonic scientists to garish mainstream recycling, Eno pioneered a quieter deployment of electronics after returning to tape experiments started in 1967 that first
Quiet visions that helped shape modern music’s future. manifested as “Frippertronics” with Fripp for 1973’s (No Pussyfooting), crystalising a genre that he called “ambient” . Bedridden after an accident, when Eno couldn’t turn the volume up on his 18th-century harp music LP, he received his ambient epiphany listening to it ripple against the rain outside “as part of the ambience of the environment”. Inspired by Erik Satie’s aural background ‘Furniture Music’ concepts, he left the kids romping noisily in their playpens to let two loops of synthesised melodies unfurl and overlap for 30 minutes to make the gorgeously pastoral Discreet Music. The flip saw the Cockpit Ensemble carving excerpts from the score with sighing strings as modern classical music. 1978’s Music For Films presented 18 shorter pieces designed as soundtracks for imaginary films, bolstered by Fripp, John Cale, Phil Collins, Fred Frith and Dave Mattacks, flaunting styles that informed Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy and other things to come on M386, Events In Dense Fog and three evocative sections of Sparrowfall. Heard now, such unearthly cinematic concoctions still resonate in modern prog and electronica, and from soundtracks they’ve appeared in. Eno hatched Ambient 1: Music For Airports (first use of the word as title and concept as an entity) while endlessly waiting at Cologne Bonn Airport and becoming irritated by the souldestroying canned clatter, designing four lengthy excursions into ethereal beauty as a sound installation to soften tension. Forty years later, it still works its unique slow-motion magic through minimal synth and piano motifs. After albums with Harold Budd and Laraaji, 1982’s On Land marked the fourth and final Ambient series missive, using found sounds like birds along with remodelling earlier works, bolstered by Jon Hassell’s trumpet and Bill Laswell’s bass. Having seen his innovations become a new musical language, tracks such as Shadow blueprinted new ones. These seminal works are remastered at half speed to make 45rpm gatefold double albums, with Abbey Road certificates of authenticity, standing now as quiet visions that helped shape modern music’s future, begging the question: what would it have been like without him? KRIS NEEDS progmagazine.com 111
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Old turns… rns… n THE SYN Syndestructible PLANE GROOVY Dazzling vinyl makeover for Chris Squire side-project.
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here’s no doubt that Chris Squire’s work with Yes will stand as his greatest achievement. Next to that monumental legacy, his solo album Fish Out Of Water also remains an eloquent testimonial to his musicality. Arguably the closest he came to following up his 1975 release was on The Syn’s Syndestructible. Originally issued in 2005 and reuniting him with a pre-Yes bandmate, vocalist Steve Nardelli, this is no mere nostalgia-driven old pals act. The music has special vitality thanks to new recruits Jeremy Stacey, currently drumming with King Crimson, his guitarist brother Paul, and keyboardist Gerard Johnson. If Squire and Nardelli had the overall vision for the project, then it’s their trio of collaborators who provide the substance and detail on material that is beautifully melodic, overflowing with beautiful arrangements and panoramic production values. With Squire’s bass prowling between Stacey’s concise drumming, Johnson’s glitter ball of swirling synths and organ provides
space for Paul Stacey’s on-point guitar work. Soaring backing vocals add an airy freedom while Nardelli’s gravelly lead vocals anchor lyrics which celebrate the triumph of hope and the redemption to be found in love. A masterly command of light and shade with subtle evocations of Yes and Squire’s solo album all add up to this being a substantial work. The switch to LP isn’t cynical. Extensively restored from deficient master tapes, the difference in audio quality between this and the old CD version is clear and striking, and while the original running order is altered to better suit the dynamics of vinyl, this change actually gives the second half of the record an increased energy. The 180g vinyl is housed in a gatefold sleeve that includes links to an mp3 download and a previously unreleased video of The Syn Live At The Marquee, the only live performance from this particular incarnation. In this truly stunning package, Syndestructible feels like it’s finally found its true home. SS
THIRD EAR BAND Elements - 1970-71 ESOTERIC Definitive edition for instrumental improv’ers and post-rock pioneers.
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pare a thought for Third Ear Band biographer Luca Ferrari, whose informative liner notes grace the lavish reissue of this 1970 release. He was tasked with talking to the various participants to document their thoughts on the recording, but specific details are in short supply as the players were stoned at the time. Being out-there, in one form or another, is a recurring motif in the life and times of this group. Existing on the edges of the blossoming underground scene of the late 60s, signed to the Harvest label and scoring regular appearances at high profile festivals and tours, the Third Ear Band didn’t fit easily into any obvious category. Even in those open-minded times and with an audience willing to give experimental outfits a chance to explore trippier sonic spaces, the aleatoric impulses driving this Londonbased quartet are frequently infused with an unsettling, haunting presence. Beautifully remastered, the original four-track suite has never sounded better. And considering all the extra
material that comes with it, this set really is a cause for celebration. Including unreleased outtakes and edits from the original album dates, off-air Radio 1 broadcasts, pristine sounding studio sessions for an abandoned third album and their improvised Belgian TV soundtrack, Abelard And Heloise, this album has never been better served than on this three-disc edition. A strange and beguiling hybrid that sounds simultaneously medieval and futuristic, oboe-led themes rush and swirl like a cold wind through a postapocalyptic Ladbroke Grove. Sawing cello drones and oscillating violin figures create a nagging tension that’s underpinned by insistent hand percussion. Floating between dreamstate associations and vibrating with a ritualistic vigour, the band’s work is intimate in scale but maximalist in scope. Ultimately, Harvest didn’t really know how to market such a curious mixture, but we should be mighty thankful for the magic they managed to capture so well. SS
RUSH Hemispheres 40th Anniversary Two-CD Edition UMC/MERCURY
A prog landmark gets spruced up for its 40th birthday.
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hen Prog petitioned readers to name the 100 Greatest Prog Albums in 2014, Hemispheres polled at number 23, with only their seminal 2112 and Moving Pictures ranking higher. As Prog Nation’s thirdfavourite Rush album, the 1978 release was a watershed for the trio, a last gasp attempt to perfect the side-long epic before facing a fresh decade as a sleeker model, ready to ride the new wave in a post-punk world.
The 1978 release was a watershed for the trio. Following similar reissue campaigns for 2112 and A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres’ 40th anniversary is being marked in multiple formats with previously unreleased live tracks, new Hugh Syme artwork, and essays. Replica memorabilia and a 40-page hardback book await those who choose the walletbusting Super Deluxe Edition. The two-CD release features the remaster from the same 2015 Abbey Road sessions which resulted in the recent audiophile vinyl reissues. This is the first time it has been made available on CD, and the difference in audio quality from previous CD incarnations is evident from that opening iconic suspended chord. Alex Lifeson’s layered effects-laden guitar emerges as if materialising from a hyperspace jump. It hangs in space, punctuated by Geddy Lee’s Taurus pedals and Neil Peart’s cymbal stabs. Lee’s serpentine basslines benefit greatly from the crystalline sheen of this remaster - growling one minute and cutting through the melee with that famous Rickenbacker twang the next. Circumstances’ galloping riffs propel the song along. Its instrumental bridge and the middle section of The Trees sound beautifully detailed. This certainly doesn’t sound like a 40-year-old album. Epic instrumental La Villa Strangiato will put any stereo through its paces. Its legendary dynamism and shifts of key and time signature have never sounded better. The seemingly endless creativity and variety in texture that these three musicians achieved still astonishes. The second disc features a classic performance from 1979’s Pinkpop Festival, polished to as good as it’s ever going to sound. Versions of Xanadu and Something For Nothing stand out. Due to a recording fault on the night, 2112 is substituted by a rendition from Arizona in 1978. Delay pedals are set to stun and the slightly rawer sound quality is no barrier to enjoying a bizarre seat-of-the-pants take on the sci-fi suite. The omission of any live document of Hemispheres’ title track feels like a missed opportunity. Rush fans who have longed for this for 40 years will have to wait longer. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. CHRIS MCGAGREL
progmagazine.com 113
OFF THE PEGG: BESPOKE MEMORIES OF A BASS PLAYER
JOHN LEES’ BARCLAY RCLAY EST JAMES HARVEST
Dave Pegg with Nigel Schofield PEGGLETS
The 50th Anniversary Concert ert ESOTERIC/LEPIDOPTERA
The Fairport Convention bassist’s hugely entertaining autobiography.
A beautiful record of 50 years of glory.
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ff The Pegg is based on Fairport historian Schofield’s interviews with Pegg, conducted between 1970 and 2017, and it’s inspired by the published memoirs of Pegg’s father Albert. His own story is still contemporary, but it goes right back to the morphing of folk into folk rock in the late 60s. Pegg regales us with tales of Fairport’s 70s heyday, from their Top Of The Pops appearance to the time a lorry ploughed into the wall of The Angel, the pub they rented in Much Hadham in Hertfordshire, narrowly missing a recumbent Dave Swarbrick,
and how their inebriated and audibly flatulent Radio 1 In Concert set irked presenter John Peel. When Vertigo paid Fairport not to make any more records in 1979, the band folded and folk rock seemed to have run its course. But they reformed and developed the annual Cropredy Festival, and are still going strong. And anyone who has heard their 1970 Live At The LA Troubadour album will be amazed that Pegg’s playing sounds so accomplished after reading about his recreational activities with his pal John Bonham in the 24 hours before show time. MB
MUSICAL GUIDE TO LIZARD BY KING CRIMSON Andrew Keeling SPACEWARD Crimson’s jazz opus under the microscope.
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omposer Andrew Keeling’s knowledge of the inner workings of King Crimson’s music has resulted in several similar volumes chronicling the band’s output in the last few years. This forensic examination of their third album goes deep into the architecture and internal structure of the notes and the times in which they were created and recorded. A traumatic recording that witnessed the breakdown in Robert Fripp and lyricist Peter Sinfield’s creative partnership (both are interviewed here), for many years the guitarist couldn’t listen to any of it. However, Steven Wilson’s superb
2009 remix rehabilitated Fripp’s opinion to the point where large sections of Lizard are now performed live. The book works best when accompanied by the album, with Keeling’s commentary explaining what’s going on. His observations make some interesting connections to the work of other performers, such as Black Sabbath and Henry Purcell. Exploring Miles Davis’ unconscious influence upon the record, and Keith Tippett’s work, whose actual presence throughout is a defining highlight, Keeling also offers convincing interpretations of the album’s words and startling cover art. SS
ROCK GRAPHIC ORIGINALS – REVOLUTIONS IN SONIC ART FROM PLATE TO PRINT 55-88 Peter Golding with Barry Miles THAMES AND HUDSON Poster art from rock to psych and beyond, curated by counterculture icons.
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his sumptuous volume of psychedelic posters and related ephemera is from the collection of Peter Golding, a fashion entrepreneur known as “the Eric Clapton of denim”. His archive, amassed over 50 years, covers the spectrum from early rock’n’roll package tours to blockbuster stadium shows. Context is provided by author Barry Miles. Midcentury America led the way in counterculture and the selection reflects this, concentrating on West Coast happenings. British clubs such as UFO are represented, as are key artists Mike McInnerney, Martin Sharp and
more. Gary Grimshaw of the Grande Ballroom and Detroit Free Press is among the ‘sonic art revolutionaries’ who connected rock with politics. Lesser-known zines include Gandalf’s Garden, which was produced from a tea shop in the King’s Road that also sheltered the homeless. Background info is thorough, including progressive proofs in some cases, and you can learn more about each artist in the ‘Bios of the dudes’ listing. Stadium rock fans will love the section on festival stage sets. It’s a fascinating visual trip through the history of rock’n’roll promotion. CE
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uring this extraordinary concert’s encore, the band play an audio from April 14, 1968. It features John Peel introducing Barclay James Harvest’s first single, Early Morning. Peel says, “This is their first record, and it won’t be their last. They’re going on to do great things.” Well, 50 years on, Peel’s point has been certainly been proven a thousand times over. Given Barclay James Harvest’s gift for symphonic rock and their Mancunian roots, the Royal Northern College Of Music is the ideal setting for this celebration of 50 years of
The rapport and delight between band and crowd is a wonder. music making. Yet as the ever-witty bassist/vocalist Craig Fletcher points out, “This is not a concert, it’s a celebration: you’re all family.” It’s this sense of family that raises this recording beyond usual concert footage. Let’s be clear, there is no attempt to use arty shots or cunning cross-cuts to make the film stand out. It relies on the quality of the music and the relationship between the bandmembers and the audience to do its work. It’s all the better for that. Given that it’s a celebration of 50 years, there is music from every phase and incarnation of Barclay James Harvest. Lees and co’s 2013 tribute to the late Woolly Wolstenholme, On Leave, is a match for any other tune in the set. Rightly, there is their song-for-the-ages, Mockingbird, but this concert also contains stand-out versions of The Poet/After the Day, Summer Soldier and She Said. Rarities abound, including Delph Town Morn, In Memory Of The Martyrs and Paraiso Dos Cavalos. The rapport and delight between the bandmembers and the audience is a wonder to behold. In the shadow of Wolstenholme’s death, Craig Fletcher, Jez Smith and Kevin Whitehead have brought the very best out of Lees. This incarnation of Barclay James Harvest has wit, northern warmth and deep respect for individual bandmember’s gifts. Lees says at one point that he feels like “A rabbit in the headlights.” In one sense, it’s a remarkable thing for a man who has played in front of millions to say, yet it is also a token of humility. The audience and the band adore him for it. About halfway through, Jez Smith takes to the grand piano and plays a moving version of River Of Dreams. Lees sings, ‘When I was young man I was someone’s hero…’ It’s an honest song about fame and money. This writer remembers how much in awe of Lees they were when they first saw Barclay James Harvest as a child. He’s still a hero, but in a different way. As Fletcher says, this concert records a family meeting together in celebration. Here’s to many more. RACHEL MANN progmagazine.com 115
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KING CRIMSON VENUE DATE
THE PALLADIUM, LONDON 03/11/2018
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t’s worth noting that, during its 108 years in existence and despite the venue’s reputation for Royal-approved variety, the London Palladium has seen its share of rock royalty tread the boards. Beatlemania took a hold in the early 60s, Johnny Cash recorded an unreleased live album there, Marvin Gaye recorded one that did get released, and onetime owner Val Parnell almost managed to persuade Elvis Presley to perform what would have been his only ever live shows outside of the United States. More recently, rock, and specifically prog, has further upped the ante after decades of theatrical fare, with Yes, Dream Theater, Steve Hackett and Hawkwind all playing the Palladium in recent years with aplomb. Yet tonight, on the second of two nights for King
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going tonight, smiling, taking their seats and Crimson, it’s isn’t just the band’s name that getting down to the business of striking up an fits in with the regal past of the venue. early beat, before the remainder of One could argue that there is no the current Crimson line-up join better live rock band currently them and the band ease into Larks doing the rounds. Certainly not Tongues In Aspic, Part One, a set one that breaks the mould with staple since the seven-piece three drummers, who then proceed to make a mockery of “Set two offers Crim-beast reared its head in 2014. Interestingly, despite Gavin the complexity of much of the far more on the Harrison’s assertion last issue that material they play for the next nostalgia front, Fripp could (and sometimes does) two and a half hours. Truly, even if the old choose an entirely different set for they are the current progressive is always lent consecutive nights, a large part kings, and one hopes that the a newer twist.” of tonight’s set features familiar p-word-decrying Robert Fripp songs that have been staples of forgives us the imposition to call the band’s live shows for the them that tonight. past four years. That said, the set is largely Those three drummers – Gavin Harrison, different, certainly in terms of running order, Jeremy Stacey and Pat Mastelotto – get things
from the previous night’s show in the same auditorium. Not, one suspects, that anyone’s complaining. The presence of In The Wake Of Poseidon’s Cadence And Cascade four songs in is a delightful surprise greeted with hearty cheers, as is the harrowing anti-nuclear sentiment of Epitaph, while a brace of the band’s intense new instrumentals give way to Level Five from the underrated Power To Believe and a languid Islands brings set one to a close. Set two offers far more on the nostalgia front, even if the old is always lent a newer twist. Nothing detracts from the precision pacing of the material however, and the even more precise musicianship on show, from Mel Collins’ often haunting melodies through Jakko Jakszyk’s heartfelt, excellent vocal to Fripp’s own mesmeric guitar runs. Underpinning it all,
though never once overshadowing the music, are those three drummers, abetted by Tony Levin’s masterful bass playing. Discipline and Indiscipline, as well as Beat’s Neurotica later in the set, are the only nods to the Belew era on offer tonight; the remainder are a joyous reminder of the might of the earlier incarnations of the band, now made even more glorious by the modern-day octet. Cirkus and an almost funky Lizard display how discordant some of the band’s music can be. This is offset by the elegiac Moonchild, which, after a bass and piano interlude opens up into the title track of its parent album, is itself a ride from dreamy soundscapes through abrasive cadenza and back to a fitting climactic finale. Easy Money, meanwhile, displays the proto heavy metal approach that began with Larks Tongues In Aspic
DAVID SINGLETON/DGM LTD
King Crimson: giving a truly majestic performance.
and reached an initial apotheosis with Red. Fitting, then, that the peerless Starless closes the set proper, before the grinding riff of 21st Century Schizoid Man as the encore brings the audience to their feet, united in their praise for a wonderful evening of music. Quite where Crimson will go in their 50th year in 2019 remains to be seen. But they’ve already given fans four years of utter delight, four years that most fans thought they’d never see, four years reminding us of just how brilliant King Crimson can be. As Jakko fittingly intones mid-set, where he breaks vocal ranks, with tongue – as it so often was with Crimson – ever firmly in cheek: “Nice to see you, to see you, nice…” JERRY EWING
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HAKEN VENUE DATE
UNDERGROUND ARTS, PHILADELPHIA 02/11/2018 SUPPORT LEPROUS, BENT KNEE
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ith the recent release of the hypnotically heavy Vector, London sextet Haken further distinguish themselves as one of the most fertile, go-getting and unique bands in modern prog. Their most abrasive LP in years, Vector packs the kind of flamboyant intricacy and catchiness that demands faithful live reproductions. Thankfully, that’s precisely what’s delivered here. Co-headlining with Norwegian avantgarde heavy proggers Leprous, alongside support from Boston baroque rock troupe Bent Knee, Haken unveil top-tier skill amid a highly engaging and welcoming concert. Bent Knee hold marvellous creativity, expert musicianship and jovial humility from start to finish. The true treat of their set tonight is the succession of unreleased new Bent Knee: showcasing “marvellous creativity”.
and The Good Doctor. They also Throughout their 75-minute stint, vocalist magenta bring out what seems to be the fan Einar Solberg oozes impassioned fragility while favourite of the album, namely Puzzle the rest of Leprous stand focused, making Box, as well as brutal instrumental delicate transitions between each bombastic Nil By Mouth and the assault and ethereal harmony. gorgeously temperamental Visually, Leprous undoubtedly track Veil. reign supreme tonight. While Aside from those, the Bent Knee and Haken’s group earn massive cheers multicoloured light oscillations during The Mountain’s certainly enhance their music, “Leprous yield Falling Back To Earth and the Norwegian quintet’s use of an emotional Affinity’s 1985, during rhythmically timed and which vocalist Ross alternating bursts of white, red, experience green, yellow, and orange radiance that lasts long Jennings flaunts his tongue-in-cheek neon just feels more thematically after they glasses, while Diego resonant. Coupled with the leave the Tejeida enjoys the venue’s post-Halloween stage.” spotlight during his decorations of spiderwebs and keytar solo. skeleton faces, in conjunction The truly outstanding moment, however, with abstract, Lasse Hoile-esque videos of comes when they pull out the epic Crystallised nightly roads, shifting eyes and dancing (from the Restoration EP) at the end. It is figures, Leprous yield an unmatched emotional a faultless rendition that reveals how experience that lasts long after they leave the exceptionally united they stage. They conclude their are: even their interlocking main set with a reprisal from harmonies are note-perfect. the cello, giving the show All three bands delight and meaningful continuity, impress at Underground Arts before encoring with Mirage tonight, reinforcing their place and From The Flame. It is at the top of their respective a wholly affective and subgenres. While their styles captivating set. initially seem a bit incongruous Of course, Haken don’t for a shared concert, they disappoint either. Naturally actually complement each favouring selections from other quite fittingly, and the the new album, their audience are visibly entranced lengthy performance kicks by all of them. off with Vector’s initial Leprous get into one-two punch of Clear JORDAN BLUM the stri ng of things.
Leprous: giving a “dynamically rich performance”.
material. The melancholic funk of Hold Me In is colourful and gripping, while the dreamy yet gothic splendour of Egg Replacer showcases prodigious, sparse fury. Some overwhelming effects notwithstanding, the instruments and vocals mix flawlessly, doing justice to Bent Knee’s one-of-a-kind formula. Leprous are wonderfully foreboding, sullen and dynamically rich. They begin with a haunting lone cello recital, and from there dive into faithful recreations of several gems from last year’s Malina album, including the opener Bonneville, Stuck and Illuminate.
ENSLAVED VENUE DATE
THE DOME, LONDON 15/10/2018
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he audience tonight have shown up as much to witness sludge metal co-headliners High On Fire as they have to see Enslaved, and it’s only natural to wonder why the hell Prog are here. But
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the Norwegians aren’t the traditional black metallers they once were, and over the course of nearly three decades their sound has slowly evolved, to the point where the band who made 1994’s brutal Vikingligr Veldi are almost unrecognisable from the one that produced last year’s densely atmospheric E. The music is no less violent, but is it more melodic, and less one-dimensional.
Live, they’re a real force. The dynamic chasm between the growled vocals of frontman Grutle Kjellson and the clean singing style of new keyboard player Håkon Vinje – who wasn’t born when the band formed – bring real light and shade to songs that might otherwise only be noted mostly for their malevolence. Opener Roots Of The Mountain starts with a frantic thrash before a soaring
chorus drops the tempo and lifts the mood. Ruun is almost the reverse, launching with sinister, symphonic riffs before climaxing in a furious, overwhelming froth. Momentum sags as the taped intro to E opener Strorm Son plays – it’s nearly a minute of bad weather and creaking wood before a whinnying horse signals the arrival of the song itself – but an intensely dramatic version of The
FRANK WHITE
Haken: showcasing their most abrasive album in years…
THRESHOLD VENUE THE DOME, LONDON DATE 21/10/2018
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Crimson Kings: Hak certainly impress tonighen t.
Neon Nights: Haken’s Ross Jennings.
River’s Mouth and the breakneck Isöders Dronning put things back on an even keel, the latter being played in London for the first time since its recording almost a quarter of a century ago. Sacred Horse keeps the pot on a feverish boil, and the magnificent Havenless – a stirring mix of ancient Norse chant and demonic riffs – gets the hair really flying for the first time. The
set ends with a chaotic, demented rush through AllfÐðr Oðinn, from the band’s debut EP. The real beauty of Enslaved is how their music somehow manages to conjure up the epic nature of their subject matter. At face value they may sound like a heavy rock act put through some kind of hellish meat grinder, but as dry ice billows up through red light as
if from fissures in the earth, visions of fierce Viking battles, raging storms and long, terrible journeys quite naturally fill the imagination. It’s some feat. And if the band’s more experimental approach alienates black metal purists while the growled vocals give prog fans pause for thought, they’re clearly doing something right: something progressive. FRASER LEWRY
fter two weeks of performing their ambitious double album, Legends Of The Shires, in full, you might be forgiven for assuming that Threshold will be slowing down tonight. But the Brits are at peak level and the shires are in full bloom for the final show of this European tour. However, the same can’t be said of their fans. Their only UK date has already been downgraded from the Islington Assembly Hall, and the Dome is scarcely half full. But if the British prog metallers are disappointed by the dwindling numbers, they’re not letting it show. From the opening notes of The Shire (Part 1) to the final throes of their encore, Threshold don’t let anyone down. They’re clearly having fun on stage too, especially guitarist Karl Groom and bassist Steve Anderson who are grinning from ear to ear and occasionally indulge in a spot of playful duelling. Out in the crowd, heads are nodding and feet are tapping as Glynn Morgan rouses the rabble. The new-old singer returned to the ’Hold last year, and his rock vocals – both in presentation and range – are quite different from the theatrical delivery of former frontman Damian Wilson. Perhaps this explains the band’s decision to omit Wilson-era material from the current set? Yet Morgan looks just as comfortable progging out on an electric guitar as he does singing, especially during the multi-faceted The Man Who Saw Through Time. The huge applause this song earns almost makes up for the skimpy attendance. The five-piece tackle the delicious crunch and grind of Trust The Process’ schizophrenic rhythm section with just as much panache, climaxing with Yes-inspired vocal harmonies and a very satisfying drum roll. State Of Independence is elevated to an impressive power ballad, and Morgan admits to having “A bit of a tear” in his eye while performing it. Lost In Translation shows the band’s classic roots and proves there’s more to them than the heavy riffs they’re best known for. After an hour and a half, they meander from the tour concept to live favourites with encores of Pressure and Slipstream, which get everyone singing along. Based on tonight’s performance alone, there’s no reason why Threshold couldn’t headline a venue four times the size with the addition of a fancy light show and a few projections. So it feels frustrating that a band who enjoy great success outside the UK, augmented by recent slots at Night Of The Prog and RosFest, aren’t as recognised in their home country. Threshold deserve to be much bigger, if only more of their local fan base could be mobilised. NATASHA SCHARF progmagazine.com 121
VENUE DATE
229, LONDON 09/11/2018
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here’s a moment, midway through tonight’s rather epic, three-hour celebration of Pendragon’s 40-year career, where both the sense of fun and the sense of occasion really take hold. Nick Barrett, tonight a jocular master of ceremonies, is passing comment on a series of historical photos of the band that are appearing on a screen behind him. “Oh no,” he declares, as a photo of him, resplendent in waistcoat and top hat, pops up and a rammed-to-the-rafters 229 hoots with laughter. It may be far cry from the surf-dad persona he now wears, but Prog wagers that for many here – this writer included – this was very much our introduction to Nick Barrett and Pendragon (December 28, 1982, supporting Marillion at The Marquee, if you must know). Tonight Barrett, the everfaithful Peter Gee, the musically precocious Clive Nolan and new-boy drummer Jan-Vincent Velazco (with a bit of help from backing singers and old friends) take in all 10 Pendragon studio albums, the 1984 Fly High, Fall Far EP and 1994’s Fallen Dreams And Angels mini album in a set that not only highlights an incredibly rich repertoire, but equally what a remarkable achievement this year’s milestone is. In 1991, they preceded many of their contemporaries by launching Toff Records and taking care of their own business, something that others – notably IQ and Marillion – would later replicate, and that would become the standard for bands with musically progressive ideals. Barrett would be the first person to tell you it hasn’t always been an easy ride, yet the sense of celebration that flows from the stage, alongside proclamations of “Here’s to the next 40 years…” are heartfelt and infectious. Strangely, it all starts in a rather low-key fashion, with both If I Were The Wind (And You Were The Rain) and The Voyager feeling their way around the audience, before The Wishing Well: IV and Not Of This World Part 3 pick up the tempo. The band’s nod to those early days (starting with Fly High, Fall Far and A starry evening Excalibur) gains the loudest with Pendragon. cheers thus far, although, admittedly, they could have played The Jewel in its entirety and this writer would have gone home a happy man. From there, they don’t put a foot wrong. Dark Summer’s Day is an unexpected delight, as is the title track from Fallen Dreams And Angels, while the whole of Queen Of
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WILL IRELAND
PENDRAGON
Hearts reminds the crowd of a time before Barrett decided to shake things up with more contemporary sounds aligned to his natural progressive inclinations. The second set continues the sense of epic, with the band totally in their stride on the likes of Masters Of Illusion and The Last Man On Earth, the equally lengthy Indigo kicking off an encore that draws to a close with the much more gentle refrain of Am I Really Losing You? (they’re most definitely not, if the crowd reaction is anything to go by). Nick Barrett’s call for another 40 years of Pendragon might be a slight stretch of the imagination, but the first 40 years have been, as tonight attests, quite wonderful. Who’d begrudge the old bugger a good few more yet? JERRY EWING
Nick Barrett in celebratory mode.
“The sense of celebration that flows from the stage is heartfelt and infectious.”
Prog is a breeze for Clive Nolan .
VENUE DATE
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SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON 16/10/2018
here’s long been a strong connection between iconic horror movie directors and composers of progressively slanted music. The collaborations of Dario Argento and Goblin, and of Lucio Fulci and Fabio Frizzi, immediately come to mind. But John Carpenter is unique in this regard, because he fulfils both creative roles. Not only is he one of the most acclaimed horror auteurs of all time, but he is also an accomplished musician, responsible for many of the soundtracks that are so crucial to his films. Tonight, he shows off his skills behind the keyboards, and it is a triumph. If he had wanted to, Carpenter could certainly have carved out a successful career in music alone. He and his impressive band – including son and longtime soundtrack partner Cody, plus lead guitarist Daniel Davies, whose father is Dave Davies of The Kinks – play in what is effectively a box-style stage set. There are screens flanking the musicians on both sides, as well as above and behind them. These show clips from Carpenter’s films while the main themes are being performed. The clips have been cleverly edited, effectively recounting the entire plots of the films. Musically, Carpenter occasionally nudges into Jean-Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield territory, but he clearly has his own style, one that effectively enhances rather than merely accompanies the scenes on screen. The diverse crowd tonight – horror devotees, progressive music fans and even Vincent Cavanagh from Anathema – are held enthralled and delighted as the unmistakable images and themes from Escape From New York and Assault On Precinct 13 open the night. These are followed by Village Of The Damned and The Fog, which in particular gets a massive reception. Of course, it helps the mood that we are seeing some fine film footage, but even without this device, Carpenter would still enthral everyone with his confident musical tapestries. There are also moments of humour in the set tonight – for instance, when the entire band don shades during They Live (though you have to know the movie to get the reference). Carpenter talks sparingly, but does explain that Vortex and Mystery are “lost themes”, passages of music for films that have only ever been imagined in his mind. It undeniably shows his innate ability to be able to compose music without images to work with. There’s a huge roar when the theme for the new Halloween film segues into the classic one for the original dating back 40 years. But oddly, the biggest reaction of the night comes not for this, nor The Thing, but Prince Of Darkness. This really resonates with everyone, before final piece Christine closes one of the best gigs of 2018. This man is imaginative and pushes boundaries. Truly progressive. MALCOLM DOME
JEFF LYNNE’S ELO VENUE DATE
PRESS/CARSTEN WINDHORST
JOHN CARPENTER
Jeff Lynne: an unassuming frontman.
O2 ARENA, LONDON 20/10/2018
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here’s no denying that ELO are pop, but they are pop fuelled by firecracking pizazz: it’s forward-thinking, multicoloured, imaginative symphonic pomp, and tonight the music is augmented by a flurry of synths, stings and singers, and accompanied by a glittering light show and vivid visuals. Even the grumpiest music snob would struggle musicians and backing singers, who take it not to boogie when witnessing Jeff Lynne’s in turns to shine, rightfully, in the spotlight, ELO live. and their input elevates the songs to truly The setlist on the first night of a two-day planetary heights. showcase at London’s 02 Arena is a consistent There’s little post-70s, but Lynne also bang-pow of hit after hit, and hearing them all revisits The Travelling Wilburys with folk in succession is an incredible reminder of what ditty Handle With Care, during which it’s a colossal songwriting talent Jeff Lynne is. It difficult not to dwell on the fact that he’s now also shows just how much his kaleidoscopic one of only two remaining Wilburys, alongside mega anthems like Evil Woman, accompanied Bob Dylan. Then there’s When I Was A Boy, by a sultry crimson light show, and Livin’ Thing, the misty-eyed melody from 2015’s Alone In set to psychedelic, flowery visuals, practically The Universe album, far from an ELO-style exude a potent puff of 70s nostalgia. That’s not boogie but definitely a clear indication that his to say it sounds dated, however, and in recent songwriting is still strong. years, with Lynne’s music having graced film However, there’s no denying that it’s the soundtracks from Guardians Of hits that get tonight’s audience on The Galaxy to American Hustle, their toes. Shine A Little Love is you can bet that he’s gained a new a highlight, with emerald lasers generation of fans in the process. zapping and gleaming in tune It’s surprising that, given to the spacey swirls of sound, his ability to dream up such while Mr Blue Sky pops alongside mammoth mega hits, Lynne is, – you guessed it – screens of “Even the as always, an unassuming figure, soft blue skies and fluffy clouds grumpiest humbly thankful in the very as the audience belts back every music snob few times that he addresses word, before his multi-layered, would the crowd. He’s the opposite of exploratory cover of Roll Over struggle not to Beethoven ends things with a jive a gregarious frontman, and often boogie when gets lost within the spectacle of and a bang. Now for the question witnessing the showcase, not to mention everyone wants to know: when Jeff Lynne’s overshadowed by the stunning is someone going to make an ELO live.” talent that surrounds him. He’s ELO musical?! accompanied by a throng of HANNAH MAY KILROY Firecracking Fun: Jeff Lynne and co are on form.
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VENUE DATE
ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON 01/11/2018
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f Public Service Broadcasting have sometimes suggested an air of fusty academia, all history lessons and libraries, tonight’s the night they shake that off. Reaching a career pinnacle by selling out the Royal Albert Hall, they fill it with colour, physicality and even a dash of showbiz. By the time the brass section in gold sequinned jackets are gyrating downstage with two extras in astronaut suits, exhorting the audience to dance, there’s no denying it: PSB are fun. Intelligent, innovative and atmospheric, yes, but also emotive and exciting. They’re Not a ‘party band’ on paper, but in the flesh…
the little band that got big fast, but they’re using the G-force to their advantage. With tracks that marry krautrock-electronica instrumentals to astutely judged samples capturing the heroism and drama of mountainclimbing, space travel and the fall of the South Wales mining industry, they’re not, on paper, a party band. Yet people have caught on to the adrenaline rush inherent in their sonic stories. ‘A climber climbs with his guts, his brain, his soul and his feet,’ declares Everest. The band have realised the brain can’t make the summit alone, so they’ve kept rising. Tonight’s show simmers, then soars. Diffident fulcrum J Wilgoose Esq plays guitars like Michael Rother and keyboards like OMD, while the rhythm section of drummer Wrigglesworth and bassist (and multiinstrumentalist) JF Abraham bring flesh and blood to the high concepts. Abraham is key to the visual element, his highly mobile enthusiasm a bridge to the crowd. Sure, the films (with relevant topics, from space modules to miners’ wives) and lighting are impressive, but to see musicians playing and hitting stuff gives the mood a heat you wouldn’t get with anonymous tweakers standing behind laptops. There’s a string section and intermittent cameos, ensuring the Chemical Brothers-style electronic backdrops support rather than swallow the humanity. Given that PSB’s chosen themes regard the best aspects of humanity – courage, nobility, resilience – that’s shrewd. White Star Liner, from the invigorating new EP concerning the Titanic, gets a London debut. Otherwise, the set swoops between favourites,
Sky High: tonight’s show simmers, then soars.
from Every Valley to Sputnik to Spitfire. Tracyanne Campbell sings Progress, Haiku Salut perform They Gave Me A Lamp and Lisa Jên joins a bashful Wilgoose for the incongruous ballad duet You + Me. Everyone’s up and air-punching for the climax of The Other Side and Go. Clearly a rush for the incredulous South London band, it’s been an inspiring, motivating night, co-opting the daring of the space race protagonists and the steadfast pathos of the neglected Welsh communities. Then, as the ensemble departs, the Beaufort Male Choir bestride the stage to sing Take Me Home, and we learn how many coals it takes to fill the Albert Hall. Not a dry eye in the house. We’ve been taken to the other side. CHRIS ROBERTS
Public Service Broadcasting at the Royal Albert Hall: no miner victory.
“There’s no denying it: PSB are fun. Intelligent, innovative and atmospheric, yes, but also emotive and exciting.”
COHEED AND CAMBRIA VENUE DATE
THE ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON 16/10/2018
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ursting onto stage with a rousing Prologue as the lights spin and the crowd chant along like Viking warriors, Coheed And Cambria have momentum on their side from the opening seconds. The Roundhouse is a big venue, and like Marillion’s trip to the Royal Albert Hall last year, this feels like a moment. An arrival. And as the band bounce and judder gleefully through Here We Are Juggernaut, Devil In Jersey City, The 124 progmagazine.com
Crowing, Blood Red Summer and the rest, it’s obvious the audience are just as committed to the journey. Along with The Cure’s Robert Smith, frontman Claudio Sanchez maintains one of the mostly defiantly recognisable silhouettes in rock’n’roll, but even that magnificent mane can get in the way, and by the time Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood And Burial) thunders into gear he’s gathered it all into a tidy man bun, an arrangement that doesn’t last long before the curls are unleashed again. If there’s one criticism, it’s that the set lacks variety. It rattles along at a fierce canter, the only real changes in either
texture or tempo provided by the intros, or when the band slow things down entirely, as they do for the Wake Up. Sanchez refers to the band as “rock’s oddity”, but the bond between them and their audience is clearly a strong one, with every song greeted by a roar within nano-seconds of liftoff (C&C aren’t big on introductions), and every chorus treated as an opportunity to clear the lungs. Sometimes the interplay between band and audience feels choreographed, as if everyone signed a contract on the way in that binds them to participate fully. And some of that back and forth is by design: the bubblegum-style naaa-naaa-naaa
singalong that accompanies the setending Old Flames is clearly built so that the crowd can carry on singing once the song has finished. And after a rousing encore of Welcome Home, even the song that plays over the PA – Argent’s God Gave Rock And Roll To You – is cued up so it kicks off just before the chorus, lest the revelry cease for as second. Second perhaps only to Baroness, Coheed And Cambria’s songs are triumphant by design, and the icing is in the implementation. Small quibbles aside, this was a masterclass in crowd control. And a very good night out. FRASER LEWRY
CARSTEN WINDHORST
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
VENUE DATE
REGGIES ROCK CLUB, CHICAGO 19-21/10/2018
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rogtoberfest has become one of the mainstays among prog festivals in America, annually showcasing upwards of 30 artists over the course of a weekend, and this year provides a good mixture of up-and-comers playing alongside prog legends. The Nick D’Virgilio Project get things off to a top notch start, with D’Virgilio (Big Big Train) showcasing his world-class drumming while mixing in covers of Jeff Beck, Genesis and Rush along with the band’s new solo material, which they hope to record soon. Neal Morse plays a mellow solo acoustic set that features songs from his new album Life & Times, which has much more of a folky vibe than a prog one. A legendary violinist then graces the stage, namely Jerry Goodman of Mahavishnu Orchestra fame. Goodman is part of Dinosaur Exhibit, and when he showcases his skills, Mahavishnu flashbacks inevitable ensue. Genesis tribute band Abacab blaze through the band’s 70s catalogue. Note for note, they are able to duplicate songs, even though they don’t attempt the theatrics of Peter Gabriel. The cult band French TV perform a set that takes the audience back to early 80s prog, with retro synth sounds aplenty and off-beat guitar licks that sound like a mix of King Crimson and Talking Heads. This is followed by members of District 97, who opt to play the Bill Bruford album One Of A Kind, and do it great justice. But the bands that most of the audience have come to see are the two that close the festival: Soft Machine and FM. Along with Pink Floyd, Soft Machine were one of the major groups to usher in underground e psychedelic music in Careful, Mariusz – don’t star . at Piotr’s kit without shades England during the late 1960s, but they haven’t played in America since 1974, which makes tonight’s performance a real must-see for a lot of die-hard fans. Guitarist John Etheridge can still absolutely shred, and his interplay with drummer Gary Husband (best known for his work with John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth) is the undoubted highlight of the whole festival. The band’s psychedelic qualities are still alive and well. Canada’s FM haven’t played a live gig for a decade, but they play their acclaimed album Black Noise in its entirety, giving the audience their fill of synth space rock with violin and mandolin accompaniment. The set is well received, bringing to an end Progtoberfest IV, a place where fans bond in an intimate venue to hear music from the genre they love most. TREVOR WOODS
RIVERSIDE VENUE DATE
Michał Łapaj has the keys to classic prog vibes.
ELECTRIC BALLROOM, LONDON 10/11/2018
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his is really Polish weather,” says Riverside frontman Mariusz Duda, but the rain hammering the capital hasn’t dampened attendance at the Electric Ballroom, which is packed to capacity tonight. “I hope you like the new Riverside, because this is a new chapter for us,” says Duda. It’s heartening to find the band on such sterling form, given the sudden passing of guitarist Piotr Grudzi´nski two years ago. The set draws deeply from their latest album, Wasteland, completely skips 2016’s to cool off after the intensity of Left Out, before Eye Of The Soundscape’s brief detour into they make their sole excursion into 2015’s electronica and ambient music, and dips Love, Fear And The Time Machine for Lost (Why selectively into the vaults. They open Should I Be Frightened By A Hat?). Another with Acid Rain and Vale Of Tears and it’s demonstration of Duda’s skill as a composer, a pleasure to find a band playing at a volume Lost… starts softly and holds at that low base that doesn’t leave the audience with their dynamic for a long time, before being released brains leaking out of their ears. Reality to blossom into full colour. Dream, from 2004’s Out Of Myself, is all The Struggle For Survival is a standout odd measures, switching between sevens instrumental packed with more shifts in tone and nines, but still has a groove that you and mood than some bands manage throughout can nod your head to. Lament is a fine entire albums, while Kozieradzki and Duda example of using pauses to add drama to lock together on the syncopated accents as a song, while the riff of Second Life Syndrome Meller cuts loose with a vigorous guitar solo. brings to mind vintage Yes with drummer The main set concludes with Wasteland, Piotr Kozieradzki dusting off his snare then in the encore Duda gives an impressive drum rudiments. rendition of The Night Before accompanied Keyboardist Michał Łapaj really brings only by Łapaj, and his speech about the the classic prog vibes to Left Out, with his importance of the unifying power of music gorgeous organ playing and a dash in a time when Poland and UK of Theremin. The track provides are both gripped by nationalism a midway high point, building receives loud applause. into a swaggering instrumental They conclude with O2 Panic section where Łapaj and new Room and the mellow River Down guitarist Maciej Meller get Below, sweeping aside any doubts “Rain be to throw out some firepower. that Riverside’s future might damned, this is be in jeopardy without their Duda switches from bass to a performance founding guitarist. Rain be acoustic guitar for Guardian of passion Angel, damned, this is a performance providing and vigour.” of passion and vigour. a moment DAVID WEST
WILL IRELAND
PROGTOBERFEST IV
Mariusz Duda knows rain doesn’t stop play.
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VENUE DATE
HALF MOON, LONDON 21/10/2018
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he end of 2017 came with the news that Karnataka would be taking an indefinite hiatus. More recently, drummer Jimmy Pallagrosi revealed that he would be returning to the stage with a brand new band ZIO and a forthcoming album. That ex-The Enid singer Joe Payne and former Karnataka bandmate Hayley Griffiths join him on his crusade is a welcome remedy to a world without Karnataka. On a quiet Sunday night, the venue houses ZIO in the shady back room beyond the sparkly gastro setting. It’s not packed, but it’s early days for ZIO, who released their first single X-Ray only days earlier. The band appear: Pallagrosi at the drum kit along with Franck Carducci keyboard player Olivier Castan, New Device bassist Liz Hayes and guitarist Marc Fascia. The first of this three-part show begins as an instrumental segment, easing the audience
the manic, zippy and heavy into the groove with the rocking performance. unravelling psychedelic This isn’t the only ZIO track explosion of Hendrix’s If 6 performed, the band performing Was 9, after which Pellagrosi’s a handful of songs from the jamming pal Aaron Grimes joins “It’s not upcoming album including Ride them for Toto’s Girl Goodbye. packed, but Along and Wings Inside. Pellagrosi plays a neat drum Payne and Griffiths take the solo on a toy drum kit before it’s early days roles of the lead characters in the taking to the real thing for for ZIO, who Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings, and released their album’s concept, which is inspired by videos games and fantasy. The the section ends with a proggy first single show changes in style with each medley accompanied by Marco X-Ray only song, a throwback to Karnataka’s Casaluce on guitar, who gets days earlier.” eclectic edge, but with more psych a shout-out for mixing ZIO’s and grit. At times it’s a little rough first single. It’s fun and funky, around the edges, but Castan and but with prog heads in the Fascia pull it back and Hayes’ edge on bass audience, the golden nugget is the appearance gives the set a furious energy. of Hayley Griffiths and Joe Payne for part two. A couple more covers close ZIO’s The big entrance of this splendid vocal twosome is halted, as Payne’s microphone cuts introduction to the world. There’s a lot more to see and hear from this band, and out for X-Ray, and it’s not until a mic switch with practice and more live exposure they that the song takes full flight. Payne and could be an exciting prospect for 2019. Griffiths look and sound great together, the unison of their well-trained voices anchoring HOLLY WRIGHT
Right: ZIO mainman Jimmy Pallagrosi with Liz Hayes.
SLEEPMAKESWAVES VENUE MAX WATTS, MELBOURNE DATE 05/10/2018 SUPPORT AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR
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nstrumental quartet and tonight’s openers And So I Watch You From Afar have journeyed from Northern Ireland to the land Down Under for the very first time. Attempting to classify their sound is a pointless exercise, but if we were to try, it is Celtic-influenced punk rock and folk, placed in a progressive post-rock instrumental setting and delivered with a boyish charm and quirky swagger. 126 progmagazine.com
Sounds odd and like it shouldn’t work, perhaps, but somehow it just does, and their live set is all manner of fun. While this band exist very much in the instrumental arena, there are some vocals, in the form of rousing three-way chants. They appear completely out of the blue and when they do, they lift the roof off the venue. ASIWYFA are given a hero’s welcome from the packed Melbourne crowd, and Prog bets that it won’t be their last time playing here. Sydney instrumental maestros sleepmakeswaves are celebrating a decade since the release of their debut EP, and they create glorious post-rock
symphonies with guitars, bass, drums, occasional keysboards and some subtle sampling. Before this, however, is a 10-minute documentary about the band’s career on the rear screen. Rounding up their releases, line-up changes and tours with the likes of Cog, Devin Townsend, The Contortionist and many more, it provides a short window into what this band have achieved. Following this is a magical 110-minute set that covers virtually everything they’ve released so far, delivered with the passion, dynamics and intensity that they have become famous for. In progressive music circles, anyway.
One minor disappointment is a lack of the epic The Edge Of Everything from their last album Made Of Breath Only, though fitting a 10-minute plus song into a set, even a lengthly one such as this, can be difficult. Sleepmakeswaves are one of those bands who get better every time you see them, and some of us have been seeing them on a regular basis for 10 years. That a band like this can survive, prosper and keep growing in profile for a decade is not just testament to the strength of their music, but also to the loyalty of their many fans. ROD WHITFIELD
WILL IRELAND
ZIO
VENUE LA MACHINE DU MOULIN ROUGE, PARIS DATE 05/11/2018 SUPPORT NE OBLIVISCARIS
E
ver since his origins as the young driving force of black metal titans Emperor, Ihsahn has been a musician who keeps his live excursions to a minimum. Even in 2018, it took the legendary Norwegian six months to embark on the tour supporting his latest solo album, Ámr – which only consists of one, fortnightlong European trek. Furthermore, his recent Emperor Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk anniversary shows have reserved themselves solely for summer festival slots. Thus, the anticipation in Paris’ legendary La Machine du Moulin Rouge tonight is tangible. The excitement is only amplified by the exhilarating Ne Obliviscaris. The Australians add so many progressive and unique flairs to the metal genre that they quickly soar to success. Through such lengthy tracks as Devour Me, Colossus, the key ingredient to their brilliance shines through: gorgeous trade-offs between seemingly incompatible dynamics. Frontmen Xenoyr and Tim Charles constantly bounce growls and operatic clean vocals back and forth, while Charles’ violin exchanges jaw-dropping solos with Benjamin Baret’s lead guitar. All the while, a thrashing rhythm section is still able to construct an incessantly quick foundation, which neatly sews every aural deviation and diversion together. Thereafter, Ihsahn is progressive in a wholly different manner. Whereas Ne Obliviscaris radiate through the many impressive layers they added to straightshooting metal, the headliner opts to throw the genre rulebook out of the window entirely. This is obvious from the beginning, as Ihsahn commences with the electronic-cum-symphonic crawl of Lend Me The Eyes Of Millennia, segueing into the melodic bang of Arcana Imperii and then the hard rock ballad Sámr. Despite the underlying melancholy of his music, the man himself is in high spirits, juxtaposing dark tunes with regular smiles, and clapping and proclaming how happy he is to be playing in Paris. This vibrant sheen then infects the setlist with Until I Too Dissolve – his self-professed love letter to 80s metal. Its peppy riff may reek of Judas Priest, but the song’s sombre theme of winter and a screeching refrain are both clearly Ihsahn’s own. The performance nears its conclusion as the epic Celestial Violence stakes its claim at being tonight’s runaway highlight. Like rapidly shifting tides, keyboard- and clean vocal-driven verses beautifully give way to vicious choruses. Finally, Frozen Lakes On Mars makes for a sweltering encore. Its fingerdistorting shredding, discordant wails, avant-garde breakdowns and anthemic apexes all epitomise the greatest aspects of Ihsahn’s solo output, perfectly capping off a show that his Parisian followers have been demanding for a long time. MATT MILLS
CALIGULA’S HORSE
Circles deliver high quality, hammering prog metal.
VENUE BOSTON MUSIC ROOM, LONDON DATE 01/11/2018 SUPPORT CIRCLES
T
he last time that Caligula’s Horse graced British stages in the summer of 2017, it was a mixed affair. Their twoshow mini-tour saw the Australian melody makers first play to a sparse Southampton crowd, with only 30 people showing up. Then the next night, they sold out Camden’s Black Heart and performed for a throng of who aren’t fond of Caligula’s Horse’s latest die-hard fans. release, as tracks from it totally dominate Tonight marks the band’s return to the UK the setlist. and, before they even grace the stage, things Luckily, London is not deterred at all, singing seem far more promising. The sold-out along to every lyric from frontman Jim Grey Boston Music Room is already and humming along to Sam Vallen packed as support act Circles and Adrian Goleby’s guitar appear. The Melbourne quartet harmonies. Proceedings then take deliver 45 minutes of hammering a more straightforward detour as prog metal: the high-flying, anthems Will’s Song and Dark Hair classic rock melodies of frontman Down assume control. Grey’s “The most Ben Rechter juxtapose the band’s masterful repartee with his grandiose, musicianship, as they indulge audience ensues, as he encourages quintessential them to pick between Turntail and in polyrhythm after twisted and significant Rust as the next song. polyrhythm and invoke concert of comparisons to TesseracT Rust is the runaway victor, with Caligula’s or even Meshuggah. the acidic refrain of ‘Fuck your Horse’s Circles’ heavy approach with prayer for rain!’ becoming an accessible, catchy edge makes infectious. The 15-minute career for an appropriate predecessor to extravaganza Graves is the thus far.” tonight’s headliner, though they evening’s apex, though, stand out with their more direct highlighting every member’s approach. Songs often barely scrape past the instrumental talent through its tucks and dives five-minute mark, resulting in a focused and between metal, rock, prog and even jazz fusion. always-energised display. Vallen still shreds like his life depends on it, Caligula’s Horse, meanwhile, imbue their while Josh Griffin and Dave Couper’s weighty melodic prog with far more meandering rhythms elicit an unprecedented moshpit. The dynamics, dancing from a subtle calm to encore of The Cannon’s Mouth concludes with a sudden, metallic bang. Their diversity is on a return to more constantly heavy territory, display as they kick-start with the lengthy wrapping up what has been the most grandiose, Dream The Dead, cut from their new album quintessential and significant concert of In Contact. As the night unfolds, it becomes Caligula’s Horse’s career thus far. apparent that it’ll be a rough one for those MATT MILLS
JAMES SHARROCK
IHSAHN
Caligula’s Horse: no horsing around here…
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Starless. John [Wetton] singing on one of prog’s most epic songs. It sums it all up, I truly love it.
Where’s home?
Eindhoven in Holland. It’s a cool city for rock and turning into a prog city too – we’ve got the Prognosis Festival, The Progressive Alliance. It’s small but there’s a lot going on.
Which prog muso would you most like to work with?
My big brother was into metal and prog early on, and I grew up around him playing records by The Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, Pink Floyd. I felt very at home with prog from a very early age.
Any of Mastodon’s last three albums. Whether you’re vacuum cleaning, driving, whatever, their music always lifts your spirit. They’re totally up p my alley. Who’s the best prog artist you’ve ever seen?
First prog gig?
Any guilty pleasures in your music collection?
BILL MARINO/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES
I’m a huge Barbra Streisand fan. The Broadway Album Albu is kind of cheesy but she’s so, chee so good. g She’s got one of the best voi voices in the world ev ever, and I love her pe persona and how she look looks. What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?
I know way too much about Prince.
MARK ULY
King Crimson in Utrecht. They toured Holland in the early 90s and I went to all their gigs.
Anneke Van Giersbergen The great and good of progressive music give us a glimpse into their prog worlds. As told to Grant Moon venues in Holland, and we have a lot of them. Outside of prog, what else are you into?
I love to read – religion, psychology, esoteric things. I love being outside, walking and cycling. And I like comedy and action movies, stuff to make me feel good. Who is your prog hero?
John Wetton. I love his voice. I had the pleasure to work with him, and I miss him very much. Are you a collector?
Your biggest prog extravagance?
I did the Progressive Nation At Sea cruise [in 2014] with Devin Townsend, and it was the best thing th I’ve ever Prince: specialist done. do I spent subject. a lot l at the casino ca bar every ev night, so it w was pretty extravagant. ex Yo favourite Your ve venue?
Th O13 in The Tilburg. It’s one Ti of the best 130 progmagazine.com
I’ve got all my tour laminates going back to my very early shows. There’s about 1000 of them on the back of one of my doors at home!
Ever had a prog date?
Yes. I used to have a boyfriend in the early 90s and we went to see King Crimson, David Sylvian and lots of others. And I go with my husband now. We went to see Stick Men recently, I was one of three women in the audience! Who do you call in the prog community for a good night out?
Julie Slick, she’s Adrian Belew’s bass player. I met et her on that Progressive Nation cruise and we clicked like sisters. She’s super cool, very funny and great fun to hang out with. What’s the most important prog song for you?
The last album you bought?
I bought the last Mastodon album [Emperor Of Sand] on vinyl, and downloaded Leprous’ last one, Malina. What was the last gig you went to?
Mastodon in Utrecht last year. Whenever they’re in Holland I go, they’re one of my favourite bands in the world.
I love to read – religion, psychology, esoteric things.
Mastodon: music
to lift spirits. Opeth at Be Prog! My Friend Festival in Spain [2016]. Their set started with my all-time favourite song of theirs, Cusp Of Eternity.
Recommend us a good proggy read.
My bible is The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Tolle’s not airy-fairy, he’s German and very to the point. It isn’t simple to live in th the present, but it will open up a whole universe to you. y Wha your favourite What’s albu album cover?
Go Going back to my brother’s bro collection, I’m very fond of Alan Parsons’ Pa Tales Of Mystery My And Imagination – Edgar Allan Poe. It’s classically-orientated, classically-o but peaceful and with a lot of detail. What are you up to at the moment?
Next year I’ll be marking 25 years in ‘the business’, so my classical album Symphonized is out, and I’m working on a theatre show – 43 dates in Holland over January, February and March next year. I’ll play music and tell stories from my whole career. It’ll be fun. See www.annekevangiersbergen. com for more information.
JIMMY HUBBARD
In our village there wasn’t a record store, but the library had a huge selection of records, and we’d rent all the proggy stuff. The first one was Jesus Christ Superstar, which I think is quite prog.
I’d be totally lost without my iPhone. I’m into everything: Apple, Spotify, social media, all of it.
KEVIN NIXON
Which prog album always gets you in a good mood?
The first prog record you bought?
Favourite piece of technology?
Adrian Belew: Anneke’s dream collaboration.
Adrian Belew. Because of his voice, because of his persona.
Your first prog memory?
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