What Are You Listening To Now? 6.0

[Handley_Page]

Frank Crumit sings - Granny's Old Arm Chair

 

[ElectricBlue]

A Dire Straits playlist

I'm trying to understand their appeal. Sure, their music is nice to listen to, but probably too subtle for my Death Metal-destroyed earholes. Knopfler isn't what I'd call a particularly versatile singer. Needs more research.

You have to understand context - they were one of the first bands to break through the onslaught of punk in the late seventies, with a return to musicianship and lyrics.

Best albums, IMHO, are their first (Dire Straits) and third (Making Movies) - their fourth (Love Over Gold) exploded them onto the world scene and they became huge. When their first album was released, a mate said, check these guys out - their singer is a cross between Bob Dylan and JJ Cale, which was good enough for me. Those two albums are high up on my desert island list.

 

[Haulover]

RPWL : Tales From Outer Space

Nice guys - my wife and I spent a lot of time with them at one of the early ROSfests, and I've been in email contact with 2 of the band members ever since.

 

[Haulover]

Ain Soph : 5 or 9 - Five Evolved From Nine

 

[Haulover]

Between the Buried and Me : The Silent Circus

 

[BiscuitHammer]

A Foot In Coldwater- 'Isn't Love Unkind'

 

[hotoldrguy]

Gimmee Shelter Rolling Stones

 

[Handley_Page]

Williams: Indiana Jones / Sir Simon Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker

 

[hotoldrguy]

The Letter The Box Tops

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

The Queen of the Night Aria from 'The Magic Flute - Samantha Hay (Hubby's in a really good mood, so it's this, then 'The Flower Song' from 'Lakhmé, then Andrea Ross singing 'Moon River, and then he'll be in the mood for a bunch of Sam Cooke so he can dance with me)

 

[Tzara]

Paul Hindemith, Violin Concerto

 

[Haulover]

Kavus Torabi : Hip to the Jag

(First spin - not enjoying it much so far...)

 

[Haulover]

Vivaldi Metal Project : Four Seasons

Vivaldi's 4 seasons played partly by a metal band, partly by classical instrumentals, and with vocals introduced.

Give it a try - it's quite fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdD1XZz9BHE

 

[Haulover]

Uriah Heep : Very 'eavy Very 'umble

'Cuz sometimes you just have to delve into the "way-back" machine and re-kindle those memories.

I saw 'Heep live in Trenton, NJ, in the mid-2000s, in a (mainly) prog event called "Heep-fest". Heep headlined both nights, and other acts included Karnataka, Mostly Autumn, Nektar, Focus (!!), Asia, and probably a few others I don't recall.

Heep blew the roof off the place. Great event.

 

[Handley_Page]

Status Quo

 

[Haulover]

Spock's Beard : feel Euphoria

Sorry - not feelin' it


Spock's Beard : Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep

Damn, this one is good! Best post-Morse album, AFAIC.

 

[Haulover]

Devin Townsend : Terria

 

[Bearded_Warr1or]

Bob Seger - Night Moves

 

[Haulover]

Seems NO ONE is working today, so I'm working in peace, with not a single meeting - and getting in a lot of listening. I wish every day was like this!

So far today:

Twelfth Night : Live And Let Live

Teru's Symphonia : Egg The Universe

Sonata Arctica : Winterhearts

 

[Bramblethorn]

Rasputina - The New Zero

 

[Blind_Justice]

Too bad Sonata Arctica dropped the ball around "Unia", ditching the neo-classical, double-bass drive power metal for something prog. Problem (for me and the missus): Their idea of prog is mostly boring songwriting, plodding tempo and utterly lacking the liveliness of their early albums. There have been attempts to go back to the roots but its very obvious whoever's writing the songs isn't wholeheartedly into that either. A real shame.

Having said that:
Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

 

[Haulover]

Too bad Sonata Arctica dropped the ball around "Unia", ditching the neo-classical, double-bass drive power metal for something prog. Problem (for me and the missus): Their idea of prog is mostly boring songwriting, plodding tempo and utterly lacking the liveliness of their early albums. There have been attempts to go back to the roots but its very obvious whoever's writing the songs isn't wholeheartedly into that either. A real shame.

Having said that:
Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

https://www.progressiveears.org/forum/images/smilies/thumbs_up.gif https://www.progressiveears.org/forum/images/smilies/thumbs_up.gif

 

[Haulover]

Satellite : A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset

The 2nd review I ever wrote was about this album (I eventually wrote close to 600 album reviews):

Rating : 4 ½ out of 5 – Recommended

Summary : This could be one of the ‘finds’ of 2003

Satellite is a progressive rock band from Poland, created by the former leader of Collage. This is their debut album.

A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset is a full, richly textured, album, delivered with a maturity and elegance that represents the best-of-breed of neo-progressive rock.

The opening ‘The Evening Wind’ is a 12-minute epic rich in keyboards and acoustic guitar, and sets high expectations for the rest of the album.

‘On The Run’ is a 14-minute piece, which introduces three guitars backed by rich keyboards, ending in a beautiful guitar solo and a gentle female chorus. As with most songs the lead vocals are muted, and never get in the way of the music.

The 6th song ‘Now’ is also long, at 10 minutes, and has a ‘70s style chorus that could have emanated from Cantebury.

The title track is an 11-minute masterpiece that starts softly and builds up to a memorable climax with strong guitar and keyboard interplay.

The final track is ‘Children’ – a soft piece, with gentle piano, delicately muted lead guitar, and almost lullaby-soft vocals.

The rest – tracks 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 range between 3 and 4 minutes,

Vocalist Robert Amirian shows limited range and the tunes are not the most memorable, but his delivery is soft and effortless. The vocals do not lead the music – but are an integral part of the music, as they should be in prog. This is not the song-oriented neo-prog that has been so roundly criticized in the past decade.

The lyrics are in English, with no noticeable accent.

Guitarist Sarhan deserves special mention. He does not appear to be a John Petrucci or an Arjen Lucassen, but his solos are things of beauty, soaring and expressive.

No music is perfect, and the one criticism here is a lack of variety. The music is excellent, but it seems that a snippet from any one song could be inserted into another, without undue loss of integrity.

This is Satellite’s debut album but it is very clear that these are accomplished musicians, and the production quality is excellent. Contrary to popular belief neo-progressive is not bad progressive, and Wojtek Szadkowski’s Satellite goes a long way toward making that point.

As a side note – their web site is excellent, as is the artwork on the album cover. The sleeve was designed by Mark Wilkinson, whose resume includes artwork for Marillion, Fish, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Asia, and many others. See http://www.the-masque.com​

As I said - one of my first reviews, and not very well written My later reviews were much better.

Nevertheless, Satellite played ROSfest many years ago. They remembered my review, and my wife and I hung out with them for an evening.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Japan - Oil On Canvas (1983 Art-House electro-synth pop/rock) on Virgin vinyl LP.

 

[litfan10]

Japan - Oil On Canvas (1983 Art-House electro-synth pop/rock) on Virgin vinyl LP.

Fantastic and oft forgotten group - love, love David Sylvian, and Richard Barbieri went on to join Porcupine Tree.