What Are You Listening to Now 7.0

One

Ou

according to a lot of my prog news feeds this is the new big thing - symphonic prog out of China.

I need to listen a couple times. At times I find the vocalist to be a Tarja wannabe which annoys me then other times the vocals are good. The music can be wild and out there especially with time signatures which can be both interesting and annoying.
There's one thing that record is not - boring. A bit too free-jazzy for a casual listen, but one of those "you can really playlike that???" moments.
 

陳慧琳 - 陳慧琳 -《記事本》- "Diary" - Kelly Chen


And a cover by Shania Yan, with Chinese, pin yin, and english lyrics

 
Well, I've been reading lots of books on Roman Britain lately, and looking for what passes for "Roman" music. Found this, in a Jackie Chan movie, of all places.... now THIS really sounds like the Roman Anthem to me...


Altho if you don't want to click thru to Youtube, here's another version

 
A demo for a new They Dream Of Starfish song, provisional title "Arrival". We're cheekily stealing the "Bolero" concept - start with a few simple melody lines and pile more and more stuff on top until it's unrecognizable from the initial idea. Once Dani gives the go-ahead, I'll upload a demo to Soundcloud.
 
To The Unknown Man - Vangelis

My lady love and I have already spent way too much money on beautiful-sounding synthesizers, but there is one piece of kit which will forever be out of our range. The wonderful Yamaha CS-80, a mainstay of Vangelis' sonic arsenal and beautifully featured in this song. There were only 600 built of them, starting in 1976, they weigh around two hundred pounds and their electronics are completely bespoke. No off-the-shelf components. Finding a semi-decent one in the wild is nigh impossible. Finding one which costs less than twenty thousand Euros is almost impossible. Even the closest hardware recreation, the Deckard's Dream Mk II costs more than our whole synth setup. But man, that sound...
 
^^^ My favorite Vangellis music was his contribution to Aphrodite's Child - 666

A strange and wonderful piece of late-60s brilliance.
 
Pain Of Salvation : Be



I hated this when it first came out.

Then I interviewed Daniel Gildenlow and came to understand some of the subtleties.

Then I saw the excellent DVD.

Now I think it's one of the strongest pieces in my 5,000-plus CD collection.
 
I need to check out Aphrodite's Child eventually. Denis Russous is more known in Germany as a Schlager singer - think sappy love songs to the kitschiest backing track imaginable. Can't imagine him belting our prog rock. :)
 
Ethical Dilemma

Vass/Katsionis

New Greek metal very reminiscent of Fates Warning. So far me likey.
 
Shameless self-promotion alert.

They Dream Of Starfish - Arrival (A Vangelis tribute)

We just released our first album, but it seems the hits keep on coming. Another bout of spontaneous Dani melodymaking. My input into this song was absolutely minimal - I programmed three of the synth sounds we used (the bass, the bleep bloops and the analogue strings) and laid down the drum pattern where Dani wanted it. The rest is all her. :) We're short an actual CS80 synth, but we did manage to source a very good software emulation. The majestic fanfare in the "b" part of the song is from that CS80 emulation and sounds absolutely like something the late, great Greek would have used. The little guitar-like riff running through most of the song is a copy of the sound used on "To The Unknown Man". And Dani is utterly in love with the female choir she found in our sample library.
 
This is one SHITTY month. Vangelis gone. Alan White gone. I've probably forgotten someone else important.

Well, we lost Dave Smith on May 31st. He's the co-inventor of the Prophet 5 synthesizer and "Father of MIDI". Despite his company, Sequential Circuits, going bankrupt in the '80s, Dave never stopped building and selling synths, first under his own name (as DSI, Dave Smith Instruments), then in 2015 Yamaha gifted him the Sequential badge which they had bought up after they had to close up shop.

He also was instrumental in the creation of the MIDI standard along fellow synth pioneer Tom Oberheim and Roland's founder Kakehashi-san, without which most of They Dream Of Starfish's music wouldn't be possible. We have synths of at least six different manufacturers and without (USB)MIDI, they would probably all require their own proprietary link or connection system.
 
This is one SHITTY month. Vangelis gone. Alan White gone. I've probably forgotten someone else important.

Well, we lost Dave Smith on May 31st. He's the co-inventor of the Prophet 5 synthesizer and "Father of MIDI". Despite his company, Sequential Circuits, going bankrupt in the '80s, Dave never stopped building and selling synths, first under his own name (as DSI, Dave Smith Instruments), then in 2015 Yamaha gifted him the Sequential badge which they had bought up after they had to close up shop.

He also was instrumental in the creation of the MIDI standard along fellow synth pioneer Tom Oberheim and Roland's founder Kakehashi-san, without which most of They Dream Of Starfish's music wouldn't be possible. We have synths of at least six different manufacturers and without (USB)MIDI, they would probably all require their own proprietary link or connection system.
Andrew Fletcher, too.
 
@litfan10 @Haulover Any thoughts on Wucan? Esoteric power space rock from Germany. Just released a new album. Sounds mesmerizing.

Also, a new song by The Halo Effect. In Flames in all but name and without the earsore that is Anders Fridén. Hell yeah. Dethgrowls tho.

Last but by no means least, "Aidus" by Eluveitie. I used to like their early stuff - hey, what's not to like about a mix of powerful melodic death metal, medieval/folk bits and the interplay between growls and a powerful female voice which isn't your typical wannabe operatic soprano?

Trouble is they played it too safe and got boring, at least for me. This new song however blasts the living Bejezus out of my ear canals. I'm not mad at the ultra-fast blasts, not when they are used to add more and more energy to the track. And extra kudos to the vocal mix - everything is clear, distinct and yet seamlessly interwoven. What a way to power-clean my ears. Still a deathgrowl warning for litfan, but I urge you to give it a spin regardless.
 
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