by Kev Rowland | Nov 12, 2018 | Reviews
There can be few British bands that can say that they have had as much impact on music as the mighty Softs, and here a mere 37 years after their last studio album they are back with a new one. Originally formed in 1966, with their debut album in 1968, they have continued to be at the cutting edge of fusion and have had some incredible musicians pass through their ranks. The band officially disbanded in 1978, then reformed briefly in 1981 and then 1984 before returning as SoftWare in 1999, which in turn became Soft Works, before morphing into Soft Machine Legacy in 2004, and then at the end of 2015, they decided to drop the word “Legacy”. But given that guitarist John Etheridge, bassist Roy Babbington and drummer John Marshall were all in the same line-up(s) in the Seventies, they have a more than valid claim to the name. The only member of the band who wasn’t involved back then is Theo Travis, who provides sax, flute and Fender Rhodes. But, he joined Soft Machine Legacy as long ago as 2006, when he replaced Elton Dean after he had passed away.
Anyone who admits to enjoying Canterbury progressive rock or fusion will have multiple Soft Machine albums in their collection, and this one fits right in. John Etheridge is an incredible guitarist, and it takes someone very special indeed to step into the shoes of Allan Holdsworth, not once but twice. He is lyrical, dramatic, restrained yet over the top, simple yet complex, allowing the music to take him where it will. Every musician is an absolute master of his craft, and they push the envelope in so many ways. Jazz, prog, fusion, call it whatever you like but this is intricately crafted music that is both awe-inspiring yet inviting, eclectic yet so very easy to get inside of, and the more time spent with it the greater the rewards. Some of these guys are nearly 80 years old now, yet show no sign at all of slowing down. This is an essential purchase.
10/10 by Kev Rowland
by Kev Rowland | Nov 12, 2018 | Reviews
The three studio albums by SL Theory are all the work of one man, multi-instrumentalist Sotiris Lagonikas. But on this release, he has restricted himself to just one instrument, drums, and is part of a six-man band, to which he has added an additional four singers on top of lead singer Mike Karasoulis, and a string orchestra. Recorded live on March 3rd2017, the band can be seen to be surrounding the ten-piece string section (conducted by Yiannis Antonopoulos), and with 21 people on the stage, it must have been quite some spectacle.
The vast majority of the material is taken from the three albums, but there were also a few new pieces written which were performed that night. The strings are playing live what was layered keyboards before, adding an additional lightness and quality. Karasoulis has an emotional voice, and here he is able to work either completely solo, duetting or to pitch himself in as part of the harmonies. There are a real confidence and sense of aplomb and achievement with this release, with the band and strings working fully together as one. Obviously, this is not the first time this has been tried, but here it really works as the style of progressive rock/metal definitely fits in well. When the band wants to crunch then they go for it, but when they want to be acoustic and gentle then the string overlay is quite sublime.
Heavy, symphonic, majestic, bombastic, this may be a dark album in many ways, but there are plenty of contrasts and delights over this two-disc, 20 songs, 104-minute long set. ‘Progressively Dark: A Concert For Group & String Orchestra’ is a great introduction to the music of Sotiris Lagonikas, and it will be fascinating to see what comes next. Well worth investigating for all progheads into the heavier side.
9/10 by Kev Rowland
by Kev Rowland | Oct 14, 2018 | Reviews
Although I have previously heard some albums in which Steve has been involved, most notably the awesome Bomber Goggles and their incredible album ‘Gyreland’ (if you haven’t already bought this then you need to), this is the first time I have come across one of his solo albums. Steve provides guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and vocals, and is joined by Böhn (acoustic and electric guitars and backing vocals) and Bingo Brown (drums, percussion, and backing vocals). ‘Stargazer’ is a concept album, and is the nickname given to the hero of our story born into a dystopian future in which man’s neglect has made Earth no longer habitable. This is a similar theme to ‘Gyreland’ and the impact of humanity’s impact on the earth, and at this point, it is not possible to save the planet so people have to leave.
Steve has a knack of bringing together multiple musical themes and styles and bringing them together in a fashion that is best thought of as crossover progressive rock, with large elements of power pop styles. The songs are all short, with only a couple daring to break the five-minute barrier and are incredibly infectious. In fact, one can imagine quite a number of these being played on the radio to great effect. Take “Phoenix Rising” for example, here we have find Steve channeling Weezer while with “In The Darkness” it is much more like Nik Kershaw! The music is fluid, sonorous, and always with stacks of melody and hooks.
It is an incredibly accessible album, one that I knew I was going to enjoy from the very first note, as the title cut opens proceedings with layered harmony vocals. This is a poppy funky rocking number that shows inspiration from Utopia, and I defy anyone not to sing along with the chorus when it returns. Straight away I was smiling, grooving in my chair, knowing that this was yet another to add to my list of albums of the year – and given that ‘Gyreland’ is also in the Top Ten, Steve’s not doing badly. He has a real knack of producing catchy songs, giving them enough depth so that they have a real presence, but also showing restraint. There is the impression that ‘Stargazer’ could have been a lot heavier, it wouldn’t have taken much in the mix but it works great as it is. There are also little touches, like the bass slide up and down the frets in the chorus, which definitely add to the overall piece, and from that we go into the far more jagged “The Celestial Show” which has a very different attack both in terms of arrangement and vocals, yet is also another great number. This is quite some album, highly recommended.
10/10 Kev Rowland
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by Kev Rowland | Oct 11, 2018 | Reviews
So, when I heard that this album was finally getting the ‘Definitive Edition’ treatment I knew immediately that it was going to be an essential purchase. It didn’t matter that I had the original MSI CD, which had somehow reversed the cover so that it was black on white instead of white on black, nor that I had the Cyclops reissue from 2002 which had also included various demos: here was a triple CD release which was finally going to provide everything any Twelfth Night fan could wish for. Originally recorded in 1982, to this day it remains one of my very favourite albums, which will always appear in any Top Ten list. Listening to it again, more than 35 years after it was originally recorded, it still sets a benchmark to which many bands aspire, but few will ever achieve.
For those progheads who have somehow missed this band (I know I did at the time, much to my later disgust), Twelfth Night were the band that should have had the success of Marillion at least, and if Geoff hadn’t decided to become a church minister who knows what they might have achieved. But back in the early Eighties, the band had just been reduced to a four-piece with the departure of keyboard player Rick Battersby (who returned after the album had been recorded). This left Geoff Mann (vocals), Clive Mitten (bass/classical guitar/keyboards), Andy Revell (electric and acoustic guitars) and Brian Devoil (drums). The recording process took a year, as the band decided to shift the attention away from some more commercial elements and dropped some numbers and rewrote others. The result was a progressive rock masterpiece.
The album starts with the second longest song, in “We Are Sane”. Gentle held-down keyboards with Geoff singing falsetto and in the background there are the sounds of children playing and a radio being tuned. Gradually Geoff sings lower, the keyboards come down and the sense of menace starts to appear. Percussion starts not with Brian on drums but on typewriter as “Reports flop into the in trays”. Even from very early on in the album it becomes apparent that Twelfth Night just weren’t like any other prog band that was around at the time, or since. Prog bands often today are likened to Genesis/Marillion/IQ but rarely to TN. “We Are Sane” is about a Big Brother society where individuals are controlled by a small box they plug into their brains each day. The music swirls and changes, being beautiful and refreshing, or rocking and dramatic, as the need arises. There is a spoken word passage; all tricks utilised to make the song unusual and classic.
Following that is the more laid back “Human Being” which not only contains one of my favourite lyrics in any song (“If every time we tell a lie a little fairy dies, they must be building death camps in the garden”) but also a powerful bass solo which has to be one of the best bass riffs ever. “This City” again starts slowly, with children in the background and in some ways is almost Floydian except with far more menace and emotion from the Mann. It is stark and barren, with Geoff in total control. Next up is a small instrumental “World Without End” which acts as a gentle keyboard bridge into the title cut. It may only be four minutes long, but this keyboard dominated piece is one of their more powerful and thought provoking, all with no guitar! Given the current climate this song seems even more poignant “If the unthinkable should happen, and you hear the sirens call, Well you can always find some shelter behind a door against the wall, Don’t make me laugh!!”
This also gives way to an instrumental, “The Poet Sniffs A Flower” which features acoustic guitar and keys in gentle harmony until the drums kick in and they are off and racing, as they lead into the longest track on the album, the one with which Geoff will always be associated, “Creep Show”. It starts gently enough, and we are invited into the creep show to see the exhibits (as in “Karn Evil 9”, but here with an even more damning indictment on society). It is gentle, lulling and simple, or dramatic, rocking and complex. It can be a breaking voice, pure melody or a spoken statement of fact: whichever way you look at it this is one of the most important prog songs ever.
Given all of the horrors and complexity that has gone on before, the only way to end the album was with a gentle number that gave the listener the chance to reflect. “Love Song” is pure and delicate, as Geoff sings about the power of love and what it can achieve. It is a song of restrained emotion here in the studio, which became an outpouring when performed in concert. It builds and builds in tempo, on from the acoustic guitar to a more powerful prog rock number and to put it simply, out of all of the many thousands of songs I have heard over the years, this is my number one.
Of course, that was where the original album ended, 49 minutes of brilliance. But here we have now been treated to a great deal more. Disc one is subtitled “Studio: 1982”, and contains all of the songs from Revolution Studios, where the album had been recorded. This includes the original version of “Human Being” (called “Being Human”) plus a small interlude which linked to “East Of Eden”. This is one of the band’s most powerful stomping rock numbers (and was the song they performed on the David Essex Showcase!) and had originally been destined for the album but was instead released as a single along with “Eleanor Rigby”, which is also included.
That leads us into Disc Two, “Live: 1983-2012”, which includes live versions of all the tracks from the album, with three different singers (Geoff, Andy Sears and Mark Spencer). Some of these versions have previously been released on other albums, while there are also songs that are appearing for the first time. Of course the version of “Love Song” was taken From ‘Live and Let Live’, recorded at Geoff’s final gigs with the bands – the emotion is palpable, and I can remember playing this when it was first put out on CD and sitting there crying in front of the speakers, it had that much of an impact on me. Of all the other versions the one that I must mention is “Fact and Fiction”, recorded in 2012. By this time the line-up was Brian Devoil, Clive Mitten, Andy Revell, Dean Baker (keyboards, Galahad) and Mark Spencer (vocals, guitar, ex-Lahost and ex-Galahad, although now he is back with them again!). This absolutely belts along and I must confess that I never thought that it could sound anything like this, and it takes the number to a brand new level.
The CD closes with the 1982 demos that were first released as part of the 2002 Cyclops reissue. These start with “Constant (Fact and Fiction)”, which has nothing in common with “Fact and Fiction” and sounds like Geoff and Clive and a drum machine and is interesting but has to be taken as a work in progress, and was never developed any further. “Fistful Of Bubbles” shows the band experimenting with an almost reggae style in the chorus, and much more in the way of emotional guitar and is interesting but again was a work in progress. To the fan it has to be “Leader” that is by far the more interesting demo, as this is a song that had musically built out of a number called “Afghan Red” and would in turn become “Fact And Fiction”. The verse is musically almost the same, with some of the final lyrics, and it is fascinating. “Dancing In The Dream” is a poptastic keyboard led song that is fun and is a song I have found myself singing. It reminds me of Men Without Hats and I wonder if a finished version of this had been released as a single what would have happened? The very last song is a previously unreleased demo of the closing section of “Creepshow”, here titled “Creepshow (After The Bomb Drops)” which contains quite different lyrics, and ties is much more closely with “Fact and Fiction”.
The last CD is called “Covers and Interpretations: 1983 – 2018”. A special mention should be made here of Galahad, as at different times Dean Baker, Mark Spencer and Roy Keyworth were all members of Twelfth Night, and all appear on the second disc. On this last disc Galahad are credited once (but that is actually only Dean and Stu Nicholson with Brian Devoil on bongos), but Dean, Mark and Lee Abraham between them perform on another 7 songs on the CD, which shows just how important they have been to the later story of Twelfth Night. The majority of songs here are previously unreleased, and those involved have generally allowed their imagination to run riot.
A special mention here must be made of Mark Spencer’s totally solo recording of “We Are Sane”. I wasn’t too sure of the opening section as It felt that it was actually too quiet, but he captures the angst and emotion vocally on “The poster on the billboard”, and when he cranks into the guitars for the second section it is then that the initial quietness makes so much sense. I must confess to have never being a huge fan of Pendragon’s take on “Human Being”, which originally appeared on ‘Mannerisms’, as Peter Gee never really captured the presence of Clive Mitten, but it is great seeing it made more widely available again. Another person who appeared on ‘Mannerisms’ was Alan Reed, who performed “Love Song”, which also didn’t really work for me. But this time Mark Spencer provides the keyboards and arrangement, and it is performed as duet by Alan and Kim Seviour. This is easily the best version I have heard outside Twelfth Night or Geoff Mann, and is definitely well worth hearing. The final word, as if there could ever have been any doubt, belongs to the Mann. Recorded in 1992, and originally released on ‘Recorded Delivery’, the album closes with “Fact and Fiction” and “Love Song” recorded by Eh! Geoff Mann Band.
Released as a digipak, with a great booklet containing details of who played on what, now is the time to catch up on what is to my mind one of the very finest albums ever released. The total package is now some 3 ½ hours long, and every minute is a gem. If you are a Twelfth Night fan then this is simply indispensable, and if you have never come across them prior to this then you need to stop reading and jump over to the Twelfth Night site before this set is sold out. This is a limited edition single pressing, so when it’s gone it’s gone. I’m still taking it personally that they waited until I was on the other side of the world before they reformed and played some gigs, but until they decide to play again at a time when I am in the correct hemisphere this will keep returning to my player. Awesome.
Kev Rowland 10/10
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