by Kev Rowland | Jun 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
Sometimes, just sometimes, I come across an album that makes me wonder whether or not the world isn’t actually going to hell in a handbasket, and that there is still hope for music after all. This album has absolutely no right to exist in 2018 at all, let alone be a brand new release, as it sounds as if it has been sat in a vault for the last 50 years and has just been discovered. The line-up of Thor Erik Helgesen (Hammond L100, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron, Clavinet D6, Moog Satellite, Korg MS20, vocals), Håvard Rasmussen (bass, effects) and Dag Olav Husås (drums, timpani, percussion, effects), along with guest Karl Christian Grønhaug (saxophone) have created something very special indeed.
Musically they have been influenced by Atomic Rooster, ELP, The Nice, Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hamill, King Crimson, Gabriel-era Genesis and Yes, among others, and have then taken the influences and combined them into something very special indeed. Just three songs, but the album is forty minutes in length, and of course ,it has been released on vinyl as well as other mediums – it would have been wrong not to do so. I have very little information about the band, but according to their Facebook page they are from Karmøy, Norway, and produce “Progressive rock straight from 1971, but made today.” No guitar, but there just isn’t room for any, as Thor has obviously been heavily influenced by Emerson and Crane, producing some stunning organ, while Rasmussen provides the supporting role favoured by Lake (no vocals or guitar though), while Husås is a stunning drummer who has obviously been heavily influenced by Palmer. Grønhaug doesn’t play all the time, but when he is involved he takes the music to a whole new VDGG/Colosseum level.
Musical, melodic, drenched in nostalgia, I just love this album and could listen to it all day. From the artwork, through to the very last note, this is a very special album indeed. There aren’t many details available on this album, but try https://www.apollonrecords.n
by Kev Rowland | Jun 27, 2018 | Reviews
So, composer and keyboard player Ivan Rozmainsky is back with the same line-up as last time, except where he has extended his musical traveling even further. The album consists of 14 tracks and lasts 63 minutes. Various keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, flute, and trumpet are supplemented by exotic kinds of percussion, mandolin, bass clarinet and even a string quartet! Musically Roz Vitalis are often viewed as being part of the RIO and Avant prog movement, but given that I listen to an incredible amount of RIO these days this now seems quite mainstream to me! At the very heart of the music, as always, is Ivan either providing keyboards or adding the complex simplicity of his piano. With the use of strings and brass on this album, there is an additional depth that may have been missing in the past, but given that I have enjoyed every album of theirs that I have heard I am possibly not really fit to judge too much!
That they are one of the finest progressive bands around at the moment is never in doubt, and each time I play this album I find myself getting totally lost inside its majesty. This album, even more so than their others, takes Ivan much more into the realms of being a modern orchestral composer who knows just want to get from each of the instruments at his disposable,. Creating a seamless piece of music that moves from one movement to the next. I love the way that the violins at the commencement of “Wounded By The Lion and Adder” start in perfect harmony and then lose that togetherness as the song progresses, quite deliberately, before moving into a full string quartet. The unusual combination of memorable/hooking melodies and sophisticated compositional structures with a complex system of leitmotivs makes for a very impressive album indeed.
– Kev Rowland
by Kev Rowland | Jun 18, 2018 | Reviews
‘Starebaby’ is the new release by drummer/composer Dan Weiss, and is an attempt to combined improvised jazz with heavy metal and electronic music. Weiss is well-known as a jazz drummer, performing with musicians as disparate as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chris Potter, John Zorn, and Jen Shyu, but here he is attempting to combine this background with metallic influences. For this release he has cited influences as diverse as Meshuggah, Burning Witch, High On Fire, Gorguts, early Metallica, Wormed, Confessor, Stockhausen, Bernard Parmegiani, Luc Ferrari, and every type of jazz ranging from Sidney Bechet to Threadgill. Apparently it is also inspired by Season 3 of the television show Twin Peaks, whose surreal, ominous emotional landscape helped shape the overall feel of this music.
Although there are some electric guitars here and there, this album isn’t nearly as heavy as one would expect from the influences listed, and instead comes across as a improvisational jazz album that is often led by keyboards/piano, with a pervading chill through the proceedings. It is highly cinematic, with a bleak outlook, and extremely experimental, moving happily through boundaries of how music would normally be described into areas that almost fit into the electronic noise spectrum. It is an incredibly compelling piece of work, with the feeling that although there may be chaos, all those involved have a singular vision, just different ways of getting there. Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell on keyboards, piano, and electronics, Ben Monder on guitar, and Trevor Dunn on bass, all well-known in the jazz improve scene also share a love for heavy metal, which comes through. Weiss played with the doom metal band Bloody Panda a dozen years ago and Dunn was a member of the experimental rock bands Mr. Bungle and Fantômas with Faith No More singer Mike Patton, so it isn’t too surprising that they have a real affinity with what they are attempting to achieve.
This won’t be to everyone’s musical tastes, but for those who enjoy stretching the musical boundaries then there is a great deal here to enjoy. https://pirecordings.com
7/10
by Kev Rowland
by Kev Rowland | Jun 18, 2018 | Reviews
‘Iter Itineris III’ is the third in a series of albums by experimental ensemble Epos Nemo Latrocinium (according to Google translate it means ‘Epic No Privacy’), and was recorded live in the studio. It features Noisepoetnobody on metal objects and stringboard, Tatsuya Nakatani on percussion and Joy Von Spain on piano and vocals (although the album itself is mainly instrumental). This is freeform music that is stretching the very definition of the word, mixing instruments and effects that attempt to rewrite what we expect from music itself. There are times when it is simply noise, others when it comes together in perfect disharmony, and others when somehow it makes perfect sense. I know my own musical tastes have expanded greatly over the years as I know that if I had been sent this even ten years ago I would have discounted it harshly, but now that I try to listen to Art Zoyd on a daily basis I am far more accepting of what they are attempting to achieve, and for the most part they get there.
Tatsuya Nakatani is a Japanese avant-garde percussionist and acoustic sound artist. Based in New Mexico, he has released over eighty recordings and tours internationally. Performing solo, in collaboration, and with his Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO) project he plays over one hundred concerts a year. For well over fifteen years, Casey Chittenden Jones has been soundtracking the collapse of civilization under the moniker Noisepoetnobody. Utilizing homemade instruments and modular synthesizers to create haunting, discordant, and broken sounds to express the need for creativity in a dying ecosystem. Joy Von Spain is a Seattle-based vocalist and instrumentalist (Eye Of Nix, To End It All). As a student, she learned composition and orchestration with Donald Erb, and early music with members of Sequentia and the Baltimore Consort. Now primarily playing experimental metal and death industrial, she has also worked with Butoh performers for the last decade, utilizing vocals, keyboards, or drums.
This is not music for everybody, in fact most would argue that this isn’t music at all, but for those select few (such as myself), this is an experiment well worth investigating.
7/10
by Kev Rowland
by Kev Rowland | Jun 18, 2018 | Reviews
And so, the accidental band are back. Originally destined to be Matt Stevens’ second solo album, TFATD have morphed into possibly the most important instrumental rock act in the UK today. Comprising Matt (guitar, synth, piano), Kev Feazey (bass, programming, synth, percussion), Steve Cleaton (guitar, piano) and Stuart Marshall (drums, percussion) they have gained an amazing following (The Fierce Army) over the last few years, due in no small part to be a great live act who have found new fans wherever they have played. They can often be found playing with their mates Hawkwind, and gained huge kudos from their gig last year with Monkey3 at The Borderline.
Here they are back with their third studio album, which follows on from 2013’s ‘Spooky Action’ (they released the live ‘Field Recordings’ last year). It is incredibly hard to categorise their sound as it comprises elements from post rock, math rock, space, rock, prog and hard rock all thrown into a metallic melting pot. There are times when it feels that the band are just bouncing ideas off each other in the studio, jamming live, when at others it feels slightly more structured but whatever they are doing it always contains a mighty groove that makes the listener to move along to the music. Due to the small matter of geography I have never seen the guys play (they formed four years after I moved to the other side of the world), which I know is very much my loss, as while this is a great album I know that in concert it will be turned into something that is quite another level.
TFATD have stayed true to their roots to this album, and that the mainstream is starting to embrace them has far more to do with the rest of the world coming to grips with how good they are as opposed any “selling out”. This is an incredibly easy album to listen to, although with the distorted riffs sweeping through my brain I could never call them easy listening. This could well be the album that breaks them through to the big time, and it will be richly deserved. If you haven’t come across them before this, now is the time.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fierceandthedead/
9/10
By Kev Rowland
