Melodic Revolution Records is thrilled to announce the upcoming release Chasing the Lesser Light by US Symphonic Prog band Kinetic Element.
Chasing the Lesser Light is a sixty-minute symphonic prog journey through human’s desire to explore space. From the lunar missions of 50 years ago to the present-day planning for a journey to Mars.
Five songs cover the past, present, and future:
1) First Stage (6:15) – contemplating space travel, as we learn to fly high without wings. 2) Chasing the Lesser Light (19:50) – landing on the moon, and seeing the earth as one world. 3) Radio Silence (9:55) – the perils of space travel, with the emotional impact on an astronaut’s son. 4) We Can’t Forget (11:35) – glancing back at the moon, as we look ahead to mars. 5) Door To Forever (15:18) – reopening the door to space travel, and to become the Starman in the sky.
The cover artwork portrays space travel as commonplace with a man in a business suit and helmet, as he observes an Apollo launch that brought a nation and the world together.
Mike Visaggio: Piano, Organ, & Synthesizers Michael Murray: Drums Mark Tupko: Bass Saint. John Coleman: Vocals Peter Matuchniak: Guitars
Track 2, 5, by Mike Visaggio Track 1, 3, by Peter Matuchniak Track 4, by Mike Visaggio and Peter Matuchniak
All arrangements by Kinetic Element Mixed and mastered by Peter Matuchniak Engineered by Michael Murray, Peter Matuchniak Layout and Graphics, Man in the Mountain
Kinetic Element is a neo/symphonic progressive rock band from Richmond, Virginia that harbors musical roots in classic artists like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Asia and Genesis and blends those influences with philosophical and spiritually powerful and uplifting lyrics. They are a known act in the prog-rock genre.
Kinetic Element has been invited to perform at the Winters End Festival UK on April 1st, 2023, the band has also performed at many prestigious festival in the past i.e., Prog Day, RoSFest, Progtoberfest, ProgStock, in the USA and Terra Incognita in Canada
Let Go” is a new collection of songs written and recorded by multi-instrumentalist Matt Dorsey. Stylistically it stands as a blend of all the artists and bands that influenced him including, Rush, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, XTC, The Police, Peter Gabriel, Steely Dan and more. It can be described as progressive-pop-rock. On it Matt sings and plays guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion and, on two of the songs, the drums. Marco Minnemann provides drums on three tracks and Jonathan Mover on another three. Dave Kerzner performs a keyboard solo that he wrote for one of the songs.
Says Matt, “‘Let Go’ is a collection of songs that cover many aspects of life. I studied philosophy in college and the first song I wrote following my studies was MAN, which is something of a summary of the human condition and a celebration of the mystery and miracle of human existence. Following my college days, I shifted my focus from western to eastern philosophy and you can hear a sense of that influence in the song Echo which expresses a deep connection with all living things. ‘Let Go,’ too, is a reflection of the eastern philosophical tradition expressing a sort of taoist disposition toward the flow of things and a zen-like non-attachment. Waiting for the Fall and Castles Made of Sand are a bit darker, expressing a more existential despair, the one about perpetual failure and the other about the fleeting nature of time. But, to round the album out, Compromise, Dangerous and Impossible Friends are more straight-forward love songs. Life is many things. Art should reflect that. ‘Let Go’ is an album about the philosophy of life.”
The album contains 8 tracks recorded almost entirely at Matt’s home studio in Orange County, except for the drum tracks provided by Minnemann and Mover, and the keyboard solo by Kerzner. The album was mixed by Matt and mastered by Andy VanDette. The album artwork was created by Ed Unitsky.
Best known as a founding member of Sound of Contact, he has also played with Beth Hart, Dave Kerzner, In Continuum, and most recently with the all-star progressive rock cover band ProgJect.
Says Matt, “I hope those who listen to my music actually get something meaningful or useful out of it, even if it’s just the enjoyment of the rhythms and melodies or the tapping of the foot. If one gleans anything more deeply significant, all the better. If I’m honest, I write and play music entirely for the sheer joy of it. I guess that’s a bit selfish to say. That said, I know there is power in music, to be sure, and it can move people in very potent ways. I feel privileged to be a part of that. I guess to sum it up my message is simply, life is extraordinary and we would do well to look longer and more carefully at it.”
Track List:
1. Castles Made of Sand 2. Compromise 3. Waiting for the Fall 4. Man 5. Impossible Friends 6. Echo 7. Let Go 8. Dangerous
Arjen Lucassen’s Supersonic Revolution will release their spectacular debut album Golden Age of Music on May 19 via Music Theories Recording/Mascot Label Group.
You can watch the lyric video for “SR Prelude & The Glamattack”
You think you know Arjen Lucassen? Towering Dutch prog rock polymath? The man behind the super successful prog rock conceptualists Ayreon? Not to mention his prog metal of Star One and Guilt Machine? Enormous overarching concept albums about space and time, packed to the hilt with special guests that read like a who’s who of modern day progressive rock? Arjen Lucassen? Well, think again…
Supersonic Revolution, the band behind ‘Golden Age Of Music’, are simply five men: Arjen on bass, long-standing keyboard player Joost van den Broek, guitarist Timo Somers, drummer Koen Herfst and singer Jaycee. Five men rocking out and having one hell of a time doing it.
The whole project grew from a request to provide a track for a cover CD for the German music magazine Eclipsed. “They asked if I had any cover versions lying around,” he recalls. “I said, ‘No but I’ll happily record one for you.’ So, they gave me a list of bands and I saw a ZZ Top song ‘I Heard It On The X’ that I really like. I said I could record it for them, but then they told me it had to be ready in one week…”
“I was like ‘Oh my god!’. I contacted my favorite musicians in Holland via WhatsApp and literally within 30 minutes I had assembled five people. A band basically. From there the seed was sown in Lucassen’s mind. ‘I want to form a band. And I want to simply have fun!’.
“I’m a perfectionist as you know, so I’m always sending musicians their parts back and asking them to change stuff,” he acknowledges. “But this was all brilliant. We were having fun, calling and WhatsApping all the time, and within a week we had a complete product.” He continues, “Also I wanted to have an up-beat, positive project.”
“I was like, let’s form a band and let’s write songs in the style of the 70s, and have the lyrics be a celebration of all the memorable things from that time, because those were my formative years,” he enthuses. “But I didn’t want it to sound like the 70s because that’s already been done, and I can’t do it any better than ‘Stargazer’ or ‘Kashmir’.”
“The guys are all younger than me – around 30 – so they weren’t even alive yet in the 70s. So, it was a great way for me to make 70s music with lots of Hammond and blistering guitars, but to update it to this time.”
The end result is 11 tracks of high energy, progressively inclined heavy rock that swings with the kind of groove Deep Purple rocked with in the early to mid-1970s. “This album is not a typical prog album. It’s not Yes or Genesis. But it’s not a metal album either. There’s a track called ‘Burn it Down’,” Lucassen notes, “it’s totally based on ‘Smoke On The Water’ but written from the perspective of the ‘stupid with a flare gun’ mentioned in the original lyrics.
The album also features covers of some legendary songs given the Arjen Lucassen treatment as bonus tracks: T-Rex’s ‘Children of the Revolution,’ ZZ Top’s ‘Heard It On The X,’ Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘Fantasy’ and Roger Glover’s ‘Love Is All.’
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the real Arjen Lucassen. Job done. Having fun.
01 SR Prelude 02 The Glamattack 03 Golden Age Of Music 04 The Rise Of The Starman 05 Burn It Down 06 Odyssey 07 They Took Us By Storm 08 Golden Boy 09 Holy Holy Ground 10 Fight Of The Century 11 Came To Mock, Stayed To Rock 12 Children Of The Revolution (Bonus Track) 13 Heard It On The X (Bonus Track) 14 Fantasy (Bonus Track) 15 Love Is All (Bonus Track)
The album will be available on various formats; 2LP Transparent Blue, 2LP Pink Marble, 2LP Purple Marble, 2LP Yellow Marble, CD, Digitally and Artbook. You can pre-order it from here: https://lnk.to/SupersonicRevolution
Christian Progressive Rock FromFort Walton Beach, Florida.
Newcomers, Ascher, premiered their video, ‘The Great Divide’, to promote the first single from their upcoming debut album, Beginnings, today. The performance video was edited in black and white and features the members of Ascher interspersed with several anonymous clips that help convery the message of the song.
The Great Divide was written by Doug Bowers to convey feelings he had concerning friendships ‘lost along the way’. The lyric, “Time is not the enemy – Does not provide the wait-and-see” is the writer’s way of saying that that the passage of time time cannot be blamed for the loss of a friendship and it doesn’t necessarily heal all wounds. It is up to the individual to keep relationships alive. The song came about late in the writing sessions for the album, ‘Beginnings’, and each band member’s contributions during the recording sessions made the song the standout piece that it is.
‘The Great Divide’ is currently available as a digital download at Ascher’s Bandcamp site. The page also contains the song’s lyrics. Vocals and lead guitars were recorded remotely by Kyle Graves and Rob Perez respectively with the bulk of the song recorded at Berwood South in Fort Walton Beach by Doug Bowers. The song was mixed and mastered by Doug Bowers at Berwood South.
The Great Divide is the first single from the album, Beginnings.
THE GREAT DIVIDE LYRICS
Here in the shadows of a self-made reality, the product of all I have known Built from assurance that the life out in front of me was all that my mind’s eye was shown
Here, now, we never thought to figure in the how Gaze, smile, this moment will be gone in just a while, just a while
Reaching for promise while lost in the innocence of youthful dreams so far, so neatly placed No thought of the notion that a hat tip to common sense might help ease the future that I faced
Youth, haste, too much to do to let time go to waste Friends lost, in moving on I didn’t count the cost
Time is not the enemy, does not provide the wait and see We all must face the truth to heal our wounds The great divide will only grow if left unchecked the seeds we sew Will bind us
Left to my thoughts and consumed by the arrogance of a life well lived, the product of my goals Behind me the paths that might have been my inheritance, untrod, my unfulfilling roles
Truth, lies, the compass I create I will despise Give, take, the moment won’t exist for its own sake
Time is not the enemy, does not provide the wait and see We all must face the truth to heal our wounds The great divide will only grow if left unchecked the seeds we sew Will bind us
A message from a long-lost friend arrived yesterday In it, I heard faint echoes from my past The great divide with no amend had led us astray If only time could make that friendship last
But, time is not the enemy, does not provide the wait and see We all must face the truth to heal our wounds The great divide will only grow if left unchecked the seeds we sew Will yield the vines that grow, surround, and bind us
Song Credits
Music and Lyrics by Doug Bowers Recorded by Doug Bowers, Rob Perez, and Kyle Graves Mixed and mastered by Doug Bowers
Ascher is:
Doug Bowers: Keyboards, Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar, Percussion Programming, Lead and Backing Vocals Blake Dickeson: Acoustic and Electric Rhythm Guitars Rob Perez: Lead Guitar Kyle Graves: Lead and Backing Vocals
RIVERSIDE are set to begin their worldwide touring campaign for “ID.Entity” this Friday, Feb 17th in Tampa, Fl. The tour takes them across North America thru March. Ticket info: https://riversideband.pl/en/gigs
RIVERSIDE – “ID.Entity” – Live 2023:
RIVERSIDE new studio album “ID.Entity” managed to appear in various international sales charts as follows:RIVERSIDE – “ID.Entity” – Chart Positions: Germany: # 4 Poland: # 2 Switzerland: # 6 The Netherlands: # 9 Finland: # 14 Austria: # 22 Belgium: # 97 France: # 155 UK: # 89 UK / Rock Charts: # 3 USA / Top New Artist Albums: # 7 USA / Current Album Sales: # 61 USA / Hard Music Albums: # 9 USA / Current Rock Albums: # 20
“ID.Entity”, the group’s 8th studio album was recorded and mixed in two studios – The Boogie Town Studio in Otwock with Paweł Marciniak and in Serakos studio in Warsaw with Magda and Robert Srzedniccy -, mastered by Robert Szydło and produced by RIVERSIDE’s Mariusz Duda himself. The “ID.Entity” artwork was created by Polish artist Jarek Kubicki. Order “ID.Entity” in its various formats here: https://riverside.lnk.to/IDEntity
RIVERSIDE – “ID.Entity” (53:11) Tracklist: 1. Friend or Foe? (07:29) 2. Landmine Blast (04:50) 3. Big Tech Brother (07:24) 4. Post-Truth (05:37) 5. The Place Where I Belong (13:16) 6. I’m Done With You (05:52) 7. Self-Aware (8:43)
The bonus material appearing on “ID.Entity” includes the instrumental tracks “Age of Anger” (11:56) and “Together Again” (06:29) as well as “Friend or Foe? (Single Edit)” (05:59) and “Self-Aware (Single Edit)” (05:29).
RIVERSIDE line-up: (From left to right on photo by Radek Zawadzki) Michał Łapaj – keyboards and Hammond Organ Mariusz Duda – vocal, bass Maciej Meller – guitar Piotr Kozieradzki – drums
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