The Argentinian-born Carla Campopiano has been an important part of the Chicago tango scene since 2015. The flutist has also been exposed to jazz and blues, resulting in her leaving her tango performances open to the improvising and chance taking spirit of jazz. On this album she has been joined by acoustic guitarist Angel Collacilli and percussionist Gustavo Cortiñas Fouilloux, and they take the listener on a wondrous ride through multiple musical areas, yet all with a South American lilt. With just one song containing bass, the whole album feels different from the offset, as it is just the flute, acoustic guitar and drums interacting and responding to the melodies being delivered by Carla. There are times when Angel takes the fore, but for the most part he is there with Gustavo to provide the perfect support.
I have long been a fan of the flute, in all forms of music, and even tried to play it for a while in my youth, and to hear it in the hands of a master of the instrument is an absolute delight. With jazz, blues, tango and so much more being wrapped into a glorious collage of sound, this album is a summery delight which should be in the collection of all good music lovers.
I am not sure when I first came across this album, but it wasn’t when it was first released in 1973 but some time in the Eighties. I was immediately blown away by the concept of having two keyboard players, and no guitar, and while some likened them to ELP I never really saw (or heard) the link. Yes, there are long instrumentals, but singer (and second keyboard player) Dave Lawson had a very different voice to Greg Lake. I know he is often castigated for his vocals, but I personally never felt there was an issue and actually enjoy his singing, especially on the opening title cut.
This was the second album by Greenslade, who were formed by Dave Greenslade after the break-up of Colosseum. He brought on board fellow Colosseum founder member bassist Tony Reeves, who had left after contributing to just one song on ‘Daughter of Time’, along with Lawson (Samurai, and had also been a member of The Alan Bown Set and Web) along with drummer Andrew McCulloch (King Crimson, Fields). Many fans say the debut Greenslade album is the best, while the third ‘Spyglass Guest’ was the commercially most successful, but this is always the album to which I turn. It captures a time when anything was possible, and the band certainly felt they weren’t restricted on what they were doing. At this point within the British music scene there was the feeling that boundaries were there to be broken and pushed aside, and while Greenslade never really managed to capture the fan base of their contemporaries, to my ears it was never due to lack of songs or ability. Listening to this album on headphones, some 35 years on from its original release, still fills me with a great deal of pleasure and I know that many progheads who have overlooked this in the past will also feel the same way.
But wait, there’s more! I have been fortunate enough to have in front of me the reissue on Esoteric, and as always, they never feel just making an album available again is enough. So, firstly we have three additional songs which were recorded for the Radio One ‘Sounds of the Seventies’ series, from October 1973. Then there is a second disc, a DVD featuring five numbers. The first three are a live in the studio promotional film, while the other two are from the wonderful OGWT. It has been a hard choice for me as to what to play most, and in terms of pure listening it is the CD, but the films are also well worth watching. This is a superb set, which has been making its way repeatedly back to my player, and deservedly so.
This 2017 album is the debut from ATME, a Wrocław based rock band who could probably be accurately described as progressive in its truest sense as opposed to regressing back into what has come before. The band itself have a standard quartet line-up of Łukasz „Luke” Pawełoszek (vocals), Piotr Guliński (guitars), Adrian Nejman (bass, vocals) and Paweł Zborowski (drums), but it gets rather more interesting when looking at what the guests bring to bear, which includes female vocals, saxophone, gongs, Tibetan bowls, koshi, didgeridoo and even concha. I kept being reminded of Muse crossed with Porcupine Tree with plenty of jazz influences and some world, but even that isn’t right. When the guys decide to just let rip then it is modern metal with a real groove, but it never stays that way for too long. The music continually shifts and moves, all tied together with great vocals (in English), and space is used as an additional instrument with a very strong part to play, keeping the layers separate and providing additional intensity.
The production is superb, stand up Marek Dziedzic of Uniq Sound Studio, and captures a band both full of confidence and on top of the game. This certainly doesn’t come across as a debut, and definitely doesn’t feel like an independent release either. The digipak CD comes with a full booklet containing all the lyrics, and it is hard to understand why this hasn’t been picked up by a major label for at least distribution if not a full release. Their Facebook page is active, so I can only hope that we will soon get another album from these guys, as this is experimental and daring while also being part of the mainstream and truly needs to be discovered. Listen to “Passing Through The Horizon” and I can ensure you will be enthralled: Progressive rock in the truest sense of the term. 7/10 Kev Rowand
To many, Graham Bonnet will always be associated primarily with Rainbow and then with MSG, but it must also be remembered he had his first hit single with The Marbles in 1968. In 1983, he co-founded Alcatrazz, with Gary Shea (bass), and Jimmy Waldo (keyboards) of the band New England, former Alice Cooper drummer Jan Uvena, and Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen.
Just a quick side note, New England’s debut album is still one of my very favorite of the melodic AOR genre, and if you have never heard it then you need to seek it out. Needless to say, there were line-up changes, bitterness and fights over the years, and at one point there were even two versions of the band in existence, and long periods when everyone was moving in different directions, but Graham, Jimmy and Gary Shea, reunited after 33 years for a unique series of shows in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo, Japan on March 2017. For the special occasion, the band was rounded out by Mark Benquechea (drums) and Conrado Pesinato (guitars), both from the Graham Bonnet Band. In addition to this recording and filming the event, Alcatrazz raided the archives and added some unreleased bonus tracks taken from the original sessions recorded in 1985, including one song, “Emotion” with a young Steve Vai on guitar. The first thing one notices is that Bonnet has lost absolutely none of his power or range, and this from a singer who was in his 70thyear when this recorded. Just listen to the way he hits and holds the notes on “God Blessed Video”. I must confess, hearing this inspired me to go back and look at the original video of this from 1985 and it still makes me smile – Steve Vai showing exactly what he was capable of – and all credit to Conrado Pesinato who doesn’t do a bad job at all. If this wasn’t enough for the fans, the 11 “live” numbers have been boosted by another seven studio demos and rehearsals. This is a real blast from the past, and if you enjoy Eighties melodic rock then this is essential.
This is the first album from The Minstrel’s Ghost since 2012 and is also planned to be the final release from the band as leader Blake Carpenter has decided it is time to move on. Blake provides some of the lead vocals, plus rhythm guitar and keyboards, and is again joined by Tony James Martin (bass, lead vocals). Jartse Tuominen has joined to provide lead guitar (which was provided by the much-missed Colin Tench on the last album), and drums this time are by Mark Troup (who also provides lead and harmony vocals). There is something missing from this album, as there is no real spark or vitality. There is nothing inherently awful about it, but it feels as if it is just meandering along waiting for an idea. It certainly doesn’t sound as if it is the third release by a band, and if I had been just given this without any information I would have expected it to have been a debut release by an unsigned band, as opposed to something on the mighty MRR.
Yes, it is a dark tale, but there are too many times when it feels contrived and false as if there was no real heart and soul, no emotional connection with what was being performed. It is an album which I have to say didn’t improve with repeated playing and is one I can’t imagine I will ever be returning to.
It was with is third album that Breton musician Alan Simon really made a huge impact, 1999’s ‘Excalibur, La Légende des Celtes’. As with the further albums in the series, he used a combination of well-known musicians and singers (in that instance it included the likes Roger Hodgson, Fairport Convention, Dan Ar Braz, Tri Yann, Angelo Branduardi, Didier Lockwood and Gabriel Yacoub). There have been three further albums in the series, and now we are treated with a compilation which takes songs from all of the ‘Excalibur’ studio albums plus ‘Tristan & Yseult’. The theme which ties all these together is in the title, in that every song features a female lead vocalist.
It is hard to imagine another collection which features singers of this calibre, as here are treated to performances by Moya Brennan, Maddy Prior, Karan Casey, Kohann, Siobhan Owen, Jacqui McShee, Nikki Matheson, Sonja Kristina and Maite Itoiz. I must confess to not knowing a couple of the names prior to playing this, but they certainly stand up within the august company. Musically this of course is full of the classical/folk/progressive elements we have all become used to with the ‘Excalibur’ series with rock guitars happily alongside trippy keyboards or flute, bagpipes, acoustic guitar, violin etc. Some songs are almost pop rock in their approach, while others are traditional with a capital “T” (suddenly I feel inspired to go and dig out some Horslips). All of them are joined together with stunning vocals, and with all the lyrics contained within the booklet, plus details of who sang on which song, it seems somewhat churlish to say I wish I also knew which musicians who had been involved as well. Putting that to one side, this really is a superb album, with vocals to die for. 8/10
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