I decided to go over to the band site to get some more information, only to discover that the site itself is incredibly poor, but I did learn something, namely that they call their style neo-grunge. Now, I thought I was pretty up on the sub-sub-genres, but I must confess that this is a new one on me, especially when however I think about it, it’s not at all accurate! The Dutchmen may think that they are taking influences from the end of the Eighties, but they’re nearly twenty years out, as this is early Seventies/late Sixties to a tee, as they bring together Blue Cheer, Free, Taste, Sabbath, and others into a glorious noise.
The rhythm section keeps it tight, while the guitar pumps out riffs and chords that are fat enough to saddle and go for a ride on, and then at the front, there is singer Daan Dekker. The guy has a wonderfully broad emotional set of pipes, and he knows it. I haven’t seen any live performances, but if he doesn’t absolutely own the stage then I would be amazed. The band gives him the platform to strut his stuff, and he does that with aplomb. This is honest music, with no room to hide, as they just lock into the groove and I find it almost impossible to sit still while listening to it as it is just so infectious. This is real music from real musicians, who don’t feel a need to produce to any sort of expectation but instead have produced music from the heart. Solid stuff.
When keyboard player Chris Malmgren contacted me to let him know that Ovrfwrd were releasing a new album, recorded live in the studio, I was definitely interested. Recorded and filmed live at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, MN (Nirvana, Live, PJ Harvey, Soul Asylum) on August 5thand 6th, 2017 it features music from the first two albums (‘Beyond the Visible Light’, 2015, and ‘Fantasy Absent Reason’ from 2016) as well as new unreleased music for an album they are currently working on. Chris, along with Rikki Davenport (drums), Mark Ilaug (guitar) and Kyle Lund (bass) have produced some of the best instrumental progressive rock music for a few years now, and it is incredible to realize that this a live recording as they definitely nail it.
Influence-wise I have previously stated that they combine the likes of King Crimson and Discipline in their music, and give that much of this is taken from their first two albums there is no surprise that this is still the case, but there are times when one thinks that Spock’s Beard have had a part to play, or Arena, or Dialeto, while there are times when they bring infusion and make it centre stage. There is a great deal going on, but the guys never lose focus and there is no room for any meandering as the intent is always clear and there is just no room at all for any vocals! Al four play to their strengths, and while Mark and Chris often are taking the melody leads, the contra-melodies from Kyle and the aggressive attack from Rikki all make the music what it is.
All in all, this is an incredibly intense and enjoyable progressive rock album, one that I have no hesitation at all in highly recommending to anyone who enjoys this style of music. I suggest you play the video for ‘Unitopia Planitia” and then buy the album.
Formed in late 2014 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, these guys came to the attention of Frontiers Music in 2017 who immediately signed them up, and now here they are with their debut album. The band features singer Kent Hilli together with Rolf Nordström on guitar, P-O Sedin on bass, Fredrik Forsberg on drums and Leif Ehlin on keyboards, and what makes them so very interesting is the way that they are combining classic Scandinavian AOR (such Work of Art, Treat, early Europe) with nods to legends like Giant, Foreigner, and Journey. In many ways, it feels as if we have been taken back to the classic days of AOR, yet it also feels very now, polished but not with too much sweetness. It is a given that Jeff Scott Soto has had a major impact on their sound, and there are a few times when it could almost be a modern Talisman strutting their stuff. That at times they also use a good old fashioned organ also gives their music depth and passion. I know that everyone had to be having a blast in the studio when this was being put together, as it shines through in the final product.
Everyone thought that grunge would kill this style of music forever, but Perfect Plan demonstrates that it is very much alive and kicking nearly 30 years after ‘Bleach’ made such an impact on the world. There are times when they do veer a little too close to Michael Bolton-style power ballads, but when they get it right these guys are a force to be reckoned with. Their more up-tempo songs such as “Stone Cold Lover” gives Kent a real chance to shine, and the eighties-style synth bubbling away in the background definitely provides additional charm. These guys are going to have a quite a future in the melodic rock genre, and this is well worth hearing.
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.
‘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
‘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.
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