New US progressive rock group, Ascher, release their debut album ‘Beginnings’ today, March 16th. The album, containing five instrumental pieces and four songs, clocks in at fifty-seven minutes. From the opening instrumental title track to the bonus track closer, “The Instrumental Divide,” the album flows seamlessly through a sonic landscape of guitar-driven rock, vintage keyboard wizardry, and a lofty hook-laden ballad. The instrumental pieces power through enough time signature and meter changes to keep the die-hard prog fan happy while the thought provoking songs reveal a more grounded down to earth feel.
The band features Doug Bowers (Guitars/Keys/Bass/Vocals), Blake Dickeson (Rhythm Guitars), Rob Perez (Lead Guitar), and Kyle Graves (Lead Vocals).
Beginnings will be available via the band’s Bandcamp page as well as all digital music retailers and streaming sites. Lyrics are also available on Ascher’s Bandcamp page. https://ascher1.bandcamp.com/album/beginnings
To coincide with the release of the album, Ascher has released video for the track, “What the World Can’t Give,” which you can see here:
The band released their first single, “The Great Divide,” in February accompanied by a video.
Doug Bowers (Ad Astra, KDB3, Vertical Alignment) and Rob Perez (Visual Cliff, Bluesyndrome) have been collaborating on one another’s projects for years. A short-lived band formed in 2021 and disbanded in early 2022 yielded many co-written instrumental pieces that never saw the light of day. Toward the end of 2022, Doug began collaborating with guitarist, Blake Dickeson, fleshing out some musical ideas that Blake had developed over the years, Rob was brought in to add tasty lead guitar to the effort. When Rob suggested that the trio revisit some of the unfinished instrumental pieces, it was decided that a band might be the best expression of their growing repertoire. Thus Ascher was born. It quickly became apparent that Doug was not up to singing the melodies he was writing for his lyrics and the search for a proper singer was soon underway. Rob suggested a singer that he had recently encountered. Kyle Graves was writing lyrics for an upcoming album for Rob and Rob felt he would be a perfect fit for Ascher. Rob was right and the band was complete.
Tracklisting:
1. Beginnings (6:03) 2. In the Clear Distance (5:07)
3. The Great Divide (7:44) 4. Ransom For the Righteous (6:19) 5. De Profundis (7:58) 6. Nail Soup (5:27) 7. What the World Can’t Give (6:03) 8. Wheels Turning Now (4:12) https://ascher1.bandcamp.com/album/beginnings
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
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
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
Big Big Train are delighted to announce 15 further shows in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK to take place in August and September 2023.
These additional dates form part of the band’s The Journey Continues tour and are in addition to the band’s previously announced headlining appearance at the 2 Days + 1 Festival in Italy on 2nd September 2023. At these performances the band will be promoting the forthcoming Ingenious Devicesalbum, which will be released on 30th June 2023.
For these shows Big Big Train will consist of lead vocalist Alberto Bravin, drummer Nick D’Virgilio, guitarist/keyboardist Rikard Sjöblom, bassist Gregory Spawton, violinist Clare Lindley, keyboardist Oskar Holldorff and guitarist Maria Barbieri. Barbieri is deputising for Dave Foster, who has prior commitments in September with the Steve Rothery Band. The Big Big Train brass ensemble, led by trombonist Dave Desmond, will perform at all shows.
Alberto Bravin says: “After the shows we played in the UK and the Netherlands back in September, I cannot wait to get back on stage again with Big Big Train later this year. I remain truly grateful to the fans for welcoming me so warmly at last year’s shows and am excited about BBT touring more extensively.”
Rikard Sjöblom adds: “I have been campaigning for a long time for Big Big Train to come to Sweden, so I am really pleased that we’re bringing the band for the first time not only to my home country for two shows but also to play two other dates in Denmark and Norway. I hope the Scandinavian prog fans will come out in force to see us live!”
Nick D’Virgilio says: “As we’re doing two nights at the beautiful Cadogan Hall in London, these will be very special shows with about 45 minutes of material being played at one show which will not be performed at the other.”
Gregory Spawton concludes: “As 2023 begins, I’m very confident about Big Train’s future. Apart from playing live this year, we will also be recording a new studio album for release in 2024 and are looking forward to taking BBT across the Atlantic for Cruise To The Edge in March next year.”
Tickets for all shows go on sale at 10am UK time on Friday 10th February.
Support at all shows except Wednesday 13th September comes from rising Norwegian stars Dim Gray, who feature Oskar Holldorff. There will be no support at the Wednesday 13th September show.
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