Showing posts with label progressive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progressive. Show all posts

Friday, December 12, 2008

King Crimson - Islands


A sadly overlooked KC that's one of my personal faves. In this one Boz Burrell plays bass (taught by Fripp) and sings, and with Pete Sinfield's lyrics at their most baroque. Free jazzers Keith Tippett, Harry Miller and Mark Charig all contribute. A little gem.

The Letter

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Goblin - Suspiria


Speaking of Dario Argento, here's the soundtrack to his film Suspiria by the Italian prog band Goblin.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

King Crimson - Red (1974)


Is this another King Crimson masterpiece?! You bet your motherfucking sack it is mah boi!

This is a true masterpiece and one of King Crimson's best. Without a doubt, "Starless" might be one of my favorite songs ever. Here's some great info on this masterpiece.

(Review from progreviews.com, vintageprog.com, wikipedia)

With David Cross' exit from the band, King Crimson forged ahead as a trio, and produced this, the last album Crimson would make in the 70s. Red is often cited as the strongest of the three Larks'-era albums, and sometimes of King Crimson's entire discography. Generally, here the band is consistently heavier in force and tighter in focus than ever before, with the departure of any remaining possibility for the violin line of abandon from Cross.

The first side is a juggernaut of solid musicianship and probably represents the most accessible and distilled album side for this era of the band. The title-track opens the album, and is as typical for this version of Crimson as it can get, consisting of a simple but yet powerful and heavy riff that carries the track all the way through. "Fallen Angel" is a strong vocal-track with the mellotron mixed very far back in the sound on the verse, while the chorus is a far heavier and more electric thing. "One More Red Nightmare" is another prime example of how Fripp could use a very simple riff to create a really powerful and enjoyable progressive rock track.

The masterpiece of Red, however, is doubtlessly the album's closer "Starless". It's hard to find a more emotional, down-to-earth moment in Crimson's repertoire than Wetton's weary voice clutching for a ray of hope as it enters past the melancholic, mellotron-drenched opening: "Sundown, dazzling day..." The thunderous climax (in 13/8) and sweepingly powerful ending of the song closes the chapter on 70s Crimson like an unstoppable (and unforgettable) deluge.

Robert Fripp, increasingly disillusioned with the music business, was turning his attention to the writings of the mystic George Gurdjieff, and did not want to tour as he felt that the "world was coming to an end". The Red line-up never toured, and two months before the album's release Fripp announced that King Crimson had "ceased to exist" and was "completely over for ever and ever" and the group officially disbanded on late September 1974.

Red

Friday, December 5, 2008

Kevin Ayers - Bananamour


For Howard. More beautiful songs from Mr. Ayers. "Oh! Wot a Dream" is dedicated to Syd Barrett, a kindred spirit.

Wot

Kevin Ayers - whatevershebringswesing


For Howard. My favorite Ayers.

"Melancholic and reflective, Kevin Ayers' third solo effort, Whatevershebringswesing (this time sans the Whole World as a collective), finds the ultimate underachiever languishing in a realm of ballads, free (for the most part) from the façade and pretensions of prog rock that plagued the previous project. Released in January 1972, Whatevershebringswesing was Ayers' most commercially accessible album to date. The opening track, the "There Is Loving" suite, was both apropos and deceptive. The song picks up nicely from the previous album, linked by its Soft Machine/prog rock sound and fronting the lyrics from the single "Butterfly Dance"; however, for the very same reason, this was a deceptive opener for an album that was far removed from the prog subgenre.In the interim between Shooting at the Moon and Whatever, Ayers gigged with his friend Daevid Allen's band, Gong, on a European tour, the results of which can be heard on the phenomenal Peel session recording Pre-Modern Wireless. Afterward, Ayers plucked saxophonist Didier Malherbe out of Gong momentarily to supplement the sound on his next album. The perfect substitute for Lol Coxhill, Malherbe and flute are a standout on the opener, "There Is Loving," with moving orchestral arrangements by Dave Bedford on the "Among Us" midsection. Initially released as a single, the album's highlight and concert staple, "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes," is classic Ayers. While many outstanding guitarists have ripped up this grooving, occasionally aggressive blues/pop riff, Ayers himself laid down the guitar and piano tracks on this maiden recording. In line with Ayers' most appealing, successful compositions, "Stranger" and the majority of cuts on Whatever are uncomplicated and frank, allowing the listener to immediately step inside. Ayers' tunes may be light and semisweet, but he doesn't beat around the bush. "Oh My" and "Champagne Cowboy Blues" are exquisite examples of Ayers' ability to immediately pull in the listener via his lighthearted, slightly skewed approach. "Champagne" features the signature Mike Oldfield sound/style that would soon sell millions of records for him as a solo artist. Noteworthy are "Song From the Bottom of a Well" and "Lullaby." Intoned with darkness and foreboding, "Well" harks back to Soft Machine's "Why Are We Sleeping?" and foreshadows Ayers' Dr. Dream album, particularly "It Begins With a Blessing." But like much of the experimental material on his previous release, "Well" just doesn't build up to anything of substance. And the instrumental "Lullaby" (appropriately titled) closes the album on an odd note. Reminiscent of King Crimson's "Cadence and Cascade" (from In the Wake of Poseidon) and highlighted by Malherbe's fluid flute, "Lullaby" is an early example of new age ambience, complete with running brook in the background. Whatevershebringswesing falls short of the ambitious peaks found on Ayers' previous record; however, the material is much more consistent, focused, and devoid of that album's pitfalls. Ayers sounds comfortable and in his true element on Whatever, but like much of his post-'70s output, the compositions lack challenge. Whatevershebringswesing has often been cited as Ayers' magnum opus, but the term should be reserved for his follow-up, Bananamour, or even The Confessions of Dr. Dream." -David Ross Smith

Sing it from the well

Monday, December 1, 2008

Dungen - Tio Bitar (2007)


This is a psych-rock beast!!!!! "Dungen (Swedish: “the grove”, pronounced [ˈdɵŋən], or roughly “DOONG-un”) is a Swedish rock band based in Stockholm. Often classified as psychedelic rock, Dungen is also influenced by Swedish (and other) folk music, classic rock, progressive rock and indie rock."

purple drank

Guapo - Black Oni (2004)


"Guapo's music explores the outer-most regions of psychedelic composition. Flickers of Popol Vuh, This Heat, Magma, Third Ear Band, King Crimson and early 70’s Miles Davis are present as over-arching themes are morphed and mined through polyrhythmic asymmetrical structures. Dense orchestration and mercurial compositions have led them to associations with zeuhl."

bendy legs

Friday, November 21, 2008

Robert Wyatt - Old Rottenhat

For Howard.

More Wyatt greatness. This is an explicitly political album, and altogether darker and pessimistic.

PLA

Robert Wyatt - Ruth is Stranger than Richard


For Howard.

More amazing songwriting from the Seer of Canterbury, his third album. Includes Eno on "anti jazz ray gun".

Soup

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

For Howard.

Go get "Comicopera" and enjoy the work one of the greatest songwriters of all time. And then get this masterpiece, his second album and to me still his best. Listen to "Sea Song", with a coda that melts the sternest heart, and you'll know why it's one of my top five favorite songs ever. A monumental achievement by Mr. Wyatt.

Hit the Road

Friday, November 14, 2008

Slapp Happy - Sort Of.../Acnalbasac Noom


Info about Slapp Happy can be found here. This group has always given me hours of utter enjoyment. The almost perfect combination of pop sensiblity, wit, irony, and experimentation with songform. For Howard: this was Peter Blegvad's second group. Collaborations with Henry Cow soon to follow.

Acnalbasac
Sort Of...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Magma - 1.001 Degrees Centigrade


Another great fuckin' Magma album (their second), more in the jazz-rock vein of Nucleus or Soft Machine, but with the Magmaesque signature already in place.

Get It

Magma - Live 1975 Paris

Perhaps their best live album (and they have plenty), this behemoth has a 31 minute version of "Kohntark" that leaves pretenders in the dust with its unyielding complexity and ferocity.

Zeuhl it

Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh


They invented their own language. They created an impossibly complex opera across six or seven albums that entailed the destruction of Earth an its impending salvation by a race of benevolent, highly advanced extra terrestrials. They married the emotion and power of Love Supreme with the grandiosity of Stravinsky and Orff and the technique of Mahavishnu. They all dressed equally and wore a huge fucking necklace with their logo. They had a whole genre named after one of their songs. They were demented. They were Magma. Kobaia is de hundin!!

Get it

Monday, November 10, 2008

King Crimson - USA


There's a lack of Crimson here that I'm about to remedy. This album was recorded live in 1974 with the line up of Fripp, Wetton, Cross, and Bruford. It's one of Crimson's best line-ups ever which gave us the classics: "Larks' Tongues in Aspic", "Starless and Bible Black", and "Red". Not surprisingly most of the songs on here come from those albums. Be sure to check out the improv session titled Asbury Park where Fripp goes mad on the guitar. Technically though, he goes mad on the entire album.

Get it.

Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei



Props to Abe for uploading the seminal "Yeti". Download it and let those german freaks tear a hole the size of a pineapple can in your skull. And you can add this one to the sonic debauchery. "Phallus Dei" was the group's (Amon Düül II, the first one had released a couple of albums based on one demented and drug addled jam session, to be posted soon) first album and a sign of (lysergic) things to come. Top notch disorienting freakiness with more than a hint of darkness and paranoia. Cop it.

Phallus Dei

Amon Düül II - Yeti


My favorite Krautrock album and one of my fav albums of all time, period. Amon Düül II were "the second incarnation of the Amon Duul entity, originally a political commune in Germany that happened to record their extended, drugged-out jam sessions." Yeti's a double album that's one half composed music and one half improvised. It's extremely unique and still blows my mind every time I listen to it.... Wait till you hear the 18 minute long improvised title track.

Julian Cope's take on it:

"The definitive 'progressive' Krautrock double album. This album should be included in the top 50 albums of all time, ever. It destroys the credibility of so many of the so called 'great' progressive bands of this era. It should form part of a European national curriculum and be enshrined as part of our great musical constitution. It is a huge huge success and should be lauded as such. It is absolutely crammed with riffs and rolls without ever drifting into the realms of pretenious meaningless drivel. Think of the great sounds of the Kinks, Stooges, Fairport Convention, Pink Floyd, Can, Traffic etc, mix it all together and chuck it through a mincer and you end up with Yeti. If you think that you know about your musical history then you will need to own a copy of this album."

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Frank Zappa - Roxy and Elsewhere (1974)



So I have this memory of being wasted out of my mind on magic shrooms and listening to this album with my buddies Javi and Marisa wondering whether or not I had BBQ sauce inside my sneakers. That was my introduction to the wonderful musical world of Zappa and I may never forget it. Frank Zappa needs no introduction and this album (among many others) is a testament as to why. Released in 1974, this live album features Frank Zappa & the Mothers in one of their most acclaimed incarnations performing tracks which remained unreleased on any other Zappa album. Features highly complex instrumental sections with challenging synchronization among the musicians and their respective instruments. These guys speak in another language. You'll wonder how the fuck they managed to pull off these dazzling arrangements. A great Zappa experience nobody should miss out on.

Download