Ripples

Lamb review

Just a quickie to show that I'm still alive (and busy preparing for the arrival of our son in about a month). And to tell you about a review of the "The Lamb" tour by The Musical Box, which more or less echoes my own feelings from when I saw it in Brussels.

I hope to be back with some more substantial postings soon...

The Lamb comes down to Brussels

Last year, I went to two concerts by Genesis tribute Band "The Musical Box", where they played the "Foxtrot" and the "Selling England by the Pound" tours (I wrote about that here and here). As the originals were before my time, this was a great occasion for me to appreciate what I'd missed.

Tomorrow, they are "Back in Brussels city" with their most ambitious undertaking, a painstakingly detailed resurrection of the "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" tour, including all 1100 original slide projections from the 74/75 tour (according to the flyer). They received the worldwide licence from Genesis and Peter Gabriel to do so. To quote the flyer again:

In the early 70’s, Genesis’ Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Michael Rutherford redefined the concept of a rock concert. Genesis’ artistry had such a profound impact on its audience that to this day, it still enjoys a cult following. The Musical Box has undertaken the task of re-enacting Genesis’ performances as originally presented between 1973 and 1975.

I can't wait to live through this experience. And I'm happy to say that a friend and a few colleagues of mine will be there as well...

Musical memories

I've been reading some books recently about memory and the brain. Something which is often mentioned is that when you're committing information to memory, you don't just store what you want to retain, but the entire context. Therefore, it's easier to remember things if you put yourself in a context that matches the original one as closely as possible.

There is a nice illustration of this principle from my own experience. As I'm addicted to music, it's obviously linked to that.

I've been a Mike Oldfield fan since 1983, when it was the chance discovery of his music (the marvellous double album "Incantations") that slowly drew me from classical music into progressive and other rock. So when in the summer of 1995, we went on vacation to Austria, I obviously took with me a tape recording of his then latest album, "Songs from Distant Earth" (these were pre-mp3, Walkman days). And during our stay, I listened to this album over and over again, mostly while resting in my room.

So since then, whenever I put on the album (as I did again right now to write this entry), I'm immediately transported back to that room in Hotel zur schönen Aussicht in St. Johann. I see the hotel garden, the mountain landscape around it, and all kinds of other memories and sensations come back to me. Quite a powerful experience.

A few years later, in 1997, I had a similar experience with the sublime Camel album "Harbour of Tears", which is now forever linked to Hotel Zugspitze in Lermoos. When I hear that music, I again see that horse across the road in front of my room window...

Listmania

It's that time of the year when everyone expects people to start producing lists of things they found best or worst during the year that just finished. Polls appear all over the place, and as a dedicated music lover, I of course can't resist participating in this little game. Which is why I'll entertain (or bore, depending on your musical interests) you with my list of the 13 best progrock releases 2004. The best in my own humble opinion, that is...

I've been busy these last days developing that list on my other, almost exclusively music-oriented blog, but be warned that it is written in Dutch. If you understand that beautiful language, feel welcome to pop over and have a look.

To make it a bit more fun and interesting, I've added links to the reviews, when available, of the albums on the 2 best (again, IMHO) prog-related sites I know: Prog-Nose and the Dutch Progressive Rock Page. Here we go.

1. Ayreon: The Human Equation (Prog-Nose / DPRP / Ripples)
2. Karmakanic: Wheel of Life (Prog-Nose / DPRP / Ripples)
3. Neal Morse: One (Prog-Nose / DPRP)
4. IQ: Dark Matter (Prog-Nose / DPRP / Ripples)
5. The Flower Kings: Adam & Eve (Prog-Nose / DPRP)
6. Glass Hammer: Shadowlands (DPRP)
7. Proto-Kaw: Before Bacame After (Prog-Nose / DPRP)
8. Fish: Field of Crows (Prog-Nose / DPRP)
9. Ken's Novel: Domain of Oblivion (DPRP)
10. Nightwish: Once (Prog-Nose / DPRP)
11. Therion: Lemuria/Sirius B
12. Within Temptation: Silent Force (Prog-Nose)
13. Epica: The Phantom Agony (DPRP)

There are a few other CDs that I don't have yet, so I can't judge them, but it's highly probable that some of them would also have ended up high in my list. For completeness' sake, here they are.

• The Tangent: The World That We Drive Through (Prog-Nose / DPRP)
• The Watch: Vacuum
• Nick Magnus: Hexameron (Prog-Nose)
• Marillion: Marbles (2CD version) (Prog-Nose / DPRP)

That's all, folks...

Agile music

As you may know from previous posts or indeed fom the music list to the side of this blog, one of my favourite music genres is what is commonly called "progressive rock". I discovered this genre quite by accident at a time when it was at an all time low in the favours of the musical press and public (1983), and have been fascinated by it ever since.

Prog is often massive, majestic and symphonic in scope (the penchant for long "epics" being an illustration). But today I've been listening to a record that proves that music can be pure prog and at the same time very agile and nimble, full of lightness and movement. I'm talking about the latest record by Karmakanic, "Wheel of Life" (see here for a review).

Karmakanic is the project of Jonas Reingold, the bass player from one of the greatest prog bands of the moment, The Flower Kings(*). In that group, it is Roine Stolt who is the mastermind and who writes almost all the music. But at least two other members are capable of writing great prog music of their own: keyboard player Tomas Bodin, and the aforementioned Reingold. And although their compositional input in TFK is limited, their own music, although different, stems clearly from the same source.

"Wheel of Life" has its fair share of longer, very varied and progressive tracks, but as I said, what strikes me is the flexibility of the music. Hard to express in words... Just go and listen, this is music that cheers you up: I often catch myself with a broad smile on my face while listening to it. Music that gives joy, that's one of the reasons it exists, I suppose.

(*) Make sure you check out their latest masterwork, "Adam & Eve" (see here for a review).

Idol kick-off

Tonight I watched the first instalment of the new Idool 2004 series (the Flemish version of Pop Idol, Deutschland sucht den Superstar etc.). Last year, I closely followed the "Idool 2003" edition, which gave us the unlikely Peter Evrard as winner, a hard rocker with a heart of gold. Even though his career didn't take off like that of the candidates that ended 2nd and 3rd, he managed to finish third in the World Idol competition, and delivered quite a good first album, decent classic rock (produced by George Kooymans of Golden Earring fame).

In the first few instalments, we witness the initial auditions, where the thousands of candidates are reduced to a mere 100 for the second round. What fascinates me in this first part of the series is how many young people try their luck, even though they could not by any standards stand the slightest chance of even being selected for the second round. Lots of them can't even sing! You'd wonder if they ever taped themselves and listened to the recording. Or if the people from their environment are totally deaf, of else scared to hurt their feelings... What's even worse, when the jury tells them this evident truth, quite a few get angry or start arguing. I think that if you want to get anywhere, and especially in the showbizz world with all its competition, one of the first characteristics you should have -apart from talent, obviously- is a good sense of reality. And the will to work a lot at getting better.

That's another fascinating aspect of this format. You witness how there are some young people around with huge talent, and this incredible and strong drive to get somewhere, to excell at what they love doing. People who do have the talent, the sense of reality and the capacity for hard work. These are people I really admire, and I wish them all the success they deserve.

So off we go for a television marathon that will end with the grand finale on the 12th of December. So much for my "no television" policy...

More movie mourning

It seems to be a bad season for film composers. After Jerry Goldsmith recently (see yesterday's post), today Elmer Bernstein died at the age of 82.

Although he also was one of the great names in film music, I've never really explored his music, apart from a few scores. His most famous ones are "The Magnificent Seven", "The Ten Commandments" and "To Kill a Mockingbird".

According to his site, "the year 2001 marked his 50th anniversary as a feature film composer who has written the music for over 200 major film and television scores". It's incredible how people can continue to be productive and creative for a very long time, provided they do something they like and are good at...

A Legend has left us

I was sad today to learn, quite by accident, that one of the greatest film music composers died a few weeks ago. I had missed the news as I was on vacation at that time. But a quick Google search confirmed it: Jerry Goldsmith passed away on July 21st 2004 peacefully in his sleep after a long and gallant battle against prostate cancer.

I've been a lover af symphonic film music scores for quite some time. As you can judge from his presence in my CD collection, Jerry Goldsmith was my all time favourite, even before other great masters like Miklós Rózsa, John Williams or John Barry. Goldsmith was able to write in a multitude of styles, always evolving and trying out new things (like his original integration of synthesizers in the classical symphony orchestra), yet his music is always unmistakably Goldsmith.

Goldsmith wrote an incredible amount of scores, most of which I still have to discover. But amongst the ones I possess, here are some of my favourites.

Lionheart: The best of the best. I'm absolutely in love with this score (even though I never saw the movie), and I treasure the 2 CD edition I have.

Legend: Sadly this magical score was not used in the American version of the film, where it was replaced by a score by Tangerine dream that is not really bad, but nowhere near as special as the original thing.

Star Trek The Motion Picture: According to this review simply goldsmith's greatest score. One of the greatest, most certainly.

Under Fire: As a guitar player myself, I really love this score which often comes close to a concerto for guitar and orchestra, with Pat Metheny as a splendid soloist.

Medecine Man

First Blood: The soundtrack was maybe what impressed me most about the first Rambo movie.

Islands in the Stream: The composer's personal favourite.

Twilight Zone The Movie: Composed of 4 orchestral suites with quite varying styles (some serious echoes of Bartok in there), I'll have to hunt down the CD as I only have it on LP.

I'll stop here; you can check out his discography for more treasures. I can only say that exploring the musical world of Jerry Goldsmith will lead you on an intensely satisfying journey. Enjoy!

And I wholeheartedly join in with the In Memoriam on his official site:

"Thank you, Jerry, for your wonderful music that has enriched our lives. It will live forever, for each generation to enjoy and be inspired by."

Can music exist in a vacuum?

I've just made an interesting discovery. It appears that IQ's "Harvest of Souls" (from their last album "Dark Matter") is just long enough (24 minutes) to listen through completely while vacuuming our little appartment.

This is as good an intro as any to the statement that I think this latest IQ album is an absolute masterpiece. Right from the intro of "Sacred Sound", I was sold. This is really progrock at its very best. I've always had a sweet spot for IQ, as they were one of the bands that kept the flame alive in those dark days of the eighties, when anything smelling remotely of progressive rock was ridiculed to the extreme. It's partially thanks to them that the genre goes through an enormous revival these last years. And while this album is a testimony to their evolution and growing mastery, at the same time it harks back to their very first albums.

With the aforementioned "Harvest of Souls", the epic from the album, I feel IQ have created their own "Supper's Ready". And I don't mean that to imply this is derivative music. On the contrary, it is pure IQ, with their personal style shining through everywhere, while still referring respectfully and lovingly to their grand predecessor. If you even remotely like this style of music, this is mandatory listening.

And returning to our vacuum intro, how did I manage to actually listen to this music over the noise of the vacuum cleaner? Well, here my Tungsten T3 brilliantly played its role as MP3 player, assisted by the very nice Pocket Tunes Deluxe.

P.S. DPRP have a comprehensive roundtable review of the album.

The Musical Box

Two evenings of vintage Genesis music live have confirmed one thing: some thirty years ago, a bunch of young guys over there in England have created some marvellous and wildly original music. After all this time, it still stands and has lost none of its magic. And even though an entire movement has followed in the tracks of Genesis and a few other pioneering bands, their early music remains unique and unequalled.

The Musical Box plays this music with love and dedication, allowing me and others who never had the chance to see the original shows, to have a fairly accurate idea of what it must have been like at the time. So what struck me in what I saw?

First, the musicians were very static, hardly ever leaving their place, rather like in a classical concert. "Steve Hacket" plays most of the concert seated, almost unthinkable for a guitar player in a rock band nowadays. The only exception is their singer. "Peter Gabriel" moves around in his strange masks and costumes, and tells weird little stories in between songs, reminding me of Monty Python... It was also striking that they succeeded in creating quite an effective show with really limited means. The earlier Foxtrot concert was even more sober than Selling England by the Pound, probably because they got more budget as their fame grew... Another important aspect I noticed was that there is a lot of (English) humor in their stage show, lyrics and in the aforementioned stories. Not at all in line with the stereotyped image of progressive rock as being serious and bombastic.

All in all, I had two memorable evenings. The audience (myself included) were very enthousiastic. And they announced that Peter Gabriel and Genesis had finally granted them the rights to the tour of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", so they'll be playing that as from this fall. When they come to Brussels, I'll be there!

P.S. If you want to get an idea of how it was, Prog-Nose has some pictures of the two concerts I attended here and here (for the moment only on the Dutch version of the site; I suppose the English version will follow).

And here is a review of another recent performance, which describes it as I remember it (the second evening), on DPRP.