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In My Youth ... I Played Prog Rock!

Yes, not all of us had the pleasure of an untroubled youth spent with our favourite toys. Some of us had a merciless older brother that force-fed us on progressive rock from the tender age of 10. Well I'm deceiving you a bit; it wasn't 'force-feeding'. I was entirely fascinated and drank lavishly.

However, Hammill wasn't in my brothers collection, so Van Der Graaf would be the first band I 'discovered' myself as soon as I was old enough to be spending afternoons in libraries and second-hand stores. This album has been with me since I was 16 or something. Needless to say it was defining for my basic taste: progressive rock, but with a dark and harsh angle in it. No wonder I moved on to post-punk and metal later on.

In Camera continued the style and sound of the Silent Corner but has never convinced me equally. It is mostly brilliant but has moments that are too over the top and far-fetched. "Ferret and Featherbird" is a very experimental track that always intrigued me and "The Comet, the Course, the Tail" is a longstanding favourite. The remainder of the tracks goes from excellent to slightly annoying: "Tapeworm" never gelled with me and I don't think I've listened more then thrice beyond the 7 minute mark of "Gog Magog"

With his next album, Hammill would come back with an entirely stripped down version of his style. He had taken his pretentious and theatrical stand as far as he could with In Camera. Also on his solo albums of the late 70's, the experimental and keyboard driven songs were much more focussed and comprehensive.

Still this is an essential album for me and you also shouldn't miss the excellent peel sessions that have been added to the 2006 remaster.

I guess that the best decision for the band was taken after the release of this album: to call it quit.

I hardly could bear their AOR oriented music since Perry has been brought on board ("Infinity"). IMHHO, the music proposed since then is rather poor and inspiration very, very thin. What's weird is that from this very moment, the band will sell millions of albums and started a very successful commercial career.

This album is no worse than its predecessors; but it is no better either. Which means that the same sort of expectations are met: basic and radio friendly rock music of which prog is not even related by far (but "Journey" has been pretty consistent in achieving this result for quite a long time already).

A lot of AOR stuff like "Girl Can't Help It" or "Be Good to Yourself" which shows a definite Springsteen feel (same for the well named "Raised On The Radio"), some decent pop-rock with "Positive Touch" which features some nice sax, some very short and excellent guitar solo with "Suzanne" (but way too scarce on this album). Schon is also shining in the closing part of "Be Good To Yourself". It is for sure a great add-on when he is providing these killer guitar breaks.

Some sub-par Rod Stewart rock songs under the form of "Once You Love Somebody" which is best avoided for your own good even if an infectious guitar break also highlights this weak track ("I'll Be Alright?" is a carbon copy). There are obviously the syrupy ballads as well ("Happy To Give", "The Eyes Of A Woman" as well as the closing track).

In all, this album is totally dispensable and best avoided for prog ears. You have been warned already several times about this band: first three albums good to very good and that's it.

One little star.

Maudlin of the well is a band that ive know about since 2000 but i never quite had the patience to listen to a full album. This was the time to do it, as ive had heard wonders of "Part The Second", but i must say i felt dissapointed with the hype, maybe its because i'm not to keen on post rock/experimental type of music but i think every genre has its great bands and albums ... this particular one didnt do much for me, ive heard it about 10 times and although from the beginning ive felt the potential of the album it never quite developed to the level i thought it would reach, there are some nice elements and song parts but as with a lot of postrock bands it all gets drowned in a sea of ambient and instrumental boring passages that seem to go nowhere, there are some piano parts that i really like, some good orchestrated stuff and some great dissonant riffs (clover garland island has a great intro) ... but as a whole it felt duct taped in some parts for the sake of the whole "lets be experimental and do weird stuff that doesnt make sense" vibe. Overall it was an album that i enjoyed but not too much.

Antonio Bartoccetti and Doris Norton started their long artistic partnership at the end of the sixties as Jacula and are still active today as Antonius Rex. Their last album, "Per Viam", was released in 2009 by the independent label Black Widow. It comes out with a nice three folds digipack packaging and a suggestive art cover...

The music every now and again could remind of Goblin or Mike Oldfield and flows away like the soundtrack of a horror movie or a thriller. Actually, tracks like "Micro Demons", "Per Viam", "Spectra" and "Angels & Demons" could be a perfect musical background for the reading of a Dan Brown's novel... Liturgical chants, gothic organ and piano passages are intertwined with modern sounds and distorted guitars... During the video of "Angels & Demons" compares even the word illuminati! You can find it on Youtube, while on the album as extra track CD-ROM VIDEO there's the video of "Micro Demons"...

In "Woman Of The King" there are some Celtic influences that remind me of Alan Stivell's album "The Mist Of Avalon". "UFDEM" is an old piece of Jacula dressed up in modern an more aggressive sounds but the voice of Doris Norton is still charming while the final "Antonius Rex Prophecy" is a long track featuring the recitative vocals of Antonio Bartoccetti and a slow "atmospheric" pace.

On the whole a good album, even if it's not really challenging and, at length, a little bit kitsch. In nomine Christi , amen.

I expected some high brow post rock album when I grabbed this album from a record shop before PA even was conceived.

What I got was a progressive metal album with strong references to Dream Theater. The guitars and the keyboards is very much down the Dream Theater alley. Dali's Dilemma is not Dream Theater copies though because their album was recorded and released before Dream Theater developed into this direction you find on this album.The songs also have some added influences from Fates Warning and Symphony X. I am not sure about Rush though. In any case; this album is a middle of the road progressive metal album.

The songs are decent, but nothing more than that. I find the guitars and keyboards pretty attractive and this is the main good point for me. My gripes is the pretty weak vocals and the lack of any memorable tracks. This is a good, but highly forgetable album in my view. I give it three stars because the musicianship is good and there is no serious flaws with this album.

3 stars

— First review of this album —

Lego is the fourth full-length studio album by Italian technical/ progressive death metal act Sadist. Lego is widely considered the black sheep of the family ( read: The discography) though and didn´t bring much praises to the band when it was released in 2000. Neither from fans nor critics. After a couple of very interesting technical/ progressive death metal albums in Tribe (1996) and Crust (1997) ( I personally find Tribe to be a seminal album in the tech/ extreme genre), Sadist really took a wrong-turn deserting their technical/ progressive death metal roots in favour of a more contemporary NU- metal style. The album was recorded at the group´s own studio Nadir Recording and while earlier albums ( probably because of limited studio time) clocked in around the 40 minute mark Lego is a 69:19 minute long affair. The album is produced by the band themselves.

While the music still has few progressive elements it´s obvious that Sadist wanted to try something very different on Lego. There´s nothing wrong with the musicianship or the production on the album but the music is not very interesting IMO. If you enjoy something that sounds like a bad version of Korn meets P.O.D. there´s a chance you might enjoy this, but personally this genre does not appeal much to me and 69:19 minutes of this is close to doing me in if I have to be honest. It´s not all bad though and there are some ideas and sections on the album that does sound powerful and exciting but they are few and far between. I find it rather sad that an innovative and IMO groundbreaking act like Sadist ended up making an album like this. It would also have serious consequences for the band as they broke up shortly after the release of the album. Sadist returned with their self-titled fifth album in 2007 where the band redeemed themselves considerably. This one will be a doubtful purchase even for the fans. 2 stars are all I can give.

It was the free mp3 of 'Hive Mind/Claws of a Crayfish" off of his website that made me feel it was very important that I begin exploring Phideaux's music by acquiring his latest album.

As is normal for me, I spent my first bit of time looking at the packaging, enjoying the many images of dormouse fighting crayfish within the liner notes. It also piqued my curiosity - why are they fighting? What is this album about? Either way, I knew I was going to have a lot of fun following the lyrics as I listened to this album.

Since the first time I listened to it, I have been unable to stop (similar to how Moon Safari's Blomljud effected me). While not as good as Blomljud overall, this album is definitely up there, and currently my favorite release so far this year (although I have a fair amount of listening to do still).

The CD is split into three sections. The name of each section gives hints as to what the album is about.

Dormouse Ensnared starts off with a very nice sounding guitar bit, and leads into four songs that are hard to separate from one another. They are replete with catchy vocals, melodic instrumentation, and excellent drumming. And there are female vocals! I think that, with so many prog bands (almost all actually) having only male vocalists, this album having female vocals gives it a unique texture. In total, there are three female singers on this album, and multiple male vocalists, giving the vocals a very varied feel. I really do appreciate bands like this, that take care to give their vocals a lot of feel.

The four continuous tracks are quite wonderful; the second half of Waiting for the Axe to Fall is an excellent instrumental section with truly interesting drumming that leads beautifully into the piano intro of Hive Mind (which I find impossible to separate from the next song, Claws of a Crayfish; not just because I originally heard them both together, but because they actually share musical themes). The lyrics are also interesting; my favorite line from this section is "You and I were talking, as if we were alive." Such a nice, thoughtful lyric.

The second part of the album also contains a group of songs that flow together like a single song, but prior to that it has a couple songs that stand out as individual songs a bit more. These are short and pleasant, but it is with Gift of the Flame that this section really kicks off. Once again, Phideaux is combining interesting lyrics, great music, vocals, and interesting drumming to really build a nice atmosphere of music. This leads into the faery-tale-esque "Interview with a Dormouse", a simple acoustic part with a theme that will be repeated at the closing of the album to great effect.

Of course, next is Thermonuclear Cheese, perhaps one of the most interestingly titled tracks on the album. It was also available for download on the website (with The Search for Terrestrial Life and Fistful of Fortitude in the same mp3). It's pretty much a fun little instrumental bit that leads into what I feel to be a really atmospheric song (The Search for Terrestrial Life), where a female singer explains the Cambrian era. It always brings me straight into the depths of the ocean, watching all these hundreds of thousands of life forms blinking in and out of existence. Truly magical music.

The end of the album features the two longest individual songs: Love Theme From "Number Seven", an excellent instrumental piece, and Storia Senti, which is also mostly instrumental. While Storia Senti is not as interesting musically as the prior instrumental sections, it is still an excellent piece of music.

Infinite Supply probably gets my vote for weakest track on the album, although on this album that still makes it a good listen. Dormouse - An End reprises the theme from Interview with a Dormouse, although it is a bit more bleak in outlook. Definitely a solid way to end the album.

This is Arjen Lucassen's latest project called GUILT MACHINE.He's enlisted Lori Linstruth on lead guitar,Chris Maitland on drums and Jasper Steverlinck on vocals.This is supposed to be a permanent band and not a "one off" side project. I have to admit to not being an AYREON fan at all.That project for me is like listening to a prog musical,and i hate musicals.No matter how good the vocals and instrumental work is, and who the guests are, to my ears it's like listening to a musical.Did i mention i hate musicals.Anyway the only side project that Arjen has been involved in that i've liked is STREAM OF PASSION's debut.It sounded nothing like AYREON to me unlike STAR ONE or GUILT MACHINE both of which bring AYREON to mind too often for my tastes. The vocalist here can really sing.He really reminds me of MUSE's singer especially when he "lets go".Did i mention i'm not a fan of MUSE's singer? I think you know where this is going.Which is a shame because i love how atmospheric this album is. It's pretty cool how each song opens with samples of people speaking.These were submitted by fans all over the world in various languages speaking their thoughts on guilt,regret,life,death and human nature. "Twisted Coil" opens with words in Dutch(female) then German(male) as drums and synths create atmosphere.Vocals are reserved 1 1/2 minutes in then we get those backing vocals that bring AYREON to mind right away.They return later as well.Some cello in this one too.A Polish female vocal sample arrives 3 1/2 minutes in.Jasper sings with passion a minute later.The song kicks in after 5 1/2 minutes with riffs.Processed vocals follow.It settles with violin before 9 1/2 minutes.A calm with follows before it kicks back in. "Leland Street" opens with atmosphere as female Chinese words then male French spoken words come in.It turns spacey reminding me of PORCUPINE TREE.Reserved vocals 1 1/2 minutes in.It kicks in and contrasts continue. "Green And Cream" opens with Swedish then Japanese spoken words both male.Cool sound right here with drums and keyboards.Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes.It sounds like AYREON vocally before 4 1/2 minutes then it kicks in heavier.A change after 5 minutes with processed vocals and Arjen's vocals.Not a fan of this section.I do like the guitar before 8 minutes and the atmosphere that follows.Spanish spoken words before 9 minutes.More AYREON-like vocals follow. "Season Of Denial" opens with Finnish then Bulgarian spoken words.Sounds like mellotron and a relaxing melody.Vocals and backing vocals join in.Violins here and acoustic guitar.Some mandolin too.It turns heavy before 5 minutes.Some great vocals from Jasper 8 minutes in heaviness follows. "Over" opens with Norwegian then Russian spoken words as a beat and keys follow.Vocals around a minute.They do get passionate.Organ comes and goes.Guitar solo before 3 1/2 minutes.The vocals shine later. "Perfection?" opens with spoken Portugese then Hungarian words.As usual we get this beat with atmosphere.The vocal style here really reminds me of Tim Bowness from NO-MAN.It kicks in before 4 1/2 minutes.Settles again before 6 minutes with those Bowness styled vocals.A nice guitar solo follows.Spoken Italian words end it. Forgive me if the languages of the messages are wrong. I really think this is going to get some high marks.It's modern sounding with atmosphere and a vocalist most will love.

Tripe, utter tripe.

After hearing the first few KC albums, I sought out more...and what I got was a lot of 'less'. As some have pointed out, this is cold and emotionless music (I hesitate to even call it 'music').

This was KC entering into their 80's period, and, I have found, through my own personal experience, that when 70s bands enter into the 80s....BAD THINGS HAPPEN. Everything goes downhill. Creativity wanes, music commercializes, and people wear tacky clothing.

Finding out that the vocalist for the Talking Heads supplies the vocals on this album...well now, suddenly it makes sense. Basically, this album is what you get when Robert Fripp attempts to do a cover version of a TH song.

For anyone who likes their previous, more symphonic (and more enjoyable (trust me, this record does not inspire one to dance and sing)) material, then steer well clear of this.

I give this .5 / 5, but because of the current rating system, I have no choice but to begrudgingly give it a 1.

We've all heard the albums, we just want to hear them sonically enhanced with some nice extras.

Unfortunately, the main thing these mixes are missing is TLC. I don't think there was a fan of this music in the control room, and I'm including the contributing band members.

The earlier albums, "Trespass" and "Nursery Cryme" are tolerable, even enjoyable at times. There are some strange eq and compression choices, (this is the case thoughout the boxset and don't let anyone tell you differently), but I think the net increase in clarity and separation make for some good listening. Some parts that were not present on the originals simply prove distracting, while not adding anything to the proceedings. But overall, I didn't feel ripped off.

"Foxtrot" is probably the album that would benefit most from some remixing. It's flat, indistinct production always seemed inferior to even the muddy John Anthony treatment, which actually seemed to fit the early Genesis songs. I have always preferred the songs from this album as they appear on "Genesis Live" and considered "Suppers Ready" as a bloated, over-rated hodge-podge.This one's a wash, about as enjoyable then as now, just a little clearer.

"Selling England..." is where the cracks really start to show. I remember how good I thought this album sounded when I bought it in '74. Well, just reverse that feeling when I put on the greatly anticipated 5.1 version. The sound is so flat and artificial, with audible distortion, in an attempt to bring "immediacy" to the music. It feels like Pixar has been contracted to restore the Sistine Chapel. I'm not sure that you should use the same approach with Genesis from 1972/3 and Nine Inch Nails. And who knew that Phil sang "I Know What I Like" solo. Phil's volume knob definitely begins to get nudged up from here on out whenever there are dual vocals.

Then finally, the Lamb, possibly my number 1 desert island album. Wow. Almost all the additional little tracks that had been muted the first time around have come to rear their ugly heads. For example, the "No time" backup vocals on "Back in NYC" I first heard on the Archives live tracks are now featured, and boy are they annoying. In fact, many (many, many) of Phil's seemingly endless harmonizing parts (dare I say every one) are included to the point of suffocating the melody. This version of this album will really help you to appreciate John Burns' production ability. I have retired this CD altogether and gone back to my definitive edition from the '90's.

There are some cool low-fi videos that are nice if you haven't seen them. They don't even bother to clean these up/enhance them. And the interviews: I have never seen anyone more embarassed by their previous work, unable to render one kind word in its defense. They all seem to wish this era of their lives could be forgotten and they could be remembered for the tripe that afforded them their fat bank accounts.

In conclusion, I don't want their negative insight into their music nor a re-imagining of how good it could have sounded if you found a totally unsympathetic technophile with a tin ear to mix it. If you already have these albums, those copies probably sound better than this and if you are thinking of buying this, you probably already have these albums.