Forum Home Forum Home > Progressive Music Lounges > Prog Polls
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - 4th Round Moderns: Five Suns v. UTotem
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Topic Closed4th Round Moderns: Five Suns v. UTotem

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>
Poll Question: Pick One!
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
23 [69.70%]
10 [30.30%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted

Author
Message
micky View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46827
Direct Link To This Post Topic: 4th Round Moderns: Five Suns v. UTotem
    Posted: August 29 2015 at 08:42
Next up... a battle of two greats! In previous rounds we did song samples, great PA's reviews, with this round I wanted to do something a different. So I went outside PA's..  what do people outside of this site say about these albums.

First up...

Five Suns by Guapo

Guapo take their prog obsession and turn it into a full fledged prog rock freakout experience on the frequently gorgeous and overwhelming Five Suns. The sound and mood conjured within the album’s eight songs call to mind a bunch (well, three in this case) of 60’s acid-rock refugees teleporting into the present day, picking up a random metal album or two along the way, all the while listening to a drone compilation after having noon tea with The Boredoms.

The album’s raison d’etre is the title track, a sweeping 46-minute epic divided into five seamless parts. You’re immediately encapsulated in a swirling bed of persuasive, lolling drums, gentle piano key taps and shimmery gongs. It builds, growing subtly louder, when all those same elements, so inviting a few minutes before, suddenly sprout fangs and you find yourself on the receiving end of an all out assault that vanishes just as unexpectedly in a squall of feedback. A lone gong hit ushers in a minimal keyboard line which introduces a full, yet lazily paced exercise of bass and drum percussiveness.

And that’s just the first five minutes. Track one sets the tone of the album; it’s practically an outline of what’s to come as Guapo takes these same (multi) dynamics and stretch them to sometimes unfathomable lengths. A propulsive rhythm will go on and on, with single minded direction. Little distractions pop up from time to time: a lone keyboard line, abrupt guitar noodling, a barely there underpinning rhythm. And then once again, after you’ve settled into a groove built so meticulously, it’s split open with some animalistic drumming, orchestral organ or guitar histrionics. After being aurally slapped across the face just so, the rupture repairs itself with the introduction of yet another methodically crafted base for the next set of instrumental incursions.

Five Suns is a journey, a long one. Full of twists, turns, trapdoor exits, detours, blocked paths and indeterminate stretches of road where the only end in sight is the vanishing point on the horizon. It will take stamina if you want to undertake this. You will be frustrated, thwarted when you think the culmination is at hand. You will want to give up numerous times. Yet if you follow the trail to its end point, finally able to look back though the immense amount of terrain covered, an utmost sense of satisfaction will fill you, the knowledge that you trudged on, made it to the end.


and against that we have..

UTotem by UTotem

a true fusion of 20th century classical with rock,

The CD opens with a loud crash--a piano cluster accompanied by a drum hit. Pause. Two more crashes. Pause. Woodwinds and electronics start appearing through yet more crashes. Chromatic, Ligeti-like figurations appear. What's that-- tonality? Actually, yes, because U Totem's opening track, "One Nail Draws Another" is practically a survey of the last five hundred years of Western music. 20th-century classical music is by far the biggest influence, of course, but there's also hard rock, a dash of prog, a bit of pseudo-Indian sitar music, quotes from 15th-century religious music, and even Broadway (singer Emily Hay sounds a little like a gentler Dagmar Krause, but a lot more like the Fibonaccis' Magie Song, so her voice has a very theatrical quality to it). Amazingly, composer James Grigsby manages to unify these disparate styles into a cohesive, complex, catchy and absolutely beautiful piece of music.

A word of explanation: U Totem is a collaboration between the 5uu's, led by Dave Kerman, and the Motor Totemist Guild, led by James Grigsby. The two take turns writing tracks for the album, so that the odd-numbered tracks are by Grigsby and the even-numbered tracks are by Kerman. For those of you familiar with the 5uu's, Kerman's music here is pretty much business as usual, although more extended, less proggy-sounding (possibly due to the absence of Yes-head Bob Drake) and with a more classical sound due to the woodwinds. You get such typical Kermanisms as atonal rock-outs ("The Judas Goat"), vaguely equine-sounding electronic noises ("Two Looks at One End"), and long passages based on the careful, almost minimalistic manipulation of short motivic cells ("Both Your Houses"). However, there are also some real shocks, such as a truly bizarre passage in "Both Your Houses" in which ex-UU Curt Wilson sings a lush, refined melody while Emily Hay shrieks uncontrollably far in the background. Nor would you necessarily know from listening to _Hunger's Teeth_ that Kerman was capable of the delicate beauty of the flute solo that opens the same song.
Good though Kerman's music may be here, the album is really stolen by Grigsby. I'm not familiar with the Motor Totemist Guild's music (yet), so I can't really compare, but it seems to me that Grigsby simply has more breadth and imagination than Kerman. I've already mentioned the 15-minute opener "One Nail Draws Another", and almost as impressive is the equally long "Vagabonds Home", whose apparent aimlessness resolves after a few listens into a beautiful motivically-integrated piece whose flirtations with tonality are made all the more powerful by the way they fade back into the atonal language that is the norm on this album. The brief "Dance of the Awkward" sounds pretty much like what you might expect, and "Yellow Umbrella Gallery" is a setting of texts in multiple languages about "pretentious, highfalutin' ideas about what's artistic" sampled, Negativland-like, over a shimmering and unsettling groove laid out by the rock instruments and built on by the classical ones. So, 4 stars for Kerman, 5 for Grigsby, and 4.5 for the overall whole.
A bit of buying advice: If you're coming from a rock/prog direction and curious about the "new RIO" bands, I'd advise you to check out Thinking Plague and the 5uu's first--those bands are really rock with a strong modern-classical influence, whereas this seems more like modern classical music with a strong rock influence. If you're already a fan of those bands and want more of a challenge, you should definitely check this out--it requires more listens and more careful attention, but it grows on you with each listen. (It's still growing on me, in fact.) And if you like 20th-century classical music, you owe it to yourself to listen to this avant-rock masterpiece.
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Back to Top
zravkapt View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 12 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 6446
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2015 at 08:57
This one will require a relisten to both.
Magma America Great Make Again
Back to Top
Nogbad_The_Bad View Drop Down
Forum & Site Admin Group
Forum & Site Admin Group
Avatar
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl & Eclectic Team

Joined: March 16 2007
Location: Boston
Status: Online
Points: 20096
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2015 at 10:52
Adore both but 5 Suns is simply one of the greatest prog albums of the last 2 decades.
Ian

Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com

https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/
Back to Top
sleeper View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: October 09 2005
Location: Entropia
Status: Offline
Points: 16449
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2015 at 17:06
5 Suns, but ouch! What a match uo.
Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005

Back to Top
Atkingani View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

Joined: October 21 2005
Location: Terra Brasilis
Status: Offline
Points: 12288
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 29 2015 at 22:21
5 Guapo Suns!
Guigo

~~~~~~
Back to Top
Svetonio View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: September 20 2010
Location: Serbia
Status: Offline
Points: 10213
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2015 at 01:18
Five Suns
Back to Top
The Bearded Bard View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: January 24 2012
Location: Behind the Sun
Status: Offline
Points: 12859
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2015 at 07:16
UTotem's good, but Five Suns' excellent!
Back to Top
micky View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46827
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2015 at 08:01
ouch...  doing refreshers... but it seems it won't matter LOL
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Back to Top
Saperlipopette! View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 20 2010
Location: Tomorrowland
Status: Offline
Points: 9939
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2015 at 11:52
Originally posted by Nogbad_The_Bad Nogbad_The_Bad wrote:

Adore both but 5 Suns is simply one of the greatest prog albums of the last 2 decades.
Indeed
Back to Top
zravkapt View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 12 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 6446
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2015 at 14:22
Voting for U Totem although it seems pointless...just the better album IMO.
Magma America Great Make Again
Back to Top
micky View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46827
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2015 at 14:29
I did a refresher listen to Five Suns earlier today... good album. Not sold on the accolades heaped on it by minds greater and vaster than my own. So the vote still open ..so doing a UTotem refresher.. umm.. now I guess as TMV just finished. 
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Back to Top
Man With Hat View Drop Down
Collaborator
Collaborator
Avatar
Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team

Joined: March 12 2005
Location: Neurotica
Status: Offline
Points: 166178
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 31 2015 at 21:53
U Totem
Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive
Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
Back to Top
SaltyJon View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: February 08 2008
Location: Location
Status: Offline
Points: 28772
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 03 2015 at 19:10
Last one in which I've heard both albums...Five Suns!
Back to Top
t d wombat View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 14 2007
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 504
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 04 2015 at 17:53
U Toem simply does not grab me. Guapo has promise but to be honest I find it all a bit overly frenetic. Nonetheless preferable ot UT. So.... without a lot of enthusiasm I join the horde.
Andrew B

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” ― Julius Henry Marx
Back to Top
symphonicman View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 14 2015
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 114
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2015 at 17:04

Guapo, Five Suns.

Master James of St. George.
Of the fields and the sky.
He used to build castles of stone, steel, and blood.
But lines get broken down.
Back to Top
LearsFool View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: November 09 2014
Location: New York
Status: Offline
Points: 8615
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2015 at 18:04
UTotem
Back to Top
Guldbamsen View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Retired Admin

Joined: January 22 2009
Location: Magic Theatre
Status: Offline
Points: 23098
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2015 at 10:24
Totem today totem for me.
Totem tomorrow totem for free.
“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

- Douglas Adams
Back to Top
micky View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46827
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2015 at 14:02
had been sitting on this one.. no longer. Five Suns it is! Thumbs Up
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Back to Top
Padraic View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: February 16 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 31165
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2015 at 14:06
Couldn't vote against Five Suns although U Totem is excellent.
Back to Top
Raff View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: July 29 2005
Location: None
Status: Offline
Points: 24391
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 11 2015 at 16:44
Originally posted by Nogbad_The_Bad Nogbad_The_Bad wrote:

Adore both but 5 Suns is simply one of the greatest prog albums of the last 2 decades.


+1Thumbs Up.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.133 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.