Speechless Vs. Helmet Of Gnats
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Topic: Speechless Vs. Helmet Of Gnats
Posted By: avestin
Subject: Speechless Vs. Helmet Of Gnats
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 13:56
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http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2386 -
HELMET OF GNATS, A
Members:
Chris Fox- Guitar- Berklee College of music. Played briefly with Eddie Jobson (Zappa,UK,Yes) Mathew Bocchino -Keyboards- Attended Berklee Collegel of music Mark Conose-Drums-Berklee College of Music and Miami Univeristy Wayne Zito-Bass-Berklee College of Music As you can see the members of this band have a great pedigree in music. They bring their assorted talents to the group known as A Helmet of Gnats. As that name suggests music high in energy but balanced in virtuosity. A blend of Jazz with a dash of classical elements underlined by some very good in your face rock. In 1980 guitarist Chris Fox and keyboardist Mathew Bocchino decided to form a band while in high school. This band was to play the music of such progressive giants as UK, Frank Zappa and Kansas. They called themselves Left Testicle and only played three concerts (small wonder with that name). By 1982 this band had morphed into more of a fusion cover band called “By-Product” doing covers by Return to Forever, Bruford and The Dixie Dregs. Their live shows left everyone wanting more. The band changed their name to Helmet of Gnats in late 1982. After several line up changes at bass and drums AHoG played mostly Dixie Dregs covers. More Personnel changes left the band without a bass player. They recorded some demos using a Roland midi sequencer for the bass lines but by 1988 they had disbanded. Chris and Matt reformed in 1990 a more mainstream band with a female vocalist. They called themselves "Doctor Curious" named after the singers gynecologist. After a short time Chris and Matt decided they wanted a return to the instrumental adventurous music they loved. They fired the signer and took back the name Helmet of Gnats. They released a self titled album in 1996 with Nicki Defala on bass and Nicki Vitiello on drums. By 2000 the band had replaced the Nicki's with Wayne Zito on bass and Mark Conese on drums. In 2004 they released their second CD A Helmet Of Gnats II. They tour with this line up to this day. Fans of fusion such as Return to Forever and Dixie Dregs will enjoy this band. Recommended highly! http://www.helmetofgnats.com/ - http://www.helmetofgnats.com/
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2932 - SPEECHLESS
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, SPEECHLESS craft a mix of contemporary American symphonic rock with classic heavy Prog. The group's beginnings were in a KANSAS cover band, and each player is a long time member of the Atlanta music community. Their emphasis is on instrumental pieces with a strong rock guitar sound and melodic keyboards which flesh out this quartet of drums (Derik Rinehart), bass (Paul Rusek), guitar (Sean Tonar) and keys (Robbie Hamil). Much influence is taken from RUSH, GENESIS, SAGA, YES and at times fusion ensembles like RETURN TO FOREVER.
SPEECHLESS' first album on their own Out of Mind Music label, "Time Out of Mind", features nine solid tracks including 'In the Clouds', 'Spidercrawl' and 'Vader's Boogie', each quite varied but with strong modern Symphonic and Art Rock tendencies. Another terrific American prog band doing things their way and keeping quality rock music alive in the Southeastern United States. http://www.speechlessband.com/ - http://www.speechlessband.com/
Two great instrumental fusion/eclectic rock bands. Great melodies and musicianship, catchy and beautiful; recommended!
Helmet of Gnats will release a new album by the end of 2008 and Speechless is supposed to release a new one as well this year.
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Replies:
Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 14:26
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Maybe these bands appeals to the members who frequent the forum less.
They are very much worth your time, especially HoG! (which get my vote).
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 14:31
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The link to the Speechless website doesn't appear to be working. At least, I am getting an error message. It said that I was required to login? ------------- 
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 14:32
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Sorry about that, here are the links: Speechless:
http://www.myspace.com/speechlesstheband - http://www.myspace.com/speechlesstheband
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 14:45
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Thank you. This part of your post caught my eye-"Much influence is taken from RUSH, GENESIS, SAGA, YES and at times fusion ensembles like RETURN TO FOREVER". I was currently listening to Echolyn, but I paused to give Speechless a listen. The first track on their MySpace page, In The Clouds, was very good. I will give the rest of the tracks a listen. -------------
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 16:13
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My compliments to the chef for cooking up this poll. Both bands were quite enjoyable listens. I placed my vote with Speechless, because I enjoyed their songs on MySpace a little more than I enjoyed HOG's songs. But who am I to say, since this is a prog area where I might have scuffed the surface, but I have yet to scratch it. -------------
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 16:39
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Scott, if you liked these, let me recommend you two more in the instrumental/fusion/eclectic/guitar-lead vein, both from Quebec:
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1370 - KARCIUS
http://www.karcius.com/ - http://www.karcius.com/
http://www.karcius.com/ - http://www.myspace.com/karcious - http://www. myspace.com/karcious
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3105 - CAPHARNAUM
http://www.capharnaum.biz/ - http://www.capharnaum.biz/
http://www.myspace.com/capharnaum4music - http://www.myspace.com/capharnaum4music
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 17:16
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There are also several other interesting bands like:
Mörglbl
http://www.myspace.com/morglbl - http://www.myspace.com/morglbl
Panzerballett
http://www.myspace.com/panzerballett - http://www.myspace.com/panzerballett
F.U.P.A
http://www.myspace.com/fupamusic - http://www.myspace.com/fupamusic
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Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 17:17
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Oh sure...make it deifficult...
Both bands are great but I'm going to give my vote to AHOG. I find them pretty refreshing and bringing new ideas to the table in a genre where I find the guitar/bass/drums/keyboards outfit tends to be a bit boring to me. ------------- 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. |
Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 17:47
Both appear to be excellent recommendations. Karcius was enjoyable but the samples were too short to get a complete feel for them. Capharnaum's samples were excellent and music that I could definitely find adding to the listening rotation. Very impressive. -------------
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avestin wrote:Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 17:51
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Karcius first album is excellent, very melodic and full of musical ideas! Eclectic - fusion, a bit of metallic tendency, heavy crunchy rock....
Capharnaum has released a strong album in Le Soleil Est Une Bombe Atomique (you can read my review for it) ------------- http://hangingsounds.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - Hanging Sounds http://www.progarchives.com/ProgRockShopping.asp" rel="nofollow - PA Index of prog music vendors |
Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 18:07
M�rglbl definitely passes the taste test. Very good. I'll definitely have to try the other 2 bands. -------------
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 18:24
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Sorry to "dump" more on you, but since we're on a roll....
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3213 - DEFORMICA from Argentina - http://www.deformica.com.ar/ - http://www.deformica.com.ar/ http://www.myspace.com/deformica - http://www.myspace.com/deformica
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2165 - EXSIMIO from Chile - http://www.exsimio.cl/ - http://www.exsimio.cl/
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3259 - FLOTANTE from Chile - http://www.myspace.com/flotante - http://www.myspace.com/flotante
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2953 - NAIKAKU from Japan - http://mypage.odn.ne.jp/home/naikaku3104 - http://mypage.odn.ne.jp/home/naikaku3104
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3347 - POSEIDOTICA from Argentina - http://www.poseidotica.com.ar/ - http://www.poseidotica.com.ar/
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3012 - YANG from France (lead by once Shylock, Philharmonie member, - Frederic L'epee) - http://laspada.perso.cegetel.net/yang/yangeng.html - http://laspada.perso.cegetel.net/yang/yangeng.html
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1200 - MAR DE ROBLES from Chile - http://www.marderobles.cl/ - http://www.marderobles.cl/
This makes me want to do another poll with these bands....
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 23 2008 at 22:24
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Just one more - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=81 - D.F.A.
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 24 2008 at 10:16
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Quite the list to work my way through. Just finished listening to Panzerballet samples. They definitely fall in the category of "Heavy Metal Jazz" which is right up my alley. -------------
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 24 2008 at 18:09
Yes, they're quite intense. They'll release a new album this February.
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 24 2008 at 18:22
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I just finished with F.U.P.A. I didn't like this quite as much. Good music, but more on the jazzy side for my tastes. I'll have to take these in a little at a time. I can only seem to listen to instrumentals in small doses and it didn't help that I was listening to Alan Morse's instrumental album this afternoon. I will definitely start on the additional lists tonight or tomorrow. -------------
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: January 24 2008 at 21:26
So based on what you wrote, I'll recommend mostly Naikaku, Poseidotica and Mar De Robles. If you like the last two, proceed to Exsimio and Deformica.
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: January 24 2008 at 22:53
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Paralexis, the first song that I listened to from Poseidotica was excellent 5-star material. Thank you. I'm definitely excited to find some new music and expand my horizons a bit.
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The second song, Tantra, was almost as good. Not quite as much "heavy" prog as the first track, but still 4 to 4.5 star material. I am checking out there other 2 tracks on MySpace now. Hidrophobia is sounding 5 star with the heavy prog. I'm definitely liking Poseidotica.Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: February 05 2008 at 16:33
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Bump.
Just listened to the samples from Naikaku. That is what I am talking about. Always hard to judge by a snippet, but I like what I am hearing. Even a cover song of Hocus Pocus from Focus. -------------
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Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: February 12 2008 at 18:17
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Any other bands you got to listen to, Scott?
Recently got and enjoying http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3347 - POSEIDOTICA from Argentina - http://www.poseidotica.com.ar/ - http://www.poseidotica.com.ar/
(already posted about them above).
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: February 13 2008 at 11:45
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Assaf,
I listened to the the Deformica songs on their MySpace page. They were very good.
I think so far with the ones that I have listened to, that the Poseidotica was probably my favorite, and the Naikaku songs were probably my second favorite, but difficult to judge since it was just short samples.
Thank you again for all of the recommendations.
Scott -------------
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