VARIOUS GENRES

After the first RW documentary, the same warriors embarked on a riskier but more fascinating crusade, this time focalizing on the RIO movement, axing it story on the Once Upon A Time In Belgium project, which saw RIO kingpin Univers zero, Present and newcomer Aranis join forces for a mega 17-musos feast lasting about an hour at 2011 RIO- Festival in Carmaux in the mid-south of France. Yours truly was present at that yearly festivity, as is relatively often the case, but as usual chose to avoid camera attention.

The documentary presents a fairly chronological order of the foundations of the RIO movement in 78, starting with the major bands' previous works prior to the chart's signature. In some ways the spirit of the RIO movement's DIY attitude and labour showed the way for the modern prog realm to count only on itself to make things happen. Perhaps a bit strange (but not so much), is that the historical perspective starts with the French band Magma, who was never considered a RIO member. Of course, the documentary moves to UZ's Daniekl Denis' passage in the French band and the halcyon days of the band. As you'll easily guess, a consequent part of the next dozens of minutes are spent investigating Henry Cow and Wyatt, Samla, Etronfou and Stormy Six's respective works and history. Then moving on to the movement's second wave of admission in the circle with Bears, Zoyd, Aksak, Present and a few others, until we reach the modern era, to include Sleepytime Gorilla, Aranis, Yugen and others. The documentary does fail to speak about the USA side of things, first with The Muffins and then with the 5/Plague/Totemist galaxy of things.

On the interview side, we're of course seeing most of the familiar and unavoidable faces of then and today's scene, beit musicians, producers, festival organizers and label owners; plus a bunch of notable nobodies (minus yours truly, despite being a nobody as well) just giving the barren enthusiastic opinions or knowledge. So we get a fairly wide- encompassing spectrum of the RIO past and current scene, wide enough to foray in Zeuhl and Canterbury scenes as well. Should the RW crowd do another rockumentary, I'd guess that they'd investigate these two small genres that were born on their respective side of the Manche/Channel. As for this seconf instalment, I found it more interesting than its predecessor, despite my knowing a fair bit of what was presented. One of the main improvement I found on this second episode, is that there is a lot less communal self- satisfaction that I had detected in the first "chapter".

One band that I was pleased to see on the album was Ten Jinn. I haven't managed to get hold of their album 'As On A Darkling Plain' yet, but have heard good things about them from America. Their track, "The Dance Of Les Innocents", is by far the stand out of the 'new' (to me) material and brings together elements of Jethro Tull, Genesis and IQ in a rock/pop fashion that is very interesting indeed.

All in all another good introduction to the label, and it should be available at mid-price

Originally appeared in Feedback #58

Well, for some like me anyway. Considering that I am the first one to bother with typing out a few words, next to a lone rating of 5 without any supporting explanation by no other but one of the featured musicians. (Note that I am not using the term "artist" in this instance.) Yes, it's no other than the very Gianfranco Contenza again who gave me an earful of rather nasty and deeply offensive comments via previous Private Messages.. His Username is Fusion Guy and you can check out his self-serving and thankfully scarce inputs Chances are that more insults may follow - if only because I decline to admire his questionable interpretations of McLaughlin and Mahavishnu.

Suffice to say that his contribution brings down the overall value of an otherwise interesting and credible release. We are talking about interpretations here, as opposed to note-by-note copies.of the original tunes. Some tend to please very much, whereas others are good, but fail to excite.

I am a bit at a loss to note that the most pleasing artists here are not even featured at PA. Short of perusing Wikipedia, it leaves me wondering as who they are and how did they manage to be included in a project like this?

All in all, this is an interesting release and largely worthy of attention - if only for curiosity's sake. Easily 3.5, but rounded up to 4, due to the odd piece by people I've never heard of before. Funny that!.

In my review of the live version of the first part of Alan Simon's Excalibur trilogy, I claimed that it is better than the studio version. With Anne de Bretagne, I feel the opposite way. This behemoth of a live album is a three disc set featuring, in addition to a large cast of Folk and Rock musicians, a choir, a symphony orchestra, and a narrator! The narration was not present on the studio version and takes up many minutes here. As it is in French its meaning is (almost) totally lost on me; it becomes a distraction, an annoyance. The vocals are primarily in French as well, but when non-French musicians like Les Holroyd (of Barclay James Harvest) and Simon Nicol and Chris Leslie (of Fairport Convention) take the lead the language naturally shifts to English.

The first two discs contain the complete live performance of Anne de Bretagne: Le Rock Opera d'Alan Simon. The third disc repeats some themes performed on classical piano only. I feel that there is just a little too much of everything here and that Simon bit off more than he could chew this time. There certainly are some good moments here, but listening to the whole thing in a single sitting wears the listener out. (And disc three is for fans of classical music only.)

If you are curious about Alan Simon's musical projects (that feature many well-known people from the Prog music world), I strongly recommend you to start with the Excalibur trilogy (preferably in backward chronological order). Anne de Bretagne is somewhat less interesting, but if you want to investigate this one as well I would suggest going for the studio version.

The album opens with quite a well-known band, Tame Impala, with their song 'Mind Mischief'. This shows strong influences from early Pink Floyd and directly sets the tone for most of the album. It's definitely a song that grows on you.

Next up is 'Voice of the Seven Thunders - Kommune', a guitar-oriented psych-folk instrumental. From what I hear here, this band could easily be added to PA, it's some real good, original music. Mind the bongo-rhythm and the guitar solos here.

Then there's 'Temples - Shelter Song'. This is quite simple pop song, and not one of my favorites. It has some fun parts, but it's nothing special really.

'Django Django - Hand of Man' is something different. It sounds very small and dark and has a very dreamy, repetitive rhythm. It's not really prog either, but it's a good song for sure.

'The Limañanas - Crystal Anis' has some very sensual male and female vocals with a very mellow rhythm and thick bass sound. It doesn't quite fit with the rest of the songs, and I don't really like it either, also because the vocals are in French...

'Moon Duo - Sleepwalker' has the electric guitar screaming through the whole song and something that sounds like a sitar doing some riffs. The chorus is very nice and makes this one of the better songs. There's also great guitar solos here.

It's followed by 'Toy - The Reasons Why'. This might just be my favorite of the album. There's dreamy vocals and a chorus melody which sounds like a mellotron and appears to have a slightly odd time signature, 15/16 I think. Great song.

'Unknown Mortal Orchestra - From the Sun' has some strong sound effects and guitars, which a create a kind of Sunday morning feeling. Very psychedelic.

'Psychic Ills - Mind Daze' is a little more upbeat and has prominent organ and guitar lines. Dark vocals, like most songs here, as well as multiple guitars in the background.

Then 'Animal Collective - Wide Eyed' brings a totally different mood. Controlled by manic electric sounds effects, this sounds very clinical, but it's also completely overwhelming. Just looking at vocals and rhythm, however this sounds like typical British Invasion music. It ends in repetitive strange sounds and eventually laughter. Yes, pretty weird.

'Teeth of the Sea - A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.' has a Space-Rock sound which would also fit early Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and the Ozric Tentacles. It's only the second instrumental, while most of the songs after this are instrumental as well. From here on, it also gets proggier, if that's a word.

'Wooden Shjips - Flight' has the last vocals on the album, as well as heavy bass and a spacey sounding instrument on which I can't really put my finger. It's a pretty repetitive song, more than most others, and it has great spacey solos from that strange instrument and the electric guitar.

'Mugstar - Sunburnt Impedance Machine' is very upbeat and aggressive song with even some Heavy Metal influences. In the end sirens come in make it sound even more outrageous. This is one of my favorites for sure.

'Zombi - Shrunken Heads' is again much calmer. Zombi is in PA as Progressive Electronic artist, and you can hear why. A calm electronic rhythm opens the song, and after around three minutes, slow orchestral synthesizer sounds come in. This goes on for most of the song, until only the electronic rhythm is left and fades away.

The last song is 'Carlton Melton - Photos of Photos'. Carlton Melton is also added to PA as Progressive Electronic, although this one is slightly different. It's very slow and has practically no rhythm. A bright soundscape just goes on for over six minutes. It tends to get boring after a while.

Echoes is only legally available when it comes with the Mojo Magazine of March 2013. If you don't read Mojo, you should probably order the magazine online or download the tracks individually, which I would recommend.

Echoes is certainly a nice compilation of enjoyable songs, but not at all a masterpiece or something. Not even all songs are quite that good, as this is mostly a practical way to represent the current psych-rock scene. Still, nice to have.

If you do give it a listen, listen to it LOUD. It's got some really jarring moments that'll just feel dull if they're soft.

"Breathe" and "On the Run" open up the album with hard-rock interpretations of two pieces that were originally close to smooth jazz and electronica, respectively. They set a really driving mood and immediately tell the listener, "Remember, you didn't buy this album because you wanted to hear Floyd."

"Time" opens up with a Spoon-like introduction (sniffs and coughs as opposed to a ticking clock), and then BWWWAAAAAAMMMMMMMM a screaming, three-octave, grinding synth comes in, attacks your ears, then fades out completely before a single, echoey, acoustic guitar chord accompanies a single voice. The track only gets better from there, before going into a relatively noticeable reprise of "Breathe." One of the highlights.

"The Great Gig in the Sky" starts out sounding very similar to the original, albeit with American accents instead of English. Then, the processed vocal solo starts, accompanied by a grooving, almost archetypal Flaming Lips synth accompaniment. This track is another one of many on this disc that highlights exactly what FL likes to do with a studio.

"Money" is the only bad track on the disc, and it's not even that bad. It simply doesn't sound as creative or dissonant as the rest of the album. However, the symbolism of the industrial sound kind of makes up for it, so that's okay... I guess.

"Us and Them" is a very mellow track, and never goes into an explosively symphonic section as the original does; it prefers to hang back with atmospheric keyboards and xylophone-like taps. A constant bass drum beats like a heart throughout, and it could almost be a lullaby.

"Any Colour You Like" is another highlight. Whereas the original was very keyboard driven, this version is very guitar driven; it parallels the intro in its interests, and changes the sound of the song in the same way. It's hard, driving, and VERY catchy, despite hardly ever repeating a riff the same way.

"Brain Damage" almost goes into the explosive sections missed by "Us and Them", but just misses the mark (deliberately, of course), preferring to teeter on the edge of of explosiveness rather than carry out to its logical conclusion. A very moody track with a high degree of introspective ambiance.

"Eclipse" is a fitting conclusion, changing the original in (yet again) the same vein as "Any Colour" and "Breathe" did before it. Instead of the symphonic feel, it opts for a guitar driven sound with jarring breaks in the sound after every line of lyrics. It's a weaker track and feels less creative, but it's not unsatisfying.

That's all, folks. I highly suggest giving it a listen if you're into dissonant, sonically jarring music, or if you're a Floyd fan looking for a really fresh take on a great work.

Le Concert Mythique is the live recording of La Legende Des Celtes, the first part of Alan Simon's ambitious Excalibur trilogy. The set list is however not identical to the track list of the studio version. Personally, I enjoyed this live album a lot more. Fairport Convention forms the core of the backing band here and Simon Nicol of that band also hands in some very fine lead vocals. Other very good vocal performances here are by Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Jacqui McShee of Pentangle, and several others. Some numbers are sung in English and others in French. The narration (that in my opinion plagued the studio album) is thankfully not recreated in the live setting. Here the focus is on the mostly very good music which is an appealing mix of Folk, Rock, and Pop, with some Celtic and symphonic elements. The Prague Symphony Orchestra is present, but they are thankfully used wisely and don't overpower the other elements resulting in an overly bombastic sound (which is so often the case when orchestras are involved in a Rock context).

In my review of the studio version I wrote that this first part of the Excalibur trilogy is the least interesting of the three Excalibur albums. But this does not, I think, hold true of this live version. While both versions are enjoyable, the live version appeals to me more and equals Excalibur II and III (which don't exist as live albums as far as I know).

Le Concert Mythique is definitely recommended over the studio version and in addition to the subsequent studios Excalibur II and III

Being Holy Saturday and a Christian, it seemed appropriate to review my favorite musical and a favorite movie also since they are this movie/musical. First I'd like to say that I love the music from this recording! Even though I love the movie and truly like the song (Can We Start Again Please) that is in the movie but not on this, the concept album production, I do prefer this recording to the movie soundtrack. The cover of the this album has a brown leather-like look to it with two gold fanciful angel renditions meeting at the bottom giving a slight horse shoe effect. I hope you, the reader, don't mind if I refer to the movie as well as the recording here in question. I find it virtually impossible to separate one from the other. I've always felt that the music and the movie went hand-in-hand. The stark middle-eastern setting with minimal stage sets, set upon existing antiquity sites always seemed ideal for the production. A good amount of artistic license was used making this movie but I think that if you watch it with an open mind listening to the fantastic music IMHO, realizing that symbolism plays a major role in it's story telling, that you can be moved by it. I know that I have been many a time.It never seemed too difficult to me to interpret. Whether my interpretations were correct, well I don't know that, but I feel satisfied with them. Before I forget, I'd like to mention one of my favorite symbolic moments in the movie. It is just prior to the 'Damned For All Time/Blood Money' scene when Judas Iscariot is crouching in the dessert and, in slow motion a line of 5 or 6 military tanks rumble over the top of a small hill directly behind him. Now I've always interpreted that as the tanks representing evil which drives Judas to his appointed role in Jesus' betrayal. But it's just one of those scenes that make this movie and it's music so special to me. I love all the music in this musical and it's a hard call as to say whether or not or to what extent of a recommendation I can make. If you love 70's era rock and very good musicals and if the fact that the story told is a religious one and that doesn't bother, offend or annoy you then I think you'd appreciate the music from this movie/musical. I think I recall hearing back in the early 70's the local rock radio station actually playing the track 'Jesus Christ Superstar' on the air once and a while. Sadly, radio stations these days couldn't play anything like that today. It was a time when freedom of expression in music and not only hype for record sales was respected. Oh well. that's about it. Take care, and enjoy God's gift of music.

Alan Simon's Anne de Bretagne is a concept album in the same style as the Simon's ambitious Excalibur trilogy. Like on the Excalibur albums, Simon enlists a large number of artists from the Folk and Rock worlds. This time around the vast majority of these were previously unknown to me. But those that I did know well from before, Les Holroyd from Barclay James Harvest and several members from Fairport Convention, were also involved in the Excalibur project. A couple of the songs from this album also appear on Fairport Convention's own Fame & Glory album that is based entirely on material that they contributed to Alan Simon's Folk Rock Operas.

The vast majority of the songs on this double album are in French, with a few sung in English. This mixing of languages might be distracting for some listeners. The material is not bad, but the album is perhaps too long for its own good. After a while I tend to feel that I'm hearing only more of the same.

Overall, this is a less interesting album than the the Excalibur trilogy (especially Excalibur II & III), at least from a Prog perspective. Still, it is an at least partly enjoyable listen that could appeal to some fans of Celtic Folk Rock and Prog-related Pop Rock.

First off, I ought to note to those who might not know that I will approach this concept album from two angles: one would be the proggy perspective that members of PA are used to, and the other would be from a musical theater approach. I have become a fan of musicals and Broadway within the last year and a half, so the prog audience is going to get a little different take on this album.

While not naturally my style, with musicals, an understanding of the plot, characters and story is quite vital to enjoying the musical. Yes, the musical largely focuses on Jesus's last days which correlate to the Gospel readings on Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter). However, the man who betrays Jesus, Judas Iscariot, has as large of a role in this story as does Jesus. Also, instead of the traditional Christian telling of Jesus and Judas as two men (one the Son of God, the other a disciple) accepting divine destiny, the musical explores the two men from a more psychological, humanist and perhaps secular angle. There are other figures throughout like Mary Magdalene, the high priest Caiaphas, etc. that have a fair role in the story while traditional ''go-to'' names like Peter and Pontius Pilate are kept to a minor stance. This musical saw the writing team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice hit their creative stride (started with JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT in '68), providing memorable tunes with a few offbeat melodies with a story that is very well known, yet told in a slightly different context, but not enough to sound too disrespectful or blasphemous.

My understanding of the classical music term ''recapitulation'' is where a theme in one part is reused elsewhere in the piece albeit in a slightly different setting. Webber (the musical force here) does this quite well here; despite the laundry list of tracks, many themes are recycled and reused throughout the musical, giving a unity effect, almost as if this was one giant prog epic about the last days of Jesus. But this isn't a rare thing in musicals as many have reprises and finales that borrow or shorten themes from the more memorable numbers. A specific other example is Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY, where the opening title number is cued very often at various points in the show.

One thing I like to hear whenever I listen to a musical is a memorable lilt that I can't get out of my head. Good musicals have at least one instance of this, and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR offers several. There's the shuffle in ''This Jesus Must Die'', the opening fuzzy guitar riff in the orchestra reused in ''The Thirty-Nine Lashes'' (how do we know it's 39? They count it in the music.), the gentle melody of ''Everything's Alright'', the chanting of both ''Hosanna'' and ''The Temple'', and the grand bombastic finale that could only be described as ''Superstar''. There's a ton of melodies going for this musical.

This particular show emphasizes the characters, and I want to spend a few words on how well the actors pull off the characters. For starters, the chorus is one of the best I've heard from any musical; if you think the ensemble means nothing, listen to both ''The Temple'' and ''The Arrest'' as the chorus carries both numbers. The men who played Caiaphas, Annas and King Herod must have had fun portraying them as it shows in their demeanors. Yvonne Elliman sounds like the right Mary Magdalene as a sweet, gentle yet emotional restrained woman. The rub can set in with the two main leads, Judas and Jesus. Yes, I know it's Ian Gillan as Jesus Christ, and for the most part, Ian taps into to a humanistic Jesus rather well. When the tender moments need to shine like on ''Gethsemane'', Ian can really bring powerful emotions and truly make the character come to life outside of a true religious context. However, Ian finds the need to use his trademark high-pitched screams here; it works in Deep Purple, but here it's miscast. I find the same level of balance with Murray Head as Judas; he can work the frustration of the character very well, but he also butchers ''I Don't Know How to Love Him'' (in ''Judas' Death'') in the worst way. Still, the acting is convincing to the point where even with the success of Mark II Deep Purple, this is Ian Gillan's crowning achievement in singing.

How does prog fit into this story? For starters, the band Quatermass is heavily associated with the project with singer John Gustafson portraying Simon Zealots and keyboardist Peter Robinson being the main keyboard player. Also, 2/3 of the classic Nucleus lineup have bits in here. There are the constant shifts to 5/4 (notably ''Everything's Alright''; sounds like a hybrid of Dave Brubeck's ''Take Five'' and the church hymn ''Sing of the Lord's Goodness'') and 7/8 (''The Temple'') as well as the epic nature of the story itself (the Passion of Christ is a big portion of the basis of Christianity along with Jesus's Resurrection). Really, listening to the music almost reminds me of a Nucleus or an If or a Soft Machine; there's plenty of fuzzy guitars and Hammond organs flying about, and Webber himself actually manages to sneak a Moog line into the Overture. Not to mention the very avant-garde ''Crucifixion'', which is quite creepy and unorthodox for a musical, let alone one where Jesus Christ is a fulcrum in the story.

This is one of the greatest musicals I have come across, and the bounty of prog similarities helps in my enjoyment of this. Prog fans will gravitate towards the more rock-based approach to the music and tricky time signatures, and musical fans will find the great character portrayals, snappy melodies and abundance of singing appetizing.