Progawards 2009

Juryen for 2009 er klar, og nå begynner nominasjonen.

PBII

Fra asken av Plackband stiger nå PBII opp. Tre fjerdedeler av medlemmene er fra Plackband, mens bassisten Harry den Hartog kommer fra de RockenJagers. Musikken til nykommeren beskrives som en miks av neo symfonisk rock, moderne progressive rock og jazzrock.

PBII forsøker å lage sin egen unike musikk, men vil ikke være så fjern fra Frost* og Porcupine Tree, men også visse Genesisvibber vil finnes på skiva.

Debutskiva vil komme på slutten av året, og ha med diverse gjesteartister som John Jowitt (IQ, Frost*), Damian Wilson (Landmarq, Threshold), John Mittchel (Arena, Frost*, It Bites, Kino) og Heidi Jo Hines, datter av  Denny Laine (Wings, Moody Blues).

Skiva vil ikke ha såkalt normal stereolyd, men en spesiell 5.1 surround miks på DVD. For de som liker kirkeorgel, så vil dette være ekte saker på denne skiva! En duell på bass mellom John Jewitt og Harry den Hartog inneholder skiva også. Besetningen i PBII,

Ronald Brautigam – Gitarer og bakgrunnsvokal

Harry den Hartog – Bass og bakgrunnsvokal

Michel van Wassem – Vokal og keyboards

Tom Van Der Meulen - Trommer

www.pb2.nl

www.myspace.com/pb2nl

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho er blant annet kjent for «Alkymisten», og han solgte over 100 millioner bøker i 2007.

I et intervju med bloggen TorrentFreak forteller Coelho at mennesket alltid har hatt et behov for å dele. ”Siden tidenes morgen har mennesket hatt et behov for å dele, alt fra mat til kunst”, sier Coelho til TorrentFreak. Videre forteller Coelho at han tror piratkopierte bøker kun brukes som en «smaksprøve» før man kjøper papirutgaven av boken. ”Jeg tror virkelig at når leseren har mulighet til å lese et par kapitler, vil han kjøpe boken senere”, sier Coelho.

For oss som i tilegg til å være lesehester, også  har en ”viss interesses av” musikk, er dette så absolutt en svært spennende vinkling, som vi mener bør kunne overføres til feltet for  rytmisk musikk. Hvordan dette skal gjøres har vi derimot ingen patentoppskrift på. Det som er sikkert er at ”prøv-og-feile” opplegget er et snublende nærliggende konsept. Det endelige målet må jo være at utøvende kunstnere får en fornuftig betaling for sine produkter, og at de musikkinteresserte faktisk betaler for det de laster ned. Vi slipper da kanskje at gratismusikken florerer, og masse unødvendig kriminalisering av de musikkinteresserte. De virkelige musikkelskerne vil nok fortsatt ha CD eller LP, med alt hva det innebærer av cover art o.s.v.

Salgstallene er også på Coelho sin side - på New York Times bestselgerliste ligger «Alkymisten» på en sjetteplass, og har vært på listen i 34 uker. Forfatteren har også startet sin egen blogg som han kaller «Pirate Coelho», der han legger ut lenker til bøkene etter hvert som de blir lagt ut. Se også Coelhos Box.net-konto, der mange av bøkene ligger ute på engelsk og andre språk.

Panic Room

Visionary Position

In the fast moving world of the 21st century music industry where yesterday's heroes are today's non-entities, there are probably a large number of people, particularly outside those who follow progressive rock, who will have no or limited recall of Karnataka, the Welsh band that for many years looked as if they could be the band to cross-over into the mainstream. Following that bands implosion, the race was on for who would possibly claim the title of successor. Bassist and erstwhile leader Ian Jones initially formed Chasing The Monsoon and then resurrected the Karnataka name with the CTM vocalist and is currently recording albums with both bands; lead singer Rachael Jones joined The Reasoning who released a somewhat mediocre debut album and are set to release their sophomore effort fairly soon. The remainder of the band, keyboardist Jonathan Edwards, guitarist Paul Davies, drummer Gavin John Griffiths and second singer/flautist Anne-Marie Helder established Panic Room, completing the line-up with the recruitment of bassist Alun Vaughan.

What Panic Room have come up with is, an hour long, eight-track CD under the title of Visionary Position, should go a long way to leave any disappointment about the demise of the members' previous band behind them. With Jonathan Edwards taking over all the responsibility of writing all the music on the album, he has the unfettered chance to unleash the breadth of his musical vision. And pretty diverse it is too. Opening track Elektra City gives an almost intentional notice that the band are intent to take the music where they want. The song starts off in a rock fashion with Helder's main vocals treated to sound like a mechanical being in this Sci-Fi tale of technological nightmare. Only on the chorus and backing vocals does Helder's purity of voice shine through. Just when one is expecting a tumultuous ending of man versus machine we get a totally unexpected turn into an instrumental blues-jazz section lead by Edwards' piano. Endgame [Speed Of Life] takes as its template the Led Zep classic Kashmir. With the ethnic drumming at the start, the folksy violin of Liz Pendergast and some interesting electric guitar from Davies (whose only writing credit is on this song) we have the dawning of a classic. Helder sings wonderfully, as she does throughout the whole album, and Peter Charlton, who was responsible for recording the album and adding acoustic guitars to several numbers, adds some light to the shade. The big ballad that is Firefly dominates the next five minutes, a very soothing number that for some inexplicable reason always reminds me of the Uriah Heep track of the same name - bet that is not a comparison that will be drawn too often! There is even a brief keyboard derived Uillean pipe sounding interlude, possibly a humorous nod to the appearance of Troy Donockley on so many melodic progressive albums of late?

Reborn is a pretty straight forward song, not exactly what one would call filler material but definitely what used to be known as an album track, one that wouldn't be considered as a single. As I say, a reasonable song that has its moments, particularly the ending where the electric guitar is allowed off the leash and some Sympathy For The Devil 'Whoo Whoos' creep into the background - much preferable to the spoken lyrics earlier in the song. Pendergast, Edwards and Charlton really shine on the acoustic Moon On The Water providing perfect accompaniment to Helder's vocals in a remarkably lovely song. In contrast to the acoustic nature of Moon On The Water, Apocalypstick opens with an Arabian/Eastern vocal melody that is drowned out by some growling electric guitar. The Eastern flavour returns with violin and keyboard rhythms eventually building until keyboards and guitar frantically exchange solos based around the basic melody. An unusual and exciting song that knocks the spot off the demo that was originally posted on the band's MySpace site a year or so ago.

The folk side of the band materialises with the extended cover of the traditional song I Wonder What's Keeping My True Love Tonight. Considering this song has been covered by some of the greatest folk singers, such as Maddy Prior, June Tabor and, more recently, Kate Rusby, it may be seen somewhat brave to attempt a version of such an established song. However, it proves to be Helder's finest moment. The arrangement, by Edwards and Prendergast, is entirely sympathetic to the standing of the song within the folk music cannon, although the final two minutes add to the originality of the interpretation with the addition of a more progressive ending. Final track, The Dreaming is the seemingly obligatory epic. Like all decent long-form songs there are definite sections to the piece that invoke a variety of moods. At various times we are treated to the only appearance of Helder on flute (as a gifted instrumentalist it would be hoped that more use of her impressive skills is made on subsequent albums), some resplendent acoustic and restrained electric guitar work, a variety of keyboards and a rousing ending to the fourth part, Realisation. It seems like the end of the song when suddenly The Dream Goes On Forever, a tender replay of the song's opening some 14 minutes earlier plays the album out. Well almost, there is a bit more music in the form of a rhythmic piece with prominent drums and spacey keyboards added to the end of the album. Not so much a hidden track more of a bit of fun in the studio that was not in keeping with anything on the album. A bit of light relief I suppose but it can spoil the atmosphere created following the end of The Dreaming.

So there you have it, a solid debut album that in my opinion, knocks spots off the much lauded debut by The Reasoning and surpasses a lot of what was released by Karnataka. Helder's voice is a vital component of this superiority and when added to the compositional skills of Edwards and the musical prowess of the rest of the band the result is very, very impressive. However, much as it is inevitable, it is rather unjust to draw comparisons with the earlier band, for, as the band themselves quote L.P. Hartley on the inner cover of the album "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there". Indeed they do.

Tracklist: Elektra City (8:30), Endgame [Speed Of Life] (10:11), Firefly (5:16), Reborn (4:57), Moon On The Water (2:59), Apocalypstick (6:07), I Wonder What's Keeping My True Love Tonight (8:11), The Dreaming [a. Waking Dream, b. Arrival, c. Anticipation, d. Realisation, e. The Dream Goes On Forever] (14:17)

Platesalget

Platesalget ble halvert fra mars i 2007 til mars 2008, viser musikkbransjens omsetningstall. Salget av plater over disk gikk ned med 51 prosent i denne perioden. Samlet er verdien av det totale musikksalget sunket med 41 prosent, og da snakker vi altså om både digitalt og fysisk. Det er jo derfor snublende nær å ha en mistanke om at enkelte tilegner seg musikk på hva som er definert av lovene som en ulovelig måte.

Verst er det med salg av musikk fra det store utland. Her er nedgangen på formidable 85 % i nevnte periode! Lyspunktet for musikkbransjen er dog at digitalt salg har steget med 68 prosent på ett år, men uten at det er i nærheten av å veie opp for nedgangen i musikksalget sett under ett. Så langt i 2008 er det etter tre måneder solgt musikk for 120 millioner kroner, en nedgang på 15 prosent sammenlignet med de tre første månedene i 2007.

Platebutikken lever

Free Record Shop er død

Free Record shop mener det er tilnærmet umulig å selge musikk over disk i Norge. Nå legger de ned samtlige butikker. Tull, sier resten av bransjen.

Bodil Niska og Bare Jazz AS opplever økt salg i en bransje i nedgang.  ”Vi har vårt eget konsept og tilbyr en musikkopplevelse”, sier hun.

Internett har gjennom iTunes og ulovlig fildeling gjort musikk tilgjengelig utenfor platebutikkene.

Det har lenge vært en diskusjon om internett blir enden for den tradisjonelle platebutikken og CD-er.

Free Record Shop mener at musikksalget er historie i Norge og begynte i forrige uke å legge ned sine butikker.

”Vi har økt omsetningen med 10 prosent hvert år, og den øker stadig”, sier Bodil Niska, innehaver av Bare Jazz AS i Oslo. Etter ti år i egen platebutikk, ser hun optimistisk på fremtiden.

”Det er et tankekors at vi øker, i motsetning til hva de store kjedene gjør. Men jeg tror det handler om musikkopplevelsen vi tilbyr”, sier hun.

Forrige uke begynte Free Record Shop en tre måneder lang prosess for å legge ned samtlige av sine norske butikker. Inn kommer spillbutikk-kjeden Gamestop, som utelukkende skal selge data og TV-spill.

”Årsaken til nedleggelsene er ganske enkelt at musikksalget stuper”, sa markedssjef Anette Stuen Slåtten til NRK.

Bodil Niska tror grunnen til at hun klarer seg bra i en bransje i nedgang, er at hun ikke bare selger CD-plater.

”Folk som kjøper musikk hos oss, kommer for noe mer enn bare en CD i hånden. De er opptatt av hele opplevelsen. De vil vite hva som ligger bak innspillinger, få innspill om jazzmusikk og diskutere med andre interesserte”.

Hun mener mange av kundene savner den gamle platebutikkfølelsen.

”Dessuten er mye av musikken vi selger, ikke så lett tilgjengelig for nedlasting. Den er for spesielt interesserte”, sier Niska.


Også platebutikken Tiger i Oslo mener den tradisjonelle platebutikken vil overlever.

-”For oss er det gledens dager at butikker som Free Record Shop legger ned”, sier daglig leder Kristian Kallevik.

Han mener kjeden ikke har gjort noen god jobb for musikken. Selv holder butikken hans på å utvikle eget plateselskap.

-”Hadde vi trodd markedet for fysisk format var på vei i graven, hadde vi jo aldri satset på dette”.

”For oss i nisjemarkedet kommer CD-en til å vare lenge. De genuint musikkinteresserte ønsker musikk på fysisk format. Vi har en god etterspørsel etter vinyl og CD-er”, forteller Kallevik.


Det er de største kjedene som opplever det mest dramatisk. iTunes har tatt store markedsandeler på populærmusikk, og MySpace har en kjempesatsing rett rundt hjørnet. Platekompaniet, som står igjen som den soleklart største musikkforhandleren i Norge, tror likevel ikke at dette betyr kroken på døren på sikt.

- ”Vi hadde en nedgang på rundt 7 prosent i fjor. Det er ikke veldig dramatisk. Vi tror ikke CD-platen er død. Men kundene er blitt mer avanserte. Utvalgene må hele tiden oppdateres. Det jobber vi med kontinuerlig”, sier Rolf Kristian Presthus, daglig leder og eier i Platekompaniet.

Merlinprog er av den oppfatning at det fortsatt er plass til salg av CD-er fordi den virkelige musikkentusiast vil holde i det fysiske produktet, og på ingen måte nøyer seg med den digitale varianten alene.

Polen

HVORFRA? serien har her lagt Polen under lupen. Med årene er det kommet rimelig mange sterke artister fra dette landet, i sterk kontrast til i vår ungdom på 70 tallet. Da var det Jozef Skrzek og hans SBB som var temmelig alene. Nå er det virkelig mye bra herfra, og spesielt Neoproggen står sterkt her, til manges glede og til andres skrekk, da jo den musikkformen er noe omstridt.

Polen (polsk Polska), offisielt Republikken Polen (polsk Rzeczpospolita Polska) er et land i Sentral-Europa. Det ligger i midten av Europa, og grenser i vest mot Tyskland, i sør mot Tsjekkia og Slovakia, i øst mot Ukraina og Hviterussland, og i nord mot Østersjøen, Litauen og Russland (i form av Kaliningrad-enklaven). Polen deler også sjøgrenser med Danmark og Sverige. Med et areal på 312 679 km² er Polen verdens 69. største land. Polens befolkning utgjør over 38,1 millioner mennesker, for det meste bosatt i store byer som Łódź, landets historiske hovedstad Kraków eller nåværende hovedstad Warszawa.

Den første polske staten oppstod i 966, med et territorium som ligner på Polens moderne grenser. Polen ble et kongedømme i 1025, og gikk i 1569 inn i en langvarig union med Storhertugdømmet Litauen og dannet Den polsk-litauiske realunion. Realunionen ble oppløst i 1795, og Polen ble delt mellom sine naboland Russland, Preussen og Østerrike. Polen vant sin selvstendighet tilbake i 1918 etter første verdenskrig, men tapte den igjen under andre verdenskrig, da landet ble okkupert av Nazi-Tyskland og Sovjetunionen. Etter krigen ble Polen omdannet til et kommunistisk «østblokkland» under sovjetisk kontroll. I 1989 kvittet Polen seg med kommuniststyret, og landet ble uformelt kjent som «Den tredje polske republikk».

I dag er Polen et parlamentarisk demokrati bestående av seksten voivodskap, og er det sjette mest befolkede medlemsland i Den europeiske union. Landet er dessuten medlem i NATO, FN, OECD, WTO og flere andre internasjonale organisasjoner.

Phideaux

313

One of the great privileges of reviewing for DPRP is being introduced to artists that, even in this internet age of global communication, one would possibly never cross paths with. One such artist is Phideaux who, in their own words are "a loose anarchistic troupe/recording project between songwriter Phideaux Xavier, drummer Rich Hutchins, producer and engineering wizard Gabriel Moffat and a revolving cast of friends." The cast of friends helping out on this release includes vocalists Ariel Farber, Linda Ruttan Moldawsky and Valerie Gracious, bassist and singer Julie hair, drummer and singer Molly Ruttan Moffat and keyboard/guitar player Mark Sherkus. Hot on the heels of Chupacabras, the collection of older songs that didn't quite fit on previous albums, comes 313, 13 songs that were actually recorded back in March 2004. The delay in releasing Chupacabras has actually resulted in a bit of a backlog as the next album, The Great Leap, is already in the can while recording of a Doomsday Afternoon, a progressive epic, should have commenced by the time you are reading this.

So, what about 313? Well anyone familiar with Phideaux's albums will know that, as a songwriter, he doesn't limit himself to any particular genre, effortlessly slipping between styles. This results in never knowing quite what to expect with each release, and often with each succeeding song. This blending of styles is always exciting, particularly as the standard of song writing is consistently high. The experimentation continues as, remarkably, the 313 was conceived, written and recorded in one day! (Although some overdubs were added later and the lyrical pre-editing credit suggests that at least some of the lyrics existed prior to recording). Despite the obscenely short time taken to get everything on tape, the album is entirely void of filler, no rambling jams, improvised ambient meanderings or overtly experimental nonsense - each song is fully formed and to the usual high standard.

The album starts on a melodic note with the piano introduction to Railyard. Actually, the piano is used prominently throughout the album, although very rarely is it presented as a solo instrument as there is a whole host of other instruments to add variety to the sound. These include electric sitar (Have You Hugged Your Robot?, A Storm Of Cats and Sick Of Me), e-bow (Orangutan, Coda 99 and Run Singing Tiger), Ensoniq synthesiser (Coda 99, Watching Machine and Sick Of Me) various sampled instruments (Mellotron on Railyard, harpsichord on A Storm Of Cats and even a toothbrush on Watching Machine!) Generally it is quite a full sound with lots of texture and a plethora of harmony and backing vocals that always add interest whenever they appear.

A couple of stand out tracks are Have You Hugged Your Robot? which has a melody line adapted from a classical piece (the name of which escapes me at the moment) mixed with a heavy, insistent riff, all sorts of spacey synths and an obligatory robot voice provided through a vocoder; the totally marvellous Sick Of Me which, as well as being musically interesting, features a superb vocal performance by Valerie Gracious; and also Run Singing Tiger, another upbeat number featuring more co-lead vocals by Gracious that has a relatively simple lyric (based on a poem by Devon Moffat, whom I assume is the child Gabriel and Molly Moffat - apologies if I am off beam on that one!, and some very incise guitar parts. Benediction, recorded live in the studio, closes the album in quite a sombre mood, particularly considering what has come previously. The instrumentation is piano, a rather subdued organ cymbals and shaker with almost funereal vocals. The effect is haunting although somewhat out of place on the album.

A couple of tracks don't work so well in the context of the overall album, In Search Of Bitter Ore reminds me of something from The Men In Black by The Stranglers and Orangutan is initially a bit sparse, is rather repetitive and the backing vocals that elsewhere add so much to the overall ambience seem to be rather incongruous on this number.

Naturally the perennial question of "is it prog?" rears its head when considering this album to which I would answer with a resolute "yes"! Okay, it is far from traditional progressive rock and doesn't fit into the tenuous and dubious classifications that seem to litter music these days. 313 is by no means a 'challenging' album, nor does it break down any barriers or extend boundaries. But having the audacity to even attempt to record a whole album in a day is nothing but ambitious. That Phideaux managed it and, what is more, came up with some very good songs in the process is testament to the musicians involved and the skill of the songwriter himself.

Tracklist: Railyard (3:32), Have You Hugged Your Robot? (3:08), A Storm Of Cats (2:34), Never Gonna Go (3:43), Pyramid (4:13), There's Only One Of You (2:37), Orangutan (2:57), Sick Of Me - Coda 99(5:41), In Search Of Bitter Ore (4:03), Cats 2 / Body To Space (5:33), Watching Machine (2:27), Run Singing Tiger (3:37), Benediction (4:05)

Punk og prog

Sex Pistols

Da Sex Pistols debuterte som oppvarming for glambandet Bazooka Joe gikk fremdeles europeisk ungdom rundt iført bukser med sjømannssleng, hadde langt hår og levde på siste rest av de glade 60-årene. Uten å se at verden kom til å ta steget lenger og lenger bort fra et sosialdemokratisk og solidarisk samfunn og over i et mer uoverskuelig et med individet i fokus. Bare to år senere hadde hele verden stiftet bekjentskap med bandet som det britiske parlamentet i mellomtiden hadde karakterisert som samfunnsfiender no 1! Selv om punken hadde eksistert i USA i noen år før Pistols, var det våre britiske naboer som gjorde oss oppmerksomme på fenomenet, og deres holdninger og verdensbilde vi fikk presentert.

Vibrators

 Norge på sin side var på siste halvdel av 70-tallet et land som dyrket oversatte coverversjoner av utenlandske hits, var overfylt av diskomusikk og danseband og hadde nedlagt kategorien Rock i Spellemannsprisens regi. Livemusikken ble ekspedert av de før nevnte dansebandene som fylte de fleste konsertscener i hele landet, bortsett fra Ekeberghallen der de utenlandske superstjernene kom, og tilvis storsalen i Chateau Neuf der AKP (m-l)s revolusjons-mobiliserende arrangementer fant sted.

Stranglers

 Så selv om punken ofte blir fortstått som den epoken da den enkle tre-grepsrocken overtok hegemoniet etter den døende symforock og tiden da dinosaurusbandene mistet grepet, må den norske grenen også sees som en viktig kraft for å skyve danseband, diskokultur og revolusjonær visesang til side. Både dansebandkulturen og AKP-hegemoniet var i så måte særnorske fenomener som punken som en del av nye strømninger måtte bekjempe lokalt.

Clash

Punkens energi viste seg å ha kraft til å bidra til å forandre samfunnet på mer enn den enkelte konsertscene. Dens anarkistiske og delvis nihilistiske holdninger bidro sammen med postmodernistiske ideer og en økende liberalisme (mye takket være Khomeinis maktovertakelse i Iran i '79, som førte til økte oljepriser og et voksende selvgod norsk og gjeldsfri økonomi) til at fokuset ble tatt bort fra den sosialistiske usynlighetskulturen og over på individet. Selv om punken ikke hadde slike ideologiske intensjoner, kan man se at bevegelsens representanter bidro til å trekke i den retningen med provoserende og autonom fremtreden, for så på sikt å bidra til en mer variert klesstil og større variasjoner og flere selvbestemte hårfrisyrer etc, og således mer tollanse.

The Damned

 Men det var likevel på musikkfronten punken hadde mest å tilføre. Med punken kom det man kaller D-I-Y-kulturen (gjør-det-sjøl-bevegelsen) med egenutgivelser på egne eller små labeler for alvor her hjemme. Mens det i årene 1970-76 kom ut 8 uavhengige singelplater og 45 uavhengige LP-plater (album), ble det i 1978-81 utgitt 126 singelplater og 87 LP-album. Selv om ikke alle disse platene kan defineres som eksplisitt punk eller new wave, banet det veien for en ny rock-kultur og en ny måte å forholde seg til musikkmarkedet på, som punken var en sentral aktør i.

 Det bygde seg opp en ny live-scene rundt i hele landet for å huse alle de nye bandene som dukket opp og som har gitt oss et kontinuerlig live-tilbud frem til i dag. I løpet av 70-tallet var dette markedet lagt brakk, og live-scenen var overlatt til danseband, frijazz og totalitær visesang. Dagens rockere og brukere av dagens frie, anti-autoritære og rocketilbud kan derfor utmerket godt ta seg en god slurk av konsertpilsen mens de ofrer en tanke på en ikke altfor fjern 30 åring.

For en som har hatt mye glede av prog opp gjennom årene så vil alltid punkens inntreden stå som en ren henrettelse av progen. Nå skal det i sannhets sies at mange aktører i progmiljø var blitt rimelig navlebeskuende og selvgode, så en viss opprydning var ikke å forakte. Uansett så satte punken en effektiv stopper for alt som smakte av prog. Ordet prog ble et skjellsord, en tilstand som har fortsatt opp til våre dager. Mars Volta`s " Francis The Mute" kom i 2005 ut med følgende advarsel på coveret: " This is not prog", hvor altså plateselskapet toer sine hender på en besynderlig måte. Paradokset er at utgivelsen åpenbar er spekket med progressive kjennetegn. Gutta i Mars Volta innrømmer glatt at erkeproggerne i King Crimson er en meget stor inspirasjonkilde. Vi kan trygt fastslå at progen ikke er stueren enda. Jeg tviler faktisk på at den blir det, og i hovedsak vil forbli et undergrunnsfenomen. Punken derimot har hos mange av sine arvtagere en ganske så kommersielt lydbilde, og selger følgelig i bøtter og spann. Green Day er jo en slags utvannet punk, en slags softpunk eller hva nå slikt skal hete. Svenske The Hives er jo et annet fenomen med minimalt med originalitet og særpreg. Desto større er evnen til å få mange unge mennesker til å bruke penger på alle deres "åndsverk".

Dermed er styrkeforholdet totalt endret. De som en gang hadde verdens musikalske fokus med seg, er nå et undergrunnsfenomen, mens mange av de en gang så kompromissløse er blitt snille og pusete og hersker i det kommersielle segment. Akkurat de er greit nok for meg, og det plager meg minimalt. Må jo likevel smile vemodig når jeg vet med sikkerhet at originalitet, dyktige musikere, nye og spennende klanger og kløktige arrangementer osv ikke blir honorert. Markedstilpassning, store reklamebudsjetter, ja at et kunstnerisk utrykk som musikken bør være er degenerert til å bli en dusinvare som tilpasses trender osv. er jo rimelig spesielt. Salige Beatles introduserte jo rock som et kunstnerisk uttrykk, og hadde knapt kunne forutse en verden av innholdsløse kopister. Burde jo ikke bli forundret når jeg vet at tradisjonen fra gamle Rom lever i beste velgående. Gi folk brød og sirkus og massene er fornøyd. Oversatt til vår verden kan vi da si: gi folk Grandiosa og Britney Spears og alt er såre vel.

Mens all denne Britneyene og Grandiosaene fortæres så hygger jeg meg med for eksempel Jethro Tulls " Minstrel In The Gallery", eller kanskje det blir Flower Kings " Retropolis" for ikke å snakke om noe Univers Zero om er både svært originalt, intenst, dystert men vakkert.

Punken henretter proggen.

1977 var som en blåkopi av den franske revolusjon. Heldigvis var det snakk om stilarter og ikke mennesker denne gangen. Faktum er uansett at punken med god hjelp fra discoen regelrett henrettet progen. I likehet med alle revolusjoner så ble alt det etablerte bannlyst, og spesielt den tidvis oppblåste og selvgode progen fikk lide. Vi kan trygt si at musikalske dinosaurer ikke var spesielt vel ansett, med en klar analogi til diverse aristrokrater. At akkurat dette skulle skje var neppe særlig overraskende for de som fulgte litt med i musikkverden. En og annen artist var blitt ganske så navlebeskuende og store på det. Jeg mener å ha hørt at Keith Emerson var et stjerneeksempel her. Den godeste Keith hadde ansatt en egen mann som sørget for at det teppe han stod på under konserter alltid var tip top shape! Heftige discorytmer, og tre greps rock tok totalt kontrollen i musikkverden. Progen ble og er et undergrunnsfenomen, selv om det finnes unntak. Bare navnet prog ble så belastende at det selv i dag ofte er et skjellsord. Når et stort selskap som  Universal  i 2005 utgir "Frances The Mute" av Mars Volta har de slik skrekk for ordet prog at de garderer seg. "This is not pog", pryder coveret. Her skal det bunnlinja fores, og da er det mindre viktig med om det som utbasunere er sant eller ikke. " Francis The Mute" er udiskutabelt prog og ingenting annet.

I 30 år har så progen stort sett vandret i skyggenes dal, og vært et undergrunnsfenomen. Noen få artister har likevel nådd frem til folket og selger store mengder skiver. Muse, Dream Theater , Mars Volta og Radiohead er vel fire unntak, men så er disse også på såkalte ”mainlabels”. Mainlabels har jo ofte et velsmurt salgsapparat til rådighet så det er nok mye av forklaringen. Vel så viktig er det at dette nok beviser at progmusikk faktisk er noe de store massene egentlig liker. Det er jo bare slik at de fleste ikke gidder eller vil bruke tid på å dykke ned i dypet av det som finnes av mer ukjent musikk. Alt for ofte er det kun musikk de får så å si fylt i ørene som de forholder seg til. Det vil jo i praksis si at progen forblir et undergrunnsfenomen. Et paradoks opp i alt dette er jo at punken var ment til å være en "fuck all" bevegelse, men med tiden ofte er blitt ganske så snill og markedstilpasset. Akkurat det fenomenet er jo en kjent sak fra andre revolusjoner. Bolsjevikene hadde når de kom til makten stor aversjon mot ordner og utmerkelser. Med tiden så overgikk de faktisk Tsarens regimet, og ble nærmest besatt av ordener og utmerkelser. Vi kan vel fastslå at liv og lære ikke alltid (sjelden faktisk) stemmer overens, og at de fleste ideer med tiden blir rimelig utvannet.

Pink Floyd`s verk:

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

Albumtittelen er hentet fra Syd Barrets favoritt-barnebok, Wind in the Willows. At Syd, og muligens andre medlemmer av gruppen, eksperimenterte med LSD under innspillingen av denne platen vil ikke komme som noe sjokk når man hører den. Platen regnes som et av de beste psykedeliske albumene som noensinne har blitt gitt ut, og det med rette. Fra den barnslige, og gale, Bike til sinnsykdommer som Insterstellar Overdrive og Astronomy Domine. Sistnevnte er kanskje en av tidenes beste åpningslåter på et debutalbum.

A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)

Det er ikke alltid lett å følge opp en debut. Spesielt ikke når frontfiguren er i ferd med å seile over til et annet menneskelig plan (en snill måte å si at hjernen hans ikke helt fulgte med på hverdagen lenger). David Gilmour kom inn i bandet, og det ble lengre sanger som ga et lite hint om hvor Pink Floyd senere skulle ende opp. Platen inneholder likevel en sang av Barrett: Jugband Blues (It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here/And I'm almost obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here), og et par andre låter som har holdt tidens tann meget godt: Let there Be More Light og Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

More (1969)

Tredjealbumet er vanskelig, men Pink Floyd kom seg unna ved å lage et soundtrackalbum. Filmen som musikken er fra, med samme navn, er en svært lite sett fransk psykedelisk hippiegjørme. Dessverre funker ikke musikken på albumet. Det høres ut som musikk som er hentet ut fra en film, og ikke et helt album. Likevel - det er her du finner sangen Green is the Colour og The Nile Song. Ikke dårlig bare det. Det eneste som muligens kan sies positivt om albumet er at det er litt bedre enn neste gang de laget filmmusikk.

Ummagumma (1969)

Hei, hva spiste du til frokost? Noen piller, ja. OK. Grønne eller røde? Fint. Hmmm..... Se på den skyen... ja.. Fin.. Beklager, men å anmelde denne platen, i hvert fall den ene halvdelen av den (dette var en dobbelt-LP da den kom) blir litt som å forklare hva man ser i sine villeste drømmer eller når man har gått ut i skogen og spist feil sopp (eller riktig, i dette tilfellet). Her får du sinnsykdommer som Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and og Sysyphus pt.1 til 4... De fire første sangene (eller den første platen) var liveversjoner av tidligere utgitt materiale (Astronoy Domine, Careful with that Axe, Eguene, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun og A Saucerful of Secrets). Disse fire sangene er bedre enn sine originaler, og eksperimenteringen på den andre platen er sjarmerende og syk, syk, syk.

Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Når platens første nummer er en nærmere 24 minutter lang ufokusert samling av musikk. Før du har hørt igjennom sangen (som er kalt Atom Heart Mother) en del ganger vil du sannsynligvis ikke like den, men den er som å drikke portvin med sær ost til. Det er ikke godt før du virkelig har prøvd det mange ganger. Den andre siden av platen er tre sanger av henholdsvis Water, Wright og Gilmour før Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast kommer og prøver å ødelegge innsiden av hjernen din (i hvert fall mot slutten). Etter en del gjennomlyttinger vil du likevel ende opp med å høre på Atom Heart Mother's tittelspor, og muligens Roger Waters sin meget personlige ballade: If.

Meddle (1971)

Dette er sannsynligvis den beste platen Pink Floyd ga ut før The Dark Side of the Moon, og etter Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Her får du klassikere som One of These Days og Echoes. Platen har bare ett problem, sangen Roger Waters skrev alene: San Tropez. Uten den hadde det vært en konsistent affære som du kunne satt på i både ny og ne. For Liverpool-fans er det verdt å få med seg Fearless. En velkjent annen korsang avslutter sangen. Til tider kan Pink Floyd høres ut som et gjennomført rockeband på platen, men den psykedeliske undertonen er der. Platen er for mange nestenfans av Pink Floyd en uoppdaget klassiker.

Obscured by Clouds (1972)

Denne platens tittel er egentlig selvbeskrivende. Dette er nok en gang filmmusikk. Musikalsk ligner det noe på Atom Heart Mother og Meddle, men dette er først og fremst musikk som passer til en film og ikke til avspillingen gjennom et stereoanlegg. Det er vanskelig å peke på spesielle høydepunkter for det meste er biter av et puslespill du ikke helt vet hva er. Likevel, i etterkant, kan man si at dette albumet gjorde det mulig for Pink Floyd å spille inn det som kom året etter og ble tidenes listealbum i USA. Nok en gang har coverartisten til gruppa hatt en god dag på jobb.... Filmen som musikken er til er La Vallée.

The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Tja, hva skal skrives om denne platen som ikke er gjort tidligere. For det første, dette var det kommersielle gjennombruddet til Pink Floyd. Enkelte har brukt det mot platen. Det kan heller brukes som et argument for platekjøperne. Her er det psykedelisk rock blandet med jazz og bluesrock. Gjort på en måte som svært mange, inklusive Pink Floyd selv, har prøvd å kopiere etterpå. Samtidig - dette er nok ikke gruppens beste album, men dette er PINK FLOYD-ALBUMET foran noen. Og mer perfekt enn på The Great Gig in the Sky får du det ikke.

Wish You Were Here (1975)

Pink Floyd-fans kan diskutere mye, men at Welcome the the Machine er et angrep på alle sanser etter Shine on You Crazy Diamond kan ikke diskuteres. Noen vil også diskutere følgende påstand: Dette er gruppens beste album. Wish You Were Here er gruppens beste enkeltsang, og Shine on You Crazy Diamond ett av de vakreste - tja, hva skal man kalle det - en sang som totalt er på over 25 minutter kan ikke kalles en låt. Noe er det, og det noe er vakkert. Dette er også den siste platen hvor Pink Floyd skrev sanger som en gruppe....

Animals (1977)

Roger Waters var ikke spesielt imponert over verden når denne platen kom ut. Hans sanger om griser, sauer og bikkjer kan lett oversettes til å omhandle menneskeheten. Selv om dette nesten kan kalles et soloalbum av Waters (Gilmour har fått kreditt på sangen Dogs), så er det gitaren til David Gilmour som bærer musikken fram. Er man Pink Floyd-fan er dette et godt album, men hvis du er en av de mange som synes at de er gode og langt fra geniale så er dette ikke den mest lystige Pink Floyd-døren å åpne.

The Wall (1979)

Det er få, om ingen, som ikke har hørt Pink Floyds mest kommersielle sang: «Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2.» Som et album er muligens dette i etterkant ikke en gjennomført affære, men det er vanskelig å tulle med en plate som undertegnende kan synge utenat. Gilmour var med å skrive platens egentlige beste sang: Comfortably Numb. Ellers var dette Roger Waters sitt angrep på musikkindustrien, samfunnet, Pink Floyd, fansen og seg selv. I tillegg til den svært personlige historien om til Waters og hans far som døde under andre verdenskrig (en a de beste sangene om nettopp dette: When the Tygers Broke Free, var ikke med på albumet).

The Final Cut (1983)

Så var det slutt. I hvert fall for Roger Waters. Dette albumet ble presentert som laget av Roger Waters og fremført av Pink Floyd. Mange ser det også på som det første soloalbumet til Waters, noe som også kan stemme på mange måter. Her er det personlige sanger som fokuserer på tekstene, og ikke musikken. For fans av «gamle» Pink Floyd ble dette noe helt annet, og mange regner det som et svakt album. Poenget er muligens at dette er noe annet, og man skal ta det for det som det er. Singelen fra albumet, Not Now John, er albumets svakeste spor. Bedre er det på The Fletcher Memorial Home, The Post War Dream, Two Suns in the Sunset (hadde Waters sett Star Wars?) og Paranoid Eyes.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)

Etter flere rettsaker fikk David Gilmour lov til å fortsette å gi ut album under Pink Floyd-navnet. Slik som The Final Cut var et soloalbum fra Roger Waters under navnet Pink Floyd er dette et Gilmour-album under samme bandnavn. Alle sangene er skrevet av Gilmour (med hjelp fra produsent Bob Ezrin på singelen Learning to Fly, blant annet). Musikalsk ligner dette på album fra 70-tallet for Pink Floyd, men det mangler det samlende, temamessige og gjennomførte som Waters brakte til gruppa. Likevel, dette er gitaronani av godt varemerke - men ikke det du kan kalle et Pink Floyd-album.

The Division Bell (1994)

Dette kan kalles den første Pink Floyd-utgivelsen siden The Wall. Her er både Nick Mason og Rick Wright med, og sistnevnte har også vært med på å skrive fem av albumets elleve sanger. Det er pent og hyggelgi på sanger som Keep Talking og High Hopes, og det er ingen tvil om at Gilmour prøver å skrive som Waters (tekstmessig, med hjelp fra folk fra Dream Academy). Slikt sett kan man se på dette som et virkelig Floyd-album, men det er ikke ett av de beste.

Liveplater:

Pulse (1995)
London 1966/1967 (2005)

Samleplater:

Relics (1971)

Dette er sanger fra bandets tidlige år og har flere sanger som man ikke finner på album. En verdifull investering hvis man er fan eller er nysgjerrig på hva de drev med i starten.

A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981)

Det beste med denne platen er tittelen på den, men disse sangene passer dårlig sammen. Shine on You Crazy Diamond er lagt sammen til en sang, som et eksempel. For fans så er det en ting som kan være av interesse: En nyinnspilling av Money.

Works (1983)

Dette er en merkelig samling, for å si det mildt. Det er en ny sang, eller kvasi-uutgitt: Embryo. Denne sangen kan ikke kalles noe særlig mer enn en demo, og resten av sangene passer bedre på albumene de kom fra.
 

Echoes (2006)
Samlealbum og Pink Floyd passer ikke utrolig godt sammen, men produsenten av dette albumet skal ha at man har prøvd. Her har man mikset sangene godt sammen og for de som ikke liker Pink Floyd så godt at de vil ha albumene så er dette samlingen man kjøper. Her får du også When the Tigers broke Free

Paul Rodgers

In a career that now spans three decades, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Paul Rodgers and his various groups have sold in excess of 125 million records around the world. Best known for his expressive vocals on songs that have become rock & roll staples, like "All Right Now," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Can't Get Enough" and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy," Rodgers has been cited by dozens of 1970s and '80s-era rock groups and musicians as a major influence. U.S. groups like the Black Crowes and Guns N' Roses have cited Rodgers and his various groups — Free, Bad Company, the Firm, the Law — as an influence on their styles. As a vocalist and songwriter, Rodgers had great admiration and respect for the classic African-American blues and R&B vocalists. Rodgers credits his father for buying him a guitar in his youth, but he later taught himself bass and piano as well. He began writing songs when he was in his early teens, before he had mastered any instrument.

Rodgers began playing out in clubs around Middlesborough, in northern England, when he was 13, taking singers like Rod Stewart as his role models. Right after he left school, he set out for London in a van with a band called the Roadrunners. The van broke down en route, and while the other members hitchhiked back north, Rodgers went south to London. After a short time he returned home to his parents, who were supportive of his musical endeavors. But having seen the club scene in London, he became determined to go back and make his mark there.

Returning to London, he formed the blues band Brown Sugar, deciding to see how far he could go as a vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. In the mid- and late 1960s, London was in the midst of a huge blues revival, and Rodgers had the opportunity to see Muddy Waters and dozens of other American blues musicians perform at London's Marquee Club and other blues and R&B venues. Seeing Waters live had a lasting effect on Rodgers, and his early experiments, Brown Sugar and Free, started out as blues bands. Rodgers was working with Brown Sugar when guitarist Paul Kossoff heard him sing. Kossoff was so impressed with Rodgers' voice, the two decided to create a new band, joined by Simon Kirke on drums and bassist Andy Fraser. After seeing them at the Nags Head Pub in Battersea, Britain's godfather of blues, Alexis Korner, suggested they call themselves Free. A song Rodgers co-wrote with Fraser, "All Right Now," hit number one in twenty territories around the world in 1970. The song remains a rock staple, having been entered into ASCAP's "One Million" airplay singles club. By the early 1970s, Free were one of the biggest-selling British blues-rock groups; by the time the band dissolved in 1973, they had achieved an uncanny level of superstar success: they had sold more than 20 million albums around the world and had played more than 700 arena and festival concerts.

In 1973, Rodgers formed Bad Company, then a prototype "supergroup," with King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and Free drummer Simon Kirke. But this time, Rodgers learned from the mistakes he'd made with Free; he was determined to have bandmates who shared his musical vision — the overnight success that Free experienced put undue pressures on the personalities in the band. Rodgers contacted Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin's notorious manager, who was fortuitously starting Swan Song Records, the group's vanity label. By the close of the 1970s, Bad Company had recorded six multi-platinum albums, which spurred classic blues-rock and rock staples like "Can't Get Enough," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Shooting Star" and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy." By the time Bad Company called it quits, they had played to over 10 million people around the world and sold 30 million albums.

Other highlights of Rodgers' career include a show-stopping version of Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" at Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary party at Madison Square Garden in 1988, and his formation of a new group with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, the Firm, in the mid-1980s. Following that band's two albums, Rodgers formed the Law with former Small Faces/Who drummer Kenny Jones.

Since the early 1980s, Rodgers has also released a handful of solo albums. They include Cut Loose (1983) and The Morning After the Night Before/Northwind (1984), both for Atlantic Records. His 1990s output includes Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters (1993, Victory Records), and The Hendrix Set, a mini-CD, released that same year. Muddy Water Blues was nominated for a Grammy and features guest performances by Slash, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, Jeff Beck, Steve Miller, Buddy Guy, and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. More recently, Rodgers put together a backing band featuring guitarist Geoff Whitehorn, bassist Jaz Lochrie and drummer Jim Copley, recording Paul Rodgers Live (1996) and Paul Rodgers Now (1997) for the New York-based Velvel Records. After a Bad Company reunion in 1999, Rodgers switched over to CMC International, issuing the album Electric in 2000.

Pappskaller?

Plateselskapet Universal ønsker å snu trenden med nettsalg av musikk. Det skjøre våpenet er å pakke platene i tre ulike innpakninger. Ikke spesielt kreativt kanskje, men noe må jo giganten foreta seg når bunnlinja ikke behager eierne.

Dyrest er deluxe-pakken, som kun er forbeholdt Universals mestselgende artister. Vi tillater oss å legge merke til at de mest kreative, kunstnerisk best og med særpreg selvsagt ikke får denne æren  Deluxe-pakken fylles med ekstramateriale som videoer. Prislapp: 160 kroner (19,99 Euro).

Standardpakken er kun en vanlig CD i vanlig cover. Denne løsningen betaler man 120 kroner for (14,99 Euro). De to nevnte løsningene har vært tilgjengelig tidligere, men nyheten ligger i en oppgradering til en nydesignet oppbevaringsboks. «Super Jewel Box» er rundere i kantene, men samtidig mer robust enn forgjengeren.

Den billigst og enkleste varianten er å pakke CD-platen mellom papplater. Prisen er 80 kroner (9,99 Euro), som skal matche den på nett og vedlikeholde salget.

Skeptikerne har ingen tro på at trenden med nedlasting, fildeling og nettsalg vil snu. Selv Universal innrømmer at minst 10 prosent av all musikk vil bli solgt digital før 2011. Hvordan selskapet fikk papp på skallen eller hvorfor de tviholder på plateteknologien kommer ikke frem av artikkelen til BetaNews.

Progawards 2006

De beste skivene i 2006 er kåret hos Progawards. Resultatet er basert på lesernes stemmer og gjenspeiler nok den jevne ”progheads” smak. En slik smak vil ofte basere seg på det trygge og kjente, og de skivene som er mest innovative, dyrker ny mark etc, vil ikke en gang bli nominert. Det betyr ikke at vinnerne ikke er bra skiver, men som sagt så sprenger de ikke akkurat de rammene som til en viss grad er lagt opp til. Akkurat dette er jo proggen evige dilemma. Prog skal være grensesprengende, men det er jo ofte en slitsom aktivitet fordi det er en så krevende oppgave. Det å stadig skulle finne opp noe nytt er ikke alle gitt. Muligens er det beste å respektere begge retninger om noe sånt finnes. Både de som stadig søker å dyrke ny mark, og de som setter sitt særpreg på mer innarbeidede musklaske tenkemåter, bør vel respekteres. Så lenge dette gjøres med særpreg, ”ånd” og musikalsk integritet, er det vel ikke så ille?

1. Areknames  ”Love Hate Round Trip”
2. Fonderia ”Re En>>ter”
3. Tapobran  ” Posidonian Fields”
    

Pandora

For de som er glad i nettradio er det enormt mange plasser hvor det er mulig å høre musikk som er en tanke fra den typiske listemusikken. Noen forslag kommer her:

http://www.pandora.com/

Her kan du skreddersy din egen kanal så og si, og det kan bli riktig morsomt og spennende for mange vil vi tro. Etter hvert kreves det en registrering med en USA adresse, og da bruker du bare 90210 Beverly Hills fra serien med samme navn, så er det problemet løst!

Vi fyller på med 10 andre tilfeldig valgte plasser hvor det er masse musikk å hente:

http://www.ectagon.com/radio.htm

http://www.deliciousagony.com/

http://www.progrock.com/

http://www.imaginarydimensions.com/

http://yurstunes.rantnrave.com/

http://progpalaceradio.com/

http://www.progressivesoundscapes.com/

http://www.canvasproductions.net/

http://radioprog.skynetblogs.be/

http://www.progrockradio.com/

ProgDay Kinections

The ProgDay Support CD

ProgDay is a progressive rock festival (now in its eleventh incarnation, according to ProgDay.com) held at Stoneybrook Farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the United States. This year, the festival will take place over the Labor Day weekend (September 3 and 4).

In the past, the festival has featured such artists as The Flower Kings, Arti e Mestieri, Kraan, Happy the Man, Wishbone Ash, Discipline, Deus ex Machina, Ars Nova, The Muffins, Echolyn, Finisterre, Samla Mammas Manna, Pain of Salvation, Focus, Thinking Plague, and many more. The line-up for this year’s event is still being assembled but so far it includes Happy The Man, White Willow, The Spacious Mind, Far Corner, Helmet of Gnats and Psicotropia. Sadly, Nektar was scheduled to headline on September 4 but has cancelled due to travel difficulties.

In support of the festival, and to help defray the attendant expenditures, Lew Fisher (with the assistance of The Progressive Music Society) culled various contributed tracks to create a ProgDay compilation CD, which is now available for purchase at the first info link given above. The cost is $12.00 and the music is certainly worth the price.

Compilations are fun because, if properly done, they tend to highlight the variety of sub-genres within any given musical category. Kinections: The ProgDay Support CD, offers nine dissimilar tracks, and yet, taken together, the CD serves as an apt commentary on the contemporary state of progressive rock music.

All of the tracks are fine but I did have three favourites.

The Strawbs lead off the disc with Riviera Dei Fiori/Under a Cloudless Sky, which is splendid. It begins as a soft, very pastoral arpeggio instrumental and then breaks out into a mid-tempo rocker a la The Moody Blues or, more closely, Roy Harper. (The vocals were remarkably Harperesque, to be honest.) I can only imagine what the lines “Won’t somebody try and understand?/All I want to do is land!” portend: a very bad flight in an aircraft, or perhaps a very bad trip of another sort? Regardless, I loved this song and will need to add The Strawbs Deja Fou, the album from which the track was taken, to my wish list.

Track number 2, Pentimento, is a previously unreleased song by the Californian Djam Karet, a band that was easily one of my favourites during the prog revival of the 1990s. Djam Karet has three compelling strengths: adventurousness in its compositions, willingness to employ a unique (sometimes bizarre) palette of sounds, and always-impressive guitar work. The band has a decidedly yin/yang approach to music, and will sometimes record heavy music and at other times experiment with lighter ambient soundscapes. Pentimento is different only in that it combines the two into one tune. As always, the sounds are foreign and strange at times but the whole thing hangs together well. There’s a nice section of acoustic guitar work, which isn’t something Djam Karet showcases frequently, and the final electrified meditation over the tick-tock, jungle rhythm is quintessential Djam Karet. A good one.

Track number 4 (Lang Historia) is by Scandinavian band Trettioåriga Kriget. I recently discovered this band, having been giving a recording of a live 2004 show by a friend, and am thoroughly impressed. It’s definitely situated within the ‘harder rock but prog-influenced’ camp also occupied by bands like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, Rush, etc. The band plays with might. The opening riff in Lang Historia is so hookish that I always feel like a yanked trout whenever it starts up. This is a track with some bite but also some great control of mood.

And despite my personal preferences, the remainder of the CD’s tracks are top notch.

Both Nathan Mahl and Guy Manning contribute songs to Kinection (The Place We Call Home and Top of the Mountain, respectively) and they are similar workouts with changing times and complex, fluid arrangements. Nathan Mahl’s track had a definite fusion flavour to it: it’s very busy and complicated. The sound quality is slightly cheesy to my ears (maybe an 1980s production residue, I’m not sure) but the playing is exceptional. I preferred Guy Manning’s track, though, which is perhaps overly long (at nearly 18:00) but which features some catchy saxophone embellishments. Wobbler gets the nod for best track title, Leprechaun Behind the Door. This is apparently a demo although you wouldn’t know it by either the performance or the engineering: it’s all professional and accomplished. This is a keyboard-laden tune with numerous shifts of tone and style; I’m not a huge fan of keys but I found myself fascinated by the sheer variety on Leprechaun.

Sonus Umbra’s Self Erosion (from the album Spiritual Vertigo) is track number 6 and is the most accessible, most commercially-oriented tune on the CD, with a 4/4 signature, steady backbeat, and recurring chorus. The break has a staggered time pattern that surprised me, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by this song, though it’s a tolerable example of pro-tinged pop rock.

Gert Emmens provides track 7, another previously unreleased recording: The Warlock Returns. (And, of course, you can’t have a prog CD without a witch, a dragon, a demon, or a warlock, now, can you? I certainly imagine a leprechaun is appropriate, too….) At least in terms of evoking the mystical and the arcane, Gert has succeeded. Warlock is rife with haunting synth trills and fretful beats. However, the track doesn’t have much movement and is in the Philip Glass/Fripp and Eno vein, with repeating loops. The few solos are at least well placed and clever.

Finally, we have an offering (They Come on Unknown Nights) by The Muffins, a band whose reputation precedes it but of whose recordings I had yet to hear anything until now. I can’t say that I was especially won over by this track but it did have a uniqueness and idiosyncrasy to it that I appreciated. The playing reminded me somewhat of Canterbury (e.g., Soft Machine’s Third) with its irregularity and oddness. I admired the spirit of the track, no question.

So, ultimately, an enjoyable listen and thanks to Lew Fisher, The Progressive Musical Society, and everyone else involved in the production of this CD (including graphic artist Ed Unitsky, whose fabulous and fitting work adorns the CD insert). I’ll recommend this to any prog fan who simply wants to support ProgDay (and, thereby, live progessive rock in general) and I’ll also recommend this to any prog fan unfamiliar with the contributing artists. Compilations are the ideal samplers so come taste the bands! There are enough choice tracks on Kinections to validate your investment.

 And, if you’re going to ProgDay, have a grand time and please drink responsibly!

Tracklist: The Strawbs - Riviera Dei Fiori / Under a Cloudless Sky (6:57), Djam Karet - Pentimento (6:50), Nathan Mahl - The Place We Call Home (6:27), Trettioåriga Kriget - Lang Historia (7:45), Wobbler - Leprechaun Behind the Door (13:21), Sonus Umbra - Self Erosion (6:03), Gert Emmens - The Warlock Returns (9:25), The Muffins - They Come on Unknown Nights (4:22), Guy Manning - Top of the Mountain (17:58)

Pagan's Mind

Celestial Entrance

Hailing from Norway, Pagan's Mind only formed around three years ago and with a debut release Infinity Divine in November 2000, they stamped down a clear indication that they would be a band to watch.

Now joining top metal acts such as Shadowkeep, Adagio, Rhapsody and Concerto Moon on German-based Limb Music, from the first notes of their second disc, it is clear that this is a band that has improved tremendously on every level. Whatever loose ends there were on the debut have been firmly put into place this time around.

It may be difficult to describe exactly what kind of sub-genre Pagan's Mind fall into, as so many elements and influences are covered on this album - maybe 'Power Prog' would be the most accurate term. They have succeeded on every level in combining the progressive kind of song structures perfected by the likes of Rush, Queensryche and Dream Theater, with influences of more mainstream power and in some songs even the melodic simplicity of hard rock/AOR. But while many bands try to cram too much into their sound, resulting in a disjointed listen, Pagan's Mind seemingly move effortlessly from one musical idea to the next in creating their exciting musical landscape.

The band consists of twin guitarists Thorstein Aaby and Jørn Viggo Lofstad, drummer Stian Kristoffersen and bassist Steinar Krokmo. The keyboards are tickled by Ronny Tegner and the stunning vocals are provided by Nils K. Rue.

Rue's vocals have advanced tremendously from the first album and he delivers a fantastic performance. On many occasions, the effortless ease with which he reaches notes, brings back clear recollections of Geoff Tate at his peak. The musicianship is exemplary, but what stands out, is that no one instrument is allowed to hog the limelight for long.

The 12 compositions on Celestial Entrance are dripping in class. This is a very varied and dynamic album, constantly challenging the listener. Take the track The Seven Sacred Promises. There is an almost AOR feel (think Cannata) to the opening melody and pace, before we change to a very heavy ProgMetal mixed with some Death grunts before the AOR chorus returns again.

The longest track in the 72 minutes on offer is the instrumental Back to the Magic of Childhood. Split into two sections with an acoustic opener followed by a more expansive musical main course, the overall approach reminds me very much of the early days of Rush.

Elsewhere the band manages to construct more rhythms and change of moods in a single track than 99% of bands manage in a whole album. Yet, as I said before, you never get to feel that they are overdoing it - each idea blends perfectly into the song as a whole. And if you're a lover of straighahead metal riffing then there's more than enough here to keep you happy. Take the raucous closing tiff to Entrance Stargate - simply one of the most visciously bruising metal riffs I've ever heard. Brilliant!

However, it is the melodies that are really the album's winner. The band has a clear emphasis on writing strong hooks and this is songwriting on a grand scale. Just listen to the opener Through Osiris Eyes which is a magnificent example of technical and progressive compositions combined with melody.

Lyrics are also an important factor. The phrase 'concept album' can be off-putting, so I'll describe the album has having more of a 'philosophical theme'. Inspired by some of the theories of scientist Erich Von Daniken, there is a clear mystical inspiration, with ongoing references to extraterrestrial intelligence, the wider universe, religion and the nature of being. As a story or concept, it will work for some but not others. However what does work, is the way that having such a strong, intelligent use of words, ties every track to a common musical landscape.

Their debut was produced by legendary TNT guitarist Ronni Le Tekro, and again the band shows it is not afraid to mix with some big names in the studio. Celestial Entrance was produced and mixed at the famous Studio Fredman in Gothenburg by Fredrik Nordstrom (Dream Evil, Hammerfall, Synergy) and the result is a top-class, crystal clear and brutally crunchy production.

As you can probably see I'm finding it hard to pick fault with this. I'm not the greatest fan of Death vocals but they are used so sparingly that it doesn't really detract. If I had to be picky, then the only criticism lies in the fact that there is simply rather too much of a good thing. I'm all for value for money, but with 72 minutes of intense metal - by the time you reach the final two tracks, fatigue does tend to set in.

Norway hasn't been blessed with too many talented bands outside the Black Metal scene for many years. Pagan's Mind admit to being strongly influenced by fellow Norwegian's Conception and in terms of the quality and craft on offer here, I wouldn't disagree all.

ProgMetal albums that are this distinct and are of this quality, are created only a few times every year and if Limb can get behind this release, then there can be no doubt that it will take Pagan's Mind straight into the premier league.

Tracklist: Approaching (02:48), Through Osiris' Eyes (06:09), Entrance : Stargate (06:01), ...Of Epic Questions (06:10), Dimensions of Fire (07:29), Dreamscape Lucidity (06:40) The Seven Sacred Promises Back to the Magic of Childhood (06:29), Part 1 - Conception (02:46), Part 2 - Exploring Life (09:18), In Brilliant White Light (02:45), Aegean Shores (05:14), The Prophecy of Pleiades (09:53)

Project Creation

Floating World

Hear ye, hear ye! Project Creation is the new band of Hugo Flores (Sonic Pulsar). After releasing two fine solo efforts (Playing The Universe, Out Of Place) he definitely hits the mark with his latest effort, namely Floating World.

Floating World is a rock/metal opera based on a sci-fi theme which is about the inhabitants of a dying world who take off on a planet-like space ship (well, a floating world really). Being the first part of a trilogy Floating World is mainly settled in prog metal territory but also borrows elements from progressive rock, folk rock, space rock and hosts two vocalists (one female and one male) and seven instrumentalists to aid Flores on this journey, including a flutist, a cellist and a sax player. The latter three really add an extra dimension and depth to the music which is already quite layered and well constructed.

Unfortunately, one cannot escape the feeling of a Dutch band’s influences all over. Yes, after listening to this record I’m sure many will think of Ayreon as the main reference. They may be quite right, but Flores takes this inspiration, fuses it with some Magellan or Carptree influences and takes it way beyond one can imagine. So even though there isn’t anything extraordinary new, I wouldn’t call this one a clone. Another good thing -at least for me- is that the music is much more direct and not as over-produced as Ayreon which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s less progressive.

Most of the songs contain wonderful melodies, as well as layered compositions which make this CD quite an enjoyable listening experience. There’s a great deal of technical prowess; but no shredding or show-offs, thankfully... Most of the songs differ from each other in regard of style and mood, yet they form a fine unity in the end. Complex, silent, furious, elegiac, atmospheric, spacey, folky passages are all aplenty in this CD and show us how a “diverse” record should sound like. I don’t see the point to mention some standout tracks for conceptual albums, since mostly there are none. Floating World is no exception regarding this issue and must be listened right from the start till the end. Trust me, it’s a quite rewarding process and will be worth your time.

Fans of Ayreon will surely enjoy this record all over. It may be evidently more of a “low-budget project” compared to the Dutchman’s efforts, but it still delivers the goods. I don’t see a reason why Flores can’t be the next Lucassen of our time. Yes, dear reader. If you have a tendency towards Arjenesque efforts, you shouldn’t miss this one. But as someone who is rather distant towards Ayreon and such, even I liked this record from start until the end. Does it mean that it’s better than Ayreon? Not necessarily, but fans of the genre should definitely check this one out. Normally I would give this one a straight niner, but the production could have been a lot better. So, if you don’t care about minor disturbances in sound quality, you may regard my conclusion as 9 out of 10.

Tracklist: The Floating World (7:13), Living Under A Blue Sky (4:21), The Desert Planet (2:21), The Civilization (7:24), Mechanical Dragonflies(5:55), Arriving (5:28), Warming Up The Machines (4:53), Artificial Satellite (7:11), Intervening (2:27), Creating Atmosphere (3:26), First Species (4:26), The Shining Planet (4:25), Cheops (5:08), Returning Home (7:00)

Progfestivaler

Muligens vil det overraske noen, men det finnes nokså mange progfetivaler på planeten Tellus. Har du stort reisebudsjett, er glad i å reise, og liker festivalstemning så kommer det et lite utvalg for deg etter hvert. Hvorvidt de angitte månedene er helt korrekte vet jeg ikke med sikkerhet. Kan være at noe er desinformasjon, så det er nok best å ikke stole 100 % på dette, da det jo bare er en litt kvalifisert gjetning.

Mexico i mars, og har meget høy kvalitet etter hva jeg har skjønt.

http://www.bajaprog.org/

Tyskland i oktober.

http://www.bergkeller-reichenbach.de/portal/index.php

Mer Tyskland , 19 –22 juli 2007

http://www.burgherzberg-festival.de/index_e.html

California i USA 19 mai 2007:

http://www.calprog.com/

Tyskland igjen:

http://www.artrock-festival.de/

Fra det kjente ”proglandet” Portugal i april:

http://www.gaudela.net/gar/index-e.html

Montreal i Canada i september:

http://www.fmpm.net/

Fra gamlelandet 6 og 7 oktober 2006:

http://www.motstoy.com/cgi-bin/dblink.pl?tp=tp1&db=db3&order_by=ID&order=321

23 og 24 juni 2007 i USA i den for meg mest kjente festivalen:

http://www.nearfest.com/

Aktive disse tyskerne:

http://www.wiventertainment.de/wiv/shows/fish/pages/frames.html

Kommer denne igjen noen gang?:

http://www.panzerpappa.com/osloprog1.htm

Blir nærmest noe som, ”gjett hvilket land, tips har vært mye herfra tidligere!:

http://www.prockfest.com/

USA:

http://www.prog90.com/

USA i september:

http://www.prog90.com/

Endelig noe fra Nederland, ikke bare prog men også metall på programmet her:

http://www.progpower.com/

USA:

http://www.progpower.com/

 Belgia:

http://progresiste.com/convention/

Sveits:

http://www.progsol.net/

Atlanta USA i july:

http://www.progsol.net/

USA 27 –29 april 2007

http://www.rosfest.com/

Fra våre naboer i øst i august:

http://artrock.se/slottsskogen_goes_progressive_2006.htm

Zappafestival:

http://artrock.se/slottsskogen_goes_progressive_2006.htm

Picchio Dal Pozzo

Picchio Dal Pozzo (1976)

This is probably the album I have been the most excited about in the last month or so. Picchio dal Pozzo's debut is considered a classic in some circles, and is certainly not what one would consider to be typical Italian progressive in any way, shape or form. Because of the band's relative obscurity, the album was fairly low on my Italian prog wish list. Thankfully, I finally got around to picking it up recently, and to my delight have discovered what could be one of my very favorite albums out of the country.

Picchio dal Pozzo is certainly a refreshing treat to those somewhat burned out on the "classic" Italian progressive sound, but still willing to mine the depths of the country's scene in search of one last undiscovered gem. Picchio dal Pozzo come from a completely different wing of influences than the typical vaguely orchestral, pastoral, flowery melodicism of many of the country's bands, looking towards jazz, RIO, Frank Zappa, Gong, and especially, Robert Wyatt and the Soft Machine as major influences. Funnily enough, the result is just as beautiful, as angular melodies coexist with fuzzed out guitar, churning horns and soothing, seemingly free form song structures. The tempo is always slow, as sax, piano and otherworldly vocals just float above the mix, creating a exquisite, emotional atmosphere, with just a dash of dissonance, angularity and off-beat sensibility to keep things interesting.

It's impossible to pick out standout tracks, as the whole album flows together beautifully. However, the opening of the album, in which acoustic guitar melodies are countered by bell-like chimes, kills me every time. "Cocomelastico" sets the tone of the album perfectly, with its stumbling horn riff, undercut by a surreal walking bass line and shimmering piano. "Sepia", by simple virtue of being the longest piece on the album, actually ends up being the best, delivering on some of the record's most memorable themes.

The overall effect is very much like the Robert Wyatt solo material that I have heard, Rock Bottom and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, and in fact, the group actually dedicates the album to one "Roberto Viatti". The vocalist even pays obvious tribute to Wyatt in "Off", during which he imitates Wyatt's charming habit of imitating horn parts with his voice. However, it's definitely the musical and instrumental palette of Wyatt's work that has the most correlation with Picchio dal Pozzo. Waves of sounds gush over the listener, like some kind of morphine induced euphoria, crisp piano sprinklings offset by some howling saxophone or guitar, but without ever taking away from the overall soothing tone of the album. The result is the most perfect, beautiful form of painkiller. Perfect music.

Picchio dal Pozzo carries on in a tradition paying (rocking) homage to Zappa and the Canterbury scene with an extremely soporific quality that almost makes it seem as if it comes to you from underwater in slow motion. It's a super-swank moving album replete with blurbs and tidbits that bubble to the surface calmly and then release into an ether above the brow, a heady adventure.

The second cut takes off in a dense, drudgey orifice we know to have been opened up for public consumption from Gong dirges like "Master Builder" and its ilk, complemented by breathy vocal excursions and what seems to be a child's xylophone tinkling about. Go and listen to that track and tell me that the spirt of Tim Blake does not shine through right before it drops into a breakdown of a Henry Cow dreamscape to the nth degree which deposits you into the crystal recitation from a child and then to an apogee of National Health-spiced gentle streams of vocal sounds lilting about. The transmigration to the field populated by the yellow birds on the cover is complete and the warbling bleeps chortle for a spell here and there. The utter camp and level of integration of disparate elements is spooky and there are many layers to be uncovered here. As I listen, it conjures a spell of past memory recall as sections seem to become everpresent as if they had been ruminating in the subconscious mind with conviction. One is forcefully ejected from their own reality and unsheathed within the bubble they exist in. Do not be mistaken, the experience is not to be missed.

Soft machinations of a fluid nature begin the capitulation in the middle, howling with dreamy massed vocals beckoning your wispy attentiveness. Robert Wyatt-style gentleness comes in to further capitulate the daze. Open up a general field and lie in it. The passing shapelessness of the clouds may take you on over this way. Before I can get enough and decide to park, it's over and I hardly blinked. Did it really happen!?

Abbiamo Tutti I Suoi Problemi

On their second album, Abbiamo Tutti i Suoi Problemi, Picchio dal Pozzo play in a more RIO-oriented style. The arrangements are denser (with very beautiful sections for brass instruments) and less spacey than on their first album. An angular style of playing rather typical for the RIO movement is more prevalent. Influences from Henry Cow, the Canterbury school, and Zappa are evident, but besides there are a few acoustic/folky parts that remind me of Stormy Six. Just like the first album by Picchio dal Pozzo, Abbiamo Tutti i Suoi Problemi is a brilliant piece of music that successfully merges elements of the Canterbury school, RIO, and Zappa into unique and inventive experimental progressive. Both albums are indispensable classics, if you like the musical styles mentioned above or have a general interest in experimental (yet fairly accessible) progressive

Phideaux

Further news on Phideaux' up and coming The Great Leap release due out on 3rd August:

"Lemmings of the world unite. It is time for our great leap. Coming shortly, the Phideaux Corporate Entity will unlease our latest rock monstrosity THE GREAT LEAP. In honour of this hellish horror, we have replaced the music tracks on our myspace audio player with four constructs from this soon to be released album. Please leave your comments and let us know if the mind control is working. Lemmings, over and out."

Phideaux Xavier I

 To tune in, seek: http://www.myspace.com/phideaux.

Porcupine Tree

Porcupine Tree was born in 1987 as a psychedelic, experimental, and progressive music outlet for the home studio explorations of Steven Wilson. In fact, Wilson had already been making music for several years, as a musically precocious teenager who taught himself to play guitar and keyboards, and whose early tape releases with bands such as Altamont and Karma had already become known in the London musical underground (these tapes, which included early versions of later PT tracks like "Nine Cats," "Small Fish," and "This Long Silence," would eventually become highly-valued collectables, a circumstance Wilson describes as "a bit like a painter having his nursery school blots exhibited".

In 1987, Wilson started two projects that would take him into the professional music world. The first was the art-rock trio NO-MAN (www.no-man.co.uk), formed with singer Tim Bowness and violinist Ben Coleman (NO-MAN still exists today with a string of albums to their name). But the second began life almost as a joke between two friends: Steven and his friend Malcolm Stocks developed an almost entirely fictional history of a legendary seventies group, complete with non-existent band members and an absurd discography - this was The Porcupine Tree. To back up the story, Steven recorded several hours worth of music supposedly by this imaginary band. This was all done as pure self-indulgence, but by early 1989, Steven rated some of the music highly enough to compile a cassette, entitled "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm," and sent out copies to people that he felt might be interested. One of them went to the underground UK magazine Freakbeat, run by Richard Allen and Ivor Trueman. Unknown to Steven at the time, they were in the process of setting up their own record company. Despite the fact that they gave the tape a rather lukewarm review in the magazine, they invited Porcupine Tree to contribute a track to their first release, a compilation album of the best underground psychedelic groups.

This was ultimately to take another 18 months or so to come to fruition, and in the meantime Steven began to distribute Porcupine Tree's music in the form of "Tarquin's Seaweed Farm" and it's follow up, "The Nostalgia Factory," both complete with booklets containing the imaginary history and other misleading information. These tapes built up an underground interest in the name which was added to by the eventual release of the newly named Delerium record label's first compilation album, "A Psychedelic Psauna," which featured the Porcupine Tree track "Linton Samuel Dawson." Delerium also reissued the first two Porcupine Tree tapes. Shortly afterwards, Steven was invited by the new label to be one of the first artists to sign to the Delerium label. The original invitation was to reissue both the tapes as double albums, but Steven decided instead to compile the best material onto one double album which became "On the Sunday of Life...", the third release on the new label (most of the remainder of the music from the original eventually emerged on another limited edition album entitled "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape"). "On the Sunday of Life..." was issued in early 1992 in a small run of 1000 copies in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. Such was the interest from the press and public that this small run sold out almost immediately and was repressed along with a CD version. Among other tracks the album contained a future Porcupine Tree classic and frequent concert encore in "Radioactive Toy." By 2000, "On the Sunday of Life..." had racked up sales of over 20,000 copies.

While this was happening, Steven's other group NO-MAN had signed a record deal with One Little Indian (home of Bjork among others) and were beginning to release records to an ecstatic press response. NO-MAN allowed Steven to become a full-time professional musician, and enabled him to dedicate even more time to his "side project." The first Porcupine Tree album had been a self-indulgent and in some ways nostalgic look back at Steven's favourite music from the 60's and 70's, but he felt that in order to take the project forward it was important to develop the sound into new and more contemporary areas. The first fruits of these new sessions was a 30 minute single that fused the ambient trance of acts like The Orb and Future Sound of London, with liquid rock guitar soloing, strung together with a narrative taken from sixties LSD propaganda LPs. It was a major underground hit, reaching the UK independent Top 20 and a perfect representation of how the dissolution of boundaries between genres characterised the best music of the nineties.

In fact "Voyage 34" was a track recorded for another prospective Porcupine Tree double album "Up the Downstair." However, when the album eventually emerged in mid-1993 the decision not to include the single had slimmed down the album to a single record. "Up the Downstair" was greeted with rapture, Melody Maker describing it as "a psychedelic masterpiece.... one of the albums of the year." The album continued the fusion of dance and rock and also featured guest appearances from two future full-time Porcupine Tree members, Richard Barbieri (ex-80¹s art roclk band Japan) and Colin Edwin.

In November 1993, "Voyage 34" was reissued alongside an additional 12 inch remix by Astralasia. With non-existent radio play it still managed to enter the NME indie chart for six weeks and became an underground chill-out classic.

The profile of Porcupine Tree had now grown to the extent that the question of live performances could no longer be ignored. Thus, in December 1993, Porcupine Tree became a live unit featuring Steven, Colin Edwin (bass), Chris Maitland (drums), and Richard Barbieri (keyboards). All three new members of the group had worked with Steven on various projects over the preceding years and all were excellent musicians sympathetic to the sound and direction of Porcupine Tree. The new line up had an immediate chemistry as illustrated by the "Spiral Circus" album (issued on vinyl in 1996) which contained recordings from their first ever 3 performances, including a BBC Radio One session for Mark Radcliffe, an early champion of the group.

New music was already underway. The next album would not emerge until early 1995, but was preceded by the classic single "Stars Die / Moonloop," the last 2 tracks to be recorded during the album sessions and the first to feature the new band. The subsequent album, "The Sky Moves Sideways," was as expansive soundscape of melody and ambient rock experimentation, but would prove to be a transitional work with half recorded before the formation of the band and half recorded after. Most of the album was taken up with the 35 minute title track, which at one point Steven intended to be long enough to occupy the whole album (an alternate version of the track, containing some of the excised music, was included on the 2004 remastered version of the album). It also entered the NME, Melody Maker, and Music Week charts. Together with the "Moonloop" EP, this album became the first Porcupine Tree music to be issued in America in the autumn of 1995, and attracted favourable press on both sides of the Atlantic. The band supported the album with numerous gigs throughout the year at major venues in the UK, The Netherlands, Italy, and Greece.

Partly unsatisfied with the half band/half solo nature of "The Sky Moves Sideways," Porcupine Tree promptly got down to the task of recording the first proper band record and worked sporadically over the next year on developing a tighter and more ambitious rock sound.

May 1996 saw the release of the first fruits of these sessions, the single "Waiting," which entered all UK indie charts and the UK National chart attracting airplay all over Europe. It was followed by "Signify," the first album to fully reflect the powerful live sound of the band, blending together numerous rock and avant-garde styles, while absorbing many diverse influences but relying on none. A large amount of major European media interest accompanied the album's release, as Porcupine Tree has now become a highly respected force in the musical underground. "Signify" is regarded by the band (and many fans) as one of their finest works. The band went on to complete a highly successful European tour.

Porcupine Tree continued to increase in popularity abroad during 1997 and in March played to an audience of over 5,000 in Rome over three nights - all of which were recorded for the 1997 live album "Coma Divine.² This album was released as a goodbye to Delerium Records, which felt it could no longer offer the kind of resources the band needed in order to continue to build its profile worldwide. In late 1997, the band's first three albums were remastered and reissued. "Signify" also saw a release in the US on Miles Copeland's ARK 21 label.

Steven, Richard, Colin, and Chris spent all of 1998 recording their fifth studio album, a release that reflected the band's move towards a more song orientated sound. At the time of recording, the band had no record deal, but later that year they signed to the Snapper/K-Scope label and in March of 1999, the album "Stupid Dream" was issued, supported by a lengthy tour of the UK, Italy, Greece, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, and the USA. The three singles taken from the album - "Piano Lessons," "Stranger By the Minute," and "Pure Narcotic" - all achieved mainstream exposure in the US and in Europe and appeared well placed in the UK independent charts and on radio station playlists. Although initially the album was such a departure that some older fans were unsure, it brought the band many new fans and went on to become the band's best selling and most acclaimed release to date.

The time spent looking for a record deal had not been wasted and only a few months after the release of "Stupid Dream," the band were ready to begin work on a follow up, recorded during the transition into the new millennium and completed in February 2000. With string arrangements provided by Dave Gregory of XTC, "Lightbulb Sun" built on the mix of songwriting, soundscaping, and rock dynamics of "Stupid Dream," but developed it into something altogether more intense and organic, a band confidently in control of their sound. The album was released in May, 2000, preceded by the single "Four Chords That Made a Million." A sold out show at the Scala in London began a short run of UK shows, to be followed later in the year by European festival dates and a major tour supporting Dream Theater.

The band continued to tour through the end of 2000 and the start of 2001, including their first major tour of Germany. A special double CD edition of the Lightbulb Sun album was issued in Israel and Germany, and in May, "Recordings," a limited edition collection of EP tracks and out-takes from the previous two albums, was released as the band's final release under their Snapper/KScope contract. In June 2001 the band played a short US tour, culminating in a sold out show at the Bottom Line in New York City. Shortly afterwards Porcupine Tree announced that they had signed a new international record deal with Lava/Atlantic Records.

In February 2002 Porcupine Tree's first ever line-up change occurred when drummer Chris Maitland departed after eight years with the band. The band welcomed extraordinary drummer and long term acquaintance Gavin Harrison to the line-up.

In March, as a major retrospective box set of the band's early work, "Stars Die - the Delerium Years 1991-97" was released, the band commenced recording their first major label album, drawing from a pool of 30 new songs written by Steven in the previous two years. Sessions took place in New York and London, with veteran engineer Paul Northfield (Rush, Ozzy Osbourne, Hole) and string arranger Dave Gregory also playing major roles in the making of the record. Mixing of the new album was completed in LA in May with Tim Palmer.

The eagerly awaited new album, "In Absentia," was released by Lava Records in September 2002 (European release Jan 2003). It was the band's most accomplished and complete work to date, featuring a much heavier sound on some tracks, but also some of the band's most beautiful and fragile works. The album received great praise worldwide and went on to become the band's best selling album shifting over 100,000 copies in it's first year of release, and charting in several European countries. The band also released a 5.1 surround sound version of the album, mixed by legendary Grammy award winning producer Elliot Scheiner, which went on to win the award for best 5.1 mix at the 2004 Surround Sound Music awards in LA. To promote the album the band undertook four tours of Europe and North America, including one with acclaimed Swedish metal band Opeth. On tour the new line up of the band was further augmented by additional touring vocalist/guitarist John Wesley.

During these tours the visual element of the band's performance was taken to new heights with the involvement of filmmaker and photographer Lasse Hoile, who created a dark and surreal visual counterpoint to the PT's music. The long promotional campaign for In Absentia ended on November 30th as the band played a homecoming show to a sold out London Astoria.

During 2003, Porcupine Tree also set up their own label and on-line store. The first release on the Transmission label was a studio session recorded for XM Radio, Washington, followed in 2004 by a recording from Polish radio in 2001. The band plan to use the label to issue a series of well recorded and packaged live and exclusive studio recordings.

2003 also saw the start of a lengthy reissue / remaster campaign, with many of the early albums expanded to double CDs. These reissues included a rerecorded / remixed version of the "Up the Downstair" album, and the reissue of "Stupid Dream" and "Lightbulb Sun" on Lava/Atlantic.

In early 2004 the band embarked on the recording sessions for an ambitious new Porcupine Tree album, "Deadwing", their second for Lava/Atlantic. The album takes it's inspiration from a film script (and hopefully later a film) written by Steven with his filmmaker friend Mike Bennion. With the album sessions completed in November 2004, and the band's total worldwide sales now approaching half a million units, demand for new music from the band was at an all time high, and increasing media coverage, word of mouth and fan-power continued to create interest in Porcupine Tree on a massive scale throughout the world.

"Deadwing" is scheduled for release in Europe and the US during the spring of 2005 as both a stereo and 5.1 surround sound album, preceded by the release of 2 singles, "Shallow" in the US, and "Lazarus" in Europe. The tour to promote the album commences in the UK at the end of March, and will continue throughout the year.

There is a special microsite decicated to the new album here (www.deadwing.com).

Piratbay

 Kampen mellom fildelerene og rettighetshaverne er nå også kommet til våre naboer i øst.

Et grovt rettsovergrep

 PirateBay-folket slår tilbake

Gottfrid Svarthholm regnes som «hjernen» bak Pirate Bay. Nå slår han kraftig tilbake etter gårsdagens svenske politiaksjon.

- Jeg ble stoppet av politiet da jeg var på vei til jobben. Forhøret pågikk i seks timer, forteller Svartholm til Aftonbladet.

- Vil få problemer
Han er svært opprørt over politiets framferd, og karakteriserer aksjonen som et rettsovergrep. Flere advokater gir uttrykk for i svensk presse at påtalemyndighetene vil få vanskeligheter med å fremme saken for retten.

Hele 50 politifolk deltok i gårsdagens storstilte aksjon mot Pirate Bay. De fleste beslagene ble gjort i Stockholm og Göteborg-området. Samtlige av Pirate Bays servere ble tatt ned. I tillegg ble nettstedet til lobbyorganisasjonen Piratbyrån tatt ned.

- Lot seg lure
Bloggen piratbyran.blogspot.com er derimot oppe og går. Her hevdes det at politiet lot seg lure av filmbransjen til å foreta aksjonen.

Mens politiet hevder at det finnes opphavsbeskyttet materiale på Pirate Bays servere, benekter folkene bak det som inntil i går var verdens største torrent-tracker dette.

- Misbruk av skattepenger
- Det synes som om man har narret politifolk som ikke er it-kyndige til å tro at serverne var fylt med opphavsbeskyttet materiale. Dette er grovt misbruk av skattepenger, heter det i bloggen.

Nettrafikken i Sverige gikk drastisk ned i går, etter at serverne ble stengt. Totalt er mellom 40 og 50 prosent av verdens totale Internett-trafikk relatert til torrents. I følge plate- film- programvare- og spillbransjen er brorparten av dataene som forflytter seg via torrents fra opphavsbeskyttet materiale.

- Ta det med ro
Mange nordmenn som har brukt ThePirateBay.org til å laste ned film, musikk og andre ikke helt lovlige ting var i går redde for at de kunne bli utsatt for interesse fra politiet. I følge Pirate Bays bakmenn kan de ta det med ro. Ingen data ble logget i deres system, og politiet kan dermed ikke finne ut hvem som brukte systemet.

Post-rock

En kortfattet forklaring av fenomenet Post-rock.

 Godspeed You Black Emperor

Stereolab

Tortoise

Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock during the '90s, a loose movement that drew from greatly varied influences and nearly always combined standard rock instrumentation with electronics. Post-rock brought together a host of mostly experimental genres — Kraut-rock, ambient, prog-rock, space rock, math rock, tape music, minimalist classical, British IDM, jazz (both avant-garde and cool), and dub reggae, to name the most prevalent — with results that were largely based in rock, but didn't rock per se. Post-rock was hypnotic and often droning (especially the guitar-oriented bands), and the brighter-sounding groups were still cool and cerebral — overall, the antithesis of rock's visceral power. In fact, post-rock was something of a reaction against rock, particularly the mainstream's co-opting of alternative rock; much post-rock was united by a sense that rock & roll had lost its capacity for real rebellion, that it would never break away from tired formulas or empty, macho posturing. Thus, post-rock rejected (or subverted) any elements it associated with rock tradition. It was far more concerned with pure sound and texture than melodic hooks or song structure; it was also usually instrumental, and if it did employ vocals, they were often incidental to the overall effect. The musical foundation for post-rock crystallized in 1991, with the release of two very different landmarks: Talk Talk's Laughing Stock and Slint's Spiderland. Laughing Stock was the culmination of Talk Talk's move away from synth-pop toward a moody, delicate fusion of ambient, jazz, and minimalist chamber music; Spiderland, meanwhile, was full of deliberate, bass-driven grooves, mumbled poetry, oblique structures, and extreme volume shifts. While those two albums would influence many future post-rock bands, the term itself didn't appear until critic Simon Reynolds coined it as a way to describe the Talk Talk-inspired ambient experiments of Bark Psychosis. The term was later applied to everything from unclassifiable iconoclasts (Gastr del Sol, Cul de Sac, Main) to more tuneful indie-rock experimenters like Stereolab, Laika, and the Sea and Cake (not to mention a raft of Slint imitators). Post-rock came into its own as a recognizable trend with the Chicago band Tortoise's second album, 1996's Millions Now Living Will Never Die, perhaps the farthest-reaching fusion of post-rock's myriad touchstones. Suddenly there was a way for critics to classify artists as diverse as Labradford, Trans Am, Ui, Flying Saucer Attack, Mogwai, Jim O'Rourke, and their predecessors (though most hated the label). Post-rock quickly became an accepted, challenging cousin of indie rock, centered around the Thrill Jockey, Kranky, Drag City, and Too Pure labels. Ironically, by the end of the decade, post-rock had itself acquired a reputation for sameness; some found the style's dispassionate intellectuality boring, while others felt that its formerly radical fusions had become predictable, partly because many artists were offering only slight variations on their original ideas. However, even as the backlash set in, a newer wave of bands (the Dirty Three, Rachel's, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Sigur Rós) gained wider recognition for their distinctive sounds, suggesting that the style wasn't exhausted after all.

Pineapple Thief

 Abducting The Unicorn

 Vulgar Unicor guitarist Bruce Lance has formed a second band, Pineapple Thief. The title of the album obviously reffers to his other involvement and apparently this sound quite a lot like Vulgar Unicorn, yet less esotheric (although I am not familiar with their music).

Not hindered by any knowledge (as one must know by now ;-), I simply enjoyed the music. Indeed, Radiohead is an obvious reference, e.g. in the first 11+ minute track Private Paradise. Also Porcupine Tree springs to mind; pleasently modern progressive rock, influenced also by the ambient house tradition (The Orb is one of the more well-known examples in this genre), mixed with modern 1990's rock music. Soord's vocals are in this 90's rock genre too. At time, other references pop up. The start of the second track Drain reminded me of The Cure, a favourite band of mine years ago (although I still love Disintegration) when I preferred to wear black. So it's kind of proggy New Wave stuff.

No One Leaves This Earth opens with an ambient Orb-like part over which later a guitar solo is played. Towards the end it becomes even a twitch psychedelic. This kind of style variations continue throughout the album. Still, Pineapple Thief is able to keep things consistent, so all tracks flow naturally into each other. Judge The Girl is perhaps the most powerfull track on the album. Sounding like modern U2, it showcasts Soord's guitar skills. Parted Forever is a 23 minute (if we include the mysterious bonus track that isn't listed in the booklet) epic. It starts of slowly and gradually builds to a climax with a melody first laid down by the bass and then picked up by the other instruments. Blistering guitar work on this one! The bonus track is an acoustic guitar piece in the vein of Grandchesters Meadows of Pink Floyd.

Generally, I really enjoyed this album, it's combination of 60's hippy style, 70's prog, 80's New Wave and 90's rock/ambient. Innovative yet pleasant. It's the kind of album you put on and relax with, let it flow over you. It makes me curious about Vulgar Unicorn. It's a pity there are no lyrics in the booklet though. Other than that: if you like modern prog, and enjoyed Plague of Ghosts by Fish, why not give this album a try.

Tracklist: Private Paradise (11:47), Drain (6:35), What Ever You Do, Do Nothing (6:18), No One Leaves This Earth (5:56), Punish Yourself (4:26), Everyone Must Perish (4:36), Judge The Girl (6:12), Parted Forever (18:27), Mysterious Extra Track (4:27)

Punken er 31 år

Sex Pistols

Da Sex Pistols debuterte som oppvarming for glambandet Bazooka Joe gikk fremdeles europeisk ungdom rundt iført bukser med sjømannssleng, hadde langt hår og levde på siste rest av de glade 60-årene. Uten å se at verden kom til å ta steget lenger og lenger bort fra et sosialdemokratisk og solidarisk samfunn og over i et mer uoverskuelig et med individet i fokus. Bare to år senere hadde hele verden stiftet bekjentskap med bandet som det britiske parlamentet i mellomtiden hadde karakterisert som samfunnsfiender no 1! Selv om punken hadde eksistert i USA i noen år før Pistols, var det våre britiske naboer som gjorde oss oppmerksomme på fenomenet, og deres holdninger og verdensbilde vi fikk presentert.

Vibrators

 Norge på sin side var på siste halvdel av 70-tallet et land som dyrket oversatte coverversjoner av utenlandske hits, var overfylt av diskomusikk og danseband og hadde nedlagt kategorien Rock i Spellemannsprisens regi. Livemusikken ble ekspedert av de før nevnte dansebandene som fylte de fleste konsertscener i hele landet, bortsett fra Ekeberghallen der de utenlandske superstjernene kom, og tilvis storsalen i Chateau Neuf der AKP (m-l)s revolusjons-mobiliserende arrangementer fant sted.

Stranglers

 Så selv om punken ofte blir fortstått som den epoken da den enkle tre-grepsrocken overtok hegemoniet etter den døende symforock og tiden da dinosaurusbandene mistet grepet, må den norske grenen også sees som en viktig kraft for å skyve danseband, diskokultur og revolusjonær visesang til side. Både dansebandkulturen og AKP-hegemoniet var i så måte særnorske fenomener som punken som en del av nye strømninger måtte bekjempe lokalt.

Clash

Punkens energi viste seg å ha kraft til å bidra til å forandre samfunnet på mer enn den enkelte konsertscene. Dens anarkistiske og delvis nihilistiske holdninger bidro sammen med postmodernistiske ideer og en økende liberalisme (mye takket være Khomeinis maktovertakelse i Iran i '79, som førte til økte oljepriser og et voksende selvgod norsk og gjeldsfri økonomi) til at fokuset ble tatt bort fra den sosialistiske usynlighetskulturen og over på individet. Selv om punken ikke hadde slike ideologiske intensjoner, kan man se at bevegelsens representanter bidro til å trekke i den retningen med provoserende og autonom fremtreden, for så på sikt å bidra til en mer variert klesstil og større variasjoner og flere selvbestemte hårfrisyrer etc, og således mer tollanse.

The Damned

 Men det var likevel på musikkfronten punken hadde mest å tilføre. Med punken kom det man kaller D-I-Y-kulturen (gjør-det-sjøl-bevegelsen) med egenutgivelser på egne eller små labeler for alvor her hjemme. Mens det i årene 1970-76 kom ut 8 uavhengige singelplater og 45 uavhengige LP-plater (album), ble det i 1978-81 utgitt 126 singelplater og 87 LP-album. Selv om ikke alle disse platene kan defineres som eksplisitt punk eller new wave, banet det veien for en ny rock-kultur og en ny måte å forholde seg til musikkmarkedet på, som punken var en sentral aktør i.

 Det bygde seg opp en ny live-scene rundt i hele landet for å huse alle de nye bandene som dukket opp og som har gitt oss et kontinuerlig live-tilbud frem til i dag. I løpet av 70-tallet var dette markedet lagt brakk, og live-scenen var overlatt til danseband, frijazz og totalitær visesang. Dagens rockere og brukere av dagens frie, anti-autoritære og rocketilbud kan derfor utmerket godt ta seg en god slurk av konsertpilsen mens de ofrer en tanke på en ikke altfor fjern 30 åring.

For en som har hatt mye glede av prog opp gjennom årene så vil alltid punkens inntreden stå som en ren henrettelse av progen. Nå skal det i sannhets sies at mange aktører i progmiljø var blitt rimelig navlebeskuende og selvgode, så en viss opprydning var ikke å forakte. Uansett så satte punken en effektiv stopper for alt som smakte av prog. Ordet prog ble et skjellsord, en tilstand som har fortsatt opp til våre dager. Mars Volta`s " Francis The Mute" kom i 2005 ut med følgende advarsel på coveret: " This is not prog", hvor altså plateselskapet toer sine hender på en besynderlig måte. Paradokset er at utgivelsen åpenbar er spekket med progressive kjennetegn. Gutta i Mars Volta innrømmer glatt at erkeproggerne i King Crimson er en meget stor inspirasjonkilde. Vi kan trygt fastslå at progen ikke er stueren enda. Jeg tviler faktisk på at den blir det, og i hovedsak vil forbli et undergrunnsfenomen. Punken derimot har hos mange av sine arvtagere en ganske så kommersielt lydbilde, og selger følgelig i bøtter og spann. Green Day er jo en slags utvannet punk, en slags softpunk eller hva nå slikt skal hete. Svenske The Hives er jo et annet fenomen med minimalt med originalitet og særpreg. Desto større er evnen til å få mange unge mennesker til å bruke penger på alle deres "åndsverk".

Dermed er styrkeforholdet totalt endret. De som en gang hadde verdens musikalske fokus med seg, er nå et undergrunnsfenomen, mens mange av de en gang så kompromissløse er blitt snille og pusete og hersker i det kommersielle segment. Akkurat de er greit nok for meg, og det plager meg minimalt. Må jo likevel smile vemodig når jeg vet med sikkerhet at originalitet, dyktige musikere, nye og spennende klanger og kløktige arrangementer osv ikke blir honorert. Markedstilpassning, store reklamebudsjetter, ja at et kunstnerisk utrykk som musikken bør være er degenerert til å bli en dusinvare som tilpasses trender osv. er jo rimelig spesielt. Salige Beatles introduserte jo rock som et kunstnerisk uttrykk, og hadde knapt kunne forutse en verden av innholdsløse kopister. Burde jo ikke bli forundret når jeg vet at tradisjonen fra gamle Rom lever i beste velgående. Gi folk brød og sirkus og massene er fornøyd. Oversatt til vår verden kan vi da si: gi folk Grandiosa og Britney Spears og alt er såre vel.

Mens all denne Britneyene og Grandiosaene fortæres så hygger jeg meg med for eksempel Jethro Tulls " Minstrel In The Gallery", eller kanskje det blir Flower Kings " Retropolis" for ikke å snakke om noe av Univers Zero som er både svært originalt, intenst, dystert men vakkert.

Paranoise

If Peter Gabriel ever wanted to transpose the world music that gets released on his Real World label into metal setting, then he would most definitely utilize the services of (The Ancient Ecstatic Brotherhood Of) Paranoise with the outcome sounding somewhat similar to Private Power. This album has blown me away and gripped me from the first to the last note. Private Power is the third album from this group which features Jim Matus as bandleader on guitars, dulcimer and vocals. Most of the band come from a jazz background which has evolved to incorporate a love for world music, though admittedly world music hold the musical roots for the majority of all music.

Together with Matus there are Thorne Palmer (vocals, lyrics), Rohan Gregory (electrified violin) who has played with Page/Plant, Hypnotic Clambake and the Klezmatics, Bob Laramie (bass) who has studied with Michael Manring and played with Matt "Guitar" Murphy and Geoffrey Brown (drums) who comes from a funk background with groups as The Monster Band, Station 416 and percussive group Ninja Rhythms.

The album kicks of with samples from the Master Musicians Of Jajouka, a group from Morocco who are famous for the tributes paid to them from rock luminaries especially in the sixties when the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones produced the album 'The Pipes of Pan', featuring these musicians. The chants of the Master Musicians slowly merge into that of the group with the two complementing each other to perfection as violin and guitars race off competing with each other.

Instability, Containment, Rollback featuring sampled text by Michael Parenti, has the group moving in a grunge direction with a rumbling bass backdrop as the guitars and violin let off power chords to Thorne Palmer's rich vocals (guest violinist on this track is Judy Stanton Cohen). Here the group move into King Crimson territory with their utilization of minor chord structure thought the back beat is a 4/4 time (unlike King Crimson!). The Musicians Of The Nile remind us that Paranoise's aim is to create an awareness of third world countries and their cultures as they introduce Tetrahedral Metaphor. In a similar fashion to Evil Vs Evil, the group progressively move in to seemingly play alongside the Musicians Of The Nile, and at times branch off independently, yet always return to The Musicians.

Mechanical World sees a return to a basic grunge rock structure. What sets Paranoise apart from the vast number of grunge bands is their utilization of a violin as a lead instrument, an effect which pays off. International Monetary Fun sees the group return to the African continent, this time though delving deeper into the heartland and further away from the Arab influences of North Africa. Samples this time are taken from Tanzanian Hukwe Zawose and master drummer/percussionist Doudou Ndaiye Rose. Once again the group's ability to merge their music with the samples is mystifying and magical, and most definitely enviable. Musically the totally unconventional time signature and continuous change of structure and chord sequences lends alot to King Crimson, but yet again, King Crimson never came close to creating this kind of musical diversity.

Constant Fear takes us back to the band composed tunes, without an utilization of samples. Funnily enough, though this kind of track would have been an excellent track on any other album, it pales in comparison to what the group have managed to create insofar. The throat singing style of xoomei from Tuvan group Huun-Huun-Hur introduces us to Structural Adjustment once again the group are back at doing what they know best. Also included are samples from The Gnoua Brotherhood Of Marrakesh. Here the group have managed to fuse together the music of musicians from two extremities of the world together with a westernized form of music. Few groups have managed to create this kind of atmosphere, and presently I can only think of two groups, namely Australian Aboriginal group Yothu Yindi and Berber group Orchestre National Des Barbes (incidentally I saw them live in London and met Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine, Matching Mole) there and he was blown away by their music).

The title track Private Power showcases the political message that Paranoise are trying to push through to the listener. This track features loops of Noam Chomsky backed by an impressive rhythm which initially utilizes samples from Doudou N'Diaye Rose to eventually give way to the group. There is a certain similarity between Paranoise and  Rage Against The Machine in that both groups utilize their musical prowess to promote their political beliefs. The power generated by Private Power is immediately dissolved by the voice of Asha Bhose accompanied by the sarod of Ali Akbar Khan. The vast majority of rock bands, especially those with a progressive inclination, share a lot with sacred Indian music especially when one analyzes the structure that is used in composing tracks and perhaps it comes as a surprise that this influence has taken so long to show up on this album. Tarana has the band chugging along in an almost dragging fashion to the drone created by Bhose's voice.

Not There is the last track which is a totally Paranoise creation, in that no musical samples are used. It also shows another face to this group and proves that they could achieve much even if they had to perform purely within westernized musical circles. North African rhythms courtesy of Abu Hilal herald Centerless Grinding which features some great bass playing from Bob Laramie. Monuments also utilizes North African (Egyptian) rhythms, this time courtesy of Hossam Ramzy who apart from being a noted percussionist in his own right having played as a guest on various albums with various artists such as Peter Gabriel, is also leader of the Pharaoh's Chief Ensemble, the backing band to the Page/Plant releases and therefore an acquaintance of violinist Rohan Gregory who also played with Page/Plant. The track also features sampled spoken word from Richard Hoagland and Colin Andrews

The final segment of the album features various chants which act as a backdrop to spoken commentary from who sounds like Noam Chomsky.

Once again, I cannot explain fully the effect this album has had on me. It might be a bit difficult to digest if you do not dig world music, but if you are willing to experiment then make sure you get this album. The progressive rock featured here is very unlike what you would find on a classic prog-rock album, yet the very definition of a progressive band is one that dares to do something different and Paranoise have most definitely done so.

Tracklist: Evil Vs Evil (3:14), Instability, Containment, Rollback (4:58), Tetrahedral Metaphor (6:40), Mechanical World (4:56), International Monetary Fun (4:57), Constant Fear (4:44), Structural Adjustment (8:40), Private Power (6:08), Tarana (4:49), Not There (5:07), Centerless Grinding (2:40), Monuments (5:20) Bonus track (3:30)

Pineapple Thief

 In the shadow of the ever growing success of Porcupine Tree two other British outfits have been trying to make their original mark on the music scene since 1995. Working side by side like musical Siamese twins both Vulgar Unicorn and Pineapple Thief have literally been one of the few true progressive acts on the circuit. Sadly however their originality and wit were not sufficient to persuade the world to see that these acts are what prog really needs. So it was about time to hook up with the main man behind both acts Adrian Soord. Or should we say Bruce Soord ?

My actual name is Adrian although my nickname is Bruce. I thought it would be interesting to use both names in order to give people the wrong impression that Vulgar Unicorn was more than just me and Neil Randall. By using more than one Soord it got the look of a true band rather than two individuals. On “Jet set radio” I even signed with A. B. Soord. For the Divadroid International release we informed the world that the people behind the project were Brad Storch and Betty Simington. In reality Brad and Betty are none other than myself and Neil again although I no longer know whether I was Brad or Betty (laughs). My very first band was the powerpop threepiece Terminal Headspin which never got to release any of it’s music. We did however have one very proglike song which we called ‘The long song’ whilst it thought me how to play. I also started singing here so I guess Terminal Headspin was important as it resulted in forming Vulgar Unicorn with Neil.’

It remains unclear why next to Vulgar Unicorn another project had to be launched being Pineapple Thief. ‘Vulgar Unicorn was mainly Neil Randall’s idea as he was the main writer and lyricist. However he was not that prolific in the end. Mainly after “Jet set radio” he got a big blow. We were both desillusioned by the poor sales but Neil was much more down than I was. In fact I think he never was the same again and even to this day has not emerged in the music scene like I have done. When we released our first VU album “Under the umbrella” in 1995 we felt we had released a pure, almost vintage prog album. We were only seventeen back then ! Once we did “Sleep with the fishes” we felt we had finally released an album that was 100% Vulgar Unicorn or at least it contained the sound we had in our heads all along. Sadly the fans didn’t agree so the album sold less than our debut. That was difficult to swallow. With “Jet set radio” we took it a little bit further and again sales were down so Neil lost the plot altogether. In fact that’s the main reason why the latest Vulgar Unicorn album “The fine art of living” was released under the moniker of Persona Non Grata. To be honest both Neil and me never liked the name Vulgar Unicorn in the first place. Neil told Malcolm (Parker, boss from Cyclops records, JB), that he thought the time was right to start from scratch. In the end it looks to be a bad move because people get confused and think it concerns a brandnew band whereas in fact this is the fourth and probably last Vulgar Unicorn album. Pineapple Thief takes up much more of my time now whilst I now write stuff which I want to get of my chest, which is more personal and melancholic. I could never do this with Vulgar Unicorn.’

When you visit the Vulgar Unicorn website (http://www.droom.nildram.co.uk/vu/ ) you get to see some sleeve designs for what was promissed to be a new version of the band’s debut album “Under the umbrella”. The title says : ‘coming soon for spring 2002’ but as far as I can think of this album was never released. ‘True. This was an idea which Malcolm had because “Under the umbrella” was the best selling album of the Cyclops catalogue. I had never been happy with the sound and the mix because things went way too fast in he end. So at one given point we thought to re-arrange, re-record and re-mix the complete album. In the end it never happened. You’re right into suggesting that the proposed bonustrack in the form of the original demo for ‘History of the world’ is exactly the same demo which now features on the bonusdisc which accompanies the limited edition of the Persona Non Grata album. The designs you see on the VU website were done by Neil who likes to toy around with Photoshop. So for the fans who want to have everything : these albums have never been released so don’t look for them ! I think by now all Vulgar Unicorn releases are sold out. Of course Malcolm could press some more but he will only do so if the demand is there? Sadly the demand is not enough to even consider it making it ever so hard to get hold of our albums.’

With Vulgar’s Unicorn second album “137” rumours had it that there was some interest from major recordcompanies. What happened ? ‘The management we were with at the time promissed us a great future. They were to set up gigs in London to attract A&R people but after a year nothing had happened. This management wanted us to concentrate on those songs they could turn into hits. Also they were more interested in forcing the image of the band rather than what we stand for musically. It’s like they wanted to turn is into a young Duran Duran. Surely I didn’t want that. I still have some contact with certain people but it’s still bloody difficult. With “Variations on  adream” I wanted to release less commercial songs maybe as a result from all those promisses. Because Pineapple Thief was not gigging the ball didn’t get rolling. I’m afraid you have to be seen rather than heard ! When we did a gig to celebrate the launch for the new “10 stories down” album most of the fans present were even surprised to hear that none of us are professional musicians. I work fulltime on development for computers although of course it’s still my dream to turn professional one day. When you start out making music all you want to do is become rich. Today I still have strong ambitions but in different areas. Mainly I want to make good music. I’m not interested in money anymore. Yet it still is frustrating to see names like Radiohead and Coldplay pop up in our reviews whilst they sell millions of albums and we have to be pleased with a couple of thousand. “Variations” sold around 5000 copies ! I still hope the big breakthrough might happen one day but it’ll happen mysteriously. Someone out there might use my music for a film or so. Look what happened to Coldplay. Their song ‘Yellow’ was used for a US TV series of some kind and it really boomed from then onwards. I hate to think what had happened to them if this hadn’t happened. The last five years I felt down due to thinking about ‘why them and not us’ but I’m over this now and concentrate on music. If it happens it’s because it has to.’

The very first Pineapple Thief was a vinyl 7” single. Not a very commercial tool in these digital ages. ‘It seems that 7” singles get more airplay in certain areas which is why we decided to go for this format. The vinyl is also a very thick layer so you get a chunky item in your hands. The lyrics are terrible but nevertheless the late John Peel played it which I think is something to be proud of. I think I have two more copies in my attic but once these are sold that’s it. Both songs on this disc (‘Sherbert gods’ and ‘Perpetual flying objects’, JB), will never ever again be released, not as a single and not as bonustracks on upcoming releases of any sort. I’m really not bothered about them.’

Next to your work with TPT you also work with singer Sheila Chandra. I know she had a decent amount of success with the band Monsoon and their hitsong ‘Ever so lonely’. Have you never thought of asking her to guest on some TPT material ? ‘Funny you should mention this as we have recently talked about this and she will probably sing some songs on the next album. She likes “10 stories down” so much that she has proposed to work with us herself. She has such a wonderful voice that it would be a waste not to use it. Sheila has always been an important singer for the Indian community so you never know, maybe we can find new fans by means of us working together ?

So far all of the TPT material has been produced by yourself. Have you never thought of using a separate producer ? ‘I never really thought about this. I surely wouldn’t go for any of the big names in the business and/or in the prog community. I’d probably go for someone who works in separate fields of music. I can’t think of any names right now as you surprised me with this question. For sure Eno would be great. Also Steve Albini could work out fine.  However I would dearly like to one day record an album together with people like Andy Latimer and/or Anthony Philips. One day I’d like to release an album in the style of Ant’s “The gheese and the ghost”.

What music are you currently listening to when you have time to listen to music other than your own ? ‘At this very moment I mainly listen to stuff from the seventies. Steve Hackett’s “Voyage of the acolyte”, Supertramp’s “Crime of the century”, early Yes such as “Time and a word”, “The Yes album” and “Fragile”. Also “Homecoming” by America I enjoy a lot. Then obviously I also listen to the stuff my girlfriend’s into such as Killers, Rufus Wainwright and the previous Beck album. I really love the sound of the strings and the drums on that album. I not only listened to it, I also analyzed it so I can maybe use a similar approach for one of my forthcoming compositions.’

Looking at the release dates of all Pineapple Thief product so far it looks like there’s a two year gap between each release. I wonder if this is mere a coincidence or a conscious move ? ‘It’s a natural cycle I guess although I’m determined to get the next album out by the summer of 2006. Two years is too long especially as we’re a real band now who gets to play live more often. We are more used to play together now so creating new music and actually recording it goes faster than before. Live we also get the chance to improvise more. Especially in the middle sections we create space to let ourselves go.’

Let’s focus on the latest album “10 stories down” which was preceded by the EP “4 stories down” itself the follow-up to “12 stories down”. It all becomes difficult to follow I’m afraid.

The fact is that I got a certain deadline to finish and deliver the new album which was october 2004. I was not really happy with the result and to be honest I should never have allowed it to happen. In too many sections it is too much downbeat and also the sound is too muddy. I then told Malcolm I needed time to re-arrange, re-reord and remix the material. That’s why I only see one release and that’s “10 stories down”. To me that’s the album as it sounded in my head all along. Maybe “12 stories” has to be seen more like a well executed demo with “10 stories” being THE album. In between Malcolm pressed up some 4-track EP’s mainly for promotion in the media and radio airplay. We decided to add some exclusive songs on that and to also make it available to the fans.’

One of those exclusive songs on the EP is ‘Wretched soul’ of which you wrote on the limited edition of “12 stories down” and I cite : ‘exclusive to this limited edition’. Nevertheless the same track can be found on both the EP and the “10 stories down” album …

Yeah I know. I’m naughty ! I want to apologize but it’s due to the fans that it’s on the album anyway. Initially ‘Wretched soul’ would not have featured on the new album and thus be reserved for the limited edition only as stated. But then fans started to write to me saying what a pitty it would be if this song was left out. So when I was re-working the material anyway I did also re-work ‘Wretched soul’. So you nevertheless get an exclusive track on the limited edition as it contains a different mix than on the current album. The bonus album “8 days later” is the same on both issues though. As I wanted this to have this ‘on the spot’ feel there was no need to re-work it so both versions are the same. I had such a great time when I did “8 days” that I decided there and then to do it all over again. I don’t know if I will continue this tradition on the next album as the next album will be more progressive and more instrumental and it’ll be a single disc. By the way the “8 days later” album that comes with “10 stories down” will always be available but the “8 days” bonusdisc which came with “Variations on a dream” was only pressed and distributed with the first one thousand copies. This material will never ever surface again ! On our “Live 2003” DVD you can find four additional audiotracks which are exclusive to this release. As these takes are rather rough I’m thinking of re-releasing them at some stage as some of them are quite good.’

When you flick through the booklet you come across some pictures of people falling from a building. Closer investigation sees that it concerns the bandmembers. Was this done with the macabre events of 9/11 in the back of your minds ? ‘No not at all and in fact we feel sorry should certain people think that way. It has never ever been our intention to make that link in any way at all. The only idea behind this is that normal bandpics show the band standing up whilst I wanted the band falling down. I just wanted it to be different than what normally happens. That’s the only reason and sorry again to all those people who thought differently.’

When you flick through the booklet you come across some pictures of people falling from a building. Closer investigation sees that it concerns the bandmembers. Was this done with the macabre events of 9/11 in the back of your minds ? ‘No not at all and in fact we feel sorry should certain people think that way. It has never ever been our intention to make that link in any way at all. The only idea behind this is that normal bandpics show the band standing up whilst I wanted the band falling down. I just wanted it to be different than what normally happens. That’s the only reason and sorry again to all those people who thought differently.’

So what does the future hold for The Pineapple Thief ? ‘We are still the biggest seller on Cyclops Records but we still have a very long way to go. We need all the promo we can get but it doesn’t look that easy. Recently a journalist for the British monthly Classic Rock wrote a great review of our latest album but his editor prevented it being published ! How can people be informed then ? I hope to get the next TPT album out by next summer and the plan is to tour more in the future. Vulgar Unicorn however sadly looks like burried now. Maybe only the feet stick out of the earth by now. It still might be enough, who knows ?

Pedestrians Of Blue

Progressive monologer...

"Blåfargen kan jo symbolisere forskjellige ting i ulike sammenhenger: himmelen og havet, kommunikasjon, harmoni, ærlighet, lengsel, konservatisme, overbevisning, melankoli..." Pedestrians of Blue mine damer og herrer :)

Pedestrians of Blue, hva i all verden legger Dere i dette navnet? Jeg ble mildt sagt nysgjerrig. :)

"He he, det er flere som lurer på det ja. Vi vet vel ikke helt selv...Blåfargen kan jo symbolisere forskjellige ting i ulike sammenhenger: himmelen og havet, kommunikasjon, harmoni, ærlighet, lengsel, konservatisme, overbevisning, melankoli...Og dette med fotgjengere kan vel også tolkes litt forskjellig. Vi ville ha et navn som man måtte tenke litt over, siden vi mener musikken vår også er litt på den måten. Og så var det passe sært og samtidig litt poetisk. Vi får i hvert fall mange kommentarer på det navnet!"

Det har vært en hel del feedback på bandets første demo, hva er eget syn på denne i dag?

"Vi er godt fornøyd med låtene, men lydmessig er det mye å gå på. Vi gjorde jo alt selv på den demoen, og særlig dette med miksing er vel ikke akkurat vår sterkeste side. Dessuten ble demoen gjort med programmerte trommer, noe som sjelden blir helt vellykket når det gjelder denne type musikk. Planen er å spille inn de låtene på nytt med fullt band og få dem mikset skikkelig."

Og hva synes Dere selv er forskjellen nå, kontra ”Circles of Butterflies - the first monologue”?

"Denne gangen har vi fått med oss en glimrende rytmeseksjon i Harald Levang på trommer og Rudolf Fredly på bass. Det har gitt oss mye mer trøkk og dynamikk. Og lyden er selvfølgelig mye bedre denne gangen. Vi la ned en god del tid og penger for at akkurat den biten skulle bli bra."

Målet er å bli store eller kjøre eget løp? Musikken Dere spiller er jo enormt stilsikker og ’pen’ – tror Dere bandet vil ha en mulighet til å dra kroner av musikken?

"Vi kjører vel litt vår egen greie, så får vi se hva som skjer. Man vet jo aldri..."

Hvilke inspirasjonskilder ligger i bånn? Det hadde vært interessant å vite da jeg selv har en del små tanker rundt hvordan Dere låter...:)

"Mye rart. For min egen del går det mest i progressiv og melodiøs hardrock fra de fleste tidsperioder. For eksempel Deep Purple, Queensrÿche, A Perfect Circle, Dream Theater, Winger, King’s X.

Johannes (vokalist) er mest inne i litt straightere pop og rock, som for eksempel Toto, A-ha, Don Henley og Phil Collins.

Harald og Rudolf liker mer moderne pop, jazz og U2."

Dere er, slik jeg har oppfattet og lest, ofte linket mot prog. Personlig føler jeg det dreier mer mot melodiøs hardrock med svært gjennomarbeidede melodier. Spesielt vokalen er med på å virkelig fange lytteren...tanker rundt dette?

"Enig. Vi prøver å lage gode låter der vokalen er det sentrale hele tiden. Det at vi ofte blir kalt et progband har vel litt med arrangementene å gjøre. Selv synes jeg hele progbegrepet har blitt litt vanskelig etter hvert. Noen kaller det prog hvis man kan spore en eneste skjev taktart i løpet av en hel låt, mens andre mener at man i progmusikk nærmest ikke får lov å spille 4/4 i det hele tatt. Mange såkalte progband i dag er vel alt annet enn progressive, men låter slik Dream Theater gjorde for 13 år siden..."

Når det gjelder det vokalmessige er Johannes egentlig ikke en hardrocksanger, men mer en klassisk rock/pop vokalist som jobber mye med diksjonen og det å understreke tyngdepunktene i teksten for å få fram budskapet. Han har hørt mye på vokalister som Bobby Kimball, Jon Anderson og Phil Collins."

Ifølge infoen på nettsiden ble det spilt inn 12 låter til en fullengder, men Dere valgte å slippe disse tre som en Ep. Hva var grunnen til dette? Økonomi?

"Ja, vi hadde ikke råd til å gjøre ferdig mer enn tre låter denne gangen. Men hele skiva er ferdigskrevet og pre-produsert."

Og Dere er på utkikk etter et selskap, napp ennå? Og hvilket marked/nisjer sikter man inn på? Dere har jo en liten fordel med å låte litt prog-light og samtidig slå et slag for melo-rock :)

"Det har vært litt interesse fra begge sider. Vi får håpe det ordner seg. Det spiller i grunnen ikke så stor rolle for oss om vi er på den ene eller den andre typen selskap."

Jeg var spesielt imponert over kvaliteten på låtene lydmessig. Var det et stort løft da Finnvox dro i spakene eller lå det allerede før mastringen et solid nivå på det produksjonsmessige? Dere mixet med Geir Luedy? Hva er han kjent for ellers?

"Det ble et løft etter at Mika Jussila hadde gjort sitt, men det låt jo veldig tøft før det også. Geir Luedy er en typisk pop produsent. Han er svindyktig og har jobbet blant annet med Karin Park, Kaizers og geniet Kenneth Sivertsen. Vi prøvde å være litt utradisjonelle når det gjaldt hvem som skulle mikse låtene, og det funket bra. Tror egentlig ikke han er så glad i pompøs hardrock, he he, men han gjorde en veldig god jobb."

Tekstmessig plukker jeg opp litt positive vibber, hva er budskapet/intensjonene med lyrikken?

"Egentlig er disse låtene en del av et større tekstkonsept, der alle tolv låtene vi har skrevet for skiva inngår. Så tekstene på denne EP’en faller nok litt i gjennom ettersom de ikke blir sett i sammenheng med resten. Tekstkonseptet tar utgangspunkt i en noe ustabil karakter som fremfører en monolog gjennom ulike stadier i en personlig livskrise."

Hva mener du/Dere så om norsk musikkscene? Noe som fortjener ros eller ris?

"Jørn Lande er jo bare suveren. Bare synd at han sluttet i ARK. Det var et vanvittig bra band. Tnt er alltid kult. En personlig favoritt er Firefly-skiva."

Interessen så langt her hjemme?

"Den har vært brukbar, men vi hører mest fra landene lenger sør i Europa."

Da takker jeg for tiden og ønsker Dere lykke til med jakten på selskap og turen oppover stigen. :)Yjmetal for heavymetal.no - og avslutt gjerne med noen ord omn det er saker du brenner for.

Teksten her er hentet fra hevymetal.no

Hjemmesiden deres finner du her:   http://www.heavymetal.no/band.details.asp?menuid=1&bid=99

Punken henretter progen.

1977 var som en blåkopi av den franske revolusjon. Heldigvis var det snakk om stilarter og ikke mennesker denne gangen. Faktum er uansett at punken med god hjelp fra discoen regelrett henrettet progen. I likehet med alle revolusjoner så ble alt det etablerte bannlyst, og spesielt den tidvis oppblåste og selvgode progen fikk lide. Vi kan trygt si at musikalsk dinosaurer ikke var spesielt vel ansett. At akkurat dette skulle skje var neppe særlig overraskende for de som fulgte litt med i musikkverden. En og annen artist var blitt ganske så navlebeskuende og store på det. Jeg mener å ha hørt at Keith Emerson var et stjerneeksempel her. Den godeste Keith hadde ansatt en egen mann som sørget for at det teppe han stod på under konserter alltid var tip top shape! Heftige discorytmer, og tre greps rock tok totalt kontrollen i musikkverden. Progen ble og er et undergrunnsfenomen, selv om det finnes unntak. Bare navnet prog ble så belastende at det selv i dg ofte er et skjellsord. Når et stort selskap som  Universal  i 2005 utgir "Frances The Mute" av Mars Volta har de slik skrekk for ordet prog at de garderer seg. "This is not pog", pryder coveret. Her skal det bunnlinja fores, og da er det mindre viktig med om det som utbasunere er sant. " Francis The Mute" er udiskutabelt prog og ingenting annet.

I 30 år har så progen stort sett vandret i skyggenes dal, og vært et undergrunnsfenomen. Noen få artister har likevel nådd frem til folket og selger store mengder skiver. Muse, Dream Theater , Mars Volta og Radiohead er vel fire unntak, men så er disse også på såkalte ”main-labels”. Mainlabels har jo ofte et velsmurt salgsapparat til rådighet så det er nok mye av forkalringen. Vel så viktig er det at dette nok beviser at progmusikk faktisk er noe de store massene egentlig liker. Det er jo bare slik at de fleste ikke gidder er vil bruke tid på å dykke ned i dypet av det som finnes av mer ukjent musikk.  Alt for ofte er det kun musikk som folket får så å si fylt i ørene som de forholder seg til. Det vil jo i praksis si at progen forblir et undergrunnsfenomen.Et paradoks opp i alt dette er jo at punken var ment til å være en "fuck all" bevegelse, men med tiden ofte er blitt ganske så snill og markedstilpasset. Akkurat det fenomenet er jo en kjent sak fra andre revolusjoner. Bolsjevikene hadde når de kom til makten stor aversjon mot ordner og utmerkelser. Med tiden så overgikk de faktisk Tsarens regimet, og ble nærmest besatt av ordener og utmerkelser. Vi kan vel fastslå at liv og lære ikke alltid (sjelden faktisk) stemmer overens, og at de fleste ideer med tiden blir rimelig utvannet.