|
It's one of many examples of how he equated "dissonant" with "sloppy"—it makes more sense if you read his older reviews realizing that he couldn't distinguish between something improvised and highly organized chaos. He equates Gentle Giant's Interview to King Crimson's THRaKaTTaK, which is a bit like saying, I dunno, Edgard Varese and Ornette Coleman made the same kind of music. And though you'd have to be George Starostin to mistake Fracture for an improv, it is sometimes hard to tell in Crimson's music how much is arranged and how much is improvised. That's a clumsy segue into talking about ccccSeizurecc, a really neat piece based on ProjeKct themes that alone made the purchase of Heavy ConstruKction worthwhile. I swear you could assemble a better album than ConstruKction of Light solely from stuff they were working on around that time but chose not to fully develop or include. Edit: And rehash or not, FraKctured is pretty badass. It was retired prematurely from their setlists because it was too difficult to play. Sorry this is all a bit disjointed, but I pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment that ended up not being due for another week and all I want to do is post random pieces of music and talk about how beautiful they are. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Nov 18, 2011 |
#
¿
Nov 18, 2011 18:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 21:47 |
|
|
Retarded Goatee posted:A Smart Kid I liked that. Man, I should probably get around to filling the (many) gaps in my Porcupine Tree discography. The Sky Moves Sideways is such a boring, derivative nonentity of an album it pretty much robbed me of all curiosity regarding their earlier work.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2011 19:24
|
|
|
KingCrimson posted:Who listens to prog for the insightful lyrics, anyway? It's always nice when lyrics are good when they don't need to be. This is one of my favorite things about Gentle Giant, actually—their lyrics aren't exactly great, but tended to be insightful and heartfelt, and were never cringe-inducingly inept (though parts of Three Friends come dangerously close). It's interesting to hear them go from sort of academic and detached in their earlier work to political on The Power and the Glory and cuttingly bitter on Interview. And then of course there's Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and Daevid Allen-era Gong, who have some of my absolute favorite lyrics, prog or otherwise. Porcupine Tree have some real cornball lyrics, but usually the music is good enough for me to not care. Like I know my eyes should be rolling out of my head at "Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul" but Lazarus is such a great pop song, I love it anyway. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Nov 21, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2011 02:11
|
|
|
Orbital Sapling posted:God drat you guys like Porcupine Tree. Pretty sure Zappa fits in fine here. PFM are kind of an obvious recommendation, but their softer stuff reminds me quite a bit of Harmonium. Also Le Orme, maybe even moreso. Also I redact some of my prior praise for Porcupine Tree as I listened to In Absentia for the first time the past week and it's loving boring. I'm not sure I really even like them much at all before Deadwing. Or after Deadwing. And I only really love like 1/3 of Deadwing.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2011 05:29
|
|
|
I'd say yes. They've recently added Machine Messiah, Life on a Film Set, and the complete Fly from Here suite to their set, and those alone would make it worthwhile for me. I saw them in St. Louis this summer, and while there were some problems (tempo too slow on Tempus Fugit, the band briefly falling out of synch with each other during Fly from Here), it was overall a pretty strong performance and I'm glad I went. Recent posts on Progressive Ears have suggested Benoit David has been sick and having some voice problems lately, but like half those people categorically hate him for not being Jon Anderson, so I'd take most of the negativity with a grain of salt. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Dec 15, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2011 22:08
|
|
|
I dunno if the St. Louis was an unusually good day or if that Canadaigua, NY show is unusually bad, but I definitely came away from that show rather impressed with Benoit David. He hit all the high notes in Heart of the Sunrise, etc. I'm just hoping we get another good album out of this lineup—they have said they want to make another album—but I'm anticipating this collapsing into endless nostalgia tours and inter-band drama.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2012 22:31
|
|
|
I think Power and the Glory through Interview is the strongest period of their career. Before Power and the Glory there tends to be an impersonal, academic quality to their music that while not exactly bad often makes the concept bigger than the music and leaves me a bit cold. Three Friends I think is the worst offender in this respect—not a bad album, but I've always thought it falls sort of flat, and is their weakest work pre-Missing Piece. On Reflection is pretty much the quintessential Gentle Giant song in my mind, but Interview feels like their most personal album, and it's probably their most challenging, at times being as dissonant as what you'd expect from an avant-prog band (and I wish they went that way instead of making a failed attempt at selling out). I'm generally not a fan of the last three Gentle Giant albums (especially Giant for a Day, ugh), but feel they still deserve a listen. Shadows on the Street is a beautiful little ballad, and if they'd done more like that, maybe they could have had some mainstream success. For Nobody is one of their best rockers and kind of reminds me a little bit of The Police (Synchronicity I has always struck me as a very Gentle Giant sort of song for that matter). Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Jan 7, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2012 06:40
|
|
|
Hollenhammer posted:Hey guys I've been checking out Rush, Yes and King Crimson. I'm pretty new to the genre... Where should I go from here? What are some essential Prog bands? You're probably just going to want to read the thread for an answer to that. As far as big names in the first wave of British prog go, there's still Emerson, Lake & Palmer (start with Brain Salad Surgery), Genesis (start with Nursery Cryme), and Jethro Tull (start with Thick as a Brick). Gentle Giant are more challenging and a bit of an acquired taste, but were one of the first prog bands I listened to and I adore them. I recommend starting with Free Hand or the Out of the Woods/Totally Out of the Woods compilation. If you enjoy Gentle Giant, they're a good introduction into avant-prog despite not really being avant-prog themselves. If you find you really like the 1973-74 King Crimson albums, look into krautrock, as King Crimson have more in common with German bands of that era than the British prog scene. Edit: To briefly return to Porcupine Tree discussion, I finally listened to Stupid Dream the other day and it's definitely my favorite PT album so far. Still haven't gotten around to Lightbulb Sun, The Incident, and most of their earlier albums though. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jan 24, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2012 16:32
|
|
|
Anybody else here going to NEARfest Apocalypse? Tickets went on sale 38 minutes ago, but there are apparently still seats available online for the 3-day bundle if you hurry.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2012 16:39
|
|
|
Since I know some people here will be interested, The Red Masque have a Kickstarter project to fund their new album, which will (hopefully) be produced by Bob Drake, who did the recent Art Bears and This Heat remasters. If you haven't listened to them yet, you're missing out on one of the best avant-prog bands of the past decade. Fossileyes in particular is loving fantastic.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2012 03:12
|
|
|
I got into King Crimson when the 30th Anniversary editions were still coming out, and have the full set of those, including the gatefold editions of Earthbound, SaBB, Red, USA, and THRAK. Not to mention the countless live albums, KCCC releases, download-only live releases, projeKcts, posters and t-shirts I ordered from DGM... I really do need to hear the 40th Anniversary remasters, but haven't been able to bring myself to buy one. There's no band in the world I have spent more money on. Plus I already did the whole "rebuy the entire discography" thing with Gentle Giant, and then I at least had the excuse of many of the older CD releases really sounding like poo poo. It was drat frustrating getting into Gentle Giant as an American before the drt/Alucard/Repertoire remasters came out. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Mar 24, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2012 03:13
|
|
|
teen bear posted:Recently I've found myself listening to their live albums more than anything else. USA, Absent Lovers, The Great Deceiver, there's something about their live albums that I don't get from other bands. The performance of Starless on USA is maybe my favorite King Crimson-related anything ever, and more than anything else utterly destroys the common argument that Fripp's playing is academic and unemotional. The end honestly gives me chills every time. Absent Lovers is easily one of the best Crimson live albums, but the biggest highlight for me has to be Waiting Man. "Boy, that's the best we've done that in a long time," Adrian says at the end—I'd personally say it's the best they've done ever, but I've still got a lot of KCCC releases to go through.  My favorite Crimson release since the post-ProjeKct days is actually the live album Level Five. It's barely even album-length, but the track selection is so good. Dangerous Curves and Level Five are paired here in a very Talking Drum/LTiA part II sort of way, and it works so much better than what they ended up doing on The Power to Believe. Plus you get a good performance of the still-unfinished Power to Believe part 2 (Virtuous Circle), Deception of the Thrush, and an absolutely loving amazing performance of The ConstruKction of Light so flawless it's hard to believe it's actually live. I never realized how great this track was until I heard this performance—it's now one of my favorite Crimson songs, bizarrely terrible lyrics and all. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Mar 25, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2012 22:07
|
|
|
abske_fides posted:I'll give Transatlantic a shot then... Fripp & Eno are both brilliant on their own, but I can't say I've heard much from the two of them together that I've found really compelling. Well, Baby's On Fire has one of the best Fripp solos I've ever heard, but that's hardly ambient. I'd recommend picking up Midnight Blue and The Gates of Paradise by Fripp and almost everything ambient by Eno (but especially Apollo, Ambient 4: On Land, and both of his albums with Harold Budd) before looking into Fripp & Eno. The saddest Fripp & Eno related story I recall reading is that during the recording of The Equatorial Stars, they recorded what they considered one of the best pieces of music they'd ever made—and then lost it to a hard drive failure or something. As it is, The Equatorial Stars is a pretty good ambient album, but nothing essential. I haven't heard their most recent one. Oh, and be careful if you pick up an EG copy of Evening Star—I don't know how common misprinted copies are, but I have honestly bought this album twice, and both times it was actually Brian Eno's Before and After Science on the disc instead of Evening Star. This was a good thing initially as that was a hell of an introduction to solo Eno, but I did want an actual loving copy of Evening Star. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Mar 25, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2012 16:08
|
|
|
DaWolfey posted:Prog lyrics should be embarrassing to listen to. They need a vague sense of mysticism with clunky or a flagrant disregard for rhyme, sung in a English accent with an utterly unremarkable voice. The Argus is one of the reasons I fell in love with Ween. It is absolutely dead-on, and sounds totally sincere if you're not really paying attention.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2012 04:51
|
|
|
It seems kind of silly to call Dream Theater, or any metal for that matter, soulless. I mean, I don't look to metal for something that will resonate with me emotionally, but energy and technical proficiency. I think Dream Theater have put out some classic prog metal (Scenes from a Memory, the Twelve Steps suite, much of Images and Words and Awake), and even though I haven't enjoyed much of their later work, I'd go to see them live with or without Crimson Projekct, as they are a fantastic live band. That said, they'll be in Kansas City just a few days after NEARfest, and I'm worried I'll be too burnt out/behind on work to go. I'd love to, though. Edit: I'm also a bad prog fan, as I hate just about everything I've heard by Spock's Beard/Neal Morse, The Flower Kings, and (predictably) Transatlantic. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Apr 15, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2012 00:40
|
|
|
I don't categorically dislike neo. Spock's Beard always struck me as too... fluffy, and it's very rare that I can get past the overbearing Christianity to enjoy solo Morse (I'm rather fond of Author of Confusion from One, but not much else). Flower Kings I really want to like (I've enjoyed Roine Stolt in other contexts), but nothing I've heard by them has really excited me, and they're extremely longwinded. Marillion, though, I like more often than not because they can write a good song that sticks in my head, prog or not. Their lyrics (both Fish and Hogarth eras) are occasionally a complete embarrassment, but it's a testament to their songwriting ability that they can put out a song with the chorus "I'm scared of everything I am / I'm scared of opening the can / I'm scared of losing her, I am / think I might've taken all I can" and I love it. Marbles is neo-prog's Dark Side of the Moon in my eyes—certainly not in terms of innovation or impact, but thematically, and in being a diverse, engaging album on which every single track is great, and yet it still manages to be greater than the sum of its parts. edit: hahaha, Spock's Bears
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2012 00:55
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Some segments of Awake and A Change of Seasons I also find hard to reconcile with the 'soulless' appellation. The common denominator is of course Kevin Moore, although I'd say people ascribe too much to him if not for the fact everything else he's ever done resonates emotionally for me (hell, even the Fate's Warning albums where he didn't participate in the writing process). "Space-Dye Vest" is one of those sleeper tracks that stuck in my head and gradually became compulsive listening—I don't think I really cared for it much at first, but nowadays if I listen to only one track from Awake, it's that. It makes me wonder how Dream Theater would have turned out had Moore stuck around, though I think Jordan Rudess is much more the keyboardist Dream Theater needs. The first OSI album is fantastic, but I think that's the only Kevin Moore project I enjoy in its entirety. Moore is one of those rare lyricists who resonates with me more when he's aiming for universal rather than personal, and I also think he's one of those artists who needs to collaborate in order to reach his full potential—all of his solo Chroma Key stuff I've heard has struck me as pretty lifeless and dull.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2012 17:26
|
|
|
WaffleStomp posted:From what I can remember, he said something to the effect of "Dream Theater is not the kind of music I'd consider progressive, it's soulless noodling" or something of the sort, which enraged at the Theater fans. Years later, Portnoy got him to record an "apology" statement, which he then put on an awful track on the worst DT album. Haha, what song is this? I kind of gave up on Dream Theater after Octavarium aside from the remainder of the Twelve Steps suite.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2012 19:06
|
|
|
Oh, I guess I never really paid close attention to those voices. That's pretty ridiculous. (I also wouldn't call Steven Wilson any more progressive than Dream Theater, but petty inter-band drama is funny.) Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Apr 19, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2012 19:25
|
|
|
I feel like Frances the Mute is the best Mars Volta album by a pretty large margin, but I couldn't tell you exactly why. It's just always felt like a great album to me. Maybe it's because the dynamics are really good, and that's something Amputechture and Bedlam abandoned for almost uniform loudness. There's nothing quite as immediately memorable as, say, Inertiatic ESP, but there are plenty of great melodies, and I feel like the compositions are more sophisticated than on De-Loused. And even though the average song length is the longest of any Mars Volta album, it's never felt tedious to me—outside of perhaps the ending to The Widow, I feel every song totally earns its length. Octahedron is the only Mars Volta album I don't really feel anything for—it's a return to simpler and more varied songs like on De-Loused, but it lacks the energy and strong melodies that made De-Loused great. No one track stands out to me as weak, but as a whole it just feels limp and uninspiring. Still waiting on my copy of Noctourniquet to come in the mail—hope it gets here tomorrow. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Apr 23, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2012 07:55
|
|
|
Thoughts on Noctourniquet: At this point I'm pretty sure Omar is trolling fans with his prerelease descriptions of Mars Volta albums. Octahedron was only "acoustic" in the sense that it was less the musical equivalent of being repeatedly hit in the head with a folding chair than Bedlam was, and the "future punk" Noctourniquet is one of their most unashamedly prog rock albums. Big triumphant choruses all over the place, and I think there's more synth on here than all their previous albums combined. It sounds very, very different from every previous Mars Volta album—so much so that there were times where it didn't even seem like I was listening to The Mars Volta. At different points they sound a lot more like Klaxons (the chorus of Empty Vessels) or even Radiohead (the beginning of Aegis). That said, it doesn't strike me as overly derivative, and the songs are as twisted and complex as ever, with strong melodies sure to please the crowd who only liked Deloused. The album as a whole feels very cohesive, which I really appreciate, especially after Octahedron ended up so jumbled and disconnected-sounding. The Whip Hand is a great opening track, lurching and staggering all over the place while still holding together in a fantastic display of highly organized chaos. The Malkin Jewel starts out sounding kind of clumsy and uninspired, but it builds so well that by the end I absolutely love it. I imagine In Absentia is going to be the most polarizing track on the album—it's a very discomforting, slowly building track I can only describe as "ambient dirge punk." I personally think it's one of the most interesting things they've ever done, but I can definitely see it trying a lot of peoples' patience. It's still maybe a bit too early to say, but overall I think this might be their best album since Frances the Mute. I immediately wanted to listen to Noctourniquet again as soon as it finished, and I'm not sure I've felt that way about any other Mars Volta album. I also think this album is going to make it easier to evaluate The Bedlam in Goliath in retrospect. I like Bedlam, but it's a very difficult album, and at the time there was the nagging feeling of "oh God, is this what the Mars Volta are going to sound like from now on"—well, they clearly aren't. Maybe Octahedron should have reassured me in this respect, but I didn't like it, so it took Noctourniquet to really renew my faith in The Mars Volta.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2012 03:37
|
|
|
That's the way I feel about it too—I mean it's difficult in the sense that it's so intense and visceral from beginning to end that I honestly have trouble getting through it in one sitting. It's the classic Mars Volta sound refined and pushed to its limit. I think it's great but at the same time it's not the sort of album I'd want them to make another of, at least for some time—if that makes any sense. It's the "Amputechture, but harder" vibe that made me worry about the direction they were headed and wonder if it was the beginning of the end, which I think impaired my assessment of the album as a whole. Trying to come up with another album/band to parallel it with, but I've got nothing. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 19:05 on May 1, 2012 |
|
#
¿
May 1, 2012 18:50
|
|
|
Motoi Sakuraba's a pretty interesting guy who I don't think has been discussed here yet. He was the keyboardist for the '80s Japanese prog band Deja-Vu, and turned to making video game soundtracks after the band broke up. Not only are his soundtracks excellent, but he continued making instrumental prog rock albums based on themes from his game soundtracks. I have to cite Beyond the Beyond as one of my favorite little symph rock albums that nobody knows about. It's a very well-composed album in an ELP/Ital-prog vein that manages to be surprisingly good despite a low-budget feel (MIDI choir, MIDI harp, MIDI clarinet, etc.)—if it were ever recorded with a full band, I think it'd be a minor classic. Also in case you were wondering, no, the game Beyond the Beyond isn't any good aside from its soundtrack. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 22:01 on May 2, 2012 |
|
#
¿
May 2, 2012 21:58
|
|
|
tentril posted:Does anyone here listen to Ruins? I admit I didn't read the whole thread, but I didn't see them mentioned at all. Basically a really nuts drummer and bassist from Japan. I've got Pallaschtom, and like it pretty well. Like a more manic, minimalistic Magma. Also their Progressive Rock Medley is really fun. Try to identify the song each snippet is from (and try not to look at the video description as it lists them all).
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2012 19:49
|
|
|
I started listening to King Crimson with In the Court and Red, and while I wouldn't consider either among my absolute favorite King Crimson albums years later, they're both excellent entry points and both representative of what are really two completely different bands with the only common element being Robert Fripp. If you really like In the Court, be sure to listen to In the Wake of Poseidon, which I think is a bit better and more cohesive album overall. And Larks' Tongues in Aspic (first album with the same core lineup as Red) is totally loving brilliant, but it's not something that really resonated with me on the first listen. As far as Yes goes, I think The Yes Album is consistently one of their best, as well as one of their most accessible, and an ideal place to start. Fragile's a bit more experimental but also a bit uneven, and Close to the Edge (my first Yes album) I don't think is the best entry point—the title track is absolutely one of the best things they've ever done, but I've never really been a fan of side 2. My personal top three Yes albums are Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer, and Going for the One, but I don't think any of those aside from maybe Going for the One are good entry points.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2012 20:01
|
|
|
Trespass is a severely underrated album. I mean, every Genesis fan loves The Knife, but I also consider Stagnation one of the best songs they ever did, and Peter Gabriel's vocals on Looking for Something are just disgustingly good. I suspect he was born with the voice of a world-weary old man. Edit: Seriously, here's a 17-year old Peter Gabriel sounding the same as he always has on an early Genesis demo. It's kind of spooky, really. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jun 16, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2012 06:58
|
|
|
david puddy posted:Hemispheres is a classic, and songs like La Villa Strangiato are what cement Rush's place as legends as far as I'm concerned. I totally agree—La Villa Strangiato is the specific track that got me interested in Rush, even. I'd maybe get A Farewell to Kings first, though, as I think it's just as great, and the two are bridged by Cygnus X-1 Book I and II. I practically consider A Farewell to Kings/Hemispheres a double album. Misogynist posted:I'd toss Porcupine Tree's The Sky Moves Sideways in that list if we're going the Steven Wilson route. People accuse it of aping Animals a bit too much, but I still think it's their strongest album. I realize I'm critical of Porcupine Tree to perhaps an obnoxious extent, but I have to say I absolutely hate The Sky Moves Sideways, if not for being extremely derivative of Pink Floyd then just for being boring as hell. It was the first thing by Porcupine Tree I heard and it made me avoid the band for years—which was really a shame, as I love Lightbulb Sun, Deadwing, and some of their other material. For me, Porcupine Tree are at their best when they're straddling the line between progressive rock and pop/alt. rock/metal. On an unrelated note, Magma's new album Felicite Thosz is already out in France, and will be everywhere else on June 25th—it totally snuck up on me. I haven't heard it yet, but will post impressions when I do. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jun 16, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jun 16, 2012 01:55
|
|
|
poo poo, Four Chords That Made a Million was on Lightbulb Sun, wasn't it? Oh well, at least it's under four minutes long. It's not because The Sky Moves Sideways is chill that I dislike it, it's just that I find it incredibly uninteresting and tedious for what it is. I mean, I've listened to it several times and find it difficult to remember any of it aside from the chorus to Stars Die, which isn't even on the original version of the album anyway. Also, that's a strange selection of King Crimson songs to call chillout music. I'd understand labeling Book of Saturday, Trio, or like half of Islands that, but Starless? One of the most climactic songs in all of progressive rock? Edit: That's as good an excuse as any to repost my favorite performance of Starless. The best bit is of course Fripp at the end hitting maybe the most powerful single sustained note I've ever heard, but I always crack up at the ecstatic audience member who yells out "THEY'RE PLAYING STARLESS! ALRIIIIIGHT!" Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 16, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jun 16, 2012 02:17
|
|
|
For whatever reason, I've never been a fan of 2112. Even when I was a teenage Randroid I thought most of the title song was laughable, and I still don't think any of it is truly classic Rush except for Temples of Syrinx and maybe A Passage to Bangkok. It was the first Rush album (and one of the first prog rock albums) I bought because it was the only one I knew of at the time, and I didn't know La Villa Strangiato was that Rush track I'd heard that I really liked, or what album it was on. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jun 18, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2012 19:50
|
|
|
I've always liked Wind & Wuthering. Eleventh Earl of Mar is one of my favorite opening tracks on any Genesis album, One for the Vine feels like a great Gabriel-era epic, Your Own Special Way is lovely despite venturing into mainstream pop ballad territory... really it's good all-around, maybe edging out Trick of the Tail as my favorite post-Gabriel Genesis album. (Then again maybe not, as there's nothing on it as sublime as Entangled.) Edit: Also, ...And Then There Were Three is severely underrated by fans of prog Genesis. Yes it's the album with Follow You, Follow Me and has more than its fair share of filler, but Down and Out and Undertow at least are absolute classics. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jun 29, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2012 01:21
|
|
|
The only live material with Muir released before now (a handful of KCCC releases) has all been mediocre-quality bootlegs, so the existence of soundboard recordings and live in the studio stuff is really, really exciting and something altogether new even with the enormous amount of available live KC material out there. LTiA is my favorite King Crimson album, and maybe my favorite album altogether, but even I can't justify spending $120-140 on that though. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Aug 20, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Aug 20, 2012 17:41
|
|
|
Cory and Trevor posted:They certainly had some strong P's to select from: Man, talk about missed opportunities. Emerson, Lake, and toddler Thomas Pridgen hitting all those drums, having a great old time.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2012 00:33
|
|
|
Danny Carey played on Adrian Belew's album Side One, so there is some history other than KC and Tool touring together.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2012 06:29
|
|
|
It would be neat if he released that tape. I've always been curious about it. That said, I've grown so tired of the monologue in Thela Hun Ginjeet from repeated listens that I can hardly bring myself to listen to the song anymore.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2012 06:12
|
|
|
I think it's Madness that really drags Side One down. It's a dissonant, lumbering, and fairly aimless and uninteresting instrumental that reminds me of the weakest ProjeKcts material, and it's the longest track on the album and right in the middle of everything. If nothing else, Side One's the album that gave us Writing on the Wall and Beat Box Guitar, two of the best things I think he's ever done.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2012 08:27
|
|
|
I really don't like Gaza. I mean, I'm glad they're trying something different, but it just feels like limp, uninspired prog-metal to me. Power is another one of those instantly forgettable "generic Marillion" songs. I haven't even bought the album yet, but the samples don't have me excited at all.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2012 19:28
|
|
|
Now that I listen to it again, the biggest problem I have with Gaza is that it just has no flow. In contrast to one of their really good epic tracks like Invisible Man or Ocean Cloud, it just sounds like a bunch of disparate pieces haphazardly stitched together. The closing section is the only part I feel really works, and it's not enough to make up for the preceding 15 or so minutes. Also I think the synths are really cheesy and clash badly, and H's lyrics are clumsy, and the whole thing is just a mess, really. Edit: I'm sorry. Maybe Songs That Can't Be Made will grow on me, but as of right now, I feel it's their weakest effort since Radiation. There isn't a single track I like in its entirety, and Power in all its forgettableness is probably the strongest one overall. Could've been Montreal, but the lyrics really are that bad. david puddy posted:Well, this is pretty rad. Also, this. I mean no disrespect to the band with my comments, and I hope they aren't interpreted as such. I'm a huge Marillion fan and think Brave and Marbles are two of the best progressive rock albums of the past 20 years. I'm just not really liking Sounds That Can't Be Made at all. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Sep 22, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2012 02:26
|
|
|
david puddy posted:I have never actually listened to Marillion. That is probably a thing which I should do. Marbles was the one that got me into them and what I still consider their masterpiece, so I can't recommend a better place to start than there. Though if you wanted more of an overview, the live album Size Matters (sigh) features maybe the best setlist you could ever hope for at a Marillion concert. If there were something from Brave on there, it would be perfect. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Sep 23, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2012 05:02
|
|
|
iamathousandapples posted:
I think .com has grown on me more than any other Marillion album. I was definitely of the opinion that it was one of their worst after my first listen, but now I just think it's their most wildly inconsistent. Interior Lulu I consider one of the best songs they ever made, I'm also really fond of A Legacy, and I guess Go! is pretty nice too. Most of the rest (Deserve included) I think is pretty dreadful. Also the drum machine in Deserve can't help but remind me of that "Stand Out" song from the Goofy Movie soundtrack, though I don't know for sure that that's a bad thing. Regarding Radiation, I remember reading an interview with Steve Hogarth where he described Under the Sun as being like a Lenny Kravitz song—I agree, and that's kind of my problem with the album as a whole. Too much of it is in that slick, tepid mainstream '90s rock vein. It's not so much the compositions I don't like as the arrangements—the acoustic performances of The Answering Machine I've heard have been pretty good, but on Radiation it just sounds gross. There's some good material like Now She'll Never Know and A Few Word for the Dead, but there's just not enough of it—I kind of go back and forth on whether I think Holidays in Eden or Radiation (and I guess now Sounds That Can't Be Made too) is the weakest Hogarth-era album. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Sep 28, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2012 08:55
|
|
Most of the album sucks except for Deserve
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 21:47 |
|
|
I think it's maybe because they don't have much of an edge—of all the major '70s prog rock groups, they're the most overwhelmingly pleasant. Their music is gorgeous, and I think they're a great band, but I can see why they wouldn't have the same appeal as ELP despite being a similar sort of lush, neoclassical progressive rock. They were the Saturday night headliner at NEARfest 2012, and I got to see them perform Turn of the Cards and Scheherazade and Other Stories back to back. They weren't quite as strong as they were in their prime (mostly due to their new bassist/backing vocalist sometimes singing off-key), but Mother Russia and Song of Scheherazade were absolutely epic. And seeing an aged Annie Haslam dressed in the same peasant girl garb she would have worn in the '70s singing Cold is Being was nothing short of devastating. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Oct 4, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2012 19:01
|
|