While fronting one of the greatest of all progressive rock bands in Van Der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill was releasing critically acclaimed solo albums. Here’s a piece from the album The Love Songs.
As a side note, many thanks to Virgil Pink, who shares a tremendous amount of wonderful videos. He should be on your Youtube subscription list immediately.
Progressive Rock
[Podcast] A Miscellany of Tasteful Music – December 29, 2014
A Miscellany of Tasteful Music – December 29, 2014 by Rudy Carrera on Mixcloud
It’s been awhile, but here’s the final podcast of the year! The track listing is as follows:
1. Peter Fox – Alles Neu
2. Hilarion Nguema – Gabon Pays De Joie
3. The Chambers Brothers – Time Has Come Today
4. Carlos Gardel – La Muchacha
5. Ennio Morricone – Dal Mare
6. Al Bowlly – Fancy Our Meeting
7. Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
8. Peter Thomas – Raumpatrouille Orion
9. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians – Auld Lang Syne (Film Version)
10. The Durutti Column – Tomorrow (Live, from the album ‘Domo Arigato’)
[Magazine] ProgressoR
I love scouring the Internet precisely because I run into treasures like these.
Uzbekistan is not the first name one would think of when discussing progressive rock. The Central Asian republic is far away from any of the traditional power centers like the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy or the United States. It is several time zones away from Moscow and St Petersburg, where Russia’s small prog-rock scene is at its strongest.
Yet chaps from Uzbekistan (and a chap from Norway, apparently!), working out of London, do yeoman’s work in covering progressive rock releases for the website ProgressoR. These folks are passionate about the genre, indeed. Consider this a go-to site for those who love prog and its sub-genres.
[Magazine] Art Rockin’
The purpose of my blog is to cover a mass of information as orderly as possible, though it’s proving difficult (though pleasurable) to do. One of those bits of information I like to pass on is the existence of other blogs and zines who are more specific in scope. Art Rockin’ was started by Salim Ghazi Saeedi and Lee Henderson to review and promote art rock releases, as not enough mags are concentrating on this rather rich genre of music.
Good luck to them!
[Video] Pageant – Vexation ページェント ヴェクサシオン ＜1987 New Version＞
Symphonic progressive rock from Japan. I’m constantly amazed at how well the Japanese language fits in a Western musical structure. Fine stuff from Pageant.
[Video] Colosseum – The Valentyne Suite
During a good part of the 1990s, I had the pleasure of working at one of the best record stores in America (I mean that literally – maybe two or three were greater, and that’s it). Aron’s Records was, for me, a finishing school for musical knowledge, a place where I was able to really broaden my taste in music (I have old friends Dana Madore and Ted Plank to thank for most of that, though so many contributed mightily to hipping me to new music).
Dana, in particular, as well as my clients, were fans of Colosseum and solo projects which sprang from its loins. ‘The Valentyne Suite’ is a particularly meaty piece of Hammond-based prog.
[Video] Soft Machine – ‘Switzerland 1974’ Official Trailer
Thanks so much to the Steve Feigenbaum’s legendary Cuneiform Records, who posted this on their Youtube account. This is Soft Machine during their prime.
[Review] Santiago Fradejas – 16 Pieces for Electric Guitar & Electroacoustic Ensemble
16 Pieces for Electric Guitar & Electroacoustic Ensemble by Santiago Fradejas
Because there is so much incredible music coming out all the time, documenting it is becoming a bit of a nightmare. Thankfully, I’m subscribed to enough Facebook music groups to keep me abreast as to what new sounds are popping up.
One of the best new artists I’ve come across is a Chilean composer called Santiago Fradejas. He works comfortably in the fields of electroacoustic music, post-industrial soundscapes, drone, improv and contemporary classical. This particular album really highlights the wide range of genres he’s able to tackle.
Santiago’s work is worth seeking out. It’s my hope that he gets signed to a label who can properly promote him, and soon.
[Article] Neal Morse, A One Man Arian Rock Band
I’ll be the first to say that I happen to like Progressive Rock in all its many forms, from avant-prog to Christian symphonic, and everything in-between. I am also a fan of Neil Morse, who is the subject in question in this article written by Brendan P. Foht over at First Things.
What I don’t care for much is Morse’s Catholic bashing. The ground he attacks from is shaky at best, heretical at worst. Though I’m not Roman Catholic (I’m Eastern Orthodox), some of the lyrical content is amusingly bad when Morse strays into overly deep theological matters, and it never dawns on him that Sola Scriptura is itself unbiblical, rendering the whole of Protestant criticism moot.
Still, he is a fine musician, and it seems that First Things, a Christian-based magazine more focused on the arts, philosophy, culture and politics, seems to have a a thing for Mr. Morse and one of his side bands, Transatlantic. It’s nice to see prog make its way up to academia, and I’m thrilled to see it written about rather well, though I think that Foht’s tagging prog rock a ‘disreputable’ genre to be a bit of overkill. Glam, however…
[Podcast] A Miscellany of Tasteful Music – 02-02-2014
A Miscellany of Tasteful Music – 02-02-2014 by Rudy Carrera on Mixcloud
Ten tracks from all over the world. This week, we start with a cheesy-listening number from Italy, some Acid Jazz from Austria, Brazilian Psychedelia, Indie from England, Ambient music from both Italy and Canada, Rock-In-Opposition from Belgium, Turkmenistani percussion-prog, an operatic piece from the Volga River (there’s a hint!), and a little bit of Mambo to wrap things up. For more on us, visit our page at http://amiscellany.info or friend me personally at my personal Facebook site and make comments or suggestions!
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 