Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.
Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.
The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites (links below). We urge you to support the musicians you hear on FreeForm Radio.
Tonight we feature progressive rock from Finland and Norway and instrumental game music from Steven Wilson.
This review is a little overdue after the 2014 release of this third album from the extravagantly named The Samurai of Prog, but it is certainly well worth investigating. Whereas the multinational collective that make up The Samurai have concentrated on cover versions and reinterpretations of classic Prog pieces for their previous releases, The Imperial Hotel sees them make a move towards original material.
Also responsible for the production, the core band of Marco Bernard (bass), Steve Unruh (vocals, violin, flute, acoustic guitar) and Kimmo Porsti (drums and percussion) are assisted by a variety of guests including keyboardists Robert Webb (England), Robert Myers (The Musical Box) and Linus Kåse (Änglagård) plus guitarists Kamran Alan Shikoh (Glass Hammer) and Yoshitisa Shimizu (Kenso).
Housed in sumptuous sleeve packaging with wonderful artwork from Ed Unitsky, it really is a delightful object. But we’re mainly here for the music…
Despite being more than accomplished composers in their own right – Unruh’s work should certainly be familiar to many through his solo work, Resistor and other projects – the core trio took the decision to approach outside composers to provide the material. Possibly a strange choice but the result is that the five tracks come from four independent writers. To the credit of the band their arrangements mean that the finished product does not sound fragmented.
Their previous releases have a kind of novelty tag (and the band name does not help them much there!) but this album marks a new dawn. The opener After The Echoes, written by and featuring keyboardist Octavio Stampalia of Jinetes Negros, is a strident and uplifting number carried aloft on Steve Unruh’s high pitched vocals and Yes-like harmonies. The main melody is central but it is the additional sections that make it work, the various keyboards adding different textures with Unruh’s flute and violin increasing the variety. It is at times tricksy and chocolate boxy but never gets too schmaltzy and makes for an expansive piece of Prog to set the scene, the piano and violin outro being just beautiful.
The bright and breezy Limoncello was written by Robert Webb and he also adds keys and vocals here. A different version of it apparently appeared on the second part of the Colossus Project’s Decameron album. I am not familiar with it but as the core band also featured on that album they are sort of covering themselves this time. Suffice to say that it is a fun piece, lovely staccato piano intertwining with other keyboard lines to build the piece organically to Shimizu’s guitar solo which really cuts through. Unruh’s violin again makes a difference and the harmony vocals are delightful. At its heart is a very simple song that has been expanded and inflated but it all works and the extended instrumental section at the end is simply superb.
The gorgeous piano melody of Victoria’s Summer Home, written and performed by David Myers, deserves attention on its own merits and it is almost a shame that here it acts as a prelude to the album’s main event, the title track. That said, it works perfectly in the role, the culmination of birdsong and a car pulling up on a gravel driveway leading us beautifully into The Imperial Hotel itself. An unreleased song co-written by Robert Webb and England it certainly deserves to be heard and the trio have done a fine job with it. Webb again adds keys and vocals and the guitar of Kamran Alan Shikoh is excellent. An extended and self-contained story shot through with the kind of theatrical Victoriana that Genesis used to do so well, it is a great centrepiece and the highpoint of the album. I won’t spoil the story but it is is witty and well realised with a lovely surprise ending. The music takes you through the ups and downs of the story and it is all beautifully realised and played with enthusiastic passion. This is a half hour epic with not much in the way of excess flab and keeps you hooked throughout, it doesn’t move far from the England original recorded in 1975 (which you can find Here) but extends some of the instrumental passages. There is nothing “new” here, so to speak, but it is engaging and a great lost song from the ’70s that The Samurai have done full justice to.
After all that we get Into The Lake by Linus Kåse to finish, another full-on Prog extravaganza of excess to finish things off. Very much influenced by Gentle Giant, it’s one for the fans of that style of music to enjoy. It is dense and intricate, the complex music harking back to the classic era of Prog with hints of Genesis again, but it is all beautifully done and a resounding way to finish off an album such as this.
Steeped in what you might call “traditional” Prog stylings and performances it is bound to be disregarded by many as a pointless exercise of rehashing but that is to miss the quality of the performances and arrangements which are what makes it all work. If you are looking for the future and new avenues – turn back. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for interesting music packed with melodic hooks and wonderfully warm playing then this might well be for you.
The Imperial Hotel is a quite beautifully crafted work that deserves to be heard more widely. Some of the passages are simply breathtaking and the title track is a wonderfully conceived extended work in the grand traditions of High Prog to which The Samurai have added their own stamp.
The lyrical themes on the album deals with human emotion, and the ongoing struggle between juxtaposed forces within the psyche. An introspective voyage among the realms of memories, feelings and instincts, where the light is brighter, and the dark is darker.
The concepts of wonder, longing and desperation permeates the histories told, and the currents from the deep are ever present.
released October 23, 2020
progressive rock rock classic rock prog rock symphonic rock vintage rock Oslo
Last Day of June is an interactive tale about love and loss, from an all-star team of creators - including critically acclaimed director Massimo Guarini (Murasaki Baby, Shadows of the Damned) & award-winning musician and record producer Steven Wilson, and featuring a collaboration with writer/director/animator Jess Cope (animator on “Frankenweenie”, director for Metallica’s “Here Comes Revenge” music video).
Steven Wilson (born Steven John Wilson on November 3, 1967, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, most closely associated with the progressive rock genre. Currently a solo artist, he became known as the founder, lead guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the British rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands.
Wilson is self-taught as a producer, audio engineer, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Under his own name, he has released the albums Insurgentes (2008), Grace for Drowning (2011), The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) (2013), Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015), To the Bone (2017), and The Future Bites (2021). He also released a EP, 4 ½ (2016), as well as a series of singles titled Cover Version (released online between 2003 and 2010; released worldwide as a compilation in 2014). His other solo projects can also be found attributed to monikers of his, such as Bass Communion and Incredible Expanding Mindfuck.
He is perhaps best known as the frontman for progressive rock band, Porcupine Tree, for whom he was the sole member during the 1980s and early 1990s. His projects are numerous however, including collaboration with Aviv Geffen as Blackfield; a long-running partnership with Tim Bowness, known as No-Man; teaming up with Dirk Serries in Continuum; as well as a joint album with Opeth's frontman, Mikael Åkerfeldt in Storm Corrosion.
Wilson employs synthesizers and programmed music along with live instruments to create a unique atmosphere for each song he works on, including otherwise-simple pop tunes. In addition to his prolific musical output, Steven has crafted a reputation for the high production quality of his music, and has undertaken production duties with such high-profile artists as Opeth, Dream Theater, Jim Matheos of Fates Warning, Anathema, Orphaned Land, Marillion, Fish, Pendulum, Yoko Ono, and friend Robert Fripp. He is also part way through remixing the albums of King Crimson and other classic artists' back catalogues into surround sound and new stereo mixes.
Posts
