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Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to www.KMXT.org and pledging your support.
The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites and Spotify.
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Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to www.KMXT.org and pledging your support.
The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites and Spotify.
If this is “dark prog” then dark prog sounds to me like jazz/rock fusion. Once you are past the descriptors, a look at the cast list suggests this might be a rather tasty fusion fest.
The latest in a series put together by Yes bassist Billy Sherwood (who writes all the material and plays on all tracks) is mainly instrumental.
It’s a chance to hear various guitarists outside of the straitjackets usually imposed by their big name masters. So we have Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens on the opener ‘Darkest Hour’ setting the scene with a suitably dramatic and moody edge.
Steve Morse’s workout on ‘Ominous Signs’ will be recognisable to fans of his prime Dixie Dregs era whilst itinerant violinist David Cross provides a King Crimson/Mahavishnu vibe to ‘At The Gates’.
Bumblefoot Thal sings and plays on one of three vocal pieces – the standout ‘Dark Days’ - accompanied by Patrick Moraz and drummer Omar Hakim. Another highlight ‘Between Two Worlds’ features Steve Hillage.
And as if to confirm this is really jazz rock fusion in disguise John Etheridge crops up on ‘The 11th Hour’ which sounds like Allan Holdsworth in an unholy alliance with Hawkwind (Del Dettmar period).
The space keyboard vibe is repeated on several tracks, Sherwood evidently likes this effect but to these ears it can be intrusive and when a piece like ‘Distant Thunder’ also meanders the results aren’t convincing.
Tagged on to 13 tracks are two bonuses which don’t really sit with either the dark theme or the rest of the album. So, bizarrely, there’s an “instrumental version” of ‘I’m Not In Love’ with Rick Wakeman when it’s actually got a vocal (originally featured on a Nektar “covers” album in 2012), whilst Todd Rundgren reprises ‘I Saw The Light’ (previously part of a Todd “covers” release in 2022). To me this is lazy and sloppy programming and detracts from an otherwise consistent offering.
If you can dispense with that dark prog tag, this is still a satisfyingly dark album for lovers of the individual artists, Billy Sherwood, minor keys, or mainly instrumental fusion. ***
Songs / Tracks Listing
1. Darkest Hour (4:01)
2. Ominous Signs (4:01)
3. At the Gates (3:55)
4. Dark Days (5:09)
5. Lonely Landscape (3:37)
6. The Long Night (4:01)
7. The Quasi Effect (3:32)
8. The 11th Hour (4:01)
9. Between Two Worlds (3:33)
10. Distant Thunder (3:41)
11. Dark Money (3:30)
12. For All to See (3:25)
13. Beyond Reason (3:29)
Total Time 49:55
Bonus tracks on CD edition only:
14. I Saw the Light (3:39)
15. I'm Not in Love (5:53)
- Billy Sherwood / bass, guitar (7)
With:
- Steve Stevens / guitar (1)
- Steve Morse / guitar (2)
- David Cross / violin (3)
- Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal / guitar (4)
- Patrick Moraz / keyboards (4)
- Omar Hakim / drums (4)
- Kasim Sulton / bass (5)
- Frank Dimino / vocals (6)
- Marco Minnemann / drums (6)
- John Etheridge / guitar (8)
- Steve Hillage / guitar (9)
- Gregg Bissonette / drums (9)
- Todd Sucherman / drums (10)
- Joe Bouchard / keyboards (11)
- Pat Mastelotto / drums (12)
- Chad Wackerman / drums (13)
- Todd Rundgren / guitar (14)
- Rick Wakeman / keyboards (14,15)
- Nektar / (15)
Cover: Javier Carmona
Label: Cleopatra Records
Format: Vinyl, CD, Digital
March 15, 2024
FreeForm Radio thanks Alex at Quiet Details for providing us with a copy of this release.
Delighted to announce that next up in the quiet details series, with an incredible interpretation of the idea, is Whettman Chelmets.
A singular artist, Whettman truly defies genre-boundaries, taking his experimental and visionary approach to music creation through many different guises.
Largely guitar-focused and broadly covering drone/shoegaze/ambient, yet deconstructing each of those generic terms into something truly unique and purely his own. With releases on such diverse labels as Flaming Pines, Submarine Broadcasting, Girly Girl, Strategic Tape Reserve and more - each new release promises something very special and unexpected.
A New Place is exactly that - originating from an improvised, deeply poetic song from his young daughter and extrapolated into his own improvisations, thoughts circling of yearning for new things and the nostalgia for the past - ultimately creating powerful and moving pieces that are utterly compelling.
Highly textural, the three tracks are each complete worlds of their own - using a palette of guitars, synths, field recordings and trumpet from Whettman, his two children, Lucy and Reese guesting on vocals and screwdriver guitar respectively - we hear the full range of sonic emotion.
Soft and gentle murmurations morph into walls of layered structures - always shifting and advancing into yet new scenes that elicit unpredictable feelings. The musicality is a match for the sound design, both so refined and precise while always feeling organic and natural - you can feel his hands making this music, the nuances come through perfectly.
Beautiful picked guitar evolves into heavily saturated washes which turn into vast open spaces - this is a true masterclass in using every corner of dimensional space and the complete frequency spectrum to say exactly what he wants to say in this time and place.
“There's a cyclical nature to the whole thing, and I'd like to highlight that with the words. We humans spend most of out time longing. It seems to be what drives us. Not inherently a bad thing, I don't think, but at the same time, takes us away from the Now. I think the work here focuses on that. We long for things. Then we find said things. Then we continue to long. Always on the precipice of fulfillment, but never actually there.”
At times light and expansive, at times dark and evanescent, Whettman Chelmets has taken the quiet details concept to a wonderful and extraordinary world - A New Place in every wonderful regard.
Huge thanks to Whettman for everything, a complete and gorgeous addition to the series.
The artwork was made as always influenced by the music and idea behind the album - originating from a photo from Whettman which was then captured with analogue photography and processed here at quiet details studios.
As usual, the album is presented on the physical edition, a custom 6-panel digipack with a separate fine art print too.
The CD also has a special long-form continuous mix of the album, representing the music in its purest form.
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Variations is a classical and rock fusion album. The music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and performed by his younger brother, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.
The Lloyd Webber brothers were always very close but their two different careers (a rock musical composer and a classical cellist) meant that a collaboration seemed unlikely. It was not until Julian beat his brother in a bet on a Leyton Orient football match that Andrew was forced to write his cello work.
As his subject, Andrew chose the theme of Paganini's 24th caprice and added 23 variations for cello and rock band. The work premiered at the 1977 Sydmonton Festival with rock band Colosseum II, featuring Gary Moore, Jon Hiseman and Don Airey being joined by Barbara Thompson (sax, flute), Rod Argent (piano, synthesizer, keyboards) and Julian Lloyd Webber (cello). It was subsequently rearranged and recorded in 1978. It reached Number 2 on the UK album charts.[3]
The cover is based on the painting Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his sisters by Philip Mercier.
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Outlaw country[2] is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
The music has its roots in earlier subgenres like Western, honky tonk, rockabilly and progressive country, and is characterized by a blend of rock and folk rhythms, country instrumentation and introspective lyrics.[3][4] The movement began as a reaction to the slick production and limiting structures of the Nashville sound developed by record producers like Chet Atkins.[3][5]
The movement was named, at various points, "redneck rock", progressive country, or "armadillo country", after the animal which would become the movement's unofficial mascot, before it was termed "outlaw country".[1] The origin of the outlaw label is debated. According to Jason Mellard, author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture, the term "seems to have sedimented over time rather than exploding in the national consciousness all at once".[10]
The term is often attributed to "Ladies Love Outlaws", a song by Lee Clayton and sung by Waylon Jennings on the 1972 album of the same name.[11] Another plausible explanation is the use of the term a year later by publicist Hazel Smith of Glaser Studios to describe the music of Jennings and Tompall Glaser. Art critic Dave Hickey, who wrote a 1974 profile in Country Music magazine, also used the term to describe artists who opposed the commercial control of the Nashville recording industry.[10]
In 1976, the Outlaw movement solidified the term with the release of Wanted! The Outlaws, a compilation album featuring songs sung by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album to be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.[1
In 1973 Jennings produced Lonesome, On'ry and Mean. The theme song was written by Steve Young, a songwriter and performer who never made it in the mainstream, but whose songs helped to create the outlaw style.[citation needed] The follow-up album for Jennings was Honky Tonk Heroes and the songwriter hero was Texan Billy Joe Shaver. Like Steve Young, Shaver never made it big, but his 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is considered a country classic in the outlaw genre
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The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites and Spotify.
Review by Rick Eaglestone for MPM
Instrumental intergalactic travellers Ozric Tentacles return with 6 new tracks constructed in their very own blue bubble for new album Lotus Unfolding
Opening track Storm in a Teacup is wonderfully familiar of which I feel that I am transported back to the groups Jurassic Shift era with soundscapes incredibly reminiscent of when I discovered them in my teenage years back in the mid 90’s.
it’s one of the albums longest tracks but is so varied and well-structured that the entrancing waves feel that no real time has passed.
The first time I listened to this album was in the stillness of the night in complete darkness and because of this became engulfed in follow up track Deep Blue Shade
Halfway point of the album opens up for the albums title track Lotus Unfolding which is deeply hypnotic and easily my highlight track of the release it has a real calming presence with prominent bass and swirling solo’s which is then complimented by the albums longest track the majestic near 10-minute chaotic nature of Crumplepenny
The albums final duo really hone in on the quintessential essence of Ozric Tentacles journey through planes of melodies and musicianship Green Incantation is a wonderful blend of experience and experimentation with the album final venture Burundi Spaceport end this particular chapter with an air of hypnotic serenity sprinkled with just a dash of showmanship and artistic flair.
Ed Wynne comments:
The concept is, as usually wide & open to interpretation but basically is a sonically illustrated excursion through some of the musical realms we found ourselves in this time around.
Designed to elevate and delight the senses, should that be required, because if the day feels like an unfolding lotus, it’s probably going to be a good one!
A rather splendid astral journey via the aural senses.
Rutherford played all lead and bass guitars on the album which included an acoustic 6-string Ovation, an electric 12-string Alvarez, his custom made Shergold double neck bass, a Fender Stratocaster for lead parts, an Ibanez,[3] and a Roland guitar synthesiser, from which he acquired a string sound that reminded him of a Polymoog synthesiser.[5][3] He also borrowed a few models from a keyboard roadie who was an avid guitar collector.[2]
Smallcreep's Day opens with the 24-minute title track that has seven distinct movements.[5] It is based on the 1965 novel Smallcreep's Day, the only book written by Peter Currell Brown.[5] A satire on modern industrial life, the story follows Pinquean Smallcreep who has worked in the same factory for forty years and embarks on a journey of self-discovery as he follows its assembly line to find out what the factory produces.[4] Brown had in fact worked in a factory for forty years himself.[3] Rutherford had read the book roughly three years prior to starting work on the album, noting it had similarities to the Gormenghast series of fantasy novels by Mervyn Peake.[1] Though he considered it "hardly a great piece of literature", he was more impressed with its spirit and the atmosphere it presented as a reader.[7] He also chose the book as its story and setting were something he could work and develop from and adapted it to have a happy ending.[1][8] He later noted a strong contrast in themes between the factory and machine-oriented imagery on his album and the more romantic and fantasy-inspired Genesis songs typical of the time.[3] Rutherford had attempted to pass lines from the book as lyrics, but abandoned the idea as they failed to work effectively.[3]
Next in the quiet details series
we have something very special - an incredible interpretation from the
musician and visual artist, øjeRum.
Loved for his music as much as his stunning collages, øjeRum has a deep
back-catalogue of releases spanning labels such as Room40, Opal Tapes,
Fluid Audio and many more - all exploring his unique minimal and deeply
textural style.
With En Sten for Solen (A Stone To The Sun, translated from his native
Danish) we find an album which builds on his already finely-honed
sensibilities and creates an emotive and introspective journey through
his refined creativity.
Beginning with what feels like rhythmic footsteps into the immersive
worlds he’s so adept at conjuring, you quickly fall deeper into these
mesmerising and all-encompassing narcotic soundscapes.
Gaseous clouds mix with disintegrating melodic phrases, beautifully designed auditory illusions come in and out of focus - all perfectly paced and subtly shifting as time goes on and the music draws you further in.
This music, like his artwork, has an almost mystical feeling, verging on
the supernatural - it’s timeless and has a way of speaking to people
regardless of background or culture - it’s purely human and moving
beyond words.
The production is as we’ve come to expect from øjeRum - dense yet soft,
with bright rays of light beaming through the nebulous mist.
Living up to his reputation as an artist that traverses media with great
skill, along with the album he wrote these poetic words:
I hold a stone to the sun / so I cannot see
the sun for the stone / but only its outline
that vibrates and shapes / the stone bigger and smaller
organic and graceful as / an angel in the snow
until the point where / the stone seems to disappear
too real to be / real and / now I hold the sun
the sun for the stone / and the angel in the snow
is dancing with the sun / in the stone
Huge thanks to øjeRum for everything, a truly complete and wonderful addition to the series.
The artwork was made as always influenced by the music and idea behind
the album - this time it was very special as øjeRum is so well-know for
his visual art - he gave me the honour of using one of his original
collages to use as the basis of the piece - which was then captured with
analogue photography and processed here at quiet details studios.
We’re both very happy with the results and so pleased to share it with you.
Our thanks to Alex at quiet details for providing us with a copy of this release.
øjeRum - A Stone To The Sun
1 The Sun’s Light Behind My Eyelids
2 A Hundred Years From Now
3 When Bodies Of Glass Contract
4 Out Crawls The Day
5 Under The Dream
6 A Stone To The Sun
oejerum.bandcamp.com
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The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites and Spotify
Universal Radio is the debut album by New Zealand group Dragon released in June 1974 on Vertigo Records and produced by Rick Shadwell.[1][2][3][4] Universal Radio, along with their second album Scented Gardens for the Blind are in the progressive rock genre—all subsequent albums are hard rock/pop rock.[1][2][3]
Dragon are a New Zealand rock band which was formed in Auckland in January 1972,[1][2] and, from 1975, based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The band was originally fronted by singer Graeme Collins, but rose to fame with singer Marc Hunter[3][4] and is currently led by his brother, bass player and co-founder Todd Hunter.[5] The group performed, and released material, under the name Hunter in Europe and the United States during 1987.
Dragon formed in Auckland in January 1972 with a line-up that featured Todd Hunter on bass guitar, guitarist Ray Goodwin, drummer Neil Reynolds and singer/pianist Graeme Collins.[19][5] All had been in various short-lived bands in Auckland, and Collins is credited with using I Ching to provide the name Dragon. Their first major gig was an appearance at the Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival in early January 1973.[8] By 1974 several personnel changes had occurred, with Todd Hunter's younger brother, Marc Hunter, joining on vocals and Neil Storey on drums.[19][5] The band recorded two progressive rock albums in Auckland, Universal Radio in June 1974 and Scented Gardens for the Blind in February 1975 both on Vertigo Records.[19][5][20] Despite being one of Auckland's top live attractions by late 1974,[19] neither albums nor related singles had any local chart success,[19] and they recruited Robert Taylor (ex-Mammal) on guitar as they searched for a raunchier pop sound.
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