[Repost From Old Site]
Progressive rock is a tricky business, and a hard sell even in it's
prime. Most rock listeners like rock music because it does a lot with
very little (though I doubt they are aware they like it for this
reason). It's a very expressive music, but it requires no great deal of
attention or concentration to enjoy. The best rock music hits you on a
visceral level; it gets in your bones long before it reaches your
brain.
Not so with progressive rock. It aims straight for the
brain, and it demands almost infinite patience to really appreciate all a
particular composition has to offer. Prog rock, from an analytic
standpoint, has a lot more in common with classical than rock. The
concepts are generally larger, or explored more thoroughly, and the
music is much more intricate. Though this demands much from the
listener, it also offers more; the ideas that can be expressed are that
much bigger. Good prog rock is like watching a movie montage in your
imagination.
But there is such a thing as music that is
overwrought. Occasionally, an artist will come up with a fairly simple
idea or story and wrap it up in hours of impossibly dense guitar
noodling and so many time-signature shifts it's hard to call the result
music.
Such is the case with the album Into the Electric Castle by
Ayreon. It's the case with all their work, unfortunately, but nowhere
was it made clearer than on this album. Like so many terrible bands in
this world, Ayreon is a revolving door cast of musicians built around
the ego of a single (admittedly talented) musician. Ayreon is one of a
growing constellation of projects revolving around Arjen A. Lucassen.
He plays nearly every instrument on all of his projects, and the "bands"
really only exist so that he can take his projects on tour. Sometimes
this formula works, as it did for Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and
Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age). In Lucassen's case, however, the
ambition far outshines the execution.
Into the Electric Castle is
a 160 minute double-cd concept piece. All of Ayreon's albums are.
Keep in mind that the hardiest of human attention spans averages about
30 minutes for single-sense stimulation. The story is about a handful
of people from various eras in human history brought together in a
mysterious alternate dimension to go on an adventure together, and guess
where they're headed? That's right, Into the Electric Castle.
If that doesn't sound hack-ish enough already, Try some of the lyrics on for size:
Welcome! You have entered the cranial vistas of psychogenesis. This is the place of no-time and
no-space. Do not be afraid for I am merely the vocal manifestation of your eternal dreams. I am
as water, as air - like breath itself. Do not be afraid.
Look around, but linger not. Where I lead you will follow. Mark these words well. Ignite my
anger with your delay and punishments will come your way.
You are eight souls of the flesh, chosen from different eras ancient and modern. The trivia of
your mortal lives is unimportant to me... Indeed, some may die...
You have a task: to release yourselves from this Web of Wisdom, this knotted Maze of Delirium,
you must enter the nuclear portals of the Electric Castle!
This
is a brief spoken word piece that begins the journey. If you don't
think that sounds corny, then leave this page and never come back.
I'm
a sci-fi nerd. I find it easy to suspend my disbelief. I find it even
easier to accept flights of pseudo-scientific fancy and impossible
gadgeteering, but only if there's a point to it. Only if
there's some core of human expression, literary commentary or character
development wrapped up in the cheap devices of the genre.
Ayreon
forgoes these for the sake of sheer immensity. The point here seems to
be only to stretch the journey of the protagonists so that it will cover
all 160 minutes. One event doesn't really lead to another. No single
character seems to grow or develop as a result of the events of the
plot. And the "twist" at the end goes from vague to opaque.
The
music, while an amazing display of technical ability, utterly fails to
live up to the intended level of drama. It makes adequate room for the
well delivered vocals, and it peppers the songs with searing hot
instrumental solos. Unfortunately not a single second of it is
memorable. I'm sure there are people who could sing along to music like
this, but only after deliberately taking the time to memorize it. It's
a meandering, hook-less mishmash of angular prog instumentals and
soaring, Opeth-aping heavy metal chord progressions. If "Stairway to
Heaven" is like reading the Brothers Grimm, Into The Electric Castle is like reading a law school textbook.
Lucassen
is so good at so many instruments that coming up with riffs is like
taking a dump for him. The problem is that he tries to write a rock
opera around every one. It's exhausting, and the payoff is a shoddily slapped together, pointless story.
The single worst thing about this album, for me, is that the story is
nearly identical to one I tried to write. In college I spent countless
hours interweaving several short stories in an attempt to craft a novel
about several protagonists who are taken to a mysterious alternate
dimension. After I listened to all 160 minutes of Into the Electric Castle in
utter disbelief, I realized what a huge bullet I had dodged. Not only
had someone beaten me to it, but it was BAD. I'm ever thankful that I
wised up and scrapped the thing. Who wants to read or listen for an
eternity in order to receive at best, a jumbled, incoherent moral
insisting that humanity is innately flawed?
Follow or Face My Wrath
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Random Album Review: Nighthawks at the Diner by Tom Waits
[Repost from Old Site]
To those of you who know Tom Waits, I doubt it comes a s a huge surprise that this is my favorite album he ever did. It's a moment in his career where his vast musical influences were distilled into something memorable, artistic and accessible. To those of you who aren't familiar with Tom Waits, a few brief preliminaries.
[audio:http://peterambles.blog.com/files/2013/02/06-Tom-Waits-Eggs-and-Sausage-In-a-Cadillac-with-Susan-Michelson.mp3|titles=06 Tom Waits - Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)]
Tom Waits came of age on the fringes of the Beat Generation, a loose association of poets, writers, singers and jazz musicians with a flair for anti-establishment lifestyles and the artistic expression thereof. Tom Waits himself didn't start recording until the early 70's, however, so he isn't officially considered part of the Beat Generation, whose activities were mostly centered in the 50's and 60's. Waits does, however, reflect their style well, and manages to distill it into something less political, more comprehensible and completely unique.
The first thing anyone notices about Waits is his voice. It sounds like decades of cigarettes and whiskey filtered over a steady diet of asphalt and tree bark. His distinctive croak lends itself well to the vocal jazz/blues that make up much of his work, but it also gets a riotous showcase in his latter-day pirate/circus/freakshow music. It's hard to pin the man to a genre, he just is Tom Waits.
Nighthawks at the Diner is a live album containing all previously unreleased material. Most songs feature a rambling preamble from Waits that gives you the authentic feel of being in a diner in the wee hours of some drunken evening, listening to some unsung genius pour his twisted heart out on the linoleum floor. Through a haze of greasy steam and cigarette smoke, Waits croons about everything from lost loves to booze-soaked evenings alone, from questionable meals in divey restaurants to romantic "dates" with himself. It's an uncommon record from an uncommon artist, and nowhere is his individual style clearer or better presented. His ability to paint images into your head through deft word choice, sincerity and clarity are paralleled by none in any era, in any genre.
Waits feels to me like an urban Johnny Cash, and this is his Live at Folsom Prison.
To those of you who know Tom Waits, I doubt it comes a s a huge surprise that this is my favorite album he ever did. It's a moment in his career where his vast musical influences were distilled into something memorable, artistic and accessible. To those of you who aren't familiar with Tom Waits, a few brief preliminaries.
[audio:http://peterambles.blog.com/files/2013/02/06-Tom-Waits-Eggs-and-Sausage-In-a-Cadillac-with-Susan-Michelson.mp3|titles=06 Tom Waits - Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)]
Tom Waits came of age on the fringes of the Beat Generation, a loose association of poets, writers, singers and jazz musicians with a flair for anti-establishment lifestyles and the artistic expression thereof. Tom Waits himself didn't start recording until the early 70's, however, so he isn't officially considered part of the Beat Generation, whose activities were mostly centered in the 50's and 60's. Waits does, however, reflect their style well, and manages to distill it into something less political, more comprehensible and completely unique.
The first thing anyone notices about Waits is his voice. It sounds like decades of cigarettes and whiskey filtered over a steady diet of asphalt and tree bark. His distinctive croak lends itself well to the vocal jazz/blues that make up much of his work, but it also gets a riotous showcase in his latter-day pirate/circus/freakshow music. It's hard to pin the man to a genre, he just is Tom Waits.
Nighthawks at the Diner is a live album containing all previously unreleased material. Most songs feature a rambling preamble from Waits that gives you the authentic feel of being in a diner in the wee hours of some drunken evening, listening to some unsung genius pour his twisted heart out on the linoleum floor. Through a haze of greasy steam and cigarette smoke, Waits croons about everything from lost loves to booze-soaked evenings alone, from questionable meals in divey restaurants to romantic "dates" with himself. It's an uncommon record from an uncommon artist, and nowhere is his individual style clearer or better presented. His ability to paint images into your head through deft word choice, sincerity and clarity are paralleled by none in any era, in any genre.
Waits feels to me like an urban Johnny Cash, and this is his Live at Folsom Prison.
Random Album Review: Octopus by Gentle Giant
[Repost From Old Site]
When one thinks of British progressive rock, probably the first two names to come up will be Yes and Genesis. Both are excellent examples of the genre, with nods to classical and jazz music, extended song cycle compositions, deft instrumentals, long solo passages for nearly every instrument, psychedelic, story-telling lyrics and cerebral, challenging, concept-oriented subject matter. But there is one band that very few living people still recall, their records buried in discount bins and their dynamic sonic prowess all but forgotten. I am talking about Gentle Giant, one of the most original and talented bands to emerge from England in the 1970's (and that's saying something. Lotta great stuff from that time and place)
It seems like it was an unspoken tradition of 70's prog that your fourth album had to be a self-styled masterpiece. Yes had Fragile, Genesis had Foxtrot, ELP had Brain Salad Surgery (if you don't count Pictures at an Exhibition, which I don't because it's a live album of the band covering a classical piece), and Gentle Giant had Octopus.
Octopus was the unquestioned pinnacle of their career. It consists, appropriately, of only 8 songs, each wildly different from the next. I came across this band and this album in my days with Soulseek, a now-defunct P2P file sharing program, and this album has endured as one of the staples of my listening rotation, even as the haze of marijuana has cleared from my mind since college. Each song could have been performed by a completely different band, and each could have been that band's magnum opus. For Gentle Giant, it was but a milestone on a career that contains no less than 8 albums of this quality (and 2 that are decidedly lower), however, Octopus remains the most immediate and accessible of these.
The album begins with "The Advent of Panurge" , a sort of sequel to a previous song "Pantagruel's Nativity". It is a subtly creepy song about a demon who bewitches the title character from the previous song, becoming his friend. It features dense, stunning keyboard and bass interplay underscoring the dynamic, operatic vocal.
The album then moves on to "Raconteur, Troubadour", a song that whimsically recalls medieval musicians with violins, asymmetrical drum work, and jazzy interludes that sounds like they're backing up a montage of travelers on horseback.
The band then brings out their classically informed take on muscular hard rock with the guitar-led "A Cry For Everyone" The guitar and keyboard attack of the main riff would have made Deep Purple proud, but Deep Purple could never have pulled off the busy solo interludes with such flair and subtlety.
Things rocket into the stratosphere, however, on the next track "Knots". The song centers on a dense, knotted interplay of acapella vocals whose impenetrable lyrics serve to enhance the message of emotional confusion. In all the history of music, I have never heard a single song like this one. It simply has to be heard to be understood. [audio:http://peterambles.blog.com/files/2013/02/04-Knots.mp3|titles=04 Knots]The brief instrumental passages are masterful in their restraint, and devilish in their uncommon arrangement. The song creeps you out, confuses you, and makes you bang your head all at once. And the xylophone solo cooks. Who does a xylophone solo right before a heavy metal breakdown? Only Gentle Giant.
The only way to follow such an left field masterpiece is the side two opener "The Boys in the Band" The song begins with a burst of laughter, as if to say that the titular "boys" were just having a bit of fun on this track. However, Gentle Giant's idea of mucking around for fun on their instruments ends up being a song whose complexity is unmatched in the annals of rock and roll. Yes has done things this intricate, but never so memorably.
The album takes a much welcome step back at this point for the quiet, violin led "Dog's Life" a picturesque fairy-tale about man's best friend.
From there, the band moves into almost radio friendly ballad territory with "Think of Me with Kindness" The chord progression in this song could easily have made a hit for the likes of Billy Joel, and the sincere, heart-felt lyrics soar above driving piano and bass work. People who know me well have been very surprised that I count this among my favorite songs, being that I generally gravitate towards more aggressive or complex music. But this song takes the typical ballad and recreates it with such artistry that it becomes something totally different.
Album closer "The River" is nothing if not a jazz-rock masterpiece. (I realize that's the third time I've used that word in this article. I can't find another word that even comes close to describing these songs) It rocks and sways like a canoe on the rapids, with ballsy guitar work and ethereal jazz keyboards as it's oars. The guitar solo towards the middle could easily have been Pink Floyd in the Dark Side days. The longest song at nearly 6 minutes, this one never gets less interesting, even for a second. (6 minutes is positively short for prog rock. How this band was able to pack so much variety into so little time is dumbfounding)
I also have the pleasure of owning a DVD of a live performance by the band during this era. Every member, even the drummer, plays 3 or more instruments over the course of a 40 minute set, and each instrument seems like it's their primary one. Quite simply, Gentle Giant are virtuosos at everything, from instruments, to composition, to arrangement. And as insanely talented as they are, they never feel like they're showing off. The music never feels overwrought or flashy. It's just fun for the thinking man at a very high level of ability.
When one thinks of British progressive rock, probably the first two names to come up will be Yes and Genesis. Both are excellent examples of the genre, with nods to classical and jazz music, extended song cycle compositions, deft instrumentals, long solo passages for nearly every instrument, psychedelic, story-telling lyrics and cerebral, challenging, concept-oriented subject matter. But there is one band that very few living people still recall, their records buried in discount bins and their dynamic sonic prowess all but forgotten. I am talking about Gentle Giant, one of the most original and talented bands to emerge from England in the 1970's (and that's saying something. Lotta great stuff from that time and place)
It seems like it was an unspoken tradition of 70's prog that your fourth album had to be a self-styled masterpiece. Yes had Fragile, Genesis had Foxtrot, ELP had Brain Salad Surgery (if you don't count Pictures at an Exhibition, which I don't because it's a live album of the band covering a classical piece), and Gentle Giant had Octopus.
Octopus was the unquestioned pinnacle of their career. It consists, appropriately, of only 8 songs, each wildly different from the next. I came across this band and this album in my days with Soulseek, a now-defunct P2P file sharing program, and this album has endured as one of the staples of my listening rotation, even as the haze of marijuana has cleared from my mind since college. Each song could have been performed by a completely different band, and each could have been that band's magnum opus. For Gentle Giant, it was but a milestone on a career that contains no less than 8 albums of this quality (and 2 that are decidedly lower), however, Octopus remains the most immediate and accessible of these.
The album begins with "The Advent of Panurge" , a sort of sequel to a previous song "Pantagruel's Nativity". It is a subtly creepy song about a demon who bewitches the title character from the previous song, becoming his friend. It features dense, stunning keyboard and bass interplay underscoring the dynamic, operatic vocal.
The album then moves on to "Raconteur, Troubadour", a song that whimsically recalls medieval musicians with violins, asymmetrical drum work, and jazzy interludes that sounds like they're backing up a montage of travelers on horseback.
The band then brings out their classically informed take on muscular hard rock with the guitar-led "A Cry For Everyone" The guitar and keyboard attack of the main riff would have made Deep Purple proud, but Deep Purple could never have pulled off the busy solo interludes with such flair and subtlety.
Things rocket into the stratosphere, however, on the next track "Knots". The song centers on a dense, knotted interplay of acapella vocals whose impenetrable lyrics serve to enhance the message of emotional confusion. In all the history of music, I have never heard a single song like this one. It simply has to be heard to be understood. [audio:http://peterambles.blog.com/files/2013/02/04-Knots.mp3|titles=04 Knots]The brief instrumental passages are masterful in their restraint, and devilish in their uncommon arrangement. The song creeps you out, confuses you, and makes you bang your head all at once. And the xylophone solo cooks. Who does a xylophone solo right before a heavy metal breakdown? Only Gentle Giant.
The only way to follow such an left field masterpiece is the side two opener "The Boys in the Band" The song begins with a burst of laughter, as if to say that the titular "boys" were just having a bit of fun on this track. However, Gentle Giant's idea of mucking around for fun on their instruments ends up being a song whose complexity is unmatched in the annals of rock and roll. Yes has done things this intricate, but never so memorably.
The album takes a much welcome step back at this point for the quiet, violin led "Dog's Life" a picturesque fairy-tale about man's best friend.
From there, the band moves into almost radio friendly ballad territory with "Think of Me with Kindness" The chord progression in this song could easily have made a hit for the likes of Billy Joel, and the sincere, heart-felt lyrics soar above driving piano and bass work. People who know me well have been very surprised that I count this among my favorite songs, being that I generally gravitate towards more aggressive or complex music. But this song takes the typical ballad and recreates it with such artistry that it becomes something totally different.
Album closer "The River" is nothing if not a jazz-rock masterpiece. (I realize that's the third time I've used that word in this article. I can't find another word that even comes close to describing these songs) It rocks and sways like a canoe on the rapids, with ballsy guitar work and ethereal jazz keyboards as it's oars. The guitar solo towards the middle could easily have been Pink Floyd in the Dark Side days. The longest song at nearly 6 minutes, this one never gets less interesting, even for a second. (6 minutes is positively short for prog rock. How this band was able to pack so much variety into so little time is dumbfounding)
I also have the pleasure of owning a DVD of a live performance by the band during this era. Every member, even the drummer, plays 3 or more instruments over the course of a 40 minute set, and each instrument seems like it's their primary one. Quite simply, Gentle Giant are virtuosos at everything, from instruments, to composition, to arrangement. And as insanely talented as they are, they never feel like they're showing off. The music never feels overwrought or flashy. It's just fun for the thinking man at a very high level of ability.
Random Album Review: Quality Control by Jurassic 5
[Repost From Old Site]
I'm a white guy from the burbs. I was very unpopular throughout most of my schooling. Ergo, I am not as predisposed as many to identify with Hip-Hop as a musical genre. A lot of kids from my time and place were; jocks, mostly. But us rejects found ourselves identifying with stuff like punk, metal and limp-wristed indie rock.
Jurassic 5 is the group that turned it all around for me. This is the first Rap/Hip-Hop album that I ever truly fell in love with, and to this day it's one of the very few that I can actually sing along with.
The thing that initially attracted me to this band was the overall positive outlook of the lyrics, and the ensuing feeling of confidence-not cockiness-that the group projects.
Male bravado is an essential ingredient in a lot of Rap, but too often it takes the form of selfishness, pride and avarice. Though even this attitude can have a lot to offer, I found myself immediately in love with J5's swagger, because they never sound like they think they're better than you (except perhaps at basketball, see "Game") I heard "The Influence" on a compilation disc that came with an issue of some free music magazine I picked up at a record store (remember those?). The innovative DJ work of Nu Mark and Cut Chemist immediately set this song apart from the majority of Rap I had heard; the driving double kick drums and acapella loop give it an entirely different feel, not to mention the virtuoso ensemble rapping of the 4 singers. I had never heard anything like it, so I picked up the album.
"Quality Control" is overflowing with unconventional Hip-Hop that turns the norms of the genre upside down. Instead of greed and violence, one finds gratitude and humility ("Great Expectations"), woe for the urban male growing up under the influence of damaged idols ("Lausd") and unashamed, child-like fun (the brilliant DJ work on album-closer "Swing Set").
The six musicians of J5 (yep, six, not five) each have a unique point of view to contribute, and this, their first major label release, puts it all into sharp, harmonious focus.
A few years after hearing this album for the first time, I had the pleasure of seeing J5 live. It was the only Rap show I've ever been to (unless you count Ice Cube's spot on the inaugural Family Values Tour) and it was a unique experience that I will never forget. From the stunning performances of the songs I knew, to Nu Mark's incredible school desk beat-making set (literally banging out beats on a school desk borrowed from the local high school) to the avant-garde-ish performance the rappers gave using something that looked like a long spinning pool noodle (you know, the ones you used to float on as a kid?), the show was filled with memorable experiences.
And so is the album "Quality Control"
I'm a white guy from the burbs. I was very unpopular throughout most of my schooling. Ergo, I am not as predisposed as many to identify with Hip-Hop as a musical genre. A lot of kids from my time and place were; jocks, mostly. But us rejects found ourselves identifying with stuff like punk, metal and limp-wristed indie rock.
Jurassic 5 is the group that turned it all around for me. This is the first Rap/Hip-Hop album that I ever truly fell in love with, and to this day it's one of the very few that I can actually sing along with.
The thing that initially attracted me to this band was the overall positive outlook of the lyrics, and the ensuing feeling of confidence-not cockiness-that the group projects.
Male bravado is an essential ingredient in a lot of Rap, but too often it takes the form of selfishness, pride and avarice. Though even this attitude can have a lot to offer, I found myself immediately in love with J5's swagger, because they never sound like they think they're better than you (except perhaps at basketball, see "Game") I heard "The Influence" on a compilation disc that came with an issue of some free music magazine I picked up at a record store (remember those?). The innovative DJ work of Nu Mark and Cut Chemist immediately set this song apart from the majority of Rap I had heard; the driving double kick drums and acapella loop give it an entirely different feel, not to mention the virtuoso ensemble rapping of the 4 singers. I had never heard anything like it, so I picked up the album.
"Quality Control" is overflowing with unconventional Hip-Hop that turns the norms of the genre upside down. Instead of greed and violence, one finds gratitude and humility ("Great Expectations"), woe for the urban male growing up under the influence of damaged idols ("Lausd") and unashamed, child-like fun (the brilliant DJ work on album-closer "Swing Set").
The six musicians of J5 (yep, six, not five) each have a unique point of view to contribute, and this, their first major label release, puts it all into sharp, harmonious focus.
A few years after hearing this album for the first time, I had the pleasure of seeing J5 live. It was the only Rap show I've ever been to (unless you count Ice Cube's spot on the inaugural Family Values Tour) and it was a unique experience that I will never forget. From the stunning performances of the songs I knew, to Nu Mark's incredible school desk beat-making set (literally banging out beats on a school desk borrowed from the local high school) to the avant-garde-ish performance the rappers gave using something that looked like a long spinning pool noodle (you know, the ones you used to float on as a kid?), the show was filled with memorable experiences.
And so is the album "Quality Control"