Non-Classical Music Listening Thread!

[toledobass]

How was it?

Cool but strange,  kinda like without you knowing, someone went into photoshop and changed the color of the clothes your mom was wearing in an old family photo.  You know it so well but it's just slightly off, so it makes you look at it again.

Allan

[Kullervo]

Have you heard any of the unreleased My Squelchy Life songs? Someone put 'I Fall Up" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2s9PdEOues

Doesn't seem to be Eno at his best. I guess I can see why My Squelchy Life wasn't released.

Haven't heard that. Doesn't sound too great. The only '90s Eno albums I like are The Shutov Assembly and Spinner. After Thursday Afternoon he becomes extremely checkered for me. As for his earlier stuff... well, it should suffice to say I'm wearing a Here Come the Warm Jets t-shirt as I type this.

[George]

Cool but strange,  kinda like without you knowing, someone went into photoshop and changed the color of the clothes your mom was wearing in an old family photo.  You know it so well but it's just slightly off, so it makes you look at it again.

Allan

Me, I love it so much I can't even bother with the released version anymore. In fact, I didn't even get the appeal of this album until I heard the New York Sessions. 

[Kullervo]

[Lethevich]

Past week or two, progothon:

Hawkwind - Mountain Grill and Warrior o.t. Edge of Time. IMO this band seriously sucks, and can't even claim to be relevant or "new" anymore, so their half improvised scrappy songs do not stand up. Maybe good for background/mood music 3/10

Jethro Tull - Christmas Album. This one actually has short songs and is very accessable, possibly the best entry point to their output as it includes some re-recordings. Very strong overall 8/10

Green Carnation - Blessing in Disguise. Good (un-wanky) prog metal, but has some occasionally very lame lyrics which are prominent enough not to be ignorable. Has some very neat songs, though, and has a lot of rockish leanings 6/10.

Green Carnation - Light of Day. A 1 hour long song, these never manage to avoid becoming dull and neither does this. The saxophone section in the middle accompanied by wordless(?) singing from the female guest doesn't gel with the rest of the music, which is very heavy, and didn't have any traces of this style before the lengthy break featuring comes up. But jarring or not, it's quite well done. The metal parts are very neat, with the material stretched quite far but it is handled well. Very "massive" sound overall and pretty interesting if the repetitive nature can be tolerated 7.5/10

Gentle Giant - Octopus. The only "classic" prog rock band I can think of that didn't do long songs. They have a folkish sound a little like Jethro Tull, but take the upbeat sound further. They are relentlessly happy almost to the point of sounding psychotic - if I were an Iraqi terrorist being subjected to this 24/7 I would crack after a day. Very melodic and interesting, though, and with engaging and complex songwriting 8/10

Yes - Close to the Edge. I don't really like this band - this is the nearest I can come to enjoying them, but even this is excessive and emotionally uninteresting. It is admirable, but I am not sure how it can be loved 6.5/10

Devil Doll - The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms. Lunatic music IMO, in a good way. Like a lot of weirder prog rock, there isn't much guitar involved, and when a riff appears it is used to link sections together. The sprawling single track has an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach, utilising organ, accordion, cello, violin, piano (quite simplistically used, like the guitar riffs, with a lot of repetition to quite good effect), "choir", synths, etc, as well as numerous samples. It all ties together surprisingly well. The vocalist sings in sprechgesang, and adds yet another distinctive characteristic to the band's sound. He often sounds quite nuts The atmosphere is gothic horror quite common in goth rock and metal, but very rare in prog. A video can be found here - it's a section of the album of which TSOFA is a remake, which was a big improvement on the original IMO. 9.5/10

Van der Graaf Generator - Godbluff. Very good music in a beautifully organic and personal style. Long songs come to natural conclusions without either becoming tedious or reverting to episodic "sections" to pad out a song to deceptively "epic" proportions. A very recognisable sound and strong in every area 9/10

Univers Zero - Heresie. This is probably the closest prog comes to contemporary classical, and sometimes feels like it has fully crossed over (I don't say this lightly, as I don't have much respect for the "classical" ambitions of many pretentious pop groups). There is almost no guitar used, the lead instruments being oboe, violin and bassoon Pretty much the only noticeably "rock" thing about the band is the drumkit. The music is surprisingly coherent over the long song spans, and has a wonderfully strange sound. A song on YouTube can be found here. It's not from this album (their best), but the previous one this is included on is also very good. 9.5/10

[George]

[Kullervo]

Dinner listening: Roxy Music - Avalon

[Haffner]

More Michael Schenker please!

[Lethevich]

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness

Some more spiritually profound and socially relevant music.

Eating from a coffin
Eating from a grave
Eating from a coffin
Eating from a grave

FINALLY, a band I can relate to! The early 70s had The Who, I have Repugnant.

[Haffner]

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness

Some more spiritually profound and socially relevant music.

Eating from a coffin
Eating from a grave
Eating from a coffin
Eating from a grave

FINALLY, a band I can relate to! The early 70s had The Who, I have Repugnant.

Okay, I've read the reviews, but I want to ask you for more details please!

[Lethevich]

Okay, I've read the reviews, but I want to ask you for more details please!

It is extremely good, basically. It is one of a couple of bands from Sweden who are reviving unpretentious, solid dm. The formula is: short songs, short albums, slightly punkish with a good garage sound, but also clearly/competantly produced. They also stick lyrically to Morbid Angel/early Obituary formula. Repugnant is generally mid/high tempo with interesting vocals - very dry sounding and extremely easy to understand, which makes them a good singalong band. Similar bands in this vein are Necrovation (who have some slightly Slayerish riffs, albeit slowed down) and Verminous (two bands with this name, the one from Swe) who have some slightly bm influences and sound completely manic I could upload a sample track by each band if you like? Do you have a preference for host site?

[Haffner]

It is extremely good, basically. It is one of a couple of bands from Sweden who are reviving unpretentious, solid dm. The formula is: short songs, short albums, slightly punkish with a good garage sound, but also clearly/competantly produced. They also stick lyrically to Morbid Angel/early Obituary formula. Repugnant is generally mid/high tempo with interesting vocals - very dry sounding and extremely easy to understand, which makes them a good singalong band. Similar bands in this vein are Necrovation (who have some slightly Slayerish riffs, albeit slowed down) and Verminous (two bands with this name, the one from Swe) who have some slightly bm influences and sound completely manic I could upload a sample track by each band if you like? Do you have a preference for host site?

I would love to check them out. Necrovation...I've read about them somewhere as well. Rapids. and Megau. seem to work best for me.

THANKS!

[Lethevich]

http://rapidshare.com/files/143497247/dm.zip.html

[Solitary Wanderer]

Smoke on the Water ~ Deep Purple

We all came out to montreux
On the lake geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didnt have much time
Frank zappa and the mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

We ended up at the grand hotel
It was empty cold and bare
But with the rolling truck stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We make a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know well never forget
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

[Haffner]

http://rapidshare.com/files/143497247/dm.zip.html

Thank you! I have to let this absorb.

[karlhenning]

[. . .]

Jethro Tull - Christmas Album. This one actually has short songs and is very accessable, possibly the best entry point to their output as it includes some re-recordings. Very strong overall 8/10

[. . .]

On the Montreux 2003 DVD, Ian Anderson mentions the then-tobe-imminent release of the Christmas Album, and the band play an arrangement of Fauré which he says is included.

[Kullervo]

This perennial favorite:

[Haffner]

http://rapidshare.com/files/143497247/dm.zip.html

Hey! Verminous sounds a lot like Grotesque (US). Very cool. So now I'm spinning

[karlhenning]

Fie. Caught what looks like a labeling inconsistency.



On Thelonious Monk, Genius of Modern Music Vol. 2, track 7 is listed as "Nice Work If You Can Get It" (and maybe it is) . . . it has the sound of an alternate take of track 1, "Four in One," though.

[Kullervo]