unclechristo | Oct. 14th, 2008

Last night's jazz gig with Andy the Sax was quite lively. Big Neil was there with some friends for a mutual friend Jo's birthday. I kinda was a bit out of it hen I arrived but played my way into it. It's cool thr Dos H has it;s own electric piano and PA but it is a little hard work compared to mine.

I finished adding my stuff to the recordings I made with France the Harper. 32mins in the can - gotta go and make another 20mins or thereabouts before he comes up to record at the end of the month.

I;ve been setting up a new electronic download shop at iThink - starting with my electronic music.

Watched a light and silly DVD - Happy Go Lovely - 1951 David Niven, Cesar Romero. Not a bad script - dull dance numbers. Dated even when it came out - a quaint British film of the 50s.

...
I;ve been investigating the world of Prog Metal. The only straight Prog band that did it for me is The Flower Kings and I have all of their albums. But sometimes, like when driving, it's all too wiggly. Hence I was so blown away by Circus Maximus and their album Isolate - I keep playing it but they've only done 2 albums and I need more of the same - hence the hunt on myspace. What a huge other world it is. Feel like a teenager lurking on the nerdy review Prog Metal boards. My investigations led me to some conclusions as to my tastes in this kind of music.

1. if it's too heavy - I get bored
2. too many ballads and it sounds like a bad west-end musical
3. I have need for a certain amount of 80's cheesey rock - BIG choruses etc. But not too much.
5. I need synth to be in the mix. Just guitars is boring.
4. some progy bits but not too much. The big Prog bands - Yes, Genesis etc don't do anything for me.
5. everyone can play amazingly well - the key thing is the lead voice - a matter of taste but the vital factor
6. The big bands in this genre Dream Theatre, Symphony X etc don't do anything for me.
7. Generally American bands don't work for me - something about the style of vocal. UK bands do't seem to do it for me either. Scandinavian bands seem to average well. A slight accent helps for me perhaps.

Bands I have found out about and generally dug include
Riverside - Polish - not very proggy - a bit Hawkwindish - obsessed with flattened 2nd "arabic" riffs, unusual soft voice - nice overall sound despite being harmonically limited to mostly riff driven songs.
Seventh Wonder - Swedish - got the same neat combination for me as Circus Maximus - love the Mercy Falls song. Gonna get an album by them next.
Pagan's Mind - Norwegian -some nice stuff - similar - maybe a bit heavier - I sense their new album is not a good place to start. Not sure I like the singer as much as CM and SW.
Cloudscape - Swedish - a possible...some nice variety along the came lines. Again not as fond of the singer but OK.
Firewind - Greek - certainly ticks the 80s rock-cheesy bigtime - perhaps too much so. Not progy enough :-)

It;s been fun looking into a new genre from scratch , learning the conventions, getting used to the level of noise, the choppy riffs and the posing and the image thing. A bit like when I was getting into soul music a few years ago. I certainly admire the level of musicianship and writing and melodic tunesmithing in amongst the thrash and bombast. I kind of like also that it's all sounds a bit bats. :-)