The first time Rick has ever done an "unplugged" with a band. Also the first time ever Rick and his son Oliver have played in an entire concert together.   Judge Smith Orfeas: A Song Story Review by G. W. Hill While this album didn’t completely blow me away in terms of being something I’d listen to a lot, I was quite taken by the artistic nature of it. The term “rock opera” certainly applies, but this is even more theatrical than that. I love the story, what I can figure out of it, and its modernization of classic mythology. There are bits here that are purely theatrical and then other parts that rock. The truth is, though, those who like a continuing story with their music will love this. It’s really musical theater gone prog. It’s also very well done. Considering Smith was a founding member of Van der Graaf Generator, that kind of quality is to be expected, though. | ||||
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| Track by Track Review | ||||
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| The Bard - One This is a weird little old worlde section, like something you’d expect to hear at a renaissance faire. | ||||
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| Rundown Rudi After a stage introduction, the group launches out into something akin to serious 1970s hard rock sound. It works to more progressive territory as it drops back a bit. This instrumental works through a number of changes and feels a little like Pink Floyd at times. There’s a section later that feels a bit like Focus. | ||||
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| Soliloquy - One Bouncy and fun, this is very British and rather like English pop music that was common in the early part of the 20th century – you know, the kind of thing Queen often referenced in their music. | ||||
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| Seven Yard Promenade This is similar to “Rundown Rudi,” but has its own identity, too. It’s also an instrumental and runs through a number of shifts and changes. | ||||
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| Interview - One After a little radio jingle introducing the “show” we get classical instrumentation dancing around behind an “interview” that’s part of the show. | ||||
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| Orphic Lullaby This instrumental is rather Beatles-like, but the proggier side of The Beatles, think later period. It’s quite tasty. | ||||
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| Soliloquy - Two Bouncy little bits of music are the backdrop for a spoken bit. | ||||
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| Wolfman George Somehow this instrumental, while a lot like the others, feels a bit more playful and light-hearted. It’s got some smoking hot guitar soloing. There’s also an accordion solo. | ||||
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| Soliloquy - Three The music to this spoken section is much more progressive rock, being playful and fun at the beginning. Then, as the main character realizes his prize guitar (much of the interview discussed it) is missing, the music becomes frantic. | ||||
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| The Bard - Two Here we get another of the renaissance faire numbers. | ||||
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| Soliloquy - Four Some world music is built into this spoken piece. Still, it’s some of the most pure prog of the set. As it ends in the sound of a car crash, we realize that the main character’s day just keeps getting worse. | ||||
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| In-Flight Movie - One Delirium or crossing over to the afterlife make up this piece. It starts with very spacey music, but then works out to energetic electronic sounds. Then it turns out to dance club elements. | ||||
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| Orfeas and Eurydice – One Our hero seems to wind up in heaven, but it’s unclear if he’s supposed to be there. The music is very much old-fashioned theatrical textured sound. It gets more electronic as it continues. This is campy, but also fun in a real musical theater way. It’s basically a dialog delivered as a duet. | ||||
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| In-Flight Movie - Two This one feels more like traveling music. It’s bouncy and a little funky, but also very cool. | ||||
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| In Hell - One Less than half a minute in length, this is just a quick bit of female vocals over some music. | ||||
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| Carpet of Bones Dark and atmospheric, there are some seriously theatrical vocals. There are also bursts of metallic guitar. There are some later sections that really fit under the heading of “heavy metal” quite well. | ||||
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| In Hell – Two The story continues with this theatrical dialog bit. | ||||
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| In-Flight Movie - Three This is more traditional progressive rock in texture. It’s a cool bit. | ||||
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| Orfeas and Eurydice - Two We get more theatrical dialog over playful music. | ||||
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| The Crab Nebula More theatrical prog, the lyrics to this talk about a lot of famous musicians hanging out together in the after-life. | ||||
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| Orfeas and Eurydice - Three This is more theatrical dialog. | ||||
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| Orfeas' Audition Starting with some seriously hard rocking guitar, this instrumental is a killer progressive rock jam. It works through a number of changes and alterations and is just plain tasty. After some guitar soloing later, the bass leads into a section that is almost like surf music turned prog. It’s great. This might be the most effective piece of the whole thing. | ||||
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| Don't Look Back Here’s another that’s more like musical theater, but with some progressive rock added to the mix. | ||||
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| In-Flight Movie - Four We have another bit of traveling music here. It’s like electronica. | ||||
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| Interview - Two And, now we get another interview segment, starting with the same jingle. Like the previous one, classical strings swim in the background as the interview is conducted. | ||||
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| Fishin' in the Styx This proggy jam has some hip hop scratching in the mix, but is also quite fusion-like at times. It wanders out into some seriously soaring progressive rock later. | ||||
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| Soliloquy - Five Another spoken bit with some interesting guitar based music continues the story. | ||||
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| Don't Deafen Me, Persephone Here we get another jazzy tune. There is a rapper on this thing. There’s some extremely tasty guitar soloing on the cut. | ||||
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| The Bard - Three This bard bit is quite short and the guitar playing is in the mode of Spanish guitar. | ||||
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| Soliloquy - Six This spoken section comes with some harder rocking music mixed with Latin sounds. It’s interesting and short. | ||||
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| Catastrophe in Czecho Fast paced prog jamming with accordion makes up this one. | ||||
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| An Announcement This is just a spoken bit on stage. | ||||
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| Tear Him Asunder We get some seriously weird, thrashy metal for this cut. | ||||
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| The Bard – Four The final bard song closes things much the same way as it began. | ||||
Now, this picture arrived in my in-box the other day. It had the following caption: "Today, sports fans we catch up with Rob. He is working hard looking out for new deals and artists...."
Ray Bradbury, one of the most influential science fiction writers of the last century has died in California. Amongst other things he was the author of Fahrenheit 451, the novel which directly inspired the late Robert Calvert's book of poems Centigrade 232 and as that novel has been republishd by us and together with other stuff available from the Gonzo webshop. So, it seemes appropriate to ask our friend and colleague Richard Freeman to remember Bradbury's life for Gonzo Daily.
It is a real skill for a band to be able to continually evolve, while still retaining a recognisable signature sound that keeps fans coming back for more - accepting, and being enthused that their favourite band will never be exactly the same from album to album. This is a skill that not only do Galahad have in their armoury, it is something they've mastered and thrive because of. The band's last album, 2007's Empires Never Last was a perfect example, with the winding storytelling style for which Galahad have always been known, being beefed up by a harsher, heavier attack that added a forceful, threatening bite to the more intricate style of previous albums. Battle Scars, the first of two new offerings we can expect from Galahad this year (Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria is slated for release towards the end of 2012) follows along similar lines, while, as expected, expanding the range of colours from which Galahad have to choose. The five years between Empires and Battle Scars haven't all been plain sailing for Galahad, with the sad death of Neil Pepper coming at the end of the bassist's battle with cancer. Fittingly, not only does Pepper's bass playing feature throughout Battle Scars, but his fantastic songwriting is one of the key cogs that makes for Galahad's strongest album to date and the best CD I've plopped in the player so far this year. Sliding into view via a beautifully arranged classical/medieval/keyboard introduction, the album's title track is classic Galahad. Brooding, hook laden, threatening, playful and downright catchy, "Battle Scars" sums up exactly what makes this such a captivating album - the ability to wrap intricate, expansive music round punchy, unforgettable choruses. Singer Stuart Nicholson, immediately draws you in with a whispered beginning, before the keys weave their way towards a bristling riff that smacks you between the eyes, before the insistent chorus chant of the two words that make up the song and album title, transfix you, making you repeat the refrain over and over for weeks to come. Eerie, aggressive and memorable, it is a mighty introduction to the album. "Reach For The Sun" continues the vibe with expansive keyboards and towering drums, alongside staccato riffs and vocals, highlighting the stunning sound the album possesses, courtesy of the band, along with Threshold mainman Karl Groom. Cleverly "Singularity" calms what has been a frenetic, aggressive beginning to the album, with a Jarre like keyboard wash and an intentionally narrow sounding stab of guitars, bursting into full bloom as the song progresses. Already, by this stage it is obvious that, as ever, Galahad intend to challenge the listener to keep up, promising glorious rewards for those willing to invest their time in getting to know the music and involving, uncompromising lyrics. In fact the whole album feels thematically linked, both musically and conceptually, with a deep dark despair, being contradicted with an inner strength that always offers up glimpses of light through the, at times, weighty themes. A spiralling keyboard and busy drum beat offers up an almost dance-like feel to "Bitter And Twisted", although Nicholson's meandering vocals and the wonderful combination of Roy Keyworth's intricate guitar playing and Dean Baker's layers of keyboards actually makes this the song most reminiscent of Empires Never Last. Before the dense riff and layered vocals of "Suspended Animation" brings to mind latter day Rush. Pepper's bass comes right to the fore during this song, throbbing with intent alongside the ever busy drumming from Spencer Luckman. Another catchy chorus comes wrapped in a thoughtful challenging lyric, with "Beyond The Barbed Wire" conjuring up images of prison camps, oppression and closed confused minds, although again the excellent fret work rivals the amazingly varied vocals for supremacy. The album proper closes out with the contradiction of styles that is "Seize The Day", building like an atmospheric track from the catalogue of Fish, before an amazingly bright, yet deeply melancholic keyboard melody is coupled with a huge chorus and bouncing beat to make what in truth is prog-dance. As someone with no affiliation to the latter of those genres, take it from me that the results are nothing short of wonderfully and surprisingly uplifting! In a just world, this song would be not only a prog anthem, but a mainstream hit. As if those phenomenal seven tracks aren't enough, a fantastic, updated and extended version of the title track to the 1995 Galahad album Sleepers is added to Battle Scars as a bonus. As one of the most interesting songs from the band's catalogue, there was always a risk that revisiting such a strong song would prove unwise. Instead it again highlights just how stunning this disc sounds, with the expansive, explosive production, mixing and mastering making a great song even better. Put simply Battle Scars is a triumph. Bring on Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria!
Track Listing
01. Battle Scars
02. Reach For The Sun
03. Singularity
04. Bitter And Twisted
05. Suspended Animation
06. Beyond The Barbed Wire
07. Seize The Day
08. Sleepers 2012 (CD Version Bonus)
The other week I interviewed Jon Anderson, and we had quite a jolly chat for about twenty minutes. However, he is a fascinating fellow and I keep on thinking of more things that I wished I had asked him. I expect that I will catch up with him again at some point, but in the meantime I am posting links to other interviews with him as they come along...
I always think that it is an interesting exercise to post translations of foreign reviews of our various artists. However, with some - like this French review - I am not sure that the translation does it as much justice as we would have liked. I think, however, that he likes it.
Lee Wilkinson Multimedia/ Glass Onyon PR
Having racked up over four decades in the music business, Rick Wakeman’s resume illustrates at loud volume an impressive list of accomplishments. The former Yes keyboard maestro will jump back to recall the early part of the aughts with the release of a new archival live album.
Read on...
Check out Rick's artist page at Gonzo.
As regular readers may have gathered, I am more than slightly impressed with Indian Summer, the latest album by Auburn (fronted by the multi talented Liz Lenten). Well it seems that I am no longer a lone voice crying in the metaphorical wilderness (although North Devon can be quite wild), because every day I am receiving more positive reviews of the album.