Astounding Sounds - Amazing Music
Classic Rock Magazine / Classic Rock presents PROG issue 21 November 2011
FUTURE media - Future Publishing
SID-Code Presswerk: IFPI 9R30
SID-Code CD-Master: IFPI LK97
Zeiten: Software
Welcome to
Prognosis 2.1, your latest collection of musical treats, teasers and tasters designed to educate and titillate your senses. This issue's selection contains a solid offering from Opeth, quintessential Englishness with Warmrain and bonkers eclecticism from Jono El Grande. Add to this the sound of Touchstone coming of age, the impressionistic stylings of Trip Lava, Swan Sex's electronic musings and you already know you're in for a curious experience... But a good one. Essentially, this is everything you need to know about prog right now, with White Willow and Haken rubbing shoulders like they were meant to.
01 OPETH - The Devil's Orchard So, the celebrated Swedes continue to develop and grow. The band have left their more extreme metal roots in the past, but what they've accentuated here is a breathtaking panorama of sophistication, subtlety and simplicity.It's this balance that makes Opeth one of the great bands of this era.
Taken from:
Heritage on Roadrunner.
02 HAKEN - Insomnia On
Visions, their second alburn, this fast-rising young English band prove they're turning potential into reality. Haken's progressive metal approach has drawn comparisons to Dream Theater. As they show here, the band are also readily prepared to use intense melody where necessary.
Taken from:
Visions on Sensory.
03 WARMRAIN - Absent Friends A new English quartet, this is the title track of their debut record, and it deals with the pain of dealing with the loss of a loved one. The way it complements a hypnotic groove with the sensitivity of the subject matter shows the band's maturity and confidence.
Taken from: Absent Friends EP on Eastworld.
04 WHITE WILLOW - Floor 67 Norway's leading art rockers, White Willow play songs which have chiming guitars, Mellotrons, plus lyrics about sadness. This is a band more at home exploring musical shadow than bathing in the limelight. This song shows the way in which this band pursue perfection through virtuosity.
Taken from:
Terminal Twilight on Termo.
05 TOUCHSTONE - Throw them to the sky After spending a lot of time creating their own niche in the genre, Touchstone finally open up and take flight on current album
The City Sleeps. As this song underlines, the band now mix complex musicianship with lush vocals, sensitive tunefulness and great songwriting.
Taken from:
The City Sleeps on SPV/Steamhammer.
06 AIRBAG - Homesick (Part 1) A Norwegian Band who draw influences from a diverse selection of artists. If you listen to them there's a definite Floyd drive, but you can also detect Porcupine Tree and Roxy Music. And the band themselves cite Tears For Fears as a major inspiration ...
Taken from:
All Rights Removed on Karisma.
07 JONO EL GRANDE - Neo Dada Jone El Grande is at home playing the kazoo as a guitar and eccentricity has been showcased on four albums to date. As you can hear on this track, he does enjoy taking surprising leftfield turns. You'll hear jazz, disco, string sections and who knows what else.
Taken from:
Neo Dada on Rune Grammofon.
08 SWAN SEX - The First And Last In The music from this Swedish pair is predicated on an array of keyboard sounds, which give it an atmospheric overview. At times they hark back to the 70s, but have enough electronic creativity to develop something that belongs in the 21st century.
Taken from:
The First And Last In EP on Record Union.
09 THE MANTRA ATSMM - Blue Army A new band from Naples, this lot cite a number of interesting inspirations. These include Mogwai and Radiohead, as well as Genesis and jazz legend Charles Mingus. They bring all these together in a package that sounds surprisingly open, yet also disciplined.
Taken from:
Ghost Dance on Rare Noise.
10 MATT STEVENS - Nightbus A guitar virtuoso, Stevens has earnt a reputation for playing in a psych-folk style, yet also incorporating a more space rock idiom. What he does on current album
Relic, of which this is a fine example, is create a cinematic sweep with cunning guitar techniques as well as violin and a rhythm section.
Taken from:
Relic- self-released.
11 VOYAGER - Broken An Australian band with a decade-long history, Voyager started out as a melodic extreme metal band. Since then they've moved more into the area where Therion, Nightwish and the like reside. The band still have metal roots but now there's also a distinct progression in the music, as you can hear with this song.
Taken from:
The Meaning Of I on Sensory.
12 HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO - Ashes Just to show that Norwegian scene is thriving, here come Hedvig Mollestad Trio. They prove on debut album
Shoot! that they can combine heavy rock riffage with jazz inflections and progressive intentions on a series of instrumentals.
Taken from:
Shoot! on Rune Grammofon.
13 TRIP LAVA - March To Battle This is a one-man project started by Joel Lee in 2005. He claims influences such as Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Brian Eno and describes his music as, "Acoustic drums, electric guitar, bass and loops/drones improvising in a circular pattern." If it makes no sense, then you can hear what he means on this.
Taken from:
Octadroid on Shark.