Rusted Root - Woodstock '99

 Rusted Root - Woodstock '99 - Part 1

 

 Rusted Root - Woodstock '99 - Part 2

 

Rusted Root gave us "Send Me On My Way," one of the most joyful and uplifting songs of our time. It is the ideal musical accompaniment for a hopeful journey, and it relates to a theme of Rusted Root mainman Michael Glabicki's songwriting: the Earth.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Michael was a committed activist. He used the 1987 version of social media - infiltrating schools to speak out about the atrocities of US imperialism - to rally students for a trip to Nicaragua, where the American government was supporting the Contra rebels in a clandestine war. It was there where he made a connection to the Earth and developed the framework for political songs like "Ecstasy".
Michael sings and does most of the songwriting in Rusted Root, whose mainstays include percussionists Liz Berlin and Jim Donovan, and bass player Patrick Norman. They formed in 1990, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1992. That one held the original version of "Send Me On My Way," which was reworked for their second album, When I Woke, in 1994. This is the version that took off, earning the band spots on tours with Santana and the Dave Matthews Band.
In 2012, Rusted Root released The Movement, which puts their polyrhythms to songs about taking back a world that is becoming spiritually disconnected.

Carl Wiser (Songfacts): I talked to a woman who wrote with Earth, Wind & Fire, and she said that before she was allowed to go in the room and write with them, Maurice White made her read a book called The Greatest Salesman in the World, which outlined his spiritual beliefs. Is there anything like that that influences your songwriting?

Michael Glabicki: No. Not really. If there's anything close to it, it would be Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. That's a pretty solid book in my life. But nothing that influences the songwriting like you're describing that story to be. It's more about life and experience and sort of learning through the spiritual that way.

Songfacts: What's one of those life experiences that was a big influence on some of your songs?

Glabicki: Let's see. I would say it started early on. I had a car accident when I was two and a half. I was run over by a car. And that whole experience woke me up to a lot of outer guides and a whole sort of realization as to why I was here. But I think I came into the world with that, that kind of knowing. And it kind of set it in stone for me.

Songfacts: I'm surprised that you even remember something from being two and a half. That's remarkable.

Glabicki: Well, I remember mostly waking up from it and the feelings that occurred right after I woke up.

Songfacts: What religion were you raised in?

Glabicki: Catholic.

Songfacts: And then how did that transform once you had this accident and these things happened to you?

Glabicki: I never totally bought into the whole religion in church thing. I guess growing up I was very aloof and living more in those outer realms as opposed to in the very concrete world. And I think I just went through the religion growing up. We weren't too religious as a family. But I took little bits and pieces and just put it into my life experience what I felt I needed or wanted.

Songfacts: In a lot of your songs you sing very reverently about the earth, and the sun comes up a lot. Is that at all related to that accident you were describing when you were young and how that transformed you?

Glabicki: Yeah. I don't know if it was the accident or if I was just born that way. But I could always sense earth energy and either my connection to it or people's connection to it or lack of connection to it. And it always really affected me both negatively and positively. If things didn't make sense, I would be very troubled by it. So I would say it was more that I just came into this world with that awareness. Yeah.

Songfacts: Can you give me an example of where something like that shows up in some of your songs in either the lyrics or the music?

Glabicki: Let's see. I would say most of the early music had at least touches of it, if not overt drawings from it. "Martyr" was more from a trip that I took in Nicaragua and the earth energy down there. The people's connection to the earth was very strong, yet they were very challenged by poverty. And so a lot of the problems that were occurring down there were through poverty and people needing to use the earth to survive as opposed to being in harmony with it. I think that was part of the anger that I drew from for those songs. And also, the country that I came from had really started the wars down there, and it didn't make sense to me. So "Ecstasy" and "Martyr," in those songs it definitely comes in and plays a part.
"Back to the Earth," that was from a strong connection that I was having within the band that we would take a lot of trips out to the woods and just be very sensitive to the earth and the environment. We would really feel it out there. And through our very quietly spoken conversations that song came about. So a lot of the early stuff had veins of it running through it.  

From: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/michael-glabicki-of-rusted-root

 

The Who - Beat-Club - Tommy Special 1969

At long last, Tommy is with us. Pete Townshend‘s been talking about doing his opera for years. And now we have a double album set that’s probably the most important milestone in pop since Beatlemania. For the first time, a rock group has come up with a full-length cohesive work that could be compared to the classics.
The central character is Tommy himself. Born during the First World War, he becomes blind, deaf and dumb after seeing a murder by his parents in a mirror, becomes a pinball champion, reaches a state of grace, regains his senses and starts his own religion, is eventually discarded by his disciples somewhere in the far distant future, finds himself as isolated as he was in the beginning. The opera is, apart from being some of the best rock yet, a statement of Townshend’s philosophy. “It’s about life,” he says.
Pete has often spoken of his opera in the past. Pieces from a projected bigger work appeared on A Quick One and The Who Sell Out, but Tommy, which took two years to complete, owes little to these. The germ of the opera in fact came from a single, “Glow Girl,” which was never released.
“Glow Girl,” explains Pete, “led me to the idea of ‘It’s A Boy,’ ‘Mrs Walker’ (the first song on the album). But that would have been too blunt an opening, so I did the “Overture.” This clues you in to a lot of the themes and gives a continuity to the individual tracks – you think you’ve heard them before because they’ve been stated in the overture. It gives more of a flow and strengthens the whole thing.”
One of the central themes of Tommy is the play between self and illusory self. It’s expressed by Tommy (the real self) who can see nothing but his reflection (illusory self) in the mirror – “There had to be a loophole so I could show this. The boy has closed himself up completely as a result of the murder and his parents’ pressures, and the only thing he can see is his reflection in the mirror. This reflection – his illusory self – turns out to be his eventual salvation.
“In general terms, man is regarded as living in an unreal world of illusory values that he’s imposed on himself. He’s feeling his way by evolution back to God – realisation and the illusion is broken away, bit by bit. You need the illusions until you reach very pure saintly states. When you lose all contact with your illusory state, you become totally dead – but totally aware. You’ve died for the last time. You don’t incarnate again; you don’t do anything again – you just blend. It’s the realisation of what we all intellectually know – universal consciousness – but it’s no good to know until you can actually realise it.
“Tommy’s real self represents the aim – God – and the illusory self is the teacher; life, the way, the path and all this. The coming together of these are what make him aware. They make him see and hear and speak so he becomes a saint who everybody flocks to.
“The boy’s life starts to represent the whole nature of humanity – we all have this self-imposed deaf, dumb and blindness – but this isn’t something I’m over heavy on,” says Pete. “I’m more concerned about what actually happens in his life.”
Having lost most of his senses, Tommy feels everything simply as rhythms and vibration. Everything reaches him as music.
“He gets everything in a very pure, filtered, unadulterated, unfucked-up manner. Like when his uncle rapes him – he is incredibly elated, not disgusted, at being homosexually raped. He takes it as a move of total affection, not feeling the reasons why. Lust is a lower form of love, like atomic attraction is a lower form of love. He gets an incredible spiritual push from it where most people would get a spiritual retardment, constantly thinking about this terrible thing that’s happened to them.
“In Tommy’s mind, everything is incredible, meaningless beauty.”
The songs in the opera, then, have to convey an amazing amount. It’s possible that all that’s in Townshend’s mind won’t come across by simply sitting down and listening to the album. There’s too much, on too many levels, for a casual listener. But on the simplest level, the songs are magnificent, simply as rock.
“You see, each song has to capsule an event in the boy’s life, and also the feeling, what has ensued, and cover and knit-up all the possibilities in all the other fields of action that are suggested. All these things had to be tied up in advance and then referred back to. I can tell you it was quite difficult.”
Touch is the one sense that Tommy still has in the early part of the album. McLuhan says that touch is a combination of all the senses at once: “Yea, I read that. I went into McLuhan quite deeply once. For someone that can see, sight has an absurdly high percentage over the other senses in terms of mental concentration. But if you can’t see or hear, touch must come totally alive. The most excruciating thing known to man isn’t blazing light – it’s pain. The heights of pleasure are felt through touch – at least on a physical level – and the early part of the opera is on physical level.”
All but three of the songs were written by Pete – one by Keith Moon and two being by John Entwistle, “Fiddle About” and “Cousin Kevin.” Says Pete: “I didn’t want to do them. I didn’t think I could be cruel enough. They’re ruthlessly brilliant songs because they are just as cruel as people can be. I wanted to show that the boy was being dealt with very cruelly and it was because he was being dismissed as a freak.”
One of the lines is: “There’s a lot I can do with a freak.” Pete explains, “I would have avoided that, but it’s nice to have it in.”
This leads to the general subject of freakishness, and Tiny Tim is brought into the conversation: “Seeing through the shit to the talent is the answer. Practically every talented person spends most of his time hiding his talent – or freakiness. This fascinates me. Some hide it behind the aura of being a superstar in glittering show business. The reason is the remoteness it creates – the more remote they become, the more powerful they are as star figures. Rock is built on it. I mean, I speak to Mick Jagger on the telephone all the time, and I still can’t be normal with him – well, because he’s him.“
Does Townshend consider himself a freak? “I suppose so. I don’t know. I did very much so when we first started. But I don’t really want to talk about me and my freakiness.”
A recurring theme in Tommy is the boy’s repeated outburst: “Feel me, touch me.”
“We can’t play it on stage for laughing now, but when I first wrote it, it brought tears to my eyes. It’s meant to be extremely serious and plaintive; but words fail so miserably to represent emotions unless you skirt around the outside, and I didn’t do it enough there. You can circumscribe an emotion with a lyric – by telling of an event and leaving out one important chunk – and that can contain an emotion and put it across. This one fails because it actually comes out and says it. But there’s so much circumscribing in Tommy that I wanted to get to the crunch a number of times.”  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/townshend-on-tommy-behind-the-whos-rock-opera-99396/

 

The Clancy Brothers - The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone - Full album

01 - Bold O'Donahue
02 - I'll Tell my Ma
03 - Will ye Go, Lassie Go
04 - Rothsea-O
05 - Marie's Wedding
06 - Singin' Bird
07 - Holy Ground
08 - South Australia
09 - As I Roved Out
10 - McPherson's Lament
11 - The Wild Colonial Boy
12 - Shoals of Herring
13 - I Know Who is Sick
14 - Old Woman from Wexford

The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone is a collection of mostly traditional Irish folk songs performed by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. It also includes several songs from other countries, such as the Scottish folk song, "Marie's Wedding". It was their third album for Columbia Records and was released in 1962. It was also their first studio album for the label. Its title is taken from the song, "I'll Tell My Ma". The original LP featured liner notes by Tom Clancy.
A review in Variety praised the group's "bounce and drive" and the "listening excitement" that they created on the album. The article suggested that The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone had enough novelty and variety to provide folk music fans with something different.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_Won%27t_Leave_the_Girls_Alone 

Floating Nest - Circus

Floating Nest is a relatively new band, and their debut album is Blow Off Steam, which unsurprisingly they do very well. The four band members are mostly Spanish, with one German in the group, but they were founded in Sweden in 2019 by Sara Gaspar (vocals, compositions) and Victor Conde (drums, compositions); other members are guitarist Quique Villalba and bassist Matthias Rauch. Let me just say in beginning that their music and presentation is just as wild, raw, and epic as the cover art on the album, unpredictable and structurally unconventional, their sound seems to bridge the gaps between metal, progressive rock, and experimental, with Conde and Rauch driving a heavy and busy rhythm section, while Gaspar’s voice is powerful, theatrical, and aggressive; the lyrics are in English, and there is a male voice that accompanies Gaspar on tracks like “Circus” and “Stasis,” and others, but no clues are given as to who that voice might belong to (although photos on the band’s website show a mic stand in front of Rauch). Villalba is an adept and versatile guitarist, supplying some aggressive rhythms and masterful solos, as well as some unconventional effects that take the place of the missing keyboards as on the dramatic opening to “Re-Connection” or on the set closer “Absolute Zero.” If they slow things down, it’s usually not long before everything revs up again, like on the beautifully psychedelic “Selfdeception” or “The Clock,” the latter almost flying into space-rock territory. This album is so intense on all levels that it’s almost scary — every member is firing on all cylinders. With this kind of opening salvo, it will be interesting where Floating Nest goes next; meanwhile, Blow Off Steam should satisfy those listeners who like powerful female-fronted progressive rock informed by metal that’s always teetering on the edge out of control.  From: http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/floating-nest-blow-off-steam-3.html 

Chercán - La Culpa

From the serpentine beauty of Chile comes this impressive sonic surprise, already gathering rave reviews from the global prog community (which seemingly enjoys sharing the latest buzz) and surely destined to a most successful future. Why, may you ask? At first listen, this veteran prog musicologist rarely gets to sit back in amazement and wonder in silence at first and later out loud, what the hell is this? I am never prone to cussing or even occasionally shaking my head in bewilderment, but Chercan has certainly qualified to bowl me over! Led by a merciless drummer /percussionist in Rodrigo Gonzalez Mera and a robust bass guitar held by Simon Catalan, while top- notch guitarist Roberto Faundez (My nickname would be 'Frippo') and Matias Bahamondes wielding a wonderfully neurotic saxophone, both add all the fiery molten lava soloing one could dream of in the best of nightmares. Vocalist Martin Pena sings like a man possessed and provides added guitar mania. Guests include a string trio.
Exploding like the Chaiten volcano in the Southern Andes, "La Culpa" is a monstrous slap in the face, a hysterically magnificent torrent of Magma-esque fury (not necessarily the band but the molten fire) that settles into sudden introspection, where the fervent glow of Martin's voice soothes the scalding pyre of sound. But it's only a brief reprieve, as the bulldozer guitar barrage reignites into turbo charged vehemence. It's entirely the band's fault, tectonic and strategic as they are wanting to disturb, shock and perhaps even provoke. Martin screams as if the devil was chasing his tail.
Will our chilenos quiet down now, well it's hard to predict, as the speed at which they shuffle from vigor to smoothness on "Caen Las Hojas Blancas" is unpredictably dizzying, 'Frippo' Faundez manhandles his fretboard with impunity verging on hysteria, as if barking at Matias's brass reptile. Hints of experimental (mostly mental) King Crimson definitely come to mind, the Mel Collins-era in particular, the saxophone utterly devastating! I need to check my heart rate as I feel like a F1 engine overheating. Perhaps a week's rest in Vina del Mar might help. "Kalimba" kindly keeps the pace a tad more sedate but only a tease, for as soon as that nasty twitching guitar starts throttling up, the tempo increases once again, egged on by Martin's pleading vocals that exude pain, suffering and revolt. "Desolacion" is where the string trio settles the sorrow factor with a serene moment of reflection on the previous devastation.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=90724

Transister - Look Who's Perfect Now

Transister was a British-American alternative rock band formed in late 1995 in Los Angeles. Despite only having released one album to moderate sales, their work has been featured on a number of film soundtracks. The band was fronted by Keely Hawkes, the sister of English musician Chesney Hawkes and daughter of Len 'Chip' Hawkes, a member of the English beat group the Tremeloes.
Transister's formation was the culmination of various collaborations between songwriter Eric Pressly, former Danny Wilson frontman Gary Clark, and vocalist Keely Hawkes. Hawkes first made use of Pressly's songwriting on her 1993 solo debut for EMI, while Pressly and Clark first worked together in the band King L, releasing the album Great Day for Gravity in 1995. The three were encouraged by the results of their early songwriting attempts, and decided to release a six-song EP on their record label.
Transister began to attract major label attention after KCRW DJ Christopher Douridas played a few of the self-recorded tracks on Morning Becomes Eclectic in early 1996. Interscope Records released Transister's self-titled debut in the US in 1997; UK and international distribution was handled by Virgin Records. Tracks from the album were featured on a number of film soundtracks, including Nightwatch (1997), Wild Things (1998), Jawbreaker (1999), Never Been Kissed (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000) and Cheaters (2000). Although members of the band have since gone on to other projects, Hawkes and Pressly maintained a relationship and were married on January 8, 2005.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transister

Shred Kelly - Archipelago

British Columbia five-piece Shred Kelly are releasing their newest record this Friday.  Archipelago is out on 19 October via German record label DevilDuck Records and is all the modern folk goodness you need to make your day better.
The collaborative songwriting of Tim Newton, Sage McBride, Jordan Vlasschaert and Ty West pulled inspiration through individual experiences and musical influences. The result is a dynamic and cohesive collection of dreamy, yet explosively exciting songs dipped in themes of relationships and the world in the modern age. Using traditional instrumentation at the base of the songwriting, the album explodes into a symphony of sounds incorporating banjos, ukuleles, synthesizers, guitar hooks, harmonies and pulsing beats.
Kicking off with the record’s title track, Archipelago gives you that modern folk feel while still being mainstream friendly and avoiding the Mumford-&-Sons-esque pretentiousness (no offense to M&S, by the way). Archipelago feels real and honest with hints of banjos but mainly lots of clean drums, feather-like vocals and killer melodies.  From: https://highfivesnstagedives.com/2018/10/18/album-review-shred-kelly-archipelago/

Sky Picnic - Hide & Seek

Sky Picnic is a psychedelic rock band from Brooklyn/New York that surrounds the listener in a mystical and fairy tale like world of psychedelia, taking you to the edge of the universe and the unknown regions of the mind. They have been described as 'dark and eerie layered psychedelia' and 'highly textured psychedelic space-rock', while drawing comparisons to styles as diverse as Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and early Slowdive.
Their live performances each stand out as a one-of-a-kind musical trip that blurs the lines between music and art, with experimental instrumental breaks full of feedback, echoes and endless exploratory possibilities. The band was founded by Chris Sherman (lead guitar, vocals) and Leah Cinnamon (bass, vocals) in 2007 and by December 2008, they self-released their debut EP, entitled 'Synesthesia', which received national radio play. A pair of digital-only singles followed, 2009's 'Hide & Seek' and 2010's 'Lost Is Found'.
With the new decade comes Sky Picnic's first full-length, 'Farther In This Fairy Tale'. Featuring drummer Pete Meriwether it resurrects the lost art of the concept album, telling the tale of a loss of innocence and an introspective journey through life. The story starts off with the single 'Hide and Seek', which recalls the joys of childhood and the innocence of a bygone era, while the LP's centerpiece is the 11 minute epic 'The Universal Mind Decoder'. This is the band's first release for independent label Nasoni Records of Germany.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6688

Jethro Tull - Mother Goose / Singing All Day / Just Trying To Be / Life Is A Long Song

Jethro Tull usually performs “Mother Goose” and “Cheap Day Return” in sequence live in concert as it was on the album. Both songs were frequently part of their setlist over the decades. As Ian Anderson told The Telegraph in 2021, even he doesn’t remember where he got the idea for a few names he mentions, like for example “Johnny Scarecrow”.
“Mother Goose was really predicated on some of those summer walks around Hampstead Heath. (Which is) a public park around north of London where in the summer you’d find all kinds of people from the dying days of the hippie times through to those just out exercising, having a good time.”
“People would kind of dress up and be endowed with the blessings of the summer sun. I remember it as being a pageantry of color, people were wearing lots of colorful clothes. It is indeed a kind of slightly surreal but interesting pastiche of topics. People probably scratched their heads listening to it, thinking, who is Johnny Scarecrow? Why is he doing his rounds? For the life of me I can’t remember,” Ian Anderson said.
The track is pointed as one of the first ones written for the groundbreaking album “Aqualung”. Besides singing, Anderson also played the flute, acoustic guitar and percussion. Also were part of the recording Martin Barre (Percussion, acoustic and electric rhythm guitar), Jeffrey Hammond (Alto recorder, backing vocals), Clive Bunker (Percussion) and John Evan (Mellotron).  From: https://rockandrollgarage.com/the-meaning-of-the-jethro-tull-song-mother-goose/

Asynje - Natten Ryster

First of all: your name means something, can you explain it to our readers and also enlighten us and tell us why you called the band like this?

Asynje: In our music we want to explore the beautiful and dramatic Nordic nature and we want to tell some new and old legends of the North. In Norse mythology the female gods are called: Asynje’s. So we thought Asynje would be a great band name for us, because it contains both the beauty, the drama, longing, love, and the joy of dancing and partying and having a good time together. Our singer is Called Nanna. And there is also a female god in Norwegan mythology, an Asynje, who is called “Nanna”.

So far you haven’t found a record company yet, is it hard? Maybe you should try ‘I love you records’ from Latvia or ‘Prikosnovénie’?

Asynje: We have decided to make our own record label. But we are very open if there comes some good offers.

Can we compare your music with Dead Can Dance and Louisa John Krol? what other bands are influencing you?

Asynje: We think both Dead Can Dance and Louisa John Krol are great, so it's an honor to be compared with them. We are inspirered by many different artists and very different kind of art, also Nordic nature and culture
plays a major role in Asynje's music.

You are from Denmark. How hard is it to come together and work something out during the cold winter days (reaching minus 20 degrees Celcius)?

Asynje: Well, it’s very seldom minus 20 here in Denmark at the moment (5th. Jan.) there is plus 5 degrees.
The winter-days are a good time for recording, practice and planning. It is also a great time to play concerts at venues, and discover other bands and find new music. We also use wintertime to compose our own music and write lyrics.

What are the lyrics of this song ‘Njord og Skade’? Seems to be a heavy story?

Asynje: The Song »Njord Og Skade« comes from the Poetic Edda, and we have worked with creating a musical landscape surrounding the tale: The hunting Goddess “Skade” Marries “Njord” - God of the sea. The couple wants to remain in each of their kingdoms. But they agreed to live together alternating nine nights in the mountains and nine nights by the sea. The lyrics are a small part of the legend of “Njord and Skade”


Can you tell us something more about the Danish scene or should I see it bigger and call it the Skandinavian scene?

Asynje: In Skandinavia Asynje is in the Category as Gjallerhorn, Garmarna, Hedningarna, Valravn, Sorten Muld. The Scene in Denmark is very small for this kind of music compared to e.g. Germany. But interest is growing. And as soon as there come some organizers who dare to invest and make a big and great fantasy festival here, then I think there will come a lot of audience.

What are the things you would like to visit or the people you would like to meet at the happening of this year?

Asynje: We are looking forward to play at the trolls & legendes which is our first time…and we yearn to play at Castle Fest again which is one of our favorite festivals...And we also have a lot of wishes and secrets for this year which we will inform you on later…
 
I’m just back from Talinn (Estonia), where you have the Olde Hansa and was very impressed, do you know it and would you be interested in playing there? I have been there to a place where you can have a dinner and bear based on the real medieval menu.

Asynje: Yes, that sounds interesting, let us know if you have any connections:-)

What are the future plans for the band (recording something, more touring...)?

Asynje: We are planning to record a new CD and hope it will be released this summer. And we are going to play some nice concerts. 

If you had a chance to interview another band playing on this happening, who would it be and what would be the question to ask?

Asynje: We think all the bands at the trolls & legendes looks exciting and we are looking forward to see and hear them. So if we had the possibility then we would like to interview them all. And ask some of the same good questions you have been asking us.

From: https://www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be/en/interviews/asynje/ 

Loggins & Messina - Angry Eyes / Good Friend / Be Free

Loggins & Messina evolved from what was supposed to be a solo project of Loggins’ with Messina producing into a full-fledged duo that became one of the best-selling American acts of the 1970s. One of their biggest songs, and one that was a hit with both pop music listeners and fans of jazzy instrumental music, was their co-write “Angry Eyes.” 
A song being sung to a lover or a friend about some type of disagreement or betrayal, this is one of those songs that has several misunderstood words on internet lyric sites. The words “false disguise,” for instance, are sometimes printed as “foster skies,” and when Loggins sings “staring out at me” in verse one, the writers of some sites have heard it as “staring down at me,” leading them to believe that Loggins is singing to God, which is probably not correct. And numerous YouTube videos of the song include the lyrics to a completely different song in the right-hand column. 
The song’s original studio 1972 version on their album Loggins & Messina featured sax and flute solos, Loggins and Messina swapping vocal lines, and a long guitar performance from Messina. That guitar solo was later performed as an even lengthier version on their live album On Stage, back in the days when FM radio played longer tracks. On the website thecollegecrowddigsme.com, Jim Messina spoke with interviewer Casey Chambers about how the song came to be.
“Well that song interestingly enough began when I was working on a movie score with a friend of mine, Murray MacLeod and [actor] Stuart Margolin … there was a scene in the movie where the bad guys were coming into town and we needed something that was just gonna feel ominous. And angry. So I had this guitar lick. I said, ‘Well, how about this one?’ And they went, ‘Oh yeah, that’s perfect!’ So we recorded a few pieces for the movie.”
“And then later, I was working on that lick and modifying it a bit for what I thought would be better for a song. And I had the song almost finished. I remember, in those days my attorney said, ‘Ya know, you’re always best to have your partners work with you on stuff. It keeps everybody working together and focused, and when you make money, we all make money.’ … So, I brought Kenny in on the project and asked if he’d help me finish writing the song. And he did. And it did eventually end up becoming a Loggins & Messina song. But that lick started out as a music cue for a movie.”  From: https://americansongwriter.com/angry-eyes-loggins-messina-behind-the-song/

Fairport Convention - Fotheringay / She Moves Through The Fair / Genesis Hall / Autopsy

On its July 1969 release, Unhalfbricking, the third album from British folk-rockers Fairport Convention, should have been a cause for celebration. It was the sound of a band approaching a creative peak while finding their identity; a daring set that drew upon traditional English folk and US rock to create something new. It represented a giant step forward for songwriters Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson and saw the band welcome folk violinist Dave Swarbrick into the fold.
But two months before its release, tragedy struck. In the early hours of May 12, 1969, the band were driving back to London after a gig at Mothers in Birmingham when roadie Harvey Bramham fell asleep at the wheel. Thompson, who was sat next to the driver, noticed the van was careering towards a motorway pole and grabbed the wheel. “Harvey woke up and tried to correct the steering, but it was too late,” 
All of the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle, except for guitarist Simon Nicol, who had been suffering from a migraine and was stretched out on the floor. Martin Lamble, the 19-year-old drummer whose fluid, jazzy playing set Fairport apart from the folk crowd, and Jeannie Franklyn, a fashion designer whom Thompson had recently begun dating, suffered fatal injuries. Thompson, bassist Ashley Hutchings, Braham, and Nicol were all injured. Vocalist Sandy Denny was traveling in another van, but was understandably traumatized by the event. At a point where Fairport should have been on the verge of a great breakthrough, they seemed broken beyond repair.
Only a few months earlier, Fairport began recording Unhalfbricking with a sense of keen purpose, with Denny’s traditional folk background ever more influential. “Fairport now seemed to be on a path,” Thompson reflected in Beeswing. “Even if we could not truly articulate our destiny, the ingredients were there – playing some traditional British songs and writing our own material in a British style. All we lacked was a mission statement.”
Their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, was released in January 1969 and, keen not to lose momentum, they convened in Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea, London, that same month. The first song recorded for Unhalfbricking was “Percy’s Song,” written by Bob Dylan for his 1963 album The Times They Are A-Changin’, but unreleased at this point.
“Dylan seemed to survive our purge of all things American,” Thompson later reflected. “Perhaps because his influences were so close to England, Ireland, and Scotland.” Fairport’s take on “Percy’s Song” gives Dylan’s poetic epic new life thanks to Denny’s emotive vocals, stirring harmonies from vocalist Ian Anderson and a hypnotic arrangement. Still, it was the last to be recorded with Anderson, as both parties felt that Fairport’s shift towards folkier pastures left the Americana-loving singer musically stranded.
After Anderson’s departure, and with every band member on the same page, Fairport got the mission statement that Thompson had been searching for. Sandy Denny had learnt the 18th century folk song “A Sailor’s Life” during her time playing the folk circuit as a solo act and played it to her bandmates backstage at a show at Southampton University in January ’69. As Denny sang the tragic tale of a young woman taking to the high seas in search of her missing lover, only to find that he is feared drowned and, struck by grief, wrecking her own boat on the rocks, the rest of the band joined in. Pleased with the results, they played it that night and weeks later were recording it at Olympic Studios, Barnes, London.
The band invited Dave Swarbrick to play on the session, reasoning that the violinist’s knowledge of traditional music would add a counterpoint to the drone-heavy, free-form arrangement. It was the first time that Swarbrick had used an electric pick-up and there was little discussion beforehand about the direction of the song. When interviewed for I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn, Mick Houghton’s biography of Sandy Denny, engineer John Wood remembered, “Richard and Sandy came in and said, ‘We really think we can only do this once.’ It was done in the old Olympic 1, a big room. We put Sandy in a vocal booth (she had an awful cold that day too) and everybody else in a big semicircle… it was very open and that was it, one take, done. No overdubs.”
The recording turned the English folk world on its head – a thrilling and convention-defying version of the song that truly took flight when Thompson and Swarbrick started trading solos. “Swarb and I were feeling each other out,” Thompson later said. “I would play a phrase and then he would play one back, as though we were having a conversation that increased in familiarity and intensity over five or six minutes.” It was a lightning in a bottle moment that changed everything for Fairport, showing they could apply the freedom of jazz and experimental music to traditional songs while using textures and tones from Indian folk music. This was an invigorating approach to folk, making it feel current, rather than the stuffy and po-faced reputation that preceded it.
Denny’s original material was just as impressive, though she wasn’t always forthcoming with her material. “You had to prise the songs out of her,” Nicol has since said. “Sandy was always reticent about us hearing them.” The supple, jazz-inspired “Autopsy” shows how versatile Fairport had become, shifting between time signatures with ease as Denny’s vocals glide above.
Unhalfbricking also featured perhaps Denny’s greatest song, the ageless “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” Considering both the quality of the song and its preoccupation with aging, it’s staggering to learn that it was the second song Denny ever wrote – she’d demoed it back in 1966 aged just 19 and eventually recorded in ’68 with her pre-Fairport band The Strawbs. Judy Collins recorded it in August 1968 as the B-side of her US Top 10 version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”. “I don’t have any way to say why it’s such a great song,” Collins said in I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn. “That’s a secret that can never be revealed by me or anybody else. It’s a mystical question. Sandy’s lyrics had overtones of that Celtic folk tradition, the clarity and beauty of the story. She transcended folk in the way she sang and in the songs she wrote.”
Meanwhile, Thompson’s stately opener “Genesis Hall” and the zydeco knockabout “Cajun Woman” were evidence of his growing abilities as a writer and the band’s anything-goes approach. As were another couple of covers of then-unreleased Dylan songs – “Si Tu Dois Partir” (his 1965 track “If You Gotta Go, Go Now”, sung in French because why not?) and “Million Dollar Bash,” one of the songs Dylan and The Band had cooked up in Woodstock in the summer of 1967 that eventually became part of The Basement Tapes.
The album’s unusual title came from Denny, as Nicol remembered in an August 1969 interview with Record Mirror, “Sometimes when we get stuck in the van without petrol, we have to play games to pass the time. On this occasion, we were taking turns inventing words. Sandy came up with this one and we all remembered it because it was so strange.”
Unhalfbricking’s cover was similarly unforgettable – an image of Denny’s parents stood in front of a country garden, complete with church in the background. But the quintessentially English photograph is disrupted somewhat by the long-haired and fashionably dressed band in the background. The shoot took place outside 9B Arthur Road, Denny’s parents’ rented second floor flat in Wimbledon, south-west London – they had to ask their landlord permission to use the garden. “It was spontaneous and they were really accommodating,” Hutchings recalled. “Her mother cooked us dinner and we all sat round the table in their kitchen, which is the back cover image. It had no significance, the photo wasn’t meant to be a statement about anything, however much people tried to read something into it.”  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/fairport-convention-unhalfbricking-feature/

Neil's Children - At A Gentle Pace

Having relocated to Toulouse, France from the less sunny climes of Harlow, Essex and now a trimmed down two-piece (mostly) studio project, Neils Children continue their odyssey through Euro-inspired psychedelia. Originating from the same Southend scene and The Junk Club that hatched The Horrors, Neils Children evolved out of a mod- influenced traditional band to become the trippy, pastoral explorers that this new album heralds. Their previously guitar-led sound hasn’t quite been discarded; simply, they’ve added Mellotron, Hammond organ, studio loops and all manner of other sounds and trickery to mind-bending, lysergic effect.
John Linger on vocals and guitar writes most of the material. Brandon Jacobs plays drums and together they’ve created an album that is one of those rare things in these disposable days; a grower. On first listening, Dimly Lit is a lilting, bittersweet piece of very English whimsy. On repeated plays, it’s clear that the depth and gravitas inherent in the songwriting is quite something else.
Opener At A Gentle Pace is very much indicative of what’s to come; Linger’s languid vocals atop a beautifully textured and played, multitracked dreamscape with Jacob’s loping rhythm driving along. Linger’s vocals are very much an acquired taste; on early hearing he sounds that little bit “off” but they very quickly become part of the experience, hypnotic, dreamy and absolutely right.
I was reminded a little of that other south coast enigma, Electric Soft Parade who travelled a similar route through pop/psych via indie rock and beyond. The quality of songwriting is of the same high standard and the ever-so-slightly druggy vibe is never far away. There’s an element of rapier-sharp pop smarts too; title track Dimly Lit takes up residence in the brain quickly and refuses to leave.
Citing influences such as Stereolab and Silver Apples, Neils Children are way beyond the standard lumpen hoards of dull indie-rockers. This is music for dark, desperate nights as well as sun-kissed summer days. Taking the template from the lava lamp-lit bedsits of 60’s Cambridge, the Euro-torch of Francois Hardy and the post-punk neurosis of early eighties Britain, Neils Children are that rare thing; a band that’s difficult to pigeonhole.  From: https://louderthanwar.com/neils-children-dimly-lit-album-review-2/

Grey Eye Glances - If I Was

The fact that this CD was even released shows Grey Eye Glances' relentless drive and energy. They started their professional musical careers with their own self-released CDs, recording under the name Sojourn. Later, they had to change their name; their final choice, Grey Eye Glances, is derived from an Edgar Allan Poe poem. A major label signed them; they released two discs with them, but wound up having to raise the funds to buy back their own material. Fans came to their aid, and later, fans also assisted them so that they could release new material once again, this time on an independent label.
You might think that their music would suffer from all of these upheavals. But perhaps the turmoil only added to their need to write and record music, for A Little Voodoo sees them in fine form. Two new permanent band members, guitarist/vocalist Brett Kull and drummer Paul Ramsey, join original members Dwayne Keith (keyboards and vocals), Eric O'Dell (bass and vocals) and Jennifer Noble (lead vocals).
Noble herself is in good voice on this album. There's always been a Sarah McLachlan-type quality to her vocals, but the opening track, "Close Your Eyes," really brings out that quality. By no means is she derivative of McLachlan, but there's a certain feel to her vocal twists that brings the Canadian singer to mind. In general, Noble sounds both completely natural and seductive on "Close Your Eyes," and she adds to that sound on "If I Was," the third track, a sexy-sounding rock number in itself.
A lot of the songs on this do seem more rock-driven than previous tryouts. This Philadelphia-area based group always had a folk-rock feel. While the folk feel hasn't disappeared, there definitely is more of a rockier edge to this new album. Luckily, however, the contemplative lyrics and music remain, regardless of acoustic or electrical instruments. "The One," "Keep On" and "He and She" may appeal to AAA-style radio station formats; they're more rock-oriented overall, but they retain the Grey Eye Glances stamp. Long-time fans might need to give the album a couple of listens in order to appreciate the band's current direction; but no matter which member of the group has worked on the music, they generally write thoughtful lyrics to match intelligent-sounding, yet catchy melodies. There's something to be said about a band that knows its sound that well yet is able to make slight changes in order to evolve.  From: https://www.rambles.net/geg_lilvoodoo02.html

Lighthouse - What Gives You The Right / You And Me / I Just Wanna Be Your Friend

"Thoughts of moving on" was the first album I bought by Lighthouse, way back in the early 1970's. It quickly became a personal favourite, the strong harmonies and exciting use of a full brass section of this Canadian outfit offering a unique alternative to the music then being made by British bands. The album neatly spits in two halves, with side one generally containing the upbeat numbers, and side two the ballads and powerful slower songs.
The opening "Take it slow" was released as a reasonably successful single in the US and Canada, the strong hook making it the obvious choice. "Fly my aeroplane", "Rockin' chair" and "What gives you the right" continue the upbeat radio friendly pop rock sound the band had adopted for the previous album ("One fine morning"). "I just wanna be your friend" was also released as a single, the Three Dog Night like harmonic arrangement making for an instantly appealing, if largely unchallenging song.
"Walk me down" sees the pace drop for this delicate ballad with lush mellotron orchestration. The late Bob McBride's vocal here is one of the finest he recorded during his time with the band. The track sets the mood for much of the second side, which has the longer, generally slower songs. "You and me" is another reflective ballad with good keyboard work and a CSNY sound. The track plays out with some nice flute.
If side was primarily upbeat, with one ballad, side two's softer atmosphere is interrupted by the Russ Ballard like "Insane". "I'd be so happy" is a wonderful power ballad which the aforementioned Three Dog Night truncated and included on their "Hard Labor" album. The strong song writing here is complemented by a superb arrangement. The album closes with "I'm gonna try to make it", another reflective piece featuring a strong brass arrangement and melodic harmonies.
"Thoughts of moving on" does exactly what it says on the tin. It finds Lighthouse moving in a more commercial direction while retaining their emphasis on strong arrangements and tight performances. While the album does not offer anything particularly challenging it does represent a highly enjoyable experience.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=15992

Renaissance - Black Flame / I Think Of You / Running Hard

Renaissance took half a decade and several line-up shifts to figure themselves out, evolving from the flowery prog-rock of their early days through the classical-flavored symphonic approach that bloomed under the guidance of guitarist Michael Dunford, lyricist Betty Thatcher and operatic vocalist Annie Haslam. The band’s fifth album, Turn of the Cards, is really the second recording from this definitive lineup—and like most of their material from the early to mid ‘70s, it’s full of ornate piano motifs, lush orchestrations, the melodic bass of unsung hero Jon Camp and more soaring, theatrical melodies than a standard Broadway musical. Despite the seamless fusion of classical and rock styles, Renaissance were still indebted to the past, borrowing some of their loveliest arrangements from older works (including John Tout’s jaw-dropping piano fanfare that opens the epic “Running Hard,” which he adapted from a piece by French composer Jehan Alain). The band would claim full ownership of their material starting with 1975’s Scheherazade and Other Stories—a confidence boost aligning with a creative leap. But Turn of the Cards is still staggering in its elegance.  From: https://relix.com/reviews/detail/renaissance-turn-of-the-cards-remastered-expanded/ 

 

Bubblegum Octopus - Soft Sun Spots

Bubblegum Octopus is the New Jersey based "synthpop grindcore rave" solo project of vocalist, composer, sequencer, and instrumentalist Matthew "m@ the c@" Morden.
The project began in 2005 after the release of the c@ album copy as an attempt to recreate the synth-punk sound of the late 70s. As writing progressed, the original intention was supplanted by the development of a melodic hybrid of cutesy picopop/shibuya-kei style pop, "extreme" metal and punk, Eurobeat and Bemani type dance music, early 00s style digigrind, and predominantly 90s, 16-bit video game music style electronics with elements of breakcore, noise, IDM, synth-funk, 8-bit, uplifting trance, and electro-punk.
Because the project is so often inaccurately pigeonholed into various sub and quasi-genres of electronic music, m@ and his fans have seriocomically adopted the terms spazzpop and tweegrind to describe the project.
A number of other, less used terms (cat-wave, picothrash, blackened disco, sugar doom, and pizzacore, for example) have also been used, as well as "fey-pop," coming from an early magazine review of the project.
The songs were initially rooted in MIDI sequenced synthesis, vocals, and occasional guitar or electronic noise, but have evolved to incorporate circuit-bent toys, effect pedal chains, hardware sequencers, drum machines, synths, theremin, mandolin, horns, percussion instruments, SNES and Gameboy soundchips, a host of different programs, the manipulation of self-made samples, and a variety of other hardware.
Ideologically, the project is rooted firmly in an absurdist outlook on life and art, combating the Peter Pan complex, and rejecting the type of fandom culture-centric lifestyles that so many video game influenced music projects thrive on. The love of cats is also promoted heavily.
The project is often thought to include samples of video games or other things and pitch altered vocals, but nothing of the sort has ever been used in a Bubblegum Octopus song.
Since it's inception, the project has been promoted almost exclusively through the word of mouth of supportive fans, bringing in enough attention to bring the project to #99 in the list of the top 100 unsigned myspace artists over all in 2006 and 2007.
Shows in the past were extremely rare (twice a year or so, and only locally,) and, according to m@, not even a very important part of BgO's existence, until 2009, when touring and regular, more exciting shows became commonplace.
After a semester in school for music performance and composition, and a semester in school for audio engineering, Matthew decided to continue his musical and artistic education on the road, touring the United States.
With his personal endeavors, Matthew has a prolific catalog of released and recorded music, starting as far back as age 15, covering a wide variety of sounds, but most commonly in melodic and/or chaotic, often experimental electronic contexts.
Matthew is best known for his work with his primary solo project, Bubblegum Octopus, wherein his loves of Japanese pop, extreme metal, video game soundtracks, and avant-garde electronic music are explored, usually all at once, a sound which garnered a cult following for the project, online.  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Bubblegum+Octopus/+wiki 

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - What I Am / The Wheel / Now

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I’m of the opinion that the clichéd phrase “one-hit wonder” is an overused and easily abused phrase, one far too often assigned to artists who are undeserving of such a dubious qualifier. It’s also emblematic of the average music consumer’s (and more than a few journalists’) lazy complacency in seeking out the fuller breadth of artists’ discographies, beyond what they’ve been force-fed, spin after spin after spin, on the radio or, at least back in the day, MTV.
Unfortunately, too many artists’ recording careers haven’t received the recognition and appreciation they arguably deserve because of this one-hit-wonder engendered myopia. A prime example is Edie Brickell, who, with her Dallas-bred band New Bohemians, struck gold back in late 1988 with their lyrically and sonically unconventional debut single “What I Am.” The album from which it came, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, received plenty of critical applause on its way to reaching double-platinum commercial heights, largely as a result of its ubiquitous single’s warm reception.
However, three-and-a-half decades later, Brickell and her bandmates (drummer Brandon Aly, percussionist John Bush, bass guitarist Brad Houser—who passed away last month at the age of 62—and guitarist Kenny Withrow) are still rigidly associated with that one song by far too many folks. But for those of us who weren’t merely satisfied with “What I Am” and instead used it as fodder to dig deeper into the group’s debut album—and subsequent recordings including 1990’s excellent Ghost of a Dog and  2006’s Stranger Things, as well as Brickell’s solo fare (1994’s Picture Perfect Morning, 2003’s Volcano, and 2011’s eponymous Edie Brickell)—the rewards have been plentiful.
Originally formed in the early ‘80s, New Bohemians cut their performing chops primarily in the clubs of Dallas’ famed Deep Ellum neighborhood during the middle of the decade. Signed to Geffen Records within a few years’ time, the band recorded their debut long player at the famed Rockfield Studios in Wales with the guidance of the late Pat Moran, who counted albums for rock luminaries such as Iggy Pop, Queen, Robert Plant, and Rush among his production and sound engineering credentials. In describing the recording sessions’ organic stimuli, Brickell told the New York Times in November 1988, “A lot of the time, we don't have any ideas at all and start with a really silly image, like biscuits or paper plates, to see how it goes. When we come up with a melody we all like, we blend it all together and somehow a song naturally arrives.”  From: https://albumism.com/features/edie-brickell-and-new-bohemians-shooting-rubberbands-at-the-stars-album-anniversary 

Argos - I Carry Light

A.R. How was Argos formed?

Thomas: It started 2005 when I recorded and arranged some of my musical ideas at home that didn´t seem to fit in the repertoire of the other bands that i collaborated with at that time. Then I asked Robert Gozon to join my project, we recorded some more songs and put the demos on “myspace” a prominent internet platform for musicians at that time. Through myspace our drummer Ulf Jacobs contacted and joined us and the French label Musea signed us for our first album. We did the first album as a three man band. Rico Florzcak our guitarist joined us in time for our second album: Circles. This lineup has remained constant since then .

Argos was initially regarded as a studio band. When did it become a live band?

Thomas: When we released our third album “Cruel Symmetry” on PPR Records in late 2012 our Label manager Oliver Wenzler asked us to play at the Progressive Promotion Festival he organizes every year in “Das Rind” Rüsselsheim. We agreed and after 4 days of intensive rehearsals we managed to play a one hour live set. You can watch us performing our first live gig on youtube keywords: (Argos, Rind). Last year we were invited to play at summers end festival in Great Britain along with bands like Lifesigns, Curved Air and New Trolls. It was a nice experience and great fun for us to meet Argos-fans from Great Britain. This year we will perform in Heidelberg “prog the castle” 09.05. and in July at a festival in Poland.

What do you consider as the essential elements of your music?

Thomas: To me its the special combination of vintage and contemporary sounds and playing styles. Mixing classic prog, jazz, folk, artpop and a bit of avant-garde we get a very diverse palette to draw from. The Argos vocals are special too. Not the standard “rock or neoprog” type of performance.

Who can you cite as your main musical influences?

Thomas: We all have different musical backgrounds but classic prog rock from the 70`s is our main common influence. Apart from Prog Artists and Bands its the late Beatles, Steely Dan, The Canterbury Scene, ECM Jazz and Artists like Joni Mitchel,David Crosby or Jeff Beck and Herbie Hancock.

Tell us about your first recordings and your musical evolution.

Thomas: Argos music evolved gradually from Robert and me doing all the instruments and vocals plus drum programming for the demos of our album into a democratic four man unit for “a seasonal affair” ,were everyone of us can brought in his individual ideas and playing style. Living 800 kms apart from each other Ulf and Rico (in Greifswald) and Robert and myself (in Mainz) is a challenge and the main reason why we need a lot of time to complete the Argos songs with everyone fully involved.

You are a German band, but on your latest album A Seasonal Affair you have a very British progressive sound. What British bands do you admire the most?

Thomas: Speaking for myself its surely the whole Canterbury scene with Dave Stewart, Richard Sinclair and Robert Wyatt as my main influences and favorite musicians. I also like Gentle Giant, Fruupp, England, Stackridge and of course The Tangent.

What’s the theme behind A Seasonal Affair?

Thomas: Most of the songs are about how we as individual human beings deal with loss and other subjects we cannot control or influence in our otherwise well organized and digitally connected modern society.

How did you connect with guests musicians Andy Tillison (The Tangent), Marek Arnold (United Progressive Fraternity) and Thila Brauss?

Thomas: Andy Tillison discovered our band trough our last album “Cruel Symmetry” . He liked the music a lot and kindly offered his talents for this new album.I heard Marek Arnold play soprano sax live and thought his lyrical style would perfectly fit for the solo on “Silent Corner”. Marek is involved in many bands that also release albums trough PPR Records, so its “a family affair”.

Thilo Brauss, Robert and myself play together in Superdrama and Thilo is also part of the Argos live band.

A Seasonal Affair has fascinating artwork by Bernd Webler. How did you hook up with him?

Thomas: We both studied graphic design in Mainz and Bernd now works like myself for a big German TV broadcasting station.So i knew him and his fine artistic skills for a long time. I’m really proud of what he contributed to visualize our music on “a seasonal affair”.

Most of what we hear from Germany is hard rock and heavy metal. How’s the current progressive rock scene in Germany?

Thomas: If there would be more people in Germany that come to watch prog bands doing original songs live I´m sure there would be much more prog bands on the German scene. For now its mostly prog-cover bands doing Pink Floyd or Genesis material . They and the more metal related bands have a much bigger live audience then bands like ourselves here in Germany.

What musical instruments do you use?

Thomas: We use acoustic and electric guitars, fretted and frettless bass guitars,acoustic drums and percussion and flute.
The keyboards are sampled vintage instruments (Native Instruments/Logic/MOTU) like: Steinway and Fender Rhodes Piano, Hammond Organ, Moog and Mellotron. We also use electronic sounds to create percussion loops and soundscapes.

If you could gather any musicians or musical groups to collaborate with whom would that be?

Thomas: personally i would like to collaborate among others with: surprise, surprise  Steven Wilson, Richard Sinclair, Dave Stewart, Herbie Hancock, Magnus Ostrom (ex E.S.T.), Steve Winwood and Donald Fagen.

From: https://progressiverockcentral.com/2015/04/21/interview-with-progressive-rock-band-argos/ 

Niyaz - Live Festival International 2018

 Niyaz - Live Festival International 2018 - Part 1

 

 Niyaz - Live Festival International 2018 - Part 2

 

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.

So wrote eighth-century mystic Rabia Al Basri, mother of Sufism and dedicatee of The Fourth Light. Such words practice what they preach, offering a twinkle of starlight that only hints at the spiritual fissions required to produce it. It’s an ethos of which a fortunate audience partook through the filter of Niyaz’s fractal soundscapes in their multimedia performance at New York City's Schimmel Center.
At the core of Niyaz are vocalist Azam Ali and multi-instrumentalist Loga Ramin Torkian on oud and kamaan (a custom viol-like instrument). They were joined by Sinan Cem Eroglu on kaval and komuz (Turkish flute and three-stringed lute), Gabriel Ethier on keyboards and programming, Ravi Naimpally on tabla, and whirling dervish Tanya Evanson, whom Ali credits as the genesis of this project. Live motion tracking was provided by Jérôme Delapierre, whose projections graced a series of vertical panels with ghostly echoes of the performers in real time.
To be sure, Ali was the focal point of the evening. Despite having heard her on record for nearly two decades since her days as one half of Vas, I became aware of terrains in her voice that only a live setting could map. It was a feeling akin to rebirth, as each syllable became a seed for new life. These supernatural overtones were only emphasized by Ali’s comportment on stage. Her dancing was a tribute to the music flowing through her, and her hand often moved in birdlike fashion, kissing sky and earth by way of the heart, as if to trace the paths of her creative impulses from and back to their source.
There was, too, an unmistakable vibration of growth in the air. Hers was a voice that could only have emanated from one who’d unlocked her maternity (as confirmed when she introduced her son at curtain call), if only because she made us listeners feel like her own children for that brief while in which we shared oxygen. That voice was cradle for an all-consuming love, and gave only the same return for the honor of being heard.
That said, over time she and her collaborators—much like the program itself—blended into a grander whole. It was impossible to think this was anything other than a desired effect, given the sentiments of open inclusion with which she left us in her post-concert comments. Her heartfelt message of art as an ecumenical realm of possibility, a space where rituals of historical redress serve as our only hope for recoverable futures, resonated as deeply as the music that preceded it.
There were, of course, highlights to be held like talismans of remembrance. Of those, the linguistic beauties of “Tam e Eshq” (The Taste of Love) continue to ring in my head like a gong of truth even as I write this, thus painting a line of interpretation to the verses with which I opened this review, as no level of description may never recreate the profile of love for those unknowing of its flavor: it must be held on the tongue to be known. Such sensory philosophies abounded in the groove of “Eyvallah Shahim” (Truth), as also in “Sabza Ba Naz” (The Triumph of Love). The latter’s call-and-response structure, made possible by prerecorded bits into which Ali threaded immediate counterparts, indicated a splitting of self as the first step toward restoring it.
Yet perhaps nowhere did the spirit of Rabia Al Basri come alive more than in Evanson’s dancing. In addition to the rare opportunity of witnessing dervishing in person, her direct line of communication from flesh to firmament served to visualize the music’s intentions in ways no computer-generated imagery ever could. She was a full embodiment of the concept of soul as animating force. When she appeared onstage dressed in black, only to reveal a crimson undercoat after shedding that layer of darkness, she expressed the inexhaustible need for life to write scripture in the very blood that flows through our collective veins. Last appearing in white, she further expressed an understanding that birth and death are two expressions of the same divine wish. (See video below)
As indicated by the title of The Fourth Light, its profound combination of melody, image, and dance depended on the governing power of sacred geometries. In the same way that a square’s enclosure couldn’t exist without a fourth side, neither could our minds express themselves without a fourth axis of light to give them shape in individual bodies. The resonances of this esotery were bright and uplifting. Like the silhouetted image of Ali holding up the sun that at one point froze on a rear screen, it gave us a void of outer space to fill with inner conclusions. In the end, I could only feel that we’d been left with a beginning, when first breaths defined every syllable around which we would eventually come to wrap our conscious decisions. More than ever, love has become the only emotion worth singing about, and I am grateful to Ali and her band of travelers that our paths crossed close enough to be reminded of its potency.  From: https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/niyaz-18.shtml