Category: Prog Rock ekr4
Exploring the Symphonic Progressive Rock of Netherland’s – Minor Giant – On the Road
Exploring the Dynamic Jazz Piano of Hiromi Uehara – Alive!!
Originally posted at Let’s Explore Jazz
So while I did really enjoy all of the albums on the Jazz playlist that I created yesterday. There was one album though, that caught my attention very quickly and that was Alive by Hiromi! The album was released on June 17th on the Telarc label and currently the album is No, 37 on the JazzWeek Chart and No 11 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Alive is Hiromi’s ninth studio release and her third release as Hiromi’s Trio Project. The current trio features: Simon Phillips on drums and Anthony Jackson on bass. Her first four releases were as Hiromi, For the next two releases guitarist David Fiuczynski joined the group and the band became Hiromi’s Sonicboom. As a composer Hiromi blends a variety of musical genres like post-bop, progressive rock, classical, and jazz fusion, into her compositions. Wait prog rock? Does she have a page at ProgArchives….Yes, she does, she is included in the Jazz/Rock Fusion sub-genre. From her biography at ProgArchives….
Exploring Neo Prog from the United States’ Roy Strattman – The Lie of the Beholder!
This morning I took a moment and gave a quick listen to a few of the albums now on progstreaming, I picked two, found the albums on Spotify, put them on the iPhone and listened today. The two albums were from Roy Strattman: The Lie of the Beholder and Mike Kershaw’s Ice Age. Of the two I listened to more of Strattman than Kershaw, so I guess I’ll begin there.
Exploring the Music of Spain’s Kant, Freud, Kafka – No Tengas Miedo – Symphonic or Not!
After my run last night, I was pretty much physically drained, I took a shower, ate and then wrote a post at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries. After that, I was going to write about my run and its soundtrack, which was the new album from The Royal Southern Brotherhood. While I was getting ready to write that post, I went to look up something about a prog band that I listened to earlier in the day Rite of Passage. wasn’t having much luck finding information, so I went to progstreaming, where I first saw their album. While I was browsing for the Rite of Passage album, I noticed another album No Tengas Miedo from Kant Freud Kafka. I went to Spotify found the album and gave it a listen and really liked the music. I set out to find more out about the band, off to ProgArchives. I ended up at the ProgArchives forum where there was a discussion among the leaders of the various sub-genre groups, whether or not, the band belonged in the Symphonic sub-genre. As I was listening, I was agreeing that the band was not symphonic, but more fusion/jazz oriented, but definitely prog and definitely good! Here is what I learned at New Prog Rock Releases…..
2014 Progressive Metal from Iran – Whispers in Crimson – Suicide in B Minor!
This morning I was reviewing the new progressive rock albums that have been released in June. Among the releases was Suicide in B Minor by Whispers in Crimson which was released on June 24th. What made the album particularly interesting to me was, the band hails from Tehran in Iran. I knew that progressive metal had a strong following in the Middle East, but I also thought that it was difficult to produce metal music in Iran, which is actually pretty much the case according to the founder of Whispers in Crimson Amirali Nourbakhsh, who in the band’s biography at their bandcamp site says:
The Old Runner Gets Going Again… with Music from Ontofield …Sleeping with Fractals!
So Tuesday was fairly hot here in New Jersey and then yesterday it cooled off a little, and the fair weather runner inside me said yes today is the day!!Checking Runmeter on the iPhone I see that with half the month gone this is my first run in May, My last run was April 28th, that sucks, I should be ashamed of myself! Anyway I did feel pretty good yesterday so I did some light yoga stretching and took off. I felt good through the first two miles and averaged 10:06 per mile, then I slowed down over the 3rd mile to 10:38 pace and held on over the last mile 11:11 pace! Overall, the pace was right at 10:30 which again for almost 63 years old ain’t too bad. The main problem getting two or three days a week in is that I work Friday and Saturday so I don’t really want to run on those days and then on Sunday I’m tired from the two previous nights and we’ve been going to Paulsboro to see Oliver, Andrew and Meaghan so I put off running and convince myself I’ll go Monday and then I put that off and end up with one day a week. I really need to look at and figure out a schedule so I can get three runs in a week!!
Psychedelic/Space Rock from Canada’s Greylevel – Hypostatic Union
Again this weekend Thursday through Sunday was a blur….Thursday I worked both jobs from 8:30 am to 11:30 PM, then got back up to be on a site 30 minutes from my home at 8 am! I worked until 12:00 then ran around getting ready for a wedding, drove to Avalon NJ a one hour forty minute drive, went to a wedding on the beach, attended the reception and drove him arriving back home at 11 PM. Saturday was a few errands and then work again from 5:30 to 11:30! Sunday Mother’s Day found us at my son Andrew’s home at 10:30 am for brunch and then in the afternoon we babysat our grandson until around 6:00 or so… it was great but by the time we got home this 62 year-old’s butt was dragging…. I’ve listened to some music over this time span, but can’t get my brain in gear to write about it!! Anyway, while I was looking for some music the other day I saw on the related artist list Greylevel and it reminded me that I had listened to them and liked them so here’s my post about them…. and you even get some running info something which you haven’t been getting, because I have avoided running… but have to start again soon!!
Symphonic Prog from the USA’s Rocket Scientists – Supernatural Highways! (Video)
Many moons ago, when my on Andrew still was working part-time at Target, I have a vague recollection of him telling me about a band he had listened to and enjoyed – Rocket Scientists. I think that I gave the band a quick listen and really didn’t care for them. A week or so ago, the band released a new EP titled Supernatural Highways, so I went to Spotify to check it out. There are two tracks on this 30 minute EP- track one “Traveler on the Supernatural Highway” hogs 26 minutes of them, leaving 4 minutes plus for “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”! Anyway both are instrumentals and both are really good!!
