Archives:Life’s Soundtracks:The run was a struggle but the music from Day Six was great!

Originally Posted: March 24, 2013 at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries – Please Note my running and music listening are linked so sometimes you have to put up with the running info to get to the music, or then again you can just scroll past it!!

Day sixSo some days you really look forward to your run, you start, you feel good and the run goes very smoothly. Then there are other days, well, they don’t go as well. Saturdays area often a slow day for me. I work all day at Lippincott and then at Target not getting done until 11:15 plus! Yesterday the day went from 7:15 to 11:15, so overall today this 61 year-old body was moving kind of slow! So this afternoon when I just felt like taking a nap I did some kundalini yoga trying to wake me up, and it worked so I got motivated enough to run, went out and discovered that it was a lot colder and windy than I thought it was, anyway, I put on another layer of clothes and set out. I had created a new four mile course and the start looped around a little, so that, after just a little bit a left turn would have led me back home, which was where I really wanted to go or a right turn would set me on my way into the fourteen mile an hour wind and the first leg of my four mile run. Now the only thing good about heading into the wind on the first two miles of a run is that the wind is at your back on the way back!! That’s what happened and really the only reason that I was able to finish the run! The other thing that got me through the run was the music, as always! The music was from a prog rock band Day Six and their album The Grand Design. So with the wind at my back for half of the run, I made it through with an overall pace of about 10:05 per mile, so overall it was not a bad run! Read More

Progressive Metal from NYC’s – Infinite Spectrum – Misguided

Misguided
Infinite Spectrum

Infinite Spectrum is a progressive metal band from New York City formed by two college students bass payer Alex Repetti and guitarist Alex Raybin soon after they met they began collaborating on musical tracks that laid the foundation for their debut album. After the instrumental tracks had been composed and recorded singer and composer Will Severin joined the party and wrote and recorded the vocals for their debut album Misguided. Everything was assembled and mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer, Chris Theis and the album was released in 2012! According to ProgArchves: Read More

Prog Rotation Part 2 – Eclectic Prog from Texas’ Herd of Instinct – Conjure!

The other instrumental prog rock band that has been in my listening rotation over the last week or so is the Texas eclectic prog band Herd of Instinct. I have listened to their second release Conjure. The band’s self-titled first release was released in 2011 and was four years in the making. Flashback to 2007 – Wow- that was a long trip – the band 99 Names of  God had disbanded after ten years on the Texas Music scene as an Art Rock band – yeah right?? How do you get beer drinking into that music! But I digress back to 2007 where drummer Jason Spralin and WARR Guitarist Mark Cook are trying to form a new band. Soon they joined forces with ex-Nervewerks guitarist Mike Davison and got down to work!!  Four years later they produced that self titled album (hum about two times as long as the gestation period of the elephant) Anyway, critics praised the album and comparisons were made to King Crimson. The band’s music is drawn from a variety of influences including: multi-cultural music, literary clues, Horror and cinematic film scores, and obscure elements of Rock, Avant-garde, Electronic, Prog, and Psychedelic music. (Horror films and Psychedelic music may survive on the Texas Music scene, no wait – psychedelic music is that hippie music!) Read More

Crossover Prog from Canada’s AsZension – Biosphere!

One of the albums that has been in my prog rock listening rotation over the past several days is Biosphere the sophomore release from the Canadian Crossover Prog band AsZension. The band is currently a studio-based band but there are plans to make it a live band. The band was founded by multi-instrumentalist Kevin Thiessen after he completed his studies in Contemporary Music and Technology, audio engineering, production and guitar at Selkirk College in Nelson B.C. After finishing his studies Thiessen set out to find like-minded musicians. First he met and then added guitarist and engineer Calvin Shiu, a martial arts practitioner and at the time, a recording arts student at the University of Lethbridge to the band. Shiu brought with him  his ”Shamisen”, a Japanese fretless lutelike instrument. This led to inspire Thiessen to use more world instruments in his miusic. In today’s recording era this is accomplished through “Virtual instrument technology or Vst’s. The final member of the band drummer Kyle Sheppard was an easy choice for the band since he had worked with Thiessen and was a life-long friend of Shiu’s. Their self-titled debut album won rave reviews and was nominated for Best Début Record at the 2012 ”Prog Awards” The Web World Awards dedicated to Progressive Rock. Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of the Brazilian Progressive Metal band Angra!

So the other day, Spotify suggested that I listen to the song “Reflective” from the album Sounds of Innocence by Kiko Loureiro. Since the name looked interesting and he appeared to be a guitarist I downloaded the album onto the iPhone and it became the soundtrack for my ride to the Motor Vehicle Inspection Station. I discovered that Kiko is a very, very talented progressive rock guitarist and a member of the Progressive Metal band Angra. So after listening to Loureiro’s solo album, I downloaded Angra’s latest release Aqua and gave it a listen! Both of the albums are very good, but I think I prefer Aqua. Sometimes solo prog rock guitar albums seem a little boring to me. So here’s what I discovered about Angra. Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of Germany’s Frequency Drift – Over!

Over the last few days I’ve been exploring the music of the German Grossover Prog Band Frequency Drift; I stated with their current release Over. On my first few listens I wasn’t to sure about the vocals. The female lead singer’s voice was just a little too high and operatic sounding than I  like. What I was sure of was the music,I know I heard some instruments that you don’t normally hear like violin and flutes.Here’ what I read about the band at their website: Read More

The Safari revisits Finland and Explores the Music of Cardiant – Verge

Today the Safari returned to Finland and explored the music of Cardiant a power metal band that was formed in the city Hämeenlinna by Antti Hänninen and Dave Alberti in 2000. Today I listened to Verge the third album from the band. The line-up of the band has changed drastically from the first album when the band didn’t have a lead singer and was forced to use a session singer. This resulted in the album Midday Moon only being released on Japan! Read More