Life’s Soundtrack – Prog from Paris – The Black Noodle Project – Ready to Go!

ready to goSo one way a band catches my attention is by their name. One band that caught my attention today through their name was the Black Noodle Project. I stumbled across the name at New Prog Rock Releases when I was searching for new music and once I saw the name I knew I had to check them out. The band released a new album Ghosts & Memories (you can watch a preview of the album here) on November 15th but I have yet to see that album at any music site like MOG or Spotify. I did find their 2011 release Ready to Go which I put on the iPhone. The album became part of yesterday’s soundtrack. It took a few tracks but with each track I thought,more and more “hey I like these guys: . and by the time arrived at “Ready to Go Part 2” I wanted to explore the rest of the band’s discography!! Here’s what I found out about the bans when I returned home…..from the Prog Archives. Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – 2013 Prog Rock From Finland’s Lars Eric Mattsson!

So this morning I was checking the new progressive rock album released in September. What usually catches my attention is the country of origin of the artist. There were several bands from Italy, as well as The Netherlands, the UK, the US and one from Finland Lars Eric Mattson When I saw that Lion Music released the album, I thought, hey, I know that company! They released another album that I listened to recently, Marcus Jidell’sictures from a Time Traveller. When I went back to their website, there was Lars Eric, looking at me from right above Marcus… Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – Another Strong Run with Prog Rock from Sweden’s Cloudscape!

Cloudscape – Progressive Metal – Sweden

So while I’m not where I want to be yet, tonight’s run was the first time in a long while that I felt strong through the whole run. The four miles seemed to fly by pretty quickly!! The splits went like this: Mile 1 – 10:01, 2- 10:17, 3, 10:15, 4 10:20 not bad at all! Early in the month, the last two miles were like a 1 minute or so per mile slower than the first two miles. Overall, I was about 1:38 faster than the last time I ran this course!! Read More

Prog Explorations – from Germany Crises – Coral Dreams

Coral Dreams

So one of the albums that’s been on the iPhone for a while and really hasn’t been listened too fully is from the German Prog Rock band Crises. The album is their 2009 release Coral Dreams But tonight I was listening to a mix of tracks on the iPhone and several of the tracks on the album came on and they sounded really good , so I went and listened to a few more and I say I am going to have to give the album a full listen! From ProgArchives: Read More

New Prog Rock from Old Friends – Soft Machine now Soft Machine Legacy!

Burden of proofSo tonight I visited the Jazz Music Archives to see what was new. What I found were some old friends. The second review I saw was for the latest release from Soft Machine Legacy, Burden of Proof. Hum, way back in 1970 or so I was a fan for at least one album of The Soft Machine having bought and played many times, their album Third. Anyway I was interested in finding out who Soft Machine Legacy were what I found out was that the original line-up for the band only lasted through 1971 when Robert Wyatt left the band, after that several members revolved in and out of the band through their last studio album, Land of Cockayne released in 1981. Since then many live recordings have been released. In 2002, four former Soft Machine members – Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall and Allan Holdsworth – toured and recorded under the name Soft Works (initially called Soft Ware, debuting at the 2002 Progman Cometh Festival). Read More

Prog Exploration Goes to France and finds Delusion Squared II

Delusion Squared IISo I’ve written before, that one of the things I like about Prog Rock is that the bands come from all over the world. The band that was the soundtrack for my ride down to the Garden State Parkway was the French band Delusion Squared. The album is their sophomore release appropriately titled II The band, formed in 2009, is a trio composed of lead vocalist and guitarist, Lorraine Young, guitarist, keyboard and drummer – Steven Francis and bassist/keyboardist – Emmanuel de Saint Meen. Their music can be classified as Crossover Prog (or Art Rock). If you are a novice to the world of progressive rock, you can go here, for the ProgArchives definition of Crossover Prog! Read More

Prog Rock Explorations: Blind Ego – Numb

Numb2So I this morning I listened again to the album Numb from the German group Blind Ego and I liked it as much this time as I did the several previous times I listened! So I was surprised when I went to ProgArchves and saw a rating in the low 3s (3.12). To me, and I know I am just a neophyte when it comes to Prog Rock, the album has everything – good musicianship and vocals, and lots of tempo changes keep me interested in the music! The band is a side project for RPWL guitarist Karlheinz “Kalle” Wallner. (note to self find out who the hell RPWL is!) Here’s some information on the band from the ProgArchives: Read More

Exploring Prog Rock – Anubis – A Tower of Silence

Anubis – Neo-Prog – Australia

Yesterday I noted that at number  8 on the ProgArchives list of best albums over the last few years is A Tower Of Silence by the Australian neo-prog band Anubis. I gave it a quick listen and it sounded like something I would like, so I put it on the iPhone and gave it a more thorough listen this morning. I put it on as I was shopping in Target this morning and I really liked what I heard. We had been in the store for about 40 minutes or so we were ready to leave so I thought I’d check as to where I was on the album – I was all the way to track FOUR! I hadn’t noticed that the opening track “The Passing Bell” – was in typical ProgRock fashion was over 17 minutes long! Read More