With a name like Toxic Smile, the Music Safari expected to meet a group that was going to play some pretty hard-core progressive metal. What I got was, as ProgArchives describes the band as…
The other day Echoes with John Diliberto issued their list of 25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2013. Atop that list was the album In A Time Lapse, from Ludovico Einaudi, which I finally listened to today. It was a very beautiful collection of music that is a perfect soundtrack for my workday, nice a soothing, just the right sound to help keep me calm and focused!! Not knowing anything about Mr, Eindaudi. I first went to his website, where his biography is in his native Italian. Since I was not using Googke Chrome at the time, I left his website and went searching for information about him elsewhere on the net, at places like WIKIPEDIA – surprised!!
So I either have to study more German or stop listening to prog rock from Germany, because for the second time today I was faced with websites written in German, the band’s native language. First it was Osta LCVE and tonight it was the band Eyevory. I have been listening today to Euphoria the debut album from the band. Eyevory is a a progressive folk rock band from Bremen, Germany. They describe their music as a “colorful mixture, combining joyful flute melodies, catchy hooks, hard rocking guitar riffs and complex instrumental arrangements without boundaries and barriers.”
Several years ago, well to be a little more accurate back in 2007 I read Linwood Barclay’s first Zack Walker novel Bad Move That book came to mind when I read the first line of Book 34 for 2013 Barclay’s latest thriller A Tap on the Window
Yesterday, the Safari listened to the prog rock band Osta LCVE’s latest release Good Morning Dystopia. Biographical data on the band is limited but from what I can piece together the two main members of the band are first, Tobias Geberth, who is the vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist. Tobias appears to be the ” leader of the band”! The second member of the band is Leon Ackermann who plays drums and other percussion instruments. Other players include: Florian Hauss Piano on “Red Sky”, Gregor Nicolai – Bass on “Fragile Freedom” and Sarah Gretsch – Vocals on “Alaska”. The group is from Germany and their music is listed as Art Rock and Neo Prog! The C in the name represents the unfinished O in Love. Their website says this about the band:
So this afternoon’s soundtrack will be the new album from Kara Grainger Shiver & Sigh. Here’s some background from Amazon.com
Australia native, now Los Angeles based, Kara Grainger first picked up the guitar at age 12. She started performing in the late ’90s as lead vocalist and guitarist with the successful Sydney-based blues outfit, Papa Lips. With her brother, acclaimed harmonica player Mitch Grainger, Kara and Papa Lips enjoyed a quintessentially Australian experience. Fuelled by national ABC Radio play for their two albums, “Harmony” and “High Time Now,” the band toured up and down the sun drenched beach towns of Australia’s east coast in an old Tarago van. They blew away audiences, soaked up the outdoor lifestyle, and notched up experience at all the significant blues and folk festivals along the way. In 2006, Kara signed to Australia’s Craving Records as a solo artist who encouraged her to go to the United States to record the album. In 2008 she moved to Los Angeles, but continued to split her time between LA and Australia. Her debut CD, 2008’s “Grand and Green River” received first prize in the IAP awards in Austin, Texas and also was in the top 40 Americana charts for over 34 weeks. In 2011, she released “LA Blues” Read More.
Ok so maybe I have to reconsider my approach to music listening when it comes to Prog Rock. Typically, I listen to an album and then go and find out about the artist and their music. With Prog Rock I think it is most time wise to visit their site and read about the album BEFORE listening! You see many prog rock artist don’t create songs, they create albums many times concept albums and even when it’s not a concept album the tracks often are based on something!! This became clear with my latest listen, On a Dark and Stormy Night from the band Shadow Circus. Now if I had read Madeleine L’Engle’s classic fantasy novel, A Wrinkle in Time. I would have known that the title of the album is actually from the book and that would have given me a clue that the album is based on the book. Anyway on the first several listens, I enjoyed the music, after going to Wikipedia and reading a synopsis of the book I went back and listened to the album again I liked it even more! And check this out from their website – they’re from New Jersey!
