Prog & Roll radio show (14/2/2016). A small "review" & the complete playlist.

Hello all! :-)
  After a week's break, Prog & Roll was back online again, and this time we had the honor to have on the chatbox Matthew Parmenter, the leader of the American band Discipline.
Matthew is now following a solo career, and his 3rd studio album 'All Our Yesterdays' is going to be out in the market after almost a month.
  In order to honor him, we played 3 songs from this forthcoming album (which we already have of course), plus 1 song from his previous album, and 1 more from Discipline's wonderful album 'Unfolded Like Staircase'
  We also had a "Valentine's special" first part, on which we played some classic (or not) love songs.
It was a very interesting show I believe, with many people on the chatbox, and many more who were just listening. 
 Here you can take a look at the complete playlist from last night: 
1st part: ERIC CLAPTON: Wonderful Tonight / ROD STEWART: Have I Told you Lately / THE BEATLES: Something / QUEEN: Love of my Life (Live). 
2nd part: DISCIPLINE: Before the Storm (Part.1) / BLANK MANUSCRIPT: After the War (Part.2) / MATTHEW PARMENTER: Hey for the Dance / RIVERSIDE: Lost? / SHADOW CIRCUS: Daddy’s Gone / MATTHEW PARMENTER: All Our Yesterdays.
3rd part: IRON MAIDEN: Doctor Doctor (Music Quiz) / DREAM THEATER: Burning My Soul / CALIGULA’S HORSE: Turntail / DREAMSCAPE: The Violet Flame Forever / THE GENTLE STORM: The Greatest Love (Storm).
4rth part: MATTHEW PARMENTER: I Am a Shadow / PETER HAMMILL: Forsaken Gardens / GENESIS: Twilight Alehouse / MATTHEW PARMENTER: In the Dark.
I would like to thank all those who listened to our show, and also a speial thanks to Matthew Parmenter for joining Prog & Roll, hoping that everybody had some nice time.
Thank you all! :-)

Prog & Roll radio show with Matthew Parmenter (Discipline) as special guest...

  I feel really happy and kind of honoured to announce that on this Sunday (14/2/2016) we are going to have the brilliant musician - and leader of the band Discipline - Matthew Parmenter as special guest on the chatbox of Prog & Roll.
  Matthew is one of the most talented artists in America's "modern" Progressive Rock music scene, and in case you are not familiar with his name, make a small research on the internet.
 During the 2 hours of the show he will be chatting with us and everybody that will be on the chatbox at the time. From our behalf, we will include some songs from his solo albums and his works with Discipline in our playlist, in order to honor him.
 Almost a month ago, Matthew released his excellent 3rd solo album All Our Yesterdays, from which we will play a couple of songs as well.
 His music seems to be highly influenced by the style of Peter Hammil and Vand Der Graaf Generator, but in a sofet and modern way let's say. 
  During his years with Discipline, he created his stage persona "The Magic Acid Mime", an ironic costume with a painted face, that in my eyes seems like the Genesis-era Peter Gabriel's performances mixed with Alice Cooper.
  So, if you would like to "meet" him somehow, just join our show on Sunday the 14th of February.
Prog & Roll is a live radio show, and the broadcasting is mostly in English and Greek as well.
The show starts at 20.00 UK time, and it's always on time! :-)
If you want to listen, just press the following link at the time I mentioned above:  www.justincaseradio.com
Hope to "see" you there!
Thank you! :-)
P.S: By clicking on the following links you can listen to a couple of his songs if you want.
DISCIPLINE: Before the Storm (Part.1)
MATTHEW PARMENTER: Now
DISCIPLINE: Canto IV - Live

GFreedom's 2015 Top-10 Rock & Prog-Rock albums list. (Part.5)

  This is the 5th and last part of my list with the 10 albums I picked as my best ones for 2015.
At the end of this post I will also add the albums that reached very close to enter this Top-10, but for some reasons I decided not to include them, and were replaced by others.
If you want to read the other 4 parts of this Top-10 list, you can find them here:
Part 1: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/01/gfreedoms-2015-top-10-rock-prog-rock.html
Part 2: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/01/gfreedoms-2015-top-10-rock-prog-rock_26.html
Part 3: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/01/gfreedoms-2015-top-10-rock-prog-rock_29.html
Part 4: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/02/gfreedoms-2015-top-10-rock-prog-rock.html
So, the 5th and final part of my Top-10 album releases for 2015 begins with...
     SALANDER: The Fragility of Innocense
  This is a very good album, but also a very special one for me for 2 reasons: First of all because - thanks to Prog & Roll - we are now in a position that we can call the 2 Daves of Salander as friends, and furthermore because my wife - and Prog & Roll's co-host - Nihal, participates in the album by singing in a couple of songs. Upon the album's release I posted a very detailed "review" in this blog, so if you are interestd you can take a look here:  http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2015/03/salander-fragility-of-innocence-2015.html

  SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE: The Great Bazaar
  I have to confess that I never heard the name of this band before, so this album was an apocalypse for me! Subterranean Masquerade is a multinational band, but as far as I know many of their members are from Israel. The first time I listened to this album I was pleasantly surprised by the massive sound of it, the many style changes, and the "Mediterranean essences" that are included here. There are so many different music styles mixed in this album, so it is impossible to add it under just one music category. The album includes 7 tracks, plus 2 bonus in the limited digipack edition, and almost all of them are very interesting compositions.    The album opens with 'Early Morning Mantra' which is a powerful song with strong Anatolian "flavour" and it gives the listener a first idea of what's going to follow. The next song 'Reliving the Feeling' is a good one but nothing special, and then comes the wonderful 'Tour Diary', followed by the really unique and beautiful 'Nigen', which was the reason I discovered this album. 'Nigen' was the first song I've listened, and I tried to learn more about the band thinking that they might be from Greece. Finally they weren't, but it really doesn't matter. What does matter is that I discovered a really beautiful album and a very talented and promising band! 
In Prog Archives 'The Grand Bazaar' has an average rating of 4.0 out of 5.0 stars.
                    Highly Recommended!
By clicking the following link you can listen to the song 'Tour Diary'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=696lI0JvC54

THE ALBUMS THAT ALMOST MADE IT TO THE LIST:
Here I will write down the albums that reached up to the final draft, but didn't make it to the Top-10 list.
IO EARTH: New World (Prog Archives Aver. Rating: 4.03/5.00 stars)
CICCADA: The Finest of Miracles (Prog Archives Aver. Rating: 4.02/5.00 stars)
THE GENTLE STORM: The Diary (Prog Archives Aver. Rating: 3.57/5.00 stars)
NIGHTWISH: Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Prog Archives Aver. Rating: 3.73/5.00 stars)
GRAND TOUR: Heavy on the Beach (Prog Archives Aver. Rating: 3.86/5.00 stars)
HONORARY MENTION: 
GALAHAD: Empires Never Last (Re-mixed - deluxe edition) 

I hope you find this list helpfull and interesting.
Thank you for visiting my blog! :-)

Tomorrow's Prog & Roll radio show is cancelled...

I'm writing this piece in order to inform you that tomorrow's Prog & Roll radio show is canceled due to our very heavy schedule. Unfortunately we won't be able to do the show, but we will be back on the 14th of February with a show which will include a very special guest on the chatbox. ;-)
I'm not revealing anything yet, you will be able to read the official announcement in the following days.
Thank you very much! :-)

GFreedom's Juke Box No.153

Hello all! :-)
  Here I am again as usual, in order to write down my weekly Top-5 songlist for you.
  I haven't listened to so much music this week due to my very heavy schedule, but despite that I picked 5 songs to add to my list.
So, for this week these are my 5 best songs:
FLYING COLORS: Kayla (Flying Colors - 2012)
DISCIPLINE: Before the Storm Part.1 (Unfolded Like Staircase - 1997)
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Easter? (Long John Silver - 1972)
PETER HAMMILL: Shingle (Nadir's Big Chance - 1975)
MATTHEW PARMANTER: All Our Yesterdays (All Our Yesterdays - 2016)
I'll conclude this post by adding the YT links for the songs in my list. So, by clicking to the links below you can listen to them right away. The only song I couldn't find is Matthew Parmanter's, maybe because the album is very new.
Enjoy! :-)
FLYING COLORS: Kayla
DISCIPLINE: Before the Storm Part.1
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Easter?
PETER HAMMILL: Shingle 

GFreedom's 2015 Top-10 Rock & Prog-Rock albums list. (Part.4)

             KARNATAKA: Secrets of Angels

  Karnataka is a Welsh band that was formed in the mid 90’s. Their music style was a melodic Progressive Folk, with many Celtic influences. The band released 3 studio albums before disbanding in 2003. A few years later, Ian Jones (bass) tried to reform Karnataka, and for that reason he found new musicians to include in the band. The results of this new formation are the albums ‘The Gathering Light’ (2010) and ‘Secrets of Angels’(2015).

(Although I have a couple of their albums, I never considered myself as a “fan” of Karnataka, so including ‘Secrets of Angels’ into my 2015’s Top-10 albums is a surprise even for me! :P)

  Let’s take a quick look at the album now:

It includes 8 songs, and has a total running time of almost an hour. The general music style is more powerful than usual, and it includes the wonderful 20-minute long “epic” 'Secrets of Angels', as the album’s closing song.

  The album kicks in with the song ‘Road to Cairo’ which is a total “hit” in my opinion. Strong guitar riffs, beautiful melodies, and many – unexpected - Anatolian influences. Maybe the band’s new Turkish keyboard player wanted to add some Anatolian “essence” in the album, who knows?  ‘Road to Cairo’ is followed by ‘Because of You’, another beautiful composition. Both songs are reminding me of a lighter and a more melodic version of Nightwish. (Not that I can compare the 2 bands, I’m just saying)… The album continues in the same style with ‘Poison Ivy’, another beautiful composition. In a nutshell, all the other songs are more or less in the same style and equally good. (The only exception - so far - is ‘Road to Cairo’ which is the album’s ‘hit’ song).      

  And after almost 40 minutes of listening, it's time for the album’s 20 minute long “epic” song. And what an epic is that! This is the album’s true masterpiece ladies and gentlemen! With a Celtic intro, haunting and beautiful melodies, great vocals, and so many changes that you don’t know what to expect next, ‘Secrets of Angels’ is the album’s most exciting song!

  And when the CD is over, the only thing you want to do is to press “play” again, and listen to it one more time!

A truly wonderful album!

By clicking on the following link you can listen to 'Road to Cairo'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuw8Du9HBHg 

               MYSTERY: Delusion Rain 
This was one of the latest releases of 2015, for which I already wrote a "review" in this blog a couple of months ago. So, in order not to write the same things again, click on the following link to read it:
http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2015/12/new-releases-mystery-delusion-rain-2015.html 
Thank you!

The Last Prog & Roll Radio Show of January (31/1/2016). The complete playlist...

Hello everybody, and have a nice month! :-)
As I wrote in a post here a couple of days ago, last night's Prog & Roll was including the 'Listener's Happy Hour', during which we are playing the songs that our listener's requested for. Further than
that, on last night's show we did a small half-hour tribute to the Psychedelic scene of San Francisco in order to honot the memory of Paul Kantner who died recently.
I must say that I'm very pleased with last night's Prog & Roll, because we had a big audienc and lots of people on the chatbox, which was really on fire! In our audience we had people listening from Greece, Turkey, England, N.Ireland, France, Germany and... Mexico!
Here you can take a look at last night's complete playlist:
PART 1: RIVERSIDE: Artificial Smile / SUBSIGNAL: The Beacon of Somewhere Sometime (Part.1) / MY SLEEPING KARMA: Eleusine Coracana / KWOON: Schizophrenic.
PART 2 ( A tribute to the Psychedelic scene of the '60's): JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: She Has Funny Cars / COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH: No so Sweet Martha Loraine / THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Dupree’s Diamond Blues / QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE: Dino’s Song / SCOTT McKENZIE: San Fransisco / PAUL KANTNER & GRACE SLICK: Sunfighter.      
PART 3 (Listener's Happy Hour): JUDAS PRIEST: Before the Dawn / DAVID COVERDALE & THE GOVERNMENT: Bang Bang / DEEP PURPLE: High Ball Shooter / AC DC: Whole Lotta Rosie / DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT: Kingdom / AMON AMARTH: Cry of the Blackbirds.
PART 4 (Listener's Happy Hour): THRESHOLD: Falling Away / THE GENTLE STORM: Endless Sea (Storm Version) / PROFUSION: Forgetful Hero / IQ: The Road of Bones.
I would like to thank all those who listened to our show last night, and those who participated in the Listener's Happy Hour. I hope you enjoyed last night's show as much as we did.
Thank you very much! :-)

PROG & ROLL Radio Show Presents: The Listener's Happy Hour.

  I'm writing this post in order to inform you that tomorrow we will have the last radio broadcast of January, therefore our show will include the 'Listener's Happy Hour'. 
That means that during the 2nd hour of our show we are going to play the songs that our listener's asked for. During the last weeks we are accepting e-mails with their songs requests, and tomorrow we are going to play them.
  Further than that, we are going to make a small half-hour tribute to the Psychedelic scene of San Fransisco and Paul Kantner, in order to honor his memory.
As you can understand, tomorrow's Prog & Roll will be a rather interesting one, so try not to miss it!
  Prog & Roll is a live show, and the broadcasting is (mostly) in English, and also Greek as well.
Our show begins at 20.00 UK time, and it's always on time!
The only thing you have to do in order to listen, is to click on the following link on Sunday the 31st of January, at the time I wrote above: www.justincaseradio.com
I hope to "see" you online tomorrow night. :-)
Thank you!

GFreedom's Juke Box No.152

One more Saturday is here, therefore it is time to write down my weekly Top-5 songlist for you. I listened to lots of songs during the week, and especially a lot of Psychedelia in these last 2-3 days, because of Paul Cantner's death. You will realise that by looking at the songs in my list.
So, for this week here's my best 5 songs for you to listen to:
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Aerie (Long John Silver - 1972)
MIKE HERON: Feast of Stephen (Smiling Men with Bad Reputation - 1971)
THE GENTLE STORM: Endless Sea (Storm Version) (The Diary - 2015)
COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH: Section 43 (Electric Music for the Mind and Body - 1967)
PAUL CANTNER / GRACE SLICK: Sunfighter (Sunfighter - 1971)
By clicking on the following links you can listen to the songs in my list.
Enjoy the music, and have a nice weekend! :-)
Thank you for visiting...
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE: Aerie
MIKE HERON: Feast of Stephen
THE GENTLE STORM: Endless Sea - Storm Version
COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH: Section 43
PAUL KANTNER & GRACE SLICK: Sunfighter

PAUL KANTNER Passed Away yesterday...

   I'm terrible sorry to announce that Paul Kantner died yesterday at the age of 74.
  For those who aren't familiar with his name I should say that he was one of the greatest and most influential musicians in the San Fransisco Psychedelic music scene of the '60's. He was a founding member and the "commander" of the legendary Jefferson Airplane, and the Jefferson Starship later on in the '70's.
  Jefferson Airplane was (and still is) one of my most beloved bands since my teenage years, and now I simply cannot express my sorrow and sadness for his death. 
R.I.P Paul Kantner, you will always live in our hearts...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD-KJUc_9xQ