KARNATAKA: Secrets of Angels (2015)

  Following in the wake of ‘Mostly Autumn’, ‘Karnataka’ tried to blend the traditional Celtic music with melodic Progressive Rock. The band was formed up in Swansea (Wales), in the mid ‘90’s, and their discography consists of 5 studio albums so far.

  Their latest release is the album ‘Secrets of Angels’ which is one of their best works so far.

  The album includes a rather mixed variety of different music styles, and that is something very interesting in my opinion. There are some Pop-like songs for example, and there are some others which are flirting with Heavy/Epic Metal, mostly because of the strong guitar riffs. (On some occasions they remind me of a lighter version of ‘Nightwish’).

  The album’s opening song is the wonderful ‘Road to Cairo’ with the obvious Anatolian influences, which is one of the album’s best songs without a doubt. The second track ‘Because of you’ is another very good song with an “epic” refrain, and strong guitars in some parts. ‘Poison Ivy’ which comes next, continues in the same style as ‘Because of You’, and it is followed by the beautiful and melodic ‘Forbidden Dreams’. With ‘Borderline’ the rhythm becomes faster, before going down again, with ‘Fairytale Lies’ which is the most “Pop” song of the album. ‘The 7^th track ‘Feels Like Home’ is another melodic piece, longer than the previous ones, and a very good one. The 8^th and last track is the 20 minute-long ‘Secrets of Angels’ which is the only true Prog-oriented song of the album. But in my opinion, it is longer that it should have been, so it becomes kind of boring after some time.

 ‘Secrets of Angels’ is a very good album in general, which will satisfy listeners with different music tastes. Almost everybody will find some songs of his/her liking, and that is one of the album’s advantages. As for myself, I found it very interesting and pleasant to listen to, and that’s why my rating will be 3.5 - 4.0 out of 5.0 stars. 

 Thank you for reading... :-)

PROG & ROLL radio show (17/5/2015). A small review & the full playlist.

Last night one more Prog & Roll radio show was online as usual.
 During the show we had the pleasure to have as "guests" on the chatbox the members of the Greek Prog-Rock band 'Ciccada', and together with our audience we chatted, listed to music, had some fun etc.
The playlist was a mix of many different music categories once more, but it was more Folk - oriented than other times.
I believe it was a nice show, and as it seemed the people enjoyed it.
 I would like to thank all those who logged in and listened to last night's Prog & Roll, no matter if they were participating in the chatbox or not. I would like to thank especially the members of Ciccada Giannis Iliakis and Nikolas Nikolopoulos for logging in last night.
 Here you can check last night's playlist:

B.B KING: The Thrill is Gone / WHITESNAKE: Walking in the Shadow of the Blues (Live) / RAINBOW: Eyes of the World / RUSH: La Villa Strangiato / CICCADA: A Child in the Mirror / KAIPA: Sattyg / DR. STRANGELY STRANGE: Lilty’s / MIDLAKE: Winter Dies / CICCADA: She Went for Love / NEKTAR: Fly Like an Eagle (Music Contest) / LED ZEPPELIN: Bron-Y-Aur Stomp / JETHRO TULL: We Used to Know / CICCADA: Eternal / AYREON: The Theory of Everything (Part.1) / EDEN: Spatergen / CICCADA: A Night Ride 

"Epic" song: BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: The Poet/After the Day.

 

The King of Blues is Dead...

I'm very sad to announce that B.B King died a few hours ago at the age of 89.
 His attorney, Brent Bryson, told The Associated Press that B.B King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT.
During his long career, he recorded a huge amount of albums, worked with some legendary musicians, and gave thousands of concerts.
I feel really glad of having the chance to see him on stage once, about 25 years ago.
There is no point trying to write something about his career, because if you make a small research on the internet, you'll find thousands of pages dedicated to him.
One of the last really legendary muscians is no longer living on this Earth.
R.I.P B.B King, you will always be remembered...

P.S: Because YouTube isn't allow me to upload a video here, I'll just put a couple of links, so click on them in order to listen to the songs.
Thank you.
B.B King & Bobby Bland: The Thrill is Gone
B.B King Eric Clapton & George Benson: Rock me Baby
B.B King & Luciano Pavarotti: The Thrill is Gone
B.B King: Sweet Little Sixteen

BLIND GUARDIAN Live in Athens (9 - 10/5/2015). The 2 setlists...

A few days ago Blind Guardian gave 2 live performances in Athens, and here I am in order to give you the 2 different setlists.
 The first day the concert was sold out, but the second day wasn't.
I didn't go to the concerts, but I made a small research and I found some reviews about the events.
Everybody agreed that both performances were excellent!
Each of their performances lasted for almost 2 hours, and here you can see the songs they played on each day:
Saturday 9/5/2015  
The Ninth Wave

Banish From Sanctuary
Nightfall
Fly
Tanelorn (Into The Void)
Prophecies
The Last Cradle
Miracle Machine
A Past And Future Secret
Mordred's Song
Guardian Of The Blind
Imaginations From The Other Side
Encore:
Into The Storm
Twilight Of The Gods
Valhalla
Encore 2:
Wheel Of Time
The Bard's Song (In The Forest)
Mirror Mirror

Sunday 10/5/2015 

The Ninth Wave
Welcome To Dying
Nightfall
Otherland
Tanelorn (Into The Void)
Majesty
Prophecies
Lost In The Twilight World
Miracle Machine
The Lord Of The Rings
Traveler In Time
Journey Through The Dark
And The Story Ends
Encore:
Sacred Worlds
Twilight Of The Gods
Valhalla
Encore 2:
Wheel Of Time
The Bard's Song (In The Forest)
Mirror Mirror

 

Goodies from GFreedom's Music Collection # 19

      BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Everyone is Everybody Else (1974)
  Barclay James Harvest were founded in Manchester in September 1966 as a quartet.
Their first contract was with 'Parlophone' for just one single in 1968, and right after that they moved to Harvest'. Their debut album 'Barclay James Harvest' was released in 1970, received positive reviews, but failed reach a wider audience .Their second album 'Once Again' received again very good reviews, and the tour that followed was conducted with a full orchestra under the guidance of Robert John Godfrey. (Who later on formed 'The Enid'). Despite all that, the album's sales were very low once more.
 After the very good 'Once Again', the band released another very good album in the same year (1971), named 'Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories', which was the band's greatest achievement so far. In the meantime, Robert John Godfrey had been replaced by Martyn Ford. The pressure and the tiredness of the long tours started to have an impact on the band, and that became clear with the release of their fourth album 'Baby James Harvest', which was their weakest moment, and also was the last album they released for 'Harvest'.
 In 1973 they signed a contract with 'Polydor', and one year later they released the brilliant 'Everyone is Everybody Else' (1974). This album is considered by many, as their artistic high point, and it was produced by Rodger Bain, who had previously worked with Black Sabbath in producing their first three albums. At the same time, he was also the producer of Judas Priest and Budgie. The albums was including one of the band's most famous songs, 'Child of the Universe', which together with 'For no One' received a massive 'air play' by many Radio stations, and made Barclay James Harvest famous to a far wider audience.
  The album includes 9 songs, and has a total running time of almost 40 minutes.(In the original version).
Almost all the songs are great compositions, filled with the characteristic melodic and melancholic sound of Barclay James Harvest. Surely 'Child of the Universe' capture the listener's attention from the first time, but all the songs are almost equally good in my opinion. If I had to find the album's 'weakest' moment, I would say the song 'Mill Boys' which is a sweet ballad, but nothing more. All the other 8 songs are beautiful to say the least.
 I bought this album almost 27 years ago on vinyl, (later on I also bought the extended cd version), and during these years I have listened to it hundreds of times. As you can understand I know all the songs by heart, and I can't say that I'm bored of it. It's quite the opposite actually! Every time I'm putting it to play, I'm listening to it from the first till the last song.
 'Everyone is Everybody else' is without any doubt a wonderful album, which I strongly recommend.
Try it, and you will not regret it.
             As for my rating, I would give 4.50 out of 5.00 stars.
Thank you for reading... :-)
 

JustinCase Radio's birthday on Prog & Roll. (10/5/2015). A small review...

This was a difficult night...
  As I mentioned in a previous post, on last night's Prog & Roll we would celebrate the 3rd birthday of the radio station. Many of the producers gathered up in the studio, along with friends, girlfriends etc, and also musicians from some Greek bands, and altogether we had a party. At the same time, there was a radio marathon going on, since 17.00 UK time, and the chatbox was packed with people who logged in, and musicians from many countries who wanted to thank us for our support, and tell us their wishes. At some point must have been more than 40 - 45 musicians in the chatbox, which was really impressive.

 We arrived rather late at the studio, and I was kind of stressed about what was about to happen. Upon entering, we saw that a big crowd was already gathered up, eating, drinking, chatting, and having fun in general. A few minutes before the time of the show, we sat in front of the computers in order to make some final adjustments, and at that point the main computers crashed. I was panicked to be honest, because we tried to restart it and re-connect to the server, but it wasn't responding. Now, imagine having a very big crowd listening, many of them musicians, friends, etc, and suddenly there is quiet... We tried again and again, and finally after some time, everything seemed ok. So, Prog & Roll finally started with almost 20 minutes of delay.
 We tried to overcome the shock and get on with the show, hoping that there will be no more problems on the way, and thanfully everything went fine. Further than that, we had some fun during the show, but we were so busy with all the things we had to deal with, that at the end we were exhausted.
 During the show we were asking people from the next room (the 'party area') to participate, and say a few things on the microphone. Also, during the 2 hours of the show we gave almost 25 cd's as presents to our listeners, which were given to us by many bands and artists.
 At almost 21.30 (UK time) many people gathered up in the studio carrying a birthday cake, and altogether we sang 'Happy Birthday' on air, which must have sounded really horrible! :P
 Concluding this, I would like to thank all those who logged in last night, and I hope that they had some fun with the show. I want to apologize for the technical problems, but more than that because i wasn't able to participate in the chatbox as usual. Everything was difficult and stressful, so I missed some of you. I'm really sorry for that...
 Here you can check the songs we played on last night's show:

LUCIFER’S FRIEND: Ride the Sky / BLACK SABBATH: Hole in the Sky / QUEENSRYCHE: Eyes of a Stranger / SAVATAGE: Strange Reality / GALAHAD: 21^st Century Painted Lady / ARENA: The Unquiet Sky / DRIFTING SUN: The Wizard / JUDAS PRIEST: Diamonds & Rust (music contest) / PAUL Mc CARTNEY & WINGS: Let me Roll it / LED ZEPPELIN: The Rover / THE KORDZ: Last Call / RENAISSANCE: Opening Out / GENESIS: Can Utility and the Coastliners / YES: America / MIKE OLDFIELD: To France / ELOY: The Light from Deep Darkness.

 Thank you all! :-)

GFreedom's Juke Box No.126

Hello all!
Her I am again on this fine Saturday morning, in order to write down my usual Top-5 songlist for this week.
During the week I listened to lots of music, and from many diferent styles and kinds, and that's why once more it was very difficult to choose only 5 songs to put on my list. Even now I'm not sure that these are the best 5 ones, but they are among the best for sure.
Without further ado, here's my Top-5 songs for this week:
THE DOORS: Spanish Caravan (Waiting for the Sun - 1968)
KING CRIMSON: In the Wake of Poseidon (In the Wake if Poseidon - 1970)
DRIFTING SUN: Trip the Life Fantastic (Trip the Life Fantastic - 2015)
JETHRO TULL: We Used to Know (Stand Up - 1969)
DONOVAN: Atlantis (Barabajagal - 1969)
I hope you'll like with my choices.
Here are the links for 2 songs from my list. Check them out if you want.
Jethro Tull: We Used to Know
THE DOORS: Spanish Caravan
Thank you for reading.

Just in Case Prog Radio's 3rd Birthday in Prog & Roll radio show.

Hello all!
 I'm very glad to announce that on this Sunday's (10/5/2015) Prog & Roll radio show we will celebrate the radio station's 3rd birthday. That's why we are going to have some surprises for our audience prepared, and of course we will have a playlist ready, special for the occasion. 
 As far as I know, many of the radio's producers will gather up for the event in the studio, and most probably some musicians from Greek bands. All together we will have something like a small "party" while Prog & Roll will be on air. So expect great music and lots of fun. Most probably we will also give some cd's as presents to some of our listeners, and that's maybe another reason you shouldn't miss the show.
 I would like to remind you that Prog & Roll is a "live" radio show, and the broadcast is in English & Greek.
It is online on Sunday nights at 20.00 UK time. (21.00 Italy, 22.00 Greece).
You can listen to Prog & Roll here: www.justincaseradio.com
 Thank you for reading this, and I hope to "see" you there! :-)

 

Prog & Roll radio show (3/5/2015). A review and the full playlist.

Hello all!
Here I am again with (one day delay), in order to inform you about last Sunday's Prog & Roll radio show.
There was an internet blackout here yesterday, that's why I couldn't log in and write this post.

So, let's see what happened...
 This time we didn't have any musicians as "guests" on the chatbox, that's why we were completely free to prepare a playlist as we wanted to. There were some musicians who logged in and listened to the show as usual, but they weren't our "official" guests.
 As for the songs we played, once more we divided the show into 4-half hour parts, and on each part we played different kind of music. At the first half-hour we played classic Heavy Metal and Prog Metal, during the 2nd half-hour we played songs from new releases, and on the 3rd part we played songs exclusively from the '70's. As for the end, we had a "heroic"- theme half hour prepared, including songs with Kings, warriors, castles, ancient cities etc. 
 At the end of the show we played the "epic" song as usual, which was fitting perfect I believe, because of the whole "heroic" theme of the last part. Near the end, people were asking if we are going to do an "encore", so we decided to give them 4 options and let them decide on the song we were going to play as "encore". For the first time ever, we had a 4-songs tie, because all the songs received the same amount of votes. That was a pickle, so we decided to play 2 songs instead of one. We picked the one for which there was too much "noise" on the chatbox, and we made them vote again for the 3 remaining. After the second voting we played the one which received the most votes. (No tie this time).
 Here you can take a look at the whole playlist:

Part. 1: OZZY OSBOURNE: Mr. Crowley / IRON MAIDEN: Where Eagles Dare / DREAM THEATER: Another Day / FATES WARNING: Pieces of Me / ARCHONAUT: Last March of the Swarm. 

Part. 2: THE GRAND TOUR: The Horn of Plenty / STEVE HACKETT: Love Song to a Vampire / ANEKDOTEN: If it all Comes Down to You / CICCADA: A Night’s Ride.

Part. 3: LOVE SCULPTURE: In the Land of the Few / CRESSIDA: To Play Your Little Game / JOURNEY: In My Lonely Feelings / LED ZEPPELIN: No Quarter.

Part. 4:  FOCUS: House of the King / RUSH: A Farewell to Kings / WISHBONE ASH: Warrior / EMERSON LAKE & PALMER: Jerusalem. 

"Epic" song: CHRIS DE BURGH: Crusader.

Ecore #1: THE WHO: The Real Me.

Encore #2: CAMEL: Never Let Go. 

  I would like to thank all those who joined our show, hoping you had some nice time.

 On next Sunday's Prog & Roll we are going to celebrate Just In Case Radio's 3rd birthday, so we are preparing a magnificent "theme" show which you shouldn't miss. I already started working on it, and I believe it will be a wonderful show!

  Thank you all! :-)