Prog & Roll radio show (10/11/2013) Top-5 and full playlist...

Good morning everybody!
Last night we had one more Prog & Roll radio show (the first for this month), due to last Sunday's cancellation. Also this time GFreedom Team was half present. My co-host was out of the country, so I had to do the show all by myself. But judging by the audience's reactions throughout the show, I believe I did a good job...
 Another fact from last night, was the absence of Marco De Angelis from the chatbox. I was informed a few days ago, that Mr. De Angelis (who is an Italian musician/composer) would be logging in at the time of the show to listen, and to speak with the people there. Well, that never happened!
I want to apologize to all of you who logged in order to speak with him, although it was not my fault really.
Anyway...
As you know already, we play a little "game" by asking our listeners to grade the songs we play, from a scale 1-10. And at the end of each show I calculate the average ratings, and announce the Top-5 songs. So, here is the Top-5 from last night according to our audience:

1. DAVID BOWIE: Life on Mars?
2. PETER HAMMILL: Wilhelmina
3. GENESIS: The Knife
4. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever
5. MARILLION: Lavender.

All 5 songs achieved an average rating of 8.5 or higher, therefore all of them are entering the list with the songs which will participate in the 'Song of the Month' contest, which will take place on the first Sunday of December.
As for the whole playlist, you can see it here:

MARCO DE ANGELIS: Tell me Why / AIRBAG: The Bridge / THERION: Une Fleure dans le Coeur / DUNWICH: Il Falso Principio / AYREON: The Theory of Everything Part.1 / PORCUPINE TREE: Anesthetise / MUSE: Stockholm Syndrome / DISTORTED HARMONY: Kono Yume / QUEEN: The Millionaire Waltz / GENESIS: The Knife / VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: Cat’s Eye-Yellow Fever / YES: Yours is no disgrace / MOSTLY AUTUMN: We come & we go / MYSTERY: The Sailor & the Mermaid / MARILLION: Lavender / PETER HAMMILL: Wilhelmina / DAVID BOWIE: Life on Mars? / PROCOL HARUM: Magdalene.

I want to thank all of you who logged in last night, and helped me to put out a nice show.

Also thank you all for your kind and encouraging words. They were much appreciated! 

And concluding this post, I'm adding a video of last night's No.1 song.

Enjoy! :)

             

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.66

Hello all!
As I'm doing on every Saturday, I will now post here my top-5 songs for this week.
(Spoiler): some of these songs are included in tomorrow's Prog & Roll playlist... ;)
You can easily guess which ones I think...
So, without further delay, this is my top-5 song-list:

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY: Girl with no Eyes - 1969 - (It's a Beautiful Day)
PORCUPINE TREE: Anesthetise - 2007 - (Fear of a Blank Planet)
DISTORTED HARMONY: Kono Yume - 2012 - (Utopia)
QUEEN: The Millionaire Waltz - 1976 - (A Day at the Races)
ROY BUCHANAN: After Hours - 1973 - (Second Album)

And as usual, I'm posting here a couple of videos so you can listen 2 songs from my Top-5 list right away.
I'm wishing you all a great weekend!
Thanks for reading... :)

                          

                                        

The use of Labels...

Hello all!
 I'm writing this post in order to inform those who aren't familiar with the blogs yet, or are new G+ users for the 'Labels' I'm using here.
  Because there has been almost two years that I'm writing this blog, as you can understand there are a lot of info and posts gathered. So, in order to make it easier for you, I'm using Labels on each post...
 At the end of every post, you will see the word 'Labels' highlighted in yellow/orange color, and next to it a specific category indicated with a light blue color.
There are many categories so far, like Prog-Rock, Personal, New Releases, etc...
By clicking on the category name, you will be able to see only the posts of the specific category.
If for example you want to see which posts I have under the category 'New Releases' just click on it, and the page will reload containing only the posts of that category.
   But further than this, at the left side of the screen, exactly under my profile you can see a list of all the categories of posts in my blog. Again, if you press on one category it will have the same result. It's easier that way, because you can see all the categories at once.
 I hope you will find this little piece of information helpful and useful...
Thank you.

Marco De Angelis: The River (Both Sides of the Story) – 2013

   Marco De Angelis is an Italian composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who although was involved in the music business for many years, he hadn’t released any album under his name, and this is his first personal solo work.

Because he grew up listening mostly to the great bands of the ‘70’s such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes etc, we can assume that his music will be influenced by this sound. Well, not exactly. His sound is modern & fresh, and although it can remind in certain occasions some other bands, the truth is that his music style is a rather an authentic one.

   In the recording of the album he plays most of the instruments (with the exception of drums) and he participates in backing vocals as well. The singer is Marcello Catalano, and his voice matches the music and the style of the album very well. A very strong point worth mentioning is the backing vocals throughout the whole album. Marco De Angelis uses a very good female team doing the backing vocals, and the result is indeed very good.

   Now a few info about the album: It contains 11 songs, plus 1 very small intro piece, and has a total running time of almost 67 minutes. The instruments on which the album is based mostly are keyboards and guitar, and this combination works perfectly well. As for the influences I mentioned earlier, in my opinion the only I could find would be the sound of Pink Floyd in their latest (mainly) albums such as ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ or ‘The Division Bell’. (In the song ‘Take it Away’ for example).

   Another very important fact I have to mention is that the album is actually a concept one. Starting from the title, ‘The river’ refers to the people’s lifes as they flow like the river does, and the sub-title ‘Both sides of the Story’ stands for the two river banks which represent in a way the duality which all human beings exist. The struggle between Good & Evil, the male & female life’s point of view, life & death, night and day etc… It is a really interesting idea, which is covered nicely by the music of Marco De Angelis.

   Concluding this review I have to say that it is a good album, and a very pleasant one to listen. 

         

Books: Graham Masterton: A Terrible Beauty

As I have mentioned in a couple of posts already, the last two weeks I went to an off-season Holidays.
One of the things I really enjoy when I'm on my holidays is to relax and read a couple of books in peace and quite. This time I read only one, but boy! It was a good one!
Graham Masterton is one of my most beloved horror writers and I had read almost all of his books but not this one...
So I chose 'A Terrible Beauty' to be my holiday reading companion, and I really enjoyed it!
From the first pages the book absorbs the reader, transferring him to the cloudy and gloomy countryside of Cork in Ireland, where a very old mass murder was discovered. As a usual happening in almost all of Graham Masterton's books, the atmosphere and the suspense are present from the start, and as the reader continues reading finds it really very hard to stop, and that is something which happened to me as well. I was really trying to stop reading in order not to finish the book in one day! (It finally took me 3 days).
I don't really want to reveal anything of the plot, and for that reason I will just put here a copy of the summary which you can find on the back page of the book:

"There are things I need to know..."
On a farm in southern Ireland, the dismembered bones of eleven women are found in a common grave, buried eight decades ago. Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire is used to bloodshed, but this ivory litter of human remains is unimaginable butchery.
"Of other worlds apart from this..."
In isolated darkness not far away, an American tourist is at the mercy of a serial killer. His tools are a boning knife, twine, and a doll fashioned from nails and fishhooks. The murder of his victims is second only to the pleasure of their pain.
"Darker places inhabited by evil monstrosities..."
As an eighty-year-old mystery unfolds, so does a modern-day ritual that's marked Katie Maguire as its next victim. For what happened once in this small picturesque village is happening again. It's more than a series of horrifying crimes. It's tradition.
"Take me there."

I'm sure the people who enjoy good horror stories will find this book excellent!

Tonight's Prog & Roll Radio Show is cancelled...

Hello all!
I'm writing this post in order to inform you that due to the off-season holidays me and my wife are at the moment (which I mentioned in yesterday's post as well), tonight's Prog & Roll Radio show is cancelled.
I felt I had to inform you about it, so if any of you had in mind to log in, to keep his/her appetite for next Sunday (10/11/2013).
Thank you... :)

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.65

Hello all!
Today it is Saturday, and I couldn't miss writing here the usual "Juke Box" post which I'm writing on every Saturday, and it is my weekly top-5 songlist.
This time I'm posting it later than usual, but because I am on holidays, I was trying to find a way to connect to internet. And as you can see I made it! :)
This week I am on some off-season holidays as I wrote above, but I got my mp-3 player with me and I listened to lots of music. So, here is the list with my Top-5 songs for this week:

Muse: Stockholm Sydrome (Absolution) - 2003
Porcupine Tree: Anesthetise (Fear of a Blank Planet) - 2007
System of a Dawn: Chop Suey (Toxicity) - 2001
Camel: Eyes of Ireland (Harbour of Tears) - 1996
Van Der Graaf Generator: Every Bloody Emperor (Present) - 2005

In the following videos you can listen to a couple of songs from my Top-5 list.
On the first video is the beautiful ballad 'Eyes of Ireland' by Camel. and on the second one is the song 'Stockholm Syndrome' by Muse. Enjoy!
Have a nice weekend all, thank you for listening...