The Progressive Rock Encyclopedia: D (Part.2)

                                DIAGONAL & DISTORTED HARMONY
                                   
                                           DIAGONAL
   Diagonal appeared in the UK Prog scene in 2008. This Brighton-based band is obvious where it's got its roots. In the Progressive UK scene of the '70's.
   The band consists of 7 members, and almost all of them are multi-intrumentalists. Their sound resembles the sound of the '70's, and their influenses most probably are bands like King Crimson, Colloseum, and even Cressida. They released 2 albums so far, 'Diagonal' in 2008 and 'The Second Mechanism' in 2012. Their music is rather complex and hard to take, therefore are not recommended to others but to hard-core Progressive Rock fans.

                                 DISTORTED HARMONY
   Distorted Harmony was last year's surprise for me... I've never heard of this band before, and when I did I loved them immediately.
   They are a 5-members band from Tel Aviv (Israel), and their music is a fine example of Progressive Metal. Their influenses are bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Porcupine Tree etc. They released their debut album named 'Utopia' in 2012, and although I'm not a Prog-Metal fan myslef, I think it is a great album. Most of the compositions are excellent, their playing is very skilfull, and in general it was a very good first effort. Of course we'll have to wait and see, but they had a very good and promising start.
   Best moments in their album in my opinion are "Breathe" and "Kono Yume". I highly recommend them to all those who enjoy a well structed album, combined with high quality musicians, regardless if he/she is not a Prog-Metal fan.

The Progressive Rock Encyclopedia: D (Part.1)

                           DANTE & DEAD HEROES CLUB

                                               DANTE

   Dante is a Progressive Metal band coming from Germany. They have their roots in 2006 when two long time friends (Markus Maichel - keyboards and Markus Berger - guitar) decided to start their own music sessions in Berger's studio. Encouraged by the results of those sessions, decided to form up a full band, and with the additions of Alexander Göhs (vocals) and Christian Eichlinger (drums) the band was complete. 

    In 2008 their debut album " The Inner Circle' was released, and received some very good reviews, so they signed a contract with the American label 'Prog-Rock records', and 2 years later they released their second album 'Saturnine', which was more mature than the previous one, and had a better production as well. Their latest album 'November Red' was released just a few months ago in 'Massacre Records'. 

   Although their music style is totally Progressive-Metal, you can find in their music influences from many older Progressive Rock & Metal bands such as Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree etc...   

                                        DEAD HEROES CLUB

      Here we have a really very interesting band coming from Derry (Northern Ireland). 

 They were formed in 2001 by 3 talented musicians who were already members in other bands, but got bored of playing mainstream Rock and Pop music. All of them were sharing a passion for the Progressive Rock scene of the '70's, so they decided to form up a new band and play some more 'elegant' music of their own. With the addition of 1 more member the band recorded their debut album, which was released in 2004. Although they belong to Progressive Rock scene, and surely they are influenced by the big bands of the '70's, their sound is very personal and fresh. Something very important is the fact that they pay very big attention to their lyrics. They usually don't have fanstasy themes, but instead they prefere having  stories from everyday life, politics, etc...

   Their second album 'A Time of Shadow' (2009) was more well-structed than the previous one, and the cover art was made by Ted Nashmith who is the official illustrator for J.R.R Tolkien's works. One of the songs in the album is 'The Centre cannot Hold' which was inspired by the Irish poet W.B Yeats.

   This year they released their third album, with the title 'Everything is Connected'...

PROG & ROLL Radio Show: 'The Song of the Month'

Hello all!
  Last night we had one more Prog & Roll radio show, and we had our big contest for 'the Song of the Month'. It was the last contest for this year, and in general as well. Starting from January, we will stop playing this 'grading the songs game', therefore there we will not have another contest.
We are thinking of making some changes in the show, and this will be one of them.
  Anyway, last night we had 11 songs in our playlist for the contest, which started in 20.45 (CET) and lasted until 22.00 (CET). But before that, we played 8 songs in our regular program. We started with a small tribute to the Hard-Rock scene of the '70's, and we continued with 4 big bands of a more 'Progressive' orientation. And after those 8 songs the contest begun.
   And at the end of our show, we knew which song was voted from the audience as the Song of the month for November, and at the same time was the last entry in our annual Top-10.
 And this song is no other than the wonderful 'Life on Mars?' by David Bowie!
 Here you can see the whole playlist from last night, and at the end I will add a video with the winning song.

LED ZEPPELIN: Since I’ve been loving you (Live) /  DEEP PURPLE: Might Just take your life /  URIAH HEEP: Look at yourself / THIN LIZZY: Emerald / MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND: Visionary Mountains / PINK FLOYD: Dogs of War / ROXY MUSIC: Ladytron / JETHRO TULL: Jack – A – Lynn 

SONG OF THE MONTH CONTEST: MARILLION: Lavender / WISHBONE ASH: Warrior / CHRIS DE BURGH: Spaceman came travelling / DAVID BOWIE: Life on Mars? / GENESIS: The Knife / LORENNA Mc KENNITT: La Serenissima / PETER HAMMILL: Wilhelmina / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Mockingbird / RENAISSANCE: Ocean Gypsy / VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: Cat’s Eye/Yellow Fever  / LED ZEPPELIN: Stairway to Heaven (Live)…

I want to thank all of you who joined last night, and participated or not. I hope you enjoyed the music, and you had 2 nice hours with us.

In the following video you can listen to the winning song.

Thank you all for reading, and have a great month! 

                              

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.69

Hello!
 This week has been very difficult one, therefore I had not so much time to listen to lots of music
as usual. Expecially yesterday and today I had a jammed program. (That's why this post comes later
than usual).
But I found some time to write down my best 5 songs for the week, so here they are:

Thin Lizzy: Emerald (Jailbreak - 1976)
Santana: Oneness (Oneness - 1979)
Van Der Graaf Generator: Every Bloody Emperor (Present - 2005)
Crippled Black Phoenix: The heart of Every Country (Mankind - The Crafty Ape - 2012)
Led Zeppelin: Since I've been  Loving you (Live) (The Song Remains the Same - 1976)

And as usual, I will post here a couple of videos for you to listen.
On the first video you can listen to 'Every Bloody Emperor' by Van Der Graaf Generator, and on the second one you can see the magnificent 'Since I've been Loving you' from the live DVD The Song Remains the Same by Led Zeppelin. 
I hope you'll like them.
Have a great weekend all!
Thanks for reading. :)

                          

                                    

PROG & ROLL Radio show Presents: 'The song of the Month' contest...

I want to inform you that on this Sunday (1/12/2013) on Prog & Roll Radio Show we will have our big contest for 'The Song of the Month'.
For those who don't know what that means, let me write a few things about it:
On each of our shows, we ask from our audience to grade the songs we play on a scale from 1-10. At the end of each show we make the calculations, and we see the average points of each song. The best 5 songs in rating are entering the Top-5 list, but that's not all. The songs which achieved an average of 8.5 or higher, are going on a separate list, and on the first show of each month we play them again, and the audience is grading them once more, but this time in a more serious manner. And at the end of this special show, the song with the highest rating is 'The song of the month'.
   This contest will be the last we will ever do, because starting from January we are planning to make some changes in our show.
In a nutshell, don't miss this Sunday's Prog & Roll, because we have some excellent songs in our playlist, and I believe you will enjoy it! :)
I hope to 'see you' online...
Thanks for reading :)

Spotlights on: ARENA

Today I will write about the very good and rather unknown English Neo-Prog band Arena.
   They were formed in 1995 by the keyboardist Clive Nolan (ex-member of  Pendragon and Shadowland), and the drummer Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion), who are the only steady members from 1995 'till today. The basic 'problem' of the band was the non steady line up. Many members came and gone through the years, and that affected their musical personality. Especially the frequent changes of their singers was a major problem for their sound. (They have changed 4 lead singers so far).
   Their best period was most probably between 1996 - 2000 on which they released 3 of their best albums (Pride - 1996, The Visitor - 1998, Immortal - 2000). Their full discography consists of 7 studio and 4 live albums.
   Arena are one of the bands which are deeply influenced by Marillion's sound, and their music style varies from  Symphonic-Prog to Hard Rock. They also tried to write their own epic pieces, and I have to admit they were sucesfull in their efforts. (Fine examples are the songs Solomon and Sirens).
   Concluding this post, I must say that I strongly recommend Arena to those who are fond of melodic Progressive Rock, and of course to all Marillion fans!
  I will post here a couple of songs as well, for you to listen.
On the first video you can see a live version of the beautiful 'Butterfly Man' and on the second one you can see 'Sirens' also from a live version.
I hope you will like them.
Thank you for reading...

                                           

                                         

PROG & ROLL Radio show (24/11/2013) Top-5 and full playlist..

Good morning everybody!
Last night's Prog & Roll was a nice one in general I think.
We had enough crowd listening and many of them participating as well. Once more we played our "game" by asking our audience to grade the songs, and many participated.
We had also a music contest, on which we played a cover version of a song, and we were asking who was the band who recorded the original version, and the name of the song.
The winner of the contest has the right to name a band, and we have to start our next show with this band. So, our next show will start with Led Zeppelin... (this was the winner's choice).
 And now I will write down last night's top-5 songs according to our audience's grades:

1. LOREENA Mc KENNITT: La Serenissima
2. RENAISSANCE: Ocean Gypsy
3. BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Mockinbbird
4. GENESIS: The Return of the Giant Hogweed
5. FAIRPORT CONVENTION: The Time is Near

And here you can see the whole playlist from last night:

VELVET UNDERGROUND: I’m Waiting for the man / SPIRIT: I Got a Line on You / SANTANA: Oye Como Va / MOTHER SUPERIOR: Ticklish all sorts / IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY: Bombay Calling / BREATHING SPACE: Below the Radar / DREAM THEATER: Another Day / IQ: Frequency  / THE 3^rd AND THE MORTAL: Shaman / SAVIOUR MACHINE: Legion / BLACKMORE’S NIGHT: Street of Dreams (Music Contest) / STRAWBS: Stormy Down / FAIRPORT CONVENTION: The Time is Near / MARILLION: Market Square Heroes / ARENA: Running from Damascus / GENESIS: The Return of the Giant Hogweed / STEVEN WILSON: Postcard / PENDRAGON: King of the Castle / LOREENA Mc KENNITT: La Serenissima  / RENAISSANCE: Ocean Gypsy / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Mockingbird.

As for next Sunday's Prog & Roll, we'll have our big contest for the 'Song of the Month', which most probably will be the last contest of that kind we will do. We have 11 great songs in our playlist, and I'm guessing there's gonna be a tough contest!

I want to thank you all who joined our show, and I hope you had some nice time.

And as usual, I'l post here last night's winning song. 

Enjoy it!

Thanks for reading... :) 

                           

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.68

Heya all! :)
Another Saturday came, so it's time to post here my Top-5 songs for this last week... 

I had a nice week (musically) and I did listen to many wonderful songs and albums, so the decision was not easy at all!
After I put some thought on it, I chose the following 5 songs as my best:

Genesis: The Return of the Giant Hogweed (Nursery Cryme - 1971)
Cockney Rebel: Death Trip (The Human Menagerie - 1973)
Fairport Convention: The Time is Near (Babbacombe Lee - 1971)
Galahad: Richelieu's Prayer (Beyond the Realms of Euphoria - 2012)
Arena: Sirens (Pride - 1996)

Some of those songs are included in tomorrow's Prog & Roll radio show, but I'm not gonna reveal which ones... ;)
And as usual, I will conclude this post by adding 2 videos for you to listen.
First one is the magnificent 'Death Trip' by Cockney Rebel, and the second one is 'Richelieu's Prayer' by Galahad. I hope you will like them.
Have a great Weekend everybody, and thanks for reading... :)

                                    

                                      

Goodies from GFreedom's Music Collection #10

FAIRPORT CONVENTION: Babbacomble Lee  (The first Folk-Rock Opera)

   Fairport Convention were formed in 1967, and are widely regarded as a very important and influential band in the English Folk-Rock scene. During the first years they had very important
musicians in their ranks such as Simon Nicol (Guitar, vovals), Dave Pegg (Bass, Mandolin, Backing Vocals), Judy Dyble (Piano, autoharp, Vocals), and Sandy Denny (Piano Vocals), just to name a few.
In their early years they were influenced from the American Folk-Rock scene and that's why many people were confused thinking they were from the States. Further than this, because of their name and especially the use of two lead singers (male & female) the British audience gave them the nickname the "British Jefferson Aiplane".
  Between 1967 and 1970 many members came and gone, but after the departure of Sandy Denny in
1970, Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg took over, and the band changed its musical direction.
   In 1971 Fairport Convention released their most ambitious work so far, which was the first Folk-Rock opera ever recorded, named 'Babbacomble Lee', and it was a concept album.
  The album follows John 'Babbacombe' Lee's life story, who was a Victorian-Era muderer, he got arrested, and condemned to death by hanging. But finally he was set free, when for 3 concecutive times the gallow didn't work properly!
  The songs describe his boyhood poverty, his time in the Royal Navy, and his  being invalided out. The album then describes how Lee went to work in the service of a Miss Keyes. While Lee was in her
service, she was murdered, and he was accused, tried and convicted of the crime, and sentenced to death. However, when authorities attempted to hang him, the gallows failed three times, resulting in his release. These events are all told in song, and all but one of those songs are originals.
   Although is not my favorite album by Fairport Convention, I have to admit that is a really serious and ambitious work, very important for the Folk-Rock scene of England. As for all those who are familiar with the female vocals in Fairport Convention's album, may find weird the fact that there are no female vocals at all.
   In the following video you can listen to one of my favorites from this album, 'The Time is Near'.
Thank you for reading! :)

                                        

TV Series: The White Queen (2013)

The White Queen is a BBC production Tv Series, consisting of 10 episodes, and each episode is almost an hour long.
The background, the story & the plot are set in England during the 'War of the Roses', where there
were two main factions fighting for the throne of England. The House of York, and the House of Lancaster. But it's not exactly a historical series, because the story is based on a series of Historical novels written by Philippa Gregory, named 'The cousin's war'. The story starts in 1464, and the war between the two Houses is already in its ninth year. In the first episodes, we see the marriage of King Edward with Elisabeth, and next we see the events which followed because of this marriage.
As you can probably understand the intrigues, the backstabbings, the murders etc, are always present in each episode.

In general, I found 'The White Queen' very interesting and pleasant to watch, although I disagree at some points. For example it shows Queen Elisabeth dealing a lot with witchcraft, while there are no historical evidents that proves such thing.  
  Another thing that disturbed me was the end, which leaves you with a bitter-sweet taste, because it seems as it is unfinished. The first idea that came to my mind was that there will be another season next year which will continue the story. But then I read that BBC stated there is no plan for a second season, so the story ends there.
Anyway, I strongly recommend 'The White Queen' to those who are interested in historical movies or series, and especially to those who like reading or watching about the English history of the time.
 If I had to rate the series, my rating would be 7.5 - 8.00
IMDB has a rating of 7.6, and TV.com of 8.6
I hope you'll find this post interesting & helpful.
Thanks for reading... :)
In thee following video you can watch the trailer.