What Are You Listening To Now? 6.0

[litfan10]

New releases thundered home on Friday but I have been crazy busy - way behind and several I could only half listen to so far but here is a list and I'll update as I can, which will be fun as I have a video conference the entire week next week. Gah!

The big release - Derek Sherinien - Phoenix. Happily, it exceeded my expectations. Sherinien has a very solid sound that works for him and that sound is very present here but he also branched out. "Them Changes" with Joe Bonamassa was a big, pleasant surprise. If you like heavy electronic keyboards coupled with heavy guitars and this is an album for you.

Straight ahead very nicely done prog from the Netherlands with Us on their album "One Thing is the Thought." Floydish at times but still very original. I need to listen some more but so far I like it.

Blank Manuskript from Austria with "Himmelfahrt." Haven't heard this yet listed as prog so we shall see.First listen - nice experimental jazz.

Bernard and Porsti with "La Tierra" from Italy with a huge list of musicians involved - I'm thinking symphonic prog but don't know yet.

Arcade Messiah from England and Ireland with "The Host". Another I haven't listened to yet but it screams heavy metal. Please no death growls....

Also from the United Kingdom Sloth Metropolis with "Humanise." I did listen to this. Laid back prog with some extra slow tempos suddenly thrown in - they take the word 'sloth' seriously which was unique and clever. The singer's voice is going to have to grow on me but I am intrigued.

Russia's Compassionizer with "Caress of Compassion" is another that I haven't gotten to yet. Described as experimental avant prog so I am intrigued.

La Maschera Di Cera from Italy released "S.E.I." I did get this one and listened to it. Real solid symphonic prog. I will listen to this regularly.

Germany's Panzerballett released "Planet Z." This is another album that I haven't gotten to but am looking forward to hearing. The style is listed as Jazz rock/metal fusion which I like. I like this one a lot. very jazz with heavy prog thrown into the mix. The drumming on the second song really stood out and sure enough, I found out that Marco Minnemann drums on songs two and eight.
This is a very good album if you like a strong merging of prog with jazz.

Gazpacho has a new album with "Fireworker." I have always liked Gazpacho and this while no different is far from boring, in fact I think it pushes their sound forward. As usual it is very atmospheric and airy. Definitely will be on regular rotation for me.

Finally, from Germany comes Sproingg with "Clam." The song titles to this instrumental prog album are hysterical. The final song is entitled " In a recent survey, 4 out of 5 clinically depressed, middle-aged suburbanites strongly preferred new and improved Jizzo™ brand cream cheese to a mortally wounded clam." Can't wait to see if the music is as clever. As expected - these guys are heavily experimental and throwing out conventions. They are very solid, talented musicians so they can get away with this I feel. The bassist often uses a Chapman stick very well giving the chaos a very grounded sound.
I like these guys a lot and have now bought both of their albums.

Eleven new prog releases this week with many more to come in the month. Next week are two huge releases with Ayreon's "Transitus" and Fish's farewell with "Weltschmerz."

Make that twelve new albums as Germany's Poor Genetic Material released "Here Now." Nice melodic prog very reminiscent of Karmakanic from this twenty year old band.
Great album.

 

[litfan10]

In no particular order:
The Doors, L A Woman, also their first album, because of The End
The Who, Who's Next
801, 801 Live
Marisa Nadler, July
Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man
Texas, Southside
Led Zep, Houses of the Holy
Love, Forever Changes
Marianne Faithful, Broken English
Dire Straits, Making Movies
U2, War
Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Lou Reed, Transformer
David Bowie, Darkstar

and so many more. Ask me in week and it will be another list, but I think it will always have at least one by The Doors and one by Leonard Cohen.

Nice list! Love Bowie's Darkstar. War and Boy are such powerful U2 albums. Thanks for your list -- great stuff

 

[Haulover]

New releases thundered home on Friday but I have been crazy busy - way behind and several I could only half listen to so far but here is a list and I'll update as I can, which will be fun as I have a video conference the entire week next week. Gah!

The big release - Derek Sherinien - Phoenix. Happily, it exceeded my expectations. Sherinien has a very solid sound that works for him and that sound is very present here but he also branched out. "Them Changes" with Joe Bonamassa was a big, pleasant surprise. If you like heavy electronic keyboards coupled with heavy guitars and this is an album for you.

Straight ahead very nicely done prog from the Netherlands with Us on their album "One Thing is the Thought." Floydish at times but still very original. I need to listen some more but so far I like it.

Blank Manuskript from Austria with "Himmelfahrt." Haven't heard this yet listed as prog so we shall see.First listen - nice experimental jazz.

Bernard and Porsti with "La Tierra" from Italy with a huge list of musicians involved - I'm thinking symphonic prog but don't know yet.

Arcade Messiah from England and Ireland with "The Host". Another I haven't listened to yet but it screams heavy metal. Please no death growls....

Also from the United Kingdom Sloth Metropolis with "Humanise." I did listen to this. Laid back prog with some extra slow tempos suddenly thrown in - they take the word 'sloth' seriously which was unique and clever. The singer's voice is going to have to grow on me but I am intrigued.

Russia's Compassionizer with "Caress of Compassion" is another that I haven't gotten to yet. Described as experimental avant prog so I am intrigued.

La Maschera Di Cera from Italy released "S.E.I." I did get this one and listened to it. Real solid symphonic prog. I will listen to this regularly.

Germany's Panzerballett released "Planet Z." This is another album that I haven't gotten to but am looking forward to hearing. The style is listed as Jazz rock/metal fusion which I like. I like this one a lot. very jazz with heavy prog thrown into the mix. The drumming on the second song really stood out and sure enough, I found out that Marco Minnemann drums on songs two and eight.
This is a very good album if you like a strong merging of prog with jazz.

Gazpacho has a new album with "Fireworker." I have always liked Gazpacho and this while no different is far from boring, in fact I think it pushes their sound forward. As usual it is very atmospheric and airy. Definitely will be on regular rotation for me.

Finally, from Germany comes Sproingg with "Clam." The song titles to this instrumental prog album are hysterical. The final song is entitled " In a recent survey, 4 out of 5 clinically depressed, middle-aged suburbanites strongly preferred new and improved Jizzo™ brand cream cheese to a mortally wounded clam." Can't wait to see if the music is as clever. As expected - these guys are heavily experimental and throwing out conventions. They are very solid, talented musicians so they can get away with this I feel. The bassist often uses a Chapman stick very well giving the chaos a very grounded sound.
I like these guys a lot and have now bought both of their albums.

Eleven new prog releases this week with many more to come in the month. Next week are two huge releases with Ayreon's "Transitus" and Fish's farewell with "Weltschmerz."

Make that twelve new albums as Germany's Poor Genetic Material released "Here Now." Nice melodic prog very reminiscent of Karmakanic from this twenty year old band.
Great album.

I'll definitely get the Sherinien and the La Maschera Di Cera.

I've seen Gazpacho live and wasn't that impressed for some reason, but it may have been situational. I owe them a re-listen, and might start with the new one.

Speaking of Chapman stick - someone I became friendly with some time ago is Don Schiff, of (among others) the Rocket Scientists - one of the best stick players out there. He ranges from bass to lead to rhythm to everything in between on that single instrument. Impressive.

Sadly, his house was recently burned to the ground in the California fires https://www.gofundme.com/f/schiff-f...gn=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_more

 

[Handley_Page]

Style (Sinatra, Martin, and Crosby)

 

[Ninjasr4real]

Feeling funky so, Khruangbin~Mordechai
https://youtu.be/MItG5VNI0Uk

 

[Handley_Page]

Bert Kaempfert - Tahitian Sunset

 

[Blind_Justice]

All time faves? I'll get back to this once I have a proper keyboard under my paws. It will be a long one and probably overlap with the island records list from a few months ago.

Edit: All righty, here we go, in no particular order. I'll try to stop before I hit twenty.

Jean-Michel Jarré - Oxygene: I owe a lot of my fascination for electronic music to my father, who routinely played either this, "Equinoxe" or the odd Mike Oldfield record when he wasn't blasting Elvis or German rock music like Peter Maffay or Herbert Groenemeyer. Despite ending up as a metalhead, I always had a copy of "Oxygene" close by, especially after my Dad's death.

Marillion - Holidays in Eden: Like most Germans, my first brush with Marillion was "Kayleigh" which I heard on the radio in the late '80s. At first I thought it was a lost Genesis track. It took a few years until that misconception was put straight and I discovered Marillion in earnest - through a compilation of singles which featured both Fish and Steve Hogarth. I do like the Fish years (especially "Misplaced..." and "Clutching at Straws"), but "Hooks in you" and "Cover my Eyes" blew my socks off. "Holidays in Eden" has a few ballads too many, but heck, no one could suffer so beautifully like a young Steve Hogarth. I'm aware there are objectively "better" Marillion albums out there, but that particular record holds a lot of sentimental value for me.

Clannad - Legend: In the late '80s, there was a British TV adaptation of the Robin Hood mythos and Clannad did the soundtrack for it. That's how I got into contact with them for the first time. Again, it took me a few years to follow up on it (one of the caregivers at the boarding school I went to was very helpful in closing several gaping holes in my musical upbringing and I'll be eternally thankful to her for that!). "Legend" isn't the best Clannad album by a long stretch, not even considering their very synth-heavy '80s output, but again, it has a lot of sentimental value for me. Also, it was the record which got me laid for the first time.

N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton: When I was ordered to leave my single bedroom and move in with another dorm mate by the caregivers sick and tired of the infernal noise I was making with my trusty boom box and all the tapes I had collected over the years, I dreaded the prospect of living with a dude who only listened to rap music. I expected head butting over who got to listen when and to what. But to both our surprise, we got along fabulously - he learned that heavy metal was more than just screaming and howling and I learned that hip hop indeed was an art form, on par with my beloved shreds. So instead of arguing over which is better, we both learned from each other. Without him, I would never have bothered to collect the freaking whole of Cypress Hill's back catalogue or give more than a cursory listen to Ice-T and later Body Count. It all started with "Straight Outta Compton", shortly followed by "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" by 2 Live Crew. As much fun as the sex-filled lyrics by 2LC were, the hard-hitting gangsta raps about police brutality hit a nerve and never let go. A sad state of events that these topics are as current today as they were in the early '90s. Society did precious little in the way of advancing.

Well, that's already four albums in and no metal records yet? Time to change that.

Manowar - Into Glory Ride: When I first enrolled at Blista, a boarding school for the blind and visually handicapped, my musical diet consisted of goth rock and '80s pop while the dominant kids in my new class were all metalheads. After the obligatory acclimation period, I fell in with the headbangers and they tried to school me on the classics - Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Slayer, Metallica, Helloween and other stuff. But Manowar were the first band to make me sit up and take notice. Maybe their penchant for fantasy lyrics made me take notice. Eric Adams was the first metal singer to make me listen, a fact made easy by his crystal-clear delivery. The first album of theirs I got was "Fighting The World", but I quickly found out that their older stuff was way better in terms of song quality and lyrics, including full-on quotes from "Conan", which I had recently devoured back then. Manowar's first six albums are timeless classics and I'll defend them to my dying breath as one of the best metal bands ever. Everything past "Triumph Of Steel" is piss-poor garbage though and can burn in a fire. There is such a thing as self-parody and Manowar sadly have sailed way, way past that point.

King Diamond - Them/Conspiracy: Once I had fallen to the dark side and embraced the cult of heavy metal, there was no turning back. My friends were huge thrash metal fans - the harder, faster, louder, the better. I prefer my infernal noise with some melody and theatrics, thank you. And few people deliver both better than the one true Danish king. I discovered him when "The Eye" was released and was immediately fascinated by his incredible falsetto voice. My friends hated him with a passion, but I couldn't get enough and snatched up his complete back catalogue as fast as my limited allowance back then allowed. Heck, my first steady girlfriend bought me "Don't Break The Oath" by Mercyful Fate, King's previous band, as a gift. Of those early records, the double whammy of "Them" and "Conspiracy" held my attention like few things before or afterwards. "Abigail" is seen as his "magnum opus" (right, LC?), but the story of family tragedy and a man's unhealthy obsession with his sister is spine-tingling horror in audio form, wrapped in a break-neck mix of furious guitars, ear-piercing wails and technical wizardry.

Dismember - Like an Everflowing Stream: I could pick probably two dozen death metal records to put on this list, but today I'm feeling a bit Scandinavian, so Dismember it is. While the mainstream was spellbound by a certain dude from Seattle and his flanell-shirt wearing hordes of imitators, the underground was rocked by a two-pronged assault from the States and Northern Europe. They played their guitars tuned down, their drums really, really fast (unless you're Bolt Thrower) and their vocalists sounded llke some beast from a long-forgotten crypt. Melody-craving me was at first shocked, then intimidated, then fascinated with this kind of brutality. And now imagine my wonder when amidst the rage, the thunder, the growls some dudes played double lead guitars like Thin Lizzy or Iron Maiden. Suddenly I was hooked and couldn't get enough. I love death metal, the raw, unbridled power usually emanating from this genre, but to really grab me by the balls, it has to have that bit of unpredictability the early pioneers like Dismember, Entombed or Death had.

In Flames - The Jester Race: This is literally the evolution of Dismember's sound. These guys dialled back the monstrous aggression and amped up the melodious twin guitar leads until they became the defining feature of their music. "Moonshield" or "Artifacts of the Black Rain" are masterpieces, skillfully balancing on a fine edge between frenzy and frailty. Sadly, they didn't stay like this forever. Today, In Flames are unlistenable to me. The vocals are horrible and the fantastic twin leads have gone, replaced by very generic shredding.

Cradle Of Flith - Vempire: At first, I couldn't deal with Black Metal. The only dude with a painted face worth anything to me was King Diamond and all those Norwegian forest trolls singing about Satan seemed like lunatics to me. Still do, most of the time. And then there came this horde of British maniacs with their songs about lusty vampires and blood orgies. To be honest, I can't stand most black metal vocalists, with their hoarse screeching. And Dani Filth, the singer in this outfit, has these ultra-high screams which can rupture your ear drums if played loud enough - but few people write such intricate lyrics as he does. Also, their album covers have more naked flesh on them than many porn mags, and delightfully disturbed art it is. High praise coming from a blind dude, I know.

Rush - Moving Pictures: Easily my most-played Rush album. Got into them through "Guitar Hero" (YYZ was a track on Guitar Hero III) and worked my way through their catalogue several times. Not much else to say.

Solitude Aeturnus - Through the Depths of Sorrow: I'll happily sing this band's praises any day. This record is close to perfection. The vocals are otherworldly, the mix of oppressive sadness and fury mind-blowing and the whole package, wrapped in this simple, yet evocative artwork, is nearly flawless. Later records have a slightly better mix and I think Robert Lowe's work on "King of the Gray Islands" by Candlemass is even better than on this debut album by his first band, but as a complete package, this is easily one of the best metal records you can get.

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: The second metal band I got into, and this is my go-to album by them. The mix of quick earworms and longer, sit-down-and-listen tracks is fantastic, the band is in their absolute prime and Dickinson still sings like a young god. I've learned to appreciate most of Maiden's back catalogue by now (save for the past three, four releases, they sound rather lukewarm), but this one and "Somewhere in Time" hold a special place in my heart.

Fields Of The Nephilim - Dawnrazor: I was ten when another kid in my school bus gave me a mix tape containing songs off this, some Sisters of Mercy songs and a lot of Depeche Mode. I listened to that mixtape until it split and then went back and asked the kid if he could copy the full albums if I provided blank tapes. He scowled at the amount of work, but eventually did so when I kept nagging for more than a week. He even threw in "Invisible Touch" by Genesis to fill up the last side of blank tape, for which I'll forever be grateful. That set of tapes lasted a lot longer, until I finally got CDs of the albums in question. Fields Of The Nephilim played a strange mix of Goth and Wild-West inspired music on their debut album and for many years there were few things as intriguing and spooky in my collection. Between them, The Mission and Sisters Of Mercy, I prefer the Fields - their output on the whole is a lot stronger and more consistent than for example what Andrew Eldritch managed. Also, without Fields there would be no Eden House, another band I greatly adore.

Symphony X - Divine Wings Of Tragedy: I gotta admit *dons his fire-proof suit* Dream Theater have gone over my head more often than not. The only DT albums - heck, album - I routinely get back to is "Images and Words" because there they keep the song in focus most of the time. "Awake" already is too weird for me, despite the superlative vocal performance by James LaBrie. Well, Symphony X got me with their mix of Malmsteem-esque neoclassical wizardry and their hand for sublime melodies. Of all the shred and prog records I have, I tend to play this more often than not. Russell Allan's voice is just that good.

Tesseract - One: Most "alltime fave" albums so far have been pretty old and often linked with fond or at least bittersweet memories. This one though is relatively new. I've been intimidated by Meshuggah and their "Destroy Erase Improve" album and the amount of destructive force unleashed by these lunatics. Tesseract take the general idea of weird time signatures and eruptive aggression and combine it with a hand for fantastic melodies. Their later albums skew very sharply towards the melodic, but in this case I prefer a bit of rough handling with the sweetness. "Concealing Fate Part II - Deception" is a modern classic. That riff alone!

Machinae Supremacy - Overworld: Despite my visual handicap, I did enjoy my fair share of video games, especially when I was younger and my eyes didn't crap out after half an hour of exertion. My brother and I used to share a C64 computer and the sound of it's SID chip has been a part of my childhood and early teenage years. Machinae Supremacy combine their own brand of heavy metal with SID tones into a very potent mixture which hits my endorphin glands with the force of Optimus Prime at full tilt. Over the years they have tweaked their sound, oscillating more towards metal or rock, but Overworld is my personal sweet spot along with the soundtrack to "Jets 'n' Guns", which showcases their unique brand of music to perfection.

I could go on for days. If you made it this far, hooray, you've just witnessed the longst piece of continuous text I've written for the past four months. I really should get back to the kinky shit, but with the pandemic still raging, it's slow and excruciating going. Talking about music and other nerd shit is much, much easier.

Honorable mentions:
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Genesis: Foxtrot and Invisible Touch
Depeche Mode - Music For The Masses
Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland
All About Eve - Winter Words
Dimmu Borgir - Enthroned Darkness Triumphant
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
AC/DC - Back in Black
Anvil - Forged in Fire
Overkill - The Years Of Decay
Annihilator - Alice In Hell
Savatage - everything
Black Sabbath - All the Dio albums
Dio - Holy Diver
Death - Human
At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
Blind Guardian - Lost in the Twilight Hall
Paradise Lost - Gothic
Metallica - ...and Justice For All (obviously)

 

[Handley_Page]

Bellini: Casta Diva. Callas.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

I'm babysitting Will's cousin's little girl, so wouldja believe, Alvin & The Chipmunks - Christmas don't be late...for the 6th time

I am going out of my mind...

*Edit*
Now it's the Muppets 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Again and again. Curse you, You Tube, I've died and gone to Hell...

 

[Blind_Justice]

Ayreon - Transitus (album)

First impression: It's a bit too short for the story it's trying to tell. The odd bits which had me wondering in the pre-release songs actually work much better than I feared. Also, it's the most musical-like version of Ayreon thus far. Might turn off some, I'm sure. Need a few more spins to fully digest.

 

[litfan10]

I'm babysitting Will's cousin's little girl, so wouldja believe, Alvin & The Chipmunks - Christmas don't be late...for the 6th time

I am going out of my mind...

*Edit*
Now it's the Muppets 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Again and again. Curse you, You Tube, I've died and gone to Hell...

Dante's got nothing on that eternal torment....

 

[litfan10]

Ayreon - Transitus (album)

First impression: It's a bit too short for the story it's trying to tell. The odd bits which had me wondering in the pre-release songs actually work much better than I feared. Also, it's the most musical-like version of Ayreon thus far. Might turn off some, I'm sure. Need a few more spins to fully digest.

Thanks for the impression. I picked it up but am listening to Fish first.

 

[litfan10]

Weltschmerz

Fish

Fish is bidding us farewell with a gorgeous album. Slainte Mhath, dear bard - the party is over.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Weltschmerz

Fish

Fish is bidding us farewell with a gorgeous album. Slainte Mhath, dear bard - the party is over.

I guess his voice is close to done, going by his "Electric Castle" appearance. Better to retire on a high note then.

 

[litfan10]

New release Friday! ten new releases and two that slipped by me last week.

First and foremost for me is Fish's farewell album with "Weltschmerz". After starting with Marillion in the seventies and then solo since the mid eighties Fish is hanging up his microphone. He spent several years crafting this double album. Yeah as B_J pointed out his voice has aged but it still has that wonderful tone and his speaking parts are fantastic. His lyrics are amazing and so heart touching. This is a wonderful end to an amazing career.

Another big release and another double album is Ayreon with "Transitus". I need to give this a better listen but my initial reaction is it is definitely Ayreon in all his rock opera glory but the music is a bit more straightforward and not nearly as complex as usual. The vocalists all do an amazing job. I like this quite a bit.

Last of the heavy weights is Dyble Langdon with "Between a Breath and a Breath". The album is listed as folk prog but I find it is more mellow prog than folk. Folk to me has much more in the way of acoustics. The supporting musicians are mostly from Big Big Train with a couple extras. Happily, Dave Gregory (XTC) while recently having left the Train is on this album. The music sounds like Big Big Train but more mellow, still very electric. This is the final work of Judy Dyble vocalist of Fairport Convention as she passed away back in July. The production is top notch and the music very nice. I will listen to this quite a bit.

Now the album that intrigues me a lot, Hungary's Djabe with "The Magic Stag." Steve Hackett is very involved with this project which was released as a CD and DVD package. I haven't listened to this yet. Okay, I had no idea what to expect but what I got I didn't see coming at all. This is a very well produced cool jazz album. The rhythm section (bass - Tamás Barabás, drums - Péter Kaszás) is great; really, really great. Very predominant horn section.
This is a freaking fantastic album, and I will definitely be playing it a lot.

Spain's Obsidian Kingdom released "Meat Machine" an album about sexual frustration and anxiety over technology. I gave this a very brief listen - it's a melding of prog, rock and heavy metal - it's deliberately jarring but not in a bad way. I need to listen more.

Germany's The Ocean released "Phanerozoic II, Mesozoic, Cenozoic." Not prog, straight heavy metal. Not bad, but not great for me. Yep the singer growls. I think Heavy metalists will enjoy it but won't write home about this.

Mirayon from Switzerland released "A Tale of Challenging Hope." Pretty standard heavy prog that is enjoyable. I will listen to this occasionally.

Yobrepus hailing from Norway released "Mycelium Days." It's interesting, a melding of a lot of prog styles in a softer style rather than heavy. I liked this quite bit.

A big surprise was the new guitarist from Riverside, Maciej Meller, released a solo album, "Zenith." I liked this a lot. It didn't sound like a guitarist's album more like a full band album. This did not remind me of Riverside at all and that was not a bad thing. The keyboards were prominent and well done. The vocalist, Krzysztof Borek, was good. A solid band with very well done compositions. I really liked this.

From the good old USA comes Days Between Stations with "Giants." I haven't listened to this yet.

okay, from last week two albums slipped under my radar - Moon Men with "Tales of the Space Pirates." This band from the USA is avant garde and eclectic rock and that description is exactly accurate. The band names are hysterical with Sgt, Cthulhu Moone, Eschaton Crater, Major Dom Fook, and Billzilla. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Very well done music totally not following conventions.

Lastly, is Italy's Alfonso Corace with "Fo's Room." This is a very spacy album with a lot of electronic vocals. Not heavy, but definitely not mellow - Nice album to listen to with plenty to hear.

Happy music listening and have a great weekend!

Peace, love and happiness to one and all.

 

[Handley_Page]

Libiamo ne'lieti calici

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Crosby, Stills, Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

 

[SamScribble]

Yellow Fields - Eberhard Weber & Colours

 

[Handley_Page]

It is said that the devil writes the best tnes.
A good example is this ancient 'soldatenleid' ERIKA
It's worth reading the words in translation. . . .

 

[Haulover]

I haven't been here for a while because of an insane work schedule. (Averaged over 70 hours / week for the last 4 weeks )

New releases thundered home on Friday but I have been crazy busy - way behind and several I could only half listen to so far but here is a list and I'll update as I can, which will be fun as I have a video conference the entire week next week. Gah!

...

I have several of these, but have not had a chance to listen to them - and probably won't for the next few weeks either. Specifically Sherrinian, Minnasian, Ayreon, Fish ... and the new Pain Of Salvation. I'm looking forward to some alone time with my headset!

All time faves? I'll get back to this once I have a proper keyboard under my paws. It will be a long one and probably overlap with the island records list from a few months ago.
...

That's a pretty cool list! I know most of them, but I can't pretend to know them all. I may have to do some research - when time permits.

Ayreon - Transitus (album)

First impression: It's a bit too short for the story it's trying to tell. The odd bits which had me wondering in the pre-release songs actually work much better than I feared. Also, it's the most musical-like version of Ayreon thus far. Might turn off some, I'm sure. Need a few more spins to fully digest.

I'm a bad listener, in that I don't usually care about the story the artist is trying to tell. (There are exceptions, of course.) AFAIC the story just adds a nice extra layer of complexity - but I focus on the music. Ayreon's stories, in particular, have often been pretty weak - almost puerile. But I'm looking forward to hearing the 'musicality'. (Is that a word? )

 

[Bramblethorn]

Darren Korb - The Pantheon (Ain't Gonna Catch You) - Bastion OST

I don't usually pay much attention to video game soundtracks, but Darren Korb's work with Supergiant is the exception. Hard to imagine those games without his music and Ashley Barrett's vocals.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Gone old school and weird, listening to 'The Bay City Rollers' - Shang-a-Lang

 

[ElectricBlue]

Gone really, really, incomprehensiblly large amounts of mind-altering substances weird, listening to 'The Bay City Rollers' - Shang-a-Lang

Just edited that for you.

How is that even possible? You going to blame Will on that one, or take complete responsibility yourself? You're American. Plead the Fifth Amendment .

 

[Handley_Page]

Crosby, Stills, Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

One of my favourites.

Meanwhile:

ABBA - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Just edited that for you.

How is that even possible? You going to blame Will on that one, or take complete responsibility yourself? You're American. Plead the Fifth Amendment .

A moment of weakness, a stray bandit recording, attention wandered for a moment, and BAM!! there it was, holding me by the throat and making me live the 70's again.

Thankfully I managed to shove it down the toilet and hold it there kicking and struggling while multi-flushing. All good now.

To make up for it, I'm making Will practice the Mambo, Jive, Cha-Cha-Cha, Merengue, and club Salsa; we're going to a Latin Extravanganza in Saint Tropez enclave Saturday, and himself is a fab Latin dancer (the boy actually knows what his hips are for; major misbehaving in Little Havana and Tito Puente's clubs when he was younger have served him well...) so we're wearing out Lou Bega, Los Amigos Invisibles, Camilla Cabello, August Darnell, Joy Simbolo, Ricky Martin, Chayanne, Kaoma, Hot Banditoz, the list goes on, Latin dance music works for me, Hell yeah!