One of the problems with taking a weekend off is that you need to take care of all the little things around the house that you let slip when you are working and doing all the things you need to do to keep life going. I had some chores around the house to do, bills to pay, a dog to walk and a house that needs it's Halloween transformation. The only way to get through it is to put the headphones on, press SHUFFLE, and go about your business! Here's the first 20 songs that played.....

1. Tygers Of Pan Tang - 'Badger Badger' (1980)
2. Axel Rudi Pell - 'Angel Eyes' (2008)
3. Uriah Heep - 'Tears Of The World' (2008)
4. Icarus Witch - 'Queen Of Lies' (2007)
5. Alcatrazz - 'God Blessed Video' (1985)
6. UFO - 'Hunger In The Night' (1988)
7. Alice Cooper - 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' (1971)
8. Extreme - 'Slide' (2008)
9. Iron Maiden - '2 Minutes To Midnight' (1984)
10. Mogg-Way - 'Totaled' (1997)
11. Motley Crue - 'Down At The Whiskey' (2008)
12. Judas Priest - 'Wheels Of Fire' (2005)
13. U.D.O. - ' The Devil Walks Alone' (2007)
14. Mogg-Way - 'Death In The Family' (1999)
15. Krokus - 'Shotgun Boogie' (1990)
16. Scorpions - 'Mind Like A Tree' (1999)
17. Saxon - 'Empty Promises' (1986)
18. Krokus - 'Backstabber' (1999)
19. Balance Of Power - 'No Place Like Home' (2003)
20. Black Sabbath - 'Zero The Hero' (1983)

Bonus Track: KISS - 'Charisma' (1979)

You can hear the songs while you read on this link: www.lamrimmusic.com

PREFACE: THE COMMENTARY

This commentary has come from hours of listening to this album, especially when I was sitting on public transport on the way to or from work and wondering about where my life was heading, whether I was happy with the the idea that routine was a normal part of adult life and whether or not I minded too much about how the years were passing and most of my ideals and ambitions were dissolving in the acid of common sense and having your feet firmly on the ground. The lyrics would filter into my thoughts and I would wonder about the person who was telling me all these stories about his life and experiences, his dilemmas and his conclusions.

Like most people, I listen to music for pleasure; background music sweetens the atmosphere while you're working or makes a journey more interesting; the faces of other travellers, the billboards, the passing cars, the dog-walkers or the patterns in the lines of telegraph poles do the rounds as a private music video. Then you ask yourself about the experiences that have gone into the music and, when you get tired of looking at the other passengers, the scenes from the songs play out in your imagination. What follows in this commentary contains a lot of what came out of those journeys.

The album title identifies the eleven tracks as pieces rather than songs. This would be easily overlooked except for the fact that these tracks often incorporate changes in tempo, rhythm and tone in the same way that contemporary music does while fusing rock, pop, blues, jazz and electronica, especially prominent in God Gave Me A Chance and Nothing's Gonna Make Me Fall. For this reason I refer to the tracks as pieces rather than songs. It's easy to think of a song as something a voice does almost exclusively and the rest of the instruments have their secondary roles whereas, to my mind, calling something a piece gives the instrumentation and the musical options more prominence.

LAM RIM – Path Stages.

The name Lam Rim, meaning 'path stages', comes from Tibetan Buddhism and, according to the teachings, makes up the complete path to enlightenment. The idea of 'enlightenment' flogged to us by the popular media appears as impractical, aloof and fit for the maladjusted who hop from one escapist theory to another. Eleven Pieces of Something introduces us to a 'persona' in each piece, however, who is rooted in real life and who at times experiences extremes, confronting the crisis rather than hiding it under an 'I'm FINE, alright!' smile that you could slap someone with. This is not someone who aspires to a happiness resulting from the absence of problems and the easiest possible option. Instead, the person progressing through these life stages is at times painfully lonely or heartbroken and at others confident and ecstatically happy; on occasions he struggles to reconcile romantic love and the fear of losing the beloved. On others, he weighs up the temptation to throw in the towel against the importance of realising his dreams but he's still progressing. The underlying message about enlightenment is an appealing one to me, at least, and very down to Earth. It's easy to look at all the conflicts and chaos in your own life and think, 'Forget enlightenment, I'll be lucky if I'm even up for a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel'. It's not easy to look at the experiences in our lives, often appearing as disjointed 'pieces of something', and learn to be enlightened by them.

DEEP INSIDE and GOD GAVE ME A CHANCE

Something happens in my heart, I know it's love and I can't stop it now

As the opener and prologue, Deep Inside anticipates the whole album in musical colour and in the tone of the songs. As the starting point of the album, it's a De Profundis, a cry from the depths:

'I'm so tired of feeling bad,

I need something to believe I'm glad'

Like the Psalm, De Profundis, it's desperate but dominated by hopefulness. At the beginning the music is black, the imagery is sullen but, as the song picks up in rhythm and energy, the tone is progressively more optimistic: the change deep inside that love is effecting is unstoppable, profound and total; the gradual melting away of loneliness.

In blazing contrast, God Gave Me A Chance is about getting what Deep Inside pleaded: 'Love me!' Frequently, the lyrics borrow religious imagery, 'I was born again two weeks ago... I've found what I was looking for... I need you to hold my life... God gave me a chance to find my way', all of which elevates the experience of falling in love to the sublime, not so different from the Psalm-like Deep Inside. On the surface it sounds buoyant and confident but under that surface is an unresolved fear of the temporariness of this honeymoon romanticism and an uncomfortable awareness of mortality, 'If you leave this world, show me how to fly 'coz I'm going'. There's an unavoidable itch that it's all too good to be true and one could easily be cast back into the blackness at the beginning of Deep Inside. Perhaps this is what gives happiness and romance their unique value: the fact that they could be easily lost.

Don't you ever feel that you don't want to sleep, thinking this could be a vision in your head?

I CRY...

I cry for anyone who's living outside where the wind blows pain

What might have been an itch in God Gave Me A Chance has become much more serious; suddenly you're confronted with a contrast between finding love and losing it. The previous track talked about the fragility of it and this brings that fragility even closer. The verses paint pictures of desolation and pain with which the persona empathises:

'I cry for all those dreams forgotten anywhere.

It's sad to run away, to waste your life, to lose a child,

It's hard to say goodbye, to leave a friend, to miss someone...'

While it's wonderful to feel liberated by love, it's tragic to suddenly be denied it and you only need to look around to see that it happens all the time: 'It's tough that everyday, don't you know, somebody's gonna lose someone'. What seems to make empathy and compassion possible in these situations is the love that one feels and experiences: 'Don't leave this pain over me, I need to find you' If I can't find you in all of this, I can't cope with it . Empathy must be the result, then, of experiencing the vitality these relationships first hand. 'This life is so fucking good since I've been loving you'. Who can understand heartbreak if they've never experienced being in love? Furthermore, could you feel compassion for people who agonise over their loss if you're as badly off as they are?

This world is so fucking gone but I'm still feeling love

SEVEN YEARS IN COMA and THE SUICIDE?

No one hurts me, never... in my head.

In Seven Years in Coma the persona has been digging deeper and deeper into a dream to escape a world that's too cruel to face and to 'meet' this person implies climbing inside their mind:

'Close your eyes to see what's inside my head,

between my thoughts flowing you'll find I exist again'.

It's an extreme reaction to some of the anxieties that have come up previously: feeling alienated, afraid, lonely or unable to cope with the cruelty of life but with a very different outcome: rather than 'still feeling love' this person fabricates an existence that doesn't need it, you could say it's the ultimate consumer product: a video game instead of a life. Given the choice, the persona prefers that womb-like security: 'If there's a place where I am happy, why should I go through that pain? I've been here for seven years and here's where I want to stay.'

It's a powerful antithesis to I Cry... and even harsher in its realism because it shows a type of existence in coma rather than a life, the severity of the indifference or fear of confronting real life flies in the face of the previous track's empathy and compassion: 'I don't want to get out there, I don't think I'd bear it!' A coma existence where nothing hurts because it's not necessary for it to be visible.

The Suicide? Seems to address an indifferent listener, like a rather pedantic psychiatrist, a busy parent or a partner who isn't really interested enough to listen properly; someone who'd rather skip round real problems and hope everything will somehow manage to be hunky-dory if you just smile bravely and battle on regardless, in short, someone not so different to the persona of the Seven Years In Coma. But what effect does this have on the people around them? The chorus: 'I don't wanna tell you something' projects the angry feeling due to emotional marginalization: I don't want to explain my situation so you can analyse it clinically or cynically pass it off as somebody else's 'fault' I don't want to tell you things so it looks to everyone else like we're having a relationship. 'Feel my pain, cut your veins' is a violent counter-attack to that indifference and absence of compassion; a reaction is better than coma-like indifference. But the piece doesn't end with the frustrated person committing suicide (signalled by the question mark in the title). Instead of feeling marginalised and misunderstood, which could lead to self destruction and the subsequent frustration of all their dreams, this person admits that he needs to start by loving himself and working on making those dreams come true.

Feel how your dreams come true, love yourself.

I’M MISSING YOU and GONE AWAY

I'm Missing You parallels the anguish of I Cry... and recreates the dark ambience of Deep Inside. The persona is living his grief and accentuates the immediacy of it with the continuous verbs in the present: 'I'm missing you... Can you feel that I'm loving you? I hope you're hearing this song... I can't stop missing you at all.' Something to listen out for is the singing in parts like 'People say I will see you again' and 'Doesn't matter where you go...' where the voice shows exceptional colour and range. Paradoxically, it's a sad song which is very enjoyable to listen to bringing to mind Every Breath You Take by The Police, which works in a similar way.

Gone Away behaves as a second movement to I'm Missing You. The piano finishes the previous song and after a few seconds' pause launches into a new mood. The two songs link in mutually enriching opposition. Gone Away recreates the love story that's been lost and is agonisingly missed in the previous song with hints back to it with 'Don't go, I came here just to find you'. It's predecessor is a slow lament and this is an upbeat love song, sinisterly named Gone Away from the chorus: 'I'm Gone Away', reminding you again that this love story is now absent.

NOTHING'S GONNA MAKE ME FALL

My heart is broken and you've ruined my life

This song revives some of the defiant survival language and self confidence of The Suicide? Compare:

'I could break but, hey, I don't need to cry'

'I can feel some loneliness but nothing's gonna make me fall.'

Differently to The Suicide? it's angry and energetic. Its hints at blues and electronic music fit the mood of angrily exorcising the ghost of an abusive and indifferent lover:

'I don't really need your love,

I don't want an empty soul...

Why don't you leave my head and go!'

The encounter of the two song halves in the middle is so atmospheric you can almost see it. This characteristic musical interlude builds up to the anthem style ending 'You know it's real that I'll never need your love'. The song touches on something very personal and profound, a type of hopeful liberation from something dark and oppressive, echoing sentiments from songs like I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor and Labour of Love by Hue and Cry. It gently hints back to the change in Deep Inside because this liberation and change is a rejection of the loneliness and despair of being oppressed.

FROM HEAD TO TOES and NOBODY KNOWS

These two tracks have sounded to me like two halves of one piece of music divided by a brief pause. Their upbeat and optimistic tone and their powerful confidence work up to a resolution and the two pieces focus on the projection that has been working its way continuously through the album:

'Happy even though I'm getting old

someone has revived a brand new hope.'

This first part communicates the enjoyment of love and intimacy: 'nothing makes me feel so good'. The second thread is taking control of the fear of mortality and the unknown: 'I'm not ready yet/ I have to find many things that I have never seen' and making the best of the opportunity to live rather than subsisting in a coma-like state.

RELEASE

So frail is the brief thread of life, live it right.

The closure of the album is in the form of an exhortation:

'Go, do everything you wanna do,

Be free and chase your dreams, go on...

...Leave everything you really hate,

search and liberate your soul'

You've probably noticed that the subject of the pieces has changed. Previously it was nearly always the persona of the songs or a 'you' who was directly involved in the situation. Release is directed at the listener: what you've heard throughout the album ought to motivate you to pursue your dreams more closely, to break out of the bleak loneliness (Deep Inside), to be compassionate and empathic (I Cry..) and to endeavour to 'liberate your soul' from abusive or apathetic relationships (The Suicide? and Nothing's Gonna Make Me Fall) and to make the most of the opportunity to live (Nobody knows).

The most obvious image for these eleven pieces is that of a jigsaw, they link into each other and share a similar tone or image or contrast strongly with the pieces next to them. All together the pieces make up an entire picture in the same way that all together, the experiences we go through refer back and forwards to each other and create a whole picture of your own 'Path Stages'.

]]> http://hardrockheavymetal.wordpress.com/?p=2789 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:02:17 +0000 rhodeislandrock http://hardrockheavymetal.de.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/weekend-playlist-1011-1012/ It's been awhile since I had a long weekend off so I decided to do my best and relax, listen to some music and get back on track with the website. The good news is that the laptop is fixed, all it needed was a little compressed air into the fans and it works! So here's what I've listened to this weekend and what I have on tap for late night tonight.......

Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider (2008): Alice is one of my favorite artists but I really haven't given this album much play since it's release. I'm really not sure why because he has had an excellent track record with his last 4 records. I've been spinning this more than any album lately and I'm really starting to get into it. Alice is just creepy and this serial killer concept is great.

J.C. Cinel - Before My Eyes (2008): Very cool acoustic melodic rock from singer/songwriter J.C. Cinel. This is kind of light because it's all acoustic and it has a lot of Country influences in it. It kind of has a Jon Bon Jovi/bret Michaels solo vibe to it but a lot better. I'm a sucker for good acoustic guitar and there's plenty of it here!

Uriah Heep - Wake The Sleeper (2008): I picked this up a couple of weeks ago and I didn't tear the wrapping until today. Heep is one of those legendary bands that I always try to get into but I never buy their albums because I find something else. I read some reviews online and grabbed it. Too early to make a judgement after one spin.

Metallica - Death Magnetic (2008): I bought this the day it come out, listened to it a half dozen times and moved on. I really want to like this album but I haven't been able to get into it.

Judas Priest - Jugulator (1997): I thought that this was a great album when it first came out. It's very heavy and Tim Owens does a great job singing, even if the Halford comparisons are there. With all the news on Owens leaving Iced Earth and joining Yngwie Malmsteen for a new record, I decided to go back 11 years and hear how everything started. Some solid tunes here: 'Burn In Hell', 'Jugulator', 'Cathedral Spires'.....the whole album is top notch, I just think people couldn't get by the Owens vs. Halford debate.

'Burn In Hell'

Two - Voyeurs (1998): Rob Halford + Trent Reznor + John 5 (John Lowery) = one big mess! I bought this in the hopes that Halford would answer Priest's JUGULATOR but this ended up being one of the worst albums I've ever bought! I give Halford credit for trying something new but Industrial Metal isn't his thing, he was trying to emulate Reznor's Nine Inch Nails and failed miserably.

Round 1 to Judas Priest!

Halford - Resurrection (2000): A huge comeback! The Two project sucked and I think Rob Halford knew it so he went back to his Metal roots and made sure everyone knew it. The title track signals the return but 'Silent Screams' is a gem. I also really dig the duet with Bruce Dickinson on 'The One You Love To Hate'.

Judas Priest - Demolition (2001): Priest was in the middle of making this album when Halford dropped his RESURRECTION bombshell, after hearing that comeback I just knew that Priest would have a tough time competing. Some good tracks here, 'Feed On Me' is the best, but the album feels disjointed. This doesn't even compare to JUGULATOR so forget the comparison to RESURRECTION. When I went to get this album out I noticed that I have four copies: the promo advance, the regular U.S. CD, the Japanese pressing (1 bonus track) and the Australian Tour Edition (3 bonus tracks, one being the bonus from the Japanese release).

Round 2 to Halford!

Rose Tattoo - Blood Brothers (Special Tour Edition w/DVD) (2008): I only gave this one spin but it was good to hear Angry Anderson and the boys again. This one is on my list for late night listening.

Girlschool - Legacy (2008): This album is out out in a couple of weeks, in a month for the U.S. I always liked Girlschool, they came in with the NWOBHM and I always seem to acquire their albums. This is the album I'm holding for later tonight after the NFL game.....I'm betting it's good.

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Oleh M. Taufiqurrahman

Mungkin karena saya takut bahwa kredibiltas saya sebagai pemerhati musik indie dan punk (yang saya ciptakan dan hanya saya sendiri yang percaya dan peduli) akan jatuh, sampai beberapa hari yang lalu saya memilih untuk tidak peduli dan sengaja menghindar dari sebuah kelompok musik dari Inggris Jethro Tull. Bagi saya Jethro Tull sinonim dengan hal hal buruk yang berlebihan di musik rock.

Saya masih ingat ketika band indie (dulu favorit saya) the Decemberist mengeluarkan album baru mereka The Crane Wife, seorang kritikus di Pitchfork menulis dengan nada mengejek bahwa kecenderungan the Decemberist untuk berpanjang-panjang tanpa tujuan mengingatkan dia akan Jethro Tull. Walaupun secara keseluruhan the Crane Wife dapat ulasan bagus, sejak saat itu saya agak malas untuk peduli dengan the Decemberist—selain karena sejak saat itu banyak muncul band bagus selain mereka, seperti Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses dan Explosions in the Sky.

Saya juga masih ingat ketika mantan juru bicara Gedung Putih Tony Snow, stasiun televisi ultra kanan Fox News Channel menayangkan obituary Snow. Tayangan itu menekankan betapa Snow sangat mengidolakan Jethro Tull. Bahkan Fox menayangkan satu cuplikan klip yang memperlihatkan Snow dengan mahir sedang beradu kebolehan memainkan flute dengan Ian Anderson, vokalis dan peniup seruling (band rock? Seruling? Hah?) Jethro Tull. Bagi saya Tony Snow adalah orang baik dan sopan, namun fakta bahwa dia Republikan dan meniup seruling serta mengidolakan Jethro Tull lebih dari cukup untuk menjadi alasan untuk jauh-jauh dari band ini. Dulu di Jakarta beberapa kali saya sempat hendak membeli piringan hitam album terbesar band ini, Aqualung. Pedagang di Jl. Surabaya sepertinya punya supplai berlebih untuk album ini, namun saya selalu berhasil menahan keinginan saya demi harga diri saya.

Namun kemudian saya pikir koq banyak perlakuan tidak adil terhadap kelompok musik ini. Dan menurut saya kalau ada satu hal yang salah dari band ini, ya hanya masalah seruling tadi. Di luar itu, Jethro Tull adalah kelompok musik rock normal yang pernah menciptakan album jenius berjudul Aqualung, album anti agama yang meskipun bisa dikatakan sebagai konsep album namun selalu ditolak oleh Ian Anderson. Dan kalau dikatakan bahwa masalah terbesar Jethro Tull adalah kecenderungan berpanjang panjang, itu adalah kritik yang tidak pada tempatnya, kalau yang dijadikan dasar adalah Aqualung. Album ini cuma 47 menit panjangnya, 5 menit lebih pendek dari album the Strokes terakhir Last Impression of Earth dan setengah kali lebih pendek dari magnus opus band progressive rock seangkatan mereka King Crimson, In the Court of King Crimson.

Sebenarnya ada alasan lain yang membuat semua orang (dan juga saya) untuk tidak punya masalah dengan Aqualung, album ini mengetengahkan salah satu tema favorit saya, agama sebagai institusi sosial dengan hirarki dan dogma terstruktur yang mencekik leher. Di album ini vokalis Ian Anderson, seorang yang percaya Tuhan dengan “t” besar dan seorang Pantheis (Wikipedia bisa membantu) menulis kemuakan dia terhadap agama. Di lagu “My God“, Anderson mencerca://People-what have you done//Locked Him in His golden cage//Made Him Bend to Your Religion//the Bloody Church of England//in chains of History// (klik di sini untuk melihat klip konser nya)

Pendek kata Anderson mempertanyakan klaim semua agama bahwa tuhan sebenarnya hanya bisa dimiliki oleh satu agama tertentu. Nah kalau itu belum cukup, di beberapa bait berikutnya Anderson melanjutkan dengan: //He is the God Of Nothing//If that’s all that you can see// sebelum kemudian mengemukakan pandangan pantheistic://You Are the God of Everything//He is a Part of You and Me//.

Namun kalau tema seserius itu tidak cukup mencekat pikiran anda, musik di album Aqualung adalah komposisi kelas satu yang mendekati kualitas simfonik. Bagi saya riff pembuka lagu pertama Aqualung, adalah satu riff paling bagus dan paling mudah dikenali setara dengan riff pembuka “Smoke on the Water” milik Deep Purple atau intro pembuka lagu “Enter Sandman“. Juga, kalau dicermati baik baik, suara seruling Anderson juga tidak terlalu mengganggu dan menyatu dengan cair dengan petikan gitar akustik, denting piano yang rata rata mengalir cemerlang di sepanjang album ini. Komposisi lagu lagu di album Aqualung ini sangat Inggris dan mengingatkan saya ke lagu-lagu band folk-Inggris Fairport Convention sewaktu Sandy Denny masih menjadi penyanyi utama.

Vokal Ian Anderson juga sangat bagus. Bagi yang baru pertama kali mendengar Jethro Tull pasti banyak yang salah mengira kalau Cat Stevens sedang menyanyi. Hal terakhir yang selayaknya bisa membuat Aqualung menarik untuk dimiliki tentu adalah karena sampul album yang sangat bermutu karya pelukis potret terkenal Burton Silverman. Silverman adalah illustrator untuk majalah Time dan New Yorker dan saya yakin anda pasti secara tidak sadar pernah melihat karya dia dimuat di kedua media tersebut. Imaji di sampul album ini sangat kuat sampai sampai kritikus Rolling Stone yang menulis entry di 500 Greatest Album of All Time, secara khusus menulis satu kalimat `bahwa sampul album ini pasti mendirikan bulu roma anak anak tahun 1970-an’. Di sampul album ini dilukis seorang tua gelandangan dengan wajah menggeram dan seperti sedang menyelinap di belakang gereja (saya bukan ahli semiotic jadi silahkan anda tafsirkan arti gambar ini). Di sampul belakang, tokoh yang sama nampak dilukis dengan pose yang agak bersahabat, duduk di pinggir jalan di sebelah anjing kecil. Nah di sampul tengah, anggota band Jethro Tull dilukis dengan kostum abad pertengahan sedang main di bar tua, dan kalau anda memiliki versi gatefold vinyl, gambar di sampul tengah ini cukup nyaman untuk dinikmati sambil memutar piringan hitamnya.

Nah gambar sampul tengah ini lah yang kemarin secara tidak sengaja saya pergoki ketika sedang pergi belanja ke toko barang bekas Salvation Army. Saya sudah selesai mencari meja dan kursi serta beberapa buku untuk anak perempuan saya dan sudah selesai membayar serta memasukkan barang ke bagasi mobil ketika terbit keinginan untuk kembali masuk toko dan mencoba peruntungan di tumpukan piringan hitam tidak penting yang dijual rata rata seharga 95 sen. Di antara piringan hitam Andy Williams dan penyanyi penyanyi Amerika yang tidak pernah saya dengar namanya, tiba tiba ujung mata saya menemukan gambar yang terasa sangat familiar. Saya tarik gambar itu, dan benar memang ini album Aqualung yang terkenal itu. Saya tambah tercekat setelah saya periksa piringannya masih mulus. Tanpa ragu lagi saya langsung ke kasir dan membayar dengan recehan seharga 95 sen. Jadi sekarang apartemen saya yang kecil sekarang semakin lengkap dengan meja, kursi, beberapa buku dan suara mengalun Ian Anderson dan bunyi-bunyian megah Jethro Tull.

Today, I thought I'd contemplate how we should define progressive rock. As a starting point, I looked up the definition of progressive rock and art rock. Allmusic.com describes progressive and art rock as follows:

Progressive rock and art rock are two almost interchangeable terms describing a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility. The differences between prog-rock and art rock are often slight in practice, but do exist. Prog-rock tends to be more traditionally melodic (even when multi-sectioned compositions replace normal song structures), more literary (poetry or sci-fi/fantasy novels), and more oriented toward classically trained instrumental technique (with the exception of Pink Floyd).

Art rock is more likely to have experimental or avant-garde influences, placing novel sonic texture above prog-rock's symphonic ambitions. Both styles are intrinsically album-based, taking advantage of the format's capacity for longer, more complex compositions and extended instrumental explorations.

ProgArchives.com provides the following description:

Progressive rock ("prog") is an ambitious, eclectic, and often grandiose style of rock music which arose in the late 1960s principally in England, reaching the peak of its popularity in the early 1970s, but continuing as a musical form to this day. Progressive rock was largely a European movement, and drew most of its influences from classical music and jazz fusion, in contrast to American rock, which was influenced by rhythm & blues and country, although there are notable exceptions in the New World such as Kansas and Rush - considered by many to be the finest examples of the form. Over the years various sub-genres of progressive rock have emerged, such as symphonic rock, art rock and progressive metal.

The reality is that not accurate description exists that accurately describes progressive rock.   Even the Virginia Tech Online Music Dictionary states: "There is no single all-encompassing definition of progressive rock." So the question remains, how should think about progressive rock? Should this musical classification of rock even exist?

Dictionary.com includes the following definition of progressive: "favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are"

Where this examination guides us towards is defining progressive rock as a musical form that has improved, changed or expanded on the musical characteristics that embody rock music. Those characteristics very from band to band, but nonetheless include complex use of harmony, diverse instrumentation, virtuosic performances, evolution in musical form, odd time signatures, interesting rhythmic schemes, orchestration, and combining musical styles. Progress naturally takes place among musicians as we perpetually inspire each other to constantly move musical boundaries. The evolution in technology has amplified the ability to experiment in music as well as make musical progress easier.

Progress is progress no matter how you look at it. Music of five or ten years ago has evolved into something new. Artists such as Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Yes and Rush may push the musical envelope more than others, but that shouldn't lead us to downgrade other musicians as less progressive. Nine Inch Nails doesn't sound like Linkin Park. Nor does Linkin Park sound like Metallica, but each brought unique characteristics to the musical playground when they emerged onto the music scene - making each of them progressive by definition.

Labels are so overrated.

it's common knowledge that tolkien influenced led zeppelin, but did you ever think of exactly what that meant? that means that j.r.r. tolkien radicalized the entire music WORLD of TODAY. stairway to heaven to pretty-much-any-guitar-player-you-can-name (even nada surf!). there's rock, and there's progg, and there's alternative, and there's classic, and there's surf, and there's hard, and there's rock, and there's heavy metal, and there's new age. enya and tolkien and the entire slough of massage-spa melodies. epic soundtracks, the new classical, howard shore and john williams and world-overturning patriot-shooting background drums. verra verra different, but all from the same root. I just explored tolkien's musical influence in a term paper and learned all about the 21st c music evolution. the road goes ever on and on... here's the link to violetskye.

(You can hear an audio version of this blog with music.)

In an era of computer generated music where even the most folky, downhome pop song is electronically manipulated, a band called Fernwood wants to get back to nature. 

Gayle Ellett: It's a reaction to modern music and where modern music is going and it's going so computer driven and played by machines and all the music you hear, a lot of the vocals you hear on pop radio are pitch corrected on popular radio and it's a deliberate statement saying that's bad. It's wrong. We should avoid that.

You might surmise from that statement that Gayle is an anti-technology Luddite, but consider that for the last 25 years, he's been playing electric guitar in the ultra-progressive rock group, Djam Karet. Djam Karet revels in complex compositions and dynamic musicianship, but with Fernwood, Gayle Ellett was looking for something simpler. Along with his partner, Todd Montgomery, they've arrived at an Americana world chamber music based mostly on stringed instruments. Those strings include irish and greek bouzoukis, mandolins and sitars, banjo and oud. Todd Montgomery, who mainly plays sitar, doesn't want to go to far.

Todd Montgomery: I want to play where, if my teacher were to hear it he wouldn't be offended. It has to be enough Indian where he's not going to be angry, you know.

For people of a certain age, Fernwood immediately calls to mind the 1970s Martin Mull comedy series,

Fernwood 2 Night. But that's not what the band had in mind. Fernwood is the Topanga, California neighborhood where Gayle Ellett lives, and aside from the unintended TV show reference, it seems to conjure up the folky style of the group. But this is folk music with resonant overtones and exotic touches.

The debut album from Fernwood is called Almeria, named for a Spanish port city. Their music travels there and into other foreign destinations, discovering the sound of instruments combined, played by hand. You can hear a full interview with Fernwood on Echoes this Monday, September 13, and it will be our podcast that week. You can also hear an audio version of this blog with music. This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.

John Diliberto ((( Echoes )))

andy barangkali merendah. tapi masa aktif makara segera setelah merilis album debut yang menghasilkan hit laron laron (1986) itu memang terhitung singkat. dan mereka juga hanya sempat main di beberapa kota saja --termasuk jakarta, bandung, dan yogya. sesudah itu mereka menghilang.

menurut andy, waktu memutuskan untuk berhenti, pada 1987, makara merasa punya alasan yang kuat, sebab dua dari enam personelnya tiba-tiba sibuk dengan proyek masing-masing --vokalis harry moekti bersolo karier dan pemencet keyboard adi adrian dengan kla project. padahal, waktu itu, makara baru saja memperoleh kesempatan bagus dari salah satu perusahaan rekaman. "kami dikontrak untuk tiga album," andy mengenang.

minat orang yang ternyata tetap menyala mengubah segalanya. buku riwayat makara pun dibuka kembali. tapi andy, yang di usia ke-53 tak pernah berhenti menggeluti musik, walau lebih banyak berperan sebagai produser, tak ingin mereka berkumpul dan bermain kembali hanya untuk "mengenang masa lalu". dia ingin tetap ada idealisme dan karya baru. setelah semua bisa sepakat dengan itu, barulah mereka memutuskan untuk aktif lagi.

hasil dari keputusan itu sejak agustus lalu sudah bisa dinikmati: sebuah album baru berjudul maureen. dirilis oleh prs records, label yang berfokus pada musik-musik dalam kategori progressive rock, beberapa materi album baru ini dibawakan dalam acara prognite di vicky sianipar music center, jakarta selatan, agustus lalu. waktu itu, meski tak didukung sound system yang sempurna, mereka tampil mengesankan dan masih menyajikan musik yang, ya, khas makara.

album baru itu, bagaimanapun, sulit untuk tidak disebut sebagai sebuah momentous return: bahwa mereka muncul lagi dengan urgensi yang tak tertahankan. judul yang berkesan feminin, katakanlah begitu, yang didukung oleh art work sampul yang cenderung "ngepop", sama sekali bukanlah petunjuk yang pasti-tak-meleset mengenai isinya. siapa pun mesti menyimak semua materi di dalamnya dengan seksama untuk benar-benar mendapatkan gambaran utuh: inilah makara yang tetap setia dengan musik berkualitas --rock yang artistik dan kritik sosial yang tajam.

"kami sadar ini berbeda dari yang ada di (wilayah) mainstream," kata andy. "Ini alternatif untuk apa yang sudah ada sejauh ini."

sebenarnya, bagi mereka yang mengikuti makara, album itu bukan hanya berbeda dibandingkan karya-karya lain yang banyak lalu-lalang di radio atau televisi. dari sisi musiknya, ia juga berbeda dari album sebelumnya. bukan saja karena ia merupakan album konsep, sebuah sajian musik yang bersandar pada suatu cerita, melainkan juga inilah album yang sangat pantas untuk melanjutkan pencapaian laron laron.

dibandingkan pendahulunya itu, maureen merupakan paket yang lebih kohesif, padu. hal ini sama sekali bukan semata-mata karena kebetulan ia adalah album konsep, yang menjadikan setiap lagu berkaitan erat satu dengan yang lain. tapi, menurut haris fauzi, seorang penggemar yang kesannya dimuat di situs indoprogsociety.org, album ini merupakan bukti "bahwa makara matang dalam berkonsep". dan memang begitu adanya. setiap ide, setiap not, dan setiap komposisi selalu punya alasan untuk ada di sana. begitu pula dengan eksekusi aransemen dan bebunyian instrumen yang dibutuhkan.

"maureen berawal dari lagu dengan judul yang sama," kata vokalis kadri, saat hendak tampil dalam acara launching di prognite, agustus lalu. "lagu ini ditulis pada 1987, waktu kami sudah mulai vakum."

"waktu mulai lagi menggarap album baru, kami membahas beberapa ide dan kemudian sepakat dengan concept album. kami punya dua pilihan: mengeksplorasi fabel atau maureen," kata andy, yang mengungkapkan bahwa saat menulis maureen dia memperoleh ilham dari peristiwa ditemukannya seorang perempuan yang tewas bunuh diri di jakarta.

maureen, karakter dalam lagu itu, dikisahkan sebagai perempuan Indonesia yang kebetulan memperoleh kesempatan menghirup kehidupan di negara asing, mengikuti kekasihnya. suatu ketika dia pulang ke kampungnya di senggigi, lombok. dia berniat mengabdikan diri membangun kampungnya. tapi stereotipe bahwa perempuan tak boleh maju dan pintar merintanginya tanpa ampun. dia lalu tertekan dan memutuskan untuk mengakhiri hidupnya.

"cerita itu hanya merupakan pegangan saja," kata andy. "tapi pesannya yang sebenarnya bisa saja terjadi pada siapa pun."

penggarapan album itu berlangsung lebih lama ketimbang yang bisa diperkirakan oleh makara sendiri. beberapa hal terjadi sepanjang sekitar delapan tahun, termasuk mundurnya beberapa personel --dengan konsekuensi beberapa lagu mesti ditulis dan di-take ulang --serta masuknya personel baru. kini, selain andy dan kadri, mereka terdiri pula atas kiki caloh (bas), fadhil indra (keyboard), ule (gitar, keyboard), rifki (gitar) dan jimmo (vokal).

personel baru dan faktor usia sebagian dari mereka menjadi penentu warna musik yang ada. "kami sudah tak mungkin bermain cepat seperti dulu," kata andy. walau begitu, mereka tetap terdengar heavy, seperti halnya black sabbath, pada 1970-an, yang tetap heavy meskipun tempo musik yang mereka mainkan tak secepat, misalnya, deep purple.

sebagian dari pencapaian warna itu merupakan kontribusi dari permainan gitar fifki, yang pernah memperkuat pendulum. dia memainkan motif ritem dan melodi dengan sound yang berat dan distortif. contoh paling pas adalah pada lagu senggigi yang berdurasi sedikit di atas delapan menit. ini pembuka kisah maureen yang terasa pas mewakili sisi rock makara. atau pada nomor oh bulan, yang mewakili sisi progresifnya --coba simak betapa gitar rifki melebur harmonis dengan keyboard yang bertekstur simfonik dan bas yang bergerak dinamis pada lagu yang mengekspose marawis di bagian menjelang akhir. ini nomor yang menggairahkan.

andy sadar bahwa album dengan 11 lagu yang tak mengakomodasi faktor pasar itu bakal mustahil bisa sama berhasilnya dengan album-album mainstream dari sisi penjualan. tapi respons sekecil apa pun sudah cukup membuat andy senang; dia bahkan tak mengira ada penggemar di kota nan jauh dari Jakarta yang sampai berturut-turut mengirimkan pesan pendek mengabarkan betapa dia mabuk kepayang dengan apa yang didengarnya.

dan andy sudah membayangkan bakal melanjutkan maureen dengan album yang lain.

[published in koran tempo, oktober 5 2008]

um olimpo escuro
espalha gotas em
copos de enxofre.

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Portugal. The Man is an American band from Wasilla, Alaska, and based in Portland, Oregon, made up of former members of the band Anatomy of a Ghost. The group was but is no longer signed to Fearless Records. They have released their third full-length album, Censored Colors, this September on their independent record label Approaching AIRballoons, which currently has a partnership with Equal Vision Records.

Download: Waiter You Vultures

Web: Myspace Page , Website

www.lamrimmusic.com

If you just did that then - when you located the music - you would have heard a subtle mixture of progressive/gothic rock, international pop, britpop, jazz, blues, latin and electronica (that's if you listened to the whole album all the way through; or you might have been smarter about it and thought, 'As it's free, I'll download it to my iPod and listen to it carefully a couple of times'). You would have been surprised at how well this fusion actually works in practice because it sounds nearly impossible to achieve. That's what WE all thought... and then we fell over backwards when certain musicians left us gob-smacked and teary-eyed . The success of the music produced and performed by Lam Rim is the combination of the novelty and intellectual stimulation from the fusion and the emotional and empathic connection the songs manage to create. You'll probably need to reread that last sentence and test the theory for yourself. The songs reflect reality and they signpost a way of living. The proposal is optimistic and uplifting; these songs can make you feel good about life and recover your ambitions. It's not magical it's musical and SOMETIMES music does people good.

This blog has two objectives and two directions. The most obvious is that we aim to create a massive fan base for Lam Rim, the band, and we want people to listen to the music and love it. Therefore the blog represents the music and focuses towards it at all times... only someone with too much free time would want to spend their time carefully engineering clever phrases to catch people's attention just for a laugh. Our other objective is to propagate a community. This Lam Rim community is a real/virtual group that talks about life, the world and people in the same way that the album, 'Eleven Pieces of Something' does. If you think contemporary music can and does talk about real life or if you think lyrics are more than a parody of real experiences, then you're welcome to this community. If you think music SHOULD do this but it doesn't, then you're welcome, too.

Voluntary Mother Earth's latest CD "Unacceptable Vegetable" was recently reviewed in Tarkus Magazine (issue #46) in Norway. If you understand Nowegian, check out their website and order a copy today to see what they have to say about our music.

Also the same album had been reviewed in iO Pages Magazine (issue # 81) in Netherland. Speak Dutch? Check out their website and get a copy today.

Voluntary Mother Earth TOURS 2009
We're currently planning a US tour for March 2009, and an European tour for May 2009, as well as applying to various festivals for the next summer.

-VME's "YOU CAN BOOK US TOO" Policy-
If you live in a musical community, no matter how small and no matter where it's located on the planet Earth, and would like to see us live, AND if you are part of your local scene, or know the clubs/bars/bands in that scene, YOU can book us too.

Interested? Send me an email at voluntarymotherearth ( at ) gmail.com for details.

Other than that, we've started rehearsing new songs which we hope to record and present to you next year.

Hope to see you on our next tour!

-Aki
Voluntary Mother Earth
-a Japan's premier absurdist rock combo

No hay nada más grande que haya producido Omar Rodriguez-Lopez que el segundo disco de The Mars Volta. No creo incluso que se haya producido desde finales de los sesenta un rock progresivo tan poderoso como el que presentó el dueto de El Paso, Texas, en Frances The Mute.

Sin exagerar, este disco resulta una obra maestra de la psicodelia, con una capacidad para desarrollar los ambientes más macabros y de repente, mostrarte la salida a un callejón de luz, haciéndote sentir una irresistible atracción por experimentar ambos escenarios al mismo tiempo. ¿Raro? Sin duda alguna, pero inigualable en cuanto a calidad y cantidad de las experiencias que esta obra le puede provocar a un individuo cuyos viajes más alocados eran a Oaxtepec con sus tíos.

Rodriguez-Lopez es probablemente el músico e instrumentista más prolífico de nuestros tiempos. Su visión inmensa le permite crear prácticamente cualquier escena que desee; sólo necesita su guitarra y una imagen base, que bien puede ser la fotografía de un cuerpo mutilado al lado de unas vías del tren o un campo de flores silvestres con el cielo azulado (aunque dificilmente escogería la segunda).

Algunas personas podrán decir que De-loused in the Comatorium, primer álbum de los latinos (Omar de padres mexicanos y Cedric Bixler Zavala de acendencia portorriqueña), fue su mejor disco. Esas mismas personas probablemente nunca se dieron la oportunidad de disfrutar las primeras producciones de King Crimson o lo que hizo Génesis cuando Peter Gabriel y Phil Collins lucían tremendas cabelleras a finales de los sesenta.

Ésto es progresivo y del mejor.

No recomiendo ningún track pues éste disco tiene que oirse de principio a fin (por lo menos una vez al día si nunca lo habían escuchado). Si se saltasen alguna rola, la obra perdería total sentido.

No apto para cardiacos ni apretados. Eso sí, todo melómano debe darle una oprtunidad a "Frances The Mute", pues seguramente formará parte de su discografía habitual.

Acá el progre (Rapidshare)

 http://www.mediafire.com/?lrmmimlzmll [MP3/VBR]
ambient, electronica, post-rock, progressive rock (21:26)