Hesitation Marks - Nine Inch Nails

Great album. Not quite what I expected in some ways though. Not at all in a bad way, it’s just that having seen the live streams of various recent performances I was expecting a much rowdier album in a way. I guess I was expecting Nine Inch Nails, and what I got was some kind of cross between the Cure, How To Destroy Angels, Tangerine Dream, and NIN. Which I have to say from my perspective is totally cool.

So first thing I have to say is that when I heard Adrian Belew was part of the new Nine Inch Nails I was totally blown away. Couldn’t have imagined a better combination. Then some months later that was that and it was as if it had never happened. I was a little bummed in fact. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that he’s actually all over the album, and that made me pretty happy. Perhaps not front and center like it was King Crimson, but he’s definitely there. Nice.

Secondly, you can hear a huge bit of How To Destroy Angels. Far less wall of guitars, at least on the recording, and far more wall of synthesizers. Again, from my perspective, totally cool. It’s less hard rock and good bit more interesting. There’s a lot of texture here, a lot of arpeggiator and sequencer, not near as much bit-mangled guitar. In some ways there’s a lot more here, and a lot more room to breathe, more room for the music.

And yet it’s still Nine Inch Nails. Still the same power, the same raw emotion, the same edge. And live, with the same huge crazy energy. So as a huge How To Destroy Angels fan and a huge Nine Inch Nails fan and a huge Trent Reznor soundtrack fan I have to say that Hesitation Marks is a darn good blend of all of those. And hey, it’s even got a little saxophone. Can’t ask for more than that.

I’m seeing them live in a month or so with 20,000 or so of my closest friends at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, my first time there. Can’t wait.

Blueneck - Epilogue

Blueneck. Not a new band, but one I'd not heard of before. And thanks to @ClassicRockProg, who mentioned in a tweet that the band is giving away their most recent album, Epilogue, for free (but not for much longer) I've now become a fan. So much so that I've gone back and paid for my free album.

Epilogue: short and sweet, eight songs, half an hour long. But each and every song is filled with atmosphere. I always describe what I do as textures, full of synthesizers creating rhythm and, well, texture, through careful building, blending, and layering. What Blueneck does on Epilogue though is atmosphere. Starting from the simple piano line of the opening track, Apogee, what they do is create atmosphere rather than building texture. It starts simple, and it stays simple, but somehow by the end you're swept away in lush beauty that you never noticed until you find yourself in the middle of it. 

So Epilogue is nothing at all like what I do, but at the same time it's exactly what I do. It's as if we've taken two completely different paths yet ended up at the same place, or at least very similar places. Epilogue feels like something I might have written and recorded, except after Brian Eno got his hands on it in the studio. Quiet yet loud, slow yet fast, rock and roll yet symphonic. I've had it three days, and played it over and over.

No idea what they're other albums are like, but give me a little time and I'll find out as you can stream them all freely on their bandcamp page. And they're also touring if you're in Europe. 

I guess I'll keep this short and sweet as I pretty much know nothing about the band. They do have a web site with a brief bio, but somewhat amusingly it's only a single paragraph in which they call themselves post-rock and leave it at that.

So, Blueneck. Their album Epilogue is a free download but only until July 21 maybe. Highly recommended. 

http://www.blueneck.com/

http://blueneckuk.bandcamp.com/album/epilogue

https://twitter.com/BlueneckUK

https://www.facebook.com/BlueneckUK

Roger Dean - Dragon's Dream iOS game

Got home from work today, went online, and thanks to The Verge of all places found out there was an iPhone/iPad game out from Roger Dean. Who knew?! For all you youngsters out there Roger Dean made many famous album covers back in the ’70s and ’80s, most notably for Yes (not to mention designing their logo). His incredible technique with the airbrush let him create wondrous paintings for dozens of prog albums from that era. 

I’ve worn many of his designs on t-shirts over the years, and I’ve always wanted to build a Roger Dean house (with badgers in the basement) and have Roger Dean furniture in my (regular) house. I could write a whole article on his paintings and how they influenced my musical direction, but this is about his iOS game.

The app basically has three parts. There’s the art of course, there’s music, and there’s the actual game. In a way the art elements need no explanation. It’s all Roger Dean paintings. The music surprised me a bit to be honest. I was expecting boring game music, but it’s actually somewhat interesting. I haven’t played the game for hours on end, but the pieces I’ve heard so far have been pretty good, sort of “prog lite” in a way. Not elevator music at all, but a synth-heavy and not overly simple bit of game music. Definitely background to the game, but good in its own right. And the game? It’s fun. I’m not a gamer with lightning-fast twitch reflexes, so I guess I’m what’s known as a casual gamer. Dragon's Dream is easy to play and it’s fun. You’re basically flying a dragon around avoiding obstacles and picking up objects. Not a revolutionary concept, but a good solid side scroller. 

As you play you get rewarded by unlocking images you can use as backgrounds on your device, which is cool as they're Roger Dean paintings. So far I’ve gotten two of the seven without too much effort. I’m hoping the others are equally reachable as so far I’ve not gotten a score better than an E. I’m hoping that stands for “excellent” but I have a funny feeling that it’s really only the tiniest bit better than an F. Told you I wasn’t a gamer. 

I’m not sure Dragon’s Dream will set the gaming world on fire, but it’s only US$5. If you’re a Roger Dean fan, as I am, it’s pretty much worth it though.

Glass Hammer - Perilous - The Review

Wow. Just played the new Glass Hammer album for the first time. Loud. In headphones. It’s called Perilous. Classic prog rock at its finest. 

Lofty mellotrons, growling organs, and classic Moogs, righteous guitars, bass that won’t quit, drums propelling things forward, vocals floating high above it all, harmonies aplenty. And you know, maybe a flute or recorder or something as well now and then, just for the heck of it.

This album is everything I love about Glass Hammer. Great music, well written and well played, brand new and yet completely familiar even though it’s my first listen. I guess all I really need to say is that they speak my language. Or maybe what’s closer to the truth is they speak the language I already hear.

The album’s an hour long, and all I could think when it ended was, “darn, it’s over.”

In some ways I feel lost when I try to write about them, try to describe them. They have that great prog rock sound. Yes, Gentle Giant, Utopia, all the classic prog bands from the ’70s and ’80s. But they also rock, and their music is informed by the 21st century as well. It’s the music I’d play and write if I played and wrote that way, if I hadn’t taken that turn towards Tangerine Dream and Synergy all those years ago. I suppose if I’d gotten the organ before I’d gotten my Minimoog things might have turned out differently, but I learned to play keyboards on the Moog rather than the Hammond. Suffered for it ever since! (Which I always say with a grin.)

13 songs, all tied together, maybe better described as 13 movements in one continuous piece of music. No bathroom breaks, so plan ahead. I guess if I had to describe it all I’d have to say simply that it’s heroic from start to finish. Just the way a great prog album ought to be. 

They’re threatening to tour this album. I sure hope they do. I’ll be there.

Glass Hammer - Perilous (Amazon link)

Or the band's own Perilous page.

Glass Hammer - Perilous

Glass Hammer—good ol’ American prog at its finest. They’ve been making albums for well nigh forever, but for some reason I only heard of them maybe 5 years ago, although I have to say I wish I'd found them earlier. If you don’t know them, they’re kind of a large bit of Yes with a healthy dose of Gentle Giant thrown in as well, not to mention their own selves in there too. Which to me is cool, because good new prog is not so easy to find these days, although perhaps we’re seeing somewhat of a resurgence lately. 

I always like Glass Hammer, and sometimes I totally love them. Some knock them as a ’70s Yes clone, and in some ways that has some validity. On the other hand though, with careful listening they shine through as their own thing. In a way Glass Hammer is what Yes might have been if they kept at the prog thing and didn’t take their detour into pop. I’m not saying this as well as I’d like to. I guess what I’m trying to say is that with one quick listen you might dismiss them as a Yes band, but if you did that you’d be doing yourself a disservice.

But may I make all that I just said a tad murkier by saying my favorite Glass Hammer song is their cover of South Side of the Sky? (If this were an email to a friend I’d have just put in a little smilie there.)

But to clarify, all kidding aside, if I didn’t know it was originally by "some other band" I would have been blown away their version of the song. But because I loved the song already, well that made it even better. Simply put, it’s better than the Yes version. It’s dark. It’s eerie. It’s both very quiet and it also totally rocks, while at the same time being somewhat on the funky side. The vocals are superb. The instrumentation is excellent. It’s different, but it’s the same song nonetheless, and in addition they could sure teach Yes a few things about dynamics and keeping the listener in glorious suspense. I guess in a nutshell all of that somewhat describes Glass Hammer. I could go on and on here. But I guess I’ll just say I’m a fan and leave it at that.

And it's not just that one song of course. They have tons of albums available, each one unique and interesting in its own right. It's always a treat to get a new one.

Which brings me to today. (Or maybe really to next month, but let’s ignore that for now.) They have a new album coming out next month, but they’ve just today released the video trailer/teaser/whatever above. The new album is called Perilous, and they’re calling it one song in 13 parts. If the trailer’s anything to go by it’s going to be an excellent album. 

In some ways I'm bummed that I can only talk about the band when I wish this could actually be an album review, but I guess I’ll have to wait a month just like everyone else. In the meantime I’ll just go throw on a few of their other albums and be quite happy, while at the same time hoping the murmurs I'm hearing about them doing an actual tour become reality.

Glass Hammer. They’re modern prog. 

You’re welcome.

http://www.glasshammer.com/