Author Archives: Tim Hall

Now Playing: Also Eden, [REDACTED]. Bits of this record, especially “Chronoligic” remind me of Twelfth Night. Things seem to have gone rather quiet from the Also Eden camp of late.

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Trump vs Hilary vs. Bernie in the US election makes the teapot storms and Drama in Geek Culture looks as ridiculous and petty is it is. What does it matter if some game or novel is “problematic” when the stakes in the American election are so high?

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Politics by AD&D Alignment

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Tim Hall

This is a rewrite of an old post from a couple of years ago that got accidentally deleted from the archives. The Internet Wayback Machine does not seem to have saved a copy, so this is a reconstruction of sorts.

Does the AD&D alignment system help explain present-day politics rather better than “Left” and “Right”?

For those of you not familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, the Alignment chart is a three-by-three grid giving nine possible values, which serve as a shorthand for a character’s moral and philosophical values. One axis is Law vs. Chaos, more or less as defined by Michael Moorcock in his Eternal Champion series. The other is Good vs. Evil, which ought to be self-explanatory.

Both old-fashioned social conservatism and old-fashioned socialism are probably Lawful Neutral. Both like to think of themselves as Lawful Good, so the two are opponents when the truth is that both have a lot in common. Both believe that social order and the solidarity of the community trumps the freedom of the individual, and take a paternalistic attitude towards those considered weaker than themselves.

Liberals are more Neutral Good in theory tending towards True Neutral in practice, believing that the greatest benefit for the greatest number comes from finding the right balance between individual freedom and collective welfare.

Libertarians are Chaotic Neutral. They believe individual freedom is everything, and the consequence of that are somebody else’s problem. The fundamental split in the Tory party is between the Chaotic Neutral libertarians and the Lawful Neutral social conservatives.

When it comes to Evil, I would have hesitated to use that word for any mainstream political ideology, at least in the west. Lawful Evil or any other flavour of Evil ought to belong to things like the Nazis or Islamic State. But then I look at the rise and rise of Donald Trump and wonder…

Posted in Games, Religion and Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Kiama – Sign of IV

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Tim Hall

Kiama - Sign oi IVKiama are a supergroup side-project comprising Magenta’s Rob Reed on bass and keys, Maschine’s Luke Machin on guitar, Shadow of the Sun’s Dylan Thompson on vocals, and Andy Edwards on drums. While some of the pre-release publicity encourages expectations of something in the spirit of the classic hard rock of Led Zeppelin and Rainbow, the finished album is something rather different.

“Sign of IV” starts strongly with the hard-edged rocker “Cold Black Heart” and the ballad “Tears” that builds in intensity towards a guitar-shredding climax. There’s something of the early days of The Reasoning about both songs. The following “Muzzled” is a lengthy ballad with a jazz-flavoured solo that sounds closer to Magenta at their most stripped-back.

After that strong start, the lengthy “Slime” isn’t quite as impressive; despite some strong moments the whole piece comes together as disjointed and half-formed. After that comes the album’s low point, “I Will Make It Up To You”, another ballad, let down by a weak chorus. “To The Edge” starts out as hard rocker before losing its way again in a disjointed mid-section. The last three tracks combine epic balladry that has a definite touch of late Marillion with some extended jazz-prog instrumental workouts.

The record does have some undoubted strengths. Dylan Thompson, underused as a vocalist in The Reasoning and Shadow of the Sun proves he’s got what it takes to be a band’s sole lead singer, and delivers some great soaring melodies. Luke Machin’s again demonstrates his skills as a guitarist showing spectacular virtuosity in places and tasteful restraint in others.

But ultimately it’s a bit of a curate’s egg of an album for which you often find yourself loving parts of songs rather than complete tracks. While it definitely has its moments, it falls frustratingly short of what perhaps could have been, given the amount of musical talent behind it. A somewhat flat production doesn’t help; it’s missing some of the colour and warmth found on Magenta’s albums, or the energy and dynamics of Maschine’s debut. It’s possible that a shorter, more focussed album that tightened up the arrangements and dropped one or two of the weakest numbers entirely might have resulted in something that rose to greater heights.

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Touchstone return!

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Tim Hall

Touchstone anniunce their return to the live stage with two dates in December 2016, at London’s Borderline on Saturday 17th, and Bilston Robin 2 the following night.

The latest update from the via Touchstone Facebook Page sents the message that things are heading in the right direction.

Little update from TSHQ, alls moving in the right direction, keyboards finally in place and sounds STUNNING… lead female vocals getting there and a few things to sort but again in the right direction. Great keys, bass, guitar writing session last Wednesday and the arrangement for the song we are working on is in place, next week will be worked up with the full band. The older tracks are sounding great also, with some new twists and really looking at getting all the little bits not heard before live on these new versions… Website in good shape for launch and we hope to be able to make an official announcement in the press soon. The REDHEAD has requested by pain of death that no demos slip out so max impact on launch… however the next teaser will appear on YouTube soon… TSXX

At the moment the identity of enigmatic REDHEAD remains a closely-guarded secret. Is it the new singer, or is it a reference to the sinister-looking mascot on the Touchstone Web Page?

Posted in Music News | Tagged | 6 Comments

Extreme Metal and Critical Theory

Posted on March 12, 2016 by Tim Hall

Via the inimitable Peer-Reviewed, an academic paper on Extreme Heavy Metal Music and Critical Theory.

Extreme heavy metal music is transgressive, but can it be understood as resistant in Adorno’s sense of “serious music?” This article seeks to show how extreme heavy metal music approaches what Adorno valued in serious music and the interests of critical theory. I begin with the method of negative dialectics—a difficult and contradictory notion. The philosophy of negative dialectics is, I argue, crucial for the material studies informed by it. I consider next the idea of resistant music itself, distinguishing the negations of serious music from “positive” popular protest music. Finally, I provide an analysis of the negative dialectics of extreme heavy-metal music, considering the music and its culture in historical context. Overall, I offer a side-by-side “critical model,” in Adorno’s sense, of negative dialectics and heavy metal music and culture.

If somebody was to translate this from academic word-salad into readable English, this might actually be an interesting read. But given the inpenetrable nature of that extract, I think I’ll give it a miss and just listen to some music instead.

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , | Comments Off

I have spent part of Saturday morning reading the comments against The Guardian’s obituary of Keith Emerson and reporting trolls to the moderators. It rather confirms my belief that the media narrative surrounding Punk was the worst thing to happen in the entire history of British popular music.

Posted on March 12, 2016 by Tim Hall | 1 Comment

RIP Keith Emerson

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Tim Hall

2016 contines to be a complete and utter bastard of a year, as yet another of the giant figues of the progressive rock world passes.

Much like Chris Squire, who died last year, Keith Emerson was one of the defining figures of progressive rock. He was both a virtuoso musician and a showman, combining jaw-dropping keyboard pyrotechnics with sticking daggers into a Hammond organ. In some ways he was to the keyboards what his contemporary Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar.

As this wonderful tribute by Anne-Marie Helder, who knew him, says, he was also a wonderful human being with no trace of rock star ego.

I saw him live the once, when ELP reformed to headline the main stage at the High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park in London in 2010, which turned out to be one of their last gigs together. Even if they weren’t quite the band they had been at their peak, it was still a hugely enjoyable and entertaining show, everything a festival headliner should be.

For some of the punk generation, he represented the antithesis of everything they stood for. But surely his taking avant-garde classical music and performing it in the most rock’n'roll manner imaginable a lot closer to the spirit of punk that much of today’s derivative indie music?

Rest in Rock, Keith, and enjoy jamming up there with David Bowie and Lemmy.

(Slightly revised from yesterday’s post)

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Are Heritage Acts the Bed Blockers of Music?

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Tim Hall

The questions about AC/DC’s future following the forced retirement of frontman Bryan Johnson for health reasons has prompted the question: Are so-called “Heritage Bands” holding music back by denying opportunities to younger bands who still have something new to say?

The ultimate heritage act has to be The Rolling Stones, who still embark on mammoth stadium tours despite having added little of significance to their canon since the 1980s. Given the sort of ticket prices these bands charge, how much money are they hoovering up that might otherwise go to support dozens of smaller bands?

At least some older acts are willing to give bands from the next generation a leg up by inviting them as opening acts. Ritchie Blackmore giving Mostly Autumn the support his arena show in Birmingham is a very recent example. So is Steve Hackett; as well as Mostly Autumn, Anne-Marie Helder and Alan Reed have supported him in some sizeable venues. But at the other end of the scale we have those wretched “Package Tours” where two or three veteran acts share a bill and nobody below bus pass age gets a look in. They seem calculated to appeal to those for who the part of the brain that assimilates new music ceased to function when they had kids.

There isn’t a hard and fast definition of what is and isn’t a heritage act, and it’s not just down to age. I don’t think anyone would begrudge Robert Fripp for what is probably the victory lap for his long and innovative career. His new incarnation of King Crimson is playing brand new material and reinventing their older work. It would have been a different story had King Crimson been playing jukebox versions of “21st Century Schitzoid Man” and “Starless” round the circuit for decades. Likewise Curved Air have recorded an excellent recent album “North Star”, which is more than can be said for John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest’s embarrassingly awful “North”.

So, are older bands who refuse to retire the musical equivalent of bed-blockers in hospitals? Or is it simply that they appeal to an audience of their own generation who have no interest in new music?

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Why so many scientists are so ignorant

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Tim Hall

After that silly nonsense from Simon Jenkins yesterday, here’s something about the other side of the “Two Cultures” divide, a post by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry about the philosophical illiteracy of many leading scientists.

And then there’s another factor at play. Many, though certainly not all, of the scientists who opine loudest about the uselessness of philosophy are public atheists. The form of atheism they promote is usually known as “eliminative materialism,” or the notion that matter is the only thing that exists. This theory is motivated by “scientism,” or the notion that the only knowable things are knowable by science. Somewhat paradoxically, these propositions are essentially religious — to dismiss entire swathes of human experience and human thought requires a venture of faith. They’re also not very smart religion, since they end up simply shouting away inconvenient propositions.

Fundamentalism is not a belief system or a religion, it’s a state of mind. There can be fundamentalist religion, fundamentalist atheism, fundamentalist socialism, fundamentalism libertarianism. What all of them have in common is, in David Bentley Hart’s words, “a stubborn refusal to think.” The fundamentalist is not the one whose ideas are too simple or too crude. He’s the one who stubbornly refuses to think through either other ideas, or those ideas themselves.

Which is more or less what I’ve been saying about Richard Dawkins, who seems to have been treated as an Atheist Pope, for a long time.

Posted in Religion and Politics | Tagged | 6 Comments