Music Blog

All the music-related posts gathered together in one place.

Magenta release promo for The 27 Club

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Tim Hall

Promo video for the forthcoming Magenta album “The Twenty Seven Club”, now available for pre-order at www.magenta-web.com.

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Fish to tour UK again in May 2014

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Tim Hall

Fish at Bilston Robin 2

Fish has announced another UK tour in May 2014

2 Seffield Ballroom
3 Liverpool Academy
4 Durham Gala Theatre
6 Wolves Robin 2, Bilston
8 Norwich Waterfront
9 London Islington Assembly Hall
10 Cardiff Globe
11 Bristol Fleece
13 Brighton Concorde
15 Exeter Phoenix
16 Northampton Roadmender
17 Holmfirth Picturedome
18 Glasgow ABC

This follows on from his very success UK tour this May, and his extensive European tour this Autumn.

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Tarja – Colours in the Dark

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Tim Hall

Colours in the Dark is the third solo album from Finnish metal diva Tarja Turunen, following on from 2010′s “What Lies Beneath. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Nightwish dramatically sacked their lead singer way back in 2005. Her old band have re-invented themselves while Tarja herself bounced back strongly and quickly found her voice as a solo artist.

The album begins as it means to go on, starting with an excerpt from Ravel’s Bolero leading into powerchord riffs and falsetto vocals that come over as a heavy metal Lena Lovich. Despite a little less use of choirs and orchestras, it’s still perhaps her strongest and most musically ambitious album to date.

The album takes in metal and pop with a heavy dose of progressive rock alongside some big sweeping ballads that wouldn’t sound out of place in a West End musical but for the metal guitars. There are a couple of very commercial numbers with huge pop choruses; indeed, “Never Enough” is effectively Abba with powerchords up to the distorted white noise of the outtro.

Classical motifs reappear in the epic “Lucid Dreamer”, containing an eerie atonal instrumental section that eventually gives way to a theme from Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” suite; for once, it’s something other than “Hall of the Mountain King”. The snatch of John Barry’s James Bond theme at one point in “Deliverance” makes you wonder if Tarja is angling to sing a Bond theme. If she did she’s be the most powerful voice since Shirley Bassey sang “Goldfinger”. The album ends with the epic “Medusa” with its evocative flute line. Much of the album demonstrates how symphonic metal and progressive rock have always been close cousins, with the combination of big guitars and complex classically-derived arrangements.

It’s all completely over the top, but then it’s a Tarja record, and you wouldn’t really expect anything else; it would be like expecting Meatloaf to make a lo-fi Americana album. As the ice-queen of symphonic metal, she doesn’t put much in the way of soul-baring emotion on this record, but like the bombastic arrangements, it’s what Tarja does.

If you prefer a record with a lot of emotional depth, then perhaps this record is not for you, but if you have room for over-the-top melodrama that isn’t afraid to verge on the cheesy, then there is a lot to like about this album.

(This review also appears in Trebuchet Magazine)

Posted in Record Reviews | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Maschine – Rubidium

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Tim Hall

I first saw Maschine at the 2012 Cambridge Rock Festival, when they played as the opening act on main stage on Sunday. Despite being a member short and playing as a four-piece they went down a storm to an audience whose average age was probably twice that of the band.

At the time they had no merch to sell, so anyone wanting to buy their music just had to wait. Almost exactly a year later, the band have finally released their debut album, “Rubidium”.

From the spiralling guitar at the very beginning of the album the dominant sound is Luke Machin’s fluid lead guitar. Luke also handles the majority of the lead vocals, with keyboardist Georgia adding harmonies, and some very sparing use of so-called Cookie Monster for effect.

The album displays a remarkable variety over its seven tracks. The jazz-flavoured “Cubixtro” features a dub-reggae section with some soulful vocals from Georgia. “Invincible” with it’s fluttering flute solos goes pastoral folk-prog. “Venga” and the two-part album closer “Eyes” combine atmospheric passages with full-on metal sections, both featuring some jaw-dropping soloing from Luke Machin.

Maschine at the 2011 Cambridge Rock Festival

Unlike some younger prog bands whose songcraft lags behind their instrumental ability, Maschine have the compositional skill to match their fearsome virtuosity. They don’t go in for anything resembling conventional verse-chorus-middle-8 song structures, but their ambitious numbers show strong use of dynamics and a keen ear for melody. The album is full of extended instrumental passages, the sort of thing that could easily have turned into formless jams in the hands of a lesser band. But Maschine have honed the arrangements to make things flow beautifully. A great example is the build-and-release moment at the climax of “Eyes” when a series of riff-based passages gives way to a beautifully expressive solo at exactly the right moment.

Rubidium is certainly an impressive début in a genre where bands usually don’t start produce their best work until several albums into their career. It represents contemporary progressive rock at its best, mixing metal, jazz, rock and all sorts of other styles in a seamless blend that, aside from the occasional nods to Frank Zappa and Opeth doesn’t betray any obvious influences, and manages to avoid sounding like a copy of anything else.

It’s been a long wait for this album, but it’s well worth that wait.

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Mostly Autumn at Reading Sub89

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Tim Hall

Olivia Sparnenn at Reading Sub89

Mostly Autumn came to Sub89 in Reading on Thursday. For a band I’ve travelled all over the country to see over the past few years, this was the first time they’ve played my local venue, and it felt strange to be able to walk to one of their gigs.

Support was five-piece The Room, playing a short but sweet set with one foot in the melodic rock camp and the other in neo-prog, showing strong songwriting and some impressive lead guitar work. I’d like to hear more from this lot.

Mostly Autumn put in a strong performance with Bryan and Olivia both on very good form, before a very enthusiastic and appreciative crowd. The setlist was more or less the same as earlier in the year, opening with “Winter Mountain” and “Never The Rainbow”, with the whole set emphasising the hard rock side of the band’s music. “Unquiet Tears”, first of the newer numbers came over very strongly. As has been apparent to anyone who’s seen the band over the past couple of years, Olivia has made older standards like “Evergreen” and “Passengers” her own, while the newer songs show the remarkable power and range of her voice. “Questioning Eyes” never fails to tug at the heartstrings, and she pulled out all the stops on “Wild Eyed Skies” and the final encore “Tonight”.

Hannah Hird’s backing vocals as the replacement for Anne-Marie Helder were excellent, although I can’t pretend I didn’t miss Anne-Marie’s flute playing and strong stage presence. The absence of the flute part was obvious in one or two places, and I can’t help feeling that it would have been better to rest songs like “The Dark Before The Dawn” in favour of newer songs from “Ghost Moon Orchestra” as long as the band are without a flute player.

Although it was still a very enjoyable gig, it didn’t quite reach the levels of power and intensity of some of their best shows over the past two years. The slightly mushy sound probably didn’t help, and the chopping and changing the lineup over the first half of this year may have cost the band a bit in terms of momentum. For this weekend’s run of three gigs the band’s regular drummer Gavin Griffiths returned to the drumstool because this year’s temporary replacement drummer Alex Cromarty had other commitments. Both of them are superb drummers, of course, but stability has it’s benefits.

The band should have a stable lineup for the remainder of 2013, and return with an ambitious programme of gigs over the second half of the year, with quite a few of the higher profile shows featuring the talented Chantel McGregor as special guest.

Posted in Live Reviews | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Video for Chasing Storms

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Tim Hall

New video for the song “Chasing Storms” from Rob Cottingham’s solo album “Captain Blue”. The album goes on general release on August 5th through Plastic Head Distribution.

I reviewed the album back in January; it’s an excellent work with great guest contributions from Heather Findlay and Touchstone’s Adam Hodgson.

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The Beginners Guide to Mostly Autumn

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Tim Hall

Heather Findlay and Olivia Sparnenn of Mostly Autumn at Gloucester Guildhall

A few days ago I polled Mostly Autumn fans asking for songs to recommend for new listeners. I’ve collated responses from here, Facebook and the Unofficial MA forum (Nobody responded on Google+) to give this list of songs.

It’s significant that your responses span the band’s entire career, with songs from eight out the band’s ten studio albums represented, including several songs from the two most recent albums. So here are thirteen selected songs, along with some of your reasons for choosing them.

Unquiet Tears

“Showcases the amazing voice of Olivia and pulls of the trick of sounding modern and contemporary but instantly Mostly Autumn”
- Ian Almond, blog comment

Storms Over Still Waters

“One of the few to include lead vocals from both Bryan and Heather as well as typically powerful guitar solo. A long track, but any new fan would need to get over that”
- Paul E, blog comment

“I think you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved at all by it”
- HippyDave, blog comment

Shrinking Violet

“The live version from the Leamington CD is absolutely spellbinding and contains everything that makes Mostly Autumn special”
- Paul Gunhill, blog comment

The Gap is Too Wide

“Honestly, this works. I’ve shown this song to a few people and they have really got into it immediately. Of course providing they are the kind of people who have patience to start with a 10+ minute track. It has the emotion of the best of Mostly Autumn’s material, it has that build-up and a great climax”
- Wander, blog comment

“blew me away first time I heard it (and has reduced me to tears since)”
- Ian Massey, Facebook

Fading Colours

“Has a bit of everything without being too overwhelming for a newbie”
- Sam Lewis, blog comment

Passengers

“Not too long, not too short, an older track but not too far removed from their current sound”
- David Meadows, unofficial MA forum

The Last Climb

“Shows the epic nature of the music & the inspirational emotive lyrics”
- Ian Foster, Facebook

“Always been my favourite. I’m a sucker for a slow burner! There’s something very pure about that song which for me sums up the MA sound.
- Adam Dawson, Facebook

Evergreen

“The structure and style of it just seem to sum up the band for me. Also, I have never heard them perform a bad rendition of it live. It always hits the spot. Not my personal favourite, but the most iconic I guess?”
- Ian Hodgetts, Facebook

And When the War is Over

“Powerful lyrics, amazing power in the vocals (both Livvy and Bryan) . Raw emotion and wonderful melody. Guitar just rips through the track and just builds this up into a brilliant piece of music”
- Ian Redfearn, Facebook

The Night Sky

“It’s the first song I ever heard from the band. Still outstanding”
- Rob Jarvis, Facebook

Wild Eyed Skies

“The pick of the new material – great guitar and vocals and Anne-Marie’s wonderful harmonisation which is the making of the track”
- Tom B, blog comment

For All We Shared

“There’s not one particular aspect I like as such, just the overall feel and sound of the song. I find it uplifting”
- Mike Foley, blog comment

Mother Nature

“A good one for the prog crowd, I think. It’s got a bit of everything the band do best.
- HippyDave, blog comment

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Stolen Earth call it a day

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Tim Hall

Sad but not entirely unexpected news from Stolen Earth

Barry would like to say:

Thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years and I would like to wish all the band members I have worked with over the years all the best in what ever they do. Hope I will see you all again somewhere down the line. Cheers Barry.

All of us would like to thank you all for your support and we hope you continue to enjoy A Far Cry from Home.

There are limited albums available but you can still grab one of the few copies via the website.

Many Thanks People

I supported Stolen Earth from the very beginning when they evolved out what had been the final lineup of Breathing Space. Right from the beginning they were a great example of real musicians making great music completely off the mainstream radar.

I saw their very first live appearance at the 2011 Cambridge Rock Festival; a high-profile gig like that would be a baptism of fire for any band. The band went on to record their debut album “A Far Cry From Home” a powerful and atmospheric record which turned out to be one of the unexpected highlights of 2012. A year on from their first appearance they returned to the Cambridge Rock Festival in 2012 with a triumphant set that gave several higher-profile acts a serious run for their money.

In the following months, the band underwent a number of lineup changes, which ultimately saw only vocalist Heidi Widdop and drummer Barry Cassells remaining from the original band. Even then, with new members coming on board, the future looked optimistic. The video for the new song “Searchlight” unveiled a harder-edged more guitar driven sound, with some powerchord riffing from the new guitarist Martin Ledger recalling The Cult circa “Sonic Temple”.

After all that optimism, it’s rather sad to see the whole thing fall apart, but after Heidi’s announcement last week that she was leaving the band, it was difficult to see any band continuing under the Stolen Earth name. Heidi has certainly promised across multiple comments in Facebook that the material she’d written for the next Stolen Earth album will still see the light of day in some form, and I also look forward to seeing whatever projects Barry Cassells involves himself in next. He’s a great drummer and a top bloke, and I wish him all the best.

Stolen Earth at the 2012 Cambridge Rock Festival

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The rate at which the smaller bands that feature heavily on this blog change linueps and in some cases split up entirely means we should never take any of them for granted. One of the most common things I hear when a band splits is “And I never got to see them live”. Never put off seeing a band live; there might never be another opportunity. “Carpe Diem”, as the song says.

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Tim Hall | 5 Comments

Beginners’ Guide to Mostly Autumn?

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Tim Hall

Mostly Autumn at The Komedia in Bath, September 2012

Over the past few months, The Guardian have been running “Beginners Guides” on their music blog. For each one, they select an iconic artist with a substantial body of work, and ask readers to recommend one song with a few words to justify the choice. Then they collate the ten best responses and publish them on the music blog.

They’ve covered artists such as Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Black Sabbath and Bob Dylan to far; they have yet to include any major prog artists, thought I’d suggest King Crimson, Rush, Van der Graaf Generator or Marillion as excellent choices for the future.

But what about the smaller bands that feature heavily on this blog? Let’s try our own version of the same thing.

We’ll start with the band I’ve written far more about than anyone else, Mostly Autumn. With ten studio albums over a decade-and-half they I think they meet the “substantial body of work” criteria.

So. Which Mostly Autumn song would you recommend to a listener unfamiliar with their work, as a good and accessible introduction to what you love about the band? Leave your response in the comments.

Assuming I do get sufficient responses, I will collate the responses here and on various social media sites, and post them, with your reasons as a blog post.

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged , | 20 Comments