Insights, observations, cheap gags.
Sorry for the infrequency of posts these days – you see, I now have a baby in a gray flannel diaper to tend to now. So today’s song (the title at least) should be relevant for all the new parents out there. From his 1981 album Cured, it’s Genesis alum Steve Hackett with “Overnight Sleeper”.
To no one’s surprise, last year’s round of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees included not one progressive rock act. This despite the millions of albums sold, the countless musicians inspired, and the long-lasting impact of the genre’s best. Hell, can anyone under 50 even name two Dave Clark Five songs? Yeah, me neither.
But to be fair, I can understand why someone not very familiar with prog rock might be inclined to write it off as so much boring instrumental wankery and bastardized classical music pastiches. But to paint an endlessly rich style of music with such a broad brush is not only lazy, it’s downright inaccurate. So to show that prog ain’t all clinical sweep arpeggios and no heart, I’ve put together a mixtape to showcase the gentler side of the genre.
It’s certainly too early to predict whether or not 2009 will best last year in terms of quality musical output, but a pair of new releases from the fledgling New Amsterdam label already has it off to an interesting start. The imprint, which opened its doors in January 2008, has become a showcase of sorts for a diverse group of artists based in the greater New York City area.
The first of these acts with a new release is QQQ, a modern chamber quartet made up of two husband-and-wife teams (Dan Trueman on Hardanger fiddle, Monica Mugan on classical guitar, Beth Meyers on viola, and Jason Treuting on percussion).
When I gave a spin to the group’s debut album, Unpacking the Trailer…, the first comparison I thought of was with Build, another New Amsterdam act. QQQ’s style of music is a little less studied however, which is apparent with the first notes of “Tøykey Jøykey”, a raucous and propulsive number that mixes elements of chamber music and bluegrass. What follows is a fascinating collection of what I’ll call “classical folk” songs that are alternately reserved and contemplative (“Spring”, “Sister Sparrow”, “Ghostwalk”), progressive and dense (“Swimming Under the Moonlight” and the title track recall the more abstract side of early ’70s King Crimson, sans electric guitar and bass), or peppy and ebullient (“Happy ’til You Hurt Yourself”, “Rocolocosmokotoko”).
The key ingredient to the quartet’s sound is Trueman’s Hardanger fiddle (or hardingfele), a traditional Norwegian stringed instrument. It’s played like a violin but has twice the amount of strings, and produces a unique echoed sound. The effect in some songs is not unlike that of a stringed bagpipe I imagine. The influence of Norwegian folk music is felt further in “Beth’s Springar”, QQQ’s take on an old native musical style that had me pining for the fjords (an example of this style can be seen in this video).
For someone like myself who was raised on pop/rock music and has only really branched out from it in the last 7 or 8 years, music like that found on Unpacking the Trailer… can still be a tough nut to crack. But sometimes tough nuts are the tastiest.
Track listing:
“Tøykey Jøykey”
“Spring”
“Swimming Under the Moonlight”
“Runaway Puppy”
“Sister Sparrow”
“(t)His Land”
“Beth’s Springar”
“Ã…l or Nothing”
“Happy ’til You Hurt Yourself”
“Orton’s Ode”
“Unpacking the Trailer”
“Rocolocosmokotoko”
“Ghostwalk”
I’m not even going to pretend to understand the compositional or performance technique of classical guitarist Andrew McKenna Lee. What I do know is that his new album, Gravity and Air, is a pleasure to listen to and has a welcome home in my relatively limited collection of contemporary classical music (at least 40% of which is Steve Hackett’s more sedate offerings).
Lee, a South Carolina native, is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. composition program at Princeton University, so clearly the man knows his stuff. But does that translate to music you’ll want to listen to? Absolutely.
Most of the album is just Lee and his classical guitar, and that includes his brief but beautiful rendition of Bach’s “Prelude for Lute in D Minor”. It’s followed up by a song sequence entitled “Five Refractions of a Prelude By Bach”, each one a distinct take on Bach’s prelude. I couldn’t tell you how successful the suite is from a compositional standpoint, but it’s very pretty music and executed with great aplomb by Lee.
The other compositions on Gravity and Air are the three-song “Scordatura Suite” and the 14+ minute chamber piece “the dark out of the nighttime”, which finds Lee accompanied by the Janus Trio (Amanda Baker on flute, Nuiko Wadden on harp, and QQQ’s Beth Meyers on viola). The latter piece is, as the name implies, a dark and dense composition that may challenge those whose exposure to classical music isn’t very broad (it certainly challenges me).
This album is definitely not background music, and for me it didn’t offer the instant gratification that QQQ’s record did. Nonetheless, it’s clearly the work of a very talented artist who has a lot to say, and I look forward to hearing more from him.
Track listing:
“Prelude for Lute in D Minor, BWV 999″
“Five Refractions of a Prelude by Bach: Variation”
“Five Refractions of a Prelude by Bach: Fixation”
“Five Refractions of a Prelude by Bach: Fantasy (Perpetuum Mobile)”
“Five Refractions of a Prelude by Bach: Nocturne”
“Five Refractions of a Prelude by Bach: Toccata”
“the dark out of the nighttime”
“Scordatura Suite: Arabescata”
“Scordatura Suite: Gravity and Air”
“Scordatura Suite: Dizzying Array”
Unpacking the Trailer… and Gravity and Air are out now on New Amsterdam Records. I’ll be attending a dual record release party for both acts in New York City later in the week, so look for a review of the show.
OK, it’s been a few weeks (more like four or five) since the last entry in this series, but what can I say? I needed a break I guess. But now that summer is a distant memory and the first frost of the season is almost upon us (in central Jersey anyway), I found some inspiration.
This week’s featured album art is the 1976 Genesis classic, Wind & Wuthering. And I think you can see why.
Beautiful, isn’t it? Reminds me a lot of Fleetwood Mac’s Bare Trees actually, another album I really like. It fits perfectly with the slightly chilly mood of the album, which turned out to be guitarist Steve Hackett’s last with Genesis (leaving the trio of Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford).
And surprise – this is another Hipgnosis effort! Doesn’t look like one, does it? Colin Elgie was responsible for this understated and pretty effort, for those keeping score at home.
The autumnal feel of the album cover extends to the back as well:
And so begins the second part of our exploration of the music of Genesis, now sans the costumes and theatrics of Peter Gabriel. After auditioning some well-known and unknown singers, the group finally decided to let drummer Phil Collins assume the mantle of frontman. It was a risky move, but one that reaped immediate dividends…
Since one of my favorite things in the whole world is telling people about music I love, I’m starting a series of overview articles dedicated to some of my favorite bands. Similar guides abound on the Internet, and two sites in particular that produce excellent ones are Popdose and the AV Club.
The first entry in the series I’ve dubbed “Get to Know…” is Genesis. Depending on your age, you either remember them as the band with the bald lead singer and goofy ’80s videos or the really weird lead singer with all the costumes. Of course both of these are oversimplifications, as over the course of forty years and fifteen studio albums Genesis has staked out an impressive claim – first as one of the giants of progressive rock in the ’70s (along with Yes, King Crimson, ELP and others) and then as one of the most commercially successful acts of the ’80s and early ’90s.
A recent reunion tour featuring the longest-lived incarnation of the band (Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford) wrapped up late last year, so I figure now is as good a time as any to take a long view of Genesis, for those both familiar with and new to the group.
Creating and maintaining an iPod playlist with my favorite songs has been an interesting experience for me. I call the playlist “The Best” not because I really think these are the best songs ever, but because they are the ones that resonate the most with me. As the playlist has grown (it’s now at 46 songs) some items of note have emerged.
The first is that two of my all-time favorite bands, Kiss and Rush, are not represented once on the list. The second is that although I’m a pretty upbeat guy most of the time, I seem to respond the most to songs that are more subdued or melancholy. The third is that if a song has strong vocal harmonies it automatically wins points with me.
So with that, here is the current list of The Best, with some commentary. As a side note, at least a few of these can also be found on my last GFS mixtape:
Yakety Yak