Week of May 15, 2022

  This week really rocked. When I make these selections, I hope for the best. Keep in mind my goal is to find music to add to a playlist when forced to do some task or go for walks and runs. It is designed to be enjoyed as random selections, not contiguous album playing. The power pop of Game Theory, classic prog rock of Porcupine Tree, southern jam rock of Widespread Panic, art rock of Gazpacho, all combine to bring enjoyment as random segments. This particular mix this week could sustain over hours of listening. There’s over fifteen hours of listening combined that can be enjoyed for a long time.

Best of the Week

Gazpacho - Tick Tock (Remastered)

About my third Gazpacho album that I’ve listened to, this 2009 release has a lot of Muse elements. Where Muse keeps to a 3-4 minute song length, Gazpacho extends theirs, frequently hitting 7-8 minutes. That works because the added refrains are varied and provide a counterpoint to the base theme. Really good album. Several tracks were added to the playlist.

Rpwl - The Rpwl Experience (Special Edition)

Another good outing. I got a kick out of “This is Not a Progsong” which, of course, it is. “Silenced starts off the album giving the listener their meat-and-potatoes style of weaving in and out of a bass song pattern with small detours here and there.

Widespread Panic - Light Fuse Get Away

Listening to a random set on my player, I heard a live version of “Barstools & Dreamers” and thought, why haven’t I checked out their albums? Take Phish and add in a little Allman Brothers and you have WP. Great jamming band. This was their first live release and is the basis of the CD release party in Athens GA that was filmed and released as “Panic In the Streets”

Porcupine Tree - Signify (Remaster)

One of the few PT albums I missed, this 1995 release was during their more dreamy psychedelic period. Since some of the cuts I already heard or knew, there weren’t very many surprises. That said, there was new stuff (to me, anyway) that was worthy of noting.

Ozric Tentacles - Pungent Effulgent (2020 Remaster)

Many consider this being the best album of OT’s long historical output. The space rock king had it all working. Having the benefit of a remastering job adds clarity and focus that I’m sure wasn’t there in 1989 when it came out.

IQ - Frequency

Loved the album The Road Of Bones, hoping for more of the same. It is. Mostly long segments of vintage guitar and keyboard heavy prog rock. Stylistically not much different than other work I’ve listened to thus far, but why fix something that isn’t broken?

Interesting Finds

Held By Trees - Solace

A moody prog rock album with jazz elements. A number of things make this a fine album. The recording quality is top notch. A variety of instruments are interwoven to present songs of texture and depth.

Demians - Building An Empire

Discovered this band that was a mix featuring bands like The Pineapple Thief and Gazpacho. Turns out the “band” is Nicolas Chapel who composes, produces, and plays all instruments and vocals. Listening doesn’t offer a hint of being a one-man band. The album ends on “Sand”, a sixteen minute epic that starts out very strong, cycles the intensity a few times before finishing pleasantly.

Chroma Key - Dead Air for Radios

Another one-man band, the person being Kevin Moore who left Dream Theater after eight years of being with them. Quite a bit different than DT, this features more electronic and ambient elements. Most of it is good, but it would have been better to leave out some of the speaking dialogue snippets sprinkled through several of the songs. Still, it’s an interesting sound

The Lazy Eyes - SongBook

Well, retro pop is alive and well in 2022. But it is so much fun! The first thing I hear is “Where’s My Brain???”, a six-minute bouncy tune with girlie vocals that the Ventures would have been proud to make.

Pain Of Salvation - Panther

I didn’t like POS’s In The Passing Light Of Day, but this sounds like a different group. It’s still dark and dense, but at least they presented some assemblance of musicality. In fact, most of the tracks were darn right good and added to my list.

Steve Rothery - The Ghosts of Pripyat

Pripyat was the company town built to support the workers of the Chernobyl Power Plant site that is now vacant due to the nuclear incident. The album would seem to be an austere and sad commentary on the history of it, but it doesn’t sound that depressing, thankfully. Rothery, long-time member of Marillion, did this as a side project. Basically Marillion without the vocals, it is a little more reflective and makes for great listening  while doing other work around the house or yard.

Game Theory - 2 Steps from the Middle Ages

This is a catch-all album of work at the end of the band’s run. The 24 tracks include original work, some demo releases, and live segments. The demo work tends to be spartan and the live work suffers from uneven production. Stick with Lolita Nation. This was the last Game Theory album before Miller evolved into The Loud Family.

Forgettable

Roy Montgomery - Audiotherapy

I beg to differ. After listening to the track “Occlusione”, it’s more like audio torture. It starts out nice, with a constant strumming of guitar and moving bass line, a female voice speaking a language I don’t know (French?) interludes the musical space followed by a wall of industrial noise. Some redemption on "The Expedition Across Your Skin", but the layering of basic guitar riffs tends to make the overall music ambient and dissonant. Not for the squeamish.