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Opeth - Damnation (2003)

Uncharacteristic of earlier Opeth in that it features all clean vocals and isn't "metal" by any stretch of the definition. And while it wears its '70s prog rock influences proudly (hey, mellotron!) it isn't much like their recent retro-prog albums either. Much quieter, and more introspective. One of my favorite Opeth albums.

Taken together with its separated-at-birth fraternal twin Deliverance (they were originally intended to be released together as a double album) it's very much a yin/yang sort of thing. While Damnation is easily the mellowest album they've ever done, much of Deliverance is an in-your-face slab of high-energy progressive death metal, more reminiscent of their 2001 release Blackwater Park. (And also very good, but in a different way.)

Lost Tribe - Soulfish (1994)

Hard to describe these guys. Jazz/funk/prog/metal/hip-hop fusion? Released on Windham Hill (a label generally known for its New Age releases), I'm sure Lost Tribe really confused a lot of Windham Hill fans. Haven't listened to this in a while. It's kind of like getting re-acquainted with an eccentric friend you haven't seen in a few years.

Just to give you an idea of the schizophrenic nature of this release (hard to believe these are all the same band, from the same album):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh0touCiG9o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRKJv8Tqk-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZIBcji3Vg4

Yup, everything from hip-hop to mellow jazz to thrashy metal (albeit with a saxophone thrown into the mix, doing battle with the chugging guitars...)

just brew it! wrote:

Opeth - Damnation (2003)

Uncharacteristic of earlier Opeth in that it features all clean vocals and isn't "metal" by any stretch of the definition. And while it wears its '70s prog rock influences proudly (hey, mellotron!) it isn't much like their recent retro-prog albums either. Much quieter, and more introspective. One of my favorite Opeth albums.

Taken together with its separated-at-birth fraternal twin Deliverance (they were originally intended to be released together as a double album) it's very much a yin/yang sort of thing. While Damnation is easily the mellowest album they've ever done, much of Deliverance is an in-your-face slab of high-energy progressive death metal, more reminiscent of their 2001 release Blackwater Park. (And also very good, but in a different way.)

Damnation is probably my favorite album...period, not just of Opeth. First time listening to that album I was driving back home at 2 in the morning from a gig out in the middle of nowhere in a little piece of paradise known as the Wisconsin Dells. If you have never been there, it is all heavily forested hills and ravines dotted with interconnected lakes, with roads winding and curving in and around in all manor of directions around the lakes and cliffs. The area is hauntingly beautiful on a Summer's day and out right haunting at 2 in the morning. Listening to Windowpane driving through those woods gave me chills and it is an image I recall now every time I have listened to the album since.

In Each Hand a Cutlass - A Universe Made of Strings.

Too tired this morning to listen to anything with vocals.

Bill Frisell - This Land (1994)

A quirky fusion of Jazz and Americana, showcasing Frisell's unique guitar style throughout, in an ensemble which also features drums, bass, trombone, clarinet, and saxophone. I've owned this CD since shortly after its release, but somehow it hasn't made it into my playlist in, oh, probably 5 years at least. This is really quite good, and the quality of the recording itself is flawless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iReHLFd ... ReHLFdgDSk

Burnt Belief - Emergent (2016)

Instrumental prog/ambient album from the former bass player of Porcupine Tree, with guitarist Jon Durant. In a rather odd coincidence, this is the second album named Emergent I have purchased in the past month (the other one being by Gordian Knot).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocaj666E40g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lapxCfEVU1g

Project Z - Lincoln Memorial (2005)

Overall more experimental (and dissonant) than their self-titled debut from a few years prior. This is still good stuff, but I prefer the other one...

JBI - Do you use PLEX for your music? If yes, send me a PM and we can swap emails and set up some friend library sharing. If no, then you should

Anovoca wrote:

JBI - Do you use PLEX for your music? If yes, send me a PM and we can swap emails and set up some friend library sharing. If no, then you should

No, I don't. Will look into it.

just brew it! wrote:

Anovoca wrote:

JBI - Do you use PLEX for your music? If yes, send me a PM and we can swap emails and set up some friend library sharing. If no, then you should

No, I don't. Will look into it.

I can share my library with you even if you don't have a library of your own to share back. You will still need to create an account but you can at least try out the service running off my server before you decide if you want to set up your own. Just PM me your email and Ill throw you an share invite and you can start streaming my music library on desktop. (requires membership to stream on mobile)

The Sword - High Country.

A great garage-jam metal band out of Atlanta that has picked up an interesting prog edge to their sound while touring with Opeth through N.A. While I enjoy the sound of High Country I can't say I hope they write more like it, as a jam metal band, they remind me a lot of some of the early pioneers of metal in the mid to late 70s. Their prog sound is fine, but lacks that air of nostalgia that makes their metal albums so endearing to me.

The same 12 bars of bad pseudo-bluegrass while waiting for a conference call to start.

Steve Tibbetts - A Man About A Horse (2002)

One of the more interesting guitarists in the ECM stable (heh). Can veer from ambient volume pedal washes, to acoustic interludes, to gnarly electric solos, sometimes all within the same song. This is often accompanied by Eastern-tinged percussion. Most prolific during the 1980s, his releases have slowed to a trickle since the turn of the millennium. This one's pretty good, though Exploded View (1987) probably remains my favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rij7uO48UAk

Steve Tibbetts - Natural Causes (2010)

Moving along through the Tibbetts catalog... unlike most of his other releases, this one's entirely acoustic. Quiet and introspective, with occasional piano and steel drums. In some ways this feels like a sequel to his 1981 acoustic album Northern Song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdLrq6aiUL4

Yeah, those are both ECM releases fer sure.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Don't Stop Believin'

Please, settle your differences for just one night. Journey going into the R&R HOF without Steve Perry singing is the end of the Sopranos all over again.

Captain Ned wrote:

Yeah, those are both ECM releases fer sure.

Yeah, the "ECM Sound" is definitely a thing, but not a hard rule.

Terje Rypdal is one of their "regulars" who doesn't always fit the mold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUB--_f7XUg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqAehJNPdrA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bHRvd-wx2s

Definitely more "groove" oriented than typical ECM fare. There's something about the mix that is still vaguely ECM-ish though... I think it is the drums.

Edit: Speaking of drums... pop quiz, Ned - Name an ECM release that Bill Bruford appears on.

Terje Rypdal - Blue (1986)

Pursuant to the tangent in the above post. Definitely a candidate for my "desert island discs" list. Rypdal's three 1980s releases with his "Chasers" lineup are, IMO, a near-perfect marriage of ECM's "Euro Jazz" vibe with harder-edged rock influences.

(Third YouTube link in the above post is a track from this album.)

just brew it! wrote:

Edit: Speaking of drums... pop quiz, Ned - Name an ECM release that Bill Bruford appears on.

Honorably, I will not answer, for to do so would require the services of Google.

That said, when you tell me I'm going to kick myself.

Captain Ned wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Edit: Speaking of drums... pop quiz, Ned - Name an ECM release that Bill Bruford appears on.

Honorably, I will not answer, for to do so would require the services of Google.

That said, when you tell me I'm going to kick myself.

David Torn - Cloud About Mercury (1987)

Tony Levin too, BTW.

This was during Bruford's "electronic percussion" period, FWIW... I prefer him on the acoustic kit, but this is still some great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPSomnh-8VM

OK, we're goin' deep on Bruford now!

In the same general timeframe as the David Torn project, he did a couple of albums with Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe and Jeff Berlin (bass player from Bruford's earlier solo projects).

Here's one of their concerts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQKDRed7QLc

The relevant studio albums are Spice Of Life and Spice Of Life Too, with the first one being the better one by far. (Second one seemed to suffer a bit from "sophomore slump".)

Edit: I've been working on filling out my collection of Bruford recordings lately. I already own most of them, but still keep finding random tidbits here and there, like the second Gordian Knot album, and Earthworks Underground Orchestra.

I suppose I'll get caught up eventually, now that he's retired.

Eric Gales Trio - Ghost Notes (2013)

A wonderful little slice of guitar-driven instrumental blues/rock (and a few other styles too).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p996oaOq7WU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO1serASuMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJysl52LuU

Paradox - Broken Barricade (1994)

Relatively unknown (and apparently short-lived) Japanese fusion band which, AFAICT, only released this one CD. The bass player has clearly been listening to some Jaco and/or Jeff Berlin. Musically this also reminds me a bit of Bill Connors' 1980s fusion releases -- jazz/rock with a touch of funk influence, featuring a mix of chiming guitar chords (with lots of reverb) and overdriven legato leads. Lead tone is thinner and more trebly than Connors' though.

Another CD that has been in my collection for a long time, that I haven't listened to in a few years.

Sorry, no YouTube links for this one; apparently they're too obscure. Looks like there are used copies available on Amazon from 3rd party sellers though.

Jonas Hellborg - Abstract Logic (1995)

Hellborg is an absolute monster on bass (I've posted about him previously). This also features the late, great Shawn Lane on guitar, and Kofi Baker (Ginger Baker's son) on drums. Fusion that frequently has a bit of a metallic edge to it. Lane's demented leads are a perfect complement to Hellborg's unique bass style... may he RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeWhiMQLPJ4

In a "now for something completely different" vein, one of the tracks is actually a solo piano piece from Lane; he brings some of the same crazed intensity to his piano playing that he does to the guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx9dwNLE9Ys

(Each of them gets one unaccompanied solo piece on the album, Lane chose to do his on piano instead of guitar.)

Edit: ...and damnit, I just realized (from the YouTube comments) there's a re-issue of this CD with bonus tracks. Now I have to decide whether I want to shell out for another copy just to get the extras.

Genesis - Foxtrot (1972). Specifically, "Can-Utility and the Coastliners". It's the first time that Tony Banks runs his organ to 11 and, along with the rest, uses the organ to drive a wall of sound that could bottom out woofers in the best speakers, let alone my ancient Polk Audio Monitor 10Bs.

I don't know why, but that bit of the tune has been my earworm for a couple of days now. Wife and daughter are out on a weekend "adventure", so I've been taking the opportunity to see if the soft-clipping indicators on my NAD C272 actually work (they do). Dog & cats are not happy. Rush R40 will likely get played tomorrow. Critters will remain unhappy.

So Ned, you never indicated whether you kicked yourself. Unaware of it, or just forgot it was on ECM?

At War With Self - Circadian Rhythm Disorder (2015)

An instrumental prog rock (plus metal and jazz influences) album based on a rather odd concept. Drummer Marco Minnemann recorded a 50+ minute drum track (supposedly all in one take), then multi-instrumentalist Glenn Snelwar subsequently composed and played music to go along with it. Although it started as a near-hour-long drum solo, it is divided into a number of segments (some of which only last a minute or two), each with a distinct mood/theme (yet they also somehow manage to flow seamlessly one into the next). Snelwar layers electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, bass, keyboards, and even occasional flute and violin over Minnemann's polyrhythmic drum grooves.

This one gets a big thumbs up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGGRsd6wiU8 (opening "track", one of the more metal-ish ones)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLzDYlvtTFw (gettin' a little jazzy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BeZrRCNw40 (one of the quieter sections)

A little background on the musicians, if you're unfamiliar with them: Minnemann may be best known as "that guy who was the runner-up to replace Mike Portnoy in Dream Theater"; he's played with Satriani, Paul Gilbert, prog/fusion band The Aristocrats, and many other projects. Snelwar is a relative unknown (even compared to Minnemann ); At War With Self (which has released 4 albums to date) is his band/project, and he also appeared on the first Gordian Knot album.

It's R&R HoF week, so Sirius/XM is playing stuff from all the inductees. The Deep Tracks channel (#27), though, is having fun with it by playing cover versions of inductees' tunes. On that note, I give you a bluegrass version of Journey's Don't Stop Believin' by Pine Mountain Railroad. Heard on the way home from work today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAjAR0FEv0Y

Tony Soprano never had it so good. Oh, and could Steve Perry just suck it up for one night, please?