Entity – Il Falso Centro

Entity is an Italian band, founded as far back as 1994. After several years of performing live and going through a few line up changes, the band finally released their debut album Il Falso Centro. The album tells the story of someone going through an identity crisis, based on poems by Yuri Deriu. An interesting idea, and worked out in a surprising way, given that the album is largely instrumental.

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In being instrumental, the bass and keyboards of band founders Gigo Lungo and Mauro Mulas dictate the music to a large extend, as with other Italian bands like Le Orme and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. The opening track Davanti alla Specchio is the best example of that, with the main part of the song being piano and bass only. The other instruments only join in to create a bridge to the following track Il Desiderio, which has a jazzy bass line and interesting dialog between the guitar and keyboards.

On Il Tempo, keyboards and strings are the main element, with a metallic guitar riff in the choruses. It is a melancholic track, with a nice piano part at the end. This is a perfect intro for Trip Dell’Ego, which is a full blown progressive rock song. Piano parts, guitar and bass dialogs, and a symphonic eruption of the keyboards lead to a sung poem of Yuri Deriu. This one needs a few listens to sink in, but it is very well composed.

The next two tracks, ANT, and L’Armatura, are the heaviest of the album. L’Armatura is a 12 minute epic with metal influences and emotional vocals. To cool off after that, the band included the six minute piano piece La Notta Oscura Dell’anima.

This album is almost a 21st century tribute to older Italian symphonic rock bands. Keyboards are in the lead, but never overpower the music – and although there are references to the 30 year old Italian prog in there, it never sounds out dated or old fashioned. 

Colin Tench December 2014 interview

Yes, I know, it’s already March 3rd 2015, and this interview should have been published 2 months ago. No need to argue about that, it’s published now – and it’s a load of fun to listen too. More details below the picture…

Colin Tench INTERVIEW

Picture collage by Sonia Mota

On December 23rd, 2014, I spent a total of two hours on a Skype connection with Colin Tench, guitarist of BunChakeze, Odin (Of London), Corvus Stone, Minstrel’s Ghost, Oceans 5, Colin Tench Project, and a few more new projects coming on this year. Ok, since you asked for it: Transmission Rails and Coalition. Last week, he concluded that he had been working non-stop on recording and mixing music for three whole years, in his snow cave somewhere in the (at this time of year still) freezing cold heart of Sweden. In this interview, he talks about how he ended up being a progressive rock fan and guitarist, how it could happen that the BunChakeze album was released just 25 years after being recorded, and what happened after that.

In passing, he addresses the importance of the internet and social media for modern independent music. In fact, without the internet, he probably would never have found the driving force behind his main project Corvus Stone – a force that is not a musician… Indeed, he is talking about Sonia Mota’s art work, this time without referring to her bum.

Overall, these were two hours well spent. As you may notice, the recording here only covers just over 50 minutes. Reason for that is that we covered some other topics, which are not directly related to Colin’s own work – these will be published in a separate, written article some time in the coming two months.

Happy listening – and please share this interview if you like it. That will encourage me to do more of them.

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Track of the Day: Peter Matuchniak – Product

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When I see the words ‘a progressive blend of jazz/rock/fusion’ on an album description, that sparks some interest. Jazz I can enjoy occasionally, but I don’t know a lot about it, rock I grew up with and fusion I like quite a lot, especially when music fits the defintion of jazz rock/fusion. Hmmm… that’s where the interest starts, we’re only one slash away from that with Peter Matuchniak‘s album Destiny.

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An album I have had on my list for a few months and that I started listening to only about a week and a half ago. Glad I did, finally, because I like it quite a bit. Enough to honour it with a track-of-the-day today: Product. Not my first pick, I wanted to go for Go Slow (because of Steve Bonino’s bass work), but that one wasn’t available online for streaming. So, Product it is. A varied track, with piano, guitar, multiple vocalists and definitely a jazz/fusion feel to it. Enjoy, as I do.

Track of the Day: Orphaned Land – All Is One

Orphaned Land is a progressive metal band that has been around for almost 25 years now, founded as Resurrection in 1991. The band hails from Israel and mixes metal riffs with influences from Islamic and Jewish music. The band has always stressed in their lyrics, directly and indirectly that they strive for unity across people, regardless of religion – be it Islamic, Jewish and Christian – a message expressed again in the title of their 2014 album All is One.

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All Is One cover

 

I give you the title track of that one as Track-of-the-day today. Enjoy, it’s an eclectic mix for sure!

Note: This will be the last real ‘track of the day’ – from next week onward, I’ll do two instead of 7 per week, one from a relatively unknown or new band on Monday, and one from my personal favourites or a well known band on Friday.

Track of the Day: Lonely Robot – God vs Man

At various points in time, John Mitchell (singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer – genius perhaps?) was working with Frost*, Arena and KINO – and now he strikes again with a solo project, Lonely Robot. Strike, double strike – I got the album (entitled Please come Home) in today, and it is amazing. I got a pre-listen of some tracks during an internet radio show some time ago, and pre-ordered on the spot. Actually, I’m happy to have ordered it twice (by accident) so I could give one copy away to someone to learn about what Lonely Robot is.

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I need to listen more to give a full report on the album, but this track – the only one available online at this time – gives a good indication of what to expect. Great instrumentation, rock, symphonic, interesting guest musicians – it’s all there for the taking. So, here’s God vs Man, enjoy it as much as I’ve been doing all afternoon.

Track of the Day: Unto Us – These Four Walls

Audio hosted with permission of Unto Us (and provided by them as well - thank you!)

The British ensemble Unto Us describe their music as ‘original, prog-tinged’ rock, and rightfully claim jazz, metal, folk and classical influences. This track of the day These Four Walls is one that shows the immense variation such influences can bring into a single composition. Strings, piano, piercing keyboards and the voice of former Also Eden singer Huw Lloyd-Jones makes it a real treat.

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A review of the album will appear here and on Background Magazine in a couple of weeks! Enjoy – and be surprised!

Track of the Day: Pocket Size Sthlm – Halo (Portait of the Artist as a Composer)

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One of the albums in my stack of pending reviews is Exposed Undercurrents by Swedish project Pocket Size Sthlm, a project consisting mainly of  composer and guitarist Peter Pedersen. He compares his way of working to that of Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett, i.e. composing his own music and relying on cooperation with other musicians to get it recorded.

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At first listen, I was surprised to find ’70s rooted psychedelic prog, with hints of old Pink Floyd, but also a bit of Canterbury here and there. This one needs more listens before I can review it, but the opening track Halo (Portrait of the Artist as a Composer) makes a great track of the day. Enjoy – and maybe relive the 70s for a moment.

Track of the day – and review: Andres Guazzelli (ft. Corvus Stone) – Wish You Could Hear

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Argentinian composer, engineer and singer Andres Guazzelli is working on an album (a rock opera with the working title Wötan: The untold story), of which at least a number of singles will be released in 2015. In 2013, this piece Wish You Could Hear was released already, as a prequel to this album – while Andres contributed to an Oceans5 and Corvus Stone album at the same time.

With it’s almost classical arrangement, filled in by rock instruments (Colin Tench, omnipresent in indie prog land, on guitar, Petri Lindström on bass, Robert Wolff on drums and Andres himself on everything that has black and white keys), this track certainly is a promise of what is to be expected of Wötan and it’s composer. The track bounced back and forth between classical music, full blown rock with a driving bass and melodic prog rock with massive keyboards and crazy guitars. The title reflects the sigh of any review of this track, trying to put this track into words: I wish you could hear. Luckily, being on the internet, I am not bound by the limitations of the written press, so today, you can hear the first track-of-the-day that comes with a full written review. Enjoy, and keep enjoying! Greetings, from the Rock Orphanage!

Track of the Day: Elephants of Scotland – Amber Waves

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Track-of-the-day was on a short unplanned hiatus of three days due to some pending reviews and the announcement of Angelo’s Rock Orphanage, but I’m back! Today all credits go to Elephants of Scotland, an American band, formed by four musicians who’ve been active since the 1980s in other bands.

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The band started working together in 2012, resulting in a debut album Home Away from Home in 2013, followed by Execute and Breath in 2014 and a live CD/DVD Good Morning, Gettysburg, containing recordings of their well-received gig at RoSFest 2014.

Today’s track of the day is Amber Waves from their Execute and Breath album. A very nice composition, in the best prog tradition. Enjoy! – as usual.

 

Unreal City – Il paese del tramonto

Symphonic progressive rock has been one of Italy’s many successful export products for years. Even though I am not one of the people who literally make it into a daily consumption, I have enjoyed my share of progressive rock from Italy the past couple of years. It’s not difficult to appreciate the older bands there, like Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Premiata Formeria Marconi (PFM) or Museo Rosenbach.unrealcity

When I was actively monitoring Unsigned Bands on ProgArchives, I also got to know bands like I Pennelli di Vermeer, who took a completely new angle on progressive music by mixing symphonic rock with ska and musical style things, and J’Accuse…!, who took a more psychedelic than symphonic approach.

And now, with Unreal City, there is another young band that makes me feel glad the country from which my name originates has entered my collection. This time, it is a band that is rooted very much in symphonic, keyboard oriented rock that we know from the seventies, but who manage to completely overhaul it to a 21st century sound and structure – and quite succesfully so.

As can be expected, the leading role in the compositions of this band go to the keyboards and guitar – played by band founder Emanuele Tarasconi and Francesca Zanneta. They cannot exist without the rhythmic foundation of Dario Pessina (bass) and Frederico Bedostri (succeeded by Andrea Gardani after recordings of this album were finished).

The music that Unreal City presents on this album is contains everything from melancholic piano pieces, to almost ELP-like craziness, and from folk like tunes to full blown rock. All of this pieced together in 7 tracks, varying in length from 5 up to 20 minutes.

The instrumental opening Overture: Obscurus fio already contains a lot of the above. A rhythm pulse laid down by the drums and bass seems to drive the keyboards, only interrupted briefly for a guitar solo.

On Oniromanzia  the keyboards lead once again, from the start, but soon quiet down to let Emanuele demonstrate his fine Italian his voice. After an organ solo we are treated to some full blown rock before Emanuele returns to complete the story he is telling in the (unfortunately for me Italian) lyrics. A similar build up, yet still a completely different song, is shown in Caligari, another great rock piece – that invites to turn up the volume. After that, La Meccanica dell’ombro starts in a more folky fashion – containing both Greekish folk tunes, as well as middle eastern tunes on the keyboards and guitar. After an emotional piece of singing, the keyboards once again explode to finish off the song.

Then on Il Nome de Lei, for the first time the guitar is the leading instrument, with two very tasteful solos by Francesca, that seamelessly go in and out of the vocal parts. This serves as a relatively relaxed intro to the rockiest track on the album, Lo Schermo di Pietra. Bombastic, with whirlwinds of drums and keyboards, but also with a soft, piano accompanied vocal part hidden in the middle. This is easily my favourite song, and I would love to see Emanuel pull of the keyboards and vocals (interacting with each other in the finale).

The finale of the album itself is a 20 minute epic called Ex Tenebrae Lux. This one requires a good listen – but there is no background music on this album anyway. Great vocals, nice interaction between guitar and keyboards and once again a mix of ELP-like keyboard punishment interleave with quieter parts. To top it off, Francesca lets here mellotron have the last word.

I’ll be missing out on Unreal City‘s gig in ‘t Blok in Nieuwerkerk, but I hope to catch them later this year in Antwerp. I need to see and hear this come to live.