Track of the Day: Unto Us – These Four Walls

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

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.

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: David Bowie – Five Years

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=louXPUW7tHU

Another one of my personal favourites, but only since a few months is this track by David Bowie. When I grew up I only learned about his ’80s work, which is not exactly to my liking, so I never bothered with checking out his earlier works – even though I heard rumours about Ziggy Stardust every once in a while.

Then someone introduced me to those earlier works (more on that in a later post, some time), and this was one of the first tracks she came up with: Five Years. The opening track of Ziggy Stardust as well, no surprise there….

The story behind it, and the story told in the lyrics are special, and gloomy or even scary depending on how you look at them – and perfectly matched by the music and vocals. This… is music.

Enjoy – and remember the past!

Track of the Day: Rush – The Spirit of Radio

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

Yes, Angelo’s Rock Orphanage is about shining a light on the little ones, but like most of us, I also love my share of the ‘big ones’. To spread the load a bit, I’ve decided to use the Track-of-the-Day in the weekends to show a little bit of my personal favourites. No use promoting little ones then, as everyone will be in the pub anyway.

First one is a love-it-or-hate-it track amongst Rush fans, Spirit of Radio. For some it is to radio oriented and commercial, for others, like me, it’s just another brilliantly executed Rush-composition. In this case, one that fits very nicely with shining a light on the little ones: all these unknown, hard working rock bands deserve more air time and internet time!!!!

Enjoy, in the spirit of radio!

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

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

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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.

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

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

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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: Fish on Friday – Godspeed

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

In 2009, two Belgian guys, William Beckers and Frank van Bogaert, got together and formed the duo Fish on Friday. By 2014, their band consists of 5 people, including born American guitarist Marty Townsend, British bass player Nick Becks and a third Belgian on drums, Marcus Weymaere. The latter appears to wear the same brand of glasses I do, which is as irrelevant as it is true.

This quintet is responsible for the 2014 release Godspeed, which is quite well received – and for good reason. Today, they are Track-of-the-day, and I choose the title track of their album for this. Enjoy – as you always do!

Track of the Day: Elephants of Scotland – Amber Waves

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

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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.

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.

Angelo’s Rock Orphanage – how about that?

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

ON THIS VALETINE’S DAY:

IT’S TIME TO SHINE A LIGHT ON THE LITTLE ONES IN THE SHADOW.

The big ones were small too, once. Drawing by Sonia Mota – click for high larger version.

Having been a rock, hard rock and metal fan since the mid 1980s, when I was around 13 years old, I have enjoyed quite a few of the well known artists and albums. No stranger to Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, but also a life time fan of Rush, Marillion and Pink Floyd, I keep discovering new bands and artists all year long. Over the years, bands that fit into the definition of progressive rock have proven to be what I like. Some of these giants are actually still active – think about the recent King Crimson tour, UK touring (for the last time, but still), Rush going on a 40th anniversary tour, and Pink Floyd releasing another album after almost 50 years.

The past 3-4 months I’ve picked up on reviewing progressive rock albums, something I did a couple of times (say 50-60) before for ProgArchives.com over the last 10 years. The number of reviews is around 1-2 per week right now, and between the promo’s I receive, I find many bands that are just starting or otherwise operating in the shadows of the aforementioned giants.

In our commercially operating world, these aspiring new bands get very little attention – standing in the shadow of the big ones. Yet they deserve it, and they have to, because the giants were small too, once – as shown in the cartoon above this article (courtesy of Sonia Mota – thank you very much!).

Think of Corvus Stone, who rose from the shadows last year by their own merit, but also of those who haven’t done that yet – like Murky Red, Progeland, Tiger Moth Tales, Tony Patterson & Brendan Eyre, or Joshua Leibowitz, and many, many more. All of them deserve to be heard, to be known, and to thrive. Not all of them may qualify as progressive rock either, but many get close – and in the end it’s all great music.

Now I don’t have the illusion to change that single handedly, but here on this web site you will find more and more attention going to these ‘little ones’ – in the form of the Track-of-the-Day, but also in album reviews and gig reports.

I hope you can all appreciate that, and spread the news, so the little ones will find a place in the spotlights too.

Track of the Day: Abel Ganz – Heartland

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

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Abel Ganz is a very special band, in the sense that it has been in existence for over 3 decades (since 1980), yet none of the original band members plays on their self titled 2014 album. Quite an interesting idea, and an interesting album as well.

This track of the day Heartland is one of the varied pieces found on the album. Enjoy.

Track of the Day: Leibowitz – Cry of a Bird Part 1, Dark Houses

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Angelo Hulshout

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Joshua Leibowitz does things by himself when it comes to music. At least, largely on his own, albeit it not completely. Occasionally a guest musician shows up, for a guitar solo or a bit of percussion. His third album The Cry of a Bird was released on Christmas Day 2014, and is now available in a very limited digipack edition – or digitally on Bandcamp.

An album that contains pop, rock and prog influences from many directions, as shown by part 1 of the two-part title track. Enjoy!

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