Way down in the country of friendly people, great beer, good food and smurfs (Belgium, if you didn’t get that already) live the members of a band called Murky Red. I’ve reviewed their first album Time doesn’t Matter recently, released already in 2013. Meanwhile, band leader Stef Flaming has been working on a project called Transmission Rails, covered his own Boots for Hire on the Corvus Stone II album, and is working on a solo album. He apparently also tried to organise a barbecue party with only a virtual barbecue. Luckily a famous Dutch sous-chef, who goes by the name of his girlfriend when online, was there to save the day (and his own ass, as insiders know).

This year a new album is due, and the band just released the first single online – a nice chance to make it Track-of-the-Day. That is also a look-ahead to a new thing that I am planning for this site – something to do with ‘big ones’ and ‘small ones’.

EDIT: The following comment on this clip deserves to be here and not hidden in the marshes of Facebook…

The very first progressive rock album according to many is King Crimon‘s debut In the Court of the Crimson King. They made many albums afterwards, in many line ups, with Robert Fripp as the only constant – the founder and owner of the band. Each line up, and each album of this band is different, and Fripp has always been exploring the edges of what has (not) been done in the genre.

This Track of the Day is one of theirs that shows how experimental KC could be – Starless and Bible Black, from the 1974 album of the same title.

Yesterday I was ill, so there was no track of the day. Therefore, with a short delay, a Track of YesterDay.

I was a fan of Dream Theater from the day I heard When Dream and Day Unite, in 1989. I stopped following them around 1997, but they delivered quite bit of good music in these 8 years. One of the albums that always stuck with me is A Change of Seasons, filled largely with covers of the band members own favourite bands. One choice there surprised me at the time, but is also one of my favourite Dream Theater tracks since I first heard it. I even used it as ‘energizer’ on the ride home after work for a while: the Elton John cover Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. Enjoy….

Arjen Anthony Lucassen is a special man. Guitarist, producer, composer and master mind behind projects such as Ayreon, Stream of Passion, Star One, Ambeon and Guilt Machine. Born in The Netherlands, and still living there, Arjen manages to cooperate with artists from all over the world, creating works that are hard to perform live (mainly due to the diversity of musicians), but leave a lasting impression on many listeners. To find out what he has come up with, check out the discographies of the projects above.As a starting point, although not representative for all his project, try this track of the day – the closing track of the first Ayreon album The Final Experiment, from 1995….

Oh, and this year, he is embarking on a short acoustic tour with Anneke van Giersbergen, under the name Gentle Storm, a very busy man indeed.

Today Artemios “Demis” Ventouris Roussos died, aged 68. Known by many for his solo works, as a singer, and his kaftans, he was also once the bass player and guitarist of rock band Aphrodites Child, in which he worked with the still famous Evengelio Odyssey Papathanassiou (Vangelis). The track The Four Horsemen of their album 666 is a fitting farewell to the big man.

The Doors are not a progressive rock band, but definitely have had their influence on many a progressive rock band since 1970. Headed by the charismatic, strange and willful Jim Morrison, they released six albums between 1967 and 1971, when Morrision died at age 27. Rock, blues, and jazz influences characterise the music of this band, driven by the organs of Ray Manzarek and the guitar of Robby Krieger, carried by the drums of John Densmore – and haunting the audience through the lyrics and vocals of Morrison.

The track of the day today is The End, which made the band controversial from the day their first album was released, due to the theme of the lyrics.

Fish has always been one of my favourite vocalists. Partly because of his voice, partly because of his lyrics and the emotion he always manages to put into them when singing. I was sad to hear he’s retiring in 2017, but he’s leaving behind a great stack of albums to remember him by. And to top it off, I’ll be seeing him perform Misplaced Childhood at Night of the Prog this year.

Track of the day from the big guy, who got his nickname by writing lyrics in the bathtub, is the title track of his latest album – A Feast of Consequences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akK41AmRGeQ

A lot of people will know Pain of Salvation from the late 1990s, and in particular will be able to mention 5 octave vocalist Daniel Gildenlöw. Pain of Salvation have been absent for a bit, due to Daniel being seriously ill, but in November 2014 they released a new album, Falling Home. A special one, with acoustic versions of a set of their best tracks, and a cover of Dio’s Holy Diver.

From this album, I picked Linoleum as track of the day, with Gildenlöw having a special kind of blues. Njuta!

Focus, a Dutch band that dates back to the late 1960s and early 1970s. Part of what some refer to as the ‘sympho scene’, and characterised by the frantic organ and flute playing of Thijs van Leer, and the equally maddening guitar they delivered many classic progressive rock tracks, such as Hocus Pocus, House of the King and Harem Scarem. Today’s track of the day is het middle road between all of these, with guitar madness, organ craziness and the charateristic yodeling of Thijs van Leer: Sylvia.