This is not a sign that I am coming out of retirement, but I have wanted to revisit this series for some weeks so here is the next chapter.
Thinking about it now, this represents that last time I truly took a punt on a band without having heard a single note. My introduction to Opeth came in the latter part of 2005 - when I bought 'Ghost Reveries' on a whim (HMV, Grafton Street). I was aware of the Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) connection, and the band's merits were well celebrated on the Rush forum site The National Midday Sun. This certainly seemed qualification enough that they deserved my attention.
No doubt about it, Opeth music is genuinely progressive when taken as a whole, but on first playback I was struck by what I dismissed as a straightforward cross between Dream Theater and Voivod...with decidedly gruff, death-metal styled vocals. Good. Well played. Modern production. But not amazing. Ok, well it was my own fault for not doing the research extensively...there really aren't any excuses in this overconnected age. However, I still liked to think of those days when you would go to record shops (!) and try something new based on a trivial connection: the album cover, the band name, the track titles, the producer that produced your favourite album by such and such a band...and so on. By 2005 those days really were ancient times but I am a music fan, a music collector, and I can still experience that hopeless (love?) optimism that you will be able to find new treasure in recorded music.
Eventually (read: a few weeks later - Ed), I did find the treasure. Not unnaturally, it was in the quieter, groovier moments that I first started to get to grips with this masterwork. However, it is in the grandiose title track and the epic 'Harlequin Forest' that I actually heard Opeth for the first time. 'Ghost Reveries' was an album that I found I could listen to on constant repeat and was ideal for the lengthy bus commute into Dublin. It is an album of tremendous complexity and texture and fully demonstrates the excellent vocal range of band leader, Mikael Akerfeldt. The man has at least 4 strong vocal personalities and he utilities them expertly as musical tones that weave in and out of the heavily orchestrated guitars.
I have since become a major fan of the band, travelling to see them if necessary. Subsequent albums have seen something of a stunning rise to the top of the Prog tree, and I am sure there are still several moments' of genius still to come.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
A Farewell to Things
Following the release of 'Lab Rat and Lobster' (Maggy Simpson) and my next solo venture 'Vermin' I will be going into semi-retirement as I need to disconnect for an indefinite period. If you need to find me you will know how to. In the meantime, here are some images associated with the recorded works over the years, along with an extensive discography.
Nightfall Over Eden (solo)
Scream In Blue (1995)
Insomnia (1995)
Scream In Blue (with Justin Bell)
The Glasshouse Effect (1996)
Subterranean (1996)
Driven Out of Innocence (1997)
Scream In Blue (with Justin Bell, Rick Abbott & Fabio Finnochiaro)
Urban Tourists (1999)
Mr. Do (with Wayne Bussutil & Steve Barr)
That's Why Flamingos are Pink (2000)
Cubed (2000)
Cellardoor (solo)
Do What You Have to Do (2003)
Frames per Second (2004)
At The Third Stroke (2004)
The Random Event Factory Demos (2009)
Set Fire to the Snow (2011)
Sector 7G (with John Waldron)
Sector 7G (2012)
Solo
Man-At-Arms (2011)
Silence as Criticism (2011)
Unauthorised Soundtrack (2012)
Mountain Goat Misadventures in the Wicklow Wilderness (2012)
Mission (2012)
Vermin (2013)
Maggy Simpson (with Bat Kinane & Davy Ryan)
Lab Rat and Lobster (2013)
Monday, June 10, 2013
My First Memories Volume 4 - Alice In Chains
Dirt.
Videos for 'Would?' and 'Them Bones' had been on my radar for about a year, and I thought that I would like this band once I got around to it. I guess these were 'hits' of some sort. In honesty, I was slower than most to catch onto 'Grunge'. Maybe I was that little bit older, maybe I was too wrapped up in the world of PROG, but ultimately I still liked harder edged music a lot and there was some good noise emanating from a select group of bands that were lumped into that bracket. Whether Alice In Chains were Grunge or not, they were based in the Pacific Northwest. In those days that seemed to be enough to qualify.
It wasn't until the summer of 1993 that I picked up a copy of 'Dirt' on cassette for a mere £3...from a market stall in Derby Market Hall. If I remember rightly it was actually from a bookseller, too. This is when I first heard Alice In Chains at full tilt. The thing that struck me most was the hurt and the pain and the apparent honesty about drugs. The naive part of me was a little shocked that it was acceptable to even talk about these things so openly. Much in the same way that hearing Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against The Machine) denounce unjust governments so brazenly had shocked me out of innocence. Certainly, Layne Staley's soaring pain was a thing of beauty when set against such powerful music, and there were Classic and Progressive Rock elements that were hard to deny. This was definitely something I could get behind.
While Dirt is often considered the band's benchmark release, I don't know if it's my favourite these days (I'd probably opt for 'Jar of Flies'), but I do know that it hit me very hard back then and sent me in search of more sounds from Seattle. Twenty years on there appears to be some kind of a renaissance, though I feel it is probably middle-aged nostalgia at work. Either way, I still have great love for the Alice In Chains catalogue and I'm interested in hearing what they come up with next.
Videos for 'Would?' and 'Them Bones' had been on my radar for about a year, and I thought that I would like this band once I got around to it. I guess these were 'hits' of some sort. In honesty, I was slower than most to catch onto 'Grunge'. Maybe I was that little bit older, maybe I was too wrapped up in the world of PROG, but ultimately I still liked harder edged music a lot and there was some good noise emanating from a select group of bands that were lumped into that bracket. Whether Alice In Chains were Grunge or not, they were based in the Pacific Northwest. In those days that seemed to be enough to qualify.
It wasn't until the summer of 1993 that I picked up a copy of 'Dirt' on cassette for a mere £3...from a market stall in Derby Market Hall. If I remember rightly it was actually from a bookseller, too. This is when I first heard Alice In Chains at full tilt. The thing that struck me most was the hurt and the pain and the apparent honesty about drugs. The naive part of me was a little shocked that it was acceptable to even talk about these things so openly. Much in the same way that hearing Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against The Machine) denounce unjust governments so brazenly had shocked me out of innocence. Certainly, Layne Staley's soaring pain was a thing of beauty when set against such powerful music, and there were Classic and Progressive Rock elements that were hard to deny. This was definitely something I could get behind.
While Dirt is often considered the band's benchmark release, I don't know if it's my favourite these days (I'd probably opt for 'Jar of Flies'), but I do know that it hit me very hard back then and sent me in search of more sounds from Seattle. Twenty years on there appears to be some kind of a renaissance, though I feel it is probably middle-aged nostalgia at work. Either way, I still have great love for the Alice In Chains catalogue and I'm interested in hearing what they come up with next.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
My First Memories Volume 3 - U2
The Joshua Tree, March 1987. On a train. On a yellow (!) Phillips personal stereo.
U2 are now 'bleedin' massive', ubiquitous, a major global brand. However, in the early part of 1987, I was only just starting to hear whispers about them. Almost none of my classmates were fans or champions for this Irish Rock band, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were tense to say the least. I can't possibly say if these things were related, but the musical tide was certainly about to change in a big way. My perception of Ireland would be tested directly a couple of years later in a Maths class. A visiting Irish teacher took the class and as an ice-breaker asked each of us to list the first 3 things that came to mind when we thought of Ireland. Me? Pat Jennings, Green...and U2. You may imagine the debate that ensued in a classroom in a Tory stronghold in Thatcher's Britain, but I digress.
While in those days especially U2 were unafraid to share their social and political opinions freely, it was the musical backdrop that I found completely mesmerising. How can you not be moved by the epic rising intro to 'Where the Streets have No Name', let alone the soaring anthem that it becomes? At a time when I was starting to get some interest in Heavy Metal, here seemed to be something altogether less direct, but so much more sophisticated. It seemed to be sincere, honest, raw, pained, euphoric, anthemic, sparse, eery, celebratory, fierce, mellow, historic - all at once. The next 2 tracks ('I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking for' and 'With or Without You') further cemented my feelings that this was monumental, legendary material unfolding right before me. It's still their benchmark album.
So much has been written about U2 that I won't even attempt to explain their place in music history, only to say it's a place that's richly deserved. Though I would continue to enjoy the relatively safe sounds of Dire Straits, The Eagles and Eric Clapton for a couple more years, listening to U2 offered something altogether more awakening and spiritual. The world was about to agree.
U2 are now 'bleedin' massive', ubiquitous, a major global brand. However, in the early part of 1987, I was only just starting to hear whispers about them. Almost none of my classmates were fans or champions for this Irish Rock band, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were tense to say the least. I can't possibly say if these things were related, but the musical tide was certainly about to change in a big way. My perception of Ireland would be tested directly a couple of years later in a Maths class. A visiting Irish teacher took the class and as an ice-breaker asked each of us to list the first 3 things that came to mind when we thought of Ireland. Me? Pat Jennings, Green...and U2. You may imagine the debate that ensued in a classroom in a Tory stronghold in Thatcher's Britain, but I digress.
While in those days especially U2 were unafraid to share their social and political opinions freely, it was the musical backdrop that I found completely mesmerising. How can you not be moved by the epic rising intro to 'Where the Streets have No Name', let alone the soaring anthem that it becomes? At a time when I was starting to get some interest in Heavy Metal, here seemed to be something altogether less direct, but so much more sophisticated. It seemed to be sincere, honest, raw, pained, euphoric, anthemic, sparse, eery, celebratory, fierce, mellow, historic - all at once. The next 2 tracks ('I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking for' and 'With or Without You') further cemented my feelings that this was monumental, legendary material unfolding right before me. It's still their benchmark album.
So much has been written about U2 that I won't even attempt to explain their place in music history, only to say it's a place that's richly deserved. Though I would continue to enjoy the relatively safe sounds of Dire Straits, The Eagles and Eric Clapton for a couple more years, listening to U2 offered something altogether more awakening and spiritual. The world was about to agree.
Monday, May 6, 2013
My First Memories Volume 2 - Van Halen
Not surprisingly for a man of my age, my introduction to Van Halen came in the mid 80s with the massive hit...and then again in the slightly later 80s with the other massive hit.
'Jump' and 'Why Can't This Be Love?' are both fine pop tunes in their own right, and in the privacy of my own home (sometimes in public!) I can't help but switch from air guitar to air keyboard and back again when I hear these songs - still! The fact that one song was from VH MkI and one from VH MkII made this pretty confusing for me as I naively wondered how they could still be the same band if the personnel were different. In the years since, of course, this has turned the band's story into the stuff of Rock Legend.
I consider VH to be my No. 1 guilty pleasure musically speaking, because they do sit at odds with the very large, very intense, very serious, not very Rock 'n' Roll section of my CD collection. There is no doubt that Edward is simply one of the finest exponents of the electric guitar that we will ever see. Alex is a groove king with riotously OTT kits. Michael can wield the bass ably enough for this brand of Rock, and sing nice harmonies, too. Dave is one the most entertaining front men in Rock history. Sammy possesses one of the top 5 Rock voices of all time. The band have sold millions of albums etc. etc. But, it's still just disposable Glam Pop Rock with tongue planted firmly in cheek. How could I possibly like it?
Here's the rub. I was not a teenager in the US in the late 70s / early 80s, but if I had been I would have known that the aforementioned tunes represent so little of what Van Halen is about. It was only in the very late 80s, as my tastes transitioned from Adult-Orientated Soft Rock to Hard Rock, that I first heard Van Halen. Turns out they had much more in common with Led Zeppelin, Kiss and Queen than with Duran Duran, The Human League or The Thompson Twins.
I can't remember which album was the very first that I borrowed from my VH-championing school chum*, but I'm pretty sure it was the band's debut album, Van Halen I - being mathematical fiends, we were also fans of chronology, and proper order, and things like that ;) As with so many impressionable kids before me, and probably a few more since, this felt like real Rock music. It was BIG but not overwhelming, it was HEAVY but not stodgy, it was FUN but not silly (ok - it was silly!). And, man, the guitars were from another planet. Truly, WTF? Jimi who? This was the kind of music I wanted at my parties from now on!
It wasn't very much like other bands that often get mentioned in the same breath: Kiss, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Motley Crue, and so on. There were definitely more progressive and quirky elements at play, and this would become more pronounced on subsequent albums. It's not really possible to get away from the fact that Van Halen were a good-time, arena-sized bar band. They played a ferocious brand of RAWK, and stole lyrics from a teenage male fantasist's diary. It would be possible to say that they contributed massively to the Rock soundtrack of late 70s / early 80s USA. The release of 'Jump' and the following album, '1984', broadened their appeal to mainstream Pop audiences. And it stretched even further into the late 80s - to different continents and different generations. For me, music has a particular ability to be able to create timestamps in my life. I felt transported to another time and place, and doesn't that demonstrate the power of art, no matter how disposable?
*I also had fellow champions for Rush and Kiss during this time. Iron Maiden were my chosen Kings for those days, so we had lots of grounds for debate....and a wealth of Classic Rock material to trade!
'Jump' and 'Why Can't This Be Love?' are both fine pop tunes in their own right, and in the privacy of my own home (sometimes in public!) I can't help but switch from air guitar to air keyboard and back again when I hear these songs - still! The fact that one song was from VH MkI and one from VH MkII made this pretty confusing for me as I naively wondered how they could still be the same band if the personnel were different. In the years since, of course, this has turned the band's story into the stuff of Rock Legend.
I consider VH to be my No. 1 guilty pleasure musically speaking, because they do sit at odds with the very large, very intense, very serious, not very Rock 'n' Roll section of my CD collection. There is no doubt that Edward is simply one of the finest exponents of the electric guitar that we will ever see. Alex is a groove king with riotously OTT kits. Michael can wield the bass ably enough for this brand of Rock, and sing nice harmonies, too. Dave is one the most entertaining front men in Rock history. Sammy possesses one of the top 5 Rock voices of all time. The band have sold millions of albums etc. etc. But, it's still just disposable Glam Pop Rock with tongue planted firmly in cheek. How could I possibly like it?
Here's the rub. I was not a teenager in the US in the late 70s / early 80s, but if I had been I would have known that the aforementioned tunes represent so little of what Van Halen is about. It was only in the very late 80s, as my tastes transitioned from Adult-Orientated Soft Rock to Hard Rock, that I first heard Van Halen. Turns out they had much more in common with Led Zeppelin, Kiss and Queen than with Duran Duran, The Human League or The Thompson Twins.
I can't remember which album was the very first that I borrowed from my VH-championing school chum*, but I'm pretty sure it was the band's debut album, Van Halen I - being mathematical fiends, we were also fans of chronology, and proper order, and things like that ;) As with so many impressionable kids before me, and probably a few more since, this felt like real Rock music. It was BIG but not overwhelming, it was HEAVY but not stodgy, it was FUN but not silly (ok - it was silly!). And, man, the guitars were from another planet. Truly, WTF? Jimi who? This was the kind of music I wanted at my parties from now on!
It wasn't very much like other bands that often get mentioned in the same breath: Kiss, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Motley Crue, and so on. There were definitely more progressive and quirky elements at play, and this would become more pronounced on subsequent albums. It's not really possible to get away from the fact that Van Halen were a good-time, arena-sized bar band. They played a ferocious brand of RAWK, and stole lyrics from a teenage male fantasist's diary. It would be possible to say that they contributed massively to the Rock soundtrack of late 70s / early 80s USA. The release of 'Jump' and the following album, '1984', broadened their appeal to mainstream Pop audiences. And it stretched even further into the late 80s - to different continents and different generations. For me, music has a particular ability to be able to create timestamps in my life. I felt transported to another time and place, and doesn't that demonstrate the power of art, no matter how disposable?
*I also had fellow champions for Rush and Kiss during this time. Iron Maiden were my chosen Kings for those days, so we had lots of grounds for debate....and a wealth of Classic Rock material to trade!
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