EPT
Rap
Avant-Garde Metal
28th Feb-14th Mar
15th Mar - 21st Mar
Desperation & Futility
Music Mag #6 - 29th March - 11th April
Music Mag #7 – Jazz Into… Jazz Hop
Ok, blasting into part 2 of this. Let’s go!
Music Mag #7 – Jazz into... Part 2 – Progressive Metal
About five years ago I wrote a blog about how I developed my taste in metal and how I got there. Half of it was obvious, a combination of video-game music and friend’s having interest in the metal and nu-metal scene of the early noughties. It left me wondering how I ended up getting into Progressive music while my friend's ignored it. My theory is that I was played jazz fusion and other jazz growing up and they weren’t. So I looked back and found out some interesting origins and the best anti-irony ever. The band Steps Ahead are responsible for me liking progressive music. Ha.
So let me preface all of this. Steps Ahead are my childhood music heroes. I listened to them at least once a week from when I was about five until I was about twelve. I used to play rugby on Sundays and you can pretty much guarantee that this cassette was in the tape player. “Steps Ahead, live in Tokyo ’86.” I used to love this music when I was a kid. When I was about fourteen I tried this out again with my increased musical knowledge and they blew my mind. How long had this stuff been so technical? Well obviously since 1986 but I was too young to realise it. Anyway, a huge boundary that people have with progressive (and avant-garde, math music etc) is time signatures and off-beat or un-natural music progressions. The other generally is the very technical music. As you can hear, this track throws out all of that stuff from the get-go. It probably helps that the song is great too. But this got me used to all that sort of thing without realising that it was unusual in music. Compare the stop-start chords in prog metal breakdowns (it’s in every song…) with the obscure timing in the opening of this song. On top of that it’s got a keyboard-esque solo flying around courtesy of the Electronic Wind Instrument. It’s Liquid Tension Experiment before they existed and in jazz.
In A Sentimental Mood & Trains – Steps Ahead
Jazz Fusion
Jazz Fusion
Ok, so this one starts of with a jazz standard played on EWI by the late-great Michael Brecker. It’s a beautiful track which opened my ears to the brilliance of the extended solo. The track is simple backing with incredible musicianship over-top. The bizarre noises of the EWI are entirely responsible for my yearning for synths in every metal song I hear.
Anyway, onto Trains. Just to get this out of the way. This is my favourite song ever. I’ve spent many hours thinking about it but this is it. I first heard it when I was about five and I still listen to it a lot. My Dad has been listening to it even longer. Ok, so what are the other obstacles that stops people listening to Progressive Music? Correct! Long songs are one and this track is about 14 minutes long so that is down. Let’s skip the checklist for now. Just listening to this song and you can hear how technical the whole thing is. Just to play a sax like that is night on impossible and the drums aren’t simple either and holy-smoke is that a guitar solo that any major rock or metal guitarist would be jealous of? You know it. Another huge factor for helping me with progressive music is all the stages this song goes through. There’s a mellow breakdown, extended solos, about two minutes straight of guitar solos, a long section of just the riff (you know that’s prog). I’m going to stop before I start making things up while I listen to this song.
You may be saying, “but flicky, there’s one thing missing! Why do you like cheesy vocals and the falsetto/faux-opera singing style?” This is one thing I haven’t figured out. There’s cheesy vocals in a lot of 80’s jazz songs so maybe I’ve just never been bothered by them I dunno. I’ll let you know when I find out. A lot of the gaps are filled with what I grew up around with pop music and the stuff my friend’s listened to. A big plug that filled the gap was video-game music but we’ll do that in a later issue. But now here’s a little bit about my two favourite progressive metal albums from the last few years. If you’re getting into Prog Metal then it’s an unwritten rule that you start with Images and Words by Dream Theater then go from there.
It’s hard to link a song from this album and it’s harder to recommend because it’s kinda cheesy at parts. It’s been struck by the curse of soap-opera storylines for and worse than soap-opera acting. The thing is, this album is absolutely incredible and it gets to the point where after a few listens it really jumps out at you. When I first got it I didn’t like it that much but then I gave it another chance and well, here we are as the
This album was my best of 2009 and is joint top three with Mercy Falls and Images and Words as far as Progressive Metal goes. Shadow Gallery are famous for being completely ignored by so much of the Metal scene due to their musical style vocal arrangements and song layouts. Two of their previous albums, Tyranny and Room V, were part of a double concept album with a story about a man who was fighting against a new world order using the internet and unions and stuff. It was amazing music but the concept and song styles puts a lot of new listeners off. Digital Ghosts is more thematic and is way more accessible for the common listener. It’s still full of crunching riffs, wonderful solos and the best vocal melodies you’ll find in music. I guess this is another recommendation to the Prog Metal fan who hasn’t listened to it before but there you go. I love it. Haunted (the track I linked) is absolutely beautiful. The middle vocal section (5:50 onwards) gives me chills. Real ones, not metaphoric ones.
So this link is much less obvious and was more about breaking boundaries down between the music. A lot of people can’t get past something simple in songs. I never dealt with growling or screaming vocals in songs when I was younger so I have trouble listening to a lot songs and bands that focus on them. I’m sure that if my dad played it to me when I was a kid it wouldn’t bother me one bit.
My New Albums
So the second round of albums, most of these are from last week.
2 Unlimited – Pin-Up Went Down
I linked this Avant-Garde Metal band in issue six. The whole album is really varied and it has amazing vocals throughout, especially the creepy child vocals. There are some industrial style songs and other creepy metal tracks. Good variance but I like the poppy ones best. I got this for about $8 so super-worth that. I’ve been hooked in Intrusion for a while which is the intro song. Check that one out.
There Be Squabbles Ahead – Stolen Babies
Another Avant-Garde Metal CD that I realised I’d only downloaded before (whoops). Anyway, this CD is cool; it’s more aggressive than Pin-Up and with more traditional Cabaret styles. Interestingly my favourite track here is the outro The Button Has Been Pushed while on 2unlimited it was the intro. Anyway, check out both of these. The outro here reminds me of The Sims for some reason. It’s great.
Cowboy Bebop OST – The Seatbelts
If you like big band jazz or blues or whatever, get this. It’s like, really good. Bad Dog No Biscuits for big-band meets ska. Car 24 for a fun, cutesy song and Space Lion for its majestic beauty. You don’t have to have seen the show to get this. I played it for my Dad and he loves it.
The Evermore EP and The Everafter LP - Witness
Apparently two minutes separates EP from LP. Who knew? Anyway, these are two short but sweet Hip-Hop albums. As usual for my style they’re mellow and a bit jazzy. Both are really good but a bit short. The beats are great but often as soon as he’s out of lines he’ll just end the track. I like my music to continue for a bit after the rap is done if it’s good. But it’s not that a big of a deal. I’ve been listening to Cheap Date (Dive Bar Blend) all week. It’s amazing. If you’ve read this far down, consider this a must listen. I wanted to spotlight it but it doesn’t fit today.
Albums Released This Week
Musaic – The 49ers
New mellow hip hop coming out on the 27th could be amazing judging by More Than Friends on YouTube. I will likely be getting this in my next Japan order in May.
II – Xerath
Next album from Symphonic Meshuggah band Xerath. Looking forward to this one as the vocals have improved and apparently the whole thing is amazing. This is on pre-order.
Last Paragraph
I’m not very good at sleeping. I apparently don’t need as much sleep as other people, which is why it takes a long time for me to drift off every night. I used to try listening to music to keep myself entertained but I’ve never once fallen asleep while listening to it so I don’t try that any more. Instead I like to think about songs and play scenes to them. It’s really odd but now I have all these music video ideas in my head for different songs. A good chunk of them are based on whatever I’ve been reading or watching recently but I have a bunch of them for chilled out songs that just consist of me sitting on a fence in a field. That one has helped me fall asleep. Years of sleeplessness that I’ve tried to fix by counting sheep when I should’ve just got lazy and imagined myself sitting down instead.
Probably typos galore this week...
Poll: Best Song
Trains - Steps Ahead (2)
67%
Beirut - Steps Ahead (1)
33%
In a Sentimental Mood - Steps Ahead (0)
0%
A Day Away - Seventh Wonder (0)
0%
Haunted - Shadow Gallery (0)
0%
Something Else (post what!) (0)
0%
3 total votes
Beirut - Steps Ahead (1)
In a Sentimental Mood - Steps Ahead (0)
A Day Away - Seventh Wonder (0)
Haunted - Shadow Gallery (0)
Something Else (post what!) (0)
3 total votes
Your vote: Best Song
(Vote): Beirut - Steps Ahead
(Vote): In a Sentimental Mood - Steps Ahead
(Vote): Trains - Steps Ahead
(Vote): A Day Away - Seventh Wonder
(Vote): Haunted - Shadow Gallery
(Vote): Something Else (post what!)
