The intensity, the energy, the fury... It's awe-inspiring. But what really moves me most is Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's dance during the intro. Outrageous.
Showing posts with label rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rock. Show all posts
Friday, January 13, 2012
SRSLY
The intensity, the energy, the fury... It's awe-inspiring. But what really moves me most is Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's dance during the intro. Outrageous.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Gentle Giant
This is one band which really BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I truly admire them beyond words. Each individual band member can play every instrument ever invented, and play it well.
Just look at this:
Far out man...
You can get their debut album here. Can you believe this stuff was released way back in 19-fucking-70? Way ahead of anything else from that year. If you want a few specific high points, I'd have to say that they are "Giant", "Funny Ways", "Alucard", "Isn't it Quiet and Cold?", "Nothing at All", "Why Not?" and "The Queen". Download the thing.
Magma - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (1973)
Interesting title, eh? It is in fact in Kobaïan - a language spoken on the planet Kobaïa (duh!). This planet is the birthplace of drummer and musical mastermind Christian Vander and the setting of most (if not all) of this French band's albums.
You know how Pink Floyd were famous for their grandiose concept albums? Well, Vander took that idea to the next level, and through the years has built up a concept discography with Magma. Over ten studio albums, they tell the (surprisingly long and confusing) story of a group of people fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on the planet Kobaïa, With conflict(s) arising when the Kobaïans — descendants of the original colonists — encounter other Earth refugees. All of this is explained in Kobaïan of course, making the albums' liner notes (or alternatively, the internets) the only way to figure out what the hell they're singing about. And they don't even tell the story in chronological order!
Apart from that, what makes this band revolutionary? For one thing, their sound: imagine a Carl Orff-meets-jazz-and-plays-hypnotically-repetitive-militaristic-compositions, sung by a choir with some ridiculously exaggerated falsetto vocals. And dare I say that there's a hint of Philip Glass style minimalism? That's pretty much what Magma sound like on this album. It is a sound which transcends all musical genres, to the point where the label zeuhl had to be applied to their music (and subsequently that of other French bands that would follow in their footsteps). Zeuhl is a Kobaïan word meaning "celestial". How cool is that? Playing music for which no human word exists? Pretty rad in my opinion!
DAT DRUMMER - Impresses me every time
Anyway, here you go: Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Well
Before I get the hang of the visual aspect of this blog (which I shall certainly take care of in the near future, making it beautiful), I thought I'd take a moment to write about PROGRESSIVE ROCK.
I was actually thinking of naming it Bruno's ProgBlog, to express my love for this wonderfully pompous, self-indulgent style of music. I only changed my mind because I realized I would be writing about other music and entirely different subjects.
Anyway, what is it that makes prog so blatantly superior to most (if not all) music ever written before and after? It's not such trifles as outstanding musicianship and heartbreakingly pure emotion both of which can easily be found in many of the lesser forms of music. What's that? "Emotion is for girly faggots" you say? "I'd rather have my badass macho music" you say? Of course, prog also has it's fair share of manly kickassery (although it is often somewhat "diluted" in the longer songs and therefore less obvious) but again, that's not what it's all about. Could it all be about the complexity of the compositions, perhaps? That's certainly one of the style's major virtues, but then again: bebop opened up a whole new world of theoretical complexity before prog came to be, and for ages before that we had a fuckton of classical composers writing not-exactly-very-simple-music. What makes this music so very special is the mentality. It is the mentality of those holy pioneers that made them willing to play something more than just plain ol' rock 'n' roll, to take the best of each genre out there and competently combine it into something new, beautiful and scary. In fact I don't think that prog "rock", as they call it is a genre at all. Firstly, what the hell does this have to do with rock 'n' roll music? Then think about this: what are the similarities in sound between, say, The Mars Volta and Genesis? None at all. Yet they all share a forward thinking (some might even say progressive) mentality. And there you have it folks, the truth about prog rock.
(I realize that I may have posted way too many links, but they were all completely necessary for this discussion. Think of them as those 10-20-30 sec. samples you find on some sites, rather than going through each of them individually.)
I was actually thinking of naming it Bruno's ProgBlog, to express my love for this wonderfully pompous, self-indulgent style of music. I only changed my mind because I realized I would be writing about other music and entirely different subjects.
Anyway, what is it that makes prog so blatantly superior to most (if not all) music ever written before and after? It's not such trifles as outstanding musicianship and heartbreakingly pure emotion both of which can easily be found in many of the lesser forms of music. What's that? "Emotion is for girly faggots" you say? "I'd rather have my badass macho music" you say? Of course, prog also has it's fair share of manly kickassery (although it is often somewhat "diluted" in the longer songs and therefore less obvious) but again, that's not what it's all about. Could it all be about the complexity of the compositions, perhaps? That's certainly one of the style's major virtues, but then again: bebop opened up a whole new world of theoretical complexity before prog came to be, and for ages before that we had a fuckton of classical composers writing not-exactly-very-simple-music. What makes this music so very special is the mentality. It is the mentality of those holy pioneers that made them willing to play something more than just plain ol' rock 'n' roll, to take the best of each genre out there and competently combine it into something new, beautiful and scary. In fact I don't think that prog "rock", as they call it is a genre at all. Firstly, what the hell does this have to do with rock 'n' roll music? Then think about this: what are the similarities in sound between, say, The Mars Volta and Genesis? None at all. Yet they all share a forward thinking (some might even say progressive) mentality. And there you have it folks, the truth about prog rock.
(I realize that I may have posted way too many links, but they were all completely necessary for this discussion. Think of them as those 10-20-30 sec. samples you find on some sites, rather than going through each of them individually.)
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