Subterranean Masquerade - How long have we waited for this?

Can this really be? The new Subterranean Masquerade album will finally be released?

White Willow Reissues -

The 2nd and 3rd White Willow albums are being reissued through Termo records and for those who don't yet have those albums, this is a terrific opportunity to get them now.

Listen to remastered Anamnesis from the reissued release of Sacrament:

Support the third Romantic Warrior documentary - Canterbury Tales

"ABOUT THE FILM

It is our pleasure to introduce to you our third film in the Romantic Warriors - A Progressive Saga series that will guide you through the amazing history, development of the Canterbury Scene and its influence on contemporary bands. The Canterbury Scene of the late 60s and early 70s marked a remarkable period in the history of British progressive rock music and, most notably, the development of jazz rock. The scene's three most durable bands, Soft Machine, Caravan and Gong were especially influential around the world.  

A number of later bands that formed outside of Canterbury have been labeled as “Canterbury bands”, including a few in Europe. Some of these bands were founded by a member of Soft Machine or Caravan while others were obviously influenced by these Canterbury groups. The scene was a breeding ground for world class players of considerable harmonic sophistication who innovated and expanded the music of their time. 

Through interviews with "Canterbury Scene" musicians, clips of live performances, photographs, and current/archival footage, the film takes a closer look at the bands that are now considered a part of the Canterbury Family Tree. 

The film highlights the following  60s/70s Canterbury Scene bands:

• Wilde Flowers (UK), 
• Soft Machine (UK)
• Caravan (UK)
• Gong (France)
• Uriel (UK)
• Egg (UK)
• Matching Mole (UK)
• Hatfield and The North (UK)
• Gilgamesh (UK)
• National Health (UK)
• Quiet Sun (UK)
• Supersister (Netherlands)
• Moving Gelatine Plates (France)
• The Muffins (USA)

Among the musicians of the Canterbury Scene (that were active in the 70s), so far we have interviewed the following:

Pye Hastings & Geoffrey Richardson, (Caravan)  Dirk "Mont" Campbell (Uriel, Egg), Brian Hopper, (Wilde Flowers, Zobe),  David Sinclair (Caravan, Hatfield and The North), Bill MacCormick (Matching Mole, Quiet Sun), Robert Jan Stips (SuperSister), Didier Malherbe (Gong) Phil Miller (Matching Mole, Hatfield and The North, National Health, In Cahoots), Roy Babbington (Nucleus, Delivery, Soft Machine), John Etheridge (Soft Machine), Didier Thibault (Moving Gelatine Plates), Patrick Forgas (Forgas), Benoit Moerlen (Gong, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, Mike Oldfield’s Band, Gongzilla), and Theo Travis (Soft Machine Legacy, Steven Wilson).

Celebrated underground, the legacy of Canterbury music continues to flourish today in the innovative work of contemporary bands such as: 

• Soft Machine Legacy (UK)
• Forgas Band Phenomena (France)
• The Wrong Object (Belgium)
• Syd Arthur (UK)
• Planeta Imaginario (Spain)

In addition we'll hear the opinions of many younger contemporary musicians that are members of some of the bands mentioned above, Canterbury Scene experts, label owners, and fans of the Canterbury progressive scene. Interviewees include Michel Deville, Susan Clynes, Antoine Guenet, Marc Capel, Alfonso Muñoz, Vasco Trilla, Liam Magill Joel Magill, Raven Bush, Fred  Rother, Bruce gallanter, and Leonardo Pavkovic.

The film is sure to raise some controversy and debate. Most of all, however, it will send you back to listen to classic Canterbury cuts of the past, present -- and future. 

Arctic Sleep, an atmospheric doom/sludge band from Milwaukee, WI, is running a kickstarter for their 5th album, Passage of Gaia, to be released in September. I quite liked their previous releases, so I thought I'd mention this campaign here for those of you interested (I pledged as well).

You can listen to their previous albums on their Bandcamp.

 

A psychedelic soundtrack for your weekend - Causa Sui

On my daily commute to and from work I like to immerse myself in some instrumental psychedelic rock to take me away from the surroundings and a great way to achieve that is through the wonderful and vast output of Danish band, Causa Sui. Heavy, hypnotic and beautiful, their music has a magical appeal for me, that sound that captivates me and teleports me away as I listen to it.
 

  Spotify

Announcement/Disclosure: I am not back and not reviewing

As I wrote in the first post in over two years that you can see down below, I am not back.

I've gotten quite a lot of emails in the last week asking me to review and write about bands/albums/videos/etc. So to save you the time of writing to me and save my time replying to all these emails, here's the announcement:

I won't be writing reviews, I won't be taking review requests, I won't be doing any of the coverage I did previously in this blog. I will simply post random posts here and there when I have the time and inclination to do so. I will post on whatever is on my mind at that point - maybe I heard a song I really liked, just gotten a new album and loved it, need to share some of my enthusiasm about an obscure album.

The reason I can't go full time back is lack of time (and energy). I wish I could, as there's lots of great music I keep on discovering.

Hope all those who wrote in can appreciate this and I wish you the best with your music.

AV

Keeping in somewhat with the musical theme of the past few posts, today's band is in a similar ballpark. It's the new s/t album by The Oath, out on, not surprisingly, Rise Above Records this past March. This is straight forward good old fashioned heavy-metal, psychedelic and gritty sounding with female vocals. Judging by this track alone, I want to listen to the whole thing.

Some more psychedelic rock to end the week: Walrus - Walrus (2013)

Another discovery I had in 2013 was this Swedish group (with Mattias Olsson from Änglagård) playing psychedelic/kraurock/progressive rock. There's a terrific use of the various instruments here, the violin and keyboards provide a haunting atmosphere as the propulsive rhythm section follows up with their counteracting piece, all together achieving a dynamic and beautiful album.

Mount Salem - Endless (Metal Blade, 2014)

After Purson (The Circle and the Blue Door), New Keepers of the Water Towers (Cosmic) and Blaak Heat Shujaa (The Edge of an Era) last year, I get my psych/stoner itch rubbed again this year with Mount Salem's release Endless, released through Metal Blade records.

While nothing new, this is solid heavy, retro-sounding psychedelic rock with female vocals.
Here's the official release from this album, Lucid:

New Cormorant album, Earth Diver, out on April 8th, 2014

New Cormorant album coming out next week, their first one post-Arthur von Nagel. The two songs available for streaming on their bandcamp sound very good, give it a try.

Read an album review on Invisible Oranges.

Recommendation: Major Parkinson - Twilight Cinema

This is so good, I just had to come back from the cold to post about it.

I've been waiting for a band to come along and fill in the void that was left by Cardiacs and their amazing music. Well I think that by now, with three amazing albums, I can declare that Major Parkinson is that band.

Twilight Cinema, their 2014 offering, is quite different from their previous albums. I don't want to use the word mature, cause it would cast their previous albums in a negative shade. But this album sounds like a band that progressed forward from their roots and defined themselves a fresh and original sound, a band with a sharp and clear vision, playing original, inventive and innovative progressive rock, a band that doesn't cater to the masses but creates and plays music which they enjoy and love. A band that takes their ideas a step forward with each album and in this one, they're breaking new boundaries for their sound and song structures (listen to the title track to hear it).

listen to the album on Bandcamp: