Thieves' Kitchen - The Clockwork Universe

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With an origin stretching back to 1999, Thieves' Kitchen have been making music for quite a few years now (although the lineup has changed over time). Currently the band is made up of Phil Mercy (guitars), Thomas Johnson (keyboards), and Amy Darby (vocals, clarinet, recorders, and several other instruments). While the members of the group have typically been based in the UK (as both Mercy and Darby are), Johnson actually hails from Sweden. Back in the early 1990s, Thomas Johnson was also the keyboardist in the Swedish progressive rock group Änglagård, who broke up in 1994 after releasing just two very good studio albums (although they reformed in 2009 and have since released new music).

While the core of Thieves' Kitchen is made up of Amy, Phil, and Thomas, they are also joined by Paul Mallyon (formerly of Sanguine Hum) on drums, and Johan Brand and Anna Holmgren of Änglagård on bass and flute respectively.

There is a marked difference between the music of Thieves' Kitchen and Änglagård though. From the opening bars of the first track Library Song, it's clear that Thieves' Kitchen has virtually none of the brilliantly foreboding winter-dark sound that characterizes Änglagård (as lovely as it actually is). Rather, The Clockwork Universe, while at times angular and enigmatic, has a more immediately welcoming atmosphere about it.

As the album opens with Library Song, the keening electric guitar melody accompanied by electric piano and a bass counterpoint immediately give off a buoyant, jazzy air. Once the breezy organ arpeggios and the skittering drums arrive, the Canterbury influence is front and center. The instrumental section that breaks out at around the half-way mark features both guitars and synths reprising the same spiraling theme sung earlier by Darby, while the snappy rhythm section steps things up into a higher gear than before. Enough good things simply cannot be said about Paul Mallyon's drumming on this record; it's highly enjoyable and serves to make the music more interesting rather than just being content to keep time.

Phil Mercy's guitar playing throughout, whether on acoustic or electric, is very tasteful and enjoyable. There are moments of intricacy that rival Gentle Giant. He seems to favor more clean or low-distortion guitar tones, which while further adding to the jazz flavor also allows for more sonic space and keeps the music solidly outside of metal territory.

Additionally, Amy Darby's voice deserves special mention, as it's one of the band's greatest assets and a near-perfect match to the music. She is able to make challenging vocal lines sound effortless, and never veers into histrionics.

There also seems to be a concept running through the record. While the subject matter differs from one track to the next, lyrically the songs seem to have a common science-based thread connecting them together -- the most obvious example perhaps being the album centerpiece, The Scientist's Wife, an impressive composition that clocks in at almost 20 minutes.

One of this group's strengths is in the merging of symphonic progressive rock with the Canterbury style that was pioneered by groups such as Soft Machine, National Health, and Caravan (among many others). The two styles are very different from each other, and yet Thieves' Kitchen are able to bridge the gap quite well. Perhaps a big component of the "symph" sound is the presence of Thomas Johnson; he does an outstanding job on the keys, whether it's adding atmosphere with the Mellotron, or contributing upbeat and punchy synth and organ melodies.

Perhaps most important of all, the band sounds like they are having fun together and that comes through in the music. Overall it's a very solid release that rewards multiple listens, as most worthwhile records do. But don't let me be the judge -- have a listen for yourself below!

Standout tracks: Library Song, Prodigy, The Scientist's Wife

Sounds like:

• Canterbury
• symphonic prog
• jazz fusion

Doesn't sound like:

• new age
• heavy metal
• R&B

Band website:

https://thieveskitchen.wordpress.com/

Year Released: 2015  /  Record Label: Thieves' Kitchen

New music from Sanguine Hum

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January 2016 saw the release of Sanguine Hum's 2-disc What We Ask Is Where We Begin: The Songs For Days Sessions, containing the music from the 2006 album Songs For Days on a physical CD for the first time, along with a second disc of out-takes and unreleased songs.

Songs For Days was originally released by The Joff Winks Band, which had the same lineup that would eventually become Sanguine Hum: Joff Winks (guitars and lead vocals), Matt Baber (keyboards), Brad Waissman (bass), and Paul Mallyon (drums). One thing that jumps out right away is that the band members are all highly skilled, and capable of pulling off some very challenging instrumental passages without ever becoming self-indulgent. One gets the sense that the group does not take themselves too seriously.

This 2-disc set serves as a great reintroduction to the band's early days, and it's especially interesting to hear their music from this period after having heard their more recent releases. In spite of it being from several years ago, this CD fits nicely alongside the others in their catalog. The songs here are fully-formed and dynamic; even the second disc feels like a cohesive collection rather than a selection of bonus material. Among the unreleased material is a very nice rendition of Steely Dan's "Here At The Western World", which gives an idea of how diverse their influences might be.

The album instrumentation features electric and acoustic guitar, bass (both bass guitar and double bass), a wide array of keyboards, drums and other percussion. The sonic palette is quite lush and expansive, and the song construction is never boring. A quick look at the album credits also shows that the band members switch things up a bit by playing various other instruments, as well as contributing additional vocals.

If you like music that is ambitious without being inaccessible or contrived, or are looking for something off the beaten path, this album comes highly recommended.

Standout Tracks: Before We Bow Down, Juniper, Morning Sun

Sounds like:

• alternative
• pop
• post-rock
• jazz
• progressive

Doesn't sound like:

• metal
• neo-prog
• EDM

Have a listen for yourself!



Also, check out Sanguine Hum's website here:
http://troopersforsound.com/


Year Released: 2016  /  Record Label: Esoteric Antenna

Now playing: The Watch - "Planet Earth?"

Today I wanted to mention a group of musicians who deserve some wider recognition: The Watch. These Italian progsters have been around for years (at least fifteen, as far as I know), making a brand of symphonic rock that bears a very strong resemblance to early Genesis. The sound they recreate seems to be straight out of the '70-'73 period of Genesis, back when Peter Gabriel was their front-man and Phil Collins was behind the drum kit. In spite of an Italian accent, Simone Rossetti, lead singer of The Watch, sounds uncannily like Gabriel did back then. The resemblance can be quite eerie at times. They have also been compared to neo-prog bands like IQ, though personally I don't see much similarity.

Back in February of this year The Watch released their new album, which is called Planet Earth? All of their previous albums (and there have been four, although the band changed names and lineups after their debut) have shared a sound similar to this one, drawing heavily on British 70's prog-rock for inspiration, and Planet Earth? is no exception in this regard. What is interesting though, is that there are moments that sound nothing like Genesis (or IQ) -- they sound like something else.

They've gotten very good at doing what they do (sounding like Genesis), but they don't have the same sense of song structure or melody -- and to be fair, no one does. What makes The Watch interesting is the melancholy air that permeates so much of their music. There is very little in the way of brightness or whimsicality, which is a far cry from the band they're purported to be a clone of. For example, the middle section of the track The World Inside, with its oddly-metered guitar and keyboard interplay, does not sound like something Genesis would've done. About the only similarity would be the piano and organ arpeggios played there, but the syncopation used there has more in common with a group like Van Der Graaf Generator, or perhaps some of the more dissonant Swedish bands in this genre like Anglagard. This contrasts nicely with the song's more melodic piano-driven first half. It's probably my favorite from this CD.

Also worth noting is the beautiful cover artwork, by Spencer Bowden. I'm not sure what the point of it is, but it appears to be a guitar and mellotron (there may be more instruments, but I can't see any) with Earth-like terrain formed around them. It caught my attention right away, and is one of the neatest album covers I've seen in a while. Bowden has also done the artwork for The Watch's last album, Primitive, as well as Beardfish's most recent CD Destined Solitaire. Both are very cool.

The Watch get some flak for allegedly not being very original, and while I can understand, they are far from being a clone. Their music has a dark, complex nature that differs from a lot of the bands that they're said to be mimicking. That said, there are also moments of brightness that punctuate the music from time to time, which keeps things interesting. They excel at creating a foreboding atmosphere in their music (there are some surprisingly gothic sounding mellotrons used on the new CD), and at creating a variety of sonic textures. The analog synths and acoustic guitars add a lush quality to their music, which contrasts sharply with the more angular or sinister passages. You can be sure that many songs will twist and turn in unpredictable ways, never sticking to tried-and-true chord progressions or a verse-chorus-verse structure. This is the spirit in which music was being made a long time ago, and The Watch deserve some credit for keeping that flame alive.

Other standout tracks are Welcome To Your Life, Something Wrong, and Earth. You can listen to samples from all three of them on the band's website, and I highly recommend that you check them out. Who knows? You might like what you hear!

(Note: Scroll down on their main page and you'll find the links to the song samples.)

The Watch
http://www.thewatchmusic.net/

Genesis to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame -- Finally!

The progressive rock band Genesis is going to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Yes, as hard to believe as that may be, it's true. And it's darn well about time too!

You can follow the link to read about it here:
http://www.rockhall.com/induction2010/#Genesis


As Genesis is my favorite band ever, I'm pretty jazzed about it. Not sure what's going to happen, but let's hope that they decide to reunite for a performance together with Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett. The only band reunion that I'd get as excited over would be a Beatles reunion. (but that's not very likely to happen...)

Aaaaand that's about it for now.

Oh wait. Here's a link to their official website, in case you're curious about them.
http://www.genesis-music.com

Okay I'm finished now. :)

Initial Attempt...

Well, this is not something I've done a lot of in a while, but here goes nothing...

This will be an attempt at writing a blog about music, primarily. Either about stuff going on in the music world, about whatever I've got playing at the moment, new "discoveries" I'd like to share, or whatever else happens to come to mind. Not that my opinion is all that important, but what the heck -- it seems like everyone else has a blog now, so why not join in?

Anyway...

Tonight we went and had dinner up in Fayetteville, TN. On our way back home my brother put on Pink Floyd's album The Wall in the car and started up with the track Is There Anybody Out There? This was followed by the powerful one-two (-three?) punch of Nobody Home, Vera, and Bring the Boys Back Home, and then Comfortably Numb. By the time we had gotten to In The Flesh, with the epic and sinister "wall of sound" opening and the late Rick Wright's shimmering Hammond B3 chords, it reminded me of how big of an impact this music had on me all those years ago when I'd first heard it start to finish (well, maybe six years isn't all that long, but it sure feels like it right now).

The Wall has to be one of the most interesting rock concept albums ever; probably one of the best rock albums, period. The diversity of the songs on both discs (or vinyl LPs, depending on which medium you prefer) is pretty amazing. And the way the album starts out is fairly inoffensive and digestible -- but by the time you've made it to disc two, it has gotten progressively more and more bizarre. Waiting for the Worms and The Trial perhaps being my favorite examples of how "out there" Pink Floyd got on this recording. The trip this album takes you on is pretty incredible, and very weird.

Now it's true that "weirdness" is not uncommon for a prog band. But Pink Floyd were one of the most successful and well-known prog bands ever, and for an album such as this to have done so well on the charts, and to be so widely recognized even now, is pretty mind-boggling to think about. But the music industry was a lot different back then than it is now, of course.

Maybe if Nickelback decided to release a two-disc rock opera they could shake things up. I even have the perfect storyline for it: A once-cool rock band that had labored in obscurity for years, writing interesting original music, suddenly has a breakthrough hit. Then they begin to lose their soul as they start on a downward spiral of dwindling creativity, releasing increasingly vapid, formulaic pop/rock songs, ultimately becoming a parody of themselves...

Oh wait... I think they've already written and starred in that one.

(No offense to Nickelback fans intended, of course.)

Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh yeah, Pink Floyd... Well, when it comes to PF, Animals has always been my favorite album -- Sheep has to be my favorite single song of theirs. It has one of the most triumphant, uplifting sounding endings that I've ever heard in a rock song (right up there with Genesis' sidelong epic Supper's Ready from the album Foxtrot released in '72). I mean c'mon! The album is inspired in part by George Orwell's book "Animal Farm" -- how can it not be awesome? Plus, it has one of the coolest album covers ever!

(Cover artwork by Storm Thorgerson.)

Seriously, how is a photograph of a pig flying above a power plant anything but brilliant? I can think of nothing better, except for more flying pigs. But that's probably not the most original idea now.

So while Animals holds a special place for me, The Wall is not far behind anymore. If anyone has not explored these two albums, please, please give them a listen. Or several listens, for that matter. They are like an oasis in the musical wasteland of modern day.

Okay, that last part may have been a bit extreme. But seriously, do check them out if you haven't already. And if you have, then you already know how awesome they are and don't need me to tell you.

That's all I've got for now. Just wanted to rant a little bit about "the Floyd", and get the ball rolling with this whole "Interblag" thing.

Goodnight!

What to do...?

Well, I have a blog.

So... now what? I suppose the answer will come to me eventually. Until then, stay tuned.

Ciao.