Trollheart

Title: Violin Concerto
Artiste: Alban Berg
Genre: Classical
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Deadchannel

Expectations: Again, it's classical, it's violins. I expect to like it. I may even be moved by it.

1.1st Movement: Andante (Prelude): Well this is a beautiful start, soft, gentle, mournful, very fragile. Getting stronger now, more insistent, sharper. Settling down then to a sort of swaying rhythm but building, falling back, building, falling back, rather like waves or winds.
2. 1st Movement: Allegretto (Scherzo): Not sure if this is where the break is, but anyway. Sounds like bassoons or something joining in and it gets more solid, gaining a strength perhaps from the additional instruments, turning a little darker maybe?
3. 2nd Movement: Allegro (Candenza): Much louder, ominous even. I read that the first movement is meant to signify life, and the second death and a possible transition to an afterlife. You can hear that in the quicker, more urgent, almost panicky violins here as well as the rest of the orchestra coming in (don't ask me what instruments as I am not up on my orchestral knowledge but I'd say bassoons, oboes, trombones, that kind of thing) to add darkness to the overall atmosphere. It's the longer of the two movements, at just over seventeen minutes, but this time I think I should be able to pinpoint the change, as the last part seems to involve a choir. Getting pretty frenetic now (anyone who doubts metal grew from classical needs to hear some of the heavier passages on this!) with a kind of war going on between the violins and the percussion.
4. 2nd Movement: Adagio (Chorale Variations): Into the eleventh minute now and everything is slowing down, winding down, dying perhaps? Certainly has the feeling of an old melodramatic movie ending. Well that was odd. Said chorale variations, but no voices? Maybe it means something else.

End result: Like most classical, enjoyable, moving, at times the slightest little bit shocking, and almost beyond mere praise. I mean, how could you not like this and still claim to have a soul?

So, Love or Hate? Love, quite obviously.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

DwnWthVwls

Gotta check that out^. I love violin.

I was just kidding. I wasn't aware I was using an already used joke to poke fun at you.

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I don't got a god complex, you got a simple god...

Trollheart

Title: Taproot
Artiste: Michael Hedges
Genre: Folk/Rock
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Plankton

Expectations: Plankton often suggests good albums to me, however I do have to keep in mind that he is a (superb) guitarist, and that sometimes what he may rate an album on might be how good or how technical or how proficient the guitarist is, which is fine. If you play. I don't, and so while he would probably appreciate, say, Neal Schon albums on how good a guitarist the man is, I prefer to be entertained rather than awed. I'm not going to be listening to how chords are formed, or progressions made, or how he fingers strings or whatever it is guitarists get up to when they get together and nerd out. But if there are good songs here, good melodies, I reckon I may enjoy it.

1. The naked stalk: OK well this starts off lovely, very relaxed, sort of a melancholy feel to it, very stark, just I think the guitar though now there's an electric joining the acoustic. This is instrumental, isn't it? The whole album is instrumental, isn't it? I knew it. Well, as long as it's interesting, cos you know how I am with reviewing instrumental albums! Great so far though, eyes remain firmly open. Oh, that was a short one. Very nice.
2. The jealous tunnel/About face: Faster tempo this time, kind of Spanish guitar maybe? Slowing down now, with a very celtic sounding whistle. Very nice indeed. Kind of getting into a slow marching idea. Whistle really adds to it. Woah! Jut saw that Crosby and Nash are guesting on vocals here! That's some heavyweight guest potential right there.
3. The jade stalk: Very warbly flute to open then we have some bright clarinet with what sounds like harp? Lovely anyway. See, this is how to do it. I can only listen to so much music that is solely on guitar: you need other instruments to, for want of another phrase, de-bore it, and Hedges seems to know that. This is coming together really well. Now the guitar comes in, just at the right moment. Another Green.
4. Nomad Land: This has a slightly harder edge to it, and seems to be mostly guitar, acoustic I think, but maybe clarinet in there too? Sort of funky in an odd way. Oh, sax too eh? Actually sounding quite APP now in fact. Reminds me of one of their many instrumentals.
5. Point A: Written by Prince? THE Prince? Seems unlikely, no? Anyway, it's a really cool little sort of reverb (who am I kidding? I know as much about guitars as I do about grindcore!) Very reflective, almost progressive rock from the early seventies.
6. Chava's song: That sounded like it was all on piano. Sweet.
7. Ritual dance: More uptempo of course as you would expect from the title. Sort of gives me the “Classical gas” feeling. The song, not the dicky tummy!
8. Scenes (On the road to Shrub): This, oddly, has a rock motif and yet rises on sax which makes it seem very jazzy. Whistle now changes that. Some really nice guitar now taking over. I could listen to this kind of thing all day (YOU LISTENING NEAL???)
9. The first cutting: Nice little kind of slow marching tune with some really sweet soft flute. And here comes the whistle, right on cue.
10. Point B: This is pretty much all guitar and very good it is too.
11. Song of the spirit farmer: Very dark intro on, I don't know, accordion? Clarinet? Man I suck at identifying instruments beyond the obvious! This has again a nice early progressive rock/pastoral thing going, almost something you might expect to hear on an early Genesis album maybe.
12. The rootwitch: Now this is certainly funky, with a touch of jazz.
13. I carry your heart: Nice folky tune, this time with vocals. Guess that's half of CSNY that was mentioned at the beginning. Oh, ok: Hedges does the vocal, and Crosby and Nash are the backing vox. Like this a lot. Based on a poem apparently. Good closer, very different with being the only vocal track.

End result: One of the first guitar instrumental albums I've really enjoyed (other than Plankton's of course); no technical wankery, no showing off, no indulgent pieces, just really nice guitar music with some other instruments making it a very enjoyable experience.

So, Love or Hate? Pure Love for this one.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

One more album till Arkangel!

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Trollheart

Calm down there, little Batty. Father Metal will be here soon enough...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Chula Vista

Been watching a Twilight Zone marathon which inspires this one. Extremely dated but still fun.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Trollheart

Not quite sure what that has to do with my thread, Chula old man?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

He's wasted and posting in the wrong thread. I speak from experience.

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Chula Vista

1. Listen to the album.

2. Love it, or...

3. Hate it.

Am I missing something?

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Frownland

Recs are closed. Have been for a while now.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.