Trollheart

I'm not in any way a stickler for originality, not at all. But I just don't like it when a band seems to be a carbon copy of the style of another. You'll see that when I review Timeless by The Watch in my prog journal. Remember my reaction to them in the PRAC?

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Anteater

Yeah I remember that one. I guess in Unified Past's case I just don't see them as a clone: they're way heavier than Yes are and Naro does other things with his voice that Anderson doesn't do. 'Today's The Day' does sound like a love letter to Yes though. However, if you remember that one band Druid back in the mid 70's or the first Starcastle album....that's some deep Yes cloneage going on.

That would make for an interesting journal actually: bands and artists with really obvious influences yet still put out great music.

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Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

Trollheart

Title: At Wild End
Artiste: Colin Bass
Year 2015
Nationality: British
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rank: Noob
3

Expectations: The guy used to be in Camel, so though I'm not as familiar with that band as I would like to be, they are giants of the prog scene, so I would expect this to be pretty good.

1. Return to Earth: A very soft, almost folky opening with nice chingly guitar; tune sounds really familiar when it gets going. Nice mid-pacer, and when the vocal comes in it's very warm and gentle. Yes, this is very pleasant.
2. We are one: This opens almost like the closing part of “Dancing with the moonlit knight” by Genesis. Lovely slow piano and soulful vocal. Beautiful, almost lazy, and dreamy. Just gorgeous.
3. Walking to Santiago: Well that's odd: this opens with an old hymn, “He who would valiant be”, then breaks into a lovely uptempo acoustic guitar and what sounds like trumpet. So far this album has been gold.
4. Waiting for someone: Harp from Ben Mandelson and soft keys from Camel bandmate Andy Latimer earn this sumptuous ballad yet another Blue.
5. In another time: This kind of reminds me of Billy Joel, just the style not the song. More uptempo in a fairly gentle way and guided by honky-tonk piano, with also a feeling of early Springsteen (Greetings from Asbury Park era) and Bob Seger too.
6. Szegereli eternal: Some lovely whistle and accordion makes for quite an ambient and Celtic-sounding instrumental (with some choral voices thrown in).
7. Darkness on Leather Lake: This is good, yes, but somehow not as good as the previous tracks. Rocks nicely, some great keyboard and organ. Reminds me very much of Jadis.
8. Bubuka Bridge: Weird little bassline than an almost salsa rhythm picks it up. Another short one, I'd say another instrumental? Another instrumental. Nice work on the pipes and whistles.
9. If I could stay: Another perfect ballad.
10. Girl from the northwest county: This has something of a jazzy/calypso feel to it that I don't really like that much. Yeah, it doesn't do it for me. First Orange. Probably only one too.
11. Up at sheep's bleat: Or maybe not. The rustic feeling evoked through the lyric is nice, but I don't like the spoken vocal. Nice piano though.
12. At Wild End: Ends strongly on another nice ballad, after stumbling a little towards the end.

Final result: Something of a surprise. I had hoped it would be a decent album, but it turned out to be really excellent. Often, solo albums from members of established acts can be very disappointing, but this one scores on almost every level. Real stunner.

Rating:

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Trollheart

Title: Cast in Steel
Artiste: a-ha
Year 2015
Nationality: Norwegian
Genre: Pop
Rank: Master Adept
10

Expectations: There has been the odd bad album from these guys, but they're few and far between. Given that they came out of retirement specially to record this album, I'm expecting something along the lines of Analogue or even back to the heyday of the likes of Scoundrel Days.

1. Cast in steel: a-ha have a real talent for writing songs packed full of hooks, and this, the opener, shows that in spades. Right away there's a bouncy, catchy melody and the chorus is pure classic a-ha. Morten sounds like he's never been away, and the band appear to just slot back together after six years as if they had never broken up. It's a gentle song with an edge of steel (sorry) in it; could easily hear this on the radio. Beautiful performance by the Macedonian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
2. Under the makeup: Beautiful piano line driving this, Mags at his best and the orchestra really coming into their own. A lovely ballad; perhaps a little soon to have one, but that's a-ha for you. I'm sure it won't be the only one on the album.
3. The wake: A chance for Pal to come to the forefront with a bouncier, boppier song, and again it has that great catchy chorus. Lovely sprinkly keyboards.
4. Forest fire: Nodding back to the days of “Take on me” and “I've been losing you”, this one rocks along on a sprightly synth line from Mags, the drumbeat almost identical to that from their massive hit single. Wonderful vocal from Morten. What is he now? Fifty-seven? Doesn't sound it at all. Never lost that clear, youthful, almost angelic quality to his voice.
5. Objects in the mirror: Lovely thick bassline driving this, then Mags takes control with lush, stately keyboards, helped by some exquisite violin, cello and viola.
6. Door ajar: This is the first track that doesn't have me reaching for the Green right away. It has a sense of seventies pop and eighties new wave but somehow it doesn't do it for me. A little lightweight perhaps compared to the tracks before it. Filler? Not quite, but a weak track certainly.
7. Living at the end of the world: Back on track with a sumptuous strings-driven ballad, this time it's the Bylund Strings providing the orchestral touch. Nice sort of midpaced with a cool little guitar motif running.
8. Mythomania: Funking it up a little now, (I said funking!) with a slightly Arabic sounding keyboard riff that reminds me of Rod Stewart's “Do ya think I'm sexy?” Also touching on “The sign” by Ace of Base a little. Definite marching idea about it that I could see going down well on stage. Also possibly in the clubs.
9. She's humming a tune: Lovely acoustic guitar from Pal opens this before it kicks up into a real bopper along the lines of “Scoundrel days” with some fine keyboard flurries. Nice to see a reprise of the acoustic guitar fading out at the end.
10. Shadow endeavours: Uptempo keyboard with a nice little melody and some good vocal harmonies. Changes nicely at the end into a much slower tempo. Bit odd if I'm honest.
11. Giving up the ghost: Has touches of “The Safety Dance” about it but a great boppy pop song.
12. Goodbye Thompson: Not sure who Thompson is, but this is a nice kind of slightly dark ballad to end.

Final result: Tailed off a little in the end, but still a great album. I was gutted when they announced their breakup after Foot of the Mountain, and though they've only agreed to reform for two years (anyone ever hear of such a thing before?) I hope they can rethink that or be convinced to stay around for longer, as this album is a fine example of what they're still capable of. Thirty years on and still churning out content of this quality.

Rating:

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Trollheart

Title: Echoes from Future Memories
Artiste: Gert Emmins and Ruud Heij
Year 2015
Nationality: Dutch
Genre: Electronic
Rank: Noob
9

Expectations: Well it only has four tracks but none are less than twelve minutes long. And that's the shortest one! Next one up is seventeen, then we go into the twenties. Hope it'll have more going on than yer man Roach did. Don't know what to expect...

1. Secrets lie within the event horizon: Spacey start with kind of echoing, hollow sounds, sure conjures up the idea of falling into a black hole all right. Okay, already a kind of juddering percussion is cutting in and it's getting a little Vangelis, some buzzing, running synths now. Yeah, think I may like this. Think I may like this a lot. Halfway through already and there's a whole lot happening. Getting very uptempo. Well it's twenty-one minutes long and halfway through I feel it's kind of mostly the same. Don't get me wrong: it's great and I'm enjoying it, and there are extra bits being thrown in, but for a piece of this length it's not really changing enough, at least not yet. There's no doubting the skill of the two musicians though.
2. Depth of prolonged nature: Descending, spiralling down feel to this; reminds me of Jeff Wayne at times. Most of it though is so Vangelis circa Heaven and Hell it just ain't true. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does sound here like something of a ripoff of the Greek multi-instrumentalist's work to a degree. Does end really nicely.
3. Whispering winds over dusty roads: Bit of a harsher start, given the title, but there are seventeen minutes to go so we'll see how it develops. It's certainly a slow start. We're almost five minutes in before the dark, breathing synth is supplemented by a faster, rippling one and things begin to take shape. It's actually quite Jarre now. Nice kind of trumpety keyboard coming in around the thirteenth minute. Certainly keeps the attention, unlike some other electronic music I've listened to.
4. Echoes from future memories: And a twenty-four minute tune for the closer and title track. That busy synth gets going again, and there are hissing, sliding sounds flying all around the place, some good guitar work.Then in the eighth minute some bells or gongs sound as the main synth slips out, bringing in a sussurating one and something akin to whalesong as the whole piece slows down now, then picks back up as the bubbling synth makes its way back in.

Final result: Really enjoyable album. Hard to review as ever, but definitely something I would listen to again, and not just as background music.

Rating:

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The Batlord

Is that a legit album cover?!

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Anteater

That's some fine Berlin School material there. That being said, I'd highly recommend jumping into some Ozric Tentacles records or maybe Shpongle if you want a little more spice in your instrumental progging.

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Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

Trollheart

(Shrug) Guess so. It was hard to track down so I assume it's it. Name's on it and all. Why would you think otherwise?
I believe I sampled OT in the PRAC back before the dawn of time. I can't remember if I liked them or not though. Berlin School, you say? Tell me more...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

It's just... the worst.

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Trollheart

Hmm. May I remind you...?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018