The Prog Rock Album Club

Anteater · 10-15-2012, 09:40 PM

As one of the progenitor records of neo-prog movement and an alleged crowning achievement of the band Twelfth Night in question, I went into 1982's Fact And Fiction with an open mind and a sense of adventure. After all, I was familiar with Marillion, Pallas and Pendragon to some degree or another, and am a huge fan of most of the 80's biggest proggy crossover acts too (It Bites, Tears For Fears, Saga, etc.). Thus, I dove in...and enjoyed things despite a few rough spots.

My biggest problems with Fact And Fiction have, in fact, little to do with the music itself. Rather, its the tinny production and inconsistent vocal delivery of Geoff Mann which bar this LP from going into my top echelon of prog picks. Mistah Mann is certainly a man of considerable range and talent (and obviously a prominent influence on guys like Fish), but he has trouble with the higher notes and occasionally comes across as straining.....almost to the point where I wonder if he's in any pain up there under the studio lights, lol!

Still, as an aficionado of all things prog and 80's, I find quite a bit to like here nevertheless: 'Creepshow' is a helluva epic with an atmosphere that rivals the best of the genre's golden years half a decade prior, and even the punkier numbers here are steeped in tasty sounding synthpads and reverberation that contrast well when a Gilmourian guitar solo comes ripping into the mix!

Interesting lyrical content abounds throughout, a trait generally spot on amidst most of the "classic" albums of neo prog canon. The human condition is such a staple of art-oriented songwriting that I feel like I would need some linear notes or something to fully appreciate what Mann is elucidating, but I think most of its understandable enough for your average listener to follow even without reference. Politics has never been my bag though. xD

My overall impression? Definitely a couple years ahead of its time, and its heir apparent that Twelfth Night set the beat for the rest of the decade as far as neo-prog is concerned (without the post-punk diversions). The longer songs are really good whilst the shorter cuts do the band something of a disservice: they were definitely more "suited' as it were, to suites. xD

VERDICT: A solid 7.5/10 from me, rounded up to an 8 for the particularly neo-prog prone amongst ye.

Unknown Soldier · 10-19-2012, 11:14 AM

So is the Spock's Beard album definitely the album that is going to be reviewed?

Trollheart · 10-19-2012, 11:22 AM

Okay guys here finally is my review. It's been a little difficult for me, as I did review this already in my journal, and while I could just copy-and-paste that into here, I didn't want to do that: felt this deserved a little more time thought and originality. So although there are some elements here, obviously, from that review, I've tried to keep it as separate from that as possible. This has not been easy, but I think I've managed to get my thoughts down here without even referring back to the original review, though I did of course have to play the album again; no ordeal, as I love this record!

Fact and fiction --- Twelfth Night --- 1982 (Twelfth Night Records)
Unlike others here who have become annoyed at Geoff Mann's soprano voice, it was something that gripped me from the beginning when I heard this album. Some backstory: I believe this was purchased in the UK (I live in Ireland) when I travelled there and walked for the very first time into the HMV Superstore, as it was, and was absolutely flattened by how BIG it was! Of course, these days with the proliferation of digital media and the decline of vinyl, even CD, it's probably gone, or at least a lot smaller, but back then it was effing HUGE! I mean, over here our record shops were more or less divided into sections for rock, pop, trad, soundtracks, classical and a few others, with maybe some tapes on the walls if there was room. But HMV had BINS and BINS dedicated to each GENRE! I mean, their Genesis section alone was massive! I could have spent hundreds, thousands had I possessed such money, and happily died there going through all the albums.

But back in the real world, I had probably two or three hundred sterling and was only there for a weekend, or a week, I don't recall which. But I remember buying albums I KNEW I could never even find in Ireland, and happily stuffing them in my bag for the trip home. This was, I believe, one of those albums you couldn't get in the emerald isle, and having read about it in (where else?) Kerrang!, which was my bible at the time, I knew it sounded good and I wanted it. I was also just entering my prog rock phase, on the back of Marillion's “Market square heroes” single and Genesis's “Duke” as well as some Rush stuff, so this was right up my street.

Backstory over: back to the album. I love the way the rising keyboard chords sound almost like a church service, then the, well, altar-boy singing of Geoff Mann comes in. I also really like the way he then switches down to, what, alto is it? The slightly lower register. Some here have postulated he did that because he couldn't maintain the high-pitched voice all through the song, and that may indeed be true, but I think it was done for dramatic effect. At any rate, I think his voice gets quite menacing as it drops, while Clive Mitten's keys maintain their celestial sound.

Then it all gets dark and dramatic, as Mann's voice goes even lower, speaking this time then the keys get into more of a melody rather than a background supporting noise and suddenly, after a few quotes of “Would you file this please Harry” and the academic treatise being read out, a voice shouts “HARRY!” and the drums, which have slid in almost unnoticed, kick the tempo up as the guitars also blast in and the song really takes over, the band revealing the tight-knit combo they are. Without going too much into the first track (see my journal for a deeper analysis) I like the way it goes into a sort of child's nursery-rhyme melody with some attendant screams and wails, almost giving the lie to the title, as it's no doubt meant to. I also love the third movement, as it were, with the robotic part running over heavy organ then the big powerful runaway solos and chanting to end with the final chilling thought ”All eyes faced upon the conductor, baton taps inside the brain”.

“Human being” reminds me of the opening of Floyd's, much later, “Signs of life”, with the splashing water, and then its frankly gorgeous keyboard intro, with a superb guitar piece from Andy Revell, and one of Twelfth Night's best lyrics in my opinion, when Mann sneers ”If every time we tell a lie, a little fairy dies, they must be building death-camps in the garden”, while “This city” is a stark, bleak song which, while it lists the horrors of urban decay, seeks not to apportion blame for these, thereby by default accepting some of the responsibility, reflected indeed in the lyric ”It is all this city”; we are all to blame. Followed as it is by one of the two excellent instrumentals on the album, the almost hopelessness of “This city” is somewhat lessened by the quite celestial “World without end” which, while short, is certainly impressive, and closes the first side (yeah, my copy is on vinyl: I also have a cassette player and a rotary phone, what of it?) extremely well.

Again, I will disagree with many here who think the title track is not up to scratch. I personally love every track on this album, and I think “Fact and fiction”, with its deceptively bouncy tempo framing a very dark and chilling message, as parties on all sides try to convince us they are right, works really well. On the live album “Live and let live”, this track is preceded by a monologue by Mann, which ends with a chorus “The truth is what we tell you! We are the fact, they are the fiction!” The way the other instrumental, “The poet sniffs a flower”, turns from slow ballad to sudden uptempo bopper originally took me by surprise, now I love the way it changes. It leads, of course, to my all-time favourite, the total standout.

I don't know Karn Evil 9, but when I heard this it was the first time I had ever heard anything so, well, so scary! I hadn't at that point heard “The Lamb”, so the most unsettling song I had experienced close to this was (don't laugh) “Hotel California” --- look, I thought it was scary, ok? When they stab the beast but can't kill it? --- so this was something new. I was terrified, but fascinated. I think Mann's voice works perfectly all through this, at times low, calm and authoritative, even detached as the guide, cracked and completely insane in the persona of Amanda, and finally a warder on the gates of sanity as he warns us “If you come again, you'd better bring your ball and chain: unguided, embittered attraction of the Creep show!” My favourite part is when he stands before the mirror. The explanation, the echoey, booming, ethereal music that swirls around him like trapped souls, trying to escape but unable to, just freezes my blood. I also love Revell's solo outro on the guitar.

And that just leaves “Love song”. After such an epic prog masterpiece, I think this is the perfect way to end the album. A simple, reassuring, acoustic-mostly ballad that begins almost inaudibly before you can hear Mann's voice, then builds quietly but strongly and almost, but not quite, ends on another superb and beautiful solo from Andy Revell, but the final word is left to Geoff Mann, with the simplest of advice: “If it seems that your hoping heart has led you into pain, take a tip from the carpenter: forgive and love again.” What more can you say to that?

The whole theme, I feel, of “Fact and fiction” is that of free will and whether or not we're prepared to use it. Tracks like “This city” and “Human being” show this, where it's made painfully clear that we can make things better if we only try, if we open our eyes and just look out and see what a damn mess we've made and begin to try to clean it up. The title track of course shows us how easily we often allow ourselves to be led, as indeed does “We are sane”, where the “controllers” rejoice in how simple it is to implant certain suggestions in a human brain and turn them into mindless, unquestioning drones. This anger that we follow like sheep is brought into sharpest relief in “Creep show”, when Mann yells “Go on! Wake up! Who's running this show anyway?” Indeed. A question that is not asked enough.

As mentioned, I heard this originally on vinyl, so the extra tracks discussed in other reviews here are songs I've not heard, and to me they don't form part of the experience of the album, at least for me, so I won't be talking about them here. Apart from that, the general policy when reviewing in my journal is that I usually don't take account of extra, bonus, additional or special tracks. It's just what I do.

One of the seminal prog or neo-prog if you prefer albums of the early eighties, I find it sad that, great as they are, Marillion more or less took all the attention from bands like Twelfth Night and Quasar, and they were left kind of in the “not only but also” bin, where they definitely never deserved to be. A great album, a stunning ensemble piece and for me, one of the most important albums of the “new progressive rock movement”.

9.5/10

Trollheart · 10-19-2012, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

So is the Spock's Beard album definitely the album that is going to be reviewed?

I've no objections to it if no-one else has. In fact, I plan to listen to it tonight and write my review over the weekend, now that I've finally put my thoughts on "Fact and fiction" down.

Anyone any problem with "The light"?

Big Ears · 10-19-2012, 02:45 PM

I got distracted after reading US's and Anteater's reviews, because they made me want to read their journals. I've read them and stored comments at the back of my head, but I am still reading and commenting on Trollheart's a bit at a time. I should say that I like early heavy rock, like Deep Purple Mk I and Trapeze, as well as melodic rock. I can now see properly what US meant by a 'theme', but I come from a place where in-depth musical journals did not exist. The current version of Firefox is not handling YouTube clips very well, even if you don't play them, and is slowing me down - that's my excuse anyway. What I liked about the reviews, and it's true of any good ones, is the way they have been related to what the reader already knows.

When I first visited HMV in Oxford Street, it had separate rooms or floors for different formats, so there was a floor for cassettes at one end and eight-track cartridges at the other. This was mindblowingly amazing to me at the time. It was on Thursday 18th April 1974. How do I know? Answer = because I bought Moontan by Golden Earring on cassette for £2.75 and kept the receipt! It (the receipt) was a vivid purple colour. I bought the album on CD twenty years later and it's great.

I took Geoff Mann's changes in singing style at the start of We Are Sane to be representing different characters in a story. With the radio voices in the background, it is a bit like a play. The Who use a similar device on Tommy and Queensryche do the same with Operation: Mindcrime. I thought of saying this in my review, but, I wasn't sure, as I don't fully understand the lyrics.

This is a YT clip of Karn Evil 9 with lyrics:

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Karn Evil 9 with lyrics - YouTube

I have mixed feelings about bonuses, but they are quite revealing on this album.

Unknown Soldier · 10-19-2012, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Ears

When I first visited HMV in Oxford Street, it had separate rooms or floors for different formats, so there was a floor for cassettes at one end and eight-track cartridges at the other. This was mindblowingly amazing to me at the time. It was on Thursday 18th April 1974. How do I know? Answer = because I bought Moontan by Golden Earring on cassette for £2.75 and kept the receipt! It (the receipt) was a vivid purple colour. I bought the album on CD twenty years later and it's great.

I'll comment on Trollheart' s review later and also listen to The Light but I just had to answer the above when I saw it. I know that HMV so well, I used to go there in the 1980s and it was still two floors then as well. It was about 50 mins by train and tube from where I lived and the first ever album I got from there was the Doors Greatest Hits. I always had great memories going to that store, it was an adventure just to see so many albums all in one place, Virgin down the other end of Oxford Street just never had the same appeal.

Trollheart · 10-19-2012, 05:49 PM

Just a point for Big Ears: I'm having that same trouble sporadically with Firefux when using YT clips, but they play ok in Internet Exploiter. The key is that if you use the spoiler tags the page will load a lot faster for you, if that's what's slowing you down. I started doing this once there were more than about 4 or 5 videos, as people had been getting upset about them slowing down their PCs. It works quite well.

Pretty sure it was Oxford St where I went too: I know the place was bloody huge. Wonder if it's still as big? Doubt it, sadly. It would have been probably 1982/3 when I went there.

I don't fully understand the lyric either, but it's fairly clearly a dig at the way the media tries to control us, and how in various and different ways we just line up and take it, nodding our heads. Look at all the sheep who hang on every word the X Factor judges utter. Or those who believe everything they read, or support one political party/ideology and think the other is crazy and/or evil. That's how I interpret it anyway. It's a case of hoping if you shout "We are sane!" loudly and often enough, you'll convince people it's the truth. Hell, you might even start believing it yourself!

I also feel that "Creep show" is to be seen generally as the end result of this programming, where all those whose minds have collapsed under the strain of decades of programming have been sent, a sort of polticial/ideological asylum.

Of course, I could be totally wrong. Would not be the first time...

Well done to everyone on the reviews so far; looking forward to framing my thoughts on the bearded ones' album soon.

Unknown Soldier · 10-22-2012, 02:24 PM

Wow Trollheart gave Twelfth Night 9.5 out of 10!

Anyway, re-listening to The Light and mini review coming shortly.

Unknown Soldier · 10-25-2012, 03:01 PM

Spocks’ Beard The Light 1994

The Light is a prog album that I greatly enjoy and think its four multi-part suites are what modern prog should be about. The album has a real freshness and vibrancy about it and always lends up well to repeated listenings. I’ve always found that the work of Spock’s Beard to be littered with references to past prog giants of the 1970s, which I suppose it’s not surprising! The band though, have referenced these influences in such a way, that they’re done in their own style. Not only are Spock’s Beard about the past, where their sound incorporates material like King Crimson “21st Schizoid Man” era, classic Yes and Gabriel era Genesis. The band have put in a lot of original musical styles, that could be seen risky for a prog band. Stuff like theatrical broadway elements and flamenco which are both featured on the opening track, the 15 minute “The Light” This is a great track which encompasses everything I’ve written above and totally shows that the band were willing to push the barriers and is a glorious 15 minutes of listening. Track 2 “Go the Way You Go” There are parts of this song that I think are great, but it’s a song that lends itself to repeated listens to fully appreciate what’s on offer here. The previous song has more of the bands influences mixed in with original ideas, track 2 seems to be even more syncopated still and the rhythm changes even more unexpected! “The Water” The most overblown effort on the album and I think the band really wanted to show what they could do on a 23 minute song, which is made even more impressive by the middle more aggressive section, this really is a song of multi-suites. Out on the Edge- The most straightforward song on the album, but that’s not to say it’s a bad song in anyway and constantly throughout the song, I keep on expecting Neal Morse to burst out in true Peter Gabriel style, but he just manages to keep a lid on it.

I always think of Spock’s Beard as a band I really like, but when looking at their discography, it’s surprising just how little I know of their discography. But this is an excellent debut and a must listen to, for anybody interested in 1990s prog.

8/10

Big Ears · 10-25-2012, 03:47 PM

Spock's Beard - The Light (GEP 1995)
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
John 8:12

Listening to this album reminded me of a review I read, in The Melody Maker, in the late nineten-seventies, of Facades by Sad Cafe (1979). The journalist, whose name I cannot remember, began by saying that Facades was like one of the Top of the Pops compilations, available for a budget price at Woolworths, which consisted of a bunch of session musicians who attempted to reproduce current hit singles as authenticaly as possible. This was because, according to this particular writer, Sad Cafe had reproduced 10cc, ELO, The Rolling Stones and others track-by-track. So it is for me, with Spock's Beard and The Light, but it is not Top of the Pops they have emulated, rather it is The Best Prog Rock Album In The World . . . Ever! by Various Artists (UK 2005). Consciously, or otherwise, they have created tracks, which sequence segments from King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Santana, Steely Dan and others (not all progressive, I know). But, because of the way they have incorporated their influences, and their superb musicianship, Spock's Beard devised a marvellous album, which stands in its own right as a landmark of nineteen-nineties progressive rock.

For those of us who loved heavy and progressive rock in the nineteen-seventies, the eighties became a time of paucity and frustration. At the start there was Frank Marino's solo project, Billy Squier and Saga. By midway there was a revitalised Yes and the reformation of Deep Purple and Mountain, but by the end of the decade it was down to Nazareth copyists, Guns 'n' Roses, the excellent Faith No More and a reinvented The Cult. Neo-progressive rock, with the exception of It Bites, had little coverage, although IQ and Jadis were there to be discovered. The early nineties, however, brought a reaction to the over production and excessive use of synthesizers in the eighties, with the grunge bands from Seattle. Their success led to a re-emurgence of heavy and progressive rock: Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes signed to Atlantic spin-off label, Victory Records; Golden Earring made their best album for some time in Bloody Buccaneers; and Spocks Beard were formed in Los Angeles. My first experience of listening to Spock's Beard was not until I heard tracks from The Light and Beware of Darkness played on Alan Freeman's Friday Rock Show on Virgin Radio, produced by Trevor White, in September 1997. He also played tracks from Sammy Hagar's Marching to Mars, Steve Lukather's Luke and IQ's Subterranea (all 1997).

Spock's Beard is a progressive rock band formed in 1992 by Neal Morse on lead vocals/ keyboards and his brother Alan Morse on lead guitar, along with drummer/ backing singer Nick D'Virgilio and bassist Dave Meros. Their debut album, The Light (1995), was followed by another five studio albums, until Neal Morse left the band to pursue a solo career in 2002. Up to his departure, Neal morse was the main songwriter in the band and he wrote most of the material on The light. The only exception being the One Man section of the title track, co-written with his brother, Alan. Spock's Beard were influences by the progressive rock bands of the seventies, but straddled the period between the neo-progressive and later new progressive genres. Their music on The Light is intricate and varied, with a considerable number of ideas and time-signtaures which come-and-go. Catchy melodies, harmonies, changes in style, jazz motifs and John lennon-influenced vocals are constant elements, providing a link with the bands of the past, while distinguishing them from their peers (with the exception of Dream Theater and The Flower Kings).

Track one of The Light, the fifteen-and-a-half minute title track, is subdivided into eight parts, each averaging around a couple of minutes. It starts with (i) The Dream, a quiet piano and rising voice, immediately showing the weakness of Neal Morse's vocals. He is an adequate singer, certainly better than his successor in the band, D'Virgillio, but not as strong as his seventies predecessors like Jon Anderson, Greg Lake and Peter Gabriel. The Dream builds quickly into a complex instrumental passage, (ii) One Man, before developing a 21st Century Schizoid Man vocal arrangement, in which the lyrics anticipate Neal Morse's future overtly religious solo work, "I am the nun and the flasher/ I am the father, the son and the bastard/ I am the church and the steeple/ Open the door and see all the people". Within are multi-part harmonies and Who-like brass from bassist Dave Meros. Amidst the variety of textures, however, there are discernible hooks and these, albeit with different melodies, permeate the album. The influences of (iii) Garden People include The Beatles, Beach Boys, ELP, Yes and Genesis. The instrumental passages of (iv) Look Straight Into the Light, for example, are innovative, particularly the synths, and the guitar playing of Alan Morse is exceptional throughout. We can also hear that the production excesses of the previous decade's neo-progressive are stripped away. Even better is the absence of the future power/ progressive metal.

(v) Man in the Mountain is another quiet piano and voice passage. Señor Valasco's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance is a Santana-inspired Latin section with appropriate percussion and it demonstrates the band's willingness to experiment and vary their approach, before a heavy rock guitar solo leads into the aggressive vocals of (vii) The Return of the Horrible Catfish Man. This fantastic track (The Light) closes with a return to (viii) The Dream, adding cohesion to the whole piece.

Go the Way You Go, at just over twelve minutes, is another lengthy track, but it is not formally divided into seperate sections. It starts in the opposite way to The light with a dramatic mellotron-sounding intro, recalling Pictures at an Exhibition, which becomes a symphonic segment, reminiscent of Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans. This is interspersed with some jazz-rock guitar and driving bass. More multi-part harmonies are redolent of George Martin's work with John Lennon & The Beatles and America. There is some Yes Album guitar which seems fitting as they were never far from The Beatles anyway. After some jazz piano, military drumming and a Lennon-like verse, the track closes on an epic guitar solo.

The Water is a massive twenty three minutes in lenth and, like the light, is in deliberate sub-sections. (i) Introduction/The Water, with mellotron effects, guitar and Rickenbacker, is an ELP, Yes and King Crimson hybrid. A song from Morse, (ii) When It All Goes To Hell, has some strange lyrics, "And you feel your funny bone crack", and a Pink Floyd DSotM choir. The wailing voces continue to permeate (iii) A Thief in the Night, that has more references to Christianity with, "So where were all of those angels and priests/ Who said they'd carry me beyond my beliefs?" (iv) FU/I'm Sorry, with its incongruous expletives, comes as a shock, and, although I am not a prude, it seems unnecessary other than for effect. It is, though, like many of the songs, characteristically catchy; the backward tapes emphasise the feeling that this is something John Lennon would have tried, if he could have 'got away with it'. (v) The Water (Revisited) has more harmonies and (vi) The Race has a marvellous, funky, jazz-rock feel. It took me some time to realise that this comes from the equally intricate Steely Dan's chord sequences.

The Water closes with (vii) Reach for the Sky, which has crashing Keith Emerson-type piano chords, more of the Pink Floyd choir, some Beatle-esque cello and a touch of brass. It ends very abruptly, when Morse declares, "Guess I never was . . . " The final track on the album, On the Edge, has an equally sudden introduction, an anthemic chorus of, "I'm out on the edge," and soaring guitars. There are backward tapes and the ubiquitous jazz-rock touches. At six minutes, lengthy for most bands, this is the shortest track on the album. With a final exclaimation of, "Out on the Edge," the album is over, uness you have the 2004 version, which has a bonus track, The Light (Home Demo). It has an incredibly sweeping scale for a 'home demo' and is a bit jazzier than the official version.

The Light is, like its seventies forefathers, King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), Genesis's Nursery Cryme (1971), Yes's Close to the Edge (1972) or ELP's Brain Salad Surgery (1973), labyrinthine in its approach. As I stated near the start, ideas and time signatures come-and-go and ebb-and-flow constantly on lengthy tracks. This is what I love about The Light, its imagination, variety, complexity, musical dexterity and touch of heaviness. My only criticism (apart from that of FU) is that Neal Morse's vocals, while reasonable, do not match the quality of the instrumentation. Even today, modern progressive rock bands still struggle to find excellent singers. Spock's Beard spanned the period between the neo-progressive and later new progressive genres. In a period of half a dozen albums, they produced some of the best progressive rock albums since the British originals of the late-nineteen sixties and seventies. They also showed that American musicians could produce credible progressive rock to rank with and even rival the Britsh bands.

After Neal Morse's departure, Nick D'Virgilio took over lead vocals (unsuccessfully in my opinion, but then I did not like the Phil Collins-era Genesis either) until his own departure in 2011. Spock's Beard currently consists of founding members Alan Morse and Dave Meros, with Ryo Okumoto on keyboards, Jimmy Keegan on drums (who has toured with the band since 2002) and vocalist Ted Leonard.

Rating 9/10

10-19-2012, 11:22 AM	#133 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Okay guys here finally is my review. It's been a little difficult for me, as I did review this already in my journal, and while I could just copy-and-paste that into here, I didn't want to do that: felt this deserved a little more time thought and originality. So although there are some elements here, obviously, from that review, I've tried to keep it as separate from that as possible. This has not been easy, but I think I've managed to get my thoughts down here without even referring back to the original review, though I did of course have to play the album again; no ordeal, as I love this record! Fact and fiction --- Twelfth Night --- 1982 (Twelfth Night Records) Unlike others here who have become annoyed at Geoff Mann's soprano voice, it was something that gripped me from the beginning when I heard this album. Some backstory: I believe this was purchased in the UK (I live in Ireland) when I travelled there and walked for the very first time into the HMV Superstore, as it was, and was absolutely flattened by how BIG it was! Of course, these days with the proliferation of digital media and the decline of vinyl, even CD, it's probably gone, or at least a lot smaller, but back then it was effing HUGE! I mean, over here our record shops were more or less divided into sections for rock, pop, trad, soundtracks, classical and a few others, with maybe some tapes on the walls if there was room. But HMV had BINS and BINS dedicated to each GENRE! I mean, their Genesis section alone was massive! I could have spent hundreds, thousands had I possessed such money, and happily died there going through all the albums. But back in the real world, I had probably two or three hundred sterling and was only there for a weekend, or a week, I don't recall which. But I remember buying albums I KNEW I could never even find in Ireland, and happily stuffing them in my bag for the trip home. This was, I believe, one of those albums you couldn't get in the emerald isle, and having read about it in (where else?) Kerrang!, which was my bible at the time, I knew it sounded good and I wanted it. I was also just entering my prog rock phase, on the back of Marillion's “Market square heroes” single and Genesis's “Duke” as well as some Rush stuff, so this was right up my street. Backstory over: back to the album. I love the way the rising keyboard chords sound almost like a church service, then the, well, altar-boy singing of Geoff Mann comes in. I also really like the way he then switches down to, what, alto is it? The slightly lower register. Some here have postulated he did that because he couldn't maintain the high-pitched voice all through the song, and that may indeed be true, but I think it was done for dramatic effect. At any rate, I think his voice gets quite menacing as it drops, while Clive Mitten's keys maintain their celestial sound. Then it all gets dark and dramatic, as Mann's voice goes even lower, speaking this time then the keys get into more of a melody rather than a background supporting noise and suddenly, after a few quotes of “Would you file this please Harry” and the academic treatise being read out, a voice shouts “HARRY!” and the drums, which have slid in almost unnoticed, kick the tempo up as the guitars also blast in and the song really takes over, the band revealing the tight-knit combo they are. Without going too much into the first track (see my journal for a deeper analysis) I like the way it goes into a sort of child's nursery-rhyme melody with some attendant screams and wails, almost giving the lie to the title, as it's no doubt meant to. I also love the third movement, as it were, with the robotic part running over heavy organ then the big powerful runaway solos and chanting to end with the final chilling thought ”All eyes faced upon the conductor, baton taps inside the brain”. “Human being” reminds me of the opening of Floyd's, much later, “Signs of life”, with the splashing water, and then its frankly gorgeous keyboard intro, with a superb guitar piece from Andy Revell, and one of Twelfth Night's best lyrics in my opinion, when Mann sneers ”If every time we tell a lie, a little fairy dies, they must be building death-camps in the garden”, while “This city” is a stark, bleak song which, while it lists the horrors of urban decay, seeks not to apportion blame for these, thereby by default accepting some of the responsibility, reflected indeed in the lyric ”It is all this city”; we are all to blame. Followed as it is by one of the two excellent instrumentals on the album, the almost hopelessness of “This city” is somewhat lessened by the quite celestial “World without end” which, while short, is certainly impressive, and closes the first side (yeah, my copy is on vinyl: I also have a cassette player and a rotary phone, what of it?) extremely well. Again, I will disagree with many here who think the title track is not up to scratch. I personally love every track on this album, and I think “Fact and fiction”, with its deceptively bouncy tempo framing a very dark and chilling message, as parties on all sides try to convince us they are right, works really well. On the live album “Live and let live”, this track is preceded by a monologue by Mann, which ends with a chorus “The truth is what we tell you! We are the fact, they are the fiction!” The way the other instrumental, “The poet sniffs a flower”, turns from slow ballad to sudden uptempo bopper originally took me by surprise, now I love the way it changes. It leads, of course, to my all-time favourite, the total standout. I don't know Karn Evil 9, but when I heard this it was the first time I had ever heard anything so, well, so scary! I hadn't at that point heard “The Lamb”, so the most unsettling song I had experienced close to this was (don't laugh) “Hotel California” --- look, I thought it was scary, ok? When they stab the beast but can't kill it? --- so this was something new. I was terrified, but fascinated. I think Mann's voice works perfectly all through this, at times low, calm and authoritative, even detached as the guide, cracked and completely insane in the persona of Amanda, and finally a warder on the gates of sanity as he warns us “If you come again, you'd better bring your ball and chain: unguided, embittered attraction of the Creep show!” My favourite part is when he stands before the mirror. The explanation, the echoey, booming, ethereal music that swirls around him like trapped souls, trying to escape but unable to, just freezes my blood. I also love Revell's solo outro on the guitar. And that just leaves “Love song”. After such an epic prog masterpiece, I think this is the perfect way to end the album. A simple, reassuring, acoustic-mostly ballad that begins almost inaudibly before you can hear Mann's voice, then builds quietly but strongly and almost, but not quite, ends on another superb and beautiful solo from Andy Revell, but the final word is left to Geoff Mann, with the simplest of advice: “If it seems that your hoping heart has led you into pain, take a tip from the carpenter: forgive and love again.” What more can you say to that? The whole theme, I feel, of “Fact and fiction” is that of free will and whether or not we're prepared to use it. Tracks like “This city” and “Human being” show this, where it's made painfully clear that we can make things better if we only try, if we open our eyes and just look out and see what a damn mess we've made and begin to try to clean it up. The title track of course shows us how easily we often allow ourselves to be led, as indeed does “We are sane”, where the “controllers” rejoice in how simple it is to implant certain suggestions in a human brain and turn them into mindless, unquestioning drones. This anger that we follow like sheep is brought into sharpest relief in “Creep show”, when Mann yells “Go on! Wake up! Who's running this show anyway?” Indeed. A question that is not asked enough. As mentioned, I heard this originally on vinyl, so the extra tracks discussed in other reviews here are songs I've not heard, and to me they don't form part of the experience of the album, at least for me, so I won't be talking about them here. Apart from that, the general policy when reviewing in my journal is that I usually don't take account of extra, bonus, additional or special tracks. It's just what I do. One of the seminal prog or neo-prog if you prefer albums of the early eighties, I find it sad that, great as they are, Marillion more or less took all the attention from bands like Twelfth Night and Quasar, and they were left kind of in the “not only but also” bin, where they definitely never deserved to be. A great album, a stunning ensemble piece and for me, one of the most important albums of the “new progressive rock movement”. 9.5/10 __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

10-19-2012, 05:49 PM	#137 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Just a point for Big Ears: I'm having that same trouble sporadically with Firefux when using YT clips, but they play ok in Internet Exploiter. The key is that if you use the spoiler tags the page will load a lot faster for you, if that's what's slowing you down. I started doing this once there were more than about 4 or 5 videos, as people had been getting upset about them slowing down their PCs. It works quite well. Pretty sure it was Oxford St where I went too: I know the place was bloody huge. Wonder if it's still as big? Doubt it, sadly. It would have been probably 1982/3 when I went there. I don't fully understand the lyric either, but it's fairly clearly a dig at the way the media tries to control us, and how in various and different ways we just line up and take it, nodding our heads. Look at all the sheep who hang on every word the X Factor judges utter. Or those who believe everything they read, or support one political party/ideology and think the other is crazy and/or evil. That's how I interpret it anyway. It's a case of hoping if you shout "We are sane!" loudly and often enough, you'll convince people it's the truth. Hell, you might even start believing it yourself! I also feel that "Creep show" is to be seen generally as the end result of this programming, where all those whose minds have collapsed under the strain of decades of programming have been sent, a sort of polticial/ideological asylum. Of course, I could be totally wrong. Would not be the first time... Well done to everyone on the reviews so far; looking forward to framing my thoughts on the bearded ones' album soon. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

10-19-2012, 02:45 PM	#135 (permalink)
Big Ears Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 434	I got distracted after reading US's and Anteater's reviews, because they made me want to read their journals. I've read them and stored comments at the back of my head, but I am still reading and commenting on Trollheart's a bit at a time. I should say that I like early heavy rock, like Deep Purple Mk I and Trapeze, as well as melodic rock. I can now see properly what US meant by a 'theme', but I come from a place where in-depth musical journals did not exist. The current version of Firefox is not handling YouTube clips very well, even if you don't play them, and is slowing me down - that's my excuse anyway. What I liked about the reviews, and it's true of any good ones, is the way they have been related to what the reader already knows. When I first visited HMV in Oxford Street, it had separate rooms or floors for different formats, so there was a floor for cassettes at one end and eight-track cartridges at the other. This was mindblowingly amazing to me at the time. It was on Thursday 18th April 1974. How do I know? Answer = because I bought Moontan by Golden Earring on cassette for £2.75 and kept the receipt! It (the receipt) was a vivid purple colour. I bought the album on CD twenty years later and it's great. I took Geoff Mann's changes in singing style at the start of We Are Sane to be representing different characters in a story. With the radio voices in the background, it is a bit like a play. The Who use a similar device on Tommy and Queensryche do the same with Operation: Mindcrime. I thought of saying this in my review, but, I wasn't sure, as I don't fully understand the lyrics. This is a YT clip of Karn Evil 9 with lyrics: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Karn Evil 9 with lyrics - YouTube I have mixed feelings about bonuses, but they are quite revealing on this album.

10-25-2012, 03:47 PM	#140 (permalink)
Big Ears Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 434	Spock's Beard - The Light (GEP 1995) I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12 Listening to this album reminded me of a review I read, in The Melody Maker, in the late nineten-seventies, of Facades by Sad Cafe (1979). The journalist, whose name I cannot remember, began by saying that Facades was like one of the Top of the Pops compilations, available for a budget price at Woolworths, which consisted of a bunch of session musicians who attempted to reproduce current hit singles as authenticaly as possible. This was because, according to this particular writer, Sad Cafe had reproduced 10cc, ELO, The Rolling Stones and others track-by-track. So it is for me, with Spock's Beard and The Light, but it is not Top of the Pops they have emulated, rather it is The Best Prog Rock Album In The World . . . Ever! by Various Artists (UK 2005). Consciously, or otherwise, they have created tracks, which sequence segments from King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Santana, Steely Dan and others (not all progressive, I know). But, because of the way they have incorporated their influences, and their superb musicianship, Spock's Beard devised a marvellous album, which stands in its own right as a landmark of nineteen-nineties progressive rock. For those of us who loved heavy and progressive rock in the nineteen-seventies, the eighties became a time of paucity and frustration. At the start there was Frank Marino's solo project, Billy Squier and Saga. By midway there was a revitalised Yes and the reformation of Deep Purple and Mountain, but by the end of the decade it was down to Nazareth copyists, Guns 'n' Roses, the excellent Faith No More and a reinvented The Cult. Neo-progressive rock, with the exception of It Bites, had little coverage, although IQ and Jadis were there to be discovered. The early nineties, however, brought a reaction to the over production and excessive use of synthesizers in the eighties, with the grunge bands from Seattle. Their success led to a re-emurgence of heavy and progressive rock: Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes signed to Atlantic spin-off label, Victory Records; Golden Earring made their best album for some time in Bloody Buccaneers; and Spocks Beard were formed in Los Angeles. My first experience of listening to Spock's Beard was not until I heard tracks from The Light and Beware of Darkness played on Alan Freeman's Friday Rock Show on Virgin Radio, produced by Trevor White, in September 1997. He also played tracks from Sammy Hagar's Marching to Mars, Steve Lukather's Luke and IQ's Subterranea (all 1997). Spock's Beard is a progressive rock band formed in 1992 by Neal Morse on lead vocals/ keyboards and his brother Alan Morse on lead guitar, along with drummer/ backing singer Nick D'Virgilio and bassist Dave Meros. Their debut album, The Light (1995), was followed by another five studio albums, until Neal Morse left the band to pursue a solo career in 2002. Up to his departure, Neal morse was the main songwriter in the band and he wrote most of the material on The light. The only exception being the One Man section of the title track, co-written with his brother, Alan. Spock's Beard were influences by the progressive rock bands of the seventies, but straddled the period between the neo-progressive and later new progressive genres. Their music on The Light is intricate and varied, with a considerable number of ideas and time-signtaures which come-and-go. Catchy melodies, harmonies, changes in style, jazz motifs and John lennon-influenced vocals are constant elements, providing a link with the bands of the past, while distinguishing them from their peers (with the exception of Dream Theater and The Flower Kings). Track one of The Light, the fifteen-and-a-half minute title track, is subdivided into eight parts, each averaging around a couple of minutes. It starts with (i) The Dream, a quiet piano and rising voice, immediately showing the weakness of Neal Morse's vocals. He is an adequate singer, certainly better than his successor in the band, D'Virgillio, but not as strong as his seventies predecessors like Jon Anderson, Greg Lake and Peter Gabriel. The Dream builds quickly into a complex instrumental passage, (ii) One Man, before developing a 21st Century Schizoid Man vocal arrangement, in which the lyrics anticipate Neal Morse's future overtly religious solo work, "I am the nun and the flasher/ I am the father, the son and the bastard/ I am the church and the steeple/ Open the door and see all the people". Within are multi-part harmonies and Who-like brass from bassist Dave Meros. Amidst the variety of textures, however, there are discernible hooks and these, albeit with different melodies, permeate the album. The influences of (iii) Garden People include The Beatles, Beach Boys, ELP, Yes and Genesis. The instrumental passages of (iv) Look Straight Into the Light, for example, are innovative, particularly the synths, and the guitar playing of Alan Morse is exceptional throughout. We can also hear that the production excesses of the previous decade's neo-progressive are stripped away. Even better is the absence of the future power/ progressive metal. (v) Man in the Mountain is another quiet piano and voice passage. Señor Valasco's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance is a Santana-inspired Latin section with appropriate percussion and it demonstrates the band's willingness to experiment and vary their approach, before a heavy rock guitar solo leads into the aggressive vocals of (vii) The Return of the Horrible Catfish Man. This fantastic track (The Light) closes with a return to (viii) The Dream, adding cohesion to the whole piece. Go the Way You Go, at just over twelve minutes, is another lengthy track, but it is not formally divided into seperate sections. It starts in the opposite way to The light with a dramatic mellotron-sounding intro, recalling Pictures at an Exhibition, which becomes a symphonic segment, reminiscent of Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans. This is interspersed with some jazz-rock guitar and driving bass. More multi-part harmonies are redolent of George Martin's work with John Lennon & The Beatles and America. There is some Yes Album guitar which seems fitting as they were never far from The Beatles anyway. After some jazz piano, military drumming and a Lennon-like verse, the track closes on an epic guitar solo. The Water is a massive twenty three minutes in lenth and, like the light, is in deliberate sub-sections. (i) Introduction/The Water, with mellotron effects, guitar and Rickenbacker, is an ELP, Yes and King Crimson hybrid. A song from Morse, (ii) When It All Goes To Hell, has some strange lyrics, "And you feel your funny bone crack", and a Pink Floyd DSotM choir. The wailing voces continue to permeate (iii) A Thief in the Night, that has more references to Christianity with, "So where were all of those angels and priests/ Who said they'd carry me beyond my beliefs?" (iv) FU/I'm Sorry, with its incongruous expletives, comes as a shock, and, although I am not a prude, it seems unnecessary other than for effect. It is, though, like many of the songs, characteristically catchy; the backward tapes emphasise the feeling that this is something John Lennon would have tried, if he could have 'got away with it'. (v) The Water (Revisited) has more harmonies and (vi) The Race has a marvellous, funky, jazz-rock feel. It took me some time to realise that this comes from the equally intricate Steely Dan's chord sequences. The Water closes with (vii) Reach for the Sky, which has crashing Keith Emerson-type piano chords, more of the Pink Floyd choir, some Beatle-esque cello and a touch of brass. It ends very abruptly, when Morse declares, "Guess I never was . . . " The final track on the album, On the Edge, has an equally sudden introduction, an anthemic chorus of, "I'm out on the edge," and soaring guitars. There are backward tapes and the ubiquitous jazz-rock touches. At six minutes, lengthy for most bands, this is the shortest track on the album. With a final exclaimation of, "Out on the Edge," the album is over, uness you have the 2004 version, which has a bonus track, The Light (Home Demo). It has an incredibly sweeping scale for a 'home demo' and is a bit jazzier than the official version. The Light is, like its seventies forefathers, King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), Genesis's Nursery Cryme (1971), Yes's Close to the Edge (1972) or ELP's Brain Salad Surgery (1973), labyrinthine in its approach. As I stated near the start, ideas and time signatures come-and-go and ebb-and-flow constantly on lengthy tracks. This is what I love about The Light, its imagination, variety, complexity, musical dexterity and touch of heaviness. My only criticism (apart from that of FU) is that Neal Morse's vocals, while reasonable, do not match the quality of the instrumentation. Even today, modern progressive rock bands still struggle to find excellent singers. Spock's Beard spanned the period between the neo-progressive and later new progressive genres. In a period of half a dozen albums, they produced some of the best progressive rock albums since the British originals of the late-nineteen sixties and seventies. They also showed that American musicians could produce credible progressive rock to rank with and even rival the Britsh bands. After Neal Morse's departure, Nick D'Virgilio took over lead vocals (unsuccessfully in my opinion, but then I did not like the Phil Collins-era Genesis either) until his own departure in 2011. Spock's Beard currently consists of founding members Alan Morse and Dave Meros, with Ryo Okumoto on keyboards, Jimmy Keegan on drums (who has toured with the band since 2002) and vocalist Ted Leonard. Rating 9/10