Trollheart's Wonderful World of Prog
 

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Since it's unlikely I'll ever get back to my History of Prog journal, and in a (probably vain) effort to kick some life into this sleeping subforum, I thought I'd try this.

I'll be listing and featuring all the prog rock and prog metal bands I can find on the alphabetical list held by ProgArchives.com - picking randomly from the list, so that one post might be about a well-known artist like Yes or Gong or Spock's Beard, and another might be about one that is new to everyone, or some artist who recorded one demo in 1971. I'll put as much information about them as I can and feature any music I can. Comment is as usual invited and encouraged.

I'll keep indices here for later perusal, assuming I don't get hit by a bus (probably driven by Batty) in the course of compiling this. In the end, hopefully, it may turn out to be a useful resource for those interested in, exploring or just getting into prog. If nothing else, it will keep the very few progheads here entertained, and maybe slightly raise the profile of this subforum, which currently is somewhat akin to this:
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Coming up next:
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INDEX OF ARTISTS

vidna Obmana
William Lyall

[reserved for index]

[reserved for index 2]

[reserved for index 3]

Q'UQ'UMATZ discography and reviews

*waits evil-ly*

Artist: vidna Obmana
Am I familiar with this artist? No, not at all
Subgenre(s): Electronic/Dark Ambient/Drone
Nationality: Belgian
Lineup: Dirk Serries – everything
Active From: 1984
Active To: 2007 (after which he changed the name to Fear Falls Burning)
Albums: 25 solo, also 4 as Opera for Four Fusion Works, and a further 37 in collaboration with various other artists
Comparable to: Asmus Tietchens, Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Biosphere, Robert Rich, Robert Henke

The music of Belgian composer Dirk Serries, under the pseudonym vidna Obmana (a phrase which translates to “optical illusion”) has been described as “blissed out and dreamy textural drones, and space-age epic synthesised moves”, “anamorphic and organic” and “using the technique of looping and shaping the harmonies, minimising the configurations to a few notes.” Sounds right up the streets Frownland and Occulthawk might travel! That's some discography for someone who's been going just over thirty years. Wow. And I never heard of him before. He's composed music for movies too, and even the soundtrack for the Antwerp Zoo Aquarium. Let's take a listen to something he's done. What to choose? What's available? Let's try his first ever album, which is called The Ultimated (sic) Sign of Burning Death, released in 1985.
https://img.discogs.com/kukQoNiAABvT...17625.jpeg.jpg
This is the only track I can find off it, called “Move”.

Yeah, that's some ambient drone, all right. Solar Fields, how are ya? Ooh! Unexpected explosion of percussion there and some kind of Black Metal vocals. Tres interessant! Can't say I'd personally be into it though. Let's try another one. This is from 1994, from an album he called The Spiritual Bonding, and this is the title track.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...l_Bonding.jpeg
Kind of sounds like a didgeridoo there at the beginning, but all the credits say is “instruments”, so I don't know. Nice sort of spooky echoey thing coming in now as it fades out, around the three-minute mark (this runs for just over twelve) with slow percussion making its way through as well. Offhand, I like this better than the first example, so far anyway. Picking up a nice beat now, slow and sort of hypnotic, a little tribal in a slow, measured kind of way. Yeah that was really nice. I could listen to more of that.

But we must move on. This man has something in the region of sixty albums, and he's only the first post! So where do we go now? Didn't I mention that he wrote a soundtrack for an aquarium? Let's check that one out. It's called, ahem, Soundtrack for the Aquarium and was released in 2001.
https://img.discogs.com/pOqmnRkshpJG...-2363.jpeg.jpg
This is the opening sequence, “Aqua 1 (Theme)” and you can hear either real whalesong or something synthesised to replicate it here, with some lovely ambient, atmospheric slow music that I could really see fitting in with the slow, majestic movement of certain fishes and of course whales, though I doubt the Antwerp Zoo has one of those. Maybe it does. Lovely stuff, just totally entrancing.

Honestly, I could stay here checking out this stuff all night, and you may very well want to. But I got to move on. We're going to check out one more album before we head, and I'm going to go for the last one he recorded under this project, which is called Opera for Four Fusion Works Series, Act 4: The Bowing Harmony and was, as it indicates, the fourth in a cycle, released in 2007.
https://img.discogs.com/L_v5ZXaVD_sw...22415.jpeg.jpg
Okay I can't get anything off that. The only one that comes up at all is the first album, so we'll go for that then.
https://img.discogs.com/JAMPahwFNghd...17844.jpeg.jpg
The full title is Opera for Four Fusion Works, Act 1: Echoes of Steel and this, the only track I can find, is I guess the fourth movement, called simply “IV”.

Seems to be some lovely relaxing ambient music, but it runs for a total of seventeen minutes, so I'll just leave it here and you can listen to it, if you wish, at your leisure.

Final Conclusion: Definitely needs to be checked out more. Very wide and varied music, highly technical but with a lot of heart and emotion, and would definitely suit anyone into ambient or the softer side (mostly) of electronic music.

Result: :)

I'm certainly not above putting the random choice aside to check something out that someone thinks I should, and I've always been impressed by your music. However I should make it clear that I am concentrating on artists here, not albums, so will not be reviewing full albums. I may definitely take a hop, skip and a jump through any proggy work you have though. Is everything in that link eligible to be called prog, or which ones should I concentrate on?

anyone will tell you it's as prog as it gets. I do recall you already reviewed one of the albums glowingly.

I dunno though, I guess you could check out Tepeu since that's what's made me my millions and all the women.

in any case I was just being silly since I'm in the database

Didn't he already check out Tepeu and kinda liked it but also left out the two longest tracks or something?

Classic Trollheart. Thinks he can review music without listening to it.

Do you consider New Age progressive? If so, I've always been a bit partial to Andreas Vollenweider.

It doesn't matter what TH considers to be what. He's on the list and the list is our lord and saviour, whom we follow blindly and it shall lead us to the glorious land of walls of text.

He may have indeed.
This guy gets it. #LongLiveTheList!

You guys are just gonna love the next random pick! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

nah that was this homo https://www.musicbanter.com/1765843-post606.html

TH's review of the second album was phat

you don't gotta hop and skip through my stuff though, it's pretty turbulent. I got one track that I think you oughtta hear out of everything https://ququmatz.bandcamp.com/track/xpiacoc-and-xmucane

Artist: William Lyall
Am I familiar with this artist? No
Subgenre(s): Shrug. Pop Prog? PA says Crossover Prog. Meh, maybe.
Nationality Scottish
Linked with: Pilot, Bay City Rollers, Alan Parsons Project, Dollar
Lineup: n/a
Active From: 1969
Active To: 1989
Albums: Solo, just the one: Solo Casting (1976). Also appeared on albums by Pilot, Dollar and The Alan Parsons Project, among others.
Comparable to: Maybe the likes of Justin Hayward? Hard to say really.

So what is the keyboard player for teenybopper Scots Bay City Rollers doing here? Well, as it happens he didn't appear on any of their albums, leaving three years before they broke big in 1974 (perhaps displaying a worrying sense of mistiming?), going on to form Pilot (again, not a prog band but kind of getting closer) and leaving them after four albums to join, with most of the rest of the band, the Alan Parsons Project, who do have at least some prog credentials, though in fairness I can only see him credited on their debut album. Hey, whaddya want from me? The random letter generator gave me L-Y-A ... there's not a lot of choice with that combination, believe me!

Anyway, I'm hardly going to subject you to the Bay City Rollers, but Pilot may not be too much of a stretch. Here he is, on their debut album, From the Album of the Same Name (I don't know: don't ask me!) released in 1974, on one of their two biggest hits, “Magic”.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ot_-_Pilot.jpg

and this song I seem to remember, from their second album, ingeniously entitled Second Flight (1975).
https://img.discogs.com/uC9V_9Jxdxjh...-8472.jpeg.jpg
This one goes by the title of “Call Me Round” (and no, I don't think it's about fat people!) and it's a good catchy pop tune (yes, yes I know! Not prog! But we're getting there! I have to work with what I have!) that may very well have been a smaller hit, I'm not sure.

That album also had their other big hit on it, “January”.

Okay, enough from Pilot. Let's move on to Billy's one and only solo album, released in 1976.
https://img.discogs.com/6pfBDQKBf32o...52822.jpeg.jpg

Most of Pilot (who went on to join the APP) here, as well as, um, Phil Collins on drums. Yeah. Anyway, this is the title track.

Sounds like he's trying to be Bowie, but nowhere near as good. Touch of early Billy Joel in there too. Not really all that bad, but VERY seventies, could not be in any other decade. Let's try another. Must we? Yeah, let's give him a chance.

This is called “Us” and sounds a little like early Yes crossed with ELO. YELO? Again, not the worst but I'm not going to be rushing out to buy this album. Can hear the Pilot influences here too. Pleasant enough.

One more then. This goes by the title of “Don't Be Silly” and sounds like something off either Pyramid or Eye in the Sky by the APP. Not that surprising, really, considering most of them were on the album, though whether they contributed to the songwriting or not I dunno.


As mentioned several times above, Lyall later went on to enjoy a very brief stint with the Alan Parsons Project, so here's a track from, so far as I can see, the only album on which he was involved, their debut, Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
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This is in fact the closing track, called “To One In Paradise” and features the vocals of Terry Sylvester from The Hollies. Nice song, and our Bill plays (at least, on the album; I don't know about this track) keyboards, Fender Rhodes, glockenspiel, drums, piano and recorder.


After leaving Parsons and the boys (again, just before they achieved a certain fame) Billy worked with Dollar, though I won't subject you to any of their music. Lyall passed away, a victim of AIDS, in 1989.

Final conclusion: Certainly a talented musician, songwriter and a decent vocalist, poor old Billy Lyall just seemed to keep getting his timing wrong, leaving the Bay City Rollers before they exploded onto the pop scene, only staying with the Alan Parsons Project for their first, unremarked and unsuccessful album, and though he released his own solo effort, and attracted some decent hitters like Collins and orchestral supremo Paul Buckmaster, that seems to have sunk without a trace. Perhaps if he had lived longer he might have made more of a mark, as it is we have the music of Pilot mostly to remember him by.
Result: :|

Lol. What a boob.

Are you the new Frownland?

I'm the old, better and actually original Frownland.

So, no.

Boy, Troll, you know how to pick them :laughing:

Pilot was a one hit wonder in the US (Magic). It wasn't bad for a pop song circa 1975. Parsons' first album actually did okay on this side of the pond, at least in Baltimore anyway (Edgar Allan Poe is practically a god here). He, of course, got a lot bigger.

Blame the RLG not me. I'm in its hands.
:shycouch:

Coming Soon!
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Frippin' Out: Trollheart's First-time Exploration of King Crimson's Music

You can do a twist on their seventies compilation and call it, "An Old Person's Guide to King Crimson." :laughing:

Fist fight with Frownland in 10, 9, 8, 7...

Why?

Refuses to listen to King Crimson because they're not on Spotify or Youtube in 10, 9, 8, 7...

Pretty sure they're on the cheap download sites that TH uses.

Looking forward to this.

Nope. Quite aware of this. I own all the albums.
They are, and I have them all. Will be re-listening to this, their debut and the only one of their albums I've actually heard, later tonight, hopefully post some initial thoughts either tonight or tomorrow.
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Frippin' Out: Trollheart's First-time Exploration of King Crimson's Music

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In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

So this is where it all starts, huh? Well, I actually did eventually listen to this album, when it came up on the list for my History of Prog journal, and was very very impressed. But I haven't listened to it since, so though this won't be the first time I'm listening to it, it will be slightly new to me. I see they're already being mavericks at this point. They have multi=part suites, but unlike Genesis for instance who would use numbers to differentiate the parts a few years later, or indeed the Moody Blues, who just broke up the tracks, to say nothing of others (whose name at present escapes me) who used letters, King Crimson take a leaf out of fellow proggers Van der Graaf Generator's book, and simply call the track by its main name, noting that it “includes” other songs, such as with “Epitaph (including March For No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow)". Of course, I'm only going by Wiki and I don't know if this is how the track listing is shown on the actual albums, as mine aren't physical copies.

Only five tracks, but the album still clocks in at a relatively impressive 44 minutes. So let's break this puppy down, shall we?

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man (Including Mirrors): Heavy, powerful start to the album, with what sound like almost Beefheartian vocals. Sure, others copied these, but at this time I doubt anyone else was emulating the bold Captain. Maybe it's a vocoder? Not sure. Anyway, it's quite heavily psychedelic with a lot of jazzy elements thrown in, and you can already hear a band that's tighter than me at the pub. Serious skills here..

2. I Talk to the Wind: A lovely change into a soft, lush ballad. Really relaxing and just gorgeous. Lake's vocals are very soothing here, in contrast to the slightly manic tone of the opener.

3. Epitaph (Including March For No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow): Hmm. Seems to be another ballad, with some fantastic orchestral stuff in there and guitar that pulls at your heart at times. Sublime.

4. Moonchild (including The Dream and the Illusion): The real epic here, coming in at just over twelve minutes, part of which (I assume the aforementioned “The Dream”) is sort of atmospheric, ambient instrumental music which really gets very quiet, though you can hear a lot of strange little sounds. Xylophone? Maybe a vibraphone? Touches on the piano. Susurrating percussion, all very almost surreal.

5. In the Court of the Crimson King (Including The Return of the Fire Witch and The Dance of the Puppets): I'm sure there's little I can say about this that hasn't already been said. The powerful vocals on the chorus, the sort of medieval atmosphere created, the flutes, the extended instrumental ... pure magic.

Result: Well as expected I loved it, but then that's hardly the revelation I'm looking for, since as I already said, I've heard this once before. Only gets better with the second listen though. I am a little surprised (pleasantly) by how laid back most of it is. Hopefully the rest of the discography can keep up this extremely high bar. Oh, and this is the first time I've really heard drumming I can say is something special. One other thing that really hits me about this album is how really advanced it must have been for its time. When you consider what Genesis and Yes were doing around this time, well, this knocks both into a cocked hat. Like I said, magic.

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Looking forward to you reviewing their other albums.

I just noticed "Frippin' Out". **** you, TH.

:laughing:

I couldn't decide between "Taking a Fripp Through the Music of King Crimson", "On the Fripp Side" or "Get a Fripp!" Went with that one in the end. Hopefully, they all would have annoyed you to various degrees.

Edit: Apologies to anyone who saw this post and thought I had the next album up. I'm working on it.

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In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)

Okay so here's where it really kind of begins for me. After the debut there is not a single Crimson album, or track, that I've heard (shut up) so all of this will be new to me.

1. Peace – A Beginning Just a quick a capella intro, less than a minute. Not much to say about that.

2. Pictures of a City (Including 42nd at Treadmill): Very jazzy, comes in very powerfully and has a nice groove. Melody and rhythm kind of reminds me of early Sabbath to a degree. Fripp breaks out the guitar magic about three minutes in and the track takes off. Does go a little too improvisational at the end though.

3. Cadence and Cascade: No problem with this one. Lovely little gentle ballad in a kind of Moody Blues vein. Lovely piano, lovely vocal harmonies, sweet flute.

4. In the Wake of Poseidon (Including Libra's Theme): The moment that organ starts I'm in love with this song. Kind of puts me in mind of my boys VDGG, like something off H to He or maybe Aerosol Grey. Also again a very Moodies influence, or maybe that should be the other way around? Whatever. Great track anyway.

5. Peace – A Theme: Again, just a short little instrumental. Nice for what it is.

6. Catfood: I can't place my finger on it; there's just something about this I don't like. It reminds me of the worse tracks by Spock's Beard that make me unsure whether or not I will ever like them as a band. No, not into this one at all. Actually the ending is good, but that's about it.

7. The Devil's Triangle (i) Merday Morn (ii) Hand of Sceiron (iii) Garden of Worm: An eleven-and-a-half minute instrumental? This better be good. I read that it's based around Holst's “Mars” but that his estate wouldn't allow them to use it so they had to kind of disguise it. I can hear it, but had I not read that I don't think I would have made the connection. Hmm. Oh no wait: I definitely would. I hear it clearly now. Takes a while to get going, but then there's plenty of time I guess.

It's quite funny in a way: Fripp saying “so we can't use your music? Well **** you: we'll make it so close to it that it'll really piss you off without being legally actionable!” Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer says “How much are we getting paid for this?” referring to the story of Bart's life, and Marge says “the producers changed it just enough so that they wouldn't have to pay us!” Heh. Loving this at the moment I must say; high point of the album.

Very cleverly done, shows real skill to skate that close to the edge (pun intended) without falling over. Like the addition of the chorus to “In the Court of the Crimson King” thrown in there. Overall, a definite ten out of ten here.

8. Peace – An End: Bit of a hippy ending with a short almost a capella piece though the acoustic guitar and the vocal harmonies that come in are nice.

Result: Nowhere near as good as the debut, though to be fair I hadn't expected it to be. To follow up such an instant classic inside a year would have been asking a lot. Still, I'm a little more underwhelmed by this than I had thought I would be. There's more on it that I don't like than I anticipated, though the good tracks do outweigh the bad. I feel it doesn't quite hold together the same way ITCOTCK did, that it's perhaps a little disjointed? Don't know, but overall not as impressed this time round. Still good, even great, just not, for me, a classic.

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Note: Key -
Really love
Love
Like
Meh
Hate

It seems quite bizarre and even incredible to me that a prog rock fan in his 50's is only now starting to listen to the music of King Crimson.

Better late than never, but WTF?!

There has to be some reason. You can't be as deep into the genre as he is without actively avoiding King Crimson for some reason, and he hadn't even heard an album until a few years ago so it can't be because he didn't like what he'd heard. Did they sound like they wouldn't appeal to someone for whom Genesis and Marillion are the height of musical brilliance? I find that plausible tbh.

Oh it's a very sad tale.
I was captured by aliens at age 10, and brought to a planet where there was no music in the world except Genesis and Marillion. Someone once suggested Rush but they beheaded him, which is to say they made him into a living head. Nasty.

I only managed to escape at age 53 and have since been trying to fill in the gaps in my musical knowledge. Please be patient with me. This is all so new.

**** you I want the real reason. No metal fan on earth has ever avoided Slayer for 40 years (and yes Slayer hasn't been around for 40 years but close enough and this isn't about Slayer).

Probably true. I don't even really like Slayer, but I've still owned over half of their albums.