Issue 2024-046
Ayreon — 01011001 - Live Beneath The Waves
CD 2: Waking Dreams (6:35), The Truth Is In Here (5:19), Unnatural Selection (7:23), River Of Time (4:06), E=MC2 (5:19), The Sixth Extinction (12:12), Speech (6:50), This Human Equation (3:54), Fate Of Man (5:40), The Day That The World Breaks Down (12:59)
There is a good deal of undeserved hyperbole that surrounds many singers and musicians but that's not the case with Arjen Anthony Lucassen. To describe him as a musical genius would be no exaggeration. He's been involved with numerous projects since the early 1980s, the best known being Ayreon who to date have released 10 studio albums. Originally released in 2008, 01011001 is a 2CD concept album much treasured by Lucassen fans, including your reviewer.
As the title suggests, 01011001 - Live Beneath The Waves is a live album filmed and recorded during five performances at the Poppodium 013 in Tilburg, Netherlands from 15 to 17 September 2023. The shows were a huge success, and the Lucassen faithful were rewarded with a spectacular production. In addition to this 2CD release, the concert is available on DVD and Blu-ray. 01011001 is performed in its entirety, along with several other Ayreon favourites to round out the show.
During the performance, Lucassen doesn't spend a great deal of time on stage but he and keyboardist Joost van den Broek organised the whole affair which features numerous performers from the original album along with several guest singers and musicians. The impressive, multi-tiered staging was designed to represent the water planet "Y" from the original album's concept. It also had to accommodate all the performers, which for the finale, take to the stage en masse with Lucassen smiling proudly in the middle. The overall impression is a heavy metal version of a Broadway show.
The show is bookended by two songs from the 2017 The Source album. Opener March Of The Machines is linked to 01011001 in the opening lines. This is where the CD listener is at a disadvantage as clearly there is a lot to see on stage here judging by the audience's enthusiastic outbursts. Age Of Shadows thunders into life with superb call and response vocals before Damian Wilson steps up to the microphone for a stately, violin enhanced Comatose. From here on its pedal to the (heavy) metal with the flute embellished Liquid Eternity, Lucassen's first lead vocal on Connect The Dots, Daniel Gildenlöw taking the honours on Beneath The Waves and a blistering Newborn Race. Ride The Comet is blessed with ethereal harmonises and a scorching guitar solo before the heavenly voice of Simone Simons leads Web Of Lies into the full majesty of The Fifth Extinction featuring Joost van den Broek's superb synth noodling and a guitar hook to die for.
CD2 begins with the melodic Waking Dreams before Lucassen returns to the stage for the jaunty The Truth Is In Here. Unnatural Selection is the closest song on the album to a show tune while River Of Time is an infectious combination of folk and heavy rock. E=MC2 with its superb male female vocal duet leads into the climactic The Sixth Extinction with the familiar ringing guitar hook and infectious rhythm. It's one of the most compelling rock songs this side of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir and boasts more lead singers than key changes. The a cappella choral sequence at the end is spell binding.
A teasing speech from the man himself is followed by an extended encore. The rampaging This Human Equation from the 2020 Transitus album is followed by the frantic prog-metal Fate Of Man that opened the 2022 Star One album Revel In Time. The latter is sung by Brittney Slayes who also performed the original with virtuoso organ support from van den Broek. The album and show conclude with The Day That The World Breaks Down, which, following the moody intro, is a djent riff fest from the guitar duo of Timo Somers and Marcel Coenen with powerful support from Ed Warby on drums and Johan van Stratum on bass. A memorable ending to a great show, guaranteed to send the crowd home happy captured for posterity on this superb double CD package.
Daniel Biro — Hotel Erika
Out of London comes Daniel Biro — composer, producer songwriter and sound designer who, in his own words “loves Rhodes electric piano, analog synths and makes jazz-fusion / electronic / ambient / art-prog / experimental music.”. This release is the latest in his extensive catalogue. Hotel Erika is an instrumental suite that harks back to the sounds of electronic pioneers of the 70s.
Having never really delved into this style of music, I was unsure of what to expect. But I found myself enjoying the soundtrack, with its pleasant tones and ambience. My initial thoughts were that was sounding similar to how I might expect some of the background music on an original series episode of Star Track to sound — full of synths and “sci-fi” sounding fades. Rumbling bass notes lie at the centre, creating this dark foundation that gets overlays of twirling hooks that roll over each other in a busy, but coherent and organised way.
It is an interesting concept, with each “track” (as it is essentially a single piece), sounding like a logical continuation of the previous, and remaining different, but with the same overall feeling and connection.
The album comes across as a soundtrack to old school sci-fi, with its textures of ambience and discordance, melting between layer upon layer of harmonies and soundscapes. Images of alien planets and night skies were at the forefront of any images it created as well. To be listened on a continuous run through, it is definitely an album for chilling to with headphones (or turned up loud), in a dark room with a nice drink, or as inspiration while painting or building something. At least I have a soundtrack for when I build my Lego Saturn V rocket now.
While I can't recommend to fans of similar bands (as I don't know any unfortunately), if you enjoy vast soundscapes, relaxing atmospheres made of synths and nostalgia for the electronica of the 70s, then this should be a good shout.
Head Spin — Refractor
If metalheads are headbangers, then progheads are definitely headspinners. Because few promises are more tempting to a proghead than a promise of music to spin your head to, right?
Andy Scoffin, a musician from East Midlands, seemingly shares this notion and provides a second release of his musical project, entitled Refractor. Andy does one hundred percent of the job himself, and that's supposedly the second reason for the project's name. My head would have spun even harder, if I were on his place! The result of the efforts is best described as a more digitalized version of Ozric Tentacles (an obvious influence) with touches of Maserati and, even, the sci-fi aspects of Joe Satriani's sound (less obvious influence, and devoid of the technical flashiness of the latter). In other words this is instrumental psychedelic rock, firmly rooted in XXI century sound design and cyber aesthetics. The receipt is instantly familiar to prog connoisseurs: swirling guitars, sci-fi-synths, multiple sound effects and steadily pulsating percussion. Guitar is undoubtedly in the spotlight of the musical picture frame, and the funky, lightly flanged sound serves as the star of Andy's show.
As a listener, I have my old “problem” with Ozric-type music, implying that my brain at some stage drifts off. Instead, I seem to listen to the sounds with my spinal cord, just mindlessly drifting through the soundscapes. Hence, I am having a hard time highlighting individual tracks – they share the same trippy mood. Some are heavier, some are lighter, but generally the pattern stays intact for the entire 50 minutes playtime. Twigs, the second-longest track, makes it also as the most melodic, standout track with the jamming nature of Andy's guitar set-up against “multicolor flashes” of spacey keys, and memorable phrasing on the six-strings adds up to the quality here.
On the contrary, the opener Heavy Lettuce wants to be both groovy-heavy and bouncy-psychedelic, and while it's a good experiment, it has its weaknesses, because the floating nature of psychedelic music does not go well with abruptness and breakdowns of groove rock.
The programmed drums are okay, but these compositions would sound miles better with a live drummer, instead of digitalized claps and clicks, that do not provide enough “rocking” quality.
Summing up the impression - what Head Spin does, it does right. But at the same time I am left with a feeling that some crucial ingredient, to make the music stand out from the row of similar-styled projects, is not yet found. Recommended to fans of Ed Wynne's music, Quantum Fantay and those musicians unallergic to digitalized sounds.
The Silver Doors — The Silver Doors
Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, The Silver Doors self-titled debut is a good little psych rock record, but a record that does not quite know what it is. Self-released on their own Bandcamp, available in God's own format — cassette!, the tracks jump amongst genres, making a good, but ultimately disjointed, debut.
Beyond the basic guitar (Alex Cox), bass (Brett Kent), drums (Bryce Alberghini) instrumentation, The Silver Doors also add violin to the mix (Justin Lawrence). The violin runs through effects giving off a desert flavor that is haunting and mind-bending. The album comes out of the gate showcasing their unique instrumentation and take on psych rock. Opener Redeemer, a lamentation on searching for the one that completes you, includes tight riffing and swirling violin over repetitive lyrics, all of which keeps you in the center of their storm. The more straight-forward "doom-lite" second track Losing Hand features a violin solo that took me a few listens to realize it was not overdubbed guitar. That is really the beauty of both of the tracks — simplicity wrapped around a storm.
The Silver Doors, promo photo
From there the record takes a downshift and gets into a more basic brand of rock. It is well done, certainly, but I would rather have had more of what I got from the first two tracks. This record is almost two EPs put together: one psych rock, one more basic rock. Both are good, but the bouncing from an almost punk Bulleteeth to the Manchester Orchestra-ish Legwork, to the country-fried Gone is a bit of a turn. The band itself describes their sound as a mix of styles from doom to new wave, all of which are on display here. Ultimately, we are left wanting a bit more of what we got at the top, because the sound is more interesting.
The beautiful thing is knowing that whatever direction the band moves in, it will be great. Even with my issues, this is an album I have gone back to a few times since my initial listen. The Silver Doors have a bright future ahead, once they make a choice on the door to go through.
Transport Aerian — Live In Ghent
Before starting this review I did something that I don't usually do: listen to another album that is not the one I have to review. I remembered reading my colleague Sergey's review of the band Transport Aerian's latest album and decided to listen to that album from start to finish first.
I'm not a big fan of live albums (although I love live concerts) so I preferred to first meet the group in their studio version. You know what? My verdict was also a big nine to the album Skywound. I also take the opportunity to thank Sergey for discovering the brilliant album Unfolded Like Staircase by the band Discipline for me. Now let's go back to the album at hand.
Having five songs from the Skywound album it was very unlikely that this live one would be bad, and of course it is not. Transport Aerian have released another three studio albums and has chosen several songs from those albums too. I have to say that I prefer the songs from their latest studio album. Check the beautiful Falling 20 for example. Very nice and melancholic tunes that reminds me of the impressive album Black Letters album by the Finnish band Naryan.
We have good ones here from their previous albums too, like the great Big Heart, taken from the single they release for St Valentine's Day in 2020, if you remember that year. They have improved through the years and that album Skywound is their top one so far, in my opinion. As for audio quality issues, you already know what to expect here: good sound, but not what you get in a recording studio, of course. The experience of seeing the band live is not transmitted either, of course. Furthermore, after listening to their discography, you miss some of the coherence that the band achieve on each album, each one having its own setting. It is a good album as an introduction to get to know the band, but it is preferable to discover all the nuances of their compositions in their studio albums. Of course, the vocalist Hamlet also has a very noticeable expressiveness on this album, which is something to admire. I'm looking forward to hearing their next studio album or being able to see them live, if, by some magical chance, they come to Spain...
Tribe³ — Tribe³
Ask me now or years later, but I'm rather certain that my answer to the question as to what my favourite prog-year of the twenties is, will be 2023. The amount of progressive delights published in that year has certainly exceeded my expectations. And still continues to do so as one can probably deduct from the fact that six months into the new year I'm still reviewing albums from that year. And I'm still not finished.
Although I need to point out that in the case of Tribe³, a band hailing from Wales whose members include Jon Kinsey (vocals, drums, keyboards, Chris Jones (guitar), and Steve "Yip" Hughes (bass, keyboards, bass pedals), a finally resolved postal issue has been somewhat responsible for a delay in time. A second delay apologetically to be found in the outstanding where-did-the-time-go enjoyability of this most excellent debut album.
Having been active on the local prog/fusion scene for almost four decades, it is in spring of 2022 when Jones and Hughes — still functioning as EleKtriK — are joined by multi-instrumentalist Kinsley and after a name change set out to further compose songs for their eponymous debut album. An album that overall showcases great production values with clarity of sound and strong mature song material complemented by first-rate performances.
Tribe³, promo photo
A magnificent example of which is instantly presented with Invictus. In compliance with lyrics and artwork, it opens in ambient twilight atmospheres that in feel and memory reflects IQ's Nomzamo era. Elements of Jadis neo-prog are added and then a catchy riff into groovy bass-driven melodies contagiously remind of Rush and The Cyberiam. Shuffling with chemistry of funky interplay through a concord of early 90s Rush and present day Kyros, this excellent song finally ends with lush atmospheric arrangements and a grand melancholic guitar solo hovering over Taurus pedals which once again envisions grandeur of Rush.
A reference that is also resolutely apparent in the subsequent Fear Is The Key. Its tension-building nocturnal atmospheric opening is invaded by a doomy riff which seems lifted almost straight from Counterparts. Awash with mighty captivating synths that formulate timelessness of 80s Rush and Trilogy (admittedly my Kryptonite), this marvellous song continues with a multitude of inventive melodic transitions and vibrant, infectious melodies that next to vocal influences of Yes occasionally reminds of a heavier Porcupine Tree. On the whole though, the one compelling image consistently wandering into view is that of Moving Pictures. Talk about Kryptonite...
The Downfall Of The Birdwatcher then dips into the progressive past with a vintage Yes-inspired intro, ensured to meet the approval of Chris Squire. It breathtakingly comes up for air with a big generated sound reminiscent of 80s Yes and melodies that irresistibly splash about in groovy funkiness. The song then dives into a massively enjoyable featherweight passage, complemented by brightness of cymbal play and captivating guitar extravaganza. This takes me once around the world of It Bites.
The mournful epic Lament follows, with a melancholic touch of piano and distorted guitars, guided by emotional vocals. It shares a common ground with IQ. A divine movement of beautiful melancholic guitar play guided by intricately crafted rhythmic excellence and rich symphonic brightness goes on to enchant endlessly in fabulous Enchant/Marillion ways. Finalised by piano elegance, symphonic elements and emotively touching outcries by Kinsey bring this beautiful song home with a blessedly comforting feel of reassuring uplift.
In Calm Before The Storm, a driving rush propulsion once more elevates melodies into higher circles. A repeat of delightful gravitating melodies and intricate arrangements and rhythmic diversity resonate with The Cyberiam and Enchant. This ominous, thought-provoking song addresses humanity's eradication of nature and Mother Earth's levelling response. The precision in performance and the calming bridge embedded with tangibly breakable vocals, at times recall the atmosphere of Marillion's Seasons End.
The final song is the emotional Dawntreader. A composition that after a "Yes meets Lifesigns" intro slowly treads towards the elegant fusion side of prog, with formidable unison in restrained play, while spectacular guitar flights take hold of the melodies in a Saga manner. Narrating on the increased longing of dockside and mine workers to go home as dawn approaches, this song apparently lasts 9 minutes. I have to check that again, because to me this magnificent standout finale truly makes time stand still and the rewarding experience of this excellent debut so much stronger.
With work already started on a new album, which as rumour has is might (fingers crossed) possibly become a double album with a scheduled release date of January 2025, all that's left to say is that Tribe³ have most convincingly knocked it out of the ballpark with this excellent potential oozing debut. In high anticipation I very much look forward to their future and will hopefully catch them in act when the time comes. All in all a highly recommendable effort well worth investing time for!