Archives: Symphonic Prog : Shadow Circus – On a Dark and Stormy Night

Ok so maybe I have to reconsider my approach to music listening when it comes to Prog Rock. Typically, I listen to an album and then go and find out about the artist and their music. With Prog Rock I think it is most time wise to visit their site and read about the album BEFORE listening! You see many prog rock artist don’t create songs, they create albums many times concept albums and even when it’s not a concept album the tracks often are based on something!! This became clear with my latest listen, On a Dark and Stormy…

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Archives:Crossover Prog from the UK: Into the Night with Big Big Train

So my son Andrew came over to me in the market at Target,the other night, when he finished his shift and asked if the track from Big Big Train he had put in my Father’s mix made it to my computer. I told him no, see not all the tracks got transferred to my computer from his thumb drive. He told me that he thought I would like them and that their new album English Electric was getting rave reviews and that it was really good. So last night and today, I have been listening to the album and he was…

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Archives:The Music Safari revisits the Ruhr Area of Germany and InVertigo!

Originally posted at Me,Myself, Music and Mysteries –  August 1, 2012 I guess Andrew started it with his Prog-Rock playlist for Father’s Day and the morning roots remembering continued it and over the last few days I’ve been listening to a lot of Prog-Rock. I’ve already written about one of the bands Dreamscape and today I’ve been listening to another InVertigo. Over the last two days I’e been listening to both of their albums Next Stop Veritgo and their latest release Veritas and I have enjoyed them both. InVertigo is a five man band from the Ruhr area of Germany composed…

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2013 Prog Rock – The Safari Finds German Neo-Prog Rockers – Subsignal – Paraiso!

The soundtrack for this morning’s work around the house was the latest release from Subsignal, a German Neo-Prog (there’s that sub-genre again)  band Subsignal’s latest release Paraíso. Paraiso was released back in September of this year. I listened to the deluxe edition of the album which is two discs. The first disc is Paraiso and the second disc is a collection of various live performances of songs from previous albums, which was great for me, who knew nothing about the band. After listening to this really great album I found out that Subsignal was originally a side project for  Arno Menses…

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The Music Safari Finds New Prog Rock in Chile – Rafart – the handbook of the acid rider

Tonight the Music Safari travels to the left coast of the South American continent to Santiago Chili and find a new progressive rock album The handbook of the acid rider(June 2013) from Rafart. Rafart is the solo band of Francisco Rafart, stickist and composer from Chile. Rafart studied music composition under m. Aliocha Solovera at the P. Universidad Católica de Chile. His album  The handbook of the acid rider, is dedicated to the Chapman Stick that has influences of progressive rock and electronic music. New Prog Rock Releases says simply…. An impressive work of progressive rock instrumental and avant-garde, led brilliantly…

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2013 Prog Rock from Denmark’s Royal Hunt – A Life to Die For!

The Music Safari first spotted the Danish prog rock  band Royal Hunt a while back, and listened to their 2011 release Show Me How to Live  which was the 11th studio album from the band  I enjoyed the album and have been looking forward to the release of their new album A Life to Die For, which was released on December 3rd!  Since then the album has been on the iPhone and been listening to several times!! If you don’t know….. ROYAL HUNT is a progressive metal band in the style of DREAM THEATER : symphonic heavy-metal with strong classic…

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The Music Safari discovers great Symphonic Prog from Armenia’s Oaksenham!

Yesterday among my “Just for You” recommendations at MOG was  the album Conquest of  the Pacific from the band Oaksenham. The album was released in 2006 and was recommended because I had listened to Kerrs Pink and Dead Heroes Club.Since I had enjoyed both of those bands,  I read the info  about the band. When I read that they were Armenian the hunt became more interesting!  So  I downloaded  the album to the iPhone and what I found was some great symphonic prog-rock!  The highlight for me was the flute! Some background from their website: OAKSENHAM was founded in 2001…

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The Music Safari Lands in Carmarthen, Wales and finds Prog Rockers – 25 Yard Screamer

 This morning’s soundtrack was a little eclectic, as I listened to two albums at the opposite ends of the musical spectrum. The first was Herb Alpert’s new album Steppin’ Out and at the other end of the spectrum was a progressive rock album from a trio from the UK 25 Yard Screamer. I found 25 Yard Screamer’s name among the new prog rock releases early this morning.. Their new album is titled Something that Serves to Remind or Reward. A quick trip to MOG returned only the band’s 2011 release Until All are One. So that one went on the iphone…

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The Safari finds new Neo-Prog in the UK from Freedom to Glide – Rain!

So the Safari travels today to the UK to find some new Prog Rock in two locations. First in the West Midlands we find Andy Nixon and then in Derbyshire we meet Pete Riley. Both musicians are members of the leading Pink Floyd tribute act Dark Side Of The Wall. That though is not the band we had hoped to meet. The band we wanted to meet and learn more about is called Freedom to Glide and we have recently discovered the band and have listened to their latest album Rain.  The album is really interesting on a couple of…

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This Date in Music – Nov 10, 1947 – Happy Birthday, Greg Lake!

On this day in 1947 English musician, songwriter, producer and founding member of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer Gregory Stuart “Greg” Lake was born. Greg Lake and I go back a long way Greg is 4 years my senior so,  while I was a 17-year-old high school student, Greg was invited by  his  high school friend guitarist Robert Fripp, to join King Crimson. Fripp asked Lake a fellow guitarist asked Lake to switch to bass and to take on the role of lead singer. Lake agreed and as they say the rest is history!! So my first introduction to Lake’s…

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