Following the release of the title track from The Tangent's forthcoming new album A Spark In The Aether - The Music That Died Alone Volume Two, due out on April 20th, 2015 in Europe and April 21st, 2015 in the US, they are now pleased to reveal a lyric video for the track San Francisco, which sees The Tangent moving slightly outside the familiar surroundings of Progressive Rock.
Band leader Andy Tillison had this to say about the song:
"It is part of a long piece about the way we view America from other parts of the world, and as such some of the music is reflective of the subject matter. Highly inspired by the TV theme tunes of the 1970s with shows like "The Streets Of San Francisco", "Kojak" & films such as "Shaft" and "Bullit" - this song takes an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek look at the sheer number of times San Francisco has been destroyed on-screen. It also pays homage to the Oakland (a bay area city close to San Fran) band "Tower Of Power".
"Funk and Prog are like two estranged sisters. They existed side by side in the early seventies. Both musical forms relied on precision musicianship. Both forms embraced the emerging synthesizer technology. Earth Wind & Fire's albums sleeves sometimes featured fantasy artwork with pyramids and sphnixes, Osibisa even used Roger Dean for their sleeves. Yes & EWF both toured with huge stage sets and effects that could have been describes as "similar" in concept. Anyone who is into 70s progressive rock bands must have experienced the funk stuff as part of their musical soundtrack. Where there was a Zappa, there was a Bootsy, where there was a Daevid there was a George Clinton. I think that if it had all happened now, the two racially segregated forms might have been closer to one another. Although in this video you only meet one of the sisters... the overall result of the song itself is, hopefully, to bring these forms a little closer together."
You can check out the video for San Francisco here:
British proggers The Pineapple Thief have just release a new live release that is exclusively downlodable from their website.
Live 2014 is the third in a series of downloadable live performances from the band. The first one was Live at the 013, recorded in Tilburg, the Netherlands on 30th November 2012. This new one was recorded at De Boederij in the Netherlands during the Magnolia European tour in November, 2014. All are available for download in both mp3 and FLAC.
But this new release has a new twist to it: it is also available as 5.1 Surround Sound FLAC files.
Live 2014 tracklist: 1. What Have We Sown - Part 1 (3.44) 2. Wake up the Dead (4.27) 3. Alone at Sea (6.06) 4. The One You Left to Die (4.23) 5. Don't Tell Me (3.39) 6. Coming Home (3.14) 7. All the Wars (4.15) 8. Magnolia (3.54) 9. Seasons Past (4.15) 10. Simple As That (4.01) 11. Sense of Fear (4.53) 12. Remember Us (6.45) 13. Bond (5.4) 14. 137 (5.15) 15. Reaching Out (10.55) 16. Part Zero (4.13) 17. Snowdrops (6.23) 18. Nothing at Best (4.49)
UK prog-metal band, TesseracT, are set to release their first live audio/video concert. Titled Odyssey/Scala, the CD/DVD and LP/DVD package welcomes back One vocalist, Daniel Tompkins.
Odyssey, the audio portion, was recorded live during various stops in the autumn of 2014 throughout Europe and Russia on the Altered State World Tour. Scala, the video portion, was filmed live on November 6th, 2014 at Scala, London, UK. A trailer for Odyssey/Scala can be seen here:
TesseracT officially burst on the scene in 2011 with their debut album, One. Touring with the likes of Devin Townsend, Protest The Hero and Between The Buried and Me helped make them one of the most successful break through acts in the progressive metal genre. 2013's Altered State, featured vocalist Ashe O'Hara and was nominated for the Progressive Music Award's Album of the Year.
They toured the US with Cloudkicker and Intronaut, playing to sold out venues across the country. Altered State went on to outsell One and appeared on many Year End "Best Of" lists.
Odyssey/Scala, available in CD/DVD, LP/DVD and in digital formats on May 18th in Europe and May 19th in North America on Century Media Records.
Odyssey Tracklisting: 1. Singularity (recorded in Moscow, Russia) 2. Deception - Concealing Fate, Part Two (recorded in Birmingham, UK) 3. The Impossible - Concealing Fate, Part Three (recorded in Nottingham, UK) 4. Perfection/Epiphany - Concealing Fate, Parts Four/Five (recorded in Rome, Italy) 5. Origin - Concealing Fate, Part Six (recorded in Strasbourg, France) 6. Of Matter - Proxy (recorded in Koln, Germany) 7. Of Matter - Retrospect (recorded in Nijmegen, Netherlands) 8. Of Matter - Resist (recorded in Budapest, Hungary) 9. April (recorded in Paris, France) 10. Nocturne (recorded in Manchester, UK) 11. Acceptance - Concealing Fate Part One (recorded in Moscow, Russia)
Scala Tracklisting: 1. Singularity 2. Deception - Concealing Fate, Part Two 3. The Impossible - Concealing Fate, Part Three 4. Perfection/Epiphany - Concealing Fate, Parts Four/Five 5. Origin - Concealing Fate, Part Six 6. Of Matter - Proxy 7. Of Matter - Retrospect 8. Of Matter - Resist 9. April 10. Nocturne 11. Acceptance - Concealing Fate, Part One
The Psychedelic Ensemble’s fifth album, The Sunstone, is now available. The album features the multi-instrumentalist, TPE, as well as vocals from Ann Karen who appeared on the fourth release, The Tale of the Golden King. Other guest performers include Michael Wilk of Steppenwolf. Live orchestra is included with eminent orchestral musicians from Boston. The orchestra is conducted by Jonathan Roberts. The music, like previous albums from The Psychedelic Ensemble, blends symphonic prog, fusion, and contemporary classical styles.
Like previous albums from The Psychedelic Ensemble, The Sunstone is a 62-minute concept. The concept derives from medieval folklore about Viking mariners who used crystals, or "sunstones", to navigate the seas. Folklore suggests that these sunstones could orient navigators to within a few degrees of the sun, even in fog when the stars were not visible or after the sun had set. While The Sunstone concept is simple storytelling, a number of allegories lie beneath its surface, which TPE invites the listener to discover.
The Sunstone promises to be the most ambitious release from The Psychedelic Ensemble to date. To order The Sunstone, visit www.thepsychedelicensemble.com.
Muse, one of the most successful bands in the UK marrying pop and prog, has announced the release date of their latest CD. Drones will be released on 8 June 2015!
From Matt:
To me, Drones are metaphorical psychopaths which enable psychopathic behaviour with no recourse. The world is run by Drones utilizing Drones to turn us all into Drones. This album explores the journey of a human, from their abandonment and loss of hope, to their indoctrination by the system to be a human drone, to their eventual defection from their oppressors.
Drones tracklist: 1. Dead Inside 2. [Drill Sergeant] 3. Psycho 4. Mercy 5. Reapers 6. The Handler 7. [JFK] 8. Defector 9. Revolt 10. Aftermath 11. The Globalist 12. Drones
The first single from Drones, Dead Inside, will debut the week of 23 March. Preorder for the new album will be available tomorrow at 7:30pm GMT, along with the new song Psycho.
And speaking of Psycho, Muse has also announced ticket sales for their Psycho UK Tour!
15 March | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Ulster Hall 16 March | Glasgow, Scotland | Barrowland 19 March | Newport, Wales | Newport Centre 20 March | Exeter, England | The Great Hall 22 March | Manchester, England | Manchester Academy 23 March | Brighton, England | Brighton Dome
General on sale starts tomorrow (Thursday, 12 March) at 09h30 GMT. For ticket links, please click here.
For more information go to Muse's website here: http://muse.mu/
