Unclethang

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Soundage

Well, since we have tickled the underbelly of some decent weather and then got thoroughly drenched in the downpours that followed, I thought I’d post about some of the sounds that have been thrusting their rhythmic way into the listening holes at Thangcentral.

Living Colour – they be back out on the road and prompting a re-listen of the catalog, which reminded me that I bloody love Living Colour. The album ‘Time’s Up’ is just cracking!

Cream/Eric Clapton – ‘Badge’. For some reason I became hooked on this tune and for about a week was listening to it at least five times a day. No idea what was wrong with me but I think it’s safe to say I’ve recovered now.

Stevie Wonder – the five albums he popped out in the mid 70’s feature some amazing songs, amazing grooves and moments of WTF! For example, what is the woofer? And why would it be bad if it got you?

Fish – this is no doubt a hangover from seeing the big man live a few months ago, but either way his recent album has been impressing itself into my head like a thingy on another thingy.

Matt Stevens – ‘Lucid’. Excellent recent solo album from The Fierce And The Dead axe wielder, in parts Fripptastic but always melodic and interesting, it’s one of those instrumental albums that makes you wish more singers would shut up every now and then.

The Pineapple Thief – again another hangover from HRH Prog. Having acquired some more of TPT, I’m a flag waving, card carrying fan and eagerly awaiting new material.

Talking of new stuff, I’m excitedly watching the post box for new albums by Anathema, Mastodon and I’ll admit that I’ve preordered the new Yes album. But let’s not open the can of worms marked ‘Yes rant’ and instead slap on some Living Colour and stare in wonder and envy at Vernon Reid’s live pedal set up.

Posted by Unclethang | June 6, 2014 | Categories: Music | 1 Comment

HRH Prog Fest

Well it’s a week since I found myself on the other side of Snowdonia staring down the prospect of finally seeing Fish live, what with him parting ways with Marillion before I saw them the first time (The Forum, London on the Brave tour – needless to say they was well good bruv).
So I thought I’d post a wee summation of fings wot I saw and did be hearing wid me own earshaped listening holes.
Thursday evening saw Synaesthesia and Credo getting the weekend off to a cracking start. Even if numbers were a bit low – most people would be attending Friday/Saturday we thought.
Friday morning was taken up by a wander down to the beach followed by the time honoured act of pebble skimming. The tide was coming in so I only managed six bounces, but I was happy with that. It ought to be noted that the facilities at Pwhelli Haven holiday camp were perfect, everything you needed was to hand and the beach was a five minute walk if that.
Once we’d wandered back from the beach and warmed up a bit having been caught by one of the weekend’s ninja rain showers (the only one to catch us luckily), it was off to the venue which was less than five minutes in the opposite direction to catch The Custodian. Turns out his was their first gig and it was a goodie. I’d been looking forward to seeing them since I got hold of their album (having heard then on the prog mag radio show on teamrockradio.com). The acoustic flavour of the set worked well and although it would have been nice to see more people there, I guess that’s the problem with the early slots, it got a thumbs up from the UT contingent.
Next up were The Physics House Band, now I knew nothing of this trio of young chaps but they impressed on a scale that normally gets used to measure the distance between planetary bodies. They quite simply blew my mind, and this was before lunch you understand. Lashings of math rock, heaps of energy and song lengths of girth, not to mention some of the best banter heard all weekend ‘we’ve got mini discs and diagrams of tracks’ – brilliant. I’m looking forward to more from this lot.
Chimp Spanner filled the ‘none of these guitars have the correct amount of strings on’ quota and for fans of Animals As Leaders and the like this was manna from heaven. Lovely.
The Pineapple Thief delivered the kind of set that had the UT posse turning to each other and uttering the phrase ‘dude, gotta get some more Pineapple Thief’, quality stuff and Mr Soard, if you’re reading this don’t worry about the 20p! Ark ark.
At this point let me point out that one of the great things about the festival was that a lot of the musicians who played hung around for the whole weekend, which led to the 20p incident and a lovely discussion with one of The Custodian guitarists on the pros of playing a Parker Fly guitar. Yep that’s right a Parker Fly. I spotted two during the festival, which is unheard of in my books!
Anyhoooooooo Focus popped up next and I must admit I was thinking ‘oh yes, hocus pocus, yodelling, this should be a laugh’ what I didn’t expect was a tour de force of groove. Which is what landed, with aplomb. The venue suddenly contained twice as many people as it had earlier (or so it seemed) and Focus laid down the kind of heavy grooves you only get from the 70’s. It was a masterclass. I take my hat off to them, put it back on and then take it off again. Awesome.
Following that was going to be tricky and The Flower Kings seemed to suffer from a diminishing crowd. However their set was enjoyable featuring as it did a medley of some of their classics as well a great rendition of numbers. They may have been the headline act but I think Focus stole it.
Sunday started in the soft prog rock vibe with Crimson Sky and Panic Room, the later seemingly achieving what the former we’re aiming for. Then around teatime The Hawklords appeared and injected the day with some well needed space lunacy. Watching these guys navigate the twisted corners of their own consciousness or is it my consciousness, am I me or me am I?
Sorry flashback – in short – brilliant, as out of this world as you’d expect them to be and more besides.
Not to be outdone in the brilliant stakes, Arcane Roots threw enough energy in your face to cause you to throw up (in a good way). Think of a three man The Mars Volta. Ace.
Now hear at Thangcentral we’d never heard The Enid, but heard, seen enough mentions of them to know that they were something pretty special. As more and more equipment got hauled onto the stage, including tympanies and a stupidly large bass drum, you got the impression this wasn’t going to be straight forward. Sadly the midi wind instrument caused issues but once that got sorted they embarked on a symphonic prog work out which was darned impressive. Mr. Enid’s comments regarding dynamics and loud not necessarily being good, suggesting to these ears that he hadn’t enjoyed Arcane Roots as much as we had!
So to the headline act – Fish.
The fact that he played ‘Script For A Jester’s Tear’, ‘Assassing’ and ‘White Feather’ amongst tracks of the new album, recounted a great story about the writing of the track ‘Script’ whilst in a hovel in Wales, led a few singalongs, got up close and personal with the crowd, demonstrated the kind of stage craft most acts dream of and was just generally awesome (have I mentioned that as a teenager I viewed him as some kind of god?). It may have taken me roughly 25 years to see Fish live but it was worth it.

Posted by Unclethang | March 29, 2014 | Categories: Music, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What goes in the ears

Recently enjoyed at Thangcentral –

Big Big Train – The Underfall Yard
Sanguine Hum – Weight Of The World
Mike Oldfield – Man On The Rocks
Propaganda – A Secret Wish
Airbag – The Greatest Show On Earth
Jethro Tull – Heavy Horses
Sound City – Real to Reel

Eagerly awaited –

Matt Stevens – Lucid
Gazpacho – Demon

Snetterton has noted the days are getting longer – roll on the sun.

Posted by Unclethang | March 16, 2014 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sounds Of Thangcentral

I won’t mention the weather if you don’t.
Cool.
So what’s been pricking up the ears at Thangcentral this past month or so?
Well first off the bat has to be Gazpacho. They’re from Norway you know. A member of the KScope label, it was through the KScope podcast that I heard them (although to be honest I should have known they would be good, they’ve appeared at Marillion Conventions for goodness sake), for the record, the KScope podcast and the Burning Shed newsletters should be avoided if you want to keep hold of the contents of your wallet. Both are liable to cause outbreaks of ‘ oooh, that looks nice’ and ‘Yoinks, I’d forgotten about them’, followed by a rash of ‘must have’. Leading inevitably to your postman having to have time off due to a back injury.
Gazpacho then – progalishious (?) and on the mellower side of the tracks. Recommended if you like No-sound and the like.

In a few days I’m off to see ‘The Aristocrats’ and I’m pretty sure that that will be off the hook. I missed Minnerman playing with Steven Wilson (had Chad Wackerman instead so please don’t think I’m complaining!), hence a fevered anticipation for a gig which will no doubt break the EU regs for notes per bar in the first bar. Suffice to say I’ve been listening to both albums ready to fail to nod along!

The recent showing of Sound City on BBC4 led to the acquisition of accompanying album and the conclusion that Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Trent Reznor need to make an album now!

No I didn’t make any of the Prince in a shoebox gigs – gutted.

There’s been a lot of Tull floating around. Never really got into old Jethro as a youngster but the last few months have seen a serious immersion in the classics of the cannon. Goes without saying that Aqualung, Thick As A Brick and Songs From The Wood are gems, a recent delivery of Heavy Horses is getting some proper playage as well (once I’d dispatched Snetterton to repair the letterbox).

Until next time 🙂

Posted by Unclethang | February 15, 2014 | Categories: Music | Leave a comment

End of year lists

Love them, hate them, use them as toilet paper or merely fold them up and jam them under a leg to stop the pub table wobbling. End of year lists.
Now I must admit I do like a good list, shopping lists are always handy, favourite fish puns – love that list, recently added ‘overgill’ to it, brilliant.
Notice how I stopped before that turned into a list eh eh?
ahem.

So of course at the end of the year there was an over stuffed Uncle’s worth of best of this, best of that, best of other lists floating around. Some people weighed in with the comment that best ofs are divisive and aren’t we above all of that now.
Well, ok, so best ofs can be seen as divisive, as as soon as someone puts your favourite underneath their favourite in a top 20 of the year you can take Tunbridge (Wells or otherwise) and fill their comments stream with a river of ‘what? you’re talking shit’ and so forth. As if that is going to matter?
But the purpose of this post is not to rant about the small minded pee stains that fill comment streams with bile (as a rule I don’t read comments, my own internal dialogue is retarded enough as it is thank you). No, the purpose of this post is to thank all of those who put out end of year lists recently.
I have read them.
I have enjoyed them.
More to the point, where someone has listed 20 albums and I have and enjoyed 10 of them, I go looking for the other 10. This has led to me finding and enjoying Airbag’s Greatest Show On Earth and the frankly amazing Sanguine Hum. How it’s taken me this long to catch up with SH I don’t know, however if it hadn’t been for various people’s end of year lists, I’d still be in the dark and frankly I’m enjoying the light, it’s doing wonders for my skin tone.
In summary – Thank you end of year listers and now playingists. Your recommendations are appreciated.
Now on with the contenders for best use of a knitting needle within a violin tuner’s handbag.

Posted by Unclethang | January 2, 2014 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: music, twatage | Leave a comment

Start At The Begining

Some say it’s a very good place to start. This is often followed by spinning round in unnecessarily wide skirts before placing one’s hand on one’s brows and professing a desire to sit down. Or run up a hill for more singing. It’s way more Julie Andrews than Kate Bush.
Actually that’s worth pursuing more, to wit, in life I find it often helpful, nay advantageous to be less Julie Andrews and more Kate Bush.
But that’s not what I had in mind when I hoisted myself in front of ye olde writer of type.
Not at all.

Prompted by the appearance of a lyric from Marillion’s Grendel as here this morning I have embarked on a listening voyage. I have afixed two of my best ears to my head, squeezed a goodly amount of coffee from the bean plant in the study and curled up in the listening pod for a concerted intake of Mariilion.

No massive change there then, the sounds of Steves Hogarth, Rothery and colleagues often ring out in the fair orchards of Thangcentral, but for this listening I have returned to the roots. The Fish Era.

I can remember where I was when I first heard that Fish had left Marillion. My fine friend and fellow Fish fan, Matt (no link to the old guy in the hat) Pope broke the news as we met before attending a house party that was shut down by the Police after a rather nice house was trashed by a large number of drunk 16 year olds.
Point of note. Inviting a shit load of kids who have just done their GCSEs to a party because your parents are away is never a good idea. Adding an at the time, essential need to get pissed into the equation is a recipe that in this case ended with the bathroom sink being pulled away from the wall and a dodgy Polaroid of what was reported to be the host’s mother’s lady garden being circulated, to the delight of the drunken hoards.
Where was I?
So early Marillion – in times gone by (i.e. those referred to above) I would have strongly denied that Marillion sounded anything like Genesis. Genesis was Phil Collins and shiny suits Marillion were nothing like them, what the fart are you talking about, get away from me demon. Which just goes to show that I knew chuff all about what I was talking. l’m now much further along the path of Prog enlightenment and can admit without stuttering or breaking out in a sweat that one section in ‘Grendel’ does sound a bit (!) like a section from the Genesis classic ‘Supper’s ready’. There, I’ve said it, and the world is still spinning. Ah with age comes wisdom and the need to shave ones ears.
So, ‘Script For A Jester’s Tear’ eh. Healthy dose of widdly widdly keys from Mr. Kelly, Rothery showing some guitar work which hints at his impending deification, Fish is hitting the ‘I’m confused, tortured, misunderstood’ button hard (ah the heady internal dialogue of the 16 year old, one could almost call it quaint) and Pete Trewavas is as rock solid as ever. Which bring us onto the percussive work of Mick Pointer. Well as we all know he was replaced eventually by Ian Mosley, so let’s not dwell on any short comings shall we. When I was first listening to Fish and the boys I didn’t notice any, so there.
Well, since I’ve been scribbling this the sun has crawled above the parapets and I’m now part way through ‘Fugazi’.
And what an enjoyable experience it’s been. I do enjoy diving back into albums that you know back to front and inside out but haven’t listened to for a few years. Suddenly you get this familiarity mixed with a dose of ‘oh i never noticed that before’. Always recommended. The only issue is that you have to spend a lot of time listening to it in the first place and then a lot of time not listening to it. But as they say, ‘Garden Centres now sell breakfasts and bedding plants’. It has to be said I’m very much looking forward to ‘Misplaced’ and ‘Clutching’, by this point I really think the boys had hit their stride. Then Fish left.
I can remember where I was when I first found out……..

Posted by Unclethang | December 21, 2013 | Categories: Music | Tags: Marillion, twattery | 1 Comment

It isn’t going to change the world

Now far be it from me to stand in the way of tradition (I am in fact, at the moment, sporting a delicious set of mock Tudor eaves supported on a combination of Roman Pillars and Greek Columns – after all if you are looking for quality support that’s pleasing to the eyes, it’s hard to do better than the classics), so here is the UT round-up of what’s been plugged in to the listening holes at Thangcentral over the last 12 (ish) months. It must be said that this is in no order (although I have tried to make the words sit next to each other in a way that makes sense to someone other than my cat).

Big Big Train – English Electric (Full Power). Parts one and two of this frankly astounding piece put together in a hardback book with a new running order and extra tracks. I cannot express in words (which makes this utterly redundant) how much this album has got under my skin this year. Just when I think I’m over it and don’t listen to it for a while, it manages to slip like a curling kettle into the cd player and before you can say ‘songs about dodgy painters’ I’m sat there, amazed once more. I think it’s fair to say this will be treated as a classic in years to come.
Haken – The Mountain. I have to repeatedly put my hat on in order to take it off again in the direction of the Haken fellas, an album that actually had me laughing the first time I heard it. Laughing in a good way that is.
Riverside – Shine Of New Generation Slaves. Prog from Poland (insert gag about Polish rockers and how this is in fact referring to rockers from Poland and not an instruction to polish rockers, as that will not end well for Granny, or indeed the home help she lands on) (decide gag is poor and remove before final draft).
Lifesigns – Lifesigns. Featuring Nick Beggs – the go to bass man for British prog who also appears on –
Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused To Sing (and other stories). The animations for Raven… and Drive Home both reduced me to tears the first time I watched them. Which I figure means that either they are immensely powerful on a deeply emotional level OR I need to pull myself together.
Yes – Close To The Edge. Steven Wilson waves magic wand over what is probably the ultimate Prog album.
King Crimson – Red. Steven Wilson waves magic wand over the album that is the ultimate Prog album for people who don’t think that CTTE is the ultimate Prog album.
Von Hertzen Brothers – Nine Lives. Another album that keeps finding itself in the cd player, looking at me with a knowing eye.
Queens Of The Stone Age – Like Clockwork. Rather than an fan fiction take on the last Rush album, a cracking collection of tunes that you find yourself humming in the paint aisle at B&Q, but we’ll gloss over that fact.
The Fierce And The Dead – Spooky Action. For some reason I find myself playing this in the bathroom. No idea why.

No doubt I have forgotten many and may well come back to this and add them when I do remember. Unless it’s dark of course.

What has fueled many an acquisition this year has been Prog magazine http://www.progrockmag.com and the accompanying radio show on teamrockradio.com . Every Sunday night (work permitting) I now settle down ready to note down new and old bands I’ve never heard of but now have a deep-seated NEED to research etc. Oh that reminds me, The Custodian – Necessary Wasted Time. See! I knew I had forgotten some. Oh this could go on for pages, so in the interests of brevity and the desire to imbibe a cup of Lady Grey, I shall call this Donald and end it here.

Posted by Unclethang | December 11, 2013 | Categories: Music | Tags: Prog, punage, twattery | 5 Comments