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Ghost Whistler View Drop Down
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Points: 313 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Lonely Robot?
    Posted: August 24 2016 at 06:36
What do people think of this collaborative work from John Mitchell. Apparently it's got the only prog rock bassist that's allowed to work in Britain, Nick Begg, and some guy from Marillion called Steve Hogarth, amongst others.

It sounds interesting, reminds me somewhat of Moonbound's output, a bit less quirky perhaps.
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 24 2016 at 07:09
Yeah, Beggs is on it. Somewhere......
An enjoyable album, melodic, adventurous, interesting guest-list.......I must get back to this one.
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Aussie-Byrd-Brother View Drop Down
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 24 2016 at 07:23
It's decent, but not a patch on Mitchell's works in It Bites, Arena and Kino. The guy has a very charismatic vouce and is a top notch musician, so it's always good to support him.

The Lonely Robot LP is , accessible and works perfectly as a background listen, but it's also kind of forgettable. Ironically, that's also the perfect description of Nick Begg's current band The Mute Gods and their first album. Not much in the way of prog on it, just a forgettable pop/rock album perfectly performed by great musicians.
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Ghost Whistler View Drop Down
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Points: 313 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 24 2016 at 07:41
Originally posted by Aussie-Byrd-Brother Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:

It's decent, but not a patch on Mitchell's works in It Bites, Arena and Kino. The guy has a very charismatic vouce and is a top notch musician, so it's always good to support him.

The Lonely Robot LP is , accessible and works perfectly as a background listen, but it's also kind of forgettable. Ironically, that's also the perfect description of Nick Begg's current band The Mute Gods and their first album. Not much in the way of prog on it, just a forgettable pop/rock album perfectly performed by great musicians.
I haven't listened to It Bites in decades since THAT track. I've never heard of Kino. What I have heard from Arena seemed pretty bland. I agree about the Mute Gods. Didn't really do much fo rme
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Points: 7951 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 24 2016 at 08:03
Mitchell is pretty low-key in Arena, but he's not the focal point of that band.

The second version of the regrouped It Bites is completely driven by John Mitchell, and their two albums `The Tall Ships' and `Map of the Past' are terrific, Crossover Prog done very well. Definitely investigate those two, much more interesting than the early pop sound of that group.

Kino was a one-off project from 2005 that had John Mitchell on vocals and guitar, it also boasted Pete Trewavas of Marillion on bass, the keyboard player from It Bites and the first Porcupine Tree drummer Chris Maitland (in kind of one of his last prog-related projects). It was a terrific melodic album, and it's a shame the project folded soon after.

Heh, the Mute Gods album has kind of already been relegated to the back of my CD shelves....don't think it will be coming out again any time soon!
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 24 2016 at 23:15
Beggs in my hero
.........even with Kajagoogoo
Really can't pin-point Beggs' work on the Lonely Robot album....??
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yam yam View Drop Down
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Points: 7260 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 25 2016 at 06:24
John Mitchell is one of the most underrated musicians around imho. He is so much more than just a damn good guitarist too. He plays other instruments as well as guitar on the Lonely Robot album, is also a record producer, sound engineer, composer, and of course a singer. As well as all that, he started the label White Star Records with Chris Hillman (owner and founder of Magick Eye Records) earlier this year, with ex-Touchstone front lady Kim Seviour being the first signing to the new label.

As far as the Kino album goes, this was one of his lesser-known projects, which yielded just one album, called 'Picture', in 2005. The band was made up entirely of excellent musicians from other well-known bands, and it's no surprise at all that the material they released on this album was really quite superb, if perhaps not quite 'full-blown' prog. Another hugely underrated English musician, Steve Hughes, guested on drums for a couple of live performances of the material.

The other musicians contributing to the project were Pete Trewavas (from Marillion and Transatlantic) on bass, John Beck (from It Bites) on keys, Bob Dalton (also from It Bites) on drums, and Chris Maitland (formerly of Porcupine Tree) who recorded the drums for the studio album.

The clips below are actually from a four-track bonus DVD that accompanied some releases of the album, and are taken from a 2005 live performance for German TV channel WDR. The project was probably never ever likely to last beyond the single album they released though, since all those involved were heavily tied up with other projects at the time, and couldn't really commit to it long-term.

Enjoy!!







The audio and video weren't quite in sync in the above upload, but never mind eh? Embarrassed



Smile


Edited by yam yam - August 25 2016 at 07:33
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Tom Ozric View Drop Down
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Points: 15926 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 27 2016 at 08:27
I believe it was Mitchell's intentions to involve the various guests to work in areas outside of their comfort-zone, or, perhaps, what they're not so known for. Hogarth on piano, Seviour (or is it Findlay?) singing in a lower range than usual vocally, Kershaw playing guitar (even though he's quite accomplished on the instrument.....). Jem Godfrey giving his Ferrari a rest etc., much to admire on this one, though nothing Earth-shattering. Still can't pick Beggs' bass......? Jem is credited with Chapman Stick and Mitchell plays credited Bass.......... Nick only 'additional Bass'......but where ?? Still, a strong crossover-prog album.
Mute Gods are better, and Lifesigns (led by John Young) leaves it all in the dust. Now there's Beggs doing what he does excellently...........(and working with Steven Wilson.........)


Edited by Tom Ozric - August 27 2016 at 08:29
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