Hi all

Purple is a new addition to the site ( http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7936" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7936 ) with three albums currently in circulation. I'd love it if some people would take the time to listen and review. All three albums are available for free streaming and downloading through http://www.purplemusic.org" rel="nofollow - http://www.purplemusic.org .

Purple is instrumental "crossover prog" - labeled so because it is more accessible to non-prog-fans than (for example) late King Crimson. It is the work of multi-instrumentalist Dan Hodgson (from Newcastle, UK), and deliberately follows in the footsteps of artists such as Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Camel and Yes, drawing on a variety of music traditions including classical, rock, folk, roots and church music with long, evolving tracks and conceptual albums. The instrumentation is a mix of real, sampled and synthesized instruments.

Please enjoy listening, please review if you can and please spread the word if you like it.

OK, it's time to try a little marketing ploy:

I hereby offer a free high-quality MP3 copy of BODY:MIND:SPIRIT to anyone who posts a review for a purple album.

Be the first! Be the envy of your neighbours, it will make you smarter, taller and more attractive to whatever category of [people/aliens/inanimate objects] are your personal romantic preference.

Thank you ExittheLemming for your critique. I'll take your kind compliments with a smile and think about your criticisms. I cannot resist replying though.

The criticism of the scale - if I understand it right (I had to look up "anodyne") is similar to a criticism I once heard about Tchaikovsky - that he was good at tunes and ideas but not so comfortable developing them in the way Beethoven managed to base his best-known symphony on a riff of four notes (his 5th). It's an interesting criticism, and not one I have heard before - I would love to know if other people feel the same way. Whether I would be able to do a "Beethoven" I don't know, but the structure of short sections knitted together into larger tracks is deliberate, and one I personally find enjoyable in albums such as "The Story of I" by Patrick Moraz and "Misplaced Childhood" by Marillion. ...or maybe I got the wrong end of this particular stick. Anyway, any other views on this greatly appreciated :)

The Drum kit sounds - yes they are samples as I use an electronic kit. It's less expressive than a real kit (but kinder to the neighbours). I will consider putting more thought into the sounds I pick though. Interestingly this is a criticism I have had before, about 20 years ago in fact, when I was accused of "always using the same drum sounds".

Finally, the name... well.... I realise that there may be a tendency to associate with Deep Purple, but it doesn't seem to have caused me a problem so far. What possessed me? The need to think up a name at short notice, a mild form of synesthesia that made it seem appropriate and the fact that when I started the project I was doing it just to have fun - I didn't think I would be making it public as I am, but the name stuck. Interestingly the colour purple seems popular in prog rock, especially here at prog-archives. I didn't want to use my own name because at the time the intention was to record in different styles under different "brand names" so as to keep clear brand identity for each name. Yes I know that clashes with the thought that I didn't intend to go public, but hey, I'm a complex person full of contradictions. Or something. Definitely full of something....

Anyway, thanks again, as promised you have been given access to high-quality mp3s of BODY:MIND:SPIRIT.

Anyone else want a go? Or even better, post a review on one of the album pages:

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=41026" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=41026

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=41027" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=41027

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=41028" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=41028

Windhawk wrote: infocat wrote: Windhawk wrote: As with the majority of such offers in here I'd love to take it on. There's just http://www.myspace.com/haukevind/blog/312124401" rel="nofollow - this slight problem ... That's a lot of free music you have there!  hehe. I pay for it by spending 4-8 hours of work on each of them.

I'm a university lecturer, and part of my job right now is to mark student dissertations. I takes about 3-4 hours to read one, give it marks and come up with some helpful comments. I hate marking, but you do this for... fun??

Point taken though that's quite a backlog! Enjoy.

Windhawk wrote: I do this because it's needed. As I've said to others over the years - I'll probably keep doing this one way or the other until I'm not needed anymore. And do hope that people that are better than me at this will come along and make me surplus to requirements. I'm not a good writer per se, English isn't my natural language and I know that a truly skilled writer will produce reviews much better than mine with little effort. The challenge these days is to find people willing to set aside the hours needed to do this rather than watching TV and movies or playing games it seems. As a uni man, feel free to read some of the stuff I've written and regard it in that particular context. Here's http://www.progressor.net/review/osada_vida_2013.html" rel="nofollow - a rather recent one I got a lot of positive feedback on which to my mind at least documents quite a few of my known shortcomings (and I see that for this particular text I linked to, the editor of the website still hasn't corrected an error he made when updating the site. Oh well...)

Well... fairly typically for a Scandinavian using English you are modest about your English use - and of course have better English than most of my students, even the better ones. There are a few (and I really mean a FEW) places where there are small grammatical errors, or turns of phrase that could be better - and if you want I'd happily highlight them, but maybe by PM.

I guess the biggest issue with writing music reviews in text is of trying to "paint the picture" of what it sounds like with words (a bit like the problem of advertising perfume on TV when you cannot get people to smell it). You do a pretty good job of that. For me, I would happily see more of your opinion as well as the description, and you have the same problem as I do as an academic, that I have a tendency towards long sentences (like this one) where by the end it is possible for a reader to lose track of where you began. On the other hand, the prog audience seems to be dominated by intelligent and somewhat academic people so I'd guess it's not a problem. 

DocDan wrote:    Well... fairly typically for a Scandinavian using English you are modest about your English use - and of course have better English than most of my students, even the better ones.

Err Apologies if my assumption was not correct here - your tag says "Norway" - (but the link you gave is for Uzbekistan Prog Rock Pages)

tupan wrote: It's all free download, so I will add the albums to this thread:  http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26187" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26187 Thanks for share your music with us!

You're welcome and thank you, I did not know that thread existed.

octopus-4 wrote: I have listened to the three albums but only once. My initial feelings are controversial: I have liked something a lot and quite disliked something else, but one listen is surely too few to say anything. Your instrumental skills are not under discussion, I remeber to have spotted good pieces of guitar as well as of keyboards before becoming too busy with my real job. Sooner or later I'll give them the time they need.

Damn those real jobs, they are so inconvenient 

Thanks for the comments so far. I guess I would rather have conflicting reactions than find that the music creates no reaction. Of course I would love to know which bits you liked and disliked and why, but only when/if you have the time. Thanks for the comment and thanks for the compliment on my instrumental skills.

Many thanks to octopus-4 for the first review of a purple album posted on the DB. :)

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7936" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7936  

As promised, see your PMs for a link to a high-quality copy of BMS