Winter Is Coming!

rushfan4 wrote: Logan wrote: I briefly went through the playlist instead of listening carefully to most of the tracks. Same with the bandcamp, some I know. These I knew, but my first two choices will be: Led Bib - Winter Caravan - Winter Wine And for my third, it will be Quantum Fantay' Wintershades. This was a nice surprise and I gave it a proper listen. :) To mention a favourite of mine (one of my favourite songs regardless of season or subject matter): Comus - Winter Is a Coloured Bird {video removed for space} I find Quantum Fantay to be a very enjoyable instrumental band to listen to.  If you haven't heard their 2024 release Oneironauts you should check it out...if nothing else to see if there is a place for it on your end of the year list.  I should probably try and give Comus a listen.  That album cover is kind of a turn off for me.  I thought I had tried it once and didn't like it, but if I did, I didn't record it on Awesome Prog, and I don't show any listens on last.fm.

Will check that out, and thanks for taking the time to respond. :) I do get sad in some people's topics when I put effort into listening and responding, or they ask for recommendations, or questions, and I put time and effort into answering and get no recognition at all. As a fluffy lol cat might say, "I hazz an insecure." lol at me.

Of course you know the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" but often you can. A reason why I like these these kinds of topics, especially the Interactive one, is because they can get us to step out of comfort zones. i would not have checked out much of the music in many of your lists had it not been for doing this. Some I like, some I don't. And I hope you've discovered music from my lists that maybe you can appreciate even if you don;t like it. Also, I like that these get to specifics, so instead of judging a band, judging an album, we can listen to a song and judge that. There are albums I largely dislike but love some songs.

Sorry it that image is too disturbing for you to even play the track, I seem to recall that you are a conservative Christian and so such pagan imagery may be off-putting (I'm not religious). I thought it appropriate because it somewhat reminds me of Krampus who is "a horned, half-goat, half-demon figure from Central and Eastern European folklore who punishes children who misbehave at Christmastime". Bad enough for the children to think that they won't get toys for Christmas from Santa if they misbehave, but will be taken away and punished by Krampus. Comus, which is the monstrous creature, is more horny than horned. he just wants to play, play, play. I have long opined that I wish people would consider more than First Utterance (meaning without bonus tracks) but Comus' oeuvre. I likely would be more into First Utterance than some because I love English folk horror and various pastoral folk horror, and Comus evokes that. I love films like The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General The VVitch, Lamb, Apostle, Midsommar, or the show The Third Day with Jude Law which I thought brilliant but no one I have talked to knows about it. This stuff often plays on Christian religious imagery and often brings in pagan elements and plays on that imagery.

the male singer often does sound rather like a goat which gives Comus more of a folk horror feel as the goat is common in religious symbolism.

"Winter Is A Coloured Bird" is not a track on the original issue of Comus' First Utterance (the album cover you see with the video). It is a bonus on some issues of it, but I was exposed to it with the compilation album Song to Comus: The Complete Collection which includes the album First Utterance and To keep From Crying as well as various bonus material. I'm not a talented reviewer, but here is what I wrote for the compilation album:


Song to Comus: The Incomplete Collection since the release of 2012's Out of the Coma.

First Utterance I often list as what I find to be the greatest acid folk album, but this compilation is better still. The bonus tracks, "In the Lost Queen's Eyes", "Winter is a Coloured Bird" and "All the Colours of Darkness" are brilliant. If I were to choose a favourite Comus song, I would choose "Winter is a Coloured Bird".

I originally dropped this down a star because I thought To Keep From Crying quite inferior to First Utterance. I always thought "Children of the Universe" and "To Keep From Crying" fantastic, and I loved "Touch Down", "Waves and Caves", and "Get Yourself a Man" but I grew to really like the rest of the album. It's not very consistent, but that's part of the charm.

Although the word underrated gets thrown about way too much, and really does generally come down to meaning "I like this more than most" rather than some objective notions of quality and truth, to me the To Keep From Crying album is of much higher quality than many state. I find it hard to fathom people who love First Utterance not liking any music off To Keep From Crying. It's still an eccentric album with pieces that people into F.U. should like.

What I love about this compilation is the contrast. Another reviewer said much the same, but First Utterance is a dark concept album and To Keep From Crying is light. To Keep From Crying is an album that I've recommended to many who say that Comus is far too disturbing due to First Utterance, but in my experience, very few people who dislike First Utterance ever give the follow-up a chance. And to those who disdain First Utterance for its disturbing lyrics and pagan aspects, realize that it is a concept album. Just because someone sings,writes a book, or make s film about a killer does not mean that that person condones murder.

I love Song to Comus and I like that you get the disturbing and the up-beat on it. Incidentally, it is interesting how high rated this is while one of the albums on it gets so derided. Light and dark can go beautifully together.

I hope we'll get more music from Comus and more complete collection at a later date -- if Out of the Coma were on this compilation I would prefer it still. :)

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Do what is in your comfort zone, but I would think that someone who likes to make and share lists with people would be open to listening to others choices, commenting on other people's lists, and stepping out of their own comfort zones. Not saying you are not like that, and that are not putting the effort into that. It's a general comment. I love how this forum gets each other listening to music we curate, recommend, and just mention. I love the big listening room component of PA with fairly open-eared and open-minded people.

Thanks for doing these topics and getting people to check out things they might not otherwise! They have definitely got me to listen to many things outside of my comfort zone. Diversity is the spice of life.

Aand if the weird folk of that COmus track is too much for you, this is another favourite of mine from someone in PA (but not in PA for this music really). here are tow versions she made.

Vashti Bunyan - Winter Is Blue





I adore this, especially the first version, but then I am more of a sensitive folky than a rowdy rocker at heart.

Edited by Logan - December 06 2024 at 10:23

Sorry, big blunder of mine since I have been reading your posts and chatting with you here for many years. We are of much the same opinion when it comes to issues of religion and God. I do take some issue with the inculcation of children and think that people should be sometimes protected more from religion by the government, but it's something of a balancing act. I used to belong to BC Civil Liberties and that made more wary about protecting certain liberties. Oh, but I should be careful talking such things here.

While I commonly don't pay much attention to lyrics, I love the lyrics of "Winter Is a Coloured Bird"

Winter is a coloured bird
Fleeting silent through the sweet pure air
Chills the night but holds the word
Decrees by wind are secrets to the land
Which sleeps

The cold wind rushes
The ash will smear along
With mysteries, messages
And I know it's a hollow
Turned on, the land will awake
In winter etc.

One thing with English folk music, and folk music generally, is that I am more likely to care about the lyrics than in, say, hard rock.

While I am very conservative in some ways, I commonly like offbeat, quirky music and entertainment. I love lots of atmospheric music, hair metal and AOR has been anathema to me largely. In the 80s I was listening to lots of Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Gary Numan, new age music like Kitaro and Vangelis, as well as lots of mainstream classic rock like Pink Floyd, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Santana, Led Zeppelin....

Winter by Family (not on the list) but I guess that's closer to proto prog.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - December 06 2024 at 18:43

I hardly know any of these, but I love Kung Bore from Anglagard (which I belive translates to King Winter).

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