Unlikely, late, great come-backs

 

Thanks for reminding me about Proto-Kaw! I am a Kansas-fan but I have yet to hear the Proto-Kaw albums. I knew that something good would come from creating this thread

 

Kayak came with a finished version of the "Merlin"-concept. A whole lot of live shows and other records. "Close to the Fire" and  "Merlin - Bard of the Unseen" are great progressive albums!

Supersister came with the live dvd Supersisterious

Focus plays live again, with a great new guitarist (still we miss Akkerman a bit)

Alquin plays live again

 

Who would have thought that?

 

I don't know about Merlin, I haven't heard that one yet. But Close To The Fire is in my opinion far better than the band's early albums  It is also quite different from the early ones. Andy Latimer from Camel adds some great guitar to a couple of songs! The title-track is available for free listening here on PA. It's the best and most progressive song from the album.

 

 

I'm not exactly enamored with rehashes of the old music ... that is not to say that I would not want to see them at all ... and I have seen a few ... but you want me to be honest? There is only one I was extremely proud to see ... only one!

 

MAGMA (1999 in SF at the Progressive Music Festival) 

 

... and everyone else felt like a nostalgia trip down memory lane.

 

Here are some examples:

 

Gong - Way too sad and missing that "3rd dimention" (as I call it) ... in 97 when they came through here with Pierre, they had a really good low end that made the rock music in their repertoire stand out quite well ... but the 2 other times it felt like a small band and we had to fantasize and imagine the "trip" ... and the music was not any better in my book. Still love them and Daevid was excellent and Mike was in his usual outstanding shape, and Gilli ... but ... it lacked heart.

 

Damo Suzuki - With a band that allowed him to do his own thing, but in may ways I really felt that the musicality and musical ability of this band was so far inferior to the original that the music almost sounded like it was hoping to be noticed or understood ... it was a noisy chuck berry (so to speak) to my ear of you will. And that was sad ... good versions of Mushroom and a couple of other things, but in general ... really sad ... very sad ... and not sounding good at all.

 

Brand X - Sounded ok. Maybe it was the drummer or just the combination ... it sounded way too metronomic for my ears and it was not enjoyable like the originality of the albums ... it was a bit too mechanical for my tastes.

 

Amon Duul 2 - My favorite band of all. None of them was ever more insipiring and creative and experimental and blew out the lights at the same time, and could create as good a lyric as Jim Morrison ... and be wayyyyyy more relevant than so many ... but the recordings around them other than "Live in London" are for the most part really sad and lacking ... it's not even the recording ... it's the rest. There are way too many bootlegs of so many bands where they sounded way good in those days ... even in an off day ... but the later rehashes sound tired and in fact aound exhausted! And that is so sad ... even an accoustic version of Apocalyptic Bore would sound better! Or Mozambique ... albeit today the white beast is aids, not the other one!

 

....

 

The other side of the coin are the folks that kept growing and it doesn't matter if you saw tham 35 years ago or not ...

 

Klaus Schulze is as good today as he ever was ... and you only have to see the Rheingold DVD to realize ... this is unreal! ...

 

Tangerine Dream is as good today as they ever were, even if I wish that Edgar was more patient and allowed the music to fly a littile past a guitar lead ...

 

Mike Oldfield is still out there and as relevant as he ever was -- and sometimes even more beautiful if that is possible ...

 

Vangelis is as sweet and powerful as he ever was even if Irene Pappas is occasionally replaced by a soprano opera singer that blows your ears away and sounds as pretty as Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas or Birgit Nilsson ever did! You can't ask for more or better ... it is better than Jon Anderson doing the singing!

 

Zappa plays Zappa --- even though this is the son, the quality is now better than ever ... let's say that it has softened up a little over the years. If you have not seen this ... you will never understand why FZ is so important to so many musicians out there ... and why so many of the prog bands like him, and often pay homage to him in subtle ways.

 

You really know how simple some music is ... I mean ... an Eric Clapton is easy to sound the "same" today as he did years ago ... a Gong is not unless Tim Blake and Stiv Hillage are there making sure that the sound is complete ... and so few bands know how to translate their material so that they could do something different with it ...a veritable "unplugged" ... that would help these folks shine ... can you imagine King Crimson unplugged? It would sound like sh*t! And ELP ... I cringe at the thought!