Andrew WK - RIO/Avant-Prog

There's some decent piano playing on this (mostly from Gonzalez) but no contrapuntang. For a good example of contrapuntang check out Wendy (Walter) Carlos' Switched on Bach. The use of synthesizers makes the individual voices stand out more than the traditional harpsichord or pipe organ.

Hear the intertwining voices, that is true contrapuntang.

Of the two pianists on this one, Gonzalez is far better. I could turn the picture off and easily tell you which one is playing. Andrew is sloppy with underdeveloped technique. If he isn't drunk, he sounds like it. Gonzalez is the real deal and probably works as a lounge pianist or possibly even has the occasional solo piano recital.

The deal is there are thousands of pianists in recital rooms all across the world that could play circles around Andrew. The difference is that they have too much respect for the true greats to suddenly announce they are good enough to perform as solo acts.

On the plus side, I think it's great that these people at the club are enjoying these solo piano acts. You would rarely if ever see something like this in the states

Edited by Easy Money - March 09 2010 at 22:01

^ now that was a lot more fun, sort of 77 style punk with anthemic sing a long choruses, kind of reminded me of The Misfits.

I had to check out a couple of youtubes of this guy and see what all the fuss was about.

I'm a keyboard player who is familiar with and worked within all the genres and influences this guy is obviously familiar with including drunken Stevie Wonder impersonations, minimalism, post punk, alternative, post-rave electronica, math-rock, Terry Riley, Mike Ratledge, Sun Ra, a bit of Keith Emerson, etc.

Um ... this guy isn't very good and kudos to him for having the chutzpah to declare himself a solo act based on his meager skills and musical knowledge. It really sounds like he is drunk. Something happens to people's timing when they have been drinking. I love to drink, but I will rarely if ever get drunk and get on stage, you owe that to your audience.

Edited by Easy Money - March 08 2010 at 21:20

D:  Man, I'm sitting here listening to "Car Nightmare" from '55 Cadillac, a classy piano improvisation with many developing themes on a concept album full of piano improvisation.  Even bare, raw, and live, this man's feeling and compositional chops are quite unique.  Are you guys even listening to the same artist as I?

From everything that has been showcased about this artist so far, I wouldn't even back this suggestion for the "nearly-close-to-prog-related if heavily under the influence" category.

At best some Steinmanish tendencies, but the compositional structures are plain and straightforward, the composition of the multiple layers emphasized lacks sophistication and finesse beyond the average and I generally doesn't find anything noteworthy as far as progressive music goes here - nor anything that would be of interest from a progressive music point of view.

Nice beer n pretzel music, would probably enjoy it after 10-15 beers, but as far as the Progarchives go this suggestion has been the biggest waste of my time as a collaborator ever.

Tsevir Leirbag wrote: ^ Don't say that is avant-prog

Edited by Man Overboard - March 08 2010 at 16:56

^ Don't say that is avant-prog

Man Overboard wrote: As far as I'm concerned, the music is rather ingenious.  Sure, I didn't see the need to post a topic about it myself, but it having been put up there, I must appeal to my experience and argue the point. Having given it as many active listens as many of my favorite prog albums, I can speak about this subject with certainty.  The music's multi-layered approach (the number of instruments playing at any given time would probably break world records) leaves much to be discovered with multiple, successive listens.  Let's not argue aesthetics; this man takes the difficult pop formula and makes it his plaything, injecting a ridiculous amount of musical information while somehow only -building- on its awesomeness and never breaking apart.  Example: Andrew WK - The Moving Room: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zkClhEfNIk Anyway, since my opinion does and can exist, perhaps there is some merit to it as I've not heard from anyone else who has given his music any significant listening time in this thread.  There is significant reward to further active listening over a period of time.  Sure, it's easy to try to brush off, but why not try to examine it from another perspective?

That video didn't change my perceptions at all.

But to humour your opinions: I'm having Espen Storö over for dinner and relaxation this Wednesday - he's a friend of my wife and pops in here now and then. He used to play keyboards for a Norwegian band called Circus Maximus a few years ago, and should be able to give more of an expert opinion on this creation ;-)

Man Overboard wrote: Is there a way this discussion could then, perhaps, be shifted towards discussing this band in another genre than another twenty posts of condescension?  I'm sorry you guys accept some extraordinary cult experimental pop groups and not others, but how can we shift this in a positive direction?

As I remarked previously, I don't hear too much special in this artists work really. Some quirky details do spice up the proceedings a bit, but the core foundation of the music is very much mainstream-oriented as I hear it. Unlike what I've heard of Zappa I might add, where the quirky features are the foundation and the mainstream-oriented details are the additional spices.

The Steinman-tinged melodramatics might make this artist viable for prog-related in some distant future perhaps, but as of today I can't really see this artist making it into the database here.

The music might be good - and it is well put together - but as far as I'm concerned it lacks finesse and sophistication. I have voted no for the inclusion many artists more sophisticated than this dude in my time at this site, and personally I think this guy by mere musical merits has a much weaker case than artists like Stranglers and Smashing Pumpkins - to name two others who has been given the thumbs down in recent years (as in the modern meaning of that hand-signal obviously, and not the original one of Caesarian times).