I Recommend...

If anybody has been unfortunate enough not to encounter them yet, I highly recommend Chicago post-rock outfit Tortoise.  They're highly acclaimed among the genre's fans, their style is far more subdued and relaxing than the bleak and dramatic Godspeed You Black Emperor/Mogwai type bands and is absolutely mesmerizing to listen to.  TNT is the album of theirs I would recommend, providing what I can only describe as some of the most beautiful music ever concieved.

I concur. Tortoise are great. One of my favorit bands!   

   Wobbler.

Axamenta - Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture

Something for people who like Opeth I guess (when you're also a bit into black/death, this will amuse you). Progressive metal with grunts, lots of double-bass drumwork, but not as massive as you might think.

If my memory serves me right, I already recommended Agalloch here before. I am a long time fan of theirs and think highly of all their releases. I consider them excellent and brilliant albums. They will soon release a new album called Ashes Against The Grain, which has now been reviewed by Ivansfr0st, and all I can say is that I agree with his review and his past reviews of their previous albums as well.

Abstrakt wrote: JETHRO TULL - HEAVY HORSES (1978) Progressive Folk Rock   Track listing 1. ...And The Mouse Police Never Sleeps (3:13) 2. Acres Wild (3:26) 3. No Lullaby (7:55) 4. Moths (3:27) 5. Journeyman (3:58) 6. Rover (4:16) 7. One Brown Mouse (3:23) 8. Heavy Horses (8:59) 9. Weathercock (4:03) Total Time: 42:40 Line-up - Ian Anderson / flute, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, vocals - Martin Barre / electric guitar - Barriemore Barlow / drums, percussion - John Glascock / bass - John Evans / piano, organ - David Palmer / portative organ, keyboards, orchestral arrangements

First album by The Tangent, also featuring the talents of David Jackson. Not especially complex - just very entertaining. Something of a 'pastiche' or 'homage' to classic Canterbury music - for that reason it has drawn a few unfavorable reviews. If that doesn't ferment hatred in you however, its a very pleasant and fun album that bears repeated listens.

Hello fellow PA members, It's been a while.

Today I want to introduce to you a Canadian band from Montreal called Bell Orchestre.
This band will be added by Jimbo to PA shortly.
I will give you several references to their work and links to websites in which you can read about them and listen to them.

This is their official website: http://www.bellorchestre.com/


From Wikipedia:

Bell Orchestre are a five-piece instrumental band from Montreal, Canada. Its members include: Richard Parry (bass), Sarah Neufeld (violin), Pietro Amato (french horn), Kaveh Nabatian (trumpet), Stefan Schneider (drums & percussion). Sarah Neufeld and Richard Parry are also full-time members of The Arcade Fire.

In late 2003, they recorded their first album, at the same time and in the same studio that The Arcade Fire recorded Funeral. However, Arcade Fire's popularity was just beginning to break when they asked Bell Orchestre to tour with them in the fall of 2005, delaying the release of their album. Recording a Tape in the Colour of the Light was finally released in 2005. In March of 2006 Bell Orchestre toured Europe to promote Recording a Tape in the Colour of the Light.

From http://www.ohmyrockness.com/BandBio.cfm?BandID=5385

Montreal's Bell Orchestre is a five-piece instrumental band led by Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Perry. The recent Rough Trade signees are influenced by a wide-range of vocal-less artists such as Aphex Twin, Rachel's and Kronos Quartet, but they also incorporate a cinematic sound similar to Godspeed and Explosions in the Sky.

Their aural grandeur is achieved through bells, horns, drums, stethoscopes (!?), and various programmed samples. Bell Orchestre know when to be loud, and when to be serene, with Sarah Neufeld's (also of Arcade Fire) transcendent violin leading the way. Post-rock... chamber-pop... experimental whatever-rock... Bell Orchestre simply play sweeping, splendid songs that are meant to be experienced. Oh, and they don't sound anything like Arcade Fire... sorry.

From http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/b/bell-orchestre-05/

Interview: Bell Orchestre
Story by Ryan Schreiber

Muted brass moans and trades fanfare, static crashes, the guitars ring, and slowly it begins to come together. The structure is modest at first, but as sweat pours in, the project's scope reveals itself. Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light is colossal. The payload of six years' determination, the debut album from Bell Orchestre (French pronunciation: "or-kest") gives orchestral post-rock the update it has desperately needed since Godspeed You Black Emperor! reached the genre's creative apex with their classic Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven five years ago.

Formed in late 1999 by two future Arcade Fire members-- string arranger/violinist Sarah Neufeld and unmistakable lanky, redheaded multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry-- Bell Orchestre began life scoring dance productions, but as the project took on a life of its own, the Arcade Fire hit an early stride, forcing both members to focus on their contributions within that band. Now, with Bell Orchestre signed to Rough Trade, and their first full-length due in North American shops early next month, Pitchfork sits down with Parry to find out what took them so long.

Pitchfork: I've heard varying accounts of when Bell Orchestre started. Some say it predates your involvement in the Arcade Fire, others say it came after.

Richard Parry: It kind of dates exactly along with Arcade Fire. Me and Sarah [Neufeld] were making music at our friends' requests, just for things like puppet shows and movies. Then we ended up working more with contemporary dance. They would be making up choreography and we would be in the room making little waves of interactive music in the dance. It evolved into this weird group process of lots of musical left turns, and trying different ideas to get real specific results. It just kind of stuck.

Pitchfork: Was working in a live improvisational setting a difficult dynamic?

Parry: We would take cues from dancers like, "How about when they do this rapid thing, let's totally change what we're doing." But we got sick of being subservient and thought, "We make awesome music, let's go and try to make awesome music without being like, 'Oh, the dance is over? I guess that means the song is over.'"

Pitchfork: Is it freeing to work without those constraints?

Parry: We don't have any rules in our band. We really like to follow any idea wherever it will go. To make an album that was cohesive, we ended up ditching a ton of other material that sounded different and had different dynamics. I think the next one will hold together aesthetically, but probably be quite different from this one. We just like to take a thread and run with it as much we can, and it kind of ends in different ways.

Pitchfork: But constraints can also work in your benefit. Lou Reed once talked about how he used to like to limit himself to three chords-- he thought that method sometimes produced better results.

Parry: I think we're probably at the stage where we're going to start doing that more, but we haven't exhausted ourselves from having pleasing results from just letting things go. We're pretty picky. We're not trying to do "rock." We try to find an idea and really play with it and let it become something unique. We'll probably get more into the regulations. We've done that as exercises. We did that with dancers a lot-- we had little rules and games and stuff like that. But one thing that's so exciting about the band, it seems like now there's a pretty inexhaustible mind when we play freely together. Lots of awesome stuff we're excited about comes out of it. We have this insane backlog of recorded fragments waiting to be paid attention to. If we were a little more efficient, we'd be so prolific.

Pitchfork: Is it difficult juggling two bands? I imagine music is all you do.

Parry: It's been sort of insane. Arcade Fire stuff just took over in this way that nobody knew. We didn't plan on only being home for a month-and-a-half, and the Bell Orchestre record was actually recorded simultaneously with Funeral in the same studio. We'd trade off weeks recording. But then it came up that Merge wanted to put out the record and get it done for May, so that took priority. The Bell Orchestre album was almost done, but it kind of sat there. We were just sitting on this album that we were really proud of, but we didn't have anyone to pay attention to it.

Pitchfork: It didn't seem like anyone knew you had this other band. Did you guys play any shows aside from working with dancers?

Parry: We played one show toward the end of the dance thing. Our first show as a band playing for people was an Arcade Fire show in 2002. It was an Arcade Fire practice space and it was our first time being like, "Hey, what do you guys think of this music?"

Pitchfork: When were you able to finally finish the record?

Parry: It was so crazy. Arcade Fire stopped touring for a month for February, and Bell Orchestre had a month at this art center in Canada in the mountains where we have a residency. We did some sort of poor-man's overdubbing where we recorded in a room and listened to the album on headphones. We kind of added that stuff in mastering, and it was done in March. A friend of ours started sending it out on our behalf because she fell in love with it. She started mailing it to people and mailed it to Geoff [Travis] at Rough Trade who got really thrilled about it.

Pitchfork: Rough Trade signed Arcade Fire in the UK and now you're on the roster as well. In a lot of ways, that's sort of the perfect relationship, isn't it?

Parry: It's true, and it wasn't me who was like, "Oh, I have this other band." It was our friend that sent them the record and they got excited about it. Then I talked to Geoff about it and asked if we could do a record and he said, "Oh, yeah!" It's weird now because it's been released in Europe but it doesn't actually get released here until November.

Pitchfork: Do you know why it's been held up in the States?

Parry: I don't want to talk about it, but I think [Rough Trade is] notoriously a little loose in their business affairs, but really respected for what they do artistically. It's kind of in line with our band. We're really sketchy on the organization front but we're trying to really do something special. It actually works out okay because we're going to be touring within two weeks right when the record comes out.

Pitchfork: For the album to have been out in the UK in August, though, it must have all happened pretty fast. How long was the process between when you signed with the label and when it came out in Europe?

Parry: A few months, I guess. Geoff said they were interested in it, but we didn't finalize anything. It was a few months or something like that.

Pitchfork: So you're going to be touring for this, too. How many members will be on the road with you and how long will it run?

Parry: Well, five members and possibly six. It's a tour with this band Clogs, and we're doing a bunch of museums and art galleries and some interesting off places.

Pitchfork: Chicago, I assume, in there somewhere?

Parry: Not during those two weeks, but probably in December.

From http://angryape.com/interviews/2005/09/bell-orchestre

Let the Bell Orchestre ring out.

The music produced by the Arcade Fire-ettes Richard Parry and Sarah Neufield in the guise of their original and intriguing conglomeration of echoing, windy and comforting music; Bell Orchestre produce instrumental, horn fuelled offerings for you to sail away to.

Their personalities work concurrently with their music, as I discovered in a Liverpudlian house of food and candles. One minute Richard was chipping away at my walls of ignorance regarding the raison detre for their Montereaux's quintet; Bell Orchestre;

'I find it musically therapeutic; it is different (From Arcade Fire) the way we work together.�

Then I found myself caught up in the earnest musos enthusiasm for what he does so early in the interview, I found my self saying to the waiter; 'I'll have the same as him'; not realising that he had ordered a salt latte.

The effervescent Sarah exclaimed;

'We often practice whilst sitting making tea.'

On that note an appealing looking frothy latte was placed in front of me. However, the taste made my tongue dry up like the song writing skills of Oasis and I felt my heart sinking down under the weight of sodium chloride. Like a true pro, I kept a stiff upper lip and somehow spluttered out my request for them to expand on their practice practises, as Richard took on the role of saviour;

'We often used to rehearse in my old loft and in a tunnel at the bottom of my road, where sounds would reverberate around. We don�t have to be amplified, so we can practice outside.'

Sarah interjected with an adventurous glint her eyes:

'We used to practice in a heavy metal space. There would be these thrashing guitars drowning out our horns.'

Their atmospheric, instrumental album The Colour Of A Light, features the throbbing horn fuelled instrumental mind massager of 'Upwards March' that in my opinion, has a The Silent Orchestra and Aphex Twin feel to it. This number is booming with imagery and contentment, how big apart does imagery actually play in this number? A crafty chortle was emitted by both of the interviewees with the mention of Aphex Twin. A sense of irony was exuded by Richard, as he took on his reply;

'That number is the exception to the rule on the album really; there were no mental images in mind while we were making it. The imagery, kind of came in later, as an afterthought.'

In order to restore some integrity into my initial question, I requested clarification of these images;

'Erm, Guardian Angels, mainly, I think. Something like that anyway the idea us someone watching over us and guiding us.'

Sarah quickly substantiated this notion, but added a broad caveat;

'It is ethereal the imagery, but people can picture different images to the song, which is good.'

'Upwards March' after several listens is like a blank slate and is definitely one to listen to with an open mind. It is unbelievable the pressures put on bands in the spotlight these days and the media are feasting on the Arcade Fire like pigs at a trough at the moment. How do they manage to find time to produce soothing and caressing music with the Bell Orchestre? Are they more of a unit, as they don't seem to have a distinguishable front person?

'We are quite flexible, some people feel strongly about one thing then they take over for that moment, but once we start going we can go in any direction. We have played some gigs supporting Arcade Fire that has helped us strike a good balance between the two outfits.'

So, there is a lot of compromise, eh? I continued boldly; doesn't that mean you get something nobody wants? Richard shrugged then Sarah stepped in with the confidence and belief of Sammy Sosa to field this one;

'Or, you get something nobody could have thought of?'

Oh yeah, that is a pertinent point isn't it? The combination of the salt latte and the exposure of my negative outlook meant that my heart was well and truly in my socks at this point. I saw a thoughtful and pensive look appear Sarah and Richard's faces, so it was time to turn matters seriously political. Were they alarmed by the recent court case in America involving Sony, whereby a label was legally castigated for paying and offering inducements to DJs to give their artists more prominent airplay? Is the music industry up for sale?

A reflective mood came over like a them stark change in the weather preceding the main man's reply;

'It has been for a very long time.'

He a vrafty grin appeared on his friendly face, before drawing the following analogy;

'I was reading an article about Cervante's; 'Don Quixote' the other day about how that was a parody about on the theatre industry is money driven. This was written hundreds of years ago. The music industry is much the same. It is not a new phenomenon. I think it is good for bands like Bell Orchestre the way that music works out, especially the internet. People get bored of what is out there and look around for new stuff.'

Having been hit for six on a few questions the Shane Warne spirit possessed me and I stumped the receivers when I asked them to answer on the other person's behalf what song, book, poem, film or T.V. show summed them up the best. Sarah strained and looked to be giving an answer but simply said;

'Oooohhh, I need more time'.

The answer never materialised, but then maybe they are saving it for a song? Bell Orchestre's music is the smoke from the Arcade Fire and it will continue to seep into the air surrounding open minded music lovers out there and fill their heads with peace and tranquillity.

By David Adair

Enjoy,

Assaf

(another good band recommendation to come soon)

^^^
Thanks, MMG .

The Miracle wrote: Anyone heard of Savatage? A very underrated prog/power metal band... very emotional, beautiful music. I have Gutter Ballet and Streets - great albums, solid 4 each. Looking forward to hearing other stuff My review of Gutter Ballet