RIO Drop-In Centre

Pnoom! wrote: James wrote: rileydog22 wrote: Kestrel wrote: Hi, I'm somewhat of a newbie to the genre, being introduced through Univers Zero but mostly the band Far Corner. I was wondering what you all thought of them (Far Corner, I mean)? I streamed a Far Corner track off of Last.FM and found it way too sterile, or artificial.  It sounded like it was arranged and performed by MIDI software, if you know what I mean.  I'd be willing to give them another shot, though. Which album would you recommend?  Both sound sterile. I'd suggest getting NeBeLNeST's ZePTO instead. Pretty sure Jake is the biggest Nebelnest fan on the site.

Lol one of them agreed like three months ago to let me interview them and I totally forgot and never emailed them.  FAIL. 

NoVa eXPReSS is my personal favorite.  The debut has its moments but it's rough around some of the edges.  Edges that Bob Drake quickly removed from NoVa eXPReSS.  

I'm the same with NeBeLNeST as well.

They're better than Far Corner though.  Far Corner lack soul.  They're music sounds emotionless and as someone else said... like it's digitally composed.  It's not awful but both of their albums are quite lengthy and nothing much changes.

Well maybe I should start making Ahvak a classic by talking about it all the time.  It deserves it, in my opinion.  It's got that fresh sound (Zaar has that too) and never gets boring.  Plus it's well composed and atmospheric.

Another severely underrated band is Pocket Orchestra.  They're amazing.  They again take chamber prog somewhere else.  They also are like Taal in many respects, because they mix different elements from different genres together and make them work.


Edited by James - July 09 2008 at 19:58

Well it was re-released a few years back... are you sure Wayside, Greg Walker or Doug Larsen doesn't have it?

I don't have it on CD myself, so if you find somewhere that sells it, let me know.

avestin wrote: Another interesting band - Vladimir Bozar ’n’ ze Sheraf Orkestär : http://www.myspace.com/vladimirbozar http://zapinfrance.free.fr/FPN6/sheraf.html         I posted about this release and band before but I'll mention it again: RCD 2075 - Elephant9: Dodovoodoo   " Excellent new trio consisting of Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent, Humcrush) on keyboards, Nikolai Eilertsen (The National Bank, Lester) on bass and Torstein Lofthus (Shining) on drums. Storløkken mostly concentrating on organ and electric piano gives the album a late sixtees, early seventees flavour with traces of rock, jazz, prog and psychedelia. The rock solid rhythm section gives it all a contemporary edge and we get an extremely tight little unit with a high degree of great musicianship as well as pure joy in their playing. Already a firm live favourite on the Norwegian scene for a couple of years due to a handful of highly energetic and enthusiastically received concerts, they have transfered their live promise to the recording studio with ease. The album was recorded live to analogue tape in Grand Sport Studio, Oslo. Release: 26.05.08 http://runegrammofon.skryt.no/artists/elephant9/reviews-2075/   http://www.myspace.com/elephant9theband

rileydog22 wrote: Pnoom! wrote: Kestrel, here are ten albums to help you discover the best of the genre: Frank Zappa - Freak Out! Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica Henry Cow - Western Culture Magma - Kohntarkosz This Heat - Deceit John Zorn - Naked City Etron Fou Leloublan - Les Sillons De La Terre Faust - Faust Art Bears - Winter Songs Sotos - Platypus Some of the best of the genre, some that should appeal to you as a fan of UZ and Far Corner, and overall albums that will show you the diversity of the "genre" Pretty much the list that I was gonna post, except that I would probably replace the Etron album with Samla Mammas Manna's Klossa Knapitatet, Sotos with Zaar (personal preference, really), and Deceit with the Aksak Maboul album of your choice.  Oh, and Freak Out is like my least favorite Zappa album ever.

For Zappa I think I'd have gone for 'Burnt Weeny Sandwich'.  I have to say I love 'Freak Out!' (the first Zappa I heard) but it's kind of a peculiar mixture.  Self-conscious parodies of pop music that was already outdated at the time, and a large helping of orchestrated chaos...  'BWS' still has loving doo-wop parodies, but it also has some of those 'tuneful with a sneer' instrumentals that Zappa does so well, and the fantastic collage that is 'Little House I Used To Live In' (one of my favourite FZ tracks).

'Trout Mask Replica' is a tough one.  If you're willing to confront that level of oddness from a standing start, I'd say go for it by all means, but be patient.  If you don't like listening to an hour long album at a time, you might want to build up to TMR in small doses, because it's a total onslaught, 79 minutes' worth of unconventionality.  If you want a gentler intro to Beefheart, you might try 'Shiny Beast'.  Marvellous album, a great combination of dotty originality, eccentricity and tunefulness.

I'd definitely call 'Kohntarkosz' a masterpiece, not the easiest Magma disc to get into (although I guess that depends on the individual listener!) but so worth it.  Actually, I guess it might be a good starting point if you're not keen on the idea of too much hysterical singing.  Very dark, bold, proud, elegant and atmospheric.

Don't know enough to say anything useful about the rest, but I couldn't resist chiming in re. three of my absolute favourites!

Happy listening.

rileydog22 wrote: Pnoom! wrote: Kestrel, here are ten albums to help you discover the best of the genre: Frank Zappa - Freak Out! Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica Henry Cow - Western Culture Magma - Kohntarkosz This Heat - Deceit John Zorn - Naked City Etron Fou Leloublan - Les Sillons De La Terre Faust - Faust Art Bears - Winter Songs Sotos - Platypus Some of the best of the genre, some that should appeal to you as a fan of UZ and Far Corner, and overall albums that will show you the diversity of the "genre" Pretty much the list that I was gonna post, except that I would probably replace the Etron album with Samla Mammas Manna's Klossa Knapitatet, Sotos with Zaar (personal preference, really), and Deceit with the Aksak Maboul album of your choice.  Oh, and Freak Out is like my least favorite Zappa album ever.

I had Maltid (better album than Klossa especially for beginners) and then replaced it with Etron, that's really a tossup.  Re Sotos/Zaar, Sotos is closer to the Far Corner/UZ Kestrel likes, so I chose that one to start.

Aksak Maboul is good but not necessary with Henry Cow and EFL already on the list.  And Deceit is a landmark album even if you don't like it, so it belongs.

Freak Out! along with We're Only in It for the Money is Zappa's biggest classic and so it had to be one of those two, especially since the Mothers period was when he best fit the avant prog tag.  Picking Freak Out! was just personal preference.

Pnoom! wrote: rileydog22 wrote: Pnoom! wrote: Kestrel, here are ten albums to help you discover the best of the genre: Frank Zappa - Freak Out! Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica Henry Cow - Western Culture Magma - Kohntarkosz This Heat - Deceit John Zorn - Naked City Etron Fou Leloublan - Les Sillons De La Terre Faust - Faust Art Bears - Winter Songs Sotos - Platypus Some of the best of the genre, some that should appeal to you as a fan of UZ and Far Corner, and overall albums that will show you the diversity of the "genre" Pretty much the list that I was gonna post, except that I would probably replace the Etron album with Samla Mammas Manna's Klossa Knapitatet, Sotos with Zaar (personal preference, really), and Deceit with the Aksak Maboul album of your choice.  Oh, and Freak Out is like my least favorite Zappa album ever.  I had Maltid (better album than Klossa especially for beginners) and then replaced it with Etron, that's really a tossup.  Re Sotos/Zaar, Sotos is closer to the Far Corner/UZ Kestrel likes, so I chose that one to start. Aksak Maboul is good but not necessary with Henry Cow and EFL already on the list.  And Deceit is a landmark album even if you don't like it, so it belongs. Freak Out! along with We're Only in It for the Money is Zappa's biggest classic and so it had to be one of those two, especially since the Mothers period was when he best fit the avant prog tag.  Picking Freak Out! was just personal preference.

The first Aksak album is TOTALLY different from Henry Cow and Etron.  It would be the only one on the list representing the ethnic side of RIO (except Samla, of course, but that one wasn't on the list). 

Chris (or anyone else for that matter),

Have you perchance purchased the Mothlite album "The Flax of Reverie" that was released on the 7th July?

It features:

Daniel O'Sullivan
Antti Uusimaki

with the help of...

Jaime Gomez Arrellano
Gilad Atzmon
Simone Claire
Christos Fanaras
Dominic Garwood
Chloe Herington
Sara Hubrich
Adam Lewis
Sarah Measures
David Smith
Alexander Tucker

http://www.myspace.com/mothlite

I've read on Wikipedia that Daniel O'Sullivan has left Guapo but this seems completely false, as nowhere on Guapo's website, or on Daniel O'Sullvan's MySpace, does it mention anything about this.  In fact, D::OS:: lists gig dates for Guapo, so he must be a member of them still.

Do you know anything further?


Edited by James - July 11 2008 at 02:02

I felt the same way, so I'll need to do the same.  There was only 2 tracks on their MySpace though.  Maybe an album will be more interesting as a whole.