Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

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 infandous wrote:

 dennismoore wrote:

 zumacraig wrote:

DM-i love Bodin's stuff on Stardust too.  the really warm keys of Room with a view is my favorite.  he also incorporates the main stardust theme in all of them too.  man, i'd love this new album to open up with a 10min bodin church organ jam!   

Hey Zuma, 

That is all I am trying to say about Bodin's solo stuff...

Songs like "Room with a View" are what propell me into my hi-def or 5.1 rant. Music such as that is recorded so
well,you are simply not getting(at all) what the musician is communicating to you if you are on computer speakers
or a cheapish system.

The organ sound on Room with a view is transcendent with a half-decent sound system.  dare I say it is God-Like,
to say it is inspirational is an understatemt.  The grand piano piece he plays on that side of Stardust is breathtaking as
well.  That is the Bodin I wish he would do more of on his solo records.  Synths are fine, but I dare say the prior generation of Emerson-Wakeman-Banks did a much better job of balance with different keyboards.  Curent prog keyboardists rely too heavily on effects and over modulation.  At least if you want to hear the notes an artist is playing and what he has composed.  Obviously this is personal preference. But I humbly say that Emerson or Wakeman are so revered becasue of the actual notes they played and the music that was conveyed from the clarity of the keys.

Well, I like synthesizers up to a point.  A person that always drove me crazy was Chic Corea.......he would play an amazing solo, but you had to get past the horrid synth sound he chose to play it with.  Yet with Miles Davis, he played only Fender Rhodes and it sounded fantastic!  When I heard his acoustic band I was blown away by how good the guy sounds on just plain old piano.

So yeah, I think that Tomas sometimes get's a bit carried away with the weird or goofy sounds, especially on his instrumental only solo albums.  That's why I like I AM and You Are so much, because he mostly sticks to the classics (and the Flower Kings albums, of course).  He really does know how to use different sound to good effect though, for atmosphere, and does it all the time on FK albums.

I will say though, that part of what makes prog rock music great is not always the actual notes played, but also the sound of them (this is particularly true for guitar........Roine uses effects quite well to create atmosphere, which I suspect some people don't realize sometimes is a guitar they are hearing and think it's a keyboard). 

Anyway, there is definitely a fine line between cutting edge and cheesy when it comes to keyboard sounds.  I'm kind of surprised you mention Wakeman, as he has been the king of horrid keyboard sounds over the years (though in the early to mid 70's, he used all the right ones, to be sure). 

good point about wakeman.  he became a complete cheese ball beginning with tormato.  he just ruined the keys to ascension stuff, as far as i'm concerned.  i still like it though and he does used the right sounds here and there.  he def is one of the casualties of the 80s synth revolution.