Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

darkshade wrote: Style-wise, Stolt's playing is very Floyd or Zappa-esque, depending on the song; but of course he has his own distinct style and choice of notes as well. Compositionally, besides the jazzy side of the band, I find the music is more Yes-influenced, with some ELP (mostly in their earlier albums) and King Crimson, but also with some Zappa moments as well, usually during crazy runs or some complex keyboard melodies; this is especially noticed during sections where a marimba sound is heard. The Genesis influence is felt as well, but not as much as others like Marillion, Spock's Beard/Neal Morse, etc. Jonas being in the band really mixes things up. Sometimes it's like if Jaco Pastorius replaced Chris Squire  back in 1972 or something. What I like about TFK, is even though they have a lot of influence from many of the classic 70s bands, they do stuff that those bands would never do, back then or now. Many times, I feel like TFK are Yes taken to the next level, what with all their other influences, go in further directions than Yes could have dreamed of.

darkshade wrote: M27Barney wrote: Perhaps it's just me - but I have never listened to any Zappa - I have too many other directions to send my ear that I just haven't had the inclination.....This might seem weird to a lot of you.... Never listened to any cantebury stuff either really. I still have about 200 CD's that I have only listed to once.....just not enough time.... I understand about how there's too much music. But if you're that into the Flower Kings, you owe it to yourself to at least hear a couple Zappa albums, particularly the ones that would really show where Roine and the gang may have gotten some of their influence from. Psychedelic Postcard is very much '60s-Zappa, but most other TFK stuff seems more influenced by Frank's '70s and early-'80s output.

The Zappa influence is HUGE in TFK's.  I'd say it's second only to Yes, to be honest.  It's all over the place on the early albums, and still very apparent on the rest (particularly on TSONE).

Having said that, Zappa's stuff is really not like the Flower Kings at all.  Especially the lyrics   Zappa was all over the musical map, more than any other artist I think I've ever heard.  Primarily though, he had a quirky approach, which can be hard to get into because there is just SO MUCH different stuff from album to album with him (and he released something like 40 studio albums in his lifetime, and countless live albums......with more archival stuff coming out all the time).  For a good overview of his work, check out Lather, a triple CD album that Zappa's record company refused to release back in the late 70's.  It was a 4 LP album, that he wanted to put out to fulfill his contract all in one shot.  They wouldn't let him, so he had a L.A. DJ play it over the radio and encouraged fans to record it.  It was all then released on various studio and live albums over the next few years.  His family then compiled it all together based on his original final track listing and released it a few years after he died.  As I said it's probably a good starting point since it covers so much of his musical style.

At Nearfest 2003, a friend of mine asked Roine what his favorite Zappa album were, and he stated the first couple Mother's Albums, Freak Out and Absolutely Free (from the mid 60's).  This was strange to me as I hear more mid to late 70's Zappa in TFK's sound.




Edited by infandous - April 17 2012 at 08:17

infandous wrote: darkshade wrote: M27Barney wrote: Perhaps it's just me - but I have never listened to any Zappa - I have too many other directions to send my ear that I just haven't had the inclination.....This might seem weird to a lot of you.... Never listened to any cantebury stuff either really. I still have about 200 CD's that I have only listed to once.....just not enough time.... I understand about how there's too much music. But if you're that into the Flower Kings, you owe it to yourself to at least hear a couple Zappa albums, particularly the ones that would really show where Roine and the gang may have gotten some of their influence from. Psychedelic Postcard is very much '60s-Zappa, but most other TFK stuff seems more influenced by Frank's '70s and early-'80s output. The Zappa influence is HUGE in TFK's.  I'd say it's second only to Yes, to be honest.  It's all over the place on the early albums, and still very apparent on the rest (particularly on TSONE). Having said that, Zappa's stuff is really not like the Flower Kings at all.  Especially the lyrics   Zappa was all over the musical map, more than any other artist I think I've ever heard.  Primarily though, he had a quirky approach, which can be hard to get into because there is just SO MUCH different stuff from album to album with him (and he released something like 40 studio albums in his lifetime, and countless live albums......with more archival stuff coming out all the time).  For a good overview of his work, check out Lather, a triple CD album that Zappa's record company refused to release back in the late 70's.  It was a 4 LP album, that he wanted to put out to fulfill his contract all in one shot.  They wouldn't let him, so he had a L.A. DJ play it over the radio and encouraged fans to record it.  It was all then released on various studio and live albums over the next few years.  His family then compiled it all together based on his original final track listing and released it a few years after he died.  As I said it's probably a good starting point since it covers so much of his musical style. At Nearfest 2003, a friend of mine asked Roine what his favorite Zappa album were, and he stated the first couple Mother's Albums, Freak Out and Absolutely Free (from the mid 60's).  This was strange to me as I hear more mid to late 70's Zappa in TFK's sound.

listened to zoot allures today by zappa.  roine's minor blues/jazz solos are def zappa influenced.  see black napkins for an example.  great record btw.  i do prefer roine's hippie lyrics to zappa's not so sublte 'dirty' lyrics.  can't really jam him with the kids around

darkshade wrote: The Count of Tuscany has always been, to me since BC&SL came out, one of DT's best songs. Great arrangement, though possibly their worst lyrics; but they don't bother me-the music is too good.

Yeah, I like that Count Of Tuscany musically, but it's just so hard to not snicker every time the vocals come in.  The lyrics are just so incredibly bad.  Which, conversely, makes their latest albums lyrics seem so good in comparison (they're not really that good, just not laughably bad).

Re: So, does anyone here like The Flower Kings? :) « Reply #5002 on: Today at 14:12:21 » Led by mastermind Roine Stolt (TRANSATLANTIC), the new album is called Banks Of Eden, and will be released via InsideOut Music. The material is classic Flower Kings, with all the dreamy, melodic and cinematic elements that fans around the globe have learned to love over the years. However, the 2012 incarnation of the band mixes it up with both psychedelic and darker metal passages that place this album somewhere in between the late 60's proto prog and the new generation of art rock.  Roine comments: "It was both a scary and exciting prospect to go back into the studio after an almost 5 year-long, well-earned hiatus. We have all been active with Transatlantic, KARMAKANIC, AGENTS OF MERCY since, so we were up to speed in the playing department, but starting TFK again put some weight on my shoulders I suppose, but it's fun. We knew we could make an album 'cause this is what we do and we know we do it good, but the question was if we had anything new or anything important to contribute in 2012, in a time when the internet fills every hour with entertainment and every town or village seems to have emerging prog superstars. Realizing now with ELP, CRIMSON, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT and PINK FLOYD being history, we are among the new eldermen of prog and we feel responsible for keeping the standard up, so a lot of hard work is gonna go into the coming months.  The core members were there and for this re-starting of TFK we brought in new 26 year old drummer prodigy Felix Lehrmann. Without playing one single note together, or no audition, we started the recording at Varispeed studios in Sweden, January 23rd, taking a big, big chance. It is with happy smiles on our faces that we can conclude that it was a jackpot and a great choice and we feel Felix is gonna breathe life into both the new and old material in a live setting, possibly with a more hard hitting edge. His outgoing personality and general love for music and playing will be very evident live and for coming albums I can feel he may contribute even in writing.  The progressive daredevil at the helm made us start the new album with a 25 minute epic centrepiece that is NOT easy listening, it is in fact a quite demanding task. But the material also has all classic elements of The Flower Kings style with all the dreamy melodic and cinematic glow sprinkled all over, that the band's fans have come to love over the years. My advice is: just give it time and it will be very rewarding."

Nov wrote: Realizing now with ELP, CRIMSON, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT and PINK FLOYD being history, we are among the new eldermen of prog and we feel responsible for keeping the standard up, so a lot of hard work is gonna go into the coming months.  Cool post, thanks for the info Nov.  I don't know why, but to hear Roine admit that he's becoming somewhat of a legend was really cool for me.

I ended up being a lot more polarizing with my points:

Yo Roland , hows the good old US of A?Here's mine