Pascal's Prog Journey

Yep, because then he'll definitely give up on Tull! 

Gryphon - Red Queen To Gryphon Three - A spectacular blend of symphonic prog with English renaissance and folk music. Plenty of great timbres to be appreciated here, from bassoons to crumhorns to classic 70's synths. I think you'll really appreciate the compositional style, too; very intricate and seamless arrangements. It almost feels more like listening to a symphony than a prog album, but with a distinct rural vibe throughout.

Before going to a jazz concert, let me give my opinion on my first few albums by modern bands:

Shamblemaths - Shamblemaths: excellent structured album. Very eclectic, without lots of repetition but very cohesive so that it deserves a lot of great listens. The many variations on the main theme of the opening epic is very creative! 9

Earth, Invisible - Earth, Invisible: sweet introduction for me to post-rock. The genre seemed and seems not something which I truly adore most of the days, it's a lot about sound and guitars, andless about complexity in many melodies- but it doesn't fail in hitting me very deep. Mixed with nice time sigs it's though very enjoyable to listen to. The album is on the other hand a little short. But it deserves an 7.5 and I might try some other post-rock in the future.

Thank You Scientist - Stranger Heads Prevail: a wow-album! This really got me hooked for weeks, and still there are few days in the week I don't listen to some (note: some, let me return on that later) of this wonderful album. The blend of jazz and metal arrangements beneath contemporary pop vocals is simply stunning. The instrumental parts are so interesting; complex, technical and creative- innovative beyond instrumentation as well and the vocal parts are sometimes very emotive. At first hearing the vertical composition is outstanding, but horizontally it also has very good parts, my favourites are: Mr. Invisible, Need More Input and Rude Goldberg Variations. I can't dismiss this album, however, without mentioning it's flaws. It's a very tiring whole, takes a little too long and I wish they would've done more jazz influenced parts, because they show they can arrange excellent jazzy parts, they don't delve too deep in it and leave it with just a little length compared to the more than 60 minutes whole. And that's why it's just not as good as my very favourites, and deserves a 9.

Battles - Mirrored: Another one which doesn't suit my personal taste completely, I find it hard getting really well into repetitive, minimalistic music. It is indeed very innovative and mainly the drums are outstanding in the music, but for me it's too boring to listen to for a longer while. At such a point I doubt if it's good to rate it, but for now I'll leave it with a 7.

Like always if you get into something pretty different, the whole album - thair latest: The Violent Sleep Of Reason - yet bores me a little for listening the whole way through. Maybe that can improve later on, maybe it won't because there is little melody and harmony to make the songs feel unique.

It will take me some more time for me to give a good rating of the whole album, because there are just a few tracks that I played so many times that I actually know how the track goes, speaking mainly of the rhythm of course 

In the two albums I listened, the style and sound hasn't changed too much, but Lighthouse is for me the one which is just superior to Belighted because the compositions are a little more detailed and there is the "I came before" motif which comes back various times in the album (beyond I Came Before The Water parts 1 and 2), whch makes it feel more cohese. 

Which makes:

Belighted - 8

Lighthouse - 8.5

Just for listening, finding new music and for inspiration for own compositions.