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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 30 2017 at 06:01
Originally posted by ALotOfBottle ALotOfBottle wrote:

Originally posted by DDPascalDD DDPascalDD wrote:

My new album is just released! I'm satisfied with the result and would be very keen on your reactions: https://pascalvandendool.bandcamp.com/album/fedus


Really like it! Great album. Very calm, evem on more agressive parts, but by not boring. And your compositions are very intricate. At times, it even sounds improvised (maybe because of the "time shifting"?), but the way it holds together suggests otherwise. Very Gentle Giant-y, especially on the quiet passages. My favorite tracks are Libore and Rest IVever, but Dalemont is also a very good experiment. Congratulations, Pascal, you should be proud! Clap

Thank you so much! The balance and mix of calmness and agression are indeed part of the concept. It's really good to hear that you like it so much, I am proud Big smileWink
Some parts are indeed improvised with a rough idea (and listening to what you have already recorded endlessly for inspiration) to then build upon with other instruments. The most is though composed beforehand (Fedus is for example almost note-for-note), except the "Tension" and "Rest" pieces, these are completely improvised, with only a certain chord or serie of a couple of notes and then... Just let the emotion and intuition take over actually...
New album! "A Moment of Thought"
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2017 at 08:49
A new great album from 2017 to add: Nova Collective - The Further Side. Very complex jazz-metal fusion where every note is thought out. A lot of interesting rhythms, music to keep listening to with all concentration. But just yhat may be exactly the downside... A little too extreme. It is very good to hear the development of motifs in the tracks (I particularly like the way they did that in Dancing Machines), but all the effort put in those things makes it lacl other things. I do miss some melody, personally I prefer melody-orientated to rhythmic-orientated. The only song which has a clear story to tell is The Further Side. By far my favourite. All in all I'll give it an 8.5.
New album! "A Moment of Thought"
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2017 at 03:22
I thought of trying a new genre, discovering the 70's Canterbury scene. Some weeks ago I went to Canterbury (and London) so I thought I have to know more about the Canterbury scene so I'd be more interested in seeing where "it all happened", so I tried several albums, Soft Machine III, Egg s/t and one which was very easy to listen: Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink. That one was great fun at first listen, so happy, no doubt they were all smiling while playing this. And of course drinking tea, ... Ugh, take some coffee man...
Anyways, the music... Of course I think it's nice that it's very keyboard based. My favourite moment is the soloing on Winter Wine (wine? Ugh! Get yourself some beer man...) which begins with David playing two lines. But the first side though is not much more than OK if looking to it musically. Tightly played, nice soloing, some good rhuthms, but not many special/progressive/adventurous things. But that's not the intent I think, and that's how one should look at music, how it succeeds in it's intent, that's what it does very well: playing this album('s first side) - instant smile guaranteed. But I long for more than that.
So the second side. That's more like it. Sometimes with jazz I miss themes recurring, but most of all developing, and here there's not a lot of that either (mainly repetition) but surely enough to listen to behind all the soli: the accompaniment is really great, mainly the bass is excellent and luckily not mixed too soft here.
So I'm kind of mixed, it's not my very favourite kind of music, but still it's insteresting to listen to and also works great as a background. I'll rate it with a 7.5.
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zachfive View Drop Down
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Points: 770 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 06 2017 at 20:29
I agree with you on In The Land of Grey and Pink. While Nine Feet Underground is one of Caravans greatest songs, the albums as a whole is a bit weak, with Winter Wine being the only other worthy of mention. I find their album If I Could Do It All Again, I'd Do It All Over You much more consistent and pound for pound one of their best albums.

Didn't do a lot of backreading in this thread but from your first post you seem to enjoy Floyd so maybe a Canterbury band that you would also enjoy would be some early Gong albums lead by Daevid Allen, or better yet maybe some Steve Hillage solo albums. His albums Fish Rising and Green are excellent places to start.
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2017 at 02:09
Thanks! I'll defenitely check out If I Could... Though PF was more of a favourite when, er... I didn't know any other prog bands ;)
Regardless, still worth trying.
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 28 2017 at 03:08
Been a long time but I got a new album to add: Bent Knee - Land Animal. My favourite thing about this album is the intent of the band, making progressive music but keeping it very emotive of nature, and also experimenting with emotions- like experimenting with different contrasting emotions working together or going from one to another to create something really unique in that aspect. The album has beautiful moments, I for instance adore the ''chorus' of Terror Bird and the spastic and very tightly played rhythm in Holy Ghost, really special. 
Though their songs don't feel like masterpieces, just very nice songs with great moments. I miss that part frequently with more modern prog bands, short songs with just a few different parts, which makes it feel like it's lacking a little depth that could make it much better. Some songs feel like complete, like Holy Ghost, but for example leave me with a feeling of: "and what are you going to do with those melodies?" but nothing happens; "is this all?".
Maybe it's a question of getting used to, learn to appreciate. May be also something one can like or not, I think I just prefer it in another way. That doesn't mean the songs need to be longer, but more information, depth and more compact. IMHO.
Also there is notably very little soloing, but the good part is, that I just realised it. It doesn't demand or need solos, the songs stand on their own in that aspect. We could combine those 2 things, develop the melodies in a solo would probably be very satisfying.
Now I could be overthinking it, or nitpicking, the songs are great: atmospherical, touching and experimental at the same time, which is actually already a great accomplishment. I'll rate it with an 8.

By the way I found Ben Levin (guitarist of Bent Knee) has a very nice Youtube channel talking about things he uses with composing, very interesting things. I came to his channel via my favourite Youtube channel at the moment: Adam Neely, videos with the best content you can find about cool music stuff and other things.
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 20 2017 at 07:18
For the third week now I've been studying at the Conservatoire in The Hague, which gives me the best days of my life! An amazingly friendly, openminded and obviously musical group of people surrounding you and making and learning about music, and teaching as Music Teaching is the direction I chose, all day is really great. My days are though filled for a large part with school, studying and other musical jobs/projects, which leaves little space for listening to new albums- and writing about that here. But while in the train, I could write about a new album: Egg - Egg.
Very adventurous and for it's time refreshing. I must say I don't find myself very often in the mood for listening to Egg. It's a positive thing that the whole has an overall unique atmosphere, and it's hard to explain why - maybe there's a lack of energy but that doesn't seem to be totally right - but I often don't feel like playing it.
The songs are nicely built, interesting but not very complex. Personally I do find some passages too avant. No that's not how I should describe it... I can get into a song like They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano, also because it isn't that long. A short passage where things go crazy and chaos and all can work in a way, but in Symphony No. 2 it defenitely bores me. 
So in the end, I think I'll rate the album with a 6.5
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 05 2017 at 08:09
If you're interested, my latest composition:
A rearrangement/reharmonization of a Dutch children song which was a project for my study. I liked experimentating with harmony and think the result is satisfying for me, of course there's also some counterpoint (listen to the flute), I just really love counterpoint.

On another note, I've picked up an album I didn't like at first try some time ago because I knew it just needed some time: Seven Impale - Contrapasso. Somehow it seemed to take me longer to get into than their first album, maybe because there are more dissonants and weird sounds in this album and it's longer. 
Although it's longer, it feels more like a comprehensive whole, and also connects nicely to the previous one: the first song has the rhythm from the very end of City of the Sun as a basis and the track Ascension takes the main themes of the City of the Sun album. Also it has a different atmosphere, it feels like it also tells a story, but I don't pay a lot of attention to lyrics and haven't searched for the lyrics so I don't know. Still it is recognizable in the same Seven Impale style, with their unique manner of presenting melodies, well built almost neo-classical melodies. 
What I personally don't like is the general (attitude of) come and go of themes, which on their part make the album and the songs less cohesive. But what personally do really like is their raw sound, the heavy guitar and bass together with the smartly complementing drumming which can be very heavy and turn to light/jazzy in a second, of course the deliciously screaming sax and organ, luscious keyboard lines, oh yeah and the cello once in a while is a great addition.
This is an album I like to listen a lot of times for pleasure because of their unique and perfect sound, blending various musical styles and just making awsome music. Rating is the same as City of the Sun: 9.


Edited by DDPascalDD - November 05 2017 at 08:09
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derpinaXotaku View Drop Down
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Points: 1 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 10 2017 at 16:03
very helpful
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 11 2017 at 13:58
Thanks! Thumbs Up
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DDPascalDD View Drop Down
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Points: 856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 22 2018 at 08:48
New album from which the band I saw at the 2017 albums thread, Partikel - String Theory. So luscious arrangements! A really pleasing sound to me, with forward-thinking, excellent musicians. The album is a very interesting mix of classical music/instrumentation and jazz. It suits a quiet, free morning with nobody to interrupt. 
The music is quite eclectic and cohese in style at the same time. At first listen the overall sound stays quite the same throughout the album, mainly because of the instrumentation of strings, double bass, drums and a sax. The sound is very warm mostly, but the music can be very wild and rythmical as well as feeling very tragic or melancholic. Also there are quite some steps into world music, which all in all make the album quite diverse when listening closer.
Overall I can't find any big things that I dislike about this work... Maybe it's not enormously spectacular, bit it's really well made in what it tries to be I think. Rating: 9
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