Female Prog Artists Recommendations.

Miss Brightman is an incredibly versatile singer with an astonishing voice. I've always felt she could have done more rock style stuff instead of all that ALW cr@p.

Hi,

I wish that she would finally come out of her cocoon and bring along some music. Some 20+ years with TD, only to be unceremoniously dumped ... and I really think that the TD music has suffered and become more "machine like" than it was before with its more "symphonic" feel that the two guys can not find ... they don't understand the influence of visuals and images ... they think that the machine elasticity is enough to make TD music, and it isn't.

Linda Spa, to my knowledge is likely retired. She has not done anything that I am aware of, and a few years back I wrote her a poem to try and inspire her and she replied very nicely and was appreciative, but I am not sure that she has been able to get past the TD train wreck that dumped the 2 women that had helped the shows get better, stronger and more symphonic ... for that matter Iris Camaa also deserves a mention ... but she won't since her own thing is not exactly "progressive" and she does not seem to drum as much on stage as she did with TD.

I don't think Linda was dumped. I think she was simply done after Edgar left this mortal coil. Linda also wasn't a member of the band from 1997-2004.

TD was already gravitating back toward their classic sound while Edgar was still alive. There really wasn't room for the "contempo" approach Edgar let Jerome steer the band toward in the early '90s. Linda's contributions to 220 Volt and Turn of the Tides were akin to a hitchhiker, tacked on, i.e. they didn't integrate that well. I'd never imagined TD with sax before "Long Island Sunset" on Lily on the Beach, and the title track of Melrose (performed in both instances by Hubert Waldner), and initially, I wasn't keen on it. 

moshkito wrote: Linda Spa, to my knowledge is likely retired. She has not done anything that I am aware of, and a few years back I wrote her a poem to try and inspire her and she replied very nicely and was appreciative, but I am not sure that she has been able to get past the TD train wreck that dumped the 2 women that had helped the shows get better, stronger and more symphonic ... for that matter Iris Camaa also deserves a mention ... but she won't since her own thing is not exactly "progressive" and she does not seem to drum as much on stage as she did with TD.

Again, the return to electronics was preplanned and started when Thorsten joined. I believe that's why Jerome left: His influence was waning and there really wasn't much more they could do with the approach he favored. (See also: The Dream Mixes I-V.) IMHO, the only really successful album from that period, musically, was Tyranny of Beauty.

Hi,

I'm not sure that Jerome was that much of an issue ... he came up in a different era and his tastes in music differed from his dad's ... we all have that in common! But I think that EF wanted to return to the more symphonic sound, and Jerome was not into that as much, I don't think.

Linda is a different story ... she is classically trained and raised and I think that she helped EF bring about a sound that was closer to what he might have envisioned ... and I think that it shows on the LIVE albums, although it is really difficult for any of us to tell which moments she is playing or just augmenting. 

I do not think that her playing the saxophone is an issue at all ... it added another feel to the music that fit the instrumental and classical style really well ... and I am not sure that Hoshiko is as important, although she seems to be playing the "classical" (at least strings related) parts of all the music to allow the others to concentrate on something else ... she is also classically trained, and plays like it. Linda had a different touch that was not as clearly a classic touch, and she seemed to have played in the background except when it was time to play the flute or the saxophone, which I think she did admirably, specially considering the difficult music and with someone like EF that she shared many duets with ... when you know that he is going to do something different just for the fun of it. She adjusted well. 

verslibre wrote: ... Again, the return to electronics was preplanned and started when Thorsten joined. I believe that's why Jerome left: His influence was waning and there really wasn't much more they could do with the approach he favored.  ...

Agreed. Although in my book, Jerome lost an opportunity to learn a lot more and went his own way as a teenager would, so to speak. His music on his own, just is not as exciting and meaningful as he thinks it is, and I'm not sure he realizes why. But, I think that him wanting his own freedom is more important and that he might, YET, find his tune and show us that he had it from the start ... and we didn't see it coming.

Thorsten is quite capable ... the recent 40 minute piece with Marcus Reuter is outstanding, and reminds me of early days Ash Ra Tempel ... and it was a lovely listen ... and that is not to say that TQ can not bring about a more contemporary and soundtrack sounding style of music, instead of machine like sounding like they have done in the past few years ... it also shows that there is not enough "interest" in the new material as much as anything else, otherwise there would be a demand for more ... and this has not been the case ... the older stuff is still selling better!

But TD, as it is presently seen, is not capable of "improvisation" and on occasion find things that they did not realize how good they were and felt when it happened ... and in many ways, I really think that this is more likely to happen with women, than without them ... there is a difference in the "sight" between the two that is important ... for example, it is thought that women's intuition and vision is more physically related whereas the men's intuition is more developed in their minds, not bodies!

As such the more visceral, and stronger the woman vision, the more progressive that person is ... at the very least extremely different!

BTW ... I was thinking that LATOYA deserves a mention ... with her history ... as probably does SIOUXIE ... but I wonder if we think these more pop music oriented than otherwise ... and Mrs. RF is not exactly one for the top of the pops at all ... she had acting abilities that she has always used in her own work, and still does when having fun with Mr. RF on their fun videos!

Which albums would you recommend I start with?

I kept wondering if the vocal were ever going to start.