My New Blog

As you can imagine, Karnataka were very enjoyable and put on a solid show. As usual, no support, on stage 8.30, a 2 hour set comprising material mostly from Flame, Light & Angels, with a 30 minute break, finishing just after 11. Around 90 in the audience, with precious few under 50.. 

New vocalist Sertari has an excellent, mid-range Mezzo voice (not sure where Ian finds them) which is very powerful and comes across really well live. They played quite a bit off 'Gathering Light' and in terms of vocal range, Lisa's material is where she is the most natural fit. By contrast (and this is purely subjective) she can't replicate the earlier Rachel material; her voice is too powerful for the delicate, frail, ethereal sounds created there... Delicate Flame was anything but, with the drummer also being too prominent. In time, when they create more new material around her, I'm sure she will come into her own, but I hope that they can move on and leave the Rachel material behind; it is after all, 20 years old now and no-one can do justice to the nature of that material as well as her.

On this subject, they played 3 new tracks, all fairly expansive. Two will require further listens, but the 10 minuter, 'Forgiven', they played prior to the break is really excellent and one to look forward to on a forthcoming album. At present, they are a four piece and to be honest, Ian really does need to find himself a keyboard player, rather than playing to a backing recording; it's just too integral to their sound. A final word for their guitarist; not sure how Ian managed to get Luke Machin (The Tangent/ Cyan/ It Bites/ Maschine) on board, but he's of course a real talent; I just hope they write more progressive, guitar oriented material like 'Forgiven', for him to shine....  

Thanks Steve; of course I will.. 

^Mine's on Thursday...I don't have tickets for anything.

But who cares...I'm the Main Stage Manager for the OJBF.

The Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival starts on June 3rd and I get a weekend of great live music FREE ! This year...Friday Night's main act is The Legendary Downchild Blues Band and on Saturday Night the main act is 2010's Best New Band winner of the Maple Blues Award and 2016 Juno Nominee Blackburn then Sunday closes with 2022 Blues Album of the Year Juno Nominee Miss Emily.

13 bands overall on the main stage Friday to Sunday.

Why, thank you!

As an example about bands keeping their name, I will example Marillion as opposed to Genesis. Many of us, and I am one, thought that they should have changed their name when Fish left and h joined. The band themselves thought seriously about it, but egos came into play, and I have referenced before Q magazine when they reviewed Afraid of Sunlight stating that if any band aside from the name Marillion had released it, it would have been a worldwide smash. Unfortunately, names matter in our commercial world.

Yes most certainly should have retained the Cinema label when 90125 was released. I loved that album, and still do. It was such a radical departure from “traditional” Yes, and was all the better for it. My problem with Yes in recent years post Anderson is that they have tried to recreate a sound and feel that cannot be recreated. Its time has passed.

Having said all of this, I do think that there is a linear between Trespass and Abacab, and Yes and 90125. They are the same bands, but they have progressed. They have tried something new with each release, that don’t want to stand still. They don’t want to release an album which sounds anything like themselves.

I think this is a really interesting question, and it goes to the heart of peoples love of music and tastes down the ages.

As an example, I will discuss Genesis, universally appreciated as one of the classics of prog rock bands in the 70’s, but derided by many so called prog fans in the 80’s onwards as having “sold out”.

Gabriel left Genesis in 1975 after The Lamb. When he returned to recording studio albums and new music, it sounded bugger all like his parent band. Especially after Melt. 

Genesis deliberately released a couple of symphonic albums in ATOTT and WAW. When Hackett left, they again deliberately released albums which were seriously divergent from those. Whether you liked those albums, or not, is somewhat besides the point. The point is that what was released was different. If Genesis had released ten albums sounding exactly like Foxtrot or SEBTP, or The Lamb, I would have grown very bored very quickly. If Ghost Toast do something similar, i.e. do something different, then the Laz glass will be raised as high as it is tonight. 

Nick’s review of Ghost Toast is what attracted me to the band, and it really is an album for our times. Exceptional music and an exceptional review from Nick which got me there.

As for PSA, I absolutely get why people like it. I like commercial prog, and should perhaps put some quotes in on that description, but I like, more than anything else, something different, something new. Scott referred to AOR, which is a very wide ranging description of music, and I love a lot of stuff which is disparaged by “purists”, but I do want it to be original, and that was my issue with PSA. It wasn’t.

I must also admit to becoming very sceptical of recent TFK, Transatlantic, and Beard stuff because there is nothing excitingly new there. I crave something which takes me somewhere else, and on that basis Ghost Toast this week wins hands down. I might add, BTW, that my review this forthcoming weekend of Lighthouse Sparrows album will be equally praising. It is a wonderfully original album.