Just getting into Anekdoten

I did a search and surprisingly found very little discussion about this band on the forum. I intend to rectify that situation.

I have only very recently started listening to them. I knew their name for a long time but it never seemed like something i could get into. But after reading some reviews here i decided to give them a good hard listen... and i'm very glad i did.

I wanted to start from the beginning so i tried Vemod first... and i gotta say it didn't do much for me (thought it was good but not great), but i could tell there was something there that might blossom on later albums. ...So i moved onto Nucleus and WOW, this is an amazing album! I love how they mix the heavy King Crimson-like parts with the atmospheric and depressive parts that remind me of some kind of 90's indie mope-rock band or something, heh. It really resonates with me.....
Anway, i really like them now and can't wait to explore their later albums.

How many fans of this band do we have here? Favortie songs/albums?
Any similar bands to recommend?

I've been a fan of them since the first album and I have seen all seven of their concerts in Belgium.

I would go for Nucleus - which i rated as my favourite neo-prog album of the 90's. Vemod see Anekdoten shifting only a little distance from being a Crimson tribute band (on one of the Progfest recordings they do a KC cover). Nucleus  still referencing Red  finding their music developing some degress of separation from Crimson, whilst having some considerable heaviness. There wasa longish period after Nucleus filled with the occasional release of a live double and a live ep. From Within the first studio recording to be released in a number of years, finds them losing quite a bit of the Crimsoid references, although the first two tracks(?) echo what was heard on  Vemod or Nucleus - btw I really love that slow tune, which was the longist on the album: perhaps the vibes do it for me? Still making my mind up with respect to the more recent studio albums. BTW their demo album is floating about as a bootleg, having a mix of Crimson covers and early versions of tunes heard later on Vemod (I have the feeling the guitar was mixed further forward on the demos than on Vemod, giving quite a different feel for a few tunes) . I would agree, there is what I perceive as an Englishman, as that Scandanavian aspect in their music: some bleakness or expressions of loneliness in the lyrics, the style  of playing adopted earlier by Jan Garbarek which is occasionally labelled as reflecting the loneliness of  fjords, high mountains, open spaces, the Nordic winters, etc.

Edited by Dick Heath - December 11 2008 at 08:28

My current favourite band, they are simply awesome, great to know you found them man!

Fantastic band, I can find much to enjoy in all their albums but Nucleus is my favourite, not least because of the strong influences of my favourite King Crimson era.

I don't know why Gravity gets so much crap. I think it's fantastic. Really, each of the band's albums is equally important.

Fantastic band. I own all their albums, and each and every one of them is more than worth your bucks. My personal favs are Vemod and Waiking the Dead - if I'm already in love with this band on CD, I'm completely head-over-heels when I hear them live!

I even love them.

Plankowner wrote: Moatilliatta wrote: I don't know why Gravity gets so much crap. I think it's fantastic. Really, each of the band's albums is equally important.   That's the album that really brought me in too Chris...

Moatilliatta wrote: I don't know why Gravity gets so much crap. I think it's fantastic. Really, each of the band's albums is equally important.