Prog rock
Jun 20, 2017 at 5:57 AM Post #1,381 of 4,315


the best symfo ever.


Very enjoyable album, thanks! Smooth and melodic. Somehow similar to Marillion with Hogarth at their best.
"Night Sky" is mesmerising
 
Jun 20, 2017 at 12:50 PM Post #1,382 of 4,315
Wot no luv for the progenitor of the genre?!!!?!

Namely Sgt Pepper enjoying it's 50th anniversary and a fantastic remaster by Giles Martin. A truly incredible piece of work considering the primitive recording technology of the time.

Hah!

The following was recorded in 1957!




Also very good, considering it was recorded in 1957, is the Analogue Productions version of Nat King Cole's album 'Love is the Thing'




...and this was recorded in 1958:





Frankly, when one listens to the above, late 1950s, recordings, it makes 95% of the recordings, during the intervening, past 60 years, look like an absolute bloody disgrace, from a recording quality POV. Quite how recording engineers around the world could have produced such massively inferior recordings than the above 1957/1958 exemplars, even with the benefit of more modern equipment, is bewildering, but it displays (IMO) shocking incompetence and lack of diligence. Many of those recording engineers should be hanging their heads in shame.

Although they're obviously not perfect, when I heard the above late-50s recordings, I was absolutely bowled-over by how fabulous a job the recording engineers did with equipment sixty years ago - major respect to them for schooling their peers who would follow in their footsteps and utterly embarrass themselves and the industry by their relative ineptitude.

cheers beerchug EMOTICON.gif
 
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Jun 21, 2017 at 5:46 PM Post #1,383 of 4,315
Oh I agree have and love plenty of fifties jazz recordings and the sound quality is superb. Amazing really.
 
Jun 22, 2017 at 1:34 AM Post #1,384 of 4,315
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I just received a copy of Riverside's new live album 'Lost 'N' Found'. According to Riverside's website once every ten years Riverside releases a live album. 'Reality Dream' was the first in 2008 now 'Lost 'N' Found'.

I considered 'Reality Dream' the best progressive live album as it is to my knowledge the only live concept progressive album. Well 'Lost 'N' Found' may be even better. The songs on the double album span their entire catalog from 'Out Of Myself' to 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine'. The music and recording leave me speechless. It is simply perfect. Considering this is the last recording featuring the late Piotr Grudzinski on guitar I listen with a great deal of both melancholy and joy. Melancholy for the loss but joy to listen to one of the greatest guitarist at the top of his game.

The following is a review of the album that I found and the author describes the album far better than I could but I completely agree with him. http://www.progradar.org/index.php/...st-n-found-live-in-tilburg-by-kevin-thompson/

Unfortunately, the album is only sold at the venues on Towards The Blue Horizon Tour. I bought the CD from Discogs for quite the princely sum ($70 including shipping from Poland) but to me it is worth far more.
 
Jun 23, 2017 at 6:16 AM Post #1,385 of 4,315
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Big Big Train just released a new album, 'The Second Brightest Star'.

"Following the April release of "Grimspound", Big Big Train are releasing a companion album, "The Second Brightest Star", on Friday (June 23rd).

The album features 40 minutes of new songs and instrumentals which explore landscapes, rivers and meeting places and take the listener on voyages of discovery across the world and to the stars.

Alongside the new tracks, there is a bonus selection of 30 minutes of music where songs from the "Folklore" and "Grimspound" albums are presented in extended format."

The album is available for $12 via Bandcamp in glorious 96/24 (well two tracks are upsampled by BBT from 48/24).
 
Jul 13, 2017 at 9:27 AM Post #1,388 of 4,315
Voting is now open for the Progressive Music Awards 2017!

www.progmagazine.com/awards

You'll need to register on the Team Rock site to do so, but don't have to subscribe to anything (they publish Prog, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock). Here's what I voted for:

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Jul 13, 2017 at 9:35 AM Post #1,389 of 4,315
Frankly, when one listens to the above, late 1950s, recordings, it makes 95% of the recordings, during the intervening, past 60 years, look like an absolute bloody disgrace, from a recording quality POV. Quite how recording engineers around the world could have produced such massively inferior recordings than the above 1957/1958 exemplars, even with the benefit of more modern equipment, is bewildering, but it displays (IMO) shocking incompetence and lack of diligence. Many of those recording engineers should be hanging their heads in shame.

Although they're obviously not perfect, when I heard the above late-50s recordings, I was absolutely bowled-over by how fabulous a job the recording engineers did with equipment sixty years ago - major respect to them for schooling their peers who would follow in their footsteps and utterly embarrass themselves and the industry by their relative ineptitude.

There is a universe of difference between recording rock 'n' roll with electric instruments and acoustic jazz and classical. By 1957 engineers have had over half a century to hone recording techniques for acoustic sounds, but no experience with amplified guitars, bass, drums, keyboards. That Buddy Holly track is unique because instead of his crickets, it's an orchestra, so he sounds more like Nat King Cole! Of course it would take engineers at least a decade to figure out rock!
 
Jul 13, 2017 at 3:18 PM Post #1,390 of 4,315
There is a universe of difference between recording rock 'n' roll with electric instruments and acoustic jazz and classical. By 1957 engineers have had over half a century to hone recording techniques for acoustic sounds, but no experience with amplified guitars, bass, drums, keyboards. That Buddy Holly track is unique because instead of his crickets, it's an orchestra, so he sounds more like Nat King Cole! Of course it would take engineers at least a decade to figure out rock!


Point taken, but I continue to stand by what I said - the majority of recordings (yes, by far the majority) made since 1957 have been disgracefully poor, from a sound quality POV. There's no excusing that, especially if you allow 10 years for them to grow accustomed to amplified instruments, so let's say 1970 onwards. Most 1970s/1980s/1990s/2000s recordings have been lacklustre in the extreme, compared to those 1950s recordings I mentioned (even though those 1950s recordings are themselves far from perfect). There are always notable exceptions, in each decade, but the point is that, with what was clearly shown to be possible, at the tail end of the 1950s, recording engineers, in general, have sold their listeners short in the more than half a century since then.

YMMV :wink:
 
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Jul 17, 2017 at 4:43 AM Post #1,392 of 4,315
Cosmograf has just released their (his since Cosmograf is really just Robin Armstrong) 6th album 'The Hay-Man Dreams' in both 16/44.1 and 96/24 for the same price on Bandcamp.
Good album! I really like "The Motorway". It sounds like a classic rock hit. I get the same early Scorpions (Lonesome Crow / In Trance) vibe at the intense part from 4:13 on, and especially the vocals at 5:07, as it was the case with "Plastic Men" from "The Unreasonable Silence". Plus the acoustic guitar theme in the intro is so beautiful Led Zep. sounding.
 
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Aug 1, 2017 at 7:13 PM Post #1,394 of 4,315
Aphrodite's Child 666

Still the most 'Prog' of progressive rock IMO

Currently listening to this in the dark well gone midnight. Damn those crazy brilliant Greeks!!
 
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Aug 2, 2017 at 1:29 PM Post #1,395 of 4,315
Point taken, but I continue to stand by what I said - the majority of recordings (yes, by far the majority) made since 1957 have been disgracefully poor, from a sound quality POV. There's no excusing that, especially if you allow 10 years for them to grow accustomed to amplified instruments, so let's say 1970 onwards. Most 1970s/1980s/1990s/2000s recordings have been lacklustre in the extreme, compared to those 1950s recordings I mentioned (even though those 1950s recordings are themselves far from perfect). There are always notable exceptions, in each decade, but the point is that, with what was clearly shown to be possible, at the tail end of the 1950s, recording engineers, in general, have sold their listeners short in the more than half a century since then.

YMMV :wink:
I tend to agree with you about the quality of recordings. Nowadays a lot of recordings are done in the digital domain, its easier, it more manageable, you can fiddle with it to the cows come home, damn, you can even tune someone's bad singing! A friend of mine has an epic home Hifi system and he likes to buy vinyl from car boots etc, and some of the older albums he has come up with absolutely blow your mind with the quality of the recordings. In the last few years, I have been rather pi**ed off with some of the newer albums of reputable artists because they have been recorded on a laptop, or some such similar device and they are so dead and lacking in emotion or even quality that it is embarrassing. One in question is a rock opera style band and they are using limiters rather than bother to do a proper sound check, the distortion that is supposed to be there due to the guitars, is present but everything else is also distorted by compression, IMHO!!! And we all pay good money to listen to this garbage, sorry, you got me off on one, I do apologise! Have you seen the Les-Paul story, that was quite an eye opener, that man seems to have been responsible for so much that helped recordings and the first electric guitar, most interesting. I know I am old but still how is it that vinyl still beats all comers when it comes to quality of sound?
 

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