Saturday, February 28, 2015

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.117

Hey all!
One more Saturday morning in here, therefore it is time to write down my weekly Top-5 songlist for you.
 During the week I listened to lots of different styles of music, that's why my Top-5 is kind of mixed up.
Without further ado, these are my 5 best songs for this week:
SPOCK'S BEARD: On a perfect day (Spock's Beard - 2006)
ARCHONAUT: ARK (Duchess - 2015)
SAVOY BROWN: Poor Girl (Lookin in - 1970)
MUSE: Stockholm syndrome (Absolution - 2003)
RISHLOO: Freaks & animals (Eidolon - 2007)
I will conclude this post by adding 2 videos with songs from my list as usual.
Enjoy the music people, and have a great weekend!
Thanks for visiting. :-)


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

ARCHONAUT: Duchess (2015). A review...

  Archonaut is a new talented and very promising band from Essen Germany, which I discovered recently.
 Their style is a rather easy going and listener-friendly Prog-Metal, and maybe that is the reason I liked them from the start. (Because I'm not a fan of Prog-Metal in general).
  The band consists of 3 members, plus 2 session musicans who participated in the recordings of the album, and will give a helping hand in the live shows I guess.
 [The first song I ever listened was the11-minute long 'The cavern of many beings,' which is the album's opening track and one of their best in my opininon. Because I really liked it, I contacted Julian Klotz (guitars), and we arranged to have them as "guests" on the chatbox on Prog & Roll radio show. On Sunday the 22nd of February Julian Klotz (guitar) and Sebastian Maschuw (guitar) logged in unofficially at the time of the show, and we had a friendly chat for almost 2 hours. But officialy they will be "guests" in our next show on the 1st of March. So, if you are interested in meeting them and chat with them, log in on Sunday the 1st of March, at 20.00 UK time.]
Let's take a look at the album now...
  It contains 8 songs, plus 1 bonus which is 'The cavern of many beings' in a slightly different version. The whole album has a total running time of almost 55 minutes.
 The opening track is (as I mentioned above) the 11-minute long 'The cavern of many beings', which includes nice melodies and strong guitar riffs. Definetely a very good opening!
Second track is 'Drowning man', which is a powerful song, but not as good as the first one.
Furthermore the listener has the chance to enjoy the really magnificent composition named 'Ark'. A 7-minute long song, with an hypnotic low tempo at start, which is changing after a few minutes, and a great finale. Definetely one of the best songs of the album!
 With 'Sirens' which comes next the tempo is increased, before it will go down again with the beautiful ballad, 3.5-minute-long 'Promises'.
If I had to pick a song as a 'hit' from this album, I would choose the 6th track 'The last march of the swarm'. Because it is one of the best songs here, and with a running time of 4.40 it can be characterised as "radio friendly". One more powerful song, with some Black Sabbath influences hidden in the background.
The 7th track 'Nautilus' is not a bad one, but it doesn't add something more to the album. (In my opinion at least).
Last song is another very interesting one named 'Souls eclipse'. Once more it has a very slow start, but it changes drastically after a few minutes.
 And as I mentioned before, there is also a bonus track, which is the opening song in a slightly different and a bit longer version.
 Concluding this post, I should say that I totally recommend 'Duchess' to all those who can enjoy a well structured album, with very good compositions, regardless if they are fans of Prog - Metal or not. As for Jens Kipper who is the singer, I should say he has a very good voice, that matches the band's style perfectly. His English is very good, without the typical German accent we see in some other bands from Germany.
 In case you are interested in listening and/or buying this album, here's a few useful links for you:
1. Archonaut's home page:  www.archonaut-music.com
2. Here you can listen to the album in medium quality, and buy it in high quality: www.archonaut.bandcamp.com
3. https://soundcloud.com/archonaut-1   Way better streaming quality, but you can buy it via GooglePlay and ITunes.
Also, I should inform you that 'Dutchess' is available on 'Amazon' worldwide.
If I had to rate this album I would give 3 - 3.5 stars our of 5.0
 I'm adding also one video here, in order to listen and have a small idea about the band's music style.
I hope you'll find this post interesting and informative.
Thank you for reading...


 

Monday, February 23, 2015

PROG & ROLL radio show (22/2/2015) with members from 3 bands on the chatbox. A review & the full playlist.

Hello all!
 Last night one more Prog & Roll radio show was online as usual. A few days ago we were informed that Joe Deninzon from the American band 'Stratospheerius' will join our show in order to listen and have a chat with us and our listeners. In the meantime I was speaking with Julian Klotz from the very interesting and talented German Prog-Metal band 'Archonaut', and we arranged to have them as "guests" on our next show on the 1st of March. But because they don't know how our show sounds like, I invited them on last night's show in case they wanted to log in and have a small idea. They agreed, and at the start of the show they were there. Also let's not forget our faithful listeners Dave Smith and Dave Curnow of 'Salander', who joined our company as well. So as you can understand, with so many musicians gathered there, there were many conversations going on through the chatbox, mostly about music, bands etc.
 We had a very interesting (I believe) playlist prepared, on which we tried to add songs from many different music genres, and of course play songs from the bands we had on the chatbox.
 I believe the show was a good one, and everybody seemed to have fun.
 As for next week's Prog & Roll, because we will have 'Archonaut' as special guests, be prepared for a rather upbeat and kind of noisy playlist.
 Here you can check the whole playlist from last night's show:

LUCIFER’S FRIEND: Spanish galleon / CHICAGO: Questions 67 & 68 / COLOSSEUM: The kettle / SIENA ROOT: Waiting for the sun / BLUES PILLS: Astralplane / STRATOSPHEERIUS: One foot in the next world /  THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Truckin’ / GREEN ON RED: We shall overcome / STRATOSPHEERIUS: Climbing / TOM PETTY: Learning to fly / THE ALAN PARSON’S PROJECT: The cask of Amontillado / SALANDER: Aldri sakleysi er farinn / PORCUPINE TREE: Sound of muzak / ARCHONAUT: The last march of the swarm / THE KORDZ: Last call / MYRATH: Merciless times / CAMEL: Air born / FOCUS: House of the King / TAMALONE: Homage to life.
"Epic" song: JETHRO TULL: Baker street muse.
A very big thanks to all of you who logged in last night, and I hope you enjoyed it. A very special thanks to Joe of Stratospheerious, to Julian and Sebastian of Archonaut, and to the 2 Dave's of Salander. Thanks for your love and support!
 

 

Saturday, February 21, 2015

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.116

One more Saturday came, and here I am in order to write down my weekly Top-5 songlist for you.
I listened to lots of music during this week from many music genres, so once more it was hard to pick only 5 songs.
After thinking a bit on the subject, I decided that my best 5 songs are the following:
CAMEL: Air Born (Moonmadness - 1976)
JANIS JOPLIN: Get it while you can (Pearl - 1971)
BLACK SABBATH: The sign of the southern cross (Mob Rules - 1981)
EMPTY YARD EXPERIMENT: Nostalgia (Empty Yard Experiment - 2011)
JETHRO TULL: Baker street muse (Minstrel in the gallery - 1976)
I will conclude this post by adding 2 videos with songs from my list for you to listen to.
So here's 'Air Born' by Camel, and 'The sign of the southern cross' by Black Sabbath.
Enjoy the music, and have a beautiful weekend!
Thank you for visiting. :-)

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

TV Series: American Horror Story (Seasons 1 & 2)



If you are fans of Horror or Sci-Fi movies, (or both) this series is a must for you!
  I had no idea about this series, but lately I discovered them, and watched the first 2 seasons within almost a week!
Being a fan of horror movies since I don't remember when, I must say that I'm not easily impressed anymore. But the first two seasons of 'American Horror Story' are really impressing!
Let's take it from the start:
 One of the really good aspects here is that in every season we see a totally different story, not connected to the other ones. So, the whole idea is like watching a really long horror movie let's say.
 Another interesting fact is that the cast is almost the same. (But they play different roles on each season of course). When I started watching, I didn't like the idea of watching the same actors on and on because I thought it would be difficult to forget their previous characters and concentrate on the new ones every time. Well, so far no problem there! Although most of the characters in season 1 are very "strong" and well played, when season 2 starts it takes 1-2 episodes in order to forget the previous ones. As for the actors, I didn't know any of them to be honest, except of Jessica Lange who is the "star" of the series.
  As I wrote at the start of this post, I watched all 25 episodes of the 2 seasons within a week, and I can't wait to start the 3rd season! Mostly because I know it will be something completeley different.
 The first 2 seasons are very interesting, with well "built" characters, great scenarios, interesting turn of events, and lots of suspense.
 Now let's take a small look on each season:
Season 1: MURDER HOUSE
  The story of this first season is a rather ordinary one in horror movies. A house with a very dark and tragic history, is haunted by the spirits of the people who died in there.
  That's it? Well, not exactly! I will agree that the main idea is not at all original. On quite the contrary it borders on washed up, however the way the story is conveyed makes a world of difference.
  In the first episode we see a family who is renting this enormous house, without knowing the dark secrets which are hidden in it. And slowly slowly the house will start revealing all of its secrets onto the unlucky family, until the story will reach to the tragic end. (I'm trying to say whatever I can without giving out hints and spoil the surprises for you).
  I watched all 12 episodes of season 1 in almost 3 days, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the fast pace and the doses of suspense almost from the first episode. But in my opinion 12 episodes were too many for this kind of story. If the whole 1st season was 8-9 episodes it could have been perfect! But in order to make it longer, they added more and more elements in the scenario, and after a point and on it became kind of boring. I started watching it with great enthusiasm, but slowly slowly I found myself waiting for the end, because I was curious to see how it would all end. And I say this because in horror stories very rarely do I see tangible conclusions. And I'm sorry to say that in this case the finale is a totally crapy one! But despite the negatives, it is very enjoyable to watch. (An unexpected and pleasant surprise was the guest appearance of Eric Stonestreet who is playing the role of Cameron Tucker in the series 'Modern Family' in one episode).
 If I had to rate this 1st season I would give an 8.0 (out of 10.0)
Here you can watch a trailer from season 1.
Season 2: Asylum
 After finishing with 'Murder House' I started the second season named 'Asylum' immediately. But this time I was "prepared" because I knew what these series are about. But as it seemed I wasn't fully aware of what was coming next...
  The second season is far better at almost everyhing in comparison with the first one. Starting from the very tight and well structed scenario, the dreadful atmosphere, the turn of events, the acting etc. The story is about 'Briarcliff' which is an Asylum administered by the Catholic church, in which terrible things are happening. Starting with the "Monsignor" the ambitious self-involved priest, and the cruel head-nun Sister Judy, up to the "doctor" who was an SS researcher in Auswitz, and he likes experimenting on live human beings. Many really tragic stories are taking place in Briarcliff, which keeps the viewer involved and highly interested.
  In this season unlike 'Murder house' there were only few elements which were out of place. (In my opinion at least). And once more unlike 'Murder House', the finale is a really great one! To be honest while I was watching it I was really afraid of how they would end it, but I must admit they created a perfect ending! 
{From wikipedia: The season garnered seventeen Primetime Emmy Award nominations, more than any other show.}
  'Asylum' consists of 13 episodes (1 more than 'Murder House'), with an average running time of 40 minutes each. 
 I don't feel like there is anything more to say here, just WATCH IT!
If I had to rate 'Asylum' I would give a number between 9.0 - 9.5 (out of 10.0)
 In the following video you can watch a trailer for 'Asylum'.


 
 

Monday, February 16, 2015

PROG & ROLL radio show (15/2/2015) A small review and the full playlist.

 Last night one more Prog & Roll radio show was online as usual.
I believe it was a very good one, and judging from the people's reaction's everybody enjoyed it.
Once more we had some musicians who joined, but not as guests. They just logged in to spend some time with us and listen to the songs we chose to play.
 So we had the 2 Dave's from Salander, and Benjamin Bell, who was suppose to cook dinner for him and his wife, but because he stuck with the show he burned the food! Sorry Ben, but this was a funny incident.
 Also, last night we had the priviledge to play in a worldwide premier a song from Salander's new album which is now been recorded. Dave & Dave send us the album's opening song just an hour before the show, on which my wife and co-host Nihal is doing some vocals.
 As for our audience, I'm pleased to say that once more we had many people listening from many countries, such as Greece, Turkey, England, Northern Ireland, Italy and Finland.
 During the 3rd part of the show we played exclusively cover versions of  famous (or not) songs, and once more we did a music contest.
 And for the end we kept a really great song to play as "encore", which is a song that the people were asking for on a frequent basis.
 Here you can check the whole playlist from last night's show:


UFO: Light’s Out / URIAH HEEP: The Hanging Tree / ANGEL: Tower / TRIUMPH: Magic Power / THE WHO: Trick of the Light / SALANDER: Aldrin / ASTRA: The river under / CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: The Heart of Every Country / LIFE LINE PROJECT: The King (finale) / RUSH: For what it’s worth (music contest) / DAVID BOWIE: Where have all the good times gone / FISH: Five Years / ERIC BURDON: Ride on / JIM ‘THE KING’ BROWN: Whole Lotta Rosie / METALLICA: Whisky in the jar / FRUUPP: The Perfect Wish.
'Epic' song: GROBSCHNITT: Magic train / Encore: RAINBOW: Stargazer.
I want to thank all of you who logged in last night, hoping you had some nice time.
A very big thanks to Benjamin Bell and of course to Salander's Dave Curnow & Dave Smith for being our faithful listeners, and for the honor they did to us by having Nihal singing in their new album.
Prog & Roll will be again online on next Sunday the 22nd of February at 20.00 UK time.
See you there! :-)



Saturday, February 14, 2015

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.115

Hello everybody!
Here I am once more in order to write down my Top-5 songlist for this week.
I believe that you'll agree that it includes some really great songs.
I'll add a couple of them at the end of the post in order to listen to right away.
So, for this last week these are the songs I picked as my best ones:
FISH: Five years (Songs from the mirror - 1993)
RAINBOW: Stargazer (Rising - 1976)
VAN MORRISON: See me through (Part.2) (Hymns to the silence - 1991)
STONE THE CROWS: The touch of your loving hand (Stone the crows - 1969)
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: The heart of every country ((Mankind) The crafty ape - 2010)
In the following videos you can listen to the songs 'See me through' by Van Morrison and 'The heart of every country' by Crippled Black Phoenix'.
Enjoy the music, and have a great weekend!
Thank you... :-)

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

TV Series: The Americans (Seasons 1&2)





  Here's a small review on the latest Tv series I watched simply called 'The Americans'. I watched the first 2 seasons so far, and I can't wait to watch the 3rd one which started a couple of weeks ago.
  'The Americans' is a drama series created and produced by the former CIA officer Joe Weisberg. The story is set during the 80's, and it's about 2 Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple living on the suburbs of Washington DC with their 2 unsuspecting children.
  As you can understand these 2 KGB officers are spies, and they are under orders which comes directly from Moscow. What make things more interesting and more complicated is their neighbor, who is an FBI counterintelligence agent, with whom they became "friends".
  Some of the stories we see happening in the series are based on real live events, because Weisberg as I mentioned above was working for CIA, and that helped him develop several storylines in the series, basing some plot lines on real-life stories, and integrating several things he learned in his training, such as communication protocols. Weisberg was fascinated by stories he had heard from agents who served abroad as spies while raising their families, and inspired him to start writing the scenarios for that series.

  Each season consists of 13 episodes, and each episode has a running time of almost 45 minutes. There are many stories which are taking place, and some of them are connected, making the series even more interesting in my opinion. 
  The 3rd season started on the 28th of January, and it will propably finish nearly the end of April. So if you are fans of well structed action/spies stories don't loose time! 'The Americans' will be perfect for you.
  The first 2 seasons of 'The Americans' scored an average rating of 8.2/10.00 points on IMDB.
 Here you can watch a small trailer for season 1.
 

Monday, February 9, 2015

Last night's Prog & Roll radio show with guest musicians on the chatbox. The playlist and more...

Hello all!
 Last night one more Prog & Roll radio show was online as usual, and this time we had as a guest on the chatbox the English composer and multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Bell. Also, both members of 'Salander' joined our show once more, and as you can understand there were many conversations about music going on through the chatbox. Benjamin Bell's personal project is Patchwork Cacophony, and we played 3 songs from his brand new album.
 At the end of the show we played the "epic" song as usual, which was King Crimson's 'Starless'. We also played an 'encore' song, which was the really beautiful 'Zeitgeist' by Salander, because we wanted to honor and thank them for supporting and logging in our show for so many months now.
  I believe it was a nice and pleasant show in general, and I hope everybody enjoyed it.
Here you can see the full playlist:


LUCIFER’S FRIEND: Our world is a Rock n Roll band / LIGHTHOUSE: Show me the way / VAN MORRISON: Here comes the night (live) / JETHRO TULL: A new day yesterday / BLACK WIDOW: Lonely man / FRUMPY: Indian rope man / PATCHWORK CACOPHONY: No U turn / EMERSON LAKE & PALMER: Hoedown / GENESIS: Get em out by Friday / BIG BIG TRAIN: Upton Heath / PATCHWORK CACOPHONY: Dance of the fleet-footed heffalumps / ELOY: Between the times / RUSH: The trees / JANE: Voice in the wind / PATCHWORK CACOPHONY: Brinkmanship / KAIPA: world of the void / SYSTEM OF A DOWN: Lonely day / STEVEN WILSON: Hand cannot erase 
"Epic" song: KING CRIMSON: Starless 
"Encore" song: SALANDER: Zeitgeist.
 I want to thank all of you who logged in last night, and a very special thanks to Dave Curnow and Dave Smith of Salander, and of course to Benjamin Bell.
Have a nice week everybody!
Thank you for reading... :-)