Saturday, April 29, 2017

PROG & ROLL Radio Show welcomes CLIVE NOLAN!

  Continuing from my previous post, I think I should inform you that, tomorrow during the tribute we are going to make to his operas and musicals, we are going to have Clive Nolan on our chatbox. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just scroll down the page a little bit and you will understand).
  Clive will be with his PR manager Magda, who we know off, when she visited Prog & Roll’s chatbox when we were making the presentation of Alchemy, almost 1.5 years ago.
  When I was writing the previous post, I wasn’t so hopeful about Clive’s appearance, that’s why I didn’t mention anything. But a few hours ago it was confirmed, so I thought that I should inform you about it.
  So, if you are free tomorrow evening, tune in to Prog & Roll! We have an excellent playlist prepared especially for the occasion, plus you are going to meet Clive Nolan and most probably a few other musicians as well. 
I hope to “see” you there!
Thank you!

Friday, April 28, 2017

Special Prog & Roll Radio Show, including an interview with Clive Nolan and one of his songs in a worldwide premiere!

Hello all!
  I am writing this post in order to inform you about Sunday's  Prog & Roll Radio Show. (30/4/2017).
In my opinion you shouldn't miss this really special show, and here's the reasons why:
  During the first hour, we are going to make a "tribute" to Clive Nolan's operas/musicals, and we are going to play the most interesting parts of the interview I took of him while I was in England. He told me lots of interesting things about his music, his bands and projects, his future plans, etc. He was also kind enough to give me as a "present" one of his unreleased songs to play in the show. So, further than all the rest, we are also going to play in a worldwide premiere, a song (it is a fantastic aria actually), from his forthcoming Rock opera King's Ransom, that is going to be released after almost 4 months! At this point, I would like to thank him for doing this; it is such an honor!
  After the first and during the second hour, we are going to have the song of the Month contest, where our listeners with their grades are deciding which song is going to be announced as the best Song of this Month. We have a bunch of really excellent songs to play during the second hour of the show, and I'm pretty sure that this time the competition is going to be fierce!
  And at the end of the show, we are going to learn the winning song, that is going to take its place in Prog & Roll's Top-10 song list for this season. 
 I seriously believe that it is going to be a very interesting, enjoyable and unique show, so in case you might be interested tune in!
 Prog & Roll is a bilingual live broadcast, and it comes online at 20.00 UK time. (21.00 Sweden, Italy, Germany, France) (22.00 Greece, Turkey, Israel).
In case you are interested, here's the link of the radio station: www.justincaseradio.com
I hope to "see" some of you in our chatbox.
Thank you! 😎

Monday, April 24, 2017

PROG & ROLL Radio Show (23/4/2017). The complete playlist and more...

Hello all!
  After a week's break, Prog & Roll Radio Show was back last night with one more special show for our listeners.Yesterday was St. George's day here in Greece, therefore it was my name day.
A couple of weeks ago I asked from our listeners to pick a song and dedicate it to me, as a "present" for my name day. The plan was to play all their songs during last night's show, and that's exactly what we did. But together with the people's choices, I also added in the playlist a couple of songs that I like very much, from bands and artists that we never play in Prog & Roll, mostly because of their music style. Also, this time we played 2 songs from the same band, which we never do, but two of our listeners asked for them.
  We had a good crowd listening last night, including a few musicians as usual, and the general atmosphere was rather jolly and fun. As far as I know, our audience was including people from Greece, United States, England, France, Germany and Sweden .
 The playlist was kind of mixed up, and someone characterized it as "colourful", which I think it was right on the spot.
 Here you can see the complete playlist:
1st Part: KAMELOT: March of Mephisto / THE GATHERING: Strange Macines / QUEENSRYCHE: Silent Lucidity / JUDAS PRIEST: Dreamer Deceiver. 
2nd Part: VERBAL DELIRIUM: Close to You / QUEEN: We Will Rock You (Live at the BBC) / MOBY: New Dawn Fades / SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES: Melt! 
3rd Part: GEORGE HARRISON: What is Life / PETER HAMMILL: Airport / RENAISSANCE: The Vultures Fly High / GENESIS: The Fountain  of Salmacis / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: The Poet – After the Day.
4th Part: VERBAL DELIRIUM: So Close and yet so far Away / AYREON: Sea of Machines / MOSTLY AUTUMN: Sight of Day. 
  I would like to say a very big thanks to all those who tuned in last night, and to all those who send their songs of choice as a dedication to me. I believe it was a very nice and fun show and as it seemed the people really enjoyed it. Next Sunday we are going to make a really special and kind of unique show, but more info on that later on.
Thank you all!

 

Saturday, April 22, 2017

GFreedom's Juke Box No.192

Hello all!
  After a week's break, my usual Saturday's Juke Box post is back, with my weekly Top-5 song list for you. During this week I've listened to lots of music, and it wasn't easy to pick just 5 songs to add to my list.
After thinking about it, I decided that these are the best ones:
MOSTLY AUTUMN: Sight of Day (Sight of Day - 2017)
JUDAS PRIEST: Dreamer Deceiver (Sad Wings of Destiny - 1976)
AYREON: The Day that the World Breaks Down (The Source - 2017)
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Scared and Alone (Bronze - 2016)
GENESIS: Dancing with the Moonlight Knight (Selling England by the Pound - 1973)
  In case you are interested, you can listen to the songs I have in my list by clicking on the following YT links. Enjoy the music and have a nice weekend.
Thank you!
MOSTLY AUTUMN: Sight of Day
JUDAS PRIEST: Dreamer Deceiver
AYREON: The Day that the World Breaks Down
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Scared and Alone
GENESIS: Dancing with the Moonlight Knight
 

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

AYREON: The Source - 2017 (A Sci-Fi Rock Opera)



  A few days from now, Ayreon’s brand new rock opera named as ‘The Source’ will be officialy released. So, here I am, in order to write a few things about this great new Rock Opera that Arjen Lucarssen created, under the name of his personal project Ayreon.
  'The Source' is a concept album, as any other album that Ayreon recorded. But unlike the previous ‘The Theory of Everything’, ‘The Source’ is a Sci-Fi Rock Opera, which is actually the prequel of 01011001, that was released in 2008.
  For the needs of the album, Arjen Lucarssen gathered a big number of musicians once more; including some “heavy” names among them. (There are 12 singers and 10 musicians participating in this album). In case you are wondering, here’s a few names: James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Zaher Zorghati (Myrath) and Mark Kelly (Marillion). 
As you can understand, with such an All-Star line up, the outcome can only be good. And it is!
  Starting with the album’s epic opening song, The Day that the World Breaks Down, we get a clear first impression what this album will sound like. The style is typical Ayreon, but this time the sound is harder, heavier and more guitar-driven than the previous album. The dominant instrument here is Guitar (acoustic and electric), followed by Bass, Drums and Keyboards. But there are also many other instruments present, which are characteristic of Ayreon’s sound, such as violin and flute for example.

  I read an interview of Arjen Lucarssen a few days ago, when he stated that, the album he recorded with Annekke under the name Gentle Storm was kind of a “feminine” one, so after that he wanted to record something more “masculine”. So, he started recording some heavy guitar riffs, which led him to record some early versions of the first songs of ‘The Source’.
  The album comes as a double CD or as double vinyl (including an MP3 version), and has a total running time of almost 90 minutes. It is divided into 4 parts (Chronicles), named as: Chronicle 1: The Frame, Chronicle 2: The Aligning of the Ten, Chronicle 3: The Transmigration, Chronicle 4: The Rebirth.
   As it usually happens to me with almost every Ayreon’s album, I find it very difficult to choose some songs to mention separately, because I see them as pieces of a very big puzzle. The truth is that, almost all the songs are really good compositions and even the “weaker” ones, have something to offer to the storyline and the listener. But if I had to pick some, I’d choose The Day the World Breaks Down, Sea of Machines, All that was, The Dream Dissolves, The Source will Flow and Journey to Forever.
   In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to put the CD into your device, press “play” and enjoy an exciting musical ride into the world that Arjen Lucarssen created.
  The Source is an album definitely worth buying!

   My rating would be between 3.5 – 4.0 (out of 5.0) stars.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

THIS WINTER MACHINE: The man who never was (2017)




  This Winter Machine is a UK-based band which I discovered recently. The band is a quintet, including good and experienced musicians, which becomes rather obvious upon listening to their debut  album The Man who Never Was.
  The album opens with the title song, a 16-minute-long suite in 4 parts, which is one of the best songs of the album, and gives to the listener a good idea about the band’s style and influences. Speaking of which,  the band’s seems to be deeply influenced by Marillion and IQ, among other bands. (In my opinion at least).
The album includes 5 songs and has a total running time of almost 50 minutes. As you can understand, all the songs are long enough.
  The style of the album is a modern and rather “polished” Progressive Rock, with beautiful melodies, interesting changes in all the songs, lots of piano and keyboard passages and beautiful guitar riffs and solos.
The singer has a rather high pitched voice, which is not something special, but it fits their sound well enough.
I believe that it is a very enjoyable and well structured album, which I enjoy listening to a lot.
My most favourite songs are The Man who Never was and After Tomorrow Comes, followed by Fractured.
  The Man who Never was is a perfect addition to any Prog Rock discography, and especially those who are fond of the music sub-category named as Neo Prog, will definitely enjoy it!
Give it a try!
 My Rating would be something between 3.5 – 4.0 stars.
By clicking on the following YouTube link will be able to listen to the song After Tomorrow Comes, one of the best songs of the album.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

STEVE HACKETT: The Night Siren (2017)

On the 24th of March 2017, Steve Hackett released his 25th studio album named as The Night Siren. Having enjoyed his previous album ‘Wolflight’ a lot, I was curious to see what this new album of his will sound like. And the truth is that, it sounds like a sequel of Wolflight. 
  The general style is the same and the elements that can be found in Wolflight are present here once more: The combination of many different music styles, the strong Ethnic influences and Hackett’s guitar in a leading role of course. The truth is that, many of the songs in this album were recorded during the Wolflight sessions, that’s why these two albums look very much alike.

   For the recordings of the album, Hackett worked with no less than 17 session musicians, from many different countries around the world, proving that music is a universal language that can unite people. 
  There is a wide variety of instruments being used in the album, from the classic guitars/bass/drums, up to saxophone, viola, trumpet, flute and even didgeridoo and tar among others.
  The album is a very pleasant and enjoyable one, but despite the interesting compositions, the overall feeling I get is that 'Siren' is a weaker album, in comparison with 'Wolflight'. But is a very pleasant and listener-friendly album without a doubt.
Favourite songs so far: Behind the Smoke and West to East.
                         My Rating: 3.5 Stars
By clicking on the following YT link you will watch the official video of Behind the Smoke, which is the album's opening song.