Outer Music Diary

Anglagard - Progfest 93, Royce Hall, Los Angeles 5/30/93

Progfest ‘93 wasn’t the first progressive music festival in the United States, there was at least one in the LA area and another in the NY area in the late 70s or early 80s, but at the time I think few knew about either one (I found out thanks to old Eurock issues). I was a lot more involved in the scene and music around this time, so got to see the backstage shenanigans that led to the cancelling of one day of the festival about a week from when it was held, alienating at least one of the groups and leaving the festival with only two worthy groups, headliner IQ (who didn’t really put on a good show - I saw them again and they were much better) and newcomer Anglagard, who gathered momentum and hype faster than any other 90s progressive group.

I’ve since heard several Anglagard shows and nearly all are fraught with noticeable mistakes, from technical issues like mellotrons going out of tune to the occasional flub. This isn’t as much of a criticism per se, given the complexity and drama of the music, but a set up for saying that this gig was by far the best one I’ve heard. I was there and they were the talk of the night afterwards.

Progfest ‘93 was not professionally recorded like the rest of that series and so what exists only exists as audience tapes and I know my cassette is off enough generations to be listenable while fairly muddy. Like anyone at the show, it had become more legend than gig, so I was only a little surprised that there were flubs here too, although few in the equipment area. Musically, this was a demonstration of dynamics and power like noone else and Anglagard were probably the only group there that year with an obviously 70s aesthetic (except possibly the forgettable Quill). They’re still something of a legend, no doubt helped by the frequency in which their albums go in and out of print. This show helped to cement that reputation, it only seemed a few months from hearing they existed to seeing them live and it was quite the experience for many. They played all of Hybris, a song fragment that was released as a Ptolemaic Terrascope single and then later as a bonus track and the Genesis cover “The Musical Box.”

John McLaughlin/Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Montreux Concerts discs 1-2 July 7, 1974

Like the previous Montreux box set from Miles Davis, John McLaughlin’s set is a mixture of eras and as such is likely only to be enjoyed entirely by serious fans of the musician. For my ears, most of the action is likely to be found on the first third or so of the set in the 70s and perhaps some of the organ trio work in the 90s. The first two discs of this set start unfortunately a bit late, during Mahavishnu Orchestra’s second mark, due to the fact the first band was not recorded professionally the first time around.

Short shrift is given to MOII and perhaps unfairly. While the original band went off like a rocket, almost defining interpersonal chemistry in jazz rock, they managed to grow farther and farther apart until some shows started sounded like a contest between the musicians. While it’s this band that created the classic albums, perhaps the only great success of the second band is Vision from the Emerald Beyond and that’s roughly the sort of style encountered on the first two discs of this set. This is a much bigger, much more tonally varied band and while they do work a bit from the Mark I songbook, most of the music is new and fresh with a much more satisfying range. The recording sounds fabulous and perhaps its here that Mark II shows what it could really do beyond the studio albums.

Lougarou s/t
Garolou s/t

The division on both of these albums is roughly something like 20% French Canadian folk/Montreal café music and 80% progressive rock, so my original low grades on this album probably meant I’d been listening more to the 20% and less to the 80% because I was apparently very unfair about both of these in the past and have adjusted my grades almost five points on each (I’m leaning to the 10 but could go a point either way). Because the truth of the matter is that on the progressive rock end, both of these related groups score pretty high with very sophisticated, passionate arrangements and even verge experimental with the use of synthesizers, often rivalling Europeans for their colorations and arrangements. Both albums seem to start out similar, with a style I’d describe as jaunty, like people swinging around mugs of beer in a bar, very much in a populist mode that seems to be the position they like to deconstruct or reconstruct their music around. Because it’s not long before this side gives way to arrangements more similar to bands like Contraction and Pollen. I never really get the impression I’m listening to prog rock when I’m listening to either album, despite the fact it’s the predominant style in the group. Musically both albums, relatively indistinguishable to my ears at the moment, feel very solid and professional and there were loads of wonderful, clever parts. Head successfully removed from ass on these two.

Ishtar - En El Mundo de Los Suenos

Here’s another entry in the prog assimilation category and one I have a much harder time trying to figure out. Is it all the Spanish groups that start with I like Iman, Itoiz, Iceberg, Itziar and the like? Did we need one more? Because it’s really hard to see what is basically a badly produced and tinny sounding hard rock/metal album as being prog-rock in any way, in fact this isn’t even in the Medina Azahara or Nu style of hard Spanish rock with that sense of Mediterranean melody that endears so many prog fans to Spanish music. I can imagine afficianados of 80s and 90s rock even finding this one painful. Even the mixed male and female vocals don’t pep it up any.

Birth Control - Live

There sure is something campy about Birth Control, I seem to pick it up from just about every exposure, from the hamming it up on some of those old WDR videos to their later synthetic cheez-whiz on Backdoor Possibilities. And the thing is, they’re a pretty decent group at times, definitely focused around the Hammond Organ and thus varying from Deep Purple to ELP and back again. Not a lot of originality or interesting writing going on here, this seems to be a rock n roll band pounding it out. Live might even be their best album, but it’s not saying a lot.

Jeff Beck Group - Truth
Jeff Beck Group - Beck-Ola

And in the WTFWIT category (was I thinking) comes my recent appraisal of these two Rod Stewart-fronted Beck group albums, the first of which, used to be in at least medium rotation in my high school years. And for some reason, I came out of all that thinking the album was as weak as one of those early Deep Purple albums with all the bad covers. So I was happy to have my 8 turned into a provisional 11 due to what seems to be a damn strong rock record. Not to mention all the Led Zeppelin riffs on the album :)  Beck-ola I’m not sure I’d heard before but it’s more of the same sort of thing, maybe slightly weaker, although perhaps its too early to tell. Suffice it to say after doing a lot of spinning of Rod’s early solo work, that I’m really starting to warm to the guy, even though the recent television commercials of his latest tour was making me think of Rod in the wheelchair on South Park. These albums, on the other hand, feature a lot of powerful and early, bluesy rock.

Beggars Opera - Pathfinder

I swear I used to own this album, but don’t remember listening to it and never graded it, perhaps I just heard it in the store when I bought the Line Waters of Change. And if you look at the Gnosis grades, you’ll notice an almost full point drop off. It sounds like they switched their vocalist for the album, as that up front, “Time Machiiiiiiine” guy seems to have either calmed down quite a bit or left. Musically this seems to be even closer to Fruupp or Jonesy in a way, a little less hard edged, a tad slicker and quite a bit less campy. Altogether, it seemed a lot better than I would have expected.

Glass Casket - We Are Gathered Here Today

I’ve mentioned before, but I’m a casualty of Dave Kerman’s recent interest and uncovering of a lot of extreme and progressive metal (www.rerusa.com) and this is one of the titles he recommended. I can’t remember if this was one he mentioned where there were some tracks not as consistent as others, as this idea stuck in my mind during the second listen of this. Because at a few times during the album, the rather technical and intense death metal stylings give way to a much more simpler, ballad-like technique, and while I find it often helpful to have some moments that ground technical death (like, for instance, that piano intro in Cryptopsy’s “Phobophile”), I found that at least one or two of these moments were maybe slightly twee and ballad like. For some reason the rest of the music leaves me a bit chilly, although this is an album that gets even weirder by the end and thus leaves me on a high note.

Grant Green - Sunday Morning

Really laid back quartet session, that like with Feelin’ the Spirit, is one of Grant’s attempts at jazzifying gospel music, although in this case this is a less inspirational sort of album and more easy and bluesy. I tend to like most of the Grants with Ben Dixon in tow, they had a pretty nice feel whether trio or quartet sessions, but overall Sunday Morning isn’t coming out and blowing me away, which is fairly typical for me and Grant’s music in the nascent stages of his career. It only got better after here.

Stephen Stills s/t
Stephen Stills - 2

I’ll always have a slight fondness for Mr. Stills as my friends and I entered a talent contest in high school as CSNY and I happened to be the S. So of course I maintain he’s the most talented in this bunch and point at Buffalo Springfield and these records as evidence. But honestly, I’m not sure if I ever sat down in those days and played one of these in its entirety besides a few obvious songs from the radio and those he dragged over to CSN. What struck me is how diverse and creative both of these albums (I’d probably give the nod to the first at this point) were covering a lot of different ground, although very little that he covered with the other group. Perhaps its my affinity for anything 60s/SF Bay area related or inspired, but these look to be getting some serious mileage for me.

Brian Lynch Quartet - Fuchsia

I put off listening to this for a while on the misguided idea that it was some sort of modern fusion album, misguided in that it’s at least not the type of modern fusion album I was expecting. This is a Canadian quartet very much along the lines of some of the mainstream Dave Douglas albums, homages to Miles Davis from the late 60s quintet through the electric era. What struck me about this set was how muscular, choppy and on fire the whole band was, with the trumpet playing way more Hubbard than Miles. I am hoping this gets even better as this was a real surprise. Drew my fast attention several times during the play.

Goro Ohmi - Fire

It’s amazing to me the assimilative quality of progressive rock and the lengths so many collectors go to drag something into the fold. Meet Goro Ohmi, Japanese musician creating album after album of kitschy and bombastic “soundtrack” music, I guess people must have thought Teru’s Symphonia and then of course not much of a stretch to Ohmi. At least a lot of the music is somewhat original its own way, in that the epic nature and bombast are unusually rendered at times (I can only think of useless words like quirky here), but the whole thing is so damn twee that my knees were starting to shake.

Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

I can’t figure out why it’s taken me so long to start checking out the music of Richard Thompson, although this early 80s, very countrified album probably shouldn’t have been a first go (to be fair I’ve probably heard a show or two). Thompson seems to be more in the tradition of singer/songwriters, like a slightly more folky or celtic Neil Young, which doesn’t help this listener at all. But anything quite this different from what I usually listen to needs more attention, especially as it may be something of a departure from the usual Thompson music.

Rael - Mascaras Urbanas

These guys were trailblazers I’m telling you, before the Musical Box, before the Watch, in fact I think only Kyrie Eleison beat them to the punch in making the perfect old Genesis record that wasn’t by Genesis. Except that all of those similar examples are quite a bit better than this, at least in the compositional department (especially the Musical Box ;)). Sonically, “Rael” (you think they’re talking about that cult in France or …?) are actually pretty solid for the most part, but man I started wishing they’d start to suck a little more, it would have been more entertaining. This is ground about as fertile as a nuclear wasteland at this point, despite the fertilizer thrown upon it so very often. It’s made Rael barely a blip on the meter.

Wastefall - Self Exile

I feel like I have to repeat the “I am not a prog metal fan” mantra every time I listen to an album in the genre and want to talk about it. But honestly I tend to find the ones I hear on the Sensory label to be interesting and unique and Wastefall isn’t really alone there. It’s still a bit too reminiscent of the Dream Theater ilk to be really up my alley, but they’ve got some cool keyboards in slots and some unique choices in their compositional work that I find quite interesting. And most importantly they’re not tacky or overwrought, definitely a bit on the melodramatic side as anything in the general era, but filled with enough dark and muscular bits to tone the sweet nature down a lot. The exception to this being the ballad “Sleepwalk,” especially the crying bit. Not bad at all overall, I think I’m liking this a little more the second time around.

Devo - Orpheum, Boston 7/17/80

OK, let’s face it, Devo are a pretty great band, maybe even one of the best from this era, although this could be starting to edge a little after what I’d consider their peak, even if it’s at the top of their commercial era, with “Whip It” and “Satisfaction” and the like. This is a great sounding, high energy gig, and while they’re not quite as odd and as interesting as they once were, it’s hard not to be impressed by the way they do their business. A great show overall.

Elton John - Odeon, London 12/22/73

Almost the same idea as the Devo here, this is a little late for Elton, just a little, although I’m sure everyone has a different threshold. It’s absolute polish here, a tight unit just slaying, like Elton did for the last few years leading to this show. Sounds great too, pretty much a flawless recording. And of course he covers nearly every song he was famous for up to that point for about 100 minutes or so.

Jackie McLean - Action

This has to be my favorite McLean album to date, it’s artsy, soulful  and has some great performances from Bobby Hutcherson, Cecil McBee, Billy Higgins and Charles Tolliver. I know that sounds like I’m taking that right off the CD cover, but really, you can’t mention any one of the players here without realizing how good the band is all around. I actually listen to quite a bit more Blue Note than I often post about here, but they’re generally difficult to talk about in that there’s so much to absorb for me, but at least one in four usually brings a stand out record and my 11 is starting to edge to a 12 on this one. Makes me wonder if I’m listening closely enough to some of the others.