1. •  
     CommentAuthorGumbi
   • CommentTimeMay 24th 2013

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   Ça faisait longtemps que je l'attendais, le voici donc le dernier Words On Tracks spécial Prog-Rock de l'ami Gel-Sol de Seattle...

   https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/261777_171641066336862_2037180771_n.jpg

   I'm going to preface this Words on Tracks mix with a few words on "Prog," or progressive rock. A lot of people don't like prog rock, or think they don't like prog rock. Some people think prog rock is primarily a handful of bands from the early 70's that wore capes and wrote songs that were too long. It goes much deeper than that…

   Prog is exactly what it means, progressive. It's not a genre, it's a genre-breaker. And it's not just rock, it's a little bit of everything; classical, jazz, folk, funk, electronic, ambient, experimental, etc. Prog is a way of being. Why limit yourself to one sound when your music can be a clear reflection of your complex and curious personality? Not only can genres be defied from song to song, but within the song itself. Sure, the instrumentation stayed pretty constant throughout an album, but the timbre of the instruments really reinforce the overall vision. I'll probably mention "timbre" several more times in these ramblings, because I feel it's a highly overlooked aspect of music, and contributes greatly to whether I like a song or not.

   From Wikipedia:

   In music, timbre (pron.: /ˈtæmbər/ tam-bər (American English), /ˈtæɪmbər/ taim-bər (British English), or /ˈtɪmbər/) also known as tone color or tone quality from psychoacoustics, is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope.
   In simple terms, timbre is what makes a particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness. For instance, it is the difference between a guitar and a piano playing the same note at the same loudness. Experienced musicians are able to distinguish between different instruments based on their varied timbres, even if those instruments are playing notes at the same pitch and loudness.
   I've made a large handful of progressive music mixes over the years, and while the more well-known prog bands do appear from time to time, I generally try to play stuff that's a little more obscure. I'm still finding crazy stuff to this day, and with today's technology, it's great that this music can be rediscovered…

   OK , I will shut up now. Turn the lights down and turn your music-playing mechanism up.

   01. Moving Gelatine Plates - We Were Lovin' Her

   Let's get things kicking off with some French absurdist prog. Hammond Organ, check. Fuzz-bass, check. This sounds like Faust to me, so it's got that going for it.

   02. Trubot - Lives Overture

   These guys are Icelandic. Starts off rockin', then goes into a cosmic spoken word thing, which I thought would segue into the next song nicely…

   03. Weed - My Dream

   Ken Hensley project, around the time Uriah Heep was getting off the ground. I love the guy's crunchy Hammond sound. I wish pop music sounded like this.

   04. Armando Piazza - The House on the Hill

   I believe this is Italian. I was sold on the fuzz-bass. I'm a sucker for fuzz-bass. I dig the sloppy drums too. It's not the best recording, but you can tell that kit sounds good. Timbre.

   05. Henry Cow - Half Asleep, Half Awake

   Classic Henry Cow. Sounds like a more "proggy" take on Zappa, whatever the hell that just meant. You get what I'm saying, right? I almost see this as IDM music way before IDM existed, and performed by humans. It's really elaborate and almost frantic. And I can't imagine trying to perform something like this. Are they reading charts for this? I don't have the chops or memory retention to wrap my head around it, but I like it. I think that's part of the reason I like it. Again, timbre. They WAY the instruments sound together is harmonious, on top of the obvious pitch-harmony. And yes, I think classic IDM is prog...

   06. Zed - Harkonnen

   Obscure electronic music (with drums and guitars) from Bernard Szajner. It's kinda crazy that this came out in '79. They way the drums and other instruments sound (timbre), I would have thought this was from the early 70's. Pretty gnarly recording...

   07. I Teoremi - Impressione

   A rare, but often sought after gem from Italy's I Teoremi. The chorus makes me want to shotgun a beer. This is how guitars should sound. The rockin' out after the solo is thick dopesauce.

   08. Focus - Le Clochard

   A Focus classic, from their second album, Moving Waves. It's roughly halftime in this mix, so I thought I would lighten the mood. The masterful classical playing of Jan Akkerman, with a placid mellotron accompaniment. Works well with…

   09. Tortilla Flat - Mohre

   I just like this song. It's kinda goofy in a Canterbury way, but I dig the momentum once they start rockin' out. I know nothing about this band, other than they're German. Speaking of German…

   10. Faust - Dr. Schwitters Snippet

   It's fucking Faust. I really shouldn't have to say anything else.

   11. R.M. Tocak - Oro

   More wiki:

   Radomir Mihailović (Serbian Cyrillic: Радомир Михаиловић), also known as Točak (Serbian Cyrillic: Точак; trans. The Wheel), is a Serbian rock guitarist. He is best known as the guitarist for the Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band Smak. Mihailović is considered one of the top and most influential guitarists of former Yugoslav rock scene.

   I had no idea. I just thought this tune was pretty wacky and frantic. There's tons of Eastern European prog that kicks serious ass.

   12. Saint-Preux - Le Voyage

   My friend and DJ cohort Val turned me on to this. French hard rock (funk?) I know very little about the artist. Can't I just like a tune and play it? Jeeeesh!

   13. Flash - Children Of The Universe

   This is the bridge of a much longer song, but definitely the best part of the song. Flash was the band of the late great Peter Banks, the first guitarist of Yes (even came up with the name Yes). If you haven't heard the first two Yes albums, you might suck. I said might! Anyways, this tune has a great synth solo. Banks dropping the Eleanor Rigby tease was a nice touch too.

   14. Beggar's Opera - Sagittary

   I recently discovered these guys. They have a sizable discography, and one track is never alike. This is what I call "music for riding pterodactyls." Preferably ones that breath fire. Or shoot lasers. Or both. Did I mention I love fuzz-bass? Well, this track has it. But it's really the sped-up drums that put this track over the top. Badass…

   15. Wishbone Ash - The Pilgrim

   into more badass. Metrically-driven hard shit from Wishbone Ash. The singing is a nice touch too.

   16. Nektar - Crying in the Dark

   Since this is the penultimate track, I'm going to continue on the badass theme. This song rocks hard, and has a great initial cosmic blues rock thing going on, but the bridge is where it's at. Great Hammond sound. It's some sort of space funk. I'm not sure what to think of it, but I like it. I like it a lot. It has a nice intensity to it that makes it a great penultimate track. I believe it's the penultimate track on the album it belongs to also (A Tab in the Ocean).

   17. Quatermass - Make Up Your Mind

   This is a sort of boy-meets-girl feel good track with a mild self-referential slant. Picture credits rolling at the end of a movie. This track was released in 1970, and sounds a few years before it's time. This sounds like Kansas before Kansas, and if I liked Kansas. Take that, Kansas!

   Make up your mind now, mind now
   We've got our fortunes here to find now, now, now
   Make up your mind now, mind now
   Leave all your memories behind

   Thanks for listening! And thanks to Fred for asking me to do this!

   Yer Pal,
   Gel-Sol

   Bonne écoute!

   http://incongru.org/~gumbi/WordsOnTracks/WordsOnTracks_17/WordsOnTracks_Gel-Sol.mp3

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