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Now Playing Thread

Started by Peter, Fri, 2005-01-14, 14:53:34

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erik

Quote from: PH on Sun, 2018-05-06, 16:58:43
And again! The first song Zhivago Wolf reminds me too much of "The Seventh Degree Of Seperation". I will have to listen to that album again to see why exactly. Still a great song though. ;)
I think I know what you mean, Catching The Bullet might be the song it reminds you of. Great, heavy, catchy opener as we have come to expect from these guys ;)
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

PH

Quote from: erik on Mon, 2018-05-07, 22:01:13
+2, it is rather good indeed! It is vintage Arena, but also new and fresh at the same time. Lots to discover still, but it's a keeper!

Absolutely! I really love The Mirror Lies, fantastic song and it worked really good live. Scars is another very nice song, with nice keyboard moments and a nice guitar solo. The Legend Of Elijah Shade is also full of great moments! I really like the second part, I think it's called I Am Here with the major/minor chord changes. Perfect ballad. And the church organ solo (around the 16 minute mark) is a nice touch, very Johann Sebastian. ;D
In fact, the only song that doesn't really do it for me much yet is Red Eyes. A bit too simple I think... Although the song is mildly redeemed by Paul, who does a fantastic job at singing that tune! Every song for that matter! What an amazing and versatile singer! I hope they'll never let him go. :)

Wow man, I can't stop playing this album!

Teunis

Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape *horns*
'I will surrender my heart to the sky
Oh, our love doesn't end here, it lives forever on the wings of time'
-------------------------------------------------------
Toto - Wings of time (Kingdom of Desire)

Teunis

jp: Riversea - The Tide
np: Subsignal - Touchstones (Looking forward to the new album 'La Muerta', to be released on 25th May *horns*)
'I will surrender my heart to the sky
Oh, our love doesn't end here, it lives forever on the wings of time'
-------------------------------------------------------
Toto - Wings of time (Kingdom of Desire)

erik

NP Arena - Double Vision, of course  ;)

The Zoetermeer gig was a feast and I look forward to the dvd!!
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

PH

Quote from: erik on Sun, 2018-05-13, 16:38:36
... I look forward to the dvd!!

Yes! Me too!

Does anyone know whether there will be a blu-ray edition too? Or just dvd?
In any case, I will buy one of course. But I'm slowly starting to switch to blu-ray.



On topic:
I was listening to Arena's "Contagion" today. Man, oh man, what a wonderful album this is! It's either "Contagion" or "The Visitor" for me when it comes to favourites.
It's hard to point out a favourite Arena album anyway. Sometimes I prefer the pure Neo-Prog of "Songs From The Lions Cage", of course I LOVE Solomon but also Valley Of The Kings with that beautiful synth solo. Most of the time I think I'll stick with either "The Visitor" or "Contagion" as absolute favourites.

"Double Vision" is pretty good too!!!

Teunis

Quote from: PH on Mon, 2018-05-14, 19:56:44
On topic:
I was listening to Arena's "Contagion" today. Man, oh man, what a wonderful album this is! It's either "Contagion" or "The Visitor" for me when it comes to favourites.
Contagion is still my favourite Arena album *horns*.

jp: Neal Morse - Life & Times
np: Riversea - The Tide
'I will surrender my heart to the sky
Oh, our love doesn't end here, it lives forever on the wings of time'
-------------------------------------------------------
Toto - Wings of time (Kingdom of Desire)

erik

Quote from: PH on Mon, 2018-05-14, 19:56:44
On topic:
I was listening to Arena's "Contagion" today. Man, oh man, what a wonderful album this is! It's either "Contagion" or "The Visitor" for me when it comes to favourites.
I still rate Contagion as my favourite and Visitor as a close second, but must say as the tour made me listen to  Visitor a lot again I was slightly starting to doubt my number one, almost :). I stick with Contagion, but Visitor is a very, very close second. The other albums are harder to rank, but my least favourite is probably Pepper's Ghost (see review series thread). No not Seventh Degree that gets such bad press from most fans, I rather like that one and play it much more often than Pepper's Ghost.
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

erik

NP C:Live Collective - Age Of Insanity [bandcamp stream]

New project of Twelfth Night Member Clive Mitten. This is an instrumental abbreviated version of an upcoming new epic entitled The Fifth Estate, bookended by two new recordings of Twelfth Night songs We Are Sane and This City. Later in the year the double album Fifth Estate will follow with the full vocal version. I like this instrumental version a lot, it works very well in its own right and as a taster for the upcoming album. More info in this DPRP interview/duo review, which led me to it: http://dprp.net/reviews/2018-028

Just played:
Arena - Double Vision
Galahad - Seas Of Change

Galahad really can do no wrong, from Empires Never Last onwards they have been releasing very strong albums and with this one they continue their winning streak. Love it! Great live band as well. Only saw them once (when they double billed with Clive/Caamora), became an instant fan. They are doing a gig in Holland in June, close to where I live, but I am already going to see The Gathering with niquicho that same evening.
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

Teunis

Gazpacho - Soyuz

For the third time in a row. Needs more listening and won't top my favourite Gazpacho album Tick Tock, but like it more than 'Molok'. Great album I'd say 8).
'I will surrender my heart to the sky
Oh, our love doesn't end here, it lives forever on the wings of time'
-------------------------------------------------------
Toto - Wings of time (Kingdom of Desire)

erik

NP Tony Banks - Five

His latest classical album and probably the best of the three. Often sounds like a movie score, simply beautiful.

Must really catch up on Gazpacho, still have not heard Molok 😬
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

erik

NP Kepler Ten - Delta V

Great debut album on John M's White Star record label, recommended!
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

Teunis

Arena - Double Vision  *horns*

Definitely favourite album with Paul Manzi on vocals 8).
'I will surrender my heart to the sky
Oh, our love doesn't end here, it lives forever on the wings of time'
-------------------------------------------------------
Toto - Wings of time (Kingdom of Desire)

erik

We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

Teunis

Your link leads me to 'Contagion Max' :). This link does work:
http://www.progwereld.org/cms/album/arena-–-double-vision/

Fortunately most reviews I've read are rather positive ...

np: IQ - Frequency
'I will surrender my heart to the sky
Oh, our love doesn't end here, it lives forever on the wings of time'
-------------------------------------------------------
Toto - Wings of time (Kingdom of Desire)

erik

Thanks for correcting the link teunis🙂
Interesting that it led to Contagion Max instead?!🤨
But that review is much more positive of course😉
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

The Butterfly Man

NP: Arena - The Eyes of Lara Moon

Although I don't rank this album as high as Contagion or Immortal? (or Double Vision) I always truly enjoy this track. To be fair, every track on Pepper's Ghost has it's moments but as an album it's not up there. At least not for me.

Tom
There will be white clouds beyond the hills...

PH

Yeah, I also read that Progwereld review. It's hard to believe the reviewer thinks this is one of their mediocre albums.

The review states that the lineup hasn't changed from "The Seventh Degree Of Seperation" on. Which isn't true, because John Jowitt left Arena again and Kylan Amos came in for "The Unquiet Sky" and "Double Vision".
And there are more things that I don't understand in this review. The Mirror Lies a poppy song? The Legend Of Elijah Shade shallow and boring?
It's very subjective. Of course, a review can't be 100% objective. Perhaps, as Arena fans we're biased, but I don't recognise anything of this review.

The Butterfly Man

Quote from: PH on Wed, 2018-05-23, 20:38:55
Yeah, I also read that Progwereld review. It's hard to believe the reviewer thinks this is one of their mediocre albums.

The review states that the lineup hasn't changed from "The Seventh Degree Of Seperation" on. Which isn't true, because John Jowitt left Arena again and Kylan Amos came in for "The Unquiet Sky" and "Double Vision".
And there are more things that I don't understand in this review. The Mirror Lies a poppy song? The Legend Of Elijah Shade shallow and boring?
It's very subjective. Of course, a review can't be 100% objective. Perhaps, as Arena fans we're biased, but I don't recognise anything of this review.

I think the reviewer was in the middle of an argument with his wife or something...  :o

Tom
There will be white clouds beyond the hills...

erik

We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

PH

That's more like it indeed.
Of course, only time can tell how the new album will rank along masterpieces as "Contagion" and "The Visitor".

Lately I have been listening a lot to:
Umphrey's McGee - "It's Not Us"
This is really a contender for my top ten of 2018. It's so brilliantly catchy and clever and everything. So I was looking into buying this album and then I discovered that they did a 'Big Big Train' on us. Meaning that they released another album so close after the previous one. So now I have to have both of course!

Lo Moon - "Lo Moon"
A bit of a guilty pleasure perhaps. More like Talk Talk and Coldplay and more of that.

Ozric Tentacles - "Technicians Of The Sacred"
This is such a cool album to listen to while cycling or running or something. (Hypothetically of course, don't mistake me for a healthy guy.) It's a perfect album for a trip (whatever context). It's probably not a good 'listenings' album, as in giving close attention and pickin up subtle things. It's more a 'feeling' album that you have to undergo. Don't think too much, and let the music guide you to faraway places.

And now I'm listening to:
The Dear Hunter - "All Is As All Should Be"
A 24 minute EP which apparently was released at the very end of 2017 and passed me by completely. I can't get my head around it, but this band just manages to release masterpiece after masterpiece. I'm totally in love with their 2015 and 2016 "Act" releases and now that I hear this EP I'm planning to just buy their whole discography and get it over with.


Ooooh and there's so much more good stuff on its way this year! What a treat!

PH

Just listened to Act 1 of Clive Nolan's "Alchemy" for the first time with the booklet in hand.
What a nice experience!

I've already listened to this album on a more superficial level, but since it's a musical it's much better to really listen with attention.
I will listen to the second act in a moment. Had to take a break. ;D

PH

#23047
So, yesterday I also listened closely to Act 2 of "Alchemy" and when finished, I was wondering whether any of you have listened to this?
I was amazed actually how close this was to Clive's collaboration with Oliver Wakeman. Although the amount of 'musical' is much more on this, while "Jabberwocky" and "The Hound..." is more music.
There are no flashy keyboard solos. Or guitar or whatever solos. But there are some very strong melodies on "Alchemy" that already are stuck in my head. I discovered this today, when I was listening to this while working.

Storywise I think I smell a scent of cheese here and there. But when cheese is concerned, I'm a bit of a mouse anyway.

I think I'll listen to the whole "Alchemy" again today, and then it's over to "King's Ransom". Very curious about that one, because I've read that it's even better.

erik

Good to see you getting into Alchemy, Paco! Clive really has a knack for writing melodies that stick. I agree the musicals have a lot in common with the Nolan/Wakeman albums, while the latter are more proggy indeed. Enjoy King's Ransom!
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..

erik

NP Perfect Beings - Vier
We stare at our screens
All our lives
What a waste of eyes..