The First Beginning Meant The Third Ending

The start of the year, meaning the first programme of the year, meant I had to really pull out the stops and get a decent playlist organised.  I wanted to start as I mean to go on, so I agonised over what to include.  Okay, that’s not strictly true.  I actually agonised over what to leave out!  I have so much music to play that it is easy to pick a decent list in minutes without too much real thought, but then I’d have about 4 hours of material to fit into a 2 hour slot.  At that point it gets painful.  Taking a track out of the list is like pulling teeth which, considering I visited the dentist that very morning, probably isn’t too good a comparison for me to use.  No teeth out, I’m happy to say, but a good drill-n-fill to keep me going!  At least I had a chance to listen to some good music later to take my mind off things, eh?  But I had to “pull” The Flower Kings from my list due to time requirements.  Now that was painful!

So, what tracks did I sink my teeth into on the night of Saturday the 5^th of Jan?  Well, here they are:

Album : Artist : Track

OSI : Office of Strategic Influence : Head

The Tangent : The World That We Drive Through : The World That We Drive Through

Final Conflict : Simple : Rebellion

Protos : The Noble Pauper's Grave : The Rally

Enchant : Tug of War : Sinking Sand

Marillion : Marbles : Ocean Cloud

Atlantis : Atlantis : The Future is Now

The Third Ending : The Third Ending : Digital Sunrise to Fingerprints

The week before, which was the final show of 2007, saw me in much of the same dilemma over what to play.  In the end I tried for variety over some of my favourite bands and felt a little bad by omission.  Take, for example, The Tangent.  This is a band that is seminal to the progressive rock movement at the moment, combining jazz rock with Canterbury influences over driving melodies laced with symphonic keys to deliver pure, unadulterated prog rock to our ever hungry ears.  Because I felt bad about leaving out The Flower Kings I decided to play an early The Tangent album because Roine Stolt, Jonas Reingold and Zoltan Csorsz, are all from the Flower Kings, though Zoltan is a bit of a transient member.  So, guilt complex assuaged.

I have to say that Protos raised a few eyebrows during the show.  They are a self confessed art rock band and their new album is certainly that.  It tells the story of a nobleman born to the easy life but he gives it all up to help the poorer classes in their eternal struggle with life.  The story is told as an acted sequence at the start and end of each track, which is all instrumental otherwise.  I like this album even though it won’t hit my ears too often as it requires a degree listening awareness that makes you pay attention.  This isn’t a bad thing, indeed it is a good thing as progressive rock once again proves it can stand out as an intelligent form of music.  But me?  Well I like to do other things while I’m listening to music so quite often I go for a bubblegum approach, or as much as possible considering the complexities of modern progressive rock!  Mind you, I am pleased to say that a few people actually went online during the show and bought the album.  Pretty cool, eh?

Like its namesake, Atlantis nearly sank!  I was sent a couple of tracks during the week from Anders, one of the musicians involved with this new project, in the hope that I would play something on the show.  Now, me being me, I listened to what was sent as I take new music seriously and feel that it is only fair to support new bands as much as is possible.  However, the tracks sent to me were a bit disjointed and one even seemed to end abruptly.  That is, mid note, it just stopped.  So I had nothing of broadcast quality to play from the band.  I told Anders this, including the track that just ended, and a few emails flew back and forth as I tried to show him what I meant.  In the end he agreed that the track must have been cut in half on its journey to me so, at the last moment on Saturday afternoon, he managed to get a new copy of the whole album to me.  I then had a quick listen to a couple of other tracks and made up my mind: Atlantis wasn’t going to sink on my watch!  Phew!  I played one of the longer tracks and it went down very well, I’m pleased to say.

What can I say about Marillion that I haven’t already said?  Nothing!  I love the band and enjoy their music on many levels, not least of which is that they are real troopers, producing album after album of delicious music to feed the ever hungry ears of their clamouring audience, which includes me.  There are still albums I will turn too of theirs when I want a rich treat and Marbles is just such a one.  However, when I bought the album I only got the single CD edition and missed the extra CD with all the bonus material, which is where Ocean Cloud comes from.  A big thanks to a friend for lending me his copy.

OSI are a good band as well.  They are firmly in the realm of what is known as prog-metal, but they wear their progressive influences well.  Their first album is called Office of Strategic Intelligence.  They have two albums out and I intend to play the second sometime soon.  The band, called OSI, are a supergroup, which means that they are made up of members of other bands who get together to exorcise their various musical demons to provide some sort of cathartic release to whatever pent up angst they happen to have.  More power to their elbows, in my humble opinion.  Their mix of exotic melodies and driving guitar riffs make this band very accessible to a large audience, may be even attracting those from a non prog taste.  The main band features the talents of Jim Matheos and Kevin Moore, with help from Mike Portnoy on both albums, Sean Malone and Steve Wilson on the debut, and Joey Vera on the new one.  They are well worth getting if you like your prog heavy yet different.

Final Conflict are a traditional symphonic power prog band from the UK and they do a very good live turn I have been reliably informed.  One of my listeners admitted that at their last concert be bought all their CDs in one hit.  I have only two of their albums and one day I may get the rest!

And last, but by no means least, there’s that great band from Tasmania: The Third Ending.  Their debut album is such a strong release that I can not wait for the next one.  It reminds me of Porcupine Tree in places, but with a Rush influence and maybe a bit of Riverside as well.   If they ever get a chance to tour near you go and see them.  They are worth it.  I put the album on from time to time to clear the cobwebs and remind myself that debut albums can have panache and flair.  They have a musical maturity that only normally settles in after about the third or fourth album.  Their style is quite guitar driven but it does have some wonderful keyboard layers to provide a serious lift to the whole music.  I like this band and I like them a lot.

Well, that’s enough from me.  On next week’s show there’s a bit of a surprise as I have a sneak copy of the new The Tangent album in my grubby mitts.  I’m also going to play some Sylvan as I have received quite a few emails asking for them.

So, tune in if you can.

All the best,

DaveO.

Making Saturday night worth staying in for.

www.myspace.com/daveoprogshow.