A Rare Flower Blossoms

It’s happened often enough now that it has become a bit of a habit; a pleasurable one, though, I will freely admit.  I asked Ian Oakley, manager of The Tangent, and fellow progressive rock fan, to be my guest on the show again.  And, as always, he turned up on my doorstep clutching his habitual bag of CD goodies.  The little ritual where I ask what’s in the bag and he says “I’ll tell you in a minute” managed to last well in to a strong cup of coffee before he opened the bag and pulled out his CD stash with a magician’s flourish.  It’s always at this point that I feel a small frisson of eagerness as I witness the unveiling, many different thoughts vying for attention.  Would I have heard of the CDs?  Would I like them?  Could I borrow them?  As always, Ian’s clutch produced a No (sort of), Yes and a Yes.  Ian has a knack of producing CDs that I have heard of, but not actually heard before.  This night was no different.  I’ll talk about what was in the bag later, but some of it made it onto the show anyway.

Speaking of the show, what did I play on Saturday the 15^th of September?  Here’s the playlist:

Artist : Album : Track

The Flower Kings : The Sum Of No Evil : One More Time

The Flower Kings : The Sum Of No Evil : Love Is The Answer

The Flower Kings : The Sum Of No Evil : Flight 999 (Brimstone Air)

Anglagard : Hybrid : Kung Bore

Touchstone : Discordant Dreams : Black Tide

Kevin Gilbert : The Shaming of the True : Suit Fugue (Dance of the A&R Men)

Sigur Ros : Takk : Hoppipolla

So, there you have it … the new Flower Kings album got its first radio air play on British radio this Saturday.  In fact, I’m almost positive that the album got its first radio play anywhere in the world this night.  So, does that make it a world premier?  After all, we had people listening from Germany, Holland, Sweden, Australia, America and, of course, the UK, including our very own Brentwood and Billericay; if I’ve missed your country out then apologies.  I think it probably does make it a world premier, though please feel free to correct me if you know otherwise.

So, a little on the new FK album.  For me, I heard it the once and thought: Wow!  For some reason it hit the spot dead on target.  I may even say that this is probably one of the best albums they’ve released in the last few years.  The writing is excellent, the musicianship, as always, is exemplary, and the production sets a standard that a lot of bands have trouble achieving.  But what about Ian, long time fan of the FKs?  Did he also go wow, like me, on his first listen?  Well, no he didn’t!  Ian freely admitted that even though he liked the album it left him a little nonplussed at first run through.  But then, it started to sound better at the next listen, then the next and so on, moving quickly up from “It’s okay,” to a stonking “Wow, that’s great!”  Sometimes the truth is that people need to “grow” into an album, especially one as complex as the Flower Kings latest. 

Speaking of growing into an album, take Ritual as an example.  I lent their new album to Ian, a track from which I played last week.  He brought it back with him when he came round on Saturday, saying how much he liked the album as soon as he heard it.  Was it like that for me?  Well, I think it’s a good album, but I’m still “growing” into it.  Strange that, isn’t it?  Another one that I’m beginning to really enjoy, after about my fourth listen, is Metaphor’s new album called The Sparrow.  I think this will mot certainly make the show this coming Saturday.

Did you manage to get the show, by the way?  If you did, I hope you managed to hear the track from the Swedish band Anglagard.  What an amazing album this is.  It took my breath away as soon as I first heard it.  The quality of the music is timeless and I can’t believe that they have split up.  It is such a shame that the band members have all gone their own way.  It happens, I suppose.  I would say that the band bordered on the genius, and it is never an easy ride with a genius.  The same could also be said about Kevin Gilbert.  The line between genius and madness is a very grey one and it is easy to step over.  Kevin left this mortal coil a few years ago, leaving behind a few unfinished tapes and snippets of music.  Nick D’Virgilio, of Spock’s Beard fame, spent ages working on those musical remains and pieced together a posthumous album of Kevin’s work.  Clearly, the genius can be heard in the outpourings of this man and, again, I will add some more of this to the show next week.  His Fugue was a superb melange of vocal harmonies that was reminiscent of Neal Morse when he does something similar.

Anyway, enough ramblings from a proggy madman!  I’ll see you next week?  I certainly hope so. I'm off now to enjoy the blossom from my Flower Kings CD.

All the best,

DaveO.

Article by Dave O'Neill, 19 Sep 2007
Posted in The Dave O Prog Rock Show

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