Music with a Mind – Featuring Riverside, Quicksand Dream, Sound&Shape, and (Damn) This Desert Air

Waveriders, recently some EP's have come in that just blew my mind.  Or whatever it is that I call a mind.  This is why we started the Ripple in the first place to spread the word on artists making music like this.  All prog of sorts, each fills a different need in my music loving soul.  Check em out.

Riverside – Memories in My Mind

Poland’s Riverside have been plying their trade for 10 years now, immersing themselves in gorgeous, atmospheric progressive rock full indebted to the Porcupine Tree-vein of creativity rather than the ELP-vein of pretension.  In celebration of their 10 year anniversary and recent signing to The Laser’s Edge Records, Mariusz Duda and boys have uncorked this “mini” album that is really anything but.  Not mini on length (at over 30 minutes spread over 3 songs) not mini in songwriting ideas, not mini in stellar musicianship and certainly not mini in atmosphere.  Rarely ever escalating above a distant thunderous rumble, Riverside explore peaks and valleys of dense ethereal overtones and sinuous moods.  Never rushed, each of these prog epics takes its time in exploring Floyd-ian keyboard progressions, serpentine guitar solos, crashing crescendos and emotionally moving lyrics sung in hushed vocals.

After the swirling keyboard intro, acoustic guitars bring us into the opening melody of “Goodbye Sweet Innocence,” echoing a distant familiarity with Iced Earth’s “I Died For You.”  But whereas that song exploded in metallic fury, Riverside expand their power, bringing in bridging keyboard passages courtesy of Michał Łapaj, complex time keeping via Piotr Kozieradzki, and the spear-to-the-heart guitar of Piotr Grudziński. “Living in the Past” and “Forgotten Land” follow suit, mixing Floyd-ian space rock, jazzy inflections with muscular prog metal reaches, all bathed in one dripping wet melody after another.   A true “mini” masterpiece of prog.

buy here: Memories in My Head (EP)

Quicksand Dream – Aelin – A Story

A rare and beautiful album.  Listening to this, I just can’t help feel like I’m listening to something important.  Epic, sure, but more than that.  Quicksand Dream’s take on metal is stark, powerful, disturbing, and incisive.    Not so much metal in the traditional sense of monster chords, power, and pain, but still heavy in tone and atmosphere.  The closest reference I can toss out would be some of the better work of Sentenced, another band that didn’t do metal in the normal way, but crafted some works of ugly elegance just the same.   Perhaps they sound like early Fates Warning or Candlemass, perhaps not.
 
Quicksand Dream is the brainchild of Patrick Backlund, who plays all the instruments, supported by Göran Jacobson on vocals (and guest keyboarder Henrik Flyman).   A totally D.I.Y., effort, "Aelin..." is a concept album of magic and dreams, where the young sorcerer-to-be, Aelin, is thrown between the choices of following his heart and sail the oceans or follow the path destined by The Mighty One, to study sorcery under the supervision of the Old Sorcerer.   Epic storytelling, that never stumbles under the weight of its concept.  Limited to 500 copies.  Not to miss.

buy here: Aelin - A Story About Destiny

Sound & Shape – Now Comes the Mystery EP

It's amazing to watch a band grow right before your eyes.  To witness amazing leaps and gains in songcraft and dynamic.  Sound & Shape is one such band.  After the dynamite, complex The Love Electric Sound & Shape come racing back with an aEP burst of unrelenting, driving composition and stunning musicianship.  Each song is a mini-epic, all glued together by undeniable melodies and phenomenal playing.

More straight ahead than The Love Electric, Sound & Shape have taken their inherent power, passion, and creativity and wrapped them in melodies infectious enough to eat holes into my brain.  While the concept of employing more “straight ahead” structures may sound like Sound & Shape are playing it safe, trust me they’re not.  Each song, particularly the frenetically complex “The Sacred and the Profane,” and the beefy “Bells at Twelve” marry intricate riffs, stop-start time changes, and walls of sound into soundbites of neo-prog perfection.  Lush vocal harmonies and constant surprises make these four songs a true blessing for my iPod.

A band everyone should know about.  A band few could imitate

buy here: Facebook

(Damn) This Desert Air – Distance Waits

A while back I raved like a drooling lunatic over The World Concave’s last album, Harbor.  Soon thereafter, I received an email from one of the band members asking if I’d check out his other project, (Damn) This Desert Air.  Of course I agreed, then immediately forgot about it.  And there it sat.  For an eternity.

When I finally rediscovered the file, I hesitated to play it.  This World Concave was an artistic triumph of sublime beauty that took me eons to get “into.”  I wasn’t really in the mood to listen that hard again.  Then I hit the play button, and it all faded away.

Much more immediate than TWC, (Damn) This Desert Air is quite simply a fantastic modern prog EP.  With moments raging from inspired splendor to chaotic aggression, DTDA mix it all into the prog pot, stir that baby up, and come up with a concoction sure to satisfy even the most discriminating palate.  The gorgeous melodies I expected, as I did the intense playing and stellar musicianship.  What I didn’t anticipate was how hard this EP rocks (at times) and how immediate the songwriting is.  Forget the hard listen, songs like “Trembles” and “Your Atlantis” grab me by the cerebellum and pull my brain instantly into the music.  Complex.  Intricate. Dynamic. And beautiful.  (Damn) This Desert Air is a keeper.

--Racer

buy here: Distance Waits

Riverside


Quicksand Dream


Sound & Shape (last album)


(Damn) This Desert Air

Fantastic Fen Inteview from This is Rock Magazine

Hi Doug, this is Francisco from This Is Rock Magazine Spain. First of all, I must congratulate you for Trails Out Of Gloom. Given that the album was released some months ago, do you already have a perspective of what has it meant to your career?

Thanks, Francisco. Trails Out Of Gloom is Fen's fourth album, but it's our first to get much critical attention. For many listeners it's the first they've heard of us, and they think we must be a new band, when actually we've been around for well over a decade. In that way, Trails Out Of Gloom is a new beginning for us. The album title could be significant in the sense that we have spent many years milling about in dark obscurity, and now we have finally come into the light of the media's narrow gaze. Ah, the wonder of marketing!

- Given that this is your first interview to our magazine, it would be great if you could tell us about Fen's origins. How did you and Sam Levin meet, and what did you want to achieve?

Sam and I met back in 1998, in a little pot-smoking mountain town called Nelson. We were teenagers at the time, and we started Fen after a single jam, where we droned a riff in 5/4 for about 45 minutes. We both played guitar, we both worshiped Tool and GnR, and we were driven to create our own dark and complex sound. The union came without hesitation.

- How would you describe Fen's sound?

The current sound is plaintive and brooding. Heavy and light. Subject to change.

- 'Trails Out Of Gloom'... the thing is that, although definitively dark sounding, the new album has many acoustic passages that, somehow, enlightens the compositions, taking them out of the gloom that surrounds your previous works... Has this acoustic side of the album been in the composition from the beginning of the writing sessions?

Most of the songs on Trails Out Of Gloom began on classical guitar, and the original plan was to make an acoustic album. During moments of weakness though, I strayed from that initial plan and experimented with bits of distortion here and there, and once I'd heard those distorted layers, I couldn't do without them. My roots are in heavy music, and that primal pull was too strong to resist. The final recording ended up being an amalgamation of the two textures, heavy and light. I always loved those classical-sounding Metallica intro's, but I wanted them to carry on for longer, and I wanted them to develop more slowly, rather than cutting straight to the thrashing. In a way, Trails Out Of Gloom helps bridge that transition for me.
 
- Fen's lineup has gone through several changes throughout these years, though yourself and Sam have always been the band's core...Do you think that these changes brought new elements into the band's sound?

Everyone we've played with have been exceptional musicians who can't help but bring something new to the sound. At the same time, our approach to songwriting has changed with each recording. This combination of variables has resulted in a big gap between the chaos of our first album, Surgical Transfusion of Molting Sensory Reflections, and the measured progressions of Trails.


- Given the band's sound evolution... Have you got an idea of how will Fen sound in a couple of albums time?

We've been working on new material, and from a guitar perspective, it's heavier and proggier than Trails. Sam's been writing high energy rock/metal-type riffage. Also, for the first time since our 2003 album, Heron Leg, we're bringing bass and drums into the writing process much earlier. For anyone who's only heard Trails, the next album may be a shock.

- 'Trails Out Of Gloom' is an album that requires several listenings to be fully appreciated, and is a perfect example of what a "grower" is.  Does the good music always need an extra effort in order to get into it?

It's a fine balance in songwriting, offering enough yum-yums in the first few listens to keep people coming back, but reserving the more exquisite treats for subsequent listens. I can't say that I know how it's done. The music for Trails took a long time to write - about three years. Perhaps that slow evolution into being can account for its "grower" status.

- For 'Trails Out Of Gloom' you have signed with Ripple Music. How was this contract forged? Do you plan to re-release your former albums with Ripple, so they could reach a wider audience?

I had contacted The Ripple Effect Blog a couple years ago, asking them to review our latest album at the time, Congenital Fixation. They came back with a killer review, then they requested an interview, and eventually they told us they were starting a label and wanted us to sign on. Their hard work and enthusiasm has helped us reach a lot of new listeners. And yes, we'll be re-releasing Congenital Fixation under the Ripple flag later this year.

- Remembering the fast and energetic entrance of 'Cockroach Eyelids' from the previous 'Congenital Fixation', I can do nothing else but wonder how you have taken that energy and embellished it with layers of emotional playing. Even the guitar parts seems to be more melodic. Is 'Trails Out Of Gloom' Fen's more intimate work?

With Congenital Fixation, Sam wrote the guitar parts and I wrote the vocals and the songs came together collaboratively. But with Trails, Sam was occupied with school and health issues, so I took up the guitar end as well. There's no doubt that he's a superior  player, and I did everything I could to keep the standard high with my more limited skills, which included layering and different textures and a lot of attention to arrangement. As you've mentioned, the result was pretty different. I guess the intimacy of Trails can be attributed in part to the acoustic root of the songs, but also to the fact that I was working on it alone.


- Your voice has been truly improved all along these years, and it feels like you feel much more confident with your singing style... Do you agree with that?

Thanks for your kind words, Francisco. I'm always trying to improve my skills as a vocalist. That's what keeps me going - the thought that the best is yet to come. But as much as my skills might have improved, I think it might be that I've come closer to finding a musical landscape that allows my voice to explore its full range. If I was suddenly thrown into any number of bands that go strictly with power chords and driving beats, half my lines would disappear. I'd be a vocal cripple.


- It has been recorded a video for 'Miracle'... Why did you choose that song? What can you tell us about this video?
 
The guys at our label thought 'Miracle' was the strongest tune on the album, and when making a video on a tight budget, shorter is better, so it was an easy choice. The video features two marionettes in a miniature landscape constructed of rocks and sticks and brambles and whatever else we could grab from nearby parks and beaches. In this set, arranged on a 4ft by 6ft plywood board, the two puppets play out a story of decayed love. We made the video with the help of Mind of a Snail Puppet Co and a handful of friends. You can watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4zO07MF3I

- Given the fact that 'Trails Out Of Gloom' was published more than half a year ago... Do you think that this is time to think about Fen's future plans?

Our biggest goal right now is getting our live sound up to snuff. To do that, we plan on making some short tours through western Canada over the next year, and expanding the periphery of our local shows. That, plus writing and recording a new album should keep us busy.

- Can you tell us something about the gigs that you played for 'Trails Out Of Gloom'? How would you describe a Fen gig?

We're still getting comfortable in the live setting. I don't think we've found what we are yet, live. Right now we're slowly adding new elements to the show to see how we can create a more Fen environment while we're up there. We've got a show tonight and we're going to try out some sound effects between songs. We've been wanting to incorporate some kind of visuals as well, but haven't found a way to begin yet. For us, the music comes first, and the entertainment aspect is a faraway second, so it will develop more slowly.


- Well, I Think it's all by now, Doug. Thanks a lot for your time, and wish you all the best. Have you got anything to say to your Spanish fans?

Gracias! We're honoured to have you as listeners. To stay in touch with Fen, join our email list at www.fenmusic.ca or "like" us at www.facebook.com/fenmusic. We have many more albums ahead of us.

Fen to Open for Steven Wilson and Blackfield as They Launch Their North American Tour

 Blackfield are starting their North American tour today in support of their new album, Welcome To My DNA and the Ripple will be there.  Ripple artist, Fen, has been chosen to open for Blackfield for their Vancouver date.  Come to the show and look up Pope and Racer and have some Ripple fun.


  
North American Tour Starts Today
Get Free Music Plus A Special Foursquare Deal On The New Album  

Blackfield, the acclaimed collaboration between Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) and Israeli artist Aviv Geffen, launch their North American tour today in Washington, DC.  The three week trek sees the band hit the US, Canada and Mexico with special guests Anathema on the first nine dates.

Their 3rd studio album, Welcome To My DNA, was released in April on Kscope and has garnered amazing accolades around the world where magazines such as Rocksound called it "Blackfield's finest hour" and Dave DiMartino at Yahoo Music says "Arty, melodic, adventurous, and significantly catchy throughout, Welcome To My DNA is a nifty and sophisticated rock album"

To celebrate the start of the tour, the music television network Fuse.tv is giving away a free download of "Glass House" at http://fuse.tv/music/free-music.html?artist_id=532. 

Another special promotion starting today is via Foursquare.  When fans arrive at each date of the tour and check in on Foursquare, they'll get a discount code for the album from The Omega Order. Fans can find the code redemption instructions under the "tips" section of the venue called "Blackfield with special guests Anathema".

BLACKFIELD
"Welcome To My DNA"
Kscope

MAY

18th Washington, DC  

19th Philadelphia, PA, Theater of the Living Arts  

20th New York, NY, Irving Plaza  

21st Boston, MA, Royale Boston  

23rd Montreal, QC, Le National  

24th The Opera House Toronto 

25th Cleveland, OH, House of Blues  

26th Detroit, MA, St Andrew's Hall  

27th Chicago, IL, Park West  

30th Vancouver, BC, Rickshaw Theatre   

31st Seattle, WA, Studio Seven  

JUNE

1st Portland, OR, Aladdin Theater  

3rd San Francisco, CA, Slim's  

4th Los Angeles, CA, El Rey Theatre  

6th Mexico City, MEX, Metropolitan Theater  

Syd Arthur - Moving World

I had know idea who or what Syd Arthur was, but what I heard was not what I was expecting by any means. Moving World was another 'gift sent' to me by Ripple Music, and I really don't know what to make of it. It melds styles I previously thought un-meldable. Truly a conundrum of sound and style. I only label this as progressive rock because I don't know what else to classify it as, it is that much of an interesting mash-up of style.

I'm going to assume Syd Arthur is either a nickname or the band name, like Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull or Franz Ferdinand, a name that sounds like a person's, but is in fact the group's name (in my searches I discovered a theory that the band gets it's name from Syd Barret (original singer for Pink Floyd) and from The Kinks' album, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), so that's kind of interesting. I say this because the singer has a very peculiar voice; At times making me think it is a female singing, and at others just a really odd male (the first draft of this paragraph was all about a female vocalist, then I did some actual research and learned the truth). It is really odd, I can tell that he's British, but other then that I am at a loss.

The music off of Moving World is an odd conglomeration of styles. I hear elements of funk, jazz, classic rock, singer-songwriter, soul, Latin, etc, etc. Each of the songs begins in one fashion and then heads into another at one point or another. Track two, "Pulse," begins with a bluesy classic rock riff, then moves into a funk/soul blend. The following, "Exit Domino," spends most of it's time with only the (odd) voice and a plucked guitar melody, but at parts it becomes much more involved with a semi-impressive drum-cymbal collaboration and a much more heavy guitar (but still not close to metal by any means). The best part of the song is towards the end when the vocals cut out and the guitar goes into a frantic solo-style with a keyboard/maybe-guitar over it all. It all builds into this crescendo and then dies suddenly and drastically, leaving only a single wailing guitar. Probably the best song on the EP.

Throughout it all there is that solo-songwriter style of a focus on vocals and guitar, with the rest of the instruments only getting the green light to truly perform when the vocals are dormant. The final track is the best example of this; "Hermethio" begins with a big band sound, with piano, flute, strings, moving drums and a couple of guitars, their only instrumental track. This song shows that the act can pull off some decent music, but the rest of the disc doesn't really support this theory.

All in all... um, I don't know. I don't have some witty way to wrap up Syd Arthur. The music is eclectic and odd... but good. The vocals are... weird to say the least. There are a few good moments on Moving World, and a couple decent songs. The band knows how to play, and how to write some compelling music, but there is something missing in their conception. If you are in market for something interesting and odd then Syd Arthur may be just your bag, give them a spin and let me know what you think.

--K-

Buy here

Uriah Heap - Demons & Wizards.

Today, we welcome Klepto to the Ripple fold.  You can find his missives at his own site, The Klepto's Guide to Awesome Music.  A prog fiend, he'll fill in Ripple readers on the joys of prog and other associated heaviness.  For today, we're gonna re-run his earlier review of a classic album, Uriah Heap's Demons & Wizards.

It's been a while, and I have at least two articles that could use my attention, but I just listened to Demons & Wizards again and I feel the need to tell you all about this spectacular album. I've already gone into the history of Uriah Heep (way back in January of 2009) so I don't need to go into to much detail on that front. They were/are a British band that is one of the foundations of hard rock and heavy metal music. More specifically, they are the forerunners of progressive rock and - by extension - progressive metal. They were among the first to use dual lead guitars, and layered semi-operatic vocals. Many of their songs were narratives, telling of mystical battles and amazing people; Demons & Wizards was no different. I like every song on this album, with favorites being "The Wizard," "Traveler In Time," "Easy Livin'," and "Rainbow Demon." All of these songs tell a story, filled with emotion and quite often mysticism.

"The Wizard" is the story of a man living his life, when one day a mighty Wizard comes to his fire. Their the narrator shares his food with his guest, and the Wizard tells the story of his life, his hopes and his dreams. This song was the first single from the album, and even though it wasn't as popular as the second ("Easy Livin'"), it is by far my favorite song on the album, and one of my favorites from the band.

In "Traveler In Time," there seems to be a double meaning. In the foreground, the tale is of a man who is lost in time, struggling to get back to his home, to see his love once more. But the background story, with mention of paying for his crime, being set free, searching for an answer and in the last line "of helping mankind" I believe that the reason the man is traveling through time to to either atone or to fix a mistake he had made in the past. So he journeys to return to his own time, however that it has been altered.

The second single off the album, and one of their most popular, "Easy Livin'," seems to be the most straight-forward song thus far. A quasi-love song about a man saying that his life has gotten a lot easier sense he met the woman he loves. Although not as lyrically deep as "The Wizard," the song has a grooving guitar and drum line, and the lyrics are simple to sing along with - something that would become very popular in the 80's (songs with simple lyrics; read: AC/DC)

My second favorite song, "Rainbow Demon," is another one with simple to comprehend lyrics. The song is about a great warrior (the Rainbow Demon) who "Lives for his sword and his gun." And while there aren't a lot of lyrics (one verse, repeated twice), the music for this one seems to follow the Black Sabbath of doom metal - of course with the progressive touch of Uriah Heep. The song begins slow and ominous, with not much in the way of actual music, relying heavily on David Byron's vocals, until the chorus when the band all comes in. here the sound is massive and all-encompassing; the layered vocals make their appearance, and the song grows with the second verse, laying it all out there with the final chorus. Then the chorus continues, being repeated a dozen times (it seems like), fading into the nothingness of sound that begins the track. It really is something that is better to hear and behold, then try to comprehend with my words on the screen. Go buy this album, it is worth it solely for this song (and "The Wizard" of course).

My one major gripe about the record - it even being not very major - is about the last song, "Paradise/The Spell." These are two very good and very different songs, that some some reason they decided to jam together as one track. The transition is sudden and sloppy, with the slower "Paradise" being drowned out with the more up-beat "The Spell." It just seems unnatural. In my research I have seen that in later releases the songs have been split, making me wonder where the separation of the songs took place, and how. So, I would be interested in hearing the newer versions of Demons & Wizards, just for that fact. If you are like me and have only the original style, fret not for they are both good songs (with "The Spell" being the better of the two), and outside that 15-30 second smash-up, you would never know they were one song.

I could go on and on about all the songs, and even more in depth about the ones I have highlighted already. Demons & Wizards is Uriah Heep's best album, by far, and one of the golden records of the early prog-rock scene. It belongs in everyone's catalog, and should be one you listen to once a month (for me it joins with the Wall by Pink Floyd and Dream Theater's Scenes from a Memory). The only way this album could be better is if contained "Gypsy" off of their first album, Very 'Evy . . .Very 'Umble (labeled as their self-titled in the U.S.), and my all time favorite by the band, as well as one of my favorite songs of all time, "Lady In Black" off of their second album, Salisbury.

--Klepto

Buy here: Demons & Wizards