Kyo

Hey everyone, now that they finally have a decent number of discs in stock I'd like to point out that, as a promotional move to go along with this interview... http://guitar9.com/interview154.html ... Guitar Nine Records are currently offering our CD for the low price of just $13 (including shipping within the US!). http://www.guitar9.com/relocator.html This is a limited time offer, so if you're on the fence about this album or know someone who is, now would be a good time to pull the trigger.

I got the Nebulous Dawn collection not too long ago, it includes Electronic Meditation, Alpha Centauri, Zeit and Atem. I'm not sure I get this music. But the reviews of the following few albums sound quite interesting anyway...

Time for an update:

Feel free to join us and post something about them yourself! Anyway, this group is really developing quite nicely. 10 days after its inception it already has 113 members! And there's quite a bit of stuff being posted, so I don't have to make sure people are entertained all by myself, haha! I figured I should post at least one album recommendation per week. This time I picked Waking Vision - Into High Selva. The conclusion: "This is a beautiful album displaying an impressive level of musicianship that never gets in the way of the actual music. Highly recommended for just about anyone!" So join us, check out my full Waking Vision write-up and give this fantastic album a chance if you haven't heard it yet!

Me too - I've always loved his collaborations with McCoy Turner in particular!

Better buy two just in case! With this cheap stuff you never know how long it's gonna last!

Don't know, never heard a note they played - sorry!

Hey everybody, I have just created this new gathering place for fans of instrumental rock from all over the world. Prog, metal and fusion lovers welcome, too! If you're a fan, please join us and invite your instrumental-loving friends! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113168542068345 Our first featured CDs are two stunning debut albums and one of my all-time favorites: An Endless Sporadic - An Endless Sporadic Exivious - Exivious Steve Stevens - Flamenco.A.Go.Go More coming soon! Thanks, Michael

I don't usually expect any help, but when they offer that they'll plug your album on some metal forum that they frequent and then nothing happens for half a year, you end up doubting if you should even ask again about that offer from January. Well, if you don't think the music deserves your help, then I guess it's for the better if you keep quiet about it.

You're excused because you obviously have good taste. Anyone else have some similar stories to contribute? Maybe even the Big O guys?

Disclaimer: This is a shameless cross-post to several forums, but since my original post generated a lot of very interesting discussion with lots of good stories and valuable comments from other musicians, I thought I'd just go ahead and post it here as well: I'd like to share this little list of things I learned in the six months following the release of my band's debut album. When you release an album, you will realize that... 1. ... relying on online acquaintances to help promote your music (e.g., by writing reviews if they like it) is mostly futile. This can even harm your however loose relationship with people when they disappoint you for no good reason. 2. ... on the other hand, sometimes perfect strangers can become untiring champions of your music which feels just great. 3. ... some magazines and review pages can't even be bothered to reply to a promo offer via e-mail. Makes you really want to send them a CD just like that, eh? 4. ... a large part of many reviews is just a slightly re-phrased version of your official band biography. So better make sure it's well-written. 5. ... a surprising percentage of positive (!) reviews doesn't include a single nicely quotable sentence. 6. ... even when your guest star is very obviously featured on your entire album, some "professionals" will still write that he "guests on a couple of tracks". 7. ... you were clearly influenced by <insert band you've never heard in your life>. 8. ... some people buy your album (thanks!) but then share their download link with all their friends (WTF?!). It's one form of "support", I guess... 9. ... quite a few of your online acquaintances don't legally obtain music at all (they might make an exception for their favorite band). 10. ... you shouldn't expect people to stick to public announcements like "I will buy this ASAP", especially coming from other musicians. To be continued...

Hey guys, my "help us promote our album" thread sank like a stone here, but it seems like it was the right idea anyway! I just did this nice interview with Drop-d magazine from Ireland, check it out! http://www.drop-d.ie/archives/9845 And for those who speak French, here's another recent one with Stefan on Progressive Area: http://www.progressive-area.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1556&Itemid=43 Thanks to Jonathan Keane and Declan! Btw, did I mention our album has made it to Japan? Marquee Inc. picked it up and is now selling it through their World Disque Web store. Yay! Not bad for a 100% independent production, eh?

Bump as this festival begins tomorrow. Can't wait!

Love the Norvo trio stuff with Mingus, time to play that Savoy compilation mentioned above!

Damnation is their "easy listening" album, no metal riffs or growls here. Very untypical, but quite nice. Might be a good starting point if you're allergic to the heavier stuff. Other than that, Blackwater Park is a classic for a reason and their last album Watershed was one of their strongest so far.

It is indeed, although I guess it's probably closer to the song/demo they had before the Yes guys reworked the song rather than a reworking of a Yes song.

Got my copy today, thanks! Just listening to it, my first impression is !

There's the lead sheet for the title track on the back of the digipack and another track (very hard to read as it's small and the printed in white on a bluish, background) on the back of the cover page.

Now that I made sure I'd get a ticket I can inform everyone else. This year's North Sea Jazz festival features what is pretty much everyone from my (extensive) jazz collection except for the retired and the departed: Stanley Clarke Band with Hiromi (and Ronald Bruner Jr.!) McCoy Tyner Trio + Joe Lovano Ron Carter's Golden Striker Trio (with Mulgrew Miller!) Bobby Hutcherson & Cedar Walton Quartet Chick Corea's Freedom Band (with Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Roy Haynes!) Herbie Hancock's The Imagine Project (with Lionel Loueke, Greg Phillinganes, Tal Wilkenfeld and Vinnie Colaiuta) Sonny Rollins Pat Metheny Group (a quartet with Lyle Mays, Steve Rodby and Antonio Sanchez) Marcus Miller's TUTU revisited Joshua Redman Double Trio Ornette Coleman Quartet: This Is Our Music Now! (with Charlie Haden and Joshua Redman) Ornette Coleman Quartet (with two bassists plus Denardo Coleman on drums) Ornette Coleman Quartet meets Bachir Attar & The Master Musicians Of Jajouka and James Blood Ulmer (yes, Ornette plays with a different lineup on each day of the festival) Lee Konitz Quintet Kenny Barron Trio + David Sanchez Dave Holland y Pepe Habichuela Flamenco Project Mike Stern Group (with Randy Brecker and Dave Weckl!) Richard Bona Jaga Jazzist Eivind Aarset Sonic Codex Orchestra Bob Brookmeyer New Art Orchestra "New York State of Mind": The Metropole Orchestra conducted by Vince Mendoza with Lee Konitz, David Binney, Eric Alexander, Chris Potter, Michael Attias, Clifton Anderson, Christian Scott & Jason Moran Those are just the jazz/fusion guys that I'm (somewhat) familiar with, there's lots more! And then there's also Joe Bonamassa, Elvis Costello & The Sugarcanes, Randy Crawford with the Joe Sample Trio, Norah Jones, Katie Melua, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Diana Krall, Joss Stone, Tower of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder, too... Even with everything spread across three days and countless venues, I'll never manage to see everything I'd like to see! But I'm sure it'll be an unforgettable jazz weekend! Btw, I'm most excited about getting to see/hear Bobby Hutcherson!

Thanks, ubu! I'd never gotten around to adding this to my iTunes library and with your nice overview I just grouped all tracks from a specific date together as one album ("Live Trane - Paris '63" etc.). It'll be nice to rediscover this music, it's really been a while since I've played the CDs!

You might just be listening to the wrong (more recent) stuff - they moved away from a melodic style on The Odyssey and even more so on Paradise Lost and I don't like a big part of the former and most of the latter for that reason. Try songs like The Accolade and Accolade II, Candlelight Fantasia, Through the Looking Glass (stellar track from the uneven Twilight in Olympus album), Communion and the Oracle or Rediscovery (the finale of the V suite).

Probably not for a start, but strangely enough, Tales from Topographic Oceans has aged better for me than many of the more popular Yes classics. Today it's one of my favorite Yes albums and probably the one that I play most often (next to Drama, another rather untypical choice). Oh yeah, Symphony X are awesome! They've been moving away from the prog elements and turning into a more generic power metal band recently (cheese and double bass drumming...), but some of their material is really good. The Divine Wings of Tragedy and V (the latter more orchestral and a concept album) would be my main recommendations! Their singer is indeed fantastic and their guitarist is one of my favorite rhythm players in all metal.

I think Aquarius by UK proggers Haken is one of the best debuts of the year so far. These guys share some members with the band To-Mera, although in quite different roles: Haken is led by To-Mera keyboardist Richard Henshall, who wrote all the music and also plays some guitar on the album (the band also features another guitarist and a full-time keyboardist). To-Mera's main writer and guitarist Tom MacLean takes a back seat in Haken and is featured on bass. The music is a very fresh sounding take on prog metal that mixes all kinds of influences in a natural way - there are wacky bits that remind me of the stuff Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess usually gets slagged for, there's some jazzy stuff, there are some growls (not a lot, though, so don't let that keep you from giving this album a chance if you mind those), and most importantly there are some really great melodies and strong vocals. Most of the songs are around 10 minutes long and both adventurous and well-constructed, with the closing 16:57 "Celestial Elixir" nicely wrapping up the whole thing - did I mention Aquarius is a concept album? Their MySpace page has some streaming tracks and some decent live video that will give you a pretty good idea of their sound: http://www.myspace.com/hakenmusic Just know that the track "Drowning in the Flood" is not representative of the album's style, it's much more on the metal side than the rest of the material, which is a lot more melodic and more original in sound. Guess they picked that one to appeal to the sort of listener that's looking for yet another generic prog metal band - let me assure you, that's what Haken are NOT.

Wow - how can this not be out on CD yet?! Or am I missing something?

Don't say that, I need to cut down on my CD expenses!