Gentle Giant - Octopus

The last album to feature big brother Phil Shulman of the Shulman brothers, Gentle Giant's fourth album went into a virtuoso mode and going a little further with their arrangement and compositions. They went ahead and got the Prog wagon almost rolling, but with the roots of classical music, heavy rock, traditional jazz, and a sense of humor that was almost strangely strange.

They crystal with baroque italian symphonic music that went with the fusion technique of The Advent of Panurge and The Boys in the Band. Think of Me with Kindness goes into a mystical ballad transition while they go a little proto hard rock on A Cry for Everyone with Gary Green's guitar work and Kerry Minnear's keyboard work. A Dog's Life is an acoustic folk ballad set to a string quartet and odd little notes to the keyboard making more crazy like Mozart made a 13-minute suite of mellotronic bliss. Knots, an odd little number has the Shulman bros. and Gary Green and Kerry going barbershop and then go funky/buckwild with the 18th century classical rocker of Raconteur Troubador. The finale of experimentations on River sets it up into a Hancock fusion style that ends with an improv from the band.

Genesis Live at the Rainbow 1973

This rare recording was recorded at London's Rainbow Theatre on October 20th, 1973. Frontman Peter Gabriel was at his game including Steve Hackett, guitar; Phil Collins, drums and vocals; Tony Banks 12-string guitar and keyboards; and Mike Rutherford, bass guitar. The recording unlike the previous Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set released ten years ago where Gabriel had to redub his vocals and Hackett dubbing his guitar part also because they felt they didn't give it their best. But here in its entirety is the full performance and it has been called 'The Lost Live Album' as they were promoting their album Selling England By the Pound as they got the audience blown away by their compositions between each song.

Phil Collins who was in his mid 20s whose roots was in the sound of Jazz, The Beatles, and Jazz Fusion drum sounds from Billy Cobham and Chester Thompson who joined the group after Gabriel left for their Wind & Wuthering tour. Collins plays the drums as a madman on pieces like Firth of Fifth and The Battle of Epping Forest. Steve Hackett leads the band into his guitar work and uses his definition on the classical fingerpicking guitar style and his virtuoso style while Tony Banks is almost a keyboard wizard on the recording with the dark mellotronic introduction to Watcher of the Skies and the solo on the moog composition with Firth of Fifth and the echo sound with The Battle of Epping Forest.

There are some of the most suprising compositions and the symphonic prog sounds of Genesis has done in this rare bootleg that defined the golden-era of Genesis. And this is the real deal to get a real kick out of.

Genesis 1970-1975

In a tiny little english garden, lived a 5-piece band who came from an english public school from Charterhouse and sang about Giant Hogweeds, bizarre fairy tales, greek sex of Salmacis, and erotic liminal female lamia's to be hungry for sex. Genesis's golden-era of the prog movement featuring vocalist Peter Gabriel, guitarists Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips was one of the most important periods in the history of Progressive Rock. Peter Gabriel's role as a frontman is a tour de force when he was in the band--sense of humor storytelling, the bizarre head shaved in a funny way, and the costumes he wore; The fox's dress, the old man mask, the Sunflower, and the infamous Slippermen costume, and with Hackett and Phillip for their creation with Genesis as guitar players--are superb and virtuoso's they were in their hey day of Genesis's experimentations. On this 6-CD/DVD set including a bonus CD (sixth CD) that features extra DVDs including the Lamb tour while the music from the album plays in the background, the Shepperton performance, Brussels TV program, and the 1974 french Melody TV performance sees Genesis from an underground following to a little mainstream from 1970 to 1974. In 1970, Genesis released Trespass. It was a cross between a catholic church, hard rock, lushful ballads, and an homage to the folk story-telling. Anthony Phillips and original drummer John Mayhew had a real sense of warm sounds to the English countryside when they joined the group with a darker sound. Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford take in turns of fingerpicking in the Tolkien related epics of Stagnation and Dusk while Gabriel uses his voice with sadness on Looking for Someone and Visions of Angels then filled with anger in the hard rock marching 9-minute anti-war prog piece The Knife. During that time, Genesis did some BBC sessions after being signed by Tony Stratton-Smith's Charisma label which had Van Der Graaf Generator, Lindsifarne, Audience, and the comedic Monty Python. The BBC sessions feature some piano work and in a darker tone with Shepherd while the folk homage comes up with Pacidy and Let Us Now Make Love. On the sinister tales of the Grimm brothers with Nursery Cryme in 1971, now adding guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins, sees Genesis going Lewis Carroll and reinventing the Prog genre. With Tony Banks keyboard sound including the clavinet introduction to the marching epic The Return of the Giant Hogweed and the ballad sounds of the Mellotron on Seven Stones and The Fountain of Salmacis. The main highlight is the 10-minute epic The Musical Box which has become a live favorite as Peter shows his sexual side wearing the old man mask while Hackett's guitar solo is intensive while doing his pre-Van Halen guitar work and making the piece a magical quality of epic proportions. Foxtrot released in 1972, finds Genesis in the form of Art Rock and Science-Fiction mini-opera's. A cover done by Paul Whitehead who done the Nursery Cryme cover, features a woman in a fox's head has gotten the band and frontman Peter Gabriel to transform himself into the man of costumes. A classic among prog classics including the Sci-Fi epic Watcher of the Skies, an homage to Arthur C. Clarke and the political economic crisis with Time Tabel and Get 'Em Out By Friday, the classical guitar set across the english coutnryside done by Hackett with Horizons, and the famous 22-minute epic that's been also a live favorite among Genesis fans, Supper's Ready. On the sense of humor that Genesis had, Selling England by the Pound relased in 1973, showed the group going a little mainstream press nationwide in America. The album showed the gritty world of England's downfall of the corporation business into a needle in a haystack. The acapella inro to Dancing with the Moonlit Knight starts off with line 'Can you tell me where my country lies? said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.' and then goes into a melodic/upbeat tempo while the hit single going up to no. 17 in the british single charts I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) has a comedic Monty Python rock style, as the daydreamer Lawnmower narrates on what he does for a living to cut the grass and wants to become a superstar. Phil Collins comes in the picture with the beauty folky ballad More Fool Me while the highlights on Selling England by the Pound are the epic trilogies that are a wonder gem. Firth of Fifth starts off with Tony Banks classical piano composition intro and then it becomes a vitruoso take for Steve Hackett's guitar work and Tony's moog. Hackett's solo goes up across the heavens while Gabriel does a folky jazz flute arrangement. The Battle of Epping Forest which was based on a news coverage between two gangs fighting over the rights of the Equal protection rights, is more of a political prog statement than your typical pre-Dungeons and Dragons concept on ice as the time signatures go a little Zappa-related in the tune. The Cinema Show should have been a prequel to Shakespeare's classic to Romeo and Juliet as if they had an X-rated erotic sex between the two, then head to a movie in this moody and arraning epic. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway which was Peter's last album with the band released in 1974, a concept album for the insanity, tells the tale of a Puerto Rican street punk named Rael who lives in the subways of New York City, goes into a surreal fantasy land to find his brother John as he meets various people and creatures that are not your typical Disney bullshit. The album showed Gabriel moving away from a sunflower on Supper's Ready to The punk flying on a winsheild in a futurisitc city of New York. The Lamb shows some amazing highlights: the Avant-Garde experimental keyboard madness of The Waiting Room, the future proto-punk new wave sound of Back in NYC, the crisp ballads of The Carpet Crawlers, Chamber of 32 Doors, and The Lamia. But its the dynamic explosions that comes in that you've never expected on The Lamb. The booming introduction to the self-titled track and the sci-fi pre '80s blade runner taste which would make Gabriel and the band sound like a robotic computer with Riding the Scree and The Colony of Slippermen.

Time Machine A Vertigo Retrospective

This 3-CD set is a tribute to the swirling Vertigo label of its golden-era of 1969 to 1973. And it is filled with some bands and artists that hit the big time like Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Rod Stewart, and Gentle Giant to name a few while others were too obscure or ahead of their time with bands like; Colosseum, Gracious!, Jimmy Campbell, Affinity, and Manfred Mann's Chapter Three. Ahead of their time? No, they were fucking awesome on this compilation of the Vertigo label. Disc one starts off with the hard rockin shuffle of Colosseum's The Kettle. The piece appeared on their first album Valentyne Suite to feature a newcomer keyboardist Dave Greenslade, unfortunately the album was released without this track in the US called The Grass is Greener in 1970. Of course The Kettle is a heavy metal classic that could have gotten airplays back in the 1970's. You have some killing artists like Juicy Lucy, Affinity, Clear Blue Sky, and Cressidsa's jazz ballad of To Play Your Little Games. This box set shows that they were virtuoso performers to get the Prog gates open into another world of a new dimension that you never seen before. Disc Two contains the weirdness of the Vertigo label with artists such as Dr. Z's Evil Woman's Manly Child and Jimmy Campbell's stoner folk classic Half-Baked from his self-titled album while May Blitz get the proto-thrash metal treatment with For Madmen Only. You get the Vertigo treatment of a whirlpool terror of Jade Warrior, Patto, Tudor Lodge, Beggars Opera, Warhorse, Freedom, Magna Carta, and the glam rock cult heroes the Sensational Alex Harvey Band with their punk rock classic Midnight Moses appearing on the second disc. The last disc covers the end of an era for the Vertigo label featuring classic prog with germany's Atlantis with their 9-minute blues rocker Living at the End of Time and Status Quo's fast bullet train single Paper Plane. Other artists and bands to close it up include Vangelis experimental's Let it Happen from his post-Aphrodite's Child album Earth, while Gravy Train goes sinister with their flute and guitar work on A Ballad of a Peaceful Man and Black Sabbath's classic Spiral Architect gets the closing of a life time. The booklet is a treat to show the history of the band's line-up and history of the Vertigo label, ads, and Mark Powell's liner notes. A brilliant Time Machine to back in time where Prog was king back then.

Man - Live at the Padget Rooms Penarth

This 2-CD set reissued on the Cherry Red label Esoteric Recordings, is the holy grail for Man fans. The complete concert on 6 tracks never before heard since the original release in 1972. Most of the pieces appeared on the previous Man albums on the United Artists label with their first two including Man and Do You Like it Here Now, Are You Settling In? This was the last line-up of the original members of the group to include Deke Leonard guitar & vocals; Micky Jones guitar & vocals; Martin Ace Bass & Vocals; and Terry Williams drums. This group were paying an homage to the psychedelic scene and the West Coast that was happening in America at that time. They were a crossover between the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. You have the guitars going into a battle zone of the rhythm and lead voice section between Deke and Micky on the 24-minute composition Spunk Rock as they duke it out at the Padget Rooms to get the crowd all pumped and headbanging with its Hendrix and Jimmy Page relative solos on the first number while Many Are Called, But Few Get Up and Angel Easy gets a magical spell for 9 and 5-minutes of Prog and heartpumping country foot stompin' rock treatment. H. Samuel another composition to Spunk Rock, has the audience and their fans being glued to the group as they play excerpts on the self-titled album with the sinister guitar work on Would the Christians Wait Five Minutes? The Lions are Having a Draw as Terry Williams does his Jazz relative solos Billy Cobham style while Martin Ace does soulful basslines to fit the scenery. The Avant-Garde on the 11-minute mark, they're scatting and going into the space rock mode including their guitars going into darker territories with Alchemist. I bet Man were thinking "Let's suprise the fans with this Jam and have their jaws dropped thinking to theirselves 'What the hell just happened?" The tension on the last 2-minutes has Man going into a climatic climax with feedback amps going haywire while the guitar is into a whammy mode and hitting the pedals like Mr. Hyde and ends with a silence. This is a total classic right here! If you thought the original Romain was only six-minutes long on the first Man (United Artists) album, think again. This time they are cookin! The 20-minute live version of this hard blues rockin' classic just went harder than before. The first 7-minutes is Deke and Micky doing their Led Zeppelin tribute to fill the void and then they get the crowd going for more as they sing their hearts out. The final track Daughter of the Fireplace is essential with Deke singing his heart out with his guitar going heavy metal including Micky Jones as they take their blues rocking sound to get you going for more.

Strange Pleasures Further Sounds of the Decca Underground

This 3-CD compilation is almost a lost treasure chest. From the Cherry Red Esoteric label and Prog chief and fan, Mark Powell, he decided it was time to do a sequel to the 2003 tribute to the DECCA label on Legend of a Mind The Underground Anthology. Strange Pleasures is almost another psychedelic trip down memory lane where Legend left off with a mystery on what is behind the other door of the experimental scenery. These 49 tracks on the box set stays in focus around the underground scene in London from various Psychedelic bands that hit the big time in the Marquee or were too obscure for the BBC. Tracks like the darker beauty of Al Stewart's Turn into Earth, Genesis earlier take of their homage of the psychedelic Bee Gees with In the Beginning, and the classical symphonic orchestra prog masterpiece Twilight Time by the Moody Blues in 1967. When you listen to these gems, you began to see that the DECCA/DERAM label were on a train mission to see what was going on in the London scenery during that chronological period in 1967 to 1975. The Accent's proto garage rock of psychedelia music with Red Sky at Night and Bill Fay's (admired by Wilco) folk ballads by the mellotron on Some Good Advice and Garden Song. The First CD ends as 1969 comes to an end of the flower generation with Egg's jazzy fusion of I will be absorbed and Alvin Lee's Ten Years of the hard rockin' pounding sounds of Bad Scene. As the second CD begains, you could tell its like a time machine train with the chugging sounds of Caravan's If I Could Do It Again, I'd Do It All Over You, Denny Gerrard's medieval taste of prog acoustics on Atmosphere, and T2's own take of early Pink Floyd with JLT. This compilation is one of the best and the songs from various bands are a clean cut in the golden-era before the Prog scene started to dwindle at the end of '75 when Punk and Disco came into the scene. As the final third CD begans to conclude Strange Pleasures, it starts with one of the earliest songs from one of British Heavy Metal heroes of the early '70s that was the answer to Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy's take of the wah-wah blues rocker Things Ain't Working Out Down the Farm, Ten Years After hard rockin' I'm Coming On while Gong's guitarist Steve Hillage's canterbury supergroup Khan took the epics into the solar system with the 9-minute Space Shanty as Steve Hillage and Egg's Dave Stewart take the virtuoso landscape into a spaceship ride while the avant-garde scene goes strangely further with an unknown band that I'm beginning to dig from the DECCA label called Zakarrias and their acoustic rocker Cosmic Bride. Mark Powell keeps the music of the Progressive Rock genre into a ray of light as Bill Fay comes back into the framework with the darker ballad of jail sentences of trail by error on Time of the Last Persecution. All in all, this is one of the best Prog compilations I've enjoyed listening to and you will also when you buy this to get a real kick out of.

The post aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Still Survivng and Never giving up!

To all Prog and Prog Metal fans who read this,

I Just want to let you know that I'm alright. My family are okay also due to Hurricane Ike. The house is fine and it didn't get hit. We (the family and I) were very lucky not to get hit. We had no Power for 13 days in a gruesome hot 84 degree fahrenheit inside my house. But finally got power back yesterday afternoon.

We lost power on Fri Sept. 12 and had to use portable TVs and a small Sports Radio that my Dad had about 19 years ago. It still works to this day. And watched the debris and broken trees and traffic signals that lost power also. Not to forget the Curfew which was a sticky situation. Plus the destruction of Galveston, Texas. For me, I've been there a couple of times when I was a kid.

My parents, my sister, and I would go there to go to the beach, look at the sites, Moody Gardens and the Grand Opera House. Now, when I watched the destruction of Galveston, it almost looked like a Nuclear Holocaust. I don't want to scare anybody, but the destruction looks like a War Zone including Bonar Peninsula. My thoughts and prayers and concerns also are with the citizens of Galveston and hope to rise and start again including Kemah, Texas.

When the hurricane passed, it was almost like 'What the hell's going on?!' and 'When are we getting power back?!' it almost a tension situation, but like I said it will take a while to get this sorted out. We didn't get any damages from Hurricane Rita four years ago, but now with Hurricane Ike's destruction to Galveston, I just hope everyone will rebuild and start a new beginning.

My house in Houston is fine, just a couple of small shingles that came off the roof. No Water Damages to the house, it was REALLY hot inside the house, but now we have power back on Sept. 23. I'm still truckin'. Don't worry, I will get back on track to write reviews for Prog albums and hopefully get the writing machine going.

For now, take care of yourself and each other,

Zack