Talinka - Rainbow Over Kolonaki

It’s been three years since Talinka have released their sole self-titled debut release on the Fanfare label and distributed by MoonJune Records. The quartet have taken the genre to a whole new level. In my 2017 review back in September, I’ve described their music a combination between Folk, Jazz, Tango, and the Great American Songbook. Not to mention Tali Atzmon’s vocals in the styles of Miss Lily Banquette of Combustible Edison.

Well she’s not that anymore, she’s doing what she wants to do in a decade as we enter the roaring ‘20s. Talinka’s second release entitled Rainbow Over Kolonaki, released on Gilad’s Fanfare label, shows that the Talinka quartet are continuing their journey of the three similarities between song, melody, and beauty. And the three of those, are now as one whole circle.

From the opening sounds of the title-track, we hear birds chirping, church bells ringing, and conversations around common folk while the nod to Camile Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre, fills the halls of a cabaret waltz. With Yaron’s double bass, Jenni’s violin, Gilad’s accordion, and Tali’s vocals, its almost as if you’re right in the middle of the late ‘30s/early ‘40s as Tali honors the arrangements of Lotte Lenya’s Pirate Jenny from The Threepenny Opera.

The spotlight shines on her again with Ol’ Blue Eyes’  I’m a Fool to Want You. Now for her to tackle the music of Frank Sinatra, shows how much she honors this incredible gem as if we, the listeners, are walking into the gardens of two film-noir classics, Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon.

The haunting finger-picking sounds of the Ukulele and the Accordion, takes us through the powerful exhibitions between the paintings of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning on Time Runs Out. Each of the images are set to this composition as Tali and Jenny share some background vocalizations in the midsection of the song.

The next composition of When Apollo Smiles, goes into the samba tradition of a Welsh folk song as the continuation between Tali and Jenny bring out more of the harmonies together in their voices while she and Gilad walk through the landscapes of Kew Gardens between her ukulele and Gilad’s guitar playing.

As Gilad’s opening sax introduction takes place on If I Should Lose You, he follows Tali by walking up and down this spiral staircase before Jenny & Yaron come together as they follow them to bring the curtains down on a soothing finale. This took me about a few listens with Rainbow Over Kolonaki.

And I have to say that the Talinka quartet have continued to bring the magic underneath their sleeves once more by bringing Jazz with unbelievable results to keep the genre going with a delicious twist of the Pomegranate.

Reism - Dysthymia

Now it’s been many months since I’ve reviewed a Metal album on Music from the Other Side of the Room. And it’s been WAY overdue from my part. So now, let’s kick the New Year off from one of the most explosive sounds to come out of Norway that launched back in 2005 in Liverpool of a band called, Reism.

Their music is a crossover between hard, heavy, and powder-keg industrial rock. With two albums in the can, the band came back last year after a nine-year long process with the release of their third studio album, Dysthymia. It’s an autobiographical release tracking the subjects of betrayal, depression, loss, grief, and humanity’s selfishness.

It goes deeper inside that old rotting wound that has been there for many, many years. And that wound itself, will never, ever wash off. For Reism to tackle those subjects, it is a challenge, but it works. The band considers Kirsten Jorgensen on Lead Vocals; Tom Poole-Kerr on Guitar; Kim Lund on Bass; and Wolfgang Ognoy on Drums. The quartet work together as a team. And they know that between the band members, they’ve got each other’s back.

The Folly of Men sees Reism delving into this electronic haunting nightmare with piano, guitar, and bass crying into the night as it plays like a cross between Radiohead and The Mars Volta before the band flies away from the destruction's of hell that it has become. Kirsten’s vocals on This Reality channels the soothing vocals of Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel as the song tackles the subject of being free.

The intensity between Kim and Wolfgang’s textures, adds more gasoline to the flames by raising the temperature up at a higher scale. Break my Bones reveal the true person’s identity of their skeletons in the closet to show their true colors that the public doesn’t want to even know about. You can hear this Jekyll & Hyde-sque background that is hard to believe that this person is creating the biggest lie of them all behind closed doors.

Reism now channels the Lateralus-era of Tool on Lost Yourself. In this song, it goes into the heart of betrayal as you feel that you’ve been punched in the gut by being used as someone else’s pawn this entire time while Kirsten pours her heart out in the pouring rain with some haunting piano chords as Let it all Go tackles the pain and suffering of domestic abuse.

Reism’s Dysthymia is not a bad release from last year. It took me a few listens to see whether I was going to like this album or not. And while I’m not a massive fan of the industrial metal genre, Dysthymia grabs your heart very well. And for Reism tackling the difficult subject matters, it is a very challenging album for 2019.

Remembering Neil Peart (1952 - 2020)

How I first got into Rush was 23 years ago when I first heard “Tom Sawyer” on KKRW Classic Rock 93.7 The Arrow which is now a hip-hop station. But when I was 13 years old at the time, it was the only station to play bands that introduced me alongside Pink Floyd from bands such as; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne-era), and Rush. When I first heard “Tom Sawyer”, I was completely blown away.

It was like a breath of fresh air of hearing the vocals, guitars, synths, bass, and drums all combined into one. It was this incredible fast-drum work done by Neil “The Professor” Peart. This guy was like a machine gun that is ready to burst fire at any second. And then I had forgotten about them until 2005 when I went to Borders which is defunct as well. 

And there was a MOJO issue entitled, Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock. I bought it and I read about Rush during their hey-day in the 1970s. I knew right there and then, my re-introduction of their music, was right around the corner. I went ahead and went to a store called, Movie Trading Company and bought A Farewell to Kings and then went to Wherehouse Music and bought their era of the Synths-era and their ‘90s era. But it was A Farewell to Kings that made me re-introduce myself to their music. Listening to that album was like a movie inside your head.

It was everything. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, James Stewart, Fantasy stories, and an intensive cliffhanger story into the black hole. It was all there. This album still has a huge impact on me when I was in College after my re-introduction to their music. And I still try to figure out what Neil was writing throughout his amazing storytelling complex? Whether it’s the title-track, Xanadu, Closer to the Heart, or Cygnus X-1, he was writing them like movies inside our heads.

For Neil Peart who wasn’t just one hell of a drummer who followed into the footsteps of The Who, Pink Floyd, admired Stray, Buddy Rich, and influenced others including Metallica, Mike Portnoy, Iron Maiden, Porcupine Tree, and Billy Corgan to name a few, he was a brilliant lyricist that showed no sign of stopping.

Since he was in another band before Rush called JR Flood in 1970, then joining the band in 1974 after making his debut with the band by opening up for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Uriah Heep during their Wonderland tour at Pittsburgh Civic Arena on August 14th, he gave Rush, the power, the mystery, the big guns, and the explosive beats that would knock your socks off. 

Whether it’s the nod to King Crimson with YYZ, the struggle with Fame on Limelight, being an outsider in School with Subdivisions, the battle between By-tor and the Snow Dog and Bastille Day, or the nod to Ayn Rand with the 20-minute masterpiece, 2112, Neil knew what he wanted to do.

For me, Rush along with Pink Floyd, are and will always be my Beatles. Since Neil has passed away on January 7^th due to a long battle with Brain Cancer, it’s the end of an era with Rush. And while they called it a day for their R40 tour in 2015, they had come full circle. But their legacy and their music, will live on forever and ever. In the words of Babe Ruth from the 1993 movie, The Sandlot, “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.”

Sirkis / Bialas IQ - Our New Earth

Since their establishment five years ago, the Sirkis/Bialas IQ have brought the institutions of going beyond the structures of Jazz by taking these gigantic steps into the worlds of different vocal arrangements, church organ, Konnakol, crotales, and the waterphone. Our New Earth sets up this amazing style of a spiritual guidance that MoonJune have unleashed last year.

They take these beautiful arrangements and put them together by creating this strange, mysterious, and surreal adventure that is brought to life featuring incredible liner notes by Bill Bruford. Our New Earth is showing the listener a chance to make our home planet, safe and secure from the dangers that will await us for many years to come. Both Asaf Sirkis and Sylvia Bialas are awaiting to be a part of that journey. And from the moment you put the album on, you’ll begin to wonder why they are so damn good.

With the sound of the waterphone that was invented by Richard Waters at the end of the ‘60s, it creates this haunting atmosphere that is lurking behind you for a Spooky Action at a Distance. Sirkis captures the intensity on the cymbals to see what Sylvia will come up with next. Like something out the Zeit-era from Tangerine Dream, it sends these shivers down your spine as the instruments open up the doors to see where Bialas is going.

And she sings in these melodic textures that give Frank Harrison and Kevin Glasgow to follow in her direction. Letter to A features Harrison on the Church Organ. I almost have this feeling as if he’s tipping his hat to Kit Downes. It has this mournful sequence before Sylvia’s vocalizations opens up the door to the gothic cathedral by giving Asaf a chance to help out in his drum kit.

The title-track gives Sirkis a chance to give himself carte blanche. You have the Indian scat singing of the Konnakol, high-pitch percussion sounds of the Manjira (Taal), and the crotales that he takes centerstage by having these percussions to the forefront. As the droning sounds which I might think it’s from a Sitar, I’m not sure, but Asaf comes out of the woods like a warrior that is ready to attack for the first three minutes to sweat out these machine gun bullets.

And he does it perfectly. But just as he finishes, the sound suddenly changes by opening up the pearly gates to reveal its true glory into the style of the Dance of Maya section. And then it spirals into the abyss for Birkis to enter inside those caves and seeing Frank himself giving out the last rite on the church organ.

The first two minutes of the Land of Oblivion sees Glasgow channeling his rhythmic structures and chords on his 6-string bass. He goes up and down on the frets as if he’s walking through this spiraling staircase while the wind howls throughout the Sahara desert by giving Bialas a soothing warmth to open her heart for us before Harrison’s Guaraldi-Monk like structure on the piano makes it a nice and beautiful segment.

MoonJune Records really hit a big challenge for me to delve into Sirkis/Bialas IQ’s work. And Our New Earth is one of them. While it took me a few listens during the Christmas break, I have to say that both Asaf and Sylvia have done an amazing job. Will there be more challenges in the roaring ‘20s from MoonJune Records? Let’s see the new decade will be for us. But the mystery of peace and surrealism, is an adventure worth exploring into Our New Earth.

Update and Coming Strong

I know I've been out lately due to family emergencies that had been going on this whole year.
I want to offer a sincere apology to everyone that I'd been trying to get back on my feet, but
keep going back. I've made the decision to come back strong in 2020. So no reviews throughout the rest of December of this year. But my family has to come first. So I will be back in January, 2020.

So I will see you on the flip side. And one more thing, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year. And let's see what 2020 will have in store for us for some incredible music in the progressive, hard rock, and jazz genre.

Zach

King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King (50th Anniversary Edition)

“Cat’s foot Iron claw/Neuro surgeons scream for more/at paranoia’s poison door/21^st Century Schizoid Man!” The moment you hear a line like that from the opening track of King Crimson’s debut release in 1969, it sounds almost like a cannon blast that was waiting to happen at the right moment, at the right time. For me, that’s how I felt when I first heard this album nearly 20 years ago.

Since 2000, In The Court of the Crimson King was a complete game changer for me when I first bought this album back at Soundwaves in the Montrose area here in Houston while delving my toes into the water hearing the music of King Crimson when I was 15 years old. During the beginning of the 21^st century, parts of the music scene with both the Nu-Metal and Boy Band genre was nothing but more but a bunch of absolute pretentious horseshit.

It was dreadful to hear that pillocky crap from bands/artists like Britney Spears, Korn, Limp Bizkit, N’Sync, Staind, Christina Aguilera, and all that Backstreet Boys/Godsmack nonsense. Would make want to vomit hearing that shitty music. Not to mention the dreadful TV show of MTV’s TRL hosted by that smiley-face, scum-sucking moron, Carson Daly. As I’ve mentioned, hearing that god-awful fucking horseshit made me want to vomit.

But it wasn’t until after hearing King Crimson’s debut, In The Court of the Crimson King made me understand that this was real good music right here from start to finish. It was almost as if they blew the doors down to destroy both the genres of Nu-Metal and Boy Band music with a gigantic battering ram that needed to put them away for good. For 50 years and despite the various line-up changes, King Crimson are still growing stronger than ever.

Now in a 3-CD/1 Blu-Ray set with a 2019 updated mix by Steven Wilson, who originally started the remix back 10 years ago with the 40^th anniversary releases, you know that it’s time to get the grinding wheels turned again once more. Originally released on Chris Blackwell’s label of Island Records, In The Court of the Crimson King features the sounds of; Hard Rock, Jazz, Classical, storytelling lyrics, Avant-Garde, and Folk rolled into one.

It is all here and it just goes to show that this music will never, ever go away for a long, long time. Greg Lake’s moving vocals along with his incredible bass playing, Pete Sinfield’s lyrical structures, Michael Giles’ intensive drum work, Ian McDonald’s usage of woodwind that have a militant and jazz background along with the usage of the Mellotron, and Robert Fripp’s challenging structures on his guitar, they were a perfect combination, and a perfect team.

And back to where it all started from the cramped basements of the Fulham Palace Café which would become their operation base for the next two and a half years. And in the words of Robert Fripp from the Morgan Studio Recording sessions, “Let’s make a hit waxing….”

Originally the album was going to be recording in that same studio that in June of 1969 with Moody Blues producer Tony Clarke and engineer Andy Johns (Glyns brother). Listening to those two tracks on disc 2 (21^st Century Schizoid Man and The Court of the Crimson King) was quite an ear-listening experience. The second track on the second disc is raw, snarling, intensive, and energetic.

From Giles’ rapid gunfire introduction on his drum kit, you could tell that despite the aborted attempt to record the album, they were running the gauntlet with a sonic-like structure that pulls no punches. Now what I found out was that the Morgan version of 21^st Century Schizoid Man originally appeared on the 2002 release for the King Crimson Collectors Club series on their performance in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969.

But hearing the overdubs between Mel Collins’ sax and Jakko Jakszyk’s guitar along with the Wessex version of Greg Lake’s vocals, it really kicks plenty of ass around that track. Now one of the reasons why the Morgan Studio sessions were aborted because Andy Johns was so exhausted during the recordings, he collapsed. Tony and the band knew that the sessions weren’t going to work, so they abandoned the recordings.

This along with the raw version of The Court of the Crimson King in which they used an acoustic guitar, drums, and bass, are worth exploring. You also have instrumental mixes, alternate versions, Greg Lake’s isolated vocals on Epitaph that will send a shiver down my spine, a heavier trio version of 21^st Century Schizoid Man, the original master edition of the album, and a 2-part mono single version release of the A & B side of The Court of the Crimson King.

Now onto the 2019 updated mix of the album on disc one. Hearing Steven’s mix on what he’s done to the album, there aren’t any echoing reverb effects from Greg’s dalek-like voice from the 2009 version of the opening song. But there are some incredible drums that come to the front of the stage as Giles pounds those kits in the midsection like a grenade that is about to go off at any second.

The mellotron shines brightly throughout Fripp’s electric and acoustic guitar intro on Epitaph. But when you listen to the instrumental mixes from disc one, you can hear the bass, mellotron, pounding piano chords, and the haunting organ sounds very clearly that works brilliantly. But the lyrical structures that Sinfield writes, details of the nightmare that is about to come with the dangers of nuclear war that is about to happen at any second.

The closing title-track still sounds fresh as the keyboards come right in my earbuds to reveal the master himself while Greg’s haunting vocalization fills up the sounds between the mellotron, Ian McDonald’s flute, and the midsection between the two of them and Fripp’s clean jazzy guitar improvisation before the grey clouds come in to fill up the halls of the dancing puppets to the court of the Crimson King.

Now with this set, it contains two different forms of artwork. The first set contains the original gatefold sleeve by the late Barry Godber featuring the 2019 and Alternate album mixes. And the second set features the image of the original multi-track tapes from Wessex sound studios. The blu-ray itself features the 5.1 mix along with the footage of the band performing at Hyde Park doing 21^st Century Schizoid Man as they were the opening act for the Rolling Stones on July 5^th.

The 24-page booklet contains never before seen photos of the band recording their debut album, an image of a 1968 recording from Bel Cleer that contains Giles, Giles, Fripp, McDonald, and Judy Dyble of Fairport Convention. Managers John Gaydon and David Enthoven on their motorbikes, and pictures of King Crimson’s performance between Hyde Park and at the Marquee.

Featuring Sid Smith’s incredible liner notes that details the history about the band and the making of the album, it just goes to show you how much this album was ahead of its time. Now when you think of 1969, you think of Woodstock, The Beatles Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin’s first two studio albums, The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, and The Who’s landmark rock opera, Tommy. But for King Crimson’s debut, which Pete Townshend described it as “an uncanny masterpiece”, is the flaming fire that will never, ever burn out.

Stick Men - Panamerica

This 5-CD set consists of Stick Men’s live recording that the band did last year between August and September of last year during their Latin American tour in ten countries from Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil to name a few. And to allow to bring King Crimson alumni David Cross who appears on this set along with the Roppongi release back four years ago, it shows that David is still lending a helping hand once more.

Listening to this incredible set, you can just close your eyes and imagine yourself being at those performances that they did in Latin America last year. Tony, David, Markus, and Pat give the audiences a gig they’ll never forget. And from those recordings, it will keep their memories going on forever and ever.

The sets include improvisations, soundscapes, suites, and their full-length gig in Costa Rica. There are so many highlighted moments throughout this incredible set that Iapetus and MoonJune have unleashed this year to get your Crimson blood pumping out.

Hide the Trees has this moment where you can feel the heat gauge growing higher and higher as the band goes into the flaming fires that have grown bigger and deeper than ever before as the tackle through the danger that awaits them. I can imagine the audience are mesmerized between Reuter, Cross, and Mastelotto entering this intensive dungeon that can be very challenging.

David’s Improv gives Cross a chance to come to do these incredible arrangements on his violin while Levin’s chapman walks into the jungle by walking on a big gigantic scale. And Cross is glowing brighter and brighter by the second as the scenery becomes this huge puzzle piece as the plot thickens unexpectedly while the Montevideo Suite sees Stick Men’s atmospheric voyages that walk into a journey that awaits for our bandmates to enter.

It’s almost as if they’re walking on this tightrope that can be unexpectedly dangerous and never knowing who is going to cut the rope or not. But at times it can be sinister, electronica, jazz grooves, and very Lynch-ian. Now when I say “Lynch-ian”, I mean the nod to the filmmaker himself as if he gave Stick Men some creative ideas for the mystery and disappearance of Philip Jefferies from the Twin Peaks series.

The next section becomes this Chapman improvisation as Tony and Markus do this dueling nightmare to see both instruments collide in a thunderous hay-wiring effect that can go into some insane bat-shit modules while Pat’s drumming pounds like a powder keg that is waiting to explode with some extreme measures. Now onto the soundscapes on Disc 5.

For me, it’s one my favorite moments from the Panamerica set. It gives both Markus and David to move away from their incredible compositions with Tony and Pat by honoring the legacy between the classic Tangerine Dream line-up of Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, and Christopher Franke and the Red-era of King Crimson.

The compositions on the fifth disc are very mysterious, surreal, and experimental. But for Markus, there’s a lot of those improvisations by honoring the genre from the realms of Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze, and Cluster. It shows that Reuter himself is keeping that spirit alive by making his own alternate soundtrack scores between two film classics by Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: The Wrath of God.

But as I’ve mentioned before of the nods towards King Crimson, they have to make sure they haven’t forgotten their roots of where they started between Tony, David and Pat. From the pieces including Red, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part II, Level Five, The Talking Drum, and an incredible performance from the Costa Rica set of a soundwaving version on Shades of Starless.

They’ve also performed three tracks from the Prog Noir album including the title-track, Mantra, and the mysterious twist of Plutonium by honoring the masters of Carl Orr, Yes, and Tchaikovsky. Not only that, but they have a surreal sense of humor throughout those tracks they performed in Costa Rica.

Panamerica is one of their best recordings that Stick Men has unleashed this year. If you think that Roppongi was the best, this one takes the cake. And while it’s been three years since they released another studio album after the release of Prog Noir, let’s hope that in 2020, Stick Men releases another follow-up. But Panamerica is quite a journey throughout another roller-coaster ride with them.