Back in 1990 or 1991, I discovered a British group called Miranda Sex Garden. They began life as a vocal/madrigal group, signed to Mute Records, but over time developed a heavy sound, steeped in metal, with what were (to me) very progressive overtones and lush multi-part female vocals.
One night at the local independent record store, I was talking about MSG, and one of the staff said to me, “If you like them, I have a group you might really get into...”
Curious, I asked him who it was, and he said Renaissance. I went to the R section of the racks, and saw 2 albums: Tales of 1001 Nights I and Tales of 1001 Nights II. I was about to pick them up when he said, “No, those aren’t the best way to discover them. You need to hear the original albums.” He offered to make me copies of a couple of the LPs, as at the time their entire catalogue was out of print in the US save for those 2 compilations. I eagerly took him up on his offer.
A few days later I stopped back and he had a cassette tape for me. I took it, thanked him, and popped it in the tape deck in my car. I was transfixed. I’d never heard “rock” music quite like this before...loads of orchestration, operatic female vocals, no electric textures at all. It was amazing. As I’d heard everything was out of print (and at the time not knowing about the whole idea of import CDs), I started scouring used vinyl bins for their albums. I ended up finding copies of a few and grabbed them.
Over time, and not finding anything else by them anywhere, I picked up cassette copies of the two comps I mentioned above, and heard other material that I was unfamiliar with. The liner notes referenced a massive epic track called “The Song of Scheherazade,” which was supposedly 25 minutes long...the compilation only had a 4 or 5 minute excerpt of it. The music brought me such joy, and coincident with it sadness, as I figured I’d have a very difficult time finding any of the other albums.
In the mid 1990’s I finally had a CD player, and started discovering that albums out of print here in the US often were in print elsewhere. One of the first groups I looked for was Renaissance, and discovered a number of their releases in print in the UK and Germany. At $18 to $20 US per disc, I figured it was worthwhile, and grabbed them. Sadly, three of the albums I wanted (2 of which I had on vinyl and didn’t want to wear out) were not in print in Europe...only available on Warner Brothers Records (the band’s parent label) in Japan.
Here is where fandom has no bounds.
The discs (all single CD albums) were $40, $40 and $50 US a piece. In 1995.
I bought them without a thought.
Let me tell you about Renaissance a little bit.
The first thing most people notice is the voice. No, make that THE VOICE. Annie Haslam has one of the most identifiable voices in music, period...glistening, crystalline, and pure, with a 5 octave range and dramatic, operatic delivery. In high school, I would sing along to her vocals to keep my vocal range up (by senior year, I was singing countertenor, and could hit a decent bit of her range, save for the top end). Her voice meshes perfectly with the band’s richly orchestrated sound; with a very few exceptions earlier in the band’s career, and then at the end of the band’s career, the group eschewed the traditional trappings of a rock band (electric guitar, synths), instead extensively using piano, acoustic guitar, and orchestra backing to create a sound unlike anyone else in the genre.
John Tout (piano), Jon Camp (bass, vocals), Michael Dunford (acoustic guitar), and Terrance Sullivan (drums) were perfectly suited to this task. Dunford composed the majority of the band’s songs, working with a Cornish poet named Betty Thatcher who provided lyrics via post. Additionally, his guitar playing was rich and textured, avoiding solos for the most part in exchange for adding colour and fullness. Jon Camp’s bass playing is warm and lyrical, and his vocals harmonize wonderfully with Haslam’s. Sullivan is a dexterous drummer, equally adept at light percussion and heavier, rockier beats when necessary, and Tout’s piano and organ playing is expressive and emotional, showing restraint where necessary while easily blasting out powerful chords and melodic lines when needed.
All of this is a long build up to me talking about Novella. The album came out in 1977 on Sire Records (yes, the name label that held the Ramones and a load of other punk/new wave bands), and is my favourite record by Renaissance. Released one year after their monumental 2-LP live set recorded at Carnegie Hall, the album features some of the group’s widest range of material, solid production, and fantastic packaging.
Can You Hear Me? (13:39) – Novella opens with the longest track on the album, a nearly 14-minute long epic. We begin with a slight orchestral build up and piano, leading to some powerful vocal shots and melodic lead bass playing, under which the orchestra (real strings!) handles the main musical these. Dunford’s guitar adds a sense of insistence...propulsion...with excellent stereo separation of multiple parts creating a semi-counterpoint feel. One channel features a more rhythm-based part, while the other has Dunford picking chords to match the keyboard and orchestration. Haslam sings a good bit of the song in a lower, alto register, leaving her clear soprano for the last four minutes. Her voice takes on an almost child-like sound here, and it fits the distant, lost vibe the lyrics present.
The Sisters (7:12) – This is one of the tracks referenced in the liner notes to the Tales of 1001 Nights compilations that I longed to hear. Often I find that anticipation leads to disappointment, but here the opposite occurred, as I could not have anticipated what the song offered. Spanish in tone, apocalyptic lyrically, and with an incredible Michael Dunford acoustic guitar solo (one of very few) which I feel David Gilmour ripped off for his PF song “High Hopes,” this is an epic’s worth of music and intensity in just slightly more than 7 minutes.
Midas Man (5:46) – Strummed acoustic guitar, layered vocals from Haslam and Camp, flourishes of piano, tubular bells, and a simple insistent bass drum beat. The lyrics are cynical and sardonic, decrying the upper class and their affinity for the acquisition of wealth at all costs. It’s a heavy song without relying on speed beats and heavy rock production.
The Captive Heart (4:16) – John Tout shines on this lovely piano ballad, which also features multiple Annie Haslam vocal parts arranged in a shifting canon style. Lyrically wistful and longing, it ranks among my favourite Renaissance tracks despite being so “atypical” compared to the majority of their material. Limiting the arrangement to vocals and piano is a nice touch, as it suits the song wonderfully...it maintains the slightly sad wishful feeling of the track without drenching it in unnecessary layers of sound.
Touching Once (Is So Hard To Keep) (9:27) – This is perhaps the rockiest track on the album, and even at that it doesn’t truly rock out until the end of the song. All the band’s hallmarks are on display here; simple but beautiful orchestration, Jon Camp’s bass playing (taking more of a lead role here), deft drumming from Terrance Sullivan (including a neat little flourish/solo at app. 6:00), and fantastic vocal harmonies from Haslam and Camp. Lyrics are again willed with longing, regret and sadness; in fact, much of Novella is drenched in this lyrical theme. The song ends with a fantastic sustained note from Haslam and an intense orchestra fanfare/flourish, offering up an actual proper ending rather than a fade out.
Musicians:
Annie Haslam - lead & backing vocals
Jon Camp - bass, backing vocals, lead vocal cameo on "The Captive Heart"
Michael Dunford - acoustic guitars, backing vocals
John Tout - keyboards, backing vocals
Terence Sullivan - drums, percussion, backing vocals
2010 saw something very exciting; for the first time since a small handful of dates in the UK and Japan, Renaissance was going out on tour. For the 2010 touring season, Renaissance would consist of Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford, who had played on every Renaissance album from Prologue through Time Line and Camera Camera, and then again on Tuscany in 2001. They would be joined by a group of newer musicians, many of which had experience working with Renaissance or Haslam in the past. Rave Tesar (keys) and David J. Keys (bass) played with Renaissance during the Japanese shows that would be recorded for In the Land of the Rising Sun, with Tesar having a long history with Haslam’s solo works. Frank Pagano (drums) has a long musical history, including work with Bruce Springsteen, Smashing Pumpkins, Bette Midler and Barry Manilow. Finally Tom Brislin is a name that almost needs no introduction, if simply for his work with his band Spiraling. Beyond that, however, he has also worked with Meat Loaf, Camel, and played keys for Yes on the 2001 Symphonic tour.
This is the band that would celebrate Renaissance’s 40th anniversary year, and one might be forgiven in assuming that this would be just a nostalgia trip. Haslam and Dunford had a trick up their sleeve, however…a newly recorded EP of material that will hopefully form the basis of a new Renaissance album in the future.
The EP is titled after its major piece, a nearly 8 minute long composition that has all the hallmarks of classic Renaissance. Ornate, almost gothic keyboards open the piece where strings might have in the past. Then Annie lets fly with some of the most impressively high singing she’s done in years, and it’s as if the 35 years since Novella or Live at Carnegie Hall have melted away. The instrumental section that leads out of this eye popping opening section reminds me of ‘Touching Once (Is So Hard to Keep)’ from Novella, and all I can say is this; if they can find 4 more tracks of similar quality, they will have put together an album of material that will rival their salad days for intensity and quality. As good as some of the material on Tuscany was, this blows that album in its entirety out of the water…in just seven minutes, forty-five seconds.
‘Immortal Beloved’ follows on, a comparatively brief 5:47 long. Coming after ‘The Mystic and the Muse’ it almost seems a let down of sorts, but it is a beautiful song, with harmony vocals (considering the rest of the band contributes backing vocals, these harmonies could be with any one of them, so I won’t try to guess). Arrangement wise the song ebbs and flows; the verses are very laid back, with piano, quiet percussion, and nicely present bass guitar (Keys may be no Jon Camp, but he’s a heck of a bassist, and it’s nice to hear lyrical almost lead bass playing again in Renaissance music). This is a song I could see growing on me over time…while it does not grab like the opening track does, it’s a simmering piece with potential.
The Mystic and the Muse closes out with ‘Tonight,’ the shortest piece on the EP at 4:23. This is a hard one to describe, but in brief this has all the hallmarks of being lifted from a musical, and my assumption based on information from people who are familiar with the larger work are certain this was considered for the Scheherazade musical Michael Dunford had/has been working on for years. I believe it. The opening is quiet and restrained, Haslam singing almost a capella, with piano as sole instrumental backing. The vocal melody builds in a very traditionally stage musical manner, and while the song is beautifully sung, it seems slight compared to ‘The Mystic and the Muse’ or ‘Immortal Beloved.’
It’s impossible to judge what a band is capable of after heading just three new songs, even a band a long running and storied as Renaissance. What I am hearing is promising, however, and I have my fingers crossed that they can match the strengths of this EP on the album that they have said they’d like to have out by 2011. And hey, the EP’s only 5 bucks from their web site…you’re going to spend that on a cup of bad coffee from Starbucks made by an arrogant teen aged barista who will probably look at you vacantly when you ask him if he knows of Renaissance. Skip the java and buy the EP…I think you’ll be very happy with your decision.
Track Listing:
The Mystic and the Muse (7:45)
Immortal Beloved (5:47)
Tonight (4:23)
Band Members:
Annie Haslam: vocals
Michael Dunford: acoustic guitars, vocals
Rave Tesar: keyboards, vocals
David J. Keys: bass guitar, vocals
Tom Brislin: keyboards, vocals
Frank Pagano: drums, percussion, vocals
My thanks to Robert Dansereau for offering to share his thoughts about the recent Renaissance/Steve Hackett tour. He was one of the collaborators involved with the Montreal show, and had a unique opportunity to witness this performance from a much different standpoint than I would have
Anyway, enough preamble...on to the review!
Only one word can describe the concert I had the pleasure to see in Montreal on July 9th, 2010 featuring Renaissance and the electric Steve Hackett band... magical!
From the perfect set list of both bands to the amazing lineup of world-class musicians, that double bill at the Place Des Art in Montreal was one of the greatest "prog" events to hit the city this year!
Renaissance was simply superb, Annie Haslam was in fine shape and her voice was simply heavenly. Annie and Michael Dunford have surrounded themselves with splendid musicians, among others Tom Brislin and Rave Tesar on keys and Dave Keyes on bass, and offered a great set that included many classics and and some material from their brand new EP The Mystic and the Muse. Their set list: Prologue, Things I Don't Understand, The Mystic and the Muse, Running Hard, Carpet of the Sun, and for the encore, Mother Russia. They played for about an hour and were rewarded with two enthusiastic standing ovations by the sold-out crowd.
Then on to Steve Hackett. Words can hardly describe how amazing this show was, but I'll try. The band stepped onstage at 9:30 and started with an energetic version of Mechanical Bride, immediately followed by Everyday. I just sat there, marveling at the perfect performance offered by the master. A very high level of energy and an obvious chemistry between the band members, added to the great acoustic of the théâtre Maisonneuve and the impeccable sound offered by their sound engineer, made for a very captivating and especially delightful show. The set included the great Hackett classics like Ace of Wands, The Steppes, Emerald & Ash, Fire on the Moon, Serpentine Song, Spectral Mornings, Sleepers, Still Waters, as well as a few chosen Genesis classics, like a surprising version of Blood on the Rooftops with vocals from Gary O'Toole, an energetic interpretation of Los Endos, and of course, Firth of Fifth in its entirety including the piano intro by Roger King. They concluded the show with a vigorous version of Clocks with a mind-blowing, jaw dropping drum solo by mister O'Toole.
The team was well rounded-off by the zany Nick Beggs, wearing his goofy ponytails and PVC (not leather) dress, who was amazing on the stick and the Rickenbacker bass, the very lovely Amanda Lehmann on guitars and vocals, and Rob Townsend on saxes and flutes.
Both bands kindly came out after the show to sign autographs. This was a phenomenal evening of top-notch progressive rock.
Here are a few pictures taken by Marc Lafontaine and I, of the Hackett show: http://tinyurl.com/2w4pmhs
Robert Dansereau
July 11th, 2010
Obligatory swag:
NF t-shirt
NF program
NF pint glass
Not so obligatory swag:
Frogg Cafe t-shirt (came with the CD below)
CDs:
Frogg Cafe - Bateless Edge
The Enid - Journey's End
The Enid - Arise and Shine
King Crimson - Lizard 40th Anniversary Edition
Cabezas De Cera - CDC Live USA CD/DVD
Strawbs - Dancing to the Devil's Beat
Strawbs - The Broken-Hearted Bride
Strawbs - Live at NEARfest 2004
Deluge Grander - The Form of the Good
RPWL: The Gentle Art of Music
Birds and Buildings - Bantam to Behemoth
Renaissance - In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2001
The Tangent - Going off on One 2CD/DVD Limited Edition
IQ: Stage: Dark Matter Live in America and Germany 2005 DVD
The Enid: Something Wicked This Way Comes: Live at Claret Hall Farm and Stonehenge 1984 DVD
Have I ever told you the story of how I discovered the band Renaissance?
Back in 1991-ish, I had heard a song by a British group called Miranda Sex Garden, from their then current album Suspiria. I was completely taken aback by the layered female vocal harmonies (many of which seemed to me to be derived from traditional English and Italian madrigal…how right I was, I’d later find out) and the dark, almost orchestral nature of their metallic, industrial-esque musical backing. I was raving about the band to someone in my local record store (Alwilk in Flemington NJ, for those of you out there who may have frequented that chain in the NY/NJ area back in the day), and he mentioned to me that if I liked MSG (and I did, except for in my Chinese food) he had a band I might be interested in…with the caveat that they were lighter and more symphonic than MSG. I took him up on his offer to check the group out, and a few days later he had made copies for me of some material by a band called Renaissance. He felt OK in doing this as all their albums were out of print at that time, save for a pair of compilations which had come out in the US a few weeks prior.
I took the two tapes home and started playing them…and I was hooked. Glorious female vocals, orchestrations, beautiful classical guitar and piano, and a warm, punchy bass that was more a lead instrument than anything else. I spent the entire summer of 1991 seeking out their albums in second hand shops, lucky enough to acquire copies of Carnegie Hall, Novella, and A Song for All Seasons on vinyl. Soon these were joined by the two compilations on Sire Records, Tales of 1001 Nights I and II…and years later, by a mish mash of import CDs from the UK, Germany, and Japan (yes, I paid $40.00 US a piece for Novella and Song for all Seasons from Japan…and $50.00 US for a copy of Azure D’Or). I was completely and irrevocably hooked by this vastly overlooked, underrated British combo.
Only one thing has been missing over the years…a video document of the classic band (Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford, John Tout, Terrence Sullivan and Jon Camp) live in concert.
This missing link has been rectified thanks to the release of Song of Scheherazade, a 125-minute long DVD on Cherry Red/Hybrid that compiles footage from a pair of concerts in New Jersey (the band’s US home base for most of their career with regard to their fan base) in 1976 and 1979.
Many of the band’s better known works are covered here. 1976 was in many ways close to the peak of the band’s critical and commercial success…fresh off a series of successful dates at Carnegie Hall, WNEW radio out of NYC broadcast several Renaissance concerts as part of their regular concert series. Ed Sciaky in Philly and Alison Steele (the Nightbird) championed the band’s music in two of the biggest music markets in the eastern US. The band took the stage at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic NJ for a set that featured their epic masterwork “The Song of Scheherazade,”a 20+ minute tone poem based on the legendary tales of 1001 nights, and the title track to their fourth album. Also featured from that album is the elegiac and melancholic “Ocean Gypsy,” later covered by Blackmore’s Night on their debut release. Two tracks from their release Turn of the Cards, and one each from Ashes are Burning and Prologue (that album’s title track) round out the first half of the DVD contents. The band is in fine form, and Haslam’s voice has never sounded finer. Tout’s piano on “Running Hard” is as lyrical as ever, and Camp’s bass playing is precise and impressive; at this time, I’d say he was perhaps the most underrated bassist in all of prog music.
I wish I could say the same glowing things about the video quality. I know much has been said about this subject, and I have to reiterate it; the video quality is…well…passable. And I think I am being generous. I understand that budgets probably did not allow for an amazing level of restoration to be done on material that has more of a cult appeal, but honestly…I’ve seen Doctor Who episodes, unrestored, from the early 1960s that looked better. The picture is washed out/faded, grainy, and subject to bursts of interference and/or distortion throughout. It’s a shame…this is the first chance for many to see the band at their height, and, well…we can see the band, but not much more.
The 1979 footage (from Asbury Park NJ’s Convention Center) is better, but sadly not by much. Thankfully the setlist offers up enough gems to overcome this limitation for the most part. Jon Camp’s rocking out on a double neck on the opening piece “Can You Understand – Intro” is perhaps worth the cost of admission alone…though I continue to feel it looks odd to see an electric guitar being strapped around Michael Dunford’s neck. Still, we get a nice selection of material from the band’s then current Azure D’Or (which would be the last album recorded by the classic band, and their final release on Sire Records in the US). “Jeckyll and Hyde” and “The Flood at Lyons” are two of my favourite later Renaissance tracks, and both are performed admirably here. “Forever Changing” always seemed a bit twee to me (thought the performance is fine, featuring some gloriously bell-like Haslam vocals), and the less said about the song “Secret Mission,” the better. I’d sooner have had “The Winter Tree” or “Only Angels Have Wings,” but I suppose those are more minor quibbles. We also get fine renditions of “The Vuntures Fly High,” one of the band’s fastest, rockiest tracks, a second take on “Mother Russia” (written about the life of Soviet dissident and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich), and a wonderful performance of their later day epic “A Song for All Seasons.” By this point, Renaissance had been implementing more amplified/electric instruments in their songs, arrangements and concerts, and this concert shows the band at the very end of their classic period.
It is again a shame that the video quality can’t match the performance passion and quality. A release like this has been eagerly anticipated and longed for by the Renaissance faithful for quite some time…and while I can play the DVD, and enjoy the excellent live renditions of some of my favourite Renaissance songs…I just can’t watch it. While Song of Scheherazade is far from a failure as a release, it’s also far from an unmitigated success.
Capitol Theatre 1976:
Running Hard
Ocean Gypsy
Carpet of the Sun
Mother Russia
Prologue
Song of Scheherazade
Asbury Park Convention Hall 1979:
Can You Understand - Intro
The Vultures Fly High
Jeckyll and Hyde
Northern Lights
Forever Changing
Secret Mission
Mother Russia
A Song for all Seasons
The Flood at Lyons
Annie Haslam – vocals
Michael Dunford – acoustic and electric guitar
John Tout – piano and keyboards
Terrance Sullivan – drums and percussion
Jon Camp – bass guitar and vocals
A few days ago I posted a review of the new Ayreon boxed set, Timeline. It got me to thinking about boxed sets in general. A bunch of progressive rock bands have released (in some cases, several) boxed sets, with varying degrees of success.What do I mean by success?That can be measured in so many ways. Certainly commercial sales is one way, but come on…this is prog. More importantly are artistic degrees of success and content. A label can repackage an artist’s catalogue, but if the artist him (or her) self is involved, the results are often superior. Related to that would be the contents of the set…is it a simple collection of previously released material, or is it filled up with interesting stuff that we may never have heard before?The following is a smattering of boxed sets that I’ve found to offer very good value for one reason or another.King Crimson – Epitaph, The Great Deceiver. Sure, they released one of the better career retrospective boxed sets in Frame by Frame. But save for the fourth disc of live material and a few curious edits (re-recording vocals and bass on "Cadence and Cascade" and "Bolero" respectively, among others), FxF doesn’t offer a huge amount to the hardcore Crimhead. Better to look at Epitaph, a 4-CD set of material from the first incarnation of the band (including some awesome BBC session stuff), or The Great Deceiver, 4 discs of concert material from 1973-1974. Both are well nigh essential…the first really allowed people to re-evaluate the first band and what they were capable of, while the second showed the 1973-1974 band for what they were…perhaps the first progressive metal band, and one who could jam as well. Awesome stuff all the way around.Genesis – Archive 1968-1975. Full Lamb Lies Down concert? Check. Another disc of live material from the Selling England period, along with some hard to find B-sides? Sure, why not? An entire disc of material from the Genesis to Revelations era? Well…interesting, to be certain. It’s a shame the band didn’t visit this idea for the second boxed set (1976-1992)…if they had, I’d recommend both. Add in some excellent liner notes and recollections from all parties involved, and I am more than willing to overlook the re-recorded bits (yes, it was hard to mic Gabriel when he was in the Slipperman costume, but…). Now, all we need to find is a previously unknown high quality professionally filmed Lamb show and release it on DVD…that sound you hear is the sound of 500,000 devoted Genesis fans combusting spontaneously in thought…Magma – Trilogie au Triannon. It’s tempting to say you need no more Magma than this. This is the essence…the first trilogy from Christian Vander and his Kobaian band mates. MDK, Wurdah Itah, Theusz Hamtaakh…Orff-ian, minimalistic, orchestral, intense. You get lyrics! You can sing along! It sounds like I making fun of this, but…I’m not. Magma is one of my favourite bands ever, and this boxed set is one of the best ways to discover what this underrated band has to offer. Not many groups can claim to have created a whole genre of music…Magma did just that. Essential. Essential in extremis.Frank Zappa – The MOFO Project/Object. Zappa’s had a bunch of things that could be considered a boxed set. Lather is one, one might consider the YCDTOSA series as one, especially if you have the road case to put the volumes in. But that one was released in 6 individual releases, while Lather is more a repackaging than anything else. MOFO is…more. Yes, you have the original Freak Out! Album, but it’s a mix no one has heard in almost ever. Plus loads of studio sessions, outtakes, interviews…it gives the listener a great look into Zappa in 1966, the Mothers of Invention at their early onset, and it smokes to boot. I am not too keen on the packaging (the plastic seems to stick a little bit), but it’s an impressive looking thing, to be sure. And the music matches it.Echolyn – A Little Nonsense. Yes, I wish the debut release were in print by itself. Same with …and every blossom, or When the Sweet Turns Sour. But we get all of them here, along with some remakes of older songs, some outtakes, and so on. 3 discs, a bugger of a package (yes, it looks all nice, but the discs can be a beast to get out carefully), and a nice booklet that offers up some historical background to the music in hand. If you’ve got everything else the band released and are missing these, get the box. It’s less expensive by far than trying to dredge up an original pressing of the debut, which at one point was selling for $200 or more.Renaissance – Da Capo. A bit slight at only 2 CDs, this set is, however, what the old Sire released Tales of 1001 Nights dreamed it could be. More inclusive by far, it covers the old Keith Relf era of the band up through unreleased material from the Time Line/Camera Camera era band. The booklet is informative, there’s some great photos of the band from throughout the life of the group, and over all, it’s the best package a Renaissance fan has right now. It serves as a great intro to the band for those unfamiliar with their glorious classically influenced progressive rock. And really…you can never have too much Annie Haslam.Emerson Lake and Palmer – Where do I go here? I don’t have the most recently released boxed set, so I am limited to looking at The Return of the Manticore and the 3 Bootleg Boxes. The original 4 CD boxed set really only offered up one disc of interest to hardcore fans…the first, with some reworkings of songs from each band member’s past (i.e., a Crimson cover, a Nice cover, an Arthur Brown cover), as well as a reworking of Pictures at an Exhibition. There’s a few previously unreleased live tracks tossed in to spice things up, but overall, this is pretty much a career retrospective and not much more. The bootleg boxes are illuminating, and occasionally offer up some great sounding live recordings (the pair from 1992 and 1993 specifically), but in the end they are for absolute die hard fans only, the ones who can handle listening to a recording that is muffled or imperfect in order to hear the band taking risks.I have a hard time with Yes. All I really have is the old YesYears set. I do not have In a Word, nor do I have The Word is Live. So I can’t recommend either of those. And YesYears…out of print, out of date (only covers up to Union), and some curious selections in tracks. Not a lot of unreleased goodies either…and very unessential now that Rhino has repackaged and re-released all the original studio albums with a plethora of bonus tracks and stuff.I'll probably revisit this subject in a few days as well, once I've had a chance to mull over a few other boxed sets and artists...watch this space!
Light details HERE.To be released 24 November 2008 in the UK."Legendary prog-rocker Renaissance perform live during a US tour, following the release of their hit 1976 album SONG OF SCHEHEREZADE. Tracks include 'Running Hard', 'Ocean Gypsy', 'Mother Russia', 'The Festival', and many more."Page states 120 minutes, which is significantly longer than the typical Renaissance concert of that era. It will be interesting to see what's actually on this release. Renaissance is one of my favourite groups, and it was an honour to finally meet Annie Haslam several years ago.
Let's enter the Wayback Machine today.'Back in the day,' I used to spend a lot of time in record stores...so named because they carried records. Records are these big pieces of round black vinyl with grooves on them, and you put them on a device called a turntable, and...Oh wait...most of you know this.Ahem.Anyway...I used to spend a lot of time in records stores. I'd browse through the bins, talk to the staff and so on. At the time (I'm thinking 1992-1993 or so), I was getting into a group called Miranda Sex Garden, which started out as a trio of a capella vocalists performing madrigals and evolved into a dark, goth/fetish/semi-industrial group with angelic vocals and a dark, driving musical backing that could be called progressive in its own right. In any event, I'd just picked up Suspiria, their full length rock release, and was raving about it in the local shop when a guy whose musical opinions I generally respected said 'If you like MSG, I have got a band for you.'I was intrigued, especially as he said that they were lighter by far than MSG, but with a singer that'd blow any of the three female vocalists in MSG away. Sadly, he said, all their albums save for 2 comps were out of print in the States, and the comps, while good, weren't really the best way to check them out. He said, if I bought a few blanks for him, he'd dub copies of a few albums for me to check out. I took him up on the offer, and a few days later I was gifted with a pair of taped labeled 'RENAISSANCE.'Yes, they were lighter by far when compared to MSG. And yes, their vocalist blew away Katharine Blake, Donna McKevett and/or Kelly McCusker, perhaps all at the same time.A few weeks later a friend of mine and I were in Vintage Vinyl in Fords NJ...one of the biggest and best record stores in NJ. They actually had a prog section (still do, and it's one of the best...no real large amount of French prog, sadly, but still...) and as I was going through it, I found...Renaissance CDs...A Turn of the Cards...Scheherazade...Live at Carnegie Hall...Novella...A Song for all Seasons...and a bunch more besides. Sadly, they were all imports, all priced between $25 and $50 a piece...and I didn't have a CD player yet.I resigned myself to buying the two comps (Tales of 1001 Nights in 2 volumes), on Sire Records and available at stateside prices, on cassette. I wore them out. Played them constantly. And over time, I began to buy the albums...first actually on vinyl, used. Played them all the time. Wore them out. Sang along. Was blown away by their material...the operatic vocals of Annie Haslam...a guitarist who played to add colour and tone to the music, not to solo. A pianist who sounded like he should be playing Rachmaninoff, not 'rock' music. A bassist who blew away Chris Squire, in my not so humble opinion. And a drummer who had to handle some impressively complex rhythms and move a song along that didn't necessarily rock out.How could this group not have been huge?Was it the fact that their material was more classically informed?Was it the fact that they didn't 'rock out' like Yes or Crimson or Tull?I wish I knew.Certainly not having their albums in print in the US was not a help. Sire really dropped the ball on that, and the same could be said for a lot of major labels' handling of newer prog...or prog that wasn't played on classic rock radio (ref. echolyn, Annie Haslam on Epic, et cetera). Realistically, Renaissance's fan base in the US was/is in a band that stretches from Boston to DC...the traditional prog corridor in the US. Unlike Rush or Kansas, they didn't have much chance to expand beyond that. The fact that they were at their best live with an orchestra behind them to realise their richly textured compositions was a drawback as well, I'd wager, in terms of touring.All of this moves away from the point...or points...of all of this.1) To this day, Renaissance remains one of my most loved groups. I was very nearly starstruck when I got to meet Annie Haslam a few years back at NEARfest...I had to be pushed into going over to say hi and ask for a photo with her, such was my terror of actually being able to say something to someone whose voice I had fallen in love with. For someone whose favourite group is probably King Crimson, meeting Annie was perhaps the biggest highlight of my life.2) I think more people should check out Renaissance. Seriously. Their material is awesome...the run of albums from Prologue through Azure d'Or is nearly flawless, in my not at all humble opinion. After that...hit and miss...sometimes more miss than hit. But that run of 7 studio albums and 1 live album...almost the pinnacle of musical perfection in 'rock' music.3) Now that record stores are going the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon, it's going to get harder and harder to have that kind of communication where discovery is the end result. There ore, of course, some very good web forums out there where one can trawl and dig and look for gems, but I miss the one on one connection I had at the local. One thing I hope in time that I will be able to do is be kind of a 'local' for any of you out there...telling you about what I've found, what I think, and so on.
