Italian prog festival 5/6 November 2010 - Banco, PFM, Once were Le Orme, many more

Just got this in from the band Periferia del Mondo:


Hi prog friends,
a great Italian Progressive Event is scheduled for November here in Rome, to celebrate the 40 Years Anniversary of Prog, this is the Lineup scheduled at today.
Regards.

1970 Anniversary 2010
- PROG EXHIBITION -
ROMA

- 5 Novembre 2010 -
- 21:00 P.M. -
The Trip (reunion)
- Guest: Thys Van Leer
Once Were LE ORME (A.Tagliapietra T.Pagliuca T.Marton)
- Guest: David Cross
PFM Premiata Forneria Marconi
- Guest: Ian Anderson

- 6 Novembre 2010 -
- 16:00 P.M. -
Periferia del Mondo
Abash
Sinestesia
Maschera di Cera
- 21:00 P.M. -
Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno
Osanna + Gianni Leone
- Guest: David Jackson
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso
- Guest: John Wetton

Esoteric Records August/September release schedule

August:
Banco - Banco (English version)
Banco - As in a Last Supper (English version)
Barclay James Harvest - A Concert for the People (Berlin) - 30th Anniversary edition
Blonde on Blonde - Contrasts
Café Jacques - Round the Back
Café Jacques - International (featuring Phil Collins, Geoffrey Richardson, Rupert Hine etc)
Juicy Lucy - Juicy Lucy
Juicy Lucy - Lie Back and Enjoy It

September:
Ray Thomas (Moody Blues) - From Mighty Oaks & Hopes Wishes and Dreams (Clam shell boxed set - Limited edition with 4CDs, unreleased material & DVD of 5.1 Surround mix and promotional film)
PFM - Cook (3CD clam shell set - Limited edition with 2CDs of entire concert at Central Park in 1974)
Peter Bardens (Camel) - Peter Bardens
Peter Bardens (Camel) - The Answer
Hawkwind - Space Bandits
Here & Now - Give and Take
Here & Now - All Over the Show
Deuter - D
Deuter – Aum


http://www.esotericrecordings.com

Looking back at my NEARfest acquisitions

Here's a quick look, one week later, at how I am faring with the new music acquired at NEARfest 2008:

Le Orme - Live in Pennsylvania 2-CD/1-DVD set. Sound quality is excellent. Video is also very very good...of course, I had a 20 minute tease of this on the NEARfest 2005 DVD. UNFORTUNATELY, this is not their full set, as it excises the material from Collage as well as their rendition of Rondo. Still, a wonderful reminder of seeing this great Italian progressive band.

The Red Masque - Fossileyes. Very good stuff. A bit shocking, actually...their last release had several expansive tracks. The material here is shorter, punchier, more metallic...and every bit as edgy and avant as their past efforts. This is a long awaited album indeed...

Pure Reason Revolution - Live at NEARfest. Post production helped boost what was an energetic set marred by level issues. Harmonies sound richer, thanks to the ability to bring Chloe's voice up in the mix. Are they prog? Who cares! They were energetic, trippy, and very cool.

Strawbs - Live at the Calderone on Witchwood Records. With yesterday's surprising yet not overly so announcement that John Hawken was leaving the Strawbs again, buying this live release (which does not feature him) seems almost...prophetic. Sound quality is a bit rough, as I think this was sourced from a multiple generation off air recording...but this is Strawbs at their rocking best. Well nigh essential.

DFA - Work in Progress Live and 4th. Haven't gotten in as many listens to these, but I like what I am hearing so far. Mostly instrumental Italian prog with a bit of a jazzier bent.

Progday 2001 2-CD set. Only one listen in, and there's a lot to swallow here. Only really familiar with the Muffins and Ars Nova, so there's some work to do here.

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Di Terra and Canto di Primavera. Two totally different sides to Banco. Di Terra is all instrumental and an unmitigated classic of the genre, while Canto di Primavera is shorter, song based vocal music, almost verging on pop. But both are excellent, and easily reward multiuple listens.

Kingfisher Sky - s/t. Haven't listened to yet :-)
Gerard - Sighs of the Water. Again, no listens yet. But I liked them when they played live at NEARfest 2002.

NEARfest 2008 in review

NF 2008 was in some ways one of the more challenging ones for me from both a physical and emotional level. Through most of the weekend, my body seemed to be conspiring against me. Despite this, some of the most memorable musical things happened.

Koenjihyakkei was a solid Saturday opener. I had some issues with the vocal/sax interplay, both of which seemed to stay in very similar ranges, making it difficult at times to discern which was which. But they also had "the" drummer of the festival for me in Tatsuya Yoshida, and his performance was the benchmark by which I compared all others.

Sorry, Mike Portnoy.

Discipline. Not fair of me to say anything. They exceeded my expectations a thousand fold, and I wept for the first time during the festival as they played "Into the Dream." It was a transcendent set for me, one I hope will eventually see some kind of official release. I should add that the rest of the guys in the band are brilliant as well...I've known Matthew Parmenter for a few years, but Mathew Kennedy, Jon Preston Bouda and Pual Dzendel were all a joy to chat with too.

Peter Hammill was superb. It was one of the diverging performances of the weekend, as his particular brand of existential despair and doom is not for everyone. But he played 'In the Black Room,' and 'A Better Time,' and 'Still Life.' A perfect English gentleman to talk to as well. Brilliant man.

Liquid Tension Experiment was good. I know they wowed a lot of people who expected nothing from their set. I did about 90 minutes of their set, and had enough. It's just not for me anymore. But kudos for incorporating a full fledged and rearranged rendition of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" into their performance (Banco would echo this Sunday night, opening their encore with a soprano sax or clarinet solo that interpolated bits of the theme).

Morglbl on the other hand is LTE with Gallic humour. Cristopher Godin is a ham, and his stage presence was wonderful. Floral print tie and all. Great player, oozing character, and the bassist held his own! Very goofy, fun, party prog on the metal edge. Liked them a lot. I'll buy their albums I think. A perfect Sunday opener, and I think they got called out for two encores (and deservedly so), a first.

Radio Massacre International...I dig electronic music, but watching it can be tedious. It was somewhat here...and I was tired. And starting to hurt badly. Cyndee Lee Rule's violin additions helped, as did the occasional use of drums. But the set seemed disjointed.

Echolyn was also a lot of fun. they played several songs I'd never heard played before, like 'Winterthru,' 'The Great Men,' 'Entry 11-19-93' (or whatever the date in the title was). Very energetic set. No new material, but it was a blast. Again, I missed part, as before the encores I started to hurt so bad I was nauseous and crying (thankfully over the course of the rest of the evening I'd spend some time with the guys, which was brilliant as always. They are total class acts...).

Medication and food later, we had...

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.

After their set, I walked around goofy saying "I just saw Banco." I'd walk up to someone and say "That was Banco." It was transcendent, and again, I wept. They were everything I heard on their albums and more. Far far more.

But for me, this year meant something more. This year I think I realised how important the people around me all weekend were. My friends helped me get through a very rough patch with kindness and concern and selflessness. That totally made it for me. Some of the past festivals' performances may have been individually superior, but I may remember NEARfest 2008 most fondly in the end.

NEARfest 2008 photos redux

I'm uploading the last of the pix now, so you can click on the following links to see the rest of the shots:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/5_morglbl/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/6_rmi/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/7_echolyn/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/8_banco/

The dearth of RMI pix is as much an indictment of the lighting (which suited the music but made photography a touch difficult) as anything else. Plus, let's face it...looking at 3 dozen photos of two synthesists flipping switches, pushing buttons and dialing in sounds would get a mite boring.

Anyway...enjoy.

NEARfest 2008 post-fest wrapup part 1

Yeah, I blew all the posting last week. A lot happened. I'm on a more even keel today though, so things should pick back up. In the first part of my festival wrap-up, I'm going to post my list of swag I brought back.

It's a significantly longer than I thought it would be...

MY MUST BUYS
I had a short list of titles I had to buy. If I got these the rest didn't matter. I got all three of my must buys:

Le Orme - Live in Pennsylvania 2-CD/1-DVD set. Sadly not the whole show...it misses Collage and Rondo. But still nice to have about 100 minutes of the 2 hour set.
The Red Masque - Fossileyes. Got it early enough to score the promo DVD along with it.
Nice.
Pure Reason Revolution - Live at NEARfest. Does what it says on the label.

'IMPULSE BUYS'
This is kinda everything else :-)

Strawbs - Live at the Calderone on Witchwood Records
DFA - Work in Progress Live
DFA - 4th (both of these I got at Moonjune on the 2 for $25 deal)
Progday 2001 2-CD set (for 5 bucks I complete the collection)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Di Terra (my friend Mark Guenther kindly picked this up for me)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Canto di Primavera
Kingfisher Sky (the preview on the screen and PA sold this one)
Gerard - can't remember the title (my friend Kevin Cosentino was kind enough to pick this one up)

Fireballet t-shirt (free! and not in my size!)
Fireballet CD sampler (free! and IN my size!)

NEARfest 2008 T-shirt (in progfan size! dark grey with the dual twisted dragon logo)
NEARfest 2008 programme (for which a story exists for later)

End of May 2008 gnosis2000 top 20

Been a while since I posted this, but...here's the current top 20 rated albums from the gnosis2000 rating site (covering prog/art rock/fusion/jazz/et cetera):

1) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Darwin! Ita
2) King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King Eng
3) King Crimson Larks Tongues In Aspic Eng
4) Genesis Selling England By The Pound Eng
5) Premiata Forneria Marconi Per Un Amico Ita
6) Änglagård Hybris Swe
7) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Io Sono Nato Libero Ita
8) Hatfield and The North Rotter's Club Eng
9) Genesis Foxtrot Eng
10) National Health Of Queues And Cures Eng

11) Yes Close to the Edge Eng
12) Hatfield and The North Hatfield and The North Eng
13) Coltrane, John The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (box) USA
14) Van der Graaf Generator Pawn Hearts Eng
15) Gentle Giant In A Glass House Eng
16) Premiata Forneria Marconi Storia Di Un Minuto Ita
17) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Ita
18) Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick Eng
19) Davis, Miles Kind of Blue USA
20) Magma Hhai/Live Fra

When I last posted (February 2008), the following were the top 10:

1) King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King Eng 1969
2) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Darwin! Ita 1972
3) King Crimson Larks Tongues In Aspic Eng 1973
4) Änglagård Hybris Swe 1992
5) Genesis Selling England By The Pound Eng 1973
6) Hatfield and The North Rotter's Club Eng 1975
7) Premiata Forneria Marconi Per Un Amico Ita 1972
8) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Io Sono Nato Libero Ita 1973
9) Genesis Foxtrot Eng 1972
10) National Health Of Queues And Cures Eng 1978

So, outside of a reshuffling of titles, the top ten remains consistent.

Banco forced to bow out of Baja Prog

Due to health concerns (Vittorio Nocenzi is currently dealing with hypertensive heart disease), Italian prog heavyweights Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso have been forced to bow out from their performance at Baja Prog 2008.

It's incredibly unfortunate, of course, and I only hope that Nocenzi can rest, recuperate, and be back on his feet for the two later dates in North America this year (NEARfest and FMPM). From a personal standpoint, I find it somewhat unfortunate that Baja Prog has decided to post Nocenzi's doctor's note to their website...it smacks of a bit of bitterness that I find unpalatable. I don't pretend to know anything about any past history of bad blood between the festival and the band (I don't know everything :-) ), but I believe the whole situation could habe been handles with a bit more tact and class.

In any event, we obviously wish Nocenzi nothing but the best in health for the future!

Gnosis Top 10 February 2008

According to the gnosis2000 website, these are the top 10 highest rated progressive music albums of all time, as of this date:

1) King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King Eng 1969
2) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Darwin! Ita 1972
3) King Crimson Larks Tongues In Aspic Eng 1973
4) Änglagård Hybris Swe 1992
5) Genesis Selling England By The Pound Eng 1973
6) Hatfield and The North Rotter's Club Eng 1975
7) Premiata Forneria Marconi Per Un Amico Ita 1972
8) Banco del Mutuo Soccorso Io Sono Nato Libero Ita 1973
9) Genesis Foxtrot Eng 1972
10) National Health Of Queues And Cures Eng 1978

For the record...I have copies of all these releases save for the two Hatfield albums, and consider each release essential for any listener of prog, be they new to the genre or long time aficionados. Of these bands, I have seen one live (Änglagård), and will be seeing a second this year (Banco del Mutuo Soccorso). I have skipped out on seeing two (PFM and Hatfield), and the less said about seeing King Crimson, the better. That leaves out Genesis, and...that'd be a story for another time, I guess...