It's The End Of The Year As We Know It

Yes, my dear reader(s), two posts in one day. I couldn't very well make the first one any longer than it was, now could I? Well, I could, but I wouldn't.

2009 is over and yet for me, it still feels like it's January 2009. I had such grand plans of keeping up with all the wonderful (hopefully wonderful) new releases from our favorite artists or labels. But life happened and pulled me away from the reviewing I so wanted to do. And yes, that's the story for the last few years.

But, I have been listening to CDs and so... here are some initial thoughts. Some may or may not have already been expressed in Blog 1... I'm not lookin' back at it.

EchoUs - The Tide Decides: my first thought when listening to this not very loud at work was of Genesis. Listening more, I'm not sure what I was thinking. If you were to take some slightly abstract electronic music and add vocals, then you'd have some idea of this release. Now admittedly, I still haven't listened to it loudly (my promo copy is a CDR that got trapped in my car CD player; I do my best listening on my drive into work as it's my "me time") so there may be much more to it than that.

Frost* - Experiments In Mass Appeal. Well, some parts do have elements of mass appeal... memorable choruses being foremost. Now... experimental it's not. It's quite dramatic at times, esp. the the opening, title track. I've not decided fully yet whether this has grabbed me as much as their debut.

Dominici - 03 A Trilogy Part 3. This former vocalist of Dream Theater, from before they were even a fraction of the mega stars they are now, has created a CD that... while good, also seems to me to be... routine. It's progressive metal. The track that stands out is the balladic "So Help Me God." The setting for this 3-album concept work, as I understand it to be, is rather dystopic. But dystopias and the end of the world scenarios play well (aren't there like 3 movies coming out in January with that as a theme?).

Demians - Building An Empire. This is a sometimes intense, dramatic CD. The style is progressive rock, not metal. I like this quite a bit, actually. But my full review will reveal more as to why. But it's appealing without being commercial.

Not all of these are 2009 releases, I know. Echo Us is; came out in July... the others... well, I've sneaking suspicion I've been listening to them for the last year, given their 2008 release date... as 2009 was the year I would catch up on 2008 and keep up with 2009. I didn't make a New Year's Resolution to that, but I did say that to Hansi Cross of Progress Records. I actually think I've said something along those lines to him each of the last 2 or 3 years.

Well, 2010 is the year to do it. If you've sent a CD for review, I will review it. Well, if you send me hip-hop, country, boy-band pop, or teen-pop, no. I won't review it. But thanks for the coaster. Prog rock, metal, avant-guard, electronic (as in Tangerine Dream, not House), yes. It may take a while, but I'm not the one to listen to something once and write a review.

2010 is also our 13th anniversary - well, come April 2010. So, I'm quite pleased by that. Not sure if we'll have any hoopla for it as we did... sorta... for our 10th, but we'll see. I've some ideas I'm mulling over.

In a brief look back at the decade, I want to note that back in 2000 is when this site (the main site) really took off, when I was joined by John "Bobo" Bollenberg and Larry "LarryD" Daglieri in crafting the content of this site; others soon joined us for the ride -- in no particular order: Clayton Walnum, Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck, Marcel Haster, Marcelo Silveyra, Richard Zywotkiewicz, Tom Karr, Joshua "Prawg Dawg" Turner, David Cisco, along with occassional contributions from John Morley, John Stout, Tony Emmerson, Tonny Larsen, among others. 2000 is also when my tenure at Progression Magazine began, with an article (iirc) on Napster, which was then a novelty and the subject of much controversy. Nowadays, of course, there dozens of places to download legally (or illegally, sadly - just say NO to the illegal download!!). My run at the mag ended in 2008, but it gave me chance to share some thoughts with a wider audience.

Hmm... what else about the last 10 years? (Yes, there are the obvious big milestones that you will see replayed endlessly on CNN, etc.). Oh, I know we've lost many a prog musician in those 10 years... I'm sure a list is out there, I can think of Pip Pyle, Pim Koopman, Paul Young (of Mike and the Mechanics), Shaun Geurin, Hugh Hopper ... oh, so many others. And, we have to add to that list, I see, Eric Woolfson (Alan Parsons Project) who passed away on December 3.

Here is the posting at Rolling Stone: "Eric Woolfson, the co-founder of the British prog rock band the Alan Parsons Project, died of cancer this week [December 3] in London at the age of 64, THR [The Hollywood Reporter] writes. Woolfson had a role in the band’s biggest songs, "Don’t Answer Me" and "Eye In The Sky,” a track which received even greater exposure as the intro music for the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era." [I've posted a fuller news item at the main site here].

On that grim note, I would like to lighten the mood by wishing you (everyone... anyone?) a Happy New Year.