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For a few years now I have been producing a weekly non-stop electronic music radioshow on a local radiostation. It basically serves as an hour long prequel to the show that follows it which is a radioshow on all things prog. Again, this is a non-stop show but I post my playlists on several fora on the net. And since Jem is going into electronic music I thought I might post it here as well:

Since it was Christmas weekend I provided our station with a prerecorded show giving myself a bit of free time .

This week I featured 4 tracks from Motionfield's excellent album Optical Flow (label: Somnia). When it came to picking the other 3 tracks I went for tracks that made subtle (or not so) use of speech samples and actually two of them sharing the same source. As a whole this show has a much more downtempo, relaxed atmosphere ... just what the doctor ordered after all the Christmas festivities.

Here is the full playlist:

* Motionfield - Nightwalk
From the album Optical Flow (label: Somnia)

* True Frequencies - New Indigenous Religion
From the album Fahrenheit Project One (label: Infinium Records)

* Motionfield - Stormsinger
From the album Optical Flow (label: Somnia)

* Porcupine Tree - Voyage 34 : Phase IV
From the album Voyage 34 : The Complete Trip (label: Delerium Records)

* Motionfield - Childhood Playground
From the album Optical Flow (label: Somnia)

* Beatsystem - Alabama
From the album Em:t0003 (label: em:t)

* Motionfield - Horizon
From the album Optical Flow (label: Somnia)

For the remaining part of this week the whole show is available as an On Demand Stream from the website of our radiostation. Where can you find that? Well, here of course:

//http://www.omroepalmelo.nl/sonolab/

and then click "Luister naar uitzending gemist" in the middle of the screen. A second window will open up (might be that you have to accept that through your pop-up killer) and the show starts (with a bit of that evenings 19:00 hours news first).

Check in if you have the time and let me know what you think of the show.

Am playing this disc now for the second time today after having received it through the mail. This is basically Mike Holmes (IQ) own project now (the first album was an IQ spin-off project recording tunes written by the pre-IQ band The Lens) indulging himself and asking the question: "How would the Lens have developed if they had still been together instead of IQ?". The answer is probably: we would have had a bloody great band that incorporates both elements from spacerock, prog and even dance-music into a cohesive whole.

The opening track Choosing A Farmer Part IV is one of the best tip-of-the-hats toward Pink Floyd that I have ever heard. It has a vibe similar to the intro of Us & Them and similar mellow slow jams by Floyd. Love the very effective use of NASA samples (lift-off sequence). And then we plunge straight into the second track To The Power Of Five which is as prog as it gets on this album... very close to the early IQ sound. Interestingly, for an album made by a musician who is primarily a guitarist there aren't a lot of guitarsolo's on it but I don't miss them a bit. Holmes is really one of the most accomplished allround musicians I know.

This one comes highly recommended        

For me, as a big Barclay James Harvest fan, this is a very very sad day:

//http://www.bjharvest.co.uk/

It is with great sadness that John Lees' Barclay James Harvest announces the passing of Woolly Wolstenholme. In recent weeks Woolly's mental health had taken a turn for the worse and sadly he took his own life on Monday 13th December 2010. As you can imagine, John, Craig, Jez and Kevin and everyone associated with the band are stunned that a shining light of Barclay James Harvest is no longer with us. In this difficult time our thoughts are with Woolly's partner, Sue. We would ask all of Woolly's fans to remember his incredible contribution to popular music and his unique presence on stage.

Book Of Condolences: //http://www.bjhforum.co.uk/woolly/guestbook.cgi

I am very grateful I got to see the John Lees' Barclay James Harvest last year both in Berlin and Essen (Germany) with Woolly Wolstenholme on the keyboards. He was one of those rare keyboard-players who really perfected the art of playing the Mellotron (yep, he was still playing a real one and it was in perfect shape and sounded glorious). Barclay James Harvest never really recovered from his departure after the XII album IMHO, so I was very pleased to see him reunite again with guitarist John Lees in recent years.

//http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectRnL

Check these guys out please if you like your pop all progged up :-)... They just posted their version of Eminem's The Real Slim Shady and it is a hoot. And they have tackled Hanson and Blur in the past as well. It is obvious from these and their own songs that they are hugely indebted to Gentle Giant.

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftCIh1EfBfE

We all know that Jem Godfrey likes her a lot so when I see her solo at the end of this live version (@ Glastonbury) I immediately felt really really Frostie.

Love the way she uses live looping (her vocals, a piano part later on, the violins at the beginning) and she actually has two small mikes attached to her wrists that pick up sounds when she plays various acoustic thingies or just claps.

Jeez... is there anything this woman can't do?

//http://imogenheap.fanbridge.com/campaigns/show.php?id=673145&sid=111173244

So, first she produces a crowd sourced nature film, then composes an orchestral soundtrack for it, then conducts that one one live at the premiere and then after that does her 'normal' gig set.

Tomorrow night live @ Royal Albert Hall and it can be watched as well online.

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZnao2fbRQ

A few years ago we had that infectious Heeyah song by Outkast (well, in fact it was half of Outkast in that case Andre 3000) and this has a bit of a similar vibe. But boy, what a performance on the Letterman Show she gave. And yeah, she is paying tribute to James Brown in it... (Gearheads: is that a Fantom keyboard I see?).

But then you start digging deeper into what she is all about and then you discover that this is tune from her first full-length album The ArchAndroid which is, here it comes, a R&B scifi/futuristic concept-album heavily influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis album telling the story of android Cindy Mayweather. The album is divided into 2 suites (parts II and III, the first being released on an earlier EP) so more prog points  

Have checked out more songs of hers (with the help of Youtube) and she is a genuine talent trying to do something different in a field crowded by overpriced divas.

Just check out this song (which is the final song on the album) for what she is capable of:

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUF2c9ImxFk

What I find pretty strong is the fact that she is able to do so much with her voice. Tightrope is as R&B you can get, there are rockish songs on the album and this one has this bigband / nightclub vibe in the beginning then melts into this bossanova type thing before it has this great cinematic ending which seems like a kind of cliffhanger to a sequel maybe?

I am digging this and it is right now at the top of my Amazon wishlist. Popmusic done right I suppose.

Friday 16th April live at Town Hall with special guests incl. members of the Chandos Symphony Orchestra and I bet some past Enid members like Francis Lickerish (now of Secret Green). They will be performing the new album Journey's End and some choice older tracks and then after the intermission a special performance of music from "Aerie Faerie Nonsense" with the massive Orchestral Brass and Percussion sections of The Chandos Symphony Orchestra, plus the great Victorian Pipe Organ in full flight.

Knew about this gig for months but finally decided that I just have to be there and booked a flight, hotel and bought tickets.

Questions:

1) any Frosties going?
2) any points / things of interest that I should try to see / do while in Birmingham for a whole weekend? (I already have plans to at least go and see the Severn Railway which is in Kidderminster)

So here I was chucking my copy of EIMA in my computer to rip it to iTunes and then it says "Artist: Jennifer Frost"

I know that Brits like to crossdress but it seems Mr. Godfrey has taken on an entire different persona  :lol:

Yeah.. Jem, admit it... you want it

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ov7i7Hz5LI

//http://www.imogenheap.com/ellipse/

It's all there and in quite good quality too. Very much looking forward to getting my hand on a physical copy.

And can I dream: she should ask the whole Jeff Beck Group to join her on her tour and accompany her giving the songs a thorough makeover :-)

This just in from Jem's Tweeter page:

"This just in via MySpace :

"ProgFrogg and Strang3Angel Records are teaming up to put together a holiday compilation CD set! We're asking a variety of artists if they would be willing to contribute a track to our project. Either an original holiday piece or a remake of a favorite"

Gotta do it. What Xmas track should we do? Suggestions please

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWwSJh2vk4s

Finally and an interesting comment in there about her having to want a single short piece of pianomusic in there... Where Jem's vblogging mirrored her way of documenting her recording proces, this late inclusion of the piano piece reminded me of You/I on the EIMA album.

Edit: just watched the final blog #40... another big coincidence: she has made an instrumental mix of her album.

//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrj1E96Qies

What is this and what Jem doing in there?

http://amiestreet.com/music/frost-2/_albums

First, from what I know this is a legit site and this is how they say it works:

Amie Street helps you discover new music you'll love quickly and easily. With millions of songs to choose from we make it simple and enjoyable to find your next favorite song.

How do we do this? It starts with the fact that all songs on Amie Street are priced from free to 98 cents. Instead of the arbitrary $0.99 per song, on Amie Street the community determines the price of music. Every song starts free, or very cheap, and increases in price, up to 98 cents, as more and more people purchase it.

This variable pricing system ensures that the public gets music at a fair, community-driven price point, and makes it easy for you to find the type of music you want. We then encourage you to talk about the music you like by putting money in your account for more downloads when you recommend songs that continue to rise in price. You can play the music you purchase from anywhere on the web and all Amie Street downloads are iPod compatible DRM-free mp3s. Enjoy the music!

But Milliontown for $1.14 or EIMA for $2.52 I am wondering wether Jem / Frost Inc. know about this?

And there is a whole load of other InsideOut acts on it as well incl. the new IQ for just under $2.00  :?  :?  :?  :?

Any love for this British act that apparently some in the UK think are French?

Just got their new album Controlling Crowds and I think this is their strongest effort to date. This is cinematically scoped music that reminds me of latter day Massive Attack but with exquisite songwriting. The new album is just this almost too lush of an affair (lots of tunes augmented by orchestral arrangements) but there is still quite a lot of analog power going on as well and a good dose of guitarcrunching.

//http://www.archiveofficial.com/

//http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i0cc7a863b3935049cd7d67dcda85032c

So far so good but SPV, whom I think is also a major shareholder in InsideOut, is in deep trouble. FYI, insolvency isn't exactly the same thing as going bankrupt but it is getting pretty close.    

//http://www.myspace.com/cityofwolvesband

Normally not my kinda music completely but I am rather impressed with what they have to offer so far. The long tune Hollow is interesting but I am very much enamoured with Windows.

http://www.inbflat.net/

This is pretty interesting.... you can make up all kinds of atmospheres by just playing a bunch of Youtube videos....

We have seen Jem raving about it but you know what, you can listen for yourself since the entire album (as far as I can tell) can be listened to (streamed) from their website:

//http://www.wendyandlisa.com/

And it sounds quite wonderful indeed and really not how I expected them to sound these days.