Progradar Best Of 2016 – Leo Trimming’s Top 10

Cosmograf – The Unreasonable Silence

Simply stunning. Robin Armstrong has imagined a rich narrative of alien incursion (or paranoid breakdown?!) with sonic brilliance. The imaginative story is unnerving, whilst the music is captivating on a human level but cinematic in scope – ranging from crunching Purple riffs, through atmospheric acoustic passages to sweeping Floydian soundscapes. Robin Armstrong’s multi-instrumental ability would be nothing without the excellent song writing and fascinating concept of this outstanding album. Undoubtedly, Album of the Year for me, from one of the best Progressive Rock artists of this generation.

(I’ve put Cosmograf as my Album of the year… the rest are in no particular order… they’re all great albums.)

Red Bazar – Tales From The Bookcase

This was my TPA’s review’s conclusion early in the year for this surprise package, and I’ve had no reason to change it since…

‘This is an excellent collaboration: Red Bazar have helped Peter Jones express more of his serious, darker side and also allowed him to display more vocal dexterity. In return Red Bazar have gained a talented and very fine rock vocalist who has added great lyrical skill and vocal feeling  to their own fine emotional musical palette…

This may be a bit of a dark horse, but Red Bazar may just have released one of the Prog albums of the year.’

Matthew Parmenter – All Our Yesterdays

A favourite on two levels – it’s a great album of subtle artistry and fine music, and on another level the artist & his music  touched me personally. My Progradar review concluded:

Matthew Parmenter has stepped aside from the magnificent, gothic group dynamic of Discipline to create a solo work of art suffused with dramatic shades and emotional lyricism, conveying tragedy and hope. This is an album that is likely to captivate and beguile with subtlety and delicate emotion. It certainly gave me unexpected comfort – Inside.’

Nine Stones Close – Leaves

A darkly trippy and psychedelic album. Part dream, part nightmare – this is an album for which repeated listens gradually unpeal the layers, like all the best progressive releases. My Progradar review observed:

Nine Stones Close create rich musical landscapes suffused with a sense of the dramatic and psychedelic… They do not stick to their old formula and want to progress. My advice is stick with these guys because you are never quite sure in which direction their songs or this albums may turn, but it sure is an imaginative and fascinating ride!’

Big Big Train – Folklore

A much anticipated release does not disappoint as the album describes modern folklore, ancient legend, elegies for lost love and epic stories of heroism and loss … plus bees (!) in a rich tapestry of folk tinged progressive rock. Lyrically intelligent and insightful, conveyed with integrity and emotion, and played with consummate skill and passion. Impossible to ignore – we all sort of knew it would be great. Of course it’s great!

Marillion – F.E.A.R

This is a remarkable release from the Prog veterans that rightly propelled them back to wider prominence with an album full of anger and insight in to the state of the world, with the dominance and influence of the ‘super rich’. Of course, none of those political thoughts or feelings would count for anything in an album without outstanding music – Marillion have conveyed their message with powerful rock passages and also subtle melody. Three epic songs with ambitious scope are clearly modern and truly ‘Progressive’ without lazily resting on ‘Prog’ tropes.  A late contender for album of the year, but who would guess that well over 30 years in to their career that Marillion would pull off an album that truly has something to say about today’s world with such impact and sensitivity, and really mean something.  Beautiful at times, dramatic at other times… thought provoking throughout.

The Gift – Why The Sea Is Salt

Let’s get straight to the point – ‘Why the Sea is Salt’ is a truly exceptional album, and deserves to propel The Gift in to the higher echelons of current British Progressive Rock Music. Simple as that – it really is that outstanding. Very few albums indeed have the potential to attain the status of a potential ‘classic’ album, which will live long in the memory like ‘Why the Sea is Salt’. This is a work which greatly appeals to the heart and mind in equal measures, and similarly beguiles and stimulates in its beauty and drama. The Gift have skilfully and  beautifully draw upon a variety of influences, inspirations and ideas and artfully crafted them into an imaginative and enjoyable musical experience that touches the heart and stimulates the mind. Just brilliant.

What more could one want from an album?!

Paradigm Shift – Becoming Aware

This is an outstanding album musically and lyrically, with this young band fusing elements of heavy rock, psychedelia, rap, politics and progressive rock tropes in an intoxicating mix.

Paradigm Shift create finely played music based on well known influences with a largely retro feel. It is refreshing to see a new, younger band on the progressive rock scene willing to inject a political but not overwhelming edge to their songs on this very promising debut album, addressing such issues with vigour and passion.

What remains to be seen is whether Paradigm Shift can sustain this very impressive early showing, and how they develop and absorb other influences in the modern progressive music scene. However, with this album I think many progressive rock fans will definitely be ‘Becoming Aware’ of this promising young band.

TILT – Hinterland

TILT have delivered a superb album by a cast of very accomplished musicians. Brilliant vocals, burning guitar solos, a thunderous rhythm section and songwriting of the highest quality combine to deliver one kick ass release that I keep returning to again and again. A fine combination of excellent rock music with all that’s best about progressive rock, these guys show how it really should be done. It is a clever mix of styles with some subdued, complicated sections weaving between the more straightforward rock themes and gives TILT their own definite sense of identity. This is a talented group of musicians who are at the top of their game and it shows.

Yorkston,Thorne and Khan – Everything Sacred

Finally, and completely out of ‘left field’ for me after seeing them at a festival.

What do you get when you combine a talented Scottish folk singer-songwriter, (James Yorkston) with a reknowned double bass jazz player (Jon Thorne) and finally an award winning Sarangi player and classical singer from New Delhi ( Suhail Yusuf Khan)?

You get an album of beguiling beauty, heart breaking emotion and diverse sounds, blending styles and cultures in a fascinating mix. Listen to songs like ‘Broken Wave’ and ‘Everything Sacred’ and try not to dab the corner of your eye. At other times you are drawn in to hypnotic Indian rhythms with hints of folk, and always played with such delicacy and skill.

Is it ‘Prog’? Of course it bloody isn’t!

But what is more ‘Progressive’ than skilfully and intuitively blending musical and cultural influences to create something so new and so beautiful? Go on… challenge yourself – it’s a great album.

 

Review – Matthew Parmenter – All Our Yesterdays – by Leo Trimming

This review is dedicated to Jean Trimming R.I.P

All Our Yesterdays cover

Matthew Parmenter, the charismatic front man of Discipline, has released his impressive third solo album, imbued with emotion and narrative skill. This album marks his first release with Bad Elephant Music, following on from their ‘fire alarm meeting’ outside the Summer’s End Festival in 2015. The dramatic impact of Parmenter’s stunning show with Discipline at that event led to a great social media comment that the most memorable sound of the whole weekend was the sound of so many jaws hitting the floor in amazement at his performance. However, this solo album shows a very different side of Matthew Parmenter.

Matthew 3 - Sam Holt

Scheherazade was the wife in ‘One Thousand and One Night’s’ who had to tell stories that would keep her husband on tenterhooks until the next night instead of executing her. It is appropriate that Parmenter opens the album with a fascinating song about this story teller, ‘weaving stories into stories’, grabbing one’s attention immediately with a high alto voice intro, akin to Antony Heggarty. Parmenter is filled with stories and poetry which he pours into this work. For the title track he uses probably one of the most famous soliloquies from the greatest story teller of them all, Shakespeare, drawn from Macbeth Act 5, scene 5:

‘… And all our Yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death, out, out brief candle’

Some may question the wisdom of tackling the Bard in this way but Parmenter has the poise and skill to capture the despair of this speech without overpowering it, and his voice is perfectly suited to conveying the presence of a Shakespearean tragic hero. Much of this work is pervaded with a sense of melancholy, particularly in the finale Hey for the Dance and, particularly, I am a Shadow, which perfectly frames Parmenter’s voice as a finely crafted instrument in itself, conveying Bowie-esque delicate agony. Favourable comparisons with Peter Hammill of Van Der Graaf Generator are inevitable, and this seems most clear in the vocal stylings and lyrical approach taken on Hey for the Dance and All for Nothing, accompanied with an appropriately bleak violin and organ. It is no coincidence that All Our Yesterdays with it’s the Shakespearean themes follows – we are clearly  walking in the ominous presence of tragic heroes.

However, Parmenter shows he has a lighter almost jaunty side as Stuff in the Bag rolls along in fine style, ‘taking a holiday from consciousness’, reminiscent of the jaunty asides from King Lear’s Fool. This is not an album full of all pervading darkness as Parmenter’s punctuates the album with moments of relief, such as the short delightful instrumental Danse du Ventre, moving in to the fine song of conflict feelings evoked in Digital.

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Previously in reviews I have tried to be ‘objective’, but that is all an illusion as ALL reviews are subjective, filtered through all of our individual thoughts, feelings and experiences. Some records will mean more for different reasons, and the feelings conveyed may affect us in unexpected ways. Similarly, the actions of the artist may impact upon us. With that in mind, the song, Inside, really connected with me, and I know that one small unheralded action by this artist had a positive effect upon me at a difficult time, which I think says a lot about him as a person as well as an artist. Please forgive the personal angle at this point but this is essential for me to convey the meaning of this song and album to me.

Matthew - Sam Holt

After seeing Discipline in October at Summers End 2015 I bought 2 Discipline albums at the festival. Later I found that a CD booklet was missing, and unfortunately the vendor could not help as they had sold out. I forgot about this for a while as other things of more importance were happening in my life. In December sadly my Mother passed away quite suddenly, which devastated me. In my grief I looked for slight distractions and recalled the missing CD booklet. I decided to e-mail the record company in America to explain the omission, and to my surprise I got a very swift reply back directly from Matthew Parmenter, promising to send the missing booklet. I replied that I was impressed with his speedy and helpful reply, remarking in passing that it was nice to have such a positive response as my mother had just died. Just after New Year’s Day a package arrived from America and not only was there the missing CD booklet, but also a complimentary copy of a Discipline album! There was no note but so much had been said by that thoughtful and compassionate action. I am also pretty certain Matthew would have had no idea I do occasional reviews – this was a simple moment of generosity, reaching out to someone in sadness.

Fast forward a few weeks to my first listening of Matthew’s new album and I get to hear the wonderful song Inside with the powerful refrain:

“You May Be Lonesome and Uncertain, I may be Feeling I’m Alone, We May Find Comfort in this Moment here – Inside…”

I probably do not need to tell you how that song hit me as I drove along listening to it for the first time. It’s a wonderfully understated song with sensitive vocals and atmospheric organ as the song builds in restrained power and emotion.

Discipline - Graham Stead

Matthew Parmenter has stepped aside from the magnificent, gothic group dynamic of Discipline to create a solo work of art suffused with dramatic shades and emotional lyricism, conveying tragedy and hope. This is an album that is likely to captivate and beguile with subtlety and delicate emotion. It certainly gave me unexpected comfort – Inside.

Released 11th March 2016

Buy ‘All Our Yesterdays’, on digital and CD, from Bad Elephant Music

All live photography thanks to Sam Holt.

All other photography, much thanks go to Graham Stead.

This review is dedicated to Jean Trimming R.I.P.