Science Fiction Music Through the Ages Today on Echoes, it’s a trip into the world of science fiction. Sci-Fi literature and movies have always had an impact on a certain breed of musicians, usually the ones who were a bit tripped out and cerebral. You’d have trouble pinning down the first Sci-Fi music. Was it…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Reviews & Commentary
Robert Ashley’s Perfect Life Ends
ROBERT ASHLEY PASSES AT 83 Well, it may not have been so perfect, but Perfect Lives, Private Parts was the name of Robert Ashley’s multi-part meditation on life. It was loosely called an opera, in the way that his contemporary, Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach was an opera, but less so. Robert Ashley was…
Reviews & Commentary
Coldplay Spaces Out
Seems like Coldplay is really spacing out on this new song called “Midnight.” They haven’t released any info about it except the video director, Mary Wigmore. But this is definitely as ambient as pop music can get. And singer Chris Martin seems ready to join the falsetto forces of Bon Iver, et al. John Diliberto…
Reviews & Commentary
“Phaedra” at 40 in Echoes Podcast
Hear an Homage to Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra in the Echoes Podcast On February 20th, 1974, Tangerine Dream released the album that changed electronic music for the next 40 years. It takes its name from Greek mythology and its sound from the imaginations of Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann and Christoph Franke, the three members of Tangerine…
Reviews & Commentary
Tangerine Dream’s “Phaedra” at 40
On February 20th, 1974, Tangerine Dream released the album that changed electronic music for the next 40 years. It takes its name from Greek mythology and its sound from the imaginations of Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann and Christoph Franke, the three members of Tangerine Dream at the time. Phaedra was their fifth album, coming on…
Reviews & Commentary
Where’s the Wah-Wah?: PBS Hendrix Documentary Misses the Mark
Jimi Hendrix’s solo on “’Voodoo Child,’ was like a Harley-Davidson screaming out of the sky.” –Conny Plank. I recently posted on Facebook on the EchoesFans page about the PBS American Masters documentary, Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin’ because I found myself emotionally affected by the memories it was triggering. Someone on Facebook wondered…
Reviews & Commentary
Electronic Bliss at Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit.
Three nights of electronic music blazed forth the weekend of October 25-27 at the Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit in Asheville, North Carolina. Scattered across Asheville’s compact downtown in five different venues ranging from a bar to an arena, musicians plugged in with a range of electronic dreams. One musician was 77 years old with…
Reviews & Commentary
The Middle of the Road Turns Left: Tom Jones & Petula Clark.
In the 1960s, there was the pop music I listened to: Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, etc. Then there was the pop music my parents listened to: Wayne Newton, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jim Reeves. Tom Jones and Petula Clark stradled that line but with a decided tilt toward the latter camp. Theirs was the sound…
Reviews & Commentary
Paul Williams Rock Journalist, R.I.P.
Paul Williams dies at 64. The founder of Crawdaddy Magazine and one of the first rock journalists passes early. David Fricke wrote a beautiful remembrance at Rollingstone.com Fricke’s experience with Williams echoes my own, which I blogged about 4 years ago. I’m re-blogging it here. An Homage to Paul Williams-Godfather of Rock Criticism There are…
Reviews & Commentary
Ten 1967 Pop Songs that Shaped Prog-Rock.
There’s a fun article in Pop Matters called Ten Songs From 1967 That Shaped Prog-Rock. Writer Sean Murphy knocks out his reasons for songs you might not expect to have any bearing on Progressive Rock, like The Beach Boys’ “Heroes & Villains,” which he put at number one. I agree with his choice, although he…