A Warrior for New Music finally fades away. The station that made me the music junky I am, for better or worse, has left the airwaves. WBCN in Boston, the first full-time “underground” rock station in Boston, originally broadcasting from a backroom at the The Boston Tea Party club, will switch to mainstream rock format…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Reviews & Commentary
Brian Eno Makes 2nd Apollo Moon Landing
Brian Eno Relaunches Apollo, Live. Brian Eno has been extremely busy lately. When he’s not producing U2, Coldplay or some other pop phenom, he’s been staging multi-day festivals in Sydney and now he’s relaunching Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Apollo is an ionic Eno release, full of atmosphere, never-ending melodies and shimmering lap steel guitar. Originally…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Rhian Sheehan’s New Zealand Soundscapes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090708.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSNew Zealand composer Rhian Sheehan uses synthesizers and music boxes. You can hear an audio version of this blog, with Rhian Sheehan’s music, here. In the attic studio of his New Zealand home, just around the corner from where Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson makes his…
Reviews & Commentary
Trippin’ Out to Saturn with the Sun Ra Arkestra
The Sun Ra Arkestra made a return to earth this past Wednesday night at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. The sound was high-school-gym awful, the seating on the floor uncomfortable, the lighting harsh. It didn’t matter. The 21-piece Sun Ra Arkestra, led by alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, raised the spirits in a two…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST 2009 REFLECTIONS and 10 Classic Progressive Rock Albums
Is Progressive rock progressing? Another year, another NEARFEST and the 2009 edition was as good as any, and much better than 2008, which, as I wrote then, was overlong and overwrought. In ’09 I rarely looked at my watch, there were several acts that excited and you heard nothing but brilliant musicianship. Van Der…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARfest 09 Part 4-The Rest
NEARFEST 09-The Rest: Oblivion Sun, DFA, Trettioåriga Kriget, Beardfish Echoes‘ John Diliberto wraps up his Nearfest 09 Reviews In what turned out to be a very good Nearfest, I’ve already covered my favorite acts. You can read about Gong and PFM, Steve Hillage and Van Der Graaf Generator, and my faves of the festival, Cabeza…
Reviews & Commentary
Nearfest ’09 Pt.3-The New Wave: Cabezas de Cera & Quantum Fantay
Quantum Fantay & Cabezas de Cera welcome Prog to the 21st Century at Nearfest 2009 For some reason, the opening acts on Saturday & Sunday’s Nearfest always provide the most exciting, unexpected moments – think Morglbl, Indukti, KBB and Guapo from recent years – and that was certainly the case with Quantum Fantay and Cabezas…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST 09 Pt.2: Gong and PFM
Someone is dancing in pajama robes and a wizards hat. It must be Daevid Allen and Gong. In this second part of the Echoes Nearfest 2009 review it’s the Old Guard Part Two. Gong is the rock mirror image of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Like Sun Ra, Gong is a free-wheeling eclectic band that wraps…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST ’09 Pt.1: Van Der Graaf Generator & Steve Hillage
NEARFEST 2009 Part One: Progressing into Yesterday, Steve Hillage and Van Der Graaf Generator NEARFEST, the North East Art Rock Festival, took place this past weekend and as is the custom of this 11-year-old institution, it was a mix of progressive rockers old and new. Today, Pt 1 of The Old Guard There is a…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Matthew Schoening’s Looped Cellos
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090624.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSEchoes finds a lapsed classical cellist who is looped. You can hear an audio version of this blog with Matthew Schoening‘s music here. Just like Nathaniel Ayres, the homeless cellist at the center of the film, The Soloist, Matthew Schoening was a cellist, in Los Angeles, without a…