Artist News: [Delayed] News Round Up: Pattern Seeking Animals, Rick Wakeman, Haken, Nightwish...
While doing some data cleanup, I found these news bits I was queueing up for April! You see,I keep attempting to post some roundup of new albums coming out but then work commitments swallow me up whole and... I have to start again. This was the start again... and then... Anyway, looking behind and ahead, but in no particular order:
So, the new group Pattern-Seeking Animals released their follow up to their self-titled debut on May 15, 2020 (InsideOut Music). Called Prehensile Tales, it will feature 6 six songs, the longest at 17 minutes: "Raining Hard In Heaven," "Here In My Autumn" (the first single, view/listen below), "Elegant Vampires," "Why Don't We Run," "Lifeboat," and "Soon But Not Today."
In addition to the usual mix of guitar (Ted Leonard, also vocals), drums (Jimmy Keegan, also vocals), bass (Dave Meros) and keyboards (John Boegehold), the band have added violin, flute, trumpet, cello, sax and pedal steel guitar.
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The legacy of Pink Floyd lives on - most recently in the form of Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets. Last year, Mason was joined by Gary Kemp, Guy Pratt, Lee Harris and Dom Beken for a pair of shows at The Roundhouse, "the venue where Pink Floyd first played on 15 October 1966, at the International Times launch party." That performance was captured and will be released as a double-LP, Double CD+DVD package, or as a Blu-Ray on September 18 (pushed back from an April 17 date). You can pre-order Live At The Roundhouse here.
- Watch the trailer for the blu-ray
- Performance of "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"
- Performance of "Fearless"
The group will tour the UK in October (rescheduled from April/May, though some shows not yet rescheduled) and tickets will be valid for the rescheduled dates.
October 1 - Forum, Bath, England, UK
October 4 - Barbican, York, England, UK
October 5 - St. David's Hall, Cardiff, Wales, UK
October 7 - Sage, Gateshead, England, UK
October 8 - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
October 9 - 02 Apollo, Manchester, England, UK
October 11 - New Theatre, Oxford, England, UK
October 12 - De Montfort Hall, Leicester, England, UK
October 14 - City Hall, Sheffield, England, UK
October 15 - Regent, Ipswich, England, UK
October 16 - Philharmonic, Liverpool, England, UK
October 19 - Dome, Brighton, England, UK
October 22 - Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England, UK
October 24 - G Live, Guildford, England, UK
[Source: data - Sony Music/Legacy Recordings website]
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Joe Satriani's European tour in support of the forthcoming album Shapeshifting was delayed to April of 2021 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the release of the album remained April 10, 2020, via Sony Music/Legacy Recordings. Shapeshifting is Satriani's 17th studio release.
The latest single from the new album is "Big Distortion," a track to me recalls 80s arena rock without sounding dated. That sounds contradictory, but it's 80s arena rock without the histrionics of that era, which makes it sound fresh. You can view/listen to the track below:
And if'n you think I'm way off base? The first single (see below) is called "Nineteen Eighty."
Rescheduled European tour dates are:
April 9, 2021 - Volkshaus Zurich, Zurich, CH
April 10, 2021 - Salierhalle, Winterbach, DE
April 12, 2021 - Train, Aarhus, DK
April 13, 2021 - Posten, Odense, DK
April 14, 2021 - Amager Bio, Copenhagen, DK
April 15, 2021 - Fryshuset, Stockholm, SE
April 16, 2021 - Rockefeller, Oslo, NO
April 18, 2021 - Rheingoldhalle, Mainz, DE
April 19, 2021 - Huxleys, Berlin, DE
April 20, 2021 - Löwensaal, Numberg, DE
April 21, 2021 - Tollhaus, Karlsruhe, DE
April 23, 2021 - De Roma Borgerhout, Antwerp, BE
April 24, 2021 - Muziekcentrum Enschede, Enschede, NL
April 25, 2021 - Melkweg, Amsterdam, NL
April 26, 2021 - RABOzaal Heerlen, Heerlen, NL
April 27, 2021 - Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen, DE
April 30, 2021 - Birmingham Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK
May 1, 2021 - Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, England, UK
May 2, 2021 - Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, England, UK
May 4, 2021 - Palladium, London, England, UK
May 5, 2021 - Sage, Gateshead, England, UK
May 6, 2021 - O2 Academy Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
The 2021 touring band features celebrated drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty), bassist Bryan Beller (Aristocrats) and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte (Thirsty Merc) and Joe Satriani on guitar.
[Source: data - Noble PR/Sony Music/Legacy Recordings website]
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Kansas will release a new album on June 26, 2020 via InsideOut Music called The Absence Of Presence. Listening to the sampler video (linked to below), the band rocks harder than I remember them being - not a criticism, just my 2-second observation. There are balladic tracks, too, and moments that are modern-proggy. There is no doubt, however, that it is Kansas. According to InsideOut, the album will be released in various formats - what isn't these days, right?: single CD, double LP on 180gm vinyl, a limited edition deluxe CD plus 5.1 BR Artbook edition and for those new-school folks who don't feel the need to hold the object in your hands, it will be available as a digital album. Pre-orders begin April 17 via the band's website and elsewhere.
On the assumption the world was going back to normal - well, a new normal, but less abnormal than it is now - the band were to perform with Foreigner on their Juke Box Heroes 2020 Tour starting July 9 in Albuquerque, NM with guest Europe and concluding September 13 in Del Valle, TX. However, in the time since that was announced and today, that tour has been cancelled. The plan was to debut a song off of The Absence Of Presence during the tour. However, they are still going to tour later this year (as of today) and play more selections from the new album during the Point Of Know Return Anniversary European Tour (beginning October 18 in London, England and ending November 10 in Amsterdam, NL). In addition, as scheduled right now, Kansas has several US dates scheduled, touring the Point Of Know Return Anniversary shows (some rescheduled from March, April and May) and Kansas Classic.Of course, these may be postponed (or cancelled), depending on what the next few weeks bring regarding Covid-19. See our Event Calendar and the Kansas website for dates.
And the first single, "Throwing Mountains," was released April 17. Watch the video below.
[Data Source: InsideOut Music]
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Another InsideOut Music artist, Haken, have a new release, which came out on June 5, 2020, called - coincidentally - Virus, as a follow up to 2018's Vector. You can see a video for the first single, "Prosthetic," below. About the track, the band says, "'Prosthetic' was the first song we completed during the Virus writing sessions and we always felt it would be the perfect opener for the album. It’s a very guitar heavy track with its roots in 80s thrash riffing, but with the unconventional rhythmic twists and turns we often like to explore in Haken. We sadly never had a Jeff Hanneman and Robert Fripp collaboration, but this song at least draws on inspiration from them both!" As expected, the album comes in many configurations (strains?) -- Single CD, Limited Edition 2CD, Gatefold LP plus CD and a digital album.
[Data Source: InsideOut Music]
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Pure Reason Revolution have returned after a nearly 10 year hiatus with the album Eupnea, which was released April 3. The album is available as a limited CD digipak, gatefold 2LP plus CD (with etching on Side D) and as a digital album. You can order your copy or copies here.
To promote the album, the band has released a video for the track "Ghosts & Typhoons," which you can view below. And in January, they released a video for the 10-plus minute track "Silent Genesis" (though recent news suggests Genesis will be silent no more, but that's another news item).
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Caligula's Horse released Rise Radiant on May 22; the second single from the album is "Slow Violence" (viewable below). Guitarist Sam Vallen comments: “Rise Radiant is the album we've been working towards for almost a decade. It represents everything we love about Caligula’s Horse – the colour, the ferocity, the introspection, the extremes – all tied up together in a way we could never have managed until now. As a band, we’ve never felt tighter, more inspired, or more driven than in the creation of this record. We’re tremendously proud of Rise Radiant, and we can’t wait for you to hear it!”
You can hear it on a limited edition CD digipak, on vinyl in gatefold sleeve (2LP+CD), and as a digital download. These formats also include two bonus tracks - "Message To My Girl" (Split Enz cover) and "Don't Give Up" (Peter Gabriel cover featuring a guest appearance by Lynsey Ward (Exploring Birdsong)).
Their previously announced North American tour has been postponed to January/February of 2021. Dates to be announced soon.
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And, Completing this InsideOut roundup,Lonely Robot will release their fourth - their fourth - album later this summer. While we wait for details (a wait that will give us - me - time to catch up on their catalog! {except it didn't}), they have made available to stream the full animated film that was shown at two UK theatre events - which you can view below.
To update this item further, the album title is Feelings Are Good and the album will be released by InsideOut on July 17.
From InsideOut: Feelings Are Good marks sort of a fresh start following the conclusion of the "The Astronaut Trilogy." John comments: "Feelings Are Good is a bit of a departure from the first three Lonely Robot albums. On Feelings Are Good, I wanted to explore more personal themes and the songs are very much about individual experiences and narratives that I believe had been the cornerstones, good and bad, to my life. The long tall and short of it is that we're back on planet Earth, and I have a personal lyrical axe to grind!"
Feelings Are Good is now available for pre-order and will be released as a Limited Edition CD Digipak, Gatefold 2LP+CD and as Digital Album in both 16 & 24 bit versions (all including 2 bonus tracks). The artwork is once again by Paul Tippett / Vitamin P (Black Star Riders, Frost*), and John says of the cover: "The artwork is meant to be a little disturbing. The closed eyes and taped over mouth are supposed to represent how people are very guarded with their emotions and what better way of emoting them than through the windows to the soul and the smile?"
The full track-listing is as follows:
1. Feelings Are Good
2. Into The Lo-Fi
3. Spiders
4. Crystalline
5. Life Is A Sine Wave
6. Armour For My Heart
7. Suburbia
8. The Silent Life
9. Keeping People As Pets
10. Army Of One
11. Grief Is The Price Of Love
12. The Silent Life (Orchestral Version)
13. Crystalline (Orchestral Version)
Lonely Robot will hit the road in December 2020 for some select headline dates, and you can find a list of those below:
Dec 13th Islington Assembly Hall, London, UK
Dec 16th Riff, Bochum, GER
Dec 17th Das Rind, Rüsselsheim, GER
Dec 18th Muziekgieterij, Maastricht, NL
Dec 20th De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, NL
[Data Source: InsideOut Music]
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Rick Wakeman and the English Rock Ensemble will release The Red Planet in June 2020 (exact date still tba; delayed from April 3, due to coronavirus concerns). This new studio album, released by the newly formed R&D Media -- a partnership between Rob Ayling and Doug Harr -- features 8 newly composed pieces about ... uh... the Red Planet. From the Rick Wakeman website: "Rick has blown the dust off his favourite analogue keyboards and, along with his latest keyboards, has used the same formula the devised when making his legendary albums The Six Wives Of Henry VII and Criminal Record.
"Upon being asked about the expectations of his Prog Fans, that they are hoping he will shoved the 'Prog Fader' up to 11, he replied, 'That could be a problem... as it's already at 14!!!'"
Also, from the website, the first 1000 vinyl editions will be double LPs, 180-gram and coloured red - of course - and will be signed and numbered with a special "pop up" album cover. The first 2,000 CD editions will be signed and numbered with the special "pop up" cover. Not mentioned on the website, but clearly visible in the accompanying picture, If you remember your childhood pop-up books, that's what this means. The LP is a gatefold cover, as you might expected with a 2LP release [do LPs come with paper sleeves anymore? I haven't bought an LP in ages -ed.] and the center is a pop-up.
The English Rock Ensemble are: Dave Colquhoun - guitars; Lee Pomeroy - bass; Ash Soan - drums and, of course, Rick Wakeman on keyboards.
Available on the album page on Rick's website are a series of "making of" videos for you to enjoy.
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White Willow's Jacob Holm-Lupo's other project, The Opium Cartel, released their 3rd album, Valor on June 5, 2020 thorugh Apollon. According to the blurb on Apollon's website (from an interview with Prog magazine, but not noted there), the album is "a record about naïve but brave dreams. These are songs about the hubris and optimism of childhood and youth. That period of life where everything seems sure to happen just the way you imagine: You will fall in love with the most beautiful girl in the world and she will love you back. You will become a pilot or an astronaut or defy gravity in some other way. You will explode into a world of color and wonder. You will never be disappointed or let down. You will take every risk without fear of failure.
"These are also songs about that bittersweet moment when you start to realize that things may be a little different than you imagined. Not all things, but some."
Further, "[m]usically the album takes inspiration from a variety of predominantly 1980s sources, from The Blue Nile and Shriekback, via late Roxy Music to the prog-pop of 80s Alan Parsons Project and Camel. The period feel is amplified by Holm-Lupo’s use of exclusively hardware synthesizers iconic to the era, like the Oberheim Matrix-6 and Yamaha DX7."
The album is comprised of 9 tracks, one of which ("Nightwings") features the lead vocals of Holm-Lupo's 13 year old daughter, Ina A.. Another, as a bonus track, is a cover of Ratt's "What's It Gonna Be," with guest Alexander Stenerud (Zuma) on vocals. Other guests/members: Silje Huleboer (vocals; Ole & Silje Huleboer), Ole Øvstedal (bass, guitar; Ole & Silje Huleboer, Spirits Of The Dead), Bjørn Riis (guitars, Airbag), Leah Marcu (Tillian), Maria Grigoryeva (strings), Ilia Skibinsky (sax)m and Fredrik Frøislie (Wobbler).
The first single, "In The Streets," was premeired through Prog and can be found here.*
[Data Source: Apollon Records, Prog]
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Nightwish released their 9th studio album, Human. II. Nature. on April 10 via www.nuclearblast.de. Purchasing options include 3LP in Marigold, Mirage (teal), Bronze or Black; 2CD with digibook, and a standard 2CD edition. CD Disc one is the album, CD Disc two, "All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World" is filled with instrumentals featuring the London Sesssion Orchestra; "eight connected but far ranging fascinating movements that should be understood as Tuomas' 'love letter to our world'," notes Nuclear Blast. "In its artistic approach, this musical epic of the Finnish storytellers resembles the cinematic observations of earthly beauty of Sir David Attenborough for example."
The first single is "Noise," which you can view below.
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Subsignal released a live album, A Song For The Homeless - Live In Russelsheim 2019 on May 22 through Gentle Art Of Music. Recorded in March 2019, the band's set list includes tracks from all four studio albums to date, including 2018's La Muerta (which was produced by RPWL's Yogi Lang and Kalle Wallner, and also came out on Gentle Art Of Music).
...Live In Russelsheim 2019 will come as a standard CD, a double gatefold vinyl LP in blue vinyl, and available as a digital download.
The first single is "The Bells Of Lyoness" from La Muerta, which you can watch below.
Other recent releases from Gentle Art Of Music include February's release from Blind Ego, Preaching To The Choir, the side project of Wallner's, last November's Live From Outer Space from RPWL, a document of their tour behind their Tales From Outer Space release, and Yogi Lang's second solo album A Way Out Of Here. (You can watch these and others we've added to a YouTube playlist here.
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Other recent/upcoming releases: Paradise Lost - Obsidian (out May 15 from Nuclear Blast; editions: LP in silver, bi-coloured white/dark green, green splatter, and black versions; vinyl box set, CD in digi-pack and jewel case versions) ... ... tētēma (Mike Patton and Anthony Pateras) released their second album Necroscape on April 3 via Ipecac Recordings. The first single, "Soliloquy," can be heard here. My 2-second reaction?: the soundtrack to a dark, dystopian film about the violently insane chaotically taking over the aslyum. (About their debut album Geocidal, All Music wrote: "...an intelligent but ferocious mixture of avant-garde experimentalism, world music accents, and heavy metal velocity.") ... ...From the New Wave Of Jazz imprint, 8 new releases were expected April 15: Andrew Cheatham and Alan Wilkinson - The Vortex of Past Time, Jürg Frey - Echo.Trio.Fragile.Eyot., Tom Malmendier & Dirk Serries - Vanguard, Serries/Taylor + Verhoeven - An Evening At Jazzblazzt, Daniel Thompson - Finch, Sett - First And Second, Serries - Verhoeven - Webster - Praxis, and Colin Webster - Dirk Serries - Light Industry... ... Don't fear this news bit, but released back in March on CD/DVD, Blu-Ray and vinyl is a live performance from 2016 of Blue Oyster Cult playing Agents Of Fortune in it's entirety to celebrate the album's 40th Anniversary. It's available from Frontiers. Their performance at iHeart Radio Theater in New York City in 2012 -- marking the band's 40th anniversary and to promote The Columbia Albums Collection boxset -- is also being released on CD/DVD, Blu-Ray and vinyl on June 12... ... Symphony X frontman Russell Allen and The Dark Element frontwoman Anette Olzon have joined forces as, appropriately enough, Allen / Olzon and released in March Worlds Apart. The duo duet on 11 tracks, joined by Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, a.o.) on guitars, bass and keyboards and Anders Köllerfors on drums. The album was released last month on Frontiers... ... Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall will release We Are The Night on June 12 through Frontiers. The group includes Köllerfors and the album features guest vocals from several guests including Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath)... ... Devin Townsend's Empath (2019) is getting the deluxe treatment by being reissued as Empath - The Ultimate Edition - 2 CDs (original release on disc 1, bonus materials on disc 2) and 2 Blu-Rays (5.1 SS mix with visuals and stereo visualizer on disc 1; bonus material including "Acoustically Inclined - Live In Leeds," recorded from April 2019's acoustic tour). This came out June 5 from InsideOut Music. ... ... Wardruna's Kvitravn release date has been postponed to Jan 22, 2021 (it was to be June 5, 2020) as the production facilities closed due to Covid-19 ... .... and this is as far as we got...-ed.
*[Editorial interjection: So, watch the video first, then come back to this comment/thought. Ok then. My first thought was how well the video captured the colours of the late 70s/early 80s... very spot-on retro, I thought (including the orange/brown haze of smog). Wasn't sure how it was going to fit the music, but... Then... several minutes in, I recognized a young Jodie Foster, and a second later, Scott Baio... ok, no. Not retro, excerpt from a movie. Not sure I saw it at the time and had to um... Google it. 1980's Foxes.. The visuals fit the title; further listenings, I'll be able to tell if the lyrics fit. The music itself is very mellow pleasing, and a perfect antidote for our stressed times -ed.]