New Album By Krautrock Legends Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru and Zeus B. Held of Birth Control
This is how a spontaneous project came about - long overdue! A colorful bouquet of ideas, rhythms, sounds, images and stories ... They met in 1973 at a Krautrock Festival in Frankfurt - Mani played and was Guru Guru, Zeus was the newcomer to Birth Control on the keyboards. Since then they have met again and again, jammed and played gigs together. Then finally - in the summer of 2019 they went two days to Bernie Michael Land’s Synxxs Studio in Rodgau - a wall of modular synth and wonderful gongs and percussion - this is how the basics of the tracks with Mani’s percussive playing on the “Haken Continuum” and various electronic drum pads came about. Zeus built the chord structures and sequences for this. Then it went to Zeus’ KG Beat Studio in Freiburg, where Mani recorded an acoustic drum kit as an overdub. There were also some outbreaks of poetics - so for some pieces texts were created about the common sound images. Afterwards they started again in Mani’s Odenwald Secret Retreat.
“Discreetly, almost secretly we’ve been putting together a first album – after we’ve known each other as musicians since a long time …”
Released September 18, 2020
All Tracks written by Zeus B. Held & Mani Neumeier
Mani Neumeier: Electronic, Acoustic Drums, Percussion, Kaossilator & Vocals Zeus B. Held: Keyboards, Voice & Production Luigi Archetti: Guitar on A3, B2, B3, B4 & B5 Bernd-Michael Land: Analogue Sequencing Etsuko Watanabe: Voice On B1
Recorded at Synxxs-, Kgbeat & Hilsenhain-Studios MMIX & MMXX Mastered by Lars Lafayette Fasbender
Cover Photo & “Wabi Sabi” painting By Mani Neumeier Postcard Photo by Kamikaze Jane Sleeve & Typography by Percy
Features Hawkwind Alumni Alan Davey, Ginger Baker, Robert Calvert, Nik Turner, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Simon House, Michael Moorcock, Paul Rudolph, Mick Slattery & Bridget Wishart PLUS Todd Rundgren, Mick Taylor, L. Shankar, David Cross, Arthur Brown, Wayne Kramer, Carmine Appice & more!
Los Angeles, CA - Hot on the tail feathers of last year’s debut album from Hawkestrel, the project spearheaded by former Hawkwind bass player Alan Davey, comes this brand-new album from the quintessential Hawkwind supergroup! Made up of more Hawkwind alumni than any previous project, Hawkestrel is truly the next evolution of this legendary British rock legacy. The new album, Pioneers Of Space, continues the sci-fi adventures with a mix of original compositions and bold covers including the wildly adventurous version of Post Malone's megahit “Circles” featuring some stellar guitar work from Hall Of Fame nominee Todd Rundgren. And Rundgren isn’t the only special guest here; also contributing their talents are former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, prog legend David Cross, electric violinist L. Shankar, wild man Arthur Brown, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, and lots more!
For a taste of what’s in store, the first single from the album “Day Of The Quake” is currently available on all digital platforms. The track is a complete revamp of a rare early ‘80s recording from Hawkwind’s much loved poet laureate, Robert Calvert. Davey enthuses about the track saying, “From the lyrical genius that is Bob Calvert comes ‘Day of the Quake.’ This masterclass of English poetics gets married up to some up-tempo exciting music I wrote with the one and only Mick Taylor guesting on lead guitar and the legendary Nik Turner on sax. Get ready to rumble!”
Pioneers Of Space will be available starting October 16 in a digipak CD and two vinyl configurations: a special double vinyl set with a bonus EP or the single LP set in RED colored vinyl!
Track List: 1. Biometrics 2. Cosmic Divide 3. Day Of The Quake 4. Glass Wolves 5. Atmospheric Window 6. Circles 7. No Doubt 8. Journey 9. Pioneers Of Space
ProgStock Festival, the American Northeast’s Only International Progressive Rock Festival, is proud to bring you the ProgStock Presents Virtual Series.
The pandemic has closed music venues and brought in-person live music performances to a screeching halt. Accordingly, we have had to cancel ProgStock 2020. We don’t know how long we will have to wait before it will be truly safe to stage a festival, but we will be back! Meanwhile, we will be bringing music right to you with some great shows from artists performing live in their homes or home studios. The series is being presented every Saturday night, 5PM – 10PM US Eastern and started on August 1, 2020.
The individual performances on StageIt are separate shows. Audience members will purchase a ticket to each performance individually, not the whole night as a block. Some shows will be 45 minutes and others will be 90 (or longer), so we may have as few as three shows or as many as six each night, with some nights starting at 4PM US Eastern to accommodate artists streaming from Europe.
Shows in October feature District 97, Pinnacle, OVRFWRD, Marco Machera (Echotest), Galactic Cowboy Orchestra, Katie Pachnos, Alan Hewitt and One Nation, and more!
On October 10th and 11th, 2020, ProgStock is taking its Virtual Series to the next level by bringing you Virtual ProgStock 2020. ProgStock, the American Northeast’s only international progressive rock festival, will come to you virtually with full-production, full-band performances streamed live from the Hamilton Stage Theatre of the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, New Jersey on October 10th, and from the Temple Stage at Tellus360 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on October 11th and will feature Total Mass Retain YES Tribute Band, Solar Federation – A Rush Tribute, Mile Marker Zero, Cell15, Gnarbot, and Crack the Sky!
Show times (all times are in US Eastern): Saturday, October 10: 1PM: Total Mass Retain - A Yes Tribute 4:30PM: Mile Marker Zero 8PM: Gnarbot
Sunday, October 11: 1PM: Solar Federation - A Rush Tribute 4:30PM: Cell15 8PM: Crack The Sky
StageIt is all about experiencing music in the moment, duplicating the live music experience as closely as possible. You have to be there to see it, just like you would in a venue, so shows are only available on their site during the performance window.
The Segue hail from Poland and are the second new Polish band to catch my attention recently. The band comprises 4 members, Robert Wiercioch (guitar), Karolina Wiercioch (piano, grand piano, synths), Marcin Essen (bass) and Szymon Piotrowski (drums) and they are joined on this recording, Holograms, by three guest musicians, Jan Kozlinski (bass), Michal Sarapata (bass) and Maciej Dzik (drums).
I am most impressed with this debut, as I will freely admit that fusion/jazz fusion would not normally be a genre I would listen to, and, it is also an instrumental album, another area I can find less interesting, but The Segue have an interesting sound that takes me beyond any preconceptions. Holograms is a 7 track album with a playing time of just over 45 minutes (45:15), with the opening track, “Segue,” the shortest on offer at 3:55 minutes and the final track, “Time Space Illusion” being the longest, clocking in at 8:14 minutes.
The opening track, “Segue,” bounces into life very quickly and grabs the attention just as fast. Guitar, bass and drums set down an amazingly interesting sound and just after the 1-minute mark, there is a synthesizer passage before the track settles into the earlier style. Around the 2:10 minute point there is a slight change to the guitar which steps to the fore, driving the track along, suitably underpinned by that thumping bass and precision drumming. Just into the 3-minute mark there is a very atmospheric passage before the band wind up and are away. An ideal opening track, highlighting the musician skills and enticing the listener into the sound of The Segue.
Track 2, “Questions” (6:31), starts off much more gently and soon the piano of Karolina takes the track onwards with a very jazzy feel, suitably aided by the guitar, bass and drums. Karolina then moves into one or two different piano passages, complimented by the engine-room of drum and bass. The piano remains the major instrument, although around 3:45 minutes, there is an excellent bass passage which changes the tone of the track. Karolina (piano) and Robert (guitar) take the track on with Robert coming to the forefront, before a very gentle piano/bass passage ushers the track to completion.
The fourth track, “Future Ways” (4:30), starts with a synth passage to which the bass and drums soon pitch in followed by the guitar. Karolina concentrates on the synth on this track, together with Robert’s exquisite guitar playing and the bass and drum foundation is always there, supporting. “Future Ways,” as with all the tracks, gives the individual musicians a chance to step into the spotlight and shows the band to be a unit of very skillful musicians.
Initially I mentioned that jazz and instrumentals do not form a major part of what I would normally listen to, but The Segue seem to be different in that they mix what they do so well. Karolina is as accomplished on synths as the piano, although her style of playing certainly shows a love of jazz. Robert on guitar can throw out jazzy guitar runs with the best of them, but is not averse to suddenly diving into a more prog vein.
I think that it is this versatility that make Holograms so accessible and I have no doubt that many people will think the same. Holograms will be an excellent addition to many CD collections and indeed I still listen to tracks regularly. This is an excellent debut release and I look forward to finding out where further releases will take the band.
Jim “The Ancient One” Lawson -Prog Rock Music Talk Staff September 22, 2020
Tracks: 1. Segue (3:55) 2. Questions (6:31) 3. Torrent (8:05) 4. Exosphere (6:30) 5. Future Ways (4:30) 6. Broken Mind (7:30) 7. Time Space Illusion (8:14)
“The Archaeology Project” is a compilation of prog music artist Tim Morse’s music from 2005-2020. There’s no real concept for this release, given that it is a compilation album, however the title and the artwork ties the music of different eras together.
Says Tim, “It seemed like a good time to reflect on the last fifteen years of being a recording artist. It was fun revisiting these songs and choosing what I consider to be the best examples of my songwriting to feature on this collection. I’ve remastered the older songs with Craig Long and I have to say the music has never sounded better. I was so pleased with the work that I ended up remastering more music than could fit on one CD and so I’m offering five extra songs as a download for no additional charge. There is also a new solo guitar instrumental, a remix/new vocal for the Mangoes song ‘200 Yards’ and my cover version of the classic Pink Floyd song ‘Dogs’ on ‘The Archaeology Project.’ I especially like the imagery that Jay Leek came up with for the project - it has a nice ‘Hipgnosis’ feel to it.”
It was an interesting experience for Tim compiling the album and noting his growth as a singer/songwriter. He felt it was nice to be able to offer a cross section of his music and include a real rarity as a bonus download (the first demo he did with Mark Dean - an early version of “Present Moment”). Says Tim, “The Guitar Etude that opens the album includes a bit of a melody that I wrote in my first song. I was never really happy with my vocals on the original version of ‘200 Yards’ and so it was nice to redo the vocal and remix the song. Lastly, the cover version of ‘Dogs’ is something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’ve always loved that song and it was a fantastic experience to put my stamp on it with a fantastic group of musicians: Bret Bingham, Andrew Glasmacher, Charley Langer and Hope Rogers.”
Tim Morse “Dogs” cover version:
Tim Morse began his instrument instruction at a young age and started composing immediately upon picking up the guitar. He later moved onto the piano and studied as a music composition major, writing extended pieces such as a string quartet and two piano sonatas. During this time Tim performed with various rock and fusion bands and played on many recording sessions. Tim’s first album of original music was entitled “Transformation” and was released in 2005. The album was well received by the Progressive Rock community and recognized as an original voice, in the tradition of Yes and Genesis, yet recorded and performed with a modern edge.
His second album “Faithscience” was released in 2012 and musically it picked up where “Transformation” left off, continuing to explore the best of Progressive Rock. In addition to this release Tim became a member of the Jerry Jennings band and formed The Mangoes with Bret Bingham. The Mangoes released their debut album in 2014 and it was appreciated for its pop sensibility and quirky humor. His latest solo release “III” was also warmly embraced in 2018 by critics and fans alike.
Tim’s recent cover version of the classic Yes song “Awaken” has received the ultimate compliments from members of Yes - Rick Wakeman enthused, “Best YES cover I've heard ...well done to everybody” and Jon Anderson said, “Great job with ‘Awaken’...the fact you sat around and decided to perform it is a treat....not an easy work!” Composer/musician Adam Holzman was so impressed by this performance of it that he offered to do his own remix of the song (both versions can be found on Tim’s Youtube channel and website).
Tim Morse “Awaken” cover version:
Here's what the press has said about Tim Morse’s previous albums:
(Tim Morse III)
“Tim Morse III is an engaging, appealing album that seamlessly bridges melodic rock and progressive influences.” - Anil Prasad, Innerviews
“There’s no doubt fans of symphonic prog will find much to enjoy. Recommended.” - Jerry Lucky, The Progressive Rock Files
“Musically, III is enjoyable - occupying the lighter end of the Yes style spectrum." - PROG Magazine
“Recommended for fans of melodic rock with some progressive touches.” - Jon Davis, Expose
(Faithscience)
“Tim Morse deserves to make it into the mainstream, as he surely one of the greats of the genre.” - John Bollenberg, iO Pages
“A smartly arranged, melodic-symphonic opus.” - John Collinge, Progression Magazine
“Probably the biggest surprise of the year...and highly recommended to fans of classic prog.” - Kinesis
(Transformation)
“Transformation is a work truly realized, an impressive work of creativity that grows on one even more after repeated listening.” - Andres Valle (Mellotron)
“An interesting and expansive collection of symphonic prog songs...it not only rewards repeated listening, it demands it.” - DPRP
Tim is also a published author and his book “Yesstories” has sold over 20,000 copies worldwide. His book “Classic Rock Stories” was published by the St. Martin’s Press and was featured on the Howard Stern show. He has also written for music magazines over the years including Mix, Guitar World, Keyboard and Bass Player.
Tim will be doing videos and PR to support the release of “The Archaeology Project.” He’s also working on a Mangoes EP with Bret Bingham that should be released in the New Year. As for live performance, that is completely up to what happens with the pandemic and the interest/demand for shows.
In closing Tim has this to impart, “I hope that everyone is safe and healthy in these uncertain times. Also, I'm always grateful when anyone takes the time to listen to my music, even if they didn’t like it or were critical of it. In this modern age of endless distractions it is a lovely thing when someone will truly listen to music.”
Release date: September 30, 2020
Purchasing links:
The Archaeology Project is available for preorder on Bandcamp:
Los Angeles, CA - Joey Molland’s Badfinger has been experiencing quite the career revival recently with artists ranging from indie rock icon Matthew Sweet to Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson participating in exciting new versions of Badfinger’s extensive catalog of hits. And now comes one of the biggest hits Molland & company ever recorded - the Paul McCartney-penned pop classic “Come & Get It” reinvented here with a superb contribution from famed piano/keyboard player Rick Wakeman! With Wakeman’s special touch, this tune takes on a whole new life with added melody and bounce, and although Badfinger guitarist/bassist Tom Evans originally sang lead on the 1969 version, Molland ably takes over vocal duties.
Los Angeles, CA - International rock collective Sontaag, whose eponymous debut album is a multi-generic collision of progressive space opera, cinematic ambience and sci-fi storytelling that arrived to significant critical acclaim in 2014, are set to return into 2020’s dystopian new normal.
On September 18th, the band will release their new single “Beyond Forever.” The cast of this particular mission finds original collaborators Richard Sontaag (guitars, keyboards) and Ian Fortnam (vocals) joined by Steve George (Swervedriver) on bass while Dave Barbarossa (Adam And The Ants/Bow Wow Wow) - whose trademark beats propelled Sontaag’s 2019 all-out sonic assault on Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine” (with Youth, Nik Turner and The Orb) - returns on drums.
“Beyond Forever” and its companion track “Back To My Soul (both produced by Richard Sontaag) are available through Cleopatra Records via all digital platforms with cover art by Julie Cunnah.
Ian Fortnam: “Between them, these compositions form the next chapter of the Sontaag story. The conclusion of the album saw our lead character drifting away from a scene of total annihilation into an uncertain future. These songs reflect our hero's innermost thoughts. ‘Beyond Forever’ finds him lost, alone, permanently social distanced, but ultimately optimistic, while ‘Back To My Soul’ has him searching for spiritual redemption while mourning for all that’s gone. If our first chapters were set in outer space, these next instalments play out in a terminally locked-down inner space.”
Richard Sontaag: “‘Beyond Forever’ has a kind of James Bond theme feel to it. Ages ago, I remember going to a film studio in Ealing and watching them cut together the opening credits of a Bond film, and that was a lot of fun. When we were writing ‘Beyond Forever,’ I was thinking of something that could play over a really spaced-out Bond opening. As for ‘Back To My Soul,’ I like riffs, but I’m also interested in the traditional craft of songwriting. ‘Back To My Soul’ is an attempt to combine the two.”
Steve George: “When my best buddy and I experienced the joy of playing an electric guitar for the first time, we didn’t have an amp, so we commandeered his brother Richard’s old Vox AC30. The amp kept cutting out, but that did not ruin the thrill of reproducing the riffs of ‘War Pigs,’ ‘Silver Machine’ and, sadly, ‘Smoke on the Water.’ So playing with Sontaag all this time later means that things have kind of come full circle for me.”
“Progressive restored to its original sense. By referencing the last five decades of music and film, Sontaag create a highly original sci-fi morality tale for the future, and one of the year’s most unusual listening experiences, itself crying out for movie status.” 8/10 - Classic Rock
“Progtastic!” 4/5 - Daily Mirror
“Just download it to your brain from the nearest orbiting space station.” - Huey Morgan, BBC Radio 2
“A schizophrenic head fuck of an album, switching between ambient electronica and crunchy hard rock.” - Detroit-Metro Times
“A spectacular collision of British eccentricity and dramatic storytelling.” - Line Of Best Fit
“Sontaag have created one of the year’s most unusual listening experiences with this 21st century take on a sci-fi morality tale.” - Shindig
