“Farfest is a done deal. It is October 4th – 7th at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware. As soon as the website is complete (hopefully this week) then we will make the official announcement which will include info on bands, tickets, hotels etc…”

That means a 4-day event: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

So wait for his official post on this prog-rock festival, with the full lineup.

If you wanna know where’s the venue, here’s a map link.

It’s only a 2-hour drive from NYC, going south-west; and only 1-hour drive from Philadelphia.

Address: 818 North Market St , Wilmington, DE
Phone: (302) 652-5577

The unfinalized, full 4-day lineup:

• Alphataurus (Italy)
  
• Anekdoten (Sweden)
• Atoll (France)
• Cressida (United Kingdom)
• Latte E Miele (Italy)
• Locanda Delle Fate (Italy)
• Maxophone (Italy)
• Pulsar (France)
• SBB (Poland)
• Shylock (France)
• Wobbler (Norway)
• + 2 more 70′s bands

Seems like a great event to attend. I Will post more thoughts about this attractive prog-rock event, once more details are published by Greg Walker and his team.

The album is technically mature and entertaining, but doesn’t add much in terms of composition, arrangement and lyrical depth. Actually, it’s a bit hollow.

Fans of Porcupine Tree will like this project, since it sounds like a PT album, more than a SW solo album. It’s more jazz-oriented, with hints of Chamber-Rock (Univers Zero creeps to mind, here and there), and doesn’t have any Metal on it. So I’ll rate it 8/10.

Haken‘s 2nd effort, “Visions“, is a highlight for 2011. A long, packed 71-minutes symphonic prog-metal conecpt album. You get your money’s worth here. Their debut, “Aquarius” from 2010 was very good, but a bit slow and pondering. This one is faster, tighter, a bit punchier, with great mega-riffs and keyboard soundscapes. I say this one beats Dream Theaer’s recent (redundant) albums by a mile and a half. We’re talking about a British Supergroup, in the great glory days of 1970-1976. Lyrically speaking, the “haunting dream” conecpt doesn’t work very well. So the final rate is: 8.5/10.

Leperous is a Norwegian prog-metal young band I’ve never heard about, till “Bilateral” hit my brain with an axe. It’s an awesome album, with amazing songs and great vocal leadership. This one is a “floorer”, with brilliant hooks and a clean, sharp production. Not a weak spot throughout the whole thing, and you’re guaranteed to sing along with some of the tracks.

The main plus of “Bilateral” is the dynamic songwriting – every songs sounds different, and you never know what these guys will do next. Leprous should attract fans of prog-metal, while still retaining their unique “extreme death prog-metal” appeal. Rated: 8.5/10.

Dream Theater‘s studio failure for 2011 is called “A Dramatic Turn of Events“. A better title would be “Contractual Obligations”. DT is completely dry of inspiration. The dull compositions, the predictable hooks, the shallow solos – it’s been said and done back in 1993, 1999 and 2001. Nothing new for DT consumers/addicts.

Although it’s not as disgraceful as Yes’s “Fly from Here”, ADTOE is totally superfluous, redundant and unnecessary.

The gullible fans are happy to see the group survive Mike Portnoy’s departure, but the product is disappointing, if you still expect something new from these old dogs. Sadly, rated: 6/10.

The crown jewel of 2011′s progressive rock is UneXpect’s “Fables of the Sleepless Empire“. Innovative, original, shocking and bold – this is what happens when prog-metal and avant-guard meet artists with a sense of style. The songs are adventurous, surprising and always entertaining.

This Canadian group has worked hard and long on their baby, and it shows. The tracks are multi-layered, busy and full of endless musical toys. UneXpect are breaking new ground with almost every track, and the album is the perfect platform for their complex, over-the-top operatic cabaret. An underground masterpiece, full of pride and glory.

Rated: 9/10

Other “famous” prog-rock releases from 2011 have not made any impact on me, positive or negative:

• White Willow – Terminal Twilight (time to sleep)
• The Tangent – COMM (re-hash)
• Opeth – Heritage (hard-rock?!)
• Beardfish – Mammoth (not that big)
• Mastodon – The Hunter (they didn’t catch me)
• Levin-Torn-White (no news to report)
• Symphony-X – Iconoclast (almost non-prog)
• Derek Sherinian – Oceania (same old)
• Wobbler – Rites at Dawn (too vintage)
• Pendragon – Passion (too mainstream)
• The Nerve Instituate – Architects of Flesh-Density (nice, but that’s it)
• Camembert – Schnoergl Attahk (cute, smart, not exciting)
• Nemo – Révolu$ion (sounds like the past)

Has 2011 been a good year for prog-rock albums? yes, I think so, and it’s not over yet…

I even love the DRAMA album from 1980. That was a great rock album, and Steve Howe tore his guitar to shreds back then.

But this? “Fly From Here”? it’s horrible.

The compositions are below the minimal level for me, personally. The singing by new guy Benoit David is weak, passionless. All the arrangements are slow and childish. The solos are both bored and boring. Alan White‘s drumming is the worst in his long career. Chris Squire sounds clear in the mix, but his bass lines are repetitive.

Steve Howe is probably the only band member who can do better, when presented with original compositions. But he didn’t have anything to work with, here. Choosing keyboard oldie Jeff Downes for this particular album was a big mistake: he does not belong in the world of prog-rock today.

Yes without Jon Anderson can be a good band. Anderson is only a singer, and he can be easily replaced. All it takes is some really good musicians.

Unfortunately, most the original members are old and tired. I’m almost certain that a modern Yes, with a better vocalist, a new drummer and a new composer (any respected keyboard player can fill this role), can re-create the band’s musical peaks from the 70′s.

After hearing Wobbler‘s album,  “Rites at Dawn” (2011), I can say that we’ve come to an age where some “Yes Clones” from Norway are doing a much better job, musically speaking, than the original masters from the UK.

Don’t buy this album. It’s a sad, sad project.

This album took about 10 years to materialize. It’s amazing how long you have to wait for an album, when there’s no commercial incentive to release it to the market as soon as possible.

The Sanhedrin guys manged to get a good guitar player, Gadi Ben Elisha. It just so happened that he was playing in Shem Tov Levi‘s band. The latter is one of Israel’s greatest flute players, and also a very respectable composer and arranger.

So Shem Tov Levi’s flute appearnces on this album are an important enhancement. Add to this the ultra-fine mix and mastering job of studio-wizard Udi Koomran, and you’ve got yourself a nice instrumental prog-rcok album to listen to.

All the compositions are melodic, elegant and tasteful. The musicians are delicate with their instruments. Sanhedrin evolved as a Camel cover band, so they know the importance of modesty, easy melodic lines, vintage B3 organs etc.

All in all, a cute album, which comes as an open invitation for Camel fans worldwide. You’ll appericate the flutework, the professional musical production, and the careful compositions. Originality and innovation are not the key ingridients, but good taste and patience make this a worthy listen.

But now, in their recnet update (June 8th), the Israeli gigs have disappeared altogether:

Since the Gaza Flotilla event, many rock bands have canceled their Israeli gigs. The biggest cancelation so far was The Pixies, two days before their show in June.

Are Jethro Tull joining the wave of Anglo-American rock bands, removing Israel from their tour dates? well, no. The gigs will happen as planned.

A quick email reply from the Jehtro Tull webmaster solves the mystery, regarding those two shows in Jerusalem (Aug-9)  and Caesaria (Aug-7):

“we have stopped advertising them on our website due to a reaction from some fans”

This means that Jehtro Tull is hiding the fact that they are performing in Israel. The reason is obvious: people around the world are pressuring the band to pull the plug on Israel.

Not a good sign for us, Israelis. Actually, most Jethro Tull fans in Israel are opposed to the occupation. We’d love to see them again here.

“Vehicle” is a long album. Too long, actually. It holds about 70 minutes of complex music, not all of it on the same level. Tracks 3 to 7 are actually brilliant, and are worth the price of the CD. The rest is a bit superfluous, which is quite frustrating.

“Banana” sounds like Frank Zappa meets Mr. Bungle, and the lyrics are actually funny. “Automaton” is serious fun (great arrangement), featuring careful balance between the electric guitars and the reeds department. “Zhagunk” is outstanding – the highlight of the entire album; both “Kharms way” and “Daddylonglegz” are spectacular, mainly from the compositional point of view. But from then on, it’s a bit downhill.

“Coven of coyotes” ain’t funny or smart, just awkward. “Johnny yen”, “Bappsciliophuaega” and “Trishna” sound tired, low on fresh ideas and high on stretched content. “Honey key jamboree” is mediocre on the lyrical and musical level. The two ending tracks, “The black fruit” & “Camelopardalis” are based on not-very-exciting improvisation to justify the album’s extra duration (what’s wrong with 5o minutes?).

Wally Scharold‘s compositions are above-average, most of the time. Still, when you use so much wind instruments (Carolyn Walter and Jamison Smeltz are fabulous players), the ears shout for mercy. I would have preferred more uber-tight jazz-metal, less been-there-done-that kind of acoustic jazz. And it’s too cute to be “Rock in Opposition”.

Summary: Mirthkon’s album is worth your time and money. I’m not sorry for buying this album at all. You can press the “stop” button when “Daddylonglegz” (#7) ends, and stay happy. If you are really patient, you can enjoy the whole thing, since it’s well produced, well mixed and very well played. However, masterpiece status is not granted. Zappa would have liked it, if he was alive today. But then again – if Zappa was alive, Mirthkon wouldn’t have existed in the first place. Or would they?

* * *

Wally Scharold, miRthkon leader, sent his reply to this review via email:

Thanks Uri,

I’m pretty amused by the spectrum of reactions to the record.  Some people don’t like the first half of the record, other’s love the vocal songs only, others prefer the jazzier jam band stuff, some hate the metal.  It’s amusing to me.  Well, despite your misgivings you still gave us a high rating!  Thanks for that!

(one of the ‘concepts’ of the record is about the CD as a medium – a ‘vehicle’ for transferring audio content – and how it contains too much space for a proper album.  When CDs first came out re-released albums were packed with bonus tracks, throwing the original sequence out of balance, so we demonstrated that by overloading it.  Sometimes to stay true to a concept you have to accept the fact that you’re making a flawed product, so we expected that most would find it too long…that’s a sacrifice I was willing to make to stay true to that part of the concept…of course there are other ‘concepts’ at work, but that’s another discussion).

Anyways, many thanks for the review!

all the best,
Wally Scharold
miRthkon leader

And here are the results of our one-man-jury:

1) Koenjihyakkei (aka Kōenji Hyakkei) – the winners. Japanese Zeuhl quintet took the house by storm. The best show in the festival, and one of the best progressive rock shows I’ve ever seen. Uber-tight performance, wonderful singing by their new vocalist (named “AH”, believe it or not), and better live renditions of their (amazing) studio work. They’ve also presented two new tracks, both very good. The audience was surprised, shocked and later very excited. After the encore (crowd demanded more than one, but the band didn’t have more), people ran to the CD stand and bought large amounts of albums. Band leader Yoshida Tatsuya can be very proud of himself.

Koenji live; Photo: Eli Livschitz

2) Magma – second to Koenji, but great none the less. Gave a better show than the 2007 festival, more focused and energetic. Played a new piece, quite long, but sounded like a collage (or rehash) of old materials. Since Magma is an old band, familiar to many, their show was not even close to surprising or over-exciting. Still, they proved deeper and well-rehearsed than most of the other bands in the festival. Magma exist for 40 years, and I wish them many more years of activity. Stella Vander lost a lot of weight, and she looks superb (go Stella, go!). Magma seems to attract the biggest crowd to the festival, mainly from France. It would be wise, however, to remove them from the 2010 program: enough is enough.

3) Univers Zero – Daniel Denis’ group gave a short stand-alone show (only 45 minutes), which was good but did not come even close to showcasing their wealth of material. Their combined show with the group “Present” (Belgium) was powerful but too big to be associated with UZ alone. Many expected to get a full show, and were disappointed. However, the playing was good and some of the tracks (like “Presage”, for example) were almost as good as the original studio albums. The only trouble was the bass sound, which was vague and muddled.

Univers Zero + Present; Photo: Eli Livschitz

4) Present – 2nd appearance in the French RIO festival. Just like in the UZ gig, they performed for only 45 minutes, which was too short for most fans. The combined show with UZ was huge, and represented the Present sound more than the delicate UZ sound, but it wasn’t the same. However, the band came to the festival with a first printing of their latest album (CD+DVD), titled “Barbaro”, offering four new musical tracks and many video live shows on the DVD. The package includes their memorable show at the 2007 RIO festival (in France).

5) Yolk – although their set was a bit on the repetitive side, they had power and they rocked hard. Their singer (Delphine Delegorgue) used a table with a collection of effects, usually used by guitarists; this added an original artistic touch to their music and live performance. It’s good to see young, new bands live on stage.

6) Charles Hayward – the only solo show on the festival. Hayward worked hard on stage, combining pre-recorded samples with drumming and live vocals. Some of his stuff is nice, but his charisma is lacking. I would prefer seeing solo artists such as Fred Frith or Peter Hammill. He deserves respect for his brave spirit and original way of thinking, but his musical abilities are still quite limited.

7) Electric Epic – opened the festival with a nice, short Jazz-Fusion set. I wouldn’t add them to the event program, for pure stylistic reasons (Hey, they’re not RIO in any way). The sax player had his moments, and at least one of the compositions was tight and intense, but most of their tracks seemed more appropriate for a jazz club, not a music hall.

8) The Muffins – expectations were high for this long-standing American group. The show proved a disappointment, largly not the band’s fault: a) the show’s start time has been pushed back 45 minutes in the last minute, which confused many people who were late; b) they were only allowed 45 minutes, even forbidden to give an encore (which really pissed the Muffin guys off, and rightly so); c) just when they were starting to take off, they had to end the show; d) their playing was a bit sloppy, or maybe tired. They deserve a better chance somewhere else.

9) Combat Astronomy – UK group failed to adapt their recorded content to the live stage. Their latest album, “Dreams no Longer Hesitate” was a very interesting experiment in sound, overdubbing and Avant-Rock. The live show proved disastrous for many reasons – bass sound far too loud, vocals too low on volume, lack of minimal rehearsals, musicians not knowing each other enough, lack of stage experience, lack of vocal overdubs, confused performances from most group members and even (so the band says) monitor problems onstage. It was terrible to see so many people escaping the hall during the show, leaving it less than half-full in the end. Get their album in order to understand their potential.

10) Aranis – group of music students attempting to perform some classical pieces with an added punch here and there. No connection to Rock in Opposition, Chamber Rock or “Rock” in general. A wrong decision by the festival organizers, although many people enjoyed their playing.

11) Guapo – gave many shows in the 2nd hall, between the program concerts. Their main feature was surround sound, and many people enjoyed this effect. I found Guapo’s appearances here to be quite redundant, since they already gave a great main show back in 2007. We need new names and new bands, not the same groups over and over again.

Guapo; Photo: Eli Livschitz

Next year and more notes:

A) The 2010 festival will probably feature Art Bears (!), Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, as well as Miriodor from Canada. Some of the bands were very welcome to play in 2009, but somehow didn’t make it for different reasons. Their combined absence was well-felt on the 2009 festival, which showcased some mediocre bands (Aranis, Yolk, Electric Epic & Combat Astronomy).

B) Roger Trigaux, festival artistic director and “Present” band leader, is not a healthy man. However, he insisted on playing guitar & keyboards on stage during the last Present & UZ shows. This was embarrassing for the audience to see.

C) There are vague talks about inviting Robert Wyatt for the 2010 event. Chances are so low for this idea to materialize, that it was best for the festival production to not mention his name at all. But here we are, bringing his name up again, so it seems almost unavoidable.

D) No bands from Italy or Spain have been invited to the festival yet. Bands like Yugen or Universal Totem Orchestra deserve to be invited. It seems that Belgium is over-exposed, just because the festival artistic director happens to be a Belgian citizen. That has to change.

E) CD Sales: many bands have made the mistake of selling their CD’s for outrageous prices. I’ve seen many albums in the range of 15-20 Euros. This leads to frustration and alienation by potential buyers. Bands have to offer CD’s for reasonable prices, especially since the Internet blog downloads have now become a very serious alternative. Present, for example, charged 35 Euros for their latest CD/DVD – a price most people can’t afford to pay. If bands do not offer an easy way to buy legal digital copies of their physical albums, they will force consumers to look for illegal options.

F) Cancellations: It’s sad that two good bands had to cancel this year: SGM from USA and Jannick Top from France. Although Koenji, Magma & Univers Zero managed to compensate for that loss, the French Rock in Opposition festival had unreached potential. Better luck in 2010, then.

Read more: 2007 Rock in Opposition Festival, France (review)

Stunning progressive rock-opera from Germany

The concept is quite easy to describe: a girl commits suicide but leaves behind her detailed diary. Her father reads it too late, but finds out what his daughter went through before leaving this world. It’s an emotional story, spearheaded by lead singer Marco Glühmann’s amazing emotional dynamic range.

What makes this album so successful is the combination of excellent melodies, dynamic singing, elegant arrangements and tight structure. No track is too long, so the whole album stays focused through its 70 minutes, till the bitter end. The story’s development is very clear, the lyrics are never obscure, and it’s very easy to empathize with the two main characters.

Too many Neo-prog bands suffer from over-long pieces of music, heavy (even clumsy) playing, mediocre singing and bad European accents. This is not the case here. Even many American bands suffer from boring delivery from the vocal department. Too many young prog bands focus too much on the keyboardists and the guitarists, leaving the singer spot to amateurs with a weak voice. Sylvan is quite different in this respect, but even their entire back catalog doesn’t come close to the exceptional level of this particular achievement. Very hard work and lots of pure luck played a role in the creation of this bitter symphony of loss and mourning.

Recommended beyond any shadow of a doubt, this moving drama of father-and-daughter relationship can (and will) bring you to tears, if you follow the plot closely. The lyrical content can also be read as lamentation of the modern world (global warming hints here and there), with the daughter serving also as humanity letting go of life, to the dismay of its male super “creator”. In four words: very close to perfection.

Ticket prices are reasonable (289 shekels, meaning 70$), and I’ve already bought a ticket online.

The 2009 summer tour is supposed to support Dream Theater’s 10th studio album, released by Roadrunner records.

2009 is a busy year for Dream Theater, as they have annouced a huge “Progressive Nation” North American tour, with three more supporting bands: Zappa plays Zappa (Franks’s son and great friends), Pain of Salvation & Beardfish, both from Sweden.

Since this is DT’s first ever visit to Israel, the local fans are exhilirated now. The Israeli DT fanclub has been demanding a TLV gig for ages, and it seems that DT management has now understood that it’s a city worth visiting.

Together they storm through 8 tracks of smart, fast-paced and witty prog-fusion with some clear prog-metal influences. The album is only 35 minutes long but it’s great fun. Although it can’t be seriously compared with DT’s best stuff, the compositional level is high indeed.

Production level is also higher than expected with a debut release from an internationally unknown artist. Meirzadh has managed to self-produce his music, which sounds professional to the last bit, dynamic and multi-layered.

Highlights are the title track (“Straight Circles”), “Happy Nightmare” and “Heat”. The other tracks are almost on the same level, but no track sounds like the other. Meirzadh keeps matters interesting by using different musical textures and sounds for every track. It’s really hard to believe that this virtual band is only comprised of two individuals, with Meirzadh handling all the keyboard work, virtual bass and guitars.

Summary: I would give this album 8/10 on the international scale, and 8.5/10 on the local (Israeli) scale. Recommended album from a brilliant young composer who has a lot to offer the world, although he lives in a tiny country in the Middle East, and not Stockholm, NYC or London.

• Listen to the music at ourstage.com/fanclub/haimeir

• Get the album at cdbaby.com/cd/haimeirzadh