The soundscapeprog’s Podcast

Travels in the Tapestry

In our opening, we talk about traveling the sonic tapestries; a turn of phrase that sounded pretty good at the time. Anyway, we don't usually talk about the meaning behind this cryptic phrase so I figured lets name this episode with that name. When I am in a state of flow, creating a setlist for Soundscape, sometimes something magical happens and I feel the presence of a theme, or a world being created or called out of the background. I actually only intended this episode to be a short jaunt into some new music, but it turned out that the muse had a higher calling. So, I will let you piece together your own meanings here, but for me, a story played out that was meaningful. I hope it is for you as well.

Next time around, we will have a proper theme.

Happy travels:

Travels in the Tapestry

• ELO Pt2- Hello, Hello>Honest Men
• Styx- These are the Times
• Pattern Seeking Animals- Orphans of the Universe
• Farmhouse Odyssey- Out of the Fog
• Moon Safari- To Sail Beyond the Sunset
• The Flower Kings- Black Flag
• Bjorn Riis- Stormwatch
• Anathema- The Storm Before the Calm
• Bruce Soord and Jonas Renske- Flows Through You
• Thank You Scientist- Shatner's Lament>Anchor
• Built to Spill- Cortez the Killer
• Porcupine Tree- The Sky Moves Sideways
• Billy Sherwood et al- Where We Belong

Plunging into 1988

Soundscape returns....at least for the moment. Big changes are afoot in the Soundscape studios. We are going to be closing down the Soundscape podcast, in favor of something new. While the new does not yet have a clear form, the notion I have is to provide a much more in depth discussion of theme and music and expand the discussion part of the podcast. Some may feel that this is not a fix that Soundscape needs. We have been running this podcast very close to 15 years now I believe. That is a long time to do something like this. There is a new thing hoping to be born, but to properly midwife it into this reality (out of the realm of dreams and numinous forms), I will have to put all of my attention on the project. Soundscape has reached its transition day. Carousel will happen later this year and Soundscape will cast off its earthly form and go back to the ethereal realm from which it came. I hope you will all appreciate our new direction. In the meantime, we have not run our course just yet. I believe we still have some episodes in us. We will properly close out Soundscape by continuing our series of yearly reviews, running a few key theme shows, and finally an all out blow out bash to celebrate our run and the people who have been on this adventure with us. To that end, herein is contained the most recent of our podcasts, a romp through some of the music of 1998.

Plunging into 1998

• Motorpsycho- Psychonaut
• CS Brown- Soundscape Theme
• Kansas- Miracles Out of Nowhere
• Mark Hollis- Inside Looking Out
• Bela Fleck and the Flecktones- Trane to Conamarra
• Abraxas- Czakramy
• Phish- Limb by Limb
• Symphony X- Through the Looking Glass
• Chroma Key- Mouse
• Bruford Levin Upper Extremities- Cracking the Midnight Glass
• Air- New Star in the Sky
• Threshold- Goodbye Mother Earth
• Pain of Salvation- Black Hills
• Gypsy Kings- Hotel California
• Marillion- Three Minute Boy
• Widespread Panic- Porch Song
• Steve Hackett- Shadow of the Hierophant>Los Endos
• Rush- Cygnus X-1
• Phish- Divided Sky
• Spock's Beard- The Good Don't Last
• Nightwish- Walking in the Air
• Liquid Tension Experiment- Kindred Spirits
• Gov't Mule- Larger than Life
• Arena- Hanging Tree
• Page/Plant- Shining in the Light
• Eloy- Paralysed Civilization
• Ayreon- Amazing Flight
• Colin Bass- Goodbye to Albion

Soundscape 2.87 Spontaneous Findings

As the summer starts up, a number of changes are developing. While I did not expect to go on hiatus prior to this episode, I was aware that developing our normally well crafted themes was coming to a close for a little while. So instead, as we closed out the month of May, I decided to simply play a patch of things that were piquing my interest. Many of the songs you will hear on this episode were new to me at the time and we are all discovering these pieces at the same time. I hope you will enjoy the journey.

We are taking a break from Soundscape for most of the summer. We have a number of projects that are under way including moving. We also have several weekends where we will be out of town, so it just made sense. Soundscape, while perhaps not the most consistent show, has been running for well over 10 years now. Its time to let things rest for a moment. Most likely we will be back in full swing in the near future. Much love to you all and keep on progging on.

• Uriah Heep- Return to Fantasy
• Box of Frogs- Back Where I Started
• Pattern Seeking Animals- No Burden Left to Carry
• Michael Crimson- The Dungeon
• Thank You Scientist- Terraformer
• Jim Peterik & World Stage- Proof of Heaven (feat Dennis DeYoung)
• The Samurai of Prog- Castle Blue Dream
• Haken- Falling Back to Earth
• The Windmill- A Day in the Hero's Life
• Big Big Train- Voyager
• Bjorn Riis- Stormwatch
• IZZ- 42
• Deckchair Poets- Part Two
• The Samurai of Prog- Bicycle Ride
• Tiger Moth Tales- Hundred Acre Wood
• Jon Anderson- Twice in a Lifetime
• Alan Parsons- One Note Symphony
• Last Flight to Pluto- The Kings are Dead
• Clinic- New Equations (at the Copacabana)
• The Claypool Lennon Delirium- Blood and Rockets
• A Perfect Circle- By and Down by the River
• Queensryche- Bent
• Sweet Oblivion- True Colors
• Dream Theater- At Wit's End
• Last in Line- Sword from the Stone
• Red Zone Rider- There's a Knowing
• Black Mountain- High Rise
• Think Floyd- Comfortably Numb

Soundscape 2.86 Blast Off

Previously on Soundscape, we discovered that we are not alone, so the prog prophecy tells us. So this time, we leave this bedraggled rock and seek a more appropriate venue for our musical visions. Along the way, we come face to face with some damn fine tunes, and even a short diversion through a perfect album side. It's time for us to BLAST OFF! Please join us on this excursion.

Blast Off

• Red Bazar- Rocky Bone Runway
• Rush- Countdown
• Yuka & Chronoship- Cutting Gravity
• The Neal Morse Band- The Great Adventure
• Quantum Fantay- Journey from Earth
• Cosmograf- Beautiful Treadmill
• Styx- Radio Silence
• Pyramidal- Visions of an Astral Journey
• Lonely Robot- Airloack
• D Project- The End
• Amgala Temple- Moon Palace
• William Shatner- Walking on the Moon
• Cosmograf- Goodbye to All Illusions
• RPWL- Give Birth to the Sun

The Perfect Album Side from Scott Oliver

• DeeExpus- Marty and the Magic Moose
• Pure Reason Revolution- The Bright Ambassadors of Morning
• American Hollow- Say, Is it Really True?
• Hawkwind- Sonic Attack
• Amplifier- Trading Dark Matter on The Stock Exchange
• Roxy Music- More Than This

The Journey Continues

• Vespero- Flight of the Leutenant
• CS Brown- Lunar Superia
• The Far Meadow- Foreign Land
• Journey- Venus
• Presto Ballet- Earthbound
• Stereokimono- Space Surfer
• Public Service Broadcasting- Go!
• Alan Parsons- Apollo
• Rush- Earthshine
• Marco Ragni- Keep Dreaming

Soundscape 2.85 This is England

After returning from an amazing journey across the pond to the Motherland, we were ripe for a musical trek through the streets and vistas of London. Our expedition was inspiring but tragic, wonderful and woeful, but for you the listener, we offer a tapestry of sounds that may make you either homesick or want to take a trip of your own. There is lots to discover here and I hope that you will enjoy your time as we stroll the streets of England.

This is England

• Beatles- Strawberry Fields Forever
• The Tangent- Lost in London

What's New

• Grand Tour- Clocks that Tick (But Never Tock)
• The Mute Gods- Sonic Boom
• Bjorn Riis- Icarus

Back to London

• Big Big Train- London Song
• Genesis- Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
• Jonathan Wilson- Trafalgar Square
• It Bites- This is England

Live in London

• David Gilmour- Castellorizon
• Steven Wilson- No Part of Me
• Big Big Train- Victoria Brickwork
• Porcupine Tree- London

London Life

• The Who- Blue, Red and Grey
• John Wesley- Waiting for the Sun
• Procol Harum- A Souvenir of London
• Marillion- Easter
• Marillion- Fugazi
• David Gilmour- Breakthrough
• Supertramp- Crime of the Century
• Orchestra- Over London Skies

More of the new stuff

• Cosmograf- The Smoke and the Flame
• Oak- Claire De Lune
• John Holden- Tears from the Sun
• The Claypool Lennon Delirium- Amethyst Realm
• Alan Parsons- Sometimes
• Rob Cottingham- Find Me

Goodbye

• The Tangent- Lost in London 25 Years Later
• The Beatles- Don't Let Me Down

Finding 1988

I'm not sure about your experience, but when I look back on the music of 1988, there are not very many things that have stood the test of time. However, that is not to say that 1988 did not offer some good music. This episode is another in our time machine series. Here we return to 1988 in hopes of finding the best or most meaningful music in that year.

Time Machine: 1988

Opener

• Steve Hackett- Troubled Spirits
• Jethro Tull- The Chateau D'isaster Tapes

What's New

• Karfagen- Dragon Island
• Steve Hackett- Under the Eye of the Sun
• Soen- Lunacy
• Todd Rundgren, John Wesley, & Tony Kaye- Roundabout

Back to 1988

• Talking Heads- (Nothing But) Flowers
• King's X- Far, Far Away
• Talk Talk- Desire
• Robert Plant- Ship of Fools
• Church- Under the Milky Way
• Metallica- One
• Voivod- Brain Scan
• Iron Maiden- Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
• Crimson Glory- In Dark Places
• Cinderella- Long Cold Winter

A Live Set

• Yes- Hold On
• 3- Talkin Bout
• Pink Floyd- Sorrow
• Marillion- White Russian

Returning Home

• Mike + The Mechanics- Out of the Blue
• Red Hot Chili Peppers- Pink as Floyd
• Cheeto's Magazine- Outflow
• Motorpsycho- Psychotzar
• Lonely Robot- Ancient Ascendant
• Tim Bowness- Ghostlike
• The Mute Gods- Atheists & Believers
• Queensryche- Bent
• Dream Theater- Fall into Light
• Blue Oyster Cult- Magna of Illusion>Blue Oyster Cult
• Alan Parsons- Miracle
• Chris Squire- Comfortably Numb

 

We Are Not Alone

As you may all know, I am a huge geek. I love every aspect of science fiction. One of the cornerstones of good science fiction is the first contact story, From Arthur Clarke, to Carl Sagan the story has been played around in every media format of science fiction. It opens the door to the most challenging questions; How do we reconcile with being neighbors? How do we present ourselves? Are these others friendly or coercive? Do they want to be friends? Are they even aware of us at all? More importantly the first contact story stands as a ready critique of our ways of dealing with the 'other'. Do we adopt a colonial attitude? Are we welcoming? Are we the enemy? So many great questions and the beautiful answer is that since we have yet to encounter this moment, we have no clue. We have a body of speculative literature and media to help us explore this question. And that is a beautiful thing!

So here we are, at the corners of progressive rock and science fiction once again perusing what makes our genre of music so damned intriguing. We have gathered together a number of songs that will help us explore what our music has to say about this most important of topics. Check it out:

We Are Not Alone

We begin with a rather simple premise. We are listening for contact. The inclusion of a more political piece from Marillion here is meant to indicate the state of our world. The mess we find ourselves in. This is also true of the Neal Morse piece. The idea was to help identify that these are the reasons we might look to the skies. Perhaps some new wisdom could be brought down to earth and we would learn that all of this trauma and terror we inflict upon one another is unnecessary. Or at the very least, we might learn that there are bigger problems for us to manage, and perhaps what we need is a good ole invasion to bring our sorry asses together because our little ego bound attitudes are in fact tearing this world apart.

• Seti- Listening to the Sky
• Marillion- El Dorado Suite
• The Neal Morse Band- Welcome to the World
• Magenta- Man and Machine Suite
• Adrian Belew- Looking for a UFO
• Man or Astro-man?- Alien Visitors
• Bigelf- Alien Frequency
• Billy Thorpe- Children of the Sun
• Amplifier- UFOs
• Zebra- Who's Behind the Door?
• Visitors- Flatwoods Story
• Flaming Lips- UFO Story
• Tool- Rosetta Stoned
• Simon Collins- Keep it Dark
• Pallas- The Alien Messiah
• John Williams- The Conversation
• Styx- Come Sail Away
• Manning- Antares
• Radiohead- Subterranean Homesick Alien
• A Perfect Circle- So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
• RPWL- A New World
• Sound of Contact- Mobius Slip
• Steve Hackett- Watcher of the Skies
• In Continuum- Crash Landing
• Porcupine Tree- Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before it is Recycled
• Ben Craven- Spy in the Sky Pt 3
• Neil Young- After the Gold Rush
• David Bowie- Starman
• William Shatner- War of the Worlds

Soundscape 2.82 A Musical Tour of 1978

If I continue following this yearly theme of running through the decades, I will not finish for 8 more years. We will see if that happens. For now though, you get the benefit of my journey through the ages. Last time on our history trip we hit the year 1968, today we jut forward one decade to 1978. Punk had been kicking out our shins, disco was knocking at our back door, and yet we the few, the happy, the prog, moved ever forward, progressing as it were. Eating the music around us and spitting it out as progressive rock. 

Perhaps that is the legacy of progressive rock music, it assimilates the best and perhaps sometimes the worst of the musical culture at hand, and churns out musicians with vision and soul. We can see all of it in 1978. This time, we will not be dipping across the years to get any of that new music action. No, this journey is strictly for 1978. Come join us as we stroll the sonic tapestries across the corridor of time.

A Musical Tour of 1978:

Landing

• Kinks- A Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy
• Boston- Don't Look Back
• Alan Parsons Project- Can't Take it With You

What Happened to Genesis?

• Anthony Phillips- Wise After the Event
• Peter Gabriel- White Shadow
• Steve Hackett- Please Don't Touch
• Steve Hackett- The Voice of NECAM
• Steve Hackett- Icarus Ascending

What about Pink Floyd?

• David Gilmour- Cry From the Street
• Richard Wright- Drop in from the Top
• Grobbschnitt- Mulheim Special>Otto Pankrock>Golden Mist

Well show me the rest!

• Steve Hillage- Sea Nature
• Jean Michel Jarre- Equinoxe Pt 4
• Saga- Ice Nice
• Al Di Meola- Senor Mouse
• Gotic- La Revolucio
• Gerry Rafferty- Baker Street
• Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds- Horsell Common and The Heat Ray
• UK- In the Dead of Night> By the Light of Day> Presto Vivace and Reprise
• Genesis- Say it's Alright Joe
• Rush- La Villa Strnagiato
• Styx- Pieces of Eight
• Magnum- Kingdom of Madness
• Rainbow- Kill the King
• Van Halen- Eruption
• Journey- Winds of March

How about some live music from 1978

• Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
• Yes- Heart of the Sunrise
• Genesis- In the Cage>The Colony of Slippermen>Afterglow

See you next time

• Yes- Onward

 

Soundscape 2.81 This Episode is not About da Vinci

There are moments when the brand of inspiration strikes hard on the buttocks of your Soundscape DJ. I thought this was one of them but it turned out to be a very painful temporary tattoo. What started as an homage to Leonardo da Vinci, then morphed into a theme about being a Renaissance man (A cat of many colors), and finally deteriorated further to simply, questions and perhaps answers that such a person might find. So the theme went through the ringer. While I did find some music that matched the theme, there was just not enough to support the show. 

What we do have though, is a fantastic set of music, a perfect album side, and a healthy helping of the newest stuff we could grab. Here it is- check it out;

Taking off

• Rush- Natural Science
• Quantum Fantay- Shiver Moments
• Telegraph- Gravity
• Amgala Temple- Moon Palace

This Episode is Not About da Vinci

• Marillion- Man of a Thousand Faces
• Airbag- Call Me Back
• David Gilmour- Beauty
• Spock's Beard- At the End of the Day
• Perfect Beings- Vibrational: The System and Beyond
• Perfect Beings- Vibrational: Mysteries, Not Answers
• Perfect Beings- Vibrational: Altars of the Gods
• Perfect Beings- Vibrational: Everywhere at Once
• Perfect Beings- Vibrational: Insomnia
• Shamall- Thoughts are Swimming in my Head Parts I-II
• Karmakanic- Higher Ground

Chris Sargent's Perfect Album Side- "Woof"

• Pink Floyd- Dogs
• Kevin Gilbert- Something Nice for My Dog
• The Flower Kings- Astral Dog
• Procol Harum- A Salty Dog
• The Flower Kings- Underdog
• Pink Floyd- The Dogs of War 
• The Beatles- Hey Bulldog

Still not about Dicaprio

• Pendragon- A Man of Nomadic Traits
• Manning- Nobody's Fool
• Heliopolis- Love and Inspiration

Landing

• Steve Hackett- Underground Railroad
• Lebowski- The Doosan Way
• RPWL- Give Birth to the Sun
• Alan Parsons- One Day to Fly

 

Soundscape 2.80 A Date with 1968

Across the ages way back in time, when most of us were expressing our only protests on the world in diaper squiggles and loud cries, the music we love was taking shape. Fed on a diet of rock & roll, classical music and a dash of jazz, prog was taking its first steps into the world. It was 1968 and music was in a state of transition. It was a highly experimental time for some of our favorite musicians. Progarchives and other progressive rock venues label much of the music of this day as proto-prog. The elements were there, but we had not quite gotten to the masterworks that were yet to come.

This will be our first of 5 journeys into the past this year, leading up to an overview of 2018. You will find in this episode many things that you may not heave heard or paid attention to, but here in 1968 we are in the genetics of our prog forefathers. Join us on a fantastic journey into the past.

Let's Take a Trip

• Hypnos 69- My Journey to the Stars
• Derek Sherinian and Friends- Welcome to the Machine
• D Project- The End
• Yuka & Chronoship- Argo-A Dragon That Never Sleeps
• The Tangent- Supper's Off

A Date with 1968

• Moody Blues- The Best Way To Travel
• Jefferson Airplane- The House at Pooneil Corners
• Status Quo- Sunny Cellophane Skies
• Procol Harum- In Held Twas in I
• Zombies- Time of the Season
• The Soft Machine- Why Are We Sleeping?
• Traffic- Forty Thousand Headmen
• Vanilla Fudge- Season of the Witch
• Pink Floyd- A Saucerful of Secrets
• Caravan- Place of My Own
• The Pentangle- Bells
• John Martyn- Hello Train
• The Gentle Soul- Young Man Blue
• Blood Sweat & Tears- I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know
• Spirit- Taurus
• Deep Purple- Exposition>We Can Work It Out

Hemispherical Walter's Perfect Album Side

• Pinkroom- Buried Hopes
• Tangerine Dream- Granular Blankets
• Finally George- Ghost
• The Dear Hunter- The March
• Santana- Europa

Return to 1968

• The Nice- 1st-4th movements from Ars Longa Brevita
• David Axelrod- The Mental Traveler
• Ultimate Spinach- (Balld of) The Hip Death Goddess
• Family- Peace of Mind
• The Doors- Five to One
• The Beatles- Savoy Truffle
• Jethro Tull- Serenade to the Cuckoo
• The Grateful Dead- That's It for the Other One
• Giles, Giles, & Fripp- Erudite Eyes
• The Rolling Stones- Salt of the Earth
• The Beatles- Good Night