The More You Live, The More You Love

Am Abend geht die Sonne unter Der Mond geht auf, ich werde munter Und die Nacht ruft laut nach mir Dann muss ich los, ich kann nicht schlafen Wir treffen uns in leeren Straßen Und die Nacht ist jung wie wir Heute ist Vollmond und die Nacht ruft nach mir Komm mit mir tanzen, und ich küss dich dafür Heute ist Vollmond Vollmond Der Zauber hält nur eine Nacht lang Wir tanzen in den Sonnenaufgang Und wir fliegen auf den Mond Heute ist Vollmond und die Nacht ruft nach mir Komm mit mir tanzen, und ich küss dich dafür Heute ist Vollmond Vollmond Heute ist Vollmond und die Nacht ruft nach mir Komm mit mir tanzen, und ich küss dich dafür Heute ist Vollmond Vollmond Ach, war das toll heute... ...nein!  Nee... ach Quatsch! Das hab ich doch nur so gesagt... ...ja..! Lyrics and music by: C. Karges   Translation of the German lyrics: In the evening the sun goes down The moon comes out, I come alive An...

A bit late but here it is again, my top 20 for August. 01 (--) White Lies - Big TV 02 (06) Mr. So & So - Truths, Lies & Half Lies 03 (--) Secret Sounds - Wasteland (remastered) 04 (03) Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - English Electric 05 (06) Depeche Mode - Delta Machine 06 (04) Comedy Of Errors - Fanfare & Fantasy   07 (08) Editors - The Weight Of Your Love 08 (07) Hurts - Exile 09 (09) Dead Can Dance - In Concert   10 (--) A Cure For Siri - Methods Of Truth 1 1 (16) Paramore - Paramore 12 (10) Cosmograf - The Man Left In Space   13 (12) Schooltree - Rise 14 (01) Bastille - Bad Blood (the extended cut) 15 (02) Big Big Train - English Electric Part II 16 (--) The Boxer Rebellion - Promises  17 (17) Circle - The Middle 18 (14) Sound Of Contact - Dimensionaut   19 (20) Phoenix - Bankrupt! 20 (13) Fiction - The Big Other    

The entries were close to zero in the past month. Too much work on my mind, and although I played enough music there was little time to write an entry. All time was fixed on work, and besides that on a huge article about New Wave music. It is scheduled for somewhere this month, when iO Pages will release their first special. So it meant diving into the eighties, listen to a lot of familiar music and also buying some stuff again. Unfortuantly Fonos no longer excists, so if you're interested in a band that was up till now still only available on vinyl it means you have to search for it and then digitize it. So with a bit of luck I discovered a compilation cd early July of the new wave band The Dutch. Soon I was able to collect all their vinyl and then I turned my focus on another early eighties new wave band Secret Sounds. Through Fonos I had bought their album Wasteland ages ago but when I scrolled their page on discogs.com I discovered that their singer/guitarist WilmerWolf was ...

01 (01) Bastille - Bad Blood (the extended cut) 02 (02) Big Big Train - English Electric Part II 03 (03) Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - English Electric 04 (04) Comedy Of Errors - Fanfare & Fantasy 05 (06) Depeche Mode - Delta Machine 06 (07) Mr. So & So - Truths, Lies & Half Lies 07 (13) Hurts - Exile 08 (--) Editors - The Weight Of Your Love 09 (08) Dead Can Dance - In Concert 10 (10) Cosmograf - The Man Left In Space   11 (05) Anouk - Sad Singalong Songs 12 (--) Schooltree - Rise 13 (09) Fiction - The Big Other 14 (11) Sound Of Contact - Dimensionaut 15 (15) Alison Moyet - The Minutes 16 (--) Paramore - Paramore 17 (12) Everything Everything - Arc 18 (20) Circle - The Middle 19 (14) Dutch Uncles - Out Of Touch In The Wild 20 (--) Phoenix - Bankrupt!

                      01. Bastille - Bad Blood (the extended cut) 02. Big Big Train - English Electric Part II 03. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - English Electric 04. Comedy Of Errors - Fanfare & Fantasy 05. Anouk - Sad Singalong Songs 06. Depeche Mode - Delta Machine 07. Mr. So & So - Truths, Lies & Half Lies 08. Dead Can Dance - In Concert 09. Fiction - The Big Other 10. Cosmograf - The Man Left In Space 11. Sound Of Contact - Dimensionaut 12. Everything Everything - Arc 13. Hurts - Exile 14. Dutch Uncles - Out Of Touch In The Wild 15. Alison Moyet - The Minutes 16. Karl Bartos - Off The Record 17. Believe - The Warmest Sun In Winter 18. Big Country - The Journey 19. Queensrÿche - Frequency Unknown 20. Circle - The Middle

COSMOGRAF The Man Left In Space (private release) The joint venture with Festival Records took only one album, since with The Man Left In Space Robin Armstrong takes control in his own hands again, The results is a fourth concept album. Behind the story of a failed space mission the concept album explores the themes of aspiration, achievement, and the failures that our quest for success, sometimes brings. Maybe the themes are stodge, but the music turns it into a fine listening session. His companions on this journey are (well) known names from the prog scene: Nick D’Virgilio, Simon Rogers, Greg Spawton, Dave Meros, Lee Abraham, Steve Dunn, Matt Stevens and Dave Ware. Armstrong does all the vocals on this album and even his wife does some vocals on This Naked Endeavour. Specially the three longer tracks Aspire Achieve, the titletrack and When The Air Runs Out make clear that Armstrong, loves to play his guitarsolos in a Floydian way, which atmospherically deepen the s...

COSMOGRAF When Age Has Done Its Duty (FESTIVAL MUSIC 201107 / BERTUS) When Age Has Done Its Duty is already the thirth concept album of Robin Armstrong with Cosmograf. This time it is about the ordeal of the aging process, looking back on (family) live and dying. Armstrong is assisted by Bob Dalton (It Bites), Steve Thorne, Lee Abraham, Simon Rogers and Steve Dunn (both of Also Eden), Luke Machin (The Tangent), Huw Lloyd-jones (Unto Us) and Dave Ware. The sound produced by the gentlemen is rooted in the progressive rock of the seventies with trips to neo-prog, hard rock and metal with references to Genesis in On Which We Stand and Savatage in opener Into This World. When Age Has Done Its Duty is an album you can’t judge on a first listen. It needs several listening sessions to fathom the album, since Armstrong hasn’t walked the easiest way lyrically and musically. Maybe this is because of the attachements of sounds and confounding factors, which attracks you from the ...

Around seven we left our hotel for the concert at the Dortmund Westfalenhalle. It was a ten minutes ride with the U Bahn, and we arrived at the hall just to witness the last three to four songs of ·F·R·E·I·. At ten to eight the intro music of two old German songs, Lilly Marlene and one unknown to us, were played and then the countdown followed for the last concert of Unheilig’s Lichter der Stadt II – Letzter Halt! Tour. In two hours Der Graf and his band played a varying set of songs from the bands history. A great setlist which was a lot harder than the first Lichter der Stadt tour of last year. Many of the ballads were replaced by older louder songs like Feuerengel and Freiheit. Although Winter seemed to be gone for quite some weeks now, the song still was surprisingly in the setlist and the video played along on the screens. After a slow and a bit uncertain start Der Graf came loose. Certainly when one of the woman at the front row threw him a towel. He wiped his ...

Just a week to go and we leave for Dortmund. On Saturday the eleventh of Mai we visit the famous Westfallenhalle to witness the last indoor concert of the Lichter der Stadt II – Letzter Halt tour. We are really looking forward to the concert. The highlight of a weekend in Dortmund.

Top ten of the albums on regular play at the moment. A mixture of progressive rock, indie rock, alternative and synthpop made by newbies and long existing bands.   Bastille - Bad Blood Big Big Train - English Electric (part 2) Comedy Of Errors - Fanfare & Fantasy Cosmograf - The Man Left In Space Dutch Uncles - Out Of Touch In The Wild Everything Everything - Arc Fiction - The Big Other Hurts - Exile Mylene Farmer - Monkey Me Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - English Electric

  Last year my friend and I visited the concert of Clock Opera at the Paradiso. They played the small hall that evening in October 2012, but it turned out quite disappointed because of the worse sound. Still we decided to visit them again when they played the Bitterzoet. And This time no disappointments. What a gig. With again the full debut album Ways To Forget, but also three songs released through the deluxe version of the album on iTunes. The sound was suburb, the atmosphere eclectic, and the crowd went crazy. The band has certainly learned from the touring in the past year, since the setlist was build to a climax which the crowd could feel from the start, when first single White Noise opened the set. It was great to hear the extra songs like Let Go The Lifeboats, New Arrivals and Alouette to be performed. After them they build up to a climax, while the crowd certainly was longing for the singles Once And For All and Lesson No 7. The latter played as a last encore, bu...

A Flock Of Seagulls won't be playing Bitterzoet on the 24th of March. the concert, first scheduled for 26 January, was rescheduled on the 24th of March. Unfortuantly I learned recently that the concert is cancelled. Strange but truth. Dates in the UK and Germany are still on the radar, but the MySpace page of the band tells a different story. No tour dates are planned at the moment. A pity since I was really looking forward to see the band again.

Bitterzoet, Amsterdam, 11 March 2013. I received the album Arc for my birthday nearly a month ago, and discovered their concert at Bitterzoet on the internet shortly after. So last Monday me and a friend visited a sold out Bitterzoet and saw Everything Everything in top shape. At a quarter after nine they climbed up the stage and opened the set with Undrowned. From the start the crowd was enthousiastic, as were the band. In five quarter of an hour they played a diverse set from their two albums, with a focus on their just released album Arc. The set contained most of my favourites from this new album, and I saw that I wasn't the only one enjoying it to the max. The sound was very good and well balanced. Every detail was heard and the vocalist Jonathing Higgs established a great performance. The band had hired an extra keyboardplayer to meet the standard of the album. It was over much too soon, but for sure they showed their capabilities. What a band, what a performance...

  It has been awhile since my last entry. already in March of 2013 but for sure I can tell I probably already discovered one of the best albums of this year. It’s called Arc from the Manchester band Everything Everything. From the start I fell in love with most of the songs after a first listening. Cough Cough, the opener is a catchy one this makes you hum with it right away. Kemosabe, the second single from the album, got a great chorus with mellotron all over it. Duet, the third single, reminds me of White Lies with beautiful violin support. And so I can go on. Other highlights are Choice Mountain, Armourland, Radiant, Don’t Try and the beautiful ballad The Peaks. The great thing about this band is that they’re able to give each song a different twist. At first you think you are listening to the next clone of Coldplay, but surely they are in a complete different league. Because they combine it with sounds and atmospheres of White Lies and Clock Opera and deliver it...