The More You Live, The More You Love

I have to say 2012 turned out to be a wonderful year for music. Both in the progressive - and new wave / synthpop scene the releases were wonderful and mostly great productions. At first a list of ten albums would be enough but with so much fine releases over the year I made two top tens. One with the progressive rock music and the other with the new wave / synthpop music. But first the top ten that was send to the magazine I wrote for. The top ten had to be send a couple of weeks ago and since then the number one and number two in that list have switched places, mainly because at the end of November Unheilig released the winter edition of their succesful album Lichter der Stadt and the live album on dvd and cd of their succesful tour of this year. iO Pages top 10 01. It Bites – Map Of The Past 02. Unheilig – Lichter der Stadt 03. The Fixx – Beautiful Friction 04. Big Big Train – English Electric (part 1) 05. Galahad – Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria 06. Clock Opera – Ways To Fo...

It has been awhile since my last entry. I was knocked out for three months by a virus and hardly visited the internet that time. But slowly I am recovering and after founding this treasure in my mailbox the other day, it was time to return to my blog. Last year Mirrors was the support act for Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark during their European leg of their History Of Modern tour. The four guys impressed the public with their great electronic music with references to Gary Numan, old OMD, Kraftwerk, Old Human League, John Foxx and others. A great performance for such a young band who so much wanted to look like Kraftwerk on stage. During the tour they sold a special album Broken By Silence to keep the flame burning after the concert. And now there is Lights And Offerings, a full album of the quartet, which will keep the flame burning even higher and for much longer. It offers a mix of already known tracks with reletively new ones (not released so far), because all tracks were recorde...

Lovers of female vocals synthpop, with an eighties edge, for sure you can say they are living a marvelous and golden age. After Ladytron and Goldfrapp took off some years ago, it seems a new wave is coming from the UK again. To name some Little Boots, La Roux, Polly Scattergood and the stunning Marina & The Diamonds. After releasing the singles 'Mowgli's Road' and 'Obsessions' and the EP The Crown Jewels, expectations were very high for the Greek/Welsh singer Marina Diamandis. Hollywood was the next single a very strong synthpop song with Keane alike piano base, strong Hazel O'Conner alike vocals and wow what a sound. And just after releasing 'I Am Not A Robot' as a single, already available on last years The Crown Jewel, the album The Family Jewel is released. And what an album, all four singles are on it. But the album contains another nine great songs and to be honest the album rocks from start to end and asks for a replay at once. My highlights o...

During the day I was trying to come up with titles for further entries. Since I was paying some attention about the progressive rock band Marillion it was an easy step to Steve Hogarth their singer since 1989. Hogarth started his career in the new wave / synthpop group the Europeans, which consisted of Geoff Dugmore (drums, backing vocals), Ferg Harper (lead vocals, bass), Steve Hogarth (keyboards, lead and backing vocals), Colin Woore (guitars, backing vocals). The band formed in 1980 under the name Motion Pictures, but changed names in 1981 after Hogarth had joined through an add in the music press. They released three albums before the band broke up in 1985. However their first track "Drink Pink Zinc!" appeared on a compilation album titled "The Snoopies Album" from 1981. Hogarth was the keyboard player of the band and did lead vocals on five out of eight tracks on "Recurring Dreams" and on one the nicest track of their debut album "Vocabulary...