The More You Live, The More You Love

Thursday 17 Mai 2012 and going to Amsterdam for a concert of one of the greatest synth-pop artists of the eighties Thomas Dolby. We took an early train to spend some time at the Arendsnest , a pub which only serves Dutch beers. The cafe has got more than 120 bottled beers and 30 beers on draft. We sat down at a table where an Irishman was sitting, which drank his beers in a brisk pace. He followed the line of the right part of the board, and didn't bother about the alcohol percentage. After a couple of beers and a talk with the Irish guy we turned to Bitterzoet, the venue, for the performance of Thomas Dolby. At the venue I noticed the signs but since already people were making pictures and even filming, I decided to do the same. At nine the concert started and Thomas came on stage with his band immediatly opening with Commercial Breakup from his successful first album The Golden Age Of Wireless. After apologizing for not have played in Amsterdam for 28 years, some of the c...

In the eighties I was a great fan of Die Neue Deutsche Welle which brought us bands like Nena, BAP, Spider Murphy Gang, Rheingold, Ideal, D.A.F., Falco, Trio and DŐF. Only a couple survived over the years and I stayed interested in BAP over the following years. But since the start of die Neue Deutsche Härte it seems some good German bands are coming up. One of these bands is Unheilig. Formed in 1999 by Der Graf, Grant Stevens and Jose Alvarez-Brill (ex De/Vision). In 2001 they release their first album called Prosper. The group gradually develops a good sense of marketing, by, especially with their later albums, delivering different extracted versions, often limited, of their albums and singles. When Stevens and Alvarez-Brill leave the band Unheilig becomes a bandwagon project of varying composition, on which Der Graf depends his musical escapades. With their seventh album, Grosse Freiheit, Der Graf is able to build a bridge with the German public, whom embrace the album and send ...

It all started to tickle for the members of the most successfull line-up of Ultravox. when they worked on the release of their eighties remasters Vienna, Rage In Eden, Quartet and Lament. Some hadn't spoken with eachother for years. but as they used to say, it worked out well, and in April 2009 Midge Ure, Warren Cann, Billy Currie and Chris Cross toured successful through the UK and played for sold out venues. The result was the live registration Return To Eden which was released in 2010. To promote the release the band did a second tour, which brought them to mainland Europe as well. As a result in 2011 the ep Moments Of Eden was released. From that moment rumours started to circle, the band was in the studio to record their first album together in more than 27 years (I don't count U-vox, since this album was recorded without Warren Cann). Brilliant is the result. A strong twelve tracks long album in the retro wave style, with electric- synth- and computer-pop reverence...

The fifth month of 2012 already on it’s way and I haven’t presented a top ten sofar. So here it is:   01. Galahad - Battle Scars 02. DeeExpus – King Of Number 33 03. Ultravox – Brilliant 04. It Bites – Map Of The Past 05. Unheilig - Lichter der Stadt 06. Keane – Strangeland 07. Mothlite – Dark Age 08. Clock Opera – Ways To Forget 09. Gazpacho – March Of Ghosts 10. IQ – IQ30 Live De Boerderij

Legend Cardinal Points (NoFish Productions NF CD3) Fifteen years after Tripal Aspect Legend finally released a new studio album called Cardinal Points. Legend excists since 1988 and between 1991 and 1996 three albums were released on the Pagan Media Ltd lable. With the loss of their recording contract in 1999 Legend disappeared into oblivion, at the very moment they were in the advantage stage of the inclusion of Cardinal Points. Ten years later Steve Paine, the founder member and keyboardist of Legend, picks up were they left and the collection Ritual Echo and the live album Playing With Fire, a registration of their 1992 tour, are released in Japan, a country Legend always has been better known then in England. And finally Cardinal Points is released. A conceptalbum of only four tracks dealing with the four wind directions and their relation to the elements (earth, air, fire and water) of the Western mysticism. They have a varied length of thirteen to seventeen minutes and ar...

Tune Lucid Moments (own release) Tune was founded in 2009 in the Polish city Lodz by Leszek Swoboda (bass, vocals) and Adam Hajzer (guitar). The music and songtexts breathe a melodramatic progressive atmosphere, in which the use of the accordion for the keyboardparts makes the music of this Polish pentad unique for the progressive rock scene. The result is a brilliant album, that seems to define progressive rock again. Okay, when you start analyze the music for sure you will find references, but concerning orginality Lucid Moments is an album, which I haven’t heart in our beloved style for quite awhile. Specially the use of the accordion gives their sound something elusive. Did past Polish bands look for their sound and references to bands of the seventies, remember Quidam, Collage and Satellite which find their inspiration in the music of Genesis, or Abraxas and Lizard which are influenced by UK, Tune seems to have developed themselves without the influence of big or small names in th...

Alan Reed Danicing With Ghosts (Red Dwarf Recordings RD0101 / The Merch Desk) After 26 years it is time for Alan reed to stand on his own feet. Dancing With Ghosts is his first solo release. The ep best can be seen as a warm up release to keep the listeners interested and get them ready for First In A Field Of One, Reed’s first solo album which is planned for early 2012. Both titles refer to the hectic period which followed on his (un)volentary departure of Pallas. On this ep Reed choose to approach the songs from an acoustic interpretation, not a progressive sound but pure vocals, guitar and bas with here and there some keyboard and drum support. The choice of work is from the past and the present, with Sanctuary being a surprised opener. A bombastic sounded somg of over nine minutes brought back to an acoustic interpretation of five, turns out to be wonderful. With Who’s To Blame, again that gut feeling, Reed plays the second Pallas song and with Kean On The Job he looks back on his ...