Official Trailer for the long awaited documentary “In The Court of the Crimson King” by Toby Amies. An official selection for the 2022 SXSW film festival, with a world premiere in Austin in March. What began as a traditional documentary about the legendary band King Crimson as it turned 50, mutated into an exploration of time, death, family, and the transcendent power of music to change lives; but with jokes. In the Court of the Crimson King is a dark, comic film for anyone who wonders whether it is worth sacrificing everything for just a single moment of transcendence. It explores the unique creative environment of King Crimson, one in which freedom and responsibility conspire to place extraordinary demands on the band’s members – only alleviated by the applause of an audience whose adoration threatens to make their lives even harder. It’s a rewarding and perilous space in which the extraordinary is possible, nothing is certain, and not everyone survives intact.
King Crimson have shared a new trailer for “In the Court of the Crimson King“, a documentary about the recent incarnation of the legendary prog-rock band while on tour in 2018 and 2019. The clip features an intimate conversation with bandleader Robert Fripp, live concert footage, and interviews with previous members—ranging from long time drummer Bill Bruford to co-founding keyboardist-saxist Ian McDonald—about King Crimson’s ever-changing line-up.
“In the Court of the Crimson King” is directed by Toby Amies and was commissioned by King Crimson. The film was originally announced back in 2019 under the title Cosmic F*Kc, and will finally make its premiere this March at SXSW.
“We have been approached by various broadcasters, but felt that the ‘standard talking head’ format was becoming increasingly cookie cutter and uncreative,” band manager David Singleton told Rolling Stone. “We therefore approached Toby Amies, an independent filmmaker, and asked him to make an original music documentary, to reimagine the format, and gave him complete creative freedom to do so. So the film is really sanctioned by the band only in as much as they set the ball rolling and gave Toby the access and interviews he requested. Thereafter they happily ceded all creative control.”
In 2019, King Crimson went on a massive tour to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary and released new box set for their 1969 debut album, “In the Court of the Crimson King“.
In the short existence of the Nice (first as a quartet, later on as a trio) they released just 3 albums, of which the third, simply called “The Nice”, already consisted of a concert recording at the Fillmore East in 1968 on the second half. Furthermore they recorded a wealth of other material, like the non album “America” and the “Five Bridges Suite”-album, which was released after the band has disbanded, plus a numerous quantity of compilations.
The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson’s first commercially successful band. The band played its first gig in May 1967, and had its first major break at the 7th National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor on 13th August. Now a band in their own right, the Nice expanded their gear, recruiting roadies Bazz Ward and Lemmy, the latter of whom provided Emerson with a Hitler Youth ceremonial dagger to stick into the keys on his Hammond organ.
The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jackson, David O’List and Ian Hague to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. After replacing Hague with Brian Davison, the group set out on their own, quickly developing a strong live following.
The group’s early sound was geared more towards psychedelic rock with only occasional classical influences. Following O’List’s departure, Emerson’s control over the band’s direction became greater, resulting in more complex music. The absence of a guitar in the band and Emerson’s redefining of the role of keyboard instruments in rock set the Nice apart from many of its contemporaries. He used a combination of Marshall Amplification and Leslie speakers in order to project a full sound to compensate for the lack of a guitarist.
The band released 3 studio albums (i.e. “The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack”, “Ars Longa Vita Brevis” and the aforementioned “The Nice”) plus a version of “The Five Bridges Suite” . The Nice was one of the forerunners of playing together with an orchestra . Keith Emerson with a more prominent feature of the Hammond organ.
The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack
The name of Keith Emerson has forever been sullied by the activities of behemoth classical-rock monsters ELP, but as with so many artists of his generation, if you scratch the surface and do a little delving, you come across a very different beast indeed. No one who buys this album will be unaware of Mr Moog-mauler’s pedigree, but for those unschooled in prog history it may come as some surprise to hear that this, his sophomore outfit, started as a support band for sixties soul diva PP Arnold. While performing warm-up sets prior to her arrival onstage, the band discovered a talent for stage craft and theatre which, when married to Emerson’s Jimmy Smith licks and Davy O’List’s psychedelic guitar strangling, resulted in a sound that was very much flavour du jour in early 1967.
The title track and their freaked-out mangling of Dave Brubeck’s “Rondo” (12 minutes plus!) are present and correct as is “Flower King Of Flies”, the psychedelic stomper which demonstrates that The Nice could easily match contemporaries such as the Pink Floyd and Soft Machine for lysergic weirdness.
The group’s first album was recorded throughout the autumn of 1967, and in October of that year they recorded their first session for John Peel’s radio show Top Gear. The album included classical and jazz influences including extracts from Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta and a rearrangement of Dave Brubeck’s“Blue Rondo a la Turk” renamed as “Rondo”, changing the time signature from the original 9/8 to 4/4 in the process. The group clashed with producer Oldham in the studio over the length of the track, but eventually won the argument; the full eight-minute piece was included on the album. After the album was released, the group realised that Oldham had a conflict of interest as manager and record company owner, so they recruited sports journalist Tony Stratton-Smith to take over management duties.
For their second single, the Nice created an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein’s “America” which Emerson described as the first ever instrumental protest song. The track used the main theme of the Bernstein piece (from West Side Story) but also included fragments of Dvořák’s New World Symphony. The single concludes with Arnold’s three-year-old son speaking the lines “America is pregnant with promise and anticipation, but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable.” The new arrangement was released under the title “America (Second Amendment)” as a pointed reference to the US Bill of Rights provision for the right to bear arms. In July 1968, Immediate Records publicised the single with a controversial poster picturing the group members with small boys on their knees, with superimposed images of the faces of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. on the children’s heads. A spokesman for the band said: “Several record stores have refused to stock our current single …. the Nice feel if the posters are issued in United States they will do considerable harm”. During the tour that followed the release of their second album in July, the group spawned controversy when Emerson burned an American flag onstage during a performance of “America” at a charity event, Come Back Africa in London’s Royal Albert Hall. The group were subsequently banned from ever playing the venue again.
Completists will love the inclusion of three non-originals including the almost mandatory (for the time) Dylan number and a lumpen version of “You Keep Me Hanging On” which may even pre-date Vanilla Fudge’s useless rendition.
The version of “Sombrero Sam”, however, really allows Emerson’s funky keyboard chops to come to the fore. He truly was a precocious master of the Hammond and in a light jazz setting such nimble-fingered wizardry shines out. Overall you sense a band stretching each other to the limit, reaching out to invent a new format which would eventually become their downfall. At this point, however, the quartet was wandering in a perfumed garden of psychedelic modishness,
Ars Longa Vita Brevis
The band’s second LP “Ars Longa Vita Brevis” featured an arrangement of the Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite by Jean Sibelius, which the band’s friend Roy Harper had recommended they cover, and the album’s second side was a suite which included an arrangement of a movement from J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The group used an orchestra for the first time on some parts of the suite. The band were on the bill at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival
A transition from the flower power and revolution themes of Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. This marks the end of one cycle and the start of another, in that Davey O’List makes his last contribution to the band, which becomes a trio plus guests in the studio. This is a very sophisticated, inventive and influential first stab at what would eventually become an important part of the progressive rock genre … the first steps to concept/symphonic rock.
The Nice
The third album, titled “Nice” in the UK and “Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It” in the US, featured one side recorded live on their American tour and one side of studio material. As with previous albums, it included arrangements of classical material, in this case the Third Movement of Tchaikovsky’s SixthSymphony (Pathetique), and rearrangements of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me” and Tim Hardin’s“Hang on to a Dream”.
This was one of the first ‘progressive rock’ LPs, Those that remember these things will know you had to turn the things over to play the other side.
BUT we never bothered with the first 4 tracks of side 1. The killer and standout track here is the live side 2. The stand out track being “Rondo 69″.
Now I’m not saying the first four tracks are bad it was just that side two was so dam good. We played that side to death. The Nice were like that the single ‘America’ was always an anthem for them. Now some people will read this review thinking that I am saying the first 4 tracks from the original LP are bad- they are not. They are studio tracks which to my ear always sound better played live and as extended live track sets.
The live side of the LP has always contained my favourite Nice track “Rondo ’69” and captures what the Nice were, a really fabulous Live band. That organ sound that Emerson produces drives the trio along. No lead guitars see. ‘She belongs to me,’ a Bob Dylan song, has Lee Jackson barking out the vocals, his bass guitar being the powerhouse backing with able support by Brian ‘Blinky’ Davison on the drums.
Five Bridges
In 1969, the band found time to contribute to other projects. Emerson performed as a session player for Rod Stewart and the Faces, while the whole group provided instrumental backing for the track “Hell’sAngels” on Harper’s 1970 album “Flat Baroque and Berserk”. Mid-year, tour promoter Michael Emmerson asked the Nice to write some music for the Newcastle upon Tyne Arts Festival. The result was the “Five Bridges” suite. The group premièred the piece on 10th October 1969 at Newcastle City Hall.
A complete version with an orchestra was performed at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon on 17th October, which was recorded for the album of the same name. The title refers to the city’s five bridges spanning the River Tyne, and Jackson’s lyrics refer to his Newcastle childhood and the St James’ Park football ground.
Emerson played the piano on several other tracks, solely and/or in combination with the organ. The band made clear where they stood an amalgam of pop, jazz, blues, rock and classical music. With only three people aboard they could produce a lot of noise. Emerson tried everything to make the organ sound more abrassive, agressive and louder. He played it like an lead guitarist with use of feedback, overdrive and distortion, in an unusual way, by mistreating the hapless instrument and even with the help of army of knives, thus creating before unheard sounds and effects. Lee Jackson added an earthly sounding bass guitar and his gruff vocals, whilst Brian Davidson used everything he could fit to bash on. All in all they were an unique group an could not be easily compared with other contempories. The Nice were one of the best progressive rock groups that ever existed. Some of it was prolonged in ELP but that is another story.
John Peel, was an early champion of the Nice, called ELP “a waste of talent and electricity”
Elegy
In 1971, the posthumous Nice album “Elegy” was released. It included different versions of previously released tracks, two being studio versions and two live from the 1969 US tour. Emerson had no involvement with compiling the album, which was done by Jackson, Davison and Charisma Records
As the name suggests “Elegy” ,a song after mourning, was released after the band had broken up. Immediate their label had been slaughtered causing all sorts of reissue hell for the collectors to fathom.
This was the last official Nice album. released after they split up, it shows a band at the peak of their live performance. the original album consisted of four lengthy tracks which were nice interpretations of other people’s music. “Hang On to a Dream” features some great piano work from Keith and an extended jazz work out in the middle where, at times, he plucks at and hits the strings – a style used to great effect on “Take A Pebble” from the 1st ELP album. some great bass playing throughout this track.
this is followed by a radical interpretation of Dylan’s “My Back Pages” with some excellent hammond work. next up is a romp through “Pathetique” with Lee Jackson showing just how good he was at his best. give it a try yourself and you’ll sees what I mean
Finally, there’s “America”. the best recorded version. The last 5 mins are amazing. don’t forget, this is all pre synth days and the sounds generated from Keith’s trusty hammond are stunning and well complimented by the bass and drum work from Lee and Brian (who plays well and unobtrusively throughout.
Bonus tracks not really needed. the live version of country pie is much better than this one and the “Pathetique” is very similar to the album version although the BBC sound is better.
As a Keith Emerson, ELP and Nice fan (the group not an adjective) I still believe that the Nice never realised their full potential as a group. This CD confirms it.
The original 4 tracks have been enhanced with further tracks. BUT beware there are now two different reissue versions of this CD. At the time of writing in Feb 2012 the one with 2 is the cheaper.
To the actual tracks with bonus later.
Track one is a live version of the Tim Hardin penned `Hang on to a Dream’. Here as with all tracks LeeJackson’s vocals were not top division.
Track 2 is My Back Pages a Bob Dylan song with which the Byrds found success with. The Nice really seemed to go for Bob Dylan at that time but then everyone seemed to be releasing Dylan Tracks at that time from Manfred Mann’s Mighty Quinn to Hendrix’ All Along the Watchtower.
The final and the Stand out track of the original LP and of course the Nice’s only single success is “America”. This is a really stomping version and is worth the price of the CD alone. (But then most Nice fans would say this so I’m not alone.)
On the 2009 reissue. The first enhanced edition includes 2 bonus tracks which I believe have been previously released on a 1968 LP on Charisma called Charisma Perspective. They are much earlier tracks than the one included on the original “Elegy” but really make this a worthwhile investment. (see what I mean about recycling and completists’ hell?) many tracks by the Nice appear and reappear on countless editions in different but all too often the same forms on many not only best of type but as extra tracks on the original LPs.
These two additional tracks are another Bob Dylan written Country Pie and another Pathetique! Both from the BBC live.
This includes two tracks from the final recording session by The Nice for a BBC Radio One Sounds of the ’70s session. The Nice would go down in history as one of the most exciting live acts of their age and as the creators of a series of excellent albums that would fuse the worlds of Rock and classical music, taking in elements of Jazz, Psychedelia and Rhythm & Blues on the way, effectively spawning the genre of Progressive Rock in their wake.
Studio albums
The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack (Immediate, 1968)
Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate, 1968)
Nice (aka Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It) (Immediate, 1969)
Ian Anderson has released several solo albums in the past 19 years. However, with “The Zealot Gene” being the first album by Jethro Tull in almost two decades, expectations are high.
Ian Anderson has come up with a wonderful album, having written all the songs himself. This is a Jethro Tull release that not only meets expectations but surpasses them. It is a concept album, of sorts, and a return to form for the band. It is twelve rock tracks that fit very nicely together. They do not sound dated, but rather current, yet would not have been out of place in the late 1970s.
“The Zealot Gene” open with Anderson’s fantastic flute on “Mrs. Tibbets”. Next comes the voice, Ian Anderson in all of his glory. The flute gives way to power chords and it is on its way. There are some great surprises, such as Anderson’s harmonica on “Jacob’s Tales” , which is far too short, the moody background on “Shoshana Sleeping”, the English folk genre of “The Fisherman Of Ephesus” and the hard rock sounds in “Barren Beth, Wild Desert John”.
Florian Opahle is a fantastic guitarist. He provides strong guitar solos, especially in “Mrs. Tibbets”, but more often provides a steady backing. The majority of the solos are from Anderson on his flute. Special mention should also be made regarding Anderson’s acoustic guitar performance too.
Jethro Tull has shared the title track from the group’s first studio album of new material in over 18 years. The new title, “The Zealot Gene“, officially announced on Nov. 5, 2021, first made headlines last March. It arrives on January 28th, 2022, in a variety of CD and vinyl packages, via Inside Out Music. The group, still led by Ian Anderson, has now released three instantly recognizable singles from the album. The video for “The Zealot Gene,” depicts Anderson as a sketched character in the animated clip.
Of the title track, he says, “As a song lyric, it sums up, for me, the divisive nature of societal relationships and the extreme views which fuel the fires of hate and prejudice, more so today perhaps, than at any time in history. Perhaps you think you know who I might have been thinking about here but, in reality, there are probably right now at least five prominent, dictatorial national figures who could fit the bill.”
The first release, “Shoshana Sleeping,” arrived in November, accompanied by a haunting visual created by Thomas Hicks. “Sad City Sisters,” with a video directed by Sam Chegini, arrived on December 8th.
You’d have to go back to the band’s 2003 Christmas album for the last time Tull released a new studio effort. Their last album of all-new, original material was in 1999.
From the original November 5th album announcement: Ian Anderson holds no reservations about the role for which the mythos and themes of Biblical storytelling played in the lyrical content of the new album, saying, “While I have a spot of genuine fondness for the pomp and fairytale story-telling of the Holy Book, I still feel the need to question and draw sometimes unholy parallels from the text. The good, the bad, and the downright ugly rear their heads throughout, but are punctuated with elements of love, respect, and tenderness.”
The album’s art book editions feature a second CD of demos and initial ideas, plus extended liner notes and an interview with Anderson.
Of the second release, Anderson says, “Sad City Sisters throws up memories of a Saturday night in Cardiff, Wales when I was on my way home from our concert in St David’s Hall some years ago. It could equally well have been any town in the UK, I suppose, or even most cities of the Western World. What possesses hell-bent and vulnerable young people to slip so easily into that tragic loss of dignity and end up sprawling drunk in a wet and windy street at midnight?”
Jethro Tull‘s lineup features Anderson (flute, acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocals), Joe Parrish-James (guitar), Florian Opahle (guitar) (album only), Scott Hammond (drums), John O’Hara (piano, keyboards, accordion), and David Goodier (bass guitar).
“The Zealot Gene” just may be the album fans have been waiting for for a very long time. It is a classic Jethro Tull album. For the most part, the album was recorded with all the members being in the same room, and at times, live off the floor. This energy and band unity is felt throughout. This is also an album that Jethro Tull could tour and would sound fantastic live. Fans should enjoy “The Zealot Gene“. It is beyond words how good it is to have Jethro Tull back.
Few 2022 releases are as highly anticipated as Black Country, New Road’s sophomore album “Ants FromUp There“, coming out February 4th via Ninja Tune. Only adding to the excitement, the band have shared another preview of what’s to come with the album’s fourth single, “Snow Globes.” After receiving near-universal acclaim for their debut full-length For the first time, these singles make it clear that the seven-piece London band have no interest in resting on their laurels or repeating themselves.
Each single thus far has revealed a new facet of what’s sure to be a complex, sonically diverse album, with each track standing on its own two legs as a bold statement from the group. “Snow Globes” is no exception. Clocking in at an extensive nine minutes, the track’s momentum builds and wavers, beginning as an exercise in steady repetition before swelling to its emotional peak and collapsing in on itself, allowing the gentle guitar march featured at the start to crawl the rest of the way to the end, worming back to where it began post-explosion. The sheer catharsis of the song resonates beyond its runtime.
Drummer Charlie Wayne talked about the song’s origins in a statement:
“Snow Globes” was one of the songs which had existed before we wrote the majority of the songs on AFUT. Though it’s a pretty good representation of the musical world we wanted to explore on the album at large. Rather than writing a song with a number of distinct sections we wanted to see what we could do with one continuous riff. It was a real exploration in trying to create something maximalist whilst limiting ourselves with minimal musical choices.
Because the melodic instruments are all playing the riff in unison, “Snow Globes” left the drums with an interesting opportunity. The drums don’t sit separately from the rest of the band on “Snow Globes”, but we wanted to use them in a way that we hadn’t in the past. The initial idea was to feel like the drums were recorded for a completely separate track. They were meant to be totally arrhythmic and just sort of bubble below the surface – like at the end of [Frank Ocean’s] White Ferrari. As the song progressed the drums still occupy a slightly different sound world, but because the rest of the band is playing in such a syncopated style, the drums were given a space to disregard rhythm and be completely expressive.
Black Country, New Road are currently preparing to undertake a (mostly sold-out) tour through February and March.
Modern jangle pop favourites Rolling Blackouts C.F. have just announced their third album release. ‘Endless Rooms’ was recorded in the very place which features on the album art. Out in the bush around two hours outside of Melbourne, the five piece slipped off to the 1970s mud-brick house and laid down twelve tracks of brisk indie pop. The band states that the setting had a huge impact on the song writing and production of the album, as it sounds like their most naturalistic record yet.
“The Way It Shatters” by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, from the band’s forthcoming album ‘Endless Rooms’ (out May 6th).
‘Endless Rooms’ is the third studio album from the Melbourne-based indie faves Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Created during short getaways to the outback while the pandemic raged, the album’s twelve tracks have a much more bucolic and naturalistic feel than the straight jangle-pop of previous efforts ‘Sideways To New Italy’ and ‘Hope Downs’ – right down to the field recordings of birds and wind scattered throughout.
While initial ideas for Endless Rooms were traded online during long spells spent separated by Australia’s strict lockdowns, the album was truly born during small windows of freedom in which the band would decamp to a mud-brick house in the bush around two hours north of Melbourne built by the extended Russo family in the 1970s. There, its 12 tracks took shape, informed to such an extent by the acoustics and ambience of the rambling lakeside house that they decided to record the album there (and put the house on the album cover). For the first time, the band self-produced the record (alongside engineer, collaborator and old friend, Matt Duffy). The result is a collection of songs permeated by the spirit of the place; punctuated by field recordings of rain, fire, birds, and wind. “It’s almost an anti-concept album,” says the band. “The Endless Rooms of the title reflects our love of creating worlds in our songs. We treat each of them as a bare room to be built up with infinite possibilities.”
Brad Barr – the lead singer and songwriter of The Barr Brothers – is announcing “The Winter Mission”, a brand-new instrumental solo guitar album out January 21st via Secret City Records. The guitarist also shared today the first single from the album titled “Ancient Calendars”.
““Ancient Calendars” is a solo guitar piece, a long-form improvisation where I explore a basic motif and progressively extend it outwards in two directions. Played on an amplified 12-string acoustic guitar, there are no overdubs. That was the approach I took for this album—at no point will the listener hear more than one of me. The title of this song, “Ancient Calendars”, as with all the songs on this record, is a reference to the number 216. Specifically, wherein a single cycle of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar consisted of 2,160 years. It’s also believed that the entire calendar of five great cycles is equal to 2,160 orbits of Jupiter. If they could think that far ahead, you’d think I’d be able to remember my wedding anniversary.” – Brad Barr
Barr spent decades developing his visceral approach to the guitar, first with The Slip and then across three records with The Barr Brothers. “The Winter Mission” is the follow-up to The Fall Apartment, Barr’s 2008 solo debut—had its origins in a commission from Michael Wolk, Artistic Director at New York City’s All For One Theater. It “felt like a gift,” Barr recalls—to have a sound he could explore all by himself, away from the road, during COVID’s strange intermission.
“I discovered a magic record a while back: The Fall Apartment by Brad Barr. I knew Brad was one of the fabulous Barr Brothers – but this was something altogether different – this was Brad’s extraordinary solo instrumental voice. When AFO sought distinctive music to introduce and accompany our events, I thought immediately of Brad. Turns out, Brad was bottled up with brilliant but unassembled solo guitar masterpieces, and my request was all that was needed to uncork them! So, here, thankfully, is more of Brad’s beautiful, brave, and extraordinary solo guitar.” – Michael Wolk, AFO Artistic Director
For more than 20 years, Brad Barr has been counting the number 216. It’s a mysterious number that seems to show up everywhere—from clocks and licence plates to Ouija boards and receipts—and now it’s also sewn the fabric of his new album, like the 216 stitches on a baseball. Inspired by artists like Caetano Veloso, Mississippi Fred McDowell, D’Gary and John Frusciante, Barr set out to make music that was naked and unprocessed, but also occasionally loud—alive with a sense of wakeful intimacy. The number 216 was a constant theme. The guitarist first encountered the so-called “magic square” during a teenage acid trip; in the years since then it’s become a talisman—one of the few areas where Barr feels mystical, sensing a genuine order in the universe. These songs pay tribute to that order—from 216’s lofty mathematical and astrological properties to its function as an area-code (for Cleveland).
Brad Barr is the lead singer and songwriter of The Barr Brothers, a folk-Americana band that’s been around for over a decade. They have toured with The War on Drugs, Calexico, Shakey Graves and Patrick Watson. Their TV performances include The Late Show with David Letterman and CBS This Morning Saturday. They’ve received constant support from press and radio including the entire BBC network, key stations such as KCRW, KEXP, WFUV, WXPN, World Café, Sirius XM, NPR as well as Paste Magazine, Time Magazine,Washington Post, Rolling Stone Germany, Q Magazine, Exclaim!, MOJO, Uncut, Brooklyn Vegan and more.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7085384-1448661017-3461.jpeg.jpg)
The Fat Angel Sings 