Thursday, September 01, 2005

pHinnWeb Chart September 2005...


[large image]

... is here.

Yes, progressive rock hell. We seem to live the ages of some sort of progrock rehabilitation: Mojo magazine recently published a special issue dedicated to these bands of the 1970s, also featuring some of the latest arrivals like Mars Volta. Just out of curiosity, I wanted to find out how this stuff by Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer sounds. I think there are great bits and pieces, especially if you're a fan of old analogue synthesizers like me, but personally I would have edited a lot of these tracks with a heavy hand. For example, ELP's 'Barbarian' from their first album sounds really great with its nasty, menacing Hammond organ, until it gets to its neo/pseudo-classical B part, which sounds like a piano lesson of an over-exited teenager who's convinced of his virtuoso genius. But of course, cutting up and shortening these tracks would be a sacrilege for any real prog fan, who wants to have their over-long solos and a million tempo changes and different parts in one song. And the lyrics of Yes are absolute nonsense.

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