Progressive Savage

An Ephemeral World, released in 2004, is so far Patrick Rondat’s last studio album in his solo career. The main theme is rebellion against the fashion and the arrogant and violent society portrayed by the media. As Patrick wrote:

The music that I offer you doesn’t seem to be rebellious when compared to that traditionally considered to be ‘rebel music’, nevertheless it is a form of resistance to the current musical environment, and the further development of this ephemeral culture.(…) I have a relentless passion both for my instrument and to find a form of complexity–this creates a yearning within me to extend my creative boundaries–simplicity does not have the monopoly on emotion and sincerity.

My love for Patrick Rondat’s work begun with his third solo album On the Edge. Although it took me some time (over half a year constantly searching) to get my hands on the CD itself, I love this album ever since I downloaded it from the ‘net in the first place. Come to think about it, if I wouldn’t listen to the mp3 version at first I probably wouldn’t be the proud owner of any of his albums, so maybe mp3s ain’t so bad after all?

Amphibia is Patrick Rondat’s third solo album. Released in 1996, presented Patrick’s famous frog that’s associated with all his solo work ever since.

In my previous post I have mentioned a band named Naikaku, which stands for Internal Nuclear Tide. So far the band had released two albums, out of which I have heard and posses only the second one–Shell. Prog Archives have a really nice write-up about band’s history, so for background information I refer you to their article.

Now, back to the Shell. Shell is yet another instrumental album I’m reviewing here lately, but what an album this is! The recording is dominated by drum and bass tandem with flute and guitar coming and going as the music evolves. Even in it’s heaviest moments the rhythm sections stands out pretty well. What else an ex-bass player may need? The flute and occasional trumpet gives this album a very jazz-like feeling.

Magic Elf’s Heavy Meddle is one of the gems in my collection, although I do imagine that not everyone might find this album as interesting as I did, ah well…

Magic Elf is a New York based instrumental trio performing pretty nifty jazz rock, a fusion of progressive rock, metal and country. I’ve stumbled upon Magic Elf couple of years ago and–being mislead by the name–though “yet another power metal band”. I’m not sure whether the first song I’ve heard was Calamity Castle or Scrambledreggs but I changed my mind really quickly and think of myself as their big fan ever since.

I just can’t write about progressive music not mentioning the band I’d like to see advance to the rank of kings of Polish prog in the near future–Animations. I’ve found their first album (the second one is being written currently) quite accidentally on one of the auction sites over a year ago and bought it after listening to a Sonic Maze mp3 offered for download by the band.

Since this is the last day of 2008, I thought about writing some kind of a “favorite releases of 2008″ post. Unfortunately, I didn’t came across any really groundbreaking albums this year. DT haven’t released anything except a live footage, and what’s groundbreaking about that? Long-awaited TSR is quite nice, but that’s all one can say about it, and frankly Ayreon’s 01011001 disappointed me. I never liked Marillion, so their recent album didn’t impress me at all. Neither did Pendragon.

On the other hand, I think Perihellium’s debut album is quite nice, and I heard that Opeth’s Watershed is pretty cool, too… though nothing can beat Blackwater Park.

Nonetheless, I thought about sharing with you my two recent revelations. Although these albums were released two years ago (2006), I got to know about them from my boss shortly before Christmas so I didn’t manage to include them in my letter to Santa.