Atlas Volt

Welcome once again to the Concert Closet fellow progheads...2015  has been a wild, exciting journey thus far, huh?  In keeping with the "off-the-beaten-path" theme,  I spent the past seven days traveling yet another tangent road in my search for all things prog.  Feeling the need for a stronger jolt, I am looking for a little metal and a lot of creativity/innovation.  In an effort to keep my word regarding excitement and new ideas, I am piloting the Concert Closet to Sweden for an adult dose of a band unique in not only sound but also existence...welcome to the world of Atlas Volt.

Atlas Volt is an independent alternative rock duo hailing from Malmo, Sweden.  What grabbed my attention immediately is how they go about what they do and their ability to move through musical genres much the way Sybil moved through personalities.  When you listen to a band for the first time and they feel as comfortable as your favorite sneakers, you know it is going to be a fun week...

The first slice carved from this week's buffet is heavy song called "Mother Nature's Infanticide." The music opens with an almost tribal dance piece--a portend of the emotional outburst that is about to slam your auditory canals.  Vocals come straight at you while I swear I hear the murmur of a didgeridoo carrying the foundation--and then the punch you knew was coming but weren't exactly sure when.  Atlas Volt wraps this piece in barbed wire and lobs it right toward you.  The strength of the guitar and the way it flows seamlessly with the thunder of the drums is striking. Glad I brought my ID; this week ain't gonna be a kiddie ride...

Coming back for seconds, I find a more subtle, gentler tune called "Taken by the Tide."  The song opens under a full moon at high tide, and you hear the soft call of the sea pull you in as the guitar coyly beckons.  Atlas Volt does wild things with sound; the imagery is magnificent!  The vocals come from a distance at first, as if beckoning from the deep...a successful attempt to pull you under.  Atlas Volt does a splendid job painting a mural with sound.  The song picks up intensity only to roll back out with the tide, leaving you like so much driftwood on the shore.  Elegant, soothing, and cerebral...

Liner Notes...Atlas Volt is the definition of what prog should be.  Everything you see, hear, and feel is being brought to you by two extraordinary musicians who do what they do because they love it. Based in Malmo, Sweden, Atlas Volt is the the passion of Canadian singer-songwriter Philippe Longchamps and British producer/composer Adam Hansen-Chambers.  Both of these gents hold down full-time day jobs so as to finance their musical ambitions.  They are unsigned, unsponsored, and unbound--all Philippe and Adam want to do is bring their musical creativity to the world.  They call themselves a "Do-It-Yourself" home studio music project....WHAT?!  I gotta believe they are unsigned by choice--'cuz these guys have talent oozing from their pores!

My final selection for review this week is called "Shine Your Own Light."  An opening reminiscent of  The Alan Parsons Project, this song gets into your bloodstream and flows right through you. The tranquility of the music is a wonderful surprise; the cohesiveness between vocals and instrumentation deifies explanation...just put on some good headphones and let the magic flow over you.  Once Atlas Volt gets in your head you won't want to let them get away.
           
The clip posted below is a marvelous song called "Find Myself Lost."  You can feel yourself floating weightless as the song starts and your mind becomes one with the music.  Atlas Volt has prospered in the prog garden by refusing to identify with just one section.  The real triumph here is their ability to draw from several areas and meld them together into their own distinctive sound.  Aromas of Spock's Beard, Transatlantic, Gentle Giant, Be Bop Deluxe, and Yes run throughout the music--but only as a reference guide .  Atlas Volt is truly tilling their own prog garden acreage.  Learn more about Atlas Volt at http://www.atlasvolt.com/. You can also follow them on Twitter @AtlasVolt.  Do yourself--and the prog world-- a favor and purchase their debut CD "Eventualities;" this dynamic duo needs to make prog music their day job.

   

What a week it's been, fellow progheads!  Listening to Atlas Volt reminded me of why I started this blog in the first place--to find terrific prog bands making music they believe in.  In 1986 Brian Eno released an LP called "More Blank Than Frank," and on the back cover explained it was a biased compilation not intended to make a statement about his musical achievements as much as it was just an album filled with songs he would enjoy listening to.  Atlas Volt captures that emotion here--and I hope they never let it go. Back to the search for all things prog...until next week...









  

Spleen Arcana

Hello fellow progheads!  Heading out of Norway and an amazing week with Seven Impale, I decided to stay on course chasing down progressive bands with a sound that needs to be heard so as to be fully appreciated.  Setting the Concert Closet's GPS on "true prog," I found myself heading south on a quick jaunt to France and a sojourn with Spleen Arcana.

Spleen Arcana is an "...eclectic mix of symphonic prog, space rock, and art rock drenched in melancholic and contemplative moods."  There is no way I can let that descriptor go by without at least a small taste!  Of course you realize that a "small taste" translates to a week of prog-binging...so let us begin...

The first sampling taken from the buffet this week is an extremely interesting piece called "Fading Away."  The soft electronic/acoustic opening soothes the mind and spirit in preparation for what lies ahead.  Slowly the song begins to take shape as the addition of guitars, drums, and keyboards round out what is truly a mesmerizing piece of music.  I detect hints of Jean Michel Jarre, Al DiMeola, Mike Oldfield, and an odd aroma of Hocus Pocus in this prog brew...nice!  As the stylus moves farther across the vinyl, I am struck at how fast and how often the mood floats across the atmosphere taking pieces of me with it.  Want to spend ten plus minutes defying logic and gravity?  Put on a set of headphones and sit back...wait for it...wild ride, eh?

Serving number two is another eruption of sound, color, and imagery called "Tears Are Made To Flow."  This songs bursts with subtlety while painting the underside of your eyelids with colors from a 1973 Peter Max poster.  Spleen Arcana has mastered the art of understatement--they manage to explode all over your ears without so much as a velvet-handed slap...truly amazing.  The prog garden has a section far off in a corner that soaks in sun by the boatload and pours forth music rife with raw emotion, energy, and excitement.  Atomic Rooster and Genesis permeate this piece; I can almost see Peter Gabriel in his hooded robe gloriously  floating across the stage as the music swallows you whole.  Spleen Arcana hasn't so much moved the bar as they have changed the criteria by which the bar is judged.

Liner Notes...The heart, soul, and brain behind the project that is Spleen Arcana is Julien Gaullier. Julien plays guitar, bass, keyboards, sings vocals, and does the songwriting...which I assume means he is a tad too busy to drive the tour bus.  David Perron plays drums and provides rhythmic ideas, and Marie Guillaumet rounds out this marvelous trio on backing vocals, web and graphic design, and photography.  Spleen Arcana looks at prog through an entirely different lens, and credits attributed to each member shed a little light on their view.  The composition of the songs; complex layers painting elaborate pictures coupled with mood and tempo changes that leap across the prog garden like gazelle on the African plain.  Spleen Arcana hits you hard without coming across as angry--you almost look forward to the next thumping!

My final selection for review this week is a tune called "Memento Mori."  The song opens with a macabre feel--atypical of Spleen Arcana thus far. Melting quickly but without fanfare, the song moves to a mood more sombre than previous--welcome to the melancholic and contemplative...a definite paradigm shift.  Not so much dark as searching, this piece spikes into your marrow and flows through your core.  Julien's vocals are haunting, not just in this song but across the entire Spleen Arcana library, and Marie is the perfect complement to fill the spaces in the background.  Everything works here--but you better be prepared for a long trip.  So many mood swings and tempo changes you will feel like Cirque du Soleil set up a tent in your brain.  Best to dim the lights, sit back, and just enjoy the music shower...

The post below is called "Erin Shores."  Right from the start you understand Julien's affection for the mountains of Scotland.  David's drumming is showcased a bit, as is everything Spleen Arcana has--they seem to hold nothing back every time they pick up their instruments.  Once again Julien's voice wraps itself around the inner lining of you head, leaving nothing but mental memories.  Play this song just once--I dare you.

 
OK fellow progheads, 2015 may still be in its infancy, but the prog landscape is expanding and growing at lightning speed.  Spleen Arcana came to be in 2008 and thus far released two astonishing albums.  The prog garden is indeed producing quality fruit.  Spleen Arcana--like Seven Impale--pays homage to the prog genre and proceeds to raise the bar.  What impresses me most is how effortless the output seems.  There is nothing forced here; the music seems to flow from the very souls of the musicians. As my pulse settles back to a more normal rhythm, it is time once again to keep the search for all things prog moving...until next week...  

Seven Impale

Happy New Year fellow progheads!  The celebrations that closed the curtain on 2014 and introduced us to 2015 have wound down...the decorations are packed away for next year, fancy suits/dresses cleaned and pressed hang neatly in the closet, and recycling bins have been filled with and emptied of bottles previously filled with "holiday cheer."

Now that the Concert Closet has been fumigated, deodorized, hosed-out, refueled, re-stocked, and spiffed up, time to get back to my search for all things prog.  A new year means a new challenge--and an opportunity to set the bar high right from the start.  Testing the hybrid capabilities of the Concert Closet, I set the GPS for Bergen, Norway and upon arrival let the splendid sounds of Seven Impale take over my senses for a few days...

Seven Impale refers to themselves as a "...jazz/prog/rock-band with a taste of lemon."  Their debut full length LP "City of the Sun" was released in September and grabbed the prog world by its collective up-turned noses.  Time to find out what all the hub-bub is about...

The prog buffet is laid out with several tempting delicacies; the first to fill my ear canals is a tune called "God Left Us for a Black-Dressed Woman."  After an initial blast of King Crimson a la "Red," I pick up numerous top notes and flavor foundations; Under the Psycamore, Beardfish, Traffic, and a mad dash of Opeth just to spin your head faster.  This song simply grabs you and refuses to let go; somewhere Mel Collins is relaxing on a sofa smiling as Chris Wood watches from on high...the horns are that good.  This piece has everything a proghead wants; massive mood swings, other-worldly time changes, incredible horns, guitars that defy logic, drums that take center stage when appropriate and lie beneath the surface otherwise...and vocals that slice through membrane and tissue like a scalpel, cutting you deep and leaving no scar.  Happy New Year indeed!

My second serving from this smorgasbord, "Beginning/Relieve," is on the band's 2013 EP release.  A smooth, tranquil opening that leads you down a dark alley so as to kick you right in the abdomen--prog the way it was meant to be!  More of those mind-numbing horns float across the top of this piece like fog on the interstate.  Seven Impale has tilled very rich soil in the classic section of the prog garden--and the fruits of their efforts are tantalizing to say the least.  The layers of sound here test your listening skills; I have been playing this song on a loop for over an hour and I pick more from it with each go 'round...

Liner Notes...The best thing to come out of Norway--next to skiing--Seven Impale is comprised of Fredrik Mekki Widerøe on drums, Erlend Vottvik Olsen on guitar, Stian Okland on guitars and vocals, Tormod Fosso on bass, Benjamin  Mekki Widerøe on saxophone, and Hakon Vinje-Orgel on keyboards and synthesizers.  Seven Impale is arguably among the best progressive bands to emerge in the past few years, and they earned those bragging rights as serious students of the genre. Seven Impale blends the prog bands I mentioned earlier with strong aromas of Steely Dan and Weather Report, hints of Stanley Jordan and Pat Metheny, and a spritz of The Moody Blues...puts them all in a Waring Blender and crafts an amazing fusion of sound that hits you in the head, body, and spirit simultaneously.  Seven Impale has trod all over the prog garden, reaping harvest here and planting new seed there...all for the benefit of prog fans everywhere.

The third serving from the overstuffed buffet table is a tune called "Oh, My Gravity!"  Seven Impale continues to redefine themselves on every song they put together.  The horn opening here is set up as a brain teaser while drums, guitars, and keyboards slowly ooze their way into your head riding the saxophone tide.  The ensuing orgy of sound takes the avid listener on a Utopian prog journey, headlong into a new realm.  While Seven Impale certainly knows their way around the prog garden, they are also true innovators.  To say Seven Impale is unique would be akin to saying Adrian Belew is talented--a laughable understatement.

The cut posted below is called "What am I Sane For?"  Seven Impale comes out slowly here, once again leading with horns that mesmerize.  Of course one need not wait too long for the knock-out punch as nerve-riding guitars and pulsing drums fill out a sound best described as the antidote to what ails you musically...one dose every hour should do the trick.

Thanks for continuing the journey with me into 2015 fellow progheads!  It feels like forever since I have posted here and it is great to be back behind the controls of the Concert Closet.  Making Norway the first stop of the year in my search for all things prog may have set the bar high, but I believe the best prog is still out there waiting to be discovered.  While Seven Impale blazes their trail here, so many other bands are off on other tangents, clearing their own paths.  Onward we go, deeper into 2015 and all the undiscovered wonders prog has to offer!  Gotta keep that bar high; until next week...