A top dedicated to the famous majestic keyboard, the Mellotron. No particular order but one rule : Only one song by band, quite hard for bands like Genesis or King Crimson…
And You And I by Yes
Epitaph by King Crimson
Watcher Of The Skies by Genesis
Three Piece Suite by England
Bedside Manners are Extra by Greenslade
Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues
Maroubra Bay by Edgar Froese
Phaedra by Tangerine Dream
Heaven by Gracious
Shadow Of The Hierophant by Steve Hackett
As you can see I picked only 60/70′s tracks so I suppose I’ll need to do another Mellotron top with modern bands like Anglagard, Wobbler or Astra… Hail to the Mellotron!
And just for fun, this old Mellotron promo video :
What are your favourite songs featuring the Mellotron? Feel free to share your favourite Mellotron moments in the comments below.
Genesis fanatics may know Lileigh White’s Youtube channel which features fantastic videos about Genesis and analysises of their songs. Latest videos are about Tony Banks keyboards and Steve Hackett gear and the gear used by The Musical Box tribute band musicians Michel Cloutier and François Gagnon who play Tony Banks and Steve Hackett in their re-creation of Genesis songs. Great keyboards and guitar talks going on, this is pure gear geek heaven!
2011 was a very interesting (and progressive!) year in my opinion. Here is some of my favourite 2011 music (NB : This post is subject to change as I didn’t listen yet to all the albums I’d like to discover) :
Special mention to :
50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush (I didn’t play it enough but I already like it very much! Such a beautiful voice…)
The King Is Dead by The Decemberists (Quite different from the beautiful Hazards Of Love. Nice alt country)
Night Of Hunters by Tori Amos (Beautiful album by the ginger artist who revisited classical themes in a brillant way)
To Shatter All Accord by Discipline (I didn’t play it enough neither but it sounds like an awesome album!)
Ghost by Devin Townsend Project
Excellent video of the making of The Nightmare Becomes Reality by the Swedish band Anima Morte. More videos of the recording (drums, guitar and bass) on Anima Morte Youtube channel.
This is what I like so much in progressive rock : Genesis, Yes, King Crimson are just like the tree that hides the forest! 70′s progressive rock is so exciting because of all these obscure gems by less famous bands from all over the world, there’s always something to discover!
Here is a small selection of my favourite obscure albums highly recommended to any 70′s prog rock aficionado, in no particular order :
Grobschnitt – Grobschnitt (Germany, 1972)
First Grobschnitt album which sounds like a classic to my ears. “Symphony” and “Sun Trip” tracks are two epic masterpieces. This band knew how to play prog rock that grooves!
Alphataurus – Alphataurus (Italy, 1973)
This is Italian progressive rock at its finest! Alphataurus first album is essantial and will please any Italian prog rock lover. It sounds heavier than Banco or PFM but still very epic.
Carmen – Fandangos In Space (UK, 1973)
One of the most exciting album here mainly because it sounds like nothing else! Imagine some kind of bass/mellotron driven prog rock with a huge touch of flamenco. Just listen to the opening song called “Bulerias” and you get the idea, this is pure prog awesomeness!
Gnidrolog – Lady Lake (UK, 1972)
Awesome covert art for an awesome album. Dark prog rock that sounds like Gentle Giant or king Crimson at times. Quite hard to get into it at the first listening but it’s worth it!
England – Garden Shed (UK, 1977)
Another hidden treasure from the UK. Garden Shed is a stunning album which sounds like the missing link between Yes and Genesis. Another essential album for any symphonic prog rock and Mellotron lovers!
Sebastian Hardie – Four Moments (Australia, 1975)
Fours Moments is a beautiful album from Australia. Very epic and melodic with magnificent Mellotron moments.
Cathedral – Stained Glass Stories (USA, 1978)
If you like Wobbler or Anglagard, you will love this album by Cathedral that inspired this bands for sure! Sounds like Yes and early Genesis with this tasteful particular Rickenbacker bass sound. Sometimes pastoral, sometimes epic.
Carpe Diem – En Regardant Passer Le Temps (France, 1975)
One of my favourite French prog rock albums. Very dark and spacey like the beautiful cover artwork suggests it. It’s hard to compare with any other bands because Carpe Diem is quite unique but it sounds at times like King Crimson, Camel or a depressed version of Gong.
Museo Rosenbach – Zarathustra (Italy, 1973)
Italian progressive rock from the heavier and darker side. One of my favourite prog rock album from Italy.
Bo Hansson – Sagan om Ringen (Sweden, 1970)
One of my favourite Lord Of The Rings related album! Bo Hansson’s debut album depicts Middle Earth brillantly. Mysterious and dreamy atmosphere all over the album which sounds like nothing else… I always associate it to Mike Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge actually as it doesn’t sound like traditional symphonic prog rock but has this strong folk and pastoral atmosphere. Very epic and unique.
I hope you’ll enjoy these albums as much as I do! Feel free to share your own hidden prog rock secrets in the comments below
Some weeks ago, I decided to sell my dvds collection on Priceminister. The main reason is that I wanted to switch to bluray and also because I got tired of all these horror movies that I watched once and never watched again, the classic ones excepted of course. My dvds collection was about 90% of horror movies.
I kept some special dvd editions (like Silent Hill or The Thing) that I like and now I’m searching for blurays of my favorite movies. Actually, I’m searching for steelbook editions if possible. There’s some kind of madness about steelbook editions these days and prices can get really high (John Rambo… Iron Man…) but it’s still possible to find steelbooks at reasonable prices fortunately.
I started hunting for steelbooks this month so I can’t even talk about collection but it’s a beginning! I can’t consider movies like 2012 or Gi Joe to be the best movies ever but their steelbook editions are quite nice. I like the lack of useless text on the 2012 edition, the less text there is, the better it is in my opinion!
As I write, I’m waiting for two Canadian releases that I pre-oredered : The Exorcist and The Shawshank Redemption which are two of my favourite movies ever! Really great that they have been released on steelbooks!!
Another stunning glimpse of Steven Wilson upcoming’s second album. It seems that he’s never been as much at the top of his game. I can’t wait to listen to the whole album!
