Reznor & Ross with Oscar: Not This Year!

At least that’s not as bad as the  Music (Original Song) category which nominated only two songs instead of the traditional five nominees.  Something odd with that.  They are “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets, Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie (one half of Flight of the Concordes) and “Real in Rio” from Rio, Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett.  McKenzie’s tune is cute, but there’s so much rock music in films these days, why is the Academy mired in a 1940s song mentality?

Music (Original Score)
The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams
The Artist, Ludovic Bource
Hugo, Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alberto Iglesias
War Horse, John Williams

Complete Oscar List of Nominees

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Tangerine Dream's Founder Edgar Froese

This might come a bit late but I’ve come across very  little coverage about it since Moogfest 2011 at the end of October.  Tangerine Dream headlined the festival and did a 2 hour show.  Like many fans, I’ve become a bit inurred to the band.  You can understand why with albums like Under Cover – Chapter One, on which they do covers of pop hits that are often faithful (The Eagles‘ “Hotel California”) and sometimes excruciating reinventions (Kraftwerk’s “The Model”).  Either way: This is Tangerine Dream?

But I just found out that they are in the processing of booking a US tour and that made me look online again.  And I discovered this great performance from Moogfest.  NPR put up their entire 2 hour show, and while it’s not classic-era 70′s TD, it is an extension of that sound with a full band.   The sound, probably a board feed, isn’t spectacular, but the performance is actually worth sitting through.  I can’t remember the last time I said that about Tangerine Dream, and I really want too.

Here’s the link: http://www.npr.org/event/music/141658754/tangerine-dream-in-concert-moogfest-2011

Or you can get this set from TD’s site.

Here’s the reported US dates so far:

THE ELECTRIC MANDARINE TOUR IN USA 2012

July 1st – New York, NY / Whitman Theatre

July 6th – Philadelphia, PA / Verizon Hall

July 7th – Washington DC / Warner Theatre

July 11th – Atlanta, GA / Fox Theatre

July 13th – Cleveland, OH / Palace Theatre

July 14th – Detroit, MI / Fillmore Theatre

July 18th – Chicago, IL / Vic Theatre

July 20th – Milwaukee, WI / Pabst Theatre

July 21st – Minneapolis, MN / Orpheum Theatre

July 25th – Madison, WI – Orpheum Theatre (State Street)

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Now Paul McCartney, part of a group that revolutionized music in the 1960s, has an album coming called  Kisses On The Bottom, a rendering of standards produced by Tommy LiPuma with Diana Krall’s band and guests like Eric Clapton.   No one’s been looking to McCartney for musical innovation  since Abbey Road, although his classical works and his electronica as The Fireman with Youth certainly showed a creative spark.  But as an American songbook style crooner, McCartney’s limitations as a singer and interpreter are fully revealed.   He is no Tony Bennett, although judging from the first single, “Get Yourself Another Fool.” He wants to be.    He doesn’t inhabit this music, he acts it out.  I’m sure McCartney isn’t looking for a career on the Vegas strip, but if he was, this could be his audition.  Kisses On The Bottom looks to be another forgettable vanity project.

Hear a sample for yourself with the song, “Get Yourself Another Fool.”

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Hari Kari w/Michael Allison on left

Most of the musicians you hear on Echoes lead double lives.  Many have straight jobs.  Others work in different capacities in the music industry as engineers, studio wonks or in working bands.  Michael Allison records as Darshan Ambient and since the mid-1990s he’s been releasing atmsopheric albums of electronic music.  His latest, Dream in Blue, was the Echoes CD of the Month in December.  I always knew that Michael had colorful musical past.  In the 1980s he played with punk pioneer Richard Hell (“Blank Generation”) and former Labelle singer, Nona Hendryx when she was in her experimental alt-funk phase.  But I didn’t realize until my recent interview with Michael that he was a member in the band called Hari Kari that plays rock covers and originals.    And it wasn’t until I discovered a couple of videos on YouTube that I saw just how much of a hair-band rocker he could be, albeit, without the hair.  He leaves that to the guitarist and singer. Who would have thought that the guy responsible for Dream in Blue had this in him?  So much for the reclusive and introverted ambient artist stereotype. Check out these videos for another side to Darshan Ambient’s Michael Allison.

You can hear an interview with Darshan Ambient tonight 1/10/2012 on Echoes.

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The marathon rocks in that progressive way from 10AM-5PM and I’ll be on air live from about 11AM-2PM.  Some of the artists I hope to spin include Van Der Graaf Generator, Groundhogs, Magma, Badger, Michael Rother, SFF, and lots more.  And I can pretty much guarantee you’ll Prog’s Holy Trinity: ELP, Genesis and Yes not to mention Gentle Giant, Camel, and many more from the Prog Attic.  Any last minute suggestions, drop me a comment.

While you wait, here’s an entertaining, sometimes snarky BBC Documentary on Progressive Rock.  Did you know that Carl Palmer once toured with an all-steel drum kit that weighed a few tons?

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A couple of months ago they came into the original Echoes Living Room to perform a set of Oster’s music and then a set of improvisations they’ve been playing as an ensemble.  Oster’s set ran already.  The concert by the ensemble, now known as Blue Eternity, runs on January 17 on Echoes.

We don’t usually film Echoes performances, but they did and here’s a clip from one of the songs.  Footage includes their live performance and some shots of my neighborhood.

Hear Jeff Oster with Michael Manring and Carl Weingarten live  on Echoes 12/17 and the following weekend. Details.

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

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Tino Izzo’s Morning Scapes

Hear Tino Izzo’s Morning Scapes tonight on Echoes.

Tino Izzo is a musician you may not know but you’ve probably heard his work over the last two decades because he’s recorded with popular artists like Celine Dion.  But those sounds  will not prepare you for the music he makes under his own name.  I first heard Izzo in 1994 when we started playing Blue Desires by an artist calling himself One.  One was just that: a single artist, Tino Izzo, playing everything.  He started recording under his own name shortly after that but the modus operandi remained the same: lushly melodic compositions built around a lattice-like interplay of multi-tracked electric and acoustic guitars.

That’s what you’ll hear on his latest album, Morning Scapes.  He says it was composed for quiet Sunday mornings, but it’s much more expansive than that, its sound  reflecting his secondary influence, Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” With cinematic landscapes laced by touches of folky Americana and electric guitar bliss, it’s a soundtrack for a cross country road trip.

You can hear the influence of Mike Oldfield in much of Izzo’s music, especially his intricate guitar overdubs and siren electric leads. The folk quality of it reminds me of Mark O’Connor’s album False Dawn, which likewise shows the influence of Oldfield.  There’s certainly a touch of English folk on songs like “The Light of Other Days” with echoes of Ralph McTell’s “Streets of London.”  But it’s American folk that pervades much of this music, from the bluegrass arpeggios of “Homeward Bound” to the forlorn harmonica of “Grapes of Wrath,” which rests on the bittersweet imagery of that John Steinbeck reference.

Morning Scapes is not all pastoral reveries. There is a triumphal exultance on  “St. Elziar” with chugging acoustic guitar strums and slide guitar straight out of The Eagles’ “Take It Easy” that isn’t going to keep you in bed on Sunday mornings.  It’s going to send you down Kerouac’s Route 66 of the spirit.  “The Orange Line” recalls one of Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice vamps with a flashy electric lead and shredding melodies that turn back on themselves.  He rips it up again on the album closer, “And the Sun.”

I’ve cited a lot of influences and references here for Tino Izzo, but the guitarist has created his own fusion of these elements, orchestrating a soundtrack that’s rooted in folk music and reaching towards the skies.  Morning Scapes is a masterful album from a veteran who should be much more widely known.

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Hear Tino Izzo’s  Morning Scapes featured on Echoes Monday January 2

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Leads December Top 25 CDs on Echoes.

It was our December CD of the Month so it’s no surprise that Darshan Ambient’s Dream in Blue topped our Echoes Top 25 for the month.  You can read a review and hear tracks here.

The first four releases on the list all come from electronic realms, be it Krusseldorf‘s melodic downtempo electronica on From Soil To Space, Jon Durant’s electronically processed guitars and violin on Dance of the Shadow Planets, or Northcape’s ambient Captured from Static.  But that’s followed up by a couple of acoustic guitarists, Sergio Altamura and Keith Medley.  There are lot’s of former CD of the Month selections on this list including Jeff Oster’s Surrender,  Akara’s Extradimesional Ethnography and Patrick O’Hearn’s Transitions.   Look for January’s CD of the Month club selection with Tino Izzo’s Morning Scapes, in at #12.  You can see the complete Top 25 here.

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Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization which means, just like your local public radio station,  we depend on the kindness of strangers and Echoes listeners for our support.  Our member station fees cover much  less than half of Echoes’ production costs, so we greatly appreciate the financial support of grantors, corporate sponsors and individual listeners like yourself.  And it’s all tax deductible. Thanks for keeping the soundscape of Echoes flowing. GO HERE TO DONATE NOW