Glass Hammer ARISE - new album

[Glass Hammer]

My favorite GH albums is still Perilous, but IF is just an amazing Yes album that Yes never made.

Funny thing: I saw GH perform at Nearfest 2003. I was not familiar with the band but had picked up Chronomotree a few months before the show, which I loved (and still do). Unsurprisingly, I only liked the Chronomotree tune you guys played, and thought the rest was just not for me (though I loved the Kansas song with Rich Williams playing). I almost forgot that a couple years before 2003, I had decided to give the band a try and my tendency then was to start with the first album by a band. That was probably a mistake, as the first GH album is not really anything like the albums that came later and I thought it was terrible, lol. I admit I haven't listened to it in many years, so I may try it again now that I've become a fan. Anyway, not sure why it took so long for me to come around to GH but glad I finally did. I also have Live At Nearfest now as well, and can't really understand why I didn't love the whole performance at the time, but I guess tastes can change and evolve so better late than never

So I ignored the band for several years, but for some reason decided to try again with IF. After that album go under my skin, I went back and picked up as much as I could and have been a fan ever since.

Our first album is one we'd like to forget as well! But without it, there'd never have been a second one! And it sold absurdly well!
Very glad you stuck it out and came back to us! We always try to make great albums / listening experiences. Hope you like the new one!
Steve

[Joey JoJo]

Our first album is one we'd like to forget as well! But without it, there'd never have been a second one! And it sold absurdly well!
Very glad you stuck it out and came back to us! We always try to make great albums / listening experiences. Hope you like the new one!
Steve

I'm not ashamed to say that Journey Of The Dunadan has really grown on me over the years. I even like the narration; the guy does a great job. When I first bought it I wasn't even familiar with Lord of the Rings, but I ended up getting majorly hooked after the Peter Jackson movies. It's a treasured part of my cd collection.

[Progatron]

I'm not ashamed to say that Journey Of The Dunadan has really grown on me over the years. I even like the narration; the guy does a great job. When I first bought it I wasn't even familiar with Lord of the Rings, but I ended up getting majorly hooked after the Peter Jackson movies. It's a treasured part of my cd collection.

You ever hear The Making of a Glass Hammer Adventure? It's a delightful listen, but a long out of print (special edition) CD.

[Aquatarkus]

I found Jon on a youtube video of his Yes tribute band!

oh wow! I did not know he was part of a Yes tribute band. I learned the same about hiss predecessor in Yes, David Benoit, after being a fan of Benoit's band Mystery.

Cheers.

[Glass Hammer]

I'm not ashamed to say that Journey Of The Dunadan has really grown on me over the years. I even like the narration; the guy does a great job. When I first bought it I wasn't even familiar with Lord of the Rings, but I ended up getting majorly hooked after the Peter Jackson movies. It's a treasured part of my cd collection.

Well you made my day! It was sort of a clumsy affair. We had no idea there was a prog-rock audience left, but we hoped to find them just the same. I was into a couple of narrated albums a few years before recording Journey and always wanted to do one. War Of The Worlds was one, and a little-known album called Ulysses - Ithaca Suite (this one by Michael Rapp and featuring Ted Neeley of Jesus Christ Superstar fame).
We did the entire album in my apartment on an 8-track Tascam. We assembled all the tracks on my first 8 track ADAT, then mixed to a DAT and sent to Bob Katz of Digital Domain for mastering. He told Ken Golden of the Laser's Edge about us, and the rest is history!
Anyway I'm glad to hear you like it!
Steve

[Glass Hammer]

You ever hear The Making of a Glass Hammer Adventure? It's a delightful listen, but a long out of print (special edition) CD.

It's available as a download on our website in the "Ultimate Middle Earth" download bundle. It has Journey Of The Dunadan, The Middle Earth Album and the Making of a Glass Hammer Adventure. I had fun making that album of oddities. Glad you remember it!
Steve

[Glass Hammer]

If you want to whet your appetite for ARISE, check out this review! "Arise is the sound of a band one-upping itself at every turn. God knows what they will come up with next…"
https://theprogressiveaspect.net/blo...-hammer-arise/

[Aquatarkus]

If you want to whet your appetite for ARISE, check out this review! "Arise is the sound of a band one-upping itself at every turn. God knows what they will come up with next…"
https://theprogressiveaspect.net/blo...-hammer-arise/

Looking forward to listening soon! Will this make it up to your Bandcamp page Steve? I like purchasing from them when buying digital because then I have an easy way to stream in the car or on my phone while waiting for an appointment or just in the library reading. I used to rip my cd's/vinyl into flac and load those on my phone but then my own ear test told me recently at my age (fifties) I can't likely hear the difference on an earphone device like I use then on the go. Of course now, I can stream Apple Music in lossless, even my own files that I have uploaded, which is cool.
Just curious, as I've purchased a few of your high rez releases like IF from your Bandcamp page.

[Glass Hammer]

Looking forward to listening soon! Will this make it up to your Bandcamp page Steve? I like purchasing from them when buying digital because then I have an easy way to stream in the car or on my phone while waiting for an appointment or just in the library reading. I used to rip my cd's/vinyl into flac and load those on my phone but then my own ear test told me recently at my age (fifties) I can't likely hear the difference on an earphone device like I use then on the go. Of course now, I can stream Apple Music in lossless, even my own files that I have uploaded, which is cool.
Just curious, as I've purchased a few of your high rez releases like IF from your Bandcamp page.

You'll find it on bandcamp very soon!
Steve

[Aquatarkus]

You'll find it on bandcamp very soon!
Steve

Awesome!

[Glass Hammer]

Awesome!

You can pre-order on bandcamp today! https://glasshammer.bandcamp.com/

[julioscissors]

You can pre-order on bandcamp today! https://glasshammer.bandcamp.com/

Also, click the link and you can listen to the title track, which is a really eerie and dark - and amazing - track.

Starts off very "Arabian" with Middle-eastern style percussion with some great keyboard sounds. From there it goes into almost an "FM - Black Noise" vibe. Nice spartan drumming and more "FM-ish" key sounds.

I really dig the way the keyboards are used. Nothing flashy, just real atmospheric. Retro-futuristic in a way.

I'm buying a beer for whoever played that TASTY guitar riff at around 5 minutes in. I've not heard licks like that on other GH albums. Really groovy tone.

The only slight negative is that I'm not a big fan of the singer. When she's sings gently it's absolutely lovely, but when she "belts it out" it seems like her vocal doesn't have the conviction that the lyrics demand. Could just be me, though.

From what I've read, the lyrical story of the album sounds really interesting. Something about an android going to outer space to explore and maybe returning transformed in some way?

All in all, the track is not what you'd expect from Glass Hammer, which is exactly what you should expect from Glass Hammer. It's a killer tune and SUPER trippy.

Seems like we're getting another left turn from a band that specializes in left turns!

[Glass Hammer]

I'm buying a beer for whoever played that TASTY guitar riff at around 5 minutes in. I've not heard licks like that on other GH albums. Really groovy tone.

I played some guitar on that one, but all the cool lead work is Reese Boyd who has been guesting on the last few albums. He's way more than a guest on ARISE though.
Steve

[Aquatarkus]

I played some guitar on that one, but all the cool lead work is Reese Boyd who has been guesting on the last few albums. He's way more than a guest on ARISE though.
Steve

Is Reese the guy who performs some of the solos on Culture of Ascent? I remember thinking at the time that the album featured a more prominent bit of writing for guitar than previous GH albums, Lex through IS.

The Arise track I listened to on Bandcamp is really cool Steve. Is there any plan on your part to offer the purchase/stream on Bandcamp of earlier GH albums? I think I bought the Lex remaster straight from GH.com. I'm guessing the issue with streaming and the absence of GH albums on major platforms like Apple Music or Spotify comes down to crappy compensation per stream? At least with Bandcamp you can buy and then stream after with the artist hopefully receiving fair compensation for their work.

[infandous]

Our first album is one we'd like to forget as well! But without it, there'd never have been a second one! And it sold absurdly well!
Very glad you stuck it out and came back to us! We always try to make great albums / listening experiences. Hope you like the new one!
Steve

I should check prog ears more often I guess, lol! Yeah, I do need to listen to it again sometime as it's been years. That said, I pre-ordered Arise as soon as it was possible to do so, so I think you guys won me over after all :-) Really looking forward to hearing it!

[Glass Hammer]

Is Reese the guy who performs some of the solos on Culture of Ascent? I remember thinking at the time that the album featured a more prominent bit of writing for guitar than previous GH albums, Lex through IS.

The Arise track I listened to on Bandcamp is really cool Steve. Is there any plan on your part to offer the purchase/stream on Bandcamp of earlier GH albums? I think I bought the Lex remaster straight from GH.com. I'm guessing the issue with streaming and the absence of GH albums on major platforms like Apple Music or Spotify comes down to crappy compensation per stream? At least with Bandcamp you can buy and then stream after with the artist hopefully receiving fair compensation for their work.

I should probably get more albums up on Bandcamp. And you're right about streaming and Glass Hammer. It costs a great deal to make albums, even when you own the studio! I can't just give the music away

And that was David Wallimann's guitar on Culture Of Ascent. He's a super nice guy that moved to Tennessee from France many years ago. He left Chattanooga around 2009 and moved out west but we still say hi now and then.
He played on our Live At Belmont and Live At The Tivoli DVDs.
Steve

[Aquatarkus]

I should probably get more albums up on Bandcamp. And you're right about streaming and Glass Hammer. It costs a great deal to make albums, even when you own the studio! I can't just give the music away

And that was David Wallimann's guitar on Culture Of Ascent. He's a super nice guy that moved to Tennessee from France many years ago. He left Chattanooga around 2009 and moved out west but we still say hi now and then.
He played on our Live At Belmont and Live At The Tivoli DVDs.
Steve

You have worked with some fine guitarists over the years, although I think you and Fred have talent in this instrument as well. Did the studio come before the very first GH album? I'm wondering if you originally ran the studio for the sake of producing others and then after awhile decided you could make the music you loved as well?

[Glass Hammer]

You have worked with some fine guitarists over the years, although I think you and Fred have talent in this instrument as well. Did the studio come before the very first GH album? I'm wondering if you originally ran the studio for the sake of producing others and then after awhile decided you could make the music you loved as well?

The first GH album was produced in my apartment. We were only going to do demos, but realized our demos sounded better than anything we could do in our local studios. We'd both already had experience multi-tracking and engineering so we knew what we were doing, more or less.
Before we were done, I already had people coming to my apartment paying us to record them! Next, my wife and I bought a house with a large building on the property that would become our commercial studio. We did Perelandra there and every other GH album. 100s of albums for other artists, 1,000's of commercials (including a Super Bowl commercial for VW!!), audio for MTV hit shows, and over one hundred audio books.
We had no intention of starting a studio back in 93, but it became obvious by 95 that we'd do well with it.
Well...that was more info than you asked for!
Steve

[moecurlythanu]

^ That is impressive, Steve! I had no idea.

[Aquatarkus]

The first GH album was produced in my apartment. We were only going to do demos, but realized our demos sounded better than anything we could do in our local studios. We'd both already had experience multi-tracking and engineering so we knew what we were doing, more or less.
Before we were done, I already had people coming to my apartment paying us to record them! Next, my wife and I bought a house with a large building on the property that would become our commercial studio. We did Perelandra there and every other GH album. 100s of albums for other artists, 1,000's of commercials (including a Super Bowl commercial for VW!!), audio for MTV hit shows, and over one hundred audio books.
We had no intention of starting a studio back in 93, but it became obvious by 95 that we'd do well with it.
Well...that was more info than you asked for!
Steve

This was awesome! I truly appreciate your sharing. What a cool, successful story! You mention that you and Fred (I'm assuming Fred is the other part of we) already knew what you were doing to a degree that you felt competent. Did you guys essentially self learn the skillset needed to make recordings?

[Glass Hammer]

This was awesome! I truly appreciate your sharing. What a cool, successful story! You mention that you and Fred (I'm assuming Fred is the other part of we) already knew what you were doing to a degree that you felt competent. Did you guys essentially self learn the skillset needed to make recordings?

We (Fred and I), were self taught, though I had a mentor-producer in the 80's who taught me a lot about mixing. Thanks for asking! Glad you're interested
Steve

[Aquatarkus]

We (Fred and I), were self taught, though I had a mentor-producer in the 80's who taught me a lot about mixing. Thanks for asking! Glad you're interested
Steve

Thanks for answering! Mastering and recording has always been a side interest of mine since I first started using Pro Tools some time ago. I don't have much time to devote to it, but I appreciate the information you've given and your experience. You guys do a fine job too as I think GH albums sound pretty great, at least where I start with Chrono. Are there any plans to remix or remaster Shadowlands in the way Lex Rex has been done? I love what you did with that album.

[rickawakeman]

oh wow! I did not know he was part of a Yes tribute band. I learned the same about hiss predecessor in Yes, David Benoit, after being a fan of Benoit's band Mystery.

Cheers.

Benoit David.

[Soc Prof]

^^^^^^^
Yes, David Benoit is an American jazz pianist. My apartment mate in college was really into him.

Also, I assume Benoit David's last name has the Francophone pronunciation: Dah-VEED.

Now, back to discussing Glass Hammer. I bought my first software synth, Arturia's Mini V Minimoog clone, after reading that Fred was using it on Glass Hammer albums to avoid the expense of maintaining a piece of hardware. I was totally stunned at this news because my ears could not tell the difference, and still can't.

[Flightwave]

Nice to hear some love for Journey of the Dunadan. Peter Renfro alerted me to that album ages ago and IMO it still holds up as great fantasy / mystical music.

Although GH has an amazing discography and it's hard to pick a favorite track, The Middle Earth album has a track called "Sweet Goldberry" which is at the top of my list. Glorious melody and those synthesizers are outstanding. It's on my short list of "summer" prog tracks, very uplifting and has a happy, breezy feel.

Steve, God Bless you for continuing to make amazing music and sharing your art with us. I look forward to your newest creation!