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Thread: Kinetic Element news

  1. #26
    About a month ago we also suffered the departure of our fine bassist, Len Dupilka. On one hand I can hardly blame him for losing patience with this project, but on the other, well, it was becoming clear that Len thought our talent was not sufficient for his pieces, and we were having to rein in his inner Jaco to play symphonic prog which frustrated him to no end. So he rather unceremoniously left us hanging with some promising prospects for next summer now in grave jeopardy. But we intend, as always, to press on and get product finished, and we are now actually seeing the music take shape.

    We have not yet replaced Len. It appears that Jaymi Millard, a great Rickenbacker player in Nashville, will be playing on our CD. Jaymi has stepped up for us before when we had no bassist and he came to play the Prog Day Pre-Show with us in 2010. He has assured us that if we don't get somebody local to Richmond, he'll be there for us. We're very grateful to him. We have found a terrific singer in the Virginia Beach area who has been coming up to Richmond to work with us and who has been singing with a prog tribute band down there. We are close to a decision on him. I am fairly certain I'll be able to announce him soon.

    If you follow us on Facebook you know we are now at around 60 minutes of new music. It still has to be tightened up and recorded, and we are still learning how to do a decent capture so progress in recording has been slow. But since George and Len departed there has been an outpouring of new material from me and Todd.

    Just to see if there is any interest, I have a scratch mix of an 18-minute piece called War Song that I will link you to if I hear from you. It's kind of a mono mix and it has Len and George on it, so actually it will sound a bit different on the CD when we get it done. I have gotten some good reaction on it from some trusted proghead friends and musical peers.

    Thanks for your interest. Someday we will get to play a festival for you. :-)

    PROG LIVES ... it keeps us young.
    MV
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  2. #27
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Stay stubborn and determined, brother Mike!

    I believe you may be an inspiration to many, and this old Jew knows where your inspiration comes from.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  3. #28
    Man, that's a drag- hang in there! I for one would love to hear what yer working on...

  4. #29
    Member Lopez's Avatar
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    Hi Mike,

    Yes, please send some music my way; in fact, why not post a link here at PE so we can all taste the goodness.
    Lou

    Looking forward to my day in court.

  5. #30
    Keep pressing forward my brother. I enjoyed hearing and seeing you open up for Circa:, Mike, and I had a great time listening to you and the others jam/play at one of the after parties at ROSfest last year. I hope good things in 2014 for you, Todd and who may be in the group next.

  6. #31
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    I'm interested to hear it, Mike.

    IMO, the album is the most important thing, because it should be a springboard to other things. Also, getting your new material down on a CD ought to be pretty satisfying.

    Good luck - onward and upward!

  7. #32
    Member Lopez's Avatar
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    Hi Mike,

    I was perusing YouTube the other night and thought to see what was up there for KE. Found a fairly recent posting (September, I believe) of a long new number by the band. Loved it immensely. I got the idea that it's a work in progress; well, if it's not quite polished yet, it's going to be amazing when it is.
    Last edited by Lopez; 10-30-2013 at 12:13 PM.
    Lou

    Looking forward to my day in court.

  8. #33
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Anyone reading this thread who isn't familiar with KE's music and Mike, you're missing some killer symphonic (a/k/a not Neo) prog!

    As you can see by all the comments here, Mike is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  9. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by luvyesmusic View Post
    Keep pressing forward my brother. I enjoyed hearing and seeing you open up for Circa:, Mike, and I had a great time listening to you and the others jam/play at one of the after parties at ROSfest last year. I hope good things in 2014 for you, Todd and who may be in the group next.
    Circa! Wow, that is a long time ago .... 2008 .... What a story it was that we even got that gig. I was still in a wonderland meeting Alan White, Billy SHerwood, Jimmy Haun and Michael Sherwood and one of my heroes, Tony Kaye, who I got to "talk shop" with for some time after they got done playing ...

    I enjoyed doing the after party performance but as I have looked at the videos I realize we could not put on a performance worthy of the prog fans with so little rehearsal. Nevertheless we all had a great time doing it and just all being there together was such a blast. Now if only the Bolus guys would have owned up to busting that key on my XP-80.

    I'm putting it out there that I would like to come play a solo keyboard concert for somebody somewhere at a prog event or house concert or something, as long as I can get a place to stay and some expense money ... I just want to play for you guys. I'd do it on a radio station, a bar, I don't care. I can't do it in Richmond. People do not appreciate progressive music here.

    We started trying to do this record a year ago this month and still are just making a dent in it but at least we have the material mapped out and are into the click track stage now, so we will be recording full bore very soon. We are back to the trio from the Orion show three years ago but as I mentioned we have Jaymi in Nashville and this fellow John in Virginia Beach learning the vocals. Keep fingers crossed.
    Last edited by HoldYourFire; 11-13-2013 at 04:27 AM.
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  10. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    Man, that's a drag- hang in there! I for one would love to hear what yer working on...
    So how did it strike you, Fred?
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  11. #36
    For anyone who is still on board with us, the slow ride is making progress. We have finished drum tracks for two of the long pieces and one of the short ones. We do not have a bassist or vocalist member yet but we are talking with a known female vocalist who lives about an hour away from us, and we hope she will be singing lead on this CD. I feel it is premature to say who she is until we know it will happen. We are talking with a local bassist and have a commitment from Jaymi Millard in Nashville that he will do the bass tracks via file sharing if we cannot get a local player. I wanted badly to have something in hand when we meet at ROSfest this year but it will most likely take us till Prog Day to get this done. We only see each other twice a week and there's always a lot to hash out as we record. I am very encouraged by the way the drum tracks came out on the two epics as Michael is really playing well outside his comfort zone. We will be starting drum tracks on one of Todd's pieces this week. The Facebook disaster is not rectified yet and I am starting to create a new band Page in hopes of merging it with Kinetic Element Official Site so I can resume administering it. We still appreciate getting likes there. LOL ... PROG LIVES. And so do we.
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  12. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by HoldYourFire View Post
    we are talking with a known female vocalist who lives about an hour away from us, and we hope she will be singing lead on this CD. I feel it is premature to say who she is until we know it will happen.
    Huh... it occurs to me who that *might* be. And if so- DUDE!

  13. #38
    Drum tracks for Kinetic Element's "Travelog: Quest for Liberty" are finished, prog fellow travelers. I have to thank Michael Murray for being willing to take some direction and play outside the box; he sounds awesome on these tracks on drums. Todd is proving to be quite the creative partner. We'll be moving into the keyboards and guitars next. And we're debating whether to put some snippets out there to interest a singer; we hope to attract one who is a known quantity. It's been a long haul, what with losing two guys AND their material we recorded with them, and we still have a ways to go but after listening to the drum tracks with the scratch keys and guitars we are all very excited about how this thing is going to sound. I will have to get busy on bass charts too. Stay with us, folks.
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  14. #39
    Keeping the thread going as it's like recent history with KE. Announcement time. I posted this on Facebook this past Saturday, I'm sure some of you saw it. We are pretty excited about it.

    I'm pleased as punch (yes, I stole that line from Hubert H. Humphrey) to announce that we have the bass position in Kinetic Element filled by a long-time Richmond rocker to whom we can only say, "Where have you been all our lives?" Poland-born MARK TUPKO, currently performing classic rock with Crush, is the new bassist of Kinetic Element and we had a terrific session with him today. He looks to be everything you could want in a prog bassist (well, he doesn't sing but we aren't exactly Jon Andersons either) . He has the tone. He has the chops. He has the sensibility. He has the cameraderie. He has the basses. He has the enthusiasm. He plays with fingers or pick with equal dexterity. He has the patience to deal with three guys who put everything we record under a microscope. And he's on Facebook. Please join me in welcoming him to the band.
    You can drop by his friend page (or my page, or Kinetic Element Official Site 2.0 at www.facebook.com/kineticelementband) and say hello. We'd love for him to see your support.
    PROG LIVES. It keeps us young.

    I guess we are about 30% of the way through recording Travelog. Still working on guitars and keyboards for the two longest ones, the other three still have only drums. Now we will slow down a bit more as we work Mark in to the Travelog and Powered by Light elements of our show while also recording. It was great to see everyone at ROSfest!
    Last edited by HoldYourFire; 05-22-2014 at 09:35 PM.
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  15. #40
    Mike, that's you right? Glad you found a player and the project is progressing (no pun intended.) Can't wait to hear how it turns out! That link is borking for me.

  16. #41
    Very good news Mike. It's tough keeping a band going, especially in this genre where it's so much work to play music of this complexity, to have so few live opportunities and so much meticulousness in the studio which of course isn't cheap. I admire your tenacity!

  17. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    Mike, that's you right? Glad you found a player and the project is progressing (no pun intended.) Can't wait to hear how it turns out! That link is borking for me.
    There's an extra 'l' in between kinetic and element...delete it and deborking abounds

    Congrats on the new bassist Mike, I hope it works out great for you!
    If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
    https://battema.bandcamp.com/

    Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com

  18. #43
    Yes, Fred, that's me ... The link had an extra letter in it. Try it now.
    Robert, the last prog gig we had was Dec. 13, 2010. 3.5 years ago. Partly our own fault getting sidetracked into something we should not have been doing. Now we will still not play out unless we have a first class live vocalist, but at least we know we're going to have a great bottom end.
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  19. #44
    > Robert, the last prog gig we had was Dec. 13, 2010. 3.5 years ago.<

    Uh, you may have been playing some covers at that upstate NY private party but you also got to debut a LONG piece from your upcoming album on the unsuspecting audience, did you not? THAT'S a "prog gig" in my book....

  20. #45
    Here's some Kinetic Element news ( wait for it ;-) ).

    It's Mike's birthday today. Happy birthday, Mike!

  21. #46
    Member Lopez's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by luvyesmusic View Post
    Here's some Kinetic Element news ( wait for it ;-) ).

    It's Mike's birthday today. Happy birthday, Mike!
    I'll start a thread in the Community bulletin board.
    Lou

    Looking forward to my day in court.

  22. #47
    Good luck with the new recording, glad you found your 'players'. These kind of projects take time to do right, don't rush it.
    Coming September 1st - "Dean Watson Revisited"!

  23. #48
    Well here goes. First look for you guys who care about what we're trying to get done. Some of you took the opportunity to watch a sneak peek video of War Song with our two former members. This is the opening section of Vision of a New Dawn.

    We have only done a very quick mix on this and of course it's not album sound quality yet but it sounds pretty good especially in headphones or if you can turn it up loud on your computer speakers. It's an instrumental opening. I hope you find it listenable. If you give it a listen and a look, please leave a comment. If you like it, please refer others who like this kind of prog to have a look and a listen too.

    Please DON'T share on Facebook or social media ... "word of mouth" OK?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ZhWCPooBA

    Prog Lives. Mike V.
    A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission!

  24. #49
    Jefferson James
    Guest
    Just listened, Mike, I like it, it's a very nice set-up for whatever you have planned to follow. Glad to hear things are moving forward, by the sound of things you guys are really finding your footing. Nice work!

  25. #50
    Sounds solid!!!!

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