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Thread: Group & Orchestra

  1. #1

    Group & Orchestra

    The new Magma got me thinking i am not sure this formula ever fulfilled its promise
    A few examples that came in mind

    Pink Floyd
    Porcol Harum
    Magma
    Depp Purple
    Renaissance
    Yes
    Moody Blues
    Mahavishnu
    Ecception
    ELP
    Rick Wakeman

    Worst of both worlds ? or...
    Discuss

  2. #2
    Caravan and the New Symphonia another classic, in most cases it does not work IMO, either you have the music just arranged for an orchestra , means that existed in popular music for a long time or in a third stream way the musicians/ composers try to write something that features the best of both worlds. I like the new Magma record . Vanders music has an orchestral side, he likes broad colouring. Even so the Magma concert at the Paris Philharmonie featured only a small orchestra with a woodwind section and a small choir, the strings were played on synth, it sounded like a big orchestra. Zappa wrote great orchestral music and I like the Yes Magnification orchestral tour .
    Dieter Moebius : "Art people like things they don’t understand!"

  3. #3
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Mike Keneally & Metropole Orkestra - The Universe Will Provide (2004)

    Works fine in my ears

  4. #4
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    I've always been a bit wary regarding the mixture of rock and orchestra. One of the most successful in my book would be The Death Defying Unicorn by Motorpsycho.
    Not just a Genesis fanboy.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeuhlmate View Post
    Mike Keneally & Metropole Orkestra - The Universe Will Provide (2004)

    Works fine in my ears
    There is also Steve Vai and Metropole Orchestra
    and
    Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orchestra

    And did anyone mention Barclay James Harvest, that had their own orchestra in the early years?

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    live 1979

  7. #7
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    The Beatles

  8. #8
    Member rickawakeman's Avatar
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    I downloaded a show with Todd Rundgren and the Metropole Orchestra from 2012 that is just fantastic!

  9. #9
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    Kansas did an album with an orchestra. The novelty wore off quickly for me. Looks great on paper, but.......

    Got rid of that album, and Magnification as well. It was a trend that really got boring fast. Never even bothered with Metallica + Orch.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    Kansas did an album with an orchestra. The novelty wore off quickly for me. Looks great on paper, but.......

    Got rid of that album, and Magnification as well. It was a trend that really got boring fast. Never even bothered with Metallica + Orch.
    Originally in the 60s and 70s it was something new and seemed like more of an experiment, some worked better than others but l never thought any were bad. But yeah, in more recent years it seemed like a trend or fad, everyone was doing it. Some worked better than others , l didn't think any were really bad but some were just unnecessary, it didn't really do much other than to be part of the trend. But the one that l did like was one that didn't get much recognition, the Scorpions Moment of Glory with the Berlin Philharmonic. I thought they really made use of the orchestra, was interesting to hear parts where it was almost like the orchestra was jammin with the band!

  11. #11
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
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    Peter Gabriel and the New Blood Orchestra is pretty good.
    Jaga Jazzist and the Britten Sinfonia is pretty ok, if you like that sort of thing.

    sometimes ( a lot of the times ) it is indulgent self pleasuring on the part of bands.
    sometimes it really sets off the work ( Renaissance and Mahavishnu, for instance )
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  12. #12
    Man of repute progmatist's Avatar
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    Metallica S&M: That album/video was the butt of many comediennes' jokes, and deservedly so.
    "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama

  13. #13
    Casanova TCC's Avatar
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    - Spinetta & Orquesta Académica (2006)

    https://youtu.be/KFdAcI6zerE

    Temas:
    01-Presentación
    02-Águila de Trueno
    03-El Anillo del Capitán Beto
    04-Ella También
    05-Parlante
    06-Bosnia
    07-Amarilla Flor
    08-Maribel se durmió
    09-Ekathé
    10-Tonta Luz
    11-Canción de Amor Para Olga
    12-Durazno Sangrando
    13-Prométeme Paraíso
    14-A Starosta, el Idiota

    "Before a young audience that filled the main hall of the Teatro Colón, Luis Alberto Spinetta offered an atypical concert, accompanied by the Academic Orchestra, directed by Carlos Calleja. "It's a kind of open rehearsal," El Flaco correctly defined this strange and risky experience of bringing a symphonic plane to some of the songs he composed throughout his career."

    - Spinetta & Orquesta Juvenil de Córdoba. (1992).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5lJKGnsqcM

    Temas:
    01-Bomba azul
    02-Cielo de ti
    03-Panacea
    04-Jilguero
    05-La montaña

    "In 1992, Luis Alberto Spinetta performed in the Cordoban Telemanías program in an untraditional way. Instead of bringing an accompaniment band to promote his album "Peluson of milk", El Flaco (Spinetta) proposed a symphonic re-creation of the repertoire, which finally materialized with the support of the Orquesta Juvenil de Córdoba directed by Carlos Giraudo".

    - CAST - Sinfónico (2016)

    XV Festival de Octubre: CAST sinfónico y la OBC, Teatro del Estado Mexicali
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW4vwzg1vbY

    Teaser:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfezLY2v13c


    Best,
    Tomás.
    Pura Vida!.

    There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. ∞
    Duke Ellington.

  14. #14
    Best: Camel (live version of The Snow Goose on A Live Album)
    Worst: I'm sorry to say it, but the Who's current tour.
    Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.

  15. #15
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Efterklang did an album and a number of concerts with an orchestra

    This is probably not the best clip you can find


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    In theory it could be fantastic, but in practice it usually isn't.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    In theory it could be fantastic, but in practice it usually isn't.
    Kind of how l felt about Magnification before and after it came out, l don't dislike it but l didn't feel the use of the orchestra really added anything significant, the tour was a little more interesting though

  18. #18
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Good orchestral music doesn't need a rawk band to screw it up
    If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.

    "And it's only the giving
    That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson

  19. #19
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Good orchestral music doesn't need a rawk band to screw it up
    You better not be talking about Yes, young man!

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by rickawakeman View Post
    I downloaded a show with Todd Rundgren and the Metropole Orchestra from 2012 that is just fantastic!
    Yes, this is a great pairing. So great in fact that he did it two years in a row with quite different setlists. I have one of them as a bonus disc on Rundgren's "State" CD; the bonus disc is why I bought it! Somehow Metropole really understand these things and know how to arrange them properly.

    Few others do. Yes' Magnification & tour were not bad because the orchestra stayed out of the way. So nice but non-essential. Caravan's is a mixed bag, with some nice arrangements: Mirror, Virgin; but 4 Richard and Love in your Eye are cumbersome.

    I find the worst effort in this genre is Deep Purple's "Concerto". I find it truly unlistenable, but I give them a break because they were innovators. On paper the idea was cool.

  21. #21
    Member TheH's Avatar
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    One of the few ones that really works for me:


  22. #22
    Surprised people are down on Metallica. I was skeptical but after listening I thought it worked surprisingly well.


    Camel's The Snow Goose, The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed and Live at Red Rocks, Caravan's New Symphonia, a bunch from Elton John (e.g. Live in Australia), ELO (e.g. Eldorado), Alan Parsons (e.g. Turn of a Friendly Card) & Renaissance (e.g. A Song for All Seasons), Peter Gabriel's New Blood, Rainbow's Gates of Babylon, Rick Wakeman's Journey and King Arthur, Magnification from Yes and Uriah Heap's Salisbury are others I enjoy. And I like the newer Deep Purple with orchestra better than the original Concerto.
    Last edited by Wah3; 06-30-2019 at 09:30 AM.

  23. #23
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
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    The ( very ) last time I saw Yes was the Magnification tour.
    I loved it. It worked for me.
    I bought a recording of the same show. Did not work as well.
    Live is just better.
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by daoubourg View Post


    live 1979
    Wow, Svetonio! Didn't Smak make it with an orchestra?




    Banco - Di Terra

    Written as a unifying piece for 'orchestral rock group', rather than farting up already established songs or creating a monster hybrid r&r-versus-philharmonic junk.

    As for the 'chamber-rock' bands - HCow, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Nöetra, Debile Menthol, DAAU, Motor Totemist Guild, Conventum, Interférence Sardines, Gatto Marte, The Cellar & Point, Rational Diet, Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses plus some 73 other acts which existed before Stevie Nilsen according to intense rumour coined the term in relation to (uhm…) Iamthemorning - these were actual ensembles in their own right.

    And, of course and absolutely obviously, that one Yes album.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  25. #25
    One of the great weddings of rock and symphony is this song...

    "And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision."

    Occasional musical musings on https://darkelffile.blogspot.com/

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