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
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
I'm not sure if the OP meant this to be a serious thread or not (I'm guessing not), but it did make me listen to the song front to back for the first time in decades. I vividly remember a local radio station playing the album in its entirety shortly before it was released. I made a point of listening (it was a Supergroup, after all), and I was severely disappointed. Specifically, I remember during this particular track, when the instrumental interlude started, thinking "ok, here we go!" and when it ended a few seconds later without going anywhere thinking "wait, what? that's it?". The rest of the album broadcast provided just enough substance to get me to purchase it when it came out, and I even saw them live on the first tour, but that was as far as my mileage went.
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
I like the debut album of Asia no matter what avant-guard here is saying.
My progressive music site: https://pienemmatpurot.com/ Reviews in English: https://pienemmatpurot.com/in-english/
Here in Realityland I'd choose either "Firth of Fifth" or "The Night Watch".
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
So the story goes that this song was in a Best Of The Year record that my older sister had back in the days. I was 8 years old and I liked it very much. I didn't know the band back then and I only realized that this was Asia a couple of years ago in this forum. (something similar happened with Owner Of A Lonely Heart - I found out that it was a Yes song only after I had all the 70's albums in my collection).
I played for who knows what reason the clip the other day and I felt sad. I felt sad watching these giant musicians playing this sort of shallow music. Those guys were in their 30's back then and they were already completely burnt-out artistically speaking. I don't think it is a horrible song or even a bad song, but it's plain obvious that its objective is simply to sell as much as possible.
At least the bands of today do not even have the option to sell out because no one is buying music anyway, and you see musicians continuing to grow in terms of creativity well in their 40's or 50's.
So I started this silly thread and I don't regret it a bit. I find the comments hilarious, and reflecting mostly my own state of mind. Those were NOT the days for our old Prog heroes.
Last edited by Zappathustra; 11-14-2019 at 12:22 PM. Reason: replacing an it's with an its
I'm glad you started it, because after the last several days of serious, prog-mania debate(I suggest a 2 week moratorium on any Yes, Genesis and Wet Willy discussions). It was fun and refreshing to read such creative humorous replies.
We all need a good laugh now and then, and regardless of your intent for posting this thread, it shows how creative and funny so many members here can be.
Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457
Now that we know the reasoning behind starting this thread, it's safe to say that you got what you wanted from the respondents. However, to be completely fair to the debut Asia release, it wasn't supposed to be prog rock or even "pop" rock (based on what pop rock sounded like in that era). When I first heard it I thought that it sounded dynamic and I especially liked "Only Time Will Tell" and "Soul Survivor" as being solid songs. "Heat Of The Moment" was also a good rocker and "Wildest Dreams" was my 4th favorite cut on the LP. The remainder of the songs were not up to that level, but weren't bad.
The point I would like to make is that I didn't think of the genre of the music when first listening to the album; I took it for what it was and didn't compare it to the previous works from the band members. It is even more unadvisable to look at it retrospectively that way, based solely on what came before it from the artists in the band (or other bands - as many posts above did). And, as much as posters here hate the "it's not prog" silliness, it seems counterintuitive to pull one song from a early 80's LP and then frame an argument against it based on whether it was a good or great prog song. If you don't like that song, fine - no other comparative reasoning is needed.
I view Asia's debut album in a manner similar to Yes' 90125 release; it was nothing like what that band did in it's glory "prog" days, but it was nonetheless a very good piece of work and well worth owning.
Yeah the Zapmaster really got us chumps going... hey how about UK vs. Asia? I'd say UK hands-down: just Eddie Jobson's pancake-makeup, lipstick and rouge were worth the price of admission.
I like the first Asia album though rarely play it these days, I saw them at Wembley Arena back on that first tour too and enjoyed it very much. I think it has aged better than 90125 which I loathed then and now, mainly perhaps because it said Yes on the cover which it most certainly was not. At least Asia was not pretending to be something that it wasn't although I'm sure most of us hoped it was better than it actually was!
FWIW - and it's worth very little. I was still working in a record store when Asia's first was released and I remember getting it in and hearing it and thinking 'prog really is over for me; these are folks from favorite bands and I can't stand this' and trying to figure out what the fact it was over meant.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
'Names/identities involved' matter - Music itself obviously doesn't to anywhere near the same extent.
Merely the fact that a title like this can draw attention with participants, whereas actually innovative and wildly creative 80s (progressive) rock remains in the dark although it's presented, discussed and discerned - is proof adequate that notions of a "prog scene" is all the more oblivious. Rock music way more nuanced and colourful than most anything made a decade previously was being produced during the 80s - yet people still adhere to the grotesque logic that artistic greatness somehow emanates proportionally with an ability to simulate other artists' work of the past.
Stagnant ideals, and "greatness" at its last breath. Oh well.
"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
Asia...
I listened to a lot of Kitaro in the mid-80s.
Does that count?
I could be ABBA, just with a different sound setup.
This thread is to PE what Asia is to prog.
Calyx (Canterbury Scene) - http://www.calyx-canterbury.fr
Legends In Their Own Lunchtime (blog) - https://canterburyscene.wordpress.com/
My latest books : "Yes" (2017) - https://lemotetlereste.com/musiques/yes/ + "L'Ecole de Canterbury" (2016) - http://lemotetlereste.com/musiques/lecoledecanterbury/ + "King Crimson" (2012/updated 2018) - http://lemotetlereste.com/musiques/kingcrimson/
Canterbury & prog interviews - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdf...IUPxUMA/videos
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