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Thread: Unitopia Spawns Offshoot Band

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    Unitopia Spawns Offshoot Band


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    Member emperorken's Avatar
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    Sounds good. Thanks for the link.

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    Member BobM's Avatar
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    Like what I hear so far.
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    Wow. When I heard of the inclusion of Jon Anderson, I thought this was another April Fool's post. I mean, if Mark Trueack is involved - perhaps one of the greatest voices in modern prog - why include Jon, too? But I like how they've described it as "...to make this a universal project, allowing not only the members to come and go as they please, but also inviting the listener to share ideas on what they would like to hear – in other words, making UPF the people’s group." The logo and band title gives it a Billy Sherwood feel, but the content sounds much more promising to my ears.

    Very cool. The initial sound clip sounds good. I look forward to hearing more this fall!

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    I agree with you on Mark's Voice, when I first saw the track list for the Unitopia covers CD, I was more than a little pessimistic. But I have to say that CD with their arrangements is one of my favorites

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    Member Zonefish's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ScottAM View Post
    The logo and band title gives it a Billy Sherwood feel, but the content sounds much more promising to my ears.
    Agree... HATE the name, but recognize it is the musical output that matters. And that sounded pretty good.
    "So it goes."
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    United Progressive Fraternity - Fall In Love With The World

    The new album was released last week in Europe, due next week in the US.
    I've listened to it several times over the last few days and I like what I hear. Sounds like Unitopia with guests (including Jon Anderson and Steve Hackett, no less!). It retains Unitopia's world music percussion and jazzy sax (and of course Mark Trueack's unique voice), but the guests add a little something extra, especially Steve Unruh's violin which is quite present.
    Thoughts?
    Not just a Genesis fanboy.

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    I heard about this awhile ago, glad to hear the band is about to release a CD.

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    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    Well, I bought this a few days ago, and it's been on repeat play ever since.

    This definitely still Unitopia -- to the point of why I wonder why they couldn't have just bargained to keep the name -- with a little more world music-type sounds, more soprano sax, and more exotic instrumentation. There are some tasty melodic hooks as well in "Choices," "Intersection" and "Fall in the Love with the World." The latter song could have been a "Hey Jude" type thing but in this case, they kept it fairly restrained. The centerpiece, "Traveling Man," is a well-done montage of musical ideas, reprising "Choices" and "Intersection" tastefully.

    And speaking of tasteful, Mark Trueack's voice is excellent as usual. The playing is well done and the production is solid. The only songs I'm not wild about are "Overture," which is a bit pretentious even for a prog album (not the idea of an overture, just the way it's executed) and "The Water" which "features" Jon Anderson, just barely. The latter song is somewhat hamfisted, and doesn't help itself by burying Anderson's vocals half the time. But it's all right; I don't skip it, I just don't like it as much.

    So, highly recommended to Unitopia fans or people who like prog with a dash of world music.
    "Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)

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    Member rickawakeman's Avatar
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    Picked this us at Newbury on Tuesday. I'm loving it, from the opening notes of the Overture forward.

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    This is great news, I haven't been able to find any newly released InsideOut material at Newberry's in several months. I will have to hit the ones in Rhode Island and see if I can get it.

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    United Progressive Fraternity (UPF) has a website:

    http://www.unitedprogressivefraternity.com/

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    It's presently available for listening in its entirety on Progstreaming - - - - - ordered! - - - Jeff

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