What are you listening to right now?
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Load Have Mercy - The Load - 1977(released 1995)
Symphonic
Founded in Columbus, Ohio USA in 1973 - Disbanded in 1979
This powerful Columbus, Ohio trio was formed in 1973 by bassist/guitarist Dave Hessler (OSIRIS, THE DANGER BROTHERS) and brothers Sterling (keyboards) and Tommy (drums) Smith. In time, Hessler built himself a double-neck guitar with a bass on the bottom and six strings on top, while Sterling acquired a Minimoog synth, allowing him to switch from bass to synth. Doing mostly American prog with classical influences, they gigged locally for a couple of years and became part owners of Owl Studios and Owl Records, allowing them to record their first LP at their own pace in 1976, "Praise the Load". Their second effort, "Load Have Mercy", recorded a year later, was quickly shelved and wasn't to be released until it appeared on CD in 1996. They then relocated to Los Angeles, spent the next two years working as session musicians (mostly with The BEACH BOYS) and by 1979, they called it quits and returned to their native Ohio.
"Praise the Load" offers a mix of conventional rock numbers with classical influences, featuring nicely crafted keyboard parts and complex themes in the tradition of KING CRIMSON, YES, ELP and REFUGEE. After 18 months of carefully remixing multi-track tapes of new material, the superior "Load Have Mercy" came out, a much more personal album showing less of their influences. Also classically inspired, it contains lots of dynamic interplay between the trio; Tommy Smith, in particular, is a percussive powerhouse while Hessler treats the listener to some aggressive, earbending solos.
Their second album in particular is a true sonic workout for any sound system and is highly recommended, especially if you're into classic ELP, REFUGEE, THE NICE or TRACE. -
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Kate Bush - The Red Shoes
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The Flower Kings - Back In The World Of Adventures.
"Theme For A Hero" is especially magnificent. What a band!
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Now listening to The Flower Kings - Banks of Eden
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A track from the forthcoming David K Jones solo album "Days In Corners", David is bass player with Mama, the Genesis Tribute band, Plenty, and Moonshot, and his album is on preorder at Burning Shed.
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Right now I'm listening to Pain of Salvation - BE. First listen and WOW! It's so different. I like prog albums that sound unique and have a wide variety of sounds and styles in them. Really enjoying this.
I also listened to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Bare Wares and Galahad - Battle Scars yesterday.
By the way, in case you guys are wondering why I'm suddenly back and posting albums I'm listening to after years of neglecting to, basically what I'm doing is this: Going through my iTunes library and FINALLY, at long last, listening to all the albums in it that I've either never listened to, or haven't listened to in years. There are so many - dozens upon dozens - that I've never even touched, or haven't listened to in so long that I've forgotten how they sound. They need to be heard.
And yes, as you can probably tell I'm also going alphabetically! Lots of Bs to get through! Next will be Pallas - Beat The Drum, which I haven't listened to in at least seven years.
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Right now I'm listening to Pain of Salvation - BE. First listen and WOW! It's so different. I like prog albums that sound unique and have a wide variety of sounds and styles in them. Really enjoying this.
I also listened to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Bare Wares and Galahad - Battle Scars yesterday.
By the way, in case you guys are wondering why I'm suddenly back and posting albums I'm listening to after years of neglecting to, basically what I'm doing is this: Going through my iTunes library and FINALLY, at long last, listening to all the albums in it that I've either never listened to, or haven't listened to in years. There are so many - dozens upon dozens - that I've never even touched, or haven't listened to in so long that I've forgotten how they sound. They need to be heard.
And yes, as you can probably tell I'm also going alphabetically! Lots of Bs to get through! Next will be Pallas - Beat The Drum, which I haven't listened to in at least seven years.
I got a new iMac a couple of months ago. Before I transferred all data from the old one to the new one I deleted around one hundred albums from the iTunes library. Those, I never listened to or listened to one time and that years ago. That was my approach to that issue.
I am quite a fan of Pain of Salvation. Be is an album I never got into… -
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