Posts by slowdancer

  • Unitopia

    Quote from NedFlanders123

    Are you also aware that the first album has been remastered and out as a 3 CD box set containing some other music from their time with the Colossus Project (I have all of their albums) and demos, unreleased and different versions?

    yes, i have read that. I remember it, because I had bought the last available copy of the first edition of the first album from the merch desk back in the day...

  • Unitopia

    This is inspired by Genesis1964, who listened to Unitopia`s first album today.


    :)


    Once upon a time there was a band in Australia called Unitopia. They had a huge man in the band, who would sing. The music they did was classic symphonic prog and they liked a bit of Genesis, too. They did three proper albums, called More Than A Dream (2005), The Garden (2008) and Artificial (2010). They became big time in the prog rock scene in Europe and even came up from down under to do gigs in Europe in 2011. I saw one of these gigs in Reichenbach in 2011 (actually one day after the show in Zoetermeer, which is available on dvd) and it was simply mind blowing. I sang along with them to Carpet Crawlers and The Garden. Mark Trueack promised to keep recording new stuff and coming back. But that was not precisely true. The band recorded a further album of covers in 2012 and then disbanded.


    Some of the core members founded a new group called United Progressive Fraternity. And they also have an album out called Fall In Love With The World.


    I do not know this one. Did Genesis1964, Noni, Ned Flanders123, or CountingOutTime ever listen to it? And if so: was it enjoyable? I am hungry for answers...

  • Rank Billboard #1s

    01. Sledgehammer

    02. The Living Years

    03. Another Day In Paradise

    04. Invisible Touch

    05. Against All Odds

    06. Sussudio

    07. Two Hearts

    08. Groovy Kind Of Love

    09. Seperate Lives

    10. One More Night

  • Grobschnitt

    I mentioned only the studio albums in my list. The live album you have is a top notch version of Solar Music. There are various other live versions around. The original studio version is on Ballermann.

  • Grobschnitt

    Grobschnitt are one of my favorite bands from Germany. They were formed in Hagen in 1966 as The Crew and released their first self titled album in 1972. Their Oeuvre can be divided basically into two periods. The progressive- /krautrock period from 1972 - 1981 and the Neue Deutsche Welle / pop period from 1982 - 1989. During their first period they released a whole bunch of great album, which were heavily influenced by Genesis and other classic progressive rock bands of that time. After the album Illegal the keyboard player Volker Kahrs left the band and their music became influenced by the Neue Deutsche Welle style, which was big time in the early eighties. Bass player Wolfgang Jäger moved to NDW band Extrabreit (also from Hagen), Extrabreit`s drummer Rolf Möller became drummer in Grobschnitt.

    One of the trademarks of the band was the stage performance, which included many elements of comedy and theatre. Another one is their very German sense of humour.

    The core track of their career is the 33 minute long epic Solar Music, which was played at every gig since 1974 with various changes over the years.

    Whilst their progressive rock albums are undisputedly of high standard, the band got a lot of bashes for their musical change in the eighties. Not only was the music blamed for having become superficial and futile, but also were the (since 1982 German) lyrics called childish and silly. While I understand these critics to some extend, I fail to hate their later work. It would fit in the time and the place (Hagen was the home of such famous NDW acts like Nena and others). I claim, that the band wrote great songs until the end. No longer progressive, but great.


    Discography:


    1972 - Grobschnitt

    1974 - Ballermann

    1975 - Jumbo (English version)

    1976 - Jumbo (German version)

    1977 - Rockpommel`s Land

    1979 - Merry-Go-Round

    1981 - Illegal


    1982 - Razzia

    1984 - Kinder und Narren

    1987 - Fantasten