Steven Wilson - THE FUTURE BITES

*Steven Wilson calls Elton John*

Steve: Hi Elton, it's Steve

Elton: Oh Hi Steven

Steve: I've got this song I would like you to appear on

Elton: Oh ok, send it through and I can see what I can do

Steve: Great, I'll email you a list of household items and I want you to read them out

Elton: That's different but I'll go for it

Disclaimer: This is not the actual conversation but more of how imagine it.  To me its completley surreal this collaberation actually happened. Elton John is a mega, megastar. But it does show just how far Steven Wilson has come in his rise and just how well respected he is within the music industry.  Many call him the music industries best kept secret.  But with each album he just seems to gather more and more momentum.  And that is really saying something for someone who has been making albums for the last 30 years through the likes of Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield as well as remastering a whole load of other albums by other artists.

The thing is as well is that his early stuff wasn't that well received by the mainstream and it wasn't becasue it was bad.  In my opinion it was awesome. And that's coming from someone who has followed him since 1999 when Porcupine Tree's "Stupid Dream" came out.  It's more he makes more challenging music, venturing into prog mainly as well as other genres which tend not to have mainstream appeal.

But anyway enough of an introduction.  This is about his 6th solo album "THE FUTURE BITES" which was due for release June 2020 but due to covid was put back to late January 2021.  Whether this was a good move remains to be seen as I think the purpose with delaying it was so the tour would coincide more the release. But at the time of writing covid hasn't gone away and looks like tours are a way off yet.

The first song which was released of "THE FUTURE BITES" was "Personal Shopper" which stands at nearly 10 minutes.  And my, my its a rollercoaster.  Not only that but in this day and age where you feel there is not much more artists can be different to what has come before. Wilson comes up with this.  What makes it so unique is the Abba esque style vocals for the choruses in the song.  It is well known Wilson is a huge Abba fan and the influnece really shines through on this one.  He did hint at this in his last album "Bones" through the pop genius which was "Permanating"  but now he uses the Abba esque vocals, then mixes it with his own vocals in a prog fused upbeat and just dam right glorius track.  And from the top of this review you saw the pretend conversation with Elton John. Well this is the track which he appears on.  I would go as far to say nothing comes close and this track feels so unique, not just to his own music but also to prog music generally.

There is another track on the album with female Abba esque vocals through "Eminent Sleaze" but its just 4 minutes and while a good track nowhere near as epic.  To be honest I was so excited about the direction Wilson took with "Personal Shopper", I wanted the whole album to sound like that.  To be fair doing that sort of style is a big risk in terms of going off on a different direction and risking losing fans. So doing a whole album like that may have been too big a gamble.  But to be fair he does still seem to have taken gambles with this album as a whole.  There is a lot more keyboards on this and also "Personal Shopper" really is the stand out epic with most of the other tracks sitting at about 4 minutes long.

In fact it is just a 42 minute album with 9 tracks.  The first track "Unself" is just a minute long.  Two other tracks which stand out for me are "12 THINGS I FORGOT" AND "FOLLOWER".  Both really upbeat tracks which are just so unbelievably good.  The are essentially pop rock songs but have Wilson's add complexities he drives into each song as he keeps pushing boundaries.  And that boundary is pushed even more with last track "COUNT OF UNEASE".  This is just beautiful.  Wilson just slows things right down with a 6 minutee chill out/phase out track.  If you have had a busy day and just need to slow right down and relax.  Put this track on and you will feel such a sense of calm.

When I first heard the other singles like "King Ghost" and "Man of People" I wasn't totally blown away. And to be honest I am surprised "FOLLOWER" wasn't released as a single.  But these tracks do act as stepping stones on an album which builds and builds as it goes on.  Then with "Personal Shopper", "Follower" and "Count of Unease" you have a 3 track combo to finish off the album which is hard to beat; both in terms of the diversity of the music as well as the sheer quality.  Having just looked up wikipedia to find there is a delux version of the album it looks good but a bit expensive. Extended versions of 3 of the songs including Personal Shopper which is a 20 minute version! along with 7 other tracks.   Hopefully these tracks will be accessible in the future at a cheaper price.

Marc Carlton - For Imagination

"For Imagination" is the 8th album by prog, experimental, purely instrumental artist, Marc Carlton.  This album was released back in 2012 and sees Carlton explore more musical avenues as he pushes the boundaries further in this compisition.  Like his other records Carlton plays all instruments on this album as well as producing it.

The structure of this album is quite intriguing.  It is essentially 3 long tracks. And when I say long, I mean long with track 1 "Cityscape" - 25 minutes, track 2 "Someniare Aude, Sapere Aude" - 20 minutes and track 3 "Outward" - 28 minutes.  But within these tracks there are a lot of ideas going on and you can see why Carlton split them into different parts.  As often within these tracks they go off in all sorts of directions.  This stops repetition and keeps drawing the listener in.  But at the same time the parts are connected within each track giving flow. Track 1 is 8 parts, track 2, 6 parts and track 3, 4 parts. So it could have been a 17 track album but that would ignore the fact that the different parts within each track flow into each other.  Just talking about this makes me realise that for a lot of albums this isn't a talking point because it doesn't happen on the majority of albums I listen to.  This is a testament to the amount of thought and time Carlton spends connecting all of the pieces of this amazing jigsaw together in such a long piece of music.

The heaviest point of the album comes in track 1 - "Cityscape" between part 5 - "Heavy metal poisoning (including Antidote)". This is appropriatley titled as it is the hard rock section of the album and sounds amazing. A real highlight for me. I wish it would last longer this part but perhaps the shortness of it makes it more special. Its quite an interesting transition between this part and the next bit of the track which is part 6 - "Trivia-blinded". As it goes from a heavy hard rock part to quite a tranquil melodic part. I almost see it like mountain biking on a ridge high up in the mountains and the transition representing the downhill to the more tranquil easy biking. The transition is like a steep downhill and you have to pump the brakes from making you go too fast and fall off. It does feel slightly out of control but you just about stay on the bike and are now into the relaxing easy cycling. 

The 3rd track "Outward" sits at 28 minutes long and I think is the most adventurous track I have heard of Carlton's. At points you feel there is not a lot going on and it takes a while between ideas. There is no explosions of sound of anything that really leaps out I would say. The ideas and the flow of the track I would say are quite subtle. If you are the kind of person that gets frustrated when a bus is 10 minutes late I don't think you would like this as you need to be patient and have an attentive ear to appreciate it. While being long I wouldn't say you need to really take 20 listens to get it. I think even on first listen you can get to grips with it but as I say you do need to be patient.  The first two tracks, "Cityscape" and "Someniare Aude, Sapere Aude" are quite contrasting to "Outward".  There is a lot more going on in these tracks at all times as Carlton mixes between guitar and synths. The changes of direction happen quicker while still letting the ideas of each part flourish.  "Outward" on the other hand is more synth based and is like one long, dreamy, atmospheric outro.  

Overall this is not an album you will be blasting full volume in your car or even generally if you are out and about.  I think it really requires you to be somewhere with no other interferring sounds when playing this.  That way you can fully discover the complexity and it will allow you to be taken on a journey that you can full appreciate this way.

There is a blurb in the inside sleave of the CD of this album with the last sentence saying "While the process of truth is the authority I live by, it is imagination that I live for".  This really does sum up what Carlton is about.  The way he keeps stretching himself and comes up with new ideas. Everyone has an imagination but few use it and implement the ideas in a way that Carlton does.  And that is what makes "For Imagination" so special.

Marc is not on social media and only has one album on spotifty at time of writing but if you want to stream or buy his music go to https://www.madrigalproject.co.uk/. He does have a bandcamp page also.

DMA'S - Glow

 

"Glow" is the 3rd album by Australian 3 piece DMA'S.  The band consits of Tommy O'Dell on lead vocals, Matt Mason on lead guitar and Johnny Took on accoustic guitar (they have a touring drummer).  This album was released in July 2020 but I only came across the band in November 2020 when my parents came round for dinner one night and my Dad had heard a song by them on the radio by them that he thought I might like. So we stuck on You tube and searched for them and must have had them on for half an hour.  They grabbed me and pulled me in and are still a feature in my spotify playlists at the moment.  Not only that but this album sneaked into my top 10 albums of 2020.

The reason my Dad thought I'd liked it because he thought it sounded a bit like The Music, who were one of my favourite bands during the 2000s. You can hear a slight resemblence of Tommy O'Dell's vocals with Robert Harvey of the Music's.  I would say it leans slightly more towards John Power from Cast but you can hear Harvey in some of the vocals too.  DMA's have this mix of sounds which kind of combine Britpop with the indie rock that was coming out in the 2000s.  In the end it does have a certain freshness about it.  They have this swagger about them. Quite a lot of the tracks feel like dance tracks but Tommy's voice changes the dynamics of the songs in a very good way.

Looking at the tracks, the two tracks which stand out the most for me is "Life is a game of changing" and "Criminals".   "Life is a game of changing" has this pulsating dance track feel to it.  It doesn't even feel like guitars.  There is a bit in the bridge of the song which is like a spectrum and you will know what I mean when you hear it. It's magical.  Meanwhile "Criminals" shows the other side of DMA's sound.  They slow it right down and really shows off what a great and emotive voice Tommy O'Dell has.

Although those tracks are my two highlights from the album, this is definitley not where you should stop.  There are many great tracks on this album and other tracks which certainly grab the ear are "Silver", "Strangers" and "Hello Girlfriend".  They all feel like ready made anthems for the live circuit.  Hopefully being in Australia at least some people will be able to experience these songs live as I imagine they would be great.

Overall a very good album and one which is another step up for a great band.  They have toured the UK with the likes of Liam Gallagher and are due to have a stadium gig this year with Gerry Cinnamon.  Support bands will be missing the opportuinity at the moment for more people to listen to their music which is a shame.  But I hope I have emphasised enough in this review that they are a great band and ones to look out for and to give them a chance.