View Full Version : Keith Emerson Band - Review
BarryL
03-12-2009, 06:28 AM
This arrived last week. If you like early ELP, then you'll love this. Tons of hammond organ and creaking leslie mixed with acoustic piano and synth, and electric guitar courtesy of Marc Bonilla (whoever he is).
Bonilla's singing sometimes reminds me of Lake and sometimes of Wetton. Pretty impressive.
Overall, the first 15 tracks are really one suite. They took two or three tunes and split them up into parts with connecting bits to create a long, but enjoyable listen. It's no Tarkus, and isn't really that innovative, but it feels like home.
Following that are a couple of more popish tunes. It's the kind of thing you might have expected from Emerson had he reconvened The Nice in 1973 instead of moving on to Brain Salad Surgery.
There's even a cover of the Barbarian with wailing electric guitar to wrap it all up.
Very nice comeback album for Emo. Hopefully he'll pump out few more quickly rather than waiting another ten years or so.
Given the repetitive and totally boring state of new prog music today, this retro tirade gets a 9 out of 10.
richmon
03-12-2009, 06:36 AM
I knew you'd like it Barry, it's one of my favorite finds in the last year. I hear some echo's of the Trilogy album in the beginning piece. Marc Bonilla has a great voice and doesn't try to upstage Keith, he knows the Keys are the alpha feature.
Looking forward to seeing this tour in early June, haven't seen any Toronto dates, but they're in Boston and may venture a bit north. You have to search ticketmaster.com for 'keith emerson' to see when new dates are added, doen't seem to be any promotion for this.
BarryL
03-12-2009, 06:40 AM
I was listening to Emerson's At The Movies compilation on Rhino last week. Three disks for a low price. A lot of it is airy fairy, but if you like Emo, it's worth having. Some good stuff there, and it all has the Emerson sound. Nighthawks and Best Revenge are the most progressive, and the Japanese soundtracks are the weakest IMO.
I'd love to see the old man again.
Moraz has a new album out which claims to be more progressive. No kidding. His last album was classical piano music! (Any Moraz is fine by me. Get him back with Bruford, I say.)
This arrived last week. If you like early ELP, then you'll love this. Tons of hammond organ and creaking leslie mixed with acoustic piano and synth, and electric guitar courtesy of Marc Bonilla (whoever he is).
Bonilla's singing sometimes reminds me of Lake and sometimes of Wetton. Pretty impressive.
Overall, the first 15 tracks are really one suite. They took two or three tunes and split them up into parts with connecting bits to create a long, but enjoyable listen. It's no Tarkus, and isn't really that innovative, but it feels like home.
Following that are a couple of more popish tunes. It's the kind of thing you might have expected from Emerson had he reconvened The Nice in 1973 instead of moving on to Brain Salad Surgery.
There's even a cover of the Barbarian with wailing electric guitar to wrap it all up.
Very nice comeback album for Emo. Hopefully he'll pump out few more quickly rather than waiting another ten years or so.
Given the repetitive and totally boring state of new prog music today, this retro tirade gets a 9 out of 10.
I just got my tickets for a 645 seat venue. Going to have to look into this disk. Thanks for the writeup, Barry, and welcome back.
richmon
03-12-2009, 06:56 AM
Going to have to look into this disk.
Send me your addy and we'll do some swappin just like the old days round here.
richmon
03-12-2009, 07:05 AM
[QUOTE=BarryL]Moraz has a new album out which claims to be more progressive/QUOTE]
Don't do it Barry! I did a 2 hour road trip last weekend to see John Wetton with the paul green school of rock. My passenger is a big Moraz fan and brought along the new disc. It's got african rhythms, sound track type stuff and lots of songs where the keys are buried or just absent.
Both of us looked at each other and said 'WTF?'. When he got out of the car he pretended to throw the disc under my wheels.
By the way the Wetton show was incredible. They did all of Red, the best cuts from Larks Tongue and Starless + BB, Three UK songs, two Asia songs. Killer set list and was refreshing to see these songs performed with enthusiasm, instead of a recluse surround by amps. Wetton's voice is in top form.
BarryL
03-12-2009, 07:31 AM
[QUOTE=BarryL]Moraz has a new album out which claims to be more progressive/QUOTE]
Don't do it Barry!
Thanks for the warning.
I'll eventually do it. But thanks for the warning. I won't be rushing into it. I'll have to scrounge around and see if I can find any samples to listen to.
Have you seen the BBC show on prog rock? Check out YouTube. It's called Progressive Rock Britannia, in three parts. Here's part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8T904BrY_k
richmon
03-12-2009, 07:49 AM
[QUOTE=BarryL][QUOTE=richmon]
Thanks for the warning.
I'll eventually do it. /QUOTE]
You have to be a fan of Moraz the composer/arranger cause loads of the disc just seems to omit any keyboards. It's also all over the map stylistically.
I watched all three parts of the progrock Brittania - should be required viewing for all card carrying proggers. Very insightful, even though I thought they omitted an important band, Gentle Giant.
[QUOTE=BarryL]Moraz has a new album out which claims to be more progressive/QUOTE]
Don't do it Barry! I did a 2 hour road trip last weekend to see John Wetton with the paul green school of rock. My passenger is a big Moraz fan and brought along the new disc. It's got african rhythms, sound track type stuff and lots of songs where the keys are buried or just absent.
Both of us looked at each other and said 'WTF?'. When he got out of the car he pretended to throw the disc under my wheels.
By the way the Wetton show was incredible. They did all of Red, the best cuts from Larks Tongue and Starless + BB, Three UK songs, two Asia songs. Killer set list and was refreshing to see these songs performed with enthusiasm, instead of a recluse surround by amps. Wetton's voice is in top form.
Glad the SOR show was better than what I heard on the radio. The kids coming out of that school are phenomenal. I saw Adrian Belew with Eric and Julie Slick 2 years ago and they rocked.
Auricauricle
03-12-2009, 12:53 PM
Somebody said Adrian Belew! Somebody said A....!
Where's that Lone Rhino album? Grr...somewhere...
Mark Bonilla - yes, he is a very good guitarist. I first became aware of him when he was the guitarist on tour with Toy Matinee (Kevin Gilbert and Patrick Leonard's excellent but sadly short-lived group - one album). Like Satriani, he was a fairly well known guitar teacher.
I have 2 solo albums of his, "EE Ticket" and "American Matador". The second has a great version of Whiter Shade of Pale with Glenn Hughes singing..
I made a comp of his stuff back in the day and sent a few out - maybe Troy, and Dave G??? Not sure. Funny, I never knew he sang at all, especially since the aforementioned albums are instrumental except for WSOP.
This disk is better than expected. Not "Geezer Rock" by any stretch. Plenty of ELPish tracks to jam on and plenty of nice keyboards. Vocals do sound a bit like Lake and the rest of the band is fabulous.
Really looking forward to the show now!
Auricauricle
03-17-2009, 12:16 PM
Have a great time at the gig, you lucky dog!
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