ProgBeat: Nosound/No-Man News
*Double-Feature*
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: This is a crazy year for prog music, crazy in the absolute best kind of way. DEVIN TOWNSEND’s already released his first in the new and different-direction DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT series; OSI’s put out a new one; so has DREAM THEATER; PORCUPINE TREE’s going to be experimenting with the (almost)all-one-track model for their late-this-year release; new RIVERSIDE is just around the corner–their first out of the Reality Dream trilogy; and TRANSATLANTIC will be issuing their first record after 7 years dormant.
Everyone seems to be waking up and branching out all at the same time right now. And as if all of that wasn’t enough to make progrock fanboys flock to the forums, atmosphere-heavy Italian proggers NOSOUND announced that they’re readying their next for a fall release–and, while he’s at it, NOSOUND’s frontman Giancarlo Erra is also putting together a “supergroup”-esque record with Tim Bowness of NO-MAN.
NOSOUND’s 2008 album, Lightdark, is a spacey and mood-driven piece. As delicate and unassuming as it is poetic and painfully beautiful, it stood out in last year’s prog circuit and established the band as serious up-and-comers.
From lowly one-man studio-project origins, the band is now a five piece. Proving themselves with Lightdark, they seem to be riding the creative wave, putting out their second album in only two years. And with little to go off of beside the album’s title and a video teaser–A Sense of Loss, their 3rd full-length release, I think it’s safe to say, definitely won’t be chipper. It’s bound to be as saturated in grinding strings, echoes and melancholia as their last record was–and that’s not at all a bad thing.
As powerful as Lightdark was, there were places where it felt like it was meandering a bit, sacrificing the punch of an airtight composition for the emotional drag of wallowing acoustics. And if those early-band speed bumps can get smoothed over, seriously, A Sense of Loss could be amazing.
Release set for October 12th.
I don’t know how these guys do it. On one side you have G. Erra from NOSOUND, still making his way in the music world, working on and releasing two albums in the last two years. Then on the other you have NO-MAN’s Tim Bowness who, on top of making a new NO-MAN record this year, worked with OSI on one track in May’s Blood, and NOSOUND on one in Lightdark. But, somehow in their free time, these guys managed to come together and form a side-project called MEMORIES OF MACHINES, and are putting out their first record, (most likely titled) Warm Winter, before year’s end.
But wait, there’s more! (wow. that was lame…) On top of having members of both NOSOUND and NO-MAN involved, Colin Edwin from PORCUPINE TREE will also be lending his bass, Jim Matheos (OSI, FATE’S WARNING) his guitar, and Peter Hammill (VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR) his pipes.
The album was recorded over a 3-year span in New York, Rome, Sweden and the UK, and it’s almost finished, just a few mixing and producing issues to work out. When Kscope announces a releases date, Erra says, he’ll also put out a teaser video “to let you taste what you’ll find.”
And you better believe I’ll be posting that bad boy. Is it me or is finding out about new prog collaborations kind of like Chirstmas?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under music, prog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
