Where Worlds Collide

They all say life begins at 40…

Here’s to the next 40 years of great music

I’ve uploaded another set of photos from my Swiss trip; these ones feature two metre-gauge railways, the Zentralbahn (above), formed from a merger of the Luzern Stans Engleberg line and the SBB Brunig line, and the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, another merger, this time of the Brig Visp Zermatt and the Furka Oberlalp.

If you watched the Eurovision Song Contest, you might remember the bunch of hairy heavy metal cellists whose performance during the interval was by far the best music of the evening. You might also remember it being totally ruined by that moron Wogan prattling inanely over the top of them.

Despite the almost complete absence of guitars, they’re just released one of the most metal albums of the year. All those piledriving riffs are actually distorted cellos; it’s only when one of them plays a solo that they actually sound like a cellos. This is not a traditional string quartet.

With the exception of a cover of Bowie’s “Helden”, all the songs are originals. The album is a mix of instrumentals and songs featuring various guest vocalists, including Rammstein’s Til Linderman, and Lacuna Coil’s Christina Scabbia.If anything, I find I prefer the instrumentals; the title track and “Burn” being particular standouts.

Now, where did I put my air cello?

I’m getting worried about HippyDave. He used to be a reliable prog rock fan, full of praise for bands like Marillion and Karnataka. But disturbing things are appearing in his Livejournal.

First, he posts this

Another dark secret is my unalloyed but seldom expressed love of Gilbert & Sullivan.

And then even worse, this.

Or, indeed, the local news, where there may be a report that a long-haired hippy type went on a Hungerford-style rampage after the tragically mentally retarded staff of a local store were unable to provide him with a copy of the new Katie Melua single.

This is the first of a series of blog postings covering my European wanderings to fill in the time between Odin Dragonfly and The Reasoning.

Luxembourg was my first overnight stop. It’s the smallest nation in the EU; the entire country is about 40 miles long. This gives a rather unique flavour to Luxembourg’s main railway station in that almost all the trains begin and end their journeys in another country. That means Luxembourg’s own trains are outnumbered in their own country by French, Belgian and German ones. There are also three different voltages of electrification involved, and I’m not at all sure how they cope with that. I assume there’s switchable catenery involved.

The other big difference between Luxembourg and Britain is that almost everything is loco-hauled.

I took these photos in the hour I had waiting for my train to Switzerland in the morning.

One of the few non-loco hauled long-distance trains is the Paris TGV. Here we see an iconic piece of French industrial design disfigured by advertisements for a British bank. I can imagine some Frenchmen not taking kindly to that.

A Basel to Brussels train arrives headed by a French “Sybic” multi-voltage locomotive

Only three coaches of the train carried on to Brussels behind a Belgian loco. Judging by the number of railwaymen photographing this, I’m guessing it’s a rare instance of a freight loco not often seen on passenger work. It’s SNCB no 2006.

Deutche Bahn 181.218 heads the train Norddeich Mole.

Finally, my own train arrives, SNCB’s no 2018 heading the southbound EC “Vauban” Brussels to Interlaken, made up of Swiss EC coaches. The French “Sybic” from the earlier photo took the train forward after reversal.

There are larger versions of these pictures on my Fotopic site

Graeme Thomson thinks musical taste is hardwired. While it’s true that our brains are wired to respond to certain musical stimuli, I’m wonder how much is down to early musical experiences.

I was exposed to a lot of classical music before discovering rock and roll, and I think it’s that which has left me both with a love of the much-maligned genre of prog-rock, and an inability to appreciate the vast majority of post-punk or indie, most of which sounds too musically shallow to hold much interest.

So nowadays I end up liking things from Odin Dragonfly, an acoustic duo with a lot of flute, to Opeth, who play prog-tinged death metal with Cookie Monster vocals. On the surface, those two acts don’t appear to have that much in common. But both bands are really into harmonies (in Opeth’s case it’s the twin lead guitars rather than vocals), along with a lot of songs in minor keys.

In terms of sounds, I love Hammond organs, Mellotrons, and the magical combination of Fender Stratocaster and a Marshall stack, combined with male or female vocalists that concentrate on staying in tune rather than expressing fake angst.

Put all that together and you end up with something like the closing section of Mostly Autumn’s Carpe Diem, which takes me to heaven every time I hear it.

What I cannot stand is indie-style jingly-jangly guitar, and ridiculously affected vocal stylings. Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Morrissey and Damon Alburn’s mockney are like fingernails scraping on a blackboard to me. Opeth’s Cookie Monster is a possible exception to this.

I still think the inability to appreciate a good guitar solo is probably caused by a faulty gene. Sadly it’s so prevalent that the accountants that make all the important decisions in the mainstream music industry have all but banned guitar solos as a result because it might reduce sales to people like Graeme Thomson

Every Friday, the Guardian Arts blog has a feature Readers recommend. This week’s subject is Instrumentals

As an antidote to RR’s bias towards lyrics and lyricists would like you to consider instrumentals. Although he also tells me that preference will be given to artists usually better known for their vocals, so maybe it’s not that much of an antidote. Anyway, some rules: when he says instrumentals, he means no vocals whatsoever. No wordless wailing, no whispering, no ululating, no yodelling. And no sampled voices. Also, no classical music: the field is too big, the list too small.

It’s a good one for an unrepentant prog-rock fan like me. Here’s the ten I came up with:

• Mostly Autumn - ‘Out of the Inn’ and ‘Distant Trains’. The former starts out as a flute-driven folk-rock jig, then turns into a headbanging guitar rocker half way through. Always been a live favourite; it rips up the place whenever they play it. The latter is a moody atmospheric piece based around a drum loop, but too much rock guitar to be filed under ‘ambient’. Was another live favourite when they used to play it back when Iain Jennings was still in the band; still appears in the live set from time to time from Iain’s new band Breathing Space. (There’s a live version on Breathing Space’s myspace page)
• Edgar Winter - ‘Frankenstein’. Featuring a young Ronnie Montrose on guitar with that killer opening riff. Alan Freeman used to use bits of this as jingles in his evening rock shows.
• Rainbow - ‘Weiss Heim’ and ‘Snowman’. The former is a the superbly atmospheric B-side to the single ‘All Night Long’. And yes, the latter is a cover of that Christmas song, only with Fender Stratocaster instead of Aled Jones, which I rate as a considerable improvement.
• Frank Zappa - ‘Peaches en Regalia’. He’s recorded a lot of jazz-rock instrumentals over the years; this is one of his best-known, and most accessible.
• Genesis - ‘Hairless Heart’. The better of the two instrumentals from “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”. Due to it’s resemblance to some of his later solo material, I’m guessing it’s a Steve Hackett composition.
• Rush - ‘La Villa Strangiato’ and ‘YYZ’. The former, subtitled ‘An exercise in self-indulgence’, does what it says on the tin, but it’s just brilliant. It may be little more than an extended jam, but it works. The latter, with the rhythm based on the morse code for the call sign of Toronto airport, is just as good. These two are ideal for people that can’t listen to Rush because they can’t stand Geddy Lee’s voice.
• Jon Lord - ‘Bach onto This’. A rock version of J.S.Bach’s toccata and fugue in A minor, played on the mighty Hammond.

Now, where did I put all those Shrapnel Records instrumental shred-metal albums from the mid-80s?

Whatever I feel about his recent behaviour, I’m still a fan of the former Marillion frontman’s music. And Fish has just come up with an absolute blinder of an album.

He finished recording his 13th album, 13th Star, in the aftermath of his very acrimonious split with Heather Findlay. He tends to produce his best work when he’s angry and bitter over something, so I was expecting him to deliver a strong album. Which he has.

Fish is primarily a singer and lyricist, and not much of a composer; therefore the quality of his albums depends very heavily on whoever he’s got as his songwriting partner. This time round, much of the music is written by bassist Steve Vantsis, who’s been with Fish’s band for years, but hasn’t had much in the way of writing credits before now.

Musically, parts of this album are very heavy, approaching metal in several places. Some songs have an industrial feel, with drum loops, heavily processed guitars, and groove-orientated basslines. The opening pair, ‘Circle Line‘ and ‘Square Go‘, are typical of this approach, In contrast, ‘Miles de Besos‘ and ‘Zoe 25‘ are more reflective keyboard-led numbers that wouldn’t have sounded out of place around the time of “Sunsets on Empire”.

‘Arc of the Curve‘ begins with the same opening line as his 1985 hit with Marillion, ‘Kayleigh‘, and the similarities, both musical and lyrical, don’t end there. From then on the album builds in intensity with the angry and emotionally charged ‘Machmal‘, the powerful driving rocker ‘Openwater‘ and ‘Dark Star‘, before winding down with the ballads ‘Where in the World‘ and the title track.

As for the lyrics, more than half the songs are directly about the breakup. With all the very unpleasant washing of dirty linen in the media at the time of the split, I had feared the worst. Had a large part of the album been an attack on Heather, I would have found it unlistenable, no matter how good it might have been musically. (As regular readers of this blog should know, I’m a huge fan of her music, and have met her several times) But while it does get uncomfortably personal on some lines of ‘Dark Star‘, most of the lyrics are concerned with his own feelings.

Fish isn’t the world’s best singer by any means. And nowadays he lacks the range he had in his younger years. He makes up for this with his impassioned and emotional delivery; frustration, anger, sadness and ultimately hope.

This is very much an album that stands as a whole rather than a random collection of songs. Every song works in the context of the album, and There’s no filler at all. It’s certainly Fish’s best work since at least “Sunsets on Empire”, and is a very strong candidate for album of the year.

This album will not be available by retail until early 2008, it’s currently only sold online from The Fish Shop, or at gigs.

Ricky Carvel and The Ministry of Information have also reviewed this album.

Official announcement from Twelfth Night:

So as promised before the summer hols, we are now able to confirm the line-up for the November shows!!!!

We are delighted to say that original members Andy Revell and myself, will both be joining Clive Mitten and Andy Sears, along with new boy Mark Spencer.

Which means it’s now officially a ‘Twelfth Night’ reunion !!

Rev & I have actually been involved in the project from the outset, but had simply needed some time to convince ourselves that we would be able to play again - as both of us ‘retired’ from active musical service a long time ago !

Mark has been drafted in, as Rick wasn’t able to join us, to take on keyboard / guitar and backing vocal duties, multi-talented chap that he is. (If you think his name is familiar - beside being a long-standing friend of the band - he was the singer in 80s prog band LaHost).

Our first full band rehearsal weekend went very well considering it was the first time we had played together for more than 20 years !! And although we can’t guarantee to be quite as brilliant (ahem !) as we used to be !! ……….. we are confident that it will all be ‘alright on the night’, and that both gigs will be a ‘night to remember’ ……… to use but two of our old clichés !!

We expect news of the reunion line-up will accelerate the sale of tickets - which are going well already, with both venues reporting strong advance sales !! …………….. so if you want to make sure of seeing us, PLEASE get your tickets as soon as possible. Details can be found on our web-site. www.twelfthnight.info

Talking of which we are only playing the 2 already announced gigs (Kingston 17th, & Deptford 24th) as we have been unable to agree a suitable gig in the North this time. However if these gigs go well …….. who knows what the future holds ?!

We are all looking forward immensely (albeit with some nervousness) to playing together and seeing so many old friends again - and are sure that we’ll all have a great time!

This is the news I’d hoped for. Brian Devoil had been participating in the Yahoogroup, so I’d sort of assumed he’d be involved. But Andy Revell’s participation with his very distinctive guitar sound means that it will be Twelfth Night.

Via Ken Hite

Boldface if “I own this game”.
Italics is “I have played this game”.
Italic and Bold are “I both own and have played this game”

The list of games comes from the essay collection Hobby Games: The 100 Best, published by Green Ronin, which includes both RPGs and board games.

Bruce C. Shelley on Acquire
Nicole Lindroos on Amber Diceless
Ian Livingstone on Amun-Re
Stewart Wieck on Ars Magica
Thomas M. Reid on Axis & Allies
Tracy Hickman on Battle Cry
Philip Reed on BattleTech
Justin Achilli on Blood Bowl
Mike Selinker on Bohnanza
Tom Dalgliesh on Britannia
Greg Stolze on Button Men
Monte Cook on Call of Cthulhu
Steven E. Schend on Carcassonne
Jeff Tidball on Car Wars
Bill Bridges on Champions
Stan! on Circus Maximus
Tom Jolly on Citadels
Steven Savile on Civilization
Bruno Faidutti on Cosmic Encounter
Andrew Looney on Cosmic Wimpout
Skip Williams on Dawn Patrol
Alan R. Moon on Descent
Larry Harris on Diplomacy
Richard Garfield on Dungeons & Dragons
William W. Connors on Dynasty League Baseball
Christian T. Petersen on El Grande
Alessio Cavatore on Empires in Arms
Timothy Brown on Empires of the Middle Ages
Allen Varney on The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Phil Yates on Fire and Fury
William Jones on Flames of War
Rick Loomis on Fluxx
John Kovalic on Formula Dé
Anthony J. Gallela on The Fury of Dracula
Jesse Scoble on A Game of Thrones
Lou Zocchi on Gettysburg
James Wallis on Ghostbusters
James M. Ward on The Great Khan Game
Gav Thorpe on Hammer of the Scots
Uli Blennemann on Here I Stand
S. Craig Taylor, Jr. on A House Divided
Scott Haring on Illuminati
Dana Lombardy on Johnny Reb
Darren Watts on Junta
Greg Stafford on Kingmaker
Lester Smith on Kremlin
Wolfgang Baur on Legend of the Five Rings CCG
Marc W. Miller on Lensman
Ted S. Raicer on London’s Burning
Teeuwynn Woodruff on Lord of the Rings (boardgame)
Mike Breault on Machiavelli
Jordan Weisman on Magic: The Gathering
Steve Kenson on Marvel Super Heroes
Gary Gygax on Metamorphosis Alpha
Greg Costikyan on My Life with Master
John D. Rateliff on Mythos
Chris “Gerry” Klug on Napoleon’s Last Battles
John Scott Tynes on Naval War
Erick Wujcik on Ogre
Marc Gascoigne on Once Upon a Time
Mike Bennighof on PanzerBlitz
Steve Jackson on Paranoia
Shannon Appelcline on Pendragon
JD Wiker on Pirate’s Cove
Richard H. Berg on Plague!
Martin Wallace on Power Grid
Tom Wham on Puerto Rico
Joseph Miranda on Renaissance of Infantry
James Ernest on RoboRally
Paul Jaquays on RuneQuest
Richard Dansky on The Settlers of Catan
Ken St. Andre on Shadowfist
Steven S. Long on Shadowrun
Peter Corless on Shadows over Camelot
Dale Donovan on Silent Death: The Next Millennium
Matt Forbeck on Space Hulk
Ray Winninger on Squad Leader
Lewis Pulsipher on Stalingrad
Bruce Nesmith on Star Fleet Battles
Steve Winter on The Sword and the Flame
Jeff Grubb on Tales of the Arabian Nights
Shane Lacy Hensley on Talisman
Douglas Niles on Terrible Swift Sword
Ed Greenwood on Thurn and Taxis
Mike Fitzgerald on Ticket to Ride
Thomas Lehmann on Tigris & Euphrates
Warren Spector on Tikal
David “Zeb” Cook on Toon
Mike Pondsmith on Traveller
Zev Shlasinger on Twilight Struggle
Kenneth Hite on Unknown Armies
Sandy Petersen on Up Front
R. Hyrum Savage on Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
George Vasilakos on Vampire: The Masquerade
Kevin Wilson on Vinci
R.A. Salvatore on War and Peace
Jack Emmert on Warhammer 40,000 (I have played an RPG set in the W40K universe, but using a different system, which I don’t think counts)
Chris Pramas on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Steve Jackson on The Warlord
John Wick on Wiz-War

I may have missed a few games that I’d played at a con years ago and have forgotten. I notice that I don’t own a single game on this list that I haven’t actually played. This is probably a good thing.