Crashride – Crashride (2015)

Crashride is a debut album made by French Canadians Jean-Sébastien Côté (composer, sound designer) and François Therriault (guitarist, composer), and has different musicians contributing on several tracks. The sleeve looks very interesting, it reminds me of a microscopic cluster of plant cells. The music itself is mostly instrumental. It is dreamy progressive and electronic music, with lovely ambient and soundscape moments, which I find very beautiful. Twelve tracks that are between three and six minutes long, which sound very good. Keyboards/synthesizers, guitars, bass, Chapman stick and v-drums are mostly presented. Frédérike Bédard provides vocals on some of the songs. This is a tough album to review track by track, because the instruments you hear are often merged together perfectly, making it one gamut of musicality.

Honourable mention: Crescent Moon – The Lidless Room (2015)

This is not just an album review, but also a personal story about my introduction to the music of Crescent Moon. A band I never heard of, which isn’t odd at all, because they just released their debut album The Lidless Room only half a year ago (December 2015). And I know, this is a debut album that will stay with me forever.

My introduction to Porcupine Tree

When I was a young teenager I was into rock and metal. My favourite band was Nickelback, which I discovered back in 2001, when I was twelve years old. Of course, Nickelback is still one of my favourite bands out there, so you’re allowed to point your pitchforks at me, haha! I always had the feeling that I ‘missed’ something in the rock and metal music I listened to. It was too ‘straightforward’, while I was looking for rock music with surprising elements, a certain atmosphere and ‘more going on than the regular rock music’.

Oh hey! A website where you can compile your own top 20 albums!

Yay! A website where you can compile/arrange your own top 20 album list! What a cool thing! I probably forgot a lot of awesome pearls in my list, but I’m very proud of this one!

Check out my top 20 here (and you can compile your own list there too): https://www.20albums.com/list/5736524b60941?1463177803

Personal Playlist by Iris (15 March 2016)

What, another personal playlist already? Yes, another one, because there’s so much great music to share with you guys! 

Iris interviewt: Theo Travis (Written interview in Dutch)

Since this year I also translate some of my latest interviews in Dutch, which you can read on Progpraat.com! Go check it out:

Iris interviewt: Theo Travis

If you want to listen to the original interview in English, click here:

https://grendelhq.wordpress.com/2015/12/20/purple-flower-progressive-hour-christmas-special-interviews-with-theo-travis-hekz-aristocrats-and-iq/

More info about Progpraat:

http://progpraat.com/

 

Mister Peculiar – Changes (2014)

Changes is the second album from guitarist/singer-songwriter/composer Mister Peculiar. It’s a concept album about the journey through a young man’s mind. First thing that I thought about was the fact that it sounds a lot like Pink Floyd and Roger Waters’s solo work… Actually, it reminds me too much of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters. What’s also a bit disappointing is that the vocals are not fantastic in my opinion, I hear he has an accent despite his English is good.