Closer Than Skin, David Cross Band. A short review.

Here I am, back writing about good music. Today I'm going to describe one very good work by the David Cross Band: Closer Than Skin.

This band was formed by former King Crimson violinist David Cross, and Mr. Robert Fripp himself has spent some good words for his work in this project. This music is not as complex or sophisticated as Cross-Wetton-Bruford-Fripp era King Crimson's, but the overall sound is very good and powerful.

Music contained in this album has to be considered metal, considering the guitar and drum parts, and the choice of a slight overdriven electric violin sound by Cross. Some "crimsonian" stuff is present (listen to Tell Me Your Name), but, as i said before, this music punches with high-gain guitar and deep sounding drums.

To make a comparison with the work Cross made in KC, we can say that here we have a less sophisticated (and very less beautiful) Larks' Tongues In Aspic, with a more modern sound.

I was lucky to here this band live in Rome during the promotional tour of this album and I have to say that the whole band is composed by very talented musicians, their performance was almost perfect and their sound was really good. The best characteristic of Closer Than Skin is that this recording can give you a very realistic proof of the feelings I had while watching them live (i bought also their live CD Alive In The Underworld, but I think that Closer Than Skin is a better proof of their power).

To give a numerical mark to this work I say 6.5 out of 10, just because not all tracks are on the same level, but I assure that it is a very funny and pleasant experience to listen to this whole album. If you want to have an example of this music listen to Are We One?, which is, in my opinion, the best song in this album.

Don't expect a masterpiece, a classic progressive rock album or a classic metal album, this is something different and unique, and because of this I suggest that anyone who likes King Crimson listens at least one time to this recording by David Cross Band.

Bonus: lyrics by Richard Palmer-James, who wrote lyrics for the Cross-Wetton-Bruford-Fripp era King Crimson.

5 classic, complex songs to step into Progressive Rock in the most difficult way

As I promised during the how to step into prog rock post, I made a list of the 5 classic, complex and unusual songs which contain relevant examples of what defines the progressive rock musical genre.

• 21st Century Schizoid Man, by King Crimson (In The Court Of The Crimson King, 1969). It is not a typing error, this was actually written in late 1968 and recorded in 1969. This is the song which gave rise to the prog rock movement in the 70's. You have to listen to Schizoid Man if you want to be into progressive rock. Listen to the whole In The Court Of The Crimson King album to understand the greatness of this band in this incarnation.
• Supper's Ready, by Genesis (Foxtrot, 1972). A 23 minutes song, a classic suite. Here Peter Gabriel is talking about the Apocalypse together with describing the hug of two lovers, great and visionary lyrics with great and visionary music. Gabriel's skills of adapting lyrics to music at its best.
• Refugees, by Van Der Graaf Generator (The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, 1970). Beautiful melodic piece by masters of "dark" progressive rock. There are more complex songs in Van Der Graaf Generator's production, such as A Plague Of Lighthouse Keeper, but this song is so beautiful that you can't miss it, both if you are a progressive fan or you are not.
• Starless, by King Crimson (Red, 1974). There are no words to describe these 12 minutes of pure musical majesty. Please, listen to it.
• I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), by Genesis (Selling England By The Pound, 1973). Funny. Crazy. Strange. A collection of strange sounds by Genesis, please listen to the studio version. Maybe this could sound like a pop song to some listeners, but it is a must for someone who wants to discover what progressive rock really is.

I have been careful not to include any recent new prog/progressive metal song, this is because I'm trying to communicate the original ideas behind progressive rock developing, which have been kind of distorted starting from the 80's. This process has led to a division of progressive rock into a great number of subgenres, and to a modification of the definition of the musical genre itself. I hope I will be able to write a post about this, even if this is a very controversial point to treat.

From the next post I will include some reviews of classic or rare albums, song by song. I think I will start from a rare LP, still don't know precisely which. You can stay tuned on my personal Twitter page (@smranaldi), where I share some thoughts on music, when I'm listening to something.

Prog on!

Basics: How to step into Progressive Rock

I'm a fan of Progressive Rock, and as many "proggers" do, when selecting examples of this genre to introduce other people into it, I often choose very long or complex songs. Of course the only result I get is people running away screaming in terror during the stop-and-go run of 21st Century Schizoid Man, the hammond and flute section of Thick As A Brick or the closing section of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight.

This time I will try to introduce Prog Rock using non-Prog songs. Of course, as every clever progger would do, I know people will still run away, but I really hope they won't look like the cover from In The Court Of The Crimson King while doing it.

So, here we go, 5 songs to finally get into progressive rock:

• Tunnel Of Love, by Dire Straits (Making Movies, 1980). We all think that Progressive equals long songs, in general this is not true, but if you are sure that a long song is a complex song listen to these 8 minutes of straight blues rock from a classic band. In addition this is the song that made me aware of what good music really is, so to me, it represent a little milestone in my personal musical history.

• Fear Of The Dark, by Iron Maiden (Fear Of The Dark, 1992). This song has recently assumed a very particular meaning to me. I listened to it with a new critical sense after having discovered that Steve Harris is a huge fan of classic progressive rock, and I don't know why, I feel this is "prog". Really, I don't know why, it is typical classic metal stuff, but to me, even the most "normal" music can sound "complex" and "progressive", and this is an example.

• Stairway To Heaven, by Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971). Ok, this is the classic long rock song, and this is a progressive rock song. If you like Stairway To Heaven, you will like 50% of progressive rock song. Spoiler: you will like Going To California (from the same LP), too.

• Money, by Pink Floyd (Dark Side Of The Moon, 1973). Not only long songs, to most people progressive rock must have odd time signatures, so here you have a classic song which is built on a 7/4 time signature. If you can bear this, you can bear the Apocalypse in 9/8 by Genesis, trust me.

• Heroes, by David Bowie (Heroes, 1977). This is a very ordinary song, but we have Bowie, we have Brian Eno and we have the lord and master of all the progressive rock scene, Robert Fripp. Listen to the long and distant guitar notes Mr. Fripp plays during the whole song, yes, a guitar can make this sound, and many more, if interested, please ask Mr. Steve Hackett or Mr. Fripp himself.

So these are 5 very known songs over which it is possible to find some reasons to listen to progressive rock classics, at least, I did. Of course there are tons of songs and albums (have you ever heard of and album called The Wall and a band named Pink Floyd?) useful to begin with prog, but I have tried to summarize all this panorama in only 5 songs.

To proggers, don't worry, I'm still one of yours, I will soon write a post with the 5 most complex prog songs to begin with (just in the case someone is trying to lose his mental stability in a good way).

P.S. No, I'm not posting Youtube videos for the songs I mentioned, in any post, unless the upload is made by the artist himself. Go buy the album, or if you're not sure of the quality of the music, borrow it from someone who has it, or listen to it legally, please. This music is the result of years of study, work and sacrifices, please don't let all this to be wasted, especially for small bands (new or old).