Dayglo Daydreams

 This blog has been inactive for a while. The reason why? I went and did a job as an airport janitor, and I didn't have the energy to keep this up. Now I am going to school to be a sound technician. I may update this infrequently, or this may be the last page. Who is to say?

     Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells is an album for any Progressive Rock lover. It has a nice neoclassical sound alongside nice intricate guitar work, and good usage of organ and synthesizer. If you like your music short and simple, you may not like Tubular Bells, but I would suggest listening anyway, because it is good to broaden horizons, and challenge the ideas one has regarding music.      The record starts out with some interesting and intricate piano lines. It is later joined by a doubling synthesizer. This helps solidify this melody. I think the repetitiveness of this line helps make a complex piece like this catchy. It boggles the mind that a complex melody could be catchy, or an odd rhythm could be groovy, but progressive rock shows us that this is all possible, just listen to the album.      There is a great moment on this album where synth and (I assume) acoustic guitar come together and then there is a crescendo then electric gu...

     Magma does not write music for the casual listener. Magma does not write normal music for normal people. They writer serious, abnormal music for abnormal people. The powerful jazz rock of Magma is in direct contrast to the easy-going jazz fusion of Weather Report. If you like your music heavy and energetic instead of languid and mellow, then you will like Magma. Though their ensemble on this album only consists of 8 players (more of a chamber ensemble than a symphonic orchestra) they make up for that by playing with a sort of symphonic heaviness, that is slow, loud, and emphatic.      1001 Centigrades was released in April 1971 by Phillips Studio. It is Magma’s 2 nd album. The first track on this album is 21 minutes (again, this isn’t for the casual music listener) and is written by Christian Vander . The second track is 11 minutes and is written by Teddy Lasry. T he third track is 8 minutes and is written by Francois Cahen . Although this band i...

  Weather Report was a jazz fusion band that started in 1970. The album I am reviewing, Black Market was released in 1976. The album was produced by Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. I think it had something to do with my environment, and the albums I have reviewed before, but this is the first album that actively irritated me. The ballads and the slower moments in general made me want to fall to sleep. Some of the tracks went on too long. This is not to say there is no good music on this album. There is. It simply needed streamlining and a stronger sense of energy behind it. The starting track off of this album is good. There is a generally sunny groove at the beginning of this album. It is lead of by the fretless bass of Jaco Pastorius, the machine-gun delivery of his notes later on in the track are also noteworthy. The warm analog keys and synths of Zawinul are also strong and pleasant in this album overall. Another unique aspect of this track is the odd meter groove that happ...

     Wire is a London Art Punk outfit. In addition to the standard four piece band they have a piano and synthesizer player. The album that we are reviewing was released on September 8th, in 1978.      The songs were written either by guitarist and vocalist Colin Newman, guitarist B.C. Guilbert, or bassist and vocalist Lewis (yes, he is only credited with one name).      The thing that makes Wire an art punk band rather than a regular punk band is their de-emphasis on the classic stuff of punk, that is drinking, fighting, and defying authority, and the emphasis is instead on strange lyrics and the usage of synthesizer, and guitar or studio effects.      The first track off of side two Mercy is a stand-out track with its dark sounding ominous bass. The brooding atmosphere on this track is excellent. It reminds me of London Calling because the dark imagery of disaster used in both songs. In one “London is drowning, and I live by...

 The Review for Chairs Missing by Wire will be coming in today.

  If you are willing to go into a movie called Laser Mission knowing no lasers will be fired during the movie, Laser Mission is an okay movie. Maybe I am biased because I like low budget action films. Maybe I'm biased because there are worse films with worse acting (Samurai Cop anyone?). This movie has some cheesy acting, some ludicrous action, some cliched plot twists, and bad accents but it is an alright movie to get your buddies together and have a fun time . (spoiler warning ahead) The plot of Laser Mission is that the African Hope Diamond has been stolen by the Soviets who are in Africa. They are after a scientist played by Ernst Borgnine. (big spoiler ahead). It is revealed that that diamond if touched by a laser will trigger a nuclear weapon (how is anyone's guess). The CIA hires a mercenary played by Brandon Lee to stop the soviets and their mercenaries. The soviets capture Borgnine and it is the job of Lee's character to rescue Borgnine and get the crystal from...

  Vienna is the fourth album by the glam rock and synth pop outfit Ultravox. By the this album released, Ultravox had been dropped by their label Island, due to being an unprofitable glam rock outfit. The group did a U.S. tour in a last-ditch attempt to create publicity for their band. This back-fired. Two of their quintet, singer John Foxx and guitarist Robin Simon left. The remaining members of the band were forced to do session work for other artists. This was when Ultravox met new lead singer Midge Ure. They would then record the synth pop genre defining 1980 album Vienna. Ultravox’s Vienna is a cold yet stylish album for the 1980s.It was released in the year 1980. This sound, later called synthpop, would go on to define the 1980s. The lead track and sole instrumental for this album Astradyne makes this album sound like it is made for airports or supermarkets or any place that is impersonal, sterile, and for the purpose of housing a mass of faceless anonymous humanity engage...

  My next album is The Family That Plays Together by Spirit. Spirit are a 1960s Los Angeles psychedelic band. Their first album is self-titled Spirit. The four songwriters on this album are Randy California, Locke, Cassidy, and Jay Ferguson. All of the tracks on this album offer something to suggest. One stand-out track on this album is Jewish. While it involves much singing that is either in Hebrew or Yiddish (I don't know Hebrew or Yiddish), it also has much more to offer. It offers tempo changes, and a jazzy feel. The song shifts at one point from 4/4 time to 3/4, and glides effortlessly along. The guitar work on their first track is energetic and bluesy. It makes that track worth listening to. The fourth track on this album Silky Sam has a dramatic stop-start part near the middle but is otherwise unremarkable. There is a nice slow part on the fifth track, Drunkard, with some nice violin, and overall it is a decent track. The sixth track has a nice gospel feel. It is somewh...

 I've been on vacation. The review for Spirit's The Family That Plays Together will come out soon.

     African Roots by the Skatalites is an album that was released in 1976. According to the writing on the album, the Skatalites new sound then, was reggae. Their usual sound is ska...which is more upbeat. The tracks on this album are mislabeled. African roots is the name of the album, not the name of a track on the album. Each track has the name below it, and I call the last track “the last track”. There is a slower track on this album named Rock Bottom. Rock Bottom is a track with a pleasant dark atmosphere. It also possesses a strong reggae groove. The guitar on this track and its minor chords contribute to this wonderful vibe, as does the minor melody of the horns. The tenor sax solos on all of these tracks are good. They are simple (usually) yet memorable. There is noticeable jazz phrasing in some of the solos on this track. This makes since, because the musicians on this album were jazz musicians, before they were ska or reggae musicians. The guitar and flute so...

 A review of African Roots by The Skatalites is coming pretty soon, be on the look-out.

     This is my first album review. This will be an older album. Crazy Rhythms by The Feelies was released April 1st, 1980. I read out of a chapter of (for what it's worth, self-published) cultural historian Piero Scaruffi's A History of Rock and Dance Music Volume 1 while listening to this album. If I hadn't read this book, I might not have found this album at all. He connects this band to a group of writers and musicians that were part of an artistic movement called the Blank Generation (think of this as being similar in some ways to the lost generation of the 20s). Technology was changing in what was becoming post-industrial society in such a way as to alienate the then emergent post-industrial blue collar worker. They were cut off from the factory jobs that sustained them, by economic circumstances. It was also changing how long the human (usually the wealthier human) could could now live past what Scaruffi calls the "natural limit". Scaruffi is also someone w...

  Welcome to my new blog! Dayglo Daydreams will be a blog about prog rock, indie, metal, post-punk, synthwave, reggae and ska as well as bad and good  movies and local sports such as indie pro wrestling , roller derby, and quadball. Music is my first love, so it might be what I review most, but these other things are love's of mine as well; such as movies and sporting events. I'm still working on how to write as a sports reporter though.    I operate out of the Tulsa Metro Area, and will be reviewing sporting events in that area.  I personally play Quadball. Our team, the Arkansas River Augreys is trying to get USQ affiliation. My ability to review Quadball events might be compromised by my participation in the sport. This will not be the case for review/coverage of indie wrestling or local roller derby events. Unless something changes, I will not play in or officiate those matches. I think this will be a lot of fun! If you are new here, hold on for the ride and...