Prog points

[greatbear]

This may or may not tag me as a 'musician'.

My 'ex', Kit Watkins, has just released his latest CD "SkyZone", a collection of ambient/experimental/meditative music previously unreleased on his other works. Included among the tracks is a piece that we did as a jam one night, "Harmonic Hum". This has me with a guitar, my ebow, lots of reverb along with Kit on keys and his new-at-the-time Yamaha fretless bass. The track resembles something Steve Roach might have come up with. Anyway, this one recording of us managed to find it's way out of the dustbin of obscurity and into a released CD. I forgot how flowing and dreamy the piece was.

I guess I really should dust off the axes here and try playing again. My increasingly stiff fingers keep telling me otherwise. Oh well. At least in terms of obscure progressive music, I have gained a point in street cred.

Go me!

(Kit's website is set to randomly play songs from SkyZone. "Harmonic Hum" is in the rotation. You can click the button on the upper right of the frame to turn off the music then turn it back on again, repeating the process until the track shows up. Better yet, leave it play, turn it up a bit, and relax.)

Comments

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

I remember talking to Kit on Gay.com YEARS ago, then I laughed when the kids I worked with in NYC showed up at my studio with his Acid Loops CD "Ambient Realms".

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

From what I've learned, his loop tracks are used by a lot of musicians, and in places you wouldnt think they'd be.

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

I've heard them in quite a few places myself.

Hell..I've used them!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I've heard soundtracks that are unmistakably made from his samples, and even his actual music in a couple cases.

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

and of course the actual music wasn't credited.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

No, and in the case of the loops and samples, I believe there was supposed to be mentions but rarely are. He still gets trickles of royalties for various stuff.

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

He's always been underappreciated as far as I'm concerned.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Yep. Recently though, he did enjoy a resurgence of sorts. One, I convinced him to put his catalog out through mp3.com at the time, and Happy The Man reformed mostly from people's interest in the band as prog started making a comeback. Kit did not want to deal with the touring and whatnot, so stayed out of the HtM project. We did go and see the reformed band play at the State Theater in VA for their first live show in decades. They were tight! And that was by far the loudest concert I've been to.

He's got some more stuff coming down the pike.

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

I miss the MP3.com days.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I discovered tons of really great music from artists that would never find mainstream release. Even a lot of the 'garage bands' had chops and production values that far surpassed common mainstream music. A shame, really, especially since mp3.com was essentially taken over and sunk by major labels. Still, the cat was out of the bag, people began to look beyond major label cruft and go after independent music and artists. The popularity of iTunes and the fact that they carry independents brought that variety to the masses.

Vive la revolucion!

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

My radio show was in its heyday back then and I found TONS of my stuff there.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Not a day went by that I wasnt sampling something new and downloading stuff. I still have gigabytes of stuff from there. I wonder what happened to a lot of these bands. I should start picking through the goodies and see if there is new material to be found somewhere.

[michaelnolan.livejournal.com]

I lost gigs of stuff in a major crash in 2002. I've attempted to track down a few of the bands and artists but many of them are nowhere to be found.

Ironically, the wife of one of MP3.com's founders is a very good friend of mine.

[progbear.livejournal.com]

I saw the reformed HTM when they performed in Chapel Hill, NC. They were indeed tight! I found new keyboardist David Rosenthal quite talented, if rather slavishly imitative of Kit’s style. But then, if he’d deviated too far from that sound, he would have upset all the prog fanboys in the audience, so I guess you just can’t win. The new material from the then-still-unreleased The Muse Awakens sounded strikingly similar to the “classic” material.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I chatted with David Rosenthal for a while after the show, and he said it took quite a bit of doing to learn Kit's style and parts to do the original material justice. It's so integrated into HtM's essence that if he tried to change it even slightly, it would wreck the sound. Even The Muse Awakens follows Kit's style to the point of being eerie. I'm not too sure if that's good or bad. Good in that HtM's sound is intact, but bad in that it has yet to evolve. Maybe in the next release.

It was neat to find Joe Bergamini taking over the drum duties. He's good IMO.

Re: OMG

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I have an awful lipsync vid that was done when a bunch of bears on LJ made it into a meme. It was the most fun I had on LJ since.

Re: OMG

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Here ya go.

[fingertrouble.livejournal.com]

Prog?

I fear for your soul.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I sold my soul to prog in the early 70s.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

There are musical trends far less defensible.

"Grunge," say. Or "Industrial." :)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

True story. In the late 70s I had a record from a band called Happy The Man. Loved the jazz/prog fusion and incredible musical interplay. Sadly, the band became popular at the end of the prog era. Fast forward 25 years. I am chatting with guys in gay.com and make friends with Kit. When I asked him what he does for a living, he said he runs a grants newsletter company. His userpic showed some equipment behind him. I asked what that was about and he said he is a musician. I asked him if he is/was in any bands, and he said he was up to recently doing solo stuff, and way back when he was in Camel and Happy The Man, two bands he was positive I never heard of. It blew my mind. It blew his that I not only knew but also had the record (since lost or loaned). It went on from there, but sadly didnt quite last a year. We are still good friends though, and try to keep in touch as much as possible.

[progbear.livejournal.com]

HTM’s 3rd “Better late” contains the “original” version of “Eye Of The Storm” (recorded 1979, but released after Camel’s version). It’s not as essential as Crafty Hands or the band’s self-titled debut, though. (3rd is essentially a demo tape, and pretty much sounds like it.)

[bearlover.livejournal.com]

So, will you receive royalties for your effort? It's a good opportunity to make an extra couple of bucks. lol. I can say that because I'm a prog musician.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Most likely not, unless this track becomes the soundtrack to the next Pixar film or some other extraordinarily likely scenarios. Besides, I dont need another line on my tax forms. lol

[scozart.livejournal.com]

Nice! If I can get a copy of the song, I'd be glad to debut it on my radio show! (http://www.thedividingline.com/ponr)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Once I get my copies and permission, and if this is something that you can squeeze into a show, it's all yours!

[scozart.livejournal.com]

great! Let's keep in touch on this!

Stiff fingers?

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

Have you tried taking Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate? I have taken it for years. My family has a long history of crippling arthritis and coupled with the hip fracture I had in 2004, I knew I would have been in trouble. So far, I have managed to ward off the aches and stiffness with the exception of last winter when I had quit taking it. I also tend to lift somewhat heavy things, so protecting my joints is always at the top of my list.

Re: Stiff fingers?

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I've taken it in the past, with somehat mixed results. I should try again and stay on it for a fair period of time and see how things go.

As for you lifting 'somewhat' heavy things, the same can be said for forklifts and cranes in comparison. ;)

[danthered.livejournal.com]

I'm listening right now (off the website) and find it quite good indeed. Thanks for the pointer!

I didn't know you like ambient/experimental/meditative music. Have you ever heard of a group out of Germany called Software? Peter Mergener and...ummm...can't recall the other guy's name. I've zipped up some MP3s of some of my favourites of theirs; grab 'em here. (it's a gzipped .tar). While you're at it, if you've never heard of Elvira Kurt and are after a laugh, snag this, too.

[m-f-patterson.livejournal.com]

I will have to check this out. My shrink many, many years ago suggested that I listen to ambient/new age at bedtime. I have done so ever since. I like Steve Roach, but I prefer listening to Liquid Mind (member from missing persons new age project), John Huling (did the music for several mjr aquariums including Monterey Bay Aquarium)or Enigma.

[m-f-patterson.livejournal.com]

Ok, just caught his website, the music is right up my alley!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

As much of a rocker that I am, it does me well to offset things a bit from time to time with ambient styles like this. Kit's styles run the gamut from fusion, worldbeat, experimental, ambient, jazz and classical with stuff everywhere in between.

I find a lot of ambient styles to be very relaxing, and comforting background music at times. I just wish Kit and I did more things like this. Always seemed like we had other things going on during the limited time we sometimes had together.

[knarfd.livejournal.com]

I did not know you even knew him. I know him as well. Not AS well. lol

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Yep, I know him. And I 'knew' him too. LOL

[knarfd.livejournal.com]

I wanted to ask you something. Do you remember those gaycom get togethers at Annies in DC? What year was that?

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Those took place between 1998 or so into 2000. They were a lot of fun.

Here is our third big outing in pictures.