Spleen Arcana Forums » Tag: Canterbury

Spleen Arcana Forums » Tag: Canterbury - Recent Topics http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/tags/canterbury About Spleen Arcana, music and more en-US Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:16:17 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/search.php Anaon on "Canterbury Progressive Rock Appreciation Thread" http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/topic/canterbury-progressive-rock-appreciation-thread#post-116 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:12:58 +0000 Anaon 116@http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/ <a href="http://www.progarchives.com/subgenre.asp?style=12">From ProgArchives website</a> : <blockquote>Canterbury Scene definition With many other types of English progressive music developing mostly in London, it may at first seem strange that the old pilgrimage centre and relatively quiet cathedral city of Canterbury, became the centre of this very English form of progressive music and jazz fusion. Originally the Wilde Flowers, a teenage band of members living in and around Canterbury, playing a mix of pop, R'n'B and band members with a developing love of jazz, was formed in the 60's and became the seedling from which the Canterbury Scene grew. Australian beatnik Daevid Allen during a long stop-over at Robert Wyatt's parent's home, a refuge for many left field artists, was to catalyse the evolution of the Wilde Flowers into the fledging Soft Machine and the development of some avant music during the English psychedelic and underground period. From 1963 to 1969, the Wilde Flowers included most of the figures who later formed Canterbury's two best known bands, (The) Soft Machine (Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Hugh Hopper) and Caravan (Pye Hastings, David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Richard Coughlan). Canterbury was then to be the cradle for several of the more freewheeling British bands of the post-psychedelic era. While fans would suggest this is the home of an English musical quirkiness tempered with quite a bit of whimsy, within the Canterbury Scene's musical spectrum any similarities between Canterbury's major bands, (e.g. Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Hatfield & the North, Egg, National Health), are not immediately obvious*. Most bands will be found employing a clever fusion of rock rhythms and jazz improvisation with intellectual song-writing and varying strengths of psychedelia - some would too include folk elements (e.g. Spirogyra), others blues (e.g. Carol Grimes and Delivery). In addition, a number of bands employed various elements from classical music, for instance those bands with Dave Stewart playing keyboards. Whilst there have been a handful of excellent and distinctly different guitarists to play with Canterbury bands (e.g. Andy Summers, Allan Holdsworth, John Etheridge, Steve Hillage, Phil Miller), the lead instrument of choice has been keyboards. One English peculiarity of Canterbury is what the late John Peel called the 'School of Anti-song' because of particular Wyatt, Ayers and Richard Sinclair's approaches to vocals and perhaps the whimsy - more recently Richard Sinclair's vocal style has perhaps accurately been labelled as 'English jazz singing' by Jazzwise (i.e. singing jazz with an English rather than the usual American accent). (*However, once you've heard some Canterbury bands the commonality becomes more obvious - chord sequencing e.g. Caveman Hughscore's electric piano opening on the tune 'More Than Nothing', the vocals, the lyrics etc.) Both the Soft Machine and Caravan were popular in England's psychedelic/ underground scene before releasing their first albums in 1968, with Machine completing on level footing with Pink Floyd. However, by the early 70's a series of fragmenting changes of bands' line-ups, (Soft Machine went through about 30) and the subsequent formation of new bands, rapidly broadened Canterbury's range, with many newer musicians with only loose and in fact, no previous Canterbury connections. Early Soft Machine member Daevid Allen formed Gong in Paris. Both Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt left the Softs because of musical developments they did not like, to begin their own solo careers. By the mid-70's, most the old and new Canterbury bands had progressed away from psychedelia, developing their distinct forms of progressive rock some embracing jazz fusion, many playing extended jams with now limited lyrical input (e.g. Hatfield and The Norths, National Health, Gilgamesh). Caravan became more folky. However, as the 70's progressed several Canterbury bands would lose most of the rock element from their music. Gong retained their psychedelic side longest, but with the departure of Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage in the mid 70's, the band evolved into the percussion-oriented, jazz rock group Gong, which eventually became the modern day Gongzilla. Daevid Allen regained Gong's name in the 90's and through his solo work and with his University of Errors, is still evidently producing psychedelia. Steve Hillage's form of psychedelia evolved into the glissando rock of his own band and then into electronica, by the end of the 70's. In particular, Hillage through his work as a successful record producer of new bands from the 80's, develop his form of electronica through other bands. This music lost much of its complexity e.g. few riffs played over and over, rather than dozens per tune that previously had often typified prog, into a very popular form that is the antithesis of prog, i.e. the various forms of house music, with associated remixing/turntablism. For instance, Gong's "You" got the remix treatment in the 90's - but then to reflect his range of activities, Hillage has also produced and played guitar for Algerian Rai singer, Rachid Taha for over 20 years. Many of Britain's better known avant-garde and fusion musicians of the 70's and 80's - including Fred Frith (Henry Cow), Allan Holdsworth (Gong, Soft Machine, UK, Bruford) and Peter Blegvad - were involved during their early careers playing in Canterbury bands. And still new musicians join the Canterbury Scene's ranks, Theo Travis being perhaps the most notable recently (Gong, The Soft Machine Legacy). The Canterbury scene was to have a major influence on musicians in Europe, especially France (e.g. Gong, Moving Gelatine Plates), the Netherlands (Super Sister)and Italy (Daedalus), and more belatedly in the USA (Hughscore). Caravan reformed in the mid 90's, while ex-members of Soft Machine could be found in various avant jazz and straight jazz fusion groups, e.g. Just Us, Soft Heap, Soft Works and most recently The Soft Machine Legacy. From the Canterbury Scene, RIO it its various forms has developed.</blockquote> My fav Canterbury albums are : <img src="http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/613/cover_252292912008.JPG"> <img src="http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/665/cover_57432217102008.jpg"> <img src="http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/774/cover_481663062009.jpg"> <img src="http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/257/cover_2958171462005.jpg"> <img src="http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/1813/cover_44512217102008.jpg"> <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wj3TxGjH7Oo/SHwS-QmdwZI/AAAAAAAAAfg/mOjFHq552Bo/s320/Hatfield%2Band%2Bthe%2BNorth.jpg"> <img src="http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/bb-plugins/bb-smilies/default/icon_razz.gif" title=":P" class="bb_smilies" /> AstralliS on "Caravan" http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/topic/caravan#post-98 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:54:33 +0000 AstralliS 98@http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/ As I've met with this UK 70ies (Canterbury scene) progressive rock band recently, I wanted to share my trance. I'll c/p an overview for this band from their last.fm page, so if someone gets intrigued, owe me a beer. <img src="http://www.spleenarcana.com/forums/bb-plugins/bb-smilies/default/icon_biggrin.gif" title=":D" class="bb_smilies" /> <blockquote>Caravan is a British progressive rock band from Canterbury, United Kingdom, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings, Richard Hastings and Richard Coughlan. Caravan rose to success over a period of several years from 1968 onwards into the 1970s as part of the canterbury scene which also included Soft Machine. Caravan still continue a part-time gigging existence into the present. A feature of the Canterbury sound is the blending of psychedelia. A regular cult favourite, the band’s chart performance in the UK and US was minimal, charting one album, “Cunning Stunts” at US#124. In the UK “Cunning Stunts” (#50) and “Blind Dog at St. Dunstans (#53) were their only hits. A loyal following has ensured steady back catalogue sales and a lengthy live career for the band, who continue to this day featuring founder members Pye Hastings (guitar, vocals, songwriting) and Richard Coughlan (drums). Caravan’s best known recording is the 1971 set “In The Land of Grey and Pink”, their second album for Decca. The All Music Guide states that it ‘showed off a keen melodic sense, a subtly droll wit, and a seductively smooth mix of hard rock, folk, and classical, intermingled with elements of Tolkien-esque fantasy.’ A fair summary of Caravan’s late sixties to late seventies work. Prolific and inventive, the band appeared to have too many ideas to produce direct radio-friendly singles. 21st century reissues of their albums featured lengthy tracks, previously unissued, demonstrating the huge amount of releasable material that had failed to make their 1970s albums. The band were largely dormant in the eighties until a 1990 reunion, planned as a one-off for U.K. television’s “Bedrock” show, which restarted their career. Latterly they have also achieved steady sales and a fan following with the support of the more eclectic corners of radio, like BBC Six Music’s “Freak Zone” and the growing re-emergence of progressive rock. </blockquote> They have 11 studio albums and bunch of lives. As their most successful album "In the Land of Grey and Pink" is a truly masterpice, my fav is their 1975 album "Cunning Stunts" Check out this phenomenal band, you will not regret. <script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/astrallis.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=1"></script></code>