t Rock

With this album we are once again in the 'Koko-Mojo Original' series. The compiler is still Little Victor aka 'The Mojo Man' and again he selected 28 tracks.

German project T is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Thomas Thielen, formerly of the German band Scythe, but now with a solo career that has been ongoing ever since he released his first album using the 'T' moniker in 2002. Thomas plays all the instruments, does the vocals, lyrics, engineering, producing and recording. "Fragmentropy" is his fifth full-length production, released in 2015 by Progressive Promotion Records. "Fragmentropy" comes across as a fairly eclectic and demanding production, arguably with a foundation inside modern day neo-progressive rock and post-rock, but made with an approach that makes it hard to categorize inside any of those stylistic contexts easily…

Geordie's second album, 1974's Don't Be Fooled by the Name, was a bit of a letdown after their debut, which merged the swagger of hard rock with the tuneful bombast of blue-collar glam acts typified by Slade. In some respects, Don't Be Fooled suggests Geordie were aiming for something a bit more mature and adventurous than they achieved on their debut, and they didn't entirely fail – they reveal a tough, bluesy side on their cover of "House of the Rising Sun," a number that suits Brian Johnson's industrial-strength pipes, and the "St. James Infirmary" lift in opening cut "Goin' Down" leans toward the same direction.

The prolific veteran continues to cover a lot of musical territory on an album that resonates with the sound of his glory years of the mid-to-late 1970s. On the first two songs, Parker recalls his breakthrough with Dylanesque phrasing on "I Discovered America" before flashing forward to the current state of British pop celebrity on "England's Greatest Clown." There's his trademark sardonicism in the socially-conscious singalongs of "Ambiguous" and "Stick to the Plan," while other highlights include songs of resilience ("Suspension Bridge," "Hard Side of the Rain") and redemption ("Somebody Saved Me"). At almost eight-and-a-half minutes, "The Other Side of the Reservoir" is epic by Parker's standards, as he follows Van Morrison into the mystic. The closing "All Being Well" could pass as a traditional Irish benediction. With arrangements largely built around Parker's acoustic guitar, the predominantly midtempo material doesn't rock as hard as Parker has, but the hooks sink deep into the soul.

The Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (1974) [Japan Mini LP Edition, 2005] {TOCP-66454}
Virgin Benelux B. V. CDV2733 | Toshiba-EMI TOCP-66454
EAC rip | FLAC + CUE + LOG -> 318Mb | MP3 @320 -> 109Mb
Full Artwork @300 dpi (jpg)

After years of building off their rhythm and blues credentials, the title IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL insinuates a lowbrow rock aesthetic, but on this album the Rolling Stones mixed rock's aggression with an unparalleled appreciation for soul music. … Full DescriptionFrom their joyous cover of the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" to "Time Waits For No One," Mick Jagger boldly duplicates the feel of James Brown's early singles. But the band gives their sources a twist, with the heavily funk-based "Fingerprint File" sounding more like Isaac Hayes's "Shaft" than "Satisfaction," and "Dance Little Sister" coming across like a high school R&B band hopped up on adrenaline.

Known simply as "T", German multi-instrumentalist Thomas Thielen has been recording music as a one-man act since his time with the short-lived progressive rock act Scythe ended, and 2013's Psychoanorexia marks the project's fourth full-length album since its 2002 debut. Thielen's music can best be described as neo-progressive rock, albeit a rather unconventional approach to the style. Imagine a more experimental version of Brave-era Marillion, and you're halfway there - Psychoanorexia is a very atmospheric and ambient listen, but it still is 'busy' enough to scratch that prog itch. Although it only contains four tracks, Psychoanorexia clocks in at over an hour, as three of the songs here are around the twenty minute mark.

Known simply as "T", German multi-instrumentalist Thomas Thielen has been recording music as a one-man act since his time with the short-lived progressive rock act Scythe ended. This doesn't sound like a solo album, but much more like a group work, and one soon quickly moves away from the feel that this is the work of just one man to confronting the bleakness and darkness of this album. He is bringing in musical themes and influences such as modern Marillion, IQ, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel and Geoff Mann.

"Anti-Matter Poetry" may not be a creation that will inspire those in search of the new Yes or Genesis, but if you appreciate an artist using and utilizing modern stylistic details and taking cues from the current scene and applying them in an art rock setting this effort from German one man band T should be right up your alley. A fine and at times breathtaking album within this specific musical universe.

J.E.T.’s name is not only known to progressive Italian rock fans, but also to a wider audience, given that from their ashes, already in the mid-’70s, the soon-to-be-famous Matia Bazar were born: this new incarnation was able to rework J.E.T.’s last phase most ‘commercial’ hints, leading to a long successful career that still goes on today. Contrarily to what these words might suggest, J.E.T.’s only LP, originally published in 1972, is so far from the term ‘commercial’ as close to the Italian prog of the golden age: four long and complex tracks – plus the short ending “Sfogo” – with religion-themed lyrics, strong hard rock influences, a solid rhythmic section, keyboards always in evidence and beautiful vocal harmonies, sometimes reminiscent of the typical New Trolls’ falsetto. A timeless album, which still today leaves the listener astonished for its beauty and magniloquence, but also a bit disappointed by the fact that the band didn’t manage to release a follow-up to this masterpiece.

J.E.T.’s name is not only known to progressive Italian rock fans, but also to a wider audience, given that from their ashes, already in the mid-’70s, the soon-to-be-famous Matia Bazar were born: this new incarnation was able to rework J.E.T.’s last phase most ‘commercial’ hints, leading to a long successful career that still goes on today. Contrarily to what these words might suggest, J.E.T.’s only LP, originally published in 1972, is so far from the term ‘commercial’ as close to the Italian prog of the golden age: four long and complex tracks – plus the short ending “Sfogo” – with religion-themed lyrics, strong hard rock influences, a solid rhythmic section, keyboards always in evidence and beautiful vocal harmonies, sometimes reminiscent of the typical New Trolls’ falsetto. A timeless album, which still today leaves the listener astonished for its beauty and magniloquence, but also a bit disappointed by the fact that the band didn’t manage to release a follow-up to this masterpiece.