Treponem Pal we Are One

We at Musicalypse have known and loved Anneke van Giersbergen for many years and many projects, from The Gentle Storm and Ayreon, back to The Gathering, and onward to pretty much anything she’s ever done with Devin Townsend. However, the one thing that’s never quite clicked has been her solo music, at least for me personally; so when the band VUUR was announced, anticipation ensued! Not only was the legendary vocalist going to be heading back into heavy waters with her music, but she had some of Ayreon’s absolutely fantastic musicians with her, including the incredible Ed Warby on drums, Jord Otto and Ferry Duijsens on guitars, and Johan van Stratum on bass. Do any of those names sound familiar? They might, if you’ve been following any of Arjen Lucassen/Ayreon‘s work in the past few years.

"Sadly overlooked at the time of its release, We Are Ever So Clean is now regarded as one of the greatest psychedelic rock albums ever made. This expanded Esoteric Recordings edition has been newly remastered and features 27 additional bonus tracks drawn from a live performance in Stockholm in August 1967, rare singles, demos and BBC sessions. The set fully restores the original album artwork and features a booklet with an essay featuring exclusive interviews with Brian Godding and Jim Cregan.

We are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration is a commemoration of a half-century of magical music making from The Art Ensemble of Chicago, a band that has been at the forefront of creative improvised music since forming in 1969. It has also long served as the flagship ensemble of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the august Chicago-based organization that also fostered the careers of members such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, and Wadada Leo Smith, among many others. Now led by the surviving members Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye, the album is also a loving tribute to the band’s three original members who have passed: Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and most recently, Joseph Jarman.

It’s always interesting to see how instrument choices and production techniques can have such a strong effect on dating a band or album. Whether it’s the arena-sized, cannon-shot snare drums of the 1980s or the hyper-compressed, extended-range guitars of today, there are a host of characteristics within rock and metal that can instantly transport a listener into another landscape. Hexvessel, however, seem to have been frozen in time, specifically 1973. With their third LP, When We Are Death, this Finnish sextet have come back after four years with an organic and somewhat convincing throwback record that suffers from an unfortunate predilection for exact simulation of the past.