Ruminations - April 10, 1999
by Stephanie Sollow



In The End, Much Ado About Nothing


Ah, spring is here and with it the release of a number of new CDs. Later this month will see the release of Fish's Raingods With Zippos; Rick Wakeman's Return To The Centre Of The Earth, narrated by Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Jean-Luc Picard for those few who don't know), but we have an advance look at that release; and Christopher Franke releases Epic.

And already Spock's Beard have released their fourth, Day For Night - will it live up to, better, or fall short of last year's The Kindness of Strangers?

As reported in the latest [#30] issue of Progression, keyboardist Jordan Rudess has joined Dream Theater. In the August 1998 issue of this e-zine, we reviewed his collaboration with John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) and Tony Levin called Liquid Tension Experiment. Based on that, I know he will add a new dimension to the band. Given our review of Dream Theater's most recent studio release, perhaps new blood will engender new energy.

Of course, also in the news that issue was that Emerson, Lake and Palmer have once again split. This may not be new news, or even surprising.

Coming from the Marillion newswire - so to speak - it seems that Fish played a show this past Friday (April 9) in which Steve Rothery was in attendance, and played on stage for a song. Far from a harbinger of things to come, or so they say, it is nice to see that the fences are slowly being mended. I suspect full details will be at the Marillion site soon.

I know many... some of you... may be/will be questioning the appearance of the CDNow logo here and there about the site. Have we, the independent Progressive Music Review[*], sold out to corporate America? No. My thinking is this: a sale directly to Magna Carta, for example, is great. They know that the bands they are supporting are getting heard and sales.

But, if the sale came through, for example, CDNow or Tower Records, or any major chain that reports sales to Billboard say, or Soundscan, wouldn't that look good? Tower will stock more (again for example) Magna Carta releases, and more than just one copy.

So, that's the cunning plan. But, you know, I'm linking to Magna Carta, Musea, et al, as well, so you have your choice.

Also, not that anyone has mentioned it, but looking objectively at the number of Magna Carta releases reviewed here, one might think there was some direct relationship. Other than that I'm buying their releases, there isn't.

I finished reading Ed Macan's terrific and well written Rocking The Classics: British Progressive Rock and the Counterculture - it's recommended reading. I'm now reading The Progressive Rock Files by Jerry Lucky. Not so terrific, but a very useful resource and overview of the world of Progressive Rock. The last section, listing bands and their discography has been helpful in compiling the discography on this site. So, on that note, I want to give some credit where credit is due.

Many of the releases reviewed - or scheduled to be reviewed - were first "heard" of from the pages of Progression, a great read and great reference tool as well, as I also use it to research some historical point. As evidenced, I guess, by the frequent references to articles of interest in their pages. To [the now defunct] The Progressive Rock Website through whom I research the URLs to a band's or artist's websites (not everyone includes them in the liner notes). And to the official or fan sites of those same bands that make available the additional information also, perhaps, not included with a disk.

Goodness, that sounds like a swansong, doesn't it? No, no, no. We fully intend to be back in July with our next issue.

[Around the same time, the Progressive World thing was taking shape, so there was no July issue of PMR, per se. -ed.]


* as we were known at the time this editorial was first published. By the way, the CDNow links are gone, because CDNow is gone. But, you know, there's still the labels mentioned - as Magna Carta is going strong and, I think, trying to reclaim it's stake in the market (it kinda lost it to the US arm of InsideOut... which was absorbed in to the European arm, which was later taken over by Century Media (and I mean that in a good way, as the PR machine there is ramped up). Musea is also still going strong. The Progressive Rock Website is gone, but the URL points to Dark Aether Project's website (as Adam Levin of DAP ran the website). And as with others, this didn't have a title when it was first published... and I'm not claiming it has a clever/good one now. :-) - SS Sep 2011








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Published on: 1999-04-10 (2331 reads)

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