What I'm Listening To: Sci-Fi Soundscape & Fury
New albums by Coheed & Cambria and Porcupine Tree have dropped and my ears are happy.
In the words of Greedo…
Behold, the unleashing of two highly-anticipated prog rock soundscapes this weekend are filling my earbuds with unabashed awe and transcendence.
Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis – Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind
For the un-initiated amongst my readers & subscribers, New York-based Coheed and Cambria’s music mostly consists of concept albums based on storylines written by lead singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez in a series of sci-fi graphic novels called The Amory Wars.
I haven’t read their comics and I’m only familiar with fragments of details surrounding the storyline, which is vast and complex. But their music I’ve been following for decades, and even when I don’t remember the exact turn of events underneath, the epic storytelling gives their sound an emotional resonance that is hard to put into words.
Their new album is the second part (preceded by 2018’s Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures) of a storyline in the Amory Wars universe, where lovers ‘Nia and Nostrand are incarcerated on a prison planet called The Dark Sentencer and fighting for the safety and security of their unborn child, the eponymous Vaxis.’
Coheed is a band that takes risks and is not afraid to expand and experiment with their sound to take it into new surprises. This time around they have injected full orchestras and synth into the mix, and my music-loving molecules are squee-ing with gob-smackish glee. Whenever a band I already love starts playing around with synth, this is the meaning of joy.
Here’s a particularly amazing sample track for sampling and gateway indoctrination for those unfamiliar, but you should really dive in to the full album for the experience, especially so you can build up to the exquisite final title track. Holy crap.
Porcupine Tree - Closure/Continuation
This is a big deal for the UK-based Porcupine Tree, as it’s their first studio album in 12 years. In-between this new venture and their last album The Incident there have been some equally-brilliant solo albums by their lead singer/guitarist Steven Wilson.
Whatever’s been in the water for these guys during their hiatus has not disappointed at all, for they are back with some of their most intricate and beautiful instrumentations to-date.
A sample track shall be embedded thusly, but again, a full listen to the entirety of the album as-such is highly recommended. This track is twice as long on the actual album.
I hope you enjoy these. I also have my younger brother Dan to thank for introducing me to these bands in the first place long ago.
In juxtaposition with world events, I often wonder, how and why is it possible that human beings can create such transcendent beauty like this, when we also unleash such un-thinkable monstrosities upon each other? I often wish I could retreat into whatever universe is created by my playlist, and just live there. And float around. Music keeps the monsters away, if only for a moment.
Sigh.