OverHillandDale
01-02-2015, 07:47 PM
COTM - Feature #190 - Colosseum II, Heldon and Wally
Kicking off a new year! 2015 finds us looking back 40 years to 1975, the heart of the Progressive Rock era. I will start off with Colosseum II, which is the 2nd incarnation of the band formed by drummer Jon Hiseman. We will listen to the debut of this version of the band called Strange New Flesh.
Next we will enter the magical world of a pioneer of the electronic music genre. Guitarist Richard Pinhas blended his musical craft with that of synthsizers. Often compared to Robert Fripp, he was referred to as the French Fripp, as well as the Father of Electronic music in France. In 1974 he formed Heldon, his 2nd group. His first release under that name was Electronique Guerrilla. His 2nd release was in 1975 and called Heldon II: Allez Teia (perhaps a reference to Italian history in the mid 500's). That will be our feature album of Richard Pinhas and Heldon.
Lastly, we return to Britain for the Symphonic/Country band Wally. Yep, you read it right. That is what they took into their eponymous first album. That album has a great (short) epic called The Martyr. But the country flavored songs kind of ruined the overall success of the album. Even Rick Wakeman co-producing the album didn't help (except on the prog songs). In 1975 Wally released their 2nd album called Valley Gardens. This time they stuck with the Symphonic sound and had better success. Side 2 of the album is a 19-min epic entitled The Reason Why.
I hope you will join me for tonight's (Friday) 9:00 pm broadcast, but you can always catch it again on Monday @ noon (both times are e.s.t.).
See you on the radio.
Kicking off a new year! 2015 finds us looking back 40 years to 1975, the heart of the Progressive Rock era. I will start off with Colosseum II, which is the 2nd incarnation of the band formed by drummer Jon Hiseman. We will listen to the debut of this version of the band called Strange New Flesh.
Next we will enter the magical world of a pioneer of the electronic music genre. Guitarist Richard Pinhas blended his musical craft with that of synthsizers. Often compared to Robert Fripp, he was referred to as the French Fripp, as well as the Father of Electronic music in France. In 1974 he formed Heldon, his 2nd group. His first release under that name was Electronique Guerrilla. His 2nd release was in 1975 and called Heldon II: Allez Teia (perhaps a reference to Italian history in the mid 500's). That will be our feature album of Richard Pinhas and Heldon.
Lastly, we return to Britain for the Symphonic/Country band Wally. Yep, you read it right. That is what they took into their eponymous first album. That album has a great (short) epic called The Martyr. But the country flavored songs kind of ruined the overall success of the album. Even Rick Wakeman co-producing the album didn't help (except on the prog songs). In 1975 Wally released their 2nd album called Valley Gardens. This time they stuck with the Symphonic sound and had better success. Side 2 of the album is a 19-min epic entitled The Reason Why.
I hope you will join me for tonight's (Friday) 9:00 pm broadcast, but you can always catch it again on Monday @ noon (both times are e.s.t.).
See you on the radio.