Gentle Art Of Music [Release date: 14.07.17]
RPWL are one of the finest purveyors of intelligent, meaningful progressive rock currently plying their trade in Europe and seem to be making a habit of releasing a superb album and following it up with a live recording of the subsequent tour.
Back in 2012 they released the moodily magnificent ‘Beyond Man And Time’ album and followed it up with the simply awe-inspiring ‘A Show Beyond Man And Time’ in 2013 – both of which inevitably garnered five star reviews on GRTR!
Now, subsequent to the release of their masterful ‘Wanted’ album in 2014 (another five-star job), here is the live album of that tour – except it’s much more than that…
Celebrating two decades together as a band and playing the final date in their home town of Freising in Bavaria, ‘A New Dawn’ was a multi-faceted performance encompassing not just the incredible music, but also a play featuring around fifty actors and multimedia presentations.
By all accounts the film of this extravaganza was superb and is available as DVD and Blue Ray – we’re limited here to the review of the music (double) CD, which, mercifully, restricts itself to just a couple of short snippets of spoken narration – I say mercifully as I’ve noticed a bit of a trend lately in prog rock to include large swathes of spoken passages which, of course, don’t bear repetition, are pretentious, not clever and invariably not funny.
The music however is simply magnificent.
Running through the ‘Wanted’ album almost in sequence, the band displays exemplary musicianship and a real sense of excitement as the show builds to its climax.
Tracks that were already outstanding on the album are given a real buzz in the live format with Yogi Lang’s cajoling vocals being splendidly supported by Markus Jehle’s sweeping keyboard flourishes and Kalle Wallner’s finger-busting guitar work.
Hard to pick highlights here but the guitar work-outs on ‘The Attack’, ‘Disbelief’ and the Rothery/Floydian ‘Still Asleep’ are sublime as are the 18 minutes plus of ‘The Fisherman’ (from the ‘Beyond Man And Time’ album), the enlightened lyrics of the brilliant ‘Misguided Thought’ (“in the name of the Lord we can burn down the world”) and show-closer ‘Hole In The Sky’ (from the ‘God Has Failed’ album).
I thought the ‘A Show Beyond Man And Time’ would be difficult to follow as it almost set the standard for how these things should be done, but, if anything, ‘A New Dawn’ has surpassed it.
Admittedly, the raw material on ‘Wanted’ was marginally superior but any live performance stands or falls by its ‘wow’ factor and ‘A New Dawn’ carries it off with both passion and panache.
Wish I’d been there… *****
Review by Alan Jones
Alan sequences “The Eclectic Mix” on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, second Sunday of the month at 18:00 GMT. Expect some prog.
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Next session: Sunday 1 December
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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.
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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024
ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)
Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)
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