Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews of Profiles

« Newer

Older »

Showing items 11 to 20 of 34

Of Velcro Ears and Eccentric Geniuses —
C.W. Vrtacek / Forever Einstein Interview

Cover art It was every guitarist’s worst nightmare. A freak accident with a table saw had just severed the first digit of Chuck Vrtacek’s index finger on his fretboard hand. Instead of freaking out he calmly called the paramedics, and 15 minutes later was joking with them on his way to an operation at the hospital. Instead of perceiving the accident as a huge setback, he saw it as a challenge, and he immediately went home and started playing with his second, third, and fourth fingers. Instead of canceling his upcoming recording session he went into the studio with his band Forever Einstein and recorded their most ambitious and adventurous album to date, Down with Gravity.  » Read more
(Posted by David Ashcraft 2003-08-01)

Music for a Crisis of Survival —
A Profile of Mike Johnson and Thinking Plague 1998

Cover art While speaking with Mike Johnson, co-founder, guitarist, and principal composer of Denver’s Thinking Plague, it was clear to me that this man knows exactly what he’s doing. Confident but never condescending, amiable but with a sizeable chip on his shoulder, Mike Johnson is proud of what he has accomplished as both a composer and as a guitarist. But he holds no delusions that he will ever make a decent living playing music.  » Read more
(Posted by Steve Robey 1999-04-01)

In the Present, Tense —
The Roger Trigaux Interview 1998

Cover art Guitarist/composer Roger Trigaux has been recording and performing his stormy brand of modern gothic sounds as leader of Present since 1980. Like many a young player coming of age during the late 60s, the Brussels native was weaned on the style of Cream and Jimi Hendrix. His first experience with international exposure came via his tenure in a masterfully innovative Belgian ensemble, whom Roger co-founded in 1973 with Daniel Denis and Guy Segers. At the time known as Necronomicon — that infamous tome of blasphemy in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos — it would one year later evolve into Univers Zero, named after a novel by Belgian supernatural fantasist, Jacques Strenberg.  » Read more
(Posted by Mike Ezzo 1998-02-01)

From Renaissance to Illusion —
A Profile of the Relf / McCarty Renaissance

Cover art The emergence of Renaissance in 1969 coincided with the birth of a new musical genre: Progressive Rock. The British rock scene was then in the midst of a highly creative period following the psychedelic era and the musical earthquake caused by the Beatles' landmark album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  » Read more
(Posted by Aymeric Leroy 1997-05-01)

Keeping the Man Happy —
The Happy the Man Interviews

Cover art Composers of American classical music over the last century have often been criticized for their lack of originality, for borrowing too heavily from their European counterparts. People often point to Aaron Copeland as the exception to the rule. Similarly, in the 70s, American progressive rock bands were often just knock-offs of the European bands. Happy the Man are to American progressive what Copeland was to classical — a fantastic exception to the rule.  » Read more
(Posted by Dan Casey 1997-02-01)

Music for Dark Gods —
A Profile of Shub-Niggurath

Cover art The enigmatic name is, or course, from Lovecraft. The phonetically bizarre world of Lovecraft's mythos has attracted many, many bands to use names of entities and places from its stories and legends. Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, is a dark and terrible alien fertility goddess in the mythos, sometimes depicted as a demonic goat, sometimes as an enormous amorphous mass spawning her "Dark Young" — huge tentacled tree-like hulks with shaggy goats legs and hooves — in an endless orgy of reproduction. The extremity and sinister nature of such imagery suits the music of this band perfectly. If ever there were music for the mythos, this is surely the archetype.  » Read more
(Posted by Phil Kime 1997-02-01)

Sole Man —
A Profile of Kit Watkins

Cover art Outside the living room window of Christopher "Kit" Watkins, hummingbirds feed, framed by an expansive view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Except for a generous sprinkling of gray in his close-cropped hair, the 42-year-old Watkins looks little different than he did 15 years ago, when he played keyboards and flute at the Cellar Door in Washington, DC with drummer Coco Roussel. The slightly built musician carries himself in a relaxed manner, plopping into an easy chair to engage in coffee and conversation. Quiet, yet animated, his eyes burn with a quiet intensity, and his face freezes into a sparkling smile when he makes a point.  » Read more
(Posted by Jim Dorsch 1996-08-01)

Thoughtful Boats and Rocky Oceans —
A Profile of the German Octopus

Cover art Not to be confused with the many other bands of the same name, the German Octopus was perhaps the classic Sky-label band. The band was conceived in Frankfurt, Germany in 1973 by bass player Claus Kniemeyer and guitarist Pit Hensel. Kniemeyer was playing in American G.I. clubs with a commercial rock band at the time. However, he had a desire to make a more heavily conceptual music. Upon meeting like-minded Pit Hensel, who had previously been playing jazz, Octopus was born. With powerful singer Jennifer Hensel (no relation, apparently), organist Werner Littau, and drummer Dieter Becke, they made their live debut in February 1974 at the Fachoberschule Frankfurt.  » Read more
(Posted by Mike Ohman 1996-08-01)

Beyond the Hall of Mirrors —
A History of The Enid to 1996

Cover art To put into perspective The Enid's background we need to be acquainted with the soil in which the seeds of their history were sown. This place was called Finchden Manor. Finchden was a very unorthodox, informally structured boys boarding school in England. And it was here, in 1973, where the nucleus of Robert John Godfrey, Francis Lickerish, and Steve Stewart, met and later formed the group. Let's pick up the story a few years earlier in time.  » Read more
(Posted by Mike Ezzo 1996-08-01)

A Band, a Planet, a Vision —
A Short History of Gong

Cover art Gong was, and remains, one of the cornerstones of the genesis of progressive rock. Theirs is a legacy of utter originality, anarchic individuality, and atypically diverse and accomplished musicianship. Throughout the course of their extensive history, they have, in one form or another, recorded over twenty albums over the course of over twenty five years. While many fine musicians have entered and left the fold, the early focal point was clearly Daevid Allen, imported from Australia in search of the perfect vehicle to channel his Beat aspirations (he was an early associate of William Burroughs). After Allen left the band in 1974, French percussionist Pierre Moerlen assumed control of the band, as Allen and wife/collaborator Gilli Smyth went on to produce numerous projects and Gong reunions. For the purpose of brevity, this article will only cover material recorded under the Gong name. The offshoots are just too numerous to mention — certainly a testament to Gong's widespread influence across the European progressive rock scene.  » Read more
(Posted by Steve Robey 1996-08-01)

« Newer

Older »

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.