The Flower Kings etc
Whitchurch 2001
Two Blocks From The Edge*, Down By the River (Test).
I don't count
myself as a great fan of what is generally termed 'progressive
rock' and would not normally make the trip to attend a whole
festival of such music but the presence of the magnificent Flower
Kings was in this case reason enough. Also I figured it would be
good to see in the flesh some of the UK bands that are so feted
in 'prog' circles and a jolly social occasion taboot, taboot.
As it turns out, the bands that I caught on the day (Grey Lady
Down and the Martin Orford band) other than the aforesaid Flower
Kings only served to reinforce my views on the state of the UK
scene. I don't want to be too critical (but probably will be) as
I have already indicated this is not exactly my cup of tea but
you don't have to be an aficionado of a particular genre to know
that these bands just aren't that good. On the technical level
the music is limited in both scope and harmonic depth and cursed
by a leaden rhythmic sensibility. The problem as I see it is that
the music is a distillation of a quite limited range of
influences to start with and has resulted in a form that is
increasingly narrow and bland and that will only ever appeal to a
limited audience desperate for a recreation of the glory days of
Yes, Genesis and even (ahem) Marillion. 'External' influences
such as jazz, blues, world music and even classical music which
was such a key element of the original form don't figure at all
in either the compositions or the aspirations of the musicians
and I am left with the impression that I am listening to music
created by people who themselves only ever listen to 'prog' rock.
Here endeth the lesson.
So what makes the Flower Kings so different? Well there are a
whole raft of reasons but key is that fact that they are all
professional musicians who also variously play classical, jazz
and other forms of music for a living (similarly Spocks Beard).
They choose to include progressive rock in the Flower Kings
musical melange, love it and are passionate about it but it isn't
the only form that they include and it isn't the limit of their
aspirations. The inclusion of self confessed Jaco Pastorious
devotee Jonas Reingold in the line-up 2 or 3 years ago and the
very recent addition of jazzier drummer Zoltan Csörsz has created
a band that can literally do anything it wants in technical terms
and now only has to decide what it does actually want to do.
Having built an audience for its brand of 'progressive rock'
music the band stands in danger of losing this if they continue
much further down the road to becoming a wonderful prog rock /
jazz rock hybrid but the indications in the music and from the
players and even the choice of players is that this is what they
really want to do. Personally I can't think of anything more
potentially exciting, after all Phish blended progressive rock,
improvisational rock, funk and to a lesser degree jazz influences
to create their own magnificent sonic roller coaster, why shouldn't
the Flower Kings become their Scandinavian equivalent? Another
similarity to Phish is that good though the studio albums are
they don't come close to the awesome live experience.
One piece of music at Whitchurch really defined the live Flower
Kings experience, 'Garden of Dreams' edited to 40 minutes(!) from
its overlong appearance on the 'Flower Power' 2 CD set and on
this occasion including the 'no such thing as blank and total
darkness' section missing in London last year has become the best
example of the sort of music that we can hope for more of from
the Kings. Fusing classically influenced 'progressive rock' and
soaring atmospheric sections with jaw dropping whole band
improvisations which allow Roine and Jonas free rein to lay down
some serious lead work. The spirits of Miles Davis (circa early
70's), the Jaco Pastorious version of Weather Report, Jimi
Hendrix and Frank Zappa were all present in this music and the
sad thing is that judging by the amount of chatter going on in
the audience quite a number of them didn't have a clue what was
going on. The band also played 'Back In The World Of Adventures,
'I Am The Sun', 'Stardust We Are', 'Rumble Fish Twist' and 'Sounds
Of Violence' all of which were excellent in their own way (although
'I Am The Sun' seemed a little ragged in places possibly due to
the recent change of drummer) but 'GoD' as with the London gig
last year was the defining moment. I am not an unreserved fan of
the band, the heavy riffing sections and occasional Deep Purple
style vocals are my main dislikes but these are only part of a
broad palette of styles that the Kings employ and the rest of the
music more than compensates.
As is probably evident from this article I would like more of the
improvisation and jazz influences and have been a little
disappointed that 'Space Revolver' and 'Rainmaker' (from a sneak
preview) have covered more familiar 'progressive rock' territory.
I guess that's good news to a lot of their fans but I for one
would like them to move a block or two closer to the edge, there's
no doubt that they can do it but the trick is going to be doing
it in such a way that retains their existing audience.
Finally just to comment on the festival itself. It seemed to be
well organised and although I was a little worried by the school
hall atmosphere in the smaller afternoon venue the production in
the main venue was excellent with a great PA, stage and lights.
My only complaint is that the food on offer was extremely limited
(although there was an excellent pub just down the road).
The first edition of this review contained some comments which suggested that the Flower Kings had not been best treated by the festival organisers. This was not the case and I had my wires crossed with comments made about another festival that the band had played. Sincerest apologies to the organisers for this error.
David Weston August 2001
* Jonas on Jaco -
"sometimes it's better to live two blocks from the edge than
to live right on it".
Copyright Bathtub of Adventures 2001
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