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 Майк Портной – личность незаурядная. Об этом можно судить не только по работе его основной команды (Dream Theater), но и по количеству отличнейших сайд-проектов, в которых он принимает участие. В этот раз Майк решил собрать таких же незаурядных музыкантов в «супер-группу», чтобы осуществить свои мечты в прог/арт-роке. Позвал он себе на помощь Нила Морса (Spock’s Beard) – клавиши и вокал, и Джима Матеоса (Fates Warning) - гитара. Однако Матеос отказался от участия в проекте, и тут совсем кстати Морс вспомнил про своего знакомого гитариста Ройне Столта из группы The Flower Kings. Тот, разумеется, согласился. До кучи (чтобы уж совсем искрился от звёзд=)) на роль бас-гитариста пригласили Пита Тревэйваса из знаменитой группы Marillion.
И вот, собрав в охапку свои идеи, четверо музыкантов летом 1999 года приезжают в Нью-Йорк для работы над первым студийником. Нил Морс оказался намного активней всех остальных музыкантов, сразу сочинив практически всю лирику для альбома. Название выбрали достаточно просто – сложили все инициалы и всё. Однако ж, обозначает машинный протокол, используемый в студиях hi-end. Как всегда не обошлось без пасхальных яиц =)
А теперь, собственно, о музыке. Альбом звучит в духе классических арт/прог-рок-групп, таких как Yes, Genesis и других. Собственно, дальше можно было бы и не продолжать. Для любителей этого стиля группа – просто находка. Большое количество органных вставок и других клавишных инструментов радуют на протяжении всего альбома; красивые партии соло гитары будут усладой для слуха. Майк стучит как всегда хорошо, а звук баса Тревэйваса гулко отдаётся в сердце. Но помимо мастерства музыкантов, которым они, в общем-то, никого не удивили, альбом может понравиться и обилием запоминающихся и красивых мелодий. Одна «We All Need Some Light» чего стоит!!! Очень эффекты эпики на альбоме – 1 и 4 трэки, в меру сложны, очень красивы. Я считаю, что можно было бы на 4 трэке и закончить, однако музыканты решили по-другому и записали почти 20-минутный кавер на Procol Harum «In Held (Twas) in I», который хоть и звучит очень интересно и красиво, всё-таки сложноват для прослушивания после 2 эпиков.
Итог: отличная работа, рекомендуется к прослушиванию любителям стиля. |
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CHORUS
This has never been before
While the sun burns bright as day
Light the sky - hold back no more
Let the full moon rise today
Full moon rising today
So there I was with my complaints
In the comfort of my restraints I stayed
I stayed and had nothing to say
But there it was returning for my eyes
Like a fire that's been burning up the sky
Full moon rising today
CHORUS
II: October Winds
There's a town I used to know
There's a place I used ti go to play
Laughin' all the way
Never thought of where I'd been
Autumn wind came creepin' in one day
Now summer's gone away
Summer's gone away ........... hey
When October winds lay down
When the heat can't melt the ground
And nothing matters anyway
When October winds take hold
When you're down that dank dark road
Maybe nothing matters anyway
III: Camouflaged In Blue
Dead on your feet you walk like no one's home
Out on the street you make your way alone
Soldier of fortune camouflaged in blue
Dawn turns to dusk you sail away in doubt
Love turns to lust you've turned it inside out
Soldier of fortuen camouflaged in blue (but I know you)
All that you are is not the things you do
You know it's true
All that you are is camouflaged in blue
You know it's true
Dead on your feet you walk like no one's home
Out on the street you make your way alone
Soldier of fortune camouflaged in blue
But I know you now
CHORUS
IV: Half Alive
Don't just sit there wasting your time on the phone
Don't be with that skank 'cause it hurts to be alone
And you swarm around like bees to the hive
And you look a man in full but you're half alive
One flew south, one to the east; one went to the west
You became the enemy just to be the best
Waiting for your dream to arrive
You're whole and you're complete but you're half alive
Waiting for your dream to arrive
You're whole and you're complete but you're half alive
V: Undying Love
Pressed to the wall of the rail station hall is the Venus de Milo
You walk through the park 'til the clouds seem to darken the sky
And you wish you could soften your mind
But you feel like they've lockd you in time
And you think you'll be perfectly fine once you get to the water
Suddenly you stop 'cause your feet just won't walk
Like there's someone awaiting
The moon seems alive and looks down on your life just to say
IT'S ALRIGHT
Innocence and undying love will reign
Innocence and undying love will reign
Hearing the call with your back to the wall in a wordless conundrum
Half of your life 'tween a rose and a knife ain't it time ?
You're sure to find
Innocence and undying love will reign
Innocence and undying love will reign
The world will soon be right again
Innocence and undying love will reign
The world will soon be right again
Innocence and undying love will reign
VI: Full Moon Rising (Reprise)
In a state of fallen grace, with a smile upon it's face, IT CAME !
... Full moon rising today
While the clock is turning fast, soak it up before it's passed away
Let it become what it may
This has never been before
While the sun burns bright as day
Light the sku - hold back no more
Let the full moon rise today, full moon rising today
Full moon rising today, full moon rising today
We All Need Some Light Now
(Morse)
Some people think
Think they have none
They might as well stay down
Running in circles
Like bulls in a ring
'Til the sword finds it's way down
While the creep beats the rap on appeal
And the cop who can't stop
Shows the kids how to steal
CHORUS
And we all need some light now
We all need some light now
Yes, we all need some light now
Turn on your light
And wash the darkness away
Hey you on the brink
Waiting to fall
To become human surplus
The movie's still shooting
You might still get the roll
And man it's all just a circus
But the clown left town long ago
Maybe he'll come back and give us a show
CHORUS
And we all need some light now
We all need some light now
Yes, we all need some light now
Turn on your light and wash the darkness away
SOLO
CHORUS to end
Mystery Train
(Morse with Portnoy, Stolt, Trewavas)
On the road to anywhere, in a place that exists without time
I met a girl who sang to me but her songs had no rhythm or rhyme
I couldn't feel, I could not think but my my what a colorful blind
As she sang in my mind
CHORUS
Let the deal go down - ride that mystery train
Break the whole thing down - start all over again
Let the deal go down - ride that mystery train
Welcome to the mystery - dreams float in a pool in my head
There's your mother when she was young
There's Uncle Dick looking sick and half dead
The lights are on and she is home, stretched out on a chodachrome bed
There's singing in my head
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Let the deal go down, let the wild wind blow
Let the dreaming go, let the steel rain fall
Let the seed be sown, 'til everything is known
Let the deal go down, let the wild wind blow
Let the dreaming go
Repeat 1st verse to Chorus end
My new world
(Stolt with Morse, Portnoy, Trewavas)
The place she called home was high on a hill,
way up in a big house under the trees
Day's in the sun she's seen by the river,
reading a book, feeding her dreams
Now she's a loner, now she's a stoner, no one can touch her ...
He was the boy, the pride of his mother,
stainless and shining, all heaven sent
But then the country calls for a soldier
and he went out to a foreign land
When he returned faces look different,
at the end of innocence nothing's the same
My new world was spinning me around
And that was all that could be
My new world was spinning me around
And nothing's lost on memory
My new world was spinning me around ...
Hiked up to Woodstock, she got high in Frisco,
summers of love, that child she was wild
She had the need for total expression,
painting and poetry filled up her mind
Boy, he took pride in serving his country,
went off to war no more than a child
My new world was spinning me around
And this is all that i've found
My new world was spinning me around
And time can be my enemy
My new world was spinning me ...
Now she's a loner, now she's a stoner, no one can touch her ...
Out in the fields we met in the summer
On a poetic island no past to recall
Breaking like waves we flooded the moment
Laughing at the perfectness of it all
My new world waits patiently
When living is lost in a memory
My new world is ahead of me
But sometimes I'm back where I used to be ...
Then the fall ran away with our time
Dissapointment struch so hard
When he found out there was no
"Lucky stars and stripes"
They set it all on fire !!!
While Jim and Janis got us higher
"She's so freaky, she's so fine"
Soldier, he can't get her off his mind
Down the desert to the sea
Leave the raving 60's all behind ...
Out of the blue still reaching for something
Feeling the window of time out of mind
Catching a glimpse each one to the other
Always not knowing the spark left behind
Going and going with fictional borders
Passing two feet from the door
My new world keeps spinning me around
And this is all that can be
My new world is ahead of me now
This is all that I've found
My new world keeps spinning me around
My new world keeps spinning me
And time is not my enemy
My new world is ahead of me today
And all things pass away ...
In Held 'Twas In I (1968)
(Procol Harum: Brooker / Fisher / Reid)
Visit Procol Harum - Beyond the Pale
Glimpses of Nirvana
In the darkness of the night, only occasionally relieved by glimpses of Nirvana as seen through other people's windows, wallowing in a morass of self-despair made only more painful by the knowledge that all I am is of my own making ...
When everything around me, even the kitchen ceiling, has collapsed and crumbled without warning. And I am left, standing alive and well, looking up and wondering why and wherefore.
At a time like this, which exists maybe only for me, but is nonetheless real, if I can communicate, and in the telling and the bearing of my soul anything is gained, even though the words which I use are pretentious and make you cringe with embarrassment, let me remind you of the pilgrim who asked for an audience with the Dalai Lama.
He was told he must first spend five years in contemplation. After the five years, he was ushered into the Dalai Lama's presence, who said, 'Well, my son, what do you wish to know?' So the pilgrim said, 'I wish to know the meaning of life, father.'
And the Dalai Lama smiled and said, 'Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?'
Held close by that which some despise
which some call fake, and others lies
And somewhat small
for one so tall
a doubting Thomas who would be?
It's written plain for all to see
for one who I am with no more
it's hard at times, it's awful raw
They say that Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor
and those unsure
believed his eyes
- a strange disguise
Still write it down, it might be read
nothing's better left unsaid
only sometimes, still no doubt
it's hard to see, it all works out
In the Autumn of My Madness
In the autumn of my madness when my hair is turning grey
for the milk has finally curdled and I've nothing left to say
When all my thoughts are spoken (save my last departing birds)
bring all my friends unto me and I'll strangle them with words
In the autumn of my madness which in coming won't be long
for the nights are now much darker and the daylight's not so strong
and the things which I believed in are no longer quite enough
for the knowing is much harder and the going's getting rough
Look to Your Soul
I know if I'd been wiser this would never have occurred
but I wallowed in my blindness so it's plain that I deserve
for the sin of self-indulgence when the truth was writ quite clear
I must spend my life amongst the dead who spend their lives in fear
of a death that they're not sure of, of a life they can't control
It's all so simple really if you just look to your soul
Some say that I'm a wise man, some think that I'm a fool
It doesn't matter either way: I'll be a wise man's fool
For the lesson lies in learning and by teaching I'll be taught
for there's nothing hidden anywhere, it's all there to be sought
And so if you know anything look closely at the time
at others who remain untrue and don't commit that crime
Grand Finale (intrumental)