Music Banter - View Single Post - I know what I like: Trollheart's History of Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal

Trollheart · 11-30-2019, 09:33 AM

Album title: Ahora Mazda
Artist: Ahora Mazda
Nationality: Dutch
Label: Catfish
Chronology: Debut and only
Grade: C
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Tracklisting: Spacy Tracy/Timeless Dream/Dolle Mina in Oranje Vrijstaat/Fallen Tree/Power/Fantasio
Comments: No, not a prostitute in a small Japanese car (a-whore-in-a-Mazda, geddit? Shee! You people!) this is in fact another of those one-album bands, and they seem to have taken their name mostly from the Zoroastrian creator god, Ahura Mazda, changing only one letter and thereby ensuring forever that Google would return searches for their band name and/or only album with a snide “did you mean Ahura Mazda?” In other words, can’t you spell, idiot? Fucking Google. Anyway, somewhat like Quill above they seem to have been pretty rooted in the tropes of psych-rock, but they use a lot more and weirder instruments, such as tabla, jew’s harp, kalimba, slide whistle and, um, bells and rattles. The opening salvo is led by high, strong flute, which does not get on my good side, as you all probably know. It’s a long track, though not the longest on the album, at eight and a half minutes, and to be honest I find it pretty annoying.

The falsetto backing vocals don’t help, so we’re off to a good start. Oh, and having a drummer called Winky Abbinck doesn’t help either, even if that is his real name, which I doubt. But then, you never know: these crazy Dutch, huh? Some good guitar work then it descends into an atonal piano piece with a lot of booming echo and reverb in about the sixth minute. Drum solo now it would appear, more weird noises, and into “Timeless Dream” which begins with, yes you guessed it, flute again. At least it’s softer and slower this time, so perhaps this is a ballad? Actually at a mere three and a half minutes it could be an instrumental, and I think it may be. And I’m wrong; here come the vocals. I was however right about it being a ballad, very hippy-dippy, love everyone, embrace nature man etc.

The next one is in, I assume, Dutch, and I have no idea what it means, but it certainly has a lot of annoying horns in it. Interesting percussion idea, almost like the ticking of a clock with the sort of sounds Vangelis would use in his compositions a few years later - bouncing, squelching sounds, what appear to be high-pitched voices but are probably made on a guitar or something, and I would hazard that this is an instrumental this time, but given that it’s over seven minutes long and they could get vocals onto a song half that length even after it had run about half of that with none, I won’t. Does seem pretty improvisational though, a jam of sorts with everyone showing off what they can do. Well, I think there were only three in Ahora Mazda, one being the drummer, so I guess it’s the other two showing off their skills.

Ah, I’m pretty sure there will be no vocals now. It’s almost over, and takes us into the longest track, the nine-minute “Fallen Tree”, which leaves us in no doubt that there will be vocals, as they come in immediately, even before the music. As for that, it’s slow and seemingly strummed on an acoustic guitar for now anyway, very sparse, then the bass line kicks in and drums and (sigh) flute as the tracks picks up a little momentum and seems to be one of those finding-yourself type of things. Uh-huh. Pretty good guitar solo there. I guess the reason the song’s so long is that now we’ll have an extended instrumental jam. Yeah, flute’s getting in on the act now too. Really not at all bad, I have to say. Even the damn flute.

“Power” reminds me of Waits’s “Yesterday is Here”, that is until the flute comes in and kicks that idea up the arse. God damn I really hate flute, most of the time. And there’s a lot of it on this album. This appears to be a kind of science-fiction idea, and interestingly Ahora Mazda use some kind of effect on the vocal, which is, I think, at a time before such things as vocoders were available. That leaves “Fantasio”, a showcase for tabla, with jew’s harp (I guess) sounding a little like the old didgeridoo. Probably not really, but then I haven’t listened to too many recordings of jew’s harps. Actually, it sounds like when we used to put a plastic ruler on the desk in school and flick it so it vibrated along its length. Sax coming in there too like a bagful of cats to be honest, then a stronger, raunchier one and I guess we’re looking at another instrumental to close the album.

Favourite track(s): Timeless Dream/Fallen Tree
Least favourite track(s): Dolle Mina in Oranje Vrijstaat
Overall impression: Not bad. Very psych rock, but again can’t really call it prog rock. I’m sure lots of the ideas in it would be deemed progressive, and they do use interesting and different instruments, so from that point of view maybe yes, certainly more than Quill. Very competent album, good musicians. Wonder why they only made the one album?
Personal Rating:

11-30-2019, 09:33 AM	#183 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Ahora Mazda Artist: Ahora Mazda Nationality: Dutch Label: Catfish Chronology: Debut and only Grade: C Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero The Trollheart Factor: 0 Tracklisting: Spacy Tracy/Timeless Dream/Dolle Mina in Oranje Vrijstaat/Fallen Tree/Power/Fantasio Comments: No, not a prostitute in a small Japanese car (a-whore-in-a-Mazda, geddit? Shee! You people!) this is in fact another of those one-album bands, and they seem to have taken their name mostly from the Zoroastrian creator god, Ahura Mazda, changing only one letter and thereby ensuring forever that Google would return searches for their band name and/or only album with a snide “did you mean Ahura Mazda?” In other words, can’t you spell, idiot? Fucking Google. Anyway, somewhat like Quill above they seem to have been pretty rooted in the tropes of psych-rock, but they use a lot more and weirder instruments, such as tabla, jew’s harp, kalimba, slide whistle and, um, bells and rattles. The opening salvo is led by high, strong flute, which does not get on my good side, as you all probably know. It’s a long track, though not the longest on the album, at eight and a half minutes, and to be honest I find it pretty annoying. The falsetto backing vocals don’t help, so we’re off to a good start. Oh, and having a drummer called Winky Abbinck doesn’t help either, even if that is his real name, which I doubt. But then, you never know: these crazy Dutch, huh? Some good guitar work then it descends into an atonal piano piece with a lot of booming echo and reverb in about the sixth minute. Drum solo now it would appear, more weird noises, and into “Timeless Dream” which begins with, yes you guessed it, flute again. At least it’s softer and slower this time, so perhaps this is a ballad? Actually at a mere three and a half minutes it could be an instrumental, and I think it may be. And I’m wrong; here come the vocals. I was however right about it being a ballad, very hippy-dippy, love everyone, embrace nature man etc. The next one is in, I assume, Dutch, and I have no idea what it means, but it certainly has a lot of annoying horns in it. Interesting percussion idea, almost like the ticking of a clock with the sort of sounds Vangelis would use in his compositions a few years later - bouncing, squelching sounds, what appear to be high-pitched voices but are probably made on a guitar or something, and I would hazard that this is an instrumental this time, but given that it’s over seven minutes long and they could get vocals onto a song half that length even after it had run about half of that with none, I won’t. Does seem pretty improvisational though, a jam of sorts with everyone showing off what they can do. Well, I think there were only three in Ahora Mazda, one being the drummer, so I guess it’s the other two showing off their skills. Ah, I’m pretty sure there will be no vocals now. It’s almost over, and takes us into the longest track, the nine-minute “Fallen Tree”, which leaves us in no doubt that there will be vocals, as they come in immediately, even before the music. As for that, it’s slow and seemingly strummed on an acoustic guitar for now anyway, very sparse, then the bass line kicks in and drums and (sigh) flute as the tracks picks up a little momentum and seems to be one of those finding-yourself type of things. Uh-huh. Pretty good guitar solo there. I guess the reason the song’s so long is that now we’ll have an extended instrumental jam. Yeah, flute’s getting in on the act now too. Really not at all bad, I have to say. Even the damn flute. “Power” reminds me of Waits’s “Yesterday is Here”, that is until the flute comes in and kicks that idea up the arse. God damn I really hate flute, most of the time. And there’s a lot of it on this album. This appears to be a kind of science-fiction idea, and interestingly Ahora Mazda use some kind of effect on the vocal, which is, I think, at a time before such things as vocoders were available. That leaves “Fantasio”, a showcase for tabla, with jew’s harp (I guess) sounding a little like the old didgeridoo. Probably not really, but then I haven’t listened to too many recordings of jew’s harps. Actually, it sounds like when we used to put a plastic ruler on the desk in school and flick it so it vibrated along its length. Sax coming in there too like a bagful of cats to be honest, then a stronger, raunchier one and I guess we’re looking at another instrumental to close the album. Favourite track(s): Timeless Dream/Fallen Tree Least favourite track(s): Dolle Mina in Oranje Vrijstaat Overall impression: Not bad. Very psych rock, but again can’t really call it prog rock. I’m sure lots of the ideas in it would be deemed progressive, and they do use interesting and different instruments, so from that point of view maybe yes, certainly more than Quill. Very competent album, good musicians. Wonder why they only made the one album? Personal Rating: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018