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Post-punk and progressive metal are my go-to music styles when I need energy.  As a teenager in the  eighties I missed the punk and progressive rock movements but I got hooked on the evolution of those. These are the styles of music I listened to during my formative years where music gets baked into your soul.  I have gone back to the roots of these styles (all the way to the delta blues of the 30s and 40s). I still looking for new music in those styles and only now and then I come across something that tickles my interest. This week I give you a beautiful example of brand spanking new progressive metal: Protest the Hero - Canary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-_62LT8A1Y Their new album Palimpsest will be out on June 19, 2020.  

We're in for a treat this week, consider this a historic document.  I started diving into the mysterious Beglian label called Holy Hole Music while searching for some background on "Ziggy".  Turns out that this label started in the early 80s and did quite while for a while during the short 'New beat' craze.  Strangely enough one of the owners was Serge Feys* who played in T.C. Matic with Arno.  All this below is a far cry from that. First up, Kamiel, the enigmatic singer and electronic music pioneer calling from the town of Ichtegem, Belgium.  I've got no idea why this guy didn't get world famous.  The comments indicate that the guy indeed made this song after his wife left him: Kamiel - Me Wuf Is Weg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-FsOHR6tVA I was really looking for the single "Eirobik" but alas that is nowhere to be found on the web. Next, is a horrible song from 1986 where you can start to hear some early electronic (house) music e

As we continue from last week's dive into 80s nostalgia I present to you something weird.  This is right about the moment we started seeing dance music in the pop charts.  One of the first to appear next to pop royalty at that time: think Madonna, Freddie Mercury, Prince, Peter Gabriel, Janet Jackson, Percy Sledge.  All these were in the top 30 pop chart at the same time together with Ziggy. This song was very popular at the time in the clubs and hence made it tot the charts.  It is an example of late Italo disco of the 80s and feels like the precursor to the big surge of Euro house and techno that would follow shortly.  Discogs puts this track in the New Beat category, but to me the bpm is too high for that.  The song was released on the Holy Hole Music label based in Varsenare, Belgium.  That label has released some weird stuff.  Will have to look further into that! I couldn't find the song on Spotify, luckily YouTube is becoming the biggest music archive ever. The the

Just found out this fantastic new song by Paradise Lost.  I am in an 80s revival mood and this made me think of the Sisters of Mercy meets The Cure on doom steroids.  I kind of dig this well produced Goth rock vibe.  Special mention for the lyrics which I very much enjoyed: "for the fire burns deep in mistrust" the new album Obsidian will be out soon. Paradise Lost - Ghosts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urugx_wSBy8 Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love (extended version - 1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-eVRyULhr4 The Cure - A Forest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xik-y0xlpZ0