Current Issue

27. June 2014

The Who

THE WHO - The Story of Quadrophenia

"'Tommy' changed everything and saved us," Pete Townshend remembers in the introductory essay to the 2011 re-release of "Quadrophenia". Basically, The Who had been a singles band in the sixties; the sudden intellectualization of pop music had posed a new, unexpected challenge to its thought leader. "People suddenly wanted to hear 'serious' music from pop groups. By recording a rock opera - in our opinion just a sequence of good singles, but implying a cohesive and therefore more significant and challenging musical experience - we as a band have survived one of the most turbulent periods in rock history"

27. June 2014

Yes

YES - Between heaven and earth

We remember: On 4 June 2008, the comeback tour with Yes singer Jon Anderson was cancelled due to his health problems. Anderson had been hospitalized only a few weeks earlier for an asthma attack. The doctors had strongly advised him against concerts in the near future. Only three months later it became known that the Canadian Benoît David, singer of the Yes cover band Close To The Edge and the melodic prog band Mystery, would represent Anderson on shows in the future. And not only that: David recorded the surprisingly solid studio work "Fly From Here" with Yes 2011.

27. June 2014

The Black Keys

THE BLACK KEYS - Gold and platinum everywhere

And that makes guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach (35) really angry. He has the feeling that he will not be granted success, that mass compatibility will suddenly be something dirty and negative, and that as an artist he must not grow, but should always serve the same thing. Which is why he deliberately steps on the brakes to release the latest Keys epic, hardly gives interviews anymore and prefers to let the music speak. But for eclipsed he is to speak: He receives in his Easy Eye Sound Studios in downtown Nashville - and chooses the gallant middle course between verbal diplomacy and uninhibited vomiting.

eclipsed: How do you deal with the widespread opinion that the Black Keys have become too big and too successful in recent years - can you understand that?

27. June 2014

Blues Pills

BLUES PILLS - Everybody's Darling

For quite some time now Blues Pills have been an absolute favourite with critics. This is mainly due to the two front men. Elin Larsson, the Swedish singer, has an organ that goes to her heart's content - and to the men, even to other regions, if you listen to the urinal pool conversations during and after a Blues Pills gig. But the woman is not only an eye-catcher, her soulful voice, which is often compared to that of Janis Joplin or Inga Rumpf, gives the band a lot of leeway. This is also extended by the second main player, Dorian Sorriaux.

27. June 2014

Pink Floyd

PINK FLOYD - Two decades after The Division Bell

It was a shock. The first PR photos, published in March 1994, shortly before the release of "The Division Bell", showed an emaciated David Gilmour. He looked lean and hard, his grey hair shorn short. Perhaps he was marked by the fights that had raged between him and his former band colleague Roger Waters in the late eighties. Did the appearance of the sensitive guitarist show that he had worn himself out in the legal dispute that bore the traits of a private feud? That the economic aspects of the Pink Floyd enterprise were ultimately more important to him than the artistic side?

27. June 2014

Gentle Giant , Elton John

GENTLE GIANT - Sleeping Giant

These days "The Power And The Glory" is the first release in a hopefully long series of new editions of Gentle Giant's albums. In recent years there have been numerous, sometimes half-hearted attempts to bring the works back into the consciousness of prog fans. But now Steven Wilson - after King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Yes - has taken care of probably the most complex of all prog legends and made his remix skills available to her. The result is phenomenal. Suddenly you think you can hear every single one of the numerous instruments that make up a Gentle Giant song. eclipsed spoke to frontman Derek Shulman about the eventful career of a band that has gone their own way unperturbed.

eclipsed: When you started in 1966, you called yourself Simon Dupree & The Big Sound and became a pop band..

27. June 2014

Jeff Beck

JEFF BECK - The silent singer

Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards - all the great guitarists of the classical rock era have something in common without which a success story in the pop business would be inconceivable: hits. Jeff Beck has to pass. Not even a guitar riff for eternity like that of "Smoke On The Water" or at least a solo like the one in Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" he could claim for himself. The only hit he ever had was "Hi Ho Silver Lining!", an obscure 1967 beer-tent dark beer scarecrow, which producer Mickie Most had committed to make the guitarist a solo star.

27. June 2014

Saga

SAGA - Futuristic and virtuoso

In 1978, the debut album of the Canadian prog formation Saga featured a golden insect that has since become a kind of band mascot. The chapters, the mosaic stones that together form a science fiction march around Albert Einstein's preserved brain, were found non-chronologically on the Saga albums from 1978 to 2003. Futuristic design and virtuoso craftsmanship characterize Saga to this day. Michael Sadler and Ian Crichton report where the band stands in 2014.

eclipsed: "Sagacity" is a nice play on words with your band name. What do you see as the wisdom of the new album?