KRAFTWERK - The Origin of "The Man-Machine"

From Golem to Frankenstein - the machine man is a vision that has moved people for centuries. The German formation Kraftwerk made the dream of the man-machine come true. Forty years ago, her groundbreaking work appeared under this name, whose influence not only radiated to musicians, but also immediately infiltrated the DNA of burgeoning musical styles in order to pass on his own heritage.

LAZULI - "We are the opposite of the heady."

Lazuli are among the most interesting representatives of contemporary prog. For years, the Southern French have been moving musically at a consistently high level with their very own style. Their current tour also leads them to their loyal German fan base.

Only a few days before the tour of Lazuli starts we meet a rather excited Dominique Leonetti. In a conversation with eclipsed, the singer and guitarist talks about the new album "Saison 8", intuition in songwriting, the future of prog and the warmth of German fans.

eclipsed: Your new album "Saison 8" tells eight little episodes from life. How did you come up with that idea?

AURI VERSUS NIGHTWISH - Night Wishes and Morning Red

The Finnish musician Tuomas Holopainen obviously loves not only the night, but also the dawn: On the one hand his symphonic metal band Nightwish is on tour again and has a career retrospective in his luggage with the double album "Decades". On the other hand, the keyboarder, together with his wife, folk singer Johanna Kurkela, and Nightwish bagpipe player Troy Donockley, founded the new band Auri and released a debut album.

Mythological themes have always been an integral part of Nightwish. The same applies to Tuomas Holopainen's new trio, which was formed during a long creative break of the band: The name Auri, derived from Aurora, the Latin expression for dawn, comes from a creature from Patrick Rothfuss's fantasy trilogy "The Royal Murderer Chronicle". For Holopainen, the Ethnopop project proved to be a means of regenerating his creative resources. In an interview he and his wife Johanna Kurkela tell how they finally put an old musical dream into action.

DEEP PURPLE 50 - Part 2: The Guitarists

Deep Purple is a band for guitarists. With Deep Purple you can and must become a hero as a guitarist. Ritchie Blackmore created the template and filled it with life like no other rock guitarist. Huge footsteps a Tommy Bolin couldn't grow into because of the drugs. And a role that Joe Satriani, despite all his brilliance on the guitar, did not want to accept. Even on Steve Morse, after two and a half decades in the band, the mighty shadow of Blackmore still falls.

Ian Gillan likes to call the guitarists who work for Deep Purple "mandolin players". This trivialization has a method, because only in this way can the frontman bear the fact that Purple's eyes and ears are always on the guitarist. A good Purple song is always judged by how memorable the guitar riff is and how virtuoso the solo is.

Track premiere: SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI "Continuum"

SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI return after more than a decade with their second longplayer "Continuum"! This second album was originally scheduled for release in 2009 after the band worked with Karma To Burn and Yawning Man.

A short and concise explanation by bassist Nick Hannon: "We were going to record an album in 2009, but that record went onto become the Yawning Sons debut so instead we worked on a much darker reflection of the band for the second album."

The album will be released in June 2018 via H42 Records. Listen here exclusively to a first track...

Track premiere: MR. BISON "Holy Oak"

Classic/Stoner rockers are MR. BISON releasing their new album "Holy Oak" on May 25th. Fans of Captain Beyond or Motorpsycho can listen up here!

The band to the video:

Holy Oak, the song we have chosen for the video is the perfect synthesis of the entire album, it combines powerful riffs which have always been our trademark to a more psychedelic aspect, which is the true novelty of our last job. For the video we turned to Simone Addis, who in his last works impressed us with the use of graphic effects such as Parallax, a defect of perspective, and Puppet for the animation of photos! The video shows the power and sacredness of nature, which finds its first principle in the oak tree, anthropomorphized and understood as a protective divinity.

KING CRIMSON - In the steady river

Hardly any band reinvents itself with such consistency as King Crimson. Over the last five decades, band monarch Robert Fripp has managed to keep his constantly changing group of musicians on a common goal and thus keep the English rock institution relevant. The live formation with three drummers, at first sceptically eyed, celebrates great success, and so King Crimson go on their longest tour in 15 years in 2018.

Interviews are given by Robert Fripp, 71, now almost none. What's the matter with you? I don't know. On the other hand, the musicians, who can currently call themselves members of King Crimson under his aegis, are all the more willing to provide information. Above all singer and guitarist Jakko Jakszyk is a friendly contemporary who talks about his past as a crimso fan. Together with bassist Tony Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto we also talked to him about what it means to be part of this fabulous formation.

THE DECEMBERISTS - Recycling

How time flies. It's been four years since the Decemberists enchanted their fans with "What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World". But some songs of the last album last so long that it didn't feel that long at all, especially since the waiting time was shortened very profoundly with the EP "Flora Songs" and the side project "Offa Rex". On their new CD, the band from Portland, Oregon, is now completely repositioning themselves. Not personnel, but sound. The songs go away from folk and approach the glamrock of the Seventies between T.-Rex and Gary Glitter, reminding partly of Giorgio Moroder and sometimes of well produced pop mainstream. From time to time the usual Folk-Esprit also flashes up. Colin Maloy is always good for a surprise.