Nine Feet Underground

The 25th October 2014 marks a decade since John Peel died of heart attack, at the age of 65, whilst on a working holiday in Peru.  I first heard of his death on that day on my way back home from Leeds.  When I got off the train at Kings Cross I had to walk to the tube station via the street (there were building works going on) and on my way I passed some 'Metro' stands and the headline caught my eye, so I picked up a copy and read the bad news.  A lot of words have already been written this month about John, his legacy and what he meant to many of those who met and worked with him.   I didn't ever meet John though did see him near Broadcasting House one evening in the 1990's - just didn't have the bottle to say hello. Apart from having influenced and broadened my musical horizons for more than 30 years – from teenager to father of three – he also introduced to some of the artists and bands I still love today.  This post is just a small tribute to John in

Ai Caramba! You know that the stigma – in some “cool” music journalist circles at least – associated with the musical genre termed “progressive rock” has finally been exorcised when one of the icons of hip-hop/jazz cool can release – get this – a concept album, with a psychedelic art cover, intended to be listened to as a single piece of music (all 38-odd minutes of it) and it be lauded across a broad spectrum of the music press. I present to you ‘You’re Dead!’ by Los Angeles jazz/fusion electro-hip-hop maverick Flying Lotus (real name Steven Ellison). Make no mistake ‘You’re Dead!’ is as unashamedly prog an album as you are likely to find anywhere this year.   It may be a jazz/fusion hip-hop psych album but prog it most certainly is. Like all musical genres – and prog is an incredibly broad genre – the music stands or falls on its own. So the question is, is ‘You’re Dead!’ any good? For starters, that’s a question for you to answer – after all one man’s meat is another ma