Anyone dig early Renaissance?

I haven't heard that one yet but the three albums prior to it (Prologue, Ashes are Burning, and Turn of the Cards) are all very good. "Sounds of the Sea" is one of the most beautiful songs ever made if you ask me!

froggy you will flip your fucking nut over the opening track. rest is fucking beautiful too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEZ5tu1RIJU

listened to Ashes Are Burning too - again, opening track the highlight, overall quality a bit lower if anything - this one's sheer fucking lysergic insane gorgeousness the whole way through

Scheherezade is an all time favorite album of mine; but I do have a complaint that the end of the opening track feels like a letdown after the incredible opening few minutes.

nah man, that song is just destroying me from start to finish, the mounting organ in the fadeout is as fine a return to the crystalline ambience of the first vocal section (which I agree is one of the greatest things I've heard) as could be managed with the drums unlikely to back out again

it's becoming one of my favourite songs

yeah, 'a trip to the fair' is genuinely magic in a way few songs are. up there in the pantheon.

Forgotten to mention that Faith & Disease did a really great abridged cover of "Ashes Are Burning".

Did anyone hear their recent EP and album before Dunford died? I think the EP was only available on the website and tours.

Also, anyone heard Annie Haslam's solo stuff?

Their discography gets quite confusing after the 70's. I'm still interested in hearing the band Illusion which is supposedly a reformed version of the original band that apes the Haslam-era band (as good a "snake eating its own tail" moment as you're likely to find). I've read some reviews of their latest album and it seems that people like it though Dunford's passing casts a shadow on it.

I heard that they needed kickstarter to fund it.

Yes, their discography goes all over the place later with live albums and stylistic gamble studio albums. To make things more complicated there is also three further bands called Michael Dunford's Renaissance, Renaissance Illusion and Renaissant. But I think all of them have one album each.

froggy ffs listen to that album/song

yeah I'll try to remember to load it up on the iPod. made myself a note but must've forgotten it. I recall hearing one album that I remember being very ambitious and neat but I think that was Turn of the Cards

sorry for the delay, you're right it totally rules. "trip to the fair" and of course the monster title track are definitely my favorites. I'm genuinely impressed by how gothic this band got.

hurrah!

yeah I listened to some of the stuff before this album and it didn't speak to me quite as much. think they discovered this particular intersection of pure psych bliss and melancholy that few have mined well

Turn of the Cards is similar, I'd give that one another shot. Ashes are Burning is also very good but it's a little more poppish and melodic, not really dark at all. Outside of that they have some individual tracks I really like - "Sounds of the Sea" on Prologue is just gorgeous, as is "Island" (from the debut, with Jane Reif). Dunno if any of their albums after Scheherezade are worth getting. I'm curious as to how the "New Wave" Renassiance sounded even if nobody has anything nice to say about it.

It's not quite as "new wave" and actually not quite as dire as I remember, not having heard it for 30 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr9iIjI7m_s

I absolutely love this section of Scheherazade. It sounds good just as a standalone song too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBjR_5D-96o

yes, it's amazing. scheherazade is one of the great 1970s albums

dope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB-UXivqqAY