Progressive music should live up to its name. In other words, it should progress and look forward rather than lazily gazing backward into retro-ville. With that in mind, it’s great to hear Falsense getting it right once again. Read more…
Here’s how to spot a professional band:
1) They throw themselves into their performance from note one, needing next to no time to get into it.
2) They make you want to move the moment they start playing. Your body tells you that you’re in the presence of greatness before your brain does.
3) Their playing is airtight, every instrument blending together flawlessly – and what’s more, it all looks effortless.
4) Their songs are performed with such passion and intensity that you cannot look away.
5) They actively communicate with each other onstage. Nobody is shut away in their own little bubble.
6) The band in question put in the effort regardless of audience size, venue, or time of day.
Even if I’d never heard of RedTower, Natassja Saliba, Rob Chapman, Rabea Massaad, Ben Minal, or Dave Hollingworth (the latter of whom were taking a break from recording Dorje’s debut album to session here), I’d have been in no doubt as to their calibre from the moment this low-key late afternoon showcase started. Read more…
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Over the past few years, crowdfunding has become one of the music industry’s most talked about topics. Adopted by acts as diverse as art-pop legend Amanda Palmer and Canadian tech-metallers Protest The Hero, crowdfunding has made headlines worldwide and opened many eyes to the power of direct-to-fan business models.
Ben Minal created one of the top Indiegogo campaigns of 2012 before he had even finished university. Beating a target of $7,500 nearly three times over, Ben was able to send his band Dorje (fronted by YouTube guitar star Rob Chapman and completed by guitarist Rabea Massaad and bassist Dave Hollingworth) on a two-week UK tour alongside The Drills, themselves fronted by regular Bon Jovi sideman and session legend Phil X. TMMP sat down with Ben Minal to talk about Dorje, crowdfunding, the future of the music business, his current projects and passions, and how a man ordering a pizza changed the course of four careers. Read more…
And we’re back! After major heart surgery, a round of Type-A flu, acute appendicitis, and many other less-than-fun experiences, The Musical Melting Pot is finally back online and ready to bring you even more epic new music.
Needless to say, the past several weeks have been brutal, difficult, and not a little dark – but there were moments of positivity and clarity scattered about as well. One such moment was the release of this EP – a Facebook news feed discovery that yielded many hours of blissful escape from windowless quarantine rooms and slowly healing surgical wounds. I owe a debt of gratitude to RedTower simply for existing; some intangible quality separated Afterall from its peers in terms of sheer immersive potential, providing many much-needed periods of relief. As TMMP’s archives demonstrate, my musical tastes are nothing if not eclectic; therefore, that this EP consistently topped the entire contents of my iCloud library and Spotify’s bottomless catalogue for seven full days is testament to the existence of some potentially imperceptible x-factor.
But what might it be? Read more…