Favourite rock/metal concept albums (Part 13) – In Contact by Caligula’s Horse

About a year ago, I chanced upon a song named Firelight by an Australian prog rock band called Caligula’s Horse. The lead singer’s stylized syllable emphasis, intonations and falsetto vocals made for a unique and delightful sound, with the sweeping guitar solos and distinct bass line all adding up to an appealing package. I quickly scoured through the full album, Bloom, and found another song called Daughter of the Mountain which I also liked. For some reason, I moved on to other music and forgot all about the group.

Last week, while browsing lists of best prog rock albums from the past decade, the band’s name popped up again. So this time I listened to four of the five albums in their discography, and came away a full-on fan. I started with their breakout 2013 concept album, The Tide, the Thief & River’s End, then moved on to listen properly to the aforementioned Bloom (from 2015) which featured a lighter, pop-oriented approach that had clearly appealed to me with those two songs from last year. Next came another concept album, In Contact (2017), and finally their 2020 release, Rise Radiant. Each album had a strong suit of songs, all showcasing Jim Grey’s amazing vocal range, lyrical depth, and remarkable technical proficiency. While parts of their early music reminded me of American rock band Incubus, they have evolved their own style since Bloom.

Eventually, the album that I kept coming back to was In Contact, for the nuance of the concept behind the album and the breadth of song-writing quality across all tracks.

Caligula’s Horse in 2017, from left to right: Josh Griffin (drums), Adrian Goleby (guitar), Jim Grey (vocals), Sam Vallen (lead guitar), Dave Couper (bass)

Artist: Caligula’s Horse (referred to as C-Horse by fans), comprising Jim Grey (lead vocals), Sam Vallen (lead guitar and all other instruments), Adrian Goleby (guitar), Dave Couper (bass) and Josh Griffin (drums). Guest saxophone solo on Graves by Jørgen Munkeby.

Album: In Contact (2017)

Narrative type: Metaphysical musings

Album theme/concept: An exploration of human creativity; the motivations, hopes, triumphs and tragedies of artists.

Best songs: Will’s Song (Let the Colours Run), The Hands Are the Hardest, Love Conquers All, Songs for No One, Graves, Atlas – revisited (bonus track).

What makes it special: Jim Grey’s soaring, frequently plaintive, falsetto-fueled vocals differentiate the C-Horse sound from that most contemporary rock and metal bands. The lyrics (written by Grey) have real depth and the music written by lead guitarist Vallen is technically complex, featuring a tightly interlocked rhythm section, comprising Adrian Goleby’s machine-gun guitar riffs, Josh Griffin’s precision drumming and Dave Couper’s varied bass playing styles.

The 10 tracks on the album are clustered under four chapters, To The Wind, The Caretaker, Ink and Graves, each of which describe a different artist.

The four songs in the first chapter, To The Wind, follow the fate of an alcoholic painter in decline, who must fight his addiction to save himself, or succumb to the demands of fans and indulge his weakness to produce one more great piece. The album’s second track, Will’s Song, is a standout, exploring the painter’s self-imposed pressure to excel in his craft; fast-paced drumming and a staccato guitar riff bookend the verses, but the real standout is the vocal-guitar-drum combination that accompanies the post-chorus line: “Let the colours run!“; what a pity it only appears twice on the song. The next track, The Hands Are the Hardest, is a mellow, melodic tune that begins with a distinctive riff and features vocals that recall ’80s American singer Christopher Cross. The song perfectly captures the theme of the chapter, depicting how the painter’s alcoholism is gradually robbing him of his artistic abilities. The chapter closes off with a short epilogue, the softly sung, Love Conquers All, as the artist thinks back to his life and his decisions: “If only I had the time, If only these hands were mine”…Jim Grey’s heartfelt delivery of these plaintive words gets me every time.

The second chapter, The Caretaker, about a musician who wants his songs be used for good, contains two songs. The first is an anthemic track that is sure to be popular in live performances, Songs for No One, with Grey’s falsetto reaching new highs in the chorus. The second track, Capulet, is good, but relatively speaking, not one of my favourites from the album.

The third chapter is Ink, and contains three songs which tell the story of a cynical poet named Ink (modeled on the fictitious gonzo journalist, Spider Jerusalem, from the Transmetropolitan comics) who works with his brother to improve the corrupt cyberpunk city they live in. Many reviewers have commented on the 3-minute spoken word track Inertia and the Weapon of the Wall, a piece of poetry written by Jim Grey. It takes some courage for a rock band to do this, as they are sure to be labeled as pretentious by some critics. I am not a fan of poetry, so I typically skip this track whenever I listen to the album, but admittedly, it’s an interesting recording, with the passionately delivered monologue spiced up with whispers and sound effects to accentuate key phrases. The third song in the chapter, The Cannon’s Mouth, is perhaps the heaviest track in the album, signposted by a hulking, oh-too-short, goosebump-inducing riff after the first chorus and another one after verse 5 at the end of the song.

And that brings us to the final chapter, Graves, which contains one song, a 15-minute-long opus of the same name, that I just can’t get enough of. The song is about a sculptor who is plagued by anxiety and the delusion that there is a rival stealing his work. It is constructed of four distinct parts, subtitled Faint Heart, A Few Peaceful Years, The Boy and The Broken Wheel and Hands Shape Stone. The opening riff of Faint Heart is truly cinematic and sets the tone for the rest of the section, with the urgency of the three verses conveying the sculptor’s anxiety, followed by a beautiful musical interlude that reminds me of some of Robert Fripp’s best solo work. This brings us to A Few Peaceful Years and the poignantly sung, deeply emotional chorus:

"We are the fire that whispers our mother's words
Help me, love (Help me to finish it)
We are the soil that joy gave form, you, oh
We are the dream and these are my father's hands
Help me, love (Help me to finish it)
We are the soil that joy gave form, ooh
Help me finish it"

The third section, The Boy and The Broken Wheel, switches down the pace further with an a capella bridge, leading to three beautifully written verses, before ending with the “We are the fire…” chorus from the previous section. The final section features a short saxophone solo by Swedish musician, Jørgen Munkeby. By this time, at the 12-minute-mark, I’m so emotionally exhausted that I use the climax crescendo to recover and slowly tune out, as the opening riff comes back to close out this amazing track. Graves was originally written to be released as an EP, and apparently was an arduous effort, taking two months to write and record, and leaving Sam Vallen creatively spent and dealing with writer’s block afterwards. It’s well worth the effort and no doubt will become one of the defining tracks of the band’s career.

The album ends with a bonus track, a re-recording of Atlas, a song from their 2013 album, The Tide, the Thief & River’s End. Having heard this new version first, I prefer its fuller production values to the original version. The lovely, wistful chorus feels like it could carry you away on the wind:

"The ocean at my window
Here, here I find myself again
All broken bones and eyes that wear their age
Like going home is etched on every page"

Given this was the first album for Adrian Goleby and Josh Griffin (they replaced Zac Greensill on guitar and Geoff Irish on drums respectively from Bloom), the cohesion between the musicians is extraordinary, as if they have been playing together all their lives. It’s been three years since their last album Rise Radiant came out (also, extremely enjoyable), and I wait with bated breath for their next release.

Here are the other bands/albums featured in this series:-

A Criterion Channel journey, films #91-100

This is the tenth entry in my series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve been watching on the Criterion Channel streaming service since September 2021. I watched these ten films in April 2022, which means I a a year behind in writing about them! Whereas the majority of films I’ve watched on Criterion have been from the mid-twentieth century, there were coincidentally a number of contemporary films in this set.

The films include a French-Belgian comedy-drama, a Japanese anthology about love, a Danish drama that won the Oscar for best foreign film, a Mexican film that delves into the little-known lives of hotel maids, the 1978 adaptation of a famous Agatha Christie novel, the sequel to one of the best-known blaxploitation films of all time, an early directorial effort by celebrated Italian screenwriter Pier Paolo Pasolini, a classic American romantic drama from the pre-Code era, a Palm d’Or winner from Romania, and the screen adaptation of a classic Jack London novel.

My Worst Nightmare / Mon pire cauchemar (2011): If you are looking for a lightweight film featuring heavyweight actors, this movie is worth your time. 16-time Cesar nominee, Isabelle Huppert, pairs off with Belgian multi-hyphenate, Benoît Poelvoorde, in this pleasing but formulaic comedy-drama. It seems to me that Huppert typically choses to portray characters who are stern, cold or uptight, and that’s certainly the case here, as she plays a perfectionist art dealer Agathe, who lives with her son and her partner in a wealthy Parisian district. Into their lives arrives Patrick (played by Poelvoorde) a fun-loving, skirt-chasing, building contractor whose irreverence and free-thinking approach upends Agathe’s orderly lifestyle. Director/co-scriptwriter Anne Fontaine introduces some twists and turns to keep this typical “clash of the classes” romance from becoming too predictable. Fontaine previously worked with Poelvoorde in the 2005 drama In His Hands and more recently, was widely celebrated for the 2016 film, The Innocents.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy / Gūzen to Sōzō (2021): Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi hit the headlines in 2021 for his slow-burning and thoughtful Oscar-nominated drama, Drive My Car. It was actually his second feature release that year, with the first being this engrossing three-part anthology spotlighting three different female characters experiencing intensely emotional interactions with other people. In Episode 1, Kotone Furukawa plays a model who discovers that her best friend is in love with her ex-boyfriend. In Episode 2, Katsuki Mori plays a woman who agrees to participate in a deception to help out a friend, but her actions have unintended consequences. In Episode 3, Fusako Urabe plays a woman who is at a train station and has a chance encounter with an old school classmate; their reminiscing leads to the unexpected dredging of long-buried, unresolved feelings. Hamaguchi does not take sides in his storytelling, his lens is an objective watcher of people, using a filmmaking style hewing closely to Dogme 95, the now discarded Danish filmmaking movement which eschewed the use of props, background score or artificial lighting in films. It allows us to focus entirely on the conversations and emotions of the characters; well worth the effort of a patient viewer.

In a Better World / Hævnen (2010): Celebrated Danish director Susanne Bier won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film for this fascinating story that straddles two worlds connected by its pacifist protagonist’s response to violence. Anton (played by Mikael Persbrandt) splits his time between a Sudanese refugee camp and his native Sweden. He witnesses unimaginable horrors inflicted by Sudanese warlords on innocent civilians, but is compelled by his principles to offer his services to both victims and perpetrators. His furloughs home are not stress-free either, as his young sons find it difficult to reconcile their father’s pacifism to their first-hand experience of bullying. From this helpless situation, Susanne Bier and her frequent writing collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen, bring Anton’s narrative threads together to a satisfying resolution. Jensen incidentally directed the entertaining 2020 revenge drama Riders of Justice starring Mads Mikkelsen. In the past decade, Bier has expanded her footprint into some impressive English-language thrillers including the post-apocalyptic Bird Box and two mini-series, The Night Manager and The Undoing.

The Chambermaid / La camarista (2018): Much as the maid Cleo occupied the moral and narrative center of Alfonso Cuarón’s award-winning Mexican drama Roma in 2018, another film from the same country in the same year took the audience on an insightful journey into the life of a hotel housekeeper. Lila Avilés graduated from small acting roles to directing short films to this extraordinary feature directing debut. The film could easily be a companion-piece to HBO’s The White Lotus anthology series, as it lays bare the lives of the privileged as seen through the eyes of the hotel support staff. Gabriela Cartol portrays housekeeper Eve, toiling to cater to the exacting whims of the hotel management and its wealthy customers, while striving to make incremental improvements in her own life during her off-duty hours, many of which are spent in the bowels of the hotel; one can’t help but think of the Eloi and the Morlocks in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. With absolutely no melodrama, Cartol’s stoicism quietly tugs at your heartstrings; well worth the watch.

Death on the Nile (1978): I am an unabashed fan of actor-director Kenneth Branagh‘s two sumptuously produced Agatha Christie adaptations – 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and 2022’s Death on the Nile. Having watched the latter upon its release on Netflix in early 2022, I was curious to know how the 1978 version compared. As with all Agatha Christie adaptions past and present, this film too boasts an all-star cast, with Peter Ustinov playing Poirot, supported by Mia Farrow, David Niven, Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury and cultural icon Jane Birkin. The only characterization that I found annoying was Indian actor I.S. Johar’s portrayal as the obsequious Mr. Chaudhury. Of course, with source material of this calibre, the film is wholly serviceable, but I must admit that the eye-popping production design of Mr. Branagh’s modern adaptation (along with the equally noteworthy cast) has an advantage, and its his version which pops up in my visual memory when the name comes up. The 1978 version was directed by John Guillermin, one of the go-to directors for big-budget adventure films of that era, having helmed The Towering Inferno and the King Kong remake in the preceding four years.

Shaft’s Big Score (1972): Confident in the success of Shaft, their seminal 1971 blaxploitation film, MGM had already contracted writer Ernest Tidyman, director Gordon Parks and star Richard Roundtree to return a year later with another adventure featuring the tough-talking, hard-loving private detective, John Shaft. The result is Shaft’s Big Score, which like all sequels has more of everything, but naturally loses the spontaneity of the original. However, the film delivers on the strength of Roundtree’s charisma, the action set pieces (cars, boats, helicopters), the big brassy 70s score and of course the obligatory nudity; in fact, the character was marketed as a brash American version of James Bond. In between the two Shaft films, writer Tidyman had won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The French Connection, with which the Shaft sequel shares a few action beats. One year later, John Guillermin directed the next entry, Shaft in Africa, after which the character moved to the small screen with a TV series and TV movies.

Mamma Roma (1962): Pier Paolo Pasolini was a giant of Italian 20th century art and politics, with a body of work that spanned novels, poetry, essays, theatre and film. He co-wrote the screenplay for the Fellini classics, Nights of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita, and other well-regarded dramas such as Il bell’Antonio and Girl in the Window, before launching his own directorial career in the early 60’s. I had read so much about Pasolini and enjoyed watching the aforementioned films which he had written, so I was looking forward to watching something directed by him. I had also heard a lot about the film’s star, Anna Magnani, known for portraying boisterous, earthy characters. That’s certainly the case in Mamma Roma, in which she plays a prostitute who leaves her profession so that she can bring up her teenage son in a more wholesome environment. As with most Italian neorealist films, one shouldn’t expect a happy ending. Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the film with the unsympathetic characters (particularly her son) and the depressing subject matter putting me off, which was surprising, given I’ve felt intense empathy while watching many other neorealist tragedies.

Morocco (1930): Marlene Dietrich shot to fame with The Blue Angel directed by Josef von Sternberg in 1930. The film’s success in Germany brought her to the attention of Paramount studios, who put her under contract, and quickly paired her opposite Gary Cooper in Morocco, with the same director. Morocco thus became the first Marlene Dietrich English language film released in the US in 1930, and created the famous on-screen Dietrich persona of an exotic and daring femme fatale (the English language version of The Blue Angel was released in the US the following year). Dietrich was cast as a night club singer in both these films, giving her the opportunity to show off her singing and performing talents. In particular, the night club sequence in which Dietrich performs wearing a man’s formal evening attire and kisses a female member of the audience was considered scandalous for its time (this was before the Hays Code of self-censorship was adopted by Hollywood in 1934). The film is set during the late 1920’s in Morocco and focuses on a unit of the French Foreign Legion, coming into town after a military campaign. Gary Cooper plays a hard-living, womanizing soldier in the unit, and needless to say, sparks fly when he meets Dietrich’s character at a local night club. Their relationship is complicated by romantic entanglements that each of them has with other partners on the side. Various twists and turns ensue putting their relationship in jeopardy before the inevitable melodramatic ending.

Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich in Joseph von Sternberg’s *Morocco* (1930)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days / 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile (2007): I have had this film on my watchlist for years, ever since it won the Palm d’Or at Cannes. The film is set in an unnamed Romanian town in 1987 during the period of communist rule; at this time, the country had an abortion law, Decree 770, that made it very difficult to get a legal abortion. Naturally, a black market emerged for illegal procedures, resulting in medical complications and thousands of fatalities over the years. These are the circumstances under which a young woman Găbița (played by Laura Vasiliu) finds herself pregnant, and enlists the help of a close friend Otilia (played by Anamaria Marinca) to find a doctor willing to perform the abortion. The two women then enter a downward spiral involving bad luck and bad people. I struggle to find the right words to describe their harrowing experience, and the uncaring social underbelly that exploits their need. This hard-hitting drama is more relevant today than ever before, and a must-watch for any cinephile or student of the human condition. Director Cristian Mungiu‘s career will probably be defined by this film, although he has continued to win awards for his subsequent efforts like Beyond the Hills (2012), Graduation (2016) and R.M.N. (2022).

The Sea Wolf (1941): Jack London’s classic 1904 adventure story got its fifth screen adaptation, this time helmed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros. studio. Powerhouse actor, Edward G. Robinson, is aptly cast as sadistic boat captain Wolf Larsen, a learned man with the heart of a beast, who makes life hell for his crew. Larsen’s boat picks up a man and a woman from a sinking ship, and the captain incorporates them into his on-going psychological games, driving his crew further to the edge of mutiny. British actress Ida Lupino and character actor Alexander Knox play the two hapless rescuees, Ruth Webster and Humphrey Van Weyden, while John Garfield switches on his standard on-screen brooding persona as George Leach, one of the mutineers. The film adaptation deviates from the original novel to dial up the adventure angle, and creates a romantic relationship between Ruth and George, whereas none exists in the novel. I can’t say that I “enjoyed” the film, as there was a bit too much melodrama and negativity for my liking. Director Curtiz had previously delivered several Errol Flynn hits such as Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Adventures of Robin Hood and his next film Casablanca, would make him a Hollywood legend for all time.

Here are the links to the previous thumbnails: #1-10, #11-20, #21-30, #31-40, #41-50, #51-60, #61-70, #71-80 and #81-90.

Favourite rock/metal concept albums (Part 12) – The Dear Hunter’s Antimai

Every now and then, I come across an album that completely blows my mind, as it seems perfect in almost every way. The last such album I listened to was The Mars Volta’s self-titled 2022 release. A few days ago, I was browsing a list of albums on my Spotify home screen and randomly clicked on one with an interesting cover design (I am eternally grateful to their recommendation engine for many such chance discoveries).

The album, Antimai, was a July 2022 release from an American prog rock group called The Dear Hunter. I was surprised that I had never heard of them, considering they have been around since 2006 and that almost all of their nine studio releases have been concept albums; I regularly conduct searches for “best concept albums of the year/decade” or “latest concept album releases”, and somehow hadn’t picked up their name from the search results (although I subsequently validated that they do show up!). Although they clearly have a loyal fan following, and their releases are covered in dedicated sites like The Prog Report and Prog Archives, it’s a crime that the band are not better known, given the quality of their music.

The main body of their work is a series of concept albums known as the Act Series, with five albums released between 2006 and 2016, and the sixth and final instalment still awaited. Antimai is the second album in a new narrative series, whose story kicked off with the 2021 EP, The Indigo Child and an accompanying short sci-fi film called “The Indigo Child: Prologue: Cycle 8” | DUST.

From left to right, **The Dear Hunter**: Robert Parr (backing vocals/guitar), Maxwell Tousseau (backing vocals/guitar/keyboards), Casey Crescenzo (lead vocals/guitar), Nick Sollecito (bass) and Nick Crescenzo (drums)

Artist: The Dear Hunter, comprising Casey Crescenzo, (lead vocals, guitar, organ), his brother Nick Crescenzo (backing vocals, drums & percussion), Maxwell Tousseau (backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Robert Parr (backing vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Nick Sollecito (bass). Additionally a horn section features on several tracks.

Album: Antimai (2022)

Narrative genre: Post-apocalyptic fantasy/science fiction

Album theme/concept: The fictional city of Antimai is built in concentric circles, with each ring occupied by a separate caste and organized in a social hierarchy. Each song represents one of the eight rings of the city.

Best songs: Ring 8 – Poverty, Ring 7 – Industry, Ring 6 – LoTown, Ring 5 – Middle Class, Ring 3 – Luxury, Ring 2- Nature.

What makes it special: Listening to Antimai is like drinking a new wine and having your taste buds tickled by notes from old favourites. I could get hints of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois, The Grateful Dead’s Terrapin Station, Mayer Hawthorne and even late 80’s Miami Sound Machine. The tracks have the shifting song structure that is typical of prog rock, but are also infused with elements of Jazz, R&B, funk, Caribbean and Latin rhythms. All of this is expressed through lush orchestration and elevated by delightful vocal harmonies.

The album kicks of with a song about the outermost ring of the city of Antimai; the track is named Ring 8 – Poverty, and the opening bars felt like the soundtrack to a thriller film; in fact I started visualizing these notes playing over the tense opening scene of the 1958 Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil.

Ring 3 – Luxury is perhaps the most ambitious track on the album and is essentially a two-part song, with the first part titled Hall of the Guides, kicking off with spoken verse like in a stage musical, which then segues into a melodic song. But the real beauty is the second half, titled Cream of the Crop, which features a delightful nine-note riff before each verse, played on a marimba or xylophone (or perhaps it’s a Caribbean steel drum).

My favourite track is Ring 2 – Nature, which I have listened to more times than I can count. I love it for its heartfelt melody and evocative, and sometimes playful lyrics:

“Then there arose those intent on moving
And like a miracle, they kept improving
Then change begat the tail
begat the fin begat the fist
Strength enough to subsist”

In my listing of Best songs, I’ve excluded only 2 out of the 8 tracks, and that’s only because those two don’t appeal to me quite as much as the other six, in a relative sense. Many other reviewers consider the closing track Ring 1 – Tower, as one of the best on the album.

Antimai is the gift that keeps on giving, as every subsequent round of listening reveals new sounds embedded in the many layers of music. I look forward to its sequel titled Sunya which is due out some time this year.

Here are the other bands/albums featured in this series:-