Rising Force
VIII
Aug 30, 1994
It's about time for another issue, don't you think! :-)
First, let me say that currently I am consulting with another company
in Silicon Valley, CA, so my access to my mail and newsgroups has been
limited, which is why it takes me a while to get back to you. Of course,
if any of you are in the bay area and would like to get together and talk
it up, let me know...
Second, a few weeks ago there was an unexplained (to me) surge in
subscriptions. I'm guessing one of you posted something about RF to
somewhere, so a big thanks goes out to you.
--Jens Johansson----
Third and most interesting, there is a Jens Johansson on the internet, who
claims to be THE JJ. He has been a source of interesting info; this issue
consists mostly of that.
The latest news from the Dream Theater mailing list is that keyboadist
Kevin Moore has left the band to pursue other musical interests, and this
Jens Johansson was the front runner for a replacement. But the latest is
that Jordan Rudes (hear him on Vinnie Moore's _Time Odyssey_) is the new
Dream Theather keyman.
From: Jens Johansson's FAQ
I've been deluged with mail since I got my account so hopefully this can
save us both some typing! :) (No, I don't mind getting mail, I just hate
answering the same old questions!) ;)
Q: What have you been doing since 1987?
A: I moved to New York City (from Los Angeles) in 1988 to settle down
with a girl. Left Yngwie's band in '89 after hearing the mix on the
Leningrad album - also, the record company (PolyGram) lost interest and
the money situation started to suck onions. (I essentially got sick of
the whole mess, it was time to move on -- a.k.a. "Musical Differences")
Joined Ronnie Dio's band DIO in 89. Did one album with them, and a tour
which incidentally Yngwie opened on. I've done other more mainstream
studio work. I've worked a lot with Jonas Hellborg (he's a great Swedish
bass player thart used to play with the Mahavishnu Orchestra) on
avant-garde records, some on his label, Day Eight. Been touring the
jazz/club circuit in Europe a lot with this kind of stuff. (It's a lot
of fun.) Recorded a very strange solo album. Recently finished a
made-for-Japan "band" album with a bunch of ex-Yngwie guys and some
other Swedes. (I go back to Sweden a lot to work on stuff.)
Q: Do you still do studio work? Producing? Engineering? Drinking?
A: Sure! Any reasonable suggestions will be considered carefully.
Q: What recent records would you recommend?
A: At this point I'd really recommend "The Johansson Brothers" -- the
made-for-Japan one. But it doesn't have US licensing yet though, you'd
have to find an imported one. It's out in Scandinavia and Japan. Be
warned, it's slightly poppy at times, but it also has three really
complex instrumentals. (the longest one is over 10 minutes) Another one
I quite like is the "E" album with "The Jonas Hellborg Group Featuring
Anders & Jens Johansson" that came out the fall of 93. (Distributed by
Celluloid/Music Sales here in the US.) The latter got a great write-up
in Keyboard Magazine (March/94).. sample quote: "Johansson has the right
combination of aggression, imagination, and command to shine in this
setting. Nothing trips him up..." -- and it gets even better. :) :) The
Ginger Baker one is kinda nice too, a little laid back though. (That's a
Day Eight/Celluloid/Music Sales job also.)
Q: How was Malmsteen to work with?
A: No problem for me there.. he's a stubborn guy though, and can be
quite blunt. He earned his bad reputation the hard way (by being truly
offensive), and he's very proud of the fact. Still one of the best guitar
players on the planet. I talk to him all the time... he's doing good,
just got married again and has a new record out. ("The Seventh Seal",
[do we forgive him for this faux-pas? :-) -Ig]
distributed by CMC in the US.)
And from email from Jens:
Sudio/Live '85 only came out in Japan. Thank God. I'd rather not [talk
about it], it's awful! :) It was a live recording of the third gig we
ever played as a band... I think some of the takes are the same as on the
"live 85" video, but it had some kind of studio stuff on the back side...
The 'solo album' is distributed only in Scandinavia and Japan, it's
fairly abstract, kind of noisy extremely progressive and complicated
techno-jazz, so the sales have been underwhelming. :)
Re equipment, same old crap. may get a Roland JD990 if I get the DT gig.
Otherwise, what I have now is roughly: A bunch of Korg polysixes (about 6
or 7 working ones, scattered about the whole planet actually), some are
MRK'ed and some are not. Oberheim: a Matrix12, a M-6, and also 2 M1000's
and a DPX-1. An old battered DX7. A Korg CX3. A Hammond L100. two 760
leslies. hmmm. a mini moog, a roland sh-101, an roland sh-7. Note, a lot
of the crappier stuff is in a locker in Sweden ATM. A clavinet. A roland
D-20. Recently got the EMU digital piano module (it's not bad for live
stuff actually.) Can't remember what I used on 'Fjaderlosa', I'm sure it
was a similar gathering of junk. Oh wait, I had a T3 then.
[Do you have any recommendations for fans of neocalssical? -Ig]
Hmmmm, there IS that "Johansson Brothers" record, but that's only out in
Japan so far... it's not 'pure' neoclassical by any means though.
Still working on US distribution..will get back to you if we get it together,
like, before we're senior citizens or so.. :)
And even more discogrophy info: [Record company info are in appendix -Ig]
* Silver Mountain: Shakin' Brains (RoadRunner/83)
Fairly awful. Early-80s Maiden/Rainbow/Purple-influenced record. Some
interesting keyboard bits here and there. :)
{Out of print. Appollon/FEMS in Japan may still print copies.}
* Rising Force (all on PolyGram):
Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (84)
A mostly instrumental neo-classical metal record. Was nominated for
a grammy in the US actually.
Studio/Live-85 (85 (obviously!))
Awful. Contains rough mixes from the "RF live in Japan" video and a
few cuts from Marching Out.
Studio/Live-85 (video)
Quaint. Rookie band does their third gig ever together in front of
a Japanese audience and camera crew.
Marching Out (85)
A little more straightforward than "YJM's RF", has vocals on most
songs. Has that typical neoclassical Swedish sound harmonically.
Trilogy (86)
More of an attempt at commercialism. New singer. Big budget. First
recording delivered under contract with Polygram USA (the others
were one-shots that went thru Polydor KK Japan IIRC.)
Odyssey (88)
Even more of an attempt at commercialism, but pretty cool anyway.
Joe Lynn Turner sang here. Good keyboard stuff too in places.
Live In Leningrad (89)
Awful sound. Everything overdubbed except
the drums (which you can't hear anyway).
Live In Leningrad (89) (video).
Better video. I had stupid Russian cigarrette [papiryoska] in mouth
because we were told it was for a Soviet-only broadcast, not a
video, and certainly not world-wide.. :P
Collection video
Does this exist? Not sure. If it does, it has a couple of
promotional videos on it too. Perhaps "I'll see the light", "You
don't remember" and "Heaven tonight".. and some Russian footage?
Also three MTV-style videos.
* Erik Borelius: Perfect Partners (EMI/87)
A soft-edge instrumental guitar record.
* DIO: Lock Up The Wolves (Warner Bros./90)
Good sound IMO, but not a lot of keyboards.
Plus two MTV-style videos..
* Jens Johansson: Fjaderlosa Tvafotingar (Amigo/91)
Instrumental record with four lengthy and complex instrumentals.
* DEADLINE: Dissident (Day Eight Music/91)
{featuring Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, Jonas Hellborg, Ayib Dieng,
and others}
Medium tempo ambient noise-techno world music mix.
* Steve Ross: Midnight Drive (Shrapnel/91?)
Really awful. Was rushed by idiot/studio owner that had made a bad deal
with Varney (a flat fee for the whole record.) All keyboards were done
in a few hours, and that included lots of stuff that was unison with
the Guitar that you can't hear. About a half hour was left for key
solos..
* Ginger Baker: Unseen Rain (DEM/92)
Interesting all acoustic record.
* RAF: Ode To a Tractor (DEM/92)
{Peter Broetzmann, Ayib, Laswell, and others}
Really weird but pretty cool. Some free-form stuff, some ambient stuff,
some strange stuff.
* Shining Path: No Other World (DEM/92)
Simulated thrash metal. The cover used to feature the pope with a Nazi
arm band, which caused a lot of problems in Germany. Mudbone Cooper
singing here.
* Anders Johansson: Shu-Tka (DEM/92)
{Jamal Evans, Ahmed Alamnaghasi, Aydin Ozgorot, Tesfalidet
Keflay and others}
Interesting mix of Arabic, North African, West African, Swedish, and
Industrial music.
* Snake Charmer: Smoke And Mirrors (FEMS-Japan/93)
Pop metal made for the Japanese market.
* Jonas Hellborg Group: "E" (DEM/93)
Complicated and heavy progressive funk using organ, bass, drums,
coffee. Dry production.
* The Johansson Brothers (Arctic Records/94 - ZERO Corp. in Japan)
Some good progressive cuts, some poppier cuts. Made mainly for Japan.
Found a good Swedish singer for this one by the name of Leif Sundin.
* "Deep Purple Tribute" (Shrapnel/94?)
A bunch of DP songs which people will 'guest star' on. (Yngwie amongst
others.)
* "Tony McAlpine's new one" (Shrapnel/94?)
Played a few solos on it when I was in Cotati for the DP thing. Good
stuff actually.
* Bulldog: The Return of Mr. Nasty (Arctic/94)
The music is a mix of rap, pop, blues, and death metal.
* "Pianosaurus" (Arctic/94?)
A solo piano record, still being recorded.
Future plans:
Johansson Brothers 2
<sizable batch of prog material to go in unnamed project>
<sizable batch of Fjadelosa-style stuff to be unloaded somewhere>
Thrash/rap record? <very tentative>
From Musician Jul '92:
He hails up a neoclassical opus from his hard disk, complete with drums
and simulated rythm guitar, that sounds good enough to be a record. It
might turn into one; he's thinking of doing a group of such tunes to
cash in on the visibility he gained with Yngwie, where he had the
distinction of providing an integral second lead voice alongside the
egomaniacal guitarist. If Yngwie was generous with Jens' solo time, the
generosity stopped there; though he quit years ago, the keyboardist says
he noticed at least one uncredited section of his own music on
Malmsteen's latest CD. And though his fusillades in that band often
pushed into the complex realm of heavy fusion, particularly on early
pieces like /Rising Force's/ "Far Beyond the Sun" and "Little Savage,"
Jens finds soloing fiendishly difficult to explain. He's trying to
overwhelm his ears rather than his hands.
"The physical barriers are there," he says, "but I tend to think it's
all the same, the psychological and the physical. There's so many
barriers that you shouldn't really separate them. But if you do, the
psychological's the worse, because you tend to like things you've heard
before and you have to make yourself do weird things. You learn to like
things more than you did when you first tried them out, but that's part
of the charm of developing."
--Yngwie news----
From: Jens
Yngwie just fired his drummer -- AGAIN! :) Joey Nevolo may replace
him. Other YM news -- he's in Japan ATM 'delivering a song' to some
wrestler or something like that. Weird. He'll be at foundations early
sept [playing] so we figured if I do end up doing the DT thing we'll meet
up there and do some heavy drinking. :)
[Jens isn't going :-( -Ig]
--Yngwie concerts----
From Ytsejam: [email protected]>
I just saw Yngwie last night in Pittsburgh at a small club, and he was
great, but his song selection sucked! 3 old songs all night, and guitar
solos out the ass. I'm sorry, but I would rather hear the whole Marching
Out album than listen to him just play and play and play... and him
with the Hendrix has got to go. He wants to be Vivaldi on guitar and
Hendrix at the same time, I think he should lose the hendrix. Also, if
you see the cover of his new album, his face is shadowed over the whole
thing, but his cheeks and chin don't fit. This is a good thing. Yngwie
is a fat bastard. His cheeks are huge and he has 3 chins. And with all
the eyeliner he had on, I thought I was at a Culture Club show. Enough
bitching, I did manage to get my Seventh Sign (his new album)
autographed, and went home with a couple of picks. Overall, not a bad
night.
From Hard Rock: Tim [email protected]>
Saw Yngwie in Milwaukee last night. Before the show, we saw him on his
tour bus out in the parking lot, but he didn't respond to our shouting
outside the window. Maybe those curtains were closed for a reason. :)
Here's the set list:
1) Never Die
2) Rising Force
3) Bad Blood
4) Guitar solo
5) Far Beyond The Sun
6) Forever One (intro'd by Yngwie showing his wife off to the crowd)
7) Bass solo
8) Pyramid Of Cheops
9) Drum solo
10) Seventh Sign
11) Guitar solo
12) Red House *
13) Guitar solo
14) You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget
E1) Guitar solo
E2) Black Star
E3) Hairtrigger
E4) Spanish Castle Magic *
E5) I'll See The Light Tonight
* Yngwie sang lead vocals
His solos featured sections of "Black Star," "Brothers," "Trilogy Suite,"
"Icarus' Dream Suite," and the string section of either "No Mercy" or
"Forever Is A Long Time." Along with all this, he did a bit too much
(for my taste) twiddling around. The new bassist, Barry (I forgot his
last name), was very impressive, and the drummer, Mike Terrana, was
extremely good but his solo was WAY too long.
On the whole, the show seemed choppy. In the band's defense, they were
having a lot of problems with the sound. But, there just seemed to be
too much dead air. Some of the audience members were disappointed at the
lack of older material. One guy even yelled out "Play something GOOD"
during a moment of dead air in one of Yngwie's solos. The encores really
kicked the how in the ass, though, so everyone left on a high note. Some
of my guitar-playing friends said Yngwie played sloppily the whole night,
but I couldn't really tell the difference. On the whole I'd give the
show a 7 out of 10, but that's my opinion. :)
--Lillian Axe----
I had a chance to listen to _Psychoschitzophrenia_ from Lillian Axe. This album
has less classical influences in the melodies, but Stevie Blaze still throws in
a few bits in the solos. For example, there is what sounds like a Bach cantata
in one solo in "Stop The Hate". My recommendation is to borrow it from a
friend, but it's not worth buying for neoclassical content.
--Farewell----
I thought this article would be of interest to this list:
From the net: [email protected]>
When you decide whether you like a particular song, what is more
important in your decision: the music or the lyrics?
Some people, when asked why they like metal, say "Because I can really
relate to the pissed-off lyrics" or "because I think it has an important
message."These are more lyric-oriented viewpoints, but they reflect a lot
of what I have observed is the more prevalent attitude.
In particular, much modern metal has focused on the aspect of anger.
People will like a band because they can express their anger very well,
but they don't have much to say about the music itself. I don't know
whether this is due to not caring about the music (as long as its angry,
dude!) or if most of these people are not articulate enough to explain
what it is they like about the music. It seems like they just want to
hear something fast, loud, and angry: three ingredients in the recipe for
rebelliousness. However, the elements of "fast, loud, and angry" can be
characteristics of the musical aesthetic. This attitude results in so
many soundalike, formulaic bands, that one finds it hard to call them
artistic, but here 'artistic' carries some connotations of innovation.
This lyric-oriented attitude is also evident in the proliferation of the
bands who play music only to propogate a particular agenda. They
disguise their propaganda as art by using an established genre as a
medium. In their case, the message is important, not the music. Often,
the message is presented as undisputable fact, when really it is composed
of unsupported statements that are intended to coerce or threaten.
To me, the music is more important than the lyrics, if only for the fact
that I prefer a band with good music and bad lyrics to a band with bad
music and good lyrics. I like to think of the vocals as another
instrument, so I am more concerned with how the lyrics are sung and how
the vocals mesh with the music than with what the lyrics are actually
saying. In the case of a band with good lyrics and bad music: I would
rather just read their lyrics as prose or poetry because the music
probably annoys me.
What do you think: are you more concerned with lyrics or music?
[Personally, I tend to ignore the lyrics in neoclassical music - the
voice becomes an insttrument. Generally I prefer instrumentals in this
vein. -Ig]
--Appendix----
Shrapnel Records, 20 Syl Dor Ln, Novato CA 94947-3800, (415)-898-5046, 0427 fax
Polygram records inc., 825 8th av, NY NY 10019, (212)-333-8000, 8245 fax
Warner bros., 3300 Warner bl., Burbank, CA 91510, (818)-846-9090, 953-3726 fax
Arctic Records, Simrishamnsgatan 12, 214 23 Malmo, Sweden, +46 40 970901, +46 40
161325 fax
Appollon/FEMS, 3-8 Yochomachi kama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Japan T
162, +81 35 379 3528, 3588 fax
Amigo Musik, Box 6058, 102 31 Stockholm, Sweden, +46 8 34 0195, 0698 fax
All Day Eight Music (DEM) product handled by Amigo in Scandinavia and
Cellulod/Music Sales/Day Eight in the US.
Day Eight US, 532 LaGuardia Pl #421, NY NY 10012
Celluloid/Music sales, 180 Varick st, NY NY, (212)-675-7168
ZERO corp., Jardin Moto-Azabu, 2-10-10 Moto-Azabu, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, Japan T
106, +81 35 42 02 255, 256 fax
