Prog Contest Tournament of Champions: The Final Round Results (Yay!)

Well, this was it. Each of our contestants fought through and won their own Prog Rock (or Psych Rock) contest to get here. Then they fought their way to this final round. Three of them were left standing. Users were asked to vote by ranking the three finalists from 1 to 3.

Here was my vote:

1. Universal Totem Orchestra - Mathematical Mother

2. T2 - It'll All Work Out in Boomland

3. Landberk - One Man Tells Another

In the end, I loved UTO and their operatic female vocalist the most. I voted for T2 second, because although I generally like prog rock better than psych rock, the T2 LP was extremely well done, and T2's song "In Circles" was one of the best in the tournament. As for the Landberk LP, while there were bits I liked, overall, it just didn't really speak to me.

And as it happened, the group in general agreed with my assessment. The final point totals were:

1. UTO: 37 pts

2. T2: 30 pts

3. Landberk: 29 points

And so the overall winning album of the Sputnik Music Prog Rock Tournament of Champions was Mathematical Mother by the Universal Totem Orchestra.

Prog Contest Tournament of Champions: The Final Round

So yes, we have not two, but three albums moving on to the Final Round of our Prog Contest Tournament of Champions, because, as Friday explains it, "The Seni-Finals were only semi-effective." All voters are asked to rank their choices from 1 to 3. Here's how it looks:

T2
It'll All Work Out in Boomland

"Rocks hard, psychs hard, even progs a bit with some really beautiful moments scattered throughout" -MeatSalad

Youtube: https://youtu.be/I1cKMIfcumg

vs.

Landberk
One Man Tells Another

"Album is about dark atmospheres. The music is soaked through in melancholy and sadness with an overpowering sense of beauty." - Jethro42

Link: https://musicmp3.ru/artist_landberk__album_one-man-tells-another.html#.Vs8wckn2a1s

vs.

Universal Totem Orchestra
Mathematical Mother

"The 3rd outing from this adventurous Italian band delivers a sleek, dark sound characterized by sensitive operatic vocals, sprinklings of funky fusion, and miles upon miles of rock-solid, infectious groove. Ambient segues recalling Dead Can Dance (Elogio del Dubbio) fuse seamlessly with Zeuhl-like flights of rhythmic fury and atmospheric jazzy passages. The wildly varied whirlwind of an opener is worth the price of admission alone and the playful album centerpiece "Architettura Dell'Acqua" is every bit as jam-packed with expansive, symphonic Orffian bombast as any of the territory covered on Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh. That is not to say, however, that any of the other songs should be skipped! If operatic vocals are not an immediate deterrent (I find them to be tastefully employed here), UTO’s creative arrangements and superb instrumental interplay are bound to leave you floored." - bnelso55

Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzGnLbB9RSopCK_kDtjBDF90aU2sYNkvI

The voting ends on Sunday, September 19.

Prog Contest Tournament of Champions: Semi-Finals Results (??????)

Well, once again, we come to a semi-final round where we get results that are somewhat less than final. 

First, I'll tell you about my votes. In the first contest, the one between T2 and Landberk, I voted for T2. The truth is that while the Landberk LP was clearly the proggier of the two, it never really reached me. I voted for it over the McLuhan album in the last round, because I actively disliked the McLuhan. But truth be told, I found the Landberk album project a little boring. On the other hand, even though I voted in the last round for Los Jaivas over T2, it was a torturous pick for me. The T2 is a little rockier than my usual style, but it's really well done. This is especially true of that first track, "In Circles", which was one of the best songs from any of the entries in this tournament.

As for the second matchup, while the Wobbler LP continues to grow on me, I just loved the Universal Totem Orchestra entry and those operatic vocals. So my vote went to UTO.

Now to the results. Let's talk about the second contest first. Much to my surprise, UTO won this one somewhat easily, 9 votes to 5. I found this a little surprising, even though I voted for UTO myself, because I would have made the Wobbler album the favorite of this tournament, based on it's reputation alone. But I guess that's why we hold the actual vote. So UTO moved on to the finals.

The first matchup, however, kind of gummed up the works. This one was close from the get-go, and by the time we reached the voting deadline on Friday, it was in a dead heat at 6-6. Our friend Friday13th, in an attempt to reach clarity, kept the voting open for an extra day, and when our the User known as someone came in with a vote for T2, it looked like it was over. But then at the end of the day, MiloRuggles came in with a vote for Landberk, and it was all tied up again. At this point, I suggested we settle by having the two Users who hand recommended T2 and Landberk fight it out with water balloons. Our friend Friday, however, chose to go a different way, and passed both LPs on to the finals. So it looks like we will be having a three-way Final Round between T2, Landberk and Universal Totem Orchestra. Stay tuned.

Prog Contest Tournament of Champions - The Semifinals

Update: Because we've all listened to these albums multiple times now (hopefully), voting ends this coming Friday. Here's how it shapes up:

T2
It'll All Work Out in Boomland

"Rocks hard, psychs hard, even progs a bit with some really beautiful moments scattered throughout" -MeatSalad

Youtube: https://youtu.be/I1cKMIfcumg

vs.

Landberk
One Man Tells Another

"Album is about dark atmospheres. The music is soaked through in melancholy and sadness with an overpowering sense of beauty." - Jethro42

Link: https://musicmp3.ru/artist_landberk__album_one-man-tells-another.html#.Vs8wckn2a1s

and

Universal Totem Orchestra
Mathematical Mother

"The 3rd outing from this adventurous Italian band delivers a sleek, dark sound characterized by sensitive operatic vocals, sprinklings of funky fusion, and miles upon miles of rock-solid, infectious groove. Ambient segues recalling Dead Can Dance (Elogio del Dubbio) fuse seamlessly with Zeuhl-like flights of rhythmic fury and atmospheric jazzy passages. The wildly varied whirlwind of an opener is worth the price of admission alone and the playful album centerpiece "Architettura Dell'Acqua" is every bit as jam-packed with expansive, symphonic Orffian bombast as any of the territory covered on Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh. That is not to say, however, that any of the other songs should be skipped! If operatic vocals are not an immediate deterrent (I find them to be tastefully employed here), UTO’s creative arrangements and superb instrumental interplay are bound to leave you floored." - bnelso55

Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzGnLbB9RSopCK_kDtjBDF90aU2sYNkvI

vs.

Wobbler
From Silence to Somewhere

"Seen by many prog fans as a modern classic of the genre, Wobbler's latest record is one of the few modern album that does justice to the genre's older 70's sound. Great production and excellent instrumentation make for a thrilling, energetic and infectious sound that drags only a little bit in very few parts of the record." - MrSirLordGentleman

Youtube: https://youtu.be/j2W_UAIqwbk

Prog Contest Tournament of Champions: Round 1 - Results

A couple of these matchups were just brutal. In particular, I flip-flopped back and forth between Los Jaivas and T2. In the end, I decided that I liked the style of music just a little better for Los Jaivas, so that's how I voted.

The second matchup featured two LPs that I hadn't heard before. I found that while there were passages here and there that spoke to me, I really didn't like the McLuhan LP. There were too many elements that sounded comedic. I didn't love the Landberk either, but the parts of it I didn't like were more boring than strident. So in the end, I voted for the Landberk.

I love the Carmen LP, and I considered the first song on it, "Bullerias", to possibly be the best individual song in the whole tournament. But I found the LP to be slightly inconsistent. The Universal Totem Orchestra, album, on the other hand, thrilled me from beginning to end. And I love their operatic female vocalist. So this was a relatively easy vote on my part for UTO.

The last matchup was another fairly difficult one for me. I found that the Wobbler and Regal Worms had fairly similar strengths and weaknesses, with both of them being well-structured and well-thought-out, but maybe a little cold emotionally. In the end, The Wobbler album spoke to me more on this set of listens, and that was the way I voted. 

Anyway, after three weeks, the voting results are all in. All four contests were won by identical scores of 8 votes to 6. And the winners were: T2 over Los Jaivas, Landberk over McLuhan, Universal Totem Orchestra over Carmen and Wobbler over Regal Worm.

On to the semi-finals!

August 2021 Song of the Day

The rules were kind of confusing this month, so bear with me. 

For new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month, one User hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The list of August songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day - August 2021.

1. As this month was Olympic month (or so I've heard - I didn't watch them myself), the theme for the month was Sputnik Olympics. This meant that your rec had to be from an artist who came from a country that hosted the summer Olympics, and the pick itself had to be from an album that was released the year that their country hosted the Olympics. Got that? Good. Now possibly because the rules were confusing, and possibly because it was August and people were away for the summer, participation was once again pretty low.

2. Because of the low participation, I got to make three recs this month. The first was from an American band, The Go-Go's' "I'm With You", from their 1984 release Talk Show. The second from another American artist, Long Island local duo Crystal Rose, "The Feather/Free the Eagle", from their 1996 release Look Inside. And the third was from Canadian icons Rush, "Passage to Bangkok", from their 1976 LP 2112. The first two did pretty well with the other Users. Rush never does that well with this group, largely because Geddy Lee's vocals are something of an acquired taste. Oh well. The Go-Go's - I'm With You; Crystal Rose - The Feather/Free the Eagle; Rush - Passage to Bangkok.

3. I didn't have a great month. My average rating was only 2.84 out of 5. Maybe I was just having a lethargic month, or maybe most of the recs weren't that great. My highest-rated song for the month out of everyone else's recs was a track called "Pilgrimage" by Japanese artist Ichiko Aoba. Ichiko Aoba - Pilgrimage.

4. And the rest of the group agreed, as Pilgrimage was also the overall winner for the month. Ichiko Aoba - Pilgrimage.

5. For those of you who like to follow along at home, here is the full playlist for the month. August 2021 Song of the Day YouTube Playlist.

So now that the summer is over, we'll see if we start to get a bit more participation with our monthly SOTD list. I'll tell you all about it in 30 days.