Pavlov's Dog - Late November

Tom writes:

“Hello there,
so I recently stumbled over your page and really enjoy it :D. And I saw that you like some Rush songs as well as Prog Rock and therefore I wanted to recommend you the band Pavlovs Dog and especially their first album Pampered Manial since I myself got it recommendet by someone who said ah you like Rush, you might also enjoy this..so yeah if you want give them a listen ;D
with dear regards
Tom (and sorry if my englisch isn't the greatest ^^)”

This is the dream of this blog. Random people recommending music to me.  After all, what am I if not a random person recommending music?

I had never heard of Pavlov’s Dog prior to this recommendation, so this has been a positive new adventure for me. The comparison to Rush was apt, their electronic sounds does connect to some Rush influences, notably in the singer David Surkamp’s singing voice, where he is sometimes doing his best Geddy Lee impersonation, while other times, he sounds like a higher pitched version. Their high use of electronic keyboard and spontaneous use of classic wind and string instruments reminds me of Emmerson, Lake and Palmer, and the Moody Blues.

Now that I have compared Pavlov’s Dog to three of the greatest progressive rock bands every, it should be easy to surmise that I am very impressed with this band.

After a cursory examination of Pavlov’s Dog’s discography and their release dates, it becomes clear that Povlov’s Dog exists in two moments, their early days in the 1970s, and a return in the 2010s. I suppose we should not mind the thirty-year gap in the middle.

I am new to Pavlov’s Dog, so I thought it would be logical to start at the beginning. Pavlov’s Dog’s debut album “Pampered Menial” came out in 1975, and it is this album where I began this journey. It is a good album; like, a really good album; probably in my top ten favorite progressive rock albums of all time; probably around nine or ten, but still. Now I have been relistening to “Pampered Menial” instead of moving on to the next album. This is the sort of problem I can live with, I will get to 1976’s “At the Sound of the Bell” soon enough I am sure, but for now, I am indulging myself with “Pampered Menial.” Tom was right, Pavlov’s Dog’s first album is superb.

When it comes to structuring a great album, the value of starting and ending strong cannot be understated.

Pavlov’s Dog had the good sense of starting “Pampered Menial” strong with “Julia” and ending with an epic called “Of Once and Future Kings.” Right in the middle track four “Fast Gun” which is probably the most upbeat sounding song on the album and serves as a climax. “Fast Gun” has that string section I said reminded me of Emmerson, Lake and Palmer earlier. The flow of “Pampered Menial” is effectively perfect.

There is an observation I made regarding my favorite songs on “Pampered Menial,” and that is that David Surkamp wrote all of my favorites. Literally all of my least favorite songs are the ones he was not involved in writing. No disrespected intended to the rest of Pavlov’s Dog’s original line up, I am just saying how impressed I am with Surkamp.

I am torn between “Fast Gun” and “Late November” as to which song on “Pampered Menial” is my most favorite, but it is literally late November, so we might as well pay some attention there.

“Late November” is the second song on “Pampered Menial,” it follows “Julia,” and I think this is a perfect pair of songs. I briefly mentioned that “Julia” is an emotional balled, with a narrator pleading to a woman he loves to be his. “Late November” is a different perspective, it is about accepting an unexpected love’s sudden appearance and her even more unexpected sudden departure. In “Late November” Surkamp describes this mysterious lover’s behavior as being similar to lightning, bright and beautiful, but fast as light, and vanishing immediately after their presence is announced, and never going unnoticed.

I listen to a lot of progressive rock, but still, “Late November” is the first time I have ever heard someone compare their lover to lightning. The lightning lover works as a great metaphor all on its own, but it fits so neatly as a progressive rock song. It is an experimental simile, but in an already experimental rock song, it makes perfect sense. I am not entirely convinced the simile would work half so well in a different style of song, but in progressive rock there is an ever present theme of mirthful magic and ultra dimension science fiction, so comparing someone to lightning is appropriate.

Many thanks to Tom, this stranger with good music taste, who have introduced me to a fantastic band that I am overjoyed to include in my casual listening hence forth.

And until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

P.S.  Thanks Tom.

Beyond Repair - Yen or Triss

Allow me to indulge in a guilty pleasure. I believe a new sub-genre of music has been created, thanks in part because of the internet; original video game music.

With lockdown going on, I finally got around to playing Bioshock Infinite. I may be many years late to the party, but I was really impressed with the game. That story got its hooks into me, and that ending, I sort of knew what was coming because of online spoilers, but there were so many minor details and subtle nuances that the final twists still felt profound. Great stuff.

Long time readers of this blog might remember my previous reviews of Miracle of Sound, a musician who used to post completely original music he wrote, mostly about video games on the escapist, and now on youtube. My favorite track of his was “Dream of the Sky” a song about Bioshock Infinite.

https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2013/06/miracle-of-sound-dream-of-sky.html

Some stranger commented on that post, that does not happen very often, so I took that as a sign to revisit this emerging sub-genre.

With lockdown going on, I finally got around to finishing the Witcher 3. According to Steam it took me just over two-hundred hours to complete the game in full. This is unsurprising, I tend to apply my work effort to my hobbies, so I was rather thorough at exploring the world; and what a world. Fantasy world building can be executed so well in an interactive medium like video games, and I know the Witcher is a book series first, but I wonder how many small details were fleshed out during these three games; guess I have to read the books to find out.

Like many massively popular video games, The Witcher 3, has a deeply passionate fanbase, so naturally this brave new world of original video game music has spawned a few gems for the Witcher.

I believe I discovered Beyond Repair during the “Get Hyped!” phase of Games of Thrones, as they had an incredibly fun song about Cleganebowl. From this interaction I soon thereafter discovered the song “Yen or Triss” which was before I played any of the Witcher games; so when I finally got around to playing the Witcher series, I knew unlike real life to expect romantic choices.

What I initially liked about “Yen or Triss” was simply this, it was a very catchy pop rock song, and I knew enough in passing to know that there was a good component of humor at play. My opinion has not changed dramatically since finishing The Witcher 3. It was evident even without knowledge and insight on the subject matter, that a lot of effort was put into the creation of this song. The charm of nerds making a song this good about a video game is enough for me to appreciate, but once the hurdle is crossed where I too am a fan of the subject matter, that does enhance the experience.

Now that I get the humour completely in “Yen or Triss” the song is all the more entertaining. I am no fool, I understood the comical absurdity of taking this in game serious choice and making it into a playful pop song about a love triangle was a deliberate clash of styles and mood, ultimately understanding the subject matter more allowed me to enjoy everything about the song more.

“Yen or Triss” is a tough question. Both sorceresses are amazing. Who should we choose, Yen or Triss? Maybe I need to read the books, to gain a greater appreciate of Yennifer and her relationship with Geralt, but Triss seems like the obvious winner to me. Call me old fashion, but I prefer women who are nice to me once and a while. It would be exhausting dealing with Yennifer’s antagonism every day, and I like Yennifer a lot, but still. So given those two option, I vote for Triss, but it is something of a trick question, because you have options in the Witcher, and if I were Geralt, and I related a lot to him, I think I would go with Shani. She is a field medic, not a sorceress, which is I guess less impressive as she is less fantastical, however Shani possesses the courage to wander into a monster infested cave with you which I think is all the more impressive. The Heart of Stone expansion was worth it just for the scene where Geralt is Shani’s guest for a wedding with the unfortunate timing with Geralt is possessed by a ghost.

If you like the Witcher, you should enjoy “Yen or Triss” as much as I do, but it might also be a solid starting point to dig into this video game music genre. Beyond Repair have another Witcher 3 song about the in game card game Gwent, which is very fun, both the song and the card game.

Gwent

As far as I am concerned that is two home runs by Beyond Repair. Only now am I looking at the numbers of Beyond Repair’s youtube channel and I am surprised. Even their most popular songs have under 150K views, and they have not released anything in four years. I imagine life got in the way, but I am still surprised, “Yen or Triss” and “Gwent” are great, probably the best original songs written for the Witcher I the world. Their Skyrim and No Man’s Sky songs are also excellent. I really like some of their Guild Wars songs, and I know nothing about Guild Wars. Clearly underappreciated, whatever the people behind Beyond Repair are up to now I wish them the best and look forward to anything music they decided to create in the future.

Between this music in review and my previous Miracle of Sound reviews, you can see a glimpse into the central theme of this review; there are a lot now writing and releasing into the internet music about topics the mainstream would never dare. It is all so niche, and I love it. People are geniuses

- King of Braves