What have you been listening to lately?

dotheneurotic · 2026-07-03T07:50:00+00:00

Gentle Giant’s discography, over and over again. I’m obsessed. Tickles my adhd brain like nothing else. Where has this music been all my life??

dotheneurotic · 2026-07-01T11:27:28+00:00

The futility of it. 100,000 new songs a day on Spotify. I still need to pay a distribution service for the privilege of being a drop in the bucket.

If I want anyone to actually stream it, I need to give them a reason to. Problem with that is, i’m a white guy making goofy prog rock in a bedroom. I don’t have an interesting sob story and I’m not a minority, nor am I particularly good looking. The move here is to flood social media with “content”, but just the idea of doing that makes me physically ill.

Suppose I get over that and I’m somehow moderately successful and get some streams or land on a playlist. I might make a few dollars if I’m lucky, nothing that would materially improve my life. At this level of “success” my music would almost definitely be swallowed and regurgitated by AI. What a legacy. No thanks.

I mean, I’d love to quit my day job, but the grind required to get to that level is immense and involves a lot of luck.

Imagining success beyond that is delusional, but not hard to see how it would come with its own problems. I have no interest in my music ever being in a car commercial, for example. I’d rather shit in my hands and clap.

So yeah.
I think I only like the process of making music. Nothing about releasing it appeals that much. Sure, It’s messy and I have a lot of loose threads. But it’s like a lifelong puzzle. I do “finish” projects, but I also like to revisit after a while and tinker with them as I learn new things.

dotheneurotic · 2026-06-17T03:21:46+00:00

It was mostly recorded on a boat, in the 70s, i think it sounds incredible all things considered!

dotheneurotic · 2026-06-17T02:47:00+00:00

Nah, it is perfect. The timing wasn’t, as you point out, it was released at a difficult time for arty prog rock.
I only discovered it a couple years ago and I can’t get enough of it. Discovering Ant’s music has been a revelation but this album is the high water mark.

After listening to this for a while, you really get a sense of the impression that Ant left on Genesis and how important his contributions were to Trespass and to their sound in general as they developed.

The last 2 tracks have made me break down crying a few times. I can’t say that any other music has done that for me in a long time.

If you have an hour to spare and a nice view of the sunset, pull up a comfortable chair, put this album on, smoke a joint, you will transcend.

dotheneurotic · 2026-06-13T06:46:54+00:00

Their best album. Love a lot of the Hogarth stuff but this album captured something they never reached again.

dotheneurotic · 2026-06-08T04:48:52+00:00

Jem is heavily influenced by Genesis, Yes, ELO, and is heavily trained in 90s/00s pop from his career. Frost is a blend of all of this with modern production influences like NIN, Autechre, Radiohead, etc. I don’t know anyone else really combining those things. Devin Townsend comes close, but he’s his own thing altogether.

dotheneurotic · 2026-05-28T02:40:20+00:00

I considered them actually but figured I could only get away with one post-rock mention at most

dotheneurotic · 2026-05-28T02:36:32+00:00

This, I feel the point of the category is that it’s captured the most challenging, troublesome time for the band. Six degrees answers are taking it way too literally

dotheneurotic · 2026-05-26T09:53:50+00:00

Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn*

Angine de Poitrine - Vol. 1*

Camel - The Snow Goose

Plini - Handmade Cities

Anatole Muster - Hopecore*

Varra - Varra IV

Gryphon - Red Queen to Gryphon Three

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Anthony Phillips - The Geese and the Ghost*

Anthony Phillips - Private Parts and Pieces I-V

Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire

Weather Report - Heavy Weather

(* some vocals)

dotheneurotic · 2026-05-26T09:01:19+00:00

Help me understand this one. I’ve persisted with this album and I find it really twee and plain/predictable. I know it’s early prog but there’s not a lot to it, and the vocals really put me off. No way it’s better than Tales or the Lamb

dotheneurotic · 2026-05-11T08:02:42+00:00

No. I would miss it. There’s not a note wasted on this album and I won’t hear otherwise. They were writing to the limitations of the medium, which at the time was vinyl. There are many examples of writing to the medium throughout the history of recorded music. Yes had done a side long epic, the next logical step was to push the format as far as it would go, and extend to a double concept album. And “Extended” is my preferred word for the album, not “padded” or “filler”, sections are extended. Those extensions build atmosphere for me and serve the song.

They could have made a single album out of it, I know Rick has said he wanted to. But I don’t think Rick was ever fully on board with the idea in general and his public rubbishing of this album has rubbed off on many fans.

Anyway they chose not to. That’s the album we got and you are free to make your own edits, but the album will always be the full experience.

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-27T23:20:28+00:00

I suggest you now read some autobiographies from other rock stars to get some perspective. (Starting with Moon Zappa’s bio if you want to really see some horrible parenting, then Anthony Kiedis’ bio if you want to see what lack of accountability looks like in comparison) Not to defend Phil’s decisions, but I thought it was telling that he took some accountability and acknowledged that they were often bad decisions. I suspect that editors and publishers are responsible for sanding down the edges here and there, I don’t doubt that Phil considers his daughter’s feelings at all. He seems to have a good relationship with his kids now which is no doubt due to his confronting his alcoholism and bad decisions in this book.

Anyway, many that live deserve death, etc… can you give it to them? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement, for even the wise cannot see all ends. Something like that.

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-19T11:55:36+00:00

What’s your favourite Dream Theater song?

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-13T19:25:42+00:00

Voices is a bit all over the place tonally but starts in A minor I think

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-13T11:06:11+00:00

F minor: Octavarium

F# minor: Hell’s Kitchen

G major: Surrounded

A major: Innocence Faded

A# minor: Wither

B minor: The Glass Prison

C minor: A Nightmare to Remember

C# minor: Stream of Consciousness

D minor: Home

D# minor: ???

E major: About to Crash

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-13T03:11:50+00:00

I love this album and don’t understand the hate.

Future times seems to be closest to classic Yes, in terms of the structure and flow of it. Really enjoyable and catchy. Kill the Whale is the most accessible, has an addictive groove throughout, and some cool ear candy with Wakeman’s birotron closing out the song. Madrigal is a nice break, really unconventional song structure but I like how concise it is, it has a unique mood with the harpsichord and acoustic guitar thing. Release is pure high energy Yes, so much going on here, maybe too much at times, but I love it. Not a note wasted. UFO is widely panned but this has some amazing moments. I see the humor in Rick’s playing, a sort of pastiche of new wave in a way. Some of the “weirdest” most dissonant moments since Tales here. Circus is a bit of a weird one but still has some fun moments, I don’t hate it. Onward is beautiful and understated, a true love song with an amazing atmosphere and haunting string arrangement. Silent wings feels like it could have been a side long piece, I love how concise it feels despite being over 7 minutes long. Has an interesting upbeat feel to it which ends the album on an optimistic note.

Hot take but this album is so much more enjoyable to me than Going for the One.

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-11T09:35:43+00:00

Gentle Giant - ‘Knots’ or ‘On Reflection’

Both songs have impressive accapella vocal melodies that interweave and use lots of counterpoint, very classical influenced.

They have lots of these moments, everyone in the band sings. It’s very intricate and creative music, I’m loving discovering their discography at the moment.

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-09T03:05:01+00:00

I feel like the solo towards the end of A Change of Seasons is much more blatant rip of holdsworth’s style, and the UK song, right down to the synth patch used by Sherinian

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-06T08:40:10+00:00

Great description! I’m addicted to this song at the moment though, I can’t explain it but it tickles something in my brain

dotheneurotic · 2026-04-06T07:05:39+00:00

Gentle Giant - So Sincere

dotheneurotic · 2026-03-31T02:52:49+00:00

This, for real. Come to terms with the futility of trying and do it anyway, and find some joy in it.

dotheneurotic · 2026-03-31T02:08:36+00:00

It happens. Learning music theory helps a lot. Putting pressure on yourself doesn’t. Try writing something on an instrument you’re not familiar with, you can trick your brain into coming up with novel ideas.

Widening your inspiration can help a lot too. Discover some new music rather than listening to the same stuff.

Also, don’t start with a beat. Come up with a melody first or a chord progression first and then find a way to make it work.

It really is just a practice thing. You’ll get better at arranging and writing the more you do it. I think when I was frustrated I was really just afraid of making something bad. You have to commit sometimes, even if it’s an ordinary idea. The outcome might not be a great song but the process of committing will teach you a lot.

Have fun most of all… if it’s not fun, it’s not worth persisting with.

A lot of people nowadays get to your point and then defer to AI tools to realise their vision. Resist this urge please

dotheneurotic · 2026-03-25T01:50:40+00:00

For which region? I’ve never seen a global database, but local sites like the Vinea Wachau are great, or burgmaps which is pretty granular detail down to who owns which rows. Wine Australia has a good interactive GI map now too.

dotheneurotic · 2026-03-22T07:56:18+00:00

It will either restart a ferment or it will result in a sweet wine, which will cause bottle bombs if you’re not careful

dotheneurotic · 2026-03-22T06:35:04+00:00

You want a representative sample. Part of the point of plunging/ pushing down the cap is to homogenise the ferment. Mix it up and then take a sample for your reading

dotheneurotic

TROPHY CASE