Higher Plain Music » Brendan Perry

Poll: Your Favourite Song from “Ark”?

Higher Plain Music — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:50:22 +0000

Still sitting absolutely firmly as my favourite new release of 2010, Brendan Perry’s “Ark” is mesmorising for me. However as there’s only eight tracks on the album, I thought an ickle poll would be of interest to see which track is everyones favourite!

Let the votes begin!

Tagged: Brendan Perry

Brendan Perry – “Ark” Review

Higher Plain Music — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:40:54 +0000

For many (myself included) Ark at one time just seemed to be an album that would never be made. I for one am just grateful to have Brendan back making music again. To say “Ark” is a master stroke of genius is possibly the greatest understatement as from start to finish it is utterly mesmorising.

“Babylon” opens to a fanfare of sythersized brass and strings before cracking out some heavy percussion and huge gong smashes as the calm and assured confidence of Brendan narrates over the top with prowess. The yang-qin is back as are various archaic reed instruments. For some, you may know the song from the 2005 Dead Can Dance tour as “Saffron” but to hear it in full studio glory in a new almost journeyman tempo, its a fantastic transformation and a great mood settler.

“The Bogus Man” opens to electronic pulses in a downtrodden lowfi trip hop world music fusion fest. It’s mixture of different electronic riffs and eerie choral overlays make for an unsettling backdrop as Brendan laments “politican, model citizen… blind ambition” to jangling bells. The sheer scope and different instruments and sounds used in just the two opening tracks alone is immense. This track also see’s Brendan’s lyrics at their most outspoken for me personally too and I found it very interesting to delve into what Perry has been thinking of the world’s state of being lately.

“Wintersun” is the most electronica based we’ve seen Perry to date and he works the wires perfectly with a wordly wisdom that his especially voice and the keyboards he meshes together creates. The mix of the old and new, the synthetic and the natural – is really key to Ark, its sound and the themes that run through it and as on all the track, here it’s perfectly pitched, especially with the percussion. This song is like an aural free fall and is utterly beautiful.

“Utopia” is the single from the album and is a swirling dramatic track full of harpsichord (automatic win for HPM!) and lots of dramatic string arrangements as Brendan slowly builds himself into a frenzy over the song. It’s such a well constructed song as it starts off quite cathartic with its massaging riffs and slowly gets more darker and foreboding as it progresses. It’s the only song that clocks in under six minutes on the album.

“Inferno” is a disquieting look at people who choose to live without social interaction. It starts off eeriely for the first half with twinkles washed over by harsh basslines until broken string arrangements and a down tempo beat are thrown into the mix. The last minute or so is my favourite section of the track as the end coda repeats to mystical rhythms.

“This Boy” starts off desolate, with a great little trick by delaying the echo on the drum stick slaps and so everything sounds very empty and dry. It’s a very lyrical track and the strings are particually moving, as its Brendan’s vocals as he can switches from outcries to creaking whimpers in a single breath. All the while keyboard choral pads gentley seranade you behind the bigger noise. This Boy is epic – as really is almost every track on the album. Nothing is done in small measures here!

“The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” is possibly the most dance floor worthy track on the album, its also on the surface the most upbeat. The lyrics gave me a little chuckle too. It’s warm and full bodied keyboard synths fill the speakers while bleeps and buzzing bass swirl around in stereo.

The closing track is the epic “Crescent” which encompasses and holds everything I have loved and enjoyed about Ark the album. Starting off in a mysterious shroud, Brendan enters stage left to impart with his wisdom and tales of long ago. As the song continues it builds up with more and more natural and digital instruments until your whole audio spectrum is filled with pure hedonism.

Brendan Perry’s “Ark” has been a long time coming but within two minutes you can see exactly where all the time and effort has gone to. It is a masterpiece and quite unlike anything that is currently being made or released generally these days. Absolutely hands down my favourite album of 2010 so far, and quite possibly one of my favourites in the last decade. Pitch perfect!

Tagged: Brendan Perry

Most Viewed April 2010

Higher Plain Music — Sat, 01 May 2010 10:53:47 +0000

One of the possibly the only annoying thing with the changes to stats via WordPress is that I now have almost 600 visitors who visited “Home Page” and that means that these most viewed charts at the start of each month are missing 20% of the page views considering HPM get about 3000 a month. However Bredan Perry stays on top again, although only just this month as his tour got underway and we posted live clips of all the new songs on his tour. I’m so excited for the new album! Most viewed post though was strangely a review from last year, Echochrome’s OST! Is it because Echoshift’s making waves I wonder? Here’s the top 10 viewed artists…

01) Brendan Perry (3 months!)

02) Keith Burgan & Blake Reynolds (NE)

03) Tom Salta (NE)

04) Hideki Sakamoto (-)

05) Lisa Gerrard (v)

06) Jesper Kyd (-)

07) Garry Schyman (v)

08) Ayumi Hamasaki (v)

09) Normand Corbiel (^)

10) Yoko Shimomura (RE)

Top 5 Games

01) RTL Winter Sports (2 Months)

02) Vancouver 2010 (NE)

03) Battle Tanks (-)

04) Musaic Box (-)

05) Numblast (RE)

Tagged: Ayumi Hamasaki, Blake Reynolds, Brendan Perry, Garry Schyman, Hideki Sakamoto, Jesper Kyd, Keith Burgun, Lisa Gerrard, Normand Corbeil, Tom Salta, Yoko Shimomura

Most Viewed March 2010

Higher Plain Music — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:26:43 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve had such a huge runaway winner on our most viewed list, but March 2010 saw Brendan Perry overdrive as his tour kicked off and his new songs were revealed! Not only that, but March saw Higher Plain Music far surpass its previous most busy month ever (last month actually) by a whopping 600 views! I’d like to send a massive thanks to every reader and I hope you continue to stay with me. So without further ado, the top 10 artists and top 5 games of March…

01) Brendan Perry (2 months)

02) Lisa Gerrard (^)

03) Naoyuki Hiroko (Halo Legends Crew) (v)

04) Hideki Sakamoto (NE)

05) Garry Shyman (NE)

06) Jesper Kyd (-)

07) Ayumi Hamasaki (RE)

08) Hiroki Kikuta (RE)

09) Jeff Kinney (NE)

10) Normand Corbeil (NE)

—-

Games

01) RTL Winter Sports 2010 (ps3) (2 months)

02) Heavy Rain (PS3)

03) Battle Tanks (ps3)

04) Musaic Box (PC)

05) .detuned (PS3)

Tagged: Ayumi Hamasaki, Brendan Perry, garry shyman, hideki sakimoto, Hiroki Kikuta, Jeff Kinney, Jesper Kyd, Lisa Gerrard, Naoyuki Hiroko, Normand Corbeil

Video Vault – Brendan Perry

Higher Plain Music — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:32:25 +0000

This not an official video but its just all kinds of fantastic so I simply had to post it and thus end my Brendan Perry fest of the last few weeks until Ark’s release! Here is a stunning video to Utopia

Tagged: Brendan Perry

Most Viewed: February 2010

Higher Plain Music — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:09:31 +0000

Well February 2010 saw our busiest month ever at Higher Plain Music as we hit a record number of views on the website. Thank you so much to everyone that comes to visit. One man completely dominiated though with 3 threads in the top 10 viewed and that’s Brendan Perry as the anticipation of Ark reaches feverpitch. It was also the first month when game reviews really notched up the hits with both winter games reviews grabbing 4th and 5th on the most viewed chart. Also with the new way the stats are made, I have over 700 unaccounted views, so please remember to click the actual posts for views to count! Here’s the top 10 artists and top 5 games of February.

Top 10 Artists

01. Brendan Perry (^)

02. Naoyuki Hiroko (Halo Legends crew) (NE)

03. Cris Velasco (NE)

04. Lisa Gerrard (^)

05. Garry Schyman (NE)

06. Jesper Kyd (RE)

07. Yoko Shimomura (NE)

08. Imogen Heap (v)

09. Panda Transport (NE)

10. Akira Yamaoka (v)

Top 5 Games

01. RTL Winter Sports 2010 (PS3)

02. Vancouver 2010 (PS3)

03. Musaic Box (PC)

04. Numblast (PS3)

05. Zoocube (PS2)

The next week may be a bit sporadic due to my own album being released this week but after that its back to usual!

Tagged: Akira Yamaoka, Brendan Perry, Cris Velasco, Garry Schyman, Imogen Heap, Jesper Kyd, Lisa Gerrard, Naoyuki Hiroko, Panda Transport, Yoko Shimomura

Brendan Perry Tour Dates Announced

Higher Plain Music — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:58:46 +0000

Brendan Perry’s “Ark” comes ever closer, and now the European leg of his tour is announced. See below for the dates (No UK aww)

Sun 14 March LISBON, PORTUGAL – SANTIAGO ALQUIMISTA
Mon 15 March BRAGA, PORTUGAL – THEATRO CIRCO
Tue 16 March SPAIN, MADRID – HEINEKEN MUSIC HALL
Wed 17 March SPAIN, BARCELONA -BIKINI
Fri 19 March FRANCE, PARIS – LE BUS PALLADIUM
Sat 20 March BELGIUM, BRUSSELS – BOTANIQUE
Sun 21 March GERMANY, COLOGNE – GLORIA
Mon 22 March GERMANY, BERLIN – PASSIONKIRCHE
Tue 23 March GERMANY, DRESDEN – ALTERSCHLACHTOF
Thu 25 March POLAND, WROCLAW – SONGS FESTIVAL CAPITOL THEATRE
Fri 26 March CROATIA, ZAGREB – MOCHVARA
Sun 28 Mar BULGARIA, SOFIA – PARTY CENTRE 4-KM
Mon 29 Mar ROMANIA, BUCHAREST – SALA PALATULUI
Tue 30 March HUNGARY, BUDAPEST – DIESEL CLUB
Wed 31 March CZECH REPUBLIC, PRAGUE – ARCHA THEATRE
Thu 1 April POLAND, KRAKOW – ROTUNDA
Sat 3 April LITHUANIA, VILNIUS – CONGRESS CONCERT HALL
Sun 4 April FINLAND, HELSINKI – NOSTURI
Tue 6 April RUSSIA, ST. PETERSBURG – GLAV CLUB
Wed 7 April RUSSIA, MOSCOW – GLAV CLUB

The European part of the tour will feature Brendan solo.
Peter Murphy will join in South America later. Dates and venues will follow.

Tagged: Brendan Perry

Most Viewed: January 2010

Higher Plain Music — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:27:13 +0000

Well first month of the new decade is behind us and it certainly was a busy one! Just about averaged a post a day (phew – new years resolution not broken immediately!) and site traffic rose after a quiet December back to normal figures again. However, top of the bill was a certain Lisa Gerrard with the news of The Black Opal’s release and the review of “Balibo” really setting the readers alight. Here’s the top 10 artist’s and top 5 games of the month.

01) Lisa Gerrard

02) Brendan Perry

03) Jesper Kyd

04) Musashi Hamauzu

05) Imogen Heap

06) Utada

07) Mike Reagan / Cris Velasco

08) Akira Yamaoka

09) Yasunori Mitsuda

10) Sarah Slean

—

Games

—

01) Battle Tanks (PS3)

02) Winter Sports 2010 (PS3)

03) Vancouver 2010 (PS3)

04) Hyperballoid (Ps3)

05) .detuned (PS3)

Tagged: Akira Yamaoka, Brendan Perry, Cris Velasco, Imogen Heap, Jesper Kyd, Lisa Gerrard, Mike Reagan, musashi hamauzu, Sarah Slean, Utada, Yasunori Mitsuda

Most Viewed For 2009

Higher Plain Music — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:36:04 +0000

Well the year is out and so we leave 2009 with our top 10 most viewed artists and here they are:

01) Lisa Gerrard: With more posts getting more than 150+ views than any other artist, Lisa Gerrard topped our most viewed list and she looks to stay high in 2010. Her Balibo soundtrack was amazing, and we’re still waiting for her 2009 album “The Black Opal” to arrive to review. Well done Lisa

02) Vienna Teng: Vienna went under the radar for me and is a surprise second. Her fourth album Inland Territory is absolutely stunning and we got our hands on her live DVD from a while back and loved that too. Hears hoping to more in 2010!

03) Brendan Perry: The anticipation for Ark continues and Brendan continues to clock up hits while we wait. Ark looks like hitting early 2010 and rest assured, HPM will be buying it on release day!

04) OverClocked ReMix: Well the biggest game music remixing project chalked up several releases but it was the FF4 project that really exploded over here grabbing the most viewed interview in 2009 with the project managers. 2010 will no doubt see tons of remixes for all and I’ll drink to that *glug*.

05) Akira Yamaoka: Well HPM did a lot of reviewing of Silent Hill soundtracks in 09 and that’s because the reviews always seem popular. Now Akira has left Konami (although Shattered Memories is still composed by him) it remains to be seen when we’ll hear of him next. Not too soon we hope!

06) Imogen Heap: Imogen actually had the most viewed post of 2009 with over 700 views of bizarrely the tracklisting for Ellipse. Sadly not as many read the review so that’s why Immi is down in 7th. 2010 looks like a year of touring so expect Heap to appear in the live vault!

07) Utada: This Is the One was one of pop’s best albums and was the third most read music review of 2009 and top of the non-game music reviews. Utada’s groove is definately on and maybe we’ll hear some more Japanese work in 2010.

08) Tori Amos: Tori strangely didn’t feature highly on the most viewed threads lists but constantly propped up just outside the top 10 and so ended up 8th overall. Abnormally Attracted to Sin and Midwinter Graces were fantastic albums that deserve much love and so 2010 should see Tori enjoy a break for a few months!

09) Hiroki Kikuta: The most read review of 2009 belongs to Hiroki and the Secret of Mana + Review that clocked over 500 hits. Hiroki was kind enough to send over one of his more obscure soundtracks which will be reviewed in 2010. Thank you Kikuta-san!

10) Christopher Tin: Sneaking in by just 2 views over Sarah Slean, Christopher Tin’s Calling All Dawns is simply devine and snatched the final spot on our top 10. Chris is a genuinely nice guy and deserves all the credit the albums recieved.

Top 5 Game Reviews

01) Battle Tanks (PS3)

02) Trash Panic (PS3)

03) Numblast (PS3)

04) Shatter (PS3)

05) Magic Ball (PS3)

Tagged: Akira Yamaoka, Brendan Perry, Christopher Tin, Hiroki Kikuta, Imogen Heap, Lisa Gerrard, OverClocked ReMix, Tori Amos, Utada, Vienna Teng

Most Viewed – November 2009

Higher Plain Music — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:54:25 +0000

Well November was a bit of a wash out for new posts due to my house move, but that didn’t stop November being the fifth busiest month of all time for hits! It was primarily down to one lady, Lisa Gerrard, who’s new album more than tripled the hits of the second placed artist. We’ll be reviewing all three new releases of Lisa’s this month.

01) Lisa Gerrard (2 months)

02) Tori Amos (^)

03) Brendan Perry (^)

04) Christopher Tin (v)

05) Hiroki Kikuta (^)

06) Imogen Heap (v)

07) Akira Yamaoka (RE)

08) Sarah Slean (RE)

09) Anonymous 4 (v)

10) Utada (RE)

—-

Games

01) .detuned (PS3)

02) Battle Tanks (PS3)

03) Numblast (PS3)

04) Shatter (PS3)

05) GripShaft (PS3)

Tagged: Akira Yamaoka, Anonymous 4, Brendan Perry, Christopher Tin, Hiroki Kikuta, Imogen Heap, Lisa Gerrard, Sarah Slean, Tori Amos, Utada