Tag: Pete Jones

HAKEN celebrate Valentine’s Day with new single ‘Lovebite’ 

Progressive rockers HAKEN are set to release their seventh studio album ‘Fauna’ on the 3rd March 2023, the group’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date. 

Today, the band celebrate Valentine’s Day with the launch of their latest single ‘Lovebite’. 

Watch the video now here:

Pre-order the album or stream the track here: 

https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna

 Ross Jennings says this about the track:

“What better song to put out on this fine valentine’s day than one about the Black Widow Spider mating ritual… This is the Phil Collins inspired upbeat love song in 11/8 with Cannibal Corpse inspired lyrics that you never knew you needed!” 

Watch the previously released videos below.

 ‘Taurus’:

‘The Alphabet of Me’:

‘Nightingale’:

The tracklisting is as follows:

1.     Taurus 04:49

2.     Nightingale 07:24

3.     The Alphabet of Me 05:33

4.     Sempiternal Beings 08:23

5.     Beneath The White Rainbow 06:45

6.     Island In The Clouds 05:45

7.     Lovebite 03:49

8.     Elephants Never Forget 11:07

9.     Eyes Of Ebony 08:32 

‘Fauna’ will be available on several formats, including Ltd 2CD (incl. instrumentals), Standard CD, Gatefold 2LP & as Digital Album. The albums stunningly detailed artwork was created by Dan Goldsworthy (Charlie Griffiths, Sylosis)

Pre-order now here: https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna 

‘Fauna’ sees the band exploring new ideas conceptually as Ross continues. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.” 

“It reminds me of The Mountain,” adds guitarist and fellow founder Richard Henshall. “There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna’s animals relate to us, personally.” 

‘Fauna’ also marks the return of keyboard player Peter Jones, whose sounds can be heard permeating the entire album. “What Pete’s brought sonically to the band has played a massive role in why we do have a lot of new sounds on this record,” says Ross. “It’s always a new dynamic when there’s a change in personnel, and this is a fresh and reviving one. It’s certainly helped proximity-wise, with Pete being in the country: Pete and Ray [Hearne, Haken’s drummer] would be at Rich’s place and they’d just start jamming. That’s really key to how the songs start.”

The band have announced tour dates for North America and Europe.

Find the full list of tour dates here: https://hakenmusic.com/tour/

HAKEN are:

Ross Jennings

Richard Henshall

Charlie Griffiths

Pete Jones

Conner Green

Ray Hearne

HAKEN release video for “Taurus”, 3rd single from forthcoming studio album ‘Fauna’

Progressive rockers HAKEN recently announced their seventh studio album ‘Fauna’, the group’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date, will be released on the 3rd March 2023.

Today, the band are pleased to release “Taurus” the 3rd single from the album.

You can watch the video, produced by Crystal Spotlight, here:

Pre-order the album or stream the track here: 

https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna

Ross Jennings says this about the track:

“With such a diverse and eclectic array of material on ‘Fauna’, it was important for us to include a piece of music that represented the metallic edge of our sound which was exploited predominantly on ‘Vector’ & ‘Virus’, with our focus being on hard hitting riffs in odd time signatures.”

“The song’s lyrics were written roughly at the same time we all started hearing about the devastation and crisis happening in Ukraine. I was already writing the piece based on the annual migration of the wildebeests with strong references to people travelling in herds and strength in numbers. Suddenly I realised I had an anchor for what the song could be about and knowing this gives it all the more emotional weight; We’re all on some sort of journey towards salvation or enlightenment. Sometimes out of choice or not, we need to leave the past behind us and make new beginnings. We only have each other, and belief and hope are our strongest allies.”

Watch the video for the previously single ‘The Alphabet of Me’ here:

Watch “Nightingale” here:

The tracklisting is as follows:

1.     Taurus 04:49

2.     Nightingale 07:24

3.     The Alphabet of Me 05:33

4.     Sempiternal Beings 08:23

5.     Beneath The White Rainbow 06:45

6.     Island In The Clouds 05:45

7.     Lovebite 03:49

8.     Elephants Never Forget 11:07

9.     Eyes Of Ebony 08:32

‘Fauna’ will be available on several formats, including Ltd 2CD (incl. instrumentals), Standard CD, Gatefold 2LP & as Digital Album. The albums stunningly detailed artwork was created by Dan Goldsworthy (Charlie Griffiths, Sylosis)

Pre-order now here: https://haken.lnk.to/Fauna 

‘Fauna’ sees the band exploring new ideas conceptually as Ross continues. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it. They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.”

“It reminds me of The Mountain,” adds guitarist and fellow founder Richard Henshall. “There, we had the idea of not really a narrative-based album, but more the concept of climbing a mountain and overcoming the obstacles along the way. Then we took that and thought about how it could relate to our everyday lives. All of Fauna’s animals relate to us, personally.” 

‘Fauna’ also marks the return of keyboard player Peter Jones, whose sounds can be heard permeating the entire album. “What Pete’s brought sonically to the band has played a massive role in why we do have a lot of new sounds on this record,” says Ross. “It’s always a new dynamic when there’s a change in personnel, and this is a fresh and reviving one. It’s certainly helped proximity-wise, with Pete being in the country: Pete and Ray [Hearne, Haken’s drummer] would be at Rich’s place and they’d just start jamming. That’s really key to how the songs start.” 

The band have announced tour dates for North America and Europe.

Find the full list of tour dates here: https://hakenmusic.com/tour/ 

HAKEN are:

Ross Jennings

Richard Henshall

Charlie Griffiths

Pete Jones

Conner Green

Ray Hearne

Review – Red Bazar – Inverted Reality – by John Wenlock-Smith

This October sees the release of this highly impressive and sonically rewarding third vocal album from Nottinghamshire Prog rock band Red Bazaar, featuring Peter Jones (Tiger Moth Tales) on vocals and keyboards.

The album is fairly political in its subject matter with freedom of speech being a major topic. Now, some folks think that politics and music don’t, or shouldn’t, match but, if  you think about those 60’s protest songs and the more recent political ones like Another Brick In The Wall, you can see the impact such music can have. Personally I really don’t mind, especially if the sentiments expressed are important ones, anyway back to the album…

Opener One Out Of Three is a hard hitting track opening with soaring synths and a furious drum beat that sets the urgency of the song up well. The track also hinges on an angular guitar riff from Andy Wilson. Its subject matter is the state of the music industry and how cynical it is these days, both manufactured and marketed by those in control with their eyes firmly on profit and not quality and originality. This is a sweeping condemnation of the current scene, one that Peter Jones knows from personal experience as he was previously an X factor contender (coming 4th in the first series) before taking control of his own destiny and writing and performing the music he wanted to rather than being told too. A wise decision that enriched us all with the Tiger Moth Tales series of albums. The track is frantic and very fine indeed, as is the second track Spirit Of Man which opens with ethereal keyboards and an echo laden guitar arpeggio from Andy, accompanied by an underpinning keyboard swell before Peter’s vocal starts. The songs seems to be about keeping going against setbacks and mental health issues. It is a fairly positive song though and tells us that you have within you a strong Spirit Of Man. This is in part based on the mock-Latin phrase “illigetimi non carborundum” which is probably more widely known as “don’t let the bustards grind you down”, strong words but a good song nonetheless.

State Of Disgrace is highly political and critical of those in charge as they write the laws that benefit them most, while the rest of us are encouraged to toe the line or face being silenced by the ruling classes. It comments on the lack of morality and the lack of consequences for those in charge, along with the suppression and subrogation of the rank and file, i.e. Us! It is a very political song with elements of George Orwell’s epic ‘1984’ novel with which it shares several common themes. I really enjoyed this track and agree with the issues it so eloquently speaks of. Take Control is also another winner featuring both an excellent vocal from Peter Jones alongside a fabulous solo from Andy Wilson in a rather epic track that has it all in its near 10 minute running time, simply astonishing performances and a fantastic song overall.

Smokescreen follows and is a song based on a John Francombe book in which a man punishes his unfaithful partner by setting fire to their home whilst she sleeps. Quite a dark subject matter but well handled by the group and featuring great bass work throughout by Mick Wilson, who is consistently on form on this album. Final track Stop The World continues the politics as it talks about how politicians are creating division and using it to further their own agendas. This is the album’s longest track, working well as a very good good conclusion to what has proven to be an assured, intelligent and well crafted piece of work. Okay, its themes may be a bit dark and political but, for these times of uncertainty and incompetence, especially with modern political life, this is a very telling set of songs, urging us all to speak out and make our feelings known.

I think it is one of the finer albums of the year. I really enjoyed it and the musicianship is excellent throughout, with great vocals from Jones and great bass and guitar work from the Wilsons along with solid, urgent drumming from Paul Comerie. This is an album that really cries out be be heard by a far wider audience than it will probably receive unfortunately. This really is something special and worthwhile and I heartily recommend to all.

Released 30th September, 2022.

Order from White Knight Records here:

Red Bazar – Inverted Reality (featuring Pete Jones) (whiteknightshop2.co.uk)