CD/DVD Review: Saga - Spin It Again! – Live in Munich

CD/DVD Review: Saga - Spin It Again! – Live in Munich

earMUSIC/Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Rating: A-

Saga - Spin It Again Live!

Germany's love for Saga still runs as deep as it ever has. Glorious in design and execution, 2012's 20/20, the most recent album from the Canadian prog-rock puzzle makers, somehow managed to claw its way into the top 10 in a country that snatched up tens of thousands of copies of Saga's debut LP when hardly anybody outside of Canada knew who they were.

Charting that high, no matter where, is no mean feat these days for a group like Saga, who experienced its greatest success in the late 1970s and early '80s, but Germany has always respected and admired Saga's sonic artistry.

It should come as no surprise then that on the final night of their 2013 sold out European tour in support of 20/20 Saga would end up in Munich, treating an adoring crowd to a thrilling two hours of old favorites and strong newer material. Out on Blu-ray or as a two-CD release, Spin It Again! – Live in Munich documents, in vivid and immersive audio and video, a night of passion that reunited Saga with its most ardent paramour, as the band whirls through its back catalog with a rush of adrenaline.

Munich welcomed back the classic Saga lineup with open arms, taking great delight in lead vocalist Michael Sadler, having reunited with Saga for 20/20 after a five-year hiatus, delivering good-humored stage banter in both English and fluent German. In full throat, the audience sang the chorus to the soaring Saga classic "Wind Him Up" word for word, as Sadler took a break to soak up what was surely a transcendent moment for him and the band.

The time Sadler spent apart from Saga did him and the band some good. 20/20 was an inspiring piece of musical engineering, still as melodic and as daring as ever, but also darker and heavier in spots than past Saga efforts with some of Ian Crichton's cycling through some of his angriest and most compelling guitar riffage. In some ways, it was a throwback to years past, when Saga's resounding guitars and epic synthesizers crashed up against arty, literate storytelling full of the kind of terrific tension, unusual drama and skewed insight into the human condition found in Rod Serling stories.

Drinking in Saga's euphoric, carnivalesque performance, Munich seemed to take as much interest in newer pieces as it did in Saga's past, the audience and performer connecting intimately and with unabashed joy. "Six Feet Under" and "Spin It Again" are especially captivating, swept away on surging melodic flourishes and veering off down magical little detours that seem like doorways to places of mystery and strange beauty. There is cleverly disguised menace in the smiling countenance of "The Perfectionist," a stylish song about the murderous Ellery Snead, and the tantalizing "Anywhere You Want to Go" and "Mouse in a Maze" are powerfully addictive, while "The Flyer" is presented as a breathtaking trapeze act.

As vibrant and intoxicating as the first disc in the CD set is, the second one is more diverse, with the affecting piano exercises "Time's Up" and "Scratching the Surface" sounding naked and alone, but also thoughtful and warmly nostalgic. And then there's the buoyant "Humble Stance," which almost sounds like a bounding beer hall polka all gussied up with Saga's chrome-plated progressive bombast, and a storming version of "On the Loose" that tingles with excitement.

Long ago, Saga discovered the missing link between the crunching hard rock and progressive tendencies of countrymen Rush and the altered consciousness and shape-shifting, classically influenced arrangements of Yes. Given all that, it follows that Saga's musicianship should be incredibly entertaining to behold in concert, and it is, as Germany well knows.

Germans get that the dynamic interplay of guitarist Ian Crichton's flights of fancy – his complex riffs, mushrooming plumes and those searing, exacting and yet unpredictable leads of his that go only where he knows the way – with the spiraling of Jim Gilmour and Jim Crichton is not only absolutely dazzling, but also has a synergy that, to borrow a phrase from Rush, crackles with life. Germans get that Sadler's wonderfully expressive and strong, cloudless vocals make him one of the most underrated singers on the planet. And maybe the people of Munich, in particular, get Saga in a way others don't. Should the rest of the world gives Spin It Again! - Live in Munich, the perfect companion piece to 20/20, a chance, they'll get it, too. http://www.ear-music.net/en/news/ and http://www.eagle-rock.com/

- Peter Lindblad

Strange tales from Saga's 'Worlds Apart'

On the farm with Canadian prog-rockers' singer Michael Sadler

By Peter Lindblad

Saga - Worlds Apart 1981

A bit of an odd duck, famed producer Rupert Hine has a well-deserved reputation for going to extremes to gather the sounds he wants. One of the artists most affected in the past by Hine’s unorthodox recording methods was Saga vocalist Michael Sadler.

While working on Saga’s 1981 magnum opus, Worlds Apart, Hine put Sadler through the ringer. The man, whose producing credits include The Fixx’s Reach the Beach, Phantoms and Shuttered Room, Thompson Twins’ Close to the Bone, Rush’s Presto and Roll The Bones, and Tina Turner’s Break Every Rule, among others, was keen on having the singer express a wide range of emotions and moods in songs like the AOR radio staple “On the Loose” or “Wind Him Up.”

To accomplish this, Hine placed him in situations designed to capture exactly what he was looking for from Sadler – even if they were somewhat dangerous, or at the very least, completely unexpected.

“He was so eccentric in terms of … I don’t know if you’ve ever heard his solo records, but my gosh, it’s pretty much whatever it takes to get what he’s hearing in his head,” said Sadler.

Worlds Apart, Saga’s most commercially successful LP, was birthed at The Farmyard studio in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, England. Hine made good use of the environment.

“Oh, I’ll tell you a number of things Rupert did,” laughed Sadler. “There were two stories regarding the vocals. One was related to ‘On the Loose,’ and the studio itself, Farmyard Studios. The old barn is the live room – with the beams and it’s great for drum sounds obviously, and for any ambient sounds, it’s fantastic. But, it had the beams and the roof and he wanted a sense of angst in that song, which you can put on like an actor does, when they play a role or whatever – ‘Sing this with angst,’ fine. But, you know what? To really get it right I want to put you in a precarious position, so he had me balanced on one of the beams, and they rigged the microphone up there. And you can see the picture on the inside of the vinyl sleeve – me in my beard and hanging onto a beam and singing ‘On the Loose’ from up there.”

That’s the story most people know about, as Sadler related it on the Saga DVD “Silhouette.” But, Hine didn’t stop there.

“The other thing he did on the complete reverse of that was in the middle of ‘Wind Him Up,’ when the song breaks down and it gets very, very quiet, and there’s some very quiet singing, signing the chorus in a very low key,” explains Sadler. “It just knocks it down, but it’s sung very low-key in terms of delivery. He wanted a very intimate, ‘just woke up,’ smoky … whatever kind of voice, where you’re not even thinking about it either – almost like humming to yourself but you’re singing the words. He wanted to get that effect across, so we did a few. It was getting near the end of the day, and we tried a few, and then he said, ‘Okay, that’ll do for today. We’ll review it in the morning.’ So, I went to bed, and the living quarters were across from the driveway – I guess they were the old stables, for the horses – but across the driveway I’d say a good 50, 60 yards from the main building. And in the morning, I heard this slight tapping on the door, the kind where you’re not even sure someone is there or not. I didn’t say anything, and the door creaked open a tiny bit and in came the tape operator with a mic stand and boom. And he just looked at me and said, ‘Don’t move.’ And down came the microphone to my face, head still on the pillow, he put the headphones on my head, closed the door, and immediately upon the door closing, I heard, ‘Good morning, Michael.’”

As unsettling as it is to be woken up in such a manner, Sadler, groggy and barely cognizant of what was going on, went along with it.

“So, I tried coming up and he said, ‘Just sing when you know where you are. Here we go,’” recalls Sadler. “And I went, ‘Uh.’ So it was like an eight-bar lead up, and then the tape op came in and I sang it, and then he said, ‘Thanks very much. See you in a minute.’ And I went, ‘Uh, huh.’ And then the tape op came back in, took the headphones off, took the microphone away, closed the door, and I went, ‘What just happened?’”

Still in a fog, Sadler went to try to make sense of it all.

“Put my housecoat on, walked across to the studio, and there was Steve [Tayler], the engineer, and Rupert, and he said, ‘Morning, Michael. Listen to this,’” said Sadler. “And he played it back, and I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s exactly what you wanted, isn’t it?’ And he said, ‘Yep.’ And of course, preparing for it is not the same. That’s why they said absolutely nothing to me. That’s exactly what they wanted, and that’s exactly what they got. In fact, it was one take.”

For Saga’s latest record, 20/20, due out Tuesday on Eagle Records, Sadler’s experience was much more mundane. Still, it wasn’t business as usual for Sadler, who left the band when Saga’s tour ended in 2007 and then returned in January of 2011.

“When it was decided that I was coming back, and when we decided to make the announcement, I was basically handed pretty much a finished record, which was odd for me because I’d always been, since the beginning, a fairly integral part of the writing,” said Sadler. “For me to be handed music that I couldn’t touch was, ‘Oh, really …’ (laughs) Every once in a while, I’d go, ‘Oh, I think that part should have been six bars instead of four,’ or ‘maybe that should have been …’ So, on one hand it was slightly frustrating; on the other, as a singer, being handed a blank slate like that and just being able to do whatever I wanted on top of it, it was very inspiring actually, because I was hearing the record like someone in the audience would hear it or one of the fans would hear it for the first time.”

We’ll have more from Sadler in the coming days.

CD Review: Saga - 20/20

CD Review: Saga – 20/20

Eagle Rock Entertainment/earMusic (edel)

All Access Review: A-

Saga - 20/20 2012

A signifier of perfect eyesight, the designation “20/20” holds special meaning for the long-running Canadian progressive-rock institution Saga. For one thing, 20/20 just happens to be their 20^th album, and for another, it also refers to the eye operation keyboardist/vocalist Jim Gilmour had that has restored his vision to – you guessed it – 20/20.

More than that, however, the title is emblematic of Saga’s ability to visualize so clearly and with such detailed definition what it is they want to accomplish every time they step foot in a studio. Nothing, it seems, is ever left to chance for a group that has always been meticulous about sound clarity, even as they designed some of the most grandiose sonic architecture in the realm of prog-rock with Worlds Apart and other marvels. Cleanliness is next to godliness for Saga, and with the successful Lasik surgery conducted on 20/20, due to be released by Eagle Rock Entertainment, it appears there is nothing clouding their focus.

With Michael Sadler, one of the most distinctive and crystalline vocalists in all of prog, back in the fold, Saga seems re-energized on the futuristic 20/20, even if the music was almost entirely finished before his return. Between the breathless urgency and racing pulse of 20/20’s opener “Six Feet Under,” the wah-wah radiation burns of “Anywhere You Wanna Go” and the crunching, switchback guitar grooves of a particularly metallic “Spin It Again,” so reminiscent of early King’s X, 20/20 finds Saga adding some edginess and heft to what are often airy melodic passages – the likes of which are found in the breezy mix of light acoustic guitar strum and gently ruffling synthesizers that is “Ellery,” which checks in on the psychopathic main character of fan favorite “The Perfectionist.”

A defiant optimism pervades 20/20, as the pain and frustration of a life of unrealized potential vented in the chorus of sharp vocals and angry riffs in “One of These Days” give way to dizzying whirls of synthesizer and inspiring lyrical self-affirmations. Fighting against the erosion of imagination, “Till the Well Runs Dry” – featuring a deceivingly simple, but wonderfully executed Ian Crichton guitar solo and touches of jazz fusion – is swept up in a gushing geyser of a chorus of soaring, faith-healing keyboard swells and arpeggios and Sadler’s almost evangelical fervor for the subject matter. Tested again in the gorgeous ballad “Lost for Words,” Sadler’s expansive range and rare gift for expertly navigating melodies swim through an ocean of lovely piano figures, crystals of synth and acoustic guitar gold, before the surging electric rock – blanketed in dreamy vocals and pinwheel keyboards – of “Show and Tell” crash the reverie.

One of the most emotionally powerful and heartfelt records of the band’s history, 20/20 is, nevertheless, pretty typical of Saga – the easy marriage of synthesizers and keyboards with diverse guitar forays allowing each entity enough room to make their mark.Though more muscular than past efforts, the utterly transcendent 20/20 is full of altered moods, dynamic shifts in tempos and guided tours of epic, byzantine instrumental citadels. In much the same way that countrymen Rush combine their adventurous inclinations with a grounding in solid rock riffing, Saga forges strong song structures and flowing, shapely melodies that can withstand experimentation and the occasional odd time signature. There is nothing wrong with Saga’s vision, even after all these years.

-            Peter Lindblad