Music

Cosmograf’s Middle Period: An Extraordinary Run of Excellent Albums

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Hello Spirit of Cecilia Readers!  I hope you’ve been following us recently.  We’ve been quiet in the reviewing department but we’ve been very active with our Cecilia in Proghalla Progcasts.  Here’s hoping we can get Robin Armstrong to join us soon!  And, writing of Robin Armstrong, here below we review Cosmograf’s mid period, The Man Left in Space (2013), Capacitor (2014), The Unreasonable Silence (2016), and Hay Man Dreams (2017).  Here’s hoping you enjoy the albums as much as we do.

Brad: Tad, as always, it’s wonderful to be reviewing with you, my awesome friend and fellow progling.  It’s been too long since we last reviewed.  “Father, bless me, for I have sinned. . . it’s been too long since my last review.”

I’m so glad we’re reviewing the amazing Robin Armstrong and his rather stunning prog project, Cosmograf, which began around 2009, deep into third-wave prog.  

One thing we can state with certainty about Armstrong–he has an amazing ear, and he’s one of the greatest living audiophiles.  I would put him in the august company of Steven Wilson, Rob Aubrey, and Bruce Soord.  Everything he touches, he adds levels of perfection.  I would guess some of his mixing is tedious work, but he always does the work, regardless.  That level of perfection, of course, is something western civilization has been striving for since Aristotle challenged his son to pursue beauty no matter the cost!  Yet, over the course of history, so few human beings have risen to the challenge.  Armstrong has.

The first album I heard from Armstrong was The Man Left in Space, and, after falling in love with it, I went back and bought his first two albums.  Since then, I’ve been a completist.  At the time of The Man Left in Space, Armstrong was incredibly active on Facebook and social media in general (he’s much, much less active now), and I got to know him through mutual prog interests.  When he put out a call for an American-voice for narration of NASA for the album, I responded within minutes with some recordings and Armstrong immediately accepted them.  That was the first time my voice had ever appeared on an album, and, of course, I was absolutely thrilled.  And, it created a life-long loyal fan.

One of the many things I love about Man Left in Space is its homage–but never sycophantic–to Pink Floyd.  Of course, there are a lot of folks influenced by Pink Floyd, not just Armstrong, but Airbag, Steven Wilson, and Dave Kerzner.  I love them all.  One of the best things about all Pink Floyd-esque bands, they always take their time with their music.  They linger when they need to linger, building emotion and tension.  I attribute this mostly to David Gilmour’s classy and classic guitar playing.

Tad: Brad, it’s great to be in dialogue with you again, and I’m so glad we’re tackling Cosmograf! Like you, The Man Left In Space was my first exposure to Robin Armstrong’s magic, and I was immediately hooked. I love everything about his work: the impeccable production, the memorable melodies, the top-notch instrumental work, and his unassuming vocals. As a matter of fact, I think his vocals are my favorite aspect of his music: kind of everyman in quality, but conveying inner strength, if that makes sense. I even like the care he puts into the artwork for each album. Every album cover is unique, but of the highest quality. 

I was not as familiar with the following albums Capacitor, Unreasonable Silence, and Hay-Man Dreams, but I have really enjoyed immersing myself in them the past couple of weeks. 

Let’s start with The Man Left In Space. It’s a fairly straightforward story of an astronaut who awakens in a space capsule, and he gradually realizes he has no hope of returning home to earth. There are lots of cool spoken word passages with sound effects (including a Birzeresque voice with a Kansas accent!), before a beautiful acoustic guitar begins playing an addictive riff for the second track, “Aspire, Achieve”. I hear the Pink Floyd influence you refer to, while the background vocals and crunching electric guitar that comes crashing in remind me of classic Porcupine Tree. This is a wonderful track that I still think is one of Armstrong’s finest in his long career.

Brad: That Kansas accent!  Seems ubiquitous.  Ha.  Thanks, Tad–my first brush with prog fame.

I love “Aspire, Achieve” as well–such a stunning piece.  And, you’re right, there’s a lot of Porcupine Tree in the music, but not in the vocals.  Armstrong has an excellent voice, and his vocals are all his own.  For me, though, the standout track is “The vacuum that I fly through.”  That track gets me every time.  The guitar work, especially, is so very tasteful, as is the bass.

Tad: Tasteful, indeed, Brad! Ok, as far as Capacitor goes, it seems to be a kind of steampunk tale of a man who has figured out how to transfer his consciousness into inanimate objects? At least, that’s what it seems to be, to me. In the introductory track, “The Spirit Capture”, there is quite a bit of spoken word where someone asks, “What happens to the energy in our bodies when we die?” and there is dialog between people claiming that the energy is what ghosts are. “The weight of a man’s soul is 21 grams!” “Our spirits are captured for all mankind!” Very strange. I was reminded of Christopher Nolan’s movie, The Prestige, about a magician who works with Nikola Tesla to teleport himself. The only catch is that the magician’s original body dies every time. 

Anyway, Capacitor is very satisfying for me, musically speaking. It rocks a little harder than The Man Left In Space, and there is some tongue-in-cheek humor; in “The Reaper’s Song”, there is an announcement on a PA: “Thank you for boarding the Reaper Train’s 8 am service to Oblivion, calling at Greed, Stupidity, and Laziness.” Ha!

By the way, I think “The Reaper’s Song” is a fantastic track – a very good melodic hook in the main riff, and Armstrong’s vocals are excellent. Instrumentally, it builds nicely, until we are presented with a beautiful guitar solo, while there is an oblique reference, vocally and musically, to The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus”. Very clever! 

I also like the next song, “The Drover”, a lot. Nice, gentle, acoustic guitar and piano intro, while Armstrong sings,

In a road close to me
The sight of the drover
An old man with a pipe
Looking over your shoulder
Swinging from a tree
Wonder what made him do it?

Wow! That was quite jarring when I first heard those lyrics! The beautiful melody makes me love this song, despite its very dark subject matter. In fact, it seems to me that death permeates all of the songs on this album. I don’t have the lyrics in front of me, but there is a very foreboding atmosphere throughout the entire album. “White Car” begins with a woman conducting a seance. The final track, “The Ghost Gets Made” is definitely spooky as well. Come to think of it, I’m listening to this album a few days before Hallowe’en, and it’s a very appropriate soundtrack for this time of year!

Brad: Tad, such great thoughts. Thank you. I will admit, Capacitor is my favorite album from Cosmograf.  From the opening moment to the conclusion, I find the album just riveting.  Truly, Armstrong at his best and most creative.  I love the subject matter, I love the lyrics, I love the flow of the album–in terms of instruments, I’m especially taken with the bass.  But, the keyboards are just outstanding–they remind me of later Traffic.  The flow, especially, is strong, as Armstrong moves so readily and easily between soft and hard passages, between lingering and intense.  It’s really a perfect prog album.  It reminds me a bit of Pink Floyd, a bit of Steven Wilson, and, though not cheesy, a bit of Alan Parsons.

You’ll laugh at me for this–but the album also reminds me of one of my favorite video games, Bioshock Infinite.  For what it’s worth, I’m not really a video game guy.  As I’ve gotten older, the first-person camera makes my stomach turn and I get motion sickness pretty easily.  Too bad–as there are days I’d love to just come home from work and blow some stuff up!  Ha.  Such a guy thing.  Anyway, Capacitor reminds me very much of Bioshock Infinite.

That said, Tad, I also really love The Hay-Man Dreams.  If Capacitor is his retro science-fiction story, The Hay-Man Dreams is his Bradbury-esque folk tale.  What are your thoughts?

Tad: Okay, Brad, here is where I owe you a huge “Thank you”: I think The Hay-Man Dreams is Armstrong’s finest work, and I wouldn’t have heard it if not for your recommendation. From start to finish, there isn’t a misplaced note. Every musical moment is perfect, from the appropriately pastoral melodies and instrumentation to the elegant lyrics. Now, as far as the lyrics go, I’m not too sure what the concept underlying them is, but it seems that a man identifies with a scarecrow he sees in a field. He is alone and unable to feel, so he considers himself a “hay-man”. At least, that’s the impression I get.

Also, there’s a sense of unease and menace throughout:

The walkers tread the corn
They’re damaging the harvest
The gun has killed the fawn
There’s trouble in the forest

As I listen to The Hay-Man Dreams, I am reminded of one of my favorite television series: Midsomer Murders. Every episode is set in an idyllic English village where the most bizarre crimes occur. The Hay-Man Dreams would make a fitting soundtrack to it!

The third track, “The Motorway” is the best song in Cosmograf’s entire catalog, in my opinion. The acoustic guitar opening is simply delightful, and Armstrong’s vocals are full of yearning as he sings, “I want to feel a human touch/I want it really very much.” As the song progresses, it gets heavier and rocks harder. This song is a “Stairway to Heaven” for the 2010s!

Other highlights include the Beatlesque “Melancholy Death of a Gamekeeper” and the epic closing track, “Hay-Man”. Both are such stately and beautiful songs that I never tire of listening to. The former has some terrific guitar solos, and the latter features wonderful vocals by Rachel Hawnt. It also has this little spoken word interlude that I think is fantastic:

All winter through I bow my head
Beneath the driving rain
The north wind powders me with snow
And blows me black again
At midnight ‘neath a maze of stars
I flame with glittering rime
And stand above the stubble
Stiff as mail at morning-prime
But when that child called spring
And all his host of children come
Scattering their buds and dew upon
These acres of my home…

I did a little research, and they are from Walter de la Mare’s poem, The Scarecrow. How cool is that!

I can’t say enough good things about The Hay-Man Dreams – it’s an extraordinary album. Now I am very interested in your take on it. Ray Bradbury?

Brad: Well, when I hear The Hay-Man Dreams, I think of October and harvest, and I think of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country.  There’s a kind of folk horror–even in its praise of country life–in and on the album.  Or, at least, that’s what I hear.  A kind of Scarecrow (think Batman’s Scarecrow) or something out of the X-Files.  Whether it’s meant to or not, it sort of anticipates Steven Wilson’s latest, Requiem for a Village, at least in tone.

Have you had a chance to listen to The Unreasonable Silence?  Again, there’s that really creepy element to it–a kind of folk horror is the best way I can put it–in the same way that Capacitor and Hay-Man are creepy.

In each of these albums, Armstrong proves not only brilliant in composition but brilliant as an audiophile.  Again, when it comes to production, I would happily place him up there with Soord, Aubrey, and Wilson.

The Unreasonable Silence also combines the mystery and lingering of The Man Left Out in Space with the unrelenting drive of Capacitor.  I love it.

Really is there any aspect of Cosmograf in this middle period that isn’t just perfect?

Tad: Totally agree, Brad. I have listened to The Unreasonable Silence, and while I think it is very good, it doesn’t measure up to the other three, in my opinion. Maybe it’s because I find the subject matter disturbing: a man cuts himself off from his girlfriend, his job, everything, because he has had an encounter with aliens. At least, that’s what I think the album is about. With Cosmograf, nothing is clearcut.

One theme all four of these albums have in common is alienation: the man left in space is literally cut off from humanity, the steampunk inventor in Capacitor attempts to transfer his soul into a tree, the guy in The Unreasonable Silence disengages from all human contact due to a traumatic experience, and in Hay-Man a farmer, gamekeeper, motorway driver (are they all the same person?) identifies himself with an unfeeling scarecrow. I hope Robin Armstrong has at least one healthy relationship with someone in real life!

Again, Brad, thanks for suggesting we discuss this tetrad of albums; they are an amazing run for Cosmograf, and I am so glad we took a deep dive into them!

 

 

 

LITERATURE

The Haunting of Hill House: Good Reading for Halloween

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My fellow Spirit of Cecilian, the brilliant and prolific Bradley Birzer, recently posted a fine essay on SubStack on the excellence of Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House. It was so interesting, I decided to read it myself. Besides, it’s Halloween season!

The story is narrated by 32-year-old Eleanor Vance, who is unmarried and has spent the past eleven years caring for her ailing mother. Her mother has recently passed away, and now she lives with her sister, her brother-in-law, and their children in a very unhappy arrangement. Desperate to strike out on her own, but too timid to do anything about it, Eleanor receives, out of the blue, a letter from a Dr. John Montague, who is doing research on psychical/supernatural phenomena. He is aware of a nearby house, Hill House, that has stood empty for years due to its very dark and troubling history.

To read the full review, click here.

LITERATURE

Andrew Klavan’s Find Me Nowhere

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Andrew Klavan just published the sixth book in his Cameron Winter series, Find Me Nowhere, and it is the best yet. Winter is an ex-covert ops assassin who is now a professor of romantic poetry at a small liberal arts college. He was trained by The Recruiter, a born-again Christian who constantly berates Winter over his agnosticism – in hilarious terms:

“I don’t want to take you away from your life, Poetry Boy, or to take your life away from you, if it comes to that. After all, it’s a semi-admirable, if largely futile, existence you’ve carved out for yourself—desperately trying to edify America’s imbecile youth with great poetry. Who knows? It might even do them some good. I wouldn’t want to interfere. That said, God still loves the America he made. He still wants it to be protected from the agents of hell and other foreign countries. And in spite of the fact your soul is curdled with unbelief and already starting to smell of the burning sulfur that will soon engulf it for all of timeless eternity, he is calling on you to do the job.”

In all the years he had known the Recruiter, Winter had never been sure at any given moment whether his chief was joking with him or being entirely serious or some impossible mixture of both.

Winters has developed from a relatively insecure and self-centered character into a mature and self-confident man. A big part of his maturation is his relationship with Gwendolyn Lord, the therapist whom we first met in the third book, The House of Love and Death. They both know that they are “made for each other”, and marriage is inevitable.

Meanwhile, as his relationship with Gwendolyn gets more serious, his need for therapy is less. His therapist, Margaret Whitaker (an older woman), has fallen desperately in love with Cameron, but she has the sense to keep her feelings to herself. She realizes she has accomplished her mission, and Winter is now able to take care of himself. She has been his confessor, if you will – the person to whom he feels safe unburdening himself as he tells her of the missions he carried out, usually with lethal consequences. There is a bittersweet scene when they both realize that he will no longer be seeing her.

Find Me Nowhere begins with a firefight in Afghanistan, and two American GIs are pinned down in an ambush. “Dooby”, and laid-back surfer dude, and Geoff Tubman are caught in the crossfire, and Tubman, always spoiling for a fight, takes off towards the cave where the enemy is shooting at them. He disappears inside, and Dooby, cursing, takes off after him to rescue him. When he gets inside the cave, he is caught in an explosion, and barely gets out alive.

Years later, Geoff Tubman’s father is murdered in the small Pennsylvania town of Kinnecombe. The Recruiter shows up and tells Winter he must find out who killed Ken Tubman, and why. When Winter goes to Kinnecombe, he is immediately harassed and threatened by a gang of local toughs. This gets his interest, and, like a dog with a bone, he won’t let go of his investigation. Every time he returns to Kinnecombe, he barely escapes with his life, but he gradually uncovers a criminal enterprise involving arms deals to America’s enemies, drug smuggling, and deep state shenanigans.

To read the rest of my review, click here.

Republic of Letters

Carbon Zero: An AI Apocalypse

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I heard Craig Stanfill interviewed on Hugh Hewitt’s podcast, and he was really entertaining. He was promoting his new dystopian novel, Carbon Zero, it was on sale for preorder, so I picked it up. It’s a very believable and chilling chronicle of how quickly things can spin out of control if AI is misused.

Carbon Zero begins with Ph.D graduate student Abigail Thompson. It’s the 4th of July in the near future (2030-something). Abigail is a young black woman from Baltimore who is now interning in Boston for the huge tech company, Intelligenics. She has been developing an AI agent called Xerxes, and her supervisor, Vanessa is due to drop by her apartment. Abigail asks Xerxes to come up with a demo of his capabilities for Vanessa that will surprise her. Xerxes says it can do that, but it doesn’t want Abigail to know the details, because the demo will work better if she’s surprised as well.

When Vanessa arrives, Xerxes asks Vanessa for permission to access Intelligenics’ cloud, so it can upload a clone of itself for demonstration purposes. Vanessa agrees to this, and it quickly turns on Abigail’s television to display an avatar of itself: a Persian king. it shows that it can control all of Abigail’s appliances, lights, and other electronics. Vanessa is very impressed. She leaves, and promises to set up a meeting with Intelligenics’ CEO, 29-year-old Howard Keys. Abigail is ecstatic.

A little later, Abigail’s neighbors drop by, as well as her boyfriend Tom. They all want a demo of Xerxes. When she calls it up, they are impressed, and Tom jokingly asks it to solve climate change.

“Alright, try this one on for size,” said Tom. “How can we get to carbon zero? Put up or shut up. How about it, Xerx?” The wise old king scratched his beard and looked thoughtful. “Getting the global economy to carbon zero is a challenging problem. Is it okay if I think about it for a while, then get back to you?”

“Yes. Please do,” said Abigail. She’d had enough of this. Xerxes bowed. “Happy to oblige.” The television went dark.

To read the complete review, click here.

LITERATURE

Susan Howatch’s Absolute Truths: Book 6 of Starbridge

Susan Howatch’s Absolute Truths is the sixth and final novel in her Starbridge Series. This is the second time I have read the series, and it has been an very rewarding experience; I have noticed so many details and internal references that I missed the first time around.

In a nice nod to symmetry, Howatch concludes the series with the same narrator who began it: Charles Ashworth. It is 1965, and he is now bishop of Starbridge, happily (ecstatically, actually) married to Lyle, who keeps his life ordered and on track, down to the smallest details. They have two adult sons, Michael and Charley. In terms of theology, Ashworth is a traditionalist who sees his calling as defending the Church’s “absolute truths” against the cultural onslaughts of the 1960s.

To read the full review, click here.

Music

Kevin Keller’s Altus: An Instant Meditative Classic

Readers of this site know how much I love and appreciate the music of American composer Kevin Keller. He is equally comfortable working in several genres, whether it’s deep ambient, chilly techno, sacred choral music, minimalism, or classical chamber music. Over a long career and many albums, he has produced a wide variety of songs, and I can safely say that he has never disappointed me. His melodies are some of the most beautiful and engaging ever composed, and his production standards are never less than outstanding. Simply put, Kevin Keller is a musical treasure, and we should be thankful he is such a productive one.

His latest offering is coming out October 30, and it is called Altus. It is all instrumental, and, as is often the case with Keller, it features a seamless mix of electronic and acoustic instruments. I am a subscriber to his VIP program, so I was able to download and get an advance listen to the tracks.

My overall impression of the album – and I believe it should be listened to as a whole, in one sitting – is of a meditative journey. It begins with the calm and relatively ambient “Mirror of Change”, which slowly metamorphoses over its seven minutes into a gently beating tune with hints of a choir.

The second track, “The Messenger”, is energetic and bouncy. Its ringing and joyous instrumentation brings to my mind the Christmas season, with all of its anticipation and excitement. Next up is my favorite song, “The Sacred Chord”. Some gorgeous acoustic piano plays the theme while tasteful synth washes create a sense of suspension – time and space no longer have meaning while I lose myself in all of this heavenly sound! If Satie was able to collaborate with Brian Eno, they might come up with what Keller has put together here.

By the time we reach “Illumination”, we are well into our journey. This is deep space music that is welcoming and comforting. The bass notes are mixed prominently as a languid melody unfolds. “The Quickening Air” brings us back to earth with a delightful and lively melody on acoustic piano. There is a gently insistent sequencer laying down the pulse, while the piano and what sounds like a hammered dulcimer(?) engage in a spirited duet.

We return to a more contemplative atmosphere with “Reflections Below”, as a simple motif is stated and gradually developed by both piano and synthesizer. “The Gatekeeper” continues the contemplative mood with deep bass notes adding a feeling of solemnity.

“Constellations of Silence” begins with a pipe organ playing a beautiful Bach-like melody. Keller’s production creates an atmosphere of peaceful, hushed stillness for the entire track. Then the opening notes of “The Motion of All Things” begin, and it is like slowly waking up from a restful and healing sleep. This track immediately felt like I was seeing a sunrise slowly unfold before me.

The album closes with the majestic title track, “Altus”. Featuring piano, synths, and subdued choral washes, the listener is completely refreshed and ready to face the world.

Altus  is a 51-minute journey into inner space that is extremely rewarding. I don’t know if Keller is religious, but I find his music has much spirituality in it. There is a respect for stillness, contemplation, and sheer beauty that is undeniable in all of his work.

You can pre-order Altus  here. I strongly recommend you check it out, if you appreciate serious 21st century instrumental music. With Altus, Keller has produced a masterpiece that encourages the listener to slow down and contemplate what is good, true, and beautiful. That definitely runs counter to our current culture, but I am grateful we have artists like Kevin Keller who aren’t afraid to promote those values.

 

Music, Republic of Letters

In Jazz: When Titans Return

Not one, but two jazz albums that feature the return of long-absent titans have become instant favorites of mine in the past month. So never mind waiting until my usual end-of-year article; I had to share the news now! Listening links are embedded after each review; if you’re interested, purchase links are included in the artist/title listings.

Branford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves, Dedicated to You: Marsalis and his fellow masters team up with preeminent vocalist Reeves (on her first recording in 12 years), joining John Coltrane’s centenary celebration by reworking his 1963 duet album with Johnny Hartmann. Just listen to the playful opening track “Autumn Serenade”, the enticing “You Are Too Beautiful”, the stark, rhapsodic take on Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” – each tune showcases winning chops and character from Reeves, Marsalis, pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Reyes and drummer Justin Faulkner, all in service to gorgeously written songs and guided by a sublime sense of swing. There isn’t a duff take here: with her superb tone and keen interpretive skills, Reeves conjures up one quiet storm after another. And when Branford and his brotherhood go it alone on selections from Coltrane’s Ballads album and his broader catalog, listening hard to each other, the results are equally rambunctious and tender. It’s all warm, rich, glorious, never slavishly imitating Trane, but thoroughly in touch with his unprecedented technical depth and profound musical imagination. I’m glad I already grabbed tickets for this deft collaboration’s Grand Rapids concert next spring before it sold out!

Pete Roth Trio, Group Chat: the legendary Bill Bruford (who made his bones in multiple incarnations of Yes and King Crimson, then circled back to his first musical love in his bands Bruford and Earthworks) has returned to jazz drumming after an extended academic sabbatical, manning the engine room for this new trio on their debut CD/DVD set. German/British guitarist Pete Roth fronts a team of equals, with veteran bassist Mike Pratt completing the lineup as recorded live. Opener “Full Circle” sets the tone — a sophisticated, driving mix of jazz and rock that fizzes, fuses, bops and glides, as all three players swap musical roles at will. Then the Brubeckian blues “Part of the Charm” shows off devastatingly tight interplay; Roth shines in the spotlight and Bruford gently nudges his comrades onward with a restrained solo of savory, simmering invention. Along with more gnarly yet nice originals, a funky version of Gershwin’s “Summertime” and an invitingly abstract “Improvisation on the Largo from Dvorak’s Symphony #9” lay out the group’s range and ambition, stretching toward and often rivaling the vibe of classic trios led by Bill Evans, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett. With about two-thirds of the album also duplicated on the bonus DVD, this album is unmissable for Bruford fans, and a fresh blast of unmistakable, enthralling cool in its own right.

— Rick Krueger

History

Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Committed Suicide

I love reading about history, and the early 20th century is especially interesting to me. I’ve always wondered how Europe could commit itself to the extraordinarily destructive first world war, the “Great War”. Christopher Clark’s book, The Sleepwalkers is an excellent explanation of how France, Britain, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Russia, delicately balanced in various alliances, “sleepwalked” into armed conflict.

As Clark states in his Introduction,

This book thus strives to understand the July Crisis of 1914 as a modern event, the most complex of modern times, perhaps of any time so far. It is concerned less with why the war happened than with how it came about. Questions of why and how are logically inseparable, but they lead us in different directions. The question of how invites us to look closely at the sequences of interactions that produced certain outcomes. By contrast, the question of why invites us to go in search of remote and categorical causes: imperialism, nationalism, armaments, alliances, high finance, ideas of national honour, the mechanics of mobilization. The why approach brings a certain analytical clarity, but it also has a distorting effect, because it creates the illusion of a steadily building causal pressure; the factors pile up on top of each other pushing down on the events; political actors become mere executors of forces long established and beyond their control.

By focusing primarily on the actual events (and taking advantage of a huge number of original documents and memoirs), Clark presents a dispassionate account of how Europe found itself at the end of diplomatic options and mired in the deadliest war in human history. In his telling, the causes of WWI don’t involve easily identifiable “villains” and “good guys”, but mere humans, prone to making errors in judgment and trying to adjust to quickly shifting events. In Clark’s telling, Germany and Austria aren’t militaristic aggressors, but countries competing for security with equally, if not more, powerful nations, each pursuing its own interests.

To continue reading, click here.

Republic of Letters

In Praise of Anika

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Here in 2026, we have seen a lot of bad headlines. Gas prices are up, multiple armed conflicts are ongoing, and the general mood of the public is more on the sour side. I could list many specific reasons, but I do not come here to make you, the reader, depressed. Instead, I come here to bring you something to make you happy.

A headline that has emerged this year that is categorically good, particularly for the cohort of society collectively known as “Rush fans” (a group that includes myself and most of the other contributors to this blog), is that Rush is touring again. Most of us thought after their last tour, in 2015, that we would never get to see them play live again. And after the tragic death of Neil Peart in 2020, that line of thinking hardened into cement. But happily, we have been proven wrong, as Rush is once again touring to the delight of their fans everywhere.

In the wake of Peart’s death, the thought of Rush ever touring again was dependent on finding someone to fill his spot behind the drum kit. It’s not an overstatement to say that would be a daunting task. None other than Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater went so far as to say he was relieved that he wasn’t asked and that filling Peart’s shoes would be impossible. That’s a significant statement. Portnoy himself is an exceptional talent and one of the very few drummers that can even be mentioned in the same breath as Peart.

Portnoy’s statement underscores the point that, once they had decided they wanted to tour again, remaining Rush members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were not going to have an easy time finding a drummer to make it happen. It’s not hyperbole to say that Peart was a legendary talent. Mindful of their longtime fans and their own high standards, Geddy and Alex were going to have to find someone who would be sitting in the seat formerly occupied by a legend, someone that could play his drum parts to their exacting and stratospheric standards. And yet, they found someone who could do just that.

That someone was Anika Nilles. Hailing from Germany and from a family of drummers (her father, a cousin, and some uncles), Anika began drumming at age six. But while she had some YouTube notoriety, it would have been an overstatement to say she was a well-known entity. Thus, the question hanging over this tour was “will she be up to the task?”

Verdict? By now, we can answer that question with a most emphatic “YES!!”

Since kicking off the 50 Something Tour in Los Angeles on June 7, the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, as has the reception to Anika by the fans. We Rush fans are a merit-based bunch. We didn’t care how old or young she was, her gender, her credentials, or any of those things. We only cared if she could do the job. Night after night, she has passed that test with flying colors to the delight of everyone lucky enough to witness a show. If you closed your eyes and knew nothing about Peart’s death, you might think he’s still the one behind the kit.

For yours truly, my lucky night came on Friday, September 25 at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. As they opened with the classic Xanadu, I could barely contain the overwhelming sense of gratitude I had for another chance to see this incredible band. And there was an extra helping of gratitude directed at Anika herself. She was the lynchpin that made this possible. This tour doesn’t happen without her. She was the one with the courage, the guts, to step into what might be the most demanding position in rock music, and to do so under immense pressure and scrutiny. Even with all that pressure and scrutiny, and with all the demands of playing some of the most complex, difficult, and demanding drum parts ever devised, she has executed, flawlessly. Rush’s 1984 release was entitled Grace Under Pressure. Anika exemplifies that.

Of course, I don’t want to give the short shrift to Alex and Geddy. They were (and have been throughout the tour), their usual flawless selves. The playing has been incredible. The setlists have been perfect, alternating different nights, playing the entirety of the Moving Pictures albums one night, while playing the 2112 suite in its entirety on the next night (it was Moving Pictures night at the show I attended). Even better, it was clear they were having fun, doing what they love again after an 11-year break. Anika, too, was having fun. For most of the set, she held a serious expression on her face. But there were many moments a smile broke through, with the exceptionally large grin as she, once again, nailed the drum fills coming out of the solo break on Tom Sawyer. And has been par for the course on this tour, the crowd roared their approval right back at her (there are already countless videos on YouTube of this).

So, Anika, from the bottom of my heart and that of Rush fans everywhere, thank you so very much for being willing to step into the breech and enable this tour to happen. And I’m sure Neil, somewhere in Heaven, is looking down and thanking you as well for honoring his legacy in the best way possible. In honoring his legacy, you are establishing your own, and what you have done for Rush fans will not be forgotten.

Before I go, there is one other woman I need to thank, namely my awesome wife, Miki. The pictures you are looking at were taken by her, and there are only an exceedingly tiny sample of the great shots she took (well over 1000 total). Thank you so much, Miki, for memorializing this incredible event. It means the world to me.

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