A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country
5/198
Album: 666
Artist: Aphrodite’s Child
Year: 1972
Length: 82:44
Genre: Progressive Rock / Psychedelic Rock / Art Rock
I’m going to be fully transparent here, I had an absolutely DUH moment when it came to writing this post initially. I originally found myself writing about how this was possibly the first instance of a country in my World Tour where I couldn’t really think of how much impact the country had, especially when it came to North America. I dug deep in my thoughts to figure out what I knew about Greece and it’s lasting influences and came up with a short list that stated, what else do we really know about Greece other than its beautiful landscapes and tourist attractions, Zorba the Greek, gyros and anything we learned from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I was sincere when I said this, genuinely being unable to think of anything else from Greece that may have impacted media in anyway shape or form.
Would you believe my reaction when I eventually realised, “Wait! Ancient Greece was a thing!” How could I possibly forget that. How could I forget that Greece brought us a huge variety of things that still have a major impact on us in the modern day. I mean, we have Ancient Greek Philosophy from the likes of Plato and Aristotle (I had literally referenced Plato’s Cave last month!), The Greek tragedies and comedies in theatre (as a big theatre person, how could I not remember this!). They created so much of the language of theatre from terms such as Deus Ex Machina and the concept of the Greek chorus. There’s poetry and literature that has transcended their mediums and is still taught in schools today: Homer’s The Odyssey, The Illiad! I mean, The Greek Gods and Greek mythology is still a huge thing, I have even been writing a script heavily influenced by Greek Mythology! Greece has given us so much in terms of media, that I cannot believe I had such a massive brain fart in regards to it.
However, when it comes to music, other than the classic greek music we all know from Greek weddings, there isn’t really much to be said about any music that comes out of Greece. Not to say they don’t have a rich history of it, au contraire. Music in Greece can be traced back all the way to ancient Greece, with men performing in choruses and using a variety of plucked instruments, such as the pandura, the lyre, the kanonaki and the kithara, with the inclusion of a reed instrument known as the aulos. Music was so important to education in Ancient Greece that young boys would learn a variety of musical modes and theory that would eventually lead to the creation of classical and religious music.
Through their history they would develop other forms of music such as Greek Folk music, that could be separated into two categories of Acritic songs and Klephtic songs, Nisiotika music from the Aegean islands, Ikariotikos, a traditional style of dance music, and Cretan music, most famously heard with the Zorba the Greek song and what us modern western audiences are probably most familiar with when thinking of Greek music. Greece definitely has a rich history of music, but again, when it came to thinking of a particular band or album, it wasn’t an obvious choice for me.
This was a case where the album was picked before the country. A thing I have been doing this year is cataloguing all the albums I’ve listened to throughout the year so I can keep track of what I have listened to. I happened to be hitting album 666 of the year and thought it would be fitting to find an album that fit that ever famous number. It just so happened that not only did I find an album called 666 but it also happened to be from a different country, which fit perfectly with this series, so killing two birds with one stone!
Despite the factors that led me to picking this album, it still ended up being a great pick and an overall fascinating album. Of course, a progressive rock band wouldn’t be the first thing you’d think about when it comes to Greece, but Aphrodite’s Child seems to have been a big enough success that they definitely helped put Greece on the map in terms of the genre with this ambitious concept album they created. Although the band had started as a more pop-oriented band the progressive rock route they took would eventually lead to their break-up, due to band members not enjoying this choice made my lead songwriter Vangelis Papathanassiou, they definitely left quite an impact with this as their last album. It would amass a major cult following and Jon Anderson from the band Yes would eventually collaborate with Vangelis.
The basic concept of 666 was to do a retelling of the Book of Revelations. According to Vangelis, he was heavily influenced by a lot of non-linear storytelling formats found in movies such as Rashomon and Intolerance and combining it with the rock opera stylings of The Who’s Tommy. The album told the story of a circus performing a show based on the apocalypse while the real apocalypse took place right outside of the circus tent, and as the album progresses the two stories eventually merge into one. To bring this story to life, the band utilised a variety of electronic instruments, studio techniques and tons of experimentation that led to songs to were considered uncommercial yet still tuneful as a whole. There’s barely any vocals to be found throughout as well, with a majority of the album being mainly instrumental. For some this can definitely be considered a bit of a challenging listen but an incredibly satisfying one if you can stick it out to the end. It was highly ambitious as a project, but this is a case where ambition did not exceed skill and the band were able to execute this concept quite beautifully.
It’s not for everyone, but is a worthwhile listen f you’re willing to give it your full attention.
Camila’s Thoughts: “Highly disappointed there weren’t any breaking plates sounds”
-Bosco
Bosco's Modern Life 