Sights and Sounds: ASIA to release 'The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1; elbow's stirring advance track 'Six Words'; new singles / videos from Color Theory and Ryan Levine

This has been a super exciting week for music news. Featured in this update are major announcements and/or new music from forthcoming releases featuring ASIA, elbow, Color Theory and Ryan Levine...Robert Kinsler

The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 Out on November 26th   Multi-platinum selling English supergroup ASIA are to release a 10CD boxset The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 through BMG Records on November 26, 2021.  There will also be a digital album (also called The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1) featuring a selection of 24 tracks taken from the full boxset, out on the same day. Pre-order it here: ASIA THE OFFICIAL LIVE BOOTLEGS VOL 1

ASIA: Geoff Downes (The Buggles, YES, keyboards), Steve Howe (YES, guitars), Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, drums) and John Wetton (King Crimson, UK, bass/vocals), took the world by storm with their eponymous debut album, globally the biggest-selling album of 1982, and the single Heat Of The Moment. The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 celebrates the huge appeal of the concert tours that followed ASIA’s first two albums in 1982 and 1983. The success continued following ASIA’s 25th anniversary reunion in 2006 and three more highly acclaimed albums. The slipcase boxset features  5 x 2CD concerts from 1982 (Buffalo, NY, USA), 1983 (Worcester, MA, USA), 2007 (São Paulo, Brazil), 2008 (Tokyo, Japan) and 2010 (London, UK).   “This historical collection represents some of our finest and most defining live moments,” says Geoff Downes, “from the very first ASIA tour in 1982 and the Alpha tour the following year through three of our many ‘Reunion’ shows. It was such a privilege to take ASIA’s music to these different continents and feel the warmth and support from fans all over the world. We hope this brings back great memories and inspires others to appreciate the music of ASIA”.  The sets for ASIA’s original 1980s tours featured only the band’s new music. For the ‘Reunion’ years tours, ASIA included heritage tracks from each of the band member’s pre-ASIA groups. The 2007 and 2008 concerts also feature the Wetton/Howe composition Ride Easy, a song omitted from the debut album that was issued as the B-side of Heat Of The Moment, and included in their later live repertoire as a thank you to their fans for their support over a quarter of a century. This the first time these recordings have been made officially available by ASIA and they are presented together in a superb collector’s edition boxset with original artwork by Roger Dean, who created all of ASIA’s album artwork.  ASIA, The Official Live Bootlegs, Volume 1 is available as a 10CD boxset and Digital Album on 26thNovember 2021 through BMG Records.

About ASIA ASIA was a true ‘supergroup’ pooling the talents of Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton, who had already amassed tens of millions of record sales with their collective bands of the 70s. Leaving behind their progressive roots, ASIA embraced the commercial FM rock sound that dominated US airwaves and took that, and the new MTV video channel, by storm.  The single Heat Of The Moment was a world-wide monster smash and their eponymous 1982 debut album spent an incredible 9 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard chart as ASIA became the biggest selling album of the year and world tour dates sold out. A second album, Alpha, was released in 1983. The four original members reconvened in 2006 for a world tour, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that incredible success, and the album Phoenix followed. While the members were still heavily involved in other projects they came together again to record Omega in 2010 and XXX in 2012, both albums were acclaimed by their faithful fans and supported by more world tours. Steve Howe stepped back from ASIA to concentrate on his work with YES and was absent for 2014’s Gravitas. Following this tour came the news of John Wetton’s treatment for cancer, a fight he sadly lost in 2017. FOR ALL THINGS ASIA, please visit:  originalasia.com elbow reveal second studio track titled "Six Words," taken from forthcoming album 'Flying Dream 1,' out Nov. 19, 2021 Watch the music video for "Six Words" HERE PRE-ORDER 'FLYING DREAM 1' OUT 11/19   elbow have shared a second track taken from their forthcoming studio album, ‘Flying Dream 1.’ ‘Six Words’ is a stunning love song and in true elbow tradition, is a complex rhythmical and melodic composition, both lyrically intense with fulsome rumination on the endless power of love to harness souls young and old as Guy Garvey explains:  “I can’t remember the exact genesis of the track, but it is definitely one of Craig’s. In some ways it’s familiar territory lyrically, it has similar sentiments to ‘Mirrorball’ but it draws heavily on my teenage years: the bottle green in the song is the colour of my school uniform and the six lanes is the traffic on the road to school in Prestwich. Though that six lanes line was something I originally wrote back in the early elbow days when I sat in The Cornerhouse people watching so it’s a double reminisce and a return to my love of writing about love. The musical revelation came when we heard the backing singers that now end the track. We had this pyramid of voices making something incredible that reminded me of the early classic Disney soundtracks. It was so powerful that we knew we had to throw the spotlight onto them so that is why they end the track.”   As with ‘The Seldom Seen Kid,’ the first track to be released from the album, ‘Six Words’ is accompanied by a film of the band recording the song, captured during the recording sessions for ‘Flying Dream 1’ at Brighton’s Theatre Royal. You can watch the film here.   ‘Six Words’ is also available on all streaming services   elbow’s ninth studio album, ‘Flying Dream 1’ will be released on November 19. Pre-Order/Save/Add HERE OFFICIAL WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE Color Theory returns with compelling original cut "The Limit" Watch the music video for "The Limit" HERE Listen or download "The Limit" HERE You're in a relationship with someone who wants a rival, an enemy, a fight. You feel like you've been here before, watching the threads of your friendship fray and unravel. You think to yourself, "Just let me go... I'm stretched to the limit." Make sure to listen to the amazing Brian Hazard-penned "The Limit." Ryan Levine releases new single and video, "I Miss The War" WATCH HERE   GOOD THINGS TO REMEMBER EP OUT NOVEMBER 19 October 15, 2021 – Los Angeles, CA – Today, singer and songwriter Ryan LeVineshares his new single and music video, “I Miss The War,” via BMG: LISTEN HEREand WATCH HERE. This is the latest offering from his upcoming debut EP, Good Things To Remember, out November 19.  “’I Miss The War’ feels like a confession,” Ryan shares about the emotive new track. “It admits, almost shamefully, how much power toxic relationships can have over you, even when you think you’ve moved on from them.” The new single arrives on the heels of the previously released tracks “Signs” and “You Don’t Hold The Cards Anymore.” Praising “Signs,” Grimy Goods wrote, “Hot new artist alert…Out of the song’s slowly trodding strums and drums emerges a crescendo of blisteringly woeful riffs that reaches the height of LeVine’s lucidly broken heart.” Glide Magazine said that Ryan “brings a tenaciously soulful approach to folk and root music,” and “showers us with his emotive vocals that spawn the low key experimental mood swings of The National up through Hozier.” At the end of 2018, Ryan LeVine’s life cracked down the center. His band of six years, Wildling, called it quits and his relationship with “the one,” fell apart. Like it always had been, songwriting was the only tool he knew to use as a means of processing the loss and confusion. This time however, he traded elaborate home demos for simple voice memos and focused a lot more on the songwriting rather than the production. Ryan started recording the EP in early 2020 at Boulevard Studios in Los Angeles and then connected with his co-producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne) to finish the songs at Kevin’s home studio later that spring. The result was an introspective body of work which reveals a songwriter searching for answers. While he may not always find them, there is a resolving sense of peace that comes from the process. Photo credit: Harvey Hale