Snow PatrolВ’s Tom Simpson is due in court today to face a drugs charge. Simpson is accused of possessing cocaine, along with another man, Colin Kennedy, in Glasgow in June 2006. The keyboardist was arrested earlier this month as he attempted to board a plane at RAF Northolt in Middlesex after police issued a warrant for his arrest because he missed an earlier court hearing. SimpsonВ’s lawyer was told that the star must be present to face todayВ’s charges at a hearing at GlasgowВ’s Sheriff Court on July 10th. Snow Patrol are still expected to make their scheduled appearance at V Festival next month.

He has threatened to sue the pair over continuing under the New Order banner. Previously, Hook had told NME.com that New Order wouldn't be continuing. This prompted a statement from Sumner and Morris declaring that New Order was active, but from now Hook would not be part of the set-up. Addressing Sumner and Morris, Hook wrote on his MySpace page: "This group [New Order] has split up! You are no more New Order than I am! You may have two thirds, but don't assum e you have the rights to do anything 'New Order-ey,' because you don't. I've still got a third! But I'm open to negotiation." He signed the statement off by writing, "See you in court!" The full statement is on Peter Hook's MySpace Blog.

As Kelly Clarkson fans know, the singer wrote or co-wrote every track on her new album My December — but they probably don’t know just how quickly. “I’ve written every song in 15 to 20 minutes. It has to come out of me like that, or it won’t at all,” Clarkson told Self for its August issue cover story. “It’s not even that hard a thought process for me.” She revealed to the magazine that she has a microphone hooked up to her computer, which she keeps by her bed so she can record music when a song pops into her head. She has drafts of 150 new songs saved. Check out behind-the-scenes video from the cover shoot on Self.com. … A Britney Spears bodyguard is facing a battery charge after wrestling with a pair of men who were trying to photograph the singer with her children in Las Vegas on Thursday, The Associated Press reports. Cesar Julio Camera was issued a misdemeanor battery summons after allegedly grabbing and punching one photographer and pushing another into a wall. Spears and Kevin Federline are involved in divorce proceedings in California that include restrictions on traveling out of state with the children, according to AP. … Have a burning “Harry Potter” question for J.K. Rowling? Look out for the J.K. Rowling and the Open Book Tour Sweepstakes launching Monday — 1,000 fans will get a pair of tickets to an evening with the author on October 19 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Rowling will read from “Deathly Hallows,” answer questions and autograph copies of the volume. Go to publisher Scholastic’s Web site for details. … Kid Rock is priming his first studio album in four years — and on the release, he finds room to take a jab at ex-wife Pamela Anderson, Billboard.com reports. The album — due October 9 and tentatively titled Rock’n'Roll Jesus — closes with the country song “Half Your Age,” in which Rock says he’s found a younger girlfriend who’s “twice as hot.” The LP also includes a mash-up of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” and is dedicated to Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away last year. Kid Rock told Billboard he wants the album to make people feel as if they were “going to church drunk on Saturday night.” … Beck and Jamie Lidell have ganged up for a direct-to-disc recording session at a studio in East Los Angeles, Pitchfork reports. … Fall Out Boy already have more songs in the can — and they look to Green Day for inspiration, Billboard.com reports. “I’ve got a bunch of songs written, but I think I’m going to wait a while before we release it, because I’m still really proud of [Infinity on High] and I want to kind of give it some space,” singer/guitarist Patrick Stump told the outlet. He also said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s declaration that he didn’t want to play “four-chord punk-rock for the rest of his life,” according to Stump, has impacted the band’s outlook. “They’re really just true to what they are, and so that’s how we are,” he said. “I think we’ll change stylistically, but at the end of the day, that’s just something you wear. You’re still yourself.” … Don Imus and CBS Radio are close to a settlement that would pre-empt his $120 million breach-of-contract suit, AP reported Friday (July 27). It’s not clear whether the deal would bring Imus back to the airwaves. … Michael Moore might be subpoenaed by federal officials over his trip to Cuba for his “Sicko” documentary, Reuters reported Friday. On “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on Thursday, he said he had been notified at the studio that a subpoena had already been sent out, but according to the news outlet, he hasn’t been served with one yet. … The Spice Girls have added three more dates to their upcoming reunion tour. The shows, in Vancouver, British Columbia (December 2); San Jose, California (December 4); and Shanghai, China (January 8), join a roster of 11 previously announced dates, with the Vancouver gig now serving as the tour’s opening night. … She Wants Revenge will return to record stores this fall with their sophomore LP, This Is Forever. The album drops October 9 and will feature 13 tracks, including “Written in Blood,” “She Will Always Be a Broken Girl” and “Pretend the World Has Ended.” … Forensic pathologist Werner Spitz sparred with the prosecution in the Phil Spector trial on Thursday, repeating the claim that actress Lana Clarkson’s gunshot wound was self-inflicted, the Los Angeles Times reports. He said the force of the gunshot in her mouth caused blood to spray out of her mouth and nose — which then landed on the music producer’s jacket several feet away. When asked why blood wasn’t found on the floor, furniture or elsewhere after it sprayed, Spitz said he couldn’t comment on the death scene because he had only seen photos of Spector and Clarkson’s clothing and relied on reports made by other experts. … A man accused of shooting Ray Davies in a 2004 holdup is off the hook for now — prosecutors dropped the charges after the Kinks frontman didn’t show up in a New Orleans court on Thursday, AP reports. It was the second time prosecutors dropped armed-robbery and aggravated-battery charges against the man because Davies wasn’t in court. Davies told AP prosecutors didn’t notify him about the trial until a few days ago and that he didn’t have time to get from London to New Orleans. “I am very disappointed with the way this case has been handled,” he said. “I intend to pursue it further.” … David Bowie is celebrating the 35th anniversary of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars with an innovative alternate-album-cover contest on his Web site. … Led Zeppelin are getting a whole lot of love via a new batch of reissues, Billboard.com reports. The best-of collection Mothership is due November 13 and will be followed a week later by spruced-up versions of the DVD concert film “The Song Remains the Same” and its accompanying soundtrack. Configurations of each release will have additional content, some of which is previously unreleased. … According to a report from Interfax, a Russian nongovernmental news agency based in Moscow, most heavy-metal songs are about murder and suicide — so says Serbsky State Research Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry professor Fyodor Kondratyev. “Having researched 700 most popular heavy-metal songs revealed that half of them is about murder, 7 percent is positive about suicide, and 35 percent preaches a variety of Satanist ideologies,” Kondratyev said, in broken English. 07.26.07 Seems like Rihanna may be listening to too much T.I. (or is that T.I.P.?) lately. In the August/September issue of Vibe Vixen, the cover starlet told the magazine about resolving her own split-personality issues, one being her crafted stage persona, Rihanna (her actual middle name), and the other being her given namesake and usual self, Robyn. “It wasn’t that [my management or the label] told me what to do,” she explained. “It was more of what I couldn’t do. I couldn’t wear red lipstick. I couldn’t wear my hair in a ponytail; all kinds of stupid things. Being ‘Rihanna’ wasn’t natural. So I rebelled. I’m doing me. Now, Robyn and Rihanna are much more similar.” In the issue, hitting newsstands August 7, the Bajan singer also addressed the Jay-Z rumors once more, revealing at one point she couldn’t even look him in the eye she was so embarrassed by all the gossip. But, according to Rihanna, Jay approached her and told her to just ignore the lies. ” ‘It is what it is,’ ” she quoted him as saying. … On Thursday (July 26) the Santa Monica Police Department in California released the 911 call made by the mother of Lindsay Lohan’s former personal assistant — in the three-minute call, which was made at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the woman begged for help after a GMC began trailing her and appeared not to know that Lohan was driving it. When the dispatcher asked where she was, the woman said she was heading to the police station, and she wound up parking at the nearby Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Muffled yells can be heard near the end of the call, after which the woman can be heard apparently identifying people to the police. According to The Associated Press, police said Lohan and the woman were having a heated debate when they showed up, and that two men had accompanied Lohan in the car. … The Lohan debacle is getting even messier: In an e-mail sent Wednesday to 24/Sizzler’s David Caplan, Ali Lohan defended her mother against father Michael Lohan, who has been making the media rounds to comment on Lindsay’s arrest. “My father is telling all lies to people and saying he was such a great dad and was always there for us, my father was never there for us. I think that the whole reason why my sister is upset with herself and not as confident is because of my dad not being around and always staying out late and not coming home for days.” … And Dina Lohan isn’t too happy about Rob Schneider spoofing her daughter Lindsay on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” Tuesday night. A statement issued to “Access Hollywood” and attributed to “Dina and family” reads: “We have a great respect for Jay Leno, but we are disappointed in the path he chose to allow a guest to make light of a very serious situation concerning Lindsay. Thank you to Craig Ferguson for not making a mockery of such a serious situation to which teens and young adults are facing across the country.” … Maroon 5 have been tapped to join previously announced performers Alicia Keys, Usher, Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy at this year’s Fashion Rocks event, taking place September 6 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The event will be hosted by “Entourage” star Jeremy Piven and air the following day on CBS at 9 p.m. ET. … Chuck D handed out advance copies of Public Enemy’s new album, How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?, at the Guitar Center near Union Square in Manhattan, New York, on Thursday (July 26). The project, due August 7, is being released by the PE frontman’s label, SlamJamz Records, and TuneCore, a digital distribution company that offered fans at the event a chance to make their own music available on online stores like iTunes. … Island Def Jam Records launched a campaign on Thursday for Ronald “Mr. Biggs” Isley in hopes of securing an executive pardon for the singer, who was indicted on tax-evasion charges in September. A federal judge originally ordered Isley to three years in prison, but his sentencing hearing had been postponed until next month. The label is citing Isley’s declining health and his efforts to pay down the IRS debt as reasons for the pardon. … Don’t expect to see a sexy starlet in the new Marc Jacobs ad campaign — Michael Stipe is doing the honors, RollingStone.com reports. The bare-and-hairy-chest R.E.M. frontman wears baggy blue pants in the ad. He’s not the only rocker cropping up in clothing ads these days: John Mayer is part of the new Gap ad campaign. … Jamie Reynolds of the Klaxons broke his leg stage-diving at a show in France over the weekend, and the band has had to table four concerts in Australia as a result, according to its MySpace page. … Take a bite out of this: Apple shipped 9.82 million iPods last quarter, helping boost profits 73 percent. The company expects to ship 1 million iPhones this quarter. … A man who demanded $1 million not to publish stolen photos of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding has been arrested, The Associated Press reports. David Hans Schmidt was caught Tuesday, a bail bond was set at $100,000 and he is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. The FBI had been contacted after Schmidt approached Cruise’s representatives six weeks ago with the photos. … Naomi Watts gave birth to a baby boy on Wednesday. The dad is longtime boyfriend and actor Liev Schreiber. … Izzy Stradlin fan site ChopAway.com says the guitarist sent along an e-mail letting it know that he might turn up for the 20th anniversary celebration of Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, set to take place Saturday at West Hollywood, California’s Key Club. In the note, Stradlin added that Appetite drummer Steven Adler will be performing, and, according to RollingStone.com, L.A. Gun Tracii Guns will also be there. The site reports that Slash and Duff McKagan are “maybes.” … To mark the 30th anniversary of the release of the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks … Here’s the Sex Pistols, the band is planning to release a special edition of the LP on October 29 — but not on plastic. The album will be reissued in heavyweight vinyl with a 7-inch insert of “Submission” and a poster — just as the record was originally released October 28, 1977. The Pistols will also reissue their four classic singles “Anarchy in the U.K.,” “God Save the Queen,” “Pretty Vacant” and “Holidays in rhe Sun” on vinyl as well throughout the month of October. … Veteran rock/industrial drummer Martin Atkins, who has played with Ministry, Public Image Ltd. and Killing Joke, has compiled his 30-plus years of knowledge about how to survive on the road into a 530-page bible called “Tour: Smart … and Break the Band.” Due in September, the book has tips on everything from how to write contracts, pick tour vans and market yourself to making a guest list, decorating the stage, getting paid and what to do when your gear gets stolen. Among the contributors to the book are Steve Albini, Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, Henry Rollins and former Marilyn Manson guitarist Zim Zum.

British Alt-rockers Arctic Monkeys Announced Tour Dates of US/Canada Fall 2007 Tour. The band supports its second studio album Worst Favourite Nightmare which hit shelves this April. The trek kicks off Septebmer 5 by concert in New York’s Central Park Summerstage, includes 19 dates, and wraps up September 30 in Vancouver (BC). Arctic Monkeys will visit Montreal (QB), Columbus (OH), Chicago (IL), Kansas City (MO), Austin (TX), Houston (TX), and some other cities. Tour itinerary is listed below; tickets are on sale. Released in 2006, Arctic Monkeys’ first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not has sold 100,000 copies in its first day of release, and has become fastest-selling UK debut album. Arctic Monkeys Tickets Arctic Monkeys US/Canada 2007 Tour Dates 9/5/2007 - New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage 9/6/2007 - Providence, RI - Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel 9/8/2007 - Toronto, Ontario - Virgin Festival 9/9/2007 - Montreal, Quebec - Osheaga Festival 9/11/2007 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall 9/12/2007 - Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom 9/13/2007 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre 9/15/2007 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival 9/16/2007 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom 9/17/2007 - Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theater w/Queens of the Stone Age 9/18/2007 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues 9/21/2007 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre 9/22/2007 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre 9/23/2007 - Del Mar, CA - San Diego Street Scene 9/25/2007 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium 9/27/2007 - San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium 9/28/2007 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater 9/29/2007 - Seattle, WA - WAMU Theater 9/30/2007 - Vancouver, British Columbia - PNE Forum

Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden and a poster child for the 1990’s grunge music scene out of Seattle, is now a sober solo artist in his forties living in France with his family. How times have changed. On the cover of Cornell’s latest album Carry On, straggly hair and a flannel shirt has been replaced by a close cropped do and a leather jacket. Cornell’s all too brief stint with Audioslave in the early 2000s was a harbinger of things to come. With Carry On, Cornell seems eager to make a break with the style that made him famous and become known as a vocalist rather than just an accomplished singer.Cornell was among the most vocally gifted rock singer to emerge out of the grunge scene. Instead of the overwrought vocal straining style of other lead singers at the time, Cornell’s voice had a steady rhythm and flow that complimented and enhanced the songs of Soundgarden, rather than just singing along with the band.Regrettably, Cornell’s desire to be taken seriously as a vocalist doesn’t work as well when listening to Carry On as he might have hoped. As a whole, the album lacks a sense of direction. There are fourteen tracks, all different styles and genres, together on one record. The first track, “No Such Thing,” is a slice of rock, “Poison Eye,” a piece of pop, while “Arms Around Your Love,” was undoubtedly written to be a hit single, with its rock tempo and catchy hook. Cornell even takes on a ballad with “Scar on the Sky.”While Carry On lacks fluidity, Cornell deserves some props for going out of his comfort zone and trying some new styles. However, the bluesy remake of Michael Jackson’s 1983 dance classic “Billie Jean,” was a serious overreach that should have been left on the cutting room floor. That track will leave you scratching your head. Carry On isn’t a great album, nor is it terrible. Cornell has created an album of diverse music to showcase his vocal talents. Now in his forties, it’s hard not to wonder if Cornell, like so many others before him, just might do an album of classic songs in his sixties. After all, he’s already covered a Michael Jackson song. That would be interesting.

“There were never any good old days/They are today, they are tomorrow/It’s a stupid thing we say/Cursing tomorrow with sorrow.” So swears “Ultimate,” the smartest song Gogol Bordello have ever recorded and the smartest song anyone will release this year. It rocks in its own language - a defiantly oversimplified gypsy stomp played loud and then double-timed by a Russian violinist, a Russian accordionist, an Israeli guitarist, an Ethiopian bassist and an American drummer. And its optimism of the will makes the futures imagined by competing alt-prophets seem weak-minded. Having kicked off in high, Super Taranta! soars for three songs before settling in to a depth-charged, raucously quotable musical and philosophical groove. Then it roars back with the hungover yet still besotted “Alcohol,” the matter-of-factly unpatriotic “Your Country” and an “American Wedding” that appalls Eugene Hutz by ending. It’s an explosive album by a band whose shows wow orgiasts from Seattle to Kiev. Nominally based in Brooklyn, Hutz and his cohort fuse gypsy statelessness and rock-bohemian wanderlust for a restive world citizenry uprooted by war and capital. If you’re not an immigrant, they hint, you’re lucky, but you also don’t know what it is to be alive. So you’re doubly lucky that Gogol Bordello have figured out how to tell you.

Timbaland's "The Way I Are" featuring Keri Hilson rose one to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, trading places with Shop Boyz's "Party Like a Rockstar." At No. 6, the "High School Musical 2" onslaught began as the cast single "What Time Is It" entered the chart after selling 87,000 physical singles and 31,000 downloads. The physical tally is the most for that format since "American Idol" veteran Taylor Hicks moved 190,000 units of "Do I Make You Proud" in late June 2006. The "High School Musical 2" album hits stores August 14, and the movie premieres three days later on the Disney Channel. Akon's "Sorry, Blame It on Me" scored a major debut at No. 7, the highest of his career. The R&B singer now has eight top 10 appearances in 2007. Hurricane Chris' "A Bay Bay" slipped one to No. 8, while T-Pain's "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" was down three spots to No. 9, and his "Bartender" featuring Akon dropped two to No. 10. Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus earned his first Hot 100 appearance since 2000 with "Ready, Set, Don't Go," which opened at No. 85. John Travolta and Queen Latifah also returned to the tally after long absences as part of the cast of "Hairspray," whose "You Can't Stop the Beat" was new at No. 88. Travolta had been missing from the Hot 100 since "Greased Lightnin"' in 1978, while Latifah's last appearance was in 1998 with "Paper."

I'm devoting much of this week's column to a noteworthy release of 35-year-old material. It's worth it.John Phillips, Jack of Diamonds"Papa" John Phillips (RIP) was best known for his work with The Mamas and the Papas, but his creativity went well beyond that. Last year, Varese Sarabande re-released Phillip's only solo album, 1970's John, the Wolfking of L.A. Now comes the second in their "Papa John Phillips Presents" series.  Jack of Diamonds collects songs he wrote for a second solo LP which never saw the light of day (although the songs "Revolution on Vacation" and "Cup of Tea," included in different versions here, were released as a single in 1972).Phillips's writing and arranging typically combined soulful sophistication with the anything-is-possible musical ethos of the late 1960s and early 1970s. There was always an element of wistful disillusion (and emotional dissolution) in his music, and I'd argue that it's that sad tinge that made the beautiful choral songs of The Mamas and the Papas into the timeless classics they've become. But Phillips's work outside the confines of the band extended into much more varied musical territory."Revolution on Vacation" and "Cup of Tea" lean towards the country-western sound of Wolfking, and the easygoing groove of "Campy California" feels like a lazy sunny day. But "Devil's on the Loose," "Mister Blue," and "Black Broadway" feel much more like the urban soul of the time, with smoky sax, wah-wah guitar, and groovy electric piano. (Heavy hitters like Joe Sample and Van Dyke Parks contributed.) In fact, Phillip's vocals on the latter two songs betray a heavy Lou Reed influence. The three songs contrast startlingly with what one might expect from the composer of "California Dreamin'" and "Kokomo." We're clearly on the gritty streets of New York City. Even "Marooned," a sad song set on the beach, is subtitled "Double Parked," while "Chinatown" and "Too Bad" have a jazz-rock flavor that reflects urban cool as well.There are two versions of "Me and My Uncle," a song made famous by the Grateful Dead, and - speaking of space - a couple of shimmery tracks inspired by the 1969 moon landing. They're not brilliant pop like "Space Oddity" or "Rocket Man" but they fit in nicely on the CD, which has been put together very smartly - it's a good listen straight through. For most of its length one could imagine it had been released in this form back in '73 to critical acclaim. Even the two songs from the Brewster McCloud soundtrack - the only previously released material on the CD - sound like part of the same continuum. The only songs that really don't are the two unreleased Mamas and the Papas tracks, recorded for the group's final album, the one their record company forced them to make after the band had already split up. They sound like sad codas to the career of a great band.Phillips continued working productively for decades after the triumphs of The Mamas and the Papas and Monterey. His work certainly deserves the attention Varese is giving it in this series. The sound has been restored and mastered just right - crisp but not icy, it could almost be coming off of vinyl.Listen to unsatisfying 30-second clips here.Stratospheerius, HeadspaceThere's so much going on on this CD that it could merit an "Indie Round-Up" column all on its own. Stratospheerius's music can't be pegged to one genre, but neither is it a simple hybrid of a couple of styles. For that reason, it's exciting stuff.Jazz fusion, Stingpop, progressive rock, classical strains, and jam-band spaceouts take turns running through the ten songs on this, the band's fourth album. Leader Joe Deninzon's devilish violin weaves the compositions together, and he lends his throaty vocals to some of the tunes, layering attractive melodies over odd time signatures and dynamic, unpredictable arrangements. Think of a much more adventurous version of the Dave Matthews Band, add Steely Dan precision and prog-rock inventiveness, and you'll get an inkling. There's also a Police influence that would be quite evident even without the revved-up cover of "Driven to Tears." The crack musicians deserve mention individually: drummer Luciana Padmore, bassist Bob Bowen, and guitarist Mack Price.These songs really do sidestep genre, yet one foot remains in accessible pop territory. "New Material" opens with a Celtic jam that flames into a lightspeed funk-rocker. The song is a funny take on creative inspiration and writer's block: "I need a death threat deadline panic attack/I need a big bolt of lightning to strike me in the ass/Where's my material/I need new material." "Mental Floss" is an exciting odd-time instrumental jam, while "Gutterpunk Blues" begins with a delicate-punk (a new term I just made up) mandolin solo (Deninzon again) which leads into crashing heavy-metal riffage and then devolves into wild electric guitar and drum soloing. The jazz fusion elements come to the fore in the slower instrumental "Yulia," while the pumped-up klezmer of "Heavy Shtettle Part II: Heavier Shtettle" closes the CD with a blast of technical prowess and ear-candy fun.An interesting and spirited journey into outrageous creativity, this CD is highly recommended for anyone with an adventurous ear, including fans of fusion, progressive rock, the Police, the Kronos Quartet's pop experiments and collaborations, and fiery fiddling. Sample the music at the Stratospheerius website and  their Myspace page, and read a good interview with Joe Deninzon.

DJ Tiesto is widely regarded as one of the world’s best DJs, putting on shows that entrance crowds of 20,000, and on Friday night, he performed at Hammerstein Ballroom. His set was solid, but at times too repetitive, however the overall experience was phenomenal, and I’d definitely recommend seeing him spin live. As an added bonus at this show, we had Jes opening. She’s the vocalist on the 2003 techno hit “As the Rush Comes,” as well as a frequent Tiesto collaborator. It took a bit for the crowd to warm up to her live vocals, but they eventually got into it. Her voice sounded great live, and she played a bunch of notable songs. While I did love Tiesto’s DJ set, it was refreshing to hear some live vocals at a techno shows, and I’d be curious to see her and Tiesto actually perform together. She had a tough assignment, to draw in a crowd who wasn’t there to see it, but she pulled it off admirably and I’d definitely be interested in seeing her perform a solo show at a smaller club. But, a show like this isn’t so much about the performer, it’s about becoming part of a crowd, a collective of people who all get drawn into the music. I do really enjoy techno music, but I’m not familiar with all of Tiesto’s work. Considering he played a five hour set, this meant the songs all began to blend together after a while. With a few exceptions, I wasn’t listening to individual songs, I was focused more on the rise and swell of the beat, holding during the lulls and jumping around when the bass hit. Throughout, the crowd was really into it. I gradually moved up as the show went on, and the further up I went, the more the crowd was dancing. People were totally wrapped up in everything he was doing, frequently shouting “Ti-Es-To!” At the end of the show, he descended into the crowd and people mobbed the front barrier, just trying to touch the man. He always had a smile on his face, looking like it was a joy just to be there. That enthusiasm was infectious. Backing up the music was an impressive array of lights and pyrotechnics. There was a six story high screen, and all kinds of strobes and spotlights around the audience. Most impressive were the pyrotechnics on the stage, which shot off jets of fire, smoke and even fireworks. There was also a cameo by the Blue Man Group which was fun, but very short. I would have liked to see them return. The most powerful moment of the show, and one of the best concert moments I’ve ever experienced, was his “Adagio for Strings” remix. It’s a great track to begin with, but perfectly timed with the bass hit was a confetti drop. I’ve seen confetti drops before, but none filled the auditorium like this one did. The confetti hung in the air and I looked around as it descended around me. It was incredible to behold. That said, I wished Tiesto had mixed in a few more popular or non-trance songs into his set. After five hours, everything blended together and even having a remix of something more known would have given us a new thrill. Now, I’m sure bigger Tiesto fans would disagree, but when you’ve got six hours, there should be room for a little variety. But, I wasn’t there so much for the music as for the experience, and in that respect, Tiesto and Jes did not disappoint. It was a sold out house, all completely absorbed in the music, and I can’t wait for my next techno show: Daft Punk at Coney Island.

Ants scurrying, coiled up in insect militia overtones, overwhelming and bowdlerising in their duty to silence cries, the shrieking invective standing opposed to clever amalgams of polar terms. That is the imagery adorning the latest collage of musical intrigue from the doyens of prog metal, Dream Theater. An edifice of concrete highway bursting in and out of the frame in every direction, ants roaming upon both the latitudinal and the longitudinal, what curious connotation floats off its sighting? With Dali and Ballard intertwined beneath the surface, this visual statement is the album name, a grand heap of Systematic Chaos afforded pictorial representation. Regimented ants, a vibrant muddle of incoherence to the human eye, projected on to civilization's own gesture of palpable linearity, the tarmac trails littering the environment, steaming signifiers of mechanical maturity. That is the declaration, control coupled with freneticism, steadiness conjoined to rampant oscillation, ordered certitudes clutched by cyclonic entropy. The turns of phrase spew forth over this overture to the album, already boisterously heralding the opus, full of preemptive deductions concerning what tensions could emerge from chaos systematised, or systems perverted by chaos. Yet, is this not merely a metonymic doodle that typifies the band’s entirety, the virtuosic strains of Berklee College of Music epidemically thrust across constellations of modes and scales? Naturally it is. Hence, this outing, the first progeny to be delivered by Roadrunner Records, makes for a healthy continuation of trails blazed heretofore, swift indentations cut into the fabric of heavy music, from the erratic instrumentality churned out midway through "Metropolis" to "Learning to Live’s" canonical F Sharp, from the mellifluous legato in "Trial of Tears" to "Dance of Eternity’s" insatiable appetite for time signature changes. Systematic Chaos arrives on a swell of two decades stimulating awe in the heads of musicians everywhere, but what does it offer that hasn’t already been sampled myriad times? What new majesties can the quintet present that might sanction us to put Awake down for five minutes? Like its predecessor Octavarium, Dream Theater’s newborn consists of eight songs, filling a single compact disc to capacity with ease. While we do get a lengthy epic in the guise of "In The Presence of Enemies", akin to the aforementioned album’s title track, this one is bifurcated, split into two autonomous tracks, one announcing the beginning of the album, the other beckoning us to a close. The reason for this eccentric scission? As Mike Portnoy points out in the Making Of documentary that accompanies the special edition release, with this song the band found themselves blessed with a perfect opener but remained uneasy about throwing such an elongated composition right at the front of proceedings – too high a mountain to clamber over, or something, was the analogy exuded. Perhaps an unfortunate decision, "In The Presence of Enemies", combined, is clearly the album highlight and would thusly suit realignment into its initial totality (a procedure I’d recommend for all iPod/MP3 doohickey users). However judiciously Portnoy makes his case, I fail to grasp the compelling impetus to place it as track one – although it should be noted that no other song seems like an adequate replacement. Dissent over track order notwithstanding (maybe this is the eponymous chaos?), "Part 1" inaugurates affairs brimming with casual intensity as a hasty melee of instrumental intricacy segues into glossy melodies as John Petrucci’s veracious bends cascade over Jordan Rudess’ keyboard canvas. With nods to Liquid Tension Experiment curtailed by a breakdown of quietude and the eventual eruption of James Labrie, the song moves on, climaxing with what may be the apogee of the whole album. A section of rising dissonance, chords dropped and decimated, brutalised and juxtaposed, as shifts and spiralling tensions presage the coming beatitude, enfolded with ominous fervour and bonded to a thematic thread of redemption. The crescendo impacts in an orgasmic spasm as an ethereal guitar-keyboard unison gushes forth, palliating the preceding discord in harmonious glory, and bringing the song to a serene terminus. It’s difficult to surpass that moment of ecstasy and many other tracks fail outright to come close. "Forsaken’s" crisp rock riffs and spindly guitar histrionics make for a decent song, and it certainly holds potential for radio airplay were its inevitable status as single number two to be granted, yet its longevity is severely under suspicion. Its accessible sheen may end up consigning "Forsaken" to the harsh pastures of album-filler. "Constant Motion", single numero uno, fairs slightly better, with a cavalcade of chunky riffs propelled by Portnoy’s supra-Ulrichian drumming. Soaked in Metallica citations, power chords and truculent displays of palm-muting are the order of the day here. It does indeed accomplish its appellation promise, driven as much by the hoarse vocal front-end as by the rhythm section. Yet, again, it’s hardly "Under A Glass Moon"."The Dark Eternal Night" picks up where songs such as "The Glass Prison" and "Honor Thy Father" left off, that is to say, brandishing pummelling riffs executed with relentless resolve over a persistent ream of bludgeoning attack (and often just as stilted as this sentence). However, as much as portions therein veer on electrifying complexity, with disinterest smote by expeditiously elaborate fret-showmanship, all too often banalities crop up. This is epitomised as the song winds down with the inclusion of the "St Anger" riff, a piece of music so dull and plodding as to make one wish they had nougat with which to pack their ears. Its binary opposite fades in through the last wisps of a dying seven-string as we are dealt a sudden change of mood. "Repentance" is the latest installment of the series of songs penned by Portnoy based on his encounters with the AA 12-step program. This sprawling, brooding piece is a splendid deceleration in the overall suite, replacing grinding double-bass with an atmospheric, dreamy soundscape that drifts along over pensive piano.Despite the glaring criticisms above, the last three songs are each a work of wonder, this triumvirate of eye-watering grace is spectacular enough to redeem every faulty precursor. First item of salvation, lifting us directly from the mires below, is "Prophets of War". It may resume Dream Theater’s zeal for Muse (the opening keyboard arpeggios disquietingly mirror the latter’s "Take A Bow"), but the energy permeating every Queen-esque wail and every bouncing techno beat far exceed the shackles of Bellamy and co. The song culminates in a breakdown portal satiated with Portnoy’s rapping angst, which switches, via an acoustic interlude, to a vivacious chorus reinforced by an almost-hallucinatory progression of lustrous riffing. "The Ministry of Lost Souls" begins and ends awash with grandeur. Some murmurs have identified this particular track as the highlight, and while I wouldn’t manoeuvre quite to that stance, it is nonetheless a joyous fifteen minutes. It sweeps from poignant moments where Petrucci whips out some prized gems from his chord catalogue to a heavy middle section that exemplifies the ability of the band to conjure up wholly marvelous passages of instrumental music, imbuing an unfolding continuum of technicality with a quality of interest preserved. Petrucci’s singing guitar, resonating in impassioned colours, concludes matters, orbiting the aural fissures ad infinitum, cycled to stillness.As already remarked on, "In The Presence of Enemies" is my choice cut from Systematic Chaos. "Part 1" may be a sublime creation, but "Part 2" succeeds in bettering its twin’s elated heights. Loaded with homologies pointing to "Octavarium", from the gradual amplification to the symphonic finale, as well as the explicit subdivision into sovereign segments, this song trundles through a panoply of tones, united by overarching conceptual insignia, with recurring motifs cropping up at certain intervals. The clamorous mid-section, replete with dynamic chants and a throbbing D-string, and the prophesised instrumental break are only two of the many peaks of "In The Presence of Enemies Part 2". Dream Theater’s latest sonic beast may vacillate slightly in terms of quality, lacking the bite of consistency that used to swallow up whole albums, but it is far from being tarnished with nadirs, swollen in a dearth of monumentality. Failure to attain perfection is one thing, but overall the band have conceived a fantastic album, bursting with triumphant crests of auditory jubilation, whose zeniths are comparable to anything hitherto released.