For Immediate Release
Media Stew Public Relations
RICHMOND'S KINETIC ELEMENT NOMINATED FOR BEST DEBUT CD BY INTERNATIONAL PROGAWARDS
(February 5, 2010) American neo-symphonic progressive rock band KINETIC ELEMENT has been nominated for “BEST DEBUT RECORD” by the Italian-based PROGAWARDS for their 2009 CD release entitled Powered By Light. You can check out their nomination listing at www.progawards.it .
KINETIC ELEMENT hails from Richmond, Virginia and harbors strong musical ties with classic artists like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Asia and Genesis and blends those types of influences with deep philosophical and spiritually powerful and uplifting lyrics.
The band features Mike Visaggio (keyboards/lead vocals), Michael Murray (drums/backing vocals) and Todd Russell (electric/acoustic guitars). The group is currently seeking a new bass player but is continuing to write new music while the search is on.
Here’s what some of the critics are saying about Powered By Light:
* “ Fans of progressive rock in all its forms—including Transatlantic, Neal Morse, Tiles, KDB3 and Proto-Kaw—will find a lot to like here; but those whose musical tastes stray towards progressive music on the heavier side of things—think Darkwater, Shadow Gallery, Suspyre or Threshold—should be able to embrace this as well.—Andrew Rockwell, www.angelicwarlord.com .
* “This is an outstanding progressive rock album that fans of the genre really need to check out because it does put together all the familiar elements yet still makes it fresh and does something new with it.”—Metalfro, www.metalfroreview.blogspot.com .
* “Instrumentally KINETIC ELEMENT is at the top of their game. The driving force behind the group is keyboardist Mike Visaggio, who is positively brilliant. This is some of the most energetic keyboard work I’ve heard since the Golden Age of Progressive Rock when Wakeman and Emerson were producing their best work. Yes, he’s that good. And his surrounding cast of players are equally adept: Michael Murray (drums & backing vocals), Tony D’Amato (bass) and Todd Russell (guitars).”—Joseph Shingler, www.prognaut.com .
* “It’s a vintage keyboard fan’s wet dream.”—Erik Neuteboom, www.progwalhalla.nl
* “Like the starmen had done in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the musical expressions in this release could only come from highly-intelligent lifeforms…In the end, the album sustains itself with a righteous energy that raises spirits and lightens minds.”—Josh Turner, www.ytsejam.com.
The finalists for this category as well as many others will be published at www.progawards.it on February 14th 2010.
For further information please check out www.myspace.com/kineticelement , Mike Visaggio (bigroad3@gmail.com) or Eric Harabadian, Media Stew Public Relations @ 313.516.5937 or info@mediastewpr.com .
KINETIC ELEMENT is a symphonic progressive rock group that began in the heart and mind of MIKE VISAGGIO, a multi-keyboardist in Richmond VA. After recording his first solo album, STARSHIP UNIVERSE, in 2006, Mike began the arduous task of making himself known to the prog world. Selected to perform at the Pop Montreal Festival in 2006, Mike was driven to put together a band, and KINETIC ELEMENT was born. They have been playing out at selected venues and aiming to shake up the music scene with some classic prog/classic/new age style thunder. After 23 days during May, June and July 2009 in Sound of Music Studio in Richmond and a day at The Kitchen Mastering in Chapel Hill NC, their new CD POWERED BY LIGHT finished and is available. Many thanks to those pre-ordered.
POWERED BY LIGHT has been nominated by the ProgAwards for Best Debut CD of 2009!
MIKE VISAGGIO is a keyboard artist who stayed away from the music business too long, returning in 2000 after a 15-year absence, and now with his fourth band in Richmond, KINETIC ELEMENT, with MICHAEL MURRAY on drums, TONY D'AMATO on bass and TODD RUSSELL on guitar, performing the new originals which comprise POWERED BY LIGHT, and some pieces from the STARSHIP UNIVERSE CD and some surprising classic rock and classic prog covers. Mike is the former keyboardist of Billy Falcon's Burning Rose, a singer-songwriter rock band of the late 1970s that made three LPs and an EP on Manhattan Records, United Artists and MCA. He also performed with The Strokers, a well known Richmond band, and the Richmond Rock Exchange, where he met Michael and Tony. Mike has taken a somewhat oblique approach to incorporating his Christian worldview into his music so that people who love prog and classic rock can enjoy it whether they are believers or not. Over the last two years Kinetic Element has been building a name for himself in the prog world, with Mike having at present 30 reviews of Starship Universe, many of which can be read in The Reviews So Far in the Blogs section or at www.sonicbids.com/kineticelement, the band's Sonicbids EPK.
KINETIC ELEMENT has supported such prog rock acts as CIRCA:, RARE BLEND and IZZ, and in August 2008 opened the PROGDAY festival PRE-SHOW. This year they have supported MORGLBL (so far!). In this day when progressive rock is coming back out of the shadows thanks to the Internet, Kinetic Element has been performing for diverse audiences and has seen firsthand how prog crosses all ethnic and age demographics. When prog is heard, it is loved. People who never heard the great prog bands of the 70s, or today's awesome prog artists, have reacted with enthusiastic acceptance of the band's vintage prog ethos on hearing Kinetic Element in concert.
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