Hamilton: The Musical Manifesto

Made You Look. No, this isn't about the Broadway Musical that made Liberals Salivate last winter. This is a Music Blog, and I try to keep it free of political matters if I can. As a lover of history, especially American History, however, I will say, that if the Media was quoting the musical, that is a sure sign of Historical INACCURACY. Enough said.

No, the Hamilton referred to in the title is Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the Home of The City Harmonic. These members of The Commonwealth CCM have grown up with The Night Beat and The Platinum Vinyl Awards, and it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye. 

It was January, 2011. The Platinum Vinyl Awards was still in its infancy, being only #PlatVnyl2. (We are awarding #PlatVnyl7 and tallying #PlatVnyl8. It seems like ages ago). New Release Today (New Release Tuesday at the time) had as its album preview something called Introducing The City Harmonic. The second track on the 6 song 25 minute EP was entitled Manifesto, It was all the introduction the band needed. Manifesto made Song of The Year that year, and the EP was our Pick for Modern Worship Album of The Year. They just got edged out for Album of The Year. A little number called Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars came out the same year.

Personally, they let success get to their heads as I Have A Dream (October 2011) and Heart (September 2013) didn't really impress the judges here, though they were very good albums. They righted the ship, however, and came out with We Are (September 2015) which garnered a Perfect 5 Emeralds and entrance into #PlatVnyl6 and walked away with AC/Insp Album of The Year and AC/Insp Song of The Year for We Are One.

And now it is over. Six Years. But what a ride. The appropriately titled Benediction, recorded at Hamilton, is a fourteen song ride of a lifetime. A best of concert that will remind longtime fans of what they loved, and newbies cry for what they missed. Twelve of The Fourteen are from their four albums and not surprisingly the best represented is their "Debut" which had four of their six songs represented, including Manifesto.

The album kicks off with the appropriately titled My God (The Chorus is Oh My God), and doesn't let up from start to finish despite calming down for songs like Holy (Wedding Day) and Honestly (not the Stryper fave, though I think they could pull it off). Picking a favorite song is impossible. This is on auto repeat all this week.

You know a band will be missed when the live album shows that the audience clearly knows all the lyrics and sings along perfectly. I think you know my rating. 5 Emeralds. 



And All of the people of God sang along, AMEN. I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards 2nd Qtr - Pop

We are done. The finish line is in sight. Pop Music tied with Modern Worship with 11 entries this quarter. Let's cross the line together.

Pop Music

• Tim Drisdelle - Depths, Part 2
• David Dunn - Yellow Balloons
• Out of The Dust - Out of The Dust
• Fireflight - Re-Imag-Innova
• Danny Gokey - Rise
• Grayson/Reed Walk EP
• Hollyn - One Way Conversations
• Mercy Me - Lifer 
• Kerrie Roberts - Boundless
• Root Road - Come Alive
• Ayiesha Woods - The Runway Project EP

And we are done. And the prize is.... We get to move on to the third quarter. Thrilling, I know. The third Quarter is underway, and we are there. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply. 

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards 2nd Qtr - Modern Worship

The Penultimate Post for the Second Quarter of 2017 is Modern Worship. Actually they won, sort of. First Place is a tie with Pop. Both had 11 entrants. Let's not wast any more time.

Modern Worship

• Daniel Bashta - My Resurrection (Live)
• Brooke & Boggs - Wildfire EP
• Elevation Worship - There Is A Cloud
• Fearless BND - We Are Fearless
• Hillsong Young & Free - Youth Revival Acoustic
• Hope Chapel - Hear My Cry
• Informants - Uprising
• Kari Jobe - The Garden
• Rita Springer - Battles
• Vineyard Worship - Through It All (Kaleo Worship) 
• Darlene Zshech - Here I Am Send Me 

Only one more post and we're done with the 2nd Quarter. Pop is next. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
  

Night Beat Rewind: May 2017

We are in the middle of June and we are ready to reveal the May edition of Rewind. One sign that things are slowly returning to normal. Slowly, because we are two thirds through the 3rd Quarter of 2017 and we are just now announcing the 2nd Quarter. Plus, we are just announcing the #PlatVnyl7 Nominees. In the good old days (just kidding, It is always better to have a lot of excellent music) we would have finished the awards by now. Such is the price of success. We begin this and every edition of Rewind with the song releases.

The Singles Scene

• Canon - We Been Here 4.50 Emeralds
• Brandon Heath - Whole Heart 4.75 Emeralds
• Nobigdyl - Shakira (ft Marty) 3.50 Emeralds
• Matthew Parker - Young Skywalker (May The Fourth Be With You) 4.50 Emeralds
• Javier Rodriquez - Free 4.50 Emeralds

We move on from the songs to the albums. We begin with the albums of which will not make the 3rd Quarter Pool.

Missing The Mark

• Change - Feels Like Nothing 3.75 Emeralds
• Deathbreaker - Disconnect 3.75 Emeralds
• Earth Groans - Renovate EP 3.50 Emeralds
• Sherwin Gardner - Greater 3.75 Emeralds
• Eric Heron - Dawn EP 3.75 Emeralds
• Gretchen Keskeys - Pure Hope 3.75 Emeralds
• New Wine - Encounter Us Holy Spirit 3.75 Emeralds
• John Reuben - Reubonic 3.75 Emeralds
• Jered Sanders - VERSEatility 3.75 Emeralds

Nine Missing The Mark is a hopeful sign. When you can reject that many in a month and still have more than enough entries, the state of music is doing well. From the Left Out to the Perfect.

Pure Platinum Perfection

• Todd Agnew - From Grace to Glory: The Music of Todd Agnew 5 Emeralds
• We Are Leo - The Rush And The Roar 5 Emeralds
• Lowercase Noises - The Swiss Illness 5 Emeralds
• Mandisa - Out of The Dark 5 Emeralds
• Narrow Skies - Seasons: Midnight Horizons 5 Emeralds
• Rend Collective - Build Your Kingdom Here: A Rend Collective Mixtape 5 Emeralds
• At The Wayside - The Breakdown and The Fall 5 Emeralds

7 Perfect Albums in a month. Almost the same as the rejected. I guess that's called a good balance for the month. Finally we go to the music in the middle.

Semi-Precious Metal

• Josh Baldwin - The War Is Over 4.50 Emeralds
• Christ For The Nations Worship - Melody of Love 4.75 Emeralds
• Robin Damron II - Live Forever EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Abigail Duhon - Abigail Duhon EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Folding Lights - Exiles EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Gideon - Cold 4.75 Emeralds
• Iron Bell Music - God That Saves 4.75 Emeralds
• Least of These - Wolves EP 4.50 Emeralds
• The Letter Black - Pain 4.75 Emeralds
• Matthew Parker - Adventure (Deluxe) 4.75 Emeralds
• RAWSRVNT - Shut It Down EP 4.75 Emeralds
• Southern Raised - Another World 4.75 Emeralds
• Willow Stephens - Willow Stephens EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Top 25 Praise Songs 2017 4.50 Emeralds
• Matthew West - Broken Things 4.75 Emeralds
• Helen Yousaf - Custodians of Fire 4.50 Emeralds

And finally 15 Semi-Precious Metals. 31 releases crossed my desk this month, and I don't believe that I got them all. I usually don't. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards 2nd Quarter - Inspirational

Next up is one of the biggies. Adult Contemporary, and its sister genre Inspirational, racked up a whopping 10 entrants into the pool this quarter. Rather than waste time with explanations, let us get to it.

Adult Contemporary/Inspirational

• Jason Bare - Fearless
• Bethany (Dillon) Barnard - A Better Word
• Dante Bowe - Son of a Father
• The Brilliance - All Is Not Lost
• Daniel Doss - Praise The King
• Selah - Unbreakable
• Aaron Shust - Love Made A Way
• Laura Story - Open Hands
• Greg Sykes - Reverse EP
• Jaci Velasquez - Trust

That does it for this grouping. A Brief glitch at the start may have allowed a blank post to go out. Apologies. This is what was supposed to happen. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards - Dance

Dance is up next as we announce the pool entries for the 2nd Quarter of 2017. They had six entries, which is very good for the quarter. There are three more posts after this, and they all smash through the 7 nominee category listing in the finals. As I finished up our last post, I hope that Amazon gets quickly back online so that I can update these posts with their affiliate links. On to the Dance Entries.

Dance-Synthpop

• Colton Dixon - Identity
• The Fast Feeling - Pulses
• GAWVI - We Belong
• Hollyn - One Way Conversations
• Sajan Nauriyal - Always Enough
• Joel Vaughn - Surrender

I can hear you saying "wasn't Hollyn just nominated in Rap?" Yes, and now she is in the pool (Nominees aren't official until the pool is closed) in Dance. That is part of the problem with this artist. She carries off various styles. She can rap, has an R&B/Gospel Voice, Has a Synthpop Sound, and does it all well. It makes it hard to peg an album. Next up is Adult Contemporary with 10 entrants into the pool. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards 2nd Qtr - Rap

We continue our announcements of the 2nd Quarter 2017 Pool Eligible Nominees for #PlatVnyl8. The multi-genre posts are behind us and we now move in ascending order with the single genre post, where the minimum bar is five entrants. Just coming in with 5 is Hip Hop and Rap. Let's get to it.

Hip Hop/Rap

• AMP - Futuregen
• Earnest A - From Father To Son
• Hollyn - One Way Conversations
• Steven Malcolm - Steven Malcolm
• Mike Teruel - Fragments

Not a lot of established artists this quarter. Hollyn hasn't been around enough yet to be considered "established", but her vocal versatility seems to predict longevity. Next up is Dance. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

(There appears to be a problem at Amazon. At the current time I am unable to get to the detail page of any products in order to post affiliate links. They will be updated later.)

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards 2nd Qtr - Children's Electronic Metal Remix

We come to the last of our Multi-genre posts for the 2nd Quarter Releases of 2017. We are behind schedule but making progress. From now on we will be handling one musical genre per post. But for now we have Children's Music, Remix, Hard Rock/Heavy Metal, and Electronic-Industrial.

Children's Music

• Go Fish - Victory VBS

Electronic-Industrial

• Aaron Sprinkle - Real Life
• Death Therapy - The Storm Before The Calm

 Hard Rock/Heavy Metal

• Demon Hunter - Outlive
• Righteous Vendetta - Cursed 

Remix Album

• Edge Kingsland - Ekrmx
• Fireflight - Re-Imag-Innova

That is the end of the multi-genre posts. It is all single genre from now on. First up is Hip Hop, which just cleared the bar. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Copernicus Rocks: The 2017 Platinum Vinyl Awards 2nd Qtr: Instrumental Alternative Gospel

I can see some heads exploding with this title. Sometimes I like to tweak my audience (He Left Jesus, He's in favor of an Alternative Gospel. It really is too easy to egg on the easily offended). This multi genre post is comprised of Instrumental Music, Alternative Rock, and Gospel and R&B. (Urban Gospel - You should worry if it was Southern Gospel). Anyway, let us get on with it.

Instrumental Music

• Rivers and Robots - Still, Volume 1

Gospel/R&B

• Anthony Evans - Back To Life
• Ce Ce Winans - Let Them Fall In Love

Alternative Rock

• Acceptance - Colliding By Design
• Hearts Like Lions - If I Never Speak Again
• Devin Shelton - Sensation
• Young Fox - Sky Beats Gold       

Our third and final multi-genre post is next. 4 this time. Children's, Electronic, Metal, and Remix. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.