Table of contents for Issue 87 in Prog

So what were you doing in February 1994 when Marillion released Brave? I was Deputy Editor on Metal Hammer magazine, which had just been bought by Dennis Publishing (who would eventually sell it on to Future Publishing in 2000). Back in those pre-Prog and Classic Rock days, Hammer was one of the few outlets for coverage of any kind of progressive music, but as metal fragmented ever further in the wake of grunge and the street appeal of nu-metal, space was becoming severely limited for what many considered, even back then, old farts. News that Marillion were going to release a concept album was met in the office with a mix of bemusement, amusement and plain old indifference. They were old hat to the younger writers and the old ‘Fish…

BIG FISH Marvellous article re: the wonderful Fish Out Of Water in Prog 86, though writer Sid Smith perhaps goes too far in saying that it “towers above the other solo releases of his [Chris Squire’s] bandmates”. Yes, Beginnings exposes Steve Howe’s frailties as a lead singer and has few moments that would grace a 70s Yes album. Alan White’s Ramshackled is too unfocused to be loved, but Jon Anderson’s Olias Of Sunhillow is superb, with very unusual instrumentation and typically bonkers concept/lyrics. The pick of the bunch might even be Patrick Moraz’s The Story Of I (my computer won’t let me do the glyph that’s the true title), which opened my eyes to various Brazilian instruments, and races headlong, the music beautifully illustrating the story. The sometimes shaky vocals…

Fish will take the plunge with his first ever cruise as he joins the cast of next year’s Cruise To The Edge. The Scottish singer-songwriter has told fans he’s “very excited at the opportunity” and has also confirmed he’ll play two electric sets and one acoustic session, and will also take part in a Q&A. The annual five-night cruise, which sets sail from Tampa in Florida on February 4, will port at Key West and Cozumel in Mexico before returning to Tampa on February 9. Twenty-five acts have been announced so far, including Yes, Steve Hackett, Mike Portnoy, PFM, Frost* and Riverside, who’ll be making their debut as well. The Moody Blues’ bassist John Lodge has also been confirmed as a special guest. He’ll perform classic Moodies songs as well…

Van der Graaf Generator’s (right) Live At Rockpalast 2005 is out on CD/DVD on May 25. The remastered set contains the full concert and is the only official live DVD to feature the line-up of Peter Hammill, David Jackson, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans. Esoteric are releasing a fourdisc limited edition version of Barclay James Harvest’s self-titled debut on May 25. The remastered collection contains 33 bonus tracks including BBC Radio sessions, a rare Woolly Wolstenholme solo demo and a DVD.…

A two-in-one illustrated history of Devo is published by Rocket 88 Books on July 13. The classic edition and deluxe version of Devo: The Brand and Devo: Unmasked are now available to pre-order from www.devobook.net. Pain Of Salvation (left) are heading back to the UK for two shows this September. They’ll play at Manchester’s Academy Club (12) and London’s Islington Assembly Hall (13) as part of the European leg of their In The Passing Light Of Day tour. Peter Gabriel collaborator and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen protégé Jon Hassell releases his first album in nine years via his own label Ndeya on June 8. Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) is based on the idea of vertical listening. Kontinuum release No Need To Reason on July 6 via Season Of Mist. The…

Always meet your heroes – that’s Awooga’s advice. Not only have they toured with one of their favourite bands (twice!), they’ve also ended up being signed to the frontman’s record label. “We’re all big Amplifier fans and [drummer] Taz noticed they were touring, so I messaged Sel [Balamir, Amplifier’s frontman] and said, ‘Can we come on tour with you?’” reveals singer and bassist Tam Ali. “This was in 2014 when we’d just released a five-track demo, and he messaged back saying, ‘I really like your sound – yeah!’ We didn’t know him but Sel took the time to listen to us, liked what he heard and here we are.” Serendipity is a recurrent theme in Awooga’s world. It’s been nine years since brothers Tam and Taran ‘Taz’ Ali teamed up…

Nick Mander is frequently painted as the villain of the Brave story, at least from Marillion’s point of view. But the man who worked as the band’s A&R during that period has his own version of events. “I’d been in the A&R department at EMI for quite a while, and I’d had some big hit records with bands like EMF,” Mander tells Prog. “I was asked if I’d A&R a Marillion album. I knew they’d been through the whole trauma of Fish leaving and trying to reposition themselves as a band, but I knew nothing about them beyond that.” As a young kid, Mander had been a fan of Yes and Genesis, and he recognised what Marillion wanted to do. “When they told me they wanted to make this record…

Music For Installations UMC Ambient master plays to the gallery. It’s evident from the illuminating essay in the 64-page booklet accompanying this six-album set that had Brian Eno not had a chance meeting with Andy Mackay on the London Underground, which provided the invitation to a then-nascent Roxy Music rehearsal, he would have gone on to enjoy a productive career as an artist or lecturer in academia, making occasional dips into experimental music. “Awash with glistening shards and half-formed melodies.” Beautifully illustrated, the booklet chronicles several phases of his extramural activities: 1960s art college dilettante, exploring video and the vistas of New York’s roofscapes during the 1980s, projecting digital paintings onto the sails of Sydney’s Opera House in 2009. The man who quietly began revolutionising music with 1975’s Discreet Music…

Under The Fragmented Sky KSCOPE Riverside mastermind finds comfort in sound. If Maruisz Duda’s last album under the Lunatic Soul banner, 2017’s Fractured, was an exploration of internalised grief in the wake of the deaths of both his father and his Riverside bandmate Piotr Grudzin´ski, then this follow-up finds him slowly but defiantly attaining some kind of closure. The eight tracks that make up Under The Fragmented Sky swim with a nocturnal ambience, but there’s a swelling urgency to them that was absent from its predecessor. Duda once again takes glitchy, sometimes hazy electronic music as his starting point, but this time around he introduces guitars, drums and the odd metallic clang that sounds like a spanner being dropped in an empty warehouse. “Despite the gloomy titles, it’s anything but…

Fearlessly experimental and uncompromising, it’s hard to imagine Jenny Hval existing in any other period in time. The Norwegian artist’s ambient, softly subversive long-players Apocalypse Girl and Blood Bitch are both empowered and empowering works, and the new EP The Long Sleep (Sacred Bones) will similarly stretch the minds of some listeners and the patience of others. Elements of jazz, electro-drone and spoken word punctuate four variations on a theme, with identity, consciousness and the concept of creativity all in the ether. It’s slightly pretentious and strangely enchanting stuff that you’ll keep coming back to. Produced by Billy Sherwood, Ben Craven’s 2016 album Last Chance To Hear was a fine piece of trad prog, with the spacey Spy In The Sky Pt.3 even featuring vocals from one William Shatner. That…

SAILORS’ TALES I have just been reading my very first issue of Prog, and also listening to the CD that came with it. I was especially thrilled to read about Cruise To The Edge, and so proud I was part of the event that was so brilliantly written about. That cruise (my first) has made my prog rock interests soar like a rocket into space. I have always liked Yes and bought my first album when I was 16 (more than 40 years ago!) and so I was delighted to see them live on board the ship. It was great to read about Yes’ journey in Prog and I was so inspired by them on the trip that I booked a VIP ticket for their Sheffield gig while I was…

German band Argos have signed to Bad Elephant for the release of Unidentified Dying Objects, out on July 20. But despite the title, vocalist and co-founder Robert Gozon says there’s more than negativity to be heard on the follow-up to 2015’s A Seasonal Affair. “It’s in the vein of the albums that we’ve done before, but it’s different because we have the new keyboard player, Thilo Brauss,” Gozon tells Prog. “We were looking for more of a live sound, and you can hear that.” He name checks opening track The Hunter’s Last Stand as a good example of the album’s wares. “It has the shift in time signature, the long intro, slowly building up to a climax. And it has Andy Tillison from The Tangent on it.” Gozon adds that…

CYCLOPHONE It’s safe to say that the vacuum cleaner hasn’t played a major part in the history of music. Captain Beefheart sold them door to door, Jon Fishman from Phish occasionally plays solos on an Electrolux, and… well, that’s about it. Dyson, however, have recently redressed this imbalance by collaborating with the Orion Orchestra and composer David Roche. The resulting piece is called Acoustical Anatomy; it features the Cyclophone (48 flue pipes from Dyson cleaners), an Amp-sichord (strings mounted in Dyson fans) and a violin made out of bits of a Dyson hand dryer. Ironically, the piece doesn’t suck. www.bit.ly/cyclophone BACKBEAT “Play Bass, Feel Bass” runs the slogan for Backbeat, a device which allows bass guitarists who don’t think they’re loud enough to strap a subwoofer to their back and…

“The iconic Spanish omelette, or tortilla, is one of my childhood favourites. I follow the recipes I learned at home, tasty homemade food is what makes me happy. This is a great meal to share with friends and family. It can be served cold or hot, as a tapa or a main dish with a side salad. Unfortunately, we don’t get to spend much time cooking meals as a band, but lately the pressure of this column has obliged me take advantage of Amy [Birks, vocals] and Jess [Kennedy, piano] as my guinea pigs, hence the name of this recipe!” Ingredients (serves four) 6 eggs, 600g potatoes, 1 onion, garlic (optional), olive oil, salt, parsley, chopped green peppers (optional), chorizo (optional). Preparation “Peel and dice the onion. Peel the potatoes,…

(GTO, 1980) New Musik’s orchestrators of synth-pop blazed several short circuits on their debut album From A To B. Its computer-generated components were assembled from the bright sparks and random brainwaves of frontman, songwriter and producer Tony Mansfield, who was as much a sound architect as a music processor. In 1979, two years after the band’s creation, Mansfield brought keyboardist Clive Gates into the mainframe. The pair had previously rippled the airwaves as the T. Rex and King Crimson-influenced Reeman Zeegus. The robotic mannerisms of Straight Lines and Living By Numbers foreshadow an Orwellian world, and when in the latter song Mansfield asks, ‘Does it all add up to you?’ he may be alluding to life, the universe or a record label balance sheet for all the listener knows. Although…

It’s the last night of your favourite band’s UK tour at a wellknown London basement venue, renowned for its intimacy. You elect to stand nearer the back this time to absorb the wonder of both the performance and the sound. Then annoyingly, your live experience is completely banjaxed by a loud, persistent conversation that seems to follow you wherever you move. The thorny subject of chatter during gigs is now the pet peeve among my immediate circle of prog-loving friends, along with the infernal mobile phone filming. It’s not exactly rocket science: we pay good money, often take time off work and/or travel considerable distances to see the bands we love. So to listen involuntarily to private discussions about nothing in particular in our immediate environs or put up with…

“Music links you back to the past like nothing else; prog takes me to Barnsley in the 80s. At home, my mother was French so there was a great deal of chansonnier, Jacques Brel and that kind of thing. My grandfather was a big influence, he was classical through and through. I became a classically trained flautist. I didn’t have a radio or turntable, but I had a cassette player so I found things on my own. My first boyfriend introduced me to The Wall. It was the only interesting thing about him, and I played it for six months. Then I met these two guys at sixth form college who were always in the hall playing the piano: a geeky, plump one [Paul Marshall] who never took his duffel…

Marillion’s sixth album remains the darkest of their career, and of the 1990s. But there was one unexpected comedic influence that shaped at least part of it: Monty Python. The vinyl version of the album features a ‘secret’ ending. Where the original record pulled itself out of the darkness with the uplifting album closer Made Again, a hidden second groove featured an alternative ending with six minutes of lapping water sounds, suggesting the main character had jumped from the bridge. “That was my idea,” says Mark Kelly. “And like all good ideas, it was stolen. I’d had a copy The Monty Python Matching Tie And Handkerchief when I was a kid, which had a double groove – you put the needle down and you didn’t know which jokes you were…

If spending several months recording an album in a French chateau wasn’t grand enough, Marillion decided to push the boat out even further by making a fulllength movie to accompany Brave. “We’d made three videos for the singles from Holidays In Eden, all of which cost 30 or 40 grand each,” says Mark Kelly. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we just take that money to make a movie?’ We had a story we thought would be good to tell. We’d all seen The Wall, so we knew there were examples of good rock movies out there.” Armed with around £120,000 – “Not a lot, really,” says Kelly – the band began scouting for potential directors. They sounded out a few, but decided to go with cult filmmaker Richard Stanley. The South…

In the beginning, there was rock’n’roll. It was raw, it was wild, it was primitive, it spoke to the viscera and the grinding crotch rather than the cerebral cortex. It stripped away much of the esoteric excess of jazz and took what the blues was doing and made it ballsy and fun. And it subsequently ruled the world for the better part of half a century: any rabid rock fan worth his or her salt knows its history. However, within a relatively brief period of time in the span of rock music’s storied entire history, a highly imaginative and creative subset of rock musicians, who were hungering for newer and more complex sounds, instrumentation and arrangements, emerged from the rehearsal rooms and venues of the world. “It was absolutely grass-roots…

When Finnish progressive metallers Amorphis began to record their last album Under A Red Cloud with renowned producer Jens Bogren, they were well aware of his reputation. Bogren, who has helmed recording sessions for everyone from Opeth and Katatonia to Haken, Pain Of Salvation and Leprous, rules proceedings with an iron fist. Soon, the band found themselves working long, hard days in the studio. “Working with Jens is a masochistic way of recording an album,” guitarist Esa Holopainen reflects. But though their 10-hour working days were tiring, the results were undeniable. Released in 2015, the record was lauded by press and fans alike as something of a return to form. With their extreme metal heritage lurking between triumphant folk sounds and soaring melodies, they wrapped up a powerful package of…

Queen Of Time NUCLEAR BLAST Finnish prog metallers throw the kitchen sink at widescreen album. The Bee, the opening track from Amorphis’ 13th album Queen Of Time, starts with some trickery, as a distant vocal ushers in some wobbling, Banco de Gaia-style trance. It doesn’t take long for the jagged guitar riffs that dominate the album to assert themselves, though. Throw in several key changes to heighten the song’s towering scale, rapid switches between clean singing and demonic growls, plus a turn from the great kargyraa-style throat singer Albert Kuvezin – leader of Tuvan folk punk band Yat-Kha – and you’re left with a song that doesn’t so much take on Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir as tear up the template and dress it up for sacrifice. “The kind of thing Genghis…

It can be tricky to lay the ghosts of previous musical incarnations to rest and have your new one judged on its own merits. It took ages, for example, for those averse to Talk Talk’s early synth-pop chirrups to embrace Spirit Of Eden as one of the most pure creations of its time, if not all time. Not for a moment to place Daniel Blumberg’s Minus (Mute) in that lofty bracket, but it’s an astonishing leap forward from a man formerly in indie coasters like Cajun Dance Party and Yuck, and who often had to tolerate articles defining him as a film star’s boyfriend. Well, it seems he’s undergone a break-up and is pouring out his troubles on this chilling, thrilling record, produced by frequent Scott Walker collaborator Peter Walsh.…

Despite the weather, it’s allegedly spring now, which means more band announcements from Bristol’s ArcTanGent Festival (August 16-18). Top of the list in terms of alumni from this column are a reformed Vasquez. They join an already formidable line-up that includes legendary math-rockers Giraffes? Giraffes! playing their first UK show, post-metal heroes Pelican, rising proggers Poly-Math, and Prog faves Blueneck and Vennart. Another band from this year’s ATG crop are post-rockers Halo Tora, who return with their second album Man of Stone: First Chapter (self-released). Taking its cues from modern progressive rock, post-rock and math, while retaining an accessible edge, it’s the most confident and consistent we’ve yet heard the band. For a taste, the A Perfect Circle-like opener Earth Exit Bloom is a good place to start, while the…

First Utterance ESOTERIC Holy grail pagan-prog rarity from Bowie’s Beckenham protégés. You could expect a £700 price tag if ever a copy of Comus’ 1971 sole LP on Pye’s progressive offshoot Dawn turned up (begging the question: how many future prog collectibles passed through my impoverished teenage hands before they were swapped or sold?). In the decades since its release, a devoted cult has built around First Utterance, including Sweden’s Opeth, Current 93 and now in metal circles. “Weirder than any folk, darker than most prog.” The band’s first major fan was David Bowie, who let the nascent Comus - formed by art students Roger Wootton and Glenn Goring - cut their musical teeth with weekly shows at his Beckenham Arts Lab before he invited them to open his 1969…

Bill Kopp ROWMAN & LITTL EFIELD In-depth study of how Floyd got from Syd to Speak To Me. Trust Robyn Hitchcock to come up with the bons mots. A Syd Barrett devotee, he here describes the late Floyd founder as “the rocket booster that got them off into the stratosphere and then just fell away”. He also thinks the band should have changed their name post-Syd, but then the outfit’s history wouldn’t be half as much fun as soap opera. Bill Kopp is less interested in gossip and feuds than he is in the progress of Floyd’s music between The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and The Dark Side Of The Moon. He’s intrigued by how they got from Barrett’s departure and uncertainty as to what to do next…

VENUE THE ELECTRIC FACTORY, PHILADELPHIA DATE 31/03/2018 support leprous, the dear hunter North Carolina quintet Between The Buried And Me have been leading the progressive metal scene for over a decade, with their latest record, Automata I, reinforcing their mastery of melding crushing sophistication and soaring catchiness. It’s no surprise, then, that this headline show explodes with all of the lustrous savagery fans expect. They’re preceded by two equally remarkable acts. Up first are Norwegians Leprous, who begin with a bittersweet lone cello recital before fully delving into their entrancingly thunderous arsenal. Naturally, they prioritise tracks from 2017’s Malina, faultlessly pulling off Bonneville and From The Flame, among others, before closing with Mirage. In between, they do justice to the rhythmic hypnosis of The Price and guttural atmospheres of The…

VENUE VARIOUS VENUES, TILBURG, THE NETHERLANDS DATE 19-22/04/2018 Roadburn Festival is known for its sheer volume of musical variety. Across a number of venues in Tilburg over four days, there’s everything from intense metal to out-there prog. It also frequently showcases musical collaborations, from Damo Suzuki jamming with Earthless (more on that later) to a bunch of Icelandic black metal bands playing music they wrote especially for the festival. “Godspeed You! Black Emperor ride the wave between beauty and extremity.” Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas have collaborated before, on their spacey post-rock 2016 album Mariner, and tonight they play the album in full for one last time on the main stage. Christmas’ vocals are reminiscent of Björk at times, and the album has an apocalyptic, almost sci-fi vibe that’s…

VENUE EAGLEINN, SALFORD DATE 21/03/2018 support peaks Up first at tonight’s show is Ben Forrester, also known as Peaks. There’s a hint of the one-man-band mathy post-rock of Mylets in what he does, without really fully dispensing with the singer/songwriter trappings that work well for his playing style and voice. The use of guitar and vocal loops to build up textures and atmosphere around the motifs recalls a certain prog-pop kid with a keyboard and a looper terrorising Amplifier crowds at the start of the decade. Speaking of which, Charlie Barnes may have long ago become Charlie Barnes the band, as opposed to Charlie Barnes with a keyboard and looper in a hiking rucksack, but his intensity and stagecraft have only improved with time. Some might have worried that due…

VENUE TALKING HEADS, SOUTHAMPTON DATE 05/04/2018 support decapod, temples on mars For the south coast’s progressive rock fans, it’s a disheartening yet all too familiar sight: an evening of experimental music from a promising young band at the Talking Heads that draws an insultingly small crowd. Tonight, the 300-capacity venue – a cornerstone of Southampton’s rock and metal scene – barely welcomes 50 people through its doors, resulting in a tiny but dedicated gathering, united in anticipation for polyrhythmic punishers Sumer. But before this intimate concert can hit its cathartic, riff-fuelled climax, it falls to the mathematic Decapod to kick-start proceedings. The quintet’s time signatures are astounding in their off-thewall lunacy. However, their tone and arrangements are so heavily derivative of the masterful melancholia of Tool that it hinges on…

VENUE THE SHACKLEWELL ARMS, LONDON DATE 06/04/2018 support modern studies That this isn’t east London’s throbbing social nexus hasn’t deterred a sizeable mixed crowd for tonight’s aural entertainment – trendy 20-somethings rub shoulders with more mature prog-leaning types. Scottish retro-pop stylists Modern Studies warm things up with their gentle, moody, whimsical, slightly trippy compositions. With vocals split between the clean, folksy delivery of keyboard player Emily Scott and the Jarvis Cocker meets Scott Walker baritone of guitarist Rob St John, the band visit tracks from the freshly released Welcome Strangers. There’s drama here, and a wideranging sound palette, yet Modern Studies remain steadfastly unhurried. Saving Mud And Flame, the most uptempo track of the night, until last, the band wrap up a well-received set. Eschewing a conventional band lineup in…

Where’s home? I live in York and have done all my life. I love the place: a nice old haunted city with over 400 pubs! Earliest prog memory? In 1975, when I was eight, my older brother and I went to a pub for a few shandies. He played Shine On You Crazy Diamond in the car as we were driving home through the moors, under the stars. I remember this incredible connection between that music and nature, and that’s fuelled me ever since. First prog record bought? After that night I had to have my own copy of Wish You Were Here. I bought it at Woolworths in York. First prog gig attended? Steve Hackett on the Spectral Mornings tour in about 1980 at York University. It was the…

follow us on twitter.com/progmagazineUK OLIVER WAKEMAN @OliverWakeman Just had a tweet from my brother Adam @Wakemanofficial and it reminded me I found a photo of us as kids. I’m probably 6 & Ad’s 4. I have a @yesofficial knee patch on my jeans just above the one of Mickey Mouse! ADRIAN BELEW @THEadrianbelew I’m starting a new solo record tomorrow. Got my drum kit locked and loaded. HEATHER FINDLAY @HeatherFindlay7 Ohhhh it’s getting exciting here in Finsy world! Recording final demo vocals… 14 tracks… 3 weeks to go… yikes! CLIVE NOLAN @operafanatica Yes – the stand is back – 360 degrees of fun! ;) #tour #arena #progrock #keyboards LESLIE HUNT @lesliehunt My newsfeed is largely populated by people being all “ARE WE THERE YET?” on this road trip we’re on…

HAKEN PLOT THEIR DEBUT LIVE DISC British proggers Haken release their first live album on June 22 via InsideOut. L-1VE will be available as a four-disc CD/DVD package in celebration of their successful Affinity Tour. The DVD will include all the official videos from the album, as well as footage from ProgPower USA 2016, with a cameo from Mike Portnoy. The band are currently writing material for their fifth studio album, which they say “may take a darker path” than their 2016 release.…

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that we all get old. One day, after the old respiratory system has packed up, we’ll all head off to rock’n’ roll heaven or in some cases, rock’n’ roll hell, where I believe you’re forced to listen to early country and western for all eternity. A musician’s life changes as the years go by and it’s interesting to reflect on how people’s attitudes towards us alter as we age. I’m sure some of this will resonate with those of you who are still young enough to resonate. In your teens, you’re open to all kinds of music. It’s during these formative years that your personal taste starts to develop and move to the forefront of what you play. It’s all very exciting. Once you…

“When we started playing, we were trying to make music which doesn’t sound like anything else,” says Them Moose Rush guitarist and vocalist Nikola Runjavec. “If there was some riff or any part of the song which sounded familiar, we would simply give up on that idea. This is our premise in making music – we try to make it very creative and unique, because it’s also interesting for us.” It’s fair to say that Croatian trio Them Moose Rush have done a pretty good job at keeping their sound distinctively individual. Recently released second album Don’t Pick Your Noise is an exhilarating roller coaster of wacky riffs, unhinged vocals and pulsating rhythms allied with bluesy jam-outs, and it may already be a contender for modern-day proggers’ end of year…

“As a female musician, I often find that people try to step in or think they can make music better than I can. There are a lot of men in my musical genre and I’m very happy that I’ve been able to make my record completely on my own,” says Swedish singer Louise Lemón, whose ambient, self-described ‘death gospel’ is captivating listeners of all musical genres. The record she’s referencing is her recently released debut LP Purge, an eight-track soulful memento of strength and femininity across a cold desert landscape. Lemón’s silky vocals narrate a metaphorical struggle in love and life on the first four tracks, followed by a sense of liberation and contentment in the final four. “This album is about going through something dark but coming out stronger,”…

When it comes to out-there musical entities, The Residents are hard to beat. The San Francisco-based collective have spent five decades traversing the fringes of avant-pop, experimental rock and performance art, resulting in a stack of albums, film scores and multi-media projects. This conceptual approach extends to the band’s image, its members guarding their anonymity by only ever appearing in masks and costumes, their trademark combo being a giant eyeball with top hat and tails. In the midst of an extensive reissue campaign – and following on from 80 Aching Orphans, last year’s career-spanning box set – Prog is granted an audience with Homer Flynn… Last year’s The Ghost Of Hope, The Residents’ most recent album, was a concept piece about real train wrecks of bygone America. Why tackle that…

If you believe the history books, the concept album was deader than a dodo in the 1990s. While the great beasts of prog’s golden era – Thick As A Brick, Tales From Topographic Oceans, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway et al – were a distant memory, there were still contemporary outliers willing to hitch complex, intelligent music to rich narratives or thematic spines. Marillion’s Brave stands as the high-water mark of the 90s prog concept album – a key link between Pink Floyd’s The Wall 15 years earlier and Radiohead’s OK Computer, released just three years later. But they were far from alone in repurposing this grand musical tradition for the decade of grunge, Britpop and nu-metal, as our pick of the 10 best 1990s concept albums proves. ROGER…

The identity of the silent girl found on the Severn Bridge who inspired Brave isn’t the only mystery surrounding the album. Its cover features an equally enigmatic portrait of a woman whom neither the band nor the man who designed it know. Carl Glover was the designer who created Brave’s striking artwork. He was working for design studio BSS at the time, and had been collaborating with Marillion since Seasons End, the first album they made with Steve Hogarth. “Obviously [original sleeve artist] Mark Wilkinson had gone with Fish, and we’d moved away from the previous look, which was very strong,” Glover tells Prog. “Using photography was the big thing.” The band gave Glover an outline of the story, and he remembers meeting up with Steve Hogarth “for a few…

Adam Wakeman and Damian Wilson insist that throughout their decades of friendship, they have never had a single argument. “It probably sounds inappropriate but we’ve become a bit like a weird married couple,” Wakeman admits. So with that thought in mind, there’s only one thing to do: let’s put their relationship to the ultimate test… WHO IS THE MOST CREATIVE? Wakeman: “To ask a question like that is inciting violence.” Wilson: “The truth is that we have very different kinds of creativity, and they complement one another. That’s why this thing works so well.” WHO IS THE MOST HUMBLE? Wilson: “That would have to be Adam.” Wakeman: “But by saying that, you’re implying that it’s you.” Wilson: “Then you must be right.” WHO IS THE BRAINIEST? Wakeman: “I’d say it’s…

SLEEPMAKESWAVES – THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING If you’re looking for a definitive slice of progressive post-rock instrumental epicness, this is it. It’s a powerful, atmospheric 10-minute-plus journey through Antarctic wastelands, although the track is anything but frigid and bleak. In fact, it veritably makes your hair stand to attention. Stunning, essential listening. www.sleepmakeswaves.bandcamp.com/track/the-edge-of-everything PLINI – HANDMADE CITIES One listen to the title track from Plini’s Handmade Cities album and it becomes clear why this young Sydney guitar prodigy has been likened to the likes of Vai and Satriani. For Plini, composing tunes that are emotionally resonant and soar to the very heavens comes before the need to shred, and this is why he is rapidly attaining notoriety around the globe. bit.ly/plini-handmade CALIGULA’S HORSE – GRAVES A truly riveting epic from…

"If Future Games isn't groundbreaking enough to be prog – one long piece with found sounds, TV and film dialogue, samples, sci-fi images, try Spirit Of '76. I rest my case." Tony Malone "Ed Cassidy played with Cannonball Adderley and Thelonious Monk prior to Spirit. 'Mr Skin' was 45 when their first LP came out. That’s pretty prog!"Wedgepiece "Superb band – Twelve Dreams… is an essential part of any self-respecting music fan's collection as is …Potato Land. Proggy, jazzy, quirky – what's not to love?Titus Jennings "To me a hard call, spacey yes, avant-garde yes, prog sometimes maybe but I wouldn't call them a prog band."Yserbius Gandalf "To me, if I’m being picky, Spirit were more psychedelic rock than prog rock. But the Twelve Dreams Of Doctor Sardonicus in particular…

J oe Payne can pinpoint the day he knew he needed to get out of The Enid. It was April 3, 2016, 24 hours after the band had finished the UK tour for their last album, Dust. Payne remembers because he was in bed at the time, having a full-blown nervous breakdown. “I was so weak I couldn’t move, couldn’t pick up my instruments,” he says. “It felt like I had the flu, except I didn’t have a temperature. That’s the thing about depression. The symptoms are quite similar.” He knows now what was wrong, but at the time he had no clue. Since joining The Enid five years earlier, he had been pushing himself to his limits and he was exhausted. He had always been prone to anxiety, but…

The Prog Interview is just that: every month, we’re going to get inside the minds of some of the biggest names in music. This issue, it’s Gary Brooker. The vocalist and pianist of Procol Harum is also their longest-standing original member and one third of the writing team behind their seminal Summer of Love anthem A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Brooker has also worked with and alongside the likes of Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Kate Bush, as well as creating solo work, while 2017 saw a new Procol Harum album, as well as a deluxe anthology to celebrate their 50th-anniversary. Prog sits down with the man to discuss his seminal musical career… so far! “We all have to be in Procol Harum. It’s not like we’re five blokes who…

Double Vision Verglas Bombast and big ideas from neo-proggers on top form. The ninth album from Arena finds the quintet on bold form with a studio album that captures the energy of their live shows. Double Vision might be the heaviest album of their career – it certainly packs more weight than its two closest predecessors, 2015’s The Unquiet Sky and The Seventh Degree Of Separation from 2011. Instead, this feels closer to Contagion and Immortal? from the early 2000s. Production duties are shared between keyboard player Clive Nolan, drummer Mick Pointer and guitarist John Mitchell, with the latter handling mixing and mastering, and the results of their combined efforts are hugely impressive. There’s never a moment where the sound becomes cluttered, even when the band are really giving it…

Soyuz KSCOPE Grand themes examined in a microcosm generate cosmic emotion. Anew Gazpacho record is always a mouth-watering prospect. This, their 10th, bucks the trend begun on Night in 2007 for ambitious concept albums. Instead, Soyuz is a collection of songs orbiting around the themes of frozen moments, the fleeting nature of experience and the desire to make time stand still. Zooming in on private experiences gives the album a greater punch. Soyuz One is one of two tracks reflecting on the first in-flight fatality in the history of space exploration. Gazpacho’s usual unmistakable ingredients are present: Jan Henrik Ohme’s enigmatic vocal melodies take centre stage amid a dark and brooding soundscape, but things are stirred up a little. Keyboardist Thomas Anderson’s programming is more prominent this time, charting a…

Noise Floor INSIDEOUT American prog stalwarts in bold, defiant form. We may call our music progressive, but we don’t half hate it progressing sometimes. And some Spock’s Beard fans have unfairly blamed new vocalist Ted Leonard for the rather smoother musical path the band have taken in the last five years or so. But as if to show once more that it was no accident, Alan Morse and co – with Nick D’Virgilio back in the studio drum seat, if not the live band – have made one of the most defiantly immediate, hook-laden and upbeat records of their career. It’s by no means bereft of knotty, adventurous, structurally labyrinthine detours, but the predominant mood is loud and proud. “One of the most defiantly immediate records of their career.” The…

Pink Flag/Chairs Missing/154 Special Editions PINK FLAG Down to the Wire with lavish expansions. In the late 70s, Wire started applying progressive rock questing and arty obliqueness to punk rock’s basic chassis to place themselves in the vanguard of the post-punk movement. They had started 1977 as a coruscating racket at London punk epicentre the Roxy, appearing on the club’s live album. Its producer Mike Thorne saw something in Wire and after they signed to EMI prog stronghold Harvest, he produced that December’s Pink Flag. Well-deserved remasters to honour a seminal band. The album’s 21-track barrage of short, sharp shocks crackle like one final manifestation of punk’s minimal onslaught, buoyed by art-school lyrics and Buzzcocks catchiness on the Mannequin single. Slower grinds like Reuters and the title track forge templates…

VENUE 229, LONDON DATE 12/04/2018 Hot on the heels of the Russian Circles explosion and jostling alongside the progressive instrumental forays of bands like Scale The Summit and Intervals, post-rock instrumental outfit Coldbones’ release of Where It All Began comes at a good time. Unfortunately, it’s not good enough to fill the venue, and with the room less than half full, we can’t help but feel a little sorry for the Kent trio, who have spent the last week travelling the UK for their album launch tour. Still, it’s early days, and if the strapline on their social posts reading “This is only the beginning” is an indication of their optimism, a thin crowd won’t dissuade them. They begin with a few songs from the new album, peaking with the…

VENUE THE LEXINGTON, LONDON DATE 15/04/2018 support VÄLVE VÄLVE is the experimental side project of bassoonist and saxophonist Chlöe Herington (Knifeworld, Chrome Hoof). Aided by Emma Sullivan on fuzz bass, Elen Evans on harp, and using an array of rhythm boxes and loopers, Herington decorates The Lexington with a bewitching tapestry of glitch rock. Real-time electronic manipulation of all manner of percussive devices is interspersed with honeyed soprano sax lines and three-part vocal harmonies. The performance is mesmeric and improvisational, ranging from Aphex Twin abstractions to childlike songs with arresting lyrics in the vein of Brian Eno’s vocal works. It’s a spellbinding way to open proceedings. After a brief delay caused by what leader Craig Fortnam cheekily dubs an “organ malfunction”, it’s time for North Sea Radio Orchestra. As is…

VENUE THE VICTORIA, LONDON DATE 05/04/2018 Just two days after playing this modest east London venue last March, what should have been the triumphant start to a European tour soon turned to misery following the theft in Paris of every piece of The Lucid Dream’s equipment. This wasn’t just the loss of instruments, amps and pedals, but the abrupt and cruel cessation of a long journey that had begun while the band were still in their early teens. Or at least that would have been the case were it not for their fans’ fervent belief in what the band were doing. Wasting little time, a crowdfunding campaign saw the Carlisle quartet raise the necessary ?10,000 they needed to start all over again, and within a month they were back in…

VENUE THE ADMIRAL, GLASGOW DATE 21/03/2018 There are more instruments on stage than people in the audience, but that’s not going to hold The Blackheart Orchestra back. Instead, duo Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington embark on the leanest of intense, intimate performances. There’s everything from folk to trance, Canterbury scene to psychedelia, all delivered by a duo who seem to conduct natural music rather than create it. Mostyn has a voice that sits somewhere between The Cranberries’ vocalist Dolores O’Riordan and a Nordic princess, while Pilkington has the father figure musical understanding of the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart. Together they blend into something that feels genuinely ethereal. Their attention to detail is breathtaking. That becomes part of the music, as does stamping on the stage floor which they must have sussed…