Table of contents for Issue 126 in Prog

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog. It’s not often I sit here not wanting to write my intro to the magazine, but this month that’s certainly been the case. It’s been a tough year all round for so many reasons, but made so much worse by the tragic death of Big Big Train singer David Longdon. Dreadful news for all of us, but especially the band, and even more so for my sister Sarah, David’s partner. I would just like to let you all know that your many messages of condolence and support in recognition of David as both a singer and musician, as well as what a wonderful human being he was, have been a comfort to her and she thanks you all. As for this…

Thanks for the ELP articles in last month’s magazine. As usual, I learned so much I never knew. Where did those 50 years go? It brought back memories of Sunday, August 27 1970, where I was sitting in the balcony of Plymouth Guildhall to see their first ever gig. The ticket cost me 10/- (50p), which I had saved up from my Saturday job (remember those?). Half of the stage looked like a cross between a telephone exchange and Frankenstein’s lab. I had no idea what to expect. From the first chords of The Barbarian I was blown away with the power of the sound and the incredible musicianship of those three virtuosos. However, it was the first notes on the Moog that changed everything. The sweeping sound seemed to…

Guitar great Steve Hackett will play 25 dates across the UK in 2022 on his next tour, which he’s calling Steve Hackett Genesis Revisited – Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights. Released in October 1972, Foxtrot was Genesis’ fourth album and their second with Hackett on guitar. Featuring fan favourites including Watcher Of The Skies, Supper’s Ready and his showcase classical guitar piece Horizons, the record hit No.12 on the UK chart that same year. “Foxtrot was a terrific achievement for Genesis at that time,” Hackett says. “I think there is not one weak track on the album, they all have their strong points and I’m really looking forward to doing the whole album live.” The tour, which follows his highly successful Seconds Out + More run, opens at Swansea…

D’VIRGILIO, MORSE AND JENNINGS FORM THEIR TROIKA Nick D’Virgilio, Neal Morse and Ross Jennings release their debut album, Troika, on February 25 via InsideOut. Recorded remotely during lockdown, the album sees Haken’s Jennings unite with former Spock’s Beard members D’Virgilio and Morse on tracks including current single, Julia. “We’d been working on the songs for months before I heard us all singing together,” Morse says. “The first time I brought the faders up I knew we had magic.” Pre-orders at www.bit.ly/troikaband.…

MINICORDA Ever ponder the nagging, ever-present problem of how to fit a guitar in a suitcase? Well, you can’t, unless it’s a very big suitcase, or a very small guitar. And then where do your clothes go? Nightmare. Here’s a solution proposed by two guitarist pals, Augusto Filocamo and Diego Spina; they’ve made a nylon acoustic guitar which dispenses with the body – which, let’s face it, is the bulky bit – and transforms the neck into a hollow resonant chamber. The result: a portable plank, which sounds surprisingly good, can be taken to a range of foreign destinations, and costs less than £225. www.minicorda.com GOOGLE TUNER Musicians have never had so many ways to keep in tune. Back in the day you’d have to rely on a passing oboe…

2021’s been pretty much a pig of a year, I’m sure you all agree. We started in the grip of Covid, and despite some signs of hope of a return to something representing normality, it seems we end, once again, with the shadow of the pandemic looming large again. It’s also been a year of unspeakable tragedy, for many on a brutally personal level. And yet the art continues, which is something for us all to take some comfort in. And here you have voted for the best in progressive music over the last twelve months. It has, despite such adversity, also been a wonderfully creative year, as, I must say, it so very often is in the world of prog. Thank you for your votes, more than we’ve ever…

Download the 20-track album from www.bit.ly/moonjune25 1 Stick Men Leonardo Taken from Prog Noir 2 Dewa Budjana (feat. Simon Phillips, Gary Husband, Carlitos del Puerto) Blue Mansion Taken from Naurora 3 Stratus Luna Zarabatana Taken from Stratus Luna 4 Asaf Sirkis (feat. Gary Husband) Kinship Taken from Solar Flash 5 Soft Machine Out-Bloody-Rageous, Part 1 Taken from Live At The Baked Potato 6 Dwiki Dharmawan Paris Barantai Taken from Rumah Batu 7 Mark Wingfield (feat. Asaf Sirkis) The Fifth Window Taken from Tales From The Dreaming City 8 Beledo (feat. Tony Levin, Kenny Grohowski, Kearoma Rantao) Mama D Taken from Seriously Deep 9 Srdjan Ivanovic Blazin’ Quartet (feat. Magic Malik) Rue Des Balkans Taken from Sleeping Beauty 10 Dennis Rea Live At Gaochang (Uyghur Suite) Taken from Giant Steppes 11 Stick Men (with Gary Husband) Level 5 Taken from Owari 12 Markus…

It’s clear from Berry’s comments that The Maypoles were a special band for him. So they’re back, with a new project, Milkbone. Featuring James Sedge and Phil Scragg, the trio had bonded over a love of 70s prog – Terry Riley, Soft Machine, electric-period Miles Davis – while touring together. A record made remotely during 2020’s lockdown, Sedge says, “We were aspiring to get some of the atmosphere and ‘wonkiness’ of the recordings of that era… [and] we left in all the quirky feel things, so it wouldn’t sound over-produced and polished.” The 11-track, self-titled debut album even starts with a song called Canterbury, and later on, on side two, they reunite with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Cecilia Fage for a track named, er… Cecilia. Fage reveals to Prog, “I recorded a kind…

A Day In The Studio/Unplugged In Oslo KARISMA When restrictions prevented Airbag from taking the widescreen soundscapes of 2020’s A Day At The Beach on the road, they inevitably turned to livestream technology, opting to strip the songs down to their bare bones in the process. The melancholic electronica that formed the slowly unfolding backdrop to A Day At The Beach’s opener Machines And Men is replaced with sparse acoustic guitar here, and even if it doesn’t build the same rising sense of panic as the original, it offers a more despondent take on the song that is just as affecting. It also plays to Airbag’s strengths of drawing influence from the more emotionally raw moments of prime Waters-era Floyd and taking them to new places. That can also be…

Gizmodrome Live EARMUSIC With just one fleeting tour in support of their sole studio album, it’s a cause for celebration that the brief dalliance of Stewart Copeland, Adrian Belew, Mark King and Vittorio Cosma was captured for posterity. By selecting performances from all six dates of that 2018 run, Gizmodrome Live showcases the band at their best. “That’s the first time that we’ve actually ended that song correctly,” declares Copeland after the finale of Elephant Talk. They romp through the album tracks, chucking in tunes from the Copeland and Belew’s back catalogues along the way. As the main vocalist, Copeland throws himself into every song with gusto, but he’s well matched by King, who does a great version of The Police’s Does Everyone Stare. Surprises include Don’t Box Me In,…

One Thousand Birds Symphony HUNGERSLEEP Plotting a follow-up to 2019’s One Thousand Birds, Grice Peters ventured outdoors near his Devon base to literally record birdsong, with a view to weaving it into a radical remix of that record. The result, One Thousand Birds Symphony, will baffle as often as it intoxicates. There’s little evidence of his previous singer-songwriter fare but for threads of orchestration from those sessions: on freeform ambient passages such Unkindness, listeners find themselves transported into a bucolic idyll as they feel they are hearing an orchestra tuning up in a field after a bag full of Mother’s Pride has been scattered around. For those ready to tune in, though, there are bewitching passages of avant-classical beauty. Agent Starling has an airy ambience, as wisps of free jazz…

Goblin Market Music PARK Depending on how you view the setting to music of historical prose – in this case Christina Rossetti’s famous 19th century poem Goblin Market, (sample line: ‘Come buy’, call the goblins hobbling down the glen’) with goblins and faerie folk in general, and a healthy dose of hey-nonny-no folk-prog, you’ll either love this or go dashing back up the glen away from the titular folklore critters. In the hands of Steeleye Span guitarist Julian Littman, and with help from his Span pals – including vocalists Maddy Prior and Jessie May Spart, as well as Spike Milligan’s daughter Jane – this is a quite wonderful reading. It’s not a million miles away from Span’s 2013 collaboration with the late Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith. Here Littman and his vocalists imbue Rossetti’s…

My Private Cosmos SONOLUX Maintaining a daily work regime that sees him writing and recording from about 5pm until just before midnight, the former Be-Bop Deluxe guitarist and frontman Bill Nelson seemingly can’t stop pouring out his creativity. Indeed, since the break up of his former band, his back catalogue has swelled bewilderingly. And now, to add to this ever-increasing amount of recorded output, comes this staggering six-CD box set. While lockdown left many artists in a state of creative stasis, Nelson’s own workload increased in its intensity. And while the prospect of such an extensive amount of music may seem daunting, this is a collection that’s rich in its rewards. Be it bizarre instrumentals such as Thunder, Perfect Mind or the sci-fi balladry of With All The Will In…

The World As We Knew It GRAVITY DREAM Timing is everything. When this Cardiff quartet emerged around the turn of the 1980s, they were too late for the original prog boom and a touch too early to be embraced by the neo-prog scene that blossomed after their 1981 split. They’ve picked up where they left off since reforming in 2019, though, and have finally released their debut album. At times their portentous themes and airy anthems are tied to the 80s, but their songwriting still sounds timely on The One You Left Behind, which laments the passing of old certainties over dramatic power chords and dizzying synth hooks. They remain faithful to the noodly keyboard sounds and time-sig unorthodoxy of their prog heroes, but they’re at their best taking the…

The Shape Of Everything PELAGIC Plenty of genre tags get plastered over SOM – post-metal, shoegaze, post-rock, heavy dream pop. Whatever they may be, at the US quintet’s beating heart is an emotive sound both wistfully melancholic and oddly uplifting at the same time. This dichotomy jogs, rather unhurriedly, through the spine of their second album The Shape Everything, which doesn’t offer much new but still makes for a fairly listen. Slickly produced by frontman Will Benoit, the mainstream-baiting, eight-track record is a snug fit for the 21st century, and with a sniff of indie floating amid the pedal board haze, you expect advances in the years SOM to make some grand ahead. Standout track Animals builds on the trusted template of thundering, Deftones-esque low-end juxtaposed with flighted, ethereal vocals,…

Cosmic TONZONEN RECORDS Frankfurt’s The Sun Or The Moon say they make “psychedelic krautrock space lounge music” on their debut album, which promises much to like. It also suggests sonic combinations that could just as easily gel as they could jar against each other. Cosmic features both scenarios at certain points, but for the most part it’s an inviting environment. The ghosts of early Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream are evoked on the pulsing analogue technoscapes of Eldorado, before crunching guitars help fuel lift-off into intermittent space-rock excursions. The piano-laced psychedelic reverie Julia Dream is sweetly intoxicating before the chemicals really start to kick in on Trippin’ On Mars, as a hypnotic groove underpins lyrical comparisons of intergalactic travel with ‘a journey on acid, a journey on speed’. Some moments on…

Epigone CENTURY MEDIA Discerning folk may still be reeling from the brilliance of Wilderun’s last album, 2019’s Veil Of Imagination. Epigone is both more of the genre-blurring same and a bold leap forward, as the Boston quartet further expand their sonic universe. Beginning with the shimmering acoustic hymn Exhaler and concluding with a magnificently eccentric four-part prog metal odyssey, the ambition on display is startling. Labyrinthine epics Woolgatherer and Passenger are rich with shape-shifting melodies, each woven through a barrage of windswept death metal bluster and gorgeous post-rock ebb and flow. Identifier is another expansive act of daring, with shades of Devin Townsend’s mutant prog metal, countless dynamic leaps of faith and a beautiful melodic payoff that sounds purpose-built to make rational adults weep hysterically. But there are refined songwriting…

The Maestro’s Tale (whatstrangebeasts.bandcamp.com) is the inspired, joyful and highly promising debut from Seattle quartet What Strange Beasts. Packed with hooks, big vocal harmonies and palpable enthusiasm, this sprawling-yet-coherent concept album is an unrelenting hour of melodic, synth/piano-powered prog à la Supertramp with layered vocals and strong arrangements. On this evidence, What Strange Beasts are a band well worth looking out for in 2022. Wild Hearts (RKUK/Proper) is a solid and highly listenable selection of improvised instrumental music from a trio led by seasoned English guitarist Rob Koral. This soulful, melodic and occasionally meandering music comes with jazz, fusion and blues inflections, as Koral delivers top-tier phrasing via a pleasingly thick, throaty guitar tone, with drummer Jeremy Stacey (King Crimson, Chris Squire) and Hammond organist Pete Whittaker throwing down with…

Waltz For Yesterday: The Recordings 1972-1974 ESOTERIC The discographies of progressive rock are scattered with records that made little impact on the scene at the time of their release but whose reputation has subsequently grown over time. Three such albums gathered in this collection first appeared on the Dawn Records imprint, Decca’s attempt to hitch a ride on the rapidly accelerating underground and progressive scene. Jonesy’s 1972 debut, No Alternative, relies heavily on the eerie strains of the Mellotron as its signature sound. This alone should’ve been enough to generate more interest than Jonesy appear to have received in the years since they broke up. There are times when Jamie Kaleth’s spiky Mellotron stabs and flourishes, John Evan-Jones’ flinty lead guitar breaks and Trevor Jones’ rasping bass combine in a…

Stephen Palmer SONIC BOND If there’s one historical scene in music history that sounds like a blast to be part of, it’s the emergence of Krautrock. This book documents Tangerine Dream’s role in it and their trailblazing blueprints for electronic rock in entertaining detail. Shows playing 10 pinball machines as part of a DIY orchestra after having had your tea spiked with acid? Come on in… The fact that Sonic Bond’s books are often written by fans rather than professional music journalists can mean that the style and sometimes quality of writing varies. Palmer, an established fiction author, is an eloquent narrator and applies strong and perceptive analysis to Edgar Froese and co’s evolution from instrument – mangling experimentalists to futurist electronic visionaries. Walkthroughs of the albums’ contents are offset…

VENUE EVENTIM APOLLO, LONDON DATE 27/11/2021 There’s a moment during this second night at Hammersmith Apollo that crystallises the adulation, joy, respect and sheer drunkenness that Marillion inspire in their audience. With the air of an end-of-term party (it’s the final show of their Light At The End Of The Tunnel tour) where the elder boys have somehow got into the cider, the Marillion faithful are either hoisting, and sloshing, their pints around, bumping into each other then offering heartfelt and effusive apologies, or singing lustily along. That is until we get to the lightness of touch that is Bridge from the album that almost brought the band down: Brave. The delicacy of the moment is lost on some who attempt to sing along only to be shushed very gently,…

VENUE MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 DATE 18/11/2021 SUPPORT AA WILLIAMS It always feels like the witching hour when AA Williams takes to the stage, and tonight she gives a spine-chilling performance of some beautifully sad music. Williams’ mournful, macabre vocals glide over Cold’s stirringly haunted motifs, and Melt’s delicate darkness is iced with a powerful, wailing chorus. This seven-song set is a wonderful exhibition of everything that makes Williams’ music so engrossing. As is the way, many in the audience talk over the quieter moments, but when her voice soars above the din and the band journey towards a crescendo with overdrive pedals engaged, they leave the crowd silent and stunned. That’s a beautiful thing to behold. If the crowd’s after something more immediate, Sleep Token offer it in spades, but…

Where’s home? Deal, right on the Kent coast. Moving here changed the way I write music. Earliest prog memory? My mum plays violin, and when I was five she took me to a classical concert, and I remember being so excited by it. At home my parents also listened to a lot of African music, Greek traditional music, and a load of John McLaughlin. First prog album? After years of stealing my parents’ vinyl – King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Roxy Music – I finally bought myself Natural Elements by Shakti, featuring John McLaughlin. And the last? Fir Wave by Hannah Peel. She plays violin and comes from a classical background, but she’s moved into the electronic/synth world. For me it’s a really progressive album. First prog gig? Pink Floyd at…

MUSIC PORN Every month, without fail, my Prog magazine arrives through my letterbox, even during the darkest days of the pandemic. I probably speak for many when I say that Prog is such an important outlet for us. I am in my late 50s but feel like a pubescent teenager waiting for my musical Penthouse to arrive every month. Prog offers a perfect balance of old and new, for the older generation and the new generation just starting on their musical journey. A big thank you to Jerry and the people behind the scenes who don’t get credit, but make this all possible. Michael Staggs, Luxembourg DAVID LONGDON I am heartbroken to hear of the sudden death of Big Big Train singer/songwriter David Longdon. In recent years, David and the…

I an Anderson is not messing about. A few months ago Prog asked the man synonymous with Jethro Tull about the challenges of post-Covid touring, and when he said, “I expect to be wearing a mask for the rest of my professional life,” he didn’t just mean any old mask. “I wear none of that namby-pamby flimsy blue stuff,” he tells Prog. “People think it’s sufficient for the job and it’s as useless as a face covering. I wear an FFP2 mask or sometimes an FFP3 mask, because I care about my health and indeed the health of others. I wear a five-layer mask and have done all the time [since the pandemic began], but then they are more difficult to breathe through, especially with any physical exertion going on.”…

In 2016, the good and the great of prog rock paid tribute to the late Keith Emerson with two concerts, in Los Angeles and Birmingham, UK. Alongside luminaries such as Jordan Rudess, Eddie Jobson, and Steve Porcaro, the line-up also included Rachel Flowers, who entranced audiences with The Endless Enigma, The Barbarian, and Emerson’s Piano Concerto No 1 – Third Movement: Toccata Con Fuoco. A prodigiously talented multi-instrumentalist who plays piano, guitar, bass and flute, Flowers has performed alongside Dweezil Zappa, members of Gentle Giant and Brand X, and Emmett Chapman, the inventor of the Chapman Stick, another instrument in Flowers’ repertoire. Her third solo release, Bigger On The Inside, sees Flowers handling all of the instrumentation herself, which is all the more impressive when you consider she’s been blind…

LOCATION: EFFENAAR, EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS FRIDAY, 15TH APRIL DOORS OPEN AT 5:15PM CET KATATONIA SERMON ENSLAVED THE OCEAN THE FIERCE AND THE DEAD DILEMMA KLONE SATURDAY, 16TH APRIL DOORS OPEN AT 2:30PM CET HAKEN WHEEL FOCUS RENDEZVOUS POINT LONG DISTANCE CALLING CELLAR DARLING MARATON THE NEW DEATH CULT SCARLET STORIES TICKETS: Full weekend tickets are €89, and day tickets for Friday are €49 and Saturday tickets are €59. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult and tickets will only be available on the day if the event has not sold out. Clinic and conference tickets must be purchased separately. LOCATION: Eindhoven airport is situated around 30 minutes away via taxi or bus, and the city has great transportation links via train bus and coach, too. ACCESSIBILITY: Effenaar is wheelchair accessible,…

The Long Morrow HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Much acclaimed in stoner rock circles for their expansive take on an often unchanging genre, Big Scenic Nowhere are arguably too low-key and laidback to be regarded as a bona fide supergroup. Nonetheless, the Californian crew’s second full-lengther is notable not just for the ongoing presence of three red-eyed legends – Fu Manchu’s Bob Balch, and Yawning Man’s Gary Arce and Bill Stinson. Also here are contributions from former Opeth man and noted prog polymath Per Wiberg, art rock firebrand Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie/The Cure) and hard rock polymath and occasional psychedelic troubadour Tony Reed, whose gruffly soulful vocals anchor these sprawling-out jams. Everything soars into orbit during the album’s second half, just in time for that last bong hit to kick in. The…

Different Plain WHITE KNIGHT RECORDS With a core of ex-Magenta band members, The C Sides Project is now five albums into its existence. Different Plain is a companion piece to their 2020 concept album Purple Hearts Corner and carries on the tale of the fated crew of a B-17 bomber over Nazi Germany. Opener Stigler sets out their stall with grand themes, shifting time signatures, angular guitar soloing and their own take on classic prog moves. Elsewhere, Circles combines neo-prog sensibilities with 80s new wave sounds and textures, while Old Friends is a fairly straightforward acoustic guitar ballad enlivened by the vocals of Sian and Lucy Elson, which does raise questions about why they aren’t utilised a bit more across the album. A different side of the band is revealed…

Night Parade Of 100 Demons NUCLEAR BLAST Long established as one of the wildest and most progressive stoner rock bands on the planet, Earthless celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band by scorching off into orbit like never before. Night Parade Of 100 Demons captures the San Diego trio in full-bore improvisation mode, but this is not just a return to the epic freak-outs that made early albums like From The Ages such essential listening for riff-hungry space cadets. Instead, Earthless have evolved beyond fuzzy riffs and freewheeling jams, and embraced the slow-burning, episodic unfolding of the prog epic. The two-part title track clocks in at 40 minutes, morphing from opening waves of undulating ambience to thunderous heavy psych rock riffing and on to a final, buzz-wrecking cacophony of disintegrating…

A Distant Dark Source Experience PELAGIC France’s Hypno5e are a long way off post-metal’s A-list, but their 2021 livestream A Distant Dark Source Experience saw them step up their game. Where these events usually strip away the power and atmosphere of the original music, here the four-piece managed to intensify the power of 2019’s A Distant (Dark) Source album. It adheres to its studio predecessor’s running order and length: five tracks, only two of which weigh in at under 15 minutes (12-minute opener On The Dry Lake and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it seven-minute closer, Tauca Pt II). Musically, too, it’s essentially a re-run: waves of breeze-block noise give way to moments of chilly tranquillity peppered with spoken word passages (en français, naturellement) The original show, recorded in 1800-capacity venue the Paloma in the…

This Night BURNING SHED When Nosound played live again after almost two years’ forced hiatus due to the pandemic, it was in their native Italy. Their return to the stage in September 2021 was at Italy’s 2Days Prog+1 Festival, and the band only found out just before the gig that a multitrack recording was being made. Seven songs form this new release, which captures the excitement of the show without any overdubs. Mainman Giancarlo Erra asked the other band members to choose their proggiest songs, drawn mostly from their most recent album, 2018’s Allow Yourself. Although the songs are short, they have a remarkable ability to express light and shade and dynamic range, creating prog mini-epics and an ever-changing musical landscape in the way Porcupine Tree can. They also have…

Sirens BLACK SAND It’s been 14 years since Heather Findlay and Angela Gordon released Offerings, their debut album as Odin Dragonfly (an anagram of their surnames). Being out in the world touring together is the touchstone for this dreamy, gossamer-light collection of songs that the former Mostly Autumn bandmates wrote both individually and together. Inspired by personal and heartfelt shared experiences – not least being apart from their loved ones – Sirens features only the lightest touches of piano, acoustic guitar, flute, low whistle and minimal percussion to enhance the ethereal impact of their voices. Instrumental opener The Dimming begins with lapping water, their voices blending in ethereal bliss before the sound of the water returns, and a bell chimes. Piano-led Across The Sea has a hint of The Beatrix…

Timelines RIOT HEART INDUSTRIES Few words are as overused as ‘theatrical’, but it encapsulates what Rhizone are shooting for with their debut album. Timelines is the first in a series of three albums planned by this Viennese ‘multi-media project’ (their description) that will ultimately combine into a full-blown stage extravaganza, featuring musicians, actors and all manner of technological wizardry – even the band’s name is a reference to 20th century philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Sounds impressive, but Timelines is a fantastic record even without the highfalutin backstory. Its complex central story (a nameless protagonist descending into madness) is mirrored by an anything-goes musical approach. Even at one hour and nine minutes, it covers a lot of ground, from the scene-setting dramatics of opener Sonata //Quit Zero // to the disorientating sax-led…

If progressive metal were a competitive sport, First Fragment would be firm favourites to batter the opposition into submission. The Canadians’ second album Gloire Éternelle (Unique Leader) blends the blurred-finger showmanship of neoclassical metal with the hyper-speed brutality of technical death, with lashings of syrupy fretless bass and an irresistible sense of jazz-influenced fluidity thrown in for extra bewilderment points. At times, the sheer ferocity and velocity of songs like Solus and Ataraxie is laugh-out-loud funny, and yet never less than absurdly exciting. These boys can definitely play. Similarly gifted, Los Angeles instrumental duo The Blue Prison have created an enthralling tech-metal odyssey for their self-titled debut album (theblueprison.bandcamp.com). Two parts juddering djent riff-fest to three parts cosmic prog metal exploration, songs like the fiendishly catchy Kaleidoscope herald the arrival…

Blood Moon Rising INSIDEOUT The Tea Party mark their 30th anniversary with Blood Moon Rising, their first album since 2014, although five tracks here appeared on 2019’s Black River EP. The Canadian trio’s sound, playfully dubbed ‘Moroccan roll’, mixes rock and Middle Eastern influences, but here they channel three decades’ worth of rock styles from heavy blues to grunge. Black River has that Middle Eastern vibe, channelled via Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir and, to confirm their fealty to the church of Plant and Page, there’s a stomping cover of Out On The Tiles included here. While not their proggiest work, Blood Moon Rising is jammed with meaty riffs and appealing, hook-laden choruses. Singer and guitarist Jeff Martin has a rich, treacle-thick tone and brings swagger aplenty to Hole In My Heart,…

Kites HEMISPHERES This Winter Machine have won listeners with their traditional ‘new-neo’ brand of prog, stamped through 2017 debut The Man Who Never Was and follow-up A Tower Of Clocks. The pandemic led to a shake-out of the original line-up, with only vocalist Al Winter remaining in post, and it’s to his credit that this third LP dovetails well with their previous works, and also takes the project to a new level. Kites opens with prelude Le Jour D’Avant, with plangent pianos from one of the album’s MVPs, keyboardist Pat Ganger-Sanders. Two-parter The Storm is dramatic prog: thunder effects, judicious 7/8 spikes, some neat Hammond work and an engrossing, guitar solo from Mark Abrahams. Peter ‘Tiger Moth Tales’ Jones’ vocal turn on Sometimes is a bonus, and Winter’s own performance…

Travelling The Great Circle: Pungent Effulgent To Jurassic Shift KSCOPE Ed Wynne dusts off and gussies up the first four official Ozric Tentacles albums in this lavish collection spanning six CDs and one DVD. The set begins with the band’s first non-cassette release, 1989’s Pungent Effulgent, followed by Erpland, Strangeitude, and lastly 1993’s Jurassic Shift. The four studio albums are accompanied by a disc of demos and rare concert recordings, and Live Underslunky, the band’s 1992 live album. The remastered albums sound terrific, with warmer, richer tones and a noticeably fuller sound than the original mixes. Even when the band dives deep into a cosmic space rock jam, nothing gets lost in the swirl of instruments. The music is accompanied by a 78-page booklet by Dominic Blake and Ed Wynne…

Scheherazade And Other Stories CHERRY RED Listening to this newly reissued reboot of the 1975 album that represented arguably their creative peak, it seems a little peculiar that Renaissance aren’t more readily placed up there at the top table of 70s prog, or at least within touching distance. Perhaps their eventual drift into MOR territory accounts for that neglect – they are, after all, the band that gave us the can’t-believe-it’s-not-Abba charms of Northern Lights. Scheherazade… is a textbook example of what so much prog set out to do, something instantly encapsulated by 10-plus-minute opener A Trip To The Fair. The grandiose piano intro is accompanied by excited, scuttling timpani and choral backing, but surreal cackling in the background tells us we’re not in church anymore, and then breathless 3/4…

Eric Benac SONIC BOND As author Eric Benac sensibly points out early on, Cardiacs were the cult band to end them all. Fans of the legendary group will struggle to resist this detailed delve into every last scrap of their three decades of recorded music, not least because Benac’s often scholarly analyses resound with love. He also has a keen eye for the finer points of the late, great Tim Smith’s multitudinous vision, and throws in a few chunks of red meat for the prog faithful along the way. Of Cardiacs’ exquisite 1986 track The Whole World Window, he notes that “Van der Graaf Generator fans can probably imagine Peter Hammill howling existentially over the top of this tone poem”. He has a point, and numerous other noteworthy observations to…

Decade Of Sound Awake INSIDEOUT Before Covid, modern prog visionaries Karnivool had planned an expansive tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their platinum-in-Australia second album, 2009’s Sound Awake. Inevitably, the tour fell victim to the pandemic, prompting them to concentrate on a one-off livestream in May, at the Heath Ledger Theatre in their hometown of Perth. There they played that record in its entirety, alongside a handful of additional fan-favourites. “A didgeridoo thickens out the colossal waves of sound.” This Blu-ray is both a stopgap for fans thwarted by the tour’s cancellation, and a memento for those who streamed the show. The (empty) venue and setting are impressive, but concert films can struggle to offer a sense of scale, and it’s the performances that matter. These do not disappoint,…

VENUE NIGHT PEOPLE, MANCHESTER DATE 20/11/2021 SUPPORT THE HYENA KILL From their post-metal, Deftones-inspired 2017 EP Our Brief Encounters to where they are now, Blanket’s rise has been steady. And with every release and every prestigious live show – gracing ArcTanGent’s stage; opening for Polyphia, Cellar Darling and other names – the Blackpool band have carefully and methodically sculpted their sound. Tonight, they’re being supported themselves, and in fine style. Still riding high on current album A Disconnect, Manchester’s The Hyena Kill dish out their maiden performance as a four-piece in fervent fashion. Their guitar/vocals/drums set-up is embellished by the additional low end of a bass player and a second, atmosphere-crafting guitar player. These elements help the outfit up their progressive cred while still maintaining their gruff, metal heart. Blanket…

WILDERUN GET ‘META’ ON NEW ALBUM Boston prog metallers Wilderun unveil their fourth album, Epigone, on January 7 through Century Media. It’s the follow-up to their highly acclaimed 2019 work Veil Of Imagination, and guitarist/vocalist Evan Berry says: “This is certainly a ‘meta’ record for me. It’s the record that has the most to do with the artistic process.” Epigone is reviewed in this issue, and for more information on that and the band (who formed at Berklee College Of Music), go to www.wilderun.com.…

Alan Parsons OBE will release his new orchestral live album on February 11, via Frontiers Music. One Note Symphony: Live In Tel Aviv was recorded with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in June 2019. Pre-orders at https://orcd.co/parsonstelaviv. Marillion’s Mark Kelly publishes his autobiography on January 22. Marillion, Misadventures & Marathons: The Life & Times Of Mad Jack comes through Kingmaker Publishing, and can be ordered at Marillion’s site: www.bit.ly/markkellybook. Movie music genius Danny Elfman releases a collector’s edition box set of his solo album Big Mess in January. Limited to 1,500 copies, it includes four LPs filled with bonus tracks and high-end artwork. Info at pre-orders at www.bit.ly/dannybox.…

The prog top 30 albums November 2021 Compiled by 1 RADIOHEAD Kid A Mnesia (XL RECORDINGS) 2 JETHRO TULL Benefit (PARLOPHONE) 3 GENESIS The Last Domino (UMC/VIRGIN) 4 MASTODON Hushed And Grim (REPRISE) 5 PINK FLOYD A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (PARLOPHONE) 6 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING Bright Magic (PIAS) 7 DREAM THEATER A View From The Top Of The World (INSIDEOUT) 8 KING CRIMSON Music Is Our Friend – Live In Washington (DGM/PANEGYRIC) 9 STEVEN WILSON Last Day Of June OST (MUSIC ON VINYL) 10 MOGWAI As The Love Continues (ROCK ACTION) 11 YES The Quest (INSIDEOUT) 12 MARILLION Fugazi (PARLOPHONE) 13 MATT BERRY Gather Up (ACID JAZZ) 14 ROBERT FRIPP Music For Quiet Moments (DGM/PANEGYRIC) 15 MOSTLY AUTUMN Graveyard Star (MOSTLY AUTUMN) 16 JANE WEAVER Flock (FIRE) 17 JEAN-MICHEL…

It’s been over 14 years since Between The Buried And Me redefined not just themselves as a band, but the way the music world looked at the unification of extreme metal and progressive music. Their fourth album, Colors, came out in 2007, and remains a vivaciously extravagant record, journeying from grinding metal moments through dizzying jazz passages, soulful blues interludes and twanging of country backwaters. It showed that extreme metal could be shot through a progressive lens. Now, the band have surprised fans with an LP that is very much a spiritual sequel to its predecessor. As vocalist Tommy Rogers and bassist Dan Briggs explain, Colors II was the perfect opportunity for the band to redefine their present day identity against a backdrop of uncertainty and unease. The news of…

Pause ONE LITTLE INDEPENDENT The timing of releases is as arguably important as the sounds contained within the grooves. So it is that Poppy Ackroyd’s third, full-length release for One Little Independent Records arrives to coincide with shorter days and longer nights. In doing so, this wonderfully talented pianist and violinist beautifully captures the seasonal melancholy and ennui that hangs in the air. Not that Pause should be perceived as a dour piece of work – far from it. Witness the delightful arpeggios of Seeding where her fingers dance across the keys with a nimble ease while reaching out to the soul, a feat that’s repeated with the optimistic, strident pace of Release. Elsewhere, Murmurations’ ebbs and flows move with the force and pace of a swollen river. Ackroyd is…

Live In Brighton 1975 SPOON/MUTE Recorded at Sussex University less than three weeks after the May 2021-released Live In Stuttgart 1975, this latest offering from the Can archives is a different though no less satisfying creature. Looser and freer, it also stands in stark contrast with the sleeker studio album, Landed, from the same year. Indeed, there’s intrigue to be had as Can dip further back into their career here. Echoes of Future Days’ Bel Air form the basis of the second of the seven largely improvised instrumentals (Zwei) with Michael Karoli’s space guitar and Irmin Schmidt’s winding keyboards blending into a seamless whole. Elsewhere, Sieben uses the shuffling funk of Vitamin C as its launchpad before blasting into the furthest reaches of the universe. Played to a boisterous audience,…

We Are The Truth GLASSVILLE RECORDS Two years have passed since Parallel Life, Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion’s last album and the world has changed somewhat since its release. In this new, somewhat confusing, global landscape, We Are The Truth is Fröberg’s plea for compassion, love and respect, and the songs reflect this with a restless energy driving its cultured rock lines and occasional pop sensibilities. Curtain-raiser For Those Who Rule The World puts down the marker, a huge rallying call with a funky vibe and visceral guitar breaks shared between Fröberg and Anton Lindsjö. That call to arms continues in Rise Up, a pop song that shifts between reggae and rock against a huge backbeat. The Constant Search For Bravery provides a lighter touch through its acoustic introduction, but…

Miles From Nowhere INSIDEOUT Following up his debut album, 2016’s Pathfinder, Jonas Lindberg continues to weave together a range of influences and feels from prog past and present. Silent Motive Man ties a Trevor Rabin-esque riff to some very lovely vocal lines, reminiscent of 70s singer/songwriters, adding in some evocative keyboards. Summer Queen moves from an atmospheric keyboard intro, via more bucolic territory with a folksy vocal courtesy of Jenny Storm, into synth-laden rock and intense instrumental sections. Epic, wind-in-the-hair guitar solos pour out of out Little Man, Oceans Of Time, while Roine Stolt guests on the album’s title track. In fact, there are many great individual performances here, both from Lindberg himself and his many collaborators. Taking the album as a whole, Billy Sherwood’s solo work and the songwriting…

The Royal Affair And After BFD DISTRIBUTION Clad in leather trousers and with a shock of silver hair that would make Brian May envious, John Lodge and his 10,000 Light Years Band have done more than most to keep the Moody Blues flag flying. This live set, recorded in Las Vegas in the summer of 2019, is case in point: an expansive, cherry-picked collection from the band’s evergreen history, it finds the singer and bassist in exuberant form. Lodge might not have the pipes of bandmate and co-founder Justin Hayward, but he knows when to aim for a note or when to let it go. Not that it stops him making an impassioned run at songs like Steppin’ In A Slide Zone, Gemini Dream and the roiling I’m Just A…

Possibly it’s the time of year, but there’s no shortage of intimate records as we head into winter. Genre stalwart Robin Guthrie – formerly of Cocteau Twins – has returned with Pearldiving (robinguthrie.bandcamp.com), his first full-length solo effort in nearly a decade. While the gauzy lead track, Les Amourettes, is a good intro to the album, the highlights lie elsewhere, such as the sinuous, driving On The Trail Of Grace. The new release from Greek post-rockers The Abyss Inside Us is worth checking out for genre aficionados. Circuits (abyssinsideus.bandcamp.com) is an EP, but with a running length of 35 minutes, it’s longer than some other bands’ albums. The project is the brainchild of composer Nikos Togkaridis, who started off as a percussionist. Some of this close attention to pulse and…

The Boat SVART Finland’s Pelagos feature ex-members of hypno-rock giants Circle, and are similarly interested in stretching out a groove to see how far it’ll go. Yet rather than the heavy, guitar-based artillery that Circle use, Pelagos favour swooshing synths, reverb vocals and slow, cosmic beats. But while their music invites space rock comparisons, it’s actually the ocean that inspires them – The Boat is closer to deep sea psychedelia. Opener A Song For The Rain actually features some relatively edgy riffing, but An Invitation hits the sweet spot of their sound, aquatic trance rock that’s like an even proggier version of Tame Impala or Steven Wilson, minus the angst. It sounds modern without making the point of sounding modern. Ditto the lush keys and hint of Autotune on Zest,…

Excalibur V – Move, Cry, Act, Clash! CHERRY RED Despite enlisting the skills of numerous genre heavyweights, Alan Simon’s elaborate Excalibur saga has never rivalled the greatness of similar projects from the likes of Ayreon and Avantasia. That remains true on Excalibur V – Move, Cry, Act, Clash! More often than not, its songs are clichéd and forgettable, if not downright irritating. This is particularly true of the first half of the record, as the grating vocals, repetitious instrumentation and amateurish lyrics of the bloated title track make a bad first impression. The Prisoner and I Said Shout are bland yet pompous Iron Maiden and Judas Priest pastiches, whereas Messaline and Heaven are tedious acoustic ballads whose marginally enticing keyboards and strings do little to help. Things pick up with…

Scary Muzak HOUSE OF MYTHOLOGY Ulver’s music has often been disquieting, with periods of calm upheavals. The Norwegians punctuated by massive have performed their version of the score to John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic Halloween, and here they mix some of Carpenter’s themes with original material that nods back to the 70s and 80s, concentrating mainly on keyboards and electronics. On Evil Longbows they create tension by juxtaposing twinkling keyboard lines with ominous minor chord changes Wisps of treated vocals that sound like someone – or something – trying to articulate themselves drift across a synthesised wash on Boo Sackcloth, and on Evil Longbows what sound like the gasps of a would be victim on the run are looped together with sequencers and some dramatically reverbed drums, to striking effect.…

The Witching Tale MEDIAEVALBAEBES.BANDCAMP.COM The Witching Tale are Katharine Blake (Mediaeval Baebes) and Michael J York (Coil, The Utopia Strong), and their self-titled debut album is a spellbinding meld of the former’s ethereal voice and the latter’s exploratory pipes and electronics. They take the traditional and alchemise it into new shapes, creating the music of a world outside of time, an intersection of the mystic and the sensual. On The Beckoning, an eighth century Arabic poem is intoned softly against hurdy-gurdy and violin, as analogue frequencies bubble beneath. The beguiling vocal melody of Dahna is threatened by sawing strings, while the growl of guitar and thunder of drums bolsters The City In The Sea’s story of surrendering to the waves. The Witching Tale itself is a ghostly evocation of Avalon,…

The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 BMG RECORDS Asia’s journey is utterly unique. Refugees from prog’s biggest bands form the ultimate supergroup, only to unexpectedly have an MTV-assisted crossover hit and sell a million copies of their debut album, only for decades of line-up changes, internal and external bickering and the odd reunion to follow. This lavishly presented 10-CD box pools five concerts – two from Asia’s heyday of the 1980s, plus a further three from the late-00s reunion of original members John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoffrey Downes and Carl Palmer, all delivered in audio quality best described as ‘erratic’. Recorded in Buffalo, New York, in May 1982, the first set captures the giddy excitement of the Asia album and its unlikely yet relentless charge towards multi-platinum status. All nine…

Archive Collections Volumes 1 & 2 ESOTERIC So quiet, unassuming, and gentlemanly is Anthony Phillips (and with a sense of humour that would delight most eight-year-olds and Goons fans alike), it’s easy to take for granted the fact that the guitarist has a lifetime of music to enjoy beyond the two albums he made as a teenager with Genesis. This latest instalment in the ongoing reissue campaign of original Phillips albums and archival material gathers together the two Archive Collection volumes, originally released in 1998 and 2004, unearths so many layers of demos, alternative takes and the never-before-released The Masquerade Tapes, podcast (that same forensic approach extends to the liner notes and essay by noted Phillips archivist Jon Dann). While those who bought the Archive Collection volumes may well original…

The Broken Hearted Bride CHERRY RED The line-up of one of Strawbs’ best loved albums, 1974’s Hero And Heroine was resurrected in 2004 on Déja Fou. A number of live albums, compilations and an acoustic set followed, but they really hit their stride again on 2008’s The Broken Hearted Bride, which stands comparison with their 70s heyday. Dave Cousins may not have been blessed with the most beautiful singing voice, but few can match his intensity. On Call To Action, over Rod Coombes’ rolling drums and guest violinist Ian Cutler’s eastern-inflected lines, he sounds possessed, spitting out a tale of hooded horsemen descending from the hills, brandishing ‘darkened blades’. Cousins has denied that Strawbs ever played folk music, but from the band’s inception he tapped into folk’s storytelling tradition, albeit…

Ian Anderson ROCKET 88 This gargantuan undertaking sees Ian Anderson trawling through more than 50 years of Jethro Tull and his own solo work. He’s listened to and re-transcribed every word he’s ever written for every song given an official release. The result is a classy, landscape format tome with lyrics to more than 300 songs. Each section – set out largely chronologically – includes a preamble providing context, whether historically, personally or artistically, to the album in question and some pointers as to interpretation and the meaning of it all. In both these scene-setting paragraphs and the fulsome introduction to the book, Anderson reflects on the role of lyrics and the lyric writer, with a dry wit and disarming honesty. While focussing on his overarching contributions and pre-eminence in…

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