Table of contents for Issue 129 in Prog

What got us all grooving this month… After several decades of making music, one-man enterprise Steven Wilson has finally published his long-awaited autobiography. In Limited Edition Of One, the musician, songwriter and remixer charts what he calls his “accidental career” from the early days of No-Man and Porcupine Tree right up to his most recent studio album, The Future Bites, with a side order of lists galore.One lucky winner will receive a signed copy of the limited special edition, which comprises not only the hardback version of the book but also an additional supplement with 128 extra pages crammed with new material and previously unseen photos, as well as a 70-minute CD of ‘audio illustrations’ including musical extracts from school bands and early demos by Porcupine Tree and No-Man. To…

Having made his recording debut alongside his brother Brian on 1983’s Apollo – Atmospheres & Soundtracks, Roger Eno has enjoyed a busy career in music that includes being part of ambient ‘supergroup’ Channel Light Vessel alongside Bill Nelson, Kate St John and Laraaji in the 1990s, writing for stage plays and film, and over the years quietly amassing a body of more than 30 solo albums and collaborations that include Daniel Lanois, The Orb, Gaudi, David Gilmour, No-Man, Fovea Hex and many others. Then in 2020 he renewed his musical partnership with Brian on Mixing Colours for the prestigious classical label, Deutsche Grammophon, who have also released Roger’s latest album, The Turning Year. You recorded your latest album in between various Covid restrictions. How was that experience? Yes, there was…

“I knew Geddy and the boys; we travelled in the same circles. We were [former Canadian PM] Pierre Trudeau’s favourite band and we had a large following, but not as big as Rush. We’d bump into each other, but the main connection was photographer Deborah Samuel, who I – and my wife at the time, Kerry Knickle – knew. She asked me to come and be one of the guys involved in the shoot. I didn’t know that much about Rush’s music. We were like Mozart and they were like Wagner [laughs]. They had a lot of notes! “It was filmed in front of the Ontario Legislature. It was a Sunday and the place was closed, nobody except us in the parking lot. We were there for quite a while.…

Shapeshifting instrumental trio raise their game on second album. Divided By Design made a subtle stamp on a crowded instrumental rock scene in 2020 with their debut album Stages To Osiris, but the Leeds trio have bigger things in mind second time around. Irretraceable Steps refines their songwriting and production, and it’s a sound reliant on tricky interplay and fluid leads giving colour to the math rock tapestry. With the album devoid of a unique selling point, this isn’t going to scoop any end of year awards, but there are a few gems among the eight-strong tracklist. The Fine Line advances confidently into Dream Theater-esque fretplay, shimmering keys and strident snare shots, while N2H4 juggles power-metal gusto and Liam Stephenson’s succulent guitar work, all married to keyboard programming. For all…

Veteran krautrockers captured live in Zofingen in late 2021. Perhaps it’s rude to mention a gentleman’s age, but it is extraordinary that Guru Guru drummer and vocalist Mani Neumeier is still going strong at 81. His band might not be the most celebrated krautrock group, but they are the longest lived, having formed in Heidelberg in 1968, a time of acid, insurrection and communal living. Fifty three years on, this album was recorded to celebrate the arrival of Zeus B Held on keyboards, who weaves subtle lines into the songs and adds some flamboyant synth in places. There is little of the mayhem of Guru Guru’s drug-fuelled early music like Der LSD March, but they do play Ooga Booga from 1972’s Känguru and, with his lyrics, Neumeier delivers an idiosyncratic…

Prog-psych nirvana from Sweden’s retro masters. When Hällas emerged with their debut, Excerpts From A Future Past, in 2018, it sounded like the Swedes had been hibernating in mothballs since 1971. Plenty of bands plunder the sounds of that cherished era, but few do it with such conviction. Their third full-length, Isle Of Wisdom outstrips its predecessors by some margin, as Hällas go the whole prog hog and end up sounding even more like a band beamed in from five decades ago. No retro stone is left uncovered, with billowing waves of synth and Mellotron and tumultuous arrangements straight out of the Museo Rosenbach handbook, but the strength of these songs ensures that Isle Of Wisdom never sounds like a pastiche. Advent Of Dawn is a straightforwardly great, folk-tinged rock…

Norwegian art-rockers expand their horizons with immersive sound tapestries. With debut album The Line, Kalandra established a reputation for evocative neo-folk, haunting alt-pop and atmospheric art-rock conflations. This follow-up was originally composed as a soundtrack to the second in the Kingdom Two Crowns computer game series, but the band have reworked and edited the music for this standalone album release. There are no actual songs here – this is music as aural painting. Tracks such as Eikthyrnir and Drømmefanger are built upon lush, unhurried swathes of sound, while Valkyrja adds an almost sacred, hymn-like quality. Only slightly more emphatic is the material that draws more heavily on Scandinavian and celtic folk influences like the nearjaunty woodwind and drum beat of Skogtroll or the increasingly exultant Helheim, which builds to the…

Venezuela’s answer to Delia Derbyshire releases debut album at 74. While Venezuelan electronic music may not register too highly on people’s ‘must hear’ lists, the story of 74-year-old Oksana Linde is almost the stuff that Hollywood movies are made of. Born in Caracas in 1948, Linde began making synthesiser-based music in her 30s and was part of a then-burgeoning local scene. For whatever reason, that music seems to have gone largely overlooked until discovered by Luis Alvarado of Buh Records, who has released this collection which dates from 1983 to 1989. Early electronic and synthesiser pioneers like Delia Derbyshire and Wendy Carlos are obvious reference points, but also Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and, more recently, John Carpenter too. The likes of Viaje Hacia La Luz, Orinoco and Recordando A Kitaro…

Swedish prog metallers continue their quest to collect the essence of humanity. The chugging guitars and anthemic choruses of We Harvest The Souls Of The Brave usher us back into the conceptual universe of protagonists Cora and Jareth, outlined on PreHistoric Animals’ 2020 album, The Magical Mystery Machine (Chapter One), and continues PreHistoric Animals’ sci-fi concept. As with that album, a mix of influences suggest themselves. The odd time signatures and hard edge of I Am The Chosen One (And I Like It) bring to mind Pain Of Salvation’s back catalogue (guitarist Daniel Madgic was a former member of that band), while Cora’s New Secret slows the intensity slightly, reminiscent of prime Queensrÿche. The low synth thrum at the start of The Protectors Of The Universe suggests space rock, but…

Portuguese proggers wear their influences proudly on their debut album. Snowman did a great job of implementing the influences of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Porcupine Tree and Camel into an engaging experience on 2019’s debut EP, Inner Light. The Portuguese band’s full-length follow-up expands upon that formula, resulting in a more sprawling yet accessible artistic statement. Instrumental opener The Mysterious Vanishing Of Elisa Lam channels the turmoil of the real-life disappearance behind its title in a mix of morose space rock with bursts of enraged guitar riffs and rhythms. It’s an adventurous hodgepodge of temperaments and techniques, and the subsequent pieces do a fine job taking that pattern to interesting new places. Harbour Of Sorrow leans toward the cosmic feistiness of IQ, while Gratitude puts an ethereal coating over the gentle…

After 2020’s mammoth triple album, Tautology, American postrockers El Ten Eleven could have been forgiven if they’d taken an extended break. However, they’re already back with a new record, New Year’s Eve (Joyful Noise). The album leans into the groovier side of their discography, while retaining their trademark sense of atmosphere and space via the use of sprawling pads and ambient loops. The title track is a good starting point, as is the complex, multipart journey of Meta Metta. South Korean shoegazers Parannoul racked up one of the most popular shoegaze albums on Bandcamp with their To See The Next Part of The Dream LP. Now they’re back with a B-sides collection, White Ceiling/Black Dots Wandering Around (parannoul.bandcamp.com). As lo-fi production is already part of the band’s aesthetic, the songs…

Swimming pool-based live lockdown action courtesy of Swedish prog metallers. For their first live album, recorded during the pandemic, VOLA set up in an empty swimming pool in an abandoned military base. Despite the lack of an audience, Live From The Pool captures the Danish-Swedish quartet’s energy across a setlist spanning their three studio albums to date. Musically, they draw upon prog, djent, electronica and, in These Black Claws, even a little rap (better in reality than it looks on paper). Frontman Asger Mygind has an openness and vulnerability in his voice that’s akin to Einar Solberg from Leprous, qualities highlighted in the stripped-down Gutter Moon (October Session). When they slam into the heavy sections of Head Mounted Sideways, Mygind’s guitar and Nicolai Mogensen’s bass sound like they’re drop tuned…

Triumphant return for reconfigured 80s art-pop outfit. Reuniting original Propaganda members Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag alongside producer Stephen Lipson, The Heart Is Strange is a compelling listen, sounding exactly like it could have followed their old group’s debut, A Secret Wish in 1985. From the synthesised detonation at the start of the album, the listener knows exactly what to expect. With its dispassionate voices, orchestral stabs and additional synthesised percussion entering at the halfway mark, six-minute opener The Night captures all the urgency and thrill of the original Propaganda. The call and response on Beauty Is The Truth couldn’t be more high-period sixth form playlet ZTT, with lines such as ‘a firm handshake or a Chinese burn’. Don’t (You Mess With Me) is a succulent, strident slice of glam…

Never mind Tie A Yellow Ribbon, here’s the prog. For those addicted to the pop charts, 1973 was all about Sweet, Slade and 10cc. The album charts were bossed by Bowie and Elton. But let’s go along with this book’s proposal that it was prog’s peak (it was, at least, within prog’s first peak: that’s allowable). After an opening section that gives a standard yet nonetheless entertaining run through of what prog is and where it came from, with sidesteps into the basics of krautrock and Canterbury, this volume examines 20 key prog albums from that year. It’s hard to argue with the selections – from A Passion Play and Tales From Topographic Oceans (both, as is pointed out, panned by critics at the time) to The Six Wives Of Henry…

Revealing biography of the man who was Mother. The company you keep can say a lot about you as a person. In Tony Stratton Smith’s case, he’s still best known for his association with The Nice, Bonzo Dog Band, Van der Graaf Generator, Genesis, and the many artists who called the famous Charisma label their home. “An engrossing portrait of a flawed but much-loved visionary.” Managers and label bosses in the music industry don’t always enjoy a good reputation, least of all from those whose interests they are meant to represent. However, after his death from pancreatic cancer in 1987, aged just 53, it says something about the man and the depth of his relationship with the artists that so many of them still speak of Strat with genuine affection…

VENUE ROCKEFELLER, OSLO, NORWAY DATE 22/03/2022 When the pandemic first struck, The Pineapple Thief were one of the only bands who postponed their 2020 Oslo gig by a whole two years. It might have seemed like a ridiculous length of time to some, but the live experience has certainly been worth waiting for. Frontman Bruce Soord addresses the crowd with gratitude: “Hands up if this is your first gig for a long time – it’s a special time, isn’t it? Thank you so much for coming.” Back in 2009, when the British band first played in Oslo, the audience consisted of around 25 people. Now, there are several hundred in attendance. It helps that they have King Crimson and Porcupine Tree drum master Gavin Harrison in the band, and the…

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog. You can, should you so wish, and I do recommend it, listen to Rush’s Moving Pictures approximately twice while reading Philip Wilding’s excellent in-depth look at the making of the album (page 32). I did exactly that every time I read the story, and each time I gained more from an album that’s been one of my favourites for the last 40 years, as I suspect it is for many of you too. Also, what a joy to see Geddy and Alex being interviewed together (via the magic of technology) for the first time in ages; their natural bonhomie and sense of fun all too evident, conveyed by Philip’s words, as they recalled writing and recording the songs that redefined the…

MATTHEW COHEN HAS plenty of prog pedigree. As a result, much is expected from his new band, Omega Point, whose debut album A Great Escape has just been released. In September 2019, Cohen played his farewell show with The Reasoning, at The Robin 2, and started to contemplate his next move. Unfortunately, it was the wrong one. “Once I’d done the last Reasoning show, I went out with a heavy metal band called Nine Miles Down,” he recalls. “We were supporting British Lion, and it was good fun, especially to play with one of my heroes, Steve Harris, but I actually hated the experience. I could see so many things being done and I’d be thinking, ‘No, I wouldn’t have done it that way…’ So I made my decision then,…

“Iwas living in Toronto at the time and I was shooting entertainment and doing fashion as well. Hugh Syme asked me if I’d be involved on Permanent Waves to style the girl on the cover, which I did. It was before Photoshop so we had to put four negatives together in the dark room. So we had to print it all on one piece of paper – an adventure in itself! Hugh put himself on the cover: he’s the guy who’s standing next to the stop sign, waving. “Hugh then asked me to shoot the cover for Moving Pictures and as he had been on the cover of Permanent Waves, it meant that I went on that. I became Joan Of Arc and it became a joke between Hugh and…

More songs of praise from East Midlands weirdbeards. Church Of The Cosmic Skull put the ‘cult’ in cult band. With their white suits and flowing robes, the Nottingham seven-piece look like they should be holed up in a desert compound, eyes fixed to the sky in readiness for the next UFO ride out of here. ‘One more step, you’ll be stepping on board,’ sings mastermind Bill Fisher lugubriously amid the sawing violins and harmonies of One More Step. As far as shticks go, it’s a good one, even if the only spaceships in COTCS’ world are the ones on the covers of the old ELO records they’ve been listening to. Their fourth album plugs into that strain of prog-adjacent 70s rock, though their take owes more to the maverick weirdness…

More epic melodrama from Sweden’s heaviest hearts. Barely a year after the release of Escape Of The Phoenix, Evergrey are ready to put us through the emotional wringer all over again. The Swedish power prog outfit have been in devastating form since 2014’s Hymns For The Broken, as their blend of cutting edge, heavier-than-Metallica riffing and frontman Tom S Englund’s unerringly heartfelt and heart-rending melodies slipped into a higher gear. To some extent, A Heartless Portrait is more of the same, but there are plenty of subtle embellishments that mark these songs out as distinctive in their own right. Save Us is the perfect, bombastic opener, with a skyscraper-levelling chorus and, as ever, startling levels of heaviness. Darkly symphonic and laced with ghostly backing choirs, Midwinter Calls is as fine…

Metallica axeman shows unexpected side on solo debut EP. Metallica aren’t prog, but their guitarist’s solo debut ticks quite a few of the boxes. Portals began life in 2017, when Kirk Hammett composed music for an exhibit of his huge horror move memorabilia collection. Drawing on classical and soundtrack music, he expanded on the idea, teaming up with composer/orchestrator Edwin Outwater for this conceptual, ‘audio cinematic’ EP, which works well. The four tracks here each represent an era of horror cinema. Maiden And The Monster celebrates the age of Nosferatu, Frankenstein et al, its central riff lumbering ominously as strings swell around and drums boom beneath. Marking the 50s’ Plan 9 From Outer Space-type schlock, The Jinn comes with urgent cellos and a groove, like Pink Floyd’s One Of These…

Ex-Grenadier Guards bandsman enlists distinguished cast for debut album. Kite Parade is a project by Andy Foster, previously the saxophonist in a military band. On this, his first album, his musical cohorts include drummers Nick D’Virgilio of Big Big Train and Wishbone Ash’s Joe Crabtree, while BBT/IQ sound engineer Rob Aubrey oversees the mixing and mastering. Foster’s strong, tuneful voice drives opener Letting Go, a pulsating power-prog anthem full of infectious hook lines. The lush melodies of The Way Home aligns musically with the art-pop sensibilities of It Bites and Kino, while there’s an upbeat tone to This Time, with Foster breaking out his sax for a fluid solo. Strip The Wall is a darker proposition, its guitars going full tilt, and domestic abuse is covered in Suffer No Longer,…

Ex-Hawkwind bassist sets the controls for new adventures in space rock. Envisaged by former Hawkwind man Niall Hone as a solo project, Flying Chromium Society developed into something more when Hone and collaborators Ross Fuller (guitar/vocals) and Jamie Gillett (drums) felt that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, creating the collective Lords Of Form identity. It’s unsurprising that Hone’s past bleeds through both in the music and in the striking, psychedelic cover art and graphics. It’s Revolution Time and The Electric White Highway channel the fuzzed-up guitars and relentless headlong rush of songs like the Hawks’ Brainstorm and Levitation. Elsewhere, there’s a punk edge of self-righteous anger on Tribes Collide and Little Victories, and foreboding in the snarled, sludgy grind of This Dying World. Hone and…

Heavy and weird times call for heavy and weird music, so strap yourselves in. Without Waves’ third album, Comedian (Prosthetic), begins with a bewildering flurry of polyrhythmic riffs and bug-eyed screams, before mutating into a perverse amalgam of pitch-black post-rock and left-field electronics. Somehow, this Chicago quartet make it all sound entirely natural, and they sustain that suspension of musical logic throughout. Fans of Devin Townsend and Between The Buried And Me will revel in the scattershot riot of ideas that fuels more aggressive songs like .algorithm and Sleight In Shadows, while the melodic drift and hazy dynamics of Day 15 and Do What Scares You offer sublime moments of woozy respite. Cobra The Impaler are not quite as terrifying as their name suggests, but Colossal Gods (Listenable) is a…

Australian space cadets are back with their best album yet. It would be erroneous to think that a work rate of five albums in six years would suggest an easing off of the quality control pedal on the part of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Indeed, much like the third-eye experience that informs their name, the western Australian quintet process an incredible amount of information and influences that have included space rock, punk, prog and yes, psychedelia, to create a dense and frequently intense yet pleasurable experience. But while there’s no change on that score, Night Gnomes proves to be their most cohesive and finest statement to date. Elsewhere, the hypnotically gorgeous Slinky Holy Water is a direct descendant of King Crimson’s first incarnation as Mellotron-like keyboards wash over snaking, twisting basslines.…

A cornucopian concoction of contemporary psychedelia. The Chemistry Set date back through many psychedelic revivals to the late 80s and their first album since 2016 occupies a timeless zone, sounding both ancient and modern. The core duo of Paul Lake and Dave McLean play all the instruments, and the production, particularly the drum sound, is vivid and full of energy. The title track is, by the band’s admission, somewhat indebted to early Captain Beefheart and that’s evident in the searing lead guitar and ebullient bass. They deliver an impressive Mellotron-heavy cover of The Moody Blues’ tripped-out Legend Of A Mind, and their own material is full of memorable tunes – with its yearning chorus and cheesy organ, The Rubicon sounds like the missing link between early Beatles and Question Mark…

Stunning live document of the Norwegian shamans’ mid-lockdown album launch. Wardruna’s 2021 album Kvitravn deepened the reputation of Einar Selvik’s Norwegian collective as a serious artistic and cultural force. They marked its release with an online show, in which they played the album and selections from their back catalogue. This document of that event shows it was a remarkable achievement in itself. From the loping, incessant title track, this performance is packed with drama. Selvik leads the band’s male and female vocalists – often they’re in thrilling unison, but also branch off on their own melodic paths. For non-speakers of Norwegian, the tones they hit with this beautiful language have a pagan potency. With traditional pipes, strings and drums weaving an eldritch atmosphere, Wardruna’s minor-key music is haunting and unsettling,…

Prog meets glam rock for a rip-snorting good time. Los Angeles madcap Zach Tabori launches himself at the listener for a no-holds-barred musical throwdown with Soft Boiled. Its eight tracks zip by in a blur, but they pack a smörgåsbord of ideas and energy into the brisk listen. Musically, it’s somewhere between Frank Zappa, Jim Steinman, and LA glam rock, with the Zappa influence reinforced by the presence of his onetime associate Tommy Mars on keys. Tabori unleashes a trio of pugnacious rockers with the slamming No Disgrace, the swaggering, Alice Cooper-esque Unchecked Desire and the delightfully demented CLAO. The third has a heavyweight riff, but there’s a freewheeling saxophone solo before Tabori throws in a burst of Turkish folk music, shredding on a traditional lute called a Saz. Get…

From death metal to prog, one song at a time. Jordan Blum, who’s also given the On Track treatment to Dream Theater and Jethro Tull, puts Opeth’s recorded studio output under the microscope with his latest offering. It’s clear that Blum is a big fan, and there’s a tendency to shower superlatives everywhere, although he’s less enamoured of some of the later works – principally Heritage, which he regards as a bold if not wholly successful leap into the unknown for Mikael Åkerfeldt and co. The track-by-track breakdowns might benefit from some music theory, and Blum’s descriptions of the playing can become florid, writing of “fatalistic percussion” or a “peacefully nihilistic bridge”, which are colourful if confusing. The stories behind the makings of the albums are the most compelling sections…

Tim Bowness will drop his seventh, star-studded solo album on June 17 via InsideOut. Mixed and mastered by his No-Man co-member Steven Wilson, Butterfly Mind coincides with Bowness’ 40-year anniversary of being in the music business, and follows his acclaimed 2020 album, Late Night Laments. “I finished Late Night Laments on the day they announced the first lockdown,” he says, “then I didn’t write anything new for eight months. But in October 2020 I wrote the track Lost Player, and that’s where this one really kicked off.” Preceded by first single Always The Stranger, Butterfly Mind sees Bowness on adventurous, avant-garde form, with a core band comprising regular collaborator, guitarist Brian Hulse, bass great Nick Beggs and ex-Elbow drummer Richard Jupp. Guest contributors include Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, VdGG’s Peter…

Rocket 88 have revealed details and pre-order information for Keith Emerson, a lavish upcoming book celebrating the keyboardist’s life and legacy. Veteran music writer Chris Welch has spoken to the late star’s family, friends and colleagues to discuss Emerson’s early life, his rise to fame with The Nice and ELP, right up to The Keith Emerson Band. As well as conducting new interviews with Emerson’s ex-wife and children, Welch also spoke to stars including Carl Palmer, Rick Wakeman, Lee Jackson, Jeff‘Skunk’ Baxter, Geoff Downes and many more. The book will include 200 photographs, many drawn from his family’s private archive. Keith Emerson is due for publication in autumn. The‘classic’ hardback edition will retail at £40, with an augmented‘signature’ edition at £250. Fans wishing to pre-order at a special discount and/or…

AS THE SON of Noëlle and Michel Lalu of 70s French band Polène, Vivien Lalu was born into prog. “It’s true,” he says with a laugh. “When my mother was pregnant with me she was playing a Minimoog onstage, and I guess that was a prenatal influence. Prog was my parents’ life, and it’s mine, too.” Awash with high-profile guests, the third studio album to bear Lalu’s surname, Paint The Sky, marks a radical departure from its predecessors. In fact, Lalu doesn’t seem to mind if readers skip over his 2005 debut, Oniric Metal, and 2013’s Atomic Ark to go straight to his latest release. “They were made a long time ago at a point where I was 22 years old and obsessed with heavy guitars,” he admits. “I see…

PROCOL HARUM “He lit up any room he entered. A brightly shining irreplaceable light in the music industry.” MIKE PORTNOY “Very sad to wake up to the news of the passing of Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker. His voice and piano were such a distinct trademark for the band.” COLIN BLUNSTONE “So very sorry to hear the sad news about Gary Brooker. He was a wonderful artist and a great character. I will never forget seeing his wonderful performances many times over the years.” STEVE HACKETT “We’ve lost another national treasure. His music was groundbreaking.” MARTIN BARRE “I am devastated to hear of the passing of Gary Brooker. I have known him throughout my career, and the highlight for myself was to tour with him, and play amongst other songs A…

From 2112’s infamous starman, through floating brain hemispheres and a kid casually kicking a skull, Hugh Syme has always been on hand to bring Rush’s musical fever dreams to life. Working for years in close conjunction with drummer Neil Peart, Syme’s work became synonymous with the Canadian trio, latterly putting a new, reimagined spin on some of their classic albums. When did you first hear the words ‘Moving Pictures’? I remember exactly where I was: sitting in my friend Gail’s home in St Catharines, Ontario, when Neil called me with the album’s title. I also recall my immediate resolve on the cover’s direction. Which was? Men in red coveralls actually moving pictures. The additional layers and triple entendres would follow. Did you spend much time at Le Studio as the…

“It sounds weird, but when I sang it I felt like I was going somewhere else.” In 1974, Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman, the DJ who had been more readily associated with the Sunday tea-time chart rundown on Radio 1, showed his true prog colours on his Saturday afternoon show. He played blasts of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus to herald a track by “the very royal ELP”, and then championed Camel’s The Snow Goose, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s 10-minute version of Bob Dylan’s Father Of Night, Father Of Day from Solar Fire, and another mini-epic: Mother Russia by Renaissance, from their album A Turn Of The Cards that had been released that May. The song, written by guitarist Michael Dunford and lyricist Betty Thatcher, was based on Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel One Day In…

Affable union of two men old enough to know better. Blues veteran David Thomas and keyboard legend Dave Greenslade play large on their initials on the cover of their first collaborative album, which depicts a lemon wedge plopping into a glass of gin and tonic. G&T is easy going rather than splashy: moving between blues, ballads and hints of prog, it boasts a seasoned band and some well-written material. Thomas has a fine, pure voice, and, although easy to forget by the size of his cuffs in the 70s, Greenslade had been a leading R&B player in the previous decade with Chris Farlowe And The Thunderbirds and Geno Washington. There’s not a huge amount for Greenslade fans to savour here as he’s very much a team player, but there are…

French guitarist mixes melancholic moods and prog metal. Gabriel Keller crafts elegant, melancholic prog rock on his debut album. Although he names The Beatles and Pink Floyd among his influences, Clair Obscur feels closest in spirit and sound to another acknowledged inspiration, Porcupine Tree. Four different singers – Emi B, Charlotte Gagnor, Maïté Merlin, and Marine Poirier – all handle the lead vocals, avoiding the common pitfall of the prog solo songwriter who can’t carry a tune. The opening songs set a sombre mood, with the reflective vibe of Time, Train To Resolution and Open Arms. These tracks wear their prog influences lightly, but there’s a maturity and sophistication to the writing and arrangements that’s immediately appealing. Keller displays his full range as the album unfolds. Melancholia is disarmingly charming,…

Kent collective at the peak of their powers on album three. Few bands spin a yarn like Kaprekar’s Constant. Their 2017 debut, Fate Outsmarts Desire, and its follow-up, Depth Of Field, showed the core duo of Al Nicholson and Nick Jefferson to be skilled storytellers, songwriters and performers, with a taste for history and an evocative way with a lyric. With Van der Graaf sax player David Jackson onboard, and Ian Anderson supplying some spoken word on album two, their prog credentials were assured. “Another inspired, crafted record from this pedigree outfit.” Presented as a continuous, 75-minute piece of music, the septet’s third outing draws on real-life stories of intrepid mountaineers who have taken on the north face of the Eiger, a deadly climb known as ‘The Murder Wall’. Some…

Fabulous jazz fusion from virtuoso US combo. On their second album, instrumental jazz collective, High Pulp utilise their very obvious virtuosity and influences as wide ranging as hip hop, 80s electronica and classic be-bop. The result makes for deceptive listening. On one level there are gorgeous, melodic tunes and hip vibes – see the uber-cool Blaming Mercury or the bubbling, head-nodding groove of Kamishinjo – there’s very little here that’s ugly, discordant or wantonly aggressive. Listen closer, however, and different layers present themselves – the bewildering polyrhythms of Ceremony, where the drums hammer out a hypnotic pattern in fives, yet most of the other instrumentation appears to be in a totally different meter. Playing around with odd times yet making things sound slick and effortless is a trick repeated in…

East European provocateurs lay down their latest aural challenge. Since first traumatising listeners with pounding, militaristic 1985 debut single Die Liebe, the Slovenian experimentalists have subsequently subjected us to bizarre covers (of Queen’s One Vision, The Beatles’ Let It Be album, The Sound Of Music), an uncomfortable obsession with North Korea, camp machismo, totalitarian iconography… Hell’s teeth, they’ve even worn antlers. Three and a half decades on, Wir Sind Das Volk soundtracks an avant-garde stage musical based on the work of dissident playwright and poet Heiner Müller. Wagnerian in scale, sometimes spoken word (auf Deutsch, offensichtlich), at times instrumental, ostentatiously symphonic and keyboard-led, it’s so post-rock that it’s barely rock at all. Familiar Laibach tropes are rare. Singer Milan Fras’ disturbing basso profundo vocal, here set against Der Vater’s jarring…

Post-rock duo return with a broader and fiercer fourth album. As their name suggests, Sweden’s Oh Hiroshima have always brought a magnificently apocalyptic edge to the post-rock landscape. Myriad is the best example yet of their approach, as it finds the band (now a duo) adding darkness and depth to the dazzling template of 2019’s Oscillation. Nour kicks things off with a harsh yet liberating mixture of feedback, vocals, rhythms and horns, placing equal doses of doom metal and baroque rock around its post-rock core. It’s an imaginative introduction that fully sets the stage for what’s to come. Veil Of Certainty sustains the same vibe but with a shade more melody and atmosphere, evoking The Pineapple Thief and Lunatic Soul, whereas Humane delves further into progressive rock levels of instrumental…

Cosmically enhanced introspection from Amplifier man. Sel Balamir is in a reflective mood on his second solo release. Given the enforced insularity of the last two years, it makes sense that many artists have turned their gaze inwards, pondering life and loneliness, as the Amplifier frontman does here. 2021’s Swell was a concept work about the ocean, written as Balamir recovered from Covid, and some of these tunes started life at the same time. Both albums move keys and piano closer to the forefront, although, unlike the undulating Swell, here there are moments touching on Amplifier’s space rock. Theme (From Crocodile Dundee) is a cosmic guitar work-out and Astral Womb has a grungy riff and a trippy fuzz-laden solo.…

Peter Jones continues his journey through the seasons. Following 2017’s In The Depths Of Winter, A Song of Spring is the second seasonally themed Tiger Moth Tales album from prog workaholic Peter Jones. He sings and plays all the instruments, including saxophone and ukulele, on the eight diverse, delightful new musical journeys. There’s a rich seam of overt Big Big Train influences running through the joyful, lifeaf-firming opener Spring Fever, inviting everyone to ‘let the light inside and build your soul’. Elsewhere, a Spanish guitar introduction belies the ensuing darkness of Dance ’Til Death, its swirling melody lurching into moments of delicious madness. Holi offers a brief excursion into an Indian sonic landscape while Jones’ gentle voice shimmers on the piano-led ballad The Goddess And The Green Man. He channels…

The dreamy, free-flowing return of ambient Dev. A single, 50-minute ambient suite, Dreampiece is the sound of Devin Townsend returning to a comfort zone of sorts. This is firmly in the meandering, freeform new age realm that has provided the Canadian with a textural background for nearly all of his work. Free from melody or structure, Dreampiece rolls majestically forward, with spectral chord changes adding occasional shifts in mood, and all enshrouded with more reverb than seems strictly reasonable. Around the 30-minute mark, it seems to mutate from airy, floating reverie to something a little darker and more drone-driven. With shades of Stars Of The Lid and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Townsend’s inescapable musicality begins to rear its head a little more. Thereafter, Dreampiece spirals into the ether and…

Darkness, dread and sinister sounds on Gavin Miller’s ninth. Over 16 years and nine albums as Worriedaboutsatan, Bradford artist Gavin Miller has developed an innovative stripe of highbrow electronica with dark ambient spaces, proggy synth surfaces and metallic, post-rock edges. Fans of Radiohead’s filter/beat noodlings will find much in the avantgarde sounds of Even Temper (2015) and 2020’s Time Lapse, and as he makes music for our century of permacrisis, Bloodsport sees Miller at his most unsettling. “The way things are at the moment,” he has said, “made it difficult to give it a happy soundtrack.” Any cheer here is derived from Miller’s artistry, not the tunes. With a distant bass drum as its heartbeat, Bis Ich Komme spreads like noxious fog, its eerie industrial atmospherics and disembodied voices only…

Even in less nerve-shredding times, Etienne Jaumet and Cosmic Neman’s Zombie Zombie wouldn’t be for everyone. On the French electro duo’s latest release, Vae Vobis (Born Bad), the vocals are sung in Latin and processed by a vocoder, but, as niche as that sounds, it actually works very well. The ‘doomed angel’ choir adds to the medieval mood of the album, but there’s enough invention, krautrock savvy and synth hooks to make numbers such as Dissolutum, Lacrymosa and (now sadly prescient) War Is Coming rock along on the musical margins. Last year English guitarist Rod While offered the highly accomplished set Open The Cage, and he now follows that with Vigil (rodwhile.bandcamp.com). While is a versatile guitarist with a taste for jazz and fusion, and a producer with a golden…

A worthy package from the Family man’s solo catalogue. As with many great vocalists, few would ever accuse former Family frontman Roger Chapman of having a ‘good’ singing voice. But a characterful and unique one, most definitely. It’s not the voice, it’s the delivery. And at 79 it’s still intact. His post-Family output with Streetwalkers then solo has been patchy, some of it too close to alcoholfree pub rock or matt-finish R&B soul. When he does have a good song to dance with, however, the results can impress with real quality, whether that’s via a bar-stool-kicking belter or a candle-lit ballad. Moth To A Flame – The Recordings 1979-1981 brings together Chapman’s first three solo albums, plus 25 bonus tracks drawn from studio outtakes and live recordings. Feet-finding debut Chappo…

Insightful look over the career of modern rock’s greatest visionaries. Radiohead always were closer to Pink Floyd than they’d admit: a band so cushioned by privilege that the dramas that enveloped them always came from within rather than without. A chunk of their career has been spent either agonising interminably over their music or stroppily reacting to the success it brought them. Yet unlike their forebears, the Oxford band’s trials brought them closer together rather than pushed them apart. John Aizlewood’s concise but insightful biography charts their rise from the student unions of 1980s Britain to the lofty art-rock perch on which they currently sit, via such landmark albums as The Bends, Kid A, In Rainbows and 2011’s spectral, underrated The King Of Limbs. Aizlewood isn’t averse to rolling his…

VENUE THE GARAGE, LONDON DATE 25/02/2022 As society was forced in and out of lockdown, we were bombarded with the thought of what the “new normal” would be. It’s still not something we can confidently answer. However, the fact that Nordic Giants – post-rock’s most reliably awe-inspiring live band – are back on the road lends a soothing consistency to this otherwise unpredictable era. Every show follows the same structure: two masked musicians – keyboardist Loki and drummer Rôka – playing blissful instrumentals with short films projected live. It’s a spectacle that’s made them darlings of the avantgarde music world. Such is the loyalty of their following, they even crowdfunded their new album, Symbiosis. At a criminally not-sold-out Garage, the pair seize the stage in shadow. The warhorn from Planet…

The great and good of progressive music give us a glimpse into their prog worlds. Where’s home? Usually my studio in Larvik, Norway, but preferably a pub in Edinburgh – my favourite place to travel. What’s your earliest prog memory? When I was nine a teacher introduced me to Led Zeppelin, later I got into The Beatles and Iron Maiden – I went on to play guitar for Paul Di’Anno [Maiden’s original vocalist]. I know those bands aren’t ‘pure prog’, but they were all pretty proggy. What’s the first prog album you bought? Fragile by Yes, in the early 90s when I really got into prog and jazz fusion. And the last? Caligonaut’s Magnified As Giants, on vinyl. They’re a Norwegian band, this is their debut and I’m a huge…