Table of contents for Issue 137 in Prog

Discovering Boasting an eclectic catalogue of more than 240 releases since its creation in 2009, Berlin-based Pelagic Records have become one of the top labels exploring the musical twilight zone between post-rock, experimental heavy music, progressive metal and heavy krautrock. Founded by The Ocean’s Robin Staps, Pelagic Records have pursued their very own path by swimming along with the growing digital market while also creating outstanding physical album packages. They have a strong focus on vinyl and spectacular conceptual box sets, some of which have even contained silvered wild boar tusks and authentic prehistoric fossils. Their roster continues to grow. “With no indication of slowing down, this positively prolific label is churning out stellar release after stellar release.” – Roadburn How to download your free digital sampler from Pelagic Scan…

“This was deliberately written as a darker, more punchy album.” Coming just a year after their 2022 LP The Zealot Gene, Jethro Tull will release their 23rd studio album on April 21. Available on InsideOut, the album is called Rökflöte, and while those two umlauts mean it should be pronounced (roughly) ‘Rerk-Flirt’, Ian Anderson tells Prog he’s not precious about it. “I’m well aware that most people are just going to say‘Rock Flute’,” he remarks, “and indeed that was the working title of the album since I started on it – at 9am on January 1, 2022, as I tend to do with new projects. “I knew it would be an album with heavier guitars and things that would be more described as‘rock music’ rather than‘folk rock’ or whatever. It…

English art-pop trio Exploring Birdsong are looking to continue their upwards trajectory with their new EP, Dancing In The Face of Danger, set for release on March 24 through Long Branch Records. The record follows the piano-led group’s highly promising debut EP, The Thing With Feathers, which was released in 2019. The follow-up features a track that was the subject of a songwriting workshop with none other than Sir Paul McCartney, while the trio were studying at the Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts. Said song, Ever The Optimist, was released in November as a single, and is one of the poppiest pieces the band have created to date. Bassist/synth player Jonny Knight tells Prog: “One of the big differences this time round is that the process of making the EP…

Brit proggers Rain have just released their second album, Radio Silence, through Giant Electric Pea. The band features drummer Andy Edwards (ex-IQ, Frost*) and bassist John Jowitt (also ex-IQ), along with Rob Groucutt (keys/vocals) and Mirron Webb (guitar/vocals, formerly of Hey Jester). The new album is the follow-up to the fourpiece’s well-received debut, 2020’s Singularity, and sees them develop their sound on a number of levels. As Edwards enthusiastically tells Prog, “It’s everything: it’s heavier, it’s louder, it’s more expansive. It’s just a much bigger production all round.” Explaining how Radio Silence differs from their debut, Edwards says that, whereas the first was made during lockdown, with the band confined to their own homes and home studios, “this one has been done in full, big recording studios, so that all…

 “IT WAS THE greatest moment of my life, except for the birth of my son,” Rasmus Sjøgren tells Prog, remembering the email he received back in 2020. The Copenhagen-based songwriter is recalling the moment when he asked Porcupine Tree/The Pineapple Thief/King Crimson percussion maestro Gavin Harrison to play on one of Celestial Son’s latest tracks. The composition in question, Fakir, is a brooding synthwave meditation recalling Depeche Mode at their most malevolent, which breaks down into a more nervous rhythmic stutter before building to a powerful polyrhythmic crescendo thanks to the guest player’s contribution. Harrison would end up contributing to four of the 11 tracks on current album Planetaria, all thanks to a shared acquaintance – visual artist and longtime Steven Wilson collaborator Lasse Hoile. Sjøgren’s fellow Dane has made…

GIVEN THE PEDIGREE of former World Of Twist guitarist and Earl Brutus mainstay Gordon King, The Dials’ keyboardist Andy Taylor and sci-fi buff Neil Williams, it should come as little surprise that Quatermass III started life in the pub. “Neil had gone to the toilet and Andy said, ‘I think he’d be a really good frontman’,” recalls King. “We’d never heard him sing or anything like that. And I thought, yeah, he would be, wouldn’t he?” “The three of us used to go to loads of gigs together,” Taylor explains. “And then it was that kind of idea of, let’s get a band together. Gordon can play guitar, and I’ll play a keyboard and Neil can sing. And we had no idea whether or not Neil could actually sing, but…

To move forwards we must sometimes look over our shoulders. During the preparation of his latest solo album, A Gallery Of The Imagination, Rick Wakeman found himself dwelling upon a piece of advice offered almost a lifetime ago by his first piano teacher. Evolving into adulthood, many of us are fortunate to meet their own counterpart of the lady known as Mrs Symes; somebody astute and caring enough to spot an early glimmer of inspiration, gently moulding that promise into a talent that becomes a career. Symes taught Wakeman from the age of five until he enrolled at the Royal College Of Music 14 years later, his heart set on becoming a concert pianist – though that plan changed a little, of course. “Mrs Symes was so sought-after as a…

A glittering model of progressive intent, Elder have steadily outgrown their early affiliation with the stoner rock and doom metal scenes. Singer/guitarist Nick DiSalvo, who upped sticks and relocated to Berlin a decade ago, has always written songs that aimed higher and wider than the Sabbathinfluenced average. But by the time his band released their fifth album, Omens, in 2020, their transformation into a full-blown progressive force was complete. Unfortunately, April 2020 was a fairly terrible time to be releasing a new record. Denied touring opportunities, DiSalvo set about writing the next Elder record instead. “I’m lucky in that I was able to work from home during the pandemic,” he recalls. “I had plenty of time to sit with my instrument, and we didn’t really know when the next time…

Dallas may not be synonymous with jazz in the same way as New Orleans or New York but, on recent evidence, it’s getting there. Snarky Puppy’s 15th album, Empire Central, is a celebration of the third-largest city in Texas – also the place where it all began for bassist and founder Michael League, who’s led the progressive jazz-funk collective through thick and thin since 2004. “So many formative musical experiences in my life happened in Dallas,” says League, on a Zoom call from his new home just outside Barcelona. “The more I did my research, the more I realised that Texas has birthed a disproportionately large number of musical innovators, especially over the last few decades: Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, Jason Moran, Eric Harland, Kendrick Scott, Erykah Badu, Norah Jones…”…

From the outside looking in, Russian Circles’ seventh studio album, Blood Year, was a rapturous moment. The trio had spent 15 years at the pinnacle of the post-rock genre by the time it came out in August 2019, and it both honoured their time-tested conventions – looping riffs, fragile melodies, crescendoing song structures – and pushed them into new realms of angular prog metal. Plus, they played ArcTanGent and toured countries as far flung as Japan off the back of it. For any other band, Blood Year would be a symbol of triumph. However, guitarist Mike Sullivan is far from jubilant when reflecting on it. “It’s not my favourite record of ours,” he tells Prog over Zoom. “I don’t know if I should say that. Usually, when you release a…

prog.reviews@futurenet.com The only problem with successfully scaling an epic peak is deciding what the next challenge should be. That’s the dilemma Haken faced after delivering the ambitious, expansive and breathlessly complex one-two of 2018’s Vector album and its 2020 sequel Virus. However, as singer Ross Jennings observes during The Alphabet Of Me, one of the standout tracks on the British band’s seventh album, ‘It’s time to wake up and die or regenerate’ – and regenerate is what Haken appear to have done with Fauna. Which isn’t to say this is a complete overhaul of who Haken are. Rather, Fauna marshals many of the elements that make them so eminent among their peers while simultaneously reaching for even greater stylistic diversity and sound combinations. Add to this the departure of longtime…

The Bath Forum Concert ESOTERIC There are some groups whose live sets feature near-perfect reproductions of their studio recordings with every note and beat neatly in place, everything presented just as you heard it on the album. That’s never been the Van der Graaf Generator way, then or now. In trio formation, they’ve become even more angular and combative than usual. This setlist, featuring both venerable and newer material, isn’t there to be revered but experimented upon, probed and interrogated in order to reveal new revelations. “The austere presentation suits the music well.” The Bath Forum Concert captures the trio on their last UK date before they decamped to Europe, where Peter Hammill fell seriously ill, resulting in the remaining tour dates being cancelled. In spite of that, this live…

Universal Migrator, Parts I & II MUSIC THEORIES RECORDINGS/MASCOT LABEL GROUP Following up his breakthrough release, 1998’s Into The Electric Castle, Dutch Arjen Lucassen toyed with different ways of continuing his “Ayreon Universe” saga. In the end, he settled on the idea of a two-album sequel to 1995’s The which would explore beyond) through the eyes of humanity’s last survivor in The Dream Sequencer, protagonist on a journey through time and space. Telling these epic tales via two different but related albums, utilising the expected wide cast of top-notch singers, was Lucassen’s way of acknowledging what he believed was a dichotomy in his fanbase – the “prog fans” and the “metal fans”. Thus, first album, subtitled The Dream is geared far more towards classic 70s prog, folk, hard rock and…

Another Fork In The Road – 50 Years Of Kansas INSIDEOUT Nothing if not thorough, this three-disc, 41-song collection spans the entirety of Kansas’ career, presented in reverse chronological order. Disc one begins with the 2022 version of Can I Tell You, featuring Ronnie Platt rather than Steve Walsh on vocals. The tracks taken from Kansas’ recent albums with Platt, 2020’s The Absence Of Presence and 2016’s The Prelude Implicit, mark a late-career return to form. The writing is strong, the production modern but not distractingly so, and Platt brings passion and energy to songs like Throwing Mountains and The Voyage Of Eight Eighteen. Radio favourite Dust In The Wind appears not in the original studio version; instead it’s the performance with the London Symphony Orchestra from 1998’s Always Never…

IQ VENUE 229 THE VENUE, LONDON DATE 09/12/2022 No self-respecting progger’s Yuletide would be complete without Greg Lake’s I Believe In Father Christmas or The Legendary IQ Christmas Bash. Tonight’s festivities commence by combining the two. The familiar melody from Lake’s perennial classic, Prokofiev’s Troika, soundtracks the now traditional opening video animation. This year’s visual offering depicts a nativity scene visited by six wise purple elephants and the band members reimagined as miniature gurning terpsichorean vegetables. Don’t ask. Just pour yourself an eggnog, banish the purple pachyderms from your mind and succumb to the perverse and wonderful world of IQ.Who else would dare kick off a Christmas party with a wake? The title track from their most celebrated album is usually saved for much later in the set or as…

Follow us on twitter.com/progmagazineUK CECILIA FAGE @ccfage A beautiful day blowing away the cobwebs, made even better by seeing an Aero L-39 Albatros from Blackpool Airport circling over the coast. SEÁN ONO LENNON @seanonolennon I discovered this song playing in a small health food store in Occidental. I knew it wasn’t the radio so I asked this old hippie working the counter what it was. He said, ‘Peter Hammill, from Van Der Graaf Generator’s solo album,’ like I was a moron… STEVE HACKETT @HackettOfficial Devastating news about the loss of much loved, influential guitar legend Jeff Beck. He made the electric guitar sing… a powerful influence on myself and many others. J. WILLGOOSE, ESQ. @JWillgoose_Esq I’m not saying I’m old (pt 94) but I went to a birthday the other…

Soft Machine are putting the finishing touches to their new album, which is scheduled for a summer release. The title is yet to be revealed, but it will be the follow-up to 2018’s Hidden Details, and features guitarist John Etheridge, Theo Travis (sax, flute, keys), new bassist Fred T Baker (who took over in 2021 following Roy Babbington’s departure) and the Softs’ stalwart drummer, John Marshall. However, the new album marks the end of an era: having first joined the group in 1972, Marshall has decided that this recording will be his last, following his decision to retire at the age of 81. Replacing him is Israeli-born drummer and composer, Asaf Sirkis, who Bill Bruford once described as “a master of creative surprise”. A longtime fan of the group, Sirkis…

Peter Gabriel has broken the silence, with news of his first studio album of original material in 21 years. As Prog went to press there was no release date for i/o, but the first single, Panopticom, appeared on digital platforms on January 6. Further announcements are due to be made monthly, to coincide – fittingly – with the lunar cycle. Gabriel says that the single “is based on an idea I have been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe: The Panopticom. We are beginning to connect a like-minded group of people who might be able to bring this to life, to allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on.” The pioneering British artist has told fans that…

Billy Sherwood’s all-star project The Prog Collective is back with a new, all-original album. Out now on Cleopatra Records, Seeking Peace features cameos from an array of talent from the prog scene, including Dream Theater’s James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess, guitar greats Steve Hillage and Steve Morse, Yes keyboardists Geoff Downes and Patrick Moraz, and Zappa drummer Chester Thompson. “These guys always take what I’ve done to a whole other level,” Sherwood tells Prog, “which is why the project stands out as different to anything else I’ve done, especially as there’s original material involved. The beauty of this is in the level of musicianship and artistry that comes from each individual. There’s a trust that I have with all these guys.” The record is the Prog Collective’s first album of solely…

FEATHERS & FLESH (Entertainment One, 2016) Avatar are not your garden-variety death metal band – there’s a strong whiff of prog to what they do as well. Ever since the Gothenburg quintet shattered the glass ceiling of the heavy music underground with their fourth album, 2012’s Black Waltz, their niche has been in imbuing the obligatory roars and riffs with twanging country guitars, electronica and an uncanny ‘jester’ aesthetic. Reviewing that album on its release for Metal Hammer, Prog’s very own deputy editor Natasha Scharf remarked on how singer Johannes Eckerström’s flamboyance evoked the presence of one Devin Townsend. She even called the nine-minute-long closer Use Your Tongue – which plummets from harmonica solos to crashing metal chords – a “quirky, progressive finale that’s pure genius”. That overt weirdness was…

They’ve sold more than 55 million albums worldwide since their inception in the 70s and now Alan Parsons Project’s studio records have been collated into The Complete Albums Collection. This month, we have a copy of this limited edition 11-LP box set to give away to one lucky reader. Curated by Alan Parsons and the Woolfson family, the deluxe set includes full-length remasters of some of the group’s best-loved records including Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, Eve and Eye In The Sky, as well as The Sicilian Defence, which is available for the very first time on vinyl. It’s packaged in a hard outer box and also contains a 60-page hardback book packed with lyrics and new sleeve notes as well as an essay from Abbey Road Studios’ Miles Showell,…

Mariusz Duda grins ruefully over a video call from his Warsaw studio as he explains the series of creative diversions he’s made over the past four and a half years from the band he made his name with. “Maybe I should admit: I was tired of Riverside’s music. I was tired of this formula. I was tired of being in this kind of rock band.” Enter stage left something of a blessing in disguise, for him anyway: a global pandemic. “When lockdown happened, I was grateful, I was happy,” he says. “It meant I could stay home, simply stop touring and be with my family. And then I also had the chance to finish the most recent Lunatic Soul record and focus on different projects – something very different from…

Katatonia have always been a serpentine band. With each new album, they shed their skin to unveil an evolving creature underneath. It’s something that’s earned them countless accolades as they’ve grown from death metal upstarts to cinematic, prog rock veterans. Despite their progressive evolution, however, the Swedes, who celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2021, have always kept a shroud of darkness overhead. What makes their 12th album, Sky Void Of Stars, so intriguing then, is that those shadows now seem to be dissipating. The masters of melancholia have never sounded as upbeat and hopeful as they do here. Just don’t call it a happy album. “The album is very energetic and uptempo for us,” admits vocalist Jonas Renkse. “It’s straight to the point, but I wouldn’t say it’s a happy…

“In 1972, Klaus and I weren’t thinking about the future beyond maybe a span of several months. I would never have thought we’d be talking about Neu! 50 years later.” It’s December 1974 and silence reigns inside Conny Plank’s studio in Cologne. Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger – the duo who comprise Neu! – are locked in a battle of wills. They’ve been sitting here for five or six hours now, with neither prepared to give in. They’re midway through sessions for their third album, Neu! 75, and Rother is aggrieved that Dinger has reneged on a deal they’d struck beforehand. “Klaus had suggested we record the album with two drummers: Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe,” explains guitarist Rother. “But I only wanted to record with just him and me.…

“Even though this is our eighth album, we think of it as our killer second album that we never made.”Dean Marsh We take our music seriously. We’re not a novelty act and “We anybody who has heard any of our songs will know that,” says Gandalf’s Fist’s multi-instrumentalist Dean Marsh, in a robust defence of the notion that the band’s name could be off-putting to the uninitiated. “We’re all about enjoyingourselves. I think once things have been around for a while, the weirdness of names tends to rub off anyway. To me, there’s nothing sillier than an overly serious band name. So, let’s have more bands with names like Spock’s Beard, The Pineapple Thief, Gandalf’s Fist and Porcupine Tree.” As with Porcupine Tree and even The Dukes Of Stratosphear, Gandalf’s…

“I saw something that made me I decide that I couldn’t eat anything with eyes anymore,” begins Kitten Pyramid’s founder and mainman, Scott Milligan. “I saw an abattoir truck and wondered what it would be like if my family were in there rather than the animals.” This was the inspiration behind experimental pop-prog band Kitten Pyramid’s current album, Kiddo. Psychedelic and exhilarating, this new collection of songs features a cause close to Milligan’s heart: vegetarianism. “I’d been eating meat for most of my 50 years,” he states, “but I thought this story could really help those off the fence about whether to stop eating meat again.” Released at the end of 2022, the album was followed by a short companion film to celebrate the 175th birthday of the Vegetarian Society. Making…

The Architect INSIDEOUT When Simon Collins and guitarist Kelly Nordstrom joined forces for Sound Of Contact’s only record in 2013, their chemistry was magic. Many have longed for a follow-up, and while this is far from the same aesthetic, it shows just how well-suited for one another the pair are. Far more freewheeling, and with no external influences muddying their waters, The Architect can shine as the ambitious and immersive concept record that it is. “A compelling prog metal record peppered with digital effects.” Written and recorded in Collins’ home studio in Ireland, its story centres around the science of emotion. It also explores what these two musicians can offer each other, with Nordstrom’s abrasive but intelligent prog metal and Collins’ penchant for vocal hooks and electronic soundscapes colliding, resulting…

A Gallery Of The Imagination MADFISH “Everywhere you go, candyfloss and ice cream,” sings Hayley Sanderson on A Day Spent On The Pier, a sweet tune on the new, decidedly ungrumpy Wakeman album. ‘Mussels in their shells, fish and chips in paper…’ We’re a long, long way from The Red Planet. Brighton and Clacton, to be precise, as Rick remembers childhood hols. If it’s the full-prog, extra-keyboards flavours of his 2020 Mars-inspired album you’re after, this eclectic, very pleasant set may not tickle your undercarriage. It’s generally softer, more melodic and romantic. “This is a record to be enjoyed on its own terms.” Yet it’s not lacking in diversity. The loose concept behind it – very loose – is that the tracks essay different styles just as there can be many…

Eclipse & Fifth Element ESOTERIC Never achieving the prominence of such contemporaries as Genesis, Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant, Jade Warrior released a number of albums that drew on eclectic influences spanning folk, psychedelia, African rhythms, Latin grooves and spiky avant-garde jazz fusion. Originally a trio of Tony Duhig on guitar, Glyn Havard (bass/vocals) and Jon Field (percussion/woodwind) but officially adding drummer Allan Price, a follow-up to 1972’s Last Autumn’s Dream, producing a mountain of material, which they envisaged might they were then stymied by their label, Vertigo, who refused to release any of it. Split into two separate albums, Eclipse and Fifth Element didn’t see the light of day until 1998 when they were released by a small independent label. Now remastered from the original tapes, they provide a…

The Apprentice ESOTERIC If 1990’s The Apprentice was a landmark for John Martyn, it was primarily because Island Records’ rejection of it even after he had re-recorded it at his own expense marked the end of his two-decade tenure at the label. With hindsight, it’s hard to fathom why they passed on a record later seen as a return to form after some decidedly uneven 80s output, but John Hillarby’s liner notes for this three-CD plus DVD clamshell box reissues are revealing. Apparently, the label had designs on re-styling Martyn as the next Chris Rea – a fool’s errand, really, given his notorious recalcitrance and reputation as a stylistic moving target. “The album smacks of his new optimism at that point.” Aged almost 40, and entering a period of brief,…

The Turn Of A Friendly Card ESOTERIC To listen once again to The Turn Of A Friendly Card – the fifth album from the studio-based outfit that was The Alan Parsons Project – is to be reminded of the days when big album releases were served by primetime television adverts when only three channels existed. Slowly but surely, that motif from the title track, alongside the album cover image of the King of Diamonds framed within a stained glass window, would weave its way out of the nation’s primitive televisions and ultimately onto the hi-fi systems that were clearly targeted by erstwhile Beatles and Pink Floyd engineer Alan Parsons and musical partner/manager Eric Woolfson. “The opulence of Monte Carlo is translated into a smoothly rich sound.” All of which is…

Heavy and heady post-metal outfit The Ocean will soon release what they’re billing as“the closing chapter” of their“palaeontology-inspired series”. Holocene is due on May 19 via Pelagic, the influential label the band founded. The record (their 10th) is the follow-up to their acclaimed 2020 work, Phanerozoic II, and the new release takes its name from the last track of its predecessor. The word ‘holocene’ relates to our planet’s present geological era, and guitarist Robin Staps says the album’s about“the angst, alienation, loss of reason, and critical thinking, rise of conspiracy theories and deconstruction of values in the modern age.” Guest vocals come from Norwegian singer Karin Parks on the track Unconformities, with other titles including Preboreal, Parabiosis and Subatlantic. This time, the band have brought in some brass too. “I’ve…

THE SELF-INDULGENCE OF many so-called lockdown albums has been all too much to bear, though thankfully Aiming For Enrike are here to show us how it should be done. The eccentric Norwegian duo have taken the liminality and the mundanity of that difficult time period and turned it into something pristine, artistic and futuristic. Their fifth studio album Empty Airports is a nod to Brian Eno, their twist on 1978’s utilitarian Ambient 1: Music For Airports in keeping with our dystopian times. “I think the title has many aspects to it that describe the times we were in,” says guitarist Simen Følstad Nilsen. “The airports were empty. And then the title track itself sounds like it could be performed in an empty airport with a big reverb sound. And also,…

“I know Henry was a very naughty boy, but some of the wives were too. It was wonderfully rock’n’roll.” In 1973, at the age of 24, Rick Wakeman was among the biggest stars in the world of rock music. As a member of Yes, whose fifth album, Close To The Edge, had become a creative and commercial triumph, the classically trained keyboard wizard had paid his dues as a session player, put in the hard miles on the road and stood on the precipice of superstardom. Created against all the odds, his first solo record, The Six Wives Of Henry VIII, was the statement that made him a household name. (Let’s overlook Piano Vibrations, an eminently forgettable 10-song set made by Wakeman for Polydor in ’71 that didn’t even feature…

“We’d all like to think that our better rock groups ‘compose’, but Crimson sort of scuffles for its music.”Bill Bruford Significant moments in musical history sometimes happen in the most humble of locations. Moles club in the city of Bath was the unlikely crucible from which an entirely new King Crimson poured forth. Robert Fripp had previously performed in the tiny basement dive with his most recent outfit, The League Of Gentlemen, and decided that the postage-stamp-sized performance area would be the perfect launchpad. Though they would change their name to King Crimson a couple of months later, Discipline, as they were then known, were scheduled for two gigs in April/May 1981. Capacity audiences cheered Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford as they made their way to their…

On the surface, the latest album from Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso is every bit as extravagant, flamboyant and artful as expected. The Italians’ 16th studio release, Orlando: Le Forme Dell’Amore is based on an epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto. First published in its complete form in 1532, Orlando Furioso tells a story of love, chivalry and war across an impressive 46 cantos, and has long been regarded as one of the most influential and culturally significant poems in Italy’s history. For a band like Banco, for whom concept albums and elaborate reinterpretations of literary works are second nature, Ariosto’s poem could hardly have been more perfect. But as founder and keyboard maestro Vittorio Nocenzi tells Prog (with translation help provided by Vittorio’s son Mario), Orlando Furioso is no cobwebbed curio…

Surely there’s a book to be written about the long relationship between progressive music and the paranormal? And when it’s finally penned, Fenella’s latest album deserves a highly honourable mention. The trio, formed by alt-folk-turned-warped-pop songwriter Jane Weaver and her longtime musical lieutenants Pete Philipson and Raz Ullah, have followed 2019’s debut Fehérlófia (itself a bewitching affair, soundtracking a Hungarian fantasy animation from 1981) with The Metallic Index, inspired by the true story of a London woman who apparently had mysterious psychic powers. It’s a captivating, immersive listen that sounds like it could have been made pretty much at any point in the last 50 years – possibly because the group are not only influenced by vintage ambient electronica, but also had access to a veritable treasure trove of analogue…

Much like a hare darting around a misty field in the pale dawn light, Todd Rundgren can be incredibly difficult to pin down. Ever since his earliest days in the late 60s as guitarist of the Yardbirds-influenced psych rockers the Nazz, Rundgren has rarely hung around in one particular musical corner for too long. A naturally curious musician and autodidact intrigued to see what the form can offer, he’s spent most of his career effortlessly slipping in and out of various genres that have included power pop, garage rock, electronic music and, of course, prog with his former band Utopia. But there’s so much more to Todd Rundgren. By his own admission, rock stardom came to him by accident and he soon rejected the attention that was afforded him. Eschewing…

The Final Flight: Live At L’Olympia INSIDEOUT There was something about Transatlantic’s 2021 performances that felt like special events, largely because they’re a band that only seem to get together roughly once a decade. Add to that the extra wait imposed by the pandemic, and the ever-nagging fear that they may not end up reconvening again at all, and the final show of the 2022 tour, recorded and presented here in full, seems even more of a momentous occasion. “It seems even more of a momentous occasion.” “Can you handle a three-hour show?” asks Mike Portnoy, before quipping: “Well, we can’t.” It seems he may only be half-joking, as Roine Stolt also admitted recently: “Now that I am getting slightly older, I was a little worried about playing for that…

The Sinking Of The Titanic SUPERIOR VIADUCT Lauded for his many achievements since leaving Roxy Music in 1973, the founding of his Obscure Records label in 1975 was surely among Brian Eno’s very best endeavours. On the back of the surprise success of Fripp & Eno’s No Pussyfooting and his own flourishing solo career, he persuaded Islands Records to provide a specialist Eno-run outlet for some of the academia-based experimental music practitioners in the UK and beyond. “Bryars’ score lacks any mawkish sentimentality.” Eno’s involvement in curating the series on a budget label was crucial to its success, creating as it did a bridge over which curious rock fans could gingerly reason that if Eno liked this weird stuff then it must be okay. His knack for picking composers whose…

Aphelion (Tour Edition) INSIDEOUT From their early days as precocious prog revisionists to their current status as one of the most fascinating and original bands on the planet, Leprous have yet to put a foot wrong. First released in 2021, a full two decades after the band formed as teenagers in Norway, Aphelion is their seventh full-length and their most radical. An explosion of eclectic ideas and sumptuous arrangements, it felt less claustrophobic than 2019’s Pitfalls, as chief songwriter and frontman Einar Solberg’s art-pop sensibilities ran wild and free. Intense rather than heavy, angsty opener Running Low and the infectious new wave clatter of The Shadow Side gave Solberg’s mesmerising voice a more diverse backdrop than ever before. The haunting All The Moments and crestfallen electro-ballad On Hold are the…

Journeys Out Of The Body/Beyond The Dream/Japanese Butterfly REPERTOIRE Steve Jolliffe could be forgiven for sighing at always being identified by his brief, opinion-dividing gig as singer and multi-instrumentalist on Tangerine Dream’s 1978 album Cyclone. Not only had Jolliffe been part of a very early incarnation of that band, as well as blues rockers Steamhammer, but he’s recorded over 50 solo albums, though many have slipped under the radar. Journeys Out Of The Body, from 1983, was conceived as an exploration of other dimensions. Jolliffe’s keyboards and flute, and Jade Warrior guitarist Tony Duhig’s keening fuzz tones, weave from gentle locomotive to high velocity on Middle Dream State. The highlight is the 22-minute unreleased track Third Reality. With its imaginative sequencer sections punctuated by brooding still life interludes, and Duhig’s…

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Where’s home? Sunrise, Florida. It’s just west of Fort Lauderdale. Earliest prog memory? My dad loved Days Of Future Passed by The Moody Blues, so I heard that a lot when I was about seven years old. First prog album you bought? Either Kansas’ Leftoverture or Styx’s The Grand Illusion, when I was 12. I used to go to a record store called Spec’s Music in the local Sears Mall. And the last? Porcupine Tree’s Closure/Continuation. Perhaps some fans expected it to be more like their previous albums, but I listen with fresh ears and find it to be very memorable and interesting. Sometimes Steven’s lyrics are a little dark for my tastes but I still love the sounds I’m hearing. First prog gig? My dad took me to my…