Table of contents for Issue 102 in Prog

Leprous are describing Pitfalls as their “most controversial album so far”. The nine-track, which will be released via InsideOut on October 25, is a melting pot of avant-garde, jazz, trip hop, modern progressive rock and spinetingling vocal harmonies, made even more powerful by singer-songwriter Einar Solberg’s personal lyrics. “I wrote [opener] Below on the piano right before the biggest period of anxiety and depression that I’ve had in my life. I’ve never opened up publicly about personal things before but I could feel that something was wrong and it was a very spontaneous song,” he reveals. “It’s a very versatile album and you don’t know what’s coming round the next corner which, in a way, represents the uncontrollable nature of anxiety and depression.” Solberg used the songs both to chronicle and…

Bent Knee’s You Know What They Mean arrives on October 11 via InsideOut, marking a complete change of approach and a resulting new edginess, says sound designer Vince Welch. “This was the first album that we wrote in the studio, starting every song from scratch together,” he tells Prog. “Since [2014’s] Shiny Eyed Babies, we’ve been using a demo based approach. Writing together from scratch wound up being quite a bit different from the kinds of ideas people would come up with on their own. It’s the simplest record we’ve ever made musically, but also possibly the strangest.” He describes the results as “angrier” and “more aggressive” than previous outings, reflecting, “Heavy material is basically the easiest thing for all six of us to agree upon. Naturally, when you have a…

Voyager celebrate signing to Season Of Mist with the release of Colours In The Sun on November 1. “We’ve been on a bit of a journey over the last three albums but the new material is the most Voyager-sounding yet,” says guitarist Simone Dow. “It’s a real mix of pop, synthwave and heavy riffs, and we’re really proud of it. It has a very colourful sound and we wanted to represent that through the cover artwork as well. Ash [Doodkorte, drums] composed it from shots of sunsets in Perth.” The vibrant 10-track merges the Perth band’s wide array of influences from 80s pop and 90s electronic dance to djent, psych and 70s prog. “The single Colours In The Sun was actually influenced by Steve Winwood – that’s where Danny [Estrin,…

DIGITAL ELECTRONIUM The Electronium was an early synthesiser designed to generate “instant compositions”, and consisted of a mass of buttons set into a colossal wooden unit. It was created by electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott over the course of 11 years and paid for, improbably, by Motown Records. Only one non-functioning unit survives but artist Yuri Suzuki has recreated it as software, using cuttingedge artificial intelligence to realise Scott’s dream. It’s just as confusing as the original but hey, at least it works. www.yurisuzuki.com FOLDING GUITAR Travelling musicians may have had the experience of putting a guitar into the hold of an aircraft and arriving at their destination to find the instrument snapped in two. Many attempts have been made over the years to solve this problem — cutting-edge flight…

Sure, the record-breaking, multi-award-winning West End/Broadway musical isn’t the kind of thing people would generally think of as prog with its wizards, witches, potions, time travel, transfiguration and… oh, hang on! Okay, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child might be somewhat prog-friendly on paper, but the most prog aspect of all, which has gone largely unremarked upon as such, is Imogen Heap’s expansive score. It’s one thing to be Olivier-nominated for her Outstanding Achievement In Music, but why hasn’t the world noticed how blatantly and blissfully prog Heap’s Cursed Child soundtrack album is? It makes Rick Wakeman’s lavish Journey To The Centre Of The Earth sound only a little bit prog. Heap’s Harry is prog in excelsis. For starters, it’s presented in four suites, which, reflecting the play’s narrative arc,…

Long Distance Calling release their first live album Stummfilm — Live From Hamburg on November 1 via InsideOut. The 14-track was recorded earlier in the year and is available on triple vinyl, digital, and limited edition Blu-ray/double CD. Damian Wilson (left) is celebrating his 50th birthday with the release of the Thank You EP on October 11. The singer-songwriter’s European autumn tour will also include three full band gigs featuring members of Ayreon and Within Temptation. Chasing The Monsoon’s debut No Ordinary World is out via Immrama/Plane Groovy on September 20. The project includes Karnataka’s Ian Jones and former vocalist Lisa Fury, Nightwish piper Troy Donockley and producer Steve Evans (Goldfrapp). Enochian Theory leader Ben Harris-Hayes releases his delayed solo recordings via Progressive Gears on October 25. Oceanica’s OneDark is…

“The songs came out really quickly; there was nothing premeditated and we weren’t overthinking.” YOU MAY KNOW Brett Kull as the guitarist with Philadelphia proggers Echolyn, but his latest musical venture finds him partnering with songwriter, classical composer, author and playwright Jeremy ‘JD’ Beck. The pair first collaborated in 2008 when Kull produced an album for Beck’s band The Scenic Route, and Beck then appeared on Kull’s 2017 solo album, Open Skies Exploding. When Echolyn decided to take a breather, a window of opportunity arose for the pair to create a brand new project. “Jeremy brought something to my songs that I would not normally do,” Kull explains on the pair’s newly released, self-titled debut, which was written and recorded over 12 months. “After Open Skies Exploding, I knew I…

It’s always good for a band like Camel to look back at landmark moments that have helped to define their career. And certainly the two shows at the Royal Albert Hall – in 1975 and 2018 – being celebrated in this issue of Prog (see page 40) were crucial to them. However, founder member Andrew Latimer is not someone to dwell on the past. Inevitably, the guitarist/vocalist wants to look to the future and what it might hold. This autumn sees the release of live DVD/Blu-ray Camel At The Royal Albert Hall, a cinematic document of the results of a spectacular comeback for the band, in spite of Latimer’s past health issues and a testament to the love from their fanbase. We grabbed put it onto an album. Until or…

“I remember Ian Carr talking about the sort of band he wanted Nucleus to be: it had to be different from what he’d been doing before and different from the norm in jazz terms.”John Marshall “He could rub people up the wrong way a little bit sometimes but he must be one of the most courageous and the bravest people I’ve ever met,” says Soft Machine drummer and ex-Nucleus member John Marshall, discussing the work and legacy of trumpeter Ian Carr who founded the pioneering jazz rock outfit, Nucleus, in 1969. Between 1970 and 1975, no fewer than nine albums, including a Carr solo record, were released on the Vertigo label. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the band’s formation, they have been remastered and gathered together as Torrid Zone,…

“Everyone was saying it’s great, it’s gonna do well, but it got no radio play… story of my life, really.” Tony Banks is recounting a familiar tale about one of the seven solo albums he released between 1979 and 1995 – commercially neglected but often creatively vibrant affairs that have now been collected in Banks Vaults along with a collection of their promo videos. “The last album barely even saw the light of day – I’ve still got a lot of the copies here. And that’s one reason I’m glad to have it all in a box set. Also, people know about Genesis but they don’t always know that many of the early sounds were down to me, so I wanted another chance to show people my own stuff for…

After a six-week stint of touring last summer, Chelsea Wolfe got on the floor and lay down for 20 minutes. Drained and spent, the lines for new song The Mother Road came into her mind: ‘Guess I needed something to break me/Guess I needed something to shake me up.’ “I felt very broken at the end of that particular six weeks,” she recalls. “If my life was just easy and boring, I wouldn’t have anything to write about. But when I keep pushing myself to do more and do better, I reach a breaking point, and when I get past that breaking point I make work that’s halfway decent or that people can connect to.” It’s not the most sustainable of philosophies. To counteract the energy she was expending and…

Jenny Hval’s seventh album, The Practice Of Love, finds her continuing that most intriguing of prog quests: asking questions about the human condition through fiction and semi-fiction. This time, these questions asked are from the perspectives of older versions of characters from her previous albums. And she’s not worried if she doesn’t come up with any answers. Hval has a fascination for how sounds, and even frequencies, can be harnessed to express feelings, and so her musical output is best consumed open-minded. Those of a certain age may find themselves transported back to the late 80s or early 90s via the sounds and beats she’s used this time – and while that’s her intention, she doesn’t mean it to be nostalgic. “When we ask questions about what it is to…

Hang up the bunting, blow out the candles and bust open the party pack of Skol lager: 2019 is the year that Opeth turn 30. You couldn’t blame Mikael Åkerfeldt for stopping, looking back and thinking, “What the hell happened there?” No one could have predicted the journey the callow death metal band he co-founded as a 16 year old with original vocalist David Isberg would take, not least Åkerfeldt himself. From pimple-faced Bathory knock-offs to grand high regents of retromodern progressive metal is some makeover. In reality, the evolution of Opeth has been a series of small revolutions rather than one explosive overhaul. Even their greatest leap forward – the arrival of 2011’s fully prog-facing Heritage – wasn’t completely out of the blue for all the perplexed (and perplexing)…

Giants Of All Sizes POLYDOR Sumptuous, if troubled, eighth from much-lauded Northern quartet. We’ve always been able to rely on Elbow to provide a little uplift in adverse times. They’re a band long on optimism, traditionally prizing kinship, community and the restorative powers of love as salve for a debased culture. So it might come as a surprise to discover that Giants Of All Sizes provides no easy assurances. Rather, it’s an album marked by disquiet, anguish and uncertainty. “Richly rewarding, grooves gather details as they spin out.” Nothing illustrates this better than White Noise White Heat, a prog-soul masterclass in which Guy Garvey describes how his faith in human nature has gradually been eroded by an ongoing diet of social injustice and political untruth. Partly a reaction to the…

Depth Of Field TALKING ELEPHANT Prog grows up, using horrible histories as a launch pad. A reader’s letter last issue raised an important point expressing concern over the longevity of ‘new’ prog unless it moved beyond mere replication of key influences; a valid point that desperately needed assuaging. Enter the well-timed latest album from London-based prog collective Kaprekar’s Constant, pressing the right buttons as they pursue their manifesto of examining man-made and natural disasters buried in time, wartime tragedy, vanishing lifestyles and arcane lost London. “Floydian drama, Tulllike jiggery and the power of Jackson.” Remarkably, it’s only the second album by the loose line-up founded in 2016 by Al Nicholson and Nick Jefferson, following March 2017’s Fate Outsmarts Desire with an epic monster that sounds like they’ve been playing for…

The Decca/Deram Years 1970-1975 UMG A nine-CD box of Canterbury class, minus the debut or any fancy newness. These days the appearance of a weighty multi-disc box set is akin to honouring the band in question with an award in recognition for their years of sterling service. At their best, these boxes explore some of the roads less travelled along the way to a familiar destination as they shine a retrospective light on aspects either long-forgotten or completely overlooked. At their worst, such sets can be little more than a cynical cash-grab. Caravan’s catalogue has been anthologised, boxed, remastered, remixed and repackaged on numerous occasions. That presents a considerable challenge to this box. Because while it gathers together what is undeniably an impressive body of work in one place, there’s…

Venue FERNHILL FARM, SOMERSET Date 15-17/08/2019 This year’s ArcTanGent Festival is bigger and better, both in terms of attendance and the size of the bands booked. It’s the seventh year of the festival, which has grown from a bunch of math rock bands in a field to the most important math rock, post-rock and experimental metal festival in the world. THURSDAY First up on the Arc stage is a bittersweet act – a tribute to Dan Wild-Beesley of Cleft and GUG, who passed away last year following a battle with cancer. Cleft played almost every ArcTanGent from its inception in 2013 to their break-up in 2016, and GUG played in 2018. Smashing out the Cleft classic Trapdoor, and following with a super-cut medley of bombastic ‘turbo-prog’ Cleft riffs, the supergroup…

More than five years after their last studio album, Flying Colors release Third Degree through Mascot on October 4. Keyboardist Neal Morse and drummer Mike Portnoy are joined again by bassist Dave LaRue, Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse and Alpha Rev vocalist Casey McPherson. “None of us wanted it to take this long,” says Portnoy of the gap between Second Nature and Third Degree. “But we’re all very busy and it’s always hard to get the five of us in the same room. It’s especially hard for Steve because Deep Purple keep him on a tight leash. Because of that, we have to take what we can get.” The band penned 10 new songs during writing sessions in December 2016 and December 2018. Nine of those tracks, including the singles…

Psychedelic singer-songwriter Jane Weaver has co-composed a reimagined soundtrack for 80s Hungarian animation Fehérlófia, out on Fire Records on November 1. The creation of songs to complement the saga of the titular character, a horse with superpowers, was inspired by playing Festival No 6 in 2016, an event set in the Welsh village of Portmeirion. “My husband [DJ Andy Votel] was curating a cinema tent with his label Finders Keepers and Fehérlófia was part of this,” Weaver explains. “I’d been looking to do a soundtrack and Andy suggested this.” Weaver’s bandmates Peter Philipson (guitars) and Raz Ullah (synths) holed up in a remote Scottish cottage for two days to write the music, then Weaver composed songs to fit Marcell Jankovics’ folklore-based saga. “It took three years,” Weaver laughs. “Of course,…

Jacob Holm-Lupo releases Mental Mutations under the banner of Telepath. Following the lead single The Dark Blood Of Fate, the mostly instrumental album will arrive on October 18. The White Willow guitarist found inspiration in the music of his younger years, notably 70s and 80s horror movie soundtracks. “With Goblin you have a really active rhythm section and a lot of weird melodies going on,” he tells Prog. “With Fabio Frizzi you have really gorgeous analogue synth textures.” Agreeing that such music is warm despite its horror associations, he says, “John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream soundtracks — it’s comfort music, even if the movies were scary!” He only decided to run it past Apollon when he realised how much material he’d amassed. “I think it’s common to a lot of prog…

Whoever came up with the saying, ‘It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters’ has never shared a taxi or two with me. Depending on where I am, and who’s behind the wheel, conversation can veer from the sublime to the ridiculous. Take, for example, a recent cab ride to Liverpool Street Station which proved memorable for all the wrong reasons. The driver hadn’t uttered a word during the journey, it was only when I was ready to pay that he turned round and dropped the bombshell, “You know, my missus really fancies you. Loves you on the telly, buys everything you make and travels all around to see you perform.” “That’s very kind,” I replied, unzipping my wallet. “I mean, she’s no oil painting I have to admit,”…

“I had four older sisters and by default I listened to their music collections. One of them was into original Genesis and my first memory of hearing them was The Carpet Crawlers. I remember being a little kid and so struck by this great hook. I grew up listening to AM radio, which was all Raspberries and The Archies, so I’d never heard anything like this. Living in Buffalo, New York, it was all heavy industry, steel and auto manufacturing. The backdrop of these very intense industrial monuments everywhere really coloured my world view. Listening to Genesis took me away from this briefly, and I didn’t know the terminology at the time but what I was really enjoying was the production. Their music is a journey through emotion: wow, we’re…

Surrounded by woodland, the Polish village of Klucze is home to just 6,000 people, making it hardly the ideal place to launch a progressive rock project. Yet it’s a challenge that Kamil Konieczniak has faced since Moonrise’s inception in 2008. “Unfortunately, it’s not easy trying to promote our music in Poland,” he confesses. “I don’t hide the fact that we get better feedback from abroad: from Holland, France, Germany and the USA. In [this part of] Poland, progressive music is a rarity. We find the only way to promote ourselves is through prog websites.” It’s a far cry from the multi-instrumentalist’s teenage years where national radio helped him uncover lesser-known artists. “One night,” Konieczniak reminisces, “I discovered a radio show by Piotr Kosinski called Rock Painted By Fantasy. I explored…

A recent thread on the Prog Magazine Readers Facebook group conjured up memories of comedian Harry Enfield’s classic sketch, Women: Know Your Limits!, a 1950s-style public information film where a female dinner party guest is castigated for holding intelligent opinions. The thread in question began with that hoary old chestnut: why is prog predominantly more male than other musical genres? We learned it could be because 1) prog is intellectual, 2) you can’t dance to it and 3) women can’t stay focused during a 23-minute song. From such broad brushstrokes of assumption, we’re reminded that, yet again, there’s a certain percentage of the male population with zero understanding of their female counterparts or the reasons why they love prog. Predominantly aged 50-plus, these men, due to their lack of self-awareness,…

“I could tell my mum and dad we were playing there, and it would impress them, rather than have them ask when I was going to get a proper job!” It’s strange how a band can be associated with one venue. Sometimes this can be down to the number of times they’ve appeared. On other occasions, it’s simply because of the enormous impact the shows have made in the artist’s career. For Camel, their two appearances at the Royal Albert Hall definitely fall into the latter category. “I suppose these were landmark shows for us,” agrees Andrew Latimer. “Back in 1975, when we first did the Albert Hall, it was seen as a sign that the band had reached a certain level of recognition. I could actually tell my mum…

“This is a full-on international interview,” notes Kavus Torabi. “Where are you, Steve?” “I’m in a hotel in Portugal,” comes the voice of the six-times World Snooker Champion Steve Davis. Michael J York speaks over the background thrum of droning folk instruments: “I’m in the centre of France. I’m sat in a campsite that’s crawling with hurdy-gurdies and bagpipes. Are you in your front room, Kavus?” “No, I’m in the shed,” comes the reply. This was never going to be a normal interview. But then there’s nothing normal about The Utopia Strong. The trio have taken their long-standing friendship and mutual interest in music from the outer limits and synthesised them into an improvisatory psychedelic group fusing the electronic with the organic. “The three of us became friends before we…

The modern world’s relationship with nature is in crisis. As the natural world burns around us and energy-consuming technology envelops our daily lives, our desire to feel a connection to the ground beneath our feet is greater than ever. Perhaps this explains why Heilung are currently resonating so strongly with music fans all around the world. The trio formed in 2014 with the aim to bring nature and history to life through their own genre that they call ‘amplified history’. As Heilung’s Christopher Juul explains, “Imagine if you took nature and plugged it into a guitar amp.” Through ancient music, poetry and rhythms, instruments made from bones and a spectacular live visual smorgasbord that features pelts, antlers and wild warrior tribes chanting to ancient gods, Heilung – ‘healing’ in German…

“Seeing live music never goes away. You can post files, download, do damage to the music industry through piracy, but you cannot replace a concert.” “This is the most eclectic album we have done by far.” Marco Minnemann is speaking about You Know What…?, the fourth album from The Aristocrats. On it, the band – Minnemann (drums), Guthrie Govan (guitar) and Bryan Beller (bass) – continue to display their extraordinary virtuosity, irrepressible humour and a disregard for the niceties of genre. You Know What…? features everything from fusion to blues riffs, Spanish flamenco influences and a demented jig. The band hadn’t released new music since Tres Caballeros in 2015, as they’d all been busy with sideman gigs – that’s one of the challenges for a band composed of three of…

replicr, 2019 SUPERBALL Sheffield quartet deliver the soundtrack to the shape of things to come. Five friends are in a car hurtling towards the edge of a cliff at high speed. Three of the pals are pleading for the driver to stop: surely nothing but harm must come of this madness? The driver points out that this is what was originally decided by the majority of the group and just because one of them has changed their mind doesn’t mean that he’s going to break his promise of driving into the abyss. And there, on the car stereo, with the volume turned up to the max and soundtracking this imminent catastrophe, is 65daysofstatic’s replicr, 2019. “From post-rock to mature illustrations of widescreen vistas.” You’d be forgiven for thinking that the…

Stormwatch: 40th Anniversary Force 10 Edition RHINO Chapter-closer which deserves a less wintry reputation. The run of Jethro Tull studio albums between 1977 and 1979 is generally referred to as their “folk rock” trilogy. Stormwatch, the third, sometimes gets overlooked, as if the makeweight of the three. Sure, Songs From The Wood was the best, Ian Anderson bristling with fresh ideas, songs and arrangements, while Heavy Horses was, well, heavier, its themes less concerned with countryside folklore and acknowledging contemporary realism. Stormwatch steps even further away from the maypole, examining big money, the oil industry and – years ahead of its time – the environment. “Dark Ages sees Barre’s fiery guitar echo Brian May.” In truth, it’s no more or less “folk” than any number of Tull albums – a…

Venue MOUNT EPHRAIM GARDENS, KENT Date 03/08/2019 “Fish announces, ‘This is progressive music and I can do anything I want with it.’” Smack in the heart of the garden of England – Faversham in Kent – and surrounded by working pear and plum tree orchards bordering an Edwardian estate, A New Day Festival welcomes bands and fans to commune together in this oasis of earthly delights and enjoy a bounty of musical pleasures. FRIDAY Solstice ready the ears with a beguiling set of prog folk. The clear-eyed and joyous enthusiasm of founder Andy Glass is as infectious as the music created. It’s a well-received show heralding the much-anticipated return of a British experimental entity. With a waft of Theo Travis’ saxophone, Hidden Details by Soft Machine de-fuzzes the more addled…

VENUE THE LEXINGTON, LONDON DATE 03/08/2019 The woman at the mic, with the Gibson SG and kaleidoscopic jumpsuit, looks focused. This is the last night of her first solo tour; a new beginning of sorts, albeit one that’s been a long time coaming. Back in 2011 Rosalie Cunningham, a young ‘old soul’ from Southend-on-Sea, formed Purson as a vehicle for her burgeoning visions of vaudeville psych, Beatles-inspired freakouts and luxury progressive rock. Over the next six or so years Purson gathered momentum, toured with Ghost and performed alongside the likes of Pentagram and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats. By the time of 2016’s Desire’s Magic Theatre, however, it was a Cunningham solo project in all but name. So tonight, along with her self-titled solo LP – and her new, game-raising…

VENUE STUDIO 9294, LONDON DATE 28/08/2019 SUPPORT VANISHING TWIN There’s a distinct whiff of hipsterdom blending with the traces of patchouli and more exotic fragrances floating through the air tonight. There are even the kind of mullets that haven’t been seen since the police used crusties’ heads for baton practice on the A303. And while all that evokes a particular time and place, quintet Vanishing Twin conjure up the more hippie end of the loved-up early 90s with a combination of low-end grooves, gurgling synths, bongos and flutes. The result is music that isn’t half as clever as it thinks it is while being too impersonal to warm to. No such worries for Japan’s Kikagaku Moyo whose ascending star shines ever brighter with each subsequent visit to the UK. At…

More than 13 hours of unreleased material is included on a new 16-disc Pink Floyd box set out on November 29. The Later Years: 1987-2019 features rare footage from live shows and jams as well as the band’s last three studio albums, including an updated version of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason with additional production from David Gilmour and long-time collaborator Andy Jackson. “[The original] had this bombastic sound which had become quite dated so we re-recorded the drums with Nick [Mason] and that freed up a lot of space,” explains Jackson. “We wanted to get some more organic playing from Rick [Wright] so we went back through the live recordings, which was mostly Hammond playing. We approached the mix as a classic Floyd album so it sits in the…

Anathema have been searching the skies for a new label deal. Their move to Mascot signals the end of their relationship with Kscope, with whom they’ve released four studio albums plus last year’s Internal Landscapes 2008-2018. “Kscope were great [but] it’s probably fair to say that worldwide, Mascot are more established, especially in North America, and that was what we were looking for because we want to tour America,” reveals vocalist Vincent Cavanagh. However, he dismisses any suggestion that the move might prompt a change in musical direction. “We would never adapt our style to suit a label, we’ll continue to write the way we write,” he says. “The new album will be our first release for them and we’ve already started work on it. As far as we’re concerned,…

Passion, determination and enthusiasm are among the most important qualities for any up-and-coming music promoter. Fortunately, after 11 years of running Cologne’s Euroblast, drummers John Giulio Sprich and Daniel Schneider still have plenty of all three. “We said, ‘Let’s do a festival under the bridge of the main railway station, in a 400-capacity venue, and just invite everyone we know!’ That’s how it started,” says Sprich with a laugh. “In the first two years, we had no idea what we were doing and held five Euroblast festivals. We lost money, we made mistakes, and we learned very quickly!” When the two polyrhythmic music fans began their journey, their only experience of promoting was two local gigs Sprich had organised for his then band, but they were fast learners. Despite early…

AVA WAS NEVER meant to be like this. Celebrated violinist Anna Phoebe and acclaimed pianist/producer Aisling Brouwer initially saw their collaboration as a sideline, an occasional distraction from their many other musical ventures. “It was only meant to be a studio project,” reveals Phoebe. “But now it’s become so much more than that.” “It’s as if each of us has found their musical soulmate,” adds Brouwer. “Someone said we are two halves of a whole, and that’s the way we see it.” The pair met in 2016 when the violinist performed at the Indian Embassy in London. “Aisling just came up to me afterwards and said she loved the way I played, and was very keen to work with me,” says Phoebe. “I sent her some music files, so she…

Warmrain first came on the prog scene with their debut EP Absent Friends and a gig at High Voltage Festival back in 2011. Eight years later, the Oxfordshire quartet have finally released their debut full-length, the quintessentially English double album Back Above The Clouds. So what on earth took them so long? “There was a lot of living that had to be done to write the album,” admits their founder Leon J Russell. “This record is like my life’s work. In a sense it’s my life story: years and years’ worth of development as a person, musician and a songwriter to be able to achieve that under my own strict guidelines.” The album’s inspiration was drawn from the inevitabilities of getting older and dealing with illness and bereavement – something…

“It was dance music that kept vinyl alive,” reckons Michael Holmes. “At the end of the 90s I was DJing in clubs in Earl’s Court, I’d play hard house and trance, and all the records and promos were on vinyl.” The subject’s on his mind when he speaks to Prog. IQ’s guitarist, principal composer and label head is just putting the finishing touches to the triple-gatefold vinyl edition of their new album, Resistance. It comes complete with a 24-page booklet, and pre-orders for the red vinyl version are outstripping the black by six to one. Wax is back, baby. Even if it ever really went away. In March, Steve Hillage’s System 7 played the legendary Dutch venue The Boerderij, and Holmes was invited to play a DJ slot in support.…

“We never know what the next record will sound like and, for us, there’s no formula. I think that’s pretty prog rock.”Mike Sullivan “We’re a progressive band in that we don’t know what we’re doing!” laughs Mike Sullivan, the guitarist and founder of heavy instrumental rock’n’roll darlings Russian Circles. For 15 years, the band – completed by co-founding drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist Brian Cook who joined in 2009 – have been hailed as pioneers of American post-rock. You’ll see why once you give them a listen, as their postmodern soundscape is built on experimental, technical riffing being supported by an energetic backbone of a rhythm section. Complementing primal grooves with tapping shreds, there really isn’t anything else in the current heavy music sphere that sounds like Russian Circles. However,…

“Not that many people are doing progressive double concept albums these days,” says Bryan Beller, who’s bucking that particular trend with the release of his new album Scenes From The Flood, which is out now. It’s a star-studded epic about someone reacting to a traumatic experience that turns their life upside-down, told in four chapters. “It’s designed as four sides of vinyl,” says Beller, “using The Wall as a template. Albums were formatted with vinyl in mind and that’s what this is.” The writing process was an allconsuming one for the bassist. “Some people can write anywhere; they have a mobile recording set-up and can just do it. For me, it needs to be a concentrated, dedicated time, where I shut the world out and go into my cave,” he…

“I live my life in chapters,” says Peter Baumann. Those chapters have included an upbringing in Berlin at a time of heightened Cold War tensions between the West and the USSR, success as a musician in Tangerine Dream, a career as a solo artist, running a successful record label, setting up a philosophical think-tank and, latterly, a return to making music in his studio at his home in San Francisco. Of course, he’s best known as one-third of Tangerine Dream. Along with Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke, he played a crucial part in bringing the previously obscure and cultishly ethereal sounds of electronic music to a much wider global audience with 1974’s Phaedra. “Obviously the time in Berlin with Tangerine Dream was a very rich and rewarding chapter,” says the…

Scenes From The Flood ONION BOY Part-time Aristocrat takes centre stage for stunning double debut. Primarily known as a virtuoso sideman for the likes of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Dweezil Zappa, Bryan Beller has become a creative dynamo in recent times. While his various efforts with The Aristocrats have showcased his gift for ensemble work, not a vast amount is known about Beller’s individual musical identity: until now, that is, because Scenes From The Flood is truly revelatory. Nearly 90 minutes in length, this sprawling but fascinating double set is vast in scope, dense with star cameos from the likes of John Petrucci and Mike Keneally and audacious in its plundering of countless genres and moods. It’s an enormous leap forward from 2008’s Thanks In Advance and so rich…

Resistance GEP Get snacks and a flask. This is a blockbuster-length epic. Self-editing was never one of prog’s strong suits. And IQ evidently didn’t feel the need for too much of it on this 11th studio album. After considering it as a single with ‘extras’ as a bonus disc, guitarist Michael Holmes has said, “The closer it got to the release, the more we felt that everything just gelled as a proper double album.” “A sci-fi rock opera blending with the apocalypse…” So Resistance is a 105-minute double. And for much of that movie-length duration, the decision seems vindicated, even if the story resembles more of a David Lynch enigma than a high-concept multiplex blockbuster. In the first half, the heavier sonic template of 2014’s The Road Of Bones re-emerges,…

Handfuls Of Night ERASED TAPES Elegiac strides across epic landscapes from Penguin dynasty. There’s suspense from the very first drones and piano probes. Suspense was always the great quality of Penguin Café Orchestra, and so it proves with the next generation. Arthur Jeffes, proprietor of the café, is the son of the late Simon Jeffes, leader of the orchestra, and continues his father’s dramatic fusion of understatement and repetition. That suspense lies in waiting, guessing, unsure if there’ll be a sonic shift. Sometimes a motif replays like a musical mantra; sometimes there are surprises which, while subtle, bowl you over because you’ve been lulled into this sensual world of ambient minimalism. Handfuls Of Night is hushed but haunting. “A sensual world… hushed but haunting.” It bears another link to Jeffes’…

Banks Vaults: The Albums 1979-1995 ESOTERIC A fascinating reminder of this Prog God’s diversity. Tony Banks’ place among the progressive immortals is not in doubt. However, there is a case for arguing that his extensive career outside of Genesis is underrated. This eight-disc set, bringing together all his work away from that band up to 1995, is a welcome opportunity to reassess the man’s individual value. “Bankstatement brought in Steve Hillage. It’s brilliant.” Chronologically, it begins with 1979’s A Curious Feeling, and while it’s easy to recognise his stylish, sophisticated playing, what really comes through is Banks’ inherent capacity for writing memorable tunes, with String Driven Thing’s Kim Beacon on the mic. If a more mainstream producer had been brought in, this could have been highly successful. The Wicked Lady,…

VENUE CORNER HOUSE, GUILDFORD DATE 02-03/08/2019 The first thing you notice about Guildford’s Corner House are the nine giant chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. Every wall is covered with mirrors. Downstairs, there’s a circular lighting rig that clearly used to illuminate a pole. But today this former casino and strip club is home to the first-ever Radar festival – a 1,500-capacity progressive music event with a line-up to rival Tech-Fest’s. FRIDAY There are two alternating stages – the main room with the chandeliers, and a smaller basement, where we catch Shattered Skies. They’re battling the stifling heat and difficult sound – problems that recur all weekend – but are in high spirits, singer Gerry Brown dancing with the crowd. Upstairs, French quartet Uneven Structure are a bassist down, but still…

Where’s home? Leytonstone, but I was born further down the Thames in Leigh-on-Sea. Earliest prog memory? When I was about eight my stepdad [Procol Harum’s Chris Copping] gave me half a dozen records including The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, which I cranked up on my little monophonic portable record player. First prog record you bought? Alice Cooper, Killer. Halo Of Flies is very proggy – sprawling and epic. And the latest? Simon Godfrey’s new album under his Tidehouse moniker, What We Don’t Own, We Can Burn. He wrote it in the wake of Mark Hollis dying and it’s very delightful. First prog gig? Procol Harum… I think it was at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls during the Grand Hotel period. Me and my brother would sit by the side of…