Table of contents for Issue 84 in Prog

Welcome to the latest issue of Prog. The Readers’ Poll issue, if you will. Always an interesting time, when we see what’s filtered through to the readers, what you’re really digging. It was a close call this year across the board, but one band came out on top, echoing the magazine’s belief that they’d made the best album of their career. But what is perhaps most pleasing is the variety of the winners. There are established favourites rubbing shoulders with more left-field artists featuring in the poll for the first time, and evergreen favourites continuing their rise in popularity. And a few surprises to boot. In all, I’d say it’s a good spread that reflects where prog is at these days. This issue, I’d like to bring your attention to…

TRUENO Synth fetishists tend to get excited about retro instruments the size of a barn that look as if they’ve been salvaged from a decommissioned telephone exchange. Trueno stands in opposition to this: it’s an analogue synthesiser small enough to fit onto a USB stick. Made from “aerospace grade aluminium” (because who would trust a plastic USB stick?), you plug it into your computer to power it up, and thereafter it behaves just like an audio plugin. Get it beeping and squelching using your computer, just like a digital synth – but this one is analogue. www.truenosynth.com VOCHLEA We’ve all found ourselves attempting to emulate a famous instrumentalist by using our voice, whether it’s trying to make a noise like Louis Armstrong’s trumpet, Brian May’s guitar or Jack Costanzo’s bongos.…

Neal Morse (right) releases a new solo acoustic album, Life & Times, via Radiant/ Metal Blade on February 16. The singer-songwriter will perform material from the album on his spring solo tour, which includes four shows in the UK this April. Andy Poole has announced he’s leaving Big Big Train. They will continue as a sevenpiece with an additional live musician. The band have also announced they will play a warm-up show in the UK in July ahead of their gig at Germany’s Night Of The Prog.…

Time Flies: The Story Of Porcupine Tree is out via Rocket 88. It’s been written by Prog’s Rich Wilson and is billed as the first in-depth book about the band. It contains interviews with band members, friends and people connected to Porcupine Tree. Corvus Stone’s Colin Tench (left) has passed away. The 63-year-old guitarist died on December 29, just days after his final album, Minor Masterpiece, came out. The Colin Tench Project release included vocals from Tiger Moth Tales’ Peter Jones.…

Wonderous Stories: A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock is an in-depth look at the prog rock genre, from its beginnings to the present, and written by Prog editor Jerry Ewing. We have one signed, deluxe edition copy to give away, that will include a personal mes sage for the winner from Ewing. Wonderous Stories goes from prog’s origins, through the glory years of the late 60s and 70s, to its contemporary resurgence led by, amongst others, Steven Wilson and Opeth. It also includes a foreward by Steve Hackett and over 450 extensively researched images including band pics, press cuttings, ticket stubs and album artwork. The deluxe edition is limited to 600, and has been designed by Carl Glover. It includes a bound-in certificate of authenticity signed and numbered…

Geoff Downes needs no formal introduction to the readers of this magazine, who will know him best as the keyboard player for Yes as well as his work with The Buggles and Asia. His latest release, however, is with Downes Braide Association, the project he began in 2012 with songwriter, record producer and singer Chris Braide, known for writing and producing within pop circles for the likes of Sia, Britney Spears and Beyoncé – but who also harbours a love of prog. DBA’s third album Skyscraper Souls features an all-star cast including Andy Partridge, Kate Pierson of The B-52’s and Big Big Train’s David Longdon, and effortlessly blends pop and prog to great effect… This is the third DBA album in five years and it’s a much more elaborate and…

“Been a fan since 1981. Simon Jeffes wrote some very progressive stuff. Maybe not prog as we know it, but definitely great. He is missed.” Wedgepiece “Maybe. Crossing some boundaries for sure. Maybe not. But does it matter? What matters to me is that it still sounds fresh and utterly beautiful today. Simon Jeffes was a genius with vision and I love his work.” Bas Langeris “While not prog per se, the music was good and they had a strong following.” Yserbius Gandalf “Not very prog imo, but depends on your definition.” Mercurious “Working on the basis that they’re not afraid to experiment and push boundaries, I’d say quite prog – perhaps 7/10? And, of course, they also have very strong prog connections through Geoffrey Richardson!” Paul Coulthread “Very much…

Devin Townsend “I try to work with as many women as I can, because as a man I can represent half of what I want to represent: it’s the human thing that I’m interested in. In my role of trying to represent something that is human, if I can get any help from those who know what it means to be on the other side and all the things that come with it, that’s how you make it complete.” Rick Wakeman “Prog now has many genres as it has spread its wings so much in its 50 or so year life. Many of the current artists weren’t even born when it first came to be, so they can look at prog from a unique standpoint. It’s taken time for women…

Five BMG It’s nearly 48 years since this writer sat in rapt awe while Genesis entranced his school’s annual Christmas party performing songs from the just-released Trespass. A quiet presence in a sensible sweater behind his keyboard set-up, Tony Banks might have indulged the Leslie tricks favoured by fellow prog rock Hammond warriors, but his melodies were noticeably imbued with unusually sensitive, classical subtleties. “Cascades that could elevate an imaginary Genesis classic.” Banks was classically schooled, deploying that training to give Genesis their melodic depth beneath the flights and fantasies. Embracing synthesisers, he released the requisite solo albums through the 80s but, unlike other Genesis members, they sold few, including Bankstatement’s excursion into Mike And The Mechanics MTV pop. After finding greater aptitude composing film soundtracks, Banks, who cites Sibelius,…

A Fine Accoutrement STOLEN BODY Atlanta, Georgia spacewave trio Chew follow 2016’s 3D EP with a mini-album of barriertrampling psych whoopee that marks their first UK release. With six tracks forged during their threeyear US tour, guitarist/ electronics man Brandon Pittman, bassist Brett Reagan and drummer Sarah ‘Snare-uh’ Wilson pile in on their array of guitars, percussion, vintage analogue keyboards and samplers to invoke space age visions prone to explosions of electronic starburst mutiny that could have been made 50 years ago in an acid manufacturer’s garage. The set’s bookended by two tracks riding similar spaceways to Sun Ra’s early 60s mysterioso nightclub organ vamps, Crunch upping the shimmer with synthesised squawks and gravitydefying wooziness injected by Reagan’s heaving bass. The title track evokes the Magic Band’s surrealistic bump and…

Open Here MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES Cocooned in their Sunderland studio with an eviction notice on the mantelpiece, the Brewis brothers bid farewell to their preferred location with a sparkling work which subtly opens up new roads for them to explore. Yes, it’s dominated by their major calling card of 80s-influenced art pop, as the funky guitar rhythms echo not just XTC and Tears For Fears but also less canon-approved names like Nik Kershaw and Howard Jones. Yet by its journey’s end it’s spun into a colour wheel of strings, flutes and flugelhorns which feels more Canterbury than Mackem. If 2016’s Commontime was slightly repetitive, Field Music here prove they’re a multiple trick string of ponies with Prince-like motifs and Sparks-like curls of dark comedy. Throughout the lyrics there’s a reaction to…

The Hands RUNE GRAMMOFON Since coming together in 2008, Sweden’s Fire! have gleefully rebooted the power trio format to mate raging free jazz skronk with the monolithic power of Sabbath’s first album. Like a modern day Cream, each player gets an equal shout between super prolific sax titan Mats Gustafsson’s coruscating Ayler-like roars, Johan Berthling’s earth-shuddering basslines and Andreas Werliin’s drum hoodoo. Now on their sixth album since 2009’s You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago (not counting their behemoth Fire! Orchestra spinoff), the trio follow 2016’s She Sleeps She Sleeps with seven sensitively brutal missives from the dark side, building on the title track’s template of Berthling’s colossal gouge, Werliin’s umbilical percussion and the fullthroated elemental roar that’s taken Gustaffson to play with giants like Peter Brotzman. The three reach…

We Will All Be Gone METAL BLADE With both guitarists being alumni from prog metallers The Safety Fire, it came as no surprise that Good Tiger’s debut, A Head Full of Moonlight bore a strong instrumental resemblance to TSF. We Will All Be Gone is a much cleaner break, with a very different instrumental attitude on display. While there’s still metallic elements, like the riffs from Float On or Nineteen Grams, for the most part the band have instrumentally taken a step back to support the stunning vocal of Eliot Coleman rather than trying to vie for attention with it. As a result Good Tiger now more naturally sit along with recent US tour mates Hail The Sun, or other mathrock influenced heavy but melodic bands such as A Lot…

Off-kilter production, simplistic but seductive bass, sloppy drums, bursts of strings: it can only be Serge Gainsbourg and Jean- Claude Vannier. A “lost” 1969 soundtrack from the duo whose influence on breathy French music is incalculable, Les Chemins de Katmandou (Finders Keepers) is released for the first time. Found in the suitcase of a deceased friend, these master tapes had attained Holy Grail status. The film they scored is a forgotten “smacksploitation” Jane Birkin vehicle, but the Vannier- Gainsbourg crew play with that deceptive laziness which makes everything sound bigger than life. From Eastern classical to porny funk, even if Serge doesn’t actually do much, it’s a treat for those of us who are hysterical about L’Histoire de Melody Nelson. Meanwhile Serge’s daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg has her own new album…

The Secret HBM The death of guitarist Peter Banks in March 2013 was the catalyst for Clive Bayley and Bob Hagger to reform Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, some 45 years after the psych prog outfit morphed into Yes. Since then, with a line-up fleshed out by Max Hunt and Hugo Barré, the band have issued a new album and an EP of remastered numbers from 1967-68. The Secret once again plunders the past for inspiration, most poignantly on its title track, which Bayley has constructed around guitar parts bequeathed by Banks. Dedicated to Banks and Chris Squire, the song is a fitting testament to both mens’ legacies, shifting through atmospheric passages of depth, weight and daring. The other standout is Big Brother, Little Brother, a savage critique of the systematic destruction…

Blackbox KARISMA Losing half of your band would usually spell the catastrophic end for most groups, but not Major Parkinson. Instead of crumbling away after three members left in 2014, the Norwegians have only gone and released a career-best record. Blackbox, the band’s fourth studio record, is a truly enthralling concoction of theatrical prog rock. Interwoven with conscious – or subconscious – aural nods to the likes of Beardfish, Steven Wilson, Pain Of Salvation, Tom Waits and, erm, Abba, each of the nine tracks offer something unique, even if some motifs are cleverly reworked throughout. Isabel: A Report To An Academy is a trip through haunting strings and twists and turns that wobble you off balance with the whip of an unexpected gust of wind, while album highlight Baseball is…

Hurricane Esmeralda MOONPARTICLE MUSIC Best known for his work with UK proggers Lifesigns and a fleeting association with mid-period solo Steven Wilson, Bulgarian guitarist Niko Tsonev has always been a talent to watch out for. Moonparticle is described as a ‘collective’, drawing in Wilson-approved sidemen Theo Travis, Craig Blundell and Adam Holzman to form the basis of the band, while Hurricane Esmeralda is the result of a successful Pledge campaign. Given the cast list, you’d expect the album to be briming with virtuoso performances, and on that level, that’s certainly what you get. There’s some great stuff here, not least the lazy jazzy swing of Michelangelo Don’t Stop, and the more progressively minded Winter Mountain and White Light, all proving Tsonev can construct some spledidly complex yet catchy fare. The…

it’s not us NOTHING TOO FANCY Since forming around 20 years ago at university in Indiana, Umphrey’s McGee have built up an enviable and enthralling back catalogue. From the excellent 2004 release Anchor Drops to the mash-up madness of Zonkey, and the many, many, many live releases, the proggy jam band have just about covered all bases. Their trademark sound pivots on a foundation of free-flowing, unrestrained creativity that’s topped off with an unfaltering stream of ear-pleasing melody, and the US rockers’ latest effort comes in the form of it’s not us, their eleventh studio album. “Doesn’t break new ground, but is worthy of attention.” Its PR blurb promises an adventure through a diverse array of styles and it just about gets the job done, with prog, rock, metal, pop,…

Coming Home KARISMA Bjørn Riis is the co-founder and guitarist of Norwegian prog kings Airbag, but since 2014, he’s also been carving out a niche for himself as a solo artist. But if the music of Airbag tends towards the lush and panoramic, an aerial view of the fjords by the light of the Aurora Borealis, the songs on Coming Home evoke the hardships of a lonely traveller in a harsh landscape, battling the elements as he nears his destination. With its churchy organ drone, tremoloed guitar and lonely electric piano, instrumental opener Daybreak is in the gloriously chilly tradition of Wish You Were Here. ‘I’ve been out there floating among the stars,’ Riis intones tenderly on the title track, his voice and strummed acoustic guitar as beautifully gloomy as…

Beloved Antichrist NUCLEAR BLAST For anyone who has ever listened to Wagner’s The Ring Cycle and thought, ‘This is great, but it could be longer and more dramatic’, here’s Therion to set you right. This is a rock opera that doesn’t hold back on the latter part of that equation. Spanning three and a half hours, Beloved Antichrist features 15 different vocalists, each playing at least one character in Christofer Johnsson’s musical adaptation of Vladimir Soloviev’s A Short Tale Of The Antichrist, published in 1900. Symphonic metal singers such as Epica’s Simone Simons bring a classical approach, but everyone has that particular operatic style that is heavy on technique to hit each note perfectly, occasionally sounding stiff and formal. Johnsson might have done well to release this in three separate…

A Kingdom Of Colours: The Complete Collection From 1995 To 2002 INSIDEOUT “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In the annals of prog, it might be argued that during the mid-90s Dickens’ old adage didn’t apply. It was a tough time to make progressive music. Yet listening to this frankly overwhelming boxset is a reminder that even back then, if you knew where to look, it was no prog desert. “Inside Roine Stolt’s strange brain – florid, lurid and creative.” Kingdom Of Colours – comprising the Kings’ first seven albums – is as comprehensive an introduction to Roine Stolt’s emergence as prog royalty as one could hope. Indeed, laying these albums side-by-side, it’s hard not to marvel at the fecundity of his imagination. The…

Air Conditioning/Air Cut ESOTERIC Fronted by the exotic gypsy princess figure of Sonja Kristina and bolstered by classicallytrained electric violinist Darryl Way and keyboardist Francis Monkman, Curved Air took classically-slanted prog to new heights while giving teenage male prog fans their first female focus. Taking their name from US experimentalist Terry Riley’s A Rainbow In Curved Air, the band formed when Sonja, then singing in Hair, joined Way (Royal College of Music) and Monkman (Royal Academy) along with the pair’s fellow Sisyphus band members in January 1970, recording their first album before signing to Warner Bros. As one such young devotee, this writer remembers racing home with the just-released Air Conditioning in November 1970. As the UK’s first picture disc it looked better than it sounded as the pressing quality…

Songs From The Mirror CHOCOLATE FROG Even Fish concedes that this 1993 collection of cover songs – and his third solo album – is sometimes viewed through the telescope of history as some sort of aberration, or a project designed to fulfil his contractual obligation to his Polydor label and their twoalbum deal. Which, considering that Fish was keen for Polydor to renew their contract with his band, seems at odds with the idea that this was to be his final kiss-off to working for a major label. Surmise all you like (Fish’s alwaysrich liner notes admit to needing the cash – a familiar trope for Fish, it seems – and the desire to keep his supremely able band in work and on the road), but the singer’s take on…

Wuthering Nights: Live In Birmingham NSIDEOUT Given the size of some egos in rock, it’s impressive to see Steve Hackett so at ease with his musical past while embracing his future. This double live DVD is split between an opening set of Hackett’s solo material and a second act celebrating the 40th anniversary of Wind And Wuthering, the last album the guitarist made with Genesis in 1977. Hackett has a superb band accompanying him – Gary O’Toole flies around that drum set and drives Shadow Of The Hierophant with huge energy, while Rob Townsend’s work on sax, flute and anything else he picks up is a regular highlight, particularly during In The Skeleton Gallery. They’re joined by Nad Sylvan for the latter half, who successfully tackles Peter Gabriel’s role, minus…

Live At The BBC REPERTOIRE Formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, the original Renaissance proved ahead of its time with its ethereal classical rock. After they split, 1972 saw another Renaissance, led by Annie Haslam’s five-octave voice, keyboardist John Tout and bassist Jon Camp. Under manager Miles Copeland, they released 1972’s Prologue and joined “second wave” prog outfits like Camel on the UK gig circuit. While their symphonic folk went largely ignored here until 1978 hit Northern Lights, Renaissance found audiences in the US for 1973’s Ashes Are Burning and 1974’s Turn Of The Cards, becoming the first British band to sell out Carnegie Hall for three nights. They were about to release 1977’s Novella when, clad in shiny period fashions, they took to the stage…

“A hungry band is not a happy band, and I’ve discovered I can keep the whinging down to manageable levels if I feed them from time to time. It’s also a good opportunity for a post-gig debrief and I can butter them up a bit before handing out the usual fines for inappropriate note and timing choices. Being Scottish, a healthy fried breakfast is a tradition I was brought up with. I know other parts of the UK have their own versions, but Scotland (as ever) has its own particular vision.” Ingredients (serves a band): Eggs, bacon, pork sausage, lorne sausage, black pudding, fruit pudding, white pudding, haggis, potato scone, scones. Prepartion “The key to this is meat – lots of it – and particularly lorne sausage. For those who’ve…

(CAPRICORN, 1972) On the surface, it would seem there’s little to commend this album to prog fans. Captain Beyond formed in LA in 1971 and featured former members of Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly: bands that were, at best, lurking on the periphery of the progressive genre. But what that combination succeeded in doing was creating a sound that had the expected hard rock elements, yet combined them with a wide range of other influences. This took the music on the four-piece’s self-titled debut into the realms of jazz rock and psychedelia. Moreover, the musicians (Rod Evans, Bobby Caldwell, Larry ‘Rhino’ Reinhardt and Lee Dorman) rarely stuck to obvious straight line patterns within songs; they were prepared to vary dynamics almost at will. In fact, they went even further, because…

Gazpacho have announced a handful of European dates this May, including a show at Dutch venue De Boerderij on 26 and The Dome in London on 28. The Norwegian band are currently working on their new studio album. Beatrix Players (left) have announced four UK shows this February. They’ll be playing at The Robin 2 in Bilston on 11 (supporting Serpentyne) and at Cardiff’s Acapela Studios from 14-16. They’ll return to the Welsh venue on April 22. Matthew Fisher’s self-titled album and Strange Days are being remastered and reissued through Angel Air this February. The Procol Harum co-founder is best known for playing the Hammond organ on A Whiter Shade of Pale. Charlie Barnes has teamed up with Oceansize guitarist and producer Steve Durose on his latest prog pop album…

For a short period in the early 70s, Bram Stoker seemed to be at the vanguard of the progressive movement. The Bournemouth band’s debut album, Heavy Rock Spectacular, was recorded in 1970 and it still sounds pioneering today as it introduced a steampunk slant to prog. Led by guitarist Pete Ballam, Bram Stoker made quite a splash among their peers and seemed destined to make a major impact on the scene, but the band split just two years later. An attempt to reunite the original lineup in 2004 led nowhere. Four decades on, Ballam has released Manic Machine, a solo album featuring fresh recordings of older songs, many of which were earmarked for a follow-up Bram Stoker album that was never made. For Ballam, it’s a chance to finally show…

When it came to providing a set of visuals to accompany the physical release of The Optimist, there was only one man for the job: Travis Smith. The California-born graphic artist made his name designing artwork for 90s metal bands such as Death and Nevermore, but he’d branched out into prog via the cover of Opeth’s 1999 album Still Life. His working relationship with Anathema began with A Fine Day To Exit, for which he designed and photographed the striking booklet. “I’d been a fan of them forever,” he says. “I discovered them when Pentecost III came into my friends’ record store. With A Fine Day To Exit, they were looking to do something different.” The label put Smith in contact with the band, who told him their ideas. The…

“The idea of The Dark Element excited me,” Anette Olzon reveals via phone from her home in southern Sweden. “I like the songs – they are written especially for me – and, of course, I did like the songs I did with Nightwish, so it’s fun to do that style again.” The singer, who spent five years as the female voice of the progressive symphonic Finns, is in a chatty mood as she brings Prog up to date with her life. There have been highs and lows, from Finnish reality TV to her solo debut Shine, and no subject is out of bounds. She freely admits that album didn’t do as well as she had hoped. “I really loved my album and I’m very proud of it,” she says, “but…

Resolve ONE LITTLE INDIAN Poppy Ackroyd has been described as a contemporary classical pianist and composer, but that doesn’t adequately reflect the alchemy of modern and traditional that she achieves on Resolve. By using digital sampling and editing to manipulate and rearrange her piano playing, she has more in common with the early pioneers of electronica than the conservatoire. Many of her songs share the same feeling of perpetual motion, with melodies, motifs and percussive effects looping against each other, yet the sounds here are generated from acoustic instruments rather than synth patches. On tracks such as Paper and Time, Ackroyd revels in the idea of her music as an assemblage, a consensual illusion, the winding of its internal mechanism plainly audible. But there’s real heart here too – the…

Riding The Flood EP SELF-RELEASED Psychedelic folk is a loaded phrase. It conjures images of flowers, joss sticks, the endless summers of forgotten youth and, well, the whiff of something ‘medicinal’. With a name like ‘Dandelion Charm’ it would be easy to write off this Newhavenbased duo as 60s throwbacks. Oh, how wrong you would be. If this follow-up to debut Tiny Drop begins with a drowsy, nostalgic slab of acoustica, it only gains momentum as it unfolds. Its opener September is beautiful and anthemic – exquisite harmonies and guitar patterns à la Crosby, Stills And Nash – but it’s only an aperitif. The heartbeat of Riding The Flood is the title track and The Spark which combine prog-era Opeth melancholy, the exquisite pop sensibilities of Fleetwood Mac and hints…

Gleb Kolyadin KSCOPE Prog has produced a raft of gifted keyboard players, many of whom have received high level training. Rick Wakeman went to the Royal College Of Music and Geoff Downes to the acclaimed Leeds College Of Music. Gleb Kolyadin, ivory maestro in iamthemorning, is also conservatoire-trained, and does it show. Anathema’s Dan Cavanagh claims Kolyadin is “the single greatest pianist I’ve met”, and this solo debut showcases his dazzling talents. “This music comes from deep within his soul…” The inevitable question is, “Does Kolyadin’s album sound like iamthemorning sans the magnificent Marjana?” Answer? Nay, nay, and thrice, nay. Certainly, there are characteristic Kolyadin motifs. White Dawn showcases his effortless grasp of modern and classical technique, combining flowing repetitions with the formality of Bach. In that mode, Kolyadin is…

Peace Will Fall ANGEL AIR Despite being billed by the record label as a new album, Peace Will Fall is, in fact, no such thing. Rather it’s a repackaged version of Giltrap’s 2012 offering Echoes Of Heaven. That in itself was a somewhat unique offering as it pitched the often instrumental Giltrap with female singer Carol Lee Sampson on material penned by Giltrap’s friend The Rev. Martin Green. Although not overtly religious himself, Giltrap states that he believes that “all music that touches us is of a spiritual nature”, and there are strong religious overtones on display here. While not as cloying as some of Neal Morse’s messages, this may be enough to deter some. That said, this writer is someone who doesn’t enjoy being preached to in music, but…

All These Worlds Are Yours PNKSLM RECORDINGS It’s rare that a new album genuinely sends you reeling within seconds, but Stockholm’s Hannes Ferm has conjured up an epiphany of sound which makes you giddy with its shimmering loveliness. He may be labelled as “ambient wave”, but there are thrilling oceanic quakes within this wash of euphoric elegance. You’ll recall the first time you heard side two of Abbey Road, peak-era Spiritualized, Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips and perhaps that time you heard Cocteau Twins after a funny cigarette. At times you can only stand back and admire; at others Ferm’s commitment and falsetto innocence insists on full emotional engagement. It’s a concept album about alienation in the city, so much so that its maker barely left his underground studio or…

1 SVART Remove the 4/4 beat and there’s never been much to separate deep space techno from dark prog and Krautrock. The first solo album from Finland’s Timo Kaukolampi after over 10 years leading the fearsome K-X-P is an atmospheric blend of cinematic ambience, occasionally joined by pulsing kick drum. At those points the music conjures techno but transcends any rave connections through its panoramas of dystopian soundscapes, that unfold through one 41-minute piece divided into five sections. After the sweeping Bladerunner themes of The Prodigal Son Of Magnesia, the electronic beat kicks up the radioactive glower of The Three Legged Giant Centipede, then drops away for Epiphyte (Requiem For Mika): Kaukolampi’s eulogy to friend and film composer Mika Vainio, who died last year. The Bottomless Well Of Forgotten Secrets…

Boundless INSIDEOUT When Münster’s Long Distance Calling abandoned their instrumental post-rock roots in favour of adding vocals, the results were stellar (as were the guests, Peter Dolving, Jonas Renske and John Bush). 2013’s The Flood Inside – featuring Vincent Cavanagh – won critical praise without alienating fans, while the boldness of the move opened up a new audience. On Boundless, LDC have rolled the dice and decided to go instrumental once more. “Even their post-rock template songs are powerful and fresh.” Luckily for them, it seems that they’ve not forgotten the core of what made them a great instrumental group in the first place. Right off the bat, on Out There we’re treated to muscular riffs and soaring melodies, with a chaotic slideguitar motif that’s as good as anything they’ve…

The Strife Of Love In A Dream RELAPSE Full disclosure: this writer would normally take an album called The Strife Of Love In A Dream, place it in a locker, row that locker out to the middle of a lake, tie a rock to it and throw it over the side. Then laugh manically like a Bond villain, pet my Persian cat and go back to living under my volcano. More fool me. This latest album from Steve Moore (Zombi) and Daniel O’Sullivan, who appears to play everything and has played with everyone, is a ruddy journey through electro pop and the kind of bad dreams that haunt you for days. Imagine if Type O Negative had shared a rehearsal space with Heaven 17 and you’re close. Which is not…

Life And Times RADIANT RECORDS You wouldn’t guess from The Neal Morse Band’s most recent output that their leader was mellowing into soft middle age. 2016’s The Similitude Of A Dream and 2015’s The Grand Experiment may have featured his now customary eulogies to the almighty, but they were still multi-faceted prog records. But as anyone who’s seen Morse play solo live over the last few years knows, he can do the straightforward stuff well. This collection of easy-going soft rock numbers might prove too bland to connoisseurs of musical sophistication, but they are well-crafted. Livin’ Lightly and Good Love Is On The Way employ irresistible strokes of Eagles-y peaceful easy feelings, the latter a five-minute romance in which ‘She’s the beauty barista, he’s the corny cashier.’ But while most…

Last Day Of June: Original Soundtrack CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL This is a Steven Wilson project, but not as you know it. The game for which it was written is the brainchild of director Massimo Guarini, who was inspired by Wilson’s searingly moving ‘story-in-a-song’ Drive Home (from 2013’s The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)). Stemming from characters created by German illustrator Hajo Müller (and brought to life in Jess Cope’s richly compelling animated video) it takes the player through the story of Carl and June – the latter dies in a car accident which leaves the former in a wheelchair. Ultimately it poses the question ‘What would you do to save the one you love, if you could change the course of events?’ It’s an emotionally immersive experience, taking…

Go Dig My Grave SUSANNSONATTA Over the years, Norwegian vocalist Susanna Wallumrød has perfected the art of achieving a lot while seemingly doing very little. Using the sparsest of instrumental settings, the searing purity of her voice, usually recorded without any significant post-production, creates an emotional space that’s rich in drama. Paring away any harmonic excess, her ability to find the poignant core of a song and bring to it new insights and narrative detail has the effect of rendering the old and familiar, striking and new. Thus, in this collection, traditional folk tunes such as Rye Whiskey, Go Dig My Grave, the chirpy skiffle-era hit Freight Train and even Joy Division’s Wilderness fit neatly together like a melancholic jigsaw, each piece underscored with a captivating, haunting stillness. The hesitant…

In This Place MIGHTY MUSIC This second album from Swedish alternative/ prog trio We Could Build An Empire has been a long time coming. They released their debut in 2011 although their sound has stayed consistent over the years, still touching upon influences that include King’s X, QOTSA, At The Drive In and a dash of the gloomy musings of Alice In Chains. Drummer Michael Ohlsson likes to be busy, battering his way through On The Run and the manic race to the finish of Red III. The Worry Of The Heart packs a heavy wallop with Marcus Pehrsson’s bassline pulsing beneath Pontus Wallin’s grungy riff. The guitarist brings a spacey, psychedelic feel to On The Run while the trio prove their prog credentials exploring odd time signatures in the…

Sleeping For Years – The Studio Recordings 1970-1974 ESOTERIC As the title of this comprehensive boxset of their 1970s recordings makes plain, Atomic Rooster are one of the sleeping giants of the early progressive era. For many, they’re the band that Carl Palmer left to form ELP, but that view does a grave disservice to the pioneering and exciting music they produced, particularly across their first three albums. Driven by the often demonically furious organ and piano playing of band leader Vincent Crane, Atomic Rooster combined the swagger of R&B, the muscle of hard rock and the drama of prog, and came up with a sound that was both ambitious and accessible. They even crossed over into the pop charts, having hits with the singles Devil’s Answer and Tomorrow Night.…

The Complete Recordings THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RECORDING COMPANY LTD In the words of progloving broadcaster Danny Baker, Peter Banks was “the architect of progressive music”. If that’s moot, it’s undisputed that Banks was a prime mover for early Yes and one of prog’s pioneering übervirtuoso guitarists. This reissue of Banks’ Empire years, which signalled his fruitful collaboration with vocalist (and then-wife) Sidney Foxx, is welcome for many reasons. Nearly five years on from Banks’ untimely death, it provides a chance to reappraise a point in his career marked by great creativity, if little commercial success. It also gives a Banks newbie the chance to set his mid-to-late 70s oeuvre in a wide lens. Most intriguingly, in its extensive and excellent liner notes, it offers the Banks completist a vision of…

A Man I’d Rather Be (Part 1) EARTH From Jimmy Page on down, ask any guitarist who came up in the mid-60s about their early inspiration and chances are they’ll reply Bert Jansch. After coming to London from his native Scotland in 1963, Jansch brought folk out of the clubs and made it cool with his quicksilver guitar virtuosity and epochmaking mixing of the traditional with the topical. Always embracing new influences such as Indian music, Jansch’s guitar style flowed like its own translucent entity and, though his voice wasn’t strong, he was quietly expressive as he revisited folk club standards and wrote his own comments on those turbulent times. Suiting the unadorned music, this first of two volumes documenting Jansch’s 60s output simply presents his first three Transatlantic albums,…

Wonderous Stories – A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock FLOOD GALLERY How many prog rock fans does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: that’s not a real lightbulb. It takes a brave soul to tackle a history of prog, given the strength of opinion that the topic provokes among its acolytes as to what does and does not constitute prog rock in the first place, never mind who should be considered pivotal artists. But as the man who launched this very magazine in the face of scepticism, Jerry Ewing ventures where others fear to tread. “A beautifully designed archive of our favourite genre.” Published in a generously illustrated coffee table format (the better to club people with when they say, “Prog? Is that still a thing?”), Wonderous…

follow us on twitter.com/progmagazineUK NOWHERE MAN @ElGoodo63 @ProgMagazineUK Published every five weeks? Figures that Prog Magazine is distributed in 5/4 time. JAKKO M JAKSZYK @JakkoJ Pre-Xmas Level 42 reunion lunch with the class off ’91/’92 MARJANA SEMKINA @marjanasemkina I finally understood the meaning of infamous “what happens on tour, stays on tour”. It means you don’t remember shit after the tour is over. GREG SPAWTON @bigbigtrain Heaven knows I’m miserable now. THAT JOE PAYNE @thatjoepayne Late last night, @ maxjosephread and I celebrating finalising the mixes of the new single and bonus tracks! MARK BENTON @markbenton100 @ProgMagazineUK Always makes my day!…

Anna von Hausswolff releases Dead Magic on March 2 via City Slang. The follow-up to 2015’s The Miraculous is produced by Randall Dunn (Sunn O)))) and was part-recorded at Frederik’s Church in Copenhagen, also known as The Marble Church. The venue has also hosted shows by Diamanda Galás. “During the writing period, I was into heavier music like Swans and Einstürzende Neubauten, and I wanted a darker, heavier, more aggressive sound,” von Hausswolff reveals. “I wanted to focus on the lower register but this organ sounded best in the higher register. It had a very intense, direct and beautiful sound and it changed the shape of the album. It surprised me and it was liberating.” Anna von Hausswolff will play at north London’s Dome as part of her European tour…

The Osiris Club release their second album The Wine-Dark Sea on February 23 via Indie Recordings. The mysterious London proggers promise that it will take listeners on a “darkly psychedelic journey into sound”. “It’s more song-based this time,” says drummer and band illustrator Andrew Prestidge. “There’s lots of influences: it’s like proto-goth mixed with 70s prog rock, early Genesis, King Crimson.” Also in the melting pot is comic books, with the band paying homage to the apocalyptic world of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. With a new album comes a new look, and The Osiris Club have dropped the white plague masks and black robes which gave them a haunting live presence. “It was difficult to play in them, and a lot people would ask, ‘Are you copying Ghost or something…

Codpieces, capes and pointy, propellerhead pixie hats. Yes, prog’s earliest days were peppered with an array of of brilliantly out-there visuals. As the pop art and paisley of the psychedelic 60s became the florid LSD hangover of the 70s, competition was rife and every music act needed something eye-catching. And if a man in a red evening dress wearing a fox head didn’t do it, there’d be a head-to-toe medieval leather two-piece just over the horizon, its wearer wielding a selection of knives to throw at his keyboard just to make sure you were really paying attention. Re-read the first sentence of this column – you’ll know three bands instantly just by association. It’s a different era now, and fashions have changed. The stuffing’s been knocked out of things politically,…

Official Progressive Albums Chart the prog top 30 albums Compiled by December 2017 1 JEFF LYNNE’S ELO Wembley Or Bust (RCA) 2 DAVID GILMOUR Live At Pompeii (COLUMBIA) 3 RADIOHEAD OK Computer (XL RECORDINGS) 4 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING Every Valley (PLAY IT AGAIN SAM) 5 TAME IMPALA Currents (FICTION) 6 RUSH A Farewell To Kings (UMC/VIRGIN) 7 MOGWAI Every Country’s Sun (ROCK ACTION) 8 ROGER WATERS Is This The Life We Really Want? (COLUMBIA) 9 RICK WAKEMAN Piano Portraits (UMC) 10 JANE WEAVER Modern Kosmology (FIRE) 11 MASTODON Emperor Of Sand (REPRISE) 12 HAWKWIND At The Roundhouse (CHERRY RED) 13 STEVEN WILSON To The Bone (CAROLINE) 14 MARILLION Misplaced Childhood (PARLOPHONE) 15 TARJA From Spirits And Ghosts (EAR MUSIC) 16 MOODY BLUES Days Of Future Passed (DECCA) 17 GODSPEED YOU…

Dreaming: The Romance Emerging as part of a groundswell of British extreme metal bands, Anathema’s original incarnation was a harsh and gloomy one. But the final song on their 1993 debut album, Serenades, took another path entirely. A 23-minute ambient electronic piece that nodded to Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, it suggested there was a different band hiding behind the dirgey guitars and impenetrable vocals. Hope Anathema had previously kept their love of 70s prog, folk and classic rock hidden, but they stepped out of the shadows on 1996’s Eternity with this faithful cover of a 1985 Roy Harper song, whose billowing central riff was originally written by David Gilmour. Harper himself gave it his stamp of approval, providing the spoken word intro in the form of a re-recorded version…

The Voyage (1992) Concept album about outsider Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli, moving between ecstatic soloing, reflective choirs and fiendishly challenging settings for a chamber rock ensemble. MIND Volume 1 (1997) An impressive mix of thoughtful orchestration, hard-hitting themes and intense, dramatic performances. MIND Volume 2 (2001) Double live album recorded in Belgium, France, Mexico and other locations across Europe captures something of the extrovert energies the band are capable of generating in concert. Colours Not Found In Nature (2017) Fast-moving shifts in tempo, punchy riffs, percolating electronica and Steve Hogarth’s cathartic vocals makes this the band’s most accessible album to date, without sacrificing any of their ambitious writing. Off The Radar (2017) Surging tunes, squalls of brass dominated themes that stretch and unfurl with an almost jazzy elasticity and eerie…

Rich In Symbols ROPEADOPE Having worked with luminaries such as Steve Swallow, Carla Bley, Maria Schneider and John Abercrombie, when Brooklyn-based sax player Chet Doxas isn’t carving himself a reputation in New York’s jazz scene, he can be found visiting the city’s art galleries. Gazing upon the work of artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring and others with his manuscript in hand, Doxas notates the music that comes to him in response to what he sees. The result is an accessible album delivered alongside a super-tight guitar, bass and drums outfit with Doxas on woodwinds and synths. Despite his jazz credentials, the album sounds and feels more like an instrumental rock album rather than your usual fusion fodder. Expansive, stirring themes are laid on top of surging drums that ramp…

The Tenant FIRE Described by Roger Ebert as “not merely bad, but an embarrassment”, Polanski’s 1976 psychological horror film The Tenant saw the controversial director himself as a Kafkaesque paranoid, in drag, hallucinating that his neighbours were playing football with a human head. Its soundtrack, by Philippe Sarde, was never likely to compete with Mary Poppins in the sunlit jollity stakes. It’s a heroic choice of cover version or “reimagining” for Malmo-based trio Death And Vanilla, then. Emboldened by their 2013 reading of Vampyr, they recorded this live at a Spanish festival screening. Inevitably the results are haunted and haunting. But not just as in “a bit forlorn”. As in so creepy you’ll keep glancing nervously over your shoulder. With minimal fuss, and sounding anything but vanilla, the unit, using…

Legend Of The Seagullmen DINE ALONE Another Mastodon side-project, you say? A lesser musician than Mastodon’s Brent Hinds would have spread his talent too thin by this point, but Legend Of The Seagullmen is so entertaining that it serves more to confirm that the bearded one’s ability to reinvent himself is neverending. With Tool’s Danny Carey on drums, bassist Pete Griffin (Zappa Plays Zappa) and movie director Jimmy Hayward on guitar, they are psych rock missionaries, forging a course through endearingly bonkers lysergic seascapes full of marauding giant squid and Boschian shipwrecks. “Ultimately, this is a mad-eyed psychedelic knees-up.” Kicking off with their own gleefully manic theme song, We Are The Seagullmen, which starts like an out-of-synch One Of These Days before scorching off into rumbling Sabbath territory, the ensemble…

A Humdrum Star BLUE NOTE Though sonically they have little in common, it’s hard not to compare Manchester trio GoGo Penguin to Three Trapped Tigers, another jazz group whose intelligent and visceral use of elements from electronic music transported them into another genre, and nigh on a new musical plane. Where TTT’s intense riffs and powerhouse drumming pushed them into a math rock milieu, GoGo Penguin have opted for a less intense tack. Nevertheless, it would be easy to see fans of math crossover groups such as Gallops or 65daysofstatic enjoying A Humdrum Star. The most exciting tracks are those where the band display a masterful control of tempo and musical momentum; the elastic timings and percussion of Strid, for example, the slowly unfolding patterns of Reactor or the fantastic…

The Reason Why Vol 3 HEADSPIN Composer/producer Goran Kajfeš is something of a legend in his native Sweden, having been involved with the likes of Fire! Orchestra, Oddjob, Nacka Forum and the Magic Spirits Quartet. He also runs his own Headspin label, a repository for the genre-flitting music he makes as leader of the Subtropic Arkestra. The third and final volume of Kajfeš’ The Reason Why series follows the format of its predecessors, consisting of radical reinterpretations of semi-obscure gems from across the globe. I’m On My Way / Patch Of Blue, originally by US ’69, is transformed into a mood-swinging epic that’s roomy enough for ambient tranquility, funk soul and squawky dissonance. The Arkestra’s gift for balancing Afrobeat and ethno-jazz is illustrated by the Orchestre Poly- Rythmo De Cotonou’s…

Triomphe KWAIDAN France’s extraordinary Agnes Gayraud took her band’s name from the movie that would inspire David Bowie in the Cat People remake that surfaced in 1982, 40 years after the original. Both dealt with the idea of transformation and change, and showed off Bowie and Georgio Moroder’s pop sheen in the film’s theme tune. Gayraud and La Féline also play with the idea of form, substantive change and pushing pop’s glossy boundaries. Gayraud – journalist, lecturer, associate of philosophy and chanteuse – makes the kind of experimental pop that touched the world in those early Roxy Music albums (the sax here, as there, is an occasional and surprising punctuation mark) and then traversed the years in the work of artists like Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, even in the…

Vier INSIDEOUT The difficult second album is a cliché, but you suspect this Californian quartet’s third outing made their two previous, widely appreciated long players seem like a stroll in the park in comparison to the departure of both their original drummer and bassist in early 2016. But the creative core of singer Ryan Hurtgen and producer/guitarist Johannes Luley have overcome that setback with a new lineup to make their most adventurous record to date. “Melodic strands fuse together and you really enjoy the ride.” The sleeve’s 3D graph image, and the Germanic, Krautrockish title immediately suggest we’re in for some serious math prog schooling. That’s not Perfect Beings’ style at all, but they dabble in a pretty heaped handful of other genres over four (hence the title) 16-18 minute…

Tabiat OUTER BATTERY Unless you’re fluent in Indonesian languages, you won’t be singing along to Mooner. You may however be nodding with happy familiarity at their music. A vigorous fusion of heavy psychedelic riffs and intriguingly fresh raga and Middle Eastern touches, it’s stoner rock with a lick of the spiritual. They don’t mess about getting down and dirty, but you feel there’s a desire for elevation at the core. That might seem a pretentious comment when you first hear it, because at times the guitars have no loftier ambition than to match the oft-overlooked oeuvre of 70s Brit outfit Blackfoot Sue. In phases, there’s a curving upwards to the more tricksy emissions of Argent or Nektar. Yet Mooner use the roots of psych as their basic platform, then blow…

Glass NOTON Few musical constructions signal “highbrow” more than a live improvised collaboration between Oscar-winning electronica pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Berlin artist Carsten Nicolai’s pseudonym for sonic work Alva Noto. Now place them doing this for 45 minutes in Philip Johnson’s 1949 Glass House and allow them to use the walls as an instrument just after a rain storm. With gong mallets dragged down the glass’ surface and various mixers and keyboards, it’s an unconventional approach to capturing a moment, but Sakamoto reckons the dramatic landscape and red sunset they watched made for the ideal interface of art and nature. Oddly, it’s less abstract than you might imagine. Its simmers and squeaks develop an atmospheric beauty, and there may even be a wink to Philip Glass in the theme and…

Innerland SONIC CATHEDRAL After making two albums of ambient electronica with Engineers bandmate Ulrich Schnauss, this Lancastrian has ventured out alone on this solo debut, and if you can judge an album by its cover, he’s onto a winner. The artwork is themed around an imaginary ordnance survey Landranger map, taking in such evocative-sounding spots as Shaley Brow and Twenty Bridges. As ever with this kind of impressionistic, ambient fare, the rest is in the imagination of the beholder, as the latter track’s pearly notes of guitar meander like a man wandering half asleep across windswept moors as dotted clouds of foreboding puff forth from the moody bassline. Windy Arbour has a throbbing techno pulse underpinning its tip-toeing keyboards and rainy streaks of guitar, and if he sounds like he’s…

Innocence ACTUAL SIZE MUSIC The Infinite Three have been making strange sounds for nearly 10 years, but Innocence – the first of two new EPs – showcases a more experimental and ambitious edge compared to the post punk/noise rock vibes of their 2016 album Lucky Beast. Born from an improvised recording session, this fourtrack sees the trio dabble in twisted rhythms, off-kilter beats and meandering melodies with bursts of distortion. They may be prog scene outsiders – they formed from the ashes of gothic art rockers Leisur Hive – but this recording would sit comfortably alongside Godsticks and The Pineapple Thief. The opening title track bursts to life with Swans-esque distortion before mutating into a Godsticks-like anthem. Elsewhere, the creeping Hot Strings brings a modern spin on their dark roots…

Bristol-based James McKeown was in the Prog-endorsed Hi Fiction Science, and now he’s making music solo under the name Hawksmoor (self-released). The album is billed as “a hauntological imaginary soundtrack [exploring] the mysterious cartographic connections between the six Hawksmoor churches in London”. Lofty and arcane, this subject matter’s brought to electronic life with Moogs, tape loops, sparse choral vox and guitar, making for an atmospheric sprawl of ideas utterly evocative of its theme. The Omnific are a young trio from Melbourne making a pleasing math rock/djenty din. They are drummer Jerome Lematua and – count ’em – two bassists, Matthew Fackrell and Tobey Peterson-Stewart. New EP Kismet is funky, melodic and virtuosic, with keys and effects adding depth, but as is often the case in this genre there’s a sense…

When Age Has Done Its Duty BURNING SHED It can be a risky gambit re-recording your old albums. To those of us who love the original, it’s more likely to resemble the work of a highly competent tribute act than a new, improved version. In the case of Robin Armstrong’s Hampshire-based project Cosmograf, though, his 2011 release When Age Has Done Its Duty never got as much attention as it should have done, and any chance to shine a new spotlight on it is to be taken with both hands. He also does (or rather, doesn’t) something very important with this minor refurbishment: he resists the temptation to throw the baby out with the bathwater. He may have redone several of the bass and backing vocal parts as well as…

Come Out Fighting Ghenghis Smith/HQ/ Bullinamingvase SCIENCE FRICTION In his new unflinchingly candid liner notes accompanying this superb vinyl reissue of 1968’s Come Out Fighting Ghenghis Smith, Roy Harper describes the album as “the skeleton in my closet”. Confessing to cringing with embarrassment upon hearing the finished record, his discomfort was not caused by the breezy strings or fashionable sprinklings of harpsichord producer Shel Talmy had added for extra pop appeal. It was his own spoken-voice sections of Circle and the title track. The ponderous, theatrical declamations have Harper acting out the dividing tensions between father and son, and expectation versus reality. Although awkward and obstructive to the songs’ narrative flow, such youthful missteps also provide a first glimpse of experimental inclinations with long-form, multi-mood excursions which he would refine…

Roxy Music – Super Deluxe edition UMG To describe this set as ‘long-awaited’ is something of an understatement. Rumours of a celebratory box have abounded over the years and Steven Wilson turned in his adventurous stereo and surround sound remixes back in 2012. Given that the three-CD and one DVD, plus book, comes with a hefty price tag (£130) that would make your glam rock mascara run, has it been worth the wait? Yes and no is perhaps the predictable answer. The Ferry-curated book is fascinating and frequently delightful with its vintage press clippings, small ad ephemera, typewritten lyrics, cover photoshoot outtakes and snaps of the boys in the studio and on stage. With his customary precision, journalist Richard Williams, one of the band’s earliest champions in print, chronicles the…

Roie Avin ROYAL AVENUE MEDIA When Dream Theater’s Images And Words was released in 1992, it brought a new focus to the prog scene. Slathering metal flourishes over the traditional prog rock foundations, it showed there was life in the old dog yet. The seminal record forms the launchpad for website The Prog Report’s new book Essential Modern Progressive Rock Albums, which takes a look at the genre’s most celebrated records released between 1990 and 2016. Written by the website’s editor Roie Avin and peppered with pictures, it’s an extensive guide which includes the usual suspects – Steven Wilson, Opeth, Spock’s Beard, Marillion et al – as well as nods to some of the more lesser-known contemporary acts, such as Thank You Scientist and The Dear Hunter. And with the…