Table of contents for Issue 122 in Prog

Compiled by June 2021 1 MOGWAI ZeroZeroZero – OST (ROCK ACTION) 2 GENTLE GIANT Free Hand (ALUCARD) 3 MOGWAI As The Love Continues (ROCK ACTION) 4 BLACK MIDI Cavalcade (ROUGH TRADE) 5 DEVIN TOWNSEND Devolution Series 2 – Galactic Quarantine (INSIDEOUT) 6 STEVEN WILSON The Future Bites (CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL) 7 JANE WEAVER Flock (FIRE) 8 RUSH Permanent Waves (MERCURY/UMC) 9 MATT BERRY The Blue Elephant (ACID JAZZ) 10 ARTHUR BROWN’S KINGDOM COME Eternal Messenger Anthology 1970-1973 (ESOTERIC) 11 GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR G_d’s Pee At State’s End (CONSTELLATION) 12 FIELD MUSIC Flat White Moon (MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES) 13 JEAN-MICHEL JARRE Amazonia (RCA) 14 FROST* Day And Age (INSIDEOUT) 15 WARDRUNA Kvitravn (MUSIC FOR NATIONS) 16 LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT LTE3 (INSIDEOUT) 17 AL STEWART Year Of The Cat (ESOTERIC) 18 TRANSATLANTIC The…

WHEN PROG NATTERS to Dominic Sanderson down the phone, he’s not long discovered Gentle Giant. “I’m mad on them at the moment,” he says with a smile. It seems the 21-year-old English musician is still feeling his way around the nooks and crannies of the prog scene – but you couldn’t tell from his own music, which sounds accomplished, well-studied and belies his age. Sanderson is in effect a one-man prog band from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, having recorded all of the instrumentation on his debut EP, Discarded Memories, as well the vocals. The five-track was assembled piece by piece at home, and any DIY imperfections tend to be masked by the absorbing songwriting. “The only thing I guess I cheated with would be the drums, because I don’t play…

Some people are never bloody happy. As the end of the 90s loomed, Garry Cobain and his musical partner Brian Dougans, better known as progressive techno unit The Future Sound Of London, were commercially successful and critically acclaimed, but growing restless. FSOL were one of the most highly regarded of all that decade’s numerous groundbreaking electronic acts, with a reputation for pushing their chosen genre briskly into a bright and tech-savvy future via albums such as the ambient odyssey Lifeforms (1994) and the clattering beats and break-fest of Dead Cities (1996). For Cobain, however, the joy of being a pioneer had lost its edge and it was time to explore a more organic and, most importantly, psychedelic approach, under the name The Amorphous Androgynous. “I didn’t just want to just…

“It will be two years since we played a gig. That’s unheard for us in our 40-year career.”Mark Kelly, Marillion As part of Future Publishing’s Back To Live campaign, designed to aid and celebrate the responsible return of live music, Prog goes behind the scenes to find out what things might look like over the next 12 months and beyond. It’s Saturday May 8, 2021 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. “Good evening and welcome to Kansas!” bassist Billy Greer booms following the evergreen Point Of Know Return. As the veteran American progressive rockers’ MC, Greer has intoned this welcome hundreds of times. However, it’s momentous and poignant tonight because this is Kansas’ first show for 14 months. “We hope you enjoy the show. We hope we enjoy the…

“I’m definitely excited about going to live shows again,” says Carol Rogers from the USA’s east coast. “Vaccination levels are high here and Covid cases have dropped to a handful of new cases a day, so there is a real sense of live shows being possible again.” In England, Neil Pudney is similarly enthusiastic. “I’m not nervous about attending gigs again as I believe that when we can get back into venues it will be because it is safe to do so, even if certain restrictions are still in place. I cannot wait!” From Scotland, Glenn Codere provides a more cautious view. “I’d use the word ‘apprehensive’. I’m very much looking forward to seeing live music again, but it’s definitely going to be a different feel, particularly in the early…

Ambient-industrial soundtrack from one-man music industry, Steven Wilson. Bass Communion is Steven Wilson’s self-described “ambient/noise/experimental project”, and an outlet for his more avant-garde impulses. And No Birds Sing features two pieces of music taken from a forthcoming psychological horror film. The first, a 28-minute piece, is essentially sound design rather than composition. Water drips in a vast metal drum, a droning presence looms from out of the shadows. A wheezing child’s voice intones, ‘Listen, can you which is particularly startling on headphones. There are other distant voices now, like the type heard on EVP recordings trying to the veil. The sound communicate from beyond modulates and suggests movement, before breaking the surface and pitching up on some blasted heath. The second, shorter piece begins in the same barren landscape, but…

Chicago prog rockers hit new highs on album number two. The Cyberiam are fronted by a singer who flirted with fame on reality TV show Popstars: The Rivals in the 2000s, but don’t be fooled; their prog credentials are as clear as day. Connected, their second full-lengther, finds the Chicago quartet in truly fine fettle, conjuring an intoxicating, easy-to-imbibe cocktail of Porcupine Tree’s attack, the melodic energy of Rush and Umphrey’s McGee groove. The adroit playing is grand without being overly glitzy, with the spunky Moral Landscape allowing Brian Kovacs’ bass to roam free, and keyboardist Frank Lucas – who enjoys the tutelage of Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess – adds vital flair. Singer Keith Semple, meanwhile, ramps up the radio-friendly appeal with finely tuned vocals that are likely to tickle…

Former Britpopper pulls songs from the wreckage of the past – literally. If the music on this British collective’s debut album is difficult to place in time, there’s a good reason: it was lost for nearly 20 years. The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost’s guitarist and songwriter Billy Reeves was a member of briefly hyped mid-90s Britpoppers Theaudience alongside future pop queen Sophie Ellis-Bextor, before putting together a new band, Yours, and signing to Sony. But his career was almost curtailed in a near-fatal car crash in 2000. He survived, but spent demos of these songs on two MiniDiscs in the wreckage of the car, thoughamnesia meant Reeves had no memory of writing them. Twenty years on, Reeves has revisited the material afresh. The songs were originally written as commercial,…

Killer prog metal from Kiev’s oddball ingenues. One of the most inventive and individual bands to emerge from the metal scene in recent times, Jinjer’s fourth album showcases both their self-evident progressive streak and their ability to send mosh pits into a frenzy. Opener Call Me A Symbol might be a little remorseless for sensitive listeners, but the Ukrainians’ fiendish, post-Meshuggah riffage and appetite for subverting the metallic norm ensure that Wallflowers is never less than fascinating. Vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk switches from ferocious roar to scorching soprano as she weaves her melodies through her comrades’ shape-shifting barrage with skill. Superficially thuggish, songs like the lurching Disclosure! and the dark, slow-build horror-show of the title track are underpinned by so many ideas that Wallflowers swiftly becomes much more immersive than expected.…

Music for our dark spaces and hidden identities. Best known for his 12-year stint as bassist with Pain Of Salvation and, more recently, his work with Kayak, Kristoffer Gildenlöw’s fourth solo album has few obvious hints of either. Here, very personal compositions explore darkness, humanfrailties, and the ghosts that inhabit our internal and external worlds. Sparse instrumentation and space characterise much of the album – a mix of acoustic and synth-based sounds create atmosphere and mood, epitomised by tracks like The Wind, Lean On Me and Look At Me Now. Things do occasionally pick up in tone and feel, with Don’t injecting a brooding blues vibe that detours into Spanish folk music. Even when a full band kicks in, it’s rarely a straightforward journey – Blame It All On Me…

A head of a new album by the prolific Pond, multi-instrumentalist and founder member Shiny Joe Ryan (who’s also part of Tame Impala’s touring crew) has finally got round to following up his 2014 solo debut, The Cosmic Microwave Background. The impish Shiny’s Democracy (Spinning Top) is a shimmery piece of psych-pop with a knowing grin, as evinced on the infectious Ketamine and the funky synthetic groove of Pub Boat. There are also echoes of Tame Impala about New York trio Acid Dad. Take It From The Dead (Greenway/The Reverberation Appreciation Society) comes wrapped in gauzy guitar tones and folds of early 70s krautrock. The hallucinatory Searchin’ relays holographic desert visions, while RC Driver and Smile You’re On Camera sound like a more punked-up Wooden Shjips. On a similar tip, Riders…

Succulent prog rock odyssey from French ensemble. The follow-up to 2019’s Sweetheart Grips, Nine Skies’ third album builds upon everything that made its predecessors so impressive. Gentle opener Colourblind establishes the gripping melodies and vibrant yet pastoral instrumentation that give the French band their character, before highlight Wilderness showcases soothing male/female harmonies and stunning guitar work from guest Steve Hackett. Subsequent tracks such as the mystical Golden Drops, the unpredictable Godless Land and the hypnotic Above The Tide strike a balance between songwriting and score before current Arena vocalist Damian Wilson lends his distinct voice to the peaceful Porcelain Hill. Along the way, a trio of instrumental passages – acoustic guitar ode Beauty Of Decay, piano dirge Achristas, and the gentle Dear Mind – act as breathers between the more…

Welsh psychedelic explorers investigate the history of religion. Over the course of 15 years and more than 20 albums, Sendelica have investigated all manner of strange, arcane subjects in their music – including four albums inspired by a Cromlech in the Taf Valley. On this double set, weighty themes are evoked by atmospheric instrumentals, the only vocal being by Elfin Bow, who sings of ‘shifting perceptions of space and time’ on Seren Golawr. Opening track with Aeolian Sunrise builds steadily through Eastern drones, radiant keyboards and sinuous guitar lines. Tainted Goat ups the momentum, borrowing Holger Czukay’s on-off bassline from Can’s Mother Sky as it rides over electronics and beats. It’s a mesmeric 11-minute voyage, with huge guitar chords and sax sneaking around in the spaces. Sendelica create a series…

Legendary studio engineer aims high with instrumental suite. Having worked with everyone from Kate Bush and Rush to Suzanne Vega and Tina Turner over his five-decade career, sound engineer and mixing maestro Stephen W Tayler has surely earned the right to put his feet up. Instead, he’s found time to create this “ambitious instrumental suite”, which he initially performed live at his regular base, Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath, in 2019. Now Da Capo has made it onto physical format, and although the accompanying DVD of visuals wasn’t available at the time of going to press, the music is certainly evocative enough to create its own imagery in the listener’s mind. The propulsive piano chimes of the title track and Four Ways To Fiveways cruise through your head…

Rare and unreleased music from British duo’s burgeoning relationship. This 15-track round-up from Bobbie Watson and Jon Seagroatt comes from the years when they were friends and collaborators, both in long-term relationships, but with ardour stirring and leading to marriage in 2003. In that time the pair shape-shifted musically out of Seagroatt’s ambient, typographically maverick trio B So glObal to Drift, to the marvellously named Colins Of Paradise, the tracks ranging from experimental pop, to jazz to dark folk, two-step and more. Watson was known as co-vocalist for unsettling folk-proggers Comus and her high, youthful and exploratory tone suits the groovy, almost trip hop starter, 70bpm – one of many tracks grounded by Seagroatt’s wonderful “furtive” and “wobbly” wind and brass instrumentation, such as highlight Compass – as well as…

The post-Gabriel period mined in impressively obsessive detail. There will always be a contingent of Genesis fans that stubbornly refuse to take much interest in the band’s post-Gabriel era, but that’s their loss. Because while the band went on to scale untold commercial heights, it wasn’t at the expense of creative potency. As Phil Collins tells Genesis’ unofficial historian Mario Giammetti in part two of his sizable history of the band: “The same people that brought you Apocalypse In 9/8 are bringing you We Can’t Dance.” Giammetti’s narrative doesn’t hold back from criticism at times, or from a few rather reductive statements (“The three surviving members decided to play the immediacy card” – was it really that simple?), but mostly he leaves it to Banks, Rutherford and Collins, along with…

Dec Burke’s new solo album Life In Two Dimensions is the result of an explosion of creativity that followed the death of his dad and the Covid pandemic. Set to arrive on September 24 via Gravity Dream Music, the record is a notable change of tone from the former Frost* member. “It came about after sessions for the next Dilemma release,” Burke says. “When the guys left my little studio, everything was still set up in the round and I thought, ‘Well, I may as well just see what I can come up with.’ The songs just started coming one after another.” He adds: “I’m generally very upbeat, but the lyrics have maybe a more sombre overtone. But there are a few more upbeat songs.” Unlike some of his previous…

Twelfth Night’s Clive Mitten will return with another selection of orchestral prog music on November 26. Double CD album Suite Sixteen – Tales From A Misspent Youth (Volume I) was recorded by Mitten alone at home over lockdown, and features his orchestral interpretation of music by bands he idolised in his teenage years. Among the 16 selections are Supper’s Ready by Genesis, Pink Floyd’s Echoes, Jethro Tull’s Living In The Past and Awaken by Yes, with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel getting the concert hall treatment too. The record follows Suite Cryptique, Mitten’s recent set of recompositions of early Twelfth Night pieces. “This is in a similar orchestral style,” he says, “but in this case I have produced cover versions, not recompositions.” The album will be released on Bumnote and…

Tony Kaye has announced that he will release his debut solo album End Of Innocence on September 10 via Spirit Of Unicorn Music. The album is a requiem to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. See www.cherryred.co.uk. UK prog rockers Threshold have begun work on the follow-up to 2017’s Legends Of The Shires. They entered Thin Ice Studios in Surrey, England in July to work on the new album, due for release in 2022 via Nuclear Blast. See www.thresh.net. Barclay James Harvest’s sixth studio album, 1975’s Time Honoured Ghosts, will be be reissued in remastered and expanded form on September 24 via Esoteric. It will include a DVD, poster and illustrated booklet. See www.cherryred.co.uk.…

When veteran Israeli progressive metallers Orphaned Land invited Subterranean Masquerade on tour, they were able to flaunt their genre-bending chops to a global audience. Now they want to build on that experience to inspire a new generation of prog Israeli bands to follow in their footsteps. “The Israeli prog community is getting bigger,” says vocalist Davidavi Dolev. “We hope what we’re doing will open more doors for bands in future. There are many bands here; promoters just need to put them on the plane.” The band, who seamlessly blend bombastic orchestrations, gospel and klezmer music with prog metal influences are celebrating the release of their fourth album, Mountain Fever. “Musically, we wanted to manifest the pluralism of the culture we’re from,” Dolev says of their sound. “Israel is such a…

For five frantic years in the mid-70s, Harmonium were one of the biggest bands in Canada. Led by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Serge Fiori, they released three extraordinary albums, including seminal progressive folk masterpiece Si On Avait Besoin D’une Cinquième Saison in 1975. Fiori dissolved the band after their final tour in support of third album, L’Heptade, and hasn’t returned to a stage since. But in 2019 he collaborated with musical director Simon Leclerc on Histoires Sans Paroles – Harmonium Symphonique: a purely orchestral reimagining of the entire Harmonium catalogue. Prog spoke with the Quebec legend about his band’s heyday and how it feels to hear his songs played by an 80-piece orchestra, nearly 50 years later You formed Harmonium in 1972 as a 19-year-old. Where did that sound come from?…

Having played his last show on February 29, 2020 in Madrid, Ian Anderson is looking forward to his UK tour, which spans September and October, but is considerably more cautious about the prospect of shows internationally. “I’m most optimistic about the UK tour. There are dates in other parts of the world like Russia and Brazil, places I can do without going to any time soon. “UK provincial theatres are great,” he enthuses. “I love getting on the train and going to towns that you otherwise might not have a good reason to visit. For many years I’ve travelled on trains to shows in the UK and Europe. I’m not a bus guy; I’m a loner. I remember sitting alone on trains with a face mask on many years ago.”…

Musical sketches of the mysteries of the occult. Never one to shy away from ambitious projects, Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Anders Buaas has followed up his sizeable The Witches Of Finnmark trilogy with an album where he’s created 22 entirely instrumental portraits of the cards in a tarot deck. Every note here is written and played by Buaas, and the result explores wide stylistic variation. There’s more than a little jolly folk in The Fool, a bit of portentous prog metal in The High Priestess and some sludgy guitar riffing going on to introduce The Devil. The longest track on the album, the seven minutes of The Hierophant, covers a lot of ground growing from bucolic guitar into a full symphonic rock workout. Not only is each “card” given a unique theme,…

Russian folk-prog that’s out of this world. Based in St Petersburg, but sounding entirely otherworldly, Dikajee has conjured several new ways to bewitch and bewilder on her debut full-length. We’re firmly in ethereal, folkfuelled prog territory here, but there’s a dazzlingly all-encompassing feel to these songs. The result is spellbinding from dreamy start to hazy finish. Opener Forest is a twinkling revelation where delicate acoustic guitars collide with sweeping strings and layers of shimmering ambience. Lily Of The Valley is even more startling, like some long-lost Kate Bush outtake, deftly dressed in contemporary sparkle. With faint echoes of Nightwish’s cinematic pomp mixed with intimate, skittering post-rock, Dead Garden and Misery scale the dynamic spectrum; Dikajee’s vocals alternately angelic and strident. Best of the lot is the eight-minute Gloomy Flowers Blooming,…

Yes guitarist at his intimate, organic best. By its very nature, the skeletal charm of the home demo makes artists sound all the more human. On Homebrew 7, Steve Howe, presents his seventh collection of (largely) guitar-based sketches. With most tracks around the two minute mark, it paints a picture of an artist who simply can’t stop making music. Unlike previous Homebrews, the 21 tracks here haven’t gone on to form the basis of future songs – what is here is what will be. There’s the groove of 2015’s Tender Hooks; the sweet Spanish guitar flourishes of A Lady She Is. In One Life from 1982 sounds amazingly like Young Marble Giants; a drum machine puttering away, spindly guitar and six-string bass offering a sparse, robotic funk. Strange Wayfarer is…

Anekdoten’s Nicklas Barker is half of this strong new audiophile duo. Anyone who knows their Arp Odyssey from their Farfisa is in for a treat with the debut album from Kosmogon, which finds Anekdoten singer and multi-instrumentalist Nicklas Barker joining forces with classically trained pianist Sophie Linder for two compelling 20-plus-minute instrumentals. Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel’s Manuel Göttsching were clearly influences on the title track, where vintage keyboards render minimalist arpeggios and washes of analogue sound. But between them Linder and Barker come up with their own, contoured approach: pastoral flute sounds mollify the menacing, filtered ‘eeeeeyowwwws’ beaming from the synths. The other track, Somnus, was improvised “using two Mellotrons and several echo units”, with Linder re-embracing music after a 20-year hiatus (there’ll be a story there). It’s…

American folk with surprising bite. It’s easy to approach Langan, Frost & Wane’s self-titled debut album under the assumption that it’s a gentle entry into the world of folk. But Brian Langan, RJ Gilligan (aka Frost) and Nam Wayne (Wane) infuse their songs with a sombre starkness that brings to mind Donovan and The Incredible String Band. Perhaps The Sorcerer and Babe And The Devil are typical of the 15 tracks on offer. The guitar motifs are bathed in a style that not only draws from mid-20th century American heritage, but also from the Middle East and India, all performed with an edge that has a lot in common with Frost’s background in rock and punk bands. The performances are sparse and uncluttered, as the musicians don’t care about musical…

Siberian collective combine dark folk and ambient sounds to impressive effect. Here’s a band who are unafraid to experiment with their music. While drawing from the traditions of Russian folk, they add in an ambient flavour that brings to mind Heilung or Danheim. With their seventh album, Nytt Land delve into tales of ancient Nordic gods and heroes, using these texts to create soundscapes, which have an epic yet spartan feel. The fact that the lyrics are written and sung in the Old Norse language adds to the doomy atmosphere that pervades the eight tracks here. For the most part the band chant these songs, using throat singing to make them sound a little unnerving and cold, which suits the approach admirably. They also incorporate handmade, traditional instruments into the…

Vibrant performances of two classic horror soundtracks. Dario Argento and Goblin are among the most effective director/composer combinations in cinema history, the Italian band’s music adding immeasurably to the disturbing weirdness of Argento’s films. In 2019, the current incarnation ofGoblin played the scores they composed for Argento’s 70s masterpieces Profondo Rosso and Suspiria live in Helsinki, to accompany the screening of both movies. Both of those shows are collected in this lavish box set (and available separately), and it’s testament to the scope and ingenuity of the music that the absence of the films never matter. Profondo Rosso (sometimes called Deep Red) is menacing and brooding, as befits the storyline it illustrates. But Suspiria is on another level. This is arguably the apogee of Simonetti and Goblin’s career. In fact,…

Live covers set from noir-ish Norwegians. Susanna Wallumrød is best known as one half of Susanna And The Magical Orchestra, but she has a parallel penchant for cover versions. This set of live interpretations, with her cousin David Wallumrød accompanying her on keyboards, was recorded inOslo and Aker shortly before the pandemic times. The pair have been in bands together on and off since they were kids, and there’s a relaxed, unshowy aura to their empathic work on this album. It’s not about reinventing the wheel, and they’re hardly the first to give a melancholy, sensitive, stripped-down reading of The Beatles’ For No One or Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel #2. At times, this does teeter on the edge of a cliff-fall into John Lewis Christmas ad territory. That they avoid…

Atmospheric keyboard instrumentals by the Breton composer. Yann Tiersen likes to offer his own take on the way that people describe his music, but claiming that Kerber, on which piano is the principal instrument, is not “piano stuff” and that the instrument essentiallyjust gave him something to work around with electronics is pushing it a bit, especially as the piano sheet music was published ahead of the album release. He built up the music by playing along with other keyboard-based instruments, including ondes martenot and Mellotron, which he then processed, frequently to the point of unrecognisability. Although the electronic element is subtle it lifts the album above contemplative parlour music, and becomes more integral as it progresses. On Ker Yegu Tiersen’s playing is reminiscent of the clear melodic lines of…

Imagine a summer’s afternoon at a festival where Ian Anderson and Big Big Train’s Rachel Hall are jamming with Ozric Tentacles at their cheeriest. It’s a scene as unlikely as it is enticing, but Flutatious come very close to that vibe on their joyful and whole-hearted Through Space And Time (Magick Eye). These Brits have a lively, refreshing take on rock, imbued with celtic, folk and psych flavours they’ve refined over their 10 years together. Flautist Michelle Devonshire and violinist Stella Ferguson bring the spice to this Bloody Mary for the soul. Dr Fantástico take their name from the title with which Stanley Kubrick’s classic Dr Strangelove was released in their native Brazil. The trio have morphed into a quartet for second album Cicadoidea (drfantstico.bandcamp.com), which is a highly enjoyable…

Compelling, in-depth portrait of the folk rock maverick. A precis of Roy Harper’s early life: mother dies shortly after his birth; father remarries strict, religious woman; Roy gets into all sorts of trouble; joins RAF then leaves by faking mental illness – reinforces why he became an outsider, mixing romantic, poetic songs with acerbic diatribes against religion and contemporary society. Goodwin knows Harper personally, and gives us insight into both his complex character and background information on the songs. His style is conversational and a tad casual, but engaging throughout. Harper’s experimental approach and “truculent” personality produced clashes with producer Shel Talmy on 1968’s Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith, Goodwin posits that “the musical culture of the time didn’t really suit him”, but he really came into his own when…

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MYCELLO In the late 1980s, the headless, bodiless guitar became an object of derision, with comparisons being made to hedge trimmers (visually, if not sonically). Far less criticism has been levelled at MyCello, a 3D printed version of the instrument which, let’s be frank, resembles a military-grade crossbow. But look at the plus points: you can put it through amps, plug headphones into it, fold it up for ease of transport and order it in a range of sizes and colours. “The cello has been waiting for a revolution for over 400 years,” says the promo blurb, which isn’t true, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. www.mycello.info LEGO BASS “I take a bunch of Lego bricks and build a bass guitar,” is the modest introduction from YouTube…

PROG ARE CATCHING Canadian duo Crown Lands on the cusp of something genuinely exciting. Seven years ago, bassist/keyboardist/guitarist Kevin Comeau moved back to his hometown of Oshawa. He’d studied classical music theory and composition at university, and had been living out in California. Now home, he was auditioning to be in a band whose drummer was Cody Bowles. Bowles had hit the skins since the age of one, adored Neil Peart and played like Bill Bruford, and had taken college courses in West African percussion and Afro-Cuban drumming. Comeau recalls that Bowles also had the best voice he’d ever heard: “At the audition I said, ‘Hey Cody, I hear you’re a big Rush fan?’ Then I pulled down my pants and mooned Cody, because I have the Starman tattooed on…

CAUGHT BETWEEN FANTASY and reality, Mansur’s latest album, Minotaurus, offers a musical homage to the Minotaur. The six dynamic compositions bring this mythological creature to life, guided by the inspirations of project initiator, Jason Köhnen. “Mansur means ‘he who will be victorious’ in Arabic and symbolises a personal victory in my life. This album is in some way a reincarnation of my previous projects, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and The Thing With Five Eyes, and gradually moves into more [Eastern] and mystical musical approaches.” Minotaurus seeks to reflect the magnificence of the Minotaur and subvert its classical portrayal as an unsightly monster. “We’re meant to despise the Minotaur because of his physical hideousness and his bestial manners,” Köhnen explains. “For me, he’s the equivalent of David Lynch’s Elephant Man: a misunderstood,…

WITH THEIR PRODIGIOUS chops and blend of prog, funk, fusion and jazz, KARI BAND is what happens when Japan’s top session musicians create their own music. Bassist BOH first picked up his instrument for the oldest reason in the book. “A girl,” he says. “I was watching some older kids at school perform in a band and a girl asked if I could play an instrument. From that moment I decided it was time to learn one.” KARI BAND, which means Temporary Band, were founded by BOH, drummer Yuya Maeta and guitarist Mikio Fujioka, all veterans from Babymetal’s live backing group. They released their first mini-album in 2017 and when Fujioka passed away in 2018, BOH and Maeta decided to keep the project going, inviting a rotating cast of guest…

“I’d been waiting for any type of attention for this band and it happened with Blackwater Park.” “Godlike.” “As perfect as a metal album can get.” “Metal’s answer to 70s King Crimson.” These were all phrases thrown around in the music press when Opeth opened the gates to Blackwater Park in 2001. The fifth, breakthrough album by Sweden’s progressive metal outcasts, it earned them the status of worldwide rock’n’roll heroes – a reputation they still enjoy today. Doors were broken down by the album’s corpus of 10-minute giants The Drapery Falls and The Leper Affinity, which were experimental without compromising on melody or groove. While prog loyalists swooned at the unorthodox chord changes and technical guitar licks, metalheads could headbang until their necks were sore thanks to the simplified rhythms.…

Bands can (at least theoretically) re-arrange tours for any time of year, but for festival organisers with annual or bi-annual events, the pandemic has been particularly challenging. Following the cancellation of its May 2020 event, the highly regarded Rites Of Spring Festival (RoSfest) in the USA appeared an early permanent casualty of Covid when George Roldan, its founder and promoter, signalled its demise after a 16-year run. However in late 2020, John Blangero, a musician and longstanding RoSfest supporter, revived it as a public charity. “When George announced on social media that RoSfest was ending, it felt as if the tectonic plates had shifted; the public outcry was massive,” says Lisa Wetton, who is part of the new RoSfest board. Blangero, Wetton and four further directors have more than 100…

“Rainbow Chaser was iconic in the development of psychedelic pop/prog.” David Hall “Yes! Loved them, quirky and very English. Their hits were Rainbow Chaser, Tiny Goddess and Pentecost Hotel. Much prefer the second album, All Of Us. I heard an interview with one of their founders a few years ago, think it was Patrick Campbell-Lyons. He agreed that the band should be referred to as ‘English Nirvana’ to avoid confusion with the American upstarts (my words, not his) If you like English baroque and psychedelia, you will love them.” Chris Ramsbottom Pampling “I haven’t heard those albums for too long. They are both excellent and will be played tomorrow…” Mark Shepheredson “Absolutely up for debate!! Even though I consider them pop-psych.” Daniel Carter Gibson “Music was allowed to be diverse…

Dutch family affair marries modern prog with a melodic and metallic sheen. Featuring brothers Bart and Arjen Laan on guitar/vocals and drums respectively, plus dad Erik on vocals and keyboards, Homesick is a massively assured debut. Ostensibly, the album is concerned with the “gloomy loneliness that overshadows modern life”, but that doesn’t mean the music is unremittingly downbeat, sombre or depressing. From opener The Day That Never Came – with its clever combination of Stranger Things theme-alike sequenced keys and insistent Middle Eastern percussion, which builds into a varied yet very contemporary-sounding combination of crunchy guitar riffing, anthemic vocal hooks, and flute and keyboard solo interludes – through to Lonely City’s gorgeous intro and the dark funk of much of Stop Yelling, the band play around with feel and instrumentation,…

Swedish enigmas go feral on singles and outtakes collection. Sweden’s Goat were wearing masks before it was a thing. They’ve suggested that what they play is world music, but then again they’ve said they come from a cursed village where voodoo is king, so they’re clearly prone to entertaining half-truths. Theirs is a cosmic brew of anything that raises the temperature, their preferred mode of propulsion is a heavy groove splattered with tranced-out female vocals and over-the-top guitar solos. The cheekily named Headsoup is an odds-and-sods collection from their decade of delirium. It gathers non-album singles, B-sides and alternative edits, plus two brand new tracks, which are mesmeric: Fill My Mouth is folk-funk, like Jethro Tull produced by P-Funk king George Clinton, while Queen Of The Underground is a happy…

Fifth album from Derbyshire post-rock trio. While this ambiently inclined three-piece would probably stop short of calling this LP a concept album, there’s a distinct atmospheric thread running through its nine tracks that suggests a narrative arc. There’s a drowsy, early morning feel to the opening tracks, from the twittering birdsong, gentle cello and sparse drops of echoing piano on Wide Awake through to the trickling piano and ticking clocks of Entering. The sound shapes up into neat loops of neo-classical keyboard figures and soft symphonic accompaniment on We Need These Beams, creating a misty, wistful soundscape. Distant melodica and gentle acoustic strums softly decorate All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace, conjuring up summery vistas, while flickering half-beats crackle like campfires beneath Try Again And Again And Again.…

Elegant protest album from the man who once implored us to have fun tonight. After his double album, Primitif, effectively rekindled the Canterbury scene across its four sides, Wang Chung leader Jack Hues casts an incredulous eye over the events of the past 18 months and lays out what he’s seen. Working with singer Baby N’Sola, opening track We Gotta Work of Electro-Acoustic Works 20:20: hope for unity and reconciliation. It’s the album’s key song and an improvisation based around N’Sola’s ad-libs, with its middle section forming the basis of meandering yet mesmeric four-part suite that occupies the album’s second half. Elsewhere, there are some lovely sketches: Sheep takes the title of one of the most Roger Waters songs ever and makes it pure Syd Barrett; Slow Gyrs has that…

Riverside keyboardist strikes out alone with a chillingly cathartic collection. Michał Łapaj helps to produce richly emotional material with Polish quartet Riverside so it’s no shock that the keyboard player brings melodic elegance to his debut solo album. Are You There sees Łapaj teaming up with guests such as Antimatter singer Mick Moss, whose gruff yet dejected voice does wonders for the powerful regret of electro-rock elegy Flying Blind, and angelic Sorry Boys vocalist Bela Komoszyńska, who adds impact to Shelter, an uplifting ballad full of serene synths. Unsurprisingly, there are several standout instrumental passages. Evocative prelude Pieces comprises sparse piano chords and foreboding programmed tones, Limbo’s otherworldly mix of ambient dissonance, robotic rhythms and intersecting melodic patterns is designed to be the musical equivalent of journeying through Purgatory, albeit…

Croatian sextet’s genre-splicing, fashion-defying debut. No truly progressive act pays much attention to prevailing musical trends, but it still takes a certain amount of bravery to channel the early 2000s nu metal sound, even if you spare us the big shorts and baseball caps. Mercifully, that’s only one of several styles that Zagreb’s Moon Unit mob draw on to create a startlingly diverse sound on their debut album. The harder end of prog is audible in the mix too (they share their name with Frank Zappa’s daughter, after all) as staccato time signatures add to the gutsy punch of opener Velocirapture, before freewheeling synth swirls heighten the sonic mayhem. Elsewhere, the screaming metal of Motorized Frog Squad has a kitschy sci-fi edge, and Ensign For Life verges on airbrushed AOR,…

Two hours of full-blooded fusion noodling. Not for the faint of heart. A jazz fusion collective made up of former Brand X bassist Percy Jones, drummer and sometime John Zorn collaborator Kenny Grohowski, guitar adventurer Tim Motzer and fellow six-stringer Alex Skolnick (of thrash metal linchpins Testament), PAKT are, by the latter’s own admission, “non-categorisable”. And with a debut album that weighs in at 116 minutes, they’re fairly non-editable too. Like someone who has built a boat in their shed only to realise that it’s too big to get out of the building, PAKT have created a sprawling, freewheeling, loosely linked album that feels like it has no beginning or end. The moments when the band do find their multifaceted groove, while relatively infrequent given the album’s behemoth running time,…

If anyone is under the impression that Minnesota Mormon trio Low are still doing the lovely slowcore understatement they’d mastered since 1993, it’s time to refocus. They’ve radically reinvented themselves. This process began a couple of albums ago upon hooking up with producer BJ Burton, and now they’re a wildly different beast. Hey What (Sub Pop) redefines ‘extraordinary’. Even if you knew they’d evolved, this genuinely has you wondering if the speakers have blown, or the needle’s stuck. Glitching blasts of static, swirls of white noise; somehow those harmonies and melodies soldier on, like survivors in a dystopia movie emerging from ash clouds. There are some nicely unsettling washes of Euro-electronica wafting between tracks on Piroshka’s Love Drips And Gathers (Bella Union). Having now established an identity beyond “they used…

Two discs of glorious Finnish prog metal doom and gloom. Like every other band over the last couple of years, Finnish prog metal gloomsters Swallow The Sun had to put their plans on hold when their mooted 20th anniversary tour of the US and Europe was scuppered by the pandemic. Happily – a relative term word when it comes to a band whose album titles include The Morning Never Came and Ghosts Of Loss – the world gets to experience what would have been their full live set, captured in this performance recorded at Helsinki’s Tavastia Club in February 2020, just before the shutters came down on the world. Very good it is too, particularly for anyone fond of staring off into the wistful middle distance, drinking horn in hand,…

Jamming brilliance from Chicago instrumental ensemble. Previous albums from Umphrey’s McGee have veered enthusiastically across the musical spectrum, and this is no different. What the band intriguingly do here is take 12 intro pieces they’ve used over the years to start their live shows and develop these into fully formed compositions. In the process they guide listeners on a journey that goes into disco (There’s No Crying In Mexico), funk (Leave Me Las Vegas), melodic hard rock (Tango Mike) and ambient motifs (Nipple Trix). There’s even a hint of Led Zeppelin’s No Quarter running across October Rain. What holds it together is the feel of it all being the soundtrack for an unfilmed low-budget 70s heist movie. This is especially noticeable when Joel Cummins’ piano comes to the fore, as…

Nineties new age collection reveals occasional bounty. Back in the 1990s, as wide-eyed pill-popping ravers embraced all manner of cultures and musical sub-genres to get their thrills, so evolved a batch of eco-friendly, worldbeat releases. These included Frenchled Deep Forest, the Native American-inspired releases by Sacred Spirit, and from Romanian-German musician Michael Cretu came the Enigma series of albums, possibly the most successful of them all. All erred on the side of new age rather than rave and all took on board the more ambient aspects of progressive rock’s history in the same way that The Orb and The Future Sound Of London did – more Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and Klaus Schulze than Yes, Tull or ELP. Originally re-released on coloured vinyl with brand new artwork back in 2018,…

A fans’ eye view of the acclaimed British proggers’ rise. Brands ands rarely turn video cameras on their fans for more than a brief shot of a sweaty moshpit or an excitable post-show reaction – perhaps because the music industry is reluctant to tear the focus away from the impossibly glamorous figures that populate the stage. But Big Big Train have never really been ones to big themselves up unduly, and this 130-minute film focuses chiefly on the ‘Passengers’, the followers that have coalesced around the group over recent years. Here BBT devotees are interviewed about their love for the band either side of rehearsal clips and live snippets. The film seems keen to give each of them their time on screen, which reinforces the feeling that Journey Of The…