ProgIssue 95的目錄

Welcome to the very first issue of Prog in 2019. A new year beckons, full of hope… Well, musical hope, at least. Twelve months of new releases, reissued old favourites and gigs galore. As with every new year, I’m always particularly excited about what delights lie ahead. Of course, this being prog (and Prog), we also look back over our shoulders at what 2018 offered with the results of the Readers’ Poll, in which you, the readers, get to have your say on the state of play. As usual it makes for fascinating reading, with new artists breaking through and topping their respective polls. And, shock of shocks, a one-time dead cert not winning anything at all! You’ll find all the results on page 34. Endless debate will undoubtedly ensue.…

“But zeese are cremated! Zey should be pink and raw!” I’ve toured a lot over the years and have enjoyed many of the different cuisines that I’ve sampled on my travels. However, there’s one meal I’m particularly fussy about and that’s breakfast. I’ve often wondered why Britain is the only place that really gets it right, and it was only the other day when the penny finally dropped. On a recent trip to a country that will remain nameless (as I love going there), I toddled off to the hotel’s breakfast room with my stomach rumbling for a full English. Poached eggs, crispy bacon, welldone sausages, grilled mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, wholemeal toast with marmalade, and a large pot of English Breakfast tea on the side. I’m salivating just…

YOUR PROG CHEF: NAD SYLVAN On the menu: The Vampire’s Bite (aka Chicken Jambalaya) “I started to cook when I moved into my first apartment some 40 years ago. The best dish I’ve ever had is yet to be discovered, but I believe in simplicity. My mum (who sadly passed away almost 10 years ago) was a cook extraordinaire, and I learned a lot from her. Her butter-cooked spinach with grated parmesan and roasted pine nuts was a favourite of mine. “Nowadays, I get my inspiration from all over the world since I often tour for months on end. There’s always something new and intriguing out there, but I don’t cook on the road as we have a fabulous caterer who spoils us rotten!” Ingredients (serves 4) Cooked chicken breast,…

“Post-rock can seem a little bit convoluted and bland – we just try to have fun with it.” YOU’D BE FORGIVEN for experiencing post-rock fatigue as of late, with the genre so heavily saturated that it takes something really special for a band to stand out from the crowd. Fortunately, Ohio’s The End Of The Ocean are a breath of fresh air. Coming from a predominantly punk and hardcore background, the group began as an ambient bedroom project before evolving into the sprawling, emotive, dual-guitar-wielding behemoth they are today. The quintet’s 2011 debut, Pacific.Atlantic, was a big hit, swiftly racking up thousands of Spotify plays. “That was totally out of left-field – I think all of our minds were blown, and still are!” laughs guitarist Kevin Shannon on the album’s…

This being our first actual issue of 2019, Prog’s new year starts with a glance over our shoulder at the picks of 2018. Last issue you had the chance to take in the Prog writers’ favourite albums of the year. Now it’s your turn, the readers, for your choices for the 2018 Readers’ Poll. I read some comments online suggesting that 2018 was a bit of a fallow period for the genre. Really? Casting my eye over the results this year, I’m not so certain that rings true. Okay, so there were no new releases from the perceived ‘big hitters’ of the genre, but that doesn’t mean what was released lacked quality. Far from it. And it didn’t stop more of you than ever sending in your votes. What it…

“People thought we were old men because they’d seen cover of This Was and they though the photograph was real: ‘Oh wow, we thought you were in your 60s.’” How did you end up joining Jethro Tull between This Was and Stand Up? The connection was through flute playing. Ian and myself were pretty much the only two people in England playing flute in a rock style. I knew about him because I had friends who were musicians who had been to see Tull at the Marquee and other places, and had excitedly told me there was somebody else doing what I did – probably a lot better! Then my band, Gethsemane, supported Tull at a club in Plymouth. We found we had a lot in common, we listened to…

When Ben Grosse, the Californian whose resume includes the likes of Marilyn Manson, Disturbed and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, received an offer to mix Distance Over Time, he didn’t hesitate. “I became a fan of Dream Theater when they first cracked the universe back in the 1990s, but then they drifted off my radar,” he admits. “When John Petrucci reached out to me I knew there would never be another chance of working with musicians of their calibre.” The guitarist and producer was very trusting of Grosse, an unusual development as until now Petrucci has been a very hands-on guy. “Yeah,” Grosse agrees. “I think it helped that when I sent John the first song, it was pretty much what he had been hearing in his head.” Having listened…

Flowers At The Scene INSIDEOUT Bunches of guest stars adorn accomplished album. It was sometimes said of Bowie that half his genius was collaborating with the best muses and musicians. While we’re not comparing Bowness to Bowie – he’s not quite there yet – he’s smartly pulled in a splendid cavalcade of cameos on his sixth solo album; one which, with Steven Wilson mixing, he cites as “a No-Man production”. Certainly it revisits the warm ingenuity of that double act’s dramatic offerings, but so did Bowness’ recent-years trilogy, which culminated in 2017’s blend of filigree and fiction, Lost In The Ghost Light. “A reset, a new chapter, bursting with energy.” This however feels like a reset, a new chapter, and it bursts in with energy as fresh as that exhibited…

In 2003 Paddy McAloon made one of the most unique, beautiful records Britain’s ever produced. You might not normally link the classic songcraft and lyricism of Durham’s deftest with prog, but this was something else; epic and eccentric. McAloon’s health problems at the time meant that, almost blind, he couldn’t write music as he’d like. Sleepless, he became fascinated by late-night radio call-ins and began cutting up taped voices, layering them across a primitive computerised score. This was then played by an actual orchestra, and the “script” honed. The sum was emotionally greater than its parts. Over sad, keening strings and radio interference a woman recites lines like ‘the ghost of a chance’ on what became the 22-minute title track of I Trawl The Megahertz (Sony). It’s now reissued under…

The Crucible RUNE GRAMMOFON A three-song, 40-minute glide to the edge of the solar system. Faced with the intimidating task of following 2017’s epic double album The Tower, Motorpsycho return with just three tracks on their latest release, although that still amounts to 40 minutes of music. The Crucible is their second release with Tomas Järmyr behind the drum kit, joining founders Hans Magnus Ryan and Bent Sæther. The album was recorded at the venerable Monmow Valley Studios, Wales, where Black Sabbath crafted their odes to darkness in the 1970s. A fitting choice, as the opening Psychotzar kicks off with an Iommi-esque riff from Ryan that’s loaded with doom. Sæther’s bass rumbles away in the depths like a leviathan roused from slumber heading to the surface while Järmyr pummels at…

1971 - 1979 The Band Years GLOBE MUSIC Portrait of the artist as a young man. If it’s true that you can judge a person by the company they keep, then Eddie Jobson is somebody to reckon with. Replacing violinist Daryl Way and keyboardist Francis Monkman in Curved Air, Brian Eno in Roxy Music and both George Duke and Jean Luc Ponty in Frank Zappa’s band not only takes a lot of talent but also quite a bit of nerve and self-belief. What makes it all the more remarkable is that these significant milestones were achieved when he was just 17, 18, and 20 years old respectively. Even if his talents were not so abundantly obvious, the sheer calibre of those he appears alongside on this two-disc set makes for…

Yessongs SCREENBOUND INTERNATIONAL Classic Yes concert film – and its 40th anniversary special – lives again. It’s the, um, 43rd anniversary of the prog landmark concert film, which came out two years after the triple album of the same name. The movie captured the band at the Rainbow Theatre in December ’72 on the Close To The Edge tour. More importantly, it captured them at their youthful peak, or at least one of their peaks: there’s a valid argument that – contrary to traditional narratives – they got even stronger as they expansively traversed topographic oceans. For many fans though, this treasurable time capsule of the definitive line-up in action is the benchmark. “There’s a simple pleasure in watching the five gel so happily.” This edition is the gussied-up 40th…

To survey the throng gathered at the Jazz Café tonight is to confirm Billy Cobham’s status as one of the most revered musicians on the planet. Rubbing shoulders in front of the stage is a mixture of the young and the old and all points in between, couples on a date night and a heartening mix of hirsute proggers and crop-haired soul boys. But then, what else could it be for this celebrated jazz rock fusion drummer? Now aged 74, Cobham drums with the attack and verve of a man half his age yet with the precision and rhythmic dexterity that comes with age. With a red bandana tied around his sweating head, Cobham cuts an inspiring figure as he navigates his way across his extended kit. Yet all of…

Tonight’s show prompts two immediate questions. Firstly, what possesses an Australian band to forsake summer in Adelaide for a dank Wednesday evening in a Southampton pub? Secondly, if this proves to be Southern Empire’s sole UK trip, will the nation’s prog fans regret their indolence? The night before, a mere 40 or so watched this line-up in Swindon. The Joiners hosts only a handful more. However given keyboardist Sean Timms’ recent heart attack, the fact that this tour has proceeded at all provides perspective. Timms isn’t taking it easy either: he plays with both Damanek and Southern Empire, as do Southern Empire drummer Brody Green and guest saxophonist/flautist James Capatch. First up are Damanek. The ‘ek’ element is absent, with German sax player Marek Arnold unavailable – hence Capatch depping…

“Holopainen is a man who has always dared to dream, and his ambitions are paying off handsomely.” From small acorns mighty oak trees grow. In the summer of 2003, Nightwish made their live debut here in the UK. Four albums, two singers and a little over 15 years later, they can comfortably fill the biggest indoor venues this country has to offer. It’s their second time as bill-toppers here, and arena-headlining status really suits this wonderful, multi-national six-piece, its wellearned benefits – a lush, pristine sound, state-of-the-art staging and pyro; lots and lots of pyro! – bringing to life the otherworldly vision of Tuomas Holopainen in the grandest fashion possible. Holopainen is a man who has always dared to dream, and his ambitions are paying off handsomely. For more than…

This year, Hawkwind celebrate half a century as a band. And it’s good to see that Nik Turner, one of the band’s original members, is still out there (in more ways than one…) in spritely form, even though he’s turning 79 this year. This is the latest incarnation of a band who began as Nik Turner’s Space Ritual, then became Nik Turner’s New Space Ritual and are now Nik Turner’s Brand New Space Ritual (what next, Nik Turner’s Newer Brand New Space Ritual?) and while it was once a home for Hawkwind alumni, now it is more of a band in its own right. Only Turner has any connection with the mothership. And to a large extent, this is very much his show. He still has a sparkle about him,…

HOORAY FOR HACKETT After reading the excellent Steve Hackett interview in Prog 94 (January 2019), I just want to say how totally impressed I am with him both as a musician and a person. My next album purchase will be his new one. That is an absolute given. Thanks, Prog, for the great insight into Steve as a musician and a thinker. As a music fan who enjoys this sort of thing very much, it was an absolute privilege to read. Jeff Cooper A MATTER OF OPINION… I’m a little confused about your contradictory coverage of Valis Ablaze’s Boundless album. In April, the magazine published a lukewarm review saying the album “fails to break new ground”. However, in November the magazine published a glowing article saying the album is “breathing…

GLOWING GUITAR There are some extraordinarily gaudy guitars on this planet, from fluorescent pink Ibanez models to the sparkly gold Flying V. However, these weren’t garish enough for electronics whiz Andrew England, who’s covered his one in a sheet of Plexiglas and used wireless lighting drivers to turn the body into a screen. You may consider our new-found ability to watch moving images on a guitar as either a bold step forward for humanity or a sacrilegious distraction, but maybe, one day, all instruments will look like this. Fireworks on your trombone, madam? www.bit.ly/glowingguitar MBAH JENGGOT’S KINETIC ART An idle YouTube trawl not only brought the Indonesian artist Slamet Wiyono, aka Mbah Jenggot, to my attention, but more specifically a mechanical instrument he started building in 2012 that now weighs…

“Even in the 80s, Yes were more complicated than a regular rock band with their timings.” “I remember hearing Roundabout on the radio in the 70s and I loved it. I was just a kid and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s amazing! I gotta get this record.’ Rick Wakeman’s such an amazing keyboard player. Being a classical guy, he had the [same] background that I had so it was wonderful to hear it and try to learn that solo, like every other keyboard player in the world! I started my first band when I was 13 and we were jamming out everything that we liked. We tried Roundabout and we made a valiant attempt [laughs]. We didn’t have computers then where you could slow things down, you just had to listen…

Official Progressive Albums Chart The prog top 30 albums December 2018 Compiled by Official Charts Company 1 MUSE Simulation Theory HELIUM 3/WARNER BROS 2 RICK WAKEMAN Piano Odyssey SONY CLASSICAL 3 JEAN MICHEL JARRE Equinoxe Infinity RCA 4 SPIRITUALIZED And Nothing Hurt BELLA UNION 5 ROXY MUSIC Roxy Music VIRGIN 6 RUSH Hemispheres UMC/VIRGIN 7 MATT BERRY Television Themes ACID JAZZ 8 A PERFECT CIRCLE Eat The Elephant BMG 9 JEAN-MICHEL JARRE Planet Jarre SONY MUSIC CG 10 COHEED & CAMBRIA The Unheavenly Creatures ROADRUNNER 11 MARILLION All One Tonight – Live At The Royal Albert Hall EAR MUSIC 12 MARILLION Clutching At Straws PARLOPHONE 13 MOODY BLUES In Search Of The Lost Chord UMC 14 ROGER WATERS Is This The Life We Really Want? COLUMBIA 15 MOGWAI Kin –…

I heard The Yes Album. I thought, ‘I’m home.’ “Prog captures a mood for me, growing up in the 70s with things like [TV show] Children Of The Stones, Dennis Wheatley, and Hammer Horror. The 70s was a junction between old England and modern times and I’d always been struck by Merrie England and history. For me, it’s in this junction where prog resides. I would’ve been about three or four when I first saw Rick Wakeman on TV. He was doing some of King Arthur. Later my obsession with keyboards and synth would start, but what he was doing chimed with my interest in history. Where I lived, among farmers’ fields in Haydock, it still felt like the 19th century. My background was steeped in Catholicism – morality and…

In 2008, Sean Lennon and his girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl premiered their avant-psych project, The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger. The pair released a handful of EPs and two full-length recordings, the most recent being 2014’s Midnight Sun, via their Chimera Music collective. They even played a low-key London show at Dingwalls. However, their musical partnership was frequently compared to Lennon’s parents and now, five years later, the musician admits that pressure took its toll on the project. “We’ve sort of taken a hiatus, I would say. We do have probably an album’s worth of material ready to try but…” he hesitates awkwardly, “my relationship with Charlotte is actually slightly more important to me than the band. It was like, we had to choose which we would preserve or…

Michael Rother confesses to feeling a little nervous. There’s so much going on at the moment, he says, with interviews stacking up across Europe to mark the release of Solo, a ravishing new box set that gathers his first four solo albums from the late 70s and early 80s, alongside soundtracks, remixes and live recordings. The German multi-instrumentalist isn’t used to this kind of focused attention. Not that he’s moaning. “I’m not going to complain about having my past follow me,” he reasons, “because these days, as Monty Python said in the lion tamer sketch, ‘It’s a boon!’” At 68, Rother has every right to be proud of his past. His signature guitar work – abstract, minimal and innovative – was a key feature of the exploratory new music that…

The Great Adventure RADIANT/METAL BLADE A thrill-a-minute continuation of the adventures of John Bunyan. “How do you follow an epic double concept album?” asked Mike Portnoy upon the announcement of the follow-up to 2016’s The Similitude Of A Dream, before answering his own question: “Create another epic double album!” The band have been as good as the drummer’s word, putting out an album that clocks in at somewhere north of 100 minutes, a 22-track, five-chapter beast of such monumental girth that it features not one, but two overtures. “A beast of such girth that it features two overtures.” The Great Adventure continues the theme of TSOAD (which closed with the words ‘Let the great adventure now begin…’), retelling the adventure of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress via the medium of fearsomely…

Garden Of Earthly Delights SUSANNASONATA A song cycle based on the strangest of all medieval art. Susanna Wallumrød is well known for her decelerated and rather unlikely cover versions, from AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll), to Joy Division’s Wilderness, which she recorded for 2018’s Go Dig My Grave. Her signature songwriting style is similarly pared down and Garden Of Earthly Delights delves into the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. The 16th century Dutch artist employed an unprecedented lexicon of fantastical and grotesque imagery in depicting scenes ranging from the fecund paradise of Eden to the endlessly imaginative torments of hell. “Poise and understated power that can fill a room.” It’s a concept so prog that one can only imagine the extravagant way some bands…

South Of Reality ATO Psychedelic, slightly silly second LP from Primus man and rock blueblood. It’s not easy to have a sense of humour in rock music. Too jokey and people think your music is nothing but a disposable parody from a “joke band” not worth fully investing your time in. Too subtle and nobody will understand that not everything you do or say is a lofty philosophical pronouncement or sincere artistic statement. “Absurdist fun with solid psych-pop thrills.” So when Sean Lennon and Les Claypool first joined forces in 2016 on CLD’s debut album The Monolith Of Phobos, and presented us with zany psychedelic wig-outs called things like There’s No Underwear In Space, we were tempted to think it was a one-off studio lark whose jokes would wear thin.…

Solo GRÖNLAND Former Neu! guitarist’s vintage six-CD round-up, plus new/neu work. As a teenage guitarist in late 60s Dusseldorf, Michael Rother was particularly influenced by Jimi Hendrix, but he also lived in a time when German youth were criticising the old order who had taken them into the war and still held important positions within society. So out went elements of traditional German culture with its unsavoury connotations, along with Anglo-American rock and jazz. His idea was to strip right down before building up a completely new music with a “European feeling about harmony and melody”. After a brief spell in Kraftwerk, Rother explored these ideas more fully in Neu!, who forever metaphorically travelled towards a “vanishing point on the horizon”, and in a more mantric, meditative way with Harmonia.…

In 1993 progressive rock wasn’t technically dead, but the outlook was decidedly bleak. Since then there’s been an undeniable and significant revival, in which the InsideOut label has played a crucial part, serving as home to many key bands including Spock’s Beard and The Flower Kings. Without them, the progressive scene would be indubitably poorer. It’s also reasonable to conclude that many prog fans’ bank balances would be considerably healthier! Ostensibly this tour is designed to celebrate the label’s 25th anniversary, but equally it serves as a European victory lap of sorts for two stalwart bands. With Spock’s being treated as the senior partners, The Flower Kings are up first in the excellent Z7 venue on the outskirts of Basel. While Switzerland may not be an obvious prog stronghold, Basel…

“We might misbehave a little bit,” promises Rick Wakeman, coming onstage dressed in a Santa hat rather than his customary cape. With Christmas around the corner, there’s tinsel draped over the beautiful Steinway that dominates the stage and while the balcony is closed tonight, the downstairs of the chapel is comfortably packed for a show that balances high art with Wakeman’s often-bawdy humour. Every song is introduced with another shaggy dog story, but everyone is in a jovial mood and even the creakiest of Wakeman’s gags raise at least a chuckle from his fans. The set draws mainly from his most recent solo albums, Piano Portraits and Piano Odyssey, and the Union Chapel is the perfect venue for such refined fare with its gorgeous acoustics. The stately Liebesträume/After The Ball…

“Hedvig Mollestad channels Hendrix, Iommi and McLaughlin all at once, yet plays with a fluidity that’s all her own.” In an intimate, theatre-style venue in Oslo, Rune Grammofon – probably the world’s leading purveyor of jazz/prog/skronk rock – is celebrating its 20th anniversary with two nights of gigs showcasing both the breadth and talent of the label’s current roster. First up on Friday night is Maja S.K. Ratkje, one woman on a darkened stage producing a wild, untamed noise using just her voice and various electronic devices. The piece is entitled Money Will Ruin Everything, and builds from a scrabble of whispers and wordless crooning into a chaotic spell of occult glitchtronica, Ratkje flinging her arm at a theremin as though engaged in mortal combat. “Have mercy!” she growls before…

The southern summer has arrived, the sunshine state’s favourite sons Dead Letter Circus have a new album out and they are out on the road promoting it, with a bunch of dynamic supports in tow. Avant-garde mayhem merchants AlithiA take to the stage tonight with a different bassist: Tibor Gede is overseas and replaced by Enlight’s Sam Quinlan. They’re also down a singer, with frontman John Rousvanis ill. Consequently, their set is slightly less chaotic than usual, however it is still extremely lively, they still create a swirling maelstrom of tribal-influenced sound, and it is still highly entertaining. AlithiA’s songs also stand up beautifully as instrumentals. So convincing they are without vocals that an uninitiated punter might think they are a purely instrumental act. They rise above adversity and put…

“There’s as much comedic value here as there is musical ability – and that’s saying something.” This is not your typical prog gig, if there can ever be such a thing. Those who expect their musicians to be serious-minded and po-faced are advised to avoid the Wilson & Wakeman experience, because they don’t believe in just studiously playing their songs. Oh no, these are boys who just want to have fun, and insist that anyone who comes along to watch has a fun time as well. In fact, they’ll probably regard it as insult if you don’t leave smiling. To call them a double act is close to the mark. There’s as much comedic value here as there is musical ability – and that’s saying something. The pair play off…

THEFIERCE&THEDEAD @TFATD Our friend Paul Hickman has made this amazing art for Stu’s bass drum, thanks mate STEVE HACKETT @HackettOfficial This week rehearsing for Cruise To The Edge and On The Blue cruise… fab drummer Marco Minnemann has joined us for this… RICK WAKEMAN @GrumpyOldRick Early this morning I was considering jogging to the village shop… Later this morning I will be reconsidering. ALAN REED @3hobbits ‘This beer is close, that beer is far away, Dougal’ Drums completed for #album3. #huzzah MARJANA SEMKINA @marjanasemkina Today’s my first time overseeing chamber orchestra recording and I’m so excited. Also, massive thanks to everyone who helped make this happen by ordering handwritten lyric sheets <3…

Vangelis has searched the skies for inspiration for his latest album, Nocturne, which is out now through Decca. For the first time, he’s recorded the classical release on grand piano instead of his more traditional synthesisers. The 17-track disc contains 11 brand new instrumentals, including the recently released single Nocturnal Promenade, as well as reworked versions of a selection of classics including his chart hit Chariots Of Fire and the Love Theme from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Fuelled by his passion for space and night time, the influential composer has launched the new material with a request to fans to upload their own images of the moon to his website. The long player contains his first new recordings since 2016’s Rosetta; an album that saw him not only team up…

Beltane Fire have confirmed they’re regrouping to perform at London’s Water Rats on April 26. Says frontman Clint Bradley, “There’s a strong feeling within the band that we never really finished the job we set out to do back in the 80s.” The four-piece formed in 1983 and released just one studio album, Different Breed, two years later, which led to them supporting Marillion on their Misplaced Childhood UK tour in ’86. Different Breed was re-released in 2016, and the response encouraged the band to reunite for a small number of live shows. “Folk seem to be a lot more open-minded musically than they were back then,” says Bradley. “Had some of the festivals that exist now been around, life would have been a lot easier for bands such as…

Former Wrestlers release their debut EP, Champion Of The World, on March 15. It’s the latest project from Good Tiger and ex-The Safety Fire guitarist Derya ‘Dez’ Nagle. “I ended up with a bunch of songs that had no obvious purpose, so I decided to record them for this EP,” he explains. “The sound is different to anything I’ve done before but there will inevitably be connections with my past.” Nagle sings and plays every instrument on the EP, except for drums, which he programmed. Perhaps understandably, he says he’s keeping the project in the studio for now. “I’ve not got the time to think about dates. But if things go really well, I could change my mind. I’d like to develop the idea of wearing a wrestling mask. If…

“There was a lot of thinking about the future, combining music with concerns for our planet.” AS PROG INTERVIEWS DarWin, 10,000 firefighters battle devastating Californian wildfires. “In our current era we will probably never face bigger challenges to humanity – both climate change and the human destruction of our environment,” DarWin laments. “But there isn’t really any music out there capturing this. We’re yearning for meaning returning to music. In the 1960s, music was created to inspire social change.” Under President Trump, the perspective is bleak. “The United States was facing challenges before Trump, but it’s reached a fever pitch of insanity recently. It’s heartbreaking to see so many homes burning uncontrollably across California. “People don’t pay attention to what’s really important,” DarWin continues. “How do we make our planet safer, manage…

Forget Sir David Attenborough. Forget Gary Lineker and his crisps. The greatest thing to come from Leicester was a very peculiar band called The Deep Freeze Mice. Purveyors of postpunk psych-pop with regular detours into wild experimentation and endlessly bizarre lyrics, they released eight extraordinary studio albums between 1979 and 1989, with titles like Teenage Head In My Refrigerator and The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia. Fervently DIY, most of their recordings came out through singer and guitarist Alan Jenkins’ own Cordelia imprint. Every one of the band’s records is worth exploring, but they reached a synapse-tickling creative peak on 1984’s sprawling double album I Love You BoBo With Your Delicate Golden Lions. Partly inspired by Jenkins’ anticipation of what he called “the Margaret Thatcher Apocalypse”, it’s a mind-frazzling journey…

Last autumn, I spent an insightful and enjoyable day with one of the UK’s leading progressive rock bands who were in the studio recording vocals for an album which will be released later this year. While working on a 15-minute track, the lyricist became troubled as the realisation dawned on him that one word — a single word — didn’t work as well sonically as it had on paper. Recording tools were downed while the lyricist agonised, and 30 minutes later found a replacement for the offending noun. So, how do you like your lyrics? Opaque? Abstract? Explicit? Open to multiple interpretations? All of the above? None of the above? Or are you simply ambivalent? Unsurprisingly, different songwriters take different approaches. For some, lyrics are meticulously crafted and form an…

“I became a Curved Air freak when I was eight years old.” It’s tempting to believe that Fernando Perdomo never sleeps. In addition to being a multi-instrumentalist and playing guitar with the Dave Kerzner Band, he owns Reseda Ranch Studios in California – “It’s wonderful to be able to roll out of bed and make music,” he says – and is a tirelessly prolific producer and songwriter. He released two excellent albums last year, Zebra Crossing and Out To Sea, and a sequel to the latter is already on the way. How was it recording Zebra Crossing at Abbey Road? It was a lifelong dream of mine. Abbey Road is not the easiest studio to book – it’s very busy – and the one day that they were able to…

James Grashow (left) was a young art student in New York City specialising in woodcuts when he got a call from Jethro Tull’s manager Terry Ellis asking if he would be interested in designing the cover for their second album, Stand Up. “I have to be honest, I hadn’t heard of them,” he tells Prog today. “A friend of mine at school knew Terry and told them I could be great. I’d done things for magazines and advertising, but never an album cover.” Ellis and Ian Anderson really liked the idea and sent a limousine to pick up Grashow and drive him from his apartment to New Haven, Connecticut, where the band were playing. “I was so excited, I’d never been in a limousine before,” he says. They told Grashow…

Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time is a book that many own but few have managed to read cover to cover. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is another. But it’s this 300-plus-year-old Christian allegory which has served as the inspiration for both The Neal Morse Band’s last album, 2016’s The Similitude Of A Dream, and this year’s The Great Adventure. And Morse has now actually finished reading The Pilgrim’s Progress to boot. Back in 2016, Morse embarked upon recording The Similitude Of A Dream with some reservations, both about the subject material and its form, namely, the fact that it was a double album. His long-time foil, former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, was also nervous about comparisons being made with his old band, given Similitude…’s release was…

Lotus SILVER LINING MUSIC Swedish supergroup settle into their own rhythm on album four. With Soen’s first two albums the Tool comparisons came thick and fast. Despite being something of a ‘supergroup’ formed by ex-Opeth drummer Martin Lopez and Willowtree vocalist Joel Ekelöf, 2012’s Cognitive and 2014’s Tellurian relied heavily on angular rhythms, pleasingly executed but just short of greatness. With the addition of keyboardist Lars Åhlund, 2017’s Lykaia felt like the moment where everything fell into place. Though the Swedes were unhappy with the mastering – releasing Lykaia Revisited 18 months later – they melded modern, progressive time signatures with a huge warmth and expansiveness. Fourth album Lotus picks up where it left off, the band not just exploring their identity but embracing it head-on. “Contemporary prog music that…

When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light CENTURY MEDIA Finland’s prog doom kings serve up some widescreen sorrow. Even by their laudably morose standards, When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light paints Swallow The Sun as a band nobly bearing the weight of immense grief on their shoulders. Guitarist and principal songwriter Juha Raivio penned these songs in the midst of mourning his partner and creative muse Aleah Stanbridge, who sadly passed away in 2016 at the age of 39. While it would be daft to say that the Finns’ seventh album is in any way darker, heavier or more acutely downbeat than its predecessors, the sound of genuine heartbreak and despondency is unmistakable throughout these 53 emotionally bombastic minutes. “Bravery, ingenuity and progressive spirit in action.” Following…

Regal Worm’s Jarrod Gosling can do little wrong in these parts. Variants (Klove) is a companion piece to the 2017 debut from Cobalt Chapel, his folk-psych pairing with the sensational Cecilia Fage. In full tinkering mode, Gosling revisits that album and peels away the instrumentation, reimagining the material through electronic ambient layers. It’s a liquid light show for the ears – woozy, mind-altering, soporific, pagan rite-scary in parts. Mark Rowen played guitar in Breathing Space with Mostly Autumn’s Olivia Sparnenn and Iain Jennings, and his self-released debut album Radiance takes you to that comforting, 80s netherworld prog does so well. Catchy, retro power-rockers like Feel Like Letting Go and Trick Of The Light are brought home by Lisa Box’s committed performance, and there are proggy twists aplenty on acoustic ballads…

Brilliant Trees/Alchemy/Gone To Earth/Secrets Of The Beehive UMC/VIRGIN EMI Superlative retuning of Sylvian’s first four. One slight problem caused by the vinyl revolution is that reviewers are operating in advance of release and are often denied the pleasure of reviewing records from actual shiny plastic. That is the case here, with these long-awaited reissues of David Sylvian’s first four albums, and while it would obviously have been wonderful to be immersed in the full vinyl experience, it’s more than apparent from the digital audio that these classics have been remastered with the greatest of skill. In truth, even Sylvian’s 1984 solo debut Brilliant Trees sounded stunning first time out; in many ways a logical next step from his work with Japan, it demonstrated the singer’s desire to shoulder-barge boundaries and…

There’s something about Mutoid Man. The brainchild of Cave In frontman Stephen Brodsky, at first they appear as no more than a mad metalcore band, but listening carefully to what they do here it’s clear there are progressive, restless depths to their ambitions. Have no doubt that Mutoid Man are developing into a formidable experimental band. Mastodon have nothing to prove. But is that becoming a problem for them? There’s a definite whiff of this band now being in a comfort zone. Yes, they receive a rapturous reception, and clearly enjoy the whole ethos of being onstage. However, where once they were pushing out the boundaries of what we know as progressive metal, now Mastodon are stuck in a rut of their own construction. Some might mistake this for a…

If you’d just landed from Mars and were labouring under the delusion that prog – or neo-prog, which IQ have always denied being – was unremittingly earnest, po-faced stuff, tonight’s encore may have thrown you. First, most of the band return to the stage wearing Santa Claus hats, with singer Peter Nicholls keeping a straight face and sighing that this is the only costume change the budget allows nowadays. “But where’s Mike?” he continues. Then guitarist Mike Holmes wobbles and teeters on, a gigantic pair of white angel wings strapped to his back. Like a bespectacled Pygar from Barbarella, it’s a bold look. It takes a few minutes and the help of two techs to get his guitar strap over his shoulders, but style is worth suffering for. We’re just…

“This song really shows Phil’s gift for harmony and melody,” says John Greaves, introducing his solo vocal and piano version of God Song, written by Phil with Robert Wyatt for Matching Mole’s Little Red Record. This comment gets to the heart of Miller’s musical legacy. The guitarist was an exciting, edgy soloist, but he was most fascinated by how melodies and chord sequences worked together. This career-spanning tribute concert, hosted by writer Aymeric Leroy, is performed largely in chronological order, with a rotating cast, starting with bluesy tunes from Miller’s days in Delivery. Jakko Jakszyk from King Crimson delivers another Miller/Wyatt song, Calyx from Hatfield And The North’s self-titled debut, in an arrangement featuring Sarah Gail Brand on trombone. Another highlight is an expanded version of Underdub from that band’s…

“Kavus Torabi is a guitar wrangling, wild-eyed, manic totem of the challenging and bizarre.” Kicking off this commemoration of all thing Cardiacs-related, Zofff’s set of instrumental psychedelia rolls like a multicoloured audio tsunami across a packed venue; space rock noises segue into ground-shaking sub-bass pummelling as Richard Gorbutt coaxes walls of sound from his vaguely intimidating twin towers of synth gear and effects. Mainman Bic Hayes and very special guest, his old sparring partner from Levitation, Terry Bickers toss out brain-bending ideas and otherworldly guitar textures. Leitmotifs get developed then discarded, with bass and drums selflessly holding things together. Conventional setlists be damned: this is a deeply powerful and sublime 45 minutes performed to lurid back-projections. Kavus Torabi’s genre-defying, outré octet Knifeworld rides the positive post-Zofff vibe with an impressive…

Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds is living proof that nothing stays out of fashion forever. Despite selling millions of copies around the world in the years following its original release in 1978, the album was clogging up bargain bins up and down the nation by the late 80s, alongside similarly unsellable discs. Yet, like ELO before it, The War Of The Worlds has escaped history’s cruel waste disposal unit and become a hot commercial property once more. Some of it’s good. The iconic, six-note motif that heralds the arrival of the Martians still has the power to thrill and give goosebumps. Liam Neeson (who’s not physically present, but projected onto big screens either side of the stage) has enough natural gravitas to step into Richard Burton’s shoes as…