Table of contents for Issue 121 in Prog

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog. I hope this issue finds you well. A pity that, as I write this, the UK government has landed the live music scene another huge blow by delaying the final shift away from Covid-related restrictions. What it does mean, however, is that when we reveal our report into the effects of the pandemic on the live progressive music scene in the next issue, we should, hopefully, all know exactly what lays ahead. Well, I sincerely hope we do. But to current matters, Tool’s 2001 album Lateralus surely ranks as one of the most important progressive albums of the modern era, if not the most important. Not only did it hit the No.1 spot in the US album charts at a time…

Prog news updated daily online! progmagazine.com “It’s a life’s work, basically.” Caravan will release a four-years-in-the making 37-disc box set Who Do You Think We Are? on August 20 via Madfish, in a limited edition of 2,500 copies. As well as remastered versions of the group’s 16 studio albums and four official live albums, the set includes 11 discs of previously unheard concert tapes – from soundboard recordings to audience bootlegs – a DVD of vintage European TV performances from 1971 to ’81, two books, posters – including a poster/map of Canterbury created in the style of the In The Land Of Grey And Pink cover artwork – a replica press pack, and Steven Wilson’s stereo and 5.1 mixes of their 1971 album, In The Land Of Grey And Pink.…

The Neal Morse Band – now named NMB – will release fourth album Innocence And Danger on August 27 via InsideOut. Unlike its recent predecessors, it’s not a concept album, but despite their attempt to avoid it, it’s another double album. “I don’t want it to sound like I dropped the ball,” Neal Morse says, “but I told the guys before we started that I wasn’t going to bring much music in. I stepped back and they stepped forward. It all came together so easily.” When drummer Mike Portnoy realised they’d amassed 80 minutes of material, “we decided we didn’t want to relegate anything, so we had to add a little more music.” Among two epics of 20 and 30 minutes in duration, and a couple of “poppy” four-minute pieces,…

Prognosis festival has announced it will return in 2022 after its last two scheduled editions were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The indoor event, which debuted in 2019, will be held at De Effenaar in Eindhoven, Netherlands and takes place from April 15-16 next year. Much of the lineup from the 2020 incarnation remains, with headliners Haken and Katatonia joined by Enslaved, Focus (celebrating their 50th anniversary), Long Distance Calling and more. “Progressive music is a very vivid genre, so the Prognosis Festival is all about discovering things,” says organiser Paul van Berlo. “There are some very talented new bands we wanted to give a chance to and we also have well-known bands play sets that you can’t see anywhere else.” British progressive metallers Haken will be performing tracks…

SKULPT SE If there’s anyone reading who’d like to play an instrument that looks a bit like a Stylophone but doesn’t sound like four bees fighting in a biscuit tin, we’ve got just the thing. Modal Electronics already made a tiny-but-mighty synthesiser, the Skulpt, but it’s now launching its even tinier little brother, replete with quality filters, oscillators and arpeggiators. It might not have the dramatic visual impact of Keith Emerson’s Moog Modular, but hey, at least it’s affordable. (£170, we’re led to believe.) www.modalelectronics.com NUVO JHORN Most of us will be familiar with the many barriers – financial, social, philosophical – that have prevented us from taking up the euphonium. These are now, thankfully, being broken down. Instruments made out of ABS plastic are giving kids and adults the…

Nighwish (right) will reissue their acclaimed 2004 album Once on August 6 via Nuclear Blast. The remastered reissue will be available as a double CD, four-CD Earbook and coloured vinyl editions. See www.nightwish.com. Steve Howe will release the seventh edition of his Homebrew album series on July 30 via HoweSound. Homebrew 7 is unique in that none of the tracks included have been previously released until now. See www.stevehowe.com. Violinist and composer Anna Phoebe has released a new double single Horizons/Beyond Horizons, taken from her upcoming album Sea Souls that’s out September 3 via Eat The Peach and features Phil Manzanera. See www.annaphoebe.com. IQ are rescheduling their 40th anniversary September show in London due to the pandemic. The rescheduled gig will be on June 11, 2022 at the Islington Assembly…

Images are just as important as words, and this month’s competition pays tribute to some of prog’s best-loved photos. Members of the Rock Photographers Collective have snapped album covers and live shots of some of our favourite bands and now you can admire them up close as the ’togs have set up their own store selling exclusive T-shirts, prints and other merchandise featuring Marillion, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and more! They’ve kindly donated a selection of items printed with one of Martyn Goddard’s cool captures of Ian Anderson and a lucky reader could soon own them. Up for grabs is: a 50x50cm framed art print, plus an eco-friendly cotton shopping bag and mug featuring the same image, which was taken on the Isle of Skye in 1979 around the…

The diversity of Lyle Workman’s career is remarkable. In the mid-80s, he made his recorded debut on Bourgeois Tagg’s eponymous first album – their second, Yoyo, was produced by Todd Rundgren and yielded a Top 40 hit in the United States and UK with I Don’t Mind At All. Subsequently, aside from appearing on the revered Spilt Milk album by Jellyfish, Workman has played as a sideman with some of the biggest names in music. In recent years he’s built a significant reputation writing music for film and TV but has also found time to record several solo albums. His recently released Uncommon Measures sports plenty of prog and fusion influences from his youth. “It was very tense making Spilt Milk, but Jellyfish were an incredible group and I’m extremely…

“Tool left me quite shaken; I remember listening to the Opiate EP over and over again. When I managed to get hold of the rest of the discography, I could listen to nothing else. It was like magic. Every time someone tried to explain the technicalities of their music, I dismissed it because I loved the mystery of how it’s done. Tool played a very special role in finding my ‘tribe’ to the extent that my heart still quickens if I’m out in a pub and Tool starts playing. I instantly know I’ve come to the right place. When I see someone wearing their merch, I mentally salute them. During those early years, when it’s so important to have friends that share your interests, I didn’t, I was on my…

“It’s hard to say what the music scene would be like today if Tool had never existed. In the mid-90s they found themselves at a crossroads between grunge, prog rock and metal. From there they managed to drag in fans from right across those genres, and that created a massive level-up for the scene as a whole. In that sense they were pioneers simply by being at that crossroads, and then they pushed some boundaries creatively, which helped rock music to keep on evolving and stay relevant. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Tool created a genre, but for all those bands who get labelled ‘for fans of Tool’, such as Soen, Karnivool, Mastodon and ourselves, Tool helped pave the way. Maybe they gave some people an…

“I didn’t know what to make of it when I first heard Lateralus. It gives up its secrets slowly and, on the surface, it’s expertly structured but beneath, there are layers of self-reference, imaginative sound design, lyrical topics that are as ambitious as the compositions, and a unique employment of tension and release. Despite its ambition and complexity, it never loses sight of the meta and, for every intricately structured, mind-jarring groove, there’s always a payoff for those willing to take the journey – the riff that comes in halfway through The Grudge or the explosion after the calm interlude in the middle of Ticks & Leeches are good examples. Lateralus raised the bar for what I thought was musically possible and remains one of the best albums ever made.”…

AIDAN O’ROURKE (VIOLIN) David Longdon: “Aidan is from a band called Lau, a British folk band. If you can imagine if Brian Eno had a folk band, they might sound a little bit like Lau. They’re very inventive, and Aidan came in to do the album. We didn’t want to lose the violin because it’s part of the Big Big Train sound – I love violins, I think they’re fantastically emotive instruments. When touring can happen safely again, we imagine Aidan will be back performing with Lau, but he did a great job on the album. Although he won’t be touring with us, Clare Lindley will…” CLARE LINDLEY (VIOLIN) Greg Spawton: “A few years ago, our previous violin player Rachel [Hall] cut off the top of her finger a month…

M-Opus man’s soundtrack composing work. Best known in prog circles from his symphonic project M-Opus, Jonathan Casey has made a living over the past decade or more as a composer of TV, film and ad themes, particularly in his native Ireland. That’s the work that’s been collected on this particular release, and while grand lyrical concepts and 19/8 time signatures might be thin on the ground, he captivates very effectively without them. Unsurprisingly, Casey is particularly skilled in weaving elements of traditional Irish music into the widescreen, orchestral swells he conjures, as showcased on Rebellions, while a haunting cello swathed intro to Snowflakes On Flames sets the scene for a folk lament laced with medieval chants and instrumentation that recalls the gothic symphonies of Dead Can Dance. Elsewhere, flowing waves…

Soundtrack king revisits rock with his first solo album since 1984. Not for Danny Elfman the existential introspection that lockdown provoked in some musicians. Instead, it prompted a creative outpouring in the former Oingo Boingo frontman-turned-soundtrack nabob, which yielded this massive, 18-song album in which he explores the turmoil of recent years. The concept behind Big Mess was to ally rock guitars (some of which are provided by Nine Inch Nails man Robin Finck) and lavish string arrangements. The punishing drums and female backing vocals of Sorry achieve an over-the-top-ness that evokes Devin Townsend at his most full blown, with Elfman giving his anger full vent as he aims his ire at an unnamed but obvious subject for ‘the hate that you’ve collected’, while calling for ‘revolution and evolution’. It’s…

Quartet of live in lockdown releases from prog metal masters. In a bold move to make up for the absence of live shows, Norway’s Enslaved filmed and recorded four livestreams last year. Collected here, each offers something different while underpinning their right to be regarded as one of the best progressive bands at the heavier end of the spectrum. Inevitably, there’s a small amount of crossover between the tracklistings on these four recordings, which in total amounts to more than three hours of music. The Rise Of Ymir, featuring Enslaved’s first livestream from April last year, sets the tone with a thunderous performance. Chronicles Of The Northbound has more obvious subtlety set against searing metal ferocity, while Below The Lights offers a grey, forbidding atmosphere. Best of the quartet is…

Appy days are here again for Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew. Before coming up with eclectic collective Broken Social Scene in the 2000s, Canadian artist Kevin Drew was one of those studio-tanned, music mad types who would obsess over Brian Eno, Ennio Morricone and Warp Records’ back catalogue. Such catholic taste would reap rewards in the years to come with BSS, and for his first release as K.D.A.P. (short for Kevin Drew A Picture – see what he did, etc) he’s channelling his formative self. Influences is a collection of cultured, loop-based ambient/electronic instrumentals that Drew conceived using a ‘DIY beat-making’ app called Endlesss. He’s been a vocal advocate of this software, finding it both inspiring and democratising – through it, he contends, everyone can have access to the means…

Welsh neo-proggers’ pre-lockdown 20th anniversary show in all its glory. Recorded in May 2019 at the Arlington Arts Centre in Newbury, England, the nearly two-and-a-half-hour Angels And Damned offers a terrific celebration of Magenta’s 20th anniversary. The setlist includes selections from every album released at that point, ranging from 2001’s Revolutions to 2017’s We Are Legend. Instrumental opener Opus 3 sets the stage before the feistiness of Gluttony reveals both the musical dexterity of the players and the harmonies of vocalist Christina Booth and keyboardist Robert Reed. Across the remaining runtime, the group continuously showcase their evolution as poised songwriters and adventurous composers. The quiet piano ballad This Life, the acoustic Morning Sunlight and the vibrant Hurt illustrate both the depth and breadth of Magenta’s songwriting. They end the show…

Tubular Bells producer follows up his 1977 concept set in startlingly strange style. “This album is not intended to be comfortable, predictable or commercial,” Tom Newman says of this belated sequel to his 1977 curio Faerie Symphony. He can say that again. Celtic folk textures are again interwoven with curious electronic sounds, but often it’s wilfully peculiar fare. On The Orchid People’s Dilemma a Jew’s harp introduces a cod-reggae passage accompanied by squelching swamp creature noises and people talking in Newman’s own version of Faerie. The seven-minute suite The Rebellion takes in looped samples of old Irish folk song, radio crackle, despondent snatches of piano and free-form guitar shards as an unsettling dreamscape unfolds. More accessible is Theena Shee 2021, a follow-up to the original album’s track on which Mike…

Captivating second journey from Jens Lueck and guests. Although Single Celled Organism’s dystopic 2017 debut, Splinter In The Eye, saw German multi-instrumentalist Jens Lueck emerging as a masterful songwriter and arranger, this follow-up outdoes it in every way. Opener She’s Awake is an engrossing synthesis of mournful piano chords, cautionary narration and fullblown art rock bravura. It recalls the cosmic colourfulness of RPWL, IQ, and Cosmograf while remaining sufficiently idiosyncratic. The Final Door and Ride On A Ray are more conventionally arranged, yet still wonderfully dense and hooky; I’m Not Human and Humble, on the other hand, are moody and unsettling puzzles on which partner Isgaard Marke – a prior Lueck collaborator – channels early 80s Kate Bush at her eeriest. Equally fascinating, – but also more complex and vigorous…

Writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Duncan Lyall’s exemplary resumé includes recent work with Mark Knopfler on the music for the delayed stage adaptation of Local Hero. He’s also collaborated with Craig Armstrong and toured with Mary Chapin Carpenter, and has had a firm foothold in traditional folk territory as a double bassist with Kate Rusby and celtic “supergroup” Treacherous Orchestra. But his notable new album, Milestone (Red Deer), is a showcase for his nimble mastery of the Moog, which takes the role of the bass and assumes some lead melody lines too. They intertwine splendidly with strings, woodwinds and electric guitar on such evocative instrumental pleasures as Barnacarry Bay. A format-fusing delight. Langan, Frost & Wane may sound like they’re going to deliver a leaflet about selling your house for you,…

Ambition and virtuosity on Australian prog metallers’ second album in 12 months. In 2015, Teramaze released the conceptual Her Halo, setting themselves up as one of the most creative bands around. Six years on, not only does Sorella Minore continue the conceptual storyline but it shows that the band have developed even more. The tale itself is about the ongoing battle for the soul of a character called The Tyrant. But that’s almost irrelevant, because it’s the way the story musically unfolds that makes the album spellbinding. The title track spans 26 minutes, twisting through myriad changes in direction. There are nods towards Dream Theater and Queensrÿche as this epic swoops between pastoral and heavy passages, before becoming more operatic and slightly avant-garde. Four vocalists are featured on the monumental…

Thumpermonkey man turns inward and faces the strange. A world away from the crazed sci-fi indulgence of Thumpermonkey’s most recent album, Make Me Young, Etc, Michael Woodman’s latest solo album is his most spellbinding creation yet. Psithurism begins with the fragile Sacramento, before morphing seamlessly into the skittering, on-the-wonk art rock of Petrichor, wherein the warmth of live instruments is offset by the brittle clatter of electronics and ululating ripples of sax. Cloned In Error scuttles down shadowy post-rock alleyways, fuelled by strange chord changes, Woodman’s delicate falsetto, a brief downpour of woozy synths and some gnarly riffs. But it’s the album’s closing brace of epics that may cause listeners to wonder why Psithurism only lasts 26 (admittedly brilliant) minutes: The Levitant is an opulent, free-flowing waltz, while Seachange is…

Transitional, undervalued album gets welcome reissue. In some ways the sixth Camel album, released in 1978, marked the end of an era. After its recording, Peter Bardens left to join Van Morrison, while former Caravan man Richard Sinclair would soon exit too. They could see a new chapter from here. Yet it wasn’t as if Camel were stuck in a rut. Breathless, with Mick Glossop co-producing, makes a sincere if sometimes uneasy attempt to move with the times. Nobody starts shouting about white riots, but most songs aim for concise, radio-friendly length and a dash of the upbeat. They’re not naturals at it, and seem to heave sighs of relief upon loosening their skinny ties for the seven-minute leg-stretchers of Echoes and The Sleeper. Generally, the album nudges them to…

Career-spanning collection captures coulda-been prog contenders. Away from the big beasts dominating the 1970s progressive music scene, a legion of lesser-known acts slogged away on the support circuit, fighting for and sometimes securing their own time in the spotlight. One such group came into being when keyboardist Dave Greenslade and bassist Tony Reeves, both late of Colosseum, joined forces with fellow keyboardist Dave Lawson who’d paid his dues in Spider and Samurai, and ex-King Crimson and Fields drummer Andy McCulloch. With their twin keyboard sound giving them something of a unique selling point in a crowded field, they attracted a small but devoted band of fans who hung on every arpeggio and ostinato. Although the four studio albums recorded for Warner Brothers didn’t enjoy especially large sales, they are filled…

Former The Enid singer brings his solo album to exuberant life. That Joe Payne is unquestionably one of the finest and most charismatic vocalists to emerge from the prog pack over the last two decades, and his 2020 album By Name. By Nature. showcased his uncanny ability to merge progressive aspects with pop. But it’s onstage where Payne is at his most convincing, so it’s no surprise this live release – available on DVD and Blu-ray as well as regular CD – brings an extra dimension to the studio recordings. The whole of the aforementioned album is performed, with Payne proving he’s not only a magnificent singer, but also possesses a flair for the dramatic. He performs with complete abandon, doing everything to enhance the experience for the socially distanced…

Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future Publishing, 1-10 Praed Mews, Paddington, London, W2 1QY, or email prog@futurenet.com. Letters may be edited for length. We regret that we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment and prog news and views, find us on facebook.com under Prog. INSPIRING CONTENT Thank you for the excellent feature on Peter Hammill [Prog 119]. I’ve been a big fan since I first heard Sleepwalkers. I had the good fortune to see Van der Graaf Generator a few years ago in Glasgow. They’re coming to Edinburgh next year so I hope the tour will not be cancelled. It was nice to read about the 19-year-old Niamh Burnett [in Have A Cigar]. Such an inspiration. I’m sure more people her age would like prog rock…

This month, Intro was compiled by Mike Barnes Chris Cope Jerry Ewing Rob Hughes Jo Kendall Martin Kielty Hannah May Kilroy Dom Lawson Alex Lynham Rhodri Marsden Grant Moon Alison Reijman Natasha Scharf Phil Weller Public Service Broadcasting have announced their fourth album, Bright Magic, is out on September 24 via PIAS. On it, the British band celebrate being pro-European, and the art, industry and influence of German capital Berlin. To get closer to the “gleaming, inspiring electricity” of the subject, PSB founder J Willgoose Esq relocated for several months after a tip-off that the legendary Hansa Studios was free for writing and recording. “I brushed up on my GCSE German, rented a flat near Kreuzberg, and got a set of keys for the studio,” he says. Partly inspired by…

“The first thing I remember about prog is my dad had bought Genesis’ …And Then There Were Three… album. Then my dad took us to see Rush in Scotland, because he knew them – it’s hard to imagine but they used to open for Nazareth in Canada. It was way over my head because I was 10, but I remember watching Neil Peart, and it was great. Later, I watched Marillion from the side of the stage, and Fish was just like a creature from another planet with all the makeup and his moves. I got into prog musically with Yes’ Owner Of A Lonely Heart – people might find that strange but it was a good place to start. “I was about 15 when Peter Gabriel’s So came out.…

Over the past year we have all become aware of the very necessary jobs that are taken for granted. In the prog world it’s the behind-the-scenes people who make stage shows work. While I don’t go to concerts for my own reasons, I do understand that people want to experience those sights, sounds – yes, and sometimes even smells. It’s on the tour circuit that band members find whether they can get on with each other or not. New stuff can be tried out in front of a live audience for immediate feedback. Musicians often talk about the real-time relationship with their audience – some songs work, others just don’t. A live performance can sort out which ones do, and whether the band really needs a 15-minute bassoon solo after…

WITH THEIR STUNNING debut The Machine Is Burning And Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again, French art rockers Bruit<_ have dropped an early contender for album of the year. Leaning heavily on analogue technology as opposed to digital modelling, synthesis and production tools, as well as eschewing overly aggressive compression, has resulted in an open, organic and vibrant listen. Although such recording techniques provide an unstudied and natural feeling, the finished album is the result of careful planning, sound design, orchestration and production. It turns out that from atmosphere, to melody, to production, the band’s greatest skill is in making this intricate and ambitious record feel so effortless to the listener. Bruit<_’s genesis was in the indie-rock group Kid Wise. Founding members, bassist, violinist and producer Clément Libes and…

Even a casual listen to Lateralus reveals a song of meticulous construction, but closer inspection reveals how the title track references the Fibonacci Sequence. This is the series of numbers where each new number after the first two is the sum of its two predecessors: 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8 etc. The chorus riff of Lateralus is a sequence that cycles through measures of nine, eight and seven beats per bar – 987 is the 16th number of the Fibonacci Sequence. Inspired by this, Keenan wrote his lyrics for the verses so that each line has a number of syllables that corresponds to the Fibonacci Sequence, first ascending then descending. This produces a pattern of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 5, 3; then the pre-chorus counts down the sequence, 13,…

“I was into 90s hardcore and was never really interested in immersing myself in their music until Lateralus came out, but it wasn’t until I saw them live at Roskilde Festival in 2006 that it really clicked. Me and my ex-girlfriend were spellbound, we listened to Lateralus and 10,000 Days non-stop on our eight-hour drive home. Tool have not only reinvigorated the scene, they’ve created a musical realm of their own. Their approach to intricate and convoluted, yet always groovy and effective, polyrhythmic arrangements is quite unique and the fact that they always seem to strike the right balance between catchiness and complexity without sounding scholastic or unintuitive is pretty exceptional, even more so since they pull all that off as a four-piece live.”…

Tom Newman blames his mother for the way the original Faerie Symphony turned out. “My mum was a wonderful Irish lady, but she was also mad,” laughs Newman. “She was a devout Catholic, but also superstitious. She believed in every piece of Irish mythology and folklore that came to her attention; mum was forever crossing herself to ward off the evil spirits that she was convinced were everywhere you looked. “Because of this, I grew up scared of things like the faerie kingdom. My mother definitely believed they existed, and through her I felt a fear for what they could do should they wish to harm anyone.” As a result, says Newman, that album – released in 1977 – turned out to be rather sinister in its style. “It was…

“I was sceptical about his involvement with Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, but having seen them play live, the whole thing works really well and will be seeing them again at the rescheduled concerts – so it’s a thumbs-up from me.”Gary Shepherd “He’s done a good job with Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets. The Spands were part of the early 80s, not sure what Kemp’s done between then and now.”Carole Flint “Through The Barricades is quite epic, I think.”Marcel B “Erm, no.”Rich Goodall “I was blown away by his performance of early Floyd music in Saucerful Of Secrets. He’s clearly served his time with his love of prog.”Gordon Robertson “Just because someone was once in Spandau Ballet doesn’t mean he has to remain a prat all his life.”John Herdman “Now…

“You don’t want to be stuck in the same old thing and be stale and not grow,” says Jane Getter. Known for her impressive fusion chops on her first three solo albums, the guitarist has been moving deeper into prog rock territory since introducing her group, Jane Getter Premonition, with the 2015 album On. Now, with Anomalia, she continues to grow as a songwriter, showcasing her voice and lyrics alongside her fearsome playing. “I feel like it’s the next step in that stage of my creativity,” says Getter, speaking to Prog from her home in The Bronx, New York. “I was really proud of On, I thought it was really great, but I feel like this is an even stronger piece of work.” Anomalia features Getter’s husband and co-producer Adam…

UK quartet evolve from stoner roots to flourish on fifth album. The good news here is that Family The Smiling Thrush finds Boss Keloid at their most progressive; after five albums full-blooded adventurism is thrusting towards the forefront. The bad news? It contains only seven tracks. The UK quartet have come a long way since their sludgy 2010 debut, Angular Beef Lesson, but they haven’t completely abandoned their stoner, doom roots on their latest romp – listeners of Mastodon will find something to love in the grimy, saw-edged riffola. But as those bands show, there can be beauty amid darkness, and Alex Hurst’s muscular vocals elevate things from the mire. A key selling point of this impressive dispatch, which often feels allergic to 4/4, is the many dalliances. The barnstorming…

Chappo is reunited with old Family chum Poli Palmer. On his first album in 12 years, Roger Chapman delivers a set of songs that reference his entire career, melding together rock’n’roll, soul and blues influences. Multi-instrumentalist (and longtime Family member) Poli Palmer doubles up as producer and co-writer here. His imaginative keyboards add texture and colour, while Procol Harum’s Geoff Whitehorn shines on lead guitar. Chappo’s near-namesake Michael Chapman welcomed advancing age saying that he’d always wanted to sound like an old blues singer anyway and the same might apply here: his voice sounds nicely weathered now, with less of the exaggerated tremolo that divided opinion back in the day. The funky Rabbit Got The Gun is the most intricately arranged song; by contrast, the spartan, drumless On Lavender Heights…

Swapping North Sea Radio Orchestra for Ark in a solo statement. North Sea Radio Orchestra’s Craig Fortnam has released solo music using the Arch Garrison banner but this is his debut under his own name. Homegrown and intimate, Ark maintains a sense of aural continuity with his other work. Burnished with seductive, sinuous woodwind, courtly guitar, swooning cello and Fortnam’s own plaintive vocals, the sprightly tunes here form a suite of songs and instrumentals so bright and airy they might have all been blown into the room on a summery breeze. Yet that lightness of touch and those uplifting tones belie the sombre undertow that swirls and pulls at some of Ark’s tracks, with Fortnam expressing loss, anguish, and becoming emotionally adrift having lost close family and friends in recent…

New Romantic linchpin turned honorary progger’s belated second solo album. Five years ago, it would have been highly unlikely that a solo album by a member of Spandau Ballet would have got anywhere near Prog’s editorial team. However, Gary Kemp now has his honorary AAA, thanks to his involvement in Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets. The question is: is there enough for a ‘serious’ prog fan to appreciate on Insolo? Well, for anyone who relishes well-crafted, yacht-influenced AOR, there is much here to enjoy. Fellow Saucer Guy Pratt plays on most tracks and Lee Harris adds lap steel as well. Queen’s Roger Taylor brings the beef to Too Much. Waiting For The Band successfully conveys the joy of anticipation before a concert. Here, clips of Bowie fans outside Earls Court…

When Ian Carr’s Belladonna (Mr Bongo) was first released in 1972 it came on Vertigo’s ‘swirl’ label. Long out of print and coveted by collectors, these days original pressings change hands for a king’s ransom. Good news, then, that this lovely vinyl reissue, a half-speed Abbey Road remaster, gives everyone else an opportunity to enjoy the swaggering pugnacious brilliance of Ian Carr’s trumpet blazing over razorsharp riffing and funky grooves in the medium it was intended. It’s hard to overstate this album’s accomplishments and importance in Carr’s development as a writer and bandleader. Essentially the fourth Nucleus album in all but name, Dave MacRae’s turbocharged Fender Rhodes, Roy Babbington’s probing bass, and Allan Holdsworth’s piquant guitar ensure the aural fireworks dazzle. Ray Russell Sextet’s Forget To Remember (Jazz In Britain)…

Crack The Sky mainman channels his inner Syd Barrett. Anyone who knows John Palumbo through his work with veteran US proggers Crack The Sky may be surprised by his fifth solo album. While his regular band have an expansive style, what Palumbo does here is a lot more inward looking. Hollywood Blvd is a moody collection of songs that has much in common with Syd Barrett or Lou Reed. The pace is mostly slow and mournful, only lightening slightly for Funky Town, where Palumbo draws from late 70s-era Bowie. However, it’s far from depressing, weaving a tapestry that uses Hollywood as a metaphor to allow a better understanding of the complex nature of the artist at the core of these 12 tracks. Aside from acoustic and slide guitar contributions from…

Colorado trio bring more crunch and conscience on third album. Source’s thoughtfully balanced blend of crunching prog metal and heady, spiritual elements stems from their ‘consciousness-based’ mindset. The trio’s third album is “about forming unity between our physical and cosmic, or ethereal selves”, and was made in their own studio, on a mountain in their home state of Colorado. The title track opens with tinkling, treated windchimes, but its huge riff takes no prisoners – even if guitarist/singer Ben Gleason’s vocal style is pure, sonorous and pretty un-metal. Urgent single False Prophet is heavy in both word and musical deed, while challenging 14-minute end piece Pupa shows off the trio’s ever-evolving musicianship. Source’s distinctive, mindful flavour comes through the tabla tones of The Insipidness, the gentle acoustic eco-warning Origin, and…

Devin swaps the acoustic guitar for all-out metal on latest lockdown live release. With no touring, Devin Townsend has devoted his energies to raising money for charity through online concerts and Galactic Quarantine is one of his virtual events with the band spread across North America. Unlike the inaugural Devolution Series release, the acoustic Live In Leeds, this is all about skull-crushing heaviness, spanning old Strapping Young Lad (All Hail The New Flesh) through to more recent cuts like Stormbending and March Of The Poozers. To replicate the densely layered studio arrangements, Townsend makes extensive use of backing tracks, so it’s not a particularly live-feeling album. The mix doesn’t help; there’s no air in the music, everything is ultra-compressed to the mid-range and most of the time it’s impossible to…

Frank’s final American concert, genital warts and all. Frank Zappa’s very last American tour has been documented multiple times. Recorded at New York’s Nassau Coliseum, Zappa ’88 hopes to distinguish itself by offering a complete, unredacted performance, including Zappa’s opening speech encouraging attendees to register to vote and singing Happy Birthday to drummer Chad Wackerman. The first set is the stronger of the two included here, with the band firing through The Black Page and Inca Roads and going into doo-wop for Love Of My Life. With a five-piece horn section, this was one of Zappa’s biggest bands and the arrangements are impressively lavish. The second set is heavy on covers, with bonus performances from earlier dates of Whipping Post and Stairway To Heaven, which can’t decide if it wants…

Five-disc box set celebrating the original line-up’s latter-day bloom. This sumptuously packaged box set assembles the three studio albums and live double LP made by original Asia members Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton after reforming the prog/AOR heavyweights in 2006 to mark their 25th anniversary. With this line-up’s unassailable pedigree and trademark song-centric approach, there’s much to enjoy here. The revitalised band rose from the flames with 2008’s Phoenix, bookended by the ironically titled Never Again and high-spirited An Extraordinary Life. (In the wake of Wetton’s death in 2017, the latter remains a bit of a choker, and a celebration of his own remarkable times.) Even then this was unashamedly retro stuff: mature writing; anthemic, harmony-rich choruses; classic rock sounds, all forged from the venerable members’…

Compilation of US prog-pop veterans’ output since the 80s. On their emergence in 1975, Baltimore’s Crack The Sky hinted at a commercial breakthrough for homegrown American prog, thanks to their way with radio-friendly hooks and sardonic lyrics that offset the knottier corners of their instrumental indulgences. A Sparks-y penchant for tongue-in-cheek art-pop was also always in evidence, and that fed into a shinier sound from the 80s onwards. It’s that period from 1983 to 2012 that this compilation of less-celebrated deep cuts focuses on. The earliest songs here, chronologically speaking, align themselves with the kind of sounds Peter Gabriel, and for a while Robert Fripp, were shaping once they’d cut their hair and embraced the groove. Monkey Time, a live rendition of a 1983 US single, is reminiscent of Bowie’s…

Debut album and lost follow-up from Donovan’s one-time backing musicians. Open Road’s connection to Donovan comes from guitarist/bassist Mike Thompson and drummer John Carr playing on his 1970 album Open Road. There were plans for them to tour but the project was disbanded and Thompson and Carr went on to borrow the album title for their new band. Open Road’s debut album, Windy Daze, is a typical early 70s collection in that it exemplifies the questing spirit of the age. On Mother Earth one can hear hints of Buffalo Springfield, Traffic, and Lindisfarne in their chorus harmonies, and the band also had progressive tendencies with some speedy time changes, jazzy syncopations and inspired playing by Simon Lanzon, on piano and organ, and guitarist Barry Husband, while Carr and Thompson were…

Reflections on a life in music from snooker champ and left-field rockstar. Part-memoir, part-evangelical tract on the power of music, Medical Grade Music recounts Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi’s lifelong journey into sound, and how it’s made them the people they are today. The story of the pair’s apparently unlikely team-up, first as DJs and now bandmates in The Utopia Strong, is here but it’s the shared path that led them to meet in the first place that’s particularly fascinating. An early passion for left-field rock – Gentle Giant and Magma for Davis, Voivod and Cardiacs for Torabi – seems to have somehow been part of their DNA, expressing a view of both music and the world that the great majority of their peers simply didn’t get. It’s an experience…

Expanded and updated version of the classic history of folk rock. Originally published in 1975, The Electric Muse focused on how folk and blues fed into rock music and surveyed the hybrid forms it produced, taking in Fairport Convention, The Byrds, Pentangle and many others. The text is divided into four main sections by writers Karl Dallas, Dave Laing, Robert Shelton and Robin Denselow. “It has an intimate knowledge of the 60s and 70s music scenes.” Republished 46 years later, the book’s great strength remains the authors’ intimate knowledge of the music scenes of the 60s and 70s – Shelton championed Bob Dylan when he was a relative unknown – and their vivid writing takes the reader closer to the source. Laing writes that folk is one of the “most…

Follow us on twitter.com/progmagazineUK AMANDA LEHMANN @amandalehmann25 Been super-busy lately forging ahead on my album, and completion is in sight! Very exciting! Fantastic creative input from Nick Magnus on several tracks – listen out for the haunting Mellotron! More news soon! ADRIAN EDMONDSON @AdrianEdmondson ‘Live Stream’ is what – in the days before video – we used to call ‘telly’. JORDAN RUDESS @Jcrudess The weather in NY is cooperating and it’s a beautiful time of year here How is it for all of you?? NIGHTWISH @NightwishBand Our reactions when we first saw ourselves at The Islanders Arms! Star-struck Completely in awe! #virtualnightwish DAVE KILMINSTER @DaveKilminster Album update: it seems the best time for a release is shortly before the Roger Waters tour next year, so I have a little time…

Van der Graaf Generator will release The Charisma Years, a 20-disc box set, on September 3. It covers VdGG’s entire recorded works for Charisma Records. It will include 17 CDs and three Blu-ray discs, including previously unheard tracks and unreleased footage, with new stereo and surround sound remixes. It will also include a 68-page book and rare photographs. “It’s wonderful to have the whole recorded history of those years collected together as a complete set and the new mixes shed quite a different light on many of the pieces,” says Peter Hammill. “This is about as comprehensive a documentation of that exciting time in our lives as it’s possible to get.” A run of singles will precede the box set’s release, with Refugees (Single Version), Killer (New Stereo Mix), and…

Tributes have been paid to Florian Pilkington-Miksa, Curved Air’s original drummer, who died on May 20 following several bouts of pneumonia. Sonja Kristina, Curved Air’s singer, said: “His drumming identified the tracks as Curved Air. He is a great drummer – on a par with Ginger, Bonham and Mitchell in the context of the power, emotion and complexity he created with us.” Stewart Copeland, who succeeded him in the band, added: “As a drummer, he was deft yet powerful, fully at ease with the crazy prog meters.” Pilkington-Miksa was originally in Sisyphus with Darryl Way and Francis Monkman, which became Curved Air in 1970. He played on their first three albums and the hit single Back Street Luv, before the band split in 1972. He rejoined briefly in 1974 and…

The John Young Band (right) have reissued their 2003 live album Live At The Classic Rock Society in a new CD Digipak format. The band was a precursor to Lifesigns and the CD includes early versions of Open Skies and Kings. Visit www.lifesignsmusic.co.uk. Be-Bop Deluxe will reissue their 1977 live album Live! In The Air Age as a remixed 16-disc box set through Cherry Red Records on August 27. A more compact three-disc version will also be released. See www.cherryred.co.uk. Wokingham Festival has confirmed a number of prog bands for the event that takes place in Cantley Park on August 28-30. Kyros, The Paradox Twin, Warmrain, Quantum Pig, Kepler Ten and Flutatious all join the bill. See wokinghamfestival.co.uk.…

The members of prog metallers A Lily Gray are proud to be based in a US city that celebrates crossgenre values. “There’s a place in Salt Lake City called Downtown Music, an old school that’s been converted into rehearsal spaces,” says vocalist David Lynn Olsen. “There’s a very wide variety of styles of music there and everybody is really tight knit. It’s where a lot of us met.” The band are heavily inspired by “the godfathers of prog metal, Tool and Dream Theater”, and Olsen admits “there aren’t many other progressive bands around” Utah’s capital – but their blend of heavy riffs and popedged vocals help broaden their appeal. “In northern Salt Lake we’ve always been able to go and play a show with the metalheads, the hardcore kids and…

What got us all grooving this month… May 2021 Compiled by 1 MATT BERRY The Blue Elephant (ACID JAZZ) 2 MOGWAI As The Love Continues (ROCK ACTION) 3 FROST* Day And Age (INSIDEOUT) 4 FIELD MUSIC Flat White Moon (MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES) 5 GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR G_d’s Pee At State’s End (CONSTELLATION) 6 JEAN-MICHEL JARRE Amazonia (RCA) 7 FRANK ZAPPA Zappa OST (UMC) 8 JANE WEAVER Flock (FIRE) 9 STEVEN WILSON The Future Bites (CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL) 10 IT BITES The Tall Ships (INSIDEOUT) 11 RUSH Permanent Waves (MERCURY/UMC) 12 JETHRO TULL A (A La Mode) (RHINO) 13 AL STEWART Year Of The Cat (ESOTERIC) 14 LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT LTE3 (INSIDEOUT) 15 IT BITES Map Of The Past (INSIDEOUT) 16 PETER HAMMILL In Translation (FIE!) 17 RICK WAKEMAN & THE ENGLISH…

“There’s so much complexity to the music and to the lyrics, and a lot of the lyrics are satirising or making fun of the people that are in the audience, unbeknownst to them. So it’s quite puzzling [how they appeal to such a wide audience] but I think that there is definitely a prog element to them that we picked up on. And I think maybe how you present yourself aesthetically, reaching for the combination of visual art with music, I think that they’ve been a huge influence on us: just to try to be more thoughtful in your whole approach to writing and recording music in general. I think that they’re a very thoughtful group of artists, and I think that they put a lot of time and effort…

“On reflection, I’m sure the idea of using the bass as a melodic voice was aided by what I heard Tool doing. There’s no doubt that the reverbed/wet bass sound on something like Disease Injury Madness [from Between The Buried And Me’s 2009 album, The Great Misdirect] was influenced by Justin Chancellor’s sounds on Lateralus. My favourite thing about them being one of the biggest rock bands is their dynamic sense and their ability to make the listener slow down and really sink into the music. For a listener who didn’t come from a background in progressive music, I think that’s the whole key to unlocking their world; getting lost and just embracing the journey. Plus [opening track] The Grudge just kicks ass!”…

Under ordinary circumstances, Esa Holopainen would have spent most of 2020 on the road with his band, Amorphis. The Finnish prog metallers had a 30th year anniversary US tour booked in their calendars, which would have seen them play their breakthrough album, 1994’s Tales From The Thousand Lakes, in full. After that, a shorter jaunt with Nightwish beckoned, and a stint in the studio to record the follow-up to their 2018 album, Queen Of Time. Of course, like every other band on the planet, Amorphis watched in horror as the pandemic took hold and plans fell apart. They would eventually cancel more than 100 shows, yet for Holopainen, the break offered a moment of unexpected opportunity. In March 2020, as Finland went into lockdown, the guitarist’s longtime friend and Amorphis…

Rave to the rhythm as Syd Arthur man hits the dancefloor. Although probably best known in this magazine for his work with Syd Arthur, over the last few years violinist Raven Bush has busily forged other paths as a producer and collaborator with artists including singer-songwriter Mica Levi and Ghostpoet, as well as creating a soundtrack for software featuring off-the-peg audio worlds for other producers and musicians. His first solo album embraces this end of the musical spectrum as it connects to his EDM-orientated interests. With bracing fast-moving beats and supple melodies that drift and entwine, there are some echoes of the work of fellow Canterburian Steve Hillage and System 7. In exploring several different moods, there’s a welcome variety in between the glistening orbiting of percussive sequencers and vertiginous…

Elder frontman journeys through the landscapes of his mind. Nick DiSalvo has spent a decade scuffing the boundaries between doom metal and progressive rock with US guitar wranglers Elder. The exploratory DNA embedded within that band’s music is front and centre on this striking debut album from his side-project, Delving, even if its six instrumental tracks favour soft experimentation over swivel-eyed excursions in music’s outer dimensions. DiSalvo recorded Hirschbrunnen in his adopted home of Berlin during lockdown and it bears the imprint of both. Ultramarine’s trancelike bass and washes of period piece electronics could have been copped from a great lost mid-70s krautrock album. Similarly, in lieu of regular external stimuli, DiSalvo has opted to travel inwards: The Reflecting Pool and 11-minute closer Vast map out imaginary topographies in which…

Synthrock meets krautrock on Swedish guitarist’s solo album. Hans Hjelm is the guitarist for psychedelic improv band Kungens Män, but the sound the Swede fashions on his solo debut is altogether more considered and arranged. It even comes with its own set of instructions, and is described as “a means of resetting an agitated or stressed mind to a state of rest and balance”. But while Factory Reset is certainly hypnotic in places, it’s no bland new age self-help tape. Instead, it applies an 80s synthrock filter to the propulsive krautrock of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Harmonia, with Hjelm’s lopsidedly melodic playing, and live drums from Gösta Berlings Saga’s Jesper Skarin, ensuring that the six pieces here never become mere exercises in frigid electronica. Opener Woods establishes the album’s tone of…

Shapeshifting Aussie psychsters tackle techno pop. For anybody still counting, this is the 18th studio album from this ridiculously prolific Australian collective. More remarkable still is the sheer number of styles they’ve managed to cover from then until now, although Butterfly 3000 might be their most radical departure yet. Following the heavy microtonal psychedelia of L.W., released just a few months ago, comes an album of ecstatic cyber pop that’s informed more by modern R&B than free festival noodling. But while comparisons with compatriots Tame Impala are inevitable, KGLW’s music is imbued with a naïve utopianism distinct from Kevin Parker’s more worldweary future disco sound. The opening salvo of Yours, Shanghai and Dreams in particular is dazzlingly upbeat, all airy falsetto and sunny Toytown synths, simultaneously laid-back and hyper-stimulated. The…

Norwegian jazz maestro progs things up. Best known in his Norwegian homeland for his virtuosic string swing violin playing and as a jazz musician and film composer, Ola Kvernberg fell in love with synths and sequencers, and in 2017 released his first album in the Steamdome series, thus opening him up to a more progressively minded audience. Four years later, this follow-up builds on those foundations, a set of ear-pleasing long-form musical workouts that at times bring to mind Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and even Peter Bardens’ work with Camel. For the most part, Steamdome II: The Hypogean operates in a distinctly proggy field, but with occasional shifts that make the overall sound even more refreshing. Opener Arpy diverts itself through a techno-style percussive breakdown, Get Down squelches away like prime…

Sprawling double set from Croydon’s space cadets. There are some albums that listeners need to set aside a sizeable chunk of their day for, and this south London duo make dystopian spacescapes to bathe in at one’s leisure. Given that it’s taken them five years to make a follow-up to 2016’s The Distance, they might be forgiven for turning out 94 minutes of music in one go, and while instant gratification isn’t high on their agenda, once on their wavelength, it’s tempting to stick around. At times their use of spoken word samples to punctuate melancholic instrumental explorations, on tracks such as Handsome English Disease and Our Man In London invites comparisons to Public Service Broadcasting, but this is more abstract, ambient-oriented fare. Things turn positively trippy on the 23-minute…

Electronic explorer touches down in distinctly psychedelic territory. Since making his name on the mid-90s dance scene, Brazilian producer Amon Tobin has dabbled in numerous different areas of experimental electronica, synthrock and ambient noisescaping via several different aliases. But rarely has he sailed closer to progressive and psychedelic waters than he does under his new Stone Giants monicker. Despite drawing on so many different classic avant-rock influences, it never sounds like a dilettante’s genre experiment. The harmonies enveloping the opening title track owe as much to turn-of-the-90s shoegaze as they do to Californian dreamers suggested by the album title. Elsewhere, the futuristic sonic artifice of Laurie Anderson is echoed on the machine-voiced mantra of Metropole, and the shimmering guitars and ethereal vocal smoke rings of Stinson Beach could come from…

US icons return to their prog glory days. It’s been many years since Styx have willingly embraced their prog rock roots. Thankfully, their 17th album finds the veteran US band invoking memories of their twin mid-70s highpoints: Crystal Ball and The Grand Illusion, a time when they were at their most creative. Whether the fact that long-estranged former frontman Dennis DeYoung has ploughed much the same furrow on his two most recent solo albums has led the Chicagoans to take a similar path is a matter of conjecture, but what cannot be denied is that Crash Of The Crown does it magnificently. Stirring opener The Fight Of Our Lives is a direct callback to the era when, inspired by British progressive giants such as Yes and Genesis, Styx were taking…

Reed it and weep: serene sounds from woodwind wizard. A signifier of quality as a collaborator with everyone from David Gilmour to David Sylvian (and currently a member of Soft Machine), Theo Travis also leads his own jazz outfit. The saxophonist and flautist’s 11th solo album sees him exploring his fascination with the Armenian duduk, an ancient instrument made from the wood of the apricot tree. That might sound esoteric and impenetrable, but the music on here isn’t. His instincts highlight the beauty and wonder within the most abstract structures. As such, this mixture of his own compositions and fresh versions of other artists’ titles he’s worked on places delight above difficulty. It takes chutzpah to revisit Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees, but with Big Big Train’s David Longdon bravely tackling the…

Sinoptik’s huge, hook-laden brand of psychedelic rock has earned them plaudits in their native Ukraine, and new concept album The Calling (ONErpm) deserves to get them heard, maybe even revered, much further afield. Led by singer/guitarist Dmitriy Afanasiev, they make a big, melodic and groovy racket with everyone from Black Sabbath to Mansun to the Tangs in their swampy, spacey mix. Tasty, intelligent harmonic ideas and retro synths nestle amid the muscular riffs – this one’s well worth seeking out. Young Dutch band Between The Jars bring a little Focus, and just a little Jefferson Airplane, to their likeable, unreconstructed brand of Afghan-coated, burbly organ psych. What’s To Come (betweenthejars.bandcamp.com) is the second album in a brief career that’s already seen them play to thousands of festival goers from France…

Jimi Hendrix gets the acid house treatment. Although it undoubtedly horrified the purists at the time I recall this album surfacing in the early 90s, and with everyone’s heads full of trance rhythms If 60’s Were 90’s [sic] served as an ideal introduction for young people buoyed by the so-called “second summer of love” to discover the mastery of Jimi Hendrix just as the Love album brought The Beatles to a whole new generation in 2006. However, back in 1992 singer and guitarist Duncan Kane was better known as acid house promoter Du Kane and, together with keyboard player Luke Baldry, had somehow managed to persuade the Hendrix estate to give them leave to remix any of the guitarist’s tracks they wished, and thus, under the banner of Beautiful People,…

New book zooms in on the veteran virtuosi. Focus, with 73-year-old Thijs Van Leer still yodelling manfully, are going strong more than 50 years after their inception. The Dutch masters seem to land a handy fresh profile boost every few years, from Nike ads to a blast of Hocus Pocus in Baby Driver to being cited as a favourite of Steve Coogan’s Saxondale. Now Stephen Lambe’s labour of love covers their heyday decade of jazz-prog, interweaving a potted history with a track-by-track analysis. The seething antipathy between Van Leer and guitarist Jan Akkerman (who left for the first but not last time in 1976) provides the soap opera; a collaboration with PJ Proby brings the absurdity, and the author’s wild enthusiasm for Eruption (the 23-minute epic which closes the second…