Table of contents for Issue 94 in Prog

So it’s the last issue of 2018, and as you will see from the illustration above, artist John Langton has once again created the Prog Xmas card, this year based on a seasonal classic. This issue we cast our eyes back over the past 12 months as the writers vote for their albums of the year. It was a close run this year, and the results make for very interesting reading. We’ll be asking you to do the same for the 2018 Readers’ Poll for next issue. There’s a form on page 97 for you to fill in and post, you can vote by email or you can also vote via the website. We look forward to seeing your choices as always. We’re already looking forward to 2019 with this…

I read Martin Kielty’s Paper Late article ‘Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence’ [Prog 92], and he hit the nail on the head. There are too many prog snobs out there who think that prog is only Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson and Floyd. They think anything other than that isn’t worthy. It’s called prog for a reason: it should be forever reinventing itself, but carrying everything its invented in its wake. I was watching Von Hertzen Brothers at a festival once. The man next to me said, “How are these prog? They dont sound anything like Yes!” I said they are more your newer, modern version of prog. His response was: “Prog can only be from the 70s.” A very delusional prog snob. At the opposite end…

By the time you read this, I’ll have just got back from my Piano Odyssey Tour. And there’s nothing like a tour to bring opportunists out of the woodwork. It’s amazing how many people you haven’t heard from for years suddenly claim to be your greatest friend. Most will get in touch by email, and the exchange usually goes something like this: “As you may recall, we met backstage at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1982.” “Hi Rick, it’s been a long time since we last communicated but I know you’ve been really busy. As you may recall, we met backstage at the Hammersmith Odeon (as it was called then) in 1982. I was with the brother of one of your road crew who I lived next door to and you…

“Many of the fans who love Peter’s era cite it as the best album of all. It certainly is one of the best. It stands on the shoulders of Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot; by the time they came to write and record The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, things were falling apart, and although it has many moments of staggering brilliance, I have always felt that it was flawed. For me, the two stand-out tracks are Firth of Fifth and The Cinema Show. Selling England is an album that truly stands the test of time and has moments that still send shivers up my spine.” Richard Macphail’s My Book Of Genesis is available at www.mybookofgenesis.com.…

A historic village located in the heart of Sherwood Forest, steeped in the myriad fables of Robin Hood, is an ideal location to meet a master storyteller. Tales from the childhood – and indeed, adulthood – of Forest dweller Peter Jones provide the overarching themes of three of the four albums released under his Tiger Moth Tales banner, the latest being Story Tellers Part 2. His “mid-life crisis” breakthrough album, Cocoon, in 2014 was quickly followed up with Story Tellers Part 1, which was recorded in just 28 days in February 2015, and full of musical vignettes based on classic fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty. Having released the darkly seasonal The Depths Of Winter in late 2017, which focused on wintery concepts and themes and adopted a less personal…

What a difference five years can make. Half a decade ago, with his other band, Tinyfish, seemingly on hiatus, Simon Godfrey’s Shineback released their debut album, Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed. At the time, mainman Godfrey spoke to Prog about “when” and not “if” Tinyfish would return, also ruminating upon the role that Shineback might play in such a process. “As long as the five of us are in the studio and making music together, Tinyfish is still alive and kicking,” Godfrey said. In 2018, while continuing to brandish the ‘never say never’ card that artists traditionally use as a get-out clause, Godfrey now admits that there’s little likelihood of such a rebirth – certainly in a live capacity Simon Godfrey, and indeed life, have both moved on. In 2014,…

“I loved their predecessor, Freur.” James Griffiths “If it’s who I think they are, then possibly not, really…” Andy Wyatt “Freur’s Doot Doot is a classic.” Andrew William Graham “Progtronica, maybe?” Joshua Creasey “I bloody love Underworld.” Moray Macdonald I’d rather listen to Underworld than Van der Graaf Generator.” Jim “Good choice! Definitely one of the more experimental and progressive bands in the EDM genre. They even have some proper songs!” Neil Hopkins “One of the best dance bands out there, constantly moving forward, still going strong. Songs like Cowgirl, Rez, King Of Snake, to name but a few, are awesome. Progressive dance music indeed.” James Shardlow “I think with this choice I now know where my outer limit is.” Steve Hawkins “For me they’re a direct descendant of the…

Like many innovations, The Algorithm happened by chance. In 2009, a 20-year-old Rémi Gallego, the mastermind and musical anarchist behind The Algorithm’s circuit board prog, found himself growing tired of trying to find people to form a new Dillinger Escape Plan-style band with, so he tried plugging his guitar into his computer and letting audio software complete his line-up. The first results, demos The Doppler Effect and CRITICAL.ERROR were harsh, discordant slabs of off-kilter metal, interspersed with synth-pricked left turns which, while inventive, left their USP a little malnourished. Their progressive elements still needed a capital P. As time progressed, Gallego learned how to balance the electronic and prog metal genres that he loved so much. Blending King Crimson’s garish experimentalism with ELP’s oscillating keyboard textures and the polyrhythmic pick…

H ow was your 2018? Proggy enough? We think so. True, there weren’t any new studio albums from big hitters like Steven Wilson, Opeth, Yes, Anathema or Marillion, but have a look at the Critics’ Choice on page 90 and you’ll see that there was plenty of fine progressive music released. A reminder that Prog Person Of The Year is a category for the artist that you believe has gone above and beyond in their chosen field: not simply your favourite artist who may not have done that much this year (there are other categories for that). And Unsung Hero is there to honour those working behind the scenes but who still play a major role in helping the prog cause: they just do it away from the spotlight. Finally,…

All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre CARDINAL FUZZ After two albums with husband Mark Nicholas in ongoing acid folk duo The Left Outsides, Alison Cotton abandons traditional song structures to embark on her first solo work. Following the heady path opened up on her collaboratory cassette with Plinth’s Michael Tanner, this is still essentially a folk record, but leaves usual tropes as distant specks. Over five lengthy tracks, Cotton creates a mesmerisingly atmospheric autumnal symphony, armed with just her viola and spectral voice, frequently multi-tracked. Perhaps the closest comparison is the frozen warnings and arcane European folk spirits on Nico’s 1968’s shape-shifting The Marble Index; a haunting drone reverie set against stark backdrops of skeletal trees and ancient church ruins (even a deserted WW1 battlefield). Cotton’s spell is cast…

Universalis SELF-RELEASED Nashville duo Hammock have grown from a cult band into one of the most recognised and popular ambient groups in the world, yet they’ve never quite ascended to the heights of acts such as Sigur Ròs, and it’s not particularly clear why. With Universalis, their seventh record, they’ve doubled down on the orchestral side of their sound, occasionally to stunning effect, as on opener Mouth To Dust… Waiting and dramatic climax of the album We Watched You Disappear. Equally, they’re happy to counterpoint that with almost concerto-like meditations based around a single instrument, such as the cello-led title track. On past albums, there’s been an air of celebration alongside the darker textures, but on Universalis the mood is dark and mournful and things barely lift beyond the muted…

Don’t Touch The Outside SUMERIAN Thomas Giles, AKA Tommy Rogers, is the frontman of North Carolina’s premier metallic proggers and allround smart cookies Between The Buried And Me. He’s already popped out a double album with his regular gig in the shape of this year’s Automata I & II and now has somehow found time to write and produce his fourth solo album in seven years, Don’t Touch The Outside. Acolytes of BTBAM will not automatically qualify as Giles’ solo fans. This is a place for exploration and experimentation – predominantly in the electronic sphere, allowing the synths to shine. There’s a base of underlying heavy menace, but he mostly refrains from pressing the metal pedal. “A place for exploration and experimentation.” The band Ulver, however, have been a significant…

Medium Rare II JADIS MUSIC Three decades ago quartet Jadis were among the foremost contenders to break out beyond a niche prog audience. Awarded an eye-catching support slot on Marillion’s Clutching At Straws tour and championed by Steve Rothery, they seemed primed for greater success. With refined musicianship overlaid by memorable and immediate songs, Jadis’ future looked bright in the early 1990s. However, many are the trials and tribulations of a progressive band (most recently, guitarist/vocalist Gary Chandler’s fractured shoulder kiboshing a short tour in October). Jadis fell between two audiences; too fiddly for mainstream rockers but too straightforward for prog purists. Which is a pity, as the back catalogue is a rich one, albeit with limited diversions from a trusted formula. Medium Rare II features several new tracks alongside…

Brain SELF-RELEASE Any mention of that cathedral city prompts thoughts of a certain style of 70s music, but as few Canterbury Scene groups acknowledged that such a thing existed, it seems particularly tenuous now. But Lapis Lazuli reckon that on Brain their approach is more “modern” and less “vintage’, so it’s interesting to make comparisons. If one Canterbury characteristic was a rolling momentum through odd time signatures, Lapis Lazuli, an instrumental quartet of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, are rhythmically taut in the modern style and they typically state riffs and melodic figures, then suddenly augment a phrase or stick in an odd unison pattern and veer off in a different direction. But these five lengthy compositions are rarely overcooked, showing inspired musical minds at work. The restless And Stay…

Nowhere Now Here PELAGIC There are few bands in the post-rock world that can command as much attention or anticipation as Mono. For this, their 10th album in 20 years, they’ve innovated quite radically. Recorded with Steve Albini, they’ve not only added drummer Dahm Majuri Cipolla to their core line-up but also started experimenting with electronics in earnest. Tracks such as After You Comes The Flood are reminiscent of two-drummer Worlds Apart-era …Trail Of Dead, albeit instrumental. Other cuts are more sedate, however, with the brooding Breathe built on gauzy vocals and a bed of synth pads, rather than dramatic dynamic shifts. The title track, Sorrow and Meet Us Where The Night Ends are more business-asusual for the band, with atmospheric guitars, halftime drums, and orchestral ornamentation. Mono certainly do…

X/Ten FIE! There aren’t many who could get away with releasing the same body of songs three times within the space of two years, but anyone who’s seen Hammill live over the last five decades will appreciate the essential differences between his unfettered self-exorcism on stage and dogged perfectionism in the studio. As he explains on the cover of X, he was still in the early stages of writing and recording 2017’s From the Trees when he toured Japan the previous November, releasing a limited CD of five tracks in nascent form (V). Following Hammill’s self-imposed proviso that he would start recording armed with an album’s-worth of songs performable live with just voice, guitar and piano, he laid down some of his most sensitive vocal performances yet, overdubbing intricate chorales…

Sammukh SELF-RELEASED Paradigm Shift’s story is a testament to the way that the internet has facilitated the global progressive scene. Their second LP Sammukh is an accomplished affair, a slick fusion of Indian classical influences and modern progressive rock. More than anything else, it’s a catchy record full of great riffs, as found on Bekhabar, in the groovy end section of Khoye The Hum, or all over the bombastic Aazaadi. Hindi vocalist Kaushik Ramachandran has no problem carrying the material and providing additional hooks, although he’s at his best when he moves out of his baritone range and fills out the band’s sound at the treble end. Example: the climax of Wajah, one of the most anthemic cuts on the record. It’s a bit disjointed at times, with some of…

The Terror Of Melton SELF-RELEASED If you’re one of the discerning few that thrilled to The Hare And Hoofe’s White Blindness single from 2017, which sounded like a long lost Atomic Rooster gem with bonus acid folk flute, you’ll already know that the future of eccentric psychedelic rock is in safe hands. In fact, that sneak preview gave little indication of the deeply unhinged splendour that unfurls across The Terror Of Melton’s 25 mad-eyed minutes. A remorseless feast of fuzzed-up riffing, twinkling psych pop keys and Revillos-gone-prog vocal high-jinks, it’s a masterclass in rambunctious mini-symphonies; the Londoners’ exuberance driving everything forward like a drugged-up wizard on a BMX. From the neurotic garage rock stomp of I Was A Scientist (1892) to the pulsating space rock attack of the title track…

Tribus APOLLON While their neighbours to the east in Sweden might be better known for producing and exporting numerous progressive rock bands around the globe, Norway maintains its own proud prog tradition with Gazpacho, Wobbler, White Willow and Motorpsycho among its premier exponents. The aforementioned bands all sport extensive back catalogues to varying degrees. By contrast, the output from Oslo-based sextet The Windmill – not necessarily the most alluring of monikers – has been rather more modest to date, despite their 17-year history. Tribus is only their third album, and their first for the Apollon label, succeeding 2010’s debut To Be Continued and 2013’s The Continuation. “Clason’s flute adds a welcome additional aspect.” The Windmill style themselves as a “symphonic neoprog” band influenced by the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd,…

The Butterfly Effect JAH WOBBLE Anybody expecting the type of dance-friendly ethno-dub rock that Wobble has been most-readily associated with since the 90s will be in for a surprise upon hearing The Butterfly Effect. Over the past few years, Wobble has been reconnecting with his experimental post-punk roots in PiL, and spurred on by the chaos of our times, he’s delivered an eclectic state-of-the-nation broadside that channels his erstwhile bandmate John Lydon’s maxim that “anger is an energy”. His dense, elastic bass sound is still present, but the title track’s spiky swagger of guitar and forceful drumming is refreshingly acerbic. He’s also in fine voice, reflecting on the interdependence of things in his distinctive sprechgesang, but it’s less new age homily, more a wake-up call against division. His underrated qualities…

IV – Live at the Green Door Store, Brighton, 03/09/17 FLASHBACK Zofff are a four-piece psych/kraut/cosmic/whatever improvising unit based out of Brighton. While each member has a long history in the indie/experimental underground, the band’s most prominent player is guitarist Bic Hayes, previously of Cardiacs, Dark Star and Levitation. While these groups pushed the songwriting envelope, Zofff have cast off predetermined arrangements altogether, with each performance a unique exercise in spontaneous composition. IV captures them in fierce form, producing non-stop exploratory music that constantly fizzes with ideas yet is surprisingly cohesive. But what really makes this special is the presence of ex-Levitation man Terry Bickers, the first time that he and Hayes had played together since 1993. The album plunges headfirst into a stretch of driving trance rock, with skittering,…

Lighthouse: An Anthology 1973-2012 ESOTERIC A pioneering electronic warrior, Tim Blake cut his teeth supplying synth and keys to Gong’s 70s debut trilogy, Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You. After his prog-flavoured fling with Saratoga Space Messengers, Blake teamed up with French lighting designer Patrice Warrener for his Crystal Machine project, forging a template for modern prog shows with lasers and synths that manifested in the pure electronic rhapsodies of 1977’s self-titled debut album, then the following year’s Blake’s New Jerusalem. He joined Hawkwind for a year before 20 out of the spotlight, broken only by 1991’s Magick, then enjoyed a 21st century rebirth, which included rejoining Hawkwind in 2007. Even if the beautiful cosmic weirdness of the Gong years is relegated to three wigged-out extrapolations, all bases are covered…

Theatre Of The Mind UNICORN DIGITAL There is something wonderfully intriguing about time capsules. We hide them away and we forget what’s inside. When we open them, they always surprise. This principle applies to the reissue of Canadian proggers Mystery’s 1996 debut, Theatre Of The Mind. Think of Mystery and images of bombastic, symphonic prog will likely come to mind, but that still doesn’t do justice to this wonderfully over-the-top first offering. It is chock-full of the wideopen, bright production values typical of metallic prog of the era. Michel St-Père’s stadium-sized guitar wig-outs and Stéphane Perreault’s echoing drums write large a lost era of big hair and tight jeans. It’s great fun, incredibly winsome and very accomplished. Gary Savoie’s vocals pitch somewhere between Jon Anderson and Geddy Lee, dominating the…

Creeping Cinquefoil BURIED TREASURE Conceptually speaking, Buried Treasure exists somewhere between the haunted synthedelia of Ghost Box and the alternative nostalgia of Trunk Records. Creeping Cinquefoil (a yellow-flowered roadside weed, FYI), is the label’s fifth anniversary compilation, a “20 track selection of 1970s and 1980s library music, 1960s radiophonics, spoken word, punk, funk, jazz, prog, psych, folk, experimental electronics & more.” Given the broad sweep of their catalogue, you might expect a rather disjointed listening experience. But there’s a thread that holds the whole thing together, an idea that genres are a fiction and eclecticism rules. This is what makes library music so attractive. Moonlighting composers, jazz musicians and the occasional rock band would produce and anonymously release songs and idents, any of which might wind up in adverts, documentaries,…

End Of An Era NUCLEAR BLAST Given that this 2006 film of the Finnish symphonic metallers was reissued on Blu-ray in 2009 with all the extra content you’ll find here, we can only presume that the three-LP version (in blue, lilac, purple and sparkle violet) is chiefly aimed at vinyl freaks who don’t own a telly. If you’re a newcomer to Nightwish, on its own merits this homecoming Helsinki show is a fine advert for the line-up that made their name. A sweepingly Wagnerian, operatic reading of The Kinslayer and a Maid-enesque gallop through Planet Hell, both replete with Tarja Turunen’s brilliantly camp, back-and-forth vocal exchanges with Marco Hietala, are among the highlights, and their best songs still have a hairs-on-back-of-neck quality even without pictures to accompany them. Turunen would…

VENUE WATER RATS, LONDON DATE 22/11/2018 SUPPORT MELLOTRONANISM Some pretty ugly characters have inhabited prog’s more ambitious moments. Think of Roger Waters’ tormented, abusive Pink from The Wall, or Marillion’s deadbeat alcoholic Torch, the subject of Clutching At Straws. To that list you can add the voice of Clive Mitten’s The Fifth Estate, a nasty piece of work who bemoans the demise of the Empire, wishes Britain was white, and misses the days when women couldn’t vote. Such is the unpleasantness of this fellow that Mitten feels compelled to offer a disclaimer before his set begins, earnestly explaining that he only agrees with 20% of what his protagonist says. It’s a peculiar show. Only a third of opening act Mellotronanism have shown up, in the shape of Ed Percival, formerly…

A CRIMSON REVELATION I would like to thank you all for producing a lovely and interesting magazine! I have read most of the November issue [Prog 92] and the articles re: King Crimson are excellent. I will never forget hearing In The Court Of The Crimson King back in 1969 on our new FM console. As a very naïve country-bred American teenager whose first 45 was Rag Doll by the Four Seasons, I was absolutely blown away by KC, Jimi Hendrix and Cream and Chicago. I do remember the British Invasion of the early 60s, especially the Animals and Rolling Stones, but KC was a revelation. I regret not seeing KC in December of 1973 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, but I did have university final exams to prepare for!…

The Steve Hillage Band are to play three special shows this summer. They will take place at the Cambridge Junction on June 6, Manchester O2 Ritz on 7 and at the London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire the following night. What makes them so special is that Hillage and his band are to play a set that concentrates almost exclusively on the albums Fish Rising, L, Motivation Radio and Green, which span the period from 1975-8. “It makes sense to do this now because 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the last [full] UK tour done by The Steve Hillage Band,” explains Steve Hillage to Prog. “It’s been talked about for a while, and finally the opportunity has come up.” The last time The Steve Hillage Band played live was in…

ALEX LIFESON AND MARCO MINNEMANN While Rush are on indefinite hiatus, guitarist Alex Lifeson is working with multiinstrumentalist Marco Minnemann on an unnamed new venture. Very little is known about the project at this stage, although the pair previously collaborated on Minnemann’s 2017 solo album Borrego. More hints are expected in 2019. See www.marcominnemann.com. THE ANCHORESS Progressive Music Award winner Catherine Anne Davies, aka The Anchoress, is putting the finishing touches to her second album which is due out on Kscope this spring. The Art Of Losing sees the multi-instrumentalist exploring themes of loss and grief, asking the question: what do we gain from losing? See www.iamtheanchoress.com. BIG BIG TRAIN The international collective are working on nine new tracks for their as yet untitled studio album which is due out…

Caravan (right), Richard Thompson and Martin Barre are among the acts confirmed for the 40th anniversary of Cropredy. Fairport Convention’s festival takes place between August 8-10, 2019. More acts are still to be announced. Phil Collins releases remastered versions of Serious Hits… Live! and A Hot Night In Paris on February 1 via Atlantic/Rhino. The live albums are part of his ongoing reissues campaign and coincide with the next leg of his Not Dead Yet Live! tour. Keep an eye out for prog limited editions when Record Store Day returns to the UK on April 13. Hundreds of record shops are due to take part and 2019 sees the return of Sound Performance’s Unsigned Competition. Visit http://bit.ly/Unsigned_Comp. Karnataka have announced Anglo-Cypriot singer-songwriter Sertari (left) as their new lead vocalist and…

IT MIGHT SEEM implausible that an avant-garde cellist could support bands like Boris, Myrkur and Mono, as well as play post-rock festivals like Dunk! and ArcTanGent, but that’s exactly what Jo Quail has done. With new album Exsolve, she’s cemented her reputation not only as a talented composer, but also as a master of her instrument, albeit an unconventional one, as she explains. “I use a lot of extended techniques on the cello, for example col legno, where you use the wood of the bow to hit the strings and make a percussive sound,” Quail says. “I do a lot of things very high; somebody called it, ‘The arctic regions of the fingerboard,’ full of rosin, you know?” Her use of an electric cello is crucial, as it allows for…

“As a teenager I was extraordinarily lucky. I was brought up in Islington so I was within walking distance of venues like the Rainbow and the Hope & Anchor or we could get the bus to the Marquee… from the age of 13 I was always at gigs. The first time I came across music that was a bit alternative was when I went to see Chris Spedding’s band, Sharks, at an all-dayer at Camden Roundhouse. I was a meek teenager amid these funky folk, and then Principal Edwards Magic Theatre came on. I was a black music and blues rock nut, so rock music came at me from funny angles. I thought, ‘This is different!’ I had a Friday and Saturday job but I was always castigated by my…

Steve Hackett enjoys the thrill of visiting different eras of his catalogue for his now-annual tours. This time, as well as playing Selling England… he’s looking at 1979’s Spectral Mornings. “Spectral Mornings rides high in my affections and those of fans. It was the time when I was first touring under my own name, with a great band. Something special happened. Every time you make an album you do the same thing: change the strings, plug in, play: even though all the ingredients might be the same, you don’t really know whether the album’s going to have legs or sprout wings. I was very lucky to work with a great team.” Are there any particular challenges ahead with Selling England? “It stands extension and expansion well. Deleted scenes are now…

Thomas Waber isn’t a man given to unnecessary histrionics. The 48-year-old German is the model of Teutonic directness. His conversation is articulate and efficient, his answers blunt and honest. So when he describes something as “an existential crisis”, you know he’s not exaggerating. The flashpoint he’s referring to came in the summer of 2009. The label Waber spent 16 years building, InsideOut Music, had gone from fringe concern to progressive rock powerhouse. They had released records by Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, Symphony X, The Flower Kings, Devin Townsend and dozens more acts who helped shape the landscape of modern prog. In the 1990s, the mainstream music industry viewed the prog scene with the same affection it would a leper colony – studiously keeping a safe distance. But the success of InsideOut…

“I was brought up a Methodist, so we sang a lot of hymns and went to chapel twice every Sunday when I was growing up in London. We sang hymns as they do in Welsh choirs, with lots of enthusiasm,” says Andy Mackay to Prog during a break in rehearsals for his 3 Psalms concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall back in November (you can read our review on page 124). “Methodism was the Anglican or the British equivalent of gospel music really,” he continues. “I’m sure that was an influence on me.” For Mackay, making and enjoying music has always been an act of inclusivity rather than something to be dogmatic about. His new album, 3 Psalms, reflects this lifelong approach, and includes an almost kaleidoscopic swirl of stylistic…

It was a pilgrimage that began with a Luxembourgtrained transistor and Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel. It reached both critical and creative mass with the monument to electric folk that was Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief. It now reaches what may be its recording conclusion with the sage eloquence of Paradise And Thorns. The six-decade musical expedition of Ashley Hutchings MBE has traversed this land and far beyond, and now, at 73, he reaches what he thinks might be its final studio staging post. The new record, subtitled Gloucester Docks Revisited And Other Tales of Love, sees one of the founding fathers of progressive folk reopening the pages of an autobiographical love story he shared with us on 1987’s By Gloucester Docks I Sat Down And Wept. Founded, as was its…

Heavy Yoke INDIE When mathy prog-core overlords The Dillinger Escape Plan called it quits last year after two decades, surprised fans were left pondering where their members might turn next. While singer Greg Puciato revisited electronic outfit The Black Queen, plectrum punishing bassist Liam Wilson was quick off the blocks to team with two comrades from Norway’s Extol to form Azusa – and the result is an addictive, metallic cocktail of unexpected turns, jagged riffs and haunting melody. The stramash at the start of Interstellar Islands feels like being blindfolded and chucked on a runaway train, but when it flits to the disjointed, swampy verse, brightened with singer Eleni Zafiriadou’s sweet vocals, you know there’s more in the band’s DNA than just gung-ho hellery. Much like Dillinger, Azusa revel in…

Out Of Mind GLASS CASTLE If you’re new to Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate, the London band dub themselves “proggy, funky, defiant and sometimes poignant” – oh, and they’re approved by Steve Hackett. This just about encapsulates their fourth record Out Of Mind, although the funk nod is perhaps overegged – Sly & The Family Stone this ain’t. The music, guided by vocalist/instrumentalist Malcolm Galloway and bassist/keyboardist Mark Gatland, is a stroll through cap-doffs to Pink Floyd and Marillion that underpin ruminations on the lyrical theme of memory. At best the album is an impressive palette of colours, with Defiance a spunky, key-driven romp and Maze a dreamy brushstroke of broody riffs and synth swirls, while Kathryn Thomas’ flute work is a vital injection of pizzaz. With lyrics pointing to…

Life Size MANTICORE With 50 years of esoteric musical endeavour on his frankly bewildering CV, John Greaves’ status as one of art rock’s most respected figures is hardly in doubt at this point. The former Henry Cow and National Health man has managed to contribute to a vast array of bands and projects over the years, not to mention his own impressive catalogue of solo material and countless collaborations with everyone from Robert Wyatt and Peter Blegvad to Michael Nyman and Penguin Café Orchestra. “Endearingly restrained, infused with questing bravado.” One heartening result of all that furious creativity is that Life Size arrives with a whispered promise that practically anything could happen here. In reality, this is an endearingly restrained affair but one infused with the same spirit of questing…

MOnuMENTO ROCKWERK For studio purposes, these days Karibow is essentially the increasingly productive German multi-instrumentalist Oliver Rüsing, MOnuMENTO being the second Karibow album this year (and a double disc). Recent albums have featured assorted luminaries from Saga (Michael Sadler and Jim Gilmour) and Southern Empire/Damanek (Daniel Lopresto, Sean Timms and Marek Arnold). This time round he’s enlisted former Karnataka singer Hayley Griffiths, Lifesigns mainman John Young and Mystery guitarist Michel St-Père, covering plenty of musical bases with a principal focus on melodic prog and the odd foray into prog metal, reminiscent of their countrymen Sylvan and the sadly long-defunct Everon. The first disc, Moments, comprises shorter songs bookended by the longer opening title track and closing song Elay. District Of Dignity is the standout, elevated by Griffiths who duets with…

Every Night Something Happens BAD ELEPHANT The brainchild of singer-guitarist Richard Larcombe (Stars In Battledress/Cardiacs), Lost Crowns are being touted as an avant-psychedelic supergroup thanks to a rollcall including keyboardist Josh Perl (Knifeworld), bassist Charlie Cawood (Knifeworld, Tonochrome, My Tricksy Spirit), singer-keyboardist Rhodri Marsden (Prescott, Scritti Politti), clarinettist Nicola Baigent (North Sea Radio Orchestra) and drummer Keepsie. The band follow a simple formula on most of the eight tracks, established from the off by 10-minute opener Housemaid’s Knees, which sees the keyboard players weigh in with big, jagged prog jazz riffs that often sound heisted from Mahavishnu Orchestra or certain Mothers albums, pulled every which way with discordant flourishes designed to disconcert. The overall vibe on She Saved Me, Midas X-Ray or Dandy Doesn’t Know is late 60s to early…

All Our Yesterdays GÖLLHEIM Back in the 90s, Bruce Soord revered his pal Neil Randall as something of a creative driving force. The two friends played in Vulgar Unicorn together, while Randall also cut tracks for another progressive band, Putain Media. Eventually they drifted apart, with Soord starting The Pineapple Thief while Randall moved away from music. Fast-forward a few years, while working for Nintendo in Germany, Randall met singer Julia Maul and began reworking some of the old Putain Media material and writing new tracks; the results are here. Randall’s journey sounds pretty computer-heavy, and that’s reflected in this electronic, often quirky release. But there’s melodious warmth, too (Pittencrieff Park), woven into clever layers of triphop, ambient and modern prog. Maul sounds rather like a less weird Sia, which…

Atropa FIREFLY MUSIC Luna Rossa’s third release takes its title from the Latin for Deadly Nightshade, aka Belladonna. The plant has been used as a medicine, a poison, and as the means for witches to transform themselves into flying beings. It’s the perfect metaphor for an album that explores transformation, healing and pain, and humans’ complex relationship with the natural world. Indeed, just when it seemed Panic Room’s Anne-Marie Helder and Jon Edwards’s side project couldn’t garner any more plaudits, they drop Atropa. It is a wonder and the finest Luna Rossa record to date. “Bitter-sweet vocals and arrangements that could stop time.” If their last album Secrets And Lies explored the complexities of human relationships, especially the darkness of depression and betrayal, Atropa is no less moody. This time,…

Square One MIGHTY MUSIC Thirty-seven years ago, singer Jon Deverill and guitarist Fred Purser worked together in New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band the Tygers Of Pan Tang on an album called The Cage. The Tygers were trying to escape the shackles of genre and The Cage was a melodic, pomp-tinged set that took them into the Top 20 before the line-up disintegrated. Square One represents a most unlikely yet oddly satisfying renewal of this lapsed partnership. It’s prog in the loosest sense, but Deverill’s divine, expressive tones are wrapped around a set of considered, cultivated and expertly arranged tunes that will surely find favour with fans of Kansas or perhaps Saga. Among its neatest offerings, Beat Them Join Them certainly bears comparison to Michael Sadler and company –…

Tvignest BRAN & CHUBB Chris Bran and Justin Chubb (aka The Jinsy Boys) are the creators of the surreal Sky Atlantic comedy series This Is Jinsy – basically, The Mighty Boosh set on Father Ted’s Craggy Island and administered by Scarfolk Council. Suffice to say, it’s very funny. Part of its charm is the inclusion in every episode of various bizarre yet toe-tapping songs, with Bran and Chubb also proving to be talented musicians. Tvignest is an extension of this world, with unusual lyrical preoccupations and an atmosphere of cultish fervour throughout. But what makes it attractive for even non-converts is that no matter how ridiculous the subject matter, the music is always played entirely straight and with some skill. Opening Ceremoni might resemble a mystical version of Spitting Image’s…

The Strange World Of Suzie Pellet NEW HEAVY SOUNDS ‘There’s blood, death and pain,’ growls Lydia Lunch by way of introducing this concept album from mysterious London collective Transmaniacon – in other words, The Sound Of Music this ain’t. The Strange World Of Suzie Pellet is based on an unreleased graphic novel from acclaimed fantasy artist Ian Miller, and is set in a post-apocalyptic world somewhere between Mad Max and Bowie’s Diamond Dogs. Avant-rock veteran Lunch is the gravel-voiced narrator looking back on her life, while Maya Berlin – from doomy punks Cold In Berlin – provides the voice of the young Suzie as she fights for survival in the ruins of civilisation. Transmaniacon set their stall out on Inca Sunshine, a choppy, foreboding riff combining with acidic electronics to…

A Life In Yes: The Chris Squire Tribute PURPLE PYRAMID It’s one thing being brilliant at playing an instrument, but if you want to get on in the music world, you also have to be able to get on with people. Billy Sherwood is evidently both these things. Since his first stint with Yes in 1997, Sherwood has since worked with anyone and everyone in the prog world and beyond, and has now succeeded Squire in the ever-revolving Yes line-up. And now he’s taken advantage of his thick contacts book to make this covers album with a celebrity cast, in homage to his old mentor. Vocalists as contrasting as Marillion’s Steve Hogarth (tackling Squire solo highlight Hold Out Your Hand) and Renaissance’s Annie Haslam (crooning Tormato ballad Onward) revisit key…

They made their mark at 2017’s Bloodstock, they’ve supported the likes of Sikth, and Cardiff’s Malum Sky are now getting heard across south Wales and beyond. Their promising debut long player Diatribe (Sliptrick) demonstrates their clever, urgent and tightly composed brand of doomy prog metal. Fiddly and languid, The Coil shows off the chops of guitarists Jon Evans and Michael Jensen Després, and throughout their charismatic singer Ben Honebone pummels and emotes as required. Until now Bristol trio Siblings Of Us have purveyed slightly edgy, synth-led power pop. Their compelling but uneven new EP Gargantua (Retrosynth) sees them crank up the axes, with lead vocalist Adam ‘Fonzy’ Armour’ adopting an ersatz ‘rawk’ falsetto. The Squawky Pizza Lisa and Chicago Glass Twin sound like piss-takes of The Mars Volta, but A…

Ends Meeting NOISY As two examples of that strain of dogged prog dynamo who care more about creating music with like-minded souls than making the right career move, drummer Andrew Booker and electric violinist David Cross have an impressive array of band tenures and collaborations between them. Cross was in the 1972-1974 King Crimson line-up that produced Larks’ Tongues…, Starless… and Red (plus live albums from that time and reuniting with Fripp for 2015’s Starless Starlight), before forming his own band (releasing eight albums) and collaborating widely along the way. Booker boasts a formidably active CV that, since 1996, has seen him bring his idiosyncratic electronic drums to bands including Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson’s No-Man, Sanguine Hum and Peter Banks’ Harmony In Diversity. In 2006, after Cross’ band supported…

Balaklava DRAG CITY Amid the militant rock missiles and sonic groundbreaking that was happening half a century ago, Florida ex-pats Pearls Before Swine’s quietly mesmerising first two albums prompted Lilian Roxon to coin the “acid folk” term in 1969’s Rock Encyclopaedia. Couched in mystery on New York’s enigmatic ESP-Disk label, their leader Tom Rapp’s surreally-tainted songs of war, love and space forged a rare balance between the era’s freewheeling looseness and something deeper, darker and unfathomably ancient. Its crystal clear message resonates loud as ever to chime perfectly with modern times. After 1967’s playfully haunted One Nation Underground debut (which was reissued last year by Drag City), the band started loosening around Rapp to include jazz musicians as he constructed Balaklava, 1968’s most finely-crafted anti-war statement and arguably the greatest…

The Manticore Studio Albums 1973-1977 ESOTERIC God bless Greg Lake for bringing PFM to the attention of an international audience through ELP’s Manticore label. PFM were already a hit act in their native Italy, and Lake was savvy enough to know that the abundantly talented quintet could make a quality addition to his fledgling roster of artists. With Lake’s ex-King Crimson bandmate Peter Sinfield producing and providing English lyrics, PFM’s 1973 ethereal debut Photos Of Ghosts contained a winning mixture of instrumental brio and a jaunty humour shining through their ingenious and uplifting arrangements. Instrumental brio and jaunty humour shining through. Alongside Photos Of Ghosts, this clamshell box contains 1974’s The World Became The World, 1975’s Chocolate Kings and their final studio album for Manticore, 1977’s Jet Lag. There’s certainly…

Steve Pilkington WYMER PUBLISHING Perilous Journey will be familiar to Giltrap fans as his most famous album’s title. It is also singularly apt for this book. He captures the ups-and-downs of Giltrap’s career with a generous and passionate eye. It’s all here – Giltrap’s recent struggles with ill-health, his search for happiness in personal and professional relationships, his rejection of conventional faith, the twists and turns of his 50-year career. Giltrap has authorised a biography that doesn’t shy away from struggle and it’s all the better for that. Pilkington handles the material with kindness and love and never loses sight of the fact that Giltrap’s perilous journey is first and foremost a musical one: as a musicians’ musician most of the chapters take a Giltrap album or tour as their…

“Caravan’s music remains delightfully circuitous yet consistently groovy.” VENUE ULU, LONDON DATE 16/11/2018 SUPPORT CURVED AIR “Whew, it takes it out of you!” gasps Geoffrey Richardson after an enthusiastic spoons solo. As he also plays about nine other instruments with equal gusto tonight he’s entitled to take a breather, but as they celebrate their 50th anniversary, Caravan show few signs of taking any easy options. Their music remains delightfully circuitous yet consistently groovy, and the 23-minute set-piece of Nine Feet Underground, to which everything else is a hors d’oeuvre, is as lovely a live moment (or stream of moments) as any set can offer. The line-up now may bear scant resemblance to the quartet who formed when exiting The Wilde Flowers in 1968, but Pye Hastings is still there, and…

Follow us on twitter.com/progmagazineUK THEFIERCE&THEDEAD @TFATD Someone described our band as a secret society the other day, probably slightly less secret now. NICK BEGGS @NickBeggs Sorry to hear about Pete Shelley from Buzzcocks. We did a festival with them this summer. Love to all who loved him. JUDY DYBLE @judydyble proper rainy cold November day comfort food. @jothekendall #DibblesNibbles RICK WAKEMAN @GrumpyOldRick Bexhill was fabulous last night. My favourite piano, fabulous audience, great crew at the theatre and pretty decent fish and chip shop over the road too. MARJANA SEMKINA @marjanasemkina I’m not posting a lot because I’m working a lot and oh boy I’m excited. Will have to start doing handwritten lyrics soon to cover some expenses but trust me you’ll like what I’m up to. JAKKO M JAKSZYK…

BODYROCKS If someone with a glazed look on their face ever asks you if you can “feel the music”, they’re not speaking literally. BodyRocks, however, makes that a real possibility. “Let the music you’re hearing vibrate all over your body,” they urge us. How? By using adhesive tape to attach small wireless devices to our chest, limbs and goodness knows where else, and then assigning various frequencies in the music to each device using an app. You’d like the bass drum to make your bicep twitch? No problem. Cymbals to massage your stomach? Done. How have we ever managed without them? www.bodyrocksaudio.com DNA ALBUM Given that every cell in the human body holds genetic code that’s six billion letters long, it’s clear that nature is very good at squeezing information…

“One of my earliest musical memories was of Auntie Ethel, a rather stout lady who would come over for Christmas tea and mince pies with the other two maiden aunts, Win and Lily. She’d play the piano and we’d all sing Christmas carols — one verse of each — with many a rolling chord and the sustain pedal pushed to the floor. The piano was always a bit out of tune after that. “These mince pies are pretty simple to make (famous last words!), either using homemade pastry or ready-made.” Ingredients (serves 4) For pastry: 225g (8oz) self-raising flour, 110g (4oz) butter or vegetable fat, very cold water, a pinch of salt, jar of mincemeat, milk or egg to glaze, holly and tinsel to decorate. Preparation “Put the flour in…

In September 1966, Love went into RCA Studios on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard to record the follow-up to their self-titled debut album. The LA group used the same engineer as the Rolling Stones, Dave Hassinger, but the record that emerged was light years away from mainstream contemporary rock. For Da Capo, lead singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Arthur Lee decided to sail uncharted territory. He confounded fans, record label Elektra and his own band in the process. Lee expanded the line-up from five musicians to seven, bringing in Tjay Cantrelli on saxophone and Michael Stuart on drums. They sounded more like a small orchestra than a garage band. Lead guitarist Johnny Echols had played with Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, while rhythm guitarist and songwriter Bryan MacLean had learnt everything he knew…

Any prog fan knows you should never neglect something simply because it’s fallen out of fashion. But that’s what’s happened to the humble CD, as its charms are challenged both by digital downloading and the continuing vinyl revival. Should you care? After all, prog will always be associated with the golden age of vinyl and the gatefold sleeves it rode in on. What has the compact disc ever done for us? In the first place, it made for a truer representation of each artist’s musical vision. You don’t think so? Still think vinyl sounds better, ‘warmer’, etc? That’s odd, because the vast majority of musicians I spoke to 30 years ago welcomed their shiny, silvery, indestructible new overlords, because they felt they reproduced the sounds they made in the studio…

After 50 years as a recording artist and revealing his prog chops in 2013 with the Billy Sherwood-helmed Ponder The Mystery, Star Trek icon and actor-singer-animal rights activist William Shatner is back. This time he’s donning the red suit of another great captain of the sky, Santa Claus, for his very first Christmas record, Shatner Claus. An anarchic mix that features guest appearances from Iggy Pop, Billy Gibbons and his old mucker Henry Rollins, it notches up a healthy prog quota with Ian Anderson, Rick Wakeman and Mel Collins also contributing to the 13-song collection. But amid a spruce-up of classic Christmas songs is one original composition, the poignant One For You, One For Me, written for the project by veteran soldier Blade Anthony. Shatner Claus might just be one of…

“This album is the band’s sweet spot – Genesis’ soaring creative ambition matched by their immaculate playing. Gabriel’s finessed word games and more than anything else the big, big tunes that lie at its heart. The strange enduring topicality of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight suggests there’s more to prog than English whimsy – it’s an unrepeatable lament for past, present and future.” See www.thepublandlord.com.…

“I wasn’t intending to revisit Equinoxe, but I’ve always been very intrigued by the album artwork,” says Jean-Michel Jarre, referring to the banks of mysterious ‘Watchmen’ that peer out from the sleeve of his 1978 opus. “I’ve always felt that Equinoxe has one of the most iconic covers of the vinyl era. And I thought it would be interesting to imagine what happened to these beings over the past 40 years and what might happen to them 40 years from now.” The French maestro’s next step was to recruit Filip Hodas (“a brilliant young artist from Prague who specialises in 3D computer graphics”) to create some visuals that he had in mind. Jarre asked him to come up with two future settings for the Watchmen – one depicting mankind in…

SYMPHONY X The Divine Wings Of Tragedy (1997) Released by Zero Corporation in Japan and InsideOut in Europe, the New Jersey outfit’s third album revelled in its epicness: this was prog metal at its most bombastic, and all the more glorious for it. SPOCK’S BEARD V (2000) Thomas Waber cites the US band’s fifth album as a key point in the label’s success: it might have drawn on the genre’s golden age for its influences, but stands as a high water mark of millennial prog. PAIN OF SALVATION The Perfect Element, Part 1 (2000) Daniel Gildenlöw explores the tumult of childhood and adolescence on the Swedes’ heavyweight third album. The sound of prog moving into the 21st century, and InsideOut with it. TRANSATLANTIC Bridge Across Forever (2001) Thomas Waber was…

Focus 11 IN AND OUT OF FOCUS It’s six years since Focus X, which saw the venerable Dutch masters rediscovering a sense of playfulness. It felt then as if they’d remembered what people love about them: their undeniable virtuosity mixed with a tendency towards the truly bonkers. Ever since Hocus Pocus and Sylvia became unlikely early 70s hits (the use of the former in a 2010 Nike ad brought the band new admirers), and albums like Hamburger Concerto hit on intriguing interfaces of fun and form, we associate Focus with a gleeful, jaunty twist on the tropes of jazz, classical and long and winding prog. It appears that mainstay Thijs van Leer is aware of this, a recent poem declaring: ‘Wow my joy could not increase/To see this new release/Both…

Nightscapes CLAY PIPE MUSIC Nightfall and the way that it both changes our perceptions of the world and acts as a summons to sleep has inspired artists and musicians down through the ages, exercising a unique grip on our imaginations. On the wonderful Nightscapes, multi-instrumentalist David Rothon captures the various moods of the hours after dark, a contemplative musical journey with a few surprises along the way. It begins with The Midnight Bell/I Have Been Here Before, chiming pedal steel notes lost in a warm pool of reverb, before Mellotron and harmonica combine as twin heralds of sleep’s little death. …And Breathe perfectly mimics that sliding feeling as consciousness slips away, the chords pitch shifting through some misty veil. The minor key guitar figure and melancholic cor anglais of Waldeinsamkeit…

Smells Funny RUNE GRAMMOFON For a country with a population smaller than London, Norway seems to produce an almost alarmingly high number of amazing bands. On their sixth album, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio continue to explore the fertile ground where jazz meets rock, then they get drunk together and jam until the neighbours call the police about the noise. The main riff of Beastie, Beastie seems inspired by the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage, and features an outstanding guitar solo from bandleader Mollestad. Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered is pure sonic malevolence, while in First Thing To Pop Is The Eye, Mollestad’s guitar breaks up into feedback, allowing bassist Ellen Brekken to launch an adventurous solo as Ivar Loe Bjørnstad fearlessly keeps pace on the drums. There’s a moment of relative calm in…

Precipice FLYING NUN Since rising to fame in her native New Zealand as teenage frontwoman of psychedelic trip hop collective Doprah, Indira Force has branched out into releasing tracks of her own online as well as composing soundtracks for an indie movie and a contemporary dance performance. But apart from a self-released compilation of her early work, this is the first LP she’s released under her own name. She may wrily term her music as “a transdimensional doorway which sly fairies have left slightly ajar for anyone to enter”, but there’s nothing ironic about the sounds she creates. In fact, there’s frequently an eerie quality about it that is positively unsettling. The childlike mandolin and cooing backing vocals of Cair Paravel owe a debt to Joanna Newsom, and the whispering…

B/B APOLLON By now, it should be clear to most that jam bands are responsible for the majority of society’s ills. However, when they work – and we very much mean this with an emphasis is on work – the effect is electrifying. Prog and rock’s old bones get stretched and pulled in their arthritic sockets, the blood starts pumping through those crisp veins and something resembling audacity emanates from the skeleton’s jerking cartilage. Bergen’s Kiss Kiss King Kong offer a little of that sensation. Their second album makes us think of White Denim. It is outrageous, in-the-pocket and builds to tottering constructions of distortion, fuzz and rapacious rhythmic hammering – garage rock in its aesthetic, but much more jazzily ambitious in its aims. Be Gone turns-up Cream’s galloping psychedelia,…

At The Edge Of Light INSIDEOUT The cover of Steve Hackett’s 26th studio album features a man stood beneath a rocky escarpment. He looks up, as sheet lightning breaks through a black sky. At first glance, it would be easy to miss this man, overwhelmed by natural forces. However, whatever else might be said about At The Edge of Light, the little man in the corner of the cover should not be confused with Hackett himself. For if this follow-up to The Night Siren shows Hackett continuing to showcase some fine world musicians, there is no doubt who is front and centre. As he approaches his 70th year, Steve Hackett’s spectacular talent is undiminished and At The Edge Of Light is a tour de force. “Neat arpeggios, dazzling solo runs……

Transporter STOLEN BODY Based out of Tel Aviv, Ouzo Bazooka are, according to their bio, “the undisputed champions of middle eastern psych rock”. They certainly advance a fairly compelling case on third album Transporter, with a sound that nails the twangy but tough sweet spot between the 70s Anatolian rock scene and the 80s garage psych of bands such as The Steppes. There’s a fun, almost cartoonish vibe throughout, the type of album to get a party started without being completely mindless. It’s A Sin kicks it off in fine style, its gothic surf rock vibe and catchy melody guaranteed to have you singing along by the second chorus. Latest News pushes the heaviness, its thumping riff laced with some nice horrorshow Vox organ, while Trip Train is one of…

Courage And Other Songs Of War And Peace SELF-RELEASED Earlier this year it looked like curtains for Pallas. Founding member Graeme Murray admitted that they had “ceased to function” but, buoyed by a positive social media response to talk of solo material, Murray was spurred to write the title track of this new record, their first since 2014’s Wearewhoweare. He’s combined the WW1-themed track with six other cuts from Pallas and guitarist Niall Mathewson’s back catalogue that share a similar theme, and released it on a ‘pay what you like’ basis via Bandcamp. At first there are strong echoes of The Final Cut in the melancholic, quiet desperation of Courage’s opening passages, as Murray ponders, ‘where did you get your courage from to climb those ladders and make that run?’…

Intruders CHERRY RED Further evidence that The Residents are really enjoying themselves at the moment, Intruders concludes a year of feverish activity. Following the sublime ‘pREServed’ editions of their early albums and the perverse, cut ‘n’ shut splurge of I Am A Resident!, the masked mentalists’ 34th studio album is as bewildering and absorbing as anything they’ve released in decades. A core theme of spectral, malevolent figures lurking on the fringes of our fragile, internal realities snakes its way through these 10 peculiar marriages of wonky art rock and cracked-mirror poetry, with so many engaging musical ideas and moments of lyrical brilliance. Each song tells its own woozily unsettling story, ranging from Voodoo Doll’s sleepy surf rock needlework saga to the anxious, philosophical churn of the darkly serene Endless And…

Prodigal Dreamer ROCKVILLE As our favourite bands reach their twilight years it’s hard to resist viewing new music though rose-tinted spectacles. Even a mediocre record is better than no record at all, right? Well, fear not… no such lowering of the bar is required for Prodigal Dreamer. Eight long years may have elapsed since Echo & Boo, the second album released since Pavlov’s Dog reunited back in 1990. Frontman David Surkamp has now reached his mid-60s but that remarkable heliumtinged voice – once described as a “choirboy on speed” – shows no sign of packing up, and Prodigal Dreamer is full of material that feels like it belongs in another century. “Eloquence matched by gravitas, poetry set to music.” Hailed as America’s first prog band back in the 1970s, Pavlov’s…

Sequences F2 Twelfth Night update and reinterpret a song that has been in their repertoire, in one guise or another, for four decades. This new recording of Sequences coincides with the centennial of the First World War and the lyrics tell the story of a young army volunteer forever changed by his experiences. It’s remarkable to think this is the first studio version with vocals, Mark Spencer rising to the challenge of filling the late Geoff Mann’s role. The anger that informs the lyrics is worthy of any sneering punk band – ‘Our glorious leaders start a war to protect the whole of humankind/That’s why they always stay behind. What do you mean, ain’t it wrong to kill?’ barks Mann, his voice recorded back in 1983. The playing is no…

You Tell Me MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES After meeting at a Kate Bush celebration gig, Admiral Fallow vocalist Sarah Hayes and Field Music’s Peter Brewis got on like a house on fire. Discovering a mutual love of The Blue Nile, Tortoise and Randy Newman among others, their subsequent collaboration takes strands of those interests and fashions them a short but content-rich album. Filled with off-kilter rhythms and ravishing stringwork that nuzzles close to the heart of their songs, the purity of Hayes’ singing has an unadorned confessional quality that’s utterly engrossing. Some of its motifs are reminiscent of Hayes’ exquisite 2015 solo album, Woven, which offered a beguiling take on folk rock. That strength is also present here but complemented with a quirky pop dimension that echoes some of Brewis’ inventiveness within…

Evolution PURPLE PYRAMID To put this set into perspective we need to start at CDs five and six, which feature the group live at The Keystone, Berkeley CA in 1976. Back in the day Man were known as a ‘people’s band’: unpretentious, purveying a good time vibe, and fond of spliffing-up, as exemplified by the lyrics to Bananas. But they were also exceptional musicians purveying a homegrown quirkiness combined with a West Coast feel in the vocal harmonies by guitarists Deke Leonard and Mickey Jones, and in their fluid live improvisations. On the 17-minute C’mon they come across like a Welsh Grateful Dead, their trip punctuated by drummer Terry Williams’ taut repetitive patterns and updated by Phil Ryan’s textural synth lines, while Leonard’s lead guitar is flamboyant throughout. On the…

Vinyl Reissues NUCLEAR BLAST For once, the term ‘long-awaited’ is entirely appropriate: Meshuggah’s much acclaimed back catalogue has been crying out for a proper vinyl release for some time. Happily, this first batch of remastered revisits delivers the sought-after goods. It all starts with the eye-frazzling artwork that adorns each of the five records: either reimagined from the original or entirely new, it’s all stunning and truly adds to the experience. But it’s the music that made Meshuggah into contemporary legends and each of these seminal albums has been tweaked to a state of sonic near-perfection. Admittedly, 1989’s self-titled EP and 1991’s Contradictions Collapse are both snapshots of a young band in a state of eager flux. Effectively dismantling the progressive thrash that Metallica defined on 1988’s classic …And Justice…

Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake 50th Anniversary Edition CHARLY An immediate (arf!) No. 1 album and classic upon its release in 1968, Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake lifted the Small Faces up into rock’s highest echelons. Everything about Ogdens’ was inventive, from the round Victorian tobacco tin sleeve to Happiness Stan’s surreal search for the missing half of the moon on side two. Signing with Immediate Records in 1967 allowed the writing partnership of Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane to flower. Most of the songs were written while messing about on a boat trip along the River Thames; as well as an escape from the frenzy of pop stardom, a week of drifting downstream imbued the material with a genuinely pastoral feel. Symphonic touches were added by the violinists and cellists from…

How To Be Invisible: Selected Lyrics FABER & FABER Few musicians’ lyrics thrive separated from their music; it’s the conjunction of the two elements, lent charisma by their creator, which gives the full effect. As poets, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed cut it. Lately, books compiling the writings of Nick Cave and Jarvis Cocker have been well-received, and Faber now bring out Kate Bush’s linguistics in a cloth-bound edition. The introduction by Cloud Atlas novelist David Mitchell suggests that while her lyrics are “avowedly idiosyncratic”, they “evoke emotions and sensations that feel universal”. He has a point. Her anthems – Wuthering Heights, Hounds Of Love, Running Up That Hill – might be wilfully eccentric and aren’t “on paper” especially relatable, but here – actually on paper – they…

Live From The Rites Of Spring Festival 2018 BRAND X LIVE Let’s be honest. There’s not really a lot to look at when it comes to Brand X. True, they might all well be handsome devils to a man but when it comes to their first-ever in-concert Blu-ray it’s quickly apparent their stage show is non-existent. I mean, where are the costume changes and the choreographed dance moves? What about some crowd surfing or maybe riding across the stage on a Segway? Nope, nada, nothing. All you get is five guys playing their instruments. That’s got to be dullsville, right? Wrong. Like having Brand X playing in your living room. With a quality that’s nothing short of magnificent, watching this quintet animating a famously complex repertoire and breathing new life…

VENUE ACES & EIGHTS, LONDON DATE 29/11/2018 Roughly a year and a half has passed since Heather Findlay first brought her trio, with Martin Ledger and Sarah Dean, to this venue to record her live DVD. On that occasion, it felt like the players were still finding their feet in the smaller format of the three-piece. But tonight, the trio brim with an easy confidence, having grown into their own distinct sound. The evening is split into two sets, the first of which inhabits that fertile ground where folk meets blues and rock, not far removed from Led Zeppelin in an acoustic mood. The opening Unoriginal Sin sets the tone with Findlay sounding superb. Last time, Ledger’s electric guitar tended to overpower the rest of the instruments, but the mix…

VENUE STATE THEATRE, KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN DATE 26/10/2018 It has been two years since Kansas’ last studio offering, the acclaimed The Prelude Implicit. And while their fans eagerly await a new record, Kansas have remained busy by extensively touring. Tonight’s date is part of their Point Of Know Return 40th Anniversary Tour. The show starts out with a five-song acoustic set, with the band members sitting on stools, singing sweet harmonies that are beautifully aided by acoustic guitar, violin, and piano. The standout songs of this section include People Of The South Wind and Hold On. After the acoustic offering, they play a somewhat eclectic mix of electric songs that include hits such as The Wall, Song For America and Miracles Out Of Nowhere. The current Kansas line-up features founding members…