Table of contents for Issue 115 in Prog

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog. Like the last seven issues, this is yet another edition we’ve completed working from home, and once again we are under lockdown here in England while many of you around the world are still feeling the effects of Covid-related restrictions. I sincerely hope everyone is holding up as well as can be expected, and thank you all for buying this issue of Prog Magazine. To say it’s not been the best of years would be a drastic understatement, but among other things, the news of a potential vaccine perhaps brings us some light at the end of what, for many, has been a dark year. This issue, we begin to look back over 2020 with the writers choosing their albums of the…

Scottish experimental rock outfit Mogwai have announced a new record, As The Love Continues, which will be released on February 19 via Rock Action Records. The LP follows 2017’s Every Country’s Son and the band’s soundtrack for Italian TV drama ZeroZeroZero. The TV music is a pay-what-you-feel download, with half of proceeds going to Help Musicians and NHS charities. “With ZeroZeroZero there were eight episodes, so almost eight hours of music,” says guitarist Stuart Braithwaite. “It was like being on a conveyor belt. It’s pretty intense having to make up pieces of music really quickly.” Even though As The Love Continues was written during the same period, the songs stayed distinct from the ZeroZeroZero tracks. “The way I see it is that you have to be able to not require…

“I feel highly honoured and privileged to be given this weighty accolade from fellow professionals and journalists I have worked with and respected throughout my many years in the music business, and in particular from a magazine I hold in great and fond regard. It’s been sad in some ways to say goodbye with the Weltschmerz album to an industry that has given me so much on so many levels but I’m glad and proud that I achieved what I set out to do, which was to end my career with what I wanted to be one of my finest ever albums. It’s been a ‘lang sair fecht’ to deliver this project in such difficult times and circumstances for everyone concerned. On behalf of everyone involved in its creation and…

Radiant prog metal from rising Puerto Rican quartet. Guitarist/vocalist Christian Ayala’s project, Avandra have a knack for mixing sophisticated aggression and atmospheric surfaces that was clear on 2017’s Tymora and 2019’s Descender. Skylighting upholds that balance with even more cohesion and poignancy. Opener Celestial Wreaths and the penultimate track Afferent Realms effectively juxtapose hypnotic guitar riffs and vivacious percussion with divine harmonies and touching lyricism. It’s precisely this fusion of light and dark elements that carries the whole sequence. Elsewhere, Life Is Not A Circle, But A Sphere channels soaring emotions and djent gymnastics, while Noetic Probes evokes Haken’s soothing textures and catchy melodies. The most moving passage, however, is New Origins since its prophetic narration, distressing strings, and wavering synths yield such an inspiring final statement. One could argue…

Prog metal icons keep to the script in fun but inessential live release. Dream Theater have already notched up eight live albums – do they really need another one? Recorded at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in February 2020, this one finds the prog metal godfathers showcasing tracks from 2018’s Distance Over Time, while at the same time celebrating 20 years of their concept opus Scenes From A Memory. A full rendition of the latter is the jewel in the crown here; its opening twin attack of Overture 1928 and Strange Deja Vu is a joyous slap across the face, while the flit between the stomping Home into the wacky Dance Of Eternity is breathless but brilliant. Outside of Scenes the setlist isn’t the most rewarding for diehards – A Nightmare To…

Synth-loving Polish songwriter puts a formidable band together These pages regularly feature multi-instrumentalists singlehandedly constructing grand musical designs, but other approaches are available to bring one individual’s creative ideas to life. Jasmeno’s keyboard player/songwriter/graphic designer Slavomir Maria Nietupski feels that the key to great leadership of a musical project is delegation. While the synthrock soundscapes and enigmatic artwork of Jasmeno’s debut album spring from his own hand, an array of hired hands add splashes of extra colour. There are echoes of Phil Oakey’s portentous singing style in Andrea Boccarusso’s vocals, which enhances the early 80s synthpop feel of Precarious And Tough. Other textures emerge intermittently too. The floaty atmospherics of Temptation In Vain are punctuated by trumpet and harp, a doomy choir backs Reptile, and a spoken word section from…

More creepy cinematic atmospheres from Richard Wileman. Only an issue ago we sang the praises of Arcana, the oddball gothfolk solo record from Karda Estra’s Richard Wileman. He’s back already, albeit with an album that could only come under the Karda Estra banner. Wileman describes Idols In The Flesh as an “immersive ambient album” that involves “audio manipulation of acoustic and electronic instruments”, and it’s his proven ear for both these elements that makes this such a pleasurably creepy experience. Four of the six tracks here bear the title Idols In The Flesh, naturally labelled Part 1 to 4. The first is six eerie minutes of dissonant arpeggios over washes of ominous, reverbdrenched strings. The second is brighter, brandishing piano, atonal classical guitar and church organ. The third blends these…

Powerful statement from Rhys Marsh’s thoughtful power trio. Rhys Marsh’s original band, Mandala, return with The Echoes Of Your Mind, the belated follow-up to 2015’s Midnight Twilight. Mandala captures the multi-instrumentalist at his heaviest, running riot across the album’s seven tracks with often raw Middle Eastern-inspired psychedelia. Recorded in central Norway in high summer, it sounds not unlike the permanent light in which it was captured: vaguely unsettling, mildly psychedelic. Taking the power trio format (Will Spurling is on drums and Markus Wisth Edvardsen is on bass), and over-dubbing vocals and psychedelic elements’, The Echoes Of Your Mind, is an affecting balance of sustain and attack. On the day recording began, lightning hit the studio, and that electricity can be heard throughout. The heavy weather is directly referred to on…

Transport yourself with retro sounds and child-like good cheer. The third album from Lyon’s Odessey & Oracle continues their explorations of gorgeous, dreamy psychedelic pop, with vintage analogue keyboards, woodwind and clever arrangements, topped off with Fanny L’Héritier’s captivating and sometimes otherworldly vocals. The album occasionally encompasses musical themes that wouldn’t be out of place on a 70s art house film soundtrack – Mascara throws a bit of cheeky folk-funk into proceedings. Elsewhere, the title track is built around a nursery rhyme-like earworm refrain and Mélodie #1 sees L’Héritier creating a vocal soundscape against the backdrop of sparse pipe organ and acoustic guitar. In Les Enfants, L’Héritier duets with guitarist/bassist Guillaume Médioni, though its bittersweet melancholy changes gear quite surprisingly and slowly builds to a brass section flourish. Les Poupées…

Maynard James Keenan’s other other band offer a state of the world address. Fairlight synthesiser and spacey, sci-fi sounds augment Puscifer’s fourth record. Bread And Circus opens proceedings with squalls and glitches, before Maynard James Keenan’s voice floats over the top, straight in with the themes of this album: ‘Here we are, with our existential reckoning’. What follows is a document for our times, which was mostly put together in 2019 but feels exceptionally 2020. There are songs about corrupt leaders, digital disinformation and polarised opinions. The introduction of retrofuturistic sounds with lyrics about our uncertain present conjures an experience that’s part quiet contemplation and part vicious condemnation. In Fake Affront, Keenan snarls: ‘Sanctimonious phony little shit, you can drop the fake affront’. Vocalist and songwriter Carina Round provides a…

Debut album by new band with a fine prog pedigree. Rain’s drummer Andy Edwards and bassist John Howitt played together in IQ and Frost*, and fans’ satisfaction with their new band’s excellent debut is pretty much guaranteed. Importantly, though, Rain have already developed an original voice with a less agitated and intense approach than Frost*. The songs are lengthy and intricately structured with strong melodies – near pop at times. The duo are joined by singer/guitarist/keyboard player Rob Groucutt and mononymous guitarist/vocalist Mirron (of the band Hey Jester). There’s a potent chemistry, with the musicians all serving songs which at times demand they let rip. On Dandelion, Mirron launches off into the stratosphere over a funky, twitchy rhythm and elsewhere he punctuates his playing with dazzling acoustic forays. They peak…

Lush and multifaceted prog metal concept piece from well-kept Italian secret Melodic progressive metal is a heavily populated corner of the prog world, which is one possible explanation for the fact that Italian proggers Soul Secret have remained under the radar for many. Built around a concept prompted by keyboardist Luca Di Gennaro’s observation that “people think they actively take part in life, but actually they are just watching others doing things”, their fifth album questions how we relate to the “blue light cage” of our computers and TV screens. While vocalist Lino Di Pietrantonio does sound remarkably like James LaBrie at times and The Ghost Syndicate features a guest appearance from Derek Sherinian, the levels of invention here make any resemblance fleeting, as the twists and turns of Jump…

Some promising debuts for your consideration this month. Project Trident are an instrumental rock band from Kolkata, and The Return Of RA (projecttridentindia.bandcamp.com) is a highly listenable concept piece drawing on ancient Indian myth. The music’s atmospheric and melody centric with some very tasty playing from guitarist/songwriter Sukhendu Chakraborty, and their story’s a doozy. RA is a poor child who trains a warrior clan of kids to fight an evil military/corporate elite and avenge his murdered parents. A Bollywood blockbuster might illuminate that tale better, but this album would make a great soundtrack. Scottish musician, writer and producer Raymond Weir comes to prog with the alias Analogue Hashtag, whose debut offering One Of Our Agents Is Missing (Analogue Hashtag) was influenced by famous retro TV themes including Randall And Hopkirk…

Wrap up warm and bask in the glow of the Frost* back catalogue. Arriving in 2006, Frost*’s astonishingly accomplished debut album Milliontown set a high bar for any newbies contemplating a future in the prog world. It was music clearly influenced by the past but written, performed and produced with a contemporary sensibility, real flair and great invention. With a brand new album promised for 2021, Frost* mainman Jem Godfrey has decided to remind everyone of the body of work that he and his collaborators have created over the years. Hence 13 Winters – an eight-disc collection of every studio album the band has released, plus 2020’s Others and the brilliant live album, The Philadelphia Experiment. If that wasn’t riches enough, “new” material appears in the form of instrumental versions…

APHRODITE’S ALLURE Many thanks for the most illuminating article on 666 by Aphrodite’s Child [Prog 114], quite possibly my favourite prog album of all time. When friends ask, “What’s it like?” I usually reply that it’s equal measures prog, world music and Monty Python. Radcliffe and Maconie recently played Aegean Sea as the Early Riser on their BBC Radio 6 show and I was reminded of the day that I bought the album. Back in July ’77 I had a summer job working in a clothes shop in the centre of Glasgow. One day the manager tasked me with taking an expensive pair of denims from one branch in the Gallowgate to the other branch under Central Station. Perfect, I thought. I can nip into Graffiti Records on Queen Street…

Catherine Anne Davies will release her second album under the banner of The Anchoress on March 5 via Kscope – and she warns that it’s “heavier and darker than people have come to expect”. The Art Of Losing deals with the grief of loss, inspired by an unidentified personal experience of a few years ago. It features David Bowie drummer Sterling Campbell and James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers, but other than that it had to be a solo project. “This couldn’t have been a collaborative effort because it delves down into some pretty personal and horrific experiences,” she says. “It’s not a time I’d want to return to, but the album is a literal record of having walked through the fire and emerged, somewhat changed.” Davies adds:…

EXPERIMENTAL ARTISTS FANNY L’Héritier and Guillaume Médioni are the songwriting partnership behind Odessey & Oracle, but all four members bring their considerable expertise. Classically trained at the same conservatoire in Lyon, they formed around 2012: L’Héritier sings and Médioni plays guitars, banjos and bass, while they both use a range of analogue synthesisers mostly dating back to the 1970s. Alice Baudoin adds harpsichord, pipe organ and baroque oboe to the mix, while Roméo Monteiro brings drums and an array of percussion. It’s not just the hardware that’s extensive, the songs are also labyrinthine in their ambition, slipping down sonic corridors and going off on melodic tangents, always inflected with a gossamer light pop sensibility. Current album Crocorama taps into the baroque pop of the late 1960s but there’s never any…

In 1971 Stewart Young was working for his father’s accountancy company when an up-and-coming rock trio called Emerson, Lake & Palmer asked for help to get their business affairs in order. At just 25, Young was appointed their financial advisor and subsequently became their manager, despite having precisely zero experience of the music industry. He continued to look after Greg Lake into his solo years, the two remaining good friends until Lake’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2016. Young still manages artists such as Foreigner and Italian superstar Zucchero, and has overseen the making of Greg Lake: The Anthology – A Musical Journey. The lavishly presented two-disc, 32-track retrospective stretches back to Lake’s early days in 60s psych bands The Shame and The Shy Limbs, along with highlights from his…

“Prog enough for me. To me, many of the more electronic bands of this era are more progressive in the true meaning of the word, exploring new sounds, new instruments.” Andreas Nilsen “Definitely in the Venn diagram of prog and electronic pop/rock. Astradyne and Western Promise from the Vienna album are great bits of music, regardless of genre!” Kevin Gover “At the time, they didn’t seem prog, but at the time Rush were considered ‘thinking man’s heavy metal’ instead of prog. If there’s room for Kraftwerk and XTC under the prog umbrella, then there’s plenty of room for Ultravox.” Randy Panucci “Definite proggy influences in melody and composition. Probably coming from Billy Currie and, to a lesser extent, Midge Ure. Billy has worked with Steve Howe on his own solo…

JERRY EWING (Editor) 1. ENSLAVED Utgard (NUCLEAR BLAST) 2. RICK WAKEMAN & THE ENGLISH ROCK ENSEMBLE The Red Planet (R&D MULTIMEDIA) 3. GREEN CARNATION Leaves Of Yesteryear (SEASON OF MIST) 4. FISH Weltschmerz (CHOCOLATE FROG) 5. COLDBONES The Cataclysm (DUNK!) 6. KATATONIA City Burials (PEACEVILLE) 7. MARIANA SEMKINA Sleepwalking (KSCOPE) 8. PG.LOST Oscillate (PELAGIC) 9. CALIGULA’S HORSE Rise Radiant (INSIDEOUT) 10. RING VAN MÖBIUS The 3rd Majesty (APOLLON) 11. DYBLE LONGDON Between A Breath And A Breath (ENGLISH ELECTRIC) 12. HEDVIG MOLLESTAD Ekhidna (RUNE GRAMMOFON) 13. MOTORPSYCHO The All Is One (STICKMAN/RUNE GRAMMOFON) 14. GAZPACHO Fireworker (KSCOPE) 15. JACK HUES Primitif (DAWN CHORUS) 16. SANGUINE HUM A Trace Of Memory (BAD ELEPHANT MUSIC) 17. MARTIN GRECH Hush Mortal Core (MARTIN GRECH MUSIC) 18. CHIMPAN A The Empathy Machine (TIGERMOTH) 19.…

Blue Öyster Cult’s head-spinning 1988 album the way it was meant to be. lue Öyster Cult’s 1988 album Imaginos was supposed to be a solo album by former drummer Albert Bouchard before being co-opted by his exband. Now, more than 30 years later, he has eventually got round to releasing his own version. There are big differences between the two. BÖC’s was a patchwork affair with little cohesion. What it did have was a darkness that suited the convoluted concept of an alien conspiracy theory, based around poetry and other writings by the band’s manager/producer Sandy Pearlman. Bouchard’s interpretation has more sophistication and conviction. I Am The One You Warned Me Of and Del Rio Song have both a welcome lightness of touch and an underlying uneasiness, while his reimagining…

Abstract electronica meets radical jazz courtesy of James Allsop’s collective The name might suggest a gentle diversion into the realms of nostalgia, but that’s far from the case on the third album from this avant-garde ensemble led by saxophonist and composer James Allsopp. The title is based on an eccentric ditty from absurdist Scots poet Ivor Cutler, but there’s nothing cosy about the sound here, which conjures visions of an exploratory jazz group improvising in an abandoned Radiophonic Workshop. In fact, that’s not far wide of the mark, with Loftopus, a six-part, 31-minute tone poem, recorded live in a single take. It begins with blippy electronica and disembodied voices, like something approaching from inner space, before a wave of sax breaks against the digital ether, producing slow, elegant lines that…

Engaging Kiwi folk-rock for fans of bygone sounds. The debut album from New Zealand quartet, Grumblewood deliberately seeks to evoke the feel and sensibilities of the electric folk-prog movement of the early 70s: Jethro Tull, Renaissance, Fairport Convention, and, later, The Waterboys’ “Irish” period. While the shifting time signatures of Fives And Nines and the eight-minute The Band-meets-Christy Moore stylings of The Minstrel overlay some twists atop traditional tropes, this band also have an affection and respect for folk history, as their interpretation of The Sheriff’s Ride (aka The Wraggle Taggle Gypsy) demonstrates. Alongside liberal applications of flute, banjo, mandolin and harpsichord, Gav Bromfield’s rich vocals fulfil the all-important folk storyteller role. Many bands would have striven for a more precise and controlled product, but Grumblewood eschew such modernity with…

Thumpermonkey guitarist’s tender chamber ensemble tribute Thumpermonkey have drawn praise from some prog fans and completely baffled others in equal measure with their metallic Peter Hammill/Shudder To Think style for the last 15 years. But their guitarist-keyboardist, Rael Jones, is more than just a squalling Strat. He’s composed TV and film scores for shows such as Harlots and The Salisbury Poisonings, and his solo work makes use of these cinematic touches, with not a shred of feedback in earshot. A follow-up to Jones’ stunning 2013 debut Mandrake, Mother Echo is a tribute to his late mother composed in the months following her death and relating to a nightmare Jones had as a child after she was involved in a car crash. The way the piano and string quartet move through…

The time is right for these five gentlemen of Verona. Melodic, intricate and grandiose, Clockworks is the third full-length album from Verona prog metallers Methodica. On paper their sound appears pretty boilerplate: Marco Ciscato’s chugging, downtuned guitar riffs; Marco Piccoli’s forceful, nuanced drumming; fiddly, widdly moments abound. But two factors set them above the hordes of Fates Warning/Dream Theater clones. Singer Max Piubelli is a compelling presence, his versatile voice hitting metallic and operatic notes as he sells opener A Trick, the multi-textured 1994 and growling post-grunge work Cold Sun. Then there’s keyboardist Marco Baschera’s imaginative sound palette. His post-industrial squeals and clanks and cosmic frequencies add another dimension to the thunder of The Door To You, Shooting Stars and Before The Wrath. It makes for an anthemic, engrossing album…

More straight ahead than you’d expect from Mike Patton’s reunited original band. It’s typical of Mr Bungle to never quite do what’s expected. Their three studio albums, all released in the 1990s, were barmy and twisted so it’s not unreasonable to anticipate something similar with this, their first album since 1999. But what they’ve done is considerably more linear: they’ve recreated their 1986 thrash metal demo The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny. The result is a band revisiting their very early days, as they immerse themselves in the chaotic atmosphere of the original, albeit with more musical cultivation. The core trio of Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton, guitarist Trey Spruance and bassist Trevor Dunn have been joined for this venture by Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and Slayer drummer…

Dutch prog power trio return after a five-year hiatus. Our Oceans began in 2015 as side project by members of the now defunct Exivious. Where the latter played a complex mix of metal, prog and fusion that could feel quite cool and mathematical, Our Oceans take a more volatile approach, their mood swings mirrored by impassioned vocals from Tymon Kruidenier. The opening Unravel veers from subtle picking to monstrous metal chords and flamboyant soloing by Kruidenier, and towards the end he belts out some spectacular high notes, sounding uncannily like Jeff Buckley. The band’s edgily unorthodox song structures are compounded by Kruidenier’s visceral imagery, although Passing By, a lament for lost love, is tenderly sung. On Your Take, drummer Yuma van Eekelen and bassist Robin Zielhorst lock into a syncopated…

A 2020 highlight (yes, there were some) was the belated discovery of the expansive talents of wildly imaginative, prolific northerner Paul Mosley. With many albums under his belt, he’s also written more than 20 puppet show scores, from the take-the-family kind to the darkly avant-garde. The self-released Music For Puppets, credited to Paul Mosley And The Red Meat Orchestra and best purchased via his Bandcamp page, is typically multi-layered, from the wonky fairground intro of Ice Cream And Whiskey to the gorgeous jazz-pop of Cool Kids, the Kurt Weill-esque Tightrope and gloriously disturbing Zombie Donkeys. As he says, Superheroes has assumed new meaning for these times, and deserves a sync on the next visual tribute to key workers (He sings, ‘underdogs against the odds, you are superheroes’). The record is,…

No sophomore slump for symphonic prog prospects With their second album, Israel’s Scardust have become serious contenders in the symphonic prog metal world. Frontwoman Noa Gruman has the requisite vocal range and projection, hitting stratospherically high notes in Break The Ice, although she can mix rock grit with the musical theatre chop. She’s at home belting out the big, dramatic moments in Stranger, while Over sees her throw in incongruous death metal growls (not where she’s strongest, in truth). The arrangements are impressively rich and layered, with the Hellscore Choir beefing up the backing vocals. Concrete Cages brings in folk metal thanks to guest hurdy-gurdy from the appropriately named Patty Gurdy, while Scardust prove they can get mellow and groovy on the standout Under. The band members all have their…

Prog metal masters in prime form. Voivod have long since carved out their own niche in the progressive world. And, as this live album proves, their energy, power and grace onstage remains undimmed. Recorded in Quebec City during the tour for 2018’s The Wake, Lost Machine Live spans the Canadians’ career to date. Opening with the title track of 2016’s Post Society EP, and continuing into 1988’s Psychic Vacuum, they hit their stride quickly. Snake’s vocals are sparse and effective, while Chewy’s surging guitar shows how much he has settled into the role once taken by late six-stringer Denis ‘Piggy’ D’Amour. The set inevitably features selections from The Wake, with The End Of Dormancy and Iconspiracy benefitting from the live setting. A fan fave for many years, Voivod’s cover of…

Neo-prog veterans in resplendent 21st century form. There’s a sound reason why IQ have decided to reissue Frequency, despite the fact it was only released in 2009. The album has been unavailable for a while, so copies exchange hands for hefty sums. Now they’ve got ownership of the recordings back, the band have elected to make it more readily affordable. In some ways, Frequency marked the end of an era for IQ. It was bassist John Jowitt’s final album with them, plus the only time keyboard player Mark Westworth and drummer Andy Edwards featured on a record. It followed five years after 2004’s Dark Matter, but while the former was inconsistent, this one bristled with vibrancy and colour. Listening to it now, it’s clear IQ were in a wonderful place…

UK prog’s cello champion puts the past on plastic. With a ability to wring the most extraordinary, otherworldly sounds from her instrument, cellist Jo Quail deserves her reputation as a modern prog maverick. Whether collaborating with Mono and Emma Ruth Rundle or blowing minds with 2018’s mesmerising full-length, Exsolve, she operates in a field of one. As far back as 2016’s Five Incantations – remastered and reissued here with one previously unheard bonus track – Quail was blurring the lines between the experimental avant-garde, somnambulant post-rock and prog’s drama. Opening sprawl White Salt Stag is a sinister, percussive affair, underpinned by a fidgeting staccato pulse but beautifully restrained, like some malevolent, parallel dimension Penguin Café Orchestra. In enchanting contrast, The Breathing Hand is a stripped-down, mellifluous fever dream, interwoven melodies…

Warm and honest take on prog’s wilderness years. The third compilation of Kev Rowland’s reviews from his Feedback fanzine is warm, honest and engaging. It is also, like the best underground writing, unvarnished and unencumbered by any expectations of PR; the reviews in The Progressive Underground Vol 3 are clearly done for no other reason than the love of the genre. The period Rowland covers here – 1991-2006 – are the years when progressive rock was truly out on a limb, unloved, and interred to its niche. Even those who had adored the genre until 1976 had distanced themselves. Taking his reviews from T to Z, we learn the difference between the many Transatlantic albums, and also what the best Tristan Park recording is. Alongside some great interviews (Manfred Mann…

Russian duo Iamthemorning will self-release a new EP, Counting The Ghosts, on December 4. The fourtrack features two brand new songs and two covers of traditional Christmas choral pieces. “We wanted to release a Christmas-themed EP, but we didn’t want it to be cheesy,” explains vocalist Marjana Semkina, who is one half of the partnership alongside Gleb Kolyadin. “It’s not straightforwardly festive, more of a celebratory end-of-the-year release. Because, thank God, this year is nearly over!” Counting The Ghosts was written and recorded in isolation in October across three countries, with Kolyadin in Russia, Semkina in the UK and their sound engineer Vlad Avy – who also plays guitar on the EP – in Canada. “We’re used to doing things this way,” Semkina says. “When we wrote The Bell, we…

POPUTAR It’s the most irritating portmanteau since “mumpreneur” but the Poputar redeems itself by aiming to teach the world how to play guitar, quickly and easily. Company founder Bohan Zhang says: “Poputar aims to provide you a joyful beginning with less trouble and baldness” – and that’s a sentiment I can really get behind. The accompanying app sends signals to LEDs embedded in the neck of the instrument to show you where to put your fingers, in real time. They claim that this will allow you to become proficient in “10 days” – which is clearly far too optimistic, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a) clever, and b) useful. www.poputar.com/en KOKOON NIGHTBUDS Back in the day, a transistor radio placed carefully under the pillow would provide insomniacs with the…

Official Progressive Albums Chart The prog top 30 albums October 2020 Compiled by 1 TAME IMPALA The Slow Rush (FICTION) 2 PINK FLOYD The Later Years – 1987-2019 (RHINO) 3 HAWKWIND LIGHT ORCHESTRA Carnivorous (CHERRY RED) 4 OZRIC TENTACLES Space For The Earth (KSCOPE) 5 DEVIN TOWNSEND Order Of Magnitude – Empath Live – Vol 1 (INSIDEOUT) 6 STEVE HACKETT Selling England By The Pound And Spectral Mornings: Live (INSIDEOUT) 7 FLAMING LIPS American Head (BELLA UNION) 8 TANGERINE DREAM Pilots Of Purple Twilight (UMC) 9 JAKKO M JAKSZYK Secrets & Lies (INSIDEOUT) 10 RICK WAKEMAN The Red Planet (R&D MEDIA) 11 THE FLOWER KINGS Islands (INSIDEOUT) 12 GREG LAKE The Anthology: A Musical Journey (BMG) 13 RUSH Permanent Waves (MERCURY/UMC) 14 TOOL Fear Inoculum (MUSIC FOR NATIONS) 15 NIGHTWISH…

For many reasons, 2020 is unlikely to be a year many people are going to want to remember. But despite the pandemic and whatever other hardships life has thrown at us over the last 12 months, there’s still been some great art made in 2020, and it wouldn’t be right for that to be ignored. It’s time for you to decide who progged your world in 2020. You can see what the Prog Magazine writers thought were the best releases of the year on page 86. Now it’s your turn. Let’s rightly celebrate some great prog talent. Please email your choices to prog@futurenet.com with the subject line ‘Readers’ Poll 2020’ and use the form on this page as a guide. Alternatively, you can fill in the form on the right…

Veteran keysman Mark Mangold proves he’s lost none of his Touch. Before hitting the scene with 80s melodic rockers Touch, keyboardist/songwriter Mark Mangold released some quality melodic rock with New York rock trio American Tears. The latter’s output showcased intelligent, AORleaning rock freighted with melodious piano and burbling Hammond organs and synths. Mangold revived the Tears in 2018 and, to his eternal credit, he hasn’t tried to ‘modern up’ their sound, and is wisely sticking to his trusty musical guns. On Free Angel Express he plays keys and sings on a set of tuneful, synth-heavy tunes whose titles tell their tale. Some are charging rockers: Sledgehammered (‘Hot blood, cold sweat/I’ve been wounded but I ain’t dead yet’), the knotty Not For Nothing; others are mid-tempo anthems about keepin’ on believing:…

Teflon-thumbed Washingtonian’s bass-centric adventures. Anyone who hates the sound of slap bass should give Sean Fairchild – aka Combinator – a wide berth. Those who can endlessly listen to Les Claypool, Mark King or Larry Graham, however, will appreciate this Seattle maestro, whose basslines bobble like a rubber duck in a Jacuzzi and provide unlikely key flavour in some pretty startling musical stews. Fairchild’s hyperactive approach is reflected in his prolific release schedule: this is his third album of 2020. As ever, it uses his thumb as the jumping off point for some furiously urgent multilayered grooves that take in jazz-rock scales, metal shredding and itchy electronic beats. There’s also some more traditional songcraft at work here too, as Can’t Pretend To Know weaves his labyrinthine arrangements into a platform…

Instrumental tour de force from Canadian prog metallers Intervals are all about one man, namely guitarist Aaron Marshall. So, it’s no surprise that on their fourth album, his playing dominates. But this is far from an exercise in fretboard indulgence. Marshall uses his undoubted talents to bring out so many different dimensions. In the process, Circadian stands as a masterful piece of music. Designed to be listened to in one session, the album is a solitary composition sub-divided into sections. Marshall has cleverly constructed the flow so it feels like you’re taken on a journey. There are moments which will bring to mind the efforts of Protest The Hero or Animals As Leaders. But ultimately, Circadian defies such connections. His own performance crosses the spectrum from the complex and intricate…

Eclectic High Wycombe six-piece keep fighting the good fight Since founding Jump in 1990, John Dexter-Jones has never shied away from addressing current events. And there have been few periods in recent history when there’s been more material to fuel the ire of such a polemically inclined writer. The title of Jump’s 14th album references a commonly heard phrase from the Brexit debates of recent years and asks how we have become so selfish as a society, while elsewhere on here they touch on interlinked themes of self-interested leaders, futile wars and the enduring hope of change. Like the best political pop, though, it piques the interest with music first and words second: the sweet tangle of a guitar motif and slithering bassline that underpin the title track is typical…

Siren songs from the Swedish woods On their gorgeous third album, Sweden’s Lykantropi conjure up memories of vintage San Francisco rock in the late 60s and early 70s interwoven with rich seams of psychedelia and folk. The long-haired six-piece hail from rural Värmland and that brings an unhurried, pastoral ease to their music, married to a lyrical romanticism that’s flavoured with an occult twist on tracks such as Spell On Me, with its warnings about the seductive lure of evil. It’s all deeply groovy, with songs that drip with intoxicating harmonies as entrancing as any Odyssean siren. Frontwoman My Shaolin has the dreamlike delivery of Coven’s Jinx Dawson, with guitarist Martin Östlund playing her vocal foil. She sings with wistful longing on Kom Ta Mig Ut – ‘come take me…

Major Surgery’s Rare Live Performances 1978 (Lost In Music) represents a new chapter in an otherwise forgotten and overlooked outfit active in the 70s. Led by saxophonist Don Weller, these previously unreleased live sessions bristle with elements of Soft Machine and Nucleus, wherein smartly crafted tunes are delivered with razor precision, offset with Weller’s customary passion. Pete Jacobson’s keyboards spar with Jimmy Roche’s biting lead guitar, expanding the band’s tonal range as Bruce Collcutt’s bass and Tony Marsh’s drumming mine a funkish undertow. A welcome and essential addition to our understanding of UK jazz-rock in that era. As the title cunningly suggests, Harry Beckett’s Joy Unlimited (Cadillac) accentuates the positive with good vibes abounding in this handsome reissue from 1975. Beckett’s mellifluous trumpet and flugelhorn daub the stratosphere with gorgeous…

Peter Banks’ old bandmates revisit the past and look to the future. The New Empire are part tribute to and part reboot of Empire, the band founded by original Yes guitarist Peter Banks in 1973 and who recorded three albums during the 70s, none of which were released until the 90s. This incarnation was put together by drummer Mark Murdock (who appeared in the final Empire lineup) plus singer Marisol Koss and multi-instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo. With the help of guest musicians – including Dave Kerzner – they aim to update some of the late Banks’ songs and bring new ones to the party. The result is a success. Versions of Out Of Our Hands and Sky At Night (both from Empire’s Mark I album) are faithful to the originals, yet…

Lockdown studio sessions come offline to offer enticing new perspectives. In recent years, British art rock mainstays The Pineapple Thief have been a cause célèbre for muso observers, given their work with celebrated percussionist Gavin Harrison. But any suggestion that this makes their finished product a style-over-substance affair can be quickly disproven by a record like this. Here we have eight stripped down acoustic readings of TPT songs that frontman and principal songwriter Bruce Soord has been streaming online during the ongoing gig vacuum. Taken from the fourth of those sets, this album not only shows the strength of songcraft underpinning his band’s stirring soundscapes, but draws out different qualities within them. The dramatic silences punctuating Versions Of The Truth lend it a stark sense of isolated disillusionment. In Exile…

Freeform art rock from a true eccentric Danish-Iranian polymath Soho Rezanejad is an extraordinary vocalist, with a tone and versatility that go some way beyond otherworldly and into some alien realm of expression. Palpably unique from start to finish, Perform And Surrender paints a picture of a thrillingly idiosyncratic artist at work. On amorphous, drifting pieces such as the 12-minute Surrender, she weaves her poetic murmurings around undulating drones, nimbly bridging the divide between the abstract avantgarde and the yearning intimacy of stripped down torch songs. Bursts of distorted spoken word provide jarring contrast with the album’s mellifluous core, suggesting a spiritual debt to Laurie Anderson, while the blissful simplicity of acoustic hymn Half The Shore sounds like an out-take from the first This Mortal Coil album. The drone returns…

Oslo-based studio project switches moods in style on second album. Mats Jorgen Sivertsen began making music under the name Yobrepus (‘Superboy’ backwards) in 2006, but this is only their second album, following on from 2017’s Blakc Mould (sic). That debut sounded like the work of a band in search of a signature sound, dabbling in everything from Radioheadinspired sadcore to trip-hop and quirky indie-folk. Mycelium Days is similarly diverse in sound, but makes pronounced steps towards prog. This shift is most obvious on the 22-minute title track. Supper’s Ready it isn’t, but it is nonetheless an alluring slow-burning epic that cycles through an ambient electronic opening, meditative torch song, sludgy thereminassisted grunge and, finally, soundtrack-y meanderings. ‘Who’s the whore?’ Silvertsen hisses at one point, seemingly at himself What If… is…

Norwegian proggers give their early works a vinyl revamp. As fans reel from the dazzling career peak of this year’s A Day At The Beach, these lavish vinyl reissues of Airbag’s second and third albums reinforce how captivating the band’s music has been since (nearly) the beginning. Two years on from 2009 debut Identity, All Rights Removed consolidated the Norwegians’ reputation as grand Floydian (melo)dramatists. That debt is vast and unapologetic during the wonderfully overwrought title track and sprawling Homesick, but Airbag were never less than contemporary and already eager to subvert familiar formulae on occasion. By the time of 2013’s The Greatest Show On Earth, Airbag had clicked into a higher gear, balancing out the moments of reverb-drenched bliss with plenty of muscular riffs and dashes of experimentation. The…

Delicate Sound Of Thunder (2019 Remix) PINK FLOYD RECORDS The Floyd’s 1988 live album loosens up with added tracks. Gilmour and Mason had won the rights to the name, but could they, with Wright reinstalled, win the audience? The 1988 version of Floyd – despite being the era of their very worst choices regarding hair, shirts and dad jeans – did just that, in big numbers. Their hugely successful tour, promoting the patchy A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (“Facile,” snarked Waters), then yielded this live album, their first full one, recorded over five nights at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, New York. Famously, it was also the first album played in space, by Soviet cosmonauts. Now lifted from The Later Years box set, it adds to the original running order,…

Vic Stench’s astonishing ambience. Captured Of the Charterhouse Four that comprised the original Genesis lineup – Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips – it’s Phillips’ lot that seems to be the most enjoyable as the years pass. There’s certainly little question about just how prolific the guitarist has been, and as the only one of the four not to have had a No.1 single in the US, Phillips has been truly unencumbered by expectation, with a lucrative parallel career creating music for adverts and soundtracks – not to mention some residual royalties from The Knife – enabling his cottage industry to continue. Missing Links began life as a cassette series in 1989, to gather up Phillips’ TV and soundtrack work. The popularity of the first release led…

Swedes’ visual biography gets an updated reprint First published in 2016 as a £40 hardback and walletemptying £250 special edition, The Book Of Opeth was a lavish, photo-heavy account of the Swedes’ unlikely journey from death metal malcontents into the planet’s foremost purveyors of modern-vintage metal tinged prog. This new paperback reprint allows anyone who missed out on the original to fill the gap between Mike Oldfield and Ozric Tentacles on their bookshelves at a more austerity friendly cost, while also bringing the story up to date with a section on 2019’s In Cauda Venenum. The latter means more unseen photographs and insight into the making of the album (including the revelation that guitarist Fredrik Åkesson had a small heart infarction during recording and had to have stents inserted). Criticisms…