Quite well known, beloved and acclaimed as an essential of Italian Prog, Zarathustra is the album (seriously the only release until 2000) by Museo Rosenbach. Coming at this in the digital age of music and of streaming, years ago now I had only ever heard its 2012 in-studio live re-recording, though I recall being thoroughly impressed then. Even now, peculiarly enough... READ MORE
Rising For the Moon was a last roll of the dice for Fairport Convention; they'd got Sandy Denny back, giving a welcome additional dimension to the band which had been missing since Liege & Lief (they'd done no less than five albums between that and this without female vocals at all), and they shifted style accordingly, moving away from the comparatively straightforwa... READ MORE
Clearly deriving from the band's own sonic cosmos their third album provides round about 40 minutes of energetic powerful rock music. Just as well made with passion for detail and richness in the same way. THE UNIVERSE BY EAR group, or TUBE in short, is residing in Basel, Switzerland. The trio comprises Pascal Gr�nenfelder (bass) as well as Stef Strittmatter (guitar), b... READ MORE
Neo-prog, for me, is never a complex genre that defies expectations, nay 'less we talk about Marillion or IQ. Among the vast but seemingly dim stars of the 90s Neo Prog scene, with groups like Arena, Collage, Abraxas, and Pallas, one, I think stands at the most mysterious, and the most introspective of which, has to go to Pendragon. While they existed during the hay-... READ MORE
And the spirit of Mr Bungle lives on well into the 21st century. Ever since the Bunglers introduced their uncannily unique concoction of music genre skipping to the world of experimental rock / prog / metal all the way back in the 1990s, many a band has attempted to step into the arena to replicate this roller coaster ride of musical gymnastics and while a few have come... READ MORE
TEA AND SYMPHONY were a Birmingham-based, short-lived group playing theatrical (or "Vaudevillean"), hilarious and weird Psych/Prog Folk. This single was released the same year as the debut album An Asylum for the Musically Insane. Nevertheless, the A side song didn't appear on either of their two albums.The small-scale but highly sympathetic PROCOL HARUM song 'Boredom... READ MORE
When i say the 70s are a gift that never stop giving, i'm not only referring to the seemingly endless supply of treasures that were recorded during a single decade but i'm also talking about the influence that modern artists still are lapping up in great abundance. Retro prog should be considered a whole new subsection of the progressive rock universe at this point with... READ MORE
As I've been doing in recent months, this is a premier review for an album by a less known artist -- and in most cases, including this one, totally unknown to me in advance. Sergio Benchimol is said to be "quite well known on the Brazilian prog scene. He played with symphonic prog band SEMENTE in the early 70s and with mellow jazz band TRUE ILLUSION among others." He... READ MORE
BaK is back! Or so i thought. This Australian duo of Beau Djekic (guitar, bass, baglama, vocals) and Kit Dyson (drums, percussion, keyboards, piano, vocals) has been on the scene since 2010 and crafted a unique mix of progressive metal and Arabic folk music with its debut SCULPTURE in 2011. Sounding something like "Black Album" era Metallica accompanied by a traditional... READ MORE
Mysterious British multi-instrumentalist enlists the help of some mighty friends to produce this, his fifth studio album release since 2011; an eclectic if Mark Hollis/Porcupine Tree/No-Man-like collection of songs. 1. "Involution" (7:35) No-Man/Tim Bowness with some great atmospheric sound similar to the great David Sylvian/Steve Jansen soundscapes. Great atmosphere, g... READ MORE