Friday 31 August 2018

Zip Tang - Pank (2008)


The second album from this US band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of saxophone, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals.

I have previously reviewed one of their albums, their third album Feed Your Heads from 2010. You can find this review here

Their music has been described as eclectic prog. Which is a correct label.

Zip Tang is one of those eclectic art and prog rock bands USA has spawned in the last two decades. Bands who goes their own ways and take pleasure in crossing the genres on their albums.

During this sixty odd minutes long album, the band gives us everything from soaring symphonic prog to djent. There is a lot of King Crimson here too and some pop music and electronica.

The band has made their own path here and mixes the genres.

The result is not a great album. It is not even great music. Nevertheless, this is a good album with a lot of good ideas and some ideas who falls flat on their faces. Check out this album.

3 points



Thursday 30 August 2018

Barca. La - Argentina Nunca Más (2018)


The third album from this Argentine band.

The band is a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, saxophones, bass, drums and vocals.

I know next to nothing about this band. Their first two albums has just been purchased by myself and will be reviewed next month or so.

The band's origins is in the other big Argentine band Pablo El Enterrado. A band I like a lot. You can see their ProgArchives profile here.

This album is all about those who perished in the very, very brutal military junta repression from 1975 to 1983 in Argentina. Hence the rather disturbing, but totally fitting cover art-work.

The music is some sort of neo-prog with some pop-rock and symphonic prog mixed into the music.
The lyrics is the most important here as the music is not really that interesting.

The music still retain the South-American sound with the typical Spanish vocals. And the music is decent to good throughout these sixty-five minutes. I am not a big fan of the music here and this album. But check it out.

2.5 points




Wednesday 29 August 2018

Iron Butterfly - Sun And Steel (1976)


The sixth and final album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals.
They had help from five guest musicians who provided woodwinds, backing vocals and orchestration.

I am not a big fan of this band and their steady walk towards commercial US stadium rock on their two final album.

Stadium rock with some hard rock, country and blues rock is what we get on this album.

This album really rocks out and makes a racket. It is clearly on the more heavy side of the stadium rock spectrum. It still sounds like standard US rock.

This album is almost forty minutes long and it does not have much going for it. The songs sounds tired and run of the mill. Wheat is not good art and this album is run of the mill wheat.

A couple of half decent songs saves this album from the turkey yard. It is an album I am not that fond off and it is not an album I will ever listen to again.

1.5 points

Tuesday 28 August 2018

Climax - Gusano Mecanico (1974)


The one and only album from this Bolivian band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and Spanish vocals.

This is really an obscure band from a very small country in the history of progressive rock. So it is a delight to review this album and give it some attention.

The band gave us some really hard progressive rock. Hard progressive rock with a surprisingly good sound. I thought the sound would be really substandard. But it is not. It is rather very good.

The influences from Led Zeppelin is pretty evident in the beginning where the band "borrows" some well known LedZep riffs. The music then turns towards a more psych rock and hard prog landscape.

The music is pretty melodic at times and has some interesting ideas.

There are even some King Crimson and Pink Floyd influences on this album too.

The band does a good job and the vocals are more than acceptable. There is no real good piece of music here and the music is a bit lacking in quality on this thirty-five minutes long album.

It is still an album well worth checking out if 1970s hard progressive rock is your thing.

2 points


Supertramp - Brother Where You Bound (1985)


The eight album from this UK band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of saxophone, keyboards, drums, bass and vocals.
Several guest musicians contributed with guitars, synths, flute and trombone.
Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy) and David Gilmour from Pink Floyd were amongst them.

Roy Hodgson had left the band and gone on a solo career which did not yield much. So that was the end of Supertramp.........

Well, not quite.

I did not have a single hope for this album and were prepared to write it off in an instance. The opening two tracks is better than I thought, though....  OK, this is not good old Supertramp. It has some pop music anno the bad 1980s incorporated. But it is still not bad. It is though impossible to ignore the sixteen minutes long title track. Not all of it is great, but it still works.

And most parts of this album does indeed work.... reasonably good.

This is not a good album. It is not on par with their best albums... by some country miles. But it is still a decent to good album.

2.5 points


Monday 27 August 2018

Zhaoze - Yesternight Yes Tonight (2015)


The fifth album from this Chinese band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of glockenspiel, melodica, guitars, bass, drums, xioa, guqin and some vocals.

Their fourth album, Intoxicatingly Lost (2014 too), was pretty impressive and a view inside Chinese music. One view I very much liked. See my review here.

Yesternight Yes Tonight is another Chinese take on post-rock.

Forty minutes of post-rock. This time not as radical and so Chinese classical music dominated as the previous album.

The music here is much more post-rock formula based than previously. The other big difference is some minutes with Chinese vocals too.

The music is still pretty exotic and interesting. The music is also good and varied.

I have to admit I really like this band a lot and this album is a good post rock album, well worth checking out.

3 points



Sunday 26 August 2018

Phog - Communication (2018)


The debut album from this French multi-instrumentalist.

The guy named Phog plays the guitars, drums, bass and synths here.

We are again being treated to a one-man band. One of many one-man bands around the progressive rock genre.

What we get here is gentle progressive rock somewhere in the Vangelis and Camel area. More Camel than Vangelis, though.

The music is instrumental. The music is pretty ambient and is mostly performed by a mix of synths and gentle guitars picking.

The album is not full of technical details. It is not too ambient and there is some pretty dynamic music here. It is not an album full of explosive music either. It is pretty ambient and relaxing.

The music is decent enough but just that. There is not enough quality here to label this as a good album. Unfortunate, as it is.

2 points


Birth Control - Rebirth (1973)


The fourth album from this German band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, flute, trumpet, trombone, mellotron, piano, electric organ, alto sax and vocals.

I have really liked their first three albums a lot and have found a new German band I really like in Birth Control. So I was looking forward to this album.... to review it.

The band is still playing hard rock. Hard rock with a lot of psych and progressive rock too.

The band has moved a lot towards normal hard rock and US hard and arena rock on this album, though. There is also some strong Focus influences on this album. That is the progressive rock influences on this album.

Most of all, the band seems to embrace US stadium rock on this album. The woodwinds also adds a lot to that impression. Some Lynyrd Skynyrd influences has been added and is lingering around on this forty minutes long album.

I am not really feeling that this is their best effort. There is too much US stadium rock here to make this a good album. It is a decent to good album and just that. I am no fan of this album.

2.5 points



Unkh - Innerverse (2018)


The second album from this Dutch band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, piano, drums, guitars and vocals.

I have yet to hear their 2014 debut album Traveller. I will probably get it too and review it within the next months or years. I got a lot of albums to review.

Unkh can be found in the symphonic prog and neo-prog genres. Their music is a mix of both genres. It is also pretty much typical Dutch neo-prog too.

The music is very dynamic with lots of guitars and synths solos. The vocals is good throughout.

The album does not overstays it's welcome as it is ticking in at forty-five minutes. There is a lot of to enjoy during these forty-five minutes too. There is not much dead meat here.

My only gripe is that the songs tends to be a bit dull. They are good and this is indeed a good album. But the music is not great and that is my only problem here. A bit more sparkling songs would have been an advantage.

3 points


Spiralmaze - Dunes Of Dorlmeus (2018)


The second album from this Greek band.

The band is a trio with a lineup of bass, guitars, drums and synths.

I have not had the chance to listen to their 2014 debut album Back To The Center. But if it is as their new album, I will catch up with this album too.

This trio delivers a mix of techno based space rock and good old space rock.

There is a lot of synths here and some guitars. There is also a lot of drums and bass here.

There is a lot of old space rock meets new space rock and melts into one organism.

This fifty-five minutes long album has a lot of very interesting stuff. There is bass and synths lines which adds a lot of good melodies and ambience. There is also some hard, harsh metal on this album too.

There is a lot of things to really enjoy on this album. There is no great piece of music here. But it is still a good album.

3 points


Thursday 23 August 2018

Clearlight - Impressionist Symphony (2014)


The ninth album from this French project.

Clearlight was a nine members big project with a lineup of synths, piano, drums, percussion, guitars, violin and wind instruments.

Clearlight is Cyrille Verdeaux band and project. The debut album Clearlight Symphony was released in 1973 just after Mike Oldfields album Tubular Bells. And by the same label too (Virgin) who hoped they had another Tubular Bells on their hand. They were wrong.

Clearlight has released some albums after that and Impressionist Symphony is probably the final ever Clearlight album. But Cyrille is still alive so we never know.

Impressionist Symphony is an hour long neo-classical music piece. There are some space rock, psych and symphonic prog here. But the music is eclectic neo-classical music.

There is one theme going through this symphony which is very good. A symphony performed with all the instruments listed above. Steve Hillage contributes with some spaced out guitars and his pieces are good.

I have found myself really enjoying this piece of neo-classical music far more than I thought I would do. I am surprised indeed. This is a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points

Tuesday 21 August 2018

Manticore - Next Step: Flight 19 (2018)


The second album from this Swedish team.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, drums, bass, keyboards and vocals.

The band released their debut album Time To Fly back in 1993. That album was heavy influenced by ELP, the reviews in ProgArchives says. The reviews was not positive.

The band re-emerged 25 years later with this album. An album who stands on more feet than ELP copycats.

The genre is still symphonic prog, though.

Take a big slice of Yes, a lot of The Moody Blues, some ELP, some The Beatles and a lot of symphonic prog from other bands.

This album has a cover version of Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas. Even with the best intentions, I have to say that this is the weakest song of the album.

The rest of this forty minutes long album has only original material. The songs are pretty light, but still symphonic. The band sounds like a Yes copycat on at least one song.

The end result is a good album which should please all fans of symphonic prog. I am not overawed by this album. Nevertheless, I am pleased with this purchase.

3 points

Monday 20 August 2018

Laviàntica - The Experience (2018)


The second album from this Italian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of piano, guitars, mini-moog, keyboards, flute, vibraphone, bass and drums.
The band had help from two xtra musicians who provided cello and drums.

I reviewed their 2013 debut album Clessidra the same year and really liked that album. You can find my review here.

That album is a RPI album with all the bells and whistles. And that was five years ago.

The Experience sees the band make a big U-turn and goes for instrumental symphonic prog. Which is a radical break with their past.

The music on The Experience is a mix of Camel like symphonic prog and some fusion and film score music in the same vein as Goblin. Yes, Goblin is a very good reference.

The music is pretty dynamic, driven by guitars and keyboards. There are also some flutes here and mini-moog.

The music on this forty minutes long album is not particular interesting. It is somewhere between decent and good. I very much prefer their debut album.

2.5 points





Sunday 19 August 2018

Spurv - Skarntyde (2015)


The debut album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a seven piece big band with a lineup of cello, violin, bass, drums and guitars.

I reviewed their 2012 Blader Som Faller Til Jorden EP back in June 2012. You can read this review here in # 1 of this blog. I liked that EP and still do.

Spurv (Sparrow in English) delivers a mix of post-rock and post-metal. The music is pretty hard and it is therefore post-metal.

The music is instrumental and has this typical ebb and flow pattern from post-rock.

The forty-five minutes long album has a lot of interesting details. The cello and violin adds touches to the massive wall of guitars. Some of the guitars are also pretty distorted and dissonant.

The music is grand and very bombastic throughout. It does not really have any breathing space and more pastoral parts. It is full attack of bombastic post-metal from the start to the end.

It reminds me about what is good about this genre. Spurv is one of the best bands in the genre and this album is well worth your attention.

3 points

We Came From Space - While You Were Away (2018)


The debut album from this US band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals.

I believe this is the second album from this band. Their first album was the 2013 album How To Be Human. But it seems like nobody want to remember this album.

The members in We Came From Space are veterans in the local US prog rock scene. There are members of Neal Morse Band in this band.

The music on While You Were Away is very much influenced by the likes of Styx, ELO, Kansas and Supertramp. It has a great US prog feel too. 

The organ sound is very good. The same goes for the vocals and the backing vocals.

We Camr From Space is not bringing anything new to the scene or the music. But their music is catchy and very good. It is a tour de force in how melodic progressive rock can sound when done by people who understand this genre. Something this band does.

This is indeed a great album and one to really enjoy. Get this album.

4 points


Jaivas. Los - Canción Del Sur (1977)


The fourth album from this band from Chile.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of mini-moog, electric piano, piano, organ, guitars, bass, drums, vocals and all kinds of flutes, woodwinds and percussion.

The band's first three outputs has been increasingly better and more interesting.

The band started out as a folk music band. Folk music from Chile with all it's exotic instruments. They moved onto becoming a more folk rock band before they arrived at Cancion Del Sur on the fourth album.

There is still a lot of folk rock in their music. The band has taken a turn towards progressive rock, though. Prog folk is the right label on this album.

The sound of South America comes through clear and loud on this album with the Spanish vocals and the local instruments. And it is a good, cosy sound and ambience. The cover art-work, see above, is also something very special.

And so is the music too. There is a lot of eclectic prog on this forty minutes long album. Eclectic prog mixed with some acid folk and folk music.

This is indeed a good album and one to check out.

3 points



Saturday 18 August 2018

Third Project. The - When Remembrance Becomes A Thing (2018)


The debut album from this Polish band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of oud, guitars, bouzouki, bass, drums, dulcimer, keyboards, drums and vocals.

I have never heard about this band before and the cover art-work did not promise me a lot. I thought this was a RIO/avant-garde album.

That was, until I put this album on and started to listen to it.

The Third Project offers up over an hour of old style rock and progressive rock with the good old 1970s sound. It is partly hard rock and partly melodic prog.

The music is at times pretty hard with some fusion influences too. The vocals is very much in the 1970s feel and sound.

Fans of Bad Company will find a lot to like on this album. An album with a good feel and ambience.

There is no great songs here and I wish the songs were a bit more sparkling and innovative instead of just rehashing old ideas. Nevertheless, this is a pretty good album, upgraded to a good album.

3 points


Wyoming - In Prison (1972)


The second and final album from this German band.

Wyoming was really the creative vehicle of the vocalist Pete Bender. He was the son of a US pair who lived in Germany and the US army in Germany after the war.
Pete Bender were also the vocalist in the German band The Flaming Stars.
The lineup in Wyoming was hired in guitarists, drummer, organ player and bassist.

I reviewed the self-titled debut album some days ago and were not that impressed by it. That album was released in 1971.

Wyoming has gone more or less clean rock on In Prison.

There is lots of rockabilly, straight rock and some pop on this album. The music is pretty hard rocking at times too. The music is happy and full of joy. It is bubblegum music too.

The sound is very much in the 1970s vein.

These forty minutes is pretty dire and has no good or even decent songs.

This album is a turkey and nothing more than that.

1 point


Amberfield - Said (2018)


The debut album from this German band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and female vocals.

This is another debut album from this scorching hot summer in Europe. This time from Germany. It proves that progressive rock is very much alive and well.

Amberfield gives us fifty minutes of female-vocals fronted neo-prog. Neo-prog in the same vein as Touchstone and Panic Room.

There is some djent guitars here. There is also some more ballads stuff and a lot of neo-prog.

Hannah Witt, the vocalist has a very good voice which enhances and takes the music up a couple of levels to a reasonably high level.

The music is very much based on the female-fronted neo-prog formula from England and other places. It is still very effective and Amberfield has delivered a good album indeed. An album well worth checking out.

The band is also very much worth checking out and I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points


Friday 17 August 2018

Azureth - The Promethean Syndrome (2007)


The second album from this multi-national band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of bass, drums, keyboards, guitars and vocals.
They got help from a guest vocalist too.

I have yet not had the time to listen to their 2004 debut album Yesterday's Future, Tomorrow's Past. This is therefore my first ever meeting with this band and their music.

We are again in the middle of neo-prog land. Neo-prog with a lot of symphonic prog influences too.

This album reminds me a lot about Dutch neo-prog. That means melodic and influenced by English neo-prog.

There is a lot of guitar solos and keyboards solos on this one hour and ten minutes long album. A lot of interesting details, indeed.

All good and proper, indeed.

There is also some pop-rock on this album which falls a bit flat on it's face.

But on balance, this is a good album and well worth a try. Check it out.

3 points


Thursday 16 August 2018

Mountain - Flowers of Evil (1971)


The third album from this US band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of organ, bass, drums, guitars and vocals.

Leslie West was and still is the main man in this band. He had been running the band on their first two albums and continued on this album too. 

At that time, he was regarded as one of the best guitarists around. His guitars has always carried this band and been their main attraction. Today, in 2018, he is a guitar hero legend. And rightly so.

This album is divided into a studio section, side A, and a live/jam section, side B. 

The live section, with it's sub-standard sound, is not interesting at all so I am leaving that one out of this review. Just use the Stop button when you arrive at the live stuff and start the album from the beginning again.

The studio part last sixteen minutes and showcases some good old US hard rock and blues. There is even some boogie and country stuff here. The vocals (Leslie West) is really good. The guitars are very good.

Nevertheless, the songs are not good and the live bit is awful. Hence the verdict. 

1.5 points 

Izz - I Move (2002)


The second album from this US band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, drums, bass, keyboards and vocals.
The band had help from extra string conductor and vocalists.

Izz is one of those neo-prog and symphonic prog bands from USA who has never really got a good breakthrough. They have not been able to take the final step to stardom and artistic recognition.

Izz gives us a seventy-five minutes long album on I Move.

The music is really nice and appealing. Lots of long guitar solos and harmonies. Lots of keyboards too. The vocals are really good. The music is in the neo-prog vein with some detours into college rock and alternative rock. But this is neo-prog.

There is not much difference between the high and lows on this album. There are some really clever, nice details here too.

The music is good throughout. Good but not great and not spectacular in any sense or form.

This is a good album and an album I really like. But I wish it was a lot better it is.

3 points




Wednesday 15 August 2018

Zhaoze - Intoxicatingly Lost (2015)


The fourth album from this Chinese band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of glockenspiel, gucin, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards.

I have never heard about this band before I got their two last albums and decided to give them my attention.

I am no fan of China's political elite and one-party state. But I got a lot of time and positive thoughts for their people and culture. So this post-metal/rock band got my approval even before I had heard a single tone from them.

The music is instrumental post-rock with a lot of influences from Chinese classical and folk music. It is actually music which sounds even better with their use of the old Chinese string instrument gucin. A truly great instrument in this setting and music.

The music is floating and not so much harsh as with many post-rock albums. It has no really hard parts, this album. Neither is this an ambient album. The music is really very dynamic without being harsh and disharmonic.

The music is floating like a boat down a Chinese river and the hour in the company with this album is an hour well spent.... or in my case; many hours.

This is indeed a very good album and I am really looking forward to dip my ears into that other album too.

3.5 points

Tuesday 14 August 2018

Manthra Dei - Bipolar Bears (2018)


The second album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, voices + keyboards and synths of all sorts.

They released their self-titled debut album back in 2013 and has not done much after that. This is not a band I hear a lot about. 

The reason for that may be that this is not a band in the RPI tradition. Manthra Dei is a psych band.

The music on this one hour long album is a bit all over the the place.

There are some post-rock and post-punk here. Even some alternative rock, funk and jazz. It is though a psych rock album.

Psych rock with a lot of fuzz, funk and prog rock influences.

The music is also all about minimalism. It does not offer up many cascades of guitars. It is more subtle than that.

My gripe with this album is the lack of any great or even very good songs. The music is good though. The album title has given me a good laugh too.

This is an album well worth checking out if you are into psych rock. People into traditional prog rock may look somewhere else for their fix of Italian prog rock.

3 points


Azigza - Kriya (2004)


The second and final album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of cello, violins, sitar, bass, guitars and various Middle - Eastern and Tibetan strings, drums, percussion and woodwinds.
The band also had help from a handful xtra musicians who provided bansuri, congas, tablas and vocals.

I am not sure how this album compares with their 2000 self-titled debut album.

As you can see from their list of instruments, we are now going down the route of Middle - Eastern music combined with some tribal music from Tibet....
Well, that is somewhat right.

There is plenty of jazz here too. The jazz is the basis here for their excursions into Middle - Eastern folk music. Music with some vocals too. Female vocals.

The music is wild and pretty eclectic. It one heck of a difference from what I am used to review in this blog. Something I really appreciate and value.

I feel that I am an intruder in a wedding in Jordan when I listen to this album. It has that feel and joy. It is also a decent to good album which is well worth checking out.

2.5 points



Wyoming - Wyoming (1971)


The debut album from this German band.

Wyoming was really the creative vehicle of the vocalist Pete Bender. He was the son of a US pair who lived in Germany and the US army in Germany after the war.
Pete Bender were also the vocalist in the German band The Flaming Stars.
The lineup in Wyoming was hired in guitarists, drummer, organ player and bassist.

I have got their two albums and I will review the other album sometimes soon.

The music on this thirty odd minutes long album is a mix of blues, pop, rock and prog rock.

It is pretty commercial music who did not get any commercial success. Their record label was too small to really support them to commercial success.

There is a lot of piano and organs here with some guitars playing support. In the front of their sound is the bluesy vocals of Pete Bender.

The music is not too bad. It is typical music from that era. Typical pop - blues crossover music.

If that sounds tempting, check out this album.

2 points

Monday 13 August 2018

Wobbler - From Silence To Somewhere (2017)


The fourth album from this Norwegian band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of various keyboards and organs, guitars, bass, drums, woodwinds, glockenspiel, mellotron, minimoog and vocals.
Two other musicians provided flute and crumhorn.

This album was voted the best prog rock album last year in ProgArchives and numerous other magazines. The band has been playing triumphant gigs around Europe and has established themselves as the best Norwegian prog rock band this year.

This album is a triumphant journey in a melancholic Scandinavian symphonic prog landscape. There are lots of subtle folk rock hints here and a lot of Kaipa influences.

But Wobbler is Wobbler. They have their own sound, visions and music.

Yes, the band has fused Swedish and Norwegian symphonic prog on this album. And that is a good thing. There is also a lot of eclectic prog on this album too.

The music is great throughout this album. An album which sneaks up on the listener and then adds itself to the listener as a small and a very welcome part of it's personality.

Yes, this is a great album and a must have addition to any symphonic prog collection.

4 points

 

Sunday 12 August 2018

Fritsch. Eloy - Cyberspace (2000)


The fourth album from this Brazilian artist.

Eloy Fritsch did all the instruments here on this album. That means guitars, synths, keyboards, bass and drums. My guess is that the synths did all the instruments.

I have been reviewing some of his albums this year and have a handful more of his albums to review.

The cover art-work gives me the impression that this is a second-rate speed or thrash metal album from Germany. It is not. But I would still have bypassed this album in a record shop if I had found it there. I am not a big fan of German speed metal.

Those fans of German speed metal who purchased this album would have returned it to the shop immediate after purchasing it. That complete with some expletives and choice words....

The music is synth based semi-classical music. This album is as plastic as you can get.

This album is also very long, clocking in at seventy-five minutes. It does not have much music to be happy about either.

A couple of decent melodies livens up this dull-fest of an album. Besides of that, don't bother unless synths based semi-classical music is your kind of joy.

1.5 points

Wooden Shjips - V. (2018)


The fifth album from this US band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals.

I have reviewed two of their first four albums and I have to admit I have never really fallen for this band. You can read these reviews here and here.

The band plays some sort of psychedelia rock. Rock with a lot of British indie and US college rock influences.

The vocals is sleepy and almost hypnotic. Ditto for the half-acoustic guitars which dominates this album.

It is indeed a sleepy album where not much is going on. You get a theme where the band almost falls a sleep over. Seven themes, seven songs and forty-three minutes.

The band and music is so docile that it is almost difficult to stay awake during these listening sessions. Don't drive when listening to this album.

The music is decent to good throughout. A couple of more good songs would have been great. This is the best Wooden Shjips album I have ever heard. It is still not up to the expected standards, though.

2.5 points

  


Light Freedom Revival - Truthonomy (2018)


The second album from this Canadian band.

The band is John Vehadija's (lead vocals) band. He has got help from five other musicians who provides piano, bass, drums, guitars and vocals.
Among these musicians is Billy Sherwood and Oliver Wakeman.

The music is listed as spritual, progressive rock and new age. Which is not far from the truth.

The music is a bit neo-prog with a lot of pop-rock and Christian rock influences. I am by no means sure that the gospel and spirituality on this album is Christian/is meant to be Christian. I do not care either.

The vocals and the instruments is of OK quality on an album which has not much technical stuff.

The music on this one hour long album is pretty uncomplicated and not challenging at all. Keeping the interest in this album is the only interest as the music here is very bland and too sugary sweet. Far too sugary sweet.

This album is by no means a disaster. Neither is it an interesting or a good album either. Check out this album with a lot of caution.

2 points


Saturday 11 August 2018

Axcraft - Dancing Madly Backwards (1974)


The one and only album from this US band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals.

Axcraft was one of those forgotten bands the power of Youtube has brought to our attention again. This album was re-released on CD at the beginning of this century though, but that CD is impossible to find. That is what I have heard. So Youtube have to do. The music is the only thing that count here as I am not a music collector.

Axcraft is giving us half an hour of a mix of hard rock and symphonic prog anno 1974.

There are lots of piano and keyboards in their music on the top of some guitars who mostly acts as rhythm guitars.

The music is pretty decent throughout with some hard rock mixed in with some decent and melodic prog. The sound is not particular USA either. There is even some Supertramp influences here.

The title track is clocking in at nine minutes. It is an very decent song. The rest of the songs are decent too.

There is no really good music here and this album is nothing really special. But check it out if US symph prog is your thing.

2 points




Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972)


The third album from this German band.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of harpsichord, piano, oboe, tambura, piano, guitars and soprano vocals.
An extra musician provided violin here.

I have reviewed their two previous albums and I did not find much value in them. They are electronic krautrock albums and I am by no means any fan of electronic krautrock. So much that I considered dropping reviewing their albums.

I decided to give them a chance when I learnt that they from their third album, this one, had left the electronic krautrock genre behind them.

Hosianna Mantra is not an electronic krautrock album. Neither is it a rock album or in any way associated with rock music.

What we get here is forty minutes of ethereal neo-classical music with oboe, tambura, acoustic guitars, harpsichord and soprano female vocals.

This is a very special album and not the type of music I normally listen too. I cannot remember ever listen to an album like this.

And it has taken me some time to grasp the music on this album. The music is very pedestrian to say at least. Too pedestrian for my liking and I have got my reservations against this album.

I know that I am in a minority when I do not rate this album as a good or a great album. Some parts of this album is good.... but there is other parts that falls a bit flat on it's face. Hence the rating. But check out this album as it is an unique album.

2.5 points

  

Friday 10 August 2018

Dead End Space - The Resistance (2018)


The fifth album from this Swedish/US band.

The band is a trio on this album with a lineup of drums, keyboards, guitars, bass and vocals.

The band was called Johnny Engstrom Band on their first three album before they changed name to Dead End Space on their 2013 album Distortion Of Senses.

If the music on their previous four albums is like the music on this album, I may have to invest in them. I like their genre a lot.

I am also a very big fan of Rush and Dead End Space deliver the goods. That means from the Rush albums Signals to their final album.

The same sound and one of the songs sounds suspiciously like the Rush song Subdivisions from Signals.

This album is not only Rush copycat. It also has some more modern music too. That as an integral part of the Rush sound.

The band has come up with a good one hour long album which will please a lot of people in the jungle of new prog rock albums. My only gripe is only the quality of the songs. Nevertheless, this is a good album.

3 points


Iron Butterfly - Scorching Beauty (1975)


The fifth album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.
Jon Andersen from Yes guests on one song.

The output from this band had been not the best, with the exception from their second album In Gadda.... which is a good album.

The band had taken a five years long break and released two albums before they gave up the ghost. This is the first of these two albums.

The band has returned with a mix of prog, reggae, hard rock, pub rock, indie rock and a mix of numerous other genres....including krautrock.

The vocals are pretty horrible and the musicians is on that level too.

The songs are abysmal. The sound is not good.

There is nothing to like on this album. It is a turkey and it is best avoided.

1 point


Thursday 9 August 2018

Lumerians - Call of the Void (2018)


The fifth album from this US band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, drums, bass, percussion and vocals.

Back in July 2013, I reviewed their 2013 album The High Frontier and liked that album. You can read the review here.

Lumerians plays fuzzy psychedelic prog and space rock. That according to what they write themselves.

I would agree with that. But there is a very strong krautrock influence on this album and it can be argued that this album is indeed a krautrock album.

There is some of the krautrock weirdness here in some of the vocal tracks and the melodies. Yes, kraurock fans will like this album..... a lot.

The music is spacey and hypnotic with a lot of fuzz and ambience too. The vocals adds some more earthly feel to this album. And those vocals are not a bad thing. They adds a lot of colours to this album. A pretty dreamy album which takes the listener far away to another galaxy.

This is a good album which I really like a lot and value. Check out this album and this band too.

3 points




Wednesday 8 August 2018

Autumn Whispers - Cry of Dereliction Vol.II (2013)


The second album from this Norway based band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, violins, glockenspiel, keyboards and vocals.
The band had help from an extra vocalist, guitarist and cimbalom player.

I was not really that impressed by their debut album Cry Of Dereliction Vol I from 2012. You can read my review here.

Autumn Whispers is a band that is based in Norway, but has a multi-national membership. Which is great.

That also means they have taken with them a lot of influences into this album. These influences has been fused into the music on this one hour long album.

The music is basically art-rock with a lot of Pink Floyd, The Beatles and David Bowie influences. Added is also some eclectic rock from Greece and Norway. But the overriding influence is modern rock and pop music.

This is art-rock in other words.

A lot of the music is really good. It is indeed a cosy album which is largely performed with acoustic guitars, keyboards and vocals. There are also some Pink Floyd like guitar solos here too.

I am not really won over by this album. It is still a (barely) good album and one to check out. Go so forth....

3 points


Supertramp - Famous Last Words (1982)


The seventh album from this British band.

Supertramp was a quintet with a lineup of keyboards, harmonica, bass, guitars, drums, saxophones and vocals.
The band had help from string arrangements and three female backing vocalists. Two of them were the Wilson sisters from Heart.

The previous album Breakfast In America gave them a massive hit album. It is one of the more legendary albums from the 1970s. The albums before that again was even better than Breakfast In America.

So, no pressure, then.......

The band is in very good form on the first half of this album with some very typical Supertramp material. That means brash pomp rock with a lot of The Beatles influences. That part of this fifty minutes long album is very good and something I enjoy.

The album goes of the track after that and we get some pretty bad poppy pomp rock after that. Some of it does not even sound like Supertramp. It is meaningless and pretty bad.

The end result is a big red light and warning signs over some parts of this album. I fear the worst on the next album. Nevertheless, this is a good album from a very good band I really like.

3 points



Tuesday 7 August 2018

Phideaux - Snowtorch (2011)


The ninth album from this US band.

The band was a ten piece big band with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, violin, piano, saxophone, keyboards and vocals.
The band had help from two other musicians who provided flute, cello and soprano saxophone.

Phideaux is Phideaux Xavier (acoustic guitar, piano and vocals) own project and he has help from numerous other musicians.

Sometimes, the albums has been more in the singer/songwriter tradition, stripped down as the music has been. Other times again, the music has been bold and brash. Bold and brash with lots of instruments and vocals. Both female and male vocals.

Snowtorch is one of these bold and brash albums.

There is lots of instruments and vocals here. The sound is pretty big. There is also some references to the singer/songwriter tradition here. These references comes thick and fast.

The album is in the symphonic prog tradition and it may be a concept album. I am not sure. But it would not surprise me.

The end result is a good album where the lack of any great or even very good songs is my only gripe. Nevertheless, check out this band and this album.

3 points


Monday 6 August 2018

Nathan - Era (2018)


The second album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and Italian vocals.
Two guest musicians provided xtra vocals and guitars.

I very much liked their 2016 debut album Nebulosa. A very good album in the PFM and Banco tradition. You can find my review here.

The band continues in the same vein on their new album.

That means more pastoral RPI in the same vein as PFM and in particular; Banco.

The sound is both lush and warm. It is also contemporary and with a 2015'ish sound and soundscape.
The instruments are well separated and clear. The vocals is very good and clear.

This album is not as good as Nebulosa for the reason that there is no really very good or great songs here. This album is a step backwards from Nebulosa. But it is not a huge step backwards.

The band has come up with a good album which will please all fans for RPI and others into pastoral symphonic prog. Check out this album.

3 points





Sunday 5 August 2018

Wind - Morning (1972)


The second and final album from this German band.

Wind was a quintet with a lineup of percussion, mellotron, drums, piano, bass, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

Their debut album Seasons from 1971 was a really good album and has given the band a "semi-classic band" status.

So I was curious to know what this album was going to offer me.

Forty-three minutes of a heady mix of most things, the answer is.

The band combines a lot of The Beatles most whimsical stuff with some serious symphonic prog, krautrock and pop.

Most of the material here is very light-hearted and light-weight. There are a lot of silliness here. I think this constitute German humour...... or British humour. Wind's take on this humour does not really work out well.

The more serious stuff is far better. This on an album which is frustrating and not satisfying. There are some good stuff here. But the album as a whole is only a decent album. Which is a great shame.

2 points

 



Birth Control - Hoodoo Man (1972)


The third album from this German band.

Birth Control was a quartet with a lineup of church organ, synth, vibraphone, keyboards, organ, bass, drums, guitars, percussion and vocals.
The band had help from numerous other musicians who provided extra bass, vocals, bagpipes, keyboards and guitars.

The band had shown great promise and fine form on their first two albums. Albums I rate pretty high.

So I was looking forward to sink my teeth this album.

The band combines psych prog, symphonic prog in the vein of ELP and hard prog on their first two albums. That also goes for Hoodoo Man.

There are even some hints of Focus on this album. An album who takes the blend above and runs away with it.

There is lots of organs and keyboards here. Lots of good vocals and some wild guitars. Lots of drums and keyboards too. The music is pretty hard throughout. There is still room for a lot of melodies too. The sound is this fine 1970s prog rock sound.

The result is a very good forty odd minutes long album. An album which knows how to delight fans of this era and hard and wild progressive rock. Check out this album.

3.5 points

 

Human 2.0 - Colour Thinking (2018)


The debut album from this Dutch band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of bass, synths, piano, guitars, drums and vocals.

This is another new Dutch band in the prog and ar-rock scene. I know absolute nothing about them. But this album is worth a review.

The band combines art and prog rock with electronica on this one hour long album.

The music is pretty much a prog and art-rock album in the beginning. It is not a bad album at this stage.

The album continues down a more electronic pattern after that and becomes a better album. There are some jazz influences here too.

The album ends with a more pastoral theme after exactly one hour.

This is maybe not an album fans of traditional progressive rock and art-rock will like. Nevertheless, it has something for the fans of new art and prog rock. Something to enjoy. I am not really totally won over. Nevertheless, it is a decent to good album.

2.5 points




Saturday 4 August 2018

Jaivas. Los - El Indio (1975)


The third album from this band from Chile.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of flutes, organ, electric organ, piano, guitars, bass, bongos, drums and Spanish vocals.

This band is true legends from and in South America. They have had a long career.

Their first two albums, and you can find my reviews of those somewhere else in this blog, were pure folk music.

The band did a pretty big U-turn on this album though.

There is still a lot of folk music here. But there is also a lot of classical music and jazz inspired progressive rock here. Indeed, ELP has had a pretty substantial influence on this album. At least Keith Emerson has had that.

There are also some wild drums here and some melodic songs too. Folk rock is the right label from this part of the album. There is also flutes here and a lot of local culture and music. Local as from the Andes mountains and Chile.

The end result is an interesting and diverse album which has some really good stuff and some not so good stuff. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points 

Gazpacho - Soyuz (2018)


The tenth album from this Norwegian band.

The band is now a sextet with a lineup of percussion, drums, violin, mandolin, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

This Norwegian band with the Spanish name has been the front figure in the Norwegian progressive rock scene for the last ten years or so. Their album has never really been brilliant. But they have been great and the band is the best band in the Norwegian scene and that by quite margin.

They are prophets abroad but unknown in Norway. This album will not change their status.

Soyuz gives us Marillion like neo-prog with a lot of post-rock influences and melancholic music.

The music here is really melancholic and somber. But that is Gazpacho for you.

The music is not immediate great. It require time and space from the listener. It really grows on the listener in each listening session.

The result is fifty minutes of epic, melancholic music. Fifty minutes of great music too. This album is among their best albums and that says a lot. Check out this album and all their previous nine albums.

4 points

Friday 3 August 2018

Aurora - Aurora (1977)


The one and only album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of violin, bass, keyboards, guitars and drums.

The band existed around Jean Luc Ponty and his friends. It was a short lived band but they managed to release this album.

The music is fusion. There is no doubts about that.

The music is also a mix of Mahavishnu Orchestra and the above mentioned Jean Luc Ponty. There is a lot of violins here and that brings the thoughts to both of these bands.

There is also some hints of symphonic prog and jazz here. But mostly jazz.

There are a lot of guitar and violin solos here which drives the music forward.

I really love fusion and violin driven fusion. This album is not one of the best in the scene. Nevertheless, this is a good album and it is also a long album. So check it out.

3 points


Thursday 2 August 2018

Daviesteelman - Where It All Began (2018)


The debut album from this English one man band.

David Mudie plays everything on this album. That means keyboards, trumpet, bass, drums, piano, guitars and vocals. My guess is that the drums is made from the keyboards/synths.

David Mudie has been involved in the music industry for most of his life. But this is his first album on his own.

The music here is neo-prog.

The music is pretty melancholic and melody based. There is not much technical wizardry and interesting details.

Most of the music is almost verging on funeral dirges. The songs are somber and pastoral.

The vocals reminds me a lot about the vocals in the US band from Holland. They are OK. The rest of the instruments are OK too.

The six songs on this forty odd minutes long album are pretty long. Two of them are ten minutes plus long.

The songs are decent to good. I am not overly impressed by this album. Hence my verdict.

2.5 points


Wednesday 1 August 2018

Aufklarung - Dé Lá Tempesta .. L'Oscuro Piacere (1995)


The one and only album from this Italian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals. Both English and Italian vocals.
The band had help from two guest musicians who provided concerto flute and English & Italian vocals.

I know nothing about this short lived band and refer you to the link above. There is nothing known about this band after they split up after this album.

The band is clearly captivated by both the RPI and the English neo prog scene. Something the sound and music makes abundantly clear.

The four songs here are between ten and fourteen minutes long. The music is pretty pastoral and mixes nicely the 90s with the 70s.

There is also a nice RPI vibe through this album. A very much appreciated one too.

There is no true great songs here and the music sounds a bit uninspired at times. Nevertheless, this is a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points