SBB - Jerzyk (1977)

The fourth album from this Polish band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, percussion, guitar, clavinet, electric piano, moog, piano and vocals.

I have been really impressed by this band's complex mix of symphonic prog and psych rock on their first three albums. So much that the band became my favourite Polish prog band.

SBB is the grand-dads and the pioneers in Polish prog and rock. A band which really deserve a lot of more attention also in the west.

I had hoped that the band would continue in the same vein on Jerzyk. They did not.

The band gives us forty minutes of some rather bland fusion here. The phrase "elevator music" also springs to mind on some of the music on this album. Shopping mall music is also another fitting label.

The music is still decent enough to not really feel cheated by this album. It is a big step in the wrong direction though and a disappointment.

2 points


 

Viaggi di Madeleine. I - I Viaggi Di Madeleine (2019)

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

This name is totally new to me. I picked up the album from somewhere I have forgotten and put it on my to-be-reviewed list for this blog.

The music on this album is very much on the heavier end of the Rock Progressive Italiano scene. Parts of this scene is very heavy and indeed occult.

There is plenty of PFM.... and Black Sabbath influences here.

The Italian vocals and sound gives the music an RPI feel and it is indeed RPI what we get here. The music is not as lush as we could expect from an RPI album.

The heavy metal influences are pretty strong on this album and it has got an occult feel.

The vocals are pretty good and there is not much to disagree with on this fifty odd minutes long album. There is enough good songs here to wish for a good, long career for this band.

This is indeed a good album where the strength of the music shines through.

3 points

 

Effigy For Sleep - Warning (2019)

The second album from this English band.

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

Their music is a potent mix of hard prog, post-punk, post-rock, djent and ambient music.

It is modern music in other words and based on a punk attitude.

There is still some melody sensibilities in their music.

The vocals is at times growling and shouting. It is also pretty pastoral too at times.

There is a lot of light and shades in their music. From the brutal to the more pastoral.

The music is pretty much influenced by both post-rock and shoegaze and that is not a bad thing.

Quality wise, this is not bad at all. It is a decent album indeed and well worth checking out.

2 points

Univers Zero - Heresie (1979)

The second album from this band from Belgium.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of percussion, bass, violin, viola, bassoon, oboe, harmonium, organ, piano, guitars and some shouting vocals.

Their self-titled debut album created some attention and the band became a part of the original RIO bands movement.

Univers Zero is indeed a highly influential band.

Their music is not rock and not classic either. It is some kind of chamber music.

The chamber music is very dark on this album and slightly cinematic. It is also bordering to zeuhl and the first Magma albums.

This fifty-one minutes long album is divided into three pieces of music. The longest one is twenty-five minutes long.

For me.... Avant-garde music not being my biggest strength, this album is one long piece of music.

The music is really dark and really good too. I am starting to understand what this band is all about after the shock the debut album gave me.

This is indeed a good album and one I will revisit again sometimes later.

3 points

 

Prosper - Broken Door (1975)

The one and only album from this German band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of mellotron, organ, mini moog, electronix, guitars, bass, drums, percussion and vocals.

This band was formed in 1973 and were disbanded in 1980. A second album was recorded and unofficially released as Second Running The Basement Tapes. That album is a fusion album  and very similar to the music Passport did.

Broken Door is a different kettle of fish, altogether.

You get some Eloy like symphonic prog, some folk rock stuff, some dark heavy prog, eclectic prog and some jazz.

All of this is called kraut rock and it is indeed kraut rock we get on this album.

Forty minutes in their company is all we get and these forty minutes flies too fast. The vocals are good and the music is really cool and proper.

This album has been many reviewers hailed as a hidden gem. I agree.

This is a very good album and one to bring joy to everyone into progressive rock. Check it out.

3.5 points

Promenade - Noi Al Dir Di Noi (2016)

The debut album from this Italian band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of saxophone, guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion and vocals.
They had help from some other musicians who provided bassoon, flute, viola, violin and cello.

This band is another very welcome addition to the Italian progressive rock scene. The RPI scene.

The band plays music with roots in the good old RPI scene from the 1970s. PFM springs to mind. Very much so. So does the more modern RPI bands who is very influenced by the eclectic music from Gentle Giant and Area.

The music is very lush and warm. It has some pastoral pieces too and one of the songs sounds like it is lifted from an Angelo Branduardi album.

Most of the music on this forty-seven minutes long album is very dynamic with lots of saxophones, guitars and strings.

The vocals are both normal and sent through some computers. It is some really good vocals and it is full of good ideas.

The same can be said about the rest of the music too. It is full of good melodies and quirky ideas. It is not a free flowing easy melodies album. It has a lot of quirky, eclectic music too.

That adds a lot of value to this album who sadly is missing a great track or two. Besides of that, this is a very good album.

3.5 points

Gravity Machine - Red (2020)

The debut album from this English band.

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

Another new and promising progressive rock band from England. This time from the Cornwall and Devon area of England. This area is very remote from London and around 400 km from London.

It also has some stunning scenery and wild moors.

Gravity Machine has give us fifty minutes of neo-prog.

Their base camp is neo-prog. There is a lot of trip hop too in their music and a lot of heavy prog. Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson springs to mind as good references.

Gravity Machine has by no means re-invented the wheel. Let alone gun powder.

The music on this album is elegant with some good vocals and instruments. There are also some really good songs here.

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

3 points

King Crimson - Discipline (1981)

The eight album from this UK band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of bass, drums, chapman stick, guitars, electronics and vocals.

I have reviewed their first seven albums in Progarchives and # 1 of this blog. Then I decided to turn my attention from King Crimson and Yes to more obscure bands. Which I did for a while before deciding to return to both bands and finish of their respective discos.

Which I am doing now.

Robert Fripp, the band owner, dissolved the band who recorded Red and went solo and holiday for some years. He returned again with the aim of calling his new band Discipline. During that period, the band changed name to King Crimson again.

King Crimson is always and will always remain a very eclectic band with some of the most eclectic music available. It is their strength and the reason why they are one of the best ever bands.

Discipline is both very different from Red, the previous album, and similar to this album. Robert Fripp's visions is similar. Nevertheless, the new King Crimson on Discipline is more rhythms and electronic based.

The band is shooting eclectic melodies and rhythms at the listener for almost forty minutes. And the music is really good. There is no great tracks here, though.

It is still a good album which proves their greatness.

3 points

Venetian Power - The Arid Land (1971)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

This project included fifteen musicians who provided organ, bass, drums, timpani, guitars, cymbal, triangle, vibraphone, flute, celesta, piano and vocals.

I know absolute nothing about Venetian Power and this album. The album has been kicking around in my inbox for the last thirteen years and it is about time to review it.

I guess this album is some sort of a concept album or some sort of a religious album.

There is a lot of vocals here. Both male and female vocals. The vocals is in the preacher style.
The lyrics are both in Italian and English though. But the Italian accent is so heavy that it is impossible to get some sanity from the lyrics.

Yes, this is a very obscure album.

There are some guitars here in addition to the vocals and this album is thirty-six minutes long.

I am struggling to find anything nice to say about this album... and is failing. There is nothing good about this album.

This album is a turkey and that is that.

1 point

Fleesh - What I Found (2017)

The second album from this band from Brazil.

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

The band is heavy involved in the tribute scene and has done tribute albums to both Marillion and  Renaissance.

That tells you a bit about where we can find this band. In the melodic, female vocals driven end of the progressive rock world.

The music is indeed melodic. It is never poppy, though.

The music is epic and has a lot of symphonic neo-prog. There is also a lot of neo-classical music here.

The vocals is the main thing here and the instruments is not that exciting. The vocals is the main thing.

This fifty-five minutes long album is a reminder why melodic, elegant progressive rock without technical overkills can be so effective. There is still food for the brain in their music despite of the music being melodic.

This is indeed a good album and an album well worth checking out.

3 points

Traffic - Last Exit (1969)

The third album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of saxophones, flutes, organ, drums, percussion, guitars, bass, piano and vocals.

Traffic was the band who launched the career of Steve Winwood. His vocals is very much his trademark and special. And very good too.

His vocals had been in the forefront of their previous two albums and the same goes for this album too.

Their music was still very much rooted in blues and beat. There is also a lot of psych rock in their music.

This album is too short, clocking in at just short of half an hour. The album is beefed up by two live tracks which I am not including in my review.

The five studio tracks is pretty good though. This though is their weakest album and a bit of an upgrade of the band was now in order. That came on the next album.....

This album though is a decent enough album from a very interesting and undervalued band from the 1960s.

2 points

Project Patchwork - Tales From A Hidden Dream (2015)

The debut album from this German band.

The band is a duo of Gerd Albers and Peter Koll. The lineup is guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion and vocals.
They got help from numerous other musicians who added bouzoukis, grand piano, bass, flutes, keyboards, sax, guitars and vocals.

I reviewed their 2018 album Reflection two years ago and did not rate it highly. It is a decent enough album, though.

Tales From A Hidden Dream is over an hour long and it has both male and female vocals.

The basis for their music is neo-prog. There is also some gothic rock here.

The music is pretty epic with a lot of female and male vocals. There is also some guitar solos and lots of keyboards harmonies.

Two of the songs are well over ten minutes long.

The problem with this album is that some of the songs are cringe worthy commercial and very poppy. It is wishy-washy at times and does not offer up much quality for the brain to contemplate.

It is a decent enough album but that is all.

2 points

Project Atlantis - Braving The Elements (2019)

The debut album from this US band.

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

I have as per usual never heard about this band before this album were dumped into my inbox.

I forgot to include the review in the 2019 reviews and forgot about it until it came up for review through my peculiar review scheduling system.

The band is giving us a mix of AOR, 1970s stadium rock and progressive metal on this album. That is their mission statement and that is what they are delivering.

Seventy minutes of it, no less.

The music is at times hard rocking. It is mostly mid-tempo though.

It is also mostly stadium rock and it has some good vocals. The vocals is the only good about this album as the music is a bit of a lower standard than expected.

This is nevertheless a decent enough album and just that.

2 points

Preghiera di Sasso - Preghiera di Sasso (1975)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of saxophone, guitars, electric piano, bass, percussion and drums.

There are some obscure albums around. This one is one of the more obscure of the obscure albums around.

Nothing is known about this band. Which is fair enough. This album got a pressing of less than fifty copies.

The sound quality is pretty poor. But it is good enough to warrant a review.

The music is a mix of hard prog, instrumental prog and fusion with some sprinkling of jazz and folk rock.

The saxophone is the dominant instrument here and it is everywhere. There are also some pretty good guitars here.

The sound takes a dip in quality around the halfway mark and that is not good.

The quality of this forty odd minutes long album is decent, the sound taken into account. It is not an album which should be purchased by anyone but those of us who want our RPI collection to be complete.

2 points

Prognoise - Solar (2018)

The one and only album from this Brazilian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.
The band got help from numerous guest musicians who provided keyboards, effects, drums, violin, viola and vocals.

I have read somewhere that this band comes from the most remote county in Brazil, hundreds if not thousands of miles from the nearest progressive rock scene.

Brazil is a big, big country and there is a lot of wilderness in this country. So well done to the band members for getting together and creating music for then to releasing this album and an EP. The rest of us has an easy life compared to these guys.

Or maybe we are the ones missing out on something.....

The music on this almost one hour long album is a mix of Brazilian folk rock, a bit King Crimson, a bit Gentle Giant and a lot of pastoral symphonic prog from the 1970s.

The vocals, which is good, is a mix of Portoguese and English. The English vocals are pretty terrible and a bit of let down. The Portoguese vocals are spot on, though.

The music is a mix of vocals and instrumentals. Both types of music is good and the band has something going for them. I hope I am wrong when I state that this is a one-off album.

This album is a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points

Lucifer's Friend - Mean Machine (1981)

The eight album from this German band.

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

The last couple of albums had not been particular nice listening. Very cheap and nasty mix of Queen and Elton John with the worst ills of heavy metal thrown in too.

John Lawton suddenly returned to the microphone again and the vocals is at least very good on this album.

The band too has moved on from the cheap and nasty genre from the last couple of albums.

Now, we get full on heavy metal with actually some speed metal too.

I guess you now has been shocked. So was I too when I started to listen to this album.

And yes, there is one track here which is plain turkey. Then again........ most of the songs here are pretty good.

Most of Mean Machine sounds like a Dio album at their best. John Lawton has some Ronnie James Dio'ish vocals and they are very powerful.

The music here is unrepentant heavy metal but it is also pretty decent heavy metal. Metal fans would even label this as a good metal album. I am not but this album is still improvement on the previous two albums.

2 points

Jefferson Starship - Earth (1978)

The fourth album from this US band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, piano, mellotron, moog, synths, keyboards, organ, drums, percussion and vocals.
Two guest musicians provided strings, horns and backing vocals.

Paul Kantner, Marty Balin and Grace Slick was still members of this band. Hence, the backbone of the band was Jefferson Airplane.

There are still some old Jefferson Airplane in their music. But most of the music is pretty commercial rock.

The vocals from the above mentioned three is still loud and clear. Even when they enter a bit of a slick disco terrain.

There are still a lot of psych and folk in their music. The band is indeed visiting the country'n'western genre too on this album.

The lack of any really good songs here makes this album a bit of a downer. Their journeys into slick corporate rock is not good either and the flirtations with disco is pretty horrible.

This is another decent album.... barely a decent album saved by a couple of half-good songs. I see not reason to check out this album.

2 points

Effigy For Sleep - Giants Tears (2017)

The debut album from this English band.

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

The band has released at least three albums and I got two of them up for review.

Their music is a potent mix of hard prog, post-punk, heavy metal, alternative rock, djent and ambient music.

The music is pretty hard at times with some growl vocals. Most of the vocals are normal and good.

The music is a bit on the pop formula based too.

The music is very much straight in the face post-millenium. It is youthful and lively with lots of metal riffs and grunge vocals.

The quality is pretty good on this half an hour long album. The music is too simplistic for my liking. Nevertheless, the music is pretty good.

The end result is an album somewhere between decent and good.

2.5 points

Illutia - Un Sitio Sin Lugar (2020)

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

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

This band is new to me. The band and this album is also a proof that the prog rock scene in Argentina is alive and well. Another proof actually as I did review another debut album from this scene not many days ago.

The music on this album is a mix of neo-prog and Latin-American symphonic prog.

That means some Latin-American folk and jazz incorporated in some Genesis like symphonic prog and some Pendragon like neo-prog.

There are also some more pastoral music here.

The Spanish vocals, which btw is really good, add some exotic colours to this album in a scene where English is the dominant language. I think we need more Spanish vocals in the scene.

The synths and the guitars are also good. There are some really cool guitar solos here.

This album is a good debut album and a good album in it's own right. It is well worth checking out.

3 points

Passport - Sky Blue (1978)

The seventh album from this German band.

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

The band was still going strong and it is just recently they have given up the ghost.

The band was playing pretty hard fusion on their first six albums. Sky Blue sees a bit of a change of direction.

The fusion is still here and in force.

The music is now a bit laidback and some Latin-American rhythms and jazz has been introduced into their music too.

Most of the solos is done by Klaus Doldinger on his saxophones and that band feeling the first albums got is a bit absent here.

Nevertheless, Klaus Doldinger still delivers the goods here. Even with a change of direction. The music is good and enjoyable.

This is another good Passport album. Check it out.

3 points

Profil - For You (1982)

The one and only album from this German band.

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

Profil is a very obscure band and nothing is really known about them. But they released this album on an obscure label and that is all we know.

The music is wholly instrumental.

Which in 1982 was a commercial suicide and I would very surprised if this album sold more than a couple of hundred copies. My guess is that there are some boxes of unsold LPs somewhere on a loft or in a cellar in Germany.

The music is somewhere between Camel, Eloy, SBB, fusion and the krautrock scene.

This thirty-six minutes long album has a good bass and synths sound. That is the best about this album.

There are some decent guitar solos too on this album.

There is not much of any interest on this album. It is not a bad album and it would have got some fans if released today. It is a decent album though which will remain an obscure album until the end of time.

2 points

Yes - Tormato (1978)

The ninth album from this British band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of harpsichord, piano, organ, synths, mandolins, guitars, bass, drums, glockenspiel, bells, percussion and vocals.

I started to do the reviews of the full Yes discography ten years ago for ProgArchives and then # 1 of this blog in 2013-14. Then I stopped because everyone was reviewing Yes albums and I wanted to spend my time on the more unknown bands in the scene than the big bands.

I have now decided to complete both the Yes and the unfinished King Crimson discography reviews. So here the reviews comes.....

Tormato is an album that followed on from the great Going For The One album from 1977. That album is one of their alltime great albums.

Tormato still sees the same setup, the classic setup. And it is the final album with that setup.

The reason can be found on this album.

Jon Anderson sings very good and no musicians can be faulted here. The sound too is very good.

There are half a handful very good songs here, some good songs and half a handful of decent songs.
The quality of the songs are to say at least uneven and it finds me cringing far too many times.
Then again, there are some really very good stuff here too.

This is a good album but not an album which I want to remember this band for.

3 points

Quintessence - Indweller (1972)

The fifth and final album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, flute, guitars, vocals and voices.

This band is one of the greatest ever names in the small raga rock sub genre of progressive rock. Hence, this is why I have reviewed all their albums. I like to explore the progressive rock genre.... hence this blog.

Their first four albums has been pretty lush with lots of instruments and vocals. There has also been a very large hare krishna overtone on their albums and that has been pretty annoying.

The band is now down to some vocals, acoustic guitars and some sporadic added instruments.

There is no real qualities in the music at all and the band leaves the scene with a turkey of an album.

Avoid.

1 point

Procosmian Fannyfiddlers - Interference Number 9 (2012)

The ninth album from this Norwegian band.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of lutt, guitars, bass, keyboards, violin, drums, percussion and vocals.

I have always thought this band was a joke band. I have their second album and that was not to be taken seriously. But the band has been around since 1997 and they are now being taken seriously by most people.

There is nothing that reminds me about jokes and silliness on this album.

The band plays a kind of a mix of Balkan folk rock, symphonic prog and eclectic prog. The music is quirky and not standard. And I do not think the band takes themselves too serious either.

The music is very quirky with some strange rhythms. The music is dominated by the vocals of Heidi Larzen.

There is no rip roaring solos here. There is no solos at all throughout this forty odd minutes long album.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good.

Those who like eccentric, quirky music should check out this album.

2.5 points

 

Spock's Beard - The Kindness Of Strangers (1998)

The third album from this US band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, cello, guitars, hammond organ, mellotron, piano, synths and vocals.

Their debut album The Light was one of the best ever debut albums in the progressive rock genre. The follow up album Beware Of Darkness was not that great.

In short, I wondered which ones of Spock's Beard would shop up on this album.

The music is still epic symphonic prog. Epic US symphonic prog, that is.

The music is a mix of Kansas, Gentle Giant, Cathedral, Yes and Genesis. Most of all, the band has now got their own sound.

The songs are shorter and more punchy this time around.

There is a lot more themes on this album and all of them are really great. Epic, bombastic themes, that is.

There are also some pastoral pieces of music here, performed with some really great vocals.

In short, this is another great album from a great band. A band now announcing their take over of the scene...... Well, they are among the five best bands n the scene.

4 points

Porcelain Moon - ...As It Were. Here and There (2009)

The one and only album from this band Finland.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of fiddle, organ, synths, guitars, bass, flute, drums and female vocals.

I have never heard about this band before the album came up for review. I cannot even remember how this album ended up on my hard-drive.

Their music is dominated by some very good female vocals. That female vocals is on the top of a mix of folk rock, rock and neo-prog.

The music is very lush indeed. The vocals is in the same vein as Anneke Giesbergen from The Gathering.

The music also has a fat, nice Hammond organ sound.

These forty-five minutes runs almost too fast as there is a lot of interesting details and melodies to enjoy here.

I am afraid this album will remain a hidden gem because nobody has really championed it. It is still an album very much worth checking out as this is a good album indeed.

3 points

SBB - Ze Słowem Biegnę Do Ciebie (1977)

The third album from this band from Poland.

The band was a trio with a lineup of percussion, guitar, mellotron, moog, electric piano, clavinet, bass and vocals.

SBB continued on from two very good albums.

The original version of this album has two twenty minutes long songs. Altogether, this is an almost forty minutes long album. And it is my rule to review only original albums.
I say this because the Metal Mind version includes the half an hour long Odejscie suite and that takes the album to over an hour.
The Metal Mind version of this album is half a star better than the original version. So go for that version.

SBB gives us a mix of psych rock, symphonic prog and fusion on these two piece of music.

The music is at times very pastoral and melancholic. It is also epic when it is neither of those two things. Epic and technical.

The vocals are very good and ditto for the instruments which is a mix of tangents based and guitars based.

This is another intriguing album from this band and a reminded that Poland has always had a great music scene. From Chopin to today. SBB is one of the great bands from Poland and this is a very good album.

3.5 points

Transit Express - Couleurs Naturelles (1977)

The third and final album from this French band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of violin, electric violin, guitars, synths, clavinet, piano, electric piano, bass, electric bass, ring modulator, percussion and drums.

The band had up to now delivered two pretty good fusion albums. Albums fusions fans should check out.

This band comes from the same country as Jean Luc Ponty. And the music on this album is not far away from Jean Luc Ponty's best and most fusion orientated albums.

Couleurs Naturelles is a thirty-three minutes long/short album and we are talking fusion here of the more traditional kind of fusion.

The tempo is mid to fast.

There is a lot of guitars, violins and piano here. Even some acoustic guitars which sounds like classic guitars... and we get some classic guitars on this album.

These thirty-three minutes runs too fast as they are pretty delightful listening.

There is no outstanding tracks here or even great pieces of music. Fusion fans should really check out this album. A good album indeed.

3 points

Carpet - About Rooms And Elephants (2018)

The fourth and so far latest album from this German band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, clarinet, theremin, mellotron, piano, guitars and vocals.
They had help from an extra vocalist who did the backing vocals.

The music is again, as on their third album, pretty much laid back.

It comes across as a mix of neo-prog, ambient and jazz. There is also some Pink Floyd influences here.

The music is very minimalism after a normal neo-prog opening with vocals. As the cover art-work alludes to..... this is not happy music. The cover art-work, as you can see above, is very good and very fitting for the music on this album.

There is some colours here. Colours delivered by half-acoustic guitars and some woodwinds. Besides of that, the music describes a barren landscape.

This forty odd minutes long album is most of all a good album with a lot of interesting details. It is indeed an album well worth checking out.

I have only heard and reviewed the last three albums from this band. I am though impressed by this band and will get the rest of their albums and all future albums.

3 points

Tiger Moth Tales - The Depths Of Winter (2017)

The third album from this British one-man band.

Peter Jones does the ukulele, keyboards, clarinet, guitars, percussion, drum programming and vocals here.
He has got help from numerous other musicians where who added guitars, voice and numerous woodwinds.

The standards of the previous two Tiger Moth Tales albums has been so high that they have marked out Peter Jones as an exceptional talent. His work in Red Bazar also adds to his very good reputation.

It was therefore with a great deal of pleasure I started the listening sessions for this album.

What we get here is good new symphonic prog with some conceptual songs. The speech in the middle of this album brings tears to the listener and the melancholy that follows is great.

There is a lot of tasteful woodwinds here. Most of this seventy minutes long album consists of keyboards, guitars and vocals.

The music is the usual high standards I have come to expect from Tiger Moth Tales and Peter Jones. The long songs and Genesis like symphonic prog makes this a very good album indeed.

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Poor Genetic Material - Absence (2016)

The eleventh album from this German band.

The band is a seven members big band with a lineup of guitars, synth guitars, synths, piano, organ, flute, bass, drums and vocals.

I have never heard about this band before this album ended up in my inbox.

The band debuted in 1999 and has released albums until 2016. Absence is their last albums up to this date.

I have, shamefully, not had the chance to listen to any of their ten first albums before I started to review this album.

The music on this album is a mix of commercial rock and the stuff Pink Floyd did on their last three albums. That is the David Gilmour era of Pink Floyd.

The vocals are really cool on this one hour long album. The instruments and the musicians could have been a bit more exciting. But they does the job to a good standard.

The songs are really good although not that exciting. But sometimes less is more and that is the case for this album. It is an album well worth checking out.

3 points





 

Byron - A Kind Of Alchemy (2009)

The second album from this Romanian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of melodica, guitars, bass, drums, percussion, accordion, flute, organ, keyboards and vocals.
The band had help from some guest musicians who provided trumpet, backing vocals and a string quartet.

I like their debut album although it was not much of a progressive rock album. It was more of a commercial rock album than prog.

The band, that is Dan Byron and friends, continues down the same path again. Art rock is perhaps the best label here.

The music is very commercial with a lot of art and elegance.

The album is just over sixty minutes and should also give fans of neo-prog some joy.

The vocals are good and the musicians does a good job. The music is too standard to give me that much joy.

The band has gone onto releasing some more albums after this. Although they got my full respect, I am not a fan. The same goes for this decent to good album. The songs are not good or special enough for my liking.

2.5 points

Yardbirds. The - For Your Love (1965)

The debut album from this British band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of guitars, harmonica, bass, drums and vocals.
Numerous other guest musicians provided sitar, tabla, harpsichord, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

The Yardbirds influence on the scene cannot be underestimated at all. From this band, we got splinter bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin and Renaissance and the solo careers of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Five huge acts in themselves.

Both Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton plays on this album. They were the guitar gods back then.
It was Keith Relf who pretty much dominated this album, though.

The music on this album is hard beat with lots of blues too. It also has some pop influences. A good reference is The Rolling Stones.

The guitars here is on another level from what the other bands did in 1965 and they are still pretty impressive even in 2020. There are some cringe worthy teenybopper ditties here too.

This album has not really survived the test of time. Nevertheless, this is still a decent album which needs to be checked out.

2 points

Policromia - De animos partir... (2014)

The debut album from this Argentine band.

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

There is a lot of trios in the prog world. Most of them with the same lineup as this band. The same lineup as Rush, in other words.

Policromia sounds a bit like Rush on their debut album. That is the only comparison between these two bands.

Policromia's take on rock is hard rock with some progressive influences. There is also a lot of punk influences here too. Not to mention blues too.

Hard rock with both blues and punk influences with some sprinklings of progressive rock. The Welsh rockers Budgie therefore springs to mind.

There is a lot of hard guitar solos here and the music is hard and powerful throughout. The vocals are OK for this type of music. 
 
The music is decent enough on this album. It is sometimes feels like being parachuted into the middle of an artillery barrage. There is no really good pieces of music here and that is a let down. 

Besides of that, this album and probably their second album too is well worth checking out.   

3 points
 

Univers Zero - Univers Zero (1977)

The debut album from this band from Belgium.

The band was an eight piece big band on this album with a lineup of spinet, harmonium, guitar, bass, violin, viola, pocket cello, oboe, bassoon, percussion and voice.

 Univers Zero was a hugely influential band and co-founders of the RIO scene. It is one of the greatest bands in the avant-garde scene.

My plan is to review all their albums this summer and autumn. I had a listen to this album and was wondering if I was really strong enough, Covid 19 and the insecure situation we all find ourselves in, to do this.

But I had a sneak listen to some others of their albums and decided to carry on.

The music on this album is acoustic, wild and strings based. There is also a lot of oboe, bassoon and percussion here. The music has nothing whatsoever to do with rock at all.

Chamber music, it is. And totally avant-garde.

It is not droning avant-garde. The music is indeed very dynamic and full of details. It is a type of music that takes time to penetrate. I have taken this time and I am mentally preparing myself for a wild ride before every listening session.

The music is indeed a wild ride. It is also pretty good and rewarding too.

It is a more than an acceptable debut album and one to check out...... with a wide open mind.

2.5 points

 

Pure Reason Revolution - Eupnea (2020)

The fourth album from this English band.

The band was a duo on this album with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass and vocals.
A guest musician did the drums.

I have no idea and no excuse for why not getting their first three albums. The band split up in 2011 and I got the impression they were doing poppy commercial neo-prog. It is not a genre I was fond of back in those days.

Their third album was released back in 2010 too. But still, no excuse.

The music is indeed neo-prog. But not as poppy and commercial as I thought it would be.

The music is indeed melodic. It also has a lot of symphonic prog elements and is pretty symphonic, indeed. There are also some heavy guitars and some good female vocals here.

There is a lot of quality here and this album is a bit of revelation for me. I must get their first three albums.....

This is a good album indeed and I hope their comeback means more albums. This is a talented band with a very good sound.

3 points

Plesiosaurio - El Cuento de Las Manos Heladas (2015)

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of transverse flute, percussion, drums, keyboards, bass, guitars and Spanish vocals.

I have never heard about this band before I got this album in my inbox. But I know the Argentine prog rock scene a lot and I have massive respect for that scene. Everything from Argentina is well worth checking out.

The band has only released this studio album (and two live albums). But I think the band is still active. Hopefully, that means a new album.

This album is long... seventy-four minutes long. It has got two long twenty minutes plus long opuses.
 
The music is very much based on the rather good vocals. Spanish vocals. And besides of that, it is slightly difficult to describe their music.

OK, take some pastoral folk rock, add a lot of symphonic prog and some Italian symphonic prog. That is where we get this album.

There is some good melody pieces scattered around this album. Unfortunate, not many enough. This album is therefore somewhere between decent and good.

It is still an album well worth checking out, though.

2.5 points

Plat Du Jour - Plat Du Jour (1977)

The one and only album from this French band.

The band was quintet with a lineup of saxophone, guitars, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards and vocals.
Two guest musicians supplied percussion and vocals.

This album is an obscure album indeed. It is also regarded as a lost gem and is highly rated.

It is thirty-five minutes long.

The music is also very, very eclectic.

Take Soft Machine at their album Four, add a lot of King Crimson and some jazzy avant-garde prog. Add the normal French weirdness too and their disregard for the anglo-american music standard rules.

The music is really weird with some half-acoustic guitars and saxophones. It is also pretty compelling listening and this album is a kind of a one-off.

It is also a good album because the quality is good and the originality is high. Check out this album.

3 points

Jefferson Starship - Spitfire (1976)

The third album from this US band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, piano, mellotron, moog, synths, keyboards, organ, drums, percussion and vocals.
Three guest musicians provided congas, saxophones and percussion.

Grace Slick, Paul Kantner and Marty Balin was still involved in the band.

This album is the follow up to the chart topping Red Octopus from the year before. Spitfire also charted and became a best selling album.

Spitfire also sees the band departs from the psych rock sound they had in Jefferson Airplane and on their first album.

The music on Spitfire is at times very commercial rock where the easy solutions is preferred instead of making real good music.

There are some southern rock and some stadium rock here. Indeed, there is even some country 'n' western here. There is still a lot of psych rock here though.

We get the normal female and male vocal harmonies. That has not changed.

Despite of this being a chart topping album, the artistic value is paltry and dubious. It is a decent album but only that. You have been warned.

2 points

Carpet - Secret Box (2017)

The third album from this German band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of glockenspiel, percussion, drums, bass, guitars, harp, grand piano, organ, synth, minimoog, piano and vocals.

I reviewed their second album, the 2013 album Elysian Pleasures back in October 2016 and liked that album a lot. See my review here.

I then forgot about the band until I got their third and fourth album up for reviews. The fourth album will be reviewed next week.

It is a shame that bands like this falls below the cracks in the market as their second album is what I would call a very likeable album in the prog rock scene.

The music is a mix of neo-prog and psych rock. Mostly psych rock.

There are a lot of Porcupine Tree in their song and a lot of half-acoustic guitars too. The vocals are really good.

The songs on this forty-five minutes long album are really good. There is no outstanding tracks here but this album is indeed a pleasing experience.

This is a band and album well worth checking out.

3 points



 

Traffic - Traffic (1968)

The second album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of bells, drums, percussion, bass, alto clarinet, saxophones, flutes, guitars, harmonica, organ, piano, harpsichord and vocals.

This band was Steve Winwoods first step into the music world and he did a good job on the debut album. An album I reviewed last month.

His vocals is very special and adds a lot of colours and quality to Traffic's music.

The music on this album is based on folk rock. Add a lot of blues, psych rock and beat to the music too and you get this album.

There is a lot of interesting details on this album where the four musicians really gets going with quirky use of the many instruments.

There is a lot of colours here, yes.

The songs themselves are decent enough. They are spiced up though.... and that makes them a lot better.

It is rare to hear anything about this band these days and I guess that makes them a hidden gem. This album is somewhere between decent and good. It is so interesting that it is a keeper for the later days of my life.

2.5 points

Plastic Violins Of Darkness - Plastic Violins Of Darkness (2013)

The debut album from this German one-man band.

The man who is the band is Marc-Andre Mahn and he does the guitars and programming.

I reviewed his second album, the 2014 opus Spiral exactly five years ago to this day and got the debut album too as I liked that album. Read my review here.

And those two albums are the only albums Marc-Andre released.

The music on this album is a mix of space rock and psych rock. It is instrumental throughout this one hour.

The music is dominated by guitars. Mostly half-acoustic guitars. In the back of the sound, you get computer generated bass and drums. That and some cosmic sounding synths.

This simple form of music is actually very effective. There is no massive complicated details here. It is just like a darker form of Pink Floyd. Indeed, Pink Floyd is a very good reference here.

This one hour does not offers up some fantastic excitements. But it works.

This is indeed a good album and it can be downloaded from the link in this review.

3 points

Quintessence - Self (1972)

The fourth album from this UK band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of bass, flute, guitars, drums, percussion and vocals.
The band had help from a piano player.

The band is a follower of the Indian religions like hare krishna and that was very obvious on the first three albums. Some of them were overly preaching and with a lot of hare krishna chanting.

Overly religious music, Christian or hare krishna is a bore no matter which religion they preaches. It is the kind of music I cannot stand.

The band has toned down the religion stuff here, although it is still here, and gone for music instead. Which sounds like a good plan to me.

The music here is a mix if what Jefferson Airplane did on their first albums, folk rock and psych rock.  

The music is mostly melodic and dynamic. The album dies a slow and painful death at the final five minutes of this twenty-five minutes long album.

That is a great shame. That and the very short album which still has some religious overtones. Besides of that, this is a good album with some great guitars.

2.5 points





 

Arpaderba - L'aleph (1981)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, violin, synths, electric piano, piano, organ, vibraphone, xylophone, tabla and mandolin.

This band is a very one-off a kind band even in the very flowery and inventive Italian scene. This album is really unique.

The music is still very Italian though. They just approach it from a different direction.....

Take some flamenco and Spanish folk music, add in Italian folk music, add in some chamber rock, add in a lot of fusion and add in some RPI. On the top of that, add a lot of Canterbury and eclectic prog.

All of this is instrumental and the compositions are rather quirky. Very much quirky as in Canterbury prog, in fact.

Forty minutes of weird and quirky melodies is what we get here. Most of it is done with acoustic instruments and the music is at times chamber rock.

This album has a lot to offer and it is a shame that it has not got that much attention. It is indeed a good album and well worth checking out on Youtube and other places.

3 points

Lucifer's Friend - Sneak Me In (1980)

The seventh album from this German band.

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

Not much of the very good band from the 1970s with the same name was left. New vocalist and new style.

The band sounded like a mix of Queen and Elton John on their previous album. A shocking bad album.

The band still sound like a mix of Queen and Elton John on this album. The music is medium hard and full of socalled catchy hooks and licks. They tried to make the hooks and licks catchy. But they failed.

If not the pretty dire cover art-work would have scared off the music buyer, a quick listen to this album would have done that job. And the music does not get any better even after repeated listenings.

There is a couple of half decent songs and licks here. That is a saving grace.....

Make a big detour around this album and enjoy their first albums.

1.5 points

Byron - Forbidden Drama (2007)

The debut album from this band from Romania.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, flute, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards and vocals.
The band had help from ten guest musicians who provided oboe, esraj, viola, violin, cello, spoken words and background vocals.

This band is lead by Dan Byron who does the guitars, flute and vocals here.

The band has released eight albums so far, but I only have their first two albums and will therefore review them. 

The music on this album is melodic neo-prog in the vein of Marillion and more standard rock bands.

The dominating factor here is Dan's vocals and his rather quirky melodies. I believe he has written everything on this album.

The music is not particular progressive. The songs are rather decent to good though. It is also obvious that Dan Byron is a big talent here.

He is a bit talent but that talent has not fully come into bloom on this album. Nevertheless, this is still an acceptable debut album.

2.5 points

Zopp - Zopp (2020)

The debut album from this one-man band from England.

Zopp is Ryan Stevenson on synths, organ, piano, keyboards, guitars, bass and percussion.
He had help from four other musicians who provided organ, synths, piano, flutes, saxophones, programming, drums, percussion and female voices.

This is a new project with Ryan Stevenson and Andy Tillison and Theo Travis from The Tangent.

It is nice to see that someone takes up the baton from the likes of Egg and National Health. 

This album gives us three quarters of an hour worth of Canterbury prog in the vein of those two great bands. Bands I happen to be fan of.

What is missing here is the French horn and some more worth of the real organ and keyboard sound from these two bands.

The female voices is here and the National Health and Egg references is very obvious.

The music is not of the same standards of those two bands. But Ryan Stevenson & co is doing their best.

The end result is a fairly good album, elevated up to a good album because of the sound. Fans of those two bands and Canterbury prog need to check out this album.

3 points

Passport - Infinity Machine (1976)

The sixth album from this German band.

Passport was a quartet with a lineup of harmonizer, saxophones, moog, keyboards, bass, percussion, drums and guitars.

The band continued on from their good first albums. The cover art-work are rather cheeky and a bit.... colourful.

Their take on fusion is also in the same vein here.

Take a lot of Return To Forever and Weather Report. Mix them together and you largely get Passport, Klaus Doldinger's band.

Klaus Doldinger lets the other musicians here room to perform some very good solos. This is not all about him and his saxophones. Far from it. Passport sounds like a proper band where all get their say in the sound.

There are some really cool solos here which makes me listen up. This as per usual on the Passport albums.

The result is another good album which fusion fans should check out.

3 points

Armonite - The Sun Is New Each Day (2015)

The second album from this Italian band.

Armonite is a duo with a lineup of electric violin and keyboards.
They had help from a quartet who did the bass, drums, cello and drums programming.
Colin Edward from Porcupine Tree did the bass here.

I reviewed their 1999 debut album Inuit back in July 2011 for ProgArchives and liked that album. The band has also released a third album and I may get that album one day.

The music on this album is eclectic instrumental progressive rock with more than a hint of RPI and Arabian & North-African music.

There is also some chamber rock.... make that a lot of chamber rock in their music. This is essentially a chamber rock duo.

Confused ?

The music is pretty melodic though and not overly eclectic.

It is also good with a lot of interesting details. Mainstream prog, it is not, though.

It is still a good album and well worth checking out. Something I would suggest you do.

3 points

 

Transit Express - Opus Progressif (1976)

The second album from this French band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of violin, electric violin, vibraphone, percussion, drums, piano, electric piano, clavinet, synths, bass and guitars.

The band released three albums before they gave up the ghost.

Their 1975 debut album Priglacit was a good fusion album with a lot of Brand X and Mahavishnu Orchestra influences. The music was intense and fast fusion.

Transit Express has slowed down a lot on Opus Progressif and gone a bit progressive rock.

It is still fusion with a lot of jazz influences. But there is some progressive rock, in effect, Camel influences on this album too.

Some parts of this album is pretty intense. Other parts is rather pastoral and pedestrian.

Unfortunate, this album does not come up with the goods Priglacit did. The music is pedestrian and a bit unhinged here. There is not many good pieces of music here.

This is a decent to good album and I hope their third and final album is better than this album.

2.5 points