Second Movement - Movements (1981)

The second & final album from this German band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of synths, guitars, drums, keyboards, percussions and English vocals.

I had severe reservations about their 1976 debut album Blind Man's Mirror in my review earlier this month. And I was even less pleased when I learnt from other reviews that Movements was a synth rock album.

The opening track Don't Shoot Animals is a catchy German synth rock song. Very catchy, but still cringeworthy.

The rest of this forty minutes long album is not that catchy. But the band has set their sight on the booming German synth rock scene. Some guitars are the only thing that breaks up the synth fest.

The music is actually pretty organic too. Not all here is plastic fantastic. The songs still have some progressive elements. But not many.

The quality is bog standard and makes this album a bit of a test to both listen to and to review. Movements is still not a turkey as it has some rather decent stuff too. But it is sailing close to the turkey yard. Not every old prog rock album from Youtube deserves your attention.

1.5 points
  

Vly - I (2015)

The debut album from this multinational project.

Vly is a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, synths, keyboards and English vocals.

This is a kind of a supergroup, online supergroup, with members from Anglagard, White Willow, Crippled Black Phoenix, Il Tempio Delle Clessidra and Diet Kong. I gather that the internet has been used to exchange files and ideas. A great thing, the internet.

But there is at least one picture of the project posing together in the front of some white cliffs. Thw white cliffs of Dover ? I am not sure.

This one hour long album gives us a mix of electronica, post-rock, folk, neo-prog and pop music. The sound and music is very anno post-millenium. It is a very contemporary sound and world.

The is a lot of vocals, guitars and keyboards harmonies here. The music is very Pink Floyd at times. Actually, make that throughout this album.

The music is also very atmospheric where the post rock tricks of the trade is used to good effect.

The result is art-rock. I really like art-rock when the songs are great. Unfortunate, there is no great songs here. But this is still a good album which deserves a larger audience.

3 points  

Rivendel - The Meaning (1996)

The second album from this Spanish band.

Rivendel is a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, wind instruments, guitars and Spanish, English & French vocals. A female opera singer contributes with vocals on the first track.

To my knowledge, this is my first meeting with this band and their music. Their debut album was the Manifesto album from 1990 and their third album was the DHD album from 2015.

I tried to review this album one year ago, but chickened out of it. This is my second attempt....

Fifty-two minutes, three songs. Phew ! That is ambitious. In particular when the title track is half an hour long.

There is not much Spanish music here. The music is a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog. There is a lot of keyboards and guitars here. The music is not hard at all. Neither is it soft and featureless. There is most definate substance in their music.

The first track La Telerana, the Spanish song, has a good female opera vocal throughout the fourteen minutes. A rather good song.

The half an hour long title track has some sporadic English vocals and is a suite. Large parts of this suite reminds me about Pink Floyd anno Dark Side Of The Moon. It has some good to very good moods and melodies.

The final track, the nine minutes long L'art Brut has some good half-acoustic guitars and French vocals. This is another good to very good track.

The end result is a hugely ambitious album and a good one too. It is by no means an easy listening album. But those who understand what they are going to will like this good album. Tune in and get into it.

3 points

 

Jordsjø - Jordsjø (2015)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

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

Jordsjo is an offshot of Tusmorke, as far as I know. The band has got raving reviews in, amongst others, ProgArchives.

I thought this album was their 2017 album. But I was wrong. This is indeed their debut album and it has been released through Bandcamp and on cassette. Why anyone releases albums on cassettes these days are beyond me. The sound and the frequent tape-salads has meant cassettes is a bad memory for me. But this band disagrees....... Fair enough.

As this is a side-project/offshot of Tusmorke, more or less the same music could be expected. And that is true. Jordsjo is a bit more folky and a bit more symphonic than Tusmorke.

The vocals is a bit atonal and not my cup of tea. The bass is a bit zeuhl like at times. The hammond organ and the flutes brings me back to the 1970s...

The music is a blend of Jethro Tull and early Genesis. It has one leg in folk and the other leg in symphonic prog. Well, one and a half leg in the folk rock genre.

Anyway, this thirty-eight minutes long album has some really good songs. As a debut album (cassette), this is more than a good album. A killer track or even a great track is missing here so I am a bit restrained in handing out points and superlatives.

I have just purchased their 2017 album and will review that one too later this summer/read the review of this album somewhere else in this blog.

3 points

Virus - Revelation (1970)

The debut album from this German band.

Virus was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, organ, bass, drums, flutes and some vocals. Both English and German vocals.

Virus released two albums before they gave up the ghost. A live album from a gig in 1973 was released in 2004, long after the demise of this band.

ProgArchives has them down as a heavy prog band. That is not that evident on this album (but OK on their second album) as this is a much krautrock album than most other things.

Take a solid chunk of blues, add in a lot of 1960s hard psych and add some psychedelia and rock. Then you get this album. This band coming from Germany, this mix of genres is normally referred to as krautrock.

There is a lot of cosmic and hypnotic rhythms and melodies on this album. On this forty-six minutes long album (I have not been bothered about the two short bonus tracks). The songs are very long and have some jam rock influences too.

The jarring guitars with the hammond organ in the background and some flutes makes this a good and heavy krautrock album. This album has it's qualities, yes. I am giving it a weak good rating.

3 points

Vicolo Margana - Morpheus Five Hours (2010)

The second album from this Italian band.

The band was a duo with Francesco Antonelli on keyboards and bagpipes. Fabio Bizzari did guitars and effects. The duo had help from numerous guest musicans who provided bass, drums, woodwinds, keyboards, violin and female vocals. All vocals are in English.

I have not heard their 2008 debut album A Perfect Life. It seems like very few have heard that album as there is not many reviews of it online.

Not many have been listening to and reviewed Morpheus Five Hours either. I have had this album for many years without giving it my attention. Which is bad. But I have not had time to do it.

The first thing that I notice during the listening sessions in bus and home is the wailing female vocals. There is a lot of both wailing and proper female vocals here. It is a bit hard to penetrate this wall and get to the music.

The music is a mix of neo-prog, art rock and electronica. The violin and the woodwinds is good and the guitars are good. But the electronica bit, also taking the female vocals into account, is pretty strong.

The result is an hour of challenging music. Challenging, but not so good music. The end result is a decent album and a band who does not really appeal to me at all.

2 points

Petrina. Ota - Pečet (1983)

The second and final album from this Czech Republic artist/band.

Ota Petrina is both an artist and a band. The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, flutes, accordion, piano, synth and Czech vocals.

Ota Petrina was a pretty popular artist and songwriter in the cold war era Czechoslovakia before this state divorced into two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, straight after the fall of the iron curtain. Back in 1983, there was no hope of freedom in this harsh communist ruled Czechoslovakia. 

Ota Petrina still managed to release two albums. I reviewed the 1978 debut album Super Robot back in May 2014. Almost on the day three years before I am writing these words.... Spooky !!!!!!!

I thought it was a good album.

These two albums reemerged in ProgArchives some years ago and got some good attention and was pretty hyped up. It is nothing wrong with that. ProgArchives is a force for all the best things in life.

The music on Pecet is art-rock. No less and no more. There is a strong singer/songwriter element to this album too with Ota Petrina playing a central role with his vocals. But there is also enough good music in the vein of Supertramp and the 1970s symphonic prog tradition here. Note the use of Moog here which is really great.

The opening track, the fifteen minutes long Hemingway is a very good song and the best one on this album. The rest is good to very decent. Most of this album is pastoral to very pastoral without any big bangs and fanfares. This album do a lot more whispering than shouting. 

Ota Petrina has again given us a good album, well worth checking out. Check it out.

3 points

  

 

Vitaro - Memories of Tomorrow's Past (2017)

The debut album from this USA based one-man band.

Vitaro is the creative vehicle for Jairo R Rodriguez who plays everything here. He is based in Florida and I guess he from a Cuban or a South American heritage. His English has a strong Spanish/Portuguese accent. The songs has both English and Spanish/Portuguese vocals.
Besides of that, Jairo plays everything here. His main instrument is guitars.

Vitaro was created to give the world something more than 4 chords music. He claims that his music is therefore unique..... Well, it is not. Please explore ProgArchives to find a lot of new bands who is not 4 chords based.... Or you can even explore this blog, the one you are reading now. There is not many, if any, 4 chords bands here.

Nitpicking aside, the music here is a mix of David Gilmour era Pink Floyd like rock, a bit neo-prog and some progressive metal.

The music is nice throughout and Jairo knows how to write songs. There is a lot of one-man projects and bands around now. Projects far more exciting as this one. There is not much excitement here as the music is pretty safe and not that intriguing.

Jairo's music is pretty much true to the melodic rock formulas and does not venture far from those rules. The songs are OK, but not really that good. It is an acceptable debut album though and one to build upon. But it is not an unique gift to the world, Jairo...... The wheel has already been invented.

2.5 points 

Gypsy - Antithesis (1972)

The third album from this US band.

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

I pretty much liked their first two albums Gypsy (1970) and In The Garden (1971). Two albums with a mix of psychedelia and progressive rock. The album art-works was also epic.....

The band did not get that much success with those two albums. So what does an unsuccesful band do when not getting success as a psychedelia and progressive rock band ? They go for a commercial rock/pop sound.

Gypsy did that on this forty minutes long album. They joined an already overcrowded scene. I am not sure if they got any more commercial success with this album though.

Their sound still retains a cool west-coast sound who smells of flowers and sun. Not to mention; illegal substances. The music is not particular heavy and the vocals is pretty good.

There is a distinct lack in quality music on this album. This album falls a bit flat on it's face as it has not any of the charming features from their two first albums. Nevertheless, this is a decent album.

2 points

Allen. Daevid - Banana Moon (1971)

The debut solo album from this Australian born artist.

This legend from Soft Machine and Gong got help from his wife Gilli Smyth, Robert Wyatt, Pip Pyle and other greats from the scene.

I have reviewed some of his solo albums in the past plus all Gong and some Mother Gong albums. Daevid Allen was a fascinating artist who sadly left us a couple of years ago.

Gong was in full flow and Daevid Allen wanted another outlet for his creative ideas. Hence his solo career. A career spawning 15 albums. One of the albums was released after his death.

Banana Moon is a forty minutes long album who starts with a The Beatles like song before Robert Wyatt takes over as the vocalist on the best song on this album, the almost four minutes long Memories.

The rest of the album is a bit of a mixed bag of spaced out improvisations and more conventional pop songs. Naive children rhyme like pop songs. Still very weird but sooooo Daevid Allen.

This started a blueprint I recognice from other Daevid Allen solo albums and some Gong albums. In the case of Banana Moon, the result is a rather good album. An album I am enjoying, warts and insanities included. Check it out.

3 points

Second Movement - Blind Man's Mirror (1976)

The debut album from this German band.

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

Second Movement was an obscure band who pressed 700 copies of this album (mine one was collected from Youtube.....) and then released a second album before they split up for good.

The band name hints about symphonic prog. ProgArchives has indeed listed them as a symphonic prog band. I am not so sure.... There is some symphonic prog structures in their songs, yes. The songs are on average 9 minutes long. The music is much more leaning towards space and krautrock.

Take some Santana, a lot of Eloy and a lot of Nektar. That is when you get this album. I have heard they are very similar to Nektar. From the little I have heard of Nektar, that is true. I will soon give Nektar my full attention and this album makes me interested in them if that comparisson is true.

The vocals here are pretty good. The guitars and the keyboards are also good. So far, so good.

The songs are not that good though. The twelve minutes long title track is good. The rest of the album is not that good.

The end result is three quarters of an hour long album which is somewhere between decent and good. Check it out if you like Nektar and German prog.

2.5 points

Styx - Cornerstone (1979)

The ninth album from this US band.

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

The band were in their commercial best days on their two previous albums The Grand Illusion and Pieces Of Eight. Both albums shifting millions of copies.

Their mix of teenybopper rock, hard rock and AOR were filling stadiums. Their music was the perfect antidote to the Vietnam war.

This indeed were the arena rock era. And with Cornerstone, Styx packed the arenas. This album also gave them their first ever # 1 hitsingle. It is a ballad and it is called Babe. It is a good song too.

Cornerstone also gave the band some minor hits in different countries and territories. It was a multi-million selling album too.

Quality wise anno 2017, this is not a bad album. It has some more theatrical pop stuff, some harder rock and some teenybopper rock. There is also some AOR here. In short; this is arena rock and the music could only be written and recorded by an US. This album has born in the USA all written over it. And it is a feel good album.

OK, the music is covered in cheese and banalities. But most of this album is rather good. This is actually a good album. Say C H E E S E and listen to this album.

3 points 

Karmakanic - Dot (2016)

The fifth and so far latest album from this Swedish band.

The band owner Jonas Reingold had with him a quintet on this album with a lineup of bass, drums, keyboards, piano, guitars and English vocals. Guest musicians supplied Hammond organ, sax, vocals and guitars.

The creative output from this band, a The Flower Kings associated band, has been a mixed bag. Their music has sometimes been a more simplified and funkier version of The Flower Kings creative outputs.

This is also true for this fifty minutes long album.

Fifty minutes is a surprisingly short album. But the more recent trend in the symphonic prog scene has (thankfully !!) been shorter and much more concise albums where the fillers has been omitted. A very healthy new trend. Get slim and fit. I like that. Unfortunate, my body is still a triple CD......

The band continues on from their previous albums. The music is a much more simplified, poppier version of a The Flower Kings album. There is a lot of good hooks and verses here. A lot of memorable stuff.

I have always felt that this band's music is a bit short on substance. There is not enough dept here to really satisfy me over many listening sessions. That aside, this is a good album from a good band. Their best album is still the 2008 album Who Is The Boss In The Factory. But this album will suffice until their next album.

3 points

Virtual Symmetry - Message From Eternity (2016)

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

I am not a fan of progressive metal. I actually tend to stay as far away from progressive metal as possible. Numerous progressive rock albums has been sent straight to my archive because I do not like this genre.

This album has no reviews in ProgArchives though. All albums and bands deserve reviews. Hence this review..... and the band is Italian and the art-work is pretty cool.

This album is just over an hour long. It has seven songs, including a twenty-three minutes long suite.

The music is very melodic throughout. It is clearly a progressive rock album as it follows this formula to every letter and dots. But it is very melodic and only reminds me about the more melodic aspects of Dream Theater. Some of the music is also overly dramatic and theatrical.

The vocalist has a very good voice. The music is not that good and I have to admit my dislike of this genre prevents me from liking this album more than I do. Nevertheless, this is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

Flame Dream - Calatea (1978)

The debut album from this Swiss band.

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

The band released six albums altogether between 1978 and 1986 before they gave up the ghost. The albums had a modest distribution with ditto modest salesfigures. I got three of their albums. Reviews of their two other albums to follow/can be read somewhere else in this blog.

The band was obviously very inspired by Genesis. At times, this album sounds like a Genesis clone. But there is more to this album than just Genesis'ish symphonic prog.

This album has indeed some krautrock too and some Dexy Midnight Runner like pop. Pop with woodwinds and some strange rhythm figures.

There are also some more symphonic prog parts here where the band sounds like ELP. This in addition to some good flute melody lines. 

The album is playful throughout. There is no real great tracks here, let alone good tracks here. But this is not a bad effort at all. The band remained an obscure band for a good reason. The reason being lack of quality.

2.5 points

Vienna - Unknown (1998)

The third and final album from this Japanese band.

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

I reviewed their first two albums Overture and Steps Into.. (both 1988) for ProgArchives back in 2009 and 2010.

In my reviews, I described this band as a Pomp Prog band and compared them to both Magnum and Saga. I have not listened to these two albums since, but I guess this is a fair reflection of their first two albums.

And I would still use the label Pomp Prog or rather the label Pomp Rock. Pomp Rock, it is then.

The music here is a blend of prog metal, AOR and symphonic prog like melodies. The music is mostly over the top pomp and grandeur. There are some keyboards generated strings here. There are also some ballads here which sounds a bit well over the top.

The shrieking violet like vocals does not make this album less pomp rock. Ditto for the church organs.

The end result is a decent to good album which has some good melodies and some cringeworthy cheesy melodies. Vienna is not a bad Japanese band and they deserve some credit for their three albums.

2.5 points

Metamorfosi - Purgatorio (2016)

The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, piano, synths, acoustic guitars and Italian vocals.

I very much liked their previous album Paradiso from 2004. Gothic symphonic progressive Italian rock. I have very much liked all their albums as you will find in # 1 of this blog.

The band returned last year with Purgatorio. This is an hour full of gothic symphonic progressive rock with great Italian vocals.

When I say gothic, I mean that as in symphonic gothic. Not as in goth metal or the goth style with black clothes and makeover. This album is like a gothic cathedral with spires and open rooms with big walls and all the greatness of a gothic cathredral. And that is what we get here. A gothic cathredral.

What is strange here is the lack of any electric guitars. They are not missed as the music on this album is best without any electric guitars. But it is unusual to find an Italian prog rock album without guitars. Hence the strange sound. Strange but very good.

There are some great stuff here and some not so great stuff. This is another almost-great album from this band. A band I think deserves more credit than given. Check out this band and this album.

3.5 points



 

Latte E Miele - Passio Secundum Mattheum (1972)

The debut album from this Italian band.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, moog, harpsicord, violin, flute, percussions and Italian vocals. Both male clear vocals and operatic vocals of both sexes. There is also some narrations here.

Latte E Miele was a band who released three albums in the 1970s, one in the 1990s, one in 2009 and a rework of this album back in 2014. I will/has reviewed most of their albums in this blog.

The band was called an ELP wannabe in some quarters. Which is unfair. OK, there are some ELP influences on this album. But this album is much more classical and opera music influenced than influenced by ELP.

We are here talking Italian opera and classical music. Most of it pretty gothic and theatrical. The French group Ange springs to mind here.

This album is pretty fragmented throughout as it is following a concept. There are some harsh guitar solos and some harsh pianos. The operatic vocals and the narrations also sets the theme for this album.

I am failing to find anything great on this thirty-five minutes long album. I like the concept and I find this a good album. It is a pretty special Italian symphonic prog album among a lot of special Italian symphonic prog albums. And that says it all, really. Check out this album.

3 points 
 

Pinguin - Der Grosse Rote Vogel (1972)

The one and only album from this German band.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of flutes, bass, guitars, percussions, drums, organs, saxophone and German vocals.

There is next to no info about this band. But I got an MP3 file from a reader of this blog who wanted my opinion about this album. Opinions soon to be expressed.......

A pretty strange art-work hides a pretty strange album. An album well within the confines of the krautrock genre.

The music on this forty odd minutes long album is very much melody and song focused. But with some large twists. There is a lot of out and out madness here. Frank Zappa springs to mind. The use of Hammond organs gives this album a good feel. One that tends to make my heart melt.

... But not in this case. Yes, this is a very German krautrock album with a mix of melancholy and pure fun. Or German humour if you like. Which is a weird humour with two melodies competing with each other in some songs. A bit avant-garde in other words.

There is no real great or good songs here. Nevertheless, this is a weird, wacky decent album which will be liked a lot in the krautrock community.... if the know about it.

2 points

VIII Strada - Babylon (2015)

The second album from this Italian band.

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

When I reviewed their 2008 debut album La Leggenda Della Granda Porta back in November 2013, I feared that I was reviewing their one and only sign of life from this band. Thankfully, I was wrong.
The band returned seven years later with this album, the Babylon album.

The album was released by Fading Records too, a member of the AltRock family. That means quality.

I noted in my review of their debut album that the band operated somewhere between progressive metal and RPI, Italian progressive rock. This is true on Babylon too.

This album is very melodic with a great Italian flavour. It is perhaps not a true Italian symphonic prog album. Their music has a very contemporary sound and a lot of progressive rock influences.

When that is said, this fifty minutes long album has a lot to offer to both prog metal and RPI fans. It is a very good crossover album between these two genres.

There is no real great songs here. Nevertheless, this is a good album which is well worth an investment. Check it out.

3 points 

Red Jasper - 777 (2016)

The sixth album from this English band.

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

Red Jasper intrigued me enough to make me purchase a 2 for 1 CD with their A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Winter's Tale. See reviews somewhere else in this blog.

The band were a good crossover between folk rock and neo-prog on those two albums. But that was then....

Their new album 777 was released last year to no fanfare as this is an obscure band. Unjustified obscure band as their first albums was good.

Unfortunate, the band has given up neo-prog and most of their folk rock roots on this album. What remains is a pop-rock band.

The title track, or the track (is it the title track ?) 7 talks about some magic around the number 7. Whereas Iron Maiden also did a track and a great album about number 7, Red Jasper only got a fairly good song out of this number. 7 is not a bad song.

It goes a bit downhill after that, I am afraid. The band returns to their folk rock roots on two songs before they return to the safe pop-rock territory. Great on pub gigs, but not so good on a record. I am afraid this is a dull album which fails a bit in the quality department.

2 points

Vesania - Vesania (1999)

The one and only album from this Brazilian band.

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

I learnt about this band through ProgArchives (as always !) and found this album on Youtube. So I decided to give it a try as I really like symphonic prog.

I am very miffed that this band has been listed as symphonic prog. The music is nowhere near symphonic prog.

Take King Crimson and blend them with some instrumental tech/math metal. Watchtower, Cynic and Liquid Tension Experiement springs to mind. Add some hints of fusion and Anekdoten too and you get this album.

The music on this forty-six minutes long album is heavy, uber-technical, eclectic and very rhythm based. There is hardly any normal melody here.

I have my reservations about the genre they inhabits. And I am failing to find anything here which I would regard great or even good. The result is a decent album and an album for the nerds and math/tech metal fans out there.

2 points

Riff Raff - Riff Raff (1973)

The debut album from this UK band.

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

This is not really their debut album. The band recorded an album back in 1972 which did not see the light of day until 1998. But Riff Raff is their official album, according to ProgArchives and Discogs.

Listed as a jazz/fusion band in ProgArchives, I was prepared for a..... eeh.......jazz/fusion album. Although there is some jazz and fusion here, and a lot of it, the rock and the pop elements is the most dominating feature on this album.

That is pop and rock which is leaning on blues, folk rock and hard rock. A lot of people has compared this band to the early days of Chicago. I am not sure because I have yet to give Chicago my full attention. But that seems reasonable to me.

The fusion and jazz elements here are pretty much leaning on the likes of Weather Report. But these elements is not the ones I will remember about this album. It is the rock stuff.

There is no really great stuff here. Let alone good songs. But this is still a decent to good album, well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Gypsy - In the Garden (1971)

The second album from this US band.

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

I was pretty impressed by their 1970 self-titled debut album. A good album indeed.

What I had heard before I purchased this album was that this album were in the same direction as their debut album. So I purchased it.

In The Garden is a mix of commercial pop, a bit americana, a bit Santana, a bit early Deep Purple and a pretty large chunk of psychedelic rock. This album sounds like a US psychedelic rock album anno 1971.

The album has a good hippie flower power sound too. The interplay between the guitars and keyboards are pretty great throughout. Ditto for the vocals which is pretty good and fitting for this album. The best things here are the instrument and vocal harmonies. Which there is a lot of here.

There is no great songs here on this thirty-eight minutes long album. Nevertheless, there is a good allround feeling and some good songs here which makes this a good album. I like this album a bit and awards it a weak three pointer. Check it out.

3 points

Providence - Ever Sense The Dawn (1972)

The one and only album from this US band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of bass, keyboards, organ, glockenspiel, violin, guitars, viola, cello, percussions and vocals.

The band was signed on the shortlived The Moody Blues label Threshold and a lot was expected by the band. The result was only this album, though.

It is tempting to note down The Moody Blues as a major reference on this album....... and that is partially correct too. The roots of this album is though in folk-rock and some classical music. And symphonic prog too. Then add some West-Coast psychedelic rock too.

This half an hour long album is indeed a very good mix of symphonic prog and US folk rock.

The vocals are very good and this mostly acoustic album has a lot of good things going for it. I can understand why this album is revered. It is indeed also an album revered in my house because it is a pastoral, nice album. An album for most of the family.

There is no great songs here though and the album is on the short side. Nevertheless, this is a good album and one to check out.

3 points

Tempest - Living In Fear (1974)

The second and final album from this English band.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of guitars, moog synth, bass, drums and vocals.

Tempest was the band Jon Hiseman put together inbeetween the life of Colosseum and Colosseum II. Both very successful bands.

I was pretty impressed by their 1973 self titled album. Good progressive blues. So I had hope for this album. Hope dampened when I learned that Allan Holdsworth had departed the band. He was a big part of the debut album.

The band has scaled back a lot on this forty minutes long album. The emphasis is on good melodies this time around and not so much on technical, progressive stuff.

Their version of The Beatles classic Paperback Writer does not add anything interesting to this album as that is a very straightforward song. The rest of the album shows a bit more complex songs. But just a tiny bit.

There is no good songs here and this album is a disappointing album. Hence my verdict.

2 points

Stormy Six - Un Biglietto Del Tram (1975)

The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of violin, sax, guitars, balalaika, mandolin, bass, drums and Italian vocals.

I managed to get a copy of their Original Album Series which contains their five final albums. That box exludes their three first albums which is not regarded as that good. Hence, I will review all five albums/has reviewed all five albums in this blog.

Stormy Six was one of the original bands in the RIO movement together with Henry Cow, Samla Mammas Manna, Univers Zero and Etron Fou Leloublan. All bands to be reviewed in this blog.

Stormy Six started out as a folk rock band before turning into a RIO band. Un Biglietto Del Tram is supposed to be a folk rock album. And indeed it is.

But it is not entirely a folk rock album. There is some subtle avant-garde themes in this album. This album is not a straight forward forty odd minutes long folk-rock album.

The vocals is a bit harsh and loud. The album is wholly acoustic and is sometimes going in the direction of chamber baroque RIO. The violins is at times distorted too.

The end result is a reasonable melodic album. Still, the album is sailing close to avant-garde and RIO territory. It is a promising, good album and well worth checking out.

3 points

 

Versus X - The Turbulent Zone (2000)

The third album from this German band.

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

I have not had the pleasure of hearing their other albums so this band is new to me. Which is a bit of a shame as this is a bit of a new find for me.

Versus X is another German neo-prog band. One of the many good neo-prog bands from Germany. A bit of an undervalued scene too.

The first thing that comes into my mind is that Andy Tillison in The Tangent is the vocalist here. I am wrong. Arne Schafer is the vocalist here. But the similarities are many. The vocals are very good, btw.

This one hour long album contains one suite clocking in at twenty-two minutes and three other more shorter songs. The shortest one is seven minutes long and the longest one is clocking in at at sixteen minutes. The songs are epic and symphonic. In short, Versus X is at the symphonic prog end of the neo-prog scene.

The frequent use of piano and acoustic guitars also adds an epic feel to this album. A good feel in my books. There is also a good 1970s feel over this album. Symphonic prog fans should listen up.

There is no real great songs here. But this is still a very good album and a reminder that this was a good band. I may check out their three other albums.

3.5 points

Secret Oyster - Straight To The Krankenhaus (1977)

The fourth and final album from this Danish band.

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

The band was some sort of a Danish supergroup which included some of the best prog and fusion musicians in Denmark at that time. A sort of Denmark's version of Return To Forever.

The band was not far from that band's take on fusion too on this album. But the likes of Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra also springs to mind here.

This forty-one minutes long album is very melodic at times. It also have a lot of technical stuff too. This album is by no means an easy listening album. This album is full to the brim with fusion of the rather noisy, intense sort.

Well, it has a mix of intense and more laidback music. There are a lot of intense guitar solos here and some more pastoral pieces. There are also some hymn like pieces here.

There is also some much more jazzy pieces here which really gets my blood and feet going in joy.

The end result is a very good album which has a lot to offer for every fusion fan. This is one of the best Scandinavian fusion albums out there so check it out and enjoy.

3.5 points

Periferia Del Mondo - Un Milione di Voci (2002)

The second album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, percussions, violin, organ, synths, piano, woodwinds and vocals. Both English and Italian vocals.

I was not so happy about their fourth album Nel Regno Dei Ciechi from 2013. A bit messy album, I wrote in my review four years ago.

I get the feeling that this band is creating ultra-complex music as it's modus operandi. Un Millione Di Voci is another very complex piece of music.

The basis here is a mix of eclectic progressive rock and fusion. Add a lot of classical music too and you get this album.

Which is fine when these three genres are fused into one genre. On this one hour long album, we get one piece of eclectic prog, one piece of classical music and one piece of fusion. This on a random basis and repeated over and over.

Some of the pieces are rather good. But it is difficult following the wild ride this album is offering up. Being thrown of the album is something I am getting used to now. And I am not sure if I like it. Or for that matter, get the full meaning for this wild ride.

The good things are good here. But this album is too confusing, too unhinged and not really a good listening experience. Hence my verdict.

2.5 points

Anakdota ‎- Overloading (2016)

The debut album from this band from Israel.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of piano, keyboards, bass, drums, male and female English vocals. A guest musician contributes with guitar on one of the eight songs.

The first thing I noticed about this band and album was the record label. Fading Records is a part of the AltRock Production empire. This is the best record labels for prog and art rock in today's world. Hence, I purchased this album...... and promptly forgot it. Until a forthnight ago when I started to listen to this album.

Fading Records never do easy listening albums or albums which is easy to review. This is again the case for Anakdota's Overloading album. Let me see...... Where to start ?

The lack of guitars tells a lot about this album. The melodies are shaped by mostly piano and vocals. The keyboards also plays an important role here. Ditto for the drums and bass.

The vocals are both clear and good. There is a lot of interplays between male and female vocals. The music is a bit of an oddity........

Take a lot of art rock, add some jazz, add some avant-garde, add a lot of symphonic prog, add some Canterbury and add some pop music. The music is very melodic though, but in a weird sense of melodic. This is clearly Art-Rock with big letters.

The piano is sometime melodic and sometimes dissonant. But is is everywhere. Which is not a bad thing. It makes this a very elegant album indeed.

My only gripe is the lack of a great piece of music. A piece of music which grabs me. But this is a very promising debut album and one to check out.

3 points

Vantasma - Beyond Fallen Dreams (2006)

The one and only album from this Indonesian band.

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

Indonesia is most known for their jazz/fusion scene and many contributions to MoonJune Records band roster. Great fusion/jazz/ethno jazz albums. But neo-prog... ? Well, Vantasma is/was a neo-prog band.

I thought I had already reviewed this album when I was a member of the ProgArchives staff many years ago. But I have not. So I am cracking on........

Where the MoonJune Records albums from Indonesia is full of musical references to Indonesia and the rest of Asia, there is no such references in Vantasma's universe and music. I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. But I am reviewing what I am hearing from the speakers and that's it.

The music here is heavy neo-prog with a lot of prog metal influences. There is also a lot of power metal influences here. The vocals is leaning towards power metal and the numerous German bands in that genre. The music is much more leaning towards prog metal and neo-prog. Though with some pretty heavy power metal references.

The music is heavy.... but also good. This band knew what they were doing and this album is not just a colourful contribution to the neo-prog scene. It is a good neo-prog album in it's own right.

It is a pity that Vantasma seems to be no longer with us. Because they had something going here. Something good.

3 points
  

Sirius - The Three Bushes (1984)

The second album from this German band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of sitar, keyboards, piano, drums, percussions, bass, harpsichord, strings, organ, saxophone and English vocals.

I was not overly impressed by their 1982 debut album Running To Paradise. An album in the symphonic prog genre.

Two years later, Sirius released their second and final album. There was no label interested in this album so it was released by the band on their own. Which accounts for the pretty poor sound.....

The band is still firmly rooted in the symphonic prog genre. But with some nuances....

The band has listened a lot to Genesis. That comes across clear and loud. But there is also some pomp pop here and some Supertramp associations. The pop here is overblown and not helped by the pretty poor vocals.

The vocals is thin and overly theatrical. It is like listening to a drowning cow.... the final moments. The music, which is mostly performed with keyboards and piano, is wrapped around these vocals.

That is what we can deem as a stern test for a reviewer like myself or any other listener to this album. It does not help that there are no good songs here. OK, this forty-four minutes long album has it's good moments. But not many enough. The sound is also a bit of a music-killer.

This is barely a decent album and only that. Handle it with care if you can find this album.

2 points
    

Syd Arthur - Apricity (2016)

The third album from this British band.

Syd Arthur is a quartet with a lineup of mandolin, violin, bass, drums, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

This band is one of the new stars in the progressive rock and rock scene. The name "Syd" sounds like a reference to Syd Barret and the 1960s Pink Floyd era.

When listening to this album, the Syd Barret and Pink Floyd influences is somewhat obvious. From what I gather, these influences was far stronger on the previous two albums. I am purchasing......

The band has, according to ProgArchives, gone in a much more commercial direction on this album. There is indeed a lot of indie and pop music on this album. Though with a psychedelia edge.

The best song here is Sun Rays. A great song which would appeal to everyone into indie and the likes of Coldplay. I guess this was some kind of a hitsingle for the band too. Should have been.

Despite of being quite pop influenced, this is quite a charming forty odd minutes long album. It is not overly technical and not every songs here are good. But I like this album and have been won over despite of my dislike of both indie and pop music. Check out this album. ....And the hype is pretty much justified when it comes to this band.

3 points

 

Metamorfosi - Paradiso (2004)

The third album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet on this album with a lineup of flute, keyboards, piano, bass, drums, classical guitar and Italian vocals.

This Italian band was active in the 1970s with their debut album E Fu Il Sesto Giorno released in 1972 and the follow up album Inferno released in 1973. I have reviewed both of them here and here.

Then the band were silent for over 30 years before they returned with Paradiso and later the 2016 album Purgatorio. Both to be reviewed here/see the review of Purgatorio somewhere else in this blog.

I really liked both E Fu Il Sesto Giorno and Inferno very much. Classic Italian symphonic progressive rock... RPI. I am therefore delighted to welcome Paradiso (and Purgatorio) into my collection of RPI albums.

The band continues on from Inferno on this album. Davide Spitaleri does a superb job on the vocals. His operatic vocals is on the top of some classic, classic RPI. Banco and PFM is great references here. Ditto for ELP.

The music is operatic, almost gothic RPI. There are a lot of classical music 'ish music here. The superb vocals adds opera to the music which is classic RPI.

There is no great songs here. Nevertheless, this fifty minutes long album will send all RPI fans (like myself) into a fit of immense pleasure. But being a reviewer and not so passionate one too, I can only give this a very good rating.

3.5 points

Vander. Christian - Les Cygnes et Les Corbeaux (2001)

The sixth solo album from this French legend.

This album is a duo of Christian and Stella Vander, husband and wife. The lineup is piano, keyboards and lots of lots of vocals performed by both Stella, Christian and numerous other guest vocalists and choirs.

Both Christian and Stella Vander is off course leading members of Magma, this legendary zeuhl band. Christian Vander has been in Magma from the beginning while Stella has been a leading vocalist in the reformed Magma.

So we are getting a Magma album here with tonnes of drums and rhythms ?

Wrong.

There is no drums here and there is no machine or instruments driven rhythms here. This album is what you get if you strip down Magma to the bare vocals. And that takes a lot of efforts.

The end result is a zeuhl album. But not as we know it. The only reference I can come up with is Shub Niggurath. But this one hour long album is pretty unique. It is like zeuhl meets up with the choral music genre.

And it is a very touching album indeed. Not to mention an album which proves that zeuhl also works when stripped down to the bare essentials.

This is indeed an eye-opening album. There is no great tracks here. But most of the album is pretty fascinating and well worth checking out. Fans of Magma needs this album as much as a camel needs water once in a while.

This is indeed a very good album. Just when I thought I had heard everything, this album pops up.....

3.5 points

Red Jasper - A Winter's Tale (1994)

The third album from this English band.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of thin flute, mandolin, guitars, bass, drums, percussions, bodbran, keyboards and vocals.

I was very happy about my first ever meeting with the band, their second album A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1993. A good album, indeed.

Red Jasper has never really had their breakthrough. Which is a bit strange as they have released some albums with music somewhere between Jethro Tull and Marillion.

The band follows the same road as they set out on in the previous album, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

That means a good blend of neo-prog with some rock and a lot of folk rock. Even some folk music with the thin whistles and mandolin.

The sound is very comfortable and cosy on the ears. The vocals is really good here and the other members are doing a good job too. The only thing missing is a great piece of music or even a great song. That aside....

This is indeed a good album from a good, overlooked band.

3 points

Peter Pan - Days (2007)

The one and only album from this Polish band.

This band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.

It is my understanding that this is a sort of a Polish supergroup with members from Satellite and other notable bands from Poland.

It was also always meant as a one-off project, just to record these songs. Which is a good thing for those of us into this kind of music.

"This kind of music" means neo-prog. Polish neo-prog. Yes, that may be a genre too. Or maybe not. The music here is neo-prog with a lot of progressive metal influences.

Take one slice of Satellite and add some progressive metal. Then add some catchy, groovy rock too and you get this album.

The sound is very fresh. This forty minutes long album is indeed a very refreshing album. The prog metal is just adding nice colours to this album. I am not a fan of prog metal, but I like the prog metal on this album.

The basis is neo-prog though and this is a neo-prog album. The vocals are not the best. But they are still good and does not harm this album.

The end result is a very refreshing album with some very good songs. My only gripe with this album is the lack of any great songs. But this is still a very good album. It is recommended.

3.5 points
 

Kerrs Pink - Mellom Oss (1981)

The second album from this Norwegian band.

The band on the CD version I have got was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, flutes, bass, drums and Norwegian vocals. A female singer is adding some vocals on one track and another musician is adding some viola too.

The band was a bit unstable at this time so the people involved is different between the LP version and the re-recorded CD version. A bit strange, but I am sure the band had their reasons to do so. Good reasons.

I was not entirely impressed by their 1980 self-titled debut album. A bit woeful and lacking in quality. So the band tries again.......

This is a bit of a strange album. The Camel influences is still here. But you can also add some punk, reggae, pub rock, a lot of symphonic prog, some Norwegian/Scandinavian folk rock and a lot of what were later to be known as Scandinavian symphonic prog. This is some weird fifty-four minutes.

The big epic here is the seventeen minutes long Mens Tiden Forgår. A folk music and folk hymn/dirge tinged sort of symphonic prog. And it is a pretty anonymouse epic too. There are some very good guitars here, though.

The other tracks is also lacking a bit in quality. It is indeed a weird album. Melodic, but weird. The punk and reggae in the beginning of this album makes this an art-rock album.

The vocals are not that good. The guitars are really good and the band should build on them. I hope they have as I am about the review their remaining four albums too.

I am still not won over by these Norwegians and this album. I have tried, but I have failed. Hence my verdict.

2.5 points

Lands End - Natural Selection (1997)

The fourth album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, synths and male vocals.

I was not overwhelming impressed by this band's debut album Pacific Coast Highway from 1994. I have therefore bypassed their 1995 and 1996 albums before landing on this album, Natural Selection.

The first thing I notice is that the album is seventy-four minutes long. I have noticed that during every listening sessions with this album. The title track is exactly half an hour long and is closing this album.

The band is listed as a psychedelic band most places. This album is rather encroaching on the neo-prog territory. But there is no denying that Pink Floyd is a main influence on their music and sound.

The sound is very much the 1990s sound, but not so bad that it sounds awful and dated. The sound is actually very good.

The music on this album does speak loud and in big letters. The music is rather understated and it demands a lot from the listener. Listeners who may give up after the first two listening sessions and declare it as a boring album.

It has to be said that I have heard far more livelier and exciting music than what this album is offering. It is indeed a bit of a dull album. That said, this is a rather good album. It has a lot of longviety and a lot of hidden gems. Hence my verdict.

3 points

Vampires of Dartmoore - Dracula's Music Cabinet (1969)

The one and only album from this German band.

The Vampires Of Dartmoore was a duo of Heribert Thusek and Horst Ackermann. They did all instruments here. They are from what I can detect drums, bass, organs, voices, guitars and some woodwinds.

There are also a lot of other sounds here which I would describe as movie soundtrack outtakes.  

The krautrock scene has given us some strange albums. This is probably the strangest one of them all.

Take some horror movie soundtracks and fuse them with some cheesy adult/porn-movies soundtracks. Then you add a lot of lounge jazz too and you get this album.

This is obviously a novelty album with a very limited scope and entertainment value. There is no musical value here.

In short, this is a turkey, best avoided altogether.

Enough said.

1 point

Styx - Pieces of Eight (1978)

The eight album from this US band.

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

I am no fan of this band so I am not sure about this Styx'mythology/history. But I guess this lineup and bandmembers is the alltime classic Styx. The one that made this band a million albums and sold out arenas selling band.

The band continues on from the previous album The Grand Illusion on this album. And also from the previous albums Equinox and Crystal Ball. That means commercial AOR with some progressive rock leanings.

Anno 2017, the music sounds dated. But that does not mean it has lost any of it's quality. The album cover is slightly cheesy. The music is a lot cheesier.

There is a lot of teenybop rock in their music. A lot of bombastic pomp and prog rock too. But I guess pomp rock is the best label here. That and AOR.

The music is fairly hard with a lot of Queen'esque choirs and melody lines. Queen was a lot more elegant, stylish and classy, though. Styx sounds like five American brats compare to Queen. 

Styx has been a real cheese-fest on their previous three albums and the party continues on this album. A lot of choruses and verses which really sticks to my mind. But not long enough. The quality is not here and this album is a slight mistake in their discography. I rate it somewhere between decent and good.

2.5 points



    

Rikk Eccent - Owlawol (2016)

The second album from this Finnish band.

Rikk Eccent is a one man band with Kimmo Salmela playing drums, bass, keyboard, guitars and all vocals (English vocals) on this album. He has got some help from two others on bits and pieces.

I reviewed the 2013 debut album The Garden Of Delights in # 1 of this blog back in January 2014. An album I liked and rated as very good.

So I had high hopes for this album.

Kimmo Salmela is very much going down the classic rock route again. There are clear references to Bad Company again and numerous others classic rock bands.

A one man band is always lacking in artistic control as in two or more heads thinks better than one head. The playing here is also a bit sparse where Kimmo is not exactly doing fills and adding colours with the guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. The music is lacking a lot in the imagination field.

The classic rock genre is really good when it sounds and feel fresh. The debut album from Rikk Eccent is a good example.

The second album, the one I am now reviewing, does not feel fresh and full of energy. It sounds a bit stale to me. A lot lacking in imagination and good songs. This is a decent enough album. But just that. This is not an album for me. But I like the owl.

2 points

Valhalla - Valhalla (1969)

The one and only album from this US band.

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

This band released one album and then disappeared again. It is one of the many bands with one album and then decades in obscurity. Make that, an eternity in obscurity. But thankfully, ProgArchives and Youtube has given this band some attention. Well deserved or not.

Released in 1969, this album is not fully prog rock. We are here talking a mix of psychedelia, hard rock and pop music. That means a lot of keyboards and guitars on the top of a solid rhythm duo.

Good references here are early Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge and Deep Purple. This album is not as hard rocking as the cover artwork tells you. The bark is worse than the bite.

This forty-four minute, a full length LP, offers up a nice nostalgic trip back to the flower-power era. Because this is really flower-power with some vikings images thrown into the mix.

This is not really a good album. It has a couple of good moments. But the music here tells you why this band never really made it past this album. It is an obscure album for a reason. A good reason.

Nevertheless, this is a decent album who everyone into the late 1960s psychedelia should check out.

2 points

Karmakanic - Who's The Boss In The Factory? (2008)

The third album from this Swedish band.

This band is the super-bassist Jonas Reingold's band and he had help from four other regular band members here on this album. The lineup was bass, drums, keyboards, percussion, guitars and vocals.

Lots of guest musicians added their voices and sounds too. Most notable guests are Theo Travis, Roine Stolt, Andy Tillison and Tomas Bodin. The Tangent and The Flower Kings is the backbone of both this band and this album.

Karmakanic is a band who has never really impressed me. Their music has until this album been a funky pop-rock version of The Flower Kings and Swedish symphonic prog. A sure way of turning me off this band and their albums.

Who's The Boss In The Factory is a different kettle of fish, though. The band has moved a lot closer towards both The Tangent and The Flower Kings in both their sound and in their music.

The opening track Send A Message From The Heart is twenty minutes long and is a proof that this is a Karmakanic album well worth checking out to a sceptic like myself. So I am listening...... A lot.

The opening track and most other tracks on this fifty-five minutes long album is bombastic and throws hand-grenades in all directions. But this album ends with the two pieces, seven minutes long suite Eternally. A pretty pastoral suite and a contrast to the rest of this symphonic, bombastic album.

The end result is a very good album well worth checking out as it is one of the better Swedish symphonic prog albums out there. I never thought I would say that about a Karmakanic album......

3.5 points

Gypsy - Gypsy (1970)

The debut album from this US band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, percussions and male vocals.
One guest musician did the strings arrangements too.

Gypsy was a US band who altogether released five albums with moderate success. But their first two albums were all colourful to say at least.

This album were a double LP, sixty-six minutes long. A very brave step for a debut album. The first three sides of this double LP is devoted to short'ish tracks. They were on average four minutes long. Which was not really that short in 1970 where the three minutes barrier were a real thing for the radio and jukeboxes.

Their music is a mix of commercial pop, Crosby Stills & Nash, Santana, psychedelia and progressive rock. There is plenty of latino rhythms here and there is plenty of interesting details. There is also commercial pop anno 1970 here too. But no real hit songs and no real cringeworthy moments. This despite of some songs being too rich with sugar.

The strings also adds a lot of cheese to this album. The album is a bit dated. Then again, it sounds fine and relevant anno 2017.

The end result is actually a good album with lots of interesting details and melodies inbetween the cheese and sugar. It is an album I have found enjoyable. Check it out.

3 points

 

Tempest - Tempest (1973)

The debut album from this British band.

Tempest was a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, guitars, violins and vocals.

Tempest was the band Jon Hiseman put together after the split of Colosseum and before this band re-started again as Colosseum II. He brought in Allan Holdsworth on guitars, Mark Clarke on bass and Paul Williams on vocals.

The band was rather shortlived with two albums. Albums who has got a bit of a legend status decades after their release.

It is clearly that Jon Hiseman did not leave the Colosseum sound behind him when he started Tempest. That band is pretty evident here.

That means bluesy jazzy hard rock with a lot of progressive and folk rock influences. Paul Williams's vocals is very raw and soulful. There is indeed a lot of soul on this album and that is only because of his vocals.

Allan Holdsworth is not let of the leash here. This is therefore no guitar album. He is pretty good on violin though. But his guitar playing is also very good. Jon Hiseman is very good on the drums.

The emphasis is on the melodies here. Raw and soulful melodies. And the result is a good album. One of the more interesting hard rock albums I have heard for a while. Allan Holdsworth has just passed away and this album proves what a team-player he was too in addition to being a guitar-god.

3 points

  

Cobham. Billy - Spectrum (1973)

The debut album from this US drummer.

This album was recorded by nine musicians with a lineup of drums, congas, guitars, bass, woodwinds, flutes, moog and piano.

Billy Cobham is another jazz musician who broke into prog rock and fusion after playing on the classic and groundbreaking Miles Davis album Bitches Brew. He also played in Mahavishnu Orchestra too. Altogether some great albums. Before joining up with Miles Davis, he also played drums for several trad. jazz musicians.

Spectrum is an album very much influenced by Mr. Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was very much influenced by his earlier work, in other words.

The later (and rather tragic heroin overdose victim) Deep Purple guitarist Tommy Bolin does the guitars and Jan Hammer does the keyboards. Tommy Bolin's guitars here is far better than on the Deep Purple albums he can be found. Billy Cobham's drums is also from another planet. So great are they.

The music is fusion with some Latin-American influences. And the music is great throughout. It is really a fusion-fest and one to really enjoy.... and admire !

Check out this great album.

4 points 

Osanna - Palepolitana (2015)

The eight album from this Italian band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, harmonica, mellotron and Italian vocals from Lino Vairetti.

My review is of the new material here, CD 1 of this double CD album. CD 2 is a re-recording of Palepoli.

The band released their first album back in 1971. Their so far final album is this album from 2015. That says a lot about this band who has also had a lot of pauses and splitups along the way. I am not really a big fan of this album as I feel the quality has not been up there among the best RPI bands.

The band has left behind them the complex, challenging music from their first albums. Palepolitana is a thirty-eight minutes romp through a pop-rock landscape. Italian pop-rock with a lot of fast, but not heavy songs too. Italo pop springs to mind. Angelo Branduardi also springs to mind.

Palepolitana is a cosy album with some really good vocals and some cosy melodies. It is not particular rich in substance. Fans of early Osanna will despair. I am a bit ambient about it all. We all grow old and graceful. This is an album from people who has grown old and graceful. This is a decent album which does not invite to many replays.

2 points

Kaputter Hamster - Kaputter Hamster (1974)

The one and only album from this German band.

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

The Krautrock scene has given us a lot of weird and wonderful bands and albums. It has also given us a lot of weird and.......well, just weird albums.

There is a lot of one-albums bands in this scene. Some very obscure albums only the bands and ProgArchives knows about.

I really like the band name a lot. A nice addition to this blog ! The music is also a bit weird....

Take the Amon Duul albums and mix them with the first Amon Duul II albums. Then you get this album. There are some mindless jamming in the beginning of this album who does nothing for me.
The first half of this album is rather dull and uninteresting.

The second half of this forty minutes long album is far more interesting with a lot more well crafted song structures.

The pointless drum solo in the middle of this album is just annoying and is breaking up a pretty good melody structures.

The end result is a decent album who is well sought after on the second hand market, but still pretty low on substance. I am not won over... But the band name is great !

2 points