Tuesday 31 July 2018

Wobbler - Hinterland (2005)


The debut album from this Norwegian band.

Wobbler was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, clavinet, mellotron, minimoog, harpsichord, grand piano, saxophones, drums, percussion, glockenspiel and vocals.
The band had help from guest musicians providing flutes, percussion, baroque guitar and backing vocals.

Wobbler is one of the leading lights in the Norwegian prog rock scene and with good reasons. This is one of the albums who re-started and kicked the Norwegian prog rock scene into life again.

I have reviewed their second and third album for Progarchives. I liked those two albums, Afterglow (2009) and Rites At Dawn (2011) a lot. I have also got their 2017 album and will review it very soon too.

Hinterland is a mix of Swedish symphonic prog rock (Kaipa etc etc), folk rock and symphonic prog. The band has also incorporated the Norwegian symphonic prog rock sound from the 1970s and the 1980s into this album. This album is in that respect a bridge between the old and the new scene.

The music is pretty big and complex on this one hour long album. There is some King Crimson references in the music and a lot of strange and wonderful time-shifts.

The melodies are also pretty strange. Strange and captivating.

The overall quality is very good throughout this album. It is an album still relevant today and one who still deserves to be played.......... a lot.

3.5 points

Paradox Twin. The - The Importance of Mr Bedlam (2018)


The debut album from this British band.

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

The band comes from the White Star Records family of bands and the band has got help from most members of that family. Which is a good thing.

We are again in neo-prog land. There is a lot of art-rock and some symphonic prog in their music too.

The music is pretty muscular and beefy without really being hard rocking. The music is firmly also planted in neo-prog and showcases a more modern take on this genre than plainly sticking to the formula laid down by Pendragon, Arena and Marillion.

The songs are both long and well crafted. The album is just over fifty minutes and never outstays it's welcome on my record player.

My only gripe is the lack of any great songs. Besides of these gripes, this album is a good album and one that pleases a neo-prog fan.

3 points


Monday 30 July 2018

Kentish Spires. The - The Last Harvest (2018)


The debut album from this British band.

The Kentish Spires is a sextet with a lineup of woodwinds, bass, guitars, synths, keyboards, drums, Hammond organ and vocals. Female vocals, that is.

This new band gives us a heady mix of various progressive sub genres... And what a mix.

The band has attached themselves to the Canterbury prog scene in their own musings on their Bandcamp site. And the band is loosely speaking a Canterbury prog band.

The album starts though with an eleven minutes long song which takes the band solidly into the latter days Pink Floyd territory. Wailing vocals and a lot of the sound from the Momentary Lapse Of Reason album. That is not Canterbury prog... but it is a good song.

We also get some neo-prog, psychedelia, some symphonic prog, folk rock, pop music and symphonic prog here.

This album has one heck of a mix of genres. But there is method in this slightly madness. There is individual songs here with good vocals and a band who sounds tight and well rehearsed. There are a lot of interesting details.

This album sounds a bit confused at times. Nevertheless, it is a good album and one debut album which makes me ask for more from this band. A lot more !

3 points


Sunday 29 July 2018

Izz - Sliver Of A Sun (1999)


The debut album from this New York, USA band.

Izz was a quintet with a lineup of percussion, drums, piccolo, bass, guitars, synths, piano and vocals.
The band had help from three guest musicians who provided guitars, flute and female vocals.

This band has so far released eight albums and I got a handful of them. Albums up for reviews these days and weeks.

Sliver Of A Sun is an album with many different influences and styles.

It is pretty easy to hear that the band is from New York. It has this bohemian style, this album. There is also some folk, AOR and progressive rock here. The progressive rock is a mix of neo and symphonic prog.

The sound and music is light and airy. It is not heavy music at all.

There is a lot of light guitars, vocals and synths here. The music is not meaty and bombastic at all.

It is a debut album and there is a lot of ideas tried out here. Most of them are not working that well.

This is another decent to good debut album. It shows some promise and that is all.

2.5 points




Shuttah - The Image Maker vol. 1 & 2 (1971)


The one and only album from this English band.

Shuttah is a band where noone seems to know the names of the contributors and how many members the band had at all. Their music and this album is still highly rated, though.
The lineup seems to be, our sounds like, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, guitars, organs, piano and vocals.

The music on this one hour long album is a mix of beat music, English psych rock and German krautrock. There is also a lot of west coast psych and space rock influences here too.

This one hour long album gives us some weird music and some beat like psych rock too. References are at times Gong and other Canterbury prog bands like Caravan.

But Shuttah and this album has it's own style and universe.

The music is free flowing and full of mischief. It is also very playful.

There is not much greatness here. The band had problems writing some really great songs. And there are also some substandard stuff here. Nevertheless, this is a decent album well worth checking out.

2 points




Saturday 28 July 2018

Fritsch. Eloy - Space Music (1998)


The third album from this Brazilian artist.

Eloy Fritsch plays keyboards and synths here. Which is all the instruments there are, including with samples of drums and bass.

This artist is also a member of the symph prog band Apocalypse from Brazil where he also plays keyboards. A busy man in other words.

I reviewed his second album Behind The Walls Of Imagination (1997) some weeks ago and you can read my review here. More reviews of his albums is also coming up.

I am not a big fan of instrumental keyboards and synth music. Or in this case; instrumental synths and keyboards symphonic prog. I find it too one-dimensional even for my liking.

And so that also goes for this album. It is a pretty one-dimensional album with keyboards and synth doing everything. It has this plastic feeling I am not really enjoying.

Space Music is though a pretty interesting album with several mood changes and a lot of space rock influences. The music and the space rock is very pretty and tame. But there is still some space rock here. That in addition to the symphonic prog.

This is not a bad album at all. It is a decent to good album which has something going for it. I am still not converted, though.....

2.5 points


Wind - Seasons (1971)


The debut album from this German band.

Wind was a quintet with a lineup of piano, clavinet, drums, bass, vibraphone, organ, guitars, harmonica and vocals.

The band released two albums before they gave up the ghost. Two albums who has given the band a semi-classic band status.

We are again back in the krautrock land. Krautrock with some strong symphonic prog, blues and hard rock influences.

There are five pretty hard rocking songs here and a fifteen minutes long blues-ballad and electronica piece here. Altogether forty-two minutes is what we get here.

The sound is the typical 1970s and the music based on guitars and organs. The vocals are really good too.

This is an enjoyable album and I guess this band's good reputation is based on this album and this album alone. It is indeed a good album.

3 points






Friday 27 July 2018

Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971)


The second album from this US band.

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

I very much liked their debut album Climbing from 1970 and you can read my review here.

So I was looking forward to this album. The title track was a big hit too, from what I have heard. And it is indeed a very good track with some very intricate chords and melody lines which is simply progressive rock.

The rest of the album is more like a mix of hard rock, rock, blues and psych rock. There is no more progressive rock in these songs. They are though pretty complex songs.

There is also a great Americana feel over this album. It is indeed made in USA and very typical American. 

This album is forty minutes plus long and it has some good music. Well, most of the songs are good here. The title track is the best one here and a track I would like to spend a lot more time with. Check out this album.

3 points




Thursday 26 July 2018

Popol Vuh - In Den Gärten Pharaos (1971)


The second album from this German band.

Popol Vuh was a quartet with a lineup of cymbals, percussion, moog, fender rhodes and medieval organ.

I reviewed their 1970 debut album Affenstunde many years ago and hated that album. I was not a fan of electronic music and I am still not a big fan of this type of music. This type of krautrock, that is.

I have though decided to give this band a second chance by reviewing the remaining Popol Vuh albums I own.

The band is still a electronica band on this album. An album with two instrumental electronic pieces.

And the music is not bad at all. I find myself quite enjoying both pieces of music. There are actually some good going here with old organs and moog.

The music is not overly interesting. But the band is onto something and I may have to check out this genre some more. A genre I am now avoiding at all cost.

This is in my estimation not a good album. But it is still somewhere between decent and good. Check it out.

2.5 points

Shadow Theory. The - Behind the Black Veil (2010)


The one and only album from this multi-national project.

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

This project had members from Pain Of Salvation, Threshold and Dead Soul Tribe and Psychotic Waltz.

This was a progressive metal super project which combined the best from these bands. And there is indeed a lot of Threshold influences here. I am not that familiar with those other bands, though.

The music is really hard with some death metal grunts too in this music. There is also some power metal here and a lot of German power metal.

This album is almost one hour long and I have been told it is a gem for prog metal fans. I am not a fan of this genre and it is rare that I review prog metal albums.

I do not find most of this album that interesting and it is full of the usual power and prog metal cliches. Hence, I am not that impressed.

This is a decent album and that is it.

2 points



Wednesday 25 July 2018

Phideaux - Number Seven (2009)


The eight album from this US band.

Phideaux was a ten members big band on this album with a lineup of percussion, violin, piano, guitars, saxophone, keyboards, bass, drums and vocals. Both male and female vocals.

I have reviewed their seven first albums and have found a bit of a mixed bag. On some albums, this band has been a singer/songwriter album with Phideaux Xavier doing most of the music. Other albums has been more like a big symphonic prog album.

Number Seven is in the symphonic prog genre.

Take symphonic prog, add some americana, neo-prog and a lot of Pink Floyd. This is when you get this one hour long album.

There is a lot of male and female vocals here. The sound is reasonably big, but not very big. The music is mostly done by keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. That in addition to the vocals.

The music is also very melodic with some melodramatic melodies.

The music is really both cool and good. It has a modern sound and really appeals to most into progressive rock. It is a good album indeed. Hence the rating.

3 points


Tuesday 24 July 2018

Wejah - Springtime (2006)


The third and final album from this band from Brazil.

Wejah was a quintet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, guitars, sequencers and English vocals.

I have not heard their debut album. I have heard and reviewed their second album and you can read my review here.

That album did not impress me in other words.

The band is back again and now in English.

That is not the only change here. They have also ditched their eclectic and sometime avant-garde rock. Ditched is also their folk rock influences.

What is left is some slick fusion and symphonic prog in the Genesis vein. The sound is very much British and there is no hints whatsoever that this band comes from Brazil.

The music is pretty good though and an improvement on theis second album Senda. Nevertheless, the music is slick and not particular interesting. Hence my verdict.

2.5 points




Monday 23 July 2018

Supertramp - Breakfast In America (1979)


The sixth album from this UK band.

Supertramp was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, saxophone, woodwinds, bass, harmonica, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

The band returned again after a couple of rather great albums. Albums that established this band as one of the great bands from the last part of the 1970s. In my view, a deserved position.

Breakfast In America is one of those iconic albums from the 1970s. It sold many millions of copies and also gave us the Paris live album too. One of the best ever live albums.

The music is again a mix if pomp rock, pop aka The Beatles and progressive rock. There are some rather fluffy, light pieces here like the title track. Light but still a great track. An iconic track, indeed.

There are also some very clever tracks with a lot of very interesting and great details.

This fifty minutes long album is a tour de force in proper 1970s pomp rock. It is an album which is unmissable, no matter musical preferences. It is indeed a great album.

4 points

Sunday 22 July 2018

Birth Control - Operation (1971)


The second album from this German band.

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

I very much liked their 1970 self-titled debut album and I wrote so in my review of this album which you can find here.

The band has moved on a bit from that album on this album they have called Operation.

Gone is most of the ELP influences and in comes a bit harder rock. Deep Purple must have been an inspiration on this album. There is still a lot of psych and blues rock here too.

The music on this forty minutes long album is hard, but also very clever. The vocals are really both raw and meaty. They are perfectly suited to their music.

There are also a couple of more pastoral songs here and not all of the music is hard rockers. The more pastoral songs are more in the Queen mode than pastoral, though. They do not add any extra quality to this album whatsoever. They actually makes this album worse after a very promising start and middle part of this album.

The end result is another good album from this band. A band I feel can become another great find in my pursuit for new/old music. Check it out.

3 points




Fifth Species - Life in the Punch Line (2018)


The debut album from this US band.

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

There is a lot of new bands and albums these days coming out of USA. A lot of them mixes indie and prog rock.

Life In The Punch Line is one of these albums.

Take indie rock, some jazz, some US college rock and some progressive rock. That is when you get this album.

There is a lot of both male and female vocals here. Mostly female vocals. The vocals is all good, both the male and female vocals.

The music is very modern sounding with a lot of summery feelings. It has this light, sparkling sound and ambience.

There is a lot of guitars and keyboards here which drives the music on this forty-five minutes long album forward.

This is an album with some really good melodies and some even more interesting details. Check out this album.

3 points


Senogul - III (2011)


The third album from this Spanish band.

Senogul was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, minimoog, keyboards, percussion and some Spanish vocals.
They had help from numerous guest musicians who provided woodwinds, synths, drums and percussion.

I reviewed their 2007 self-titled debut album for # 1 of this blog back in June 2015. You can read this review here.

Senogul gives us fifty minutes of mostly instrumental music. There is one short vocal track here and that is all.

Their music is a mix of jazz and King Crimson like eclectic prog. There is also some Spanish folk rock influences here and some symphonic prog influences.

The music is pretty dark and brooding throughout.

The music is also melodic and contains a lot of interesting details and twists. There is a lot of twists and turns on this album.

This is indeed a good album which will appeal to every eclectic prog and jazz fan out there. This is also the last sign of life from this band but I hope we will hear some more from this band.

3 points




Saturday 21 July 2018

Jaivas. Los - La Ventana (1972)


The second album from this band from Chile.

Los Jaivas was a quintet on this album with a lineup of congas, charango, bass, guitars, tarka, tamborines, maracas, triangle, piano, castanets, organ, drums, percussion and Spanish vocals.
The band also had help from numerous other musicians who provided strings, chamber orchestra, woodwinds, choirs and other vocals.

I did not rate their debut album particular highly. It is almost a turkey. You can read this review somewhere else in this blog. The band has some talents though and they are both popular and highly rated.

The music on this album is a mix of Latin pop music and folk music. There are some acid folk rock here too.

This forty minutes long album is both flowery and exotic. It has a lot of flutes and some choirs like vocals. It also has a lot of other instruments too.

The music is too pop music orientated for my liking. There is not much interesting, music wise on this album either.

This album is a small improvement on their debut album. But I am still not rating this album particular highly. It is barely a half-decent album.

1.5 points




RanestRane - Starchild (2018)


The fifth album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, guitars, bass, keyboards and Italian vocals.
Steve Rothery and Steve Hogarth from Marillion helped out on guitars and narration.

I have reviewed their first two albums for ProgArchives and # 1 of this blog. I liked these albums a lot. I have not had the chance to hear the intervening two albums. 

The band is one of the more newer RPI bands. Rock Progressive Italiano in other words. They have a modern sound and their gigs is a mix of movie and stage events. Big events, indeed.

The music on this album is a mix of classic RPI from the 1970s and Pink Floyd. At times, they very much sounds like Pink Floyd from their the Momentary Lapse Of Reason album.

That is not a bad thing as this mixes up the melodic RPI on this album. RPI with some very strong vocals.

These fifty minutes are at times a joy to behold. It is also a reminder that I may have to get their third and fourth album too......

This is indeed a very good album and a timely reminder how good RanestRane and RPI really is.

3.5 points




Water Into Wine Band - Harvest Time (1976)


The second album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, violin, pianos, bongos and vocals.

The band debuted in 1974 with their Hill Climbing For Beginners album. A pretty good acid folk rock album. You can read my review here.

The band operated in the Christian Jesus revolution scene in the 1970s and their debut album made some waves in that scene and in the secular folk rock scene too.

Their US tour was a disaster and the band did not recover from that heavy blow. The remnants gathered for the final time and released Harvest Time. It is the final sign of life from this band.

The music here is guitars, vocals and violin dominated folk music. There is no prog and hardly any rock either here.

The violins are dominant here and adds some good stuff to this album. An album without any real good songs. A forty minutes long album.

This is a decent enough album but just that. I am not impressed by this album. It may appeal to the folk rock fan out there.

2 points

Friday 20 July 2018

Iron Butterfly - Metamorphosis (1970)


The fourth album from this US band.

Iron Butterfly was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, organ and vocals.
The band also had help from two extra musicians who provided sitar and guitars.

The band became a big name band with their In A Gadda Da Vida multi million selling album. They were a big band in 1970 too. At least among US bands.

Their music was always pretty hard rocking with as lot of psych and blues rock.

This thirty-six minutes long album is no exception from this rule.

We get a good dash of hard rock here with some pretty evident blues and psych rock influences. There are also some progressive rock influences here.

The music is hard rocking with powerful vocals, guitars and drums. But there is also some melodies and harmonies here. Enough to make this an interesting album.

The end result is a good album which should satisfy everyone into hard 1970s rock. Fans of prog rock should also check out this album. It comes recommended.

3 points



Thursday 19 July 2018

He Chameleon - Humanity 2​.​0 (2018)


The debut album from this one man band from Switzerland.

He Chameleon is the creation of Mr. Fred Chappuis who does everything with some help from four other musicians.

The music on this album is neo-prog. Neo-prog in the German tradition.

The music is melodic and based on guitars, keyboards, drums, bass and vocals.

The vocals are good and adequate for this music. There is a lot of both acoustic and electric guitars here too.

The music is mid-tempo and never really hard. There is also some spoken words here.

The title track is eighteen minutes long and is closing this album. A pretty good epic it is too. That epic covers half of this album too.

I find the music too uncomplicated and lacking in any dept and substance. That is my gripe with this album. An album which will appeal to those who likes their neo-prog pretty poppy..... Although the title track will give them some problems.

The end result is somewhere between decent and good. Check it out.

2.5 points


Wednesday 18 July 2018

Semente - Semente (1999)


The debut album from this Brazilian band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of mellotron, bass, drums, guitars, moog, flutes, organ, saxophone, piano and vocals.

The vocals are in Portoguese and they are mostly female vocals.

The band released their second album last year and they have also released a live album too.

Their music is a nice blend of Brazilian symphonic prog, folk rock and psychedelic rock. The sound and music is very much Brazilian and goes back to the 1970s and the local progressive bands from that era.

The vocals are good, although they are a bit of an acquired taste. The guitars too is a bit special.

The music is mid-tempo and pretty melodic. The album is forty minutes long and has some pretty long songs.

The quality is pretty good throughout. There is no outstanding tracks here. It is still an album well worth checking out if you are into Brazilian progressive rock and or symphonic prog.

3 points

Tuesday 10 July 2018

Wejah - Senda (1996)


The second album from this Brazilian band.

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

This band released three albums before they gave up the ghost and were disbanded. I will review their third album sometimes later in July this year.

The music is instrumental. It is regarded in the archives as eclectic prog.

It is indeed somewhat eclectic with a lot of symphonic prog, fusion, eclectic prog and some Univers Zero like avant-garde influences. The music is dark and gloomy.

There is a mix of keyboards and guitars solos here too. These two instruments are interacting very well.

There is not much interesting stuff on this one hour long album. Not at least compared to the many other albums who sounds like this album. There is a lot of instrumental prog albums around. Not at least in my album collection.

Nevertheless, this is a decent album. Check it out.

2 points

Monday 9 July 2018

Ancient Oak Consort - Hate War Love (2018)


The debut album from this Italian band.

The band is a duo with Stefano Ruscica on drums and Andrea Vaccarella on guitars.
They had help from guest musicians who provided bass, flutes, male and female vocals.

I have never heard about this band before. But there is a lot of new projects and bands coming out of Italy all the time. This is one of them.

The band has described their music as progressive rock. Well, it is not Rock Progressive Italiano (RPI). Neither is it symphonic prog. I doubt it is progressive rock at all.

The music is goth folk rock. That is the label I feel suits this album best.

There is plenty of female vocals here and some chugging metal guitars. There are also some more goth pastoral pieces. But not any progressive rock.

The music feels a bit cold and not so warm. A bit distant and detached. Gothic.

The duo and the vocalists does a good job on this seventeen songs, one hour long album. Songs which is not that interesting or any good.

This is a decent album and those into goth should check it out. I have some reservations...

2 points

Everon - North (2008)


The seventh and final album from this German band.

Everon was a quartet on this album with a lineup of piano, keyboards, bass, guitars, percussion, drums and vocals.
The band had help from a female vocalist, cello player and a classical orchestra.

I have reviewed their first six albums with great interest during the last months. You can read these reviews somewhere else in this blog.

Everon is a band who operated somewhere between Saga and Dream Theater. They were never really a progressive metal band. They were more a hard rock and pomp rock band. The English band Magnum springs to mind in that genre too.

The music on this album is both pomp and beautiful at times. In particular with the vocals from Judith Stuber. But the main vocals from Oliver Phillips is also very good and equally good.

The cello and the sympony orchestra also adds value to this album which is also pretty hard at times.
The good songs are the main focus here.

This is another good album from this German band who I hope will one day reform. Check out their albums.

3 points

Sunday 8 July 2018

Fritsch. Eloy - Behind The Walls Of Imagination (1997)


The second album from this Brazilian musician.

Eloy Fritsch plays keyboards and does all programming on this album.

Eloy is the founding member of the Brazilian band Apocalypse. I have reviewed many of their albums in this blog and in # 1 of this blog. I am now going to review a handful of Eloy Fritsch solo albums.

The music is driven by keyboards and programmed drums, piano, symphonic orchestra and bass. Which does not sound great on paper.

Down in the left corner on the cover art-work, you will find a good label for this music. New Age Progressive. Yes, I can agree with that one.

New Age Symphonic Prog to give it the right label, that is. There is a lot of classical music and symphonic prog with new ages themes here. Mostly new age themes.

The music on this one hour long album is decent enough. I have my severe reservations against this genre. The music though is decent enough. I have heard far worse new-age albums than this one. Hence the rating.

2 points






Morrigan. The - Hidden Agenda (2002)


The fifth and final album from this British band.

The Morrigan was a quintet with a lineup of recorders, keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, flute, percussion and vocals. Both male and female vocals.
A guest musician provides banjo and harp.

Their first four albums are some pretty good to very good. So much that this is a band I really like.

Hence, I was looking forward to this album.

I were in for a shock.

The album starts with some weird reggae sounding tones and continues with that and some indie pop like tones on the opening song Swallow's Tail. Is this really The Morrigan ? It is.

We then move into a much more familiar folk rock landscape again. Cathy Alexander's excellent vocals soon shows up to the party.

Then we get some more baroque symphonic prog and some rather weird indie rock and vaudeville rock in addition to some of the more familiar folk rock. There is even a folk pop ballad here, performed by Cathy Alexander. That is before the album is closed by some folk music jigs.

This a very ambitious album from this band. The music is everywhere and it is not easy to get where the band is going with this album. I have given up, to be honest.

There are some good stuff here and some not so good stuff on this one hour long album. I am a bit disappointed, I have to admit. Their Masque album from 1998 is still their best album. Hidden Agenda is not their finest hour.

2.5 points








Arena - Double Vision (2018)


The ninth album from this British band.

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

I have been following this band with great interest for many years. You can find my reviews of their first eight albums in both Progarchives and # 1 of this blog.

Arena is one of the best ever neo-prog band to come out of Great Britain.... and this planet. I think that is a view shared by most people into this genre.

Double Vision is an one hour long album.

The music is big, bold and pompous with layers of keyboards, backing vocals, guitars and vocals.

The first six songs are rather short. The final song The Legend Of Elijah Shade is an epic tale.... sorry, song and the best on this album. It is a great song. It is also twenty-three minutes long.

The end result is a very good album from one of the masters of the neo-prog genre. A must have album for fans of this genre and one also fans of symphonic prog and other progressive rock genres should also check out.

3.5 points




Saturday 7 July 2018

Seldon - Tutto A Memoria (2013)


The one and only album from this Italian band.... so far.

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

Their name has been taken from an Isaac Asimov series of novels. The band likes to promote his novels.

Their music is what we can describe as new, modern RPI. Rock Progressive Italiano. That means some sporadic harsh guitars among nice and gentle guitar harmonies. The keyboards are pretty much in the 1970s RPI genre. The vocals are pretty good.

The music is a bit harder than most of the RPI from the 1970s. It is still RPI with some ballads thrown into the mix too.

There is also some lyrical melodies here too. It is pretty obvious that this is RPI from this day and age.

The quality of the songs are good throughout. There is no great pieces of music. Neither is any of the music sub-standard on this one hour long album.

Check out this album if you are into RPI.

3 points
 

Mountain - Climbing (1970)


The debut album from this US band.

Mountain was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, piano, percussion, organ, mellotron and vocals.

The band is a legendary band. They even performed on Woodstock before they released this album. Their leader was Leslie West and he is still touring the Mountain material in addition to his own solo material.

I am doing some reviews of their albums this summer and is starting with this one. For those reviews, please check out the rest of this blog and the alphabetical index to the right.

The music on this album is hard blues with some hard rock. That is what they played throughout their career.

We are being treated to their hit single Mississippi Queen as the opening track. An uptempo, hard rocker with Leslie's raw guitars and vocals. It is a reasonably good song.

I am more happy with the rest of the album, though. The rest of this half an hour long album. There is a lot of melodic stuff here with some good harmonies and vocals.

The end result is a pretty good album. Barely a good album, but still a good album. Check it out.

3 points




Friday 6 July 2018

Water Into Wine Band - Hill Climbing for Beginners (1974)


The debut album from this British band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of bass, guitars, bongos, violin, piano and vocals.
The band had help from around ten guest musicians who provided drums, congas, tambourines, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, harp, violin, viola, cello and percussion.

The band was a part of the Christian Jesus revolution scene in the 1970s. A kind of an alternative to the stalinist extreme leftist scene at that time. The 1970s was a time for the marginal extremist movements. Water Into Wine Band was one of the many bands attached to one of these movements.

The music is acid folk rock. No less and no more.

The music is partly vocals focused with some instrumental parts too. A lot of them, too. Hence the list of the very many instruments involved here.

The lyrics are not overly Christian preaching in my opinion. Something that made the band flop in USA and the Christian scene there who wanted a lot of words but not so music as there is on this album.

That is their loss and our gain.

This forty minutes long album has some good things going for it and some not so good things. It is an album well worth checking out, though.

2.5 points


Thursday 5 July 2018

Alco Frisbass - Le Bateleur (2018)


The second album from this French band.

Alco Frisbass is a trio on this album with a lineup of synths, keyboards, bass, guitars, percussion, drums and programming.
Three other guest musicians, including Thierry Payssan from Minimum Vital, provides piano, cornet and guitars.

I reviewed their self-titled 2025 debut album back in June 2015 for # 1 of this blog. A very good album and you can read my review here

Alco Frisbass returns again with a new album and I am very pleased about that. They are now a trio. But that is mostly what has changed here.

We still get a very healthy mix of Canterbury prog, jazz, dark baroque symphonic prog and King Crimson like eclectic prog. There is even some hints of zeuhl and avant-garde here. Well, this album is pretty avant-garde.

It is also pretty playful where the band are in hot pursuit of the ideas and melody lines they comes up with here. And the result is some really memorable, eclectic stuff throughout this three quarters of an hour long album.

A very good album, it is indeed. This is what eclectic prog is and should be about. Check out this very good album.

3.5 points






Wednesday 4 July 2018

Strangefish - The Spotlight Effect (2018)


The third album from this British band.

Strangefish is a sextet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals. Both male and female vocals.

I have not had the chance to hear their 2003 debut album Full Scale or the follow up album Fortune Telling from 2006.

The band started out in 1989 and have has been on and off since then. Silence followed by sporadic activities, albums and then silence again.

The band plays neo-prog and has been and still is one of the wave of neo-prog bands who hit UK in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of them has released new albums this year.

The music is pretty gentle with both female and male vocals. Their neo-prog has a lot of rock and pop influences too. Even some musicals influences is pretty evident here.

The vocals are really good and the other musicians is also doing a good job.

There are no really outstanding tracks on this one hour long album. Which is a shame as this is a good album. It fits nicely into the neo-prog genre and is an album well worth checking out for all fans of this genre.

3 points

Phideaux - Doomsday Afternoon (2007)


The seventh album from this US band.

The band was a nine piece big band with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, lap steel guitars, Moog, Hammond organ, sampler, violin and vocals. Both male and female vocals.
The band also had help from guest musicians who provided a chamber symphonic orchestra, handclaps, guitars, dulcimer, flutes, synths and vocals.

Phideaux Xavier and friends had always been a project operating somewhere between neo-prog, symphonic prog and the singer/songwriter musical tradition.

On some albums, the project had been far more singer/songwriter than progressive rock. Which is not a very interesting type of music.

On Doomsday Afternoon, the project swings into the symphonic and neo-prog territory again.

There is lots of female and male vocals here. There is also a lot of keyboards and guitars here.
The music is pretty complex and bold. It is also symphonic prog. There is still some singer/songwriter stuff here. But not much.

What is lacking on this almost seventy minutes long album is a great track or two. Or a great piece of music. There is none. Nevertheless, this is a good album and one well worth checking out.

3 points



Tuesday 3 July 2018

Via Lumini - What Have We Done About Us (1995)


The second and final album from this Brazilian band.

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

The band was a rather short lived progressive rock band who came, did not win many fans and disappeared.
I really liked and still like their 1991 debut album Voos E Sonhos. Nice symphonic prog from Brazil with all the bells and whistles. You can read my review here.

There is a four years long break between these two albums. A lot has happened.

One of those things is the change of direction and sound. The band also changed language from their mother tongue to English. None of these changes are particular good.
There are a lot of keyboards, flutes, guitars and a rather weak sounding vocals here on this mid to slow tempo one hour long album. 

The album title What Have We Done About Us is a fitting one. The answer is a lot of wrong things.

The music is pretty much standard Anglo-British light-symphonic prog with both Genesis and soft-rock influences. Genesis from their Abacab era. All the Brazilian influences has gone, lost somewhere on route to England.

The result is a not so interesting album. A decent album, but nothing more than that. I am not impressed by this album.

2 points

  

Monday 2 July 2018

Sebas Honing - Songs Of Seas And Oceans (2014)


The third album from this Dutch band.

Sebas Honing is a guitarist and a vocalist. He has got help from some others on this album. Drums, bass and keyboards, I guess.

He is also into windmills, I read in his biography at his website. Me too like windmills as I believe this is the way forward to create power to, among other things, keep my house hot and with enough electricity to continue with this blog. But I guess his interest is more about the old windmills in Europe. Those with proper houses. I applaud his interest, though.

He is also a very good electric guitarist and knows how to write songs too.

Songs which is not guitar solos and ego maniac guitar hero stuff. The music is more in the vein of neo-prog.

Yes, there are guitars and guitar solos here. But this album is so much more than that. The vocals for example. Some really very good vocals.

The songs mixes between gentle pastoral pieces and more harder neo-prog songs. There is a nice mix here. The mood is also a mix of melancholy and happiness. The right mix.

This album is one hour long and it has some very good songs throughout. It is indeed one of the better Dutch neo-prog albums I have heard for some time. Check out this album !

3.5 points




Supertramp - Even In The Quietest Moments ... (1977)


The fifth album from this British band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, keyboards, saxophone, clarinet, melodica, bass, drums, percussion and vocals.
They had help from two guest musicians who did orchestral arrangements and programming.

I have had the joy of reviewing their first four albums. Albums who has shown a great deal of improvements. Albums who shows that I really like this band, 25 years after I heard their Paris live album for the first time and really became fascinated with that live album.

The band has by now established the Supertramp sound and genre. A genre and sound which blends in pomp rock and progressive rock. Maybe this should be called art-rock.

The music Supertramp gives us on this album is art. Pure art. Their music is also whimsical and quirky too.

The vocals is great and their use of saxophone and piano together is a joy to behold.

The opening track and massive hit-single Give A Little Bit is a false opening as it is whimsical. But it is still a very good song. The rest of the album is a tour de force with one great track following the other great track. Eight of them, to be precise.

Forty-three minutes long is this album and it is a great album indeed. An album that again rekindles my interest in this band. I am now becoming a fan of Supertramp....

4 points


Sunday 1 July 2018

Se Delan - Drifter (2016)


The second album from this English-Swedish duo.

Se Delan is a duo with Justin Greaves from Black Crippled Phoenix and Belinda Kordic. Belinda is from Sweden and Justin is from England.

Justin Greaves does all instruments, which is drums, bass, keyboards and guitars. Belinda Kordic does the vocals.

I reviewed their 2014 debut album The Fall back in April 2015 for # 1 of this blog and did not like that album much. You can read my review here.

Their music is minimalist rock with a lot of goth rock influences and...... well, this is minimalism goth rock.

The music is bleak and barren. Ditto for the very good vocals from Belinda Kordic too.

The guitars, vocals and some sporadic keyboards drives the music forward. Barely, that is. There is not much happening here on this forty-six minutes long album.

It is an improvement on the debut album. But this is still not a good album, I am afraid. Check out this album if it sound tempting to you. I am still not won over by this duo.

2.5 points 

 

Vega - Sol De Oscuridad (1981)


The third and final album from this Spanish band.

Vega was a quintet with a lineup of bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, woodwinds and Spanish vocals.

Their first two albums Andaluza and Jara were and still is great albums. They are also a fusion of Spanish folk music and jazz.

Unfortunate, the band, which is essentially the guitarist Thomas Vega, ditched the Spanish folk music on this album.

What we get here is fusion with some Latin-American rhythms and pop. OK, there is also some flamenco here. But the non-jazz bits here are Latin-American and not so much Spanish.

The fusion and jazz bits are pretty standard fare and is not really sparkling. This thirty-five minutes long album has some good guitars, keyboards and bass. That is mostly all it got.

This is a big letdown from their first two albums. It is decent enough, but this band could do a lot better.

2 points


Starfish64 - The Future In Reverse (2018)


The seventh album from this German band.

Starfish64 is a sextet with a lineup of mandolin, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.

This is my first meeting with this band and their music. I have not heard their six first albums and their numerous EPs. They are all Bandcamp and CD releases so I should have heard about them. My bad !

Their music is based on neo-prog. Neo-prog with a lot of indie and college rock influences. There is also a lot of Pink Floyd, RPWL and mid 1990s Rush influences here. There is also some west-coast and folk rock influences here.

The music is floating around the vocals and is not particular heavy. The music is pretty laid-back with some guitar solos and good vocals.

We get almost fifty minutes of their music on this album. And it is a good album without any weak tracks......... or any great tracks.

It is perhaps a good idea to check out this band. Both this album and their back-catalogue.

3 points