Stazione Delle Frequenze. La - Physis (2019)

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

I know next to nothing about this band. But with a front cover featuring the second highest/the most beautiful mountain in the world K2, they have got my attention.

This album starts out as a prog metal album before it mellows a lot after a while.

The emphasis is on a mix of Italian neo-prog and progressive metal.

The more neo-prog here is pretty melodic and has some references to the RPI scene in the 1970s.

The album is almost one hour long and it has a lot of old cliches and tricks. It is a pretty generic album. The vocals is really good though and the band is doing their best here in the landscape between Italian neo-prog and prog metal.

I am not entirely won over. Nevertheless, this is an album somewhere between decent and good. It is a good debut though and only the future will tell us if it leads to more albums.

2.5 points

Glass Hammer - Chronomonaut (2018)

The 18th album from this US band.

Glass Hammer is a quartet with a lineup of bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and vocals. Both male and female vocals.
The band had help from some woodwinds, steel guitar, mandolin, xtra guitars, drums and vocals.

Glass Hammer is trustfully releasing albums on a regular basis. Albums in the US neo-prog/symphonic prog genre.

Their albums is always hit or miss albums. The quality varies slightly from album to album. They have yet to write and release their best album yet, I feel.

That is no criticism, btw. The band has a lot of talents and the listener is always safe with an album from this band. One of the better bands in the genre.

Symphonic US neo-prog with female vocals and some woodwinds is what we get on this seventy minutes long album. The sound is excellent and this album follows nicely on from their previous albums.

There is no great songs here and some of the songs are nice on the heart but does not offer much for the brain.

Nevertheless, this is another more than acceptable album from this band and a good album too. An album I will listen to again in years to come.

3 points
  

Nektar - Recycled (1975)

The sixth album from this British band.

Nektar was a quartet on this album with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, percussion and vocals.
The band had help from a Moog player and a choir.

Nektar had by now established themselves as an exciting and unpredictable band.

This album is another turn in the road of their career and creative output.

Take a lot of Yes, mix it up with Eloy and then with Genesis. This is where you find this album and Nektar.

The music is pretty big but still retains what I believe is the Nektar's core and DNA profile.

A lot of the music is lush with some strong South-American feel to it. Not as in South American folk rock or prog. Well, some prog. But Nektar is unmistaken British.

The songs on this almost forty minutes long album very good good idea. It lack this dot over the i. But that is a small gripe I got with this album.

This is a great album and well worth checking out. And finally, I have "got" this band.

4 points

Mesmerico - Magnete (2009)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

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

I got this album many years ago but did not really feel tempted to write a review there and then. The reason is the music genre. A music genre I am not a big fan of.

Mesmerico does a hardcore post-punk version of avant-garde/RIO.

This means off the wall riffs and melodies which sounds dissonant and is dissonant.

All of this with a punk sound. A hard core sound too.

There is a lot of guitars and bass here. Mostly bass, it has to be said. And some vocals.

The music is by no means easy on the ear and these forty minutes only sporadic comes up with some decent material.

This is not a totally flop of an album. But it is only a half-decent album I will never ever play again.

1.5 points

Kundalini Genie. The - You Are The Resurrection (2018)

The third album from this band from Glasgow, Scotland.

The band is really only a one-man project after Robbie Wilson got rid of the band after the first album and released two albums as a single artist but with the same name; The Kundalini Genie.
The lineup is guitars, drums, sitar, keyboards, drums and vocals. 

We are as you may gather somewhere in the psych/space rock territory here.

The music has a lot of Indian music influences too. But not as much as I expected. Add some of The Byrds too. Add a lot of early Pink Floyd. Add a lot of space rock too and some krautrock.

The music is rather distorted and fuzzy even on some very melodic songs. Which is an interesting experience for the listener.

The music is really melodic with a vocals very fittingly for the music a bit distorted in the background. The music is surprisingly funky and would work as a party music.... one or two songs in a party in a university.

Intellectual psychedelic rock/prog is the label that fits this forty-three minutes long album.

This is indeed a good album and a project I would like to check out more. Check out this album.

3 points

Galahad - Empires Never Last (2007)

The eight album from this British band.

Galahad was a quintet on this album with a lineup of keyboards, drums, percussion, bass, guitars and vocals.
Some guest musicians provided dulcimer, guitars and vocals.

Galahad is one of the classic bands from the British neo-prog scene. One of the founders, no less. They sounded like a cheap Genesis copy in the beginning. But their albums has been something else again. They have been from folk, electronica and to neo-prog.

Some very strange albums has been the result.

I remember I listened a lot to this album in the beginning of my prog rock awakening. So it is a surprise I never reviewed it for ProgArchives.

The album sets off like a black metal album in the vein of Emperor before the true album starts. Interesting start...... Karl Groom from Threshold is the producer of this album and that is proven throughout this album.

There is most definate some Threshold influences on this album. An one hour long album, which after the explosive start, settle down somewhere between classic neo-prog and some Threshold like prog metal.

Most of the songs has some sing along nice themes and hooks too. The title track has a folk rock feel.

This is a good album indeed and one of the better, if not the best from this band. It is a very good album, I have to correct myself to. One all fans of neo-prog should check out.

3.5 points

Superfjord - All Will Be Golden (2018)

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

I did not have the chance to hear their 2014 debut album so this is my first meeting with this band.

Finland has got some good psychedelia and space rock bands. Hidria Spacefolk and Circle is among those bands.

Superfjord can now be included too in this list of Finnish bands.

Their take on psychedelia and space rock has a lot of fusion influences. It is not particular outer space like. It is more like a trip to the moon or there around. There are indeed some early Pink Floyd in their music, yes.

There is a lot of dynamic music and some outer-space samples on this fifty minutes long album. That blended in with some pretty naive, quirky melodies and vocals.

There is not much vocals on this album, though. It has a nice, fine balance of bass, keyboards and guitars.

This is indeed an album which surprises me a lot and that in a good way. There is no killer tracks here and that is the only gripe I got with this charming album. Check it out.

3.5 points

 

Protomythos - Heavy Crowns (2019)

The second album from this band from Israel.

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

The band's 2013 debut album In Human Sight got a good reception in # 1 of this blog and in other blogs. But nothing was heard again from this band... before now.

The band gives us a pretty heavy take on progressive rock. Take Porcupine Tree and mix that with some neo-prog and 1970s hard prog like Rush.

Dysthopia is musical theme here and some of the music is both dark and dissonant.

The music is melodic throughout though. Sometimes harsh, but still melodic.

The vocals is really good and this album has some really good melodies.

This album does not really have this x-factor who would elevate this one hour long album to become something more than merely a good album.

Nevertheless, check it out.

3 points

Farmhouse Odyssey - Rise of the Waterfowl (2016)

The second and the latest album from this US band.

Farmhouse Odyssey was a quartet with a lineup of bass, keyboards, drums, guitars and vocals.

I very much liked their self-titled 2015 album. Urban symphonic prog.

And that is what we get here again from this New York band.

Greenwich Village like bohemian folk and pop-folk mixed with English symphonic prog. The bohemian world meets the apple orchards.

The music is pretty understated and pastoral. There is nothing of this big-is-better US symphonic prog here. There is some influences from the old US symphonic prog bands though.... Cathedral springs to mind here.

But most of it is pastoral and very nice indeed.

Several of the melodies and melody lines is bordering to eclectic too with a pretty eclectic prog sounding vocal on the top.

This is again a pretty remarkable album from this band. A band who has not got the attention it deserve.

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

3.5 points

Rishloo - Eidolon (2007)

The second album from this US band.

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

I reviewed their debut album last month in this blog and I will indeed review their final two albums too.

I was not impressed about their debut album as it was an experimental metal and grunge album. They are not genres I like. I tend to avoid them.

The label "crossover prog" in ProgArchives tempted me to give their four albums a try though.

Eidolon is just short of an hour full of experimental metal and grunge. There is still some Radiohead when the band slows down. It is a lot of death metal like music when the band speeds up. Which they do a lot here.

The music is experimental but does not really bring much quality to the table. The vocals are really good and the best thing about this album.

A decent enough album and only that.

2 points

Jaivas. Los - Hijos De La Tierra (1995)

The 11th album from this band from Chile.

The band were a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, local woodwinds, local percussion, local strings and Spanish vocals.
They got help from others who provided backing vocals.

The band has developed from a primitive sounding folk rock band to a more sophisticated prog rock and then towards becoming a more rock band.

This is the case on this album.

The band retains their DNA profile. A very very strong DNA profile rooted in folk music from South America.

Unfortunate, this album has this 1980s/1990s sound and that is a pretty bad sound. There are some plastic fantastic sounds pling plongs around. Something that is really annoying.
I am not so sure why we get heavy metal guitars and some more heavy metal here either.

The vocals are superb and the saving grace here. This on an album which varies between folk music and heavy metal.

I am not won over. It is still a decent to good album.

2.5 points

Sherpa - Tigris & Euphrates (2018)

The second album from this Italian band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.
The band had help from two other guest musicians who provided bass and keyboards.

I am not perhaps listening enough to slowcore, drones, doom and very slow psychedelic rock. There are a lot of very good bands and albums in this genre.

Sherpa has released two albums in that genre and I have just recently become aware of them.

Their music is doomy and slow. There are some drones and psych rock here too. There are a lot of post-rock influences too.

The music also has a lot of Indian and Asian feel too.

The music is a bit too simple and stripped down for it to really work as well as I had hoped it would do.

The music on this forty odd minutes long album is decent enough. But does not offer up much in the quality stake.

Check out this album if this kind of music is your cup of tea.

2 points

Melilotus - Dama (2016)

The debut album from this Spanish band.

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

The band writes in their Bandcamp page that this album is forty minutes of symphonic prog, cinema, concept album and 1970s prog.

Well.... The songs are listed as in Capitol I - IX. That is the concept album covered and it may be a concept album too as the vocals are in Spanish.

The rest of their claims are a bit dubious, though....

OK, there are some cinema, 1970s prog and symphonic prog here. Most of the album is a mix of 1970s Spanish prog and some guitar rock. If there had been more keyboards here, that claim would have been more true.

This is though a progressive rock album and a Spanish sounding one too. There are some folk rock here and some exotic, make that Spanish-Arabic, melody lines here.

Forty minutes is what we get here and it is not wasted forty minutes. This is a rather interesting album full of promises and music we do not hear every day. I wish we could get more of the same thing.

This is a decent album, well worth checking out.

2 points

Quidam - Pod Niebem Czas (2002)

The third album from this band from Poland.

Quidam was a sextet on this album with a lineup of percussion, flutes, drums, bass, guitars, piano, keyboards and female vocals. Polish vocals.
The band had help from a lot of woodwinds, backing vocals and strings.

This album too got an English version. But as with their second album, I will only review the original Polish versions. Polish is a language nobody should be ashamed of using. Poland is a great country too.

We get again the chance to hear Emile Derkowska's excellent vocals. That on some pretty delicate and pastoral neo-prog.

... On most of the album, that is. Why the band has included a watered down version of Led Zeppelin's classic No Quarter is something I do not understand. It is really impossible to kill and destroy a classic song like this one. But it has not place on an album like this or in the books of this band.

No Quarter is an distraction from the rest of the album. An album full of neo-prog light songs. Songs which is a bit too vocals dominated and a bit short on quality.

This album is a bit of a step backwards from this normally very good band. I am not impressed.

2.5 points

Glass Hammer - Valkyrie (2016)

The 17th album from this band from USA.

Glass Hammer is a quartet with a lineup of bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

I have been following this band for many, many years. Since I became interested in progressive rock, more or less. I am not so fast when it comes to reviewing their albums, though. I have broadened my horizons.

I have though made a review of their albums in # 1 of this blog. You will find reviews of most of their albums there.

Glass Hammer delivers again an hour long album with bombastic US symphonic prog. Everything is bigger and bolder in USA than in Europe. Hence their sound who really reflects that.

There is a mix of female and male vocals here who works perfectly.

The music itself is not perfect by any stretch of my imagination. It is big, bold and a bit underwhelming in the quality of the songs.

This album is about the damages from ww2 the survivors carries with them and therefore; a concept album. And it works in that concept. There is a lot of melancholy and feelings here.

This album is another grower too as it does not really gives away much after one or two listenings. But it then starts to open up and some great synths cascades opens up the melodies.

I am slightly torn here. But it is still a very good album from a band who still carries on, year after year. That too is to be admired.

3.5 points

Melange - Melange (2016)

The debut album from this Spanish band.

The band is an eight piece big band with a line up of sitar, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, carillon, saxophones, viola, electric organ, organ and Spanish vocals.

I know next to nothing about this band. Make that; absolute nothing. 

Melange takes on a journey through some raga-rock, fusion. folk and space rock. The music floats around and makes a good soundscape.

This is mainly an instrumental album where even the Spanish vocals is more instruments than words with meaning.

There is a nice glide and float on this seventy-three minutes album. The music is mainly performed with keyboards, bass, drums and guitars. But there are some weird sitars, synths and woodwinds here too who adds lots of colours.

Nice colours, it has to be said.

The quality is between decent and good. Seventy minutest is a bit long in the company of music like this music.

Then again, this album will appeal to those who liked spacey music. Check it out.

2.5 points

 

Falling Edge - FE3 (2018)

The third album from this Canadian band.

Falling Edge is a duo with a lineup of guitars, synths, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals.

The duo is Rob Kovar and Chris Rupert.

I have reviewed their first two albums for both ProgArchives and # 1 of this blog.

I was not too taken in by these two albums as I found them a bit limited in scope and quality.

The band plays mainly neo-prog with some hard rock and prog metal influences. The sound is big and the music is pretty bombastic. It is also pretty melodic at times.

The vocals is really good and the instruments supports it well.

There is no really great track on this one hour long album. A couple of good songs brightens up this album who falls a bit short. The same can also be said about their first two albums too, I am afraid.

2.5 points

Adventure - Caught In The Web (2014)

The third album from this Norwegian band.

Adventure is a quintet with a lineup of bass, guitars, drums, keyboards, percussion and vocals.
They had help from local musicians who provided flutes, piano and female vocals.

The band has so far not been among the Norwegian bands I have rated that highly. The band has just released a new album, which I will review later, so I hoped that and this album will change my opinion about this band from Trondheim.

The band mixes a bit folk rock (Prudence and Jethro Tull springs to mind), prog metal and symphonic prog on this album.

The sound is leaning towards folk rock. That far more than I thought this band would ever do.

There is folk metal here but not so much symphonic prog.

The guitars, vocals and flutes are good on this sixty-six minutes long album. An album with a folky feel which would make them welcome on metal, rock and prog rock festivals.

I have my reservations towards this album. Nevertheless, this is a good album. It is just about a good album but nothing more than that. I hope their new album is more proggy than this album.

3 points

Vak - Budo (2018)

The second album from this French band.

Vak is a quartet with a lineup of bass, drums, keyboards, guitars and vocals.
They had help from three other musicians who provided flutes, saxophones and guitars.

Vak is a new name to me. But their debut album Aedividea was released back in 2015 and I guess I should get a copy of this album.

The band is a zeuhl band. One of quite considerable new bands in this mini-mini music genre. One of the smallest music genres of all time.

The band is pretty true to the forefathers of this genre. Eskaton springs to mind. Magma too springs to mind.

The vocals  are wordless and used as instruments. The keyboards and the bass has this chugging zeuhl sound.

The music is still pretty much laidback. There is not high adrenaline caffeine fueled music as on Magma and the Japanese bands albums.

Laid back and pretty lyrical with some pastoral melodies. The music is still zeuhl through and through.

The album is one hour long and a very good album too. Even for those who do not like zeuhl that much. It is a highly recommended album.

3.5 points

Amazing Blondel - The Amazing Blondel & A Few Faces (1970)

The debut album from this English band.

The band was a duo on this album with a lineup of strings, woodwinds, guitars, bass, percussion, flutes and vocals.
The duo of Terence Wincott and John Gladwin had help from some other musicians who provided tabla, congas, drums and bass.

I have heard a lot about this band but it is not before now I have decided to give them my attention. I got a handful or more of their ten albums. I will review them this winter and spring.

The band is a folk music or/and a folk rock band on this album. The sound is acoustic and based on harmonies.

The two vocals fills each other and create good vocals and harmonies.

The music is on the more primitive end of the folk rock spectrum. It is leaning towards the first Gryphon albums and more towards the medieval folk music sound. More like chamber music at times.

There are also some more pop-rock tunes here. And some more rather bizarre folk hall songs with lots of trumpets and tubas.

The end result is a promising debut album who still falls a bit short when it comes to quality. I am looking forward to sink my ears into their other albums.

2 points

Coma Rossi - Coma Rossi (2018)

The debut album from this band from India.

Coma Rossi is a quintet with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals.

The big country India has some death metal and other metal bands. But proper progressive rock bands ? This is the first ever prog rock album I have ever heard from India.

And it does not take many minutes before the listener feels this is the real deal.

Take Porcupine Tree, add some prog metal, some post rock, lots of Marillion, Riverside and Pink Floyd. That is what this band from Bangalore is giving us.

The sound is good and has an European feel. It is only that I know this band is from India that brings up the theme that this really a band from Bangalore, India. They are fully on par, or even better, than any bands from any European country.

There is a nice blend of ebb and flow on this album. Between the harder stuff and the more ambient post rock stuff.

The vocals are really good too and adds a lot of quality to this album.

I am really pleased with this seventy minutes long album. A very good album it is, too.

3.5 points

Melancholy Circus - My Love (2016)

The second album from this US band.

I am not sure how many members this band has as their homepage has no information whatsoever. But from what I can hear, they have drums, bass, guitars and vocals as main instruments.

This band claims that their album is in the vein of Led Zeppelin, Rush and Type O Negative.

They are wrong.

What we get is a singer-songwriter album with some very minimalistic music and lots of vocals. Led Zeppelin ? Nope. More like a primitive version of Bob Dylan.

The vocals are a bit false when the vocalist tries to press his vocals to do more than basic vocals. Wisely, he never tries to do melodic vocals or in any way tries to hit the high tones.

The music is more often than not done by acoustic guitars and pretty primitive. There is no progressive rock here.

There is no decent songs here either and this album is plain and simply a turkey.

I have nothing good to say about this album, I am afraid. Avoid.

1 point

Black Oak Arkansas ‎– Keep The Faith (1972)

The second album from this US band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of bass, banjo, steel guitars, piano, guitars, drums, washboard and vocals.

The band was one of these US bands who was hit by the hard rocking Led Zeppelin and decided to go down that route themselves.

Black Oak Arkansas was from Arkansas, USA though. They did hard rock their own, Arkansian way.

That means lots of hard rock, rock, some gospel, some country and some blues. Arkansas are in the south states and the term "southern rock" can to an extent be labeled here too.

The music is pretty raw and dominated by the raspy voice of Jim Mangrum.

These thirty-eight seconds are pretty hard rocking and has some decent songs. This is not progressive rock by any means. But their music still have qualities which will be appreciated by progressive rock fans too.

This is an honest southern USA hard rock album and should be appreciated as just that.

2 points

  

Farmhouse Odyssey - Farmhouse Odyssey (2015)

The debut album from this US band.

Farmhouse Odyssey was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

I have to admit I have been struggling a lot with this album (and their second album) since I got it. It was meant to be reviewed years ago. But I kicked it into the long grass until I decided that I had to do it now.

So I did some new listening sessions.

Listed as symphonic prog in ProgArchives, this should be in my ballpark. Classic symphonic prog as I understand it.... well..... it is not.

Take the New York bohemian sound, add a lot of light sprinkling of jazz, some symphonic prog, some college rock and some eclectic prog. Make that.... a lot of eclectic prog. Gentle Giant with an US take, flavour and sound.

The light jazzy bohemian sound and music is what really comes through here. A lot of weird guitars and vocals. A lot of weird, off Greenwich Village hooks and melodies.

Best of all; a lot of good to very good melodies too. Although this is not a great album, I understand those who has labeled Farmhouse Odyssey as the new hope for progressive rock. It is most certainly a progressive rock album.

Check out this album.

3 points

    

Fizbers - Die Without Living (2018)

The second album from this band from Poland.

The band is a trio with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.
They had help from two other musicians who provided xtra guitars and female vocals.

Fizbers is another addition to the neo-prog scene in Poland. A pretty huge scene at the moment.

Then again, Poland is a big country with a big population. Polish neo-prog is also popular in the rest of Europe.

Fizbers music is a lot more pastoral and ambient than most other Polish bands music. The great Polish band Believe is a good reference here.

The band does indeed sound like Believe although were are not talking copycats here. There is a lot of piano and some downtuned keyboards here in the bottom of some haunting male and female vocals. The guitars are haunting too.

These forty- five minutes is pretty good without really impressing much. Due to the more pastoral leanings, the album is a bit of a stand out in the scene. The quality is more like decent to good.

I am not won over. But it is well worth checking out this album released through Lynx Music.

2.5 points

Mechanical Butterfly - The Irresistible Gravity (2014)

The debut and so far the only album from this Italian band.

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

Not everything from Italy is RPI - Rock Progressive Italiano. There are also a lot of progresive rock from Italy who does not conform to the RPI standards.

A lot of these bands has popped up in the last ten years. Mechanical Butterfly is one of them.

I thought I was in for an instrumental ambient album after the long instrumental first minutes. But I was wrong....

These three quarters of an hour gives us a mix of female fronted prog, some Arabic music, folk rock, some progressive metal and indeed some ambient music.

The band covers a lot of bases on this pretty diverse album.

The vocals and the instruments are really good. The music too is good. What this album is sorely lacking is a killer track or two. Something that would have created some interest around this band.

I do not think they really caught on in the scene and I am afraid this band is another one-album band.
This album is well worth checking out.

3 points


 

Shalash Band - Shalash (2018)

The debut album from this Russian band.

Shalash Band is really only Maxim Smirnov on drums, percussion plus Dmitry Karaveav on keyboards.

I remember a band called Little Tragedies from Russia. It was one man and a lot of keyboards. When starting to listen to this album, I suddenly remembered their albums.

There was a lot more substance in Little Tragedies music, though. There was more music in Little Tragedies albums.

The lineup of keyboards, drums and percussion does not sound promising. And the band is not delivering much either.

Take some TV jingles and add some pseudo-classical music with a Russian twist and folklore sound. That is when you get this album. Symphonic prog ? It is not.

The music sounds cheap and nasty. It is mostly that. There are some pieces of music which rises above the turkey yard and does not really make me despair too much.

Most of this album is pretty dismal though. And it is not progressive rock at all. It is not even progressive music. I am not impressed.

1.5 points

Jaivas. Los - Palomita Blanca (1992)

The 10th album from this band from Chile.

Los Jaivas was a quintet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, Spanish vocals and all kinds of local strings, percussion and woodwinds.

The band has  delivered some good and some rather bland albums since their debut album back in 1971. They started out as a pure folk rock band and then moved towards symphonic prog and more commercial pop/rock.

And on their tenth album, they starts out with folk music, pure and simple. Folk music in the vein of Los Jaivas.

The album moves towards folk rock and then some strange avant-garde.

I think this avant-garde is more like an album filler than really well thought through avant-garde. The avant-garde here does not make much sense. Neither does it add any quality to this album.

The folk music and the rest of this fifty minutes long album is a bit better. There are some good guitars and some good harmonies here.

The music is decent though and that is what this album is. A decent album which does not really excite me that much. Los Jaivas can do a lot better than this album.

2 points

Electric Eye - Different Sun (2016)

The second album from this Norwegian band.

Electric Eye is a quartet with a lineup of bass, guitars, drums, keyboards and vocals.

I have previously reviewed their debut album and their third album, their most recent album, in this blog. You can find these reviews somewhere else in this blog.

Electric Eye is a some kind of local super-group from Bergen. Their two other albums is really good too.

The band plays some sort of space rock. They are pretty spaced out into the outer space.

This album though is in an orbit closer to mother earth. The main base camp of their music is space rock. There are also some psych too and some pop rock like space rock.

The sound on this forty minutes long album is not out and out space rock either. There are some more melodic going on here than just space explorations.

The end result is both charming and good. My only gripe is the lack of a great track. Nevertheless, this band is a band I now is keeping an eye out for. This band has a lot of quality and three really good albums.

3 points



 

Pinn Dropp - Perfectly Flawed (2018)

The debut album from this band from Poland.

Pinn Drop is a quartet with a lineup of bass, drums, programming, synths, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

I have never heard about this band before. They are one of many bands debuting in 2018. I got a lot of albums from last year indeed.

We are again listening to a neo-prog band from Poland. Poland has one of the best neo-prog, if not the best neo-prog scenes in the world.

A seventy-five minutes long neo-prog album really need to offer up something really good to keep my interest up during this very long time.

Perfectly Flawed is a slightly dark neo-prog album. It is a typical neo-prog album from Poland in that respect.

The vocals are really good and adds a lot of value to some medium long tracks.

The overall quality is good indeed and this album offer a lot of value for money. Neo-prog fans will find a great album here. I have some small reservations. But as a debut album, I can only applaud the band for this album.

3 points

Tryo - Orbitas (2016)

The sixth album from this band from Chile.

The band was again a trio with a lineup of bass, drums, marimba, vibraphone, drums, guitars, keyboards, cello and vocals.
They had some help from some other musicians who provided violins, djembe and vocals.

Tryo is a band who has been intriguing and boring me at the same time. Some of the albums has been below par and dull. Others has been quite good.

The band has released metal albums and avant-garde albums. This despite of them being a fusion band.

And then we get this album... Which is a fusion/jazz album. Finally ! I have reviewed their previous five albums and had been expecting an album as this one from the first album. That was not to be.

There are some gypsy jazz here and some pretty melodic fusion in between some really good Latin fusion.

There are a lot of twists and turns on this forty-three minutes long album. Some really enjoyable twists and turns. There is no great stuff here, though.

This is still a good to very good album and I am glad to hear that they are now active again. I will get their new album if they release another new album.

3.5 points

Millenium - MMXVIII (2018)

The 13th album from this band from Poland.

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

This is not really a new Millenium album. This is an album celebrating their record label Lynx Music's 20th anniversary. It has also been released to introduce their new vocalist Marek Smelkowski. I therefore should not have reviewed this album.But I discovered that too late so I will do a short review.

The vocalist does a great job on a couple of new songs and some older Millenium songs.

The older songs has got new arrangements and the new songs falls nicely into the kind of music this band has given us for the last album.

And that is neo-prog with some saxophones and AOR influences. You can read my reviews of their albums somewhere else in this blog.

There are no great tracks on this thirty-seven minutes long album and the songs are a bit short on quality. This is a decent to good album though.

I hope we will soon get a proper album from this band.

2.5 points

Nemo - Revolu$ion (2011)

The seventh album from this French band.

Nemo was a quartet on this album with a lineup of gaita, keyboards, bass, drums, guitars and French vocals.

This French band has always delivered some very interesting albums. Albums with a very French flavour. Just like Ange and the 1970s French symphonic prog scene.

So when I got Revolu$ion, I was really looking forward to sink my ears into it.

The band has still a lot of Ange in them. Them and Gens De La Lune. The best of French symphonic prog, in other words.
But there is also a lot of progressive metal and hard prog in their sound. And some of Gentle Giant too.

Nemo has their own style and it is a very good style. One that really plays sweet music on my heart strings.

Revolu$ion is a one hour long album with a mix of great and good music. A killer track is missing and that is my only gripe with this album which is full of great vocals, great details and some great tunes. Check out this album and this band.

3.5 points

McDonald & Giles - McDonald & Giles (1970)

The first album from this British band.

McDonald & Giles was a duo who contributed with woodwinds, drums, guitar, organ, piano, percussion and vocals on this album.
They were helped out by some guest musicians who did organ, bass, piano and trombone. Steve Winwood and Peter Giles was among the guest musicians. Peter Sinfield did the lyrics.

Giles, Giles & Fripp is the origin for this band. They changed their name to King Crimson and then released In The Court Of Crimson King before that version of King Crimson split up. The new King Crimson then released the Lizard album and the rest is history. And another member of King Crimson started ELP too.

...And two members from the first King Crimson album started out as McDonald & Giles. They released this album. An album who has got semi-legendary status due to it's connection with King Crimson.

It is an album I have always wanted to review. But it has only landed on my desk this year.

It is an album with a lot of whimsy pop-prog. Take The Beatles and add some psych-folk. Add some Kevin Ayers too and you get this album.

It is quite a charming album with a lot of ideas scattered around these forty odd minutes. The end product is not that good and the album is slightly unsatisfactory. It is well worth checking out, though.

2 points



   

Mystery - Lies And Butterflies (2018)

The seventh album from this Canadian band.

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

This Canadian band has established themselves as one of the best bands in the progressive rock scene after their latest tours and albums. A well deserved position, in my view.

Their new offering sees the band doing some long suites and some shorter songs.

And we can almost dispense with the neo-prog label here. This album is symphonic prog with a modern sound. Yes, some neo-prog sound. The music is symphonic prog.

The opening seventeen minutes long opus Looking For Something Else sets the tone with some really great hooks and melody lines. And the album continues in the same vein. This album does not have the great, great tune or song/opus. But it still gets the listener going.

The vocals are great. The sound even excellent and the other musicians does a brilliant job with harmonies and solos.

The end result is a great album from a great band who has finally delivered what their previous album hinted. A great album and some great seventy minutes.

4 points

Mosaico Híbrido - Limiar (2018)

The second album from this band from Brazil.

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

The band released their debut album HI1 back in 2016. I have not heard that album so I cannot comment on it.

The band plays a muscular form of progressive rock.... some sort of progressive rock.

Take a bit of Pink Floyd, add a bit old style heavy metal and a lot of hard prog. I have heard Black Mountain from Vancouver, Canada is a good reference.

The music sounds like old style hard rock to me, though. Like vintage hard rock. That with a big slant of psychedelic rock and Brazilian flavour.

The vocals are OK and the few pieces of organ sound is good. The guitars too are good and they sometimes has this southern rock sound.

The quality is decent to good throughout. There is no outstanding or even great piece of music here. Neither is there any bad songs here. Check out this album if vintage hard rock/prog is your thing.

2.5 points

Bony. Fabrice - 7 + ∞ (2018)

The fourth album from this French artist.

Fabrice Bony is a one man band and he does the drums, percussion, bass, guitars, mellotron, synths, keyboards and vocals himself.
He has got help from guest musicians who provided woodwinds, cello and female vocals.

I cannot for the life of me understand why Fabrice Bony is listed as a neo-prog artist in ProgArchives. I have yet to hear a tone of neo-prog on his second album..... and on this album too. Have I been lucky/unlucky ? I doubt it.

This album starts out as a zeuhl album, no less. And it is in all but name a zeuhl album. Zeuhl-light, but still a zeuhl album.

The zeuhl also takes some detours into symphonic prog, folk rock and fusion. In particular folk rock.

The music is pretty pedestrian and laidback..... OK, perhaps this is not zeuhl, then. Call it jazz instead. The music is too pedestrian to be called zeuhl. But you get my drift.

There is a lot of laidback woodwinds and female vocals solos. Not so many guitar solos, though.

This is not the most interesting album around and it is lacking a bit in the quality department. It is still a decent to good album, well worth checking out.

2.5 points