Paladin - Charge! (1972)

The second album from this English band.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of organ, grand piano, piano, bass, guitars, violin, drums, percussion and vocals.

This band released three albums before they gave up the ghost. Two albums between 1971 and 1972. The third and final one, to be released later this fall, was released in 2002.

The band was one of many British bands operating in the landscape between rock, hard rock, fusion, blues and prog rock in those years.
On the top of that scene, you had the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who. Paladin was a long was from them in popularity.

All above applies to this album. There is also some psych in their music too. And a couple of melodic tracks.

The vocals and the sound is good. The musicians does their best too.

This forty minutes long album gives us plenty of good British rock and the Roger Dean artwork also adds a good feel factor to this album.

There is three good songs and some not so good ones. In short, this is a decent to good album.

2.5 points

Pagani. Mauro - Mauro Pagani (1978)

The debut album from this Italian artist.

Mauro Pagani did the bouzouka, violin and viola here.
He had help from numerous other musicians on guitars, synths, drums, all kinds of percussion, woodwinds, flutes, vocals and bass.

Mauro Pagani was a member of PFM before he went solo and then back to PFM if I am not much mistaken.

That is not the type of music we get here, though.....

After some listening sessions, I have found the label "world music" and that fits the music on this album.

Take gypsy music, some jazz, Eastern, African, Arabic, Middle East and Balkan folk music. This is what we get here.

There are some female vocals on this album too. They too are in the gypsy mood.

I cannot really say that the quality of the music is anywhere good on this thirty plus minutes long album. Half of the album is decent enough while the rest is pretty forgettable.

Hence...

1.5 point

Colour Haze - Colour Haze (2005)

The sixth album from this German band.

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

Colour Haze was well into their stride by now after some very good albums. And also probably with a ditto dedicated following.

That is why I commend and admire them for this album.

The album is a distinct departure from their all out outer space rock. The band takes their music to another land...... or make that another galaxy.

The space rock is still here..... but they have also incorporated some symphonic prog and some psych rock too.

There is also some avant-garde nodding off in the middle of this album and that is a let down as this avant-garde is uninspiring and pointless.

We still get some really dirty space rock themes on this album. The band really knows how to take the listener on a journey to the outer space.

This is therefore another good album from this band and one to be enjoyed. Check it out.

3 points

Renegade Priest - Faces for the Troubadour (2019)

The debut album from this band from London.

Or is it a project ? Or a one man band ? I hear synths, guitars, organ, piano, drums, bass and vocals on this album.

If I knew I know nothing about this band, I would have put this review on a back-burner for a year or two. But too late.......

Well, that is the only thing that threw me a curve-ball in this review.

The music is a rather straight forward mix of Wally, Roger Waters, folk rock and Marillion. Add a spoonful of Pink Floyd and this album is ready served and to be consumed.

The vocals is really good here. Even very good and they are the main plus on this album.

The seven songs, which altogether gives us just over forty minutes of music, is rather good too. A bit on the uncomplicated and easy listening. Which makes me believe this is a one-man band.... Nevertheless, there is a lot of quality here.

This album is not particular technical in any form or shape. It is just a good album throughout and has a good down to earth sound too.

Check out this album.

3 points

  

Chicago - Chicago V (1972)

The fourth album from this USA based band.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, woodwinds, congas, bells, keyboards, percussion, flute and vocals.

The band played on again with this album. I have not been overly impressed by their first albums, with the exception of their debut album Chicago Transit Authority.

I am not a big fan of brass rock either.

The band gives us a mix of ballads and more sparking songs.

There is a lot of this material who looks back to the flower power sound and scene. Then we get some pretty standard rock and pop with lots of woodwinds too.

The best stuff here is where Terry Kath's guitars gets free reign on a couple of tracks.

Most of the music is a bit too sugary for my taste. Then again, it is not too bad.

This forty-five minutes long album is actually a good album although I am able to control my enthusiasm for the woodwinds.

Check out this album if you want to know what the fuzz about this band is.

3 points

Ealdor Bealu - Spirit of the Lonely Places (2019)

The second album from this US band.

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

I do not know why this album is in my to-review folder as it is a bit outside my comfort zone. But I still want to review it as this is an indie band who release their albums through Bandcamp.

The band is also from Idaho which frankly is not the center of the universe. I am scrambling to find five things I know about this state.... and is failing, miserably.

The music is a mix of progressive rock and stoner.

The music is pretty dark, indeed. It also has a Black Sabbath kind of sound.

There is also some post rock and some folk rock in their music. Music driven by guitars and the vocals. Both male and female vocals.

This is by no means a remarkable album. It has some good stuff and some not so good stuff.
Their version of The Four Horsemen (Aphrodite's Child) is a good one, though.

Check out this album from the link above.

2.5 points

Pacific Sound - Forget Your Dream! (1972)

The one and only album from this Swiss band.

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

The cover art-work.... Well, not everyone got their right. This one is very misleading. But the song titles is in the same vein and they too is misleading.

Satanic rock ? Occult rock ? Spaced out satanic mass ? Garage rock ?

None of the above.

Organ filled slow blues is what we get here.

Blues with a lot of psych rock and some beat. Add some hard rock too.

In essence, the music is krautrock as it has all the hallmarks of krautrock.

The vocals are decent enough and some of the music is rather good. The sound is also rather good.
There are also some not so good stuff and some rather horrible bad stuff here.

I would not call this album a hidden gem. It is well worth checking out although it is only a decent album.

2 points

City Boy - The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1979)

The fifth album from this British band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, guitars and vocals.
They had help from some other musicians who provided bass, harmonica, percussion and synths.

City Boy was a band from Birmingham, England who operated somewhere near progressive rock. They had a pretty big following and is today regarded as a cult-band.

I have not been impressed by their albums so far. Some reviews can be found in this blog.

City Boy comes running at me on this album with a mix of art rock and heavy rock. Take a bit 10CC, Supertramp and some proto-heavy metal.

The music has a lot of heavy metal cliches with football terrace chants and chugging guitars. Not good.....

There are some intelligent melody and melodies too on this album.

Most of all, this forty-five minutes long album sounds a bit dull and bereft of really good ideas. It is not an album which has survived the test of time.

I am not impressed at all.

This is a decent album and only that. Maybe it is worth checking out. I am left with reviewing their final two albums and I am not looking forward to that.

2 points

Raw Material - Raw Material (1970)

The debut album from this British band.

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

This band arrived, released two albums, and then disappeared again. The band has though got a cult-status and their two albums are very popular among album collectors.

The band's music is rooted in blues as per usual by a band from the late 1960 and early 1970s. From a rock band, that is. There is also lots of lots of psych rock here. Add some progressive rock and a hint of beat and soul too and you get this album.

The music is pretty hard. Some of the music is also melodic. But most is hard.

Some of the music is songs based as the band had not really gotten fully into long unstructured inter-plays between the musicians.

The organs are really good and so is the vocals. There is a good hippie and groovy vibe on this half an hour long album. An album that does not outstays it's welcome.

This band had something and this decent to good album proved that.

2.5 points

 

Isthar - Pequeña Sinfonía Africana (2019)

The debut album from this Spanish band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums and Spanish vocals.
The quintet was been helped out by three musicians on drums, clarinet, keyboards and vocals.

I know absolute nothing about this band and this album. But I guess it is something about Africa. And it is a concept album.

The album is over seventy minutes long and I had some hopes for it.

The music is a mix of progressive metal, goth, Spanish rock and Spanish folk rock.

There is a lot of female vocals here and some good male vocals.

The clarinet gives this album some strange vibes of folk music.

That though is the only good about this album. The guitar sound is not good and the music is wishy-washy dull.

This is a decent album but nothing more than that. An album for the local market but not for the world wide market.

2 points

Clouds - Scrapbook (1968)

The debut album from this Scottish, UK band.

The band was a trio with a lineup of organ, piano, drums, bass, guitars and vocals.
A string quartet provided strings and there is also some woodwinds here.

A lot of people ask why this band never really made it. I guess it the luck of the draw and in particular; the managers. A good manager = fame. A bad manager = obscurity.

The band released three albums altogether and came to everyone's attention again with the box set of all their albums released some years ago.

The music here is psych beat. There is also some harder fusion influenced beat too.
References are The Beatles, Moody Blues, Small Faces and Kinks. 

The album opens and ends with the title track. A good track indeed. The rest is much more lively and positive upbeat than that rather pastoral and melancholic track.

This album is one of the lost gems from the pre-prog scene and well worth investigating. Get the box as it has this album and the two other albums. Both albums will be reviewed later.

2.5 points

Paatos - Silence Of Another Kind (2006)

The third album from this Swedish band.

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

This band was quite popular before they split up some years ago. They released five studio albums.

It is strangely enough my first review of their albums although I did an interview with Progarchives with them ten years ago.

Their music is based in the Scandinavian melodic symphonic prog scene. There is indeed some folk rock influences here.

The band has added some electronica in the vein of Can too and some indie pop in the vein of Portishead.

The very good vocals is pretty dominant here. There are some mellotron and a lot of guitars. Even violins.

The music is pretty indie pop orientated and mid-tempo.

The music is also good. Good but not really convincing. It is not particular prog enough and it lacking the dept and the details proper prog have got. Good but not great.

3 points

Secchezza Delle Fauci - Boxdoppio (2019)

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

It is my understanding, far to late to abandon this review, that this a box of EPs and compositions going back some years.

The band is one of many bands who combine powerful rock with jazz. Fusion in other words.

Their take on fusion is at times really heavy.

The band and this seventy minutes long album is also walking on a well trodden path. It is not really offering up much new to the scene.

The music is decent enough. But just that.

If this sounds good to you, check out this album.

2 points

Oregon - 45th Parallel (1989)

The 14th album from this US band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of guitars, drums, tabla, woodwinds and synths.
They were helped out by a female vocalist on one track.

Oregon is one of those jazz bands who crossover to raga and avant-garde prog. They are not a standard jazz band. Neither are they a standard fusion band. They are in fact not a fusion band at all. Not even a jazz- rock band.

Progressive jazz is their label and they given us a lot of very interesting albums. Perhaps not all of them has been good or great. But they have never been dull.

45th Parallel sees the band return more to standard jazz. As standard jazz as Oregon plays, that is.

There is also a lot of raga prog here too and a female vocals tune too.

The music is very melancholic and almost dark. Them music is made by acoustic guitars and woodwinds with some synths inbetween. And that works very good.

The proper song here with female vocals is a jazz tune with some folk rock influences. It is also a good track too.

Oregon has again delivered a fascinating and good album. An album which cement their status in my world as a band I should know better.

3 points

Blood, Sweat & Tears - Brand New Day (1977)

The 11th album from this US band.

The band was a ten man piece big band with a lineup of woodwinds, bass, drums, keyboards, percussion, flute, guitars and vocals.
The band had help from numerous other musicians who provided harmonica, organs, strings, musette and vocals.

The band were at the end of their life. Only another album followed in 1980 and then the band were disbanded.

The very good vocalist David Clayton-Thomas was the vocalist here and he had help from Chaka Kahn on female vocals.

The woodwinds is everywhere on this album who sees the band give us a mix of jazz and soul.

The vocals is the saving grace on an album who delivers mountains of woodwinds, vocals and guitars. The sound is big, big, big. Just as big as USA itself.

The songs is not the best and is severely lacking in quality.

Most of all, this album sounds like 1977 before the punk swept brass and prog rock away. Music like this is now only consigned to Las Vegas and other casino town where glitter and show is everything.
Today...... It is not a bad album and the vocals are really good. But....

2 points

O.R.K. - Inflamed Rides (2015)

The debut album from this band from London, UK.

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

The lineup of this band is pretty interesting as Paul Mastelotto and Colin Edward is both members here. And the band has so far released three albums. The other two will soon be reviewed in this blog.

Ork is quite a band who delivers us some music with personality disorders.

Take King Crimson, add a lot of post-punk and post-metal. Add some psych rock and avant-garde prog again and some prog metal. That should be this album......

The vocals is everything from screamo to normal vocals. The music is very brutal at times. It is also melodic at times.

The sound is great and it manages to capture the full with of their music. 

The music is surprisingly melodic. I thought this was going to be an all out brutal assault. Some of the music is indeed that. But not all of it. Not even half of this forty-six minutes long album.

Both the brutal and the melodic stuff is really good and this album really surprises me. It is a modern day hidden gem, well worth checking out.

3 points

Purson - Desire's Magic Theatre (2016)

The second album from this British band.

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

I very much liked their 2013 debut album and you can read this review somewhere else in this blog.

The band is signed on the metal label Spinefarm who started out in 1990 or thereabouts. The label is from Finland and is fondly remembered and revered by an old metalhead like myself.

The band is giving us another slab of psych rock from the early 1970s.

Not only that; the band is also giving us some of the sound and sights of The Beatles from their final albums.

There is still some Black Widow in their sound too. And a lot of old hard rock.

And that is this album, in short. Add the band owner Rosalie Cunningham's excellent vocals and songwriting too and you get this album. One final thing; the sound is really retro too.

There is no great song here. Nevertheless, the music is really good throughout this album. An album most progheads will find highly enjoyable and good.
I do not like hypes or even fall for hypes. In this case, there is a lot of substance in the hype around this band.

3 points

Dr. Dopo Jam - Fat Dogs & Danishmen (1974)

The second album from this Danish band.

The band has numerous musicians and the lineup was violins, bass, drums, guitars, woodwinds, vibraphone, percussion, clavinet, piano and vocals.

I liked their 1973 debut album Entree. It was mainly a Canterbury style album.

The band returned again for some more madness. Madness they delivered themselves.

Take mad Canterbury pop and rock, add some Krautrock, fusion, Frank Zappa, some Darts like doowop, brass rock and psych rock.

The band sounds very like much Supersister most at the time. Just with some added insanity and jazz.

There is method in this madness though and the songs are really good on this album. Good but not great.

There is a lot of very good details here and some not so interesting stuff. It still makes this album worth while the investment in listening sessions and money.

Check out this album.

3 points

Hawkwind - Church Of Hawkwind (1982)

The 12th album from this British band.

The band were a quartet with a lineup of drums, synths, guitars, bass, keyboards, samples and vocals.

The band was still around in some form or another after the punk years. Hawkwind never really fell out of fashion either. They were adapting to the sounds and music of the day.

The band has taken a large amount of samples and electronica with them on this album. This album is indeed an electronica space rock album.

The vocals are really good and the music has a lot of space rock. There is no pop songs here at all. There is no standard rock structures here at all.

The laidback space rock sometimes spills into jazz too. But not overtly so.

The music is really laidback...... and lazy. It sounds disinterested and too much based on material the band has released on previous albums.

This is a decent album, but nothing more than that.

2 points

Astral Son - Mind's Eye (2016)

The third album from this Dutch one-man band.

Leonardo Soundweaver is the man here and he creates his music with drums programming, synths, bass, guitars, organ, tamboora and vocals.

I reviewed the 2015 album Silver Moon back in January 2016 for # 1 of this blog and liked that album a lot.

The music is space rock of the more outer space take on space rock.

There is a lot of early Hawkwind and Pink Floyd in their music. The music is pretty flowery and psychedelic in it's form and not so ugly. The painting by Leonardo Soundweaver himself kind of gives the game away.

The music is also groovy as heck with the vocals also working as an instrument. There is a lot of post rock too in the music.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is cool enough. Really cool.

It is still slightly a step backwards in quality from their second album. It is still good enough to really please a space cadet. Check it out.

3 points

Big Big Train - English Electric Part One (2012)

The seventh album from this British band.

The band is a quintet here with a lineup of banjo, mandolin, guitars, bass, keyboards, synths, drums, accordion, mellotron, harmonica, percussion, narration and vocals.
They were helped out by twenty plus guest musicians who provided woodwinds, flute, strings and vocals.

My respect and interest in this band is increasing, album by album. It is reached fever levels well before I started to listen to this album.

This album is one hour long and gives us prog somewhere in the area of Genesis. Inspired by Genesis and developed further on from them.

The vocalist David Longdon sounds like Peter Gabriel and that is a very good thing.

But where Genesis was at times pretty uncomplicated, Big Big Train takes a couple of steps towards both Gentle Giant and Yes on this album. Van Der Graaf Generator is also a good reference.

If this sounds like a prog lover's dream.... to a large extent, it is. The genre and sound, it is.

The music is very good throughout though and this album is one of those who continues to give. There is no doubt this band also continues to give and give. This album is a good example of that.

3.5 points

Ancestry Program. The - Tomorrow (2019)

The debut album from this German band.

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

Another band and another debut album this year. And in the neo-prog genre too.

Not that I mind at all. On the contrary, I am really pleased about this development and the many new bands and albums. It shows that the scene is very healthy, indeed.

The Ancestry Program is delivering us a forty-two minutes long album. And it is an album who broadly speaking falls into the neo-prog genre.

Very broadly speaking, that is.

Take some neo-prog and add lots of Opeth to the proceedings.

The vocals is both screamo, death-growls and clean. The music is at times djent. It is also pretty melodic too and gives us some pretty acceptable standard neo-prog.

There is a lot going on during these forty minutes.

Not everything is good. Most of the stuff is not good, I am afraid. But there is some good stuff here. Most of this album is decent and a good platform for the band to expand on. I hope they do.

2.5 points

Ars Nova - Fear & Anxiety (1992)

The debut album from this Japanese band.

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

The band is also a girls band. Which sets them apart from the rest of the scene.

I have reviewed a couple of their albums for Progarchives. But strangely enough not more than that.

I will see if I can dig up some more of their albums from my collection. The last album they released was back in 2009.

The band is very obsessed by ELP, Trace and those bands who sounded like ELP. That means cascades of keyboards on the top of bass and drums.

Some of these bands comes across as human where some more organic stuff is being implemented. Other bands again just do cascades of synths and keyboards.

Ars Nova is among the latter ones.

The compositions is not good at all with only a couple of sun rays among the cascades of nothingness.

Half an hour of this is enough. And that is the length of this album. A decent enough album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Brand X - X Communication (1992)

The seventh album from this British band.

The band were by now reduced to a trio with a lineup of drums, bass, keyboards, guitars and samples.
A guest musician was helping out on flute.

This is their first album for a while who does not include any cast offs from their Product recording session.

It is also an album without Phil Collins. The band was down to the core of the band.

There is no pop or anything else than pure jazz and jazz-rock here.

The music is avant-garde at times and most of the album is not easy listening. The music is more jazz than rock.

The band really know their stuff and does please their followers on this album. The band is still pleasing their fans as they are touring this year, in 2019.

This album has some good and some decent stuff. I am not entirely won over by this album and will bypass their final album.

The band was a very good band and deserve their good reputation. Reputation not build on this album.

2.5 points

Dyble. Judy - Spindle (2006)

The second solo album from this British vocalist.

Judy Dyble played autoharp and did the vocals here.
She was helped out by the likes of Simon House and Robert Fripp..... just to name the most famous ones here.
They provided percussion, bells, chimes, guitars, bass, drums, organ, bouzouki, banjo, flute, dulcimer, saxophone, violin and slide guitars.

Judy Dyble was the original vocalist in Fairport Convention and has also contributed on numerous other albums. She is a living legend in the British folk music scene and highly revered.

She has also released some solo albums too and it is my pleasure to review some of them this year. Well, I hope it will be a pleasure.

The music is off course dominated by Judy Dyble's great vocals. The music is folk rock..... with a twist.

After the good version of the Pink Floyd classic See Emily Play, we first get some good folk rock before the album becomes much more an acid-folk album. It is weird music, this acid-folk. But it is very much good music and it adds a lot of value to the folk rock genre.

All of the songs are really good and this album very much complements my collection of folk and acid-folk albums.

Check out  this good album.

3 points

Sherwood. Billy - Citizen In The Next Life (2019)

The 12th album from this US bassist.

Billy Sherwood play all instruments here himself. That is computers, drums, bass, keyboards, guitars and vocals.

Billy Sherwood has had a long career and is now the bassist in Yes. Besides of Yes, he has also played in Circa, Prog Collective, World Trade, Conspiracy and Here. All of them is good bands and my reviews of the World Trade albums can be found somewhere else in this blog.

He released his first solo album in 1999 and has worked in the studio, beside of touring with Yes and some other bands + being a session musician, since the beginning of this century.

A very busy man, indeed !

Citizen In The Next Life is a fifty minutes long album and it gives us a mix of neo-prog and rock.

Mostly rock, to be honest. Where the art-work promises a lot, the music brings us back to mother earth. And not in a gentle manner.

Billy Sherwood adopts some of the sound from the latter days Yes and drains it of interesting details.
That is what this album is.

The songs are simply not good at all. They are waffling around in many pointless directions. The vocals are the only good here. But not even they can save this album. A decent enough album, but still an album I would regard as an artistic failure.

2 points

Canturbe - Flotteur (2018)

The fifth album from this Argentine band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, percussion and Spanish vocals.
The band was helped out by some guest musicians who provided bandoneen, shamisen, violin, stick, steel guitar and vocals.

I have reviewed their previous three albums and you can find these reviews somewhere else in this blog.

It is fair to say that these albums has not found much praise in this blog. Flotteur is their newest album and I will try to see if I like this one any better.

It cannot be any worse than the utterly horrible Bonpland album from 1983. And it is not.

Flotteur gives us a mix of folk rock and rock. There is also some pop here and some hints of progressive rock. Neo-prog, that is.

The vocals are really good and the instruments has a lush feel.

This fifty odd minutes long album has indeed a lush feel based on piano and keyboards. There are also some guitars here.

The songs are cosy, but not that great. This album is inoffensive and does not have many interesting details. The problem with it is that it does not really have many good things. It is another album where the musicians is doing most things right, besides of writing good songs.

Hence, this is a decent to good album.

2.5 points

Professor Tip Top - Hybrid Hymns (2019)

The fifth album from this Norwegian band.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of guitar, mellotron, organ, minimoog, bass, synth, drums and vocals.

I very much liked their previous album Life Is No Matter from 2017. A good psych album.

The band has moved on since that album and has changed course.

The band has indeed lightened up their sound and become very much a Pink Floyd copycat on this album.

You get long parts on this album with space rock Pink Floyd'ish music which is so obvious inspired by the masters that you just have to scream out the two words PINK FLOYD.

Other parts of this album is also pretty poppy and indie pop like.

In short, the band has taken their foot of the accelerator and gone for another audience again. A more mainstream audience.

There is still enough details to make it decent to good prog. But there is not enough and the songs are not good enough. A bit of a shame. Nevertheless, it is well worth checking out this band.

2.5 points

Colour Haze - Los Sounds De Krauts (2003)

The fifth album from this German band.

The band is a trio with a lineup of bass, drums, guitars and vocals.
The band had help from two guest musicians who provided piano and organ.

The band is now an established space rock band who delivers the goods on every album. They are by this album one of the stars of this genre.

Los Sounds De Krauts sees the band on a double album. That means over two hours of space rock with a lot of krautrock influences too.

The sound and music on this album also incorporates some of the Manchester scene electronica and pop. Happy Mondays springs to mind and Colour Haze is pretty close to Happy Mondays on some tracks.

That is not a bad thing though. It just shows that the band really care about themselves and their music. That they are eager to expand and take some risks.

This album is indeed Colour Haze on a bit lighter and brighter side of life. The music is still good though and fans of this band will really like and appreciate this album. I am fast turning into a fan of this band myself.......

3 points

Bruin. Christiaan - Inventions: Logica (2019)

The 12th solo album from this drummer and artist from Holland.

Christiaan Bruin on vocals, computers and drums had Theo Travis with him on flute and saxophone in addition to a string orchestra. Another guy did the narrations here.

I have earlier, many many years ago, reviewed the albums he released under the name Chris for both ProgArchives and # 1 of this blog. Albums I really liked.
I have also noticed that I have some albums of him he released under the name Black Codex. They too are up for reviews later this year.

 In addition to running his own solo career, Christiaan Bruin also does the drums for Nine Stones Close and Sky Architect. Both very good bands.

On this album, he deals with the art of making music. It is a concept album about creating music. I have never seen that concept before, but that is still a good idea for an album.

The music is somewhere in the symphonic prog land on this album. He has found a musical theme which is somber and melancholic. That is what this fifty-five minutes long album is. Somber and melancholic. It is broken up by narrations on a frequent basis.

The music is also borderline classical music at times. 

Christiaan Bruin has bettered himself (in Chris) by a country mile on this album. It is hard to believe,  but he has.

The result is a great great album which has improved the last two weeks of my life. I love this album. Check it out.

4 points

Invisible Presence. The - Between The Truth And What We See (2019)

The debut album from this multinational band.

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

I have never hear about this band before which I believe is a studio project with members from Norway, Italy, USA and Germany. That is my guess.

The music is neo-prog.

Take a lot of Marillion, add some Porcupine Tree and some German neo-prog. That is when you get this album.

The vocals are really good.

The music is very elegant and pretty intelligent. It is not an outstanding album though as it is pretty much formula based.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is effective though and hits the right buttons. Most of them.

This is by no means an exciting album. It is a good album though and it will satisfy most neo-prog fans.

3 points

Luttun. Philippe - The Taste of Wormwood (2013)

The fifth album from this French artist.

Philippe Luttun plays guitars, keyboards, programming and does the vocals here.
A female vocalist does the female vocals. There is a lot of them.

I have barely ever heard about mr Luttun before and have not his four previous albums. There is also some EPs he has released.

The music is a mix of neo-prog, goth metal, power metal, some folk music and some djent.

The music has this rock opera feel where we get various genres going head to head and sometimes colliding with each others. The female vocals, good as they are, also feels a bit operatic and rock operatic.

The music mixes a goth feeling with some more soft and a lot of hard pieces of music.

The music feels a generic though and I feel this is a well trodden path, this one hour long album.

The music is decent to good but does not offer up much excitement.

Check it out if rock operas is your thing.

2.5 points

Chicago - III (1971)

The third album from this US band.

The band was a septet on this album with a lineup of trumpet, trombone, saxophone, flute, drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals.

This album is their third double album on three albums. And on two years. So three times seventy minutes of music in two years. The Chicago fans had a good time back then.

The band was still a brass band. They and the other big brass band, Blood, Sweat & Tears was big at that time.

The brass is here and is doing their best on the top of music which is a mix of blues, stadium rock, funk and soul. There is also some AOR here. Peter Cetera was starting to become a big influence in the band.

Terry Kath is delivering some great hooks, licks and guitar solos. He was a guitar player and a maestro who died far too young. He was one of the best guitarists around that time...... in the world.

The music sounds a bit dated these days. The songs are good though and there is a lot of interesting details here.

Check out this good album.

3 points

Purson - The Circle & the Blue Door (2013)

The debut album from this British band.

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

Purson created a lot of interest with their second album from 2016. Then the main person here went solo. Yes, the band is the creation of Rosalie Cunningham.

Rosalie is also the vocalist here and does a very good job with the vocals. She has also written the songs here. There is no doubts she will continue to be a force in the music scene.

This album has an interesting cover art-work and it can give the record buyer a lot of ideas.... Some of them pretty misleading.

The album is fifty minutes long and gives us a mix of folk rock and psych rock. There is also some goth and metal on this album. There is not much metal here, though.

The album and the songs are looking backwards to the 1970s and the music is very retro. Black Widow is one of those bands which is a good reference here.

I am not sure if the lyrics is as occult as on Black Widow's albums. But the reference is relevant.

The music is good though and the songs really engaging. This is indeed a debut album who heralds something new and exciting. I am excited.....

3 points

City Boy - Dinner At The Ritz (1976)

The second album from this British band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals.
The band was helped out by some xtra musicians who provided steel guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, fiddle and vocals.

I was pretty happy with their self-titled 1976 debut album. Hence, I was looking forward to this album.....

The album gives us forty minutes of a mix of rock, pop and some sort of country, folk and art-rock.

Well, art-rock it is.

The music is pretty well structured and has some good details. There are also some good hooks around and sporadic good attempts of melodies.

The vocals are good and the album is well orchestrated at the right places.

The problem with this album is that there is no really good songs here. The album meanders away without really creating any excitements.

I am a bit let down as it is said that this is their masterpiece. This is not my impression of this album.

2 points

Panzerpappa - Summarisk Suite (2019)

The seventh album from this Norwegian band.

The band is a quintet on this album with a lineup of keyboards, accordion, guitars, drums, bass, percussion, chapman stick, samplers, organ and saxophones.

Panzerpappa debuted back in 2000 with their debut album Passer Gullfisk. I know the drummer quite well as he is one of those who introduced me to progressive rock. Well, Rush and Iron Maiden (!!) also did that.

I think it is fair to label Panzerpappa as legends in the Norwegian prog rock scene. 

RIO and avant-garde has really not been my genre and I have tried to avoid reviewing too many of these kinds of albums. But I should really get more into this genre.

Panzerpappa has developed from being a Samla Mammas Manna fanclub like band to a much more fusion and jazz rock band.

There is still a lot of RIO/avant-garde here. But the fusion part is very big and this album is actually quite melodic. Yes, shock horror shock.

The mix of guitar solos, sax solos and some keyboards solos is really good. There is a lot of very good details on this album indeed.

This forty minutes long album is indeed a very good album. It is one of those albums fans of progressive rock and quirky music should check out.

3.5 points

Lunar Chateau - Beyond The Reach Of Dreams (2001)

The second and final album from this US band.

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

The band is the brothers Paul, Novak and Milo Sekulovich. A true family affair and cooperation.

Their 1994 self-titled debut album did not create any waves and neither did this album.

I have never heard about this band before I spotted them in ProgArchives, read some reviews and decided to check them out. I am now in the market for their debut album too.

The album starts out as an ELP like symphonic prog and it returns to this reference quite frequently during this album.

We also get a lot of neo-prog and some fusion along the way.

The keyboards are really good and so is the vocals.

I have some slight doubts about the quality of the songs on this album. Nevertheless, this is a good album and a hidden gem more people should check out.

3 points

 

Cirrus Bay - The Art Of Vanishing (2019)

The sixth album from this band from USA.

The band has been reduced to Bill Gillham on guitars and keyboards.
He is helped by three other musicians who provides bass, drums, saxophone, guitars, backing vocals and female vocals.

Cirrus Bay is a band I really like and you will find my reviews of their first five albums in # 1 of this blog.

The band plays a form of flowery neo-prog with female vocals. The vocals reminds me a lot about Annie Haslam.

Renaissance is indeed a good reference on their music. There is a lot of symphonic prog on this album.

The music is pretty light and fluffy with a lot of pop influences. It still have a lot of interesting details. The sound is pretty retro and is looking back forty-fifty years in time.

The vocals is very good and the musicians is doing a good job too. The vocals is the major good thing here and is adding a lot of quality and identity to this album.

The album is fifty minutes long and it is a good album. This band never let you down and this album is worth checking out.

3 points

Blood, Sweat & Tears - New Blood (1972)

The sixth album from this US band.

The band was a ten piece big band with a lineup of woodwinds, guitars, bass, drums, percussion, organ, piano, keyboards, harmonica and drums.

After the departure of their vocalist and main composer, the band reverted to the recipe from their first two albums. The recipe was releasing albums with a mix of cover and original songs.

The music is overwhelmed by woodwinds of all sorts. Brass rock is the genre. Where it sits in the landscape, I do not know. Is it prog ? I got no idea. It is music and it is well worth checking out.

Strip away the brass/woodwinds, we get forty minutes of soul, rock and funk. The vocals are really good and the musicians is doing a good job too.

This album sounds very dated and not so relevant today. Time has left brass rock behind, I am afraid..

Worst and most relevant of all, the songs are not good at all. They are decent enough and is a good indication what was popular back in those days. This album did very well, sales wise.

Nevertheless, check it out if you want to find out what brass rock is.

2 points

Professor Tip Top - Life Is No Matter (2017)

The fourth album from this Norwegian band.

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

I have to admit I have never heard about this band before their two latest albums showed up in my inbox. I will review their brand new album in a week's time.

The band members has been around the music scene since the 1970s and is veterans. They released the Professor TipTop debut album Aoum back in 2012. Two other albums followed.

Labeled as a psych/space rock band, the music on this album surprised me a bit.

Yes, it is a lot of psych rock here. The music is a lot more melodic than that, though. This is not a weirdo album with a lot of unrestrained mad humour. On the contrary........

Take psych rock and blend it with good old symphonic prog and more this day and age neo-prog. Then you get this album.

The music is both melodic, psychedelic and cool at the same time. There is a lot of laid back hippie feeling over this album and in the music. It is a hippie album and a cool, hip one too.

That feeling is backed up by the very good vocals and the musicians on an album where less is more.

The quality is really good here and the listener will add this band to their list of great Norwegian bands. Maybe I should get their first three albums too.........

3 points

Oregon - Crossing (1985)

The 12th album from this US band.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of sitar, piano, bass, drums, woodwinds, flute, tabla, percussion, synths and guitars.

Oregon is one of the jazz bands who operates within a pretty wide variety of what can loosely be labeled "jazz". Sometimes, they have also crossed over to fusion. Hence my interest in them as jazz is a bit too far out for me...... at the moment.

This album starts with a lot of tabla and the label "raga-rock" springs to mind. That changes though and we get treated to some cool jazz.

Lots of woodwinds here supported by tabla, guitars, sitar and piano. That and the drums and bass.

This is essentially a jazz album. But not a trad. jazz album. The band still have a foot dangling around in raga rock and avant-garde rock.

I really like Oregon and has developed quite a soft spot for them in my heart and brain. Their music is challenging........ and rewarding.

This album is no exception. It is slightly a step backwards in quality and my Good rating is both weak and shaky. It is still an album I am pretty sure I will like more and more in the years to come.

Hence my enjoyment of this album. Yes, Oregon will be one of my pathways to jazz.

3 points

Lunaire - Dreams And Inbetweens (2014)

The debut album from this Australian band.

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

I thought this band was a French symph prog band when I got this album. But I could not be more wrong....

We are in Australia here. The band has released some singles and EPs through Bandcamp. This is their only album though and I believe the band is no longer among us.

The music is post-rock. Something I did not expect with their name.

Post-rock with a lot of dream pop and shoegaze, to be more precise.

The vocals are really good and their use of a half-acoustic guitar is really adding value to this album. An album who is sparsely instrumented. A pulsating bass, vocals, drums and guitars is what we get here.

The quality is rather OK. This forty minutes long album is sorely lacking some good songs as the material is unfortunate a bit unremarkable and dull. This album should have had something.... but it does not.

This is a decent enough album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Fine Soft Day - You Are Here (2019)

The debut album from this Manchester, England based band.

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

The band were formed as a folk rock band many years ago and gigged as a folk rock band. After the band broke up and then reformed last year, the band wrote some songs which did not fit the folk rock format. Hence a change of genre....... sort off.

There is still some lingering folk rock in their music. The band has moved more in the direction of Genesis and Pink Floyd though. More towards symphonic prog.

This one hour long album is also a concept album about hope and despair... or something like that.

The music and vocals reminds me a lot about the Dutch band Us. That means a pretty bad vocalist and some half acoustic instruments throughout.

The music tries to be symphonic prog, but fails. It is not complex and it is not particular epic. It still got one leg in the folk rock camp.

....And I have no idea why some people throws in Yes as a reference on their music....

The songs are decent enough and some of the music are rather bordering to good. This is by no means the most exciting album around and is more a rock than a progressive rock album. Nevertheless, check it out.

2.5 points

 

Celeste - Il Risveglio Del Principe (2019)

The fourth album from this Italian band.

The band is now one man, Ciro Perrino, on percussion, glockenspiel, mellotron, minimoog, piano, organ and vocals.
He had help from numerous other musicians on harpsichord, flute, guitars, organ, saxophone, cello, violin, bass, drums, narration, gong and vocals.

Celeste really only released one album before this one. Their second and third album was cobbled together by studio outtakes and was never meant as albums.

Their debut album Principe Di Un Giorno from 1976 is widely regarded as a masterpiece so it is understandable that the demand for more albums was high. Hence their second and third album.
You can find my review of Principe Di Un Giorno here.

Celeste plays pastoral sounding RPI - Rock Progressive Italiano. There is a lot of flute, vocals and tangents here.

The music is soft, but still intricate. It is by no means easy listening. There is a lot of really interesting details here.

Is this fifty minutes long album as good as the 1976 debut album ? No. It is in the same vein and it is fair to say that Celeste is an unique band in the RPI scene. They have carved out their own niche.

And this is indeed a very good album who will please and bring joy to everyone into RPI and pastoral progressive rock. Check it out.

3.5 points

Big Big Train - The Underfall Yard (2009)

The sixth album from this British band.

The band is a quartet on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, flute, dulcimer, glockenspiel, keyboards, mandolin, organ, tambourine and vocals.
The band were helped out by numerous other musicians who provided woodwinds, cello, synths, guitars and mellotron.

After a bit of a stuttering start, this band has delivered some really good album during the years leading up the release of The Underfall Yard. Albums that has proven that this band is a band worth following.

The hour of music on this album reminds me a lot about Genesis and a bit about Yes. The band has their own style, though.

Their take on progressive rock is pretty melodic with some nods towards The Beatles and The Moody Blues. The music is also very complex at times.

So complex that it demands a lot from the listener. This is not easy listening.

The vocals are great and so is what the musicians is doing. Lots of organs and mellotrons here. Lots of joy for those of us who loves this.

The quality of the music is very good throughout this album. It is a joy to behold, most of this album. It is an album who cements this band's place in the scene. Check it out.

3.5 points

Hawkwind - Sonic Attack (1981)

The 11th album from this British band.

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

The previous album, the 1980 album Leviathan, was a good album. I had heard they had gone heavy metal by now. But that is not true. Not for these two albums.

The band had discovered punk rock and new wave. The band had invented space rock ten years before this again, though....

... So we get a mix of both genres here.

The space rock here is pretty light and not so epic as on their first albums. The punk complements their space rock here.

The vocals are in the Johnny Rotten/John Lydon vein where some of the vocals are being spit out over some hard guitars. The sound is pretty dirty at times.

The songs are good though and these forty minutes are really good. My only gripe is the absence of a really great track. Besides of that, this is a good album. 

3 points

Luna - Luna (1981)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

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

I have no knowledge about this band besides of this album. I know that "luna" means moon in English. Their album also goes for an insane amount of money through Discogs.

Their music has been described as space rock. It is not space rock.

Take Italian pop music and add some RPI - Rock Progressive Italiano. That is when you get this album.

The music is really melodic and really old-style Italian pop music. No doubts the lyrics is love and love again.

The music is very sweet and sugary. There is nothing but sugar here and the overdose is severe. At least for listeners who want more than lights in the music. There is not contrasts and no shades.

This half an hour long album is decent enough but nothing more than that.

It has some decent melodies though and is worth a listen or two on a streaming service.

2 points

Cream - Wheels Of Fire (1968)

The third album from this British band.

Cream were a trio of Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton. The lineup was bass, drums, guitars and vocals.
Their producer helped out on tambourine, keyboards, viola and other instruments.

This is a double album with two LPs and a gatefold cover.

The first LP is a studio recording and the main meat here in my review. The second LP is a live album.

The band had moved from straight blues to a much more psych rock expression on their previous album The Disraeli Gears.
On this album, the blues are back again. The psych rock is very much present here too.

The music is really hard here and a forewarning of what Led Zeppelin would give us on their debut album. These two albums are pretty similar with similar gifted musicians.
This album is also giving notice of the coming heavy metal scene as some of the material here is very heavy.

The musicians is doing a great job on these nine tracks. The live album is like a desert and the dot over the letter i. It is also a good live album in it's own right.

This album is a good album and offers a lot of value for the money. Check it out.

3 points

Jolly - Family (2019)

The fourth album from this US band.

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

I believed I had reviewed their previous albums. But I have not. I have reviewed their second album for ProgArchives and the review can be found here.

I have always rated this band though..... Pretty highly too. It is one of the bands I keep an eye on.

Their music is a mix of Porcupine Tree, djent and neo-prog.

The music is pretty hard but also majestic and epic. There is some symphonic prog in their music and sound.

The vocals are really good and so goes for the other musicians. The album is almost eighty minutes long and follows in the US tradition "big is best". This album is most certainly big.

This is a good album, although not a great album. There is a lot to like on this album. There is not much to dislike on this album.

This is a good album and check it out.

3 points

Out Of The Beardspace - Endless Pursuit (2017)

The second album from this US band.

The band is a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, percussion, keyboards, flute and vocals.
The band was helped out by a sextet who provided trombone, saxophone, upright bass, violin, percussion and vocals.

I was not particular impressed by their 2012 debut album III. The band was all over the place but the quality was not that good. See my review somewhere else in this blog.

The band are back again with another long album. Seventy-nine minutes is a long album.

The band has not changed much style either. If anything, they have worked on it and managed to refine it.

What comes clear for the listener is that the music is Urban-Progressive Rock from New York, USA.

That means a lot of psych rock, melodic neo-prog, some urban rap and hip hop music, a lot of laidback jazz, some fusion and some pop and rock music.

There is no denying that this is a big chunk of music where something is decent and some parts is really good. This album is really working though and gives the listener a lot of pleasures throughout. It is indeed a good album, full of urban landscapes. Check it out.

3 points