Folli Arie. Le - Le Folli Arie (2014)

 

The one and only album from this Italian band.

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

The band had help from numerous guest musicians who added their didgerioo, sax, guitars, castanets, cello and female vocals.

This album has been hanging around for years on my reviews list before I finally decided to review this album.

The album was released on Bandcamp and please check it out there.

The music on this album is a mix of pop, a hint of RPI, 1970s hard rock, fusion and rock. The sound is good and ditto for the vocals.

The language is mix between English and Italian.

It is a bit of a mystery to me who this album never really became a best seller as the music is really commercial and should suit the youth and that generation. It has that quality.

The music on this fifty minutes long album is really very good and should be celebrated. It is a party album too.

Check out this very good album.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Foehn - Faëria (1985)

The one and only album from this French band.

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

A guest musician provided saxophone.

I put this album on in the belief this would be a gentle folk rock album. I was wrong....

This one album only band was fronted by an ex Eskaton member. The zeuhl band Eskaton.

Hence, we are in the zeuhl genre. 

Foehn's take on zeuhl is pretty gentle and not so brutal as most other zeuhl bands.

The good female vocal harmonies are pretty nice. The bass too is nice although it is a driving force in the music.

The music is pretty melodic too with some forays into more melodic prog too.

This is zeuhl for beginners and should not scare away too many people.

The quality is good throughout and I really like this album. I hope I discover more albums like this in my trawl through the progressive rock world.

3 points

Tiadaghton - Broken Chimes (2019)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This album was released through Bandcamp and I got it from the band.

The progressive rock genre is pretty wide these days and there is bands who wants to be associated with the genre. Some of them are not progressive rock in the traditional sense of the word.

This band plays some pretty melancholic rock. There are also some blues in their music.

The band has been looking back to the 1970s and copied some of the stadium rock, AOR and hard rock sound from that time.

The art of good song writing has been evading this album and the music is not that good.

You can agree or disagree with me by checking out this album yourself.

It is a decent album in my books.

2 points

 

Lucifer Was - DiesGrows (2014)

The sixth album from this Norwegian band.

The band was a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ, mellotron and vocals.

Two guest musicians adds flutes.

After the rather uninteresting 2010 concept album with Kristiandsand Symphony Orchestra (The Crown Of Creation), Lucifer Was returns back to their rightful home again. 

Musical home, that is.

That means heavy prog somewhere between Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull.

This time, they have sailed up to the shores of Black Sabbath and got themselves a pretty stoned out sound and soundscape as a result.

A lot of the music is pretty much stoner rock, indeed.

The Jethro Tull is always there and gives the band their identity (when not wandering off with a symphony orchestra).

The vocals are very good and the music is good. The sound too is very good.

This is indeed a good album and one of the more forgotten gems in the Norwegian rock scene. 

Check it out.

3 points

 

 

 

Three Wise Monkeys - Progetto Arte (2015)

The fourth and so far last album from this band from Australia.

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

The music is instrumental too.

A very difficult genre, indeed. It is really difficult to keep the attention of the listener during one hour of instrumental music performed with this lineup.

The music is post-rock with a lot of post-metal influences too.

It ebbs and flows, the music on this album. An album I got because I thought it was a tribute to Italian Progressive Rock, my favourite genre. I was wrong...... Very wrong.

There are some interesting stuff here inbetween some pretty decent stuff.

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

2 points

Atomic Rooster - In Hearing of Atomic Rooster (1971)

 

The third album from this British band.

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

The band continued on again. A band I find it hard to pinpoint.

This forty-one minutes long album gives me another challenge. 

Take hard prog, add some soul, add blues and add psych rock. Atomic Rooster has taken those genres and make a brew out of them.

There is even some minutes of pastoral music here.

The vocals is really good and ditto for the instruments. 

The best things about this album is the many details. It is lacking a bit in good melodies and it comes across as a bit half  baked at times. The woodwinds also feels alien to most of the album.

Nevertheless, this is a decent to good album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Apogee - The Art Of Mind (2015)

The eight album from this one-man band from Germany.

Arne Scafer does the vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards himself.

A guest does the drums and percussion.

As this review is made on the back of the new album from another German one-man band, Yacobs, it is interesting to compare them. The similarities between them are obvious as both are neo-prog bands.

The difference is that Apogee gives us more complicated music while Yacobs gives us more organic melodies. Both styles are good and I like both bands a lot.

The Art Of Mind is a complex and at times very epic piece of music. It got some The Tangent influences and a lot of symphonic prog influences.

The music is complex and epic. It is not particular hard though. Apogee has it's own niche in the neo-prog genre and this album enforces this niche and also gives us a solid good album.

This album is a good album both for the soul and the brain.

3 points

Yacobs - Beautiful (2020)

The sixth album from Ulf Jacobs from Germany.

Ulf did the keyboards, piano, drums and vocals himself.

He had help from a quartet who provided flute, guitars, bass and backing vocals.

After an eight years long break, Ulf Jacobs returns again. His main band Argos had been not so busy either so I guess non-musical things in life has taken over as the main priority. Something I respect.

Yacobs plays German neo-prog. The music is leaning towards Pink Floyd with some female wailing vocals at time. 

There is also some more pastoral pieces where Ulf's vocals is alone over some good keyboards, guitars and piano.

The strength of the songs means almost everything here. The sound is very good and the music has a good ambience. The songs are also good.

I wish Ulf welcome back again with this good album. An album all neo-prog fans will appreciate.

3 points

Bridgend - Rajas (2020)

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

I am not sure if this album came out in 2019 or 2020. My two sources disagrees with each other. 

The music on this forty minutes long album is instrumental.

The music is also a mix of fusion and RPI - Rock Progressive Italiano. 

It is pretty dynamic and offers some half-acoustic jazzy guitars and some more harder guitars. 

The music is OK enough. It is not exciting and it does not raise the pulse of the listener.

It is a decent enough album and just that. I am not won over.

2 points

That's Rugby - Wide Eyed (2012)

The one and only album from this US band.

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

The band released this EP/CD and that was the last we ever heard. It has barely gotten any review too and that is a shame.

This album is very short.... twenty-six minutes long and I discovered too late that it is an EP. But I do not care..... that much.

The music is a mix of post-metal and hard prog. There is also some Radiohead and psych rock in the music.

The band operates with a lot of guitar harmonies and they are by far the best elements on this album. The vocals are OK and fits the purpose.

The music is decent enough and this is indeed my verdict when it comes to this album. It is a decent album.... make that an EP.

2 points

 

 

 

Flood - Tales From the Four Seasons (2009)

 

The one and only album from this English one man band.

Flood does piano, synths, flute, clarinet, cello, drums, bass, guitars and organ here.

This is a seventy minutes long tribute to the English county Dorset. It is a county south-west of London.

The music is pastoral and has not much to do with rock. It is neo-classical music. 

Mike Oldfield springs to mind as a reference.

The mood is light, sunny and fluffy.

The music here is decent enough..... fairly decent and barely decent enough to make this a decent album. I am no fan of this album and is glad to see the end of it as it is a very dull album.

Olfield fans should check out this album.

1.5 points

Deluge Grander - Lunarians (2020)

The fifth album from this US band.

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

The band had help from numerous guest musicians who provided woodwinds, cello and vocals.

From what I gather, this studio album includes a few ideas from the previous two albums the band did not feel had been fully released on those two albums.

That sounds like worthy studio album to me and nothing to be worried about. On the contrary....

The band delivers another symphonic prog album with a very much downtuned sound and vocals.

The music is dark with an almost atonal mix. Well, most of the mix is atonal and simply against most mixing and mastering rules.

This also gives the sound a very aerie feeling.

The music on this three quarters long album is good.

Deluge Grander has their own philosophy and sound. Check them out as this band and their attitude makes the prog scene so much richer.

3 points

 

 

Thank You Scientist - Terraformer (2019)

The third album from this US band.

The band is a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, saxophone, trumpet, bass, guitars, violin and vocals.

This band has got a reputation for being both weird and for creating some pretty melodic, eclectic progressive rock.

I have reviewed and liked their two first albums and a review of Terraformer was therefore overdue.

Clocking in at well over eighty minutes, this album is not for the faint hearted. 

The good vocals floats over some very complex, yet melodic eclectic progressive rock. The sound and music is in the big-is-better US musical concept.

There are some weirdo interplays between violins, guitars and saxophones here. 

The themes are never long and the band and this album has enough material for at least four albums if they had chosen to develop each idea further. But they have not and the result is some really fast but epic music.

The quality is very good and this album should be an eye opener for those who has yet to discover this band.

3.5 points

Bacio Della Medusa. Il - II Bacio Della Medusa (2004)

The debut album from this Italian band.

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

This band has got a very good reputation since the release of this album.

The band plays pretty hard RPI - Rock Progressive Italiano. This album was released through Black Widow Records, a label who likes their music a bit harder than most other Italian record labels.

There are some heavy metal incorporated in RPI indeed. Add some hard folk rock too and some regular RPI too.

The music is pretty fierce with some good vocals.

The quality is good too. This album has some good melodies and details. It heralded the coming of this band.

3 points

 

 

 

Arco Iris - Inti Raymi (1973)

The fourth album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, flute, quenas, saxophones, claron, organ, charango, guitars and vocals.

This is the follow up album to their masterpiece Sudamerico from 1972. 

That was a double album which included mostly everything.

Inti Raymi is a mix of psych rock, fusion, pop and folk rock. I believe it is a concept album about the god called Inti Raymi.

There is tonnes of interesting details behind and over the good vocals. There are also some good opera female vocals here.

The music has not dated that much and it still sounds reasonable fresh.

This is another good album from this band. A band surely among the best ones from this continent.

3 points

 

 

Avdey - Gates Of Horn And Ivory (2021)

The debut album from this band from Tunisia.

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

This is another name-your-price Bandcamp album and therefore perfect for these covid times.

The music is not easy to pinpoint.

 I have heard Brainticket from Switzerland being used as a reference. I is indeed a good reference too.

Take North-African and Middle-East folk rock and add lot of space rock and not at least; krautrock.

This album does indeed sounds like a krautrock album. 

There is a lot of flutes here and a lot of arabic instruments on the top of some good bass and guitars.

The result is fifty fascinating minutes which will give krautrock fans their money worth. So much that donations  to the band will be forthcoming. 

Check out this album.

3 points

Flaming Row - The Pure Shine (2019)

The third album from this German band.

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

Numerous guest musicians has provided percussion, whistles, uillean pipes, flutes, mandolin, cello, viola, violins, guitars, bass, narrations and vocals.

This album is a concept album, a rock opera, based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower novel.

This is also their third album and I have not had the pleasure to listen to their first two albums. The tag progessive metal has scared me off. It was by pure chance and by finding out  that this was a rock opera that I decided to give this album some listen.

The music is very epic and the sound is very big indeed.

There is lots of female vocals and female + male vocal harmonies here. Some very good ones, too. There is also a lot of uillean pipes on some of the songs.

The music is not earth shattering heavy although some parts is clearly progressive metal. The metal bits here are actually good.

The album is well over an hour long. But the music and the long songs makes sense and this is a good album indeed. It is one of the better progressive metal album I have heard for a long time.

3 points

Piazza. Giorgio Fico - Autumn Shades (2019)

The debut solo album from this Italian bassist.

Giorgio Fico Piazza on bass had help from six guest musicians who provided drums, guitars, flute, keyboards and vocals.

This is the bassist in PFM - Premiata Forneria Marconi. 

He and his record label collected some of his old mates, put them up in a studio and invited some audience for a live run through of old Italian progressive rock classics.

This is the type of albums I normally would never review. But since there so few reviews of this album + the album is starting with the fantastic Appena Un Po from the second PFM album, I have been charmed enough to give it some spins plus write a short review.

The audience is listening to the music and there is some audience noise between the songs.

This album is clocking in at over seventy minutes and it has it's place in the scene.

It is a timely reminder how good RPI really is although the versions on this album is not as good as the original versions.

Not a bad album to kill time on a long journey when the covid thingy is over and we can start to travel around again.

3 points

Teverano - Teverano (1982)

The one and only album from this band from Spain.

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

The name and band is totally unknown. It was a side project of the far more established and famous jazz orchestra Iceberg.

Yes, we are talking jazz and fusion here.

Thirty five minutes of fusion with a lot of flamenco and jazz, no less.

The music is pretty pastoral and somber with a lot of violins and electric violins.

The music is not very technical and jazzy. It is more based on feel and ambience.

The music is decent enough and this album is a worthy addition to a fusion collection. But do not expect to be dazzled.

2 points

Autumn Electric - Flowers For Ambrosia (2014)

The fourth album from this US band.

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

A guest musician contribute with accordion and vocals.

I was not happy with their third album, the 2012 opus Make Me A Tree. But I still had hopes for their two remaining albums.....

The music here is like mixing post rock, college rock, Marillion and Radiohead. There is even some Porcupine Tree here.

This fifty-five minutes long album has a modern sound. It also has this big US sound. 

There are some djent here too but not much.

The music is pretty melodic and has some good details. 

There is enough details and good melodies to make this a good album, indeed. 

Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

 

Face The Day - Stuck In The Present (2018)

 

The second album from duo from the Czech Republic.

Filip Kitnar does the drums while Martin Schuster does the vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards and other instruments.

Three guest does electronics, saxophones, bass, violin and guitars.

I have not had the pleasure to listen to their 2016 debut album Corroding Dreams. But I have heard that it was a pretty hard album with some hints of Katanoia.

The first ten minutes of the thirty-eight minutes long Stuck In The Present album is neo-prog. Unashamed neo-prog with some light vocals which makes me believe it is female vocals. Maybe it is. The male vocals is light and pleasant. 

Yes, I can see why Katanoia has been mentioned when it comes to this band. Porcupine Tree is also a very good reference. Add some goth and the neo-prog mentioned over and you get this band.

The music is reasonable melodic though and is based on contrasts between the lighter stuff and the djent stuff.

I am pretty much won over as this is a good album. I am not sure if the band is still around. Nevertheless, those who took part on this album can be satisfied with themselves.

3 points

 

 

 

Lucifer Was - The Crown Of Creation (2010)

The fifth album from this Norwegian band.

Thore Engen on guitars and vocals had help from a symphony orchestra (Kristiandsand Symphony Orchestra), drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, mellotron, synths, organ, flute and vocals.

This album is some sort of a rock opera..... Sort of.

The inclusion of a symphony orchestra gives me that impression. Is it..... ?

Yes and no.

The music is pretty much in that vein. It poppish with this musical feel all over it. 

The good old Lucifer Was who were rocking hard somewhere between Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull is nowhere to be found on this album.

There is a lot of classic pop-rock and female vocals too. 

The music is OK'ish but not really good. I am OK with most of it but I am not impressed. I rather want that other Lucifer Was instead of this album. 

2.5 points

Anathema - A Fine Day To Exit (2001)

The sixth album from this English band.

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

Three extra voices added their vocals too.

I really liked the two previous albums Alternative 4 and Judgement. Two good post-metal with neo-prog influences.

I was therefore looking forward to give this album a listen or ten. 

I was met by an album whose music is somewhere between Pink Floyd, Radiohead and college rock.

The music is still pretty post-rock like too.

The music is also pretty dull and does not have many positivities. There are a couple of good songs here inbetween some rather dull songs.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not impressed at all and I hope the next album I will review of them are better than this one.

2.5 points

 

 

Qüassi - Mareas (2020)

 

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

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

The band comes from Mendoza on the border to Chile and released this album as a name-your-price album on Bandcamp. A no brainer for the listener and the band.

The music is Canterbury scene prog.

That means a mix of fusion, jazz and prog.

There is a couple of catchy songs here inbetween some avant-garde jazz tunes.... but the majority of the music is still quirky, eclectic fusion.

The lack of vocals as a focal point is not a loss here, Quassi has put enough candy and interesting details here to make us forget vocals. 

The album is three quarters of an hour long and the overall quality is very good. Of the new talents, I rate Quassi very high.... close to the top.

Get this album.

3.5 points

 

 

Exponent - Upside Down (1974)

The one and only album from this German band.

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

Exponent is one of those obscure German bands who released their album as a private pressing. The German retro-release album picked up this album again and re-released it in 2014 as a CD with a bonus live track. 

The album has been lumped into this krautrock genre. 

There are some hints of moog and lots of organs here. The flute and guitar solos is also here. There is a lot of vocals too. Very good vocals too.

The music is a mix of Eloy and...... Caravan. Krautrock meets the Canterbury scene. The rock parts of the Canterbury scene, that is.

The four compositions is long. The shortest one of theme clocks in at six and a half minutes. Two of them clocks in at nine minutes while the longest one is an almost twenty minutes long opus.  

Garden Of Delights has done a great job on cleaning up the sound here and even the bonus live track has a good sound.

These three quarters of an hour leaves no doubts that this is a true hidden gem in the German krautrock scene. And the music is krautrock. 

Get this album if a mix of Eloy and Caravan floats your boats. 

3.5 points

Teleharmonium - The Mother Generator (2015)

The one and only album from this Canadian band.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, synths, piano, flute and vocals. Both male and female vocals.

I have never heard about this band although I got their album when it was released and then forgot about it.

The band is from Winnipeg on the American prairie, not too far from the US border too.

I love geography and I need to be surrounded by mountains.... of whom there is none in Winnipeg. 

The music on the fifty minutes long The Mother Generator is a mix of neo-prog and college rock. 

There is mostly college rock here with some pretty good organ and vocal harmonies. 

There is no good songs here though and the album is a bit sameness throughout the album.

I am not won over but the organs saves the album's bacon.

2 points

Stray - Hearts Of Fire (1975)

The eight album from this British band.

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

This is the final relevant album from this band and most says farewell to the band with  this album. And so do I.

The band had been mismanaged and had been unlucky throughout their career. That is the story the band and their friends likes to tell us.

Yes, that is true. But most of all, the band failed in USA and world wide because when it came to the crunch, the band failed to deliver the goods.

That means the band never really delivered a good to great album. Their albums was solid but they did not sparkle and they did not give the general public that many excuses to fork out money, hard earned money, to purchase them.

On this album, the band has still not given up cracking USA. 

We therefore get a mid-atlantic album which crashes down somewhere south of Iceland.

The music is hard rocking and gives us three quarters of an hour full of hard rock with some strong southern rock influences.

This is a decent, solid album. It is not a great album and it buried the band again and lost them the chance to crack USA. 

On it's own.... it is a cracking decent hard rock album well worth checking out.

2 points

Stern Combo Meissen - Der weite Weg (1979)

The second album from this German band.

The band was a seven piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

I had hoped that this band would turn out to be like an like ELP or Omega combo from behind the Iron Curtain. This band is from the old DDR, East Germany.

Their debut album was very promising indeed.

My disappointment with Der Weite Weg is therefore considerable and crushing.

The German vocals are OK.

What is not OK is the pop-rock here. Braindead folk rock and some really low quality pop-rock too.

This is music for the uneducated masses and even these would bypass this band in search for something far better from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Only DDR nostalgia would make listening to this album.

It is an all out turkey, this album and totally awful.

Avoid at all cost.

1 points

 

 

 

Existence - Origins (2017)

The third and so far last album from this Canadian band.

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

I have never heard about this band before. They debuted back in 1994 with Fragile Whispering Of Innocence. The follow up album came in 1999 and was named Small People, Short Story, Little Crime.

It took them almost eighteen years to come up with Origins.

This is a double CD too.

The music is melodic neo-prog with a lot of Pink Floyd and AOR influences.

There is a lot of long guitar solos here, some violin work and mostly piano and keyboards pieces. That in addition to some vocals.

The sound is good.

The music is decent enough as it does not really enthuse me or bring any quality to the table. Most of the music feels overblown and lethargic. 

Sorry.......

2 points

Marillion - Marbles (2004)

 

The 13th album from this British band.

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

A female vocalist added her vocals on two of the tracks.

The last albums had not really been up the standards I would expect from the best neo-prog and art rock band out there. Their fingers on this title was starting to slip.......

And then Marbles comes along. A double CD it is too.

The band continues in the same genre as before. That means a mix of art rock and neo-prog. The occasional female vocals is a good addition.

The band has this time written better songs and that is obvious.

A couple of dubious songs on the second CD drags this one and a half hour long album back towards a good rating. Marbles is still a good improvement on the previous couple of albums.

3 points

 

 

Pohjola. Pekka - Visitation (1979)

The fourth album from this Finnish artist.

Pekka Pohjola did the bass and grand piano here himself.

He had got help from numerous guest musicians providing drums, guitars, woodwinds, keyboards and a full symphony orchestra.

The fourth album from this very good artist from Finland who sadly left us back in 2008.

Despite of having a full symphonic orchestra, the music is pretty heavy fusion and cinematic music.

There is even some folk rock like themes here. 

Those themes are very pastoral and parts of the symphonic orchestra does a great job here. That is the woodwinds part of the symphonic orchestra.

Most of the music is performed by woodwinds and bass. There is the occasional keyboards, drums and guitars too.

The first half of this half an hour long album is bordering to great. The final half is somewhere between good and very good.

This is another very good album from Pekka and evidence that I lost out on a great artist while he was still alive. That is my loss.

3.5 points

Glass Kites - Glass Kites II (2021)

The second album from this Canadian band.

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

This is their second album and the follow up to their very good self-titled 2012 debut album.

I noted a lot of post rock on that album.

I again note a lot of post rock. There are some ebbs and flows here.

There are also some airy dream pop and folk rock here. The mood is uplifting and positive with some very good vocals. There are even some hints of Saga here.

Most of the music is piano and keyboards based with the vocals on the top.

This album is short.... too short. Half an hour is short in the company of a band like Glass Kites. 

This is a short and good album. It is still a good album and I hope we will hear a lot more about and from this band. This is a band the scene really need.

3 points

 

 

Tamarugo - Tan Lejos Del Mar (1979)

The one and only album from this band from Chile.

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

Two guest musicians provides drums, percussion and woodwinds.

This band released this album before they broke up again.

The band were a folk rock band in the same scene as Los Jaivas and Congresso. The scene was leaning towards progressive rock and fusion.

That very much goes for this band too. And this album.

Take Caravan and add some more folk rock. Folk rock from the Andes region, that is.

The music is pretty melodic with a jazzy, Canterbury scene feel. 

The music is also pretty quirky and full of interesting details.

This is indeed an interesting forty minutes long album with a mix of decent and good songs. Fans of folk rock should check out this album as the sound is good and there is enough music here to make everyone happy.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Maschine - Naturalis (2016)

The second album from this UK band.

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

The band owner Luke Machin is the guitarist in The Tangent and a great guitarist in his own right. It is to his great credit that the 2013 debut album Rubidium was not a guitar rifforama album. 

Neither is Naturalis.

OK, the guitars gets a lot of airplay here. But it is not what this album is all about. There is for example lots of vocal harmonies here. Both male and female vocals.

The songs are more in the melodic prog genre with some trips to prog metal, celtic folk rock, symph prog and neo-prog.

There is also a lot of technical details done on the guitars. But those comes as a natural flow of the ideas and music. Not as a show-off.

Guitar hero albums, as this is not, like this is something I like. This is by no means a great album. It is still a good album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

 

 

 

Deluge Grander - The Form Of The Good (2009)

The second album from this US band.

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

Eight guest musicians added oboe, violin, cello, trumpet, trombone, wood block, clarinet, saxophone, flute and vocals.

Deluge Grander is one of the more interesting and downright exciting bands in USA these days. At least in the prog genre.

The music here is down-tuned and pretty gloomy. It is also instrumental.

There are some epic music here too and the music should be labeled as eclectic symphonic prog.

The music is pretty powerful and gloomy throughout. The lack of vocals is OK here.

The songs are pretty good and this album is a good follow up to their rather sensational debut album Augusts In The Urals.

Check out this album and the rest of their albums.

3 points

T2 - It'll All Work Out In Boomland (1970)

The debut album from this British band.

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

There is a lot of trios in the history of prog and hard rock. A lot of them comes from UK.

The best power trio is Rush in my humble opinion. But also numerous other trios made the air full of hard rock and prog.

T2 released four album between 1970 and 1994 before they gave up. Only this album is regarded as one album to pursue.

Then again, this album has a semi-classic status.

The music is hard rock with a lot of psych and spaced out rock too. It sounds like coal mining meets gardening. 

And that is the sound here. 

There is also some more pastoral pieces among the rumbling thunder, rumbling psyched out thunder, on this album. The vocals is really good.

This album is indeed a semi-classic and a very good album too.

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Eureka - Shackleton's Voyage (2009)

The fourth album from this multi-national band.

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

This project fronted by Billy Sherwood and Troy Donockley released five albums between 1997 and 2015. I doubt if they are still around.

Melodic prog and neo-prog was their genre.

Shackleton's Voyage is a concept album about the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's final journey where he by a miracle and skills survived. So did the rest of his expedition too. It is one of the most famous human drama in the polar areas ever. 

Concept albums has narrations and long instrumental pieces. So does this album too. 

 This album is fifty-three minutes long and has it all. Male and female vocals. Narrations and instrumentals.

The music is a bit wishy-washy. It is not particular good. 

Some of the music is rather good though. I am not over awed but it still have something good. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You (1970)

The second album from this British band.

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

This is their second album and the first after the departure of Carl Palmer, who left to become one third of ELP.

The band still continues down the hard blues and rock path. A path well trodden by many other bands.

There is also a lot of symphonic prog in their music.

The music is pretty to very hard during these forty-minutes.

It is also pretty much based on great details. The music is full of small, intricate details. 

The vocals are also good and both the opening track and the final track is pretty special.

This is therefore a good album from a pretty special band. A band who deserves their status as a great band. A status underpinned by this album.

3 points

Apogee - Waiting For The Challenge (2012)

The seventh album from this German one man band.

Arne Schafer does the keyboards, guitars, bass and vocals himself.

Two drummers are alternating on laying down the drums on this album.

Arne continues in the same vein on this album as he has done on the previous three albums.... if not longer.

That means neo-prog with a lot of Pink Floyd and some The Tangent influences. 

The music is pretty melancholic and very much in the vein of the German neo-prog scene. A scene Apogee is one of the founding members of.

The music is pretty epic and majestic throughout. The vocals as good but the sound is pretty thin and would had been better with some xtra beefing up. Most albums from one-man-bands is suffering from this.

There is not much negative things I can say about this album. This album is vaguely good and it is a solid one.

Neo-prog fans and in particular fans of German neo-prog should check out this album.

3 points

Wobbler - Dwellers of the Deep (2020)

The fifth album from this Norwegian band.

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

A review of this album is well over due. I tried to review it last year and earlier this year without really manage to find the words and my opinions about it. 

Wobbler is a band I very much value and rate as one of three best Norwegian bands. I have given their previous four albums some good reviews.

Dwellers Of The Deep has topped most reviewers and prog listeners "best of 2020" lists. I can fully understand that.

This album got four songs and clocks in at around forty-five minutes. Each of them are complex symphonic prog in the Yes vein.

There is indeed a lot of love if you are a Yes and symphonic prog fan.

The music is very complex and also got some really great to superb melody lines.

It is an album that is pretty close to being a masterpiece. Most people will hail this as a masterpiece. I am not but it runs that status close.

This is one heck of an album.

4.5 points

Éternité - Les Chants De L'Éternité (1977)

 

The one and only album from this band from Canada.

The band was Michel Le Francois on clavinet, piano, keyboards, synths and guitars + Claude Peloquin on vocals.

They got help from numerous other musicians who contributed with drums, percussion, bass, synths, organ, saxophones and vocals.

This band comes from the French speaking part of Canada, the Quebec region.

This album is a very obscure album but it was released through the biggest record label in the world that time; Polydor. It is doubtful this album got a world wide release and marketing.

The music is guitars and vocal harmonies driven symphonic prog in the vein of a rock opera. Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair the musicals springs to mind.

There are some unearthly good female vocals here and some decent music. This album has not aged that well as it has this early 1970s naive feel.

This is a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Eternal Wanderers - Homeless Soul (2020)

The fourth album from this Russian band.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, sitar, guitars, keyboards, synths, theremin, samples and vocals.

Three guests provided violin and vocals.

I reviewed their second album, the 2011 opus So Far And So Near for ProgArchives just before I left them and started # 1 of this blog. I thought it was a great album.

The band released their third album The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow back 2016 without me reviewing it before I finally got this album for review.

The base line here is neo-prog.

Then add some Russian folk rock, a bit classical music, hard prog and goth rock. This more or less gives you both this band and album.

The band use both male and female vocals and that to a great effect.

There is no real killer tracks on this album and that is my only gripe with it. This band is a very interesting band and ditto for this album. Check it out.

3 points

 

 

 

Yob - Our Raw Heart (2018)

The eight album from this US band.

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

A guest musicians provided piano on one song.

The band has so far given us seven albums full of spaced out post metal. There is a lot of space rock in their music, but without being space rock.

Their music can sound primitive and bleak too.

There is no change on Our Raw Heart. It is more of the same, really.

Lots of guitars and bass on some pretty primitive, basic songs. The songs ebbs and flows a lot.

The band tries to branch out on a couple of the songs here and there is some rays of sun here. But most of this album is bleak.

There is a lot going for their brand of music and this seventy-five minutes long album is something their fans will really enjoy.

And so do I as I both like this type of music and that I can see the quality here.

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

3 points

 

 

Stern Combo Meissen - Weisses Gold (1978)

The debut album from this Eest-Germany (DDR) band.

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

They had help from some narration, a classical orchestra and a choir.

This band were one of the bigger symphonic prog bands from the countries trapped behind the iron curtain after world war II.

The band has indeed released nine albums, the last one one year ago. I got their first two of their albums but may get some more of  them as I am a symphonic prog fan.

This music is more like a piece of classical music adapted to the rock genre. Nice springs to mind here. The album is short... forty minutes long.

The music is almost an non-event during the first five to ten minutes before it become pretty busy towards the end.

There is a lot of keyboards here and a lot of narrations. I am not that strong in German any longer so I do not get the story here.

The music is also baroque and slightly wagnerian in the ambience.

It is a special album and a throwback to the old symphonic prog in the vein of ELP, The Nice and Trace. It is also a good album and well worth checking out.

3 points

 

Estratagema - Canciones Muertas (2015)

 

The one and only album from this band from Argentina.

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

Another youthful band from this continent taking on progressive rock.

Rush, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and older bands from Argentina like Arco Iris has been obvious inspirations for this one hour long album released through Bandcamp.

The music is melodic to hard and the vocals are all Spanish. Which is good as Spanish is an excellent language and adds a lot of colours to this music.

The music is pretty songs and verse orientated in the first half before the album develops into instrumental prog and fusion.

The band knows how to play and the result is a good album indeed.

Estratagema does not bring anything new to the scene but this album is a rather pleasant one.

3 points

 

Autumn Electric - Make Me A Tree (2012)

The third album from this US band.

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

I have not heard their first two albums so I am entering their story on the third album. I will also review their two follow up albums later this spring.

This is a new name to me but I have always got their albums when they have released them as the collector I am. Sad.........

There are some Rush influences in their music and a lot more college rock. There is also some neo-prog here and a lot more folk rock.

Acid folk rock ? Yes, I think the band can live with that label.

There is a lot of vocal harmonies here and the music is rather lush. It is also pretty pastoral.

The end result is an hour of decent to good music. The quality is simply not there and the songs are not good enough.

Nevertheless, check out this band and album from their Bandcamp site. 

2.5 points

Arco Iris - Sudamérica O El Regreso A La Aurora (1972)

The third album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, woodwinds, harmonica and vocals.

Two guest contributed with spoken words.

The band had by now really established themselves. They very much put their case forward with this double album. 

Starting out as a symphonic heavy prog album, the album mellows and we get some folk rock before we also gets some more prog and a lot of fusion and some jazz. 

The band was very brave and headstrong by releasing this album. Gosh.... One hundred minutes of some very eclectic music.

Although it sounds a bit dated anno 2021, there are some very good music on this album. The fusion is very good and ditto for the progressive rock.

The music is at times very heavy and must have been crushing heavy back in those days.

This album is one of the outstanding albums from this continent from that time and age. It has not aged that well, though.....

Nevertheless, these one hundred minutes really throws a punch and it mostly lands where it should land.

This is indeed a very good album.

3.5 points

Emberside - Starborn (2019)

The second album from this US band.

The band is a one man band with Nick Cereola doing the vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, guitars and drums. The drums sounds like they are made in a computer.

I have not heard the first album so I do not know anything about the development of this band. Those interested can visit the Bandcamp site.

Nick Cereola gives us seventy-two minutes worth with a mix of neo-prog, rock and pop music.

The music is very melodic.

It is not the most exciting music around either. 

The vocals is pretty good. The music is decent enough and that makes this a decent album but not a particular interesting album. In an ocean like melodic college rock, this album has found itself drowned.

2 points

 

Elohim - Mana Perdu (1983)

The one and only album from this French band.

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

Elohim was following in the footsteps of the likes of Mona Lisa and Ange on this album.

Yes, we are speaking French symphonic prog here and that in the 1970s sound and spirit.

Elohim follows this recipe to every tone. 

There are still some 1980s in their music too.

Forty-three minutes is the original album and you can add half an hour on the CD version Musea released some years ago. The CD version is the preferred one.... although I am reviewing the original version.

The music is really good with some really good vocals throughout.

It an album well worth checking out.

3 points