Bent Knee - Twenty Pills Without Water (2024)

The seventh album from this band from USA.

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

This is the first album from the new Bent Knee after both their original members left the band. Only the vocalist Courtney Swain is left from the last album, if I am not much mistaken.

I thought I had reviewed some of their six first albums, if not all of them. But that is not the case so I will do that next year... or so. 

Their music is a mix of eclectic prog, electronica and a bit avant-garde pop/rock. The music is pretty elegant too and has got some pop sensibilities.

The music is also very much focused on Courtney's vocals which is everywhere. Some really good vocals, btw. Tori Amos is a good reference for both the vocals and the music on this album.

Some of the music is slightly atonal too. There is also a couple of strange songs here in the avant-garde folk rock vein. Weird but not that great. 

There are a lot of interesting details on this three quarters of an hour long album. Interesting details and lots of good music too.

It is an intriguing album which should please those into eclectic prog and female vocals progressive rock.

I will definate visit and review their first six albums sometimes in the next couple of years for # 4 of this blog.

Check out this album.

3 points

 

 

 

Spidergawd - Spidergawd IV (2017)

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, steel guitars, harmonica, saxophone and vocals.

The band returned again for their fourth album and another great album art-work. Album art-work which means it is a joy to include this band in this blog. 

This band include the Motorpsycho drummer and comes from the same town, Trondheim, as Motorpsyho too.

The music is hard and heavy psych rock. There are also some garage rock here too. 

There are also some power pop influences although the band is anything but commercial. A couple of the songs here has a spring in their step and is pretty catchy though....

Most of all, the last two albums sounded like a heavy and harder version of Motorpsycho. A more straight forward rocking version of Motorpsycho.

The music here is still complex and hard though with some raw vocals. The songs on this forty minutes long album has some good details, some of them provided by the saxophone, and some good melodies.

This is a good album indeed and one to check out if hard psych and/or good old hard rock is your thing. 

Check it out.

3 points

Tusmørke - Bydyra (2017)

The fifth album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of glockenspiel, percussion, drums, bass, acoustic guitars, jews harp, moog, mellotron, grand piano, spinet, keyboards, flute and vocals.

The band was helped out by some guests who added electric guitar, violin, vocals and a children choir.

This album is one of the reasons I was a bit vary of reviewing their albums... I cannot stand childen vocals and children music. This is what we get on this album.

Take a bit Norwegian folk music, jazz and Daevid Allen solo albums and his more weird Gong albums. That is at best we get here. At worst, children rhymes and some electronic children music.

The vocals are good. The sound of children choir pretty horrible, although I am sure someone likes them too. 

The music is pretty naive and ditto for the Norwegian lyrics. 

This is a borderline turkey but it is only saved by the jazz and the Daevid Allen like weirdness. Hence, it is a half decent album. It is not an album I will ever listen to again.

1.5 points

Golden Caves - Dysergy (2020)

The third and so far final album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This album is in reallity their second album as their previous album, the 2017 album Collision, was a re-recorded version of the Bring Me To The Water album from 2016. I got no idea why but they chose to do so. 

I reviewed Collision back in February 2018 for # 2 of this blog and gave it a Good rating.

On Dysergy, we get the same again from Collision.

That is some poppy, songs-orientated and commercial art-rock with female vocals.

The music is pretty hard throughout. It is most of all commercial though.

The vocals and the vocal harmonies is good and the guitars and the other instruments are suitable good too.

The quality of the music is not right there.... It is somewhere between decent and good. There are a couple of cringe worthy moments on this album which does not add to the enjoyment of this album.

If commercial hard edged rock with female vocals is your thing, this album is something for you.

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

Emerald Dawn. The - In Time (2023)

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This album has flown under my radar since it was released one year ago. This despite of me loving the previous album, the 2021 album To Touch The Sky. I gave that a great rating. 

The Emerald Dawn from Cornwall is also one of the better British progressive rock bands and has been among the top five British bands since their debut album. 

Their take on progressive rock is a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog. The vocals is somber and I get a lot of Ashes You Leave, a Croatian band, vibes from this album as I did on the previous album.

There are three opuses here. The opening track is clocking in at twenty-four minutes and the second at fifteen minutes. A shorter track is closing this album.

The music is very somber at times and the band has clearly carved themselves out a niche here. The music is also complex and pretty technical with some saxophones and keyboards really adding some very good details to the music.

The vocals is really good and there is a lot of things going on in their music. Some pretty unique music, it is.

The result is a very good album, indeed. It is indeed an album prog fans should check out.

3.5 points

Meer - Wheels Within Wheels (2024)

The third album from this band from Norway.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, viola, grand piano, church organ, electric organ, keyboards, programming and vocals.

Some guests added vibraphone, flute and backing vocals.

This album has been out for a month and it has already got a reputation for being a very complex album. So I decided to give it some extra time on my travels around Scotland, in the gym and in my office. 

The music on this one hour long album is a blend of symphonic prog, art-rock and pomp rock. 

The music is big, bold and epic. It has the US symphonic prog and pomp rock sound where everything big is best and there is no limits to the music.

The big band, eight members, is also one of the reason for the big sound. There is a lot of male and female vocals on the top of some multi-layered instruments. Some of the programming includes adding symphony orchestra instruments.

Despite of the big band, the melodies and the music is pretty quirky and has some unexpected twists and turns. The downside here is that the band has included a piece of music which is bordering to disco. Not nice but that is the only negative thing I can say about this album.

The result is a very good album from a band well worth checking out. 

3.5 points

 

Lazleitt - Perpetually Under Idle Grounds (2019)

The second and so far final album from this band from USA.

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

The band continued on from their 2018 debut album On The Brink with new members. Alex Lazcano is the only original member here. The band has also expanded from being a duo to being a quintet. 

The band, make that the main writer Alex Lazcano, did not change much of the music and approach from the debut album to this album, the follow up album. We still get US neo-prog with some keltic undertones. 

The references are still Yes, Marillion, IQ and Rush. The music is a bit heavier this time around and Dream Theater too can be added as a reference.

There is a lot of guitar solos here and most of them are good to very good. The vocals too is good and the rest of the band does a good job, supporting and carrying through Alex visions and music.

The music is pretty epic and hard. It is also melodic too. 

The quality of the music and sound on this forty minutes long album is good throughout. This band is a welcome addition to the scene and these two albums is well worth checking out. I hope we will get more albums from Alex.

3 points

Ira Del Baccano. L' - Paradox Hourglass (2017)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

The band returned again with a new album, three years after their debut album Terra 42.

The music is still stoner rock with some space rock and hard rock influences.

The music is entirely instrumental too. 

The sound is very dry and not so colourful. The music is therefore a bare bones mix of stoner rock. There are not enough space rock here to add colours to the music.

That said, the music is decent enough. This album is not an improvement on Terra 42 though.... Nevertheless, this is a decent enough album.

2 points

 

 

Anubis - The Unforgivable (2024)

The seventh album from this band from Australia.

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

A female vocalist delivered vocals on two tracks.

This is a band I have known since I started with reviewing progressive rock. But I have lost contact with the band and their albums in the last five years. I think there is a couple of their previous albums I have to review.

Their music has always been muscular neo-prog with a lot of progressive metal influences. 

That is also the case here. The music is muscular, epic neo-prog with lots of Dream Theater influences. Add Porcupine Tree and Kansas too and you get their more heavy influences.

The music is still melodic and elegant. The vocals is good and the musicians too does a good job.

There is a lot to enjoy here. Both the melodies and the details is good and this album is for me a welcome reminder how good this band is.

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Viima - Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta (2006)

The debut album from this band from Finland.

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

Two guests added bass and alto saxophone on a couple of tracks.

This band released their third album earlier this year which I got. I thought it would be best if I also reviewed their first two albums too so I could review all their albums this month. Something I will do.

The band has been referred to as a folk rock band. Or progressive folk rock band to be more precise. I will not disagree with that label but there is more to their music than that. Much more

There is both a lot of eclectic prog and symphonic prog in their music too. The female vocals also brings in some comparisons with Renaissance. Although Paivi Kylmanen's vocals are great, they are nowhere as good as Annie Haslam's vocals though.

However... there are a lot of Yes and Camel in their music and the guitar solos, which there is a lot of on this forty-three minutes long album, reminds me about Steve Howe. The flutes and the rest of the music is in the Jethro Tull street. That with some Gentle Giant influences too.

The music is somewhere between decent and good. The guitar solos, the organ solos and the vocals elevates this album to a good rating.

I am really looking forward to sink my ears into their two other albums too. This band is one you need to check out.

3 points

Tangerine Dream - Zeit (1972)

The third album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of organ, glissando guitars, electronics and keyboards.

Some guests added cello, organ and moog on this album.

I have to admit that progressive electronic is my least favourite genre within the big progressive rock family. But it is difficult, not to say impossible, to bypass this band. Hence my reviews of a dozen or so of their albums.

We get four pieces of electronic ambient pieces here. They are all around or just short of twenty minutes each. This means a seventy-six minutes long album, originally released on a double LP.

The first piece of music, Birth Of Liquid Plejades, has some cello and atonal guitars. It is by far the best piece here and bordering to being a good track. Piece no two and three is pretty dire while the closing piece of music is decent enough.

The result is a decent enough album which does not change my opinion about this genre. It is also the least interesting album of their first three albums.

2 points

Guranfoe - Gumbo Gumbo (2022)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, grand piano, organ, piano, keyboards, mellotron and synths.

A handful of guests added lap steel guitar, percussion, flute, saxophone and voice.

Their 2019 debut album Sum Of Erda was a good album indeed. Quirky, eclectic instrumental prog rock.

The band has in the years following that album done a lot of gigs and released a lot of live albums. Some of these tunes has found it's way to a studio and has become this album. There are also other compositions you only can find on this studio album too.

The music is still quirky, eclectic progressive rock with some Canterbury prog and jazz influences. There are also some RIO chamber rock influences here and those are pretty strong indeed.

There is a lot of interesting detail on this forty minutes long album. 

The overall quality is also good throughout. I hope we will get some more albums from this band. I have really enjoyed their two albums.

3 points

Green - Of Love and Soul (2005)

The second and final album from this band from Italy.

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

I was not impressed by their pretty dire debut album, the 2003 album Life. So I had no expectation for the follow up album, the one I am reviewing here.

The music here is a mix of hard rock, college rock and indie rock.

The guitars are OK and ditto for the vocals.

The music is pretty hard but not overly heavy. There are some Rush influences here and some good guitar solos.

The band has not brought anything new to the scene with this run-of-the-mill album.

Nevertheless, the music is decent enough and that makes this a decent album. I can understand why the band broke up, though. They were one too many on this overcrowded scene.

2 points

 

 

 

 

Infringement - Black Science & White Lies (2024)

The third album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added some vocals to this album.

This is a band I have always liked a lot. I gave their first two album from 2017 and 2019 good ratings in # 2 of this blog. 

Those two album had the likes of Genesis, Arena, IQ, Pendragon and Magic Pie as good references. 

The same can be said about their new album too. The album has two suites, twenty odd minutes each which gives us a total running time of three quarters of an hour.

The music is monumental, epic, muscular and melodic at the same time. The music is not particular heavy despite of having some bombastic pieces of music. The music is bombastic as in symphonic.... symphonic prog.

The two tracks are clearly concept based with some narrations and some very good vocals.

The result is a very good album which will appeal to most neo-prog and symphonic prog fans. This album will indeed confirm this band's place among the best Norwegian prog rock bands. 

Check out this album.

3.5 points

 

 

Lazleitt - On The Brink (2018)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

Two guests added guitars and flute.

The band released two albums in 2018 and 2019 before they gave up the ghost. 

The band is listed as a neo-prog band in most prog websites. Which is a pretty accurate description.

Take a bit if Yes, Marillion, IQ and Rush and you get the music here. There is also some keltic folk rock undertones throughout this album.

The music is pretty hard and muscular throughout these forty minutes. There is a lot of interesting details here too and the vocals is good.

This is indeed a good album. An obscure album who deserve a lot more attention and I guess that also goes for their second album which I will review sometimes later this week.

Check out this album.

3 points

Ira Del Baccano. L' - Terra 42 (2014)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This band has so far released three albums and they are all up for reviews this month in this blog.

Their music on this album is both heavy and spacy.....

It is in short a mix of hard rock and space rock. 

The hard rock has this hard and stoner rock sound from the 1970s. Ditto for the space rock.

The music on this one hour long album is entirely instrumental and it has all the usual outer space rock soundbites. Those are the best bits here. 

Both the guitars and synths are pretty good. The melodies are OK but nothing special.

This is an acceptable debut album from a band who has just come to my attention. I fear the reason for they anonymity is the not so good albums. I will soon find out if the two other albums are in the same vein as this one.

Space rock fans may want to check out this album.

2 points

 

 

Entity - Il Naufragio Della Speranza (2024)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

The band returns after a ten years long pause. Their 2014 album Il Falso Centro was superb and is one of the best post-1970s RPI albums of all time. I reviewed it back in June 2014 in # 1 of this blog.

The music is still a return to the 1970s RPI scene with a lot of Banco references.  

The music is pretty muscular and epic. There is also some more pastoral pieces of music here. It is also mid-tempo with some slower parts here and then.

The music is songs based but it still feels like a fifty minutes long piece of music. The songs are well balanced with some piano interludes and opening tones of some of the songs.

The vocals are Italian and they are very good. Ditto for the keyboards, sometimes acting as pianos. 

The sound is very good and there are a few piece of great music here too.

The result is a very good album. It is not as good as the debut album. Nevertheless, both their albums should be essential purchases for RPI fans.

3.5 points

 

The Samuel Jackson Five - Easily Misunderstood (2005)

The second album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, organ, oscillator, synths, samples, electronics and voices.

Some guests added percussion, bass, viola, violin, synths, saxophones and clarinet.

I was not too impressed by their debut album and the instrumental math rock they brought to the market on that album. That album was a bit short on quality but still a decent album.

The band continues with their brand of instrumental math rock on their new album. 

This album also sees the band expanding their horizons. That means this fifty minutes long album has some pretty good influences from cinematic rock, RIO and post-rock.

The post-rock influences here are good. Ditto for some of the melodies.

This album sounds like a crossroad between cinematic rock, post rock and math rock. Some better melodies and this album would have been a good album. It is not a bad album at all and an improvement on their debut album.

Check out this band and album if instrumental prog and math rock is your thing.

2.5 points 

Sleeping Pandora - Ride the Horizon (2021)

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

Mathias Rosmann did the guitars, piano, synths and programming here.

This band is his solo project outside his usual activities. 

The music on this album is space rock with some ambient music and electronica incorporated into the music.

The music is really minimalistic and softly spoken. The music is electric guitars with gentle picking and no hard riffs.

The guitars is supported by some synths, creating space rock soundscapes.

That is what we get on this three quarters of an hour long album. An album a step in the wrong direction, compared to the previous album.

It is still a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

 

Guranfoe - Sum of Erda (2019)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitar, piano, organ and synths.

The band had help from some guests who provided vibraphone, recorder, flute, clarinet and violin.

This band has so far released two studio albums and thirteen - 13 - live albums (!!). It is pretty obvious that this band regard themselves as a live band and then as recording artists. I will review the second studio album sometimes next week.

The music here is instrumental eclectic prog. There is a lot of quirky Canterbury prog and some symphonic prog influences here too.

There is even twenty seconds taken from Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic Freebird here too. Which made me grin as a cat every time I heard it. Funny but also good and done with a lot of respect. That part is hard and heavy. 

There is also a lot more pastoral parts here. None on the music is particular easy listening as the melodies has a lot of twists and turns. Most of them unexpected.

The music is indeed eclectic and both Gentle Giant and King Crimson springs to mind. So does Caravan too.

The music on this thirty-seven minutes long album is also good throughout. I will keep an eye on this band.

3 points

Green - Life (2003)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

The band released two albums between 2003 and 2005. Both of them will be reviewed here in the next days.

The band has been included in ProgArchives as an art-rock and neo-prog band

The music here is a mix of pop music, commercial rock and art-rock. 

There is not much art-rock here though. The music is more an attempt on commercial rock. 

The vocals is young and pop music orientated. The rest of the band does a decent job on some not particular difficult to play music.

The result is only a half-decent album. A couple of pretty decent songs are the only saving grace here. It is an album well worth bypassing.

1.5 points

Anderson. Jon - Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: True (2024)

The 17th album from this artist from Great Britain.

This band, as this is really a band album, is a sextet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.

I have yet to dig into my Jon Anderson solo albums for reviews so this is the first of his solo albums I am reviewing. 

Strictly speaking, this is not a Jon Anderson solo album. It is a cooperation between him and The Band Geeks. The latter one is a quintet and a band in it's own right. 

The Band Geeks was also Jon Anderson's backing band on some gigs and they decided to go into studio together. This to record some new songs.

The songs here is either a tribute to Yes or very much in the same vein as Yes. This is the most Yes like album I have ever heard outside Yes itself. So much that it almost make sense labelling this album as a lost Yes album. With Jon on the vocals, that is an interesting debate.

This instant Yes factor is both due to the vocals and the band successfully trying to sound like Yes.

There is one long song here clocking in at almost seventeen minutes. The other songs on this one hour long album is shorter and more punchier.

The songs are a bit on the sweet and sunny end of what Yes did of symhonic prog. The balance between shades and light you normally got on a Yes album is not present here.

That said, the songs are all very good and we are talking a very good to great album. There is some superb vocals here and that elevates this album to a great album indeed.

This is one of the best prog rock album of this year and a triumphant return of Jon Anderson. I take my hat of to him and this album.

4 points

Spooky Tooth - Cross Purpose (1999)

The eight and final album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added keyboards and harmonica.

The band returned again for a final album exactly twenty-five years after their last album. A quarter of a century, in other words.

None of the members from that album returned to do Cross Purposes. Mike Harrison and Mike Kellie from the Witness album is involved in this album on vocals and drums, though.

The music is mostly old style rock'n'roll and has almost nothing at all in common with what this band has previously released on their first seven albums. 

There are some third rate versions of some soul classics here at the end of the album and those versions is pretty horrible.

The vocals is good and that is the only good thing I can say about this album. But not even these vocals can save this abysmal bad album. It is a turkey.

1 point

Ozul - Man on the Shore (2024)

The second album from this one-man-band from Norway.

Ozul is Paulo Chavarria on guitars, electronics and vocals.

Paulo is originally from Costa Rica, Latin-America but he has settled in Bergen, Norway. Two albums has so far been released and I reviewed the debut album last month and awarded it a good rating.

The music on the 2023 debut album Provenance was a mix of art-rock, psych rock and heavy prog. Porcupine Tree and Marillion is two good references here.

That is also the case on this album. There is a lot more electronica and cinematic rock this time around though. Even some djent can be found here.

The music is very much expanded and has a lot more influences.

There is still a melancholic undertone in the music. The music is a mix of mid-tempo and heavier prog. 

The vocals is really good. The absence of some killer tunes is my only gripe with this album. Paulo can go far with this project if he wrote and recorded some even better songs than the ones on his first two albums.

3 points

 

 

 

 

Esquizoide - Cronicas (2024)

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

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

Five guests added cello, violin, flute, saxophone and bass.

This is a new band from Argentina who has previously released two EPs in 2016 and 2019 before they released this album. This album is clocking in at fifty minutes.

The band has been labeled as a heavy prog band. I am not sure about that.... OK, they reminds me about a heavy, hard rocking version of Jethro Tull, the version of that band who won them the best hard rock act at the Grammy awards and pipped the likes of Metallica to that price (to everyobody's shock and horror). 

That said, there are a lot more art-rock in their music than heavy prog. There are some Porcupine Tree influences here though and some of the guitar solos has some Iron Maiden influences.

The flute and a lot of the music is also leaning towards Jethro Tull as I stated above. And we even get some tango and Latin - Rock here....

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on some songs who are slightly lacking in quality.

This is a more than acceptable debut album. The sound is good and I am awarding it a weak good rating. The addition of some vintage organ is adding that little extra to this album.

This is an album most prog fans will enjoy.

3 points

Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit (2010)

The 15th album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added keyboards, trumpet and female vocals on three tracks.

The band continued on from the rather disappointing 2009 album Child Of The Future.

I have been under the impression that Heavy Metal Fruit is one of the pillars in this band's very big discography. So I was looking forward to this album.

The band shows a lot of restraint on this album as they are no longe jumping in all directions. The band has more gone for elegance and subtle expressions.

In the case of this album, that means an understated blend of psych rock and space rock. There is indeed some krautrock here too. And there is even a funky song here followed by some good potent jazz.

The music on this one hour long album has all the Motorpsycho trademarks too. Their sound is pretty unique and that carries over to the music itself.

The music is six long pieces where the longest one is clocking in at over twenty minutes. 

The overall quality is very good indeed and I have really enjoyed the music and the many interesting details scattered along this album.

This is an album psych rock fans should check out. It is an album most prog fans will find interesting too. 

3.5 points

Triumph - Rock & Roll Machine (1977)

The second album from this band from Canada.

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

Some guests added keyboards and vocals.

I have come to the second album in my reviews of all their albums. Their debut album did not sound convincing as it is a pretty substandard album.

Rock & Roll Machine turned out to be their best selling album and they even got a hit single here. The hit single is their version of Joe Walsh's evergreen Rocky Mountain Way.

This three quarters of an hour long albums includes a mix of hard rock and some more pastoral rock songs. There are even a ballad here.

The music is pretty youthful and hard. The band were a proto-heavy metal band and that is evident in their music.

This album is an improvement on their debut album and a good album for those into hard rock and heavy metal. I am not but this is still a decent album.

2 points

Gracious - Echo (1996)

The third and final album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Three guests added guitars and vocals.

The band released their first two albums in 1970 and 1971. They are semi-classic symphonic prog albums. Why Tim Wheatley and Robert Lipson, two-thirds of the 1996 band, returned twenty-seven years later is something I do not really understand.

Nevertheless, they did and the result is this album.

The years of inactivity has meant a change of genre. From symphonic prog to.... well, this one hour long album has a mix of various genres.

The start off point is art-rock. Then we get some psych rock, mainstream rock and......jazz. Yes, jazz. Coser to fusion, mostly but still some minutes with jazz. Confused ? You will be confused by this album.

That is not a bad thing, a musically varied album as this album. The vocals is also good and the band does a good job.

The quality of the music is somewhere between decent and good. It is indeed an interesting album who is sadly overlooked. Undeserved overlooked as it deserve a lot more attention. Check out this album.

2.5 points

Gebarvaterli - Im Tal der Emmen (1978)

The one and only album from this band from Germany.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of congas, drums, bass, guitars, organ, piano, flute, saxes, trombone and bassoon.

This band released this album, then split and the members then got involved in the German jazz scene and became quite prolific in their respective projects and solo careers.

The music here is indeed jazz. But there is some strong krautrock influences here too and it is only fair to label it as a crossover album between jazz and krautrock.

Clocking in at forty minutes, the album has some nice details and twists. There is not that many solos here and the melodies are a bit lacking in quality. 

There are some pretty good saxophone solos here though.

The rest of the album is a bit too pedestrian. The music is still decent and worthy some investigations.

2 points

Lodestar - Zonen (2024)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I got this album sent to me from the usual promo agent and I was promised a hard psych rock album. Hence me accepting doing a review of this album.

The album starts out as a nu-metal album and then moves over to stoner rock. Hmmm...

 Most of the music on this three quarters of an hour long album is very heavy, indeed. The main genre is stoner rock with some strong nu-metal influences. The guitars are chugging and atonal at times. The vocals are OK throughout.

There are also some more subtle psych rock influences here. Subtle but they are very evident here. 

There are some pretty good pastoral psych rock at the very end of this album. The rest of the album has some decent music. The music is not progressive, but stoner rock fans should get this album. It has something unique to offer this overcrowded scene. 

Check out this album.

2 points

Spooky Tooth - The Mirror (1974)

The seventh album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, clavinet, piano, organ, keyboards, moog, electric piano and vocals.

This is their final album from the 1970s. One more album was released and that album was released in 1999, twenty-five years after this album. A review will follow later this week.

Their previous album Witness was an improvement on the pretty dire You Broke My Heart album from the same year. 

The band has by now returned to their roots as a hard psych and blues rock band.

The music is pretty catchy and bluesy. The vocals is good and ditto for the guitars and the organ sound. 

This forty minutes long album has a fine blend of hard rockers and some more mid-tempo psych rock songs.

The quality is decent throughout and this album is one of their better ones. It is an album well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Ozul - Provenance (2023)

The debut album from this one-man-band from Norway.

Ozul is Paulo Chavarria on guitars, electronics and vocals.

Paulo is originally from Costa Rica, Latin-America but he has settled in Bergen, Norway. Two albums has so far been released and I will review the new album sometimes later this week.

The music is a modern mix of art-rock, psych rock and heavy prog. Porcupine Tree and Marillion is two very good references here. Pink Floyd is a minor influence.

The music is more melancholic than hard. It still has an edge but the edge is not that sharp. There is a lot of pop sensibilities here too.

The vocals is very good. There is some multi-layered vocals on this album too and they are very good. The music is not complicated but it still has some good details.

The music is still pretty muscular and is heavy at times. This is adding variations and gravitas to the songs.

The album is clocking in at three quarters of an hour and the music is good throughout. 

This is an album well worth checking out and a good edition to the impressive Norwegian prog and art-rock scene.

3 points

Vientos Moderados del Este - Un Manual de Signos y Síntomas (2024)

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

I became aware of this band when they introduced themselves in ProgArchives, the new bands submission forum. So I got their album and put it on the list of albums to be reviews. A many weeks long waiting list.

Their music is a mix of psych rock, art rock, heavy prog and symphonic prog. All of this with a cool breeze of Latin rock. This is a genre we have got from both Spain and South-America.

The vocals are in Spanish and they are very good. They adds a lot of colours and quality to this album. Ditto for the organs here which sounds both vintage and very good. 

The guitars are also cool. They are both chugging and adding some Spanish flavours in the vein of Al De Meola at the same time.

This close to one hour long album has one long epic clocking in at seventeen minutes and that epic closes the album. It is a very good epic.

The rest of the songs are also very good and this album is adding a lot of colours to my record collection and the progressive rock scene. The band is talking about a second album and I cannot wait....

In the meantime......Check out this album.

3.5 points

 

 

Spidergawd - Spidergawd III (2016)

The third album from this band from Norway.

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

This is quite an interesting band. Their debut album was very explosive hard rock while their second album was a more garage and psych rock inspired vintage hard rock album.

The band includes members from Motorpsycho and that is evident in their music. Hard psych rock is what we get on this half an hour long album.

The music both hard, melodic and slightly weird too. The garage rock inspirations are evident.

The vocals is pretty good. The guitars are dirty and vintage psych rock like.

This is vintage psych rock and it is pretty good too. The album is too short for my liking.

The result is a decent to good album which should have been longer and is lacking a bit in the songwriting skills. I like this band.

2.5 points

Tusmørke - Hinsides (2017)

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of glockenspiel, drums, percussion, organ, grand piano, mellotron, keyboards, synths, electronics, flute and vocals.

Three guests added congas, hurdy gurdy, flute, crumhorn, narration and vocals.

I reviewed their first three albums years ago for # 1 and # 2 of this blog many years ago. I will now review the remaining albums this autumn and winter for this blog.

Tusmørke is a strange band and a pretty important band in the Norwegian prog rock scene. 

Their music is not traditional progressive rock. It is more on the fringes of progressive rock.

Take a bit of both Daevid Allen and Frank Zappa's weirdness and add a lot of psych rock and folk rock. This where you find this album. There are also some Canterbury prog on this album, as in Gong. 

The music is weird and so is the Norwegian lyrics. Lyrics not many will understand as Norwegian is only understood by five million lost souls.... myself included. The vocals is good, though.

The quality of the music is somewhere between decent and good. I hope their other albums is better than this one, let me put it like that.

2.5 points

Gruppo Autonomo Suonatori - Omnia Sunt Communia (2021)

The one and only album from this band from Italy.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, bouzouki, mandolin, guitars, piano, synths, electric piano, flute, saxophones and vocals.

This band is also called G.A.S and has been around for two decades before they released this album through Black Widows Records in Italy.

That does not means this band is a heavy occult metal band, the normal fare from this record label. This album is an unusual album from this record label.

The music here is a mix of folk rock and old RPI.

The music is heavy at times and reminds me a bit about Biglietto Per l'Inferno. But the music is much more sunny and lighter than that band. Some Angelo Branduardi influences also shines through.

This album is fifty minutes long and it really offers a glimpse into the good old RPI days.

Most of the music is very good indeed and this album is a revelation. I flew under my radar back in 2021 but it is one of the best RPI albums from that year. I need a better radar....

Check out this very good album.

3.5 points

Gambit - Abyssal (2013)

The second album from this band from France.

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

To my regret, I have been unable to get a copy of their 2009 debut album Machiavelique. So this is my only review of a Gambit album. That is a shame.

Their music is neo-prog. Neo-prog with French vocals and some symphonic prog influences.

Three good references are Gens De La Lune, Magnesis and Ange.  

The music is both melodic and pretty complex at the same time. The French vocals is very good. The rest of the band does a good job too on this fifty minutes long album.

The organ sound is really good and adds a lot of 1970s references and sound. The songs are all very good.

This album fits nicely into anyone's collection of French neo-prog and symphonic prog albums.

This is indeed a good album and it is a crying shame that this band never released another album. 

3.5 points

Methexis - Potential Deltas (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Greece.

The band is a one-man-band with Nikitas Kissonas playing all the instruments, that means guitars, electronics and vocals.

I really liked the first two Methexis albums and gave them both good ratings in May 2016 in # 1 of this blog. I have by accident bypassed the third album Topos from 2018.

So I was happy when this album showed up in my inbox. 

Potenitial Deltas gives us three quarters of an hour with some Frank Zappa like ditties and sillyness. The final minutes of the album is a pointless ambient dirge.

The contrasts between the good and the bad music on this album is pretty huge and I have been struggling with this album. The vocals is good though and ditto for the more jazzy bits. There is not enough of the jazzy bits though.

Frank Zappa fans will like this album a lot. It is a decent album in it's own right too. I am not won over.

2 points

 

 

 

 

Trk Project - Sounds from the Past (2018)

The second album from this band from Poland.

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

The full name of this band is The Ryszard Kramarski Project but most blogs shortens it to Trk Project. This band is a side project of Framauro and Millenium.

After reviewing their last two albums, I decided to get hold of the rest of their albums too. I reviewed their 2017 debut album Music Inspired By The Little Prince some days ago and gave it a decent to good rating. Reviews of their third and fourth albums will be published in some weeks time, before the end of the year.

The rather operatic vocals from Karolina Leszko continues on also on this album. She gives their music a bit of a musicals feel. 

The music is still a mix of neo-prog and art-rock. Add in some folk rock influences, Mostly Autumn influences too and you get their music. Music with a bit of a melancholic take on neo-prog too. 

The music is complex, epic and melodic. It is also good and the band hit their stride on this album. An underrated band/project. Check out this album.

3 points

Tristan Park - Looking Homeward (1998)

The third and final album from this band from USA.

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

This band's first two albums has not exactly impressed me. Their mix of pomp rock, commercial rock and neo-prog has this US sound and is very melodic. The problem is the band's lack of ability to write good, even decent songs.

This one hour long album continues in the same vein as the first two albums.

The vocals is decent although it sounds strained and limited. There are some good guitar solos and hooks here. The keyboards is somewhere in the mix, neither adding quality or making this album worse than it is. The sound is not particular good and this album tends to loose the attention of the listener halfway through the album.

The band comes up very short when it comes to writing songs. The quality is not there. The band is also a bit undecided about writing prog songs or commercial rock songs. 

The result is a decent album from a band who, for some good reasons, never got their commercial breakthrough.  

2 points

 

Haze - The Water's Edge (2024)

The eight album from this band from Great Britain.

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

A handful of guests added fiddle, flute, saxophone and vocals.

Haze was one of those first generation neo-prog bands who never got the breakthrough the likes of Marillion got. Nevertheless, Haze has been releasing albums since 1984. That is forty years ago.

The Water's Edge continues in the same vein as their previous album Back To The Bones from 2020.

This means a blend of neo-prog and folk rock.  

There is also some good old 1970s hard rock in their music. Not much but still enough to add some colours and quality to this one hour long album.

One hour and five minutes to be more precise. The vocals is good and the band does a good job. The organ sound adds some vintage hard rock and prog rock to this album. 

The songs are also good and this is a good, enjoyable album which will enhance this band's already good reputation and may win them some new fans. 

3 points

 

 

Spooky Tooth - Witness (1973)

The sixth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band had released another album the same year called You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw and that album was an artistic disaster with it's mishmash of most genres. The songs there was poor and so was the choice of a female vocalist.

So, back to the drawing room, then. And back to the studio for another album. 

The music on Witness sees the return to blues rock again. There are also some more folk rock here as the music is firmly rooted in the British rock scene anno 1973. 

Mike Harrison is thankfully back on the vocals too and his vocals is good. 

The songs are rather uncomplicated rock and blues rock songs. The sound is good and the quality is decent enough.

This album is an improvement on their previous album, the above mentioned album. It is an album well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Tangerine Dream - Alpha Centauri (1971)

The second album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of percussion, bass, organ, harp piano and electronics.

Two guests added flute and synths.

I am quite dreading this progressive electronic genre. I have still decided to review around ten to fifteen albums from this band in the coming months as they are the masters and legends of this genre. 

Their debut album was a positive surprise to me and there was quite some stuff I liked there. So onwards to Alpha Centauri then.....

The music on this forty minutes long album (the 2011 version is one hour long but not reviewed here) starts out as slow but steady cosmic space rock. This is like floating in the air, thousands of miles from this earth. 

A nice opening where the flute is adding some dynamic melodies too. 

The final half of the album, the title track,  is more an ambient piece of music which falls a bit short. It still has it's moments but not many enough of them.

The result is another positive surprise and a decent album. Tangerine Dream is perhaps about to change my views on this genre.....

2 points

 

 

 

Gideons Mob - Space Cadet Supernova (2020)

The second and final album from this band from USA.

The band is a one-man-band run by Brian Urso who plays keyboards and guitars in addition to his vocals.

The self-titled debut album from 2019 was horrendous bad and one of the worst albums I have ever heard. Mostly due to the sound. It sounded like it had been recorded from under his bed in his bedroom. The music and the musical abilities was also very, very poor.

No expectations to the second album, then...

The sound is slightly improved. Is sounds like the album has been recorded in his living room this time. Or perhaps from his kitchen. Or his bedroom. Or in a bike shed. 

One thing is for sure... this album has never seen the inside of a studio. Not even the worst studio in town. The sound is that bad.

The songs are sligthly better this time and there are some samples on this psych rock album. Yes, it is now audible what genre Brian Urso has tried this time. Which is a mix of space rock and psych rock. This with some guitars. Brian Urso is not a good guitarist. 

This album is an improvement but not by much. It is still a turkey and one of the worst albums I have ever heard in my life.

1 point

 

 

Garden - Somewhere Else (2013)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, cello, violin, piano, flute, tuba, saxophone, clarinet and vocals.

Their debut album, the self-titled 2012 album, did not go down that well with me in my review of it some days ago. But it deserved a decent rating. 

That album had a mix of post-metal, art-rock and chamber prog. 

The musicians adjusted their style and came back with something rather new and fresh. Out went the post-metal. The band still went down the art-rock adn chamber prog route. That with some folk rock and eclectic prog added on.

The strings and woodwinds also gives this forty minutes long album a bit of a weird melancholic and atonal sound too. The sound and songs is not particular uplifting, to say at least. 

Some of the songs here are pretty good and some are not so good. The vocals is good and this album is in general pretty weird. 

If weird and slightly eclectic music is your thing, this is a pretty good addition to your collection. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

Mangrove - Bridge to Fiction (2024)

The fourth album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

The band has returned again after a fifteen years long break. The band album debuted in 2004 and released their third album back in 2009.

I find it hard to believe, but this is my first review of a Mangrove album. I have their other three albums though and will try to review them before the end of the year. I should have done this many years ago though as they are a symphonic prog band. 

The music on this album is a mix of lots of genres, though.

Take Dutch symphonic prog, add some hard prog and some more eclectic prog. Then add some pomp rock too. Yes, the band mixes it up a lot.

The opening track, the title track, is ten minutes long and does not really impresses me. There are five shorter, better songs before a twenty-two minutes long symphonic prog epic closes this well over one hour long album.

The vocals is good and there is a lot of interesting details here. The guitars and keyboards is adding a lot of good stuff here.

The quality of the music here is barely good but it is still a good album. I should really have checked out this band years ago though.... My prog-radar need an overhaul and some new parts.

3 points

Trk Project - Music Inspired by the Little Prince (2017)

The debut album from this band from Poland.

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

The full name of this band is The Ryszard Kramarski Project but most blogs shortens it to Trk Project. This band is a side project of Framauro and Millenium. Framauro released a new album earlier this year. See my review.

I have reviewed the last two Trk Project albums in this blog and then got hold of their first two albums after that for some reviews. The second album will be reviewed later this month. I also hope to get hold of their third and fourth album later this year.

The music here is a mix of art-rock and neo-prog. The female vocalists added musicals like vocals to this album too and that gives this album a bit of a folk rock musicals sound too. 

The music is pretty soft and melodic. There are some good guitar solos here and the vocals is good.

There are still some good details here. Some of the stuff is not that good. Nevertheless, this three quarters of an hour long album is a fairly good addition to the many art-rock and neo-prog albums from Poland and well worth checking out. 

2.5 points

 

 

Tristan Park - A Place Inside (1995)

The second album from this band from USA.

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

Their 1993 debut album At The End Of The Day was not an impressive album. It was in fact pretty close to be a dire album. 

Nevertheless, the band soldiered on and we got this album. 

A one hour long album, no less, with a mix of pomp prog, commercial rock and some US neo-prog.

Pomp is the word here as the music is big and bold. It is also melodic and has some good hooks.

The vocals is pretty good. The woodwinds is.... weird and has no use here. It seems like the band was trying to break through to the tamla-motown fans too. Like those who liked the first Phil Collins album. Weird.

The result is a decent enough album. It is not an album for the prog rock fans but nevertheless....

2 points

Gunerius & Verdensveven - Fantasmagor'i (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Norway.

The band is a trio with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, sitar, guembri, kalimba, synths, electronics and vocals.

A guest added trumpet and synths on one track.

This is another band who are on the fringes of the Norwegian progressive rock scene. I would still very much include this band in this scene, though. 

I reviewed their previous album, the 2023 album Kapitalypse Na back in July 2023 in this blog and liked it a lot. That album gave us a mix of Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Amon Duul II and Popol Vuh. 

We get a lot more of the same here. The King Crimson influences has been replaced with some Miles Davis like jazz though. This album is indeed leaning a lot more towards jazz than progressive rock.

We still get krautrock and a lot of Frank Zappa here. The Norwegian language lyrics, which I as a Norwegian understand, but will get lost for those whos does not, is important here. They are hippie and peace on earth orientated. They are also good. They are also delivered as scatches and raps like mix of singing and talking.

There is a lot of rhythms here and the music is mainly funky jazz.

The band does a good job and the vocals is good. The songs too is good. I am afraid this album may be lost in translation outside Norway and that is a shame. Nevertheless......

3 points

 

 

The Samuel Jackson Five - Same Same But Different (2004)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, theremin, piano, organ, synths and samples.

Two guests added drums and violins.

This band has so far released five albums and they are all up for reviews this autumn in this blog. 

The band can loosely be associated with the Norwegian progressive rock scene although their music is different from the normal prog rock fare.

The band plays instrumental math rock. 

The band has mixed in some RIO and a lot of post rock in their take on math rock. 

The music is mainly guitar based. But there is some tasty organs and piano here too. A violin also adds to their sound.

The music is also medium paced and not particular intense. Neither is the music particular laidback and relaxed. 

The result is a decent enough album who may please the math rock crowd a lot. Check out this album if esoteric music is your thing.

2 points