Kuu. Sepi - Rannan Usvassa (1980)

The one and only album from this artist from Finland.

Sepi Kuu has always been a mystery. Many believed it was a band. It turns out to be one man and the lineup here is electronics, synths, acoustic guitars, percussion and vocals.

Some detective work from another blog has revealed that this album is the Finnish poet Mikko Tola's poems enhanced with some music. This is how this project came about what it is.

The vocals are in Finnish so that makes sense. Not that I speak a single word of Finnish..... But this makes sense.

The music on this album is a mix of folk music, world music and depressive pop with a lot of electronica included.

Both Joy Division and Comus is references.

The difference is that this forty minutes long album sounds cheap and nasty. It is by all means a turkey and one best avoided.

There are some obscure albums who deserve to be forgotten. Just like this year deserve to be forgotten. A year when Ukraine and it's people took a bullet for us in the free world. Both this album and this year is a turkey.  

1 point

Helicopria - Helicopria (2011)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

The band has released this album and three EPs through their Bandcamp page and all their releases are name-your-price. 

This album too is pretty short. Just over half an hour long.

The music is heavy prog with female vocals. It has a modern sound and a typical US heavy prog sound. 

The seven songs here is medium long and guitars and vocals based. Both the guitars and vocals are OK.

There is no really good songs here, though. 

This is a decent enough album and well worth a download. 

2 points

Grice - Polarchoral (2022)

The fourth album from this band from England.

Grice is Jim Peters on guitars, bass, synths, keyboards and vocals.

He got help from around a dozen of guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, uillean pipes, strings, woodwinds, guitars, autoharp, vocals, synths and programming.

I revivewed the second album Alexandrine (2015) back in September 2016 for # 1 of this blog and was not impressed. 

I bypassed their third album before I plunged into the water again with the fourth album. 

The music on this well over an hour long album is a mix of ambient music, Arabic and Middle East folk music and some modern pastoral rock.

The songs are slow. Very slow. 

The quality is good though. Seventy minutes of this music is a trial though and a test. Nevertheless, this is still a good album and one for those who really appreciate slow pastoral music.

3 points

Sky Architect - Nomad (2017)

The fourth and so far the latest album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This band started out as a heavy prog band. Porcupine Tree springs to mind.

And so I thought they would be on their fourth and so far their latest album too. Yes, on Nomad.

I got a surprise. A good one.

The music is still heavy and there is many Porcupine Tree influences here. But add Marillion, a bit Rush and a bit Radiohead too. And then you add some King Crimson and a lot of Gentle Giant too.

And for good measure, add a lot of what Canterbury scene rock bands did. Caravan springs to mind. Ditto for Supersister.

The music on this album is quirky, a bit heavy, playful, eclectic and pretty melodic.

The music is also good. So good that I hope we will hear a lot more from this band next year and in the years to come. This is their best album. But check out their first three albums too. This is a band most people will like and enjoy.

3 points

Returned To The Earth - Fall of the Watcher (2022)

The fourth album from this band from England.

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

I have had the pleasure of diving into their first third albums this autumn and I have mostly liked what I have heard.

Their music is a mix of Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Rush and Marillion. There are also some Pink Floyd influences here.

The band has gotten comfortable in their style and genre. A genre which leans too much on rock and not so much on freeform creative music. 

Nevertheless, the band creates a lot of ambience and melancholy on this album. The vocals is good and the guitars is painting some good soundscapes.

The music is indeed good on this album and this album should again confirm their status and standing as one of the bigger bands in this scene.

3 points

Comedy Of Errors - Time Machine (2022)

The fifth album from this band from Scotland, UK. 

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

This band from Glasgow has been around since the mid-1980s. Several cassette singles and albums was released. The band then split up in the early 1990s, the band members became older, wiser..... and the band started up again. The first album, their first real album, was Disobey in 2011 and that got them a good name and reputation. So much that they are now one of the bigger neo and melodic prog bands in UK and Europe.

The band gives us a mix of good old style neo-prog and some more epic symphonic prog.

The sound is very much the 1990s neo-prog sound. I am more a fan of more meaty, muscular sound than their sound. 

The music is complex and the addition of a live version of the title track on Disobey at the end of the album is good.

There are some weird, eclectic and quirky complex stuff on this album too. The French vocals on the title track comes as a huge surprise and the title track is a very good song.

The result is a good album from a band who has established themselves as one of the better bands in the scene.

3 points

Morse. Neal - Jesus Christ The Exorcist (2019)

The 26th album from this artist from USA. 

Neal Morse does some vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass and percussion here.

He got help from numerous guests who provided drums, bass, guitars, synths, keyboards, strings, woodwinds, narrations and vocals.

In my reviews of his previous albums, I noted that he had three artistic expressions he never really blended into each others. That is symphonic prog, singer/songwriter and worship praise music.

When I listen to this album, and I have done that a lot, I start to wonder if this is correct when it comes to this album.

Neal Morse has gone rock opera again. Nothing unusual with that. Some of the music is praise and worship music and a couple of tunes is singer/songwriter. The rest is pomp rock and musicals pop.

The whole album, an one hundred and ten minutes long double CD, is full over over the top dramatic, sugary sweet music.

The lyrics and the whole album feels like a parody and Neal Morse is in danger of being a parody of himself here. Some would argue; this album is a parody of Neal Morse.

There are some good things here and this is not entirely a disaster area. But I feel Neal Morse has crossed a border here. A border better not crossed.

2.5 points

Tabletom - Mezclalina (1980)

 

 

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

The band has released seven studio albums and I got all of them up for reviews this winter. I am as always starting with the debut album, this album.

The band is listed as a fusion/jazz band in ProgArchives and Discos.

That is to simplify this band and their debut album.

Take a big chunk of Spanish folk rock, add some hard rock, then add a lot of psych rock and then add fusion and jazz.  

The vocals are Spanish and the musicians are doing a good job. The saxophone is the most prominent solo instrument here. The violin, flutes and guitars are also adding a lot to the solos.

The band has managed to get a lot of diverse music into this thirty-eight minutes long album. A statement of intent, indeed.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. It is a more than acceptable debut album and I am looking forward to reviewing their six other albums.

2.5 points

Saturn - Beyond Spectra (2017)

The second album from this band from Sweden.

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

This album was given to me as and I was told it was a mix of prog and doom metal.

Nothing could be more wrong.

The music on this album is thrash metal. Thrash metal with a lot of speed metal influences.

The music reminds me a lot about the first two Flotsam & Jetsam albums. And those albums had a mix of thrash and speed metal. Mostly speed metal.

Ditto for Saturn's Beyond Spectra album.

The opening seconds is really promising before this forty-five minutes long album goes for the speed traps. The sound and the vocals is really thin and there is no quality here.

This album is a true turkey and should be avoided unless you are a speed metal freak/fan.

1 point

 

 

Headstone - Still Looking (1974)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

This band came from Indiana, released two singles and an LP on a local record label before they disappeared again. 

Small local albums like this makes collecting records well worth the pain. The band is local and pretty much oblivious to the world outside the local area. This is most of these cases.

Still Looking is a double LP and it last for almost one hour. 

The music is a mix of hard and normal psych with some soul and americana included. The songs are pretty long and well outside the normal songs norms. Norms that make you get radio airplay.

The album starts with the catchy and hard psych rocker title track. That eight minutes long track should have broken the band nationwide.

The rest of the album is also decent. 

Fans of US hard pschy and hard rock should regard this album as a gem. It is indeed an album well worth checking out.

2 points

Isafjørd - Hjartastjaki (2022)

The debut album from this band from Iceland.

The band is a duo with a lineup of electronics, piano, guitars, synths and vocals.

This band is a cooperation between Addi Tryggvason from Solstafir and Ragnar Solberg from Sign and Pain Of Salvation.

The cover artwork alludes to post-rock. That is not entirely correct. There is some post-rock here, yes. Sigur Ros plays their part in the sound and music here. 

There is also a strong folk rock and pop influence here. You can add in both Neil Young and Bjork here. The piano here has a very strong Neil Young vibe and so does some of the vocals and melodies. 

All of it with Icelandic vocals and this Arctic/Scandinavian/Icelandic vibe.

The sound, vocals and vibe is very good. Some of the songs on this half an hour long album does not pass muster. The music is very original and this gives the album extra quality.

This is indeed a good album and I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future. Now, I need to dig out my newly purchased Icelandic crime noir books again...

3 points

Sky Architect - A Billion Years Of Solitude (2013)

The third album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

A guest also added some vocals.

The band returned again with their mix of heavy prog and symphonic prog. That means Porcupine Tree meets Yes.... and you can now add Gentle Giant in the mix too.

The band has taken a long step towards eclectic prog and in particular the music Gentle Giant gave us when they were at their best.

The music here is really, really complex and dense. It is also heavy and eclectic with a lot of references to Yes.

There is a lot of good details here and the vocals is good.

This is the best of their first three albums and well worth checking out. It is also a good album.

3 points

Returned To The Earth - Erebus (2019)

 

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band returned again with their third album and I returned again to review an album from this band. It gives me a third chance to be impressed by an album by them... or even find a good album by this band.

The band is a trio and they have moved their music more towards my favourite ever trio; Rush. The elements I thought was grunge was more like inspired by Rush.

The main influence here is Porcupine Tree though.... Ditto for Marillion.

The music is indeed heavy prog with some more atmospheric moments and a good guitar sound. 

The vocals is really good too.

The songs are between four and ten minutes long. There is no surplus fat here and the songs are all dynamic and good.

The result is a good album and one to check out if Steve Wilson & co floats your boat.

3 points

 

 

Estate Di San Martino. L' - Kim (2022)

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

A guest added bass on one of the tracks.

I thought I was in for another jazz album on this album based on their previous album ESM#40. An album I did not really find very satisfying. The lineup also gave the impression that jazz was on the menu.

I was proven wrong already during the first ten minutes of this one hour long album.

We are back to RPI again.

That means lush RPI with a lot of fusion, modern rock and old Italiano Pop influences. There is also some electronica during this album.

The vocals are entirely Italian and they are good.

There are some very good details and songs here and there are also some stuff that does not pass muster.

The result is a good album and one the band and their fans should be very happy about. This band is an untraditional RPI band, always has been and this album also proves that. Check it out.

3 points

 

 

 

Skepticism - Farmakon (2003)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

Skepticism is one of the better and greatest bands in the funeral doom genre. A genre which will appeal a great deal to progressive rock fans too. I really like that genre a lot.

Their classic 1995 debut album Stormcrowfleet was a mix of death metal and funeral doom. A mix they continued on the follow up album too.

Farmakon sees the band use a lot more keyboards than before. 

The music is still pretty primitive funeral doom with death metal vocals.

The music is harsh, indeed. But still a bit softer than on the first two albums.

The result is another decent album from this band.

Check it out if funeral doom sounds like your cup of tea.

2 points

 

 

Socrates Drank The Conium - Taste Of Conium (1972)

The second album from this band.

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

When I decided to review their first albums and the four albums they released under their full name, I did that in knowledge that there may be some lunatics among the albums.

This album is a lunatic.

The music is a mix of blues and rock'n'roll with some psych rock incorporated.

Their fourteen minutes long version of the Rolling Stones classic "I can't Get Satisfaction", a cover they rightly so renamed "Wild Satisfaction", is a loony jam over this song. It is wild, wild, wild.

The quality of the music on this forty minutes long album is half decent. I am not really won over. Not by it's charms and not by it's quality. 

This band is a weird band and you get albums like this from weird bands.

1.5 points

Saint Preux - Atlantis (1979)

 

The 11th album from this composer and artist from France.

Saint Preux (born Christian Langlade) did the piano and synths here. 

He got help from some guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, guitars, synths and vocals.

This artist has released around twenty solo albums, numerous singles and has worked on around one hundred other albums and projects.

This is the only album I will review from this artist.

The music here is a mix of neo-classical, musicals and some symphonic prog. Or rather; pomp rock.

This is a, surprise, concept album about this mythical world called Atlantis.

We get forty minutes of this.

The music is very sweet and does not have many details. It feels like a musical and the vocal track is a musicals piece. 

The music is grossly sweet and all the worst, tasteless musical cliches are being called into action here. 

In short, this is a turkey. 

1 point

 

Hart. Tim & Maddy Prior - Summer Solstice (1971)

The third and final album from this duo from England.

Tim Hart did the dulcimer, guitars, harmonium, tabor and male vocals here. Maddy Prior did the vocals.

They had help from a handful of guests who did drums, percussion, mandolin and bass.

Maddy Prior and Tim Hart was members of the folk group Steeleye Span. Tim Hart was the founding member of this band. He sadly passed away in 2009 after a long career.

Maddy Prior is however mostly known as the much used vocalist in Mike Olfield's many projects and albums. She is still active on many other projects too.

Summer Solstice is a pastoral folk music album. It is dominated by Maddy Prior's excellent vocals. Tim Hart's dulcimer is the most notable and good instrument used here.

The songs are decent enough and this is an obvious album for those into vocals based pastoral folk music. There are even some acid folk on this album. 

It is a decent album, indeed.

2 points

Onségen Ensemble - Realms (2022)

The fourth album from this band from Finland.

The band was an eight piece big band with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, percussion, saxophone, trumpet, didgeridoo, ocarina, flute, mellotron and vocals.

This band from the far north in Finland, well beyond the Arctic Circle, has returned again with this album.

The music has it's basis in space rock. It is indeed space rock but with a lot of psych rock influences and a lot of brass band and Mexican tijuana brass jazz influences too. 

There are no songs structures here and hardly any vocals. These forty minutes is just floating away on the top of a lake of of multiple instruments and solos. 

The music has a lot of interesting details. It is also pretty relaxing although far from being ambient. This is space rock but on this band's own terms and conditions.

The result is a good album and one to check out if space rock is your thing.

3 points

Cyan - For King and Country (2021)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The band got support from a drummer and two vocalists.

This is the third edition of these songs. Most of them was recorded and released on cassette albums in the 1980s. They were also released as the 1993 debut Cyan album For King And Country before they saw a proper recording and release last year as this album I am now reviewing.

Complicated ? Just the norm for the first neo-prog bands. Bands like Cyan who operated in a truly underground market. There was no interest whatsoever for progressive rock, unless you went pop or AOR, in the 1980s. No underground record labels either. Cassette albums it was and some shoddy productions.

Hence Robert Reed, the Cyan and Magenta mainman took actions.

And rightly so !

The songs are not great. But they are good and long neo-prog songs with some epic melodies and good details.

This one hour long album is nothing less than classic neo-prog with all the bad and all the good things with this genre. 

It is indeed an album well worth checking out. Cyan and Robert Reed has got my utmost respect with this album.

3 points

 

 

Circles End - Hang On To That Kite (2004)

The second and final album from this band from Norway.

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

Their 2001 debut album In Dialogue With The Moon was an interesting album indeed. It was a mix of art-rock, a bit neo-prog and some Canterbury scene prog.

The band returns again and the neo-prog bit has gone.

Now we get Canterbury scene prog with some art-rock, eclectic prog and some Scandinavian symph prog influences. That is eclectic prog as in Gentle Giant, btw. The music is that quirky.

The music is also arty and introspective. It is also melodic with some very good vocals and some good dettails and melodies.

The result is a forty minutes long album and a good one too. It is a shame that this band is now longer around as their two albums is well worth checking out and purchasing. They are almost essential for any collector of Norwegian progressive rock fans.

3 points

 

 

 

 

Aaron Clift Experiment. The - The Age of Misinformation (2023)

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

The band had support from a brass orchestra and a string orchestra. 

I have always rated Mr Aaron Clift (vocals and keyboards) and his band pretty highly. They have managed to carve out a small part of the progressive rock scene with their rather unusual music... or unusual on a recording. I think their music is more usual when it comes to the pub scene around USA and Canada.

Take good old progressive rock, add soul, stadium rock and brass rock, then add a bit gospel, AOR and outlaw country'n'western. 

This is exotic here in Europe and Great Britain. It exotic on an album. Live.... not so sure.

The vocals is very good as per usual from the band. Ditto for the rest of the band. The strings and brass adds a lot of soul and god-bless-america to the music.

This almost fifty minutes long album still delivers the goods and cement this band's status as one of the more unusual but still very good bands from USA.

It is full of some really interesting details too. The music is still very melodic too. 

It is an album which will start the progresive rock year 2023 with a big bang. 

There is no really outstanding tracks here and that is my only gripe with an album who deserve to be heard by a lot of people. 

3.5 points

 

Enslaved - Isa (2004)

The eight album from this band from Norway.

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

Some guests added synths and vocals, including members from Immortal and Darkthrone.

Enslaved changed their setup on this album. A new drummer and a new piano/organ/keyboardist. 

That did wonder for this album and the band.

The album starts out very playful and continues this way..... all the way to the end. 

The music is very hard, but it has a lot of quirky, eclectic details too. The title track is pretty commercial with a great choir.

The track Lunar Force is almost superb and one of the best track in this genre. The rest of the tracks follows suit.

The vocals is still screamo but there are also some more clear vocals here. The music is full of surprises and joys. Gentle Giant and King Crimson springs to mind, although Enslaved's music is so much harder.

This is indeed one of the best albums I have ever heard in the extreme metal genre and a classic album. 

Check it out.

5 points

 

 

 

Spacelords. The - The Spacelords (2010)

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

This band has so far released seven albums and they are all up for reviews this winter in this blog. Bliss..

This band is somewhere between outer space and the moon. What I mean by this is that the music is not an all out space rock excersise. There are some psych rock here although there is hardly any vocals in the music.

The flute is an interesting addition and so is the half-acoustic guitars. It gives the space rock a bit of an earthly feeling.

The music has also a hippie feeling with a lot of references to both Hawkwind and the 1960s hippie bands .. the space rock forerunners.

The result is a good album indeed. An hour long album.

Check it out.

3 points

Rainbow Face - Stars' Blood (2020)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

The band had help from numerous guests who provided drums, viola, violin, piano and saxophone.

I believe this is the same band who earlier this year released a new album under the name Rational Health. This album, Stars' Blood, is therefore the only album under this name.

The music is a mix of post-grunge and art rock.

References are Van Der Graaf Generator, King Crimson and Sleepytime Gorilla. 

The music is both quirky and eclectic. The vocals are decent.

The quality of the music is decent enough. There is not a good song here. Neither is the music on this fifty minutes long album particular bad. It is just music that fails to really register due to not being good.

2 points

Estate Di San Martino. L' - ESM 40 (2015)

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

A vocalist added some extra vocals to this album.

Their first two albums was a mix of Pink Floyd'ish psych and RPI. The music was softly spoken and pastoral. 

There was always a jazz element in their music. That jazz element has fully broken through on ESM 40.

This album is dominated by the saxophones and the other instruments, including vocals, plays a secondary role to the saxophone.

There are at times almost some Soft Machine vibes over the saxophones and the music.

The final part of this sees some vocals and a song.

The main theme and music here is laid back jazz. Pastoral jazz, almost.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This is so far their least good album. 

I will review their new album in the coming days and I hope that one is better than this one.

2.5 points

 

 

Oak - The Quiet Rebellion of Compromise (2022)

The third album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest has also added saxophone to this album.

This album was released some weeks ago and I got it from a promoter.

The band continues down the same path as they followed on their first two albums. That is progressive rock with a lot of Gazpacho, Airbag, Anathema, Antimatter and Porcupine Tree influences.

It is in that genre and landscape you will find Oak, a band from Oslo, the capitol of Norway.

There is some trip-hop electronica on this album too.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job.

There is no killer tracks or even great tracks here. The quality on this fifty minutes long album is good though and cement this band as a band who always delivers the goods.

3 points

Cyan - Pictures from the Other Side (1994)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a trio with a lineup of bass, drum machine, guitars, synths, organ, piano and vocals

Three guests added guitar solos, vocals and operatic vocals.

Cyan is one of the first and legendary bands in the neo-prog scene. They were the forerunner of Magenta. Indeed,  both Christiana Booth and Robert Reed is members of Cyan on this album. They are 2/3 of Cyan here.

The music is epic, melodic neo-prog. The music is also classic neo-prog with a lof of Genesis influences.

The sound is a bit thin and the typical 1980s sound. The synths has a plastic feel and taste.

The songs are good though and leaves no doubts that this band is one of the best classic neo-prog bands. 

Cyan is now Magenta. But they have nothing to be ashamed of here.

3 points

Circles End - In Dialogue With The Moon (2001)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, synths, violin and vocals.

This band has flown well under my radar and I only became aware of them by sheer coincidence. And that only through their second and final album, their 2004 album. A review of that album will follow in the coming days.

The music is a mix of art-rock, a bit neo-prog and some Canterbury scene prog.

The vocals is really good and the band knows what they are doing.

The music is both melancholic and slightly gloomy. The half-acoustic guitars is underlining the mood and the sound here. They are also giving this album a slightly jazzy edge.

Most of the music is therefore pretty pastoral.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over by this album. Then again, this is an acceptable debut album.

2.5 points

Threshold - Dividing Lines (2022)

The 12th album from this band from England.

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

This band is one of the bands I have been following for the last twenty years. Not as a fan, but with a great deal of interest. Their brand of prog and prog metal appeals a great deal to me.

... Probably appealed a lot more to me twenty years ago than today. I was in love with their Critical Mass album back then.

The music is pretty slick and a blend of Dream Theater, Arena and Pendragon.

This album is the follow up to their great 2017 album Legends Of The Shires. And we get the same sound and type of music here.

Despite of some very good vocals and guitars, the songs on Dividing Lines is not of the same standard. This is a good one hour long album but it does not really jumps out on the listener. Neither is it a bad album.

The quality is good and the band has satisfied their fans. They have delivered the goods here.

3 points

 

 

Psicolorama - The Future Vol.2 (2016)

The sixth album from this one man band from Spain.

Psicolorama does the vocals here and he also does all the guitars and electronics himself.

His albums can be a bit of a hit and miss. I guess that will be the story for the remaining ten or so albums I have to review from him.... until he starts to release more albums and those too will be reviewed. I now got all his Bandcamp albums to review.

This forty-three starts with some dirge like vocals before the music continues down the same path... without the vocals.

There are some more dirge like chanting vocals throughout this album who now has moved to a more organ and guitars lead space rock dirge.

We also get some more songs too and some pure electronica. A Spanish ballad and a piece of electronica, no less.

The result is a decent album. There is not many good pieces here. Most of it is decent enough. It is not one of his best albums either. 

Check it out of this sounds interesting.

2 points

 

 

Returned To The Earth - The Best Kept Secret (2018)

The second album from this band from England.

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

I was not a big fan of their debut album. An album sounding too much like an indie singer/songwriter album.

I was hoping that the band would have progressed more towards progressive rock on this, the follow up album.

The band has retained the sound and the style from the debut album.

The vocals is really good and that is the saving grace here. The music is not particular exciting and the quality leaves something to be desired.

The result is an album somewhere between decent and good.

I hope the next album in their series of albums will be an improvement on this one. 

2.5 points

Rain - Norsk Suite (1969)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

I belive this band released altogether four albums before they gave up the ghost. This album was released in a handful copies before it saw a more official release on a German label in 2012. This only on LP and I will tip of the Norges Album Klassikere team for a re-release on CD as they are already crowdfunding the release of their debut album.

The band is a pretty unique band as they were mostly working with theatres in Scandinavia and were composing music for these theatres. Those jobs were secure and well paid. Being a rock star was hardly paid at all. Hence, the main part of their career was in theatres and theatre productions. 

Norsk Suite is a strange album indeed..... It starts with their version of the Beatles classic A Day In Life before the band continues with one of their own songs and then does another The Beatles cover..... Strawberry Fields Forever. They have also done a cover of John Lennon's track Isolation.

Strange...

The music on this album is psych rock. There are some avant-garde stuff here too. Lots of it, to be precise. 

The music is very diverse and at times; unhinged.

This is not an easy listening album, this fifty minutes long album. The music is decent enough and should satisfy those into quirky, eclectic psych rock.

2 points

 

Estate Di San Martino. L' - Talsete Di Marsantino (2012)

The second album from this band from Italy.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, woodwinds, flutes, guitar synth, vocoder and vocals.

A dozen of guests, including Steve Hackett, provided congas, basses, kawal flute, guitars, nickelharp, narration and vocals. 

Their 2007 debut album Febo was a promising album. An album with a mix of Pink Floyd psych rock and RPI.

Five years later, and we get a new album. A far more ambitious album with guests from PFM and the likes of Steve Hackett.

The music is still very pastoral and laid back psych rock in the vein of Pink Floyd. There is also a long narration part with some avant-garde music in the background. Then we also get some more classic RPI.

...And that is this album.

There are some woowinds and a lot of flutes here in addition to the regular instruments. The Italian vocals are good.

The quality is a mix of decent and good. That long narration piece in Italian did nothing for me and is rather poor. That aside, the rest of the album is good.

It is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Alwanzatar - Kosmisk skrekk (2022)

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

The individual behind this album has used synths and electronics to create the music on this album.

This is an album I got for review. It is a Bandcamp album too and the music has been described as occult electronica by the one who sent me this album.

Not my cup of tea, in other words. 

If this electronica is occult, there is a lot of Norwegian folk music influences here. And the devil may be lurking around in the bushes on this forty minutes long album too.

This album is not a turkey. But it is close as I am finding hard to find any positive things to report from this album.

The sporadic folk music melody lines is the only saving grace here. Avoid.

1.5 points

Electric Sun - Beyond The Astral Skies (1985)

The third and final album from this band from Germany.

Uli Jon Roth did the guitars, bass, keyboards and some vocals here.

He got help from numerous guests who added drums, saxophones, viola, violin, timpani, male and female vocals.

Uli Jon Roth, this ex Scorpions guitarist, decided to branch out into some more musicals and rock opera landscape on this album.

There is still a lot of very strong Eloy influences here. His guitars has been neutured and ditto for the pretty complex psych and hard rock he played on the first two albums.

Oh dear..... The vocals is pretty horrible as in twisted and screaming. 

The quality of the songs are pretty bad too. No wonder he closed down this band and returned to his roots. I do not think any of the stuff here is being played live by him these days.... or in the years after this album was released.

The reason is that this album is and sounds like a disaster. It is indeed a turkey.

1 point

Onségen Ensemble - Fear (2020)

The third album from this band from Finland.

The band was a collective of ten musicians with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, flutes, keyboards, synths, woodwinds and vocals.

This collective of musicians comes from the far north of Finland, from behind the Arctic Circle. They released a new album earlier this year too.

I very much liked their second album, reviewed last week, and was looking forward to reviewing this album.

The music here is space rock with a lot of psych rock and brass rock influences.

The band sounds like a brass band from Mexico at times. Too many times, and that is not to my liking. The space rock is always present and the music is pretty twisted. 

There is also a high degree of post rock structures on this album.

The music on this album is mostly instrumental. The sporadic vocals is good. Both the male and the female vocals.

The result is a decent to good fifty minutes long album. It is a weird album though. 

2.5 points

 

Lost Vision Of The Chandoo Priest. The - The Lost Vision Of The Chandoo Priest (2022)

 

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band is a duo with a lineup of flute, drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and synths.

A guest (from the band Alphataurus) helped them out on various instruments.

The duo constists of two members from the RPI bands Quel Che Disse Il Tuono, Cellar Noise and Unreal City. I believe this is a side project with music not suitable for these three bands.

The music is a mix of Scandinavian symphonic prog (Anekdoten), Swedish folk rock, British psych prog and the 1970s RPI scene.

... And the music is instrumental.

The music is both pretty pastoral and lively. The mix of these genres is obvious during this forty minutes long album.

There is a lot of good ideas, melodies and details throughout these forty minutes too. The music never really get pedestrian and dull.

The result is a good album and one to check out from their record label's bandcamp page.

I hope we will hear more from this band.

3 points

Morse. Neal - The Great Adventure (2019)

The 25th album from this artist from USA.

Neal Morse operates as a band here as the band has a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, synths, piano, organ, keyboards and vocals.

They got help from some guests who added strings and backing vocals.

This version of Neal Morse is the symphonic progressive version. Not his praise and not his singer/songwriter persona.

The album is a one hour and fourty five minutes long double CD. Yes, he has gone epic again.

There are five suites here. Chapter One, Two, Three, Four and Five.

The musicians are first notch and their skills are being put to good use here. There is no slacking around here and the skills of the musicians is being stretched out to their limits.

That means big, bold, epic and complex music. Symphonic prog at it's most epic and US bold.

The result is a very good album and one that enhances Neal Morse's good name and reputation. 

More of the same, please.

3.5 points

Sky Architect - A Dying Man's Hymn (2011)

The second album from this band from Holland.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, slide guitar, clavinet, keyboards, piano, organ and vocals.

This band from Holland is an interesting band. 

The band combines heavy prog sounds like the one from Porcupine Tree with classics like Yes.

The music on this seventy-seven minutes long album is very complex and eclectic. King Crimson is a good reference too in addition to the two above mentioned references. 

The music is all over the place within these parameters. Some of the music is really melodic too and the vocals is good.

There is a lot of interesting details here. It does feel like the band has lost control over all the hoops the music is flying through.

The quality is simply not good.

This is still an album somewhere between decent and good. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Tangent. The - Songs from the Hard Shoulder (2022)

T

 

The 12th album from this British-Swedish band.

 

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

 

The band returned again for their 12th album after the pandemic and the Brexit hitting their community very hard.

 

The band continues on from the 2020 album Auto Reconnaissance. That means some melodic prog with a lot of jazzy feelings and vocals. The vocals and indeed the music too is pretty similar to Van Der Graaf Generator and Peter Hamill's solo stuff.

 

This album can in it's entirety be labeled as an eclectic Canterbury scene album.

 

The songs are very long and complex. The bonus track is a mix of a jazz and an electronica workout with some space rock incorporated.

 

There is a lot to devour on this album. The band is top notch masters on their respective instruments. The vocals is very good.

 

What is missing is some more great songs. The quality is a bit variable throughout this album.

 

Andy Tillison & co has delivered an album for and to their fans. I am not so sure those who are already not converted will be converted by this album. It is a good album, indeed.

 

3 points

 

 

 

Estate Di San Martino. L' - Febo (2007)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

I got their brand new 2022 album sent to me from the band for review. I thought I had reviewed their first three albums already. That was not the case. 

So I had to dig out these three albums and put them on my reviews list before the end of the year. Then I can review their brand new album.

A bit stress but also a great pleasure. Music is mostly always a pleasure. 

The band released a vinyl single back in 1978 and then they split up. Now, they are back again. 

The music is RPI. Very much so RPI. 

There is a lot of Pink Floyd but also a lot of Banco and PFM in their music. The music mostly pastoral and symphonic too. But not as symphonic as in most of the symphonic prog bands. The music is symphonic as in RPI. 

The vocals are both male and female. They are really good too. Ditto for the sound.

The result is a good, bordering to a very good album. An album that put the band on the map. 

This is an album and a band RPI fans should check out.

3 points

 

 

 

Galahad - The Last Great Adventurer (2022)

The 15th album from this band from England.

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

This band was formed in the late 1980s and album debuted in 1981 with an album named Nothing Is Written. There was some cassette and CDs album releases after that.

The band also split their activities into three bands; Galahad, Galahad Aquistic Quintet and Galahad Electric Company. Just to be artstic and confusing.

I really like this band and they are one of the pioneer bands in the neo-prog scene. A new album from them is always an event not to be missed.

The music here is straight forward Galahad's take on neo-prog. That means bold, epic and majestic neo-prog with some very good vocals. 

There is some slightly grating and unsatisfying flirting with disco here. Yes, that 1970s cult genre that really never died and which has been incorporated on most of Galahad's albums. 

There are also some really pastoral parts here on this album. 

The quality is very good and this band is not letting their fans down on this album. 

Check out this album if neo-prog is your thing.

3.5 points

Electric Sun - Fire Wind (1981)

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

Electric Sun was the band Uli Roth set up after leaving the far more successful Scorpions. This was before Scorpions became a zillion albums selling band and one of the most pop bands ever to emerge from Germany. Perhaps THE most popular German band of all time.

Both Scorpions and Uli Roth is touring and releasing albums anno 2022.

The debut album was a hard psych blues rock album.

Fire Wind is to my knowledge the most pop and best selling Electric Sun album. There is not that much blues here. Uli Roth wrote some rock tunes and added some Eloy flavours to this music.

Most of the music is hard. Hard power trio rock. 

The vocals is really good. The songs are really decent and there are some psych and space rock work outs on some of the songs.

The result is a decent enough album and one to check out in 1970s hard rock is your thing.

2 points

Onségen Ensemble - Duel (2018)

The second album from this band from Finland.

The band is a collective of eight musicians and the lineup is drums, bass, guitars, flutes, synths, keyboards and vocals.

I reviewed their 2016 debut album Awalai some years ago for another issue of this blog and liked that album a lot. I got their brand new album some weeks ago and decided to get their second and third album too for reviewing before reviewing their new album. Reviews that will follow before the end of this year.

The band is from the arctic tundras in the far north of Finland and that has coloured at least Duel, the album I am reviewing today.

The music is a mix of space rock and post-rock. There is a lot of ethnic, Scandinavian feelings and sounds on this album too. Hence my references to where the band comes from.

There is a lot of flutes and strange synths sounds on this album in addition to ethnic chanting in both male and female vocals.

The music is majestic and bold too. It has some Magma and zeuhl influences in this respect. 

The quality is decent to good throughout this album. I am not entirely won over. Nevertheless, this is an interesting album.

2.5 points

Giardino degli Specchi. Il - Monstrum (2022)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

I thought I had reviewed their Ep and their first album years ago. I have not so I will get  hold of those two releases and review them next year or so.

This band is from Italy and it is not an RPI band. The band is a post-rock band. There are bands with similar names (seen from a pair of Anglo-Scandinavian eyes) and that may have caused me to believe I already knew this band.

I don't.

Their take on post-rock has a lot of post-metal and indeed, metal influences.

The music is pretty brutal and not for those who think post-rock should be ambient and gentle. The music here is not.

The quality is not bad either during these fifty minutes. It is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over but I will add this band to the list of bands I am following. 

2.5 points

 

 

Skepticism - Lead And Aether (1998)

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

Their 1995 album Stormcrowfleet is a classic album in the funeral doom genre. I bought it the same year and really loved it. It was (great) news to me that the band is still with us and has released some more albums. Albums I am now reviewing in this blog this winter.

 Lead and Aether continues on from Stormcrowfleet. Dark funeral doom with death metal vocals.

The band tries to create a funeral like ambience on this album. The far from perfect sound makes the music even more gloomy.

These fifty minutes is not for the faint hearted. The music is not particular complex either. The keyboards is trying it's best to add more complexity to the music. It fails.

This album is more like an addition to Stormcrowfleet but with some weaker material. Hence..

1.5 points

 

Socrates Drank the Conium - Socrates Drank the Conium (1971)

The debut album from this band from Greece.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, flute and vocals.

This band started out as Socrates Drank The Conium before they did an album with Vangelis and then shortened their name to just Socrates after that and until they split up, reformed and then finally split up in 2010. Two of the three origial members died in 2019 and earlier this year.

I got their first four albums, the Socrates Drank The Conium albums, for review this winter.

The music on this album is heavy psych blues rock. 

The album starts out as a pretty standard heavy blues rock album before it turns left and gets a lot of psych and actually..... prog rock influences. 

This album is by no means a standard power trio hard rock/blues workout. This is an untraditional album.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job. 

The result is a decent album, well worth checking out.

2 points

Tangent. The - Auto Reconnaissance (2020)

The 11th album from this British-Swedish band.

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

Andy Tillison has kept The Tangent together with the same musicians during the last albums and the band has become a big band in the progressive rock scene.

The band has indeed become a national institution and the various band members has also got their own projects. 

The music on this album is the ususal eclectic mix of Canterbury scene prog and more melodic art rock. 

There is though some pretty strong jazz influences on this album. They were probably there on the 2018 album Proxy too. It has just taken me some time to notice them.

On the opening tracks, Andy Tillison's vocals is laid on the top as in jazz vocals on some pretty jazzy music. We are not even talking Canterbury fusion/jazz here. We are talking US east coast jazz.These tracks are still songs, but they are still jazzy as in jazz.

The band is more an art-rock band on this album than a pure progressive rock band. That is worth noting. 

The music is really good too. There is no real big track here and that is a bit disappointing. That aside, this album will enhance this band's good reputation.

3 points

Nova - Atlantis (1976)

 

The one and only album from this band from Finland.

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

This band consisted of five veterans from another band from Finland. They recorded this album and then found out that progressive rock was not any longer popular in Finland. No gigs, no sold albums meant the band split up shortly afterwards.

That is not a reflection of the quality of this album, though.

The music here is a mix of Procol Harum, Yes, Wigwam, Eloy and some Pink Floyd. The music is mid-tempo with some very good keyboards. The vocals are in Finnish and ads some exotic flavours.

The sound is pretty good too.

This is quite a charming album and one Procol Harum fans will lap up and devour with pleasure. 

2 points