Birth Control - Open Up (2022)

 

The 17th album from this band from Germany.

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

This band album debuted back in 1970 and that is more than fifty years ago. Albums has followed on a more sporadic basis since the debut album.

The band was a psych krautrock band back in those days and one of the best krautrock bands too. 

I have tonnes of respect, admiration and love for this band and their career. That even when they changed style and genre to much more straight rock. That after doing some hard rock for a while.

I have indeed reviewed most of their albums in previous blogs and that was great fun.

Open Up sees the band explore the rock genre. The result is a rock album with some blues, funk and soul influences.

The result is not bad at all. 

Some of the music is decent and some of the music is good. The band deserve respect for this album.

Check out this album.

2.5 points

Oldfield. Mike - Tr3s Lunas (2002)

The 22nd album from this British artist.

Mike Oldfield did the guitars, bass, synths, grand piano and mandolin himself.

He had some guests who did percussion programming, narrations and vocals.

Mike Oldfield has scaled down his creative outputs on this album. Instead of overblown long pieces of music, we get some simple, short pieces of music.

That is the news on this album.

Mike Oldfield has gone back to basic music.

No tubular bells and no return to the good, old commercially great days.

And the result is not good.

The twelve pieces of music sounds more like black and white paintings than full musical pieces aka his old days. 

There is some decent stuff here. Nevertheless, this album is an artistic failure.

1.5 points

Miller. Rick - Heart Of Darkness (2014)

The 11th album from this artist from Canada.

Rick Miller did the bass, guitars and vocals on this album.

He got help from a handful of guests who contributed with guitars, cello, violin, flute and drums.

Rick Miller did a shock move from ambient electronica to progressive rock with the full instruments some albums ago. I have reviewed his prog rock albums and will continue to do so in the next weeks.

His prog rock albums has so far been good.

The albums is also pretty much low profile and bereft of any big and bold melodies. 

That very much goes for this album who are leaning too much towards the singer/songwriter tradition. The music is very pedestrian and there is not much going on here.

The music is not even dark. Maybe the lyrics is dark.

The drop in quality from the previous two albums is notable, I am afraid.

The result is a decent album but nothing more than that.

2 points

Kalugin. Antony - Rebirth (2022)

The seventh solo - album from this artist from Ukraine.

Antony Kalugin does the synth guitars, programming and keyboards here.

A guest, Max Velycho, does the guitars and guitar solos.

Antony has during the last years been very productive with solo albums and albums with his other main bands.

This after he was bombed out from his town/city Kharkiv by the barbaric invaders. Attacks this blog want to distance ourselves from. 

Rebirth is another more or less neo-classical piece and album.

It is not only a piece of music. It is also a peaceful piece of music.

The music is indeed very elegant with some good plays between the piano and the electric guitars. Those are also supported by the keyboards and some rhythm patterns.

The quality is good throughout. 

This is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turning Point - Creatures of the Night (1977)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, synths, piano, electric piano, saxophones and wordless female voice.

This band evolved out of Isotope, another band from Great Britain who released three albums between 1974 and 1975.

Turning Point went on to release two albums themselves. A retrospective album with outtakes and lives has just been released and I may or may not review it next week. I have yet to get hold of their album # 2.

Creatures Of The Night gives us three quarters of an hour with jazz in the Canterbury vein. The wordless female vocals adds a lot of humour and insanity to the jazz on this album.

The music is both piano and saxophone dominated, besides of the wordless voices.

The music is also very much laid back and based on solos from the various instruments. Mostly solos from the saxophones.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. 

Check out this album if jazz or British jazz is your thing.

2.5 points

 

 

Apolis - The Sun Has Fallen (2017)

The one and only album from this band from Greece.

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

They got help from a handful of people who added woodwinds, piano and bass.

This album was released through Bandcamp as per usual for unusual projects.

The music is a mix of cinematic rock, funk rock, eclectic prog and Greek folk music.

The music is still pretty melodic. Quirky and melodic. There is a lot of twists and turns in this music. 

The lyrics is in English, but the music is heavy influenced by Greek folk music. 

The vocals are pretty good and ditto for the music on this fifty minutes long album.

This is a good album who should appeal to most progheads. Check out this Bandcamp album.

3 points

 

  

Tenderton - The Chateau (2022)

The second album from this band from Norway.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, clavinet, rhodes organ, organ, mellotron, synths, marimba, vibraphone and tubular bells.

Ronnie Le Tekro, the guitarist in TNT, does the guitars on the two opening tracks.

The band returned again after their self-titled 2016 debut album.

We get the same genre and type of music again.

That means instrumental soft symphonic prog.

There is some fusion and in particular movie soundtrack influences here. 

The music is pretty dynamic and offers up some good mellotrons and organs.

The quality is pretty good and Norway has again produced a good progressive rock band.

Check out this album.

3 points

Tempest - Going Home (2022)

The 12th album from this band from USA.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, mandolin, hurdy-gurdy, violin, mandolas, bodhran, harmonica and vocals.

A keyboardist added his keyboards.

This band has been around since 1991 when they album debuted. I reviewed one of their albums a couple of weeks ago.

The band is a folk-rock band. Mostly inspired by celtic folk music. Irish folk music, that is.

On this album, the band has moved their attention to Norway as we get some of their versions of Norwegian folk tunes.

There is some rock here and no prog. Most of the album is folk music.

There is both male and female vocals here. The band owner is Norwegian and his vocals is spot on. 

This is a decent enough album. The music does not offer up much interesting or good details or melodies. Hence this rating.

 2 points 

High Castle Teleorkestra - The Egg That Never Opened (2022)

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, woodwinds, viola, violin, guitars, melodica, accordion, keyboards, programming, grand piano, cello and vocals.

They had contributions from numerous friends who added violin, cello, woodwinds, vibraphone, vocals, drums, keyboards, synths and vocals.

This band is a kind of a super group with members from Umlaut, Estradasphere and Mr Bungle.

This album contains fifty minutes of eclectic prog/avant garde prog ranging from extreme metal to Eastern European folk music, classical music, jazz, gypsy music, cinematic music in the vein of Goblin and surf rock.

The music kicks in all direction and there is some sort of methods in this madness. And madness, it is. 

Maybe too much madness for one album. But avant-garde/RIO fans will love this album.... I guess. 

I am not won over. Nevertheless, there are some good stuff here and some decent stuff. 

Check out this album if avant-garde prog is your thing.

2.5 points

Nana. Bader - Anthology (2013)

 

The third album from this Lebanese artist who lives in Kuwait.

Bader Nana does the drums, guitars, bass, vocals and programming himself.

He got help on a couple tracks on percussion and guitars.

Bader Nana mostly does reworks of movie soundtracks and computer games soundtracks. But he has also, so far, released four neo-prog albums.

His first neo-prog album Wormwood from 2011 was indeed a good album. 

Anthology continues in the same vein. Melodic and not overly complex neo-prog with some prog metal and symphonic prog influences.

His vocals is very good and ditto for some harmonies here.

The neo-prog is a bit run of the mill like. But it sounds fresh and the sound is really good.

Bader Nana is an artist well worth checking out and this is another good album from him.

3 points

Morse. Neal - Sola Scriptura (2007)

The 11th album from this artist from USA.

Neal Morse did the keyboards, vocals and some guitars.

He had help from a lot of guests who provided drums, bass, guitars, violin, viola, electric violin, cello, French horn and vocals.

I am bypassing all the Worship and Praise albums he has released as I do not find them musically interesting at all. Hence, I have now arrived at his eleventh album.

This album gives us some proper US symphonic prog with the usual references to Spock's Beard and his previous prog albums.

There is still some singer-songwriter influences here as he tried hard to follow the likes of Bob Dylan for a while. He still do to a certain extent.

The music is big and bold. His vocals is great. The lyrics is Christian and preaching. But I can live with that.

This is another very good album from Neal Morse. My only gripe with it is a missing great song or two. Neal Morse can do better than the music on this album.

3.5 points

Silent Temple - Faery Revolution (2022)

The fifht album from this band from USA.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, lute, flute, banjo, grand piano, keyboards, recorder and vocals.

A guest added a quatro on one of the songs.

This band has released five albums since 2013 and has got a good reputation. 

This album is my first ever meeting with the band and their music. I think this calls for getting their first four albums too. They are all Bandcamp albums.

Faery Revolution is a name-your-price album and sure download.

The music is somewhere between acid folk, folk rock and symphonic prog. Steeleye Span and those folk rock bands of that generation springs to mind. 

The female vocals are really good

The music is subtle and pretty good on this one hour download. The quality is good throughout this album.

This is band I have noted and will explore more. They are a much welcome addition to my world and the scene in general.

3 points 

 

 

They - Unspeakable (2018)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, guitar synths, synths, programming, effects and vocals.

A handful of guests provided guitars, synths and vocals.

Great cover.... and I got the album because of that cover.

I thought I got a psych rock album. I was only a bit right here.

Take extreme metal with death growls, a lot of psych rock, a bit college rock, a bit west coast rock and a bit indie rock. Merge that together on an one hour long album.

The result is chaos and dissonance.

There are some OK melodies here and some OK details. But the ideas is too scattered and too dispersed to make this coherent music and a coherent album.

This is a decent album and well worth checking out if chaos is your thing.

2 points

 

 

Aphrodite's Child - 666 (1972)

 

The third and final album from this band from Greece.

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

A handful of guests added woodwinds, narrations and female vocals.

This album is one of the classics in the progressive rock scene. Not so much of the quality but because the weird music, the big song from this album and those who took part.

I reviewed their first two albums many years ago but did not really want to review this album due to my mistaken this album for being occult. I had got an overdose of occultism back then. It now turns out that this album is all about The Old Testament, the first part of the Bible.

Vangelis and Demis Roussos was 2/4 of the band. Both got good careers outside the band when the band split up just after the release of this album. Both has recently passed on. R.I.P.

The Four Horsemen is the big song on this album. A great song indeed. The rest of the album has some system in the chaos. It is difficult to find, but it is there. Yes, this is a concept album.

The music is pretty avant-garde and eclectic.

The music is also good but it is a grower. It is not an immediate hit in my ears and I had my struggles with this album.

Check out this album.

3 points

T - Solipsystemology (2019)

The seventh album from this one man project from Germany.

T is Thomas Thielen and he does the computers, drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals himself.

I have reviewed most of his previous albums and I have been impressed.

Thomas Thielen aka T does majestic, epic neo-prog. 

This well over seventy minutes long album has taken influences from the likes of Van Der Graaf Generator and some other more symphonic prog bands. There is also some very evident Marillion influences here.

If you take a blend of those two bands and add the melancholic German take on neo-prog, you will get this album.

There is a lot of guitar harmonies and solos here. Ditto for vocals and vocals harmonies.

The production is first rate and Thomas has not let down his followers.

My only gripe is the missing great track and melody. There is none here.

This is still a good album and one to check out.

3 points

Triangle - Triangle (1970)

The debut album from this band from France.

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

The band was a short lived band who only released three albums between 1970 and 1973. The band was regarded as talented and in the same scene as Ange.

I got their first two albums and will review their second one next week.... I hope.

The music on this forty minutes long LP is a mix of psych rock, rock and blues.

The vocals are both in French and English. The vocals are good.

The flutes are good and ditto for the guitars and keyboards. The sound is the typical 1970s and it is a good sound.

The songs are pretty short with the exception of the final song who clocks in at almost ten minutes.

The end result is a decent album. It is a charming album too but nothing more than that.

2 points

Gnome - King (2022)

The second album from this band from Belgium.

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

I was sent a link to their video from this album and I found it hilarious. You will find it somewhere on Youtube. Then I got the album after expressing my interest in it.

The music is doom/stoner rock with some progressive rock and space rock elements.

Most of the music is instrumental with some vocals adding spice to the music.

The band has a rather weirdo, humour take on stoner and doom metal. Some of their riffs and melodies are well outside the stoner norm. 

The music is pretty quirky and so is the sporadic vocals.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not entirely convinced and won over by this forty-two minutes long album.

Those who likes quirky, progressive stoner rock should check out this album.

2.5 points

Enid. The - Invicta (2012)

The 19th album from this band from England.

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

Invicta is part two of the Journey's End album from 2010, their 16th album. 

The band continued in their world between classical music and symphonic prog.

Joe Payne was the lead vocalist here and did a very good job on this album.

The album starts with a piece which is more or less straight classical music before the album moves onto being a more rock album.

Symphonic progressive rock, that is.

There is actually a lot of tasty guitars here and some tasty, short guitar solos.

There is some musicals type of music here. The Enid has always sailed close to that genre.

This is still a decent to good album from the band and well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity (1997)

The fourth album from this US band.

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

The follow up album to the very heavy Awake album saw the band change keyboards player. Kevin Moore went out and Derek Sherinian replaced him.

The band also followed up the very heavy Awake album with one of their least heavy albums of their career. 

I rated it as a disappointment and a soft squid when I got it in 1997. I did not like it at all.

Twenty-five years has passed and.... the album has some weaknesses. A couple of rather weak songs who leads nowhere.

There are also some very good songs here. The majority of the songs are very good, indeed.

This is therefore a very good album indeed and it proves that I was very much mistaken when I got it when it was released.

3.5 points

 

 

BlueMoon Projects. The - Encounters (2022)

The debut album from this band from Greece.

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

The music scene around the world is pumping out new art rock and progressive rock bands. Most of them release their albums through Bandcamp.

This is also the case with The BlueMoon Projects.

The music is very much in the same vein as Marillion. In fact, I think it is fair to label them as a Marillion copycat band.

That is Marillion, the Hogarth era. The difference between these two bands is that Marillion has a great guitarist and the guitar solos are really great. The BlueMoon Projects does not have a great guitarist and there is not much guitars on their album. The synths has taken over much of the guitarist's space.

The music is melodic and relative softly spoken. The vocals is really good and almost on par with Steve Hogarth.

This forty-three minutes long album is indeed a very good album and well worth checking out.

I like this band and I hope we will hear a lot more from them in the future.

3.5 points

Tetelestai - Tetelestai (1984)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

This band was one of the first ever neo-prog bands from USA who released an album.

A good reference is Twelfth Night. 

The music is very basic neo-prog. The vocals is almost theatrical. The lyrics is indeed religious and taken from The Bible.

The sound is a bit poor and very much in the line with the early 1980s neo-prog sound. The vocals are passable despite of being a bit theatrical.

The music is barely decent. 

It is a good reason why this album is so ignored. The reason is that it does not offer much joy to the listener.

It is a decent album but still an album with some historical value as being one of the first ever US neo-prog albums.

2 points

Agent Fresco - Destrier (2015)

The second album from this band from Iceland.

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

Two guests added strings and woodswinds.

This is a new band to me as I do not have their debut album. I may get that one based on this album.

Nothing, besides of a live album, has been heard recorded from this band after the release of that live album either and I fear the worst.

Their music is a blend of Marillion, Gazpacho, art rock, a bit jazz and a lot of post metal.

The opening songs are in the Marillion and Gazpacho vein before the post metal takes over with some avant garde and growls.

The clean vocals are great. It is some of the better vocals I have reviewed/heard this year. They are a bit like Morten Harket from A-Ha. 

The rest of the band also does a very good job on this fifty minutes long album.

The result is an enticing, very good album. 

Check out this Bandcamp album.

3.5 points

Tenderton - Tenderton (2016)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This is another new band to me and I became aware of them when they released their second album some weeks ago. I checked out the band and found this digital album too. 

Hence, I am starting with the debut album before moving on to the new album next week or so.

The music is instrumental and the Bandcamp promises a good piece of symphonic prog...

.... which is not entirely wrong. There is some jazz influences too. But some rather pastoral symphonic prog is what we get here.

There is no majestic tunes and bombs going off in all directions here. The band takes the more softly spoken path and the music is indeed pastoral.

The keyboards and the guitars takes us through these forty minutes.

A bit mellotron instead of keyboards on some parts here would have done wonders for some of the pieces. 

Nevertheless, the music is somewhere between decent and good. This is a more than acceptable debut album.

2.5 points

Tempest - Another Dawn (2010)

 

The ninth album from this band from USA.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, tambourine, djembe, bass, mandolin, guitars, violins, viola, bodhran, flute, harmonica and vocals.

A guest musician added his keyboards.

This band has released twelve albums so far and I got the last one to review next week. But Another Dawn is my first meeting with this band.

The band plays folk rock. The inspirations is mostly taken from the Scandinavian folk music scene. But there is also some English folk rock here and a lot of American folk rock too.

The emphasis is on folk music and not on rock or prog on this fifty minutes long album.

There are some instrumental parts but they are not that interesting. Most of this album is vocals orientated and based on the simple songs formula.

This is still a decent album and the band sounds like they know what they are doing.

Check out this album if folk rock is your thing.

2 points

 

Soft Ffog - Soft Ffog (2022)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

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

The cover art work says symphonic prog and I was tuning my ears into some Yes like music.

I was wrong.

What I got was a hell of a racket. That means twisted and shaken fusion tones. 

Their take on fusion is intense and not so far away from the likes of Krokofant etc etc etc.

Norwegian fusion has always been influenced by extreme metal too and you can hear that on this album too. 

The fusion is really intense and a bit avant-garde. There is even some faint Black Sabbath influences in their music. This is not music for the faint hearted.

The music is also great with a lot to offer for fusion fans and the open minded listener. I really enjoy this album and would recommend it as the best album from Norway.....so far.

4 points

Ozric Tentacles - The YumYum Tree (2009)

The 18th album from this band from England.

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

Three guests added darbuka, synths and percussion.

The band continued with their winning formula. That means space and ambient rock with some Hawkwind influences. It can be argued that Ozric had now overtaken Hawkwind as the master of this genre. 

Ozric Tentacles had by now gained legend status.

The band still managed to refine and renew themselves on this album.

They had added reggae on this album. Ambient reggae. And this addition, who was an addition and not a replacement of their more traditional stuff, really enhanced this album.

The result is another good album from this band. Another triumph and another hypnotic experience.

3 points

 

 

Groundhogs - Solid (1974)

The eight album from this British band.

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

Groundhogs carried on with what they did. Mixing hard blues, progressive rock and hard rock. This with some soul influences too.

The guitars were again re-installed in the band after Tony McPhee's wounds had healed and he was back to speed on the guitars.

The music is pretty hard. But not as hard as Budgie, who is a good reference. 

Groundhogs was always a bit more sophisticated and proggy than Budgie.

The big song here is Sins Of The Father. A good songs with a great guitar riff and some good mellotron work.

The rest of the album is pretty good too. The music is hard but also pretty progressive. 

This is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Sloth Metropolis - The Moth Necropolis (2022)

The fifth album from this band from Glasgow, Scotland.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, electric violin, organ, electric piano, synths, whistle, samples and vocals.

This is a new name to me although I live pretty close to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland with a population of one million people. 

Their music is no less than a revelation to me and I may go back and review more of their albums in due time.

Their music is a mix of acid folk, outer universe space rock, heavy psych rock and a lot of avant garde doom metal.

It is also both avant garde and progressive rock.

And the music both works and make a lot of sense. 

Parts of the music is captivating. Other parts not so interesting.

The result is a good album who deserve a lot more attention.

Check it out.

3 points

 

 

Tartessos - Tiempo Muerto (1975)

The one and only album from this band from Spain.

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

A guest helped out guitars and percussion one track.

This is a very obscure album which has been ignored by most progressive rock websites. Well, I think it is a progressive rock album.

Or to be more precise; a blend of art rock and progressive rock with some Spanish fusion also included.

Only one track out of eleven has some guitars. Keyboards, flutes and vocals is doing the main job in driving the melodies forwards.

The music is still dynamic and far from pedestrian and lifeless. This album is rocking and rattling along very nicely without guitars.

The vocals is mostly Spanish but there is also some English vocals here. The Spanish vocals is very nice. The English vocals is not particular good.

This forty-two minutes long album is quite a decent album and well worth checking out. 

2 points

Anvision - New World (2016)

The second album from this band from Poland.

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

I reviewed their 2012 debut album Astral Phase some years ago for # 1 of this blog. I was not impressed. I do not have their last album and will probably bypass that album as their music is not my kind of music.

Anvision does progressive metal.

There are some poppy pieces here and they sounds a bit like Dream Theater too.

Their take on prog metal is in other words pretty standard.

The vocals and guitars are OK. They are not good. The keyboards are OK too.

There is nothing here I do really rate. Albums like this is one of the reasons I am no fan of prog metal.

The music is decent enough though and fans of this genre should check out this album.

 2 points

 

 

TEE The Earth Explorer - Total Edge Effect (2022)

 

The fourth album from this band from Japan.

 

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

 

This band is an interesting band. Throughout their first three albums, they have given us instrumental symphonic prog.

 

That is also the case on this album.

 

That means instrumental symphonic prog with a lot of flutes. In this case, also lots of piccolo flutes.

 

The references are both Camel and the Norwegian band Pymlico. That is from the top of my head.

 

The sound is both warm and organic. The guitars are restrained but also elegant. The piccolo and flutes has taken the role of the vocals.

 

The result is a good album from a band I really like. Check out their four albums.

 

3 points

 

 

 

 

Talamanca. Tommy - Atopia (2022)

The second album from this artist from Italy.

Tommy Talamanca plays the guitars, bass, synths and drums on this album. He had help from the vocalist Gloria Rossi on vocals. This is in short Tommy Talamanca on all instruments and Gloria Rossi on female vocals.

The Sadist guitarist is out with his second album after the guitar hero like first album. An instrumental album who bridges fusion and progressive metal.

Not the most popular music genre around, in other words. Hence the change of direction....

Atopia is much more a songs orientated album with lots of vocals and Tommy's guitars backing up the vocals and songs.

The music is a mix of neo-prog and progressive metal. It is still miles away from his daily job in Sadist.

Gloria's vocals are good. Ditto for the guitars.

The art of song writing is the one piece that lets this album down a bit.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. 

If female vocals progressive rock is your thing, check out this album.

2.5 points

Trummor & Orgel - Longevity (2022)

The ninth album from this band from Sweden.

The band is a one man band on this album and Staffan Ljungren does the drums, percussion and synths here.

He got help from some guests who has added their strings, synths and organ.

This band/project is new to me. They are regarded as a jazz band. Well, that is perhaps correct.

Longvity sees the band, whose in English is Drums & Organ, venture into the Canterbury scene.

They sounds like a simplified version of National Health at times. The quirkiness of the Canterbury scene is very much alive on the forty minutes long Longevity.

The organ is very much the dominating instrument here. It is helped by drums and percussion. And that is the whole album.

The music is dynamic and quirky. It is also very much simple and less is more based.

The music is also decent to good throughout. Good enough for me to check out this band more and take a deeper dive into their back catalogue. 

2.5 points

 

 

 

 

Oldfield. Mike - The Millenium Bell (1999)

The 21st album from this British artist/legend.

Mike Oldfield did a synth guitar on this album.

He had help from a symphony orchestra, a choir, female vocalists and a drummer.

Mike Oldfield wanted to create an album where each era of the mankind's life and development was documented in music. No lack of ambitions here.......

The album is forty-five minutes long and it got a lot of electronica, neo-classical music and choral music.

There is a lot of huge variations between the tracks/the eras of the mankind. 

And the result makes me cringe. 

There is some half decent stuff here and that is the best I can say about this bloated piece of music.

Avoid.

1.5 points

 

 

Miller. Rick - Immortal Remains (2013)

The 10th album from this artist from Canada.

Rick Miller did the drums, bass, synths, guitars and vocals himself.

He had help from half a dozen of guests who provided guitars, cello, violin, flute and spoken words.

Rick Miller started out as an ambient/new age artist. He got a good career out of that before he changed genre and became a progressive rock artist. I believe his a successful artist also in our genre.

His music on this album is pretty silently spoken, understated and dark neo-prog.

There is also some symphonic prog influences here and a lot of Pink Floyd influences.

The music is not very technical or full of quirky details. It is rather very melodic though and offers some nice listening. The ambient music has never really left Rick Miller and there is subtle ambient music scattered around the album.

The result is again a good album from Rick Miller. 

I am looking forward to continue my reviews of his albums this summer. 

3 points

 

  

Brända Ängar - Brända Ängar (2022)

The debut album from this band from Sweden.

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

The band debuted with a single on Bandcamp before they released this album.... also on Bandcamp. It is also available on LP and CD.

Their vocals are in their mother-tongue...... Swedish.

The vocals is rather good, btw.

The music is melodic psych rock with a lot of nods towards Jefferson Airplane and Doors. There are also a lot of nods towards progressive rock here.

The sound is warm and like the 1970s sound. It is fair to label their sound and music as retro, with both legs in the 1970s and a couple of toes in the 1960s.

The music on this forty minutes long album is good throughout. It feels like a fresh breeze and that is what this album is.

Check it out.

3 points

Tempus Fugit - The Dawn After The Storm (1999)

The second album from this band from Brazil.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, mandolin, organ, keyboards, moog, synths, piano and vocals.

Two guests added vocals and flute.

This band released three albums before they split up. I reviewed both their debut and their final album ten years ago for ProgArchives. But I totally forgot about this album until it showed up in my to-review list.

Better late than never.

The band played symphonic prog and symphonic prog of the more pastoral vein. Genesis and Camel is good references here.

The music is mostly instrumental with a couple of vocals songs thrown into this one hour long album.

The music is really elegant and in the same vein as their two other albums. 

The vocals is good and ditto for the other instruments. The music is not overly technical despite of the musicians being highly skills. Sometimes, less is more is the best way of creating good progressive rock.

This is indeed a good album and one to check out. This band was one of the best progressive rock bands from this continent and their three albums still gives symphonic prog fans a lot of pleasure.

3 points

Ame Son - Catalyse (1970)

 The debut album from this band from France.

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

This band played with Daevid Allen on his Bananamoon album. Ame Son then went their own way and released two albums on their own.

Both albums are what we can call very obscure.

The music is pretty primitive too. It is basically psych rock with some weird Gong like jazz thrown into the mix.

The bass, vocals, flutes and drums are very thin compared to the dominating guitars. The guitars are pretty poor too.

The sound quality is not the best and these forty minutes is a bit of a test.

There is some decent stuff here. But not enough.

This album is close to being a turkey.

1.5 points

Kaleidobolt - This One Simple Trick (2022)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

I reviewed their debut album one week ago and was not that impressed. 

I have not been able to get hold of their second album and will give that one a miss. 

The band has moved on a bit from the stoner rock on the debut album. There are still some hints of Black Sabbath here. But add Frank Zappa, a bit Gong and post-punk to the mix and you get this album.

The guitar riffs are pretty insane and ditto for the vocals.

The result is very eclectic.

The result is also a decent album which is not really making me a fan of this band. Better tunes would have made this a far better album.

2 points

 

 

Kanoi - Nein (2018)

The 10th album from this one man band from Austria.

Benjamin Kantschieder merged with the band KRPL on this album and the result was a quartet of musicians with a lineup of drums, bass and guitars.

Benjamin sometimes cooperates with other bands and release albums like this one. That is a good idea as more inputs normally makes better albums.

The music is space rock with a lot of krautrock influences. 

The sound is pretty poor. It feels like the guitars has been recorded in a different room than the pickup mics were installed. 

The music is neither groovy or special interesting.

This is a decent enough album from Kanoi whose albums are a bit of hit and miss. 

If krautrock is your thing, check out Kanoi at the Bandcamp page. You may find some albums there you may enjoy/like.

2 points

 

 

 

Pajaro - El manifiesto (2022)

The second album from this band from Argentina.

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

I really liked their 2019 album Paisajes and I therefore jumped on the chance to review their new album when I was offered it.

The music on El Manifesto is wild and unpredictable eclectic rock with a lot of Latin American sound and flavours.

The music varies from wild, chaotic explosions to more pastoral music.

The Spanish vocals are fairly good and they adds a lot of flavours to this album.

There is not much of melodic sensitivities on this album. There is a lot of fairly good ideas here. But there is not enough of them.

This is an hour long eclectic prog album, indeed.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over by this album from them.

2.5 points 

Nana. Bader - Wormwood (2011)

The second album from this artist from Lebanon/Kuwait.

Bader Nana does the guitars, drums, bass, keyboards and vocals himself on this album.

He had some help from some guests who provided percussion, guitars and synths.

Bader Nana was born and grew up in Lebanon before he moved to Kuwait where he now record and release his albums and EPs.

This album is my first meeting with Bader Nana. I have heard about him for years as he and his music has got a very good reputation. Hence, I put his albums up for review this summer.

His debut album was a Michael Jackson rework and I am nowhere near interested in reviewing those kind of albums. So I start with this album and adds reviews of the three other albums later this summer.

The music on this album is somewhere between Spock's Beard and Dream Theater. Add some neo-prog too and you get this album.

There is a nice balance between heavy prog and some more melodic prog on this album. It is obvious that Bader Nana knows what he is doing.

The result is a good album and an artist well worth following. 

I am looking forward to listen to his three other albums.

3 points

Morse. Neal - ? (2005)

The fifth album from this artist from USA.

Neal Morse did the guitars, keyboards and vocals here.

He got help from numerous guests who provided drums, bass, strings, woodwinds, bagpipes, guitars and chorus.

Alan Morse, Steve Hackett and Roine Stolt was the three most known guests who added guitar solos on this album. Neal Morse has no problems getting help from the best of the best musicians in the scene as an ex member of Spock's Beard and a current member of Transatlantic and other projects.

The music on this one hour long album, which is a pretty restrained album length to be Mr Morse, is following in the same footsteps of his previous album One.... and with some Bob Dylan'esque music thrown into the mix too.

The songs are pretty short and punchy. There is no time to go on some symphonic prog journeys on this album. The lyrics are Christian too and pretty preaching.

Most of the songs here are pretty much substandard, this being Neal Morse and his standards. His very high standards. The opening track is a very good song. The rest.... not so good.

Hence my lack of enthusiasm for this album.

2.5 points

Amanda - Weltenraum (2022)

 

The fifth album from this band from Austria.

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

I know absolute nothing about this band. Their homepages has no info and the Bandcamp site also include a lot of other bands. It is a record label Bandcamp website.

This album has two songs and clocks in at forty-three minutes.

The music is a mix of symphonic prog, space rock and psych rock. 

There is some Pink Floyd and Camel influences here. The sparse vocals are in German.

The music is pretty pastoral too with some nice dissonance between the rather good melodies.

There is not much variations here and the music sometimes dips into a dirge.

The end result is a good album. It has some really good tensions and does keep the listener's interest throughout.

Check out this album.

3 points

Taiga - Twelve Sketches (2010)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

Taiga is a one man band where Jonathan Spruance does the drums, percussion, guitars, bass, moog, organ, moog and keyboards.

He has got help from guests who has provided drums, percussion and flute.

We are again being treated to some instrumental music. 

This time, to some symphonic prog. That is Swedish symphonic prog in the same vein as Bo Hansson and his Tolkien albums.

There is some references to Swedish folk music here and there is also plenty of references to Camel. There is also some Anglagard references.

This is therefore quite a remarkable album and an ambitious project.

There is a lot of piano and some flutes here. Ditto for guitars and moog.

The end result is somewhere between decent and good. Fans of Bo Hansson must check out this album.

2.5 points

Anti Depressive Delivery - The Best Of Antidepressive Delivery (2010)

The third and final album from this band from Norway.

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

This review is waaaaaay too late. I should have reviewed it twelve years ago when I got the album. But I became very distracted by the smorgasboard of albums I was presented with and forgot this album and band.

In the meantime, this album has become available on Bandcamp as a free download too.

This is NOT a best of compilation of their best songs from their previous two albums. The songs here are brand new as per 2010.

The music is mainly art rock with a lot of soul and blues influences.

The vocals is really good and the music is elegant throughout.

This is indeed a good album from a band who are now sadly forgotten. 

Check out this album.

3 points

TEE The Earth Explorer - TEE The Earth Explorer (2009)

The debut album from this band from Japan.

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

This band exploded onto the scene with their second album back in 2012. And with good reasons. That album, Trans Europe Expression, is a very good album.

The band has just released their fourth album and I therefore took the opportunity to review their debut album. The review of their new album will follow next week.

There is no vocals on this album. 

The flute has replaced the vocals and works as the vocals on this album. 

The music is symphonic prog pretty much in the vein of Camel. There is also some neo-prog here.

The sound is good and the flutes gives the band and album it's own character and identity.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good.

This album just proves that this is a very good band, well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Talamanca. Tommy - Na Zapad (2015)

 The debut album from this guitarist from Italy.

Tommy Talamanca does the bass, bouzouki, guitars, piano, synths, djembe and bodhran himself.

He got help on drums from a guest musician. 

Tommy Talamanca is the guitarist in Sadist, a very good progressive death metal band whose first albums I may have reviewed for either # 1 of this blog or ProgArchives. If not, I would like to review them as I got the albums.

Tommy Talamanca has also released a brand new album this year and I will review it next week.

Na Zapad, whose art work is great, is a thirty-five minutes long album.

It is instrumental and it showcases his skills on guitars. It is short a guitar hero album.

The music is a mix of fusion and metal. There is nothing earth shattering innovations on this album. It is what it is..... a guitar hero album.

The music is decent enough. I have no complaints in that respect. 

In short; if instrumental metal and fusion is your thing, this is an album well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Out Of The Beardspace - Like Moths to a Flame (2022)

The third album from this band from USA.

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

I have had the pleasure of reviewing this New York band's first two albums for # 2 of this blog and I quite liked them. So I jumped on the chance to review their brand new album.

The band gives us forty minutes of some really quirky progressive rock.

Parts of the music is pretty eclectic. The music does have a very playful feel and it is indeed very playful. It has lots of strange melody lines. Most of it is pretty jazzy.

The music is also bohemian as in the New York folk rock/rock/jazz scene. It has New York written all over it.

New York is a very pulsating place and that is reflected in this album. 

The result is a good album from a band with a strange name and who, over three albums, has given us some quirky music.

Check out this album.... and this band.

3 points

Enid. The - Shining (2012)

The 18th album from this band from England.

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

 This album is the third and final album of reworked pieces from their back catalogue. 

These three albums has still sounded fresh and should be regarded on their own merits. Which I have done and is doing.

Joe Payne is the vocalist here and the pieces has all got vocals.

This album is therefore a pretty untypical The Enid album. It has got a musical feel on some of the songs. 

The sound and music is pretty accessible and this album is by far their most accessible and commercial album to this date. 

The songs are all good and really serves the band well.

This is an album well worth checking out. It is indeed a good album.

3 points