Bayon - Bayon (1977)

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

The band released six studio albums between 1977 and 2008 before they split up for the final time. I got three of them for review this summer.

The music is folk rock. Quirky folk rock.

Take chamber music, add some Basque folk rock, some Italian folk rock and some classical music. There is even some Latin-American folk music here.

There is not so much German folk music here. That is the surprise here.

The vocals is good and there is a lot of violins, flutes and acoustic guitars in their music.

The result is a forty minutes long album and a decent album too. I am really looking forward to sample the two remaining albums too.

2 points

 

 

Voivod - Rrrooaaarrr !!! (1986)

The second album from this band from Canada.

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

Their debut album was a half-decent, still pretty pioneering thrash metal album. An album which brought a lot of hope.

Yes, I have just started my quest to review all their studio albums so the debut album gave me hope.

The band were facing the difficult second album and the fact that their music were too avant-garde and radical for the big thrash and speed metal scene. So they went for safety.

Safety here means some pretty standard thrash metal at full speed. Still without loosing their identity.

Although this is a step back from their debut album, this is not turkey or a disaster. There are still some clever stuff here and the band was never destined to become a run of the mill thrash and speed metal band.

Nevertheless, this is not a recommended album.

1.5 points

Evership - The Uncrowned King Act 2 (2022)

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

The Saga vocalist Michael Sadler adds vocals on one song. 

This is part two of the The Uncrowned King series of albums. I am not sure of this is the final act or if it is a trilogy or something more substantial than that.

I reviewed part 1 for # 2 of this blog back in July 2021 and I liked it a lot. It is indeed a very good album. I also reviewed their second album one week ago. Another gem of an album. In short, Evership is a good band. 

The music here is a mix of symphonic prog and neo-prog. References are Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Styx, Genesis, Supertramp, Kansas, The Flower Kings and Yes here. 

US symphonic prog and glam prog meets European symphonic prog and neo-prog. That is the best long winded label to put on their music.

The music is bold, big, epic and at times pretty pastoral and melancholic too. It is melodic throughout and not particular heavy. Bombastic but not heavy.

The songs are good to very good. The vocals and the details are very good.

Hence, this is a very good album and one well worth checking out. Evership is one of the better progressive rock bands in today's scene. 

3.5 points

 

 

Veslefrikk - Live (1982)

The fourth and final album from this band from Norway.

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

This band grew out of bands like Bazar and Folque. But it is most known as Anne Grete Preus first band. She is one of the best ever songwriters and artists Norway has ever seen. She sadly passed away some years ago. She is still very much missed and loved.

Veslefrikk released three studio albums. This album, the Live album, is though their most known and popular album. I bought it on a sales of just re-released albums on CDs, the brilliant Norske Albumklassikere på CD series. 

This band was an Oslo through and through band. It was a band for and about the only real big city in Norway, the capitol Oslo. The band therefore felt a bit alien to the rest of us Norwegians. I never really got Veslefrikk......

The music is an energy filled restless mix of punk, ska, folk rock and pub rock.   

The music is youthful and it also surprisingly has a lot of musical quality. Even some pretty long guitar solos. 

The album sounds a bit dated. Nevertheless, this is a decent enough album and for me a good historical document about a time and a scene I never really understood. It still feels alien to me, anno 2023. Then again, I grew up in rural Norway. 

2 points

Strange Horizon - Skur 14 (2023)

The second album from this band from Norway.

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

I reviewed and liked their 2022 debut album Beyond The Strange Horizon. 

The album was a doom/retro metal album with very clear and unrestrained Black Sabbath influences.

Skur 14 is a second helping of the same type of Black Sabbath and St Vitus worshipping doom/retro metal.

The sound is dirty. The first three songs are pretty basic. The fourth and final song is a good doom metal epic with some good guitars and bass solos.

The result is a decent to good album. It is an album retro metal and hard rock fans will like a lot. I have my reservations as the quality is not that good. The fourth and final track is the only good song/composition on this album.

Check out this album.   

2.5 points

Barrdo - Équivoques vol. 2 (2022)

The fifth album from this band from Canada.

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

The band had help from some guests who provided oud, choir, backing vocals, strings, piano, moog and synths.

This is the second album in the Équivoques released last year. 

Listening to this album, it becomes pretty obvious why we get two albums instead of one sixty-five minutes long album. # 1 and # 2 offers up two different types of their take on progressive rock.

The music on # 2, the one I am reviewing now, is pretty dark and hard. 

It is subtantial more based on rhythms too. The likes of Red Hot Chilly Peppers anno their Californication album and title track springs to mind here as a good reference.

This is still a Barrdo album and this band is unique in their music. Hence, we still get some Harmonium and Ange references too.

The vocals is good and ditto for the music. This is their most challenging and dissonant album so far. It is still a good album. Check it out.

3 points

 

 

Buaas. Anders - The Edinburgh Suite (2022)

The seventh album from this artist from Norway.

Anders Buaas did the mandolin, banjo and guitars here.

He got help from a handful of guests who provided drums, bass, percussion, mallet, piano, accordion and keyboards.

The so far latest album from this Norwegian guitarists and composer. 

This album is forty minutes long and divided into two two parts, The Old Town and The New Town. Just as Edinburgh is roughly divided into. The central part of Edinburgh, that is.

The music is instrumental symphonic prog with some folk rock, prog metal and huge neo-classical influences. 

The music is a bit Scottish showbands influenced and that is the only connection I can find to my adopted homeland.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. The music is not particular remarkable but fans of instrumental guitars dominated rock will find this album interesting.

2.5 points

 

 

Sideways - Test of Time (2023)

The fifth album from this band from Holland.

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

I reviewed their fourth album, the 2017 album Into Balance, back in October 2021 and was not impressed by this album. Pedestrian rock with some neo-prog influences.

Six years later....

The band has not really changed much during this long break. If the band has written the new songs after that album, that is.

We get rock with some neo-prog influences. There is some Pink Floyd influences here but not much.

The music on this one hour long album is pedestrian and not particular complex.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. 

This album is an improvement on Into Balance but not by many country miles. If softly spoken rock with some neo-prog influences is your thing, check out this band.

2.5 points

Canzoniere Del Lazio - Quando Nascesti Tune (1973)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of tambourine, acoustic guitars, flute, accordion, violin, male and female vocals.

This band was an important band in the Italia folk rock scene. Their 1976 album Spirito Bono was pretty progressive too and I reviewed back in February 2013 for # 1 of this blog.

I got three of their remaining five albums up for review this summer.

Quando Nascesti Tune contains just over half an hour of traditional Italian music. Old traditional music with a lot of female and male vocals. 

It was a commercial and artistic failure and the band almost folded after this failure before they went electric and got the success they sought.

This album has a couple of decent songs and that is that. It is indeed a poor album and best ignored.

1.5 points

 

 

Bowness. Tim - Lost in the Ghost Light (2017)

The fourth studio album from this artist from Great Britain.

Tim Bowness did the synths, drum programming and vocals here.

He got help from numerous guests who added drums, bass, guitars, violin, ebow, flute, mellotron, piano, organ, electric piano, keyboards and backing vocals.

This ex No-Man member is a busy artist with a lot of albums. Both as co-op albums with others or solo albums. Including the co-op albums, this is therefore his eight album.

Tim Bowness is straddling the singer/songwriter and progressive rock genres. 

Yes, it very much sounds like he is a singer/songwriter as the music is songs and vocals based. The music is far more bolder and epic than the usual singer/songwriter fare. 

The quality of the songs takes the breathe away. The vocals is also superb.

This is his so far best album and one of the better singer/songwriter albums I have ever heard. It is also a progressive rock album too.

Check out this great album.

4 points

Evership - Evership II (2018)

The second album from this band from USA. 

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

The band had help from some guests who provided drums, guitar solos, backing vocals and a choir.

This band's 2018 self-titled debut album created quite a lot of waves in the prog rock scene. And with good reasons.

The band's style back then and also on their second album is a mix of good and old symphonic prog. Take the likes of Mystery, Kansas and Yes. Add in some Big Big Train too and you get it.

The Queen influences has gone from their sound though. There was some of them on their debut album. 

The music is big and epic. It is also bould and uncompromising symphonic.

The vocals is very good indeed and the songs are pretty long.

My only gripe with this album is that the band has not really come up with quality songs and compositions this time. Something is missing and that is songs and compositions that is really memorable.

That aside, this is a good album and one well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Monni. Lorenzo - Grey Swans of Extremistan (2010)

The third and so far latest album from Lorenzo Monni.

Lorenzo Monni did the guitars, bass, loops and computers himself. He got help from a couple of guests on drums.

This is his final album before he went on to do his albums under the Leptons name. He has two albums under that name.... so far. Reviews to follow next month.

Grey Swans Of Extremistan is his most complex album. All barriers are being pushed and new areas are being explored.

There is a lot of avant-garde neo-classical and jazz here. There is also some symphonic prog and a lot of eclectic prog. King Crimson but also the likes of Dennis Rea and Mark Wingfield also springs to mind here. In particular Dennis Rea.

The music is eclectic and dense.

It is also slightly melodic and has some eastern influences.

The result is a good album and an album who should interest all those into eclectic jazz and neo-classical music.

3 points

 

 

 

Scaladei - School Of Pure Soul (2023)

The second album from this band from Spain.

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

I have not had the chance to sample their debut album so this is my first meeting with this band and their music.

The album has been released through the Bandcamp label 5 Lunas Producciones. A record label with some albums I will explore a lot more of in the future. 

The music is progressive rock. Progressive rock with a lot of hard rock and progressive metal influences. 

I guess the label "heavy prog" is the right one on this album. An album clocking in at seventy minutes.

But there is more to this album than just hard music. There is also some more mid tempo and more slow reflections on this album. There is also some folk rock and jazz influences here. Subtle, but they are here.

The music is also pretty bombastic at times.

There is also some more Spanish pop and rock here. I first thought this was a weakness with this album and due to bad sound. But no, this is actually their local scene and I accept it for what it is.

The result is a good album and one who deserve a lot more attention in the scene. I hope they will get it.

3 points

Barrdo - Équivoques vol. 1 (2022)

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

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

The band was supported by half a dozen of guests who provided strings, woodwinds, flutes, moog, organ and piano.

This band has so far released three intriguing albums. Albums somewhere between Ange, Harmonium and The Beatles. Albums with French vocals.

I was full of expectations when I put on this album. A pretty short album, clocking in at half an hour.

Yes, we still have a lot of Ange, Harmonium and The Beatles influences. The band has added more folk rock and a bit more jazz to their music.

The music is pastoral and softly spoken. The vocals and the vocal harmonies are great.

It is also very cleverly made with the strings and woodwinds adding small but vital details to their music. 

The band has again delivered a very good album.

Gosh, this band should get a much bigger audience than the one they have got. Talking about hidden gems....

3.5 points

Buaas. Anders - Tarot (2021)

The fifth album from this artist from Norway.

Anders Buaas does the drums, percussion, theremin, glockenspiel, bass, guitars, banjo, mandolin and keyboards himself.

After finishing the Witches Of Finnmark trilogy, he did a couple of low key albums. Albums impossible to find. He returned on a world wide stage with Tarot.

We get instrumental music again. Music somewhere between symph prog and progressive metal.

Anders Buaas is a great guitarist and is good on the other instruments too.

The art of good song writing has elluded him on this album, though.

The result is a decent enough album. I am not entirely won over by this album.

2 points

Kinetic Element - Chasing the Lesser Light (2023)

The fourth album from this band from USA.

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

This is a band I have always been aware of but not really had the fortune of reviewing that much. I did a review of their 2015 album Travelog some years ago and thought that was a very good album. 

The band is back again after a four years long break. Maybe the pandemic had a lot to do about that. 

The band's take on progressive rock is neo-prog with the English 1990s sound and a large chunk of symphonic prog added onto this again.

The five songs are all on average well over ten minutes long. The title track about one of the Apollo missions is twenty minutes long. It has some moving lyrics too.

The musicians is doing a very good job.The weakest link is the vocals and they are simply not up to the task the song writers has set the vocalist. 

The sound is also a bit too thin.

Nevertheless, this is a good album and one neo-prog fans should check out. I will get the remaining two albums I have not got, the first and the third, and review them later this summer.

3 points

 

 

Psicolorama - Prog Man Rock (2019)

The 15th album from this one man band from Spain.

The man behind it does the guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals and programmed drums himself.

The previous album, the 2018 album Prog Pop, was a good album indeed and the best Psicolorama album ever. So I had some hope for Prog Man Rock. High hopes.

The vocals is still being retained and the melotron and moog sound is adding a lot to the sound. A melancholic vibe and sound.

The music is also full of psych and space rock.

Both the guitars and the vocals is good.

Some of the music is good and some of the music is decent. It is a slight step backwards from Prog Pop. Nevertheless, this is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Alpha III - Temple of Delphos (1988)

The sixth album from this one man band from Brazil.

Amyr Cantusio Jr is again on all keyboards and synths.

I am a bit sceptical every time I review an Alpha III album. I am not a fan of their first five albums...

We get synths generated neo classical music again with a lot of symphonic prog influences. 

There is a lot of pling-plong effects here over some meagre sounding melodies. 

This music was probably pretty big in the 1980s when sound effects and the sound sounded new and innovative. In today's world, it sounds dated.

A couple of the tracks on this fifty minutes long album are decent enough. The rest is pretty poor. 

I am again left underwhelmed by an Alpha III album.

1.5 points

Elfer - Un Monstruo Mas (2013)

 

The debut album from this band from Argentina.

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

This band released two albums through Bandcamp before they gave up the ghost. 

The vocals are in Spanish and pretty poor. The music are psych rock and the sound is a garage sound.

Dirty and unpolished in other words.

The musical skills is not up to an acceptable standard and the songs are pretty poor.

This is another turkey in other words.

1 point

Under The Earth - Odessey (2022)

The second album from this band from USA.

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

I have yet to sample their 2020 debut album Vulcan Throne although I may review that album sometimes in the future.

The music here is uncomplicated stoner rock. It is instrumental and it has some space rock influences. 

The music is both pretty heavy and laidback.

There is not many good solos here and the sound is a bit iffy.

This is so standard run of the mill trio based stoner rock that it almost feels bad listening to this music. There is no originality in this album and not so much independent thinking.

This is a borderline turkey. Taken into account the pretty dull guitars, it is indeed a turkey.

1 point

 

 

United Progressive Fraternity - Planetary Overload, Part 2 Hope (2023)

The third album from this band from Australia.

The band is a duo with a lineup of percussion, bass, tambourine, sitar, guitars, violin, flute, narration and vocals.

The band had help from around forty guests who added drums, bass, guitars, woodwinds, strings, piano, keyboards, percussions, synths, choirs and vocals.

This is part two of a series of albums from this duo from Australia. 

The band was previously known as Unitopia and they were the best and biggest progressive rock export from Oceania, an area also including New Zealand and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. 

Unitopia split up and we got this duo supported by a collective of well known contributors from around the world.

The music is a mix of art rock and neo-prog.

The music on this two hours long album is melodic. Melodic indeed but it does not have any really outstanding piece of music. It is a work man like album but nothing more like that. 

It is still a good album, though. 

3 points

Morte Viene Dallo Spazio. La - Trivial Visions (2021)

The second album from this band from Italy.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, theremin, sitar, organ, synths, flute and vocals.

I was not particular impressed by their 2018 debut album Sky Over Giza which was too ambient goth for my liking. And there was no good songs on it either. 

The band returned three years later with a much more lively album. Lively and organic.

Take a large piece of stoner and add space rock to the mix. There are some drone and some avant-garde rock here too.

Most of it is pretty ambient and outer space.

The quality is a small improvement on the debut album. I am still not a fan of this band. 

This is a decent album and one to check out if space rock rocks your boat.

2 points

Monni. Lorenzo - Debris (2008)

The second album from this composer from Italy.

Lorenzo Monni did everything himself here. That means guitars, bass, keyboards and programmed drums.

I reviewed the debut album one week ago with the view to review his third and final album too. I then got this album, his second album too and is now reviewing this album now and the final album next week. 

The 2007 debut album Death Of Future Men were a mix of symphonic prog and neo-classical music. The obvious reference was and still is the maestro from Ukraine; Antony Kalugin and his many albums.

Lorenzo Monni has retreated more into neo-classical music on Debris. There are some RPI and King Crimson references here. But it is still a neo-classical music album.

I am not really a fan of that genre. The one hour long album still got some good stuff. And Lorenzo Monni's guitar solos are good.

This is a challenging album. It is a pretty rewarding album too and well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Gardening Club. The - Bridge of Spirits (2022)

The seventh album from this band/project from Great Britain.

The band/project was an eight piece big band on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, mandolin, bassoon, saxophone, keyboards and vocals.

This is the third album from them I am reviewing. 

The main motor in the band is Martin Springett, an artist who moved from Canada to England some years ago. The result has been some very good albums, indeed.

The cover art-work tells a lot about the music on this almost one hour long album.

Symphonic prog with some folk rock and neo-classical influences. There is also some keltic and musicals influences here.

Some of the music is neo-classical music. Most of it is symphonic prog. The music is also pretty eclectic.

The vocals is very good and ditto for the sound.

The result is a very good album. This is another good reason to follow this band.  

3.5 points

Zappa. Frank - Hot Rats (1969)

The seventh album from this artist from USA.

Frank Zappa did the guitars, octave bass and percussions here.

He had help from around a dozen guests, among them Jean Luc Ponty, Captain Beefheart and Lowell George, who provided drums, bass, guitar, electric violin, piano, organ, woodwinds and vocals.

This album is Frank Zappa's first official solo album and a pause from his Mother Of Inventions band.

It is also something entirely different again from the first six albums.

Hot Rats is fifty minutes long jazzy fusion album. 

There are some blues here too and some progressive rock. Captain Beefheart's vocals on the second track add a hint of avant-garde too. It is still jazz though.

There is a lot of guitars from Frank Zappa here and a lot of woodwinds. We also get electric violins and some organs too. Even some very good piano solos. 

The result is a good album, indeed. My favourite Frank Zappa album so far........ by many country miles. This is indeed a good album in it's own right and well worth checking out.

3 points

Beggars Opera - Beggars Can't Be Choosers (1975)

The sixth album from this band from Scotland.

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

This band was once a pretty good progressive rock band. Their style not so far away from the likes of Nice.

That was some albums ago.

The radical change of style meant changing to a mix of pop, country and rock. Smoke filled bars type of rock, that is.

That means a vocals dominated soundscape. The vocals is good and the lyrics is quirky. 

The music is too basic and there is not much to enjoy on this album..... besides of the decent songs.

The music is too simple though and has a bit of a bubblegum feel. 

This is still a decent album. No wonder the band split up after this album.

2 points

 

 

Electric Family. The - Ice Cream Phoenix (2003)

The fourth album from this band from Germany.

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

This band has released around ten albums and is still an ongoing band. I am thinking about getting more, if not all of their albums, for reviews later on. Ice Cream Phoenix is for me just a taster of this band.

The music is most definate psych rock with some space rock. 

Someone has also labeled this band's music as alternative country rock. Yes, there is some americana influences here. Pretty strong ones. But there are also some krautrock influences here. On balance, this is more a krautrock album than anything else.

The guitars are pretty spaced out and lives somewhere in outer space. The vocals is very good at times.

There are also some light male or female backing vocals on this album.

The music is melodic and has got some strange vibes. It sounds like a very overlooked album to me and I need to explore this band some more.

3 points

Ultima Thule - I Lovens Navn (1985)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band must not be confused with a neo-nazi band from Sweden with the same name. 

Ultima Thule, this band from Norway, later changed name to Thule and then released five albums. Their Natt album is regarded as one of Norway's finest rock and prog rock albums. 

I reviewed this and their second album Ultima Thule for both ProgArchives and # 1 of this blog. Both of them are far superior to I Lovens Navn.

What we get here is a mix of punk, anarcho rock and some psych rock. 

The sound quality is pretty poor and so is the songs. 

A couple of decent songs saves this album from being a turkey. Go for the five Thule albums instead of this one.

1.5 points

Crown Lands - Fearless (2023)

The second album from this band from Canada.

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

This band has created quite a stir in the scene with their first two albums. I became off course curious to know what this fuzz was all about. 

I have yet to get their self-titled 2020 album. But I will get it one day.

The band is a duo. Their sound is like Rush on their 2112 opus. The vocals is a tad more melodic than Geddy Lee's vocals. But it is still very similar and gives Rush fans like myself a lot of goosebumps.  

The music is a mix of Rush and some more art rock and pomp rock. Both Saga (Canada) and Led Zeppelin springs to mind. So does The Beatles.

The band has also discovered the art of song writing and good arrangements. The opening tracks hits the listener like a truck and gives Rush fans like myself goosebumps.

The standard drops a bit at the end.

Nevertheless, this is a very good album and worthy of the hype surrounding the band. Is this band the next big thing ? I sincerely hope so.

3.5 points

Morte Viene Dallo Spazio. La - Sky Over Giza (2018)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

The band has so far released two albums and I got the second one up for review later this spring.

The band is in the goth metal genre and plays a mix of stoner rock, space rock, krautrock and drone music.

Goblin too is a good reference.

There are some vocals here but most of this is synths and computer generated music.

Some parts of this album is decent enough. The space rock parts is decent, indeed. The album mostly falls a bit flat on it's face.

If Goblin is your thing.......

1.5 points

Monni. Lorenzo - Death of Future Men (2007)

The debut album from this artist from Italy.

Lorenzo Monni did the computers, computers, synths and guitars on this album. 

He got help from another guitarist too.

Lorenzo Monni has released three albums under his own name and then some more albums under the Leptons name. I got two of his albums up for review this spring.

Lorenzo Monni has a degree in classical music and the idea behind Death Of Future Men is to merge classical music with rock. That makes it symphonic prog.

Well, in this case, neo-classical music with some rock influences. A good reference here is Antony Kalugin, the maestro from Ukraine.

The eight compositions here, maybe that should be movements, merges nicely into a fifty-two minutes long piece of music. 

The music is decent and one of better neo-classical compositions that I have reviewed. I am not a fan of this genre but this is still a decent album and one to check out.

2 points

Ring of Gyges - Metamorphosis (2023)

The second album from this band from Iceland.

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

This band is a new band on the power/progressive metal scene and I got a promo copy sent over to me for review in this blog.

Progressive metal is not really my cup of tea. I tend to avoid this genre in this blog. But promos is promos....

It is nice to sea that Iceland in this band has got a pretty standard sounding heavy and progressive metal band. A run of the mill metal band, to be more precise. That is an objective observation and not meant as either a good or a bad thing.

Take heavy metal, add some progressive metal and some Radiohead. You get this one hour long album.

The vocals are good. The band has some good ideas.

The result is a decent to good album. I guess the metal crowd will be a bit more positive. On the other hand, I still think that scene will not be overly impressed by this album either.

2.5 points

Barrdo - Les Méandres De La soif (2020)

The third album from this band from Canada.

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

The band got help from a dozen guests who provided bassoon, trumpet, saxophone, violin, cello, vocals and a choir.

I have just reviewed the debut album from Voivod. They too are from the French speaking part of Canada. And it has just occured to me that these French speakers of Canada more often than not release some really weird music. 

The Quebec scene is a weird one too. That being side stepping the music on this album I am here reviewing.

Barrdo's first two albums was a weird take on Ange and Harmonium. They continue in the same vein here. The Beatles, Ange and Harmonium with some added chanson, jazz and folk rock. This is not a regular fare in my blog and through the speakers in my office. 

The music is quirky and with some very good vocals.

There are some jazzy avant-garde stuff here too. That is adding quality and substance to this album. Most of the album is really melodic and the music is very good.

I am so far becoming more and more an admirer of this band. Two more albums to be reviewed....

3.5 points

Voivod - War And Pain (1984)

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

I have been aware of this band since I started to get interested in metal back in the mid 1980s. The fanzines of that day had adverts of with their albums and I got the feeling that this band was a bit avant-garde and not the run of the mill thrash/speed metal band.

They are included in ProgArchives and is even these days regarded as a....... avant garde thrash/speed metal band. Their music is also progressive. 

Hence, I have just purchased all their studio albums, all the fifteen albums, and will review them this year. The reviews may even run into next year.

War And Pain is a thrash/speed metal album. It is like Kill 'Em All'ish, the Metallica debut album. 

That Voivod was doing thrash/speed metal in their own, original way is pretty evident on this album. Avant-garde indeed. Not very avant-garde but the songs here are quirky and sets them a bit apart from the rest of the thrash/speed metal bands. It most definate sets them apart from the likes of Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth.

The music is pretty decent. It is still thrashy as heck but this is not too bad. It is a half-decent album. It is not an album which will ever grace my speakers again as it is a too poor album for my liking. It is still not a turkey and it has some decent stuff.

Hmmm....

1.5 points

El Topo - Pigiama Psicoattivo (2008)

The one and only album from this band from Belgium.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, vibraphone, bass, guitars and electronics.

This album was released on the German label Off back in 2008 and then re-released on the same label's Bandcamp label in 2016. Hence a bit confusion about when, where and by whom.

The music is vibraphone and electronics dominated laid-back fusion. 

The fusion, make that jazz too, is also pretty much electronica based.

The music is also pretty cinematic and it have some King Crimson influences.

There is some good vibraphone solos throughout this forty-five minutes long album. Those are the best stuff on this album.

The music is not that interesting but the vibraphones makes this a decent enough album.

2 points

 

 

Saft - Stev, Sull, Rock & Rull (1973)

The third and final album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, bass, banjo, mandolin, guitars, slide guitar, piano, harmonica and vocals.

A guest provided harding fiddle and vocals.

This album is a studio album with the four short live songs from the Ragnarock festival as a bonus.

This album is mostly known for, hence my reason for buying it, the cooperation between the traditional folk musician Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa and the band. A cooperation lasting less than ten minutes. 

Unfortune for the band and it's reputation, Saft is mostly known in Norway for this cooperation. This cooperation was or maybe was not a cheap gimmick. On this album, it comes across as a cheap gimmick.

This is a great disservice to the band and indeed to this album.

The rest of the album, 80 % of it, is a mix of acid folk and more west coast rock. There is indeed some folk rock here too. But that is British folk rock. Not Norwegian folk rock.

The vocals is good and there is some interesting stuff on this forty minutes long album.

The result is a decent album and one well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

 

Enoch Root - Delusion (2023)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

The band has released two singles through Bandcamp before they released this album. An album also available through Bandcamp.

The music is a mix of Radiohead, Gazpacho and Marillion.

This means art-rock, in short.

The sound is good and ditto for the vocals.

The music is mid-tempo with some harder pieces and a lot of vocal harmonies. There is also a lot of keyboards and guitar harmonies too. There is not so many solos here. There is actually very few solos here. 

Most of the songs and music is very compact, in other words.

The art of good song-writing is not with the band on this album and that is my gripe with this album. 

It is still an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Gardening Club Project. The - The Blue Door (2021)

 

The sixth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The Gardening Club Project is the same as The Gardening Club. I will try to contact the band to ask why three of their albums has beel released under the name of The Gardening Club Project. 

Anyway, we are talking about the same band.

The same type of music too, as I cannot see much difference in genre between this album the one I reviewed last week, the 2020 album Boy On A Bike.

Take Genesis, the Anthony Philips era, add some Steve Hackett, Camel, English acid folk rock and earthly mainstream rock. 

The taste of English cider goes along with the music. The music is that earthly and pastoral. 

This is very much helped by the vocals too. The very good vocals. 

The songs are good and the sound is really cool.

The result is a very good album and one that will please fans of both acid folk and progressive rock.

Check it out.

3.5 points

Vienna Circle - Secrets of the Rising Sun (2021)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band is a one man band, Paul Davis. He did the computers, guitars, keyboards and male vocals.

Two guests added drums and female vocals.

Vienna Circle was a band with the two brothers Jack and Paul Davis. This is no longer the case on this album as Jack Davis has left the band.

The music is again melodic progressive rock.

Take some Camel, add some neo prog and then add a lot of Pink Floyd. That is what you get on this forty-five minutes long album.

The music is both clever and a bit quirky at times. 

The vocals are really good and the lyrics is poignant.

The overall quality is good and I hope we will hear a lot more from Paul and Gemma Davis in the future.

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

3 points

 

 

Ifsounds - MMXX (2023)

The 10th album from this band from Italy.

The band is a sextet on this album with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, synths, organ, keyboards and vocals.

A handful of guests added vocals and piano.

I have had the pleasure of reviewing most of their albums.... if not all of them. This in the previous editions of this blog and for Progarchives.

The band started out as a psych rock band and then moved towards mainstream rock.

There is a lot of various genres on this album. From US arena rock, symphonic prog, RPI, some Canterbury jazz, psych rock, mainstream rock, folk rock and pop.

There is a lot to take in on this album. 

The vocals and the more Canterbury jazzy bits, short as they are, is the best stuff here. The worst is the more run of the mill standard rock.

This album is not setting my progressive world alight. It is still a nice album from some, now, veterans in the scene.

2.5 points

Buaas. Anders - The Witches of Finnmark III (2019)

The third album from this guitarist from Norway.

Anders Buaas plays guitars, mandolin, banjo and keyboards on this album.

He got help from a handful of other musicians who has provided drums, bass, percussion, tuba, trombone and voices.

This is the final chapter, final album in this The Witches Of Finnmark trilogy. 

Finnmark is the most northern, most barren and most arctic part of Norway. A county very unlike the rest of Norway. I have lived in that area so I know all about that. Finnmark also had it's fair share of this vile, nasty witch burnings which hit Europe like a plague. I write these lines from a place which was used to burn "witches". Vile, vile, vile.......

The music on this album is a mix of folk rock, Camel like symphonic prog and some progressive metal. The music is instrumental and mainly performed by guitars.

The result is another decent to good album.

I like what Anders Buaas has done here and commend him for raising this issue on these three albums. 

2.5 points

Bowness.Tim - Stupid Things That Mean the World (2015)

The seventh album from this artist from England.

Tim Bowness does the vocals and synths here.

He got help from numerous others who added their drums, bass, guitars, steel guitars, violins, keyboards, mellotron, organ, piano, synths, computers, flutes and backing vocals to the album.

Tim Bowness was the other half of No-Man before he went solo. Steven Wilson, the first half, went onto forming Porcupine Tree. So Tim has been living in his shadows throughout his career.

The music on this album is singer/songwriter art-rock with some neo-prog influences.

Art-rock it is and some pretty quirky art-rock with electronica influences it is too. The vocals is very good and the music is a bit minimalistic. 

The songs are good to very good. 

These forty-two minutes are a joy to behold and very good. 

I now see why Tim Bowness is so popular and revered. Finally. Check out this album.

3.5 points

El Supremo - Acid Universe (2023)

The third album from this band from North Dakota, USA.

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

I have not had the pleasure of sampling their previous two albums. Which is a bit of a shame, really. I may get these albums later on.

All their albums and a single has been released through Bandcamp. This band is also a typical Bandcamp band. 

The music is fuzzy stoner rock with a lot of 1970s retro sounds and music. Or a wall of sound as in this case.

The music is instrumental and all four instruments plays an equal important role. The organ sound is of particular pleasure.

The music is also pretty groovy with some good solos. 

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. That makes this an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Monolith - Monolith (1998)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

A guest added guitars.

There is a lot of bands with the Monlith name and this album is a bit hard to come by. But I finally found it.

This forty minutes long album starts out as an Emerson, Lake & Palmer album. Epic symphonic prog with lots of keyboards. The ELP comparison is off course also helped by the fact that Monolith and ELP has the same setup. They are both a trio too.

The most bombastic keyboards excesses cannot be found in Monolith though as the album is quickly moving onto pomp prog, art-rock and then AOR where this album ends with a pretty catchy song.

Most of the songs are pretty catchy. And they sounds dated with their typical 1980s sound.

The result is a decent album. It is an album for the keyboard fans out there. 

Check it out if you can find it.

2 points

Magma - Kãrtëhl (2022)

The 14th album from this band from France.

The band is a ten members plus entity this time with a lineup of drums, tambourine, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, piano, keyboards and vocals.

Magma is one of the big bands in the progressive rock umbrella genre. They are the creators and the biggest band in the Zeuhl genre. 

Zeuhl is a genre impossible to describe. It is a fantastic genre too..... at it's best.

Magma's take on zeuhl has on their previoust thirteen albums, plus their live albums, been both brutal, jazzy and quite gentle. But never really dull or irrelevant.

Magma has gone down the more harmonic and female choir path on this album. The rhythms are still there but the compositions on this forty minutes is not particular dissonant. 

It is my understanding that most of this album is recording of left over compositons from the 1970s too. 

The music is still good and a timely reminder about how good this band was and still is. This is not one of their best albums or even one of their better albums. It is still an album worthy of their name. 

3 points

Gardening Club. The - Boy On A Bike (2020)

The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Six guests added percussion, bass, mandolin, violin, piano and vocals.

The band has been around since the 1980s. They have mostly been flying under the radar of the progressive rock fans and have been a pretty local band. I got three of their albums up for review this month.

Their music is a mix of old symphonic prog and folk rock. There are some americana here too as the main song writer Martin Springett is from Canada. Add some baroque music too and you get this. 

The music has also an earthly feel. A feel of apple cider from the apple orchards and small breweries in the south-western part of England.

The title track is a good example of good old symphonic prog meets folk rock. A very good song.

Not everything here is working out great. Nevertheless, this is a softly spoken three quarters of an hour long album. A good album it is too and one to check out.

3 points

 

 

Vienna Circle - Silhouette Moon (2013)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

The band is a duo with the Davies brothers on bass, guitars, piano, keyboards and vocals.

A handful of guests are supplying drums, clarinet, saxophones and female vocals.

The 2009 album White Clouds was a good debut album. It was something to build on.

The band returned four years later with a bit of a change in style. The band is now somewhere between art rock and neo-prog. There is also a lot of singer/songwriter in their music.

The songs are, with one exception, pretty short and punchy. They are also pretty much piano, vocals and keyboards based. 

The songs are pretty pedestrian and pastoral in their tempo.

The songs are not immediate good. This album takes some time to sink in. When this fifty minutes long albums sinks in, it is a somewhat rewarding experience.

It is still too much pedestrian and too much singer/songwriter like. Nevertheless, it is a good album but barely that.

3 points

Crayola Eyes - Gushing (2023)

The debut album from this band from Indonesia.

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

This band has released two singles, through Bandcamp, before they released this album. This too is a Bandcamp album although I guess it is also available on CD and cassette.

The cover art work says mostly everything about this music.

Psychedelic pop and psychedelic rock. Add some 1960s beat, space rock, krautrock and some Asian pop and you get this album.

The Indian/Asian inspired The Beatles songs, those with sitar, are a good reference in most cases here. The music is a lot more floating and less song structured. Hence the space rock influences.  

The music sounds fresh, vital and as lively as a horse in full trot. The half accoustic guitars is adding a lot to the male and female vocals. The sitars are really cool and just underlines what a great instrument sitar really is. 

These forty minutes is very good and this album is a revelation. One of the revelations of the year.

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

3.5 points

Psicolorama - Prog Pop (2018)

The 14th album from this one man band from Spain.

The man behind this band did the vocals, guitars, electronics and synths.

A female vocalist added some vocals too and another guest added saxophones.

Psicolorama albums can vary from ambient electronica to more pop and neo-progressive albums. You never know what you get on each album. Hence, this is an interesting project and well worth following.

This time, we get a mix of ambient electronica and.......... wait for it...... jazzy progressive pop.

There are both male and female vocals here. And they are good.

The music is rather elegant too and has some good Latin jazz vibes. It also has some good prog rock vibes.

I thought I knew this band by now.... but this album has surprised me.

This is their so far best album and one to be checked out. I believe it is a name your price Bandcamp album too. Get it.

3 points

Alpha III - Ruínas Circulares (1987)

The sixth album from this one man band from Brazil.

Amyr Cantusio Jr does the guitars and synths again. 

These are the two only instruments on this album. Alpha III is regarded as a symphonic prog band. A genre which also has place for a project like this one.

This one hour long album has a mix of electronica and more symphonic prog and neo-classical music.

Mostly neo-classical music. Or muzak.

The best parts of this music sounds like shopping mall and elevator music. Not that I would have stayed long in a shopping mall if confronted with the best parts of this music...

The worst parts is the electronica and synths sounding like they were wrapped in plastic. Horrible.

The sound is at times pretty poor too.

Not all is horrible here. But it is still a sub-standard album.

1.5 points