Wilson. Steven - The Future Bites (2021)

The seventh album from this artist from Great Britain.

Steven Wilson did percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, samples, synths, programming and vocals.

Numerous guests added drums, percussion, chapman stick, keyboards, synths, orchestra, narrations and vocals.

Hmmmm..... It seems like I am reviewing a very controversial album during the last hours of 2024. It is rain and storm outside.... so why not do something useful. 

Steven Wilson is an art-rock and progressive rock artist. This album is a forty minutes long pop-rock album.

ELO's final albums springs to mind. And I cannot understand why Steven hired Elton John to read out shopping list in the middle of a song here. A cheap gimmick, indeed.

There are some electronica here too. They are this time a bit of a saving grace on some pretty substandard songs. At least there is some quality here.

The result is a decent album. His by far worst album but still a decent album and one who deserve to be forgotten.

2 points

Stratospheerius - Headspace (2007)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

The band was started by the jazz violinist Joe Deninzon who released some solo albums with the likes of Alex Skolnick from Testament. Jazz albums, not thrash metal albums.... 

After a live album together with Alex in 2006, an album released as a solo album, Joe formed Stratospheerius and the band has so far released four albums. The latest one was released earlier this year, in 2024.

I reviewed their second album, the 2012 album The New World back in September 2012 for # 1 of this blog and liked it a lot. Then I found their new album and their debut and their third album too. This trio of albums will be reviewed this winter, starting with this review.

The music here is a mix of funk, jazz, americana and progressive rock.

There is a lot of Jean Luc Ponty in Joe's violin and the jazzy and funky parts of this three quarters of an hour long album. A lot of really complex, fast music.

The band slows the music down inbetween the faster music and they then does a mix of old classical progressive rock and americana.

The vocals are good and the band, with Joe being the star, is doing a superb job.

The result is a good album and an album who deserve some more attention as a result of the release of a new album. This is indeed a very good band.

3 points

 

 

El Poder de la Infancia - El Poder de la Infancia (2024)

The debut studio album from this band from Argentina.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, kazoos, piano, keyboards, synths and sampling/programming.

Some guests added strings, woodwinds, organ and vocals.

This band was formed at the audiovisual art school in Santa Fe, Argentina. They first released two live albums, of improvised music, before they went into studio, got their music more structured and then released this album earlier this year.

It has taken some months before the rest of the world got to know about this album. It is now in Progarchives and that inspired me to get this album.

The band members are studying audiovisual art as in for example movies. The music here does include a lot of cinematic rock. But also add in jazz, Latin-rock, post-rock and art-rock. There is also some chamber rock/RIO here too.

Most of the music on this three quarters of an hour long album is instrumental. There is some voices and some sampled voices here. 

The half-acoustic guitars are very cool. So is the rest of the instruments. The vibe is laid back and relaxed. The sound is great and could not have been better.

There are some good stuff here and some less good stuff here. Altogether, this is an acceptable debut album and one to check out.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Asfalto - Mas Que Una Intencion (1983)

The sixth album from this band from Spain.

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

A couple of guests added woodwinds too.

The band played on into the 1980s. 

The music here is melodic rock with a few harder rock songs and a couple of ballads. The usual fare anno the 1980s when it comes to the music scene. 

..Actually, the sound and music here sounds even contemporary today. It is called classic rock these days. And rightfully so.

The vocals are in Spanish and they are good. Good male vocals. There are some local Spanish folk rock influences here too. Latin rock, we can label their music.

The result is a decent enough album. I fully understand why this band is so revered in Spain. Their music deserve an audience outside Spain too.

2 points

 

 

Drifting Sun - On the Rebound (1999)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I am this winter reviewing the few remaining Drifting Sun albums I have yet to review plus their new album. I have reviewed some others of their albums in both # 1 and # 2 of this blog. Some reviews are around ten years old. I never really got around to be more systematic back in those days. Hence the chaos...

The music here is good old neo-prog from the 1980s and early 1990s. 

There are also some art-rock and commercial 1990s rock in their sound. Some Rush influences too.

The vocals are pretty good.

The music are a bit fast to mid-tempo.

The band does a decent job on some pretty substandard music. One hour and five minutes of music which is rather forgetable and anonyme.

This is probably their least impressive album among the eight albums they have released.

2 points

 

 

Aurora Lunare - Terzo Luogo (2023)

The second and latest album from this band from Italy.

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

Some guests added bouzouki, flute and vocals.

I reviewed their 2013 self-titled debut album back in April 2014 for # 1 of this blog and gave it a great rating, four points. That is because it is indeed a great album and one of the best post-millenium RPI albums.

It has taken ten years for the band to return again. That is too long !!!

We are again being treated to classic RPI with Italian vocals and good guitars.

References are in particular Le Orme again. There is also a lot of Banco and PFM references here. Add Museo Rosenbach too and you get the picture.

The music is clever and quirky. It has a great RPI feel. The vocals is great. What is missing is some more great music on this far too short album.... thirty-four minutes long.

The result is a very good album which compliments the debut album. RPI fans should have both their albums.

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Asia Minor - Points of Libration (2020)

The third album from this band from France.

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

This album came as a surprise to the scene as nobody had expected a new Asia Minor album, forty years after the release of their first two albums. Their debut album was released in 1979 and the follow up album in 1980. 

Both their two first albums are regarded as semi-classics in the symphonic prog scene. It is indeed two albums fans of this genre must have. 

How did the band follow up those two albums ?

The music on this album is a mix of Camel like symphonic prog, add in Anthony Phillips too here, and Jethro Tull like folk rock. There is indeed some folk music from Turkey here and indeed some local language vocals too. Asia Minor is what in the old days what we called the Middle East, Turkey included.

The music is really elegant throughout these fifty minutes. It has a cool, Eastern vibe too. And the music is indeed mainly symphonic prog.

The vocals is very good and the flutes gives this album a good vibe. Ditto for the guitars.

The music is also really good and this album is a good follow up to their two semi-classic first albums. It is an album that does not disgrace this band's good reputation.

3 points

 

 

Montobbio. Mauro - Scattered Memories (2024)

The debut album from this artist from Italy.

Mauro Montobbio did the bass, guitars, guitar synths, keyboards and drum programming here.

He got help from numerous guests who added drums, bass, piano, organ, keyboards, flute, saxophone and vocals.

Mauro played in the Italian bands Narrow Pass and Eris Pluvia plus added a track to the first Rome Progject album before he started to write and record this album. An album guested by Nick Magnus and many of the musicians Mauro has worked with in the RPI scene.

The music on this album is a crossover between musicals and symphonic prog. 

It is mostly a symphonic prog but some of the vocals, female vocals, takes the music well into musicals and rock opera territory.

There are also some RPI is the music here.

Most of the vocals are in English and that is a bit of a disappointment. The one song here in Italian is very good and the Italian language would have suited the music here better than the English vocals, good as they are.

The music is sweet, mellow and mid-tempo. The sound is very good.

The result is a very good one hour long album. An album which should be on a lot of top ten lists for this year.

3.5 points

Triumph - Edge Of Excess (1992)

The tenth and final album from this band from Canada.

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

Two guests added guitars.

The band ended their career as a recording band with this album. They later re-emerged as a live band with their original lineup on the many rock festivals around this world after the millenium.

Rik Emmet left Triumph after their last, their ninth album and they had got a session musician to fill in for him. Gil Moore was now the only vocalist in the band, taking over from Rik Emmet's vocals too.

The band tried to follow the crowds and they went fully heavy metal here. US heavy metal. Some hard rock was retained but this is mostly a heavy metal album.

The songs are not particular good....even decent. The life had gone out of the band and I can totally understand why they called it a day after this album, the worst album of their career.

It has been nice to review all their albums, something I have wanted for many decades. I still rate Triumph as the good hard rock band they were. Fans of classic hard rock should check out their first albums.

1.5 points

Orion - The Lightbringers (2024)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

Orion is Ben Jones on drums, bass, guitars, keyboard and vocals.

He has so far released two albums through Bandcamp under this name. A review of the debut album was posted earlier this month in this blog.

The music on that album, released in 2023, was pretty muscular hard neo-prog with some art-rock influences.

One year later and the composer Ben Jones has mellowed a lot. This according to the music here.

The hardest edges from last year has been replaced by some more mellow neo-prog. The art-rock influences is still here.

The music is far from being soft. It is still pretty muscular. But without the edges from the debut album.  

The vocals is good and there is a lot of interesting details on this fifty-five minutes long album. The quality of the melodies and song writing has also improved a lot. 

The result is indeed a very good album and one to check out. This is one of the better albums from 2024 and would have been on somewhere on my top twenty if I had compiled and or published such a list. Something I am not.

Check out this Bandcamp album.

3.5 points

 

M'Z - Emancipés du vide? (2024)

The fourth and so far latest album from this band from France.

The band is a one-man-band where Mathieu Torres did all bass, guitars and computer programming.

After recording and releasing some albums with guests and big productions, he went alone into studio this year to record this album. 

"Minimalism" is this year's word.

The music is a mix of fusion and neo-classical music. There are also some art-rock influences here.

The main instrument is the guitar and this album is indeed a guitar album. Electric guitars, that is.

Fifty minutes of electric guitars, supported by bass and computer generated rhythms and synths.

The result is not too bad. There are some interesting stuff here. The music is a bit too much run-of-the-mill guitar albums like and a regression compared to the first two far more interesting albums. 

Check it out if melodic instrumental music is your thing.

2 points

Wilson. Steven - To the Bone (2017)

The sixth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Steven Wilson did the guitars and main vocals here.

He got help from a dozen of guests who added drums, percussion, bass, chapmann stick, guitars, keyboards, harmonica, spoken words and vocals.

Steven Wilson returned again after the very good 4.5 album from 2016. 

He also returned with a more stripped down setup. Less musicians and a more concentrated sound.

The music is not that different. The music are mid-tempo art-rock with a lot of Pink Floyd influences. There are also some pretty strong post-rock influences. Sigur Ros is a band which has hugely influenced this album.

The lead vocals is a mix of Steven's own vocals and Ninet Tayeb's female vocals. Her vocals is more wailing than Steven's vocals. They are also very good.

The music is more based on moods than making good songs. The songs are indeed good on this one hour long album. The quality is not as good here as on the previous albums though.

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

3 points

Tangerine Dream - Cyclone (1978)

The ninth album from this band from Germany.

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

This album is claimed to the an oddity in their many albums. And the first minutes explains why....

... It opens with some vocals. Yes, vocals.

Most of the original members was gone by now and Edgar Froese wanted to test out something new. Hence, he went a bit more krautrock with vocals and some krautrock melodies.

There are still some electronica on this album. The best stuff is actually the electronica bits as the more accesible krautrock stuff, with the vocals, falls a bit flat on it's face.

This forty minutes long album is extreme varied and the bits of music crashed head on with each other. The result is confusion and a half decent album.

Thankfully, this experiement was not repeated. Thankfully.

1.5 points

Mindgames - Actors In A Play (2006)

The second album from this band from Belgium.

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

A guest added flute on one track. 

This is my final review of the five Mindgames albums. Their newest album was released earlier this year.

I reviewed both their debut album and their newest album earlier this year in this blog and their third and fourth album in # 1 of this series of blogs.

Mindgames is an unashamed neo-prog band. Their music is neo-prog in the same vein of Pendragon and Marillion. The sound is the 1980s and early 1990s neo-prog sound.

The music here is not particular muscular. It is pretty melodic and the vocals is pretty good. 

The music on this sixty-seven minutes long album is a mix of decent and good music. This is still an album neo-prog fans should check out.

2.5 points

Markusfeld. Alain - Contemporus (1979)

The fifth and final album from this artist from France.

Alain did the percussion, guitars, organ, piano, synths, harmonica and voices here.

He got help from his wife (????) Patricia on vocals.

The music on this album is based on both his guitars and his synths, piano and organ. It can best be described as avant-garde neo-classical music.

The vocals, who comes in more towards the end of this album, is more like instruments. 

The acoustic guitars are really dominating this forty minutes long album.

There is no real good melodies or even good pieces of music.

The result is not particular impressive. There is some decent pieces here and that is all. 

If avant-garde acoustic guitars albums is your thing....

1.5 points

Electric Eye - Dyp Tid (2024)

The fifth and latest album from this band from Norway.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, mellotron, synths, programming, samples and voices.

I reviewed their debut and their third album back in January 2018 and January 2019 for # 2 of this blog. I got their new album Dyp Tid and started listening to this album in the belief that I had already reviewed their second and fourth album. This is not the case and I will again use the first month of a year to review Electric Eye albums. Which is off course a pleasure. But in this case, a bit embarrassing. 

The music here is a mix of electronica, jazz and cinematic rock. The music is mainly electronica though.

The music is pretty softly spoken and gentle. There is some female'ish voices here which makes this music silky smooth.

The music is also pretty elegant.

There is some sampled voices/words from newsreaders and movies here. They are tasteful and complements the music.

The result is a forty-two minutes long album. It is a good album which is soothing but still has a lot of good details. It is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

Triumph - Surveillance (1987)

The ninth album from this band from Canada.

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

Some guests added percussion, guitars, keyboards, synths, narrations and vocals.

This album was the final Triumph album with Rik Emmet. He rejoyned the band in 2008 but has not recorded any new material with the band.

Their previous album, the 1986 album The Sports Of Kings, saw the band revert to their hard rock roots. Hard rock with some blues. The sounds was good and fresh.

It is therefore pretty disappointing that the band then turned into another direction the year after... on this album.

Commercial US heavy metal is what we get here. Big hair metal, also called poodle rock is the grenre. The music is formula based and there is some pop rock here dressed up with some guitar solos and screaming vocals.

Triumph sounds like hundreds of other bands on this three quarters of an hour long album. Less successful hundreds of other bands. 

There are some decent songs here but most of this album is best forgotten. What a shame...

1.5 points

Orion - The End of Suffering (2023)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

Orion is Ben Jones on drums, bass, guitars, keyboard and vocals.

He has so far released two albums through Bandcamp under this name. A review of the latest album will be posted sometimes later this week.

His music is the labour of love and he has been working on the pieces of music for the last twenty years. Pieces of music who later became this album and the second album. Bandcamp has made releasing your dreams a lot cheaper than before.... Thanfully !

The music is a crossover between hard prog and neo-prog. There is also some classic rock here.

The vocals are pretty good. There are some very good guitar solos here.

The music on this one hour long album is both muscular and pretty epic. 

The music is also pretty melodic too. It is too muscular and hard to be labeled a melodic prog album... still.. Ben writes good melodies.

The result is a good album from a pretty much underrated band and composer. Ben Jones deserve a lot of praise for this album.

3 points

 

 

 

Oddleaf - Where Ideal and Denial Collide (2024)

The debut album from this band from France.

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

This album has caused quite a sensation in the scene and it has got good marketing. The band is a three males and two females big band with female lead vocals.

The band has been praised a lot for their retro-prog. 

The music on this fifty minutes long album has a lot of Yes, King Crimson and Genesis influences. So the retro-factor is pretty big. That though is not the full story, or anywhere near the full story, this album.

There is a lot of folk rock influences here and Scandinavian symphonic prog influences. The Flower Kings and Kaipa is good references. There is also some Magenta influences here.

The music is really complex and pretty epic throughout. This is also an album where the cover art-work, as seen over, tells most of the story. If you like this art-work, you will also like the music a lot. 

The vocals and the many vocal harmonies is very good. Ditto for the flutes and the other instruments.

This great album has got a well deserved status as one of the best albums of the year. It is an album every progheads would and should get.

4 points

 

 

Bodin. Tomas - Sonic Boulevard (2003)

The third album from this artist from Sweden.

Tomas Bodin did the keyboards and some vocals here.

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

Tomas Bodin is the keyboard player in The Flower Kings and the other members of this band plus some other guests helped him out there.

His first two albums was more like trials & errors albums. Not everything there was up to standard. So my expectations were pretty low when I put on this album.

I was in for a surprise.

The music here is a mix of psych rock in the vein of the final three Pink Floyd albums, symphonic prog, fusion and neo-classical music. 

The album is indeed a sonic boulevard. Evert sixty five minutes of the album. 

The music is really good throughout even though there is pretty big differences between the genres this album covers. The highlight here is Roine Stolt's smoking hot guitar solos. Guitar solos worthy a guitar hero, although that is the last thing Roine Stolt wants to be. He is too modest.....

There is hardly any vocals here. The vocals is more like voices and used as instruments.

The overall quality is indeed good and this is an album well worth checking out. 

3 points

 

 

Borknagar - The Archaic Course (1998)

The third album from this band from Norway.

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

Borknagar is a band who has often been compared to Enslaved. But Enslaved was never black metal while Borknagar started out as a black metal band.

Epic black metal band, that is. There is a big world in distance between early Borknagar and the likes of Mayhem and Darkthrone.

The band was more in transition on their previous album, the 1997 album The Olden Domain. See my review somewhere else in this blog.

On The Archaic Course, the band has moved towards progressive rock. The band still does epic black metal here. But with a progressive rock twist.

Some of the vocals here is both clear and good. There is still some harsh black metal vocals here.

The music on this forty minutes long album is pretty good at places. It is so far their best and this album created quite a bit of a sensation when it was released. 

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

2.5 points

Mindgames - International Daylight (2002)

The debut album from this band from Belgium.

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

This band has released five albums. The last one, Spirals In The Wider Space, was released some months ago and reviewed, given a good review in this blog earlier this year.

On the back of reviewing that album, I discovered that I had yet to review their first two albums. Albums released twenty or so years ago. Review of their second album will follow before the end of the year.

Mindgames started out as a neo-prog band and never really changed course throughout these five albums. The music is unashamed neo-prog in both the Dutch and the British 1980s tradition.

The Pendragon, but also the Genesis and Marillion influences comes thick and fast here. The music is a bit pop-orientated at times. 

The vocals are a bit thin but still good on this sixty-seven minutes long album. The quality of the music is surprisingly good at times. There are a lot of decent stuff here too.

This is an acceptable debut album and one to check out if neo-prog is your kind of reindeer.

2.5 points

Markusfeld. Alain - Platock (1978)

The fourth album from this artist from France.

Alain Markusfeld did the guitars, organ, piano, harmonica and some vocals here.

He got help from two guests who provided percussion, marimba and female vocals.

I have had his two final albums hanging around in my collection for the last ten years. It was my plan to review them years ago but that did not happen. Hence... I am reviewing the other album before the end of the year.

Alain was first and foremost a composer and a guitarist. He composed music for his need to express himself on guitars. And he got a good career from that and other work as a composer. He is revered in France and in most of the progressive rock scene. 

The music here is mostly based on a mix of acoustic and electric guitars. The other instruments are playing a supporting role here. The vocals is more like voices than real vocals.

The music is a mix of cinematic rock and French folk music. There are also some French symphonic prog here on this forty minutes long album. 

This album is pretty much a guitar hero album, to be worshipped by guitarists and those into guitars. The music is more esoteric and eclectic than melodic.

There are indeed some good parts here. But not all of this album is good. Hence....

2.5 points

Next to Silence - Ruh (2024)

The debut album from this band from North Macedonia.

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

This band is a new band to me and indeed to the scene. Skopje Jazz festival collected the musicians and made them record this album. Good idea...

North Macedonia is a part of what in my youth was called Yugoslavia. I am pretty sure I have reviewed albums from this country and their capitol Skopje before. But those albums was from the 1970s when Yugoslavia was still around. So I am pretty sure this album means I can tick of a new country to this blog.

Yes, we are talking jazz here. Jazz and not fusion. 

The jazz is dense and pretty avant-garde with some few melodic moments. That does not mean this is an out and out esoteric jazz album just for the jazz fans. The many great sax, piano and guitar solos here makes this very interesting also to the progheads...... I am one of them.

This is an album that makes you stop everything you are doing and just listen intently in joy and fascination. 

The music on this forty-three minutes long album is indeed very good. I hope we hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3.5 points

Notturno Concertante - Distressed Colours (2024)

The eight album from this band from Italy.

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

Gosh.... This is not an easy to like band. Their music is to say at least both esoteric and bland. 

I was not very impressed by their previous album Let Them Say from 2020. See my review from last week.

The music here is a blend of cinematic rock, RPI and psych rock. There are also some acid folk in their music.

Most of the music is based on acoustic guitars. These guitars are played pretty fast and has a harsh dissonant sound. A bit like King Crimson.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is not particular melodic. Neither is it very esoteric and eclectic. It is instrumental and it has got some interesting details.

The result is a decent enough album but one who fails to enthuse me. 

2 points

M'Z - La Civilisation De La Graine (2022)

The third album from this one-man-band from France.

Mathieu Torres did the bass, guitars and programming himself here.

Mathieu is back again after the wildly ambitous one hour long piece of music which is his second album L'Autopsies Du Dogme. An album which went from some pretty big extremes.

Mathieu is a brave, brave man, music composer and musician. That was and is my impression from L'Autopsies Du Dogme.

Two years later and he has retreated back to safe ground. No doubts helped by the covid pandemic which very much limited the abilitities for musicians to cooperate in studios. Hence, Mathieu did everything himself.

The music here is a mix of jazz and progressive metal. The music on this fifty-five minutes long album is indeed both hard and muscular.

The music is also pretty melodic too and has a lot to offer the rock fans and the prog fans. Even the fusion fans will find a lot to like here.

The quality is decent enough and this is an album well worth checking out. 

2 points

 

 

 

Sticks In The Casino - Powerkraut (2024)

The third album from this band from Berlin Germany.

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

The band returned again after first releasing a live album (in 2020) and then this album. 

Their second album, Progonia from 2018, was a pretty bad album. But six years has passed since then and the band has had time to reflect and mature. 

Powerkraut proves that this time was well spent.

This three quarters of an hour long album is instrumental with the exeption of some sampled narrations. 

The music is psych rock and Canterbury prog influenced krautrock. The band has moved on from their first two albums in other words.... but not by much. The band sounds positive refreshed on this album as the music has a lot of quirky details.

The sound is good and ditto for the music. Quirky is the keyword here as the band is being playful throughout this album. Some music is meant to be fun, very fun. The music on this album is that... without being silly and stupid. The music is anything but silly and stupid.

This is a good album and one you can get from Bandcamp. Get it.

3 points

Motorpsycho - The Tower (2017)

The 21st album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added guitars, flute and vocals on a couple of tracks.

The band continued to release an album every year. Albums who found a lot of happy fans around the world, including Norway.

I am a bit of a late to this party, the Motorpsycho appreciation society.... if there is such a society. If there is, I am in.

This is a double album, clocking in at eighty-five minutes.

The music is psych rock with a lot of space rock influences. There is also some garage rock influences here. 

Some pieces of music is rather long, clocking in at around fifteen minutes. Those pieces feels a bit improvised although they are well structured. The shorter pieces are also a bit loose.

The music varies from some pretty pastoral, gentle pieces to some harder, harsher pieces. A lot of their music is pretty epic to fully blown out epics.

The vocals and the guitars are good. The overall quality is very good.

The music is really fascinating and this is one of the albums that those who are curious about this band. 

3.5 points

 

 

 

Triumph - The Sport of Kings (1986)

The eight studio album from this band from Canada.

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

A handful of guests added additional keyboards, synth, programming and backing vocals.

The band had by now been overtaken by the new heavy metal scene. Triumph was never a heavy metal band and they could not compete. Heavy metal was the king and traditional hard rock did not have that many fans. So they had three choices..... become a heavy metal band, stick to their guns or becoming a pop band. 

The result was that the band, something I admire them for, stucked to their gun. Alternative two in other words.

The band was always delivering hit singles and this album delivered one top 50 hit single. Besides of that, this album is a return to their hard rock roots. US hard rock, that is. There is a lot of stadium rock elements here although the band no longer did the stadiums, with a notable exception for the opening slot on the first edition of the first ever Monsters Of Rock festival at Donington in England.

The music here is decent.... more than decent. There are some really good stuff here too. This is a really enjoyable rock album, well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

 

It's Birds - My Bloodless Wife (2010)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

This band comes from West Virginia in USA and this album was released as a free album through Bandcamp. You can still download this album for free. 

The music is a bit of a blend of post-punk and eclectic prog. 

King Crimson anno the Beat era springs to mind here. So does the punk band Green Day too.

The vocals and the guitars are pretty good on this thirty-six minutes long album. The tempo is fast to mid-tempo. The music is pretty heavy and screamy at times. The vocals takes not prisoners at times.

There are some weird melodies and time-shifts through this album. That does not make for a melodic album. Indeed... this is not a melodic album at all.

It still has some decent melodies and details.

This album is a worthy download and inclusion in a eclectic music collection. Check it out.

2 points

 

 

 

Igoagrio - La Coronación del Fracaso Terrestre (2017)

The one and only album from this band from Argentina.

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

This album was released on a local label in Argentina. It is available on Discogs and Amazon.

I got it some years ago and I was promised a progressive rock album.

A promise not delivered.

The music is a mix of folk rock and singer/songwriter pub rock. It is indeed some Bob Dylan and early Bruce Springsteen vibes here. There is not a single whiff/hint of progressive rock here.

The Spanish vocals is the only saving grace on this fifty minutes long album where the songs are substandard. The music is not particular hard.

The vocals is good. The music is substandard and this is not an album worthy your attention.

1.5 points

 

 

Herin. Chris - Hiding In Plain Sight (2024)

The debut album from this artist from USA.

Chris Herin did guitars, banjo, mandolin, piano, keyboards and backing vocals.

He got help from numerous guests who added drums, percussion, bass, guitars, violin, keyboards, programming, woodwinds and vocals.

Chris Herin played in Tiles and Discipline before they broke up. He recorded this album with the Rush producer Terry Brown and got help, guest appearances, from the likes of Martin Barre, Peter Frampton, Alex Lifeson and members of Tiles, Discipline, Saga, Porcupine Tree and Spock's Beard. A very impressive list of guests, indeed.

This album is a collection of songs about Alzheimer's, an illness I know too well from my nearest family. The album title is indeed a very good description of this disease. Chris father passed away after ten years with Alzheimer's. 

The music here is a mix of art-rock and classic rock. It is not particular technical or quirky. The songs are warm and melodic. The vocals, delivered by some of the greats in this scene, are very good.

The music is cosy and classic rock. It is not particular progressive and/or challenging. The songs varies between decent and good too. 

The money from the purchase of this album goes to Alzheimer's research and that is the reason why this album should be purchased.

2.5 points

 

 

Notturno Concertante - Let Them Say (2020)

The seventh album from this band from Italy.

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

They had help from some guests who added drums, bass, cello, violins and clarinet.

I have reviewed most of their albums, if not everyone of their albums in # 1 and # 2 of this blog. I believe I have also reviewed some of their albums for and in ProgArchives too.

The band has just released a new album and it is about time to review their last two albums... starting with this one. A review of their new album will be published before the end of this year.

The music on this three quarters of an hour long album is a blend of Italian folk music, cinematic rock, electronica and neo-classical music. 

This is more or less the same type of music we can find on the previous six albums. 

The music has a clear Italian identity and it is pretty obvious that this band is from Italy. 

To make an instrumental album like this to work, the melodies has to be good and memorable. There is nothing of this sort on this album.

The music is decent enough. This album is not their best album though and I can only hope the band has raised their game on their new album.

2 points

M'Z - L'Autopsie du Dogme (2020)

The second album from this band from France.

M'Z is a one-man-band with Mathieu Torres on guitars, computers, samples and vocals.

He got help from numerous guests who provided drums, bass, oud, guitars, pianos, woodwinds, rap and vocals.

M'Z debut album is Prisme from 2017. An album I have yet to find. As M'Z has just released the fourth album, I wanted to review these three albums before the end of the year.

This album consist of one fifty-six minutes long piece of music. 

This piece of music takes us from eclectic prog to grunge, classic rock, funk, rap music, jazz and neo-classical music.

It is a mish-mash of ideas and genres in other words.

This piece of music is well crafted though and it does not feel alien or even forced. The bits in this piece of music feels natural. 

The music, this album, is by no means easy listening. The music is very eclectic. It has some good pieces and some pieces which falls flat on it's face. It is not an interesting piece of music either.

This is a decent album indeed and that is it. Fans of eclectic prog should check out this album.

2 points

King Of Sweden - Out Of The Tunnel (2024)

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

I reviewed their 2021 debut album The Training three years ago and liked it pretty good. Hard rock with some post-metal.

Three years later and the band has returned again.

There is still some hard rock in their music. Music which is now more in tune with the 1970s hard rock and stadium rock scene.

But most of all.... The music is very much in tune with the hard rock and rock scene from Finland in the 1970s. That minus the woodwinds and brass parts of that scene.

The music is pretty much classic rock with some prog influences. 

There is a lot of good organs here and some good guitars. The organ sound is the best part of this fifty minutes long album.

The vocals leaves a lot to be desired, though. Some of the songs are not really up to a good standard either.

The result is a decent to good album. It is one album fans of classic rock and the Finnish scene should check out.

2.5 points

 

 

Asfalto - Déjalo Así (1981)

The fourth album from this band from Spain.

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

I have learnt on the the first two albums I have reviewed by them (I have not reviewed their The Beatles cover album, their debut album) that this band is a bit difficult to label. Hence the very few reviews of their albums on the internet.

Asfalto was a very Spanish band. That does not exlude them from being taken serious outside Spain too.

This album is a double album and eighty minutes long. It was re-released ten years ago on a single CD. 

The music is modern rock anno the eigthees. The music is influenced by pub rock, reggae, new wave, new romantics and hard rock. The Yes and other prog rock influences has completely gone on this album.

The Police is a good reference in many respect. So is Dr Feelgood, The Clash and early U2. Both U2 and The Police appeared in the scene after this double album was recorded and released. But you get my drift.

The sound is good and the Spanish vocals is decent enough.  

This is a decent enough album but nothing more than that. If this floats your boat.....

2 points

Drifting Sun - Drifting Sun (1996)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

A guest did the vocals on one track.

I have reviewed half of their eight albums in # 1 and # 2 of this blog. I still have three old and their new album to review. I will publish these reviews in the next couple of weeks.

I am off course starting with their debut album. 

The band started out as a neo-prog band. 

The music here is indeed pretty primitive neo-prog with a lot of power pop and post-punk influences.

The music is fast at times and the band is hardly coherent on some of the faster pieces on this three quarters of an hour long album.

There is some cheap neo-classical pieces here too and those sounds pretty bad. The vocals too is pretty sub-standard.

There are some decent pieces here. And some pretty awful pieces. This is not an album I can recommend. Thankfully, the band has massive improved over the years. Thankfully.

1.5 points

 

 

Turbo Semelle - Stomp Them (2021)

The debut album from this band from France.

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

This is so far the only album from this band and it has been released through Bandcamp. Hopefully, this is not their one and only album.

The band has listed both metal and jazz as their music genres on their Bandcamp page. With good reason.... 

The rampant saxophone, who is the dominant instrument here, takes us into both the Frank Zappa and jazz territories. Add some zeuhl and Canterbury scene too and you get the picture.

The guitar riffs are most definate well into the prog metal territory.

Most of the music is jazz influenced though. The prog metal part is always there in the background.

The music is still pretty melodic and playful. Very playful most of the time and there is a great sense of humour throughout this album.

The music is decent enough and that makes this album well worth checking out if you are into something pretty weird and playful music. 

2 points

 

 

Troposphere - Troposphere (2017)

The one and only album from this band/project from USA.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums and keyboards.

Various guests added bass, guitars, woodwinds and vocals to this album.

This is a sideproject from the very good US band Canvas. The album has been released through Canvas own record label as a CD and through their own Bandcamp page. 

The album has been in my collection for years, for the last six years to be more precise.

The music is indeed pretty lively US art-rock and neo-prog. A fine mix of those two genres plus some mainstream pop/rock too is what we get on this fifty minutes long album.

The music is indeed playful, very playful with some good vocals. 

The music is a mix of fast, mid-tempo and slower ballads like songs. The mood is very light and sunny. Optimism about life and music is what I get here and that is probably what the band want to communicate here.

The music is too much standard pop/rock for my liking. It is a bit of a Canvas-light in this respect. That said, this is an album all fans of Canvas should get. 

Check it out if this floats your boat.

2 points

 

 

Yenisei - Home (2024)

The debut album from this band from Poland.

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

This band is new to me as they have just released this album through their Bandcamp site.

I presume this band takes their name from the almighty impressive Yenisei river in Siberia, Russia. This is the fifth longest river on this planet and it starts on the border to Mongolia before it drains into the Arctic Sea in the far north. I have been looking at some pictures of the river and the landscape today and I am very impressed. Hardly anyone lives along the shores of this river and there is no chance I will ever visit this river. That is my loss.

The music also flows nicely. The music is post-rock, that is.

The band name is very fitting for the music on this thirty-five minutes long album. 

Most of the music is instrumental post-rock. There are one song here with vocals. Pretty good vocals. A bit of an oddity on this album with some pretty good instrumental post-rock. Hence, this song does no really work at all.

The result is a decent to good album with some good instrumental stuff and some not so good stuff where the band tries to be more of a progressive metal band. 

This is an acceptable debut album and I hope to hear more from this band in the future.

2.5 points

Tusmørke - Dawn of Oberon (2024)

The 11th album from this band from Norway.

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

You never know what you get from this band.... Children ditties or proper music. Thankfully, the last, their tenth album Hestehoven from last year, was a proper music album. An album with some flaws but still a proper music album.

Dawn Of Oberon is a good followup to the music on Hestehoven.

Take some Gong like Canterbury scene prog, add some acid-folk, Scandinavian folk rock and a lot of psych rock. The result is this three quarters of an hour long album.

There is even some good, solid Kaipa references in their music. 

The lyrics is both in English and Norwegian. The vocals are good. 

The flutes is the main instrument here in addition to some tasty keyboards. 

The music is pretty quirky and whimsical. The music is still pretty solid mid-tempo and the band knows what they are doing. 

The band is still a bit lacking in songs writing department. Nevertheless, this is their best album so far and one to check out.

3 points

 

 

Sticks In The Casino - Progonia (2018)

The second album from this band from Germany.

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

The band returned again after their pretty acceptable debut album. An album full of intricate, quirky instrumental pieces of hard psych rock.

The music is guitars based and has some hard rock influences. Most of the music is hard psych rock.

Their debut album had some quirky surprises. The follow up album, this one, does not have many surprises.

The surprise here, on this half an hour long album, is that the band has regressed back to some safer ground and the music feels like a bit run-of-the-mill instrumental music. 

The result is only a half decent album and nothing more than that. The band can and should have done better.

1.5 points

Strania - Acceptance (2024)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

Four vocals added their vocals on these five songs.

The band is from Tuscany in Italy and the album has just been released through Bandcamp. I believe it is also on CD too.

The album starts out as a post-rock album with the usual post-rock sound and this ebb and flow guitars. Then the album makes an interesting turn with the vocals. We are now in art-rock land.

There is indeed some early Pearl Jam in their music. There is still a lot of post-rock here with the ebb and flows.

The band has in short mixed grunge, art-rock and post rock on this forty minutes long album.

The four vocalists, one on each songs, does a good job and it will be interesting to see who get the job based on this album. The guitars are very good.

The music is a mix of mid-tempo and a bit more muscular music. 

The quality of the music is somewhere between decent and good. Their songwriting needs to be improved. Nevertheless, this is an acceptable album and one to check out.

2.5 points

Wilson. Steven - 4 ½ (2016)

The fifth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Steven Wilson did percussion, bass, guitars, piano, moog, mellotron, synths and vocals here.

He got help from some guests who added drums, bass, guitars, chapmann stick, minimoog, organ, piano, flute, saxophone and female vocals.

This album was a stop-gap album between the Hand Cannot Erase and To The Bone albums. It has some bits and pieces from other albums and gigs re-recorded again in the studio. This album is still regarded as a fully worthy Steven Wilson studio album, though.

And rightfully so in my opinion. Hence my review of this album. 

The music is very elegant and well crafted art-rock with a lot of Porcupine Tree influences..... Porcupine Tree being his previous band.

The sound is excellent and ditto for the vocals.

The quality of the songs are very good and this rather short album, clocking in at thirty-seven minutes, is a joy to listen to. 

Check it out.

3.5 points

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer (1977)

The eight album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of guitars, grand piano, organ, moog, mellotron, keyboards and synths.

This album is the soundtrack to a film released that year by William Friedkin. It is an action thriller movie which still has some fans. A lengthy Wikipedia story about the movie can be found here.

This is the first of the many movie soundtracks Tangerine Dream did during their career. Their music is generally well suited for movie soundtracks and it did not come as a surprise to me that they were a popular supplier of sounds and music to movie soundtracks.

This album is three quarters of an hour long and has some good mellotron based pieces and some other pieces which are not that good.

Edgar Froese and Peter Baumann was the two main men here and they deliver their pieces pretty well. 

The music is still pretty ambient and electronic. There is not much happening here but nevertheless... this is a decent enough album and should interest those into ambient electronic music and movie soundtracks.

I am yet to be converted to this band and genre. Something this album has failed to do.

2 points

 

 

 

Tucana - Legacy (2018)

The second and final album from this band from Sweden.

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

The 2012 self-titled debut album was a power metal album with some classical music and goth influences. It was not a particular good album. 

The band returned again six years later. This time around, we still get some power metal. But there is a lot more progressive metal influences here. The classical music elements has been retained while the goth elements has gone completely.

The music both has some metal elements and some more melodic elements.

The music has a good balance between the more melodic prog and the metal elements. That is also helped by the good vocals. The classical music also gives this fifty minutes long album some quality.

The songs itself is decent enough. But they are well developed and made into some more complex pieces of music than just being some songs.

The result is somewhere between a decent and a good album. I am still not won over but prog metal fans may want to check out this album.

2.5 points

Trk Project - Kay & Gerda (2020)

The fourth album from this band from Poland.

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

Two vocalists added their vocals.

This ninety-five minutes long album is one strange album. But it has a novel idea.

Kay & Gerda is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story The Snow Queen. Not a bad idea.... But it has been taken to a new level again.

We get exactly the music here performed twice over two CDs. The first CD, Gerda has the female vocals of Carolina Lezko, a regular lead vocalist on the Trk Project albums. The second CD has the male vocals of David Lewandowski.

We can then make up our own mind..... who is the best vocalist ? Carolina's vocals is just a millimeter better than David's vocals. 

The music is soft neo-prog and art rock with some musicals influences. The music is actually good and there is no problems with that. My only gripe is that is is a bit too soft and sugary sweet. I am not so sure if I like the concept here.... the music twice with two different vocalists. 

Nevertheless, this is an album well worth checking out. The band will release their new album early next year and I will come back to that with a review when I get it. All their albums is good albums and should be checked out.

3 points

 

Perfect Storm - Stairs (2024)

The second album from this band from The Netherlands.

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

This album is the follow up to their 2021 debut album No Air. A good album reviewed in # 2 of this blog some years ago.

The band has refined their sound and music on this album. Gone is the experiments. They have been replaced with a muscular blend of art-rock and neo-prog.

The vocals is both male and female vocals. They are all good. The vocals harmonies with male and female vocals is what really makes this album and gives it an identity. Ditto for the band as this is their identity.

The music is really muscular here with some good guitars and keyboards. 

The music is a bit workman like but still has some clever ideas scattered around these fifty minutes worth of music.

This is indeed a good album which will find a lot of fans. 

3 points

Tusmørke - Hestehoven (2023)

The tenth album from this band from Norway.

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

You never knows what you get from this band.... A serious music album or just a nonsense album. There has been too much of the latter ones. The previous album Intetnett was one of them.

It was with trepidation I started to listen to this album......

The music here is thankfully a mix of psych rock and acid folk rock. This is the serious side of this band, the band who sometimes release music albums.

The music is pretty quirky throughout. There is some Canterbury prog influences throughout this album due to some of the quirky melodies.

The vocals are OK and are in both English and their native language. There is a lot of flutes here, replacing guitars in their music.

Most of the album is good, with a couple of very good pieces. 

This is their so far best album and it is well worth checking out.

3 points

Sticks In The Casino - Walking with the King (2009)

The debut album from this band from Germany.

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

A guest added trumpet on one track.

This band has been flying a bit under the radar world wide but are pretty popular in the Berlin area of Germany. They have so far released three studio albums. The latest album was released last month and I will review all their albums before the end of the year.

The music here is heavy and hard psych rock.

The music is also instrumental and pretty quirky and intricate with some weird melody lines and rhythms. 

The playful music also has some surprises like this trumpet in the middle of one of the pieces.

This forty minutes long album gives us some decent music and is an acceptable debut album. This band deserve a lot more attention.

2 points