Unit8 - The Second Arch (2024)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is the follow up to their self-titled debut album from 2022. 

Their debut album was a fairly good album and I had hopes for the follow up album.

Their debut album had a mix of art-rock and neo-prog. More art than neo, though. The music was intelligent with influences from both Gentle Giant and The Beatles.

On this, the follow up, the band is far more neo-prog than art-rock. There are also some cleverly crafted music here in the vein of the final Rush albums.

The vocals are a bit limited and fairly good. But they are still acceptable. The music is still intelligent but also a bit naive. 

There are some really good songs here and the band has upped their game from the debut album.

This is indeed a good album and well worth checking out from their Bandcamp site.

3 points

Quanah Parker - Nel Castello delle Fate (2024)

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

A guest provides vocals on one track.

I have reviewed their first two albums for # 2 of this blog and they are very good albums. Hence I jumped on the chance to review their new album.

The music here is a mix of many genres. Take RPI, add in some fusion, Italian folk rock and a lot of eclectic prog.

The vocals are in Italian and they are female vocals. Some very good vocals, it is.

The music is both complex and eclectic. It is pretty melodic too, but still not easy listening music.  

There is a lot of quirky details on this one hour long album. Quirky details which makes this a good album and an album all RPI fans should check out.

Check out this album and their first two albums too.

3 points

 

 

Wilson. Steven - Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015)

The fourth album from this artist from Great Britain.

Steven Wilson did the bass, banjo, guitars, dulcimer, keyboards, programming and vocals here.

He was supported by some guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, guitars, chapman stick, strings, celesta, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, woodwinds, narrations, choir and vocals.

Steven Wilson continues with his mix of art-rock, cinematic rock and indie rock. 

This sixty-seven minutes long album very much follows on in the footsteps of the previous two albums. 

There are a lot more ambient music and cinematic rock here though and the music has become less hard than on previous albums.

The music has also become less songs orientated than on previous albums. The music is more floating around than before.

The music here is not as great here either.

This is still a good album and one to check out from the most prolifient prog rock artist since the end of the last century.

Check out this album.

3 points

Tangerine Dream - Stratosfear (1976)

The seventh album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, grand piano, mellotron, moog, organ, harpsichord, birotron and mouth organ.

This is the final album by the Baumann/Froese/Franke lineup. That does not tells me much as I am not a fan of this band or know this band.

Electronic music is not a genre I really like. But since this is one of the bigger bands in the prog rock genre, I am reviewing some of their albums this winter.

The music here is surprisingly dynamic with a lot of pretty interesting melodic themes. There is a very good flute like sound through this album too. 

The title track is actually a good piece of music. The rest is not much worse either.

To my surprise...... This is a good album and one I enjoy a lot. 

This is a good album and their best so far. Even those with a sceptical view on this genre should check out this album.

3 points

Tellus Requiem - Tellus Requiem (2010)

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

This band released two albums in 2010 and 2013 before they split up. I will post a review of their second album sometimes this weekend.

Norway also got a pretty big power metal, prog metal and heavy metal scene. It is not as known as the black metal scene (nobody has been murdered and no churches torched.....), but it is still a big scene.

Tellus Requiem was one of the first bands and one of the bigger bands in the scene ten - fifteen years ago. 

The music here is power metal. References are bands like Symphony X and the many German bands in this genre.

Their take on power metal is a bit run-of-the-mill songs which is true to the genre and it's formula. 

The vocals is good and there is a lot of guitar solos here which again is true to the power metal formula.

The result is a half-decent album which does not offer anything new to the scene. Power metal fans should check out this album.

1.5 points

Telegraph Avenue – Telegraph Avenue (1972)

The debut album from this band from Peru.

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

This band released two albums before a military junta closed down this and other rock bands in Peru in the middle of the 1970s. I will post a review of their second album in some days time.

The music on this half an hour long album is a mix of 1960s beat and psych rock.

The music are very much caught in the 1960s vein. They sounds a bit naive, innocent and naked. 

The songs are pretty decent and has some qualities.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job despite of their lack of resources. The sound is not particular good. It is decent though.

The result is a decent album which sounds like it is stuck in the 1960s. Not bad, not bad at all.

2 points

 

 

 

 

Aliante - Anime Invisibili (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

The band is a quartet with a lineup of drums, didgeridoo, bass, guitars, keyboards, flute, bassoon and effects.

The band continues with their instrumental take on symphonic prog. Or perhaps RPI ? The music here is not really RPI.

The music is a blend of symphonic prog and cinematic rock with some neo-classical music influences.

I have to admit that instrumental symphonic prog and cinematic rock is not two very exciting or engaging members of the progressive rock family. Camel raised the bar in this genre and few, far too few, has managed to release albums on their level.

That said.... the music on this album is not bad at all. The music has a strange keyboards sound but that is just adding some interest and quality to this forty minutes long album. 

The music sounds like music from an alien planet and that perhaps on purpose. Some of the music is even good here. But some of it does not reach that level.

I am yet to be won over by this band and their genre. Nevertheless, this is an interesting album, well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Unit Of Inheritance - The Impossible (2023)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band has four well grown up men and the parells to another British band with a similar name, Unit8, is many. The music is very different, though.

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

Take some Porcupine Tree and add in with some Marillion and Dream Theater. Then you get something like this album.

The music is very symphonic at times. Symphonic and heavy as in progressive metal. 

The music is indeed muscular on this forty minutes long album. Muscular and melodic too at times. 

The vocals are fairly decent without really being good. The musicians does a good job.

The album has some good bits and some decent bits. It is an acceptable debut album. The band has just released their second album and a review of that album will be posted pretty soon.

2.5 points

Unit8 - Unit8 (2022)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This band comes from Alnwick in the north-eastern corner of England. I have passed through it several times on my way from Edinburgh to Newcastle. A nice little town. The band has so far released two albums and a review of their second album will be posted soon in this blog.

The musicians here are well into their fifties, age wise.

The music here is a mix of standard rock and art-rock. There are also some The Beatles influences here.

The music on this one hour long album is rather quirky with some subtle Gentle Giant influences. The music is most of all melodic. 

The band has labeled their music as intelligent rock and there is no doubts the band is pretty much spot on here.

The vocals is good and the band does a good job on some pretty quirky, complicated songs. There is no really outstanding songs here and that is the only gripe I got with this album.

The result is an acceptable debut album and one to check out if melodic, quirky intelligent rock is your thing.

2.5 points

Frost - Life In The Wires (2024)

 The fifth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Frost* is a kind of a supergroup which now has some of the most active musicians in the British neo-prog scene. I have reviewed most of their albums and will review the albums I have yet to review sometimes next year.

This band is one of the bigger bands in the British and international neo-prog and art-rock scene.

Their music has always been very muscular with some prog metal influences. The music on this double album is no exception from that rule.

The music has a lot of very hard pieces. There is also some more pastoral pieces.

There is a lot of contrasts between very heavy art-rock and some more pastoral neo-prog here. The music also has some elements of concept albums and rock operas. 

The vocals is very good and so is most of the music here. There is some pieces of substandard music here though..

Nevertheless, this is a very good album and fans of this genre has probably already, and rightfully so, purchased this album. This album just proves why this band is one of the best bands in the art-rock and neo-prog scene.

3.5 points

Bodin. Tomas - An Ordinary Night in My Ordinary Life (1996)

The debut album from this artist from Sweden.

Tomas Bodin did the organ, piano, mellotron, synths and voices here.

A handfull of guests added percussion, drums, bass, guitars, effects and voices.

Tomas Bodin is mostly known for his cooperation with Roine Stolt and The Flower Kings. He has released ten solo albums and they are all up for reviews in this blog during this winter and spring.

Roine Stolt does indeed do the guitars here and some bass. His brother Michael Stolt also contributed on the bass.

The music here is a mix of symphonic prog and cinematic rock. All of this instrumental music.

The music sounds sterile throughout. There are some avant-garde ambient stuff in the middle of this sixty-six minutes long album which does not sounds good at all.

Most of the music is based on organ and synths. There are some good mellotron and church-organ like sounds too here. But these themes are far, far too short.

This album sounds too much like a run-of-the-mill cinematic rock album and that is what it is. 

The music is decent enough but not that inspiring. Tomas Bodin must do better on the next albums. 

2 points

Aurora Clara - Clear Dawn (2022)

The second album from this band from Spain.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of congas, drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and flute.

A guest added violin on one track.

Their 2019 debut album Transformation was a big, positive surprise to me with it's Mahavishnu Orchestra like fusion. A very good album indeed.

The music here.... the fusion here is still very much in the Mahavishnu Orchestra vein. 

The fusion is also breathtaking fast and ferocious. The speed is 200 miles an hour with some more slow parts inbetween. The music is still pretty melodic.

There is not as many solos here as on the debut album. The violin is more or less gone, with the exception of the opening track, the title track. Flutes has taken over the role of the violin. There is some short and fast flutes and guitar solos here.

The band sounds more like a unit on this album. There is a lot of very interesting details here.

Although sligtly weaker than the debut album, this is still a very good album and one to really enjoy. The fusion scene too is alive and well. 

3.5 points

Testa Barbada - Rastros (2017)

The one and only album from this band from Peru.

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

I know next to nothing about this band. I therefore have to go on what I have found online. Which is next to nothing.

It is pretty rare to find new prog bands from Peru these days as this genre has been in a bit in decline in Peru since the 1970s. 

Testa Barbada gives us forty minutes of a mix of psych rock and art rock. Add in some Latin folk rock and hard rock too and you get my drift. 

The music is both dynamic and pretty melodic. The vocals is pretty good and the band does a good job on some pretty decent to good songs.

The sound is surprisingly good and the band has obviously spent some good resources on getting this very good sound.

This album is forty minutes long and it is an album somewhere between decent and good. It is an album the band should be very satisifed with and an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

Teatro Temporaneamente Traballante - Capannone B (1974)

The one and only album from this project from Italy.

The project was a theater ensemble with a lineup of symphony orchestra instruments and a choir.

In my eagernes to find obscure RPI albums and bands, I have sometimes got it wrong and picked up Italian pop or metal albums instead. Or album from theater ensembles.

This album is a forty minutes long theatrical pop album performed with a choir of mostly female vocalists. The choir is on the top of some strings and woodwinds.

The music sounds pretty and innocent. The lyrics may be extreme left wing or catholic for all I know as I do not speak or understand their language.... the Italian language.

There is nothing joyable about this album and I have evidently picked up an album which has nothing in common with RPI or progressive rock whatsoever. The music here is pretty dire too and this is an album best avoided.

1 point

 

 

Versa - A Voyage / A Destination # 2 (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

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

The band comes from Victoria on the large Vancouver Island just outside Vancouver on the west side of Canada. 

I had the joy of reviewing their third album, the 2022 album The Voyage/A Destination in this blog. This, the 2024 album is the follow up, the continuation of the 2022 album. 

Their 2022 album was a good album so I jumped on the chance to review the follow up album.

The music is still indie rock, merged with ambient post rock, progressive rock, art rock, jazz and folk rock. Add a lot of cinematic rock too and you get my drift.

There is eleven short tracks and the eighteen minutes long Artemis opus on this album. This one hour long album sounds like one big piece of music and should indeed be regarded as such. There is no hit singles here, in other words.

The music is at times very softly spoken. The vocals is a mix of male and female vocals. They are both good vocals. The music is also elegant. 

The quality of the music is good throughout and this is an album that prog fans should check out.

3 points

 

 

 

Amon Düül - Fööl Moon (1989)

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

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

The band returned for the final stab at some fame and fortune.

The previous Amon Duul had a couple of Hawkwind and Ozric Tentacles members. Robert Calvert and the Ozric Tentacles members are still around on this album too. Gone is the female vocals, though.

We get three quarters of an hour with some animal sounds and some improvised krautrock and space rock. Something very different again from their first three albums.

The music is a crossover between Amon Duul II and Hawkwinds. Those two bands and Ozric Tentacles.

The sound is OK. That long piece of ambient animals soundscape is a total waste of time. The music is bits is pretty decent though.

This album is not how they should have ended this band though as it is pretty bad. Well, it is a half decent album and just that.

1.5 points

Aliante - Destinazioni Oblique (2022)

The third album from this band from Italy.

The band was a quartet on this album with a lineup of drums, didgeridoo, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, bassoon, flute and effects.

A guest added narration on one of the tracks.

This is another instrumental prog album from this band. All their four albums are instrumental prog.

I have reviewe their first two albums and has given them reaonable good ratings.

The music on this seventy-seven minutes long album is a mix of Camel like symphonic prog, instrumental RPI and cinematic rock.

The music is very gentle and pastoral at times. Most of the music is mid-tempo though but not particular hard.

The guitars and the keyboards are dominating the music. The bassoon is an interesting addition to the music and is playing a leading role on a couple of these pieces of music.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. There are simply not enough interesting music here to make this a good album.

Instrumental prog fans should check out this album.

2.5 points

Huis - In the Face of the Unknown (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Canada.

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

This is a band from Canada I quite like. I reviewed their first two albums in # 1 of this blog and their third album in # 2 of this blog. 

This album is the follow up to their 2019 album Abandoned and five years has therefore gone. The music is pretty much in the same genre, though.

We are deep into the neo-prog genre here. Arena, Pendragon, IQ and Pallas is good references.

This album is seventy minutes long. 

Their take on neo-prog is both elegant and melodic. Sylvain Descoteaux good vocals is pretty central to the music here too. It is supported by some good keyboards and guitars.

The music is a bit workman like and has no real surprises. The band knows how to write and perform good songs. Good songs but not really any outstanding songs.

This is a good album and one that everyone into neo-prog will enjoy.

3 points

 

 

 

Motorpsycho - Here Be Monsters (2016)

The 19th album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added extra keyboards.

You never know what you get from a Motorpsycho album as the band is wildly unpredictable. Nevertheless, the last three albums has given us a steady flow on their take on psych rock. That is psych rock with some very strong 1960s garage rock influences.

That too is the case for Here Be Monsters.

The band is stripped down and is based on bass, drums, guitars and vocals. This with some additional piano and synths. But most of all..... the music is guitar based and pretty naked.

The album is three quarters of an hour long and the eighteen minutes long Big Black Dog opus is closing the album. It is a good opus indeed.

The music is very hard at times. It is also groovy and proggy too.

The result is a good album and one that removes any doubts about the qualities of this band. This is one of the best bands in Norway.... something even a stripped down version of this band has proven on this album.

3 points

 

 

Triumph - Never Surrender (1982)

The sixth album from this band from Canada.

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

The band continued down their selfmade path of catchy hard rock. 

The music is hard and catchy throughout. Hence the three hit singles on this album, top twenty hit singles. The music is never heavy or brutal. Just hard.

The vocals is very good from both vocalists. The sound is the typical late 1970s and early 1980s sound. 

The band was clearly trying to catch the new heavy metal bandwagon at this time. Hence the sound. Their music was never that heavy and hence.... that train left the station without Triumph. 

Nevertheless, this is a decent enough album and well worth checking out if hard rock is your thing.  

2 points

Syriak - Dentro De Los Cuentos Del Dia (2015)

The one and only album from this band from Venezuela.

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

This band was a on and off band for twenty years before they released this album and then disbanded for the final time. The album was released by a local record label and a few copies made it to Europe and USA.

The music on this forty minutes long album is based on British neo-prog. Pendragon springs to mind and so does both Arena and IQ. There is also some heavy prog here.

The music is pretty hard most of the times. It also has a lot of Latin prog influences as the scene in Venezuela is a Latin prog scene. A good scene, btw. 

The Spanish vocals is adding a lot of colours to the music too.

The quality of the music is decent without really impressing me or becoming good. The band is proficient on their instruments and the vocals is pretty good.

This album is a colourful addition to the scene and well worth checking out.

2 points

 

 

Sunset Park - The Night of the Lunar Eclipse (2023)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This album did not come to my attention before this summer and I put it in the to-do reviews a couple of months ago based on the genre and the nice cover art-work.

From what I gather, the musicians is some young musicans, just starting out on what I and they hope will be a long career. They are certainly very talented musicians.

The album starts out as a fusion album in the vein of Jean Luc Ponty. And the music on this seventy minutes long album is mainly following this path.

There are two exceptions, though. The two vocals dominated songs.

The first one, The Last Words She Left is a poignant song in the vein of Epitaph from the first King Crimson album. A very good song with some good vocals.

The second song is a part of an eighteen minutes long epic and the song is good too... although with a bit of a faltering vocals.

The fusion stuff is very good and we are in this album talking about a hidden gem. A gem that deserve a lot more attention.

Check out this album even if only prog floats your boat.

3.5 points

Vesilinja - Merkurius (2024)

The third album from this band from Finland.

The band is a sextet with a lineup of percussion, drums, bass, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, synths, saxophones, clarinet, flute, sound effects and vocals.

The band returned for a third album.... and hopefully some more albums in the years to come.

Their two first albums had a great mix of old Finnish progressive rock, folk rock and fusion/jazz. It therefore not come as a surprise that the band continues down the same path.

The music on this album is more pastoral than the music on the first two albums. That is the biggest difference between these three albums.

The folk rock and progressive rock vibe and influences are more in the forefront on this album. That in particular on the twenty-three minutes long title track. 

Their Jethro Tull influences is pretty strong on this three quarters of an hour long album too. 

The Finnish vocals is very good and the woodwinds is really cool here. That and the piano and organ gives the album a strong organic sound.

The result is another pretty impressive album from this band and another reason why this band is one of the best, if not the best, progressive rock bands from Finland these days. This album and their firsdt two albums is really something to be enjoyed.

3 points

 

 

Amon Düül - Die Lösung (1989)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Some guests added percussion, drums, guitars, synths and vocals.

The third album from this splinter group from the German band with the same name. The third album and a new genre again.

Gone is the dream pop and most of the female vocals. It has been replaced by a mix of psych rock, post-punk and krautrock.

The band was helped by members of Ozric Tentacles and Hawkwind on this album. That also explains some of the music here. Robert Calvert is indeed the vocalist on some tracks.

The music is pretty well performed and the vocals is good. 

The quality of the music is decent enough. The songs are simply not good enough to make this more than a decent album. It is an album let down by bad songs. 

2 points

Aliante - Sul Confine (2019)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

A guest delivered violin on some tracks.

It is coming up to six years since I reviewed their 2017 debut album Forme Libere in # 2 of this blog. I gave it a good rating.

The band has just released their fourth album and I therefore decided to review that album and the remaining two albums before the end of this year. 

The music here is instrumental and melodic symphonic prog. 

Camel springs to mind throughout the whole of this album. There are some cinematic rock here too. 

The tempo is mid-paced and pretty dynamic. The music is organ based throughout these fifty-three minutes worth of music.

The music is not particular exciting. This album has some good themes and pieces. The rest is not really that good.

Fans of instrumental symphonic prog and or Camel should check out this album.

2.5 points

Massois. Gerald - Demain à l'Aube (2024)

The second album from this artist from France.

Gerald Massois did the guitars and vocals here.

He had help from some guests who added drums, percussion, bass, guitars, cello, piano, organ, keyboards and narration. 

His 2018 debut album Le Vol Erratique D'un Papillon was a very good symphonic prog album with it's strong influences from both Ange and Dream Theater. Hence, I wanted a follow up album.

Gerald Massois is following up the debut album with an album inspired by both Ange and Dream Theater. Add in Genesis and Pink Floyd too and you get the drift.

We get seventy minutes worth of classic symphonic prog with French vocals and a lot of influences from both both sides of the British Channel, this narrow piece of water.

The vocals is very good and ditto for the guitars.

There is a lot of soaring, epic melodies here. There is also some more pastoral pieces here too. The variation between the more pastoral and the more epic stuff is very good.

The result is a very good album one one to enjoy if classic melodic prog is what you enjoy. In that case, this is an album for you.

3.5 points

 

 

 

Asfalto - Al Otro Lado (1978)

The third album from this band from Spain.

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

The band more or less broke up after their second album, their real debut album as their debut album was a The Beatles covers album, and the future of the band was in doubts. A member from the Uruguay band Psiglo saved the day as he had fled to Spain from the military dictatorships of first Uruguay and then Argentina. He, Garcia Banegas, was in search for a civilized society.... and a band he could join.

I like Psiglo a lot and his inclusion in Asfalto turned the band around and gave them a new lease of life.

The music on Al Otro Lado is indeed pretty prog rock orientated.

There are still some mainstream rock music here. Some Elton John like rockers and a ballad or two. But there are also some Yes like prog rock pieces of music here. The eleven minutes long title track is a nice piece of Yes inspired progressive rock.

The Spanish vocals is really good and the musicians does a good job indeed. There are some good guitar and organ solos here.

I am positive surprised by this album. It has a lot of prog and a lot of style. The quality is good throughout and this is one of the better 1970s Spanish prog rock albums.

3 points

Tusmørke - Nordisk Krim (2021)

The eight album from this band from Norway.

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

Every time I open up an album from this band, I wonder if the music will be good or hell. Too many albums has been hell up to now.

Their discography has been wildly uneven, in other words.

This time around, we get a double album, eighty-two minutes worth of music.

The music is psych rock with some strong space rock and folk rock influences. There are also an electronica avant-garde piece here who does not do much other than serving as a break so the listener can make some coffee/tea/water. Or go to the toilet. That is the only reason I can see for that electronica bit.

The vocals are all in English despite of the Nowegian album title. The music is pretty mature and there is none of this wild Daevid Allen like stuff you get on some of their other albums. This album gives us some serious sounding music. No humour here.

The vocals is good but some of the material is on the more anonymous side and pretty pedestrian. Despite of that, this is still a good album. Not as good as I wanted it to be, but still a good album. The flutes, organ sound and the folk rock influences are this album's saving grace.

This is an album well worth checking out if Scandinavian psych and folk rock is your thing.

3 points

 

 

 

Soluna - Energia Natural (1977)

 The one and only album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of percussion, drums, maracas, bass, guitars, electric piano, organ and vocals.

Some guests added percussion, accordion, cello, violin and keyboards.

Argentina is a country far away from both USA and Great Britain, the two main markets when it comes to music. It still has a great scene. A scene going back to the early 1970s. 

Soluna is a spin off band of the Argentina prog band Arco Iris. 

Some of the Arco Iris members wanted to do a more folk rock album and the result was this band and album. 

Folk rock it is. There is still a lot of progressive rock on this album too and the music is therefore progressive folk rock. That complete with a lot of Latin rock influences and Argentine folk music influences.

The vocals and the vocal harmonies are in Spanish. Both of them are very good. There are indeed a lot of vocal harmonies on this forty minutes long album. The music is pretty gentle and pastoral.

This is a charming album indeed and somewhere between decent and good. This is an album fans of progressive folk rock and or folk rock should check out.

2.5 points

Sixty Nine - Circle Of The Crayfish (1973)

 

The one and only album from this band from Germany.

The band was a duo with a lineup of gongs, drums, percussion, guitar, synths, organs, keyboards and vocals.

This band was a short lived band who released this album and a live album the following year. None of the albums sold well.

The music here is a mix of ELP like symphonic prog and krautrock. 

There is indeed a lot of krautrock here with all the eccentric electronic sounds. Tangerine Dreams like electronic prog pops up on a track on this three quarters of an hour long album.

The material is a bit uneven in quality. From the rather good Nice/ELP inspired pieces here to the a bit sub-standard avant-garde electronic stuff. 

The music is also a bit all over the placed and unhinged. The band crammed in a lot of various expressions on this album. 

The sound is decent and ditto for the instruments and the vocals. This is a pretty interesting crossover album between symphonic prog and krautrock though. 

In it's own right, this is a decent album and well worth checking out.

2 points

 

Gunerius & Verdensveven - Isolasjon (2024)

The fifth album from this band from Norway.

The band was a trio with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, electronics and narration.

This name-your-price Bandcamp album is a bit special. It is four times twenty-two minutes long tracks split into two. Hence tracks a and b. To play this album as the band has intended, you need two audio systems (!!) where you play tracks a as the same time as you play tracks b. And this has to be syncronised down to the hundreds of a second.

Very few has the possibility to do this. That unless you have two big computers in play. But who would be bothered about doing that ? 

The music is in any case avant-garde electronic psych rock. There is some Amon Duul like guitars here and the whole album reminds me a lot about an Amon Duul album. 

The music is pretty decent at times but it really never become more than a half decent album. The music is not particular interesting or exciting.

Those of you who has two audio systems and are bothered about merging up tracks a and b on the systems may be interested. For those of us with one system.... well, it is a name-your-price album. That is it's only saving grace.

1.5 points

 

 

Vesilinja - Myrskyn Keskellä (2022)

The second album from this band from Finland.

The band was a sextet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, piano, organ, synths, flute, clarinet, saxophones and vocals.

This is the follow up album to their self-titled 2021 debut album. A good debut album, indeed.

This band has taken on board the Finnish prog rock and jazz/fusion sounds and bands from the 1970s and made their own version of this inheritance. Hence the good debut album. 

The band has moved slightly towards progressive rock and folk rock on this album. Jethro Tull, Finnforest and Wigwam is good references. But there are still a lot of references to Tasavallan Presidentti too here. Both through the saxophones and the guitars.

The Finnish male vocals is good and the guitars is very good. The saxophones is adding a lot of textures and colours to the music.

There is a lot of good details on this forty minutes long album. It has a nice, warm Scandinavian sound. 

It is indeed both a well crafted album and a good album. 

This is a band that has taken up the baton from classic bands from Finland and is running with it. The result is this good album.

3 points

 

 

Melting Clock - Altrove (2024)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This is the follow up album to their very good 2019 debut album. 

It has taken them five years to release the follow up. A world wide pandemic, which hit Italy very hard, may be the reason for parts of this long break.

The debut album was a classic RPI album. It was true to the good old 1970s RPI sound and ideas. 

Altrove continues down the same path with, again, some superb female vocals from Emanuela Vedana. 

The music is mid-tempo to pastoral. There is a lot of piano and keyboards here. The music has some folk rock and pop influences.... just as the music from the likes of Banco and PFM also had. 

The Italian vocals also gives this three quarters of an hour long album a lot of elegance too.

The music is very beautiful and very good throughout this album.

The result is another very good album from this band who surely must now be regarded as one of the best new RPI bands.

Get this album.

3.5 points

 

 

 

 

Protos - The Infinite Horizon (2024)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a duo with a lineup of guitars, keyboards and electronics.

A guest added drums.

This album was recorded and then one of the members of the band, the guitarist Stephen Anscombe, passed on. Rory Didley-Duff, the sole remaining member, released this album in his memory.

As with the two first albums, the music here is a mix of symphonic prog, cinematic rock and neo-classical music.

The music is both elegant and melodic. It has some folk rock influences too. 

The keyboards and electronic generated strings and other sounds is the main instruments here. The guitars are playing more a secondary role on this forty minutes long album.

Despite of this, the music sounds pretty organic and not so dissimilar to ELP and Camel. There is still a lot of Mike Oldfield in their music too.

Fans of these three bands/artists should check out this album and their first two album.

This album is an OK'ish album.

2.5 points

 

 

Wilson. Steven - The Raven That Refused to Sing (2013)

The third album from this artist from Great Britain.

Steven Wilson did the bass, guitars, mellotron, keyboards and vocals on this album.

He got help from some guests who added percussion, drums, bass, chapman stick, guitars, strings, piano, mini-moog, organ, synths, woodwinds and vocals.

Steven Wilson returned after the successful Grace For Drowning album. An album voted as the best album by some magazines that year. 

Art-rock and psych-rock is again the musical expression. Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree looms large on the list of influences.

The songs almost got a hymn feel with a lot of space and oxygene given to each instrument and indeed.... tone.

The music is elegant and the vocals is very good. The music is indeed classy and has some really cool details.

The result is a very good album from this maestro of modern progressive rock. It is an album well worth purchasing for everyone into progressive rock.

3.5 points

Tangerine Dream - Rubycon (1975)

The sixth album from this band from Germany.

The band was a trio with a lineup of gong, guitar, organ, piano, moog, mellotron and synths.

I am again dipping my toes into a genre I find deeply unimpressive. But I have commited myself to review a dozen or so Tangerine Dream albums and I am sticking to the task. So if you love this genre and this band.... look away now.

This album consists of two tracks, Rubycon I and Rubycon II. Both are just under eighteen minutes long.

Part I is surprisingly organic with a lot of things going on at the end of this track. Some of it is really good too.

Part I runs into Part II without a break or stop. The music is not as organic and varied in the beginning. After some drone parts, the music becomes more brighter and lighter at the end.

The final half of Part I is by far the best piece of music here. The rest is decent enough and this makes this album sitting somewhere between decent and good. I am still not won over....

2.5 points

Náttúra - Magic Key (1972)

The one and only album from this band from Iceland.

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

This album is normally being referred to as the more famous Icelandic band Trubrot's fifth album. Nevertheless, this was released under the Nattura name and it is only right for me to use this name.

I have reviewed a couple of Trubrot albums around twelve years ago in # 1 of this blog. I gave them good ratings.

The music on this forty minutes long album is a mix of most of the popular genres back in 1972. 

The album starts with a lively, jazz inspired rock tune which comes complete with female English vocals. A catchy, quite good song which I guess got good radio airplay back then. That if Icelandic radio broadcasted popular music. The guitar solo on this track is good indeed.

We also get some progressive rock and fusion instrumentals before some male vocals also arrives during this album.

There is a lot of good organ, guitars and moog on this album in addition to the vocals.

The result is a lively, decent album well worth checking out. It is an album not shaming Iceland, to put it like that. 

2 points

National Diet - The Noon Hour (2022)

The debut album from this band from USA.

The band was a duo with a lineup of drums, percussion, theremin, guitars, mandolin, synths and vocals.

A dozen of guests added bass, viola, trumpet and saxophones.

This band consists of members from Mercury Rev and Rainbow Face, two pretty famous bands.

I got this album on it's release but did not have the courage to review it back then as I did not really understand the music here.

I am always a bit sceptical to albums labeled "RIO Avant-Garde". This album is and that is not entirely correct.

Take art-rock and some singer/songwriter rock. Add in some Peter Hamill solo stuff and some grungy psych rock. 

There are some mad, unhinged saxophones and trumpets on a couple of tracks on this three quarters of an hour long album and the rhythms is a bit all over the place. Ditto for the decent vocals.

The music is a bit on the unremarkable side of the spectrum and that does not make for a good listening experience.

Unremarkable is what my main impression is. This is not a bad album at all. It is indeed a decent album who fails to really hit a home run.

2 points

Verge. The - The Verge (2024)

 

The debut album from this band from Norway.

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

Norway has seen a lot of new jazz/fusion bands during the last five years. This growth is the result of the now public jazz high schools and universities in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim.

Hence this new noisy rackett.

The Verge attacks the listener from the first second with a full frontal assault of saxophones and guitars. 

Some of the music is pretty atonal. None of the music is particular easy listening. This quartet is not pussy footing around. 

The music is indeed dissonant avant-garde jazz. 

There is method in this madness, this forty minutes long full frontal assault on the listener. The music is indeed good and has a lot of very interesting details.

The result is a good album. An album which is a good addition to the Norwegian scene but who may be a bridge too far into jazzland for a lot of prog rock fans. Nevertheless, check it out.

3 points

 

Vesilinja - Vesilinja (2021)

The debut album from this band from Finland.

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

This band has so far released three albums. The latest one earlier this year. I will review the two remaining albums later this month.

This band were formed to play and then later compose retro-progressive rock.

Hence, the music has a lot of Camel, Jethro Tull, King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator influences here. 

The band is also playing homage to the first Finnish prog and jazz bands from the 1970s on this album. The saxophones is everywhere and reminds me a lot about those pioneers of the Finnish scene.

In short, the music here is a mix of good old early prog and fusion. That with a great deal of folk rock influences.

The Finnish vocals from the two vocalists are good and ditto for the sound. The sound is very warm. Not a bad thing on a cold day in the autumn in my office....

This album is three quarters of an hour long and the quality is good throughout. This is more than an acceptable debut album. Fans of early prog and prog rock from Scandinavia should check out this album.

3 points

Melting Clock - Destinazioni (2019)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

Three guests added percussion, cello, violin and flute. 

This is a new band on the Italian scene and they released their second album earlier this year. An album I will review later this week for this blog.

The band was an RPI cover band in their earlier years, covering Genesis and the classic Italian bands songs. Then they started to write their own material. Black Widows Records did a very smart thing by signing them.

The band is fronted by a female vocalist, Emanuela Vedana, who does a great job here and whose vocals is a perfect fit for their music.

Music which is classic RPI with a lot of Genesis and some King Crimson and Yes influences incorporated too.

The music on this one hour long album is very complex at times. It is indeed symphonic with some medium long songs ending with the quarter of an hour closing title track/opus.

The music is also melodic and features the Italian pop and folk rock sensibilities from the 1970s.

There is lots of lots of interesting details here and RPI fans will get their boots full with this album.

The overall quality is also very good and there is no doubts that this album and band is a great addition to the RPI scene. A scene that just continues to deliver. A great scene indeed.

3.5 points

Weather Systems - Ocean Without A Shore (2024)

The debut album from this band from Great Britain.

The band is a duo with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, piano, electric piano, keyboards, programming, vocoder and vocals.

Some guests added male and female vocals.

This band is David Cardoso and Daniel Kavanagh from the now defunkt Anathema. 

The comparissons will be made with the final two Anathema albums and that is a natural assumptions. And that assumption is not far of the mark.

The music is in the same area, art-rock and psych-rock with some Pink Floyd influences and a lot of vocal harmonies. Some of the vocals is also distorted through vocoders.

The vocal harmonies is done with both male and female vocals.

There is also a lot of keyboards and guitar harmonies plus some guitar solos.

The music is mainly floating around and has a big, bold sound.

The sound is good and the music on this one hour long album is good too. 

This is a more than acceptable debut album and I hope we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

3 points

Amon Düül - Meetings With Menmachines Inglorious Heroes Of The Past (1984)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

The Great Britain splinter group of the two Amon Duul's returned with their second album. 

The first album was improvised krautrock. This, the follow up album is something totally different again.

The music reminds me about the Scottish band Beggar's Opera and their transformation into a dream pop band.

Dream pop with female vocals is what we get here. Power pop is almost a better label as the music has some punk influences. A lot of them, in fact. There is no connection between this album and the debut album.

There are some decent instrumental and male vocals krautrock here too. But most of it is female vocals dominated power pop.

The result is a half-decent album and one best forgotten. 

I am not impressed.

1.5 points

 

 

Aurora Clara - Transformation (2019)

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

Three guests added congas, percussion, violin and cajon.

This band is a new name to me. They have just released their fourth album and I got that one and their three first albums too. Hence.... I will review them all this autumn and winter.

This band has embraced the gifts given to us by Mahavishnu Orchestra and the other guitar based fusion bands. There is a lot of smoking hot guitars on this album.

The guitarist here Raul Mannola is perhaps not up there among the elite guitarists like for example John McLaughlin... but he still have some impressive guitar solos and licks on this album.

The second big solo instrument here is the flutes. There are some really smoking hot flute solos here from Juan Carlos Aracil.

All of this is backed up by some very good performances by the rest of the band too. 

This one hour long album is indeed a smoking hot fusion album. There are more jazz here than rock, though. That is not a problem but I still just wanted to mention it.

Not everything here is great but there is enough here to put this band on my list of favourite bands from Spain. This is indeed a very good debut album and I hope the three other albums are as good as this one.

A new star in my universe has been born.

3.5 points

Nascita Della Sfera - Per Una Scultura Di Ceschia (1978)

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

The band/project was a nine piece big band/project with a lineup of percussion, bass, guitars, keyboards, synths, saxophones, flutes, effects and vocals.

I have had this album hanging around on my to-review list for over ten years. I have not been brave enough to review it before now....... That says something about this album.....

This is a concept album based on the work and life of the Italian sculptor Luciano Ceschia. The project's orginator was Carlo Barbieri who composed this album and then invited some guests to record this piece of music.

This piece of music was released as a private pressing LP before being picked up by a record label who later gave it a proper release on CD. Double CD, in fact, taking us to eigthy minutes of music.

The music is very minimalistic folk rock with some electronica and a lot of avant-garde music. 

The music sounds chaotic and is indeed chaotic. The is indeed a chaotic album which does not make much sense.

This album has some historical value and is quite a quaint sounding album. There is not many pieces of flowing music here and the quality is not good at all.

The quality is only half decent and it is almost impossible to listen to this whole eighty minutes long album in one go. I had some really big problems with that. Hence, I have many times given up reviewing this album before I finally made an effort this week and finally got my head around this album.

1.5 points

 

 

 

Narcís Miranda - Els Càtars (2003)

The one and only album from this artist from Spain.

Narcis Miranda did the guitars, piano, synths and vocals.

He had help from four guests who did drums, bass, guitars and backing vocals.

This is a new artist to me and I got this album recommended by some friends from Barcelona in the Catalan region of Spain.

The music here is a mix of rock and Catalan folk rock. Catalan folk music is also well represented on this one hour long album.

There is also a fine mix of rockers and more pastoral ballads on this album.

The vocals are good and the result is a decent enough folk rock influences middle of the road rock album.  

2 points

Bitu - Bitu (2024)

 

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

Bitu is Anders Bitustoyl on bass, guitars, synths, programming, backing vocals and narrations.

He had help from two guests who provided drums, percussion and female vocals.

Anders has worked with a lot of local musicians in the Telemark area before he went his own way with Bitu and this album. A project which is a side project from his dayjob as a musician and song-writer for other artists.

The record label Appollon Records has described the music on this album as instrumental pop. I am not sure what they mean here...

The music here comes across as a mix of folk music, jazz, cinematic rock and electronica.

The music is instrumental with some wailing female vocals and a speach, a piece of narration, at the end of this forty minutes long album. There are some flutes and guitars who sounds very folk music and jazz.

The music sounds like scetches and drawings more than the music sounds like finished pieces of music. There are a lot of ideas here who could have been developed into some far better pieces of music. And I guess Anders will later on go back to some of the music here and develop them into proper songs and/or pieces of music.

These forty minutes is decent enough, barely decent enough but nothing more than that. If this sounds great to you, this album is available as CD, LP and Bandcamp/Amazon download.

2 points

Sleeping Pandora - Solar Island (2023)

The 11th album from this one-man-band from Germany.

Mathias Rosman did all the guitars and electronics here.

This is so far the latest Sleeping Pandora album. 

All the previous ten albums has been pretty similar to each other. Gentle picking on the guitar strings on some space rock and ambient themes. Some albums has had more electronics and use of the echos function than other albums. Some albums has also had better melodies and melody pieces than other albums.

There is not much difference and variations between the ten, make that eleven albums as Solar Island is in the same tradition as the ten first albums.

Eighty minutes of gentle finger picking on the guitar with a lot of echoes and some electronics. The music is ambient space rock too.

The music is decent enough and this album does not deliver any surprises.

If gentle space rock is your thing, these eleven albums is something for you. If you want some more actions and variations, Sleeping Pandora is not something for you.

Solar Island is a decent enough album and just that. Decent.

2 points

Protos - The Noble Pauper's Grave (2007)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

The band was a trio with a lineup of guitar, cello, keyboards and programming.

This album was released twenty-five years after their debut album One Day A New Horizon. The band has just released their new, third album. Hence, this band has some productivity issues......

Their debut album had some symph prog and neo-classical music in the vein of Camel, Mike Oldfield and Steve Hackett.

On the follow up album The Noble Pauper's Grave, the band has scaled back a bit. The music is now largely only neo-classical music.

Mike Oldfield is a big influence on this album and fans of his music should indeed check out this album.

This one hour long album is also very much influenced by old classic English music and some celtic folk rock. 

The music is organic with some programmed flutes and other classical orchestra instruments. There is also some keyboards pretty high in the mix. The sound still has this organic feel. A bit of a chamber orchestra feel and sound.

The music is very pedestrian and not particular good. This album is not a bad album though and it is worth checking out if Mike Oldfield floats your boat.

2 points

Raven Sad - Polar Human Circle (2024)

The fifth album from this band from Italy.

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

Raven Sad is one of those non-RPI bands from Italy I really like. I have given their first four albums good reviews in # 1-3 of this blog and in ProgArchives. So I jumped on the chance to review their brand new album.

The band started out as a psych rock band and then moved on to a more art-rock territory.

The music on this one hour long album is indeed a mix of art-rock and psych rock. There is also some neo-prog influences here.

Good references are Pink Floyd and in particular Marillion. Raven Sad comes across as a crossbreed between these two bands.

The music is both flowing and elegant. The music is in mid-tempo with a lot of both keyboards and guitars. The vocals is good.

There is no real killer track on this album. Nevertheless, this is a good album and well worth checking out if you like Marillion and art-rock.

3 points