Far Cry. The - If Only... (2021)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This band released this album on a small record label and that is the last thing we have heard from this band. They may still be around.... I hope.

The music on this sixty-six minutes long album can best described as a mix of both cinematic prog and neo-prog.

We get a lot of cinematic instrumental pieces here inbetween some neo-prog songs. 

The sound and music is big, brash, epic and US like progressive rock. Which it is.... US prog rock.

There is a lot of good guitar riffs and solos. The vocals is good.

Not all the music is good and what is lacking is some better melodies and hooks. Not all the cinematic pieces is interesting or good. Hence, this album falls a bit short. 

Nevertheless, this an acceptable debut album and I hope we hear a lot more from this band.

2.5 points

 

 

Fantomes. Les - Le Vaisseau (2015)

 

The debut album (??) from this band from France.

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

As far I have been told, this band is not to be confused with the French instrumetal The Shadows copycat band from the 1960s. That band is a French national treasure and it is beyond me why anyone would use the same name to release music in these days and age. 

In particular music which is very, very different from the music this national treasure released. That is not smart and that is not the right thing to do.

The music on this half an hour long album is a mix of indie rock, post-punk and hard rock. The vocals are in French and they are very poor.

The music here is very poor and this is an album well worth avoiding. It is hard to find as it seems to have been removed from most platforms. But Amazon and Spotify still have it. If turkeys is your thing, get this album. If prog rock is your thing, stay well clear of this turkey.

1 point

 

 

 

 

Lunophone - Surroundings (2024)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

The band is a duo with David D'Alessandro and James Strain contributing with percussion, bass, guitars, synths, programming and vocals.

David D'Alessandro is a member of Homunculus Res, an Italian band who has released some great albums. James Strain is a member of Rascal Reporter, a US avant-garde band. 

This album has been released through AltRock in Italy and that itself is a sign of quality as this label never really disappoints. They have mostly released avant-garde and eclectic prog albums though. 

The music on this album is a mix of Canterbury prog & jazz, eclectic prog and avant-garde prog.

Most of the music is Canterbury prog, though. Prog very influenced by jazz. There is some King Crimson references throughout this forty minutes long album. There is not that much pure avant-garde prog here as the music is pretty melodic throughout. Quirky, eclectic but still pretty melodic. 

The music demands the full attention from the listener though and this is by no means an easy-listening album. It is an album which fits very nicely among the other albums this label has released.

The result is a good album and fans of the Canterbury scene should regard this album as a must-have album. Let's hope this album is not an one-off album from this duo.

3 points

 

Spinetta Jade - Madre En Años Luz (1984)

The fourth and final album from this band from Argentina.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of bass, guitars, organ, piano, guitar synths, synths, drum programming and vocals.

Three guests added cymbals, timbales, percussion and drum programming.

This is the final album from Luis Alberto Spinetta and his band. His first three albums had been some decent to good mixes of Latin-Pop and laid back fusion/jazz.

The fusion and jazz parts are largely in the background on his final album, though. What we get here is largely vocals based Latin-Pop. There are some soul, folk rock and fusion here too.

The music is very laid back and pedestrian throughout these thirty-seven minutes.

The vocals is decent and the songs are half-decent.

This is a pretty forgetable album and by far his worst album. Only the vocals is saving this album's bacon.

1.5 points

 

 

Saqqarah - The Runaway (2024)

The third album from this band from France.

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

The band album debuted back in 1996 with the Genese album and their second album was released back in 2005. 

There are still two members from the quartet who released the debut album. That is pretty impressive. 

The music is also pretty true to their 1990s roots. The seventy-two minutes long The Runaway is pretty heavy influenced by Marillion, the Fish era. Add some Ange, Pendragon and Mona Lisa influences too.

The music is neo-prog and it has some good musicianship too. The vocals on the other hand..... Well, that is the band's weakest point. The vocals is very uneven. At best, it is very good. At it's worst, it is almost cringeworthy bad.

The quality of the neo-prog here are good throughout and this is a good album indeed. It is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Kaipa - Sommargryningsljus (2024)

The 15th album from this band from Sweden.

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

Three guests added recorders, violin, saxophone and whistlers.

Kaipa is one of the, if not THE first Swedish symphonic prog bands to release albums. Their self-titled debut album was released back in 1975 and it included Roine Stolt on guitars and vocals. He later formed The Flower Kings who took Swedish symphonic prog onto the world stage.

Hans Lundin, the band creator since the 1975 debut album has still released albums under the Kaipa name. 

The 2022 album Urskog saw a subtle but notable shift towards Fusion. A shift I did not really agree with. Nevertheless, the album is a very good album as Hans Lundin is now immune against releasing substandard and/or bad albums.

Kaipa is in short one of the best bands in today's progressive rock scene.

Then the band returned with this eighty minutes long album. An album which is a move away from the fusion on Urskog and a return to their roots. That means folk rock influenced Swedish symphonic prog.

What we get is one of the most back to the Swedish folk music roots symphonic prog albums of all time... of not the most back to the roots symphonic prog album of all time. That is what sets Swedish symphonic prog a part from the other symphoni prog scenes. In Sweden, they do their own thing.

The result is still symphonic prog. Epic symphonic prog with a mix of great female and male vocals. This is a smorgasboard of epic folk rock based symphonic prog and a no less than a great album too. 

It can be argued that this is the best ever album from Kaipa and Hans Lundin. I leave that to others more-in-the-know to take that debate. I am just really enjoying this album, one of the albums of the year.

4 points

Motorpsycho - Motorpsycho Presents The International Tussler Society (2004)

The 11th album from this band from Norway.

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

A handful of guests added percussion, drums, steel guitars, keyboards, dog barking and vocals.

This album is the follow up to the dreadful alt-country The Tussler album from 1994. An album with the worst possible music. Hence it's turkey status. 

That album got them a cult-following. Not as Motorpsycho but as The Tussler. The band therefore returned again, to my horror, to the scene of this crime and released another album in the same vein.

The music is this time a bit more southern rock and it has some better music. There is still some alt-country here, dreadful bad music. But the southern rock is not too bad. 

Yes, there is a lot of irony and humour in this The Tussler concept. I get that. I just cannot stand the music as it is poor. There are some decent stuff on this album though and that is the saving grace on this album.

1.5 points

Ten Jinn - Wildman (1997)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

A guest added additional guitars.

I reviewed their so far latest album, the 2023 album Ardis, in June last year and I added that I would revisit the band and review their first five albums. Hence this review and the fortcoming reviews this autumn.

The band has carved out a niche in the neo-prog scene as a pop influenced neo-prog. 

The sound and vocals is very thin and not as muscular as per usual from neo-prog productions. Hence, the band sounds like a neo-prog band anno 1980-83. 

The Chapman stick sometimes sounds like a sitar and that add some colours to this album. Colours and quality. The vocals is good.

The music is very art-pop orientated throughout and there is not many interesting details here. The music is also lacking in quality. Fans of 1980s neo-prog should check out this album and band. 

2 points

Father Figure - Heavy Meddlers (2014)

The second and final album from this band from USA.

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

A guest added guitars.

The 2012 debut album Congratulations With Your Loss gave us a Bandcamp album full of math-rock with a lot of post-rock influences and some eclectic prog and jazz influences.

So I did expect the same on the follow up album.

And I was not wrong. There is some more metal influences this time around and some less math-rock influences. But these changes are subtle and not major changes.

The music is instrumental and not particular interesting. When it comes to quality, the band has not lived up the standards set on the debut album. Something which may explain the demise of this band.

This is a half-decent album but nothing more than that.

1.5 points

 

 

 

 

 

Flying Island - Another Kind Of Space (1976)

The second and final album from this band from USA.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, electric violin, clavinet, keyboards, organ and trumpet. 

Their self-titled 1975 debut album is one of the best obscure fusion albums you will ever find. The music was in the vein of both Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. You will find my review from last month somewhere else in this blog.

One year had gone and the band had slightly changed style and genre.

The forty-seven minutes long Another Kind Of Space sees the band moving slightly towards progressive rock while remaining one and half foot in the fusion genre. 

Jean Luc Ponty is also a pretty big influence on this album. The music has become more muscular, a bit harder and not so carefree playful.

There is a lot of electric violins here and a lot of electric guitars. The sound is harsher as a result.

The band has taken a step in the wrong direction when it comes to quality too. This album is not as good as the debut album. The result is somewhere between decent and good.

That said..... Both albums deserve a bigger audience and a lot more attention. Check out both albums and you will not regret it.

2.5 points

What Aleph Said - Aulasy (2024)

The debut album from this band from Switzerland.

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

This band is a new band to me and their album has been released through the Bandcamp & Switzerland based label Sixteentimes Music. A record label who also release LPs and CDs from various bands. Their Bandpage page is worth a visit.

The music is a mix of post-rock and stoner rock. Add some psych rock too and you get the picture.

The music is instrumental too.

This three quarters of an hour long album does not really add anything to this scene. My guess is that the band and the music here is more interesting live than on this album.

This is a decent enough album from a band who need to do better if they want to carve out their piece of land in this overpopulated scene.

2 points

Spinetta Jade - Bajo Belgrano (1983)

The third album from this band from Argentina.

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

A guest added percussion on a couple of songs.

Luis Alberto Spinetta continued on with his band. Four albums, he released with this band before he disbanded the band. You can read my reviews of the first two albums and I will soon review the fourth and final album too.

The music on this album is a bit more poppy and more Latin-Pop than the two previous albums. The music is still laid back vocals based fusion. But this time.... with a more radio friendly Latin-Pop influence.

The vocals is really good and the band does a good job. There is some outbreaks of jazzy fusion here too. But most of the music on this forty minutes long album is songs with vocals.

The songs are pretty good. The fusion may be too laid back. Nevertheless, this is a warm and charming album. It is also a good album and one to check out. 

3 points

Saqqarah - Genese (1996)

The debut album from this band from France.

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

This band has altogether released three albums. Their last one some weeks ago.

I reviewed their second album, the 2005 album The Awakening back in April 2015 for # 1 of this blog. It is a fairly good neo-prog album. I will review their new album in some days time.

This seventy minutes long album, Genese, is their debut album and it was released as a private pressing. It has got next to no attention. 

That is a shame as the band is a good band. The vocals are in French and they are good. They are not on the same high level as the vocals from Fish in Marillion.... the band they sounds like.

There are a lot of Marillion influences here. But Saqqarah is not a Marillion copycat. Instead, they have also taken the influences from the likes of Ange and Mona Lisa and put them to good use.

The music is really melodic but also pretty muscular. It also has these French symphonic prog influences throughout the album.

This is a good album and one who deserve a lot more attention. Neo-prog fans should check out this album.

3 points

Outer Head - Cosmic Vibrator (2024)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I have not sampled any of their previous albums. Albums released on cassettes and through Bandcamp.

The music here is a mix of stoner rock and space rock. Add some doom metal influences and you get the full picture.

The pieces of music is pretty long with most of them clocking in at over ten minutes long. The longest piece of music is twenty minutes long. The album is exactly three quarters of an hour long. 

The sound is pretty dirty and fitting this type of music. The vocals is decent enough. 

The music is pretty decent. This album is not really adding anything new to this scene. Nevertheless, this is a band well worth checking out.

2 points

Scarlet Thread - Valheista Kaunein (2006)

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

Two guests added flutes to this album.

This band album debuted in 2003 with an album which is hard, if not impossible to find. Hence, I have not got it. The band then released three more albums between 2006 and 2014. These three are up for review in this blog.

I am off course starting with this album. A three quarters of an hour long album.

The music is instrumental folk rock. There is some Jethro Tull influences here and some fusion influences in their take on folk rock.

The music is driven by violins who are the leading instrument here. The music is rather melodic with some art-rock rhythms and structures.

The result is a rather pleasing, decent album. There is not many good pieces of music here. Nevertheless, this album makes me looking forward to hearing and reviewing their two remaining albums.

2 points

Tasavallan Presidentti - Tasavallan Presidentti II (1971)

The second album from this band from Finland.

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

The follow up to their self-titled 1969 debut album.

The band continued with their mix of brass rock, fusion and progressive rock. References are early King Crimson, Procol Harum and early Chicago.

The band included some pretty outstanding musicians and they delivered some great solos here. The vocalist Frank Robson was from England and he gave the band some really good, professional vocals.

Jukka Tolonen's guitar solos is something special here too. No wonder he is regarded as the best guitarist ever to come out of Finland. The saxophones is also good.

The short songs here is decent enough and the band just adds quality to them in their vocals and solos. This is an album well worth checking out, indeed. It is an old charmer.

2.5 points

 

 

Father Figure - Congratulations On Your Loss (2012)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

A guest provided saxophone.

This short lived band released two albums between 2012 and 2014. Both of them are up for review in this blog this week.

The dish served here is math-rock with a lot of post-rock influences and some eclectic prog and jazz influences.

The three quarters of an hour long name-your-price Bandcamp album (and digi-pack CD) has a cold, emotionally detached sound. Even with the saxophone, the music is dry math-rock.

I gladly admit that I am not a fan of this genre. That said, this is not a bad album. The rhythm structures are interesting and in the King Crimson school of thoughts.

The result is a decent enough album from a genre with few fans and followers. It is still well worth checking out.

2 points

Flying Island - Flying Island (1975)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This short lived band released two albums before they split up. Two albums on a small record label and both got next to no attention. That is still the case as there is hardly any reviews of these two albums. 

I am reviewing both albums in the coming days.... starting with this one.

This three quarters of an hour long album can best be described as a crossover between Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever. Crucially....that without the excellent musicianships those two bands included and traded on.

The musicians in Flying Island is great. But the musicians and the pieces of music in those two abovementioned bands were brilliant and on a different planet. That is the crucial difference between this album and their albums.

Flying Island is still an album fans of fusion and pure great musicianship should check out. The music is good throughout and this is a very enjoyable album. This band and this album deserve a heck of a lot more attention and respect.

3 points

Macky Ar - The Faulty Cornerstone (2023)

The debut from this one-man-band from India.

Mahesh Arora does the keyboards, programming, guitars and vocals himself here.

Mahesh Arora is a twenty years young man who so far has released three albums through Bandcamp. They have been labeled as symphonic prog in ProgArchives..... hence, Macky Ar has got my full attention.

The three albums will all be reviewed this summer and autumn.

The music on this album is a bit simplified mix of pedestrian fusion and neo-prog. The music is very laid back, indeed. 

The most interesting piece on the first half of this half an hour long album, is some vocals from a cat. They are not as good at Mahesh's vocals, which is good. But it tells you how pedestrian and pretty dull the first fifteen minutes it. 

Those still listening to the album after half of the album has been done, is treated to some more action and some more meaningful music. Mostly performed by guitars and vocals.

Mahesh's music is heavy, heavy restricted by the instrumental limitations. The music has a made-in-a-bedroom ambience and it feels thin and cheap.

That said, this is not a bad album. It is barely a decent album but still not something I would recommend. Hopefully, his two new albums is better than this one.

1.5 points

Tea - Tax Exile (1976)

The third and final album from this band from Switzerland.

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

This band is mostly known as the band where Marc Storace, later in Krokus and solo-career, cut his teeth.

After a not so bad debut album, their second album was a turkey. The band mixed disco, hard rock and rock on that album. It is an album who makes the listener cringe and run for the mute button.

No expectations for Tax Exile, then........

The disco has thankfully gone. The band went a bit more commercial hard rock and arena rock. Catchy songs replaced the mishmash that was the second album.

The result is a small, but notable improvement in form. The result is an half decent album who may have done the band a lot of favours back then but feels a bit cheap and outdated today.

Tea is not a band that has impressed me. Hard rock fans may want to give their first album a try.

1.5 points

 

 

Sangre De Muerdago - O Vento que Lambe as minas Feridas (2023)

The sixth and so far last album from this band from Spain.

The band was a trio with a lineup of square drum, bells, hurdy-gurdy, guitars, viola, key harp, flute and vocals.

The band is back again with their so far latest album. I both hope and believe it will not be their final album. This band is indeed a nice, valuable addition to the music world.

Acid folk rock from the Galicia region of Spain is what we get here again. 

Compared to the rather lush and colourful Xuntas album from 2020, the band owner and composer Pablo Ursusson has scaled back on the resources and employed fewer instruments. The music is also a bit more vocals and songs orientated than before. 

There are more traditional verse-chorus-verse songs here. This with some very good vocals too.

The songs are pretty good though and folk music/rock fans will find a lot to be pleased about here. This is indeed a decent to good album from this band and one to check out.

2.5 points

 

 

  

Izz - Collapse the Wave (2024)

The tenth album from this band from USA.

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

This band released their debut album Sliver Of A Sun debut album back in 1999 and has been a bit on and off since then.

They have always been one of the bigger US symphonic and neo-prog bands. They have toured and played numerous festivals. However, they are not as big and respected here in Europe as they should be. 

I have always highly rated their albums throughout my fifteen years as a reviewer on ProgArchives and in the so far three chapters of this blog.

The band plays unashamed US symphonic prog with female vocals and a lot of female and male vocal harmonies too. There are some Yes, Genesis and Spock's Beard influences in their music. Add some folk rock (as in Mostly Autumn) and elegant bohemian east coast pop/rock influences and you get the picture. Picture painted in New York, btw. The band is an east-coast band and that is evident in their music.

This album is one hour long and the overall quality is very good throughout. A stand out track is missing but that is my only gripe with this album. Izz has again delivered the goods.

3.5 points

 

 

Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two (1969)

The second album from this band from Great Britain.

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

I was not impressed by their debut album. A pretty dire album with a mix of rock, beat, blues and psych rock. An album best ignored.

The band returned again the year after.

They had developed their music and gotten rid of the surplus fat. Most of it, that is. The music is now psych rock with some blues and hard rock influences. There is even some soul here too.

The songs are far, far better. The album also includes the "hit song" Better By You who was later covered by Judas Priest on their Stained Glass album and who later landed them, Judas Priest, in a court case accused for including subliminal messages in the song written by Spooky Tooth. Incredible..... Judas Priest won the moronic court case, btw.

That song is one of the many decent to good songs here. It is the heaviest song here. The rest of the music is hard and muscular blues based psych rock.

There are a couple of pretty dire songs here and a couple of good songs here. The rest of the songs are decent and this is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

 

 

Spinetta Jade - Los Niños Que Escriben En El Cielo (1981)

The second album from this band from Argentina.

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

This band, lead by Luis Alberto Spinetta, released four albums in the early 1980s before they gave up and were disbanded. I got the four albums up for review this summer.

I quite liked their debut album. An album full of vocals driven laid back jazz with a lot of soul and fusion influences. 

Spinetta Jade, lead by the vocalist and guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta, continues down the same path on this album. There is not much difference between these two albums. 

The softly delivered vocals are again in Spanish and they are good. There is a lot of Latin-American flavour in their music too.  

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. This is an album for the fans of Latin-American rock and fusion.

2.5 points

Framauro - Ethermedia 2024 (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Poland.

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

This is Ryszard Kramarski's third active band.  Besides of this band, he is also active in The Trk Project and Millenium. He has spent a long, long time in the record studio since the beginning of this century, let me gently put it that way.

That is to the pleasure and benefit for the rest of us as he is a great composer and musician. 

The music on this album is one hour of melodic neo-prog. There is some art-rock here too but most is neo-prog in the vein of Pendragon and IQ.

The music is not overly technical or complex. It is still complex enough to be interesting.

The vocals is good and so is the music. 

This is a good workman like album and an album neo-prog fans would find pleasing.

3 points

Fonya - Upper Level Open Space (1999)

The fifth album from this one-man-band from USA.

Chris Fournier did the drum programming, keyboards and guitars here.

This is the fifth album of in total seven albums released under this name. I did a review of his third album In Flux earlier this week and was not impressed. That album is a borderline turkey.

No expectations for this one hour long album, then......

There is some electric and mostly acoustic guitars on the top of some tam-tam programmed drums and pling-plong keyboards and synths here. 

The melodies is pretty generic and well within the muzak genre. The music is mind-numbing boring.

This album is a nice addition to anyone's turkey collection. It is in short an abysmal bad album.

1 point

 

  

Magic Fig - Magic Fig (2024)

The debut album from this band from USA.

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

This is a new band from San Fransisco, California. A town/city with a great tradition of producing great bands. 

This female vocals lead band is not there yet... But we all have to start somewhere.

Their music is a mix of psych rock, dreampop, Canterbury prog, indie rock and quirky progressive rock. 

The vocals is great and the sound too is great. The music has some retro psych ambience too. 

Clocking in at one minute short of thirty minutes, this album is a bit short. Nevertheless, it really throws a punch and leaves the listener wanting a lot more from this band.... before the listener puts this album on repeat.

This is one of the better debut albums released this decade and a very good album in it's own right. Get this album on LP or as a Bandcamp download.

3.5 points

Tea - The Ship (1975)

The second album from this band from Switzerland.

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

The second album of in total three albums released in the '70s and one archives album release thirty years later.

Tea is where Marc Storace from Krokus and solo-career debuted and found his wings. He found his wings on the debut album from Tea who I reviewed earlier this week. A pretty good hard rock album.

Then we get this "difficult 2nd album" syndrome and Tea became a victim of this album.

Take hard rock, soul, disco, rock and arena rock. When the songs are pretty poor and the only remotely decent thing is the vocals.... well, the result is very poor. But not even Marc Storace's vocals can save this album. The disco stuff here is so cringe-worthy that most of my muscles around my heart is really aching. Muscles now needing lots of tender loving care.  

This album is a turkey and that really disappoints me after the rather promising debut album.

1 point

Sangre De Muerdago - Xuntas (2020)

 The fifth album from this band from Spain.

The band was a quintet with a lineup of guitars, nyckelharp, hurdy gurdy, viola, celtic harp, flute, bells, sampler and vocals.

Two guests added hurdy gurdy and vocals.

Pablo C. Ursusson had finally made his project into a full band after four albums as a one-man-band. Finally, I wrote because I think it is healthy and good for all parties to make music like this as a band and not as one single person. Pablo may disagree with me. 

The music is lush and flowery Galician (Galicia is the most north-western part of Spain) folk music with some progressive rock influences. 

The instruments are really flowery and mostly guitars, flute, harps and viola. On the top of the music, we have the good vocals.

The result is a decent to good album and their most accesible album so far. It is an album well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Anta - Organesson (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Great Britain.

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

This is strangely enough my first ever meeting with this band. A band who album debuted fifteen years ago and whose albums has been on my radar, but never reviewed. Until now, that is. 

The music is big, monumental post-metal with some doom metal, psych rock and progressive rock influences.

There is some church organ and church piano sounding synths here on this instrumental forty minutes long album. Those are the best pieces on this album who also include some pretty clever psych rock pieces too.

The music is never melodic but it has some quirky melodies and pieces.

Not everything is good here. Nevertheless, this is a good album and I should really get their first three albums now. I think this is one of those bands who needs a lot more love and attention from the prog and post metal crowd.

3 points

Runemagick - Envenom (2005)

The eight album from this band from Sweden.

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

After seven death metal albums in the vein of Grave and Bolt Thrower, the band totally changed style and genre on Envenom.

No, they did not go down the commercial route. Instead, they even became less commercial. They went down the doom metal route.

The music is pretty muddy. The vocals is very growling and ditto for the instruments. That was done by intent. 

The music is a dirtier version of My Dying Bride. There is still a lot of death metal ethos here too although the music is slow. Not as slow as in funeral doom, but still slow.

The quality is pretty decent throughout and this is not a bad album at all. It is a band in transition but they still manages to carry of a decent album. Doom metal fans should check out this album.

2 points

 

 

Sleeping Pandora - Blue Sphere (2018)

The second album from this one-man-band from Germany.

Mathias Rosmann does all the electronics, computers, synths and guitars here.

I was not overly impressed by the 2017 debut album Quiet Pass. Gentle space rock, that album contained.

One year has gone and he returned with an album with much the same.

The space rock has even become more gentle, more laidback and more uncomplicated. It is not yet muzak territory, but the direction of travel seems to take it in that direction.

The music is pretty toothless with a few dissonant pieces now and then just to make the music more interesting. Those dissonant pieces is the only pieces of real quality on a forty minutes long record that fails to impress. 

Fans of gentle space rock should perhaps check out this decent album.

2 points

 

 

 

Framauro - Alea Iacta Est (2023)

The third album from this band from Poland.

The band is Ryszard Kramarski on guitars, keyboards and vocals.

He had help from some guests who added drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

Ryszard Kramarski is a very active man. Besides of this band, who has just released a new album I will review soon, he is also active in The Trk Project and the far more famous band Millenium. He has played a major part in around twenty albums this century. Most of them has been very good or good.

Framauro released the first album in 1998 and the second one in 2022. I reviewed that album and I liked it. Melodic neo-prog with a lot of psych rock influences.

That is also the case here. Pink Floyd meets Genesis and Satellite.

The music is melodic and not particular technical. The vocals is very good. 

This is barely a good album but fans of melodic psych/prog should check out this album.

3 points

 

 

Fonya - In Flux (1995)

The third album from this band from USA.

The band was a one-man-band with Chris Fournier doing the drums programming, keyboards and guitars.

Chris Fournier released seven albums under the Fonya name between 1992 and 2000. I am reviewing two of his albums this summer. 

This album is eighty minutes long and it ends with his rather cheap and nasty version of Genesis classic Los Endos.

Before we get that far, we have to endure a cheap keyboards and guitar sounding mix of psych rock and cinematic rock. Some of the music is muzak too.

There is not much to enjoy here. The Genesis cover is fairly decent and there are some good guitar and keyboards solos here. The quality of the melodies is pretty poor.

This is a half decent album and nothing more than that.

1.5 points

 

 

Look To Windward - The Last Scattering Surface (2024)

The third album from this band from New Zealand.

The band is a one-man-band, Andrew McCully, with a lineup of bass, programming and vocals. 

Some guests added their guitars and vocals.

I have heard a lot about this band during the last ten year and I presumed that I had reviewed their first two albums. That is not the case, I can now see. I need to rectify this later on, either this year or next year.

The music here is melodic prog with some folk rock and psych rock influences. 

There is a lot of female vocals here over some mid-tempo songs. There is also some ballads here too. There is a lot of Mostly Autumn vibes here.

The music is pretty good and workman like competent. It never really surprises me with brilliance... of which there is none.

The result is a pretty good album and one to check out if melodic rock/prog is your thing.

3 points

 

 

 

Ruphus - Manmade (1979)

The sixth and final album from this band from Norway.

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

This is the final album from this band. A band who I now have included in my top 5 of the best ever bands from Norway. Top 3, actually. 

Gudny Aspaas has returned again and the music is more jazzy than before. It is also pretty much mid-tempo. 

The music is in short laidback vocals based jazz/fusion. Gudny's vocals fits this genre almost perfectly as her voice is easier on the ear and covers a pretty big range. 

The rest of the band does a good job and there is some good guitars and keyboards solos here.

The music is pretty good, but Gudny's vocals adds something extra and elevates this album to a new, higher level.

The band is gigging 3-4 times a year with Gudny as the vocalist and their gigs is popular and well worth checking out. Ruphus deserve a lot of respect and has got my full respect. Get all their six albums.

3 points

Kopilott - II (2024)

The second album from this band from Spain.

The band is a duo with a lineup of guitars and electronics.

Their self-titled 2023 album was a decent space rock album. Decent but not entirely satisfactory. So I expected more of the same.

What I got is still space rock. But it is more electronica based space rock with guitar solos on the top of the electronica. The vocals has completely gone from their sound.

The music is also leaning towards krautrock.

The music is also pretty melodic and gentle. Gone is the harsh, heavy music.

The result is a decent to good album. It is a small, but significant improvement on their debut album. Check out this album if this sounds interesting.

2.5 points

 

 

Orchestre Celesti - Cornwall ! (2024)

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

Fedrico Fantacone did all the instruments here. Instruments like computers and synths.

I reviewed his first album some ten years ago but lost touch with this band after that as I was not impressed by the debut album.

The music here is neo-classical music. 

The music is also a bit wishy washy and too much muzak for my liking.

The music is light, fluffy and a bit thin on the ground when it comes to interesting melodies and details.

Neo-classical is a genre not for me either so fans of this genre should really check out this band.

But in my case........

1.5 points

Motorpsycho - It's A Love Cult (2002)

 

The tenth album from this band from Norway.

The band was a trio with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, zither, mandolin, glockenspiel, harmonium, piano, organ, keyboards, mellotron, banjo and vocals.

Two guests added percusion, theremin, clavinette, mellotron, piano, organ and vocals.

Motorpsycho is a strange band who lives in their own universe. That to the benefit and joy for the rest of us as their albums are a bit of a sunray amongst pretty predictable bands and albums. Motorpsycho is thankfully a very unpredictable band. 

The band is again exploring the sound of music from the final months of the 1960s. That means we get a bit beat, west coast rock, psych rock, beach rock, garage rock, brass rock, rock and progressive rock. This time, add some rockabilly too.

The tempo is slow to mid-tempo. There is a surprising amount of pastoral music here. Some lovely, tender tunes with some good vocals on the top.

The music is really good here and the band has again surprised me with these softly spoken fifty minutes. This is an album well worth checking out.

3 points

 

 

Tea - Tea (1974)

The debut album from this band from Switzerland.

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

This band released three albums between 1974 and 1976. A sort of a comeback album with some obscure left over tracks was released in 2007. 

I am reviewing their first three albums this summer. 

This band is most known as Marc Storace (born in Malta, btw) first band. He later formed Krokus, a pretty big heavy metal band and Switzerland's biggest musical export (besides of yodeling). 

Tea was a more progressive rock band though. Heavy prog is the label here.

Marc's vocals is very good on some blues influenced hard rocking songs. Led Zeppelin springs to mind. The US hard rock and arena rock scene like Black Oak Arkansas and Grand Funk Railroad also springs to mind here.

The quality is pretty good throughout and this is an album for those into good, old hard rock. Check it out.

2 points

Rose - Hooked on a Rose (1973)

The debut album from this band from Canada.

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

This band released four albums between 1973 and 1977. The band later formed the highly successful AOR band Toronto who were very popular in Canada in the early 1980s.

Based on the debut album, I have tried to find their second album with no luck. I have however found their final two albums and they will be reviewed later this month.

The music on their thirty-five minutes long debut album Hooked On A Rose is a mix of blues, pop and acid folk rock. There are also some early Deep Purple influences here. 

The music is a bit sugar sweet at times.... Well, after the blues'n'country first song on the album. A song not really representative for the rest of the album. A catchy song, though.

The rest of the album is as described over. The vocals is pretty decent and the same goes for the rest of the album. The vocal harmonies are pretty good, though.

This band is by no means in the same class as the likes of Rush or the Quebec scene. This is still a decent enough album and well worth checking out. 

2 points

 

 

Fields Of Næcluda - Fields Of Næcluda (2019)

The one and only album from this band from France.

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

This band released this album and a live EP before they gave up the ghost and were disbanded.

Their music is a mix of post-metal, indie rock, post-rock and some psych rock.

The vocals is decent enough and the music is not particular hard or heavy. 

The music is very much leaning towards indie here as the music is mid-tempo and pretty light and fluffy.

The quality of the music is not bad at all. There is lots of lots of other band and albums with same sound as this band and this fifty minutes long album. The band has not brought anything new to the scene.

That said... This is not a bad album. It is a decent to good album and one well worth checking out.

2.5 points

Barock Project - Time Voyager (2024)

The seventh album from this band from Italy.

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

This band has now established themselves as one of the best melodic prog rock bands in the world. 

Their music is a mix of Neil Morse, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Yes, Toto and baroque classical music. 

The music on this seventy-two minutes long album is pretty complex at times. The vocals is in English and very good.

There is a lot to be happy about on this album and the band is very much delivering the goods. They are living up our expectations.

The result is a very good album and one fans of symphonic and melodic prog would love.

3.5 points

 

 

Arcansiel - Hard Times (2024)

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

This is the comeback album from a band who everyone thought were gone and done. Their first three albums had not really been impressive and there was not much demand for a new album from this band.

The band were always and still is a neo-prog band. Their music is both rooted in Genesis, Pendragon and Marillion. 

On Hard Times, there is also some pretty strong Yes vibes. Not at least on the long songs here. We get two songs between eleven and eighteen minutes plus two eight minutes long songs. Yes, the music is indeed a mix of neo-prog and symphonic prog.

The sound is contemporary and fresh. The vocals is good. 

The quality of the music is good to very good. Mostly very good and I am really surprised by this album. This is an album you should check out.

3.5 points

Ruphus - Flying Colours (1978)

The fifth album from this band from Norway.

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

A guest added violin on one track.

The band returned with the same musicians and more or less the same type of music they introduced on the previous album, the 1977 album Inner Voice.

That means laidback jazz and fusion with a lot of funk too. 

Sylvie Lillegaard's vocals is almost perfect for this type of music. They are also very good.

There is a lot of interesting details in the music and these forty-two minutes never really gets boring. The best song is The Rivulet who also introduce some riveting, captivating violins. 

The overall quality is good to very good. This band is now pretty close to being my favourite Norwegian band now.

3 points

Kopilott - Kopilott (2023)

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

This is a new band on the scene, having already released two albums. A review of their new album will follow in some days time.

Their music is space rock. It is guitar based and the sound is pretty good and clean. There are some synths here. Synths who are supporting and adding textures to the acoustic and mostly electric guitars.

There are some decent vocals on one track here.

This half an hour long album does not include any remarkable music. The band has chosen a well trodden path and is adding nothing new to the scene. This is still a decent enough album and well worth checking out if space rock is your cup of tea.

2 points

Sangre De Muerdago - Noite (2018)

The fouth album from this band from Spain.

The band was a one-man-band with Pablo Ursusson doing the classical guitars, drum, shaker, hurdy gurdy and vocals.

Three guests added shaker, bodhran, flute, viola, harps, crickets and vocals. 

Pablo Ursusson has been exploring Galician folk music and language on the Sangre.. albums. Not much of the music is rock music, if anything.

Noite, a surprisingly short album title for Pablo who has given other albums faaar longer album titles, is a pretty lush folk music album with lots of vocal and instruments harmonies. The music is far more lush than the album title. 

The mood is melancholic and sad. 

The result is a fifty minutes long album with some decent and some good pieces of music. It is an album well worth checking out if folk music and folk rock floats your boat.

2.5 points

Tasavallan Presidentti - Tasavallan Presidentti (1969)

The debut album from this band from Finland.

The band was a quintet on this album with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, guitars, organ, piano, saxophones, flute and vocals.

This band released five albums from 1969 to 2006. An archive studio recordings album from 1971 was released two years ago. I will review all their six albums this summer and fall.

This band is regarded as the second most important prog rock band from Finland, just beaten to the top by Wigwam, a band whose albums I reviewed ten years ago. 

The band had an English vocalist called Frank Robson and that was their trademark. Not at least on this album where his very good vocals is prominent.

The music is somewhere between fusion, brass rock and blues. 

The sound is good and the music is decent enough. The band laid down a marker with this album and it is a more than acceptable debut album, taken into account it was recorded and released in the 1960s.

2 points

Flow - Flow (1970)

The one and only album from this band from USA.

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

Three guests added additional percussion.

This band is most known for being Don Felder's band before he joined Eagles and then wrote Hotel California, one of the greatest songs from the 1970s. The album was released on a small label and sold next to nothing. Don Felder's wrote extensive about this band and album in his self-biography released some years ago. A good read, indeed.

Don described this band as an avant-garde jazz combo who withered away in substance abuse. That is not far off the truth.

Take psych rock, a bit of folk rock and add jazz. Then add some avant-garde jazz too.

The sound is not too bad. The music is a bit all over the place and not that interesting. The music is sorely lacking in quality. The music is still slightly charming and has some good flutes. 

Don Felder did the right thing by jumping ship by moving to California and a stint as the guitarist in then the mediocre Eagles. He then wrote Hotel California.... 

Eagles fans should and must get this half-decent album. 

1.5 points

Fonderia - Dinamo (2023)

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

I did not expect this album and I was therefore pretty surprised to learn that Fonderia had returned after a thirteen years long break.

I reviewed their first three albums in ProgArchives back in 2010 and I liked them a lot. They were some of the albums that opened my eyes to fusion, jazz and some more non-linear music. More challenging music, in other words.

The fifty minutes long Dinamo gives us music somewhere between fusion and progressive rock. It is more stripped down music than on their first three albums. 

The music is dynamic mid-tempo and well performed. It is not really that interesting though as it does not offer up anything special.

This is a decent enough album but nothing more than that. Their first three albums is far superior to this one.

2 points