Ten Jinn - As On A Darkling Plain (1999)

The second album from this band from USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, percussion, bass, double bass, guitar, midi guitar, piano, keyboards and vocals.

Two guests added guitars and backing vocals.

I have both reviewed their latest album and their first album earler this year. My review of their latest album made me return for their first albums. Hence my review of their debut album, this their second album and two more albums later this autumn.

I was not that impressed by their 1997 debut album Wildman and had no expectations for the follow up album.

As On A Darkling Plain is over seventy minutes long and the title track is a forty minutes long suite. It also opens the album. The other pieces of music is shorter songs.

The music is a mix of symphonic prog and some glam prog, neo-prog and art-rock influences. 

The symphonic prog is of the US brand and is bold and epic. In the middle of the suite, the band comes across as Saga. There is also some pretty strong Glass Hammer influences here. Strange... but also fun and it adds some spices to this suite.

The result is a good album which surprises me as I had not expected an album like this from this band. This is therefore an album well worth checking out. 

I like surprises like this album.....

3 points

 

Red Sand - Crush the Seed (2020)

The ninth album from this band from Canada.

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

I am a bit of an admirerer of this band from Quebec, Canada and I have got almost all their albums. Albums I have reviewed in ProgArchives and in the # 1 - 3 editions of this blog. I have yet to get their new album but that is on my schedule for this autumn.

The band started out as a neo-prog band but later moved towards art-rock. It is not a large change. It is more like a natural development.

On this album, the band has moved on again. This time to psych rock and the likes of Pink Floyd. Well, psych rock may be the wrong label. Melodic prog in the vein of the latter days Pink Floyd is a better description of their music.

The vocals and the guitars are good on this one hour long album. The music is good too and this is album is a nice addition to the rest of their albums. Eleven albums now including their new album.

Check out this album if latter days Pink Floyd and/or melodic prog is your thing.

3 points

 

 

Phoenix Again - Vision (2022)

The fifth album from this band from Italy.

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

Around ten guests added glockenspiel, woodwinds and chorus.

I reviewed their second album for # 1 of this blog back in October 2014 and their fourth album for # 2 of this blog back in April 2019. I should really get hold of their debut album and their third album too. If successful, I will review them later this year.

The music here is instrumental prog. There are some vocals but they are used as sound effects and instruments as they are non-words vocals.

The music is both dynamic and muscular throughout this album. In progressive rock is pretty cinematic with some strong fusion influences and some progressive metal influences.

The music is pretty good with some tasty keyboards who sporadic, too sporadic, adds some classic RPI keyboards.

Too much of this one hour long album is just pedestrian and not so engaging. The result is therefore a decent to good album.

2.5 points

 

Matos. Alejandro - Carnaval de las Victimas (2024)

The sixth album from this artist from Argentina.

Alejandro Matos did the bass, guitars, keyboards, computers and vocals here.

He got help from a handful of guests who added drums, double bass, saxophone and narrations.

I was contacted by Alejandro who wanted me to do a review of this album. I was convinced that I had already reviewed his five first albums. That is not the case, though. Hence.... I will do this review now and come back to his first albums sometimes later this autumn or next year. 

The music on this almost one hour long album is a crossover between Latin-rock, psych-rock, neo-prog and art-rock.

The vocals are Spanish as Argentina is a Spanish speaking country. There is a lot of vocals here as the music is songs based. The vocals is good throughout.

There is also a lot of guitars here but not that many guitar solos. The keyboards has a fat, endearing organ sound and is adding a lot to the enjoyment of the music. Some of the music is also a bit distorted as in psych rock.

The music here is good throughout and this adds up to an enjoyable album. Check out this album.

3 points

Magick Brother and Mystic Sister - Magick Brother and Mystic Sister (2020)

The debut album from this band from Spain.

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

This is a new addition to the Spanish psych and prog rock scene. They released their second album earlier this year and I will review it next week. In the meantime, this is my thoughts about their debut album...

The music here is psych rock with a lot of Canterbury prog and acid-folk rock influences.

There is a lot of late 1960s psych rock vibes here. The music is indeed in that vein.

The vocals are ethereal and in the dream pop direction. There are a lot of good organs and guitars here too. Not to forget the good flutes.

The music is very melodic and harmonic. The forty minutes worth of music here is also pretty pastoral.

The result is indeed a good album and should put this band on the prog and psych rock map. Get this album.

3 points

Ikan Method. The - Blue Sun (2020)

The debut album from this band from Italy.

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

This band released their second album earlier this year. As this band is new to me, I got hold of their debut album first and decided to review that album before I review their new album next week. Hence this review.

Their music is a pretty muscular blend of art-rock and neo-prog. Their music is not far from this day and age Marillion. 

The sound is good and ditto for the vocals. The rest of the band does a good job too on this one hour long album. The guitarists does a very good job at times with some tasty guitar solos.

Most of the music is pretty good. There are some pieces here which is too pedestrian and too bland. Other parts are good and heralds a band with some good talents. A band who can do better. 

Hopefully, that "better" is their new album. Blue Sun is an acceptable debut album and one to check out.

2.5 points

 

 

Macky Ar - The Lying Lexicon (2024)

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

Mahesh Arora does the keyboards, guitars, computers and vocals himself.

I have yet to be very impressed by the two first albums from this very young man from India. This is so far his latest album too.

His music is slow melodic progressive rock. There is some electronica, cinema rock, neo-prog, symphonic prog and psych rock here. 

The instruments are mainly keyboards and guitars. Half-accoustic guitars and electric guitars.

The vocals is thin, female like but still pretty good. The vocals suits the music and works as an instrument here. 

There is not a lot of interesting details here as the music on this half an hour long album is pretty slow.

The quality is therefore somewhere between decent and good. 

Macky Ar is still an interesting one-man-band and the three albums deserve your attention.

2.5 points

 

 

Segno Del Comando. Il - Il Volto Verde (2013)

The third album from this band from Italy.

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

Numerous guests added drums, guitars, keyboards, organ, moog, mellotron, saxophones, flute and vocals.

This band has so far released six albums and I got their three last ones for review in the coming weeks. 

I reviewed their two first albums ten years ago for # 1 of this blog and gave the debut album a decent rating and the follow up album a good rating.

Their music is dark, gothic RPI. 

The music on this one hour long album is complex indeed. The sound is OK but not as fat as most RPI albums. 

The mostly female vocals is leaning towards opera and ditto for the music which sounds like a rock opera. That is probably what this album is.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. I am not won over by this band.... yet.

2.5 points

Tasavallan Presidentti - Lambertland (1972)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

The band returned again with a new album and a new vocalist. Frank Robson was gone and he was replaced by Eero Raittinen. His vocals is nowhere as good as Frank's vocals although they are OK. 

The music here is a mix of the Canterbury scene and folk rock. 

That is.... the jazzy and fusion part of the Canterbury scene. There is a lot of fusion here and this is mainly a fusion album with spicy pieces of the Canterbury scene.

Just to confuse the listener a bit.... there are also some more folk rock influences here.

The music on this forty minutes long album is very good throughout and this album is clearly their best album and their claim to fame and international recognition.  

Check out this album.

3.5 points

Rose - Judgement Day (1977)

The fourth and final album from this band from Canada.

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

The band started out as a folk rock band and had next to no success. The 1973 debut album Hooked On A Rose is now in retrospective regarded as a minor classic. 

That does not goes for the rest of their albums.

The band was about to lose their record deal and as a last throw of the dice, the band went commercial rock on Judgement Day. 

The result is a lesson in how a band in desperation made a really bad commercial rock album. The music is a mix of 1970s pop and rock.

There is no really good or even a decent song here. The band then lost the record deal, split up and the four band members then got commercial success in other bands.

This album though is a turkey. 

1 point

Ubi Maior - Bestie, Uomini e Dèi (2020)

 

The fourth album from this band from Italy.

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

This is so far their latest album and I really hope they will soon release a new album as their first four albums has proven their status as one of the best post '70s RPI bands.

The music is again classic RPI in the same vein as Banco, PFM and Biglietto Per L'Inferno. Three bands who to a large degree defined and refined the symphonic prog part of the RPI scene. 

Ubi Maior and this three quarters of an hour long album is both following in their footsteps and renewing this scene and brand of RPI.

The vocals is very good and the band gives this album a classic RPI sound. 

The music is muscular and complex. It also has this Italian passionate take on progressive rock. This album has both class and passion. 

The music is very good throughout and this is an album everyone into RPI should have in their collection.

3.5 points

 

 

Karfagen - Land of Chameleons (2024)

The 20th album from this one-man-band from Ukraine.

Antony Kalugin did the keyboards and some vocals here.

He had help from a long list of guests who provided drums, percussion, bass, guitars, accordion, saxophones, male and female vocals.

Antony Kalugin is in my humble opinon a true maestro and one of the best and most prolific artists in the progressive rock genre. He is also one of the far too many victims of Russia's cowardly attack on his country. 

Antony Kalugin has so far released three albums under the Karfagen name this year. I reviewed the Message From Afar: Second Nature album earlier this year and was not too impressed. It was a bit wishy-washy musicals like music.

The music on Land Of Chamelons is a bit different again as it is a mix of Pink Floyd, Genesis and musicals. 

The female and male vocals is very good. There is hardly any of the Antony Kalugin's trademark neo-classical music here though although the music is melodic and has his fingerprints all over it. The album also has some good details

The music is good on this fifty minutes long single CD version of this album (there is also a double CD version of this album). It is an improvement on the previous albums and one to check out.

3 points

Scarlet Thread - Dreamcatcher (2014)

The fourth and final album from this band from Finland.

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

Their third album, the 2013 album Never Since, was a very promising and good album with it's mix of folk rock and prog. The female vocals was very good too and that album was something to build on.

Well, the band ripped themselves apart on the follow up album. 

Gone is the flutes, violin, female vocals and the folk rock. In comes some Bruce Dickinson like vocals and some Tony Iommi, the Heaven & Hell era, guitars. 

The music is now hard rock with some heavy metal and progressive rock influences. 

The vocals and the guitars are rather good. The songs are not really that good. The band has retreated to the grey masses of hard rock bands and is not standing out from that crowd. What was once an interesting band is just a grey, anonymous band. Ditto for this album.

This is not a bad album but I feel the band was onto something great on the previous album and that the band has simply stepped away from it all. I am disappointed, indeed.

2 points

Phog - El Castillo (2021)

The fourth album from the one-man-band from France.

Philippe Ogier did the bass, guitars, keyboards and flute on this album.

Phillippe started this project in his love for the likes of Genesis and Camel. Influences very much evident on all his Phog albums.

El Castillo is a lot more monumental and epic than I can remember from previous Phog albums. Just a look at the cover art-work and that lovely art-work says a lot about the music here. 

The music is really dynamic here too on these fifty minutes. The music is also elegant too.

There is some good variations on this album although it never deviate from the bold, epic and elegant concept it sets out from the first couple of minutes.

The music is also complex throughout and full of interesting details.

The result is a good album and one I would recommend to everyone into symphonic prog.

3 points

Isildurs Bane - The Pearl of Ever Changing Shell (2024)

The 14th album from this band from Sweden.

The band/project was a nine piece big with a lineup of drums, marimba, percussion, bass, guitars, viola, violin, keyboards, woodwinds and vocals.

This album is a cooperation between this band and the vocalist Jinian Wilde. This after two cooperations with Peter Hammill on the previous two albums.

Isildurs Bane has done a lot of cooperations with other artists and it is therefore a bit difficult to rate their career. It is an interesting and a boundaries bending band, that is for sure. I like what they are doing. 

Jinian Wilde, who comes from England, is the vocalist in David Cross band and has also been the vocalist in some other project. He is indeed a very good vocalist and that is proven on this album.

The music on this album is a mix of art-rock and more elegant musicals/concept rock. There is also some bits of Pink Floyd in their music and some symphonic prog.

The sound is big and bold. Nothing is spared in a sound full of various instruments.

The quality is somewhere between decent and good. There is not enough good music here to really label this as a good album. What is missing is the art of good song writing, in short. 

This album is not this band's finest hour.

2.5 points

 

 

 

Spooky Tooth - Ceremony (1969)

The third album from this band from Great Britain.

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

Pierre Henry added electronics.

This album is a cooperation between Spooky Tooth and the electronics artist Pierre Henry from France. This is like the cooperation between Metallica and Lou Reed...... or Metallica and Lulu. Those happened forty years later, though.

The music is therefore a bit different from what we could expect from a Spooky Tooth album.

The music here is a mix of psych, electronic prog and space rock. It is like one big spacy piece of music.

There is a lot of dissonant electric guitars solos and electronics here. There are also some vocals here.

The music is not melodic and therefore a big departure from the normal goods from this band. It is indeed a weirdo album.

The quality is decent enough and space rock fans should check out this album. It is an intriguing album, indeed and better than Metallica's two cooperation albums. 

2 points

 

 

Tai Phong - Last Flight (1979)

The third album from this band from France.

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

Two guests added guitars and saxophone on one track.

I reviewed their two first albums back in November 2013 for # 1 of this blog.... and then I promptly forgot about the band. The band has in total released six albums and I will review the remaining four albums this autumn.

Last Flight is the final of the three albums released in the 1970s. The band started out as a symphonic prog band and then developed into a more chanson pop band on their second album, the 1976 album Windows.

The band has again developed a bit during these three years. There is some west-coast California psych rock and pop in their music too. There is even some Canterbury prog here and Caravan springs to mind. So does AOR.

The vocals is good. The music on this fifty minutes long album is rather elegant too. That is mainly because of the thin sounding vocals and the chanson pop which there is a lot of on this album.

The result is a rather charming, likeable album who lacks a lot of quality but still is a decent to good album. 

2.5 points

Rose - A Taste of Neptune (1977)

The third album from this band from Canada.

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

I reviewed their 1973 debut album Hooked On A Rose a couple of weeks ago and I quite liked that album. The music there was a mix of acid folk and blues rock.

Four years passed and the band had moved on.

There are still some Deep Purple influences here. But most of the music is a mix of hard rock, blues and arena rock. 

The music is pretty much mainstream US arena rock, in other words.

The music also includes a couple of ballads. The more uptempo songs are pretty catchy. The vocals are pretty good.

The result is a decent album well worth checking out. The band released four albums and I will bring my review of their fourth and final album in some days time.

2 points

 

 

 

Ubi Maior - Senza Tempo (2009)

The second album from this band from Italy.

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

This band has so far released four albums. I reviewed their 2005 debut album Nostos back in 2010 for ProgArchives and their third album back in 2015 for # 1 of this blog. I really liked both of them.

I am now reviewing their second and fourth album in the coming days... starting with their second album.

The music is classic RPI in the same vein as Banco, PFM and Biglietto Per L'Inferno. Three very good bands and this one hour long album is in that vein.

The music is mostly muscular mid-tempo with a modern soundscape and some very good Italian vocals. There is a lot of interesting details here and the electric violins adds a lot of spice to the music.

The album is some sort of a concept album as the songs feels more like one hour long piece of music rather than a collection of songs.

The result is a very good album from one of the better modern RPI bands. A band who still follows in the footpaths of the old masters from the 1970s. In short, RPI fans should get this album.

3.5 points  

Airbag - The Century of the Self (2024)

The sixth album from this band from Norway.

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

Three guests added bass, guitars and keyboards.

This band album debuted fifteen years ago and has become one of Norway's better art-rock bands. It's guitarist Bjorn Riis is also a prolific solo artist. 

Forty-seven minutes, five songs. That is what we get here. 

The music is melancholic art-rock. I have always compared this band to Gazpacho and that is still a relevant comparison on this album too. Airbag's music is more songs based, though. 

The five songs here are both clever and full of interesting details. There is no killer tracks here, though. The standard is still good and this makes it a good album.

3 points

Scarlet Thread - Never Since (2013)

The third album from this band from Finland.

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

Three guests added keyboards, flute and female vocals.

Seven years had passed since the last album. A violin driven instrumental album which did not impress me when I reviewed it last month.

There is still a lot of violins here. Some flutes has been added too. The music is more songs orientated folk rock this time with the emphasis of good songs.

The big, big difference is the addition of Ms. Mari Vuortitie's great vocals. Those vocals is pretty much dominating this album.

The rest of the band is also doing a good job on some fairly good songs. Fairly good songs but still a bit unremarkable songs. 

The result is still a good album and one to check out if female vocals driven folk rock is your thing. 

3 points

Phog - Evidence (2019)

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

Philippe Ogier did all the bass, guitars and synths himself here.

I have reviewed a couple of Phog albums before and recently found two more Phog albums in my collection. Albums I am reviewing in the upcoming days.

Philippe is very inspired by the likes of Genesis and Camel. Hence this project who has so far released five albums. 

There is a lot of Camel on this album. That is for sure. There is also some French chanson here too, although this is an instrumental album.

This album is fifty minutes long and the music is laid back and relaxing. There is some interesting details here but there are not many of those. The music lacks a bit teeth and good songwriting. 

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

2 points

Macky Ar - A Call for Fantasy (2024)

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

Mahesh Arora does the guitars, synths, electronics and vocals here.

The music, this band in fact, has been labeled as symphonic prog in ProgArchives, the major progressive rock website and reference source. Hence I got the three albums.

The 2023 debut album was a bit simplified mix of pedestrian fusion and neo-prog. The music was very laid back and only half-decent. The full review was posted last month.

Mahesh has added some more details to his music on this, the follow up album.

There are some vocals here and some electric guitars. The music is more varied and not that pedestrian.

The music remains a bit simple and the product of one man and his vision. This album is an improvement but it is still not going to impress many prog rock fans. Check out this album if this sounds interesting.

2 points

 

 

Runemagick - Invocation of Magick (2006)

The ninth album from this band from Sweden.

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

The band changed from being a death metal band in the vein of Grave and Bolt Thrower on the previous album. They moved in the direction of My Dying Bride. Slow doom metal in other words.

Invocation Of Magick sees the band sticking to some of the same. The band has moved a lot further towards more gothic doom metal, though. 

There is some hints of very early Paradise Lost here. But most of the music here is muddy, slow gothic doom metal. There are also some avant-garde metal and dark metal influences here.

There are even some melodic pieces here on this fifty minutes long album. 

The vocals is not as guttural as on their first eight albums. They are not good but the vocalist is trying out something new here. 

The quality of the music is pretty decent throughout. This is not their best album. Nevertheless, those into doom metal should give this album a spin or two.

2 points

 

 

 

Sleeping Pandora - From Above (2018)

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

Mathias Rosmann did all the guitars and electronics here.

I have yet to be impressed by Mathias musical outputs under the name of Sleeping Pandora. He is not making it easy to be liked when releasing a ninety minutes long album either. 

Or eighty-eight minutes to be more precise.

The music is dreamy space rock with a lot of electric guitars with plenty of echoes in the riffs and some electronica. The music is almost as pedestrian as new-age music. 

He is not there, in the new-age music territory. I have my fears for the next albums.

The music has some qualities though. But it is hard to keep concentrated throughout this album as some of the music sounds too much like muzak. 

2 points

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