Innehållsförteckning för Issue 80 från Prog

So the day that we put this current issue of Prog to bed, last month’s cover star still seems to be dominating proceedings. I refer of course, to Steven Wilson, whose new album To The Bone sits at No. 1 in the midweek album chart, which means it’s almost certainly going to chart on Friday in the Top 10 – his highest ever chart position. It’s not the pop album many feared, rather a seemingly natural progression from Hand. Cannot. Erase. Still very proggy, but perhaps with a bit more of a contemporary air. Such success brings with it the attention of the wider media, and this morning I was interviewed by a national newspaper to discuss whether “prog is back”. I preferred to suggest it had never gone away…

TV presenter Matthew Wright returns as host of the Progressive Music Awards 2017, in association with Orange Amplification. The event will be held on September 14 at London’s Underglobe. “I still can’t believe this is happening to me, I pinch myself on stage every year!” says Wright. “Ultimately I’m a prog fan, I was listening to the music long before I was writing. Standing up there, you meet hero after hero after hero and you get the chance to connect with them. I’ll always remember meeting Jakko Jakszyk last year. We’ve become good friends now. “During my newspaper days, I used to cover showbiz news and I’ve been to everything from the Oscars to premières at Cannes, but nothing compares to the atmosphere that’s generated at the Prog Awards. I…

I’m seriously considering going into politics. As of this current moment in time, I have absolutely no faith or confidence in most of the MPs walking round Westminster. Therefore I need to form a political party of my own. If I go ahead, it will be called The Progressive Rock Party. Should we ever get into power, my cabinet would include Brian May as animal rights minister, Rod Stewart as sports minister, Ozzy Osbourne as foreign secretary, Keith Richards as minister for health and Brian Johnson as minister of transport. The all-important job of minister of arts would go to Sir Paul McCartney, and all the press and media would be overseen by Prog’s Jerry Ewing. I would end every parliamentary session with a concert, which would be televised by…

Inspiring the wider music world… “People might be surprised to read this, but I was very heavily inspired by progressive music when I was younger. I listened to so many different artists that it’s very tough for me to talk about just one. It seems almost insulting when there are lots who had an effect on me when I was in my teens. I have to make an honourable mention of Keith Emerson. The way he used classical music with ELP on albums like Tarkus had a massive impact on me. But I’m going to celebrate Roxy Music here. I can’t exactly recall when I first heard them, but I would think it was on a southern German radio station which played a lot of prog. What I loved about…

PROG FILE LINE-UP Gaudi (keyboards) SOUNDS LIKE Spacious grooves percolating with a psychedelic infusion of jazz, prog and dub CURRENT RELEASE Magnetic is out now on RareNoise Records WEBSITE www.gaudimusic.com DANIELE GAUDI SPENT a lot of his time as a child in a hospital, suffering from crippling asthma. Unable to go out much, he read and watched TV. However, his life changed at seven years old when he and his parents visited family friends. As the adults talked in another room, young Daniele found a piano. “I pressed one key and felt like I’d been catapulted into heaven,” he says. “The surprising thing is I started playing music from the adverts on TV that I’d heard, the only music I knew at the time, with both my right and left…

Fanfare: Emerson, Lake & Palmer 1970-1997 continues BMG’s comprehensive ELP release series. The lavishly produced, super deluxe box set contains nearly three decades of work from ELP. It’s available from September 29 and we have one copy to give away. The box set includes all of ELP’s remastered 11 albums, five previously unreleased CDs of never issued recordings, a never before issued triple vinyl set (Live In Italy, May 1973), one Surround Sound Blu-ray audio, plus some high quality memorabilia including a 40-page hardback book with rare band photos, as well as tour programmes and a must-have repro 7” of Fanfare For The Common Man. Despite the sad recent deaths of Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, Carl Palmer continues to play sell-out shows all over the world with his group…

“I tweeted about Derby County. A guy responded immediately, and it was John Wetton!” “Iwas born in Toxteth, Liverpool, and grew up in Aigburth. Up until I was about 13 or 14 years old, music was just something around me. But then I found a rock show on Radio City, the local radio commercial station, called The Great Easton Express. The presenter was Phil Easton and it was three and a half hours every night of the week from 6.30 to 10pm. He would play whole albums and have all the new releases before anyone else. I still remember the programme as if it was yesterday. He was a fantastic DJ, a great champion of rock. He’d always have people like David Coverdale and Ian Gillan on, so every night…

Animals Pink Floyd (1977) “While I was pretty much brought up on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, it was really when I discovered their album Animals that I truly had my eyes opened to what could be done musically within a record. All of the transitions and long modulations between the tracks still influence me right up to this day.” Discipline King Crimson (1981) “I got into King Crimson after trawling through some of John Frusciante and Omar Rodríguez- López’s influences. It also helped me bridge the gap somewhat between me and my guitar teacher who was deeply into jazz fusion artists like Allan Holdsworth et al. Songs like Frame By Frame and the title track were big influences on my guitar playing and songwriting.” Frances The…

Before Tomorrow (Atomic Rooster, Atomic Rooster, 1970) A rampant burst of thunderous, subtly proggy proto-metal that showcased the mind-bending percussive chops of a 20-year-old Carl Palmer. Knife-Edge (ELP, Emerson Lake & Palmer, 1970) An exquisite example of the intuitive chemistry between Palmer and his cohorts. This is artful rock’n’roll played with orchestral flair and refined pop suss. Tarkus (ELP, Tarkus, 1971) An obvious choice, but an unavoidable one. Some may argue that Tarkus is Keith Emerson’s finest hour, but Palmer just about steals it with a bravura display of rhythmic abandon. The Gnome (ELP, Pictures At An Exhibition, 1971) Indulging his wildest classical music fantasies, Carl Palmer takes on Modest Mussorgsky and comes out victorious. One of ELP’s weirder detours but an enthralling one. Toccata (ELP, Brain Salad Surgery, 1973)…

STEWART COPELAND Universally acclaimed as one of the greatest living drummers, Copeland’s rhythms with The Police were deceptively complex. The range of his other work is under-heralded. He played for Curved Air in the mid-70s (and was later married to Sonja Kristina for nine years). In an enduring film-scoring career he’s provided the soundtrack to such movies as Rumble Fish, Wall Street and Raining Stones, and recently he’s had success with orchestral, classical and even opera compositions. Peter Gabriel asked him to play on Red Rain and he’s performed with Mike Rutherford, Tom Waits and with Stanley Clarke in Animal Logic.…

VITTORIO COSMA The quiet backbone of Gizmodrome, having worked intermittently with Copeland and others as Gizmo since 2005, the Italian keyboardist, producer and arranger studied classical and jazz piano before touring and recording with his country’s leading prog export PFM (Premiata Forneria Marconi), debuting on 1987’s Miss Baker album. He’s since worked with innumerable Italian artists as well as scoring films and TV series. At 52, he’s the baby of the group, but the others are quick to praise his ability, along with that of producer Claudio Dentes, to pull their various noises into shape.…

Two-CD/blue vinyl set from the wizards of psychedelic electronica. Listening to Astralasia makes you feel psychically pampered. These instrumental musings on the cycles of life and death are sound paintings of “a forgotten time, a land where love was the answer”. Back in the day, Astralasia erred toward more generic psychedelic trance, with whomping beats, but on Oceania these rhythms are purveyed with a lighter touch, with what sounds like a sampled high tabla and other percussion, and waves of sound created by echoed guitar or sequenced keyboards. In this respect, their techno influences are backgrounded and the music is more reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching’s albums like E2-E4, or Rovo and System 7’s Phoenix Rising. AlooLand starts with birdsong, a sunrise of electronics, electric piano picking out sparse notes, spuming…

And out comes the Wolfe… Darkness is Chelsea Wolfe’s friend. The songwriter has long blended the gothic, electronic and industrial into impressive new forms. Early releases manifested this in unsettling folk tales, while 2015’s fourth album, Abyss, impressed with its dynamic mastery. Fifth effort Hiss Spun takes things further, adding heavy credentials in the form of Queens Of The Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen on lead guitar and Kurt Ballou on desk duties. Fans of Russian Circles’ aural monoliths may find themselves in familiar territory here (Wolfe appeared on 2013’s Memorial), but there’s diversity in the darkness. The Culling’s grazed vocal proves just what spine-tingling power Wolfe has when she shirks her default whisper, and Vex seems to utilise a guitar raised by a family of rusting church organs. Twin…

The UK proggers’ second proves the sky’s the limit. Lifesigns’ vocalist/keyboardist John Young might not be a household name, but his musical CV (including time with John Wetton, Jon Anderson writing sessions, tours with Asia and a stint with The Strawbs) is indicative of the standard expected as a member of this collective. So while it may have taken four years to follow up on their well-received debut, when this group of career musicians turned their minds back to this passion project, it happened quickly. Fan-funded via Pledge Music, the group hit their target in 48 hours, and that sense of momentum is palpable throughout Cardington. It’s a story of colossal scope, capturing the ambition of the age. The great irony of neo-prog is that much of it sounds tired…

Feel-good vintage vibes from Lundin and co. The passing of time and changing personnel have done nothing to take the wind out of the sails of Swedish veterans Kaipa. Keyboardist Hans Lundin is the only member left from their 70s incarnation, but they’re not afraid of exploring different sides of prog’s heritage, even as their sound remains rooted in the genre’s golden era. Where 2012’s Vittjar leaned towards their folk proclivities, both 2014’s Sattyg and now Children Of The Sounds drink heavily from the cup of Yes, with classical allusions, epic songs – the shortest one here is almost seven minutes, the longest over 17 – and marvellously detailed compositions. Perhaps the shift away from pastoral fields reflects the influence of Per Nilsson, whose guitar work throughout is fluid, articulate…

Devonian deviance with a Canterbury core. There’s always a slight danger that echoes of the psychedelic past will sound more like The Rutles’ Cheese And Onions than See Emily Play. No such mishaps befall Magic Bus on their third full-length: in fact, this is an object lesson in getting everything exactly right. Opening epic Mystical Mountain is a nine-minute marvel that starts like a skewed reimagining of Caravan’s Golf Girl before drifting into hazier pastures with wellsprings of flute, Moog, Mellotron and an assortment of other glittering delights underpinning the song’s gently melancholic saunter. The blissful piano interlude that leads into the song’s Hammond-sodden, angular, proto metal denouement is a spellbinding touch. Fans of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals will clock the dewy-eyed love of the Canterbury set…

Busy-ness as usual from the Italian group, with Jon Davison guesting. Album four from Italy’s Mogador shows the band continuing to expand their musical ambitions, although at times their reach exceeds their grasp. The group was founded by drummer Richard Allen and his stamp is very prominent, with his drums excessively high in the mix on several songs – he’s positively distracting on Summer Sun. The rockier numbers have a tendency towards arrangements where everyone pulls in different directions, most noticeably keys player Samuele Dotti, and it’s the gentler songs, like the acoustic Tell Me Smiling Child and the jazzy lounge vibe of Breaking Day, that stand out. Yes’ Jon Davison makes a guest appearance on Josephine’s Regrets, while the rest of the singing is split between Allen and Marco…

Norwegian legends rediscover their mojo with expansive double album. For over 25 years, Motorpsycho have constantly pushed at the limits of what’s possible within the rock format, becoming a prog band almost by default as their songs have got longer and more exploratory. Starting with 2008’s Little Lucid Moments, they’ve gone through a remarkable purple patch over the past decade, producing an album practically every year while also finding time to soundtrack a series of theatre productions. A major work in every sense, expansive but consistently excellent. Not everything’s been plain sailing, though. Last year’s Here Be Monsters got some of the best notices of their career, but it was a surprisingly introspective album, its languid Floydian vibe sometimes tipping over into enervation and burnout. Then Kenneth Kapstad, the band’s…

Heroes of Chinese underground ready for global acclaim. This is the first British release from the Beijing-based group who formed in 2003 and were described by John Lydon as his favourite “new” band. Re-TROS (Rebuilding The Rights Of Statues) cite as influences Bauhaus, Joy Division, Television, Pere Ubu, Battles, Liars and Futureheads: post-punk outfits and latter-day proponents of the same. Actually, they can sound like hardcore synth punks, with a heavy techno/trance element, their music hitting with brute force, using insistence and repetition to mesmeric effect. But there’s an Enoesque intelligence too. Indeed, the brainy one contributed guest keyboards to their 2005 debut Cut Off! EP. Produced by Hector Castillo, Before The Applause is experimental but embraceable, even danceable, especially the nine-minute analogue assault of Hailing Drums, At Mosp Here’s…

The crystal ball reveals a bright future for the US proggers. The Contortionist have always aspired to something grander than being just another progressive metal band, and on Clairvoyant there’s an eclecticism and wariness about scene clichés that will resonate with fans of the genre looking for a break from the norm. Though they’re primarily known for their tours with so-called ‘djent’ progressive metal bands like TesseracT and Periphery, there’s barely a djent in sight here. In fact, as on the sweeping climax of Return To Earth or the Deftones-like crescendo of Relapse, much of the riffing is atmospheric metal that has more in common with post-metal than tech metal. There’s even a pretty substantial flirt with shoegaze on the title track, although those sorts of guitar textures have been…

Lewis Carroll meets The Mighty Boosh on a wildly ambitious second album. Martin White has long made a living shaping the overblown visions of other musicians as an orchestral arranger for hire. But it’s no small undertaking to compose and present your own “orchestral novelty prog” vision, as White calls it – particularly if you want to play live with a 24-piece band, as MFMO occasionally do. On this follow-up to 2012’s debut album Master Flea, they’re on irrepressible form – from time to time you might find it so shamelessly over-theatrical that you’ll find yourself yearning for some undemanding guitar pop. Lyrically, it’s all based on the late US writer Anthony Campbell’s theory of the monomyth – the heroic story template that he claimed underpins all great adventures. But…

Super dense suite of cosmic metal from Italian power trio. Electric Wizard might have pioneered the crossover between black metal and space rock, but Italian trio Ufomammut take the form to its logical conclusion on 8. Comprised of, yes, eight songs, it’s best considered as one suite of ear-pummelling, cosmos-bestriding music, as not only are there no gaps between the tracks, but each song builds on the other, with new riffs tested and assembled like cogs in some infernal engine. Opening track Babel sets the template, massive drums followed by an assault of interstellar guitars and monster bass, while roared vocals and crackling electronics lurk around the edges – it’s as though a vast ship is ripping a jagged hole through hyperspace. Warsheep and Zodiac maintain the intensity, then Fatum…

Some real musical gold for you this month, dear progger. Once you’ve set this issue down, do yourself a favour, get on Spotify and check out the self-titled debut album from Swiss power trio The Universe By Ear (Czar Of Crickets). These three guys make a big noise with Sabbathy sludge here, psych scale there, and Bigelf poppiness elsewhere. Bursting with big harmonies, blues rock flourishes and Amplifier levels of personality, the Ear deserve to be heard. On a trippier tip is California’s Joel Jerome, whose Cosmic Bear Jamboree (Elite Records) kicks off with an echoing, gritty take on T.Rex’s Cosmic Dancer, and over 10 woozy, Mellotron-friendly tracks, comes across like a lysergically powered Jonathan Wilson, reaching for the stars, clinging to the grass by his toes. Happy to say…

Limited edition ode to Arctic exploration rolls around again. Spurred on by the positive response to last year’s more inviting album Sunset Cavaliers, Irish music historian Colin Harper has revisited his earlier instrumental release. Initially a very limited edition of 100 copies, 2010’s Titanium Flag returns, much expanded on top of the obligatory remastering. With three new pieces and four vocal tracks now bookending the project, it’s the most melancholy concept album inspired by Arctic exploration from the fourth century BC to the present day you’ll hear this side of the North Pole. Lovingly packaged with detailed vintage maps, history notes and a dash of geopolitics (Russia planted the titular titanium flag on the seabed a decade ago, to claim future mining rights after the ice has melted), it’s a…

Fairport’s initial decade, documented via familiar and unreleased material in a trove of 120-plus tracks. In the season in which they marked their half-century with an epic reunion at Cropredy, 10 years out of 50 may sound like a mere teaspoon of the ocean-deep Fairport legacy. But the decision to reappraise the initial decade of these draughtsmen and women of progressive folk is unassailable when you’re armed with the keys to the archives. The amble closer to the band’s modern-day sound is fascinating. In a bijou box with a fold-out poster and an illustrated companion booklet, here are a towering 121 tracks from the group’s initial adventures, 56 previously unavailable – a trove drawn from demos, outtakes and live TV, radio and concert appearances. Weaved among album material, with over…

Gentle orchestral suite steps out once more. Even 47 years after he left the band, Anthony Phillips seems destined to always have the preface “Genesis founder member” before his name. He can take solace in the fact that many long-time Genesis fans are still delving afresh into his considerable and charming solo body of work. 1977’s The Geese And The Ghost remains the most enjoyable album, but the reputation of 1990’s Slow Dance has consistently risen, albeit at a leisurely pace redolent of the music itself. An orchestral 50-minute instrumental suite, split over what used to be two sides, it takes its time to enchant. Its cumulative effect, however, is certainly worth staying for. Now freshly remixed and remastered by original co-producer Simon Heyworth, it glides across the dance floor…

NEVER READ ABOUT YOUR HEROES… I have to be honest, I haven’t read your magazine since cancelling my subscription a couple of years ago. However, as a big fan of all things Steven Wilson, I had to shell out the money to buy this issue. I was initially excited to read it. I was kind of glad to hear he was making a more accessible album. While I like his last few albums, I found them much less accessible than the last five-six studio albums he made with Porcupine Tree. I actually like most of his shorter, more concise songs, so the idea of a whole album that might be ‘easier’ to listen to might be a nice switch after the (for me at least) more challenging listens of much…

How do you follow an album that re-imagines the soundtrack to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory? If you’re Primus, you make The Desaturating Seven, based on a children’s book that tells the story of seven goblins determined to remove all the colour from the world. It’s released via ATO on September 29. “Many years ago when my children were little kidlets scurrying around the place wreaking havoc and whatnot, my wife turned them on to a book called The Rainbow Goblins by Ul De Rico,” says Primus mainman Les Claypool. “The dark imagery and beauty of the art struck me immediately and I thought, ‘This would make good fodder for a piece of music.’” It’s not the first time De Rico’s book has been used for inspiration: in 1981…

Nordic Giants are spreading positivity with the independent release of a short film and soundtrack on October 20. The mysterious masked duo, whose real identities are shrouded in mystery, say the aim of Amplify Human Vibration’s uplifting theme is to help “raise the collective consciousness of the planet”. “This project is our small way of reminding people that there’s so much positivity in the world, despite the fear-led narrative often portrayed by the mainstream media,” say Rôka and Loki via email. “This film will follow some inspiring people and their unique journeys, from a Columbian photographer changing lives with just his camera to a female swimmer braving seven of the toughest seas.” The seven-track release follows on from 2015’s A Séance Of Dark Delusions and 7 Depths Of Consciousness and…

Cathédrale’s J2=B2 will be released via Angel Air on September 29, almost 30 years after the tracks were first recorded. The project formed in the early 90s, soon after bassist Jon Camp left Renaissance, and also featured Greenslade’s John Young (now with Lifesigns), Brett Wilde and Money’s drummer Tony Bodene. Singer Mark Goddard-Parker joined towards the end of the band and performs on only a handful of the songs. “The tracks were originally recorded on 16-track between 1990 and 1993,” reveals Camp. “The opener, One By One, was one of the first we did, but the sound isn’t all similar to Renaissance. It was still proggy, but quite commercial, a little like It Bites.” Meanwhile, the bassist has teamed up with Maurice Douglas (ex-Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash) for the MoJo…

WITH LLOYD WEBBER’S School Of Rock currently on Broadway, a five-piece from Holland have literally graduated from prog school. Golden Caves met at Rotterdam’s Codarts University – an institution that specialises in music and performing arts. Vocalist Romy Ouwerkerk explains how a chance collision on campus altered her trajectory. “In our second year, me and the drummer Erik were in a disco project. Our new guitar player Alex heard me talking about Porcupine Tree and Anathema and he said we should form a band. In the end, we chose prog and the drummer and I skipped the disco band,” she laughs. To gauge reactions they released a self-made EP in 2013. Award nominations and a victory in the Dutch Band Boost talent competition led to an enviable spot playing in front…

(COLUMBIA, 1967) For whatever reason, not many bands who’ve come from a soul background have ever effectively embraced psychedelic prog. The Chambers Brothers are one of the exceptions. Hailing from Mississippi, they got their first taste of musical performance in a local baptist church. When eldest brother George was discharged from the army, they relocated to LA, and spent the next decade playing a mixture of gospel and folk. It was in ’65 when they got their big break. American folk singer and former member of the Weavers, Pete Seeger helped get them on the bill for the prestigious Newport Folk Festival, and they received such a strong reception that it led to further appearances at high profile venues like Fillmore West in San Francisco and Fillmore East in New…

It didn’t take long after Prog had made our first visit to Barcelona’s prog fest Be Prog! My Friend for us to wonder whether or not we could ever have such an event in the UK. I mean, what’s not to like? An outdoor festival, bathed in sun, well attended and with a wide-ranging bill attracting an all-ages and enthusiastic crowd. That spells winner to me… Of course, when Prog magazine launched back in 2009, the universally adored Summer’s End was the kingpin of the live UK progressive scene, and remains, for me, the finest weekend of progressive music you’ll find in the UK. We can now add to that the prog stage at Ramblin’ Man, HRH Prog, charity event Trinity, Eppyfest and Danfest, all of varying sizes, and sometimes…

“It’s very much new progressive rock. There are no elves or goblins to be seen within a hundred miles of it!” With a foot in both jazz and progressive rock, Theo Travis is one of the busiest sax and flute players on the scene at the moment, having recorded and toured with luminaries such as Steven Wilson, Robert Fripp, David Sylvian and Gong. In addition to leading his own quartet, Double Talk, he’s also been a member of Soft Machine since 2006. He’s just released Open Air, an album of solo flute processed via effects pedals and looping technology. Although on holiday in America, he took the time to chat with Prog... Your new album Open Air is very hypnotic in its use of loops. How did you get interested in that…

David Gilmour has become known for his revolving door of select guests on his tours. “It’s nice to offer Comfortably Numb to other people to have their take on it so we have done it with quite a few different people. Going back to 2002 when I played the Royal Festival Hall, Kate Bush did it, Bob Geldof did it and Robert Wyatt did it. Of course, in 2006 at the Albert Hall, David Bowie did it, on condition that we did Arnold Layne as well. A great moment. People often just aren’t on the same continent as you at the same time. Bowie wasn’t, in fact – he actually flew over especially. It was very, very kind of him.” Gilmour’s son Gabriel replicated his piano part from Rattle That…

Dateline: 1984, and the four members of Lodgic are rehearsing in Los Angeles, unaware that their lives are about to change forever. “Toto were in the room next door and suddenly Jeff Porcaro [drums] came running in, so everyone froze because, well, it was Jeff Porcaro,” laughs Billy Sherwood at the memory. “We feared the worst when Jeff ran straight back out again but he returned with [fellow Toto members] David Paich and Steve Porcaro, who said that they loved us.” At a time when Toto were still among the world’s biggest bands, Paich and Steve Porcaro took Lodgic under their wings, hooking them up with A&M Records and producing an album called Nomadic Sands. But for bassist/lead vocalist Sherwood and keyboardist Guy Allison, reinvention as World Trade would be…

"Laibach are many things, a consequence of their association with NSK. Musically you could stick a bootload of labels on them: industrial, avant-garde, experimantal, to name but three. There is, however, a huge divide between Laibach's experimental music and prog, a gap which they probably came closest to crossing with NATO, their 1994 album of war-related covers. At the end of the day though, prog they aren't." Clive Summerfield "Slovenian protest prog." Marc Hughes "I think, at a fundamental level, it boils down to what separates experimental rock from prog. That distinction is murky (consider Frank Zappa for instance), but, in the case of Laibach, I think they lie deep within experimental rock territory. The music they produce is often atonal and alien, and the industrial/avant-garde classical mix that they…

MARK KING “My inspiration as a youngster was more the jazz-fusion stuff,” says bass boss Mark King. Starting out as a drummer (from the age of nine), it was the rhythm kings he first admired. “Those guys were so great – Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Tony Williams – those cats were just burning up. And of course that all cross-pollinates with Zappa.” Switching to bass and vocals, he launched upon years of jazz funk crossover hits with Level 42, who toured with The Police and Queen. In the 90s, Allan Holdsworth and Jakko Jakszyk joined the band, as did Gavin Harrison. King’s solo albums further showcase him as the Isle Of Wight’s answer to Stanley Clarke.…

“We’re still trying to make sense of it. And the thing is, we haven’t had a bad crowd yet. As long as we perform well and give a lot of energy, it usually goes down well.” “Sometimes I’ll see a 40- or 50-year-old guy in a Rush T-shirt at our show,” says Chon’s laconic guitarist Mario Camarena, who’s all of 25. “It’s cool that older prog dudes like us – it gives us some real credit. Often they’ll say that after seeing us, they’re not worried about the future of prog, and that’s good to hear.” The math rock trio are hearing many good things this year, from old prog dudes and young crowdsurfer types alike. Homey, the follow-up to their 2015 debut album Grow, came out in June and…

A surprising, eclectic aural ravaging from this Viking horde. It’s always a good sign when an album opens with the sound of a Viking horn and a neighing horse. Enslaved’s E is their 14th studio album and the first with Håkon Vinje, from Seven Impale, handling keyboards and clean vocals in place of Herbrand Larsen. The album’s monosyllabic title is a reference to the Nordic rune Ehwaz, which literally means horse, but is used to connote cooperation and symbiosis. So now you know. Songs to inspire men to pull harder on the oars of their longboat. The music mines the same vein as 2012’s RIITIIR and In Time from 2015, with the notable exception of the unrestrained brutality of Thurisaz Dreaming from that record. The opening track Storm Son is…

Capital madness to fill the Cardiacs void. The much-celebrated eccentricity of the English has taken a PR battering of late, thanks to swivel-eyed politicians and their warped view of this nation’s character. On their second album, Buttonhead offer a more acceptable demonstration of what happens when mad ideas are fully realised: this is art rock with a quirky, unhinged edge, and as English as chips (despite the band’s Italian drummer, natch). The opening Robocop Sunset feels like eight songs playing at once, its twists and turns making a kind of skewed sense as the prettiest of melodies leak through the scattershot melee. Call Me Steve is something else entirely: a delicate, pleading acoustic refrain that mutates into a thrilling rush of clangorous psych rock. Somehow, it’s endearing and faintly unnerving.…

Within Temptation guitarist shows his melodic side. Let’s get one thing straight: Take Me Home sounds nothing like Within Temptation. It it, however, a cohesive collection of 12 uplifting and melodic prog rock tunes with hints of Von Hertzen Brothers and Headspace. Despite a hectic touring schedule, Ruud Jolie not only found the time to record a follow-up to his side project’s 2011 self-titled debut, but he even roped in members of Pain Of Salvation and Ayreon collaborators to help. Gone are the symphonic flourishes from the debut and in their place are sun-baked vocal harmonies and irregular time signatures, all set against a feel-good atmosphere. There are hints of Jellyfish in The Big Wheel’s swirly chorus, Prophets In Disguise proffers a glimpse of FAWK’s heavier side, and Anneke van…

Flautist’s second full-band outing, plus live extras. With a surname like his, it was no wonder John Hackett took a while to emerge from under the shadow of his older brother. The flute maestro and accomplished guitarist spent many years as a successful session man and a regular guest on his brother’s solo albums, often collaborating with other acolytes of Hackett Sr. However, it wasn’t until 2005, at the age of 50, that John Hackett released his first solo album proper. But the band he’s put together over the past couple of years, featuring classical guitar specialist Nick Fletcher and a rhythm section of Jeremy Richardson and Duncan Parsons, suggests his midlife creative renaissance has gathered pace since then. As on the JHB’s 2015 debut, Another Life, the main man’s…

MBV-flavoured dreamscapes invariably headed for a headrush. Allying an engaging and accessible neo-prog dynamism with mellifluous vocal clarity and an ambitiously cinematic strain of string-driven soundscapes more readily associated with My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, Leeds quintet Koyo have identified a unique niche for themselves on this, their eagerly awaited eponymous debut. Born of extensive and spontaneous live improvisations, Koyo’s core material could easily have lost much in translation, but like Floyd before them, the band edit assiduously for the studio yet retain the sonic spectacle of their finest, most inspired performance. Against a vocal so louche as to make even Thom Yorke seem rawthroated and raucous, Ray Of Sunshine stretches toward a crescendo that could easily occasion spontaneous levitation in the listener. There are moments of breath-catching Flaming Lips…

Best known for his prog-orientated suite Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows, Neil Ardley’s On The Radio: BBC Sessions 1971 (Dusk Fire) contains previously unreleased recordings, with Ardley conducting the crème de la crème of the British jazz scene, including members of Colosseum, Nucleus and Greenslade. His luscious, brass-heavy orchestrations lend an insistent fire to a sequence of animated pieces that include Jack Bruce’s lilting, Mingus-style fantasia, The Immortal Ninth. As welcome as it all is, perhaps the real prize here is The Time Flowers. A superb 29-minute electro-acoustic suite with a string orchestra and Keith Winter’s synth, it originally accompanied a radio adaptation of a JG Ballad short story. Traversing a lyrical romanticism, unsettling scored tonalities and improvising jazzers, it’s a setting that reveals the scope of Ardley’s grander, eclectic ambition to…

Knifeworld-affiliated psychedelic gamelan trip hop lives! My Tricksy Spirit hark back to that time in the 90s when trip hop and The Orb provided a stoner escape pod from the harsh world outside, with all manner of cosmic sounds hatching out of further collisions between dub reggae and world music. The band was formed around the shimmering tones of south east Asian music lecturer Nick Gray’s gender wayang (a little group of bronze metallophones, used in Bali to accompany the shadow play). Their ever-present spectral entity is bolstered by a panorama of textures provided by the string-driven arsenal of Charlie Cawood (Knifeworld, Mediaeval Babes) and multi-instrumentalist Rob Shipster, while Always With You and Winter Story feature the soulful vocals of Roxanne Ainsthorpe. The album is comprised of only five long…

A synth odyssey, with added brass. If Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia sounds like a bizarre collision between an analogue synth wizard and a brass band, that’s because it is. The third album from electronic musician Hannah Peel (a member of The Magnetic North, and sometime collaborator of John Foxx) is a seven-movement piece composed for analogue synthesisers and 29-piece colliery brass band. It recounts the journey of an elderly stargazer, the titular Mary Casio, from her home in Barnsley to the star constellation of Cassiopeia. The results are affecting and poignant, Peel creating a tension between Earth and space, and a sense of longing for home. It’s like the Kes soundtrack meets Yes, or a team-up between The Flaming Lips and The Brighouse And Rastrick Band. It starts with…

A musical journey through a psittacine Arcadia with the former Bonzo sax man. Rodney Slater was a founder member of the Bonzos back in 1962. His fame was underlined by the song Mister Slater’s Parrot on their 1969 album Keynsham. Now, an admitted late developer, he has assembled his first solo album at the age of 75, playing saxes and clarinets, with Michael Livesley on a variety of instruments, former Rutle Admiral John Halsey on drums, and Mekon Susie Honeyman on violin. Slater mixes up the boisterous end of Dixieland jazz that the Bonzos so lovingly pastiched with piano ballads and R&B settings – Shed! quotes Heatwave’s Boogie Nights – with humorous dialogue and recitations over quaint chamber backing, similar to that used by Vivian Stanshall on his Sir Henry…

Three years since third album Lost In The Dream took them from nowhere (well, Philadelphia) to being so critically acclaimed that there was a backlash, The War On Drugs return with A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic). Adam Granduciel emphasises that it’s more of a band record, but its magic still emanates from his unique sense of feel. Few warp genres so brilliantly. Those who hear Krautrock or psychedelia in this music are right, yet so are those hearing Springsteen/Petty/ Seger/Knopfler. That shouldn’t make sense, but the best sounds rarely do. Laced with synth ripples and blistering guitar solos, these dreamy, chugging, surging songs effortlessly express torrents of emotions. As switch-to-major-label follow-ups go, this is a classic. They’re winning. Also wobbling back to happiness are Blancmange, whose classic 80s electropop albums were…

Irish folk duo’s return gets the vinyl treatment. This album was first released in 2015, but is now being made available in a limited vinyl format. The follow-up to the band’s 1973 debut Strong In The Sun – yes, a 42-year gap between albums! – on the surface The Dark Dance is a gentle acoustic glide. However, if you dig a little deeper, then the duo of Leo O’Kelly and Sonny Condell is certainly whimsical, but they also have wit and a pleasing edge. This gives songs like You In Yellow, Sympathetic Love and Time Is Gone a depth that many might overlook on first listen. It has a well balanced sense of rhythm and touch, as the band tell stories within the confines of tracks that are never allowed…

Eclectic Leeds electronic collective move up a gear, now with added star turns. Over their studio releases, Vessels have gradually moved further and further away from the post-rock upon which they built their name. Bringing in techno influences like many other genre bands, they’ve successfully used these as the fulcrum upon which to turn their sound and evolve artistically. Mobilise and Glower carry the momentum on from Dilate, their last studio recording, while other tracks like the sparser Position offer a more significant departure. However, there are other new sonics here too. The noir, almost spoken-word vocal of Flaming Lips collaboration Deflect The Light and the creeping tension of Erase The Tapes, which features John Grant on vocals, are both interesting sonic and timbral distinctions from much of the material…

A treasure chest of delights for the 10cc obsessive. Given the all-encompassing nature of 2012’s Tenology, a robust four-CD and one-DVD affair that comprehensively covered the Manchester band’s entire career as well as marking their 40th anniversary, one might wonder where there is to go with a new four-disc set. Disc three is very much for diehards only. Subtitled ‘The Story Of 10cc’, what this new collection does, aside from collating the band’s biggest hits, is explore where the band came from prior to their formation in 1972, and where they headed following Kevin Godley and Lol Creme’s departures in 1976 and then the Graham Gouldman/ Eric Stewart line-up grinding to a halt in 1984. It overlooks the 90s reunions (largely forgettable in themselves), and Gouldman’s own carrying on of…

Lord’s least loveable work of baroque’n’roll fusion. Looking back across hard rock history, stylistic parallels with certain aspects of classical music’s more bombastic incarnations are unavoidable. The full-tilt Sturm und Drang of Wagner, the opening riff of Beethoven’s Fifth (surely the allegro con brio Smoke On The Water of symphonic fortissimo) clearly presage rock’s essential elements. But back when rock was young, Elton still Reg, and Jon Lord endeavouring to fuse two largely disparate genres into harmonious union, his noble experiment couldn’t have been greeted with more horror by classicists than if he were attempting to fashion a hybrid of Jeff Goldblum and a fly. Pop, as it still remained, was way more open to bold progression. Incredibly, record-buyers stoically avoided no less than three Deep Purple albums before Concerto…

1982 live portrait of a genius at work. There are few musicians who can credibly claim to have changed the world, but Jaco Pastorius is one of them. After he appeared on the international scene, his unique sound created a wave upon which he surfed triumphantly, and almost everyone else fell by in his wake, trying to figure out how he did it. That signature sound mixed a smooth, fretless slide with an ebullient swagger, glittering with resonant harmonics. And although almost every bassist around the globe would try to emulate him, nobody ever managed to sound quite like Pastorius. Though his grandstanding could get the better of him toward the end of his revelatory tenure with Weather Report, on this pristine-sounding two-disc set, containing 40 minutes of unreleased music,…

Second retrospective explores Howe as team player. With Steve Howe’s son Dylan now joining Yes on tour to drum beside Alan White, the guitarist stands surely as the keystone of this incarnation of the band. His playing has defined the Yes sound as much as any other contribution. Yet this second anthology from his illustrious career seeks out lesser-known nooks and crannies. Fair enough – there are plenty of Yes collections already. Fresh insight into Howe’s innovative 50-year career. The first anthology, released in 2015, drew from Howe’s solo work. This – subtitled Groups & Collaborations – cherry-picks from his creations within ensembles. So there’s relatively little Yes: Roundabout and Tempus Fugit exemplify the golden eras, plus there are a few non-canonical choices, best of which is Hour Of Need…

Word salad surgery. Does it matter if this book says that Bill Bruford joined Hatfield And The North? Should we care when Gentle Giant’s Ray Shulman is mentioned as being the editor of Melody Maker or that Adrian Belew was part of Peter Gabriel’s 80s reinvention? Weigel’s day job as a political correspondent in America requires him to sift through the disingenuous rhetoric and ‘fake news’ that infests much of today’s political discourse. So if facts do matter in responsible political journalism, they’re just as important in the rock journo branch of the fourth estate, no? While such inaccuracies jar and undermine the author’s credibility as a reliable guide on this subject, his admiration for the creative ambition and musical invention for some of the bands emerging in the late…

Partridge-packed annual for Skylarking diehards. It might be hard to appreciate exactly how rabid XTC’s global diehard fan base can be unless you subscribed to Mark Fisher’s Limelight fanzine in the early 80s. But those people are out there, and every one of them will be buying this. A sumptuous compendium of highlights from the zine, The XTC Bumper Book… could easily have been an inessential scrapbook, but thanks to the unique way that the prog pop titans’ fans pore over every last detail with joyous intensity, this is more of a treasure trove than a toilet book. With extensive interviews with all the key players and numerous revealing snapshots from important moments along the band’s early journey, not to mention a tricky crossword, this arguably amounts to the most…

The Fabs’ flawed tributes. As the seemingly endless output from the cottage industry surrounding The Beatles shows no sign of slowing, we may never get to know how many biographies, memoirs and movies about the Fab Four it will take to fill the Albert Hall. Alan G Parker’s doc consists of various talking heads offering gossipy accounts of the era, interspersed with news footage of ‘the boys’ themselves responding to inane press questions or waving at adoring fans. From the ‘Bigger Than Jesus’ controversy to the closure of their Apple boutique, there’s a weary familiarity to this particular telling of a well-known tale. Unable to secure permission to use a note of Beatles’ music, it explains the ‘why’ but doesn’t touch upon the ‘how’ of what it calls the greatest…

IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE Steve Howe has teamed up with his younger son, Virgil, on a new instrumental album, called Nexus. It’ll be released via InsideOut on November 17 and, says Steve, the recording will surprise a lot of fans. “I’ve done a wealth of different things but I haven’t done anything like this before. I feel it’s steering me in a different direction,” he tells Prog via the phone in the US, where Yes are currently on tour. “It’s a full-on collaborative album, not a duet. It’s been refreshing to work with Virgil and we’ve pulled this beautiful album together. Although it’s got shades of mellow music, it doesn’t sit still. It moves across electronic music and my guitars – this is an opportunity to discover…

Anathema’s Daniel Cavanagh releases Monochrome, his first solo album of original material on October 13 via Kscope – and he’s already certain there will be a follow-up. He described the vibe of the deeply personal work as “a late-night, candlelit feeling”. Much of the material has been in existence for some time, and had been considered for use with his main band. Cavanagh tells Prog, “I kind of give Vinnie Cavanagh and John Douglas first refusal. Making an Anathema record is brutal in terms of leaving songs out – a ‘kill your darlings’ kind of thing. There’s always stuff left over. I thought, ‘They’re not doing anything. Maybe I can make them work.’” He insists the nocturnal feeling is “all real” and he’s only half-joking when he claims, “Daylight is…

FENDER BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS In an ideal world I’d stop going on about Bluetooth speakers here, but companies will insist on coming up with unusual spins on the old formula. Fender’s Monterey and the Newport are inspired by the ‘68 Custom amps, and have the iconic grille, knobs and labelling. The Monterey needs plugging into a wall but packs a powerful 120W punch, while the Newport is portable and gives you 12 hours of music on a single charge. www.fender.com LUZLI ROLLER MK01 It’s the eternal headphone dilemma. The small ones which fit inside your ears can feel a bit insubstantial. The big ones, however, are rather big. Where do you put them when you’re not using them? I mean, they’ll often come in a special bag, or box, but where…

“In Russian society, it’s expected a woman will be a great cook and enjoy her time in the kitchen. I prefer spending my time writing music or travelling, but I do enjoy cooking for special people. My granny used to cook borscht when I was very small. This is my quick and relaxed veggie version.” Ingredients: 2 medium beetroots, 3 medium potatoes, 1 large carrot, 250g white cabbage, 1 large onion, 1 medium tomato, 3 tbsp tomato paste, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, 2-3 bay leaves, salt, black pepper, vegetable oil, parsley, dill, spring onion Preparation: “Finely chop the onion, grate the carrot and beetroots, chop the cabbage into fine strips, dice the tomato. In a pan, fry the onion and carrots for two minutes, add the beets for two…

Our far-out trip to far-flung prog The walled city of Beijing is better known in the West for its rich history than its music, but Re-TROS could change that with their first ever UK release, Before The Applause. Formed in the Chinese capital in 2003, the trio – Liu Min (vocals, bass, synth), Hua Dong (vocals, guitar, synth), Huang Jin (drums) – began as a reaction to the local indie scene. “We were not so satisfied at that time,” says Dong. “It was a little boring and depressing. We thought we could do something cool to shock the audience.” Their latest release adds EDM elements to a post-punk sound that’s inspired by rule book-breaking bands Gang Of Four, Public Image Limited and Talking Heads. The results are wildly experimental and…

Saluting the scene’s supporting crew It was a Christmas present that changed Mark Fisher’s life. In 1979, the Merseyside teen received a copy of XTC’s Drums And Wires and it marked the beginning of a long association with the Swindon band. “I remember becoming obsessed by XTC,” says Fisher. “I’d been reading a lot about them in newspapers like NME and was intrigued so I went to Virgin Records and bought up the back catalogue. I got my friend Paul Badger into them as well. Very naïvely, because we didn’t know anything about anything, we just said, ‘Let’s make a fanzine about them!’” The pair were still at school at the time and, with no contacts in the music industry, they embarked on the long and rather haphazard task of…

MASSIVE ATTACK “I love the simplicity of this band. It’s really, really hard to make something so repetitive so interesting and touching but they manage to do it by making tiny changes everywhere that builds the whole thing.” THE LATE 90s “It was a really good time and a really shitty time. You had some of the best music and some of the worst music. The majority of my favourite bands are from the 90s. There were a lot of innovative artists back then, probably because mainstream music was so shitty. Bands like Radiohead were so organic and so honest.” THE PRODIGY “With them, it’s the sound and the attitude. That’s what I love about those bands from the 90s – it was badass attitude all the way. Them and…

ADRIAN BELEW Where to start with the in-demand Kentucky-born guitarist’s CV? Twenty-odd turbulent years as frontman with King Crimson are impressive enough, with Discipline and Beat arguably the best fruits. Prior to that came his 70s work with Zappa (who “discovered” him), his tours and contributions to Lodger with David Bowie, and his move to Talking Heads (Remain In Light) at the behest of Brian Eno. He’s at pains to emphasise his ongoing solo career, but it’d be a poor record collection that didn’t include his collaborations, whether with Paul Simon, Jean-Michel Jarre, Herbie Hancock, Laurie Anderson, Nine Inch Nails, Mike Oldfield, Porcupine Tree or even William Shatner.…

Alt-prog Londoners spread their creative wings. The way Arcane Roots begin their second full-length album is telling, as they eschew an explosive ‘here we are again’ approach in favour of a slow-burning ambient squall that has more to do with My Bloody Valentine than Muse. When the song eventually bursts into melodic life, it reveals a band that have plainly grown in confidence. The Londoners’ uncanny ability to straddle prog, alternative rock and tech metal remains intact throughout Melancholia Hymns, but this is a deeper and more measured record than its predecessor, full of elegant dynamic shifts, atmospheric charm and tunes that are as insidious as they are off-kilter. Recent singles Matter and Curtains are both belters: full of urgency and glowering portent, their refined sense of drama and an…

Aussie prog metallers return with their strongest album yet. This fourth full-length album from the Australian prog metallers provides a forceful reminder of how, when intelligently written and consummately performed, a genre that’s often derided for recycled predictability still has the capacity to amaze. Part of the unquestionable appeal of Caligula’s Horse is their ability to blend progressive moments with the directness of alternative rock, and there’s also a maturity here that was sometimes lacking on their previous recordings. That ripening of their sound is striking on the likes of the slick The Hands Are The Hardest and Fill My Heart, the latter drifting through segments of delightful bombast and acoustic tranquillity. Indeed, it’s that knack for fusing musical moods that makes In Contact such a compelling listen. The only…

Four famous friends in a frantic, fun fandango. Gizmodrome is the first release by a four-piece who between them have already worked on dozens of albums. They’re a good old-fashioned supergroup, comprising Police drummer and soundtrack composer Stewart Copeland; Level 42’s slap-bassist extraordinaire Mark King; Adrian Belew, the guitar star of records by King Crimson, David Bowie, Frank Zappa and Talking Heads; and keyboard whizz Vittorio Cosma of Italian prog legends PFM. A collision of opposites that more often than not works. If this sounds like an opportunity for a whole lot of instrument twiddling, well, that’s exactly what Gizmodrome is. They could easily have done it the modern way and swapped sound files, without once meeting. Instead, they did what musicians love to do: they got together to jam.…

Dark magic from the frozen North. Is there some unidentified mind-expanding substance in the fjords of Norway? The country seems to be an incubator for a new generation of genre-blending progressive bands – Shaman Elephant, Motorpsycho, the Hedwig Mollestad Trio, and now Himmellegeme. The group’s approach pulls in psychedelia, blues, prog and post-rock to create a massive, musical black hole. Aleksander Vormestrand, who sings in Norwegian, has a high, clear voice full of unfulfilled yearning, akin to Thom Yorke when Radiohead still cared about melodies, matched by the soaring lead guitar of Hein Alexander Olson. The surging title track is a showcase for the band’s instincts for drama and dynamics. Breath In The Air Like Fire envelops the listener in swirling currents, while Kyss Mine Blodige Hender (Kiss My Bloody…

Ambient maverick’s two-album sunny delight. Most people probably only know Edward Larry Gordon’s music through his 1980, Brian Enoproduced Day Of Radiance. Yet subsequent releases have proved an invaluable exploration of a fascinating sonic space that serenely floats between ambient, new age, electronic and world music. Bring On The Sun is initially familiar – wind chimes discretely shimmering in the background while luxuriant ripples of gently hammered zither ride off on plangent waves of echo. However, the album opens out into contrasting but thoroughly cohesive pieces that variously place harmonica, acoustic guitar and cavernous church organ in the foreground. The autobiographical spoken narrative on Reborn In Virginia, evoking Gordon’s early-1950s childhood in the backwoods, is suffused in sitar drones and ambling percussion, and it’s both beautiful and powerful. Sun Gong…

Back in his old stomping ground, from earlier this year. Live @ Ronnie Scott’s sees John McLaughlin back in the London club where he played in the house band in the 1960s. Recorded in March 2017, the song selections come from opposing ends of McLaughlin’s career, drawn mainly from the first two Mahavishnu Orchestra albums and 2015’s Black Light. McLaughlin plays with a propulsive energy that puts guitarists half his age to shame. Miles Beyond starts out gently restrained with Etienne M’Bappé taking the bassline out for a walk, but McLaughlin’s solo injects the track with a shot of adrenaline. Here Comes The Jiis a kaleidoscope of colours and moods. From a sinuous opening, it builds up with funky slap bass from M’Bappé, a rousing drum solo from Ranjit Barot,…

Mariusz Duda’s solo project peers into a very personal abyss. In between making the last four four albums with Riverside, Mariusz Duda has been even busier with his less rock-oriented solo project Lunatic Soul, and this fifth album in nine years would appear to be a welcome distraction from the band that made his reputation, given recent events. The theme is of yearning for release through music, intoxication or romantic validation. Fractured is said to be inspired by “coming back to life after a personal tragedy”. We’re bound to presume that this is a reference to the sudden death of Duda’s Riverside bandmate Piotr Grudzi ski last year, but perhaps things aren’t quite that simple, as there seems to be a broader internal turmoil informing the introspective, melancholy mood of…

Promising debut release from ex-Haken member. Initially attracting attention for the presence of ex-Haken bassist Tom McClean, this EP represents the long-awaited first studio output from Psion. For all its fun, atmospheric bombast, the opener Entranced nearly outstays its welcome. It’s refreshing in a sense to hear musicians so unafraid to front-load a release with something this self-indulgent, but the snappier movie trailer-like first minute and a half would have served just as well as a tongue-incheek intro. Luckily for them, they come out swinging on second track Void, the first of three nearly 10-minute songs that make up the rest of the EP. Vocalist Bryan Ramage seems initially to be a pure classic rock frontman, but when weirder rhythm parts materialise, there’s a welcome Devin Townsend influence to his…

Likeable, hook-laden return from the Mael Brothers. Of late, Russell and Ron Mael have hooked up with arty indie rockers Franz Ferdinand in the supergroup FFS, while their last album as Sparks, 2009’s The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman, was a weird, convincing, long-form concept piece. They’re back in more accessible mode on their 25th record, and are on typically catchy, camp and funny form (Missionary Position, Edith Piaf Said It Better Than Me, What The Hell Is It This Time?). There’s a fuzzguitar psych twist to Unaware, the urgent Bummer has a deceptively complicated vocal arrangement, and the brothers are at their most delicately waspish on I Wish You Were Fun. Across a substantial 15-track album, Russell’s unmistakable voice straddles the opera house and the music hall, while Ron’s pianism…

British prog metallers get over Damian Wilson split in style. It all went a bit soap opera in the Threshold camp earlier this year. The prog metallers unceremoniously dumped singer Damian Wilson after his third stint in the group as they chose to “start a new chapter without him”. But the singer quickly catapulted a retort back, saying the decision wasn’t mutual. “This was really unexpected. The only contact I’ve had with Threshold these last few months has been via email,” he told Prog in March. There’s more leeway here: harmony, acoustics and grandeur are as important as the riffs. This type of intra-band squabbling happens all the time, but when it’s a group who have released 10 albums, and a classy singer who has worked with Headspace and Ayreon…

Scream for me Manchester! Twisted Illusion are certainly a fearless bunch. Tasked with concocting a follow-up to their well-received debut – 2016’s Temple Of Artifice – this Manchesterbased act have crafted an album that has been bravely stretched over two discs. Centred around vocalist/guitarist Matt Jones, their line-up has been far from steady, with a variety of members performing on stage and in the studio as needed. That combination of a lack of stability and the sheer mountain of music created here has not been a winning one, unfortunately. Musically, they seem determined to hop on to the ever-burgeoning prog bandwagon, when in reality, there’s a glaring dichotomy to that claim. The first half of the album harks back to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, with opener Reflections…

Atmospheric second record from TesseracT/Skyharbor collaboration. Avital part of White Moth Black Butterfly’s charm is their complementing contrasts. Just take a look at the evocative name, or the way they seamlessly juggle pop sheen with experimental, cinematic soundscapes. The collective’s second album Atone follows suit, with the record exploring the common themes of loss and hope. The band – led by TesseracT singer Daniel Tompkins and Skyharbor’s Keshav Dhar – landed a deal with Kscope for this 11-track album and you can see why the label decided to invest. Although distantly familiar, the interplay between Tompkins and bandmate Jordan Turner’s breathy, floating vocals is at times a treat, while string arranger Randy Slaugh – who has worked with Devin Townsend – helps to concoct some movie soundtrack-style mystery. Hardened proggers…

Double 45rpm vinyl reissue for post-rock classic and nu prog landmark. Bark Psychosis were one of the leading lights of the original 90s post-rock scene, a disparate collection of bands lumped together by virtue of sharing a dissatisfaction with the perceived limits of rock music. Released in 1994, Hex is routinely hailed as one of postrock’s greatest albums. However, what’s clear from the perspective of 2017 is that, tonally and aesthetically, it’s also a landmark in the development of modern prog, pioneering a sound that’s artful but never elitist, experimental yet melodic. Founder members Graham Sutton and John Ling were young and omnivorous music fans, taking on influences as diverse as Miles Davis, Swans, Can, John Martyn and, most tellingly, late-period Talk Talk. Just as significantly, older drummer Mark Simnett…

Magma legacy gains livid archival gold. Wurdah Ïtah was reissued as recently as 2015 during Jazz Village’s catalogue reissue campaign, but now it’s back, on Magma’s own label, with the monumental addition of January 1972’s original demo version, exhumed from Christian Vander’s vaults. At that time, Magma had released only two feet-finding albums in France and, as Vander says in his notes, were bursting “to release our pent-up energy” after a series of volcanic live performances. So manager Giorgio Gomelsky booked a studio and Vander enlisted three Magma members, including stentorian singer Klaus Blasquiz, to try out a work in progress called `Wurdah Ïtah. As Vander says in his notes, “We’re in a trance… a gang of raving music-driven raving lunatics have struck their studio like lightning!” Vander returned to…