Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 131 i Prog

NICK DVIRGILIO @NDVMusic Finally in the same room, I mean on the same boat, together. Next is to share the same stage together. Just sayin’. #troika #cruisetotheedge RICK WAKEMAN CBE @GrumpyOldRick Had a great couple of days in the studio working on the album… I hadn’t heard what I had already recorded for a few months and what I heard after such a long time put a real smile on my face. A few more weeks of recording and we’re there. Really exciting… NICK BEGGS @NickBeggs When your granddaughter tells you that you are a weirdo you know you’re doing something right. NAD SYLVAN @SylvanOfficial Visiting artist Robin and Dennis Damore overnight in Vancouver, Washington. She painted the Spiritus Mundi cover. Thanks for having me! PETE TREWAVAS @PeteTrewavas Stockholm. Last…

High-protein prog outfit O.R.k. are due to return with their fourth album, Screamnasium, on October 21 via Kscope. Billed by the label as “expansive and emotive” and “gutsy and striking”, the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Ramagehead once again features bass great Colin Edwin (ex-Porcupine Tree), drum giant Pat Mastelotto (Stick Men), composer and vocalist LEF (aka Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari) and guitarist Carmelo Pipitone (Marta Sui Tubi). Grammy-winning singer Elisa is set to duet with LEF on one track, Consequence, while Prog Award winner Jo Quail will add her virtuosic cello layers to album closer, Someone Waits. The LP was trailed in June by lead song As I Leave, with an accompanying video by Tool’s Adam Jones, who again handles album artwork and layout with Marvel/DC Comics illustrator, Denis Rodier. Screamnasium…

BROTHERS DAN AND James Scrivener wanted to be black metal’s next breakout superstars. As musicians, their niche for a long time was in incessant aggression and shrieking vocals. But then they got bored. “The most recent previous one was a band called Aklash,” remembers Dan, talking with Prog via video call. “James left that band four years ago or so.” “Black metal was never really my [genre],” James adds. “I enjoyed a couple of bands, but it wasn’t a genre I’d particularly listen to. I was listening more to postrock and post-metal at the time.” Bored of extreme metal’s constraints and yearning to fly into more progressive pastures, the pair formed Mountainscape. Rounded out by bassist Ethan Bishop, the trio add a primal and folkloric edge to post-rock. Debut album Acceptance…

It’s often said that all good things come to those who wait, but surely nobody was expecting a new Porcupine Tree album. When the UK prog crew released a brand-new song, Harridan, last November (their first new music in well over a decade), prog-friendly corners of internet came close to having a shared emotional meltdown. Long before progressive music had any kind of critical or cultural recovery, Steven Wilson’s band were slaving away in the pursuit of a more interesting, creative and forward-thinking approach to artful rock. From the beginnings as a cod-psychedelic DIY project that only really existed in Wilson’s bedroom, to the esoteric, prog-embracing experiments of Voyage 34 and The Sky Moves Sideways, and on to the holistic modern prog magnificence of certified classic albums such as In…

“I wouldn’t do this with many more things, but it’s so vitally, vitally important that people understand what’s going on [in Ukraine] and do everything within their power to change that situation.”David Gilmour In the very first Prog magazine, published in 2009, this writer was asked to “gaze into his crystal ball to see what the future holds for Floyd fans the world over”. The article, titled The Final Cut?, concluded with the summation that Pink Floyd’s “ownership of rock’s mystical high ground is forever assured… Their music still throws shapes and curves, hidden alleyways for an inquisitive mind to wander… With Pink Floyd, as with The Beatles, there will always be a considerable amount of interest in and scrutiny of what David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason do……

”We know our music and know how the band works now, so [a second album] seemed perfectly reasonable and perfectly natural.”Kavus Torabi The Utopia Strong have come a long way since inadvertently forming four years ago. The most unlikely trio since the Holy Trinity didn’t even realise they were becoming a band when they descended on musician Michael J York’s home in Glastonbury in January 2018 for a modular synth jam. Crucially, the trio left a tape recorder running throughout their marathon 13-hour session, and on returning from an extended sojourn to the pub, discovered – much to their surprise – that it all sounded rather good. Tentatively, a musical formation began to occur, though there was something odd about this group. Kavus Torabi and York had plenty of previous…

Susanna Wallumrød is excited. It’d be nice to think that her enthusiasm has been triggered by the prospect talking to your scribe, but the truth of the matter is that the respected composer, singer and musician is due to take to the stage in her native Norway in just a few hours’ time. And, in common with many of the musicians who found themselves in a state of artistic suspended animation over the last few years thanks to the super-lurgy that spread with all the speed of a bad rumour, the notion of performing in front of an audience has heightened her mood of anticipation. “I’ve missed playing live greatly,” she tells Prog via Zoom. “I also have found out that I’m really dependent on actually being out and playing…

Considering how much musical ground Mikael Åkerfeldt has covered with Opeth over the last 30 years, it seems only natural that he should make a gentle move into the world of soundtracks. Opeth’s music has long been rich with atmosphere, and on 2019’s In Cauda Venenum in particular, the Swedes’ sound took on, at times, a pointedly cinematic edge. Whether that record was a dry run is another matter, but while the bandleader’s first foray into the visual realm contains plenty of music that sounds absolutely nothing like Opeth whatsoever, it also contains more than enough of Åkerfeldt’s established musical vocabulary to make perfect sense in the broader context of his entire catalogue. Clark is the soundtrack to a Netflix series about notorious Swedish crook Clark Olofsson, the country’s first…

Unlikely team up produces classical/fusion fireworks. Pairing an orchestra with a rock band is always a risky venture. It might produce an album as groundbreaking as Days Of Future Passed or something as turgid as The Symphonic Music Of Yes. Fortunately, this collaboration between prog fusion power trio The Aristocrats and Poland’s Primuz Chamber Orchestra is a delightful meeting of worlds. The arrangements, by Wojtek Lemański, are superb. Rather than merely backing up the band, the classical musicians take the lead melody – beautifully done in The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde – or even trade riffs with the trio in Dance Of The Aristocrats. The band don’t sacrifice their fiery energy to accommodate the strings. The three instrumentalists turn in some dazzling playing, from Bryan Beller’s funky bassline in…

Psych/prog veteran swaps the outer limits for MOR. One More Moment is the second album from Clive Bayley, a founding member of Chris Squire’s pre-Yes group Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, and multi-instrumentalist Max Hunt. It following 2020’s Whispers. Where Mabel Greer’s Toyshop were a product of 60s psychedelia, Affirm have a more modern sound that draws on prog and MOR. Bayley has an understated, unassuming vocal style that would be at home in a quiet folk setting and some songs would benefit from a little more welly from the singer. There’s a sense of romanticism evident in Who Am I? and in the spoken-word poetry of Flower Of Love. In fact, this is an album with an abundance of love songs, even if they do occasionally take unexpected turns. Where Are…

Haken guitar wizard shows his evolution on debut solo album. Charlie Griffiths indulges his enthusiasm for prog, metal and palaeontology with his first solo album, which is named after a tetrapod that crawled out of the water and onto land 375 million years ago. The Haken guitarist is joined in this endeavour by Jordan Rudess on keys, Martin Barre and Devin Townsend drummer Darby Todd, saxophonist Rob Townsend (who has played with Steve Hackett), and guest vocalists Tommy Rogers from Between The Buried And Me, Danïel De Jongh from Dutch prog metallers Textures, Organised Chaos’ Vladimir Lali and Neil Purdy of Luna’s Call. “With an arsenal of heavyweight riffs, it’s a spirited experience.” Musically, Tiktaalika has a different sound and vibe to Haken, with Griffiths playing a six-string guitar rather…

Variety is the spice of life on French quintet’s third album. Lyon’s Enneade is an ever-evolving entity. Consequently, line-up changes have delayed the follow-up to their last album, 2011’s Teardrops In Morning Dew, although they have remained an active live band since. Now it’s finally arrived, they don’t hold back in delivering five contrasting complex, shape-shifting compositions. Opener A Foul Taste Of Freedom has more than a hint of Horslips’ celtic groove, while the more reflective Illumination skilfully fuses jangling acoustic guitars with chords and dreamy synths. For quirky virtuosity, nothing touches Tinkling Forks on which xylophone, marimba and Chapman Stick all converge. The rockier Grand Buffet, its interwoven guitars hinting at KC, belies the grisly storyline of insects feasting on a buried cadaver. More surprises emerge in Autumn, a…

Sitting comfortably? Good, because there’s lots to unravel here… Croix-Noire – The World Of Ace Hansel Jr, is a sci-fi story told via a 140-page graphic novel, an online game, a novella by Emmy-winning writer David Quantick, and this concept-album soundtrack, a collaboration between Mike Batt and French singer-songwriter Jean-Charles Capelli. It’s Capelli who voices Ace Hansel Jr, a flawed, cape-less superhero who inhabits the seedy streets of Croix-Noire, a fictitious place based on a real French red-light district. The plot twists and turns, as does the music. On the almost ELO-like Rainbow Maze, Batt’s imaginative arrangements take in strings and woodwind. But listening to pretty piano ballad Loneliness Potion, Capelli and Batt have forgotten that Croix-Noire is supposed to be a seat of debauchery, rather than a Mecca for…

Unexpected solo record from A Perfect Circle guitarist and songwriter. Back in 2018, Billy Howerdel teased a new album from his side-project Ashes Divide. Somewhere along the way, however, it instead morphed into this: his first solo record. Anyone who knows Howerdel from his work in A Perfect Circle, alongside Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, will find a lot to like on What Normal though the aesthetic is very different. project remains, but sonically there’s less guitar, more synth and more space in the arrangements. Howerdel’s vocal register has changed too, dropping to a more natural pitch, and the result is a more controlled performance throughout. Whereas A Perfect Circle sound modern and fresh, this is more about Howerdel pushing his own boundaries. Instead of being something wholly novel, it bears…

Keyboard king’s latest classy, all-star fusion fest. Instrumental music can be extraordinarily powerful. With the potential to say the unsayable, it allows musicians a freedom that they seldom get when there’s a singer in the room. Equally, instrumental music can be genuinely horrifying, as frustrated virtuosos go for broke in an endless spiral of technical one-upmanship. “It features an impressive roll call of legendary guitarists.” Thankfully, and this is true of the majority of Derek Sherinian’s solo records, Vortex is firmly in the former camp. As has been the case with every album since Inertia in 2001, the keyboard wizard’s ninth full-length features an impressive roll call of frankly legendary guitarists, all of whom are charged with keeping up with Sherinian and drummer Simon Phillips. It seems reasonable to note…

A sensitive subject given suitably sonic swaddling. If there’s one thing that can be said with certainty about MONO’s soundtrack to My Story, The Buraku Story it’s that it sounds exactly like a soundtrack. This Japanese documentary about the Burakumin, a caste of workers often considered “untouchable” because of their occupations – as undertakers, slaughterhouse workers and butchers they’re tainted by death – deals with a sensitive subject, and MONO’s work is suitably delicate, with shifts of mood and momentum that are gentle and gradual. Strings wobble and stretch, sound effects crackle and burr, and it all drifts slowly from one passageto the next in the softest of sonic swaddling. Those attracted by MONO’s work at the louder end of the dial may struggle with the pace, but this is…

A mesmerising dive into Nordic folk legend. Songwriter and actor Jonas Lorentzen recently appeared in the bloods-plattered and historically accurate big screen Viking epic The Northman. Before that he was previously a member of neofolk standard bearers Heilung, and his own solo project dwells in a similar sound space. Nebala’s involving, atmospheric debut album, Lustuz Laþu Wōþuz Alu is billed as “a reimagination of Nordic folk and spiritually driven music”. There are shades of Wardruna’s deep authenticity in Lorentzen’s palette: primal vocalisations characterise In Raurani; Safijan is rich with primitive percussion, harp and tribal chants; throat singing and (very probably) goatskin drums propel Skīnanārijaz. It’s all elevated by its dense yet crystal-clear production and sound design. The fact that both a professor of pre-Christian religion and a philosopher were involved…

Crossover prog teeming with evocative insights and instrumentation. Returned To The Earth’s second album picks up where 2019’s superb Erebus mixture of internal reflections and external commentaries. Tracks such as Drowning conventionally structured, but they’re also dynamic and art-rock atmospheres of The Pineapple Thief and Riverside. Vocalist/guitarist Robin Peachey’s strikes a balance between self-assurance and fragility that, combined with the energetic and expressive arrangements, make these songs come alive. White Room is simultaneously urgent and peaceful, whereas a similar sort of tranquillity with bursts of aggression reminiscent of Fates Warning’s A Pleasant Shade Of Gray. With its dramatic piano chords and acoustic guitar strums, channels the contemplative spaciness of Cosmography, and closing elegy April provides closure via tranquil pensive singing. It’s the serene final soundscapes, brooding strings and piece of…

Welcome return for Pete Lambrou’s Prog Award-nominated post-rock project. At the 2018 Prog Awards, VLMV were shortlisted for the Limelight trophy on the strength of their debut, Stranded, Not Lost. That album moved at a glacial pace, and the project’s linchpin Pete Lambrou has certainly taken his time with the follow-up. Sing With Abandon is a collection digital sounds and traditional instruments such as contrabassoon, cello and violin. With Lambrou’s voice a brittle veneer, the gently epic There Are Mountains Beneath Us builds insistently on layers of synth/acoustic orchestra. The lifelorn For Empire and minor-key, piano-led The Navigator once again root VLMV in the post-Sigur Rós camp – no bad thing. The blend of songs and instrumental moments works well. Left free-standing some of the moody non-vocal pieces might be…

Swedish veterans put their first two albums on wax. Originally released in 1995, the first bona fide Flower Kings album emerged into a world that wasn’t terribly interested in progressive rock. A veteran of the Swedish scene, founder, frontman and chief songwriter Roine Stolt had tested the water with his solo album, The Flower King, one year earlier, but Back In The World Of Adventures – here reissued on vinyl, together with follow-up Retropolis – was a more comprehensive realising of his unashamedly old-school approach. Book-ended by two expansive epics (World Of Adventures and Big Puzzle), it’s a sumptuous, 70-minute barrage of ideas that still sounds as if Stolt was reimagining all prog rock’s revered tropes for the modern age. The Flower Kings make stronger albums, but as a blueprint…

Epic seven-disc set celebrates cross-cultural percussionist. These days Stomu Yamashta is largely invisible, but in 1970s UK he cut a flamboyant and intriguing figure whose striking theatricality, as he leaped from drum to cymbal within an impressively large percussion rig, made him a perfect fit for television programmes, such as highbrow late-night arts shows and even kids’ TV fave Blue Peter. “A reminder of when experimentation was applauded.” There aren’t too many established classical musicians who’ve convincingly traversed the cultural poles of orchestral recitals, theatre, rock, and jazz gigs but Yamashta has probably made a better go of it than anyone else. Those broad interests and a healthy disregard of conventional boundaries are all features of this box set with musically varied contents that reveal an eclectic and energetic personality…

Frank at an incredible live apex. On Someone Has Just Asked Me…, the opening track of this mammoth box set, Frank Zappa is away. “Howdy, Folks,” he begins. “Here’s the deal. I’m going get tuned up, introduce the band to you, and play you one hell of a show.” And this set, collectively, is one hell of a show. “It’s a mix of juvenile humour and adult music.” Adored by his fans and ignored by everyone else without much middle ground, Zappa’s body of work, by its sheer volume alone, seems one of the most impenetrable in rock. Although it may be foolhardy to suggest a seven-hour, six-CD, 71-track collection of three shows recorded between 1974 and 1976 – only containing 10 minutes of previously released material – may be…

VENUE THE UNDERWORLD, CAMDEN DATE 13/05/2022 ‘From the sublime to the ridiculous’ could describe half of the Von Hertzen ‘From Brothers’ catalogue but is equally appropriate for the top of tonight’s show. The mesmeric Day Of Reckoning is a raft of multiharmony vocals and choppy keyboards that not only leads the audience into the tripped-out beauty of their latest album, Red Alert In The Blue Forest, but also opens the door on tonight’s set. It’s engaging, filled with colours, and set to dazzle. Until it’s not. The song segues, as is the case on the record too, into the dense glade that is the Blue Forest; a single pinging note welcomes the song in, much like a beacon calling across the waves to bring a ship home. Though tonight said…

John Mitchell will release the fifth album under his Lonely Robot banner later this year. Available from August 26 via InsideOut, A Model Life follows Feelings Are Good, released in July 2020, and sees the artist continue his trajectory away from the ‘astronaut’ concept with which he first launched the project, back in 2015. The It Bites/Frost* star reveals to Prog that Feelings Are Good’s relatively muted release, mid-pandemic, has made him slightly more apprehensive about the new record than usual. “As anybody who released an album at the start of lockdown will tell you,” he says, “that was an incredibly bad idea. In a way [Feelings Are Good] felt like it didn’t really happen – it was here, and then gone. You put your heart and soul into these…

Arena will release their much-anticipated 10th studio album, The Theory Of Molecular Inheritance, on September 2 through Verglas. Delayed by two years due to the pandemic, the record features band linchpin, keyboardist Clive Nolan, plus regular Arena guitarist John Mitchell, drummer Mick Pointer, and bassist Kylan Amos. The release is also significant for being the band’s first new set to feature former Threshold vocalist Damian Wilson, who replaced previous singer Paul Manzi back in 2020. “Damian nearly joined Arena twice before,” Nolan tells Prog, “but this time the stars aligned. I love his vocal style. He absolutely suits Arena because of the kind of vocals we like to do, and his ability to twist melodies.” Nolan also says that Wilson has brought a new energy and attitude to the Arena…

Six By Six is the prog supergroup comprising vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry, guitarist Ian Crichton (Saga) and drummer Nigel Glockler (Saxon/GTR), and they will release their self-titled debut album on August 19 via InsideOut. The lead single from it, Yearning To Fly, is available now on streaming platforms. From the 80s, Berry worked with ELP’s drummer Carl Palmer and keyboard legend Keith Emerson in the trio, 3. He formed Six By Six in 2020, some four years after Emerson’s death. With 3 now a thing of the past, he’d been talking to his manager about what direction to go in next. Berry says he elected to start a more guitar-driven band because, when it came to keyboard music, “Keith was the best, so I couldn’t see myself continuing my…

“WE MET IN a bar one night because Tomos and Lucy had been flirting on the internet,” laughs guitarist Jack Vallance. “We matched on Tinder,” co-guitarist and lead vocalist Lucy Shevchuk adds of her relationship with Square Wild’s drummer, Tomos Cooper. The date took them to a Manchester jazz bar, Matt & Phreds, where Vallance was taking part in a jam night. Many drinks later – “It was a case of, ‘We’ll go after this next one’ for so long,” Vallance remembers – the band were formed. Fast forward six years and Square Wild have gradually established a kaleidoscopic sound, shaped by a shared love of rock and coloured by their vastly different individual tastes. Vallance’s love of tech metal and virtuosic guitar playing is a world away from Cooper’s…

Our lives are so often accompanied by the music of chance. Attentive listeners will know that strange coincidences and unexpected encounters chime loudly throughout our personal histories, echoing and shaping our world with odd connections in ways that are unforeseen, fortuitous or simply surprising. For example, take Alan White. He was born in 1949 in the coal mining village of Pelton in north-east England. Not too far from that settlement is Drum Road, now the site of the Drum Business Park. Just a few miles from his Pelton birthplace sits the town of Washington. That, in turn, isn’t too far away from Newcastle, where White’s first band, The Downbeats, played its clubs and halls in the early 60s. Fast forward a couple of decades and White became a long-term resident…

MALCOLM STOCKS Credited with additional guitar and voice on Queen Quotes Crowley, a highlight from Porcupine Tree’s somewhat atypical debut album, On The Sunday Of Life, Malcolm Stocks is the mystery man in the band’s family tree. Seemingly alive and well but stoically uninvolved with music since those early days, he helped Steven Wilson conceive the band in the first place. Respect where it’s due. COLIN EDWIN Porcupine Tree bassist from 1993 to 2010, Edwin has been a prolific force over the last decade. From releases with experimental rock outfits Metallic Taste Of Blood, Obake and O.R.k., to multiple collaborations with Tim Bowness and, most recently, a third solo album (2020’s Infinite Regress), he’s amassed an impressive catalogue of strange and occasionally beautiful music. CHRIS MAITLAND A regular fixture in…

There’s a certain no-nonsense, honest grittiness about Ms Amy Birks. Whether she’s referring to the disbanding of her former group Beatrix Players, discussing comparisons to other artists or her deeply personal lyrics, the conversation is always engaging and devoid of some of the PR-driven, banal fluffiness that affects too many musicians. For Birks, there’s also a sense that she needs to recover a momentum that’s been lost over recent years. Her central role as part of Beatrix Players – an ornate, classical-driven trio – led to countless plaudits, before she called time on that endearing project. A subsequent debut solo album, All That I Am & All That I Was in 2020, was similarly well received, before an enforced lockdown culled any hopes of supporting live gigs. Now, she’s returned…

“At one point, I had menswinging punches at me. It’s a good job I can handle myself.” Prog is talking to Alice Freya and Darren Joseph, vocalist and drummer/songwriter respectively of South Wales-based band Last Flight To Pluto. Having asked them about the band’s origins, Alice – all 5ft 3 of her – is reminiscing about a particularly arduous gig on the Sandfields Estate in Port Talbot. “All the members of Pluto were in the covers band that Alice and I ran,” continues Darren. “It’s a hardcore circuit in South Wales, very rough and ready.” “Every dive you can think of. We’ve played it,” chimes in Alice. Darren continues. “At this particular gig, I don’t think the locals took a shine to me. I’m tall – 6ft 5 – and…

“IT WOULD BE AWESOME TO HAVE SOME KIND OF SYNTH WIZARD, LIKE THE DUDE IN ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE WITH THE MOOG, MAKING ALL THOSE HAWKWIND-Y SOUNDS.” Three has frequently been the magic number in progressive music. From ELP and Rush to Animals As Leaders and Hedvig Mollestad Trio, a triangular formation has led to some of the most astonishing and esoteric creative feats in rock history. Now we can add the new Earthless album to that list. An hour-long, semi-improvised acid rock symphony inspired by a nightmarish Japanese folk tale, replete with marauding ghouls, Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons casually redefines what three gifted players can achieve when the usual laws of musical logic are completely ignored. Formed in San Diego, California in 2001, Earthless are a thoroughly formidable…

Post-hardcore and prog collide with stunning results. Time was that bands rarely made it to their 25th anniversary. Time was that the longer a band’s lifespan, then the greater the diminishing returns. And yet times like these prove there are exceptions to the rules and the gloriously unwieldy Texans…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead just happen to be one of them. “They’ve reconnected with their muse and their raison d’être.” Granted, the band’s line-up has altered over the years, but with founder members and multi-instrumentalists Conrad Keeley and Jason Reece still at its core,…Trail Of Dead’s renewed sense of vigour for their silver anniversary was fully evident on 2020’s X: The Godless Void And Other Stories, not to mention the sense of urgency that characterised their…

The Parallax Method guitarist sneaks prog into latest solo rock recording. Danny Beardsley is best known in prog circles for his involvement with instrumental trio The Parallax Method, but his smart solo work has plenty of progressive merit hidden among its broad-appeal songwriting – it’s just a matter of finding it. Following on from 2019’s Blood From Stone, his second album is top-loaded with radio-friendly songs that showcase his riff-building dexterity, tasteful flamboyance and solid songwriting. Prog fans don’t seem to be the target and alluring flourishes abound. Reap utilising a breakdown for a chorus before swaying into glittering math rock, while Save Me From Myself progresses into a jagged, John-Petrucci-writes-Mastodon-riffs affair in its latter stages. Yet, even when his songs are straightforward, inspire his fingertips – there’s a dash…

Timely missive from the nine circles courtesy of London art-rock headspinners. Black Midi don’t look like fans of the classic whodunit, but the red herrings dropped in Hellfire – their third album in as many years – would suggest otherwise. Indeed, the head scratching induced by the title track’s flirtation with country music and the nod to tropicália on Dangerous Liaison sound as if they’ve stumbled in from the wrong album, but their explosion into skittering beats, free jazz flourishes and time signatures that veer this way and that soon reassure as to who the authors really are. Building on their previous two releases, Hellfire is a dense and labyrinthine album that takes a microscope to the nastier side of life thanks to the narration of a variety of characters…

Bergen-based jazz trio’s atmospheric debut. It’s always refreshing when a group is willing to stretch beyond their home turf. A young trio consisting of bassist Øystein Høynes, Amund Nordstrøm on drums, and guitarist Odd Erlend Mikkelsen are graduates of Bergen’s prestigious Grieg Academy and incorporate elements of Americana and a retro post-bop feel. Yet they never stray too far from a mix of easy-on-the-ear tunes with an agreeable tonality. Supple arrangements maintain a simple enough framework that allows ample room for some effective, engaging interplay. Think Medeski, Martin And Wood, but minus the Hammond organ. The title track haunts a gently undulating terrain of bass and rolling drums, with breezy washes of chords and silvery streaks of notes suggesting Bill Frisell’s subdued restraint and, at a different level, Lyle Lovett’s…

Perturbator and Cult Of Luna main men bring the noise. The possibilities seemed manifold going into this one-off collaboration between Parisian synthwave artist Perturbator and Johannes Persson from Swedish post-metallers Cult Of Luna. However, after opener Nothing Will Bear Your Name’s calm-before-the-storm prelude, an explosion of apocalyptic doom metal rips from the speakers and, from thereon in, light and shade are in short supply. In The Void benefits from a propulsive beat and diabolic riffs as symphonic accompaniment sweeps across dive bombing missiles of guitar and synth, while Persson summons howling hellfire from the depths of his diaphragm. Trouble is, his vocal mode is set to ‘Satanic’, meaning even when It Came With The Water’s widescreen sonic landscape hints at more nuanced territory, the mood is lifted only a touch…

Texan prog metallers dial back the extreme in favour of idiosyncrasy. With the release of their self-titled fourth album in 2020, it felt like Oceans Of Slumber had reached the outer limits of what progressive death metal could do for them. It’s a niche they had lived in for years, though it increasingly seemed at odds with what their acolytes actually wanted. “Intrinsic to the album are its experiments with genre.” When the Houston six-piece debuted with 2013’s Aetherial – featuring singer Ronnie Gates – they were prog metal all the way. Their expansive songs, intricate guitars and growled vocals positioned them between Mastodon and Opeth. However, it wasn’t until Gates was replaced by Cammie Gilbert, whose heart-wrenching pipes marked a move to more emotive prog/death/doom soundscapes on 2016’s Winter,…

It’s jazz, Jim, but not as we know it. Named after a Thelonious Monk quote, Norway’s I Like To Sleep are signed to Rune Grammofon, a label that has an uneasy relationship with the notion of genre. Sure, it’s jazz. And yeah, it’s experimental. But somehow their catalogue feels adjacent to both, as if such pigeonholing mocks the unfettered ambition of its output. I Like To Sleep’s novel instrumental line-up (vibraphone, baritone guitar and drums) provides plenty of room for musical manoeuvre, and their third album lives up to the potential, lurching crazily from one idea to the next. Opener Daydream explores the kind of cusp-of-collapse territory Jimi Hendrix might have had the Band Of Gypsys been able to spend more time in the studio, before settling into a woozy,…

Norwegian collective up the fusion flavours on album three. Ten years after vividly colourful Bergen jazz prog quintet Knekklectric formed, obvious comparisons to Gentle Giant and Steely Dan still ring true, yet they don’t tell the full story of a band that ultimately feel of their own world. Perhaps the fact that it’s hard for non-Norwegian speakers to fathom their native-tongue lyrics lends an even greater appreciation of the delicate blend of the atmospheres and emotions at play, but there is also something about their sound that’s hypnotic. The indie-prog of Rød Bil stacks swinging jazz guitars and skipping keys with satin-smooth vocal harmonies. Muknado sits tightly in the pocket, flitting between genteel jazz verses and bright, syncopated detours that weave together poppy prog with video game menu music. The…

Comic book capers spawn evocative soundscapes. London-based drummer and keyboardist Andrew Prestidge has spent much of the past decade combining his love of vintage synths and darkly trippy rock with a penchant for progtastic 70s soundtracks: first in Zoltan, briefly in cinematically inclined doom metallers Warning and more recently as part of The Osiris Club. Then there’s Morlock. This follow-up to 2019’s Ancient Paths was been inspired by a sci-fi graphic novel he had been working on, and its expansive instrumental vistas suggest it could soundtrack many a search of space and beyond. The meditative keyboard noodlings of The Prodigal are underpinned by bombastic percussion and of Gilmour-esque guitar. Elsewhere, the urgent motorik throb of the title track introduces a dystopian robot vocal as the sense of rising panic is…

A marriage made in heaven. Few talents have been quite so under-utilised as that of Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. Largely off-radar in the quarter-century since the band split, she now returns alongside her drummer/percussionist partner Damon Reece (Massive Attack, Spiritualized), who also engineers here. Sun’s Signature have more prog credentials than might be apparent. This debut packs timpani, synthesisers and Taurus bass pedals, while their love of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway led to them inviting Steve Hackett to guest on three songs, including the madrigal-like closer, Make Lovely The Day. For all the richly detailed arrangements (hand-bells, ‘sustainer’ guitars and woodwind also feature), it’s Fraser’s mesmerising voice that soars above and beyond, a multitracked wonder on Golden Air, where Hackett supplies guitar, and a sensual thing on…

Formative studio demos from post-punk pioneers. One advantage of bands having their own label is that they can attempt to right any perceived wrongs from past employers. And so it is with Wire, who were appalled when an illegal bootleg began circulating at some point in the early 80s. The original Not About To Die, recorded solely for their paymasters at EMI, consisted of demos and ideas that were never intended for release, transferred onto poor-quality cassette. Now the post-punk veterans have finally decided to reclaim them as their own, remastering this fascinating batch of songs – mostly in-progress works for 1978’s Chairs Missing and 1979 follow-up 154 – to the kind of standard we’ve come to expect from this most self-directed of bands. They swiftly move through splenetic songs…

Gargantuan set chronicling pretty much everything they ever did. Often cited as the founding fathers of celtic rock, Dublin’s Horslips had talent to burn. Three of their five members were multi-instrumentalists who could turn their hands to just about anything, and they were astute enough to found their own record label, Oats. Those who caught their 1974 The Old Grey Whistle Test performance of Dearg Doom witnessed something brilliantly bonkers. Uberhirsute joint frontman Charles O’Connor had one hand painted silver in homage to mythological Irish king Nuada Airgetlám, while the band’s dazzling leads across electric guitar, electric mandolin and uilleann pipes conjured The Chieftans turned up to 11. “Fans of Focus or Jethro Tull will find much to love.” Fans of Focus or Jethro Tull will find much to love…

Seven-CD box set celebrates prog blues contenders. Led by John Mayall’s ex-drummer and signed to Deram, like many post-blues boom groups of the era, The Keef Hartley Band incorporated rock and jazz elements, which were considerably enhanced by the presence of top-drawer brass and wind players including the supremely talented trumpeter and arranger Henry Lowther, as well as guitarist and singer, Miller Anderson, whose role and writing grows with each album. Despite their popularity on the live circuit, including an appearance at the Woodstock Festival no less, they failed to transfer any of these positives into album sales. That’s a great shame as there’s a lot to like and admire on these albums. 1969’s Halfbreed exudes hard, potent energy with razor-sharp arrangements that showcase an accessible yet ambitious sound. The…

Landmark British folk-prog with hints of proto-punk and psychedelia. Not to be confused with the similarly named American jazz/funk/fusion band, this together by founder Martin Cockerham when he was a student in Canterbury around 1969. Over the subsequent years the band featured a number of musicians, but only Cockerham and eminent British vocalist Barbara Gaskin survived the various arrivals and exits. Never actively part of the so-called Canterbury scene, the band were influenced by the then-resurgent folk movement and late 60s psychedelia to produce music that had authenticity, yet reflected changing times and was socially and politically aware. This collection brings together the three albums made before Spirogyra fell apart in 1974, with each release presented on its own CD with facsimile LP covers along with a handful of outtakes…

VENUE OMEARA, LONDON DATE 16/05/2022 SUPPORT HAUNT THE WOODS Cornish prog rockers Haunt The Woods have just signed to Crown Lands’ UK label Spinefarm, hence their support for the Canadian duo on their first ever trip to the UK. At first the quartet seem a bit lost, even on the cramped stage, faced with an ever-swelling crowd, but once the music starts to flow, it’s not difficult to see why Spinefarm have declared their interest. At its heart, their sound is prog, but it equally draws from folk and there’s more than a whiff of psych in there too. You can throw Jeff Buckley’s otherworldly sound in too, the minute Jonathan Stafford begins to sing. Not a copyist, but the influence is there for all to hear, and it colours…

In an issue in which we pay tribute to the late Vangelis and Yes drummer Alan White, we also remember Steve Broughton, who died on May 29, aged 72. A gifted drummer, Broughton played in the Edgar Broughton Band behind his brother, guitarist and vocalist Edgar. They initially formed as a blues trio (completed by bassist Arthur Grant) in their native Warwick in 1968, and went on to evolve into a remarkable, and influential, gonzo-psych rock outfit. Moving to London and signing to Harvest, they released debut album Wasa Wasa in 1969, with Sing Brother Sing and Edgar Broughton Band following in 1970 and ’71 respectively. With support acts including the Space Oddity-era David Bowie and Supertramp, the band were powered by Steve’s strong drum skills, and gained some notoriety…

Progressive psychedelic rockers Motorpsycho are to release their next LP, Ancient Astronauts, on August 19 through Rune Grammofon. It will be the prolific Norwegian trio’s fourth full-length studio album in four consecutive years, following 2019’s The Crucible, 2020’s The All Is One and last year’s Kingdom Of Oblivion. Ancient Astronauts was recorded at Amber Tone Studios in Oslo, Norway, during the summer of 2021. As a result of travel restrictions at the time, the band’s longtime collaborator – Stockholm-based guitarist and keyboardist Reine Fiske – had to record his parts remotely. Unlike their conventional recording sessions, tracking for Ancient Astronauts was predominantly done live. The band played together in the studio to get the instrumental takes, before later adding overdubs and vocal lines. Musically, Motorpsycho describe the resulting album as…

Missouri prog metal forebears King’s X will release their first studio album in 14 years, Three Sides Of One, on September 2 via InsideOut, and will tour Europe too. The trio formed in 1979 and have had the same core line-up since 1980. They say that their 13th LP – their first new set since 2008’s XV – is a celebration of their long friendship. “King’s X feel like a couple of old best friends coming together, shooting the shit and having a good time,” says bassist/vocalist Dug Pinnick. “When I would listen to demo tapes of Jerry [Gaskill, drummer/vocalist] and Ty [Tabor, guitarist/vocalist] for the new record, it gave me a great perspective on how blessed I am to be in King’s X.” The three recorded in 2019, using Black…

(Kitchenware, 1990) It’s a glorious irony that the song Prefab Sprout are best remembered for, The King Of Rock’n’Roll (the one with the chorus ‘Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque’), is about a pop star who is only remembered for his biggest hit (which, of course, has the chorus ‘Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque’). This is not a fact that’s widely appreciated, but then again Paddy McAloon, the band’s driving force, was highly adept at smuggling devious wit, high concepts and musical chicanery past the mainstream pop audience. Prefab Sprout’s first album, 1984’s Swoon, is full of odd time signatures, unfathomable chords, tempo switches and arcane lyrical flourishes, but by the time of 1990’s Jordan: The Comeback, McAloon’s songwriting had tightened and his ambitions had grown substantially. Wendy Smith of the…

NOT CONTENT WITH assaulting the senses with Krokofant, Norwegian guitarist Tom Hasslan has found another way to explore the outer reaches of rock. As showcased on their self-titled debut album, Soft Ffog are a more hazy and free-flowing, jazz-rock beast, with a penchant for freewheeling solos and furious ensemble syncopation. Originally commissioned in 2016, as a one-off project for the globally renowned Kongsberg Jazzfestival, the instrumental quartet have only recently evolved into a real, working band, as Hasslan explains. “The festival just wanted me to do something, and I put together the band and made some music. I liked the music, but I didn’t know for a while if it was going to be anything more. We used to be called the Tom Hasslan Group, which was kind of lame…

LIFE SEEMS TO be coming at us ever faster of late. Fancy stepping away and finding some musical comfort? We have the very thing. With “one foot in 1970s Germany and the other in the woods, rivers and mountains of northeast Scotland”, here’s guitarist Duncan Marquiss, an experimental strummer of six-stringed things both acoustic and electric, his all-instrumental debut album Wires Turned Sideways In Time a balm to the soul as well as minting a kind of celestial Scottish krautrock. “That wasn’t a conscious or intentional fusion,” says Marquiss, Zooming from his flat in Glasgow. “I love a lot of krautrock, and hearing things such as Neu! made me think there were things you can do with a rock band or rock format that can go beyond its orthodoxy.” Marquiss…

The stellar career of Vangelis means many things to many people, such was the magnitude of his success. He was an electronic pioneer to some, a neoclassical titan to others; a highly decorated soundtrack composer who could do light as easily as shade, a magician, a guru, and a prog god on top of it all. The Greek musician, who died of heart failure in a Paris hospital on May 17 aged 79, was all of these things and more. Not that Vangelis felt comfortable with the word ‘career’. In a rare and exclusive interview with Prog in 2016, he said: “I make music every day because it’s been like this all my life and I continue to do so the same way. I have never felt comfortable to be…

RIVERSIDE It took a few albums for Poland’s most revered modern prog band to completely shake off the spectre of Porcupine Tree’s era-defining sound. Leader Mariusz Duda certainly doesn’t want anyone to dub him “the Polish Steven Wilson”. So we won’t. THE PINEAPPLE THIEF With Gavin Harrison currently playing drums for both bands, Porcupine Tree and The Pineapple Thief seem inextricably linked. Thanks to Bruce Soord’s love of an elegant melody set to wildly dynamic, left-field rock, certain musical similarities are hard to deny. HAKEN Although arguably more traditional in many ways than their British prog forebears, the London lads’ finessed amalgam of old-school songwriting and maximalist metal work owes an obvious debt to Porcupine Tree’s early 21st-century output. LEPROUS The stunning vocals of Einar Solberg tend to make Leprous…

“I didn’t want something that was obvious,” says Claudio Sanchez about Coheed And Cambria’s latest album, Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind. “I wanted to bring a new consciousness to the record.” The impetus behind Sanchez’s yearning for a fresh perspective was the simple fact that Coheed’s current release arrives as the group celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade. Their new record marks two decades of storytelling inside the science fiction universe that Sanchez created with The Amory Wars concept, an epic adventure spanning nine albums and counting, alongside comic books and novels. The current story arc is a pentalogy that began with 2018’s Vaxis I: Unheavenly Creatures and with Vaxis II Sanchez was aware that the sheer scale of The…

Andy Tillison has had an intriguing and varied professional journey. Although he fell in love with progressive rock at a young age, his first bands were new wave/pop acts and he owned and ran a studio in Leeds in the 1980s, which became a magnet for anarchists and punks. Soon he was rubbing shoulders with seminal British thrash and hardcore bands such as Civilised Society? and Carcass, as well as establishing a lasting relationship with anarcho-communists Chumbawumba. During the 1990s, he fronted a band heavily influenced by those studio experiences called Gold Frankincense & Disk Drive – their debut album, Where Do We Draw The Line?, was the first release on Peaceville Records, later home to Opeth and Anathema – then released a series of neo-prog/art-rock albums under the banner…

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, the group he formed in 1967 with Vincent Crane (later of Atomic Rooster), are absolutely foundational to the development of progressive rock. The Crazy World spiced up their R’n’Bderived sound with classical and jazz influences, and in Brown had an utterly magnetic frontman with a commanding, multi-octave voice who was part-shaman, part-preacher. Even today, there’s a genuine frisson to those performances of Fire on Top Of The Pops and This Is… Tom Jones – in his flaming helmet and robes, Brown cuts an almost demonic figure. But the Crazy World was just the start of Brown’s journey. In 1970, he formed the experimental, avant-rock troupe Kingdom Come before going solo and collaborating widely with artists including The Who, Hawkwind, Robert Calvert, The Pretty Things,…

Return to form for French electronic progger. Rémi Gallego – aka The Algorithm – burst onto the scene with Polymorphic Code in 2012, one of the most original records of the decade. Fusing electronic, mathcore and prog, it was confrontational, dense and exciting. Three conceptual, tight LPs followed, but he struggled to truly recapture the magic of that first release. Data Renaissance is a visceral return to form. It dispenses with some of the mathcore and djent timing tricks, instead leaning more into a fusion of metal and synthwave. This new direction works best on tracks like Interrupt Handler and Object Resurrection. Prog metal polyrhythms remain with Segmentation Faul and Readonly, though the real highlights come when the early-career tech metal and chiptune influences blend with this new direction, as…

Purist prog from the mean streets of San Diego. Of all the strange and wonderful sounds that emanate from the fingers of musicians, the dreamy strains of the Mellotron are arguably the most quintessentially prog of the lot. Birth’s full-length debut is drenched in the stuff, along with every conceivable salute to the brown, analogue tones of the early 70s. So committed and unapologetic are this San Diego trio, that Born passes through pastiche and establishes itself as an authentic spiritual descendant of the genre’s pioneering first wave. The songs themselves are uniformly stellar. The opening title track is a succinct instrumental that morphs into Descending Us, with its spiralling Moogs and sense of dark drama. The album’s gently meandering nine-minute centrepiece, For Yesterday, evokes both the pastoral sweep of…

Dutch group return revitalised from lengthy break. A near decade-long hiatus has undoubtedly provided The Gathering with the requisite breathing space to continue evolving and setting their musical compass on a trajectory towards an altogether more eclectic, electronically driven sound. “Sophisticated, spacey, and full of understated fascination.” It was worth the wait. The Dutch band’s 12th studio album – the follow-up to 2013’s Afterwords, itself a continuation of the previous year’s Disclosure – carries them into a more immersive sonic sphere, further away not only from their beginnings as a black-clad extreme metal band but also from the wide-ranging sonic experimentations at the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s. The inherent beauty of the album’s hypnotic, haunting soundscapes places them in the space occupied until recently by Anathema.…

Another new acoustic live show discovered. Complementing 1981’s Friday Night Live In San Francisco, this newly discovered concert from the following night had been lost for 40 years. It provides another impassioned set boasting different, but no less fiery, material. With every joyous explosion of notes, it’s easy to visualise each player sharing broad beaming smiles as acoustic fireworks fly and cascade from one fretboard to another. This is Olympic-level guitar playing with dazzling arpeggios and breath-taking accelerations that push an already feverish audience over the edge. As each new twist of technique spirals off and lands with gymnastic precision, the more this crowd whoop and holler, the more the trio respond with yet greater sprints designed to impress and amaze. Sometimes a lively audience can get in the way.…

Yorkshire collective debut mines neo-prog gold. Although Charlie Bramald has been immersed in softer, more ambient progressive sounds as flautist with the multi-national Nova Cascade in recent years, he evidently has other creative itches to scratch. Hence his hook-up with five recently departed members of Leeds’ This Winter Machine to create a bolder, brasher sound. There’s an emphasis on emotionally charged tunes on Mountain married to sparks of synth riffs, and it cuts through in a way highly redolent of the 80s neo-prog scene’s most accessible moments. By the end, though, it’s thundering from the speakers as FX-laden guitar distorts and burns out. Even the guitar parts in the title track sound like top-line vocal melodies keen to find someone to sing them, while Mercury Rising has strong hints of…

London-based, Hackett-endorsed duo earn their spurs. A concept album about the perils of over-confidence, which takes in cognitive errors, science fiction, war and dystopias; the sixth album from this injudiciously named duo should certainly boost their own confidence. Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland have clearly immersed themselves in prog both vintage and modern, as the highly diverse tracks build on echoes of everything from Pink Floyd to Sanguine Hum. Galloway’s swings from muted to theatrically emotive, and the musicianship is consistently impressive. All Empires Fall offers a glimmer of hope that current leaders will get their comeuppance, but before that the songs have examined plagues both historical (the Holocaust) and recent (the pandemic). Silence Is A Statement suggests ‘nothing isn’t neutral, quiet is compliance’, yet the ambitious array of sounds…

Poppier third album from melodic Welsh proggers. Although LFTP’s singer Alice Freya and her drumming co-songwriter Darren Joseph have built up a sizable amount of goodwill in the prog fraternity, on this third album they seem keen to paint with broader, more accessible strokes. The only problem with that is that at times here they fall back on the kind of chugging soft rock textures and soaring lead guitar breaks that were omnipresent on MTV in 1988. However, they fare better when Feed The Machine gets heavier and changes up the tempo as Freya’s charismatic voice heads off into the stratosphere and then swoops down into vampish growls, as guitar and keyboards freewheel in a more unhinged fashion than elsewhere. Other welcome flashes of originality include the samples punctuating the…

Ex-Threshold guitarist reunites with ex-bandmate for third solo album. For the third My Soliloquy album, guitarist and mastermind Pete Morten enlists his former Threshold to provide rhythmic muscle on a hard-edged, always engrossing collection. With muted otherworldly chanting, the stately Triunion raises the curtain for the fast, furious, and undeniably catchy Kingship. Morten is in excellent form both musically and vocally, but in the case of the sinewy Office Of Imaginings, it’s James who provides the voice in a rapped section. Mellow and moodier, Morten’s guitar soars skyward on Mind Storms while The GreatPolarity’s choppy keyboards and guitar flourishes explode across the sonic landscape. Here In The has a nuanced storyteller’s feel, peppered with dramatic tension. Both This Space Between and Bury Your Dead give Morten a chance to crank…

Songs in the key of life. It’s not uncommon, and perfectly understandable that when a band has been going for any significant length of time, for things to go a little off the boil. Led by keyboardist Andy Tillison since 2002, The Tangent could be forgiven for taking their foot off the accelerator for the follow-up to 2020’s Auto Reconnaissance. However, within a few bars of its 17-minute opening track, The Changes, it becomes abundantly clear that the opposite is true here. Hurtling along with impressive momentum, their 12th studio album could well be their best one to date. “It excels at weaving an eventful sequence of interlocking events.” Throughout, Songs From The Hard Shoulder excels at weaving a varied and eventful sequence of interlocking themes that enables a mix…

No jams, but plenty of sweet stuff on the US quintet’s 14th studio record. For a band who get off on improvising, Umphrey’s McGee’s latest album feels direct as hell. At its core is a mash of traditional song structures, masterfully merged chord progressions, and lyrics that can cut deep. ‘I’m so tired of the run around, everybody’s all vocalist Brendan Bayliss concedes on Small Strides. But like previous releases, Asking For is beating with genre-hopping adventurism, ready to be unlocked under the slickly-produced, radio-friendly hooks. Dayville Monarchy powers towards a Gilmour-esque, Floydian detour, and It’s Not Your Fault drops in a banger of a hard rock riff; funk, folk and indie all get a go too. And there’s another first for the six-piece: a swear word, after only 24…

Ozrics leader creates soundtrack for techno-hippie all-night rave tent. What happens when Ozric Tentacles’ main man steps away from the mothership to make a solo album (albeit in collaboration with Gracerooms’ Gre Vanderloo)? He certainly doesn’t make a confessional singer-songwriter album, that’s for sure. Instead, he creates a more electronic, dancefloor-friendly version of the Ozrics template – but given that encompasses everything from psychedelia and dub, there’s little chance he’ll run out of musical ideas. The filtered arpeggios and propulsive beats of Oilyvoice – the title presumably a nod to Ozrics’ touchstone Gong – evokes visions of a multi-level fractal world, a hyperreal simulacrum of the perfect free festival. The trippy Seen The Sun starts with the throbbing bass and thumping rhythm of a 90s trance tune before breaking down…

First three albums from high energy and much sampled blues/funk/prog combo. Babe Ruth bumped between styles and genres, never making the breakthrough they promised. Yet there’s plenty of excellent material on this remastered reissue of their first three albums. Formed in Hatfield called Shacklock after guitarist and band leader Alan Shacklock, they were persuaded to change their name by Harvest and ended up with an American baseball legend as a moniker – perhaps an early oriented to the US FM radio market than the UK college circuit. And a few of their songs seem to be inspired by Sergio Leone movies, with Ennio Morricone’s themes both covered and flavouring their riffs. Their debut album, First Base, came in a Roger Dean sleeve, and with just six extended tracks, it’s their…

Miller Anderson’s short-lived, highly rated group’s sole album. By 1971 Miller Anderson was established as the guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter in the Keef Hartley Band, but he left that same year to record his debut solo album, Bright City. The record carried on his former group’s adventurous exploration of blues and rock but his approach became funkier and grittier, his lyrics more personal. Anderson was so impressed by the studio crew he’d assembled for its 1972 follow-up that he decided to form a band, Hemlock. Eric Dillon was on drums with his former Fat Mattress bassist pal James Leverton (most recently of Caravan), and keyboard players Mike Weaver (aka Wynder K Frog) and Dino Dines had both graduated from Keef Hartley. Hemlock had less of the jazzy ornamentation that…

Live capers from the caped crusader. Rick Wakeman’s solo career has always seemed so discrete from the wider world of rock. Although best known today for his performatively grumpy yet ribald personality, his time in Yes and those legendary piano session parts with everyone from David Bowie to Black Sabbath in the early 70s, it can be easy to forget quite how revered he was in his pomp. Given that the double – and occasionally triple – live album was such a staple of 70s rock, it is amazing to think Wakeman never indulged at the time, at least in his solo career. The Myths And Legends Of Rick Wakeman belatedly address this with four live recordings, taken from the height of his global success in 1975-76. Viewed as a…