| This is one of the best '90's prog acts going today for obvious reasons. You will find lots of great keyboard work woven with grand bass and guitar moments making all prog heads drool with delight. Each delicious song is nice and long, allowing the semi-psychedelic ideas to groove nicely. Neil Morse's vocals are superb and the group add nice harmonies making The Light a very strong vocal recording. The album is very well produced and has a slight underground feel to it with no apparent concern for pop culture. Highly recommended | |||
| One of my all time instrumental fav's from Sweden. This is a prog lovers haven with heavy mellotron drenched pieces centered around ever changing tempos and themes. The listener never gets even slightly bored here and is kept on the edge of their seats throughout.....highly exciting and mind altering listen. I find this album to move through many different moods...from tranquil to tremors....This very clever recording runs like one entire piece of music and ends all too soon. Änglagård's music is simply essential and among this music lovers most played progressive recordings | |||
| Talk about a delicious morcel of progressive recording...check this one out. Lots of beautiful, highly romantic influenced prog with great vocals (Leonardo Lasso). Each song is perfect and flows nicely together making this one of the all time best Italian prog releases. In many ways LDF have a "Yes-like" approach but do not necessarily sound like them! This is a very well recorded considering the year of its origin and has nice audio seperation. It is very hard to believe that this was their only complete studio work!! Mellow records has released a real jem capturing LDF live which will please all fans of this studio work, but the sound repro is slightly below the best of standards. | |||
| An absolute Stunner from start to finish...Ange really get the ol King Crimson feel here in this release and in many ways forms an allusion to The Court Of The Crimson King and Islands. The lyrics are all in French, but this should not in any way stand in your enjoyment of this concept-masterpiece. Great flowing guitars with excellent keyboard and vocal support. The songs are very well constructed and this recording too reaches a large range of emotions leaving the listener with a feeling of completion. In my humble opinion this is the best complete work of Ange to date. | |||
| This is in my opinion Peter Bank's shining solo prog moment with the support of a chorus of prog greats including Steve Hackett,John Wetton,Phil Collins, Ray Bennett and Jan Akkerman. The songs have a very strong 70's prog flavor to them and I love the extended prog jams that he gets into on this recording. | |||
| Regarded by many prog fans as a classic and I would echo their sentiment 1000%. This is tranquil space-prog the way it was meant to be heard. This early release from Celeste will keep you begging for more from the moment it begins. Celeste combine rich layered keyboard work (mellotron and synth) with beautiful guitar, vocal and bass interplay...highly recommended | |||
| This legendary prog act is captured live here during their truely progressive era. I have been blown away by the high degree of sound quality considering the origins of many of the recordings presented in this box set. What sets this apart and is so essential in anyones collection is the pure energy and creativity delivered in their early concerts. All 4 cd's have lots of improvisational entended tracks which take the listener back into their world. These tracks get into some pretty heavy prog moments and the true creative talents of this band are realized. | |||
| One of the great works of art from one of the greatest prog acts of all time! Illegal delivers a nice rich prog landscape for the listener to journey into. I love every track deeply on this recording and it is pure magic through and through. It was very hard picking my favorite Grobschnitt recording to include here, but illegal is one of those albums that I keep on coming back to time and time again. Illegal is filled with the unmistakable sound of classic Grobschnitt....flowing guitars and keyboards mixed with very strong German vocals(in english) of Wildstein put to some great prog moments. Their music is much more accessible than many of the underground prog acts of this time period. All songs are very well constructed and represent some of Grobschnitt's most complete and acclaimed work ever. | |||
| For me this is the album of all albums.......This is certainly one of the most brilliant prog recordings ever. Based on a very captivating child-like concept, Grobschnitt take you clearly into their (Ernie's)own world via a winged like loyal creature named Maraboo. This recording shows Grobschnitt's amazing musicianship and song writing skills....the music is lush and runs nicely along as each song builds on each another. This is an essential recording and needs to be listened to without any distractions loud! In many ways I get a strong Yes-like feel to it, but of course never sounding to close to Yes. | |||
| Grace do not fit necessarily like many acts into the prog label categorization, but in terms of their approach they are 1000% progressive. This album is rich in content and carries a very stong prog-folk influence to it. This is another concept album from them and rises in my opinion to the forefront of modern prog releases in many ways. Grace create a world where the listener is easily transported. I was really surprised by their ability to do so on this recording. This is a very well recorded prog release and is full of quality musicianship as well. | |||
| This is a recording which I have always loved and had in my collection, but is too often forgotten. This is not the British band, but the Canadian one! Great analog synths surrounded by electric violin, mandolin and awesome drumming. This is rich and full of amazing musicianship (very tasty!!). FM were a classic prog act and unfortunately are not that well known outside of Canada. Nash the Slash is a classic and brings a dark forboding style to this music. | |||
| Roine Stolt is clearly at his finest on this record creating some heafty tasty guitar parts. Roine also has teamed up with some amazing musicians which certainly add lots of powder to the release. Songs are exceptionally well put together and have a very strong spirtual feeling to them. This is superbly well recorded and sounds quite nice on a good stereo system. Roine sings on many of the tracks which as usual carries a strong John Wetton -like sound to it. Superb musicianshp and is highly recommended. | |||
| Having been a fish fan for a long time I did not need a lot of convincing to recognize and appreciate Derek Dick's talents. Sunsets is an incredible release with some real nice and tasty prog moments (yum yum). Sunsets has a slightly harder edge to the recording and I think this is why I am so fond of this release. Steve Wilson (Porcupine Tree) brings a new element into the music and I like the addition. Like all Fish releases he covers a nice a wide spectrum on his recordings..ranging from a lulaby to thejungle war zone. This album has freaked me out and continues to do so....Brilliant recording all the way around. | |||
| To many Hackett fans this is the pinnacle solo album and I would certainly support this. Loads of brilliant guitar layered with tranquil keys, flute and solid perucussion. Vocalist Richie Havens takes the already great album one step closer to heaven with Icarus Ascending. In the traditional Hackett fashion, each song is almost presented as a vinette, yet a certain cohesion remains behind giving the listener an almost concept like feeling. Hackett achieves a new height here also in terms of song writing complexity and philosophical depth. Kim Poor handles as usual the great artwork pulling the concept together. Steve is joined by brother John who adds some scrumptious flute playing to the recording. | |||
| This record has been praised time and time again, but let me take my shot at it! Steve actually gets more progressive than Genesis had at this point in their recording career. Voyage is another superb release containing some absolutley incredible prog moments that will please all fans who like good music. Steve is joined by some of the members of Genesis during the recording of the album (Collins and Rutherford) who bring a welcome, strong familiar sound into the recording session. This recording is essential in anyones collection and is best interpreted in a dark room lit by perhaps a lava lamp. | |||
| IQ has been one of my all time favorite neo-prog bands and rates on an equal footing to the likes of Marillion, Pallas and Pendragon in my opinion. Ever is certainly the pinnacle album to have from IQ as it blends all elements delivering a well balanced, full concept like album. Musicianship is exceptionally high here with some great guitar/bass interplay covered by detailed, dark, symphonic synths which are surrounded by the detailed and solid drumming/percussion of Paul Cook. Peter Nichols delivers a solid vocal workout as well and brings in my opinion his best to the band here. | |||
| Short but very sweet.....For many this may be a less recognized title, but it should adorn everyone's cd collection. Clowns is heavy Italian organ soaked prog with a real 70's feel to it. The songs are very well constructed and performed with the top musicanship associated with Nuova Idea. Once again lyrics are in Italian for those who it matters to out there in prog land. Acid guitar is almost juxtaposed over the tracks and provides a nice seperation in your stereo. | |||
| Pendragon's release of the Masquerade Overture represents one of the 90's strongest prog releases yet! This brilliant recording sets new heights for neo-prog acts in terms of complete recordings. The Masquerade Overture really does capture the essence of concept-like story line and takes the listener into a completely new world. I love the mix of opera, orchestra and the symphonic tendency of Pendragon which seems to work to perfection on this release. There are some nice and tasty guitar / bass parts scattered throughout all of the songs. At several key points I get a strong Pink Floyd feel, but I may be the only one who gets this? Nick Barrett adds some great vocals throughout which give it that unmistakeable Pendragon feel. | |||
| Gentle Giant have been responsible for so many great albums, but I feel that Octopus rises to the top of them all. Octopus delivers their unmistakeable GG sound with strong vocal harmonies throughout orchestrated with some of their best song writing ever. Musicanship is high here and vocals and instruments seem to blend-in perfectly giving the listener a stong feeling of cohesion and not necessarily the precision from other albums. | |||
| For those who have not heard this masterpiece of prog literature you have missed out. Remember The Future is built around 2 epic space tracks as Nektar take you into a new world. Vocal harmonies and medleys are in particular strong here and are well built into the songs. I love both part 1 and part 2 and only wish there was a second album as this is just too perfect to stop really! Some folks have made noise about the poor sound quality on this CD transfer, but it sounds just fine to me and offers very good sound reproduction. Nektar's musicianship is once again very high on this release and the guitar and bass playing is very memorable | |||
| This is another one of the classic all time prog recordings that are in my opinion essential to own. Maxophone push the boundaries of prog music in this release bringing uncommon instrumentation together with traditional ones. Like so many great prog recordings, sound is critical in the delivery of the music and Maxophone almost play on the listeners recognition of sound! Maxophone blend trumpet with guitar and mellotron to create a fantastic sonic landscape for the listener. | |||
| Very much in the vein of Genesis, Subterrenea explores the deep and dark aspects of metropolitan life. Like The Lamb, Subterrenea uses a 2 record set to accomplish this concept-like story, however, this is where the similarities end. IQ bring their own unique sound to the forefront and push the boundaries of prog music yet again. The intro alone will sell you on the release as orchestration is mixed with electric instruments giving an epic feel to the whole recording. Each song is built on the storyline and is very well presented and packaged. This is very well recorded and sound seperation is quite good on the ol' stereo. This is IQ's most challenging project yet and needs to be heard in its entirety. | |||
| This is another one of the classic prog recordings of the '90's in its entirety. Centered around a bizzare concept-story line of alienation and psychedelia, Marillion have struck gold. This is by far their "brave'st" release so far and it works well! Each song builds on one another here and builds like a good story up to the climax near the end of the record. Along the way we are treated to the tasty riffs of Steve Rothery and the unmistakeable core of strong musicianship from Marillion. The songs are well written and I like the length of this cd as the story seems to need the space in its entirety...there is no filler here or weak moments, but a powerful release. The sound quality is quite excellent and provides great dynamics for the audiophiles out there.... | |||
| This is one of my most favorite neo-prog recordings of the '90's. The late Geoff Mann is joined by a host of prog friends making this album larger than life. Obviously one of the biggest influences on this recording comes from the excellent keyboard work of Clive Nolan (Pendragon). Casino deliver some of the tastiest prog created in the '90's and is very original in its own state. This is a true concept-like album focused on the addiction and abuse of gambling and alcohol. In many ways this is Geoff's greatest moment in the recording studio and his lyrics and vocals reach an all time high in my opinion. At times I get a strong Marillion and Pink floyd feel to the recording, but the majority is pure magic and original. | |||
| Arena have certainly received a lot of attention since their inception and deserve all of this exposure. Fans of IQ and Marillion will certainly appreciate this band. Arena deliver some exceptionally strong neo-prog moments and build some very strong songs which never get too synthy or neo-proggy for my liking. The vocals are very strong and although they seem to be searching at times they land in the right place for me. The pattented keyboard work of Cive Nolan is unmistakeable and very strong.. | |||
| I do not think that anyone should be without this recording in their collection. This remains in my opinion still Marillion's most complete work of art yet. Songs range from the quiet chambers of Lavender to the psychedelic sounds of the Watering Hole. Misplaced also had a fair amount of commercial success and is perhaps their best known work. I also agree with the masses on this one and Kayleigh still remains one of those songs which has touched my soul. The album is so very well constructed and works well to its completion. Fish sings at his best here and surprisengly the album does not carry an over produced feel to it. | |||
| This represents the 6th release from Genesis and a major milestone in the field of Progressive Rock. This concept heavy prog classic delves into the dark world of metropolitan life to which Genesis help transform the listener into. This album works well on several different levels and is quite detailed upon examination. Song writing is exceptionally high here and seems to take on the greatest significance on the entire package. Songs are well pieced together and seem to build on each other as Rael's experiences in the modern world is uncovered. The Lamb is a dark recording in many ways and runs very much as a movie soundtrack. In fact at one point in time Peter Gabriel had debated creating a movie to go along with the music. This was a very ambitious recording at the time and was really the highest point in my opinion for Genesis. | |||
| Voyage 34 is one of the greatest space trips ever put on vinyl. This is Porcupine Tree at their most creative moment yet. Voyage 34 is really a story of a psychedelic trip told through a mind experiencing the finer points of LSD. The narration (which occurs throughout the trip) borders on total hilarity as the drug induced trip is detailed. The song writing here is actually incredible and flows nicely with the trance like hypnotic stages of the music. The guitar is superb and Steve Wilson borrows riffs from David Gilmour's book of guitar sounds. | |||
| Now here is a recording which works very well on a multiple of levels and to this day still confuses me when I listen to it. Wilson blends techno-pop with psychedelia and creates a real prog classic. This is one of Porcupine Trees most complete works and offers the listener quite a wide variety. Several songs transform into dark techno sounds, but Wilson ensures that he does not cross over into the Hip-Hop genre. This is what really makes the album work so well for me. All songs are well written and delivered with a high degree of musical talent as exemplified in all of Porcupine Trees releases. Up The Downstair is a fitting title for this album and I love the journey everytime... | |||
| Moving Pictures remains one of my all time favorite prog rock albums. In contrast to Signals, Rush rely very little on synths here, only to help paste the introductions and conclusions of the songs,not lead them. Instead guitar and bass dominate each song and the album has a very strong sonic innocence to it and does not feel over produced at all. | |||
