| The Mars Volta have done it again and have released a hugely theatrical and powerful concept album to totally blow your mind. Back in 2003 The Mars Volta released their debut album “De-loused In The Comatorium” which took me back and became my favourite album of 2003. “Frances The Mute” again musically blends multiple genres… prog, rock, jazz and funk themes into a harder edged sound. "Frances the Mute" sees the band again pushing the boundaries of music and have released a jarring but undoubtedly creative progressive album. Apparently the concept of this album was inspired by a real diary that band member Jeremy Ward (RIP) found. The album and the music covey feelings that emerged from the diary readings……abandonment and addiction. All the music was written by band lead guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez who adds lots of crunchy solos and powerful chording throughout the album. Volta would also not be the same without the powerful rock voice of Cedric Bixler Zavala who brings this album to life. Once again I would frame with album by comparing it to a machination of King Crimson’s power with space sensitivities of Porcupine Tree and the urban frailty of Radiohead. These guys are an acquired taste for sure and regardless of market pressure they have released a whopper of an album in “Frances The Mute”. Pretty much an essential album. | |||
| Pekka Pohjola was clearly one of the key creative elements in the early sound and structure of Finland’s “Wigwam”. “Keesojen Lehto” is a magical little album full of intriguing and complex keyboard based melodic jazz-prog rock combining elements of folk, rock and classical sensibilities. After making a strong connection and having played live with Mike Oldfield on his Tubular Bells tour, Pekka was fortunate to have crafted this album as joint effort with Oldfield. As usual Oldfield’s acoustic guitar work is brilliant and suits these original compositions to perfection. Also featured are 2 other friends with Mike’s sister Sally Oldfield (ethereal vocals) and Gong’s Pierre Moerlen (drums,percussion). The end result is a deadly album of creative music that will appeal to all lovers of instrumental prog rock with a strong hint of classical symphonia. Highly recommended. | |||
| Barclay James Harvest Live is one of my personal favourite live albums of all time showcasing what “symphonic rock” is all about. BJH Live is dripping is sweet mellotron meadows and heavenly guitar and bass interplay. Musically these guys were amazing and the live vibe you get off this album will put you in a state of amazement. Many songs are extended and arranged differently than on their studio albums and are given lots of room to breathe. BJH’s hallmark sound was the softly caressing vocal harmonies of John Lees, Les Holroyd and Stuart “Woolly Wolstenholme” and the juxtaposition with the warm sounds of the mellotron. According to the extensive notes from the Re-mastered version, they had lots of problems with the mellotron acting up and making weird tones, but none of this is apparent. Originally “Live” was released as a double vinyl album in November 1974 and today stands as one of BJH’s pinnacle albums. | |||
| Starcastle have been historically slagged and tagged as nothing more than a plastic second rate YES clone band to which I do not subscribe to. Without a question the music of YES shaped this band and musically there are some very strong similarities, but having said that the first album is total enjoyment with 7 great songs. Starcastle blend fantasty-space keyboards, Richenbacher bass lines, and pointed guitars with some fantastic vocal harmonies. Musically these guys were top notch with shifting time signature changes, instrumental prowess and their unique ability to create that certain prog lovers Dream-like fantasy themes. So let the debates continue to rage on whether these guys were original but with way I say they were very progressive ! An excellent album | |||
| After a 4 year hiatus, Van Der Graaf re-formed and began VDGG Phase II and did so with a purely stunning album in “Godbluff”. Musically, the album is anchored on the heavy organ work of Hugh Banton and David Jackson's sax supported by the drumming of Guy Evans. Peter Hammill’s lyrics and vocals are amongst the best he ever recorded with his deeply emotional pitch shifts and power. Without a question the one two punch of “The Undercover Man” and “Scorched Earth” will amaze all progressive rock fans. Dark yet magestic all the way thru, "Godbluff" is a riveting example of one of the ture craftsmen of this genre and IMHO an great contribution to music in general. Absolutely an essential album. | |||
| Formed with members of the Welsh Progressive Rock band “MAN”, a drummer from “Gentle Giant” and a string player from “The Incredible String Band” , The Neutrons were a brief stint but left behind 2 fine albums with “Black Hole Star” as the debut in review. The Neutrons were the genius of Phil Ryan (Organs, synths) and Will Youatt (bass, guitars) and featured Gentle Giant’s John Weathers (Drums) and “The Incredible String Band’s” Stuart Gordon (Strings). The end result is a mix of music which sounds a lot like a fusion of Gentle Giant with Renaissance with 10CC tossed in. This brilliantly recorded album shines thru with a high degree of progressive emotions and prowess never getting too over the top. The fine folks at BGO Records have remastered and combined their only 2 albums on 1 long play CD which I would highly recommend you invest in. | |||
| Lightshine were one of the many shortlived underground Krautrock bands that left behind this great debut album for all to discover. This album features the solid musicianship of 5 proggers who have crafted 2 sides of some pretty dark yet melodic music. Lightshine drip Ash-Ra like guitar solos, space keyboards and flute over a dark full bodied bass and drum foundation. Their music is aggressive yet very much contained. According to the liner notes these guys played along with the likes of Jane, Hoelderlin and the Scorpions (suspect not the "Rock You Like A Hurricane" era !). "Feeling" contains 2 epic tacks which really give the band some room to experiment and wind out their solos onto. Overall a great album to play and enjoy again and again and a great find in the lot of 70's Krautrock. | |||
| Sub-titled as “An Electronic Mass” this is one hell of a wired album with a very strange mix to boot. The wild thing about this album is that it juxtaposes Avantgarde composer Pierre Henry with rocker’s Spooky Tooth and creates one very original piece of music. According to the liner notes composer Pierre Henry wanted to experiment with a pop album, so he was able to convince Spooky Tooth to go for a wildly ambitious, experimental concept album. The overall effect is a pretty psychedelic piece of work which when listened to carefully might just put you beside Syd Barrett in the staightjacket. Overall a very good album yet a very quirky album and one that might take you a while to really get your teeth into...... | |||
| Translated into English Älgarnas Trädgård (Garden of the Elks) were a Swedish psychedelic progressive rock band who released one fantastic album in 1971. Framtiden ar ett svavande skepp, forankrat i forntiden ('The future is a floating ship, anchored to antiquity') is a scrumptious album full of psychedelic twists and explorative tendencies which actually reminds me of German psych pioneers Amon Duul II. This album is kind of a Melting pot of musical ideas blending folk and medieval influences with a true improvised feel throughout. They also have used a nice wide array of instruments including violins, cello, zither, sitar, tabla and flute along with more conventional bass, drums, guitars and keyboards. This unique album sounds to me more like krautrock meets Nordic folk music to me. A very relaxed album which never breaks out into anything too loud and makes for a great dinner conversation piece! A great album for the more adventuras ones. | |||
| Satellite are one of those special kinds of bands who for me recreate the halcyon days of Marillion, IQ and Pendragon. Mastermind Wojtek Szadkowski (Ex Collage) has done it again with their second album “Evening Games”, a supreme example of symphonic progressive rock at its finest. Do not dismiss this band or this album as fluffy neo-prog as this could not be further from the truth. Satellite granted are intrinsically a neo-prog act but carry that extra depth and magic that surrounds bands like Marillion and IQ. “Evening Games’ is a 8 track album which was carefully written, performed and recorded offering dynamic range. | |||
| This was the mighty Popol’s first album and might rank as one of the most cosmic headphone experience albums of all time. Of course this is a good thing ! Affenstunde spends much of its time in the astral cockpit with the Hal 5000 and really does feel like one is in the shuttle in the depths of space. Dream part 5 is a percussionists wet dream with some pretty amazing and yet totally spacey percussion. Affenstunde was essentially the first album by Florian Fricke in the form of Popol Vuh and ranks as one of the most mezmorizing of all albums in my collection. Really sounds like early KRAFTWERK meets KLAUS SCHULZE meets the space shuttle Discovery. This is one fine album to toss onto the stereo when you need to totally veg and get your mind elsewhere for a while. | |||
| Second and sorry to say last album by the Neutrons, “Tales From The Blue Cocoons” took the progressive tendencies of the first album and rolled in a slightly more pop 70’s feel to it. In many ways these guys remind me of art rock bands likes of Planet P, 10CC and City Boy. The Neutrons were the genius of Phil Ryan (Organs, synths) and Will Youatt (bass, guitars) who were both part at times of the Welsh progressive giants MAN. In contrast to their debut album, Tales takes on a slightly more accessible sound and a different feel with the insertion of female vocals of Caromay Dixon on several tracks. Even with Stuart Gordon and John Weathers gone in the line-up this album still carries some pretty cool Gentle Giant mannerisms. The album boasts some fantastic keyboard and guitar work all surrounded by some pretty clever song writing and vocalizations. | |||
| Mercury Rev’s debut album is now considered something of a modern day psychedelic masterpiece and is a sound and a feel that they have nbever hit again since. Mercury Rev are essentially known these days for their melancholy orchestral led progressive pop. In sharp contrast to their recent sound,“Yerself Is Steam creates a heavy sound full of fuzz guitar and less than symphonic sweet sounding synth work to create a certain wall of white-noised maelstrom. Complete with sound effects and some wide mood shifts this album carries a certain magic about it and is just one of those albums that I get........ | |||
| Zarathustra stole their name from German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche but their sound came from somewhere completely else. Zarathustra were 5 piece energetic heavy progressive rock band who took the Uriah Heep- Deep Purple organ led sounds and mixed in heavy guitar drum and bass interplay. With the aggressive vocals of Ernst Herzner, this album leaves little to question and lands as a straight forward heavy krautrock album with lots of expanded instrumentation and arrangements. Overall a fine album full of nice dark and deep organ grinds and emotive vocals... | |||
| Here are one of the true hidden gems to come out of the 70's German underground scene. This album since I first heard it has moved into the ranks amongst my all time Krautrock favs.......and for good reason. I would rank this album on par with the first 2 Neu ! albums and in favt can draw many similarities to their music. Kollektiv were a 4 piece band led by jazz and experimentalist Klaus Dapper (Flute and Sax). Musically this is a pure juxtaposition of early Pink Floyd (aka Ummagumma) with Neu!. This all instrumental album really knows how to soar into the depths of space. One of those albums that you toss late at night into the stereo and just sit back and relax too. There is nothing to loud or musically complex here but rather seductive and transcedental. Kollectiv musically blend soft flute with flowing bass guitar and drum lines. This is one of those albums where all 4 instruments work to perfection. Highly recommended. | |||
| City Boy were a Birmingham based art rock band who mixed funk, prog and pop into their music. It is hard band to exactly peg down this band but I would categorize them somewhere in the 10CC, Starcastle, early Splitz Enz school of prog. My favourite track on the album is the 8 minute 5000 Years which is a timeless piece of prog rock. This album features the dual vocals of Lol Mason and Steve Broughton who collectively gave City Boy their unique sound. Overall a great album with some pretty cool moments and a couple of real prog gems tossed in. An excellent listen. | |||
| Now here is a superb find for all those who love early experimental Krautrock. “Edge Of Time” is a pure holographic folk-avant garde album recorded in early 1970 by a quartet with members from Germany, Poland and Hungary. Dom definitely reside more on the acoustic dreamy side than on the electric side with soft hand percussion, acoustic instruments, space synths and lots of flute. No question these were a true astral quartet who thru their hallucinogenic music will take you on a voyage into space. I hear traces of early Pink Floyd, Amon Duul II and even Cluster in their music, but overriding Dom’s music is original. Second Battle have done a fantastic job in preserving and re-mastering this album to perfection with tons of great bonus tracks and interesting artwork. Electronic progressive psychedelia at its finest. | |||
| Soft seductive Mojave 3’s debut album “Ask Me Tomorrow” is a great album of dreamy country prog rock. Amassed to very sedated tempo, “Ask Me Tomorrow” mixes the beautiful soft vocals of Rachell Goswell with the harmonic voice and Gilmouresque guitar (aka Meddle) of Neil Halstead. The end result may remind listeners of the Cowboys Junkies to a certain degree as they do share some similarities. Mojave 3 creative a very real reflective mood on this album and its even keel makes this a great quiet listen everytime. Amazing music for music lovers all over the world. | |||
| For many “XII” was the last good album by BJH, but although I am not in agreement with this, I will go as far as saying that this is unfortunately the last album to feature the mellotron. I love this album….lots of great guitars, space keyboards, great bass and drum interplay and wonderfully memorable songs……what else can you ask for ? The music of BJH is really something special and their music literally works on so many different levels for this music lover. “XII” was the twelfth album by the BJH and everything obviously clicked here during the writing and recording sessions. The album is full of deep harmonic and symphonic passages with some inspirational musicianship and moods. Of all the BJH albums I own I tend to play this album and yet in has not been reviewed until now on my site. A great album from start to finish. | |||
| Recorded late 1970 in the basement of Conrad Plank’s recording studio where so many great German underground bands got their start. Kraftwerk were then a 3 piece band who mixed tones and certain electronica in a way no one had done before. What is amazing about this album is that it does not feature any synthesizers but instead an electronic mood is created thru filters using an organ. Kraftwerk 1 is a very experimental album that utilizes more conventional instrumentation, such as flute, guitar and violin. There are 4 long songs on this album which gives the band lots of room to stretch out with. When the band get going their music is fully hypnotic, organic and mentally mezmorizing. I have always loved the music of Kraftwerk and their early albums although very different from the KLING KLANG of Man Machine or the journey of their AUTOBAHN are just incredible recording. | |||
| Wow here is a great find……..The Real Ax Band only released one album in their short lifetime but man what an album. “Move your ass” mixes and matches jazz, fusion, soul and progrock (Krautrock) in ways that few ever attempted. Most notably 2 members of Real Ax Band were from one of my personal favourite Krautrock bands Embryo : Dieter Miekautsch and Maria Archer. The album is one wild concoction of genres with tons of great grooves and instrumentation to get into…..I would say a cross of Embryo with Echolyn and toss in some groovy Sly and The Family Stone and you have it. Considering the age I am blown away by the fantastically lovingly recorded sound quality on this album CD. | |||
| Zon were a 70’s Canadian band who started out life with strong progressive rock leanings. Astral Projector is a wonderful album somewhere in the Saga / Styx vein with powerful instrumentation and highly listenable song writing. Zon were a 5 piece band with the centre piece of the band lying in the theatrical vocals of lead singer (Denton Young) and the winding keyboard runs of Howard Helm. One of the trademarks of Zon were the vocal harmonies of Young, Helm and Brian Miller (guitars) who manage to cover the entire album with great energy | |||
| Here is a rock that I certainly left unturned until recently and thanks to my fellow music loving pal Jeff Ferguson for pointing this album in my direction. Ambrosia’s debut album is a wonderful mix of progressive and ‘clever’ pop genres with some fantastic vocal harmonies and instrumentation. Now I know what you might be thinking and clutching the cheesier side of their later 70’s pop hits but let me tell you on this debut album their music is not bland or ordinary. The standout feature for me on this album is their wonderful vocal harmonies, guitar and keyboard work. Fans of “Star Castle” will definitely need to get this album. The band was Joe Puerta (Bass Guitar & Lead Vocals), David Pack (Guitars, Vocals), Christopher North (Keyboards & Vocals), Burleigh Drummond (Percussion, Bassoon & Vocals). A little known fact is Ambrosia's close connection with Alan Parsons with him not only engineering this album for Ambrosia (producing the second), but all four members of Ambrosia played on the first Alan Parsons Project masterpiece “Tales of Mystery and Imagination of Edgar Alan Poe” (which was recorded soon after Ambrosia's first album). Interesting trivia note also that David Pack appears on the 1993 Alan Parsons Project album “Try Anything Once” co-writing, playing and providing vocals on a couple of tracks. Their music on this album is rich and deep in thought and definitely deserves to be included in the journals of “Progressive Rock”. | |||
| Like a few brave others (Electric Prunes, Spooky Tooth and Eela Craig), German underground band Os Mundi altered and recorded a lively rock version of a classical latin mass. “Latin Mass” is a very psychedelic Krautrock album combined with Latin lyrics giving the listener something very original and progressive. The end result is a hybrid of lets say Amon Düül II, Tangerine Dream's (aka 'Electronic Meditation') and Spooky Tooth. This album was a tour de force of heavy, powerful guitars and huge vibrating garage organ grinds with an overall dark sinister atmosphere. | |||
| Barclay James Harvest released a number of fantastic recordings in the 70’s with “Time Honoured Ghosts” representing one of this music lovers favourites. At this point in their musical careers these guys were in full flight and recording some of the most beautiful soft progressive rock. John Lees and Les Holroyd were the dominant song writers and literally shared the penmanship and wrote some of the world’s most gorgeous melodies many of which are featured on this album. For those who are not familiar with BJH and those who love symphonic rock will love this band. BJH blend mellotron and organ whispers with acoustic and soaring electric guitar leads all put to the backdrop of complimentary bass and percussion. Like many of the BJH albums, “Time Honoured Ghosts” captures that special musical melancholy feeling. | |||
| Freak Out was the debut recording for Frank Zappa and his “Mothers of Invention” who managed to write and record a brilliant and wickedly charming album. Of course in typical fashion, Zappa coveys over 2 albums a satirical and huge audio counter-strike to the flower power sensibilities. The funny thing about this album is that the music fits the 60’s themes with lots of quirkly little tunes filled with Zappa’esque humour. Freak Out was arguably rock music's first true "concept album" mixing Zappa's aural zaniness with lots of psychedelic guitars, outspoken political commentary, cultural satire, and avant-garde musical sensibilities. Musically this album is dripping with a wide range of cleverly crafted pop tunes and contains lots of bebob toe tapping music. Clearly one of my favourite psychedelic albums of all time. A pure masterpiece !. | |||
| Now here is a real Stonker of an album……..an album full of 100% unadulterated pure and absolute vintage classic power prog rock. No Toad grew out of the ashes of the late 60’s and helped in Europe usher in the rock era with their British styled blues fusion rock tendencies. Toad was the genius of band leader, a Swiss born guitarist (Vic Vergeat) who obviously had a deep appreciation for both Cream and Jimi Hendrix as the style is very much reflected in his skills. Interesting note that Vergeat had previously played in an early formation of Hawkwind. Playing along with Vergeat were 2 members of Germany’s Brainticket (Cosimo Lampis - Drums and Werner Froehlich – Bass) as well as lead singer Benny (Benj) Jager who carries a perfectly fitting rock voice and would leave Toad after this first album and go on to form Island. | |||
| Goblin were pretty well devoted to penning soundtrack scores to horror movies (mostly Italian) Here is the entire original soundtrack that accompanied Geor ge Romero's / Dario Argento's 1968 masterpiece "Zombi" (Dawn Of The Dead). Of course the music is equally haunting to the movie and works on its own as a great album to listen to. The music is led by keyboard virtuosio Claudio Simonetti (Cherry Five) which is what pretty well dominates the soundtrack. Even the music in the mall scene was composed by Goblin! I picked up teh 20th Anniversary Special Edition which in addition to being remastered also contains 6 extra tracks which also appeared in the movie but have not been released until now. A fun little album and pretty well prototypical Goblin instrumental magic. | |||
| Here is a really fantastic album filled with special excerpts and fine unreleased tracks from their classic line up. As you would expect all the tracks are nice and spacey with that unique song writing quirkiness. Amon Duul II were pretty much IMHO the pinnacle psychedelic prog band and this album clearly demonstrates my view. Psychy warbled fuzz ripping guitar soles, hand and tymbral percussion, outer-worldly keyboard and organ swirls encapsulated all in a fascinating display of cerebral music. | |||
| Oft overlooked prog beauty debut album from Manchester’s Gravy Train. Like their classic 2nd and 3rd albums (“Ballad Of A Peaceful Man” and “Staircase To The Day” and) this debut album teeters on the fantastic fret work of Norman Barratt. Fans of Jethro Tull will love this album as it is completely saturated with the heavy storming flute playing of J.D. Hughes. Overall this album is a ton more Psychedelic in character than their later albums but that is exactly what gives this one all its charm. Gravy Train’s debut album is really a clash of both blues and prog rock making this a wonderfully original album to sort your way thru. Barratt’s vocals are deep and gruff but fitting to the mood of the music which never really sits still. A superb album. | |||
| Following the success of their debut album, Toad added violinist H.W. lipsky into the equation (who out of pure interest was the first violin player of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra) which brought a more progressive feel to their sound but without losing any of their patented heavy fuzzed-rocked out guitar passages. “Tomorrow blue” continues the right where the debut album left off with Vic Vergeat’s searing guitar work mixed within the bass work of Werner Froehlich’s and the drumming skills of Cosimo Lampis. Vic Vergeat also took on almost all the lead vocal parts as well as the piano parts to create a definite new sound for Toad. | |||
| Birth Control’s debut album is a magical fusion of Progressive and psychedelic rock with tons of trippy fuzzed guitar and organ grinds. Without a question this album carries a more underground sound than the better known and lets say more pure progressive albums of the 70’s. Instrumentally the band were a four piece with bass, drum, guitar and keyboards and collectively sound like a band in transition between the late 60”s psychedelia and the then emerging progressive route. The Repertoire CD release also includes 4 great bonus tracks circa the 1970 Birth Control era. | |||
