Category Archives: Prog Rock
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 4.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 4. Jóhann Jóhannsson-Ophee On Orphée, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s turned his attention to the beauty and the process of creation. Orphée features Jóhann Jóhannsson tracing a path from darkness into light. Inspiration for Orphée comes from the opéra bouffe Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). It was written by Ludovic Halévy, …
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 6.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 6. Qluster-Echtzei. Forty-seven years after he first co-founded Kluster, Hans-Joachim Roedelius keeps the memory of Kluster and Cluster alive with Qluster. They released their sixth album Echtzeit on Bureau B during 2016. Echtzeit marks a stylistic departure from Qluster. It’s much more ambient sounding album. Qluster combine elements of …
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 7.
BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 7. Sunanna-Triangle. Triangle is Susanna’s eleventh album and first for four years. It was released on Susanna’s own SusannaSonata label, and is no ordinary album. Not by a long chalk. Instead, Triangle is a twenty-two song cerebral epic, where Susanna muses and meditates on mortality and religion. It’s a powerful album, …
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 1
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 1 For years, I’ve been writing about the Nordic Wave scene, which is, without doubt, one of the most eclectic and vibrant in Europe. During that period, I’ve witnessed the rise and rise of the Nordic Wave. There’s no sign of the bubble bursting. Quite the opposite. This latest …
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 2.
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 2. Hedvig Mollestad Trio-Evil In Oslo. In July 2016, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio released two albums. This includes the live album Evil In Oslo. It was released by Rune Grammofon and is the Hedvig Mollestad Trio’s first ever live album. Evil In Oslo is a tantalising taste of the …
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 3.
BEST NORDIC WAVE ALBUMS OF 2016-PART 3. Nicklas Sørensen-Solo. Ever since 2010, Copenhagen based instrumental rock trio Papir’s star has been in the ascendancy. One of the men behind Papir’s success was guitarist Nicklas Sørensen, who released his debut album Solo on El Paraiso Records. He set out to experiment on Solo. However, on other …
YES-TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS-DELUXE EDITION BOX SET.
YES-TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS-DELUXE EDITION BOX SET. After a three month break, Yes’ 1972-1973 Close To The Edge Tour was due to resume on the 8th of March 1973. This was the fifth leg in what had been a gruelling world tour. The new lineup of Yes had criss-crossed the world, playing North America and …
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1973-1977.
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1973-1977. In 1970, Birmingham based songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood decided to form a new band with drummer Bev Bevan. This new group they christened the Electric Light Orchestra. At first, the Electric Light Orchestra was regarded as an offshoot of The Move, which Jeff Lynne, …
IKARUS-KRAUTROCK’S NEARLY MEN.
IKARUS-KRAUTROCK’S NEARLY MEN. In Greek mythology, Icarus, the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, who created the Labyrinth, met a tragic ending. Icarus and Daedalus were desperate to escape from Crete. So Daedalus constructed wings made of feathers and wax. As Icarus prepared to make his escape, Daedalus warned his son of complacency and hubris. …
BUDGIE-MCA ALBUMS 1973-1975.
BUDGIE-MCA ALBUMS 1973-1975. By 1973, Budgie were one of the rising stars of British rock. The hard rocking Welsh trio had been formed in Cardiff in 1967. Originally, Budgie were known as Hills Contemporary Grass. However, after playing several gigs in 1968, Burke Shelley, Tony Bourge and Ray Phillips decided to changed the band’s name …
ASHRA-CORRELATIONS COMPLETE BOX SET.
ASHRA-CORRELATIONS COMPLETE BOX SET. When Manuel Göttsching released Inventions For Electric Guitar in 1975, this was meant to be the start of a new chapter in his career. Inventions For Electric Guitar was meant to be Manuel Göttsching’s debut solo album. Some eagle eyed record buyers weren’t so sure about that. Atop the album cover …
SVEN GRUNBERG-HINGUS.
SVEN GRUNBERG-HINGUS. From the sixties, right through to the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Eastern Europe was a musical hotbed. The problem was, very few in the West realised this. That, to some extent, this still the case. Most music lovers have yet to discover the music that came out of Eastern Europe during this …
JOHN WETTON-THE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG-ARCHIVE VOLUME 1.
JOHN WETTON-THE OFFICIAL BOOTLEG ARCHIVE VOLUME 1. For the best part of fifty years, artists and record companies have been plagued by bootleggers smuggling recording equipment into concerts. This started when bootleggers began smuggling tape into concerts. Often the tape recorders were hidden under coats or in bags. As a result, the sound quality was …
JETHRO TULL-STAND UP AND AQUALUNG BOX SETS.
JETHRO TULL-STAND UP AND AQUALUNG BOX SETS. When Jethro Tull were formed in December 1967, little did they realise that this was the beginning of a adventure that would last five decades. Jethro went on to release thirty-eight studio albums. This includes their debut album This Was. Just fifteen months after they were first formed, …
SPACE ROCK: AN INTERSTELLAR TRAVELLER’S GUIDE.
SPACE ROCK: AN INTERSTELLAR TRAVELLER’S GUIDE. Music like fashion is cyclical. One minute a musical genre is hugely popular, the next it falls from grace. That usually, isn’t the end of the story. There’s usually always a resurgence in popularity of that musical genre at a later date. This has been the case with countless …
MOTORPSYCHO-ANGELS AND DAEMONS AT PLAY.
MOTORPSYCHO-ANGELS AND DAEMONS AT PLAY. Nowadays, not many bands stay together twenty-seven years. Longevity seems to be a thing of the past in the music business. Sadly, so is releasing an average of an album a year. That was common in the sixties and seventies. Not any more. Very few bands come close to releasing …
RHYTHM ON THE RADIO: OVAL RECORDS-SINGLES 1974-1987.
RHYTHM ON THE RADIO: OVAL RECORDS-SINGLES 1974-1987. By 1972, Charlie Gillette was a successful journalist, based in London. He wrote for various publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including Creem, NME and Let It Rock. Occasionally, Charlie presented the BBC TV music program The Old Grey Whistle Test. It was a program that suited Charlie’s …
ROGER WATERS-SOLO YEARS.
ROGER WATERS-SOLO YEARS. Following the departure of Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd, bassist Roger Waters became the group’s creative force. This was the case from Pink Floyd’s third album, Ummagumma, which was released in 1969, right through to 1983s The Final Cut. After the release of The Final Cut, Roger Waters left Pink Floyd. It …
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