The Exchange, Bristol 17th August 2016 It’s a gig night so off I go for a symphonic evening of songs about Hobbits and unicorns. But wait! Huge generalisations aside, playing the genre game can be a one-way ticket to a…
View More Sax Ruins / Barberos / Big Naturals & AnthroprophhMonth: August 2016
7Shades – Bursting
About nine months or so ago, after decades of sporadically trying, I suddenly “got” Cardiacs. The penny did not so much drop as knock me down like a soppy Great Dane, and then proceeded to give me a good licking.…
View More 7Shades – BurstingKarmakanic – dot
Labelled and marketed as a progressive rock album, Karmakanic’s newest release lacks the sort of authenticity and creativity that one expects from the genre. Instead, the 50-minute album is a well-recorded and mechanically composed symphonic album, that never strives to…
View More Karmakanic – dotEdge Of Reality – Vicious Circle
If any of you are like me and feel that Haken’s latest album, Affinity, was rather lacklustre (I have to say, it seems as if a lot of you aren’t) then you can stop feeling glum as this album does…
View More Edge Of Reality – Vicious CircleThe Posies – Solid States
The Posies were formed in 1987 in Bellingham, near Seattle in Washington State, by legendary songwriters Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. I have been a fan of their music since the 1990s and some of my favorite songs of the…
View More The Posies – Solid StatesAfenginn – OPUS
If you, like me, often find yourself perusing European forestry statistics then I’m sure that you’d have noted that Denmark is not as big in wood as it is in bacon, lagging far behind its Germanic and Nordic neighbours in…
View More Afenginn – OPUSThe Power of 3 – The Gift, We Are Kin, Tiger Moth Tales
The Lexington, London 7th August 2016 Article by Leo Trimming Three is a number usually associated with mystical properties inherent in pyramids and the Holy Trinity amongst other things, and on a hot summer night there was an air of…
View More The Power of 3 – The Gift, We Are Kin, Tiger Moth TalesAisles – Hawaii
4:15 AM came to be like a breath of fresh air. I hate that bloody alarm clock. Likewise, 4:45 AM, the last Aisles album, was also an introduction to something new and easily slipped into my 2015 Top Ten at…
View More Aisles – HawaiiHerd of Instinct – Manifestation
Three years on from their last album, the rather fine Conjure, American band Herd of Instinct are back with another excursion into sinuous alt-prog instrumental territory with a selection of tunes built around a base of Mark Cook’s many guitars…
View More Herd of Instinct – ManifestationQuantum Jump – Barracuda
This review may seem well overdue, given that my review of Quantum Jump’s self-titled debut was published in January. Esoteric did not have Barracuda in stock at the time. Fortunately though, there has been a re-pressing (is it called a…
View More Quantum Jump – Barracuda