April 2017 – T P A

AKKU Quintet – Aeon

Another band following in the currently popular minimalist jazz fusion tradition, the Swiss group AKKU Quintet make music that is at one and the same time glacial and precise, yet human and emotional. The plaintive conversation between piano and guitar…

Lonely Robot – The Big Dream Album Launch

Sub89, Reading Thursday 28th April 2017 I rather like Sub89 as a venue. Whilst the public image it portrays tends to focus on its use as a thriving night club, it is nevertheless quietly acquiring a growing reputation as a…

Steve Hackett

Whilst having an ever active schedule, Steve Hackett, the former Genesis guitarist, graciously took time out to talk to TPA’s John Wenlock-Smith about his latest album, The Night Siren and his current U.K. tour (which started tonight in Cardiff), also…

Isildurs Bane & Steve Hogarth – Colours Not Found in Nature

When it was announced that Swedish progressive music pioneers Isildurs Bane and Steve Hogarth, Marillion’s vocalist, had come together for a musical collaboration my interest was notched up quite a bit. Isildurs Bane have been around in progressive music circle…

Nooumena – Controlled Freaks

Nooumena, with their odd name derived from Greek philosophy, hail from Caen in France and Controlled Freaks is their second album, the first, Argument With Eagerness, came out in 2011. They have close connections to fellow Caen avant-prog band Rhùn…

Naryan – Black Letters

This second album from Naryan, a self-described “Melancholic” seven-piece from Finland, is a strange listen. The use of multi-instrumentalists with violin, flute and orchestration makes for a varied and powerful large-scale sound, and they obviously go for emotions and feeling…

Mouse on the Keys – Out of Body [EP]

Following on from the pleasant discovery, late last year, of the rather intriguing Cubic album from LITE, I noted that regular touring partners were fellow countrymen and Tokyo based trio, Mouse on the Keys. At the time I remember checking…

Cast – Power and Outcome

Cast are a powerful band from Mexico who are well known throughout Latin America and the World, recognized and reviewed on progressive outlets in North America and Europe for many years. They are prolific with 20 albums released over 30…

Tohpati Ethnomission – Mata Hati

Way back in 2010, one of MoonJune Records’ many Indonesian guitarist discoveries gave us his band Ethnomission’s first glorious outing Save The Planet. Released on 1st January 2017 comes this second offering from Ethnomission HQ, the superbly exploratory Mata Hati.…

Encircled – The Monkey Jamboree

I loved Encircled’s first album, The Gun Has Replaced the Handshake, but opined that it would be far better with drums, so now we get album two, The Monkey Jamboree, and it HAS drums. On first listen, it crosses over…