June 2018 – T P A

Atomic Rooster – Sleeping For Years: The Studio Recordings 1970-1974

The discovery years for this reviewer were in the early ’70s, when I spent each and every Saturday morning leafing through endless album covers, with the eager anticipation of uncovering that week’s musical gem. A risky selection process at that…

J. Peter Schwalm – How We Fall

This is the latest album from Frankfurt-born composer and musician J. Peter Schwalm and the story behind it is a very personal one for Peter, one that involved a major health scare when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.…

Cyrcus Flyght – The Clueless Caravan

This is the new album from German outfit Cyrcus Flyght and it’s a mixture of genres, Power Metal and Classic Rock with Progressive leanings. It actually comes over as a good listen with some memorable songs across its running time.…

Barclay James Harvest – Barclay James Harvest (Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set)

This 3CD and 1DVD boxed set consists of the recent Esoteric Recordings reissue of Barclay James Harvest’s self-titled debut album, originally released in 1970. Esoteric have a good relationship with the band, previously reissuing expanded versions of Octoberon, Live Tapes,…

Lost Crowns / Kavus Torabi / Steve Davis

Servant’s Jazz Quarters, Dalston, London Thursday, 14th June 2018 Proceedings were preceeded with possibly the best value pizza to be found in London Town, and the freshly oven-baked thin crust delight with its accompanying scrumptious salad was just the thing…

The Sea Within – The Sea Within

What is a supergroup these days? It is now common place for artists to exist within different groups as fellow musicians or as guest musicians. In this case all the players in The Sea Within have excellent pedigrees; the list…

Robert Reed – Sanctuary III

Has anyone visited the Harry Potter Experience at Leavesden studios? The attention to detail with the sets and props is unbelievable, but even more surprising is the quality of the commodities they pedal in the various gift shops. Beautiful facsimiles…

Comus – First Utterance

47 years ago, one of the most surreal and scariest albums ever came out on the Dawn label. I was only 23 years old in 2008 when I first heard Comus’ music on a progressive rock podcast, it just took…

Tangekanic – Hotel Cantaffordit

With the anniversary of the Manchester Arena attack not far behind us, this might be a good time to review the Tangekanic live release. Not to trivialise the atrocity in any way but because the album contains the most powerful…

Yuka & Chronoship – Ship

‘Epic’ has unfortunately joined the ubiquitous throng of overused words in our everyday language to the point that we hardly notice it is there any more. Frequently, humorously – and wrongly – used to describe everything commonplace from hangovers, car…