Cultuurpodium Boerderij, Zoetermeer Saturday, 30th November 2019 Still going strong/Not dead yet On a cold November evening in 2019, Zoetermeer’s De Boerderij plays host to the legendary Soft Machine. Founded in 1966 by Daevid Allen, Mike Ratledge, Kevin Ayers and…
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It seems to be traditional to start these things by saying just how difficult it was to choose 10 of the best albums, and that if you asked me to tomorrow the list would be totally different. However, to be…
View More The Decade in Review – Leo Trimming
Twelfth Night are truly a force unto themselves. What other band would have a 32-year gap between their last studio album in 1986 and the release of the stunning Sequences in 2018, and somehow manage to produce one of the…
View More Twelfth Night – A Night to Remember: Live at The Barbican 2012
Sometimes, size is everything… By sheer coincidence, I came into contact with founder/bassist/composer Greg Spawton of Big Big Train. I was seeking permission to use some of the pictures from the website to accompany my report on their live performance…
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Arena The Seventh Degree of Separation – 2011 A period of hiatus and the introduction of a new singer may have helped breathe life into Arena. The first album of the ‘Manzi-era’ hinted at the more theatrical elements of Nolan’s…
View More The Decade in Review – Magnus Moar
This review concerns the latest album from French Neo-Proggers Nine Skies, a collection of twelve thematically linked songs that unfold a story of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as experienced by soldiers in wartime. Appropriately, the review was written on the…
View More Nine Skies – Sweetheart Grips
Arabs in Aspic Strange Frame of Mind – 2010 Continuing the theme of prog bands who don’t take themselves too seriously, Arabs in Aspic were firing on all cylinders when they produced their good-natured second album at the beginning of…
View More The Decade in Review – Basil Francis
When the opportunity came to review Concrete Vitalist, I had to review it. I didn’t know why, but I felt compelled. It turns out that, some time ago, while I was dabbling with making some ambient music, I’d been listening…
View More Noisepoetnobody – Concrete Vitalist
“Pick your ten best albums from the decade about to end” you said. Never ask me to do something like this again… I jest, I’m a glutton for punishment and we all love a good list, eh? Anyway, from a…
View More The Decade in Review – Roger Trenwith
Okay, Croatian prog, an oxymoron waiting to happen one thinks, as nothing quite like this has strayed across my musical radar until now. The brainchild and driving force behind this album, indeed, project, is a young man by the name…
View More Ectratis – The Artificial Spirit