Happy New Year!
Another strange year – this seems to be becoming a habit! At least there has been plenty of new music to enjoy and live performances are well and truly back on track.
As is usual at this time of year, the reviewers at TPA look back on some of their favourite releases from 2022 – and there have certainly been some albums to savour.
Here we present a small selection of the fine audio medication prescribed during the last 12 months. There’s plenty more: the seam is vast, and it just needs some careful chiselling to dislodge more nuggets of pure gold. It’s fair to say that in the region of non-mainstream music and strange sounds, we are indeed truly blessed.
Bask in the goodness of the variety of albums nominated below! There are more than 60 to dive into, all with links to hear what’s going on – enjoy!
Once again TPA has linked up with Tony Rowsick’s Prog-Watch radio show, available to stream or download from Progzilla Radio, for a two-part round up of a number of the releases included below.
Will 2023 measure up, in both general life and musical terms? Only another trip around the Sun will tell, but the smart money should remain safely ensconced in the vault…
Motorpsycho – Ancient Astronauts
The band’s fourth album in as many years, and their creative juices continue to flow as they maintain high standards of music making. I only discovered Motorpsycho a few years ago and it still amazes me that these guys – who have been around for thirty years – can sound so fresh as they power through a rich creative seam. One of the stand outs for me is Mona Lisa/Azrael, slowly building from folk-like atmospherics with a shift in pace and some urgent drum tapping before – Bang! – they explode into full fury. Another lesson in how a well established band can lead from the front to forge new and exciting music. My album of the year. Highlight Track: Mona Lisa/Azrael
Website | Facebook | YouTube
TPA Review
Kshettra – Thou Art That
This follow-up to their 2017 release moves away from those familiar sounds, founder members Boris Gas and Viktor Tikhonov collaborating with French horn player Gosha Rodin and joined by a further eight musicians during the process. Their music has always had a progressive, post-rock, jazz feel, with a sometimes darker edge, and here they include new ideas which progress their sound, electronics and acoustic instruments creating warmer harmonies. Colo-Colo is a good example of their expanding horizons, double drums filling out the sound, accompanied by electronics and French horn. This album demonstrates a willingness to experiment with sound whilst staying true to where they came from.
Highlight Track: Colo-Colo
Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube
TPA Review
Magma – Kãrtëhl
With live activity curtailed during 2020/21, Magma had more than eighteen months without being able to play a concert, allowing them an opportunity to change focus. This album became a group effort, other members contributing alongside Christian Vander. The focus shifts with an overall feeling of brightness and positivity, although the core darker themes remain. This is a good thing, showing that after all the long years of their journey they continue to adapt and produce high quality music. They appear to be mining areas from the past, giving an interesting new feel. Walömëhnd was written by Thierry Eliez, putting us into familiar Magma territory. An album with newer directions but containing enough Magma uniqueness, the songs growing in stature with each play.
Highlight Track: Walömëhnd
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube
TPA Review
I Like To Sleep – Sleeping Beauty
This young and energetic “power jazz” trio from Norway have a love of modern jazz improv and ’70s jazz/prog. The combination of vibraphone, baritone guitar and drums is unusual, but it works so well. One of the most interesting things is the use of vibraphone as lead instrument, at times alternating with the baritone guitar. There’s a real live feel, invoking images of dark and atmospheric late-night jazz clubs. Bedrock is a prime example, the great improv feel leaving you open-mouthed at their skills. Ideas bounce all over the place, but it is clear that there is careful arrangement here. An album full of quality songs and arrangements, and it’s clear why they are so popular on the live circuit.
Highlight Track: Bedrock
Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube
TPA Review
Tim Bowness – Butterfly Mind
Tim has gathered a notable collection of genre-spanning guest artists to provide their wonderful contributions here on eleven varied tracks that show Tim unafraid to play with the possibilities that his music can offer. The album is bookended by the two parts of Say Your Goodbyes, but the longest track, Dark Nevada Dream, is my favourite. Beautifully paced, it is rooted in what Tim does so well, moodily atmospheric with his distinctive voice and delivery. Add to this a careful selection of instruments, including Hammond organ and violin, and you get a heady mix which passes too quickly. Another excellently presented release full of atmospheric vibes intercut with Tim’s powerful expression.
Highlight Track: Dark Nevada Dream
Website | Facebook | YouTube
TPA Review
How Far To Hitchin – Screams and Whispers
This excellent album was my first review of the year, as fresh now as it was then, and I bought some of Paul Dews’ artwork, now adorning my studio wall. Variety and depth, and Cherish is everything for its nine-minute running time.
Highlight Track: Cherish
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
David Longdon – Door One
I generally avoid established artists but Big Big Train’s Welcome to the Planet and the now sadly departed David Longdon’s Door One are wonderful. For BBT the promise of a future is now open to change, and David’s CV, his character reference, offers up the expected and a few surprises in the first two tracks! My disappointment is that the source has sadly run dry, the water turned off, but we have been left a treasure. I’d rather have him back though…
Website
Ms Amy Birks – In Our Souls
Amy Birks’ In Our Souls is sublime, not strictly prog, but has sequins. Amy will return next with promise as a Beatrix Player (at present).
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
Ben Craven – Monsters From the Id
Aussie Ben’s cinematic album is well worthy of investigation. I didn’t love it as much as the previous album, but the opener is excellent, along with a couple of others, all good overall.
Highlight Track: Die Before You Wake
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Verbal Delirium – Conundrum
Finally, in a year which has had such variety, Verbal Delirium’s Conundrum was brilliant. Stunning, slightly more commercial than previously, and it should make for a great live set. If only that oxymoron an intelligent politician could sort out bands travelling freely and economically – say no to Fluxit! Waited all year, but not disappointed – think McCartney, Clever Genesis and Muse, but enjoy the ride.
Facebook | Bandcamp
Leap Day – Treehouse
A Dutch production at the top of the list – unheard of! Despite being released at the tail end of 2021, it warrants inclusion here as many would have missed it and it is without a doubt THE most played album of the year for me: luscious melodies and superb guitar and keyboard playing. Go Holland!
Highlight Track: Autumn
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Von Hertzen Brothers – Red Alert in the Blue Forest
Another surprise: the Finnish brothers simply blew me away, both on the album and on stage. Especially the balance between heavy/rock and soft/acoustics appeals to me, top marks.
Highlight Track: All Of A Sudden, You’re Gone
Website | Facebook | YouTube
TPA Review
Jonas Lindberg & The Other Side – Miles From Nowhere
Excellent effort by the Swedish collective, bit in the vein of Neil Morse/Transatlantic. How about that for comparison?! Very melodic, brilliant vocal harmonies and virtuoso play. Very interested in this band playing live.
Highlight Track: Miles From Nowhere
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Ali Ferguson – The Contemplative Power of Water
Quite a surprise from Ray Wilson’s guitarist. Heavily influenced by Pink Floyd but in the process undoubtedly creating a sound of his own. Very promising, keep an eye out for this man.
Highlight Track: The Catacombs
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Kaipa – Urskog
Another Swedish group at the top of this year’s charts. So many brilliant melodies, excellent balance between guitars and keyboards and great vocal harmonies. Watch out Flower Kings!
Highlight Track: The Bitter Setting Sun
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Stuckfish – Days of Innocence
The Northumbrian band’s third album has seen them hit new heights with a well-produced and diverse collection of accessible, yet often deceptively complex music. Whether you call it melodic prog or melodic rock with progressive influences, the song-writing and playing is top notch. Phil Stuckey’s vocals are confident and assured and Ade Fisher’s driving guitar delivers some memorable moments – all supported by melodic and uplifting keyboards, bass and drums. Opening track Age of Renewal is a knowing homage to ’80s era Rush and flows so easily – as does the rest of the album. My musical ‘comfort blanket’ for most of the year.
Highlight Track: Age of Renewal
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Lonely Robot – A Model Life
John Mitchell has an unmistakeable musical and vocal style, which he continues to bring to the likes of Frost*, Arena and It Bites – and it is once again integral to this fourth Lonely Robot release. Lyrically deeply personal and emotionally cathartic, John handles all the guitars and keyboards, with Craig Blundell as expressive as ever on drums. The tracks are actually quite diverse in style, but I’ve chosen the uplifting, signature style of Starlit Stardust with its melodic keyboards and soaring guitar soloing to demonstrate what a national prog treasure the guy is.
Highlight Track: Starlit Stardust
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Lobate Scarp – You Have It All
There have been many strong releases from American bands this year, including Evership and Glass Hammer, amongst others. However, I’ve decided to choose Adam Sears’ Lobate Scarp project. It’s a vibrant collection of symphonic prog rock with neo-prog influences, and hints of Spock’s Beard at times. There is a star-studded supporting cast, although Andy Catt on bass and Peter Matuchniak on guitar do much of the heavy lifting. There is light and shade throughout, and several epics too, but I’ve chosen the opening Transatlantic-style instrumental, Conduit, as a taster of the quality in the rest of this impressive album.
Highlight Track: Conduit
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Kite Parade – The Way Home
Andy Foster’s debut release, produced by Rob Aubrey, came out early in the year as a melodic breath of fresh air. It was all shiny ’80s It Bites pop prog with Andy’s impressive vocals propelling a collection of unashamedly melodic songs. In fact, even after almost a whole year of listening, I’m still not sure most people would call a lot of it prog at all – but frankly it doesn’t really matter. The closing epic, Stranded, is the most proggy track here, but my song choice is the Crowded House-like This Time, full of sunshine and all driven by the expressive drumming of Nick D’Virgilio. I do like a nice tune!
Highlight Track: This Time
Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Nick Fletcher – The Cloud of Unknowing
Nick is guitarist for the John Hackett Band and his latest solo release demonstrates what a talented prog fusion guitarist he is, over a range of surprisingly diverse styles. Melodic and delicate one minute, then powerful and heavy the next, it’s an album of contrasts that remains fresh as a daisy. I’ve chosen The Eyes of Persephone with its tranquil and smooth flowing jazzy guitar lines, supported by some lovely piano from Dave Bainbridge, showing a true maestro at work.
Highlight Track: The Eyes of Persephone
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Lonely Robot – A Model Life
Powerful lyrics, packed with emotional depth and nuance, an enticing diversity of musical soundscapes, catchy hooks and gorgeous melodies make this without doubt the best Lonely Robot release to date. A stunning and powerful album.
Highlight Tracks: Starlit Stardust or In Memoriam
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Arena – The Theory of Molecular Inheritance
The addition of Damian Wilson to the line-up proves to be a liberating experience for the entire band. Their best release since The Seventh Degree of Separation. The narrative plot provides excellent structure to outstanding musicianship which fizzes and sparkles with invention, imagination and energy. A fabulous album.
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
t – Pareidoliving
This isn’t just music. This is t’s music! And you had better be ready for it. It demands your undivided attention. It engages your emotions. It challenges your intellect. This is by far and away Thomas Thielen’s most accomplished release to date and is a shining testament to what happens when you don’t just write music, but you live it, breathe it, and in the process, create something which comes alive and transports you to new worlds, new realms and new experiences. A sublime achievement.
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Simon Phillips – Protocol V
This album caught me totally by surprise. Not a week has gone by since its release without it featuring regularly on my player. Sophisticated yet joyful; technical yet instinctive; disciplined yet bursting with spontaneity. The instrumental interactions are a joy not only to listen to but also to discover and rediscover time and time again. Each time you go back, something new reveals itself. Endless fascination mixed with unending, deep, satisfaction.
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Threshold – Dividing Lines
A late addition to my Top 5, this continues the exciting trajectory since 2017’s Legends of the Shires. There is a terrific balance being fought across the album between the impulse to go full metal and the impulse to emphasise melody and harmony. The tussle creates a superb dynamism which drives this release from beginning to end and produces an array of tracks which scintillate with their ingenuity, creativity and sense of life.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Ryo Okumoto – The Myth of the Mostrophus
Everything I could hope for from a prog rock record is on this one. Exceptional songwriting, performance and artistry make every listen as exciting as the first.
Highlight Track: The Myth of the Mostrophus
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Porcupine Tree – Closure/Continuation
This band is simply magic. Not even a 13 year hiatus could diminish their power.
Highlight Track: Herd Culling
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Dave Kerzner – The Traveler
A stylistic departure from the typical Floydian influences. Kerzner provided an album full of radio-friendly prog pop tunes, every one a diamond.
Highlight Track: For Granted
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
David Longdon – Door One
A heartbreaking reminder of the loss of a brilliant musician, vocalist and songwriter. How many more doors could have been opened?
Highlight Track: Watch It Burn
Website
Marillion – An Hour Before It’s Dark
Nearly 40 years into their career, Marillion continue to make vital music. Topical, emotional, powerful.
Highlight Track: Care
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Marillion – An Hour Before It’s Dark
One of the top albums ever in my book. Marillion have the knack of sounding the same, always unmistakably a familiar friend, but then always springing a huge surprise by surpassing what has gone before. Care has all the hallmarks of the Marillion sound, but it is also fresh and original, and incredibly powerful.
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Porcupine Tree – Closure Continuation
Overall, it tries just a little too hard and is way too long, but there are highlights and I especially like the additional instrumental versions, that are in some cases much more listenable.
Highlight Track: Chimera’s Wreck (Instrumental)
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
David Longdon – Door One
This has to be on the list. A very untimely loss for family and friends, and fans, but this album takes a well-earned place near the top in his musical legacy. The Letting Go is a great piece of music in any circumstance.
Highlight Track: The Letting Go
Website
The Trackers – Vaudeville 8:45
A genuine surprise contender. I do love listening to top performers doing their thing at the top of their game and this is full of that.
Highlight Track: Living Time
Bandcamp
TPA Review
Woman to Woman – The Live Concert (Judie Tzuke / Julie Fordham / Beverley Craven)
Aside from the fact that this wasn’t a vintage year for prog, this album is one of my most listened to of the year, so it gets in on merit. After a tough few years what everyone needs is a bit of escapism in the form of three super talented singer/songwriters performing in complete harmony. Great musical theatre and a privilege to listen to. ‘Safe’ is the one new original track performed, so I’ll go for that as a pick.
Highlight Track: Safe
Website
Arena – The Theory of Molecular Inheritance
Arena’s finest album since at least The Seventh Degree of Separation. Clive Nolan and John Mitchell really shine on this latest effort and the song writing is exemplary from start to finish, and Damian Wilson is a superb addition to the band.
Highlight Track: The Heiligenstadt Legacy
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene
An intelligent work and a consummate exercise in composition, Ian Anderson returns to the Tull name with a quietly stated and brilliant effort. Musically, every style in the repertoire from the blues-rock of This Was to the wintry folk of the Tull Christmas album is in evidence here.
Highlight Track: The Betrayal of Joshua Kynde
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Marillion – An Hour Before It’s Dark
A prog tour de force throughout, Marillion’s latest is a worthy successor to the magnificent FEAR. Steve Rothery, in particular, is in fine form with The Crow and the Nightingale one of the band’s best ever tracks.
Highlight Track: The Crow and the Nightingale
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Porcupine Tree – Closure/Continuation
Whilst the band seem to have relegated the best tracks to the download and eye-wateringly expensive ‘deluxe’ versions, ‘ComeBack/SignOff’ has plenty here to please fans of the band long hoping for a reunion. Dignity is the pick of the standard edition of the album.
Highlight Track: Dignity
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Alan Parsons – From the New World
The second of Parsons’ albums following a long hiatus, this one is, like its predecessor, a real throwback to the mellower songs from the days of The Alan Parsons Project. The arrangements are, as you would expect from Parsons, pitched absolutely perfectly.
Highlight Track: I Won’t Be Led Astray
Website | Facebook
It’s a bit of a guitar ‘Best of’ for me in 2022 🙂
Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucía – Saturday Night in San Francisco
There’s bugger all to be thankful for concerning the pandemic which blighted us in the first part of this decade, however if there were a few chinks of light then the unearthing of this long-lost gem must be in there. The trio’s tour-de-force Friday Night in San Francisco performance, recorded on 6th December 1980, has gone on to achieve legendary status. But there was a second performance at the Warfield Theater, which Al Di Meola uncovered and had lovingly re-mastered and restored during the Covid period…
“It was crazy good!” – Al Di Meola
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Nick Fletcher – The Cloud of Unknowing
I’d read many reviews extolling Nick’s mastery of the fretboard, however my knowledge of his playing had been confined to his classical guitar and recordings with John Hackett. All super impressive, however with the approaching John Hackett Band gig in October of this year, I splashed out on The Cloud of Unknowing. Wow. Just Wow! Or as fellow TPA scribe David Edwards summed it up, “With The Cloud of Unknowing, Nick Fletcher has produced an ambitious, eclectic and musically stunning album that showcases his wonderful guitar virtuosity and compositional skills.”
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Neil Campbell – Faldum
Neil is no stranger to my year-end picks, and 2022 is no different. In the latter part of the year, composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Neil released three quite stunning albums. In September we had the delightful Berlin Suite & Other Short Stories, followed in November by Faldum, my choice for 2022. Based around Hermann Hesse’s 20th Century fairytale, Neil’s musical interpretation is truly inspired. The concluding track The Mountain is a wonderfully elegant and understated piece and a captivating finale. That’s only two? Ah yes… there’s a live album, Alive in Prohibition which WILL be reviewed very soon.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
The John Irvine Band – Psychopomp
Edinburgh based John Irvine returned with album number five in 2022, and Psychopomp was a great addition to an already impressive back catalogue. With Psychopomp, John produced an accessible bridge that sits comfortably between both the progressive rock camp and those with a jazz-rock/fusion leaning. An extra-terrestrial marriage combining rich multi-layered compositions with strong and memorable themes, none of which ever appear to be self-indulgent but encompasses a complexity that challenges and enthrals.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Fearful Symmetry – The Difficult Second
The aptly titled sophomore album from Fearful Symmetry arrived in the summer of this year. A slight side step for the band as The Difficult Second allowed guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Suzi James greater freedom to develop the ideas that were in progress prior to the band’s debut Louder Than Words. “It’s safe to say that the difficult second album has been delivered, and a fine album it is. Hats off to Suzi James who has employed her versatile guitar and multi-instrumental skills to create a diverse and ‘musical’ album full of strong tracks.”
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Returned to The Earth – Fall of The Watcher
Everything proper prog should be! Deeply personal intense emotional lyricism matched by powerful music to create cinematic majesty. My number 1 album of 2022.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Ali Ferguson – The Contemplative Power of Water
Another jaw dropping release. Every listen reveals more layers of complexity and beauty. The vocals, music and overall sense of urgency is stunning. Such brutal honesty and earnestness. Peace Begins With Me – An emotionally gut-wrenching prayer. I cannot think of a better musical output that put the environmental crisis in such focus and relevance as this album. Just magnificent and cathartic.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
ESP Project – Anarchic Curves
Huge fan of Tony Lowe and his ESP Project. Love the vibe in all their music. Deep listening and wonderment. Another release that creates cinematic dreamscapes and a sense of timelessness. The music is dreamy and textured, and Peter Coyle’s vocals are perfect for it.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Stuckfish – Days of Innocence
Fabulous melodic symphonic music. Lyrically stunning and delivered with such emotion and care.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Tony Patterson & Doug Melbourne – Dark Before Dawn
Lots going on here, but primarily it is the sensational vocals by Tony Patterson that takes this over the top! So many divergent styles and yet its uniquely theirs. My Happy Place is such a funky beat, and the lyrics are sensational. Love this album and the courage of Tony Patterson.
Facebook
TPA Review
Tim Bowness – Butterfly Mind
Deftly written, performed, and produced. It’s almost impossible to stop listening to this perfect record on a loop.
Highlight Track: We Feel
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Porcupine Tree – Closure/Continuation
They’re back and in style, distinctly Porcupine Tree and these songs sound even better when played live. The bonus tracks elevate the record even further.
Highlight Track: Love in the Past Tense
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
And So I Watch You From Afar – Jettison
The Irish instrumentalists move into cinematic territory for album number six. Immersive and mesmerising, the perfect soundtrack to the greatest film never made works best as one continuous track.
Highlight Track: I Dive Pt.1 (to start people off – and Pt.2 if you have time)
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
>
Marillion – An Hour Before It’s Dark
As ever, Marillion put out a superb album. It fell a tiny bit short of the sublime FEAR for me, but still stands tall above most in the genre.
Highlight Track: Be Hard on Yourself
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
O.R.k. – Screamnasium
Alt rock meets prog, this sits smack bang in the middle of my musical Venn diagram. An excellent collection of songs.
Highlight Track: Consequences
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Kaipa – Urskog
A beautiful and uplifting album, highly rewarding and startling in its virtuosity. The Swedish legends somehow manage to reach new heights after all these years.
Highlight Track: The Frozen Dead of Night
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Poly-Math – Zenith
Like being stalked by a ravenous cheetah with malicious intent. An organic battering that knows exactly when to pull the punches; complex, concise and pitched to perfection. And they’re the best live band I’ve seen in years!
Highlight Track: Velociter
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Bubblemath – Turf Ascension
Surprisingly prompt new release from Minnesotan complexniks, ticking all the boxes in a twisting high-energy burst of intelligent musical wrangling.
Highlight Track: Everything
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Bresk – A Journey Through the Life of Peder Balke, 1804 – 1887
An unexpected instrumental treat from Scandinavia, this trio deliver heady retro sounds, driven by some sublime Hammond organ, with rollicking panache.
Highlight Track: Sailing the Northern Coast
Facebook | Instagram
TPA Review
Craig Fortnam – Lunar One
Another fabulous solo release from the North Sea Radio Orchestra mainman, crammed with melody and strategic ingenuity. Released through 2022 with a track to mark each lunar cycle, the complete work is beautifully uplifting and life affirming, and comes with a companion set of ‘B sides’ to provide even more pleasure. Compact but breathtakingly widescreen – wonderful stuff.
Highlight Track: Running All the Way
Facebook | Bandcamp
Kaprekar’s Constant – The Murder Wall
Every word, every note, every riff, counts. The most enjoyable story-telling album in decades.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Stuckfish – Days Of Innocence
Pure symphonic prog excellence. Resist the urge to pick and choose, find an hour and settle back to listen and enjoy this from start to finish; you won’t be disappointed.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Dim Gray – Firmament
Like a Scandi-dreamscape, or a Munch painting, it deals with the landscapes of loss and longing, conjuring visions of spirits lost in time and legend. A real Jewel in the Crown.
Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Held By Trees – Solace
Overtones of Mark Hollis and latter day Talk Talk, this album cleanses and refreshes the mind. Far more than just ambient music, this warrants a concentrated listen.
Bjørn Riis – Everything To Everyone
With some heavy riffs and delicate Floydian guitar notes, this album conjures up a variety of moods, melding fear and anxiety with calmness and hope, the latter winning the day.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Von Hertzen Brothers – Red Alert in the Blue Forest
The Von Hertzen Brothers pull off the album of their career, balancing memorable and accessible songs that have a message, energy and passion, with progressive leanings. The album of the year without a doubt.
Website | Facebook | YouTube
TPA Review
Phi Yaan-Zek – Interdimensional Garden Party
A complex and slightly mad guitar fest, with an all star supporting cast of exemplary musicians and singers, making this one of the outstanding releases of the year. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Knekklectric – Alt Blir Verre
The wonderfully eccentric Knekklectric from Norway offer a unique blend of indie prog psychedelia, with top drawer musicianship and quirky compositions which live long in the memory.
Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Jonas Lindberg & The Other Side – Miles From Nowhere
What many might call a ‘proper’ prog album, Sweden’s Jonas Lindberg has created a work stuffed full of melody, dazzling musicianship and epic compositions. I’ve come back to this album time and again, and it always delivers so much pleasure.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Karfagen – Land Of Green And Gold
One of Ukrainian Anthony Kalugin’s finest releases of the last few years, this is a mainly instrumental album of progressive rock tinged with jazzy improvisation. Quite how he managed to produce such optimistic music in a war zone is beyond me.
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Hedvig Mollestad & Trondheim Jazz Orchestra – Maternity Beat
My Album of the Year, wherein the mighty axe goddess Hedvig gets further into her muse and brings us this fabulous fulsome offering, diving deep into the female psyche. Hedvig is a trailblazer who just gets better with each release.
Highlight Track: All Flights Cancelled
Rune Grammofon (Record Label) | Facebook
Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekkou
Once more, the women come up with the goods. The third album of rich wonky pop from Cathy Lucas’ sci-fi outré pop confection. Shimmy in wonder.
Highlight Track: Phase One Million
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
black midi – Hellfire
This frankly amazing band of BRIT School graduates have thus far taken two albums of awkward and at times wilfully obscurantist art rock to arrive at the possibly career-defining third issue, Hellfire, where everything comes together with an almighty crash. Still goddam weird in places, and all the better for it, Hellfire is also highly listenable. Buy this or be that lonely trapezoid the rhomboids won’t hang with.
Highlight Track: Sugar/Tzu
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
>The Arctic Monkeys – The Car
Alex Turner’s journey from raucous spotty adolescent with some half-decent tunes to cashmere-sweatered crooner strolls on in languid style with The Car, a logical next step from 2018’s louche and slightly odd Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Very classy, indeed.
Highlight Track: Body Paint
Website | Facebook
Richard Dawson – The Ruby Cord
Another artist who advances their craft with each release, the 41-minute The Hermit showcases the man’s strange muse as it draws you into its mesmerising, slightly grubby world. Straddling a place somewhere between musical theatre, folk music, DIY jazz, and a never-ending dark weekend of the soul, if you allow Dawson’s music to draw you in, you may not escape.
Highlight Track: Museum
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
Marillion – An Hour Before It’s Dark
An utterly remarkable album that works on so many levels, with insightful and emotional lyrics framing resonant themes and presented in imaginative, stirring music. It’s resplendent with recurring poetic words and layered meanings. The Crow and the Nightingale is a beguiling tribute to one of Steve Hogarth’s favourite lyricists, Leonard Cohen. Despite fine guitar contributions it is Mark Kelly’s keyboards that shine. The subjects might be sombre but this is a strangely up-tempo album in which hope shines through the dark. It will undoubtedly and deservedly be acclaimed as one of the best albums Marillion have ever released.
Highlight Track: Care
Website | Facebook
TPA Review
Tony Patterson & Doug Melbourne – Dark Before Dawn
Ranging across various styles, it is engaging in theme and musically captivating. This is a fresh contemporary rock album, accessible and fascinating. Tony Patterson’s wife sadly died during the recording, and that emotion is suffused into the album with resonance and pure Love. Dark Before Dawn is an outstanding album, sometimes delighting with melodic skill, at others touching the heart with great emotion. It is doubtful that many albums in 2022 will come anywhere near attaining the musical quality and emotional truth so beautifully played out in this evocative release.
Highlight Track: Reach Out
Facebook
TPA Review
Galahad – The Last Great Adventurer
Galahad have really produced the goods here. About halfway through the scintillating Blood, Skin and Bone, as Stuart Nicholson sings passionately about what unites us all as human beings, Galahad apocalyptically spin off with thundering drums, crisp basslines, waves of pulsating keyboards and Lee Abraham’s electric guitar streaking magnificently into the sky like a jet taking off. This is a song which says something important whilst also managing to entertain and excite. This is an accessible album on one level, but it also benefits from repeated listens as it gradually reveals its clever subtleties. A remarkably assured and worthy return, suffused with emotion and a range of styles woven into the melodic framework.
Highlight Track: Blood, Skin and Bone
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Ghost of the Machine – Scissorgames
This debut from Ghost of the Machine, formed by ex-members of This Winter Machine, is outstanding, clearly influenced by their previous incarnation whilst taking a rather different slant. The core of the band is already a polished outfit capable of producing classy performances with a progressive edge, adept with different sounds and styles, however they appear to be going in a much more Prog direction here, particularly with the remarkable bookending epic Scissors. Scissorgames owes much to earlier eras of Prog Rock, but when it is done with this amount of brio and skill, allied with powerful, impactful lyrics, then it is entirely valid and worthy. Likely to be regarded as one of the best progressive debut albums of 2022.
Highlight Track: Scissors (Part One)
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
Tiger Moth Tales – A Song of Spring
The mercurial Peter Jones returns with his latest seasonally inspired album, and it may well be his most accomplished and satisfying since the remarkable Cocoon. What is particularly notable is its diversity, drawing on sounds and stories from around the world. The standout is the elegiac The Light, in which Jones gives one of his most touching vocals in a graceful, lilting setting. There are definite echoes of Big Big Train in the use of brass before an inimitably soulful guitar solo from Camel’s legendary Andy Latimer. One of the best songs Tiger Moth Tales have ever produced, ending this heartfelt and life affirming album on a suitably positive note, symbolically marking the long dark shadows of the pandemic receding.
Highlight Track: The Light
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
TPA Review
