ESP is a project started by eminent producer Tony Lowe in 2015 as a vehicle for his own music. Already a familiar name in the music business, the project has evolved over ten albums released so far, with a host of star name guests contributing along the way. For the third time, and following up on 2025’s Velvet Crunch Tony has teamed up again with Peter Coyle, lyricist and singer, best known for his work with The Lotus Eaters, and Mark Brzezicki, ex Big Country drummer and renowned session musician. Though not a concept album, the seven songs are undeniably thematic, and that goes for the musical arrangements as well as the lyrical content.
Tony Lowe has the knack of getting the best from his guest artists and so the nature of his discography adapts and evolves, not unlike the approach that The Alan Parsons Project (TAPP) took in a previous era. And like TAPP, this particular trio has settled on a form of melodic progressive music that could, respectfully, be described as easy-listening. The music is engaging, skilfully executed and impeccably produced, but, after an initial wave of enthusiasm, I’m not convinced that my interest will be sustained.
Looking into the background of the three musicians there is an amazing array of achievements and accolades. This is a seriously impressive trio, each with multi-genre, superstar collaborations under their belts. It’s an album with a great deal of self-confidence oozing from the grooves. The lush teardrops of honeyed chords exude from the very first bars of the track 1 and continue all the way through to the tastefully climactic finale of track 7. On the surface, all is good. It sounds great, but then again, don’t a lot of records these days sound great?
Sounding great is almost a given in the modern world, so that’s no longer what marks music out as being notable, or special. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to unlock the unique characteristics of the song-writing or the arrangements on this album that would help to provide an identity of its own, providing sounds that inspire, challenge, and surprise. As Steve Hogarth so eloquently described, those sounds that can’t be made.
Extra Sensory Perception is replete with it’s fair share of melodic guitar solos and keyboard flourishes, under-pinned by an enthusiastic rhythm section led by a quite aggressive style of drum grooving that provides plenty of momentum. What is in shorter supply is nuance, variations, musical agility, and the sort of compositional skills and virtuosity that are generally only handed out to a chosen few. Tony Lowe is at the height of his powers when he produces the artists who inspire him to create his own music, but it doesn’t naturally follow that he can emulate their high standards on the other side of the recording studio. As a reviewer, I can only listen to what’s in front of me, so although I enjoy listening to the album, I feel like I have heard it before, that these sounds have already been made.
When it all comes together, like it does in the opening track Into Molecular, it is a rich and powerful mix of dense and brooding grooves, inter-weaving synths and guitars, and sensitive vocals. The other six tracks generally all follow this pattern, with track 3 Imagination the only one to have obviously contrasting parts one and two. I’m reminded of two reference points. Firstly, Marillion’s Anaraknophobia (in particular This is the 21st Century), and secondly Genesis Calling all Stations. Both these albums, released a few years apart at the turn of the century had examples of this kind of mid-tempo metronomic beats that provided the basis for both verses and choruses. Used in electronic pop music, the use of that style of repetition, usually at a higher tempo, worked more often than not, but in a progressive rock setting where the listener expects more, well, progression, it does pose risks, despite this trope re-occurring in prog occasionally since.
It is a brave move building a whole album around that style. Anathema faced the same challenge and got round it by using acoustic instruments, vocalists, and vocal ranges to bring more variation, emotion, and drama, and they also created vital space in and between the repetitive nature of the grooves. Ambitiously, the songs on Extra Sensory Perception are, all-bar-one, over six minutes in length. Taking Weightless as an example, the groove is relentlessly mid-tempo and the melodies and soloing fail to create enough sense of feeling or emotion to justify the duration. Although this ‘feel’ seems to match the point of the story being told in the lyrics (how the physical nature of art appreciation is lost in the process of digitisation) that is no compensation to the listener, who is waiting for redemption, tension, or some sort of release in a track that lasts nigh on 8 minutes.
Trying to be as fair as I can, this is an accomplished set of songs, easy to listen to, and with some particularly bright elements. For me, it just doesn’t spark into life, or engage me in the way that I would hope for. Nevertheless, the band has received much more complimentary reviews than this one, so I may be an outlier!
TRACK LISTING
01. Into Molecular (7:02)
02. Time Slips Sideways (7:28)
03. Imagination (9:59)
04. A Beam of Light (4:17)
05. Random Stars (6:22)
06. Weightless (7:56)
07. The Feedback and the Fire (8:41)
Total Time – 51:45
MUSICIANS
Tony Lowe – Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Programming
Peter Coyle – Vocals
Mark Brzezicki – Drums
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Winterfold Records
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 26thJune 2026
LINKS
ESP Project – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram
