Ouch! Make sure you have your headphones turned down, as the blastoff at the beginning of Departure, the first track on Austrian artist Gandalf’s 1980 debut album Journey to an Imaginary Land, is somewhat deafening. But it’s an ideal starting…
View More Gandalf – Journey to an Imaginary Land / To Another Horizon / Magic TheatreAuthor: Basil Francis
Touch – Touch
When searching for your next prog fix, you can never tell when you’ll uncover a true gem. You certainly can’t expect it to come from a tiny record shop in Bayswater priced at a measly £5. And yet here I…
View More Touch – TouchTim Blake – The Tide of the Century
Tim Blake is back! Or at least he was at the turn of the millennium. In fact, besides 1991’s Magick, Blake’s discography had been dormant ever since 1978’s Blake’s New Jerusalem. Nevertheless, it’s not uncommon to see older prog artists…
View More Tim Blake – The Tide of the CenturyLittle Free Rock – Little Free Rock
Think 1969, and you’ll be thinking of the genesis (pardon me) of many great prog acts, some might even say the progressive movement in general. Unfortunately, Little Free Rock was not to become one of these acts, due to poor…
View More Little Free Rock – Little Free RockTim Blake – Crystal Machine / Blake’s New Jerusalem
Prog writer and Whitley Bay enthusiast Sid Smith recently divulged that his desert island Gong album was 1973’s Flying Teapot. Of course, he was wrong to write that, as the best Gong album, from a subjective and objective point view,…
View More Tim Blake – Crystal Machine / Blake’s New JerusalemQuiet World – The Road
Esoteric have a knack for finding the most obscure records that only bear a passing resemblance or connection to progressive rock. At first glance, The Road seems like an overblown religious folk concept album. And even though this still rings…
View More Quiet World – The RoadSummer Breeze Project – Contact: Part 3
Dutch progressive outfit Summer Breeze Project – often shortened to SBP – complete their Contact “triptych” (their word, not mine) of EPs with Part 3, a single track lasting over 25 minutes, automatically making it longer than any song Yes…
View More Summer Breeze Project – Contact: Part 3Anthony Phillips – Private Parts & Pieces V-VIII
I’ve never understood the need to endlessly compare Anthony Phillips’ work with Genesis. Sure, he was the original guitarist, but it has been over forty-five years since he quit the band; doesn’t the man deserve to be examined as an…
View More Anthony Phillips – Private Parts & Pieces V-VIIICarl Palmer
2016 has been a tough year for many, but for Emerson, Lake and Palmer fans, the losses have been especially tragic. On 8th December, only two days after the following interview was conducted, legendary bassist and singer Greg Lake passed…
View More Carl PalmerEmerson Lake & Palmer – Trilogy | Brain Salad Surgery | Welcome Back My Friends… (2016 Remasters)
Leo Trimming Trilogy (2016 Remastered Edition / 2015 3-Disc Edition including 5.1 Mix of the original 1972 Album) [A quick note: in 2015 we reviewed the then newly reissued Deluxe 3-Disc Edition of Trilogy which included a 5.1 Surround Mix…
View More Emerson Lake & Palmer – Trilogy | Brain Salad Surgery | Welcome Back My Friends… (2016 Remasters)