Hawkwind are a band that really need no introduction, but if you’re looking for one, this 5CD boxset ain’t the place to start. Hawkwind – The Flicknife Years (1981 – 1988) is Atomhenge’s rather neat solution to release all of…
View More Hawkwind – The Flicknife Years (1981 – 1988)Author: Basil Francis
Haken – Affinity
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock this decade, you’ll have no doubt heard of Haken, the latest truly progressive band to take the world by storm. Despite being able to be broadly categorised with the humdrum tag of ‘prog-metal’,…
View More Haken – AffinityDream Theater – The Astonishing
What can I say? I am surely not the first (nor the last) to admit that I am indeed astonished by Dream Theater’s latest oeuvre, but the effects of this album go well past the shock factor that the band…
View More Dream Theater – The AstonishingAccordo dei Contrari – AdC
Accordo dei Contrari are Italy’s latest way of showing the rest of the world they are still at the top of their game in prog. AdC is their third opus – released on the ever-brilliant AltrOck label – after 2007’s…
View More Accordo dei Contrari – AdCQuantum Jump – Quantum Jump
I’ve gotta say, I was pretty disappointed when I heard the opening notes of Captain Boogaloo, the initial track on this album. Cheesy, saccharine and utterly inane as this funky bit of fluff was, I really thought I’d picked up…
View More Quantum Jump – Quantum JumpNyl – Nyl
When you first enter the Psych Up Melodies website, the premier album on the homepage is the self-titled debut and sole record by the French psychedelic space outfit Nyl, originally released in 1976 on Urus Records. The artwork, as you…
View More Nyl – NylYggdrazil – Settimo Grado di Separazione
A name like Yggdrazil can’t help but leap off the page right at you. The Italian band have taken their name from Norse mythology; if Wikipedia is to be believed, then the Yggdrasil is the large tree in those myths…
View More Yggdrazil – Settimo Grado di SeparazioneHumble Grumble – Guzzle It Up!
Though I sometimes fail to believe it, there is still progressive music being produced nowadays of the same quality as in the 70s when prog had its heyday. You just need to know where to look; the search can be…
View More Humble Grumble – Guzzle It Up!Jon And Vangelis – Page Of Life
With the advent of compact discs, the generation of musicians used to the vinyl format were having a crisis of faith. First and foremost, artists were unsure how much to use the new space afforded to them; 80 minutes was…
View More Jon And Vangelis – Page Of LifeTransatlantic Concert Reviews
013 Poppodium, Tilburg, The Netherlands 13th March 2014 by Basil Francis “Just testing you.” I was only able to hear these words, spoken by the man who I’d interviewed just six weeks earlier as he teased the audience after playfully…
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