Basil Francis

Baker Gurvitz Army: Since Beginning: The Albums: 1974-1976 | Live 1975

Last year, I fell down a Baker Gurvitz Army rabbit hole with Esoteric’s excellent Neon Lights five-disc set. As I said at the time, I was convinced to purchase the collection of three studio albums that Esoteric put out in…

Lionel Beltrami – Asia Minor

Prog has always been about the fusion of genres, but Middle Eastern influences are rarely represented. Enter Asia Minor, forming in Paris in the early 70s and releasing only two albums before splitting in 1982. The Turkish trio brought fresh…

Squackett – A Life Within A Day

Esoteric’s series of reissues keep bringing me opportunities to discover or reassess albums I’ve overlooked in the past; some are newer than others, it seems. As I found with Nektar’s Remember the Future, it was worth giving the album a…

Anthony Phillips – The Golden Hour: Private Parts & Pieces XII

Didn’t I already review Private Parts & Pieces XII? Ah, I’m mistaken; turns out what I reviewed in the past was Twelve, the title of Private Parts & Pieces V. Confused yet? The music of Anthony Phillips has had a…

Carmen – The Albums 1973-1975 [3CD Boxset]

A few months ago, I reviewed Patterns on the Window, a set that I hoped would introduce me to dozens of little-known progressive artists from the 70s – after all, it had ‘progressive’ in the subtitle. But as wave after…

Nektar – Journey To The Other Side

After being unexpectedly floored by my first listen to Recycled, I seem to have precariously placed myself as the Nektar correspondent at TPA… at least for the time being. Jumping from the band’s heyday straight into the present was probably…

Stackridge – The Forbidden City [Live 2CD/DVD Box Set]

In hindsight, 2007 was a great time to be alive. Social media was barely a thing, Trump was only bothering people on The Apprentice and there was still hope that everything would make sense at the end of Lost. Everything…

Basil’s Eurovision Roundup

With Australia’s Voyager proving to be very popular at Eurovision last year, the message is clear: Eurovision and prog rock are no longer mutually exclusive! It’s high time that we all got invested in this long-running song contest and hope…

Sydney Taieb – Atlantis Chronicles

The Parisian aquatically-themed prog metal group Atlantis Chronicles was formed in 2010 and released their third album Nera in 2022. The group’s impressive musicianship stayed with reviewer Basil Francis who decided to seek out drummer Sydney Taieb for some more…

Van der Graaf Generator – Still Life [Remastered]

Esoteric’s approach to reissuing albums on vinyl seems as canny as picking names out of a hat; it’s impossible to predict what they’ll choose next. With stablemates Van der Graaf Generator, Esoteric have selected two rather opposite entries from the…

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Author: Basil Francis