Basil Francis

Various Artists – Animals Reimagined

Released some six months after Still Wish You Were Here, Animals Reimagined follows Pink Floyd’s own chronology; in the mid-’70s it was a miracle that the band managed to find an invigorating new turn after releasing such a landmark album.…

Various Artists – Still Wish You Were Here

It’s funny, I’d never have deemed myself a massive fan of Pink Floyd, but this past week has shown me just how much I care for these songs. It started when I decided to review the upcoming Meddle Reimagined, a…

Gentle Giant – Interview [Steven Wilson Remix]

Every self-respecting progressive rock fan ought to own at least a handful of Gentle Giant albums. After all, they’re the band who stayed truest to the spirit of the genre during its early days with their famous proclamation on the…

Voyager – Fearless in Love

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have no doubt heard about Voyager representing Australia at Eurovision this year, the very first prog metal band to do so, and arguably the first progressive band ever to grace the Eurovision…

Simone Dow & Scott Kay – Voyager

Nearly a quarter of a century after their inception in 1999, Voyager are finally receiving the acclaim they deserve after representing Australia at the ever-popular Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, placing first in the second Semi-Final and ninth in the…

Furio Chirico’s The Trip – Equinox

Look up any list of “best drummers of all time” and there’s always a glaring omission: Furio Chirico. Never heard of him? Listen to this: What Chirico lacks in subtlety, he makes up for in pure speed and dexterity. Elsewhere…

Holocaust – Heavy Metal Mania: Complete Recordings, Vol.1 1980-1984

“I’ve got heavy metal music in my blood,” goes the anthemic chorus in the title track for this six-disc compilation, “and I’d like to get it to you if I could.” The clause is so politely put that I can’t…

Centipede – Septober Energy [Remastered]

There could hardly be a more enticing prospect to a prog rock fan than Centipede, the fifty-piece group that contained a veritable who’s who of distinguished early figures of the prog scene. Led by pianist Keith Tippett, whose previous albums…

Soft Machine – Bundles [Remastered]

Frequent prog scribbler Sid Smith claims, in the liner notes for this newly released reissue of Bundles, that “it’s been fashionable … to heap praise upon the first four or possibly five Soft Machine albums and pour scorn on [the…

Van der Graaf Generator – The Bath Forum Concert

Previously on TPA: “The show was filmed with a multi-camera set up so there will hopefully be a high quality record of this late period of the band’s career recorded for posterity.” – Jez Rowden Well, I’m here to tell…

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Author: Basil Francis