Fréderic L’Épée, the sole composer for Yang, seems like an interesting chap. He has an interest in minimalism, Chinese language and culture, the guitar (Robert Fripp is his guru) and his favourite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach. Stick those influences…
View More Yang – Designed for Disaster
A chance exchange online about a year or so ago with Gayle Ellett revealed an excited guitarist mentioning his latest project, Gayle Ellett and The Electromags. It instantly sounded, from the name of the band, like a guitar album, and…
View More Gayle Ellett and The Electromags – Shiny Side Up
Another week, another rather tasty musical offering emanating from Norway. This week it’s the turn of Delvoid, from Oslo, and they seem intent on pummelling us into submission with this their third album, entitled Swarmlife. The pummelling refers to their…
View More Delvoid – Swarmlife
The Garage, Highbury, London Friday 17th and Saturday 18th June 2022 Roger Trenwith … and now, over to Philomena for the weather… Only in the UK – or more specifically in the southern half of the UK – could you…
View More Magma / The Utopia Strong
Knekklectric are another fantastic find from Bergen, Norway. It seems to be a hotbed of creativity, and this is a delight. Alt Blir Verre (Everything Gets Worse) is their third full album, and I can confidently confirm that the sentiment…
View More Knekklectric – Alt Blir Verre
Pryzme hail from Rennes in France, and the amusingly titled Four Inches is their debut album. Why Four Inches? Well, I guess it’s catchier than 10.16 centimetres. Odd album titles aside, this is an impressive piece of work, exploring the…
View More Pryzme – Four Inches
Roine Stolt is obviously one of those prog musicians who doesn’t need to sleep, because he’s been at it again and, despite having made huge contributions to the recent Transatlantic album, has nevertheless found time to compose enough material for…
View More The Flower Kings – By Royal Decree
There is always a sense of anticipation when news arrives of a new album from Finland’s wonderful Von Hertzen Brothers. Since they began making inroads into the consciousness of music lovers outside their homeland, they have gone from strength to…
View More Von Hertzen Brothers – Red Alert in the Blue Forest
Since the last Spock’s Beard album, Noise Floor in 2018, half the band have joined the Pattern-Seeking Animals project, the brain child of one of Spock’s principal songwriters John Boeghold. Now on album number three, what began as a side…
View More Pattern-Seeking Animals – Only Passing Through
If the idea of a collaborative album between these three gentlemen made your ears prick up, I dare say that by now you’ve figured out that it isn’t a Prog supergroup sounding like a mash up of Spock’s Beard and…
View More D’Virgilio, Morse & Jennings – Troika