Karl Eisenhart first came into view for me with the debut album by his band Pinnacle. Since then, he has performed with Simon Godfrey (Tinyfish, Valdez) as part of Tribe of Names and acoustic duo Red with Chris Michels. Although…
View More Karl Eisenhart – Lessons
Last year’s Inner Prospekt release, Canvas Three, was an unexpected surprise. Its melding of the pastoral sounds of early Genesis with the drama of classic Italian prog had me coming back again and again. The mastermind and keyboardist behind the…
View More Inner Prospekt – Unusual Movements
Listening to the Grapefruit label’s compilations of seminal years in rock is a lot like reading a history book. Much of it is boring and forgettable, some of it piques your interest, and occasionally there is something that just gobsmacks…
View More Various Artists – Can’t Seem To Come Down – The American Sounds Of 1968
Capping a career that has lasted for over half a century, Blue Öyster Cult have issued their fifteenth studio album. Ghost Stories is comprised of performance rehearsals and workshopping demos that were intended for albums recorded between 1978 and 1983…
View More Blue Öyster Cult – Ghost Stories
My first encounter with Finnish band Viima was back in the first decade of the new century when they contributed tracks to the Musea concept albums Kalevala, Inferno and Tuonen Tytär II. Pleasant enough, but nothing about them left a…
View More Viima – Väistyy Mielen Yö
Multi-instrumentalist Kristoffer Gildenlöw has had a long and varied career. Beginning with brother Daniel’s band, Pain Of Salvation, Kristoffer honed his bass chops and eventually moved on, doing session work in his newly adopted home in the Netherlands, working with…
View More Kristoffer Gildenlöw – Empty
The California music vibe came to prominence in the sixties and seventies. Like most scenes, it fed on itself, sucking in and spitting out artists at a relentless pace. One of the hippest places to be at the time was…
View More Various Artists – I See You Live On Love Street – Music From Laurel Canyon 1967-1975
My first experience with the German acoustic duo of Melanie Mau and Martin Schnella was at New Jersey’s Progstock festival. Mau (vocals) and Schnella (acoustic guitar & vocals) are typically abetted onstage by percussionist Simon Schroder, performing on various hand…
View More Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella – The Rainbow Tree
One of the best parts about being an avid listener of music is discovering new bands. When I heard that Jake Livgren (nephew of Kerry Livgren from Kansas, and a contributor to several Neal Morse albums) was involved in a…
View More Emerald City Council – Motion Carries
When Life in A Northern Town hit back in 1985, it broke through the synthesised din with the force of a bulldozer. The beautifully written, impeccably produced, acoustic, woodwind-infused vocal tour-de-force was unlike anything on radio before or since. The…
View More The Dream Academy – Religion, Revolution and Railways [7CD Boxset]