Life wasn’t good under the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Among the many things that were banned were jokes, conducting an orchestra and Beatles moptops. Western music was derided as imperialist and decadent, and a threat to the Soviet…
View More RTFACT – Life Is Good
They live! They live! Goblin are reborn – hence the name – with the original rhythm section on a fabulous live album that pumps 2,000 volts into the band’s classic instrumentals. Recorded live in Rome in 2010, Alive can be…
View More Goblin Rebirth – Alive
Imagine, if you will, David Bowie crossed with the Electric Light Orchestra and Foreigner, performing songs from a deranged prog-rock version of Phantom Of The Opera. Welcome to the seventeenth and possibly best studio album by Kayak. Entitled, with stunning…
View More Kayak – Seventeen
Female double bassists are few and far between so it’s nice to see someone with XX chromosomes not only composing and playing interesting jazz music but also leading her own quartet. Finnish-born 27-year-old Kaisa Mäensivu has just completed her Masters…
View More Kaisa’s Machine – In The Key Of K
Cadogan Hall, London Friday, 29th September 2017 A quick question about gig etiquette: Is it ever acceptable to stand at the edge of the balcony and shout at the band in mid-song because you can’t hear them properly? That’s what…
View More Big Big Train
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a prog album recorded in the 1970s must be in want of a Steven Wilson remix. Nowhere is that more true than with the Gentle Giant catalogue, in which complex, challenging compositions and…
View More Gentle Giant – Three Piece Suite (The Steven Wilson Remixes)
ANDY TILLISON GOES OFF ON ONE… We are living in troubled times. Brexit, Trump, terrorism and racism are threatening to tear our world apart – and, inevitably, that is reflected in some of the music our favourite prog artists are…
View More Andy Tillison – The Tangent
Andy Tillison has always been a composer who wears his heart on his sleeve, and on The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery he’s in full-on political commentary mode, lashing the Brexiteers and the anti-refugee brigade with whip-like lyrics. It stands…
View More The Tangent – The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery
Well, shiver me timbers and splice the mainbrace (whatever that is). Our favourite pirate-cum-vampire, Nad Sylvan, has risen from the grave with another cracking musical collection that shows he’s more than just a heavily made-up face. Step aboard me hearties…
View More Nad Sylvan – The Bride Said No
“Hello, is that the police? I’d like to report some missing guitar. No, not my guitars. They’re not worth anything, especially the classical guitar I bought from Lidl. No, the victim is Jarkka Rissanen and Sons of the Desert. I’ve…
View More Jarkka Rissanen & Sons of the Desert – Hybrid Soul