Sparks have been enjoying ‘another’ renaissance recently and this album has many of the hallmarks that you would expect to hear from such an accomplished and long-standing band. It’s full of great ideas, unexpected twists and turns, and of course…
View More Sparks – The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
It’s possible that this album, originally released in 1997, was the first true example of the ‘Regressive’ music genre. Instead of borrowing influences and using them as inspiration for creating new sounds, Andrew Gold completed the circle by cloaking his…
View More Andrew Gold: The Fraternal Order of the All – Greetings from Planet Love
Ingenious Devices brings together a sequence of songs that were originally conceived by Greg Spawton as a trilogy. The release also includes a short orchestral piece woven into the main event and a ‘bonus’ live track recorded at the Friars,…
View More Big Big Train – Ingenious Devices
The German band Mouth released their first album in 2009 and it took until 2017 before the second instalment. This was swiftly followed by a third in 2018, but progress was interrupted by the death of the band’s bassist Gerald…
View More Mouth – Getaway
Followers of the Neal Morse Band will know exactly what is in store when a new live album drops, but if, like me, you are not fully acquainted, An Evening of Innocence & Danger: Live in Hamburg is an excellent…
View More Neal Morse Band – An Evening of Innocence & Danger: Live in Hamburg
‘Ikigai’, in Japanese, means “the reason to wake up in the morning and to live for”. It is also the title of the studio album debut by Italian instrumental progressive rock band Lab X, the band being made up of…
View More Lab X – Ikigai
The first thing to say is that there is some beautiful music on this album. Einar Solberg is without doubt an exceptionally talented composer, arranger and musician. I am a new convert, and one reason is that he is such…
View More Einar Solberg – 16
Random Earth Project (REP) are a four-piece, formed in January 2022. The band are a group of experienced musicians who seem driven to taking this opportunity to create themselves a space in the re-vitalised neo-prog scene. Having spent time in…
View More Random Earth Project – Airwaves
Creating new Yes music over the last decade has been extraordinarily challenging. The band has had to re-group under the most tragic of circumstances, twice, incorporating new members who have had to get fully engaged with learning the back catalogue…
View More Yes – Mirror to the Sky
What we have spinning today is Heart of Tokage by Gecko & Tokage Parade, a Japanese new-generation instrumental jazz band. If that sounds like a mouthful to you then you may well be asking “why?”. In fact, this particular release…
View More Gecko & Tokage Parade – Heart of Tokage