It’s hard to explain what it’s like to struggle with your mental health to someone who hasn’t experienced it themselves. Twice in recent years a musician has managed to express the feelings it is so hard to communicate verbally, through…
View More Leprous – Melodies of Atonement
When it comes to post rock/math rock instrumental bands, none have more musical swagger than Northern Ireland’s And So I Watch You From Afar. They create the kind of music that makes you dig deep and find resolve in places…
View More And So I Watch You From Afar – Megafauna
I am a strong believer that it takes three full listens to an album to really have a valuable opinion of it. Some of my favourite albums of all time really didn’t land with me until that special third listen.…
View More Desert Twelve – The Last Dark Wood
It’s been six years since Coma Rossi burst onto the prog scene with their critically acclaimed eponymous debut album. For this second record only guitarist Gaurav Govilkar remains from that pre-Covid line up, and the five-piece has slimmed down to…
View More Coma Rossi – Void
Every now and then I need some chaos in my musical life, whether that’s King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Mr Bungle or Bent Knee. It didn’t take me long to realise that this album ticked all the chaos boxes and a…
View More Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – of the Last Human Being
Norwegian prog metal outfit Leprous are an exceptional band, both on record and in a live setting. Frontman Einar Solberg, with his ridiculous vocal range, imposing stage presence, exemplary songwriting ability and brutally honest lyric writing is a big reason…
View More Einar Solberg – The Congregation Acoustic
45 Live, Kidderminster Saturday, 20th January 2024 I went into this gig unfamiliar with much of Tim Bowness’s back catalogue and with only a passing knowledge of No-Man’s songs. That meant I came into the venue with a different perspective…
View More Tim Bowness & The Butterfly Mind Band / Theo Travis
2020 was a strange year, the pandemic and the worldwide lockdown that ensued put everything on pause and ushered in a sense of uncertainty and some real existential dread, particularly for musicians. There has been a glut of lockdown albums,…
View More Caligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace
This is the sixth studio album from German progressive rock outfit Subsignal, a band that started out as a side project by members of Sieges Even. I had heard a couple of songs from their last album, 2018’s La Muerta,…
View More Subsignal – A Poetry of Rain
John Carpenter is a legendary film director, but he’s also one of those multi-talented people whose ability is matched in another creative field. And he’s just released a new collection of his film music, just in time for Halloween –…
View More John Carpenter – Anthology II (Movie Themes 1976-1988)